#lore critical

[elvhenprince]

an alternative to the Vallaslin scene:

I think I'd prefer if Solas attempted to remove Lavellan's vallaslin and finds that he simply is unable to.

Because the Dalish are different, they're not slaves, and removing a Dalish's rite of adulthood is not granting them their freedom. Maybe it's because the ink formula changed over the eons. Maybe the rite is just inherently different.

This not only narratively validifies the Dalish in who they are now, but also drives home the point to Solas that the world is completely different. He's not freeing Lavellan, he's shackling himself.

[digitallfax]

>Opens tumblr

>Link collared by Midna by @sharkfiinn

>Life good

[transphilza]

okay. i have taken a moment and now, as your local insane c!wilburian analyst who tends to only focus on what i enjoy about lore, i am going to try to put into words how i felt very candidly about the finale

i don’t normally critique lore pretty much at all because i’m very into Having Fun but because endings sort of recontextualize entire storylines i feel the need to discuss this one from more angles than i usually would, and also just as a way to process what i’m feeling

“disappointed” is a word that probably fits, i’m not gonna sugarcoat that, but i do think it warrants more elaboration at least in terms of my personal feelings

i loooved all the c!crime, c!tommy was amazing and i really enjoyed all their interactions. i think everything they did prior to The Utah Thing was extremely well done and i can’t complain much at all in this regard. i enjoyed tommy standing up for himself to wilbur and i LOVED tommy standing up for wilbur to wilbur. the main issue is that all the amazing buildup to wilbur forgiving himself as the ultimate climax… Obviously.. it didn’t follow through in a way that gave adequate closure to those things that were brought up

this is all kind of obvious though. so, like, Why, is the question now. at first watch, the first thing that came to mind was it being sort of a cop-out…. as in, addressing everything seriously and giving total closure was too immense of a task and maybe due to time constraints or maybe due to just not knowing how, wilbur decided a lighthearted ending would be better received

the issue with that is that i Know wilbur could’ve written an ending with closure?? like. i genuinely don’t think i.. put Too Much Trust in him, or anything like that. i think he truly was fully capable of ending it seriously and on a positive note. so it definitely feels like something was…. lost in translation? whatever the intention was got lost somewhere, which makes a sort of silly and bizarre ending even more confusing than it already might’ve been. because there were obvious paths that he Could have followed but he Didn’t.?

i presume and hope that next time he does a stream he’ll end up talking about this, and why he made that decision, so it will all feel more clear. i just think if i knew Why i would be better able to contextualize it, and so the sort of out-of-nowhere silliness would be less jarring

but honestly, i think…. the utah silly bit being the end Would have been fine if the stuff brought up was just addressed first. like. this is the thing im most upset about — c!wilbur’s depression and his suicidality were never properly addressed by Himself. if that specific moment with tommy, where tommy tells him to forgive himself, if that moment had Followed Through, i’d feel a lot better. if he had been forced to look at himself in the water and say “i’m sorry” or if tommy had said something about his humanity and he started crying and said thank you. like. Anything. anything other than I Was Born And Raised In Utah. i just wanted way more from that and it’s upsetting because it was heavily foreshadowed. and then it didn’t happen and i’m sad about that

as such i really don’t think the lighthearted or less serious ending was a bad idea at all, but rather just the timing of it and what was ignored before it. as a cwilbur person all i ever wanted was a serious conversation about the fact that he is a broken struggling man who deserves happiness and its incredibly sad to have that sort of… dangled in front of me and then not ever given?

i hope to hear more from wilbur about this and his decision making process! i did genuinely enjoy most of the stream, i’m happy wilbur didn’t die and i’m happy he’s gonna go, what, go for a hike in the utahian desert and enjoy nature? or something? but i’m sad he left tommy, and i hope maybe in volume 2 we get some kind of. Anything any implication about that. cause it feels deeply wrong for c!crime to not see each other again, to not have more time to mend.

so, yeah. amazing build up with disappointing follow through, still funny and enjoyable, but certainly lacking heavily in the areas that me and other analysts tend to enjoy most. so, mixed feelings!

