Crazy Fangirl

Mariana, 23, Brazil. All kinds of fandoms, all kinds of fanfiction. Hit me up if you want some recs.

[chasing-crows]

ok but why is Martin convinced that everybody tryna steal his girl.

Like buddy. Your girl is an evil eldritch fear entity in the form of a 5 foot negative three skinny depressed snooty rat man with no ass and undiagnosed autism who hasn’t showered in a month, is probably a closeted theatre kid, and is a total bitch to everyone he knows including you. I promise you you’re not in danger.

[someones-there-1]

“i really loved you, you know?” will always get me

[glitzbot]

Stolas is thirsty from... working so hard

[buriedaliens]

I had a thought.

Also a second thought

[glitzbot]

soulmates

[hellamews]

owls what?

[onehopefuldreamer]

Challenging a Queen guide

For those of you, who like me, want to get the most out of this song, here comes what I’ve been able to glean about its incredibly complex structure.

These are the main things you need to pay attention to when trying out different combinations if you want to get a different outcome or ending:

The 1st choice always influences the 2nd, but also the 3rd and the 5th

The 4th choice influences the 5th

The ending you get is often based not only on the combination between your 1st and 5th choice but also on your 4th choice

With that out of the way here are all the important combinations I’ve been able to find that lead to unique outcomes and/or endings:

Beginning combinations, 1st + 2nd choice

BBXXX

BGXXX

BRXXX

GBXXX

GGXXX

GRXXX

RBXXX

RGXXX

RRXXX

Secondary combinations, 1st + 3rd choice

Except for middle Red where it’s sometimes 1st + 1nd + 3rd choice

BXBXX = GXBXX

BXGXX

BBRXX = BRRXX

BGRXX

GXGXX (only possible with a Charming Grace)

GBRXX = GRRXX

GGRXX

RBRXX = RRRXX

RGRXX

Tertiary combinations, 3rd + 4th choice

XXBBX

XXBGX

XXBRX

XXGBX (only possible with a Charming Grace)

XXGGX (only possible with a Charming Grace) = XXRGX

XXGRX

XXRBX

XXRRXX

Ending combinations, 1st + 4th + 5th choice

BXXBB = XXXBB = XXXGB

BXXBG (only possible with a Clever or Kickass Grace)

BXXBG/GXXBG/RXXBG (only possible with a Charming Grace)

BXXBR

BXXGR

BXXRB

GXXBG (only possible with a Clever or Kickass Grace)

GXXBR

GXXGG (only possible with a Charming Grace) = XXXGG (again with Charming Grace)

XXXGG (only possible with a Clever or Kickass Grace) = XXXRG

GXXGR

GXXRB

RXXBG (only possible with a Clever or Kickass Grace)

RXXBR

RXXGR

RXXRB

RXXRR = XXXRR

It’s entirely possible I have missed something so if you’ve stumbled on another combination that leads to a unique outcome or ending, do let me know and I’ll add it here (after giving you credit first, of course).

Now good luck with finding your own perfect combination/s for this song!

[onehopefuldreamer]

Challenging a Queen - a love letter

Look, at first this post was going to be about Look into me (my first love when it comes to this game's soundtrack and still one of the songs I adore the most).

Then I wanted to wax poetic about You and I and You and I reprise (three different versions of the reprise depending on what you do with the throne and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn's glorious voice, yes, please! Plus Persephone and Grace is my personal OTP).

After that I moved on to The Throne because I think it's both absolutely awesome and absolutely bonkers you get two themes to mix and match there instead of only one (1st theme based on your first choice and the 2nd on your answer to Orpheus' question). It's still a huge, HUGE personal favourite.

(I will still write love letters to these three songs eventually.)

But then I read Austin Wintory's commentary on the Pantheon version of the soundtrack he posted on YouTube and it caught my attention that he called Challenging a Queen the most complex song in the game. Previous to reading that I had thought it was the same as a lot of the other songs - three main themes that you just get to mix and match but aside from that nothing much changes. Oh, how wrong I was!

Reading that comment made me curious about trying different combinations to see what would happen and once I started doing that I was completely blown away. Because it turns out that this song is anything BUT simple! The choices are even more interlinked here than in most other songs and the possible combinations that lead to different outcomes are so, SO many!

Based on my experimentation (8+ hours of gameplay that's only replaying this one song)  I have discovered the following:

1. The first choice you make directly influences the second. So if you go from Green to Red for example you get a completely different outcome than if you had gone from Red to Green.

2. The first choice also influences the third/middle one. BXGXX is not the same as RXGXX or GXGXX (X stands for any colour). In the case of middle Red, I think, there's the most possibilities because there the second choice also comes into play. For example the banter between Grace and Persephone is different if you go with RBRXX (which is the same as RRRRR) or RGRXX.

