#all of this is in some ways subjective character interpretation and in others very obvious

[junonreactor]

hm

[grunckle]

Qualia and Ascension in Rain World

(To clarify I'm mostly talking about base-game lore and not including Downpour, but honestly most of these things can transfer over)

Qualia

One thing that’s relatively hidden in Rain World’s text and subtext is the concept of qualia. Qualia is described as being, “sensory experiences that have distinctive subjective qualities but lack any meaning or external reference to the objects or events that cause them.” It’s a personal sensory experience that cannot be comprehended by another person other than the individual themself, and are often hard to convey via language.

Qualia is a reoccurring motif in Rain World, but what’s more important is the way in which it’s conveyed to the player. The picture that’s painted is that of a world or civilization that placed a great importance on the individuals’ experience, and it’s shown through pearls or environmental details.

Here are some examples of qualia appearing in the text through pearls.

“It's qualia, or a moment - a very short one. Someone is holding a black stone, and twisting it slightly as they drag their finger across the rough surface. The entire sequence is shorter than a heartbeat, but the resolution is extraordinary.”

“A memory... but not really visual, or even concrete, in its character. It reminds of the feeling of a warm wind, but not the physical feeling but the... inner feeling. I don't think it has much utility unless you are doing some very fringe Regeneraist research.”

“This one... is authored by Five Pebbles, when he was young. There has been an attempt to scramble the data, but it's sloppily done, and most is still somewhat legible. It's written in internal language, or thoughts, so it is hard for me to translate so you would understand.”

But the most prominent examples of qualia and it’s importance in this world are the Memory Crypts and possibly ancient naming conventions. The deep purple pearl (shortened) found in Shaded Citadel states,

“In this vessel is the living memories of Seventeen Axes, Fifteen Spoked Wheel, of the House of Braids (…) Seventeen Axes, Fifteen Spoked Wheel nobly decided to ascend in the beginning of 1514.008, after graciously donating all (ALL!) earthly possessions to the local Iterator project (Unparalleled Innocence), and left these memories to be cherished by the carnal plane. The assorted memories and qualia include:”

Ancients likely mutated their own neural tissue into the cabinet beasts we see in Shaded, which were used to store their memories and qualia before ascension. Even james said once "how 5 pebs got the rot is a good hint here" in response to someone asking how cabinet beasts work, and how they're made.

Adding on to this, ancient (and iterator) naming conventions seem to be built off of the concept of qualia, with them focusing on individual images or experiences.

Nineteen Spades, Endless Reflections

Droplets upon Five Large Droplets

Two Sprouts, Twelve Brackets

Looks to the Moon

Generally, this all points to a world focused on the expression and preservation of the individual experience. You could even consider some of the echo dialogue as more evidence for this running motif, but I already have too many quotes lol.

Ascension

So now time to talk about my interpretation of ascension. In short, you turn into a worm, but I should probably explain more than that.

So its been surfacing on rw-tumblr that the light in the end of the game is called the egg in files. Although file names shouldn't be taken as fact or canon, it is pretty obvious given the birth imagery.

But something a little lesser known is what happens to the worm that takes us down to the void-sea depths. Void worms normally have a bright glowing effect, on their body, which is present for ours as well. But after it unhooks us, it swims down, and when it passes us on it's way back that glowing effect is gone.

To be honest, I don't really think this can be interpreted in many ways, but the most obvious one and the one I personally subscribe to is that the worm laid the egg. Biology and spirituality really aren't that different in Rain World, it's implied that karma is stored in the brain through Five Pebbles's slideshow. Adding on to that, we see voidspawn after eating an iterator neuron. One's spiritual state is innately tied to their mental state, and that dictates what and what they can't perceive.

And for that reason I decide to take a more biology leaning approach to what happens in the ending. At face value, we are fertilizing the egg of a void worm to be reborn into a voidspawn.

Not only do void spawn and void worms have multiple characteristics in common, (worm like bodies, tendrils/tentacles, glowing heads, void spawn look microbial and void worms are likely some of the oldest "life" in game)

but voidspawn are seen inside egg-like coverings and share the same egg light seen in the end of the game, confirmed to be the same thing by Videocult in a livestream they did.

I believe that all this points to ascension being re-birth into a voidspawn, which eventually undergoes metamorphose into a worm. Higher-dimensional beings, who manifest and give birth to a new world.

So how does this tie in with qualia? Another thing you might know is that the area in which void spawn are most plentiful is Shaded Citadel and areas in Shoreline near Shaded. And shaded is absolutely packed with Cabinet Beasts, even outside Memory Crypts. I believe these qualia-storing creatures are what manifest voidspawn.

From what we see in ascension, it still looks physical and largely based around the real world. Hunter still has his scars and see's an iterator, survivor sees the slug tree in a more mystical and formless state, and monk sees survivor frankly just looking like a normal slugcat. I think that ascension is a product of qualia. We transcend our earthly knowledge via the egg, and our own qualia is used to give birth to a new world. This is why voidspawn appear most in Shaded Citadel.

Now I won't be getting into Void-Worm theories too much here, I'm mostly focused on ascension but I can't ignore the Gnosticism parallels. For those who don't know, Void Worms heavily resemble the Yaldaboath from Gnosticism, along with sharing some similar celestial motifs.

and running with that some people theorize that, like the Yaldabaoth, void worms are responsible for manifesting the material world. Ascension seems to be a mix of the concepts of Gnosis and Nirvana, but I believe it might lean more on Gnosis.

From my limited knowledge, Gnosis is a few things, some of which being a state achieved from experiences or intuitions, and an essential part to salvation is personal knowledge. While researching a bit, I came across this text by Peter Wilberg called "From NEW AGE to NEW GNOSIS" which brings up some comparisons between Gnosticism and qualia as well.

"Gnosis is subjective knowledge of an inner universe made up not of matter, energy, space or time but of countless qualitative spheres or ‘planes’ of awareness – a knowledge obtained directly through inter- subjective resonance. It is the subjective science of this inner universe."

One thing though that has been brought up when discussing this is how this can be consolidated with the tone of the ending. It is pretty un-ambiguously happy, but if we're going with the Void worm Yaldaboath theory then that would put a bit of a sour twist on it right?

I agreed with these for some time, but now I actually think it ties in perfectly with Rain World's core themes as stated by the devs, "overcoming differences and finding empathy." I don't think the void worms are "evil" or malevolent, but I think they (and subsequently us after ascending) play a key role in demonstrating this theme.

By manifesting the physical world, we allow these souls to experience life and develop their own qualia so one day they can ascend themselves. We are shown compassion, and pass it forward.

[elia-nymmeros]

Cersei and her vision of ruling

I waited, and so can he. I waited half my life. She had played the dutiful daughter, the blushing bride, the pliant wife. She had suffered Robert's drunken groping, Jaime's jealousy, Renly's mockery, Varys with his titters, Stannis endlessly grinding his teeth. She had contended with Jon Arryn, Ned Stark, and her vile, treacherous, murderous dwarf brother, all the while promising herself that one day it would be her turn. If Margaery Tyrell thinks to cheat me of my hour in the sun, she had bloody well think again.

I love thinking about Cersei and her inefficient and ultimately doomed attempt at ruling because, beyond her faults and terrible traits as a person, she simply does not offer any valuable incentive towards anyone who wishes to follow her, as opposite to other contestants (something that I think 100% comes from Tywin), and any attempt at ruling would've failed sooner or later.

Edit: added some quotes to show some examples and tweak some stuff!

From AGoT all the way through her PoVs in AFfC, one of Cersei's main characteristics both in her personal approach to other people and in the way she tackles ruling is that she believes she's entitled to power and she's entitled to be treated as superior both as a Lannister and as the queen regent of Westeros. She routinely dismiss and berates people with lesser social power and status, she despises people who try to 'take liberties' and who don't treat her as an untouchable regent, and she's willing to hurt, torture and kill anyone who she considers a threat to her claim to rule. I personally think it's understandable that she's paranoid about traitors and people who have double intentions about her and Tommen —especially considering that in AFfC she literally just saw her son die in her arms by poison— but her problem is that she's a bad judge of character, she's been flawed in how she interprets other people's actions since AGoT, and she's incapable of adequately judging who is on her side and who is a bad option for an ally (see for example her thinking that Kevan was a traitor when he made good criticism about her as a ruler).

"The next Hand will know his place, she promised herself. It would have to be Ser Kevan. Her uncle was tireless, prudent, unfailingly obedient. She could rely on him, as her father had. The hand does not argue with the head. She had a realm to rule, but she would need new men to help her rule it. Pycelle was a doddering lickspittle, Jaime had lost his courage with his sword hand, and Mace Tyrell and his cronies Redwyne and Rowan could not be trusted. For all she knew they might have had a part in this. Lord Tyrell had to know that he would never rule the Seven Kingdoms so long as Tywin Lannister lived." AFfC, Cersei I

For me, a very hard truth about Cersei is that she absolutely suffered physical and sexual abuse from Robert, and she did not deserve neither this nor her perpetual objectification by pretty much every men in her life, but this simply does not make her entitled or eligible as a ruler by default. By Westerosi laws —which are undoubtedly misogynistic and unfair to women no matter their ability to rule— her claim as a Queen regent comes by her marriage to Robert and her sons (which are supposed to be Robert's blood). Since she decided to go all girlboss about it and put the two sons who clearly did not have Robert's blood on the throne, she actively harmed their claim and her own, and she literally created a succession crisis by having the bad luck of marrying the one family with strong genes and zero chance of having blondes in their family tree.