i’m proud of him either way, though, i’m proud of him for getting here and i’m proud of him for giving us anything at all. all these things can coexist…. he made an amazing character i will always love

i’ll probably find more to say in the future and if i do i’ll just tack it on in a reblog — but i do absolutely plan to try to legitimately and seriously analyze the utah shit from a literary perspective, just for fun, at some point :) cause it was funny!! and you know what, i guess he’s somewhere safe, where he can heal, and in that way it’s a very open ended sort of ending, and while it lacks closure in a lot of areas, i’m not mad at the concept or the outcome. the idea of him wanting a new beginning all on his own, and perhaps having time to heal before he comes back and mends his relationships. that’s my personal vision of what happens next <3

it has been a pleasure analyzing this weirdo for you all either way and i intend to keep doing so bc he’s always gonna be my blorbo ^_^

[mayadoesfandomstuff]

The Nukes Could Have Worked

I've been thinking a lot about the Dream SMP finale ever since I learned about what happened and I'm trying to wrap my head around why I genuinely didn't like it. Like yeah, there's the weird part about c!Dream and c!Tommy's conversation that maybe I'm not all for, but I'm more confused as to why I don't like it for everyone else in the server. I mean, i know that the fanbase is split on this but I personally just couldn't support the ending.

Guess the answer should be obvious? For me, a nuke ending means that this whole story about trust, attachments, and trauma didn't matter at all and this ending might as well be the dressed "it was all a dream" ending that people were worried about for months since the finale was announced, but I don't feel like that's it.

I myself enjoy nuke endings and even had a story that I was writing for some time's main ending to be that everything was nuked. It was a logical conclusion for that narrative and the nuke delivered a gut punch on the meaninglessness of the conflict and how tragic everything is. If I were to be able to access that file again, which had sadly been lost to time, I might be able to get something off if it but I guess that's the thing though. The nuke ending for that lost story had a different purpose than the nuke ending here.

Compared to a story about the meaninglessness of the violence, the nuke ending in the Dream SMP calls forth the meaninglessness of not only the conflict but also every other story within the world. There is no purpose for the nuke than just erasing all of that and resetting everything to the beginning. The nuke night as well be someone waking up from a dream. That's why it's disappointing.

Regardless, the ending in itself being a literal nuking of the server isn't necessarily a bad call. It was just executed poorly. I believe that this is pretty confusing for some people but let me explain. In a better written narrative for the story, it could be possible to not only make the nuke ending meaningful but complete every other characters storyline or make their abrupt end feel more tragic than frustrating.

It's a lot to ask so let me stick with the easiest way this could work. The easiest way for the nukes to succeed is to make it an event. Bring almost everyone, if not everyone, in the server for the nuking and have them stream all of their POVs. This could add a sense of urgency or dread no matter how you relay this. Even more effective is to have the characters know that the nuke is coming. This would make the other characters have an excuse to finish up loose ends as best they can for their arcs or abruptly end it for a tragic finale.

It sounds crazy, but it's not like it hasn't been effectively done before in Minecraft roleplay. Think for instance Doomsday, a smaller apocalyptic event that wiped out the entire country of L'manburg from the map. There was a buildup to it, all involved CCs were informed, and most of the big players for the event logged in and streamed their POV with what happened. The emotional stakes and drama that came from that allowed for interesting character moments, arcs, and impact in later parts of the story. I mean, people still celebrate the L'manburg Independence Day despite everything.

Okay, that's just one country and technically all the characters kept moving on from that and that wasn't really the apocalypse, so let's bring up a story where it is the apocalypse - Hermitcraft Season 8.

To those not in the know, hermitcraft season 8 ends with an apocalyptic crashing of the moon that wiped out the entire server. Hermitcraft isn't known for lore-heavy content before this, so it was a surprise for almost everyone in the fanbase that they went with this direction instead of just simply restarting the server for the new season like they typically do.

Either way, the basic premise is that the moon suddenly started crashing to the earth and the hermits were faced with the dilemma of what to do in order to survive the collision. From trying to worship the moon to appease it, to trying to destroy it outright with missles, it's all pointless and the server gets wiped anyway. Now, this ending is still continuously dramatized and looked back on by the hermitcraft fanbase despite it's bleak ending and how all of the different storylines like the beloved Boatem Crew, the Advertising War, and even Zedaph's weird little research were all basically wiped out of existence.

