#Execution discussion

[rubberduckyrye]

Okay now I want to talk about the execution I've made for Jaden so infodump time???

For Jaden's execution, here are the aspects of it that I made as a sort of "Character Study":

The first theme it runs on is of drowning. Jaden has a fear of the deep ocean and of drowning, so it's a given that would be the main themes of his despair.

However, he is also tied up, specifically his hands are tied to be above his head. He has issues with his vocal chords and unable to raise his voice about a low whisper, so he uses ASL as his main method of communicating in a non painful way--so tying up his hands essentially makes him unheard. Jaden is an advocate in many aspects and tries to use his "voice" to speak up for the things he advocates for, so to be essentially silenced is maddening to him. You can also see it as he killed someone under the influence of the Obedience Disease and not of his own free will, so this also symbolizes his "hands being tied" in the situation.

Also--for all of his life, people belittled him for being a digital artist and not a traditional one, making him resent the medium of traditional art--which is why he specifically drowns in a classic medium for traditional art, paint.

Jaden also hates street violence and gun violence especially, and you know what paint balls are shot out of? Guns.

Every aspect about Jaden's execution is made to make him feel miserable in his final moments. From the fear of drowning, to being silenced, to dying to a thing he resents, to dying to a violence he despises. This execution is tailor made to him--and it barely has anything to do with Digital Art.

... Honestly it makes me want to work on Kurochi's execution concept more, because while I do play with the Despair of wanting to live after it's too late, I think I can invoke more despair in his execution.

[d8tl55c]

what if dark speaks exclusively in 2010s internet memes

like actually

bc i was thinking about chosen: with the timespan they've lived on c!alan's PC, they probably have a rather developed vocabulary, having stuff that c!alan read (articles on websites full of pop-ups) or wrote (graded essays) as entertainment.

but dark is on the PC for less than 8 minutes. minus any headcanons about how much language Symbols come pre-loaded with, the only stuff he's read is whatever he caught during the fight, whatever was left after he destroyed it, or anything he found on the Internet after escaping.

chatting with cho he probably learns more words. but also talking only in obscure references to be above everyone else in that "in the know" sort of way seems like a very dark-coded thing to do. xd

before i thought of dark's voice as super prim and proper because of his history as a limb of the PC security system, but perhaps! he would pull an Uno reverse card and specifically project himself as more casual as a rejection of his past.

and then chosen would be the Uppercase for the first word, the correct grammar, and the period after every sentence. type of person.

because anything other than correct,

they were taught to burn. ✨ 🔥

[st4rd0lly]

i’m sorry but i NEED yandere chuuya to fuck so deep and lovingly to the point where you’re just a pile of lovesick mush beneath him. another argument with your friends? darling, can’t you just see that’s the reason why you only ever need him? they aren’t good for you, but chuuya treats you so nicely. burying his cock deep inside of you, going a nice pace, fucking you through every orgasm and letting those tears become tears of pleasure. he kisses and worships ever inch of your body obsessively and possessively. he’ll take care of your friends for you don’t worry about them right now. just focus your pretty little head on him <3

[wackywatchdotcom]

sometimes i am haunted by the imagery of gangle putting on a mask that has a face but no actual holes for the eyes or mouth. that the other side of the mask is completely, utterly blank

[purplemoonfox]

Ramblings on the Senate Building in Clone Wars vs Andor and aesthetics IRL...and a tiny aside about the security presence there

Some spoilers for the end of s2 of Andor

I might be late to the party with this (I've never been super involved in fandom, I'm a lurker, so I'm usually on the outs) but oh well.

I cannot watch any scene in the Senate Building in Andor without wincing—and not because the show is bad.

Andor is so good it beggars my ability to describe how much it's what I've been begging for for years and knew Star Wars could potentially be. I cry a lot while watching it though. I’ve got my issues with Bix’s ending (what exactly did the generic baby ending add to the story or to her already crippled agency) but I can deal.

One of these days I'm going to get off my ass and think about the juxtaposition of culture as an active source of community and strength vis a vis Luthen Rael selling other peoples' provenance to rich consumers who keep things on sterile podiums. Maybe tie in that he doesn’t get along with the wider Rebellion somehow idk.

