#idv meta

[to-my-emil]

luca's 2024 letter

so i did a whole analysis/explanation/infodump about luca's newest letter on my discord server and. figured i may as well post it here! theres a lot of fun tasty things in here and some confirmation of things that have been implied in previous letters which is fun to look at. please keep in mind i dont have the entirety of every character and manor game's lore memorized so while i did double check some things i mightve missed some stuff. anyway its all below the cut since its Long have fun :)

(also feel free to chime in with any thoughts/feelings/opinions/ideas!)

so theres three sections to this letter! im gonna go section by section, but some parts of the last section are mentioned earlier so uh. sorry if you havent read it yet (id recommend u do read it first)

so part 1 is pretty fun. luca is confirmed to have survived game 10 (which also features tracy, charles, and bonbon though we dont currently know who the fourth survivor participant is) And its implied that hes the only survivor of the game (according to the "fleeting victory" thats the assumption at least). his traits w being able to connect the ciphers is also officially tied into the lore here; there are in fact wires running underneath each arena (or at the very least whichever arena lucas game was in which we dont know yet iirc) so its canon that he can do what he does in matches and its not something that the detective incorrectly deduced lorewise (idk if any of the survivor abilities are Actually incorrect deductions/not actually things that theyre doing (like for example priestess's portals, etc that seem more far-fetched) but since we know hes done other things incorrectly (like "prisoner" and "psychologist" titles being in quotes/technically wrong) i figure he mightve gotten some of those wrong too). luca is also Super Fucked Up w an unusuable left arm (and his previous injuries which we know includes at Least severe brain trauma but likely physical trauma too considering his time in prison + the leg braces) so uhhhhhhhhhhh. my money is NOT on him for the next game.

which is the fun next thing to talk about: baron deross is making him do another game!! this confirms whats implied in emmas 2022 letter (she writes "I've won the previous round, for now" which implies a second round if not more), and probably means that helena and galatea would also go through another round even though its not confirmed yet. so far we dont have a record of what happens in any second manor game for a player who has won (as far as i remember); usually what happens is entire groups are eliminated before the game and the only survivor goes on to the next round to try again by default rather than having won the game (like murro and luchino). so far luca's second game is the only one we have ANY info about for a survivor whos won their first game; we know that alva is in it and its heavily implied ann is in it (we'll get to this later) so we'll likely find out what happens once we get either of their experiment letters. its also interesting that the baron seems to reveal more information about the experiments to luca after luca won his game, but its hard to know whether thats because luca is also a scientist or if he reveals that to everyone who wins. my guess is maybe the former bc u Know luca would have questions and theres also no mention of baron deross saying anything like that in emmas, galateas, or helenas letters.

on to section 2!!! (there was a slur against disabled people in the last line of this section so. thats whats blocked out)

OKAY SO. definitely confirmed that hes in a second manor game, its not even subtext its just right there. assuming the "mechanisms" refer to the same mechanisms that are running under the arena and connecting the cipher machines my guess is that this is what he used to shock other participants?? rather than just being to conduct electricity through himself like he does in the game?? idk thats just spaghetti at the wall its not clear here how he actually got shocked and why. it Is clear that he passed the fuck out at some point or another/his memory issues have gotten worse and the wiki points to that guy in his dream being hermann, so that's. interesting. theres an implication here that luca and hermann used to be closer, but once luca started w physics hermann went mmmm time to stop being a father. which. checks out knowing hermann. whats even more interesting is that luca calls hermanns ideas "ludicrous fantasies" that are neither idealistic nor realistic, because like luca you went and did THE EXACT SAME THING. BRO HE WORKED ON PERPETUAL MOTION. YOURE WORKING ON PERPETUAL MOTION. IM SORRY YOU CANT CLOWN ON UR DAD FOR RUINING HIS LIFE OVER PERPETUAL MOTION WHEN U DID LITERALLY THE EXACT SAME THING

anyway.

i do wonder if this is meant to imply that hermann was in fact actually working on a More ridiculous version of perpetual motion or if luca is just biased as hell against hermann. im banking on the latter there is no way in hell that luca is a reliable narrator considering all his memory issues + his general tendency to outright grab people hes mad at by the throat (<- fun fact we see this at least twice once in alvas backstory video and again in gattos backstory video. luca is the same across all timelines). also implications that hermann became an alcoholic. im guessing as a kid luca was told it was medicine and he hasnt put the pieces together?? or its ironic. idk could be either with him. i highly doubt its actually medicine. ALTHOUGH. theres an alternate explanation here; when luca says "swallow them down" i initially thought he was referring to hiding his "final feelings", since sometimes swallowing down feelings is a phrase used for that kind of thing. but potentially this could be implying that hermann had luca take some kind of medicine potentially to get rid of those feelings in some way?? personally i think its the former because we already know hermann was wasting his life and money so becoming an alcoholic would be an easy answer, but this is probably just because i dont have any answers if it were the latter. something to think about

now the third part, which gives us info about the next manor game!