But let's say, alright, put the clearly Lannister boys on the throne anyways, kingship is a social construction and the Baratheons didn't really have any more intrinsic claim to Westeros than the Targaryens other than military might, fuck it; the obvious question is, what am I offering my subjects so that their support is rewarded and their loyalty is secured? This is something that, in some way or another, is answered by the other pretenders in the War of the Five Kings, even if it's in a limited capacity and with very dubious intentions: Robb offers a rule from, by and to the Northern people that takes into account their wishes and reclaims, and also offers the people of the Riverlands justice and protection; Balon offers the Ironborn a new, revitalized rule over the islands and surrounding land with the Old Way which he claimed would improve the life of his people; Renly and his alliance with the Tyrells came with the prosperous wealth of the Reach and offers of food, pardons and a generous rule by a charismatic ruler mimicking Robert's long peaceful reign. Stannis, by contrast, is the one who pushes his claim solely by his rights in Targaryen dynastic succession (if the king dies with no legitimate children, the crown should go to the next eldest brother), and we see over and over throughout the saga that this isn't enough to secure his claim, that a ruler should also fulfill their rights as a protector if they wish to be followed, that he was demanding loyalty and obedience without offering something in return and that this won't give you support no matter how legal is your claim.

"If not for my Hand, I might not have come at all. Lord Seaworth is a man of humble birth, but he reminded me of my duty, when all I could think of was my rights. I had the cart before the horse, Davos said. I was trying to win the throne to save the kingdom, when I should have been trying to save the kingdom to win the throne." ASoS, Jon XI

Compared to all this, Cersei (and Joffrey by extension, because she encourages in him what she believes are good traits for a king) simply did not have anything to offer precisely because they live under the illusion —once again coming from Tywin— that they have the intrinsic right to power and ruling simply because they're Lannisters and they should be obeyed because of this. This would be a normal thing to believe in a normal, regular dynasty —for example, I doubt Aegon IV or Viserys I or Maekar I were particularly thinking about what they could offer to their subjects, they simply gained power because they were part of a royal lineage where a Targaryen man inheriting the throne was expected— but Joffrey's claim came from a break of this succession, and Robert justified his reign both by being the descendant of a Targaryen and also because he offered Westeros peace, protection, justice and mercy if you'd been in the wrong side of the war.

""It is, Your Grace," Lady Merryweather agreed. "The High Septon should have come to you. And these wretched sparrows . . ." "He feeds them, coddles them, blesses them. Yet will not bless the king." The blessing was an empty ritual, she knew, but rituals and ceremonies had power in the eyes of the ignorant. Aegon the Conqueror himself had dated the start of his realm from the day the High Septon anointed him in Oldtown. "This wretched priest will obey, or learn how weak and human he still is."" AFfC, Cersei VI

A lot can be said about Robert's rule and what he did right and wrong, but I think one can admit that he was a man capable of pardoning his enemies' lives unconditionally (think Barristan, Balon, Jaime), he put down disagreements and fights without sending someone to be tortured to death, and traditional customs in Westeros were respected —Aerys' rule was contested precisely because he broke the right of nobles to have a trial. Cersei doesn't simply ignore all this, being particularly vicious, cruel and spiteful to her enemies/rivals even after she supposedly made peace with them, but nothing about her rule is about anything except her and her wishes: if there's a scarcity of food, then she hoards everything to herself; if there's danger to the city, she hides herself and withdraws her resources and fuck the rest of the population, noble or not; if someone comes from the rival side wanting to join their cause, then they're suspected traitors who sooner or later will be put to death; if someone says a criticism about her actions, whether genuine or not, then that person is a traitor who sooner or later will be put to death; everyone is her enemy and everyone wants her power for themselves and nobody can ever be trusted because nobody is as smart, capable, worthy and deserving of power as Cersei is.

"It took the rest of the flagon before the queen was finally able to coax the whole sad tale out of Lady Falyse. Once she had, she did not know whether to laugh or rage. "Single combat," she repeated. Is there no one in the Seven Kingdoms that I can rely upon? Am I the only one in Westeros with a pinch of wits? (...)" AFfC, Cersei VII

"Taena had drifted back to sleep by the time the queen returned to the bedchamber, her head spinning. Too much wine and too little sleep, she told herself. It was not every night that she was awakened twice with such desperate tidings. At least I could awaken. Robert would have been too drunk to rise, let alone rule. It would have fallen to Jon Arryn to deal with all of this. It pleased her to think that she made a better king than Robert." AFfC, Cersei VII

Since she doesn't care about feeding her subjects, protecting them from harm, enacting fair and genuine justice to those who need it, improving the physical infrastructure of the realm, honoring debts to foreign entities and previous agreements to other nobles, or at least diminishing the economic problems left by Robert's rule, then she (and once again, Joffrey and Tommen by extension) literally has nothing to offer anyone who wishes to follow her. She doesn't make even the attempt to pretend she cares about any of this by the time we get to AFfC, like Renly once did in ACoK, precisely because she has the mistaken and very dangerous belief that she's owed obedience and deference and the right to rule over an entire continent, and that people should somehow be grateful to obey her no matter how shitty and depraved and harmful she is to them and their families.

""The realm is at war. His Grace has need of every man." Cersei did not intend to squander Tommen's strength playing wet nurse to sparrows, or guarding the wrinkled cunts of a thousand sour septas. Half of them are probably praying for a good raping. "Your sparrows have clubs and axes. Let them defend themselves."" AFfC, Cersei VI

"When the door closed behind them Cersei poured herself another cup of wine. "I am surrounded by enemies and imbeciles," she said. She could not even trust to her own blood and kin, nor Jaime, who had once been her other half. He was meant to be my sword and shield, my strong right arm. Why does he insist on vexing me?" AFfC, Cersei VII

All of this is remarkable precisely when put in contrast with Dany, because both of their ambitions to the throne come from their belief that they're entitled to the throne above any other consideration, and both of them had little experience ruling before their ascent to power and are continuously doubted/criticized because of their gender, but what sets Dany apart is her willingness to learn from others and take care of the people who follow her. Despite all the troubles that ADwD have brought her, Dany has always been characterized by someone who attempts to protect others and is prepared to hear her subject's opinions and make actual efforts to improve their lives; many of us root for her precisely because she makes a genuine effort into being a good and fair ruler to her subjects even when she fails, even when she makes wrong choices, even when she falls short of her goal. One of the main problems in her journey has been the question of how can she become a legitimate ruler in the eyes of the Westerosi people, and she rightfully understood that she needed to offer something in exchange for loyalty, just like Stannis did.

""There's much I don't understand," Davos admitted. "I have never pretended elsewise. I know the seas and rivers, the shapes of the coasts, where the rocks and shoals lie. I know hidden coves where a boat can land unseen. And I know that a king protects his people, or he is no king at all."" ASoS, Davos VI

"Why do the gods make kings and queens, if not to protect the ones who can't protect themselves?" ASoS, Daenerys III

I believe that the fact that Cersei doesn't ever comes close to this realization doesn't just steam from her natural self-centredness, propensity to cruelty and repeated trauma in the hands of the men in her life, but precisely by the vision Tywin had about himself and house Lannister. At the end of the day, Cersei mimics not only what Tywin himself believes about their house (that they're superior, wealthier, worthier and morally above everyone else, even other noble houses), but also how Tywin behaves as a political actor (making deals in bad faith and not fulfilling them, mistreating children, women and disabled peoople, using extreme violence as a form of correction and coercion, following no moral guidance or innate beliefs other than what benefits them in the short term, etc.). They're not the only ones who exhibits this behavior (Bronn, for example, is just as self-serving and violent as them), but House Lannister, and Tywin, Cersei and Joffrey in particular, are definitely some of the most powerful and influential people in Westeros thanks to their military might and economic power, which amplifies the consequences of their selfishness to... quite scary levels.

[boundinparchment]

I love your personality for dottore’s character! I like how he demonstrates his intelligence in a way that is not overbearing and cocky and how his actions have deep meanings behind them and not just for his satisfaction like most interpretations. how do you go about making such a character? Is it from purely your own perspective or is it influenced by other characters,books,philosophy concepts or any other piece of media?

Hi!

Some of his character is a personal interpretation but it’s based on a foundation from several other analyses and canon material that we have from the game.

Namely, some of the following Reddit threads:

Sadist or Scientist?

Dottore as a Villain and Sumeru’s Dysfunction

The Heresies of Il Dottore

There’s also a very long thread in this sub that’s living rent free

Along with the manga where we get a few crumbs for Celestia lore/Dottore’s perspective on allogenes, the Archon quest voicelines and Scara’s character quest, and Zandik’s notes found in the overworld.

@/ellalalala and localplaguenurse and haeresysabound also have their own analyses that prove really helpful and look at different facets of his character.

Most of it is a logical progression of how someone like him would think. He’s rational, observed before he acts, and doesn’t so much predict as follow the logic behind someone’s previous patterns of behavior. He’s arrogant to a fault but it’s posturing; a lot of people display that kind of behavior in the real world.

Most of the time, I start with a situation and, based on all of the above, I play, “what would Dottore do?”

He’s ultimately insatiably curious, chasing knowledge for the sake of it, just to see what happens.

