#...and then in came the tideripper

[xamiipholia]

Since it’s been a year since Burning Shores came out, some thoughts on Seyka:

TL;DR: Great character, really happy with her as a love interest for Aloy. They do some really interesting things with her that I never really see addressed so I wanted to talk about them.

She is tangibly shown to be much more of a match for Aloy through gameplay. Compared to other npcs, she solves things faster, does more damage, is a much more formidable melee combatant, faster climber - she even has a fucking Valor Surge using her Focus that does pretty significant tear damage to large machines like Slaughterspines. Environmental storytelling- Seyka’s skiff has at least 2-3 Tiderippers’ worth of parts, meaning she’s been out on her own killing the things to build boat motors, and she has some ambient dialogue that strongly suggests she’s fought and killed Slaugterspines before. Is some of this npc tech advancements in Burning Shores? Maybe, but it feels intentional. 

Seyka has a natural probing curiosity about the old world that for the most part Aloy’s other companions didn’t have without some significant hand-holding from Aloy to get them started, and some of her close friend (but not base team) characters just don’t have at all. I don’t mean this as a moral judgement, everyone is different and has different strengths and priorities , but it’s absolutely critical that a partner for Aloy have that kind of curiosity - it’s such a big part of her character. While she lives in this new world, she’s never going to be entirely a part of it. Like she says, she finds belonging in individuals, and not really the tribes. I don’t really see Aloy settling down in Meridian or Mother’s Heart. She needs to have a life of exploration and discovery and Seyka seems cut from that cloth too, whether she was always that way or being marooned gave her a fresh perspective.

Seyka did risk death using the focus and decided to do it anyway- in Rheng’s notes he calls for capital punishment for her. The threat is never *too* present but honestly I think that’s a broader critique of the series and pretty consistent with the writing of conflicts in Horizon. I agree they could have played up the dramatic tension a bit, but this is a person who weighed the risk of a military execution by a totalitarian state and immediately decided it was worth it to save her sister and others. I think Aloy can intimately relate, given what she went through for Beta.

Even though it’s a DLC, she has a TON of screen time, probably comparable to Kotallo in HFW, and Horizon does SO much storytelling through gameplay and ambient dialogue. I think she’s given a LOT of narrative space to breathe. She’s also has her own musical cues and leitmotifs that do a ton of foreshadowing work through the DLC - in terms of musical cues and framing she’s very associated with the acoustic guitar, and the flute melody in ‘Her Sky, Her Sea’ has for Aloy and Seyka the same function that ‘It Can’t Last’ does for Ellie and Dina in TLOU2 - next time you play Burning Shores, listen for it. That and the guitar cues from ‘The Idea of Home’ and ‘For His Entertainment’ do a lot of emotional work. It’s great stuff.

Okay and lastly- YMMV on this one - I’ve def talked about it with friends before but I don’t think I’ve said it on Tumblr. I’m a firm believer that meta narratives and the way that stories are situated and created in our own world matter and that art deserves to be taken seriously and dissected. I love Horizon, but it, and Aloy as a protagonist, are absolutely drenched in white savior and colonial storytelling tropes. Every time I play Frozen Wilds, all I can think of is Jack Sparrow going “and then they made me their chief”. There’s a lot of iffy stuff in the games, as much as I absolutely love them. We’ll have to see how H3 goes, but Burning Shores is MUCH better about this and honestly Seyka is a huge part of it. The story centers itself on a queer woman of color who is pretty tangibly presented as Aloy’s equal with her own strengths and weaknesses throughout the story and takes the lead just as often if not more than Aloy does, which I find really refreshing. It doesn’t entirely fix Aloy’s white savior issues but I think it’s a really good move for the narrative that continues the themes found in HFW about community and connection.

Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds (2017)

[socialfilter]

I’m very (read: very) high rn so read all my burning (lol) questions/random thoughts about horizon that you can all answer in your own headcanons:

do you think you ever get people in tribes who defect from said tribe to go into another one? aside from fashav, jaxx (I guess) and fuck me, slaves, I wanna know if there’s like, an Oseram who talked his way into Carja nobility or something.

How successful is the fishing/farming economy in Horizon like…there’s obviously that boar farm and I’ve spotted a few fishing Carja outlanders by Kestrel’s Perch…but I wanna know if people are making livings out of that. We can’t all be machine hunters.

