#scattered rambling thoughts

[pseudonymousposting]

The left is chock full of people who transpose evangelical Christian ideas onto a political ideal, and it's been forming a strange quasi-cult mannerism. I look at it like a young evangelical Christian youth discovering reddit atheism at 15 and decided they can supplant their Bible with leftist writings, replace their preacher with whatever red flag weirdo they can find on the internet with a large enough Twitter following, and replace the holy rapture with the glorious revolution.

Since they just vacated from a death cult, they usually seem to also follow that route, they're far, FAR more prone to the purity testing because, again, evangelical values dictate that behavior, having the same masturbatory vision of valiantly sacrificing themselves in a revolution as evangelicals have with the idea that Christians instill in children by prompting them to proclaim that in the event Christians are so oppressed that they will have to choose between renouncing the faith or being shot, they will choose being shot. A rather abusive tactic used by far right Christians for decades to enforce a militaristic fervor as early as possible, but this translates to a sense of what appears to be a revolutionary suicidality.

My biggest problem with that is if they wish so badly to die and make their way to commie Valhalla, fine, whatever, maybe consider not taking your 'comrades' with you through careless political operation. However, this type of person is, of course, more interested in the aesthetics of politics rather than practicum. Hence the obsession with the sacred texts, donning clothing and merchandise which signals an ostensibly leftist bent such as red flags, ushankas, memes using ostensibly leftist imagery and short quotes and quips without the full context of the text similarly to evangelical Christians Cherry picking the Bible to justify their views, they're often the person who will act like they're "discoursing" but the moment you actually challenge them, they will do the weird white guy in an online argument thing where their vocabulary goes from a normal vernacular to suddenly bringing out the big words and start talking like they're drafting a letter two centuries ago, but they do it with a lefty aesthetic, so they'll start saying shit like "dialectic" and "material conditions" when two seconds ago they were talking like a somewhat normal person.

I believe this jargon-spew to be alienating to the individual, ensuring the only people who would attempt to relate to them, much like right wing circles effectively alienate prospective recruits by inundating them with alternate speech patterns, memes, behaviors and such creating an alter-culture which is incomprehensible to your average person who doesn't know what any of it means, but overall highly damaging to a broader left, as they consistently are trained to present themselves as THE left in the same manner more fervent Christian sects present themselves as the *true* followers of the faith, considering any deviation from the following of their particular denomination as a deviation, an aberration, a heresy.

Worst part is given this usually starts happening online, for one it's obvious a lot of the online "leftist" figures know that in generating an audience, that type of person has several toxic incentives to cultivate that type of audience and encourage that behavior, including social clout, financial gain and, if played correctly, a very closed-off community that self-polices. What they don't understand about the downside of that is that all you need do is commit one minor 'heresy,' even if that heresy appears fabricated or a stretch in the interpretation of what you say, to immediately be deemed a false prophet and their version of justice has evolved into a form of permanent harassment.

Moreover, I've been adequately convinced a lot of online accounts which present these behaviors may be right wingers who have engaged in a very long form version of an infiltration tactic using sock accounts which seem to usually have some kind of non-identifying profile images and such, engage in similar tactics to right wing hate mobs but carefully wrapped in language crafted to appeal to left leaning people. For example, if you look at damn near any leftist content creator from before, like, 2019, those who have had some kind of 'cancel' situation come up, magically a whole database of anything (usually only if misenterpreted) slightly potentially offensive thing they've said or done suddenly appears out of the woodwork and spreads like wildfire.

I can think of three specific left leaning, though not entirely hammer-and-sickle communist content creators, all women, two of whom were Trans, who experienced such a campaign and magically when they pointed either directly or indirectly at a place where right wing weirdos gather to log everything someone has said or done to use in harassment campaigns, the harassment *magically* intensified to a fever pitch. Almost as if in addressing it, they poked the hornet's nest.

In the place they were gesturing towards, if not directly naming, many users directly spoke of how they've created fake accounts to do exactly that. I believe this infiltration no longer really needs such gathering places, as those who engage in such behaviors have kind of embedded themselves in left leaning online circles so deeply, either by lurking quietly or being consistent actors in those communities building trust, or in some cases I fully believe actually being the admin/host/content creator themselves, and have figured out they can actually keep themselves in those communities, their contributions useful in directing the rest of the community to positions, behaviors and viewpoints that are detrimental to the left but crafted specifically to appeal to someone who leans left of center.

Infiltrate, distract, disrupt, disappear, repeat, if you're embedded as a community member. Curate an audience that is aesthetically left but susceptible to the BITE cult model and direct their behaviors and views accordingly while taking as long as possible to drop any given mask. When you point at the likelihood of such infiltration, you sometimes get the same hornets nest reaction. It's like COINTEL but for terminally online right wingers.

These types of infiltrators, I believe, will appeal heavily to the type of person who adopts leftist aesthetics with evangelical disposition. That kind of person is highly reactive and very useful so long as you keep them constantly pointed at some general 'enemy' who isn't a direct boon to the right, and as such would be persuaded in spaces where this influence is heavy to only briefly speak ill of right wing figures and actors, sometimes even downplaying the danger they pose, almost to make sure there is still some plausible deniability while minimizing the impact such attention can have, while ensuring they attack literally anyone else and overemphasize if not manufacture the potential harm the preferred target could have, usually ensuring there is no act considered "too far" against that intended target.

