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lairofdragonagelore · 21 days

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Flemeth / Mythal (part 1)

Flemeth is an enigmatic character along the series that seems to be related to the whole plot of Dragon Age since DAO. In the present post I will try to collect all the relevant information about her and about what she says, since she is one of the characters that I think we can rely more when it comes to digging the "truth" behind the DA lore.

The current post has the following sections:

Flemeth in DAO

Story of Conobar and Osen

Flemeth in DA2

Flemeth in DAI

Mythal as an Elvhenan Goddess

Mythal as a Changed Goddess

Flemeth and Mythal

Mythal and the Well of Sorrows

Flemeth and the Music

Flemeth, Mythal, and Motherhood

Artwork of Flemeth

Flemeth in the books (or comics)

Conclusions

Flemeth in DAO

When we meet Flemeth for the first time, we know she saved the Warden and Alistair from the massacre of Ostagar. She turned into a creature (later we will know it was a dragon), grabbed each of them in her talons, and returned to her shack where Morrigan nursed them back to health.

When you interact with her, she speaks about her position related to some topics:

Belief: she considers the wisest attitude is to doubt in what to believe. This makes a lot of sense when you see DA series overall: we know that history changed over time due to the inaccuracy that information acquires over generations due to oral transmission or political interests that modify historical records such in the case of the dwarves [more details about this in the post The Chantry and the Mythology of the Chant of Light].

She knows all about the Grey Warden business: She knows about the treaties, and the magic that seals those. Since Morrigan knows about the ancient magic that allowed her to protect Urthemiel’s soul by the end of the game, and this was always the original plan of Flemeth, we can assume this knowledge and the mechanics with which Grey Warden deal with the Blight were all well-known by Flemeth too. This makes sense too if we think that a contemporaneous of Flemeth, Solas, also knows a lot of details about how the Blight works and how the Grey Wardens deal with it [for example, read the section Blight and Grey Wardens in Solas sharing Lore: Part 1 - Part 2]. We can assume that part of the Grey Warden’s knowledge may have come from Arlathan, according some small pieces of information that we have from Seekers: Tarohne, the Fell Grimoire, and Xebenkeck].

Mythal [inside Flemeth] knows how to keep the Darkspawn away: This detail is never focused on in her conversations, so it's easy to miss. Flemeth can keep the darkspawn far away from her shack despite being in the zone where the main outbreak happened. This is not minor at all. Later, in the comic The Missing, we learn that Solas has been hiding in places that have enormous populations of Darkspwan and he has never been bothered by them. Since he has absorbed Flemeth's powers at this point of the story, we can suspect that this ability to keep the darkspawn away is something related to Mythal herself.

It’s clear that Flemeth, who has been a figure who has pushed the History of Thedas in a certain direction, had a clear interest in the Warden. Later, we discover her original plan was to keep Urthemiel’s soul [but this depends on the player’s choices after all, and the "canon" Bioware world state is one where Urthemiel’s soul has been destroyed, since the warden dies]. However, it’s hard to ponder the truth in her words. On one side, we know that Mythal was a creature of compassion and love, the embodiment of motherhood. So giving Morrigan to this mission may have truly been a bit worrisome for her. On the other hand, we know she has been rising Morrigan to become, most likely, the next host of Mythal [“the inheritor in the new age”], so she may value her more for this role. Maybe it’s both, because Flemeth/Myhtal are both complex creatures, human and elvhenan, and dragon [this concept was always repeated by Solas in DAI: Mythal is more than just one aspect, she is complex]. What we can see in the overall story is that, certainly, Flemeth saved Ferelden when she saved the Warden: without the Warden, the Blight would have expanded too fast over Ferelden [which had no wardens to fight it back] and when the Wardens of Orlais could have been aware of this situation, the spread may have been too hard to repel. We see this in the DLC "The Darkspawn Chronicles".

These lines are hard to determine if they hide a bit of the story of Mythal or the human Flemeth. Men killed for her, and this “determined all what followed”. If we keep in mind the many speculations I crafted in Songs and elements that sing and whisper in DA Lore, one has the impression that the Evanuris wanted a power that Mythal had. They may have tried to extract it from her, killing her in the process. Maybe even corrupting her, as I suggested in Speculations about the Vinyl Art, which is also supported by the story The Horror of Hormak. All the issue of the creation of the Veil and the Blight seems to be related to this original assassination, as Solas told us.

But Flemeth's line may also be related to the story of Conobar and Osen, which I will talk about later in this post. Flemeth became one with Mythal after these events, after "men killed for Flemeth".

She claims that names are useless. And we can see this in her case; in the end we don’t really know her real, human name. We know that some historians in Thedas claim that Flemeth never existed as a girl in Highever, while she has a name among the elves [Asha'bellanar, woman of many years], another among the Chasind [Flemeth], and another when it comes to Mythal. This dismiss about the names can also come from Mythal herself: let’s remember that Elvhen seemed to change their names according to their purpose, following a rule similar to the ones that spirits have. Abelas told us he had a different name before serving Mythal, another when he did, and Abelas when she died. Solas wishes for him to find a new name, aka, a new purpose [read Temple of Mythal, Part 5], so the Elvhenan have a different concept of how names work. If Mythal cares little about her name, could that mean she lost purpose after her assassination?

Unlike Solas, Flemeth seems to recognise the use of the Grey Wardens, but it’s hard to know if these words are just said to convince the Warden she is in favour of them or it’s truly what she believes.

She certainly claims that “men’s hearts hold shadows darker than any tainted creature”, a line that links many others from her monologue in DAI. It also implies the events of Mythal’s assassination: we don’t know how the event transpired, but due to Abelas’ words [Arbor Wilds: Temple of Mythal - Part 5 ] we know that she was betrayed and killed by those who attacked her Temple. Solas claims it was the Evanuris [Somewhere[DLC Trespasser]: Elven Ruins]. And we also know that Solas has a resentful conversation with the Inquisitor who drank from the Well of Sorrows and supports the idea of sharing the power with “friends”. Solas will disagree, saying that sometimes it’s better to let a single person keep all the power, to prevent the group abusing of it [read the section Evanuris and Worshipping in Solas shares Lore, Part 2]. This conversation, even though it is not explicit, seems to be related to the assassination of Mythal and the desire for the Evanuris to have the power she grabbed, maybe, during the strike of one of the Titans and may have shared with them [read “The Death of a Titan” for details].

A curious line that Flemeth says is that Cailan does not see that the “evil behind the Blight is the true threat”. This may be Flemeth claiming that the Archdemon is the one responsible of the incoming Blight, or [if we compare this with Avernus’ words [read Soldier’s Peak]], it’s the entity trapped in the Black City, the true origin of the Song that blighted creatures hear [I wrote about this speculation in Speculations about the Vinyl Art].

In the DLC, Morrigan starts to speak like Flemeth, and basically says that change is what will make Thedas free. We can assume that a lot of Morrigan’s ways of seeing the world are Flemeth’s teaching. In DAI, Flemeth questions Morrigan’s intent to protect the old knowledge, and she claims that Morrigan is interested in that because she taught her to do it. We can assume, then, that the way Morrigan sees the world is also the way Flemeth’s sees it, although a lot more obscured, since Morrigan has not Mythal’s knowledge.

Conobar and Osen Story

There are two stories about Flemeth that, despite we never know which one is the true one, we can conclude something clear that DA series always repeats to us: stories hide some degree of truth, but most of them have changed across ages, sometimes due to political interests, sometimes as a consequence of co-opting or assimilating different cultures in a region. Stories are unreliable sources of information, and even institutions that record the information to avoid this degradation of the truth, like the Shaperate, are not perfect and they are victims of distortion [more due to conflict of interests than progressive decay of the information caused by oral transmission].

So, this is the first story in DA series that sets our mind to the main topic that DA series is about: every source of information is unreliable to a certain degree; We can’t trust the Shaperate, for the reasons claimed above, we can’t trust Dalish lore either, because it has been changed due to the fragile nature of oral tradition and their slavery, we can’t even trust Tevinter records, because they may have been manipulated to a certain degree to keep the cult of the dragons or they simply had a terrible understanding of other cultures [but I have my doubts, since we never had access to the main library of Miranthous, which archives are only available for magisters and the Archon, which means a lot of hidden truths may be recorded there, but not spread in order to keep the Empire in control]

But returning to the story of Flemeth. The first narrator we have of this legend is the codex Flemeth. This narration has the following characteristics:

Flemeth was born in Highever, was known as a mage, and married to Bann Conobar

She fell in love with a poet called Osen, and both ran away to find shelter in Chasind tribes [in the Wilds].

Conobar sets a trap: he claims to be dying, asking for Flemeth to see him for the last time.

Conobar kills Osen and kidnaps Flemeth, imprisoning her in a castle.

Flemeth summons a spirit of Vengenace and ends up possessed by it. She kills Conobar and flees to the Kocari Wilds.

As the Witch of the Wild, she kidnaps Chasind men to sire her daughters.

This way Flemeth leads a Chasind army to strike the Alamarri tribes.

A Hero called Cormac defeats Flemeth and burns her with her daughters.

Leliana’s version contains the following characteristics, pretty similar to the Codex's:

Flemeth was beautiful, and got the attention of the Lord of Highever: Conobar.

She married Conobar.

Conobar discovered that Flemeth was a mage, and kept it in secret, fearing she would be taken from him.

With his blessing, Flemeth practised magic in secret.

When Osen appears, both of them fall in love. They run away from the lands of Conobar and find shelter in Chasind tribes.

Then, the news of Conobar dying, and wanting to see Flemeth for the last time, convinced her to return to Highever.

