sausage-rolll

Latest Posts by sausage-rolll

It always annoys me when people say that the Jurassic Park movies are ‘proof that bringing extinct species back is a bad idea’ or that the message in the movies is that a dinosaur zoo is impossible to safely run, because the parks in those movies literally never fail because of the dinosaurs. They fail because of corporate greed and general incompetence.

The original Jurassic park? Failed because of security malfunctions, sabotage and general lack of knowledge on the living specimens due to incompetent levels of research before they were introduced to their enclosures and guests.

Jurassic world? They had it in the bag. They’d created a profitable and incredibly safe system that had very few structural weak points and even less incidents involving guests being harmed by the dinosaurs. That was of course until they decided they wanted more money and fame and genetically spliced a superweapon dinosaur that could outsmart and overpower everything else on the island. Which obviously led to a security breach because they didn’t even do the bare minimum of research or even tell the people watching it WHAT IT WAS SPLICED WITH TO BEGIN WITH!

And then we have all the times where dinosaurs were released in rural areas and caused insane amounts of damage and death, which once again, only happened because greedy, underprepared and incompetent business men brought the dinosaurs to those locations without any sort of plan.

I've had a bit of a mixed opinion on the newest doctor who stuff for a while now, and for most of that time I've really struggled to pin point what exactly it is that's been missing. The writing isn't bad (for the most part), the actors are great, the settings are interesting and overall its felt like a very needed breath of fresh air for the show... but there is something missing, and I think I've finally figured out what it is.

The aliens are gone.

No seriously, look back on all of 15's episodes from both the current season and the last and count how many of them include some sort of alien civilisation or society. Not just a singular monstrous alien that acts as an antagonist but an actual collective. There are very few. And no, aliens that are visually indistinguishable from regular humans do not count.

from what I can tell, there are three. Just three. Three alien species across an entire season and a half of doctor who.

There's the slugs from dot and bubble, the birdmen in Rouge and the singular Silurian in joy to the world.

And from those three all of them act as antagonistic forces.

Just as a quick comparison, the first season of new who, which came out in 2005 and had a significantly smaller budget had at least 6.

Sorry, wait, did I say first season? My mistake what I meant was first two episodes.

Where have they all gone? The universe of Doctor Who used to be teeming with so many different reoccurring and one off alien races that all interacted and coexisted. They weren't just throwaway villains, they were living, breathing creatures.

It used to be so rich with so much diverse life. The living plastic, The Slitheen, Daleks, Adipose, Sontaran's, The Catkind, The Ood, Silurians, The Silence, The Atraxi, The Racnoss, The family of blood, The mighty Jagrafess, The Reapers, The Judoon, The Hath, The Ice warriors, The vashta nerada, The Sycorax, The tree people, The Zygon.

But now the best they can do is regular humans and sometimes the odd robot or two. It's kind of depressing when you really look at it. The universe of doctor who has lost its magic, the life that was once abundant wherever the doctor landed is now sparse and non-existent. We don't visit alien civilisations anymore, we don't even encounter aliens anymore.

While I doubt they'll actually get added to wilds, it occurred to me recently that Seltas and Seltas queen would work really fucking well with wilds' Alpha/Pack system.

Like, imagine a quest similar to Alpha Doshaguma and it's massive pack that happens in the windward plains but it's a Seltas queen and her swarm of Seltas followers in the scarlet forest. I just think that'd be neat, especially with how underutilised the Alpha monsters were in wilds.

Been thinking about HTTYD 3 recently (mainly about how much I dislike it) and man, it really is just the antithesis of the rest of the series isn’t it?

The whole franchise of HTTYD from the movies, to the specials, to the 2 TV shows is all about building the relationship between humans and dragons. It’s about them learning how to coexist and how to support each other.

1 was learning that coexistence was possible.

The first TV series was getting a deeper understanding on how to make coexistence work, and where it might not be possible in certain cases.

The second TV series largely built on this and also involved deeper conflicts with other human civilisations.

And 2 is basically the apex of everything they’ve learned. Where they’ve fully developed a symbiotic society for both people and dragons on berk and the only threats they really face at this point are from other, more aggressive and exploitative dragon users.

It ends with Hiccup becoming the chief of Berk and Toothless becoming the Alpha for the dragons.

That is until 3 comes along and basically says “coexistence is too hard, let's send every dragon in the world to a secret underground cave, sometimes the fight to exist is just not worth it and it’s better to roll over and give the oppressors and the extremists what they want”.

