I love seeing people's characterizations of Nerevar because the fella is so important, but he also functionally isn't a character. He has almost no characterization to speak of. You can pull some tidbits out about how he might of been, but he's basically a plot device--a backstory for all the important people. The only accounts we hear about him are from the most biased and untrustworthy sources in the whole game. So it's so fun to see what people do with those scraps. At this point he's Morrowind fans' collectively owned OC

so i've been keeping up with TMP as it's airing, which has been fun, it's actually really nice to experience this kind of story weekly since i came into TMA late and listened up to the s4 finale in like, a month or two. i've been enjoying the new characters and statements, and while i was worried i'd have trouble actively listening (my attention span/executive functioning can be really variable when it comes to podcasts), it's been surprisingly easy for me to actually listen to each new ep the day it drops publicly

all this to say im enjoying the show! but i've found myself feeling increasingly frustrated with a couple things i keep seeing when it comes to discussions of it

to me, it seems... there's been a pervasive reluctance to take TMP as what it is. and i do understand that. it'd be stupid to pretend TMP doesn't exist exclusively because of TMA and that show's success, that it's a successor that was pitched as being similar. it's a story being written by the same people (plus guests), in the same universe (roughly), going for about the same tone and maybe themes.

i just feel like it's a bit of a shame, though, that so many folks seem unwilling not to carry TMA with them when they're engaging with TMP

i don't know where or when it was said, but i swear there was a comment made by jonny and/or alex about how TMP will have some commonality with TMA in terms of world-building, but also, people who listened to TMA first may find themselves theorizing in the wrong direction because we're judging things based off what is no longer concrete, reliable information; things are going to work differently in the world of TMP, and since we have preconceived notions on what is relevant or how things work, that's going to influence how we engage with information presented in TMP if we let it. and that's not even considering the fact that they've been explicit in conveying the idea that TMP was written so you can experience it fully without having listened to any of TMA at all!

i'm very much someone who tries to engage with media on its own terms, largely taking things at face value until i'm given reason to suspect otherwise. that's something i'm trying my best to still do with TMP, even though obviously, i've also listened to TMA and am basing some of my thoughts and personal theories on what we know from that

but that's what i mean to say i guess, it's something you have to actively choose to do. and it feels like, just based on what i've been seeing in fandom spaces, that a lot of people are having a bit of an odd time with TMP because of a reluctance to do that?

i think the easiest way to explain what i mean is to point to a general acceptance, already on the level of fanon it seems, to interpret the computer voices as Our Jon and Martin (+ Jonah/Elias, maybe). now obviously we have the actual real world reason why their voices are present in TMP, because of course jonny and alex were going to come back as voices in the show in some way. and i 100% agree it's a perfectly logical conclusion to then interpret their inclusion as being related to Jon and Martin somehow. i'm personally very into the theory that it is in no way them - not in any way that matters - but specifically their voices that have been stolen (by the Web?) as a means to help spread fears in other realities. but that's really not how i've been seeing people play with the concept? it seems largely 1:1. and again, i totally understand where people are coming from with that - especially when you consider how it can be a super fun concept for horror and angst, or even just the fact that folks want an excuse to carry their favorite characters into this new show and still play around with them. i promise i don't mean to bring this up as a means of making anyone feel bad or like, chastised for interpreting things a certain way and playing in the space!

it's the biggest example of what i mean though, and was a huge point of frustration for me when we were first being presented with TMP. it's not just that i don't want the voices to be Jon and Martin proper (i am very into their Ambiguous End, i believe it's best to leave that as a space for fans to play in); in all honesty, i think it's kind of a shame and maybe even a bit boring (im sorry!) to be engaging with TMP this way

and it's not just stuff like that - i've been seeing a fair amount of people expressing frustration and feeling disappointed with how TMP is hitting, but i mean, i feel like that's inevitable when you're going into it expecting More TMA? i saw at least one person basically say "ive been waiting for it to make me feel the way TMA made me feel, and it hasn't yet", and i really just feel like that's setting yourself up to be dissatisfied! beyond the fact that we're only 5 episodes in and the story has barely gotten a chance to happen yet, a huge element of this new show is that it's being approached as a largely collaborative effort, it seems, with lots of guests coming in to help shape the story and more writing and plotting influence that isn't jonny

obviously it's fine to not be super into that! undoubtedly it's a question of taste. but you do have to acknowledge that that's the case and adjust your expectations accordingly, or else you're not going to have a great time

i really like TMA, i had a great time with it, but even if TMP is a sequel to its parent podcast, it's not the same thing - and personally, i don't want it to be! i do hope that's a sentiment that is able to be more widely felt by some fans as we gain more distance from TMA while TMP is airing. i just think more people would be able to enjoy it that way, and come up with more interesting theories and interpretations of things! but those are really just my own personal thoughts

Got a spoilery ask about SLARPG regarding Melody's character arc and, to a lesser extent, the ending, so I'll put this below a read more!

Anonymous asked:

Heya! I adore adore adore SLARPG, and have latched pretty hard onto Melody and Harmony's dichotomy for a while... I was wondering whether you saw Harmony more as an obstacle to Melody's growth, or something to be worked on and reconciled with more like Madeline and Badeline from Celeste? Unless it's spoilers of course. It's one of the few threads left open after the game, and as a plural woman myself I was just curious. X3

I'll say up front that I've generally avoided stepping in and telling people what The One Correct Interpretation is for a lot of things in SLARPG. I didn't intend for Melody to be read as plural, since in the story Harmony is a parasitic outside force, but I also understand where that interpretation comes from and won't tell folks they're wrong for relating to her like that. That's just the beauty of art. We can relate to things however we want. I just wanna make sure my personal framing is clear before I talk about the thought behind Melody and Harmony's relationship

Harmony is more of a literary device than a character. While she's not an alternate personality for Melody, she's also not really a full person in her own right. I don't think about Harmony having her own arc. She's a magical force that occasionally externalizes Melody's darker, more self-critical thoughts for the audience, where normally she would keep them to herself. She has her own design and name to make the dialogue boxes easier to follow. I also keep it intentionally vague whether or not other people would be able to see Harmony because I find that understated uncertainty more fun.

On a literal level, Harmony is a magical parasite, and therefore an obstacle to be overcome. She's not supposed to be there, straight up. But because she's just the embodiment of dark thoughts that Melody is already having, there isn't really much point in "defeating" Harmony to me - which is why things play out the way they do.

Even if Melody got rid of Harmony, she would still have to deal with those feelings. It would be a purely symbolic victory. And symbolic victories like that are often satisfying as hell in fiction, but in real life you can't defeat your shadow self to stop those 3am "what if my friends are only pretending to like me" thoughts. So instead, Harmony is something Melody needs to cope with and minimize. It's not about getting rid of bad thoughts forever, but rather learning how to deal with them better. And that's an active, life-long process. And so Harmony remains, but Melody is working on having healthier relationships with both her loved ones and herself.

