#as opposed to massive lore rewrites and such?

[blaithnne]

Do Doctor Who writers ever say anything else

[gold-rhine]

5.6. PARALOGISM SPOILERS

extremely polarizing feelings on this quest, ngl. i don't really have a problem with WHAT happened, but with HOW its happened.

first of all, pacing is crazy. after standing in a circle for 4 hours in a natlan finale we start doing ten million massive things in one hour, with almost no space for them to breathe or explore properly. this quest had less detalization than my bullet point inazuma rewrite. in fact, it feels like the writers did exactly bullet points in like one day and nothing else. i understand they were probs rushed due to change of direction with nod krai, but this is too much.

and tbh i dont even think it would take a lot to make this quest truly good. polish up an invasion sequence a bit, make it closer to natlan war section, add at least one actual cutscene. like the french gordon ramsey story quest had too many cut scenes, with special animations at that, and it tbh didn't need them, but they cant spare a separate cut scene for whole ass mond attack? hoyo, stop acting so cheap, we all know you have the money!

and then the main conflict, with albedo and durin. first of all. albedo saying that he considers himself a real human, just another type of human, and then saying that him killing susbedo is not a murder, bc he was NOT A PERSON??? babygirl, whats the difference between you two then? like he literally didn't have to say that, he could argue self defense bc that motherfucker tried to kill him and his friends. why dehumanize him and yourself?

and then framing durin as like ontologically evil, when all of his prev existing lore AND simulanka say that he was well intended, but with abyss aura that harmed the world just by existing. but now suddenly simulanka durin is the only one good, but actual durin is evil???? bc he's jealous of not being favorite child???? durin was thinking about how dvalin is beatiful and how he'd wanted to dance together while dvalin was killing him, but now hes pure evil bc of mommy issues, are you kidding me? bro did the writers of this quest even play simulanka? or take 5 minutes to read durin wiki page?? but even with that, in this very quest, venti says that durin feels like "an angry child". so you have an abandoned, tragic angry child lashing out and just go yeah, lets put him down, no attempts at reaching out??? what is this, hsr????

and like i truly think itd take like additional half an hour to fix and just a bit of actual writers effort. killing susbedo off screen is such a waste, and i'm not one of his fans or anything, i do not care about him personally, but he was a very well foil setup for albedo. and we exchange him for what? for fake copy of NPC no one cares about or knew before? literally why??? just washing 3 years of setup down the toilet.

instead of killing him off screen and having some durin mind controlled monsters (?????) dig him up for durin to eat, they could have just said he contacted durin himself. we know its possible! elynas is able to contact melusines through his blood crystals, same as dragonspine has, and even speak directly with the traveler when his heart awakens, and durin's heart is alive! bros, you already have the perfect setup, if only whoever wrote this took 10 minutes to read abyss dragons lore first! so susbedo could communicate with durin and teach him alchemy and influence his worldview!

albedo and susbedo could have had a confrontation that actually dramatizes albedo's conflict. albedo's answer to the truth of the world is that being a "real" human is about connecting with the world and other people, forging bonds and connections. which by itself is good character culmination and where it was always going, i always said that. but he just TELLS us that! instead, susbedo's philosophy could be the isolation, refusal to engage with the world, refusing to trust people bc he's afraid they will not accept him, and so instead using and controlling them. then it would be a juxtaposition of opposing viewpoints that SHOWS us albedo's arc instead of telling. and at the end of the trial susbedo could reveal the truth about albedo to try and turn ppl against him, but we could have mond people to accept albedo instead, bc they know him for years and he's friends with many of them! like that would be an actual logical conclusion of his arc, bc albebe, how are you gonna be like i'm a real human, truth is about having a life with other ppl, but you don't trust these ppl to not turn against you when they find out who you are?

and with durin i'm not even against durins merge, but they just introduced mini durin so rapidly, like RIP ppl who didn't play simulanka, and it wasn't explained in their "recollections" at all. and instead of just killing durin and replacing him with "better" durin, they could have communicated with durin, since hes whole theme is misguidedly lashing out, explain to him the situation. durin let himself be killed the first time bc he realized hes harming the world by existing, and he didn't want to, so they could have been like hey so in simulanka in special conditions we were able to clear abyss corruption from a version of you. we don't have fairy powers of life irl so we can't do the same exactly, but we can merge you with already cleansed mini durin, and we think this gives you the best chance to live an actual life as a part of this world, do you agree? like it wouldn't take much to write him to believably agree to something like that. like it would truly not even take that long to have that dialogue instead of putting him down like a sick dog.

[freddy-and-friends-au]

The Freddy & Friends Askbox is now open!

——————————————

An introduction to Freddy & Friends:

Freddy & Friends is an AU created by Roux36 Productions set in the Five Nights at Freddy’s IP.

As opposed to focusing on a single “what if?” question for the AU, F&F is a rewrite of the FNAF story in its entirety, constructed from the ground-up to tell a more realistic, character-driven take on the original story.

——————————————

What asks will I answer? (Examples provided)

Lore (Ex: How do the spirits work?)

World-Building (Ex: Who made the pizza recipes at Freddy’s)

Headcanons (Ex: Who’s Jeremy’s favorite music artist?)

Art requests? (Not sure about this one yet… but maybe?)

Character Asks!

Ask a question from within the Freddy & Friends universe, and it’ll be answered by the creator of the Fazbear Franchise, HENRY ███!!!

(Preface by saying “Dear Henry,”)

———————————————

Click the keep reading to learn more about the Freddy & Friends AU! >>>

——————————————

How much thought did you put into this?

It’s not that I’m a massive nerd, but it’s just that I’m actually a massive nerd.

Animatronics are loosely grounded in real-world mechanical engineering, giving them plausible designs for them to have existed in the 1980’s (down to the very components that make them function.)

The restaurant itself has regulations and procedures to manage the animatronics during the day (this varies depending on the restaurant).

The restaurant layouts themselves have been redesigned to be more coherent with the rules of architecture.

The animatronic characters themselves have their own lore and personalities within the cartoon world.

I have a full list of employees who worked at both Afton Robotics and Fazbear Entertainment.