Which is a horrible message for the end of a series that largely revolves around how humans and dragons deserve to share the same space and that it’s possible for them to live harmoniously with one another.

Nothing in monster hunter wilds feels worse than someone joining your hunt (uninvited) right at the end and stealing literally half your Zenny from doing nothing.

Monster hunter wilds spoilers

Thinking about how there’s a possibility that Guardian Arkveld had Deviljho DNA in it.

It’d explain why it had this inherent, powerful desire to eat that other guardians lacked, to the point that it was able to teach itself how to with no outside influence and why when it did learn how to, it just couldn’t control itself.

And even if Guardian Arkveld lacked a digestive system like the other Guardians (which is unlikely because that food has to go somewhere and also unlike the other guardians it has/or grew reproductive organs), there’s a very real possibility that it would still suffer that same ravenous, environment destroying hunger that Deviljho possess.

There's also the fact that Guardian Arkvelds battle theme literally contains segments from Deviljho's own theme. This may just be hinting towards the thematic similarities between the two, but personally I think it could be read either way.

If this is true then... Holy fuck Wyveria really created the most aggressively violent and angry creature they could. Giving a monster Deviljho's aggression and ceaseless hunger with the ability to fly, tussle with every other apex predator in the area and with no way to satiate that hunger due to not physically being able to eat. They basically created a monster that's only goal is to kill everything it sees without need for rest or even stopping to eat.

Zoh Shia is their equal dragon weapon, but Arkveld strikes me as their attempt to create something that will kill as much stuff as quickly as possible.

Monster hunter wilds spoilers

The way I screamed when I saw that Olivia was going to be joining me while fighting the fish apex. Story hunts with other characters was something I really wanted out of wilds but wasn't confident we'd actually get, so when I saw that she was still there after the cutscene transition I was so excited!

That sort of thing was one of the big things I thought was missing with world's story. Especially when it came to Nergigante and Teostra, where it felt like there were very prominent characters tied to the monsters/missions, but it really stands out with just about any hunt where there's another well established and more experienced hunter around and they just turn to you like "ok you can handle this right? I'm gonna go back to camp and have a cuppa" So seeing the fellow hunters in wilds actually do something alongside you was so incredibly exciting and makes it feel much more like you're part of a team.

'Whetfish'?

Uhhhh yeah? They live in the water?

I find it utterly baffling that people can look at modern pokemon games and go "oh the graphical flaws are just a limitation of the switch" because like... what?! what the fuck are you talking about?!

The switch might not be the most powerful modern console but it's by no means weak.

This system can run games that look like this!

And this!

And this!

And this!

And this!

And this!

And this!

And this!

Oh yeah, and this.

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This is not a result of hardware limitations. This is the result of time constraints and unbelievable amounts of crunch. The scope of these games are getting higher and higher each year but the time they're allocated to finish them hasn't changed at all. In fact I'm pretty sure development times have gotten shorter. It's just not sustainable, which I think is something they've realised semi-recently.

There's some delicious irony in the fact that the omen twins are probably the most accomplished and successful demigods in the family despite having all the odds stacked against them.

Morgott

is the ruling king of Leyndell

has one of the most powerful armies in the lands between, only really being beaten out by Miquella's haligtree forces and Messmer's crusade army

has successfully guarded the capital from both the redmanes and volcano manor invasions and chased Godrick and Godefroy from its walls

is a master of holy magic, being able to project himself across the lands, seal multiple pathways to dangerous artefacts (the giants forge and the 3 fingers) and cast a myriad of holy weapon spells which he all likely had to self teach.

Mohg

is the lord of a budding dynasty

had some of the most loyal followers out of all of the demigods, despite his Omen heritage, which he wore openly and proudly

had such loyal followers that even after the dynasty's collapse, a small handful were still willing to fight a god to the death to do right by him

is a master of blood magic

can also project illusions of himself

somehow learned of a way to access the sealed away land of shadow, an ability so exclusive to him that Miquella had to use him to gain access to it.

has gained the favour of a fucking outer god! a feat that no other basic demigod was capable of

all of which was also probably self taught due to growing up in isolation in the sewers.

These two absolutely amaze me. They had everything stacked against them and were still able to forge a place for themselves in the lands between.

