#and ya know our protags are here for a bit

[lakesbian]

out of curiosity do you have any thoughts about Maggie?

i think it's really funny that the protagonist of pact is like. some Comically Normal, increasingly-pale, interminably haunted guy the universe hates who spends 45% of his life minimum shaking and/or throwing up. and then the plucky charming girl who says things like 'drat' and 'fiddlesticks' and has a tragic ya-protag origin story and is dealing with a classic ya-protag ominous prophecy is the side character. using goblins is ostensibly possible to frame as a likable underdog trait, in contrast to Cool Shit like faeries or demons. by all accounts blake scans as someone who should show up once in the ya fantasy novel about maggie's life to serve as a bit of character development for her & then never receive a feature again except for a singular piece of irrelevant background dialogue in which it's offhandedly mentioned that they found his sopping wet flayed corpse on the street. not even a notable street, either, just some random street. And Yet. he's the protagonist instead of her.

and, like, wildbow knows this. the funniest part of this whole thing is that when wildbow went "who is the most Iconic YA Protag Material in pact, i want to put a pact reference into worm," the answer wasn't blake, it was, obviously, maggie. it's maggie's world blake's just living in it. he straight cannot catch a break. cannot even be the protagonist of the book he's a fucking protagonist of.

i digress. one last sidenote before i get into talking abt maggie's interlude: it's really fun that before it we get a firsthand look at how the Batshit and Harrowing experience of being a disadvantaged practitioner (unable to lie, experiencing the horrors at all times) will straight up turn you into a guy in a horror movie who goes around looking disheveled and shaking and discussing ominous portents, and then the interlude itself depicts how comically absurd that looks from an outside perspective. love the practitioner in maggie's interlude. out there delivering a classic vague & ominous horror novel Foreshadowing Statement to our archetypal protag maggie, and she's the only one who actually experiences the genre awareness to go "ohh, okay, i'm in a horror novel," and prevent her entire family from dying badly about it.

and the thing about this is that it works flawlessly as part of her "YA protag who is for some reason a side character here and not the protag" schtick, but it also makes for a genuinely horrifying & compelling narrative. like, What If you were a teenager suddenly realizing the things that go bump in the night are not only real but tearing your life down around you while everyone else remains oblivious--would that be fucked up or what? love the moment where she sees the goblin w/ the blood-soaked hair (who is hot and cool btw) holding not a bleached skull but a very visibly dark & bloody one with Bits Still Attached and it finally clicks for her that this is Real. that one little image of abject gore and suffering during an extended traumatic experience that viscerally hammers the entire thing right into your skull. & the characterization of her looking directly at sculptures of rotting meat and imagery of knives doing terrible things and blood on the streets and then deciding that there's actually an Art to the wriggling wet underbelly of the world, one she wants to hold and own instead of vice versa, is good. i like it. there's a moment where she briefly sounds entirely capable of holding a conversation with bonesaw regarding Art, and that is excellent.

i also think she's probably still in over her head without realizing. she's manipulated into ordering someone's murder and then is like "you know i think i can make up for this one AND go on a fun little adventure to add to my scrapbook of knowledge at the same time." that's not how reality works! you killed someone! and then tried to semi-earnestly befriend slash mooch from their cousin! she's only been a practitioner for six months--i think there's a very fundamental disconnect btwn the maggie that's lucky enough to still have parents she can be a normal silly teenager with and the maggie that's making forays into The World Of Backstabbing, Horror, Murder, and Fates Worse Than Death. and i think that disconnect will result in strain for her as the fact that she's sort of doomed to do some really awful things, have some really awful things happen to her, and/or both sinks in. okay that largely summarizes my maggie thoughts so far. i hope to see more of her and her silly little goblins i do enjoy the grotesque.

#ask #pact time #pactblr

[thedarkone121]

Death Mark AU: Protagonist!Swap Saya Kujou

I managed to get it done on her birthday! Everyone, say hello to the hero of our Protag!Swap AU: Saya Kujou!

Why yes, that is her brother’s coat she’s wearing. But she doesn’t know that by the time the amnesia takes hold of her. All she knows that she woke up with this coat wrapped around her and for some reason, she refuses to be separated from it.

And yes, Masamune did give her that coat during his last moments of being fully in-control.

Here’s her without the coat:

Saya Kujou is a character I feel like a lot of fans could interpret in their own way since she was, ya know, dead when we first meet her and all we got for her characterization was from her being a voice in her brother’s head in the main game. So, she was dead and loves her brother; time for the Dark One to get her hands dirty.

In my previous post I had mentioned a little bit of Saya, how she was initially the one who was accidentally the one responsible for her brother’s possession since she was the one who damaged Mary’s doll body. It was here that things changed; Saya was originally Marked by Hanahiko, like in canon, but she found out just how fast the amnesia was affecting Masamune. So, with her own death close, Saya attacked Mary.

“If I go down, I’ll take you with me!”

Cue Butterfly Effect; Mary get’s so pissed off that not only does she possess Masamune when he manages to make it to the Kujou Manor, but she takes over the Mark on Saya so she essentially becomes HER victim.

Well, now the backstory is out of the way, time to get into a bit of Saya’s character within the story; she’s been portrayed as the more outgoing of the two siblings in canon, being the face for the Kujou family despite her brother being the Head at the time. With that in mind, I like to think she’s very motherly while also having the ability to kick your butt. Like I picture all the younger Mark Bearers just flocking after her like ducklings — yes, even Shou and Tsukasa even if they don’t want to admit. She’s like that fun teacher you have that tries to make lessons interesting while also being brutally honest about things.

Due to her more blunt nature and her not having memories of being a Spirit Healer, I imagine Saya to be viewed as reckless and too outgoing amongst the adults. She’s a woman who marches to the beat of her own drum, especially when she’s not putting on a polite facade at conferences. This particular character trait came about when I remember that, as the black rabbit, she literally took the FLIPPING NENJINBUTSU out of the shrine before it was fully cleansed and kept it with her when she went to fight Mary!

…Suffice to say, Saya would definitely be the person to do something random or possibly life threatening just to see if it works. She often gives her adult companions heart attacks.

For some reason, I actually view Saya and Mashita as not getting along with the other. But not like hate each other, just two people who don’t get along but are forced to work together and are slowly coming to respecting each other. Don’t ask me how I came to that conclusion cause I don’t know how I got to that point either. I think I just found it hilarious that Saya would think Mashita is a degenerate only to realize that her brother like-likes him! 🤣

Speaking of her brother, let’s talk about Saya and the possessed Masamune! During the beginning, Saya was told that Masamune was her family butler and she believed. While her memories of her brother may be gone, her heart still knows him so while it does lead to her getting manipulated by Mary, Saya easily trusts Masamune and has come to rely on him for information on spirits.

But as the Chapters go on and each of the Mark Bearers tell her their tale of Masamune’s strange behavior, Saya starts to get suspicious. She still wants to trust him but even she realizes that something is wrong with him; how he appears to be light-headed, seems to be nauseated all the time, not to mention that one time he grabbed her arm and how his eyes seemed to flash with… Something.

With that, I think I’ll leave things here for now. I’ll probably do more doodles on a future date. Until then, enjoy this picture of Saya and Masamune.

Characters: Masamune Kujou // Saya Kujou (Here)

#darky draws #my art #spirit hunter #death mark #spirit hunter: death mark #masamune kujou #kazuo yashiki #saya kujou #mary kujou #mary!masamune au #Protag!Swap #au #八敷一男 #死印

[mariyekos]

FE Engage Trailer Breakdown

There are going to be and already are a million of these I know, but I wanted to do one for myself, so here it is! Below a cut because there will be lots of pictures. As in, 30 of them, so I actually need to make a second post to finish my analysis! I go into some speculation, some personal preference, and some references to other FE games, so get ready for a lot of rambling. This goes pretty heavily into detail, so if that's what you're looking for, here ya go!

The first two posts are mostly a breakdown with some analysis here and there. The more complete analysis will occur in a third repost (both of which will be RBs of this one.)

“We live on the continent of Elios- 4 realms surrounding a Holy Land at its center."

Important things to note here: the dragons are entwined, so it seems to be a continuous war. Or so I'm interpreting it! Also you have the traditional white/good dragon and black(purple)/bad dragon. The continent is named Elios (I'm guessing at that spelling). Along the bottom, you can see the FE Protags fighting Black/Purple armored warriors. So, it seems that Historically the FE Protags fought for the White Dragon. Lyn is facing the other direction so at first I wondered if she was fighting for the other side, but I think it's not actually noteworthy and just the whole dramatic myrmidon thing given no one else is facing that way. What I also find noteworthy is who they went for: Celica over Alm was a bit of a surprise, and Sigurd over Seliph was definitely a surprise (I can't name anything off the top of my head, but I feel like Seliph has been the face of FE4 a little more often lately). Eirika over Ephraim was unexpected as well. Lucina being there instead of Chrom was also a bit of a surprise, but then again she got into Smash before Chrom so I think even if I personally haven't considered her more the protagonist than Chrom, she's the more popular of the two. Beyond that, Corrin appears to be F!Corrin based on the headband, but I'm not 100% certain. I'll discuss the top part later. This means our Past Protag Lineup is as follows: Marth, Celica, Sigurd, Leif, Roy, Lyn, Eirika, Ike, Micaiah, Lucina, F!Corrin (probably, maybe M, but I think F), and M!Byleth. This comes out to 6 male characters and 6 female characters- which is what I think about 50% of the reasoning behind the female character pics was. I really like this even split tbh! They're all good characters, so they all deserve it.

"A thousand years ago our lands endured a vicious war with the Fell Dragon."

This time the Evil Dragon reminds me of a King Cobra, seen below. Fell Dragon has been used before in the FE series, the one who pops to mind first being Grima, but I think that name's just there to sound cool. I highly, highly doubt there's any connection between the two.

"We called upon Heroes from other worlds to aid us; heroes known as Emblems. With them, the warriors of our nations fought as one."

Notable here: They seem to all have a sigil floating above their fists. Roy also got a close up and his looks the same as Eirika and Lyn's as far as I can tell. At the end of this pan we go out to see this image is contained in a ring, which makes sense since the Emblems are summoned via ring. As seen below, some of the characters seem to have their Brave Alts as outfits. Marth is particularly notable because he's wearing the OG outfit (seen most recently as his Child Alt in Heroes), but when he's summoned is wearing his modern/remake outfit. Talking to some other FE friends, we wondered if this was maybe to get more than just swords in the mix, since most of these are sword lords. In that case they could've gone for Hector and Ephraim over Lyn and Eirika respectively, but they seemed to prioritize an even gender split over weapon types. In any case, Sigurd has a lance instead of Tyrfing, Ike has Urvan instead of Ragnell, Lucina has her Bow instead of the Parallel Falchion, and Corrin is focusing on their Dragonstone instead of the Yato. (Micaiah is also using magic, but she doesn't get a sword anyway. It may be notable to point out that it's Fire magic instead of Light Magic, but that might just be because Fire is easier to illustrate than light. She has Yune too!)

"In the end, we were victorious in defeating and imprisoning the Fell Dragon."

This dragon design is SO king cobra and I find it fascinating. Noteworthy: Defeating and imprisoning the fell dragon. Not killing. So like with Grima. The Lord who hits the dragon was wearing the Engagement Ring (haha, get it, it's even on the right finger), but other than the blue cape they don't have any noteworthy features.

"In the years since, our world has been safe. But now, I sense a resurrection. The binding weakens."

Then the trailer goes to what I assume are the people of this land? I wonder if they're the people of the Holy Land only, or just the general populace. I also wonder if that's what the modern people still look like (so, will our NPCs be so non-anime it makes the protags feel insanely out of place, or will they be different than this and slightly more anime style). What I find notable is there are actually considerable variations in skin color, so I wonder if we'll get more than just 1-3 token brown characters this time around. If we don't even after having this image of a varied populace, I'm going to be seriously disappointed. These people are on the top part of the opening mural, flipped upside down. After that image goes up in flames, we go on to Obviously Evil Guy, who I expect is our antagonist. Whether he'll be the antagonist the entire time, end up being a puppet near the end, or only show up at the end I don't know. Ashnard for example was always there, while Grima was not (Validar was the one in the story until the end, even if Grima as a concept was present). If I had to guess, he's the human form of the Evil Dragon. His neck...thing reminds me of the Evil Dragon's neck frills, and pointed ears are a definite Dragon Thing™. He could just be a vessel or something, but my bet is on the dragon's human form. This part also has a dramatic music cut. And side note but ooh he appears to be shirtless aside from those cool shoulder pauldrons!

Dramatic Music Transition Time

First, our new protagonist (who by later Gameplay footage appears to be named Alear) appears in the white void to grab an Engagement Ring. To me he looks very...I don't know. Otome Protagonist? Not what I was expecting of FE, but not totally out of place. To be honest i think if you changed all the red in that image to blue, he'd look about 80% more like a normal (albeit fancy) FE character. Looking up the name Alear, all I can find says that it comes from "the Gaelic word Mac-Giolla-Uidhir, which literally means son of the pale youth or son of Odhar's servant.". Here's a second source mentioning Mac-Giolla-Uidhir, though it only mentions MacLear and not Alear. While I used to love Yu-gi-oh!, which is what I think of first when it comes to two-toned hair, I have to say that the two-tone hair is not my favorite. Fire Emblem has never been about realism, but there are limits to what I personally find aesthetically pleasing, and this goes beyond them. He has the Fleur-de-Lis on his coat (below) which is interesting...Also the side loops/ropes remind me a bit of Shigure! I won't bother you with too many pictures, but I thought I would note it. I do have to say that the Fleur-de-Lis is an interesting choice. It's often associated with French royalty, and while FE has always been inspired by various parts of Europe, this seems a little...too direct? It's a pretty symbol though, so it's fine.

