think its funny when people hc sasuke as a good cook cus like in the data book kishi says he only eats things for their function and health benefits not for taste and that is why he likes tomatos.... so what im saying here is he doesnt use spices and he eats raw onions like theyre apples
thought about this too much and now im upset... young sasuke so numb, so focused on just surviving that he can’t even enjoy the taste of food.. so preoccupied with getting stronger that he eats things that taste terrible to boost his strength.. casting aside pleasure in the name of utility. so many of his memories of his clan and his family revolve around eating and sharing meals... maybe learning to love and learning to cook go hand in hand ;_;
Following Topaz's explanation that Cornerstones are made to fill the hole in the user's heart, what "hole" in Aven's heart do you think his drag queen powers are meant to fill? Especially since Topaz remarks he's the only one with such showy powers
Still trying to catch up with all the messages in the inbox; sorry to everyone for taking a million years to respond.
So cunty, and for what???
Anyway, first, when Jade talks about the Stonehearts' "voids," the alternate reading above that word is actually "ambition." And she mentions that the reason she risked reaching out to Firefly is that she views herself as similar to Firefly--Jade is someone with an unfulfilled wish.
I think there's enough here to suggest that the Stonehearts' voids are not quite what we would normally think of when hearing the word "void"--rather than being best understood as something removed or something lost, their voids seem to be "something desired." An unfulfilled goal. An unmet need. A burning ambition. A secret wish. They all have somewhere they want to get to, and they've signed on-board with Diamond's Preservation project because his power is the fastest way--maybe the only way--to get there.
The implication here, by the way, is that the Stonehearts are acting out the very act of Preservation itself with Diamond. The goal of Qlipoth is for the universe to be saved, an unshakeable resolution to stop Destruction's wanton obliteration. Thus, Preservation itself can be understood as "A desire that must be continuously protected and relentlessly pursued." To live. To endure.
In using the power of an emanator to protect and provide the Stonehearts with ways to pursue their own desires, we replicate in miniature the exact resolve and endless pursuit of perseverance that Qlipoth is acting out in the broader universe. The will of Preservation empowers the Stonehearts--and in turn, the Stonehearts swear an oath to aid in Preservation's mission. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement, and it also simultaneously imitates Jade's shop perfectly: I'll give you exactly what you want, if you give me what I need.
I should clarify that I don't actually think the cornerstones themselves fill the Stonehearts' voids. Rather, they seem to me to be a tangible symbol of the oath between Diamond and the Stonehearts--"I'll give you this power to fulfill your deepest wish, if you work for me." Jade suggests that the power of the cornerstones provides Stonehearts with the means to fill their voids (I.e., having superpowers makes it possible for you to pursue your wish), so I think their individual cornerstone abilities are best understood as "The exact power I need to achieve my particular goal."
So what does that say about Aventurine's "showy" transformation?
Pretty much all the rest of this is just going to be my personal speculation, but I'd say the most telling glimpse we get into why Aventurine's power is so "visual" comes from these lines with the future "Aventurine" in 2.1:
There's two completely contradictory desires being expressed here: Aventurine's life "is the chip he's most eager to lay down" and "always has been"--that is, he genuinely wants to die. He isn't just willing to gamble with his life, he's eager to. The future "Aventurine" also says real Aventurine wants to be "polished up" (to be controlled and molded by others) and "cuffed with red-hot chains" (to be made powerless and not responsible for making his own decisions, to be punished).
But conversely, the real Aventurine also wants to be perceived as "a smooth operator" and "the solid gold deal-maker who doesn't waste a drop of sweat." He wants to be in charge of his image. He wants to be the one who controls the narrative and defines how others think of him. He wants to be "spotlit center stage"--to command the eyes of the world. In short, we could say that Aventurine wants his death (and conversely, his life) to mean something.
From these conflicting desires, I think you can derive a few totally opposite but equally valid interpretations of why Aventurine's cornerstone power is so "visual":
A combat-oriented transformation is another means to seek death.