This is going to meander a little, please bear with me. Summary at the very end because I absolutely like to go on.

It’s not that the portrayal of the Senate building in Andor is in any way bad; it’s that it's so white it’s blinding. It's sterile, like a hospital room. And like everything else in Andor, that must be a deeply intentional choice apologies to Valencia, Spain for this entire post, your building seems like it would be very nice when it's not the home base of a shit ton of complacent fat cats content to do nothing until it affects them directly.

Coruscant in general also reflects this...cleansing, as we see in season one when Syril Karn goes back to live with his mother (is this purely a Topside thing?). In the prequels we see so many non-humans, whereas in Andor, 90% of everyone we see are human. Coruscant (and we only see Topside, tbf) is more colorful at a ground level in the prequels and TCW than it ever is in Andor. Hell, it even seemed to me like Coruscant's air traffic had been cut down by at least half, as well.

For comparison, here is a still from TCW of a concourse:

Note the dark, rich colors. Other areas are similar in theme and illumination.

Here's one from AOTC, and I believe this one is in the Senate building, not the Executive building:

Now here's Andor:

That is excruciating. I need sunglasses, my eyes are shit enough. Also, blue, like the Madonna, Mon? Fucking classic <3. Yes i know blue and orange are the Rebellion's colors but my limited familiarity with art history won't be ignored lol.

The thing about conservative bends is that conservatives tend to prefer "clean," modest aesthetics because they tend to look towards a mythical past where people "did an honest day's labor" and humbly didn't have even the desire for fancy stuff (haha so very false people have always liked nice things you just literally can't get nice shit if you're a subsistence laborer unable to go anywhere else because you're legally bound to the land and are one bad harvest away from starving to death while your God-ordained feudal landlord is a dick who deserves more because God said he's a better breed of person...no seriously the Brits still deal with class issues this many centuries later for a reason, and there's also a reason that in some shows somebody has the ONE somewhat pretty hair pin they pull out of an otherwise destitute hovel...although that being said the image of impoverished peasantry was definitely a tax evasion scheme in some cases so like...it's complicated LOL).

Famously, Shitler didn't like women wearing red lipstick, or any makeup really. These days, the "clean girl" aesthetic is apparently popular because men can't tell the difference between a sick person and a woman not wearing any makeup, so no makeup isn't an option.

It also plays into something I like to call "light is not always good, dark is not always bad." Light can be piercing, even blinding; dark can evoke rich and fertile soil. I'd be more inclined to describe the Clone Wars-era Senate building as less fertile and more antediluvian and decomposing, and really lived in like an old house, but there is meaning in gutting it and making it all bright white and almost airy, with no shadows.

Makes it a lot easier to keep an eye on everyone, for instance.

It's in the same vein that "clean aesthetics" creates a narrower definition of what constitutes an acceptable appearance, and makes it a lot easier to catch out and target any divergence from the expected norm. It makes even something as mundane as being sick that day stand out.

The Senate complex etc.

I tried very hard to find some pictures of anything outside the Senate building in Clone Wars, but it seems like that's relatively limited to establishing shots. But note the difference between these two; the below being in Andor:

This is what's between the two in Andor:

This area is, I believe, where Kloris waited for Mon Mothma, and Cassian took off from--and the landing pad images I can find from the prequels are located in the Executive building/Senate office building (when Anakin saw Padme after getting off the shuttle post battle of Coruscant in ROTS, and earlier where Cad Bane landed in TCW).

With architecture like in Andor, it's easy to keep people out in the open on predictable, observable paths (can't walk on water, you'll walk on the pathways around it, and the Empire’s apparent love of reflection pools as a repeated choice of external decoration, as seen outside the ISB too, deserves its own post), and elevated in a way that the amount of stuff between the two buildings does not make possible in the prequels; this is the Executive building in AOTC (also known as the Senate Office building, where Palpatine and the Senators have their offices, and I believe based on building placement that this is not from the side that faces the Senate building, so the Senate building would be hidden behind it):

I looked hard for landing bays for Senators/visitors to use attached to the Senate building itself but it seems like the Executive building is where the landing pad is (which, how the fuck they get between the two in the prequels, I'm still not sure, but in Andor it looks like they can walk). Mon Mothma mentions the loading bay in Andor when they're making their escape, which is in the Senate building, but that's it. If I am wrong, please correct me.