Personnal storyboard based on my favorite scene of @eldenring shadow of the erdtree, the tragic confrontation with former comrades… The music of the fight (Those United In Common Cause - Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree OST) is so beautiful I had to do something with it. It was a totally different exercise than the previous storyboard, with one simple arena but many different characters.

Honestly when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense that the lands between and land of shadow don't connect perfectly when you try to overlay the maps, even though they were once part of the same landmass.

The two have been separated for many years by the time the game takes place, and have both developed independently through untold years of turmoil, war, natural disasters and weathering.

I'd be more surprised if they did connect properly after all of that.

My take on the promised consort.

I believe that Radahn held the stars in place when Ranni began fearing her fate. She never wanted to become a puppet to the two fingers, and Radahn knowing this attempted to hold off her destiny for as long as possible. Though he likely knew that it would be an inevitability. The only other two living empyreans were cursed afterall. 

There was no way that Miquella or Malenia would be able to take Marika’s place, the two fingers weren’t even the slightest bit interested in either of them. Malenia was already claimed by the God of Rot and Miquella was perpetually in a state of adolescence. Ranni seems to be the only one who was ever actively bothered by her fingers and I believe this is because they had an intense desire for her to be the next god, assuming Miquella and Malenia as lost causes due to their curse.

I think this is when Miquella came to Radahn with a proposition. He will be seeking godhood. Even if the two fingers had no interest in him, even if the world thought him too small and frail to ascend, he was going to find a way, no matter the consequences. He was determined to become the next God and lead the world into an era of abundance and peace. To fix the mistakes of the past.

He only had one simple request.

“Promise me, you’ll be my consort.”

If Miquella were to ascend then Ranni would be free of her duty. She’d be able to live in peace knowing that she’d never have to be controlled by another's will. She wouldn’t have to become a god, she wouldn’t have to succeed queen Marika. And to top it all off, Radahn would get to play the role of his hero Godfrey. Ushering in a new era alongside a new god.

It was perfect.

That was, until the night of the black knives. The night the world was thrown into chaos. The night that the first demigods fell. And the night that he lost his sister.

Radahn likely wouldn’t have known about Ranni’s plot and would have thought her dead alongside the other victims of the night. Ranni was gone, and with her, so too was Radahns need for Miquella’s age.

I believe Radahn, fueled by grief, rage and the mad taint of his greatrune, denounced Miquella and struck out on his own as a warrior of the shattering. He didn’t need peace, he didn’t need Miquella. All he wanted was to fight. All he wanted now was endless war.

Maybe that would be enough to dull the pain of his loss? Not only the loss of his sibling and father, but also the loss of his purpose.

-

Now picture Miquella. Making the final preparations to begin his ascension. Only there’s one problem. His consort has abandoned him at the very last moment. As it turns out, it seems Radahn never really cared for Miquella or his visions for a new age, he was only really in it for his own gain. 

Imagine how devastated Miquella would be. Knowing that yet another one of his plans had fallen apart at the finish line. That the person he trusted to rule alongside him didn’t even hesitate to abandon him when it was no longer convenient for him.

His ascension to godhood would never happen. He would never be able to heal his sister. He would never be able to bring forth an age of compassion. He would never be able to right the wrongs of the past.

He had failed again.

Now imagine how furious this would make his people. How angry his followers and his sister would be to see Miquella rejected at such a pivotal moment. To see him mourning a consortship and an age that would never come to pass.

Is there really any wonder that they chose to march towards Caelid and deliver the promised consort by force?

My personal undertale headcanon is that Flowey isn’t emotionless and incapable of connecting with others because he lacks a soul or is inherently “bad”, it’s because he was deeply traumatized from watching his best friend/sibling kill themselves in an incredibly painful way only to die violently himself hours later at like, the age of 11?

That would break anybody. To make things even worse, he woke up an undisclosed amount of time later in a body wholly alien to him, unable to move, completely alone until Asgore found him. If that wasn’t bad enough he then had to directly face the consequences of his and Chara’s plan, and the deep pain that it caused everyone in the underground. His father, the king? Broken. His mother? Missing. His people? Devastated and hopeless. Chara? Gone.

And to make things just that much worse, when the pain and grief of everything gets too much for him, and he deems himself broken beyond repair and decides to take his life he finds out that he has complete control over time itself.

