#if there is supplementary material contradicting any of this

[wolveswithhats]

We've talked at length about Kaz Brekker: Hot or Not, now let's talk about how Dirtyhands Does Himself Dirty, aka Kaz is driving his absolute beater of a body into the ground because he has no sense of personal wellness.

Welcome! and thanks for sitting in on my powerpoint presentation, there's a bottle of water under your seat and this complimentary crap art of the creature himself to get us started.

Disclaimer that I have no experience with using a cane, or being a teenage boy, or being a teenage boy that uses a cane, so take this all with a grain of salt.

SO. Cane height:

too tall and you're over-elevating your arm and shoulder and not able to fully support your weight, which is kind of the point?

too short and you need to hunch forward, straining your back

either or has negative bearing on your balance, posture, and gait, and will lead to pain even outside of the original injury site

Important to note because Kaz is def not getting properly sized for a cane right??

that's way too much of an admission of vulnerability and weakness, absolutely unacceptable

it's 1880-whatever fantasy Netherlands and WebMD doesn't exist for him to research the nuances of proper cane use himself, when will the Grisha invent the internet

stealing textbooks from the university is the period-appropriate (and Kaz-endorsed) option, but he has to be mobile for that, and is unlikely to ask someone to do that for him (see above: vulnerability)

it's been three years and growth spurts are a thing but Kaz asking for help is not (see above: weakness), so it's probable he's too tall for it now at 17 anyway

While super cool and iconic, a crow's head handle is unlikely to be particularly ergonomic, potentially leading to issues in his hand/wrist:

nerve compression

tendinitis

carpal tunnel

(Something probably to be said about the negative effects of an extra heavy weighted cane as well since it's as much a weapon as it is a mobility aid, but I'm not going down yet another research hole, I've already spent way too much time on this. Just keep it as a consideration in this running tally of Kaz's myriad of cane-related issues)

Contrary to the reputation he's trying to build for himself, Kaz is a human with human needs. On the daily, as a growing lad he should be

sleeping 8-10 hours

eating 2000+ calories

getting 30-60 min of physical activity

In actuality, Kaz is

absolutely not doing that, he will sleep when he's dead

surviving almost entirely off of a diet of coffee and spite

further aggravating his leg by hobbling up and down three rickety flights of stairs several times a day

engaging in the major league sport of cracking skulls with his cane. (that's some form of exercise maybe I guess??)

really bad at being anything approaching a healthy teenage boy (they eat! so, so much. please, someone Feed Him)

Additionally, while poking around, I found some overlap between the symptoms of the Queen's Lady Plague and smallpox, notably that one of the early stages of smallpox are sores that start in the mouth and throat and become pustulous, ie: Kaz's raspy, damaged voice. I don't think it's smallpox proper (the pitted scarring is so disfiguring that it would be all over his face and body, and immediately identifiable if he had it), it's probably a less aggressive but still very fatal strain of something adjacent in the pox family. Regardless tho, I'm cribbing one of the potential smallpox complications to contribute to my "Kaz is the Saddest, Wettest Dog" thesis: 

arthritis 🙃

I did check as well to see if any of the poxes could permanently weaken the immune system, and it wouldn't seem so; if you live, you bounce back. But that's ok because Kaz is already doing the footwork of taking a wrecking ball to his immune system just fine on his own:

poor nutrition ✔

lack of sleep ✔

stress ✔

Mmm, you are just crushing it, brother.

So I'm not trying to pitch any of this as fact, or throw hands with Leigh Bardugo in the parking lot of a Denny's for having Inej ogle over his ghostly white abs. If you are writing about his broad shoulders and good, good arms, all the more power to you! Maybe he's lifting dumbbells in his office to work that upper bod, no one can tell you he's not. I'm just saying that if you are more for the idea that he is an absolute wet paperbag of a boy (scrawny! sickly! in constant pain! arthritic?? likely to burst into flames if put into direct sunlight!!), there is more than enough to run with to support that argument.

[project-sekai-facts]

I've heard that Harumichi's reasoning for being against street music was retconned, but I can't find any scenes contradicting the one given in Toya5. Was there a different explanation, or is the Toya5 explanation just going more in-depth?

Okay so I mentioned it was a retcon before but WLE card stories confirmed the original reasoning behind his negativity towards Toya becoming a street musician is still at play. Which makes the introduction of new Harumichi lore even worse. I mean. It kinda fits in like you could just assume Harumichi never expressed the true reasoning for his dislike towards street music because he's like that or whatever but that doesn't really work well. Basically a poor attempt by the writers to give Harumichi more layers (that he didn't need) and a more sympathetic reason for his actions (that he didn't need) so writing Toya reconciling with him will be easier or something because he will be able to understand his dad's actions and the offense taken when Toya ran away (which he already had like. 3 different reasons for). The new reason from ttto also just makes him worse as a character lmao. Explanation:

The original reason given in earlier stories like main story and nocturne, as well as some supplementary materials and more recently, concerto, was that Harumichi believed that Toya was throwing away his potential as a classical musician by running away, and that's the cause of his negativity towards Toya and street music. Harumichi is internationally known for his craft, and all of his sons have followed in his footsteps as talented classical musicians. Harumichi taught Toya from a young age to be as good as he is, and yet Toya breaks due to the abusive nature of his lessons and runs away.

To throw salt in the wound, Toya then runs off and decides to learn a different genre of music from some random boy he met off the street one day who isn't nearly as acclaimed as Harumichi is. Harumichi also blames Akito for Toya sticking with street music, claiming him to be a bad influence who corrupted Toya. Toya chose street music not because it was street music, but because he wanted to pick the furthest thing from classical to piss off his dad for making his childhood a living hell. He repeatedly says in main story he would've done anything so long as it wasn't classical.

We see more of Harumichi in Nocturne where his establishing moment is him reprimanding Toya for being out late performing with VBS, telling Toya he's being childish and needs to do "what he was born for". Later in the event we see some flashbacks of him complaining about how little meaning street music has compared to classical. His issues clearly stem from some sort of superiority issue. We don't really know too much about his past but one would assume Harumichi is not the first classical musician in his family from how he treats it and how he raised his children to be like him. It's a legacy thing on top of it as well.

Toya is able to get through to Harumichi to some degree by appealing to the idea of street music having meaning and bringing Toya joy in the same way Harumichi feels about classical. This actually works and Harumichi attends Toya's performance, though their relationship remains mostly cold. That said, Harumichi gains some level of respect for his son.

Harumichi isn't relevant after that until Concerto, but it picks up his arc pretty much from where it left off. He's still cold towards Toya, but recognises his passion for street music being the same as his passion for classical, and is able to give Toya advice to help him follow that different path despite everything. Later in the event Toya goes to him for advice again, and comes clean about how much running away has weighed him down and how much he felt like he was a disappointment to his father. Harumichi finally admits to Toya that he was disappointed that Toya threw 12 years of something he once loved down the drain, but admits that he's proud of Toya for the 12 years he spent dedicating his life to classical music, and believes in his ability to surpass RW. It's the first time Toya and his father have a real conversation over their feelings from that time and Harumichi confesses to Toya that his disappointment and anger stemmed from Toya throwing away something he loved, something he dedicated his life to, and something he had potential in.

That is why ttto's new explanation doesn't work.

Time to Take Off introduced the idea of Harumichi having a grudge against the genre of street music specifically. The cause of this was a run in with some street musicians more than thirty years ago who insulted classical music. To reiterate: the new lore insists that Harumichi spent more than three decades hating a genre because of a couple of rude people he talked to one time.

As I mentioned, this seems like an attempt to justify his disappointment towards Toya becoming a street musician to make him easier to sympathise with for a possible later reconciliation. Although we already had been given the following explanations for his behaviour:

He views classical very highly because of its personal importance to him and views other genres as inferior

He's disappointed that Toya would throw away 12 years of dedication to classical

He's disappointed Toya would neglect his natural talent for classical and potential as a professional classical musician

He's disappointed that Toya is the only person in the family to reject classical and the family legacy (more subtextual but very much there)

He's angry that Toya chose to pursue a different genre with a young and inexperienced mentor instead of returning to classical or quitting altogether

He also doesn't like Akito specifically

The 30 year long grudge completely undermines the conflict between Toya and his father between main story and Concerto, and especially weakens the impact of his conversation with Toya in the latter now that you have to assume he was keeping all this quiet while confessing to his son that despite is disappointment over Toya throwing away so much, he is proud of Toya for once loving the music as him.

And yes, you could argue "he didn't mention it then because it would have made things worse", "he never talked about it before because he's not an open person", and while both these statements are true the real reason is that this lore didn't exist and was invented solely to give him a sympathetic backstory. It's clunky. If you have to go out of your way to justify why it wasn't mentioned 4 years ago then it shouldn't have been mentioned at all. It doesn't naturally fit with the story or his character at all.

Harumichi is a prideful character. He's built on that. It's a major theme of Concerto and is what informs many of his interactions with Toya in that event in both present day and flashbacks. The writers spent four years building this aspect of his character, and explaining that his emotional neglect towards Toya following him quitting music was because of his prideful nature. His newly added dislike towards street music barely comes from a place of pride, but a place of pettiness. Harumichi has pride in himself, his son, his family legacy, but most of all, classical music. He would have moved on from that bad encounter a long time ago if he was truly proud of his music, since he would know his music holds more worth and more meaning than theirs ever will. This is exactly how Harumichi was characterised prior to ttto. Ttto wants us to look back and recontextualise everything with the knowledge that Harumichi is petty and can't let go of things, and quite frankly it becomes contradictory within a couple minutes of reading.

Now had this been introduced in main story or nocturne we would not be having this conversation. The reason it's so bad to introduce it at this point is because it's so far through the story and Toya's arc. Toya finally confronted his dad properly in Concerto, his previous event. While they have not fully reconciled, it was the closest they have ever gotten and the first time Harumichi has properly opened up to his son about his side of the story. We heard Harumichi's side of the story, he told us that his anger towards the path Toya chose, but also his love and respect for him as a son, come from a place of pride. After that is not the time to bring in new explanations for his actions. He told us why he acted the way he did, and it's insulting to the audience to be told that he was actually keeping secrets. It ruins the emotional value of the scene and many others.

