lupinepariah

[lupinepariah]

Night flight over the Crystal Oasis

[lupinepariah]

Nomura’s Angels

I have... mixed feelings about Final Fantasy VII Remake. I mean, in some ways it’s both objectively better or worse than the original in certain areas, in other places this is true subjectively as well. There’s one change that stands out blatantly like a sore thumb, though, and it’s Nomura’s fault.

It’s the women.

I’m not talkinga bout Tifa’s redesign. I don’t mind that they shrank her boobs and put her in more sensible clothing. I mean, it’s definitely a more progressive way to present her—is what I would be saying if they didn’t fail in an even more important way. The women in Nomura’s games have no identity, agency, personality, or presence.

This bothers me. I mean, in the original Tifa and Aerith both had plenty of personality but I don’t see it in the Remake at all. I find that depressing. I mean, consider how old of a game we’re comparing it against here. Aerith and Tifa both had far more personality in the original and that’s a real issue for me. I’m tired of Nomura’s faceless dolls. He’s been doing this since Kingdom Hearts.

I mean, you’re bound to be familiar with the meme of how Kairi in Kingdom Hearts is there as nothing more than set dressing, right? When she isn’t being set dressing, she’s being fridged continually to spur the male characters into action. It’s... not great. It made me dislike Kingdom Hearts.

This is making me dislike Remake.

Yes, Aerith has a minor quirk or two that could, in the right light make her stand out versus Tifa and Jessie. The truth is though for any scene in the game these women are all 100 per cent interchangeable. They have nothing that really separates or distinguishes them as characters in their own right. I mean, try doing this where you switch Cloud and Wedge or Biggs and Red XIII in nearly any scene. You could pick any two male characters and they’re so drastically different from one another that it wouldn’t work.

There are times when this has almost ruined the game for me. It continues to as a running trend. Frankly, Nomura’s a sexist pig. It’s the weirdest thing but around the ‘90s and early ‘00s, Japan was starting to get more progressive. You can see it in SEGA’s offerings from Shining Force up to Skies of Arcadia. I mean, just try to find an instance of a sexually objectified woman in Shining Force, I dare you. It’s bloody impossible.

The part of the game where this really stood out the most was Tifa’s Wall Market outfits. None of them suit the Tifa we knew in the original game. Not a one. Every single outfit she has is meant to sexually objectify her as a thirsty, submissive waifu character because that’s what Nomura is hot for.

Frankly, I hate it.

I’m this close to putting Final Fantasy VII Remake down for good because of it and going back to playing the original. I’m also pissed off, though. Like I said, Nomura’s a sexist pig, and thanks to him future generations will see Final Fantasy VII fans as equally sexist. Whereas in reality, aside from a somewhat raunchy representation of Tifa, the women in Final Fantasy VII were truly amazing.

Aerith upheld this pretense of being innocent when really she had this timeless wisdom and age to her, it made her very odd and that came out in fits and bursts that cracked the veneer more and more over time. The majority of this nuance is lost in Remake. Tifa was actually quite innocent but she put up a front as a very tough, no-nonsense, capable character whilst still being vulnerable and having some co-dependency issues due to her past. Again, it’s not really there now.

Plus, they were allowed to be funny. I don’t know what it is with places outside of Europe but there’s this constant perception of how women aren’t supposed to be funny. You can only laugh at a joke if it was told by a bloke. That’s ludicrous. I’m frankly glad it’s not that bad over here in Europe because I know from the Internet that it really is in other parts of the world. In the original, the women were allowed to be funny too.

This brings me to my biggest dread.

Yuffie was... certainly a person in the original. She was a mischievious, odd little tomboy with a lot of heart. I worry that in the Remake she’ll also be boiled down into just another faceless, submissive, characterless waifu.

FFS Nomura, stop ruining my favourite games and franchises by being a perv.

I really watn to recommend at this point that anyone who’s disappointed with the Remake try the Beacause retranslation project for the original Final Fantasy VII. I really want to recommend that. As it stands though I’d almost recommend the original translation over Remake.

This doesn’t mean that I hate Remake—it’s a fun time—it’s just that Nomura’s rampant sexism and perviness have ruined how I feel about what would otherwise be a brilliantly unique game. I mean, the gameplay mechanics are nice and all and if you’re an Alt-Right drone you’re not likely to notice that anything’s up. I just can’t ignore it.

God damn it, Nomura, you sexist pig. I really wanted to love Remake.

[lupinepariah]

The Contemporary Cartoon Conundrum

I’ve brought this up before with Thundercats Roar but there’s a reason I don’t like these cartoons. Now, this isn’t Universal as there are a handful of cartoons which stand against this trend—Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, DuckTales—but the majority of them carry the same affliction.

You have to be a neurotypical, young extravert with sociopathic tendencies or you’re a failure. Tigra didn’t rush into a straight relationship so he’s apparently old, lonely, and always sad at the age of 34. This is despite how studies have shown that straight couples often are more lonely and sad than even single people due to cabin fever. Those who’ve stayed single have maintained stronger social connections with their friends and family.

I have a partner, yes, but I didn’t rush into it. I think it’s folly to do so. There are so many young people who rush into straight relationships that broken homes are more common than not. Indeed, statistically most family homes today are unhealthy environments due to this reckless behaviour. You have young people who blunder headfirst into parenthood without being even remotely ready, they don’t have the wisdom, the experience, or the financial stability to be parents. Yet cartoons like this teach children that rushing headfirst into these failiures is a good idea.

I find shows like Teen Titans Go and Thundercats Roar to be incredibly awful for this reason. They’re loaded down with toxic messages about how cool it is to be an antisocial sociopath who preys on people with manipulation and generally shitty behaviour. I mean, I understand that cartoons of past decades had their problems but they were head and shoulders above this nonsense.

Look at Kim Possible and the Proud Family.

There was a time when cartoons were progressive and didn’t recommend that children adopt as many sociopathic behaviours as possible. I swear, most of what these cartoons teach kids now is to be selfish, callous, thoughtless, self-centred, narcissistic, rash, and reckless. Essentially, they teach kids how to be sociopaths. They make being a sociopath cool to the younger generation. I’m not on board with that.

Being 34 and not having rushed into a relationship is something to be proud of. You’ll still have strong social connections and it means that when you do settle down, you’ll be ready for it and you’ll be more centred, financialy stable, and able of body and mind to be a parent. This kind of hogwash creates the broken homes of tomorrow, where yet more children will have to suffer.

What next, Thundercats Roar? Are you going to tell us that non-heteronormative relationships are bad? I’m just waiting for that episode. I know it’ll happen.

