Hello people who decided to check this blog out. I told myself to stay away from social media, but somewhere in my brain decided that Tumblr was the one to break that trend. Hope everyone has a good day! I'll edit this post when I'm more comfortable with sharing stuff. Edit: Behold the "stuff:"
Witch Hat Atelier(both anime and manga, beware of spoilers anime onlies!)
Writing Tips Reblogged
My OCs(if the voices let me)
Amphoreous and Stellaron Hunter stuff(Honkai: Star Rail)
House of Hearth trio stuff(Genshin Impact)
Hope y'all have a good day! Don't forget to hydrate
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Finally wrote a new fic! First one of the year, with hopefully many more will come.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
I'm honestly not too proud of this when compared to my other works, but this did wonders for my writing block. I just sat down and wrote, what a wonderful feeling!
I'm gonna talk about the fic below, and it will have spoilers for anime peeps(the fic also has spoilers, btw)
The main focus of the fic is Qifrey's conversation with Beldaruit. We did get a conversation with Qifrey talking into his circular communication contraption(chapter 2, I believe), and this fic assumes that he was following up on a previous conversation with Beldaruit.
I tried to write Qifrey's words very deliberately. He knows how much of a slippery slope he's on by the end of Episode 1 in terms of violating the principles, but he's practically the Wise's firstborn child, and is probably the type to abuse that for leniency(yes, I'm saying Qifrey throws around nepo baby privilege but only when it involves his kids). His main concern is making sure that Coco doesn't get in trouble. He directs the conversation to talk about his own faults, and while he says everything truthfully, is leaving out certain details.
He doesn't outright tell Beldaruit about his idea of letting Coco go to the Tower of Tomes since searching for a forbidden spell probably violates some principle, but he doesn't want to outright tell Beldaruit that. It's heavily implied, and the fact that Beldaruit doesn't say anything against it means he's going along with it(since he probably knows that Qifrey tried doing the same thing after he passed his third test).
Also, Qifrey never mentions Coco's potential. He says that he thinks she'll become a great witch, but he never outright says that Coco has a lot of potential. This is because Beldaruit is a hack, and would probably poach his apprentice if given the chance(and would you look at that, he's right by the end of volume 6).
The guard briar rant I had a few days ago was definitely supposed to lead up to a scene where Qifrey would go out looking for something to guard the house with, but I'm with that one person who reblogged the post and he probably had it on his person(for reasons :))).
The spell Qifrey makes for Coco is actually something I tried making myself. It's very... scuffed, and I'm still a newborn foal when it comes to spell composition, but I'm proud of it.
You place it in an empty pillowcase, and boom! A cold air pillow to lay down on, that's constantly reapplied thanks to repetition signs.
Not too sure where to end this, so I'm gonna sign off for now. Hope you enjoyed the fic if you did read it. And even if you didn't, I hope you have a pleasant day. Don't forget to hydrate!
Do you guys wonder if Coco will ever meet people who knew her before she became a witch(other than her mom, of course), and how that conversation would play out?
Or do you think that the Knights Moralis wiped everyone's memory of Coco(could be possible but doesn't seem practical)?
I'm leaning towards the latter, but I'm not sure if the Knights could whip up a spell like that with what they have. On the other hand, if the Knights didn't mindwipe Coco's memory from the villagers, than that generates a lot of potential for angst.
It's just occurred to me that it's also possible, and likely easier, for the Knights to erase both Coco and her mother's memories from the villagers, so this post might've been just me going in circles.
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Writing a fic about the conversation with Qifrey and Beldaruit that supposedly happened during the time period in between chapters 1 and 2/episodes 1 and 2. It doesn't seem like much time passed in the anime, but I'm assuming at least four hours in between those.
Even with Shirahama's vague allusion to a Witch Gossip Social Media site(saw this mentioned on Twitter, I think Shirahama talks about it in one of their live thread reactions which leads to several more questions down the road), I don't get how news of Coco's status could spread quickly enough to reach Agott, Richeh, and Tetia.
Anyways as much as I want to dive into the nitty gritty on how witches gossip, the fic will primarily focus on that first thing...
Okay one more thing, why does Qifrey have Guard Briar seeds on his person. He uses them to guard Coco's house, but where did he get them? Consider me shocked if a shop in town both sold guard briars, and was open at whatever time in the morning this takes place in.