Once Alear exits the void, they encounter the White Dragon. I want to say that the reason the shot goes straight from the ring to the dragon is that it looks good for a trailer, rather than that the ring summoned the dragon. Though it could be that the Dragon gifted the Engagement Rings to the original Heroes, so the Dragon could be how the Heroes come to the world (and then it could be an interesting point if in the end both dragons die and so the connection to the other worlds with the other FE Protags is lost).

The Dragon Appears

This Dragon is not the King Cobra type. It's more Falcon-like, with a mix of whatever Corrin was. I'm 99% sure it's the dragon from the intro, since the wings and tail match. I'm also about 90% certain that the girl by the tree is the human form of the White Dragon. It's a direct cut from one to the next, and while the backgrounds clearly don't depict the same area (castle in a grassy valley versus a village with trees), why else cut it like that? And we all know how much FE loves little girls that are secretly dragons. Her dress has a feather motif going on, which matches the feathers of the White Dragon. Something I didn't catch until I zoomed way in is her color scheme- she ALSO has the blue and red thing that Alear has going on! See below. Her ears are hidden, but her hat pokes out at the top. Maybe it's hiding dragon ears like Obviously Evil Guy above. Note added after watching further in the video: Alear is supposedly from a family of Divine Dragons, so maybe they're related. I wonder if he's only half dragon (like Corrin), or if he's a full dragon and either his hair just hides his ears really well, or if the White Dragon/Divine Dragon race doesn't have as long ears as the Black Dragon?

Cool Battle Cutscene Time

Next is a fight scene in which all i could think was "god he looks like a clown." His outfit...does not get better from far away. It looks like the common JRPG protagonist that makes me cringe outfit. Like if you took Sora (KH), Tidus (FFX), Rex (XC2), a Yu-Gi-Oh! character for hair, and a standard FE lord and tried to combine them all into one cohesive character. Except I kind of prefer all of their outfits to this guy's. Well. Tidus' at least. The others are not personally my thing, and it's been so long since I've played a KH Sora has surely gotten a few new outfits. But the point is- I personally believe there's too much going on there and that they should've reduced the color by one and maybe gotten rid of the weird leg band thingies. And the hair is just... I don't like the shape, I don't like the color, I will say no more because this is not Mari's fashion analysis post, this is a video analysis for plot/gameplay post. I've included a comparison of Alear and the Dragon-Sealer's swords below. They don't appear to be the same blade. The Dragon-Sealer's sword appears to have thin holes in the center of the blade (see the lighter lines), and the hilt is a different shape. I wonder if Alear will get a sword upgrade at some point, or if the game will allow them to be completely independent people? For a second I wondered if Dragon-Sealer was maybe Marth, but the Falchion doesn't look like that even if their hair is similar so it doesn't seem so.

New Characters Appear

Next we have our new characters: Not-Dimitri, Percival GBF, and Orb Girl. They seem to be Alear's allies, given Not-Dimitri (Alfred) is playable. There's also Sexy Mage Lady, who I forgot to include in my above image group but just slapped up there. There's not much to note about them. I think the only thing I have to say in terms of speculation is that maybe "Percival" (this is not his name, I don't see it in the trailer) is the son of the red king that shows up later (below)? He has nice armor and red hair and hair color is everything in this game. Actually wait- is it just the quality of this image being bad or does Red King have holes in his sword? Is he the descendant of the Dragon-Sealer? Hm...Looking again the hilt isn't right. I think I'm just seeing things. Beside that, character designs are fine. They're kind of all over the place, but I don't hate any of them. "Percival" has my favorite outfit, Sexy Mage Lady is nice fanservice, Alfred is okay though it does look a bit like he just has a dress shirt on and in my perfect world he'd have another top layer, and Orb Girl...looks like something I've seen before and absolutely cannot remember. It reminds me of some Latin/South American styles I've seen, but in media where I'm not sure if they're legit outfits or something that has been misrepresented/sexualized in media. Some preliminary research isn't giving me any good answers and I'm not an expert so I'll just say that I'm not really in favor of thighs/bellies/arms out on the battlefield in general. FE is not a game of realism, but I love complex armor okay? If she's a dancer type character then I'll give her more of a pass because at least they're not trying to be hard combat units, if that makes sense.

The Summoning and Title Drop

After the battle, Alear summons Marth in what I think is the same field that the White Dragon appears in. The grass and color scheme are very similar, and it also appears to take place in a grassy valley. So maybe the White Dragon does give Alear the ring! After this we get the title drop: Fire Emblem Engage. Engage since they're Engaging the Emblems, and also it's a ring. Gotta say it's a boring title imo.

"You're awake! You're really awake, yeah?"

Also known as "goddamnit FE get a new trope." How many times are you going to do this? I haven't played FE12 and though I've played it I've wiped my memory of FE11, but Awakening started like this (loved it, it was a great plot point), Fates started like this (why did Corrin have amnesia you could've just said that they didn't remember what Garon did because they were a little kid and kids forget things), and Three Houses started like this (why did Byleth have weird sort of amnesia you could've just said Geralt tried to keep them from the world and Byleth, having very little personality, just genuinely wasn't interested in learning much about the world themself). Please stop going with the "waking up to someone over you" trope, especially when accompanied by convenient amnesia. Though I do have to admit I'm slightly more interested in this amnesia than I was the past two amnesia scenarios- this one actually looks like it'll serve the plot in a good way! So I'm not as bugged by the amnesia thing as I said I would be before this game was announced (as in, when I was speculating about the next FE). It's more the "starting with a 'you're awake!'" thing. Then it seems like we have a sibling/twin thing going on. Female pink one, probably male green one. Braids on opposite sides. Both...dressed in pretty modern styles, tbh. What style is this game going for?? We also get a bit of Alear being confused in different areas. My guess is that it's the main base.

"A thousand years? That's how long I've been asleep...?"

The line above is from Alear. So! Clearly we've got a special guy. The question is: is Alear non-human, or was he put to sleep by special magic? Is that magic what wiped his memories (if he's an amnesiac), sort of like Robin's magic/merge mishap with Grima? I have to say that this idea in particular is extremely intriguing to me. This is a personal favorite trope. So other than not liking his outfit (which to be honest, looks perfectly fine from this angle! He's kind of cute here. Just not in that battle cutscene), I think his character has gotten it right right off the bat. About 10 second later we find out he isn't human. He's a Divine Dragon. So that's that. But again, his ears look pretty normal- so is he only part dragon? What's up with that?

"Whoa-whoa-whuh, what are those horrible things!?"

From pink-silver girl. These guys remind me of Risen. Clearly something bad is happening here. What may or may not be notable is that they have a red glow. Evil Dragon is purple. However, Obviously Evil Guy has a red eye in the center of his head, and since my current theory is that Obviously Evil Guy is Evil Dragon's human form, they're probably its pawns. My guess is that this battle is probably the tutorial battle (below). We have a healer (pink), a mage (green), a Jeigan (axe guy, who is later named Vander), and our protagonist. This field ALSO looks like the Dragon Field. Since Alear appears to wake up indoors, my theory is that he'll come back here to encounter the dragon at a later point. Probably within the first 5 chapters.

"If I may, you are a Divine Dragon. A member of a royal family of dragons revered as deities."

Said by a deep voice, my guess is Vander to Alear. Here's the true confirmation that Alear is not a normal human - he's a "Dragon Child". He also wields a sword called "Libération" whose é makes me think that this game is in fact going for a French motif. There's also a character named Céline.

Gameplay wise (below), it looks like FE combat. I'm satisfied here! The enemy is called Corrupted. This game's Risen as far as I can tell. I'm including a second gameplay pic because it looks like they heavily improved upon one of my biggest criticisms of Three Houses, which was empty spaces. So often the game tried to fill the screen with battalions while having empty environments, which was part of what made the graphics look so bad. These aren't super complex graphics, but they don't need to be! I like them actually. The colors are bright, the area is defined, the battlefield has depth, and the UI is visually pleasing. Gameplay wise I think it's perfect. No criticisms here. I'm happy.

"The war...the Fell Dragon... I feel like I can almost remember. But..."

We see some more gameplay and learn that pink girl is named Framme. It also seems we're fighting some Elusian soldiers rather than corrupted. They look like the people who Alear is fighting in one of the cutscenes above (the one I used for the sword comparison). I wonder if Elusia/Elu-something is one of the four realms? Other than that, we meet a few more characters. Etie the archer who's in the gameplay image under the Divine Dragon quote, Louis the general(?) who might be the axe guy under Alfred in that image, and Chloé the pegasus knight who has a fun crit animation. Alfred did a "break," so I wonder if that means there's an armor break mechanic, or if it's just a personal skill? Chloé has the crit quote, "I've had my eye on you!"

"The ring..." "Marth!" "Right!"

Alear calls upon Marth and equips/junctions him. So the Emblems do appear to have at least somewhat of a sense of self! I'm thinking of the Einherjar in Awakening (I did not play #FE, which this has also been compared to.) Equipping an Emblem ring gives stat bonuses, and the Emblems have skills of their own. So that break I mentioned above? That's probably a skill. I'm not sure if people and Emblems can share certain generic skills. I'm also not sure what Bond 6 means. Can you bond more than unit at once? The bond number did not change when Alear bonded Marth. He also got a "Type Bonus" on Divine Speed and Lodestar Rush- I wonder if these only activate if you match the type, or just get stronger if you match the type. Then more map gameplay. There are special spots on the ground, which makes me think map effects. I wonder if they're like the healing spots in Radiant Dawn, or if they have special effects? When someone has a Emblem Bonded their name changes to include them and they get the stats, so we can clearly tell when someone is or is not bonded. The Bond 6 is still there, so maybe you can only bond for a certain number of turns? So that could be something to strategize around- when in a map do you bond with a unit, if they can only be active for certain turns? In addition, I wonder if everyone can access any ring at any time, or if they have to have it in their inventory? Alear as the Lord most likely has convoy access so him not having Sigurd or Marth's ring in his inventory right now tells me nothing. I think it might also be cool if rings worked sort of liked the Thracia fatigue system and had to be recharged. Though that worries me they might dip toward the Tellius Laguz recharge which was...less than optimal. Alfred (below) calls out "Sigurd!" when equipping the ring to which Sigurd responds "Leave it to me!" so I think they have generic quotes. But what's notable here is that 1) Alfred appears to earn a "Type Bonus" from Sigurd, just like how Alead got one from Marth, which makes me think it's a Bonus skill you get if your movement type (or something similar) is compatible with the ring type given they're both cavalry, 2) Anyone can equip any ring, and it appears to be at any time? At least, it's not permanent, and 3) In this image Alfred and Sigurd have Bond 1, but in later footage they have Bond 10. For both Sigurd+Alfred and Marth+Alear, the two fought together on the battlefield. Perhaps Bond is an attribute that depends not on story progress, but is like a Support Rank for rings, where the more you use it, the higher your Bond?

At this point I'm out of available Image space, so I'll have to split it off here!

Here is part 2, going to the end of the trailer. There will be a part 3 with more in depth analysis (rather than just a breakdown and spotty analysis) tomorrow.

#Fire Emblem Engage #FE17 #Alear Fire Emblem #New Fire Emblem #Nintendo Direct Spoilers #are we considering this one fe17 i think we are #my post #erurandomness #fe #tw snake #snake tw

[mythgirlimagines]

DVHS Reread: Chapter III.I

I don't care about missing this investigation. It's not like there'll magically be an exit. There'll be nothing that can bring her- all of them- back.

I don’t think it’s often that protags miss an area investigation, but I definitely think it’s warranted for Camila this chapter.

Of course; both parental friends sent me notes. 

I’ve come more recently to refer to Sasaki and Yasu more as older-sibling friends than parental friends haha

Abe freezes a step after passing, looking back with a critical eye. I step more inside, hoping that if he saw me, he doesn't say anything. I'm still mad at him, mad that he was right and that I'm hurting so much, though that's more Maeda's fault than anyone else's. 

This part really hits me a lot, since Abe and Camila have a really on-off friendship/allyship throughout this. One of them always ends up pulling away from the other, but I do think post-canon or nondespair they would be good normal friends.

On the complete other hand, I can barely draw a hand turkey. 

One of those details I should really write down before I inevitably contradict myself. I actually probably have already.

I rub my temples, trying to make my oncoming headache subside. "Unless you have a reason for being here, I suggest you get out."

His tone quickly turns mocking. "Unless you have a death wish, I suggest you follow the rules."

I freeze, trying to figure out what I did wrong. Nothing comes to mind. "What rule did I break?"

"Like ya don't know! Area investigations are-"

"-not in the rules," I finish for him, crossing my arms. Wish I could punt him into his stupid camera. "Look for yourself."

One of the only moments Monokuma gets to shine with Camila lol

MONOKUMA THEATRE X 

This is brought to you by what I learned in AP Psych that week

I just keep walking until I find myself in the gym, staring at the podium and waiting for Monokuma to show his toy store reject face. 

And here we see one of my favorite Monokuma insults.

"You know what? No. Fuck you." Yoshida's anger could match my own, but the difference is that she acts on it. She storms the stage and grabs Monokuma with her good hand. "I'm done with you and your motives."