I just don’t understand why most cartoons these days have to be so obviously written and run by sociopaths. I miss the oversight that resulted in actually decent cartoons that didn’t teach kids to be stupid, reckless monsters.

[lupinepariah]

Just sitting here, quietly hoping that ArenaNet realises who their current primary demographic are. I mean, with Aurene as a sparkly horse girl fantasy beacon-of-hope dragon I really am inclined to think so. I hope so. The thing is? If they do know, then they also know how much of a torrent of money will be showered upon them for redeeming Jormag. Which makes me hopeful.

All you have to do to find out who your most profitable people are is note what the most art is being made of at the moment. Right now, there’s a whole bunch of Jormag, Drakkar, and being frans with Jormag.

Stupid emotional investment.

[lupinepariah]

This is one of the reasons that I hope Jormag’s actually on the level. I mean, it’d be amazing if there were two mind tamperers at work and Jormag was the one who was on our side all along. It’d piss off the Nazis because, I mean, calling Jormag that... ? Come on, seriously? Really now? It’s 2020, not 1950, and Jormie’s non-binary.

I have many reasons for wanting Jormag to be good and I’ve detailed them all across this blog but wanting to piss off Nazis is one of the big ones. Plus, I still think that a kindly dragon of therapy would go well with our horse girl fantasy beacon-of-hope dragon whom I love dearly.

wow. whoremag sucks at this

[lupinepariah]

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a Bad Experience

This is going to be an opinion piece, obviously. In other disclaimers? This has nothing to do with interest rates, islands per console, or what most other negative reviews are about. It has everything to do with how hollow, tedious, and frustrating an experience it is which has been padded out and riddled with operant conditioning chamber techniques to make it addictive to those who're very susceptible to that.

Let's start off with a few words: New Leaf's megaphone.

One of the things I first noticed in New Horizons is how tiresome it was to talk to my villagers. I hadn't loathed this so much in New Leaf so what was going on? Well, first of all, everyone had a smart phone but no one uses this to call one another? That's patently ridiculous. The reason why is because it's preferable that you have to hunt down your villagers, there's a lot in New Horizons meant to serve as a distraction from just how empty and threadbare the experience is.

What's worse is that the villagers in New Horizons are far more clingy and they have no compunctions whatsoever about guilt tripping you if you go for a couple of days without talking to them. This isn't where I noticed how the operant conditioning chamber elements factored in, but it is where they started getting on my nerves. I don't like being manipulated into doing repetitive tasks. My mind doesn't respond well to that. The specific exclusion of the megaphone—or any feature similar to the megaphone—along with the increased neediness of the villagers is a neatly crafted manipulation. As I said, it's meant to distract you from how empty the overall experience is.

It didn't stop there. The crafting doesn't have a slider bar for crafting multiple items, it doesn't have a craft all button, it doesn't have a craft in bulk option either. Combine this with how tools tend to break often without any indication of what durability they're at, when they're going to break, or which actions affect durability the most and you've got yourself another operant conditioning chamber trick. It works to addict people. As I said, my mind takes it poorly. For whatever reason, autism doesn't respond positively to these manipulations.

Another factor that bothers me is that home islands have lower chances for catching critters, my explorations have shown that these chances are recalculated once a month and they're a little bit higher if you have someone visiting but overall they're much lower than, say, Nook islands. Which you have to grind Nook miles for. If you want to do well with gathering critters to complete your museum then I hope you like grinding Nook miles, I guess?? This, once again, is yet another distasteful operant conditioning chamber element added into the mix.

I've run comparisons with New Leaf and it had none of this. I mean, like I said, it had the megaphone as a quality of life improvement specifically to ensure that you could escape the tedium. New Leaf feels like a very different game developed by a very different group of people. There are so many elements of New Horizons that leave me feeling cold, it's a similar feeling I get from experiences like World of Warcraft. I don't like empty, shallow, hollow experiences which are padded out by these manipulations meant to get people to play longer by hacking their dopamine response.

New Horizons lacks the street, many of the buildings, villagers, play mechanics, furniture items, clothing items, and more versus New Leaf. I get why it's happened. They pushed for fidelity and found they didn't have the team size to hack it. If I were spearheading the project, I would've just kept the models from the 3DS title and touched them up with AI upscaling, I would've had artists have a gander at them to make sure they came out okay but I would've kept the fidelity around that ballpark. This would've allowed the developers to create new assets very, very expediently without worrying about meeting fidelity requirements.

I mean, it's Animal Crossing... Do you care about fidelity in Animal Crossing? I sure don't.

So what we've ended up with is a high fidelity, hollow, empty mess of a thing that has less overall content than most entries in the series and feels closer to the GameCube or N64 versions than any other. What they've done to have people not notice this vast emptiness is include manipulations which prey on dopamine mechanisms—it's an operant conditioning chamber. In case you're not familiar with that term, it's also been referred to as a "Skinner box," but I know that that isn't the preferred name in the psych community so I tend to use its actual name instead. If I do really need to say it that way, though? Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a Skinner box.

That's why it isn't a very good experience. It really isn't.

You'll notice I've abstained from using the word "game," here. I acknowledge that Animal Crossing has always been more of a toy than a game, it's never been very game-y, but at least in past entries it's been an enjoyable toy, a fun experience, and it hasn't needed to rely on operant conditioning chamber trickery to have its staying power.

New Horizons is a bad time. I'm with Jim Sterling on this.

[lupinepariah]

I guess... a part of what I wanted to explain in my last post is that Otherkin is a real thing for some people, it’s not something that’s meant to hurt anyone, it’s just a coping mechanism for those of us who have seen some shit.

I know that the Alt-Right have hurt trans people by using parodies of Otherkin to mock them and alienate them from the neurotypicals they feel they want to be appealing to. I know it’s hard to work with neurotypicals. It’s probably more difficult if those neurotypicals think you’re a part of something even more odd and unfamiliar to them, something like Otherkin. I do believe that species dysphoria is a thing because I feel it, as I explained, it’s just...

I’m sorry that Otherkin has ever been used to hurt trans people. It is a real thing. It’s just that it was weaponised by a bunch of Nazis to hurt trans people and it bothers me. I mean, I know it isn’t my fault. It’s the fault of the manipulative sociopaths who staff the Alt-Right but... I have empathy.

I feel for trans people. I’m sad that some will view what I say with anger but believe me when I say that I get it. I really get it. I do. The Alt-Right have hurt you and that’s not okay. If you need Otherkin like me to be your punching bags while you figure this out? Well, that’s how it has to be. I hope that eventually you’ll see that we were never your enemy. Never were.