This is, in my opinion, a severe danger to the capacity and sustainability of a left movement. It should have been addressed years ago. If it is not addressed soon, I fear it will render any budding left movement having a strong presence in modern mass discourse essentially impotent. Moreover, I believe it will also ensure people will spend decades of their lives believing that this behavior is how to BE an effective leftist.

I fear those who consider such tendencies an image of what an effective left should be, and those who would happily cultivate those tendencies in the left specifically to render the left ineffective, are in prime position to condition young or new left leaning people to believing that is what a left movement should look like, which could be long-term damage.

In the event these toxic, cult-like circles are dealt with by shining a light upon them and revealing them for what they are, the bad actors will be rendered less effective temporarily (though, they can always create new accounts and the trick is knowing their modus operandi and pointing to that instead of the individual actors and engaging in active educational efforts which counter the tendency,) and the aesthetic leftists will either cult-hop to the right without some kind of space to exist which somewhat resembles a kind of stochastic exit counseling.

I don't know. This is just a thought that's been turning around in my head for a few years now. I don't know where else to put them down in writing. I'm sure voicing them anywhere your identity can be tracked is a surefire way to be targeted by people who specifically benefit from such tendencies or would prefer to retain such tendencies rather than reassess them. I'm sure someone smarter than me can probably see where I'm getting at, and may have the capacity to form this into a more complete thought, but it isn't something I can leave entirely unsaid.

[a-scary-lack-of-common-sense]

I cannot wait for this Stan to reconnect with his Ford.

I still haven't figured out HOW exactly they'll meet yet, but I do think that Ford would ATTACH himself to Stanley and talk his ears off forever when they eventually get comfortable :] and Stanley would listen because HOLY SHIT, THAT'S HIS BRO HE HASN'T SEEN FOR 40-ISH YEARS, HE MISSED HIS VOICE. Nonstop certified Yapper & Listener relationship <3

Stanley looks dead faced because of his ingrained poker face, but he's thouroughly enjoying it, even if sometimes he has no idea what the fuck Ford is saying. He never interrupts him though, since he knows people usually ignore or interrupt him mid-talk already. So sometimes Stan gets stuck in awkward situations where he has to leave or do stuff, but also doesn't have it in his heart to stop Ford and extract himself out of a (one-sided) conversation.

[contract-crawdad]

Look Outside epilogue thoughts!!

You know the Shovel Knight ending credits? Where you get a little epilogue vignette for each area? The following are my thoughts for if Look Outside had something like that, probably more like one still image, where you get to see how the choices you made effected certain characters.

Spoilers for… well, pretty much everything in the game down below!

No Going Back/Flawed Ritual/Screaming Skies

The following occur regardless of which of these three endings you get. Basically, any ending in which the world isn’t perfect but there IS still a world for people to keep living in!

- Lyle

If you killed him, it’s just a shot of an empty dilapidated dark room.

If you peeked during the second kiss, Lyle is in the dark room, tearing up pictures of Sam.

If your relationship with Lyle was good for the whole game, he finally unveils his ‘big project’: a collage of Sam, made entirely out of pictures of Sam!

- Jeanne

If you didn’t help Jeanne, her heads are continuing their feeding frenzy. She looks dead ahead, with a catatonic stare.

If you killed her main body, the room is full of lifeless hydra heads. Though the ‘Jeanne’ head is giving a relieved smile, even in death.

If you took out all the feral heads, Jeanne’s main head is chatting with Hellen and Leigh in Mutt’s Fish n Chips (extending down from a hole in the ceiling).

- Frederick

If you fell for Green Frederick’s trick, he’s enjoying having the apartment space all to himself… and painting more green clothing items with the implication that he’s going to use them to do the same thing he did to you to more people.

If you sided with Wriggly

Frederick, he’s trying on Fred’s clothes in the mirror, posing proudly. A single tear rolls down his cheek.

Deciding not to put tumor Frederick out of his misery reveals that he’s grown up and through the apartment ceiling. And will presumably only continue to grow and suffer further.

Leaving Bright Frederick as the last shows that he converts the studio into a clinic to help those still recovering from the Visit. He’s tending to multiple patients at once.

Letting Bitey Frederick alone shows him painting a sign that reads ‘WARNING: KEEP AWAY! All shows affection are appreciated but best performed remotely’.

If (for some reason??) you choose to leave only Black Frederick alive, it has smashed the paintings the other Fredericks got returned to.

If there are no other Fredericks than Shy Frederick left, he is seen peeking out of the door to the studio and into the hall.

Frederick the Many is using his many heads to eat cereal, read a newspaper, type at a computer, and smoke at the same time. Livin’ the casually life. Still can’t find clothes that fit him, though.

If you fell for Faceless Frederick’s ruse, his blobby paint form is pondering which face to wear from a large collection of newly acquired faces. Some of the faces are familiar.

If you saved the real Frederick, he’s burning a pile of his paintings.

- Mr. Henderson

If you haven’t paid off your rent, the outside of Mr. Henderson’s apartment has barbed wire creeping along the ground outside it like ivy, as if the spatial anomaly within it is spreading.

If you have paid off your rent, a blue hand is seen hanging a ‘NO LEASE’ sign on the door.

- Rat Baby

If you sacrificed the baby rat to the wall mouth, you just get a shot of the now-empty crib. The music box slowly winds to a stop.

If you instead sacrificed an arm for rat baby, you get a shot of them in front of the apartment door, waiting for Same to return. If you have recruited them, Joel and/or Sophie are also present and comforting the rat.