so first the "gaunt old man" is (according to the wiki which i agree with in this case) mad eyes, which makes sense because mad eyes was involved in game 8/9 right before this and game 10 was filled with inventors + bonbon so it only makes sense he was there. no idea where he went though. whats more fun is that luca is now In The Fucking basement Walls where mad eyes used to be bc luca doesnt trust the rest of the participants. considering the "abnormal eyes" and that alva is here we know for sure that this is those related to the eye of darkness cult, which means ann is also definitely there. whats even more interesting is that this implies the existence of at least one more member of the eye of darkness cult whos going to be in this game; luca says "new participants" and "these people", and considering how specific the letters usually are with other things i would guess hed say "those two" if it were only ann and alva (of course its possible that theyre the only two have arrived at the writing of this journal, but considering he refers to a ritual coming up soon my money is on all the participants being of the cat cult except luca). luca makes a good note that this new game is likely the opposite of the previous and more focused on religion/spirituality which checks out w the participants, but DAMN hes an asshole about their writing style LMAO. sorry luca not everyone can have the same notes u do

the "brother in faith" guy here is alva, and i personally believe that he can in fact believe see through walls just bc thats funny as hell. just kidding its likely because luca is not as subtle he thinks he is because alva Literally Knows Him. other people might not be able to know hes there but like. that guys also a scientist. hed be able to figure out that theres someone in the walls AND he does in fact know luca. its difficult to tell bc of lucas memory issues but this probably also implies that alva looks very different from how he did in life (i doubt its as tall/etc as in his hunter form since thats what they all see when drugged not what he Actually looks like but im sure theres some stuff like his shorter hair/grayish skin/etc that carries across). i for one am fucking thrilled that theyre in a game together bc oh my god this is a time bomb and im just waiting to watch it explode (again).

as for the last line about a ritual... teehee. im very excited for whatever this is going to be and its killing me that this is the Only Information we have on it so far. likely we're going to have to wait for more alva and ann letters on this one, as well as whoever the third eye of darkness cult member is going to be, but i have no doubt that we'll have some more info eventually. if i had to take a guess its going to heavily affect how game 10-2/11 turns out; i highly doubt any ritual goes on without a sacrifice, and, well... theres only one guy here whos not already part of the cult. things are not looking great for lucas future.

[sarcophagid]

Night Watch 2024 Letter - Breakdown and Personal Thoughts

my personal thoughts and initial analysis of ithaqua's letter!

these are mostly just my own opinions and will bounce off some pre-existing ideas i have, so feel free to let me know if you'd like anything clarified or if you want to discuss your own thoughts!

readmore because it's very long:

A Stack of Unsent Letters to Home (2024) (It's speculated that this stack of 18th-century letters was frequently examined. The papers are worn and damaged to varying degrees. Below are excerpts from the organized and restored legible text.)

The 18th century line really throws me off. IDV's main events and manor games take place in the 1880s-1910s, and this detail states that the letters were written before 1800, which wouldn't make much sense if we assume both Ithaqua and Lagertha lived at the time of the manor games. It's also not a mistranslated '1800s' because the original Chinese version also states '18th century'.

Avoiding rambling as best as I can there are two main ideas this brings to mind:

The plateau of Leng is considered old itself, with practices that are possibly centuries behind 'modern' practice for the time. Lagertha and the Vilulf clan seem to be based off of vikings which were also figments of a much earlier past. This could be an effort to ease the time gap by setting the story earlier.

However, I still severely doubt either Ithaqua or Lagertha have lived all the way from the 1700s to the 1900s. As aforementioned, I have no concrete proof, but it's just not sensible for either of them to be supernatural beings themselves, given the thematic importance of Night Watch being a human disguised as a monster. If we assume the 18th century thing is true, then they died. If we assume it's not true, then Ithaqua is alive and Lagertha's fate is unknown.

EDIT: I started this analysis before Brynhildr Vilfulf dropped. Her weibo lore seems to imply Ithaqua's story did in fact take place 200 years ago, but I will leave this part up because I'm petty and the detail bothers me for reasons I will expand on in a later post. 

[I] The star cluster of Vilulf will fall into the fourth house, symbolizing the law of "disintegration." This powerful force compels the life chart to discard the old and embrace the new—not in a gentle manner like a snake shedding its skin, but rather with the sudden breaking of a dragon bone, causing thousands of tons of iron and wood to sink to the depths of the sea. —The prophecy of the star atlas foretells suffering. My brave Ragnar, how have you fared? You were still young when I left Medan, yet I believed you would ultimately choose to follow the old man and navigate the oceans. I have no idea where to send this letter, but I trust that the power of the universe will carry my thoughts to you as I write under the moon.

I will have to check the original chinese text to see if there's any nuance I missed for many of these terms TOT. I think I may make a separate post looking into these specific terms, but for now I will look at the general idea.

Lagertha seems to be describing the movements of a fictional star cluster associated with the Vilulf clan, fortelling of a sudden, possibly dangerous event that would change the trajectory of her life (most likely foreshadowing meeting Eta/Ithaqua). 

As stated on the wiki, Ragnar and Lagertha are based off of Viking folk figures who were married. But in this letter, she seems to talk about him more as a younger relative than a spouse (I'm going off the wiki's old note on the chinese translation but I will come back to confirm/deny). The 'old man' could be another relative and also possibly a clan leader. 

