#So i'm treating myself with a Sieg drawing

[thesovereignsring-if]

Despite the fact that Sieghardt has blue hair I'm pretty sure whenever I read or think of him I just imagine white hair, maybe it because to be Sieghardt seems like a name someone with white hair would have

I've been bullying Sieg all day so here you go, Anon. Sieg will always be my silly blue hair bookie, but there's no deny the white + gold combo is 🤌

[skullgirrl]

Thoughts on Kat x Dante and Kat x Vergil

I'm suffering through major writers block recently so to try and push myself out of this I'm going to write down my thoughts and hope that they are semi-coherent.💀

I adore a good love triangle.

I see Kat/Vergil and Kat/Dante as two different ship dynamics

Kat/Vergil - right person, wrong time

Kat/Dante - soulmates (whether platonic or romantic)

I am more preferential to Kat/Dante only because we see him actually begin to care for her more than Vergil seems to over the course of the game (if you've seen my blog you know the amount of Kante propaganda I post💀)

The events of the game:

In the beginning of the game, straight off the bat, it's clear Vergil and Kat are very close or "tight" as Dante so eloquently observes😂 Kat and Vergil work as a team. Kat is indebted to Vergil because he helped her out of a tough childhood. Vergil is indebted to Kat because she acts as his right hand. Although, there aren't many scenes in the game where Kat and Vergil are in the same room (much less, hold a conversation together) but we can still assume they're a team and generally like each other. Kat's closer to Vergil than any other member of The Order. Nice, okay...

But then, through the events of the game Kat and Dante have more scenes together. They talk, they trauma bond, and even though at the beginning Dante was weary of trusting Vergil or Kat, he seems to slowly come out of his shell with Kat and trusts them both because of it.

But the siege of The Order's headquarters is really when we get to fully see the "flip":

up until this point, Vergil seemed closer to Kat than Dante was (and perhaps Kat liked Vergil more as well) but the scales have slowly been tipping, increments of weight being adding in Dante's favor.

And then Vergil leaves Kat in the server room😭

the thing most striking to me about this scene imo is that Kat just seems to accept her fate. She accepts that there's no way out for her and accepts her martyrdom for Vergil's cause because Vergil had so easily accepted it too... but Dante doesn't.

He stays with her. He tells her what to do and how to appear the least threatening to the feds. He assures her that he will be back for her even if no one else is.

He shows her a kindness, a thoughtfulness and it humanizes him in this scene.

Dante has to argue with Vergil to go back and save Kat. Dante changes their whole plan because he doesn't want to let this one human girl die. A far cry from the beginning of the game where he brushed them off and said he "preferred to work alone"...

After all this, even after Vergil reveals his plan to rule over the humans, Vergil still seems surprised (or regretful?) that Kat doesn't back him up, but now Kat knows that she can't support him anymore. Vergil is too far gone, too different from the man who saved her from her foster father.

I also just realized that we can see this somewhat mirrored in the framing of the cutscenes:

In most of her scenes with Vergil, Kat is pushed to the back. She's out of focus and otherwise not the main draw of the scene. In fact, it's very easy to overlook her in the shadows.

Whereas in most of her scenes with Dante, Kat takes up as much space on the screen as he does. She's harder to overlook now paired with that fact that she actually has lines in her scenes with Dante. (although this may just be confirmation bias given she has so many more scenes with Dante💀 I think it's a nice parallel)

Closing thoughts, I like both pairings although I feel that the game devs planed for Dante to be endgame. I still like the idea of a love triangle between the three; Dante and Kat close after Vergil's betrayal, Vergil and Kat as old friends turned sour (past crushes? the one who got away possibly?), and Dante and Vergil being brothers but also vying for Kat's attention (blood is thicker than water).

Anyways thanks for reading (or skimming) take this as a treat:

[tarnishedinquirer]

Case: Morne Massacre pt 2 (Castle Approach)

Heading south along the road, I encountered a ruined wall. If there was ever a gate here, it was long gone. A scar of some past battle, perhaps? The entire land has been scarred by battle, so it's a safe bet.

Just past the wall was the map stele, but as I approached, the ground ahead exploded. I was so startled, it took me a moment to realize that it wasn't some spontaneous detonation, but the impact of a colossal ballista bolt. I fought back the instinctual panic. Was it a warning shot, or was I out of range?

A second impact confirmed the latter, so I was safe. For now, at least. The rain and fog obscured the source, rain which the voice helpfully informed me was "redolent of lament."