Also just emotionally neglecting your child over a 30+ year old grudge just makes Harumichi look even shittier as a person and as a dad so I don't get why we're meant to feel sympathy due to this change.

[lairofdragonagelore]

Will you be doing anything with the lore Veilguard provided?

Hi there,

short answer: no.

I was thinking about it during all this time, and I came to the conclusion that… there is barely anything to rescue. The lore has been oversimplified in ways that, sometimes, contradicts deeply all what the previous games and supplementary media had been trying to keep consistent [with its mistakes and all], but the intention was clear. With DAV, what I see is a total disinterest in the lore, a deep hatred for the History of this fantasy world, and between the "lore" provided by the game and the disgraceful AMA, honestly, I only could see a deep resentment to DA lore. In part, confirmed later by David Gaider's bluesky post about how DA and ME teams were always in a silent war, and EA had a clear preference for ME over DA.

I'm deeply disappointed with the game, it's not a secret for anyone who has read me a bit or knows me a bit. And it's a disappointment that hurts me, because it's there, unfixable, no matter how many times I played the cursed game which even with dev hell, had more time to develop than DA2 did. And yet, DA2 has higher quality in terms of writing, story, lore, and characters--sure, with mistakes here and there because they did an entire game in 18 months, unlike DAV which had 3 years in the worst case scenario. Yes, you kill spiders 50 million times in DA2, in the same dungeon, over and over, but we never played DA games for combat or for its dungeon crawler. An obvious truth totally forgotten or purposely ignored by the DAV team.

It's awful, shallow characters, obvious “symbolism” for 4 y/o players, zero logic in most plots [illario, for example], and zero interest in environmental telling and lore [we never have a codex that is not a fucking whatsup message between the companions, we don't read fragments from books of any kind as we did in previous games, it's always a person speaking like in a journal, or in a post-it... so stupid]. Ugh, I dislike it viscerally, indeed.

Like I said to some fellows, we were offered a toy that was broken, smeared with shit, and then it was given to us telling us to be happy for it. "Dragon age is yours now :D" is the most annoying and cynic thing to read after all the destruction of the lore they did. Andromeda had the benefit that it was almost considered a "spin-off", the galaxy was another, it was another setting, if you didnt like it, you still had all ME intact. Here? they destroyed not only the current and future of Thedas, but also all the previous games between the massive wipe of the South and the stupid concept of the Executioners as the "Thedas Illuminati". For what? to have the most generic, boring, bland setting ever. Great job in capturing new audiences. Clearly it was not worthy, according EA.

I can be all day ranting about all the lore they totally ignored [for example, all about the concept of divinity with dragons and mythal's particular interest in dragons, and the dragon blood drinkers], about all the lore they oversimplified to the most inert thing [red lyrium] or the creation of bullshit concepts like Solas now turns into a hyena because "generic symbolism"! What I can say is that, to heal myself, and to try to mourn and also “rescue” DA lore the best I can [for my own parameters, that's it] is to dedicate my free time to Lore-crafting. Using all the canon materials we had up to DAV, I craft what I think it should have been more suitable for the status of the story after Tresspasser. Again, it's all personal-crafted lore [non-canon even though it's based heavily on it], so I'm doing it in my personal tumblr. You can see the index of it in this page. When I explore a topic or an aspect of the lore that is 100% canon with speculations but without crafted lore, I will post it here [as I did recently with the post of Dates and months in Thedas]. That will be the dynamics of both tumblrs.

I'm basically a scavenger: I'm building and crafting lore as I write my personal story of DA:Dreadwolf, which of course it will be bad and flawed as hell since I'm not an english native speaker, and I'm not a professional writer, but it will have love of Thedas and its complexity even though sometimes it's overwhelming. That's for granted.

As you can see in the link, at this moment I'm working heavily on the context of Tevinter, building its complexity and how it works with their particular templars [things we did not truly see in any previous game]. Or the immense complexity that slaves have as race and magical condition intersect in privileges that can be exploited and how this produces inner frictions even among the slaves [nothing better for a system like this one than to have all your slaves very fragmented and resented one another to never truly become a challenge against the magocracy]. I ignore completely DAV "lore", even though I rescued some characters and concepts that I considered interesting to explore but they were so blandly presented in the game, that meant nothing. Most of my "personal Dreadwolf" will be based on what I can infer from all the content we had from post-inquisition and Joplin projects present in the artbook.

It's a hell of a project, it will have a mediocrity proper of a fan, and will take me a loooot of time, since I'm only one person, who also works in a demanding job. But at least I found myself liking Thedas again, and not hating it as I did every second in that sitcom, marvel-like product called DAV. We'll see how that progress.

[furinana]

The intriguing manga story arcs of SMTIV

"What the hell happened to Flynn?!", everyone thought.

[DISCLAIMER: spoilers for SMTIV, SMTIVA and the manga adaptations ahead!]

1) Overview

Shin Megami Tensei IV -Prayers- and Shin Megami Tensei IV DEMONIC GENE are the two SMTIV-based manga that were originally serialized by shonen magazine V-Jump to promote the game in mid 2013 until late 2014.

The mangaka responsible for -Prayers- was Masataka Miura while DEMONIC GENE's was Ikumi Fukuda (who was later hired to draw the cutscenes for SMTIVA).

Both works were supervised by SMTIV director Kazuyuki Yamai. The total amount of both combined are 31 chapters.

2) What are they about?

They are self-contained arcs that are each a "retake" of the beginning of SMTIV except in alternate timelines, with Jonathan in -Prayers- or Walter in DEMONIC GENE serving as the protagonist.

Flynn is absent from the Samurai prentice group and gets replaced by a different manga-exclusive deuteragonist for each story: Jonathan's rival Asuma that pursues revenge after his parents got killed by demons by devouring them in -Prayers- and Walter's childhood friend Gina that is unknowingly an artificially-created angel made in Reversal Hills 12 years prior in DEMONIC GENE.

Role-wise, Asuma and Gina aren't so different from each other; they both grew as Casualries that met Jonathan and Walter as kids, serve as motivators behind their actions throughout the story, and most notably, their sense of self becomes twisted into obsessively chasing and executing demons.

Jonathan and Walter's relationship with Asuma and Gina in each respective's arc is what gets centered over everything else, although Flynn still is an odd yet intrinsic part of the puzzle that redetermines Jonathan and Walter's original alignments of the game even when he's not an active participant of the plot.

3) Is reading the manga necessary in order to understand the original SMTIV?

Both manga stories have inconsistencies and different takes on what the original game built on, so it's certainly a bit tricky to define what might have been leftovers of underdeveloped aspects of SMT4 and what was inserted specifically for the adaptations.

Naturally, arbitrary changes are commonly done in adaptations as they are made for promoting to a wider audience, hence the general pre-skepticism (specially considering Megaten media) is earned.

But what if I tell you that... they have nonetheless

>>>>IMPORTANT supplementary material that enables a more complete understanding of SMT4's scenario and worldbuilding?<<<<

Picked your interest enough? I promise it'll be worth the read.

4) What do these stories bring to the table?

For examples of not-mentioned-in-game trivia that don't contradict SMTIV info, we have...

Akira's parents receiving the same fate as Flynn's (and his past life's in the scenario draft)

Navarre's inability to swim being an existing trait prior to SMTIVA

However, these are just bite-sized ones. The real juice comes from the ones next...

4.1) The potential true reason behind Navarre leaving the prentice group in the game

The fact that Navarre stays with the main cast in both manga arcs raises the possibility that Flynn's presence seems to be what catalyzed his resentment and refusal to continue being a Samurai in the game.

We can theorize that Navarre becomes deeply uncomfortable with Flynn "passing" as a Luxuror better than himself despite being a Casualry, which doesn't happen with Walter (or any of the other manga-exclusive characters).

4.2) Different perspectives on what makes someone interested in the Literature

In the game, while Jonathan says he's an avid reader of Mikado tales and Isabeau shows passion towards manga, both never heard of "the Literature" previously. We are shown that many Casualries (among them Issachar) become Literature enthusiasts due to the medium providing a voice and space for them to realize and discuss the oppressive societal structures they're inserted into.

Meanwhile, we see examples of Literature readers with other motives in the manga: Navarre reads them for clout and entertainment, the relic-obsessed Stan is an aficionado for foreign knowledge to the point of being jailed by the Monastery and senior Samurai Ys takes advantage of their potential to gain power and authority over others (and consequentially corrupting Asuma along).

Mikado is meant to be a direct parallel to Europe during the Middle Ages, where the Church played a significant role in education and culture hence much of the written texts available were produced specifically for didactic purposes focused on religious and moral themes.

Fictional stories, in comparison, were seen as frivolous or less important, and more importantly, usually only had themes of interest to the higher castes that also were the ones with more leisure time and the means to read in contrast to the common folk that were subject to labor-intensive lifestyles and alienated from anything that wasn't practical knowledge.

This background is important to fully grasp the big deal of the Black Samurai organizing sabbaths and spreading a Literature that finally "appealed" to the lower castes in SMTIV that interestingly also happened to be the one that causes mayhem within their society.

4.3) The lost nuance behind Mikado's laws

Particularly for whom they are made for; there's a clearer understanding on the way the Monastery skirts around the dogmas according to their own interests (which is, again, paralleled to the Church and the State being closely linked historically).

Something interesting to reflect on is that it's left up in the air in both games what was truly on Akira's mind when he set those laws as Aquila (or whether he set them at all) due to none of the events that surrounded him being shown to the player in real time, but rather told via NPCs or flashbacks (manipulated by Stephen) through Nanashi.

As we know, the duology conveys the idea that Akira/Aquila was of deceitful nature. He seemingly made a deal with Fujiwara and Skins that he would pretend to ally with the angels in order to outsmart them, while being labeled as a traitor by everyone else in the CDF (and later the Hunters). Akira would however get killed by the Heralds before his plan reached completion; Mastema, the morally dubious angel that he made a pact with, acted as his back up plan and imprisioned his murderers with Flynn's help as shown in the Clipped Wings DLCs. The narrative that "Akira was always secretly on Tokyo's side" is what gets emphasized, as if almost set in stone.