Monokuma's sick smile grows at her words. All of a sudden, a high-pitched beeping fills the air, growing faster and faster with each second. It's Abe's voice that rings out: "Throw him! Now!"

Yoshida pulling a Mondo and me subtly saying that Abe might know what would happen to Monokuma. I technically didn’t need a scene like this, but I did want it, just as a throwback. It also marks the first time the f word is fully said in DVHS.

"Just know that there's no food for anyone until the next death." He puts an emphasis on anyone as though that's the most important part. 

AKA a throwback to the wording of one of the V3 motives with the “forced into the killing game” part, except opposite. Even Mr. Mastermind will be forced into the motive.

Unfortunately, he opens his door before I can make the decision to leave. His voice is tougher than it was when he tried talking to me this morning. "Ishikawa. Is there a reason you're here? Did you realize that I was-"

"Right. You were." There's no look of triumph at my hollow words as I suspected there would be.

It feels a bit mean for this to be a FTE, but then...

His eyes seem to look right through me. "I see. But you don't fully believe that, do you? You wouldn't be you if you did." I don't know what I believe anymore. I don't respond, and he hesitates before continuing. "Look. Let me tell you a little about my sisters. They took care of me for a long time after my parents died. One is more optimistic, an idealist. The other is a realist like me. They're my grounding forces; the right blend of their thoughts is perfect. So-" here he hesitates again- "maybe by blending our thoughts, we'll be able to overcome any despair Monokuma throws at us. What do you say?"

...The foreshadowing about his sisters/backstory for the FTE content.

"Synesthesia? Basically I can see colors and shapes when I hear certain notes or sounds- that kind is called chromesthesia. I also associate letters and words with colors- that's grapheme-color synesthesia."

I’ve found synesthesia incredibly interesting since reading the book A Mango-Shaped Space as a kid, and learning more about it in AP Psych helped me out with it!

As I expect, he's the only one in here, peering into one of the lockers. "What are you looking for?" I ask, trying to look over his shoulder. I don't think we checked all of the lockers individually, did we?

"Nothing." He shuts it and puts the wooden key back in its place. There really must be nothing in there, otherwise he would've taken the key for himself. He shoves his hands into his pants pockets, looking at the wall before talking again. "Tell me what you remember."

Can’t say I remember what I was going for but I think maaaaaaaybe he was looking to see if the laptop with Alter Ego was there? idk

That's...sweet? I guess. "I promise, just us two." I even make the motion to cross my heart to show him I'm serious. He doesn't smile, not even when I offer my pinkie. "C'mon, you know it's legit if I pinkie swear."

He rolls his eyes a bit, stares at me, but eventually clasps my pinkie with his. It's done.

That moment between Kyoko and Makoto in the anime is solidified in my brain.

#dvhs #dvhs reread #dvhs spoilers #camila ishikawa #hanayo sasaki #yasu kadoshima #hayao maeda #fumito abe #etsuko yoshida #danganronpa #fangan #swearing

[dankzombiereviews]

Book thoughts: Jade Fire Gold

1 ✰

this book was the worst of YA. also, all of Altan's scene were so boring. sucks they were half the fucking book.

Ahn was ok as a protagonist, but even at 75% of the book she couldn't control or handle her powers. then at the 80% mark? apparently she's awesome and has complete control??? the author could at least pretend to have our protag go through some development. her powers aside, her character was very inconsistent in the later bits of the book. For example, she had every reason, means, and oppurtunity to defeat the bad guy, and she didn't. it's not even that she was emotionally attached to him, she was planning on betraying him and having her homie take over the throne. her decisions are strange and nonsensical.

the romance was not it. ESPECIALLY since there was an angsty hot man named Leiye right there. the way the author wrote this... i fully thought that the love interests were brother and sister, and the weird comments about "feeling connected" were because of a familial bond. And until the 60ish % mark, i had nothing to dispute that because the boy's pov was so boring and unrelated to the girls. i was ready for a romance, but not one so poorly developed. it's not even instalove, it's just bad. at the 85% mark, they don't trust each other at all but i'm supposed to believe they're in love?? give me a fucking break. all that drama, the words wasted on "developing" their "romance"... and they don't even get together.

for reference, i thought they were siblings because:

Altan kept bringing up the fact he never saw his sister's body, he lost her in the desert and never saw her again

Ahn mentioned she was found in the desert, alone with no family

it seemed super random and out of the blue that the father just... showed up? with no pretext or warning? it seemed to me like a plot thing, because it seemed so out-of-the-blue

she mentions that they're around the same age

I also... never understood the tiensai? in general, the villans were very badly established. I know that there's a villan, but i feel no urgency or sense of the good vs bad. i know that the empire is bad, but like.... i don't feel the dread or tension. and christ, that ending. one of the reasons i loved the ballad of never after is because the ending wasn't happy, but it was right. it made sense. it didn't force itself to be a happy ending for the sake of it. this story (like the cemetary boys) forced itself to be happy and break logic and worldbuilding for the sake of it.

another disappointing asain fantasy read. went from 4 to 3 to 1 star real fast. we're not doing so hot here folks.

the fanart for this book is sick though. so.

picture's from the author's website

#book review #jade fire gold #1 star #i hate it here #i just want one fucking book i enjoyed

[legobatjoker]

ALSO ALSO ALSOO okay this is the thing i got tht im most excited abt i j didnt wanna like get to distracted talking abt it nd then forget all the other stuff FDGHDFHD but like !! we went to a bookstore at some point nd idk if any of my cousins got anything (tbh i think we all spent a lot of out time lamenting abt how we all wanted to get heartstopper but cldnt bc our parents wldnt let us if they saw it <//3 speaking of i need 2 watch tht show at some point ik its not the big new show anymore but iv heard its cute sm when it was so !!!) nd like my sibling got a book tht was like. an offcial diney book tht was like a retelling of beaty nd the beast were bells mother was the one tht cursed the beat? tbh i cldnt telll much abt it nd im supried tht thts like. an offical diney tihng but it does seem pretty cool nd i like wasnt meaning to get anything at first but i got this book called no big deal nd like at first i was like "oh i rly want this but idk if i shld get it :((" bc it was abt a fat protagonist nd like her dealing w body issues nd learning 2 be confident w her body nd stuff nd i didnt know how my mum wld react if she saw i bought it esp rn but its less of huge issue if it ended up like on my bookshelf or anything than if like tht happened w heatstopper nd i didnt have to tell her i got it if i just hid it in my bag when i got home so i bought it !!! one thing abt it tht i like i tihnk in my excitment didnt fully read on the blurb at first was tht it has like a romance which at first i was like "okay im prob gonna find those bits kinda annyoing but itll be fine" bc i feel kinda like ehh on wether ill enjoy a romance in smth or j find it annoying but i didnt im finding it rly cute so far !! tho like its more currently tht she just hasa crush on this guy but i still think its rly cute nd tbh like. okay i feel kinda dumb for being as into this book as much as i am nd for reading it like as soon as we had the chance to sit down somewere when we bought it bc i told myself tht like i was gonna have shadow and bone as the first book id read to get back into reading and like i think bc its a y/a romance (i wldnt even says its j abt the romance tho id the thing but it still is technically ig) i feel dumb abt reading it b4 shadow and bonei think bc i shld prob unfollow some ppl online bc i feel like theres tht attitude a lot on here thts like "y/a romance is STUPID nd ur only smart if u ready books tht are INTELLECTUAL and if u dont nd read y/a u shld be made fun of relentleslly!!!!1!!1!!" but i just realsied how stupid tht is bc like. its a y/a novel. its my age range. like im literally the same age as the protag so why wld its be dumb for me to read the book (also in general tht attitude is stupid nd i hate how needelssly judgy ppl are abt ppl just like. liking shit yk -_-) but ya im rly enjoying the book sm so far like ive been reading it sm today nd honestly thts like. what im like whenever i read even tho i havent been reading as much recently i still feel like whenever i do im reading the book every moment i can yk which i used to do a LOT when i was younger nd i was more into reading (but better this time bc im not reading h*rry p*tter FGFDFHD) (but also i was like tht both times i read the hunger games. man i need to reread those. ok im getting oftopic FDGDFHGDF) but ya the book is v v good so far i think im enjoying it a lot nd ya :] also i do think i rly wanna get back into reading after this i tihnk i will.. ya<3

WAIT THAT SOUNDS SO GOOD im so glad ur enjoying it and that the romance is good like. honestly i lovee a ya romance sm persoanlly althougj this book i think seems like more enjoyable like you said for the parts that arent the romance and are more ab the protag but the romance being cute has to be a plus yesh…. also yeah no that attitude is def stupid i feel like i mean. anything of any genre can be good or bad and ppl r just into diff genres.. like theres good ya and theres bad ya and even amongst the bad ya theres like enjoyable stuff… and then there r like good classics bad classics etc and it just depends on what u like to read. same thing w the whole fanfic-ruining-reading-comp discourse like fanfic is like any other medium where it can be rlly be good or really bad… anywayyy the point is that im really glad ur enjoying it it sounds rlly cool!!!

#mewtuals #castle.answers #i wld honestly love to hear more ab this book as it goes like im intrigued…

[shadydirt]

Day 1 - Hurt/Comfort / Opposites Attract

@richfarmersweek

#snowpines week #alright y’all know the drill we ignore the obvious missing panel #also #the very very subtle lore here is this is the schnee-hill residence btw…. #and ya know our protags are here for a bit #snowpines #richfarmers #Whitley schnee #Oscar pine #winter schnee #weiss schnee #rwby #rwby snowpines #rwby richfarmers #rwby whitley #rwby oscar #rwby winter #Rwby weiss #uhh #death tw #death #why the fuck won’t this show up in the tags #unnamed #hang on I got an idea #>:( still not working #comx

[measuringbliss]

Here's my Disco Elysium tier list! I was too lazy to rank guys by hotness but there's a lot of studs there (including that bad guy from the trial).

A lot of those characters I love at least partly because of their voice <3

I want to replay the game but the Switch port, man...

Giving detailed thoughts I guess? I feel the need to talk.

(I'm also directly spoiling who's the culprit so don't read if you haven't finished the game)

I haven't ranked Harry because I feel like he's very malleable. Mine def had ADHD and was bisexual and horny for pretty much every guy. Great protag.

Jean Viquemarre: absolutely in love with Harry. I love him, he's beautiful, his antagonizing-yet-still-feeling-pity behavior is very touching... heartwrenching, really. Hotness: 8/10

Elizabeth Beaufort: HER VOICE. I LOVE HER VOICE. Her voice is so beautiful!!!! And I love her behavior, fakely uncaring, warning the Hardie Boys not to act carelessly, she's a very fun character.

Garte: I instantly started crushing on the man. I don't know, I can't explain it, I just know he's 100% boyfriend material. I just want to make him happy, you know? Like I said, I really don't know. It's just. There. I love him. Hotness: 10/10

Gaston: His voice!!!!!! He's adorable. Joyful as hell. Hotness: 11/10 he has the perfect face. And the look! Fully mastered. Also, in love with his love rival? I love to see it.

Joyce: I love her music theme. It's so great! Nice voice too. I was very wary of her, and she's very interesting. Next playthrough, I'd like to be nicer to her, more cooperative... Also still feel bad for asking her for money.

Kim Kitsuragi: THE Kim Kitsurage. Does he need any introduction? Everybody loves him, it seems. His voice!!!!!!! His fucking voice. Apparently we all wanted his approbation or something? The writers knew what they were doing. Hotness: 7/10 Very much not my type, but I dunno...

Evrart Claire: Another guy I was very wary of. After finishing the game, I looked at some stuff. He's so much interesting! I definitely want to inquire more in my next playthrough. He's very supportive, I love him. Great voice actor too. Hotness: 3/10 and it's all because he's very charming

Annette: She's adorable!!!! I want to put her in a warm blanket and give her hot chocolates and as many books as she wants.

Call Me Mañana: Another supportive character! Also he's beautiful. The hair!!! Channeling Sirius Black right there. His look is a look. He's chill, too. I love chill characters (I ranked Justin very high in my Life is Strange BTS tier list). Hotness: a very strong 9/10

Trant: HE'S CUTE. HE'S A NERD. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT? I don't even remember his voice but I know I wanted him to say as many things to me as possible. He's such a nerd, I love him!!!! Very supportive (HMMMM ARE WE SEEING A TREND HERE? or should I say... a Trant). Hotness: 10/10 Is his beauty classic? Yes, but classics work for a reason. also. he's supportive.

Tommy: He's Mañana but a bit discount. I don't differenciate them much. He's a bit less chill I think? Let's say his Hotness is at a 8/10

Sunday Friend: I absolutely love his unapologetic French accent. He's also very nerdy. I was just happy to talk to him, ya know? Hotness: 5/10 I love his voice but not particularly on board with his physique.

Plaisance: She's very funny (in spite of her) and I very much enjoyed our interactions.

Gary the Cryptofascist: Come ON, with that perfect name, how could I *not* love him? I dunno, I think this name is absolutely hilarious. The character is also very funny. A joy all around. Hotness: 0/10, don't be fascists, folks

Horse-Faced Woman & Alice: Listen, Alice didn't have a picture on that tier list but she's also there. HFG is obviously a voice of reason, I love her, and her dynamic with Jean and Harry. Alice is the woman you call to help you with the radio. She's so great!!!!!!! Absolutely lovely. I love them both.

