also can i request your thoughts/an analysis on destiny duo pls..... i wanna understand them a little more for this fic im writing...
Destinies... destinies, where do I even start?
I'm really sorry for how long it took me to get around to responding to this, truth to be told I was struggling with, as the literal first sentence suggests, beginning it in a way that I would be satisfied. And when I jumped straight to the contents, it was lacking. I have rephrased and retried this a thousand times over, struggled more than I usually do: trying to keep it a bit more surface level and brief, yet still understandable and impactful. It is painstakingly difficult to talk about them without getting deep and fundamental, but alas I am here to give it a beautiful (and brief) shot again.
Spoke... Spoke's strongest pursuit, aside from being calculated, is that not only is he is quick to understand situations and can adapt and respond accordingly, but he understands the people around him in ways that no one else can. Even if he knows close to nothing about a situation, he knows what to say to get the gears moving in people's heads. He knows what words he needs to sprinkle in to get the reaction he wants out of people. All of which I'm sure you know, but this is incredibly important when it comes to his bond (because he liked using the word bond to describe what him and Zam had, in season 3 at least. Not friendship, a bond) with Zam.
Spoke understands Zam better than anyone else ever has. He knows what she is thinking, he knows what it takes to get Zam to start thinking. To Zam he is an enigma, something she so badly wants to crack open but can't. She might not understand him fully, but she does understand him deeply. If that makes sense, of course. But most importantly, they both have this strong, mutual respect for each other, respect for everything the other has done (even if they don't agree with the actions. They find the simple act of doing something, of being so dedicated to be admirable in each other.*1)
Their story stretches across 6 season, from the second to the seventh. But where it all begun was season 3. For them, at least. For Zam, at least.
Zam had taken Spoke's words, up on that hill in season 3, to heart.*2 Those words, Spoke was the one who made her, who shape her in an image of a saviour, of a hero. Someone, who despite all hardships, despite having the weight of the world on her shoulders, despite having to be the one to keep going when everyone had given up, who'd never give up, who'd keep fighting. Zam had described him as her arch nemesis before, someone who she needs to oppose at every turn, needs to be the driving force against his plans, needs to be the one who fights until her last breath.
The one to get under Spoke's skin, the one to put a bump into his otherwise flawlesss schemes. This is something Zam had strived to be, the perfect saviour, the one that Spoke can look at and approve of (or be amused, or even frustrated of how well she gets in his way. Either works). The perfect opposition, the perfect enemy, the one that never stops fighting, the one that will always stand for what she believes in.
But that's not what Spoke told her to be, that day.
Spoke asks her: Why are you trying to save a world, that people are actively trying to leave?
Spoke asks her: Why do you keep fighting?
Spoke asks her: Why haven't you quit?
Spoke asks her: Why did you continue?
Spoke asks her: So, why don't you just continue the cycle and kill me right now?
Spoke asks her: Why don't you join me?
Spoke tells her: You don't give up, and it's the most annoying thing ever.
Spoke tells her: I told you to quit, I told you to stop.
Spoke tells her: You need to move on, you need to change, do something different.
Spoke tells her: The difference is that I'm gonna be there with them in season 4. But you'll still be fighting this meaningless war, in a season that should've ended.
As much as Spoke's her arch nemesis, she is his narrative foil. S3 Spoke had seen loss, had known what it's like to believe in a cause so deeply only for it to fail. He sees the world, with all its destruction, and decides that's all there is, because there never is anything else by the end. Zam is hope, Zam is determination. So Zam takes Spoke's disappointment in the world, and strives to be everything that it's lacking. (They're selfish, the both of them, they both do the things to prove something to themselves, at the end of the day all they are is selfishly selfless. Selflessly selfish.)
(Zam had admitted to him during season 3, that Spoke had always been right about her, and will be right. She admits how the empire was a mistake, she admits that he was right, and deep down she knows that when Spoke tells her to stop fighting, he is right then too.)
They both believe they are saving the server, Spoke knows that after these craters there will come a new, fresh start. That death, as they know it, is a paradise. Wants the people to indulge in what it's like to be free (and freedom from the cycle, which he so badly wants to cease, the solution lies the afterlife. Something he isn't afraid of, an ideal world beyond all this destruction.) Zam holds onto the world they have now, and believes with all her heart that it can be stiched. Every crater can be filled, every land can be saved. Spoke is death while Zam is life, and they'd be the same if ends didn't justify the means.