Considering that the Heralds were inherently of the philosophy that All Are Equal Before God (since the system of castes gets eliminated once the Heralds come back), it raises the question: was Akira intentionally developing a society where seeds of insurgency could germinate? Or was all of this just the normal consequences of human nature in followers gradually ignoring the teachings and starting to exploit others under religion imagery after losing their guides? We are left without a clear answer. Either way, we can be assured Mastema 100% had a hand in both possibilities. 👇

Mastema in the myth

A thought-provoking figure from the Book of Jubilees, an apocryphal retelling of Book of Genesis and Book of Exodus, the angel Mastema is hypothesized to be a step in developing the concept of the Devil as independent from God during the Second Temple period. By substituting YHVH's malevolent role with one of his angels, God is abolished from evil actions.

Jubilees narrates the genesis of angels on the first day of Creation and the story of how a group of fallen angels mated with mortal females, giving rise to a race known as the Nephilim. Their hybrid children, the Nephilim in existence during the time of Noah, were wiped out by the Great Flood. God granted ten percent of the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim — as demons — to Mastema to try to lead mankind astray after the Flood until the final judgment.

In other words, Mastema's duty is simply to tempt men to sin and if they do, he accuses them before the Throne of God. While not initiating the process of sin, Mastema and his spirits lead humanity on to greater wrongdoing. This is related to the Biblical function of Satan, where men can achieve righteousness if they are tempted and resist.

It was Mastema who urged God to test the piety of Abraham (as Satan did with Job) by demanding Isaac as a sacrifice:

“Then Prince Mastema came and said before God:  ‘”Abraham does indeed love his son Isaac and finds him more pleasing then anyone else. Tell him to offer him as a sacrifice on an altar.  Then you will see whether he performs this order and will know whether he is faithful in everything through which you test him.’” -Jubilees 17:16

Although a prince of evil, Mastema is subservient to the Lord and never harms His servants, therefore he does not fear imprisonment along with the Nephilim. Whenever Mastema acts, it's only by God's permission, or Mastema is immediately restrained. In cases when harm actually befalls God's people, Mastema is not associated with the act.

Throughout the Book of Jubilees, God's loyalty to the people of Israel remains unshaken. Mastema might be understood as a figure of evil befalling the non-Jewish nations. As such, the text inverts the audience's expectations by nullifying the power of the agent of evil as long as they stay loyal to the Jewish tradition. Yet, Jubilees assert that, ultimately, evil is caused by God, as it is God who explicitly grants Mastema demons. God allows evil to exist, but only for a limited period of time, without committing evil himself.

4.4) Further clarity on parallels between Tokyo and Mikado

The Ashura-kai is the Monastery as the top of the chain that thrives off exploiting those below them and whose rules are absolute. The Hunters are the Samurai as the expendable soldiers that rely on their own strength.

And the red pills are the Literature, appealing to the most disadvantaged in their cries for being released from structural oppression. And you certainly remember what happens to people that consume them.

4.5) The circumstances behind humans-turned-demons are given more weight

Marginalized people are much more vulnerable to becoming demons, shaping into "targets" to be feared by others when they stop taking injustice passively and rebels against the system that preys upon them.

The hole in the utopic world opens accordingly: law-enforcement kills the very people it claims to protect, as shown by Asuma, a previous Casualry, becoming another cogwheel that contributes to disruptive emotions to arise that killed his parents in the first place as he became a Samurai — including in himself.

4.6) There's emphasis on Walter not knowing the mystic language (in other words, he knows English but not Japanese).

It's not made very clear whether Walter is illiterate for both languages or if it's just the mystic script that he can't read; he's presented as someone that doesn't care for books but we aren't shown Burroughs saying aloud what's written for him either.

Either way, Walter's ignorance and reliance on technology is an important aspect that emphasizes how Casualries can remain "pure" and not fail into rebellion as long as they keep away from knowledge and ways to acquire it.

Observe the double meaning behind Gina, the artificial angel, whose friendship with Walter is centered on checking up on him and making sure he "stays in line".

What attentive players realize by this point is that another key element that distinguishes the Literature shown by the Black Samurai is that they're books written in the common tongue of the very first people of Mikado (aka the children from Tokyo that were forcibly taken by the angels and later were joined by Akira and his group). The angels wished to officialize English as the only language of Mikado, a commentary on Western imperialism that leads to erasure of cultural knowledge and practices.

4.7) More background on the intents behind Reversal Hills

It's left ambiguous if the manga-exclusive angel Abdiel had other purposes for bringing Gina to Mikado, but considering Mastema had been taking part in allowing the Reverse Hills experiments since then, there's a similar theme in Gina's creation to the reveal in the Explosive Epidemic in Mikado SMTIVA DLC where the Law side aimed to breed a "superior" race of humans made with angelic genes.

The Gauntlet Ritual symbolizes why the plan of a 100% pure civilization made to be inherently subservient to God failed: because of Flynn's past life fusing with Masakado, Akira and the CDF were able to escavate through Masakado's body and build the Sky Tower to reach Mikado, thus crossbreeding with some of the genetically-altered kids of the cocoons hence giving birth to humans with Tokyo blood mixed in that are able to use the Gauntlets previously owned by the late CDF users (although some might argue that there's also an element of reincarnation involved). It's therefore understandable why the angels would desperately desire for a weapon like Gina to "clean the contamination" that Akira's group left on Mikado.

Across the eugenism spectrum we have Hiruko as the "defect" born from the experiments. If Gina is the model breed in the eyes of angels, Hiruko represents the filthy, deformed, therefore undesired aspects that embody their vision of what makes an Unclean One. If Gina is the perfect result, Hiruko is the fusion accident.

On a minor note, Hallelujah as a Nephilim (he's a fallen angel x human hybrid, remember) shares similarities to Hiruko from existing indirectly from Mastema's deeds and regarding harboring feelings of alienation due to being seen as a living threat to humans.

By the way, there's a possible myth reference in Hiruko: her name in Japanese translates as “Leech Child” and is associated to the misconceived firstborn of the creator couple Izanami and Izanagi, who considered the child inadequate due to its physical impairment and set it adrift in a reed boat. The term "Hiruko" implies that the baby had limbs that were distorted in a way similar to the shape of a water leech. Some theorize that Hiruko could have been a malformed fetus known as a hydatidiform mole, which is a pathological pregnancy with abnormal growth due to chromosomal abnormalities.

If you were someone like Hiruko, your only foothold in the world would be to find others similar as you; accept that everything was set against you from your birth, embrace that you'll always be seen as a threat and, ultimately, use this "demonic treatment" as your source of strength. She felt attracted to Walter as she saw a kindred spirit that would also be useful for her goals of destruction, and naturally tried to move him away from her loathed foil, Gina.

We can make suppositions that even Gina's close bond with Walter may be related to an instinct of spreading her genes across multiple generations in order to gradually cleanse Mikado from any emotions that could trigger rebellion.

4.8) Explanation on how magnetite works in the world of SMT4

In real life, magnetite is a commonly occurring iron oxide (Fe3O4), the most magnetic naturally occurring mineral on Earth. In the Megaten franchise, magnetite (usually abbreviated as MAG) is a mystical energy source used by demons to manifest and maintain physical bodies. As a game mechanic, magnetite has functioned in a variety of ways, appearing most often as points that get consumed when the player explores dungeons with demons summoned within their party.

Interestingly, -Prayers- gives spotlight to the SMTIV's deeper approach to its usage in the storyline itself despite not being an actual game mechanic in the duology compared to previous games titles:

This might be one of the most underappreciated aspects of the manga considering how intrinsic magnetite is for the full picture behind several key events of the duology, such as humans suddenly turning into demons, Flynn filling the chalice for Masakado, Shesha absorbing souls disguised as Flynn, YHVH getting dethroned, the Demon Gene spreading in Mikado, it goes on.

Asuma, blinded by his resentment against the existence of demons, turns into a demon himself due to his own magnetite and thus commits to endless cannibalism towards those he loathes the most. Not realizing his misguided feelings were being used as a smoke screen, he let Ys become a powerful entity by the same system that caused him suffering.

Magnetites react to emotions, feelings, instincts, thought and will; as such, humans naturally attract them into their bodies and are the richest sources of this substance.

Magnetite becomes the medium for humans to either embody, expel or transfer their own desires. And as mentioned in the Explosive Epidemic in Mikado DLC, magnetite also spreads like contagion.

And for last, let's talk about something that deserves its own session...

5) The rabbit hole regarding what Flynn represents

5.1) Interconnected fates

Jonathan and Walter have visions and dreams with a Flynn that is "aligned" to each's respective alignment (and would later manifest in front of them). The main thing a reader will notice is the reversal of roles compared to how it works originally: in the game, Flynn receives visions of Jonathan and Walter pledging for him to side with each while in the manga Flynn is the one compelling them to go further on their roles of Law and Chaos pieces.

Nanashi has a strikingly similar dynamic with Flynn's past life that aligned to Neutral in the timeline of SMTIVA (although in his case it seemed to be Stephen showing him such); this being a recurring element even outside of the manga opens up the hypothesis that whether a character plays an active or passive role possibly depends on which perspective we're looking at in SMT4's universe, leading to the interpretation that all parties involved are unreliable narrators: in other words, there's no 100% objectivity regarding who is influencing whom (and highly likely it's by design).

5.2) Role of Game Master

In both stories, the reason Flynn isn't present as he normally would be in the games is because "Flynn" exists outside of the timeline as he's the one manipulating it to his own desires.

The label many readers come up with is that he's "a New Game Plus!Flynn"; in -Prayers- he comes bathed in light and aids Jonathan on becoming a selfless hero that saves humanity through faith as if he came straight from the Law route's ending while in -Demonic Gene- he's covered in darkness and creepily smiles as he encourages Walter towards a path of solitude focused on personal strength as the one that beat the Chaos route.

Symbolically, the omniscient depiction of Flynn we see represented in the manga serves as a metatextual "follow up" to the very scene where Flynn gets introduced as the player character.

The manga makes explicit that Flynn's personality and goals are also flexible according to the flow, which shows his SMTIVA depiction is just one among many as every player has their own version of him when playing. Flynn's role as blank state protagonist implies he's a man that can shape many, if not infinite, possible worlds.