I've been inactive on here for a while, but I just need to talk about the newest witch hat episode. That was incredible.
Spoilers up until the Witch Hat Atelier Anime Episode 5, and then manga spoilers after the break.
I didn't realize this until after reading discussion threads, but the episode doesn't have its opening. It just drops you into it.
Coco giving Tetia her hat and lending her cloak to her was adapted really well. Plus the animation of Coco warming up next to Tetia was fun.
Richeh, best character, dropping from above the cloud "bubble" like its nothing. Can't wait for her to get more focus later on.
I'm a bit disappointed that they didn't adapt Agott's "She's operating on the assumption that she's going to fail?" realization. It really drives home the difference in mindsets between the two apprentices. One either does it perfectly or not at all, while the other does it with failure in mind.
THE SCENE WHERE THEY PLAN THE WHOLE THING WAS SO WELL DONE: Coco drawing her and everyone else beside the sleeping dragon for her point to stick, Tetia getting excited about her dream becoming a reality, Richeh marveling at the idea of how even the greatest of beings are helpless against a fluffy and warm blanket(best character btw), and Agott slowly realizing that the idea is possible, with a little compliments from the others to encourage her.
Coco reinforcing that magic is the gift that brings happiness to the world after bringing up how Qifrey told her to learn a kinder magic is the core of what this series is about. Magic is supposed to bring happiness.
Then they figure out the potential composition of such a spell, which was also a really good sequence. Actually, I'm realizing that I'll say that for the rest of this episode but you can't hold back PEAK. Anyways, the fact that a good few minutes is spent on the brainstorming session gives even more credence to the fact that these are regular people trying to solve a difficult problem.
Coco drawing a Pyreball spell correctly(pay-off from the last episode) with Tetia and Richeh being there to support her was much more satisfying than it felt in the manga. The camera panning to all of Coco's failed attempts was ahhhhhh. I'm running out of words to describe this.
Then they execute the plan, and can I just say this was the best animated sequence I've watched this year. Everything from the smoothness of the motion to the music was just breathtaking. The scene with everyone drawing each seal, then finally executing each seal back to back to back.
I was worried that the anime could never compare to the manga, but this plus Episode 3's changes add so much to the story and heart to the series.
Dragon-Disabler Cushion ftw!!! Though I do admit that Serpent's Bed of Sand is cool, and Agott should get naming rights for the foreseeable future.
Qifrey stepping(flying?) in to save Agott, then proceeds to solo a dragon and win is certainly not a good sign for everyone wishing to avoid those articles claiming that Qifrey is the strongest witch(title goes to Olly obviously /j). That was also beautifully animated by the way, the dragon turning into a flower was compensation for them not animating Qifrey drawing a water flower earlier.
Iguin you magnificent enigma, keep aura farming.
I forgot that Coco cries at the end of this arc and it made me feel a bit inside. When she looks down at everyone's muddied clothes and realizes that they went through all of this for her, then the tears start... ahhhhhhhhhhh. Qifrey did a really good job at comforting her too.
And lastly, Qifrey silencing the ED with a death stare. I hope we get more of those as the series progresses.
And now onto the spoilers for the latest manga chapters. Thanks for reading this far! Spoilers start after the break.
"Magic being the gift that brings happiness to the world" and "Magic taking away the happiness of the world" is a repeated theme throughout the series that gets explored a few times. I'm not smart enough to go into a detailed analysis on how, but it's there. We see it in the Dragon, Custas, the people of Romonon, just everything about Silver Eve... Anyways–
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON. BEWARE ANIME-ONLIES.
The way that Coco's just going through it in both anime and manga as of right now makes me think of the "What it's like reading Witch Hat Atelier" video. Suffering builds character.
I hope they continue adapting chapters with this high of a budget, but unfortunately, I don't see a justification for it until the Second Test at the soonest. And, despite what everyone seems to be saying on Twitter, I really don't think we're finishing the Second Test in Season 1, and I'm really hoping we don't get it at Season 1 at all.
Romonon deserves a whole five to six episode arc, and there isn't enough for that this season. Unless we're getting two cours this year(best case scenario), I feel like it'd be best for season 1 to adapt volumes 1 to 3(end just before Romonon) and for season 2 to adapt volumes 4 to 7(end with Chapter 40 iykyk).
