#ALSO addendum to the main post:

[ravenwolfie97]

i just got very heated all of a sudden

so an announcement just came out about a youtuber retiring from their content, and won't be making videos nearly as frequently and some fan on twitter was like "SAY SIKE RIGHT NOW THAT CONTENT IS MY COMFORT SHOW WHAT WILL I DO WITHOUT IT" and i'm just like. god. how entitled are you

like i'm not going to devalue one's interest or commitment to a piece of media. if that particular thing brings you comfort or even saved you from a dark place, that's fantastic. no issues there

what really pisses me off is seeing someone retire from a content-creating career spanning over a decade long to prioritize their health and their family and going "but what about me? why are you not producing the thing i love anymore?" like what the FUCK that's a fucking human being you're talking about, not a machine

i really hate the kinds of people who have this insane attachment to creatives and their work where the content is the only thing that matters to them and if they don't get more they'll die, but like why don't you care about the creator as a person? why do you only view them as a factory to make a thing you just so happen to like? obviously they made those things in order for them to be enjoyed by others, but the whining of a handful of fanatics is not going to stop them from slowing down or ceasing creation entirely, because as meaningful as it is that they have fans that enjoy their work, it's still the creator's choice whether or not to continue their creations. they are only human. we can only do so much. and out of a sea of subscribers, You in particular are not going to change their mind

[yarrayora]

i can fix her (writing because she's the main love interest that exists as a reward for the shounen protagonist so the author didn't even bother making her relevant outside of it)

[atalana]

also as a further addendum to my bill made a huge mistake underestimating stan post - i was recently listening to the commentary for sock opera

and like everyone and their mother can draw the parallels between ford/dipper and stan/mabel, it's one of the major themes of the show

bill gets the first half of the equation just fine - he thinks dipper can be manipulated in exactly the same way as ford, and while dipper will grow past that by the end of the show, in this episode, he's right. the best ways to get dipper to do what he wants, are to tempt him with all the secrets of the universe, and to remind him that he doesn't owe mabel anything, when mabel's done nothing but hold him back and cause trouble for him. it's probably exactly how he talked about stan to ford back in the day, who was still nursing those grudges and wanted to be the one to discover things no one else had

but the fun thing alex hirsch mentions in the commentary for that episode, is that bill doesn't see mabel as a parallel to stan (bc lbr he barely even recognises stan as a person). he sees mabel as a parallel to himself. yeah dipper and mabel are a good team together, but ultimately when it comes down to it, mabel is a powerful creature of chaos who would choose her own happiness over anyone who relied on her. (alex hirsch at this point jumps into bill's voice to say "how about instead of doing something lame, you do something fun, and crush whoever you want in the process!", and that bill genuinely thinks that is going to work, because it would work on him)

he doesn't expect mabel to destroy all her hard work and crush her own dreams just to help dipper. when he says "who would sacrifice everything they worked for just for their dumb sibling?", he's speaking from experience. he wouldn't. ford didn't. given the type of people bill considers worth talking to, i doubt he's ever come across that type of loyalty before

but the audience has, plenty of times, and will see it even harder by not what he seems. because while mabel does have some of the anarchy and selfishness bill sees in her, that kind of loyalty is a huge part of what she shares with stan

and like in a lot of the commentaries the writers say they weren't sure at first if bill would be the big bad, or how exactly the ending would come together, but in retrospect it never could have been anyone else, and there never could have been anyone but stan to defeat him

because so much of this show is about the relationships between family (including found family), what you would or wouldn't give up for them, but then how much better your life is when you value those relationships over temporary personal gain

so of course the main villain is someone so incapable of understanding that that he is utterly blindsided by the person who embodies it the most

[whompthatsucker1981]

you said you think gay sex cats is the new duchamp's fountain. i dont disagree and i kinda see what you mean already but please elaborate

it was a silly and tongue in cheek way to say that a lot of people are getting mad about it in a way that implies reactionary views on art, and that there's no way to say gay sex cats isn't art that wouldn't also imply that the fountain isn't art. a funny meme image is a funny meme image, but it is also funny to overthink and recontextualize them as art.

and the reaction makes the comparison even more apt. neural net generated artworks are anonymized mass produced images, vast majority having no artistic pretension or meaningful content such as a thomas kinkade painting. gay sex cats was made with no intent to be art, but the discourse it has with audience reaction and its appropriation in derivative works make it so. why is gay sex cats not art if people talking about it negatively allow it to be called art? is art only things you find beautiful and valuable? if so, what is value and beauty, and how do you draw the line? if gay sex cats was still ai generated but had more "aesthetic qualities" would it be art? if someone copies the original image by hand with all its ai generated faults where is the value generated? does the original still have no merit of its own, even after appropriation as a digital ready-made?

but the main reason as to why gay sex cats is comparable to the fountain still is because it made a lot of people with bad takes on art really really mad. and that the pissed off tags wouldn't look out of place as reaction to modern art in the 1920s. art is a flat circle

EDIT: well. putting an addendum because in retrospect more people took either or both the op and image in face value and much more self serious than ever intended. a lot of people understood the tone i was getting at, and i still stand by the questionings i added on, but still for clarification. the original comparison is not serious. it's self evidently ridiculous to compare a meme image to a historically significant artwork, the comparison was only drawn because they were both controversial to an audience, who reacted denying their status as respectively as an image and as art, and that it was funny that the negative reaction people had to the original image explicitly denied its status as art, even if the meme never had pretension to be art, so it was funny to draw a comparison and iterate on that.

i did think it was valid to bring in questionings about art and meaning because that's the reaction i saw most and wanted to make people think about the whys, and that also i do not think it's valid to base your dislike on ai art on either grounds of questioning its position and value as artwork, or even as a question of ip theft. regular degular handmade art can be soulless, repetitive, thoughtless, derivative, unethical, open and blatant theft, and much more, and that does not make it any less of an artwork. neural nets are tools that generate images by statistic correlation through human input.

the unambiguous issue with neural nets in art is its use as a tool by capital, to threaten already underpaid and overworked working artists and to keep their labor hostage under threat of total automation. in hindsight i regretted not adding the paragraph above as it was a way in which people could either misinterpret or assume things about me, but hindsight is hindsight and there's no way to predict how posts would blow up. so shrugs. i had written more posts in my blog that elaborated on that because asks would bot stop coming. and i think my takeaway is that people will reblog anything with a funny image without reading the words around it, or even closely looking at the image.

[literallyjusttoa]

A redraw of the timeline of Apollo's life I made half a year ago! Sadly for some reason CSP decided to completely delete poor Post-First Punishment Apollo (the fifth one), but luckily I took a picture of it before hand so y'all can see it, even if it's lower quality ;-;. If you want the story behind these designs I dumped like 2000 words about it in my og post, which you can see here!

Some quick addendums I forgot to put in last time + fun design details:

Apollo replaces Helios as the god of the sun after the Trojan War, around 900 B.C.E-ish.

Baby Apollo has horns now! This is a trait he inherited from his titan side and then quickly lost during his battle with Python. It's a nod to his first domain being shepherding as well.

Just to clarify, post-first punishment Apollo goes before post-Daphne Apollo, it's just I couldn't place them in the right order bc csp sucks

The symbol I used on Main Apollo's fabric is called a delphic epsilon! It was used as a symbol for Apollo's temple at Delphi in Ancient Greece and represented a worshiper's initiation into light.

The blue-ish silver ribbon Fall of Greece Apollo has belonged to Artemis. As I stated in my first post, Apollo spends a large amount of time away from Olympus between the fall of greece and his time in Rome, so he kept the ribbon to have something of his sister's in the meantime.