I'll also say that, while I love Celeste, Madeline and Badeline's arc is mostly irrelevant to the way I write Melody and Harmony. (I don't think this ask is accusing me of plagiarizing Maddy Thorson or anything, to be clear. I'm just on a tangent since the comparison was brought up.) SLARPG began development in 2015, so the Harmony scenes, and Melody's arc as a whole, were already planned before Celeste came out. While I worried about getting compared to a much more popular game, I stuck to my guns, knowing that my story was different enough to stand on its own. If anything, I just avoided specific phrases like "reflection" or "I'm a part of you" to try and keep people from just pointing and going "Celeste reference!"

Unfortunately the "wow this is just like Celeste" comments were unavoidable, as were the newfound generalizations about what all indie games about trans girls with anxiety must be like because there are two (2) whole games that share some common story tropes, and it seems like the ending may have thrown some people off because of expectations created by Celeste. But what are you gonna do? I at least avoided my absolute nightmare scenario of Deltarune Ch.2 doing glitch aesthetics or giving Susie and Noelle a kiss mechanic lmao

Why the Altmeri Commentary on Talos is Important to Lore Discussion (Even if It Isn't the Thalmor's End Goal) 

Originally posted on r/teslore three years ago. To be clear, important in this context means if you're trying to guess where TES might go in the future. And as the years go by, and we now have an almost complete turn-over of developers at Bethesda, it may be less relevant. Still, the new developers will have all these old ideas to rummage through.

This begins with a split among fans, though I don't think it has to be a nasty split. There is a very strong opinion in /r/teslore that Out-of-Game texts are valid if you want them to be, if you find them interesting enough for your Tamriel. And there's another very strong opinion that only official lore is really valid for theorizing. To be completely honest, we all probably dabble in one or the other at different times. Sometimes we are more creative and speculatory about Tamriel, other times we are arguing out the Lowest Common Denominator of agreed-upon lore. (It's never actually agreed upon, but that's part of the fun.)

But there's a third possibility: examining Out of Game texts for the perspective they can give us on In-game lore. A really good example of how this works would be the document: On the Nords' Totem Religion. It was a design document for Skyrim which was not incorporated into the game directly. However, the document gives a lot of insight into the little we do see in Skyrim of the ancient Nord religion. It is useful in interpreting the game itself.

It's also useful for going forward. When ESO returned to Skyrim this year, we could bet that the devs would be taking a closer look at the local religion, as they had in Elsweyr last year. And we could also guess that they might turn to that unofficial Skyrim design document which best explained the original ideas for the Nord religion. As of a few weeks ago, much of the Totem Religion document's lore has been added to the official lore as in-game books in ESO.

The totem religion document is as uncontroversial example of this process as you can find. Most everyone in lore circles has regarded it as a very useful document. You won't find that agreement about all OOG unofficial writings. But I'd like to make the argument for why the Altmeri Commentary on Talos is worth knowing and discussing even if you don't end up thinking it's true.

So, I'll begin with quoting the whole thing. It's pretty short.

What appears to be an Altmeri commentary on Talos To kill Man is to reach Heaven, from where we came before the Doom Drum's iniquity. When we accomplish this, we can escape the mockery and long shame of the Material Prison. To achieve this goal, we must: 1) Erase the Upstart Talos from the mythic. His presence fortifies the Wheel of the Convention, and binds our souls to this plane. 2) Remove Man not just from the world, but from the Pattern of Possibility, so that the very idea of them can be forgotten and thereby never again repeated. 3) With Talos and the Sons of Talos removed, the Dragon will become ours to unbind. The world of mortals will be over. The Dragon will uncoil his hold on the stagnancy of linear time and move as Free Serpent again, moving through the Aether without measure or burden, spilling time along the innumerable roads we once travelled. And with that we will regain the mantle of the imperishable spirit.

What it doesn't say: Nowhere does it say it's a Thalmor document. Nowhere does it mention the Towers. Those two points are pretty well-known in lore circles, but they come up enough to make it worthwhile to point out.

Second thing to notice: its date.

Submitted by Lady N on Sun, 09/19/2010 - 19:53 Obscure texts Author: Michael Kirkbride Librarian Comment: Many of these are in-character snippets taken from various forum posts.

It doesn't have an exact date; the old forums have been deleted. But we do see that it was re-posted on the Imperial Library on 09/19/2010, the year before Skyrim came out. This important detail is glossed over in a lot of the discussion of its relevance. It is not a document written after Skyrim trying to put a creative spin on some details in-game. It's a document published before Skyrim came out, and hence a window on the discussions that were going on in the development of Skyrim. We need to look at the stuff in Skyrim with the question: Does the Altmeri commentary shed any light on what's going on here?

Well, the fact that the Altmeri Commentary suggests that Talos needs to be erased from the mythic makes it very relevant. Maybe this is not the reason for the Thalmor's Talos ban in the game that eventually was released. But it's evidence that during the development of Skyrim, the reason was being kicked around by someone in discussions with the devs. It's that context that finally informs the two lines in-game that might refer back to the Commentary.

The first and most often quoted is Ancano's boast:

You think I can't destroy you? The power to unmake the world at my fingertips, and you think you can do anything about it?

It's pointed out that he can simply be boasting of his power there, without any reference to a supposed greater plan. And yes, that's true. But remember, we aren't interpreting that line in a vacuum. There was a development-related post that brought up a fanatical Altmer idea of unmaking the world before Skyrim, and it's just a coincidence that a fanatic Thalmor member boasts of having the power to do so in the game? These things have nothing to do with each other?

And then there is the other line from Esbern which I think is even more significant.

I don't suppose they want the world to end any more than we do. Or at least, they'd prefer it to end on their terms.

Esbern's statement does not confirm this is the Thalmor's plan. What it does is confirm that the idea this is the Thalmor's plan exists in-universe. And Esbern is not some random conspiracist; he's a lore-master. Dragons were his hobby but we also know from his dossier that the Thalmor consider him responsible for two of the most damaging operations on Dominion soil. He knows his stuff when it comes to the Thalmor. His opinion may be affected by paranoia, he may not even hold the opinion very strongly (suggested by how he corrects himself there), but he is not some random guy in the pub with a conspiracy theory about the Thalmor. If it's a conspiracy theory, it's an important one in-universe.

So, we have a timeline that suggests the Commentary is important, and two references in the game of Skyrim to the idea presented in the Commentary. The references are independent, coming from ideological enemies, Ancano and Esbern. I'd say that makes a very strong case for the Commentary's ideology existing within the universe.

If this concept exists within the universe, the Commentary is important even if it does not represent the Thalmor's ultimate goal accurately.

But where does one go with that? With Michael Kirkbride's historic and ongoing influence on the TES franchise, elements of the Commentary are quite likely to make it into future games. On the other hand, the Commentary may be a window on an idea in development that was tossed around and ultimately abandoned. Maybe it's not Thalmor belief, really. It could even be Blades propaganda. Maybe Ancano believes in it, but he's actually a fanatic who's out of step with the Thalmor in general. etc. etc. etc.

Acknowledging that an Out-of-Game source is relevant does not mean accepting it as the Truth Bound To Be Revealed by TES VI. TES fandom has had enough of that over-certainty already. I think we've all met someone who takes some random developer's post as The Gospel Truth that cannot be questioned. That's frustrating, for sure. But let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. It doesn't make sense to ignore it completely in discussions about the Thalmor's ultimate goal. There are enough sources to make it worth looking at, both inside and outside the universe.

