#theorycrafting

[neros-w]

bricked but happy 🙂‍↕️

[neros-w]

i should stop watching zy0x bc tell me why im thinking of dumping artifacts into long nights oath to upgrade my benched gaming

[kiddemundo]

Another Deadlock hero concept that I had to post just because I spent way too much time coming up with 'Spook' and 'Hushabye.' Probably wouldn't play well but you can't stop a man from theorycrafting.

This is Hushabye. His taglines are 'Intelligence,' 'Hidden,' and 'Map Coverage'. He's based off of tf2 spy with some inspiration taken from Cypher.

Hushabye's gun is The Second Option, and it's a gun designed for concealment. It has 10 shots and has a slow, punchy fire rate with a quick reload. The reload animation shows Hushabye shoving a comically large 10 round cartridge into the butt of the pistol, implying it is an extradimensional space.

Hushabye's 1 is Innocuous. He transforms into a regular trooper, taking on it's animations and movement speed, but retaining his movement tech, abilities, health and damage numbers. While in this form he does not appear on the enemies map. He can be forced out of this form with A) a successful heavy melee or B) a successful parry. The first two upgrades increase the duration of this ability, while the third allows him to cloak troopers within a certain radius, preventing them from appearing on the enemies map.

Hushabye's 2 is Wotcher. Hushabye releases a floating camera spirit known as a 'Spook' from his satchel, which flies along Hushabye's sightlines and stops when it hits a wall or makes it to the edge of it's range. The Spook shows enemies within it's visibility radius on the map. This radius ignores walls. A Spook can be destroyed by shooting it a couple of times, and drops a tiny amount of souls upon death. The first upgrade to Wotcher increases the Spook's visibility radius. The second gives Wotcher a second charge. The third allows friendly players within a certain distance of the Spook to see enemies within the Spook's visibility radius via wallhacks.

Hushabye's 3 is Power to the Hidden, which is a passive. Hushabye builds up a spirit damage bonus when he is near an enemy player but not in their FOV. Being seen by a player rapidly decreases this bonus. When Hushabye attacks with melee or range his attack is empowered by this damage bonus; a successful hit resets this bonus back to 0. The first upgrade increases bonus buildup. The second upgrade adds a very, very small buildup when Hushabye isn't even near an enemy player so long as they are not in the sightline of a trooper, walker, guardian, camp enemy, or midboss. The third upgrade makes Heavy Melee's silent, and adds a little to the bonus if it is expended on a Heavy Melee.

Hushabye's Ult is Hush. Hushabye creates a radius around himself. Any enemy within the radius will have all game sfx drowned out by static, and any ally in the radius will get a decent buff to spirit damage. The kicker is that this effect isn't just applied to a radius around Hushabye but also every Spook's visibility radius. The first upgrade increases the spirit buff. The second upgrade increases the range around Hushabye, and the third adds a slight slow to enemies among the Ult's other effects.

Lore: Hushabye is a Sandman for the OSIC, and uses his mystical patterns for reconnaissance and intelligence purposes. He's extremely accomplished in this field, to the point that Lady Giest is startled to realize he was once a butler of hers. He has an extremely mild mannered personality and has immense job satisfaction, and is a dedicated pragmatist. Hushabye is participating in the ritual to while the memory of someone who is too important to kill and has some information that Hushabye would rather him not have concerning his identities and whereabouts; It is implied this man is Pocket's father.

[mozillavulpix]

alternate theories

cure arcana shadow is just one 'form' she can use, and even when she reforms and/or gets a white form she still goes back to shadow if she ever needs it

sure precure hasn't ever done that before, but it'd be a neat way of saying 'dark isn't evil', just like how the inverted tarot cards don't always mean misfortune

also so they can still keep advertising the tear arcana rod

and also would mean they wouldn't have to change a lot of the group merchandise featuring Arcana Shadow in the team lineup, it wouldn't be technically incorrect

[mozillavulpix]

I do have to unfortunately admit defeat towards a children's show and accept my theories were wrong and Luluka was the one working at the Star Detective Agency beforehand

But she clearly has nothing to do with the reason Mikuru knows about Star Detective Precure and where the agency is, otherwise she would have obviously recognised her by now

So I guess maybe Mikuru was saved by the Star Detective Precure, like, several years ago. And then later on Luluka and Eclair(?) took on the role, and then Something happened to Eclair and Luluka left. And just as the head agency realised something was wrong and sent Jett to close up, Anna and Mikuru arrived.

If it only takes 'a few days' for the letter from London to arrive, theoretically we may get some more answers next week, so that'd be nice. Obviously I'm not expecting them to explain everything or even why Luluka turned to the other side, but it might at least give us a better idea of the timeframe for all this.

Luluka is only 16, after all. I can't imagine she was a Precure for longer than, like, 2 years before all this went down.

[hipshop]

This post I made the other day got me thinking again about theorycrafting communities (specifically Deltarune) and how they foster some really bizarre and toxic attitudes in ways that I really don’t understand.

This might be a bit rambly but I think its a topic worth discussing, and given I’ve been at the center of arguments like this before I think I have a decent perspective on it

It seems that, the more people get into theory circles, the less it becomes about speculation for a game they like, and almost like a game or competition in and of itself, with winners and losers and imaginary points to gain.

