#yes when i feel like it ilmari also haunts me :)

[koskela-knights]

Just assume I’m like this at any given moment of the day 🥰

[koskela-knights]

Huotari Sad Hours

Elaborating on the HCs and stuff @zephyrone01 and I talked about last night regarding the Huotari brothers.

CW: suicide mention in red!

Either the brothers were born in the US or they moved over there (be it as children or already as (young) adults)

Maybe their mother wanted a better life for them overseas and asked Ilmari to create a better place in the New World for him, his brother and the community. This mirrors what Ilmo's currently trying to do with reviving Watery and bringing the metaphorical Sampo to the town.

Back in the 1900-1920s the DP was already a thing and it began influencing Ilmari too

Ilmari's depiction in the Yötön Yö movie is a twisted version (ofc also a role he played) and filmmaker Zane is rly an unreliable narrator anyways

Ilmari being influenced and possessed by the DP leaves memory gaps in his brain (similar to what happened to Stucky and Rose in AW1)

The DP maybe preyed on the Puukkojunkkari phenomenon (historical Finnish, violent troublemakers in a certain region in Finland according to Wikipedia) which helped twist Ilmari into such "knife-fighter" and gave him a bad reputation

Jaakoppi knowing Ilmari to be good, wants and helps cover up the murders

With limited knowledge, maybe they hope that Sauna can help cleanse the "evil" from Ilmari (Ilmo mentions in his mail to the Kalevala Knights that Sauna is good for the soul, thnx Zephyrone01 for pointing that out)

Ilmari might really thought he was possessed by the mythical Näkki becos that might've been his only point of reference

The Huotaris were left to their own devices and Jaakoppi might've feared that they'd take Ilmari away from him, to place him into an asylum for his "weird behaviour". The language barrier must've also played a role in the miscommunication and eventually the evil depiction of the Huotaris. Maybe their history has been revisioned/rewritten or even destroyed by xenophobic historians.

We like to think their bond was strong too, so Jaakkoppi can get through to Ilmari, even when possessed.

However, the DP wears Ilmari down over the years and the townspeople and American outsiders are suspicious of him.

In the DP and the echoes, we see that after Initiation - Draft 3 the cultist/Ilmo jumps off the roof. What if Zane drew inspiration from what happened to the historical figure Ilmari. Maybe Ilmari committed suicide after he killed his brother. Like he couldn't bear living without his brother anymore. I really hope that won't be the case for Ilmo in the future, or Ilmo becoming possessed 😭

Thanks to @mashkara45 recent posts detailing about the townsfolk in Bright Falls, we also see that their (twisted/changed) perception of Watery and the Koskelas isn't really good, which might've mimicked the attitudes people in Bright Falls used to have (if it already existed) toward the Finnish town.

[koskela-knights]

😳What knives, Ilmari??!!?🔪

[koskela-knights]

Unholy thoughts dslkfjdsljk end me the lip bite 🤪😳🥵

@zephyrone01

[koskela-knights]

Ilmari with fangs 🐺

[koskela-knights]

Loving the Koskelas isnt enough anymore. @zephyrone01 and I have ventured into new waters that are the possible Huotari history and their backstories 😪

And it’s angsty!

One option is that Ilmari was possessed. By the the Dark Presence and his brother Jaakoppi wanted to cover for him. But due to historical conflicts (hostility against Finnish immigrants, the language barrier) people misread/mistranslated Ilmari’s sudden possessed behaviour in a very bad light. And back in the 20s people were less familiar with the DP so they also didn’t know how to fight or counter it 😪 Ilmari starting similar to Ilmo, happy and energetic but unlike Ilmo the DP wears him down bit by bit and infliences him stronger. Usuallu Jaakoppi can break through the DP’s influence but at one point he doesnt and it’s what gets him killed (similar to what happens in Ilmo’s nightmare in the manuscript description)