When the couple entered the city, Osen was slain in front of Flemeth and she was prisoned a the castle, in order to wait Conobar’s judgement.

Asking for revenge, Flemeth summoned a demon to kill Conobar, but the spell went awry and the demon possessed her. As an abomination, she killed all the people inside the castle, including Conobar.

Then Flemeth flew to the Kocari Wild and sired daughters with the help of Chasind men.

Morrigan’s version, which is what Flemeth told her, contains the following events:

During the time when this land was not even called Ferelden, Flemeth was beautiful and married with the poor poet Osen, and Lord Conobar had been interested in her from afar.

Conobar offered Osen wealth and power in exchange of Flemeth, to which both, Osen and Flemeth, accepted.

However, Conobar did not have this wealth, so he killed Osen in a field apart, in secret.

Then, Flemeth used the spirits to learn about Osen’s fate and swore revenge.

Flemeth used the spirits to kill Conobar and then fled to the Kocari Wilds

Conobar’s allies chased her, so she found a demon in the Wilds that gave her the power to survive.

Morrigan says that Flemeth never rose Chasind armies to invade the lowlanders, and neither she fought Cormac.

According to Morrigan, Cormac led a brutal civil war against his own people, and later he justified it as a means to remove evil. Flemeth was attached to this legend much later [this shows all what I’ve been telling in this blog about how stories evolve along the time and satisfy certain political or social needs, details in The Chantry and the Mythology of the Chant of Light].

In DAI, the Inquisitor summarises Flemeth’s tale as:

Flemeth left her husband for a lover,

Her husband tricked her, killed her lover, and imprisoned her

Then a spirit came to grant her revenge: Mythal

Flemeth agrees that this was her tale, which is closer to the standard tale than to the story she shared with Morrigan. But we also know Flemeth: she can care less about what anyone thinks about her life.

What we can conclude is that Flemeth asked for revenge and Mythal granted it in that moment. We can also assume she told Morrigan a different story, to teach her about not trusting men, about how dangerous mages are for them, and how power is all what matters. Teachings that will prevent Morrigan [once she inherited the fragment that Flemeth wanted to] from falling and making the same mistakes that, maybe, cost Mythal's life.

Flemeth in DA2

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In case we never fought Flemeth in DAO, DA2 starts by giving us the information about her nature: she is a dragon, or at least, she can polymorph into one. It’s hinted that this part of the game happened at the same time of DAO, after Flemeth rescued the warden, but before her potential fight against them. We can have a conversation with her about this dragon nature, and it’s never clear if she is one or can turn into one. Again, Flemeth and her philosophy of “believe what you want”. Of course, we, as players, can suspect this is the true [or at least one of the both] nature of Mythal thanks to her Dragon mosaic and statues in her Temple.

She meets Hawke family when Lothering is being attacked by hordes of Darkspawn.

She has her line of “It’s fate or chance” here, and it seems it’s in this moment when she foresaw the utility of Hawke as someone who can carry her piece. “It’s fate or chance” to survive once more the assassination that may suffer, again, at the hands of someone she gave some care [care with interests but still yet, she repeats a similar story to Mythal's once more]. Apparently, this is the “music she has to dance” as long as it plays. As usual, it’s hard to find clear meaning in Flemeth’s cryptic words.

She again reinforces the idea that names matter little. She seems to dismiss the legend that claims she steals children and considers herself closer to an apostate.

When she claims that she has an appointment, we know she refers to the second meeting she will have with the Warden. A potential chance of being assassinated again. This comment seems to me that she can foresee the future, or at least, glimpses of potential futures. She knows she has a big chance of dying at the Warden's hands, and therefore she gets interested in Hawke as a carrier of her fragment.

As I wrote in Marethari Talas, Flemeth remembers well who made a pact with her across the ages, and makes uses of them.

When we kill Wesley, Flemeth speaks “Without an end there can be no peace. It gets no easier. ” The implications of this line may or may not have a relevance with the speculation I did in Speculations about the Vinyl Art. If this speculation ends up being reasonable, maybe this line is also related to her fate: she needs to end her own corrupted shape in order to find peace. There must be a radical destruction to build upon the ruins. This concept is repeated over and over in all the lore of DA series, applying the idea of removing civilisations, for example in Par Vollen, or system, such as the Circle of Magi.

When we reach Marethari, we have some hints that she and Flemeth had a deal time ago. I spoke about this in Marethari Talas.

Marethari tells us that Flemeth’s word is valuable, reason why I always keep her words as the ones closest to the truth in the DA series, despite being so cryptic and sometimes, pretty useless due to it. Even in the way Marethari speaks about promises, one can suspect that Flemeth and Mythal are also keeping a promise. Hence, we can infer indirectly, that Mythal and Flemeth are creatures that value promises and words heavily.

It’s also interesting where Flemeth is raised once more: this is a cementery dedicated to Dalish uthenera [and I clarify Dalish one because it seems to be the “wrongly understood” Uthenera, that has nothing to do with the Elvhenan Uthenera, which has been seen in more details in the book The Masked Empire]. In here, we find souls bound to this place to defend it, called shadow warriors which shape resembles Elvhenan: bald elves. Now, this is what the Dalish say about this place. But let’s never forget that the time of Arlathan has been kept in their lore in a very unreliable state, so it’s hard to know if this is truly the case in here. After all, this cemetery has the Strange Idol in it, which is never clear which function had in the ancient Dalish culture. To refresh a bit all the mysteries about this idol, read The Strange Idol.

We reach an altar where Merril sings a part of the song Uthenera, as Flemeth raises from the amulet. The verses that Merril sings are:

emma ir abelas souver'inan isala hamin vhenan him dor'felas in uthenera na revas elder your time is come now I am filled with sorrow weary eyes need resting heart has become grey and slow in waking sleep is freedom

The first thing I notice, that Flemeth repeats with the elven Inquisitor, is her respect and kindness to the Dalish. She calls them “the People”, which is such a curious contrast with Solas, who doesn’t call them “his people”. “So young and bright” is another description she always gives to them, which encourages again my suspicion that the Dalish are not elvhenan turned into mortal ones [since Solas and Abelas and his people seem to retain their ageless nature as well as their baldness] but a product that came after. A transformation? Certainly something related to slavery, shape, and the Vallaslin that we have been hinted in several materials such as The Horror of Hormak [General] and The Horror of Hormak [Personal Speculation], as well as visually in some mosaics such as in the “Lifting of the Vallaslin" in Fen’Harel’s mountain ruins.

Flemeth asks if Merril knows who she is beyond the title of Asha'bellanar, and when Merril claims that she knows little, then Flemeth tells her not to bend the knee. It seems that she prefers those gestures when they come from people who know her as Mythal [she claims that these are “manners” in DAI when an inquisitor bows before her seeing her as Mythal]. This may seem to coincide with what Abelas has told us: Mythal followers are not slaves, but servants on their own volition. In these small details we can see that Mythal was not an Evanuris that asked worshipping unless it was with free will. Same as it happens with the Well of Sorrows, which I covered in the post Temple of Myhtal - Part 5.

Maybe this is minor, but Flemeth appears in the exact line of “in Uthenera we find freedom”, with a shot that seems to imply that Flemeth has everything but freedom or peace, bound to a cycle of assassination at the hands of people's personal interests. This also may be a hint about how Uthenera is something entirely different to what Dalish, and by extension the player, think to believe. I will try to write an Uthenera post eventually.

The amulet had a small piece of her in case the inevitable occur.

“if I know Morrigan, it already has [occurred the inevitable]”, she claims. This line makes me hint that this Flemeth is not truly aware of what happened in her “death” against the warden. This whole situation also seems to imply that Flemeth always dies, even when your Warden makes a deal with her and tricks Morrigan. In which case, there will be 2 Flemeth at the same time in a world state where you don’t kill Flemeth [intended or a small mistake from Bioware devs? I assume the latter]. In case Flemeth died, could it be that this small piece of her keeps the exact same memory that it had at the moment of the creation of this magical amulet? She doesn't know what happened during that last meeting with the Warden?

But we can be sure that Flemeth knows Morrigan well enough to the point to see her future confusion with the possession issue. This makes us understand Flemeth as Mythal who has been raising her as the next inheritor, teaching her to be tough and resilient, and mainly, surviving at any cost. Reasons why Flemeth raised Morrigan so roughly. However, in DAI, it seems that she also tested Morrigan’s sense of motherhood in that scene where she pretends she will keep Kieran to fulfil their destiny [check The Final Piece: Part 2]. This again emphasises that Mythal is not only a goddess of Motherhood and care, but also of Revenge with a terrible, furious side, as Solas said in Arbor Wilds: Altar of Mythal.

From all the companions’ comments when meeting Flemeth, the most interesting ones come from Fenris and Anders.

Fenris has a broad experience in seeing fucked-up creatures made out from blood magic due to his Tevinter background. He claims he can’t perceive Flemeth as an abomination, a spirit, nor a powerful mage. Because she is…. A dragon? A Forgotten One? It’s true Fenris is not the most reliable character we can have to perceive the truth, but maybe this is a hint about Mythal’s true nature.

Anders also gets confused, which is curious, because he is already possessed and has the unique perception of a spirit as well as a mage. It seems that Anders can see the magic in mages [as it has happened if your Hawke is a mage and you pretend not to be one in front of him, he will claim he can see magic power around the player]. So it seems he sees Flemeth’s power around her too, but it’s confusing for him; it’s not of a mage nor an abomination, therefore it may be because Mythal has “dragon magic”? Forgotten Magic? Hard to speculate. But we can be sure that Mythal’s powers are unique, never seen in the average world of Thedas mages. These comments may hint us that Mythal has a unique nature, whether a dragon one or a Forgotten One. Or maybe both, because there are speculations where I suspect the Forgotten Ones are, in fact, special, powerful, ancient dragons [read the series of comics for understanding this].