Also for Fall of Greece Apollo, his cloak is fading for two reasons. One, he's spending a lot more time performing his duties as the god of burials, making his role as one of the first bridges between the living and dead much more prominent. The underworld is pulling at him just as much as it is pulling at the casulties of Greece. Two, Apollo is not spending time on Olympus, nor is he actively speaking with any of his worshipers. This is causing belief in him to diminish, so this is the closest he has ever gotten to fading. I swear I will write a whole thing about the period at some point I have so many ideas.

The sheep 2nd punishment Apollo has is a Chios sheep! They are actually native to Greece, and also adorable I love them.

I think that's all for now, I hope you guys like the art!!!

[thedexcat]

VotV Speculation Megapost

(For posterity's sake, the latest major release is 0.8) (Also, buckle in. This post is a long one.) (Edit 9/20/24: Added Addendum 1) As we all know, Voices of the Void has a "story breadcrumbs" approach to its plot. Combine that with its alpha status, and we're left with a lack of hard answers. However, some pieces did seem to click into place. This is far from anything definitive, but here are some of the conclusions I've drawn. Let's start with everybody's favorite:

Part 1: The Arirals

god i want one to hold me like that

You know em. You love em. Like 90% of the fanart is about them. But the question is... what the hell are they doing here? Judging by the fact that they construct a campsite in the facility, they clearly expect to be here for a while. A common interpretation I hear from people is that the ones out in the facility are either political refugees, or just some sort of benign "tourist group". I've personally come to a different conclusion. Let's consider what they brought with them.

Exhibit A: The weapon (left)

The weapon they drop around Day 24 is no mere Star Trek phaser. If you drop it in the main building, pretty much EVERYTHING in the building is going to be sent flying from the resulting blast. Not only that, but the "human-wieldable" version that can be unlocked for the sandbox mode has one hell of a fire rate. Something tells me that there's no way in hell this thing is a civilian-grade weapon. And, as established in a previous post of mine, they're kitted out in full-body armored stealth suits.

Exhibit B: The stealth suit (Kerf dutifully remains there for scale)

These aren't tourists or runaways. They're goddamn Black Ops. But you're probably asking, "If that's what they are, then why do they have nothing better to do than to steal shrimp and prank you?" Don't worry, I'll get to that later. Eventually. Maybe.

For now, let's move on to a third thing of theirs: The letter to Kel.

Exhibit C: Esraniki's Letter (D-, see me after english class)

This is the letter left at the Ariral camp if you have maxxed reputation with them. There's one line in particular that's always stood out to me. "GET WE HOME YOU GET DEATH AVOID" So... why can't they go home? Let's review: A: They have perfectly functional spacecraft parked right behind you. Even if they were broken, surely some random Pre-FTL primitive wouldn't be able to help with a mechanical failure in their technology. Hell, they buzz you at the radio tower with one. So there seems to be nothing physically stopping them from leaving. B: They've come kitted out with some serious weapons and armor C: Something in the facility is drawing the attention of all manner of extraterrestrials (and ghosts and demons. are 'metaterrestrials' a good word for them?) So my take? They're monitoring something, waiting for an opportunity to act upon it. (In keeping with the Patch Note naming convention, I will be calling this unknown something "The Threat") Not only that, this 'opportunity' may only open up with the assistance of a human. But what could Dr. Kel possibly do that an Ariral couldn't? Well, I can think of one thing he can do better... Interface with human technology.

Exhibit D: Ariral Communique (quality: shit) Computer technology isn't some universal constant. You can't make a program and expect it to magically run on alien technology with an unknown architecture. This ain't Independence Day. The fact that the Arirals barely managed to send a heavily-garbled message to Kel's computer, quite frankly, speaks of an extreme amount of effort on their part. And it was all just to say the word "OUTSIDE".

If The Threat has some ties to human technology, then perhaps Kel actually could be more qualified to deal with it than the Ariral Black Ops. Hmm... An unknown threat with ties to human technology. Could it possibly involve...

Part 2: The Incredibly Suspicious Bunker

"I left a 'Do not enter' note on the floor. That'll stop people from investigating!" This damn thing is quite obviously, as TVtropes would put it, The Very Definitely Final Dungeon. It is my firm belief that this is what the Arirals were sent to monitor, and where The Threat can be found. But we can't really get much further in than a few doors. So... what's in there? An easy assumption to make is that it's some sort of fallout/storm shelter. But something nearby might tell a different story...

Exhibit E: *squints* ...Liberty Prime? If you take a metal detector over to the bunker entrance, you'll quickly discover a buried drive nearby. The image you just saw is its contents. It's clear that something is being depicted here. What exactly it is, well, that's hard to say. but if you look at that teeny tiny thing at the top, you'll see something that looks like the Alpha base and its radio tower

oh god we're getting into crusty duende video territory now

What this says to me is that there is a colossal something underneath the base. Some sort of mega-facility? Unnatural cave formations? Something else entirely? Or I could be looking at it entirely wrong. But the point is, it's very likely that something extremely expansive is down there.

What if we could just take a peek a liiiittle bit further in? Well, there is ONE way...

Exhibit F: The Least Cursed Elevator in Horror Fiction

Roughly around 3:33 each night, there is a chance that a camera inside the bunker will become active. It's monitoring what appears to be a heavy-duty elevator coated in blood. An elevator like this would also indicate something buried deep underneath the base. Say, this elevator seems familiar...

Exhibit G: Monique Santificer's Extremely Ominous Foreshadowing

...Huh. I'm sure that only means good things. So we have a Hellivator and evidence that there's some place that you'd need a Hellivator to get to. Are there any other clues around? Well, there's that handy instruction book on robotics. You can make your own little friend!

POV: You're 5'11 and she's 6'0 And... Oh! looking back at that camera, it looks like someone else made their... their own... friend...

Exhibit H: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- ...I don't think they followed the instructions to the letter. So it seems the people in the bunker were working on combining robots and, er, 'biomass'. I don't think our meaty friend here is The Threat itself, but I do believe that it is some aspect of it, or at least a result of it. And whatever The Threat is, it seems to be "leaking" out of the bunker. After all, this toothy bot here seems to have little siblings burrowing out from underground!

Exhibit I: should start running Kerfus. Kerfur. Whatever name they have, they love you! Such a shame that the flesh inhabiting their chassis does not.

they seriously recalled the ++ models over a little thing like this, smh Something deep underground, cursed flesh, and occult sigils. Hmm. Things would tie together neatly if there were, say, some sort of demon around associated with flesh and dark depths.

Part 3: Furfur (and conclusions)

"I WATCH YOU SHIT AT NIGHT" The Great Earl of Hell and raw flesh afficianato, it's Furfur! Demonology refers to him as a liar, but also a teacher of secrets. And he seems to really really like flesh. Not bones, though. He's always leaving those behind.

They say that if you burn an offering of flesh at his altar, he'll give you a marketable Furfur plushie!

The children who survived loved them! Interestingly, there's a certain location connected to Furfur: The bottom of the well. If you pass out at the bottom of the well, you will end up in a (dream of a?) mysterious structure.

Exhibit J: all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well

A few things of note in this place: -More demonic sigils -The only 'exit' is a tunnel leading upward with a broken ladder. And even if you could reach up there, Furfur's giant skull-face is blocking the way. -A unique knife, which when examined in the inventory, says that it was found "deep underground".

How very interesting that this flesh-loving demon has his own little place down in the depths of the earth. And you say the bunker reaching downwards has been spawning horrific robot-flesh amalgamations? Robots that are specifically of human design?

Well then. So here's what I think is going down:

no i'm not crazy it's invisible alien catgirls versus demon cyborgs you weren't listening were you?