Titus Hardie: He's just very fun to interact with. And he also gets some character developement, that's nice. Hotness is at a 4/10 but if he took care of himself or deliberately went for a more rugged look, he could easily get to 8/10. Grow that beard, get some glasses and voilà!

The Smoker: Okay, on one hand I really liked his mystical vibe and Harry's crush on him at the start... and the homie-sexual conversation is very funny, but also... his role is a bit disappointing? He doesn't do much in the end. It's a shame. Hotness: 4/10 His voice actor is fine I guess but it just didn't do it for me. Also he smokes.

Cuno: He's a fascinating little guy, isn't he? I really loved the scene where he confides he's scared of Cunoesse to Harry. It's very tense and overall, masterfull. I'd be curious to see Cuno as partner at the end, but there's no way I'm sending Kim to the hospital, nuh-huh, not on my watch. Also very lovely voice.

The Racist Driver: He's hilarious. Hotness 1/10, I like his voice.

René: His past with Gaston is very touching like I said. He's also an ass, but he's old so you know, nothing surprising there. (Be more like Gaston, folks!) His uniform has great colors!!!! He's beautiful in his portrait, let's go with a 6/10 (he's still very much from the military so I removed points for that).

Cunoesse: I wish she had a more active part in the game. Great voice actress, very threatening presence. She's a great character!

George: Very relatable as someone who has ADHD. Poor guy. Do I care about his story? Not really. Is he supportive? Kind of, isn't he? Hotness: 2/10 but THERE IS POTENTIAL. He just needs a nice, comfy bed and some peace of mind.

Klassje: She certainly exists.

Klassje (for real): Okay I just... don't really care about her. She *is* interesting but... eh.

Lena: On one hand, she's very lovely. On the other hand, I found I really couldn't care less about her stories, which is a shame because she's obviously overjoyed sharing them, and I was glad I could help her, but my attention span said *nope*.

Lilienne: She's incredibly beautiful, but also I had, like, 2 conversations with her. I love her carrying a sword around though, badass as hell.

The Culprit: Gave the most painful conversation in the game, but not because I was crying. At least, not of sadness. Of boredom, maybe. I don't know, he's boring. He *feels* boring, even though what he shares is actually somewhat interesting and gives context to quite a few things. But also, goooooosh did this dude bore me. I really didn't care. Hotness: 0/10 He probably stinks. Actually I feel like I got a check for that. Yeah, he definitely stinks.

Ruby: Ruby sucks. She sucks so much that she manages to be a pain for her 3 seconds of screentime. She likes women, yay! She also just plain sucks.

That's it, if you have questions or reactions, do share them, I'll glady answer provided I remember anything about it since I played the game, like, two weeks ago? I don't even know.

#disco elysium #de spoilers #ramblings

[transsexualhamlet]

Moriarty the Patriot + The Final Problem

aka another unecessary essay from ya boy on how yuumori, instead of taking away from the original text, adds meaning and depth to it

So I finally got around to reading the final problem after wading through all the memoirs of sherlock holmes and yes, I am in fact reading these because of yuumori. I wanted to see how it was portrayed, what the differences and influences from the original source were. I did end up getting incredibly attached to the original series too, so yeah... I'm glad to report that the original and adaption get along well.

And yeah, I have a lot of thoughts, most of them being just me generally praising yuumori. I think it was straight up genius how they pulled so much content from... well, frankly. The Final Problem was a 15 page short story tossed off by Doyle in order to have an excuse to be done with sherlock holmes, told from the perspective of someone who wasn't even there. And yuumori still managed to make it generally very accurate and complementary to the original, while still being, uhhhhh really fucking different, let's say that.

Read more because again, long essay

Just my observations on the final problem itself is that it is so underdeveloped and told from an outsider perspective. Because of that, so many questions go unanswered, and the reader gets a sense that they are only witnessing a very small part of what actually happened. Sherlock can't afford to go into detail on what Moriarty was even involved in, Watson isn't privy to what's honestly even happening most of the time, and Moriarty just... has this extensive network of organized crime that just isn't even talked about other than Trust Me It's Bad Bro. We don't know Moriarty's intentions, most of who he is, and more questions are honestly brought up than answered within the story. Sherlock knows, oh that's for sure, Sherlock knows what's going on and he has no fucking time to tell Watson. You get a sense that Watson himself isn't even telling all that went down.

So yeah, I can see where there's so much room to expand upon here, not even to change things or make it different because it would be cool, but there's so much that could be happening just within the realm of plausible deniability in the canon.

And I think that it's amazing how Yuumori chose to market itself that way- not as an adaption or reimagining- but that this was in fact the Real story, with Doyle's final problem being... honestly a bit of a cover up, a purposeful misrepresentation of a small slice of the full story. It lends itself completely to that, and I think that's amazing.

(One thing I do find funny is that in Yuumori the story "the final problem" is depicted as a full novella that could be published on its own... man it's not nearly long enough for that but I find it funny in any way)

Of course, there are elements of yuumori that are yknow, simply not realistically something that could have happened, but most of the story is actually within that range of plausible deniability since the canon is so vague and sparse. And since they state that things were changed on purpose to protect people and the moriarty plan, it basically covers that all as simply The Truth. It's well done, and very interesting, especially with the new anime ending taking them to Reichenbach itself.

Like, yuumori didn't even truly change the appearances of the characters, from the descriptions. (we're not counting the illustrations lol) like, Sherlock was never stated (as far as I can tell) to have a specific hair or eye color, hairstyle or such.... he was described as tall, thin, eccentric, messy, with like... long fingers and stuff. Man, yuumori did not go against that. With Moriarty it's different, though he was also reportedly Tall and Thin and Built Like A Yaoi Protag for some goddamn reason, he... you know, has these weird and unattractive features as well, which... in the context of Watson trying to portray Moriarty as unmitigated evil in order to protect the plan, were in this situation made up specifically to further the idea that he was just that.

Because of this situation, the Moriarty that is portrayed as yeah, a smart guy and a threat but seriously just A Bad Dude who seems to have no particular reason behind his actions save being A Bad Dude actually make more sense as a cover up behind a more dangerous secret of him having Real Feelings than the only stated reason being "he inherited being evil from his family". (like... watson, really?)

It explains the vagueness and the events and the weird connection between those two better than the original does, and that's really cool to me.

On their own, without yuumori to back me up on these things, reading this would have left me confused and depressed. But as a half truth immortalized as the real story, you get so much more out of it.

Especially these certain scenes:

When Moriarty just pops into Sherlock's house and they proceed to have a basically wordless conversation amounting to

"you know why I'm here" "you know how I'm going to respond" "well then" "here's date and time of our mutual destruction" "thanks I'll be there" "well I'll be off nice knowing you" "wow it sucks that we're enemies he's such a civil guy"

It just really adds something to that, don't you think?

And the subject of their fall itself, simply the fact that Watson wasn't even there. No one witnessed it. No one found even Moriarty's body. No one found evidence of anything at all.

All Watson could say was that Sherlock and Moriarty had gone up to the mountain together, Moriarty told Sherlock of his plans, let Sherlock write and leave a letter to Watson, and that they never came back down. So he came to the conclusion that they must have fought and both fallen off.... like, holding each other. Not really sure how they reached that conclusion, to be honest.

It doesn't even make sense, exactly told how it is. If Moriarty wanted to kill sherlock and survive, he would have just... brought a fucking gun. Or just pushed him off on the way up. As soon as he got him alone just fucking stab the man. It would have been that easy, but no, he had a whole ass convo with the man, they went up civilly side by side, and they stayed on the cliff a long time while Sherlock wrote that letter. Even then, Sherlock could have just waited to catch Moriarty off guard and pushed him off. But he didn't.

Why would they even have fought, if it was so scheduled? You telling me to believe that after this letter was written and moriarty stood there watching him sipping tea or whatever he was suddenly like "ok im ready to fight now", knowing they would both probably die, and if they were genuinely trying to kill each other and survive, that would even make sense?

Of course, these problems in the original stem just from Doyle no longer giving a shit and slapping this together after losing motivation for sherlock, he was obviously, not hinting at some great conspiracy in the slightest.

But damn, Yuumori really does change that all for you, huh. It adds a whole new layer of context to it. And I like it a lot, I like what they've done on their own, I like what they've done for the original stories, and I especially like what they've done telling the "real story" of this short, vague, mystery that otherwise leaves you feeling unsatisfied and confused.

#rowan's hyperfixation essays #moriarty the patriot #yuukoku no moriarty #sherliam #sherlock holmes #rowan views moriarty

[antiloreolympus]

5 Anti LO Asks

1. Okay going back to the first few chapters and the way we're introduced to Persephone seems a bit off. Lets ignore the fact that despite being the supposed protag we're introduced to Hades and Minthe first, then Hera + Zeus (and Poseidon) and then Artemis and THEN Persephone.

Like 1st Persephone is wearing something that Artemis considers to be "a relic" and then she (Artemis) gives Persephone something that barely fits her and our first panel of seeing Persephone is not even of her face its a shot of her back and then a close up of her lips. The first time we see her face she has big doe eyes (they will haunt me in my sleep).

Persephone worries that everyone will think she is a "dumb village girl" and I guess Artemis takes this to mean 'just dress sexy and no one will question it. Its the solution to all your problems'.

Later Hades intro to Persephone is her bumping into Odysseus and then kneeling on the floor.

Granted he meets her later but still the first 'meet cute' is of him oogling her while shes in a submissive position on the ground in clothes she is not comfortable in - and she is not aware of this. Nor is she aware of the, kind frankly, creepy comments that Hades makes towards her to his brothers (like Hades saying he wants to live in between Persephone's thighs or something when they went out drinking in that one chapter). 

2. Back to those first chapters - so as far as I know Hades and Minthe were still dating (Minthe mentions they have an "off and on again relationship') and yet because he went to the party alone Hades immediately spots some girl and decides to get with her?

(Also do we ever get a reason as to why Artemis hates Hades? Poseidon mentions it).

Also also, why did neither Zeus nor Poseidon tell Hades "Hey, no. That's a teenage girl." They both immediately are like "okay heres the plan to distract Artemis so you can talk to said teenage girl."

Like Hades straight up asks "why havent I heard of her before" and Zeus says "it's complicated" instead of "she's a teenager thats why".

Also - Eros sneaking up on Persephone all "hey kiddo want to have some real fun" is hella creepy, apology donuts or no. (And he basically drugs her by getting her super drunk + putting her in the back of a strangers car - and Eros carrying Persephone - she looks like a kid from one of those beauty pageants.

That is all. 

3. It's weird LO doesn't have any main characters I can think of who are plus sized. Like, wasn't the ideal for women back then to be plump and full bodied? You have the perfect excuse to make plus sized women, Rachel! It's ok if you want to!!! We won't let the modern beauty standards hurt ya! Also, more of the guys should look like pretty boys, ESPECIALLY Hermes and Apollo.

From OP (Not this anon): Hestia is the only plus sized goddess (there’s no plus sized guys in LO at all though). However, she isn’t a main character. Hera, Persephone, Hades, and Eros are her MCs.

4. Zeus: Has an obsessive need for respect but doesn’t physically abuse his subordinates to get it (unless you count how he treats Hera, which is definitely abusive but she’s not his subordinate) Fandom: What a shitstain! Hades: Has an obsessive need for respect and will bulldoze anyone in his way (e.g. Alex, bank employee, comb lady, mall patrons) to get it (including Persephone) Fandom: Oh my god what KING! So respectful!!

5. Demeter is not an abusive mom. She’s overprotective, strict and stifling yes but not abusive. Even though RS tries to depict her in a negative light, her love for Persephone really shines through and she never once belittles her daughter, calling her an ‘ungrateful brat’ at worst instead of systematically breaking down her self esteem the way actually abusive parents do. I just don’t understand why the fandom hates her so much! She’s doing her best given the context behind her flawed choices!

#anti lo #lore olympus critical #lo critical #anti lore olympus

[renegadewangs]

Van Zieks - the Examination, Part 1

Warnings: SPOILERS for The Great Ace Attorney: Chronicles. Additional warning for racist sentiments uttered by fictional characters (and screencaps to show these sentiments).

Disclaimer: These posts are not meant to be taken as fact. Everything I'm outlining stems from my own views and experiences. I am a 30-something European woman, and therefore may not view the matter from certain angles. That said, I'm always open to more input from others. If you believe that I've missed or misinterpreted something, please let me know so I can edit the post accordingly. If we can make this a team effort, I would love that.

The purpose of these posts is an analysis, nothing more. Please do not come into these posts expecting me to either defend Barok van Zieks from haters, nor expecting me to encourage the hatred. I am of the firm belief that characters are no more than a tool created to serve a narrative purpose, therefore the question I'm posing is whether or not Barok van Zieks serves this purpose. That's all I'm doing here.

I'm using the Western release of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles for these posts, but may refer to the original Japanese dialogue of Dai Gyakuten Saiban if needed to compare what's said. This also means I’m using the localized names and localized romanization of the names to stay consistent.

It doesn't matter one bit to me whether you like Barok van Zieks or dislike him. He's not real anyway, so he can't suffer from it. However, I will ask that everyone who comments refrains from attacking real, actual people. If you know you're morally in the right, there should be no need for insults to begin with. Let's keep this conversation civil and constructive! As the first post in a series, let’s first start by examining the expectations we would have for a character like this. The purpose he was meant to serve.