When she explains her own nature she says these valuable words:

“I’m a fly in the ointment. I am a whisper in the shadows. I am also and old, old woman. More than that you need not know” “Must I be in only one place? Bodies are such limiting things. I am but a fragment cast adrift from the whole. A bit of flotsam to cling to in the storm”.

I like to highlight the tone of these words. She claims to be a "fly in the ointment", someone who bothers the bigger plans or success of someone else. She is something that has happened, that the ones that assassinated her did not expect. Also, beside the expression, why would she use such a comparison for herself? Flies are disgusting creatures, carrion-like. Why the grandiose Mythal would claim herself as a fly? So much has she diminished? Or this is also related to some self-hate to the potential corruption version that may be caged in the Black City as I speculated in the post Speculations about the Vinyl Art? Maybe I am reading too much in an average expression. In DAI, she also uses a similar Metaphor to describe herself: “I’m but a shadow, lingering in the sun”. Once more, it is an image of a diminished creature.

She also reinforces the idea that Mythal can take different bodies, and be in different places at the same time. She describes herself as a "fragment cast adrift", which is an expression that also gives an idea of being lost. A "flotsam to cling to in the storm", which is another metaphor with a more ominous concept that, once again, seem to coincide with the speculations I talked about in Speculations about the Vinyl Art. Flemeth is, in summary, a piece of a bigger thing, a bit lost and wandering in Thedas, a shadow that dies slowly under the sun, but also a flotsam to cling to in a chaotic storm. All images of someone broken, diminished, tarnished, agonising, that still tries to survive.

When we ask about her plans, she remains as cryptic as usual: "Destiny awaits us both", which is a line repeated later with Kieran in The Fade - Flemeth:Part 2: "He [Kieran] has a destiny to accomplish". She claims in that opportunity that creatures like Kieran and her [who contain fragments of ancient entities] have a fate or a destiny, that doesn't care about what they want or what kind of humans they are.

Flemeth's words also speak about a radical, inevitable change of the configuration of the world: "We stand upon the precipice of change. The world fears the inevitable plummet into th abyss." As I talked many times along the blog, Abyss and Void seem to be synonyms, and both also refer to the depth of Thedas, deeper than the Deep Roads, and may be related to the Titans. That the world fears the plummet into the abyss, sounds a lot similar to the image that Exaltations 1, in Chant of Light - Part 2, where we can read the prophecy of the world's fate: enormous entities will awake, the world will crumble into the abyss as these entities arise. And this is inevitable. In general I won't consider anything from the Chantry reliable at all, but in this aspect I consider the design choice: these fragments were written by the devs to imply an incoming prophecy of an event that we may see soon.

Not by chance, the cinematic shows in this part the high place where they are, in a mountain. I think there is a potential foreshadowing here about the awakening of the Titans that somehow is related to keep caging the Black City, or containing the evil in it. I also implied in many posts that the Titans may be under a forced Uthenera, and all these elements may be interrelated in a more complicated fashion.

Flemeth speaks about giving Hawke an advice that still it's not entirely clear: a leap to the precipice of change, which translated into DAI it may refer to the leap, or fall, that Hawke and the Inquisitor made in Adamant fortress when they fell into the Fade. In there, they float to prevent death. But all this quest didn't really feel like a "radical change" in the plot. We only recover the Inquisitor's memories that put some perspective to who is Corypheus and the power of the orb, nothing more. It's not like Corypheus is new in that plot, we met him for the first time in the DLC of DA2, after all. So, what does this advice truly mean?

For some reason, I always read this as an advice from Flemeth to keep Hawke in the Fade, because Alistair, or Stout, would be more important later in the fight against the "big evil" behind the Blight. But still, this is mere speculation.

In a more hopeful reading, maybe Hawke was the only one able to survive the Fade, although the last chapter of "Hard in Hightown: Chapter ???" found in the DAI Fade clearly shows that Hawke died, content of fulfilling his destiny with that.

At the end of the encounter, Flemeth gives Hawke her sympathy, which may imply she knows that Hawke will have a complicated future; specially related to their mother, and since Mythal is/was the embodiment of motherhood, this may strike her a bit deeper.

Another small detail is that we are informed that Flemeth regrets a lot to the point she was poisoned. Should we take this literally? Should we understand that she, as Myhtal, even may have changed her name because regrets, and could have picked one that personified another attribute like regret or rage? Or this reget comes from Flemeth, her human shape, and Morrigan's raising? Impossible to say.

Flemeth in DAI

Inquisition has a lot of content and scenes where we can extract bits of information about Mythal, her divinity dominion, and Flemeth. To keep things a bit more organised, I try to gather the scenes more or less according a general topic.

Mythal as an Elvhena Goddess

If we perform the ritual to summon Mythal in her Altar, there are 2 different lines available to do so. In both cases, it starts the same:

"We few who travel far, call to me, and I will come. Without mercy, without fear" "Without mercy? That sounds rather ominous" "Indeed"

However, if the inquisitor drank from the Well, and we have Solas in the party, we have an extra line for the invocation:

Inquisitor: "We few who travel far, call to me, and I will come. Without mercy, without fear" Solas: "Cry havoc in the moonlight, let the fire of vengeance burn, the cause is clear"

Solas' addition shows Mythal as a revenge embodiment in here. I think this is a key piece in the lore: In this scene, we learn something extremely important and which is never again reinforced: this place is not in the Temple of Mythal, because the Temple of Mythal was a place of Justice, while this altar has another objective; only if you bring Solas you learn that this is where you come to ask for revenge. Because Mythal represents Justice [Mythal in Evanuris], but also revenge, a concept that so far, we had always aligned to Elgar'nan, and it was here where I started to suspect that maybe, Mythal and Elgar'nan are two sides of the same entity. However, we also have to remember that due to Elgar'nan's destructive fury, Mythal took his place to pass judgement over the People, according to the codex The Judgment of Mythal, which I analysed in Ancient Elven codices, Temple of Mythal. Even though this is the first time we are informed strictly that Mythal could be called for revenge, it is not new for us that Mythal has a terrible side: since DAO and in DA2 [with Merril] we learnt that you don't want to infuriate Mythal because she may be just and the embodiment of motherhood, but she is also terrible with her enemies and those who don't keep their promises.

Morrigan: "You know who I am. From high priest to high priest, I am the last to drink of sorrows. Come to us Mythal. Whatever you are, whatever remains. I invoke your name and your power."

This line is only said by Morrigan, who adds a peculiar unique set of words: From high priest to high priest. It's hard to speculate why she would say that. Is she more prepared to drink from the Well because she was trained, unconsciously, to become a priest by Flemeth? Or this is a mistake from the devs? Is she talking about the entities trapped in the Well of Sorrow, who were all priests of Mythal who left their "wills" in the Well? Or she is talking about Mythal herself, considering her as a priest of another higher entity? For me is hard to decide.

When the Inquisitor drinks from the Well, they don't speak the line "from higih priest to high priest", it's merely "You know who I am, the last to drink from your Well of Sorrows. Come to us Mythal. Whatever you are, whatever remains. I invoke your name and your power."

This detail hardly is useful for any decent speculation. We can only assume that Morrigan is more prepared to handle the power of the Well simply because she is a mage who learnt the ancient magic of "what once was".

When the inquisitor bends their knee before Flemeth, or thanks her for coming, knowing she is Mythal, Flemeth claims that these are manners, and unlike with Merril, she accepts the reverence. Once again this seems to encourage what Abelas explained to us: Mythal doesn't have slaves but servants willingly to worship her. You are not her slave, and you have to earn the right to server her. If you don't want to, she would not force you. This concept of "manners" will be repeated in the book The Stolen Throne, where we see Flemeth appreciating Maric's manners when he bends his knee to her [read section below] respecting her power and wisdom.

If the Inquisitor is disrespectful, Flemeth acts similar to Merril's case

"That's Mythal?" "You invoke that name so easily. I wonder if you know what it means."

This shows to me that she gives a lot the benefit of the doubt, and understands deeply the ignorance of mortal creatures. She has other needs than being worshipped, even though she appreciates it.

When Morrigan is controlled by Flemeth to stop the Inquisitor:

Morrigan: If she did not have this hold over me... Flemeth: Then you would do something even more foolish. In this place, my power is greater than yours. Do not tempt me further.

This is a curious information: in the Fade, or at least, in this part of the Fade, Flemeth's power is greater. This could be because the evanuris-elvhenan nature of Mythal, as creatures of the Fade, but it could also be due to her dragon nature. If we remember the comic Until We Sleep, we find that dragons and their blood had a particular power in the Fade, they are basically Somniari or Dreamers, able to control the Fade and make it into reality. Curiously, in this comic, Titus—who has yellow eyes like Flemeth, Morrigan, and Yavanna—is related to dragon blood rituals that gave him strong powers. In the comic is implied that these powers come from the Old Gods, or Dragon Gods, which again reinforces the assumption that maybe the Forgotten Ones were dragons originally worshipped by the Elvhenan until they claimed divinity as their own and did not need them anymore [further exploration of this concept in Attempt to rebuild Ancient Elvhenan History].

Mythal as a Changed Goddess

When we learn that we need to summon Mythal, an elven inquisitor will reinforce a concept that has been repeated all over Flemeth's lines:

Elven Inquisitor: "My people believe that Mythal was trapped beyond the Fade long ago. Even if she is not, she has never shown any evidence of being alive, never responded to our prayers."

