I Love Them All Dearly

Can we just talk about the connections between the scoring for rounds 1, 3, and 6 like come on Vivinos you didn't have to do this 😭

SPOILERS FOR ROUND 6 (the outcome of rounds 1 and 3 are fairly obvious)

The fact that Till and Ivan's scores in their winning rounds are exactly 1 point apart Vivinos when I catch you Vivinos—

🍃 Scholars and Scaras 🍃

For this week’s video I drew some of Sumeru’s finest fellas! ✨🍃 (here’s hoping it manifests some luck for Al Haitham’s banner so I can complete this set in-game 🙏💦)

▶️ SPEEDPAINT LINK

[DO NOT EDIT OR REPOST TO OTHER SITES / ACCOUNTS] ♻️reblogs are lovely tho!♻️

STATEMENT: Topaz's Stoneheart form would be extremely weak, far weaker than Aventurine's. Reasoning: Numby.

Evidence 1: Aventurine's Stoneheart form is very shiny

Evidence 2: Topaz's Cornerstone is of a similar making to Aventurine's, and is also quite shiny; it is also undamaged, unlike Aventurine's Cornerstone

Evidence 3: Based on Evidences 1 and 2, it is clear that Topaz's Stoneheart form would be EVEN SHINIER than Aventurine's

Evidence 4: Numby likes to eat shiny things, therefore Numby would try to eat Topaz and would be nibbling on any shiny part of her Stoneheart form, jumping all over her and generally being a nuisance, and not paying any mind to us or anything else that Topaz is fighting. Trotters are also known to be extremely nimble, so Topaz would be unable to neutralize Numby.

Conclusion: this is clearly canon.

Waiting for Dragon Dan Heng's Banner ~

Mydei, whenever Phainon is around: This arrogant fool? Don't listen to a word he says, Trailblazer. He doesn't know the first thing about manners or leadership. He's probably too scared to even take on Nikador's challenge.

Mydei, the moment Phainon's out of earshot:

Fellas is it gay to claim that there's no man in the world better suited to inheriting the divinity of the god you worship than your companion (who is flawless)?

Just askin' for a friend.

<3

Was there ever another choice?

I bought this stupid mfing light cone just for this

Xen's old scarf is probably the most colorful thing in his universe. My friend told me that "it looks like a radioactive unicorn barfed on it" and I agree. To circumvent this I changed his scarf to be a solid color. This is an older piece. =)

The other dude is Kieran. His observation skills are very keen—the mirror is indeed broken.

Ivan moment frfr???

A rambling analysis of Ivan's "Nowhere"

I'll start with my thoughts on the song itself, then break down some of the lyrics.

So, "Nowhere" is quite a bit different from Ivan's other songs, mostly in regards to the melody and his singing. His voice is a lot more... flat, and the pitch and length of the notes vary a lot less. In "Cure" and "Black Sorrow," there's a lot more variance: Ivan's voice goes from soft and low, singing shorter notes, to louder and higher, holding long notes, et cetera.

In Nowhere, the notes are typically shorter, and tend to stay in the same general area on the scale. Ivan's tone stays very consistent; in his other songs, it goes from calm and collected to full of emotion and feelings. He sounds a lot more monotone in Nowhere, and not just because he's singing quietly. He's not entirely apathetic; there's still a lot of emotion in his voice. But it's muted. Numb.

The only line that lacks this somewhat monotone, apathetic tone is "In love with you, when you were mine." This line is EVERYWHERE, and plays in the background of the ENTIRE TRACK.

And all of this kind of makes sense. "Black Sorrow" and "Cure" were both declarations of Ivan's love, and his feelings for Till. They were meant to be heard; they were meant to have an audience in Till. Ivan was projecting his emotions outwards.

"Nowhere" was not meant to be heard by anyone but Ivan himself—not even Till. It represented Ivan's internal thoughts, ones he would never say to anyone else—sort of how like someone might find certain things about a friend or significant other annoying, but choose not to say anything despite thinking it. Ivan is tired, and perhaps even a bit annoyed. He's wondering why Till doesn't return his feelings, and likely, wondering why he himself continues to love Till despite that.

Now, onto the lyrics (English translation b/c my Korean is awful):

That's just the kind of kid he is, so laugh Laugh, because he can't do anything No one cares about someone like him There's nowhere in the world for him to rest

It's been stated (see image below) that Ivan feels like he cannot be loved—that he's undeserving of it, or just doesn't have the qualifications. These lyrics are Ivan speaking about himself. Ivan is unable to get Till to return his feelings ("no one cares about someone like him"), and he is also, ultimately, unable to save Till ("Laugh, because he can't do anything"). To make this second thing worse, it happened not once, but TWICE: first when Ivan couldn't get Till to leave with him, and then when his actions in Round 6 ended up seemingly being for nothing in Round 7.

Another bit of the lyrics is as such:

Worse and worse this painful wound I become more and more numb

Ivan is slowly becoming more and more apathetic, and resigned to his fate, saying that "this always happens to me." Even the song's title is a reference to this: there's nowhere for Ivan to find solace, and all of "this" is going nowhere—"this" being Ivan's relationship with Till. Ivan is resigned to his fate of loving Till—almost certainly more than he loves himself—un"till" the end: until death.