I’ll stand with trans people until my last breath.

[lupinepariah]

It’s difficult to explain to a neurotypical why I’m Otherkin. I mean, I get it. It’s not something they could easily wrap their head around because it’s a very experiential thing.

If you grew up in a decent household and you were surrounded by supportive people, you may be inclined to stick you head in the sand whenever the evils of humanity rear their ugly head. If those evils feel particularly alien to a person—as they do to me, as autism has given me an overwhelming sense of empathy so strong that I could never wilfully hurt anyone—then it can create this sense of distancing, of exclusion. You feel like you’re on the outside and you’re not even certain if you want to be on the inside of that whole hate-riddled mess.

What does it feel like to be human? is a question many autistic people have asked. It’s not just Otherkin like myself. You’ll find that the heightened empathy of autism has left many feeling cold to humanity, humanity itself is unusually unkind and we don’t fetishise familiarity so we can’t overlook these factors just because something happens to look like us.

This creates a dissonance. In essence, we look like the average neurotypical but we don’t feel like them. This can be expressed in alienation to gender, body, or even species.

I wasn’t raised in a good home. I was raised in a very broken home. The only companions I had were dogs, many of whom died because they didn’t get their shots. The ones who lived had such a positive impact upon me that I imprinted upon them, I enjoyed their selfless kindness. The only time the humans of my youth spotted me was to abuse me in one way or another.

I’ve been abused in every way you can imagine. Yes, that includes the r-word that I won’t mention here. It’s only recently that I’ve managed to pick up the myriad pieces and get my life together. I did so through sheer force of will and through coping mechanisms and therapy that I devised for myself. I ended up with a genuinely caring partner who’s had more in-the-field experience with therapy than I have and they’ve contributed to my mental health.

I still feel alienated to humanity though, that won’t ever go away. I feel more comfortable and happy if I have animals around, I feel anxious and ill at ease if I’m trapped in a place that contains a lot of humans. It can trigger fight or flight if those humans happen to be very neurotypical and lacking in empathy for those who’re unlike them. I find that neurotypicals place familiarity first, well above empathy.

So it’s this feedback loop. I mean, neurotypicals are more than happy to make me feel like the odd one out, they’re happy to exclude me because I don’t meet their quotients for comfortable familiarity. It’s okay. It’s what I’ve learned to expect. Just... don’t expect me to not feel alienated?

It gives you this outside perspective.

I’ve used this thought experiment before, many times, as it really does help to illustrate how the fixation upon familiarity neurotypicals have tends to colour their perceptions. If I were to show you a painting of old ruins in a cave, where a great red dragon is lurking within and threatening to breathe fire at a group of humans standing atop those ruins... What would you say is going on?

The answer I would expect from a neurotypical is that they’re heroes slaying a dragon. The more familiar to the neurotypical the humans sound like, the more certain the neurotypical is that they’re heroes slaying an evil beast. I feel that contemporary awareness is slowly bringing people around so that they’re learning the toxicity of this fixation upon familiarity but it’s a slow process and I’ve lived through the worst era of this familiarity fixation. I’m not straight.

You can guess what I lived through.

The thing is? I’d look at the same picture and I’d see something different. The lurking dragon, to me, would look like they’re cowering and taking up a defensive position. It’s highly likely that they’re a mother protecting their eggs. And what of the humans? They’re looters, freebooters, and there to steal whatever worldly possessions the dragon has. It’s “okay” to kill a dragon and take what belonged to them, right? I mean, they’re just a dragon. A monster. A beast. A thing.

This is why I tire of dragons being depicted as evil. Every time we see dragons depicted as something other than evil I feel it’s a triumphant thing because yet another mind has realised that not everything is so cut and dry, so black and white, so one and zero.

I will drop in a note about dualistic thinking here, it’s worth looking into.

For me, then, Otherkin is a coping mechanism. I feel excluded by neurotypicals because I’m autistic and I’ve been tortured and abused. They don’t like that I’m not like them. I can’t help that, more than that though? I don’t want to change to suit them. I see so many people in the field of psychology talking about “cures” for autism without ever really asking us autistic people whether we want to be “cured.” What they’re really saying is that they want to make autistic people more neurotypical, like they are, for their comfort, not ours.

That’s a very neurotypical perspective, it’s a depressing one and it’s the root cause behind so many prejudices, hatreds, and wars. I’d like to think that as a species we’re just beginning to move past that, we’re picking up enough awareness to understand why this is problematic and why we need to evolve beyond it. I can see progress. I can. I see hints of it all over the place. It is, however, a slow process.

I’m not fully healed, not by a long shot. I mean, I’m well. I’m mentally healthy for the most part. On most days, I’m actually happy and I spend time laughing with my partner and enjoying life. I’m very slowly beginning to accept the presence of humans who aren’t my partner in my presence. It’s difficult but I’m getting there. I’ll admit that it helps if they’re autistic or at least introverted, though.

Being an Otherkin is a safe space. It means that I don’t have to be human and I don’t have to worry about that. It makes it okay to not be human. If your mind can accept that, it opens up a whole lot of possibilities.

Why be human when you can be any number of things? Why be human when you can be something that hasn’t had a history of familiarity fixation resulting in so much hatred, torture, pain, suffering, war, prejudice, and death? You can be a creature that has no such history tied to it. For me, that’s a werewolf. I mean, yes, I was raised by dogs to such an extent that I imprinted on them.

So it’s hardly surprising that my safe space is thinking of myself as a sapient dog. I mean, I do like aspects of sapience. It’s just specifically human I’m a little leery of. Others are less specifically leery of being quite so human and they can deal with just being a little bit inhuman, so they choose elves or whatnot and that’s fine too.

You may come to the conclusion here that I don’t like humans and... well, that’s silly. I like people. I just have difficulty dealing with the physical presence of a human, especially if they remind me of my captors and torturers. I’d rather be in the physical presence of a werewolf or a dragon. I’m more comfortable in the physical presence of a human who identifies as such.

Does that make any kind of sense to you?

See, I’m not fond of humans because they’re so good at hurting one another and hurting me. They excel at that and revel in it. I’m not a fan. I’m a bloody tree-hugging hippie werewolf that wants to redeem everyone and make everything okay because that’s my jam. I’m also a technology nerd so probably a bit of a Glass Walker then. That’s a reference very few people are going to get.

Anyway, just as I’m not fond of how humans are so good at hurting one another? I could never hurt a human no matter how much they’ve hurt me. I’d cry. I just don’t have it in me. I mean, I can be intimidating for my own safety... but I couldn’t realy ever hurt anyone. It’d kill me.