Denial Ending

The best of the best! Where do people wind up in a positive future that has fully recovered from the Visit? All of these are assuming that the character in question is alive, and replace the respective ‘best’ paths in the other endings.

- Lyle

Becomes a world renowned ‘landscape’ photographer. Almost exclusively photographs landscapes containing earth’s protector, for some reason. Yes, he’s awkward if pressed about it.

- Jeanne

Attending a support group with other warped individuals, such as the folks from the sewer settlement and the cafe! Hellen, Lyle, Frederick, and Leigh are also there. Leigh looks like she’s so bored that she wants to die.

- Frederick

If you saved Frederick and let all the other nonhostile Freds live (well, the ones that WANT to live, anyways), you get a shot of all of them having a good time together playing poker.

- Mr. Henderson

The small group of somewhat lucid hand-mutants inside Henderson’s warzone are seen exiting his apartment, confusedly taking off their military gear.

- Rat Baby

Being sent off to his first day of school by one of Sam’s tendrils. The tendril is waving.

[vinkaa]

midam in two separate bodies is such an interesting concept to me because yes on one hand they can finally hold hand kiss whatever you imagine but on the other how do you deal with not feeling someone that made your soul a home for a thousand years? that burning, yearning, just gone from your body? yes you can see his face and hold it gently but you can no longer sense every emotion he is feeling, every single thought he has. your entire existence was entwined with his in every possible way but now it's just gone

midam in two separate bodies is such an interesting concept to me because on the one hand they are together but on the other they never felt so lonely

[zylian]

how do i twist spokes outburst of minute talking to zam about everything being centered around zam and how insanely careful he is around him

how everything shatters if zam isn't involved for all sides

how the past of spoke saying its needed that zam is so positive when mapic was crashing out over the death star and failed war is heavy foreshadowing

how every move zam takes will decide if spoke needs to get rid of him or not

how important balance is with the knowledge of 3 seasons making this so much harder than it should be

how playing in a timeloop has him hoping his opponent doesn't cross sides

how unpredictability scares the hell out him and zams effecting everything no matter where he goes

how do i scream about the damn implications of several ideas being cut off and still having to dance the same dance

how do they both lose everything for the sake of their cause, being free yet heavily burdened

[saltpepperbeard]

they really don't think they're enough for each other, huh. they really don't think they're enough.

stede thinks he has to "toughen up." stede thinks he has to be gruff and mean. stede thinks he has to win respect in order to subsequently win love.

ed thinks he has to perform. ed thinks he has to constantly put his persona on. ed thinks he always has to be this larger-than-life legend.

they both think they have to be so much for each other.

when, in reality, all they need to be is themselves. the simplest, sweetest, silliest, most genuine versions of themselves.

[crystallizsch]

Trouble? You're only in trouble if you get caught. So don't let me catch you ~

uhhhhh say hi to jamil and yuusha's kid jas(mine) pt 2 (also here and here are like my only two other posts of her)

HFDDF OKAY SO - i actually had these unfinished sketches from months ago of jas as a nrc student and scarabia housewarden

this sneaky little bastard (affectionate) had never left my cranium she was just sitting idly by

im sobbing i hate jas so much (lie i love her)

jamil and yuusha still aren't supposed to have a kid so i just imagine this to be an alternate timeline for them 🤧🤧🤧

soooo info dump time ---

━━━━━━✦ scarabia housewarden nrc jas

jas has a vice-housewarden who is her childhood best friend (figuring out if i want them to be twst rajah or abu)

also thinking about if i want yuusha to be a staff member in nrc with grim or just dead during this time (why? just because)

no further info tbh, scarabia housewarden jas is just vibing

━━━━━━✦ child jas stuffs

i'm SO indecisive about her design as a toddler/preteen lowkey 😭

she was very sweet as a toddler but somewhere along the line she just became more carefree and chaotic

jas is a mama's girl but is more alike with her father than she cares to admit

octavinelle trio and heartslabyul duo + grim are like the honorary uncles (jas's favorites are floyd, ace, and grim bc they sometimes enable her with shenanigans)

even though jas has favorite uncles, najma is the favorite favorite. i imagine she's just the cool aunt

if mama yuu is "shrimpy" then jas is a "tiger prawn" (bc rajah)

jas LOVES doing people's hair including her own; would rather do them by hand rather than by magic

jamil showed jas how to breakdance once and it became ingrained in her personality ever since

(there's probably still more about her that i'm forgetting but this is it for now)

━━━━━━✦ bonus future jamiyuu stuff because i miss them

jamil took yuusha's last name surprise surprise (if they get married)

i imagine after nrc they'd be travelling together actually, not necessarily settling down

(i'm REALLY not 100% on them settling down and having a kid but i still love jas a lot so im so conflicted) (that's why aus exist 😔✨)

(and if hypothetically they do settle down i think yuusha being staff in nrc with grim + maybe jamil who travels for work (or being a house husband??? maybe they alternate roles) can be adorable ideas)

━━━━━━✦ (i also had this thing that i never posted about that one trope of a fankid finding themselves in nrc bc of portal/time/mirror shenanigans)

(jamil found both of them asleep somewhere and refuses to wake them up)

also some bonus tidbits about this scenario with them:

💜: Is she a family member of yours? How'd she get here?

🐍: I have never seen that child in my life before now. And there's no way I could have missed news about a new relative of mine.