Do you think anyone has ever been squished by a Tallneck?

Do you think Tallnecks can run? (please god I hope they can’t - I would cry)

Not a question. Advice: Don’t try and override a Tideripper underwater. (I tried to do this when I was a little drunk and I’ve never been so frightened in all my life)

Is divorce a thing in this world?

I want to know who the Picasso is amongst the Tenakth. (it’s my golden boy Kotallo)

Give me Red Raid flashbacks.

I won’t lie, I had a dream where Meridian got razed and it gave me excellent hawk and thrush ideas (let’s burn Meridian DOWN!)

I want to know how far children in various tribes are allowed to wonder from their settlements. Obviously we had the whole situation with Yarra/Drakka where a kid went missing so I imagine not far but I wanna know if they’ve got some level of freedom.

On children, do tribes have midwives?

Give me more children’s tales (the Banuk and the Utaru gave me some but I must have MORE)

Let Erend find more Old Ones music. Let him find Taylor Swift. (Personally I think Kotallo would like Radiohead, but that’s jus’ me).

Seyka and Alva interact. Now.

I really want a quest where Aloy helps the wrong person, i.e she doesn’t get the full story and ends up complicit in somebody important’s murder.

somebody (me) needs to kidnap aloy.

I also need a proper red-light-full-alarm-fuck-me-she’s-gonna-blow scene where aloy needs to hoof it outta there (I need more intensity than thebes, much as I love thebes).

bring me more main quests like thebes. I love dropping into some big old place and being HORRIFIED (read: author had nightmares about GAIA Prime).

What do we think the bloodiest Aloy has ever gotten? That would be interesting.

Conscientious objectors must’ve been a thing during the Red Raids, right? (I suppose this is already proven but my question still stands).

Also may be already proven, what was the Oseram role in the Red Raids?

Why is everybody a cousin of Avad?

Let Ikrie be the unhinged Banuk that’s in the Forbidden West.

What does Ikrie do when Banuk who will obviously know who she is pitch up at the Hunting Grounds? Mighty awkward is it not?

Do we think, aside from the racing squads, a tribe might figure out how to ‘tame’ machines? we’re mighty fucking lucky that the machine racers are the good guys cos christ, they could wipe out some settlements with that kinda power.

Let Morlund fly in H3.

Let Talanah Khane Padish have a Sunwing in H3.

Do we think there’s some renowned legendary heroes for tribes that are not the Old Ones? Thinking along the lines of The Enduring, people like that…

I wanna know what certain tribes do with people with disabilities. With the Tenakth it’s certainly less than ideal 😐 and the Utaru are seemingly a little more humane about it. I imagine with the Banuk it’s probably death-related (that whole Survive, Prevail, bollocks). I wanna know what the Quen, the Oseram, the Carja and the Nora do.

Regarding a deaf character (which I won’t lie I was really hoping Seyka was bc I couldn’t find her VA until the day before BS came out), I want to know if their signing is similar to ours. When will we have deaf characters?

Why are there not more musicians amongst the tribes like…Korreh is currently the Hozier of the Utaru. You could easily have drummers from the Oseram. I know the Nora have got some kickass war songs (plus it’s proven they sing, as do the Utaru).

Why is it, on every quest that involves looking for somebody, they’re fucking dead?

Why does everybody have sisters?

I think Aloy has fantastic taste in music.

Do we think twins are seen as blessings or curses in different tribes?

Can H3 please send us to some more rural ruins? Author wants to be nosy in ancient houses.

Are there jewellers in Meridian?

What are some yearly festivals amongst tribes? Zo touched on Utaru ones but I must know more.

I want to know what warriors with allergies do? (I would be said soldier with allergies)

I want to know how many children in the Sundom/anywhere have been abducted by the Tenakth…or I at least wanna know what the hell Ullia was getting up to…

Piggybacking off that, surely there must be Tenakth soldiers/tribespeople that were born into different tribes and taken away…? That’s only if Ullia’s claim was true I guess.

Where did the cannibal rumour come from? (Obviously the Carja but who thought that up?)

Tell me more about the HZD and HFW prisons…

I want to know more about bandit motives. Obviously you stumble across small ambushes but then there’s whole camps like what are they doing there?

I would like to know more about Sunfall. They have wholeass slaves there. I imagine the whole slave situation is relative to the deal Vezreh had going on with the kidnapped Utaru.

