#but hates unpredictability

[pynkhues]

I promise I'll keep nephew posting now that they're living with me for a little while to a minimum, haha, but I do have to say being woken up for the second day in a row by the Little Nephew (still 7) trying to feed my cat is very, very cute, but also like listening to a kid-friendly sci-fi story.

(It's the rip of the velcro on the bag of Oreo's prescription kibble, and the cat's meow followed by the tiny voice of 'Good morning, Oreo! I hope you had a good sleep! I am making you yummy breakfast!' and then the scoop of biscuits and the cat's next meow, and the 'Oreo, I can't put it down if you climb me!' followed by endless giggles and meowing until I hear: 'Aunty Sophie, Oreo's trying to eat ME for breakfast!' and have to roll out of bed and pull Oreo's paws off the bottom of his pyjama shirt as the Little Nephew keeps giggling. 😭)

[rappihahh]

Doing another poll!! This time is about something similar to the last one I did but with a more fun purpose (at least imo :^)

Which one of the trio is your favorite and why?

The reasons can be optional. You don't need to add them if you wanna.

My main goal on this is just to interact more with others and to know why some like these silly whimsical fellas, is it their personality, is it because of comfort, is it because you relate to them, is it because you have a silly crush on one of them (not judging you :]) or just for no reason! It's always fun to see people loving a character :>

[chuluoyi]

IM SO SICK of the manga at rhis point gege really NEEDS to bring gojo back and what does he mean he’s taking a break 😭 what is even the point of this story now

…look, if you���re dropping by my askbox just to rant negatively about the manga like this, i’d appreciate it if you don’t at all :’)

so now that you did, let me give you a guide and answers to a happier and stress-free life without hating:

if you’re sick of it then so be it. don’t read the manga. just do what you like to do best and that’s it

and why gege has to take a break? he’s a human too like us and he’s tired after thinking and writing and drawing. we should be grateful that he writes the manga in the first place and not rush him

what’s the point of this manga? yuji is the point of this manga. this is all about his growth. gojo is there to guide him and yes, he steals the show, but the final arc is going to be about the students he nurtured instead of him—it’s only right that it’s that way

hope this clears everything and have a good day :)

[elizakai]

i love the MTTRIO because they are all judgy hypocritical little shits living off of spite and appy juice

[balkanlila]

i hate lila cerullo. by the way

[venomouslilith]

.

[skullbonezz]

”Mafuyu is the worst character in project sekai! She’s absolutely my least favorite character!” Okay. Are you normal about people with BPD.

[curemoonliite]

after reading sunrise on the reaping and seeing half the shit maysilee pulls, i'd like a formal apology from every single person from those early 2010s fandom cringe forums who tried to tell me rarity couldn't last a day in the hunger games

[drbatsponge]

Not me seeing people dislike the Harley fight in BoP when we have context for this in Batgirl/Joker Vol. 1.

Cass fans, I GET we want her to win every fight, but a hero having a known weakness isn't bad, I would rather writers treat Cass like this rather than what we saw in the recent Batman issue which is completely ignore any research altogether.

And I wouldn't want writers to prop her up like Bruce where we end up with moments like that where she somehow 1v1s Flash or some shit.

Also NO ONE WINS THIS FIGHT! There is no clear winner, Cass even says Harley ALMOST beat her, sheesh.

Just focus your hate on this, aight?

EDIT: TBH with you it's probably not even a “weakness” but more or so a tactic to stall Cass/Shiva, as everytime an example has been shown they still win technically, this most recent example being a stalemate.

I get it, this moment with Tim especially sucks and that's because he uses it to win, the other examples are actually less egregious because no one really loses.

But yeah, I can understand why Cass or even Shiva fans dislike this potential “weakness” for either character.

[itspileofgoodthings]

ALSO I am learning how to teach very introverted students, something my natural skillset as a teacher does not help me with.

[howdoyousleep3]

new content bucky is a Daddy and no one can change my mind i don't even wanT TO HEAR IT

[roseluwakcoffee]

“Why would Hifumi believe celes accusing taka of blackmail he of all ppl would never do that” yes but. Taka was no longer taka at that point, he was Ishida. And w the nature of the killing game, no one knew how the change affected his mind beyond seeing him go from complete dejection to being amped up, cursing, and more willing to get physical w ppl all of a sudden. Beyond being aggressive abt his feelings he wasn’t much of a threat, but he actively butted heads w Hifumi over the laptop. So Hifumi might reason the personality change and attachment to the laptop bc of mondo could cause drastic, immoral behaviors out of desperation, and there’s extra incentive to believe it bc it gives him a good reason to defend the ai and have it to himself

[and-the-times-we-had]

Crack!Silm AU (treated semi-seriously) where Feanor survives the battle under stars (and gains some ability for self-reflection in the process) and meets Fingolfin when he and his people make it into Mithrim. Feanor is still fiery and passionate, but his very near death experience and the experience of Maedhros being captured while he was injured and unconscious has tempered his impulsiveness somewhat.

