do you ever try to pay attention to class but all you can hear is “heart. lungs. liver. nerves”
this. this entire sequence from the nightmare -> moment of clarity…
“Like a creeping mold, the complete reality of your existence threads its way through your mind. Birth, death, birth again. Decay and bloom. A million stitches from a million microscopic wounds you’ve inflicted on everyone you’ve ever met with every muscle you moved and with ever word you’ve spoken.”
“Your existence hurts them.”
“A lonely soul in a room by itself weeping. It lives for eighty years and then it’s gone. And then it’s there again.”
“A reprieve. A good life. Love, children, a steady career. Recognition from your peers. Here one moment, gone the next. The worms have found their orifices.” (this line has no right being this good)
“Diagnosis. It forgets everything it is. Anger. Rage. Distance. Poverty. The lonely soul is lonely again. Love turns to mockery, It die. It is reborn. Worse. Lonelier.”
“This is all too much. I… can’t keep going.”
idk what exactly it means, but it feels like the narrator is speaking from the heart about how he feels towards death and all… but this time it’s a lot more sympathetic towards the princess for some reason?? why
i just can’t figure out what exactly this means, but together with the fact the nightmare/moc “desires only companionship but the only thing she knows is how to hurt” and the narrator’s constant dehumanisation of the princess thorough the entire game… it hits hard. seeing it again for the second time made me feel a lot of indescribable things.
(warning: I am extremely sleepy right now and english is not my first language so this is probably completely incoherent)
the shifting mound should not be slain, I think, because she’s right; change is what leads to growth. it’s how to becoming better, to mend and to heal. change is important and vital. but I do wonder if people have enough time for it.
because the long quiet and the shifting mound are immortal. they do not die, they cannot die and they will not die. they had and have all the time in the world, or at least they come back once they ran out of it, to change and to relearn trust if they have hurt each other. but people are frail and impermanent. they do not last.
the witch ended with both of us lying broken on the floor or both of us forever trapped in the cabin. and then it ended. there was potential for growth but after it was gone, then what? then it was gone. and that was it. there is no potential for the dead. you have died hurt.
perhaps some have time. but some might not. maybe sometimes sometimes all you can do is stare into an echo in a mirror with far too many questions and not enough answers because there is not enough time to question or to be answered.
could they have made it better for people together?
cymatile:
birdmitosis:
voice-of-the-tired:
(warning: I am extremely sleepy right now and english is not my first language so this is probably completely incoherent)
the shifting mound should not be slain, I think, because she’s right; change is what leads to growth. it’s how to becoming better, to mend and to heal. change is important and vital. but I do wonder if people have enough time for it.
because the long quiet and the shifting mound are immortal. they do not die, they cannot die and they will not die. they had and have all the time in the world, or at least they come back once they ran out of it, to change and to relearn trust if they have hurt each other. but people are frail and impermanent. they do not last.
the witch ended with both of us lying broken on the floor or both of us forever trapped in the cabin. and then it ended. there was potential for growth but after it was gone, then what? then it was gone. and that was it. there is no potential for the dead. you have died hurt.
perhaps some have time. but some might not. maybe sometimes sometimes all you can do is stare into an echo in a mirror with far too many questions and not enough answers because there is not enough time to question or to be answered.
could they have made it better for people together?
#you see - i don’t think it will #i don’t think the shifting mound in all her divine glory will allow enough time for people #but that’s… kinda her thing isn’t it? she doesn’t care #not because she’s mean or cruel on purpose but because she’s so much more than them #she doesn’t really comprehend the true consequences of her actions because she sits above it all - people will suffer them for her #and she thinks that’s all right because people need change; need HER #in a way it truly brings back that thing of her being a ‘subjugating monarch’ - 'cause she is
I could see it happening, but maybe despite the Shifting Mound, not because of Her… or, well, despite makes it sound like She would interfere but I don’t think She necessarily would.
The Long Quiet asks about people. They are concerned about people’s lives. They even have the option to have sympathy to and show kindness to the Echo. And the voices… If the voices are still there, whether inside the Long Quiet eternally or ever splitting off into their own beings/gods/demigods… the voices to some extent understand the fear of mortality and the experience of having lives cut far too short.
If the Long Quiet and/or the voices desire more, better, for normal people and there is some way to do that without harming themselves or the Shifting Mound, just tweaking things a little, would the Shifting Mound really extensively oppose them even if She didn’t see the point? I’m not sure She would.
Alternately… After, or even during, a reality in which the Long Quiet goes to the Shifting Mound’s heart, and They and the Princess leave out into the world together just as people – if only for a while – would the Shifting Mound be able to understand a bit better?
I’m never really sure of much when it comes to the Shifting Mound, truth be told; the way I personally interpreted Her during the “battle” sequence at least makes me think She would try her best to dissuade Long Quiet from interfering too personally with people’s lives, even if it’s a small thing. I mean, if it takes something as simple as a “Hey can we talk a bit more about this” for her to start a fight…
I’m probably being a bit unfair to Her - and to the Long Quiet as well, who knows -, but I didn’t feel like they were a couple in an equal relationship when they are in their fully awakened forms. They are equals in that they are both gods and they came from the same concept split in twain, but it does feel like Shifty is the boss and the Long Quiet has to go along with what She wants because She’s the one that can see the “totality of truth”, not him
Now, when it’s Long Quiet and the Shifting Mound at their heart core, smaller and unsure, I can see her at least making the effort to understand and being able to do so, given enough time - the harsh version of the princess you find in the final cabin may say she still doesn’t really care much for the world and for people, but she is willing to help the Long Quiet protect them even if it means looping because it means something to him. So I can see this version of her, unclad in divine confidence, coming to understand, even to care, both as self-growth and in a way to bond with her other half, but Shifting Mound the Full-Blown Goddess? I don’t think so.
cymatile:
birdmitosis:
tai-janai:
why does this sound completely unironic. damn right ya cold bitch youre the specialest little guy around.
reminder that if you choose to do nothing in the moment of clarity chapter and just fade away…
This scene is honestly so terribly sad. Cold’s entire logic is built on the foundation that emotions will hold you back and make you unable to act efficiently when the time comes. So he dulls himself the most he can, both physically and mentally, to be able to move forward to something else (really interesting how he goes against TLQ’s very nature of stagnation). In a way, this does kinda work, as he is the only voice whose influence is able to kill the princess without her putting up much a fight.
In MOC’s fade away scene tho, Cold unfortunately comes face to face with the truth that his lack of emotions, this mastery of the self he so prides himself on, will not save him. He thought the others would be dragged down by the emotions they could not numb, that he would be able to survive and keep going as long as he numbed everything, but then the world unravels and he unravels with it, realizing that all his efforts, all his mental fortitude, all that suffering he put up with, was for nothing. Everything he represents, was for nothing.
GUYS IT’S BACK
THESE LINES (burned grey route) ARE BACK
WE WIN THESEEEEE LET’S GOOOOOOO
SMITTEN AND COLD ENJOYERS FOR THE W
(it was such a minor issue that these lines got removed but i remember being so upset lol, i’m unimaginably happy that they’re back)
