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like this tiny slice of the sound panel alone is better than 99.99% of computer games. absolute gamechanger that nothing else even comes close to matching.

vs. when you first meet the real hythlodaeus and catch him up on everything his husband did while hythlodaeus was stuck on the moon and he's just like

Original meme:

eos ☺️🧚🏽‍♀️✨

flat image + closeups 👇🩷

Felt like doodling cat raha the other days. Compiled a few of em so i am sharing here

Some cat raha and my wol sketches

it also provides a logical explanation for some people (Gerolt, Rowena, the trolley crew) looking exactly the same across reincarnations despite one side of my brain screaming that that doesn't make any sense with either real life genetics or how even in game, people end up looking more or less like their family members. perhaps souls have a preferred form that, within limits, they can facilitate being reborn as.

(the soul having some role in determining physical form would also dovetail with dragons' system of asexual reproduction and personal evolution; despite them being from a different star, they still ought to operate under the same natural laws)

Consider: near all living beings on present day Etheirys, including most forms of people, were originally formed from abstract concepts which were then given life through the ancients' creation magic - quite literally (again, using the academic definition of) memes imbued with aether.

With this in mind, what if the mechanism of inheritance from parent to child was through their concepts, rather than through strands of DNA? Children still tend to resemble their parents because their concepts - and expression of said concepts - are inevitably going to be quite similar, but it also makes aether a core part of the process, able to affect the ways in which a particular concept gets expressed. From this perspective, the body and its biology is perhaps better seen as an anchor for the soul, as well as its primary means of interacting with the physical world, whether by means physical or magical.

This also means a particular soul or aether doesn't really need to "know" or "prefer" a certain kind of appearance or behaviour for it to still have a direct influence on those very same things - rather it's that their shape and colour lends itself towards expressing certain specific phenotypes in the same way that a figure made out of clay has different properties than an identical figure made out of concrete. Perhaps shards of Azem tend to wander simply because that's the form and shape of the aether they've inherited, much like how various types of alloys can have vastly different properties depending on their particular compositions. Perhaps some compositions are just given to particular appearances or behaviours while others are a lot more malleable.

And while some may find it out of character, I actually think it is very much in character for him, and I also think it is the natural endpoint of his character growth post-Dragonsong. Because I think that the moment that Alphinaud and the WoL ripped Nidhogg's eyes from his armor, Estinien became hopeful and optimistic. I just don't think he understood that, and I think the feelings were foreign to him, but he definitely felt them.

Because in spite of his speech to the Scions about how he views the world differently from them, in spite of him saying that he views it as a "realist" whereas they are the dreamers, the optimists, he says to Fordola earlier on "dreams worth fighting for don't die so easily." In the DRG 70 quests, he has hope that Orn Khai, himself, and the WoL will be able to aid Faunehm. Estinien Post-Dragonsong thru Endwalker is hopeful and optimistic, he just isn't ready to admit it yet.

What helps him accept it, what helps him be more openly hopeful and optimistic, is his sacrifice at Ultima Thule. I haven't read the dialogue since playing it for the first time, but based off of my own recollections, I recall him mentioning knowing that he needed to step forward and confront the dragon who was wallowing in regret and remorse. He needed to step forward, and take a risk, and that feeling he felt was I think the moment Estinien became an optimist. Because he knew, instinctively, that by doing so he would be risking his own life, but he would also be paving the way forward for the rest of the Scions.

He had no way of knowing that! No confirmation, nor proof! But in that moment, he had faith, and he had hope, and he had optimism, that in sacrificing himself the others would be able to press forward.

Mayqo'te Day 18 - Fav. Weapon

But I don't think that's the case at all. He's trying to recruit the WoL.

Let's put together the pieces:

Calyx tells us where he and Halmarut are going and would like us to follow them.

He asks if we have any ambitions we'd pursue at any cost--the exact thing the Winterers are doing.

He notes that he doesn't agree with his fellow Winterers' methods, but is still willing to work with them for what he sees as the greater good.

He finishes by reminding us that trying to save everything and everyone might not be in the interest of the greater good.

I think Calyx is inviting the WoL to the Fourth as a case study, to make his argument that the WoL should be the Source's Winterer. Even though we found his actions objectionable, he thinks we should set that aside, as he does, to work towards the same goal.

And I think that's really interesting! I don't know how but he somehow became a more compelling antagonist when they stuffed him in a squirrel plushie. (Yes, I've seen the Ratatoskr comparison and I'm into it.)

You know, thinking about it in hindsight, it really is insane that back in Heavensward the Warrior of Light did in fact canonically fight all The Knights of the Round at the same time while they were powered by both eyes of Nidhogg, thousands of years of prayer, and having just drained the aether of a Unsundered Ascian and didn't just win, but mopped the floor with them so bad that Thordan freaked out and saw us as Azem.

Really should not have killed one of their closest confidants.

If you and/or your WOL likes Zenos (or has positive leaning complicated feelings about him), then it's this really powerful moment where Zenos finally seems to have a breakthrough of understanding enough that he comes to find WOL at the edge of the universe, and upon seeing Endsinger is still alive, helps the WOL defeat her while never for a moment thinking he and WOL could fail to win. Resulting in Etheirys being saved, and the Final Days at last being completely put to rest. A feat even the ancients and acians couldn't fully achieve.

And if you and/or your WOL hates, doesn't care about, or dislikes Zenos, then all of that still happens. Only with the added funny note that the entirety of Etheirys, your friends, family, the world you love, and creation at large was saved at the last minute by the power of unrequited friendship.