5.3) Ability to overwrite

Flynn subverts the outcome Walter and Jonathan reached in their game routes; in here, he reappropriates and pushes towards a less destructive approach of both, although under arguably contrasting moral stances.

In -Prayers-, Flynn preaches for Jonathan to take the power away from someone that egotistically claims to be God and that Jonathan should fight in behalf of humans from both Tokyo and Mikado; meanwhile, in DEMONIC GENE, Flynn tells Walter to not fall to the trap of being used for someone else's goals and lose his own freedom. -Prayers-'s theme works under a genuine altruistic logic for Law while DEMONIC GENE's emphasizes true individualism for Chaos.

Ys is a stand-in for YHVH while Hiruko is a stand-in for Lucifer. It's a confirmation that, from the very start, the approaches we see towards Law or Chaos in the games were flawed even from the perspective of a Flynn that would go down in those paths.

Both manga adaptations imply that Flynn as a character has always had an inherent sense of dissatisfaction towards the very idea of humanity not being given autonomy, hence harboring a zeal on altering fate even if it takes irreversibly distorting his own sense of identity and relationships with others.

6) Final words

I'm sure many of you are still unsatisfied and will be wondering by the end of this post things like... "Did Manga Flynn meet the Great Will?" "Did Manga Flynn accomplish to climb to Übermensch levels like Stephen (and Nanashi in Massacre) did?" "Did Manga Flynn finally learn not to confuse tights with seaweed?"

And all I say is... Probably? Don't underestimate the power of living through many life cycles, folks

[octosan]

kfdgkfdkf okay I'll stop posting about it soon and then I'll go back to

Idk what do I even do on this blog, translyrics? game updates? hundreds of half-finished stuff in here... Maybe I'll post about Baldur's Gate or something. I definitely don't want this to be my first post forever because I'm already getting depressed writing it

Damn they really went on Reddit and said everything was fine and exactly according to plan huh. really just told us that this version of the game was what they wanted and was fine and they're not touching that story again but oooo there's so much left to tell! now that we've destroyed all of the plot threads of previous games there's so much story left to tell!

I don't even know what to say about all the times they said stuff that clearly was not in the game or the intention of the game.

an entire narrative of how heroic the crows are and how they're the only ones looking out for antiva, depicting caterina as a loving grandmother, a narrative where when someone points out how bad the crows are for antivan politics we are expected to understand that this person is the villain for saying these things, a sucking ABSENCE of any recognition that the crows as an organization have been cruel slave masters who abuse and mold their child acquisitions into assassins and kill the ones who fail, lore that was accurate even in the supplementary materials that teased this game, but no "it's very clear that the crows we meet are just idealists and the average antivan crow is more like illario, sorry, did that exchange not make it into the game...?"

I can't even find the words for how they talked about Solas and the way they retconned him and his agents and everything he cared about in the previous games. I was giving so much grace towards how Solas was done in this game. I liked every scene with him in it, "Mythal" stuff aside I think Weekes did an excellent job with his dialogue. I was perfectly happy telling myself that even if the game didn't touch on it, his agents might have been around trying to help people offscreen like he mentioned of his spirit allies. But no he cut them all loose because hedfkgdfkg suddenly remembered how much leadership sucks and he doesn't care about people. what was all that about "you're not ready for leadership and you have to sometimes make hard choices as a leader" when he was talking to rook then? dog you literally just bounced from all of your leadership responsibilities offscreen apparently

like epler said stuff that outright contradicted the actual game that they just made let alone the lore of previous games!

I can't dskfskdfkads I can't even imagine the gall of going on there and ignoring so many of the actual criticisms from fans who are going through the stages of grief, fans who were trying to do their damage control for them pointing out the game's hellish development cycle and how stacked the odds were against the devs, and how veilguard is only as good as it is because they fought so hard to get SOMETHING of substance into it.

to then say that this game is exactly what they wanted and they were happy with it. to say that they meant for the factions (and by extension Rivain itself) to be shafted. to imply that the "de-centralization of" morality and political conflict in this series (kudos to the fan that had that much tact because I don't think they would have answered it otherwise) was "what worked for the story" instead of being an absolute hindrance to it. Claiming that people "put their prejudices aside to fight the gods" when in fact that was never something they showcased in the game. to say that the only thing they fought for was meaningless crap like the Hall of Valor and the haunting sidequests. To say that you aren't able to have conversations with your companions because of tech limitations.

Tech limitations??

To make more false promises that the next game, who knows? maybe THAT game will have more interesting geo-political conflict now that the old storylines are gone. Maybe we'll see more of Tevinter in THAT game now that the more meaningful issues like slavery, classism, racism, the war with the Qunari, and abuse of blood magic are on their way out. Maybe THAT game will have more meaningful and unique romances in it. Maybe THAT game will include your more meaningful choices from the previous three games, now that their relevancy to the story and the fandom has been rendered at an all time low. Maybe THAT game will have returning characters from previous games, now that we've already introduced the likelihood that most of them are dead from old age and the Blight. Maybe THAT game will have interesting personal stories.

I saw nothing about how terrible the roleplaying in this game was either, though I'm sure they would once again go "maybe the NEXT game you'll be allowed to say an unkind thing sometimes." god that comment he made of like "maybe in the NEXT game you'll be allowed to be rivals with your companions, but it just didn't work for this story which is all about putting aside your differences to fight the elven gods :)"

I don't even know how to express all of it coherently.

it's not just that Veilguard wasn't good. it was not good. It had stuff that I liked, though. I ended the game trying to give it a bit of grace, especially because I can't even stomach playing a second run anymore so what do I know about what all is in this game? A lot of the lore reveals and developments (if not necessarily the ending) I felt like could have worked in a game that had time and good writing to accommodate it. The companions were good conceptually and had things that could have worked if given time to develop them into the trappings of previous lore. I told myself its biggest flaw was to not give a proper reckoning and development to these things built up by the previous games, not their inclusion at all.

even when there's stuff I didn't like about the visuals, like how completely non-mystical they made the Fade look in this game and how the elven empire is just fantasy sci-fi now, that wasn't a huge deal to me because every dragon age game has cycled through different aesthetics and at this point you can pick and choose from the designs if you really want, like I've seen lovely fanart that gives Solas and other post-DA2 elven characters the nose ridges of that game for example. The artstyle didn't bother me that much.

But reading all of that from the AMA, I'm just.

Somewhere along the process the writers stopped caring about the things that longtime fans have loved and cared about and looked forward to for years. They stopped caring about it so much that they destroyed all of it to make something else. and then they turned around and told us all of that was intentional and exactly what they wanted to do. and then they tried to keep us on the hook anyway by saying that the next game might at least go into some of it. And it's very painful to know that this is how things are for a series I've loved and always come back to since I was a kid.

More power to the people who like Veilguard and like what the devs have said about it and the next game. But when DA5 comes out, I will not be buying it. I can't believe DA4 is the first game I've ever bought where I actually regret spending so much money on it in the first place, and I got the cheapest version of it.

[lostcauses-noregrets]

Lost, in the final part of the uprising, Levi tells Erwin, "Another gamble, the Survey Corps' only strategy. Just like everything else you come up with." I've seen people use this against Eruri, saying Levi didn't believe in Erwin's abilities and that it's another reason why he picked Armin over. I know that everything else contradicts this, but why did Levi even say this? Was he throwing shade? I can't see what else Erwin or anyone else could've done against the titans, and making gambles was really the only way to do it. They weren't fighting humans they could understand and try to outsmart. They were fighting giant man-eating monsters. So yeah, what's the point of having Levi say this?

Anonymous asked:

I saw someone say that when Levi insults Erwin, he does it genuinely. Do you think that's true?

I hope you don’t mind me answering both these asks together. First of all, let’s get this out of the way…

"I've seen people use this against Eruri, saying Levi didn't believe in Erwin's abilities and that it's another reason why he picked Armin over."

I can’t believe I have to say this in the year of our lord 20234.  There is nothing in the manga, the anime, the supplementary materials or anywhere else to suggest that Levi “didn’t believe in Erwin’s abilities”.  Levi picked Armin in order to save Erwin because he didn't want to condemn Erwin by dragging him back to hell to be the devil people like Floch expected him to be. At the same time, Levi relieved Erwin of carrying the burden of his dream and the guilt of the soldiers who died under his command, allowing him to die with his humanity intact.

But anyway, on to the real question - does Levi really insult / cast shade on Erwin.  And the answer is yes, yes he does! 

Considering Erwin is Levi’s superior officer, Levi is pretty fucking rude to him.  To be fair, Levi is pretty fucking rude to *everyone*, though he does seem to reserve a particular type of familiar sarcasm for Erwin. The exchange in the infirmary is a classic example.

As is this gem from chapter 75. (I know @tsuki-no-ura has written a post about this exchange but I can't find it right now.)

There’s another great example from the Smartpass Up Close interview where Levi tells Erwin that his kids won’t be cute. 

J: Then let’s not talk about that for now. How about just your own future dreams? L: Talking about future dreams at this age…how interesting. What do you think, Erwin? E: As for me…right. Retire to a reclusive area, or maybe have a family. J: I am surprised that commander seems surprisingly relaxed about this. E: My mind is currently filled with matters concerning the world, so I’m not in a position to pursue any dreams. But either way, you could say that I have an ordinary dream. L: How interesting. Your kids won’t be cute for sure. E: How about you, Levi? Would you go from hero to politician? L: That’s impossible. How could you even ask something that is so obvious?!

What I love about this example is that Erwin turns the whole ridiculous conversation back on Levi by asking is he plans to become a politician. 

To go back to the original example from chapter 68 though, Levi is not wrong when he says the Survey Corps strategy is based on Erwin’s gambles.  I answered another ask about Erwin’s gambles a few years back. Levi knows that Erwin is willing to take risks, this is one of the reasons he has chosen to follow him.  

L: Well yeah…the guy’s ideas can be sometimes be so heartless that even I get goosebumps. Like when he deliberately sacrifices his subordinates. However, he has his goals, and he has been able to achieve them. J: Indeed, despite the sacrifices, the SC survival rate has increased ever since Commander Erwin was promoted to commander. Also, special missions like capturing the Female Titan actually became possible. L: That’s right. If Erwin was someone soft-hearted enough to compromise battle strategy, I wouldn’t follow him.