The reason? Most of the hermits had time to dedicate to the lore on how their characters would respond, tie up as much loose ends as they can, and all of them uploaded how things ended for their characters virtually at the same time. This allowed closure for a lot of the fans who may not want to see the season go and give a somewhat satisfying conclusion to what happened to everyone. Of course, I know that not everyone's happy about this ending, but it has been received well by most of the fanbase.

Guess what I'm trying to get at is this. If the most of the server was online and had the chance to act out the finale alongside the ones that were there, then maybe it could have been a better narrative. It would still result in a nuke ending, but at least there's some closure with the other characters. Although, I have to admit that other CCs may make some flashback content leading up to the nuke, but it isn't the same since we have the benefit of hindsight and the emotions of the viewers may had already been set. An annoyed viewer may just be even more annoyed that their favorite character went through a defining story arc for themselves which was then erased like it didn't matter with the knowledge that it won't matter compared to a viewer who is still in the dark about the ending.

If, let's say, c!Quackity finds time to meet with c!Slime again to patch up their relationship (I wish lol) and the two have genuinely made amends, I would probably just be pissed off than devastated knowing that this wouldn't matter anyway. It isn't tragic, it's annoying. If them patching things up happened while I know that nukes may blow everything up instead of will blow everything up, I would be more invested in the dread than frustrated in the meaninglessness.

I guess another thing that sours everything is what happened after the nukes. Are you telling me that everything's all honkydory now that all of those people died? We're back to simpler times? It's a disturbing ending to say the least.

Honestly, with that in mind, maybe an even simpler fix is to not end it with them in the new server and make the ending vague as fuck. Don't say that this is a good ending at all and don't try to comfort us that our favorite characters are gonna be a-okay. Like what I said, knowledge of what happened at the end is probably the things that causing frustration instead of the devastation of the tragedy.

The whole c!Dream apology thing is also equally contentious with this whole thing, but again, I'm just looking at how it could be salvaged for every other character in the story.

I mean, this little Minecraft story has already ended and I doubt I'll come back for season two. Maybe complaining is definitely pointless. But I could still want for something a little more from this, ya know?

[especdreamy]

I think...the only big issue I have with cWilbur's finale...is that cDream is still a danger to cTommy. And he's leaving him with practically no support system (Yes, the Knights of Hope are...there. But cTommy barely knows cAimsey and cEret is...complicated)

It just feels like this wouldve been better if. cDream as a threat was neutralized in some way. I think that's the only thing that leaves a poor taste in my mouth. cTommy is much more vulnerable tham he used to be.

[princetore]

ok. enough time has passed so i'm gonna be a bitch. here's some LN lore crit

i love quackity and i love the las nevadas streams, and while i've always defended them, i really do think the format worked against it this time.

the first three lore streams worked because they were essentially set up. introducing las nevadas, giving us insight into quackity's character, building a team. and it was amazing set up. but it was straight from set up to finale, and it lacked development.

c!dapduo works because slime is just instantly likeable from the beginning and this stream did dedicate a lot of time into establishing their relationship, but i can't be the only one to think even it but especially c!purpled's betrayal was very rushed.

apart from the stream he's recruited, there's only his main channel LN stream, his appearence that one time in the outpost conflict, and that's about it, i think. no other major apperances of his character, interactions with other LN members, or insight into what he's thinking in the months he's worked there. and that's because those are things usually shown in casual streams.

we cared about lmanberg because we saw people living there. we cared about exile bevause we saw the extent of what c!tommy was going through. we cared about relationships like c!benchtrio, c!crimeboys, c!bedrock duo, c!emeraldduo, c!karlnapity, because we got to see them build up, over multiple streams, over the course of weeks or months, not only the high points, but all of it. showed us what was happening and why we should care about it. and this stream was mostly telling us. and it doesn’t hit nearly as hard for me.

and man that's also why the c!karlnapity engagment retcon is so upsetting.

it sucks if quackity karl and sapnap didnt want that direction for their characters anymore but... the framing they used to get us to care about this relationship was a romantic one. from c!karl and c!sapnap's engagment, to c!q and c!karl's flirting during manberg, to their engagement in new lmanberg and el rapids, that is the canon we experienced, those are the building blocks of the dynamic between these characters, that is the history c!sapq are now begging c!karl to remember. without it you're taking away huge chunks of why we're supposed to care about this characters' relationship and leaving us another thing you're just telling us about.

once i told a friend i didnt really like c!jack's last death because it felt like a moment not intended to be canon for c!tommy and that had huge unplanned implications for his character, and they told me that's,,, kind of just how improv works, and even if that's not really what q's lore streams are anymore, that's still how the story began. sometimes things happen that maybe you didnt fully intended or changed your mind about but you just have to roll with it, because it was there, it happened, we saw it. because if you show us a story, retcon major things and still tell us to care about it,, that's gonna be a very frustrating story.

so when i see people calling it the "season 3 finale", when the others were november 16th and doomsday + the disc saga finale,,, it doesn’t feel nearly as right. and as much as i like cinematographic lore streams, it's just very hard to make a full narrative with them alone.

