#With 4 main... factions? Anyway

[chaosbloot]

Good lord, it was like midnight when I drew this. I didn't mean for them to look so tired.

[amelikos]

This week's episode is written by Kureha Matsuzawa.. I expect a small scene towards the end of the episode showing the Explorers side of things to establish where this chapter will be heading for them.

The show has been pretty consistent with their appearances every chapter (featuring them at the beginning, middle, and climax of each chapter), so I guess we'll see Amethio's side of things this week? He was featured in the promotional poster for Rayquaza Rising, so he has to appear at some point anyway. I think it'll be pretty similar to HZ026 (opening episode of chapter 2, which was also written by Kureha Matsuzawa). That episode mostly showcased Liko and Terapagos, and Liko deciding to take Terapagos to Rakua and asking everyone for their help. Amethio was shown at the end of that episode in contrast to Liko's situation, etc. I wonder what Amethio's resolve will be for the upcoming chapter.

[whoatherebigguy]

I recently made some tweaks to Cyclogenesis Zigra's design and I took the opportunity to finally give him a proper ref sheet, so here he is!

Since the design im using for Rapid Ascent is much closer to his canon appearance, I felt comfortable pushing this guy's look a bit further away from his og look.

basic write up for him[big ol' ramble warning lol] + extra doodles below

also going to use this post to clean up/update the little bits of lore ive been sprinkling about for him, while still leaving enough out that it can be revealed in future goofy comics.

[1st doodle is of a younger version of him, around the first time he tried(and failed) to take over the Earth. 2nd is closer to the "present", hes arguing with Viras as they collectively plot to kill the rocket turtle.]

Anyways, Zigra is obviously one of my favourite characters of all time, hence him getting starring roles in both of the continuities i ramble about lol. I try to keep him very in-character when I write him for Rapid Ascent, but he's a little more complicated in Cyclogenesis as he's one of the 4 "main" characters.

Zigra originally "left"[basically got kicked off of] his home planet to explore the galaxy, he was woefully under prepared, but managed to carve out a niche for himself. However, exploration quickly turned into a stream of failed conquests, which eventually landed him on Earth. This part plays out pretty similar to the og film, with the exception being that Zigra isn't really taking it very seriously. Gamera obviously chases him off both times he tries this and, pathetic failure that he is, Zigra ends up deciding to stumble back to his home planet. Only to find that it's been claimed by the Dominion of Zanon. Cue a horrible attempt at a revenge quest, one that results in him spending the next 6 years in a fish tank. He eventually gets unintentionally "rescued" by a splinter faction of the Virian Expanse and agrees to aid in their goals in exchange for one day using their forces to get revenge against Zanon. During this time is when he gets his armor/exoskeleton to help him navigate on land long term, he also gets Character Development. Going from a selfish entitled loner that thinks anyone smaller than him is inferior, to a selfish entitled loner that thinks anyone smaller than him, except 5 particular Virians, is inferior. Unfortunately, this weird little arrangement falls apart when Viras forms and leaves the faction without a real leader. [bit more about Cyclogenesis Viras here if curious!] Zigra elects to stay loyal to Viras as he feels he's too old to go back to his old ways and too tired to start a new life. The two remain allies for the rest of the narrative, despite many disagreements early on. They eventually end up back on Earth, this time looking to take the Atlantean core[which is currently being used to power Gamera] to keep Viras alive. At this point, Zigra isn't really invested in taking over the planet or even killing the rocket turtle, but he'd rather Gamera die than his only friend so he goes along with it. Ultimately this ploy is what finally ends both their lives, fortunately ive got lots of silly little comics to do before that happens.

I'm writing Zigra with an emphasis on being a sentient alien fish, instead of just a giant fish. His main role in Cyclogenesis is: "guy that is objectively Not Great, but has such awful luck that at some point you just kinda feel bad for him." Hopefully his endless loser moments and affinity to make bad choices are somewhat entertaining lol.

Also he becomes part of Iris , but dont worry about that right now

[krashlite]

C!Pearl’s a character who people usually only analyze from DL onwards, with her Scarlet Pearl arc influencing future seasons. However, I think it’s very important to look at LL when talking about her, since that season formed a lot of her fundamental viewpoints in this game, viewpoints she’s forced to unpack in later seasons.

LONG POST under the cut!

LL was the most chaotic and violent season BY FAR, even including LimL! The deaths in LimL were very much gamified, while in LL every life counted. The main lesson the three newcomers learned is that the world is cruel and they can never truly trust anyone. Well, except Pearl didn’t learn that second lesson

Mumbo and Lizzie both spent LL in a constant state of either panic or confusion, with there being a few very brief breaks between. This is the case for LL in general, but with the newcomers it’s so much more startling. They don’t know how this goes, and they see Experienced players paranoid alongside them.

Not to mention Mumbo and Lizzie were constantly put in situations where they couldn’t trust the people around them, whether it be because of a boogeyman or any other reason. With them being in a group of 4-5 people, there was a much higher chance of them being betrayed and they never let themselves relax

Pearl definitely experienced the same panic and confusion, but she adapted much quicker than they did. This is mostly due to Scott being her ally- him being pretty consistent and calm as a person. Not to mention, Pearl only had a single person to worry about, when other alliances had 4-5 people to consider. Any one of them could turn and still have a place with the other members, but a group of two didn’t

(Also sidebar, 3L turned into a game of factions, so in LL everyone immediately started with factions, the exceptions being Ren, Lizzie, Pearl, and Scott. Ren was recovering from his Red King arc and ashamed of his former self, while Pearl and Lizzie were new and hadn’t been adopted into a group like Mumbo had. Scott’s reasoning for picking a small group is that he only stayed safe in 3L when him and Jimmy were fairly isolated, so that’s why he will usually opt for a group of two. Anyways)

Since Scott Only had her, he wasn’t about to turn on her and Pearl knew this. When Cleo later joins the group, she isn’t a risk either due to the circumstances of her joining. Cleo was betrayed, they were killed by a boogeyman in their group. BigB’s betrayal hit so hard that Cleo named him her sworn enemy. Why would they turn on Pearl if this affected them so much? Pearl is able to lean on them comfortably, even as the rest of the server begins to target the alliance (for a green name I might add! Pearl was safest for the longest amount of time this season)

Pearl could trust her team, and her team was honestly well provided for. They had nether goods, they had a spawner, Pearl had enough lives to keep them stable for a few deaths. They’d managed to defend themselves against Constant invasions and weren’t backing down anytime soon.

As for others, Pearl only ever saw them if they wanted to rob her or kill her, having very few interactions outside of that. This establishes that theft and threats are one and the same, with robberies threatening their resources and their survival and threats being, well, threats

The main lesson Pearl learns here is that her team are the only people she can trust, and she trusts them wholeheartedly. They will always have her back, they will always steer her in the right direction. The world is hostile, but they’ll face it together. What Pearl doesn’t learn is impulse control. Her impulse control came in the form of Scott and Cleo, with them being much more cautious than she is

Because of them, Pearl made it to the final four in her FIRST SEASON. This is incredibly impressive, Especially considering how, again, LL was the most violent and chaotic season. She might’ve fallen in the final melee, but she rested easy knowing her teammate won. She had gotten him there, and counts it as a personal victory

When DL rolls around, Pearl employs the same tactics as the last season. LL had a very quick race for resources at the start, specifically for sugar cane and goods from the nether. So Pearl assumes it’s the same thing. She’s preparing for the same chaotic environment as LL and is reassured by the soulmate feature

In her mind, her soulmate is her one designated ally. She trusts them wholeheartedly and assumes they feel the same. No matter what they face, she knows they’ll face it together

Except that isn’t what happens

As it turns out, Scott was her soulmate. But she overlooked one key detail about him- Scott plays it safe. He doesn’t endanger himself unless absolutely necessary. She’d previously assumed it was a matter of practicality, but really it’s a means of defending his own peace above all else, even at the expense of others

So her little trip to the nether with Martyn didn’t just endanger them, it endangered their soulmates. It endangered Cleo and it endangered Scott

Their response is to abandon their soulmates because they felt abandoned. They don’t feel that they can trust their soulmates because of the fact that said soulmates were prioritizing a dangerous mission over them. Except Pearl doesn’t understand this. All she sees is that they abandoned her after she went on a dangerous mission For Them, a mission she would have been previously praised for

Pearl is dropped by the very people she trusted with her life last season, and she doesn’t know Why. To say this crushes her is an understatement

It wasn’t just a rejection from her former friends, it’s a betrayal of a fundamental worldview she developed last season. How could a group that was basically family abandon her just like that? If her designated ally wanted nothing to do with her, then whats the point in trusting anyone?

