Hi all,
We are testing out the vulnerability detector & active response of wazuh. At the moment we are running into an issue where we aren't able to trigger an active reponse on a event created by the vulnerability detector. By this I mean that by default there is a rule inlcuded in wauzh (23505) that checks if the log created by the vulnerability detector is "Active" & "High" it should trigger. When we test this out using the cli "/vaossec/bin/wazuh-logtest" and copy the json log into there, it doesn't work. (we converted the json into a oneliner and even tried to modify it to only have the data part of the complete log). But those changes didn't work.
All help is welcome :)
Thanks in advance.
Pasja De Groote

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(continuation of part 2)
III. e) The Mobius FF x FFVII collaboration
Alright, back to our suspension world-hopping! Let’s visit the realm of Mobius FF, —more specifically, the collaboration between Mobius FF and FFVII—, where I found the most substantial evidence for my theory.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the Mobius FF (MFF) world and games, let’s begin with a bit of a summary of the parts relevant to us. The story takes place in a world called Palamecia, to which people from other worlds are inexplicably summoned. The vast majority of those who are brought there don’t remember anything from their worlds of origin or their lives before Palamecia except their names: these amnesiac people are called Blanks. The main character is Wol, accompanied by a guiding fairy of Palamecia named Echo. Echo knows a lot about the mechanisms of Palamecia, as she’s tied to the realm. The leader of this world is Vox, a being who manifests only as a voice. The first thing all Blanks remember before they wake in Palamecia is Vox telling them the rules of the realm. Incidentally, the crystals of the MFF world are teleportation crystals.
III. e) i. Devs’ Statements
Let’s review some of the MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration devs’ statements before diving into its story.
For both the MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration and the Remake project, Kitase took on the role of producer while Nojima supervised the screenplay and wrote the scenario. The project leader was none other than the Remake trilogy’s Hamaguchi, who told a SE interviewer the following:

“We would love for you to play the [MFF x FFVII] collaboration event as you look forward to [Remake’s] release” (“Celebration of the Overseas Release of the Steam Version and FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE Collaboration Event”, Square Enix).

He later hints at the collaboration’s storyline:

“This collaboration is focused on Cloud, so the other characters will not make an appearance. Players will join Cloud, who has gone astray in Palamecia, on his adventures and see how the story unfolds based on his decisions. Content-wise, FINAL FANTASY VII fans will surely become fraught with emotion as events unfold in-game (laughs).”

Kitase concurs on the emotional aspect of the collaboration in the same interview:

“When it comes to the story, I seek two things– ‘mystery’ and ‘[…] emotional impact’.”

Clearly, fans of FFVII are supposed to react emotionally to the events of the collaboration. With these statements in mind to give us perspective, we can get into the plot points relevant to our analysis. MFF x FFVII Remake comes in two parts, the relevant plot points of which I will describe and analyze one at a time.
III. e) ii. Eclipse Contact
1) Fact-Finding
Part one of the MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration event is called Eclipse Contact. It came out in 2017 on Aerith’s birthday, February 7th, and its release campaign ran until March. In Eclipse Contact, Palamecia welcomes someone new: Cloud Strife appears in the realm with very little recollection of his core world of FFVII.
Cloud isn’t a Blank, since he recalls the mako reactors in Midgar upon his arrival in Palamecia, and also remembers that he was hired by Avalanche to blow them up:

“Echo: How did you end up in Palamecia?

Cloud: I… That day... I remember now. A job. I had taken a job. I was hired muscle protecting clients. They wanted to stop the reactor... We used a train to get past security... Was it at night? Something happened... Next thing I knew, I was floating through darkness. Then [I woke up here]”.

This piece of dialogue reveals that Eclipse Contact Cloud’s memories end at the very moment when Avalanche arrives at reactor 1 in OG (disk 1, chapter 1): the very beginning of the game. Consequently, Cloud does not remember anything that happened from the beginning of the OG timeline onwards.
Wol and Echo are intrigued by Cloud’s strange case: non-Blanks rarely arrive in Palamecia. The following text appears on the screen shortly after they meet:

“Perhaps he is not truly who he thinks he is.
Perhaps everything is illusory, a dream.
Only one thing is certain, that he must press on, one step at a time, toward the light that shines from the promised land.”

Just like he did in FFT’s Ivalice, Cloud feels the need to find the Promised Land in MFF x FFVII, despite the fact that he lacks memories of the OG timeline. Though Cloud doesn’t remember anything beyond the train ride to reactor 1, he does remember the Promised Land (at least somewhat). This is odd, given that in OG, Cloud didn’t learn about the Promised Land until several chapters into the game.
Wol and Echo agree to help Cloud figure out why he’s here, since there’s clearly something strange going on with his presence in Palamecia. In fact, Cloud brought Midgar’s mako reactors with him somehow, transplanting them onto the landscape of Palamecia. The group decides to bomb these reactors, following Cloud’s instincts in the hopes that it will jog his memory.
Now for my favorite part. After blowing up another reactor, the group is surprised by the appearance of a crystal. A piano rendition of Aerith’s theme begins. When Wol tries to touch the crystal, something akin to a force field rejects him. When Cloud approaches it, however, the crystal responds to his hand by flashing with light. As it begins to glow, Wol concludes that the crystal is linked to Cloud and Cloud alone. Let’s examine the resulting dialogue:

“Echo: This is the light in your memories. The light of home.

Cloud: Home? But I don’t—

Echo: If you don't remember… then your home is lost to you.

Cloud: Then my memories are gone.

Wol: Do you want to reclaim your past?

Cloud: Not interested... I am what I am now. Not what I was.

Wol: Then tell me… This light. If you can’t remember it, what does it mean to you?

Cloud: It's a warm light... I feel at peace. If this place —home— is as warm and peaceful as this light, then I want to go there.

Echo: You can't go there... Not back to the past.

Cloud: I see.

Echo: But even if you can't go back to the past, you can go forward. If you wish for it strongly enough, the crystal will show you the way. The way to a new world. The way to your Promised Land. […]

Cloud: So... Should [I] take [my] chances and make a wish to this crystal?

Wol: Go ahead. It’s your crystal.

Echo: I should warn you that once you start on this journey, there's no coming back.

Cloud: The past is the past. I want to go to a place where everything is new. I’m ready.“

What follows is a moment I call the wishing scene (13:43-14:34). Cloud closes his eyes and wishes on the crystal. It flashes, and suddenly, rainbow-colored ripples of light appear around it. Aerith’s theme is replaced by a slightly modified version of “Midgar, City of Mako”, the track that plays during the opening cutscene of Remake. You can recreate the modification by listening to “Midgar, City of Mako” from 2:00 to 2:23, then skipping to 3:00 and listening until 3:18. You may recognize the musical motif that kicks off the wishing scene as the Lifestream motif, which has become symbolic of the mysteries of the Remake trilogy, as it often plays during scenes where unexplainable plot deviations from OG occur— more specifically, deviations involving multiverse shenanigans. For instance, it plays during MOTF 4. It also plays in Rebirth after Cloud blocks masamune as Aerith is shown dying anyway.
Cloud disappears with his crystal, after which Echo speaks to Wol about Cloud’s journey:

“Echo: Each person gets the Promised Land they justly deserve, not the one they really need. If you’re a bad person, you go to a bad place. If you expect nothing, you get nothing. Even the journey there makes you look deep within yourself to find out who you really are. Cloud should be facing his own past as we speak. It’s cruel, but necessary. That battle was a long time coming”.

Apparently, at least in the context of this collaboration event, the Promised Land can be a reward or a punishment, depending on which you deserve. Echo explains that Cloud will have to face himself and his past on his way to his Promised Land. This means that the Cloud that appears in Eclipse Contact must next embark on a journey that will confront him with his past, test his mettle, and ultimately lead him to the Promised Land he justly deserves.
III. e) ii. 2) Fact Analysis
There’s a lot of vital information to dig into here, mostly provided by Echo. She claims that the crystal’s light is linked to Cloud’s memories of home; Cloud has to have known this home in the past, as it could not otherwise exist in his memories. MFF Cloud must be a post-OG Cloud. Unfortunately, Echo indicates that whatever Cloud’s home is, he’s lost both it and his memories of it. Despite this, Cloud describes his home as warm and peaceful, concluding that he wishes to find it. Though Cloud can’t return to the past, Echo tells him that if he wishes it strongly enough, the crystal can guide him toward a new world, where his home and his Promised Land exist in the future. The fact that Aerith’s theme is playing all throughout these descriptions of Cloud’s lost home, his Promised Land and the past that he can’t return to makes it extremely obvious that these concepts all point to Aerith. Aerith is Cloud’s lost home. Wherever Aerith is, that’s his Promised Land. The time spent with Aerith before her loss is the past he tragically can’t return to. You might have clocked the similarities between Eclipse Contact’s mention of Cloud’s lost home and DFF’s mention of Cloud’s lost dream: in both these titles, Cloud’s home and dream are equivalent to his Promised Land. It’s confirmed yet again that Aerith is the one Cloud hopes to return to, just like every soul returns to the Lifestream. At this juncture of my research, I was curious as to why the last thing Cloud remembers before waking in Palamecia is the run-up to the Reactor 1 bombing mission in OG (disk 1, chapter 1). This mystery will have to persist for a while longer.
The alarm bells in your head might’ve been triggered by the mention of the wishing scene’s rainbow ripple effects— and rightfully so. This visual cue has sparked passionate debate in the fandom since its appearances in Rebirth, as seen in these pictures:
Zack Choosing To Get A Cure For Cloud, Rebirth Chapter 14; Creating a New World/Timeline
Aerith Pushing Cloud Out of that World/Timeline, Remake Chapter 14
Cloud Blocking Masamune, Rebirth Chapter 14; Creating New World/Timeline
You might have read or heard that this rainbow effect signifies that a character has entered another timeline, created a portal to another timeline, created a new timeline or is being shown different timelines. Indeed, whenever the OG timeline is deviated from in a significant way, this effect appears. The pictures above present multiple examples of these shifting realities.
One might propose that the rainbow ripples in Eclipse Contact and Rebirth are unrelated because of the long period between their respective release dates. This long in-between period indeed makes it likelier that the effect was used without forethought in Eclipse Contact, forgotten over the years, and incidentally reused in Rebirth as a plot-important visual cue with no connection to Eclipse Contact. I’m inclined to disagree since the crystal is specifically described as a vessel that can take Cloud “to a new world” by Echo, which is a bit on the nose. Regardless, it’s plausible that there’s no connection. That is, it would be, if the rainbow effect didn’t show up in Remake too.
When the Whispers are finally defeated in chapter 18 of Remake, a burst of the rainbow ripple effects indicate the emergence of multiple worlds, newly freed from the restrictive clutches of fate (1:16:36-1:16:47). Shortly thereafter, Sephiroth takes Cloud to the Edge of Creation and invites him to join forces with him. Cloud refuses, and Sephiroth says the following:

“Seven seconds till the end. Time enough for you. Perhaps. But what will you do with it? Let's see.”

The question “What will you do with it?” implies that the answer is unknown, meaning Cloud is no longer bound to the OG timeline by fate: many alternate futures lay ahead. Sephiroth is telling Cloud and the audience that now, the mystery of the Remake trilogy has become “Which future will Cloud bring into existence? Which among the infinite possible timelines will his choices result in?” After pondering this aloud, Sephiroth leaves Cloud alone to consider the rainbow effects in the sky (1:19:23-1:19:36). Because they generally represent alternate or changing timelines, it’s safe to assume that the rainbow ripples here represent the myriad of possible worlds that Cloud’s actions in those seven seconds could generate. After all, Sephiroth was just talking about them, and chapter 18’s description in Remake reads as follows:

“In a world beyond, Sephiroth shows Cloud a vision of the planet seven seconds before its demise. Having strayed from the course destiny set for them, they strike out on a path towards an unknown future."

This explains why the player is shown Cloud staring at those colors in the apocalyptic sky at world’s end, directly after hearing Sephiroth’s cryptic words: those are all the alternate “unknown future” timelines ahead of him, now unravelled from fate. Amongst those rainbow ripples lies the answer to the question “What will you do with [the seven seconds]?”
Given that Remake was released in 2020 and Eclipse Contact came out in 2017, the major story elements of the Remake trilogy —including the eventuality of alternate timelines— had to have been planned out at the time of Eclipse Contact’s release: while the MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration was being made, Remake was also in production. Also recall that the collaboration event and the Remake trilogy share a codirector in Hamaguchi, a writer in Nojima and a producer in Kitase. Based on all this, it’s more than likely that the rainbow ripples in the Remake trilogy and inEclipse Contact represent the very same thing: alternate worlds and timelines. All this to say that when the rainbow effect appears around the crystal in the Eclipse Contact, it means the crystal is acting as a vessel to another world, just like Echo said.
But that’s not all Echo said: she also mentioned that this other world would take Cloud to his home, to his Promised Land. We’ve already established what that means for Cloud, what it’s meant since two whole decades at the time of Eclipse Contact’s release: this crystal will take Cloud to Aerith. So, where exactly did the crystal take Cloud? In what world can he meet Aerith again?
The music that plays during the wishing scene gives us a huge hint. As I noted before, the track playing in the background is a slightly modified version of Remake’s “Midgar, City of Mako”, which plays in the introduction cutscene of Remake. This is a musical cue that the ending of Cloud’s journey in Eclipse Contact and the very beginning of the Remake trilogy are closely related. Add the fact that the devs wanted players to experience this collaboration event before playing Remake, and it becomes undeniable: the crystal that appeared to Cloud in Palamecia —which offers to lead him to his home and Promised Land, meaning to Aerith—, took him to the world of the Remaketrilogy.
Eclipse Contact is huge. The whole crux of my theory lives and dies right here. However, we still have part two of the MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration event to analyze as well as its promotions to look into before I can drop the thesis on you, so bear with me in order to receive the most thorough analysis of all this possible! I want to give you every drop of proof I can!
III. e) ii. MFF x FFVII Remake Fatal Calling
1) Fact-Finding
Fatal Calling came out February 1 of 2018, and its release campaign ended in March. The game opens with a cutscene: Cloud is floating, seemingly unconscious, through a sparkling, green current of light. The current flows into a circle of bright, white light, surrounded by rainbow ripple effects as Cloud is driven toward and into it. An orb floats along with him. The Advent Children theme “The Promised Land” plays, a choir of mournful, aching, mutedly desperate souls engaged in a lamenting prayer. Sephiroth’s voice echoes:

“Sephiroth: It’s time. You may turn your back on the past, lock your memories away. Hide reality beneath a layer of illusion. But destiny will not die so easily. Yes. At memory’s end you may plead for it all to go away. But the past is a curse, binding your soul. It’s time. Wake to your fate. Rise to your destiny.

Cloud: (In a half-conscious grunt) Reunion…

Sephiroth: The light will lead you. Wake to your fate. Rise!”

Sephiroth’s mentions of Cloud hiding under an illusion and repressing his memories are no doubt allusions to Cloud’s past, which was complicated and darkened by Hojo’s experiments. It makes sense, then, that Cloud responds with “Reunion”. Fatal Calling indeed focuses on Cloud’s relationship to his past, his identity and Sephiroth. Everything involving Nibelheim —where everything started—, Sephiroth’s manipulation, and Hojo’s experiments are on the table. Also noteworthy if not out of place is Sephiroth’s evocation of fate.
Cloud enters a battle with Sephiroth with the help of Wol and Echo, who are surprised to see him back in Palamecia. Cloud tells them about the orb seen floating along with him in the opening cutscene: though he calls it a materia, he doesn’t know how or when he acquired it. Based on his behavior, it appears that Cloud remembers just as little about the events of OG as he did by the end of Eclipse Contact. Wol informs Cloud that whoever he heard speaking to him on his way here was probably Vox pretending to be Sephiroth.
As the group advances, Cloud recalls Midgar and decides they should go there next. At one of Midgar’s mako reactors, the group encounters Sephiroth, who speaks to himself:

“It's still not enough. This... this is but a pale imitation of the power I desire.”

Once Sephiroth has disappeared, Cloud explains what he remembers: Sephiroth was the greatest SOLDIER of all and a hero to Cloud, though Cloud can’t remember what exactly ended this admiration. As players of FFVII OG, we know the event in question is the Nibelheim incident, wherein Sephiroth slaughtered the town’s residents, including Cloud’s mother, after learning of his past. The former war hero also severely injured Tifa, whom Cloud presumed dead when he found her in the old mako reactor with a vicious slash on her chest. Cloud is agitated by the gaps in his memory, so the group resolves to follow Sephiroth for answers. When they find him again, Sephiroth causes Cloud to experience a piercing headache with the mere mention of the Reunion. They fight, but Sephiroth is too powerful— he skewers Cloud with the masamune and taunts his unconscious body:

“Sephiroth: A puppet. I won’t kill you. Not yet. Not until you know true despair.
Wol: If you want despair, we got plenty to go around. Palamecia’s full of it.
Sephiroth: Yes, this planet knows suffering. But it is not the world that was promised to me. I must go home. Tell Cloud, if he wants to see me again, he should face his memories. I will await him there, in the land of memory, where it all began. In Nibelheim.”

Sephiroth darkens Cloud’s materia, turning it black. Later, Wol explains to Cloud that Sephiroth stole the light from his materia, taking Cloud’s strength along with it.
Once Cloud has woken up, the group travels to Nibelheim to uncover the truth about Cloud’s memories. Cloud slowly gathers pieces of his past, shown to the player as titled, diary-like text written from various perspectives. Cloud learns the truth about SOLDIER, Jenova cells, Sephiroth, and what happened in Nibelheim. Let’s examine a few of these diary entries:

“A Warrior’s Tale: There's a girl in Nibelheim I think about. Warm. Cheerful. More grown-up than a child. Haven't talked to her much, but she seems nice. She's going to be leading the SOLDIERs to the mountain reactor. Maybe if I get into the survey team I'll get a chance to talk to her? Nah. She's out of my league.”

Young Cloud’s crush on Tifa is on full display! This must be a memory from his time as an infantryman accompanying Zack and Sephiroth to Nibelheim.

“Tale of the Nameless: I drift along in the mako, asleep. Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Give me a number. I… I… I am… The Reunion. The Reunion must happen.”

This entry could be taken from any one of the Nibelheim survivors’ perspectives, as they were all bathed in mako and turned into Sephiroth clones. I would venture to say this is Cloud’s perspective though, given the reference to this iconic line from OG:

“Cloud: Professor... please give me a number. Please, Professor...
Hojo: Shut up, miserable failure.” (disk 2, chapter 2).

The trio encounters Sephiroth near the old Mt. Nibel mako reactor. Because Sephiroth stole the light from his materia earlier, Cloud goes into the confrontation already drained of his strength. However, when Cloud lifts the materia in his hand, it lights up and creates rainbow ripples in the air around him, similar to those seen in Eclipse Contact and Rebirth. Cloud is healed of his injuries: he closes his eyes for a moment, wearing a peaceful expression. Sephiroth is displeased, but recovers quickly:

“Sephiroth: The guiding light… it healed you.

Wol: […] here, near the mako reactor, the materia regained its light. And your strength returned […]. [Sephiroth]’s here so he can steal the power you've stored inside that materia.

Sephiroth, with a short laugh: I have all the power I need. Cloud. What strength you’ve regained is yours. Use it to fight me. It’s time. Let’s decide this, in this land lost to despair. The prize is home. The Promised Land. There to answer the call of destiny.”

With this second evocation of fate, Sephiroth disappears.
Cloud, Wol and Echo find Sephiroth at the Northern Crater. He mocks Cloud for believing the orb in his possession is materia. Sephiroth waves a hand and his signature black and purple fog surrounds Cloud, immobilizing him. Sephiroth claims that the power Cloud regained at the Mt. Nibel reactor was Sephiroth’s all along. Now that it courses through Cloud’s veins, Sephiroth controls him. He calls Cloud his puppet and finishes with the following before the two vanish, leaving Wol and Echo alone:

“Now, let us return. Back to the Promised Land. The time of the Reunion has come.”

After Cloud finally breaks free and defeats Sephiroth with the help of Wol and Echo, the villain makes a final threat:

“Very good, Cloud. You’ve destroyed an illusion. But the time will come to abandon your illusions and face reality. Then, you will know true pain.”

Sephiroth disappears for the last time, his body surrounded by his signature dark fog and the rainbow ripples. A piano rendition of Tifa’s theme begins. Cloud’s orb rises into the air and becomes a crystal, with the same shape and glow as the one we see in Eclipse Contact. The following dialogue is illuminating:

“Cloud: I will fight. The light will lead me where I need to go.

Wol: You sure? Wasn’t that [crystal] Sephiroth’s?

Cloud: I heard Sephiroth's voice, at the end. Inside me. Whatever he put in me, it’s still in there. Someday I’ll settle that score. If I can't avoid destiny, I might as well face it head-on.

Wol: Yeah. That was quite a speech, Cloud. Surprised you made it through without laughing.

Cloud: Yeah, forget I said it. I will too.

Echo: Forgetting won’t make it go away. Even if the words fade from memory, your dream will never disappear. Not until it becomes real.“

The crystal shines as though in response.

“Echo: See? See, that's how the light of hope works. Hope can turn your dreams into reality.

Cloud: Yeah. I guess so. I might forget this world, but I won’t forget hope. And my reality, that’s for me to live.”

Tifa’s theme ends. Cloud approaches the crystal, and disappears in a beam of blinding light. Once Cloud has vanished with the crystal, Aerith’s theme begins playing. A few pale feathers with a slight orange tint (the color of MFF) float down onto the floor where he stood seconds before. The image fades to black. The credits roll, and Aerith’s theme continues all the way through.
Once both the final name in the credits and Aerith’s theme fade, we’re surprised by a sudden, troubling image: Sephiroth appears in a frightening flash, standing amidst the flames of Nibelheim. When his image fades to black, the collaboration title *“Final Fantasy VII x Mobius Final Fantasy”*appears on the screen. The FFVII title is surrounded by the 1997 meteor logo. Then, a flash of light: the titles reappear, except this time, they read “Final Fantasy VII REMAKE x Mobius Final Fantasy”. The new Remake Meteor logo replaces the 1997 version. As soon as these changes to the FFVIItitle and meteor logo occur, Aerith’s theme returns. It plays on until the game ends a few seconds later, the screen fading to black.
III. e) ii. 2) Fact Analysis
The introduction cutscene shows that MFF Cloud travelled from Eclipse Contact to Fatal Calling via Lifestream. It’s unclear how much time has passed in between, but the atemporal nature of the Lifestream makes the question irrelevant. My theory that MFF Cloud has died is corroborated by the way he’s depicted in the opening cutscene: his eyes are closed and his body is limp as the Lifestream carries him.
Eclipse Contact ended with Echo’s claim that Cloud will face his true self and confront his past while he journeys to his Promised Land. This description resembles what Cloud experienced in the OG Lifestream sequence (disk 2, chapter 8). Indeed, Fatal Calling revolves around the same topics the Lifestream sequence addresses: the truth about the Nibelheim incident, Hojo’s experiments, young Cloud’s crush on Tifa, etc. The opening cutscene shows Cloud being transported to his Promised Land and facing his past on the way there, just like Echo said he would.
Let’s now take a long detour to examine the song that plays during the opening cutscene of Fatal Calling: “The Promised Land” theme from Advent Children. The title and general subject of this song are obviously relevant to the cutscene, but there must be more to its inclusion than that. Perhaps the lyrics can help us understand its appearance in the opening cutscene of Fatal Calling. Here are the unofficial English lyrics (translated from the original Japanese lyrics by an anonymous fan and verified by me via DeepL):

“Why do we cling together?
Why do we give punishment to lesser hearts?
The planet did not forgive us
Did not forgive us
The planet did not forgive us
Did not forgive us
The pulse of veins flows through the earth
A faint, faint pulse
Of a heart drawn to death
A gentle life returns to the planet
Is it necessary to sacrifice souls?
Why do we cling together?
Why do we beg for forgiveness
In the Promised Land?” (“‘The Promised Land’ (theme)” by Final Fantasy Wiki).

