Forty the alien

Uh... Us, Lotus.

Tau just... Became us.

Society. Class discrepancy. Drugs. Gambling. Crime. It's all there. The Sentients may have left home, but home never left the Sentients.

I fucking love Warframe, you guys. It never, ever, ever fails to surprise.

Not to leave this in tags, but @idlenight pointed out what I thought was obvious, but I'll take it even one step further than simply 'as above so below'/'made in our image' - they're facing the same kinds of problems as us, just... Much worse, even if for a much more resilient people. And I think, based on what we've seen in The Old Peace, these problems do exist across all of Tau.

As far as we know from the Lore, Sentients aren't supposed to be independent individuals at all. The Orokin made them as extremely adaptive hivemind terraformers, and as far as we currently know, their 'sentience' was gained after reaching Tau, but before the Old War, when they collectively decided to try to wipe out the Orokin to protect Tau from them. But their sentience did not remove their hivemind.

In The Old Peace, we learn of the Tau-native xenoflora called the Bloom, whose pollen somehow grants Sentients temporary individuality, hence the brokering of The Old Peace treaty. When it runs out, though, they return to the Hivemind, which is dead set on wiping out 'The Orokin' (which, to remind all, is pretty much everything in the Origin system, regardless of how far removed we are from the Orokin proper).

There's an important possible link between the Sentients becoming sentient before The Old War, and the Bloom being native to Tau. Perhaps on arriving/terraforming Tau, some of the Sentients accidentally became individuals, gained 'sentience' (not quite the correct term for it but we'll roll with it I guess), but then rejoined the hivemind after the Bloom pollen wore off, spreading their altered perspective to the rest of the hivemind...

But this is the core threat to Sentient society, which has driven them to such human societal problems as classism, corruption, crime, and gambling - the hivemind never went away, and a worse problem got stacked on top of it. Their individuality is objectively temporary, and most/all the original Bloom production was killed off (on Perita, but it's implied to be the whole shebang) due to, essentially, greedy Orokin betrayal in the conflict around The Old Peace.

So they've made an artificial, narcotic-if-overused Bloom substitute, right? Keeping them from succumbing to the hivemind and becoming monsters again. But Brysko mentions something that hasn't been expressed by/around Sentients before - the nightmares, and the screaming...

... Because whatever this black rain is, it's reanimating the dead warframes and sentients all over the place, including old battlefields (so it may not be isolated to Fornax, either...)

... And those dead, reanimated Sentients... Lack the Bloom. They're in the Hivemind. The Sentient Hivemind is now full of screaming, rotting, undead Sentients, trapped in an eternal war with screaming, rotting, undead Orokin child soldier meat mechs.

Wouldn't you do anything to escape having that in your head forever? To escape the seeming inevitability that you'll all become part of it sooner or later?

Twitter/X reaction

The whole insidious thing about the Halovar's is how wrapped in this air of 'harmless and foolish' they are. YES they are a Sundered House and they are rich and magical, but I mean, come on. We're living in a world where the gods have been killed, and now they are true believers of this 'Light?' What the hell is that? Most sane people with an eye for politics can see the game they are playing, or at least think they can.

And every scene we see them in, that is reinforced in some small capacity even at the same time you can see the depth to it. You meet Fileonous and whats your impression? Big guy with scary dogs, but also loud, clumsily oafish in demeanor and speech, the type of dude you don't think has a lot going on. The demon sisters are *scary*, they're fucking demons, but our first look at them in combat was hilarious and disarming, because clearly they were stumbling through the dark!

You can recognize that yes, there is skill, there is power here; but I think ultimately it is disarming in how god damn funny and disarming they are because they're Goofs! Most of them are goofy as hell! Just like how Sam and Whitney have been playing the funny guys, upping the ante in each scene together with Tyranny and Wicc's stumbling through.

Except, obviously, when it's time to *lock the hell in.* And then suddenly you have the Grandma of Manipulation, pulling divine strings that nobody would have EVER known about if she hadn't told Wicc. You have fake resurrections, deals with demonic entities selling the souls of who knows HOW many people across Araman, *biological experiments with angel blood,* and the dedicated grasping fingers wresting control over arts, minds, and bodies through Dol Mak'jar.

Until you see Tyranny and Wicc stumbling home after being told by everybody on repeat that they are screwed because they are (seemingly) fumbling in every conversation and then they pull a god damn HOME RUN in tricking the manipulator.

Sam and Whitney are 100% the people who you know have the skill to take you out at the emotional kneecaps, but yet you never see it coming until they are having Nat 20 conversations without the roll of the dice.

The Halovar's are not the threat you anticipate, until you find out how they are seeping into every corner of Araman and see Yanessa Halovar standing over her fake religion and producing *devote belief.*

Insta

Whitney’s portrayal of Tyranny’s yearning is incredible, but what gets me is Tyranny’s pure devotion to Wick. She’s always the first to stand up for him and try to convince people he’s good, even when that means nearly breaking character as Dr Finger because she couldn’t stand Cas calling him a rat.

And when faced with the idea of him dying, her immediate thought being “if this happens I will kms” is INSANE.

Wick isn’t as overt with his affection, but it's clear by the way he’s always very focused on Tyranny being okay. It's almost always his first thought. Going to sleep at Ulbid’s house? Better give her his cloak so she’s not cold. Getting into fairy glade? Need to make sure Tyranny is okay in case demons and fairies have beef. Fighting a wraith? Need to get in there and make her proud. Casting Aid? Tyranny is the first one to get it, obviously.