But they do, and Zam is crowned a hero, by the end of season 3. Zam is crowned Lifesteal's hero, saviour, protector, ("the main character"). It is a role that fits her like a glove, and no matter how hard she tries to take it off, it is glued to her hand, and lands her right back where it started. She finds comfort, a familiar corner in the cycle.
Every time, her and Spoke meet. Season 3, season 4, season 6. The most different one of all, is the one in season 4, though.
Season 4 destinies is... as everything is with Spoke that season, confusing and fucked up. There are really no better ways to describe it than that. They're teammates, then they're not, and then they are again, which seems to be a case with them quite often now I'm realising. So, Spoke tells her, during the dupe war: by the end of this, we'll be fighting each other.
Spoke embodies everything Zam was fighting against that season. Immorality, the exploits, the dupes. She is against these, has these strong morals because of s3 in the first place. She beats herself time and time again, that she can not put her trust into her teammates, when they dip into the sea of illegality, because of who she used to be. A moral person, with a strong moral compass (do not listen to that one. Her moral compass has always been fucked).
Zam spends the entire season fighting for what she believes in, leaves teammates behind, betrays (could be said for s6 too) yet at the end, she turns to Spoke, now a God, with all the power in the world. On a hill again, as she asks to join him.
She had described Spoke as unreachable, or well, those might not be the exact word she used, but she viewed him as... so untouchable, so far away. Like a devotee to a deity, because, well, that's what it was! She, alongside of Mapicc, were not only his disciples, tasked with extending the hand of the Wormhole, but filled a sort of attack dog role. Spoke told them to kill, so they killed. Spoke toyed with their lives, desperation used as enterinament, Spoke intentionally sabotages them, and watches as they fight tooth and nail to survive. But at the same time, he cares for them. He grants them whatever they need, albeit often with a price, but sometimes free of charge. (He says he keeps Mapicc and Zam around to not be so alone.)
And from then on, Spoke stays unreachable. Tangiable, and in arms lenght, yet still unreachable. Until he is gone.
*1;2 Let the Devil Out (2025/06/14) — S6
ZAM: I think it's your fault that I'm in this mess. You're the reason why I haven't banned myself off this server, Spoke. Because of that conversation we had, all that time ago. Where you told me how "I never give up, and it's the most annoying thing to you." And I took pride in that, I was proud of that. But throughout everything I've been through this season, I realised that's been nothing but a prison for me. That's exactly what you wanted me to be too, that's why you're rooting for me. Because I'm exactly where you wanted me to be. Exactly where you wanted me to be, all those years ago. I'm still there.
SPOKE: Okay? I really don't see where you're coming from. This just seems like a non-problem.
[...]
ZAM: It's your fault.
SPOKE: It's not my fault! Stop saying that!
ZAM: ...It's your fault I'm still here.
SPOKE: It is not my fault, It is not my fault that you're still here. This is your own free will, coming up on yourself. You're the hero of this server.
ZAM: There's no free will when it comes to you
SPOKE: You're Lifesteal's hero! You're Lifesteal's hero, alright? You're Lifesteal's greatest protector. Lifesteal's greatest defender, if you will. You work day and night to make sure the players have a better future. No other player can say that! No one! This is your beautiful, beautiful journey!
ZAM: Yeah. Yeah.... so what is it that you want me to do?
For a long time, for a very long time, way before Spoke even became a threat, Zam started to carry a clock in her echest. It was named "Don't forget 17, June, 22" which is the date of the season 3 finale. It was a reminder, to push herself to her limits time and time again, a reminder to keep fighting no matter what. To never give up.
Spoke respects her, more than anyone, for her dedication. He admires commitment, he indulges in Zam's wishes to be seen as a hero. Though, the best I can describe it is that he is still so dismissing.
SPOKE: I think the reason as to why I respect you so much more, at the end of the season, because genuinely you are the only one that is making a difference.
He respects her. Because she is the only one that stayed on path of her vision. A vision based on all she tried to achieve in season 3. A server, in the image of herself.