The rules of the spirits are grounded in real-world cultural beliefs, as well as typical ghost hunting traditions.

No character is written to be two-dimensional. The characters don’t just do stuff for the plot; they do them because it’s in-character for them to do so. They’re not just ghost children haunting the animatronics. They’re also human.

———————————————

What IS canon?

Basic media taken into consideration:

Five Nights at Freddy’s

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2

Five Nights at Freddy’s 3

Five Nights at Freddy’s 4

Five Nights at Freddy’s: The Silver Eyes

FNAF World (Surprisingly)

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location

Five Nights at Freddy’s: The Movie

Details Only taken from:

Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach

The ideas of these media are the content detrimental to the story of Freddy & Friends. However, the story of them has been changed so drastically that canon knowledge is considered unreliable when talking about the Freddy & Friends AU. Some things remain the same, but it’s recommended that knowledge of canon game/book/movie events NOT be used as a reference unless I have stated otherwise.

What’s the same?:

Mike Schmidt and Abby Schmidt’s character have remained almost exactly the same as in the movie. (Movie)

Michael Brooks is Golden Freddy (Novels)

Elizabeth Afton being killed by Circus Baby (Games)

The Bite of ‘83 (Games)

The Bite of ‘87 (Games)

Bonnie is blue

What’s changed?:

Note: not all changes will be mentioned here, due to spoilers. The reason they’re spoilers is because I will elaborate on them in future media and short stories.

Michael Afton does NOT exist—replaced by Fritz Afton

FNAF 4 Crying Child becomes the Puppet

FNAF 4 Bullies are the Missing Children

FNAF 4 Bullies are NOT bullies

The haunted animatronics have personalities, and are capable of verbal speech.

Sammy (Charlie’s twin brother) was killed instead of Charlie

Charlie is NOT an android

Very few employees (including night guards) actually died at Freddy’s

The animatronics are limited by the technology of the 1980’s, and therefore have software limitations that aren’t present in the games

Circus Baby’s Pizza World has been renamed to Circus Kingdom Pizza World

The names of the Funtimes have been changed to align with the re-theme

The Funtimes were NOT built with the intention of kidnapping children

The Funtimes are haunted

The Scooper does not exist

The FNAF 4 gameplay is a dream, and not child experimentation. (It is something more than that, but I will not elaborate further, due to spoilers. ;))

The Toy animatronics have been renamed to the Junior animatronics

The Junior location is Freddy Jr’s Pizzeria

The individual Junior characters have in-universe names beyond “Junior Freddy” and “Junior Bonnie”, etc.

The Juniors are haunted

There is no such thing as “Remnant”.

Vanessa Shelly is NOT William Afton’s Daughter

Steve Raglan and William Afton are two different people

Removed Herobrine

(Aforementioned name changes):

Circus Baby - Circus Sadie, AKA Sadie the Circus Princess

Funtime Freddy - Freddie the Ringmaster

Funtime Foxy - Foxy the Flying Fox

Toy Freddy - Freddy Fazbear Jr.

Toy Bonnie - Riley Rabbit

Toy Chica - Penny Pecks

Toy Foxy/Mangle - Bridget the Fox

——————————————

Thank you!

If you made it to the end, I wanna thank you for showing interest in this AU! I’ve been working on it ever since I was 11 years old, and I’ve just turned 20. It's been a long road with at least five rewrites and twice as many redesigns!

More Freddy & Friends content will be coming soon, in the form of:

A webcomic for the main narrative

Cinematic content

A VHS series

Short stories

Audiobooks for said short stories

A website to be!

The askbox is now open! There is much to tell, so ask away!

- Roux

[rainbowwyrm]

A Fresh New Makeover!

After some rewriting and compiling all the inspirations I have on Pinterest, I decided to redesign my Welcome Home/OC persona so that I can work from a "bottom-up" (designing a character based on lore) approach as opposed to a "top-down" (writing lore based on the character's design) one.

Of course, I'm still somewhat of an amateur when it comes to character design, and I would love to receive some feedback from anyone more experienced. In the meantime, I'll continue to work on my persona and hopefully get her story out there once it's finally ready!

Edit: I changed the alt descriptions a bit, so my apologies for any confusion!

Old Designs:

New Designs:

Read more for personal commentary!

One of the problems that I have with her old design is that she looked too human for someone who's supposed to be a half-sea dragon, half-celestial, and was almost akin to Howdy Pillar (minus the multiple limbs).

Another is that the gem on her chest didn't make much sense, as Amy is already pretty animated in her facial expressions and body language. Also, I had no idea how to incorporate it into her alternate form (see images above). So, rather than being a body part, I decided to change it to be more of an accessory/tool.

Lastly, I changed her attire quite a bit to emulate her connections to the sea and sky, such as her hair being inspired by ocean waves and stratus clouds, and make her stand out more from the rest of the neighbors.

As for her alternate form, as much as you guys adore the little worm, it didn't exactly look like a dragon (or in this case, a wyrm) as I intended. So, sadly, I have to make some changes to that as well. I did try to carry over some of the most notable traits, mainly the caterpillar-like body and big ol eyes, just to retain that same worm-like appearance.

However, what really bothered me about the old design is that it didn't look functional as an actual puppet due to lacking a proper mouth, which I hastily added in the final version. But after finding references online, I got a clearer picture of how a dragon/worm-like puppet operates. It's not the best, but it's still a massive improvement.

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 52 – The Gods Are Bastards Volume Three by D. D. Webb

Okay this is properly a review for Books 8, 9, and 10 of the gargantuan serial – which I’ll freely admit I read more than a month ago in one week-long fugue along with all the books before them and the next few after. Which is to say I really shouldn’t have waited this long to write this review, and my apologies for all the vagueness and inaccuracies that are going to result. Which is a pity, because this is the best volume of the serial I’ve read and it isn’t even particularly close.

The serial continues the story of a Dungeons & Dragons-esque generic fantasy world advanced a couple hundred years and in the throes of a magical industrial revolution. The story theoretically stars the now-sophomore class of almost comically privileged and powerful students at what’s basically Adventurer University, but compared to the previous volumes they get barely any screentime in this one. Instead you get the Bishop of the god of thieves, the Archpope of the Universal Church, their respective pet openly-plotting-and-near-mutinous adventuring parties, political intrigue in the goddess of war, and a huntsman we’ve never met before learning the secrets of creation and also that his god was always just kind of a dick. It’s great! Also, to reiterate, the students get barely any screentime!