And when he hears Tyranny in danger? Run to her, immediately. Oops just got stabbed and I’m dying now.

Season 2+3 limbus skill name: "Destroy intruder"

Season 4 limbus skill name: "How dare you!!"

Season 5 limbus skill name: "Im Going To Kill You So Hard You Disintegrate Into Chalk"

Season 6 limbus skill name: "Evil Fucking Killing Technique: Ultradeath [貓娘程式設計師風格]"

Green: Favourable

Yellow: Neutral

Red: Unfavourable

Blue: Mixed

Halandil Fang: I’ve come to you with hat in hand. Do you want to invest in the city’s future?

Elodie D'vyen: … Well normally I need to see a business plan before I make an investment. *sighs* When we first got together, my grandmother, when she was still with us, um, made me make one promise. The promise that she asked me to make, she said, ‘Elodie, you come from means’, and, ah, though I did not follow in the family business, I had to make my own merchant’s company myself, she said: ‘If you’re going to couple with an actor, you have to think now about what you’re gonna say’. And I said, grandma, what do you mean? And she said, ‘you need to think about what you’re going to say when he asks you for money’. How much are we talking about, Hal?

Hal, with a rather wobbly smile: Not too much. A few hundred gold.

Elodie, startled: Oh! Oh, a few hundred gold? Oh, my god, yes.

Like, it’s so clear that she was braced for a much higher number. A few hundred thousand, maybe. Seed money for a commercial venture. She’s so clearly stunned by the low ball. And it’s funny. It is funny. But it’s also so fucking sad.

In the first place, because of the sheer disparity of expectations here. Hal is just trying to get enough to scrape together a food bank, enough money to feed (admittedly a couple hundred) people just long enough for other options to open up, so they won’t be dependent on the city’s cult leader for jobs after a mass firing happened in the wake of political shenanigans. The Schemers were there calculating, okay, 1 gold per person per day, just for a couple of weeks, just until we can get options lined up. Just so these people don’t have to immediately join a cult to feed their families. They’re there trying to work out how many jewels from their thieves’ stash they can sell to keep people afloat for even a week or two. A few hundred gold. We’ve just got to give them one or two weeks without starving.

And then here’s Elodie, who isn’t even nobility, just one of the better classes of merchant, and she’s clearly … Like. She was clearly expecting at least a few thousand here. Possibly because he’d framed it as an investment? Investing in the city’s future. Her reaction when it’s only a few hundred is so …

You can tell which of them is used to having a few hundred to throw around when needed, shall we say.

And then, on the more personal level …

You need to think now about what you’re going to say when he asks for money. How much are we talking about, Hal?

And the thing is, we’ve seen this before, shadows of this. Hal and Thaisha. Her reminding him, carefully, around what were clearly old wounds and old discussions, that while she knew he didn’t like it, the Lloy money was there for him if he ever needed it. And Hal … not saying much of anything in response.

There’s so clearly an expectation. A view of Hal in operation. ‘If you’re going to couple with an actor’. Hal is an entertainer, a kid from the Rookery, a troublemaker’s brother. And he has children with not one but two entirely separate ladies of much higher class and means than him. And Thaisha was first. So by the time he got to Elodie, there was clearly enough of an opinion of him circulating that Elodie’s grandmother took her aside to warn her. He’s a gold digger, honey. You’ve got to start thinking now about how much you’re willing to give him.

(Also, if you’re going to couple with an actor? Not be with him, not have a relationship with him. Just couple. As if sex is all there is to it. Ouch).

There’s a view of Hal happening here. And Hal is clearly conscious of it. He’s not surprised at Elodie saying what her grandmother told her. He just looks … wryly sad. All rueful acknowledgement and lopsided smile. That line of his that finishes the conversation:

“You are always too good for me. Your grandmother was a wise woman.”

… How much does it hurt, that so soon after it was all going well for him, after he’d finally gotten the deed to the Hallowed Round, after he’d finally managed to start making a more respectable name for himself, that everything came crashing down? His brother dead. The city abruptly under siege from seemingly every direction. His every dream under threat. And now …

Here he has to be. Hat in hand. Playing the damned gold digger, just like everyone’s always expected of him, and not even for himself. Just to try and keep the city afloat.

He doesn’t want to. We know he doesn’t want to. Thaisha wouldn’t have stepped half so carefully around that conversation unless she knew it hurt him. This wouldn’t clearly be the first time he’s ever asked Elodie for money, the first time she’s ever had to mention what her grandmother said, if he was at all easy about it. It clearly is a sore spot for him, if only one you have to be as close as Thaisha to notice, maybe. And it’s a sore spot that makes sense. There’s so clearly a view of him that’s developed, and not on purpose, not by anyone’s intention, it’s not Thaisha or Elodie’s fault that they were born to money, no more than it’s Hal’s fault that he wasn’t, but there is …

An actor. An entertainer. A lover. And both his baby mamas are women of means.

Yeah. There’s a reputation there, I think. And I don’t think Hal likes it. At all.

(A reputation probably not helped by whatever the hell happened with Thjazi and Aranessa’s marriage, too. Those Fang boys, huh. A whole family of gold diggers over there. Hold tight to your money, ladies, the Fang brothers are in town).

There is such a theme with the Schemers. The working nine-to-five. The ones born in poverty or struggle, the ones who know how to fight to make ends meet.

While I definitely miss the Soldiers being together, I am LOVING Wick's cleverness being able to shine now that he's in a more familiar environment. He's not good at breaking rules, but he's really good at taking rules and turning them in his favor.