💜: You know how ridiculous it sounds if she's related to me. I'm not from here. She even looks more like you!

🐍: Jas has the same color of eyes as you. Didn't you tell me she mistook you for her mother?

💜: ...Yeah, but I don't like what you're implying.

🐍: Well, I'm not exactly happy with this either.

they're just both in denial of the implication of this child existing and neither of them is saying it out loud.

and the angst/wholesomeness(???) of jamil asking jas's full name and hearing that she has her mother's last name instead of his

eventually they grew attached (unfortunately) until somehow they send jas home to her original timeline

and then they finally have a real conversation about what all that was about

anyways thank you for reading if you've made it this far;;; end tweet

[witchqueenvisenya]

beth and rosita's deaths were nonsensical and unnecessary like wdym beth's character arc wasn't going toward becoming the antithesis of what everyone believed about her (including her family) and wdym rosita dies in the absolute final episode after she beats everything and everyone that could be a danger to her kid, like this woman fought to create a safe world and she gets dropped at the fucking finish line???

[signanothername]

Nightmare helping Color.

Comic. About being even.

Im.

Im so normal right now.

[the-demon-prodigy]

dazai is alienated from society by society itself. how is he supposed to readjust himself when he was pushed out from such a young age? when he knows that he's different, that he is not loved?

but the thing is, dazai is adored by many people. he's just so used to seeing the big picture. he forced himself to generalize human life back in the pm so that he could stand to murder so many.

but maybe someday soon he can finally realize that he is cared for, as an individual, by individuals. after years of dehumanizing others and being dehumanized, it is, naturally, a long road to recovery. but there is a path, and god knows that dazai will follow it to the end.

[rceibo]

taking a break from studying and thinking about leorio’s birthplace. it’s fun how differently both versions decide to depict it… 1999 hints at him being greek/southern european:

while 2011 seems to be more inspired by favelas/barrios populares here in latin america in my opinion:

peep at him and pietro playing fútbol :( ik that this type of infraestructure is not exclusive to latin america but i DO like to project so he’s latino to me

[ratcandy]

Big Huge Irritated Rant About The Latest COTL Update's Story Choices and the Implications

So the lore drop in the new Cult of the Lamb update, Unholy Alliance, pisses me off. The writer's confirmation of what that lore drop means pisses me off more.

Why? Because it's unnecessary recontextualization that was made pretty obviously in favor in one character in particular, and somehow in that process makes that very same character way less interesting. I think it's incredibly detrimental to the story and I will Explain Why in a second.

But before I do, I just want to put this out there: Prior to this update, my opinions on the Bishops and Narinder and that entire plotline were pretty neutral. I'm an NPC enjoyer, I spend my time thinking about that moth with two lines of dialogue. I did not previously have strong opinions on Narinder or Shamura outside of mild dislike for fandom treatment. So I'm not coming from a place of bias here (or at the very least I'm not trying to be). I genuinely, wholeheartedly, 100% believe this writing decision was unnecessary and the Wrong one to make, and I think it severely undercuts the original plotline because this was a retcon and one that sucks pretty bad.

Ok we're on the same page here? Ok awesome. Long rant ahead, and obvs spoilers for the Unholy Alliance update

So first, what the hell am I talking about? What part of the update do I not like? Let's clarify that first.

It's Shamura's dialogue. Like, all of it. For ease of understanding, here is all the dialogue I will be talking about:

"Ah... we gathered here, the four of us, a council of war and I the general. I have not forgot. I did not tell them that chains to bind a God must be forged of Godly matters. What matter of Gods? What matters of Gods? I have not forgot. The betrayal of kin, the breaking of spirits, blood spilled, his and ours. ...the sacrifice of what we had sacrificed so much for... ...shaped into shackles for our own brother. And our wounds always to weep. Such sharp claws..."

--

"He sought to break nature's own laws. Death was his, yet he placed his sacred duty in peril. His experiments... Experiments I encouraged. I am not... blameless. My soul, stained... yet I do not... Ah, The story. Yes the story... He wanted to open the doors between Life and Death, to... to allow their return. Those mere... mortals. Even though he knew their sacrifices, their faith, their fears sustain us. Death must be the end. Otherwise, what use would they have for Gods? They began to flock to him. What he promised, we could not match. He swelled with devotion... while we waned. Would he have let us perish? I could not take... the risk... the hunger... You are lucky there are none left to force such a choice on you. Hail, Lamb. Last God... lonely God... Ah... I feel... unburdened..."

And for fun, before anyone tells me I'm misinterpreting any of this or that it's left up to interpretation or is intentionally vague, Word of God (the writer of CoTL):

And it's this being Word of God that's spurred me into making this post to begin with. Because prior to this, I just seethed about this dialogue's implications in my server and hoped I was wrong. But now it's been confirmed what this means, and I'm . Disgruntled, to say the least!

And since I've started writing this post, there's been another addition made to further clarify parts of this. But I'm going to go over that addition more towards the end, because it also irritates me for separate reasons.

So, let's get this straight.

Prior to this update, the specifics of what happens between Narinder and the Bishops were pretty vague. We were told Narinder was "gluttonous in his ambition," per Shamura's previous dialogue, and that they "introduced him to ideas of change" but "Death cannot flow backward." Heket somewhat elaborates on this by saying he preached "heresy" and "noxious ideals" that would not be tolerated. Heket also notably refers to Narinder as a flat-out "monster." Narinder attacked his siblings and left them each with a big, symbolic wound. Then he was chained by the four of them, with Shamura the one to lead it (in their own words).