In season 7, Zam reruns the Cleansing, reruns the PrinceZam Empire, all failed. A day before the finale, she talks about how she is tired, is not sure if she can keep this role up any longer. If she were asked the question, why do you keep fighting, she wouldn't have an answer. So she plans to give up, calling it closer to Spoke's intended role for her, as if he would be proud of her for giving up. And by the end of the season, Zam accepts her destiny, the same destiny that they'll all face very soon. She tries letting go off this role again.
This was... longer than brief, yeah, false advertising. But it is kinda surface level. There's no way to explain them any shorter, and I already left out so many things, everything about them is so integral. Spoke is one of the, if not the most important person in Zam's journey, the one shaped her into who she is even today. I didn't really say much about s5, actually, I said like. Nothing. But I didn't really know what to say about s5, it leans into her trying to shed herself of this prison that is her saviour title. Because it is a prison. A prison, of being the person who needs to keep the server functional, needs to make sure things keep moving. Because really, what her role means, is that it's up to her to keep things alive.
There are two things that make up Zam, and it's longing and the fear of disappointing Spoke. She so badly wants to appeal to this image that she thinks Spoke wants her to uphold, to be the person Spoke would want her to be.
Besides all this heavy lore, they are very cutesy and they do actually admire each other's efforts. As I've said, they understand each other best, how the other works, what to expect from each other. Number 1 SpokeIsHere glazer is PrinceZam, and number 1 PrinceZam glazer is SpokeIsHere. Remember that. He is her weak spot.
Spoke is willing to hear her out on her struggles (though, he does spend a lot of s4 calling her crazy. But to be fair, everyone and their mother was calling Zam crazy) And you know it's bad when he, of all people, is playing her therapist, a suprisingly non-rare occasion. He is good at getting her to talk, while revealing nothing about himself. Unsurprisingly a good listener and always knows what to say. Season 6, he shows up to fight alongside her, not even expecting her to be on his side in return. He wants to give Zam an ending, the kind of ending that he knows she'd want. He jumps in, makes himself the antagonist instead of her, and tells her to follow her heart. Knowing full well, that that means that Zam would be against him. He doesn't take more than what Zam had already given anymore. But she can't stop fighting, if not her, then no one.
When Spoke is surpised in season 3, that Zam didn't bring people with her to the hill, she tells him "I am putting my last bit of trust into you, 'cause I trust you not to hurt me."
(The random links on words, they are to posts where I talk more extensively of that, or clips.)
also can i request your thoughts/an analysis on destiny duo pls..... i wanna understand them a little more for this fic im writing...
Destinies... destinies, where do I even start?
I'm really sorry for how long it took me to get around to responding to this, truth to be told I was struggling with, as the literal first sentence suggests, beginning it in a way that I would be satisfied. And when I jumped straight to the contents, it was lacking. I have rephrased and retried this a thousand times over, struggled more than I usually do: trying to keep it a bit more surface level and brief, yet still understandable and impactful. It is painstakingly difficult to talk about them without getting deep and fundamental, but alas I am here to give it a beautiful (and brief) shot again.
Spoke... Spoke's strongest pursuit, aside from being calculated, is that not only is he is quick to understand situations and can adapt and respond accordingly, but he understands the people around him in ways that no one else can. Even if he knows close to nothing about a situation, he knows what to say to get the gears moving in people's heads. He knows what words he needs to sprinkle in to get the reaction he wants out of people. All of which I'm sure you know, but this is incredibly important when it comes to his bond (because he liked using the word bond to describe what him and Zam had, in season 3 at least. Not friendship, a bond) with Zam.
Spoke understands Zam better than anyone else ever has. He knows what she is thinking, he knows what it takes to get Zam to start thinking. To Zam he is an enigma, something she so badly wants to crack open but can't. She might not understand him fully, but she does understand him deeply. If that makes sense, of course. But most importantly, they both have this strong, mutual respect for each other, respect for everything the other has done (even if they don't agree with the actions. They find the simple act of doing something, of being so dedicated to be admirable in each other.*1)
Their story stretches across 6 season, from the second to the seventh. But where it all begun was season 3. For them, at least. For Zam, at least.