Machines help him to understand the world and his interpretation of it. It goes to show how detached he is to consider a human body is nothing but a machine of its own, capable of surpassing the divine.

He’s more human than anyone because he seeks to understand and push the limitations; humans are naturally curious creatures who long to make the world better and leave a legacy behind.

But it’s not chaotic. It’s not The Joker style of curiosity where it’s bombastic and wild, a twisted version of a joke.

I’d argue that Webtorre is The Joker while Omega and in-game Dottore is Scarecrow.

And this is where myself (and others) differ because I do not think Dottore is a sadist. That he wants to harm people. It’s very obvious in several notes that, while not signed, are written in a manner that you know it’s Dottore. There’s one that lists several subjects and he considers the actions taken by a subordinate (I think it’s torturing one of them? Something drastic, will check) to be a waste of resources.

Is he apathetic? More than likely.

Does he enjoy seeing others suffer? Probably not. Why else would he be looking for a cure for Elezar, even as a byproduct to understanding the Withering?

He would probably actually be a failure at relationships precisely because he doesn’t know how to connect with people. If he would want to pursue a meaningful connection, there’s a lot stacked against him between trust issues built up over centuries, a detached worldview, and more than likely, a skewed sense of self (he’s arrogant but to a fault where he’s clearly still sensitive about how no one but himself sees him as a scholar). So many of the meaningful reasonings to his actions stem from this in particular.

My personal suggestions for additional insight would be:

Most renditions of the Scarecrow from Batman. How he sees fear is how I imagine Dottore understands knowledge. The more you have of it, the less you can fear, the better to understand the world around you.

I’ll put more here as they come to mind, because I’m definitely forgetting others at the moment.

[nightswatchdisbandmentera]

Hello! So i know that I am WAY! less knowleged than u re: asiof but I have a question about the Prophecy (AA/PTWP). I did a deep dive on it and GRRM spoke repeately about handling prophecy carefully/not too literally etc 3 weeks ago at Oxford he repeated: "you cannot have a prophecy that comes true way it was written and everbody understands it(..) it has to come true in a way you didnt understand(..)so it bites you in the ass" So rather than "who has the most obvious PTWP clues" shouldnt we theorize "how will the idea of AA/PTWP backfire on the believers" or "how can a unique/unpreditable element fill the role"? Since Im assuming GRRM stance will likely apply to the biggest prophecy in the books. What do you think? do you know theories like that? If anything, I only see "the prophecy is just nonsense!!" but that is clearly also not what GRRM says: not prophecy is bogus but has to be unexpected or "bite you in the ass".

Hey! No, you're far too kind 😭

I completely agree with you, and you raise some interesting and important questions, especially when considering how these ideas reflect back on our protagonists.

The tricky thing with interpreting prophecy is that the characters are operating on second-hand, third-hand, or even more distant accounts, all filtered through their cultural understandings of what a hero should be. Their beliefs are shaped by the information available to them, which is often incomplete or distorted. This means each character's idea of who is the subject of prophecy is largely subjective, influenced by their biases and specific cultural narratives and thus might never present the whole truth! So as readers, we should be very cautious about how we interpret the declarations presented by any character as absolute truth. We will probably never know until the final book is published, and even then it might be murky at best.

I saw GRRM’s comments a few days ago, and they really resonated with me because they align with how I’ve been feeling lately, particularly regarding Melisandre's role in all of this:

“[…] It is written in prophecy as well. When the red star bleeds and the darkness gathers, Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone.” (Davos III, ASoS)

It's often amusing in fandom to discuss how wrong Melisandre is, and she certainly is almost all the time. But lately, I've been wondering: what if we're wrong too? We focus so much on Melisandre misidentifying Azor Ahai, but what if she completely misunderstands her own role in all of this—and we're too blinded to notice it?

Because the issue isn't just that she's chosen the wrong person. The bigger problem is that she's fixated on providing what she believes are the necessary tools to defeat the Others. She wants to "wake dragons out of stone”, repeatedly asserting that "two kings" are needed to wake the dragon so they can serve Stannis Baratheon. This thinking leads to the burning of Shireen—because someone must die to forge the hero's weapon. Melisandre even sees herself as expendable in this grand scheme. But what if her entire understanding is flawed—not just about who the hero is, but about the very dragon she is trying to awaken?

I've been considering all this because "dragons" in the text don’t always refer to actual winged creatures—they're often symbolic descriptors for Targaryens in visions. For example, Moqorro's visions show dragons old and young, true and false; Baelor Breakspear appears as a dragon falling on top of Dunk; and a dragon egg hatching essentially symbolizes Aegon V. So if we're taking prophecy at face value, just as Mel does, we're left wondering where in seven hells she expects to find her "sleeping dragons".

But the thing is, she already has one: Jon Snow. In fact, her visions in Dance suggest that Jon is the one she is truly searching for. And I often think of these visions as moments where I go, "Oh, come on, Mel! It's not that guy; it's the other one!" Yet I've come to realize that even if she identifies Jon correctly, Mel would still face the dilemma of needing another sacrifice to "wake" Jon's dragon. However, she is likely to resurrect Jon before reconnecting with Stannis, which means that by the time she and Stannis consider burning Shireen, she may have already awakened the dragon - and thus fulfilled the prophecy.

If Jon is the awakened dragon, that adds a tragic irony to the whole situation with Mel and Shireen. Legend has it that the woman (Nissa Nissa) dies for the hero’s glory. But if Jon is the dragon, then does that make Melisandre Azor Ahai in this case? After all, we don't know much about the original prophecy so who knows how much it has been distorted over time?

But wouldn't that be such a twist? Mel isn’t a noble lady or royal; she's a former slave, a mere priestess—a tool, a guide, but not the hero. She never considered that she, a woman, could be R’hllor’s chosen. Yet she would perform an actual miracle in bringing a dragon back to life. And if, like me, you believe that Jon will be born from a funeral pyre (inverting Khal Drogo and Dany's dragon eggs), then the prophecy is turned entirely on its head.

This also raises the question: what about Shireen? What does she, an innocent little girl, die for? Why should she have to die for a dragon that is already living? Why should she have to die to exalt a false hero, when the true miracle worker is actually the "expendable" woman who stands before her? Then we have Melisandre carry the baggage of killing a child for something she had successfully completed before...It doesn't matter if she's able to perform some bastardized miracle and create a shadow dragon, because it would all be all for naught and a wasted effort. To me, this is more satisfying from a character development perspective because Melisandre is no longer a background character. She’s got POV chapters now, which means she has an arc that needs to reach its natural conclusion. It cannot begin and end in service of the men around her. She must reflect on her role and come to terms with her actions—both good (waking the dragon in Jon) and bad (sacrificing Shireen for something she had already accomplished and for a prophecy she had already fulfilled); and this could lead to some compelling writing. This might also answer your question about "how will the idea of AA/PTWP backfire on the believers?”. Because “incorrect” interpretations not only hinder progress, but the cost of human life is perhaps too high :/

Oops, so sorry for the long tangent.....

[sunderingstars]

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✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ CHARACTER STORY & BRUGHEL POISSON ⌝

sampo analysis m.list

— what the stars reveal: interpretative analysis, elation!sampo

— word count: 2.4k

— overview: (as of 2.5) an assessment of sampo’s character stories and his identity as madam brughel poisson. (yippee !! it’s madam poisson time !!)

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✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ CHARACTER DETAILS ⌝

First, I want to note his description as “silver tongued.” It seems to serve a dual meaning — “silver tongued” references eloquence and persuasion, but also brings to mind “tongued,” which is a word often associated with snakes and serpents (think “forked tongue” and the history of snakes as persuasive and temptatious literary figures). This further cements Sampo’s connection to snakes and the deception often associated with them.

We have some more obvious information — i.e. that’s he’s always around when there’s profit to be made — but it’s also notable how his information network is in and of itself a form of snare or “trap.” Similar to the name of his bonus ability (which is literally “Trap”), Sampo is skilled at setting up the exact circumstances needed to lure people in, to make them need and be dependent on him. As such, his “customers” enjoy (or are perhaps afflicted by) a dual relationship: one where they get what they need, but are also subject to Sampo’s duplicitous nature and the danger of being deceived. Coupled with the next line that mentions Sampo’s penchant for turning “customers” into “commodities,” there is a distinct aura of dehumanization that occurs, the treating of clients not as people but as potential profit. 

Personally, I feel this may mirror his potential relationship with Aha. If he is Aha or has an interconnected relationship with Them, this deception could be a direct result of Their existence; the constant dehumanization of others for the “profit” of the joke. If Sampo is an Emanator or other such high status, it could be that his own treatment of others mirrors the way Aha treats/has treated him. It is possible that Aha’s chaotic and powerful nature made Them difficult for Sampo to refuse when offered/seeking help, and now Sampo is part of a sort of cycle — one where he is treated and dehumanized for the “profit” of a joke, then (either as part of his personality or an unwilling byproduct of Elation), turns that commodification onto others.

My main takeaway is the specific phrase “not necessarily a good thing.” This is a phrase I often associate with Emanator and otherwise non-Aeonic theories; the idea that Sampo is “favored” in some way by Aha, but that attention is not a good thing. After all, Aha is known to often be callous and cruel in Their jokes, and if Sampo has ever been the butt of them… well… suffice to say that wouldn’t be very fun for him. I feel like this phrase may be holding up a mirror to Sampo’s own relationship with Aha, although that might also be a stretch.

✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ PART ONE ⌝

Before diving into the story proper, I want to address the name itself — Brughel Poisson. From what I could find, Brughel isn’t even a name that exists (which is very fitting). Instead, the closest name I could find is “Bruegel,” which means “small village” in Dutch. I feel like this is in line with Sampo’s character and Madam Poisson’s position as an alias; it fits nicely into the “uncanny valley” territory of a name that is close to an already-exisitng one, but is just different enough to not be real. Additionally, “Poisson” is only one letter away from “poison,” which further associates him with snakes and venom. The name itself means “fish” in French, which may also link to Sampo’s name meaning “water rapids” in Finnish. Overall, the name symbolizes two main things: the “fakeness” of the identity, and the running snake motif. Just like Brughel Poisson doesn’t technically exist, so too does the name not “technically exist.”

Now, here are some things we can gather from Part One:

Brughel Poisson, Sampo’s alias, is positioning herself as a reporter from the “Crystal Daily.” As far as I am aware, this news organization does not exist either.

Sampo is aware of and directly interacts with the “Dark-Blue Scam Victims’ Association” as Brughel. 

Not only that, but he directly starts a conversation about himself under the guise of an interview, and lets the “interviewee” vent their frustration until he catches the information he needs.

Sampo is, as always, very skilled at directing the conversation where he wants it to go, seeming to make up details like being interested in social justice causes completely in the moment and still managing to sell the act.

Throughout the “interview,” Brughel takes the other person along a winding series of questions, knowing exactly when to let them rant and when to step in to ask questions. It is, to put it simply, masterful trolling. Not only is Sampo finding out information he’s interested in, but he’s basically playing one big joke on the unsuspecting “interviewee.” This very much links back to the “silver tongued” aspect of Sampo’s character. Brughel and Sampo are identities interchanged efficiently and effortlessly. Most likely, Sampo has been doing this for a long time.

✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ PART TWO ⌝

My main takeaway from Part Two is how Sampo and Brughel are not only so effortlessly interchanged, but how any given role is interchanged for another just as flawlessly. Brughel’s position is almost a complete 180 from the last part, going from an enthusiastic journalist to a straight-laced officer. There is no prose or identifying marks beyond dialogue — all we have to go off of is the spoken word. Even though we can’t tell how much Brughel has changed her appearance since the last time, we can tell that the tone of the dialogue is completely different. Despite Brughel being “faceless” in a sense, she gives off the strong aura of a guard, talking in shorter and more clipped sentences than her journalistic persona. She is able to put up such a convincing facade that even her slip-up of saying “expensive” instead of “valuable” goes unnoticed, and she is able to successfully answer the private’s doubtful questions with answers that convince them to go on leave. 

Again, we see how Sampo is able to answer questions on the fly, often making up details as he goes that sound so rock-solid most people barely question them. I feel like these stories just put me in awe of how in the world he does it. Even with a greater power like Elation potentially aiding him, there’s so many moving parts that come into play when impersonating someone who doesn’t even exist. He’s basically making up entire personalities on the fly and executing them flawlessly. It also shows how quickly he is able to change personas. If he’s Brughel, after all, who else might he be? Who else might we have come across that looks slightly familiar yet different? If something this complicated is all a game to him, just a means of “profit,” then what is he capable of when he gets serious?

✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ PART THREE ⌝

This is the first part of the story where we get a perspective that doesn’t include Brughel directly. Instead, we spectate as two would-be thieves realize they’ve been screwed over by Madam Poisson. Piecing together the other stories, they seem to follow a narrative arc — Brughel hears about the spice factory, plans to steal from the 3rd Arsenal, then hires the people in this part to attempt a robbery on the spice factory as a diversion, allowing Sampo to slip into the 3rd Arsenal unnoticed. (At least, that’s my interpretation.) Again, there’s so many moving parts here, yet Sampo seems to have them all clearly sorted out in his mind. 

There’s also a narrative distance created between us (the reader) and Sampo/Brughel — in the other parts, Brughel was directly involved in the events taking place. We could see her speaking and read what she was saying. However, we now see her from an outside perspective, as well as the sheer anger and confusion that comes from the thieves realizing they’ve been set up. In my opinion, this is a really cool way to show the impact of the real heist — Sampo raiding the 3rd Arsenal — by placing us in the same position as everyone else. We aren’t “in” on the joke anymore, just spectating like everyone else. Just like the thieves and the guards, our attention is pulled towards the spice factory rather than the real scene of the crime, leaving Sampo the only one who truly knows what happened there. (It’s also a bit self-aware, as if Sampo is intentionally making the decision to turn the audience’s heads away as well.)

Again, it’s just flawless. Even though the thieves eventually find out they’ve been duped, it was all part of the plan. Everything still works out for Sampo — by the time anyone realizes what’s been going on, it’s too late. And, as we see in the next part, he even gets away with it too.

✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ PART FOUR ⌝

The last part of Sampo’s character story takes place after the Silvermane Guards have caught on to something suspicious going on. The conversation Madam Poisson has with the guard that comes by her place is very telling — once again, she is able to deflect any questions with ease, putting on the air of a worried and confused citizen. She even invites the guard inside to look for the wigs — something that seems very bold with the situation she’s in. However, everything still goes smoothly, and on top of that she gains enough trust from the guard to figure out what happened (although she likely already knew anyways). It’s even a bit of a reveal on the audience’s part; despite knowing Poisson is the common thread among all these stories, we only get her name at the very end — if not for that, it would be easy to mistake her for a new character since she acts so different from the other stories.

However, there is something slightly off to me. When the guard is asking Madam Poisson about the wigs, they seem very strict, even saying “Refusal to submit may result in serious consequences…”. However, as soon as Poisson invites the guard inside, they seem to do a 180, saying “… that won’t be necessary. I’m sure you have nothing to hide.” While this could be Sampo’s disguise working incredibly well, the change seems just abrupt enough for me to be suspicious. After all, if the Guards are so stringent on finding wigs, why wouldn’t they be willing to look inside themselves? This could be because they don’t have the proper warrants (which Sampo knows and exploits), or the guard is personally too shy to be put on the spot like that (which Sampo knows and exploits), or — and this is getting more into theory territory — it could be that Sampo is able to subtly distort people’s perceptions of him. He doesn’t need much, just enough to shift that guard over the line of “suspicious” to “probably has nothing to hide.” Either way, Sampo/Madam Poisson gets away with everything, at least for now. 

✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ WIGS ⌝

Before I give my overall thoughts, I want to briefly address the wig situation. In Part Four, Poisson says “As you can see, my hair is great,” drawing direct attention to something you’d think she’d want to divert from. While this could be a case of master gaslighting (leading with the assumption “as you can see”), my theory is that there are no wigs to begin with. The reason Poisson wasn’t suspected is because Sampo can most likely physically change into different forms. We’ve already seen physical transformation with other Masked Fools like Sparkle, and if Sampo is operating in the higher echelon of Elation, there’s a good chance he can do the same even without his mask. 

It would explain why the guard says the male thief “changes appearance often” rather than saying something like “assumes this identity often” — there’s the implication that it isn’t just two identities Sampo is switching between, but rather a multitude of different faces under similar names. This means that his impersonation as a reporter, human resources officer, and regular citizen may have slight alterations that makes them difficult to tell apart, making it even more difficult for the Guards to pin down who exactly the thief is. Clearly, she would have to look different enough from Sampo to avoid being caught. This may also be why she is so confident in inviting the guard in — she knows there aren’t any wigs in the house because she doesn’t need to use them. Additionally, her drawing attention to her hair would be a point in her favor, since the guard would be able to see she wasn’t wearing a wig.

I would say this is probably the strongest evidence for a theory that Sampo can shapeshift. It isn’t entirely confirmed, but I think it still has a good chance since we’ve seen it from other Masked Fools in canon.

✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ OVERALL THOUGHTS ⌝

Overall, I find these character stories to be perfectly emblematic of Sampo — persuasive, slippery, and mysterious. It’s important that we don’t get a story about Sampo directly, but rather the personas he takes on when trying to reach an ulterior goal. These stories haven’t really shown us Sampo, but rather kept us at arm’s length. Unlike other character stories, we’re still not sure what he’s truly capable of or even who he is, what he likes beyond profit, or what his deeper goals or motivations are. We’re placed in the same situation as everyone else, looking from the outside in. We’re not even given prose or narration, only dialogue. In a self-aware sense, it’s almost like he’s trying to hide from us directly. The stories are sprinkled with implications and hints, but it’s always something we as the reader have to piece together before getting answers. Perhaps that’s part of the game to him — making everyone wonder, including us. 

It also shows that he has a penchant for switching faces and identities. This is something that Aha is directly stated to do, and whether Sampo is Aha Themself or a different higher entity of Elation, it makes sense that he would also effortlessly assume different identities for his own goals. Unlike Sparkle, he is able to do this without a mask, potentially speaking to a greater power that allows him to do so. Again: if this is what he can do without the mask… just what can he do with it?

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.𖥔 ݁ ˖ જ⁀➴ thank you for reading to the end!

☆━━━━━ ⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊☾ ◯ ☽₊‧˙⋆˚｡⁺⋆ ━━━━━━☆

© analysis by sunderingstars. do not copy, repost, translate, modify, or claim my work as your own.