I hope that when you gaze up at it, your spirit will be stirred to heed my guidance: Ragnar, do not attempt to conquer lands with ships. Our era has passed. Ragnar, gather our people and leave the Indian Ocean. Head north to Scandinavia, where you can rest and recuperate for at least a century.

The Vilulf clan is presumably Scandinavian. Lagertha in Viking legend is also from Norway. The Vilulf clan isn't explicitly stated to be Vikings, but they seem a bit inspired by general writing stereotypes associated with them.

They also engaged in some sort of "conquering".

Ragnar, I do not wish for you to abandon your beliefs, but please understand that the rationality and morality of humanity form the true foundation of a just society. A well-ordered world is the only environment where true freedom can thrive, and it is this discipline that will illuminate the world with the light of civilization.

Lagertha has clear and firm ideas about morality and order. She believes that people require a sense of structure and logic to adhere to, and sees civilization in a positive light. This is a detail I will come back to later with more context.*

Anyways, her ideas constrast Ithaqua's philosophy of giving up civility and humanity in general - he believes these things to be unhelpful, false, harmful. Ithaqua most closely associates them with the society in Leng, and the society that Nathaniel represented. But we now see that Lagertha was also a very order and structure oriented person, just in a different manner. 

[II] Back then, the old man often said that in the brief span of life, you and I would eventually be gone; he urged us to be bolder. I understood that he was imparting the values of our family—honor, freedom, adventure, and the spirit of resilience. Yet, his words also inspired me to explore an alternate path in life. I found solace by the shore, wisdom in books, energy in the city, and peace in the wilderness. Amid the winds of the grasslands, I discovered a different kind of faith that resonated deeply with my soul. Had the old man known, he would have deemed me a traitor and perhaps even broken my legs. But the call of the north was undeniable, and it held true transcendence and meaning, guided by the sea of stars.

The Vilulf clan values freedom, she also mentioned freedom in the previous letter. There's a degree of tragic irony given what eventually happens.

Lagertha followed the same faith as the other Vilulf clan members, but after travelling north, she converted to a different one. It is possible this is the same faith as the dominant, christianity-analogous religion in the Plateau of Leng. This detail is corroborated by the weibo description of her as "devout/god-praising" and Ithaqua finding it illogical and hypocritical to claim she was transgressing against it. 

However, my journey was far from smooth. The remote northern lands were as perilous as the sea, filled with their own brutalities and sins. Each time I offered seed pods to pregnant women or rowan berries to those in need, I felt the watchful eyes of the local church committee upon me. The already tense atmosphere became dangerously charged, forcing me to move on before I could linger too long.

I'll tentatively assume Leng is the product of a few creative liberties, because there aren't many countries farther north than Norway that are also a close match for the British-esque culture in Leng. 

Her practice of offering medicine and berries was most likely misconstrued as witchcraft, and her being an outsider also likely contributed to the distrust. 

Ragnar, you might think I am struggling. Lagertha, who once fought valiantly before you, now lives like a deserter, avoiding bloodshed. Yet, I find myself questioning whether my true self ever existed at sea. The concept of "my true self" is fluid, and the quest to "become my true self" is a journey without end.

*To expand on the aforementioned detail about valuing civilization and morality: Lagertha's past, and the Vilulf clan in general are no strangers to violence, conflict, and potentially disorder. At least some of this conflict arises from a practice of 'conquering' or otherwise invading other lands. There's not enough details nor do I plan on making statements on anyone's political views from this scant knowledge, but it's clear that Lagertha underwent a significant personal shift after leaving her clan, where she now adopts a less violent lifestyle, valuing order and civility.

EDIT: Brynhildr Vilulf's new weibo post gives some more context - the Vilulf clan was considered socially separate from the other clans, disliked for their isolation and rejection of other clans norms. However, this is not necessarily a negative trait, as they also did not have the prejudices of that time.

This is purely personal interpretation, but "true self" is very interesting considering the issue posed by Ithaqua and Nathaniel's birth - two identical people have drastically different personalities and values because of mostly environmental factors - implying a "true self" is not concrete, but rather a mutable identity that changes over time. The fact that Lagertha transitions from the lifestyle associated with the Vilulf clan to a much more peaceful one is another example of this concept. 

[III] I believe I have discovered a piece of the "meaning." I have named him Eta. The star η Ursae Majoris hangs in the northern sky, serving as my guide. 

Eta is the 7th letter of the Greek alphabet, and his character day is Dec 7. 

The star is also known as Alkaid, and Beidouqi in Chinese (North Dipper Seventh, as the star is considered the 7th star in the constellation).

Ursa Major is also related to the "mother bear" constellation. 

Remarkably, this star has led me to this young life. He is intelligent and tenacious, possessing the courage and strength to stand firm. Unlike you, his strength is deeply internalized, making him perhaps more like me. 

Ithaqua canonically not the beefiest guy around, but from his design that was probably inferable TOT.

The old man valued character above lineage, and he would surely recognize Ithaqua as a member of our clan. So, when you come to visit, please remember to address him by his name: Eta Vilulf. As for me, I might not be able to wait for your arrival, as the star atlas indicates I must travel far after three years. But he is still so young. Will a few years together be enough for him to learn to thrive on his own?

