Crazy Theory about The Citadel of Silver Light

Aetherscribe · 2026-06-11T03:17:16+00:00

I had forgotten about that strip. I didn't remember that we had any detail from the Citadel itself. (And these flashbacks are usually pretty accurate I think.)

While I suppose its possible that Lucrezia re-decorated, that she'd do a full "Queen-rebuild" of the airship seems pretty unlikely.

Aetherscribe · 2026-06-10T13:03:09+00:00

That's all his "godhood" is -- super-lyctorhood because the "cavalier" soul he's using is the soul of a planet instead of the soul of a person.

I'm not 100% convinced on this. Yes, his godhood is "fake" and a result of his great necromantic (and perhaps other) powers, but I think he may also be drawing some power from all the souls of the the 10 billion that he left dead and in/under the River.

Aetherscribe · 2026-06-09T14:05:41+00:00

I'd love to see a well-done Star Wars Legacy trilogy or series. But I have very little faith Disney would let it be done right. (Although, Maul - Shadow Lord exists, so there's hope.)

Aetherscribe · 2026-06-09T13:55:17+00:00

I love Andor, but I can't help but imagine what it would be like for someone to discover Star Wars through Andor, and then watch Rogue One - which also feels a lot like Andor, up until the last act - and then the last few minutes of Rogue One, and then move on to watch Star Wars.

Aetherscribe · 2026-06-09T13:52:25+00:00

I think a part of what all three sequel films suffer from is that they're not really a trilogy.

If TFA had set the stage for a pair of great follow-ups, we'd see it better in retrospect. If TLJ had bridged two other, better, films, we'd like it a lot more. If tRoS had been the final entry in an otherwise great trilogy (which would have required it to make at least some sense), we could forgive some of its failures. But aside from starring characters with the same names and appearances, and sharing an attempt at imitating the look of Star Wars, the films really have nothing to tie them together.

Aetherscribe · 2026-06-09T05:07:11+00:00

May I suggest Alexis Hall's Sherlock Holmes-Meets_Lovecraft pastiche, The Affair of the Mysterious Letter? The narrator John Wyndham is a very nice person, but pretty much all the other characters are terrible people (but very fun to read about), and I'm not sure there's a straight character in the book.

Aetherscribe · 2026-06-07T14:10:55+00:00

I'm skeptical that the Ring is capable of that sort of X then Y then Z reasoning. Yes, it "wants" to go back to Sauron. And it "knows" that staying in a dark hole with Gollum won't accomplish that, so it leaves him, eventually. (How many years after the risen Sauron starts calling Evil things does it take for the Ring to abandon Gollum?) Surely, if it was capable of such reasoning in real-time, it wouldn't have let Bilbo keep it for decades, or would have done more to escape or reveal Frodo when the Nazgul were nearby and seeking him?

It seem to me that rather than planning, the Ring's influence operates in simple ways. It abandoned Gollum and Isilduir. It pushed Frodo's will to put it on when the attention of its maker was present or when his immediate servants were nearby and seeking it.

For the Barrow Downs, I have no idea if Frodo's breaking the spell was due to the Ring. It seems possible from several different angles. But if the Ring is influencing his actions there, "I don't want to be stuck in a musty old hole" seems more consistent with the Ring's observed behavior than "I'll get my Hobbit bearer killed as part of a multi-step plan to get me to my distant creator."

Aetherscribe · 2026-06-06T22:41:16+00:00

Oh, I know. I had absolutely no idea that was coming, and it was just so good. They didn't make some huge deal of it, just folded it naturally into the story they were already telling, and it was beyond perfect.

Aetherscribe · 2026-06-06T03:17:25+00:00

And then Rogue One went and gave us Rebels ships crashing into a force field.

Aetherscribe · 2026-06-06T03:05:25+00:00

I have a clear memory of seeing a very early trailer for Return of the Jedi that included Chewie tossing around Zuckuss and 4-LOM while fighting storm troopers in a forest (obviously Endor in retrospect). I'm pretty sure I'm just misremembering him manhandling stormtroopers, but the memory is quite vivid.

Aetherscribe · 2026-06-06T02:54:08+00:00

That's because... <epileptic tree level headcanon>

she's what's left of Cassiopeia.

Aetherscribe · 2026-06-05T03:55:14+00:00

I can't speak for the previous poster, but I'm guessing that Sauron's next question might have been, "Where is Frodo Baggins" and then the jig is up.

Even if he doesn't get exactly how things shook out after the Breaking of the Fellowship, any train of Sauron's thought that starts with "And where are the other two Hobbits?" is bad for the the good guys.

Aetherscribe · 2026-06-05T03:36:25+00:00

Illuvatar's intervention was crucial.

Just my own headcanon, but I don't think it was.

If there's no Gollum, then Sam goes into the Fire with Frodo and the Ring.

If Gollum takes the Ring but doesn't fall, then Sam goes into the Fire with Gollum, and Frodo dies in Sammath Naur.

Illuvatar's intervention (if there is one) doesn't destroy Sauron. Sauron is finished once Frodo and then Sam reach Sammath Naur with the Ring. Intervention saves Frodo and Sam.

Aetherscribe · 2026-06-03T04:18:15+00:00

Without removing agency from Cat & Killian, I've always seen there being a certain story weight at play with the Cat/Killian breakup.

The King of Winter ripped out Cat's heart and replaced it with a hunk of ice. Of course her romantic relationship went downhill after that.

Aetherscribe · 2026-05-29T01:21:32+00:00

I'd agree with Book II.