This shows that despite Mythal is who was once, she also changed deeply, hence she stopped being powerful or being present for The People, even though we always see Flemeth being kind with Merril, or an Elven Inquisitor. There is a dear sentiment for them, but distant.

Inquisitor: I presume you know what we're up against Flemeth: better than you can possible imagine

This part of the dialogue is when the Inquisitor asks her for help about Corypheus. It's hard to know what Flemeth is exactly referring to: Is she talking about magisters? The blight, the red lyrium, or most likely, a mage pretending to ascend to godhood? This last option makes more sense, since Solas told us about Mythal stopping Falon'Din from his uncontrollable desire of being worshipped in mass. So, we can assume that there is a soft confirmation about what Solas told us about Mythal: she fought against people who abused their power to increase their worshipping or tried to acquire godhood. Further details, read Temple of Mythal, What pride had Wrought: Part 2.

When the Inquisitor is non-elven, and claims that Flemeth should tell the truth to the world, she goes:

Inquisitor: If Mythal is within you, why not reveal yourself? Flemeth: And to whom should I reveal myself? I: To the elves? To everyone? F: [Laughs] I knew the hearts of men even before Myhtal came to me. It's why she came to me. They do not want the truth, and I... I am but a shadow, lingering in the sun. I: Why did Mythal come to you? F: For a reckoning that will shake the very heavens.

Morrigan: And you follow her whims? Do you even know what she truly is? Flemeth: You seek to preserve the powers that were, but to what end? It is because I taught you, girl, because things happened that were never meant to happen. She was betrayed as I was betrayed - as the world was betrayed! Mythal clawed and crawled her way through the ages to me, and I will see her avenged! Alas, so long as the music plays, we dance.

We have here, again, the Revenge vibes that Mythal seems to support and encourage in Flemeth. We are told, cryptically once more, that Flemeth had always had a desire to preserve ancient powers or entities. It's maybe not so clear to understand if the preservation of Urthemiel in DAO was Mythal's desire or Flemeth's. But we can be sure that Flemeth wanted to preserve Mythal in herself, as she wanted Morrigan to preserve Urthemiel in Kieran's body. Flemeth has always been interested in preserving ancient entities, specially dragon-like: another example is Yavanna, a daughter she raised specifically to take care of a temple where many ancient dragons hibernate [for details, read The Silent Grove].

"She was betrayed as I was betrayed - as the world was betrayed! " This line, so iconic, and in combination with all the proofs gathered in these posts, makes us suspect that the Betrayal of Mythal is her assassination [at the hands of those that attacked her Temple, according to Abelas' words]. The Betrayal of Flemeth is also unknown, but we know it is related to one of a mixture of the several versions of her story with Conobar and Osen. And the betrayal of the world could be the creation of the Blight that required brutal measures to be contained: hence the creation of the Veil and the destruction of the Elvhenan empire with it: a betrayal to the world that these elvhenan knew so far. With this I mean that I'm not sure what "world" Flemeth refers here: the Thedas we know, or the ancient world with no Veil?

It's also in this part where we have this iconic line about the music, which encourages the theory that the original source of the Blight's song is a corrupted entity trapped and/or fused with the Evanuris in the Black City [details in the post Speculations about the Vinyl Art].

We also suspect by the bold lines ["because things happened that were never meant to happen"], in combination with Solas' words about how difficult is to kill an Evanuris, that something truly terrible happened to Mythal to get killed. We know she was betrayed [ icon we saw in her Fade where a big statue we assume it's Dirthamen's exhibits a sword on his back, as a perfect symbol of betrayal: The Fade – Flemeth: Part 2], and something happened to her that not only changed her, as she claimed above, but also made terrible things happen; things that were not meant to happen.

Elven Inquisitor: Mythal was the goddess of justice. I've seen the statues. She... Flemeth: Was one of the People. Yes, indeed. So young and vibrant. You do the People proud and have come far. I: If Mythal is part of you why haven't you helped us? We’ve called to you, prayed to you. F: What was could not be changed. I: What about now? You know so much…. F: You know not what you ask, child.

As we can see, when the Inquisitor is Elven, Flemeth is kinder, and repeats similar behaviour we saw with Merril: she calls them young and vibrant, and respects them as "The People", when we know that Abelas, Felassan, and Solas, ancient elvhenan of that time, dismiss Dalish as non-elvhenan or even consider them Children. This always looked very curious to me, since apparently all of them are followers of Mythal in a way or another, yet they do not respect the Dalish as Flemeth does.

In this cryptic piece of dialogue we also realise that Mythal changed in a way that it shouldn't have happened. Maybe it could be reading too much in between lines but Flemeth claims that asking for Mythal's help is something terrible, something beyond possibility, because "they don't know what they are asking". Something so terrible happened to Mythal that changed her in a way that made her impossible for her to help The People. This again, seems to encourage the hypothesis we worked on in Speculations about the Vinyl Art.

#mythal #flemeth #high speculation #ancient elvhen #elvhenan

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nigh-temptation · 8 months

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Alledia, in this version, is split up into 7 countries:

Windsor

Coco

Lufen

Nautilus

Frontera

Kanalis

Gulfeńn (which is split into more regions, or provinces)

(I will draw a better quality map someday 😔)

I made the map a little less of one big supercontinent, and I thought that making this world feel a little bigger would help make this story feel more vast without needing to leave the planet (I am never forgiving Kazu for that goofy ending in book 7, it literally came out of nowhere)

I will update this map later (I’m going to move the mountain range in Gulfeńn to the coast, so that geographically it makes a little sense as to why that whole area is an arid desert, and extend the mountain range up up north a bit)

During the war all the western countries are known as the Common Alliance (or at least, it will be if I don’t think of a less cheesy name). The best way to think about these countries is this:

(The flags are a bit ugly, but I tried my best 😭)

Windsor:

NOT occupied by Gulfeńn yet

the superpower of the CA

It’s really cold up there

Like… wet and cold

This place is just 1940’s England

Their national animal is the whale

I imagine Windsorian cities looking like Dunwall from Dishonored

Coco:

I haven’t come up with much other than it’s a small nation with not that much to offer in the way of trade, and was actually going through negotiations to become a part of Lufen before the war

Not occupied by Gulfeńn

Nautilus:

They are only partially occupied by Gulfeńn

The “front line” country

A lot of citizens have been displaced from here

This country (in my head at least) reminds me a little of Ireland

Frontera:

Completely occupied by Gulfeńn

A lot of elves actually live here

Human-Elf relations here is a lot more chill than in… say Windsor

Kanalis:

Also completely occupied by Gulfeńn

Basically if Chicago was a country

I always read Enzo and Rico’s lines in a Chicagoan accent, because they have Italian names 🤷‍♂️

Lufen:

‘MERICA RAAAHHHH 🦅🦅🦅

Idk, I have it in my head that this is cowboy country

This place is a lot looser than The boarder countries or Windsor

It’s a bunch of farmland broken up by forest, plains, and towns (kinda like where I live)

These guys are technically neutral, but have been sending supplies to Windsor

I will have a separate post for Gulfeńn (and why I am spelling it like that), but for now I want to focus on the human countries.

You might be wondering… how exactly did humans end up on Alledia anyways? Well my friend, I have a surprisingly simple answer for you!

I don’t fully know :/

I’d like to think they stumbled across the “Gate” (or portal thingy that Emily stumbled into) at some point hundreds of years ago, and adapted accordingly… but that leaves a couple of plot holes (how did that many people fit through the Gate? How did people of that many different cultures come all at once?) so let’s just not think about that for now 😅

The time period in which this will be set is more so in the 1930’s-1940’s. Because this is fantasy, we don’t have to be exact, and we can be a bit more flexible with “historical accuracy” or whatever.

I feel like a war oriented story such as this would benefit more from a Dieselpunk aesthetic. That way we have a bit of the modern age to work with, in terms of technology, and a thematic framework for the story right off the bat.

Here is an example of Dieselpunk! This piece is called Gray Monster by Jakub Rozalski:

I think mechs, blimps, and wartime would work perfectly with this genre of punk

final quick note, in my version of this story there are a couple different powers at play: The Common Alliance (bad-ish guys), The Resistance (okay guys), Gulfeńn (bad-ish guys), Ceilis (meh guys), and the Luna Moth Crew (good guys!)

Remember, this is an ongoing WAR. It is NOT a good time to live in Alledia, and the world should feel as such. With that being said, this is not going to be a “gritty” depressing story. I still want to capture the magic that the early books had. We can still have some fun with it!

Let me know what you think and if I should change anything :D

#amulet series #amulet comic #Cam’sAmuletRewrite #kazu kibuishi #duuuudeeeee this took me so long to get the formatting to work 😭#Tumblr ATE like half my paragraphs #anywho… I am super stoked to share my thoughts on elven culture #’cause that’s kinda what started all this #and then after that I will show y’all my redesigns! Which I am also super stoked about

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uskglass-mirror-house · 3 months

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The Wood at Midwinter: theories

I am yet again thinking about the new Susanna Clarke book and I have some theories about the plot.

A girl encounters John Uskglass and it's all downhill from there: ok this one is pretty straightforward. The dark figure from the woods is Uskglass and what follows is a fairy tale similar in tone to that of The Ladies of Grace-Adieu. I'm kinda hoping for this one because of course I am!