Levi might not hesitate to insult Erwin, but he's also the first to remind everyone that Erwin was rarely wrong.

I feel duty bound to point out that Levi is also really insulting to Hanji and to members of his squad. Coming from Levi, it’s a sign of affection really ♡

[randomthefox]

Probably one of the more important cutscenes in the game since it explains what the hell the Commander's deal is. Very interesting that this scene is reached on the Semi Hero final level, so to get here you either need to help Omega shoot down Eggmans escape blimp, lose a race to Sonic, or simply escort Maria to Gerald in Shadow's flashback level. So it feels like the most natural way to get this scene is to go down the Pure Hero path until Lost Impact, and then just do the neutral mission of getting to the end of the stage for that level to get here. That way Maria is fresh on everyones mind, at least.

So let's talk about retcons! Retcons is shorthand for Retroactive Continuity, which is the term for a literary device in fictional story telling whereby facts and events established through the narrative itself are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subsequently published work that recontextualizes or breaks continuity with the former. In laymans terms, a retcon is NEW information that we are meant to accept has ALWAYS been there retroactively. Even if that new information is contradictory.

The contradictory type of retcon is what most people think of when the term is used, that's why you'll see people say things like "soandso character or suchandsuch episode was retconned out of existence." Perhaps because of this being the type of retcon that people most often use the term for, there is an assumption that most people tend to have that referring to something as a retcon is a derogatory description. But the truth is that retcon is a completely neutral term. And it simply means exactly what it says it means. Retcons are continuity that is applied retroactively. Whether that retcon is expansive or contradictory or creatively stifling is up to any given individual to interpret for themselves.

The Commander as a character in and of himself is a retcon. The idea that there was another child on the ARK aside from Maria is something that was never suggested in Sonic Adventure 2 nor any supplemental material about SA2 such as the japanese manual or guide. He is a completely brand new character invented by this game, but which we are being told always existed retroactively in the backstory of Shadow's life from before the events of SA2. The idea that he was also on the ARK as a child with Maria and was aware of Shadow's nature as an alien hybrid recontextualizes previous information from what we saw of Shadow's backstory in SA2. The very nature of Shadow being the result of collaboration with an alien species the Black Arms itself is also a pretty major retcon of Shadow as a character as well, considering his status as Project Shadow The Ultimate Life Form was a pretty major driving element of SA2's plot.

What's also kinda funny is this scene in and of itself would also be retconned later by Sonic x Shadow Generations. This scene seems to imply that Shadow's nature as an alien hybrid was a horrifying revelation that shook the young Commander to the core, implying that it was being kept a secret to some capacity. Shadow Generations retcons this to imply that Shadow's true nature as a product of the Black Arms was pretty openly known, they even kept a Black Arms specimen onboard the ARK as shown in the Dark Beginnings animation. So the young Commanders reaction in this scene seems sort of overblown given that. Though that's sort of less egregious a retcon than everything this game is establishing.

Now you can have your own opinions of course. But I personally think the retcons made by ShTH2005 are of the supplementary variety, and not the contradictory type and does not break previously established continuity. We knew precious little about Shadow aside from his status as the result of a secret Project created by Gerald Robotnik, and his relationship with Maria. The existence of the young Commander also being on the ARK and having a relationship with Maria does not undermine the implied relationship she had with Shadow. The idea that Gerald teamed up with some evil alien named Black Doom and used his resources to create Shadow doesn't necessarily step on any toes from SA2, and it does not diminish the story of that game. Plus Gerald Robontik himself was a retcon, he was a new character introduced in that title which we had to accept always existed as part of Eggmans backstory retroactively. So accepting SA2's retcons but disregarding ShTH2005's rectons seems something of a double standard to me.

Of course, I happen to think the story of Shadow the Hedgehog 2005 is very good. If you do not, perhaps your opinion of the retroactive continuity this game introduced will be less generous. Because that's ultimately what it comes down to, in my opinion. As I've explained before, the most important if not ONLY important thing that matters above everything else is whether or not the story being told is good. If the story is good, then it doesn't matter how much it contradicts or breaks the continuity of a previous story. If the story is good, then such a thing is worth overlooking for the sake of that good story. It's only when a story is bad that breaking continuity with a previous story becomes something worth complaining about, in my opinion. It's up to individual interpretation to decide your own personal standards of quality and where you draw the line.

Regardless of ones opinion about the retcons this scene introduces, thematically the important take away is Shadow being attributed with past sins by the Commander, and Shadow takes responsibility for those sins. He doesn't remember, so he doesn't know if they're true or not. So he says that IF they are true, then he'll face the music when the time is right. The fact Shadow is willing to take responsibility like that is pretty crushing evidence that the mental image the Commander had in his mind about Shadow as an evil monster who wrought Maria's death was a lie, Shadow ISN'T an evil monster because an evil monster would never say what he just did. Crushed by the weight of his world view he's built his whole life and career around, he falls to his knees.

The way the Commander shoots at Shadow only for him to fucking flash step behind him instantly and say some swag ass shit with his back turned is so fucking cool. I love this fucking game.

[adeline1996rudoph]

Here are some myths while I rediscovering the whole stories between celestine and katarinya,I didn't use English but I thought they could be some point.so I translated them and put here.

Myth of Celefax(1)

Today, while chatting with a friend, I suddenly took a bite and turned back to celefax. Fortunately, all the related supplementary reading materials have been stuffed with the old version of the story, which is convenient for me to make changes. First of all, the chest armor and high heels will all be changed.

Then, in 40k, these two can be regarded as Plato without any justification especially in the case of a Inquisitor and a living saint (the former is highly self-disciplined and self-judgmental, while the latter, due to Emperor's luminous projection, she'd naturally has no sexual desire). The pure extreme self-contradiction of katarinya and the pure idealism of Celestine are the closest control groups. Extreme contradiction and pure extremity.

However, due to the setting of the 40k that confuses idealism and materialism, this discussion may be nullated. Or to put it another way, under this rule, the two actually point to the same direction. Is it the angel leading the world in the classical murals or the heretic who needs to be judged? The interesting part of this contradiction around Katarinya in the original work lies in that----it is all intensified when Celestine shows divinity. The more intense the contradiction becomes, the more the purity is eroded,The display of the character's will will become dramatic and rich, and then be fed back to the glow of Clestine.

In terms of physical features by me, katarinya has more severe scar on the left side of her body, with inplants, lacerations, cuts, and burns (possibly especially burns) all over. Due to her usual use of long-range weapons/psychic powers, her shoulder and arm muscles are stronger, while her abdominal muscles are relatively thinner.

Celestine is basically brand new when she's alive, and her muscle mass should remain unchanged, maintaining the figure she had when she became a saint. Referring to the standard equipment of the flamethrower in the the Orders of Our Martyred Lady and her use of the sword after becoming a saint, her overall muscle mass should be relatively even.

Although these two Platonic relationship were very legitimate makes me gay, in fact, from their purity, they sometimes felt that they could develop into a special nonsexual-sex relationship with very pure and special meanings,to confirm each other's identity/excistence,to make sure sanity through touching.

Myth of Celefax(2)

(after reread The Fall of Cadia)

WTF is [WAS HERS TO BREAK]OMG???

Though of this toxic owner expression had also been made by Celestine,She would follow Katarinya to confirm her trust until she did her confession...what a lesibian...

I also saw some comments under this novel talking 'bout their lifetime they said"Even though Katarinya dead,Celestine could still recover her FOREVER",its kinda fandom but sure it really makes sense in some way......

Myth of Celefax(3)

（After reread Mindshackle)

Katarinya can really do a goodjob of Self-disguise.

This kind of obsessive cleanliness (fear of self-fear), self-talking really happened a lot when she was alone or with people who didn't matter, but once Celestine stuffed beside her this inertia of thinking disappeared for no reason......or just said [Put all her thoughts on Celestine.]

Myth of Celefax(4)

The ancient memories have returned. When doing reading

comprehension, I thought celefax was very similar to nyreen & aria（Mess Effect).

Celestine might be the represents the cruel yet benevolent human nature fragments of the emperor, while Katarinya represents the rational shadow of the Imperium. It's a combination of two aspects,two sides of a coin.

Although in terms of personality, Celestine and nyreen share quite a few similarities,Katarinya and aria are completely different control methods.

Myth of Celefax(5)

(after reread Celestine:The Living Saint)

With an attitude of nihilism, seek a glimmer of remaining hope and prevent humanity from being consumed by nihilism.

I reread it and found that the description of the entire book is very detailed. It depicts that due to not being able to bear the cost of looking backward the void, the soldiers can only deceive herself that the light ahead will never fade. The battle process is described in great detail. I couldn't get through it and had to skip parts.

However, the entire book also blatantly implies that Celestine is indeed an Empyrean creation with the same essence as the demons.For the little girl or I perfer understanding as young Celestine in her way of recovering, I think it also represents

fragments of her human nature. She not only promised hope but also gradually stripped away her humanity. This should be placed between "The Fall of Cadia" and "Our Martyred Lady"? It might also be after the "Our Martyred Lady"?

Anyway, Celestine's humanity in this piece is truly

indifferent, or even false. Or perhaps it was written intentionally or due to differences in the author's perspective.

To some extent, both the Emperor and his warp creations are

like Mima from "The Perfect Blue".The result of unbridled creation and destruction of gods shares the same set of logic.

So in fact, even the argument between Celestine and Katarinya, and even just the act of observing, might have protected some of Celestine's humanity, because katarinya could immediately see through the shattered mirror behind her radiant appearance.