Zam had taken Spoke's words, up on that hill in season 3, to heart.*2 Those words, Spoke was the one who made her, who shape her in an image of a saviour, of a hero. Someone, who despite all hardships, despite having the weight of the world on her shoulders, despite having to be the one to keep going when everyone had given up, who'd never give up, who'd keep fighting. Zam had described him as her arch nemesis before, someone who she needs to oppose at every turn, needs to be the driving force against his plans, needs to be the one who fights until her last breath.
The one to get under Spoke's skin, the one to put a bump into his otherwise flawlesss schemes. This is something Zam had strived to be, the perfect saviour, the one that Spoke can look at and approve of (or be amused, or even frustrated of how well she gets in his way. Either works). The perfect opposition, the perfect enemy, the one that never stops fighting, the one that will always stand for what she believes in.
But that's not what Spoke told her to be, that day.
Spoke asks her: Why are you trying to save a world, that people are actively trying to leave?
Spoke asks her: Why do you keep fighting?
Spoke asks her: Why haven't you quit?
Spoke asks her: Why did you continue?
Spoke asks her: So, why don't you just continue the cycle and kill me right now?
Spoke asks her: Why don't you join me?
Spoke tells her: You don't give up, and it's the most annoying thing ever.
Spoke tells her: I told you to quit, I told you to stop.
Spoke tells her: You need to move on, you need to change, do something different.
Spoke tells her: The difference is that I'm gonna be there with them in season 4. But you'll still be fighting this meaningless war, in a season that should've ended.
As much as Spoke's her arch nemesis, she is his narrative foil. S3 Spoke had seen loss, had known what it's like to believe in a cause so deeply only for it to fail. He sees the world, with all its destruction, and decides that's all there is, because there never is anything else by the end. Zam is hope, Zam is determination. So Zam takes Spoke's disappointment in the world, and strives to be everything that it's lacking. (They're selfish, the both of them, they both do the things to prove something to themselves, at the end of the day all they are is selfishly selfless. Selflessly selfish.)
(Zam had admitted to him during season 3, that Spoke had always been right about her, and will be right. She admits how the empire was a mistake, she admits that he was right, and deep down she knows that when Spoke tells her to stop fighting, he is right then too.)
They both believe they are saving the server, Spoke knows that after these craters there will come a new, fresh start. That death, as they know it, is a paradise. Wants the people to indulge in what it's like to be free (and freedom from the cycle, which he so badly wants to cease, the solution lies the afterlife. Something he isn't afraid of, an ideal world beyond all this destruction.) Zam holds onto the world they have now, and believes with all her heart that it can be stiched. Every crater can be filled, every land can be saved. Spoke is death while Zam is life, and they'd be the same if ends didn't justify the means.
But they do, and Zam is crowned a hero, by the end of season 3. Zam is crowned Lifesteal's hero, saviour, protector, ("the main character"). It is a role that fits her like a glove, and no matter how hard she tries to take it off, it is glued to her hand, and lands her right back where it started. She finds comfort, a familiar corner in the cycle.
Every time, her and Spoke meet. Season 3, season 4, season 6. The most different one of all, is the one in season 4, though.
Season 4 destinies is... as everything is with Spoke that season, confusing and fucked up. There are really no better ways to describe it than that. They're teammates, then they're not, and then they are again, which seems to be a case with them quite often now I'm realising. So, Spoke tells her, during the dupe war: by the end of this, we'll be fighting each other.
Spoke embodies everything Zam was fighting against that season. Immorality, the exploits, the dupes. She is against these, has these strong morals because of s3 in the first place. She beats herself time and time again, that she can not put her trust into her teammates, when they dip into the sea of illegality, because of who she used to be. A moral person, with a strong moral compass (do not listen to that one. Her moral compass has always been fucked).
Zam spends the entire season fighting for what she believes in, leaves teammates behind, betrays (could be said for s6 too) yet at the end, she turns to Spoke, now a God, with all the power in the world. On a hill again, as she asks to join him.
She had described Spoke as unreachable, or well, those might not be the exact word she used, but she viewed him as... so untouchable, so far away. Like a devotee to a deity, because, well, that's what it was! She, alongside of Mapicc, were not only his disciples, tasked with extending the hand of the Wormhole, but filled a sort of attack dog role. Spoke told them to kill, so they killed. Spoke toyed with their lives, desperation used as enterinament, Spoke intentionally sabotages them, and watches as they fight tooth and nail to survive. But at the same time, he cares for them. He grants them whatever they need, albeit often with a price, but sometimes free of charge. (He says he keeps Mapicc and Zam around to not be so alone.)
