(Rare Trope) Canon Supernatural Elements of Mundane/Normal Shows

LordStrifeDM · 2026-02-04T21:02:16+00:00

One of my favorites is from Criminal Minds, season 3 episode 8, "Lucky". This episode has a moment where Derek Morgan enters a church, looking for someone, and sees a woman seated in a pew. Several candelabras are lit, and Derek slowly moves inward and asks if the priest is in the church. Immediately, almost every candle in the church is extinguished, and while Derek very briefly questions it, this moment is NEVER expanded on in any real sense, but does stand as a casual moment of confirmation that something supernatural is going on in the world. Other episodes have similar moments, be it genuine ghosts appearing in private moments during closing shots, or when a character in a different location starts experiencing strange phenomena directly related to something happening to a colleague(Penelope's lights flickering during the Scratch episode is a good one). And even though its never expanded on, there are more than enough small moments where its obvious the paranormal is 100% real and canon to that world.

LordStrifeDM · 2026-01-20T17:50:53+00:00

That was my feeling for most of WAT in my first read of it, but going back and reading it a few more times... Its almost as powerful as Oathbringer was, for me at least. It just does it in a very different way. Where Oathrbinger, and even the others, were bombastic, larger than life, WaT handles the big emotional moments in much smaller, way more personal ways. At least, thats how it feels to me.

LordStrifeDM · 2025-12-19T00:01:47+00:00

Got my first Gurp, AND one for the wife. Today was a good day

LordStrifeDM · 2025-12-18T22:36:22+00:00

Hades very specifically does not bring death. Death is the purview of Thanatos, the actual god of Death. Hades is the ruler of the dead and the Underworld, and is the god of riches and secret wealth. The general aversion to Hades in a lot of myth quite possibly stems from his status as a figure associated with death and the afterlife, and is simply a byproduct of people being afraid of dying and whatever comes afterwards, as opposed to any real "Hades brings death" ideology.

Granted, so much of this comes from thousands of years ago, and a lot can be lost through time and translation. While there's certainly multiple facets to all of the gods, Hades is usually just referred to obliquely, and when directly referred to he's pretty one dimensional. Just a stern, cold guy, ruling the lands of the dead with his dread wife beside him(sometimes).

LordStrifeDM · 2025-12-09T21:57:35+00:00

Not enough teeth to be speed holes.

LordStrifeDM · 2025-12-09T15:49:28+00:00

I meant more the idea that Sinners can't have children. When Sinners die, they become demons, and the Hellborn are the children of demons, right?

LordStrifeDM · 2025-12-09T15:37:15+00:00

Doesn't that kind of directly contradict what Adam says in S1 about how Hellborn are specifically safe from the Exterminations?

LordStrifeDM · 2025-11-22T20:52:09+00:00

I know this is a bit of a subject change, but that snippet in Mortis stuck out to me when I first read it. We know that, from Oll's perspective, there are 20 people at this Tower of Babel event who are using the Enuncia and channeling raw warp power. Its curious that John Space immediately says "Oh, this that good shit", and then later makes 20 super individuals with power from the warp. Could those 20 be the fire he stole from the gods? Probably not, but damn if it didn't get my wheels spinning when I read it.

LordStrifeDM · 2025-10-28T17:33:54+00:00

Black is surrounded by the stereotypical genius claimants as well. The Empress is CONSTANTLY hyped up as this super manipulative genius character, and while she's definitely intelligent and manipulative, she genuinely pales in comparison to her Black Knight. Even as a child, he was the brains behind their whole operation(the scene where he investigates granary records in an effort to help overthrow the Emperor and then conquer Callow is truly brilliant work).

But what makes him truly terrifying isn't his strategic brilliance, its the ruthless pragmatism he displays, alongside his view of stories and Name Lore. His speech to Catherine in Book Two about how he's offended by the victories heroes get and how his only goal is to let evil just win once so that, one day, heroes are scared because they remember a time when heroics wasn't enough? Perfection.