I say this knowing that Euini is 100% getting introduced before the season's end thanks to the OP, so really, I'm just as clueless as everyone else and making assumptions as I go. At the end of the day, I trust Shirahama's judgement.
Don't really know how to end this off. Thanks for reading this far! Don't forget to hydrate today. Don't expect more of this.
and now it's time for the spoiler talk! Kindly finish the quest first before reading under the cut. Or don't, it's up to you.
Deleted Memories
From a lore perspective, I get why the Stellaron Hunters would tell the Dahlia to delete all our memories regarding the Swarm on Penacony. Heck, this kinda recontextualizes the Fate Collab quest since now we know that there was an existing link between the Swarm and Penacony.
But if we entered Amphoreus with the baggage of Firefly dying in front of us and the weight of what that would mean for the actual living Firefly, then it's safe to say that having those memories + all of Amphoreus's Troubles would lead to the Trailblazer leaning ever so closer to Nihility.
My big headcanon right now is that when we see the other receptacle in the middle of 3.7(the one who goes: "I trailblaze because I have not seen the end") we're seeing a Trailblazer on the verge of Nihility, a Trailblazer who didn't answer Herta-Nous' questions "correctly" which would lead to the universe not getting rebooted. I know the leading theory is that the other receptacle follows Finality, but I think Nihility is equally likely with the Stellaron Hunter's insistence on keeping us away from Nihility.
Also, idk where else to put this but the fact that Kafka gave TB, Firefly, and likely Silver Wolf, a resistance to memory tampering/deletion via her Spirit Whisper is really neat and cements my Stellaron Hunter Family dreams.
Harmony Lore Drops
SO other than Hoyo shoving the fact that we can't trust anything that happens in Penacony down our throats, and causing trust issues that will likely never be resolved... we also got some Harmony lore bombs.
And I say that literally because I did not expect Stellarons to be a "gift" of the Harmony. They definitely weren't Destruction, but I was expecting either Abundance or Propagation connections. Not the supposedly "chill" Aeon who just wants stuff to sound nice.
AND ALSO, SUNDAY BECAME AN AEON. Or rather was on track to becoming an Aeon with a NEW PATH. I can't even add much to that because that's actually baffling.
Dahlia
I saw a lot of people talk about how they wanted an "evil character" and are disappointed with how the Dahlia turned out. And I kinda get that? If a character was implied to have a trait which they didn't actually have then I'd be peeved. SO I get why there are people who don't like her.
However... I tend to not like evil characters so I was really hoping she'd be more neutral, and I'm glad that turned out to be the case. Dahlia's a fascinating character from a lore perspective. A Cremator who was a former Memokeeper, follower of the paths of Destruction, Rememberance, and potential LORD RAVAGER WHO SEEKS TO DESTROY REMEMBERANCE.
For a "Cremator," she doesn't actually seem to want to destroy other people's memories? At most, she wants to see and experience them. Her goals are mostly related to "Greed" and "having more near death experiences" if wanting to dance with Acheron is any indication.
Also, her and Black Swan's... interactions. They exist. They look like an interesting pair of former "cellmates."
Firefly
Warning: Everything before this is a somewhat coherent collection of my thoughts on 3.8. This section will be less of that.
Now, I'm a Firefly enjoyer. Have been since 2.0. She's constantly number 1 every time I've done the ranking HSR characters. I could go into an in-depth tangent about why, but that essay exists to never be posted! That being said...
FIREFLYYYYYYY. Firefly deserves so much more omfg. If she wasn't my favorite character before this quest, she'd literally SOAR to the top of my list.
Yes, I'm a weak human being who's susceptible to characters that evoke strong emotions. So not only am I hearing about Firefly's backstory and motivations again, I AM WITNESSING IT HAPPEN RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY EYES.
She wanted to try dreaming, and then she was able to dream, and then she experienced the happiest times of her life AND THEN SHE PICKED UP A SPACE BOMB AND DIEDDDDDDD. SHE DISSOLVED RIGHT IN FRONT OF US AGAIN. SHE JUST WANTED TO LIVE AN ORDINARY LIFE, AND WE'RE ONE STEP TOO LATE AGAIN. HOYOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We're likely not seeing Firefly again for a long time. I'm assuming that we're getting an Amphoreus revival way before Firefly and the Trailblazer meet face to face. But that's just speculation.