And from then on, Spoke stays unreachable. Tangiable, and in arms lenght, yet still unreachable. Until he is gone.
*1;2 Let the Devil Out (2025/06/14) — S6
ZAM: I think it's your fault that I'm in this mess. You're the reason why I haven't banned myself off this server, Spoke. Because of that conversation we had, all that time ago. Where you told me how "I never give up, and it's the most annoying thing to you." And I took pride in that, I was proud of that. But throughout everything I've been through this season, I realised that's been nothing but a prison for me. That's exactly what you wanted me to be too, that's why you're rooting for me. Because I'm exactly where you wanted me to be. Exactly where you wanted me to be, all those years ago. I'm still there.
SPOKE: Okay? I really don't see where you're coming from. This just seems like a non-problem.
[...]
ZAM: It's your fault.
SPOKE: It's not my fault! Stop saying that!
ZAM: ...It's your fault I'm still here.
SPOKE: It is not my fault, It is not my fault that you're still here. This is your own free will, coming up on yourself. You're the hero of this server.
ZAM: There's no free will when it comes to you
SPOKE: You're Lifesteal's hero! You're Lifesteal's hero, alright? You're Lifesteal's greatest protector. Lifesteal's greatest defender, if you will. You work day and night to make sure the players have a better future. No other player can say that! No one! This is your beautiful, beautiful journey!
ZAM: Yeah. Yeah.... so what is it that you want me to do?
For a long time, for a very long time, way before Spoke even became a threat, Zam started to carry a clock in her echest. It was named "Don't forget 17, June, 22" which is the date of the season 3 finale. It was a reminder, to push herself to her limits time and time again, a reminder to keep fighting no matter what. To never give up.
Spoke respects her, more than anyone, for her dedication. He admires commitment, he indulges in Zam's wishes to be seen as a hero. Though, the best I can describe it is that he is still so dismissing.
SPOKE: I think the reason as to why I respect you so much more, at the end of the season, because genuinely you are the only one that is making a difference.
He respects her. Because she is the only one that stayed on path of her vision. A vision based on all she tried to achieve in season 3. A server, in the image of herself.
In season 7, Zam reruns the Cleansing, reruns the PrinceZam Empire, all failed. A day before the finale, she talks about how she is tired, is not sure if she can keep this role up any longer. If she were asked the question, why do you keep fighting, she wouldn't have an answer. So she plans to give up, calling it closer to Spoke's intended role for her, as if he would be proud of her for giving up. And by the end of the season, Zam accepts her destiny, the same destiny that they'll all face very soon. She tries letting go off this role again.
This was... longer than brief, yeah, false advertising. But it is kinda surface level. There's no way to explain them any shorter, and I already left out so many things, everything about them is so integral. Spoke is one of the, if not the most important person in Zam's journey, the one shaped her into who she is even today. I didn't really say much about s5, actually, I said like. Nothing. But I didn't really know what to say about s5, it leans into her trying to shed herself of this prison that is her saviour title. Because it is a prison. A prison, of being the person who needs to keep the server functional, needs to make sure things keep moving. Because really, what her role means, is that it's up to her to keep things alive.
There are two things that make up Zam, and it's longing and the fear of disappointing Spoke. She so badly wants to appeal to this image that she thinks Spoke wants her to uphold, to be the person Spoke would want her to be.
Besides all this heavy lore, they are very cutesy and they do actually admire each other's efforts. As I've said, they understand each other best, how the other works, what to expect from each other. Number 1 SpokeIsHere glazer is PrinceZam, and number 1 PrinceZam glazer is SpokeIsHere. Remember that. He is her weak spot.
Spoke is willing to hear her out on her struggles (though, he does spend a lot of s4 calling her crazy. But to be fair, everyone and their mother was calling Zam crazy) And you know it's bad when he, of all people, is playing her therapist, a suprisingly non-rare occasion. He is good at getting her to talk, while revealing nothing about himself. Unsurprisingly a good listener and always knows what to say. Season 6, he shows up to fight alongside her, not even expecting her to be on his side in return. He wants to give Zam an ending, the kind of ending that he knows she'd want. He jumps in, makes himself the antagonist instead of her, and tells her to follow her heart. Knowing full well, that that means that Zam would be against him. He doesn't take more than what Zam had already given anymore. But she can't stop fighting, if not her, then no one.
