I will languish in weary solitude until I open up Warframe again
@you-shiny-thing
they/he || DE please let me pet Ordis || Shy about sharing my OCs but I'm trying to get better about that! || side blog of @bobombun || Tagging them as #my ocs || for blocking purposes, my whining about WF tag is #you dull thing
I have a Ko-Fi store for various fandom stuff, including shaker keychains of all playable Warframe characters and stickers of the Elder Scrolls Tribunal as bunnies, and with more ideas brewing!
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Had some bad artblock recently so I drew Volt, my like 4th favorite warframe... I want to get better at the organic style of the characters.
Finally had time to fully get back into the game, I've been reminded why I consider it my favorite.
Ignore that I haven't posted anything on tumblr since January, I didn't figure many people would be interested in my oc work. :P
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Every day I think about Tenno who get too used to the capabilities of one Warframe or another and attempt to draw upon them even when they're in Transference with someone else, or even in their own human bodies.
Uriel and Titania mains who try to fly. Nidus and Inaros mains who walk straight into clouds of poison gas. Loki mains who instinctively try to turn invisible when they're in a tight spot. The brief moment of disorientation when the body they're in just won't work the way they expected it to.
Gameplay has honed certain instincts and reflexes into us based on the frames we love, and I think the Tenno are the same.
huge ups to warframe for being the only game I can think of that quotes James Baldwin
AND it's a thematically fitting quote from nothing personal, which gels with the game's overall themes. Amazing! the cavia continue to be my favorite syndicate yet.
I don't mind other characters having terrible opinions on Entrati depending on their experience. Before KIM we only had his notebooks, Acritis, Loid, and the Cavia [all very biased characters]. And Loid was "a bit taken by the Indifference" by then.
I love a character whose oddity and understandable stakes [from his PoV] makes him being misunderstood by other characters. What bothers me more is players supporting this 1dimensional Entrati that is "emotionless and whimsical" when we know it's a lot more complex.
It's a man whose experience with the Void traumatised him to the point to obsess over the ways to stop it, no matter the cost. And seeing how terrible things The Man in the Wall can do, we can agree that, yes, it should be contained or stopped in some manner. Entrati's main goal is not bad or evil or emotionless. His actions are what he, and only he, thinks it's the most "correct" way to face this world-ending challenge he is responsible of. He sets paradoxes such as "leaving the loved ones behind because he loves them so much he doesnt want Wally to harm them", or lack of responsability with actions such as "sacrificing creatures but then he is unable to have the heart to euthanaise them and free them from this unwanted, unexpected consequence". Entrati is a character with deep contradictions and dychotomies, and mainly, MISTAKES. Which also makes me link this theme to Arthur [they both show a parallel narrative about "the correct thing to do" + "mistakes"+"consequences and responsability"]: characters that think they are doing the "right thing", but they cannot stop doing mistake after mistake with terrible consequences for themselves and others. And to what extent they accept the consequences of those mistakes, and what they do to fix them.
In fact, Entrati is the typical narrative that makes us question about goodness: It's better to sacrifice a few in order to save the many, or we doom them all. Are there truly "in-between" options? Exploring these stories are always beautiful and a good way to keep our moral righterousness humble. I love Entrati in the complexity he embodies, as I always loved Flemeth in DA fandom for what it looked like a character with similar dichotomical motivations that, of course, Veilguard forgot entirely, so she was reduced to the lame character she became. But that's another different topic and an ever-open wound.
These characters divide players because their understanding depends a lot on how much mature is your vision of the world and situations, how much you are convinced of a white-and-black analysis of the reality, or if you truly embrace the endless discomfort of knowing that some things are incredible complex to simply put in one single sentence or fix in one single action.
I didn't mind it at first either, but as the story has gone it seems more and more clear that this is the view that the current "principle[sic]" writer expects the actual player to hold as well. I really do hope I am pleasantly surprised, but given the retcons of the origins of the Techrot, the treatment of gay men in her original novels, the "we can blame anything on Albrecht!" in her interviews, and the fact that the only person you are allowed in the narrative to change their mind on Albrecht is someone who started out liking him, I'm just not expecting much.
Like I said, I would like nothing more than to be wrong, but I'm not holding my breath.
I like to deny the Triad because it's so... oof. It's so true that the narrative seems to focus more and more in blaming Albretch for whatever. I had my problems with that in Lettie's convos. But most of her writing is so weird and wrong for several reasons that I always overlooked it or ignored it and claimed it was because she was written in a rushed way.
It's so strange for me that you are never allowed to point out in the hex that, despite the omission of some obvious "side effects" of the protoframe process, Entrati gave them something that stopped them from becoming techrot thralls themselves. The comic shows it was done in a very weird way [I still dont understand why Entrati was in a random place, and randomly cuts Arthur (?), the whole comic is super weak in plot imo, it was more a promotion of the hex? I dont even know when it came out]. Curious thing, in all the rest of the protoframes Entrati explained what was going to happen to them: the round table [except Kaya, we are never informed about her process], and with Lyon and Marie.