[irradiatedsnakes]

btw in the tmagp launch celebratory stream alice's voice actor said her favorite scene that'd been recorded by that point was "alice and sam go to a place". so i suppose we'll be getting that next week :]

other notes. this statement (hey! actually a statement this time! what the fuck) was SOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD

the cursed dice angle is so good, the way the statement giver took on that role (roll), played the part, UGH it's so fun. the theme of choice that was brought up is also so good- just. ONE more roll for old time's sake :) especially given that this is a TMI statement and how HUGE IMPORTANT of a theme choice and free will were in tma, felt very fitting. fantastic, loved that.

continuing on my stuff about the entities in tmagp- once again some things here feel very on the nose, particularly the statement giver literally calling himself a mysterious stranger. this feels like a fun little red herring to me, for people a bit hung up on the entities stuff. that's how i interpreted it, anyways. i wanna know more about this world so fucking bad, dude.

also, the institute's in manchester in tmagp, not chelsea/london. which means no milbank prison, no panopticon. interesting. (though soemthing that was known from the arg already- i really need to deep dive on that. tomorrow, maybe.) statement taking and artifact storage are still a thing, evidently, but noting that there's no mention of an archivist or anything like that. and the subject/agent/catalyst stuff, that's Very interesting.

once again, chester bringing up a magnus-related statement, here in obvious reply to what sam was talking about- just when he was considering to celia about dropping his investigations- clearly (imo) to goad him into not leaving it behind. excellent. and fun given the first TMI-related incident with redcanary had the obvious conclusion of THE MAGNUS INSTITUTE IS WEIRD AND DANGEROUS while also having enough mystery to draw sam in further. sam's seen the canary die in the coalmine and has made the decision to keep digging and that's fantastic.

now! characters! sam's paperwork :) VERY intriguing that he's getting all this stuff and celia's got none of it- he said it was due to that box about the response department, but i've got my doubts about that being the reason he's being saddled with all this weird stuff. also the questions on the thing made me laugh, very good. sam and celia have such good interactions, i love how they bounce off each other. also, with regards to the paperwork- i think there's a connection to be made about the statement giver's continued rolling of the dice (it always felt like my choice.) and sam filling out all this creepy, utterly pointless paperwork to "refuse to give it the satisfaction of giving up".

GWEN AND LENA. nigel dickerson, you know, from tv? possibly. i don't watch television. i do hope we'll be seeing exactly what gwen is being told to do next episode.. delivering something, keeping calm, recording the detailed reactions to what's being delivered. maybe we'll get a bit more of a clue as to what the oair is actually for. i do like that gwen's not become one bit less indignant, skeptical, and disrespectful towards lena now that she's got this job. i'm very excited to see her on her fist job she's gonna suck at it i think

i'll admit i was a little surprised to see teddy again. i was worried for a sec he might be going in the direction of getting dragged back to the oair, but nah. not yet, at least :) and ALICE. ALIIIIICE auaaaaagh!!! i don't know if i have much to say baout this part that isn't just (shaking a plushie in my mouth like a dog). very neat that she has agreed to help sam investigate this and actually go to the institute when she's been so staunchly don't get caught up in the creepy stuff! leave the magnus institute stuff ALONE you don't want to get into this spooky shit! like.. she does not want to get involved with spooky shit and she doesn't want sam to get involved with spooky shit but she cares about him and their friendship a lot and this is obviously important to him. so. (plus, the thing about alice's brother having been at the institute alongside sam and gerry..) i like them both so much. i am so excited for next weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek

[accio-victuuri]

12/28 ( love bo ) day sweets! 🤍

i thought we can get some rest before tomorrow’s busy content day, but i guess i was wrong cause the cpns won’t let up. lol. we are definitely ending this year with being busy! we will get more once we have the full experience of yibo’s new EP and i’m waiting for XZ’s marie claire magazine interview.

let’s start with the most obvious thing we all observed from the teaser, the 🦴 necklace being front and center. this just tells me how personal this project is for him. tho his yearly song is as personal as it gets and is his yearly commitment to his fans as well. but he could have easily worn something chanel for promotion sake since he is their ambassador, but he still chose to use something of his own. this necklace that he always wears. i am usually open to interpretations of cpns, but there are very few that i’m stubborn about and this is one of those. this necklace is connected to xz, i accept no other explanations. i’m sure we will notice more clues but this one has made a lot of us happy 😋

some are also pointing out that scene in the train, the people on it are all bundled up and cold. however, wyb’s character has his neck exposed like that so you can see the necklace. he is also wearing a shirt with shoes printed on it xie zi = xz.

this bit is the one making a lot of cpfs scream. the similarity in the question asked from an xzs video to to the untamed. 🤯

so, have you thought of a name?

we have already takes about everything is lovely that was cued before in xz’s birthday, and now this. it’s like him asking, have you thought of the name for the song? the same way wwx asked lwj about wuji. and this song, everything is lovely is the answer to that. we are very much aware that wwx/lwj is different from xz/wyb but these parallels are hard to ignore. and what if they also think of themselves as somewhat these two soulmates? i think that makes sense too. and oh, if you wanna go more galaxy brained - the date difference between 10/5 to the release of the new song 12/29 is 85 days. are they counting??? we all questioned the new release date and why it’s 12/30. maybe this seemed more like an auspicious date based on that. who knows 🤷🏻‍♀️

I also forgot to add this when i first discussed the lyric that talks about white hair. this part of the fanmeet where they had to act out seeing each other after a long time. WYB mentioned pulling out XZ’s white hair for him. 🥹🥹🥹

at the time (2019) it seemed like he was being a gremlin and the subject of white hair was for a joke. now, years later (2023) he uses it in a new way. i will love you till your hair turns white. I will love you forever.

• THEIR EYES 👀

• In the behind the scenes video shared by shunan laoshi, who worked with WYB last year, we can see the card case. HAHAHAHAHAHA! I can’t believe this simple thing is one of the strongest cpns we have.

• GQ shared this photo taken by WYB and it reminds us of an effect also used by XZ and XZS. I know this is not some effect that is unique to them and that other people can do it too, but the point is the similarity. you have WYB who has been into photography lately and he is using a trick that XZ and his team have used before.

• a video has been shared from 10c night in 2019 and it really proved one of the things we’ve been saying before, that their dressing/waiting rooms were right next to each other.

• WYB is allegedly listening to this song on QQ. I wonder who comes to mind when he listens to it 😏

-END.

[eddiediazismyhusband]

Hi! A bit of a weird ask here, hope you don't mind. (I swear it's not meant in bad faith)

So, I'm new to the fandom. I'd wanted to watch the show for a while and I finally found time. I did like it, and all the characters, esp Hen and Buck.

Even previous to watching it, I had seen many posts about Buddie. I didn't think much of it until I watched the show. And now I can say... I don't see it. Like, from Buck's side? Sure. But from Eddie's? Not so much.

They both clearly act like Christopher's co-parents a lot, and that's where I'm like "oh, maybe there IS something". But outside of that, I actually see their interactions as mostly platonic. And when I see people talk about it, I see mostly about how Eddie completely trusts Buck with his son (which I agree with and makes a good point), but not much else.

So, what am I missing? Sometimes some characters are harder for me to "read", so I know there could be stuff that I'm missing. What interactions do you see from them that are so clearly romantic (at least more so than they are platonic)? In which ways do you see Eddie showing feelings for Buck?

Sorry about such a long ask. This might be more of a rant (oops). I just really want to understand, bc everyone's so sure... and I'm not. (Also, thanks for reading if you got this far)

So i’m obviously not going to tell you thst your interpretation is wrong- art is subjective and your interpretation of things is completely valid.

that being said, to me i see myself in eddie in a lot of ways:

- only son in the family, so i had unrealistic expectations fixed on me about what my life as a “man” should look like (im not a man, im nonbinary but i was still amab so to my parents i’ve always been a ‘man’)

- raised in a very religious household where there were certain expectations on who i would one day marry and have a family with (because not getting married at all and never having kids was out of the question)

- i was repressed for years emotionally (and sexually) due to pressure from my parents/church and thought there was something “wrong” with me for the feelings i felt

- i often revert to anger as my default defense mechanism because i have repressed my emotions for so long (which is something i am working through in therapy)

so seeing those things i relate to reflected in eddie, it is easy for me to pick up on subtext (whether intentional or not) when it comes to his sexuality/feelings for Buck.

you mentioned eddie trusting buck with christopher— to me this is one of the clearest examples of eddie’s true feelings for buck because he completely trusts the most precious thing in his life with Buck, but he has never even come close to that same kind of trust with any of his romantic partners… even shannon he was apprehensive about letting her back into chris’s life. this means he trusts buck on a level he has never trusted anyone else before— and not to get into psychology, but often when people are repressed emotionally, they find ways to feed those feelings without overtly feeding them if that makes sense. so eddie giving chris (who is practically his whole heart) to buck is essentially eddie offering up his heart on a platter.

so that gets that one out of the way.

as for other examples… i am going to state again that eddie is more repressed than buck and doesn’t show emotion as easily as buck does so Buck’s attraction/feelings are going to be more clear-cut and obvious.

but i am constantly seeing examples of eddie’s feelings for buck interwoven subtly through things:

- crying over buck after the lightning strike when we had only ever seen him cry twice before