I'm reminded of the difference between Medieval cities and those that came after (and before, really, if we're being honest, as the Romans loved urban planning...they also loved conquest and control): Medieval cities were close, organic, warren-like, and hard to navigate for anyone but those from that area or very familiar with it. Later cities would be constructed with wide, grid plans because...well, aside from being a lot more navigable to an outsider, it's a lot easier to move around on wide avenues and keep your population under control. There is a lot less local knowledge and a lot more power politics in play.

And then irl there's the whole diminishing of the Commons and the ceding of the road to automobiles (it was not a given that cars should take precedent), and...anyway. I digress. I do that a lot.

The ultimate point is, the Empire seems to have done a thorough job of making it impossible for anyone to be out of sight in the Senate. There are no more shadows or warm colors, or columns to talk to your secret wife behind, just stark white to contrast against, on an elevated walkway. The architecture is structural, whereas in the prequels there are organic-looking statues and a lot less of a bottleneck (although I can't easily tell which side this plaza is supposed to be on, to be fair):

Apparently, this, the above Senate Plaza contained an Avenue of the Core Founders which was by the time of the Clone Wars subject to criticism for not being representative of the multi-species Republic, as it was basically of all humanoid peoples, who formed the Republic in the Core Worlds way back when--I think this place still exists during the Empire but as of 5 years into the Empire they were planning to put a statue of Palpatine in it instead, so maybe by the time Andor happens the multitude of statues in this area have been replaced by a statue of the Emperor.

In a rather literal sense by the time the events of Andor happen it seems the Senate has been put on a pedestal in a way that keeps them in the open, observable, and also effectively cut off from the rest of the populace of Coruscant, and differentiated and deprioritized rel. the Emperor can't imagine he wants too many visitors, he wants them squabbling on the floor.

Side note

Also where the abject fuck are my goddamn Corries. Last known sighting of Corries in red paint besides seeing how they held on to the red in TBB is of shock troopers in the comics in 14BBY. Mon Mothma's speech in the Senate happened like twelve years after the comic appearance, and the Stormtroopers we see pursuing Mon Mothma and Cassian aren't wearing any red paint.

There's also no Senate Guards in their Roman-esque armor. The blue-uniformed fuckers with shitty breastplates are probably what's meant to have become of them. Shitty riot gear (also seen when they stormed the safe house) seems to be a mainstay in any security force that isn't the Imperial military itself. In my mind, if the Coruscant Guard still exists at all, it was probably just stripped of of its paint and had its ranks filled with conscripts, even though the Guard evidently managed to hold on to theirs longer than most.

That is very much a choice as well; by stripping the Senate Guard itself of effective armor and stripping the troopers assigned to the Senate (they showed up hella fast if they weren't) of any distinguishing marks, and not even having the Guards on the floor as visibly as they were shown in TCW or the prequels, it essentially keeps all the aesthetic...uniqueness? On the Emperor, and keeps the main source of any actually effective security in the hands of an indistinguishable Imperial military.

In short the flattening of aesthetics is likely meant to emphasize the Emperor's position and importance and erases the diversity of the species within the Empire.

Summary:

The Senate building and attendant security forces' aesthetic changes between the prequel era and Andor could reflect a desire to expose and control the Senate, and emphasize the preeminence of the Emperor while also downplaying individual elements of the Empire.

