#fable’s analysis

[emberunderscore]

HEAR ME OUT HEAR ME OUT ICARUS AND VEN ARE THAT SONG THAT GOES

"for the record this is self destructive

for the record I'm aware of that"

[sage-is-in-fact-very-tired]

yeah you know what. if no one else is going to say it, I will. Icarus probably (definitely) has a thing for praise. thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[st-whalefall]

Listen, I love the lost fable, it’s great, it’s so much fun, but it’s really misleading (that’s the point) and a lot of audience members take it at face value.

Two things stick out to me as hints that point to Jinn’s vision being not completely, totally, really the absolute truth:

1. In volume 8, the staff of creation/Ambrosias is revealed to be one of those “give you exactly what you ask for” macguffins, after Oscar tries to go back through the portal and it’s shown the portal is one way, a la “A one-way ticket to Vacuo.”

2. In volume 9, we’re told by the tree that the brothers Grimm were “born” simultaneously. The god of light is Not the elder brother. In the lost fable Jinn says, “It was here the elder brother dwelled beside his fountain,“ & “…all while careful to make no mention of [the god of darkness]’s elder,” and we now know this to be false.

Bring these two pieces together (and other things but were focusing on point 1 & 2 for brevity) and we’re meant to find Jinn’s vision suspect.

What did Ruby ask Jinn again?

“What is Ozpin hiding from us?”

So, what Jinn showed them was not The Truth. But what Ozpin thinks, what Ozma believes, to be true.

And the characters took that vision at face value, but we the audience are meant to question it.

[aquariet]

Nobody asked for it but I did it anyway

Have a nice post of me talking about every lyric in the song unsweetened lemonade and why it fits Icarus Morningstar. This was 100% inspirated by sage’s 18000+ word post analyzing the sherb playlist.

Since this is about a single song it lucky is only 952 words long.

What a lovely way to simply appear on tumblr again.

Now I’m gonna stop yapping.

I hope this is enjoyable.

“My eyes are made of acid”

The fact that one of Icarus’s eyes isn’t Normal. It’s constantly bleeding and thinking too much about specific things caused it to hurt.

“And my tongue is sharp with spite”

Icarus and manipulation. Their tongue being sharp with spite is cause they will say anything to get more people on their side. Both during the corruption arc and mid to end season 3.

“Attention whore with too much pride”

They want to believe what’s being told to them. By fable or in season 1 enderian. They wouldn’t listen to anyone that tried to tell them otherwise. Rea,Athena,Centross. Even the things.

“There's no one I wouldn't fight”

End season 3 and corruption arc. Icarus would fight anyone for the approval and attention of the gods.

“I don't like confrontation but”

He doesn’t want to have to kill people. But he does.

“I'm staring at the sun”

Them screaming at the sky in season one and Them screaming at the sky at quixis. Screaming at something that won’t talk back. That seems to only keep hurting them. (This is the last season 1 to season 3 comparison I swear)

“I won't quit until my eyes go red”

They need to stop quixis. No matter what.

“I'll finish what's begun”

Killing Hailey. They needed to do it publicly. So that everyone could see.

��I fucked the reaper cause I knew”

Prison duo after the cave. Icarus doing whatever they can to get centross back. Even if it’s a path straight down to hell.

“My time was coming can't you see”

The glitching in Icarus’s chest after the cave. It was gonna kill them and that was certain by the end of the finale.

“I'd do anything for twenty bucks”

Icarus would do anything for some sense of love. Specifically parental love. Obviously from fable. But also from enderian in the end reset. That’s their aunt. They don’t remember it. But it’s the only ‘real’ family Icarus knows.

“I'd sell my sour soul”

They would. Yea I have no real addiction to this lyric. Icarus literally almost died in the cave when fable tried to rip the glitching from their body. And yet they were grateful for it. They’d sell their live for their dad.

“Cause lemonade is bitter”

Young Icarus being like their dad. Hell. Icarus without the eye being very able to kill.

“Till you sweeten up the bowl”

The eye. The only reason Icarus didn’t kill more people. They wasn’t able to cause they weren’t 100% themselves. The piece of hardcore sherb keeping Icarus at bay.

“And I'm sitting in the bathroom”

Icarus being isolated. Far away from everyone.

“I'm crying citrus tears”

The wack. The reason they are isolated. They don’t want it to hurt others.

“Everything I used to love decayed over the years”

isla, momboo, centross. Icarus loved them. And had to loose them.