-Some scientists from before did a Very Bad Thing in the bunker depths. If I had to venture a guess, it's that they bargained with Furfur for secrets of the flesh, perhaps in the pursuit of cybernetics, biocomputers, or somesuch. This resulted in the Very Bad Thing happening, thus creating The Threat. -The Threat was contained to some extent, but is starting to noticeably leak out. It is also severe enough to have drawn extraterrestrial attention. -The Arirals have sent a squad to monitor the situation and act if necessary. Seeing as there's been no urgent need to act as of yet, they are bored out of their skulls and taking it out on you. -The fact that the bunker hasn't been blown up by catgirl black ops already says to me that the situation down there is delicate, and a 'guns-blazing' approach would be inadvisable. Not only that, but The Threat seems to be tied to technology they have little knowledge of. They would most likely need outside assistance if they want a 'clean' resolution to the problem. -And wouldn't you know it? Right there in the facility is some nerdy, crusty, half-crazed twink that seems to be very proficient in handling human technology. How very convenient.

"average person eats 3 roaches a year" factoid actually just statistical error. Dr. Kel, who-

That's how I think this ties together, personally. Of course, there's always unaccounted for 'loose ends' that may or may not be tied to the Bunker Conspiracy (the rozital pit in particular has been bugging me with its vagueness). Plus there's always the chance that I misinterpreted things like a dumbass. There were a few other smaller things I wanted to cover, but my fingers hurt from typing, and my ability to hyperfixate has its limits. And sorry if the screengrabs are a bit mismatched, I've already spent hours on this post without having to get screenshots from the game myself. If anyone actually read through this monstrosity of a post, congratulations! If you're as deeply brainrotted as I am, feel free to point out the reasons I'm dumb and wrong :)

Addendum 1: Meta Aspects

no, not this. wrong place. wrong time.

Every now and then I hear talk of lore clarifications in Discord servers, Google Docs, etc. Will I be covering these?

(source) The reason? I want to give my impressions based purely on the work as published. Death of the Author and whatnot. The furthest I'll reach 'outside' the games are those ambiguous little teasers on YouTube, which you don't have to be in any 'specific server' or anything to see.

haha what if funni meme robot was irreversibly corrupted by the horrors?

Think of it as me giving a form of feedback on how the game is presented as an isolated work. Anyway, I'll be posting another Addendum later, connecting more demon stuff to the bunker. Fun! One thing I intend to investigate between then and now is a rumor of a very poorly documented... item interaction. As a little preview, consider this note.

It seems, in my pursuit of knowledge regarding a mysterious bunker in an incomplete videogame story, I find myself investigating a skeletal entity of ambiguous origin described as having a single glowing eye. God. Fucking. Dammit. Every time with this shit.

This always seems to happen whenever the protagonist is bullied by tall monstergirls

[rallamajoop]

The Complete Guide to Eye Colour In Resident Evil 7

An addendum to my guide to eye colour in RE8: here's everyone from RE7 too! Getting close-ups of these was way harder than for RE8, because RE7 does not come with a model viewer, so I'm stuck using in-game screenshots and promotional images.

Once again, we'll start with the cheat-sheet version:

The whole Baker family: Blue (except when...) Mia: Brown (FOR NOW) Eveline: Green Alan: Hazel/green Deputy OneSceneWonder: Brown Chris: Hazel/brown (FOR NOW) Clancy, Andre and Peter: Brown Ethan: Still hazel

But it can never just be that simple, can it? So, further notes below.

The Baker Family

The Baker family all have blue-grey eyes. In fact, post-infection, they all have the exact same blue eyes (see top line in comparisons below). You could maybe put this down to genetics for Zoe and Lucas, but when Jack and Marguerite have the same eyes as each other too, that's when you start wondering just how many backwater-hillbilly-stereotypes are in play here.

Mind you, they do have slightly different eyes in the pre-mould flashback that is the Daughters DLC, which you can see in the second row above. All are brighter blues, pre-infection, and Jack gets smaller pupils while Lucas gets a slightly larger iris (Zoe gets nothing, as she's the viewpoint PC and we're not redoing her face if you're not going to see it). So maybe we can hope there's some genetic diversity in the Baker-clan (renders of their eyes in their actual faces also look a little more distinct, but maybe that's a lighting thing). Either way, the Bakers = blue eyes! Got it!

And then we meet Uncle Joe in the other DLC who... has hazel eyes?

IDEK, maybe Uncle Joe's real dad was a different mailman.

Once we get deeper into mould-monster territory though, things do get a little more interesting.

Both Marguerite and Lucas appear with much creepier whitened eyes later in the game ‒ Marguerite's during her boss-fight transformation. Lucas, however, remains steadfastly human-shaped throughout the main campaign, but his eyes are whitened in his video message to Ethan, and in his (pre-monstrous transformation) DLC appearances too. Jack, by contrast, doesn't seem to get new eye textures even after blowing off the top of his own head, or in the boss fight that follows (monster!Jack from the fight in the boat house has completely different eyes, of course, and more of them). Mia, too, has her own set of creepy-alternate-mould-monster-eyes, but they're completely different again.

So what's the internal logic here? I could speculate that Lucas' eyes-only transformation is a sign he's in control of himself in a way Jack and Marguerite aren't, but it doesn't quite add up. If anything, those eyes make more sense as something Lucas was given because we never see him transform like Marguerite, or blow pieces of himself away like Jack: Lucas may look human, but the eyes are there to remind us he's not. There'll always be some details that end up being more about effective storytelling than cohesive lore.

Interestingly, though they don't appear in the game, there are also promotional pics of all four members of the Baker family with glowing white/silver eyes, which are definitely a supernatural feature. It's tempting to try and associate the effect with Rose's glowing eyes from the Shadows of Rose DLC, or perhaps even the general pale-grey-eyes of Miranda and the Lords (more on both in my post on eyes in RE8). But that's territory that really needs its own post or we'll be here all day.

Clancy, Andre and Peter

These are the three ill-fated crew of the Sewer Gators tape you'll encounter early in the game. You may notice Peter (rightmost in the pic above) seems to have even more dilated pupils than the majority of the cast. Amusing as it might be to theorise that he's just on drugs or something, I think there is an explanation: the closest shot we see of his face (and the first shot of the tape) is a close-up into a camera while the team is outside in the dark. His pupils would naturally be dilated in this sort of environment.

So why aren't Andre's dilated too? Well, the closest look we get at his eyes (also pictured) are the final shot of the tape, where he's already dead, and his eyes are covered by a red film. Medical plausibility aside, dilated pupils presumably didn't add to the effect here, so Andre gets regular pupils.

Speaking of assets, there is actually one photo of the three of them in the game, from the pamphlet you can find in their van at the start. You can even almost make out Clancy's face!

Clancy's own eyes are their whole own kettle of worms, but we'll get to that below.

Chris Redfield

Is an odd one: I can't share an eye-texture asset for Chris, because he doesn't actually have a character model at all in the main RE7 title. And explaining that one is gonna take some context.

While RE8 renders nearly all cutscenes using in-game models, RE7 stores far more of its major cutscenes pre-rendered in .wmv format. The opening is pre-rendered, video messages from Mia and Lucas are pre-rendered ‒ even the big moment when Eveline blows out the windows of the tanker and throws Mia into the river is pre-rendered. Not all cutscenes work this way, but basically anything that would require loading a lot of assets that aren't needed in gameplay (eg. the view of the river and tanker for outside) seems to have been pre-rendered as a video instead.

And since Chris' only scene in all of RE7 is in the pre-rendered ending sequence, he doesn't have a model at all (or at least, I couldn't find it). We do see Chris in openings and endings of the Not a Hero DLC as well, and the End of Zoe ‒ but these too are just .wmv files, presumably for all the same reasons.

Now, obviously, Chris is also playable in the DLC, so he does have a character model there. But we still don't get eye textures for him for a couple of reasons: firstly, he wears a face-concealing mask that only comes off for opening/ending cutscenes. But even without it, we might just hit other weirdness surrounding player character models...

As I've already noted, both Chris and Mia get completely different new blue eyes in RE8, but back in RE7, Capcom seemed a little more aware that brown or hazel eyes were a real thing regular white people do have sometimes.