Oh shit I actually managed to make that a short one

[logicallyblind]

i’m at a ball right now and i’m ngl i’m writing a batfam civilian au in my notes app as we speak cause i’m getting both a) heaps of first hand references for how galas work and b) if i have to discuss the political climate one more time tonight i’m going to lose my mind-

[drolta]

wot s3: so Moiraine is gonna die.

wot s3 finale: SIKE! we’re actually gonna brutally still and behead Siuan bc her story is finished and Moiraine needs more emotional turmoil! :)

[mynarco]

klark probably never told louter about the cage

[kismetconstellations]

♡ ♡ ♡ for @sockdooe

[noctuadora]

"I can't."

a simple sentence that frustrated me to hell on my first watch. "what, that's it? why aren't you saying anything else to her? couldn't you explain?"

see, a lot (even me, initially) have interpreted his words as simply just:

"I can't give the chip because I can't let you expose the truth to the public." (they stop there.)

and this might've been the moment people accused him of becoming a corrupt government lapdog - whatever you name it. a year later however, it became clear to me (after reading tons of character studies about Leon lmao) that these words were meant to be interpreted as:

"I can't give the chip because I can't let you get hunted down by the government. I almost lost you (in the acid), so I can't let you do this. I don't want you to die."

he mentioned it before to Shen Mei, who shared the same sentiments as Claire: "if I do that [give you the chip], you'll have every agent in the US hunting you." I couldn't help but wonder: if Leon -does- give the chip to Claire, is there a possibility that he'll also be assigned by the gov't to hunt her down too?

in the case of Claire: I've seen people say she was being immature, but think about it: she had seen the horrors of Raccoon City and witnessed what Sherry had been through. because of that, she dedicated her life to helping victims of bioterrorism. she has always been swift to justice, albeit reckless and driven by emotion. to me, it might've seemed like she did have an idea of what consequences there would be in store for her; but if it meant exposing the truth to the public and stopping another RC incident, she would put her life at risk.

that's just the way Claire is. and Leon understands. he knows. but his desire to protect her is stronger than I personally expected. and I don't even mean this from a shipping standpoint; this is also just the way Leon is when it comes to life itself.

it's impossible to save everyone. he knows that better than anyone else. yet he persists. time and again, he gave up his security, his safety, to save someone else. this time, it's no different.

he knows she's disappointed, and of course he's not fine with it (who would?). but it's okay for her to walk away from him, as long as she's alive and safe. as long as he can protect her, that's all that matters.

[kradogsrats]

Random thought: humans use the South Star/Leola's Last Wish to navigate, which means its position in the sky doesn't change because it's aligned with the planet's axis of rotation. It doesn't matter how bright the star is (though that's a bonus)... to be used for navigation, it has to be a fixed point of reference.

(Side note: the fact that it's the South Star would mean the continent is in the southern hemisphere of the planet... but I've basically given up on trying to understand this world as an actual planetary body with geology and climate.)

Aaravos will return to the world when his "stars align," which is... not actually something that happens. Stars do move relative to each other but we'd be talking a timescale not of "seven years or seven hundred," but seven billion for something like that. When we talk about the stars aligning, we're describing the motion and alignment of planetary bodies in our solar system relative to earth. Assuming the "star alignment" for Great Ones to manifest is similarly relative to Xadia, for (one of) Leola's star(s) to have been made a fixed, unmoving point could mean her stars will simply never align again. Hence why she's dead-dead while Aaravos cannot die.

But wouldn't that just mean she's returned to the Heavens? Well, hear me out on this: I don't think that's an actual, like... place. Like I don't think all the other Startouch elves are actually partying together somewhere, because if that was the case, Aaravos would probably be a little bit less cavalier about being dumped back in the middle of them halfway through executing his grand revenge plan. It's probably more a state of low-key stasis or hibernation, with some degree of awareness but not really any capability to take meaningful action, with the exception of the council or whatever.

Anyway, just thinking about how we all theorized that "Leola's Last Wish" was somehow centered around humanity—to guide them, or otherwise be their light in the darkness, etc.—because she tragically and nobly loved them, when really it's the manifested yearning of a terrified little girl for the security of her father's love.

[fumifooms]

Did you notice that in the anime chilchuck blushes when he sees marcille in the red dress? I skimmed through the marchil crumbs master post and from what I saw you didn't mention it

Also its not from the ale since he wasn't blushing right before that

Ah yeah, don’t worry it’s because part 8 of the crumbs masterpost isn’t out yet, I’ve been lazy with it but it’s been overdue ever since the second half of season 2 started, and it does have a buncha stuff don’t you even worry lol my god… I just need to get out some stuff for it first. Ahh good times

On this though: I personally don’t give it much weight but it’s valid to read into it.