“It's hard to finish sentences I'll sell my pride instead”

They never had good reasons for the things they’re doing. And the things point that out. Quixis points it out. And what does Icarus do. They ignore it. They “sell their pride instead” cause if they admit they’re wrong they have to admit that all the bad they’ve done wasn’t for something good.

“Cause it's easier to focus I'm just the price above my head”

It’s easier to list to fable. To believe that they are nothing more than whatever he tells them to be.

“People think I'm pretty So I'll buy a hotel room.One bed trope without the tension”

fable gives them praise so they run away with him. Even though fable is almost never actually at the house. There is no tension cause they don’t spend enough time in the same space to have any.

“The child and her groom”

Icarus and Isla. The ‘good child’ and the ‘perfect wife’

“I didn't die at 12”

Icarus was supposed to die as a kid. Be dragged to the world port and done. However that didn’t happen. They kept living.

“I guess I'm here till 93”

By the time Icarus actually ‘dies’ they’re easily an adult. But before then Icarus is stuck in the same loop. Fall, forget, rescue fable, repeat.

“Enemies to lovers”

Icarus talking about fable. In the beginning he was the enemy. He was the bad guy. Then by season 2 he wasn’t anymore he was their dad.

“but you'll never own my heart”

Fable might be Icarus’s dad. But he never really makes any attempt to be a dad unless it benefits him and his needs. He’ll never own Icarus’s heart. Cause he’ll never try to.

“One sided it's pathetic”

Icarus does love fable though. He’s their dad. He gives them praise he believes in them. Or at least that’s what Icarus believes.

“How you think you're being smart”

Icarus thinking he can go to malici and just talk them into joining their side. His dads side. Without his dads help so that they can proof he’s worth it.

“Worthless parents make stupid kids”

Fable being an asshole dad directly affecting Icarus.

“The apple never strays”

Icarus ends up as a carbon copy of fable.

“Your conscience never compromised”

All the deaths being seen as okay cause they’re all gonna come back. They are gonna get them all back.

“And ego never pays”

Fable ended up too confident in themselves. Blabbing on and revealing everything in front of Icarus lead him to his death.

“I'd do anything for twenty bucks To feel more in control”

Icarus would do anything to stop the whack. Anything to make quixis do as they want. Anything to make sure things go as Icarus wants it to go.

If you can think of anything I missed (it’s probably a lot) don’t hesitate to let me know. I love to learn more little things about our favorite bird

[qaze]

Thinking about how Arsonist’s Lullabye is on the “Dr. Themist” playlist. It’s such a scientist!Ulysses song. It’s just a song about a person who was so driven to do one thing that they don’t care what they do. A person who’s so driven to do something, despite what that something is.

“When I was 16, my senses fooled me; thought gasoline was on my clothes.” When Ulysses got to a point, he was bent on helping get rid of the drowned. There was blood on his hands already. It was haunting him at this point. He couldn’t wield a sword against them anymore, he failed to save people from them by himself. They’re given a chance to fix it, and by god they were gonna take it. He’d lost the people he cares about. The people who they tried to be a good person because of. There was no one left for him to keep an integrity for.

“All you have is your fire, and the place you need to reach; Don't you ever tame your demons; Always keep them on a leash.” All he has left is an idea. He’s lost too many people to the drowned. The telkin are long past desperate. They were told they could make a difference. A big one at that. What was there to lose by taking it? By putting those whom he’s lost behind him, and taking this opportunity to almost avenge those he lost

I could keep going. For multiple songs about them. I love song/lyric analyses and I love Ulysses Themist

[bobauthorman]

Opposites Attract

Oz and Salem's dynamic is interesting to me because both were crafted to represent a specific quality, but end up personifying the exact opposite quality.

Salem is supposed to be stillness. Her immortality is supposed to render her into a fixed point in time. She does not age, and all damage done to her is undone. She represents the previous era of mankind, wielding sorcery that can never be achieved again.

And yet, she is the one that has changed the most. She goes from helpless damsel, the Girl in the Tower, to cunning mastermind, the Wicked Witch of the West. By throwing herself into the pools of Grimm, her physical appearance changes heavily. And she not only causes the end of the old world by encouraging the people to rebel against the gods, but she keeps invoking the destruction of the show's status quo through her agents. By her own will, she becomes anarchy.