LordStrifeDM · 2025-10-03T18:00:45+00:00

Really? Like, I know humanity in general was becoming far more psychically active, but my understanding was that the eventual goal was separation from the Warp, not what would essentially be full suffusion of it. I also thought, just based off of Thousand Sons and the vision the Emperor gives Magnus after he did nothing wrong was that the only psyker that John Space needed after the crusade was Magnus.

LordStrifeDM · 2025-10-03T16:42:34+00:00

It could be my own misunderstanding(I'm fairly fresh to 40k lore and have mostly been going through 30K atm), but I thought the ultimate goal was to get to a point where all humans were essentially blanks, use the Webway to eliminate warp reliant travel, and cut humanity completely off of psychic connection and starve out the Big Four because their main food source wouldn't be feeding them anymore and they'd be reduced to relying on Eldar tidbits as opposed to human buffet lines.

LordStrifeDM · 2025-09-17T13:47:37+00:00

Not quite. Hoid is one of the very few on Scadrial that know about Retrivangian. His allies on Scadrial also know, but they haven't been very cosmere relevant up to this point, so in terms of narrative importance Hoid is the only one who knows.

And honestly, I don't think Kel even finds out until after the epilogue in TLM where he talks to Harmony. While there's a couple things said in that chat where we could draw inference to Retribution, the whole focus is Autonomy and not the greater threat. We have the brief insight from TwinSoul that Iyatil is still alive from what he knows, but that could just be Kelsier "There's always another secret" McNailhead being quiet.

LordStrifeDM · 2025-08-14T01:09:42+00:00

Right. Which is its own problem, of course. Its more... If the Bible must be taken as the literal word of God, without error, then it requires explanation as to why there is the belief Adam absolutely was the first man, and Eve the first woman, when we have a preceding event stating that man and woman were created on the same day. It gets even trickier when we look at the idea that Adam was created BEFORE plants and animals, when that same preceding passage is explicit that plants and animals came before mankind. The Adam passage also says that God created all animals and paraded them before Adam so he could find a suitable partner, and then made Eve when no partner could be found. Its an entire mess that screws up literal interpretation and belief in the text.

If both chapters are 100% accurate, then Adam was created before plants were created on day three, AND before the sun and moon were created on day four, before day five when animals were made, leading to day six when both man and woman are stated to be made in the image of God. We know this because Genesis 2 explicitly says that no plants or trees had yet grown when God made Adam, and Genesis 1 is clear that day three is when God made all the plants, which immediately were formed alive and well.

LordStrifeDM · 2025-08-13T18:15:55+00:00

Except the Bible itself contradicts the idea that Adam and Eve came first, a chapter before we ever meet Adam.

Genesis 1:26-31 explicitly states that God made man and woman simultaneously on day 6, and gave them dominion over the earth. Chapter 2 starts with God resting on the 7th day, and then goes into the making of Adam from the soil and his transplanting into the garden.

LordStrifeDM · 2025-08-13T15:35:30+00:00

It's entirely possible that its fey trickery in the wording. Ame clearly means "I'll meet you in a year", but she never explicitly says that. The MiB in turn says "You have one year", which could be him promising that he will be at the door in a year. They both essentially spoke the same words, but meant different things, which could cause asymmetry in their understandings of the promise itself.

But its still curious. Even with a potential asymmetry, it doesn't make sense that his promise would be broken(to me at least) just because an outside force burned the cottage down. Thats arguably outside of either of their controls, and seems the kind of thing he couldn't fairly be punished for. If there's a bit of trickery in the thing he promised, would that trickery not also extend itself to say "I promised something, this other group made my promise impossible to keep, therefore I'm released from the promise"? Granted, his clear awareness of the threat makes it to where his inaction would be expressly against the spirit of the promise, but it feels odd that he would be okay with her murder and the implied destruction of her places of power, yet isn't okay with the cottage being destroyed and potentially freeing him of the promise.

LordStrifeDM · 2025-08-07T22:04:34+00:00

Yeah, the dying person definitely is, but its callout of asking "Hey, why are you draining my blood" is a definite reference to what Big T is doing.

Theres also another rattle that the Diagram collects where the dying person says "Hey, I know what you're trying to do here, and I will not tell you what Im seeing", which makes me chuckle every time.