Arabella Strange and Emma Pole help a girl escape a fairy: I know they were not mentioned anywhere in the small amount of plot available on GoodReads, but both of them are related to winter in jsamn and have had grim experiences with fairies. It would be cool to have them team up with another girl who is about to be kidnapped. Also, magical girl squad yay!

Stephen Black is our king: the dark figure turns out to be newbie king Stephen desperate to find a worthy human ally to help him restore Lost Hope. It would be pretty cool to see Stephen acting more like a fae king and then having to come to terms with his detachment from his fellow humans. It would also be cool to have a comedic story about his struggles as a king as seen by a random girl he convinced to help him.

Fake it 'till you make it: similar to the first one, but a fairy/random magician pretends to be Uskglass and the protagonist has to discover the charade and beat them in a battle of magic and wits. This would be great both in the dark fairy tale vibe and comedic folk tale one (although, real Uskglass is still the best Uskglass).

Surprise Childermass cameo: ok, this one has nothing to do with the whole plot, I think it would be really funny if the only reason this was set in the jsamn universe was like Childermass and Vinculus arguing in a tavern in the background while Segundus takes notes at some point in the story. Even funnier if the protagonist never even speaks to them and just passes by.

The unexpected return of the magicians (which is totally expected): I don't think this needs further explanation. However, I do wanna say that I would not like this one as much as the others because something so crucial to jsamn should not be addressed in a short story. If this is played as a fairy impersonating Strange though...10/10

A wood of its own: the story is linked to jsamn through references only while it does its own thing. I think this is the most probable one given the precedent set by The Ladies and I won't mind it... but please, if it's a fae loves a human story, please let it be queer! I'm just... there are so many normie het romances like that already, they are growing stale.

This is all I have for now. I think I will reblog with more ideas as they come. Meanwhile, if a fic writer comes by and wants to take a crack at one of these, by all means, be my guest (pretty sure some of these were already done, but still)!

#jsamn #john uskglass brainrot hours #<-just a little bit #the wood at midwinter #susanna clarke #I cannot wait but I will have to

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vioyume · 1 year

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Casual Fan rambles about Simon's "Fionna & Cake"

For some clarity, I'm someone who drops in and out of the original run of Adventure from time to time, so I never really connected with it until watching the Fionna and Cake mini series. I've seen some of the important lore episodes, some regular/special episodes, all of the original Fionna and Cake episodes and the finale.

I find it real interesting to analyze someone's phyce when given the chance to see what goes on in their mind, that being Simon's who has been fostering the world of Fionna and Cake like Prismo stated. The fact that this magical world has been changed to a "modern" 20th century setting when Simon is back to his original self really got me thinking how this world reflected him as a person.

So I'm gonna say some things I've noticed and try to explain it to the best of my abilities, but like I said, I didn't watch the whole series so there's most likely things I'll miss or get wrong. Nothing too formal, just me going on a tangent on unorganized thoughts.

One of the first few things you will immediately notice is the Betty statue during Fionna's tour. I don't think I need to say much knowing how important she is to Simon, so making her a significant being in this world will only make sense. By the end you'll see that the statue is the form that she is currently taking now proving that Simon is accepting the lost of her and is trying to live the current life he has without needing to hold on to the past.

What took interest to me the most was the presence of Ice Queen, I read up a little bit about her and learned that her back story is different to the Ice King's. Makes sense to me since this was Ice King's weird Adventure Time au fanfic, he either forgot or heavily repressed his own history given the fact that he has gone mad at that point (Feel free to correct me, at anything I say actually, but I'm betting it's the forget one).

Ice Queen is irrelevant to the plot and could've been replaced with some other random citizen, she and Marshall has no relation at all before and after the change. Now this all be because it was Ice King's world before and not Simon's, but part of me thinks that Simon at some point thought things turned out better for Marceline if he weren't there for her or possibly even Betty, they'll all lived happy and content lives (boy was he wrong). Ice Queen is a completely forgettable character if you hadn't known what she was like before and how relevant she used to be.

But going with that theory, that since he only wanted Marceline to be happy only makes sense to me for why Marshall and Gary immediately got together in the span of one day without any toxicity between them. Because this relationship could have been written within a passing period of time, or a mending relationship if they had known each other before like Marceline and Bubblegum did. Instead they hit it off immediately and are stuck together like glue, like they are the equivalent of a wholesome cafe romance fanfic.

I know the explanation of why everything is in the 20th century is because Simon doesn't have magic anymore, but I like to think it's because that is the time period he is most comfortable with and is used to after thousands of years being under controlled by the crown. Part of him wished it was the good ol' days, after all change is hard. But I like how a few parts of it were unnatural like how some of the character designs are a bit non-human or the questionable structure of the trees and buildings.

I'm sure there's more to say and maybe some contradictions in my thoughts like how it was Prismo's weird little world first and let death by the author happen with Simon/Ice King. But I've said what has been on my mind now and I'll let it be.

#does the Ice Queen have a name btw?#character analysis #fionna and cake #adventure time #simon petrikov #text #rambles #can you tell that I also love Omori's headspace?#vio.txt

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serafyyn · 1 year

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updated intro

hihi, hello, thanks for checking out my blog! i'm harvey (my tags on earlier posts will say jon). this is a proper attempt at a writeblr solely focused on uh, writing, or at least most of the time.

page on my pronouns and other words

writing notes:

i adore gritty horror stories all the way to heartbreaking drama, and am looking to follow writers who include that in their stories!

i mostly write more historic stories over futuristic ones

i am also Very willing to beta read or offer criticism if you ask! we can swap :>

other notes:

while very disorganised, my own posts are categorised as ___'s things and ___'s inbox. earlier posts will have the name of jon, but i'll be using harvey in newer posts

i'm open to tag games, but i may forget to do them because i am Very Forgetful

feel free to send asks about anything writing-related, worldbuilding-related, or just to gush about your characters!

if you like what i make, please reblog it instead of just liking. it helps get my work seen and read!

i don't have a specific DNI list, just don't be a dick is all i'm asking here.

Projects below the cut:

Plush Heart (title subject to change)

The story of Bin, a crow plush toy animated by magic unknowingly bestowed to them by their guardian, the Princess of Seoviel. When they come to, the Princess has disappeared. Instinct kicks in, and Bin sets off on an adventure through kingdoms and forests to bring the Princess back. Nothing can stand between this crow and their Princess...maybe except the unfortunate mundanities of life.

Genres: Fantasy

Status: Ongoing

Word Count: 1k

Puppeteer

The story of Silas Andal, an uptight, taciturn professor teaching criminology at Veridian University. Everything seems ordinary, until a dive into a seemingly paranormal case makes him doubt everything he knew. In his desperate attept to see and find out more, he must ultimately face what has been staring back at him this whole time.

Genres: Thriller, supernatural

Status: Ongoing

Word Count: None so far, currently in plotting

Anechoic (title subject to change)

The story of Vitro, a floating eye and the astral realm's greatest curator (or so he says). He's had his fair share of adventures and prefers to settle down, but when people start to evaporate due to their echoes being stolen, he sets off on yet another adventure. Includes different realms of existence, venom-type symbiosis, echovores, and a ragtag duo determined to stop the extermination of the human race.

Genre: Supernatural

Status: Ongoing

Word Count: None so far, currently in worldbuilding

#writeblr #writeblr intro #harvey's things

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princesssarisa · 2 years

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Autism headcanon:

The Beast/Prince Adam (Disney's "Beauty and the Beast," 1991)

*Except when he's angry, the Beast is quiet and reserved. His words tend to be few and concise. He's also a loner until Belle arrives. Not just because he hides from the outside world, as anyone transformed into a monster would do, but because he apparently spends most of his time brooding alone in his room, not even interacting much with the servants until Belle's presence brings him out of his shell.

*Despite being a prince who would presumably have learned court etiquette, he struggles at first with the most basic social skills and manners, relying on his servants to coach him. Of course this is partly the effect of the spell (he presumably didn't lap his porridge like an animal when he was human), and partly his insecurity about his appearance. But it's still relatable from an ASD perspective.

*Some of his outbursts of rage seem less like mere temper and more like meltdowns. Especially his outburst when he catches Belle in the West Wing. The way he smashes the furniture, and the way his whole body contorts with fury as he roars "GET OUUUUT!" doesn't come across as just a tantrum. It's as if the situation – his orders disobeyed, his privacy violated, the humiliation of Belle seeing his beastly lair, and above all the horror of seeing her nearly damage the magic rose – completely overwhelms him with emotion he can't control. And this clearly isn't a one-time incident. The broken furniture and torn fabrics throughout the West Wing (and of course the torn portrait of his human self) shows that throughout his years of misery under the spell, he's been prone to overpowering meltdowns where he has to vent physically. In the Special Edition of the movie, he does it again in his anguish after he lets Belle go, trashing the room which the servants had cleaned up during "Human Again."

*Also in the Special Edition and in the stage musical, it's revealed that he can barely read. This despite the fact that he was a prince who would presumably have had the best of education. Now, one interpretation of this is that he's forgetting how to read because his mind is turning increasingly bestial under the spell. But the dialogue in the musical and the Special Edition don't really support that idea. He just says that he only learned a little and long ago. Could it be that even when he was human, he had trouble with reading comprehension, as is sometimes the case for ASD children?

*At the beginning, he's messy and disheveled, and needs to re-learn how to groom himself and dress like a gentleman. Of course some people on the autism spectrum are meticulously neat and orderly, but others are just the opposite and struggle with it.

*Also at the beginning, he doesn't seem to fully comprehend other people's emotions or the way he comes across to them. For example, when he "invites" Belle to dinner, he thinks his obviously reluctant, forced politeness counts as "asking nicely" and that Belle is being unreasonable when she still refuses. Of course this could just be because he's a spoiled prince who's never had his orders refused or needed to ask nicely for anything before. But it could also imply further social difficulty.