A note on player-character models

Although we mostly just see the hands of whoever we're playing as (usually Ethan), gameplay still uses a full-body model, presumably to aid in rendering dynamic shadows, and give enemies something to cover in blood. Things get weird around the character's head, which isn't actually visible so it can't get in the way of the camera floating inside it, but will still cast shadows and still has textures associated with it (though usually in much lower resolution than other models we'll actually get to see). There are three playable characters in RE7 proper: Ethan, Mia, and Clancy (from the video tapes) ‒ each with their own model and textures.

Ethan and Mia also have more detailed 3rd person models, since we see plenty of Mia playing as Ethan, and a little of Ethan playing as Mia (if only from behind).

Why does this matter? Well, distinct as the three PCs are otherwise, their player models all have the same eyes ‒ top row above shows Ethan, Mia and Clancy, in that order. And they look nothing like Ethan's and Mia's eyes have ever looked elsewhere, which you can see in the comparison below.

I mention this mostly because it's pretty easy to find Ethan's player-model in the game files, note those generic-hazel eye textures with it, and go, "hey, you got his eyes wrong!" But these aren't the same eyes that come with his higher-res texture, or the ones that were copied over into RE8. In fact, the existence of the player-character-default-eye-texture back in RE7 is one of the reasons why I do tend to take full-res Ethan's eyes as 'canon', even though we never see them in either game: someone took the time to repaint Ethan's eyes for his full-res model, and make them distinct from the low-res default used for everyone in 1st person mode. That at least suggests there was some real, intentional effort put into deciding what colour eyes Ethan was supposed to have.

This does leave poor Clancy in more ambiguous territory, however: as he's never seen by any other character, he has no high-res model, and thus no eyes but the default-hazel that Mia and Ethan are rendered with in that mode too. So is this to be taken as Clancy's official eye colour? It may as well be, I suppose. We see so little of Clancy in any form that I was genuinely surprised to find out his he's actually got a player model which is completely distinct from anyone else in the game, with curly greying hair, a neckbeard, and a baseball cap worn backwards.

Render by nightsatkendalls over on deviantart.

I do not have the skills to produce a render of this quality myself, but I can tell you that the cap he's wearing has the logo for the RE Engine on the front (the in-house game engine behind all the modern RE titles, and many other Capcom games).

You'll never see it in game, of course ‒ you'd need both a freecam mod and a mod to make his head visible. But it's there as a weird little easter-egg nonetheless.

Eveline

Eveline is perhaps the only character whose model may not have been updated at all for RE8, but given she's only a hallucination or ghost, that stands to reason. In RE7 though, she also appears as her aged 'grandma' self, who pops up around the house in her wheelchair looking spacey. Grandma-Eveline has two different eye texture assets ‒ one far more washed out than the other. There's next to no good official pictures of her, but fortunately, since she doesn't move around or attack you, she was one of the very few characters I was able to get a decent close-up shot off with the free camera mod. And inasmuch as you're ever in a position to look her in the eye in game, only the faded version of her eyes ever seems to show up. Is the clearer version actually used somewhere I didn't catch? I have no idea.

What really stands out about granny-Eveline's eyes, though, is that they don't look anything like her child-self's eyes do. Child-Eveline is basically the only character in either game with distinctly green eyes. But Granny's are hazel, and not even a particularly similar shade of hazel.

In fact, they look far more like the generic-default hazel of the player character textures than they do like her younger self. Close-up comparisons below.

You could speculate that it was deliberate that Granny-Eveline's eyes don't look anything like kid-Eveline's eyes to avoid tipping off the player that they're one and the same ‒ but realistically, no-one without free camera mods is ever going to get a good enough look at either of them to notice. And it's kind of a shame they didn't just take young-Eveline's eyes and apply the same kind of distortions they seem to have applied to the generic-hazel template to age them up ‒ that would've been a lovely, creepy little detail to find in these textures. But no, generic old hazel it is.

Then again, whatever the real logic at play, the fact Granny-Eveline's eyes are effectively a faded, distorted version of the very same eyes the player themselves never does get to see in the mirror is a pretty creepy idea itself. And intentional or not, that's what I've got to leave you with.

[writing-for-life]

A Collection of My Metas, Fics and Art that Feature the Women of The Sandman

I love the women of the Sandman. I write about them quite frequently, post art about them, write my fics from a female viewpoint (I’m mainly an OC writer though, but I have one-shots and poetry about canon characters).

So since we’ve been talking about them a lot over the past few days, here are all their tags (they contain both official and fanart, and every meta that features them enough for me to tag them), and all my metas, fics and poetry in which they are the main protagonist/character or at least strong focus.

I have posted art for literally all of the women in the Sandman and also written about most of them in one way or another, and you can find the few that are missing via my tags, but it just didn’t feel right to include all of them here. I think it’s normal and fair that we gravitate more towards some characters than others for personal reasons. It’s just the complete erasure of women that often gets to me.

I want to do more, but like every writer and curator, the disinterest in the women of the Sandman is often a bit discouraging. I haven’t given up hope we can change that…

Here they are, in alphabetical order:

Alianora

Dreams of Light (poem)

Alianora’s tag

Barbie

The Portrayal of Womanhood in “A Game of You”

Barbie’s tag

Calliope

Mother (haiku)

Calliope and Dream

Calliope’s tag

Carla

Carla’s tag

Chantal

Chantal’s tag

Death

Death’s Wedjat Eye: Deeper Symbolism or Random?

Touching Death or: Why Dream is Not Simply Touch-Starved in The Sound of Her Wings (Addendum to someone else’s post)

Oblivion is not an option—A musical meta about “A kind word and a friendly face”

All the Endless are buckling under the weight of their functions (David Hitchcock art meta)

Comfort (haiku)

Ode to Death (poem)

Requiem (poem)

Sigil (haiku)

Wings (haiku)

Death’s tag

Delirium/Delight

A sacred garden: Death and Delight (Michael Zulli art meta)

Delirium’s tag

Despair

Despair’s tag

Ethel

Ethel’s tag

Eve

Eve’s tag

The Fates

The Fates’ tag

Foxglove (Donna)

The Portrayal of Womanhood in “A Game of You”

Donna’s tag

Gault

Gault’s tag

Gwen

Gwen’s tag

Hazel

The Portrayal of Womanhood in “A Game of You”

Hazel’s tag

Hope

The Sandman Overture and Exiles: Omnia Mutantur, Nihil Interit—Everything Changes, Nothing Is Truly Lost (Not Even Hope)

Only Hope calls you out like that

Hope’s tag

Ishtar

Ishtar’s tag

Johanna

Thessaly, Johanna and a weird meta about musical motifs

As it was before the otherness came (short fic, Johanna x Rachel)

Johanna’s tag

Killalla

Killalla’s tag

Lucienne

If it is implied Lucien is Adam, what does that make Lucienne?

Lucienne’s tag

Lyta

Aftermath (poem)

Mother (haiku)

Lyta’s tag

Mazikeen

Mazikeen’s tag

Nada

Tales in the Sand—Did we find the women’s story?

Nada’s tag

Night

Night’s tag

Nuala

Nuala’s tag

Rachel

As it was before the otherness came (short fic, Johanna x Rachel)

Rachel’s tag

Rose

Rose’s tag

Rosemary

Rosemary‘s tag

Ruby

Ruby’s tag

Thessaly

Thessaly in the context of second and third wave feminism

Thessaly’s tag

Titania

Titania’s tag

Unity

Unity’s tag

Wanda

The Portrayal of Womanhood in “A Game of You”

Wanda’s tag

Zelda

Zelda’s tag

[thydungeongal]

Pathwarden is really great! I've been reading it in earnest for the past couple of days and I think the designer has done a really good job making an extremely condensed RPG inspired by Pathfinder 2e that however has a surprising amount of meat to it!