When Spoke is surpised in season 3, that Zam didn't bring people with her to the hill, she tells him "I am putting my last bit of trust into you, 'cause I trust you not to hurt me."
(The random links on words, they are to posts where I talk more extensively of that, or clips.)
also can i request your thoughts/an analysis on destiny duo pls..... i wanna understand them a little more for this fic im writing...
Destinies... destinies, where do I even start?
I'm really sorry for how long it took me to get around to responding to this, truth to be told I was struggling with, as the literal first sentence suggests, beginning it in a way that I would be satisfied. And when I jumped straight to the contents, it was lacking. I have rephrased and retried this a thousand times over, struggled more than I usually do: trying to keep it a bit more surface level and brief, yet still understandable and impactful. It is painstakingly difficult to talk about them without getting deep and fundamental, but alas I am here to give it a beautiful (and brief) shot again.
Spoke... Spoke's strongest pursuit, aside from being calculated, is that not only is he is quick to understand situations and can adapt and respond accordingly, but he understands the people around him in ways that no one else can. Even if he knows close to nothing about a situation, he knows what to say to get the gears moving in people's heads. He knows what words he needs to sprinkle in to get the reaction he wants out of people. All of which I'm sure you know, but this is incredibly important when it comes to his bond (because he liked using the word bond to describe what him and Zam had, in season 3 at least. Not friendship, a bond) with Zam.
Spoke understands Zam better than anyone else ever has. He knows what she is thinking, he knows what it takes to get Zam to start thinking. To Zam he is an enigma, something she so badly wants to crack open but can't. She might not understand him fully, but she does understand him deeply. If that makes sense, of course. But most importantly, they both have this strong, mutual respect for each other, respect for everything the other has done (even if they don't agree with the actions. They find the simple act of doing something, of being so dedicated to be admirable in each other.*1)
Their story stretches across 6 season, from the second to the seventh. But where it all begun was season 3. For them, at least. For Zam, at least.
Zam had taken Spoke's words, up on that hill in season 3, to heart.*2 Those words, Spoke was the one who made her, who shape her in an image of a saviour, of a hero. Someone, who despite all hardships, despite having the weight of the world on her shoulders, despite having to be the one to keep going when everyone had given up, who'd never give up, who'd keep fighting. Zam had described him as her arch nemesis before, someone who she needs to oppose at every turn, needs to be the driving force against his plans, needs to be the one who fights until her last breath.
The one to get under Spoke's skin, the one to put a bump into his otherwise flawlesss schemes. This is something Zam had strived to be, the perfect saviour, the one that Spoke can look at and approve of (or be amused, or even frustrated of how well she gets in his way. Either works). The perfect opposition, the perfect enemy, the one that never stops fighting, the one that will always stand for what she believes in.
But that's not what Spoke told her to be, that day.
Spoke asks her: Why are you trying to save a world, that people are actively trying to leave?
Spoke asks her: Why do you keep fighting?
Spoke asks her: Why haven't you quit?
Spoke asks her: Why did you continue?
Spoke asks her: So, why don't you just continue the cycle and kill me right now?
Spoke asks her: Why don't you join me?
Spoke tells her: You don't give up, and it's the most annoying thing ever.
Spoke tells her: I told you to quit, I told you to stop.
Spoke tells her: You need to move on, you need to change, do something different.
Spoke tells her: The difference is that I'm gonna be there with them in season 4. But you'll still be fighting this meaningless war, in a season that should've ended.
As much as Spoke's her arch nemesis, she is his narrative foil. S3 Spoke had seen loss, had known what it's like to believe in a cause so deeply only for it to fail. He sees the world, with all its destruction, and decides that's all there is, because there never is anything else by the end. Zam is hope, Zam is determination. So Zam takes Spoke's disappointment in the world, and strives to be everything that it's lacking. (They're selfish, the both of them, they both do the things to prove something to themselves, at the end of the day all they are is selfishly selfless. Selflessly selfish.)