He then spends an unimaginable amount of time experimenting with this power, constantly trying to do the right thing, constantly trying to help people and make the world better. But he’s never satisfied. He’s never happy. He does this, again and again and again. He grows older and older but never actually ages, he sinks deeper and deeper into his own tiny world, becoming even more distant and disconnected from the people around him as situations repeat themselves and peoples lives loop and loop without end. 

Eventually he becomes so unbearingly bored of the endless, unescapable cycle that he starts to experiment with more negative situations. Afterall, his actions no longer have consequences, right? Anything he does, he can and will undo eventually. Even the most horrific actions hold no weight in Flowey’s impermanent world. The only person who ever has to deal with the consequences of Flowey’s actions… Is Flowey himself.

So he does it. Slipping deeper and deeper into his delusions. Falling deeper and deeper into genuine insanity as the years repeat themselves onto eternity and Flowey disconnects completely from the world around him.

At this point, he feels that he’s experienced quite literally everything the world has to offer. He probably lived as Flowey far longer than he ever did as Asriel by now. He’s befriended everyone, he’s hurt everyone. He’s saved everyone, he’s killed everyone. He’s done everything. Even violence doesn’t interest him anymore. So what does he do? He stops.

I’ve always wondered how Frisk even had the chance to fall into Mt. Ebott and usurp Flowey of his powers if he was constantly resetting the timeline, but I think I finally get it.

Flowey probably just… Stopped completely at some point. He stopped resetting, stopped interacting with the world and sat himself at his best friend's grave and just… waited. Waited for something, anything new to happen. Eventually enough time passed for a new human to fall, a human who inherently overpowers Flowey’s control of the timeline and so, for the first time in what must have felt like eternity Flowey was finally free from his power.

-

After everything that Asriel experienced leading up to and during his death, he probably would have needed intense therapy to overcome the trauma. But that’s not what he got was it? He didn’t get therapy. He didn’t get the chance to heal. He got the powers of a god and the curse of his actions no longer having consequences. I don’t believe Flowey is incapable of connecting with others or feeling true happiness or love. I think that’s just a lie he told himself so his situation wouldn’t hurt as much.

-

But, even after all of that I believe Flowey still has a chance at happiness. We see his character shift dramatically after the Omega Flowey fight. After he is once again stripped of his power over time, he has an intense moment of vulnerability that shows what I believe to be his true colors, followed by him coaching Frisk on how to get a better ending for everyone.

Sure, this was likely a trap for Flowey to take everyone’s souls, but once again, after his defeat as Asriel and returning to Flowey’s form, he has yet another character shift.

He’s genuinely happy at this ending. He’s happy that everyone escaped the underground, happy that Frisk gets to live their life. He begs the player to just leave everyone to their lives and to move on themselves. He doesn’t want his power back, he doesn’t want the cycle to continue anymore.

For the first time in god knows how long, Flowey is satisfied.

And maybe if the alarm clock dialogue is anything to go by, given time Flowey can finally heal. Flowey can finally find happiness and love again.

I think something that makes this scenario even more painful is that the explosion was caused by a bullet hitting a container of shadows own energy/power. I can't imagine how that must have made him feel.

OK I've seen some people be worried so I do wanna clarify something about Sonic Movie 3:

they DO make it clear that the military was trying to kill Maria

the change from it being a direct shot to an explosion was probably to keep the rating low, but they WERE pointing guns at that 12yo

walters said "those are children" and the soldier responded "we have our orders"

they WERE killing that 12yo whether it was via bullet or boom

just bc the bullet missed doesnt mean it wasnt aimed for her and shadow

it was clear that the military killed maria.

shadow never mentioned this to sonic tho which i think he should've bc it's gonna be a jolt for sonic in movie like 7 when shadow's like "did i never mention the military executed my sister" and sonic's like "they did WHAT"

here's the original description btw

paramour basically means a lover or partner, but one amazing detail I forgot to mention was that the description specifies that he was one of Rykards paramours, meaning there were more. He didn't just have a boyfriend, he had a whole ass polyamorous relationship with an unknown amount of people.

idc whatever the fuck else fromsoft cut or changed in elden ring I demand to know why this was changed:

LET THE MAN HAVE HIS CAT FROMSOFT PLEASE I BEG OF YOU.

Y'know I'm usually quite apprehensive to consider cut content as canon material... But I make an exception for Radahns cat and Rykards boyfriend. They're just too good not to have in the story and they're such minor details that considering them as canon effects nothing.

idc whatever the fuck else fromsoft cut or changed in elden ring I demand to know why this was changed:

LET THE MAN HAVE HIS CAT FROMSOFT PLEASE I BEG OF YOU.