I did originally say that the game is classless, which is true. Sort of. The game does have three "Paths," being Combat, Magic, and Skill, and character progress is tracked along those three Paths separately. It's not unlike traditional D&D 3e style multiclassing except a lot cleaner, because most of the numbers still rely on character level instead of something like "Path level."

I like the departure from vancian magic as well as the division of spells into smaller, thematic packages and allowing magic-users to mix and match. I can already see a couple of interesting character concepts arising from specializing purely in Astral, Kinetic, or Illusion magics.

The GM advice is solid. I love the game explicitly saying that the party doesn't need to always win, and asking the GM to rethink what winning and losing means. The only piece of GM advice that rubs me the wrong way is the one about the GM not showing their hand. I should probably make a separate post about it, with the addendum that it's like the one thing that bothers me slightly about a game I otherwise really like.

Conversely, I really love how the game rewards player engagement and how it implements actual systemic support for what a lot of people want out of their d20 fantasy games: collaborative worldbuilding, with player-defined character goals guiding the action, with the GM still in something of a main role with regards to worldbuilding but also explicitly working together with the whole group.

This is not going to revolutionize anyone's game, but all in all there's a lot of good stuff here.

[archivalofsins]

Addendum (September 23, 2024 5:03pm )- It was brought to my attention by a concerned friend inquiring if something had happened yesterday that this post can come off as complaining about a fandom issue of some sort. Because of how often "Don't be like x" (in particularly Futa) has been used in regards to ongoing Milgram fandom incidents.

It was not my intention to invoke those sort of alarming past experiences for anyone that may have come across this post. My intentions when writing this were to interrogate the prevalence of that phrasing when it came to Futa as a character while including the prisoner paired with him known for bullying as well.

To put it in a plain and jovial way- These are my feelings in regards to this topic in a meme format,

Since I have now been informed of how emotionally disruptive this phrasing can be given the things it's been associated with in the past at least within the tumblr Milgram community I will be putting it under a cut with one more addendum further down that uses the same phrasing.

Once again saying to not be like Mu.

It's easy for individuals to understand why they shouldn't be like Futa. In a lot of ways, not many people would see their actions as being similar to his even when they are. This is why I stress not to be like Mu either.

Because it seems to me that a lot of people are comfortable with being bullies as long as they convince themselves they were the victim first.

A trait that's present throughout both Futa and Mu's narratives. Even if not many people recognize how emotionally manipulative, insidious, and abusive this sort of behavior is socially.

Because just like with these two, some will convince themselves it's the other parties fault for doing something wrong first.

That the person who did something wrong should just,

"You apologize if you do something wrong, you learn that even before words, don't you?"

Q.09 Do you want to apologise to the person you killed?

Mu: I think the person who did something wrong first should apologise first.

These two are simply not as different as some fans like to tell themselves. They are both reactionary bullies. Just because one goes on offense (attacks) and the other defense (cries/deflects) doesn't make one any better than the other. That's why they both got into codependent relationships with another prisoner over the first trial intermission.

Both Amane and Haruka provide them with something. Giving Futa and Mu hope and help in a difficult situation. Along with something to do with themselves to prove their own worth. They also both took on a naturing and protective role in Amane and Haruka's lives. Making the other their main priorities as of the second trial.

23/07/05 (Mu’s Birthday)

Futa: Oi, you. Is he ok? He’s not even left his room lately.

Mu: You mean Haruka-kun? Hmm. Yeah, probably. I’ve been bringing all his meals to him so he should be fine. Isn’t that great of me?

Futa: Hah? Who the hell says that sort of thing about themself. ……ah, no, well, right now I understand a bit. When you’re feeling down, it’s nice to have someone who relies on you and accepts you. The rest of us can’t really understand you from where we’re standing. But well, if you’re Haruka’s “salvation” then I guess it really is great.

Mu: Salvation……? I don’t know what you mean. Futa-kun, you don’t sound like yourself. Did you hit your head or something? Oh, wait, you actually did, didn’t you. Ahaha. Ah, putting that aside though, did you know it’s my birthday today?

Q.02 What do you think of Haruka?

Futa: I can’t afford to be worrying about other people at the moment. Anyway, he’s not a little kid.

This is also why one of my first posts discussed them together. They were both even abandoned by their groups,

"Everyone else was having fun, weren't they? What about them?! Why is it just me?!"

Q.18 Do you regret anything?

Mu: I think maybe I should have chosen my friends a bit more carefully.

Q.11 Who do you want to see right now?

Mu: I miss my friends too. But most of all, Papa and Mama.

Yeah, don't be like either of them, actually.

This is not a healthy thing to strive for. The only difference between them is that Futa takes the orders, and Mu gives them. Aptly portrayed in the relationships they've formed over the course of Milgram.

Also, a bully is a bully regardless of if they cry about it. Women have been weaponizing crying for decades. Stop pretending like this is a brand new undiscovered form of manipulation it's not.

Addendum (September 23, 2024 5:03pm ) continued: Also it was not intent to specifically call to attention Mu's characters flaws or take any digs at people who relate to her. Saying things like don't be like x character can be inconsiderate towards individuals who relate to that character a lot especially if it's something done on a consistent enough basis.

These are once again my feelings on that in meme format.

[radfem-vex]

Optimistic and Pessimistic Radical Feminist Flags

Hi everyone, so like 2 weeks ago I started working on radical feminist flags, since the flags we often use represent us don't seem to necessarily mean "radical feminist," despite being associated with us (e.g labrys lesbian flag).

Here's that post btw

(Check this post out to see the meaning of the stripes)

Specifically there I created an iteration of the "optimistic radical feminist flag" (and a commie/socialist radfem version of same) and have since created more iterations!

These are the initial flags!

I've now created new versions using the new radfem symbol I've created.

Personally I kind of prefer the former two because the symbol is a little "softer" but I've put these up so people can choose which they prefer!

Now, what of radical feminists who have a pessimistic outlook around women's rights and/or socialist revolution? I've not forgotten about you!

Here's a pessim flag with the OG feminist symbol:

The stripes mean the same thing (I swapped around pink and red because it looked too much like a bisexual flag otherwise and not all radfems are bi). The pink being on the bottom half can also represent the struggle women. Pessim radfems may also be known as blackpill feminists.

The moon instead of the sun represents antithesis to optimism. The purple background instead of yellow represents the nighttime. Pessimistic meanings of the colour purple include depression and mourning.

Pessimistic commie/socialist radfem flag!

Here are the above but with the new radfem symbol I made:

I hope y'all find this interesting! I got the idea of optimism vs pessimism in radical feminism from being in the r/femalepessimism subreddit.

MAJOR ADDENDUM

I will be changing these flags to exclude the hammer and sickle, not because I am anti-socialist (I'm very socialist) but because of the genocides and violence against women perpetrated by the USSR under the ☭ symbol. It's kind of like wielding a swastika. It's unfair to eastern European women and anyone else victimized by authoritarianism. All violence isn't ok, whether it's excused with capitalism or communism.

As for now I have elected to not take down the post as it may seem like I'm "hiding" my mistakes, and other people who may be drawn in by the ☭ symbol might read this addendum and see fellow socialists changing how they go about this kind of symbol.

There are a variety of rose symbols that indicate kindness and women's rights intertwined in a socialist system. I have not picked exactly which rose I will be using but when I create an update to these flags you will be able to see then which rose I have selected 🫶🏾

[httyd-art-requests]

[Pinned post]

(Previously one-httyd-a-day)

Read before you send a request!

[Started on 2024/01/01]

Hello! :D

2024 is the year of the dragon! I figured there couldn't possibly be a better year for me to try this, so I'm throwing my hat in the ring and starting a HTTYD themed one-drawing-a-day art blog, heavily inspired by @onewolfaday and @onedragonperday.