What we know:

Against: - Kui does make characters blush both when they’re drunk AND when they laugh. - Chil is confirmed drunk/tipsy in that scene because in the picture above his little mood chibi is drunk lol. - The point of the scene is that he laughs at her, the joke is that he laughs at her. If there’s subtext it’s still very much secondary and easy to miss and ‘besides the point’ anyways, buut does this subtext exist? Well…

For: - In the dating sim cover, the other option was "tell her she looks pretty". None of the choices seem outrageous for his character so it’s not random throwaway lines, though of course the reasoning behind it may be as simple as ‘it’s formality’. In the chapter cover, Marcille’s section is the one on top of every other one at center stage, which makes sense since it’s for bicorn chapter and bicorn chapter is THE Marcille & Chil chapter. In all of the choice dialogue bubbles on the cover, out of the 7 ones the hand is always over the choice he picks except for Marcille’s and Falin’s, indicating he might have hesitated. - Short of being a half-foot with a sultry face, Marcille is Chilchuck’s type. - The face he’s making in his little mood emoji in the dating sim picture lol? You may be drunk but pull yourself together omg - Chilchuck does deflect his more compromising feelings so this would be in character. Marcille is the only character he teases so much so often and it’s implied to be because he finds her reaction fun, full with shojo filter and sparkles all around her with his mind. Do with this what you will… Schoolboy pulling on the pigtails of the girl he like’s pigtails.

Neutral: - we don’t see the milisecond of realization on Chil’s face in the manga. - we don’t see his face after spitting out all his ale in the anime lol. - what could be "canon" in the manga may not be in the anime and vice versa.

Also whatever the hell this is. We all know not to give too much weight to VA’s takes but also what!! I always thought in the manga that Chilchuck wasn’t the one calling frogsuit Marcille cute so that was already a steel chair to me but lol the point of him saying that in the scene was still very much to follow through on the bait she took lmaoo. I don’t thiiink Chilchuck would think the frog suit genuinely makes Marcille look cute idk. Kigurumi enjoyer Chilchuck confirmed… And I feel like if this is true then Chilchuck wouldn’t have much problem giving her a casual compliment over her looks in the golden kingdom scene either. But also?!! 👁👁

Chil’s jp VA has also said that Marcille is cute (Marcille’s jp va said Chilchuck is cute too but that’s besides the point. 16:05 here). And got into some trouble for acting overly familiar with Marcille’s VA, somewhere in this haven’t looked myself yet. So there might be a whole unrelated thing there?? I’ll cover it more fully in the crumbs masterpost hopefully, after some more investigation. Gdbdg so yeah several layers of putting crumbs under magnifiers like they could be fake gemstones to appraise their authenticity and thus value

Stare. Play it cool.

I love it when he does this it’s so cute. Cheers, raising my cup to you

[de-noodle]

Off topic but this funk ahh Child needs to be tossed

[ozmatippetarius]

Parallels in The Dark Is Rising -> Dark Rise Scenes

When I read Dark Rise two years ago, I couldn't escape the nagging feeling that "this scene feels just like a The Dark Is Rising scene". It had been 20+ years since I read The Dark Is Rising though, so I wasn't sure how much I was false-memorying based on superficial similarities like the titles or character names. Well, I spent 16 hours on a train yesterday re-reading The Dark Is Rising for the first time since elementary school, and felt very vindicated that there truly are so many parallels. I thought it would be interesting to compile some of them in a post.

Exhibit A

Will Stanton getting the First Sign

“I have something for you.” He glanced briefly round the yard, and withdrew one hand from his pocket; in it, Will saw what looked like a kind of ornament, made of black metal, a flat circle quartered by two crossed lines. He took it, fingering it curiously. It was about the size of his palm, and quite heavy; roughly forged out of iron, he guessed, though with no sharp points or edges. The iron was cold to his hand. “What is it?” he said. “For the moment,” Mr. Dawson said, “just call it something to keep. To keep with you always, all the time. Put it in your pocket, now. And later on, loop your belt through it and wear it like an extra buckle.” Will slipped the iron circle into his pocket. “Thank you very much,” he said, rather shakily. Mr. Dawson, usually a comforting man, was not improving the day at all. The farmer looked at him in the same intent, unnerving way, until Will felt the hair rise on the back of his neck; then he gave a twisted half-smile, with no amusement in it but a kind of anxiety. “Keep it safe, Will. And the less you happen to talk about it, the better. You will need it after the snow comes.”