- the hurt in his face when buck said natalia was the only person who “saw” him

- the way that he gets overly jealous and acts petty around buck’s romantic partners (the most egregious being Taylor, but we have seen it happen in his other relationships as well)

- the fact that he has never been able to fully allow himself to have feelings for the women he’s dated

- he is looking for a mother figure (second parental unit for chris) but has already effectively filled that role with buck

- he is constantly looking at buck like he hung the stars and the sun and the moon

- he has only started going off the deep end of this fixation with shannon after buck came out to him, and he is onyl actively remembering their relationship as what he wished it had been rather than what it was— something i used to do back when i was still in denial about my sexuality was imagining this dream life where i was happily married to a woman because that is what i was supposed to want, not because it’s what i actually wanted

- eddie is the only one who has shown he understands buck’s recklessness is less him being reckless/thinking he’s unbreakable, but that it’s actually buck seeing himself as invaluable enough that getting hurt wouldn’t affect anyone around him

- one of my favorite scenes is post lightning-strike when eddie climbed the ladder and instead of trying to lower buck to the ground immediately, he initially tries to pull buck closer to him while screaming for him

the list could go on and on and if anyone else wants to leave their observations on eddie’s feelings for buck in the replies by all means please do! but these are just a few ways in which i have personally seen eddie’s devotion to buck portrayed in a light that is much deeper than a platonic level.

i hope this made sense and offers a new perspective for you, and i’m glad that even though you haven’t seen enough evidence in your own interpretation, your first instinct isn’t to jump down people’s throats to tell them they are wrong, but instead reaching out and asking for other opinions to better contextualize why us buddie shippers are so invested in these two!

(and never apologize for a long ask to me… if there’s one thing about me i love to yap lmao)

i hope you have a lovely day, anon!! 💕💕

[theneighborhoodwatch]

which character do you think is the most sus and why

honestly i think everyone has at least one trait that makes me Wonder about them, so. i'm just gonna list those under the cut instead. i've gone over some of these in more detail in previous speculation posts, but i don't wanna just link to them for the 48545674567456th time, so consider this a spiritual sequel to that old ass conspiracy board i made. any links are to stuff that isn't readily available on the actual website. anyways:

wally:

do i really need to explain this one

okay i'm just gonna pick one of the less obvious things: have you ever noticed that his bio uses present tense the most? like after the little introductory blurb it introduces him as "wally is" as opposed to everyone else's "(x) was"? someone in my discord server pointed that out once and i haven't been able to stop thinking about it.

barnaby:

what little we learn about his relationship to wally from the website is Odd; both of their bios mention not only that they were best friends, but that this was stated Multiple times throughout illustrated pages and the like, as if someone was really desperate to impress upon people that These Two Are Totally Besties, We Swear. you'd think this would be a poor attempt to disguise there being some animosity between the two, but that doesn't seem be the case, either.

other than that, though, barnaby actually seems pretty normal - perhaps deceptively so...

frank:

has a first name that ends in a consonant and a surname that ends in a long "-ee" sound, as opposed to everyone else having a first name that ends in a long "-ee" sound and a surname that ends in a consonant.

is noted to have no canonical backstory; the only other character who falls into this camp is wally.

is an entomologist/lepidopterist (or at least an Enthusiast about those subjects) in a town where the only wildlife present seems to be bugs. this was first mentioned in an ask from 2020, so normally i would hesitate to put this here, but post-website launch concept art never shows there being any non-insect (or at least non-arthropod) wildlife, so i think it is Likely that this still applies.

there are Conveniently little to no notes regarding the construction of his physical puppet - all that the WHRP seems to have been able to confirm is that it did actually have a head-spinning mechanism.

julie:

hails from a cave in what is Explicitly noted to be the same forest that surrounds home; post-website launch concept art definitely seems to allude to there being something in those woods, or at least the general idea of julie wandering "out of bounds."

has the most detailed family background by way of her siblings having actual designs and names. her bio clarifies that they didn't live in Home, but no other characters with family members seem to need this clarification. is the implication that This level of detail for side characters is unheard of? then again, barnaby's mom also has a name and design...

can speak to flowers/plants, which definitely sheds a new light on whatever might be going on in this may 2021 concept art. i've seen a lot of people interpret the title of this piece - "liar!" - as an accusation from julie towards someone else (most commonly frank) but given that that the script linked in the february 2023 audition post establishes that julie is capable of lying about what a plant tells her for her own convenience, albeit in a far more playful context... who's to say that she isn't the liar?

sally:

her puppet is all but outright stated to have required more puppeteers than any other character.

having a character who's a playwright/director and whose house is built to resemble a mini theater in a story that relies so heavily on the fourth wall (or lack thereof) as a source of horror feels like a very... Dangerous combination.

some people have tried to draw parallels between her backstory and that of old testament satan, buuuut i'm not entirely sold on this. it feels a bit too outlandish even for me, considering that any remaining christian imagery seems to have been relegated Solely to wally and/or home.

her introductory blurb seems to have a nod towards poppy? "She’s a fire-cracker who is willing to let her imagination run wild in the name of a new adventure, albeit at the occasional expense of her more cautious neighbors." that aforementioned audition script Also all but outright confirms that this is about poppy, given her and sally's interactions there, i.e. sally trying to get poppy to come out of her shell by casting her as the lead in her next play and Clearly thinking very highly of her, but pushing her past her limits just a bit too far too fast. again, much like julie and lying, it's all in a playful context, but i wonder... sally, are you paying enough attention to your friends?

i could also make a joke about my sally/poppy agenda, but. i will refrain. for now.

poppy:

is the only walk-around puppet to not have a live-hand variant.

her puppet also apparently has no surviving photos of it? or at least not any photos of it in its entire eight feet of glory.

in a similar vein to the possible relationship between sally being a playwright and welcome home fiddling with the fourth wall so much, i feel like poppy being a recluse in a series where one of the Main Themes is supposed to be "what happens when a Home becomes just a House/what it's like to live in a decaying home" is a very convenient setup for horror - one that Excites me as much as it scares me. if something happened to her, i wonder, how long do you think it would take for someone to notice?

eddie:

his theme color, purple, is used very sparingly in his actual design compared to the rest of the cast and their colors - it only shows up on his eyelids and maybe the inside of his bag? even designs like poppy and howdy's make more use of their respective theme colors than eddie's. it being on the eyelids is an interesting choice, too, given the eye motif that's been present throughout so far. eyes are the windows to the soul and all that.

purple also makes an appearance just outside of his post office, in the form of a sprig of lavender with a butterfly on it - and, well. something about purple signifying secrecy/hidden truths, perhaps?

according to this post-website launch concept art, the only two clocks in the entire neighborhood are: A) the street clock between howdy's shop and eddie's post office, and B) the watch upon eddie's wrist. both also seem to share some design elements with him (and maybe sally?) - namely, the eyes.

and of course, his backstory. or rather, the fact that his backstory is so half-assed that it's a running gag that he can't remember his hometown and the most we know about his mom is that she has the same job and She Exists, Probably. like that's fucked up in the context of welcome home, right? we can agree on that?

howdy:

howdy is an adult and yet Not a butterfly. he never actually pupated he just got Bigger. this is never explained or addressed in-universe as far as we are aware.

and also this is in the presence of a lepidopterist, aka a guy who should Definitely be aware of the fact that howdy should have pupated by now. foreshadowing for a future point of contention? a future alliance, even?

howdy. the shipments. where are your shipments coming from howdy.

home:

much like wally, this one is so obvious that i feel stupid for even dedicating a bullet point here. just fucking look at anything on the website talking about or involving them. this house is All Unsettling Trivia.

imagine i am beaming this brian david gilbert clip directly into your brain whenever i discuss their relationship with wally until further notice

like i've said before, i don't think they're evil evil (or at least, not evil without reason) but i do think whatever they and wally have going on is, like, Not Healthy. they have codependent swag imo.

[intuitive-bbloom]

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖆𝖈𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕾𝖙𝖚𝖉𝖞 : ᴛɪᴍᴏᴛʜᴇᴇ ᴄʜᴀʟᴀᴍᴇᴛ

Todays celebrity character study is on the actor Timothee Chalamet and the characters he plays in film, this breakdown would be done with the asteroid actor in its persona chart, so actor persona chart to say the least.

I’m not taking requests for yourself so please don’t send them in or your charts asking me to interpret them. You can send different actors tho so we can see if it applies to them. Also don’t repost my work.

Mercury (How does he talk in his movies): He has the range of talking formally, in a lighthearted way but still with that serious edge, also has sarcastic undertones but with a burst of energy, he talks in his movies like he’s on the slow steady verge of spilling out what he truly feels in terms of anger or sadness. So in all, he talks in a straightforward way in a casual tone but once in contact with any emotional situation, he starts to have a steady climb like a volcano before exploding with emotions. (Mercury in Capricorn, in the 2nd house)

Aquarius Sun: From my observations, I’ve noticed another character Timothee tends to act in his movies are the rebel types, but not the rebels that are fighting for a cause or carry mars influence, but the type that embody the scrub energy, the odd, weird characters that give off the vibe that they indulge in recreational drugs and have a lack of grounding, more on the stoner intellectual path and on the unconventional side that bring light on the overlooked part of life, a delinquent to say the least.

Aquarius Uranus conjunct Capricorn Neptune further shows the point of his character's tendencies to indulge in drugs and many other forms of escapism, not to mention, petty crimes to get that high for drugs or money to buy drugs or share it.