*In general, he seems less mature than an average 21-year-old. He always has a bit of a childlike quality, at first in a "spoiled brat" way, but later in a sweet, gentle way.

*Countless fans have noted the plot parallels between Disney's Beauty and the Beast and Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The idea that Mr. Darcy is on the autism spectrum is a very popular and understandable headcanon. Isn't it natural then that the same headcanon should apply to the Beast?

Now I know this is a debatable headcanon. I know the writers didn't set out to code the Beast as autistic. All the traits I've described above can be explained either by (a) his being spoiled, (b) his depression, or (c) his mind turning animalistic because of the spell. And I'm not entirely sure I like this headcanon myself. If we do view him as autistic-coded, then about 80% of his character arc revolves around learning to "mask" to please Belle, with the undertone of "This is the only way you can ever be loved." But he's still relatable to someone on the spectrum like me. Maybe this explains why I always defend him from those critics who view him as just an abuser. If that were the truth about him, then what would that say about those of us in the real world who see ourselves in him?

#autism headcanon #beauty and the beast #disney #the beast #prince adam #1991

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prehistoric-duo · 5 months

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HELLO ROTOMBLR!!

It's your favorite MewTube Paleontologist Power-Couple, finally making an account on a social media site that isn't MewTube!

This is Taire- if you couldn't tell by my charming energetics (AKA Arnie didn't feel like making our introduction post lol).

I figure some of you don't really know who we are, if you don't find this blog from our description links, so why not talk about it real quick?

As I've said before, I'm Taire! I use he/him pronouns, and I'm 27 years old. Which, in my opinion, is actually not that old because I've worked with rocks older than uh. literally humanity? I have three Pokemon-

Rafflesia the Venusaur (She/her)

Geode the Sandslash (They/them)

Onoi the Omastar (They/them)

Here's my trainer card:

Arnie uses they/he pronouns, and is 26! He is like. My favorite person in the whole wide world and I love him so so so much and YES me gushing about him is a regular occurrence irl and in private. They also have three Pokemon-

Pablo the Torterra (They/them)

Grey the Aggron (They/Them)

Shelley the Carracosta (She/her)

Here's their trainer card:

We've been doing MewTube for about 3 years now, and married for 5! We work for an organization called The New Epoch Foundation as, you guessed it, paleontologists! The goal of the organization is to help further scientific research and runs mostly on donations! I might also end up as their head of social media because of the stuff we do on MewTube, we'll just have to see!

Of course, we can't forget about Baby Helix, we had them about a year ago and we love them so so much. We don't really post pictures of them, but maybe in the future? We aren't like. A family vlogging channel anyways (chills). We'll both sign off our posts!

Feel free to send us asks and pelipper mail! I'm hoping to be able to interact with the fans more this way :)

Hi! Mod here, just call me Vessel! ooc text from me will be red

My other blog is @canesvenatici-ribbons! But this blog is going to be more plot-based than slice of life ;)

A couple of ground rules:

1- I operate on DND and Improv rules: "yes and" and be respectful to other players.

That doesn't mean NO anon hate or whatever, it just means that if someone is playing a character in a way that makes me uncomfortable, I'm probably not going to interact with you. If the anon hate is egregious I'm going to stop responding to it, etc.

Typically I try to just go "yes and" to stuff, it's more fun to me that way and adds a layer of unpredictability to my stories- BUT- please DM me if you want to do BIG plot stuff (I don't bite!)

But if something makes me uncomfortable I won't do it, feel free to ask prior though if you want confirmation! If it's like. An overly dark subject matter I probably won't do it though.

2- No Magic anons or anon hate related to their identities please!

This is my one hard-stop! everything else like sentient pokemon, pelipper mail, regular anons, anon hate, is all fine right now!

3- Feel free to remind me to respond to a post or ask if I haven't gotten to it in about two days! I'm a college student and I'm really busy. I do this mostly for fun but I do really appreciate reminders. adhd brain

4- I want to confirm this rq cause I know people will ask about it- Helix is their biological child, one of them is trans but no actual like. Pregnancy is gonna be shown or mentioned on this blog because they think it's funny to keep it up in the air on who had Helix or if Helix is adopted. Trans families (no matter what kind) and seahorse dads are just. Very important to me as I am a trans guy/trans masc who wants kids myself one day. I expect you all to be respectful and mature about this. People who make M///pr///eg jokes and/or comments will be blocked and deleted.

Literally it's only funny with people I'm close with so if I don't know you, don't do that. This is my one other hard stop

Asks about who had Helix though- and speculation on if Helix is adopted, is encouraged and very funny!

I do plan on having actual references for the family done up at some point, I just haven't had the time or resources for it quite yet. But for now, here are their picrews + short add on descriptions! (Minus Baby Helix)

Taire:

Blue, Feathery hair, Oddly sharp teeth

Red, scaley patches of skin has grown in the three years of making videos- they started out small and almost unnoticeable and now it's beginning to take up their face.

Arnie:

DO NOT let this picrew fool you. Arnie is a large fat man. They also have a full beard that is not pictured.

Hair has turned white in the past few years. Blue Patch of skin over eye and looks strangely smooth, has only appeared since last year

#rotomblr #pokemon #pokeblogging #pokeblog rp #pokeblr #intro post #Taire :)

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roguelibrarian · 11 months

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Book club with Rogue, part 2

The book: The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan

CW: the plot involves antisemitic persecution and violence, so I'm gonna be touching on that a bit in this post

I literally just finished this one last night and damn. damn. Okay. So, brief plot overview:

Our main characters are Toba Peres and Naftaly Cresques, two Jewish young adults living in the fictional city of Rimon. Toba was raised by her grandparents since her mother died giving birth to her and she's Weird. Naftaly is also Weird, and when his father dies shit gets even Weirder because Naftaly is entrusted with a book that's been in his family for generations but that they're never supposed to open. When the Jews are expelled from Rimon, Toba falls behind a group that's heading for the border and gets attacked by a man who believes she might be smuggling valuables with her. She escapes but gets lost in the woods and stumbles through a magical gate into another world. Toba's grandmother Elena realizes she's missing and doubles back to find her. She meets up with Naftaly and the nameless old woman he's traveling with and the three of them stick together for safety and begin their search for Toba. On the other side of the gate, Toba meets Barsilay, who doesn't particularly like her (don't worry, they become friends later), but offers her shelter with his uncle so she won't get killed for being a human who crossed the gate. Toba learns she's stuck there for a month because the gate only opens on the night of the full moon. While there, Toba learns that there's a reason for all her Weirdness: she's not actually completely human. Turns out her father was a Mazik (one of the magical beings who live on the other side of the gate) and she has supernatural abilities that her grandmother suppressed with an amulet that she told Toba never to take off.

I'm ending the plot overview there because I don't wanna give the whole thing away and also because so much happens in this book. It's nearly 600 pages long. There's a lot of plot. If I summarized it all, we'd be here all night.

Now, thoughts:

this book is so, so unapologetically, beautifully, proudly Jewish

like, I'm honestly having trouble putting into words just how Jewish this book is and how much it means to me, but I'm sure other Jews will get what I'm saying

like at the very beginning of the book there's a list of characters and just seeing so many extremely Jewish names in one book was like...relief

see also, in the first few pages of the book, when Toba is reflecting on how even when she was a small child her grandmother would play the 'where would you go if you had to flee?' game with her

Toba is extremely autistic coded and you may quote me on that

seriously, there's this one quote that's just very Autism Vibes: "It was one of the peculiar things about Toba, and there were several: Toba could walk, but she could not run; she could talk, but she could not shout; and she could write faster-with either hand-than she could speak."

see also: "She was too quiet, too peculiar" and "Food often tasted poorly to her, and she ate little as a consequence."

Like yes, all of this does end up being related to her magic and the suppression thereof, but it's also very Autism Vibes and even after the suppression of her magic stops there's a lot of Autism Vibes still.

she's also very asexual coded imo

Naftaly is also very autistic coded

someone needs to cut Naftaly a break like yesterday

like let's see (SPOILERS), his father dies, his entire community gets kicked out of the country, he almost gets eaten by wolves, he gets drugged and sealed in a coffin, almost gets thrown into the sea, gets kidnapped and tortured, and that's just the highlights of bad shit that happens to him (END SPOILERS)

they're only around for like a page and a half but heck yes Jewish pirates I am always here for Jewish pirates

I absolutely called the plot twist about (SPOILERS AGAIN) the Big Bad being Toba's father (END SPOILERS) which does not mean it was a bad twist, it was in fact a very good one and I'm always here for this specific type of twist

my one big complaint about this book is that after over 400 pages without a hint of romance, I got ambushed by some unnecessary romantic nonsense. luckily none of it took up too much focus in the story because more important stuff was happening.

this book was just so damn good, okay? I was hooked by page 4, that's how good it is, and in almost 600 pages it never got boring. it never felt like it was too long. that's skill, right there.

also I'm weak for good, complex fantasy worldbuilding and boy was there a lot of that.

anyway, it was good. go read it. highly recommend for people who like long, dense fantasy novels, and portal fantasy in particular (though I will say I normally don't even like portal fantasy but I loved this one)

#book blogging #book club with rogue #the pomegranate gate #ariel kaplan

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lilareviewsbooks · 3 months

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June Rapid-Fire Reading Wrap-Up: 15 SFF/Romance Books

Hey guys! Happy June (boooo no more pride month!!)! Last month I read a whopping 15 books (do not ask me how) and so I thought I'd do a quick little monthly wrap up for you guys :)

Mortal Follies, by Alexis Hall

416 pages | 2.5 stars | WLW rep!

