#bannerfall analysis

From an Art Historian

Hi! It's me again! You may remember me from my long post about Vampires SMP clothing. I'm back!

While I was admiring the model of the new weapon Bf!Cherri got I started thinking about how she was using swords to train but once she got her costume one she was not bearing any sword but a riposte.

Because esentially it says A LOT about her character.

Ripostes are born in Spain during the Renaissance as Espadas Roperas, and they are mainly popular swords used for self defense and to duel. These weapons were made for the upper clases and could be seen hanging from the clothes of noblemen (this is what gaves it its name Ropa=Clothes Ropera). So esentially not only were this to be used as weapons but accesories, another way to show decorum (Decorum is dignified behaviour, following the rules ser by society.)

The rapier quickly became famous across Europe and it naturally evolved as time went on to ensure a more secure and efficient practice of dueling.

Battling also evolved and as new variations of the rapier were made some hybrids were create inserting the rapier into battle and becoming it a weapon beyond civic purposes.

Rapiers are generally light and one meter long (around 3ft), the main difference is in the Hilt, going from swirls meant to stop enemy attacks to full coverage of the hand.

I think a Rapier is the best weapon for Bf!Cherri, they were made for dueling, a sport for the rich, or need be, in self defense.

Bf!Cherri needed to study and control her powers but she was never going to fight, she is a princess, she was always meant to stay back and be protected and taken care of not be on the front lines, her training was just in case but (and I don't know much about Soluna this is mostly a historic perspective) mostly it could've been for show, to perpetuate the image of the Royal Family of Soluna bearers of the flame.

Then in Bannerfall she grew, just like the Rapier, she was forced to change and she did. Made herself into something useful, ready to be on the attack not merely a piece of decoration but a weapon.

(this is kind of all over the place but like I needed to get my thoughts down)

So firstly, Bek writing herself as a needle is already really interesting, because at first you think it's normal, her weapon as a knight correlates to the point of the needle. It portrays her purpose as violence but also shows that her presence is insignificant and that she sees herself as unimportant and small. The metaphor of Eloise being fabric and Bek being the needle also shows that Bek is building Eloise up, but has the potential to break her.

Taking this into consideration, let's go line by line.

Because for all that Nom knows that he needs Scott & he doesn't want to hurt him, I don't think he's ever really fully registered that he is the load bearing relationship in Scott Springwell's life. & I have a lot to say (in another post someday maybe) about the sheer number of times Scott has expressed to Nom how much he means to him, how much he cares about him, how much He Cannot Lose Him, & how those words, much less their weight, ever seem to register for Nom. &, to be fair, Scott doesn't press it. He doesn't insist Nom understand just what he's saying & how much it means; he usually lets the conversation slide past the subject or changes tacts because, well, he cannot lose Nom, & he is terrified of asking anything much from Nom because that might result in losing him.

& unfortunately, the extent of Scott's tenuous relationship with the will to live has gotten lost on Nom as well, because it was during a conversation where he was expressing how much he cared about Nom & when Nom slid past the implications & the weight, Scott didn't press.

So Nom's been viewing his increasing likelihood of death as affecting Scott much as it would affect Katie, 4C, & Mae: they will be hurt, they will be sad, it will destroy them at first, but they will recover, they will learn to keep living, they will learn to miss him without it freezing them with sorrow.

But to be honest, since Nom suggested Scott order an attack on Red & his death was put in Scott's mind as a more imminent possibility, I have not had much trust that Scott would be around long enough to learn to miss him without being crushed. I don't have much faith that Scott would be around long enough for there to even be the slightest ebb in the pain. It has been apparent to me for ages that if Nom dies, Scott is likely following in very short order.

So today we get to see Nom try to have the same sort of talk with Scott he had with Katie & Mae & 4C.

But instead of Scott Springwell who will be hurt by Nom dying, but who is reasonable & rational & even, Nom is going to be talking to Scott Springwell who has lost both of his parents, one within the last couple months, after barely over two decades of life; Scott Springwell who blames himself for both of their deaths, who felt he had allowed the two people who mattered to him in the world to die; Scott Springwell who tried to get so lost in the woods on his way back from his father's deathbed that the forest would just take his life from him because what value does it have; Scott Springwell who only bothered to return & keep existing because Pyro made him realize he had things worth returning for, a family that he could build, home he could create, because if nothing else, he had Nom back in Blue, & that made it worth it.