[shadow-djinni]

A Note on "Canon"

Before I begin posting any kind of Forgotten Realms textual analysis, or any of my DM material that I use or have produced for my homebrew campaign (Shadows on the Moonsea), I'd like to make a clarifying note as to my personal approach to "canon" texts/degrees of source material canonicity and how that affects my work. The Forgotten Realms setting is nearly 40 years old and spans five editions of Dungeons and Dragons, with dozens upon dozens of tabletop supplements alone; this before we discuss material provided in Dungeon, Dragon, or Polyhedron magazine articles or the plethora of novels and short stories also published in the setting. As a result, any work with this body of material by necessity involves dozens of publications, spanning several decades, with a significant number of authors and editors who may or may not have been communicating with each other and thereby may contradict each other, or themselves, from text to text. What follows is my own personal, subjective grading of canonicity; that is, which source materials I favor in my research and receive priority in my assessment of the canon, ranked by consistency and utility of the material therein.

Do note: I am largely approaching this from the perspective of a tabletop DM, and therefore materials which are useful at the table receive priority treatment.

Tier 1: AD&D 2e and D&D 3e sourcebooks and boxed sets (Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting boxed set for 2e, Forgotten Realms Adventures for 2e, Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting for 3e)

My primary reference material; these sources are largely consistent both within themselves and with each other, and provide thorough overviews of the setting.

Tier 2: regional/organizational supplements for 2e and 3e, setting sourcebooks for AD&D 1e and D&D 4e and 5e (e.g. The Moonsea for 2e, Code of the Harpers, Silver Marches for 3e, Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide for 4e, Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide for 5e).

These sources are placed lower due to incompleteness of material (4e and 5e), or because they serve as supplementary sources for Tier 1 material. Contradictory information to Tier 1 sources as presented in these sources is assessed on a case-by-case basis. 1e material is considered Tier 2 rather than Tier 1 due to a degree of early-installment weirdness and inconsistencies with the more established material in 2e and 3e.

Tier 3: adventure modules for 1e, 2e, 3e, and 5e, 4e supplements, Dungeon, Dragon, or Polyhedron articles for use at the table by authors who have worked on one or more Tier 1&2 sources.

Adventure modules may contradict established canon in Tier 1&2 sources to make the adventure flow more easily, but may also contain useful reference material (detailed descriptions of adventure sites or small towns, for example). 4e supplementary material is here and not further down the list only because it's officially published tabletop reference; it's low utility, tonally dissonant, and frequently contradictory at best.

Tier 4: magazine articles for use at the table by authors who are not credited in Tier 1&2 sources. Novels and short stories by authors credited on Tier 1&2 sources. Adventurer's League tournament modules and all 4e modules. "Setting agnostic" sourcebooks and supplements.

These often have inconsistencies with the primary texts, but may contain useful information to supplement higher tier materials. Novels and short stories are low priority for use at the tabletop, but may be helpful for NPC characterization beyond write-ups in other material. "Setting agnostic" material frequently draws from other settings' lore (particularly, in my experience, Greyhawk) and as a result contradicts Forgotten Realms canon while also providing little in the way of utility.

Tier 5: novels and short stories by people not credited on Tier 1&2 material. Any material by third parties on DM's Guild or other sites.

As with Tier 4 material, these are often riddled with inaccuracies; particularly in the case of novels, where I'm not certain half of the people writing them have more than vague familiarity with the setting. Anything Greenwood published after 2000, or said on his Twitter, Discord, or Patreon is also Tier 5 because it seems like he's just saying shit these days. Material on DM's Guild is worse because there's no oversight for fidelity to the source canon.

[sapphire-weapon]

In the Vendetta novelization (which should not be taken too seriously since it doesn’t totally follow the movie), Leon is mentally quoting scripture during the prologue iirc, which I found interesting. But I think that could more imply he’s protestant rather than catholic. Again, I’m not taking it too seriously because the novelization isn’t fully accurate, but I still thought it was an interesting choice on Capcom’s part. I think if Leon did have any religious background, he’s divorced it by now, especially considering how in 6 he says something along the lines of “I wish I could believe a higher power is looking out for us.”

I still thought it was an interesting choice on Capcom’s part.

see this is the problem.

this is the problem right here.

capcom did not write the vendetta novel. capcom contracted an independent author to write the vendetta novel, and so what you're reading is that particular author's interpretation of leon and their own personal headcanons.

all capcom does when it comes to novelizations is pay the author, check to see if anything they wrote directly contradicts what's in the games (or movie), and publish the book.

SD perry did an interview in april of this year actually where she explained that she got the sense that capcom didn't like her books or how she wrote the characters, but they never said anything to her because they were bound by contract to publish her shit anyway. the only pushback she ever got was when she wrote a backstory for the spencer mansion that directly contradicted the backstory that was in the game, so she had to change that.

but that was it. she had full creative freedom to do anything else.

the novelizations are just fanfics that you have to pay for. that's all they are. they're officially-branded fics.

that's why the novelizations should not be taken as canon. they're not being written by capcom writers, and the actual dev teams themselves may not even like/agree with what the author has written. and they're certainly not bound to honor it during dev.

that's why i call all supplementary material "ads." because that's what they are. they're inconsequential fluff that capcom sells in order to increase brand awareness and visibility. they don't actually affect or influence the series itself.

[kanansdume]

I don't know if you wanted a legit answer to this since it's in the tags, but the answer is "It depends on whether you consider the books canon or not" I guess.

For me, I tend not to. Books are, at best, supplementary material that things like the films and even the TV shows often ignore. I know Lucas certainly did. More often than not, especially pre-Disney, the books worked like officially licensed fanfiction. They played in the same sandbox with some of the same toys, but the real story was whatever Lucas decided it was (even if he pulled something out of Legends and into canon, he often never included all of it and/or changed it to suit his own purposes because he didn't feel an obligation to fitting his story into the continuity established in the books). The books themselves don't even try that hard to keep to the same continuity with EACH OTHER, and Disney's newer content definitely doesn't care all that much about any of the books that came before the buy-out.

So, with all that in mind, what I consider "canon" tends to be the first six films and the first six seasons of TCW (and even TCW is on thin ice some days). The highest level of DISNEY canon would include all of their films and generally all of the shows released on Disney Plus (while Disney kinda tries harder to keep more of a coherent continuity between the films/shows and books/video games, there's still a clear hierarchy between them). And you can make a solid argument that everything produced by Disney at all is just more officially licensed fanfiction since it's no longer being made by the original author/creator. The Jedi Apprentice novels, which someone else mentioned in the tags as well, have never actually been canon. They were written between TPM and AOTC and several things within that series have already been overridden by higher canon stuff anyway (the aging out at 13 thing got overridden by Ahsoka in TCW, the idea of a lightsaber shorting out in water got overridden immediately in AOTC, etc etc).

So when I consider whether the concept of the Jedi walking silently is "canon" or not, I am NOT looking at the books at all. I am looking at the films, I am looking at TCW, and I might even be willing to look at some of the films and shows in Disney canon to see if they're choosing to bring it in anywhere. As far as I can recall, the Jedi can certainly walk QUIETLY if they want to, when they're sneaking around, but there hasn't been an indication that they walk silently so often that they regularly sneak up on other people without even meaning to. There's DEFINITELY no indication that this is something they've actually trained in.

This is why I called it a headcanon, although since I'd forgotten it had shown up in the Jedi Apprentice novels somewhere, you could argue that it's not really a headcanon but more accurately a piece of Legends canon. However, it's a piece of Legends that still works within the more official canons. Just because it's never actually showed up within canon doesn't mean it's been contradicted there entirely (there never seems to be any indication that the Jedi are regularly accidentally sneaking up on non-Jedi, like the clones, the way you see happen in fics sometimes, but it doesn't mean it couldn't have happened occasionally off-screen).

One of my favorite Jedi headcanons is that Jedi walk so quietly that they basically don't make any sound. Whether it's intentionally trained to the point that it's become a habit and they never think about it, it's intentionally trained and they're DOING it intentionally (either for practical reasons or just to fuck with someone), or it's some weird side effect of being Force sensitive that they can't control and everyone just has to figure out how to deal with it, I don't care, I love it all.

10/10 headcanon, 5 stars, no notes.

[aprofessionalwithoutstandards]

If they made a TF2 tv show/web series I think it’d be cool if it was like Simpsons Treehouse of Horror style, where it’s a bunch of like one-off shorts that may or may not be canon. Cause TF2 having a consistent canon would lowkey be hard to pull off

Yeahhhh that's what I'm also kinda saying! The mainline comic is The only attempt at a linear story tf2 has been given and they didn't even finish it LMAO. I've talked before about what a "campaign mode" might look like for tf2, a game built fundamentally around NOT having a campaign to complete or any sort of story to tell. Expiration Date is a one-off short, and I think it works best that way. Although I don't reaaaally worry about the "canon" of an absurdist comedy property that constantly contradicts its own "canon" anyway, I DO think a series of very episodic 15-minute shorts would be the best way to do tf2 supplementary material in video form. Expiration Date is actually like a REALLY good short, probably better of a short than people give it credit for, and when I imagine any hypothetical future shorts, I imagine them in a similar format. The team is thrust into some kind of wacky situation, the episode focuses on a certain character or relationship between characters (like how Expiration Date focuses on Scout and Spy), there's some kind of fight with references to the gameplay so nerds can go That's the thing! From my game!, and everything is resolved by the end of the episode. Tf2 characters are like, exceptionally versatile (because of that non-linear nature of the game I talked about) and can thrive in basically any situation you put them into. I don't want a big-budget Netflix show like Arcane with crazy Spiderverse animation or whatever. I want thirty more Expiration Dates about Medic and Engie's experiments or about Sniper and Demo going treasure hunting in the desert or about Pauling's vacation days or 15 straight minutes of jokes about Heavy and his gun. I want tf2 shorts that feel like tf2 goddammit!

[shinygoku]

Captain Scarlet Headcanons

A man stands in the gloom of an alleyway, lit up only by a yellow tinted spotlight. He’s tall, dark and handsome, and his striking red and black uniform give him quite the presence. The latest in the line of Anderson Heroes and the one tasked with enduring the most gruesome of settings and personal circumstance.

Also he’s gay and autistic, good for him!

Welcome to my Headcanons for Paul Metcalfe, aka Captain Scarlet.

