#memory and revision

[jonathanmoya1955]

The Art that Stayed

I was expecting giants—brushstrokes that shaped history, colors that conquered time. But the walls whispered absence, their icons carried elsewhere, lent to hands that bear their weight. Only the quiet ones remained, anchored in the still air, aching to be adopted, longing for eyes to grant them meaning, a gaze that wholly loves their frail existence, to be taken in—cradled, fed, held close to…

[hualianisms]

new quanyin or yin yu crumbs/changes in the revised tgcf novel:

a new scene where QYZ is riding a boar, spots YY and yells "Shixiong!" while YY tries to put his mask back on and tries to avoid him (read a translation here by falin_tgcf and there is fanart of this new scene here)

instead of the quanyin flashback happening bc HC simply shows it to XL, it now happens bc a mountain monster/demon tried to swallow yin yu's consciousness whole. HC casts a butterfly dream spell on YY so that hualian can enter YY's dream where he's dreaming of his memories of when QYZ joined their sect, leading up to YY's banishment (i.e. the same quanyin flashback scenes in the original novel)*.

YY's memories are now expanded a bit and we get to see the scene of young YY going to his Sect Leader Shibo to ask him to take in 10-year-old QYZ as a disciple of their sect. Sect Leader Shibo says that they should consult the sect Leader Shizun. YY says "With sect Leader Shizun's temperament, it will be hard to get him to agree. However, Shizun is willing to listen to you about everything..." Shibo agrees to ask Shizun to take QYZ in. (see my post explaining the full context of how hualian ended up as the dream versions of YY's sect leaders)

(side note: Jian Yu's name is changed to Jian Shi in the revised novel. his name originally had the same "玉 Yu ("jade") as the Yu in YY's name, but it's changed to "石 Shi" which means "stone/rock". perhaps MXTX wanted to differentiate his name from YY's name? either way, Jian Shi means "to mirror/reflect stone". perhaps it means he is reflecting the cast-away brick YY (see elberlight's meta explaining the meaning behind YY's name here)

In the original novel, the quanyin flashback ended with XL asking HC to stop the flashback. In the revised version, the flashback now ends with this same scene of YY screaming at Jian Yu to stop reminding him of his QYZ-related grievances (it's the same scream at the end of the quanyin flashback) - except that his anguished scream is strong enough to break him free from the mountain monster's hold*.

(*btw, Hua Cheng said earlier on that to avoid one's consciousness being swallowed by the mountain monster, one has to focus on one's most painful/awful memories in order to wake up,, so it's implied that YY's memories of the events from QYZ joining their sect leading up to YY's banishment, are YY's most painful memories... 😭😭😭)

[octosan]

sfgkfdsk I was kind of hoping that there would also be some explanation for the terrible repetition in this game but I guess I'll have to chalk that up to the last-minute dialogue rewrites (hampered by mocap) and tonal/vestigial live-service issues

Like, it makes sense in a live-service to repeat information for people who were too busy talking to their friends to pay attention to the cutscene/party banter, right?

It makes sense that you could have a situation where they wrote a character delivering the player information one time, and then a separate scene was added which delivers the information again and they don't have time to change the dialogue or. something.

Like off the top of my head, Neve explaining for the second time that Rana has a lead on Aelia's location ("Sanctum Lusacan") in the Lighthouse could have been written first, without the context that Rook actually goes with Neve to see Rana and receive this information. Then that first scene gets written and added to the game, because it is a slightly more interesting way of getting that information and they turned out to have time to add it, but now they have that extra scene with Neve and I guess they didn't have the time or awareness to replace the lines in the second dialogue with something more appropriate to the flow of information?

Edit: Also had it pointed out to me that the VA strike would have made it more difficult to acquire new lines in the first place, which means they also might have just had to make do in these cutscenes with what they already had. So.

Something like that?