(Zam had admitted to him during season 3, that Spoke had always been right about her, and will be right. She admits how the empire was a mistake, she admits that he was right, and deep down she knows that when Spoke tells her to stop fighting, he is right then too.)
They both believe they are saving the server, Spoke knows that after these craters there will come a new, fresh start. That death, as they know it, is a paradise. Wants the people to indulge in what it's like to be free (and freedom from the cycle, which he so badly wants to cease, the solution lies the afterlife. Something he isn't afraid of, an ideal world beyond all this destruction.) Zam holds onto the world they have now, and believes with all her heart that it can be stiched. Every crater can be filled, every land can be saved. Spoke is death while Zam is life, and they'd be the same if ends didn't justify the means.
But they do, and Zam is crowned a hero, by the end of season 3. Zam is crowned Lifesteal's hero, saviour, protector, ("the main character"). It is a role that fits her like a glove, and no matter how hard she tries to take it off, it is glued to her hand, and lands her right back where it started. She finds comfort, a familiar corner in the cycle.
Every time, her and Spoke meet. Season 3, season 4, season 6. The most different one of all, is the one in season 4, though.
Season 4 destinies is... as everything is with Spoke that season, confusing and fucked up. There are really no better ways to describe it than that. They're teammates, then they're not, and then they are again, which seems to be a case with them quite often now I'm realising. So, Spoke tells her, during the dupe war: by the end of this, we'll be fighting each other.
Spoke embodies everything Zam was fighting against that season. Immorality, the exploits, the dupes. She is against these, has these strong morals because of s3 in the first place. She beats herself time and time again, that she can not put her trust into her teammates, when they dip into the sea of illegality, because of who she used to be. A moral person, with a strong moral compass (do not listen to that one. Her moral compass has always been fucked).
Zam spends the entire season fighting for what she believes in, leaves teammates behind, betrays (could be said for s6 too) yet at the end, she turns to Spoke, now a God, with all the power in the world. On a hill again, as she asks to join him.
She had described Spoke as unreachable, or well, those might not be the exact word she used, but she viewed him as... so untouchable, so far away. Like a devotee to a deity, because, well, that's what it was! She, alongside of Mapicc, were not only his disciples, tasked with extending the hand of the Wormhole, but filled a sort of attack dog role. Spoke told them to kill, so they killed. Spoke toyed with their lives, desperation used as enterinament, Spoke intentionally sabotages them, and watches as they fight tooth and nail to survive. But at the same time, he cares for them. He grants them whatever they need, albeit often with a price, but sometimes free of charge. (He says he keeps Mapicc and Zam around to not be so alone.)
And from then on, Spoke stays unreachable. Tangiable, and in arms lenght, yet still unreachable. Until he is gone.
*1;2 Let the Devil Out (2025/06/14) — S6
ZAM: I think it's your fault that I'm in this mess. You're the reason why I haven't banned myself off this server, Spoke. Because of that conversation we had, all that time ago. Where you told me how "I never give up, and it's the most annoying thing to you." And I took pride in that, I was proud of that. But throughout everything I've been through this season, I realised that's been nothing but a prison for me. That's exactly what you wanted me to be too, that's why you're rooting for me. Because I'm exactly where you wanted me to be. Exactly where you wanted me to be, all those years ago. I'm still there.
SPOKE: Okay? I really don't see where you're coming from. This just seems like a non-problem.
[...]
ZAM: It's your fault.
SPOKE: It's not my fault! Stop saying that!
ZAM: ...It's your fault I'm still here.
SPOKE: It is not my fault, It is not my fault that you're still here. This is your own free will, coming up on yourself. You're the hero of this server.
ZAM: There's no free will when it comes to you
SPOKE: You're Lifesteal's hero! You're Lifesteal's hero, alright? You're Lifesteal's greatest protector. Lifesteal's greatest defender, if you will. You work day and night to make sure the players have a better future. No other player can say that! No one! This is your beautiful, beautiful journey!
ZAM: Yeah. Yeah.... so what is it that you want me to do?
For a long time, for a very long time, way before Spoke even became a threat, Zam started to carry a clock in her echest. It was named "Don't forget 17, June, 22" which is the date of the season 3 finale. It was a reminder, to push herself to her limits time and time again, a reminder to keep fighting no matter what. To never give up.