This post was about the relevance of the Commentary, but if you're interested in how the Commentary's ideology could function within the Thalmor, I can never recommend enough this old /r/teslore post: Analyzing the Altmeri Commentary on Talos.

Additional reply in comments: I thought I'd hedged enough on my statement. I won't claim Esbern as an expert on the Thalmor's ontological goals, although he definitely is more knowledgable about the Thalmor than the random guy at the pub. I do think, however, that his statement confirms that some people within the universe think this is the Thalmor's end goal. I see his statement there as he's not certain himself of it.

In the comments of the original post, a user who has since deleted their account posted a very interesting timeline of the development under discussion. I also recommend this discussion with Misticsan about the post and whether fans give the Commentary undue importance in contrast to other sources on the Thalmor.

This was only the beginning of a very involved journey into the weird fandom status of the Altmeri Commentary and the Towers Theory. It's a lengthy saga, and I've put off formatting it for tumblr but I do mean to eventually copy all the teslore posts over here.

Hii! Important question:

How did you start your AU in the first place? Im having some trouble with mine so if its not a bother and if you dont mind, do you have any tips or anything for starting and developoing a AU?

HMMM, that's a tough question!

In my personal experience, I started off small. I had a handful of characters I liked and who's personalities and relationship dynamics I had the basic grasp of and just started posting about them. I didn't start out with a storyline or character arcs in mind, just the characters themselves and how they interacted with one another. All of the rest came after, and even still I don't have that much planned out in the grand scheme of things! I just let ideas take me wherever my brain wants to go, and I add or rework characters as I see fit

For making your own AU, I'd say one of the first things you want to think about (besides a few characters you know you want to include and their dynamics) is whether you want to tell a more linear story or not. If your AU follows a linear story (say the kind you'd find in comics), then think about your characters as devices within the plotline. You might want each of them to fulfill a role to progress the story, so how can you change them up to serve the purpose of the narrative? Of course this doesn't mean characters all need to be a plot device, you can have characters outside of the story you talk about, but the main ones should lead from point A to point B!

If you're going for a "whatever goes" kind of AU like I and a lot of other people do, then honestly, it's up to you how you want to do it! I had no idea where I wanted to go when I first started out, I just knew I wanted to talk about characters I liked and the trials and tribulations they went through. And you never have to stick with the things you first come up with - I CONSTANTLY add new characters, new dynamics, new plotlines, and new elements to backstories. I leave a lot of my AU open to changes like that

For developing characters themselves, I'd look at their canon backstories/abilities/characterization/events as well as fan interpretations of them. A lot of the time you can get good inspiration from what other people are doing - I know I did! But there's no stopping you from completely changing a character all together. In that case I'd say just do whatever interests you that you think you can apply to them. You can take elements of their common characterization and flip it on it's head; give it new meaning. You can make them fulfill themes and character tropes you think would be interesting for them. It's really up to you! All I'd say is have a basic knowledge of what the character is in canon before you do something completely different - it'll give you elements to work with!

But honestly, the main thing is to have fun. You have the freedom to develop the story and the characters within it however you'd like, and I don't think any two people will do it quite the same. Don't overthink the beginning, either! All beginnings are messy and complicated, and your best bet is to just go for it; you'll never properly develop it unless you dig your hands around in there and start playing

I hope that all helped! My DMS and inbox are ALWAYS open to anyone who wants to infodump or bounce ideas off of me. I love seeing the creativity people can have :]

I wanna talk about how developers have gone about making new games out of Minesweeper.

You know, I love Minesweeper, been playing it for over a decade, but it's the kind of game where you've probably had some problem with its design. Its core interactions are that of a puzzle game, but it's also very common to get into situations where you just have to guess. And if you guess wrong, you die instantly and have to start over. It sucks!

It's very strange design, coming out of the game's random board generation. But that randomness is how the game keeps its variety. Minesweeper is a roguelike, I'd say. It's a turn-based, grid-based, exploratory game with permadeath and random environmental generation. It fits the Berlin Interpretation better than a lot of modern games bearing the moniker. But it's also a logic game, where you spot patterns in abstract numbers and use deduction to solve logical puzzles, even if they're generated. There's a contradiction there, and the games I wanna talk about resolve it in very different ways.

DemonCrawl by Therefore Games is a fun little game that leans into the roguelike aspect of Minesweeper. It's an RPG, kind of, where you play several small Minesweeper maps while gaining items and equipment over time. One item might let you take a hit unscathed, and another might reveal the location of a mine or three. It is a more "fair" version of Minesweeper in many ways, in that it gives you a healthbar so you don't die instantly to mistakes, and that the items let you clear the board in more interesting ways. But at the same time, this RPG layer is unfair in its own right. It's very common to enter a board with negative effects, and to get items that are either unhelpful or detrimental. It improves on a lot of the roughest edges of Minesweeper, but like... Adding this whole extra layer of management and decision-making can make it feel like the mine-sweeping gameplay isn't really the point anymore. It's just the hook to another indie roguelite. An enjoyable one for sure, but not what I really want from Minesweeper. Also, DemonCrawl's method of achieving longevity is to have an account leveling system and like, materials collection. It feels like the game isn't confident in its gameplay.

On the other hand, 14 Minesweeper Variants by Artless Games is very confident in the game it's trying to be, and that game is often terrifying. It is exactly as the title says. (Well, it's more than 14 now but those are secret variants.) Tens of thousands of puzzles with different rules, most of them hard, but all of them solvable. So you might get, for example, "Every clue is either one more or one less than the actual number," or "There cannot be a straight line of three consecutive mines." These are often very intimidating, and make me groan out loud, "Oh, god." But it's a unique sense of accomplishment, figuring out these variants, and learning their intricacies. It's a kind of puzzle that I've never seen anywhere else. It leans hard into the logic game aspect of Minesweeper, by completely ditching the roguelike element. As with most Artless games, it cuts to the bone if you're not deep into puzzle games. But as someone who is, it's a lovely time. Also, Artless Games has a Discord server, where you can actually suggest new variants! Honestly, this dev is really underappreciated, give them their flowers.

The last thing I wanna talk about is actually much more straightforward than either of these. It's a Minesweeper Probability Calculator, by Merrick Huang. It's Minesweeper, but at any time you can press a button, and see the odds of any given cell being a mine. It's still Minesweeper, no modifications to the rules, but it feels more honest than Minesweeper usually is. It actually reveals how much depth there is even to guessing, as true 50/50s aren't as common as you'd expect. It also belies the truth to guessing, that there is always a chance you're just wrong. You can make an educated guess, but sometimes the cards don't fall in your favor.

Now, I could talk about plenty more. There are the various attempts to repackage Minesweeper aesthetically, including through porn. (I have two separate hentai minesweeper games and I will forever bear that curse.) There's the kind of garbage Microsoft Minesweeper you can get through the Windows Store, like they tried their best to sand off the rough edges but that just kind of makes it weak. And there are plenty of small devs making their own variants, to varying degrees of success. But I think I've done what I want to here. This is Angie Nyx, and I have a play to go to. Peace.