The song appears to be a regretful lament of human behavior, expressed by the repetition of “Why do we […]?” questions. The behaviors listed are all typically human ones: the terms “[clinging] together” and “[giving] punishment to [the] lesser” express the uniquely human nature of tribalism and the consequences of the fear and hatred it can generate, and “[begging] for forgiveness in the Promised Land” is likely a reference to the human hypocrisy of only feeling sorry for one’s crimes when judgement day arrives. This last line describes a scenario where someone remains passive or ignorant in the face of something important, only to realize its essentiality once it’s too late. The repeated“The planet did not forgive us” lines reflect the fear of being condemned forever because of one’s mistakes, as though the planet is a deity one has sinned against. The lyric describing a pulse in the earth is obviously about the planet being alive— a reference to the Lifestream. But the pulse is faint and weak and the planet is dying, perishing because of mankind’s greed. This is an indictment of mako energy. The line “A gentle life returns to the planet” refers to an innocent’s soul returning to the Lifestream after death, while the next lyric “Is it necessary to sacrifice souls?” protests the “sacrifice” of the planet’s soul energy for mako production. In all this darkness, this song’s mention of “forgiveness in the Promised Land” leaves a modicum of hope for a better place, however meek, even though mankind might not deserve it. The song “The Promised Land” is both a lament of mankind’s ways and a plea for mercy, with religious and/or spiritual undertones. The song’s themes seem to be: the Promised Land itself, regret and shame, the sins and foolishness of mankind, the death of innocents, grief, Cetra spirituality, and a meek, quiet hope despite it all. The most interesting aspect of the song is its antithetical portrayal of death as a thing of both despair and hope, condemnation and salvation, cruelty and mercy, suffering and relief. Maybe we can glean more information about this theme’s significance in the world of FFVII if we examine the contexts in which it appears.
Importantly, the song plays in Marlene’s introductory narration of Advent Children, meaning its themes are related or similar to the film’s. I highly recommend listening and watching it again, even if you remember this iconic segment. Marlene references Aerith’s sacrifice as the image of Cloud lowering her into the water is shown. Note that Marlene says “Sadness was the price to see it end” (2:36) after we are shown Aerith’s death and her subsequent unleashing of the Lifestream (1:49-2:24): Aerith’s innocent life was sacrificed for the planet’s survival. The lyrics “A gentle life returns to the planet” and “Is it necessary to sacrifice souls?” suit Aerith’s situation quite well.
The theme also plays in Advent Children as Kadaj dies in Cloud’s arms (1:45:00-1:47:55), hearing Aerith’s gentle voice and reaching up to take her invisible hand. Here is what Aerith says to him in his dying moments as “The Promised Land” plays:

“Aerith’s voice: Kadaj?
Kadaj: Huh?
The dark sky has gone with Sephiroth. Healing rain starts falling from bright clouds. The rain no longer hurts Kadaj.
Aerith’s voice: You don’t have to hang on any longer.
Kadaj: Mother! Is that…?
Aerith’s voice: Everyone’s waiting, if you’re ready.
Kadaj nods his head slightly in acceptance. He holds out his hand, and slowly evaporates into the Lifestream. Cloud watches […]” (Advent Children).

Kadaj is brought into the Lifestream by Aerith as she provides rain from the Lifestream. All those with geostigma are healed by the rain, and Tifa feels Aerith’s presence as the party celebrates:

“Tifa, looking out at the falling rain […]: Somehow, I knew you were there. Thank you” (Advent Children).

Cloud stands in the rain with a smile —his first in the whole film—, closes his eyes and basks in Aerith’s healing with his face upturned. He is finally at peace:

“Cloud’s expression is one of peace as the [Lifestream] rain patters against him” (Final Fantasy VII Advent Children English script, “[83] Atop the Shinra Building”).

One thing is clear: the track “The Promised Land” accompanies Aerith. It only makes sense, since we’ve seen overwhelming evidence that she is Cloud’s Promised Land, and since she occupies the Lifestream —which some consider the Promised Land as it is where souls go after death— during the events of Advent Children. Note that when the piece plays, Cloud is shown either mourning Aerith and releasing her into the river at the Cetra capital, or basking in her presence, smiling with relief at the peaceful feeling that she’s somewhere near: these two opposing scenes reflect the song’s antithetical portrayal of death.
Additionally, the song’s themes of regret, shame concerning one’s sins and a small hope perfectly describe Cloud’s character arc and feelings in Advent Children. Cloud regrets his inability to save Aerith, which he considers a sin. Further, he only realized how important she is to him once it was too late to tell her. And of course, he harbors a fragile yet important hope that he’ll be reunited with her in the Promised Land:

“‘Can sins ever be forgiven?’ — Cloud asks this to Vincent, who mutters a brief answer. For both of them, ‘I couldn't protect my loved one’ is the sense of guilt that they carry, so their words resonate with weight” (FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania Revised Edition, “Chapter 2: Character in FFVIIWorld”, “Vincent Valentine”, “In Advent Children”, page 72).

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"’It is my sin that I couldn't protect my loved one’ — under this assumption, Cloud closes off his heart. What will the reunion with Aerith bring him? ‘I... think I want to be forgiven. Yeah, I just want to be forgiven’” (FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania Revised Edition, “Chapter 2: Character in FFVIIWorld”, “Cloud Strife”, “In Advent Children”, page 40).

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“Cloud, after seeing Aerith’s hand reach for him through the Lifestream: … I think I'm beginning to understand.
Tifa: What?

Cloud: An answer from the Planet… the Promised Land... I think I can meet her... there” (disk 3, chapter 3).

Just as the song and Marlene express in the introduction of the film, Aerith was innocent, and her sacrifice generated great grief. Cloud finally experiences peace when he feels her presence in the healing rain, and he smiles: he’s glad to be with her again, even if it’s only for a brief moment of tangential respite.
The scene depicts Aerith guiding Kadaj into the Lifestream as the song plays, tying her to the concept and theme song of the Promised Land once more. This connection is later solidified by Tifa’s thanks to the late flower girl. All of this evidence shows us that this musical theme is intimately linked to Aerith, as it never plays in her absence. After all, the song speaks of sins, the death of innocents, forgiveness, grief, a small sense of hope, regret and the afterlife: all themes relevant to Cloud’s feelings surrounding Aerith’s death in and outside of Advent Children.
The Remake OST also includes a version of this piece called “The Promised Land - Cycle of Life”. This iteration of the theme begins playing in the wake of the first bombing mission, right after Sephiroth taunts Cloud with his mother’s dying words in Sector 8 (chapter 2). Sephiroth appears to Cloud surrounded by flames, evoking the Nibelheim massacre, and the theme begins playing in the background once he disappears, continuing (13:17-15:30) as Cloud walks through the sector, encountering fires and destruction all around him. This version of the Promised Land theme is meant to emphasize the deaths of the innocent Nibelheim townsfolk and the innocents in Sector 8. This dreadful atmosphere is amplified by the cries of despair that ring all around as Cloud passes by NPC Sector 8 residents. Perhaps the themes of tribalism and mankind’s sin are relevant to this scene as well, since Shinra and Avalanche are two distinct and warring groups whose quarrels, regardless of their necessity, result in the deaths of innocents. The theme of guilt also emerges, reflecting the Avalanche members’ feelings upon seeing the unintended collateral damage of the explosion. “The Promised Land - Cycle of Life” plays until Cloud encounters Aerith on Loveless. So it seems in this scenario, the heavy weight of death and despair is lifted when Cloud meets the lively, cheery Aerith. Once more, Aerith is central to the musical theme of the Promised Land, as well as to the concept itself.
I also noticed that a version of the song plays as Cloud and the party ready to enter the Forgotten Capital to save Aerith in Rebirth’s chapter 14: it truly adds the weight of her upcoming death to the scene.
Back to Fatal Calling, the scene where Cloud regains his strength is quite mysterious. Wol says Cloud’s orb regained its “guiding light” light because of its proximity to the mako reactor. In the moment his strength is replenished, Cloud is shown tilting his head back and closing his eyes: this is reminiscent of the scene in Advent Children when he stands under Aerith’s healing Lifestream rain, feeling at peace. The rainbow ripples shining from the orb indicate that something is crossing the boundaries of worlds. Since the mako reactor pumps up the Lifestream, being near a reactor also means being physically near the Lifestream. This means Aerith’s spirit is within proximity. In my opinion, Aerith was able to heal Cloud from the Lifestream, just like in Advent Children. However, Aerith is not in Palamecia with him: her healing had to travel there through the Lifestream, transcending the boundaries of worlds, hence the rainbow ripples.
Let’s now address the appearance of Tifa’s character theme in Fatal Calling. Since Fatal Calling is all about discovering Cloud’s past in Nibelheim and then in Hojo’s lab, it makes lots of sense for Tifa’s theme to play as the crystal appears. In OG’s Lifestream sequence (disk 2 chapter 8), she’s the one there helping Cloud sort through his past instead of Wol and Echo. Cloud even picks up a piece of his childhood crush on Tifa in Fatal Calling as a shard of his memory. After all, this crush was the catalyst for him joining SOLDIER, and everything that transpired in consequence:

“Cloud: That was the first time I heard about Sephiroth. If I got strong like Sephiroth, then everyone might... If I could just get stronger... Then even Tifa would have to notice me” (FFVII OG, disk 2, chapter 8).

Additionally, it’s fitting that her theme should begin right after Sephiroth speaks of “[abandoning] your illusions and [facing] reality”, considering that Cloud’s false persona was concocted by Jenova using Tifa’s mistaken impressions of Cloud:

“While being tended to by a station worker in the Sector 7 Slum train station, [Cloud] was reunited with Tifa, and using the abilities of Jenova’s cells, formed a new personality” (FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania Revised Edition, “Chapter 2: Character in FFVII World, “Cloud Strife”, “Cloud Behavior Record, Compilation of FFVII”, page 40).

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“(Image caption:) A new personality takes shape the moment he sees Tifa” (FFVII Story Playback, “Story Check: Tifa’s Flashback”).

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“Tifa (to Cloud): Deep down, you're a pretty nice guy. Didn't see it when we were kids, but...” (Remake, chapter 14).

Well, Hi all! again! 4Th Wall here, I figured since I just got power back, I might as well play some catch up on both series. Hope you enjoy this episode!!
Yup, I fucked that up. This is a repost with the correct Episode number, LOL! It's been a while since I've done that.
First, Previous, Next (Patreon)
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Benjamin smiled, watching the girls skip ahead of him. Today was a testing day of sorts for him. Unwilling to release firearms into this world haphazardly, yet unwilling to go without them as a backup; he had pulled from one of his sister’s favorite video games. He had “melted down” his bowie knife, repurposing the metal to be used in his latest creation. The final product rode on his hip like a short sword, but Ben was satisfied in the design when the vast majority of the people he passed ignored it as just another adventurer’s blade. Benjamin hoped, that with the existence of Majik, that he would be able to pass off any… peculiarities... as the realm of the supernatural.

The three of them arrived at the tailor’s establishment, and the girls were met with a customary indifference that seemed to present itself when a slave’s “master” was present. The moment Benjamin entered, the seamstress ceased to pay attention to the girls, and instead addressed him directly, “Ah, The Forgemaster’s Protégé. What can I do for you this day.” She said cooly, bowing slightly in welcome. “I’m here commission some clothing for these two, a reward for good service.” Benjamin began. It was technically true; the success of the forge had afforded him much more coin than a mere apprentice could have made. Qort had taken him on as a true partner, and Benjamin earned enough to comfortably afford to cloth his “slaves” in whatever he chose.

Some stigma’s remained however, and the seamstress seemed to glare sideways at the girls as they perused the fabrics adorning the walls. “Is that wise? A slave could lose her place with such gifts.” she asked, her polite tone barely hiding her disapproval. Benjamin sighed internally, ‘oh for fucks sake’ he groaned in his own mind before putting on facad, “I find that proper reward, afforded on the right servant can result in” he paused, projecting a smug expression and blatantly looking the girls up and down. “a profound dedication to their duties” he finished with a satisfied smile as the seamstress covered her mouth with a hand to hide a smile of her own. The gambit worked, and the Seamstress was obviously satisfied that the “Aereesen slave whores” were being properly “used”. “Ah, I understand. What did you have in mind for them.” She practically moaned back at Benjamin. ‘This hag needs a good pounding….’ Benjamin’s inner monologue threatened to crack his facade, “That’s the fun part, my good lady. It’s their choice. The surprise is half the excitement.” He chuckled.

The seamstress openly smiled at him this time before nodding and stepping over to the two girls. Benjamin breathed a sigh of relief as she seemed to treat them at least marginally more warmly. The old racist bag didn’t need to know that Benjamin was secretly building a small nest egg for his girls, or that his sending them out to do errands for him was how he was teaching them about money, value, and the application of Mathematics. She also didn’t need to know that the full Cutlery set that she had purchased last week had been made by Vi’s own hand as her first full solo commission set. Benjamin had stamped his “mark” on them, because slaves were not allowed to own anything, including their own work; but Vi had begun with raw steel and finished with one of the finest cooking knife sets he had seen in this world or his.

Benjamin settled onto a bench outside, using the excuse of wanting to enjoy the morning air to afford his girls some privacy. Now that Viola and Valtrya were eating a healthy diet, and the right calorie amount; they had blossomed into absolute bombshells. Their hair had recovered, and both sported long flowing locks that boasted a silky satin black color and texture that betrayed hints of deep royal purple. The color reminded Benjamin of one of those expensive custom car paints that changed color depending on the lighting.

Their skin recovered almost as quickly as their hair. The sickly, scabbed look was quickly replaced with the same satin quality as their hair to the touch, but with a light grey coloring that almost seemed to tease the edge of hinting at a greyish purple. A dense pattern of Small freckles of the same dark, almost royal, purple as the highlights in their hair frolicked on both girl’s cheeks, and down the sides of their necks. Because of their early lack of understanding on modestly, Ben knew that those freckles traveled much further. The sad truth was that Benjamin understood fully why Aereesen’s were the prize of slavers and brothels, and he silently prayed that he could give them enough self-worth and skill to have a better life than that, once he got them out of the Principality.

A door’s soft creaking broke Benjamin from his thoughts as the two sisters stepped out smiling, “Get everything you need?” he asked standing as the three of them departed the establishment. Val nodded vigorously, and Vi smiled as she spoke, “I think so, but I had to practically beg the woman to stop showing us lingerie… what did you tell her?” Benjamin felt his cheeks heat as he responded, “What I had to. The old hag doesn’t get enough at home. It’s not my fault that your ‘enthusiasm’ is in the forge and your studies, not between the sheets. I didn’t lie to her, I just let her draw her own conclusions, sorry.”

Vi’s eyes twinkled for a second, “Oh,” She smirked, “Thaaat’s why she broke out the silk. Some of her options were..” She blatantly bit her lip at Benjamin. “You didn’t…” He asked in shock, and Vi lifted up on her tippy toes to brush her lips against his ear, “Not telling” she purred, setting Bens senses on fire. She backed up a step, openly smirking at his beet red face. “But your expression is adorable… My Lord” She stated the last two words with a deep sultry tone, knowing that Ben couldn’t scold her in public before taking his hand, “May we visit the bazar next? Val saw some jewelry she wanted to look at.” Benjamin gave her a pointed look, that turned into a smile as she beamed at him, “Ok, sounds good. I need to pick up some food for the week.”

It was later that afternoon when the three of them left the bazar. They found Jukha waiting on the bench in front of their home. “Jukha! How are you!” Benjamin called, clasping the Orc’s hand firmly as the girls rushed inside to put up their purchases. Jukha reciprocated, if somewhat stiffly, to the strange to him gesture. “Benjamin, it is good to see you well.” His tone stopped Ben in his tracks, “What is it. Is your wife, ok?”
Jukha shook his head, “Vilora is well, but I have been tasked with finding you.” He said carefully, “The slaver, the one you dueled for those two,” he nodded to Vi and Val as they stepped back out of the building, “The Heir of The Romoregin house is here. He has lodged an official demand for satisfaction, and he brought a champion.”

Benjamin stiffened, “Another duel? You said an ‘official demand’… what happens if I refuse.” Jukha winced at Ben’s tone, “It is an archaic practice of my people, rarely remembered, and even more rarely demanded. You cannot deny a satisfaction claim, but should you prevail, no further claims can be made upon your person. I am sorry Benjamin, but if you flee or refuse, your life is forfeit; and your property goes to the claimant.” Jukha looked pointedly at Viola and Valtrya. “The young puke has put me in danger as well, if I do not deliver you and them to the duel, I can be detained. If they torture me….” Benjamin’s eyes widened before hardening in understanding. “Jukha…” He turned to find Viola standing next to him, with his musket in one arm and his ammunition bag in the other, and sighed, “Fuck”. He loaded his musket with a single roundball cartridge this time, unwilling to fire buck and ball in the town streets. He pealed the ball out of the paper wading after pouring the poweder, reaching into his haversack to retrieve a small round patch made of pillow ticking. Jukha looked on in mild fascination as Benjamin spit on the cloth patch before wrapping the ball in it and ramming the whole thing down the barrel. It wasn’t much, but it reduce windage, ensuring at least reasonable enough accuracy from the smoothbore to keep from hitting innocent bystanders. It would also virtually eliminate blow-by, upping the chamber pressure and giving him a little more velocity. “I’m ready.”

The four of them entered the small city square to be met with Qort and three Org guards. These soldiers wore different insignia that Benjamin had been taught were the mark of the capital. “Beenjaymen Shayfe” one of them butchered his name, “I am.” Ben nodded firmly, the other guard nodded, “And your two slaves, good. Has Jukha informed you of the proceedings.” Benjamin scowled, “A legalized way to attempt a revenge killing? Yea, I’ve been told.” Ben didn’t bother to hide his vitriol, “So I have to kill a motherfucker for defending myself from his father?”

“Not quite. The Heir has brought a champion. The rules are simple, all forms of combat are allowed” The first guard began as the second one began chaining the wrists of Viola and Valtrya. Benjamin began to move before thinking, only to be held back by Jukha, “Peace albino. They must do this. Fighting them will cause a forfeit.” Benjamin looked at the terrified faces of the two girls. He forced himself to calm down outwardly, but Benjamin could feel the rage building. He had worked so hard to save those two, to get them out.. now some snot nosed brat was going to try to kill him because his father didn’t know when to fuck off. Benjamin stepped out from around the guards. The “heir” was a young Durr. Ben had no frame of reference for age, but the Heir was substantially shorter, and his facial tentacles were almost mere buds. Beside him stood a crimson colossus, the same species as the Hunter he had shot saving Jukha. He was taller than that female, and was wearing plate armor, gilded in silver. He hefted a great sword of some kind and smiled openly at Benjamin. It was not a pleasant expression. “Ah, so You’re the puke I’ll be cleaning from my blade. I am Krastorin. Come here, pale one, I’ll make it quick.”

Benjamin looked him over, subtly shifting into a shooting stance but keeping his musket looking like he was resting the butt of a spear on the ground. “You look accomplished, what makes you do the bidding of the boy.” He asked, blatant scorn on his tone. The Young Durr flinched, his small tentacle buds writhing violently. “H’Dare Yee!” he bellowed, voice cracking with the strain of fury, “Aye’ll ‘ave Yee Head on Me’Wall!!”
Benjamin ignored him, focusing on the Hellirine. The man looked back at the boy with a raised eyebrow, “The young puke promised me one of those.” He pointed at Vi and Val, who had reverted to their former trembling submissive postures that Ben had met them in. “It appears that they are as well kept as claimed. I look forward to sampling them.” He leered. Benjamin looked over at the Young Durr and found his face a mixture of relief and anger. ‘Ah, lied about daddy’s slaves.’ He turned to the soldier standing next to him, “Is the duel on?” he growled.

“Combatants! Begin!” was the Soldiers response, and the crimson mercenary lifted his sword from his shoulders advancing forward with a long confident stride, “at last, let’s get this over wi..” a clap of thunder echo’d through the Feral wood, and most of the crowd cried out in surprise as Benjamin disappeared, seemingly behind a bubble of fire, and brimstone. The single round ball ignored the mercenary’s plate armor. Punching straight through as the soft lead mushroomed out into a ragged disk that measured almost an inch and a half. The mangled projectile, still travelling at almost half the speed of sound, eviscerated the chest cavity of the Mercenary before blowing a one foot wide hole out of the crimson man’s back. The exit wound missed Krastorin’s spine by an inch, but it didn’t matter. The projectile embedded itself into a post, thankfully missing any bystanders by mere inches in some cases. The Young Durr, who was standing just behind and to the side of his champion, was screaming as he pawed at the bits of pale yellow blood, bones, and fragments of internal organs now covering him from head to toe.

Benjamin handed the smoking musket to Jukha, drawing his short sword and walking over to a sputtering, choking, and coughing Krastorin. The Hellirine lay face down on the ground, having fallen that way from the momentum of his initial advance. The back of Benjamins mind was sickly amused as he remembered the old Hollywood trope of bullets throwing people backward, and a pinch of regret sparked in his soul as his opponent death rattled. He stepped up to the Heir, resting the blade against his neck, “Are we done here. Be a better man than your father and learn when to save your own life.” The Young Durr froze, staring up at him in abject terror for several moments as a puddle formed at his feet. Benjamin opened his mouth to speak again when the boy simply passed out, falling into the puddle of his own mess as his mind refused to stay conscious.

Benjamin turned to walk back towards Jukha and the girls. “Unchain them.” Benjamin’s tone could have frozen a raging forge’s inferno. To his surprise, two of the soldiers drew their weapons on him, “You need to come with us. All Touched must be registered with...” Benjamin pointed his short sword at the one talking… and pulled the trigger. The percussion revolver built into the hilt of the short sword was zero’d using a notch Benjamin cut into the crossguard, and the tip of the curved blade as a crude set of open sights. The barrel of the revolver lay along one side of the blade, and was rifled. The speaking soldier orc’s took the smaller pistol round through the forehead, exploding the back of his skull in a cone of dark green and grey mist. The exit wound showered his companion in bits of bone and brains. Benjamin’s thumb found the hammer, and four satisfying clicks echo’d in the stunned silence, “HEAR ME!” He growled, “I, am touched by the Gods. I posses the power to end any life I choose using the power of Hell itself!” ‘if I have to show them a gun, might as well throw them off the trail’ “The violence of the raging volcano obeys my very fingertips.” His revolvesword bucked a second time as another soldier orc made a move to rush him. The smaller pistol round still punched through the orcs armor and out the back, but only left him screaming on the ground. Benjamin re-cocked, and leveled his weapon at the orc holding the chains to Val and Vi. “Now, release them.” This last remaining Orc did as asked, before gathering up his screaming companion as the girls rushed to Benjamin, he pulled them close, whispering, “I’m sorry we wont be able to pick up your dresses.”

