#and get to fixing it oh good lird.....

[muzzleroars]

helloo I also go feral whenever you post I love how much thought you put into everything .. auuuoaua it's so good,,

I am curious, what are your thoughts on the ferryman?

aaaa thank you!!! speculating on lore and creating headcanons is one of my favorite things to do with media i love, so i'm glad you all like listening to my thoughts ;o; and double thank you for letting me talk about the ferryman!!!!

the ferryman is one of my favorite enemies in the game, but i think it makes sense considering how much the character has going on. they're a being that sits at odds to everyone else in hell, save for perhaps those in limbo - they are ashamed of what they were and long so much more for heaven than others seem to on the lower layers, while they also maintain a loyal love to gabriel when otherwise he is viewed with hatred for what he's done to the citizens of hell. so central to the ferryman is their loneliness, appropriate for a sailor on an endless ocean, who only has their faith to sustain them in an unforgiving storm.

however, there's a dichotomy to the ferryman - they stand apart from all the other sinners, yet they take massive amounts of pride in their work and it benefits those very sinners. i find it quite interesting that they develop their ships, they incorporate new technologies into them, but most of all, they make them comfortable. the interior of their ship is almost welcoming, a place where new and terrified souls could possibly relax if there is such a thing to the freshly damned. love is worked in, a care for those that are afraid because they understand that fear too and perhaps that's inherent to them, perhaps it's what gabriel did for them, perhaps it's both. so while it’s true that the ferryman is alone, they show an aching sort of love in all of their work from their idols to their ships. they are totally detached from all others, set apart from the sinners they still show thoughtful kindness toward through their work and separated impossibly from gabriel who they sculpt forever for in his long absence.

and their devotion to gabriel has to be discussed given how central it is to their character and what we know about them, how their ship is decorated to honor him with paintings, with sculpture, with his hologram. it's. utterly tragic, it stacks onto their isolation and their love and ultimately crystallizes it. they carefully craft the idols in his honor, the image of the virgin and child as tribute most likely to gabriel's role in the annunciation. to them, he is the gentle messenger written of in the bible, he guides with words of comfort and he is their unwavering faith in a world so desolate and broken. the ferryman knows they will never be saved, at least deep down even if they can't consciously admit it - they are an ailing sailor forever lost at sea and they know they did it to themselves, they chose their fate long ago, but gabriel's care is enough to see them through, to carry them forward in sin so heavy it made them tear their flesh from their bodies. they have mortified their physical form to its destruction and i have to imagine it carries heavy consequences, an agony and ever-present ache in their bones, a rattling cough from phantom lungs when they have nothing to protect them from the driving rain. there is a sickness to them, but still they write in their journal of gabriel, they painstakingly carve another idol of the holy mother, and they work, they work, they can never forgive what they were but he is there even if he never returns. love and loneliness. the ferryman only has themself, and so they hate their only company.

by the events of the game, i do wonder what the ferryman must be feeling, how they were nearly drowned in the souls that poured in from man's demise but since have no longer had any sinners to ferry. and for me, it means they have nearly totally withdrawn into themself, into the memory they have of love and are now forever looking inward. in my version of events, i do have the ferryman live without confronting v1, but it's honestly a complete accident - since my v1 is always flipping a coin, it does so when boarding the ferryman's ship and so they take it as payment. the action does surprise and fascinate v1 briefly, leading it to produce another coin in front of the ferryman to see if they'll take a second (an attempt to establish a pattern). but when they indicate that they need no more, v1 simply moves on and largely places them out of its mind, especially considering the rest of its passage. for the ferryman, they are as detached as ever, knowing not where v1 came from nor willing to wonder at this point. they are wholly within themself by now, totally isolated in their love for their idea of gabriel with so little else on their infinite ocean. they feel their illness working itself impossibly deep, yet know they will never succumb.

("small" side note to end things, i’m so TORN about whether or not I want them to have had any additional contact with gabriel after he saved them. i do think him coming to them once and never again has a distinct melancholy in it, one that suits someone at sea forever thinking of the one they love and knowing they will never come home to see them. and it sort of goes both ways in a sense, that the ferryman is both the sailor and the lover waiting, so it’s in line with their character. BUT in terms of gabriel’s character, i do like him attempting to keep some connection to the ferryman due to his increasing fear that he’s failing them, that he’s failing all the sinners of hell. with every crime he commits against them all, he feels that weight growing on his back and so he wants to have one sinner he could protect, one that he could save from heaven’s punishments. and so he sees them, very rarely, usually briefly, but always with words of comfort, of understanding, of affection. he knows their feelings for him and he can’t know how to respond, he wonders often if his visits do more harm than good...but they have nothing else, no one in that freezing rain. so i just. MAYBE i’m soft and sometimes i want him to give them a little warmth, a brief window where they stop working and their cough lightens. AUGH)

[rorsry]

I tried that channel u recommended and omg it's so so relaxing... Tysm 🥺

YAAA IT'S SO GOOD!! literally anytime i'm not feeling great i watch those little ponies get fixed and im like good lird the LOVE....oh to be a g1 pony being fixed and re-haired by gentle hands .....