“severus fights james and his friends because he wants to control/be with lily and he thinks james is in the way of that, even though lily just doesn't like him in that way. and james fights severus because severus is picking a fight with him/severus is bigoted. “

Hey so I was scrolling through the tl ans saw you responding to an ask. I totally agree with you that Lily is more of an important character on most of ur points. But i saw this and was genuinely wondering how you got that from the books? This is genuinely not to attack you or be rude. But I saw the canon completely differently than how you have interpreted it, and I do wonder where you get that point from? Specifically that Severus is the one starting things while James is only fighting back? And that Severus wants to control Lily?

Once again this is not me trying to be rude, and I also do not hate James. But Jkr said that James went after Severus mostly because of his connection to Lily. And in the only scene we really see, its James and Sirius going after Severus first while he was sitting under a tree by himself. I wouldn’t call two vs one a rivalry. And I wouldn’t call that Severus going after James.

Once again genuinely curious bc it seems to be a popular notion and I truly dont know where ppl are getting it from.

the moment we see james and sirius going after severus is what i meant with james pocking on severus for sirius (i mentioned that in the post)

Sirius stared around at the students milling over the grass, looking rather haughty and bored...

...'This'll liven you up, Padfoot,' Said James quietly, 'Look who it is'

James is very happily playing with his snitch, he only approaches Severus because Sirius is bored and wants something fun to do (Sirius finds fights fun- i mean he's a british teenager with family issues. it'd be surprising if he didn't find fights fun, and everyone found fights fun at school)

i didn't mean this specific scene. but, for instance, severus invented the sectumsempra curse. which is like,, very dark and torture-y. i can imagine him using it on james or his friends (without knowing how bad the spell is, like harry does with draco). i do think he wouldn't have used it knowing how bad it was, but based on being a kid/teenager with people i hate and have ongoing drama with and having drawn their gravestones and dead bodies (i also have a neighbour kid that recently did that exact thing so i'm assuming imagining the classmates you hate dying as a kid/teen is a fairly common experience), i can very much imagine severus would have made the curse with james in mind. and i think he does use a version of it in this scene, where he gashes james' face so deeply his robes splatter with blood.

also, as i said in that post, i don't think when we see people's memories, it is a completely true viewing of the past. i think it's like how memories are- biased and wavering over time. and since this is severus' memory, i wouldn't take it wholly to heart (but that is more my hc, and i don't think jkr wrote legilimency to be how actual memories work)

continuing on this actual scene (i'm reading it rn and i'm trying to focus on answering your ask but i can't help giggling at the amount of times sirius is called handsome, every line is like "sirius handsomely turned to snape", "sirius head turned, handsomely" /j) i sorts get what you mean with james picking a fight with severus because of lily, but it seems to be more for sirius' entertainment in this scene. lily asks him what severus has done to him, and james just says it's the dact he exists- which does show james doesn't really have a reason for this particular interaction, and it was purely for sirius. but he does say he'll stop if lily goes out with him- making it seem as if he is fighting with severus for lily. but i honestly think that line was more james just trying to wind her up- he knows she'll say no. james acts, during this scene, like a standup comedy act. every sentence seems to intentionally said to receive a specific reaction from his audience (his classmates). the line gives me the same vibe as a heckler at a comedy act, and the comedian interacting back with them.

one of the spells james uses against severus (where he dangles him upside down) is in severus' book of spells that he invented. so for james to know that, it means severus must have used it in the past (not sure if it was canon or not about that spell being a trend at this time or not), but severus would have used it on james or his friends previously for james to know the spell.

then what i said about severus picking a fight with james for lily, and james picking a fight with severus because of severus being bigoted/already picking a fight with him. this comes from when harry goes to remus and sirius after seeing severus' memory.

"I think James was everything Snape wanted to be... And Snape was just this little oddball who was up to the eyes in the dark arts, and James- whatever else he may have appeared to you, Harry- always hated the dark arts."

"Snape was a special case. I mean, he never lost an opportunity to curse James, so you couldn't really expect him to take that lying down, could you?"

sirius says severus picked a fight with james because james got what severus wanted (lily, but also academic validation, with james being naturally talented, which i should have mentioned in the previous post, but i was focusing on lily, not james and severus). sirius then says james picked a fight with severus because of severus' interest in dark magic (and we do see james getting furious when severus calls lily a 'mudblood', james was about to stop before severus said that). and then remus says james, in later years, only went after severus because severus was still going after him.

i didn't mean severus was starting things- more that severus was continuing things. i know they argued when they first met about houses, and i think lily then being put in gryffindor after that argument infuriated severus and caused him to see james as a threat, whilst james found it humorous and would likely mock severus for losing his best friend to gryffindor, which then their rivalry escalated from there and continued because severus was into lily and because james didn't like how severus was into dark arts/severus was already going after him and his friends.

about severus controlling lily. most of what we see of their friendship is very much severus trying to control lily. he tells her she better be in slytherin, he tells her not to listen to petunia because she's just a muggle (this could just be trying to comfort a friend, of course, but the insinuation that lily shouldn't listen to her because she's a muggle, not because she's just jealous and bitter is very weird), lily tries to get severus to stop hanging out with bigoted people that hurt her friends and severus just complains about james and remus, turning the subject to what 'she's doing wrong' instead of actually listening to her, he threatens to sleep outside gryffindor tower unless lily comes to see him, he asks for only lily's life to be spared (not caring if james or even harry, a 1 yr old, die). seems pretty controlling to me.

Current top five Slay the Princess routes I want to try first:

Damsel (Not because I have any delusions about romancing her, but because I suspect there’s something really awful lying in wait further on, particularly since this was THE route we were explicitly warned away from. I’m also a sucker for when “safe” things turn out to be absolutely horrifying in retrospect, when horror takes a crowbar to the boring one-dimensional love interest lady archetype, and Maria was my favorite character in Silent Hill 2 to the point where I still write essays about her existential nightmare of a life at a moment’s notice. Also, it has my favorite track next to the initial theme.)

Stranger (I love visiting the uncanny valley, plus I want to see what happens)

Nightmare (Who doesn’t love that sleep paralysis demon intro? Also, she sounds like fun in the way Freddy Krueger was fun for the audience, not so much his victims.)

Specter (Like Stranger, it’s the route that diverges the most from the expected structure, although in this case the protag flipping off the narrator happens later instead of earlier. Also, Princess is now a ghost who can’t be stabbed, and she might do that American Werewolf In London thing where she decays more and more each time we see her. Finally, I think one of the writers mentioned it was her favorite route to write for, so I imagine it’ll involve some really interesting twists and turns.)

Witch (The way she speaks is fun, and I love a good dark fairytale)

As for the rest, it’s not that I don’t want to see them, but I want to get my top 5 out of the way first as they’re the ones I’m most curious about.

I’m saving Prisoner for last, because…it feels fitting. It was the first ending I got in the new demo, and it felt like…it was maybe closer to the Princess’ actual wishes? I mean, it is an “alternate interpretation” of the Damsel route, and could just be the player still seeing what they want to see and projecting their own feelings of being trapped onto her. But the one thing the Princesses have in common is that they all want to leave the cabin. Maybe I’ll change my mind and immediately flip to Prisoner after seeing how Damsel goes to get the other side of that particular story, I don’t know.

