#Path to Freedom

[yameee23]

NEW MINI CHAPTER

I WROTE A SMALL CHATPER 2 BC EXAMS ARE KILLING ME RN

[jamestippins]

When Death is Better Than Growth

The Rift Within: How We Drift, How We Return Growth often feels like acceleration.Achievement, momentum, forward motion.But the quieter reality is that every great expansion is preceded by an invisible tearing — a soft fracture between who you have been and who you are no longer willing to be. No one teaches us how to recognize this.The world cheers for our ambition.The world praises our…

[ryanranney]

The Sharpened Blade

Who dares to toss every comfort And every security And every warmth And every option Into the fire? When every chain is loosed That confined one life to its path When every principle is set aside And every chastity is released Burning away at the pit Set ablaze in glorious flame Naked without recourse to repent This choice Starving at the loss of it all Running into the uncharted woods Stripped…

[neostellarjpg]

i like ralsei hes so regular and nothings going on with him

[lavellaned]

A lot of the pro-veilguard arguments I see include a very specific way of viewing what “dark fantasy” is which misses the entire point as to why there are criticisms about the overall tone of the game.

Dark fantasy is not just “how much murder rape bigotry and overall suffering can we put in a story for the sake of doing so”.

It’s about having events and themes based off of the darker parts of reality and then, as the player, being able to do something about it. The general appeal is the catharsis. It’s about seeing these stories reflected through an interactive story in a meaningful, respectful, purposeful way.

Is dragon age the poster child for handling its complicated, real-life-inspired politics well? No. But veilguard was somehow worse. The bar was in hell and it still tripped flat on its face.

Veilguard’s lackadaisical, chronically ironic “well THAT just happened”, neutered writing and theme is not a good argument as to why this is a good dragon age game, and you can’t blame the dark fantasy genre for it.

[carpethedamndiemdejavu]

Artist: Kamila Kansy

[rambrant]

“As for your punishment Ser Cole,” exclaimed Viserys, “you are hereby dismissed from the kingsguard, so you may spend a lifetime of headaches with my dear daughter!”

Prince Consort Criston Cole Targaryen

"The Queenmaker"

Rider of Zysorrig

For @ghostlydarknight 😘

[rosefires20]

My brainrot today is thinking about just how incredible for a character Eowyn is.

Genuinely. The series might not have many female characters but the ones we do get go so fucking hard.

To me, Eowyn is literally the definition of defining being a woman for oneself. She rejects the roles she is given despite acknlowdging the importance and its mostly because she knows part of the reason is that she is a woman.

The reason why she is obsessed with Aragorn isn't because she loves him but because she wants what he has. She wants the freedom and courage and bravery that Aragorn has at every turn. She literally has multiple conversations during the Two Towers about how what she fears most is a cage. All this girl wants is the freedom to be and not be forced into a role. The best thing is that she literally gets that.

The segment of Return of the King about Eowyn and Faramir is literally about her piecing together what she truly wants. She doesn't want Aragorn. She wants freedom and the ability to choose. Faramir does nothing but encourage that in her. Their love story is literally one of the healthiest love stories I've seen in a long time because at the heart of it, their love is a place to return home to for both parties. Both go off to lead and help their people for a considerable amount of time before returning to each other but that does not diminish their bond. Even Faramir, I believe, falls in love with her bravery and dedication to her loved ones. The reason she went to Pelenor Fields and Gondor with the troops of Rohan was because she had things she wanted to fight for. She wanted to fight for herself, her people, and her loved ones. She is the one who protects Theoden after he is killed so that his body gets the treatment it deserves. She encourages Merry and helps him go to the battle because she sees her struggle in Merry. They feel helpless standing around when there are things to be doing.

Let's also not forget the fact that she was around Grima Wormtounge just as much as the King was. She was exposed to the same poison and awful words that eroded the king. It's even implied that her care for him is part of the reason why Theoden was savable when Gandalf showed up. She had the same power and bravery as everyone else even if she didn't see it in herself.

Then at the end of the day, SHE decides where she wants to go and what path she wants to walk. She walked the path of a warrior. The path of a princess/ruler. The path of a caretaker. But in the end she decides which elements truly mean something to her outside of gender definitions. That is what makes her character so incredible to me. In this she literally kills one of the biggest enemies in that battle with such a badass line.

[felassan]

What kind of spirit do you think Felassan waz?

Swag

[mebis-rain-world-corner]

On The Prince's awakening, and enlightenment through echoes

While the throne has probably existed for eons, and something was starting to coalesce at its peak, it is pretty openly stated that it is watcher's precense in the throne what acted as catalyst for the birth of the prince's selfhood

Ahh! To move! To breathe free!

Never again... STARVING, pressing, grinding, SQUEEZING

against... us? But now... I? A... SELF And... an OTHER.