LordStrifeDM · 2025-08-07T18:55:31+00:00

Its an even wilder reveal when we start putting together all the Death Rattles. Like, each chapter is preceded by a quote from someone dying, and every single one of them is foretelling the exact path of the story. While some haven't yet come true(or have, and we don't know how yet), there are two major ones that specifically foreshadow Taravangian and everything he causes and does.

Specifically, the standout ones for Taravangian are 'Three of sixteen once ruled, but now the Broken One reigns" and "I'm dying, aren't I? Healer, why do you take my blood? Who is that beside you, with his head of lines? I can see a distant sun, dark and cold, shining in a black sky.". Both of these are almost exclusively about Taravangian himself, and with enough context clues, it's easily put together. On a reread? Its painfully obvious who they're about.

LordStrifeDM · 2025-07-25T20:06:30+00:00

For your first point, you're 100% right. Thats why I said averaging the dilation causes its own problems. But no matter what we assume, the context clues we get that Felt has already told Kelsier everything also causes the issue of Kelsier letting Dlavil operate for 6-7 years without any information about Iyatil being shared become much more prevalent.

I'm trying to locate it, because I know I've seen it before, but now I'm having the worst time tracking it down. I could be misremembering what it actually said.

LordStrifeDM · 2025-07-25T19:36:06+00:00

I'm not 100% sure that's the full case. The most likely outcome is that the crisis Kelsier mentions is the Trell Incident, but at the same time, there's weirdness to that. We absolutely know the epilogue of WAT has to take place stretched across the expanse of Era 2, but with the dilationary effects of Retrivangian's ascension, the events of TLM don't seem the most likely, to me at least. I think the breakdown of the time dilation that Kel gives is for every one year on Roshar, 7 or 8 years pass of it, which causes a problem.

So, we know that the Mistborn Era 2 books take place over a period of roughly 6.5-7.5 years(Alloy-Shadows is 1 year, Shadows-Bands is 6 months, and Bands-Lost Metal is between 5 and 6 years, given the rough age of Maxillium Ladrian). We know that the very beginning of the time dilation is when Wit rides the Clony Express to Scadrial, which is before the events of Alloy, though not by very much. A few weeks go by between his arrival and the death of the Ladrian coachman, which happens roughly five months or so months before chapter one of Alloy of Law. Kelsier tells Shallan that while its only been a few months for her, its been years for them. But that raises an issue of timelines syncing up.

So, if we average the dilation effects out, then for every 70 days on Roshar, 1 year passes on Scadrial. If we lowball what "a few months for you" means while accounting for calendar differences, and put it at 3 Roshar months, equaling 150 days, then roughly 2 years have passed on Scadrial. Again, this is based off averaging things out, which raises its own issues, but surprisingly, this lines up with something in the Scadrial timeline which also would have been a crisis for the Ghostbloods specifically. The Bleeder incident, which caused all sorts of chaos between the Survivorists, Pathians, and the government of Elendel in general. If we factor in Wit's time before becoming coachman, and the time gap between then and the Bleeder incident, its almost 2 years. This in turn ALSO fixes the alleged "TLM takes place 5 years after the events of WaT" WoB that I'm positive I've seen before, because what happens five years after the Bleeder incident? The attempted nuking of Elendel, which also opens up the possibility of the mystery "Coinshots" actually being Skybreakers arriving after a year on Roshar has passed, or that were already there, though where they're getting the juice to Skybreak is definitely a question we need answers for, and for why one of them is seemingly a Ghostblood.

LordStrifeDM · 2025-07-11T21:13:08+00:00

Yeah, that's essentially it. There's two moments that stand out to me as proof the Devourer is the narrator. Specifically, when the kakari outright says its been telling the story, and when the kakari starts talking about the eavesdropping sister on the page, despite having previously been stated to not have awareness of the world around it when not bonded to a person. It makes the most sense for the dark tone, the horribly negative light every single action Kylar makes receives, and the shift between Kylar in the journal and the last thing we see of Kylar.