Give me a character that’s deaf and travels with a hearing/signing companion please.

Do tribespeople have pets? (Surely it can’t just be Yarra)

What’s the deal with Yarra and Meat? Please tell me she found Meat as an abandoned baby or something…

I want to know if people are naming their weapons.

Do you think there’s like, a Banuk/any tribe shaman (besides Ourea) who is weirdly knowledgeable about Old Ones shit? Guy has no Focus but could tell you a whole lot about Ted Faro (I’m aware of who I’m describing but not That guy)

Where the fuck did Lel go?

I love that some settlements/campfires have little gossips that’ll give you a quest of some sort. Yes, give me the drama you saucy little minx.

Do you think people believe in ghosts? I think it’d be pretty cool if you heard the voices of the Old Ones as you were walking through valleys or rivers.

Less wrecked planes in H3 please. I love the idea but it just makes me uncomfortable.

More old battlefields in H3 please.

I think there should be some sort of ‘crawl’ effort going on. Aloy crouching is simply not enough.

Bring Furahni and/or the cool Sun-Priest back.

I love that some machines disappear. Like where’d you go? 😈

How do we think Beta is going to adapt to this new world?

Will anybody ever move Verbena’s body? Because it is literally…exactly where we left it.

Speaking of which: I want a closer look at Tenakth tags and Utaru seed pouches. I want to know what other tribes have.

Are sports (that are not hunting) a thing? I reckon the Carja are javelin throwers (it’s hunting related but ygm), the Oseram are most definitely boxers.

If Tenakth are painters, does that make the Quen the scribes or something?

What is the education system in the Horizon world? Obviously different to our time but like,,,,what would a parent do with a child that showed no aptitude for stitching or hunting or literally anything? Nothing good but I must know.

How common is disease in terms of death amongst tribes?

I loved Garokkah’s ‘In The Fog’ quest. Guess it shows that the Tenakth, despite their policies seemingly regarding the disabled, aren’t totally heartless when it comes to helping people within their tribe. That being said, it’s implied his daughters were trying to hide his illness. I wonder what happens to him?

I want to know more about the Odyssey.

I want to know more about Beta’s actual upbringing like…I know it was cold and horrible and heartless but I just want to know more about her.

Who the fuck piloted the Odyssey?

What happens to orphans in different tribes?

Give me more dumbass Tenakth teenagers.

I think the Utaru smoke their own brand of weed. The Carja definitely have a special spice. Tenakth? Paint-sniffers.

Do you think there’s tree surgeons?

WHAT ABOUT THE FREE REAL ESTATE?

Give me a Hunting Party kinda option like…i imagine this’ll happen in the Horizon Multiplayer but I wanna take out a little squad of Lowlanders and go and fuck that goddamn bear up

Holy shit, picture it. Sun-Nuns.

[iron-rosebush]

so. this blog has been very very dead. I want to apologize for that, a lot of stuff has happened. however

LOOK AT MY GIRL LOOK AT HER AAAAAAAHHHHHHH

Art by tideripper on discord! It came out so good ahhh still freaking out a little

[officialleehadan]

Trust Falls

Capability Seen

+++

The next kidnapping attempt was a very different creature than Natalie’s first.

“SonovaCRAPMONKEY!” Natalie shrieked and fired her taser at the nearest blue-clothed henchman. He went down with a yell, and Natalie spun, slipped, fell on her ask, and crab-walked backwards as her taser charged up again. As soon as it beeped, she shot another of the henchman, and scrambled back onto her feet. “Eat taser!”

Okay, so she wasn’t exactly going to win prize-fighter of the year, but she was doing okay.

More importantly, she had seriously badass backup.

Ben, in his guise as Shieldwall, was throwing forcefields in every direction. Mostly, he seemed to be trapping henchmen in bubbles that lifted them off the ground. He also held one over his arm, as a classic shield to block the occasional shot as the henchmen tried to bring him down. It wasn’t going so well for them. He pretty much seemed to be thrashing them around.

“I could use some help!” Natalie called when another henchman closed on her with a handful of zip-ties. “Bad guy most seriously incoming!”

Her taser wasn’t charged up yet, but she had other options. Although she had protested, Ben had given her a canister of superhero-strength pepper-spray. She had pointed out her very probable chance of spraying herself with it. She was mostly a hazard to herself, not others. The pepper-spray, however, turned out to be reasonably difficult to screw up, and the henchman dropped, coughing and gagging on the bright orange spray.