I’m going to try to go through every route to see what happens, particularly since each is supposed to be its own self-contained story. I still stand by my belief that every route’s going to reveal something about the story or the characters that I might not see in other routes, and that experiencing each will give a greater understanding of the story as a whole. If there’s no “true ending,” then every ending is, in its own way, “true.”

I also imagine that my final verdict on Personal Favorite Princesses may look very different from my Most Anticipated Princesses list. I’m expecting that some of the routes I ranked lower will have some surprises in store, or that my opinion on past routes might change depending on new information I gather. There’s also the possibility there may be Secret Princesses we haven’t seen yet.

I also suspect that I may have separate contenders for “Favorite Route” and “Favorite Princess,” as strange as that may sound. It feels like it’s going to be that kind of game—sometimes you love the horror story for the tale as a whole, and sometimes you love it exclusively for the monster.

i’m a game dev student at an art school and i’ve been really struggling with finding my niche…. i LOVE being a environment/modeler/texture artist, and i want to have more skills in the design/tech side… but i’ve been struggling really hard with learning unreal engine 5 for my classes. do you have any experience in unreal5 blueprinting or just anything more on the tech side? i would appreciate some advice to get through these tough college quarters :’D

Whenever someone entering gamedev on the programmer side is struggling to figure it out, there are generally two reasons for this.

The first is that they're struggling to get into the programmer mindset. Blueprints try to bridge the gap, but code doesn't work like english. It doesn't even work like the human brain. When we think or talk we take shortcuts to formulate or convey ideas because we can trust that when it comes time to interpret those ideas another person (or ourselves in the future) will fill in those gaps. This is so intuitive to us that we don't even notice that there are gaps. Programming forces you to become aware of how many gaps there are and fill them, and quite frankly it's a humbling experience.

I'm probably not saying anything you don't already know, but I want to emphasize that the way coding works is unintuitive to most people and we need to retrain our way of thinking to get good at it. This is unfortunately not a fast process. It's very common especially for new programmers (though I'm not immune even now) to go "I'm a fucking idiot, I'm a fucking idiot, I'm a fucking--I'M A GENIUS" because of the cycle of shit not working for stupid reasons and then finally working.

The second problem is that they're unfamiliar with (and overwhelmed by) the library they're working with.

A "library" in a programming context is typically collection of functions and objects you can import into a project, but each game engine has its own built in libraries which the engines are built around. These are the verbs and nouns that aren't built into, for example, C++, but have been added by Unreal Engine to make it easier to make games.

The better the game engine, the larger the library. Unfortunately, the larger the library the more overwhelming it is because that's a lot of shit to learn.

In your case anon the "library" would refer to the different kinds of nodes you can add to the blueprint. When you're new to it, even an expert Unity dev will struggle in Unreal because they don't know what their options are to accomplish things.

Now the reason I break down the new-programmer hurdles into two distinct problems is because they often seem like one problem, which can make it hard to solve. Both get better with experience so sometimes slamming your head against a wall is a viable way to get through them, but it's not the best.

If you think your main issue is the first problem, you can work on it through "exercise." This can be in the form of taking programming courses on codecademy (I'd recommend C++ since you're using Unreal, though C# isn't a bad choice) or by playing a game by Zachtronics like Infinifactory or Opus Magnum. These games are "programming puzzle games" and I can personally attest to having gotten better at Infinifactory as I got better at programming.

If you think it's the second problem, the biggest solvent is curiosity. When I get into a new engine, I spend a bit of time learning how it works and then immediately try and figure out how to do dumb shit in it. I made an incremental game in RPG Maker just to see if I could. It wasn't good, but it was a fun educational experience. Sometimes I'll come across a function I don't understand, and I'll open the engine's manual and read about the function and use that as a jumping off point to dive into similar functions.

It doesn't feel good for my advice to be "read the manual" but genuinely there's a point where you realize that you're reading the manual instead of watching youtube videos and it's like, holy shit I'm a real programmer. It's a sign that you're getting comfortable enough in the role that you're learning what questions to ask to figure out what you need to know (youtube is still a great resource of course).

All of that said though, if your aim is to be an environment artist I think it's okay to be bad at programming. Survive college, of course, but if you're in a team with a dedicated programmer (which you will be if you are not the programmer) then all you need is to be able to understand how to communicate with the programmer. It's really beneficial to know enough about the fundamentals of what you're working in to know what info the programmer needs from you and what info you need from them, but you don't have to be good at it to do that!

being thoughtful about media and analyzing it as much as possble is very important and fun but a cornerstone to understanding and performing your own meta analysis on things is that you really do just need to accept that 90% of the times the writer did not think as deeply into the subject as you did and that doesnt devalue any of the weight you are putting into your analysis

writing meta on media and characters and themes and narratives are essentially exercises in connecting information based on what you personally took from it. people can share common ideas on what a piece of work is saying but ultimately they will have different interpretations based on what they have previously consumed and how they developed their critical thinking skills when it comes to understanding stories.

this sideblog is all about writing meta and the way i do it is by just considering what the overall thematic idea of a character is and what that contributes to the story, and i can definitely point to tons of examples from many different franchises on here, and ill also see analyses from people where they do an entire masterfully done literature review style paper essay with sources connecting back to mythology or contemporary works and its all incredibly well done. it's all just exercises in critical thinking and connecting information!

and ive definitely seen it in series that arent truly that deep. in series i personally think suck or do not consider that deep. hell, IVE done the same in applying far more thought and weight into my analysis of series that arent truly that deep, series i would readily admit arent that complex or 'deserving' of the thought put into them, but all of that is simply part of the fun in watching new things. this also applies to series' that i DO think are more nuanced and complex, because to someone else they may not be, and its not always solely because 'they didnt get it.' sometimes stories dont resonate with people thematically, and that in itself can color just how 'good' a series is to someone.

and when it comes to the authors of works, you as a reader can end up putting far more thought into what their story was trying to say then what the author intended, and thats the fucking point!!! sometimes it is that deep sometimes its not. what did the story tell you? did it align with what the author was trying to say? are you asking questions for the sake of understanding or for the sake of asking questions itself? what was the point? all of that matters! you need to eat words in order to acquire a taste for the words and when you get that taste only then can you truly appreciate or even hate it!!