The three of them packed up that night. Qort had understood, knowing all too well what the Principality would do to acquire a Touched of Benjamins ability. “Stay safe my friend. I pray our paths cross again.” Jukha snuck them out of the village that night, using his wagon to get them to his home. They stayed a week, laying low while they planned their next move. The girls spent their time learning recipes from Jukha’s wife, and ben took the time to unwind a bit. Jukha and He went on a hunt, and Benjamin was given a run down on the flora and fauna of the Feral wood. The two of them brought back a pair of Stags, and the three women cooked them a feast.

“Dinner’s ready!!” called Viola, setting the last of the sides on the table as the dutch oven roasted meat was brought off of the stove top. It was a simple yet elegant meal. Stag, potatoes, some kind of Kale style vegetable that Benjamin had never seen before. Soon enough, everyone at the table was leaning back, as full as they could make themselves. “So, pinkskin,” Jukha asked, “Where do you plan on going. I wouldn’t mind you staying with me. I could use another hunter, but I suspect that they would notice the extra product I brought to the village.”

Benjamin Hummed, “The Maridian Combine. Qort told me that they banned slavery over a century ago, the girls have learned so much already. It would be easy to find jobs for them.” Vi and Val drooped slightly but hid it well. Jukha noticed it but said nothing. “A good choice, their boarders are well guarded, you would need to free them before you cross, or end up in a dungeon yourself.”

“Good point, I can write up a simple writ of freedom. Something I can sign and give to them.” Benjamin nodded, “I can get started on that to…” he paused as a hand fell on his. He looked to see Viola staring at him, fighting back tears, “Hey, what’s wrong. You will be free…” Jukha nodded slowly and stood. “love,” he said to Vilora, “I need some help with the livestock” The Farie met his eyes in unspoken understanding, fluttering out the front door with Jukha.

“Vi, what’s wrong.” Benjamin asked gently.

“No… go… Val… stay…” Both of them turned to Valtrya in shock. She was trembling, “I wont..leave.”

“You speak?” Benjamin looked in shock, but Viola spoke next, “Benjamin, we don’t want to leave. We want to stay, with you. I…” She paused. Ben sighed, “I want you to stay too.” He said, finally admitting it to himself, “But I can’t own you. It’s killing me that you are my property.” He reached up and wiped a tear from Vi’s eyes, “You are so much more than property. I feel evil, every day that I wake up knowing that I could do anything I wanted to you, or worse, die and have someone else hurt you for the fun of it.” Benjamin bowed his head. Viola reached out, lifting his chin to look into his eyes, “Then come with us.” She whispered as Val stood up and stepped around the table, “yes.. You, come.” She wrapped herself around Ben from the side leaning in until she was resting her head against his shoulder, “I’m… staying.. with you.” she said softly. Viola nodded, “Benjamin, how old do you think we are.”

Ben looked at her in confusion, “I have no idea, I’ve always assumed you were teenagers. 13-14 years old for Val, maybe 16 for you, but that was when you were skin and bones.” He admitted.

Viola’s eyes widened in understanding. “You did not want to bed us because you thought us children.” Benjamin nodded slowly, answering. “And forcing sex on a child is the worst kind of crime on my world”. Viola and Valtrya looked at each other, before Vi spoke. “Ben, my sister will turn one hundred and three in a fortnight. I just had my one hundred and fifteenth birthday last week.” She leaned in, pressing her lips to Bens as she kissed him passionately for a moment. “We are no children,” Viola paused as Valtrya leaned in, kissing Ben lightly on the neck, “You are not forcing us to do anything, but leave.” Viola whispered as she began to close in to a surprised Benjamin for another kiss.

The door to the cabin flew open violently, and the girls pulled back to a more modest distance. Jukha walked in, carrying a panting Vilora. “What happened.” Ben asked hurriedly, hoping he wasn’t blushing as hard as the heat on his cheeks suggested. Vilora waved a hand as Jukha set her down in her chair, “The Vin… My sisters… they reached out… They wish to meet…” The Farie gathered herself, “They also sent a warning. We must leave, tonight… hunters.”
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If you made it this far, I very much appreciate it. I hope you enjoyed the episode! If you believe I have earned it, I have a Patreon that is two episodes ahead of the free releases for this series. I hope you feel taking a look is worth it. Either way, come hang out in the comments. Everyone's welcome! I've discovered Im a bit of a "warts and all" poster, so even critical comments are welcome. Hell, You might even teach me something (it happens more than I'd like to admit).
I have heard people off and on reference Royal road, So I am going to give it another shot. I'll be adding the Royal Road link from now on. If you like reading over there, It is on the same schedule as here. I would greatly appreciate a like/review/comment if you feel so inclined. Thank you again for stopping by.
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Shortly after Final Fantasy VII hit the gaming world in 1997, Cloud Strife’s howls of grief at the loss of his beloved companion Aerith Gainsborough were echoed by droves and droves of fans. These echoes gathered in swarms, reaching the developers in the form of petition signatures, each begging the makers of the game to allow Aerith’s resurrection. Though these prayers remained unanswered —until now—, there soon came more protests: this time, fans pleaded with the developers to consider making a remake of the original game. Both of these wishes were met with considerable derision, with large chunks of the fandom calling the requests delusional— which is why the Final Fantasy world had to prepare for another meteoric hit when the Remake project was finally announced in 2015. With Kitase, Nomura, Toriyama, Nojima, Uematsu and more of the original developers at the helm, along with longtime FFVII fan-turned-developer Hamaguchi, the Remake trilogy was met with great expectations. These were nevertheless surpassed, though one aspect of the trilogy’s first entry seemed to thoroughly puzzle some and enrage others. Far and wide, the resounding questions were “What are these Whisper things?”, “Why is Cloud having visions unrelated to Nibelheim and Zack?” and “Why and how in the hell did Zack survive?”
Friends, I believe the answer lies within this post. Welcome to my literary-analysis-based theory on the Remake trilogy’s most important and most secret plot point: Cloud’s hidden mission. I want to make this fun and suspenseful to read, so I will write my analyses in the same order and manner in which I encountered them while putting my theory together. You will be reading what initially sparked my curiosity, the path I took while researching for answers, the conclusions I made every step of the way, and only then will you read my theory, after which we’ll try and apply it to the Remake trilogy so far and see if it fits! I want you to experience the rollercoaster that I did when digging through SE content to bring you this post. Thank you so much for waiting for and anticipating this analysis, and I do hope you read every word to soak in every last bit of Clerith you can get. I also hope it’s really fun and touching for you (I cried at least once making this)! Let’s embark on our adventure through the compilation, other FF games and real-life events to find out what the Remake project is truly all about and anticipate the events of part 3.
N.B.: Please be aware that I have never seen this theory navigate online, so I have no idea if anyone has ever come up with a similar hypothesis. The big reveal I’m building toward might be something you’re already aware of or suspected. In that case, I hope this post doesn’t disappoint you if you’re one of the lovely people who requested it! At the very least, it will provide you with valuable literary and musical analysis, a ton of evidence you haven’t considered yet, and hopefully, entertainment too!
WARNING: Please be careful with the censored spoiler text, because I'll be referencing other FF games in this analysis and I don't want to ruin anything for you! Obviously, this analysis contains spoilers for the entirety of the FFVII compilation. Additionally, if you're not a fan of Clerith and you've stumbled upon this post, please stop here. I would hate it if something I worked on and posted made you angry, so please don't read this analysis. I have only good intentions and I just want everyone to enjoy the FFVII world as much as they can.

I. Groundwork: The Remake Timelines Theory

Before I take you on this ride, we must lay down the framework of the Remake Timelines Theory. In this section, we’ll be reviewing the general consensus of theorizers within the fandom on timeline/multiverse shenanigans, with some added specifications on my part. Please keep in mind that because the timeline mechanics are kept quite vague by the devs, there might be certain inaccuracies in my iteration of the timelines theory. Thankfully, these potential variances won’t have any effect on the legitimacy of the theory I’ll be presenting to you in this analysis.
I. a) Sephiroth’s Plan
The premise of the Remake trilogy is widely thought to be the result of post-OG Sephiroth attempting to succeed where he failed in OG. There are six key points we need to keep in mind to understand how this was possible.
I. a) i. Sephiroth in the Lifestream
Firstly, it’s important to remember that Sephiroth is dead and located in the Lifestream before OG even begins, and remains that way for almost all of OG's duration. He is only able to operate in the world of the living via his/Jenova's control over the living Sephiroth clones. In the OG timeline then, Sephiroth is sent to the Lifestream by Cloud twice: once before the game takes place on the night of the Nibelheim incident (pre-OG), and a second time during the final battle against Sephiroth (disk 3, chapter 3). During the long period between the Nibelheim incident and Sephiroth’s rebirth at the Northern Crater (disk 2, chapter 2), he exists in the Lifestream. After his ultimate defeat (post-OG), he returns there for good.
II. a) ii. Sephiroth Unintegrated
Secondly, because he is full of hatred and unyielding determination, Sephiroth’s spirit cannot become one with the planet. After both occasions where Cloud kills him in OG, Sephiroth retains his individual will and the memories of his lifetime, remaining a separate entity in the Lifestream. He says so himself in Nojima’s Advent Children prequel novel On a Way to a Smile:

“[Sephiroth] could sense the Lifestream trying to erode his spirit— the memories of his former experiences, thoughts and emotions. If he allowed himself to be taken into the current, the being he once was would soon disseminate and disappear amongst the spirit energy cycling around the planet. [He] thought this unacceptable. The planet was to be his to rule, and to become a part of that system would be nothing short of defeat” ("Lifestream Black 1").

Combined with Bugenhagen’s basic lesson on planetology (FFVII OG, disk 1, chapter 19), this excerpt provides interesting information on how the Lifestream normally works. Usually, when a life returns to the planet, its individuality (personality, will, consciousness, memories, etc.) is stripped away. The trappings of a soul’s former lifetime are progressively dissolved so that all that is left is the spirit itself, ready to integrate into the Lifestream. This way, soul energy can be “recycled” by the planet to animate new lifeforms in a sort of reincarnation process. The erasure of one’s memories in the Lifestream is necessary for the creation of a brand new life, poised to make its own memories: the slate must be wiped clean, so to speak. Sephiroth’s sheer hatred for and desire to dominate the planet is enough to keep him from undergoing this process.
It is also thought that Sephiroth cannot be integrated into the Lifestream because he was conceived with the use of Jenova cells in vitro. Given that so much of his consciousness and genetic makeup originate from an alien life force, it is impossible for him to become one with the planet.
Regardless of the reason, it is precisely this persisting individuality in death that allows Sephiroth to meddle in the world of the living during the post-OG events of Advent Children, as explained to us by post-OG Aerith in On a Way to a Smile:

“[Aerith] had sensed a different presence within the Lifestream cycling around the planet. It was the vehemence of a strong will, one that would never join with the planet. She knew this consciousness. It was [Sephiroth]. A merciless spirit hidden behind a beauteous wall. That spirit was now operating from within the Lifestream. [She] sensed that he was planning to exert his influence to the surface of the planet“ ("Lifestream White 1").

I. a) iii. The Lifestream Beyond Time
Our third point is that the Lifestream has existed for as long as the planet, and has therefore touched every part of its history— including, of course, the events of OG. On that account, one could think of the Lifestream as atemporal. Considering this, it is possible for a spirit in the Lifestream to communicate with or even travel to the past, provided the necessary circumstances and/or abilities. For instance, the Aerith that appears in Cloud’s resolution scene in Remake (chapter 14) is commonly considered to be a post-OG Aerith, appearing to him from the future to try and dissuade him from falling for her. This time-defying event is made possible by the fact that post-OG Aerith’s spirit has access to the atemporal Lifestream because she's deceased. In my view, this explains why she dissolves into green light (Lifestream visual cue) at the end of the resolution scene (5:19-5:45). This is not time travel per se, but it is a manner of communication unobstructed by the one-directionality of a linear timeline that only spirits can perform.
I. a) iv. Sephiroth Beyond Time
What we’ve covered so far amounts to our fourth point. Please familiarize yourself with the graph below before you continue reading. Refer back to the graph when you encounter text in bold.
The Remake Timelines Theory: FFVII OG Timeline
As we discussed in section “I. a) i.”, Sephiroth is dead and located in the Lifestream for the duration of the green arrow and beyond point D: in the context of the OG timeline, he can only ever be considered “alive” during the period highlighted in purple. In section “I. a) ii.”, we asserted that Sephiroth retained his individual will in the Lifestream, enabling him to exert his influence on the world of the living by manipulating his clones on the surface. In section “I. a) iii.”, we covered the atemporal nature of the Lifestream, which allows post-OG Aerith’s spirit to communicate with her past, living self thanks to her Cetra abilities. Now, I will explain to you how Sephiroth was able to do virtually the same thing, albeit his lack of Cetra blood.
To the characters of the story and a fully immersed first-time player of OG, the timeline above was not always an established series of events: when they first started playing FFVII OG, the player began at point B, with nothing existing beyond it. It is only as the player moved Cloud forward that the black, arrowed timeline was drawn, accumulating lived events (or points) in Cloud’s wake. The picture you see above is only available to Cloud and to the player with hindsight. All this to state the obvious: at point B, Cloud could not know what would occur, say, at point C.
During the period highlighted in purple, Sephiroth was “alive” again, accumulating new memories on the surface of the planet and adding them to his consciousness. When he entered the Lifestream for the second time at point D, he brought these memories with him. Simply put, after returning to the Lifestream at point D, Sephiroth remembers what happened during the period highlighted in purple. However, given that the Lifestream exists beyond time, upon Sephiroth’s consciousness’ return to the Lifestream at point D, his newly acquired memories were also made available to him at all points on the green, double-arrowed line— including point A, before the OG timeline even begins at point B. So while it is true that Cloud cannot know what will occur at point C if he is only at point B, Sephiroth indeed knows what will occur during the period highlighted in purple when he is only at point A. While a living, pre-OG Aerith would be able to receive post-OG Aerith’s spirit’s knowledge through the Lifestream thanks to her Cetra powers, Sephiroth has no need for this ability. The fact that he resides in the Lifestream for practically the entire FFVII OG timeline renders the limitations of time irrelevant: as far as the FFVII OG timeline is concerned, Sephiroth exists beyond time itself.
In summary, after point D was first encountered in OG, pre-OG Sephiroth (in the Lifestream) is made aware of his eventual defeat, and begins plotting an alternate path to victory. This time, with the benefit of hindsight, he will do things differently: we experience his "second” attempt at FFVII as the Remake trilogy.
I. a) v. Sephiroth Against Fate
Of course, the Whispers stand squarely in Sephiroth’s way. This leads us to our fifth point, which Remake Ultimania describes better than I ever could:

“According to Red XIII, who gained knowledge through his contact with Aerith, ‘The Whispers are drawn to those who attempt to alter destiny’s course and ensure they do not’ […]. It would appear that what the Whispers deem to be ‘fate’ is the original story of Final Fantasy VII” (section 08 “Secrets”, “Newly Arisen Mysteries”, “What Is the Goal of the Elusive Whispers?”, page 733).

OG’s plot line is the fated timeline, and the Whispers are tasked with its preservation. They prevent alternative paths from even beginning to branch out from the OG timeline, which poses a problem for Sephiroth: he cannot win FFVII if his destiny is to lose it.
I. a) vi. Sephiroth and the Multiverse
Consequently, our sixth point is that Sephiroth must dismantle the mechanisms of fate before he can even try to accomplish his dreams of godhood.
As Sephiroth explains in chapter 14 of Rebirth, “the planet encompasses [an ever unfolding] multitude of worlds”, and these “[new worlds are born] when the boundaries of fate are breached.” Since the Whispers uphold the “boundaries of fate”, a world in which Sephiroth’s evil plans succeed can only emerge after the Whispers have been defeated. Otherwise, destiny will continue to protect the OG plot line by preventing any significant deviations. Consequently, before the party vanquishes fate, the Remake timeline and the OG timeline are one and the same: before chapter 18, Remake Barret is OG Barret, Remake Tifa is OG Tifa, Remake Hojo is OG Hojo, etc. After the defeat of Destiny, the OG timeline is no longer protected by fate: there are now an infinite number of timelines or worlds, including those we see glimpses of in Rebirth: Remake Barret is no longer necessarily OG Barret, Remake Tifa is no longer necessarily OG Tifa, Remake Hojo is no longer necessarily OG Hojo, etc. Perhaps this is why Aerith gives the party the following warning at destiny’s crossroads in Remake:

“[This] is the wall of destiny. If we go through it… if we go beyond it… then all of us will change, too” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “Destiny’s Crossroads”).

I. a) vii. Sephiroth’s Plan
Now that these six points have been elucidated, we can compose a solid hypothesis on how Sephiroth plots to win FFVII.
After gaining knowledge of his eventual demise (disk 3, chapter 3), pre-OG Sephiroth began thinking of what he must do in Remake from the Lifestream. First, Sephiroth must antagonize the Whispers in the initial stages of the OG timeline. He accomplishes this by commanding his clones to commit acts that drastically violate the fated timeline, engendering plot-line deviations that the Whispers must course-correct. The most extreme example transpires in Remake’s chapter 17 when the Sephiroth clone in President Shinra’s office kills Barret, forcing the Whispers to restore the fated plot line by coming forth and reviving him. The Whispers react to Sephiroth’s prodding by rushing in to protect fate, their efforts culminating in the protective wall of destiny that surrounds Midgar in chapter 18.
Secondly, after he’s created an opportunity for a battle against the Whispers, Sephiroth must convince the party to seize it and beat fate for him. After all, a mere Sephiroth clone is probably no match for Destiny. This second step is accomplished in Remake’s chapter 18 when Sephiroth successfully tempts Cloud to breach the boundaries of fate. Now that destiny is no longer a limitation, worlds deviating from the OG timeline can finally emerge; Sephiroth has a chance at victory.
The steps Sephiroth plans to take going forward are unknowable at this stage, but we do get more hints in Rebirth’s chapter 13. At the Temple of the Ancients, Sephiroth reveals a part of his plot:

“Sephiroth: My fragmented mother, these errant worlds... All shall be one again.
Aerith: The ‘Reunion’…!”

It seems Sephiroth eventually plans to merge the worlds created by destiny’s defeat in Remake’s chapter 18. My guess is he hopes to achieve godhood in part 3 and consolidate all diverting worlds into a single timeline protected by destiny once more— only this time, his victory will replace the ending of OG as the destined outcome. If he succeeds, Sephiroth’s Black Whispers will likely replace the planet’s Whispers as the arbiters of his desired fate.
I. b) Aerith’s Intervention
But Aerith can’t let this slide unchallenged!
We know that before chapter 18 of Remake, while the OG plot-line is still protected by fate, Aerith has knowledge of its future. This is insinuated by certain slips of the tongue: for instance, when Aerith reveals she knows Cloud is a mercenary upon meeting him for the second time in chapter 8, just like she knows Tifa will ask her to retrieve Marlene at Seventh Heaven in chapter 12. In the run-up to Remake, post-OG Aerith's spirit likely sensed Sephiroth planning his second try at FFVII in the Lifestream. She’s been able to anticipate Sephiroth’s plotting in the Lifestream before, namely in the context of Advent Children:

“[Aerith] had sensed a different presence within the Lifestream cycling around the planet […]. It was [Sephiroth] […]. That spirit was now operating from within the Lifestream. [She] sensed that he was planning to exert his influence [on] the surface of the planet” (On a Way to a Smile, "Lifestream White 1").

If you’re wondering how Aerith was able to maintain her individuality in the Lifestream like Sephiroth, On a Way to a Smile provides the following explanation:

“[Aerith] was an Ancient, which explained how she was able to maintain her individuality even within the Lifestream. If she so wished she could become part of the planet at any time, but [she] thought it too early for that just yet” ("Lifestream White 1").

It is thought that, as a countermeasure to Sephiroth's scheming, post-OG Aerith’s spirit used the atemporal nature of the Lifestream to inform her past, living self (pre-OG Aerith) of this new threat to the planet. Because the Cetra can commune with spirits, pre-OG Aerith would have been able to receive post-OG Aerith’s message from the Lifestream without a problem. Essentially, pre-OG Aerith received post-OG Aerith’s memories of the fated OG timeline. As a consequence, pre-OG Aerith embarks on the OG timeline with knowledge of the fated future that demands she give her life: the player experiences this version of her in Remake.
Be that as it may, it’s unclear how much Remake Aerith is aware of. You would think she’d be completely opposed to defeating, destiny since it protects the planet, but Aerith shows ambivalence toward the idea instead. Had she gotten a clear message from her future self that she must keep fate intact, she would not have allowed the party to enter the battle against fate in chapter 18. She doesn’t seem to know what the Whispers are the first time she encounters them either. Regardless, what’s important is that the Aerith seen in Remake is the result of pre-OG Aerith receiving knowledge from post-OG Aerith via the Lifestream.
I. c) Ambiguity: Memory Transfer or Time-Travel?
There remains an ambiguity pertaining to the Aerith we see in Remake and the question of time travel. What I’ve described to you in section “I. b)” is post-OG Aerith's spirit transferring her memories to her past self through the Lifestream. However, it’s possible that post-OG Aerith’s consciousness used the atemporal nature of the Lifestream to inhabit her living OG body instead, effectively time-traveling. There is no evidence to outright refute either explanation, since the gaps in Aerith’s memories of the OG plot-line in Remake can be explained in both cases. For instance, in a memory transfer scenario, it’s possible that post-OG Aerith only communicated the most essential information to pre-OG Aerith. On the other hand, in a time-travel scenario, one could interpret the following quotes as proof that the Whispers are progressively erasing Aerith’s memories of OG as Remake advances:

“Aerith: Every time the Whispers touch me, a piece of me falls away” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “Aerith Speaks”)

&

“At any rate, Aerith is perplexed at how, like a flower being scattered, something inside is being taken away by the Whispers and lost to her” (Toriyama in FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “Aerith Speaks”, “Scenario Staff Q&A - Answered by Motomu Toriyama”).

This ambiguity is completely irrelevant to Sephiroth’s situation in Remake, as we established in section “I. a) iv.”.
The specifics don’t matter nearly as much as I’m impressing upon you by explaining all these little alternatives. Simply keep in mind that: regardless of why, the Sephiroth and Aerith we see in Remake know the events of the OG game because they have acquired this knowledge from the future, and the events of Remake occur squarely within the OG timeline until the Whispers are defeated in chapter 18.
So there! That’s my iteration of the Remake Timelines Theory! I hope I’ve made it clear in your mind, or at least clearer. Now that we’ve established the widely theorized premise of the Remake trilogy, we can get into our theory on its hidden premise.
II. My Initial Curiosity
My theory first burgeoned upon going through Remake for the second time. I noticed something strange going on with Cloud, something that could not be explained by the Remake Timelines Theory. Key moments in Remake Cloud’s experience of the OG timeline (aka, everything before chapter 18) stuck out to me as strange and mysterious, and certain inexplicable audiovisual cues struck me as hugely significant. It was upon watching the tear fall from Cloud’s eye during my second go at chapter 8 that I knew I had to look into this.
At the very end of Remake’s chapter 8, Cloud watches Aerith walk away from him, humming happily into the night air as she sets off to lead the way to Sector 7. According to the VA script notes, “his heart skips a beat” and watching her walk away provokes a sudden “anxiety” within him. Triggered by the familiarity of the sight, a strange sensation overcomes Cloud:

“[There’s a] close-up shot of Cloud’s fingertips (they’re tingling). He presses them to his temples (his eyes are burning). A trickle of tears quickly rolls down from the eye hidden behind his hand” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “A Midnight Ambush”).