Jade's power is scary, but she isn't using it to literally launch herself into fights. Topaz's seems to be similar--something that might allow her to win over her opponents in some way (she was about to use it in Belobog to no-sell the Trailblazer), but she clarifies directly that it is not a "transformation." Aventurine just literally turns into a boss enemy and goes straight out on to the battlefield.
In the fight, he doesn't even use shields. (Now whether that's something he never does because the cornerstone powers don't actually come with shields while in his monster form, if he couldn't use shields because his cornerstone was broken, or if he just chose not to use shields in this fight to give Trailblazer and Co. a fighting chance, only time will tell. However, it might be worth noting that his empowered Apocalyptic Shadow form doesn't come with shields either, despite having other new mechanics.)
The point is, this form, while looking cool and seeming strong, is actually a gamble in and of itself. To go out onto the battlefield, where you might not actually be the strongest combatant, is always a risk. And I think this is the kind of risk that Aventurine manifests continually in his life. He is constantly creating opportunities for his own luck to fail. His unfulfilled desire, the "ambition" he was desperate enough to join the Stonehearts to pursue--as his original goal to save his people is completely gone, his only current goal might actually just be a chance to die. His powers may manifest as a combat-oriented transformation because that is just one more way to throw himself into the crossfire.
In fact, this is exactly what Sugilite accuses him of in Jade's myriad celestia:
You didn't need to snatch his wig this hard, Sugilite. (Also I need you all to know I originally wrote "You didn't need to come for him this hard, Sugilite," but then I realized how unfortunate that wording was, so...)
You could even argue that the fact Aventurine's transformation comes with a mask that obscures his entire face is a sign that we're supposed to see this form as dehumanizing.
The facial features are completely obscured and asymmetrical, there's no mouth, his fingers have become claws--despite his body staying mostly human-shaped, it's obviously intended to hint at something monstrous, subsuming his original identity behind a violent facade.
Kakavasha disappears entirely behind "Aventurine" when he transforms, becoming a faceless enemy at the risk of (perhaps in hopes of) entirely losing himself. Maybe every transformation lets Aventurine throw himself closer and closer to the edge of death--and perhaps, before Penacony, only death could ever have filled the "void."
But, on the complete opposite hand (because Aventurine is always both sides of the coin), we could also argue the other end of the spectrum entirely:
A combat-oriented transformation is a show of force.
This screencap brought to you by Mr. Rubhen925 of Youtube.
Aventurine's entire life has been marred by disenfranchisement, by violations of his basic human rights, freedoms, and agency. At every turn, he has been victimized by others more powerful than himself: his childhood consisted of his clan being relentlessly hounded and hunted to extinction by the Katicans, having their food constantly stolen, their meager belongings burned to the ground, and each one of his family members systematically slaughtered, often in front of his eyes.
After his childhood, he was bought and sold as chattel for pennies, branded like an animal, and forced into a fight where to he had to beat other innocent people to death just to keep himself alive, all for the entertainment of the masses. Even Jade, who promised to help him achieve his goals, treats him like a business investment more than a friend.
In Penacony, we watch everyone he talks to degrade and ostracize him. Even though Aventurine led him into doing it, Sunday tortures and re-traumatizes him live for our entertainment.
Even more that, we see Aventurine constantly struggling with the question of whether his life is really his own or whether his blessing from Gaiathra means that his entire existence has been predetermined, his fate sealed in blood and sand from the very moment of his birth, utterly inescapable.
No matter how Aventurine tries to portray himself as the ultimate winner, he's only ever the "final" victor--being the only one left standing at the end is meaningless if on the road to getting there, you were treated like fate's favorite punching bag. Winning in the end is utterly pointless if on the road to winning, you still lost it all first, from the things you loved to your personal freedom.
What does a person who has been made powerless again and again truly desire? What void do you seek to fill if life has denied you your agency over and over?