And Oz was clearly designed to be change. His immortality puts him in different bodies every time one dies. He ages. His mind alters as he and his host/victim join souls, and vice-versa. As (Self-installed) leader of the Huntsmen, he is supposed to represent the current era.

But however, Oz, by his own admission, never learns his lesson, instead using his troublesome reincarnation as a means of running away from his problems. And while their minds adjust, he and his body's souls soon reach an equilibrium where neither are indistinguishable from the other. And while he is supposed to focus on the growth of Huntsmen and humanity, he relies mostly on the ancient magic and gifts provided by the Two Brothers, having no real faith in the current mankind. He remains in stasis.

[snow-lavender]

would whales in the fable universe have vestigial hips? like, bruin's making them directly, they're not following that evolutionary path of in the water -> out -> back in again. would bruin just throw in some random floating bones for the hell of it?

[willbee-1]

Man ⟟ forget how good the "Contact" cutscene was from s1-

⟟ was grabbing audio things and mhmmm ⟟ think ⟟ will just forever yell ab that lore vid specifically (So "it has to be/it can't be") bc that was the first lore stream ⟟ had watched fully caught up and watched live (ended up watching Rae's perspective/that cutscene the same night/the next day)

But also lines-

"Peace isn't in your overworlders nature, just as it isn't in his"

Mhmmm Enderian seeing it as like- as the mortals of the overworld are *just* like her broter, destructive and have no interest in peace is just- mhmmmm

"You people only care for themselves bc that's all you have time to do"

Cough cough that's all Fable cared about, himself cough cough

"If you knew the crimes that those of my brother's realm have done you'd want to burn it all down as well"

Mhmmmmmmm, everything Fable had done during the war- all he had done against the end and the Nether-

"But why us, we're not part of whatever crimes the overworlders have committed against you were just trying to live our lives"

See- yeah they never asked for this- they never asked for the gods to start messing with *any* of then, they were trying to live and exist, but they couldn’t even do that from the beginning, not when the gods started this mess

"So much Venom for such ⏃ fragile man"

....see- Enderian saying this to Rae- after he tells her he don't wanna talk to her-

...man's isn't fragile at all, point b) hey- that's your child you don't know ab yet c) he did threaten his broter later-

[m0rninglatte]

Monster from Epic and Icarus analysis because the thoughts do be real

“How did suffering become so endless?”

- Icarus thinking it should have been done by now, but it's not. It's still going

“Do I need to change?”

…

Moving on.

“I'm surrounded by the souls of those I've lost”

- Icarus talking about Aurelius, Enderian, *Centross*, Momboo, etc.

- The idea of everyone who has died is a sacrifice, and they will be brought back, but also Icarus ability to not grieve properly because of it

"What if the greatest threat we'll find across the sea, is me?

- Icarus wondering if they are failing and they are going to slip up to the point everything crashes because they made one wrong move.

“What if I'm the monster? What if i'm in the wrong”

- I like to think this line as Icarus beginning to think of each reset and all the "antagonistic" acts they've done and thinking if they are and have always been a monster because they in their own eyes can't seem to do anything to help people as they just end up hurting someone.

“What if i'm the problem that’s been hiding all along”

- Icarus in “Lady of the world” talking about how corruption has always been there, how whatever they did then was always there they just pushed it back of their mind until corruption made it the forefront of their mind.

“What if i'm the one who killed you”

- Icarus debating if it was Quixis that killed Momboo or themselves.

“What if I’ve been far too kind to foes but a monster to ourselves”

- Foes = Fable, ourselves = everyone else minus the co-workers

- Although Icarus currently wants to fix everything and stay with Fable, i like to see this as Icarus debating if they are on the right side.

The Polyphemus section is Centross, mainly the Violet Reaper

“Or does he end my men, to avenge his friend”

- S1 funeral. 

-“Avenge his friend” is a line you could annotate “friend” to be Enderian

- If you wanted to, you could almost switch into "...,to serve his goddess"

The Circe section is Enderian 

"When the witch turns men to pigs, to protect her nymphs"

- Corruption of Ominus Bane

- You could see this line in my opinion as either to protect her realm or to prove her point about Overworlders and how they are the same, for example, resorting to violent outcomes

The Poseidon section is Fable

- This section is a mix of things, I can see mixes of Fable during the war and Fable currently, and Icarus is like thinking of the similarities and differences between Fable and himself.

