Why's the boat hot

been seeing some cropped top billy on here lately, thought I'd share my own version too :)

As much as he’d have rather been at home working out or doing his own thing literally anywhere else, Billy had gotten roped into taking Max out to the diner with her friends. He was happy that he didn’t have to pick any of the little shits up and instead just headed straight there with her, yelling that he’d be back for her in an hour and waiting outside to make sure she got in okay before pulling back out of his parking spot. He didn’t know what to do then, since going home would mean that he’d only be there ten minutes before he had to come back out to get her, and there really wasn’t much else to do in this town. But as he drove, he passed the video store, and the familiar beemer in the parking lot, and decided to spend the time there annoying his favorite ex-rival instead of sitting around and doing nothing. 

Before he knew it, an hour had passed, and he went back out to the diner, waiting for Max to get in the car and watching as only four other kids got on their bikes and rode off. 

“Where’d the other kid go? The quiet one?” Billy asked, taking note of the weird look on Max’s face. 

“Will? He left early. Made up some excuse about a stomach ache and before anyone could stop him, he was gone. It looked like he was gonna cry,” Max said, shrugging as she looked out the window towards the woods.

so he tells me in addition to he/him, he'd also like they/them, it/its, and the "other" role. since i don't have they/them, he would therefore have more pronouns than me. so i congratulate him, but then i point out what that "other" means.

i have an en.pronouns linked on my discord with my neopronouns written down. i show him this. i explain what neopronouns are.

ok so personally i think billy and will gay bonding wouldve hit so much harder because of all their similarities already so ive been thinking about billy and will bonding over being possessed and all that and will takes a real liking to billy because while he loves his brother, theres things and experiences jonathan just cannot understand and billy, when he's not being a huge grump, is actually really good to talk to and vent with and as an older male figure he's really someone will can look up to (nobody quite understands that part but its not for them to understand!! will has become billys defense attorney its fine)

so anyway all of this naturally leads to a crush on wills end which he's terrible at hiding (at least to those who know what to look for) and its even worse once he finds out billys gay too.

will starts getting it in his head that because he and billy are already so close and because billys like the only other gay boy in hawkins (to wills knowledge anyway) this MUST be a sign that they should be together

so one day will gets bold enough to shoot his shot and tries asking billy on a date in some roundabout way thats very awkward but enough for billy to pick up what he's putting down and its like... billy doesnt wanna be mean to the kid. god knows this is probably the first time hes ever asked a boy out and billy doesnt want to make it traumatic for him but at the same time... billys an adult now. and wills still in high school. and also billys got a boyfriend but thats the least important thing in this situation

and billy wants to tread carefully with this, explaining to will that he's flattered (even if the rest of the party would surely question wills taste) but he's got no business dating a kid wills age (will objects, claiming he's NOT a kid he's practically an adult himself, the age difference isnt even that big really...)

but billy wants to make it SO clear to will that adults have no business messing around with anyone still in high school, and he wants to set that boundary for will now because billy knows first hand how older guys like to take advantage of younger gays, especially the ones with will's mindset about being in a small, unaccepting town where its already so hard to meet another guy like himself, let alone one his age, and he doesnt want will falling into those traps

its not the speech will wants to hear but, after he's over the initial rejection and minor heartbreak billys words sink in and he receives them. even laughs a little when billy tells him "and if any creepy old guy tries hitting you, you come to me and i'll hunt his ass down, capiche?"

You know... I can't help but feel that Orb is talking about Junior and his father here. (also possibly referring to the royal family from their own era but anyway) Time to get my brain worms out.

When Junior's animations changed a few months ago, I've been pondering the meaning of it ever since.

I may be fairly new to the game and not particularly active but it's the story, and more specifically Junior that caught my eye and made me want to play, even if sporadically.

When I first saw him, he was a lot more confident, standing tall and proud, flourishing his cutlass as if he didn't have a care in the world.

These days, however, his animations seem a lot more guarded, he's hunched, hiding his face, turning away... He's even putting his cutlass between himself and us. Now to me, that tells me there's something wrong with him or something is going on, and I've always wondered if everything he's done in the name of his father is starting to catch up to him.

In the book where he describes himself, he gives no hint of having any evil nature. Ambitious, overconfident and a bit of an idiot? Absolutely, but not evil... But back then he didn't have any street smarts either, so to speak. Now I know being a skeleton changes things and messes with the mind, but it wasn't until he met Wanda that he fixated on Serving his Father, obsessively so, desperate to prove himself like so many others. That adoration and idealisation he had of Flameheart as a child still persists even though his mental image was reshaped by her.

Flameheart was never a good man, he was a bully and a tyrant and still is, but even though he was an absent father, he still gave Junior the best childhood he could, perhaps reliving his own ideal childhood fantasies through his newly adopted son. (that could be another reason why he adopted the child in the first place because it seems so out of character but anyway) That left Junior with a deep level of affection for him, which of course we know about... (but perhaps some melancholy too)

But the Flameheart we have now isn't the one he knew growing up. He in fact never was, only telling him an idealised version of events and keeping secrets. Junior himself says his father told him he didn't need to know what he saved the boy from. (Flameheart attacked and sank the ship Junior was on as a baby so there's that)

That brings me to my theory...

