#lore analysis probably

[manybackflips]

About Helldivers 2, this game has already been analyzed to (super) hell and back, but here we go.

Super Earth, you know it and love it, but do we actually know what it looks like? “But manybackflips,” I hear you say, “we saw what Super Earth looks like in the opening cinematic! It’s a perfect utopia!”

Do you know about propaganda.

We have no clue what Super Earth will look like until we can move on over there to defend it. For all we know it could be a desert wasteland! And there’s no way it’s actually the center of everything as depicted on the map!

So yeah, what do we actually know about Super Earth?

[hollyberrygarden]

I can't stop thinking about the tragedy of the Golden Cheese Kingdom. it's a lore moment I don't see talked about enough. it's just devastating

in the midst of the Dark Flour War, or perhaps when they knew it would begin but not when, Golden Cheese leaves to fight Dark Enchantress directly with the other Ancients. she informs her kingdom at large about her departure but promises their safety with the warriors there and the tamed monsters. in private, she tells her most trusted advisors and friends about her plans. there are mixed opinions on her leaving

Burnt Cheese promises to fight until his very last crumb (and he will, though none of them know that yet). Mozzarella promises to keep any and all intruders out of the kingdom, her smile never fading. High Priest Cheesenbird says he will pray for her safety and heal the wounded. Smoked Cheese is furious that she is abandoning them in their time of need. he is the only one angry about her choice to leave. it is her kingdom that she built with her own two hands, and she's just leaving it?

Golden Cheese tells him she has to fight Dark Enchantress. she has to use her Soul Jam to stop her. she will be a threat to Cookiekind forever unless Golden Cheese stops her. she has to. she knows they will all keep her kingdom safe. she has so much faith in them

Smoked Cheese makes her promise she will come back unharmed. she does. and she leaves, and Smoked Cheese is still unhappy about it, but he cannot stop her

we don't know what forces killed everyone in the Golden Cheese Kingdom. I don't think it's ever been confirmed. but they must have been big if they could kill everyone there. Burnt Cheese, fighting on the front lines. Mozzarella, trying to strategize. High Priest Cheesenbird, who wouldn't hurt anyone. Smoked Cheese, his smoke unable to contain them. the regular denizens, who could only run. how did that go down? who crumbled first? were they together? did they find each other after the fact? or did they crumble separately, silently wondering if anyone else made it out?

and Golden Cheese returns to the ashes of her kingdom. that's it

absolutely decimated. everyone. everything

and then. and then Smoked Cheese hints at how things went down in the immediate aftermath of her return after the war

the image of her scouring the remains of her kingdom, looking for the crumbled bodies of her citizens and friends, trying to piece them back together so she can restore them, is almost too much to bear

all this to say. what went down when Golden Cheese successfully digitized the kingdom, and her friends, who all crumbled in the war, came back to life? they know the truth about the kingdom, they know about their deaths. did Golden Cheese have to tell them that they died, reminding them of the truth she's trying to ignore? or did they know from the minute they woke again, having to shoulder the memories of their deaths, all while living in this idyllic reality where none of that really happened?

it's all so much to think about

[blueskittlesart]

*sigh* thoughts on Nintendo's botw/totk timeline shenanigans and tomfoolery?

tbh. my maybe-unpopular opinion is that the timeline is only important when a game's place on the timeline seriously informs the way their narrative progresses. the problem is that before botw we almost NEVER got games where it didn't matter. it matters for skyward sword because it's the beginning, and it matters for tp/ww/alttp (and their respective sequels) because the choices the hero of time makes explicitly inform the narrative of those games in one way or another. it matters which timeline we're in for those games because these cycles we're seeing are close enough to oot's cycle that they're still feeling the effects of his choices. botw, however, takes place at minimum 10 thousand years after oot, so its place on the timeline actually functionally means nothing. botw is completely divorced from the hero of time & his story, so what he does is a nonissue in the context of botw link and zelda's story. thus, which timeline botw happens in is a nonissue. honestly I kind of liked the idea that it happened in all of them. i think there's a cool idea of inevitability that can be played with there. but the point is that the timeline exists to enhance and fill in the lore of games that need it, and botw/totk don't really need it because the devs finally realized they could make a game without the hero of time in it.

[cityofmeliora]

What do you think about Copia’s childhood? I saw your post about Terzo’s, so I started wondering. Where do you think he was raised, who do you think he was raised by, how did it contribute to who he is today?

YESSSSSS YES YES YES YES THIS IS THE ASK I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR RAAAAHHHH–

ok so first, i just wanna be clear that this post isn't gonna include anything about Cardi's twin because i'm still waiting to see what happens next in the lore before i try to write anything involving him.

with that out of the way,

like all my Ghost headcanons, my headcanons about Cardi are built on the foundation that the band Ghost lore is about 1) an evil satanic cult, and 2) a dysfunctional showbiz family from Los Angeles.

basically, i think Cardi had a very lonely childhood. and he has psychological issues caused by a lifetime of Sister Imperator's insane parenting. his anxiety in Rite Here Rite Now, about how being Papa is all he wants to do and all he thinks he could do, SCREAMS of "unethical Hollywood parent who molded her child to be a star" to me.

i do think Sister 'raised' him, or was at least present in his life since he was a child ("You'll always be my little Cardi.") and she just... didn't him she was his mom / Nihil was his dad. (i guess it's quite similar to children of catholic clergy IRL, who are sometimes raised by family but never told about their true parentage, or know the truth and are told to hide it.)