1: Expectations

As I said in a different Barok-related essay, the main prosecutor of any Ace Attorney game has been, and always will be, an antagonistic force. Not a villain, not even necessarily someone who exhibits immoral traits. (Hi Klavier!) Just someone who impedes the protag’s goal of getting a not-guilty verdict. In order to have an effective antagonist, they need to mirror the protag's weaknesses back at them. Ace Attorney does this quite well, as the prosecutors represent the obstacle/turmoil that the defense needs to overcome. Often times, the prosecutor is also tied to a pivotal moment in the attorney's past, making sure the strife is quite personal.

Considering the game's plot and settings, it would've been difficult for Barok to be tied to Ryunosuke's past. (He is tied to Asogi's past, funnily enough, but that's a matter I also addressed in that other Barok essay.) So instead, Barok represents Ryunosuke's struggle in more of a figurehead capacity. I've seen people dub him the 'CEO of Racism', and I'm not gonna lie, in a way that's correct. Barok was designed to be the mouthpiece of the harmful sentiments Japanese exchange students would have encountered in the 1900s. By extension, since Ryunosuke is an exchange student unfamiliar with the British courts (or even courts in general), the prosecutor would target the fact that Ryunosuke 'does not understand how things are done here'. Which he does- a lot. This makes it all the more satisfying when Ryunosuke proves him wrong by outsmarting him and using Britain's own laws (such as the closing argument) against him. So yes, you may hate Barok for uttering racist sentiments and dismissing Ryunosuke's abilities, but the ultimate goal here is that Barok's defeat is made sweeter as a result. The narrative end-game is Ryunosuke's triumph and validation in the courtroom.

Was there a different personal struggle Barok could have represented? Yes, but also no. Sure, his vendetta could have been strictly with the Asogi family and Ryunosuke could have admitted to carrying Asogi's resolve, not knowing what it meant. Though that would’ve implied very early that Asogi had a history of sorts in Britain and would’ve destroyed some of the surprise we experience in game 2. Alternatively, there was also the 'parallel' antagonist angle. The sort of villain who says the line “we're not so different, you and I.” The antagonist who shows what happens when someone with the same skills or motivations follows the wrong path, which emphasizes the right path for the protagonist. However, I can't see that working in the plot of this game.

A purposeful decision was made by the writers to have prejudice be a central theme of the plot. This is the matter that hits the hardest in an emotional sense. Therefore, having Barok be the centerpiece of this prejudice ensures he leaves the biggest narrative impact.

---

However, another long-running aspect of the AA prosecutor is the redemption arc, so let's turn our attention to that!

I'm not going to put too much effort into explaining this, I just want to talk about the requirements of a redemption arc. We all know these types of arcs, a lot of Ace Attorney prosecutors have them. We see them in fiction all over. Noteworthy examples of redemption arcs done well include Zuko from The Last Airbender, Michael from The Good Place... For argument's sake, let's toss Edgeworth in there too. I'm not saying Edgeworth's arc is done well, but at the very least it is accepted by most as something that served its intended purpose. I've never seen anyone question Edgeworth's transformation.

See, what we have here is a bit of a misnomer when it comes to what people expect to get out of these types of arcs. Redemption in itself is only 'deliverance from sin' or 'being saved from evil'. It's the thought that a horrible person can still see the error of their ways before it's 'too late'. However, when it comes to absorbing media, often a character gaining knowledge that they were in the wrong isn't enough to satisfy the audience. Would Edgeworth have had a satisfying redemption arc if he'd acknowledged his arrogance and dirty tactics, only to retire as a prosecutor? No way. We needed him to return in the following games to give us an update on his status. Standing in court as a defense attorney, at the risk of damaging his reputation, was the moment we knew he'd grown for the better.

What we require for the arc to come to a good conclusion is atonement. The character in question must not only apologize for their actions, but repent in a more active manner to show that they've changed their ways. Following that, the atonement must be acknowledged by others. So for example, Zuko joins the ATLA gang to help them in any way that he can until even the most skeptical of the group, Katara, acknowledges his transformation into a better person. Now add to this the notion that the character's atonement must be virtuous and sincere. The Good Place is a fascinating look into the debate of 'is it ever too late for a person to change?' and the moral complications of changing in the first place. If you're only doing good things because you want to be saved from damnation, are you being a good person or are you being selfish? There's such a thing as corrupt motivation; only doing good because it is expected. For example, does sponsoring a library make Magnus McGilded a good person? It does not, since he's only doing it to boost his own reputation and have people believe he's selfless.

As a final note, I want to ask: Does a redemption arc require a backstory to justify the character's immoral ways? Personally, I don't think that it does. It's good to have, since it allows an audience to empathize with the character and give them more of a reason to root for them. It turns the redemption arc into a tale about overcoming past trauma. However, it can backfire when done badly and lead to frustration. (I'm looking at you, live action Disney movies!) Some characters are evil just for the sake of being evil and even then, they can turn over a new leaf because they realize it is just so much more rewarding to be good. Just look at Michael from The Good Place.

What's more effective than a backstory, in my opinion, is smaller details to humanize a character. Humanization can also lead to empathy, perhaps even relatability, and helps us believe that they're capable of change. We need to be told that a character has their own fears, their own flaws, their own odd little habits which deviate from the norm... Again, I'll point to Michael from The Good Place for this. Another humanization tactic, which we see employed often in Ace Attorney, is to display a prosecutor's likes and hobbies outside the courtroom. Edgeworth's fanboying over the Steel Samurai, Blackquill's love for birds, Nahyuta's willingness to stand in line for hours to get his hands on a delicious burger... I've feel ya, Nahyuta. This tactic is more readily employed in Ace Attorney because it's difficult to place a prosecutor in a position of weakness before the final showdown. You can show them tending to hobbies during Investigation segments, but you can't show them waking up from a nightmare or wondering whether their father loves them. Well, not until case 5 of that game, anyway. By then, it's too late to serve as the sole humanization factor. Did Van Zieks need to be redeemed at all? The way I see it, the only correct answer is yes. What do we want to see in our world? Do we want people who hold racist prejudice to acknowledge their faults and become better, or do we want them to die clinging to their shitty moral compass? Do we want a world where everyone learns to get along, or do we want a world where people continue to be in the wrong and act like assholes until they inevitably get punished by law for something or another? Van Zieks needed to be redeemed in order to teach that valuable lesson that it’s never too late to be a good person and that it pays to be a good person.

So to summarize, what we needed from Barok van Zieks was the following:

1) Present an antagonistic (possibly immoral) force who personifies Ryunosuke's biggest personal obstacle/weakness, in this case racial prejudice. 2) Humanizing traits begin to show. OPTIONAL: A backstory to justify any immorality he has. 3) Over time, Barok has his realization and sees the error of his ways. 4) Barok atones for his immorality, not simply through apology but by taking decisive steps. 5) The cast around him acknowledges his efforts and forgives him.

This leaves us with the question: Does the game deliver on these points? Well, let's boot it up and find out! Stay tuned for The Adventure of the Runaway Room! (as a warning, it’s gonna be LONG)

#dgs #dgs spoilers #tgaa #tgaa spoilers #barok van zieks #oh god here we go #i actually already finished Runaway Room but I need to let it sink in #it was a doozy

[magioftheseas]

Boom Through Jabberwock!! Bang Bang!

Summary: An alternate/bonus scene spanning from Matsuda giving Ibuki a certain CD in Chapter 24 of Super Danganronpa 2: Matsuda Yasuke’s Battle of Despair and Wits.

Rating: PG

Warnings: None really.

Notes: It’s the yukata bonus scene but for SDR2 Protag Matsuda Yasuke. There’s a bunch more song references and extra banner. The yukata scene’s probably my favorite of the bonus events in sdr2, so it ended up being the longest. Hopefully that’s okay. It’s also much gayer. Because pride.

Read this fic among others HERE

Main story is HERE

Commission? Donate?

“If dealing with her is your way of dealing with guilt over Koizumi, then—I don’t think you could continue bothering.”

Mioda blinked again. Her mouth hung open, jaw slack before it began to tremble.

“Y-Yasuke-chan, that’s—way harsh! You’re making it sound like I don’t care about Hiyoko-chan at all!”

“It’s suffocating to have someone dote on you because they feel sorry for you,” he said. “It’s even worse when that person is floundering because then you feel bad for them.”

“Wah!”

“The fact that you approached me screams that you’re pulling your hair out over what to do about her.” Matsuda sighed, rubbing his nape. “That’s not remotely helpful. Gather your bearings first. Maybe...”

It’s not that I’m obligated to help, but it would be to my benefit that she and Saionji get along.

“When you kick the gachapon enough times, you can get prizes,” he finds himself saying, digging around in his coat to pull something out. “I happened to get this.”

This being the debut single of the band, The Black Cherries. Summer Festivitrees.

He tossed it to Mioda, but it just smacked against her chest as she gaped and he hurriedly had to catch it before it fell to the ground and broke before even having a chance to play.

“Um,” Mioda uttered as Matsuda handed it to her a second time. She didn’t take the CD. “W... Wow, Yasuke-chan.”

“No good, huh,” he guessed, waving it in front of her. Somehow, that did not make the CD more enticing. “Guess this kind of thing isn’t your jam.”

“I was just thinking that you’re fearless,” she said. “I mean—coulda guessed that from you and Nagito-chan being a thing... But seriously, that you’d have the brass to show me this...”

Matsuda’s frown deepened. His brow furrowed for good measure. However, when he pondered about what the fuck this girl’s problem could be, he could scrounge up a few ideas.

“Rival band?” he guessed, looking at the back of the CD. All it listed, of course, was the songs and artists and some copyright. “Or was there some stupid band drama?”

“Rivals!” Mioda confirmed with a chirp. “Did you not hear about all the hype of boys versus girls?! The battle of the boy bands and the girl bands?! The epic showdown of chicks and di—!”

“...isn’t battle of the sexes so last decade?” Matsuda asked, raising an eyebrow. “Hell, wasn’t it more thing two decades ago? Talk about outdated.”

“It super is,” Mioda agreed. “But that was just the press for ya. Out of time, out of tune, out of touch! My old band’s ticket sales and concert attendance numbers still got compared with the Cherries’ all the time.” She perked right up. “But out with the old, in with the new! It doesn’t matter to me because it’s old news about my old band!!”

“I see...”

“Music shouldn’t be about sales anyway!” she exclaimed. “Down with capitalism! Eat the rich!” A pause. She groaned, pained. “Oogh, Byakuya-chan would have been so yummy and chewy... I miss him so much...”

What the hell am I supposed to say to that?

“The meeting’s about to start,” he reminded her. “And...about Saionji...”

“This lightbulb has now been lit!” Mioda went right back to shouting, undeterred even as Matsuda grimaced. She just looked at him with bright, sparkling eyes. “Yasuke-chan, can I have you for the night?”

“...” His grimace darkened. “...”

“If you’re that busy with Nagito-chan, I gueeeeeeess he can come too,” she says, huffing before outright whining. “But you gotta give me an answer! Even if it’s not the story that I planned, I gotta hear your answer! I wanna know the answer!”

Matsuda squeezed his eyes shut, sighing as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

I really don’t want to, but...

“I guess I might as well go,” he grumbled.

“You should!” Mioda agreed happily. “GOOD answer! There wouldn’t have been much point in this bonus scene if you said no, Yasuke-chan!”

Matsuda stared.

“Ooh, so sharp! So cool! Cutting like the highest note!” she gushed. “Alright! The meeting time is two hours before the evening announcement! At the supermarket! No carts needed!”

Matsuda turned on his heel to hurry on ahead.

“Alright, then, guess that’s that.”

When she shouted some more, he didn’t look back. Only quickened his step.

--

After all the plot-relevant stuff of which the reader shouldn’t be concerned with right now, Matsuda did end up remembering the plans he made.

“Oh, right. It’s probably getting about whatever time that rocker girl wanted to meet up.”

“Oh, Matsuda-kun!” Komaeda exclaimed. “If you had already made arrangements with our Mioda-san, shouldn’t you have respected that first and foremost?”

“I had more important things going on,” Matsuda muttered. “Stuff more...relevant.”

“Geez, you’re such an asshole,” Hinata griped because he was here too for reasons. “Just hurry on. You shouldn’t keep Mioda waiting.”

“Eh.” He really shouldn’t. That said—“She said Komaeda can come, so I guess you should come, too.”

“H-Huh?! Why?!”

“Just...a feeling I have. Come on, you two.” Matsuda gestured for them to follow. “We’re heading to the supermarket.”

“Uwah, how exciting! Mioda-san’s kindness knows no bounds!” Komaeda gushed to which Hinata could only grumble.

“I feel like I’m just going to get pulled into extra work...”

Good news.

--

“O-nya-su-mi! O-nya-su-mi!” Mioda waved them over frantically from behind one of the aisles. “Ready for something to happen?!”

She gasped, gripping one of the cereal boxes with glee when she saw that Matsuda hadn’t arrived either alone or with just the resident crazy on the islands.

“Ooh, you brought Hajime-chan, too! I guess you do know the saying! Three’s a crowd, four’s a party!”

“Hey, Mioda,” Hinata greeted half-heartedly as she put the cereal back. Hinata strode up to her only to pause. What laid scattered before him was undeniable and he could only sigh at his fate. “Okay... What’s all this?”

When Matsuda got close enough for a look, he could see the piles upon piles of cardboard boxes. Komaeda, too, blinked at the sheer volume.

“Kaboom! Through summer!” Mioda exclaimed with a thunderous clap. “You can’t have a summer without fireworks!”