[IV] Dear Ragnar,I am truly happy to hear that your astrolabe is back on track! This is a promising sign.  This opening implies that she had gotten a response from Ragnar, but her letters were unsent, so I'm not sure if they communicated through some other way. Eta has kept me from stargazing for quite some time, possibly because he was worried about my strange behavior when I predicted that my star cluster would fall into the fourth house. He tends to treat me like a fragile being who can't manage even the simplest tasks. I wonder how he would react if he knew his mother was the second mate on the Medan. But I digress. You are on your way to the peninsula, are you not?

As stated on the IDV wiki, 'Medan' may be a reference to the ship 'Ourang Medan' which disappeared in Indonesia (this would've been in the Indian Ocean). 

Ithaqua has always been a bit protective of Lagertha… he also might be skeptical of Lagertha's astrological predictions, given he would rather her not stargaze. 

It also seems she predicted the event of the attack as referenced earlier, but chose to stay. 

This change has taken fifteen years longer than I initially expected. 

I have a tentative guess at Ithaqua's 'canon' age: In the previous letter, Lagertha said that she predicted she had to leave Ithaqua after three years. Adding this to her prediction, it's been at least 18 years since she found Ithaqua as an infant. However, this letter was also probably unsent, and most likely was written close to the time of the hunters attack. 

This is in line with Ithaqua's weibo post saying that the attack happened when he "became an adult". Ithaqua probably remained as Night Watch for any time between a few months - a few years, but this is a bit more evidence that he's a 'young adult'. 

Perhaps I should adjust my interpretation: everything has a natural trajectory toward improvement. "Disintegration" can signify both the end of one cycle and the beginning of another. By recalibrating the ego's inertial patterns, one can harness a powerful regenerative force. Just like the treasures controlled by Pluto can only be unearthed amid peril, as long as you stay steadfast in the face of danger, you will ultimately prevail. Perhaps the danger I foresaw is not destruction after all; it may nurture life and grant me a few more years with him. Forever your family, Lagertha Vilulf

As a final general note, this series of letters solidifies Lagertha as a character who's very spiritual, and has an open minded and optimistic viewpoint on her predictions even when they don't seem to bode well. But as the audience, we know what happens eventually

[akuma-tenshi]

honestly hunter mains don't get to complain about sterling when ivy exists. "he kite and rescue and support!!" ivy has mobility, area control, and chase potential. it's almost as if idv has a serious power creep issue and as the game goes on characters will get more complex and powerful

[pansythoughts]

Back with more meta, got a curious cat asking for my thoughts on Herman Balsa. I, predictably, had a lot to say.

Oh, boy, have I got Herman analysis.

I want to be really clear up front that I have two caveats to any Herman analysis that I could do that readers must keep in mind. The first is my strong bias here—I don’t care for Herman as a character as he presented in both Luca and Alva’s narratives. The second is that with that, I exclusively ship Halva as a thing that happened in the past. I do not have thoughts or feelings on Halva as an evolving ship or thing I actively enjoy; all my halva thoughts are part of my Alva character analyses and color the way Alva thinks about his current story relationships (which for me usually means alvaluca, platonically or romantically).

That said, the most important thing in my read of Herman is that he was a very selfish man. The kind of selfish where you are incredibly self-involved, and have no idea that you are. He didn’t think he was a bad person, he wasn’t trying to be cruel or malicious, and he genuinely thought his work was going to change the world and that’s why he sacrificed everything to it. But it cost him every relationship he had, all his money and time, and eventually his life.

Herman, I think in his own perspective, always thought he was doing good, or at least doing what was expected, but didn’t concern himself with the people around him or how they were feeling about his actions. You can see that in Alva’s story, about how he doesn’t bother to tell Alva about his family, or where the money for their research is coming from, or about his more dangerous experiments. He valued Alva as a research companion, and calls him the only one who understands him, but doesn’t let him in—largely, I think, because he never thought to. I think it never occurred to Herman to let Alva further into his life, because he was so focused on his own work and desires to pay attention to Alva’s.

And we see this more with Luca, from how Herman treated his son and his wife. From everything we have, Herman was a neglectful father—he doesn’t seem to be around, and her certainly doesn’t seem to be providing for his family. Neglect is a form of abuse, and Luca’s story and reactions to his father in both the main narrative and events make a lot of sense looking at him through the lens of abuse survivor. And here too, I don’t think Herman ever intended to abuse his son, because he didn’t consider himself a bad person. But he didn’t care about his son or his wife and their lives as much as he cared about his desires and his work. He wasn’t around to care about them, and didn’t think of how spending all of their family’s money would affect them, because they were always secondary considerations.

The fascinating thing about Herman is he’s the ultimate villain in both Alva and Luca’s stories, right? He fucked up Alva by holding him with guilt and withholding information, and then dying before he could ever make it right. He fucked up Luca by never being there in the first place. And that difference reflects how both men feel about him—Alva resigned and bitter but missing him, and Luca forever angry about him even as he longs for him and follows in his footsteps. Herman’s flaws are so utterly human, and it makes him compelling and believable. I can see why people are drawn to the sketch of a character we get from the holes he left in Alva and Luca’s stories, even if I’ll never like him.

[ibblescribbles]

Your Andrew drawing is absolutely gorgeous, I didn't even know you were into idv

THANK U!! ive been into idv ever since the sdr2 collab they had years ago (yes i own every single dr crossover skin yes im crazy) and its been an on and off relationship ever since........ im not playing much rn but i used to juggle an a badge for priestess nd doctor, and a couple b nd c badges for toy merchant and journalist! ^7^ i miss playing but i havent had time recently which is killing me bc im not going to get the new priestess s tier skin ARGHHHH

[identity-very-big-deal]

I can’t believe “nerf lawyer” is REAL… Freddy my boy you’ve come a long way I’m proud of you

[kreiburgs]

coaviii group stage

a - dou5 axiz te awg itzy

b - wolves rc gg omni sky

c - act rd zzz zeta mrc

d - wbg rvl ft fl gr

[to-my-emil]

when, exactly, is matthias czernin's birthday?

given idv's habit of making us wait a year for the first little bit of lore for each character in the form of a letter on their birthday, i'm always antsy to know exactly when we'll be getting this information. lucky for us, we don't have to wait for a weibo post or just sitting around for a year for matthias's birthday; they actually gave us all the information we need already!

(obligatory disclaimer of if i'm wrong then i'm wrong and this is all just for fun so please don't come yelling if they reveal his birthday and i'm wrong <3 ty ily)

NOW LETS GET INTO IT

there's two places that we're going to look in order to figure out matthias's birthday, these being his weibo post and 3 frames of his lore video!

according to matthias's weibo post, (disclaimer that i just threw it into google translate), he first burned louis on his birthday, and then received a box with another louis over and over with each cycle getting shorter.

first off let's start out by figuring out how much shorter that cycle is getting. i punched some numbers into a graphing calculator, and we wind up with this here: a linear slope of 13 that hits the x-axis at 8.

so this means that each time louis arrives and matthias burns him again, it's 13 less days from the previous time until louis will show up once more. the fact that 13 is regarded in some cultures as an unlucky number makes it just a littler creepier, too! so if it's 13 less days, then let's add all that up to see if the math works out:

91+78+65+52+39+26+13 = 364

364 days, exactly the amount of days it takes for the last arrival of louis on matthias's birthday (if we assume we started counting the day after the first burning) as we see in the weibo post:

now, you might be asking, why does this help us figure out what matthias's birthday is?

great question! we'll get to that in a minute! for now, though, let's look at something a little more confusing. we get to see three dates in matthias's lore video (though the first one doesn't give us a month):

notice anything strange? it's hard to see when watching quickly, but the second date says may, not march, and if these dates are listed chronologically then may should've come after april. for a while, i thought this was a mistake and that may should've been march, but once i went to double check:

hey, would you look at that! 364-351 is 13 days, so it fits right into our cycle if we assume this is almost a year later. so then, there's 13 days left in the cycle. so, 13 days after april 28 would be:

may 11th! given that the screenshot above shows may 12th, and the 364 day cycle gives us the tiniest bit of wiggle room (whether it started counting on his birthday or the day after his birthday accounts for the difference), we can assume that his birthday is most likely to be either may 11 or 12!

after all this i'll still be waiting impatiently for his letters, but at least now i know what day it'll probably be... unless netease pulls a fast one and picks a character day instead of a birthday. shakes fist

[sarcophagid]

miscellaneous thoughts abt ithaqua's weibo post and trailer backstory

weibo post link | official wiki lore page

my translation (i'll be referencing this a few times, but it's pretty rough, and not significantly different from the official wiki translations, there's just a few semantic things i added from the original weibo post. i'll put the original chinese text besides whatever i'm referencing. lmk if there's anything i should change, my chinese is very very far from perfect 😭)

disclaimer: i doubt all of this is necessarily intentional, i just think it's fun to think abt. this is more of my personal interpretation 👍

Red, fire, life - are all connected symbols.

His heartbeat is described as being 'rekindled' specifically using a term (燃起) related to lighting fires.

His life with his mother is also likened to a bonfire in the blizzard (风雪中的篝火)

In this sense, ithaqua embracing the identity of an snow monster is also a departure from his identity while he was 'alive'. The night watch is cold, it's not alive. He also says 'no longer will living people come near you' (不会再有活人靠近你). 

Similarly, after the attack, he describes her humanity as having died. (母亲的人性死)

He uses these figurative terms of 'life and death' in his trailer too. he was born 'dead', and only upon meeting his mother was he 'alive'. 

In this sense, his mothers hair is red like fire, warmth, and life

Clerical cloaks are usually black, unless it's a special occasion. Nathaniel's cloak is also red. 

Occam's Razor says that red stands out more against the dark background, and in shots with just the two of them, makes the scene look more cohesive. 

But I have a problem, so symbolically, I think red in Nathaniel's context represents blood - both as a blood relative to Ithaqua and to indicate his violence and the violence of the society he represents. 