I’ll wrap this up, then. I think this is why I relate to some charr in Guild Wars 2. I feel that most of them just want to protect what they love, they want to be big and intimidating as possible so that potential foes choose not to fight them because those charr would rather avoid a fight wherever they can. I’ve noticed that about certain charr, not all charr are warlike. Indeed, most of them aren’t. They’re just... scared. That’s relateable.

[lupinepariah]

I want to add in a bit of an addendum to everything, here.

I know I’ve said that the Nazis of the Guild Wars 2 community would hate it if Jormag was good. It isn’t a manipulation, I have a reason for that. It’s the same reason why, in general, they prefer the dumb, war machine-like four-limbed dragons of other media.

They’ve expressed a lot of anger over Aurene. They’ve expressed a lot of anger over how Kralkatorrik was humanised and redeemed, how it turned out to be invasive thoughts and lots of pain and torture that made Kralkatorrik do bad things rather than Kralky himself being evil.

There’s something innately Alt-Right that keys into that specific kind of toxic masculinity about feral, evil dragons. Me am hero man, me am have dis Phallus of Destiny, me am hit da durgan wid da phallus, me am big damn hero, me am get gurl ‘cuz gurl was kidnapped and me am only one with agency.

That really appeals to their brand of toxic masculinity. It’s the same reason why they want to kill Bangar. Bangar represents what would happen if the target of all of their racism, vitriol, and hatred ever had enough power to do damage to the “great white male.” So of course they want to kill Bangar, that’s a given. They’ve taken their real world ethno-supremacy and poured it into Guild Wars, they hate the charr because they see the charr as having “won” once against the “great white male.”

It’s sick to talk about but you can actually see it in the Guild Wars 2 community. There’s literal Nazis who talk about charr genocide, making Ascalon great again, and rebuilding the Ascalon wall. They do this unironically. I can say that for sure because charr fans have even had death threats.

If ArenaNet’s recent actions are an attempt to purge that Nazi presence? Good job ArenaNet. I really hope it is.

They don’t want redeemable, good dragons. It’s everything that’s contrary to their power fantasy of the “great white male.” I mean, it doesn’t empower all of that bubbling, testosterone-pumped toxic masculinity to show mercy now does it? You can’t be “alpha” (God I hate the “Manosphere”) if you show mercy.

I feel ill talking about this.

This is just another reason I’m invested in Jormag. I have so many reasons. I want to see the Alt-Right Nazi presence expunged from Guild Wars 2. ArenaNet deserves better. That game deserves better.

[lupinepariah]

Why am I so invested in Jormag?

I admit, I’m kind of twisting in the wind over Jormag. I’m very emotionally invested, I know. I admit, part of it is because I’m Otherkin and I just have this deep-seated love for dragons of all kinds. I love Aurene too. Another part of it is that I’m Welsh which means that I have this cultural love for dragons on top of everything (Celts <3 Dragons). The final piece is in how my partner is versed in therapy and how much they’ve used it to help me with my anxiety and panic attacks.

On top of that? Anyone who’s tried it knows that hypnotism can be one of the most relaxing and comforting experiences a person can have. I mean, perhaps outside of drugs but they tend to be outside of my sphere of experience and I’m not inclined to find out how drugs would interact with my autistic brain. Anyway, hypnosis is a nice and helpful thing and I’m a bit tired of it always being portrayed as so evil.

As such, a kindly dragon of therapy who uses their hypnosis powers for kindness is really close to everything I have ever wanted out of a piece of entertainment. GW2 is dangerously close to being my favourite game.

It’s not that I identify as a dragon or anything. If anything, I’d choose to be a werewolf. I don’t have designs of grandeur for my own mind when it comes to ancient wisdom and knowledge. I mean, I know some draconic Otherkin seem to be wise beyond their years so I won’t doubt their calling but it isn’t mine. I am, however, very fond of dragons. They’re a comfort zone, a safe space.

Aurene is definitely a safe space, in a way. I really dig her. It’s nice in Guild Wars 2 sometimes to just relax around Aurene, it feels good. Shrug.

I’ve said before that my Otherkin-ness is a coping mechanism. It’s how I deal with stuff. I’ve experienced a lot of bad things that I wouldn’t wish on anyone else. I’ve known torture, abuse, and harm well beyond what a lot of people should want to have to. It’s hard to believe in the good of humanity sometimes because of what I’ve endured. Dragons, though? I can believe in the good of dragons.

It’s strange because Guild Wars 2 has been an oddly healing experience for me. Whereas the Nazis of Guild Wars 2 seem to be rabidly against the charr, for me it’s been the opposite. Seeing the interactions of the Pact and Vigil humans with the charr has made me feel more at ease around my own species. It’s hardly undoing all of the emotional scars I have, but it does help.

That’s why I wonder how much of it is intentional.

Guild Wars 2 has helped me and continues to. There’s so much of it I relate to. This is why I’m so invested in the mental and emotional health of all of the characters. They all have their traumas and... well, their torments, yes.

I got invested in this game because of that. It’s why I feel that to just have Jormag turn around and be this reductivist, moustache-twirling villain would be the worst thing they could do. It would be a betrayal of everything they have done up until this point. I guess my worry is that what they’ve done up until this point is coincidental and that I’m reading too much into it?

They gave me a sparkly, opalescent beacon of hope dragon that taps into young girl horse fantasies though so it’s difficult to not read a lot into it.

I haven’t been this invested in something for years. Arrrghh!!!

It’s the emotional investment that’s doing it.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this iis why Jormag has something of a following. I feel that most people wouldn’t be shameless enough to admit the why of it, though. I get that. Me? I’m old enough to be done with shame. I’m not done with guilt, of course. I need that. Even if my guilt can drive me nuts with invasive thoughts, I still value it, I’m not sociopathic. It’s just that with a sociopathic mind, shame can be the only way they ever feel bad about doing something wrong. I’m autistic, not sociopathic, so I don’t need shame. I can be shameless. I don’t care.

At this point? Shame is boring, so sod it.

As a shameless Otherkin? I want a kindly therapy dragon who uses their hypnosis powers to heal people to go with the sparkly horse fantasy beacon of hope dragon we already have! I don’t want Jormag to just die. So... Please ArenaNet. I’m not the kind of fan that asks for a lot. I will ask for this.

[lupinepariah]

I love this whole Twitter but this, in particular, is the funniest thing to me.

Sigh. I really want Jormag to be good becasue a.) it would be incredible to have a dragon of therapy in Guild Wars lore, b.) therapy could be displayed so much more positively in modern media, and c.) it’d just serve to further alienate the Nazis in the Guild Wars 2 community (more than our sparkly beauty Aurene telling them not to kill Bangar already has).