Scott Springwell who yesterday faced evidence that it did not matter how much he prepared for the worst, it could still happen anyway; Scott Springwell who now knows that none of his healing magic affects the creaking corruption in Nom at all; Scott Springwell who is hanging on by the single linen thread that is Nom being there, being alive, & who cannot suppress how upset he is, who is losing his careful control over his emotions & how much of them he shows.

I watched both Scott and I'm catching up on Nom, but not nearly as analytically as I watch Owen, so some things might be a bit off

I don't have any big reasoning to not like it. I don't even have any passionate feelings about it such as hating it. In fact, I avoid it completely. Like I blocked the flowersmith tag on Tumblr and excluded it when looking at Bannerfall fics on AO3. I'd say I'm bored by it if anything. It feels so predictable and somehow simultaneously doesn't align with the characters.

I simply like them more as platonic and find most romantic interpretations water down both characters, but especially Scott. Relationships don't have to be romantic to be meaningful and/or complex. I'd even go so far as to say that it is almost always more impactful if a relationship is as complex as Scott and Nom's and has that ambiguity of romantic v. platonic and stills turns out to be platonic or even none existent in the end.

There's also the fact that I just don't see them working in a romantic context further than a few months. They are so fundamentally different and have very different moral lines that it would almost mischaracterize or completely rewrite one of them to make it work long term.

(I have never reposted anything before so this might be a bit janky)

So, I might be reading this wrong and getting the wrong impressions, but about 4c not communicating with the people around him... wouldn't it make sense that he doesn't when they've already proven that they won't listen to him? They ignore his dislike and trauma from the froglights, how he continues to protest about it until he stops. From what I've seen of the clips, people don't really believe him about the god interactions beyond the two times they've seen him disappear and even then it doesn't feel like they're taking his panic or the situations seriously. So why would they listen to when he talks about his culture, or why he does the things he does, or even picking up that he might not be fully understanding them (leaning into common/English not being his first language headcanon) when they've already proven that they won't listen to him anyways, but will both hold him to their human (or even elf -maybe) standards and treat him like a resource and not worthy of the basic respect they give to each other

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(Kiryak)

theory about what bf!4c’s chara could symbolise

I have done a lot of thinking about this and one thing I’ve come to realise, especially after the talk about the frog lights with Cam and Shan, is what bf!4C could be mirroring.

Now before i get on with my analysis let’s take a look at the current political climate of the western world. (Read if you want, it gets deep into politics, but it will help you understand better) In the USA, under the trump administration, there is an organisation commonly know as ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). What this organisation should be doing is patrolling the borders of the US and making sure people without a citizenship or permit don’t enter the country, but unfortunately that’s not what they have been doing. ICE has instead been raiding, arresting and attacking people who most of the time are not violent criminals, targeting non-white and people of lower class. In the other side of the world in eastern Europe, specifically Greece, Cyprus and Türkiye. Who are geographically at the crossroads between Europe, Africa and Asia and closest to some of the most active war zones and being an easy access in Europe. A lot of people have come to seek refuge there, from Palestine, Libya, Syria, Iran, Ukraine, and Israel. Usually people from the countries in the mediterranean come to Greece, Cyprus and Türkiye with boats in the stormy weather this season putting themself in a lot of danger. When Refugees arrive, and if they do, they are treated as dirty, uneducated, cheap labour, poor, different, foreign, objects, less.

Don’t tell my other asks I’m answering this first even though it was sent 10 minutes ago and I still have some from the beginning of April.

So. Owain is pretty autistic, I don’t think that can be any more canon unless OwengeJuiceTV himself said it was true. That being said, as far as I’m aware, there’s two main ways autistic people deal with conversing and that’s the way you described and then there’s intense eye contact that is too much and makes people uncomfortable. Personally, I think Owain would be the latter with certain people. Specifically with monarchs and enemies.

However! I think with anyone who isn’t in a higher position than him, an enemy, or he doesn’t know very well, he would look away, but never down. Looking down would be like submitting and he would not do that to someone who hasn’t earned it.

However, however! There’s a select group—Shan, Mae, and Kitty—he would look towards the ground. Owain trusts them enough to not be alert the entire time he’s with them, but he doesn’t have a fearful-respect of them like he does with a monarch.