[rrylies]

altan isn't a violent person at his core it was just what other people have always seen him as because he's speerly, and for some reason the speerlies have a savage connotation when we have no proof that they were actually animals in the sense that other people keep describing them as. im sure that we only get the savage speerly stereotype because as a people, they were fundamentally different from the nikara and the mugenese. and since they were all (mostly) dead at the start of book one, who was going to negate all of these stereotypes? no one. (i could go on about how altan was slapped with the "last speerly" moniker when in reality he probably remembers very little about his culture and what speer was like before all of the war and the death but that's for another time <3)

even back in his days of sinegard altan isnt depicted as a particularly violent person, though he's placed in violent events. like in the fighting pits at night altan is pitted up against his peers who want to fight him at a chance at victory, to prove that they've won a battle against the last speerly and we have no idea if altan actually wants to fight them or if he's forced to (iirc it's highly suggested that irjah baits him into fighting by promising him opium if he wins, and he will, because he always does) (although that could've just been nezha being a dick) and even though altan shows no signs of violence or aggression (he's always depicted as calm, stoic, etc) he's always painted as something less than human, an animal simply because ??? he wins their fights? as if that's not something he's expected to do in the first place. ("how did he do that? isn't he human?" "he isn't, he's speerly" this quote. ARGHARAGH RABAN ILY BUT SHUT UPPP)

and back to the stereotypes of speerlies and why they're painted as rabid animals even though there's no proof that they are. the main thing i can think of rn is how the federation (+ the mugenese) think of them simultaneously as something divine and to be studied but also as these rabid beasts at the same time. like the federation soldiers are clearly afraid of fire / the speerlies (i have a separate hc that their culture has something to do with this but that is also for another time <3) shiro mentions how precious and important the speerlies are (and yet his people bombed altan's? ://) while taking every opportunity he can to pick altan apart. then people wonder why altan's vicious towards the federation and hates them with every fiber of his being and why he has so much pent-up anger within him and it's like, hello?? they took him captive when he was a child, and sent him to the laboratory with shiro where he would spend half of his life being cut open and dissected, injected with opium time and time again, forced to watch his people die off one by one without the knowledge that he was the last until after he'd been rescued. (this still gets me btw no im not in tears) and then even when he's out, his suffering isn't over, (it's never over lets be real) because he's shipped off to sinegard academy where he'll be surrounded by so many different conflicting stereotypes (the nikara think he's an animal because he's speerly but shiro thought he was amazing because he was speerly, because of his connection to the phoenix) and really, he's not violent, not at his core, but i cant imagine the inner turmoil altan went through his first few years out of the lab + his first year at sinegard where he was the only one who was different (and also fighting an opium addiction at the same time and people belittle him over this when it literally wasn't his fault)

like altan was not violent. he was calm and he had his moments of peace, but ultimately because of everything that had happened to him (cough. shiro u motherfucker), the violence was forced out of him and became all he knew ("chaghan said they trained you like a dog at the academy" ://) and he literally didn't know any better, he was failed by every single person who should have helped him. (never getting over this btw)

yin riga, a man who he trusted, sent him away to shiro. (will never not think of how much little five year old altan trusted riga and then. well.) jiang, who was supposed to help him with his connection to the phoenix, shunned him. irjah, who was his supposed caretaker, who only fed his opium addiction in order to control him, just like how shiro did, just like how the nikara did to the speerlies (parallels. yaaay.)

in the end altan trengsin wasn't a violent person, but it was all anyone wanted to see. it was all anyone would remember him by.

[justajsworkshop]

the secret to revision is that remembering is only imagining. you’re not convincing yourself that things happened differently; you’re just remembering the past as you desire it to be.

[gh0str3c0rd3d]

wish me luck on my apprenticeship interview today chat………

[taraxippos]

I've got big opinions on dream sequences in writing. Which is mostly that they really shouldn't be there like 90% of the time because they grind the narrative to a halt, but I think they CAN have value. It's just that they tend to be executed in a way that's kind of pointless.

It's mostly that a lot of writers have the sequences be literal 1:1 depictions of the character's anxieties or feelings, or otherwise the absolute most on the nose symbolism possible. And it's not like dreams are NEVER like that, but why bother stopping the narrative to include a full sequence that essentially just repeats information the reader already knows?