There's a lot of talk of betrayal, but before this update, it was unclear if the betrayal was meant to just be Narinder's experimenting with death (which even then was pretty heavily suggested to be resurrections) or the wounds inflicted upon his siblings. There's also a lot of talk of sacrifice, i.e. from Leshy if you kill Heket before him: "After everything we did. After everything we sacrificed. He will not be satiated."

Regardless, the picture this painted was of Narinder being this ambitious, evil, violent God that even his fellow Gods (Kallamar) feared and felt needed controlling. The idea that the wounds could have been in the nail in the coffin to this entire ordeal made sense; as they were obviously planned by Narinder to some extent (otherwise why be so intentional about who got what wound?) and a fair reaction to Being Mutilated would of course be to chain him.

Then of course there's the idea that the wounds were given while he was being chained and in self-defense, which only seems possible if you think Narinder could take on all four of his siblings at once like that and only manage to lose his claws in the ordeal (which was only revealed in this update to be something he's implied to have lost thru the relic). I thought this at first too, but realized it seems pretty impractical for that to have been the case if the wounds were also purposeful in who got what. I mean, sure, they could all be coincidentally symbolically appropriate for each Bishop, but I have doouuubts?

but now we're here, with this update, and all has been revealed.

And what's been revealed exactly?

Narinder's thing he was doing was indeed resurrections (we knew that)

Shamura encouraged him to do it (we also already knew this)

It seems like he did literally nothing else outside of that

His siblings got pissy about this because it made their domains purposeless and got all their followers to flock to him

"Would he let us perish? I could not take the risk" - Implies they literally did not even ask him

Shamura knew that in order to forge chains that could keep Narinder down, it would require a sacrifice of their bonds AND their flesh

They DID NOT tell the other Bishops this

Their wounds were requirements to chain him. They had to get the wounds they bear now in order to chain him. ONLY Shamura knew this. That means they allowed their siblings (and themself) to get attacked knowing full well what would happen. They may have even encouraged it, perhaps provoked Narinder into it, seeing as they knew the wounds were necessary to have him chained. (Or they just knew he would retaliate. Which, like. Yeah. They're condemning him after he went down a path they encouraged and, as far as we can tell, nothing else.)

And for... what?

In this version of the story, Narinder was experimenting with resurrections, and Shamura told him to keep doing that. Then he was successful, mortals turned to him, and his siblings (including Shamura, the one who told him to do it) got mad. That's it. That's their reasoning for chaining him. There's nothing else given. "Would they perish?" We have no idea. Is that how it works? Seems like Shamura doesn't know either. Or at the very least doesn't know if Narinder intended for that at all. Gives the vibe that literally no effort was made to talk to him and figure this out. They don't even really go down the "it puts nature out of balance!" path, which would at least have some merit, maybe. It's literally just "we are no longer sustained. What's the point of Gods in this world?" <- idk babe you had all the other ones slaughtered. So you tell me

And then Shamura just took it into their own hands, leading their siblings to their shared wounds (WITHOUT consulting them) and their inevitable destruction because of........... reasons, I guess. (I mean, if you think about it really hard, they probably also already knew what would happen following all this. With the lamb genocide and Narinder's resurfacing and etc. And they had their siblings wounded anyway. For no god damn reason)

And now why does this make me mad?

Because, honestly, in and of itself, there's not anything necessarily wrong with this added context. It's not contradicting anything in the main game. Shamura knowing what was needed makes sense, after all.

But it's... unnecessary. It screws up the motives and makes them more shallow, less nuanced, more... petty. Making gods petty is cool and all, I love doing that honestly, but in this case it just feels like a waste of potential.

But beyond all that. But most importantly.

This entire recontextualization of events REEKS of being made specifically to absolve Narinder.

I mean, come on. He's made out to be the victim, here. Shamura knew what he would do, knew what he would become, and knew exactly what would happen to their siblings if they sought to chain him (without doing so much as talking to him beforehand), and yet they encouraged it.

All blame is being shifted on Shamura. All Narinder did specifically against his siblings was inflict the wounds, which at this point seems to be hinted as self defense or a retaliation against threat or insult (assuming he was provoked into attacking, somehow). Because the wounds were part of the process.

And almost equally irritating, this seeks to arbitrarily absolve Leshy, Kallamar, and Heket as well, as they had no idea what the plan was and were just strung along. Which is just kinda worse, right? As far as they are aware, Narinder did just randomly attack them for no reason, and this wasn't foreseen, and surely couldn't have been stopped. All because Shamura didn't tell them any of it.

Shamura is being made into the big bad. Shamura is at fault for everything, for all of it. Narinder is a victim of Shamura encouraging him down a path they later condemn him for, their siblings are victims of Shamura and Narinder both (the latter of which could have been resolved at any point prior), and now any possible intrigue about Narinder being this big bad guy who tore apart his siblings due to his own ambition getting the best of him is ERASED.

It's GONE. All in favor of making him more sympathetic.

And sure, about a million different excuses could be made for Shamura, or could be used to headcanon whatever you want about exactly what happened. But with what we're given right now, just from the source, no attempt as made to stop Narinder before it got to this point. It is literally suggested they didn't even talk to him.

"Maybe they were too scared" - For the other three, maybe. Shamura is the eldest and clearly the most respected one, by Narinder as well (he holds some amount of respect for them even STILL. After EVERYTHING). They at any point could have stopped this.