Really I kind of get the sense that I’m a deeply atypical fantasy reader, in that I find 90% of both involved romance plots and drawn out action scenes deeply tedious and basically the price you pay to get at the good parts of the story. In this case the good part is incredibly byzantine and too-complicated-by-half political shadowboxing carried out by proxies only barely kept on their masters’ leashes. Also several thousand words of pure exposition about the deep lore of the setting delivered by a malfunctioning AI.

Because yes, the big massive reveal of the volume is that the elder gods who were overthrown millennia before the story began had actually pulled a Lord of Light. The world runs on generic fantasy tropes because it was created by powermad demiurges who were also specifically insufferable 20th/21st century earth fantasy nerds. The different types of magic were just the results of them folding and rewriting physics, the fact that mortals can only access four is down to the vast majority getting wrecked when their creators died in the Titanomachy. Gnomes are an apparently successful attempt to perfect humanoid life.

This is, first and foremost, an absolutely hilarious bit of worldbuilding. Like, I actually burst out laughing. Knowing that orcs existed because the elder gods were big Tolkein and Warcraft fans may have permanently damaged my ability to take the setting seriously on its on terms but like, honestly? Probably worth it. Also just an excellent excuse for any shotcuts of contradictions in the worldbuilding and for all the kind of lazy fantasy worldbuilding tropes.

While it hasn’t happened yet, I hold out some hope that the increased pivot to the divine and Deep Lore means the serial will start to live up to its title and foreground the gods and their bastardry more – as I’ve said before, a narrative where the literal lords of creation are present but only because they just show up sometimes to descend to earth and make the protagonists lives easier is just boring. Which is why Archpope Justinian, the scheming mastermind who wants to overthrow heaven and earth and works exclusively through needlessly convoluted schemes that don’t stop a single person from knowing he’s to blame. I’m sorry but ‘somehow brainwashed the gods into making him their high priest so he can use the resources of their church as his personal power base’ is such a great bit. Also he’s opposed by literally every major POV so of course I need to root for him. (Honorary mention to Basra Syrinx, who is literally just The Worst in an incredibly entertaining way)

[raptorrobot]

Can we know a bit about your inspiration behind Icarus, if you don't mind? He just seems so well thought out and interesting and I would love to know!

oh boy. strap in. you've opened the floodgates

a couple months after i got into ultrakill, i found myself really really liking the trends of the (currently) two canon prime souls; human figures in greek mythology that have a twist in their story that reverses part of the narrative of their mythological counterparts. i.e, minos being a benevolent and kind king in ultrakill as opposed to mythological minos being cruel and uncaring -- and ultrakill sisyphus relishing in his punishment and using it to his advantage rather than suffering in eternal torment as mythological sisyphus does. i LOVED the concepts going on there, and wanted to play with it myself.

out of all the more well known human figures in greek mythology, i found myself most intrigued by the idea of making an icarus prime work. what convinced me to commit to it was the poem rewriting icarus, which served as a MASSIVE inspiration for his character (and a line of which is present in violent sun's fic summary as a little shoutout !).

the first ever character decision i made for icarus was that the 'twist' to his story would be him setting his wings ablaze on his own volition rather than it being a mistake at the fault of his hubris. there's something so insanely visceral and intriguing about that concept and it locked me the fuck in.

the part about him being an archangel prior to becoming a prime soul stemmed from wanting to integrate the other aspects of mythological icarus into this icarus' story. most of his major character beats are semi-vague metaphor for it;

• being promoted from virtue to archangel: flying too close to the sun

• being killed and his soul condemned to hell: falling from the sky

i still wanted to remain as close to canon ultrakill lore as possible (in which archangels do not have souls, and therefore cannot become prime) so i made my own little loophole to get around it with him being a chosen 'experiment' of sorts to promote a human souled virtue into an archangel. it's not perfect, but i like to think that it works well enough !

his relationship with gabriel is literally entirely self indulgence. icarus could've worked perfectly fine as a character on his own with no connection to gabriel, but man.. i'm a simple girl who is a sucker for weird religious guilt-centric pining where neither party knows how to deal with what they're feeling. i always knew that gabe would be the one to kill him (another trend with the canon prime souls that i wanted to follow), and i wanted a way to make it HURT. deep connection that gets broken through few choice actions is always a fun outlet for that.

i also just thought it would be kinda sweet if gabriel took this timid little archangel under his wing cuz he felt bad for him and then started actually liking him !! and i enjoyed the idea of exploring how gabe differentiates kindness as acted by the word of god and kindness acted upon from his own will, and how that would carry over to how he feels about icarus. i could write a whole fucking essay on the complexities of how i wrote their relationship but i will spare you all of that (for now)

this is only scratching the surface really, there's SO much more that inspired his character and story from music to one-note bits that evolved into genuine character beats. i consider icarus one of my finest creations and i'm glad that some of you care enough about him to let me share that passion with you <3

[friedesgreatscythe]

ARR speedruns are getting me through late winter into early spring, as well as allowing me a chance to come up with different characters to give AU Eorzea adventures. I've perfected it from about 10 days in February, to three days in the Eren Jaeger run last month, to possibly 20 hours total in my current Twilight Princess!Zelda run. I'm taking a break now because I'm holding myself accountable to productive decisions lol But considering the rate I've been going I'm almost posi I can manage at most a 24 hour run time.

I've perfected little ways to make it go by as quick as possible: start on Dynamis (NA data center that gives a massive exp boost) and always have food handy for another bit of EXP boost (if an FC invites you and has an EXP boost as well, all the better, but you don't have to rely on this); use NPCs in dungeons and pull big mobs if you're DPS or healer (the tank is beefy and the healer can keep up with him, but i haven't tested out the combo of you tanking + NPC healer yet); sign up with every chocobokeep at aetherytes so you can pass between settlements without spending much gil; use the airship service liberally to also save gil; if you go archer/bard, always use peleton to make sprinting faster; skip cutscenes (which i only condone here bc i've played the game before) and make the language Japanese and the text 9+ speed for the ones you can't skip. For the grand companies, the Immortal Flames or Twin Adders are the better choices since their headquarters are so close to major aetherytes (and will load in faster as opposed to Limsa, where everyone is all the damn time).

