#indigobackfire

Hm, hold on, let me listen to it…

Ok, first of all, this is a pretty dope song. I’d probably hear it sooner or later, but thank you for telling me about it earlier. I really like it ❤

Secondly, to be completely honest, I don’t think Rakepick would come to my mind if you didn’t tell me that… But to be fair, I think it’s mostly because I knew from the start that it’s from the new Hunger Games, and while I didn’t read “The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” yet, I did watch some spoiler videos, so I pretty much now the story – and I simply can’t not think of Lucy Gray when I hear this song. On the other hand, I can also see why it does make you think of Rakepick. Because... yeah, it does have the vibes. And you know what? I saw your message when I was in bed already, so I didn’t check the song right away, but I was like: “Hm, Rakepick and Katniss are kinda similar…”. Of course, not quite in personality, but like… the theme? And I say Katniss because, from what I gathered, Katniss and Lucy Gray have that type of similarity, too, so I guess I’m putting them all in one group.

Ok, so I think it’s mainly about the fact that Rakepick is a rebel. Personally, I’d say it’s one of her core characteristics. Remember when we asked Snape about her school years and he was like: “She was a danger to everyone at Hogwarts and the very principle upon which this school was built”? Sure, he was probably being dramatic because he is Snape, but I don’t think he was just being dramatic. Then we had those moments implying that she had a beef with the Ministry, and while she was not disrespectful about Dumbledore, I wouldn’t call her very respectful either. Finally, we have her whole relationship with R – and to be clear, I’m talking about Rakepick’s story before it was ruined by JC.  I mean, let’s take the letter we found in Y4.

To me, “final warning” means there were warnings before that one. Moreover, it had to be sent in the past. And where Patty was at the time we found that letter? At Hogwarts, searching for the Cursed Vaults. It actually kinda fits the chorus of the song:

But I'm in the trees, I'm in the breeze My footsteps on the ground You'll see my face in every place But you can't catch me now

There’s just something very “uncatchable” about Rakepick indeed. Also, this idea of being ever-present actually goes along with her role in the story, imo. How she’s being mentioned in Y2 already, how she ties it all together and whatnot.

Also, not directly connected to the song, but you know how the main Hunger Games series is all about Katniss's willingness to sacrifice for Prim?

I still claim that she was genuine at that moment because it was way too late for any attempts at manipulating MC. And I do think that sacrifice was meant to play a much bigger role in Patty’s story overall.

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pre-match trash talk takes a wrong turn when one of the Gryffindors crosses the line in making fun of Freyja’s teammates.

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Maybe if the writers put that on their earphones and close their eyes they'd be reminded of the vibes the siblings were supposed to have.

Oh, I absolutely agree! “Brother Theme” is so amazing! I mean, to be fair, I have to say that HPHM music is pretty good in general, but this one piece is simply another level.

Sadly, I’m afraid your suggestion might not work either way. It seems that JC turned it into a generic emotional music theme. I don’t mind it being used for Rowan, but I didn’t really like it being used in Chiara’s TLSQ, and I absolutely hated it being used for Peregrine. And sadly, I’m not talking only about meeting Perry – the theme was also played when this piece of shit fell off the bridge.

*sigh*

It really is a shame that it lost its significance. But as you pointed out, the relationship between the siblings lost its original character, too. Hell, now that I think about it, it actually became quite insignificant as well. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not really gonna complain about it – the less Fugly Slut is in the game, the better. But at the same time, it just feels sad that Jacob simply… doesn’t feel important anymore, in my opinion. Do you know he wasn’t even mentioned in the chapter about MC’s graduation? I suppose it’s because he’s at the hospital and whatnot, but damn, they could’ve at least given us a short scene where he sends us a letter with congratulations or something. Jacob Ellis would have to be dead to not be there for Helena on a day like this.

But oh well, I guess.