Power. Dominance. The ability to literally strike back at those who've wronged you. The strength to intimidate and force people into a corner the way you've been intimidated and forced before.
If we say that Aventurine's "void" is not a literal desire for the release of death, then it might make sense for the "void" to instead to be a frantic desire to gain control over his circumstances. To be the one finally in charge of deciding his own fate.
Particularly in light of his character story which tells us that Kakavasha's original goal for joining the Stonehearts was to save his people, the desire to take on an impressive form that screams "I'm powerful" and has the ability to physically enact vengeance on others feels directly aligned. And it remains aligned even after the reveal that the Avgins are all gone--once more fate strips Kakavasha of his power to make a difference in the world, to achieve what he truly dreams of.
The Apocalyptic Shadow version of his boss fight is called "Desperate Diceroller."
How angry he must be, deep down. How hateful the world must seem. How sad it is to feel that way.
If destiny won't let you out of the cage, your only choice is to grow claws to tear it open.
Okay, but WHY so much swag though?
Are the peacock feathers and spandex really necessary?
Listen. Everyone talks about Ratio having "gifted kid" syndrome, but I'm here to tell you that Aventurine is actually a burnt out gifted kid extraordinaire.
He's literally, canonically, explicitly the chosen one of his people.
From the moment of his birth, his mother and sister--and presumably others in his clan even--were telling him that he was their clan's most precious treasure and that he would lead them to prosperity and safety.
He carried this weight even after fleeing from the massacre, all through his childhood and teenage years, through slavery and abuse, putting his very life on the line to join the IPC in hopes of finally fulfilling the destiny his mother and sister promised he could.
He was supposed to save them. That was his meaning. That was his purpose in life.
But he was too late.
The fate he was born for, raised believing, and risked everything to achieve... is still incomplete.
So, for all that talk about suicide and power-seeking, my real answer is this: Aventurine's "void" is his unfulfilled destiny.
His whole existence has been predetermined, his life's journey laid out in prophecy and blessings from the very beginning. Yet what he thought was his fate betrayed him, and where you head after becoming an unsuccessful chosen one is a question without answer.
His thoughts constantly circle around how he is a "failure" and a "loser."
When you have no sense of purpose, when your life has no meaning, when what you are still seeking is the role you were supposed to have from the moment of your birth: the glorious destiny of being a savior, being the "happiness" of your people, being the hero...
Of course you crave the spectacle. Of course you long for the spotlight--you long to be recognized. Because Kakavasha's the chosen one. "Spotlit center stage" is where he's supposed to be--in the leading role that was stolen from him.
I think that Aventurine's cornerstone transformation is so flashy because, at the core, it represents a longing to truly be the "precious wealth" of the Avgin that his sister promised him he would be. It represents his desire to transform from a useless, "discarded" person into a larger-than-life version of himself. (Hey, fun fact, out of every official depiction of Aventurine, his boss model wears the only outfit in which his slave brand is not naturally visible.) He literally transforms into a supernatural being, capable of seizing others' fates in his hands. It represents the power he needed to save his people and himself. Its extreme flashiness screams for attention, demands to be witnessed as something beyond a helpless human.
It's almost as if Aventurine is a child writing a wish-fulfillment story where he transforms into a hyper-glamorous, all-powerful masked superhero who is capable of saving the day and winning against his enemies every time.
Unlike Jade and Topaz, Aventurine can't hide his deepest desire. It was always going to be a "transformation," because Aventurine's unanswered wish is to be someone better than himself.
His "void," his deepest unachieved ambition--it's written right there, all over his body.
Aventurine's cornerstone power is a story he's telling himself about the person he was supposed to be.
But as Acheron claims, that's life itself.
Aventurine doesn't feel like he has any control over his journey's ultimate destination.
He doesn't know where's he's headed or what the purpose of it all is. But...