That last question is pushed to the side, with her insisting on Tilly being her true soulmate. Tilly would never abandon her, she can trust Tilly wholeheartedly. Except Tilly dies almost immediately afterwards, starting her Scarlet Pearl arc

(And I do want to say, I consider Tilly to be fully Dead. The second wolf was a different wolf entirely, but Pearl was in a state of delirium and wanted so badly to have someone to rely on. If it couldn’t be another player, then it would be her dog. Funnily enough, this actually comes up later but that’s an asterisk*)

This arc was basically a constant downwards spiral for Pearl. Any foundation she had was immediately uprooted, any alliance she formed immediately fell apart. This stressed her out to the point she wasn’t sleeping and frequently acted out against the people in her surroundings. Pearl was not maintaining herself in the slightest, her mental state affecting those around her. The main examples I can think of is her stealing horses and sitting in powdered snow to punish Scott, both of which do have explanations

Again, Pearl is basing her actions off of LL, even if she doesn’t realize it. Her alliance was robbed over and over again, usually for things like sugar cane and nether goods. These are things that are high value because they help a team survive. When it comes to pets and livestock, they really weren’t considered unless they were being held ransom. In LL, being stolen from was a threat to someone’s survival

Except this isn’t LL and Pearl is just starting to realize that, with every alliance being stable from an outside perspective. She’s using these thefts to test the waters. If something happens, she’s right to be paranoid and right to lash out. If nothing happens, she can relax, which she does! After stealing Scar’s horse she does briefly stop tormenting the server, instead going back to watching the others.

(^^ I might have the timeline wrong here btw it’s been a second)

As for Scott, her sitting in powdered snow has different connotations than it does for other alliances. She isn’t the only person to hurt her soulmate in this way, Scar actually being the one to suggest this. For Scar it was a harmless but irritating way to get back at Grian for kicking out the Jellie Pandas. It hurt, but it wasn’t meant to actually endanger the other (still abuse btw, just a different kind). For Pearl, her sitting in powdered snow was a tactic intended to make Scott feel unsafe. If he valued his precious security so much that he kicked her to the wolves, then she won’t let him have a moment’s peace.

But going back to the horses- stealing Ren and BigB’s horse was the moment things changed for her. This theft resulted in both of them dying, confirming the idea that thefts threaten someone’s survival. Except Pearl never meant to endanger them, as shown with her defending their items when none other than Scott and Cleo come to scavenge them.

When Ren and BigB return, it’s Pearl who gets blamed for the death, not the circumstances. The blame shifts from the world being cruel, to Pearl herself being cruel. Pearl is unable to cope with this, isolating in response. She sees every other pair finding peace and joy in one another, but she destroys everything she touches. In her mind, she IS the cruelty that exists in the world and nobody is coming to save her.

I think Pearl actually blames herself for Ren and BigB falling apart, which she finds out about when Ren and Martyn “summon” her. This actually affirms the lesson she Just learned, with her accepting the role of Scarlet Pearl. Previously, it was just an act but now it felt more real

She goes on to purposefully endanger others, seeing this as her true role on the server. Pearl had been wearing her red skin before this, but that was only to show her state of mind. Now, she was fully playing into this role, as seen with the fishing rod incident and, again, stealing armor from Boat Boys as a means of threatening their survival

I don’t think Pearl expected to be threatened in return, and her subsequent death did give her a moment of clarity. She was made to understand that her existence in this state was inherently risky, and she needed to be more careful. I think that was the driving force for her seeking out Scott and Cleo to form a tentative alliance. Pearl hasn’t forgiven them at this point, but knew she needed them if she was to last. This forces her to have some level of impulse control, instead of only relying on those around hee

Them being her failsafe put her in a difficult situation when it comes to her Scarlet Pearl role. She was a “Red,” that’s her job, but her team still needed her. But they’re not her team, but she needs them, but she can’t trust them, not after what they did.

But she has to, and that’s what ultimately brings her to side with them; necessity. She doesn’t like them, she doesn’t trust them, a sentiment they return, but she needs them.

The world is cruel, Pearl is cruel, and she needs to defend herself and her own peace- a lesson that, funnily enough, she picked up from Scott

Ultimately Pearl doesn’t learn to care about either of them until the moment she dies. ESPECIALLY Cleo, who ended up siding with Martyn in the end. But it’s Scott’s sacrifice that cuts through the callous she’d developed over the course of the season. He gave his life for her. Scott sacrificed himself FOR HER. The action doubles as changing her perception of him as a person and changing her perception of the world. Scott wasn’t the selfish man she made him out to be, and the world wasn’t filled with senseless cruelty.

Pearl hasn’t learned to trust again, but she’s able to begin the process in LimL

Enter: BigB

BigB’s someone who has had shaky alliances over the ENTIRE series. This started in 3L when the other two Blue Sword Boys ended up on opposing sides of a war, him trapped between them. He learned that season that ultimately he was the only person he could trust. In LL, his initial decision to stay with Cleo then the fairy fort was one made out of necessity, NOT trust. BigB was a sitting duck on his own, and he wasn’t about to have a repeat of last season he got targeted over and over again for being isolated.

And I do think that he cared about the Fairy Fort, they gave him a sense of genuine security that he hasn’t had before. So him being the cause of the Fairy Fort’s collapse gave him a Crisis

The last person he was able to trust that season was Ren, and Ren ended up being his soulmate in DL. Except due to the cheater’s arc BigB blames himself their demise in DL as well (Again, there was shared blame across all parties I made an entire long post about this already).

So BigB is going into LimL with the same lesson Pearl has just begun unpacking; They are the cruelty/danger that exists in the world and can never truly rely on anyone

(Also second sidebar, this is something I love about LimL. Everyone coincidentally got an alliance with matching wounds, but moving on)

The first thing Pearl actually does this season is try to retrieve Tilly, her dog she thinks is still alive. (And here’s that asterisk*) what actually happens is Martyn jokes that he cremated her dog, and Pearl’s unintentionally forced to understand that her dog is dead, she’s Been dead since the start of DL. Breaking apart that delusion was actually Very important to her breaking apart her worldview. If that information was false, what else was she wrong about?

And this is explored through her alliance with BigB. See, the Nosey Neighbors were a fresh start for both of them. They both were re-learning how to trust themselves and others, relearning how to care for others and be cared for in turn. Them watching the server was a lighthearted way to vent their paranoia- again, both unpacking how they view the world and how they view themselves

LimL as a season did a lot to defang the games, for lack of a better term. The deaths were very much gamified, they weren’t nearly as serious as they previously were. Pearl and BigB used this environment to reflect on themselves. The world was chaotic, yes, but it wasn’t as cruel as they thought it was. THEY aren’t as cruel as they thought they were

Pearl makes the decision to be his protector, treating this as a test to show she doesn’t destroy everything she touches. Except, she hasn’t unpacked how she sees herself as cruel, only points that “cruelty” away from those she cares about, and that’s why acting as Protector comes so naturally to her

This is reinforced over the course of the season, but it’s only ever confronted towards the end after Grian’s plan resulted in the three of them being shot. BigB was left with under a minute left, causing Pearl to panic. Pearl immediately insisted he kill her for more time, with BigB panicking in turn because he “didn’t know how.” He was scared of breaking the bond they’d developed over the season and Pearl cut through that fear without hesitation

And here’s where her role as protector is solidified. The world is cruel and unjust, and everyone deserves to have someone to rely on. Pearl would be the foundation for others since nobody else was going to be.

Pearl had already made a promise to herself and to BigB to get him to the end. He would win that season if she had anything to say about it. Except Pearl isn’t able to keep her promise to BigB. He dies just out of eyeshot, and she is helpless to save him

Pearl doesn’t give up on being a protector, this decision influencing a lot of her actions in SL. She wants to be a solid foundation for the Mounders because she knows the importance of having that foundation- she knows the pain a lack of foundation can cause.

Also, the Mounders being a larger group acts as proof that she’s able to trust others again, even if that doesn’t register to her. Remember, LL created the precedent that larger groups are more dangerous, with smaller alliances being much safer. Pearl being able to function comfortably in a group of 4 just goes to show how much she’s grown as a character

SL goes on to challenge her new worldview in several ways. First it was Mumbo turning Red, him becoming excessively violent like he’d been in LL. This actually acts as a mirror to Pearl’s former self, since Mumbo’s pulling from the same logic she was pulling from in DL. Remember, Mumbo hasn’t been in other seasons, his only experience with the games was the confusion and paranoia of LL (I think the lighthearted confusion of the tasks actually triggered his and Lizzie’s paranoia, but that’s another essay). He hasn’t had a chance to unpack that like Pearl has, and she sees this as a failure on her part, doubling down on her Protector role for Joel and Bdubs

Second, Joel and Bdubs, losing their lives. Pearl was forced to reckon with the fact that she cannot keep them safe in the same way she couldn’t keep BigB safe last season. It brings back her fears of destroying everything she touches, even though she worked so hard to unpack that last season. She sees them dying as her failing to be their protector, and her clinging to Scar is a response to that. Pearl needed to prove to herself that she can save Someone, that she doesn’t destroy everything she’s a part of.

Pearl also sees Scar as an echo of who she was in DL, same as Mumbo. She refuses to let him spiral in his isolation. Except, circumstances make it clear to her that she cannot save him by being his protector, she cannot save him at all.