no real point to this post but just remember that you have a shovel and digging in deeper into things you like is always an exercise in passion never stop growing never stop thinking never stop analyzing never stop trying new things to repeat steps 1-3 with

and finished it ,got dat true ending yes def had a great time on the game 8/10 (but yeah performance def docked some points as well as some writing threads that felt kinda dropped, but am trying to in good faith piece it together in me mind so just gonna ramble spoilers under the cut:

when people said this is what they wanted the original DD to be i can see that but like i feel like the lead up to the game kept hearing people who know more about the originals history talk about how "40-60% of the original vision was cut down" from dd1 and i feel like my brain unfortunately interpreted that as "oh cool so were gonna have 100 new vocations like the monk and 100 monsters and the parallel worlds(technically true☝🏽🤓) and the moon stuff, neat" thats on me lmao but yeah removing those expectations and seeing it for what it is, its def the spirit of the the first game but its systems deeper and more fleshed out not good at all the techny terms but im not very into or good at action games but this one made me want to be cuz the combat was fun haha hmm writing wise there was a point where i felt like everything just suddenly got dropped once the godbane stuff started happening and youre suddenly barreling to the ending while everything else just wasnt important anymore lmao, but trying to interpret the story as a story the pathfinder is weaving, i think its meant to feel like that cuz we see the pathfinder essentially write us out of problems, give us a griffin to escape slavery, gives us a clue to where were supposed to go and the big one he like straight up changes ambrosius mind about giving us the godsbane when it wouldnt make sense for him too, the old man by harve even alludes to this by saying the real world is much messier when hes telling you about how fake everything is, like the watcher said everyone there is there to play a part in a tale hes laid out and i think he wanted to get to the ending faster. It's definitely another layer they added from the first games cycle, but do wish if that is what theyre going for(and if im not delusional lmao) that they did more like the ambrosius thing just watching as he ass pulls us out of dead ends making us feel what rothais felt when he realized all his feats and hardships didnt matter, also just would have liked more sidequests with fun characters lmao.

Also did enjoy the endings of the 3 major peoples in the unmoored world and felt like their side quests really fleshed them out and led them there to their endings well,mostly, very cool idea to bring it all together like that. elves wanted to stay isolated but they needed outside influence to break tradition, to save their tree and how it all built to them agreeing to seek refuge with the other races rather than die with their way of life. Ironic that disa was half right about sven needing to inherit the throne but ofc she was also half wrong cuz she a tyrant and wants him to have it mainly cuz of blood, but he deserves it cuz his sidequests were about him getting to know the common folk and becoming self assured lmao battahl tbh full disclosure i messed up the queen nadias sidequest to the rose chateau, tried to scare the dick head shopkeeper into giving me the medicine for the beastren and got arrested so idk how that one ends(will find out in NG+ lmao) but based on the ones i did do, it seems like the nations whole thing was about always being in conflict with each other and how the unmoored quests there are about making people put there differences aside and band together, including the arisen teaming with phaesus. Also like the irony of their view on pawns being right at first but by the end of the game they end up being wrong. but yeah do feel like they didnt get into that more, along with what the lambent flame is? (googled that there was lore texts you can find that explain how an earlier emperor is deceiving the people about it and what it really does) they also dont go into the fact vermund was a nation of beastren, started by a beastren and then history was wiped?? and how theres vermundians fear of beastren and human children always look like beastren and yet wilhelmina is a direct contradiction of this?? that seemed like a really juicy plot point but they didnt really do anything with it. and lastly idek where to start with the pawn and arisen ending, found out theres slight differences in the affinity ending (got the high affinity one cuz reds my my gurl i always revive run straight to her to revive her🤗) but watching them talk about how happy they are to have their own will while saying theyd still do anything for you filled me with something, dont even know what but was crazy.

oh also before i forget another way its in the spirit of the first game for me is just like in the original i also forgot to talk to the person i was romancing and giving them flowers before the endings and got diff people appearing there just like my first playthru of the dd1 lmfao( got manela with grigori and sara in the true ending, was going for ulrika this playthru lmfao) def gonna NG+, maybe do a magic archer and get the stuff i missed and try and get the other endings. Also hoping for another expansion/dlc like they did with dd1 down the line with more vocations and monsters.

I like this game 😜

❤️💙💖💀

1. TOMMY. I CANT STRESS THIS ENOUGH ITS TOMMY. OH MY G O D I COULD WRITE AN ESSAY AND IT WOULD TAKE AN HOUR TO READ.

There tend to be two extremes when interpreting and then characterising Tommy. There's the dudebros who do their typical "Tommy Shelby sigma grindset hurr durr", completely missing what his character is supposed to represent (HAVE SOME OF YALL WATCHED BOJACK HORSEMAN???) and there's the people who i have a theory got mentally stuck in season 1 and will babiefy Tommy to a point where his actions are never his fault/influence and are pitted at different characters (mostly his family or love interests, cough cough Lizzie cough cough).

Both of these approaches have something in common, and its not holding Tommy accountable for anything. Hate it hate it hate it. I love Tommy but he's so terrible COME ON. I could go on but that's what bugs me the most about how some people interpret him. Tommy has his intentional "cold blooded sigma" moments and also "wet pathetic bitchbaby" moments, he can have both and then some!

2. John Shelby and Jack Nelson first come to mind. I love John, but i always loved him in more of a "i wanna hang out with you SO bad" not in a "R A I L M E" sorta way. And surprisingly, Jack Nelson never really got me, despite him fitting into lots of boxes i find attractive *shrug*

3. I...wouldn't mind if Tommy died/killed himself at the end, whether its season 6 (popular theory is that he killed himself, which im not convinced is the case) or the movie thats gonna come out some day. It'd be heartbreaking, i'd cry for days and days, i'd scream and cry and shout but ultimately i'd be okay with it. It's an ending that wouldn't surprise me (kinda like the ending of No Time To Die) and i'd understand why they'd do it. Whether it'd be Tommy accepting his "curse" or him digging himself into a hole he can't escape from, or sacrificing himself to something/someone, as if trying to get at least a chance at salvation, or trying to desperately convince himself that that sacrifice makes up for anything he's done. I think it'd be fun. I don't necesserily want him to die, i just think there's lots of potential here. Plus, i'm kind of a drama queen, and i'd LOVE to see everyone else freak out over this hehe

4. I DONT WANNA KILL ANYONE WAAAAAAH

Can't i just vote to let Grace or John stay dead? Please? pretty please?

Tsaheyluri // Regarding the Bond

(A disclaimer for any fandom folk who stumble across this: I speak here of my own noemata as if they are The One True Canon(TM). This is purely for the sake of ease. I do not in fact believe in The One True Canon(TM); if your headcanons or interpretation of canon differ from mine, please take no offense and godspeed, have fun. I speak here only of my personal alterhumanity, my noemata, my Pandora. You are entitled to your own.)

Tumblr decided to shatter on impact and eat the first version of this, so here we go again.

Anyone who has read my previous writings about my hearthome has some idea of the fact that one of the things that draws my heart to Pandora most is tsaheylu, the Bond, and Eywa, the result thereof. For those unaware: tsaheylu is the Na'vi word for what happens when two Pandoran animals join their mehuru (singular kuru), their neural queues, specialized organs many Pandoran animals have which allow them to make a direct connection between their nervous systems, creating an intimate connection and mind-to-mind communication. The Na'vi famously use tsaheylu to tame and ride several species - the ikran, the pa'li, the ilu, and I'm sure many others - but it's not limited to Na'vi; fa'li are known to make tsaheylu amongst themselves before large herd movements, presumably to coordinate the herd.

I have noticed a discrepancy in how fandom folk tend to talk about tsaheylu versus how I think about it. When I see tsaheylu brought up in fandom, outside of "is this or that kind of bond possible" conversations at least, it's almost always in the context of "I wish I could bond with and fly on an ikran" or similar - that is, focused on the actions tsaheylu allows, rather than on the bond itself.

