#ascendancy spoiler

[chasingthewesternsun]

Pls accept my doodle annotations from the first ascendancy book v_v

(Ch. 13)

[mayasaura]

I was thinking about how we don't actually know how Pyrrha died. Just that by her own telling, she "was killed," and that she was the first cavalier to die outside Cristabel and Alfred's suicide pact.

Before Nona came out, I suspected Gideon the First must have killed her, probably with her consent. That seems unlikely to me now, with everything we've learned about them in Nona.

Also before Nona came out, I came to the conclusion that the lyctors demanded John kill Alecto following a "great attack" on Canaan House and the revelation of what a Resurrection Beast is. Based on Mercymorn's assumption that Alecto was a freak who would attack her on sight, I also highly suspected that Alecto either participated in or perpetrated the attack on Canaan House, thus proving herself beyond a shadow of a doubt to be untamed and dangerous in a way that not even John could talk his way out of.

I just recently noticed a detail in Nona the Ninth that might slot all this together like puzzle pieces:

Pyrrha has seen something very like Nona's tantrums before, and that memory scares her. Enough that she avoids even thinking about it.

I think Alecto may have killed Pyrrha.

[sarii-draws]

And Remember: when you stare into the abyss the abyss stares back at you.

[kobylas]

Be gentle... if you can.

[the-ominous-owl]

[brabblesban]

A kiss, stolen in a moment away from the crowd.

Read up on what these two idiots are on about here:

Whither is thy beloved gone?

Remember ye not the former things.

Art by @pickled0ctopus

[dmbakura]

ascended sacrifice

[kiwisandpearls]

it feels like at least here I barely see any analysis on madoka herself. It’s usually almost always an analysis on another character that brings up madoka (most of the time homura) or it is the 500th analysis about how madoka actually didn’t want to be a god, missed her family, and had severe self doubt issues. Which is all well in good but I just wish there was bit more for her.

I just wish more analysis would tap into madoka herself. In how despite the amount of suffering madoka has seen and had to endure herself she still sees the world as something worth protecting. How much empathy she has for others; in how she never snapped back at Sayaka and continued to stay by her side no matter how much she lashed out at her and how she decided to make a contract just so Mami wouldn’t be lonely anymore. How she made a wish with Kyubey that would separate her from her family and friends forever just to validate and protect the hopes and wishes of magical girls while allowing them to burden madoka with their pain. How fucking powerful she had to be as a god to nearly break Homura’s world by simply just starting to remember who she truly was.

I just…I fucking love madoka and it frustrates me deeply how little appreciation some parts of the pmmm fandom seem to give her asides from the fact that she became a god.

[shewolfofvilnius]

current brainrot: Origin Karlach romances Gale, who chooses the crown - and at the epilogue party, she chooses to ascend in order to cure her engine and be with Gale (playing origin Karlach or Astarion and romancing him are the only times he'll directly intervene to 'cure' them).

GUARANTEE that she would wind up becoming the Goddess of Gratitude. That's ultimately her entire personality arc in the game. And is the NATURAL counterpart to Gale's portfolio, ambition.

[justporo]

Ascended Astarion would let himself get painted nude and then obnoxiously send these paintings to Tav, who left him - like the medieval fantasy version of an unsolicited dickpic.

[marimosalad]

z o o m i e s 🦇💨

[pencildragons]

spreading my john gaius was māori space jesus before gideon propaganda: the unimaginably old and vast being from which he comes chose him to save all of humanity and in the end he made a sacrifice of the highest order and was made anew in glory. except he didn't actually sacrifice himself, which is a crucial point that leads me to my second theory: john gaius is evil māori space jesus

[wellen-katze]

Don't you fret - bg3 comic A.Astarion/dark urge

I hope you enjoyed!

I love that there are so many lines in the game, showing that karlach absolutely hates ascended astarion's ass (and prob tav's) it's so funny xD I'd like to draw more with them

[pebblefriend]

They saw the world in a similar way once

[maerhiya]

WAKE UP BABE AN ALLEGED ALAYM LEAK JUST DROPPED

ISTG IF THIS IS REAL CUZ THEY SOUND SO GOOD OMFGG fiyeraba nation how are we feeling rn??

[autistichalsin]

So I don't usually post all that many Astarion thoughts here, but I have noticed that some people feel that a certain set of lines spawn Astarion and ascended Astarion have in the new evil endings would have been better suited for the other. Namely, after the Dark Urge stabs either of them, Spawn Astarion cries, "I should have killed you when I had the chance!" while Ascended Astarion breaks down into inelegant blubbering, "no! No, this can't be. I can't- you can't- no!"

And I can definitely understand where it might feel like these would be better responses for the other- but I happen to completely disagree.

So, Astarion, first and foremost, is a fear-driven person after what he's been through. Everything- manipulating others, seeking power, lacking empathy- comes from his belief that power is all that matters, the only way to avoid being hurt, and only his quest to become the powerful one at last matters.

Through his friendship or romance (in this case, obviously, romance) with the player, though, he starts to find this being challenged. He sees genuine kindness for the first time. No expectations that he lay down his body to get advantages. No using him. His dignity and boundaries respected for the first time that he can remember. This is set against the backdrop of Cazador and the other spawn. If he kills them and takes Cazador's power, he can become powerful enough to never fear again. But if he doesn't, he can be something more than the game Cazador pulled him into when he made him a spawn.

Your confrontation with Cazador is the moment you either entrench Astarion in this belief, or free him from it. If you let him ascend, he becomes all-powerful- at the cost of believing forever that the world is nothing more than an extended power trip, a system where by necessity there are lower people and higher people and only the strong can be free. And he has finally become the strongest of the strong.

So imagine his surprise when you, who he thought was under his thumb, grab more power than him and kill him just like that. No chance to fight back or use his vampire lord powers. He went through all that, sacrificed the core of who he was- and it still wasn't enough. His one concession to his dog-eat-dog philosophy, his love for you, was the thing that let him die. No wonder, then, that all he can do is babble out something between disbelief, a plea, and a last attempt to assert power over you. He was as powerful as he ever could have hoped to be, and he still lost, cast aside by you as soon as he was no longer useful.

Meanwhile, there's spawn Astarion, weaker in every measure- but free of his belief that power is all that matters. He's fought hard and discarded Cazador entirely- including all the power he offered. He committed himself to becoming better. To experiencing a life where things like happiness and love have just as much of a place as sheer power. And he was enjoying it, too, especially with you at his side.

And then you show him that that was all a lie, that he may very well have made the wrong choice by abandoning all that; for all he knows, you may even have talked him out of the ritual specifically so he would be easier to kill later.

So it's not disbelief and begging. Spawn Astarion actually loved and trusted you and foresook his social-Darwinist beliefs for you; what he feels is raw betrayal. And betrayal gives way to anger rapidly. So instead, he's the one cursing you with his last breath. Lamenting that he let you live at all, let alone falling in love with you.

Ascended Astarion became more powerful but more arrogant, so his reaction is that of someone who can't wrap his head around how this could have happened. Spawn Astarion foresook power for the sake of a real relationship with you, so his reaction is utter fury and betrayal.