[kayura-sanada]

Ephemer seems to be safe for now. It was actually one of those "Darkness" beings who killed Lauriams sister Strelitzia and it is "hiding" inside Ventus. The "Darkness" took the form of what looks like a humanoid-shaped black silhouette and confronted the new Union Leaders. Ven is unconscious due to a mix of "Darkness" emerging from him, his own feelings of guilt despite not actually doing the killing and Lauriam choking him a little. Ephemer and Skuld are defending Ven the whole time and the 1/?

2/? "Darkness" actually confirms that Ven didn't do the kill, he was just present there so that "Darkness" could do it. Lauriam then turns his anger on "Darkness" also because it states that there was no particular reason for killing Strelitzia, it only did it to "help" Ven gain power and to fulfill the Book of Prophecies as Ventus is apparently the "destined carrier of Darkness". Blaine/Brain then starts a sort of interview with "Darkness" which is intersected with several flashbacks of 3/?

3/? of the Master of Masters talking with Luxu about the "Darknesses", identifying them as the enemies of the original Keyblade War, "Masters of mental Warfare" and beings completely incompatible with lifeforms from the Realm of Light, incapable of seeing or understanding hearts yet capable of sensing a persons primal desires without context and thriving generally on negativity. The "Darkness" hiding in Ven then answers some of Brain's questions, stating they have no clear end goal and that 4/?

4/? that they do not think or function like light beings, but are striving to try and understand "how they work" and that there are much more "Darknesses" than there are light beings. They're normally invisible and only show up in a tangible form when they choose to, like another "Darkness" in UX who appeared to Maleficent. In his last question Brain then asks if the "Darkness" hiding in Ven is right now the only one present and upon confirmation summons Eraqus' Keyblade while ordering 5/?

5/? Ephemer, Skuld and Lauriam to also get ready to attack in order to "vanquish" the "Ultimate enemy". There are many theories already around if some if not all the Foretellers were "infected" with a Darkness throughout all their appearances and if Xehanort perhaps at least "worked" with one of them to pursue his own agenda. Many think that the ultimate end goal of the Master of Masters might be to actually exterminate these "Darkness" beings because they cause so much damage. 5/5

So what you’re saying

is that Ventus was a Princess of Heart

until Vanitas, “the Darkness,” entered him

and also that apparently VanVen shippers have not being writing incest or self-masturbation stuff like antis have been accusing them for years.

That is hilarious.

On the more serious side of things... if you’ll indulge me, please let me list out the biggest problems with all of this.

1) Darkness now has sentience. It is now a living thing. Also, it is now absolutely two-dimensional. It is alive, and it is absolutely, 100% evil. I know this is a kid’s game series, but oof. He’s really going hard on this darkness = evil, light = good shit.

2) Yet for some reason the “Darkness” just tells everybody the truth? And acts as a reliable narrator who explains yet more backstory?

3) He made the fandom right in their “it was Ventus!” garbage. You should never make the fandom right about bad writing. You’re feeding the trolls, Nomura.

4) So instead of humans falling to the darkness in their hearts, they just... got taken over by “Darkness.” 🙃🙃🙃 So only outside forces can make people do bad things. 🙃🙃🙃 This is fine.

5) Thank god we have the Master of Masters, whose entire existence is to already know about and explain all of Nomura’s bullshit, to make this garbage some bullshit “truth” that definitely existed before Nomura pulled it out of his ass this past year or two.

6) Return of the “Xehanort is actually a victim just like Ventus!” shit I just spoke about earlier that makes me want to puke. Let me guess - he was just trying to save Ventus, after all, when he tore Ven’s heart from “the Darkness.” God, end this storyline or end me, because I just can’t.