Perhaps it's just that my longing for flight is taken up by my longing for my own flight in the context of my draconity, but this is... beside the point of tsaheylu, for me. I long for tsaheylu of its own sake - the ability to bond with another being that closely, to Know another creature more intimately than this world allows. That is the point of tsaheylu to me - it's not just a tool to a greater end, it's an act of connection, an act of love.

In all fairness to the fandom: the movie does not do a great job of conveying tsaheylu, and that's no fault of the movie's either, just a side effect of the medium. Tsaheylu is really something that would be better conveyed in a written medium, because it's an internal, perceptive experience - you can't see the effects of tsaheylu from the outside. We get some idea of it from that first scene where Jake makes tsaheylu with a pa'li for the first time, with Neytiri serving to narrate and explain it to us, but it's still... shallow, at least compared to my gut instincts about what it's actually like. And then the rest of the movie it's just kind of a background feature - which is completely understandable, but kind of unfortunate.

Tsaheylu is a bond. It is a merging of two into one - a partnership, a working-together. This, I think, is also a common misunderstanding on fandom and sometimes canon's part, and I understand that this part is entirely my interpretation: the Na'vi do not command or take over the animals they bond with. They partner with them. The pa'li does not do what the Na'vi wants because it has to, it does so because the Na'vi asks respectfully, and because through tsaheylu it gains an understanding of why they are doing these things, why they are important, as the Na'vi understands it. It understands, at least while it can understand the world through Na'vi eyes, that the work they do together that would otherwise be utterly foreign to a "wild" pa'li enables them to care for each other and create a life that is safer and more comfortable for both of them than it would be alone.

This is, I think, part of why Jake struggles so much with learning to ride. He's constantly trying to command his mounts - we see it in his first flight with his ikran as well. Even in his Iknimaya -

This line, to me, is a sign that he still does not fully get it. He's still thinking of these animals in terms of possession, of mastery. And, predictably, his first flight almost gets him immediately killed.

Now, we don't... see him figure this out onscreen. But the way he talks to his ikran here, versus how he interacts with him later:

The fond smile, the use of "we," the acknowledgement of Bob's (yes, he canonically named his ikran Bob.) feelings about it, the fact that Bob came back for him unprompted after the destruction of Kelutral despite the potential danger that posed - all of these say to me that they have bonded beyond "guy and animal he considers a servant." Maybe I'm wrong about that, but it's kind of beside the actual point I was getting to here, I've just realized I've done the ADHD thing and derailed.

Back on track! (Can you tell I don't edit these before I post them?)

Anyway. The point is, tsaheylu is... so much more than "control an animal with your mind," or even "talk to an animal with your mind." You become not-two-not-one. You feel each other's bodies, each other's minds; with a little practice, communication can become so instantaneous that you move as one being. It is the deepest kind of tìkusame, of Knowing, that one can have.

And... we don't have it here. It crushes me, sometimes. Not because I'll never be able to fly on an ikran, not because I'll never be able to do something tsaheylu allows, but because I will never have that connection itself, that deepest knowledge of someone and being known in return. That is the importance, the meaning, of tsaheylu.

(A note: For anyone wondering about weird word changes in this, such as kuru -> mehuru, pa'li -> fa'li, etc., it's a function of Na'vi pluralization, which I prefer to keep even when the rest of the sentence is in English because "pa'lis" looks deeply wrong to me. Na'vi has three plural prefixes: me- (2), pxe- (3), and ay- (4+). All of these inflict lenition, meaning if the word they're appended to starts with certain sounds, those sounds get softened: tx -> t, kx -> k, px -> p, t/ts -> s, k -> h, p -> f, and ' gets eliminated entirely. Thus, kuru (one queue) becomes mehuru (two queues), pa'li (one direhorse) becomes (ay)fa'li (4+ direhorses), etc. The ay- prefix can be eliminated in cases such as fa'li where lenition is present, because if a word is lenited with no prefix, it's assumed to be in the general plural ay-; I frequently do this because it's faster (except when the lenition is getting rid of ', because I have trouble hearing the difference between, say, 'angtsìk and angtsìk when spoken), but it's not required.)

I’m really scared I’m going to out myself by posting this but to be honest I don’t even want to be in terras anymore so I don’t really care. It needs to be said. This isn’t even about the species itself or the mods.

I’m a 21+ y/o system, and I can tell you that I’ve had my fair share of discrimination from other ‘systems’ - most being underage - within this community specifically, multiple times, because most of my alters are ‘too normal’, blunt, whatever. I mean fuck, I had somebody tell me that I made their group feel unsafe because I’m a *persecutor* who is ‘too cynical’. That’s incredibly fucked up and it screwed us up for a short while. As if…persecutors don’t exist for that exact fucking reason.

I don’t agree with every point most blogs make about fake systems, but at this point it’s hard NOT to think that kids do this shit for fun because when they’re faced with an actual alter, they cower and cry ‘you’re making me UNCOMFORTABLE!!’ if they’re not a silly quirky person. I’m so sick of it and this behaviour has had us fakeclaiming ourselves for months because we felt fucking awful about existing.

I feel like I have the right to criticise people’s behaviour towards me because this IS discrimination, no matter how you wanna view it. And it’s normalised in Terras because mods don’t want to allow fakeclaiming (which is fair) but. Come on. Please do some self reflection if you are one of these people.

exactly anon, this is the kind of consequences i was talking about in relation to DID fakers

(adding a read more to this post because i got pretty introspective)

DID kids love to use their various talking points, one of which being that you should never ever even THINK that someone is faking, and even if they are, theres no negative effects to them presenting their warped perception of the disorder as truth.

many DID fakers will tell you that the only ramifications of their nonsense is that DID becomes more discussed and people become more aware of it, and then more people might realize they also have DID

what they dont realize is that a lot of their rhetoric pushes out medically diagnosed people who dont fit into their new definition, despite the fact that their definition is completely false

im gonna use the autism faker crowd as an example since its pretty much 1 to 1 and i have more personal connection to it. this is gonna be a bit of a side tangent but i promise i have a point

for context, i am an adult with a corporate job who suspects themself of being on the autism spectrum. as a slight tangent, personally, i prefer to use the term asperger’s to describe myself despite the history of the term because most of the people i interact with on a day to day basis are on the older side, and in general the social interpretation of asperger’s more closely aligns with my presentation than how many older people (however wrongly they may be) interpret autism.

now, i was in the process of seeking a diagnosis, but because of extraneous circumstances and loss in my family, its pretty much halted. however, i dont think im going to continue this process because for the most part, i have low support needs. granted, as a child i can see areas where i may have needed assistance and understanding, but now as an adult im pretty much aware of what things trigger me and i can implement self soothing strategies in my day to day settings. i can manage my life, and seeking a diagnosis now wouldnt really do a world of difference because i dont have a strong need for accommodations.

despite my low support needs, i still drift on the edges of autistic discussion groups (mostly on reddit), just to see other people who live life like me, who have to put a little extra effort into social situations, and who have to fight tears when touching an incredibly common texture in the same way that i do. and what i see in these groups is that autism fakers are making the lives of autistic adults harder than they actually have to be.

when you tell illness fakers that they are taking resources from people who need them, they will often say “what resources? there arent any systems in place to help people who struggle, so why do you care?” when they couldnt be further from the truth

i see post after post of autistic adults who NEED support, who go to irl support groups for assistance, and are turned away because there is no space. i see autistic adults who are ostracized among other autistic people for being weird or for interacting strangely, and when they explain themself, theyre pushed further because “well all these ‘autistic’ people can operate fine, why cant you?”

suffice to say, i think the crowd of people who fakes disorders and turns them into flashy trends are incredibly selfish, and terraliens in particular is full of that crowd.