The Odysseus section about him during the Trojan War is Icarus and the Wack

“Does a soldier use a wooden horse to kill sleeping Trojans cause he is vile”

- Icarus using the wack to kill Momboo

"Or does he throw away his remorse and save more lives with guile"

- Icarus querying if he should just throw away his regret for any actions he has done and attempt to help people through sly and cunning intelligence (literally the definition of guile)

The section after the Odysseus section is Icarus wondering if they should just become the monster to everyone else but not the co-workers and yk Fable 

“I lost my best friend, I lost my mentor, my mom, 500 men gone…”

- Best Friend is Centross.

- Mentor is a funky one because i could see it be switched into my brother, but at the same time, you could keep it as mentor and annotate it to be Quixis

- Mom is Isla -> "Like King like Prince" : Icarus finding her portrait and realising Fable hasn't told them where she is and that he can't remember her aswell as Rae

- 500 men gone = the people and gods who have died and or been husked

“I must get to see Penelope and Telemachus”

A) remove the context of the names, no wife, no son, none of that

B) This could be annotated into two different ways but i can mainly see it as Momboo and Centross and Icarus’ hope with all this they can come back

“I’ll go where Poseidon wont reach us”

- Poseidon could be annotated into Enderian, but one that I think works well is the faction, mainly Ocie.

“And if got to drop another infant from a wall in an instant so we all don't die”

- Icarus being like if i have to kill another person, fuck it, whatever it is I need to do to prove myself or help in anyway.

The end section with Odysseus choosing to become the monster I could see as Icarus state of mind of their not meant to be helping people as all they have done is hurt people, so that's what their meant to do, it's what they were ment to do from the beginning, so they will.

Thoughts and feelings go bonkers and bit of aaah and bit of RA

[ramblingaboutpafl]

Yura is the sun.

I know, practically everyone's figured it out by now, with a bunch of the pafl songs (mostly the ones from Sanya's pov) alluding to Yura being her "sun".

But here's what I wanted to add on: Sergei is the wind.

There's a tale in Aesop's Fables called the North Wind and the Sun, and I think it's pretty well known but let me summarize it:

The sun and the north wind had a contest one day to see who can make a passerby remove his coat. The wind blew and blew, but it just made the man wrap his coat tighter around himself because of how cold the wind's approach was. Whereas the sun shone on him, and, because it was too hot, the man took off his coat.

Sanya refers to Yura as a "relentless sun" multiple times...

(first is from 100 Epitaphs, second is from False Disposition)

and that he made her drop her barriers because of how "friendly" he was.

(also from False Disposition)

But for Sergei, she practically refuses to tell him ANYTHING; she sneaks out behind his back, steals and experiments on the Cube™ without him knowing, sneaks Yura in through her back window while trying to keep him quiet, etc.

His cold, harsh methods (the wind) makes her keep her barriers up around him, but not around Yura because she believes she can be sort of "loose" around him, like loosening a coat.

I dunno, just thought it was neat.

[emberunderscore]

i might've said this before but I Love You Like An Alchoholic by The Taxpayers is so prison duo and in this essay i will-

Just look at this part, this part in particular

One last kiss I love you like a broken pot One last kiss I love you like a pack of dogs One last kiss I need you like I need a gaping head wound

LOOK AT IT. LOOK THERE. HEAD WOUND MENTION??? IN MY PRISON DUO. GAPING HEAD WOUND?? LIKE WHEN IN THE PRISON?????? LIKE WHEN HE GAVE THEM THAT HEAD WOUND??? yeah

[sage-is-in-fact-very-tired]

Icarus Morningstar what the *fuck*

[just-existing-as-you-do-blog]

The dramatic irony of the brothers strikes again! I don't know if heyhay13 and sherbertquake56 did this on purpose but-

Rae "I don't know what to do."

Icarus "I don't know what to do."

Rae "I just wanted a brother."

Icarus "Rae doesn't want me, okay? I've been an asshole to him our entire lives."

Rae "Fable takes everything!"

Icarus "Fable is going to fix everything!"

Rae "Centross is an idiot."

Icarus "Centross is usually right, not that I'd ever say that to his face. When he called me... a failure."

Also Rae having a crying session and then starting to make a plan on what to do next.

Icarus having a crying session and then sitting on their bed waiting for Fable to get home and tell them what to do next.

I mean they had to have planned all of that right? They even said all of those things in basically the same order and I think around the same time.