Nowadays unless I'm doing an evil character run, Edgar from castle Morne has been put alongside the dung eater on my "on sight" list.

I just cannot stand him. The way he acts regarding the Misbegotten uprising makes my skin crawl. No, I'm not going to help you stomp out a slave uprising, why don't you go fuck yourself instead?

It's lucky that he's relatively unimportant to any other questlines because I just have no drive to help him at all.

I always find it super weird in the new doctor who seasons whenever they try to push the idea that the doctor has never settled down in one place for an extended period of time because… well he has. Quite a lot actually.

Just off the top of my head I can think of quite a few.

The weeks its implied that 11 spends with the Ponds in ‘The power of three’

The unknown amount of time he spends grieving in the sky of 1980’s London in ‘the snowmen’

The centuries he spent protecting Trenzalore in ‘the time of the doctor’

12’s 24 years living alongside River on Darillium in ‘the husbands of River Song’

And 12’s retired life as a professor watching over Missy in his final season

It’s not overly common but it happens just enough that it always makes me raise an eyebrow whenever they try to do the “the one adventure you’ve never had before” stuff again. Like, some of these are incredibly important to the doctor’s story and it’s always weird when they try to pretend they never happened.

The quiet tragedy of shadow of the erdtree is playing through the DLC, encountering cross after cross along your journey and slowly coming to the haunting realisation that Miquella, the person you’ve been tailing throughout the entirety of the DLC, the creator of the Haligtree and protector of its denizens, the most fearsome and kind demigod of them all… Is long dead.

He’s not at the divine gates seeking godhood. Not really. The person known as Miquella is buried at the base of each and every cross in the land. Survived only by a few select ailing entities. St. Trina, slowly wilting at the bottom of the world, The Scadutree avatar who inherited his greatrune, and Miquella the Kind at the very peak of Enir-Ilim.

He not only abandoned his flesh, but went so far as to fracture his very soul. His doubts, his fear, his love. All abandoned in an attempt to fashion a perfect god. To right the wrongs of his mother and people and finally bring the world peace.

His flesh, his power, his birthright, his fate, his fear, his doubts, his love… after leaving all that behind, how much of what’s left is actually Miquella?

Miquella may have hurt many people in his quest for godhood, but he himself was never spared from that very same pain. He may have stripped Radahn and Mohg of their dignity and sense of self to fashion into the perfect consort, but he was just as willing to do the same to himself to fashion into the perfect god.

Probably the mildest head cannon I'll ever share on here, but I like to think that Miquella grew his hair out so long because it was literally the only way he could show his actual age with his appearance. He may have been cursed to never grow, but his hair would always be a clear signifier to his peers that he was much more than he appeared.

It's so unfair that they dropped Nightreign halfway through the game awards because there was no way I'd be able to pay attention to the rest of the show after that reveal 😭😭😭

From the moment the trailer dropped my memory of everything afterwards becomes more and more of a blur.

Nightreign looks really cool but I’m definitely not looking forward to people using it in lore discussion for the next year, because as far as I can tell, it’s just a spinoff with very little to no actual relevance to the world and story of Elden Ring or Dark Souls, but everyone seems insistent in treating it like a full on sequel.

I could totally be wrong about this, but until we get more information on the game, I’m probably just going to treat it as a fun spin off/elseworld game and nothing more. And that's not a bad thing. I'd much prefer a crossover of these games to be its own thing instead of an actual "canon" story to both worlds.

Kinda ridiculous how every member of the pines family has “selfishness” as a key part of their character but Mabel is the only one that frequently gets attacked by the wider community for it.

Like, Ford found out he essentially created a universe devastating weapon and his top priority was to hide his blueprints for it instead of just destroying it because even though it was a tool of mass destruction it was still his research and life's work.

Stan is... Well Stan, a running joke in the series is him being a massive con-man and thief, and while it was for altruistic reasons, he was still willing to risk the universe's safety by reactivating the portal to get Ford back.

And Dipper is constantly willing to risk other people's happiness and safety for a chance of impressing the ones he looks up to. He manipulated time to get a shot at impressing Wendy, hurting Mabel and getting Blenden falsely imprisoned in the process. He used the size-changer thing to grow taller than Mabel because he was upset she was taller than him and literally raised the dead and almost got everyone killed to prove to the agents that he was telling the truth.