[lupinepariah]

Why I Dislike Thundercats Roar

There’s likely going to be a kneejerk reaction to this that has something to do with its goofiness or the “CalArts” style. It has nothing to do with either of those reasons. In fact, the reason why is right there in the image I chose.

First of all, I’ve never objected to modern animation styles and I understand why they’re the way they are (animation is expensive, having more homogeneous factors that can be utilised across shows on a network or networks reduces costs). I loved Gravity Falls and I was a huge fan of Steven Universe, so that criticism can’t be levelled at me. In regards to goofy cartoons? I mean, come at me, I loved Darkwing Duck and you don’t get goofier than that.

No, there’s another reason.

The ‘90s was my favourite era of animation. I feel the early ‘00s is where things started turning sour for me. It’s interesting because the same souring happened with video games too but due to the long development periods involved there the effect of that was delayed until around ‘04-’05, with some truly great games still struggling to come out under the new triple-A regime even then.

I’m not a ‘90s kid, that’s not why. It’s due to the progressiveness of the ‘90s. There was an inclusive air that modern cartoons lack and I miss it. If you were to look at anything from the Extreme Ghostbusters to Kim Possible or the Proud Family, there was always a sense of everyone being important. Race, gender, or even quirkiness, identity, or what have you didn’t come into it. A character was never good or evil due to any of those factors, it wasn’t so reductivist.

Where the paradigm shift of what I’m about to cover is most clear is in the jump from Teen Titans to Teen Titans Go.

I can hear you grousing at the back, there. No, this isn’t a bait and switch. No, this isn’t about “CalArts” style. I think I know the real reason that some audiences disliked these cartoons but they couldn’t articulate it, so they just blamed the animation style or goofiness instead. I mean, that’s really foolish, disingenuous even. We had some pretty bad animation styles back in the ‘90s, I loved the Dreamstone but I wouldn’t call it an animation powerhouse. We had really goofy stuff too (stuff that literally included Goofy), so to claim it’s due to either is ridiculous.

No, what ruined cartoons for me is the characters and the lack of inclusiveness.

In modern cartoons there are characters singled out. These are often intelligent, quirky, unusual characters who’re lacking in outward emotiveness. Nice. I mean, you just made autism the butt of your jokes in every modern cartoon. Thanks for that. That is why I don’t like Teen Titans Go, Thundercats Roar, or any cartoon that fits that mould. Autistic children watch cartoons too.

What do you think it’s going to do for young autistic children when the character that represents them is always the butt of the joke? How do you think it will affect them when the rest of the cast is comprised purely of narcissistic, sociopathic, unempathetic himbos and bimbos who’re always portrayed as “in the right” for being that way? Any good parent should know that Teen Titans Go is riddled with toxic messages that are bad for any growing mind to absorb, they champion selfishness, greed, avarice, egotism, narcissism, and sociopathy all the time.

So the only character who might care—who might be intelligent enough to want to do something kind or decent—is made fun of and shot down. It’s not okay. I’m not okay with it. In Teen Titans Go that’s Robin. In Thundercats Roar that’s Tigra. I’m not okay with how these cartoons treat these characters.

No other version of the Thundercats would see Tigra treated that way.

“It’s a parody” isn’t an excuse, either. There’s nothing in Thundercats or Teen Titans that would provide a basis for treating these characters this way. So what you’re doing is you’re encouraging extraverted children to behave in sociopathic ways, you’re encouraging them to single out and bully autistic kids, you’re undoing everything the ‘90s tried to undo. Thanks for that.

It’s irresponsible. It’s reckless. And most of all? It’s unkind. There are groups of people in this world who’re just sick of being othered in this way. You can’t really tell me I’m wrong either because the proof’s right there in the image at the very beginning of this... well, I mean. Call it what you will. As an autistic person, I’ve been accused of essaying and writing tirades so I’m honestly quite jaded at this point. Cartoons like this are doing nothing to bridge the gap between autistic people and neurotypicals. They’re only alienating us more.

It’s similar to the cowardice shown by superhero movies and the eradication of redheads. Now, some will balk because they aren’t very clever. I don’t get why but I feel that people fall over themselves to be patsies for corporate suits all the time. It’s sad. No, I’m not against bringing more black people into films. I can’t understand why I’d think that when Into the Spider-Verse was my favourite superhero movie of all bloody time but you do you.

See, my issue with redhead erasure is that you don’t need to remove redheads to introduce black people. No, I’m not saying introduce new characters because I know some of you are thinking that and if we were having a conversation you’d interrupt me to tell me why that’s a bad idea. Sigh. You don’t need to remove redheads because there are plenty of other characters whose hair colour doesn’t result in so much hatred and prejudice.

If you aren’t familiar with the prejudice and hatred that redheads receive? I don’t believe you. I’m sorry, I don’t. It’s really pervasive. I won’t explain all the many kinds of grossness they endure here as it’s really triggering but you could look it up if you don’t understand. Gingerism is a thing. It’s a horrible thing.

So instead of replacing redheads, why don’t we replace others instead? There are plenty of characters we could replace with minorities without removing redheads. What about Tony Stark? Carol Danvers? Bruce Wayne? Arthur Cur—oh, DC did that. Good job DC. You get the point.

DC did good with Crazy Jane in Doom Patrol, too. Proud of you, DC. You’re not quite as terrible as Disney/Marvel. Though you still remove redheads occasionally too DC and it’s not okay.

The point is? In modern media there’s a lot of singling out of one kind of person. In superhero films that’s redheads. In superhero cartoons that’s autistic people. It’s not great. It needs to stop. The thing is? It can’t stop. The entire genre of show revolves around air-headed narcissists and sociopaths are so great, empathetic autistic people are so duuumb. I really don’t appreciate that. I’m an autistic person myself and I really don’t appreciate that.

If you don’t think you can make a compelling cartoon that’s inclusive then you haven’t seen Steven Universe, Adventure Time, Gravity Falls, or the vast, vast, vast majority of cartoons from the ‘90s. I mean, I loved Goof Troop because it was completely okay that Peej (Pete Juniour) was overweight at a time when fat phobia was still at its height. It wasn’t even considered an issue. The same was true for Wade in Kim Possible. The brains of Darkwing Duck was a young, redheaded girl. Cartoons were so inclusive back then. I miss it.

So yes. I don’t like Thundercats Roar.

I don’t like Teen Titans Go.

I have valid reasons.