7) So the point of the “traitor” thing... was...???? What? What was the point? The “Darkness” attacked and took over Ven in order to fulfill a prophecy that existed because the “Darkness” attacked and took over Ven?????? I hate to break it to you, Nomura, but having a character point out the pointlessness of it doesn’t let you off the hook for writing something so fucking pointless!!!

8) This new enemy is boring and stupid. I’m sorry. I’m trying to critique it, I’m literally sitting here trying to critique it like an adult, but it’s written so badly that I just don’t know how to go about doing that. It’s just??? evil shadows??? that’s it??? Evil shadows that can apparently act like Yeerks, only inside the heart instead of the brain, and they attack because... because they want to, and because they just don’t have hearts and they don’t understand them. Look at these horrible, evil creatures without hearts. Good lord, it’s KH2 all over again.

9) “Ven was just there so that ‘Darkness’ could [kill Strelitzia].” Please tell me I’m not the only one who sees that’s the most arbitrary garbage to ever walk this Earth. If they’re always around and there’s so many of them (even though??? this one’s the only one here??? even though there’s so many more “Darknesses” than those of light??? XD XD), then why can’t they interact with beings of light without taking over a being of light??? Isn’t taking over a being of light interacting with that being??? God, it’s so random and ridiculous. Just a trumped up reason for the ‘traitor.’ That this man didn’t even commit to. Uuuuuurgh.

10) Can I... Can I just take a moment? To once again complain about how Xehanort’s keyblade, and now also Eraqus’, for some damn reason, are just... ancient keyblades that people have somehow??? Can I please complain about this, even though it could be a part of the original lore? Because it’s clearly a Legendary Weapon, yet it’s done so poorly it hurts. Okay, just let me explain this one.

A Legendary Weapon is supposed to be pretty well known from the start, or near the start, of a story. That way, the readers know its importance and he hero can strive to either acquire it or, at the very least, come to find it someday. Take Lord of the Rings, for instance. We see the Legendary Weapon - Narsil - very early on, and we know its importance immediately. It’s just a note at the beginning, but we know it’s important, and we’re not surprised when it becomes pivotal in the story later on. It’s even pivotal to the hero’s - Aragorn’s - storyline and character growth. It makes sense.

Now let’s look at Xehanort’s weapon. We don’t know it’s special at first; we only know Xehanort’s wielding it and it’s creepy looking. We find out in a later game that it’s actually Legendary. That’s annoying enough, but the information comes early enough that it makes a little bit of sense (though it doesn’t answer how Xehanort, who’s fallen to darkness, can wield a Legendary Weapon when Riku can’t wield one at all in KH1). But whatever!

But now this?! It’s been years since Eraqus’ keyblade was introduced. The only hint we got as to its potential ‘specialness’ is that it allows Sora to do what, quite frankly, he’d been able to do just fine before without the damn keyblade. And also, for some reason that’s yet to be explained, it’s the only Keyblade that can lock or unlock the Land of Departure. (And I emphasize that this should have been explained years ago.)

And now! Now! Apparently it’s a Legendary Weapon!!! And no one’s known! It’s already fulfilled its duty countless times, apparently secretly more special than Sora from the start, and it’s probably going to become Even More Special as the story continues?! What?!?!

There’s been no hint that this keyblade is legendary. It’s just been powerful. This kind of information needs to be introduced early on, or else it feels cheap and unbelievable. The reader’s suspension of disbelief is tested to its breaking point. And now the keyblade, of all things, is the most curious and important aspect of the story, when the hero’s journey toward the blade and slow bonding with the blade (and what it represents) are supposed to be what matter - because the hero is supposed to be what matters.

I just. /huffs/ Okay, well, this has been... enlightening, and I love all of you deeply for explaining all of this to me, and please continue messaging me if you like, but I’m going to take a break and find my happy place again.

[elvhenprince]

possibly lore critical (since dai tbh)

why is it, exactly, that elves/spirits were responsible for everything? i thought humans existed first, so werent they also up to some shit?

spirits seem to reflect mortals, right- i always thought like. humans did fuck up shit first, and elves probably were equally responsible somehow, not "its all the elves' fault"

in da4 we know humans were already there, solas said he had no wish to live amongst the humans etc. im failing to understand why humans had no meaningful history at all when they existed before elves ever did