-> Will Kempen getting the medallion

“Take this. It belonged to your mother.” My mother? Danger and desire fought. He wanted to take it. The yearning was like a pain even as he remembered those awful final moments as she had looked up at him, her blue dress covered in blood. Run. “Show it to the Stewards, and they will know what to do. They are the only ones left who do. They will give you the answers, I promise. But there isn’t much time. I must return before they notice I’m gone.” [...] Will reached out. He half expected those men from the docks to descend on him at any moment. He half expected this to be a trick or a trap. He picked up the package, his fingers numb with cold. Unwinding the tie, he saw a rusted piece of metal. He could barely feel its jagged edges, he was so cold. But he could feel its weight, unexpectedly heavy, as though it was made of gold or lead. Will angled it for better light. And felt the shiver go through his whole body. Roughly circular, twisted, it was an old, broken medallion. He recognized it. He had seen it before.

Exhibit B

Will Stanton finding the Doors

The sky was clear, and the sunshine warm on the back of his neck. He stood on a snow-mounded hill, with a copse of tall trees capping it far beyond, and two black birds drifting tiny to and fro above the trees. And before him, standing alone and tall on the white slope, leading to nowhere, were two great carved wooden doors.

-> Will Kempen finding the Gate

A broken arch, standing alone on the ruined moor—it was a gate to nowhere, lit by the moon. It stood out starkly against the sky. A few tumbled stones might have formed part of a long-ago wall, but had long since fallen into the water.

Exhibit C

Will Stanton's first magic lesson

"There is a circle of candle flames beside you there on the table, Will Stanton. Now—do you know of any possible way of putting out one of those flames, other than blowing it out or quenching it with water or snuffer or hand?” “No.” “No. There is none. But now, I tell you that you, because you are who you are, can do that simply by wishing it. For the gift that you have, this is a very small task indeed. If in your mind you choose one of those flames and think of it without even looking, think of it and tell it to go out, then that flame will go out. And is that a possible thing for any normal boy to do?” “No,” Will said unhappily. “Do it,” Merriman said. “Now.” There was a sudden thick silence in the room, like velvet. Will could feel them both watching him. He thought desperately: I’ll get out of it, I’ll think of a flame, but it won’t be one of those; it’ll be something much bigger, something that couldn’t be put out except by some tremendous impossible magic even Merriman doesn’t know…. He looked across the room at the light and shadow dancing side by side across the rich tapestries on the stone walls, and he thought hard, in furious concentration, of the image of the blazing log fire in the huge fireplace behind him. He felt the warmth of it on the back of his neck, and thought of the glowing orange heart of the big pile of logs and the leaping yellow tongues of flame. Go out, fire, he said to it in his mind, feeling suddenly safe and free from the dangers of power, because of course no fire as big as that could possibly go out without a real reason. Stop burning, fire. Go out. And the fire went out.

-> Will Kempen's first magic lesson

What if I can’t? he thought. He remembered James with his hand outflung, the crate hanging in the air above him. What if I don’t have that power? He drew in a breath. “How?” “With light,” she said. “Look at the candle, and try to move the candle flame.” He sat in front of the candle. It was smooth and cream colored, made of beeswax, not tallow. The flame was an upright lozenge, bright and steady. Will looked at it and thought, Move. Nothing happened, no matter how much he wanted it to. Once or twice, he felt a wild stab of hope. Did I do it? But the candle’s few shifts and flickers were due to air currents, not because of him. “As you did with the Tree Stone,” said the Elder Steward, “reach beneath the surface. Look for a place deep inside.” Deep inside. He kept his eyes on the candle flame, willing it to move. It was a foolish feeling, like trying to look more intensely out of his eyes, or tense up the back of his head. He had failed to light the Tree. But this was just a single spark. A flame. He closed his eyes. He tried to picture the flame in his mind, to make it not just an image but a true embodiment of the flame. Distantly, he was aware that he was shaking. If he could just— Will opened his eyes, gasping. Nothing. The candle was steady. Not a single flicker.