If it's established that Character A is scared that Character B will get murdered by Jeff the Killer, and then A has an entire dream sequence of B getting Jeff the Killed and A wakes up sweating like 'Noooooooooo I do not want that to happen noooooo' it's jsut like. Yeah I knew that already?

[allthedesiredusernamesaretaken]

... memory lane ...

The manuscript of 'Ulysses' revised by James Joyce

[richardtheteacher]

10 Tips to Help High School Students Achieve High Performance

An article by Richard James Rogers (Award-Winning Author of The Quick Guide to Classroom Management and The Power of Praise: Empowering Students Through Positive Feedback). This blog post is illustrated by Pop Sutthiya Lertyongphati. Success in high school is not just about hard work: it’s about working smart, using proven strategies that boost learning, memory, and motivation. Here are 10…

[birdricks]

doing my anatomy study is fucking torturous bc every time i read some shit like “birds dont have a diaphragm” my brains like “hmmmm…… birdperson…..” and then i end up thinking abt him instead of studying

[mr-ladystardust]

aqa is not my friend

[fortune-maiden]

TGCF Revised: Black Water Arc

Since I wrote up a list of differences for the QuanYin flashback may as well do one for the BW arc too for reference

Since I also had a rare opportunity to listen to the AD thanks to some very kind friends, I'm also noting any AD differences I catch

(incomplete for now as I was mostly skimming)

- The bit about SQX setting the mood with a spell is cut.

- The Story of XL's first encounter with the Venerable of Empty Words has changed. There's no wedding or beauty contest involved, just a talented young woman who's skilled at poetry and calligraphy the VoEW curses into breaking her wrist. Also, rather then just beating it up, XL also stuffs it into a pickle jar and buries it. Beautiful. (Overall I like this new version of the story a lot though It also removes the bit about XL crashing a carriage to fulfill the curse... huh doesn't that imply the VoEW's curses are absolutes?)

- a couple of new lines are added about SWD in SQX’s backstory. first is that his personality and aura made most evil spirits avoid him (which sounds hilarious imo). The second is that after the RoEW reappeared SWD tries to stay by SQX’s side as much as possible but there were inevitably times when he’d fail to protect him (this was previously an authors note so it’s nice to see it in the text)

- AUDIO DRAMA CHANGE: MNQ shows up to deliver his warning about SQX during the one month party rather than at his birth. It’s still the same as before in the novel though

- more minor audio drama change but I was salty about it so: the ad implied that only LW & SWD were hanging out the night SQX heard the RoEW’s voice again. PM is still explicitly mentioned in the novel

- Not an actual change at all but noting it: HX's hometown is Bogu, not Fu Gu. I'm told Fu Gu is a mistranslation and mostly likely the tler misreading the characters because they're very similar (i also checked the russian tl - it's Bogu there)

- the young lord who poured wine is SQX’s actual ascension story now rather than just some incidental lore. XL even goes ‘that’s it?’ when he hears it - AUDIO DRAMA CHANGE: the young lord who poured wine is slightly different from the novel. In the novel, all we know about the person SQX's wine knocks out is that he's a thief/known bully. In the AD, he's sexually harassing a woman during his incident

- some added text when XL asks Ming Yi not to mention HC to the Three Tumors

- Minor audio drama thing that I just really love and want to share. When the Three Tumors arrive after XL sounds the alarm, the first dialogue they have upon exiting the carriage is something along the lines of: Ling Wen: Water Master, you need to stay calm Pei Ming: Let's assess the situation first (LW & PM comforting SWD - thank you AD T_T <3)

- SWD does not put SQX to sleep during his freak out (so he just drags him home kicking and screaming?)

- Originally when HC warns XL not to get involved in this case further he tells him to stay away from the Shiblings, Ming Yi, Pei Ming & Ling Wen. In the revision he only mentions the Shiblings here. (I get it, but also i like how much more of a tangled web it is in the original ;w;)

- the whole bit about FengQing trashing the divine martial avenue was cut as well as any LW scenes during this part

- SWD is explicitly behind the gold bars now (he sends a note). This also replaces LW telling XL about the gift (Don’t worry yall QYZ still gifts gold bars later 🙄)

- Originally this was XL’s second visit to the FengShui manor since he was previously there during the Mid Autumn banquet. Now it’s his first visit since he didn’t need to pick up Lang Ying

- SQX does not mention wanting to become a drifting vagabond during his fight with SWD (possibly this line got cut because a drifting vagabond career is not exactly practical for sqx in the end...)