(also for future posts ill try not to be so long winded, im not gonna delete any asks talking abt syscourse and stuff like this because i dont really believe in deleting asks, but i want to try and keep it more brief going forward)

for the game please:

common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

that one thing you see in fanart all the time

it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

So I've written a couple iterations of this answer across the past few months of trying to catch up with my inbox and realized in general that most of it just comes down to like people consuming media in a way I find exhausting. Like that's a bigger thing that this question is trying to get at but honestly it's the thing I see the most these days where someone takes meta too seriously or starts arguing over something on someone else's post or things like that. And like. Listen. There's nothing wrong with being attached to a piece of media and emotionally invested in it. Like I get it. This media has been a hyperfixation in my brain for decades at this point and I care about them a great deal, but there's a difference between that investment and letting strangers ruin your day because your versions of a character are different or you favor different theories on something. Or. I dunno. I genuinely like seeing takes that are different from my own? Even if I don't agree with certain things it's fascinating to see the different experiences people have with the media we all engage with. And it's so important to keep in mind with literary analysis personal life experiences impact what we read as being on screen just as much as what's actually literally on the screen does. This is why we see different things in the same piece of media and I think that can be one of the best things about media in general. But a lot of meta comes across as this is the One Truth - and this is partially because you are presenting an argument and the language that goes with that lends itself to that angle - and I think that's a really unhealthy way to go about this. Like there's a reason I write meta that can contradict each other right? It's literary analysis not an argument I'm preparing for a debate. In my experience if you're so locked into proving yourself right it's really easy for meta to devolve into something that's doing more harm to you than good - especially when it's impacting your enjoyment of the media and the fandom in the first place.

That being said, on a more lighter note that's probably more in the spirit of this question, my longest running version of this is the whole Crowley loving Queen thing. Don’t get me wrong I think it’s a fun character trait to assign to him, but it does kind of make me laugh because I grew up with the interpretation that the Bentley doing this was a constant minor annoyance in Crowley’s life. One of the most relatable scenes in the book to me was Crowley using music to try to get his mind off the Antichrist situation only for the Bentley to play Bohemian Rhapsody, prompting him to shriek and scramble to turn the music off. And I just adore the idea of the Bentley being a little bit of a menace and Crowley being like a grumbly pet owner in a constant state of fond annoyance.

that one thing you see in fanart all the time

Mmm, generally, this fandom is pretty fantastic when it comes to its art but, the one thing that’ll make me not reblog a piece of art is making Aziraphale too skinny.

it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on…

Religious text as inspiration for fanfiction? I understand why people don't want to engage with it, don't get me wrong, but there's certain stories I’m shocked I've never seen repurposed for fanfic. Exhibit A of this is the story about Nehushtan, the brazen/bronze/fiery serpent who heals and protects the wandering Israelites from seraphs sent to punish them for questioning God, in particular, is one I'm always shocked that I've never even seen referenced even as a throwaway line.

your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

Honestly this fandom doesn't miss much and the thing I started answering this with kind of devolved into 80% just it's own meta post so we're gonna not go down that rabbit hole twice but the sort answer is I feel like we don't talk nearly enough about the fact that the way magic works is at least slightly tied to belief, expectation, and assumptions of the entities wielding it. I'm obsessed with it.

Ok guys listen up! King and the collector are parallel characters, otherwise known as Foils! King was alone and isolated, parentless but adopted and loved by Eda, the collector was alone and isolated and then manipulated and hurt by Philip. You know what else they have in common? They are both absent of parent/figures that were HUGE fucking deals. And i hear you, but Jester! The Collector is a God! Born of the Stars! They didn’t have anyone to look up to or a “parent”!

Well buckle up folks for my theory! I’m coming at you with screenshots and my own funky analysis! More under the cut cause I fear this will be a doosy!

Alrighty let’s go

I’m going to bring your attention to Knock Knock Knockin on Hooty’s Door where we were first introduced to The Collector!

Here they are! And with a Heavy Moon motif which I will drag your attention back to later! This version of the collector is cloaked and Never Removes Themselves from this cloak! Not to do evil bidding, which we see first hand through Eda’s eyes as the owl beast is captured.

I would like to point out again here, that the collector is shown via their Moon Side. In turn with the visuals of the setting sun, and the moon in place of a face, as well as the moon clips seen on the clips of the cloak, I find this very interesting.

Also, again this screenshot emphasizes the setting sun as well as showing the Moon Side of the collector, but also the more obvious visual shown here is that the collector is Huge! Tall Guy! We know after seeing the shit that they are capable of, they are not bound to any form they don’t like. But why here are they choosing to be so tall?

Moving on to the most recent episode King’s Tide where we Officially meet the collector as a character, there’s a lot I have to compare.

I first would like to point out the cloak! There it is! The same cloak with that same hooded face that is meant to be Oh So Recognizable!

But then we meet him and the cloak is gone. He’s just a little guy, contrary to the tall imposing character we were introduced to before. I would also like to say that upon seeing the collectors face, the portion of the left side of his face and clothes is represented by the sun! Which is the opposite of what we saw in the previously mentioned episode.

Also, the symbolism we’re given throughout the portion of the episode is with the collector backed by an extreme light source, illuminating the rest of the scene.

The collector also Removes the Moon in order to expose the sun. Therefore, to follow my interpretation so far, show him as a character who has a theme focused around the Sun.

Now to bring me to my final point in the differences of this (dare I say These) character! As I pointed out earlier, the previous Moon Emphasized Collector doesn’t use motion or any physical action in order to do its bidding and will, doing things almost calmly which also falls heavily into the themes associated with the moon.

This collector however, has a motion for Every whim he acts upon! It’s even done with a certain level of Flair and Dramatics that falls heavily into the themes associated with the Sun!

There are other examples of this found in the screenshots I’ve used above, but I chose these specifically to emphasize these points because of how child like and even fun they are. The boop action, the swirling of the finger, they’re all things that children do especially when playing.

This leads me to the closing statement of this long ass theory: This Collector is New. A baby god if you will, a regeneration, a reset, whatever theory you might apply to this to make it fit. This collector is new and they don’t have Any of the control we saw displayed in the past episode. That’s why they are manic and excited and full of energy. Just like King, he is a child that needs to learn and be taught about who they are and what they can do but for whatever reason that learning curve was cut short.

If you’ve made it this far, please comment or like or something cause I’m not sure how many of you will give this the time of day lmao but it was an itch i just had to properly flesh out and get posted cause I haven’t seen anyone else point out these differences before. I’d love to see your thoughts on this if you have any! I know this has a lot of holes in it so let me know what you guys noticed too!