Using all this, I started the conjurer/white mage Zelda cosplay run yesterday at 12:30PM and got her to level 50 and unlocked Brayflox by 2AM. I did have to take a break for dinner, so that added about a half hour to the run time, and I did do two side dungeons for another boost of EXP, so that added to the time as well. I don't have gear good enough to solo dungeons at this point, but I can turn in the silver chocobo feathers I have to get some relic gear to help with iLvl and stat increase.

You may be asking yourself, "Krist, why are you doing all this?" And the answer is simply: so Twilight Princess!Zelda can get the Torgal mount and fit my own personal satisfaction of having a lore appropriate mount from her game lmao Also to keep seeing how fast I can get through ARR at this point.

The FFXVI crossover event lasts til May goddamn 8th. I have over a month to do it, but I have an awful sense of FOMO and an insatiable need to put pressure on myself to succeed, so this is how I've tried to come to terms with that. Even though I'm never satisfied with what I do. Even with all these accomplishments, I went to bed last night thinking, "What a waste of time, you're such a loser." And hey, that could be true, but as long as I'm applying myself to things that will actually help me in real life, I don't see the problem.

Which is why I'm spending the day typing up my rewrites draft notebook so I have that to work on in the oncoming draft.

Accountability. Productivity. Accomplishments. I'm capable of all of these, and now I just need to make sure I keep doing them, and that I include myself in these efforts. Looking after my mom and now my stepdad after his sciatica flare up has made me more aware of how easily and readily I'll set aside what I want and need to do for someone else. Reassuring my sister that I'm available to help whenever she needs it makes me aware of how quickly I'll reach out to someone else, but never think to offer that same support to myself.

My goal for the year is to finish this draft--polished, finished, ready for beta readers--by Thanksgiving at the latest. I know I can do it. I know I need to focus, to reach out to other writer friends who are on their indie pub journeys, or keep track of their progress and how they're handling themselves. I need to be more supportive to myself. I need to celebrate how determined I am, even through the hardship and discomfort of having no financial independence (and the BPD impulsivity of overspending when I do have money, combined with the PTSD sense of foreshortened future. Why save money when I can't imagine a need to support myself because I can't imagine wanting to live [which is different from wanting to die, it's simply a total apathy to the concept of existing and wanting to do so]).

I just... need to be better to myself. I need to jump to my own needs the way I do for others. I need to reassure myself the way I do for others. I need to set goals in the immediate and long-term future and meet them, and be proud of meeting them. I need to start looking at my life and what I'm doing in it as things that are good, and useful, and valuable, and necessary, and wonderful, because no one and nothing else is going to give me the life I'm desperate for. I don't get a second chance at this. It's not something I can start over. I'm alive now, whether I like it or not, and I have to keep dedicating myself to things that make me like it.

Even typing that out makes me scowl or cringe away from the very idea. But why? Why don't I want to make myself happy? Why don't I want to make my life better--to make my life my life, how I want it? Why can't I just... be a healthy person? Why can't I like myself--not even love, just like? Why am I repulsed by the very idea of taking care of myself? What happened to make me this way, and how can I fix it?

[infinite-xerath]

Runeterra Retcons 5: Janna

Ah Janna: a classic example of League’s older champion design philosophy. While discussing a character’s actual appearance isn’t really my forte, nor is it the point of this series, I do feel like it’s an important aspect to bring up regardless. See, in my honest opinion Janna’s current lore state following the 2015 retcon was actually handled pretty well.

The issue I and many others have is that her design doesn’t really match her lore like, at all. They’ve redesigned her a bit for Wild Rift by giving her more clothes, but that, in my opinion, doesn’t really resolve the larger issue at hand. Before we can delve too deep into the current state of Janna’s lore, however, let’s take a step back and examine how she began as a Champion, and see where things went from there.

Alright, so her first lore portrays her as a mage so in-tune with wind magic that she effectively elevated herself to a higher state of being. At the time, this could easily have put her on-par with mages like Syndra, Zilean and Xerath: other characters who achieved higher states of being through pure skill and mastery of their craft. Sure, her outfit still looked like generic female fantasy get-up #347, but she her archetype was clear enough: wind mage.

Janna’s original lore is… OK. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it’s fine for what it is: she’s a street orphan who quite literally elevates herself through sheer talent, and now wants to use her new power to help others in need. This was, of course, from a time when the regions of Runeterra weren’t what we know today, and Zaun was apparently more about rampant magics than twisted science. Even still, Riot would go on to update her bio once Zaun became a more science-focus region.

Alright, so this version of Janna is still more-or-less the same as the first, but a little more fleshed out. The most notable change, of course, is the fact that she tends to ally more with Piltover rather than her home due to Zaun’s pollution and reliance on chemtech. Keep in mind that this was a time in which Zaun and Piltover were literally two completely separate cities, as opposed to different layers of the same one. In fact, it could be said that the reason for Janna’s current lore state is because Piltover and Zaun have been retconned into what they are today.

Now, let me clarify that I’ve got no real issue with how Piltover and Zaun are portrayed in the current lore state; in fact, I much prefer what Riot has done with those two regions and how both factions have their ups and downs. In the modern lore state of Runeterra, Piltover is directly responsible for nearly all of the pollution in Zaun, and both sides have their share of dubious science experiments going on. In fact, it’s because of this particular change that Riot chose to retcon Janna once again, and this is where things get complicated.

Before we delve too deep into that particular subject, let’s take a look at Janna’s third, and final lore state in League, shall we? In this bio, Janna is retconned into being a proper wind spirit, rather than a human who simply became a really powerful wind mage. As I’ve said before: I really don’t mind this retcon. It tells a lot about how spirits function in Runeterra and offers some interesting insight into the founding of Piltover and Zaun as a double-layered city.