Capricorn Neptune sextile Scorpio Ascendant: This is another highlight to showcase his characters exhibiting the chase and correlation to drugs and taboo subjects for the viewers to see. There’s a constant need for the characters he plays to indulge in forms of escapism and various highs that it’s obvious for the other characters in the movies to see and be affected by it.

Aquarius Uranus conjunct Aquarius Sun magnifies this radical, unconventional act he has going on, odd characters of peculiarity shine through here not to mention he acts the roles of young (Sun) misunderstood but quirky characters (Uranus).

3rd house: He also tends to act in movies that he’s the older sibling like in interstellar, beautiful boy and one and two, these are only a few to mention. He acts in movies that involve school, like being in high school or college or that involves a group of friends

Ascendant in Scorpio showcases his vibe in his movies as being sad, troubled or dealing with some emotional issues or engaging in taboo things, or being a person who is “bad” in terms of the actions they take. They can be broody or enigmatic or mysterious or angsty.

Pisces Venus (How does he act in romance films): From what I’ve noticed, he often plays the role of a lover who loves with all his heart in a movie, often the romance is complicated, he’s usually starring in movies in which his character is in love with a very close friend that borders on family, love that hurts or isn’t built to last or on some idealistic trip in which he believes true love would prevail. He embodies the lovelorn character who never truly gets his happy ending. This may be due to the fact that Saturn conjuncts his Venus so there would always be restrictions or some blockage there, it might also show of his love being directed at older men/more mature older characters like in the movie Call me by your name and Miss Stevens but doomed to fail because of his character’s idealistic nature.

Capricorn Jupiter in the second house: I have noticed that Timothee also tends to play characters in historical periods like The King and Little women, this is because of the second house being known for the past (history) and with the planet Jupiter being known for philosophy it breeds the roles he plays, a serious character of power and authority in historical worlds like King Henry (Capricorn).

Saturn sextile Moon: He tends to act in roles where father figures or important male figures impact the life of his character or affect him emotionally, be it with pushing his characters to the edge to grow or with some sort of awakening.

Moon trines Mercury: Timothee does an excellent job in being able to channel the emotion his characters feel into words for the audience to grasp and understand. There is a huge emotional impact there.

9th house in Cancer: The characters he acts tend to be in foreign countries that pay homage to a sense of home or where family dwells.

Moon in 6th: With his moon in this house, his emotions show on his physical body with ease, from eye contacts, hand movements and more. He does a good job as an actor of doing this, with a Taurus moon, it brings a more down to earth feel, as you see it so it is, with a more connected energy to the viewers and sensual too.

Taurus Moon sextile Pisces Venus: When it comes to the romantic roles he plays or when romance is involved in his characters, it dominates them, they aren’t afraid to show their emotions in love and express it openly to their object of affection when the time is right.

Asteroid Actor conjunct Mars: This showcases the passion and dedication that Timothee has for his roles and wouldn’t accept anything less than. He’s passionate, zestful and takes his work seriously and this can be seen by all who work with him and more.

Sagittarius Pluto in the 1st house and sextile Uranus Sun: The roles he tends to play for the world to see are roles that can get pretty dark, that have nuanced themes and are ever changing, he’s like a Jack of all trades and doesn’t shy away from different roles to play, from lovelorn teenagers, to royals planning war, to drug addicted young adults and more, he doesn’t stay stagnant especially in his performances.

© 2023 intuitive-bbloom

[soupthatistohot]

How did Chuuya react to Dazai defecting?

My thoughts on the matter ;)

In the Stormbringer author’s note Asagiri-sensei alluded that Chuuya’s reaction to losing his partner isn’t necessarily as presented (he includes it in a list of things that happened to Chuuya that perhaps he’ll expand upon one day), but what exactly does that mean?

I have my own headcanons based off my interpretation of the character, but of course everyone is entitled to their opinion, this is just mine!

Firstly, skk shippers love to bring up the ‘89 bottle of Petrus, and I see a lot of people who say that he didn’t drink it as a celebration, but rather in mourning of Dazai’s defection. I… half agree with this. In my opinion, Chuuya is telling the truth, and at the same time he isn’t. He absolutely thinks that he drank that wine as a celebration, but in reality there’s a part of him that he repressed how he felt about Dazai leaving. Maybe he just told himself he was celebrating enough that he came to believe it, or maybe he doesn’t really believe it but it’s too late to go back on that now. Either way, for as emotional and intense as Chuuya can be, he’s certainly not above repression, especially after losing so much at that point in his life.

I also believe that Chuuya never thought Dazai was dead, that’s something he wouldn’t lie to himself about. He knew Dazai too well to actually believe he got murdered or finally successfully committed suicide. Perhaps he entertained the idea for a moment, but in the end he would’ve come to the obvious conclusion: Dazai just left.

And on that topic, here’s another way in which I differ with some people on this subject— I don’t think Chuuya was particularly angry. In fact, I don’t think he would have been all that surprised after the initial shock of learning of his partner’s defection. I think he was well aware that Dazai wasn’t a loyal individual, and he’s not stupid enough to be blind to the fact that Dazai was a danger to Mori. All of this taken into consideration, Dazai defecting from the PM isn’t really all that unpredictable or uncharacteristic. What probably surprised and frustrated him more was finding out the bastard worked for the ADA years later.

This isn’t to say he still wasn’t upset by the circumstances. At the end of the day, the partner who he trusted his life to and had an inextricably deep bond with suddenly disappeared. Especially after all he went through with the sheep, the flags, Verlaine and Rimbaud, and other unnamed friends he lost (his biological family, the PM members referenced in DA), it would have hurt. Yet, at the same time, it’s because he previously endured all this that he would be compelled to subconsciously repress this hurt— especially because it’s Dazai of all people! It’s quite easy to pretend not to be upset about the partner you constantly feuded with and who was objectively a horrible person leaving your life. And on the other hand, it’s far more difficult to come to terms with the fact that you actually care for him and perhaps even miss him.

So do I think Chuuya had some big mental breakdown after Dazai left? No. Do I think he truly didn’t care at all, just as he says he did? Also no. I think he had very complicated feelings on the matter, most of which he subconsciously repressed under the guise of being glad his rival was finally gone.

The only thing is… now that Dazai is back in his life, will any of these buried emotions unearth themselves?

[st4rstudent]

tips on how to draw cogs?

truth be told, I haven't drawn many cogs (mainly just one or two), but I will try to answer this as generally as I can!

This is a long post so I'll post this under the cut.

my biggest tip, as well as for anything, is to break down the shapes. If you try to look at everything at once it becomes really easy to overwhelm yourself. Examples will be drawn sketchy, but hopefully the point gets across.

Our first test subject is mouthpiece which I've never actually drawn before [marketable plushies post doesnt count]. as you can see, I tried to break down a lot of the shapes into much more simpler ones. A lot of cogs seem to share some very obvious shapes, probably because a lot of them are object-related (normal cogs included- first that comes to mind are pencil pushers).

You can do this with really ANY character. Here's our second test subject DOPA for another example.

now these are mainly references from the pictures themselves, which are great as a starting point. my other big tip is just to practice. you don't have to do big full pieces every day, but even just little doodles will help you. i think its very rare for anyone do to super good their first time and this goes with anything, even if you're a highly skilled artist.

you've probably also noticed but I've left out details in my examples, such as the little dots on mouthpiece's eye borders. If you feel that adding all the small details would overcrowd your drawing or just not help it, then I think it's fine to leave them out (of course there are always exceptions to this but as a general rule, its ok).

along with removing details, i think adding details also cannot hurt [to an extent]. if there's something you think would look nice then add it. who cares its your drawing have fun. As an example I'll use prethinker. I always add the little line in the middle, which his model doesn't have. But this is also based off of the 1.3 promotional art as well. Another example could be that when I draw misty, I add a line that connects their eyebrows to their eye. idk just feels more robotic to me and i like it

and again as you notice, my drawings are not model accurate. your style is most likely not going to be exactly like the game and that's completely fine. adjust to your liking, interpret as you will. enjoy the process of creation.

And finally, I'll add my little tip for metal coloring. One thing about metal is that usually the lightest highlight is next to the darkest shadow

The gif goes as base -> shadow 1 -> shadow 2 -> highlight 1 -> highlight 2 -> cleanup + extra

I like to add a few light marks to indicate scratches. although if you wanted more depth, you'd take the darkest shadow and lightest highlight and put them together like this

often the metallic parts are not the focus of my works so I leave it without. As for the random black marks on the lineart, that just also gives it more depth.

And finally, look at other peoples art. Look at the way they draw and pick out bits and pieces of what you like and try to interpret that in your own style.

ok I think that's all. Hopefully this helped!

[grumfield]

I'm not the same anon but I've recently been looking for some metas on consent in 2ha 😅. It's both for bettering my own understanding of the story through different perspectives and also for a 2ha fic i'm working on. Do you know any metas on this subject? or can you share your interpretation if that is okay with you? thanks!

I don’t know of any metas of the top of my head but I’d love to explain my own interpretation! I won’t go too much into overt spoilers but more just general vibe implications

2ha is like telling someone who’s being bit viciously by their dog that they’re a victim and while yes that’s technically true it’s then revealed that the dog has been put in a fighting pit its entire life, got a nice owner for 2 weeks, and then got put back in an even worse fighting pit where he’s horribly conditioned to exclusively bite and kill, and only 40 years later is he randomly set loose back in his nice owner’s old house.