This is more tentative, but I think the concept of 'gods' is also related to this. When he 'regains his senses' (回过神) the character (神) used for 'senses/mind' is the same as the one used for 'god'. This is also the scene after he murders Nathaniel. However, this is also a very commonly used phrase with nothing to do with god (god, mind, spirit, are connected concepts linguistically; unrelated to this story) so it's likely mere coincidence, similar to the line about "becoming an adult/becoming human".

In this sense, red, blood, and violence are connected.

barbarism/civility

Leng is described as barbarous, but its practices have also been described as 'civility'. I think the first instance refers to the cultural lagging of Leng, being somewhat a figment of the past. 

This could be seen as a separation between two time periods - the civility that has these rules (the ones which hurt his family), and the older barbarism that does not. Ithaqua's "reverting to barbarism" could then be inferred to represent an even older time than the already old practices in the plateau. This is somewhat in line with his persona of an "old god", although fictitious.

Ithaqua, whether he shows it or not, has an understanding of politeness and etiquette. (heavy extrapolation but this is from the 5th anniversary video where he says "Do you believe someone who believes barbarism is better than civilization should be illiterate and lacking etiquette?") On this note, it's possible if not likely that his mother was well-educated. Regardless, I don't think he hates every aspect of society or humanity, but he also has a very limited understanding of it given the nature of the Plateau.

humanity/monstrosity

Monsters in this story aren't very literal* as much as they represent the unexplained and chaotic. 

*There were no real witches or demons, and Ithaqua is not literally an old god. He also rejects the existence of witches. (However, there are supernatural elements to the story, such as his mysterious survival and the wind power.)

A demon/monster/witch makes a concrete concept you can destroy to gain a sense of security. Leng is a hotbed of fear, not wrath. (perhaps hatred comes into the equation but it does not initially grow there.) It's isolated, has limited resources, harsh winters, and a constant sense of paranoia regarding survival. It wouldn't take a lot for the area to go out of balance, and this uncertainty drives the desire to have a tangible thing to blame because it's difficult to accept the idea that we have so little control over our fate. The Night Watch embodies the cold and alien that the people fear - but what scares him is familiar. A face that literally matches his own. 

Ithaqua spends nearly his entire life both mentally and physically separated from a nebulous 'other' civilization. I won't speculate on his personal philosophies regarding human nature and free will but he is terrified of the possibility that he, for all his differences, was not meaningfully different at birth from Nathaniel because they are both very human. This is all a story for another day though 😅

anyways thank you for reading! i haven't rlly checked enough for spelling and grammar stuff and it might be a little repetitive/rambly forgive me TOT but imma edit this later maybe

[poppyseed799]

Anyone have recommendations for mobile games / roblox games that are playable on mobile

I am bored out of my mind and wanna play things and I finally have space on my phone and I want things to do when I’m not on a computer but I can’t find anything to do

[pansythoughts]

So I got this anon message on curious cat

And I ended up writing an insane person essay on Luca, Alva, Herman, and class perceptions and economic considerations in roughly IDV’s canon era. It got too long for curious cat. I’m deeply embarrassed. You can read below the cut.

So to start with I agree with you anon but you’ve given me the opportunity to be so annoying about history and my Luca head canons so I want to take it.

I don’t think Luca grew up rich, despite growing up with an (likely) aristocratic last name and the *appearance* of nobility. From everything I can tell, Luca’s family was like upper middle class, or lower upper class; I suspect someone in Luca’s family (likely on his mothers side) had a background in some industry that allowed them to become very rich, or else were part of the hereditary landed gentry (no titles themselves, but related to a titled family). Herman also seems to come from this class, though the sense I get is that his family had a better reputation but less money than mama Balsa’s. With that distinction made, I think there’s a heavy implication in the lore that rather than provide appropriately for young Luca and Mama Balsa, Herman spent their money on his projects, neglecting not only the emotional aspects of being a father and a husband but also all financial responsibility. Luca grew up in high society, with his parents having connections, but much much less income for anything to do with them than would be expected of their class. Not only would this have made things difficult at home (paying servants wages would become hard in an era where nobility wasn’t expected to fend for themselves, as well as maintaining an residences or even potentially putting food on the table), this would have taken a huge toll on mama Balsa socially—appearance dictated *a lot* as I understand it in Victorian society, and any perception of shabbiness or debts would have slowly closed all social doors for mama Balsa.

And while you’re right, I think Mama Balsa would have had fewer options for recourse (women’s property rights were only reformed historically in a meaningful way for married women after the games would have already started), Luca would have had issues too. The hit to his reputation when word of his father spending all their money would have been difficult to over come even as a man, and would have shut the door for a lot of opportunities (if Herman is so reckless with money why should Luca be trusted? No one likes a scandal). The lack of funds would have made higher schooling difficult if not impossible, if for no reason then they’d be unable to pay for it. It’s no wonder that Luca ran away after his mother died and started using a different name from Herman’s—better to be broke but no one from no where with no baggage than to be broke and the known son of an scandalously irresponsible man.