Exhibit D

The Lady as the only force that can overcome the Dark alone, bound to return across the ages for that purpose

"The doors are our great gateway into Time, and you will know more about the uses of them before long. But this time you could not have opened them, nor I, nor perhaps any of the circle. For the force that was pushing against them was the full midwinter power of the Dark, which none but the Lady can overcome alone—and even she, only at great cost. Take heart; at the proper time, she will return.”

-> Literally the entirety of Dark Rise Sorry jk here is one scene

“They loved each other, and she killed him,” said the Elder Steward, “somewhere far to the south, near the Mediterranean Sea. We don’t know how she defeated him, only that she did. She was the only one who could.” He had so many questions. But churning at the heart of them all was, why? Why had Matthew pressed the Lady’s medallion on him? Why had Justice brought him to the Hall? Why had the Elder Steward told him he was the one the Stewards were seeking? Why did the Stewards look at him the way they did, with fear, awe, and hope? “You think I’m her, somehow.” The Elder Steward gave a slow nod. “You have her blood, passed down to you from your mother. And the Blood of the Lady is strong.” The Elder Steward’s voice was grave. “Strong enough to kill an ancient king. That is why Simon seeks you out.” She looked at him. “He is trying to return the Dark King. It is his one desire . . . the thing he seeks above all else. Under the Dark King’s dominion, dark magic would be returned to the world, humans slaughtered and subjugated as the past is brought into our present. Simon wants to stand over it all as the Dark King’s heir. And the Blood of the Lady is the only thing that can stop him.”

Exhibit E

The Walker cursed to wander alone for 600 years

The Walker still stared at Merriman, but his eyes did not see. They looked back through time, as the old man rediscovered all that he had forgotten, or pushed out of his mind. He said slowly, with mounting reproach, “You made me risk my life for a book. For a book. Then because I looked at kinder masters, you sent me back to my own time, but not as I had been before. You gave me then the doom of bearing the Sign.” His voice grew stronger with pain and resentment as he remembered. “The Sign of Bronze, through the centuries. You changed me from a man into a creature always running, always searching, always hunted. You stopped me from growing decently old in my own time, as all men after their lives grow old and tired and sink to sleep in death. You took away my right to death. You set me in my own century with the Sign, long, long ago, and you made me carry it through six hundred years until this age.” His eyes flickered towards Will, and flashed with hatred. “Until the last of the Old Ones should be born, to take the Sign from me. You, boy, it is all through you. This turning in time, that took away my good life as a man, it was all on your account. Before you were born, and after. For your damned gift of Gramarye, I lost everything I had ever loved.” “I tell you,” Merriman cried out, “you may come home, Hawkin! Now! It is the last chance, and you may turn to the Light and be as you were.” His proud, towering figure leaned forward, beseeching, and Will felt pain for him, knowing that he felt it was his own misjudgment that had brought his servant Hawkin into betrayal and the life of the wretched Walker, a whining shell committed to the Dark. Merriman said huskily: “I pray you, my son.” “No,” the Walker said. “I found better masters than you.”