I think a lot of these media/game developers think they can simply rely on the brand Harry Potter and just spew any half assed stories with the cover of 'ohh spells and references'. I don't even have nostalgia for anything and it makes me sad to see it watered down to the technicalities of the world and not the story that lies in its core.

But capitalism I guess.

Anyway, I took so long to listen to Eat Your Young and oh my, what a bop! Why does Hozier use such a sexy voice to sing the horrors??? I truly hadn't heard him in interview in a while so when I heard Through Me, I got whiplash. While Scottish still my darling accent, Normal People gave me an appreciation for Irish accent.

Well, those were just some random meanderings. I hope you're doing well 💖 *virtual hug*

Hello, Bee! It’s really good to hear from you! ☺

I’m gonna be honest, I’m actively not following information on Hogwarts Legacy, so I can’t really comment on that. I have a vague idea about the plot thanks to my friend who’s more interested in it, but she also said that the story is rather bleak overall. So... there’s that, I guess. But as I said, I don’t know enough to give my opinion.

That being said, I do want to comment on your thought about “abusing” the HP brand because… yeah, that’s true. Well, sort of. Because, for example, I still believe that HPHM wasn’t just about that at the very beginning. I do think that Matt London and his team created this story with some level of passion. Were they also hoping for easy money? Yeah, probably. But it seems that they cared about something more, too. Sadly, at this point, HPHM became what you’re describing: a half assed story with the cover of 'ohh spells and references'. And I hate to say it, but I also think that the fans are partially responsible for that.

I mean, I remember seeing people being like: “Oh I can’t wait when HPMA/HL comes out, so I can leave this shitty game (HPHM)”. And I was always like… You don’t HAVE TO play this game if you don’t enjoy it. I feel like this mentality was actually quite common at some point, especially on Reddit, at least when I was still checking it. But personally, I just don’t get it. You might still like HP without interacting with every single title in the franchise.

But that also brings me to your second thought: capitalism. Because honestly, it’s not just the problem of the HP brand. Let’s take The Sims, for example. People are complaining for years that TS4 is lacking even now when we have dozens of DLCs. There are many new bugs with each pack and many old bugs that needs to be fixed. But it doesn’t matter for EA because they know that people will still buy the next new pack. Why? Because of the brand. And because The Sims has no real competition, at least yet.

Another example: Apple. Personally, I don’t use Apple products so I won’t comment on their quality. But I remember when people talked about the new iPhone without a headphone jack. Again, I don’t know if it actually influenced the quality of a phone in a meaningful way, but it’s rather hard to not see it as a mechanism forcing people to buy wireless headphones. And again, Apple knows they can do that because people will still want to have the iPhone.

So, yeah. Capitalism.

And what a lovely segue to Eat Your Young it is!

Seriously, I love this song! I can’t help it but sway to it every time I hear it. Though I totally feel you – it is absolutely morbid! But it’s that clash that makes it so strong. By the way, my favourite part has to be:

Get some

Pull up the ladder when the flood comes

Throw enough rope until the legs have swung

Seven new ways that you can eat your young

Back in 2019, Hozier was performing on his tour one of his unreleased songs, But The Wages (which many suspects will be on the new full album). And in one video of this song, he said: “If you’re not making the right people uncomfortable you might be wasting your time as a musician”. I feel it’s basically gonna be a subtitle of Unreal Unearth.

And finally: YES, HIS ACCENT! 😄 I’d say I’m quite familiar with it as I listened to some interviews fairly recently (there was Blood Upon Snow not so long ago and now the new EP), but yes! The Irish accent is very lovely! :3

And I write Normal People down as another title to look into because I did hear about it, but I never paid more attention to it.

Anyway, I hope you’re doing well, too! 💖

I don't know if anybody has asked you this before, but, how do you think Rakepick got in contact with the vaults? She says she tried telling the faculty about it but nobody believed her. Do you think she found any of them or just by rumours like Jacob? Could R have had an eye on her since then? Something about her family?