I will be drawing YOUR 🫵 HTTYD requests - which will be periodically open. You can see whether requests are open by checking this pinned post, or in the bio of the blog itself.

With that being said...

Requests are currently CLOSED!

Commissions are open!

I hope my fellow HTTYD fans will appreciate this blog, and I hope you'll stick around <3

Toothless in Gravity Falls crossover:

⭐️ Part 1

⭐️ Part 2

⭐️ Part 3

⭐️ Hiccup and the twins

⭐️ Stanley getting harrassed by Terrible Terrors

Addendum: There is a gap in the numbers between Dragon #52/53 (Toothless vs The Alpha) and Dragon #59 (Sea Shockers). I took a short break from posting dragon art due to some irl events, so the numbers between 53 and 59 are missing to reflect that :)

Addendum 2: No longer posting on the daily due to burnout. Requests and commissions are still active. Thank you to everyone who encouraged me to post, you guys mean the world to me <3

More info under the cut!

🤎 Dragons I will be drawing:

Dragons from all three of the movies

Canon dragons (Toothless, Stormfly, Cloudjumper etc)

Dragons from the spinoff shows (Riders/Defenders of Berk and Race to the Edge)

Dragons from the HTTYD games (Rise of Berk, School of Dragons and Titan Uprising, hybrids and crossbreeds included!!)

Dragons requested by followers

🤎 Dragons I will not be drawing:

Dragons from The Nine Realms (this is a personal preference, no offence meant to fans of the show)

Dragons from the books (I want to focus on the movie franchise)

Fanmade species

🤎 Dragons you've requested:

If you sent an ask requesting a dragon: I won't be answering until I can post the drawing along with it. I keep the asks in the inbox so I won't forget about them.

If you sent me a DM: Hi, thank you for being here and reaching out! :) Rest assured I will be tagging you once I post your dragon.

I love you and I appreciate you being here. Thank you for following my silly dragon project 🤎

[HTTYD OC blog: @wardenofdragons]

[Main blog: @theonewiththeideas]

🤎Dragons I've already done🤎

You can search for them on the blog by searching "httyd [dragon species]" or "rob [dragon name]" for the Rise of Berk ones.

You can also search dragons based on their serial number. Ex. "dragon 006", "dragon 021", etc.

Dragons in order of posting:

Death Gripper | Stormcutter | Deadly Nadder | Gronckle | Monstrous Nightmare | Zippleback | Snaptrapper | Hobblegrunt | Silver Phantom | Scauldron | Reignstorm (Rise of Berk) | Woolly Howl | Auroma (Rise of Berk) | Thunderdrum | Death Song | Flightmare | Night Fury | Skrill | Dart (Nightlight) | Dramillion | Typhoomerang | Terrible Terror | Razorwhip | Screaming Death | Light Fury | Changewing | Sandbuster | Sand Wraith | Speed Stinger | Boneknapper | Timberjack | Nightlight | Singetail (Freezeburn from Rise of Berk) | Sentinel |Prickleboggle | Sliquifer | Skyfire (Rise of Berk) | Shivertooth | Tuffnut's Chicken | Groncicle | Scuttleclaw | Shockjaw | Brute Stormcutter (Rise of Berk) | Egg Biter | Slitherwing | Triple Stryke | Red Death | Eruptodon | Tide Glider | Skrill × Stormcutter Hybrid (my design) | Zipplewraith (Titan Uprising) | Drago's Bewilderbeast | Toothless :) | Sea Shocker | Windstriker | Catastrophic Quaken | Rumblehorn | Titan Woolly Howl | Baby Typhoomerang | Baby Bewilderbeast | Rosethorn (Rise of Berk) | Hobgobbler | Bone Gripper (Bonknapper × Death Gripper Hybrid) | Viggo's Skrill (and Viggo) | Smothering Smokebreath | Deathly Galeslash (Titan Uprising) | Raincutter | Grim Gnasher | Snow Wraith | Snafflefang | Ruffnut's Trancemare (Rise of Berk) | Night Fury OC (Warden) | Fireworm | Fireworm Queen | Scimiterror (Rise of Berk) | Wise Wind (Rise of Berk) | Flame Whipper | Sand Wraith × Night Fury Hybrid (my design) | Monstrous Nightmare × Deadly Nadder Hybrid (my design) | Stormfly and Astrid | Non-Binary Pride Terrible Terror | Transgender Pride Night Fury | Asexual Pride Night Fury | AroAce Pride Changewing | Transgender Pride Hookfang and Snotlout | Asexual Pride Deadly Nadder | Aromantic Pride Scuttleclaw | AroAce Pride Night Fury | Asexual Pride Light Fury | Progression Pride Gronckle | Bisexual Pride Stormcutter | Bisexual Pride Deadly Nadder | Agender Pride Sandbuster | Cupiosexual and Cupioromantic Pride Night Fury x Skrill Hybrid | Exiled Stormcutter (Rise of Berk) | Lesbian Crimson Goregutter

[wildcardjoey]

Anita jean!

ANITAT JEAN!!!

Alright so the Little Wren AU is basically just 'Bruce manages to find Anita after she fakes her death' and she actually does become his first sidekick. She isn't a fighter, Bruce puts her under three layers of armor, and she basically fills a mage and healer role with first aid (mostly for civilians and criminals) and the virtual reality gas drug, the use of which allows batman to remain a cryptid for far longer.

Anita also takes longer to get the hang of grappling hooks because she's less coordinated than even Tim but she does get them probably not too long after Dick comes to the manner since the two can train together. Her inability to use grappling hooks when she first enters the field is why The Whirly-Bat was made, named The Hummingbird in this au because it's Anita's and was named before Dick was adopted into the family and took a bat-gimmick to every piece of equipment in the cave. Before he joined the team, Bruce and Anita were work shopping names for a lot of their stuff but hadn't come to decisions for most of them, so Dick still gets to do that, but not for Anita's Hummingbird.

Rather than the dynamic duo, this au has either a tritastic trio of Batman, Wren, and Robin, or the dynamic duo is seen as Wren and Robin, as Batman's sidekicks. When Tim ends up at the manner, Anita basically tells him he's too tactical to be Robin and gives him the Wren mantle, which she either had already left behind or was in the process of considering it. Steph ends ends up becoming his paired Robin, for much longer than Canon.

Steph initiating that plan that required Matches Malone probably still happens, but with Anita's help she's able to salvage it, but it opens up an entirely new set of problems because at that point Anita was already on the verge of discovering The Court of Owls (because their one give away was a nursery rhyme and she wanted to find out it's origin because it's her hobby) and now The Court sees the bat clan take control of the city basically in it's entirety so those two things combined make The Court release the elite talons. A temporary alliance with The League of Assassins and the timely first arrival of Cass in the city means they just barely manage to win. This is also the family's first introduction to Damian and a recently resurrected Jason is probably also there, but dressed like the rest of the assassins so he isn't recognized.

Anita herself, which is what this au is actually about, is going to be depicted as better adjusted due to not living her life since she was, like, eight alone and eventually dedicated to revenge. She has hyperfixations on birds, nursery rhymes, programming, and tech and is an excellent detective. I already mentioned she's less coordinated starting out but that doesn't mean she's weak, she'd probably be able to beat Dick in a fight when he first gets to the manor since he's at that point just a gymnast but she's been training as a martial artist for like six months at that point.

Speaking of Dick, I really look forward to writing their banter. They are going to be so sassy to each other but very protective of each other. Almost as much as they're both protective of every one younger siblings, which, and seeing some of your posts this may be disappointing, isn't going to be terribly long. Finding a way to fit every obscure batfam character in is for my other dc au, the same one that my ruleset for Claire's powers is for, but I do have Calvin, Charlie, and and Dana (Talon, Misfit, and Strike) as sure-shows for Little Wren.