If you’re clever, you’ll recognize these lines as a reference to the speech Cloud makes in OG following Aerith’s death at the City of the Ancients (“My fingers are tingling. My mouth is dry. My eyes are burning!”) (disk 1, chapter 28). In this small moment in chapter 8 of Remake, Cloud experiences a flash of the profound grief he is destined to feel upon Aerith’s fated death.
Many players immediately recognized the composition of this scene: the blue-greenish air, the straight path Aerith heads down, the sight of her walking away itself… this moment closely resembles Cloud’s Sleeping Forest dream of Aerith in OG, wherein Cloud and Aerith’s very last words are exchanged (disk 1, chapter 25). Toriyama, codirector of the Remake project, comments on this scene thusly:

“It’s possible these similarities […] cause a memory of the future to be called forth in Cloud” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “A Midnight Ambush”).

The language used by Toriyama here is strange in both the English translation and the Japanese original: the term “memory of the future” makes no sense. One cannot remember things they haven’t already experienced, so why did Toriyama use the word “memory” to describe a "future" event? Couldn’t he have simply said that Remake Cloud experiences “visions of the future” rather than “[memories]”?
Cloud experiences a few moments like these throughout the game. These pseudo-premonitions are just as markedly exclusive to Remake as the Whispers are. I did not want to dismiss them as a foreshadowing device the devs included just to elicit emotional reactions from OG players; I felt they were more important. And thus began my digging! My mission was initially to figure out what these “[memories of the future]” (MOTFs) could signify… I had no clue it would turn into what I’m writing right now.
II. a) Each MOTF and Its Context
I began by finding every one of Cloud’s MOTFs so I could better understand them.
MOTF 1 occurs in chapter 2 on Sector 8’s Loveless Street, when Cloud sees Aerith struggling against the Whispers. The VA script notes reveal that even though this is only his first time seeing her, Cloud recognizes Aerith’s face:

“Recognizing Aerith’s face causes Cloud to experience [a hallucination]. Sephiroth is suddenly standing between him and Aerith” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “Encountering Aerith”).

Sephiroth then taunts Cloud with words that, according to the script notes, “[live] inside of Cloud's heart”: “You can’t protect anyone. Not even yourself”. Cloud should not recognize Aerith’s face at this point in the OG timeline, nor should he associate it with not being able to protect people.
MOTF 2 occurs in chapter 3, at the plaza in front of the Sector 7 slums support pillar. Cloud experiences a MOTF of the plate falling, which is fated to occur at a much later point in chapter 12. The Whispers float near him, “watching Cloud alertly as he sees a vision of the future” (FFVII Remake Ultimania, section 08 “Secrets”, “Newly Arisen Mysteries”, “What Is the Goal of the Elusive Whispers?”, page 733).
MOTF 3 occurs in Aerith’s church at the start of chapter 8, when Aerith mentions that her mother’s materia is “not good for anything at all”. Triggered by the mention and sight of the White Materia, Cloud’s fourth MOTF takes the form of a vision: he sees quick flashes of the materia falling into the lake of the Forgotten Capital and Aerith holding her hands together in prayer. These are evidently visions of her death in OG (disk 1, chapter 28).
MOTF 4 is the one we first discussed, occurring at the very end of chapter 8 as Cloud watches Aerith walk away from him to lead the way toward Sector 7.
MOTF 5 occurs in chapter 13 shortly after the Sector 7 plate has fallen on the slums. Cloud tells Barret that Marlene is safe at Aerith’s house, and they begin heading there. As Cloud thinks about Aerith, the VA script notes describe the very next moment as follows:

“Cloud: Tifa, you know anything about the Ancients?
Tifa: I’ve heard of them before, but…
Barret walks on ahead, showing little interest in the topic.
Barret: Read a book on planetology and they’re sure to come up. They’re a tribe that cultivated the planet a real long time ago. Used to talk to it. That sort of stuff.
Cloud: That must be why the Turks were after her.
[Psychic] interference starts up.
[Cloud has a] flashback of Sephiroth from five years ago, after learning of his ancestry at Shinra Manor […].
Sephiroth [(in flashback, voice tinged with madness)]: Within my veins flows the blood of the Ancients. I am the rightful heir to this planet!
The flashback ends and Cloud looks lost in thought. The interference starts up once more. Cloud makes agonized sounds. When he opens his eyes, Sephiroth is actually standing before him.
Sephiroth: You failed again— failed to protect [her]*.
Cloud is startled. He shrinks back. Tifa watches what’s happening. The other two can’t see Sephiroth. All they see is Cloud acting frightened.
Sephiroth: But loss will make you strong. […] Isn’t that what you want?
With that, Sephiroth departs.”

*Sephiroth does not use a gendered pronoun here, because the grammatical structure of the original Japanese sentence doesn’t necessitate it. I've seen some debate as to whether the proper translation is “her” (Aerith, who’s just been kidnapped), or “them” (Jessie, Biggs or Wedge, who have seemingly just died). I believe Sephiroth was referring to Aerith for a few reasons. First, Cloud’s hallucinations of Sephiroth always appear as a response to whatever he is perceiving or thinking about at the moment. At this point in the scene, Cloud has been thinking and talking about Aerith for some time, and not about Jessie, Biggs or Wedge. The Sephiroth hallucination must therefore be referring to “her” rather than to “them”. Secondly, Cloud was never tasked with “[protecting]” Avalanche, but he was in fact tasked with “[protecting]” Aerith as her bodyguard back in chapter 8: it makes far more sense for Sephiroth to be referring to Aerith when he speaks about someone Cloud “failed to protect”. Finally, FFVII Remake Ultimania describes this piece of dialogue as “[Sephiroth aiming] these profound words at Cloud, who not only failed to prevent the tragedy in the Sector 7 slums but allowed Aerith to be abducted” (Sephiroth’s profile in section 01 “Character & World”, “Impressive Words”, page 29): the specific mention of Aerith here seals my decision to translate the line with the pronoun “her”.
Contrary to Sephiroth’s words, this is the first time in Remake that Cloud “[fails] to protect [Aerith]”, and he hasn’t “[lost]” her either— not yet, at least. So why use the words "again" and "loss"? This fifth MOTF must be similar to MOTF 1, in that Sephiroth is referring to Cloud’s guilt surrounding Aerith’s death in OG.
MOTF 6 occurs in chapter 17, in Aerith and Ifalna’s old room at Shinra HQ. The Whispers swarm Aerith as she tells the party earnestly that she wants to do everything in her power to help her friends and the planet: according to the script notes, it is at this very moment that, “for some reason, Cloud feels his chest constrict tightly” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “Aerith Speaks”). In the corresponding cutscene, this unpleasant physiological reaction to Aerith’s words makes Cloud glance down at his chest with a confounded frown. This physical response to her speech about wanting to fulfill her duty to the planet implies that Cloud somehow knows deep down that saving the world will cost Aerith her life.
At this point, I noticed that five out of the six MOTFs Cloud experiences in Remake are triggered by and/or revolve around Aerith specifically, the one exception being a MOTF of the Sector 7 plate fall. One could actually argue that this MOTF revolves around Aerith too, considering the plate fall marks the first time Aerith is taken away from Cloud since reuniting with her in the Sector 5 slums church. This is more than plausible, as MOTF 5 proves that in the wake of the Sector 7 plate fall, Cloud’s main concern is Aerith (see section “II. a)”). How fitting is it, then, that the merc of few words’ longest uninterrupted piece of dialogue in all of Remake is:

“We found an underground Shinra lab where they've done human testing. This wasn't the first time and it won't be the last. I know these people, and I know they're never gonna let Aerith go. She's the last living Ancient on the planet. Think about what that means to Shinra's scientists. Especially to that son of a bitch Hojo. We're all just numbers and meat to him—“ (Remake, chapter 13).

Cloud would’ve gone on too, had Elmyra and Tifa not stopped him.
At this juncture in my research, my questions were only stacking up. What are these MOTFs? Why is Cloud the only one experiencing them? Why do all of them implicate Aerith? What did the devs hope to accomplish with their inclusion in the game? What do they mean for Remake’s story? But most importantly:
II. b) What Does Cloud Know?
The first assertion we have to make is simple, yet essential: the only reason Cloud would experience MOTFs is that whatever’s triggered them is significant to him in one way or another. Some part of him must recognize his triggers for them to be triggers at all. It’s clear he doesn’t consciously understand the meaning of his MOTF triggers, just like his Jenova triggers: for example, Cloud doesn’t know why Zack’s name causes him to experience psychic interference, but it sure does. We as players know Cloud’s MOTFs are hinting at Aerith’s fated death because of our awareness of OG, but as a character navigating the OG timeline, Remake Cloud shouldn't even be unconsciously aware of Aerith’s eventual death in the slightest! Whatever the nature of the MOTFs, it’s essential to understand that if Cloud “[recognizes]” Aerith’s face the first time he sees her, it must mean some part of him knows Aerith’s face in the first place. If this recognition triggers a hallucination of Sephiroth telling Cloud he “can’t protect anyone”, it must mean some part of him knows he was once unable to protect Aerith. The same goes for every other MOTF: subconsciously, Remake Cloud somehow has memories of the OG timeline. Most interestingly, it looks like he either only has OG memories related to Aerith, or like his OG memories of Aerith are simply the only ones prominent enough to trigger his MOTFs. Why and how does Remake Cloud have memories of OG, and why are they so focused on Aerith in particular? What does he know?
When examining a situation with no explanation, it’s wise to examine similar situations that have already been explained. Maybe the mystery of Remake Cloud’s MOTFs will become more approachable if we consider the cases of the only other Remake characters who seem to know the future: Aerith and Sephiroth. Remake Sephiroth knows the future of the OG timeline because his consciousness exists beyond time in the Lifestream, while Remake Aerith likely obtained her knowledge of the future from post-OG Aerith’s spirit via the Lifestream. But what about Cloud? Where does his weaker, fragmented knowledge come from?
(continued in part 2)

For context, (in one of my previous AP exams), we had about 40 minutes left in the second section of our exam (FRQ’s) when our proctor suddenly and genuinely stood up, called for all of our attention, and said something along the lines of “Sorry to interrupt but is anyone’s computer about to die so I can give you a charger?” (The test was digital). Like in the moment I was a bit flustered because I didn’t expect any interruptions as I was really in the zone but afterwards I figured it was whatever (also it was a concern like I appreciate asking I guess). But looking back now, doesn't this break the rules or was I misinformed? I'm continuously seeing TikToks of AP Exam stories where it’s been emphasized that many students experienced score cancellations because they cried and made a loud noise, etc. which is why I’m starting to think maybe this was wrong. Obviously the last thing I do want are for scores to be canceled but I’m genuinely just wondering for my own sanity if this was a part of the rules or not.

Day 45 of qotsa March Madness! Yesterday's matchup had Tangled Up In Plaid, coming out on top. Today's matchup is Sick, Sick, Sick vs You Can't Quit Me Baby. Like always, if y'all don't know the rules, read the background below!
Background:
Hey guys! As it is March, in the College Basketball world, it is March Madness, and as a Basketball fanatic and a qotsa fanatic, I thought that bringing the two together for the subreddit would be a fun time to pass the time before the band embarks on the Canada/NA Leg! For the 64 songs in the bracket, I took (for the most part) the top 64 most streamed songs on Spotify. Then I did a random generator, generating each seeding. That's why you may see that some of your favorites that didn't make it unfortunately. Every day when the polls expire, I will upload the next matchup. I will have all the brackets linked in each post updated with the scores. May the best song win!
Block A
Block B
Block C
Block D
View Poll

III. Changing Modes of Making It: From Horatio Alger to the Happy Hooker
…
From “Self-Culture” to Self-Promotion through “Winning Images”
In the nineteenth century, the ideal of self-improvement degenerated into a cult of compulsive industry. P.T. Barnum, who made a fortune in a calling the very nature of which the Puritans would have condemned (“Every calling, whereby God will be Dishonored; every Calling whereby none but the Lusts of men are Nourished: …every such Calling is to be Rejected”), delivered many times a lecture frankly entitled “The Art of Money-Getting,” which epitomized the nineteenth-century conception of worldly success. Barnum quoted freely from Franklin but without Franklin’s concern for the attainment of wisdom or the promotion of useful knowledge. “Information” interested Barnum merely as a means of mastering the market. Thus he condemned the “false economy” of the farm wife who douses her candle at dusk rather than lighting another for reading, not realizing that the “information” gained through reading is worth far more than the price of the candles. “Always take a trustworthy newspaper,” Barnum advised young men on the make, “and thus keep thoroughly posted in regard to the transactions of the world. He who is without a newspaper is cut off from his species.”
Barnum valued the good opinion of others not as a sign of one’s usefulness but as a means of getting credit. “Uncompromising integrity of character is invaluable.” The nineteenth century attempted to express all values in monetary terms. Everything had its price. Charity was a moral duty because “the liberal man will command patronage, which the sordid, uncharitable miser will be avoided.” The sin of pride was not that it offended God but that it led to extravagant expenditures. “A spirit of pride and vanity, when permitted to have full sway, is the undying cankerworm which gnaws the very vitals of a man’s worldly possessions.”
The eighteenth century made a virtue of temperance but did not condemn moderate indulgence in the service of sociability. “Rational conversation,” on the contrary, appeared to Franklin and his contemporaries to represent an important value in its own right. The nineteenth century condemned sociability itself, on the grounds that it might interfere with business. “How many good opportunities have passed, never to return, while a man was sipping a ‘social glass’ with his friends!” Preachments on self-help now breathed the spirit of compulsive enterprise. Henry Ward Beecher defined “the beau ideal of happiness” as a state of mind in which “a man [is] so busy that he does not know whether he is or is not happy.” Russell Sage remarked that “work has been the chied, and you might say, the only source of pleasure in my life.”
Even at the height of the Gilded Age, however, the Protestant ethic did not completely lose its original meaning. In the success manuals, the McGuffey readers, the Peter Parley Books, and the hortatory writings of the great capitalists themselves, the Protestant virtues - industry, thrift, temperance - still appeared not merely as stepping-stones to success but as their own reward.
The spirit of self-improvement lived on, in debased form, in the cult of “self-culture” - proper care and training of mind and body, nurture of the mind through “great books,” development of “character.” The social contribution of individual accumulation still survived as an undercurrent in the celebration of success, and the social conditions of early industrial capitalism, in which the pursuit of wealth undeniably increased the supply of useful objects, gave some substance to the claim that “accumulated capital means progress.” In condemning speculation and extravagance, in upholding the importance of patient industry, in urging young men to start at the bottom and submit to “the discipline of daily life,” even the most unabashed exponents of self-enrichment clung to the notion that wealth derives its value from its contribution to the general good and to the happiness of future generations.
The nineteenth-century cult of success placed surprisingly little emphasis on competition. It measured achievement not against the achievements of others but against an abstract ideal of discipline and self-denial. At the turn of the century, however, preachments on success began to stress the will to win. The bureaucratization of the corporate career changed the conditions of self-advancement; ambitious young men now had to compete with their peers for the attention and approval of their superiors. The struggle to surpass the previous generation and to provide for the next gave way to a form of sibling rivalry, in which men of approximately equal abilities jostled against each other in competition for a limited number of places. Advancement now depended on “will-power, self-confidence, energy, and initiative” - the qualities celebrated in such exemplary writings as George Lorimer’s Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son. ” By the end of the nineteenth century,” writes John Cawelti in his study of the success myth, “self-help books were dominated by the ethos of sales-manship and boosterism. Personal magnetism, a quality which supposedly enabled a man to influence and dominate others, became one of the major keys to success.” In 1907, both Lorimer’s Saturday Evening Post and Orison Swett Marden’s Success magazine inaugurated departments of instruction in the “art of conversation,” fashion, and “culture.” The management of interpersonal relations came to be seen as the essence of self-advancement. The captain of industry gave way to the confidence man, the master of impressions. Young men were told that they had to sell themselves in order to succeed.
At first, self-testing through competition remained almost in-distinguishable from moral self-discipline and self-culture, but the difference became unmistakable when Dale Carnegie and then Norman Vincent Peale restated and transformed the tradition of Mather, Franklin, Barnum, and Lorimer. As a formula for success, winning friends and influencing people had little in common with industry and thrift. The prophets of positive thinking disparaged “the old adage that hard work alone is the magic key that will unlock the door to our desires.” They praised the love of money, officially condemned even by the crudest of Gilded Age materialists, as a useful incentive. “You can never have riches in great quantities,” wrote Napoleon Hill in this Think and Grow Rich,” unless you can work yourself into a white heat of desire for money.” The pursuit of wealth lost the few shreds of moral meaning that still clung to it. Formerly the Protestant virtues appeared to have an independent value of their own. Even when they became purely instrumental, in the second half of the nineteenth century, success itself retained moral and social overtones, by virtue of its contribution to the sum of human comfort and progress. Now success appeared as an end in its own right, the victory over your competitors that alone retained the capacity to instill a sense of self-approval. The latest success manuals differ from earlier ones - even surpassing the cynicism of Dale Carnegie and Peale - in their frank acceptance of the need to exploit and intimidate others, in their lack of interest in the substance of success, and in the candor with which they insist that appearances - “winning images - count for more than performance, ascription for more than achievement. One author seems to imply that the self consists of little more than its “image” reflected in others’ eyes. “Although I’m not being original when I say it, I’m sure you’ll agree that the way you see yourself will reflect the image you portray to others.” Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success.
<The American Religion by Harold Bloom (California Orphism)>
The Apotheosis of Individualism
The fear that haunted the social critics and theorists of the fifties - that rugged individualism had succumbed to conformity and “love-pressure sociability” - appears in retrospect to have been premature. In 1960, David Riesman complained that young people no longer had much social “presence,” their education having provided them not with “a polished personality but [with] an affable, casual, adaptable one, suitable to the losing organizations of an affluent society.” It is true that “a present-oriented hedonism,” as Riseman went on the argue, has replaced the work ethic “among the very classes which in the earlier stages of industrialization were oriented toward the future, toward distant goals and delayed gratification.” But this hedonism is a fraud; the pursuit of pleasure disguises a struggle for power. Americans have not really become more sociable and cooperative, as the theorists of other-direction and conformity would like us to believe; they have merely become more adept at exploiting the conventions of interpersonal relations for their own benefit. Activities ostensibly undertaken purely for enjoyment often have the real object of doing others in. It is symptomatic of the underlying tenor of American life that vulgar terms for sexual intercourse also convey the sense of getting the better of someone, working him over, taking him in, imposing your will through guile, deception, or superior force. Verbs associated with sexual pleasure have acquired more than the usual overtones of violence and psychic exploitation. In the violent world of the ghetto, the language of which now pervades American society as a whole, the violence associated with sexual intercourse is directed with special intensity by men against women, specifically against their mothers. The language of ritualized aggression and abuse reminds those who use it that exploitation is the general rule and some form of dependence the common fate, that “the individual,” in Lee Rainwater’s words, “is not strong enough or adult enough to achieve his goal in a legitimate way, but is rather like a child, dependent on others who tolerate his childish maneuvers”; accordingly males, even adult males, often depend on women for support and nurture. Many of them have to pimp for a living, ingratiating themselves with a woman in order to pry money from her; sexual relations thus become manipulative and predatory. Satisfaction depends on taking what you want instead of waiting for what is rightfully yours to receive. All this enters everyday speech in language that connects sex with aggression and sexual aggression with highly ambivalent feelings about mothers.
In some ways middle-class society has become a pale copy of the black ghetto, as the appropriation of its language would lead us to believe. We do not need to minimize the poverty of the ghetto or the suffering inflicted by whites on blacks in order to see that the increasingly dangerous and unpredictable conditions of middle-class life have given rise to similar strategies for survival. Indeed the attraction of black culture for disaffected whites suggests that black culture now speaks to a general condition, the most important feature of which is a widespread loss of confidence in the future. The poor have always had to live for the present, but now a desperate concern for personal survival, sometimes disguised as hedonism, engulfs the middle class as well. Today almost everyone lives in a dangerous world from which there is little escape. International terrorism and blackmail, bombings, and hijackings arbitrarily affect the rich and poor alike. Crime, violence, and gang wars make cities unsafe and threaten to spread to the suburbs. Racial violence on the streets and in the schools creates an atmosphere of chronic tension and threatens to erupt at any time into full-scale racial conflict. Unemployment spreads from the poor the white-collar class, while inflation eats away the savings of those who hoped to retire in comfort. Much of what is euphemistically known as the middle class, merely because it dresses up to go to work, is now reduced to proletarian conditions of existence. Many white-collar jobs require no more skill and pay even less than blue-collar jobs, conferring little status or security. The propaganda of death and destruction, emanating ceaselessly from the mass media, adds to the prevailing atmosphere of insecurity. Far-flung famines, earthquakes in remote regions, distant wars and uprisings attract the same attention as events closer to home. The impression of arbitrariness in the reporting of disaster reinforces the arbitrary quality of experience itself, and the absence of continuity in the coverage of events, as today’s crisis yields to a new and unrelated crisis tomorrow, adds to the sense of historical discontinuity - the sense of living in a world in which the past holds out no guidance to the present and the future has become completely unpredictable.
Older conceptions of success presupposed a world in rapid motion, in which fortunes were rapidly won and lost and new opportunities unfolded every day. Yet they also presupposed a certain stability, a future that bore some recognizable resemblance to the present and the past. The growth of bureaucracy, the cult of consumption with its immediate gratifications, but above all the severance of the sense of historical continuity have transformed the Protestant ethic while carrying the underlying principles of capitalist society to their logical conclusion . The pursuit of self-interest, formerly identified with the rational pursuit of gain and the accumulation of wealth, has become a search for pleasure and psychic survival. Social conditions now approximate the vision of republican society conceived by the Marquis de Sade at the very outset of the republican epoch. In many ways the most farsighted and certainly the most disturbing of the prophets of revolutionary individualism, Sade defended unlimited self-indulgence as the logical culmination of the revolution in property relations - the only way to attain revolutionary brotherhood in its purest form. By regressing in his writings to the most primitive level of fantasy, Sade uncannily glimpsed the whole subsequent development of personal life under capitalism, ending not in revolutionary brotherhood but in a society of siblings that has outlived and repudiated its revolutionary origins.
Sade imagined a sexual utopia in which everyone has the right to everyone else, where human beings, reduced to their sexual organs, become absolutely anonymous and interchangeable. His ideal society thus reaffirmed the capitalist principle that human beings are ultimately reducible to interchangeable objects. It also incorporated and carried to a surprising new conclusion Hobbes’s discovery that the destruction of paternalism and the subordination of all social relations to the market had stripped away the remaining restraints and the mitigating illusions from the war of all against all. In the resulting state of organized anarchy, as Sade was the first to realize, pleasure becomes life’s only business - pleasure, however, that is indistinguishable from rape, murder, unbridled aggression. In a society that has reduced reason to mere calculation, reason can impose no limits on the pursuit of pleasure - on the immediate gratification of every desire no matter how perverse, insane, criminal, or merely immoral. For the standards that would condemn crime or cruelty derive from religion, compassion, or the kind of reason that rejects purely instrumental applications; and none of these outmoded forms of thought or feeling has any logical place in a society based on commodity production. In his misogyny, Sade perceived that bourgeois enlightenment, carried to its logical conclusions, condemned even the sentimental cult of womanhood and the family, which the bourgeoisie itself had carried to unprecedented extremes.
At the same time, he saw that condemnation of “woman-worship” had to go hand in hand with a defense of woman’s sexual rights - their right to dispose of their own bodies, as feminists would put it today. If the exercise of that right in Sade’s utopia boils down to the duty to become an instrument of someone else’s pleasure, it was not so much because Sade hated women as because he hated humanity. He perceived, more clearly than the feminists, that all freedoms under capitalism come in the end to the same thing, the same universal obligation to enjoy and be enjoyed. In the same breath, and without violating his own logic, Sade demanded for women the right “fully to satisfy all their desires” and “all parts of their bodies” and categorically stated that “all women must submit to our pleasure.” Pure individualism thus issued in the most radical repudiation of individuality. “All men, all women resemble each other,” according to Sade; and to those of his countrymen who would become republicans he adds this ominous warning: “Do not think you can make good republicans so long as you isolated in their families the children who should belong to the republic alone.” The bourgeois defense of privacy culminates - not just in Sade’s thought but in the history to come, so accurately foreshadowed in the very excess, madness, infantilism of his ideas - in the most thoroughgoing attack on privacy; the glorification of the individual, in his annihilation.
<…>
Standing-Reserve.
Note a lack of the “Greek” in Lasch.
Visions of Excess: Selected Writings, 1927-1939 by Georges Bataille, Edited by A. Stoekl, Translated by A. Stoekl, C.R. Lovitt, and D.M. Leslie Jr.
<…>