“I’ve had many of those,” Matsuda informed her without missing a beat.

“Loud noises make me a bit nervous,” Komaeda admitted before exclaiming, “How exciting!”

“Oh, right,” Hinata remembered. “Komaeda, on your student profile, it lists your dislikes as...”

“D-Don’t worry about it, Hinata-kun! It’s for the sake of hope!” Komaeda did in fact seem more nervous than excited. “Hope can come in loud, colorful bursts!”

“Eh...?”

“Filthy fireworks disappear into the sky!” Mioda sing-songs. “From Summer Festivitrees! Haven’t you heard it?”

“I don’t really listen to music that doesn’t play in anime,” Matsuda replied.

“Bang! Bang! There go my dreams!” Mioda gasped, but she recovered quickly. “Anyway!” With a salesperson grin, she gave a wide sweeping gesture towards the boxes. She even wiggled her hand while she was at it. “Boys, get those boxes! Let’s go! Set up!”

“Hah,” Matsuda huffed. “You could have gotten literally anyone to do grunt work.”

“Between the four of us, it won’t be too bad,” Hinata points out. “I mean...”

“Yeah, it’s a party!” Mioda agreed. “A super spicy party! Well—it’s a real party since I’ve already invited a few others! Chiaki-chan, Akane-chan, Mikan-chan, Sonia-chan—and did you know?! Hiyoko-chan’s gonna take pictures!”

...that’s good.

“Oh, and Nekomaru-chan juuuuust for Yasuke-chan!” she added, giving him a wink. “Everyone else already brought these fireworks in, so we’ll leave the rest to you! It’s Ibuki yukata time!”

“I suppose everyone else will be wearing yukatas as well?” Komaeda asked, to which she gleefully nodded.

“Yep! Sonia-chan’s gonna wear what she calls a Japanese yukata! So will Nekomaru-chan! Just for Yasuke-chan!”

“Great,” Matsuda griped, unenthusiastic. “What about us?”

“You want to wear yukatas too?!” Mioda yelped. “Unexpected! Aren’t the protagonists supposed to be the normies?! Or—wait! You want to see Nagito-chan in a yukata too, don’t you?! Sly dog! I should’ve known with my Ibuki sense!”

“W-What’s that mean?!” Hinata stammered. “I-I mean... Komaeda...!”

Komaeda blinked twice. His head tilted.

“I guess you’ll change into a yukata, too,” Matsuda told him. “I’ll look for some earplugs. Hinata will handle the boxes.”

“Wait why did I suddenly get saddled with all the work?! If Nidai’s here, he should help, too!”

“Nekomaru-chan helped during the day, Hajime-chan!” Mioda tutted. “Now, it’s your turn! Yasuke-chan has already asserted his dominance as top antenna!”

“What does that even mean?!” Hinata cried.

“Good luck, Hinata-kun!” Komaeda exclaimed. “Work your hardest so that your hope can shine your brightest! Oh, but, Matsuda-kun, please don’t feel obligated to...”

Aaaand Matsuda was already making his way down the aisle. No longer listening. A man single-focused on his mission. Mioda saluted him before marching on her merry way. Komaeda, too, left to go obediently change. Hinata, left alone, could only sigh.

Resigned to his fate, he began to move the boxes with only a mild grumble.

(Thankfully, once he found some earplugs, Matsuda did go back to help. He wasn’t that heartless.)

--

Thus, the night ended with a climactic series of colorful explosions in the starlit sky. Nidai whooped, Mioda cheered, and Sonia chattered excitedly.

Another burst. Nidai whooped again. Tsumiki was stammering in delight. Owari was happy, too.

The only one who wasn’t was...

“Pffft, so fucking lame,” Saionji muttered, but she snapped away with her camera. “It’s just because Mahiru-nee would’ve taken these pics...”

“The Ultimates are more radiant than any blossoming firework!” Komaeda exclaimed, voice uncomfortably loud as he likely couldn’t hear himself with the earplugs. “How wonderful! Sublime! Vibrant!”

Matsuda gave him a thumbs-up before gritting his teeth and adjusting the other’s yukata lest it be too revealing for this rather chilly evening.

Nidai whooped again, much to Nanami’s apparent confusion.

“Nidai-kun...keeps doing that...”

“It’s because when fireworks go up, you...whoop,” Hinata explained. He was looking away quite pointedly from a giggling Komaeda, his ears almost as red as a firework that just dyed the sky. Another whoop from Nidai as Nanami let out a curious hum.

“Girl power!” Sonia exclaimed.

“G-Go...burst...” Tsumiki stammered.

“Oh god, you two are so laaaaame,” Saionji groaned, to Tsumiki’s despair.

“E-Eep! I’m so sorry!”

“Oh! That’s a better face!” Saionji snapped with more enthusiasm. “Bwahaha! Pathetic weeping suits you waaaay more!”

“...Hiyoko-chan’s having a great time!” Mioda shouted. “Wahoo! Ibuki’s decisive victory!”

“W-What the hell are you talking about?!” the dancer shrieked.

“Lit ‘em up, Hajime-chan!” Mioda yelled, whooping with Nidai. “Do it, just DO IT!!”

“Got it, got it,” Hinata sighed, doing as he was told.

“After that one, we’ll trade off!” Nidai laughed. “You gotta enjoy these fireworks TOO, ya know!!”

Hinata did smile back, even warmer under another burst of color above.

“So lovely,” Komaeda cooed, and Matsuda didn’t care to ask if he specifically meant the fireworks.

Regarding everyone’s bright faces, made brighter by the fireworks, nothing else...really mattered.

The scent of summer enveloping the night. Goldfish fireworks trickling down, falling in drops,

Matsuda thought, remembering a song.

With eyes dazzled by the light, your gentle face was reflected for an instant.

When everyone parted, it was with a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. One could even think it contentment if not for the erratic stumbling of a few stray thoughts.

#yasuke matsuda #matsuda yasuke #ibuki mioda #mioda ibuki #sdr2 #nagito komaeda #hajime hinata #Magi fics #some pairing references involving matsun and some boys #gay #Protag Matsun

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Rpg Anon: Time to do what all the horny anons have been waiting for. Remember how in Persona 3, if you only bring the protag and their love interest alone together in the party to the dungeon and you talk, the love interest gets a bit embarrassed or secretly happy to spend alone time? I dare ya to make those dialogues for the couples of this blog. P.S. ever seen all four of the P3 movies?

//First of all, I never played Persona 3 in full. I tried to get into it, but compared to 4 and 5, I had a few problems with it. It’s realism in play style made it not very fun to play (specifically reverse social links and also tiredness both being factors) and also I haven’t seen any of the P3 movies. 

//However, I did take a look at what you were talking about, and DARE ACCEPTED! (I’ll only do the characters that’ve shown so far)

Makoto: ... Kyoko: Makoto? Makoto: Huh? Yeah, what’s up? Kyoko: This is an investigation, remember? Not a date. Makoto: Wha-!? I-I didn’t say anything, did I!? Kyoko: No, but...you were certainly thinking it, weren’t you? Makoto: *sigh* You’re too good at this. Sorry, I was just...excited that we get to spend time alone together, you know? I won’t let it distract me though, I promise. Kyoko: It’s alright. After all, we haven’t done this since we investigated together during the Killing Games...besides...I... Makoto: Hm? Kyoko: Well...to tell the truth, I’m similarly excited...but we have a case to solve, so let’s keep a move on. Makoto: Y-Yeah! Right behind you!

Komaru: Welp...looks like it’s just the two of us... Toko: I’m not worried. A lot of the enemies around here are small fry anyway. Komaru: You don’t think we need the extra help? Toko: No, not really. It’d be nice, but these guys are no match for the Ultra...power...sister...What was it again? Komaru: Ultra Despair Girls... Toko: Yeah, that! These guys are no match for the Ultra Despair Girls! Komaru: Hm... Toko: What? Komaru: We’ve fought through a lot of enemies with just each other by our sides before, so yeah, we can definitely take these guys alone...but still, I can’t help but feel that you’re a lot more confident than you used to be. You don’t stammer nearly as much, and you’re quicker and more decisive now. Toko: Hmph! Look who’s talking! I’m not quickly going to forget potty-loving sister-complex Omaru, but I haven’t seen her in a while. Komaru: Hey! I do not use potty’s and I do NOT have a brother complex! That’s so uncalled for! Toko: Calm down, I’m just kidding. Seriously though, if we stick around here, everyone’s gonna come looking for us. I kinda...want some more time alone...if that’s ok. Komaru: Toko...Yeah, sure! Let’s keep going!

Mondo: Hey...Didn’t think we’d get a chance to go solo in the middle of all this shit...To be honest...I’m kinda happy. Taka: Oh, so you thought the same thing? Me too. However, we must be careful not to let ourselves get distracted. After all, we have a job to do, and we must do it to perfection! Mondo: If there’s one thing I can do perfectly, it’s break something! We got no need to worry...I was just sayin’ is all... Taka: Saying what exactly? Mondo: Well...it’s pretty damn embarrassing but...I’m just saying that if we weren’t up to our necks in Monokuma’s and whatever else the hell is trying to kill us...I’d actually be enjoying this alone time with you. Taka: Oh, that’s what you meant? Ahaha! You should have just said so in the first place! Mondo: Come on man, it’s embarrasing to say that kinda stuff, even if it’s just you who’s gonna hear it! Kiyotaka: If you ask me, this situation is very much like a class or an exam at school. For now, we need to focus on our assignment...but later, we can have some fun! Mondo: Heh! Damn straight! Then let’s get this over and done with as soon as we can!

Mahiru: Is it really just gonna be the two of us here? Are you sure that’s a good idea? Hajime: It’s not like we’ve got much of a choice. Everyone else already went back to the base. Mahiru: Yeah, you’re right...we can’t even contact Chiaki where we are...Guess there’s only one thing for it, huh? Oh well, just make sure that you don’t stay go too far away from me, ok? Hajime: Heh. Don’t worry. I’ll protect you. Mahiru: Uh...that’s not what I meant... Hajime: What? Mahiru: In these types of situations, boys like you get a big head and like to show off. It can be trouble, so I have to keep an eye on you to make sure you don’t do anything stupid. Hajime: Hey! You take that back! You’re the one always telling me I’m unreliable, so let me prove myself to you! Mahiru: I appreciate that, but it’s not worth it if you go and get yourself hurt, ok? Hajime: Um...remind me again who it is between the two of us that has unlimited talents and super power? Oh! Yeah, that’s right! ME! Mahiru: See!? This is EXACTLY what I mean! Even if you want to defend me, you’re already getting a big head! Hajime: I-! I...I...*sigh* No, you’re right...This isn’t like me; I shouldn’t be doing this...sorry Mahiru... Mahiru: ...No, I’m sorry...I just started another pointless argument...I mean, we’re fighting over who gets to protect who? Hehe...that’s stupid... Hajime: No, I get it. You just don’t want me getting hurt, right? Mahiru: Maybe I’m just too embarrassed to admit it...I just...I love you Hajime, and I don’t want to be the only person here to watch you die...I-In the unlikely chance that that happens I mean! Hajime: I love you too Mahiru. And hey, if it’s just us two, then maybe the best option is to watch out for each other? That way, we’ll both feel safe. Mahiru: You’re right! You watch my back, and I’ll watch yours! Well, we’ve stood around long enough, so let’s get going. Hajime: Agreed. Want me to hold your hand? Mahiru: That...sounds nice actually...

Fuyuhiko: Hey, are we good on supplies? It’s just the two of us out here, so we’re gonna need as many provisions as we can get. Peko: Good thinking. Don’t worry, we seem to be amply prepared...Enough to get us by, in the very least. Fuyuhiko: Guess there’s nothing we can really do about it anyway. Just make sure you don’t overwork yourself. Peko: You needn’t worry about me. I’m rather used to protecting you “Young Master.” In fact, I have over 30 years of experience under my belt. Fuyuhiko: Believe me, I’m aware of that more than anyone. But I’m sick and tired of the arrangement. Peko: Fuyuhiko? Fuyuhiko: I’m the first to admit that maybe I don’t have what it takes to stand up to some of the big leagues. ‘Specially not compared to you. But...we’re not Master and Tool now, and we never should’ve been. This time, I’m gonna do my best to protect you. Peko: I...I’m happy to hear you say that...But you’re mistaken, you know? Fuyuhiko: Huh?  Peko: My desire and want to protect you is not a duty to the clan, or my job as your employee. It’s my choice as your wife, and as a free woman. Fuyuhiko: Hmph! That’s the best news I’ve heard all week. Peko: You’ll have better news once we successfully clear this place out. Now, if you don’t mind, it’s time to work. Fuyuhiko: That’s my line~ Come on, let’s go!