That said, this was an excellent opportunity for Riot to give Janna a proper VGU and make her into a more spiritual-looking entity, yet they instead chose to keep as a generic fantasy babe with extremely revealing clothing. I mean, look at how the other spirits in Runeterra manifest: Anivia is a giant bird made of ice, Ornn is a big flaming anthropomorphic ram, and the Kindred appear as humanoid ram with a bow and ghostly flying wolf head! Yeah, sure, her Wild Rift design looks BETTER, but it still just makes her look like a typical fantasy elf rather than a literal embodiment of the wind.

There’s also the issue that Janna’s outfit in both incarnations doesn’t do anything to associate her with the region she’s supposed to be tied to: Zaun and Piltover. If anything, her white outfit with the gold trimmings makes her look DEMACIAN. It’s really just a simple case of her design contrasting her lore and character concept: she doesn’t look like a spirit, and she doesn’t look like she’s from Zaun. All of this could have been fixed with a simple VGU, but it seems like this is the design Riot wants to stick with, and thus it is the design we’re stuck with.

So, with all of that said, let’s get into the fixes, shall we? My mission for this rewrite is actually fairly simple: I’m going to give Janna a backstory that maintains her current status as a protective wind deity while ALSO giving a better justification for her appearance. So, without further ado, I give you: my take on the story of Janna. Enjoy.

For ages, mortals have put their faith in the winds. From sailors praying for a good breeze in their sails to children playing with kites, the people of Runeterra have long relied on the wind to bring change, good fortune, and prosperity. Of course, for many the idea that the wind can truly hear such prayers is nothing but a superstition. Those who truly open their ears, however, may hear the wind answer back.

The spirit that would come to be known as Janna began as little more than a small breeze, blowing aimlessly around the southern coasts of Valoran. Every now and then, sailors wishing for a fair breeze would find their requests mysteriously granted, even when the air seemed still only moments prior. Rumors spread, and sightings of a small blue bird appearing just before strong wind became frequent tales among traders. Over time, praying to the Wind Bird became a common ritual for all peoples of the coast, and none held this tradition more fervently than the seafaring folk of Oshra Va’Zaun.

For years, people prayed to the Wind Bird for guidance and protection, building statues and carving charms in her honor. Their belief empowered the spirit further, and it was through them she acquired the name Zephir, meaning “Guardian of Wind.” When uttered by foreign tongues, however, they frequently mispronounced her name as ‘Zephyr.’

Worship of Zephyr became commonplace, until the emperor of Shurima decreed that all “false idols” were to be discarded and the people place their faith only in the Ascended. The temples dedicated to Zephyr in Oshra Va’Zaun were torn down, and yet people continued to carry trinkets depicting her in secret, especially on voyages out to sea.

When the empire fell and Shurima was torn asunder by warring Ascended, the people of Oshra Va’Zaun, now referred to simply as Zaun, prayed to Zephyr for protection. Though her power was lesser than what it had once been, Zephyr nonetheless did all she good to drive back the armies of the Ascended with fierce gales and raging storms. As the war drew to a close, peace finally returned to the people of Zaun, and yet Zephyr was surprised to find her power weakening. In the war’s aftermath, the people of Zaun grew ambitions, wishing to make their city more than just a bustling trade port.

A canal was carved through the isthmus separating Valoran and Shurima, uniting two seas as one. This, in turn, brought peoples from all lands to Zaun in pursuit of greatness, and thus the prayers for fair winds were drowned out by desires of wealth, advancement, and expansion. Soon, Zephyr found herself reduced once more to a faint breeze, drifting aimlessly along the coasts as the world seemed to forget her… That is, until she heard her name spoken on the wind.

The culprit was a young woman named Janna, who had come to Zaun from the far-away kingdom of Demacia. Janna had grown up on tales of the ancient past, devoting her life to studying Valoran’s many myths and legends. Among them, Janna was particularly fascinated by stories of an ancient protector of winds, whose name had been all but lost to time. As the city of Zaun continued its expansion, widening the canal in the process, Janna continued her studies of this fabled guardian, and her fascination only deepened whenever the wind blew past her, as though a presence were calling out to her…

Then, the canal reached its completion, and a grand ceremony was held to celebrate the event. Thousands attended to watch the grand opening of the Sun Gate, yet what should have been a celebratory occasion turned to disaster. Construction of the canal left many areas of Zaun unstable, and the rumblings of the Sun Gate caused whole portions of the city to collapse and fall into the sea. Zephyr watched helplessly as hundreds of mortals fought uselessly against the clashing currents. Many cried out for help, though it was one cry in-particular that caught the spirit’s attention: it was Janna, calling out Zephyr’s name even as water filled her lungs.

In that moment, Janna felt herself being held aloft by a powerful gale. The air itself seemed to speak to her, telling Janna that her faith alone could rekindle the ancient guardian’s power and save the people from calamity. Putting her trust in the wind, Janna allowed Zephyr’s power to course through her, manifesting a staff to control the spirit’s power as her own. As others watched this miraculous display, their faith, too, began to return. Bolstered by their pleas, Janna and Zephyr summoned a massive gale to carry the people of Zaun to safety, before collapsing back into the sea from exhaustion.

Time moved on, and as the city of Piltover was built atop the remnants of Zaun, Janna’s miraculous deed that day also passed into legend. Even still, many continue to tell her story, and the faithful can be found wearing small bird-shaped pendants to honor the ancient spirit that protects Zaun. For those who struggle against the toxic fumes the Zaun Gray, wrestle with the tyranny of chembarons, or face any number of perils, it is commonplace to offer prayers to the wind.

Sometimes, if one truly believes, she may just answer back.

And there we have it. As you’ll notice, I kept much of the early lore the same, with one key exception: the spirit’s name. Now, Zephyr has always been a part of Janna’s character, even though it’s never explicitly referenced in her prior lore states. Zephyr was conceived to be Janna’s familiar: it’s that little bird you see in the background of her splash art. You know, the one that hovers around her in-game?

In her new lore, they try to say that Janna and Zephyr are one and the same; the bird is just a weaker manifestation of her power, though the art and game imply that she can manifest as the bird AND the woman at once? In her kit, Janna’s passive ability is still described as “Janna launching her elemental at a target,” as though the bird is still supposed to be her familiar. So, I decided: what if we kept the spirit as the bird, and made Janna herself human again?