And so she attempts to sacrifice herself for him, just like Scott had done for her. Pearl thinks she will ultimately cause his demise and the only thing she can do is give her life for him

But Scar immediately shoots that idea down.

This is because Scar was unpacking the exact same idea- the idea that he is inherently cruel and destroys everything he touches. Scar recognized that Pearl was self destructing and Did Not Let Her. Pearl wasn’t allowed to be his protector, she’s allowed to be his ally, his equal

Pearl in turn is allowed to see herself not as a force to be controlled, but a person. I don’t think she even realized how she’d been dehumanizing herself until this moment

And I think she has conflicting feelings on Scar’s victory. On the one hand, she achieved her goal in having an ally make it to the end. On the other, Scar’s victory challenged what it even meant to win the games. Pearl doesn’t know if the victory was worth the path it took to get there, and she’s left in that headspace until the next season

[mysaldate]

Lilith should go back to what they had before

Crossposting from Reddit because I am tired of how the new AFK Arena writers keep trampling over incredible lore.

This is gonna be long so TLDR: Anything from ALucius onward has been one continuous middle finger to the lore community with insane retcons that ruined both characters and the world of Esperia and I just wish the game went back to what it had before.

Okay, now with the TLDR out of the way, let me preface this with brief history of my involvement with the game (just to avoid any comments accusing me of not knowing the game): I've been playing on and off pretty much since launch (missed about two or so weeks at launch) but got really into it before the Overlord collab. One thing that kept me invested for years to come was the lore. Lilith has done an incredible job crafting an interesting varied world full of all kinds of people and characters. I've been creating fanworks, crafting theories with my fellow lore nerds, bought the artbook as soon as it was announced, and also got invited to the official dev and players meeting in Germany last year. I adore old AFK lore because it is the most well-crafted world I've ever seen in a mobile game and it was definitely the main reason I've stayed for so long.

However, things shifted around the time ALucius released. His story completely retconned Lucius' original story which is what made him so lovable for me and a lot of my lore-interested friends. Lucius isn't someone who didn't join the army on a whim because he didn't want to. He was deeply traumatized as a child and even tried the military before realizing it just wasn't for him. No, instead now he's more like a petulant child who just didn't want to follow the family tradition. And let me tell you, it didn't get better from there on out. The biggest offender though, of course, are the Draconis.

The Draconis as a whole are a mess. Firstly, they completely retcon Dura's involvement in the Age of Arcana which completely breaks the world. To explain a long story very quickly, Dura gave humans magic which led to an arms race between the humans and the gods, making the gods send Annih to deal with it, leading to the creation of the Ya who would later split into Maulers and Wilders, which then led to the Cinder War where humans basically turned on each other, Quaedam was one of the powerful mages who died during this time, and finally, it made Annih the scapegoat for when the post-war mortals found out about what the gods (or rather, just Annih in their eyes) did, and of course, Annih then created the Hypogeans. If you take Dura out of the equation, there's no arms race because there is no need for it. If you remove her involvement, 4/6 factions in the game wouldn't even exist in the world. This seemingly insignificant detail (that was only edited to make Dura seem better anyway) completely breaks the world but oh boy, we're just starting.

During the Cinder Wars, dragons were nearly driven into extinction. According to the old lore, the last few remaining dragons hid underground and fell into a deep slumber to recover their strength. In their dreams, they created Tasi to guard them and ensure their safety. This was true up to when Gavus and Eugene were added into the game as they literally had a run-in with a dragon in its underground lair. These dragons also have a deep-rooted hatred for humanity to the point where even seeing two babies is enough to send them into a blind rage and try to kill them. They would've gone into hibernation before year 1 CE, meaning at least 35 years before the first Hypogean invasion even began. Instead, in the new lore, Dura took the dragons (but not the other enslaved and tortured races) and dropped them on a random island with the condition that they would "help when the need is worst" or something. And the dragons now also fought in the first Hypogean war which now supposedly happened before they were taken to the island? And nobody has any records of them fighting in it at all? And of course, they are totally fine helping out humans (let's also not forget that originally, it was Dura who gave humans the means to enslave dragons in the first place and we've seen from Gavus' story and the Chains of the Covenant comic that the dragons have little respect for the Celestials exactly because of that). There is also the idea that the dragons have always been noble and protectors of humanity but that is far from the truth too. During the Floating Isles Abyssal Expedition season, we got confirmation on what was already suggested earlier – the dragons of old were slavers themselves, kidnapping entire settlements to serve them and viewing every other race except the gods as beneath them. Given that some of the dragon characters we get in the game are supposed to have lived through that era, it certainly casts them in a very different light.

But let's not forget, the Draconis lore isn't even consistent within itself. For example, it claims that young draconis cannot control their transformation well, yet Gwyneth was supposedly able to turn fully human as a newborn baby and keep up her disguise for sixteen years (because yes, despite getting plastic surgery to get massive boobs and ass, she is supposed to be sixteen) and it only started showing because a wyvern (another retcon) suddenly got close to the capital… even though she already killed a wyvern before with no issues popping up. The Draconis lore also claims that many on the dragon isle were around during the Age of Arcana and yet, their enslavement is supposedly a secret so closely guarded that they would lock people up in isolation if they found out about it? Cassius supposedly found out through careful study and it was such a big deal he had to go on a hunger strike before Hildwin appointed him a scribe for the dragon council but in the Dwyneth webcomic, Cassius is already a scribe and Hildwin has to take him to a secret island off the dragon isle and tell him about all the history.

Let's also talk more with Dwyneth. Her story, once again, retcons what we've known about her and what made her so interesting. By making her a part of the king's hunting party who went to look for the wyvern, they got rid of her quick thinking and rather impulsive nature. And let's not forget that this wyvern was now supposedly a part of a whole group of wyverns terrorizing a nearby city? Wyverns and any draconids are supposed to be extremely rare in Esperia for reasons I'll get into later. The original story had the king's party be on a stroll and accidentally waking up the wyvern from its slumber because they didn't even know it was there. Gwyneth's quick thinking and strength gained her the respect of the king and she was subsequently allowed to join the Royal Garrison. That is not even mentioning that Gwyneth was heavily implied to be a child of the robbers Hendrik killed before he adopted her. Her strength was strange, sure, but it never needed an explanation in a world where squirrels can turn people into acorns and undead mermaids float in the sea. And then we get to her actual awakening story…

Listen, if you need to kill an NPC to make your new waifu seem cool, I will already think it's cringe. But if you kill the single most popular NPC your lore community has, one with insane history and all that, it just starts to look like you hate your own content and/or audience. Kane's death makes no sense. He is a battle-hardened warrior with elemental powers (heavily implied to once have been the elemental guardian – we'll talk about how the draconis mess those up later) with a dragon mount (demoted to a wyvern because we can't possibly have an evil dragon now) who has been around since long before the first Hypogean war. Not only is he killed by a sixteen-year-old girl, she also only just got her powers and has supposedly no idea how to use them. And she also bested him in close-quarters combat despite being an archer and Kane being a legendary swordsman. Sadly, this was not the last time a Draconis-related storyline decided to kill off an important NPC with no regard for their lore.

Next we get to Antandra. Once again, the story retcons her entire backstory, events, and personality. It actually makes her more in-line with Journey's Antandra than Arena's which is a whole another can of worms I will not get into right now. Instead of Antandra being the tribute to the temple, she now apparently chose to go and become a temple warrior. After she was banished from the temple, she apparently never saw Satrana again (retconning her union story with Satrana as well as multiple time-limited and permanent events). She is also apparently a mother figure to a lot of children living around where she is staying… which should be the Land of Exiles since she was, you know, exiled and banished. There shouldn't be any children there, it is by far the most dangerous part of the desert. The idea that there's a whole tribe of children who see Antandra as their mother figure just running around is kind of stupid to be honest. Let's also ignore that she is probably the one who gave Dwyneth her new chest because Antandra's went the opposite direction. Let's also compare how previous awakened characters got their powers vs how Antandra did: Thane and Baden went on a huge journey to learn about cooperation and self-sacrifice and took immense risks to protect their loved ones. Safiya nearly died in a game of 5D chess against one of the deadliest enemies in the desert and destroyed an entire clan's kingdom. Antandra? Well, she girlbossed extra hard and Hildwin gave her a gem for it.

Eironn's story is baffling to say the least. Not only is it copy-pasted from Journey's beta where that was pretty much the exact backstory for Bryon (before they decided they don't want a disabled character to be playable) but it doesn't fit Eironn's character. It presents Eironn as someone who chases after glory and thrill of the fight and doesn't care about the people around him. However, Eironn has never been this person. He'd been awkward and struggled to rely on others, yes, but he would never abandon his comrades to chase after a powerful enemy. And of course, he doesn't even get to be cool in his own awakening story, Dwyneth has to swoop in after deciding he was "worthy" and save him at the last minute. At least there aren't any giant retcons to his backstory I guess.