Kazuichi: Welp...here we are...just us two... Hiyoko: ... Kazuichi: Hehe...Bet I’m gonna get a bunch of biting remarks today...all for me... Hiyoko: Um, I’m still here you know!? Kazuichi: You suuuure are... Hiyoko: It’s no secret you’d rather be with Sonia, but you could at least take my feelings into account. Kazuichi: Yeah, yeah, I’m sorry...I was...kind of a dick. But admit it, you’d rather be here with Mahiru, or Ibuki, or literally ANYONE ELSE other than me, wouldn’t you? Hiyoko: I’m not gonna say you’re wrong, but...I’m actually kinda glad you’re here Kazuichi. Kazuichi: Huh!? Hiyoko: D-Don’t get the wrong idea though! Whatever you’re thinking isn’t what I meant, so quit it! Kazuichi: Well...what...WAS it, that you meant? Hiyoko: Well...I mean, a big part of our “mission” is scrapping Monokuma’s right? And alongside the Monokuma’s we’ve also got some human enemies to deal with, yeah? Kazuichi: Uh...yeah? Hiyoko: Which means we’re a perfect duo! No one’d know how to take apart machines better than a mechanic, and my dances are sure to charm and distract any humans so we can give them all a good bopping! Kazuichi: Huh...You might be onto something actually? Hiyoko: And...also... Kazuichi: Yeah? Hiyoko: I think I’d prefer to be anywhere with you than with someone I don’t know. I can at least trust you to try and keep me safe. You know, be it out of friendliness, or just a guy showing off to an attractive girl~ Kazuichi: Gah! And here I was actually starting to have some faith in you! Hiyoko: Even so, please don’t leave? I promise I won’t tease you anymore, I just don’t want to be alone! Kazuichi: *sigh* Nothing you ever say is gonna make me abandon you. I’m not THAT much of a dick. Hiyoko: Thank you...

Sonia: Forgive me for stating the blatantly obvious, but it looks like there aren’t any other people around us. Gundham: Indeed...It’s almost as if this mission has been left solely to us. Did you hear word of such a decision? Sonia: No, but something probably came up. It matters not. I believe we are more than capable of dealing with this farce on our own. Gundham: I comprehensively agree. As the Supreme Overlord, I shall strike down any enemies that come forth. I shall carve a path to lofty gates of victory! Sonia: Hmhmhm~ Gundham: What? Sonia: Oh, nothing. It just makes me smile is all. This situation very much reminds me of one of Chiaki’s Role Playing Games. Gundham: ...In what regard? Sonia: Simply that this place is a dungeon, I am the captured princess, and you are the brave knight, come to rescue me and escort me to safety. Gundham: Forgive my impudence, but being compared to a bright and holy knight somewhat revolts me. I am much more comfortable in the role of the demon king whom kidnaps the princess in the first place. Sonia: Of course, it was only a silly thought...You need not dwell on it for too long a time. Gundham: With that said... Sonia: Hm? Gundham: Demonic king I may be, I am all too certain that I would be nothing without the aide of my Madonna of Darkness, sitting beside me as I stare down from my high rise throne of evil. Thank for for being by my side, Sonia. Sonia: Gundham...I...I didn’t realize... Gundham: That is no trouble to me. Now, my dark queen, I believe we have a castle to seize!? Sonia: Indubitably! Let us conquer this intrepid land and raze it to the ground in the name of Darkness! Both: MWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAH!!

Ibuki: Hmph! This place ain’t rocking at all. It’s so dark and gloomy. Mikan: ... Ibuki: It’s like...y’know, a dark concert area but the equipment hasn’t been set up yet. It’s all bland and boring and just...depressing. Mikan: ... Ibuki: Well, it’s a damn good thing I’m here! Time to redecorate this place the blood of Ibuki’s enemies! Mikan: ... Ibuki: Mikan? You with me? Mikan: Huh!? Um...y-yes, of course... Ibuki: Something seems up. You doing ok? Mikan: I promise, I’m fine. I’m just a little nervous is all. Ibuki: Nervous? Why? This is standard fare at this point, isn’t it? Mikan: Well, no, not really...after all...this time, it’s just the two of us... Ibuki: Oh, THAT’S what you meant!? Yeah, it’s super exciting, isn’t it! I’m a little nervous too, but the thought of being able to kick ass with my girlfriend just the two of us really pumps me up! Mikan: Um...Ibuki. Ibuki: It’s just like Komaru and Toko! We’re the vigilante duo, fighters of the night, battling crime like it’s nobody’s business! Mikan: Ibuki! Ibuki: We should come up with a cool name like they do! They’re the Ultra Despair Girls, so we should be- Mikan: Ibuki! Stop talking about this like we’re on a date! Ibuki: WAH!? What’s gotten into you! Mikan: You’re not taking this seriously enough! In fact, you’re acting way too aloof. Without backup, we’re sitting ducks, and I’m the only person who can help you if you end up getting carried away and getting hurt! I can’t babysit you in this kind of situation! Ibuki: ... Mikan: Ibuki? Ibuki: So in short...you don’t trust me? Mikan: What!? N-No, that’s not what I-! Ibuki: You don’t have to sugarcoat it. You’re right...maybe I am overdoing it a bit...You know as much as I do that I have a problem...I was just...hyped, you know? Mikan: Yes, but what about? Like you said, this type of mission is standard fare. Ibuki: And like YOU said, the big difference is that I finally have you all to myself, and we’re doing a super cool mission together! I think that’s awesome, and I’m SO happy to have you with me! Mikan: I-Ibuki...! Ibuki: But I guess I should just face the facts. You aren’t a superhuman. There’s a limit to what you can do by yourself if I end up getting hurt. I could just end up making trouble for you... Mikan: ... Ibuki: I know this isn’t your idea of a date...but I’m just really glad to be here with you, even if the circumstances aren’t great. I couldn’t ask for a better partner, romantically, or mission...ly? Mikan: Combatively, you mean? Ibuki: Yeah, that! Listen, I promise I won’t get carried away, so make sure to lean on me if you need to smash some Despair faces in! In return, you watch my back, ok? Mikan: I still... Ibuki: Everything’s gonna be fiiiine. I promise! Mikan: ...A-Alright. To be honest, if it were any other situation, I’d love to see you go crazy. It gets me in a positive mood. I’m just saying that since it’s just us two, we need to be careful. Ibuki: You’re the doctor! Mikan: But...I do agree. This alone time gets me very excited on it’s own~ Maybe I’m the one who needs to be careful not to get carried away? Ibuki: Well, as long as we’re together, I’m sure we’ll manage. Now come on! This song ain’t gonna play itself~!

Kaede: So? What’s the situation? Shuichi: Based on my initial observations, the area seems to be crawling with enemies...and there’s no backup in sight. Kaede: So...I guess it’s up to us to clear this place out of these guys, huh? Shuichi: Yeah...And if you want my earnest opinion, we are HORRIBLY unsuited to this job... Kaede: Come on, be a little more positive! We won’t know unless we try! Shuichi: More like unless we DIE! *sigh* I love your positivity and proactiveness Kaede, but don’t try to convince me that you’re not at least a little bit scared. Kaede: Well... Shuichi: Even if you’re hiding it to make me feel better, don’t. It doesn’t help, nor does it work. Kaede: *sigh* Alright, I’ll admit it. I’m pretty terrified. But it’s not like we have a choice, do we? Besides, even if I’m scared...I’m also kind of happy. Shuichi: Happy? Kaede: Well, yeah! The REAL scary thing would be having to do this alone, but on the plus side, we’ve at least got each other!  Shuichi: Heh...You’re crazy... Kaede: What’s so crazy about wanting to be alone with you? Shuichi: Well, when you phrase it like that...I... Kaede: Don’t worry. I’ll be the one to protect you this time. I’ll show you what I’ve learned. Shuichi: No, don’t straddle yourself with that burden. And don’t feel guilty about relying on me to help. I’ll gladly let the enemy siege this place before I let them hurt you. Kaede: Looks like we’re in agreement then. Well then Detective Saihara? What’s our move? Shuichi: Hehehe. Elementary Ms Akamatsu. You fill my holes, and I fill yours. I believe that’s how you put it? Kaede: Hnnngh! Is the mission to beat these guys up or embarrass me? Because if it’s the second one, you’re succeeding! Shuichi: I’m just joking. But I’m definitely feeling more confident now. Let’s get a move on. Kaede: Good to hear! I’m right with you!

Maki: Kaito, here. Make sure you keep these on you at all times. Kaito: Oh, heh! Thanks. Maki: Looks like we’re out of these kinds of medicine...That could be a problem. Here, you take what I’ve got on hand right now. Kaito: Huh? Wait, but don’t you need these? They seem important. Maki: You’ll need them. Kaito: Yeah, but so would you! Why not just give me half? Maki: Because you need them more than me. Wait, your tools look pretty worn. Trade with me in case you end up in a tight spot. Kaito: Maki Roll! Maki: Gah! What!? Don’t shout or else you’ll alert everyone to us! It’s just us two, so we can’t deal with a swarm! Kaito: What’s going on with you? You’re acting very...what’s the word...militaristic?  Maki: And that’s a problem? I’m not a soldier, but it works to be prepared for these kinds of situations. Mukuro taught me that. Kaito: Yeah, preparation and communication are super important, especially in a situation like this! Maki: Then why are you complaining? Kaito: Because you’re not my mom! You don’t have to bother me with all of this, I can handle it! Maki: I... Kaito: Maki Roll, I’m an astronaut! I’ve already brought enough supplies for me, so you don’t need to give me all yours! Maki: I know! *inhale* *exhale* I know... Kaito: Then why-? Maki: Because I’m scared! Kaito: Wah...scared? Maki: Is that such a bad thing? To be scared in this kind of situation? Where one wrong move could split us apart? ...Maybe even forever? Kaito: Ah...I get it now...You’re worried that I might be hurt and killed, huh? Maki: Maybe I’m being selfish but...I just can’t stand the thought of losing you again... Kaito: I am not going anywhere. And besides, you wanna know something? Maki: What? Kaito: I’m super duper certain that you can take care of yourself, but if you keep giving me your supplies, then you know what’s gonna happen? I’M gonna worry about YOUR safety. I don’t wanna lose you either. Maki: I...should have thought about that. Kaito: I’m grateful you’re putting your safety above mine, but please, DON’T do that. Looking at the two of us, I know that I don’t belong on a battlefield, and that I’m just weighing you down. For that, I’m sorry. Maki: That’s not how I see it at all. I just...love you too much to want you to get hurt. Kaito: Then I’ll be extra careful. We’ve got a mission to do, and I’m not gonna let me distract you from it. C’mon, full steam ahead! Maki: *sigh* Alright, I’ll relax a bit. But if you get hurt, I’ll kill you. Kaito: Duly noted! Now let’s go!

Miu: Alright you bastards and bitches! Miu fucking Iruma’s here to KICK YOUR ASSES! ...Wait, where is everyone? Keebo: Miu! Miu: Oh, there you are-KEEBO! Behind you! Keebo: GAH! *Keebo attacks the Monokuma that tries to sneak up on him. When he strikes it, Miu goes in for a second, decisive blow. Miu: Phew! God, that was damn close! Keebo: You can say that again. Sorry Miu... Miu: Eh? What’cha sorry for? Keebo: You ended up running ahead, so I left everyone else behind to chase you. I thought you’d need my help, but...you ended up helping me instead. That’s pretty pathetic, isn’t it? No doubt Kokichi would be making fun of me by now. Miu: Pah! Ignore that purple tinted rat. All he does is make you miserable. And...as much as I hate to admit it, this is my fault anyway, so you’ve got nothing to feel bad about. Keebo: Don’t be so hard on yourself. Now, the only issue is that since we’ve gone ahead, it’s going to be a while before backup arrives...and if Monokuma’s are here, then clearly we’re close to the location, if not there already. Miu: Dammit...Here I was thinking I could take this place by charging in, but now I ain’t got any backup. Good move Iruma, REAL smart. Keebo: Well, not that it accounts for much, but you DO have me for backup. Miu: Huh? Keebo: You’re always doing me a good service, both in terms of maintenance, and in support during these trying times. We’re stuck together, so now is ample opportunity for me to return the favor. Miu: What’re you talking about? You’ve already done a hell of a lot for me. Keebo: I have? Miu: Kirumi already gave me a lecture on taking this situation too lightly, and as much as I hate to admit it, I’m starting to think she was right. I’ve just been getting ahead of myself out of habit, but no matter the situation, you’ve been fighting while looking out for everyone else, haven’t you? You even came running after me, even though you know how dangerous it would be for just us two. Keebo: Well, I’m not about to leave you or any of my allies and friends to get hurt. But Miu, you shouldn’t be so tough on yourself. Your recklessness doesn’t stem from stupidity. It stems from determination and bravery. Miu: H-Hey, you’re making me blush! I’m starting to feel...a little overwhelmed... Keebo: S-Sorry...But many will say a lot of things about you, but I think it’s wrong to overlook the aspects that make you great, despite all the chaos you bring with you. You’re just as invaluable an ally as anyone else. That’s why I’m more than willing to risk life and limb to come running after you. Problem is...that may be my biggest flaw... Miu: What? Who told you that? Keebo: Look at the situation we’re stuck in now. I could very well have left you be, but instead I’m so focused on helping you, that I’ve lost sight of my own safety. It’s not your fault of course, but it is pretty pathetic. Miu: I don’t know who told you that, but point me in the direction of the one who did! I’ll knock his fucking lights out! Keebo: D-Did I upset you? Miu: Know I just...Listen, just because you’re a robot, doesn’t mean you should prove that you can do great things to everyone. In the end, I got myself in this situation, and while I wouldn’t normally admit this, I’m super happy that you came for me. Keebo: Miu... Miu: Just stop making apologies because you’re less than perfect. You’ll run out your batteries before long, and I’d really need you to be fully charged for this. Keebo: Ah, I nearly forgot that we still had enemies to deal with! Well, since we’re here, why don’t we see if we can clear this place out before anyone else arrives? I’m sure that would reduce the burden of the Foundation. Miu: Not a bad idea. Alright world! Make way for Miu Iruma and K1-B0! The Ultimate Inventor/Robot duo! Keebo: Make way!

