Conclusion: Dinosaurs

These are the main things I want to go over:

The actual Qian trigram

His design

The information we've been given so far

This is gonna be long, so all my rambling's under the cut.

Karlach 🔥

As an architecture student, I was fascinated by how Backrooms turned architectural psychology into horror.

A lot of people say there wasn't enough horror because there wasn't a monster constantly chasing the characters and because there's no jumpscares, but I don't think they realize the monster was the architecture itself. And also, it's a psychological thriller and borderline horror. There's a difference. Grow up.

The film uses things we rely on to orient ourselves in space like landmarks, hierarchy, rhythm, daylight, scale, and spatial memory, then removes them or distorts them.

1. That's why Casino's don't have windows. It keeps you occupied and lose track of time. They literally distort your perception of time.

2. That's why shopping malls have looping layouts so you're forced to explore around. Like IKEA, you're psychologically “led” through a curated sequence, minimizing shortcuts and maximizing exposure to products.

3. That's why theme parks have carefully hidden service areas, controlled sightlines, immersive “world bubbles" to make you mentally stay inside a narrative environment where outside cues are eliminated.

But with Backrooms, it's manipulation of space and time and everything. All your senses are manipulated. Every room feels slightly familiar but never fully readable, so your brain keeps trying to build a mental map and failing.

What makes it scary isn't what is in the space, but what the space does to the mind. Humans constantly construct cognitive maps to understand where we are, but Backrooms breaks that process.

The circulation goes nowhere, the repetition erases reference points, and the environment sits in that unsettling zone between recognition and alienation. It creates disorientation, isolation, and paranoia without needing anything supernatural.

That is also why the concept went viral. Liminal spaces, dreamcore, whatever you call it. It feels endless, familiar yet unfamiliar, and deeply convincing in its emptiness. The suspense comes from thinking something else must be there with you, even when there is nothing. That uncertainty is the horror.

Adding paranormal elements often weakens it, because the original fear already comes from space itself, not from what might be inside it.

Hell, even the shot of Mary's "neighborhood" fucked me up because it looks exactly like the ones we see online and how it looks unoccupied.

Backrooms is really just architecture and human perception turned into a mechanism of fear.

You have been turned into this type of mermaid!!

Ship Tournament, Round 1 — Match 17 / 30

Halsin/Minthara

"the archdruid whose whole early story is tied to protecting the grove and the drow paladin who literally leads the attack on it. there is no world where this starts normal. but also?? they’re both leaders who have had their lives wrecked by forces bigger than them. halsin carries guilt like it’s a job requirement, and minthara has been used by the absolute, discarded by lolth’s world, and left with nothing except her own will. i think they would understand each other’s stubbornness before they understood anything else."

"They have really interesting tension because they both have very strong ideas about survival, but they come from completely different moral ecosystems. Halsin believes in restoration, community, healing what has been damaged. Minthara believes in power, discipline, loyalty once earned, and never trusting safety when it’s offered too easily. The fun of the ship is that neither of them would fold quickly. Halsin would not be charmed into excusing her cruelty, and Minthara would not suddenly become nice because a large sad druid looked at her with patient eyes. It would be slow, difficult, and full of arguments where both of them land hits because they’re annoyingly perceptive."

vs. Gale/Karlach

"they are both walking around with magical death devices in their chests trying to act like they’re fine about it. like sorry but the orb + infernal engine parallels are RIGHT there. two people who know what it feels like to have their own body turned into a countdown, still trying to be funny and useful and lovable through it."

"wizard who says “erm actually” x barbarian who can throw him over her shoulder when he gets too sad"

"gale: ah. a fascinating infernal mechanism, volatile but magnificent, housed within an equally magnificent— karlach: you’re staring at my tits, aren’t you gale: i was going to say “warrior,” actually, but now i fear the moment has rather escaped me anyway they’re both hot, doomed, funny, too willing to die for other people, and desperately in need of someone who will yell “NO MARTYRING” across camp. ship of all time."