And then there is Thoran and oh boy… So remember when I said Kane wasn't the only NPC who got done super dirty and killed just because the writers could? Same thing happened with Quaedam. Forget the fact that Thoran and all the other graveborn who made a contract with Quaedam are supposed to be like a hivemind that Quaedam can tap into and read at any time. Forget that Quaedam doesn't have a body or anything material and is a spectral entity on a similar power level to the Celestials at this point. Forget also the fact that Quaedam has the Eldritch Council – a whole line-up of similarly powerful necromancers who have been working for him since the Cinder Wars. Forget the fact that Quaedam most likely had enslaved dragons and thus would absolutely be stronger than them. Forget the fact he doesn't have a material base due to his immaterial nature. No, instead, Thoran makes a deal with a dragon behind Quaedam's back, steers the Hypogeans into Quaedam's base, and then strikes him down with a single swing of the sword. Oh, and let's also not forget, the necrodragon isn't supposed to just be out and about. It was a minion of the god of the hunt, Adrax, kept in a pocket dimension of his private hunting grounds.

The other characters who have released since ALucius have been a huge hit or miss but I won't get into each of them individually because that would be way too long (I say like the post already isn't) but to quickly summarize: Raoul is mostly fine aside from the fact where he doesn't look anything like what a character from Esperia would look like. Villanelle retcons Quicksand Claws to make them more stereotypically perpetrators of all evils and sins when they should be a very directly focused mercenary group. Misha's story mentions some "Wilder goddess" who has never existed or, if they mean Dura, was everyone's goddess. Journey, however, does have some Wilder-specific gods (and they suck and break the world further). It also mentions some incursion "decades ago" which… makes no sense? There hasn't been any incursion mere decades ago. Timelines don't timeline with this one. Randle is mostly fine but retcons Niru and how the Whispering Doom (I refuse to call it Doom Spire, stop changing good names, Lilith) works. Aurelia is fine except for the part where her story makes Flora into a lazy bum who doesn't want to do her job. Knox is kinda okay except for the part where his story suggests all Hypogeans are an organized monolith. Most of the Draconis stories are already involved in what I talked about so I will just point out the biggest offender on the list is Lan and no, it is not because she has the vibes of a self-insert Mary Sue. It's because she makes the elemental guardians completely obsolete since dragons can control the elements and direct rain and wind and whatnot.

I've heard from an inside source that pretty much the entire writing department got sacked and the game was handed off to new writers, around the same time it happened with Journey as well, and I have to say, it certainly does feel that way. Between the retcons of huge world lore and warp of pre-existing playable and non-playable characters beyond recognition, it definitely feels like a spiteful rewrite where someone is trying to erase the original and do it "better" except they just end up ruining everything they touch. I'm just frustrated because I invested a lot of time and money into everything AFK-related, bought merch, commissioned art, wrote fanfiction (even won a contest by Lilith with one of my works), started running a DnD campaign set in Esperia, and more. Seeing it all go up in flames like this makes me sad and I just wish things could go back to what it was before. The War of Truth storyline was one of the peaks of AFK's storytelling ever so to follow it up with tis makes it even more jarring. The lore community right now is basically non-existant. Most of my friends left the fandom entirely or only pop in to make fun of how badly the new characters are written. Lilith killed their own lore nerds and it's a damn shame.

But anyway, that's just my rant. If you read everything, thank you a ton, I know this was long and I apologize. Please let me know what you think, if you noticed any more retcons and mistakes, etc. If you don't care about lore, this post is probably not for you so I apologize for wasting your time with it.

[cryptidwrestling]

I need to sleep. I am putting way too much thought and upset energy into a scripted sports soap opera 😂😭 Anyway

Some Of Cryptid's Current Thoughts And Feelings™ On The State Of Her RAW Faves

1) Liv Morgan's booking.

Ya'll. I'm a Rhea simp/stan and a person second, anyone who's been on my blog for more than thirty seconds knows this 😂 And I've also made it no secret I, for the most part, am actually still enjoying the Liv v Rhea feud. So all that being said, what the fuck is going on with Liv's booking.

I know she's a heel and part of a heel faction and in-ring bullshit is the name of the game, but the fact that neither of her title defenses have been won clean (granted, she didn't technically win the Bad Blood one anyway but whatever we all know that ending was botched and she was supposed to technically win) and 9/10 times she runs from Rhea when confronted. They're making the Women's Champ look weak.

Liv can be cunning and vicious, we've all seen it; for fuck's one of my favorite theories that I'm willing to die on the hill of is Liv still just using Dominik as a pawn and is gonna drop him the moment she realizes he doesn't fit in with her plans anymore. Book the feral Liv if they're gonna keep this storyline going.

2) Finn v Damian

I mentioned this in a another post but I feel like the reason they weren't pushed as hard is because they didn't want to risk something forshadowing the PunkIntyre feud...And if that's the case, they shouldn't have had Finn turn yet. With this theory in mind, and tbh even if NOT true this would have still worked, the tldr in my head is

-Dom's turn should have been the same

-Have Finn, and the rest of the JD stick around and the rivalries be Dom v Damian and still Rhea v Liv

-Bad Blood rolls around, Dom and Damian have a match, and Finn's turn comes in the form of him and the JD assisting Dom.

-The Finn v Damian feud kicks off the same night Punk v Drew ends

There was NO REASON to have Finn turn and to wait this long to really start doing something with it. I still standby my opinion if done right, this rivalry could still be AMAZING...But it doesn't change the fact it has lost a LOT of momentum going the way it has.

3) Rhea Currently Standing Alone

To a degree, I get it. Her and Damian agreed to do their own thing because he's done with the JD (as far as he thinks.) and they're in different divisons but he would/will always come if Rhea called. I'm not a fan of how fast they split them up as a team-again, wave two of the Terror Twins shirts had barely shipped when this happened-but this segement was okay. It was sweet and mutual.

THAT SAID.

Rhea is currently in a 2v1 (not counting Dom cause I have little hopes of us ever getting a sanctioned match with them cause ✨intergender✨🙄) rivalry. Liv has Raquel...Who the fuck does Rhea have? Tiffy? Maybe, but we can't even say that for certain because as it sits right now, they're on different shows. Show borders are just currently being blurred in, assumingly, prep for Survivor Series.

Why the fuck does Rhea currently have to stand alone.

4) Jhea

THIS KINDA PIGGYBACKS OFF MY LAST PARAGRAPH AND IS THE ONE I REALLY DON'T GET??? Okay, yes, it was probably supposed to be something cute and just for fun to fill time while the other main storylines Rhea and Jey are/were in moved along. But if that was the case, why did ya'll move it to the main stage and not just keep it in backstage segments? Rhea during a preshow interview, I think it was Bad Blood?, said Jey showed her what a real man was like. Not to mention Jey coming to Rhea and Damian's defense or Jey agreeing to tag with Damian cause he "can't say no to Rhea." Why the fuck would you plant seeds like that on screen, on the main stage, and then just??? Drop it??? I don't get it???

5) JEY MOTHERFUCKING USO'S 28 DAY REIGN

I'm gonna make this one short and sweet cause you can literally see all my posts directly below this word vomit and see how mad I am 😅 But, in short; Why. Why not wait until after he's done with the Bloodline to give him a title? Why not have this same set up but give him the title ages ago. Give him a decent title reign with the same ending. Predictable at that point sure, but okay...What is the fucking point of having him, a fan favorite who everyone was cheering the house down the night he won, get his first solo title ever after fourteen years...Only to give it back to Bron less than a month later?

Bron is a GREAT preformer, do not get me wrong but making this...I don't want to say newcomer, but newer star a two time champ in his lesser time with the WWE just doesn't sit right with me.

I know Jey was gonna get involved with the Bloodline story at some point. I know it would have been hard to impossible to book him in a Smackdown story as a RAW champ...They could have done in without stripping his first non-tag title from him in under a month. We could have gotten crashout Jey going after Solo and Co without what we got tonight.