Okay this is getting way too long, I'm saving the rest for another post.
It's been a few hours since I finished playing the 3.8 trailblaze mission and, while my thoughts are still recovering, I'd like to ramble about that for a bit. So this will be mostly spoiler free, the only thing I'll be talking about are vibes.
Anyways, I thought the quest was really well-done. Though, I say that about almost every HSR patch so take that with a grain of salt. I think the writing dragged on in a few(read: a lot of) places and there were likely some last minute changes due to the "stuff" happening irl. We're getting less black screens being used as placeholders for animations, but they're still using them for transitions between scenes, oh well, you can't win them all.
The dubbing felt strange at a lot of places. There's a character who isn't voiced in EN(though they don't appear too much), and Firefly's lines felt a bit "jumpy" at certain point.
I really like how everyone's characters were expanded on. Like of course, Firefly is the big one, but Dahlia, Robin, and a lot of other characters I'll mention in my spoilers post.
I think Hoyo does an alright job in addressing the unasked questions. Like, they probably didn't think of this back in 2.x, so I think they did okay fleshing it out here but... Okay I have one big unasked question that I'll probably wait for the loretubers to address.
Anyways, go play the quest if you haven't already!
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I wanted to break my writing block by doing a character study fic with Castorice, but Hyacine has somehow made her way into this and is looking like a secondary focus character more and more.
She was not in the original plan(a plan that only existed in my head but point stands) at all, she just showed up in my work in progress and declared that Ica and she would be part of this whether I want it to or not.
Actually, Cipher was the original demigod I expected to pair up with Casto, but I couldn't find anything in Castorice's profile that linked that two. At least, not something I'm willing to explore right now. I'm definitely pairing the two up in a different fic.
I'll get more into the Hyacine and Castorice stuff if I actually get to writing the fic.
It's so important to me that Amphoreus is a story about and sustained by love that chooses self-love - the ego - as its final conclusion and starting point. Phainon, whose deep love for others was the fuel for a destructive hatred, stepping into the epilogue having let go of that obsession and slowly beginning to nurture wishes that are finally his own. Cyrene, fractured into shattered memories, finding hope in telling a story that she loved to herself and in doing so, allowing herself to fall in love with the forgotten storyteller in turn. When they learned how to extend that boundless love to themselves, they disproved the Scepter's answer to the prime mover of life - not hatred, not destruction, not lament nor sorrow. A being who was made to embody hatred found peace in letting go of his rage and despair. A being whose essence was lament found beauty in partings and endings.
Amphoreus is a story that loves itself, and asks you to love it in turn. It's a story that loves you, and asks you to love yourself in turn.
i want to talk about 3.7 and why it makes more sense and is happier than you may think
i'm seeing soooo many misconceptions and straight up confusion about the end of amphoreus, and really i don't blame anyone because hoyoverse presented it in some of the worst ways possible. so i thought i'd share my main takeaways and interpretations, and hopefully it can help someone piece this mess together better than before :) it really is simpler than you think it is - a season 2 episode of my little pony: friendship is magic tackled this very same core concept! and much more succinctly than hoyoverse could lmfao
but first of all, when i opened twitter upon finishing the quest, i saw several people saying things like "so the chrysos heirs are just forced to do the 33550336 cycles all over again? what was the point" which would be a great question, if that's what happened. but it's not. cyrene didn't restart amphoreus in the present; she literally regressed into the past - and i'm really going to emphasize this part, because this similarity is huge - the same way terminus does. the only future she sacrificed was her own.
(continued under the cut because this is a bit long!!)
in the present and future, the other chrysos heirs, INCLUDING PHAINON, still have the chance to be reborn. they won't be confined to amphoreus's simulated skies. they're just "seeds" for now, but they are already so much more than experimental programs stuck inside a scepter. cyrene, however, must return to the past and become the next strand of the mobius strip that is amphoreus, so irontomb cannot complete its self-coronation in the past / an alternate timeline. because if it EVER does that, it won't just be that past / alternate timeline's problem.
irontomb dismantles all the known and unknown logic of the universe, which includes time itself. its coronation won't cause some other timeline to self-implode while the timeline all of our favorite characters (minus cyrene) currently reside in continues along its merry way. the (already rather nebulous...) boundaries of time would break, and irontomb would then be able to reach out and destroy even the iterations of the universe where it was defeated. every past, present, future, and possibility - irontomb can wipe out everything, and then no one would have a chance at a future, least of all the chrysos heirs. that's why it's the most terrifying concept this game has put out so far, in my opinion. it needs only one success, while the rest of the universe needs an unfathomable number of them.
but as long as cyrene / demiurge / cyrene keeps making the same choice, irontomb will stay dead. and she will keep making that choice, for as long as it needs to be made.
and now let me say those last 9 words again. for as long as it needs to be made.
honkai star rail's entire universe is obviously in one big kinda messy timeloop, but the intent isn't that shit is going to happen the same way over and over forever and ever so nothing really matters. the universal loops occurring aren't perfect retracings. they're more like... a spirograph!
many of the lines overlap and intersect, but something new is created with every pass of the pen. or in other words, every time the universe loops it finds a new ending and beginning. the permanent end to all things gets pushed a little further away. (or maybe sometimes it gets brought even closer, who knows?)
and maybe it's futile. maybe it'll always end in self-implosion. maybe the only way out of this spiraling cave is to welcome total destruction, like lygus hypothesized. but here's what he didn't fully understand: struggling against the inevitable is just kinda... what life does.
this struggle is life's ultimate folly, and it's also what makes life so beautiful. like, we'll all always die, but the solution isn't to jump headfirst into a coffin in some weird roundabout attempt to overcome it. the solution is to live anyway... and this should start to sound a little familiar, because acheron has already explained it.
but my point is: these loops the hsr universe is undergoing aren't stagnant. things shift every time. new paths are forged. maybe there will come a day when the spirograph finally breaks and life is free to scribble as aimlessly as it pleases. and maybe one day, cyrene's own personal loop will come to an end. maybe amphoreus won't need her to keep irontomb dead, and she'll be able to step towards the future instead of returning to the past.
or maybe she won't. and maybe the spirograph will never break. but!!!!! i'm inclined to think this isn't the conclusion hsr wants to build up to.
aaaaand this is where that my little pony episode comes in 😉 season 2, episode 20, it's about time.
twilight sparkle is visited by her future self. her future self is disheveled and has an urgent message to pass on, but she's sucked back to her own present before she can get it all out
twilight, having very little to go off of, assumes that her future self was attempting to warn her about some horrible disaster so she can prevent it. so she goes into meltdown mode for a week, frantically repairing and reinforcing every little thing she can think of and monitoring EVERYTHING. as the week progresses, she gets more and more panicked because everything she does leaves marks on her - marks identical to the disheveled state of her future self. and then the day of her assumed-disaster comes and literally nothing happens.
relieved, she decides to use a spell to travel back in time and tell herself not to worry so much. it's not until she returns to the present that she realizes that was the "urgent" message her future self was trying to give her all along. it had nothing to do with a disaster. she sent herself into a panic for no reason!
... or did she?
because there had to be an original twilight sparkle who started this loop. one that came from a future wherein she didn't spend ages obsessively fixing and monitoring everything that could possibly go wrong in equestria.
so we can reasonably assume that there was a genuine apocalyptic event (presumably worse than the ones actually shown in the show). once. but this loop has been part of twilight's life for god knows how long, and during the loop that this episode showcases, that disaster just... isn't a real possibility anymore. it was prevented a long time ago.
now, twilight's loop is simply a bit of self-induced panic and the only consequences are a bad haircut and maybe an itty bitty concussion for her. since the loop has evolved to be this harmless, we can also assume it will eventually fizzle out. eventually, pinkie pie will present twilight with the spell scroll she needs to travel back in time and she just won't feel the need to. now this could bring back the original disaster that very first time traveling twilight sparkle was trying to prevent, or an entirely new, unheard of path could be forged in the space-time continuum. who knows?
but this concept is the potentiality i imagine is in the cards for cyrene, so even she's not entirely doomed. her future may take another few eternities to reach, but there's still something waiting for her... a life of her own, completely free of the scepter. there's always hope, and there's always a new path to be drawn. and the effort of hope - of living and loving - is always worth it, even if we can only nudge the pen along by an inch or two every few centuries. i think that's ultimately what amphoreus was trying to say.
Thank you, Op. I really love this conclusion since it does Cyrene's character justice while still giving me the hopium I need for an "Everybody Lives" situation. Maybe in that one stray pen stroke eternities away, Cyrene and TB are able to completely prevent Irontomb from ever forming.