I’m primarily drawing straight from the one true canon source; the 1967 Television Series, with some supplementary tidbits from the Haynes Manual and bonus material from my DVD set. I’m not counting from tie in novels, audio only stories, or comics, as they’re lower in the hierarchy and hard to come by, but if they’re any good then they shouldn’t contradict anything I have here ;D

This is a long post, so I’ll put the cut up here. Great to read when you’re sitting down with a nice drink and/or snack~

CANON INFO

Paul Metcalfe will be born in Winchester in 2036 and the series starts in 2068, making him 31 with change (as his DOB is in December and Ep 1 sure don’t look like Winter) when he’s killed and Mysteronised. That’s really quite sad, but of course, this is a series about a war…

With his December the 17th Birthday, he’s a Sagittarius. The prophecy aspect could allude to the occasionally remembered Mysteron Sense he has? Key traits mentioned include (Positive) Idealism and generosity, and (Negative) pronounced impatience and being shockingly blunt. These all fit nicely with our man in red here.

I ain’t sufficiently interested in Military crud to rehash it or try to put my own spin (I had to look up what a commission is in that context and I still only half get it!), same applies with Academic stuff, so for both them I’ll let the bio provided in the Haynes Manual cover it lmao

“Background: From a long-serving military family. Trained at West Point Military Academy. Following completion of degrees in technology, history and mathematical application at Winchester University joined World Army Air Force as private, rising rapidly to colonel through inspiring capacity to command and military professionalism. Having noted qualities of leadership, strategic thinking and dedication to duty, approached by Spectrum selection committee to become leading field agent. Commission accepted immediately.”

Yeah, the main characters of Anderson shows go real hard on the expansion pack pasts, I’m unsure how hilariously over the top it is compared to the 5 Tracy Boys but they weren’t shy about making the leads Cool and Experienced!

Also from the Haynes manual, instead of Personal Interests like most’a the other cast members, there’s a Special Note. It strikes me as a bit more cold and impersonal than what the Show has, and take it with a slight pinch of salt, but I’ve got it transcribed as written:

“After reconstruction by Mysterons following death in car crash and subsequent fall from tall structure, replica accepted as serving officer having completed extensive tests revealing capacity for retro-metabolism and loss of Mysteron influence.” 

Well anyway, that covers the Canon info, it’s limited but pretty interesting for what it’s worth. Below is another short bio, this one from my DVD set (the info presumably having been provided in Annuals prior).

HEADCANONS 

As ya can see in the Marital Status section, he’s Single. I shall make the bold statement too that he’s gay but possibly isn’t consciously aware of that …yet? He can see when a girl is pretty but he doesn’t React much to it, and none of the interactions he does have with ladies is romance coded. In fact, when Linda Nolan pretty strongly implies attraction he literally says: “Thank you. Let’s go, Adam!” –  I really think he didn’t Twig her intent and then he’s instantly getting Blue’s attention instead XD ~ But he does have stronger and more diverse interactions with other guys, especially Blue ;3

I think he’s autistic but good at masking – even before being Mysteronised his resting face is very unexpressive and his seemingly sincere bidding of good luck sounds quite flat. Other factors include the above mentioned focus on professionalism but deviating when his principles are challenged or things aren’t going to plan, plus how he spends free time in a quiet environment and mostly hanging out with Blue when given the chance. Also, again his canon Good At Academic angle. I expect he thrives fairly well in the pseudo military environment as it provides structure, routine and clear rules (Though he will disregard those when he’s being particularly spicy!).

Can be stubborn and impatient (noticeably uses a louder voice when re-asserting something), and isn’t the best at hiding his thoughts. Otherwise seems to have a stiff upper lip and good nerves. Slight hints of arrogance on occasion but strongly principled. He’s got a dry and sardonic sense of humour.

Mostly very professional but he’s not “on” all the time. Sitting at his Boss’ desk with his feet up on the desk as he Vibes is the oddest example, yet it doesn’t feel shockingly out of character. I’ve noticed he sits weird in many scenes too, sometimes his ankle rests on his knee, propping his feet way up on White’s desk, or sitting in a chair sideways (can file under gay / autistic traits / omg he just like me fr), and states in Spectrum Strikes Back that he enjoys the quietness of nature with less people around too (he’s SO real !!) Like when he needs to cool off in White as Snow it’s the little flower house on the Promenade Deck he picks to gaze out into the blue yonder.

I like the idea that Agent Blake from the Secret Service is his grandfather (Meta: the Captain Scarlet puppet was reused for the role), personally I see it working better as him being Paul Metcalfe’s Maternal Grandpa. As for the Paternal line, that’s where several generations of Military dudes comes from :T –  At least the Blake personality may explain where Scarlet got the history and maths nerd interests, Blake does have that bookish vibe rather than a strong presence.

Seeing how his Mysteron Sense manifests as Nausea, I think he gets motion sick more easily than a Pilot and Guy who drives Armoured Tank-Cars Backwards ought to… so he wears Pressure Bands to alleviate the sickness response (but the Mysteron Sense may bypass that, being psychic rather than motion based). I know it’s in part due to the puppets but he sure seems to prefer wearing high necked, long sleeved shirts, be it uniform of civvies (And well, 60’s fashion be like that too lol, maybe he’s a smidge Trendy!).

MYSTERONISATION & RETROMETABOLISM

Ok, so as one of the first to be Mysteronised, it feels like the Mysterons were themselves experimenting with how their duplicates were going to be. Black seems to be forcibly possessed with his personality overridden, and both Brown and Scarlet are killed in a car wreck fireball to be copied. 

While Brown was used to be a suicide bomb, Scarlet was used to try to take the President alive instead. Scarlet’s second death was from being shot in the chest and then falling maybe 10,000 feet (idk distances. It was REALLY really high!) to a presumably gory landing. However, after they get his remains back at base, they’re shocked to discover him showing signs of life again and his body reverts to his as-new form after the first Mysteron Reconstruction, but instead of being a pawn of the Mysterons, this time Scarlet is back to his original body’s personality, and that’s how he stays thereafter. I theorise that as he was an early draft, the Mysterons didn’t have the expectation that the healing factor they installed would be that potent, nor did they put in a way to Keep their programming after said death. That, or they did want to have a worthy opponent in their ongoing war of nerves… But yes, Scarlet remains completely unique as both a Reconstruction (effectively a clone of Paul Metcalfe [re]born at 31 with all his memories before the explosion-death intact), but also one with free will and unlimited healing powers that bring him back from death multiple times.

The Mysterons presumably don’t install a healing factor into the Mysteronised Drones thereafter, though they are harder than normal to kill, with High Voltage Electricity being the only surefire to kill them, and presumably would permakill Scarlet too. They are also unable to be X-rayed, instead being opaque on such photographs.

But yes, the grisly central premise of the show is that even though Scarlet can indeed be killed, he won’t stay down forever. Though he’s Indestructible, that’s from the healing power repairing injuries and reversing death rather than a Superman-esque bulletproof skin (the opening of the show features this only for brevity lol, the episodes themselves stick to the rules). Nope, it’s even explicit that he feels the pain of injuries and dying each time! That’s rough, buddy! 

A much lesser side effect of being a Mysteronised Clone is the “Sixth Sense” Mysteron sensing response that the writers sometimes forget about, where Paul feels nausea when another replicant is nearby.

The healing power is called the same term that the Mysterons use to recreate destroyed matter: Retrometabolism. And now I’ve recapped the origin and summary, I wanna dig in to the headcanoning part that they show sadly didn’t make enough time for… >:3c

🟢👁👁🟢

Here’s how I think Retrometabolism works for Scarlet specifically: In the event of injuries, the wound in question will get healed pretty quickly. The smaller the wound, the faster it heals, but even something like a broken leg or bullet wound will still leave no scar tissue or residual effects after the process is complete. However, if he’s been killed, then the Retrometalbolism probably focuses first on his most major organs to get his body restarted as swiftly as possible, with lesser injuries coming afterwards. 

I also imagine if the cause of death was something like being shot, the Retrometabolism will also force the bullet out, assuming it got stuck in his body. If he was poisoned, it would purge and/or neutralise this before getting his body back online. If he had brain damage from either the direct cause of death (hello, Operation Time!) or as a side effect of his brain being starved of oxygen, that damage will be waved away all as part of the package. It also seems he’s immune to disease, a hypothesis actually observed in Place of the Angels. I think he must also be immune to the harmful effects of Radiation, or at least that the death and rebirth would cleanse any lingering sickness.

However, the more grisly his death, the longer it will take to heal. I reckon the only way to speed up the Retrometabolistic process would be for surgical intervention to essentially do as much clean-up as possible so the Retrometabolism can ‘focus’ on the regeneration part. For this reason I think being riddled with bullets would probably be a simpler process than the times Scarlet is caught in an explosion, or some of the potentially-canon situations shown in the end credits which vary from a stock Pulp hazard (Dynamite, being thrown out of a speeding car, threatened by a cobra) to honestly quite nightmarish (the walls of spikes, the swamp/quicksand, being about to be run over by a tank, the impending inferno as he trips on a burning beam….), and the end credit scenarios offer an underrated facet of Spectrum.

It’s easy for bad faith takes to dismiss the dynamics of Scarlet as “the guy who always dies” and the other Spectrum officers as being surplus to requirements, but that’s a reductive and daft way of looking at it. Instead why don’t we focus on how much interest and (for lack of a better term) variation in strategy it offers when one member can offer to make the riskiest plays, in the safety not of having regenerative powers, but the assurance that there’s backup to retrieve him and look after him while he’s completely helpless. Like, in the Shark picture, I think the threat is much less the toothy fish, but instead that Scarlet is doomed to be stuck underwater, maybe ready to return to life but without outside assistance unable to do so without drowning all over again. There would be a lot of trust and courage needed in these situations, not to mention how deeply unpleasant it is for humans to be around a dead body that may also be in quite a state, so it’s a strange sort of sweetness that Scarlet has all this back up when needed.

I also feel it’s worth mentioning my headcanon on the mysterious case of the Two Scarlets - OG Human who is perma-dead and the Mysteron version with Retrometabolism. First of all, while it happens entirely unmentioned and offscreen, I expect Spectrum New York dug around the crash site a bit more after reporting Brown’s corpse and then found Scarlet’s. This body is presumably in a morgue, perhaps cremated or buried but perhaps not. Presumably it’s Scarlet’s call to make…

I don’t think there was any personality change at a core level between the Scarlets, though if he got more moody or distant or whatever I don’t think anyone can hold it against him! But in part of their accepting, embracing even, of Mysteron!Scarlet, I feel like his Self would remain how it was, with the caveat of the new tactical routes opened by the indestructibility. 