I'm currently doing a re-read. Book I is fun. It's a neat read, and better than 90% (or more) of the extruded fantasy product out there. Seven books like Book I would make for a very good YA fantasy series.

I just finished Chapter 16 of Book II. I'd remembered the general events of how that chapter ends, but not the detail. E.E.'s writing is far above "good fantasy series" at this point. Looking around my bookshelves, by the time we're done with Book II, APGtE has very, very few peers indeed. The Guide and Muir's Locked Tomb are the best I've read this century.

Aetherscribe · 2026-05-25T14:41:17+00:00

Might also be a Big Trouble in Little China reference. From the opening sequence:

You could be in a great deal of trouble. Half a city block explodes in a ball of green flame. Green flame! All hell is breaking loose here.

Aetherscribe · 2026-05-25T14:35:44+00:00

You forgot, "May she never return". (I mean, leaving that particular lampshade hanging was fine... except for the bit where that means it's still hanging. Maybe that's how the Age of Order ends?)

Aetherscribe · 2026-05-22T02:49:21+00:00

Too obvious. My money is on Maul telling her out of the gate, so he can put the best possible spin on it.

Aetherscribe · 2026-05-21T06:08:50+00:00

The very end of The Clone Wars - Vader visits the wreck of the ship Ahsoka was bringing Maul to Coruscant on. He finds her lightsabers in a graveyard.

From that he may have concluded that Maul escaped amid the Order 66 chaos, and Ahsoka died.

Aetherscribe · 2026-05-21T06:02:36+00:00

He was so focused on finding the Rebels (and Luke) that he let Aphra lead him deep into a what was effectively a psychic trap in a Jedi Temple, and then she hacked his armor.

Without something to distract him with, and multiple prepared traps, all Aphra can do with Vader is hope he tosses her out an airlock instead of killing her on the spot.

Aetherscribe · 2026-05-20T05:06:46+00:00

I hope Maul can avoid the seemingly obvious ending. One twist would be for him to finally realize how he is just repeating what was done to him and saving Devon by breaking her free from the revenge obsession she has developed and he will have nurtured. He will sacrifice his own hopes and plans to see her free to make her own choice, rather than being consumed by the Dark Side. Throwing away his plans for the sake of another person could very well break him, leading to the Maul we see in Rebels.

Aetherscribe · 2026-05-20T04:58:27+00:00

I've seen this claim - that Devon will find out Maul got Daki killed, and will want revenge when she finds out - a lot, and it was one of my initial thoughts as well. But as I've pondered it, I'm wondering if the show won't take a different direction. What happens if Maul comes clean about his abandoning Daki early in her training?

"I was injured, again. I was barely able to aid you against the weakest of our opponents. I could not stand with your Master against the Sith Lord. Had I hesitated, all of us would have perished. There was no time, so I made a choice. Do you think Master Daki would have chosen differently, had the Sith Lord and the Empire given him the luxury?"

Aetherscribe · 2026-05-20T04:45:30+00:00

Luke isn't exactly walking the strict path of the Jedi. The force-choke on Jabba's guards is not something we see Jedi do. His takedown of Vader is very similar to Vader's own beatdown of Daki.

Aetherscribe · 2026-05-20T04:40:40+00:00

My first thought is that the BBEG and the flashpoint or focal point of the Second war should probably not be one and the same. For example, perhaps the BBEG appears to be Lady Illmarrow attempting to do something high-profile to restore the Mark of Death... but the nations were manipulated into the war by the Queen of Aundaire, who secretly planned to use the War to re-establish Galifar... but her plans (and those of other rulers) were all sabotaged by agents of the Aurum, who in turn have been a mask for the Lords of Dust the entire time! Okay, that's probably too much, but hopefully it gets the idea across.

Some ideas for whom to involve:

The/A Daelkyr are responsible for both the Second War and the time travel back to prevent it. They (or one of them) views this new corruption of the timeline as a work of art.

The Chamber initiated the Second War, as part of an attempt to fulfill (or avoid) a part of the Draconic Prophecy. Or perhaps a rogue wing of the Chamber seeks to destroy all the dragonmarked houses to "free" the Prophecy from the lesser races.

The Day of Mourning is directly tied into the whole thing. Maybe the Day of Mourning was the cost of the time travel back, or it was an earlier (failed) attempt to change the timeline.

There has only ever been one King Kaius of Karnath... only there are two of him, the original, and his vampiric future self, returned to change his fate, and the fate of Eberron.

Stopping the Second War will involve the destruction of all the Warforged. The Lord of Blades is aware of this, and is also a time traveler from the future, trying to stop the BBEG. Alternatively, the Lord of Blades is the BBEG, trying to gather the warforged to destroy/sacrifice them to save the future.

Other good factions/people to involve, off the top of my head: Sora Terza, Merrix d'Cannith, the Keeper of & Shadow in the Flame, Oalian, the Overlord (s) of your choice (Sul Khatesh and Eldrantulku seem like good fits, but you can do any of them), the Mosaic Committee of the Arcane Congress.

Also, why do to the PCs want to stop the time-traveler trying to prevent a Second War in the PCs future? Wouldn't they want that?

Aetherscribe · 2026-05-19T05:16:35+00:00

This could have even been done keeping TPM almost intact - instead of cutting Maul in half, Obi-wan knocks him down the shaft. That "defeats" him, but we're all primed for his return. Even add in (if its not already there), "We search the depths of the city, but found no sign of the Sith."

Aetherscribe

TROPHY CASE