All Lettie's convos about "silent carriers" is so ridiculous and out of place. Looks like they needed to craft some way to make the hex hate him more. This got double down in Triad, when out of the blue, Drifter has this option of "he knew I was in a cycle of torture and left me there". It was such a WTF moment.
Why and how the drifter knew this only in Triad and never hinted it in Hex? We know since Whispers in the Wall Entrati was more focused on all what this world reflected of Eularia. And when you explore duviri, the way all the characters speak about the Scholar [we remember most of these characters are also reflections of Drifter themselves] they appreciate him as someone who taught them for hard times to come. If Drifter and the Scholar met, I'm not sure they would have recognised. And we know the Scholar's landing is a place where Albretch tried to hide the finger for some time, maybe. And created Oraxia to help Drifter. I cannot see the links between all these things beyond the supposition that maybe Albretch tried to train Drifter in Duviri, but left at some point before the cycles started. Most likely, drifter was a kid and safe in duviri [I remember those codices slightly related to the scholar about the Academy and the Hollow kids].
I interpret that Albretch may have trained a child-drifter, since they are the "tenno free of the deal" with Wally. There is power in that, and Albretch was gathering all the power he could get to fight the Indiference. He crafted the vessels and the protoframes in the past to help Drifter too, the "chosen operator". Certainly Albretch would manipulate some people's life, but his goal is superior: save the world [at least in his eyes]. To overvillanise him is such a sad thing. I also hope they retake the old concept, more nuanced and complex than this oversimplified "marvel villain" they want to override on him.
I'm curious. Since I returned to Warframe recently, and some old old lore is gone from my memory, I would like to understand why you mean the "techrot origin" retcon? Did we know where and how it started in the WF universe? I had the impression the infestation origin was never clear in this lore. And up to 1999, we never had met the "techrot" infested faction before... or we did? Did I miss something? Most likely, lol.
"the treatment of gay men in her original novels", who do you mean by her? Rebecca? she wrote books? Warframes has novels!? I only knew about the comics; damn, this franchise.
I've been holding a similar view to you as bits have come out, interpreting a lot of Albrecht's actions as things a man deeply traumatized by both his society and experiences in the Void (and with an incredible amount of what I can only describe as "Privilege Poisoning" from being born into the upper echelons of the highest caste in Orokin society.) I just feel like instead of putting the putting the puzzle pieces together I'm actively fighting them more and more.
I also find the "Albrecht abandoned me [Drifter] in Duviri and I'm Big Mad about it" so weird. There's no indication that Albrecht would have a) known Drifter could survive out side of Duviri, b) wouldn't be immediately thrown into a warframe or experimented on or had SOMETHING horrific done to them if the other Orokin learned about them or c) even wanted to leave Duviri at that point. It doesn't seem the executions had even started at that point, and since Wally/Rusalka says "You were pretty close in his Duviri days" and Thrax talked about "What the scholar taught us" it seems obvious the executions hadn't started yet.
Anyways, about the techrot retcon:
In Albrecht's notes, from WITW he says:
I went among the denizens of the plague year like a savior, my hands filled with healing. To those who volunteered, I brought more than health. Their bodies were primed; it needed only the Helminth infusions, brought from my own time, to work the alchemy of transformation. They have become partial Warframes, still in possession of their free will, yet enhanced, Void-attuned, capable.
And we know the Drifter has at least read the requiems:
He's your guy. Refused Kuva, which allows them to be immortal. Didn't go for the fashionable long arm. None of it
Thus I think we can assume Drifter has also read the notes and fragments.
So during WITW, the technocyte virus was already present in 1999, and the people who were turned into protoframes were volunteers who had already been infected and were dying.
Then the hacked emails on the computer next to Aoi confirm that the Technocyte was started by large music labels wanting to create boyband clones in early 1998:
Date: Feb 1998
To: "Director"
From: "Gregory V."
"You've made incredible progress on the Technocyte Coda project in just a few short months."
Then in the ARG leading up to the release of the Hex, there were hints that the ORO group and Kinemantic corp were going to be big players in the start of the Techrot, but that can be something that neither Drifter nor the Hex know.
So going into The Hex quest, the Hex knows that the Technocyte was caused by HitMaker music, and the Drifter knows that Albrecht decided to go back to 1999 because the Technocyte was already there. But then, as you pointed out, all of the conversations with Lettie and the others assume that Albrecht himself is the reason that people are becoming infected.
The first hints of retcon are in the Temporal Archimedea voicelines:
Minerva: "So, Velasco, I got a question. Was the Techrot part of the original timeline or is this all Entrati's doing?"
Kaya: "I… I don't really know. The timeline is murky, and history doesn't really survive the loop.
But...we do know. The techrot was already here, because Albrecht went back in time to find it. The techrot was part of the HitMaker plot to clone boybands. The Hex know this. So why is it suddenly in question if it's not a retcon?
Anyways, in the Devil's Triad KIM convos it seems the Drifter, despite knowing that the Techrot was already in Höllvania when Albrecht got there, is telling people he was the one who infected the city. So it can only be a retcon, unless the Drifter is actively lying:
LyonRank3Convo6:
"What was he scheming? Did he infect the city, like I hear tell that he did to Höllvania?"