[bloomingdead]

i might go in depth on this later, after I’ve played the game a few times, but i really think the greatest issue with datv is a lack of time. there’s such a good shell there, although it seems very disjointed and poorly written at times, even compared to inquisition which used to be considered the worst of the games. like the companions internal struggles feel hollow, it’s like they tried too hard to shorten quests and decided that they required less talking rather than less gameplay. which is awful considering how they promised to have “gone back to their roots” with focusing on their characters. but a lot of it felt half-assed.

like yes i had to improve my relationships with my companions and their factions in order to get a “good ending” but there were so many side quests that could’ve just been blended into the story missions while gaining me approval with my companions. if i don’t bring the companion with me, they’ll be standing at the trigger point to start the personal quest when i arrive anyways. so then why couldn’t i have had my party of 3 turn into 4 when i meet up with this companion, have it be a feature of the story mission I’m on, and in return increase my bond with both the companions in my party as well as the tag along for their personal quest, that is built into the story missions rather than just coincidentally in the same map location as the story missions? if all of my companions are “at every main story fight but just off screen doing their own thing,” why couldn’t the gloom howler mission be apart of a story mission, where i meet up with davrin real quick and we do our free willy thing, then go back to fighting the main boss?

and the 1 on 1 socialization writing is so weak, it really feels like no one ever wanted to make suggestions or (constructively) criticize a coworker’s work, or like they all checked their own work without anyone else looking it over. which in turn has left the veilguard feeling scared to openly criticize one another. there’s no real tension, there’s no scene where a companion is drunk and angry the world is ending, no scene where we get drinks together (unless you include the intro bar scene w varric ig), no scene where i was genuinely scared there’d be no positive resolve between any two characters including my own, no genuine infighting like would be natural in an organization rushing to save the world.

i know from interviews I’ve watched in the past, BioWare has some weird thing with springing entire storylines on employees. like trick being spread thin is talked about in a positive light, as if they’re just so amazing they can do anything when really, i can tell taash’s writing suffered in favor of solas. as if someone said either you get everything you want with character A at the expense of character B, or the inverse. how many writers did they do this to in this game, that aren’t on trick’s level of detail oriented? is this an intentional tactic utilized to force compromise in a company where the employees are nervous to be genuine with their criticism? or is it just a symptom of a rushed game with fired/quitting employees being scabbed halfway thru the game? whoever was in charge of making sure different employee’s visions were meshing, they did a poor job.

[artbyblastweave]

Coming from someone who's only real experience with Fallout comes from your posts and the amazon show, it seems like the series really likes its 'by the way the reason you set out in the first place doesn't really apply anymore, but how do you feel about this faction anyways?' sort of endings? Is this a new-ish thing or did the older stuff play into this as well?

It's pretty new- basically just Fallout 4 and the show that do it- more common is the two-step "set out in search of a legitimate goal only to discover a second, even-worse problem that you also have to solve in the back-half of the game." 4 is really the only one where your original goal just gets totally blown out of the water wholesale by revelations about the underlying facts of the situation. (That said, I do think that the show is directly inverting the main plot beats of Fallout 3 in interesting ways.)

[radioinactivity]

Been thinking about Fallout 4 again and I've always wondered what is the minimum number of changes you could make to the plot so it would at least be cohesive and I think I've got it:

The Institute are isolationists pursuing immortality.

Add a little backstory that they tried to share their technology with the rest of the Commonwealth like 75 years after the bombs dropped and the Wastelanders tried to kill them to take all of it. So they decided to lock themselves in CIT to keep doing mad science, intent on outliving the "savages" on the outside.

The current generation of Synths are replacing people in order to keep the Commonwealth politically unstable so they can't unify and potentially raid CIT again. Importantly: the Institute cannot be influenced to stop this strategy. You can convince some members of the Board but not the guy in charge of defense, he will always insist that their survival hinges on the Commonwealth staying uniquely chaotic.

Synths themselves are the result of their pursuing immortality via test bodies but they're imperfect (ie failures)- rad resistant, disease resistant, age slowly but they're sterile (kinda like a fun parallel to super mutants in FO1 wow imagine that). So the Institute uses them as a slave class and as infiltrators so they don't go to waste.

The Railroad are all synths using old world spy shit they've learned and stumbled on (ie the DIA facility under the Slocum's Joe) to try and liberate the other Synths in the Institute. This is why they're kind of bad at the Spy Shit until the Sole Survivor shows up. That's it. That's the only change.

Tbh the Brotherhood is Fine. Maybe bring back the cut ending where you can ice Maxson and put Danse in charge. The Minutemen are also Fine but I think taking back Quincy and making it a settlement should have been part of the plot. Preston deserved that closure it's weird he didn't get it.

And finally: The Sole Survivor is another synth let loose on the Wasteland who just THINKS they're a prewar parent looking for their baby. This is the ideal justification for the player to either faithfully pursue their lost kid OR fuck around and build shacks OR be a force of Chaos upon the Commonwealth. Either the programming worked really well or it didn't.

None of this fundamentally changes the structure of Fallout 4, and really you can't do much about some of the stupider shit, but at least this gives the Evil Faction some tangible ideology that make sense. And I think if the Institute has understandable motivations, everything else clicks into place a little more neatly. Sidenote: this whole silly thought experiment is based off the notion of like. Only using what Fallout 4 already gives us. Think of it as the design document for a Main Story mod where the goal is to make as few changes to the base game as possible to make everything cohere.

Anyways Fallout 4's missed potential was created in a lab to drive me specifically insane

[princess-of-the-corner]

Probably not my place to comment but I think if MLB were to redeem Chloe it could go one of a few ways that try to fix the damage to her reputation & maybe avoid some other potentially problematic elements:

1 Farcical. IE, Chloe's redemption is almost comedically easy & serves as a meta commentary on the redemptions of Adrien, Felix, Gabriel & Nathalie. Where Andre just sort of awkwardly leaves the room when a question about "Where Chloe learned that?" came from & he's not seen again, Felix is like "Can we trust her?" only to get a flat look from Kagami, Marinette & Adrien, "Ah, touché" & so on. She's folded into the cast with zero drama, she & Marinette are like, fashion buds now, and her main role is snarking about Akuma.

2: Hyper serious, long gam stuff Basically, Chloe's seeming degrading in head space and behavior was being actively engineered & influenced by Gabriel, Akuma, Lila, ETC. Not just in the manipulation sense but in the magical sense, which is used to hand-wave some of the more problematic elements. If Derision need be brought up, it can be framed as either no longer canon (The shows not new to soft reboots) or having been faked somehow, or laid on Andre or Audrey's feet.

3: Forced alliances Basically there's a third faction out there causing trouble and so Chloe (serving as Lila's Champion) ended up on the heroes side by proxy and its through working together that it pans out.

4: The wish and or soft reboots IE, a bunch of stuff is just kind of ignored or forgotten to return things to a more familiar status quo and no one comments on it. Very much "Nothing bad, ever happened. EVER" Jury's out on how well this one would work but it felt worth mentioning.

Honestly the thing about it for me is that there's not even like.

Her /worst/ actions can be handwaved decently with 'manipulated by the Bigger Bads' and other than things like taking over as Mayor is just. Petty teenager shit.

Like even Derision is petty teenager shit. Doesn't mean it's not 'bad' or didn't have a lasting impact. But it's not like. Genocide. It's pulling a mean-spirited 'prank'.

But like. She's a teenager she can learn. She can come back from that and apologize and become a better person. It's really simple to do.

But anyway:

The retcons can also work beause like. Speaking of Derision, this wouldn't be the first time ML had a 'oh that bit you were supposed to be laughing at how over the top and cartoony it was the last several seasons? That was actually a super serious trauma response!' so just.

Yeah point out how Chloé acted the way she did because of the various traumas and roll with letting her get better.

[mania-sama]

Repetition in Mondstadt (Genshin Impact Analysis)

In response to @sleepytwyla42's request for my thoughts in Old Mondstadt, I present you this: something that is not quite Old Mondstadt but kind of sort of is. If you squint. :)

One of the most common and sensible theories for Genshin Impact's main storyline is that the Traveler is going to return to Mondstadt for, essentially, Round 2 of Archon quests. This is backed namely by the fact that the Mondstadt storyline feels very unfinished, especially in comparison to the other nations. There are several mysteries left yet to unfold, with their proximity to Khaenri'ah being one and the upside-down tainted Anemo Statue of the Seven being another. However, I'd like to present a slightly different point of view on why we are probably going to be returning to Mondstadt before this game is over:

Mondstadt's theme of repetition. Yes, I think it has even Sumeru beat out on this theme. Here's why.

Everybody knows the story of Old Mondstadt and Decarabian. It's fairly straightforward: Decarabian, the god of storms, and Andrius, the north wind (god of ice and snow, if you wish to interpret it that way) get into a small war with each other during the chaotic, power-struggle time period overall known as the Archon War. Andrius covers the land now known as Mondstadt in ice and snow, making it virtually uninhabitable by humans, which causes Decarabian to gather his followers/people into a sectioned-off area. He encases his segment in protective winds, and although it does a good job of keeping out the cold, he also completely traps his people inside. They cannot escape (for the most part), he treats them terribly, hides in his tower to "watch" over them, and is overall an evil tyrant. When evil tyrants rule, revolutions tend to happen. After encouragement from a small wind sprite giving a blessing to a group of Gunnhildr's that left Decarabian's land to live in the cold, Mondstadt's people uprise and overthrow Decarabian's rule. No, we do not know where Decarabian is now. We are not quite sure where his body is or how they managed to contain such a powerful god.

Anyway, now that we have a brief summary of Old Mondstadt, it is time to move to what happens next. Decarabian's (ex) followers all leave to live in the little sprite-blessed town called Mondstadt. The wind sprite strikes up a deal with Andrius; Andrius stops terrorizing the land and gives up his title of Anemo Archon to Barbatos, and Barbatos proceeds to terraform the land to be more habitable to his newfound people. These people pack up and move to Cider Lake, which is then terraformed to keep the city strategically protected.

Now we have (New?) Mondstadt and the Anemo Archon. Here is where our repetition begins.