Now, just as an aside, I know I talk about the voice a lot and treat it as a simple fact of my current existence, but I want you to understand just how distracting it can be sometimes. All I have to do is glance at a new item I picked up and some old man starts shouting in my mind's ear. Leads me to ignoring things I shouldn't, just so I don't lose my train of thought. I especially have a tendency to ignore Ashes of War because the voice rarely has anything interesting to say about them, but I'm starting to learn they can say something about the area. For instance, about a half malm back, I picked up an ash for an arrow skill called "Mighty Shot." All the voice had to say was that it's a powerful bow shot. I ignored it at the time, but now, it seemed to foreshadow my current predicament.

Which is to say, it wasn't a ballista firing bolts at me. It was a giant firing arrows. And as I drew closer, it became apparent that it wasn't just any giant. It was a clay giant—a golem. I'd heard tale of such things before, but never seen one myself. I didn't allow myself even a moment of awe at seeing this mythical automaton, this pinnacle of magical engineering, as even a moment's hesitation would invite destruction. Instead, I spurred Torrent forward, faster than it could draw and aim, and turned my critical eye on the creature.

It was mighty, yes, but it was also weak. A creature built by mortal hands must ultimately follow mortal laws. It could not move and fight without putting significant strain on the materials that made it. It would need constant repairs, and from the glow of molten ichor oozing through the cracks in its frame, this one had not received necessary maintenance in a while. The worst cracks were in its ankles. So much weight on such spindly joints.

Perhaps in mythic times it would've had backup. Soldiers to protect its weakness, or maybe even other golems with melee weapons. But it didn't have any recourse once I was beneath it. I jabbed at its weak points with sword and spell until it shattered. All support lost, ichor spilling out in a torrent. The clay crumbled until it was nothing but shards of broken pottery.

Before going into the castle, I noticed a sword monument overlooking the sea. This one had the inscription:

The siege of Castle Morne A lone hero fights for his vengeance Only to fall at the hand of Lord Godfrey

Hm. This hero must be the one who destroyed the gate in the perimeter wall. If he fought alone, he would have to be someone of godlike strength, but for some reason, he goes unnamed. Monuments exist as propaganda, and the point of this one is to glorify this Lord Godfrey by also glorifying his enemy. I'll make a profile for Godfrey now, and maybe the nameless revenger, if I find more info on him.

Questions:

Who was the Nameless Revenger?

Who was Lord Godfrey?

Where did the golem come from, and why was it guarding this castle?

[talesfrommedinastation]

Sudden realization on why I loved 'The Outpost'

This episode of 'The Bad Batch', in a way, was terrible.

Terrible because...how do you follow a masterpiece like this?

How do you do anything but re-watch that episode, over and over again, wondering how something this sublime can come out on Disney +?!

How do you come close to the drama, laconic humor, brilliant animation, character development, and grim, Dosteyevskian outlook on life after that?! In 30 minutes?! Gah.

This is a thesis that matched the argument, just so wonderfully done.

Not to mention, I'm from icy climates myself. I'm a settler on the historic homelands of the Anishinaabe/Ojibwe nation, in a lovely mix of prairie and forest. Our winters can be brutal, sometimes hitting -40 C. I've been snowed out of track meets, often ski and snowshoe up until April, and have gone both trick-or-treating and Easter egg hunting in the snow.

I love it.

The rushing sound of cold wind, the feel of ice on your cheeks, the comfort of a fire and a friend. The feeling of darkness and cold, with the quiet of the snow and the howling of endless force outside your door.

God DAMN was this episode everything.

It also reminded me of my favorite parts of one of my favorite series of all time.

All of the Wall scenes from 'Game of Thrones'.

(Part of me wants to draw terrible fanart of Jon Snow and Crosshair running into each other, lol. I guess they can just huff at each other?).

Dragons and political banter and knights are fun, but the scenes involving the Wall and the Night's Watch are my favorite, and it made me realize what I loved so much about 'The Outpost'.

I love the sense of foreboding dread that winter can bring, endless ice and chill. The ongoing sense of a white horizon, the blinding brilliance of the sun on snow. Long dark nights, short, bitter days. The feel of your skin as the wind and the cold hits.

The necessary comradery that only survival in an intense, unforgiving wilderness can bring....whether you are a clone or a brother of the Night's Watch.

The dead of winter is the same for us all, especially if we are understaffed and under siege.

(And I won't go into how Mayday and Jeor Mormont were so much alike in their stoicism, dedication, and tragic devotion to protecting against horrific odds. Maybe I'll do some equally mediocre fan art of those two drinking by a fire, making smores, I don't know)

We can never have enough winter scenes in media, especially in stories of brutal heroics. Because when they are done correctly, they are projected deep into building a character's true nature and mettle.