I will never be over how the score and shots reflect the culture of wherever we are/who we are with
Like for Lindon the music is calm and ethereal with wide, elegant shots usually with nature if not the Great Tree itself
Eregion has similar music and shot sizes but they focus more on the architecture and Celebrimbor’s forge
For Númenor it’s big, sweeping scores and wide shots of the island and the sea surrounding it
For the Harfoots and Stoors the music is sweet and calm and comforting. The shots are a lot closer in and focus more on the people and their food
For Khazad-dûm the music is quite aggressive and pounding and the shots are wide and focus on the rock of the mountain and the things the dwarves have made from it
For Rhûn the score is lively but ominous and the shots are wide (again) and show the extent of the desert
For the Southlands the music is similar to the Harfoots/Stoors but with a sinister and foreboding element to it. The shots are close in and focus on the houses and the people
And finally for Adar and the orcs the music is dark and quite frightening. The shots are close and low-lit and focus mostly on Adar but also the orcs themselves
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Funny how people will be so weird about fma 03's Scar design, citing him being younger/'bishie' compared to the manga and Brotherhood versions as a negative against the first anime adaptation because, let's be real here, a lot of people see this design decision as "feminizing", making him weaker or more palatable at the expense of the role he's meant to play.
Meanwhile 03 Scar, unlike the manga and Broho counterparts, not only is more staunchly anti-military and consistently uses violence and strategies against the system throughout his entire arc, he straight up has a kill count so massive it would make manga + Broho Scars blush (and manga + Broho Elrics have a full existential crisis).
My man never once becomes an Amestrian reformist, never once celebrates the militia (he would have laughed Miles right out of the room if he tried to guilt him for not licking military boots for a scrap of acceptance; in canon he fully declares he has zero pity for soldiers PERIOD) and goes down killing well over 7000+ soldiers and state alchemists in his entire run.
Need I remind everyone that he draws a city-spanning alchemic rune, by himself, with a boulder and a chain to drag it? And lures in the Amestrian invaders by dropping Kimbly's freshly murdered carcass (his doing of course) that he carried with his teeth to the top of a building, while armless and bleeding out? Drawing them further in while dodging gunfire on foot. Iconic. Awe-inspiring. Pure 100% platinum-grade badass.
03 Scar never loses sleep about killing the pigs of a fascist nation, never cedes any ideological or material ground to them, and he could never be shamed out of actively fighting back. Unfortunately we can't say the same for the defanged mangahood Scars. Because despite their more overtly gruff and 'tough' character designs, they're so thoroughly cowed by a small mob of Amestrians who use basic shaming tactics to stop them dead in their tracks and join their side, never to kill another jackbooted hog.
03 Scar clears manga and Brotherhood Scars, easy
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SSO Theory: The Secret Behind the Masks
"It looked like a mask. One of those old wooden ones with holes for the eyes." (Excerpt from Shari's Mask.)
The Miscreants might be the most famous mask-wearers in Jorvik, but have you noticed they aren't the only ones? The Miscreants, Xin, the Vala, Shari, even Pi in The Legend Awakens, so what's the deal with all these wooden masks?
I have a theory!
The only common denominator I can find between all these characters is neutrality. Not good, not evil, something in-between the two. Let's start with Shari, who is first mentioned in the Soul Riders short story collection Ghost Stories from Jorvik., in Alex's story, Shari's Mask. We don't learn much about Shari other than that she is referred to as a goddess and wears the Miscreant mask, as seen on the book's back cover and other illustrations.
According to the About section of the Miscreants page on Spotify the Miscreants styled the masks they wear after one found in a thrift store that likely either belonged to Shari or one of her followers.
The Miscreants are shown to be neutral troublemakers, in no way evil, but not saints either, also equally liked by Soul Riders AND Dark Riders. (Their song Face in the Crowd is used as Sabine's theme and Lisa has a Miscreants poster and replica mask in her bedroom.) Similarly, the Vala, Pi, and Xin (through Ydris) have all been shown to be our enemies AND allies at different points in time, and all seem to have agendas separate from the battle between good and evil.
Xin is an odd case; we know very little about him, although I assume he is Pandorian in origin like Ydris and Zee. The way Ydris refers to Xin's mask is interesting and definitely makes me think it has some greater significance.
