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[Into the Void]

Desperate to forget, I become a prisoner of memory. Desperate to be free, I only strengthen the bond.

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things are just so beautiful in this campaign it makes u explode into million pieces

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affirmations for writers: i know how to write. i have seen sentences before, and i know how to make one. i can identify up to several words and their meanings. i am not afraid of semicolons.

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Whats up ladies i im several years behind

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KILLSHOT

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Everyone shut up and look at this carving of a whale from the 1200-600 CE Chumash culture

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tide's coming in

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tell me

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HSR 5* CHARACTER OWNERSHIP POLL

there’s 4 questions: who do you have, any e6, who do you want, and who’s your fav.

the poll does not collect your email, name, or any info, totally anonymous so dw ^_^

you should be able to take a look at the collective responses after submitting your answers. enjoy :3

rbs appreciated for more responses!

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Bowl with mice, Nazca, 100-500 AD

from The Princeton University Art Museum

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“Now, bear in mind,” *I pause, allowing time for you to visualize the bear*

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After about a week of pacing in circles in complete insanity and awe of the storytelling and characters writing in this update and in amphoreus's story as a whole, I managed to sort some of my thoughts in regards to this story's beautiful approach to metanarratives, the implementation and subversion of the classic tragedy, and specifically the emphasis on the indomitable human spirit.

From a writing perspective, it would be very easy to have phainon completely lose himself after 33 million cycles. To go down a corrupted path because of, and in spite of, what he initially believed in. This is exactly the perspective lygus embodies - the perspective of an enjoyer of tragedies, someone who ravenously devours the suffering of others as his form of relishing in destruction . But the beautiful thing about phainon's character and his story is that he subverts these narrative expectations, embodied by lygus and experienced by us as an audience - he refuses to give in to a tragic faith. He goes down a horrific path but refuses to lose sight of himself and his goal, etching - or probably scorching - what set him on his journey deep into his heart. With every cycle he completes, starting with the four-millionth cycle, he has to live with the harrowing reality of remembering the losses of every single one of his comrades as he stands by and watches, along with the horrifying guilt of being in charge of those deaths as khaslana. But for this precise reason, he won't let this story, this prophecy, this program, to unfold as planned, as expected, or as hard-coded. And that's what makes him phainon, the ideal tragic hero - and never an antagonist.

This spin on the chosen hero is a classical device often used, but i find its execution very compelling - where phainon inflicts on himself the fate of a sacrifice. Through the most painful way possible, phainon managed to wrestle lygus for control of the story - and reshapes its meaning, passing the torch on to the trailblazer. He's essentially tied to his narrative role by his own self, while completely redefining it in his own hands. phainon's character manages, in a single patch, to reframe the entire narrative we've seen so far in what is an excellent play at foreshadowing and subversion, hence completely redefining the meaning of the prophecy by his own acts of agency against the mechanism he's stuck in. The prophecy foretells that the world will get reshaped by kephale's memories, And phainon both proves this fact true and also subverts its original meaning on a groundbreaking level, and for all the most terrible of reasons. Phainon quite literally continuously reshapes the world through his memories by resetting the story constantly. Revisiting his memories constantly. His memories are the only thing preventing his crumbling world from destruction and the horrific entity of irontomb from unleashing. Those memories, however, are always riddled with his trauma, fury, loss, and his own bloodstained hands. Through his own terrible self-inflicted loop, phainon reframes the narrative on both a textual and meta-textual level.

It's so ironic and so self contradictory, and that's the reason it works so well. The more phainon destroys, the more his guilt accumulates and grounds him to his original, utterly selfless cause, despite seemingly betraying it at every turn. and that's a testament of just how much he was meant for this horrific role - despite seeing himself as unworthy, having stained his hands for the sake of what is effectively a futile endeavor of stalling - the only reason he's pushing himself forward to such extremes is because his hate is fueled by his intense love of others and complete disregard of himself - quite literally parting ways with his hero within every cycle to let go of the hesitation that could cause him to waver. Its such an awful paradox. The selfless hero abandons his heroism in order to become an even more selfless hero through acts of destruction. To save others, he must forsake his self, and for that end he has to retain his core of selflessness which defines him as a hero. And that goal drives him both opposite to his ideals and also proves his ideals more than anything ever could. As hyacine says - he has never lived for himself, and with this self-inflicted timeloop, he's doomed himself to never be able to live for himself, making his line in the trailer which he aims at aglaea terribly ironic - "it wouldn't be bad to live for yourself".

This sort of oxymoron plays on phainons painful and honestly brilliantly executed duality between frailty and durability. He's incredibly empathetic, emotionally frail, honest and genuine. and it's precisely that sensitivity that turns into the fuel of rage - it's the essence of the destruction he embodies, because it is first of all fueled by his love. It allows him to endure. As we see in the animated short's end, in essence, phainon is somehow that same little dreamy eyed boy who wanted to protect everyone around him.

It's why I think it is honestly so much more satisfying that phainon hasn't gone through a proper corruption arc. His power lies in being able to retain that spark of idealism and core of selflessness at the service of those he loves, however faint and regardless of how much he must burn himself to keep it alive. In this way he truly embodies the indomitable human spirit. But in the name of selflessness. He's changed so much and yet as he says: he endured. He's still phainon. And that's so much more satisfying than the alternative.

That's the central thesis amphoreus's story has embodied until now - about how tragedies are impactful only insofar as they are meaningful. and lives gain meaning from within these tragedies - in the face of the futility embodied by the destruction, persistence turns into agency, and finally, changes the story from within.

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thinking about hyacine honkai star rail on this fine day. I love her I miss her I need to pull for her on rerun. love you characters whose strength is in their kindness. aughghh

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in his loserboy era, straight up losing it and by "it" i mean haha well... everything