I envision events going something like this;

- Feanor and Fingolfin beat each other up once they are in private away from their forces

- They cry (gotta get those complex feelings about each other and their father's death out somehow)

- Then they quickly turn their attentions to Angband/Morgoth (especially when they hear that Fingon has been seen leaving the camp headed in the direction of Thangorodrim) agreeing to delay their issues with each other until a later time.

- Morgoth could not predict this turn of events and is soundly defeated by the combined determination, rage, and power of Feanor and Fingolfin working together by 20 or 30 years into the first age.

[true-bluesargent]

and what if i say i would have rather they killed ravi...

[mjrdm]

.

[miirshroom]

Enya Geil and Finger Reader Enia - Unpacking a deep cut influence on Elden Ring

There is a character from the manga JoJo's Bizarre Adventure named "Enya Geil" or "Enya the Hag", who shares both naming phonetics and some design similarities with Finger Reader Enia of Elden Ring.

In a separate post I went over the Elden Ring tarot timeline in depth. In another post I cautiously floated the idea that maybe certain parts of Elden Ring are taking inspiration from the song titles and lyrics of at least one rock band (and I have data collection on several others in progress). In yet another I noted that the Egyptian god "Ra" seems to have a lot of significance for multiple characters.

Basically, what I want to explore is that Elden Ring's Finger Reader Enia is well positioned to demonstrate a likely inspiration for all of those elements in FromSoft's own 30-year body of work: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

Background Info from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is a manga series started on January 1, 1987, and still ongoing with Part 9 as of late 2024. It is considered one of the most successful manga series, and its most popular era was Part 3: Stardust Crusaders (1989-1992), which introduced the concept of "Stands". Stands are entities psychically generated by their user and in this debut arc tended to be named after one of two concepts: Tarot and Egyptian Gods. On the other hand, the users of the stands would be named after musical artists, which was a trend started in Part 1 and Part 2 ("Vanilla Ice", "Oingo" and "Boingo", "Nena", "Enya", etc). In future parts the tarot and Egyptian themes would be dropped and instead basically all Stands would be musical references that put JJBA as a series into copyright/localization hell ("Foo Fighters", "Metallica", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Achtung Baby", etc).

Enya Geil in JJBA is an old hag with the Stand "Justice" as named after the 11th tarot. She is an antagonist subordinate to vampire DIO (whose stand is 21st tarot "The World"), and had a son named J. Geil - a serial rapist and murderer whose stand was "The Hanged Man". Enya was also responsible for creating new Stand users with the use of 5 golden arrows that were uncovered by archaeologists in Egypt and had been forged from a meteorite that carried a virus that gives people supernatural abilities.

The first power of Enya's Stand is puppetry - it is a mist that can take control of people by entering their bodies through open wounds. For this reason, Enya's weapon was a pair of scissors which she would use to create wounds ("the formless mother craves wounds"). The second power of the stand is illusions, both for illusory people and places. With these two powers combined, the Stand is capable of manipulating vast hoards of undead through piercing holes in the bones of skeletons and manipulating them as if they were alive while also projecting incredibly realistic (but warped) features of human beings.

The puppetry angle is one of the specific pointers to the Enia of Elden Ring. She communes with the Two Fingers - envoys of the Greater Will who direct ("puppet") the actions of the Golden Order faithful. The Elden Beast is one example of this theme that even the gods of the Lands Between are the puppets of something greater - its nervous system is made of amber starlight such as was brewed in the potion that Seluvis attempted to give to Ranni. Something to point out now is that Elden Ring's Enia does not need to secretly have the same personality and background as Enya Geil of JJBA - no more than either of them are the same person as the real life Irish folk singer Eithne "Enya" Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin. As far as the Lands Between is concerned these are timeline clues more than characterization clues. It's a different story with Enia's counterpart in the Shadowlands.