I can't help but wonder if actually working 'with' his Father has begun to create cracks in that blazing ideal image of his, that those rose-tinted glasses are beginning to slip, no matter which shape they take. He had one idea of his father in his mind as a child, that of a hero, which set him on his journey in the first place. No doubt the Cap'n gave him one too, telling him of the betrayal and the horrors he committed... Then so did Wanda, praising him, lording him, and elevating him to the kingly status Flameheart craves now. (though part of that was obviously her own ambition speaking)

But with them all out of the picture, Junior gets to see his father for who he truly is now, for the bloodthirsty, blazing pit of vicious sadistic hatred that he actually is.

For a while, I could see him obsessively working to serve his father as he said he would, in fact, we've seen this with him creating and being the face of the Reapers we know today, resurrecting his father and being his right-hand man. I'm sure for a while he would have been over the moon to be working alongside his father, the man he adored growing up, his idol, his role model... Well, you know what they say about meeting your idols...

Here we are now, with Flameheart back near his full power and seeking more and yet... You would think Junior would be elated, even with his reserved and tempered mannerisms. Yet to my eyes... He looks the complete opposite, small, retreating... in pain even....

Let's not forget he's a Skeleton Lord, even though he's nowhere near the power level of Flameheart, he's not just a regular old skeleton... So like Duke, like Wanda... He still retains the majority of his mind. And to my knowledge... He is not bound to Flameheart by magic... only by word. Junior is an intelligent man, one who has gained the use of dark magic, and knows a great deal of disciplines from the outside world. He's a studious, patient and learned man who was trained to be very observant.

So is he having second thoughts? Is that why they changed his animations? Is he beginning to see the truth of his actions and having regrets? Has he realised that the man he's working for, isn't the matching up to the ideal image in his head? (whatever that looks like now)

It could also be he's being prepared to be sacrificed in some ritual, I could see Flameheart doing something like that to maintain his status and power... after all, his biggest fear is being beaten... and currently the biggest potential threat to him... is his right-hand man... as always. After all, it wouldn't be out of fashion for a King's closest advisor and Servant to inevitably betray them.

It would be poetic and fitting for Flameheart (should he need to be defeated at some point for plot resolution) to be beaten by his hubris again, at the hand of his second-in-command. After all, Junior had always dreamed of surpassing his father's legend... And betrayal is a founding principle of the Reaper's Bones... A founding act that Flameheart himself initiated three decades ago.

And we all know, Junior is not safe... but then, now that Flameheart is back, with a thirst for vengeance and army at his fingertips... nobody is.

Anyway, this is my long-ass theoretical ramble that I desperately needed to get out of my brain (god there is so much more i could add but this is plenty long enough so props to you if you read this marathon of prattling). I could be completely off the mark, but fair enough, but this is what I do, latch onto a character, learn the lore and theorise. :)

Many have suggested the Orb is talking about Flameheart himself here... But I can't help but wonder... From the last batch and then this one... I have my doubts... What would Flameheart have to be mournfully about?

Let's entertain this for a moment because why not. It is indeed possible that Flameheart's time in the Sea of the Damned manifested his old estate... But why would he need to be collected via horse and coach? His physical form has been in the living world all this time, so surely he'd just manifest himself like any other time...

Now, the wreck the Reapers were reassembling has vanished, but we all know where that is going... However, so has the Burning blade (the sword). With Tasha supposedly now cured, according to her and Ramsey the Reapers have apparently stolen that too but why? To give to Flameheart? Probably, or maybe not, as it was done so quietly in the night, without much fanfare and the Reapers usually like to make a huge scene... (I have another theory there but that isn't what this I about right now). All of this is in keeping with the return of Flameheart, including Olga's cards.

What isn't lining up as of late is the Orb... As if it's trying to tell us something else... And there's someone else lived on an estate, possibly the very same one the Orb is referring to, who used that very same study... someone who perhaps was still dealing with grief... and was about to embark on a new life... someone we know and is very much tied to Flameheart and that glass bauble.

"...Having travelled full circles in every possible direction, Father eventually settled down on this magnificent estate, in which a small candlelit corner of the most private room I now write.

Tomorrow I will not be here.

I arranged to vanish over the horizon to retrieve myself." - Tales from the Sea of Thieves (aka Junior's journal, the very first page)

From what I understood, Junior spent the night in that room and vanished to the docks and his newly bought ship in the early hours to set sail... And while he was no doubt excited to start his new life, there was probably undoubtedly some grief... Of the things he was leaving behind, and no doubt thoughts of his father crept into his head... Of the stories, of the legends... But soon enough he'd get to see it all for himself.

While Flameheart could have done exactly the same thing when he took back off to Sea, it seems improbable given we know he came and went with decreasing regularity on his adventures while Junior was growing up, until one day he never returned and news of Flameheart's death eventually reached back home.

So unless Rare has done a lot more retconning recently than we thought... Including changing Flameheart's backstory...

I can't help but still feel the Orb is talking about Junior here... (Unless it's talking about the time Flameheart decided to deck a couple of merchants that wanted to confiscate his house, but he was pretty much broke back then so I find it unlikely lmao.)

Also, the fact Junior is missing from his usual spot in the latest trailer... Maybe it's just an oopsie on Rare's part... But they showed us the hideout for a reason., yes to show off Flameheart obviously, but I think there's a hidden message there. Maybe they just moved him for the trailer, maybe he has a new spot... But time will tell I suppose, let's see what this ornament has to say next week.

I also could just be waffling because Junior is the only character in the whole game that has caught my interest so my theories naturally have a bias I suppose, lmao. But I like discussing lore in games, even if it is just with myself.

Either way, food for thought.

Again, If you read this, props to you and thank you.