Footnote: I’m using black as an identifier as the last metastudy I read said that black people hate the PoC identifier for themselves and prefer to just be called ‘blacks.’ If that isn’t the case, I apologise. I do try to stay on top of these things. I’m not invested in not offending anyone because everyone will be offended by something, you can’t not offend, but I do care about hurting people who’ve endured real emotional pain. That’s not okay, so I do my best.

[lupinepariah]

Jormag is Such a Mood

As I wait for episode 3 I feel like I'm twisting in the wind as I worry that ArenaNet might let me down with the coming story. I hope that this is the turning point for them that I wish for, where they'll stop relying on cheap shlocky shock value to tell their stories. After a while, it's easy to feel numb and cold towards X or Y character that one cared about dying because you sort of expect it. It's an unnecessary amount of suffering and death.

There's been an ongoing shift in the stories they've been telling and a strong message regarding mental health interwoven within. It covers topics like invasive thoughts, trust, and how we suffer because we're too afraid to talk (let alone talk to one another). I think that these messages are important and more relevant now and to their contemporary audience than ever before. Kralkatorrik's torment was a literal representation of the suffering that invasive thoughts can cause, it was also almost a treatise on how to combat them too with Kralkatorrik challenging them by stating the truth whenever they spoke, supported by the Commandrer and Aurene. It's just a shame that Kralkatorrik had to die.

I get why he did and that's not a bad message either. If a person is in an extreme amount of pain then allowing them to end that pain is compassionate and empathetic. In doing so, they humanised Kralkatorrik and completely changed how the Elder Dragons are perceived. In that moment, everything was made anew and they could tell stories with their dragons that they would've never had the chance to before. There might be other dragons out there who're decent people, or those who're just being tormented.

With Jormag, they remind me of a frustrated therapist. I mean, frankly, that's exactly what they remind me of. "Maybe you should listen."

What they're doing with the Commander is necessary to help those with cognitive dissonance to reach the same conclusions but it's also a frustrating bout of dramatic irony. The player's character is being stubborn, foolish, and quite frankly dumb. I appreciate what they're doing though, if indeed I'm right. I mean, they built up the trust with Aurene so that Aurene can convey things to the player. Not the player character, the player. Bangar, for example. Aurene told the player that there's no purpose in killing Bangar and that I find especially pertinent. This is why I have so much fragile hope.

Jormag sounds like someone who genuinely wants to help. Yet they're misunderstood, demonised, typecast, and no one wants to listen to what they're actually saying. Worse for them is that in the narrative there's a proper mind controller at play—be it Abaddon, Jormag's torment, the deep sea dragon, or perhaps even all of the above—and that isn't immediately clear to the player. You need a good sense for intrigue plots and general observational skills to pick up on that.

Anyone paying attention would've noticed how Jormag is constantly telling everyone that they want to talk, not fight. They're asking questions. They're being persuasive. What they're doing isn't mind control. Yet what happened with Rytlock and Crecia at the end of episode 2 was mind control, it was outright mind control. That isn't Jormag's power. What's even more odd about that is how they yelled about their voices not being their own, Jormag has no reason to broadcast that through them. There's more going on here.

There's so much frustration and anguish in Jormag's voice. I have to give it to the voice actress of Jormag for pulling that off so successfully, and to ArenaNet's sound direction team too. I mean, it's unmistakable. If you know what you're listening for, Jormag sounds very, very frustrated. They really want to help, they want to get you to listen because you don't know what's going on. They're just so opposed to suffering and that's something they reveal to you plentifully in their whispers.

I mean, look at how everyone needs therapy! I will harp on this because it's relevant.

Rytlock — He's always running away from his partner and son to find ways to be worthy of them without realising how worthy he is. This is why he tells us in Path of Fire that he needs a win. He's obsessively looking for ways to overcome his own self-esteem issues, Rytlock has very poor confidence and a lot of invasive thoughts regarding his own self-worth.

Crecia — From Crecia's perspective, Rytlock ran because he's unreliable and afraid of responsibility. She also questions whether she had any part in it, whether it was her fault that it happened. This has left Cre with some fairly bad abandonment issues and codependency, she's looking for anyone to be her rock and to help provide her with safety and emotional stability. Someone who won't run away, basically. This is something that Bangar is exploiting for his own benefit.

Braham — He's made a lot of mistakes. The spirits distrust him, he's been too cocksure and egotistical in the past and it's gotten him into trouble and each incident has only sullied his reputation further, and on top of that he has serious mommy and daddy issues. Yet he's a big, strong norn! He's a meaty meat-shield, he can power through anything. He doesn't have any need for emotions. This is why he's always falling to pieces and anything that the Commander does is just putting a band-aid on it and little more.

Marjory — In her relationship she has to be the strong one, she's taken it upon herself to be masculine in order to protect Kasmeer. The problem with this is that she's not facing her past or even talking about it. There are things in her past, deaths, that haunt her. Such as that of Belinda whom she's unable to let go. If you don't talk about your losses, you can't ever let them go.

Bangar — Riddled with feelings of inadequacy. He feels as though he's the least successful of the imperators who've all achieved greater things than he has. Smodur and Malice played a greater part in the treaty, after all, which Bangar stood against because it was Smodur's idea. Bangar is strongly opposed to Smodur as Smodur is the successful charr imperator that Bangar has always wanted to be. He wants to be important, to be remembered, and this has driven him to want to be Jormag's champion. Furthermore, his cognitive dissonance has fed into xenophobia. Since Smodur wanted a treaty, Bangar's hatred of Smodur festered into fears of what humans might do to the charr again, given the chance.

Ryland — Daddy issues. Daddy issues. He's Mr. Daddy Issues. I mean, he has a technological version of sohothin. Did anyone else notice that? There's so much in the way of daddy issues here. He recognises that his father is incredible but he feels like his father has no value for him, that nothing that Ryland could do would ever, ever be good enough for the great Rytlock Brimstone. He's turned to Bangar because he needed a father figure, he needs someone who'll be proud of him.

This is why Guild Wars 2 is driving me crazy right now.

I mean, we have a bunch of characters who're desperately in need of therapy. We have a game that's had some generally positive messages about mental health. On top of that we now have a therapy dragon who's just so frustrated that no one's listening to them, because all they want to do is help ease the suffering. They're tired of suffering. The culmination I'm hoping for is that we end up with Jormag on our side because that would make sense narratively. It's where they seem to be heading.

I mean, if we had Jormag with us? All of these poor babies could get therapy. Between Aurene and Jormag they could finally get the help they need. They all need to talk! This really NEEDS to happen! This is why it's so frustrating because I share Jormag's frustrations. I've encountered so many people in this real world of ours who need help, who need therapy, yet they snub this advice because they feel it suggests there's something flawed about them instead of realising that every living person needs therapy sometimes.