The Genshin Impact manga depicts two times of Mondstadt's history: one, the Era of Aristocracy, which was Venessa's early life in Mondstadt as a slave battling for her freedom. The second is Diluc and Kaeya's timeline, about 3-4 years before the main timeline events, where their father dies, they fight, and Diluc defects. For right now, we will focus on the Era of Aristocracy.

Here is this thing about aristocracy: it doesn't come out of nowhere. Generally speaking, based on actual human history, ruling clans, factions, and families tend to come from the early founders of a certain city/state/nation. They could also come from the noble classes of other cities/states/nations, and they just use their wealth, power, and status to establish dominance in whatever region they are taking over. Really, truly, the whole of Mondstadt is pretty reminiscent of French and English history.

To tie into Mondstadt: Really, truly, the whole of this nation is pretty reminiscent of French and English history. We see that Decarabian is overthrown by the people. What we don't see, at first, is that the ones leading the charge would later become the major and minor noble clans. Some of them probably already were noble families (case in point, the Gunnhildrs probably were. They most likely used some sect of their power to escape the storms and brave the Monstadt's snowy wasteland). A tyrannical ruler is never going to rule alone. They are always going to have an upper noble class that they have in their pocket to quell the common people and stomp out uprisings. You have to have friends to defeat your enemies. Or, you want to keep those wealthy who are happy, appealing to other proverb keep your friends close but your enemies closer. The noble class can kill you. Typically, peasants cannot.

Until the peasants do kill you. In this case, they probably still did have help from some rich people. See: the likelihood of the Gunnhildr family being high nobles. MOVING ON.

So three big clans established Mondstadt on Cider Lake with the blessing of freedom and independence from Barbatos: Gunnhildr, Lawrence, and Imunlaukr (which seems to have faded into obscurity in modern Mondstadt, but I digress). You may be thinking: what about Ragnvindr? I imagine they were a noble class at this time, along with many unnamed ones; they were likely lesser nobles and weren't those founding Mondstadt like the big three.

What do nobles do when they gain power? That's right. THEY BECOME TRYANTS! Even though Barbatos gave them their independence to escape tyranny, rich people did what rich people do best and they became rulers and tyrants. This is where we see the first major repetition come into play in Mondstadt's history. Even though they all knew of Decarabian's tyranny like the back of their hand, history still repeated itself. Like it always doomed to do.

And like Venti is always doomed to do, he wakes from his slumber to give his blessing to his people to overthrow the tyrannical Lawrence clan. As for the other clans, people tend to herald the Gunnhildr clan mainly for being awesome and helping the people, but they were still a clan that did NOTHING until the common people revolted. Which is also pretty common in real-life history. Rich clans tend to only cash in when it seems profitable, and in order to not be exiled with the "bad guys", even though their inaction was still aiding the tyranny (proverb: "Evil persists when good people do nothing"),

We come to the modern day, where the clans are still evident in different ways. While the Lawrence clan and Imunlaukr clans have both lost significant power and relevance (due to their previous exile) and are more just an occasional societal nuisance, the Gunnhildr and Ragnvindr clans are still extremely prevalent in modern society. And while I am not saying that either of them is going to repeat their ancestors' mistakes any time soon (moreso Diluc than Jean, no hate to my queen though, it's just the archetype of intense, overworked protection leading to Accidental Tyranny), it still shows that Mondstadt cannot let go of the scars of the past. Their aristocracy still exists, it just breathes a different air.

It seems inevitable that one day, it will be the Gunnhildr's turn to be tyrannical. It's just how this thing goes. Or, someone else is going to come in and take over to terrorize the Mondstadt citizens. I am going to use this as a shitty transition into the second repetition: Dvalin and Durin.

By the time Dvalin comes around, the Archon War is finished and done with. This also means that dragons are Not Liked by General Populous, so nobody really likes this new, innocent creature. Nobody tries to befriend it. Except for, well, Venti. Venti and Dvalin the Dragon become friends. They are ride or DIE, okay. And then the abyss strikes.

While Mondstadt's people fight a war on the ground by sending out a squadron to the apparent source of the abyssal monsters (Khaenri'ah), Venti and Dvalin fight a sky(?) war against the Khemia-dragon named Durin, who is most notable for being Evil, corrupted by the Abyss, and for terrorizing the citizens of Mondstadt. Dvalin and Venti manage to defeat Durin, but not without grave hits to their health. They both seem to follow the path of deep slumber to recover from the abyssal corrosion they suffered from the fight. And while Venti seemed to heal... Dvalin, with an immense lack of Venti's archon power, is not so lucky.

Dvalin is then woken from his slumber and his abyssal corrosion from his fight 500 years ago is used to by the Abyss to be Evil and terrorize the citizens of Mondstadt. Sound familiar? Yes, because this is the second major repetition. While it isn't the exact same circumstances, it is still similar. Proper measures were not taken to root out evil (like the Mondstadt aristocracy), and thus, evil came back with a vicious bite. Thankfully, the Traveler's ability to cure abyssal corrosion seems to have solved the biggest of these issues. Still don't know what's going on with Durin's heart, though. That's kind of. Concerning.

But on the topic of dragons, we do have another pretty important and relevant repetition, which concerns both the first and the second half of the Genshin Impact manga, and now with our favorite evil organization: the Fatui!

The Era of Aristocracy is a painful time in Mondstadt's history. It is also a point in time when Ursa the Drake was roaming around Mondstadt. For those unaware, the creature drake is essentially just a dragon/dragon-like animal. So, by accordance to our pre-established rules, Ursa was not very well liked at this point. She was also a bit of a foul creature, unlike Dvalin, who was pretty innocent and unassuming at his point of roaming Teyvat originally.

Vanessa and her tribe run into Ursa the Drake while traveling in the Mondstadt wilderness, which is what leads to their seeking of refugee, capture, and subsequent enslavement by the high nobles in Mondstadt on Cider Lake. They do eventually have to fight Ursa the Drake again in the gladiator-type arena while attempting to win their freedom, and while they think they've killed Ursa, they've merely driven her away.

Which is why she comes back, 1000 years later. Ursa the Drake serves as sort of our third and fourth repetition. For now, I will just focus on the third major repetition: the mere fact of her return. Just like always, something that is not properly vanquished will come back to bite in Mondstadt. And so it does: Ursa does not merely terrorize a group of traveling tribesmen. Ursa indirectly kills Crepus, Diluc's father, which leads to a massive political scandal. Eroch, a high-ranking member of the Knights of Favonius, tries first to make Diluc take credit for killing Ursa (at this point in time, Ursa had only been driven away again, not killed). Eroch suggests this because Diluc, newly 18 - quite literally, it was his birthday - and promoted in the Knights, was the only one there at the time of Crepus' death. Diluc, enraged by the suggestion, promptly quits the Knights and flees Mondstadt entirely after a fight with his adopted brother, Kaeya. Eroch takes claim for the defeat, but that is quickly uprooted and dismissed.

As I've repeated, nothing that is not killed comes back. Nothing that is not defeated will bite. Ursa does not come back again, but she is killed by a Fatui Harbinger: Il Dottore, the Doctor, the Second of the Eleven Fatui Harbingers. And the big thing to understand about Dottore is that he is not a dumb man; he does not do something nice for the sake of nicety. No. This action of eliminating a major threat to Mondstadt makes Mondstadt indebted to Snezhnaya and the Fatui Harbingers.

You all have (presumably) played the Archon Quest. You know that the major point of concern for our leaders of Mondstadt is to make sure that the Fatui have no hand in eliminating Dvalin. That would put them in an incredibly horrendous position with Snezhnaya, and they could not afford it. Hence, our fourth major repetition: a dragon that terrorizes Mondstadt and leads to immense pressure from Mondstadt and the Fatui Harbingers. A problem that is not killed or defeated coming to bite them in the ass, as always.

It is also at this point that Venti makes a reappearance in Mondstadt. He wakes up again to help his people, as he always does when it is apparent their freedom is in danger. So far, this has been recorded in these instances (excluding the Archon War/and the years following. Only starting from when he first relinquished full freedom to his people): the Era of Aristocracy, the Cataclysm, and the Stormterror.

... But it really isn't Stormterror, is it? Because we know that Dvalin was never really out to kill anybody. He was being hurt and manipulated. That situation is quite unlike the Cataclysm, in which he likely also received a calling from Celestia and the other gods to, I don't know, do something??????????? So it can't just be Stormterror. Venti knows that his people's freedom is at stake.

And, well, that Abyss issue was never really resolved in Mondstadt, was it? Durin's heart is still beating, Venti's statue is corroded and upside-down, and the hilichurls and other Abyssal creatures still have strongholds and are forming true offenses against Mondstadt. And the Fatui are still, you know, around. They were never defeated. Only minorly wounded, a mere setback in their plan.

If I know anything about Mondstadt, it is that their oversights will eat them alive.

At least Barbatos is sticking around for this one.