Cardi is autistic, obviously, but i also think his awkwardness is him being socially underdeveloped because he comes from an isolated cult environment. he was a weird satanic homeschool kid who almost never interacted with anyone outside the Ministry, and he was basically left to watch movies and listen to music and play video games all day. i like the idea that Cardi had dance training when he was young, though. that was probably the only time he really got to interact with others. and because he grew up in the Los Angeles area, on the occasions he did get to go out, he was always surrounded by the entertainment industry and people trying to rise to stardom.

anyway, i think this was all somewhat intentional, or at least worked in Sister Imperator's favor, to mold him into a neurotic showbiz baby in service of her evil satanic death cult. (though i don't think he cares about the cult aspect of Ghost at all. he's been in it his whole life because he didn't have a choice and has never known anything else. he really just wants to be a rock star.) growing up without the love of friends + family, Cardi filled that void with games / music / film. so... of course he wanted to be an entertainer when he grew up– that was his only avenue for human connection.

and i think Cardi kinda knew Sister Imperator was giving him special treatment and pulling strings to put him in position to become Papa, though he never understood why.

a major point in my Terzo character analysis post is that he was very ambitious and he loved being an entertainer and a showman, but he was frustrated because he wasn't allowed to express his full potential. i wrote that his mindset was "i know i'm good enough. and i could prove it if they would just let me."

and ever since i wrote that, i can't stop thinking about how Cardi feels the exact same way.

he's super talented. he's worked very hard. he's proud of his accomplishments. he's proven he's capable! but Sister Imperator doesn't respect him. she infantilizes him. she keeps the training wheels on. she doesn't want him to be capable!

Sister Imperator does not allow Cardi to have independent thoughts or make real decisions for himself. she allows him the illusion of autonomy when she needs to, but every time he shows a little bit of awareness of how fucked up his life actually is, she shuts him down to keep him under control. she purposefully hides information from him so he won't know anything she doesn't want him to know. she intrudes on his privacy because his bedroom doesn't have a door.

i think their relationship has been like this his whole life.

you can see examples of this manipulation / obfuscation throughout the Chapters, and you can see a lot of it in Rite Here Rite Now.

first off, the opening narration gives the context / background information that sometime in late 2021, when Cardi was 51 years old, he found out his two bosses are actually his parents, and his mother kept this a secret from both him and his father his whole life. which is. wild. to say the least.

(i think when he found out, he was disappointed by the realization that he got to where he is because he was secretly a nepo baby and not because he was doing a good job on his own.)

moving on. in Rite Here Rite Now, Cardi's main source of stress was that he fully believed his parents were going to murder him and then put his body on display to sell VIP tickets for his successor's concerts. this was genuine fear, and he had a legitimate reason to believe they would do that to him because they actually did that to his three older brothers! and in the later Chapters, Sister Imperator and Mr. Psaltarian were totally fucking with his head and making him think he was going to die!

he asks Sister why he can't continue being Papa for longer –because he doesn't want his parents to kill him when they're done with him– and she just brushes him off and tells him to keep playing his show. then in the Miasma scene, Cardi has a critical moment of awareness and asks what the hell is actually going on in his life and who's in control.

PAPA EMERITUS IV: One thing I do not understand… All these things… here, all of this stuff, and all of these things we're doing, where we go, and when, and to where… Who decides these things? I mean, who's calling the shots?

this is totally fair! he has a right to know this information!

in response, his parents completely avoid answering the question. they shut him down and basically tell him he sounds ungrateful for the life he has.

SISTER IMPERATOR: You waste so much time and energy worrying about what's been and what's next, who's next and whatnot. As with all things in life, it circulates. Everything that has a beginning has an ending. There just has to be an orderly transition.

she never tells him the truth. she just tells him to stop worrying. stop thinking.

they never tell him they're not going to kill him. They Never Tell Him They're Not Going To Kill Him. THEY NEVER TELL HIM THEY'RE NOT GOING TO KILL HIM.

Cardi spends the last third of the movie making peace with the idea that he is going to die soon and his parents will be the ones to kill him. after Respite On The Spitalfields, he seems resigned to his fate. he tells the Nameless Ghouls they're not doing an encore. he says "Fuck it." but Sister Imperator, still explaining nothing, tells him to do the encore and he unenthusiastically gets back on stage.

SISTER IMPERATOR: Even though you don't understand right now, sooner or later, you will know what I'm talking about. Things –events– are unavoidable. Now you go back out there and give them one hell of an encore. And that's all you have to worry about. PAPA EMERITUS IV: Okay. SISTER IMPERATOR: Off you go.

by the beginning of Square Hammer, he decides he is actually happy with the life he has and he's okay with whatever's coming. and he still expects he's going to die... only for them to totally fake him out.

Sister Imperator dies instead. in the letter she leaves him, she tells him, "My son, I'm sorry I could not find it in my heart to tell you about my condition. I was afraid you might lose your sometimes frail concentration." more obfuscation. more infantilization.

at the end of the letter, she promotes him to head of the Clergy. he takes on his new job assignment as Frater Imperator and he seems to think he'll have more power now that Sister Imperator is "not in charge anymore." i'm not so sure about that.

and this isn't even getting into all the other weird shit going on between them in that movie! why was Cardi literally unable to see her wheelchair and medicine until the Spoksonat scene? why couldn't he remember his twin brother who he spent time with as a child? either Cardi is even more mentally unwell than we know, or Sister is messing with his head in even more ways than we know. maybe both. probably both.

i do believe Sister Imperator loves Cardi. that does not negate the fact that she is also manipulative and dishonest and has no respect for him, and that made her a terrible parent. she caused him a lifetime of unnecessary confusion and suffering in furtherance of her goals. yes, he is often childish and irresponsible. but i think the way she treated him didn't allow him to mature on his own.

the worst part about all this? i think he's convinced himself that he loves her, too. (he doesn't actually know how to feel about her. it would be too painful to think about.)

in summary, to me, Cardi's life is like The Truman Show, except it's the bad ending where the producer (Sister Imperator) successfully convinces him to stay in the bubble.

this was supposed to be a headcanons post and it totally turned into an analysis post, but i cannot help it. i just love Cardi so fucking much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I JUST WANT CARDI TO BE SAFE AND HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

btw i think his actual legal given name is Cardinal Copia Imperator. yeah. i believe Sister Imperator actually named him that.