Tyria needs a source of therapy. Jormag freed from their torment would be an amazing way to handle that. I mean, Fraenir called it the Age of the Dragon. I want to see that! I'd love for there to be a Grand Dragon Council or somesuch, where the kindly dragons free of torment congregate to discuss how they might best help Tyria. Each dragon has something they could bring to the table. Jormag has therapy. Which Tyria needs so, so badly.

Plus, it would further the positive messaging about this topic. I want ArenaNet to please, please do this. It'd be an amazing way to tell people that therapy isn't a dirty word. Jormag is so perfectly suited to fit that role. I mean, everyone loves Jormag anyway and no one wants them to be evil. I don't think any Elder Dragon beyond Aurene has had the kind of following in the fan community that Jormag's accrued. They're incredibly popular.

I'm not going to be childish and dump the game if Jormag ends up being a reductivist moustache-twirling villain but I have to speak about this. It would be so, so disappointing and it would stab all the good messaging they've done regarding mental health in the back. It would undo the good they've done. Plus, it would make very little narrative sense. I mean, we're supposed to be easing off of this whole MURDER EVERYONE thing, after all. We know that killing Elder Dragons just makes everything worse. So why not let Jormag live?

Guild Wars 2 is dangerously close to becoming my favourite game. It's just time for hope to shine through the darkness. There's been enough death. There's been enough murder. And there's certainly been enough suffering. It's time for things to change. The best way to indicate that would be to have Jormag join forces with Aurene.

Then Dragon's Watch could get the therapy it needs, along with Bangar and Ryland.

So many people in Tyria need therapy.

Maybe they should listen?

[lupinepariah]

Abaddon

I think I’ve figured it out.

I’m so convinced that Abaddon is at the root of this.

[The torment] promises, end everything and the pain will cease. - Kralkatorrik

The torment is Abaddon’s torment. Abaddon wants everything to end so that his pain will cease because he’ll be free. Abaddon wants the cycle of destruction and creation to happen because that will free him.

Furthermore, the ghosts we’re seeing in the Icebrood Saga remind me a heck of a lot of the realm of torment spectres.

This is why the Forgotten, acting against the six, have their legacy. The legacy of the Forgotten, Aurene, and Glint. That was more important to them than helping the six clean up Tyria so that they could deposit their precious little worshippers there.

Aurene’s good vibes are purifying the magic lattice, which is making Abaddon’s torment less.

...Guild Wars’s magic is Ghostbusters mood slime.

Just look at how similar Abaddon looks to Kralkatorrik’s torment though and tell me you don’t see it. Then look at the realm of torment spectres and compare them to the ghosts we’re seeing.

I knew Abaddon and the six were all wrapped up in this but I wasn’t sure how. I knew I was right about the Guild Wars Universe’s magic being kind of emotional and stricken with PTSD. I just wasn’t sure how the other pieces fit together. Why does the torment want everything to end? Because Abaddon does. The six were using that to their advantage before it got out of their control. Now that Aurene is countering the torment and Abaddon might be freed, the six are terrified.

I really think that Abaddon is the tragic hero of this story. One who’s been made to suffer for aeons just because he dared to challenge the tyranny of the human gods.

[lupinepariah]

Source of Draconic Torment?

Here’s a titbit (which is how we spell it in Britain, that’s not a typo) about torment that no one seems to really be talking about. Just something for anyone who reads this blog to chew over.

Okay, first of all? Abaddon was trapped in the realm of torment by the remaining five human gods. Abaddon, for those unaware, was one of the human gods and his sphere was truth. It was Abaddon that opened up the use of magicks to the mortal races. He wanted to do so much more with that but the rest of the human gods weren’t having any of it, so they imprisoned him and he went a bit bonkers.

Here’s what’s interesting...

Magic is innately tied to Abaddon, arcane and elemental magicks especially. Magical creatures in Guild Wars 2 seem to have an almost PTSD-like response to being entrapped or imprisoned. They will either cause taint to occur or they’ll just explode and go crazy. The Inquest reactor is one example; the generators keeping up Rata Sum use air elementals who’re sucking the life out of the land below, so that’s another; and asura golems—which use encased spirits as the brain of the golem—are always going crazy. Even Taimi’s golem tried to kill her. Yes, it took some prodding from Joko to make that happen but Scruffy didn’t exactly seem to resist it.

Now, golems are especially interesting because whenever the skritt repair them they don’t go crazy. I’ve been looking into why that is and it looks like the skritt just don’t bother to enslave the spirits within teh golems, they just repair them and let them go about their business. The skritt seem to treat the reparation of golems as healing a life form, they’re not creating a tool for them to use, they’re helping a mechanical friend get back on their feet. Since they aren’t being imprisoned, they’re not going crazy.

That’s really interesting to me.

So, the dragons were cast into a sleep where they were imprisoned and that resulted in their magicks being tainted. I wonder why. This caused draconic torment. I think that the truth of it goes a little deeper, though. What I believe is that in order to get the dragons to sleep, the six did something to the one mother of the elder dragons to force sleep upon them. This brought torment to her, and that spread to her children.

The obvious key word here is torment. That Abaddon is trapped in specifically the realm of is pretty telling. It’s also why the six decided to bugger off rather than confront the dragons, because if we discovered what they did and they were still around? They’d become the next target of the Pact and Vigil forces combined. Essentially? I genuinely believe the six are behind everything terrible that’s happened in Tyria, and Abaddon? Abaddon was the one trying to rescue mortals from their dark designs.

The gods are just waiting for the dragons to be killed or reduced in number and power so that the gods can step back in and do the evil that they do. I mean, do consider that the cycle of destruction and creation benefits the six, yeah?

I mean, let’s think of it this way. You’re an omnipotent deity and you’re powered by faith. Except as your followers are becoming more progressive the number of followers who believe in you are becoming fewer and fewer. Oh well, it’s time to hit the giant reset button. So you gather up the most loyal of your overzealous, pious, and brainwashed followers then let the cycle do its thing.

One world is destroyed, another takes its place. The Forgotten are sent in as the clean-up crew to clear the way for the gods to drop in their followers. There’s a very strict time-table to this as they can’t wait too long as their power is very directly derived from worship. The six are fading, so even though the Forgotten haven’t dealt with all of the threats of this cycle, they drop the humans in anyway and Balthazar bids them to go to war with anyone who’d stand in their way.