Also, an important to note here is that I did not personally identify the connection between "Enia" and "Enya" of JJBA. JoJoWiki has a list of identified references in other media:

References were also noticed in Dark Souls, including another involving Enya:

Enia's position on the Timeline

Enia is styled similar to the Twin Maiden Husks, telegraphing that she also is an ancient mummified creature. Judging by her grandmotherly voice and that all other finger readers are called "crones" it would follow that Enia is also a kind of crone. When I put together the musical timeline of the Round Table Hold previously I had not acknowledged that there may be additional significance to the doorway to the Two Fingers chamber being in between Sagittarius and Capricorn.

Looking at it now, I suspect that this is intended to be the timeline marker for the earliest concept of the Two Fingers. Based on the calibration offered in Armored Core V (in 2012, the year of "The Hanged Man" tarot...), Armored Core (1997) is associated with the zodiac Capricorn.

Like clockwork the general plotline and theming of every following Armored Core entry syncs up with zodiac sequentially, so 1997 is generally what I identify as being the start of the Capricorn zone. Now I would guess that Shadow Tower represents the decision to commit to a zodiac theme in upcoming years as well as sundering of the timeline into two tracks. On the first track there is Armored Core being associated with the "Sun" Tarot after counting backwards from "The Fool" in 2000. On the second tarot track there is "Shadow Tower" (1998) representing "The Tower" tarot.

So that could be what the "Two Fingers" conceptually represent at their most basic layer before being piled with other symbolism. They began as the interweaving of the Armored Core series as the mainline (i.e. "the sun") with all other games being associated with the shadow, which may be characterized as two tarot tracks.

But still, the connection between Enya and Enia is not complete, as the "Justice" tarot is not immediately apparent in these early years. Counting backwards on the Shadow Fate line lands it too early in 1993. I think that there are two keys here: 1) retroactive continuity, and 2) the creation of a third tarot track as prompted by a specific circumstance.

All this time we're talking and sharing our rational view A billion other voices are spreading other news All this time we're living and trying to understand Why a billion other choices are making their demands Talk of a peaceable kingdom Talk of a time without fear The ones we wish would listen Never going to hear Justice against the Hanged Man Knight of Wands against the hour Swords against the kingdom Time against the Tower All this time we're shuffling and laying out all our cards While a billion other dealers are slipping past our guards All this time we're hoping and praying we all might learn While a billion other teachers are teaching them how to burn - from "Peaceable Kingdom" from Vapor Trails (2002) by Rush

The lyrics to the above song were written as a direct response to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre on 9/11/2001. Meaning that "The Tower" in the lyrics refers to a very real event. Look into music and movies/tv of that era and numerous artists made art responding to that event. Another notable one that I've stumbled across is progressive rock band Dream Theatre, who had the misfortune of releasing an album on September 11, 2001 showing the NYC skyline on fire (which was swiftly retracted and replaced) and later created the song "Sacrificed Sons" on the 2005 album "Octavarium" in response to the event.

So by the power of retroactive continuity and introduction of the three fingers it is possible to count backwards from "The Tower" in 2001 and arrive at "Justice" in 1996. The twist to this is that it isn't actually Enia who has the greatest narrative similarity to Enya the Hag. It's a third character who exists in the Shadow of the Shadow: Hornsent Grandam.

Hornsent Grandam as the Shadow of Finger Reader Enia

For a brief period of time upon the Shadow of the Erdtree release, the "Hornsent" Grandam was called "Empyrean" Grandam. Empyreans each have their own two fingers that give them instructions. Enia has a pair of Two Fingers giving her instructions. In the Jungian sense, the Shadow is the part of the psyche where undesired qualities are suppressed - like a dark doppelganger. So while Finger Reader Enia's resemblance to a JJBA character is superficial at best, Hornsent Grandam is what results from making a much deeper reference that manages to fly under the radar simply by avoiding any word association with her name.

Hornsent Grandam brings in a few elements that are similar to JJBA's Enya. Hornsent Grandam is more belligerent than Enia, and her face is flanked by two braids that echo the design of Enya the Hag who has two pigtails, she calls herself "this old hag" and she speaks of singing which goes all the way back to the singer Enya. She presides over the puppet show of the Dancing Lion and has a son who she is supportive of, which both have parallels in the JJBA Enya. Hornsent Grandam's son is either deceased (if it is implied that the "Watchful Spirit" is her son, as she hands that over in the same conversation), or is literally the Hornsent who is one of Miquella's followers (as he is actually summonable to the Messmer fight). She wishes vengeance against Messmer who has betrayed her, similar to how JJBA Enya was betrayed by DIO who implanted a flesh bud in her brain that activated when she was captured and it erupted from her face and eyeballs in wormlike strings (chapter link here). The flesh bud thing is one of DIO's vampire abilities, and Messmer "The Impaler" has that vampire allusion to him. Compare this to the wormy looking horns protruding from the eyes and forehead area of Hornsent Grandam.