[nexischillin]

Bvz 2:

(w intro song)

Albus w/Hipswitch || 2:00-2:25

“What are you doing here? You said you were going to walk” -A

“I never said that” -H

Hipswitch clearly said in the last episode that he was going by transport and didn’t mention walking at all. So this is our first real glimpse at Karmor’s powers erasing the memories of the people who aren’t involved.

Jess Prodman || 40:35-55:40

“They were here I know they were” - Jess

He’s referring to the transport but if I remember correctly, he’s not supposed to. Why does he remember, in fact, why is he the only one who is able to figure Kamor out later on?

“Got nothing to say now, did I kick the voice out of you” -J

I CAN’T SPEAK BRO-

“It was you. You did this. You rewrote it or something. That’s how you got off the transport and the mines, I didn’t even remember making those EMPS. It just came to me that I had them out of nowhere”

“You erased your bounty, right? Was that the reason I blew up the transport to start with?”

Why does he remember these things? Sure the mines make sense but the transport and the bounty don’t. Is it because Mad Crow allowed it or is it because he’s just really intelligent? Maybe I’m missing something but I've watched this ep like 3 times at this point so it’s just gonna be missed.

Also quick question what was the consequence of saving Hipswitch?

Hipswitch/Jess || 1:03:09-end

I’m not going to type this whole part out but there’s a lot going on here.

One, Jess and Hipswtich have major history

Two, when Jess tells Hipswitch what he knows or at least tries the static of mad crow shows up and he seems to go somewhat crazy, unable to fully get it out

Three, the static doesn’t go away until jess is dead, maybe that signals a type of control

And Four, Jess mentions the birds watching and testing them like he can feel the mad crow's presence

I have no theories for this episode but it does set up a lot of questions. Like who else can feel the presence of Mad Crow?

This episode as a whole gives out a lot of things you should question with very little answers, and I like that. It makes it a perfect second episode to get you hooked. Anyways, tell me anything I missed

[halloween-neko96]

On today's episode of my obsessing session over my two favorite blorbos, Cale Henituse and Monkey D. Luffy. I have found some similar aspects between them!

!SPOILER WARNING FOR BOTH TCF AND ONE PIECE!

Someone who gives you food is a good person (especially when they are struggling with food themselves)

To both Cale and Luffy, people who give them food are good people. But especially when the person who gives them food is also struggling with food themselves. Lee Soo Hyuk had given Kim Rok Soo (Cale) his chocolate bar after saving him even when they were in the middle of an apocalypse thus food is a sacred thing. Rebecca and O-Tama also bought/gave Luffy food when he was hungry even when they, themselves didn't have much.

Both Cale and Luffy also really value food. To be able to eat and enjoy food, especially with their people is a thing that both of them love. After a battle or a crisis, Cale loves to enjoy luxury meals with his people while Luffy loves to party/have a banquet with everyone. Both of them also want people around them to not be hungry and be able to enjoy food too.

People should be able to live as they want (without causing harm to those innocent around them)

Live freely, live as you please.

I notice that freedom to live as you please is a thing that Cale and Luffy usually give to those around them while the people who oppose that freedom of others usually meet the fucking end of Cale's/Luffy's violent rampage.

I will do whatever I want.

Also, Cale and Luffy usually just do whatever they want too.

Bonus Round

Adaptability (Cale ‘I have a very detailed plan with at least 20 more backup plans’ Henituse VS Monkey D. ‘I have no plan’ Luffy)

Cale Henituse, the strategist who can make up a new plan in a mere second if his original plan is thrown off.

Versus

Monkey D. Luffy, the fool with no plan at all and just bulldozing his way through everything.

Cale ‘I am Weak’ Henituse VS Monkey D. ‘I am Strong’ Luffy

… Cale is a liar, pants on fire. He is very powerful actually.

Cale ‘The Best Scammer Out There’ Henituse VS Monkey D. ‘Can’t Lie For The Sake Of His Life’ Luffy

On another note, Luffy is a terrible liar like Choi Han, lol.

Bonus Bonus Round

Cale ‘My greatest fear is being the only survivor among my people’ Henituse VS Monkey D. ‘Being alone is more painful than getting hurt’ Luffy

Bonus Bonus Bonus Round

‘Watching my brother/hyungs die in front of me’ VS ‘My brother/hyungs come back from dead’

‘Thank you for loving me’ VS ‘Being alive is the best’

Bonus Bonus Bonus Bonus Round

‘I fear no God’ VS ‘Are you a God?’ (Plus ‘Nonsense that normal people should not be capable of’ VS ‘A bunch of genius specialists who follow them’)

Extra Round

‘Having a scary loyal guard dog swordsman’ (AKA Choi Han VS Roronoa Zoro)

[utilitycaster]

You know what's interesting to me? For all people keep claiming at every juncture that perhaps Bells Hells will come around on the gods and see the harm they do (which, as discussed extensively, is, half the time, simply not intervening) not only have they never done so, but also they never quite cross the line into saying the party should join the Ruby Vanguard or aid them - and indeed, they defend against it - so what does this achieve? It feels like they're asking for a story in which the party stands idly by, which isn't much of a story nor, if I may connect this briefly to the real world, a political stance anyone should be proud of.