"Narinder could still have been a bad guy outside of the attacks" - Sure, but we're given little to nothing on that front. In the old dialogue, literally all that's mentioned is the resurrection stuff and the wounds. Shamura is the one who said his ambition made a glutton of him, by the way. And hell, this isn't even touching the very real possibility that all of the Bishops (Narinder included!) are unreliable as hell.

"But Kallamar feared him even before his chaining, that suggests he was still a bad guy beforehand" - Sure, it could! But that's about all we get! And hell, in this new update, Kallamar's fears are fucked with, too. He states:

"Once, long ago, Followers would worship at my altar just to glimpse the beauty of my temple… of course, it could not last forever. Perhaps my siblings did not understand this, but I have always known. It did not make me less afraid. Cowardly Kallamar, ha…"

Here, it seems Kallamar's fears have been changed to be more about the decline of his temple and the loss of his followers, which was happening because of Narinder. He refers to Narinder's plans as "foolish" as opposed to... idk, horrifying, or threatening, or whatever. He also fully takes on the 'cowardly' title, giving the impression that his fears were somehow unfounded, which wouldn't make a lick of sense if Narinder indeed sucked ass outside of the wounds.

Not to mention he "didn't want to hear it" when Shamura "revealed the plan," but we know because of Shamura that they didn't mention anything about the wounds, so Kallamar didn't want to hear that they... had to chain Narinder? That's literally all he could've been told about the plan. Why wouldn't he want to chain Narinder if he was scared of him up until that point?? Doesn't make any sense!!! EDIT AFTER I POSTED: On reconsideration this might just be referring the lamb genocide plan, but that's hardly better, because now this update absolves Narinder, Leshy, AND Kallamar by making them blameless in everything (both Leshy and Kallamar expressed not fully understanding the plan for the slaughter or, in this case, not wanting part in it). What's up with THAT. Why is Shamura getting the blame for LITERALLY EVERYTHING.

Anyway, my point is

This was a story decision made to make Narinder sympathetic. It's so blatant. And it's so, so irritating. It gets rid of so many potential cool flaws of Narinder and replaces it with "Actually, Shamura was the bad guy the whole time! Huzzah!"

And honestly, had the entire game come out like this to begin with, released at the start how it is right now, I don't think I'd care this much. But being added now, as an afterthought, after the fandom and devs alike have grown to favor Narinder above all others, it just...

It reeks of favoritism. It smells of revising the story to make Narinder more likeable. It's just erasure.

And for what. Like, I don't want to be That Guy, but I cannot help but notice that one of two nonbinary characters (outside of the Lamb/Goat themselves) is being this heavily demonized in favor of absolving a Man of his crimes. What's, uh. What's up with that.

Oh, and that addition by the writer I mentioned was made while I was writing this.

This was made after Jojo was questioned whether this was a retcon as to who caused the wounds, as this whole thing could also certainly be read as Shamura being the one to directly wound their siblings (which I didn't think was the case, but still).

"I don't know if they thought it would be so severe" - How do I put this in a nice way. This feels like a weaseling out answer. This feels like giving Shamura an out only after being questioned on this writing choice. How could they possibly not know how severe it would be. This spider is Knowledge. This spider has Foresight of some kind. And how do you not know what they thought. You are the Writer. If you want to clarify something like this you gotta say it with your full chest.

Not to mention a good portion of the fandom probably won't even see these tweets, so this context is all missing from the story presented in the game. This is Tacked On Context on top of already Tacked On Context. It's unnecessary retconning all the way down.

Anyway. I realize the fandom at large will not care about this, because (and I mean this in the nicest way I can manage) the Narinder favoritism in this fandom is already impenetrable, but for me personally? This retconning that was so clearly done out of that favoritism?

It ruined Narinder's character for me. More than the fandom possibly could have. I mean, if it's fanon, it can be ignored. But this was canonized. Because Narinder is the dev team's favorite guy.

And I can't stand it.

[rain-harmonia]

hi tumblr I am, as many people are, going fucking insane over the silly little vampire man. I was encouraged to post some thoughts I had about him so uh here you go!!

Pre-vampire Astarion had a different kind of style. Different color preferences, clothing, patterns, hair.

Game era Astarion got off the nautiloid like that - which means we can assume he got taken like that - which means we can assume that’s not a style he’s chosen himself but a visual identity he’s been forced into for 200 years that he hasn’t yet found the ability to change

Even when he kills Cazador. There’s not a Shadowheart-esque moment of changing his appearance to reflect his development even though his appearance can be tied even more to the trauma he’s trying to overcome than Shadowheart’s can

Because he’s spent so long not able to be his own person. Not allowed to find his own tastes. There isn’t some identity lurking beneath the facade, waiting to break forth. Cazador broke him down, hollowed him out, made sure there was nothing except what Cazador wanted him to be

So some time post-game.. it starts slowly. He changes his hairstyle first. His family (they are still alive, they’re elves, fight me about it) tries to lay out clothes for him that used to suit his tastes but he doesn’t feel right putting them on it. It’s not the same kind of performative that Cazador demanded from him, but it feels performative all the same. He goes shopping around, he strays from anything similar to what he would have worn during the Cazador era or during his lifetime. For a while it’s anything that catches his eye, trying out whatever he realizes he likes. Sometimes it ends up a little silly. But eventually he does settle into his preferences. Finally something uniquely him, who he’s become and what he’s decided to like.