So I have had 3 seizures before. Over the course of 8 or so years. After the second one I started taking lamictal but the doctor was trying to switch me to something else, so we cut my lamictal dosage and half and I was supposed to be starting the other one. I don’t remember exactly what happened and yes maybe I am an idiot for not doing it right and I do feel dumb about it. But I was taking a less than therapeutic dose. 200 mg a day instead of 400. And I believe I was taking the 200XR. When I had the seizure the doc immediately did a blood test and found the level of lamotrigine in my body was not a therapeutic dose. I slowly increased my dosage to 400.
So now I take 400 mg, I have been tested and there is a therapeutic dose in my blood. I have not had any seizures since I started the proper dosage.
So after the second seizure is when I started the meds and about 2 years later I had another seizure. I was very sleep deprived, was mourning, hadn’t ate properly and was playing a music festival and it happened during my set. I say these bc they all can be factors.
Anyway it has been about 10 months since my last seizure. I have been gaining weight Ever since I can remember. I started an SSRI a while back that just made me gain more. I haven’t been able to go to the gym much bc I injured my wrist, I know I could still go but I want to play basketball and climb and not just sit on a machine the whole time. I want to be better at it but I am working towards getting more exercise.
The main problem with my diet is late at night. I will eat healthy all day and then at night I just want to eat trash and sugar sugar sugar. I have found that it is super effective for me to fast bc if I stop eating at a certain time I will consume no garbage and sugar that night bc I have already stopped eating.
My neuro said that keto or being in ketosis is effective in treating seizures and I have heard fasting is a big part of keto. My concern is that I did not have proper food in my body at the time of the last seizure. I am just wondering if intermittent fasting is ok or if it would put me more at risk for having a seizure. I know ketosis can achieved by the diet and or fasting. So kind of seems confusing.
I would appreciate any helpful or positive input.
Also side note in case it matters- I am also taking pantaprozale for acid reflux and recently started vyvanse again but am not taking it every day.
TIA! ❤️

Hey, yall. This is fganniversaries and apologies for missing last week; I genuinely thought that I posted for the week but turns out that I didn't upon looking. As per usual, I will be recapping anniversaries relating to fighting game announcements/releases this week. Like always, if I missed one, do please let me know in the comments. Here would be the following anniversaries:
May 13

• 2023: SF6 20 Days Left & 19 Days Left Countdown Illustration
• 2022: KOFXV Team South Town Press Release
• 2022: Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl - Official Jenny, Hugh Neutron & Rocko Reveal Trailer/Jenny DLC Release + Moveset & Gameplay Showcase
• 2021: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles Kyojuro Rengoku Reveal
• 2021: KOFXV Leona Heidern Tomohiro Nakata Sketch
• 2020: Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath - Official Gameplay Trailer
• 2020: Samurai Shodown (2019) - Iroha DLC Release
• 2020: TFH Post-Launch Development Update #1 + Story Mode Chapter 1 Dev Commentary
• 2016: UNIB 5-13-16 Information Division Corner
• 2014: BBCP Version 1.1 Patch Notes
• 2014: JJBA:ASB Lisa Lisa & Ikuro Hashizawa DLC Release
• 2014: Skullgirls Encore 1.02: Are You Ready For? Edition Patch Notes
• 2014: SSB3DS/Wii U 5/13/14 Director’s Room Post - Charizard’s Flare Blitz Special Move Reveal
• 2013: Divekick - New Character Reveal: Markman + #eSports Hour #5
• 2010: Battle Fantasia Xbox Live Distribution
• 2010: BlazBlue PC Release Postpone Announcement
• 2005: SvC Chaos releasing on Xbox at AU.

May 14

• 2023: KOFXV Sylvie Paula Paula Character Breakdown Trailer
• 2023: SF6 18 Days Left Countdown Illustration/Dan Tails
• 2020: GGST 1st Delay Announcement
• 2020: KOFx WWE + Cinematic Trailer/Razer Giveaway
• 2019: Samurai Shodown (2019) - Return of a Legend Trailer/Character Trailer #6 - Genjuro & Character Trailer #7 - Haohmaru
• 2019: SCVI Update Ver. 1.40 Patch Notes
• 2018: ARCommunity Sol Badguy of Guilty Gear - Digital Painting by Nainsoo
• 2018: Blade Strangers - Kawase Gameplay Trailer
• 2018: Guilty Gear NS, PS4, and PC Digital Port Announcement
• 2015: MKX Patch Notes 5/14/15 + Reptile Skin
• 2014: BBCP Version 1.1 Release
• 2014: SSB4 5/14/14 Director’s Room Post - Brittany Trophy Reveal
• 2013: Injustice "The Killing Joke" Skin Pack Announcement
• 2013: Skullgirls Color DLC Today, New Characters Coming
• 2009: Bleach: Heat the Soul 6 originally releasing on PSP at JP.
• 1998: Guilty Gear: The Missing Link originally releasing on PS1 at JP.

May 15

• 2023: Street Fighter 6 - Open Beta Video 1: Characters & Battle System/17 Days Left Countdown Illustration
• 2022: KOFXV Team South Town Team Story
• 2021: PS5 releasing at CHN.
• 2021: Tough Love Arena 0.52.2 - 0.52.3 Change Log
• 2020: KOFAS x WWE Blogpost
• 2019: GBVS Trailers: Gran, Katalina, Charlotta, Lancelot, Ferry
• 2019: GGXXACR NS Promotional Video
• 2019: Guilty Gear releaisng on PC via Steam WW.
• 2019: MK11 Combo Breaker Tournament Stage Variant Reveal + Gameplay Footage
• 2018: Blade Strangers - Noko GameplayTrailer/Blade Strangers Joined by Indie All-Stars
• 2018: FEXL 01-2018/05/15 Battle Video
• 2017: Injustice 2 - Official Gameplay Launch Trailer
• 2015: Killer Instinct (2013) Textual Stream Part 2: The One About Hisako, Cinder, and Q&A/ Retro Hisako & Cinder
• 2015: Tekken 7 - Jack-7 Reveal Trailer
• 2015: Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] Announcement + Phonon Reveal & Location Test Announcement
• 2014: Arcana Heart 3: Love Max!!!!! PS3/Vita Promotion Movie
• 2014: P4AU Labrys Trailer
• 2014: SSB4 5/15/14 Director’s Room Post - Color TV-Game 15 Assist Trophy Details
• 2014: UNIEL System Page
• 2014: USFIV Pre-Order Costumes Trailer/Balance Changes Videos for Ryu, Gouken, Evil Ryu, & Cammy.
• 2013: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle Kars & Kishibe Rohan Reveal
• 2013: Skullgirls - Early Work-in-Progress River King Casino Music - Piano Melody
• 2012: Asura Wrath's Lost Episode 2 releasing on PS3 and Xbox 360.
• 2008: Bleach: Heat the Soul 5 originally releasing as a PSP exclusive only at JP.
• 2007: Art of Fighting Anthology releasing on PS2 at US.
• 1998: Clay Fighter: Sculptor's Cut originally releasing as Blockbuster rental exclusive on the Nintendo 64 at NA.
• 1994: ClayFighter Tournament Edition originally released as a SNES exclusive only in NA as a Blockbuster rental exclusive.

May 16

• 2023: KOFXV Sylvie Paula Paula DLC Release + Character Profile, Story + Smartphone Wallpaper
• 2023: Street Fighter 6 - Open Beta Video 2: Battle Hub/16 Days Left Countdown Illustration
• 2022: MultiVersus – Official Cinematic Trailer - "You're with Me!"
• 2021: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles Character Intro Trailer #10: Kyojuro Rengoku
• 2021: Guilty Gear -Strive- Story Trailer Livestream
• 2021: Samurai Shodown (2019) Shiro Tokisada Amakusa Reveal + Steam Port Announcement
• 2021: Tough Love Arena 0.53.0 - 0.53.2 Change Log
• 2019: Flappy Fighter - Battle 2
• 2019: GG1 + GGXXACR releasing on Nintendo Switch via eShop WW + Guilty Gear 20th Anniversary Collection releasing at JP
• 2018: Blade Strangers - Helen Gameplay Trailer
• 2018: BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle - RWBY Highlight Trailer
• 2018: FEXL 01-2018/05/16 Battle Video
• 2017: Injustice 2 originally releasing on PS4 and XB1 at NA.
• 2017: UNIST Experience Event Announcement
• 2014: P4AU Ver.1.11 Update Notice
• 2014: SSB4 5/16/14 Director’s Room Post - Villager Alternate Costumes Reveal
• 2014: UNIB 2014 Summer Illustration Contest Announcement
• 2008: GGXXAC+R Hidden Element Annonncement
• 2001: Project Justice releasing on Dreamcast at NA.
• 2001: Super Smash Bros. Melee Official Reveal + Trailers #1 & #2/ Reactions

May 17

• 2023: GGST Season Pass 2 Playable Character #4 [Asuka R♯] Trailer/Gamespot Exclusive Gameplay
• 2023: SF6 15 Days Left Countdown Illustration
• 2021: Mortal Kombat 1 - Tomorrow Is A New Dawn Teaser
• 2023: KOFXV Sylvie Paula Paula Concept Art
• 2023: Street Fighter 6 - Open Beta Video 3: Competitive Features & Events
• 2022: DNF Duel｜Story Mode
• 2022: KOFXV Team South Town DLC Release/Geese Howard Tomohiro Nakata Sketch
• 2021: ExplaMaytions with May! Episode 1 - What is Magic?
• 2021: Tough Love Arena 0.53.3 - 0.53.4 Change Log
• 2020: DBFZ Goku (Ultra Instinct) Launch Trailer
• 2019: GBVS Closed Beta Exhibition Match
• 2019: Guilty Gear 20th Anniversary Collection releasing at EU + Launch Trailer
• 2019: Kill la Kill If Story Mode Chapter 1 Movie Preview
• 2018: Blade Strangers - Liongate Gameplay Trailer
• 2018: BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle - Persona 4 Arena Highlight + Yang Gameplay - Distortions, Combos & Assists
• 2018: SCVI Yoshimitsu Reveal + Screenshots
• 2017: Injustice 2 releasing on PS4 & XB1 at AU.
• 2017: Tekken 7 - Character Trailer #2
• 2013: BlazBlue Anime Adaptation Announcement
• 2013: Skullgirls Beowulf Announcement
• 2013: UNIB 2013 May Q&A Corner
• 2012: PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale Hades Brawl & Colorful Battle Videos
• 2010: BBCS 2nd PV Trailer
• 2008: SCVI Ashlotte Reveal
• 2005: Nintendo Wii Official Reveal at E3 2005
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl Announcement
• 2005: Spectral VS Generation originally releasing at arcades at JP
• 2001: Super Smash Bros. Melee Official Website Launch/IGN E3 Hands-On Impression & Gameplay #1, #2, #3

May 18

• 2023: Guilty Gear -Strive- Starter Guide - Asuka R♯
• 2023: Mortal Kombat 1 - Official Announcement Trailer
• 2023: KOFXV Sylvie Paula Paula Theme BGM Composer Statement
• 2023: Street Fighter 6: Days of the Eclipse #3: Manipulation Issue Release/14 Days Left Countdown Illustration
• 2021: ExplaMaytions with May! Episode 2 - Worldwide Development and Gears
• 2021: Fighting Game Glossary by Infilament originally launching
• 2021: KOFXV Ralf Jones & Clark Still Silhouette
• 2021: Skullgirls 2nd Encore 2021-05-18 Beta Mode Update
• 2021: Tough Love Arena 0.53.5 Change Log
• 2020: Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath - Official Friendships Trailer
• 2019: TFH Early Access Patch #19
• 2018: Blade Strangers - Curly Brace
• 2016: KOFXIV Team Gameplay Trailer #2 - Yagami
• 2012: Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion XL releasing on the Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360 at EU.
• 2012: UNIB Waldstein SD Wallpaper
• 2011: BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II releasing at arcades at NA.

May 19

• 2023: Mortal Kombat 1 Kollector’s Edition Liu Kang Statue Preview
• 2023: SF6 13 Days Left Countdown Illustration
• 2022: DNF Duel｜Practice Mode
• 2022: KOFXV Team South Town Kou:G Illustration
• 2021: ExplaMaytions with May! Episode 3 - The Crusades
• 2021: KOFXV - Character Trailer #19-20 - Ralf Jones & Clark Still + Screenshots/Team Ikari Reveal
• 2021: Tough Love Arena 0.53.6 - 0.53.7 Change Log
• 2021: Umbrella Animation Stream with Persona! (May 19, 2021)
• 2017: Injustice 2 releasing on PS4 & XB1 at EU.
• 2017: Tekken 7 “No Glory For Heroes” English Story Trailer
• 2017: UNIST Home Information
• 2016: Killer Instinct (2013) Gargos Release Date Reveal/Gargos Ultra Combo & Montage, Gameplay Footage vs. Mira, Thunder & Tusk
• 2015: Street Fighter V - M. Bison Reveal Trailer
• 2015: Tekken 7 Jack-7 Release
• 2014: BB x BB Collaboration Beginning
• 2014: SSB4 5/19/14 Director’s Room Post
• 2013: Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign- Announcement Trailer + Screenshots
• 2011: Dead or Alive: Dimensions originally releasing on the Nintendo 3DS at JP.
• 2010: BBCS Tager & Litchi Information
• 2005: IGN E3 2005: Shigeru Miyamoto Interview
• 2005: Vampire: Darkstalkers Collection originally releasing as a PS2 exclusive only in JP.
• 1998: Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. originally releasing on the Nintendo 64 at NA.

May 20

• 2023: SF6 12 Days Left Countdown Illustration
• 2021: Blazing Strike Publisher “Aksys Games” Reveal + Press Release
• 2021: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles Tanjiro Kamado (Hinokami Kagura) Reveal
• 2021: ExplaMaytions with May! Episode 4 - The Second Holy Order Selection Tournament
• 2021: Tough Love Arena 0.53.8 - 0.53.9 Change Log
• 2021: Virtua Fighter x eSports Official Announcement Live Stream Reveal
• 2020: Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath – RoboCop vs. Terminator Round 1 & Round 2 Gameplay Footage
• 2020: TFH Version 1.0.3 Patch Notes
• 2016: One Piece: Great Pirate Colosseum Announcement
• 2016: UNIB 5-20-16 Licht Kreis Information Division Corner
• 2015: M.Bison Makes His Return in SFV
• 2014: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle Vannila Ice, Pannacotta Fugo & Narciso Anasui DLC Release
• 2014: P4AU Ken Armada & Koromaru Reveal
• 2014: SSB4 5/20/14 Director’s Room Post - Assist Trophy Item Capsule Showcase
• 2014: USFIV PS4 Pre-Orders Beginning
• 2013: ASW 25th Anniversary Book Release Window Reveal + Festival Conclusion Message
• 2013: Injustice Gods Among Us v1.03 Patch Notes
• 2011: BBCS 3rd Patch Distribution
• 2011: Dead or Alive: Dimensions releasing on the Nintendo 3DS at EU.
• 2011: Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus releasing on Wii at EU.

Hey, yall. This is fganniversaries and apologies for missing last week; I genuinely thought that I posted for the week but turns out that I didn't upon looking. As per usual, I will be recapping anniversaries relating to fighting game announcements/releases this week. Like always, if I missed one, do please let me know in the comments. Here would be the following anniversaries:
May 13

• 2023: SF6 20 Days Left & 19 Days Left Countdown Illustration
• 2022: KOFXV Team South Town Press Release
• 2022: Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl - Official Jenny, Hugh Neutron & Rocko Reveal Trailer/Jenny DLC Release + Moveset & Gameplay Showcase
• 2021: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles Kyojuro Rengoku Reveal
• 2021: KOFXV Leona Heidern Tomohiro Nakata Sketch
• 2020: Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath - Official Gameplay Trailer
• 2020: Samurai Shodown (2019) - Iroha DLC Release
• 2020: TFH Post-Launch Development Update #1 + Story Mode Chapter 1 Dev Commentary
• 2016: UNIB 5-13-16 Information Division Corner
• 2014: BBCP Version 1.1 Patch Notes
• 2014: JJBA:ASB Lisa Lisa & Ikuro Hashizawa DLC Release
• 2014: Skullgirls Encore 1.02: Are You Ready For? Edition Patch Notes
• 2014: SSB3DS/Wii U 5/13/14 Director’s Room Post - Charizard’s Flare Blitz Special Move Reveal
• 2013: Divekick - New Character Reveal: Markman + #eSports Hour #5
• 2010: Battle Fantasia Xbox Live Distribution
• 2010: BlazBlue PC Release Postpone Announcement
• 2005: SvC Chaos releasing on Xbox at AU.

May 14

• 2023: KOFXV Sylvie Paula Paula Character Breakdown Trailer
• 2023: SF6 18 Days Left Countdown Illustration/Dan Tails
• 2020: GGST 1st Delay Announcement
• 2020: KOFx WWE + Cinematic Trailer/Razer Giveaway
• 2019: Samurai Shodown (2019) - Return of a Legend Trailer/Character Trailer #6 - Genjuro & Character Trailer #7 - Haohmaru
• 2019: SCVI Update Ver. 1.40 Patch Notes
• 2018: ARCommunity Sol Badguy of Guilty Gear - Digital Painting by Nainsoo
• 2018: Blade Strangers - Kawase Gameplay Trailer
• 2018: Guilty Gear NS, PS4, and PC Digital Port Announcement
• 2015: MKX Patch Notes 5/14/15 + Reptile Skin
• 2014: BBCP Version 1.1 Release
• 2014: SSB4 5/14/14 Director’s Room Post - Brittany Trophy Reveal
• 2013: Injustice "The Killing Joke" Skin Pack Announcement
• 2013: Skullgirls Color DLC Today, New Characters Coming
• 2009: Bleach: Heat the Soul 6 originally releasing on PSP at JP.
• 1998: Guilty Gear: The Missing Link originally releasing on PS1 at JP.

May 15

• 2023: Street Fighter 6 - Open Beta Video 1: Characters & Battle System/17 Days Left Countdown Illustration
• 2022: KOFXV Team South Town Team Story
• 2021: PS5 releasing at CHN.
• 2021: Tough Love Arena 0.52.2 - 0.52.3 Change Log
• 2020: KOFAS x WWE Blogpost
• 2019: GBVS Trailers: Gran, Katalina, Charlotta, Lancelot, Ferry
• 2019: GGXXACR NS Promotional Video
• 2019: Guilty Gear releaisng on PC via Steam WW.
• 2019: MK11 Combo Breaker Tournament Stage Variant Reveal + Gameplay Footage
• 2018: Blade Strangers - Noko GameplayTrailer/Blade Strangers Joined by Indie All-Stars
• 2018: FEXL 01-2018/05/15 Battle Video
• 2017: Injustice 2 - Official Gameplay Launch Trailer
• 2015: Killer Instinct (2013) Textual Stream Part 2: The One About Hisako, Cinder, and Q&A/ Retro Hisako & Cinder
• 2015: Tekken 7 - Jack-7 Reveal Trailer
• 2015: Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] Announcement + Phonon Reveal & Location Test Announcement
• 2014: Arcana Heart 3: Love Max!!!!! PS3/Vita Promotion Movie
• 2014: P4AU Labrys Trailer
• 2014: SSB4 5/15/14 Director’s Room Post - Color TV-Game 15 Assist Trophy Details
• 2014: UNIEL System Page
• 2014: USFIV Pre-Order Costumes Trailer/Balance Changes Videos for Ryu, Gouken, Evil Ryu, & Cammy.
• 2013: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle Kars & Kishibe Rohan Reveal
• 2013: Skullgirls - Early Work-in-Progress River King Casino Music - Piano Melody
• 2012: Asura Wrath's Lost Episode 2 releasing on PS3 and Xbox 360.
• 2008: Bleach: Heat the Soul 5 originally releasing as a PSP exclusive only at JP.
• 2007: Art of Fighting Anthology releasing on PS2 at US.
• 1998: Clay Fighter: Sculptor's Cut originally releasing as Blockbuster rental exclusive on the Nintendo 64 at NA.
• 1994: ClayFighter Tournament Edition originally released as a SNES exclusive only in NA as a Blockbuster rental exclusive.

