Sharran Shenanigans

When it was the Last of Us, they all loved and adored Ellie. They said that if they were Joel, they don't think they could have made a different choice. They said they would have doomed humanity just to save her. But when she became her own protagonist and lives knowing her life damned humanity, they couldn't hate her more because she "stole" the spotlight from Joel.

When it was the Witcher, they all loved and adored Ciri. They walked to the ends of the earth, conducted risky rituals for her, hoped between portals that Geralt hates. They wanted what was best for her, they wanted the best ending, they wanted her to walk in Geralt's footsteps and become a Witcher. But when she became her own protagonist and actually became the Witcher they pushed her to be, they couldn't hate her more because she "stole" the spotlight from Geralt.

I didn't play God of War, but it's the same thing cycle repeating. The entire first game, they spent walking around the various Nordic realms, battling against gods just to spread Faye's ashes. A journey that allowed Kratos to reflect on himself and who he would like to be for his son. The memory of Faye allowed Kratos to become a better man. But when she became her own protagonist and is now in the, eh, "rest" that Kratos gave her, they couldn't hate her more because she "stole" the spotlight from Kratos.

They only love and appreciate women as characters, so long as they always remain secondary to a man and support his story. They have never cared about these women nor saw them as their own people but extensions of the men around them. And when it's time for the women to have their own stories and we see who they are on their own without these men, they are viewed as "replacements". The very women that they dedicated an entire journey for, they suddenly treat as if their continued existence is a slight against the man in the story. These men were willing to sacrifice everything and put themselves in harms way just for these women. And now that the women get to live the life these men gave them, they fucking hate them. What was the point then? What was the point of damning humanity for Ellie if you were going to hate her for surviving and having the pay the price of her own salvation? What was the point of fighting the Wild Hunt for Ciri if you were going to hate her for becoming exactly like her dad? And what was the point of remembering Faye if you didn't even want to know who she was in the first place?

Afterglow

My Dreamheart girls have been through it. One day, they’ll get to have this 🥹

They couldn’t have origins in Sun worship like us. Given that their atmosphere is so thick to the point they never developed eyes, hearing their sun and other celestial bodies wasn’t an option until they became intelligent enough to develop the technology. Eridians had to have spent hundreds of thousands of years (if not longer) knowing only what they could sense: each other, any other life forms, and whatever was on the ground beneath them.

Considering their bodies are also only around .25% organic material, the rest of what holds them together and gives them a chance at life are the very same minerals and metals that make up the surface of Erid! Without those, survival would be impossible. Their species would’ve never developed. I imagine that revelation in early Eridian society was extremely profound to them. Erid lends them pieces of its own body so that they can experience the universe.

Their brains and nerves are crystalline, meaning Erid itself gave them the tool they needed for sentience. Their blood is mercury, and other liquid metals I imagine aren’t too dissimilar from the types of molten metals sitting at the planet’s core. Their bodies are naturally attuned to magnetic fields so that they can navigate with ease. They cannot get lost Erid because the very ground they walk on has provided for them a way to always find north.

Erid is everything to them. Its presence in their lives absolutely has to be seen as sacred. So of course its name would also mean ‘ground!’ In the literal sense, of course. But also as in grounding. Erid is the anchor to the Eridian mortal experience in every sense.

a few days late for June, but I had to finish and post these bg3 pride doodles<3

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