ok. now that i’ve managed to come down a little from the high that was The End of Amphoreus update 3.7…….
i honestly have to say that i’m lowkey kinda disappointed with how they executed 3.7. like. i have too much to say about it tbh
utc are some screenshots of dms i sent to a friend trying to explain how i felt about the whole thing, mainly my disappointment with how they handled cyrene (plus more explanations). it sucks because i do love her. i just think she deserves more than what the devs gave her :/
phainon too, but BOY do i have a bunch of things to say about him so i won’t say too much to keep things as short as possible
if you also have thoughts on 3.7/how they ended amph as a whole, or anything related to it, please do chat with me!! if you have differing opinions that’s great too, maybe it’ll help settle some of my confusion with the dev’s choices 😭
my mind feels so jumbled up but hhhh. tldr is that i don’t feel that connected to cyrene despite how hard they tried to push for that narrative. it only makes me appreciate how they handled phainon and his—as well as the chryshrs’—suffering more :/
imo, the devs forgot that ‘love’—the thing that cyrene is meant to represent—can also be so very ugly. it’s not always pretty, not always beautiful and romantic.
it’s tragic, too. insidious, even.
when we love someone, we can often do things that aren’t considered ‘pretty’, and to love is also to lose. to suffer, and suffering is inherently ugly. to love is to sacrifice, and making sacrifices is a painful experience.
but they pushed cyrene to be too perfect, to the point that even when she cries, she’s still seen as beautiful and pretty—and that’s simply inhuman to me. it feels unreal and uncanny. it’s almost a mockery, how they display cyrene’s ‘love’ and reaction to her own suffering.
there is no rage in her. no grit or fury in her voice for the eternal torture she, phainon, and the heirs have been put through. she was the one to pen down all their hardships, and yet there’s nothing to show how she feels about what they endlessly go through.
it makes her feel very flat. very hollow.
compare that to the way phainon cries and screams at loss, especially during the tragedy of aedes elysiae. it’s ugly, it’s painful. it crushes the audience the way phainon pleads and cries and begs for fate to not be so cruel to his beloved home.
phainon is so dearly beloved BECAUSE of the way he copes with loss and suffering, all because he loves so deeply. his mind cracks and slowly his humanity wanes with each passing cycle. it’s not pretty; it’s horrific and his pain is beyond comprehension.
this ugliness and this level of pain is what makes him feel so very human, despite being a like of code stemming from hatred and destruction.
the degradation of khaslana’s body and spirit is the epitome of what it means to lose and suffer all in the name of love and sacrific even though his code stems from hatred. that’s what adds to the complexity of his character.
for some reason, despite not being the representation of love, phainon is a better symbol of love and sacrifice to me than cyrene is. even if she’s supposed to be the voice of humanity.
but oh, cyrene is pretty—always pretty. always perfect and beautiful in the face of endless suffering. i find it hard to feel for her as i do for phainon and the heirs.
all that being said, i still wish so badly that the dev’s did her better. she deserves it 😭
With the death or their mother Lerato, Olive and Willow Muenda inherited something more than just money.
Lately the sisters have been feeling a strange... calling. However, while happy-go-lucky Willow wants to travel the path of light... Olive is drawn to a much darker path. Can their sisterhood survive the coming differences... or will it be the end of the Muenda family?
It snowed for the first time this season where I live today, so in celebration here’s a seasonal sneeze concept: contagion by infected snowball. Person A sneezes on their snowball (maybe by accident, maybe in a deliberate attempt to get B sick) and throws it at B. It gets down the back of B’s shirt, leaving them with plenty of bust little cold viruses to get to work on their unsuspecting nose when they warm up and thaw out...