Also I don't know the etiquette for tagging on tumblr. Am I meant to tag creators when I mention them by name? Or am I not if they're a part of a Fandom? Is it mutuals only? Please advise.

[vexedallay]

Fable and ic relationship

Fable cares abt them but not enough

Ic defends him because losing him would mean losing hope of fixing things and saving centross. Fable isn't really their father anymore, he's more like a God to them, one they turn to at every challenge, one they turn to for guidance in every single situation, and he is a God, but to not the in the way they treat him

They aren't really his child anymore, not entirely, their relationship doesn't feel like parent-child (to me) and icarus calls them fable now too, fable lost the title of dad when he tried to kill them, and they might be working with him and brushing that fact off, because right now they need him, but they're only keeping him around while he's useful. Icarus is falling for his manipulation consciously, they choose to believe the lies because they don't think they have a choice, and they know he's a bad person, but as they pointed out, they've done everything he has but they didn't have a good reason, and if he's bad for doing that with a good reason then what are they. And that goes all the way back to how corruption affected them because their brain absolutely changed from corruption, cc!sherbs even mentioned that enderian ignoring them has had a massive impact on how they're acting now, and we can see how the arson never really went away. They kept the idea that whatever they did was them, fully them, not anybody else or outside influence, but they lost the idea that they were doing the right thing, and now it means that they're taking the full brunt of that and thinking that everything they did they could do again if they're not careful, and they've never seen any sort of evidence to the contrary. What with nearly killing centross and everything. They keep saying it, that they only ever make mistakes, and honestly, it makes sense why. Literally everything they've ever been good at has been soured for them. Flight- quixis sure fucked up their wings and theyve died from falling what 20 times now, fighting (let's be real they're good at fighting and the only reason it's not canon is bc cc!sherb is a wimp) and the first reset sure was mostly them fighting their friends, alchemy- they sure fucking blew up a potion and knocked out Rae causing Easton to go blind and they sure do blame themself for that not to mention scoria and perix and the various really bad effects they've made (they've actively wondered if alchemy in general is bad in canon before during the scoria stream), so on and so forth. They definitely know that they're making a mistake, but to give up is to lose everything that is holding them together, and now they've fucked up every other option they mightve had, so even if they wanted to stop, they don't exactly have anywhere to turn.

Um. That's probably mostly incoherent bc there was no actual organization to this post just a bunch of rambling so have fun with that. I'll clean this up at some point. I should probably just put together a full character analysis abt icarus bc I have so many thoughts huh

[d1sc0-1nfern0]

Character Analysis with Disco: The Major Gods

Amongst the four major gods, there are two sets of twins. There is also two sets of opposites. This is a long one, so get comfy.

Enderian is cold, calculating, and analytical. She has emotions, but doesn’t know how to deal with them and thus elects to ignore them most of the time. She is baffled and annoyed by those who let their emotions direct their decisions. She struggles to connect to others, holding her own mortals at arms length. Even those she lets closer to her are tools more than anything. She’s working on it now, but it’s taken a long time to get there.

Fable is deeply loving to the point of obsession. He is emotionally driven and can sometimes ignore logic and facts for what he wants and feels. He cared too deeply for his mortals, to the point where he lost sight of their purpose, that them being mortal was what ultimately made them important. It drove him mad with grief and he began to self destruct, taking everyone else down with him.

Fable and Enderian are opposites.

Netherum is intensely idealistic. They will jump to fight for what they believe in at the drop of a hat and may burn bridges in the process. Their passion and devotion to ideals and morality can lead to the destruction of their relationships, hence why Soul is so good for them; she brings the empathy they lack. Together, they are justice and grace in equal measure.

Alerion was empathetic to his core. It’s why they made such a good god of the afterlife: they could understand the pain and trauma of the souls under their care and what they’d been though, comforting them and giving them the best place to rest and heal. However that empathy ultimately made Alerion unable to stand up for what was right. He could see that Fable was hurting, could understand why he was behaving how he was, and they couldn’t being themself to blame him, to call him out, to fight back. So they just smiled sadly and said goodbye.

Alerion and Netherum are opposites.

Of course, this is just all my personal theories and understanding of these characters, and I’d love to hear what others think about my analysis!

(And if you’re curious about the “mortality makes mortals important” claim, I have another post on the philosophy behind that. :) )

[velaraffricate]

AGH the pain of wanting to translate stuff into your conlang but having no text to translate