Ship Tournament, Round 1 — Match 18 / 30

Shadowheart/Wyll

"I really like the Selunite Shadowheart version of this especially. Wyll’s whole thing is trying to be good even after being punished for it, and Shadowheart’s is trying to find herself after a goddess spent years cutting pieces away from her. They’d both understand what it’s like to have someone powerful claim ownership over your choices. There’s something soft in the idea of them post-game, maybe in Baldur’s Gate, trying to build something ordinary after all that divine/devil nonsense. Shadowheart with her animals and flowers, Wyll with his stories and dancing and stupidly earnest compliments. They’d still have scars, obviously, but I think they’d be careful with each other in a way that feels really earned."

vs. Gale/Halsin

"halsin would love tara. this is important. gale brings his tressym around and halsin is immediately respectful because obviously this is a creature of dignity and strong opinions. tara approves of him faster than she approves of most people"

"Gale is so domestic when he lets himself be. He cooks, he tells stories, he wants to be loved in a way that feels steady instead of worshipful. Halsin has this grounded, physical tenderness that I think would be really good for him. He’d remind Gale that being alive is already enough work some days."

Gale and Halsin are both curious, intelligent people with extremely different forms of magic. I can pretty easily see Gale being curious about druidic magic because here's a type of magic he doesn't know, and spending time with Halsin while they talk over their respective disciplines. They've both been lonely - Gale's just had an entire year of isolation, but even before that he was set apart from all others by dint of being Mystra's Chosen, and Halsin outright says he hasn't been able to really confide in anyone since at least the Shadow Curse, having to wear the mantle of the Strong Archdruid Leader. They're both used to being looked up to, they're not used to having a confidante.

Then, there's the physical side. So many, if not all of Gale's intimate experiences have been astral and disembodied and Perfect(tm), whereas Halsin in particular relishes doing things 'as nature intended'. I think it'd genuinely blow Gale's mind being with someone who appreciates and wants him and his actual physical body, and all the sweat and dirt and hairiness and messy mortality that comes with it. And he'd be into it too - the whole 'I like your musk' thing, because Mystra was Perfect(tm) and actual physical intimacy with someone like Halsin reminds him that he's with someone who's alive and real and wants him as he is. He doesn't have to be a Chosen or a God, he's not just being valued for his magic, he can just be himself.

There's also the great contrast between the very cultured city man and the wild druid! They could balance each other out, I think. Halsin takes Gale on a nature walk and shows him things he's never seen before, like chrysalises and the way rainwater has eroded at rocks and the sound of wild birds, and Gale takes Halsin to the theatre and his favourite bookstores and Halsin leaves with a bag of books that Gale can't even lift.

We have Kea, Kākā, Kākāpō, and Kākāriki (of which there are 3 species).

Kākā are more olive brown than green but are really neat and beautiful birds and are growing in numbers thanks to conservation efforts.

Kea are mostly green with red underwings and b will pickpocket you, but then again so will weka. The bit about them stopping traffic is absolutely true - I have a friend who has witnessed this.

Kākāpō are, in the words of my ecology professor, “really bad at being parrots”. They suck, but endearingly so. They are so bad at being alive and climbing things and reproducing but you cannot help but love them. Again, they are green, but in a shambling moss pile sort of way.

Kākāriki are much smaller and are kept as pets internationally. The three kinds are the red crowned, the yellow crowned and the orange fronted. Of these, the latter is the rarest (currently critically endangered).

There are also several other species endemic to various outlying islands. We have, in total, nine surviving endemic parrot species and several subspecies of those.

Ship Tournament, Round 1 — Match 19 / 30

Barcus/Zanner

"Barcus deserves a very nice guy after the shitshow that was Wulbren and Zanner is a very nice man 🙏 that's it that's the propaganda"

"Barcus needs to move on from Wulbren, Zanner is a single dad to Obelia. While discussing the intricacies of the new alliance between the Ironhands and the Gondians, they find something new spark."

vs. Dammon/Rolan

N/A

Ship Tournament, Round 1 — Match 16 / 30

Lae'zel/Vlaakith

"Come onnnn the toxic devotion. Lae'zel has dialogue calling Vlaakith alluring. Vlaakith calls her "my Lae'zel". All powerful lich queen Desperate to get this one githyanki who holds her fate in her hands back on side. Lae'zel's worshipped her all her life and wants her attention and approval sooo much. it would be so fucked up."

vs. Blurg/Omeluum

"They're married, they just haven't actually realised it yet. "For some reason, I just feel HAPPIER around Omeluum." Pookie you're smitten."

...

The Dusty on my shoulder: you should kill them

Me: say no more

You, seeing a thing that's making you mad: what would Ry do?

The Ry on your shoulder: it's not worth being mad about, you should move on

The Dusty on your other shoulder: or maybe you could kill them

...

The Dusty on my shoulder: you should kill them

Me: say no more

You, seeing a thing that's making you mad: what would Ry do?

The Ry on your shoulder: it's not worth being mad about, you should move on

The Dusty on your other shoulder: or maybe you could kill them