DE: The A-ha moment

[bjornwilde]

 I love A-ha moments in stories, be they foreshadowing, character development, jaw-dropping revelations, or a spot light showing a character's awesome. What are some of your favorite A-ha moments for your pups?

I realize this can quickly lead to spoiler territory, so don't forget warnings and white text; Spoiler-[span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"]Arrr here be the spoiler.[/span], will work as long as you replace the bracket with the greater than or lesser than bracket used with HTML. Or if you are more comfortable with other HTML, go wild. = ]

Comments

[bjornwilde]

I think my favorite, non-spoilery A-ha moment for Andrea was when she was given a box of guns, yes just a cardboard box of guns, with which to stock an armory. She goes through each gun, points out how flawed they are and gets more and more offended; even finding a Saturday-night special that had a nickel slider. It turns out that all the guns were confiscated from stupid people trying to start shit with Pack members within Pack territory.

[death_gone_mad]

Hmm I don't know hom much to put into spoilers, since I doubt anyone is going to slog through Runescape's grind to get to the story. But it is getting less grindy every month, and maybe I should spoilerize what I have yet to reveal or what I am revealing right now in RP threads. Especially now that Amascut is spilling her guts in her thread with Yrael. you owe me a tag on that EP, by the way :P

So with Amascut, it was hinted at pretty early on that there would be nuance to her. She wasn't just an evil goddess of destruction. She was acting that way because of a mental illness caused by some unrevealed emotional trauma. This was even before the game developers started adding characterization to the gods beyond "Saradomin is lawful good, Zamorak is chaotic evil, Guthix is true neutral, Zaros is a mystery WOOoooOOOoooOOOoo." Although, some of that characterization must have been in the primary design document written up by Paul Gower especially since the planet that most of canon takes place on has a name that is an anagram of religion. So, recently, the traumas that caused Amascut to become what she is have been revealed and they were totally unanticipated by the player community.

Most believed that she had been emotionally manipulated by Sliske, one of the Mahjarrat, along with the others of his tribe, especially via their heavy use of necromancy (and necromancy would drive a death goddess nuts, of course). Many still believe Sliske is still manipulating her after these recent revelations, since he has proven to be a master ruseman. I think everyone assumed that she had no more allies because of her destructive and even self-destructive habits but then, in the quest Missing, Presumed Death revealed that her brother still has hope that she will recover and be redeemed one day. He also revealed that Amascut isn't personally stealing and eating souls, even in the underworld, but that she had filled the underworld with soul devouring beasts. And then the miniquest Mahjarrat Memories came along and revealed that not only did Icthlarin, Amascut's brother, went on a universe/multiverse spanning trip to ultimately find the Mahjarrat and bring them back with him, but that Amascut came along with him, but didn't come back because Icthlarin and the Mahjarrat had to evacuate and abandon Amascut there, quite possibly because Amascut accidetally awoke the Elder Goddess Mah. After Missing, Presumed Death, people were speculating that Icthlarin felt guilty because he felt he was partially responsible for his sister's insanity, but not that responsible. And then, in another of the Mahjarrat Memories, it was revealed that Tumeken, Amascut's father, self-detonated after the mahjarrat left Icthlarin to defect to Zaros in an attempt to defend the Kharid from the restrengthened Zarosian army. Being the god of the sun and light, and because of clarification later that it was a non-magical attack, I imagine it was an extremely powerful nuclear explosion. It destroyed a major city, turned the lush Kharid plains into a desert, and cut the mahjarrat population to a fifth of what it was. I imagine Amascut witnessed it, since an earlier bit of canon revealed that the Kharidian gods themselves fought in the Zarosian-Kharidian Wars and that it means that somehow Amascut found her way back home in time and fought in the war too. So, trauma all around and much more than anyone was expecting. Sure, it would take a lot to drive a goddess crazy but sheesh.

[mogget_cat]

you owe me a tag on that EP, by the way :P

Nope! You're up! :D

[death_gone_mad]

OOPS, I meant that for bjornwilde

[mogget_cat]

Aha! I had wondered. I was like, 'wait... I thought... no, I did. Huh?"

[bjornwilde]

D'oh! Yes, Quin will tag in once my head clears from a night of insomnia.

[onceaviking]

I have just finished watching True Blood Season Seven, Episode Four Three (I was clearly preoccupied when I wrote this) and I now feel completely justified in portraying the good Mr. Northman as heavily motivated by sex.

Not exactly jaw dropping, but nice all the same.

Also WHAM hair! Which was nothing but terribly amusing. Sorry.