And, while the headcanon train chuffs along, I guess I can wonder how long Retrometabolism will last with the Scarlet we know and love? Will repeated use ever cause it to fade, or is it as unshakable like the movement of planets? Will it prevent him from aging, each death reset bringing him back to 31 physically, or will it see him into twilight years? If the Mysterons were defeated, would the power be taken away with them, or eased off as their influence fades like a memory? It may depend on how the Mysterons were to be beaten, or come to a peaceful agreement. If they could strip it from him, then their keeping it active for their recurring counter may add fuel to the idea they’re playing a game and need specific pieces to always be in play.

In that regard, I only have questions. But puzzling out and solidifying my interpretations of this fine fellow has been a lot of fun, and even after I finish editing this, and after I’ve posted it, something else is sure to occur to me to mull over! This show deserved to be longer, but everything it gave me is cherished, and at the heart of that is this autistic gay king. He’s intriguing and, of course, indestructible!

🌈🚀🌟

[the-far-bright-center]

Yes, Anidala are supposed to be Romantic with a capital ‘R’. They are cosmic, epic, and, in the films, are purposefully depicted in a more old-fashioned manner (in keeping with the Prequel trilogy's 'old hollywood' sensibilities). As a couple, they actually have the same goals and desires (to bring peace to the galaxy and start a family together), and are presented as a complementary Union of Opposites who are *meant* to be together, and who are torn apart because the galaxy itself is being torn apart. (And whose forbidden love is then wholly vindicated by the ending of RotJ.)

But obviously, being an animated series, TCW has a completely different (read: more contemporary) tone and is, shall we say, not entirely serious or literal, either. Many of the episodes are either humourous diversions or darkly-twisted meta-commentaries rather than credible and genuine additions to the story. So, any nonsensical or OOC aspects of TCW Anidala can be easily ignored by only viewing the Prequels x Original Trilogy as actual canon. In fact, the only reason I ever enjoyed TCW in the first place is because I never once viewed the entire thing as canon. In my eyes in was always just an entertaining side project made to get more people into the Prequels era. I pretty much refuse to view it any other way. 😅 And even the earlier Clone Wars-era EU material had elements that contradicted the films (such as the Obsession comics making it seem that Anakin and Padme's relationship was common knowledge rather than a closely guarded secret). This why I only take the PT x OT as canon and everything else as merely supplementary material that I pick and choose from as I see fit. 😇

not sure where this idea that anakin and padme’s relationship is “dysfunctional” came from because from what we actually see in the movies, their relationship is the most functional one in the whole trilogy (except for, like, anakin and shmi in tpm). up until mid-ish-way through rots, we never see them lie to each other or keep things from each other, which is far more than can be said about the relationships between most of the characters in the prequels.

aotc: they spend the majority of the first part of the movie getting to know each other and discussing everything from their childhoods to political opinions. they’re not afraid to disagree about politics and neither of them changes their stance or beliefs to please the other. though they don’t resolve the argument, they quickly drop it and move on. anakin has great respect and admiration for padme and is not shy about telling her so. he apologizes and backs off after she says they shouldn’t have kissed, and he accepts her decision not to pursue a relationship and doesn’t push her to be with him once she’s made it clear that she thinks it’s a bad idea. anakin tells padme about his dreams about shmi, and padme supports his desire to go to tatooine to check on her and even offers to accompany him despite currently being in hiding since there’s an assassin out to get her. anakin confesses the tusken raider slaughter to padme right after it happens (think about how easy it would’ve been to go the cliche drama route where anakin keeps this from padme and it gnaws away at him and creates tension between them when she finally finds out)

rots: padme is nervous about what anakin’s reaction to her pregnancy will be since it would ruin his career if anyone found out, but he smiles and reassures her that he’s happy and loves her. anakin is initially reluctant to tell padme about his dreams about her because he doesn’t want to scare her, but gives in and tells her everything after only a minimal amount of prodding from her. padme confides in anakin her fears that the republic is becoming corrupt, and though he snaps at her, they end up hugging it out and dropping the argument. anakin confides in padme his fears that he’s not the jedi he should be and that the council doesn’t trust him.

bottom line: it’s certainly not great that they resolve most of their problems by hugging it out and changing the subject rather than sitting down for a frank discussion, and also the whole secret relationship thing in general doesn’t make for the best circumstances, but other than that, they are always honest to and supportive of each other. to the best of my memory, up until anakin starts falling to the dark side we don’t see them lie to or keep secrets from each other. it is clear that each is the only person who truly knows the other and that the other is the only person each can truly be themselves around. so idk why people always call their relationship dysfunctional because it wasn’t dysfunctional at all before anakin fell to the dark side and probably would’ve lasted a lifetime and been very happy and healthy had shit not gone down

[unofficialadamtaurus]

What entertains me so much is that the way Adam was written, they try to make it seem like he’s some manipulative mastermind who does everything bad on purpose, where the fact is he’s probably not even that old enough or smart enough to even be THAT conniving.

Yes he’s a smart dude, but it’s just hilarious where they act as if his behavior would be something you could never see coming, especially for characters who— oh I don’t know— HAVE KNOWN HIM FOR YEARS. I mean there is times where they see some parts of him.

Yet. Let’s frame this guy to be some kind of evil genius up until he somehow loses every ounce of respect people have of him (why? people shouldve known what they were getting into, he’s not that fucking secretive good god they would’ve known) and make him look like a loser who also loses every ounce of thought process he ever had.

Have him bee-line to death even though when the Hell has he been shown to bee-line for that type of thing. Like for example.. IMO him finding Blake at beacon was coincidental (prove me if im wrong tho, but also dont blame because its been 15 million years since ive watched v3)

How would his ass even know that Blake was there? Anyway that’s not my point. I’m not saying he’s stupid, he’s really not. I’m simply pointing out that the writers just loved to make it seem as if everything he did was some big well thought out put-on-a-list plan to have power.

Even though before he looked completely fine to be in the rank he had before.

You seriously had to make a whole fucking character short just to implement one itty bitty scene where it seems like he wants more than the rank Sienna gave him.

You had to make a comic to show how deep he lies to people, Like ok maybe that one is a little more solid than the character short but why not show that behaviour more? If he’s so important?

He’s so sadly one dimensional, not a character handled with care at all. Being a hatesink fucking blows.

Why create an empty villain with shitloads of meaning and character just to throw him away? AND HIS ARC AWAY? Could’ve made him with love. Most cheap moment of “anyway!” anyone could ever have.

Racism and incompetence are a killer combo, lemme tell ya.

"Haha Adam is such an incompetent angry and petty loser" and "Adam is a cunning charismatic mastermind who has spent years building up power and influence in the WF in order to launch a (nearly) bloodless coup against a leader who was also framed in the narrative as charismatic enough to overthrow the leader before her" could theoretically coexist in a better written story as a villain spirals, but this show is not that. Adam's "spiral" is more of a sudden nosedive. Hiding any justifications for that nosedive in supplementary material is like trying to put rebar in concrete after the fact. You just can't do it because those afterthoughts actively contradict what we were already shown.

It doesn't help the idea that Adam's supposed to be charismatic that his voice acting is so on-the-nose Bad Guy that you're staring at everyone else in any scene like, "Yo! Do something! He's clearly evil!"

He didn't even find Blake at Beacon, Blake found him. Maybe he was looking for her, maybe he was interrogating-to-death any students he found trying to find one that could point him to her, but she was the one that found him. He just noticed her before she could retreat.

[firestorm09890]

dilan and aeleus as researchers: an investigation

hi wassup I’ve heard some conflicting information about whether or not Dilan and Aeleus being researchers was retconned and so I did some lookin around. sources presented from least canon to most canon, and only things from kh3 onward, because you know how it is with info falling out of relevance in this series (any bold is from me)

also this is only English translated material, if I can find a way to look into the Japanese versions of all these I will

1) the kh3 novel aka the number one purveyor of misinformation on this subject

Ienzo wasn’t sure what either of them intended to do; all he knew was that he wanted to carry on the mission of his teacher, Ansem the Wise. Aeleus and Dilan were still here, but they weren’t apprentices. Even was, and as a researcher, he was a man worthy of great respect.

there’s a point for no, they weren’t part of the research team. HOWEVER! THE NOVELS ARENT CANON

I like to reference them a lot because they can add some very fun things but when there’s stuff like this that flat out contradicts concrete canon it should be ignored.

2) the kingdom hearts character files book

I have no idea how canon this thing is but I think, since it’s supplementary material and not an alternate canon like the novels, it counts for a little more? anyway this one includes Braig too

Braig

He was one of Ansem the Wise’s apprentices and worked as a guard in Radiant Garden, but [information not relevant to this topic lol]

Dilan

Dilan is an apprentice of Ansem the Wise and serves as a castle guard, along with Aeleus, in Radiant Garden (BBS). Like the other apprentices, he becomes a Nobody because of Xehanort and ends up as a member of Organization XIII.

Aeleus - interestingly enough his explicitly mentions the word “research” while the other two don’t

As an apprentice of Ansem the Wise, Aeleus serves as both guard and researcher.

and then at the very end of the short story written from his perspective in this book:

Maybe I’m unqualified to be an apprentice because I’m still swayed by thoughts like these.

(the “thoughts like these” by the by are about a fascination with darkness; not just as a source of power, but like... the merit of it, and the study of it. researchy stuff)

So. Apprentices, yes! but we can do better than this

3) Secret Reports from KH3 - specifically Secret Report 5: Memoirs, Excerpt 1

Secret Reports are undeniably canon as they’re written by characters in-universe; the biggest problem with them, however, is that kh has a wealth of incredibly unreliable narrators. Until proven otherwise though this is the way things are so thank you Isa for writing this so nice and clearly

The two who stood guard at the gates were researchers themselves, though you wouldn't think it to see them, massive and barrel-chested as they were.

So! Dilan and Aeleus are still included as apprentices and the idea that they were retconned out of that group doesn’t have a very good basis. thanks for reading