May 16

• 2023: KOFXV Sylvie Paula Paula DLC Release + Character Profile, Story + Smartphone Wallpaper
• 2023: Street Fighter 6 - Open Beta Video 2: Battle Hub/16 Days Left Countdown Illustration
• 2022: MultiVersus – Official Cinematic Trailer - "You're with Me!"
• 2021: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles Character Intro Trailer #10: Kyojuro Rengoku
• 2021: Guilty Gear -Strive- Story Trailer Livestream
• 2021: Samurai Shodown (2019) Shiro Tokisada Amakusa Reveal + Steam Port Announcement
• 2021: Tough Love Arena 0.53.0 - 0.53.2 Change Log
• 2019: Flappy Fighter - Battle 2
• 2019: GG1 + GGXXACR releasing on Nintendo Switch via eShop WW + Guilty Gear 20th Anniversary Collection releasing at JP
• 2018: Blade Strangers - Helen Gameplay Trailer
• 2018: BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle - RWBY Highlight Trailer
• 2018: FEXL 01-2018/05/16 Battle Video
• 2017: Injustice 2 originally releasing on PS4 and XB1 at NA.
• 2017: UNIST Experience Event Announcement
• 2014: P4AU Ver.1.11 Update Notice
• 2014: SSB4 5/16/14 Director’s Room Post - Villager Alternate Costumes Reveal
• 2014: UNIB 2014 Summer Illustration Contest Announcement
• 2008: GGXXAC+R Hidden Element Annonncement
• 2001: Project Justice releasing on Dreamcast at NA.
• 2001: Super Smash Bros. Melee Official Reveal + Trailers #1 & #2/ Reactions

May 17

• 2023: GGST Season Pass 2 Playable Character #4 [Asuka R♯] Trailer/Gamespot Exclusive Gameplay
• 2023: SF6 15 Days Left Countdown Illustration
• 2021: Mortal Kombat 1 - Tomorrow Is A New Dawn Teaser
• 2023: KOFXV Sylvie Paula Paula Concept Art
• 2023: Street Fighter 6 - Open Beta Video 3: Competitive Features & Events
• 2022: DNF Duel｜Story Mode
• 2022: KOFXV Team South Town DLC Release/Geese Howard Tomohiro Nakata Sketch
• 2021: ExplaMaytions with May! Episode 1 - What is Magic?
• 2021: Tough Love Arena 0.53.3 - 0.53.4 Change Log
• 2020: DBFZ Goku (Ultra Instinct) Launch Trailer
• 2019: GBVS Closed Beta Exhibition Match
• 2019: Guilty Gear 20th Anniversary Collection releasing at EU + Launch Trailer
• 2019: Kill la Kill If Story Mode Chapter 1 Movie Preview
• 2018: Blade Strangers - Liongate Gameplay Trailer
• 2018: BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle - Persona 4 Arena Highlight + Yang Gameplay - Distortions, Combos & Assists
• 2018: SCVI Yoshimitsu Reveal + Screenshots
• 2017: Injustice 2 releasing on PS4 & XB1 at AU.
• 2017: Tekken 7 - Character Trailer #2
• 2013: BlazBlue Anime Adaptation Announcement
• 2013: Skullgirls Beowulf Announcement
• 2013: UNIB 2013 May Q&A Corner
• 2012: PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale Hades Brawl & Colorful Battle Videos
• 2010: BBCS 2nd PV Trailer
• 2008: SCVI Ashlotte Reveal
• 2005: Nintendo Wii Official Reveal at E3 2005
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl Announcement
• 2005: Spectral VS Generation originally releasing at arcades at JP
• 2001: Super Smash Bros. Melee Official Website Launch/IGN E3 Hands-On Impression & Gameplay #1, #2, #3

May 18

• 2023: Guilty Gear -Strive- Starter Guide - Asuka R♯
• 2023: Mortal Kombat 1 - Official Announcement Trailer
• 2023: KOFXV Sylvie Paula Paula Theme BGM Composer Statement
• 2023: Street Fighter 6: Days of the Eclipse #3: Manipulation Issue Release/14 Days Left Countdown Illustration
• 2021: ExplaMaytions with May! Episode 2 - Worldwide Development and Gears
• 2021: Fighting Game Glossary by Infilament originally launching
• 2021: KOFXV Ralf Jones & Clark Still Silhouette
• 2021: Skullgirls 2nd Encore 2021-05-18 Beta Mode Update
• 2021: Tough Love Arena 0.53.5 Change Log
• 2020: Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath - Official Friendships Trailer
• 2019: TFH Early Access Patch #19
• 2018: Blade Strangers - Curly Brace
• 2016: KOFXIV Team Gameplay Trailer #2 - Yagami
• 2012: Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion XL releasing on the Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360 at EU.
• 2012: UNIB Waldstein SD Wallpaper
• 2011: BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II releasing at arcades at NA.

May 19

• 2023: Mortal Kombat 1 Kollector’s Edition Liu Kang Statue Preview
• 2023: SF6 13 Days Left Countdown Illustration
• 2022: DNF Duel｜Practice Mode
• 2022: KOFXV Team South Town Kou:G Illustration
• 2021: ExplaMaytions with May! Episode 3 - The Crusades
• 2021: KOFXV - Character Trailer #19-20 - Ralf Jones & Clark Still + Screenshots/Team Ikari Reveal
• 2021: Tough Love Arena 0.53.6 - 0.53.7 Change Log
• 2021: Umbrella Animation Stream with Persona! (May 19, 2021)
• 2017: Injustice 2 releasing on PS4 & XB1 at EU.
• 2017: Tekken 7 “No Glory For Heroes” English Story Trailer
• 2017: UNIST Home Information
• 2016: Killer Instinct (2013) Gargos Release Date Reveal/Gargos Ultra Combo & Montage, Gameplay Footage vs. Mira, Thunder & Tusk
• 2015: Street Fighter V - M. Bison Reveal Trailer
• 2015: Tekken 7 Jack-7 Release
• 2014: BB x BB Collaboration Beginning
• 2014: SSB4 5/19/14 Director’s Room Post
• 2013: Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign- Announcement Trailer + Screenshots
• 2011: Dead or Alive: Dimensions originally releasing on the Nintendo 3DS at JP.
• 2010: BBCS Tager & Litchi Information
• 2005: IGN E3 2005: Shigeru Miyamoto Interview
• 2005: Vampire: Darkstalkers Collection originally releasing as a PS2 exclusive only in JP.
• 1998: Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. originally releasing on the Nintendo 64 at NA.

May 20

• 2023: SF6 12 Days Left Countdown Illustration
• 2021: Blazing Strike Publisher “Aksys Games” Reveal + Press Release
• 2021: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles Tanjiro Kamado (Hinokami Kagura) Reveal
• 2021: ExplaMaytions with May! Episode 4 - The Second Holy Order Selection Tournament
• 2021: Tough Love Arena 0.53.8 - 0.53.9 Change Log
• 2021: Virtua Fighter x eSports Official Announcement Live Stream Reveal
• 2020: Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath – RoboCop vs. Terminator Round 1 & Round 2 Gameplay Footage
• 2020: TFH Version 1.0.3 Patch Notes
• 2016: One Piece: Great Pirate Colosseum Announcement
• 2016: UNIB 5-20-16 Licht Kreis Information Division Corner
• 2015: M.Bison Makes His Return in SFV
• 2014: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle Vannila Ice, Pannacotta Fugo & Narciso Anasui DLC Release
• 2014: P4AU Ken Armada & Koromaru Reveal
• 2014: SSB4 5/20/14 Director’s Room Post - Assist Trophy Item Capsule Showcase
• 2014: USFIV PS4 Pre-Orders Beginning
• 2013: ASW 25th Anniversary Book Release Window Reveal + Festival Conclusion Message
• 2013: Injustice Gods Among Us v1.03 Patch Notes
• 2011: BBCS 3rd Patch Distribution
• 2011: Dead or Alive: Dimensions releasing on the Nintendo 3DS at EU.
• 2011: Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus releasing on Wii at EU.

Call me the Memetranslator, because I speak fluent Meme and can explain every Meme. In reality all of this is nonesense though, so do not take anything here seriously. Als I am not affiliated with anyone, including DFV. You tell me if its correct or not. If DFV sees this and wants me to not post these translations any further, write me a message. If DFV wants me to continue... same.
First Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1789807772542067105
This is a gamer going from his layed back pose to a more concentrated one. It tells us that it is go time now! It has begun!
Second Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790034263603139012
The first Part shows Thanos with the gamestop symbol. It means Gamestop is Thanos and Gamestop did something itself! The second part shows Roaring Kitty as Wolverine awakening. And in case you did not see Keith Gills face superimposed over Wolverine, it is made more clear with the Kitty outline on the Heartratemonitor. So basically this meme tells us, that Gamestop did something, which is why Roaring Kitty/DFV/Keith Gill is back.
What did Roaring Kitty see? Well... just you wait, the memes tell us.
Third Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790041813379850491
We were told it is over. It is not over until we say its over! Roaring Kitty has awakened! Wake up and be ready!
​
Fourth Meme:
https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790049362846117942
This is a big one! It shows a gamestop-coded Car driving back into the green. It means the Buyback from gamestop will leed to the green! This continues the meme from the 4th of June 2021: On June 4th of 2021, Roaring Kitty posted this: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1400124740291923968
It shows the first Part of the Scene from Ready Player one, before he drives back to win basically. But it does not show the second Part. Because Gamestop did not buy BACK Shares!
What does it mean? It means Roaring Kitty wanted to see Gamestop do a buyback of shares. That did not happen though. After that moment he slowed down with memeposting and posted memes of frustration, among them a declaration, that he does not love Ryan Cohen. I will show that meme later, its the "love actually" one, because that one came back also! He expected the Buyback to finish the shorts, but Ryan did not do that, so he fell out of love with him and went silent shortly after, as the buyback was crucial to fucking the shorts somehow.
Fifth Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790056912664601031
Get ready to fight, every notch/Options Step brings in more money, because of the Gamma Squeeze! And do not sell all winning options... take as many shares out of the options as possible, to help the Gamma Squeeze. (this is what the Blood on the Blade Part in the beginning is all about) But the opposition is numerous and getting ready to fight. When he moves, everybody needs to move! Coded in Red and Green, so basically he might be telling us to watch out for signals from the memes, as he they will tell us what the stock will do... though I think most people misinterpret the memes anyway and also I am not sure about the signal part. It may just be that we need to find the signals for ourselves. But we definetly need to move!
​
sixth Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790064464357724451
He Moves!
Seventh Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790072011810812231
A Reiteration of the "When I say 'run', RUN!"
Eigth Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790079562866360327
Everybody needs to work together, this is the LAST TIME! THIS IS IT! THE TIME IS NOW! And apparently some friends also showed up... some whales, that I do not know maybe.
Ninth Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790087112282239085
Its the Showdown from "the good the bad the ugly", with the musiv from that showdown played from a live Metallica Concert (They play that before they start their music as an intro) So its Showdown-Time! Unfortunatelly I do not know the Symbol that is superimposed over Thor, but it probably identifies some entity that is in this fight.
Tenth Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790094668237259040
A Red coded Meme... could mean stock will go down short term .... maybe reading too much into this though. Also tells us that Hell is coming with this. Omnious!
Eleventh Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790102212619669909
Another Big one. Gamestop pushed the Red Button, that they did not push in 2021. That Button being the Share Buyback? Its Another Continuation from a Meme from June 4th 2021: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1400863669895024643
That same day, right in the meme before that one, he declares he does not love R.C.. This Meme is the explanation why: Gamestop (R.C.) Did NOT Push the Red button back then.
The good news is, now apparently Gamestop did push the red button/do the buyback/maybe something else(Gamestop as a holding company related).
Twelvth Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790109766389477525
"No Fighting" means, do not fight the downtrend. Let the memes guide you! You will need your money in the coming weeks!
Thirteenth Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790170162265460831
Roaring Kitty is in this and has been waiting and planning all this time that the stock was beat down. But every action is followed by a reaction. Could mean that when stock is beaten down, it WILL go up again. And it will be quite a fuckin thing. Another Red Coded Meme though. Come Hang, chill, wait. And in the End it will be green after the red. Maybe. To be honest, all Memes that could mean that we should do a certain action are not all that super clear and I might be misinterpreting them. Which is funny, considering the "Did I make myself clear" in the end..... because to me that part is not clear at all!
Fourteenth Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790396654971224430
Dont test me! Go back to sleep! Could mean that Roaring Kitty wanted to go back to sleep by media and the shorts. and he is like "dont test me", cause he is a one hit killer. Probably means he could just openly say what he knows and then shorts would be finished. Because coded meme messages WILL be interpreted wrongly.
Fifteenth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790404203715887238
Kitty/DFV feels Bears, Shorts and Media did fuck around with him and now they will find out. Now he is stopping "being the better person" and trying to follow their "rules". What follows is kitty ranting about the neysayers/Shorts, saying bears are fucking idiots basically!
Sixteenth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790411757120561628
Kitty comes to us. He Needs our help and we need to not ask any questions, not now not later. Seventeenth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790419301976903884
mainly green coded Video.
Eighteenth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790426851409817615 Basically because of the SEC(Security), a lot of planning is/was needed for this, as well as maaaaany people. because this is different because it has never been done before. The Goal is JUST UP.
Nineteenth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790434400494116873
This whole thing needed a whole lot of Paperwork and dancing around. Interestingly it mentions "Loophole", which could just mean that a way for the squeeze was found, building upon the eighteenth memes themes. Could also point towards Loopring, who worked together with Gamestop on the NFT-Marketplace. Could be a stretch though.
Twentieth meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790441953659687421
There is a signal that was sent, that was also seen by the bad guys. So I assume, whatever signal DFV saw, he is saying the Shorts also saw that signal.... and they are afraid. And a red coded Message: "FEAR IS A TOOL!" So, he might tell us to not fear the red days. Fear is just a tool. Could also mean that Shorts being afraid is good, because that fear is a tool. Cause when the shorts see the signal, some might flip and buy in. Which would good because THATS WHAT THEY SHOULD HAVE DONE IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!
Twentyfirst: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790449499506192405
Coded green: A guy in front of a PC stays with a friend. Could mean Kitty is the friend and redditors collectively in front of their PCs stay and dont leave DFV alone! He may again ask us to be with him in this.
Twentysecond: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790457051115847720
Lots to unpack. A Requel means its happening again.... means the squeeze of 2021 is happening again. This is not just a company turnaround, it indeed is A SQUEEZE! And the Movie about that Sneeze fucking sucked basically.
Twentythird: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790464599575167004
Kitty comes for the Bears. He is back. This time, every bear will be a victim!
Twentyfourth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790472153470759217
DFV is supposed to be the Guy with the haircut. Basically he has the Shorts by the balls now. Now that DFV has seen the Buyback by Gamestop, he has his gun on the Short Sellers. Short Sellers are squirming and trying to shake off paperhands with a bit of money, but he is just grinning because of that ridiculous offer. Of course Shorts/Bears call him names and stuff. Then a Call/Margin Call comes in. This Meme will have a follow up meme! The Follow up Meme will be what happens after the Call, which is the Haircut guy shooting the Short guy and it will be posted once some Short-Hedge-Fund or Bank goes down because of this bet.
Another somewhat related meme was posted on June 9th 2021. https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1402641643694477317
That time DFV is the haircut guy and he is flipping the coin, which is GAMESTOP-coded. So he was waiting for a signal from Gamestop to be able to shoot his shot. He himself could NOT do what he was waiting for from GAMESTOP. I guess he was still waiting for the Buyback back then, but it was evident that it wasnt coming (and too late anyway). I bet DFV was pissed that GME did no buyback, but NOW they did, which is why he has posted the current meme.
Twentyfifth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790532552828289526
The Prisoner says "GAMESTOP"! In case its not clear, that means DFV is talking about GME. And he is ALL IN!
Twentysixth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790713748866371690
Gamestop looking Sexy and throwing us kisses! They send us the signal! (the buyback?)
Twentyseventh: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790717515523658119
Gamestop is doing something extraordinary. They do it in the open and we could see it. Maybe something with electricity. But we are not really looking.
And whatever it is, it will BEAT DOWN the Bears.
Could mean that Gamestop is buying back its stock to put it onto a NFT-Stock Market, which is why Gamestop registered as a holding company. But this is just baseless speculation.
Twentyeigth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790721293089964126
Everybody Hold, gamestop is preping something. It means we should hold, because Gamestop is preping something against whoever tried to kill Short and distort Gamestop and did short and distord Blockbuster and others.
Twentyninth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790725065585439065
Gamestops milk was poisened. Means the short and distord left moles in the company that tried to destroy it from within.
Thirty: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790728848226521547
Against all the odds, Kitty or R.C. went into this short and distort sheme, to try to win against short sellers.
Thirtyfirst: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790732615022195139
Kitty does not take the comments of the Media laying down, he fights back. Kitty mentions Wutang. Maybe it has something to do with the rumor that Wutangs one of a kind Album was somehow unter the control of R.C.. Dont know if its a cheecky call back or if this story is actually real.
Thirtysecond: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790736391124774975
Moon Night-Fortnite-Day n night are the Key motifs. So here is the thing with Fortnite: A Fortnight is 2 Weeks. In 2 Weeks, at the beginning of June, the 3 Year LEAPS expire. Moon Night is invulnerable basically.
Now this could hint towards Shorts being invulnarable because of their LEAPS, until those LEAPS expire in 2 Weeks. Then their silly game is over. Thats why everything happening right now is just the OVERTURE (See Second Meme)
Thirtythird: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790740164848861227
Media are disrespecting Kitty and he is fine with it.
Thirtyfourth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790743946764644659
I think he is saying He is a redditor and Redditors are like him. Reddit brought him Gamestop and he brought Gamestop to redditors. Something like that. And the first thing one should do to follow his Thesis is try to "Defend the Bear Case". Trying to defend the other side of a trade will show how fucked the other side actually is. Maybe that is why he and redditors know that Gamestop will explode into the green. Cause the Bear Case.... its not that good.
​
Thirty fifth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790747714440892825
DFV is telling us he is not following some get rich quick sheme. He is not a gambler degenerate. He has a plan, he makes the memes, he does not follow them! He knows and people should hear his side. Also its a play on parts of the Next Meme, he is telling us he made the memes.
Thirty sixth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790751492451754012
He is telling us that Ryan Cohen did a lot of the planing and the getting the people together, but people listen to "Avocado-in-my-anus", which is an alternate account of DFV. Is it really though? Well he told us in the last meme, that he is the one that made the memes. And Avocado-in-my-anus made 3 Memes on Cat Day.
Thirty-seventh: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790755264733626879
Again a continuation from the last meme. People saying DFV is running the whole GME Thing... meanwhile what is supposed to be DFV is just drawing dicks/making Memes. He tries to tell us, that it is R.C. doing the whole company stuff and that he has nothing to do with it basically.
Thirtieigth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790759048985612468
A continuation from the last few memes. R.C. vs DFV, who is in charge? They both say they will not. Quill is R.C., Thor is DFV. DFV kind of wants to be in charge, but begrudgingly lets R.C. do his thing. I think this plays on DFVs Anger in 2021, that R.C. did not push the red button/do the buyback back then.
Thirtyninth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790762813868175516
This is basically a repeat and rewind of a Meme posted on June 4th 2021: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1400844797229912065
In 2021, DFV was mad, that R.C. did not push the button/do the buyback and told us clearly that he did not like R.C. anymore with this meme. Now in 2024, he rewinds that meme and tells us, that he thought that at the time in 2021, but that the investment thesis evolved over time and he now sees R.C. as a supermode.
So basically he saw what R.C. was doing in 2024, which he did not in 2021 and he likes R.C. again now. Probably because R.C. pushed the button and also did some plan with loopholes and stuff that DFV may not have thought about.
Number Forty: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790766591526735887 So, R.C. had a plan and 3 years later it comes to fruition. He does mirror some of R.C.s emotes. Also he tells us "People say it cant squeeze again"..... he says it will.
​
Fortyone: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790770363627921776 Too many awards on his last post. Maybe too many eyes on him and his plan?
Forty two
https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790774146994966570 DFV transformed fully into his internet persona, because of the last meme.
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Forty three: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790777913245421806 Too much drama around Kitty in 2021. This might be the explanation why he went dark-mode.
forty four: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790781688848450012 People want to know what the fuck Kitty was doing all these 3 years. He tells us he was waiting for this. Because it is part of the Plan. What is this? I think it is GME Buying back stock before the expiration of the LEAPS in the beginning of June. So yea, thats what he saw and why he came back.
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Forty five: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790785463118348420 It does not matter that he, DFV, is back. The whole Squeeze Plan matters. And it is getting executed right now. Why does he say we? Because everyone holding GME is part of it. It think the many DRSed hodlers of GME are indeed part of the plan and necessary!
Forty Six: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790789242513433071 The Goofy "I will do it again" Meme. DFV will do it again.... and by "it" I think he means he will again buy a shit ton of options and stock. And I think he will post it. OR Its the shorts that are doing it again. And its shorting, but I dont know if its referring to back in 2021 and their shorting until now, under the cover of LEAPS or if it is now before June, or whatever. We will see.
Forty Seven: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790793012936851665
He tells the GME investors that say they lost money because of DFV: SHUT UP BITCH! Continued in next meme.
Fortyeight: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790796790360363016
He tells us, that last memes "Shut up, Bitch" was too good of a line to not use and that it was not meant for all redditors, but for one guy that apparently was crying about losing money because of DFV. Dont know who, I am not into reddit drama. Basically DFV just liked the line as a meme, because its funny. And he will continue to post coded memes, even if people dont understand them.
Forty-nine: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790800562654691686 DFV thinks everybody thinks he is crazy with his memes and Media slandered him.
Fifty: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790804340673789978 Continues the last meme and that people think he is a freak with his memes. But he tells us the memes bring out the people that are like him... freaks. He is talking to us oldscool redditors and webpeople that the mediapeople cant seem to get their head wrapped around. If you ever rolled your eyes at the media misusing uncomplicated memes.... yea, he is talking about you. You come to twitter to hear his trumpet/Memes!
Fifty one: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790808112741630320
DFV is the Redhanded-guy and that bears can do nothing against him. It is red-coded. But definetly Bears can do nothing against DFV and he is keeping them up. Which I think is definetly true.
Fifty two: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790812277530034448 Jim Cramer asked for this meme and DFV made it in a few minutes, just to fuck with him. Though it does show Kitty behind a chair, coded in Computershare colors and with a teddy, which is the name of R.C. Company of Kids Books. And Kitty behind the whole thing, hiding. Jo, does Teddy play into all of this??? If so this meme is one hundred layers deep. Personally I think Teddy might be important to do some stuff that Gamestop itself can not do, like for example "buy Calls on GME", but this meme is mainly there to fuck with Jim Cramer.
Fifty Three: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790815662203617755 The stock goes down, just to fuck with us.... UNTIL!!!!!!! Well, what happens after "until" will probably follow in a later meme, when shorts lose control of their button. Probably in the beginning of June, or when R.C. announces the buyback and a higher than expected number of shares locked down. No more Mr. Nice Guy for the shorts then. so keep your eyes out. Oh, and the stock will stop going down then.
Fifty four: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790819440617033914 Shorts try to crucify Kitty and Gamestop.... it speaks about the stock going down as a tool from the shorts to make us afraid. And we only ask: Is that the best you can do?
Fifty Five: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790823211745063394 Shorts taunt us, beat us down and try to make us doubt..... but the soundtrack :-D Basically this is a game for us and we will whop their asses, no matter what shorts do.... like the beatdown on the stock right now.
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Fifty six: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790826988019528035
Now, this is interesting: Shorts made this whole thing happen. They sold before they bought. They dropped it. So it WILL go back up. It... WILL.... GO....... UP!!!!!! You feel it yet?
Fifty Seven: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790830761542664192
Continuation: Do you have a girlfriend that tells you to sell and stop listening to the mad people on Reddit? Do you have people around you, telling you the squeeze-narrative is bullshit? Trust your instinct. This continues the last meme, while you can not see the stock going up right now, it was dropped. So it will go back up. Thats the law of nature, even if it was perverted.... or turned around.
Fifty Eigth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790834536403574936
A Person is fleeing with a hidden GME Share in his pocket. It means we were running and holding GME for a long time and are tired, but we STAND UP, with GME IN OUR HANDS! I am not really "tired", but thats what the meme says.
Fifty Nine: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790894938277695671
In this meme, DFV explains to us, how he found Gamestop. Due Diligence, time, pressure and making memes, basically. In 2021 they tried to lock away DFV, but all the departments of the state found no wrongdoing... just his reddit posts, tweets and live streams.
It only takes pressure and time and DFV studied meticulously. Now I did not know every mentioned meme, so he may not have posted them. He may have posted them though and it might lead to another account of him. I doubt it would be more fruitful in information than his twitter account. After all, thats where the freaks at! And one last thing. He laments that apparently noone looked at his streams...I guess thats where all the information was after all. I think it shows content from his Gamestop-Explanation video, but I am unsure, because it is quarter before 4 AM and I am tired and I will go to bed after posting this.
Thanks for reading. Everything is made up of course, I have no idea what DFV is thinking, but it seems clear, that when you look at the whole situation, as we all did, we would come to the same conclusion, as we all did. Shorts did not close and GME seems to be a good investment. Also, look closer!.... thats the main theme. And stop doubting yourself.... yea, thats pretty much it.
So TLDR: The first days of June is where some of the magic will happen in the LEAPS. Meanwhile, R.C. has a plan with Gamestop and the buyback plays a role in it. And that plan does enable the ability for a killshot against the shorts. And it will explode in the green like never before. Also: Learn Memeish
To DFV: Write me what you think about it, if you want.

https://www.kabinetsformatie2023.nl/documenten/publicaties/2024/05/16/hoofdlijnenakkoord-tussen-de-fracties-van-pvv-vvd-nsc-en-bbb
The agreement was on "main points", therefore bit shorter than before (87 pages 2012 vs 26 pages 2024). The points surrounding naturalisation are basically as follows:
"Extra and mandating stakes on integration. Starting point is that you are one of us if you accept Dutch values and participate in it."