“Seriously? How many of you buttheads are there?” she yelled when two more showed up to take his place. “Shieldwall!”

“Did you actually call the gun-toting bad guys buttheads?” Ben asked as he muscled his way in front of her and threw a bubble around the two advancing henchman. “I feel like this situation calls for stronger language, Doll.”

“My language skills kind of break down when I’m getting shot at and kidnapped, okay!?” Natalie was very, very grateful for her large and extremely intimidating boyfriend, and also for his very definite mean streak when it came to people trying to nab her. Someone grabbed her from behind, but her taser was charged up again, and she was mad enough to mostly forget her own sense of self-preservation. She half-turned, punched the nearest henchman, who was actually a henchwoman and fired off her taser again. “Zap-zap, motherforker!”

“Motherforker?”

“I KNOW WHAT I SAID.”

The wave of henchmen didn’t seem to be slowing, even though Ben was very handily dropping them as they came in the door. Whoever was after Natalie this week was clearly more determined than the usual lot.

“I think we’re gonna have to run for it,” Ben told Natalie after the next wave was contained, and the ones behind them hadn’t figured out how to get around the shield he was holding over the door. “I think I know who these guys work for, and if I’m right, he’s scarier than most of the baddies around. They’re not gonna give up while he’s behind them.”

“Who is it?” Natalie didn’t actually know most of the local Powered talent, but Ben, being a power himself, did. “Problem?”

“Well, his name is Tideripper.”

“Good name.”

“He’s an aquakinetic with delusions of grandeur.”

“Less great. So, we’re running for our lives?”

Ben threw a second shield, this one dome-shaped, between them ant the door, and then pulled Natalie towards the window. She looked at it, and then at him, and planted herself.

“If you say ‘jump out the window’,” she said flatly. “I’ll take my chances with the guys with guns.”

“You trust me?”

“Not that much.”

Ben winced, but shoved the window open anyway. They were eight stories up, and the fire escape had henchmen on it. He didn’t seem too bothered by that, but Natalie eyed the decidedly fraught path to safety.

“Okay, plan B,” Ben muttered and held out his hand. “Give me your taser.”

Natalie handed it over without protest, and he cracked open the plastic with a hard yank before he got to work doing something mysterious to the electronics inside. “Keep your hands off the window frame.”

“Okay?” she said, and took a half-step back just to be safe. Holy crap!”

Ben wrapped his hand in a shield and jammed the firing trigger of the taser against the metal of the fire escape. The taser’s charge emptied into the metal fire escape. Rated for Powers as it was, it packed a serious charge, and Ben had pulled off the limiter that kept it from killing people. There was a lot of profanity and screaming form below them, and the sound of multiple bodies falling a considerable distance to the ground.

“Okay, we’re clear,” he said after a quick look out the window to see if his trick had worked. “Sorry, I think the taser is dead. I’ll get you another.”

“It died for a good cause,” Natalie told him as she followed him down the fire escape. It wasn’t her first time leaving a building this way, but the last time had been the friend of a friend’s truly terrible bachelorette party. “We got a place to run to?”

“Fidget keeps a safehouse for me a couple towns over,” Ben said, and paused to shove a pair of henchmen out of their way. Natalie waited until he dropped to the ground, and muttered deeply unflattering things about her decided lack of athleticism. Ben saw her struggling, and held his hands up. “Jump, doll. I’ll catch you.”

“This had better not be one of those trust-fall couple things,” Natalie told him, but she let herself drop down the end of the ladder into his arms. He caught her easily, which was both thrilling and delightful. “Oh wow, yeah, okay, muscly boyfriends are pretty great.”

“Glad I pass muster,” Ben said with a grin and set her on her feet after a quick kiss. “Come on. If we hustle, we can get to my car, and I’ll get us on the road.”

+++ Capability Seen:

Natalie woke up handcuffed to a not-a-hero. now they’ll have to rely on each other to escape an enemy neither of them can combat.

Clink Zap (Subscriber Only!)

Twenty Questions (Subscriber Only!)

Not a Drill

Chase Music (Subscriber Only!)

Hide Out Freak Out (Subscriber Only!)

Call Home (Subscriber Only!)

Office Revelations (Subscriber Only!)

Introducing Flame

Classic Scifi (Subscriber Only!)

+++

More Stories!

+++