And none of that’s even touching on the emotional neglect. Luca grew up without a father, and with the knowledge that he would never be as important to his father as his projects. Luca grew up watching doors close for him and his mother as his father spent and spent and spent their money on things he was never around to explain. Luca never got to know Herman, and only felt his absence as the horrible weight of choices he never had any say in. And then those choices killed his mother. No wonder Luca fucking hates him yknow?

And Herman never mentioned anything about his home or family life, so Alva didn’t know. He had no idea their research was being funded with the food from Herman’s sons mouth But Alva’s work for years is implied to be financially dependent on Herman (see Alva’s deductions, with Herman sending Alva funding; Alva, btw, is implied to be very newly middle class in his deductions, and this is already an insane person essay before I get into the class difference between Halva and power differential that would involve) and Herman made sure that Alva felt responsible for his ideas and for supporting Herman emotionally, and made sure he knew that he blamed Alva for his problems in the end. So Herman did just as much of a number on Alva in the exact opposite direction. It’s interesting, and a tragedy, and it’s fascinating how Herman is so directly the cause of both Alva and Luca’s problems, and how that set them up for their own tragedy going forward.

[t0bey]

ill be honest im not really a fan of how as soon as IDV makes an SS tier skin for a character who's both hugely meta and has a huge fanbase they think its fine to just be. boldly uncreative for a skin thats likely to cost hundreds of dollars for the average player

[mania-sama]

If you don't mind me asking, who are your top 5 (or top 7) favorite (fictional) characters ever from any media? Why love them?

thanks so much for the ask!! i always love your questions <3

God, this is a hard one. Because I've consumed and fallen in love with so many pieces of media in my life, it's hard for me to tell who exactly my favorite characters are. The pool is just too big to choose from! But I'll try my best regardless!

Also an important note that as I grow older, this list could very well become out-dated very fast. Who knows what I will see or what medias I will consume that will alter my perception of reality?

In no particular order:

Bakugou Katsuki [My Hero Academia] -> THE OG. I REPEAT. THE OG ONLINE OBSESSION. My history with My Hero Academia goes way back on my online persona, when I was a wee lad and experiencing my first online hyperfixation (Warrior Cats not included). I had him as online nickname and profile picture on multiple accounts and instances. I look back and cringe on this era of my life, but I still will not stand for slander on this character. I obsessed over him because he is an incredibly well-written character, with faults, passions, interesting qualities, and an insane amount of character growth that, arguably, rivals Zuko. His character motivations still stand out to me to this day. I quit reading/watching BNHA around the war arc, like right when it finished and Midoriya fled the scene. No particular reason for quitting, I think; I just moved on from that part of my life. But, Bakugou will always stick with me just a little. AND YOU KNOW WHAT. I liked him when everyone else still hated him. I liked him before it was cool to like him. Shout out to 2020-2021 me for being an OG. I'm still a "Ground Zero" truther to this very day.

Percy Jackson [Percy Jackson and the Olympians] -> Anyone that has read the PJO and/or the following series will not be surprised to find him here. He's like Spiderman but better, which is saying a lot because I really, really like Spiderman. Percy Jackson is there for every kid who has ever felt out of place in this world; for every kid who has struggled in succeeding in any aspect of their life; for every kid who grew up in a household different from their peers; for every kid who behaves in ways that other people don't seem to understand. Spiderman was a character created to represent the reader of superhero comics: a teenage white boy. Of course, later iterations of Spiderman come to represent more individuals, but that is not who he was originally. Percy Jackson is a character that comes from a place of necessity. He is a character that represents the reader of PJO: a kid who doesn't quite fit in with the rest, for one reason or another. Percy is funny, ultra-overpowered, relatable, and still gets his happy ending. Nothing more to want in a character, really.

Robbie White | Axe Boy [Identity V] -> My hunter main for Identity V. I don't really know how to explain why I love him so much, and how he has become a character I get emotional over very fast. I seem to find one random character from a game and attach myself to them like a jellyfish. Not only is his backstory devastatingly heartbreaking, he is adorable in all of his animations, standby motions, emotes, etc.. He has carried me to many victories, and he will continue to carry me in every match I play. I literally forced myself to download IDV on my laptop and play a few matches just so I could get his Little Nightmares crossover skin. No matter how far he falls from meta, they can never make me hate you Robbie.

Kugisaki Nobara [Jujutsu Kaisen] -> I had a LOT of internal debate over this. I guess I can't confirm until I leave the fandom, but for right now, she's definitely one of my top favorite characters of all time. I'm considering writing an analysis on her because she is just so good. I have never seen a female character in a piece of media that isn't explicitly feminine embody femininity so well. It actually impresses me to a degree I cannot reasonably tell you. She's just perfect. Everything about her is everything that I want to be as a woman. She's comfortable in her own skin, confident not in a man-ish way, but in a distinctly feminine way. What gives that she wants to feel pretty and strong in a physical way? Who is saying that she can't have both? Not to mention that she's also extremely strategically smart. I love her. I really, really do. Sometimes, I imagine strangling Gege's avatar and it makes me very happy.