• "Inburgering includes knowledge over Holocaust and its victims."
  • Good, not sure if the new KNM test will come.
• "The standard term for naturalisation will be extended to 10 years, regardless of permanent or non-permanent stay."
  • Surprisingly this has been the election programme of VVD(!), not PVV. The former was more clear-cut while the latter was too vague to include it. The former wanted to also make it shorter for B2 holders, but it seems that it is not included.
• "Foreigners who will get Dutch nationality should give up other nationality if possible."
  • ...Which has been already the case, unless you are married to Dutch citizen.
• "The language requirement will be in principle increased for everyone to B1."
  • ...Which has been, again, already the case. Just they couldn't still figure it out how to implement it yet.

https://open.overheid.nl/documenten/ronl-archief-059a0058-3042-4f38-b307-7f67e8c815a8/pdf
https://www.eerstekamer.nl/wetsvoorstel/33852_verlenging This isn't quite new. In fact, PvdA and VVD also tried to increase the naturalisation period to 7 years in 2012. Back then, the Coalition accord came in October 2012, then the law came to TK in January 2014, voted in TK in June 2016, then finally voted not in favor in EK in October 2017, because the coalition party PvdA have already changed their mind since around 2015 after DENK was splintered off from it, and crucially, at the very last moment, 50+ changed its mind after getting protests from Dutch people abroad, because the law also included parts that required spouses of Dutch people to live in NL for 3 years before naturalisation.
So.... that took 5 years. However, it should be noted that case involved very complicated political tensions surrounding the cabinet; now there's no parties like PvdA that will pull the plug on this specific law.
The time took from the submission in EK to actually changing the nationality law varies a lot, but usually it was 1 year and couple of months. (That case was for taking back Dutch nationality for Dutch nationals in ISIS, which was a very complicated case because it involved statelessness.)
Similar attempts in other countries with far-right in power also suggest the same. In Sweden, the Tidö Agreement was signed in October 2022, and the changes in the law was proposed in March 2024, with expected effective date of 1 October 2024. There has been no amnesty given for people who have been already in the country. The lack of EK in Sweden does make it short, but not dramatically shorter.
So if you have already lived (n<4) years here, should you then be worried about it? I think it depends. For the original attempt in 2012, there was an amendement submitted by Sjoerd Sjoerdsma (D66) that let old rules apply for people who have already lived in NL for more than 3 years, which has been passed by a VERY small margin. This is because back then the broader "left" parties took almost 48% of the seats, and also thanks to the coalition party (PvdA) siding with them in that amendment. Now the situation seems very unlikely that such amendment would be passed.
So for those people - including myself - I can only conclude that it would ultimately depend on how high the naturalisation is on the government's priority list compared to other issues. On the one hand, it is not as high compared to other asylum-focused measures in the package; on the other hand, among all the proposals in the migration package, naturalisation is probably the "easiest" option of all: it is very much proven in 2012 - 2017 to be achievable. So if the governement can't really achieve any meaningful changes with migration to show its voters - it is safe to say that the naturalisation law would be the go-to option for the coalition to please its voting base.

I'm finishing up the new bestiary right now, just have the Skaven, Big Monsters, and Dungeon Creatures to finish up. When they're done I'll be ready to start laying out the book in Adobe InDesign and play testing through a few campaigns to tighten everything up. Fortunately all the rules are based on the same standard Games Workshop rules designs that I've been playing for 30 years, so I already know they all work, it's not like making up a brand new game, it's just a matter of smoothing everything out and making sure it all works together.
I did manage to get D100 charts for the Hazard, Settlement, and Dungeon tables. Some of the results are still in note form, just what I want to have happen but not written in proper for publishing prose. I think when you're dealing with a big project it's important not to get bogged down on any one thing just because it's not absolutely finished, as by the time you're down there's a real chance you've lost your overall mental control of the project in your head. You suddenly don't remember things about the game, forget what you've done so far, forget what you were planning to do, you want to keep going back to an executive level view of the project so that stays fresh in your brain. And as my rough draft is now 300 pages, it's a lot to keep track of.
Besides just more results, I also added in a few fun things, 2D10 charts when visiting the Temple or Gambling Hall, Tilean mobsters now have a presence in Settlements and you can get to know them, you can gain corruption from the Chaos Gods or from Warpstone, and there will be a section in the back of the book for becoming a secret Chaos Warrior, mutant, or even a Paladin of Law. It's fun to weave all these things together in the game's narrative half, none of it's super complicated, you just may gain a Corruption of Khorne from a bad Hazard event while travelling, and next thing you know, you worship Khorne. And other things like gaining the ability to visit the Tilean mafia's headquarters, becoming part of a secret brotherhood of adventurers who hang out at the Alehouse, or even getting married and making up a (surprisingly low maintenance) wife for your character.
Beyond this, I would like to make some additional expansion books, which feature the expansion heroes. There are 12 expansion heroes, including the White Dwarf ones (or semi-official ones), so I was thinking maybe doing a book for Bretonnia, Araby, and Albion. They would be redos of this new book version of Warhammer Quest I'm working on now, just with the Hazard and Settlement tables reflavored to match the new land, and maybe 20% of the table results replaced with new, very themed results. Bretonnia could also add Dark Elves in its campaign, Araby has Tomb Kings, and I'd have to think about what to add with Albion.
As far as that goes, it'd be neat to do some smaller flavor books for a variety of settings, so you could visit all of the Old World, like Tilea, Estalia, and the Border Princes. I was thinking about little campaign books first, one focused on Middenheim during a festival, like City of the White Wolf and Power Behind the Throne. It would include a Settlement during festival times, so you could feature that from time to time in games. Then one for Marienburg, so you could do a port city, which had some rules in White Dwarf for Warhammer Quest in port cities, and also I could add some specific flavor for Marienburg out of the WFRP sourcebook. And then finally A Silver Tower campaign in Kislev, or starting is Kislev, for anybody who ones Warhammer Quest Silver Tower and wants to use their tiles and enemies. The Silver Tower is a nice connecting concept, as they are a part of the original Warhammer Fantasy world.
It's all off in the future, though. If I can narrow down the work to mostly just rewriting narrative tables, that's easy work and relatively quick work too. Then adding a location or two to visit in Settlements, like a Mercenary Hall in Tilea, or a Bazaar in Araby, will give it local flavor.
So like I said, I'll get the bestiary finished soon, probably this week, and be able to consolidate the rules into a cohesive "rough final draft" for proper playtesting.

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The testing started out extraordinarily simple. Simple math, elementary school basic, but as I knocked out questions on the tablet, it definitely moved up. This held true in all sections, but I didn't catch on until eventually, Brad held up his hand, "Mr. Donny, it says my test is done."
Donny nodded, checking his computer at his desk really quickly, "Alright then, why don't you take yourself on down t'the cafeteria. Here's a card so y'can get yourself somethin' t'eat."
I spared a glance at Darryl, who similarly, glanced over at me, and we nodded. There was no reality where Brad Warner was simply smarter than everyone else here, and that meant the parameters were different than what we generally assumed during testing. The test kept going until you hit the wall, programmed to see how far you could take it. The questions stepped up as you answered, but that wouldn't be enough, cause then you could take forever, so there was a time element. The faster and more correctly you answer then, the higher your level goes. My questions were getting more and more detailed, more advanced maths and sciences. The test itself was designed to end when you hit the limit of your learning, but not in a 'get one question wrong' way, but a summation of overall knowledge.
Aimee was the next to complete her test,and was similarly handed a card for the cafeteria as she walked up dejectedly, and I spared a glance again. Darryl was just sort of loving life, while Mackenzie was clearly getting frustrated. We kept pushing through, until Mackenzie slammed her desk with both hands, startling everyone, "Damn it!"
She stalked to the front, snatched her card out of Donny's hand, and stormed out of the room, muttering something about eternal emnity. Darryl and I eyed each other: We were the last two left, and Darryl mouthed a congratulations to me before getting back into it. We kept going for a while, and finally, a hand went up, "Done."
Darryl's head shot in my direction, and Donny smiled, "Alright then, come get your card."
I got up, and took my card, then walked over to Darryl, "I didn't hold back."
I walked out of the room to head off to the cafeteria. In the end, I'd gone as far as the test would allow in Math and Science, the things I was consistently using. Where I'd met my match was English and Social Studies. I simply hadn't studied it as much due to the project and company needs, and thus neither improved much since I'd read my textbooks. I swung through the cafeteria, very aware that everyone was staring at me from their table as I grabbed food and drinks, and came to sit. Mackenzie gave me a look, "Darryl won?!"
I got her annoyance. She was two years ahead of us, and highly competitive by nature. Her chain of trophies had not been an accident or by anyone else's hand but hers, "Yup. He got me. Pretty sure I got dinged on Social Studies and English."
Aimee cut in, "But, like, your 1%?"
"1% only effects what I work on. I haven't been in an English class since the end of September, and it's not like I've been keeping up since. Same thing with Social Studies, it's mostly a study of history, and I haven't had the time for it. The math and science sure, but I haven't really had a reason to advance in my understanding of literature or broader history, so it didn't improve," I shrugged a bit as I dug into my little sub.
Aimee and Mackenzie were both upset at their placement, but Brad seemed perfectly fine. He'd never expected to do better, and it wasn't like he was invested in it, so it was nothing that he wasn't the smartest person in the room. He'd known he wasn't. Makenzie was basically ready to go redo the test for the sake of vengeance, so she'd be fine, but Aimee was pretty upset. I took a break from food to look at her, "Aimee, I'm sure you did fine. I've got a literal superpower for learning, Darryl's a super-nerd, and Mackenzie is two years ahead of you in school. Plus, we don't know what he's potentially scoring us on."
She was biting her lip a bit, which was distractingly cute, "I know, but..."
"This was an assessment test. As far as I understand it, there's no way to fail, it's just so that he knows where we're at," I spoke softly, taking her hand.
Aimee my hand, but looked close to tears, "But you're so..."
A sound of disgust turned us toward Brad, who finally joined in the conversation, "So what if you're not as smart? Who even gives a damn?! Like, dude, no one's ever gonna be as smart as him again. It'd be like saying you'll never be in the NBA cause you lost a pick-up game where the other team has Lebron, Jordan, and Bryant in their prime."
We all took a moment. Brad didn't really talk that much, so the idea of him being deep was... new. I smirked a little, "Very well-put, Brad."
It was well-put, and gave Aimee some context, not least of which was that she played basketball and the metaphor applied directly for her. She came down a moment and wiped her eyes, and we started chatting about stuff at the H.A.A. and classes until Darryl and Donny showed up. Darryl looked like he'd been through the wars, but he was still smiling, so clearly he was pretty proud of himself as he sat with us.
Donny stepped up with his tray, but didn't take a seat, "Alright y'all, now, I gotta go over the test results and whatnot, so while I'm workin' on that, you guys eat, and then go take some time in the rec area. Sound good?"
We nodded. After being stuck in testing for so long, getting to stretch our legs was a relief. Mackenzie needed to blow off steam, so we went up to one of the second floor halls to spar while the others watched. I took a moment before we got started to get a sidebar with Mackenzie, "I get it. Darryl beat you."
"This time. I'm a junior. I should've been able to beat him," She was distinctly displeased with herself as she put on sparring pads.
"Mackenzie, it's like Brad said, Darryl's a super-nerd, and he was in a test of knowledge. There's a reason he's in the honors classes," putting on my own pads as I continued, "And I get it. Losing to me, you could've taken it cause of the 1%, but Darryl was smarter than all of us combined before, that didn't shift since I got awakened, only my power did."
She glared up from the ground she sat on to get her footpads on, and while she didn't directly respond, I knew her well enough to know she was getting it. It did not do anything for her current temper. She was determined to be the best, not good, not great, the best. Anything less was a flaw in need of correction. Mackenzie kipped up off the floor, and discussion time was over. We bowed, took stance, and when Darryl called the start, she immediately went on the assault. She fired off a punch at my face, immediately dropping low for a sweep that I stepped over, and immediately launched into a waist take down, using the force of rebound from dropping low. With arms already up from the block, and one foot off the mat, she got her take down... sort of. Instead of trying to fight it, I rolled with it, catching her belt, and throwing her as we hit the mat, using the momentum of the fall. She didn't go too far, but it was for me to break out as she threw a ground elbow to drive me off, then spun as she rose, getting more distance from a series of spinning kicks. We were back in neutral stance, but now on opposite sides. I launched into my offensive.
Darryl knew what it was like when we sparred, but not Aimee and Brad. Aimee was a bit shocked at how hard we went at it, and Brad looked like he was going to throw up, that ingrained fear of my sister being given legitimacy before his eyes. Our sparring sessions had changed, though, with it being done more or less in 'turns' now, with Mackenzie taking the lead off on offense, then me reversing to take it back and press her. We finished up after a few turns, and I grabbed a towel from the side, where Aimee was waiting, "So that's what it's like when you go all out?"
Mackenzie laughed, "Hell no. I tried that ride once, just for fun and yeah, no, I got nothing for that."
I could see Aimee considering her words, and there was something there she wanted to talk about, but she wanted to talk about it privately, "Alright, everyone. I don't know about everyone else, but I could use a cool off. I'm hitting the pool."
We got changed out, and hit the pool for a bit, mostly just relaxing. That's where Donny found us, "Alright y'all, got my lunch in and tests're graded."
Brad groaned, "Aw man, we gotta go back to class?"
Donny smiled, "Nah. We gotta do the physical assessment, and since y'all're already here, why don't we start with the pool?"
And that's when Darryl groaned. His time as champion of the assessments had come to an end.
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Hi agan!
A few days back i was banging my head trying to get my Azure hosted CHR wireguard working until i got the key missing step (thread over here)
After getting it up to speed, i then strugled a bit but managed to make 2 separate mikrotiks connect to it, and having them both interact with each other through the CHR.
I have also succeeded in creating peer conections for me and another person to the CHR, and from there we can access both sites.
I am not sure if i have done it the correct/best way, but its working.
I had to create routes on the CHR to the local network on each site, setting the gateway with the IP i gave the wireguard interface on each mikrotik (all on the same subnet as the wireguard interface on the CHR).
On each mikrotik, i had to create a route for the other remote site, and for gateway, the IP for the wireguard interface on the oposite remote site.
Without those, only having the dynamic route for the wireguard interface network was not enough.
For some reason, none of the routes on the CHR work if i enable check gateway (manual ping to them do work).
Maybe i could do something with OSPF, but im not too familiar with that.
Now im on the final step, which is using the azure provided cname as the "portal" for a few services i need to expose.
I went and allowed 4 different ports on the azure firewall, lets say:
1000: app related
2000: http
3000: ftp
4000: HTTPS
That should make those accesible ON the CHR. (just like i did with the wireguard ports).
If i connect my wireguard from my computer, i can access the local PCs hosting those services on their respective ports.
But i am not getting anywhere making them accessible from internet.
The idea is to have them accesible like:
azurehostname.blabla.com:PORT
For that, i thought i had to make the NAT rules on the CHR, and on the action part, indicate the internal IP of each machine (one machine on each site).
But doing it that way does not work.
I will test again with torch and other traffic watching tools, and maybe ill try the action dst-nat part, pointing to the IP of the router on each site, and have THAT router do another dst-nat to the local machine?
Or maybe the problem is that the route back is not working, or some masquerade issue? this is my first time operating a CHR (or mikrotik for that matter) for something like this, the most i had done before was some site 2 site vpn stuff.

The players have been made aware of this, and have agreed. This is not meant to be a discussion of railroading.
Each player, some in groups, have had, or will have a private session leading up to the official start. They all start in the same place, against their will. Each character has something unique about them, or valuable, that would be appealing to slave traders. A very popular line of work in this part of the world. With undead being pretty much eradicated, cheap labor had to come from elsewhere. The party are more special than cheap labor.
A orc who wanted to escape the violence of his people and live peacefully. The reputation of his kin follows him everywhere.
An elvish princess, a rare thing in a world where there's around 500 elves left.
A bounty hunter, apart of a very well known clan, who possesses many trade secrets and tools. Many want their revenge.
A pair of twins who stumbled upon artifacts they shouldn't have. Otherworldly powers, and an unfair debt owed.
This corner of the world attracts many tourists for the same reason LA or Vegas does. There is endless opportunity for those willing to work for it, or a life of luxury for those who can afford it. Streets are filled with gambling, and exotics imports from all over the world. Gladiator style areas however is what brings in the most. Warriors from all over to come to show off their strength, willingly or not. For slave traders, this is where the money is. A fighter who can put on a show is a very valuable thing, and why 3/5 of the characters start off as prisoners.
The orc, elf, and bounty hunter are from across the region. Kidnapped for purposes that will be revealed later to them, backstory elements coming into play that made them desirable and worth the risk. The twins are apart of the gang who takes them, but they are not involved with this part. They simple are muscle, and smuggle drugs around for the gang. Session 1 is the first time the twins meet the other side of the business, and it's not for a promotion.
The session starts with the twins arriving to the hideout. Located at an old mining operation in the middle of the desert, it has been fortified and turned into something more. The old gates reinforced to create an area, and the entrance into the mines a jail. Deeper inside has been turned into a temple of Anubis, the prominate god of the area, but not all is what it seems. The twins are brought here to witness a fight. An elf druid, one traveling with the elf princess at the time of her capture is in the area trying to talk an owlbear out of eating with with little success. He wild shapes into a small bird in an attempt to escape, only to be shot out of the sky immediately by a guard with a long rifle. His death is quick, and gruesome as the owlbear does its thing to the prone man.
Afterwards, the twins are escorted inside. Past the jail, into the deeper chambers where they meet their boss. A Dwarvish women who immediately comes across as disliking them. She wants to test the twins loyalty, and this is when the characters are all brought together. The other 3 characters are brought into the room. One by one they are shot by the boss, and brought back by a cleric of Anubis, leaving only the twins left standing. This is just a showing of how she's willing to get her hands dirty, cause the twins want something that belongs to her.
The twins last big job was a heist. They needed to retrieve a silver jewelry box, and they had one rule. Under no circumstances is that box opened. Well, it was, but not willingly. The jewelry box contained a scale of a mercury dragon - dragons are rare, god-like beings here, and a scale like this is akin to an artifact rarity magic item. This Mercury dragon just happens to be the patron of the brother now, as the scale absorbed into him, through no choice or fault of his own. The boss wanted this power to herself, and upon retrieving the box, it didn't appear to be opened. Imagine her disappointment when she found it was empty. The brother was the only one alone with the box.
The sister is presented a deal. Kill her brother, right here, right now. Prove her loyalty without question or they both die. This is the first major decision the players are able to make now. If she pulls the trigger, or not. The boss isn't stupid. The gun handed to the sister isn't loaded. It's simply a test. If both siblings are to be shot, or just the one. The ending is largely the same.
Bleeding out on the ground, the sister, and newly revived party members witness the corpse of the brother forcibly raised from the dead to answer questions. The location of the item in the box. If his sister knew he stole it. Is he still loyal. - my ruling of Speak with Dead is they don't have to answer, but if they do, the answer must not be a lie. He will be brought back, but his answers will determine later interactions. Now, the sister. Every player in the game will have moments in the spotlight. I decided to start with her, as it made most sense, and given the twins background, they will be key members to the party next chapter. She still has the empty gun. If she knows its empty or not will change a few small details. She too is a warlock, and this is the signing of her pact with the Hexblade.
Her interpretation of this place is her own to make. She awakes in a void, and although she is still herself here, she is consumed by nothingness. No pain, no sound, no feeling at all. Not even a heartbeat. Here she meets an entity. A "shadow" that mimics her every movement. It even shifts slightly, becoming a silhouette of herself. When she touches it, it is an overwhelming sense of feeling. Fireworks going off at the tip of her fingertips. The warmth of her blood becoming as hot as the sun, but somehow feels comforting compared to the nothingness shes felt for all this time. Outside seconds have past. Here, it could have been years, or seconds. Impossible to tell. But with this touch she hears a voice reach out to her. "Squeeze". She's back in the room, vision blurry as her life fades. Gun raised, aimed at her boss, who doesn't fear an empty gun. Only, it's no longer empty. This is her new pact weapon. It functions as a gun, but she can choose to shoot normal bullets or eldritch blast from it.
Their escape comes soon after. The hideout is attacked by a Sand Stalker - a purple-worm like creature. Other captives save them, and the campaigns first chapter begins here. They are in the middle of the desert, very limited supplies, uncertain where exactly they are. Few npc trying to get to the capital city to find help. The twins, bounty hunter, and other npc know that everyone who bares the mark of the clan will have bounties out on them, to be returned to their owners. The world in now open to them, as they learn how to free themselves of this debt one way or another.
The slave contract is as good as a deal with a devil. Legally binding, and magical in nature. Each master / house has its own distinct mark to show ownership. Once the debt is paid off, the mark will fade on its own. Their starting debt is 10k gp each. It is meant to be ridiculous. The bounty on a slave is always 10% of their total debt. So, 1k gp to return them if they job is put out, and it will be. If captured the reward money is added to the debt they owe, making it 11k gp now. The system is designed to be nearly impossible to be free.
In the main city there are several patrons willing to help them for one reason or another. Old contacts of the twins and bounty hunter in the party are expected to be called upon. There's multiple escapes from the city I have ready, and I am looking forward to what they come up with. I don't expect them to ever pay off their debt. The main story will later being them back here, when they're ready to take on the challenges of the city in full, and save the world. Standard stuff.
This is a new attempt at an intro. Throwing them into the fire with a clear goal. A long "cinematic" before giving them full control. They all know the stakes, and are in a position of "our chances are better together" apposed from the classic meeting in the tavern and dealing with rats.
Every character has elements from their backstory that matter here, and will drastically effect the campaign going forward. They had all known the basics of the intro, and details where they started prior to making characters. Changes were made to my plans based on their characters, incorporating them into it one way or another. There were always slavers, and they were always going to die. The twins backstories are the only ones from this region and they provided me a lot to work with, and ability to tie them into the scenario.
The boss killing and betraying the twins is a detail I think is very important. The other characters may see them as enemies, so by doing it this way they have common enemies and no secrets about it. Only the sister is not in debt, giving her a few special privilege's while in the city. All the players know each other, have played in other games together, and know what's expected. I am trying to make the party's coming together seem natural by immediately giving them a common problem and no one else to turn to. [BG3 SPOILERS] as the mindflayer parasites provided the main cast common problems, and Out of the Abyss first chapter being major influences. There are many other politics involved also, some sub plots that will come up later that tie to this, and a lot of world lore involved giving insight to why this region functions like this.

Hey all,
I had my ASEL Private before the military.
Now I'm a military instructor pilot that used the FAA military competency rules to acquire my FAA commercial and instrument ratings after UPT. I flew T-6 and T-1 so I have Commercial Single and Multi
I got my CFI, CFII and MEI after my Instructor Upgrade in 2015. I let it expire, but recently used my last check-ride Form 8 to re-instate it.
I didn't check the ASE box on my application, but The FSDO gave me "Airplane Single and Multiengine; Instrument Airplane"
Is this correct?
I've been racking my brain with Category, Class, and Type definitions. I have one friend who told me based on 61.73 (g) Your certificate will match your Commercial Certificate category and class, for example

• CFI-Airplane, Single Engine
  
• CFI-Airplane, Multi Engine
  
• CFI-Instrument Airplane (or helicopter)
  
• CFI-Rotorcraft, Helicopter
  

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-61
The CFR § 61.73 section (g) (see below) says "appropriate rating", but the IACRA application has just one box for aircraft that one has "logged pilot time or provided flight instruction (IP)."