I know most of these have no basis from canon, but hypothetically...

It’s hard to say since we know so little. And it’s kind of hard to not be influenced by my own story at this point… But let’s see what we do know.

Alright, so personally, I believe that Rakepick got into all of that out of curiosity at first. Like, she read the legends and saw it as a challenge. Moreover, I don’t think she was forced to anything later on, the way Jacob was. In fact, I kind of doubt she succeeded with any of the Cursed Vaults. Why? Because we don’t have any mentions of the curses before Jacob. Admittedly, it might’ve been simply overlooked by the writers, but let’s keep in mind that there were hints about Dumbledore looking for “someone” (Rakepick) since the end of Y1, so… I imagine they’d also think to include the previous activity of the curses.

All we really have when it comes to Rakepick is that she was spending quite a lot of time in the Forbidden Forest:

I assume it was related to the Forest Vault, but again: there’s no mention of the curses. So… she was searching for the Cursed Vaults but was unsuccessful? Or something else was stopping her from doing more?

 Now, when it comes to Rakepick and R… Did they know about her? I think it’s very likely. Did she know about them? Well… I guess so? Because let’s look at her welcoming speech again:

I’m still both intrigued and confused by this because, like… “warnings” is such an odd wording, don’t you think? What exactly was she warning about? About curses? But then… does it imply she knew how to activate them? And if so, did she know that R will want to activate them in the future? How would she know that, though?

And again, I don’t think that R actually reached her by then because 1) why would she be so unsuccessful? I mean, it seems that Jacob was getting some clues from R. I suspect they'd help her a little if they wanted her to go after the Vaults; 2) why would R allow her to warn anyone about anything? I don’t know, but I think it’s more likely that R was at least partially responsible for the fact that the faculty didn’t believe Rakepick, for example. I don’t know how exactly, but Rakepick was just a student then, so it probably wouldn’t be that hard to discredit her in some way.

Finally, we have the issue of Rakepick’s family… And well, I do have a little theory that Rakepick’s family is somehow connected to the Cursed Vaults. This is actually a very old idea of mine that came to my mind shortly after Y5Ch15, when we found the notebook about the Cabal. And the idea is basically that if the siblings and/or their family are needed for the final Cursed Vault, then Rakepick and/or her family is responsible for protecting the siblings. Y’know, kind of like Torvus and his family were responsible for keeping the arrow to the Forest Vault.

I told you it’s hard for me to stay away from the “Secrets and Riddles” territory…

But either way, if it really is the case, it could actually explain why R is so obsessed with Rakepick.

They know she would ruin their plans of using MC because it’s quite literally in her blood.

Of course, it still leaves us with two questions: 1) when R learnt about it? 2) does Rakepick herself know about it, and if so, when did she learnt about it? And here, your guess is as good as mine, honestly.

Oh, that’s totally accurate. I mean, even the fact that we basically know more about Merula’s family than about MC’s kind of adds to it. That’s one of the reasons why I’m so thrilled about the idea of Merula being related to Verucca 🙃

Honestly, I feel like Merula started becoming the main character by the end of Y5. Interestingly, that’s also when her writing got really lazy. Instead of making any real effort throughout the year to be better, we got the whole one chapter dedicated to her sad backstory. Because having a sad backstory is proper character development, right? Then, Merula was tortured. And what was the point of it? 1) To additionally demonise Rakepick for no good reason. 2) To make the audience feel sorry for Merula. It doesn’t matter she did nothing to deserve sympathy. You will feel sorry for a tortured teenager because you’re not a monster. Oh, and look at that! Once we returned from the Portrait Vault, everyone cared about poor Merula – but who cared about MC who fought a freaking dragon, was betrayed by their mentor and left by their brother once again?

Seriously, the fact that MC wasn’t allowed to have a breaking point at the end of Y5 was the first clear sign that MC doesn’t matter. And it continues later on.