Jade explicitly describes the Ten Stonehearts and Diamond's endeavor as a "journey" as well:
Because Preservation represents the continuance of life itself, and the Stonehearts with their endless "voids"--Aventurine with his soul-deep longing to become someone better than himself--represent all of us very real human beings, trying our best to find our own "cornerstones," to gain the means to finally, finally achieve our own sweet dreams.
[Ferally] I think Aventurine's whole life can be best understood through the lens of a zero sum game, where one side's win is the other's equivalent loss, all governed by huge, all-encompassing forces that crush everything in their way.
Even the genocide of his clan is in a way a result by this kind of mindset, as shown in the Sigonia planar set description (the orb). The Avgin and Katicans had to be abandoned in order for the other clans to experience progress through Preservation:
Then, Aventurine had to kill 35 people just to stay alive during his enslavement. Hell, even his gambling works that way - he can only win if someone else looses. In this reality, everything answers to the zero-sum game and the only way to not be kicked to the curb is to be on the winning side. The problem is that the ones who win are the ones doing the kicking. All of that is maintained through one side having all the power and being able to use it against someone else. Aventurine was, in general, always on the side that had nothing, which made him an object with no agency in his own life (which also translated to other people being literally allowed to treat him as an object).
And I think part of that is that his gift of luck makes it so that he will ultimately end up on the winning side - he will survive at the expense of 35 other people, he will become rich and powerful at the cost of other people loosing to him at the table. But it also doesn't shield him from the actual reality that works on the basis of the zero-sum game. He will still be exposed to the worst of it, but he will always come out alive. In a way, "survival" and "things that make his life actually livable", are also on the opposite sides of the game. Which is also just amazing because that means that nothing in his life but existing and the things he needs to ensure it, are not actually guaranteed survival. Things he loves and things he wants are still likely to end up on the loosing side. He is kind of doomed to keep loosing because the game is vicious and his survival is paid for with everything else going to shit.
What Aventurine himself wants at this point is the ability to have control over his own life and to have some sort of agency, right. He had that taken from him time and time again, he couldn't save his loved ones, he was at the mercy of those stronger than him. It makes sense that he would want to take that control back. Well fuck that because the only way he can have a semblance of that is through force. And as a Stoneheart he has wealth and influence and can use that in a certain capacity, but obviously that is not enough to be free. But if he shows it off, makes himself seem stronger, bigger and more in control than he actually is, he can at least have some of that and protect himself from being taken advantage of (from being on the losing side where someone else can exert that same power over him). The thing is, he can only get that through a curated facade, that doesn't leave space for him as a person.
And, while that might seem like a tangent at first (it's gonna come full circle, i promise), I want to refer to this analysis post that talks about Aventurine's wants and desires, because it's so good and it was actually my starting point to even thinking about this. You can see that desire for control and for power to have it through Aventurine's boss form:
The op of that post makes a point that this form is almost monstrous and inhuman and we are meant to understand it as inherently dehumanizing. I think it kind of represents the mask devouring the person - the persona he puts on at the IPC which makes him seem strong and powerful drowning any signs of Aventurine as a person who very much does not have any meaningful control without it. Despite all the cuntiness, there is no actual skin visible on his boss form, you can't see his slave brand (visible representation of his trauma and of the time he was at his most powerless), you can't see his eyes (the sign of his heritage, the reminder of what happened to his people and of his "failure" to be their salvation (if you want to think about it in that way i guess)). All of it is a protective shell, even as he is actively throwing himself into battle and thus endangering his actual life (which he doesn't really care that much about but that's for a different post lol)
And I'm referencing that because I think it makes an interesting point: to be powerful, Aventurine can't be a person. The zero-sum game is between power and humanity. If power here is able to give him control and "agency" and is complete with the violence necessary to take it, then it comes at a price of loosing humanity. As long as the zero-sum game continues, he can't be both in control of his life and the person beneath the mask. And that aligns with the fact that Aventurine also doesn't really even want to be himse- *gets shot*
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