The symbolic change of a character’s visual design, but it takes years, maybe even decades

[szynkaaa]

Zhu Bajie and the Violet Spider (and i guess all the other tragic love stories)

Alright, finished Chapter 4 in my NG+ and here are some of my thoughts, ramblings and musings about Zhu Bajie and the Violet Spider. Also will be going with Black Myth Wukong's version of JTTW

Everything is under cut because long text

What we know:

ZBJ was an Admiral in the Celestial Court, there was a maid working there who was crushing on him and took care of him at some point. ZBJ gets cast out from the court into the mortal realm and turns into a pig. Maid tries to follow him, but gets turned into a spider because the word pig (猪zhū) and spider (蜘蛛Zhīzhū) sound similar and she thought he turned into a spider.

The pilgrims run into White Bone Demon, who turns into 3 mortals and each time SWK beat them down. It is not explained how they fell in love or why, just that he was in love with her. The subtitles from the scene:

ZBJ: "It was her tricks that made Master drive Wukong away" Old Monkey: "On White Tiger Ridge, he forsook his lover. Three times he broke her into pieces, convincing himself his heart would ache no more. Yet, as you must know, he had never let go of her. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been so eager to get away from the Buddahood he attained."

Side note, in CN the old moneky says "他倒是狠心绝情", which translates to "he was very cruel and heartless".

Like all the other demon in the book they wanted to eat Tripitaka because they were convinced that would grant them immortality. In JTTW, White Bone Demon transforms herself into a young lady, then elder woman and then old man, pretending to ask for help. Each time SWK was able to see through her disguise and he struck them down. Tripitaka thought he was killing innocent mortals so he sent SWK away, said he wasn't one of his disciple anymore. iirc ZBJ was not helping lol.

I hope the DLC will shed some more information on the romance, but I also understand if they don't elaborate further. According to some redditors the White Bone Demon romance is a nod towards another game Game Science worked on where SWK and White Bone Demon where a thing.

Later on in their journey, ZBJ sees a bunch of pretty women bathing. He turns himself into a fish. The Violet Spider recognizes him and I guess they reconcile?? or not really because the spiders also try to kidnap and eat Tripitaka and SWK leaves ZBJ to take care of the spiders, he killed everyone except the Violet Spider, who had to eat the remains of her sisters in order to survive.

Speculation from my side is if SWK knew about ZBJ history with the Violet Spider. I think it would be interesting for them to have a conversation about it at some point, since both of them had demon lovers who tried to eat their master so they were forced to kill them (except ZBJ spared the Violet Spider). Maybe SWK wishes he had that option too instead of living with the pain later on. A lot of wiggle rooms for interpretations and headcanons.

lot of shit happens. they finish their travel, SWK attains buddahood. Realizes he hates the court life, also cannot let go that he had to kills his past lover. just wants to chill with his homies and be back on his mountain. and the circlet is still there. hatches his masterplan to die so he can be reborn and be truly free

Throughout the game and dialogues in the game, we know that there were several monkeys/Destined One attempting to retrieve all 5 artifacts and become SWK. The way I understood is, if you reach the bad ending, the cycle starts a new. a new monkey will arise and try again until said monkey reaches the True Ending.

It is very heavily implied that the 4th spider was in love with one of the reincarnation, and they were supposed to get married or have gotten married. but alas monke has to continue his main quest, and he never returned back to her.

My question is, do each Destine One reincarnation retain memories from previous Destined One? Does "our" Destined One know who she is and what he means to her? fun things to also think about.

Oh yeah also pretty sure ZBJ and the Violet Spider got married in chapter 4 LOL. Very questionable marriage since ZBJ was not in a place to consent to it and was pretty much forced into it. But she came out wearing a red wedding dress and then sisters were telling him what to do and not to do, and they were also saying he is the one mother wants all those years even though they disagree with the choice. And then later on before the Violet Spider boss battle, iirc ZBJ says she should have just eaten him before the vows and stuff. Either she mates and then eats her husbands LOL. and her daughters also feast on the newly wed husband.

Heavily implied that the youngest spider kid is ZBJ and Violet Spiders kid. At least that's how I interprested the scene, why else would she show him the youngest daughter? Also all the daughters were born after ZBJ killed Violet Spider's sisters and left her to die, as they say it all happened before they were born so they cannot understand mother's obsession

My 2 cents: None of the spider sisters share the same father. I believe that the Violet Spider would find a new mate, get married, consumate the marriage and then eat the husband. Probably got pregnant from each marriage. It seems like the spider sisters are also very familiar with the ritual ( also LOL would the 4th spider sister have eaten the Destined One??). I also thought at first that Chapter 4 is the first time since JTTW Zhu Bajie bumped into the spider sisters and Violet Spider, but after my NG+ playthrough I realize that would not make much sense. If the youngest daughter really is their kid, then that means they must have met before the current event and JTTW.

We know that this is also not the first Destined One ZBJ met: when we rescue him in chapter 3, he says something along the line "great another mute" - implying he has helped other DO before. Which also means he has visited the spider lair with the DO before, so my guess it is very likely that he may have done the deed with the Violet Spider, and this is how the youngest daughter was conceived? And then he and the Destined One left once again, leaving the 4th Sister and Violet Spider behind again. I think that this would also "make sense" why the Violet Spider was so obsessed and hung up on ZBJ in chapter 4. It couldn't have been "just" what happened in JTTW, some more things must have happened in-between. ZBJ constantly picking bros before hoes I guess.