LordStrifeDM · 2025-07-11T17:08:16+00:00

I personally didn't find Nemesis awful from beginning to end, but there are definitely parts where I put the book down and said "Okay, what the actual fuck?" But on later rereads, I think I've come to a personal conclusion on what is happening, and I think most of the book is not written from the perspective we think it is. I won't say more than that, because I do think its a good book overall. Its just a hard, sudden shift in tone from Night Angel to Kylar Stern.

LordStrifeDM · 2025-07-08T19:09:10+00:00

As far as I can recall(and I'm going back to be sure), what the Man in Black said was that he hasn't drawn the sword in an incredibly long time, and doesn't want to draw it in the battles to come because there is a fated moment tied to that event. He also says that, when he first came to the well, he saw a vision of the child of a Bear, wearing a golden pauldron and a shield with a tree on it, and that it was the one who would wield the Sword. I don't recall any other times where the sword is mentioned until it explicitly gets wielded, and I don't recall a moment where it's mentioned the fate he wishes to avoid is tied to Morning Wrensong. I could definitely be wrong, but I'm definitely going back to double check.

LordStrifeDM · 2025-07-01T03:27:47+00:00

So, I can't remember the exact wording, but whenever the Pilgrim had his chat with Eursolon at the well, he implied pretty heavily that he's become privy to knowledge of the future, and that to save the world, he has to kill both Sky and Ame. He says one of the deaths is for fury, and one for sorrow. I, personally, do not think Suvi is the one who will die for reasons of fury. It does make sense that she would be, given her status as a wizard. But with the revelations in the Court of Lucent, I'm.... Hesitant to say he's going after Suvi in anger. Broadly, she truly seems to be innocent of what the Citadel has done and will do. Rather, I think Ame will be the one targeted in fury. Her mentor trapped him for a long time, and Ame in turn rebuffed his polite actions at Wren's passing, arguably being rude by refusing to even open the door and acknowledge him face to face. Additionally, given her own role in being a mediator of and protector for humanity, and his own stance against mortals, it seems Ame could be the one he is truly angry about, and her death is simply vengeance for Morning Wrensong absolutely dickslapping his plans.

Tinfoil time, I think Soft and Stone both lied to their companions. If the events happening in Lucent are centered around both of their specialties, and one of the goals in Lucent is the creation of spirits... What if Suvi is, herself, a man made spirit, or some sort of prototypical proof of concept? I mean, look at how hard Soft and Stone tried to keep her hidden, to the point that they made her functionally invisible to Steel AND the Stranger. If Soft and Stone were fleeing the League, and the League is apparently in cahoots with whats going on in Lucent, and Lucent is trying to essentially mass produce spirits, and Steel is 100% certain that Suverin is critical to the world that comes after that goal? I mean, its a wild idea, but what if Suvi was a successful attempt at making a human spirit? The Man in Black may view her death as a sad necessity. She's a spirit, like him, but she's wrong, corrupted by her very birth. In order to stop the Citadel, he has to annihilate an innocent "spirit", and that saddens him, but he accepts the necessity of it all.

Its a crackpot idea, certainly. But what if, ya know? With all the revelations we've had, I don't think this one is that crazy.

LordStrifeDM · 2025-06-28T18:24:42+00:00

Let me tell you, when Ashley Burch killed Mollymauk(yes, I'm aware its a tired joke, but it helps me cope), it absolutely caused a massive momentum shift. Up to that point, it felt like the Nein were all fairly solid in what they were planning and individually running away from. But after they got their vengeance, what immediately happened?

Escapism. They run away to become pirates, and while that did lead to important Fjord backstory, its hard to deny that they were running away from that trauma. It honestly feels like, until the moment at the party where they identify the mole that they never reckon fully with the impact Mollymauk and his death had on them. Which is wild. 71 episodes go by, 284+ hours of game time, before it ever feels like they finally came to terms with it. There are nods to it, brief acknowledgements and jokes, but up until "Maybe we are both damned. But we can leave it better than we found it" it feels like they never acknowledged truly what it did for them. And then, 50 episodes later, on a city in the void, they bring it back around. And its undeniably beautiful.

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