Admittedly, I would have liked to flesh out this Demacian Janna more as a character, and I had a few versions of this bio in which that was the case, but I decided to stick to having the story of the spirit be forefront because I felt that would be closest to Riot’s current vision of the character. Even still, the one part of her current bio that DOES irk me a little is how suddenly the people of Zaun all collectively start praying to Janna to save them. I mean, no one had prayed to Janna for literal centuries, so why would that be the first thing they thing to do in a situation of peril? I felt it would make more sense to have her come back because of the ONE person who still somewhat believes in those ancient stories, rather than hundreds of people all at once.

Now, admittedly, this next part might be a bit controversial to some. Janna fusing with Zephyr might seem like a bit of a cop-out, but I’d like to remind you all that people playing host to spirits is hardly a new concept in League; we have Udyr, Lee Sin, and Illaoi, just to name a few.  I also think that it ties in well with the concept of Janna’s original lore, where she was a human that basically elevated herself into being an air elemental. Fusing with spirits to become semi-immortal entities isn’t even that much of a stretch either, thanks to Yone’s lore (though he might be a topic for a future episode.)

As for the conclusion of the story, well… I know it’s a little vague. What actually happened to Janna after she passed out? Where is she now? I decided to leave that up in the air (no pun intended) because I wanted to keep Janna in the same current lore state Riot has her in: an entity of the wind known mostly through myths and stories who might occasionally pop up if people pray hard enough. Plus, you could probably expand on that with her accompanying color story, though we’re not going to be touching on Deep Breath right now.

So, that’s Janna, the Storm’s Fury… Ugh, OK, let’s address that elephant in the room really quick. That is an AWFUL title for her. It sounds like something more befitting of Volibear, or maybe even Kennen. It’s certainly not a fantastic title for a benevolent deity known for showing kindness rather than fury. Maybe change it to something like The Gale’s Mercy or The Will of the Wind.

But alright, in all seriousness, that’s my take on Janna. As always, feel free to share your own thoughts, opinions, and comments down below.

[vokriid]

what's really weird is that they did dedicate a lot of effort into showing how the Oblivion Crisis affected the worldbuilding... but only in the background lore. and I don't mean out-of-game resources, I mean everything about the Empire breaking up for the first time in the series bc the Oblivion Crisis weakened the Imperials so much. like we went from one Empire to one human empire, one elven-khajiit empire, the sovereign kingdom of Hammerfell, and now Skyrim is making a bid for independence as well. the Empire basically has no real power outside of Cyrodiil, seeing as it can't seem to make High Rock or Morrowind actually do anything about the Stormcloaks (given that they surround Skyrim on either side, you'd think that sending troops through Morrowind into Eastmarch would be the first thing Tullius would do, as opposed to marching up thru Bruma and Falkreath), and they were barely able to survive - not win, just survive as a state entity - the Great War. also there seems to have been a massive cultural/religious reformation in Skyrim after the Oblivion Crisis to abandon the old Nord gods in favor of the Imperial cult (presumably bc, as far the Nords were concerned, a Septim emperor literally closing the gates of Tes Hell is a pretty good reason to start worshipping Septim emperors) and that sure as fuck backfired on them.

these are all effects of the Oblivion Crisis, and Skyrim is seeped in all of it. it drives the main plot, the civil war subplot, most of the other minor plots, and half of the worldbuilding. why is Markarth dealing with a Forsworn uprising? Oblivion Crisis -> Great War. Why is the Dark Brother able to assassinate the emperor? Well, he's not exactly holding back the gates of Oblivion anymore. Why did the Vigilant of Stendarr and the Dawnguard form? Oblivion Crisis. What happened to all the dragon knowledge the Blades had had? Oblivion Crisis and Great War.

And yet. They don't put even a single Oblivion Gate in the game. the physical Skyrim is left completely untouched. They left the 'world' out of 'worldbuilding.' And that's just disappointing. like yes, they do heavily incorporate the Oblivion Crisis into the setting, but they do it in such a way that it only gives them narrative freedom to rewrite the worldbuilding, rather than actually enrich it and make it tangible.

for as big as the oblivion crisis was, it's super weird that Skyrim doesn't even touch it beyond a few dialogue mentions :/ like it was a pretty fuckin violent tamriel-wide event, it's gotta have some more far reaching consequences over generations of people than just 'well that's the end of the third era'

having just finished the oblivion main quest, npcs talk of celebrating dagons defeat with new songs and broken oblivion gates dot the landscape. martins dragon statue serves as a somber reminder of all the friends you had that are now dead

in skyrim where are those songs? the oblivion gates? the graves? martin? the written and oral histories of the crisis itself and the aftermath? for a province known for its bardic traditions there's nothing about any historical events newer than 'ancient as shit' and it's really quite disappointing playing oblivion and knowing that none of it actually matters

i could understand bethesda wanting to distance themselves from the cheerful tone and style of oblivion in order to be able to appeal to GoT fans and in line with the popular gritty and '''''realistic''''' style of early 2010s media, but like. honestly. marketing is stupid af and not sticking with the Basic Lore of Literally The Previous Game's Main Quest really shows a lack of imagination and backbone on the writer's part. Like you want gritty and dark? There's an apocalyptic event right there and you could write about how people have been dealing with it!

man don't even get me started on the whole 'mages guild broke up cos people thought they were involved with the oblivion crisis' thing. common oblivion npcs literally talk about mythic dawn and knew what was going on. fucking come on man

och just a painful reminder that these games could be so good if they were actually like. good

[ramajmedia]

Dragon Ball Z: All The Lore Retconned By Dragon Ball Super

Dragon Ball Super has made many changes to the canon and lore established years previously in Dragon Ball Z. Compared to many long-running anime and manga franchises, Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball isn't especially complicated. Each arc is relatively self-contained, with story elements building steadily towards the next major showdown, and each main character follows a straight-forward progression. This isn't to say that Dragon Ball lacks depth, of course. Toriyama's fictional world is rich and colorful, full of unique alien races and formidable villains.