And then lastly, to tie the Hornsent Grandam back to the dawn of history there is the scorpion stew connection. Scorpions are found in Belurat and they are found in Rauh.

Armored Core: Project Phantasma is a prequel as verified by the story taking place in the year ED 0156, which is two years before the timeframe of Armored Core (1997) in ED 0158. Three context clues place it as zodiac Scorpio:

1) As previously noted, the Armored Core zodiac starts on Capricorn. Two years before = two signs before = Scorpio.

2) The enemy type with a body plan of a Scorpion (it shoots projectile attacks from its tail)

3) German hard rock band, "the Scorpions" released album "Taken by Force" on December 4, 1977, which was the same calendar day as the release of Armored Core: Project Phantasma (December 4, 1997). Something particularly attractive about this album release date is that the number "4" or "shi" in Japanese has associations with death, and so does the cover of the album. Of the Scorpions 18 other albums, there are 3 others that match dates with various FromSoftware games (which is a story for another day).

For 8 years before King's Field, FromSoftware was a company developing business productivity tools for PC. As the Scorpions are eaten, that 8 years of expertise was cannibalized and redirected into forging a new identity as a videogame developer. I think that's more or less what Rauh represents - an era of relative benign, peaceful and productive existence before being stepping into the drama that is the videogame development cycle. In the Japanese phonetics for "Rauh" it is spelled "Raufu", which is a Swahili word borrowed from the Arabic "Rauf". It means "gentle" or "kind".

Conclusion

"Mine eyes are oft apt to glaze over — the years are toking their toll, 'tis plain to see. Even telling dream from reality…is a task increasingly beyond me…" - Final dialogue of Hornsent Grandam

One of the main themes of the DLC is that dreams are taking over reality. In a meta sense this is exactly what is experienced when playing the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC - previous knowledge is being overwritten by the new information revealed in the DLC. This is deceptive, as the reality inside the mindscape of the cocoon is a heavily doctored version of the reality of the Lands Between. It's biased towards pessimistic and paranoia-tinged/emotion-driven interpretations.

In a way, it is demonstrating trope overdose. Characters in the story are reduced to mythological references like Freyja and Ymir, or to manga references like Enia's surface comparison to JJBA's Enya. Comparisons were made between Miquella and Griffith based on not much more than the aesthetic of a fair haired effeminate male character with a hint of sinister manipulation and association with an eclipse - the DLC complied by presenting a version of Miquella that is suddenly Griffith levels of megalomania with none of the on-screen character development. An observation that I have seen made about the Frenzy Flame and the Three Fingers is that they remove the ability to see differences. Forming a theory that a certain character was inspired by another character based on superficial similarity cannot be the end of interpretation - characters need to be evaluated on their own unique psychology as developed in their own context.

The trouble with relying too heavily on references to previous literary canon is that all of the missteps of previous generations are implied to be inherited as well. It is in fact not a societal good to be propagating the tropes that women in positions of power and men who don't meet restrictive standards of masculinity are untrustworthy. A trope so deeply ingrained that someone like Ranni gets accused of being sinister and manipulative despite being one of the most blunt, forthcoming, and rational characters in the game.

Telling the difference between what is true and not true is complicated by the Lands Between being itself a fictional universe. And yet, this is also a phenomena seen in the real world, where fictional media - from movies to comics to books to music - reinforces cultural stereotypes and misinformation that people propagate uncritically. Even historical fiction elevates individuals to the positions of "hero" and "villain" as a flattening of real-life people which has the effect of creating the false impression that society is built on the efforts of magically successful individuals. Rather than the reality where improvements to quality of life are a collective effort and require both constant maintenance and a working understanding of all of the interconnected processes that allow our current civilization to function.

Regardless, the only viable answer in both the Lands Between and in real life for the question of how to sort fact and fiction is to make a personal effort to understand the rules of the universe. In the real world, this would be gaining knowledge of physics, plant biology, ecosystems, how various types of complex objects are manufactured from base elemental components, etc. In the Lands Between, this is through gaining knowledge of all of the above in addition to the magic systems and narrative rules that underlie characters' perceptions of their own history: tarot/alchemy, astrology, chakras, music and poetry, pseudo-archaeology, mythology, etc.