§ 61.73 Military pilots or former military pilots: Special rules.

(a) General. Except for a person who has been removed from flying status for lack of proficiency or because of a disciplinary action involving aircraft operations, a U.S. military pilot or former military pilot who meets the requirements of this section may apply, on the basis of his or her military pilot qualifications, for:
(1) A commercial pilot certificate with the appropriate aircraft category and class rating.
(2) An instrument rating with the appropriate aircraft rating.
(3) A type rating.
(b) Military pilots and former military pilots in the U.S. Armed Forces. A person who qualifies as a military pilot or former military pilot in the U.S. Armed Forces may apply for a pilot certificate and ratings under paragraph (a)) of this section if that person—
(1) Presents evidentiary documents described under paragraphs (h)(1)(1)), (2)(2)), and (3)(3)) of this section that show the person's status in the U.S. Armed Forces.
(2) Has passed the military competency aeronautical knowledge test on the appropriate parts of this chapter for commercial pilot privileges and limitations, air traffic and general operating rules, and accident reporting rules.
(3) Presents official U.S. military records that show compliance with one of the following requirements—
(i) Before the date of the application, passing an official U.S. military pilot and instrument proficiency check in a military aircraft of the kind of aircraft category, class, and type, if class or type of aircraft is applicable, for the ratings sought; or
(ii) Before the date of application, logging 10 hours of pilot time as a military pilot in a U.S. military aircraft in the kind of aircraft category, class, and type, if a class rating or type rating is applicable, for the aircraft rating sought.
(c) A military pilot in the Armed Forces of a foreign contracting State to the Convention on International Civil Aviation. A person who is a military pilot in the Armed Forces of a foreign contracting State to the Convention on International Civil Aviation and is assigned to pilot duties in the U.S. Armed Forces, for purposes other than receiving flight training, may apply for a commercial pilot certificate and ratings under paragraph (a)) of this section, provided that person—
(1) Presents evidentiary documents described under paragraph (h)(4)(4)) of this section that show the person is a military pilot in the Armed Forces of a foreign contracting State to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, and is assigned to pilot duties in the U.S. Armed Forces, for purposes other than receiving flight training.
(2) Has passed the military competency aeronautical knowledge test on the appropriate parts of this chapter for commercial pilot privileges and limitations, air traffic and general operating rules, and accident reporting rules.
(3) Presents official U.S. military records that show compliance with one of the following requirements:
(i) Before the date of the application, passed an official U.S. military pilot and instrument proficiency check in a military aircraft of the kind of aircraft category, class, or type, if class or type of aircraft is applicable, for the ratings; or
(ii) Before the date of the application, logged 10 hours of pilot time as a military pilot in a U.S. military aircraft of the kind of category, class, and type of aircraft, if a class rating or type rating is applicable, for the aircraft rating.
(d) Instrument rating. A person who is qualified as a U.S. military pilot or former military pilot may apply for an instrument rating to be added to a pilot certificate if that person—
(1) Has passed an instrument proficiency check in the U.S. Armed Forces in the aircraft category for the instrument rating sought; and
(2) Has an official U.S. Armed Forces record that shows the person is instrument pilot qualified by the U.S. Armed Forces to conduct instrument flying on Federal airways in that aircraft category and class for the instrument rating sought.
(e) Aircraft type rating. An aircraft type rating may only be issued for a type of aircraft that has a comparable civilian type designation by the Administrator.
(f) Aircraft type rating placed on an airline transport pilot certificate. A person who is a military pilot or former military pilot of the U.S. Armed Forces and requests an aircraft type rating to be placed on an existing U.S. airline transport pilot certificate may be issued the rating at the airline transport pilot certification level, provided that person:
(1) Holds a category and class rating for that type of aircraft at the airline transport pilot certification level; and
(2) Has passed an official U.S. military pilot check and instrument proficiency check in that type of aircraft.
(g) Flight instructor certificate and ratings. A person who can show official U.S. military documentation of being a U.S. military instructor pilot or U.S. military pilot examiner, or a former instructor pilot or pilot examiner may apply for and be issued a flight instructor certificate with the appropriate ratings if that person:
(1) Holds a commercial or airline transport pilot certificate with the appropriate aircraft category and class rating, if a class rating is appropriate, for the flight instructor rating sought;
(2) Holds an instrument rating, or has instrument privileges, on the pilot certificate that is appropriate to the flight instructor rating sought; and
(3) Presents the following documents:
(i) A knowledge test report that shows the person passed a knowledge test on the aeronautical knowledge areas listed under § 61.185(a)) appropriate to the flight instructor rating sought and the knowledge test was passed within the preceding 24 calendar months prior to the month of application. If the U.S. military instructor pilot or pilot examiner already holds a flight instructor certificate, holding of a flight instructor certificate suffices for the knowledge test report.
(ii) An official U.S. Armed Forces record or order that shows the person is or was qualified as a U.S. Armed Forces military instructor pilot or pilot examiner for the flight instructor rating sought.
(iii) An official U.S. Armed Forces record or order that shows the person completed a U.S. Armed Forces' instructor pilot or pilot examiner training course and received an aircraft rating qualification as a military instructor pilot or pilot examiner that is appropriate to the flight instructor rating sought.
(iv) An official U.S. Armed Forces record or order that shows the person passed a U.S. Armed Forces instructor pilot or pilot examiner proficiency check in an aircraft as a military instructor pilot or pilot examiner that is appropriate to the flight instructor rating sought.
(h) Documents for qualifying for a pilot certificate and rating. The following documents are required for a person to apply for a pilot certificate and rating:
(1) An official U.S. Armed Forces record that shows the person is or was a military pilot.
(2) An official U.S. Armed Forces record that shows the person graduated from a U.S. Armed Forces undergraduate pilot training school and received a rating qualification as a military pilot.
(3) An official U.S. Armed Forces record that shows the pilot passed a pilot proficiency check and instrument proficiency check in an aircraft as a military pilot.
(4) If a person is a military pilot in the Armed Forces from a foreign contracting State to the Convention on International Civil Aviation and is applying for a pilot certificate and rating, that person must present the following:
(i) An official U.S. Armed Forces record that shows the person is a military pilot in the U.S. Armed Forces;
(ii) An official U.S. Armed Forces record that shows the person is assigned as a military pilot in the U.S. Armed Forces for purposes other than receiving flight training;
(iii) An official record that shows the person graduated from a military undergraduate pilot training school from the Armed Forces from a foreign contracting State to the Convention on International Civil Aviation or from the U.S. Armed Forces, and received a qualification as a military pilot; and
(iv) An official U.S. Armed Forces record that shows that the person passed a pilot proficiency check and instrument proficiency check in an aircraft as a military pilot in the U.S. Armed Forces.
[Doc. No. FAA-2006-26661, 74 FR 42555, Aug. 21, 2009]

Welcome to Poetry Corner

Welcome to May!
We have entered the May flowers portion of spring. There certainly is a lot of pollen, but also a lot of rain where I am—Maryland is bouncing between hot and frigid, and I would say it needs to make up its mind, but…. We all know it won't.
However, I have made up my mind about this month's theme! And Im excited to get to it.
I had a suggestion a few weeks ago to include some sources for crit – I don’t have them ready now, but I will get some stuff together for you guys soon, I swear. I am always open to suggestions <3
Let’s face it: poetry is a strange land for many of us. What makes a poem? Does it have to rhyme? Follow a structure and meter? Does it have to be based in emotion? All these are great questions. Poetry comes in all forms and styles, rhyming and non-rhyming, metered and freeform. Some poems even tell a fictional story, like prose does! Some poems don't use any line breaks at all, and Prose-Poems can be tricky yet effective. I'll give you a nudge here to look into them and maybe try them out. Who knows, maybe a constraint is coming our way.
Each month, I provide you with a simple theme and an additional constraint to inspire you. You have 60 - 350 words to write a poem based on that theme. Poetry is often shorter than prose, so word choice is important. Less words mean each word does more. Be sure to read the entire post before submitting!  

This Month’s Challenge

Theme: Gravity IP MP Bonus Constraints:

• Lean into horror, either thematically or narratively.

Gravity, honestly, should be easy. The hardest part might be picking one direction over another.
The gravity of the earth? The gravity of your emotions? The pull of the deep ocean or the urge to explore the stars?
Its really up to you!
Need some help with some horror-themed poems? I got you! An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead.
I am encouraging the poets this week to stretch that definition of dead as well, especially since we did just do death last month! Examples:
Déjà Rêvé. BY Avra Margariti
Because I could not stop for Death by Emily Dickinson
These are just a few ideas to get you started. Remember, you can interpret the theme any way you like as long as the connection is clear and you follow all sub and post rules. Don’t forget to leave feedback on at least one other poem by the deadline (it is a requirement)!

Schedule

• Submission deadline: Wednesday, May 1st, at 11:59pm EST
• Feedback & Nomination deadline: Tuesday, May 21st at 11:59pm EST
• Campfire: None scheduled for May. Please leave comments on the post. Check out previous Poetry Corners here!
  

  How To Participate

• Submit a 60 - 350 word poem inspired by the theme as a top-level comment below. You have until next Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. EST. Please note that for this particular feature, poems must be at least 60 words. Low-effort poems will be removed. No pre-written content.
  
• Use wordcounter.net to check your word count. The title is not counted in your final word count. Poems under 60 words or over 350 will be disqualified.
  
• Leave actionable feedback on at least one other poem Each critique is worth up to 10 points, up to 50 points. I really encourage trying, even if you are new to poetry!
  
• Nominate your favorite poems from the thread using this form (it will open after the submission deadline). You get points just for voting!
  
• Please be respectful and civil in all feedback and discussion. We welcome writers of all skill levels and experience here, as we’re all here to improve and sharpen our skills. Uncivil or discouraging comments will not be tolerated and may result in further mod actions.
  
• Be creative and have fun! If you have any questions, feel free to ask them on the stickied comment on this thread or via modmail. Top-level comments are reserved for poem submissions.
  

Point Breakdown

TASK	POINTS	ADDITIONAL NOTES
Use of the Weekly Theme	up to 50 pts	Theme should be present, but the interpretation is up to you!
Use of Bonus Constraint	10 pts	(unless otherwise noted)
Actionable Feedback	up to 10 pts each	1 crit required; you’re welcome to provide more crit, but pts are capped at 50
Nominations your poem receives	20 pts each	No cap
Mod Choice	20 - 50 pts	First- 50 pts, Second- 40 pts, Third- 30 pts, plus regular noms
Voting for others	10 pts	Don’t forget to vote by the deadline!

 
Note: *Actionable feedback should be constructive, something that the author can use to improve. Feedback can also be positive, like what you enjoyed, how it made you feel, parts that flowed particularly well, images that stood out, etc.

Rankings for Echoes

Winners:

• First place by u/Lothli
• Second place by u/SaltedCaramelJedi
• Honorable Mention: by u/Tomorrow_Is_Today1

Subreddit News

• Join our Discord to chat with other authors and prompters! We hold several weekly Campfires, monthly World-Building interviews, and several other fun events!
• We are currently looking for moderators! Apply to be a moderator at any time.
• Nominate your favorite WP authors for Spotlight and Hall of Fame!
• Experiment with fun tropes and genres on the new Fun Trope Friday!
• Serialize your story with Serial Sunday or test your micro-fic skills with Micro Monday on ShortStories! ***

Hi everyone,
I used to frequently lurk on this reddit looking for some ways to deal with my case of anxiety induced OAB. I thought I’d chime and share a success story that had with my battle with overactive bladder. I just want to start with some background I’m 29m with not major medical or health complications, I’m healthy and physically active (at the time that my symptoms really cracked off I was probably the fittest I had been in my life).
My symptoms all started in August of 2022 and they came on suddenly. To set the scene it was a beautiful sunny Saturday and I had some plans to go surfing with some mates latter in the afternoon. There was some pretty good swell due at one of my favourite beaches in town and I was super exited (maybe a little nervous because it was going to be kind of larger surf that I was used to. In the morning I had breakie and a cup of coffee. I was really excited about this new coffee that I had got from the store. Immediately after the coffee I was a little anxious but nothing out of the ordinary, I thought it was nervous jitters for the surf session. Anyways my mated pick me up and we head to the beach (it was about an hour drive away). On the car trip I remember having to pee but again nothing out of the ordinary. We go surfing for about 2-3 hours, and I didn’t have to go once the entire time I was out. I get out of the water and change, and that when it all started. I went to use the bathroom and immediately afterwards had to go again (I thought it was weird and tried to go again but there was nothing…okay…). pack up the car and start driving, and the urge was strong again, stoped to go again still not much again. So I suffered for the rest of the car ride home feeling like I was going to go in my pants the whole time. It was at this point my anxiety shot through the roof and I felt like a panic attack was coming on (I had one earlier in the year so I kind of recognized the symptoms of it). I get home and try everything I can to get myself to calm down and nothing worked. The plan was to go home and then meet my friend for homemade pizza at their house (20 minute drive away). I get ready and use the bathroom and get halfway to my friends house only to have to stop and go again. I struggle through the dinner have to excuse myself once or twice to go again still there was not too much. By the end of the day I had burned 3500 calories of stress. I figured it was anxiety at the time and I hoped that it would get better in the morning.
But that urge became something I constantly had to deal with, and when I say constant I mean like I’d go and immediately feel like I needed to go again (maybe 5 minutes of relief between visits). This would lead to me having to go to the bathroom maybe 20 times a day or so. I missed out on movies, shows, drinking with my mates, had to start planning my life around bathroom access, and coffee. (At the time I would have done anything to be able to have a pint or a cup of coffee with my mated and not have to worry about my symptoms getting worse). All this worry was starting consume a large part of my day to day thinking. I mean it’s not like it a symptom that you can just ignore. Fomos and the general anxiety around whether was was going to get better This really stressed me out and made the problem much worse as time went on.
I figured I’d wait and see before going to the doctor see what was going on. After about a week with nothing getting better I decided to go see a doctor. They did some test which all came back negative, I had an ultrasound and everything was clear. At the ultrasound appointment with less than 100ml of liquid in my bladder the feeling was so intense the lady even showed me that there was nothing there on her screen (again this clued me into thinking maybe this was a physiological issue rather than physical one). They said there was nothing that they could find that was medically wrong with me but they would refer me to a urologist to give me the all clear. At this point in my mind there were not major medical issues with me, so there were two potential causes (1) anxiety and (2) a nagging injury. Re (2) I had a nagging groin injury that I sustained at the beginning of the year. I was going to pt for it and thought I could have been surfing from a hypertonic pelvic floor and that was causing the oab symptoms. I couldn’t get an appointment for several months so there was a long period of just waiting while still battling with this constant urge to use the bathroom.
After that appointment I figured I’m dealing with the injury with pt already so maybe I should try to focus on the anxiety aspect. So I tired everything that I could do to reduce my symptoms, drink less coffee, meditate (headspace), saw a therapist, stepped back my work as much as I could to get some time to relax, kept physically active (surfing running climbing multiple times a week), spent time with friends and still nothing made me feel better.
I think this was a period where I was the most stressed that I had ever been. Lets just say 2022 was a year I would not want to repeat anytime soon. To list all that I had going on (tw: cancer, suicide(friend), family member death ) :

1. I was living abroad in nz and was far from family, and my partner. My dad earlier in the year had been diagnosed with cancer and was going through treatments.
2. My really good friend attempted suicide twice (The first time I was the closest person to him and he confided in me with his intentions and everything. Probably the most stressful we ek of my life)
3. My friends mental health emergency lead to me having to move flats on short notice because I didn’t feel safe where I lived because I was threatened by my friend after calling the cops on him to do a wellness check. I went from living in boarding situation with 12 really good friends to living in a studio which was super isolating.
4. I felt afraid around the town because of these treats and made it harder to relax. Plus running which was my biggest outlet for stress and the thing that I did with my friend became to hard for me to do. It kept giving my ptsd flashbacks of the event.
5. my grandfather passed away shortly after my father was diagnosed with cancer.

(tw:end)

1. I was in the process of writing my thesis at the time and had my defence deadline approaching nearer and nearer.
2. I was planning on moving back to my home country at the end of the year which meant that I was going to loose my whole support system and have to start fresh again. I had to worry about selling most of the stuff I own (car, furniture, clothes, surfboards etc.)
3. I was also planning a carrier change from one research to a completely different field of study. I’m an academic and I wanted try something new. You either get to pick where you live or the research you do.
4. worried about jobs I was going to get when I moved back and how I was going to support myself. This is related to 8)

I feel like any one of these events would be a lot to deal with on its own. This was all coming off the tail end of covid as well, thing were starting to get back to normal but there were still periodic lock downs. I feel like it had been a year of very high constant stress and everything together overloaded me. It hasn’t been uncommon for anxiety to manifest as physical symptoms for me before. I remember earlier in the year before the oab really kicked off that I couldn’t eat food without it making me feel sick. it turns out that anxiety cracks up stomach acid and that can make you feel nauseous. The doctor was able to help me out with.
Well to continue the story I went and saw urologist and he said that everything was clear and there was nothing to worry about. Just have to wait for things to calm down, he did give me some oxybutynin that didn’t really help. Then shorty after that I had to sell everything I owned and I flew back home. I remember that flight being kind of hard, I was sad to leave the country and anxious for the new life I was about to begin. It really enhanced the symptoms that I was experiencing.
I moved back to the USA at the end of 2023 and that is when I began trying to tackle this problem in earnest. The urologist recommended that I tried bladder retraining while it was helpful to see progress it still didn’t help with the symptoms that much. I tired cbd for my anxiety and had some success. It seemed to help manage my symptoms. I moved from summer in the southern hemisphere, to the middle of the winter in the northern hemisphere and the lack of sun didn’t help my mental health.
At this point I could go maybe 30 minutes between trips to the bathroom. I didn’t have coffee, or alcohol (didn’t even dream of it). Car trips were miserable, would spend most of them stressed I wouldn’t find a bathroom. Still had the constant urge to use the bathroom. Things were not fun. Luckily I had a decent amount of money in savings so I took some time to relax while I was waiting to defend my thesis. (I think I took about 6-7 months to myself)
Okay I’m sure you all know all that symptoms and how miserable they can be. Here’s what worked for me:
First thing I’d say is go see a doctor. Reddit is great but a doctor will be able to tell if there is anything physically wrong with you. Then trust what they say. When are you a dealing with a health related thing that is related to anxiety the most important thing is to make sure that you have a clean bill of health.
Once you know nothing is wrong physically here are some ways of dealing with oab caused my anxiety:

1. Talk: Talk to your love ones about what you are dealing with. Tell them you are struggling with this medical issue and you may need to pull over and use the bathroom or disappear for a couple minutes. They will understand if they love you. I waited a long time to open up to my partner about this, and I felt a lot better after I told her what I was struggling with.
2. Face this head on: Don’t retreat still do things go outside got to shows bars the store. You will be able to find a bathroom you don’t need to worry. Remember that stuff that you love to do don’t let oab rule your life. Its going to be scary but its good to face these anxieties head on. If you start canceling events because you are afraid of bathroom access will lead to further isolation, and eventually agoraphobia (not a good place to end up)
3. Bladder retraining: This gives you a way to track progress and play chicken with your bladder in a controlled manner. You are trying to teach your brain the difference between really and fake signals. This will help you gain trust in yourself again. Remember this is gradual process.
4. Professional help. Shortly after getting back to the states I started getting professional help to deal with all the stress I had in my life. I needed somewhere where I could process everything I was going through. I got the quickest appointment I could and took the first one I could get. By involving doctors and therapist and even your loved ones you are not tackling this problem alone anymore you have a team of people helping you. Plus they can give you ideas on how to manage your stress and anxiety.
5. Headspace: In a similar vein headspace and mindfulness will help with learning how to acknowledge how we are feeling and move on. We are always going to need to use the bathroom there is no way around it and we sometimes will have the feeling that we need to go when we don’t need to. In the same way there is no getting rid of anxiety, what mindfulness does is help change our relationship with these feelings. You could try the session on chronic pain because what we are experiencing is a persistent unwanted sensation from out body like a form of pain. There is also more general ones about anxiety. I think we can borrow some of the ideas that people dealing with chronic pain use to to deal with the urges that we experience ( I don’t know how much there is to this though).
6. (a) side tangent: I saw this guy in nz who said that when people are dealing with heartache sometimes taking a painkiller (like Tylenol or ibuprofen) can help deal with the pain. Even though the pain is psychosomatic the feeling is still real, and the painkiller can actually help with managing the heartbreak. (see)
7. Medication: Trying anti anxiety meds was the biggest thing for me. What I really needed after all the stress was some mental space. For me lexapro gave me this space. I know that finding the right medication to be on can be hard and its a long process to find the one that is right for you. I’m currently on the lowest dose (5mg) and I have been taking it for about 1.5 years with little side effects (only if I miss a dose I feel a little dizzy in the evening). I know anti-anxiety meds get a bad wrap these days and I feel like there is a lot of misinformation about them. People worry that it is going numb them that they are going to feel like themselves, or that people are going to judge them for taking it, but in my case that hasn’t been my experience. If you are at a high level of stress it can help bring you back down to baseline, it can give you the space to acknowledge the things that make you feel anxious and move on. I highly recommend trying this out. I should also say here that it does take 1.5-2 months for the meds to really start working, and during that time your anxiety can increase (but its worth it!!!)
8. CBD: if you don’t want to try an anti anxiety med try CBD, it really helps with stress and I found that it was pretty good at helping with some OAB symptoms at first but you build up a tolerance to it when you are taking it daily, and it can become expensive. What I found that worked for me was around 10-15mg 3 times a day (breakfast lunch and dinner). This helped me be less stressed in the car our when I was out walking places and there was no bathroom nearby.

When this all started I didn’t ever think I was going to be able to enjoy a cup of coffee again or go to a bar and have a pint and drive home with out a worry. After working at this for the last 2 years I’ve been able to get to a place where I can have a coffee and then go for a long car ride and have no symptoms. I’m able to go to a triva night and enjoy a beer without having to get up every 10 minutes to use the bathroom. I’m able to sit through meeting without having to leave 3-4. I’ve been able to give a 1 hr long talk to a large group of people (something I wouldn’t have been able to do because oab at the beginning of all this) with no issues. In my experience there is no instant cure for this, don’t say this to be negative but more so to say that its going to take hard work, and there is hope. I was able to overcome this thing and so can you! I hope this helps and thanks for taking the time to read my post.

I am attempting to create a VLAN for both Wired and Wireless IP Cameras so that I can block internet access. I want to access these camera's from my LAN (Specifically Sprypted docker running on an Unraid box).
I have created the VLAN, got it setup through my Unifi access point and have connected the test camera to that access point. I have no specific firewall rules setup yet in Pfsense for my CAMERA interface (the VLAN) and when I connect my PC to the vlan wifi access point I can connect to the camera just fine and a cannot connect to anything on my Local network (LAN) or the internet (WAN), so that part is working.
The problem is when I try to connect to the IP camera from my PC when my PC is connected to LAN then it doesn't connect (similar when I try to connect to it from Scrypted).
I know that I must be missing firewall rules to allow this, but I only mess with Pfsense once every couple years and I am stuck with what rules to create.
As mentioned I have no rules setup on CAMERA
On LAN I have an allow all rule (source "LAN net"; destination "*").
Appreciate the help!
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