I reviewed this in my Queer Bridgerton Post, so I'll be brief! This one follows Maelys, as she finds out she's cursed by a magical entity and recruits a grumpy Ducchess to help her break it. The gimmick is that the whole story is narrated by a member of the fae, who has been exiled and is reminiscing on their Regency adventures!

I thought the gimmick was pretty cool, but the plot lost itself in the second half. The main conflict is resolved way too soon and it spirals from there. But I loved the first half and thought it had a strong point about women's bodily autonomy in Regency England. Since I loved the narrative voice so much, I think I'll continue with the series!

The Navigating Fox, by Christopher Rowe

160 pages | 4 stars | no queer rep on page

I'm finally getting back into novellas! I was excited to read this one: in a world where animals speak and act like humans, the world's only sentient fox begins a journey with a rag tag group to the doors of Hell...

I thought the premise was really interesting and so was the world-building. There's a lot to love here as it really does build a very interesting world that's immersive. But I thought the ending was rushed and that kinda soured it for me. Though overall, I would recommend!

Squire, by Nadia Shammas & Sara Alfageeh

305 pages | 2.5 stars | no queer rep on page

Squire is a graphic novel that I had started once in a bookstore and had really wanted to finish! We follow Aiza, who's part of a minority under Imperial rule, as she trains to achieve her dream of becoming a Knight.

The art for this is absolutely beautiful, and the themes are also very important and well thought-out, as you can clearly tell with the authors' reflections at the end of the book. But I found myself enjoying those more than the graphic novel itself. The TLDR is that I think the graphic novel does not communicate visually. Instead, it communicates via dialogue, which makes it all feel rushed. Plus, I feel like this could've been a book: although the art absolutely has its merits, nothing convinces me that this story had to be told in graphic novel format. In the end, I wasn't that impressed by the story-telling!

The Obelisk Gate, by N.K. Jemisin

410 pages | 4.5 stars | transfem side character!

Oh my God, The Obelisk Gate! This one is hard to review because it's the second book in the Broken Earth Trilogy. In the first book, we follow Essun, who has magical powers related to the Earth, and two other perspectives, as new "Season" begins, and the world turns desolate again.

This one picks up right where we left off, and I had a really good time! Jemisin's writing style is addicting, and I feel like I know Essun so intimately! It's definitely a middle book in the sense that I was only given more questions and didn't really get any answers, but I'm happy with that hahahah I'm halfway through the third book and loving it, as well! Highly recommend, especially for fans of The Locked Tomb!

The Memoirs of Lady Trent, by Marie Brennan (vols. 2 - 5)

350ish pages | 5 stars | genderqueer character in vol. 3!

The highlight of my month was definitely The Memoirs of Lady Trent! I listened to the audiobook of 4 volumes this month, and was absolutely addicted. The narration by Kate Reading is amazing!!

The series follows Isabella, who lives in a fantastical version of Victorian England, and rebels against societal implications by being obsessed with the study of dragons, and fucking off whenever possible to study them! Each book is one of her adventures, but they all culminate beautifully in the last volume with one hell of a reveal!

I couldn't pick a favorite, but it's between 2 and 3, and for a least favorite, I'd have to give it to book 4. But I had fun with all of them regardless, and was so charmed by the cast of characters! My only qualms were with the endings, which I always felt were a little rushed. But even that didn't hinder my excitement and my love for these books - they are amazing! Definitely new favorites!

(I have a more detailed review of book 2 here.)

The Justice of Kings, by Richard Swan

496 pages | 3.5 stars | no queer rep on page

Next up, The Justice of Kings! It follows Helena, the assistant to Sir Vonvalt, who is detective, judge and executioner of a sprawling Empire, as she and her boss uncover a conspiracy in a smalltown.

I enjoyed the book, but it wasn't what I expected. This is more of a mystery than anything else, and I was expecting a little more than that (not that there's anything wrong with mystery!). I also feel like the characters didn't really change from the beginning to the end of the book, and that the ending doesn't entice you into reading the second book. But I've heard great things about the second book, and so I'll be reading it this month for sure!

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen, by K.J. Charles

331 pages | 4 stars | MLM main couple!

I also reviewed this one for the Queer Bridgerton Post, so I'll be brief once again! This one follows Gareth, who runs into his old lover when he comes to Romney Marsh to claim his inheritance from a father he didn't know - and ends up with a sister and a step-mother!

I really enjoyed this! It's very sweet! I thought Gareth's trauma was dealt with expertly, and that his love interest is very charming. The side plot deals with smuggling, so it's very exciting - if a little ridiculous at times! But I had fun regardless! Definitely recommend!

The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics, by Olivia Waite

219 pages | 5 stars | WLW main couple!

Another one that I reviewed for the Queer Bridgerton Post! This was definitely my favorite of the bunch. It follows Lucy, an astronomer, who takes up residence with the Countess of Moth in order to translate a particularly tricky piece of French mathematics. It deals with the trials of women to get scientific and artistic recognition in Regency England, and also explores abusive relationships and other pressures put on women at the time.

Despite the heavy topics, it manages to stay very sweet and compelling! I found the discussion of embroidery in particular to be very refreshing and impactful - I haven't stopped thinking about it since. Highly recommend!

Gwen & Art Are Not in Love, by Lex Croucher

416 pages | 4 stars | WLW and MLM main couples!

The last of the Queer Bridgerton Post books! This one takes place in medieval England, where the princess Gwen and her bethrothed Art find out they are very much gay - and hijincks ensue!

I thought this was witty and charming - but it's definitely take it or leave it when it comes to the humor. If it's not your style, put this down, because it won't stop hahaha But because of the humor, I was having a lot of fun, and so ended up rating it highly even though I see plenty of flaws. In specific, I think the romances are barely developed - it's more the friendships that end up being the focus. And the ending... It's quite bad. Atrocious, even. I couldn't get specific without spoilers, sorry, but it didn't really ruin it for me. I still would recommend!

The Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan

864 pages | 3 stars | no queer rep on page

This month I also began my Wheel of Time journey, by reading The Eye of the World. To be honest, guys, this read like a gigantic, 800-page prologue to something. Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy it! I did! But I couldn't really tell you where we're going - which honestly, is fine. This series has 13 books, after all.

I'm excited to continue! I've heard things pick up in the second book and so I'll definitely pick it up this month. But this was a little too slow for me, which is why I gave it a 3! I still had fun though! And I'll definitely do a more in-depth review in the future!

The Fireborne Blade, by Charlotte Bond

176 pages | 2.5 stars | WLW rep!

I was very excited to read The Fireborne Blade! It follows a female knight as she ventures into the cavern of a dragon with her squire, which is quite an exciting premise for me! But I found the writing to be too tell-y instead of show-y, and even though the world was awesome, this made me feel less immersed. The twists are also no properly established beforehand, which makes them all come out of nowhere, making the story very weak. Unfortunately I just didn't enjoy myself too much :(

Half A Soul, by Olivia Atwater

304 pages | 4 stars | no queer rep on page!

Listen, I was only going to read this because the third book is sapphic, but I ended up falling in love! I was so pleasantly surprised! This story follows Dora, who was cursed as a child to only have half a soul, and struggles with social cues and her emotions because of this. When her beloved cousin decides to spend the season in London, in search of a husband, Dora trails along, and is soon dropped into a world of magic!

Although intellectually I know the romance is underdeveloped and the social critique is rather lukewarm, I found this to be so charming that I couldn't put it down. It's absolutely delightful and makes you feel warm inside! Dora and her love interest are very sweet together, and it's excellent to see representation for autistic people done so well - and magically! However, I will say I thought the epilogue kind of ruined it. I felt it was absolutely unnecessary!

Regardless, I highly, highly recommend!

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A bunch of books this time hahaha but thank you for sticking with me :) I'm excited for what next month brings and would love to hear from you! What did you read this month? Any stand-outs?

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falloutcoys · 4 months

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and also: playthings 😏

o7 (in case anyone was gonna click the read more but doesnt know the fic, uhh be warned it is dead dove smut lol)

Fanfic Writers: Director’s Cut

since this is co-written with @wolfstar4466 I can only speak to my thoughts (but he's welcome to chime in as well lol). one nice thing about it being cowritten is i have receipts! most of my thoughts were written out in the planning stage, which isnt exactly how i roll normally!

this was the catalyst to it all <3 from there, Max and I talked for like ten hours about all out ideas and wrote out a rough outline. It's changed quite a bit since the first idea, which was going to be a KiY sort of PoV where he's learning about his humans (if you were curious about the series title, that's why!)

it was basically an excuse to write tentacle smut parkthur with every kink we had any interest in writing at the time, which was mostly power dynamics and petplay. but as it expanded, plot came in and it became a whole series

astute readers will have noticed that Arthur is pretty solidly the King's favorite, and that's because he's a musician! KiY is closely related to arts and performance and theatre, so of course he loved Arthur. and that was a great way to drive a bit of a wedge between them and make space for (mild spoilers for upcoming chapter and the next fic lol) Kayne to come in and fuck everything up! Parker is perfectly vulnerable and ripe for the picking haha.

speaking of, this fic is where I started thinking about my favorite crackship ever, Parkayne. Kayne is such a fun character to introduce, I love pure sadism, and you combine that with magic and there are *so* many ways to use it to be cruel. I cannot wait to publish his chapters so y'all can see what I mean (flux you already know the appeal obviously, but for everyone else).

apparently Kayne was gonna be a character from pretty early planning, but much more supporting role? that changed fast lmao

we have approximately 20k words of fic and planning for the series, so even if the muse wanes a bit again, i know we'll come back and get more down. i feel bad we left it waiting for like 8 months there while the next chapters were at about 80% but, that's how writing is sometimes. and I think my writing has improved a lot since the fic started almost a year ago, and I hope the next installment is going to show that!