That's honestly the frustration with the gods and the "what if the Vanguard has a point" conversations in-game. What do we do then? Do we allow the organization that will murder anyone for pretty much any reason that loosely ties into their goals run rampant? The group that (perhaps unwittingly, but then again, Otohan's blades had that poison) disrupted magic world-wide, and caused people who had the misfortune to live at nexus points to be teleported (most, as commoners, without means of return). While also fomenting worldwide unrest?

Those were the arguments before the trip to Ruidus; with the reveal of the Vanguard's goals to invade Exandria, the situation becomes even more dire. Do you let the Imperium take over the planet?

And do the arguments against the gods even hold up? If Ludinus is so angry at them for the Calamity, what does it say that he destroyed Western Wildemount's first post-Calamity society for entirely selfish means? (What does it say about the validity of vengeance as a motivator?) What does it say that Laudna told Imogen she could always just live in a cottage quietly without issue before the solstice even happened? (Would this still be true if the Imperium controls the world?) What does it say that when faced with a furious, grieving party and the daughter she keeps telling herself was her reason for all of this, Liliana can't provide an answer to the question of what the gods have done other than that their followers will retaliate...for, you know, the Vanguard's endless list of murders. (That is how the Vanguard and Imperium tend to think, huh? "How dare your face get in the way of my boot; how dare you hit me back when I strike you.") She can't even provide a positive answer - why is Predathos better - other than "I feel it", even though Imogen and Fearne know firsthand that Predathos can provide artificial feelings of elation. Given all the harm Ludinus has done in pursuit, why isn't the conclusion "the gods should have crashed Aeor in such a way that the tech was unrecoverable?"

Even as early as the first real discussion on what the party should do, the fandom always stopped short of saying "no, Imogen's right, they should join up with the people who killed half the party," it was always "no, she didn't really mean it, she just was trying to connect with her mother." Well, she's connected with her mother, and at this point the party doesn't even care about the gods particularly (their only divinely-connected party member having died to prevent the Vanguard from killing all of them). So they will stop the Vanguard; as Ashton says, the means are unforgiveable. As Laudna says, it's not safe to bet on Predathos's apathy. As Imogen says, she's done running; the voice that she used to think of as a lifeline belongs to someone she doesn't trust. So I guess my question is: if they're stopping the people who are trying to kill the gods (and defense of the gods isn't remotely their personal motivation)...do you think the next phase of the campaign is Bells Hells personally killing the gods? Reconstructing the Aeor tech and hoping none of their allies notice? How does this end? Does your ideology ever get enacted? Or is this entirely moot and pointless and the story ends with Bells Hells saying "well, I'm really glad we stopped the people who [insert list of Vanguard atrocities from above]; none of us follow the gods or plan to, but honestly, the status quo we return to is preferable to whatever nightmare Ludinus had concocted in his violent quest for power and revenge"?

[rainbowberriesandcookies]

Pain is being an ulquihime shipper but having to block/avoid most of them because they are weirdly anti-Orihime, anti-bleach ending, or "anti how Kubo wrote Orihime" even though she's one of the most consistently and well-written female characters in Shounen as well as the fact that they try to make Ulquiorra care more about Orihime than he actually did in the manga or even god forbid try to say that Ulquiorra cared more about Orihime than Ichigo did.

[walmartbrandwhatever]

cherry and marcia hcs because I love them so dearly.

they met when they were 6 at a park. cherry was sitting alone on a bench and marcia being afraid of nothing just sat down and started yapping.

Marcia used to be afraid of nothing except for storms. whenever there was a storm she would curl up in the corner of her room and cry.

her parents weren't around much, both working to hard to keep the life they had built so her house was often empty.

cherry having a not so good home environment would spend days upon days at marcias and they would just hang out.

cherry was the quiet popular girl who did her work but when she was at marcias house they would talk the most shit and about drama going around the school.

cherry is really good at doing other people's hair, and it's something she quite enjoys doing. someday, when things get too stressful, Marcia will let Cherry just mess with her hair as they sit in silence or talk about what's bothering her.

Marcia used to roller skate a lot when she was younger but stopped when she reached highschool and started to worry more about her staus.

cherry lowkey hates oranges. she hates anything to do with them while marcia LOVES them.

on the days where they were practicing for rodeos they find a way to fuck with eachother.

they had a game where they had gotten this small little figure and have made it a game to place it somewhere on eachother and whoever has it has to try to get it to the other person without them noticing. the last time they played marcia got it to cherry(I'm gonna come back to this later)

once they reached high school, Cherry had met Bob in her math class. at first they didn't really talk but after being paired together during class they sort of just hit it off.

Marcia and Bob? did NOT hit it off. they started unsure of each other and then turned to them, not liking each other.

there was one day where bob and marcia had ended up alone waiting for the rest of there friends and marcia got to see the true version of bob Sheldon that had been pushed down deep.

he had started talking about the stars, going into detail about the ones he knew and how important they were to him. no matter what changed in his life or the little amount of actual love he got from his family they stayed a constant. a reminder that there were nice things that even he could see.