And then in convo with Marie, one of the options is to completely disregard the notes as lies, even though there's no reason given that Albrecht would lie in his private journals and is actually pretty self-castigating all told.
MarieRank3Convo1:
His notes tell a very obnoxiously self-flattering story of how he went to study conceptual embodiment and instead came away learning the value of fighting the Indifference.
The Principle[sic] Writer is not Rebb, it's Kathryn Kingsley, the dark romantasy author who was originally hired to only write some 1999 KIM convos. She's since been promoted to Principle[sic] Writer, according to her bluesky bio and interviews she's given.
The homophobia is not outright saying "I HATE F----TS SO MUCH" (though whomever is writing Grandmother Entrati really seems to want to call Loid some slurs) but it's in the way the narrative judging gay characters MUCH more harshly than it does straight (or straight-coded) characters for the same or worse actions, and the constant devaluing of the one gay relationship in the narrative.
Kaelli calling Loid and Albrecht's relationship "a hookup"
Dagath calling it "whooping it up with his manservant"
Roathe's idle lines hinting at his ability to be sexually violent and/or seduce Loid.
Devaluing Albrecht's emotions and responses because they're not considered "correct" or about the "correct" things (this is like bog-standard homophobia, and also intersects a lot with ableism) like reproducing with the Correct Woman.
Loid's good ending is him being physically threatened and bullied into doing something he didn't want to do.
Even Marie is not allowed to maintain her affection for Albrecht: her good ending is that she must see what a silly stupid child she is for liking someone who treated her kindly and gave her what she considers a gift. (Again, with the ableism intersections.) The story doesn't think that she should be allowed to have her own opinion of Albrecht, the Drifter has to make her agree that Albrecht sucks, or at best, "is complicated".
When the Hex slag Albrecht off (Ex: Aoi calling him "devourer of worlds") you never get to push back. It's presented as just fine by the narrative.
The above is contrasted by how the current narrative treats heterosexual relationships and terrible people:
Arthur and Aoi's relationship was fraternization between an officer and an enlisted. This is never ever brought up in any terms approaching "whooping it up" or "hooking up" or "workplace romance" like Albrecht's relationship with Loid is. It's treated seriously. Albrecht and Loid's is treated like a joke.
In the DT KIM, where Albrecht is treated as a villain for being indifferent towards his forced marriage, Ballas is treated like this morally gray ambiguously tragic figure for murdering Margulis because she did not reciprocate his love enough for him in a way he approved of.
Mother Entrati (and Kaelli) were physically abusive to Father Entrati...but it is treated as a good thing that they are working together now, as a family. We have no indication Albrecht was ever physically violent with Loid...indeed, he laughs when Wally tries to pantomime him harming Loid. But now we're supposed to act like Albrecht was the worst person we've ever met to be in a relationship with? And assume that all of the relationship problems of other members of the family are on his head?
Roathe gets to just declare himself a good boy after being a genociding warlord on Tau, and the KIM ends, and he still uses the same horrible idle lines towards Drifter and is garbage to Loid. He never revisits any of his previous evaluations of Ballas and Margulis, or Albrecht and his relationships.
tl;dr: The homophobia isn't overt or obvious. I doubt the writers think of themselves as writing a homophobic narrative, because this is kind of the cultural cesspit of racism/sexism/ableism/homophobia/transphobia/etc in which we all swim. It takes a concerted effort to not reinforce these cultural bigotries in writing. But when you start looking at which relationships and characters are given grace and understanding and value in the writing, and which aren't...a pattern starts to emerge. And it's not a good one, no matter how much rainbow paint DE slathers over it every June.
Again, I really hope I'm very wrong about how they will continue to treat Albrecht and Loid, but given the treatment of gay characters in Kingsley's books (according to goodreads reviews and passages I've read) I am not going to get my hopes up at all.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Drifter talks to Quincy about how transference feels and taking on the mannerisms of Warframes sometimes and im just picturing them coming back to Hollvania after spending too long in frames like Garuda and picking fights with everyone or using Wisp or Titania too much and stumbling over their legs and forgetting to walk. Too much Voruna and they growl in their sleep. Like Drifter genuinely forgets they have a squishy human body and it fucks with their head a lot. Like damn hello
If there was any part of JS constellations I could quintuple DE’s budget and time on, it’d be on the void jade/ Umbra vs the twins part of the quest. (Ignoring the ending. And ignoring giving the twins Voicelines.)
You CANNOT tell me Mr. “I hate you more than life itself but if you’re wearing Jade I’m out and clearing the mark” would have no big feelings about killing a void clone of his wife. Aint no way. (I like to imagine everything from seeing it to the ending was nonstop internal screaming crying throwing up or full dissociative ‘get through it I just have to keep going’.)
Messy page but its my 2-5 am best LOL. Will likely do a second page if I can find the power.
Can you believe this was originally gonna be a shitpost about Umbra yelling for the stalker to hurry the f up because Not Killing Them and holding a baby is 200x as hard as just fighting outright.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