I’ve seen plenty of people get incredibly invested and vitriolic about their predictions for the game’s story, to a point where it heavily impacts or even dictates their enjoyment of the story itself. Some people will outright say that if their theory or reading is untrue, that it is (or will be) bad writing. They can become embittered towards the story and community due to an investment in being vindicated.

Back when I made a video speculating about Kris being the Knight, plenty of people made argumentative comments, which is fine. What was bizarre is how vitriolic some were. One, with no prior conversation or knowledge of me, immediately assumed a sort of victim complex on my part, whining about “Kris Knighters acting oppressed about people poking holes in their theory”. It’s so confusing! Being separated into an imagined, arbitrary “team” and having these traits projected onto me by a stranger because of my thoughts on where a story was going! (There’s even an entire Subreddit dedicated to complaining about people who think December is the Knight. It fosters an atmosphere of such bizarre bitterness and anger over something harmless!)

I liken it to sports betting, in a way. Where enjoyment shifts from the game itself to a community outside of it. Not deriving enjoyment from the subject matter, but what they serve to gain from it (money, or in this case, imagined social points or validation from peers for being “right”.) It leads to an avenue of speculation turning into a source of anger and an imagined scramble for points and street credit.

Frankly, it can lead to discussing the game in plenty of circles difficult to enjoy given how some people engage with it online. It’s frustrating and disappointing for a community to be like that.

TL;DR: some people get way too toxic about Deltarune theories girl

[transfemfaramir]

dáin ironfoot and the limits of dwarven rule

one question i have pondered often lately is this: why did dáin let balin go to moria?

after the battle of azanulbizar, thráin declares that khazad-dûm is won, but his allies from the other dwarven houses have no interest in the victory, having suffered such grievous losses, and lacking an ancestral connection to the place.

dáin ironfoot, however, has different reasoning: though he'll stand by his king, he pronounces that none of them will enter khazad-dûm. as he looked beyond the gate, he encountered durin's bane in some way that is difficult to quantify - but whether he actually saw or merely sensed the balrog, it left a strong enough impression that he says "The world must change and some other power than ours must come before Durin's Folk walk again in Moria" (rotk, pg. 440). thráin accepts this; maybe he is inclined to listen to the dwarf that killed azog, and dáin does speak with a chilling conviction.

fast-forward around 200 years: dáin is king under the mountain, with erebor reclaimed; durin's folk have returned to one of their chief settlements. erebor is prospering. their population is increasing. the dwarves of the mountain are starting to feel that old urge to return to khazad-dûm. just like smaug was seen as a surmountable obstacle in the reclamation of erebor, so is durin's bane dismissed as such, and eventually balin appears to be overcome by this growing sentiment, and leads a colony to resettle their most important lost homeland.

their king, however, is not happy. dáin appears in everything to be a cut above other dwarves in his rationality, and he shows it here: he is uniquely unaffected by the common desire of durin's folk to reclaim khazad-dûm. he does not allow thráin to lead them there into disaster, he does not want his people going back there while durin's bane still lurks, and he is unswayed by the messenger of sauron when he tries to tempt him by saying "the realm of Moria shall be yours forever" (fotr, pg. 314). he has personally experienced the terror of durin's bane, and is alone in being able to actually comprehend how dangerous a threat it is. additionally, he probably also calculates that their divided numbers are not yet great enough to overcome any goblin presence in khazad-dûm. he also probably knows that this is not the time to be splitting their population, with the threat of sauron rising!

but for all his wisdom and the respect he must command, his protests seem to fall on deaf ears. we can safely assume balin is not going to khazad-dûm on his command, because we are told that dáin "did not give leave willingly" (fotr, pg. 313).

so what's happening here, if dáin is the king, and opposes the return to khazad-dûm? it seems that royal authority is simply insufficient in the face of independent dwarvish determination. dáin can only advise against a return to khazad-dûm, but he does not seem to have the power to command balin to stay.

this is interesting, and markedly different to what we see in mannish hierarchies. the rulers of rohan and gondor seem pretty strict on obedience; háma trembles when he thinks he may have misinterpreted théoden's will, and beregond narrowly escapes execution for defying orders to save faramir (and is still punished for his actions).

it impresses the idea of a society that is ruled largely by independent desire. the dwarvish monarch may not possess ultimate authority over his subjects - his will does not seem to trump theirs. this also tracks with what we know about dwarves as a people. dwarves can be fiercely loyal, and certainly are to their leaders and families, but they are very difficult to influence or dominate to opinions or causes other than their own. they are also highly possessive of their individual properties. these traits are not really compatible with a lotr-typical monarchy, where a monarch holds the ultimate right of will and property. so it stands to reason that the dwarven monarchies operate quite differently.

in conclusion: dáin as a ruler does not hold the power to deny his people their wishes, and their desire to go to khazad-dûm overcame both loyalty to their king, and his good sense.

[dioptre-hertz]

this year, after four centuries of penis, i'm making the switch to pussy. here's what the new meta means for you - and why you might want to reconsider that cock...