Although, I am curious if the spirograph idea could actually apply to the entire hsr universe instead of just amphoreous.
the spirograph concept is meant to apply to the entirety of the hsr universe, yes!! exotale: scene 8 shows us several infinitely worse possibilities caused by the astral express going somewhere other than amphoreus, but i don't think those are just possibilities. i think they are genuine points of finality that terminus has witnessed, and that's why elio is able to perceive them at all. the stellaron hunters' overall goal is to force a new line to be drawn in the universe's spirograph
but anyway, it's really important to me that more hope is infused into cyrene's story. hsr is an extremely positive, hopeful, and loving story. even as it explores the darker sides of life and society, it's primarily focused on how we can overcome that darkness. so it's strange to think that cyrene would come to such a miserable dead end... completely contradicts the Point of this game. and with important concepts like karma floating around too, why would the love she's given so freely not eventually come back to her? like there's no way
something else i was thinking about the other day that didn't make it into this post is cyrene's nature as an ever-evolving AI. it's entirely possible that she'll continue to grow and learn and adapt even as she goes through her past again and again. because like, we learn and make new connections even while reviewing information we already know, yeah? she may not need stelle, or anyone or anything else from the universe beyond. she could just figure out how to close the causalty loop on her own and reclaim her future (i would prefer this tbh)
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i want to talk about 3.7 and why it makes more sense and is happier than you may think
i'm seeing soooo many misconceptions and straight up confusion about the end of amphoreus, and really i don't blame anyone because hoyoverse presented it in some of the worst ways possible. so i thought i'd share my main takeaways and interpretations, and hopefully it can help someone piece this mess together better than before :) it really is simpler than you think it is - a season 2 episode of my little pony: friendship is magic tackled this very same core concept! and much more succinctly than hoyoverse could lmfao
but first of all, when i opened twitter upon finishing the quest, i saw several people saying things like "so the chrysos heirs are just forced to do the 33550336 cycles all over again? what was the point" which would be a great question, if that's what happened. but it's not. cyrene didn't restart amphoreus in the present; she literally regressed into the past - and i'm really going to emphasize this part, because this similarity is huge - the same way terminus does. the only future she sacrificed was her own.
(continued under the cut because this is a bit long!!)
in the present and future, the other chrysos heirs, INCLUDING PHAINON, still have the chance to be reborn. they won't be confined to amphoreus's simulated skies. they're just "seeds" for now, but they are already so much more than experimental programs stuck inside a scepter. cyrene, however, must return to the past and become the next strand of the mobius strip that is amphoreus, so irontomb cannot complete its self-coronation in the past / an alternate timeline. because if it EVER does that, it won't just be that past / alternate timeline's problem.
irontomb dismantles all the known and unknown logic of the universe, which includes time itself. its coronation won't cause some other timeline to self-implode while the timeline all of our favorite characters (minus cyrene) currently reside in continues along its merry way. the (already rather nebulous...) boundaries of time would break, and irontomb would then be able to reach out and destroy even the iterations of the universe where it was defeated. every past, present, future, and possibility - irontomb can wipe out everything, and then no one would have a chance at a future, least of all the chrysos heirs. that's why it's the most terrifying concept this game has put out so far, in my opinion. it needs only one success, while the rest of the universe needs an unfathomable number of them.
but as long as cyrene / demiurge / cyrene keeps making the same choice, irontomb will stay dead. and she will keep making that choice, for as long as it needs to be made.
and now let me say those last 9 words again. for as long as it needs to be made.
honkai star rail's entire universe is obviously in one big kinda messy timeloop, but the intent isn't that shit is going to happen the same way over and over forever and ever so nothing really matters. the universal loops occurring aren't perfect retracings. they're more like... a spirograph!
many of the lines overlap and intersect, but something new is created with every pass of the pen. or in other words, every time the universe loops it finds a new ending and beginning. the permanent end to all things gets pushed a little further away. (or maybe sometimes it gets brought even closer, who knows?)
and maybe it's futile. maybe it'll always end in self-implosion. maybe the only way out of this spiraling cave is to welcome total destruction, like lygus hypothesized. but here's what he didn't fully understand: struggling against the inevitable is just kinda... what life does.