- Added line about XL thinking the Ox looks familiar (the Ox has PM's face in this version)

- New Peixuan moment in the AD! When PM rescues and flirts with the fisherwomen we get this fisherwoman: can i know my savior's name. I - sqx: have a safe trip home. (shuts the door) pm: qingxuan, why didn't you let the lady finish? sqx: I was protecting her from you >:( (and then swd chimes in about pm's standards. it just really feels like both brothers are roasting him now and i love it.)

- It's Ming Yi rather than Hua Cheng who corrects XL about the Four Calamities vs. Four Supremes now. I guess he took offense xD

- Audio Drama has SWD say HX’s name during the ‘you’re still alive?’ ‘I’m dead’ exchange. I love this.

- HC no longer casts doubt about HX killing the Earth Master, only the fishermen getting dragged in. Single Best Change in the revised ver imo

- XL no longer mentions the name ‘He Xuan’ to Pei Ming to gauge his reaction. This is the change I'm most upset about here :(

[love-has-a-way-ofgrowingbackward]

im doing a thing where i read one chapter of gen bio and then i read one chapter of fanfiction

[digimontcgcatalog]

Blazing Memory Boost! BT10-097

[turnedpalefromlackofsun]

i love making guides but dawg i hate writing guides

im making a guide as a personal project and its eating me

[bellabellaci]

wait wait wait whaaatt ok ok so I’ve been on a nostalgia kick recently and have been looking back into old fandoms I was apart of, like minecraft diaries. and I was going through the wiki to try and refresh’s myself on the lore because I don’t feel bothered to watch all the old videos😭 but but I realized I recognized some of the titles of the divine warriors! They’re also title of gods from ffxiv (the fury, the destroyer, the matron, the keeper, the wanderer)

The Matron The Destroyer The Wanderer The Fury The Keeper are the titles of 5 (of the 12) deities from ff14

both matrons symbols are the same too :D!

and! One of the other deities by the name of menphina, within eorzean mythology resides within a heaven/hell of ice with another deity by the title of the fury!

so we got another link with a divine warrior (menphia the fury)

Also excerpt from menphina the lovers wiki page to explain a bit (definitely not me being biased over my characters patron lol)

Idk if the mcd wiki is accurate/up to date or not! But I thought it be cool to share what I learned today (there’s def people who knew this b4 I just have the brain power of a shriveled walnut haha) I also do vaguely remember in one of Jess’s old videos she did say she met Jason through a final fantasy game and I do think some names and references from probably also from that game and other in the franchise but I don’t really know much since my knowledge is very surface level or non existent for most games

CICI FROM 5 MINUTES IN THE FUTURE

Yea she’s played ff14 haha! She’s posted her and her husband(pretty sure it’s him sure cus of the last name lycan) characters to twitter a few years back.. y’know I’m surprised it took me this long to make the connections because I’ve been watching my brothers play ff games for as far back as my earliest memories and even got some of their hand me down games NOT TO MENTION that their was a significant overlap in the time I lived and BREATHED mcd and would watch my brother play ff14 around the same time too?? To be fair though my brothers were going through the broody teen phase at that point too so they only really tolerated me watching them craft and gather or wander around for a bout an hour max before going to play cod or basketball with their friends😅

But back to main point I was trying to make is that it’s really neat how the series that started me creative journey is inspired by the franchise that has and is currently still fueling that drive^^!!

anyywhoosies that’s enough of my insomniac ramblings for tonight! thank you for joining me today in the cavernous maze that is my noggin🫡

I’ve got nothing else to say but look at my art if you want! and listen to dedicated to moonlight pls🌙✨ do it for me!!~ nphina💕