The original Dragon Ball Z anime series finished airing in 1996 but Goku's popularity endured and, almost two decades later, a brand new series began. Dragon Ball Super picked up more or less where its predecessor left off, running for three years and spawning the highly successful Dragon Ball Super: Broly theatrical movie. While it might be unrealistic to expect a story spanning several decades to remain watertight in terms of continuity, Akira Toriyama has been deliberately flexible with certain details of the original anime and manga series.

Related: Every Wish Made By The Dragon Balls

As a result, Dragon Ball Super has completely rewritten things that fans have spent years believing to be true. Some of these incidences are trivial, but others completely reframe sections of the classic Dragon Ball story. Here are the biggest retcons made by Dragon Ball Super.

In Dragon Ball Z, there are two ways for characters to fuse. They can either perform the Fusion Dance and join together for a 30-minute period, or put on opposing Potara earrings and merge permanently. The inherent risk of the latter method creates an interesting dilemma in the Buu saga - are Goku and Vegeta desperate enough to pay the price of becoming one being for the rest of their lives? Fortunately, the fused warrior Vegito is separated after being absorbed into Buu's body, and Vegeta vows never to put the earrings on again.

Looking to somehow introduce Vegito in Dragon Ball Super, this piece of lore was scrapped. Now, the Fusion was only permanent if one of the participants was a Supreme Kai. For the likes of Goku and Vegeta, it would only last an hour. While Dragon Ball fans were delighted to see Vegito again, this was a particularly cynical change and one that made very little sense, since it was the supposedly wise Old Kai who introduced the earring method in the first place.

During the early stages of Dragon Ball Z's Cell Saga, Vegeta emerges from the Hyperbolic Time Chamber unchanged in appearance after an entire year, revealing that a pure-blooded Saiyan's hair does not change. This fact remains in place for the rest of the story and explains why Goku's hair has remained in the same style since infancy. After spending 3 years inside the chamber in Dragon Ball Super, however, Goku and Vegeta emerged with full beards.

While Saiyans with facial hair are nothing new (little baby Nappa was presumably born with his handlebar mustache), this is the first instance of a Saiyan growing some face fuzz from scratch and several inconsistencies arise. If Vegeta grows a full beard after 3 years, why didn't he have at least a little stubble after one year of training? Additionally, if Saiyan facial hair grows really slowly, Goku and Vegeta must be shaving at least a couple of times a year, like a teenage boy entering the first stage of puberty. Since the Saiyans were originally said to never change their hair at all, it's hard to not feel like the continuity was sacrificed just for a cheap visual gag.

Related: How Dragon Ball Super: Broly's Massive Box Office Compares To Previous Movies

Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball story may have finished in 1996 but, sensing there was still money to be made, a third anime series was put into development. The resulting Dragon Ball GT was widely panned by fans and also played fast and loose with established canon. Technically, Dragon Ball Super sits between the Z and GT series, but has been sure to include several pieces of continuity from the widely-derided anime, such as Bulla and a cameo from Uub. Subsequently, it has been suggested that Dragon Ball Super could flow directly into Dragon Ball GT.

This notion makes very little sense. While Dragon Ball Super may steer clear of directly contradicting or overwriting Dragon Ball GT, it's ridiculous to think that new additions such as Beerus, other universes and God mode wouldn't have been mentioned throughout the entire GT series.

The Super Saiyan transformation sequence is one the most beloved parts of Dragon Ball Z and the process is well known throughout the fandom. Once a Saiyan reaches a certain level of power, a deeply emotional event (such as the death of a bald best friend) will trigger a change into a golden-haired warrior of legend. In one of Dragon Ball Super's best moments, Vegeta teaches Cabba, a fellow Saiyan from Universe 6, how to make the jump to Super Saiyan, becoming a mentor to the youngster and displaying a new side to his gradually softening character.

When Cabba later taught the technique to Caulifla, however, the transformation took a very odd turn. Trying to rile up his fellow Saiyan wasn't working, so Cabba instead described a tingling sensation that supposedly occurs on the back when changing forms and, upon receiving this advice, Caulifla is immediately able to turn Super Saiyan for the first time. Not only does this explanation come out of nowhere, it also turns the once intimidating and primal Super Saiyan transformation into some sort of ASMR experience.

While Dragon Ball Super: Broly was an undoubted highlight of the franchise's modern incarnation, it did make several alterations to key parts of Goku's origin story. Firstly, Goku isn't send to Earth to clear it of humans, he's sent there by his parents to escape the destruction of his home planet, just like Superman. Goku also arrives at his new home planet as a slightly older tot, rather than a baby.

Related: Why Goku Didn't Use Ultra Instinct In Dragon Ball Super: Broly

Perhaps more importantly, the story of Bardock is rejigged, with Goku's biological father acting in a far more caring way towards his son than the brutish, ruthless Saiyans usually would. This retcon suggests that Goku's goodness and morality are at least partially inherited from his parents, rather than the result of a bump on the head and living with Grandpa Gohan.

Famous for giving rise to the "It's over 9000!" meme, scouters are the futuristic devices fitted over one eye and used by Saiyans to read the power levels of others and spot nearby enemies. More focused on smashing skulls and conquering planets, it's clear that the Saiyans themselves could never develop this sort of technology of their own accord, and this issue was addressed by Akira Toriyama himself, who revealed that the Scouters came from the Tuffles, the native inhabitants of the planet Vegrta.

This side story was completely abandoned thanks to Dragon Ball Super: Broly, which included a scene where a young Frieza presents a shipment of scouters to the Saiyans as a gift. It's made clear that this is the first time Saiyans have come into contact with such devices, essentially retconning the entire Tuffle explanation from before.

Some canon changes are frustrating, as they rewrite a story viewers are already invested in. Others are annoying because they're made purely to convenience the plot. Some changes, however, are disappointing on a deeply personal level. For many Dragon Ball Z fans, the Cell saga was pivotal in developing a love of anime, and watching Goku's son, Gohan, hulk-up and become the first character to hit Super Saiyan 2 felt epic. By the end of the story, Gohan is confirmed to be the strongest non-fused fighter, with his Ultimate/Mystic final form superior to Goku's Super Saiyan 3, as well as easier to sustain over long periods.

