hey

In the dreams, there are two characters: he and she. While he is obviously John, she is somehow both Harrow and Alecto. When he directly addresses her—as you—he seems to be talking to the planet Earth, to Alecto. The only way out was to dump the population on an exoplanet, he says. It was about giving you breathing room, you know? But when he names her, her name is Harrowhark. She, for her part, speaks very little, but in the last dream she speaks blatantly as Harrow: “Teacher, what does it mean for a child of the Ninth to love God?”

The dreams are in a River bubble. This is pretty obvious: the bubble parts at end of the last dream, and she—Harrow—walks in the direction of the tower. Exactly how they ended up here remains to be seen, but this isn't a first for Harrow; the Canaan House bubble in HTN happens while she's dreaming or unconscious.

In the last dream, he asks, “Do you remember what happens now?” And she says, “Yes. Through her, I've seen it.” She's talking about the Resurrection and the Eightfold Word, but if we retroactively apply this lens to the dreams—to his account of the extinction event—it resolves the contradiction of her. Harrow is seeing, learning, through Alecto's eyes. More specifically, they have swapped dreams (just as they have swapped bodies): Nona dreams of Gideon’s forgiveness, and Harrow dreams of crawling with John through the wreckage of the planet he destroyed only yesterday.

In the dream bubbles—in 2011—little pockets of pseudo-reality within the maddening horror and nonsensical spacetime of the Furthest Ring, the dead and dreaming reenact old memories; at least once, a character (Aranea) pretends to be someone else (AG) for the sake of a reenactment. Likewise, Harrow and John are acting out one of Alecto's memories. They sometimes break character to talk as their present-day selves, but they are otherwise passive observers in this dream-memory. Thus, John’s account is not (as I've seen some people claim) filtered through a myriad of self-denial. This isn't the John from HTN with a perfect lie ten thousand years in the making. It's John in the wake of his very recent omnicide, scrambling to explain himself to Alecto.

Direct dialogue in the dreams usually forgoes quotation marks. But sometimes it uses them, including but not limited to: every time he calls her Harrowhark or Harrow, every time she calls him Lord or Teacher, and the entirety of the final dream. We can infer that quotation marks are used when, and only when, the speaker breaks character. This clears up some things. Like how Then they were gone…lost it time to me forever (past John) becomes “They are still out there. There can be no forgiveness” (present John). However, we've reintroduced an old problem.

In the dream, he says, “This is the part where I hurt you. Are you ready?” (With quotation marks.) In the dream, he says, “Do you remember what you said to me once I had done it? When we stood here together?” (With quotation marks.) In the dream, he calls her “beloved” and “love.” (With quotation marks.) In the dream, he makes a pothook—J—then the finned spine of E. He wipes that E clean, and replaces it with A. He wipes that clean, and he draws the prison bars of H. This J and H he bars around with an uneven heart. John—our John, present-day John—is conflating his old love with his new student. Harrow plays along, and in doing so gains some more answers.

they didnt fire him — he wasnt working for them at the time, given the actors are signed on season-by-season basis. they reached out to him and were willing to pay him a higher, union wage. since he was returning for third season, McCully was willing to work under a non union contract, but he added one condition, that the company will hold a meeting with him and other union representatives to discuss possible future projects/collaboration. he did not ask for them to commit to ANYTHING but a meeting. they have literally GHOSTED him, and when he reached out himself, reinstating that they are only asking for a meeting, nothing more — he was thoroughly denied

so basically, they didnt fire someone for organising — they refused returning work for an actor based on union activity. which imo is even worse, showing utter disregard for an establishment union, and the fact that they have NO PLANS to work with one, or even consider working with a union, because i guess having working conditions where actors dont fuck up their voices is too much for them

tldr they didnt fire him— they refused to re-sign a NON UNION contract because he added one stipulation — that a single meeting with union representatives will be held

And maybe mossy cobblestone can become Mossier Cobblestone, which can be sheared to get moss carpets

Because just IMAGINE how cool it would be to have a visual indicator of how old a cobblestone structure is from the moss growing on it. I'm specifically thinking of the anarchy servers I've been in. Lavacasts slowly becoming shaggy with lush green moss.

Imagine returning to your starter base and finding it covered in moss

Imagine Mossier Cobblestone generating vines and lichens on top sometimes, so structures can slowly become overgrown

Imagine!!!

For example, freezing? I have another complex fantasy where the freezing effect happens when the player stands still at night in a cold biome (but it would be negated by a campfire). There should be some survival challenges unique to cold biomes.

In my complex fantasy of a Cold Update, we get the following things:

as I said, broader usage of the freezing mechanic.

a mechanic where you freeze if you swim in a frozen biome or something (enchantments would exist to negate this)

Ice caves. This is, iirc, the number one thing requested by players as part of the Caves and Cliffs Update. Real life ice caves are just so cool.

Icicles. Dripstone already exists. You get 5 seconds of freezing if one drips on you.

Patches of "thin ice" in frozen rivers and lakes where it breaks if you walk on it.

Ability to freeze undead mobs and certain objects/items in ice blocks. Not only could this lead to some interesting mob farms and decorations, just imagine being in an ice cave and glimpsing monsters frozen in the walls. This would be a great challenge because if you placed a torch too close you could melt the ice and release zombies onto yourself. I also think it would just be cool and scary

Frostflowers and Frostfire Nectar. I have this vision of blue flowers growing on cave roofs that look a little like the spore blossoms, but they have these contrasting glowing red-orange veins in their petals, and the player can use bottles to "milk" nectar from them. The nectar is a potion ingredient and it makes potions that make you immune to freezing, but double your sensitivity to fire damage.

(Yes, this means shooting tipped arrows out of a bow enchanted with Flame would be OP. But I think doing complicated things for crazy effects is what Minecraft is all about.)

sports fans have a long history of rioting in the streets and literally murdering people over their sportsball team not winning. this year alone a 19 year old was murdered in greece over being a fan of a different soccer team. police raided soccer fan clubs and found weapons & plans for attacking rival fans. 26 fans were seriously injured in a brawl in mexico over a soccer game in march.

"but that's different!!"

you're right, i've yet to hear of a single incidence of a riot starting over mcc results. no serious injuries reported yet either.

"it doesn't count because not everyone is like that!! most sports fans are totally chill, there's just a few bad apples!!!"