Marcia before would have never expected it from someone like him but it made her look at him with a different light. only for a little while because that was the only time she had ever seen that side of him. after that he went back to the bob Sheldon she had known. the bob Sheldon who hated her just as much as she hated him.

Marcia was considered a weird girl who was simply friends with Cherry Valance. that didn't bother her much up until that point.

Marcia hated how Bob treated Cherry like some sort of trophy. Cherry had always told her that he wasn't like that and that he was real kind and she didn't need to worry.

the weeks when Cherry would spend hours at Marcias turned into just a few days, focusing her time on Bob which didn't hurt Marcia.

she understood that a d she respected it. she spent most of her time with bev, brill, and trip. she learned a lot with them and learned that something were better kept hidden than out.

her parents had very different ways of thinking. her father grew up with a single father who didn't have much taught her to fit in and roam with the crowd because that's how you got successful while her mother grew up with a rich family who was cold and uncaring. she taught marcia to stick up for herself and to trust those who are her true friends.

Marcia often battled between what her parents wanted her to be. she wants to make her father proud, but she doesn't want to disappoint her mother, who always taught her to be kind and true to herself.

reaching highschool she learned real quick between the difference of social class and how she needed to fit in if she wanted to make it to graduation.

Bev had told her that she needed to stop "acting so weird, you'll never get someone if you act like that," and marcia had laughed in her face then. Bev, that day, wasn't too happy with her, nearly cost her the spot she had within the small group. she learned that day to take most things with a smile and that things would be easier if she just kept others happy.

Cherry had been spending time with Bob, the nights where they both just needed to escape from their lives, the would drive Bob's car out to a reserved place and just look at the stars.

the first time Bob got real drunk she had freaked the fuck out because she would not be with someone who ended up like her father.

he the next day had showed up at her house with flowers and with an apology. she practically melted into his arms after she explained to him why she had freaked. he had promised that it wouldn't happen again, though he never kept that promise, leading to her snapping at the nightly double.

Cherry post cannon distanced herself from all the socs for the most part. she only really stayed connected to chet and somewhat marcia.

the two grew apart for a little bit as Marcia battled with the pressure of her parents and with the ideas of social class.

one night marcia just completing broke down in front of her parents. they talked for hours after that, working through their problems and how she had been feeling. her parents had always loved her, she knew that but her father rarely showed any emotion and her mother too busy fighting with her own family to realize how her own family was falling apart.

the next day Marcia asked Cherry to talk and they did. Marcia apologized from practically everything that had happened andthey both made a promise to be better, to talk things out no matter how they felt.

that's all I have rn but please feel free to add in the comments or in my inbox 🙏 also trust I'm just feeding yall until I finish this fic.

[valeriefauxnom]

Yet Another Crack Theory: Phares and Elysium

I've uncovered the totally intended deeply hidden lore before, whether it was Leonidas' intended maiming that they backed out from committing to, to Midgardsormr being the dragon that accidentally killed the royal family's mom, and now it's time I do it again, this time even bigger and better for a correspondingly greater level of nonsense I am channeling. Seriously, I would best render myself like so for this one, so consider it your fair warning:

What latest crack theory did I unearth? Well, hear me out:

Were they intending Phares to transform into Elysium, who was dead?

Now, mind you, this theory is inherently a matter of early-game speculation, before Nedrick and Sacred Tree drama kicked up, much less Xenos drama. This is conjecturing for what they possibly might have been planning instead of what we got, as Dragalia was written by several authors working separately that had different visions for the story.

With that in mind, let's assemble the pins on the conspiracy board I've created...

The crux of this all starts with NPC Phares' art. The siblings had fully designed NPC art with corresponding titles, instead of the generic wooden pedestal. For example, this is Chelle's, and her title is 'The Inferno'.

This is Phares'.

Looks... pretty bland on first glance, almost fitting for a generic 3 star unit, but there's a lot more going on here. For starters, his title. Dragalia Lost brushed over them in-game entirely, but his Japanese NPC titles were 'Dawning Light' (a thing that would later be reflected into his actual unit's 'Dawning Wind',) and 'White Light' (the Japanese has simpler or alternate titles above the actual one, which sometimes gives a different title). Keep this in mind for later.

Next, take a look at the background behind him.

Who is it, though? Well, things are muddy, but there are two possible answers: a proto-Uranus... or Elysium.

You can see it either way, depending on what aspects you choose to focus on. If one is looking at the chin structure, it looks more like Uranus. If one instead focuses on the chest, though, as @soumarhea (whom I will be using additional observations from) has, though, you might find another dragon...

The chest resembles Elysium's ornament.

If we entertain the possibility that this is Elysium, more curiosities open up. Why would Phares have an Elysium carving on a stone behind him? Why, it almost looks a bit like...

A tombstone. And it's breaking apart.

Huh.

This is where we can start pulling in Phares some more. 'Dawning Light' is a suspicious title, in this regard. Dawning carries a certain... 'growing' connotation. Ascending. Elysium is strongly tied to light (in fact, I'm going to come around to that later, as well). So if Phares is the 'dawning light'...

But wait, there's a lot more symbolism and stuff to examine. Take a look underneath the main body of his pedestal, and you'll find a certain hidden light, shining outward. Fairly well-hidden, but it also helps strengthen this 'concealed light' presentation.

Let's also take a look at Phares' design compared to Elysium's. Both share a color scheme: white scales, blue accessories, and gold for further highlights. Phares' messy hair also, -extremely vaguely, mind you, -reminds me of Elysium's horn set, with his strands often turning upward like Elysium's do. Perhaps most damning even if it's still vague, they share chest ornaments of a reminiscent manner:

With Emphatic Red And Purple Lines, hopefully it's easier to see where I'm coming from:

The triangular structure surrounding the circular centerpiece, the point at the bottom, the supporting lines that weave underneath the main body... it's far from exact, but there is something there, I think. Throw in whatever weird white leather offshoots of Phares' outfit (they're separate from his leather tunic) as the lower protrusions on Elysium if you want, too!

Their iridescent green eyes and scale color are also suspiciously close:

So now that I've hopefully established that Phares and Elysium shared surprisingly many traits in their overall design, what else could there be to suggest something as farfetched as 'Phares was going to turn into Elysium'?

I'll crack into Phares and his name a bit more here. As I've gone over in this post, Phares shared some surprisingly deep Greek roots (as did the royal fam in general, with several inspired with Greco-Roman names/theming). The long and short of it are these points:

-Phares' name is quite possibly drawn from 'Phanes', a progenitor god from an earlier strain of Greek mythos. Phanes is strongly associated with light, sometimes called 'light-bringer', and has any number of other connections to other figures/concepts like knowledge, Uranus, and more. Even if I ignore the Greek, his name is literally 'lighthouses' or 'headlights' in French.

-Phares' JP skill names are in Greek. If the DL team had just translated out the sounds, his skills would look more like 'Desmos Orkos' to us, etc.

Hm. Yet more ties to light.

Speaking of light, Elysium (and Ilia) also ties to this Greco-Roman mythology.

Elysium is more of a place than a creature, and is sort of this heavenly plain in the Greek and Roman afterlife. Ilia, meanwhile, is another name for the mother of the founders of Rome, Rhea Silvia, via birthing Romulus and Remus. So we universally see strong Greek and Roman influence between Elysium, Ilia, and Phares, all tied to influential and important figures in its mythologies.

I'll divert a bit to the early lore, especially what we know of dragonblood and certain events.

Specifically, the origins of dragonblood: by all accounts, dragonblood originated from the light of Elsyium's pact/Primal Mark Theft with Ilia shining down and granting people dragonblood.

Note, while Forgotten Truths paints it as a more... violent process, it's originally described more gently:

But even with the more violent take on it, we see a recurrent theme of Elysium's light or the Primal Pactsone being the tying element to what gave the family dragonblood.

Now let's look at one of the great mysteries of the game that never got resolved: Euden's chapter 1 transformation.

Into Elysium, mind you, a thing that only Morsayati seems to inherently recognize. Even Zethia or Elisanne are not freaking out about Elysium being suddenly there. The former is more concerned with if she 'awoke his dragonblood somehow'. They don't recognize him.

But if Elysium was around, wouldn't the world have at least some idea about what he looked like? Even a singular sighting over a century might have spurred many a depiction that carried on.

Enter the 'Elysium's kinda dead' aspect of this theory: he's not been around for a while, long enough that his looks don't cause immediate recognition?

The broader point with this section, though, is that there is very strong ties between the family's dragonblood and Elysium. If Elysium is 'hiding in the blood' enough for people like Zethia to 'awaken' it, is it really so far-fetched to go one step further?

What if wyrmscale is just another 'awakening' of Elysium in the blood, perhaps trying to claw back to life? We know that powerful dragons undergo reincarnation in Dragalia. With Elysium being an unusual, powerful, unusually powerful dragon even among the 'big dog' dragons, it's possible his reincarnation is somehow complicated. His spirit might have persisted past death and is just trying to find another body.

Early!Phares is highly doubtful wyrmscale even is a disease to start with:

Instead, he's become quite enamored with the idea of turning into a dragon, in contrast to his earlier fear. Furthermore, he has been continually dreaming of turning into a dragon:

Here, sourmarhea suggests that this change of perspective is a corruption of perspective a la Xenos - that Elysium is influencing him to take actions to complete his transformation/revival. Speaking of Xenos, this scene is weird in retrospect, as the god would likely care not for being a dragon and would thus not be very encouraging of Phares' dreams of becoming one.

Another point to this possible 'Elysium influence' is Phares' actions regarding the Sacred Shards. We don't know for certain, but Chelle at one point almost seems to suggest that Phares might have been doing ~something~ to, presumably, the castle's Shard.

Note her characteristic 'fan hiding face' expression being used here - the best signal we have that she darn well knows more and is choosing not to comment!

Now, what were the Sacred Shards? Well, they were fragments of the sword Dragalia, forged from Elysium's pactstone. Alberius shattered them to create the Shards.

If they were scattered, it might stand to reason that Elysium is wanting all of them back, to assemble his own power or for some other purpose. Say, like perhaps it would help his latest potential host actually survive the little 'turn into a dragon' thing.

And when the singular castle's Shard has this hint of an unheard-of 'shadow' in it, Aurelius is so worried that he sends Euden to pact to bring back the Mistholt's shard as well as going out himself to get another one:

"Wait! That doesn't make any sense," maybe says the lore-r, "It's not actually Elysium's pactstone that created the sacred shards, it was Primal Mids'!"

Two explanations:

-One, they were originally going to play it straight and that it was Elysium's pactstone, again, this is for what they might have originally been intending instead of how it developed, or,

-Two, that since even ELYSIUM HIMSELF is completely unaware in canon as it was that Mids-0 did a switcharoo,

...It's more than possible that Elysium just hadn't gotten to that knowledge that the Sacred Shards aren't his and was still in the 'gather them' stage.