In stark contrast, Dragon Ball Super's Gohan is a family man and academic who has become physically weak and barely fights, once again requiring Piccolo to step in and protect him. During Frieza's return, Gohan is even unsure whether or not he can still transform into his regular Super Saiyan state. This is a sorry end for a character who was once the future of the franchise. Some may argue that Gohan never enjoyed fighting, and that Dragon Ball Super puts a happy ending on his story, but Dragon Ball is a fighting series, not a studying series, and Gohan's reluctance to fight unless it was truly necessary made him far more relatable than the battle-hungry Goku and Vegeta.

More: What To Expect From Dragon Ball Super: Broly 2

source https://screenrant.com/dragon-ball-super-lore-retcon-changes/

[freddy-and-friends-au]

The Freddy & Friends: Legacy ask box is now open!

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An introduction to Freddy & Friends: Legacy

Freddy & Friends is an AU created by Roux36 Productions set in the Five Nights at Freddy’s IP.

As opposed to focusing on a single “what if?” question for the AU, F&F is a rewrite of the FNAF story in its entirety, constructed from the ground-up to tell a more realistic, character-driven take on the original story, initially intended to be an animated series.

This version of the AU is no longer being worked on. The current version of the AU is called "In Loving Memory", a Five Nights at Freddy's analog horror series with a vastly different story.

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What asks will I answer? (Examples provided)

Lore (Ex: How do the spirits work?)

World-Building (Ex: Who made the pizza recipes at Freddy’s)

Headcanons (Ex: Who’s Jeremy’s favorite music artist?)

Events (Ex: How did _____ react to ______?)

Beta content

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Click the keep reading to learn more about the Freddy & Friends AU! >>>

If you want updates on what Freddy & Friends currently is, visit the In Loving Memory Tumblr at https://www.tumblr.com/in-loving-memory-au

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How much thought did you put into this?

It’s not that I’m a massive nerd, but it’s just that I’m actually a massive nerd.

Animatronics are loosely grounded in real-world mechanical engineering, giving them plausible designs for them to have existed in the 1980’s (down to the very components that make them function.)

The restaurant itself has regulations and procedures to manage the animatronics during the day (this varies depending on the restaurant).

The restaurant layouts themselves have been redesigned to be more coherent with the rules of architecture.

The animatronic characters themselves have their own lore and personalities within the cartoon world.

I have a full list of employees who worked at both Afton Robotics and Fazbear Entertainment.

The rules of the spirits are grounded in real-world cultural beliefs, as well as typical ghost hunting traditions.

No character is written to be two-dimensional. The characters don’t just do stuff for the plot; they do them because it’s in-character for them to do so. They’re not just ghost children haunting the animatronics. They’re also human.

Note: In regards to In Loving Memory, this section remains mostly unchanged.

———————————————

What was canon?

Basic media taken into consideration:

Five Nights at Freddy’s

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2

Five Nights at Freddy’s 3

Five Nights at Freddy’s 4

Five Nights at Freddy’s: The Silver Eyes

FNAF World (Surprisingly)

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location

Five Nights at Freddy’s: The Movie

Details Only taken from:

Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach

The ideas of these media were the content detrimental to the story of Freddy & Friends. However, the story of them had been changed so drastically that canon knowledge was considered unreliable when talking about the Freddy & Friends AU. Some things remain the same, but it’s recommended that knowledge of canon game/book/movie events NOT be used as a reference regarding Freddy & Friends content.

What was the same?:

Mike Schmidt and Abby Schmidt’s character had remained almost exactly the same as in the movie. (Movie)

Michael Brooks is Golden Freddy (Novels)

Elizabeth Afton being killed by Circus Baby (Games)

The Bite of ‘83 (Games)

The Bite of ‘87 (Games)

Bonnie is blue

What had changed?:

Michael Afton does NOT exist—was replaced by Fritz Afton

FNAF 4 Crying Child became the Puppet

FNAF 4 Bullies were the Missing Children

FNAF 4 Bullies were NOT bullies

The haunted animatronics have personalities, and are capable of verbal speech.

Sammy (Charlie’s twin brother) was killed instead of Charlie

Sammy became Spring-Bonnie

Charlie is NOT an android

Very few employees (including night guards) actually died at Freddy’s

Foxy was responsible for the Bite of ‘87

The animatronics are limited by the technology of the 1980’s, and therefore have software limitations that aren’t present in the games

Circus Baby’s Pizza World was renamed to Circus Kingdom Pizza World

The names of the Funtimes were changed to align with the re-theme

The Funtimes were NOT built with the intention of kidnapping children

The Funtimes were haunted

The Scooper does not exist

The FNAF 4 gameplay is a dream, and not child experimentation. (What FNAF 4 specifically was will be elaborated on in its own post.)

The Toy animatronics have been renamed to the Junior animatronics

The Junior location is Freddy Jr’s Pizzeria

The individual Junior characters have in-universe names beyond “Junior Freddy” and “Junior Bonnie”, etc.

The Juniors were haunted

There is no such thing as “Remnant”.

Vanessa Shelly is NOT William Afton’s Daughter

Steve Raglan and William Afton are two different people

Removed Herobrine

Please note that not everything has been changed in the transition over to In Loving Memory.

(Aforementioned name changes):

Spring-Bonnie - Springles the Rabbit

Circus Baby - Circus Sadie, AKA Sadie the Circus Princess

Funtime Freddy - Freddie the Ringmaster

Funtime Foxy - Foxy the Flying Fox

Toy Freddy - Freddy Fazbear Jr.

Toy Bonnie - Riley Rabbit

Toy Chica - Penny Pecks

Toy Foxy/Mangle - Bridget the Fox

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Thank you!

If you made it to the end, I wanna thank you for showing interest in this AU, especially if you were here when the Tumblr went live! It's been a long road with at least five rewrites and twice as many redesigns. I'm happy to have shed some new light on the project with a new direction and a new story!

If you want updates on what Freddy & Friends currently is, visit the In Loving Memory Tumblr at https://www.tumblr.com/in-loving-memory-au.

- Roux