Spoke respects her, more than anyone, for her dedication. He admires commitment, he indulges in Zam's wishes to be seen as a hero. Though, the best I can describe it is that he is still so dismissing.
SPOKE: I think the reason as to why I respect you so much more, at the end of the season, because genuinely you are the only one that is making a difference.
He respects her. Because she is the only one that stayed on path of her vision. A vision based on all she tried to achieve in season 3. A server, in the image of herself.
In season 7, Zam reruns the Cleansing, reruns the PrinceZam Empire, all failed. A day before the finale, she talks about how she is tired, is not sure if she can keep this role up any longer. If she were asked the question, why do you keep fighting, she wouldn't have an answer. So she plans to give up, calling it closer to Spoke's intended role for her, as if he would be proud of her for giving up. And by the end of the season, Zam accepts her destiny, the same destiny that they'll all face very soon. She tries letting go off this role again.
This was... longer than brief, yeah, false advertising. But it is kinda surface level. There's no way to explain them any shorter, and I already left out so many things, everything about them is so integral. Spoke is one of the, if not the most important person in Zam's journey, the one shaped her into who she is even today. I didn't really say much about s5, actually, I said like. Nothing. But I didn't really know what to say about s5, it leans into her trying to shed herself of this prison that is her saviour title. Because it is a prison. A prison, of being the person who needs to keep the server functional, needs to make sure things keep moving. Because really, what her role means, is that it's up to her to keep things alive.
There are two things that make up Zam, and it's longing and the fear of disappointing Spoke. She so badly wants to appeal to this image that she thinks Spoke wants her to uphold, to be the person Spoke would want her to be.
Besides all this heavy lore, they are very cutesy and they do actually admire each other's efforts. As I've said, they understand each other best, how the other works, what to expect from each other. Number 1 SpokeIsHere glazer is PrinceZam, and number 1 PrinceZam glazer is SpokeIsHere. Remember that. He is her weak spot.
Spoke is willing to hear her out on her struggles (though, he does spend a lot of s4 calling her crazy. But to be fair, everyone and their mother was calling Zam crazy) And you know it's bad when he, of all people, is playing her therapist, a suprisingly non-rare occasion. He is good at getting her to talk, while revealing nothing about himself. Unsurprisingly a good listener and always knows what to say. Season 6, he shows up to fight alongside her, not even expecting her to be on his side in return. He wants to give Zam an ending, the kind of ending that he knows she'd want. He jumps in, makes himself the antagonist instead of her, and tells her to follow her heart. Knowing full well, that that means that Zam would be against him. He doesn't take more than what Zam had already given anymore. But she can't stop fighting, if not her, then no one.
When Spoke is surpised in season 3, that Zam didn't bring people with her to the hill, she tells him "I am putting my last bit of trust into you, 'cause I trust you not to hurt me."
(The random links on words, they are to posts where I talk more extensively of that, or clips.)
#if it's plastic throw it away#the mould is in the plastic now I'm sorry it's ok just throw it out#if it's glass do the freezer trick and clean it (via @sleepymccoy)
Passing you a large multicolored swirl lollipop on a stick that’s so comedically large that it’s basically absurd yet also somehow whimsical at the same time.
i feel a little bad becus i rly like leek but unfortunately i do think zam should be allowed to kill everybody in the entire world right now even if there Wasnt any justification (which there is)
its so fucking funny to me that yoo joonghyuk's canonical career progression if there was no apocalypse according to sing shong is a goddamn actor. a job where he's paid to express emotion and make facial expressions. lord. im seeing famous esport player yoo joonghyuk cast in an adaption of my favourite book and falling to my knees in a walmart.
HI MY SUNNY!!!!!!!! SPINS YOU AROUND!!!!! this is such a hard question let me ponder...
doomed siblings i love this forever and ever
human weapons <3 yay <3
dehumanization via deification! or generally a character whose role and status as someone worshipped/revered/feared strips them of the chance to be human. this can also mix with the human weapons mentioned above which is so super fun!
time loops and in general stories involving some sort of looping mechanism in how the world functions / how the character(s) experience the world its so very fascinating to explore when executed well
i do love stories involving a prophecy/inevitable fate
honorable mention to stories involving angels in any way ^-^ when done well it always is so so interesting to think about and theorize about and see the visuals for :D