I would also like to observe that we... never really see the capital swarmed with fiends as is told what would happen if a Shard failed, even before Aurelius is possessed. Even with whatever 'shadow' that had Aurelius so distressed to send Euden out and go himself to fetch two Shards, we see no proof that the Shard itself was truly in danger as Aurelius feared. Thus, it could have been a cosmetic effect meant to spur action from others, like this dramatization and informative diagram shows:

...If this isn't enough crack, let's go deeper!

By that, I mean let me throw more stuff at the wall to see what sticks or resonates with anyone.

First, let's throw out the wyrmprint 'Holywyrm's Advent'. Wyrmprints in Dragalia sometimes came early or late. Whether it was 'Syndicate Mask' outright talking about the Syndicate at launch, or the one wymprint with Nephren, a character that went wholly unreleased, timing was sometimes... off. Referencing things that didn't exist yet.

But Holywyrm's Advent tells a certain story at odds with its debut event, Dawn of Dragalia. It instead regales about Elysium himself coming down from the heavens (also, note how Phares often seems to be floating/flying around and Elysium also likes to fly/float) to look cool and give orders. One small thing about its second stage, though...

So came the Holywyrm, revealing law to all. Thou shalt neither hate, nor kill, nor act out in willful ignorance. And with this decree, order came unto the world.

...Elysium himself didn't really seem to care too much about the truth. He's active in spreading lies and forcing a certain vision of events.

But you know who does? Yup, Phares, the resident 'I want to learn everything' know-it-all in the family. I reckon anyone acting in willful ignorance might get on his nerves greatly to the degree it finds itself in a list forbidding things like murder. Who knows, maybe a new Elysium might be influenced a bit by his newest form if he needed to descend again...

Speaking of, the Summoner. For all we saw of her, the .2 seconds in a summon, we knew 0.00 of her.

...But she sure looks like she'd fit snug in the family, huh? She and Phares even share that blue-gold aesthetics, two running golden threads in their clothes, and a chest ornament.

...Like I said, I know I'm grasping at straws here. I told you I was getting deeper into the crack!

Yes, yes, I know that the Summoner's design is itself reminiscent of the Knight's of Glory design for Tliff, but Tliff was notably brown-haired, from what I'm seeing. Why change it to blond, the signature color of the family as Alberius' genes apparently were pretty good to keep printing his colors 300 years later with great consistency?

Let's just move on to something a little bit more grounded: Phares' Mysterious Moving Book. That one story where the Phares dreaming image came from also has this tidbit, as pointed out again by soumarhea:

Phares' musings regarding wyrmscale and his changing views regarding it all stem from him unexpectedly stumbling upon a book about wyrmscale again, a very old book that he's not seen for a while. How did it move? A spiritual nudge from Elysium to serve as a reminder, perhaps, since we are well aware that even more mundane creatures' ghosts can influence real things? Also note his repeated dream's confusion that his voice is well, his when he transforms - a hint that it would be Elysium more behind the wheel?

Speaking of Phares, let's wind back the clock again to Phanes, the deity that seemed to serve as his namesake.

Phanes is noted for 'hatching from a cosmic egg', a thing that makes me reflexively think of the dragons in Dragalia, who generally seemed to reproduce via eggs as one would expect. It could have been used as a sort of transitional stage for him if the Elysium transformation ever went down. To be fair, though, it's not like we ever had any cases of humans in giant egglike things to transform into dragons before...

Oh wait. Whoops.

In any case, I'll stop with the more crazy observations. This is long and crazy enough as it is.

In summation:

-We have a very strong correlation between Phares, light, and Elysium. Phares' 'light' is additionally 'ascending', growing.

-His design features similar elements to Elysium, ones I might view as suspiciously similar.

-His earlier comments and desires appear at odds with Xenos' interests, as Xenos likely isn't all that fond of dragons and would not support Phares wanting to be a dragon

-Phares has seemingly been doing something to at least one Sacred Shard, things that Elysium thinks are his and might think that he could use.

-Nobody can recognize Elysium in the modern day, except the demon lord that has fought him over 1k years ago.

-The family's dragonblood has very strong ties to Elysium and seemingly originates from him.

-Wyrmscale itself is tied to a person presenting with 'dragon-like' mana

-Phares, mythologically, takes inspiration from a figure just as 'grand' as other central figures in the Ilian church

-Phares' perspective has shifted over time, from initially being afraid of becoming a dragon to welcoming it. Unexplained phenomena are additionally happening around him. Subconscious influence, perhaps?

Let me synthesize this into one possible narrative to wrap this all up...

Ahem.

---

Elysium, through some means, has been killed. Maybe Alberius done it. Maybe he gave his life. But, as such a powerful dragon, his spirit lingers even as his body didn't.

He wants a new one to be reincarnated as he would be as a dragon.

One problem: he's in that pesky category of dragons that seems to evolve through more ordinary creatures (see Kamuy, who awakens through a wolf), like humans. Dragonblooded humans, who already share a strong base of connection with him and his mana.

So he tries to revive through them. He's an important dragon with work to do. But they keep dying. Dragonblooded or not, they're still human. He gets hopeful each time, as his ivory scales start to sprout, but they never can stick the landing and actually transform.

But then he hits Phares, Prospective Wyrmscale Victim 23 (or whatever). And boy, this time there's promise. He might need to be a bit more active. The boy's afraid of dying, afraid of being a dragon. Nudge him a bit, -dragons are cool, after all, and provide hope. Maybe the Sacred Shards would help you him survive?