The reason the Forgotten weren’t so successful this time? They had their own plans. The Forgotten were tired of the cycle of destruction and creation so they decided it was time to end it, they went behind the backs of the six to do this. Their plan was to bring the dragons out of their sleep and free them from their torment. After all, the torment didn’t benefit anyone but the six. I mean, the torment is driven to continue the cycle of destruction and creation, which only the six would desire. They couldn’t free Kralkatorrik as they’d hoped, but they were able to free Glint. You probably know the rest.

I’m not saying that the six created the torment, mind you. What I think they’re doing is torturing Abaddon, tormenting him so that the torment does what they want it to. I wouldn’t put this past the six at all. If you look at the lore of the six, they’re a really messed up group. For the most part, they enjoy toying with mortals and watching them suffer and die. The only two that seemed to have even an iota of compassion for mortals were Grenth and Kormyr.

This is where I’m hoping the story will go. I hope that we’ll eventually get to go to the realm of torment. There we’ll find Abaddon and the dragon mother. Our goal will be to free them and cast away the taint, by doing so we’ll purify magicks.

I mean, on top of this, consider that Kralkatorrik had said that magic doesn’t torment Aurene. That’s very interesting. See, Aurene had a well-adjusted, happy childhood and she’d never been imprisoned or tortured. This means that Aurene is now feeding positive energies back along the leylines and into the magical field. Back to Abaddon. Back to the realm of torment.

Addendum: I think the realm of torment was actually the realm of magic before the six fucked it up with so much torture, hatred, and pain. I wonder as well if with how Aurene is now a big happy magic sponge that’s feeding positive vibes into the leyline magic network, whether the realm of tormented is becoming a little less tormented. This reduction of overall torment has perhaps lead to other dragons reclaiming some of their mind from the torment. Jormag, for instance.

[lupinepariah]

I felt so bad about that as I get the feeling that Drakkar was actually very young. I don’t think what was going on with Drakkar was well understood.

I think that Drakkar was a mouthpiece for Jormag but only in that it was a signal booster. I think that that means that Drakkar could be hijacked without even being aware of it. Hijacked by what? Jormag’s torment, most likely. Given its age, it wouldn’t be any the wiser. From Drakkar’s perspective, it’s having fun swimming around in the ice and carrying its parental unit’s voice around with it for all to hear. That’s certainly how it looked.

All this meant that Drakkar’s death made me feel incredibly crappy, frankly. I’m really not enjoying all of this dramatic irony and being a patsy. I mean, I’ve already realised that Jormag is Tim Curry levels of shady but ultimately on the level, just as I’ve realised that there’s another mind controller at work here (likely Jormag’s torment).

It just makes me want to step into the Guild Wars 2 Universe and yell at thick-headed dolts of Dragon’s Watch. Yeesh.

Jormag is right, Drakkar is an innocent baby and it deserves all our love and pets. Sketchy thing I did before bed a couple of days ago because I can no longer live without my icy danger noodle Jorm content.

[lupinepariah]

Jormag’s Whisper

One thing that keeps sticking in my head about the ending of episode 2 of the Icebrood Saga is how strongly it implies there are multiple forces at work. One is obviously our persuasive Jormag, whose powers aren’t of direct domination, the other seems to be able to have more direct domination as a mind control power. I’m still convinced it’s Jormag’s torment, but it could be anyone.

Here’s what I have: When Rytlock & Crecia were dominated and they turned on the Commander, they both said in unison that their thoughts were not their own. I mean, that’s pretty interesting isn’t it? Why would Jormag announce that? If Jormag was truly the big bad, here, then they wouldn’t have.

There’s been naught to suggest that Jormag is an egotist, and there’s just no practical reason for it. Furthermore, this isn’t how Rytlock & Crecia would’ve told us if they’d gotten their minds back temporarily. So another manipulator stepped in to convince them to shout this out as a warning and I think the one who did that was Jormag.

I think Jormag’s behaviour is a mixture of not thinking clearly due to their torment coupled with being so ancient they’re out of touch. I mean, they’ve been alive through countless cycles so they may just see their persuasion as the best way to communicate with mortals, on top of that the torment might be making it difficult for them to contain their power so perhaps they can’t stop being quite so persuasive.

What I get from them is that they’re sick of destruction and suffering, what they want is perservation. They just don’t know how to go about that. I’d also say there’s definitely a big bad they’re terrified of, something very powerful.

It’s just a mix of things. Jormag’s scared of being killed because of their torment, they’re scared of the deep sea dragon and the Canthans they have under their sway, they’re scared that they might not be able to convince Aurene, and they’re dealing with trying to keep their torment contained as well. This would explain much of how they’ve been talking to us.

This isn’t all of it, though. There’s also how Jormag wants to persuade rather than fight but that isn’t happening, it isn’t happening not just because they can’t overcome the will of the Commander and their guild but rather because there’s another force that’s driving Dragon’s Watch to be violent. I think that they’re trying to turn Dragon’s Watch because if they don’t whatever other force is at work that’s pushing them against Jormag will win out.

What happened with Rytlock & Crecia seems contrary to Jormag’s desires.

Let’s assume for a moment that Jormag has their torment at least somewhat contained, partially so. They’ve got it in a big block of ice, so to speak, but it’s just so powerful that it’s reaching out between the cracks with tendrils. The torment can’t reach into Jormag’s fortress-like mind to find out where Jormag’s body is, so they have agents trying to discover this. Their plan is to drive he pieces in play to attack Jormag and weaken them.

Why would Jormag’s torment want this? Consider, if Jormag is further distracted and weakened, then their capacity to contain their torment is reduced. Now ask yourself, what have we—as the silly little patsies we are—been doing? We’ve been distracting and weakening Jormag.

I’m convinced that Jormag isn’t our enemy here. I think we’re just being very foolish. It’s dramatic irony.

The thing is? I have a degree of confidence that I’m right. Why would Rytlock & Crecia just broadcast that they’ve been controlled in unison like that? That does nothing to help Drakkar, the Whisper, or Jormag. So why? When you take everything else into account, then... it kind of makes sense.

Furthermore, I thiink I’ve said this before but I don’t think Jhavi’s on the level. I think they’re a torment minion. I think they’re either an illusion or they’ve unfortunately been brainwashed by the torment.

Like I said, too. I think Almorra’s still alive.

This is what I’m betting on and hoping for from this storyline anyway. I feel comfortable that they’re not going to just have us kill Bangar now, especially after what Aurene said to us about Bangar at the end of episode 2.

So, yes. If Jomag’s evil it’s just going to be the most depressing, disappointing thing. There’s a more interesting story here than that.