Oh the joy! The incomparable JOY!

Ahhh hah... familiar.

There was... such discomfort... and hunger. Endless hunger! And then... a presence!

A light! A scent! A tunnel! To freedom! How beautiful, FREEDOM!

A scent. Familiar. So familiar.

The watcher is probably the first living thing to be to the throne proper in an eternity

But I think there's more to this

4 karma "murals", 4 karma upgrades

4 visits, 4 warp points

Watcher's visits brought enlightenment like visiting echoes would do for a slugcat

"The highest enlightenment, achieved by the hardest path. A feat even guardians must respect" This achievement requires the player to raise their maximum karma to the highest level without visiting Five Pebbles. To do this, the player must find 4 out of the 6 Echoes, each of which raise the player's maximum karma by a small amount. All 4 Echoes must be found before visiting Five Pebbles. The achievement is earned as soon as the last Echo raises the player's karma level to the maximum of 10.

And is not as simple as just visiting 4 times either: for this awakening to properly progress you must make it to the top, eat the karma flower, then make it to a previously sealed chamber to open a warp point there

almost as if you're opening new pathways in its brain (tree)

A light! A scent! A tunnel! To freedom! How beautiful, FREEDOM!

These paths you weave. Through them I have expanded my kingdom. I have tasted and I have become. It is my true purpose I believe. Perhaps the only purpose!

Enlightenment is gaining knowledge, understanding, insight

Perhaps Echoes don't just give you more karma merely by merit of being extraplanar beings with influence over karma itself, or by the insight behind their anecdotes

Perhaps Echoes give you a glimpse into what lies beyond, a window to the fractal layers of reality

Perhaps what is happening here is something similar, the watcher showing the throne other worlds through the paths

the karma flowers though, thats harder to understand

perhaps the one at the very top represents the little death that is sleep ("like sleep like death")

Echoes always send you back to sleep after all

[fatedroses]

And some days, I just wish you wouldn't look at me at all.

[worldcleansingdragon]

I still have so many thoughts about IOTD because. holy hell, hoyo can actually cook once in a while

Especially about this specific scene:

I think we all know this wasn't really Dan Feng, right? Rather just Dan Heng's perception of him, how he was taught to see him for all this time? As a cruel, cold and unfeeling person (if they introduced him as a person at all) who has no compassion?

So, in reality, this scene is just Dan Heng's own conscience telling him to finally move on, accept the past that's behind him and live his life to the fullest.

It reminds me of the last part of DHIL's character stories:

Everything about Dan Heng is about never looking back and looking towards the bright future, even if it means going against fate.

Dan Heng's arc didn't end, it barely started.

[wrentalks]

Sure, love is beautiful, but lately I find Freedom much more interesting.

It would have been nice to have them both, but this is not my story, and so...

Freedom it is.

[ilumel]

not to be dramatic about crow’s haircut but it marks such a beautiful moment of character development for him. he finally met cayde, the man uldren killed, whose memory crow carried for years with a crushing sense of guilt, grief, and responsibility…and crow was welcomed by him instead of hated.

it allowed him to move forward. at least to an extent.

crow considered cayde to be one of the last pieces of his past life that he could never allow himself to be forgiven for—he was trapped by the knowledge of what his hands had done when they had been uldren’s. he kept uldren’s haircut like a punishment, an eternal reminder of the pain he had caused. i don’t think it’s a coincidence that the moment cayde embraced him as freely as he did, crow finally allowed himself to let go of that last physical tether to uldren.

he cuts his hair, and sees a new face in the mirror. his own. one that looks like him, not cayde-6’s murderer. he will always carry that pain, just as he will always honor cayde’s memory with newfound fondness…but now he meets his grief with the warmth and understanding that cayde gifted him. crow is free at last to allow himself to embrace his own identity, having finally been given permission to do so by the only person in the whole galaxy that could have granted it.

[histhoughtslately]

[carpethedamndiemdejavu]

"The Great Goddess is a virgin in the same way that a forest is a virgin - able to call forth life from within herself with the help of nothing but the golden light of the Sun. In fact, the word virgin meant something very different in the ancient world from what it has come to mean today. It came from the Latin for strength and power, the root that gives us the same generative energy as virility.

"When the ancient goddesses - Ishtar, Astarte, Inanna, Isis, Diana, Athena... and yes, Mary - were described as virgins, it didn't mean that they had never been touched, had never felt desire, or had never experienced sexual union. It meant that no man could own them or defile them. They were not pure or chaste, but green and powerful, these virgins - able to resurrect the land and remake the world with the coming of every spring.

"We are called not to purity, but to romance. We are called to find our Beloved, called to seek our heart's desire. We are called to fall in love with the Lady and the Earth."

-The Way of the Rose