Long-Term, the au's story-arc will focus on the eventual take down of The Parliament of Owls as the main antagonists, as it feels fitting for an Anita Jean focused story for previously stated Nursery Rhyme related reasons, although I do also plan for The League to be taken down due to Tim still having his globetrotting adventure and then the batfam actually capitalizing on it.

Edit for Addendum: the first paragraph makes it sound like Anita never fights, I should clarify that her role on the team does evolve as she gets older and Bruce becomes more lenient.

[warsamongthestars]

Ever notice how TBB, inspite of teasing a Clone story line, is not actually about clones?

Yes, we get new Clones. They are a joy, as any clone are.

Yes, we get a brief skim over the problems of having a Clone Army under a Corrupt governing force--especially if that Clone Armies secret objective had been the overthrow of the last governing force.

But name a clone, that isn't the super special awesome squad or the mary sue, that actually had impact here.

Lemme tell you, anything you answer results in:

They're dead now... and the survivor never got involved in the plot.

They only serve to keep the Super Special Awesome Squad out of any significant plot, and then they stay off screen.

They left and haven't been heard from since. (and their absense of exit or acknowledgement of thought processes, made it so that their impact was negligible at best.)

TBB, inspite of literally setting itself up to be the Sequel of the Clone Wars from the perspective of clones, does not, in fact, have a clone story line that contains Impact.

And I'm gonna tell you now--the Super Special Awesome Squad? Does Not Count.

You do not count the outlier of the statistic. These guys are the outsiders, they are design and specified to be outside of the norm for Clones.

Look, I love these boys, but they are literally introduced as the super special awesome totally original characters of the Clone Wars--The difference between them and the Donut Steel of TBB, is that the Super Special Awesome Squad did not take away from the main characters of the clone Wars, but actually added to them.

Their appearance left a lot of questions, and their writting left us wanting for more--the issue is, we did not get either in TBB. They do not have the set up necessary to make them capable of having a Post Order 66 Era Impact. ( IN fact, TBB does its damnest to ensure a total lack of impact at all. )

As their greatest strengths as characters that would push them to have impact and meaning, and into a greater storyline or series of stoyrlines--Their Character Dynamics--was destroyed episode 1 and would never be repaired in this show.

TBB show is not about Clones, which is an almost hilariously contradicotry thing, considering it features clones and parts of the aftermath of Order 66.

Because not a single one of them had impact beyond speculation.

And that also includes the Super Special Awesome Squad.

There is no impact here that doesn't involve cutting the tree down to save a single branch.

The show's actual intent is, making you watch other shows... mostly those who have Omega in them, and giving you just enough to keep going, but not enough to give any substance.

[ Surely, hat's totally why I want watched the Bad Batch--to see everyone but the Bad Batch. I sure do love watching shows that go out of their way to have nothing to do themselves. ]

Addendum:

Yes, we got a totally of 1 Episode dedicated fully to normal Clone Troopers and the aftermath of Order 66... but only from the perspective of the destruction of Kamino as opposed to the perspective of the Clone Wars. And while it was awesome; because it was actually focused on being what the Sequel of the Clone Wars would've / should've been. This episode, I'm afraid however, is the Spiders Georg of TBB here... And even then, it still holds the issues of TBB of attempting to be a self-contained alternate universe whilst also attempting to tie and bury everything and anything. (The Kanan comic, Dark Disciple, Republic Commando--frankly whoever has been writing here, has gone out of its way to insult and spit on other SW works by ensuring they rob all impact. TBB Writing isn't just poisonous to itself... it also actively poisoned the wells of other Works)

Project Necromancer doesn't count, because 1) Any Acknowledgement of the SW Sequels will already negate any meaningful impact of Star Wars period; and because 2) The TBB never got involved with the Clone Plot to begin with, beyond the Super Special Awesome Squad (Who didn't have the setup) and the Mary Sue. ( Whom we weren't here to watch. Some folks might've been drawn to her--But I wasn't and neither was the Trailer or the Clone Wars. I'm already here for a group of TCW OCs, I'm not here for an additional super special awesome donut steel... Her appearance literally robs the impact of Fucking Everything because Nothing has the Set Up to allow for her. She would've been a great character in Clone Wars, because Clone Wars had that backdrop to support her character--TBB doesn't. TBB went out of its way to avoid the TCWs foundations, so now it cut itself off from any meaningful story it could've made. )

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Is every boy in NRC canonically handsome? I don't mean designed to be handsome to us consumers but in story line? I know that people always refer to Vil and Leona in story as extremely attractive but has anyone else had that type of comment?

I believe that (of the main 22 NRC boys), only Vil, Leona, and Silver have been consistently described by their peers as “handsome/beautiful” in-universe. (It’s not that the others look bad, but those three just stand way above average.) I guess Epel could count too, but in his case it’s more like he’s being called cute or traditionally feminine looking rather than handsome or beautiful... so let’s leave him at a special mention rather than with an official spot 😅 (I’m also not counting Malleus here, because off the top of my head I only ever recall Sebek calling Malleus handsome, and well... Sebek is an extremely biased perspective. He also calls Lilia handsome, and Lilia self-identifies as cute—but again, biased perspectives here.)

Vil is, of course, considered conventionally beautiful, as he is a very popular celebrity and takes great pains to maintain his looks. Leona is also noted to be handsome, mostly in a “wild” kind of way; it’s a different sort of beauty than Vil’s (something which Vil himself comments on, often saying it’s a shame that Leona has such an attitude paired with his good looks). As for Silver, people with good aesthetic tastes (like Vil) have commented that he is prince-like in demeanor and has a pretty face to match.

I believe that Jamil is called handsome by Azul in episode 4, but I don’t know if I would consider this one since it was said in an over-the-top cheeky and flattering kind of way. This is meant to mirror Jasmine pretending to compliment Jafar to distract him once he has usurped the throne from her father. TWST subverts this by having the boys use it to announce their return to challenge OB Jamil for the throne and the dorm he has stolen.

I think the one character that the boys can agree looks generally “unattractive” is Idia. In Ghost Marriage, a lot of them express surprise when Eliza chooses Idia, of all people, to be her destined groom, especially considering her high physical standards and other dubious requirements for one. However, I don’t think Idia is actually “unattractive”, but that he just doesn’t put effort into his appearance and has low self-confidence, which gives of the vibes that he’s unattractive.

Speaking of Eliza, she doesn’t particularly remark on most of other students looking handsome or not (and you’d think that someone as picky as her would judge them out loud about it if they were all as handsome as we perceive them to be in the real world). I do think she comments on some of their looks, but not to the point as to imply that every NRC boy is considered super attractive in their world.

ADDENDUM: Please keep in mind that TWST has a LOT of content out right now (especially in the Japanese version of the game), so it’s possible that there are one-off lines or remarks on the boys’ physical appearances that I may be overlooking. The characters I specifically mentioned in this post are the ones who have their physical appearances most often commented on or are most often praised as being explicitly good looking or beautiful by the people in their own world.

[collecting-dustbunnies]

Solomon, Nightbringer and MC: A Clash of Ideals (AKA An Addendum to my "Unreliable Narrator MC" theory)

Part 1: MC is an Unreliable Narrator | Part 2: A Clash of Ideals

(Original tag from @impish-ivy on my part 1 post)

So these tags got me thinking...

The main thing that was stumping me as I was writing my "suspicious MC" theory was... what exactly is Solomon's role in all this? Lesson 10-A in NB makes it clear that Solomon and Nightbringer know each other, but Solomon withheld this information from MC when MC discusses their conversation with Adam (who had been relaying things Nightbringer had said). How far is Solomon aware of the MC's ploy? And why is he withholding information from MC? How far do his goals differ from Sheep-chan's?

(Disclaimer: Long post. Read Part 1 to understand what the hell I'm talking about over here. Contains general NB spoilers.)

OG = Obey Me Original

NB = Obey Me Nightbringer

The Enemy of My Enemy is My...

Here are some of the things that caught my eye regarding Chapter 10-A in Nightbringer.

"I'm not trying to make an enemy out of either one of you. I just want to be free, that's all. That's part of the agreement I have with "him""

This was what Solomon told the Simeon illusion when Simeon and Diavolo were arguing over who humans should side with. At this point in the game, it was unclear who "him" is referring to, but a couple of lines later, we learn that it is unlikely to be Nightbringer. Why do I say so? Because of this:

Here we see that Nightbringer calls Solomon "difficult" and "troublesome" for not choosing his side. This implies that Solomon and Nightbringer's main goals, at first glance, are not aligned. Solomon's wish to protect his own freedom goes directly against Nightbringer's wish to see Solomon choose between the angels and the demons in that illusion.

But this begs the question, who is "our side" referring to here. Is it only between the angels and the demons? We'll get to that in a moment.

"If you'd only chosen our side, it would've made things so much easier."

Nightbringer was disappointed that Solomon didn't choose to side with him in the illusion. But that does not mean that Nightbringer and Solomon are not cooperating at all. There is at least one common goal between Solomon, Nightbringer and the MC: To have MC form pacts with the demon brothers once again. So Nightbringer and Solomon could very well be working together behind the scenes to create scenarios that allows MC to get closer to the demon brothers and forge pacts with them.

Nightbringer's sentence here can mean two things. On the surface, it seems like Nightbringer is lamenting how Solomon was making things difficult for him. But when we consider that all three parties have some common ground here, "simply have been easier" could also have meant that Solomon was taking an unnecessarily difficult path to achieve their shared goals.

Considering Solomon seems to have known Nightbringer for a long time, and is aware that Nightbringer is the one that brought MC to the past, the logical conclusion would be that he has some suspicion of Nightbringer's plans for the MC. But this is where Solomon and Nightbringer's goals would differ.

Where their paths diverge

Now let's consider how different each party's goal is. The only difference between all three of their goals is the motive behind having MC form these pacts:

MC wants to be together with the brothers in their ideal world

Nightbringer wants to bring MC to their ideal world for reasons still unknown

Solomon wants MC to regain their powers once again so that the both of them can leave the past timeline

This could explain why Solomon may not be revealing his connection to Nightbringer yet: Due to the different plans they have for the MC. Perhaps being sent to the past is not only a test of Solomon's ideals, but a test of MC's as well. This journey to the past and subsequently, MC's journey to their ideal world could be a test to find out what choice MC makes. When the time comes, would MC choose to align with Nightbringer or with Solomon?

But as I had discussed in part 1, MC seems to harbour very different motivations than Solomon, and is not as interested in making pacts with the demon brothers so they can go home.

So what if when Nightbringer had mentioned "our side" in the very beginning, it was Nightbringer's sneaky way of hinting to Solomon that "our" actually means "MC and me". Not the angels, nor the demons. What if this hint totally went under Solomon's notice?

"What if your adorable apprentice were to get caught up in this?"

Nightbringer alludes to his hint again, suggesting that if MC were to get involved in their tug-of-war, Solomon's convictions may be tested. Which makes sense. If the MC's motivations does not align with Solomon's, it could pose a problem for him, as he needs MC to help him in safeguarding humanity's best interests.

Solomon here perceives Nightbringer's statement to be a threat. What if this is Nightbringer's way of holding the MC "hostage" to keep Solomon in check? That one wrong move from him would actually hurt the MC.

But alternatively, this could also be a warning from Nightbringer: If Solomon ends up on the "wrong" side, they'll find that their own apprentice will be working together with Nightbringer to go against him.

"You think you know what it is your apprentice truly wants? That you can see inside the heart of another? That doesn't strike you as overconfident?"

Here is where we see the first clue that Solomon could actually be unaware of MC's previous deal with Nightbringer and of their intention to remain in the past with the brothers. Even when Solomon insists that he and MC want the same thing, Nightbringer brands his trust in MC as overconfidence instead. If MC and Nightbringer had some implicit agreement beforehand, it would make sense for Nightbringer to be so confident that MC would not side with Solomon in the end. After all, Nightbringer would know that all MC wants is to create their ideal world. MC is actively working towards securing their place with the demon brothers of the past. Obviously, MC wouldn't care to engage in any power struggle between the 3 realms.

So from Nightbringer's perspective, Solomon looks like the fool here, which is why he later says that Solomon "has confidence to the point of arrogance". And Nightbringer is proven correct when Solomon tries to test the MC's convictions at the Fountain of Knowledge in Lesson 11. In the end, the MC chose to swear their allegiance to the demon brothers over protecting themself.

This gives even more credence to the idea that this entire conversation is a warning from Nightbringer, to tell Solomon to stay in line or he will suffer the consequences of the eventual fallout that will occur...

Sounds great, but what does this all mean?

Unfortunately, we don't see Solomon speak with Nightbringer after this scene. And after Lesson 11, the story derails from this plot point to focus on MC regaining the brothers' trust again. So it's still unclear what Solomon and Nightbringer's motives (and the reason they're trying to test the MC) truly are. But based on the possibilities I've raised so far, I have some ideas:

1. Solomon and MC: The pawns in Nightbringer's game

Solomon, the MC and Nightbringer. All three characters have their own goals that they still keep close to their chest. So Nightbringer takes advantage of the humans' convictions to achieve his aim. It is easy to get Solomon to cooperate with Nightbringer, since we know that Nightbringer was the one who made Solomon the person he is today. Nightbringer could call upon that debt to get Solomon to cooperate with him. Double-so if Solomon feels that Nightbringer is holding MC hostage. Nightbringer is also aware of MC's desire to go to the past and meet the brothers and uses this to his advantage to get MC to make pacts with the brothers again. Neither Solomon nor the MC have to know of each other's true goal here. But Nightbringer can orchestrate things using his two beloved humans to achieve the outcome he desires. This would be a case of reluctant cooperation between all three parties, for now...

2. Solomon as the sacrificial lamb

...But when the time comes, each party will then go on to pursue their own interests.

Though Solomon knows that MC needs to form pacts with the brothers' again, he does not seem to know that MC wants to remain in the past together with the brothers, that MC may be willing to abandon their previous life to forge their own ideal world. Or he may have some idea, but is convinced that the MC will make the right decision in the end. So he'd be in for a rude shock when MC finally has the pacts, turns around and says "Actually, I'm going to use these pacts to go to my ideal world, just like Nightbringer promised me!" Then Nightbringer's warning may become a reality, depending on if Solomon deems MC's new goal as a danger to humanity.

3. The MC as the sacrificial lamb (hehe)

The MC and Nightbringer both agreed that the pacts are required so MC can go to their ideal world. But what if Nightbringer is omitting some important information here? We have to remember Michael's warning in Lesson 13: That the MC will be making an enemy of the Celestial Realm should they choose to side with Nightbringer. One has to wonder why Nightbringer is so invested in bringing the MC the "happiness they desire" after all. The MC could find a cruel betrayal waiting for them at the end of the road....

Points 1, 2 and 3 here are all connected to each other, but it's possible that only one or two of these ideas may be happening. Cuz if the finale is just some Yakuza 2 shit, where everyone just ends up betraying each other in the last 15 minutes of the game, that would be ridiculous. Then again, looking at how Lesson 38 of NB went down, that kind of thing does fit the NB team's writing appro-- wait, why do I hear an angry mob outside?

To sum up:

Solomon and Nightbringer are not the only schemers here. MC is just as sneaky and manipulative, and if they play their cards right, they can give the former two a run for their money. The possibilities of how this can play out are endless!

I don't care about the brothers' trauma, game! Whatever's going on with these three is WAY more interesting *gnaws on the bars of my cell*