To reiterate my first point, each and every member of the pines family is incredibly selfish in one way or another, but that doesn't make them bad people, it just makes them people. So maybe we shouldn't be too mad at one character specifically for showing traits that they all have.

I just realised that this idea also tracks with their remembrance. The remembrance we receive from beating them isn’t “remembrance of the promised consort” or “remembrance of the kind” it's “remembrance of a god and a lord” it’s Radahn(Mohg) and Miquella together, as one.

It’s the only remembrance in the entire game that names multiple beings in its title, and to my knowledge, the only one that grants items related to different characters.

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This is sort of an unrelated thought but It’s also worth mentioning that in its description it refers to its owner as “Radahn, consort of Miquella” as if it were one being it was related to, despite it clearly being two. Which reminds me of how Godfrey is in some capacity, Serosh and Hoarah Loux together as one. Neither is ultimately more or less important in making up “Godfrey” as the other. Which could also further explain the striking similarities between Godfrey and Consort of Miquella.

Thinking about how Miquella and Radahn as a single boss are the perfect representation of all 3 demigod sibling groups.

Miquella - Marika & Radagon

Radahn - Rennala & Radagon

Mohg - Marika & Godfrey

Not only that but they also represent all 3 magic types. 

Faith - Miquella’s holy magic

Intelligence  - Radahn’s gravity magic

Arcane - Mohg’s bloodflame magic

The 3 of them converge into one being. Mohg’s body, Radahn’s soul and Miquella’s mind all working in perfect harmony. To become one.

Plot twist:

Radahn initially agreed to be Miquella's consort in order to spare Ranni of her fate of becoming a god, knowing that she wouldn't have to if another were to rise instead. However after she 'died' during the night of the black knives Radahn lost all incentive to uphold his end of the bargain, leading to the battle of Aionia

"Radahn is a warmonger!"

my brother in Christ, they are all warmongers. Radahn is probably the softest character of the lot when it comes to the leaders during the shattering.

Like, Rykard's house is a torture chamber and he's partly responsible for the most horrific (documented) war in the lands between and Ranni masterminded a mass assassination but we're beefing with their brother who *checks notes* Just really likes fighting things, riding his horse and is documented to be a rather fair and honourable opponent to go up against?

1) Yes I stole poll idea from a mutual, 2) Seluvis is excluded on the notion of being "comically evil" character (kinda like Petrus from DS1) when the purpose of the poll is that blorbo has a lot of nuance to base the defence on. No shade on his simps btw gfhfhdbg and 3) Marika and Mohg are excluded on the notion that hate towards them kinda evaporated after SOTE

Recently I’ve been thinking about Radahn and how, despite his pretty major importance to the overall story of elden ring, we really don’t know that much about him. And judging from texts from the game, neither do most of the characters.

He’s the only demigod we meet who never speaks a word, item descriptions regarding him are rather vague with the exception of a few, his relations to his family are largely a mystery and it seems that even his own followers have very conflicting ideas of what he would have wanted.

We never get to hear what the terms to his vow with Miquella was like, we don’t even get to hear whether he agreed to it or not. All we have is Miquella’s account of the events.

Despite having grown up with him, Blaidd talks about Radahn like he’s some stranger he hardly knows of.

Jerren saw him as an honourable warrior.

Freyja saw him as someone who valued war over all else, no matter what side he fought on.

And Miquella saw him as a kind and compassionate figure and the most fitting choice as his king consort for the age of compassion.

This all makes me feel like he must have been an incredibly reserved person. That beneath all of that power, pride and lust for battle was someone who primarily liked to keep to himself. With the exception of the animals that he kept in his care.

I was talking to my friend a while back and he mentioned how it's possible that Miquella/St. Trina got into sleep magic to help Malenia because her condition would have made it near impossible for her to sleep properly and I think it makes so much sense. She almost definitely suffers from chronic pain and I can't even begin to imagine how difficult sleep would have been for her (especially since the scarlet rot seems to have mental influence as well). I can totally see Miquella studying sleep aid spells/recourses to help their sister.

Looking back at all the depictions of Marika in the game and realising that she's missing the braid on her right side in every single one.

She never grew it back out. Never had herself depicted with both braids. Never even restyled her hair in a way that didn't exacerbate the missing half.

It was always there. It was always right there.