So he gets his human to start tampering with them on the side, to prompt others to start assembling them for him.

Things go wrong. Even if the biggest chance has done his best to keep his head down and play both sides without really committing to anything, things with the Shards aren't working out.

If they're not working, though, Elysium still needs something powerful to help his little human survive, because 'nothing' isn't cutting it.

One thing might suffice, though, just as holy and right as he is: the Dawnshard.

---

As a final note, I'd like to explain the 'Dawnshard' comment there. Most drama surrounding the Dawnshard centered around Elysium and Nedrick (and Euden's gang as bystanders, of course). Nedrick, notably, probably didn't exist for a while in the writer's minds. Euden not being the true heir was a decision made by the director, not a writer. His existence was probably wholly contrived from the need to make someone be the true 7th scion. But we did see Phares set a trajectory towards the Tree in canon, one that was... threadbarely used. He pops in at random intervals and exits just the same.

I could see him being shoved away in favor of Nedrick, to give him a goal and plan for Euden to contest. Phares as a character was increasingly stressed in the ch.13-14 stretch, almost as if they were planning on focusing on him and his plans... and then Nedrick sweeps in, redirects the plot ch.15-22 around him and how he relates to Euden's identity. Phares vanishes for five chapters in the meantime. Something doesn't quite add up.

If you've made it this far, thanks for entertaining this spot of nonsense. Am I aware that this is likely off the mark? Absolutely. Do I think that there are a number of suspicious elements that make me think that Phares might have had some deeper tie with Elysium, at minimum? YES. But what do you all think?

[blood-orange-juice]

Alright, alright, what happened in the Genshin game. Just tell me, I don't think I have the will to even read the transcripts.

And has the writing even remotely improved?

Skirk breasted boobily down from the firmanent dropping lore nukes left and right, flaunted 6* animations and thematic parallels with Phanes, revived a bunch a old theories and turned the "Abyss is an evil thing from outer space" that Natlan story introduced and "on cosmic scale Teyvat is irrelevant" that we all have been fearing into something more fun

Dain divorced two more people

The plot finally started plotting, although a bit clunkily

The twins timeline is even more convoluted now and the Traveler got a 3rd character story that amounts to absolutely nothing and could have been released in 1.4

Also they have replaced EN Paimon. If you even care

[nomsfaultau]

RELIGION? IN MY DSMP? MORE LIKELY THEN YOU THINK

Anyways would you like to have a debate like Ancient Greek scholars about religious imagery on the DSMP

“…and every revival only births a perversion of the original, and yet a return to form and renewal of the mission. Wilbur brought back to ambition, Tommy to fear, Techno to anarchy. This is because they were not properly revived through holy means, instead in symbols associated with satanic imagery; a grimoire, a totem. The revival book’s association with Dream echos ideas of Satan offering power that ultimately corrupts. Other symbols of Christianity show up beyond souls, revival, and satanic imagery, likewise tied to Dream. In the garden of Eden—”

“Golden apple as a symbol of the temptation of power! Of course of course! Knowledge as power, the fall of man from grace. This shows particular on the summit meeting between Techno and Dream, wherein a god apple is given by Dream. This falls neatly into parallel with Eden, where Eve is lured with the promise of having the same wisdom and thus power as god. It is the temptation presented, power promised in the same breath as suffering and conflict…”

[arty-cakes]

the king had forsaken everything he ever did and fled into his dreams leaving only his dead selfdom and unheard repentance, littering the land in the forms of statues and black eggs and failed tramways and dead children. his corpse somewhere at the end of the world where you can follow his spine to the top and then back, his dreams locked so tightly behind his shame you have to shatter numerous other stories around you just to gain access to his, an act parallel to his reign and his life. you have to fight and you have to demand to get to the pinnacle of what he was so ashamed of and it was love, it stained the sacrifices everyone made in his name, once done with resolution and trust now in vain. the king had a clear beginning, peak, and ending whether in dream or death it wont matter because now he's gone, and the world moved on without him and despite him.

the queen is still there. she imprisoned herself and had a limited view of what was happening on the outside but she knew enough to tell that the plan she played such a big part in has failed. yet somehow, within minutes of meeting you after so long down in her paralyzed kingdom she asks you to do it all over again. the fate of her kingdom is up to you and she makes that clear. she reminisces the past and she does not acknowledge its death. the king's story had an ending, you could argue that he gave it to himself. the queen's is in limbo, she absolutely gave it to herself. you could not change her mind and neither could flowers. and you could not make her face what she has done.

you leave her there.

[thebaldursmouthgazette]

That post isn’t even touching on andraste lyrium ghost/whatever the oracle is

like. Is valta dead? And what does it even mean for someone reconnected to isatunoll to die? Like what happens when one part of a hive mind dies? The blight is a twisted isatunoll, and the archdemons just pass along between blighted individuals unless a grey warden destroys the soul, is isatunoll similar? Why did dying in a cavern full of lyrium allow Leliana (who many people believe also connected with a titan) to be resurrected as an individual nearly indistinguishable from her living self? If titan and lyrium shenanigans can bring back someone’s consciousness after death, then does that explain the visions people had of andraste after her death?

“Whatsoever passes through the fire

Is not lost, but made eternal”

Is made eternal

Is eternal

[cantpickyourgenre]

forever troubled by the modern takes on Pride and Prejudice that try and push full blame for the first proposal not working out on one character or the other instead of recognizing that the whole point is that they were both kind of in the wrong and blinded by things and being prideful.

[donuts4evry1]

Quiet i am OVERANALYZING over here