3. Then the third and fourth choices also influence each other and lead to different combinations. Say, XXBRX is decidedly not the same as XXRBX.

4. Last but most certainly not least that pesky first choice continues to have an effect until the very end. The combination between it and your fifth or, sometimes, fourth and fifth choice/s is what leads to all sorts of different and unique endings you can get.

That's already a super complex song structure that I'm still not sure I have figured out completely, to be honest. I continue to experiment with different combinations and plan to try to see if I can compile a guide to all the possibilities here. I'm very much not statistically or mathematically inclined so this has been a bit of a struggle but I'm also having so much fun trying to pick apart this song that I don't really mind.

I've never experienced anything like this in any game before and honestly playing around with this song has been a revelation. The amount of screaming I have done in front of my laptop every time I come upon something new is insane. I've come to a point where I have bits and pieces of Challenging a Queen rattling around my head at all times and I LOVE it! Because, as weird as it sounds, I have not become bored with this song even after so many hours of listening to it. I happen to love all the different permutations and listening to Laura Bailey and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn try to outperform each other is far, FAR from a hardship. In fact it's an absolute joy.

I'll leave you with what's probably my most favourite discovery about this song: there are 17 different endings you can discover. 17!!! That's insane! Or at least that's as many as I have personally discovered and I am still very much in awe. If you're curious about checking them out on your own, here goes:

1-4 - RRRRR, BBBBB, GGGGG with a Charming Grace and GGBGG or GGRGG with a Clever or Kickass Grace. These are what I call the regular or classic endings. You're pretty much guaranteed to discover these.

5-8 - BXXBG, RXXBG, GXXBG with Clever or Kickass Grace and one extra XXXBG ending for Charming Grace. The first choice does not matter for Charming Grace, the ending is always the same no matter what.

9-11 - BXXGR, RXXGR and GXXGR

12-14 - BXXBR, RXXBR and GXXBR

15-17 - BXXRB, RXXRB and GXXRB

What I find impressive (aside from the huge number of endings) is that the endings from 5 and onward are all genuinely combined endings. They're not just alternative versions of the RR, GG or BB endings, they're a combination of approaches and/or musical styles and I cannot even begin to express how much I adore that.

I'm not going to lie, doing the experimentation for the GR, BR and RB endings in particular hurt my feelings a whole lot because I'm a Persephone stan and hate to see her trounced by Grace so thoroughly when I know she's actively grieving Calliope. But what really broke my heart (again as a Persephone stan) is those BG endings. Those have made me cry actual tears (the only other ending that's had this effect was GG with Clever or Kickass Grace). They're also the only endings I've been able to discover that have the camera panning down instead of sideways and come with their own backdrop. Discovering my first version of them had me squealing like mad and feeling like an archaeologist who'd discovered priceless ancient treasures. They're probably my personal favourites, all of them. Both because they're so unique and because I love how compassionate Grace is in them. As much as I do think Grace is badass when she wins, I love her being soft and understanding towards Persephone a whole lot more.

I'll stop here because this is already a wall of text for which I'd apologise but this is not even all my thoughts and feelings on this song. I just have so many! Now off to listen to it again and work on my guide.

[thephantasmagorist]

Patroclus: I don’t think we can mansplain, manipulate or malewife our way out of it this time...

Achilles: *cracking his knuckles*

Achilles: Manslaughter it is.

[doesephs]

‘perhaps it is the greatest grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone’

[arsonsketch]

What has Hector ever done to me

(click for better quality)

[youngleeks]

what has hector ever done to me?

[in-a-closet]

She cannot see us here on Mount Pelion,,,

[alessiajontrunfio]

"My pulse jumps, for no reason I can name. He has looked at me a thousand thousand times, but there is something different in this gaze, an intensity I do not know. " [The song of Achilles- Madeline Miller]

[moved-to-theundergroundwoman]

'The Madonna of the Roses' and 'The Madonna of Pietà' by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

[seraphfeathers]

@lightupduck HeLLO??

[guerrillatech]

[pisshandkerchief-deactivated202]

Holy shit that’s so cool

[knightofleo]

[beckiboos]

Finally “do you love the colour of the sky” got compressed for our convenience

[wtf-fun-factss]

Its expensive to be poor - WTF Fun Fact

[opaquestrategies]

-Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms 

[bogleech]

Despite being in a fantasy humor novel the “boots theory” is legitimately the actual reason poor people stay poor. Just apply it to literally everything else; food supply, car maintenance, clothes, teeth, toiletries, everything.