[aerial-jace]

4, 6, and 28 for Flurryscree 😸

Since it was sent here, I'll answer here and take this as an opportunity to shill my Warriors blog @troutfur to anyone on here who may be interested in battle cats posting. I think there are still a couple followers here from the time when I posted that on main that never migrated. Which, like. Glad you guys like what I reblog enough to still stick around but wouldn't you want to be where the stuff you followed for is now?

ANYWAY! FLURRYSCREE! MY GIRLIE! Proud half-SkyClan medicine cat of RiverClan and my character for our little forum-based small group RP, The Aftermath. Let's get into it!

4. How easy is it to earn their trust?

Flurryscree is a cat who values honor and loyalty quite highly. If you show yourself to live up to her standards, she trusts quite deeply and quickly. It's not easy to live up to that, however, for she shees loyalty and honor in a much more expansive way that encompasses the Clans as a whole and not only a cat's own Clan.

She takes it as a given most Warriors are not to be trusted, particularly after the SkyClan exile. But she used to trust her medicine cat colleagues a lot more. When they allied themselves to the leaders or else relented in their opposition, she became quite furious with them and has been a thorn at every half-moon meeting since. He loyalty is quite a bit harder to get nowadays after that betrayal.

6. Do they consider laws flexible, or immovable?

Flexible! She is deeply religious and believes that StarClan's principles are good and correct, if interpreted correctly. But she often disagrees on how they are interpreted and implemented. To her this is quite obvious as a position as part of her training to be the religious leader of her community involved learning the history of the Warrior Code and how it formed. So it's obvious to her it involved quite a bit of legislating and negotiating.

She believes that as history unfolds the Clans will move closer and closer to the principles of StarClan. As such, the laws as they are today can be bent or even broken in the interest of realizing the higher ideals behind them. She thinks in the future they will have that flexibility necessary built into them, but for now they exist in that imperfect state yet.

28. Would they prefer a lie over an unpleasant truth? 

Consciously I would say she would say no. But unconsciously, she is kind of telling herself a lie about the values of the Warrior Code. To some extent the factionalism and isolation is built in and it is not an aberration. And it would upset her greatly to have her worldview challenged like that.

[just-sp-in-inginthevoid]

The Japanese Yakuza Association - and Goshiki in this mess

The 'big 4' have been sitting in a way that reminded me of the Four Auspicious Beasts. And my investigation has proven me right - thus, you're getting a post about it.

Shikaba

The kanji used for Shikaba's nickname appears to be '不死鳥' which translated as 'phoenix', but the English translation has decided to translate as immortal (which '不死' indeed mean by itself) for some reasons.

This can easily get linked to 朱雀, the 'vermilion bird*'(Suzaku)(*read 'peacock'), one of the Four Auspicious Beasts(they have different way to be called as a group but I prefer this one). And thus, Shikaba is then linked to: South, red, summer, fire

Still, the 'vermilion bird' isn't a phoenix - and either Wakui (aware or not, doesn't matter much) didn't care and made the comparison anyway, or it's a way to imply Shikaba is the odd one out here (personally I don't believe it much).

Tendo

The kanji Tendo has on his clothes are as follow: 玄武 - which read 'Genbu', as in his clan name and literally translates to 'black* warrior' (*can also be 'mysterious') - another Auspicious Beast. This 'beast' is actually two: a snake and a turtle which were previously respectively a stomach and intestines, then turned into animals and wreaked havoc. Yet, the symbol of the clan appears to be the snake eating itself in a ထ shape. Wonder what happened to the turtle...

We now there's a link with Shikaba since he's the character linked with ထ, as well as being his grandson. The snake and phoenix may not be closed but it is true that a phoenix rises from its ashes while the snake sheds as well as continuously eat itself and grow in the ouroboros myth (since actual snakes eating themselves is quite a different situation).

Linked to: North, black, winter, water. They are also seen as a symbol of longevity, inner struggle as those two are constantly fighting, and hibernation.

Ai

Ai has the kanji '龍鱗' written on her obi, which is also the name of her clan - 'Ryurin', 'dragon scales'. She's then linked to the Azure Dragon -East, blue, spring, wood. Unfortunately I don't have much on that.

Kogane

Kogane has a few kanji tattooed on his back. The ones at the very top seem to mean something like 'second generation'(i can't find the first kanji but the last two sure are those). Then, bigger, is '狂庵' - crazy (or lunatic) hermit(age). And I do not know what that may mean!

If the Genbu clan is the Black Warrior, the Ryurin the Azure Dragon, and Shikaba the Vermilion Bird, then, unsurprisingly the Kanetora faction is the White Tiger(白虎 - Byakko), linked to the West, white, fall, metal(oh, look, 'steel arms' is Kogane's nickname from his astro)

What I mainly focus on though, is the 'tiger' part - both as the main piece of his irezumi but also the 'tora' in 'Kanetora'. Because as far as Japanese culture go, 龍虎 ('Ryuko', lit. kanji for dragon/kanji for tiger), 'the great rivals', are the typical representation for rivals. And, without much surprise, Hibaru (and Kongo) has been linked to a dragon already(it's also a symbol of the emperor). I don't think we've seen the last of Kogane - or at least the Kanetora faction - and may I be wrong, at least I hope.

+Goshiki

The problem with the Four Auspicious Beasts, it's that they are not necessarily four. Indeed, the cardinal points have been covered but the 'middle' is still there - and there's the Kirin to rule over it.

The Kirin is a mythical creature. It is seen as a good omen as it only appears in a peaceful area or under a peaceful, prosperous era. They are wise and pacific (but not harmless!). The Kirin is seen as greater than the other beasts and is also given the color yellow - color of the emperor, heroism, and the earth. It is also vastly used among Buddhist Monks. Funfact, in Japanese, 'kirin' is also how giraffes are called :)

Now. If there was a link to make with Goshiki (bear with me, this is all but speculations (or you can also skip that part if you're not interest ig)), it would have to start with his name - and in two different way. First, it's because of its similarity with 'Yoshiki' - Tendo's first name. It could be a coincidence but I doubt it, because the situation is, overall, fishy. To start with, even if I don't believe 'Yoshiki' and 'Goshiki' to share kanji, there's no denying they're hardly pronounced differently. And - and - albeit it's harder to tell because of Tendo's age and beard - his face looks alike to Goshiki's (the nose is a big help ngl-). Take that information as you want. (IDC IF WAKUI DECIDED TO MAKE SHIKABA TENDO'S GRANDSON, I'M NOT LETTING GO OF GOSHIKI JUST YET)

Second, a lot of things are called 'goshiki' (lit. 'five colors') but the important one here is that the Five Beasts are each associated with a color - as well as Chinese culture having five 'main', 'standard' colors traditionally. And that's the one we're going to remember for and from this post. The five colors are also each related to one of the Five Elements of Japanese Culture, which I listed throughout all of this post.

-- Now, I do not necessarily think Goshiki would be the one 'embodying' the Kirin, but I strongly believe him to be important, even to the overall plot, as well as perhaps being expected (by another character, whoever this might be) to fulfill this role. There's the possibility of Hibaru(and Kongo before) to become it, if we take into consideration his protagonist status and the fact the Yotsurugi's symbol(diamond) is drawn in gold/yellow. And well, as he is our protagonist we are rooting for Hibaru, who has been called a 'king' several time already, and it isn't a synonym for 'emperor' but.. but you get what I mean.

The Kirin can also be replaced by a Yellow Dragon.

The whole point here is that Four out of Five beasts are here and Kongo for sure was the Kirin(or yellow dragon if you prefer) keeping everything balanced as the leader of the organization, and that the only other character that may have a link to this mess is Goshiki and even if not I just want to know wtf his deal is. You'll see more of me theorizing on how he can be important(because he has to be) as chapters go on and the story evolve. With some luck I'll nail it one day lol

[daiourage]

(long post warning because I love to talk 🥂 the parts I want to be seen the most are highlighted in pink)

Hi guys. Text post here.

Y'all remember the AU trend that I made my own take on (part 1 is here and part 2 is here)? I'd like anyone reading this to say your ideas!!!

I'm in the middle of doing homework for my research group (it's the thing I've been talking about sometimes in the tags when I reblog something), and though I'll be done soon, I still won't be posting for another week or so. Not a big deal, obv, and I'm still interacting with the community, but I would like help from y'all!!!

I've been sketching during the downtime of my research and the pages have been piling!!! So expect a sketch dump of this AU (albeit in a slightly different font I suppose) soon!!!

What I would like y'all (anyone reading this) is for help on who to add into this AU!!! send me suggestions on who you'd like to see (I'd like some minor characters but major characters are also welcome)!!! Also what events do you want to happen???

For the explanation of the AU, it's very similar to the premise of the Happy Ending/Two Primes AUs. The main crew will still be the focal point of the AU, but it'll mainly deal with Megs (still D-16 because I want his Prime name to be given to him via Optimus) and his struggles with thinking that he isn't good enough to be a Prime (I'm thinking of calling it the "Other Prime AU").