2ha works in a way I like because the layers of who exactly is experiencing non-con (both sexual and otherwise) is a sort of little matryoshka doll reveal.

The most obvious—and one that everything revolves around—being Chu Wanning’s past life. He suffers the most straightforward abuse, he gives the most straightforward sacrifice. It’s very clear cut, and as a result you have a very comprehensive interplay of desire and fantasy. Dude essentially gets his rocks off to visions of his love interest as kindle unlimited alpha billionaire and it’s very clear that entertaining sex slave fantasy in the comfort of your own bed is not the same as experiencing IRL. Congrats Chu Wanning, you discovered BDSM scenes and submission! Surely that’s the extent of it for you and others (it’s not)

As for everyone else…

I can’t remember the exact quote but Mo Ran thinks about how as a child he was so poor that he never knew what he liked, and he didn’t actually have opinions on simple stuff like flavors or appearances or the gender of people because that was a luxury for the rich. It’s like that “maybe I would be nonbinary but I have a job” meme lmao . Wanting things, or not wanting them, or making decisions for yourself, is something that isn’t allowed for the poor. If you exist in a structure where you don’t even know what you want, you physically can’t.

Basically every other character who enacts or experiences noncon in all its strokes falls into this bucket. And it’s kind of the earliest instance we catch something explicitly laid out about consent beyond just strictly sexual, and how it very plainly lays out the definition of it as: any position where you do something you don’t want to do is noncon.

But you’re so distracted by the explicitly sexual dramatic yaoi discussions of attic wife sex dungeon noncon you don’t really give it much thought until later. But it’s crazy in retrospect because Meatbun gives us two characters who are a synthesis of these things—Rong Jiu and Song Quitong—really early on, who are both victims of poverty and as a result do and are subject to stuff that’s really terrible. Mo Ran just sucks bad and hates their guts so we’re a bit blind to it even though they came from really similar backgrounds (which kind of ties into a separate but equally interesting question Meatbun poses of if empathy and peace is something only afforded by people who are rich—Mo Ran wasn’t able to save earthworms until he was in a safe environment and had food in his belly).

The matryoshka doll goes further when we find out exactly what happened to Mo Ran, and THAT is what I love about it. That. Because very suddenly your entire idea of who the biggest victim in 2ha is goes from the very straightforward answer to one that’s significantly more complicated. Yes Chu Wanning is a victim but Mo Ran has been a victim since the moment he was born, and then in a brief heartbeat where he was allowed to grow and be kind, he was immediately subjected to the most violating horrific nightmarish thing could happen to him and dude STILL manages to hold some shred of humanity. I joke about Mo Ran being terrible and a piece of work and he is but my boy contains multitudes and he is also the nicest sweetest gentlest boy in the whole world who did nothing wrong (he did) (but also he didn’t) (but also he did) (but he—)

This plays a lot into a third character who I won’t say for spoilers but you’ll definitely know who I’m talking about if you’ve read the whole book!!

[meldingintheunderdark]

I've been reading your metas. While I do agree with some of your points there is one thing I can't help but strongly disagree on. I think Halsin enjoyers are aware of Halsin's faults, his trauma, his struggles. We don't all think he's "a healthy partner devoid of problems" but I believe in my opinion, that Halsin has the potential to heal, to do better, and maybe this commune can help him and help others, not fully per se but help heal in some way. It's not going to be smooth sailing, there will be bumps along the way, Halsin does need support, there's no denying that. I don't think Halsin enjoyers are naïve to that, we just want to see him happy as well. But reading these metas feels like... there is no hope for Halsin, the children in his care are doomed and I don't think that's the case. It won't be easy but not hopeless, it won't be perfect, there is still room to grow and learn (though I am following a more tav mindset than a dark urge mindset)

Thank you for reading my metas!

It's embarrassing but English isn't my first language, therefore I might not be as clear as I thought.

This said, I've mentioned many times my headcanons are my own. I don't believe Halsin's dream will explode in a great ball of fire but it'll most certainly not be as happy and lighthearted as it is in game. There will be consequences and not all of them will be positive.

Reading your comment, I fail to comprehend the issue.

Isn't it obvious there is no correct way to interpret Halsin's actions? Isn't it evident our perception and understanding are heavily influenced by our own life experiences, our knowledge, our fields of study, work, mental health, etc? Everything I write is inherently subjective.

From my point of view, when you read my metas, it's crystal clear I have a colossal obsession with fatherhood, unhealthy coping mechanisms or even avoidance regarding mental health, and the pain they cause to oneself and loved ones. I relate so intensely to Halsin, thus I'm extremely critical of his choices. You prefer to focus on him partly healing thanks to nine wagons of children. To each their own. I relate to him because his hurt hurts others unintentionally and I want to talk about this.

I also have every right to voice my thoughts, to be upset for dumb reasons and to share my questionable opinions. I haven't done any proper case study of the Halsin-centric fandom. Nevertheless, it's hypocritical to pretend the fandom isn't overwhelmingly focused on a positive analysis of Halsin and his ending, hence your reaction. It's just how fandoms work. Some opinions are overly represented, therefore an echo chamber is created and maintained. It's also very human to yearn for a comforting character who does good, tries his best and succeeds. I find comfort in a character who is hurting, hurts others and, paradoxically, is so very selfless, good-hearted and caring. I'm not saying Halsin is abusive or so foolish he'll doom the world. I've not claimed Halsin won't learn to live with his trauma, won't be happy or won't help people. The commune seems filled with traumatized adults and kids, Halsin is no therapist. Good intentions don't magically lead to solely good outcomes. Some may be fantastic. A few neutral. Others damaging. It's life.

Every content created is not made for you specifically either. If my posts are unpleasant, and I'm aware they can be, please spare yourself and block me.

Last but not least, I am a Halsin enjoyer. He's my favorite character. My tumblr is about Halsin and my Durge. They'll have their well deserved happily ever after. I simply imagine more heartache and pain than you do.

[my-hobby-is-finding-the-source]

Do you think it's possible that the general habit of users to openly shame those who repost art generally discourages people from sharing their sources of the art they find, as it gives away that they're "reposting" it, or is it just simple carelessness that is responsible for people not sourcing the art they reshare or repurpose? Also, do you feel it's fine to share art you found elsewhere, so long as you link back to the source?

I have to say that personally I feel that copies and derivatives are an inevitability with any creative work, especially on the internet (something the current state of copyright law simply refuses to accomodate), and it's counterproductive in my opinion to shame those who take this action, regardless of how one feels about it. I appreciate seeing that there's someone dedicated to the more helpful action of pointing out the sources. Reparative rather than punitive, y'know. is good

(also sorry for going anon, I would not like to be flayed alive for this...)

but yeah good work!~

In writing this I may have meandered a bit, so I'll apologize in advance.

I'm not really fond of sharing or posting artworks without a link—or pointer of any kind—to their authors, regardless of the degree of modification performed. But I also don't think scolding those that don't care as much is very productive. There might be a conflict of perspectives.

As is so often the case, I'm limited to my perspective, so my opinion may be a bit off the mark, but I feel that different communities place a different worth on the source—the knowledge about who made the thing.

In the places I often pass through when looking for sources, like on Reddit and Pinterest, I feel like there's an unstated, obvious notion that you're not expected to care about the source. Things are shared for the content they carry, and content is all they are.

There are also communities where the meaning of the source might be different. You may hear the question "what anime is this from?" more often that "who made this?". There's some deference shown to the subject of the thing, not as much for its origins.

When it comes to sharing art, I'm interested in more than the image itself—the pure value of the pixels on the screen. If I'm moved to show a drawing to someone, it is out of some amount of love for both the subject, the work, and the author, all together.

The subject—be it an anime I think is cool, or a character I'm fond of—is usually what draws me to the work. But it is the work that will captivate me, that will draw my attention and my admiration, that will ensnare me and nurture inside of me the need to share. And that interaction, all that emotion, could not have existed in the absence of an author.

And the experience of the work does not end when I stop looking at it—there's an insatiability, the greed to see more stuff, stuff that's just as good, that will make will feel the same things, but different this time. Not all art will do this to you—in fact, most won't—buy to try and explain or convey the experience to other people with not as much as mention the author? That's just silly.

Which brings me to your other question: is it fine to share art, so long as you link back to the source?

That's not a question I can answer alone. Again, from my perspective, sharing art also involves the author of that art, their thoughts over their own work ought to be part of this consideration. Although, I do admit, that usually requires some interpretation.

Many artists will place warnings in their accounts disallowing the reposting—or reproduction—of their works, but the precise meaning of that is left open. Usually, native actions like retweets or reblogs are understood to not be reposting, but most if not all ways to share content across platforms can be considered reposting—even if only mechanically.

If what makes the retweet acceptable is the implicit link back to the source, then wouldn't posting the image with a link under it also be acceptable?

In the and, that's just an assumption I made alone, maybe clouded by an eagerness to share, but also considering the supposed feelings of the people that make the stuff I care about.

That are many other points to consider, like the impact for those that make art for a living, or also where does this all go when someone's creation is made through the transformation of someone else's art, but I think I have stretched this too much. Hopefully you can at least get a bit of a grasp of my standing on these matters.