#my posts #my asks #Anonymous

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waeirfaahl · 7 months

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The Daughters of Aku Cult issue

Alright, although I earlier made several posts about many aspects of this story element in 5 season (the best and most detailed posts can be found here and here), in this post I want to dive a little bit deeper. The case with these cultists is... interesting, because there's no information about them in interviews, except the line about idea with the seven sisters “I wanted to show the human side that’s been treated like a machine. Aku builds robots and all these robots are singularly programmed to kill Jack. What if it’s humans? What if the one purpose in your whole life is to kill this one person and you’re raised from birth that way?” — in this line Tartakovsky not only states the seven sisters are humans, but also gives pretty clear answer of for what these fanatics were created — to appeal the theme of propaganda, blind fanaticism and brainwashing. I.e. they were created only for pretentious symbolism (that's why they have no face and only train the girls).

There's nothing behind them. No backstory, no proper explanation, who are they, how they started to exist and why, what they (their leader/queen mostly) wanted. They are pure plot device, 10 years later shoe-horned into the setting that never had the concept with Aku-related cults etc. But let's ignore for a second interviews and look at the show itself. I already pointed out many times, that in the classic seasons there were no religious undertones. Aku was portrayed as emperor of Earth, not god or whatever, he never cared about portraying himself as a god, he never needed religion etc, as well as he was a patron of technologies and hence opposed to the past in therms of "technological progress and globalization vs traditions and spirituality/beliefs". He can be described as "I don't care about your cultures and beliefs, believe if you want, just consider me as the master of this world and pay taxes, if you want to live here and use benefits of civilization I gave to the inhabitants of Earth". Plus, the one aspect immediately debunks and erases the entire idea of 5 season with cults and possibility of "heirs". Back to 1 episode of 1 season. Jack trained for 10-15 years, and when he returned to free his father and people, there were only demonic guards of Aku — no cults and hence no armies of fanatical followers, no armies of demonic sons and daughters of Aku, who would immediately tear Jack to shreds, so the sword would not save him.

The same thing happened with Jack's arrival in the distant future — again, after eons, there are no Aku-related cults/churchs (or at best philosophical schools) in every city/settlement, no millions of demonic sons and daughters of Aku, who in this case would be the first to protect their father and rush into battle against Jack, since they themselves would also rule either individual cities on Earth, or maybe even whole planets like in the "Dune" series. There's absolutely nothing of it.

This one fact from the show breaks down all these attempts of 5 season to add cultists with a claim of absolutely impossible "immaculate conception" or getting demon's power etc. And I remind again, Aku is completely asexual, lonely and poisonous creature — and he is objectively a sole proprietor (immortal, besides). He would never have agreed to share his own power with mortals or breed potential rivals and a threat to his power (I have already told about why creating empty impersonal robot-vessels for Aku's blood is a smart move). Not to mention that in this case (with army of heirs and also demons) robots would not be needed at all (there wouldn't be any technologies most likely, the core would be magic). I.e. the idea of 5 season already fails on this surface level, not to mention deep levels. But now about the cult. The main problem, of course, is that 5 season gives no information about them, except the fact that they know martial arts, their leader uses magic a few times, they are extremely cruel and for some reason decided to worship. And there's no indications, whether it is some tribe or just a sect, created quite recently, or just murderous fangirls of Annie Wilkes type. And I confidently can tell that the cult was created exactly during 50 years time skip. I will mention my arguments a bit later.

Now I will just try to show, how bad the character building and world building are in the case with these characters. I am not kidding, in 2017 after release of 1 episode I saw comments, how some fans legitimately assumed that Jack's roaming segment and the seven girls' training segment happen in one time line, i.e. they trained several days/weeks or whatever, not several years (more questions then to the story). I thought it is crazy, but looking at this scene editing in 1 episode now, I understand why people could get this impression — visual storytelling suffers as well. Another moment with problems of visual storytelling is the absent face/identity of the High Priestess — the character, who caused the events of 5 season, has no face, no motivation and goal (Ashi's line "You raised us as weapons in your fightings!" was deleted and hence remained only in animatic version). Again, what's a point to focus on "Look, she hides her face and identity!" in 1 episode, if in the end we got literally nothing?! Now some questions to the theory that these cultists allegedly existed all this time. I.e. dive into this rabbit hole a bit deeper. If they supposedly existed for several generations, then why the hell do they live like leprous marginals in the backyards of the world without technologies and with almost complete absence of magic?! They should have been the first, who wanted and went to integrate into a futuristic society closer to the Master of Masters long long time ago and be, I don't know, librarians or keepers of some treasures with lots of privilegies and support etc!

If they are a tribe of warriors, then where is the male half of this tribe? Why were only the seven sisters born during all the time, if for these assasins more effective would be to birth lots of children and train them as army of killers, where the seven infected ones would be leaders (and especially if it is a big family, i.e. tribe)?

If it is something like a destructive sect, i.e. a fairly new cult , that means these women came from different cities and settlements, or even were abducted and forcibly integrated into the sect. Again, my questions — for what?! And why there are no technologies? And moreover, why then had Jack never heard of them or seen them? Like, he encounters the seven sisters and thinks they are robots!

There should be people in a random town or settlement, asking Jack to find the crazy religious scumbags who kidnapped and brainwashed their daughter/sister/wife/mother! Jack would find out about them no matter what during these 50 years!

And if it is some kind of, again, a closed small sect (a community of interests), then… where did these marginal savages get the strength, money, loot and resources to build a temple with a statue and a billion high and deep rooms with a chasm with spikes or with a monolith with a height of at least 12 floors? And also they built their temple in mountains far far from everyone, but at the same time with a clear and visible image of the Aku's face from a mile away, i.e. they would have been discovered in any case.

What's a point of creating this cult, if more profitable way to get Aku's respect is to become a scientist, a spy, a bounty hunter or a treasure hunter? Like, they know f*cking martial arts, their queen/leader can watch on a person she is interested in and even to talk with this person on distance! So, what's the deal?

But now I'll mention my arguments about, why I got impression that this cult exists 20-25 years at best, and that the cult leader had own goals and intentions, i.e. she was calculating and power-hungry, but very arrogant psychopath, who only pretended to be some loyal and devoted fanatic.

This cult consists only 16-20 members, all of them are women (for some reason — I assumed about the answer to this here), and it seems that they built the temple only for training the seven sisters, i.e. it was planned from the beginning, i.e. the cult leader already was pregnant way before Aku visited them (I really doubt that they could build these rooms, when the seven girls already existed — during building other training rooms by the followers, I'd watch how poor Ashi tries to escape and to run away and then gets brutally punished for this many times).

Since they called Aku to watch the new statue (and you'll never even realize this during watching the show or animatics, only from the crew), it means that the temple is new, as well as the cult is new-made, i.e. it didn’t exist before (and I remind again, Aku knew nothing about them, about their leader and their/her intentions — he doesn't know the face and identity of the leader).

Plus, the almost biblical line of the cult leader “And we will find favor in your glory!”, which means in this context “When my girls will kill the samurai, I will earn your respect, you will honor us with your presense, we will be under your protection and be your best servants and warriors, you will share your power with us” in 1 episode. And also in 6 episode she continues this narrative in Ashi's flashbacks as well.

The brightest example of her malice intentions is demonstrated in Aku's flashback assumption in 9 episode. I many times pointed out that there's no explanation, why Aku left his blood for these fanatics he knows nothing about (and he has no reason to do this at all — Tartakovsky literally butchered Aku and turned him into moron in 5 season). The trick is that the imitation of answer kinda exists — Aku's line "Worship me, Daughters of Aku!". I.e. he left his blood as a relic object for religious worship (ah, this is the first and only time he offers to honor himself and his parts as a god — he never did or said that in the classic seasons, and there's no reason for him to do this bullsh*t, especially in the context of these random women he knows nothing about), i.e. just to bow and to pray to his blood just like to some hallows and icons or whatever. That's it. While in this "divine context"... what the High Priestess did with Aku's blood... is a blatant blasphemy and desecration of a sacred relic in fact.

She deliberately did that, it was only her decision. And somehow she f*cking survived instead of agonizing death after drinking his deadly poisonous blood, which had to devour her... I guess, she will feel good even after simultaneous taking of rabies from 7 episode of 1 season of Primal, black pathogen from Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, T-virus and G-virus from Resident Evil games etc. Even if Aku just wanted to prank them with death of all of them after interaction with his blood, it is still extremely irresponsible, unmotivated and stupid from his side. More sense to give them some magical artifact as a gift and gratitude for the statue, which later would curse and decimate them all or whatever.

So, in my opinion, if Ashi and everything about her (every contradiction to canon, and I already mentioned this here and here) is №1 logical and plot hole, the Cult is №2 plot and logical hole, which contradict to the canon and create more questions and holes. And to excuse this plot hole and plot device only as a "Just evil crazy fanatics, just brainwashed" is a very bad idea, because you see not an adult story with well-written characters, but just a trash parody, a childish caricature, which pretends to be deep and mature. Sorry, but I can't relate to something, what is stupid and pretends to be tragic or whatever.

#aku theories #aku samurai jack #samurai jack #samurai jack 5 season

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