For the events in the AU, that will relate to the characters that might be added. But, I am planning:

1. Senator Shockwave back!!! 2. Bee will lose his ability to talk via Starscream? (thinking of basing it off of the Starscream vs. D-16 fight where Dee jacks up Scream's voice box;;;) 2.1. Bee's health will be monitored by someone 3. Starscream defecting from the High Guard and fighting against the Autobots 4. Starscream coming back to ask for help (there's a greater evil (I'm thinking of adding Tarn and Pharma but is that too many G1 bots askdjflaksd///)) 5. Autobots and the government (the Council) will be separate factions

I want to add characters that aren't just part of the G1 continuum because while I like the idea of TFOne being an homage to G1, I want to add characters from other continuums just because there's a lot of leeway because it's a new series (possibly).

(Also because it got me back into the fandom. Perhaps it can be separated from TFOne altogether, but the designs will at least be from that side of the continuum. Also I haven't read the TFOne books so tell me if I should definitely not skip someone from there!!!)

For example I do intend to embellish Optimus's and Megatron's designs with G1/IDW references, and I intend to mix IDW characters in there since (if you know me) I really like the idea of TFOne leading into G1/IDW. But, I also intend to put Prime characters/characters with Prime-based designs (since I grew up on Prime and Rescue Bots (I'm kinda still baby tbh)), or characters from Armada and the Animated series, etc. I just would like help adding which ones (thinking about adding Prime-based Knockout (listen the concept of K.O. being a medic is incredibly interesting to me??? I'm totally not biased guys I promise--));;;

(Ratchet and Rung will be in there too!!! I want to add the other Seekers but I don't know how to incorporate them in there when Screamer's on the opposite team and I don't think the Seekers would both fight against Screamer or the Autobots/the Council)

(Maybe Bee will be monitored by K.O.??? i wanted their relationship to be more explored in Prime so this is ENTIRELY biased im no longer gonna hide it (was never hidden in the first place))

(...Also it's a MegOp AU but that's not entirely the focal point.)

(Also also I'm not that adept at making comics so I don't even know if this will be all fleshed out into one;;; but have my ideas anyway *hands this to y'all like it's a resume*)

[saturdaynightspecialpresentation]

Taking another crack at Fallout 3 and just thinking about the series.

A weird thing about the Fallout series is that Fallout and Fallout 2 were decently popular at the time, but by Fallout 2 the people in charge had basically decided that nobody actually liked the gameplay in them, to the point where, of the six sequels only one (New Vegas) actually tried to mimic the game design philosophy of the first two.

I guess from what I've played you could maybe argue for Fallout 3 as well to some extent, but...

The big things about Fallout 1 and 2 for me, gameplay wise are:

Multiple character builds that each play differently, with different strengths and weaknesses;

Quests in which there are several different factions playing against each other, where the PC can do everything from ignoring them to joining one or more sides, aiding one or the other or even playing them off against each other for profit;

You can be selfless, amoral or even outright evil and the quests are still satisfying;

The idea that quests change the world around you as different factions gain or lose power due to player actions

Now, neither of the first two games are perfect here. Fallout 1 in particular had the idea of a karma system but in practice there are barely any bad karma quests and they are strictly less interesting than the good karma ones.

Anyway Fallout 3 so far is a minor step backwards from Fallout 1 in terms of all of these design goals, and I'd say Fallout 4 is just... not even the same kind of RPG.

It feels even weirder given that games in the exact same genre as Fallout 1 and 2 are now incredibly popular.

PS - That said, I don't know if this is a hot take or not, but Fallout 3 and 4 are a lot more immediately gripping and thematically interesting from the very start than New Vegas, although I admit that I've played NV the least of any of the main series so maybe it gets a lot more interesting. New Vegas seems to be following in the footsteps of Fallout 1 and just using the wasteland as an excuse for a frontier adventure. 3 and 4 go, "Okay, if Fallout 2 is about blowing up the President of the US let's move the next games to the east coast and make them even more directly about America" which I think is a really solid idea.

[mllemaenad]

So – Bethesda broke Fallout 4's script extender. Because of course they did. What better way to celebrate the release of your new TV show than to stall people's ongoing playthroughs? Excellent work. I don't even want an Enclave quest. It's Creation Club nonsense, so it won't actually be a proper quest anyway.

I want to finish my Sim Settlements 2 playthrough. Ugh.

So while I'm waiting for the dust to settle on that, I thought I'd give Fallout 76 another go. I am rebuilding my mod list for Fallout 3, but that's a work in progress. And Fallout 76 is right there.

I created a new character, because I haven't played this thing in ages and I know they've changed a bunch of the mechanics. And oh - ha. I mean, I had thought from the beginning that creating a game without NPCs was a terrible idea, because it's hard to invest in saving an empty world. But the addition of them makes playing the game's original main quest a distinctly bizarre experience.

I don't mean that I'm suddenly pro-empty world. Not at all. In general the presence of factions and personalities and people you can care about it a good thing.

But when they made this game, the writers and quest designers were given "empty world" as a parameter within which they had to work. And they did.

It's sort of an interesting, even bold, choice for a storyline because it does not allow you to feel good about yourself at all. Most Fallout games do. Oh, you can play evil if you want, sure, and there are a handful of side quests that are genuinely no win scenarios. But mostly? You can save the world. And you will probably have a better experience if you try to: there's more to do when you talk to the NPCs and deal with their problems rather than just murdering everyone and taking their stuff.

But Fallout 76 is just judging you.

I keep thinking about its promotional song – that really upbeat cover of Take Me Home, Country Roads, and all the imagery in the old trailer, about rebuilding and looking to the future. But all of that is functionally a lie, and the key lines in that song come towards the end:

I hear her voice in the mornin' hour, she calls me The radio reminds me of my home far away Drivin' down the road, I get a feelin' That I should've been home yesterday, yesterday – Take Me Home, Country Roads

You should have been home yesterday. You should have been home a thousand yesterdays ago. This story is all about the past, and a rebuilding effort you neglected to join. It hits you with the guilt straight away, as the very first place the game takes you is an old outpost of emergency service personnel who just kept on doing their jobs after the bombs fell. It's their notes and recordings that teach you how to survive.

Of course you encounter less pleasant people later: raiders and Enclave, and honestly I have little patience for any iteration of The Brotherhood of Steel. But even there, you can see that the misunderstandings and conflicts and general fuck ups might have been resolved with a competent mediator.

And that is exactly what you are. You're a Fallout protagonist. You don't have the time to spend ten years sitting in a lab, but you excel at travelling from town to town and dealing with whatever obstacle is stopping a faction from moving forward. Fallouts 1-4 and assorted spin offs have taught us all that.

Even in universe, Vault 76 is stated to be full of literal geniuses. It is packed with doctors and scientists and engineers: exactly the people the world needed to deal with a combination of plague and environmental crisis.

If you were there, you could have fixed this.

But you were not there. You were sitting comfortably in a vault, while other, better people tried to save the world.

And they were almost there. They had a vaccine. Even with everything, they had a vaccine. They did the work, they had a plan. As you play through this quest, you stand upon the shoulders of giants at almost every stage, implementing the very last step in a plan that really does work. Had they lived, even a few months longer ... but they didn't, and you did nothing to help them.

It wasn't even necessary to spend 25 years in that vault, as it is abundantly clear that the area around 76 has been habitable this whole time. Challenging, sure: I am in no way suggesting that it was an easy existence. But it was not instant irradiated death.

Every other Fallout protagonist steps out of their vault (or other entry scenario) in time to make things right. Maybe just in time, but nevertheless. They walk into a fractured world and get to work. But not you. You took the easy route.

How proud are you of that Best Dental Hygiene award now?

Given that it is set so close to the Great War, and deals with first generation survivors, it gives one of the best looks at the cynical cruelty of Vault-Tec: when they talk about rebuilding the world, it only means rebuilding for its own benefit and profit. Anyone not part of their plan is more than welcome to die in a hole.

It ties in very nicely with the television series, actually. Lucy laments that she was waiting to rebuild the world, but it all happened without her - and Vault-Tec actively tried to destroy that new world (and at least up to a point, seems to have succeeded). Her people waited over 200 years, but it didn't take that long. Twenty-five were quite enough.

But with the new version ... I mean, it really takes the sting out of it. It looks like everybody had a few rough years there, but it's all turned out fine. There's a burgeoning civilisation here, with homesteads and caravans and trade. I can't go two steps without an NPC asking to borrow a bobby pin, and even the raiders are more territorial than outright destructive (although – is nobody going to go up that completely safe little hill and give poor Miguel a funeral? Come on guys, clean up the damn corpses).

The tragedy of the whole thing, and the weight of your own inaction, is largely gone. You can't reshape the world and still make the same impact with that narrative.

I don't know, I guess I just can't quite get behind the whole multiplayer-ness of the thing. The world can't really change as you complete quests. You can't really rebuild. But likewise, if the world does change, it has to change for everyone at the same time, regardless of where they are in the story.

It could still work, I think, if you could play through that story and then see the caravans come over the hill, and start to rebuild the world.

Because that might feel a bit like redemption.