Fan speculation is also that the reason why ZBJ cannot be with the Violet Spider is to protect them from the Celestial Court.

We have 4 different love stories in this game: SWK and White Bone Demon, Zhu Bajie and the Violet Spider, Destined One and 4th Sister and then the Bull Demon King and Princess Iron-Fan.

I don't haven't started my chapter 5 playthrough yet but the gist I got is that their story isn't a happy one either and controlled by the Celestial Court. It sounds like none of the love stories have a happy ending and in one way or another, the Celestial Court is the cause for it. SWK and White Bone Demon doesn't fully fall into that category, but in JTTW it is said that all the demons they encounter were all orchestrated by Buddha, where they have to face 81 trials. Putting that into BMW's version of JTTW, technically a higher being still interfered with their love story and "forced" SWK to kill his lover, if they put White Bone Demon into their way. Again, this is just my musing and headcanon, and nothing of this is confirmed.

This is my opinion, but I personally love that Game Science gave both SWK and DO and ZBJ a love story, some more obvious than the others. It just adds a more human touch to the overall story of the game that I personally love.

Now excuse me while I go try to smooch a stone monkey.

[lucabyte]

hiii hello so we are just going to go out on a limb here and ask if it'd be cool with you if we wrote some kind of fanfic based on / set in what we understand to be your post canon setting for isat? we might just spend a bunch of time thinking about scenarios within it rather than write any actual fanfiction But we have definitely strayed into Wanting To terrain so we wanna ask before we get too caught up in the idea. your take is awesome and we know we've been putting our thoughts in our reblog tags but at this point we are runnning out of "normal words" there are emotions only poetry masquerading as prose fanfiction can convey now. anyway totally understand if not Have a good day !

oh absolutely go right ahead!! It's my thought that i make fanwork in a communal sense so, if it inspires other people that's kind of the ideal outcome LMAO. But yeah go nuts!!

My musings on postcanon are vague at best and lightly self-contradictory anyway so its not exactly a 'setting' anyone could Fuck Up since 1. its not really Mine per se (it is a fanwork. and to me fanworks are just kind of... for other fans?? to me?? idk lol. like i didnt make the canon lol im not staking claim or authority on anything it feels weird) and 2. i think like the only solid 'plot points' in my perception of postcanon i bash dolls together in is like. Loop came back only a couple months at max while the party was still travelling around After picking up Nille (ambiguous vague timing) and they and Siffrin are going through great pains to obfuscate loops identity because theyre sure that for some reason they are paranoid revealing this would be Bad. and then just all the shit i detailed re: isabeau torment nexus. so like. these three posts (x) (x) (x). and uh. yeah thats like it. i dont keep a clear order of events in my head at all i just think its fun to maximise polycule disaster bullshit for whats probably outright Months before resolving it into "oh okay theyre together now its okay guys dont worry" in whatever level of romance through qpr that you please. which as someone who thinks the whole party is just gonna fall into some weird fucking extended qpr-polycule inevitably im sure u can assume my thoughts are similarly. vague as hell and mildly contradcictory. again.

anyway uhhh yeah go nuts show nuts (optional) have fun the above is to just hand you more posts to feed to your Mind Maw and have ideas about if you want them since generating ideas in other people is What Poasts Are For 👍👍👍

(edit: oh i am reading more of ur tag rambles that i missed just now. :) i like your thourts and reads!)

[wathanism]

the whole shitshow happening on twitter about the hijabi gal with a baby bump and muslim men's reaction to it seems to have inspired a massive conversation among muslim women about Why Are Muslim Men Like That and i really appreciate it. i've said before that i see myself as being in community with muslims despite being ex-muslim myself, but ik the feeling is not exactly mutual, so i don't really know how much i have to add to the conversation or what my positionality is here. i will say tho, i am always delighted to see these conversations Happening and i do hope that progressive muslims will make space for ex-muslims here because i really do think the question of "what pushed people so far away from islam" is a worthwhile one for everyone. in fact, i've seen people talk about it from the angle that "muslim men's sexism is pushing away women who are reverting," and i think there's space for "it's also pushing away women who were raised into islam."

i completely understand that in the global climate of extreme islamophobia, there's a sense that "any critiques of the islamic community must be done WITHIN the community to protect from outsiders who are operating from a place of hate." i entirely recognize that and i agree completely. but like i've said before, islamophobia doesn't actually stop when you no longer practice islam, and ex-muslims are also impacted by it. my argument is just that ex-muslims are, in a sense, part of the community because we're HERE. we live in these countries, we are part of your families, we're impacted by the same systems. it's a very weird positionality we occupy, but it would be inaccurate to say that ex-muslims are outsiders in the same sense that white christians are. i won't deny that there is a lot of islamophobia among ex-muslims, but it's a lot more nuanced than the kind of islamophobia that you'll see among white europeans and americans.

ex-muslims absolutely have a lot of fuckin Issues and i will always be the first to call it out, but we're really never gonna heal the mass religious trauma in the ex-muslim community until we are welcomed in these spaces where our traumas are validated and treated with the gravity they deserve. because a lot of these traumas we share are coming from the same place! muslim men being shitty to muslim women is entirely coming from the same place as them being shitty to non-muslim and ex-muslim women. there is of course more nuance there, but my point stands.

idk if i'm making sense but tldr, muslim women who are sick and tired of sexism from muslim men, i am holding your hand and i hope you hold mine too