Oikawa Tooru [Haikyuu] -> I honest-to-God cannot believe he made it here. I tried so hard to find a character to replace him. I did not want him here out of SPITE. But here he is, somehow, and not replaced by Miles Morales (who, upon reflection, would only be here because I did not want Oikawa to be here. Miles didn't even make my honorable mentions. That is proof enough, I suppose, that Oikawa somehow deserves his spot). I've talked about it before, but I'll reiterate it here: Oikawa is a character that is very, very easy to toy around with. He is THE teenager, and THE adult. You can project pretty much any anxiety or worry onto him and it'll make sense because he's got so many self-worth issues it's laughable. I don't want to spend more time talking about him than he deserves. I am as disappointed as you are that he made this list.

Honorable Mentions:

Razor & Xiao [Genshin Impact] -> They would've made the list if I could've put one above the other for real. Silly whimsical attachment with immense appreciation for the character writing vs serious love for the writing and development of the character beyond words. Simply an impossible choice.

Akabane Karma [Assassination Classroom] -> He was my favorite character of all time at one point in history and is still the inspiration behind my Tiktok nickname (that I may change one day). Unfortunately, it's been a long time since I've watched the anime and I can't remember much of what drew me to Karma in the first place that isn't already achieved in other of my favorite characters. Still, I thought I'd honor him here.

[rosemaze-reveries]

Writing out idv matches in fics has always felt too meta for me but I've also always wanted to try it 🤔 Anyway I started on one recently and had SO much fun omg. Will post soon.

I wanted to write about an obnoxious survivor who throws the game & blames everyone else for it & a hunter who taunts them for it (this might only appeal to me SMKDSMKS). Somehow it snowballed into a story about toxic exes fighting for control over each other. GIRL. i heart improper use of rocket chairs

[holdharmonysacred]

On reflection after finishing the circus story in idv, I will have to backtrack a little and give Mike some credit that he like. Figured out the culprit was Joker eventually. I think once the saw came out during the Violetta incident he figured it out, given that he seems to have retooled his Sergi-themed highjacking of the game to harass Joker with instead of Margaretha as originally planned. That being said, I still think he's dumb for hyper-focusing on Margaretha as Totally The Culprit before the saws reveal, because those red flags were still there well before then (why do you think "a guy in black did it" is a stupid lie when joker is standing in mostly black right in front of you????????). I do think he should've figured out earlier "oh shit, Joker is the one who did it, and Margaretha is at worst just covering for him", but I guess that's how trauma responses go.

My other opinions stand though, like I still think narratively that the story needed some more meat on them bones to better establish the circus backstory and character dynamics. I think the story mode kinda takes for granted "players would've done all the deductions and watched the trailers and read all the birthday letters" when that's not necessarily the case, and it's just make things flow a little more naturally in terms of story structure. Also jeezus these devs should go make some proper point-and-click adventure games, it feels like they want to so bad but then don't quite go all the way.

My only other complaint is the hunters' hunter forms seem a little underutilized, but that's more of a game-wide complaint I've got rather than something specific to the circus story. I don't think Everything supernatural being pinned on the manor drugs necessarily works given there's just so much supernatural going on and so many hunters. Like, I think the game canonizing the popular fanon scenario of "the manor is purgatory and the souls of all the survivors and hunters are trapped playing these stupid experiment games forever" alongside the main story would help fix this and let the hunters really shine as hunters while also keeping the more grounded mysteries. Like how if you've read Umineko, it's got the meta world (fully magical) VS gameboard (ambiguously/unreliable magical) VS real world (fully grim and mundane) split. Would it be convoluted? Yes. But it'd get the best of both worlds. god i wish idv would do an umineko collab, it'd be perfect.

As much as I've been complaining though I did actually have a fun time playing through it! There's a reason my complaints have all been just "this needs more oomph" rather than "this sucks", I did genuinely enjoy the story and I think it does what it does do very good. I think if the writers got some more practice with writing, and if they especially got to write some longer story modes, then we could really get cooking with some super good story modes.

[chaotic-toby]

Idv rant time baby

When I first started playing the game, the first character I bought was Luca, and no matter how many other characters came out that I also fell in love with, I will forever love Luca. He is my favourite character in the entire game, and I personally, think he's a really good character (I might be biased).

Now, I know idv has meta characters and non meta characters, but in my honest opinion, all characters are good if used correctly and you have skill, I suppose. I don't believe in meta. I have never once played a character just bc they're meta.

Back when I first started playing idv, I always hear people saying that Luca was really good. He was a really good decoder and kiter bc he had no kiting debuffs like Tracy and Helena. But now, years later, I keep hearing people say that he's garbage and low tier. I try to not let that bother me bc everyone has their different opinion about the characters and I suppose my opinion on there being no meta essentially is not common, but it really does bother me a lot.

Call me chronically online or whatever, but I feel personally offended whenever someone calls Luca a garbage character. It doesn't help that I genuinely feel like I am him (I am mentally ill I know that) but he is not garbage.

Are there characters whose abilities make it easier to win? Yes. But you can win with any character as long as you know how to play them AND play the game. I am genuinely so sick of people calling characters awful and low tier just bc their abilities suck or whatever.

What's the fun in playing an "easy" character. In the end, even if you do play a meta character, you still need skill.

Tldr: Luca is meta bc I'm basically him and I say so (no one can change my mind)