#patch spoilers

WE FINALLY. GOT TO HAVE. OUR TACOS.

!!!!

Ok for real now-first of all really loving everything going on with my beloved Dawn Throne family. Wuk Lamat is being amazing as usual. I love that we got closure about Koanas folks [cuz like, c'mon there was no way it went down as he remembered as like 2 year old LOL;;]. LOVE THAT HE REALLY STOOD BETWEEN A RONEEK AND A GIANT CHARGING DINO OF DOOM LIKE THAT WAS GOING TO STOP IT YOU WEIGHT LIKE 120LBS KOANA LOL

And I love that we've finally got something about Galool Ja and who his mom was, even if everything about it was so sad and broken from the start. I figured it would have to be, given Zoraal Ja's staunch denial of the child's presence. It still hits the right amount of tragic in the reveal of it all.

Also very excited that yes, Y'Shtola will be bothering me to examine the magical maguffin, even if I still don't like that it exists lol.

But also

You know

SO LIKE

Yo.

I can't even.

And I'm not even talking about hologram Sphene. BUT ALSO I AM 100% SURE HER ATTENDANT DID IT. OR SOMEONE CLOSE TO HER. Someone rebooted the system and then yoinked themselves back into the matrix.

ANYWAYS. I MEAN THE REAL SPHENE. THE ONE Y'SHTOLA JUST FOUND IN LIVING MEMORY.

I just. Its gotta be her, bleary eyed and confused about where the fuck she is. I'M CONFUSED TOO THE AETHER JUST SPAT HER BACK OUT FULLY FORMED. She sounds like she just woke up from dying!

At first I was just too mad about the whole thing with AI Sphene being back to think too much on it. On the extremely sus set up of it all, and what those neo regulators are *really for* bc you know Wuk Lamat is right. The AI Sphene we know was prepared to sacrifice the whole damn universe to save all her people, not just a few. Whoever this is realizes they only have so many resources to do this with.

BUT NOW WE HAVE REAL SPHENE IN THE MIX TOO. AND GUYS I UH...REALLY HOPE THIS PLAYS OFF WELL.

Because AI Sphene was a monster, cute smile and all, and I did not enjoy how hard the narrative tried to make us see her as a good person, or how inactive we were about it. Wuk Lamat is new to this, but we, and not just the WoL, but Alisae too, were right there and never said anything about how much this resembles past foes.

But guys. Real Sphene has the possibility of making all that just...a little bit less annoying. I hope. It wont fix the first half's writing issues, but it can turn it in a better direction. Especially if what it is, is that the writers decided to play the long game in terms of their two story halves more so than they have in the past.

Imagine. Queen Sphene wakes up. Finds the kingdom has lived far beyond her expectations. They survived and are wondrous and innovative...and they are also throwing the cycle of life and death out of wack. They are forgetting themselves and each other for the solace of avoiding death and pain. They are hurting others to do it. They are being lead by someone who looks like her, but has no compassion for anyone outside her own kingdom. If Sphene is even half the person the AI made her out to be...then she would be heartbroken to see what has become of her kingdom. And she has the power and authority to stop it.

The story has made a point to say "we don't know what the real Sphene would have wanted". Well shes here now, and boy wouldn't it be fucking amazing, if she said "not any of this".

It has real potential now too, to talk about the difference between the memory and actuality. How memory can distort and change over time, be a shadow of the truth. And...idk that they are going to go this route, but if Sphene is not going to be the only one to come back from Living Memory-then all the Alexandrians have to be confronted with those they forgot. Fucking imagine coming back from the dead only to find none of your loved ones even remember who you are?? What would even be the point?

I also. Really just want this to happen in the middle of the square in Solution 9: