#in stars and time siffin

[dekupalace]

and yet there's no human in my reflection

hello again isatheads! I have returned with a siffrin + loop playlist full of metaphors and imagery that probably only I will understand. enjoy some self-loathing jams that will keep getting longer over time cause I never know when to stop adding songs lmao (non-romantic sifloop/sloop, cover made by me with art by insertdisc5!)

[bombcollar]

Bonnie is about to put up with several hours of horse puns.

[stardink]

My contribution to the starts and the tims

[blazingrain]

Hi there! Wrote my first fanfic thing for In Stars and Time, and I'm pretty proud of it! A little story about voices and listening... and a memory of screaming.

[lachlanthesane]

In Stars And Time: Siffrin and Odin

WARNING, I AM ABOUT TO GO FULL OVERLY DETAILED LITERARY ANALYSIS BRAIN ON A VIDEO GAME, YOU ARE WELCOME TO HIT ME WITH "SOMETIMES THE CURTAINS ARE JUST BLUE" ABOUT THIS

Also, there aren't any major spoilers for In Stars And Time in this post so you can read it right now if you haven't played In Stars And Time. But you should play In Stars And Time, it's extremely good. Or at least you should watch a fully voiced LP of it.

Now that you have been warned:

Here are some depictions of the Norse god Odin in his aspect as "The Wanderer".

This was a pretty common mythological motif for Odin. He would show up somewhere wearing the clothes of a humble traveller in an attempt to test people's hospitality. The big floppy hat and thick cloak were ordinary clothes, used to protect from harsh weather, and he uses his magic spear Gungir as a walking stick. The thing which marks him as Odin is that he only has one eye -- Odin gave up one of his eyes in exchange for wisdom, and no matter how good his disguise was, he would always be missing an eye.

The idea of an old man in a cloak and hat carrying a staff who was secretly an incredibly wise god-figure is certainly not unique to Odin, appearing in many different mythologies. The cloak, hat and staff of Odin were one of several mythological sources that informed a certain archetypal wizard and ensured that pointy hats were always thought of as "wizard hats" instead of just "practical traveller's hats".

Now let's look at some pictures of Siffrin, the main character of In Stars and Time.

Hmm. We have big floppy pointed hat. We have all-enveloping cloak. We have eyepatch. We... well, admittedly, we don't have the staff/spear/walking stick (in-game he fights with knives), or the full beard. But we have three out of five!

Does this mean anything?

Probably not to be honest! The reason that Odin wore that kind of clothes was precisely because they were generic traveller's clothes: Odin wore them as a disguise, not as his everyday wear around Asgard. In In Stars and Time, one of Siffrin's defining character traits is that he is a traveller from an unknown land, but he's probably wearing the clothes precisely because of their practical aspects, not because he's a god in disguise.

Also, I don't think that there are that many thematic connections between Siffrin and Odin. Siffin didn't willingly trade his eye for wisdom: he lost it while protecting someone else. About the closest thematic parallel I can find is the idea of "Wisdom through suffering". Odin jumped through a lot of weird hoops to find wisdom -- trading his eye wasn't the half of it. And Siffrin goes through a lot of weird crab to learn how to navigate the dungeon of In Stars And Time.

One connection that I am willing to draw, though, is that the artist/designer of In Stars And Time was probably thinking about Odin and his counterparts when they were designing the character who is a traveller from an unknown land! And that's pie smell!

In conclusion, please play In Stars And Time, or if you are broke like me, please watch someone else play it.

[bombcollar]

Siffin sits down to a nice meal with... himself. And himself. And himself. And himself. And-

I finished ISAT yesterday and immediately started thinking about sinister snack breaks. Enjoy!