In the questline where we're trying to save Concorde from the circus, we also have this little exchange between Linda and Evergray. (Pardon crusty Linda!/lh)
I feel this strengthens the case for Xin being Pandorian.
Now for the witches!
And yes, I do mean witches generally, not just the Vala!
In the second Soul Riders book, The Legend Awakens, Pi is described as wearing wooden masks also! This is an excerpt from Pi's introduction.
"She emerged from the darkness. The darkness sent her to them. All they could see was a figure shrouded in shadows, dressed in a dark cloak with something in front of its face. A wooden mask? The mask was glowing pink, with almost luminescent letters. Anne gasped as she felt the Pandoria sickness wash over her, sticky and pink. She recognized those letters."
Thanks to Sive in the Storms Over Devil's Gap questline we know the masks have some power beyond just cool aesthetics.
I find it interesting that these masks are always specified to be "wooden" either by verbally being referred to as such or in their design.
This makes me wonder if the masks are perhaps made from the wood of Primeval Tress. We know Lisa was able to communicate with the Sleeping Widow while in Pandoria and it was explained the Primeval Tree's roots reach to Pandoria. Dialogue from the One of Our Witches questline also states that witches and Primeval Trees do sometimes form alliances, making this theory even more credible in my opinion.
This same questline also gives us this bit of dialogue.
I find myself wondering if Pi's masks specifically came from a corrupted Primeval Tree. Anne's reaction to it and the fact that Pi's is the only mask to glow pink suggests a stronger Pandorian connection than the Vala masks. Pi in The Legend Awakens is also described very differently from her in-game counterpart. (Since this depiction is more current, I'm considering it the canon version. I want her to be updated in-game so bad!) She's described as having feet like rough tree roots and hands that are half claw, half atrophied wood. Maybe using masks made from corrupted trees corrupts the wearer as well?
For the last part of my theory, we're going to circle back to Shari for a minute.
In Shari's Mask it's revealed that Shari is searching for her missing horse who was taken from her, which I believe to be the Laverna, who is also a mask-wearing trickster. Here's Laverna's in-game description.
"The veil between worlds grows thin around Halloween, allowing spirits to travel to other planes. Laverna was one of these, though no one knows when she first crossed over.
When she arrived on Jorvik she was a mere wisp and a mask. But Laverna is a powerful soul, and before long she created a solid body in the shape of a creature she saw around Jorvik that was suitable for her interests. Disguised as a horse, she got up to all kinds of mischief, preferring the "trick" in "trick or treat."
Laverna fashioned her body after an American Paint Horse; she likes the splashy colors even when concealing her magical coat and mask. She employs nighttime and shadow as cover for thievery. Mischief is her entertainment, so be prepared to keep an eye on her!"
The line "though no one knows when she first crossed over" seems to imply that Laverna is quite an ancient spirit. When Alex meets some of Shari's hypnotized followers in Jorvik City they describe Shari as "the goddess, the deceiver, the rebel, the legend", which is in line with Laverna's mischievousness and the Miscreant's rebelliousness. Shari is described as wearing black robes and not having a face, only the mask. And if Shari can be referred to as a goddess, I would imagine that she's also a very old being. The only other character that's ever been called a goddess is Aideen, so here's my thinking.
Aideen and Garnok are both treated as deities with their own missions and followers, what's interesting though is that while witches and Pandorians (the primary mask-wearers) acknowledge both as powerful beings, they don't seem to worship either. Aideen seems to be a goddess of Jorvik, and we know Garnok is not from Pandoria, merely trapped there. My theory is that witches and Pandorians are followers of Shari, who I believe to be a Pandorian goddess, more specifically a trickster goddess, who is unaligned to good or evil and acts only in the best interest of herself and her followers, the masks symbolizing their neutrality. Mask=ambiguity=neutrality.
The only thing that gives me pause about Laverna being Shari's horse is that Gabby (one of the hypnotized followers) calls Shari's horse Solomi (no clue if I spelled that right, I only have the audiobook version of the story). But it's possible that this is either a discrepancy or Solomi is the horse's real name and Laverna is the name given to her by Jorvegians who didn't know her real name.
So, am I onto something?
Thank you for reading my insane wooden mask deep dive!/gen
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