this struggle is life's ultimate folly, and it's also what makes life so beautiful. like, we'll all always die, but the solution isn't to jump headfirst into a coffin in some weird roundabout attempt to overcome it. the solution is to live anyway... and this should start to sound a little familiar, because acheron has already explained it.
but my point is: these loops the hsr universe is undergoing aren't stagnant. things shift every time. new paths are forged. maybe there will come a day when the spirograph finally breaks and life is free to scribble as aimlessly as it pleases. and maybe one day, cyrene's own personal loop will come to an end. maybe amphoreus won't need her to keep irontomb dead, and she'll be able to step towards the future instead of returning to the past.
or maybe she won't. and maybe the spirograph will never break. but!!!!! i'm inclined to think this isn't the conclusion hsr wants to build up to.
aaaaand this is where that my little pony episode comes in 😉 season 2, episode 20, it's about time.
twilight sparkle is visited by her future self. her future self is disheveled and has an urgent message to pass on, but she's sucked back to her own present before she can get it all out
twilight, having very little to go off of, assumes that her future self was attempting to warn her about some horrible disaster so she can prevent it. so she goes into meltdown mode for a week, frantically repairing and reinforcing every little thing she can think of and monitoring EVERYTHING. as the week progresses, she gets more and more panicked because everything she does leaves marks on her - marks identical to the disheveled state of her future self. and then the day of her assumed-disaster comes and literally nothing happens.
relieved, she decides to use a spell to travel back in time and tell herself not to worry so much. it's not until she returns to the present that she realizes that was the "urgent" message her future self was trying to give her all along. it had nothing to do with a disaster. she sent herself into a panic for no reason!
... or did she?
because there had to be an original twilight sparkle who started this loop. one that came from a future wherein she didn't spend ages obsessively fixing and monitoring everything that could possibly go wrong in equestria.
so we can reasonably assume that there was a genuine apocalyptic event (presumably worse than the ones actually shown in the show). once. but this loop has been part of twilight's life for god knows how long, and during the loop that this episode showcases, that disaster just... isn't a real possibility anymore. it was prevented a long time ago.
now, twilight's loop is simply a bit of self-induced panic and the only consequences are a bad haircut and maybe an itty bitty concussion for her. since the loop has evolved to be this harmless, we can also assume it will eventually fizzle out. eventually, pinkie pie will present twilight with the spell scroll she needs to travel back in time and she just won't feel the need to. now this could bring back the original disaster that very first time traveling twilight sparkle was trying to prevent, or an entirely new, unheard of path could be forged in the space-time continuum. who knows?
but this concept is the potentiality i imagine is in the cards for cyrene, so even she's not entirely doomed. her future may take another few eternities to reach, but there's still something waiting for her... a life of her own, completely free of the scepter. there's always hope, and there's always a new path to be drawn. and the effort of hope - of living and loving - is always worth it, even if we can only nudge the pen along by an inch or two every few centuries. i think that's ultimately what amphoreus was trying to say.
Thank you, Op. I really love this conclusion since it does Cyrene's character justice while still giving me the hopium I need for an "Everybody Lives" situation. Maybe in that one stray pen stroke eternities away, Cyrene and TB are able to completely prevent Irontomb from ever forming.
Although, I am curious if the spirograph idea could actually apply to the entire hsr universe instead of just amphoreous.
So I actually finished Amphoreus(feels weird typing that out) yesterday. I'll start by saying that I cried my eyes out several times during the quest. And then the animated short played and it left me in shambles. It's just an extremely bittersweet ending.
We won. Amphoreus is saved in As I've Written and will probably be an actual planet soon. Heck, Khaslana will be remembered as a key player in history. As soon as I opened the game today, I immediately got a message from Castorice which I assume means that the rest of the heirs are fine somewhere.
But Cyrene...
A lot of people would probably hate what they did with her character(I must admit, I'm a little confused in some parts), but what an ending/beginning. The divide between "our Cyrene" and "the original Cyrene" is nonexistent(well practically nonexistent, she's the same person with memory shenanigans). She simply is Cyrene, the Ripples of Past Reverie, the Seed of Memory, Mem.
I have a few negative thoughts about it all, but I'd rather not spread more negativity if I could help it. Yes, the story's not perfect, it's not what everyone was looking for. But I liked it more than I disliked it, and that's what matters to me.