-> Devon cursed to wander alone for ??? years

“You died,” said Devon. It was the first acknowledgment that Devon recognized him, and he ought to have felt a burst of relief. “And returned, as I promised,” said Visander. “This place—it was terrible to awaken here and think myself alone. So it must have been for you here without me for dozens of years—” Instead of speaking, the boy started to laugh, an awful sound. He said, in a voice of utter disbelief, “Dozens of years?” “Devon.” Visander said the unfamiliar name, and it felt so wrong, like the physical distance between them. Slowly, carefully, he said, “What is it? What’s wrong?” “What’s wrong?” The sound of that terrible laugh rang in Visander’s ears. “Years? You think that’s all it was? You think you were gone like a man who steps out for a moment and is greeted as a long-lost friend on his return?” “How long?” He remembered with a hollow, empty feeling the human world he had seen stretching out endlessly around him when he had stepped from the carriage. “How long have I been gone?” “You died,” said Devon. “And then everyone died. And a great silence fell; the silence of rot and emptiness and decay. And in the long march of endless time, sands covered the great cities, seas swallowed the buildings, and humans choked every part of this world.” [...] Visander reached out to touch him. “My steed, I—” “Don’t,” said Devon. “I am not that young colt I was. I will not bend my head for your bridle, or take your bit between my teeth.” Devon’s white face was cold as snow, his eyes like pale chips of ice. Visander felt dizzy. “But you work with these humans. Why?” “Because they’re going to bring the old world back.” “Bring it back? How?” “By raising the only one who can.” “No,” said Visander. It was as if the dark pit of the oubliette opened at his feet, a great abyss with no bottom. He remembered the shadows sweeping over the field at Garayan, the lights going out one by one. But he had always had Indeviel beside him. Now—there was a terrible new look in Devon’s eyes that had never been there before. “Who else has the power to remake the world in his image? To restore it to the way it should have been?” “No,” said Visander. “I don’t believe it.” Devon said, “He will rise, and drive every human from this land.” [...] He made a desperate plea. “You don’t have to fight for the Dark. You can come with me. You’re a unicorn.” He saw his words have no impact. How could Indeviel be so far out of reach, an untouchable white-haired boy, who seemed a thousand years away? “There’s nowhere to go,” said Devon. “It’s just humans, as far as the eye can see.” Visander’s gorge rose, and suddenly the room was a small wooden casket, and he was choking, with the taste of the earth in his mouth. “Don’t you remember our vow to each other? The pledge we made before the Long Ride?” Devon stared back at him, his eyes widening, as if the answer surprised him, when very little ever surprised him anymore. “No,” said Devon. “I don’t.”

^ This is the only one I've taken from Dark Heir, which I think in general moves away from referencing The Dark is Rising, but I'm very attached to it. I like the inversion of the Walker viewing Will as the reason for all of his struggles, versus Devon viewing Will as salvation.

And finishing off with quite a silly one:

James Stanton opening the first page of the novel

-> James St. Clair opening the first page of the novel

^ YMMV on whether this was intentional or a(n un)fortunate coincidence, but I do think it's funny either way. Honestly? With the similar sentence structures I'm leaning towards intentional.

[carlyraejepsans]

for real WHERE does the idea that [utdr humans] are nongendered so that "you can project on them" come from. their literal character arcs are about NOT being a blank slate to be filled in by the audience

i think i understand the assumption on some level for undertale, because there is a very intentional effort to make you identify with the "player character" in order to make your choices feel like your own (the beating heart of undertale's metanarrative lies in giving you an alternative path to violence against its enemies after all, and whether you're still willing to persue it for your own selfish reasons. YOUR agency is crucial).

of course, the cardinal plot twist of the main ending sweeps the rug from under your feet on that in every way, and frisk's individuality becomes, in turn, a tool to further UT's OTHER main theme: completionism as a form of diegetic violence within the story. replaying the game would steal frisk's life and happy ending from them for our own perverse sentimentality, emotionally forcing our hand away from the reset button.

i think their neutrality absolutely aids in that immersion. but also, there's this weird attitude by (mostly) cis fans where it being functional within the story makes it... somehow "editable" and "up to the player" as well? which is gross and shows their ass on how they approach gender neutrality in general lol.

but also like. there's plenty of neutral, non PCharacters in undertale and deltarune. even when undertale was just an earthbound fangame and the player immersion metanarrative was completely absent, toby still described frisk as a "young, androgynous person". sometimes characters are just neutral by design. it's not that hard to understand lol.

anyone who makes this argument for kris deltarune is braindead. nothing else to say about it.

[scrapimmortal]

me before reading arc 4: i don't really think hua cheng was evil for what he did to those 33 officials, i mean it was a fair and square bet and they were enthusiastic enough to accept when they were sure they'd get their hands on his ashes. then when they lost it suddenly wasn't for reals. they fucked around and found out

me after reading arc 4: oh hua cheng would have had my permission to do worse SOMEHOW