//Yikes, this took long, but god it was fun. I really hope you like what I got for you~

-Mod

[yarrowleef]

Read Darkness Within all in one sitting last night and then passed out so here are my scattered thoughts i wrote down as i read, (afterthoughts in parenthesis)

Darkness Within Spoilers, obv

UGH GOD THE SECOND HAND EMBARRESMENT FROM SQUIRREL FAKE FLIRTING WITH ASHFUR IT HURTS

Just remembered Sandynose died and got a small boost of happiness (will Hawkwing and Plumwillow ever be allowed to talk again now? I mean probly not b/c they aren’t protags and non-protags don’t rly have friends but I can hope. Sorry, Hawkwhing and Plumwillow’s short-lived friendship in Hawkwings Journey was one of the last times I felt something)

Ghost fleas lol

Mothwing: i’m rude now. (but more importantly, Fuck Tigerheartstar for forcing his son to be around the cat that hurt him so badly, like he HAS to know how upset everyone is regarding Shadowsight and his accidentally helping the imposter, and he’s making him be the sole one to tend to him??? There is NO REASON Puddleshine couldn’t have done it. You think Puddleshine is going to try and murder someone?? )

Oh no don't make this a traveling book, and a ROOTBRISTLE traveling book this is going to be insufferable

BACON AND EGGS

Lightleap Is Good (Hey didn’t Shadowsight have another sister? lets be real we all knew Pouncekit was going to end up as the forgettable 3rd one)

Bristlefrost’s crush continues to feel unnatural to me. It’s like she’s grasping at straws romanticizing the most generic things.....wow....I love how ur just so...bare minimum competent....being polite to the loner we came all this way to ask for help like any somewhat reasonable person would....How admirable...I love the way you just *clenches fist* exhibit some basic traits of loyalty and skill that literally every warrior has (I s2g I’m this close to head canon-ing Bristle as a clueless aromantic who doesn't understand what romance is actually suppose to feel like so she just looks at feelings of low-bar admiration and assumes “oh I guess this is that “romantic attraction” everyone’s always talking about? guess I must be in love???” because both her crushes have felt out of nowhere and like. Idk fake/forced sounding like she’s just telling me that that she’s In Love Now while I continue to not actually feel it at all from her end. I know it’s just that I hate the way Erin’s write female characters in love but this head-canon makes me laugh)

Got scared because I thought they were going to villainize Spotfur for not wanting kits for a minute, but also excited at the concept of maybe exploring a female character that doesn’t want to be a mother, but it turns out she was just pulling a Sparkpelt and actually DID want the kits all along and was only hesitant because she’s sad. Shrug oh well.  (the only female character in warriors that was distinctly upset about pregnancy and motherhood was Lizardstripe and as we all know she was eeeeeevil and abusive and “overly ambitious” because why else would you not come around to being happy about motherhood?? YES I’M STILL SALTY ABOUT YELLOWFANG’S SECRET, BAD BOOK)  Whatever it’s fine so long as Spot doesn’t lose her rebel leader spirit forever and default to “soft mom” personality for the rest of her life, I gotta have hope because I actually like Bristle and Spot’s current relationship. Also I am actually very grateful they never made Bristle resentful at Spot for getting with her crush, as lots of middle grade/YA media has a very bad habit of demonizing female romantic “competition” and its super gross, so I rly do like that Bristlefrost is so protective and caring towards her instead. )

This series is trying to tell me that Rootspring is actually Big but I refuse to accept that. he has dumb scrawny bitch energy and we all know it

Sunrise: “Thunderclan may be better with a new leader” lol go off (i mean........they right tho...It’s unfortunate that the tension in this whole plot is a bit dampened by the fact that i DO in fact want bramble to die v badly. I don’t even have special hatred for him, I’m just bored of him.)

Yes Lionblaze beat the shit out of Ashfur

*HOLY SHIT THAT’S FUCKED!!!! (I wrote this in reference to the ghost summoning scene, this was all I could manage at the time, that scene was WILD and I am VIBING WITH THE HORROR OF IT ALL)

* Brashfur: Oh yeah? Could Ashfur fake THIS? *stands up with slightly better posture* Shadowsight: oh damn you got me there...... (asdfhhfhhgh im sorry that was really funny, how did that prove anything?? ONLY A ~REAL~ WARRIOR COULD STAND UP STRAIGHT WE ALL KNOW ASHFUR IS INCAPABLE OF GOOD POSTURE!)

End of the book: *LAUGHING NERVOUSLY* WHAT THE FUCK??? (I thought he was just gonna kill Squirrelflight right there holy shit can you imagine the RIOTS that would ensue in the wake of all this Squirrel/Bramble discourse I was so scared for a second.  

 But it’s fine, she just....went to super hell instead......Warriors has come so far lmao WHAT IS HAPPENING

Final Notes:

*On Mothwing, I don’t think her behavior struck me as “CHARACTER BUTCHERING” as much as it did for other people? I mean.....Warriors fans will say that literally any time a character does ANYTHING less then perfectly nice I think her actions just seemed that much harsher because we are reading from Shadowsight’s POV, and Shadowsight is taking everything 10x more personally right now (understandably so, but Mothwing isn’t inside his head) she wasn’t trying to hurt him. Also... like... Shadowsight DID get his name too early. It’s not Mothwing’s job to put his feelings above everything else, she’s not even his mentor, Puddleshine on the other hand, as his main mentor, I don’t understand what his deal is ignoring Shadowsight, that’s not how you help an apprentice but I suppose I chalk many of his mistakes up to also not being the most experienced medicine cat (he barely even had his own mentor.) Maybe he’s distant because he feels guilty and actually blames himself for not guiding Shadowsight better?? the two of them haven’t communicated about it yet so idk

 any way I give Mothwing a pass to be a little short tempered right now as a cat who has had her abilities periodically questioned all her life no matter how hard she works or how much experience she has, just because she doesn’t vibe with the spiritual cult side of the clans, I can understand why she’s a bit defensive of being questioned and frustrated watching so much hurt happen Yet Again due to reliance on StarClan visions over common sense, and I for one still stan her for slandering StarClan and refusing to accept Mistystar’s bullshit banishing like everyone else. Sometimes a character is at the end of their rope and can’t manage to be 100% nice 24/7 and that’s maybe not inherently bad writing? idk just my hot take. At a certain point we all gotta reckon with the fact that our perception of most popular supporting characters in heavily colored by fanon and we can’t always get mad at the authors for not adhering to it

*The sisters magic shit is my fav worldbuilding warriors has had in AGES, I love the way it’s described and it actually feels like it adds something to this world. I love this horror imagery with the ghosts, very excited for that. 

*still won’t be thrilled if Ashfur is working alone, because his motive doesn’t make sense right now. I mean the trying to get Squilf thing, sure, whatever, but the “I will make everyone pay for what they did to me”???? cause like?? Who??? they didn’t do anything to him?? Ashfur’s grievance was very specifically JUST Squilf. He has no other cause for revenge, he had no other beef or complaints about the clans to my knowledge? The cat that killed him is dead, and she’s like, the only other one that I could see as having “wronged” him?? I guess he also didn’t like Firestar much according to Graystripe’s Vow (and on account of how willing he was to kill him w/ Hawkfrost) but Firestar is ALSO dead. I don’t understand his angle. Will have to see last 2 books to judge i suppose.

*All in all I am interested to see where this is going!! but also the pacing as I feared is becoming a major issue. It’s better then ending the main conflict on book 3 like Vision of Shadows did, but omg. Hardly anything happened in all these pages. I realized I was over half way through and nothing about the situation had actually CHANGED or advanced at all in all that time. Similar to the past 2 books which I believe could have been combined, this plot felt like it should have been the first half of a book. Discussing whether or not to kill the imposter isn’t much of a standalone plot, it’s just the set up to a plot. Finding the sisters didn’t need to be a whole long thing, the debates about the Imposters fate didn’t need to be repeated 10 times, all those chapters illustrating that “Shadowsight is sad” were also drawn out, repetitive, and interchangeable, we probably only needed 2 or so chapters showing his struggles to get the necessary information across. It felt like a lot of padding, it was really slow and I did a lot of skimming. I am still very interested in the overarching plot and mystery behind the ghosts so that kept me reading but man this “will they won’t they kill him” plot did not justify it’s own whole book. Alas this is a persisting issue that will never be resolved while they continue to force 6 books into 1 series that doesn’t need 6 books. I’m sure the writers are doing the best they can with these unfortunate constraints but still, it’s a wonder this slow padding isn’t more of a detriment to their younger readers that the books are supposed to be marketed to.

#warrior cats #the broken code #darkness within #the darkness within #darkness within spoilers #wc tbc #tbc #is that enough tags #yarrow speaks #wc criticism #long post #the broken code spoilers #warrior cats spoilers

[doctolka]

Introducing the Wonderful, the Magnanimous, the Infallible D.O.C. Tolka!

Ok, ok. None of that's true. My apologies...

Introduction...

So... I'm seeing that a lot of my fellow writeblrs have these little blurbs about themselves and their writing pinned on there blogs... so, I guess I might as well make one myself?

Anyway. I'm D. (but you can call me Clowny McFearson for all I care), American (sadly), in my early 20s*, and for the sake of privacy my pronouns are whatever the hell you think they are**. My music tastes (are irrelevant, but) lie on this strange plane of existence that spans classical and hard rock. I wrote a lot when I was younger (can I get much younger?) but stopped because I was told I needed to focus on realistic things...

Whelp. I no longer give half a rat's ass about those hooligans...

So here I am, looking for support for my work. Obviously, this is a writeblr (did I already say that?). I mainly focus on high or epic fantasy, though I enjoy a good sci-fi, cyberpunk, what-have-you. Also, I do enjoy horror... just not horror for the sake of horror. So like, dark fantasy, I guess. Note that I do post things that might be a tad unrelated, but that I think are important. Or cool. Probably not gonna post many (if any) memes. Many apologies.

WIPs:

Current: The Flame of Imbanor***

This follows a wide selection of characters over my wide world of Adoana, as they basically try to figure out what's going on (because everyone loves a clueless protag, right?). The world has all sorts of monsters, and magic systems (and ya-de-da) and its own mythos (some of which is based heavily on folklore from around our own green planet), etc.

I've got (insert number of words here) almost 60K words right now, so I'm about half-done with the first draft (WHICH MEAN I'M STARTING TO LOOK FOR BETAS! [I think. I may be getting ahead of myself]), but the plot's kinda hard to explain... 'cause there's a LOT (actually it's probably really simple and I'm just dumb).

Other: Tales of the Champion of Peace***

This WIP is currently just in its "this would be dope!" stage, but it essentially follows an individual (a hunter from a Viking/Spartan culture) who gets exiled after they flee from a battle ('cause they're like, young) and wanders about for a bit before coming upon this thing called the Dream Well (kinda loosely based on the one from Nordic mythos) where they get a glimpse of the future through a place called the Transmortal Plane. This 'dream' sets them off to instill peace between the various sects of people that inhabit the planet, with all sorts of adventures along the way. It also takes place on Adoana

I'm planning it to be a series of short stories, hence the planning stage. Also I've written all of two sentences about it...

Wow! Thanks for sticking with me! I may, I think, be a tad long winded (this is where you say "Oh, no! You're just passionate!"). Ta-ta, for now!

*Subject to change. Time, you know, is a funny thing

**Also subject to change, if I ever get rid of my damnable paranoia

***Title subject to change (is this too many disclaimers?)

#me #about me #wip #writeblr #writersociety

[hirazuki]

Ooo I'm curious about your hot takes on the Inuyasha reboot after reading your tags 👀

Ahaha, where to start XD Idk if they are hot takes, but here are my thoughts in bullet point form for coherency, I couldn’t figure out how else to organize them. Under a cut, as usual, because it got lengthy... as usual :D

We are 13 episodes in, and I still have no idea wtf is going on or what the series is actually about. And yes, I’m aware that we didn’t know of Naraku’s existence or of the overarching plot until at least episode 16 of that series either and Inuyasha was still very episodic in nature at that early point too, but here’s the thing: Inuyasha did not build upon a pre-existing series. For better or for worse, Yashahime has certain expectations to live up to that the original anime didn’t, by virtue of its being a sequel. Unfair? Maybe, but tough; that’s what happens when you make a sequel. Additionally, despite us not knowing The Main Plot™ of Inuyasha until later, the basic framework for it was laid out clearly by... episode 2? I think? Find and collect the Shikon Jewel shards. Boom, done. Were there distractions or fillers? Sure, but you never got the sense that the characters simply up and forgot about the shards. Even in fillers, the shards often made some kind of appearance. With Yashahime, there’s like three potential storylines going on: 1. The most obvious: most of our main cast from the OG is missing; where are they? Apparently no one in-story cares! :D Inuyasha, who’s that lol. I’m all for a sequel focusing on the new generation with cameos of the old crew; after all, they already had their own series. But this is like... no one cares about them? No one talks about them? And the more characters go about not mentioning them, the stronger their absence is felt. Like, for instance, Kaede knows Moroha is InuKag’s daughter. Moroha grew up on her own, doesn’t know her parents. Kaede doesn’t mention them to Moroha, doesn’t even spare a passing thought about them for the audience’s benefit, Moroha doesn’t ask. Kagome’s family in the present day meet Moroha, recognize her as Kagome’s daughter and... say nothing??? Souta shows Towa Kagome and Inuyasha’s old photos, but doesn’t say a word to Moroha?! Like. It makes no sense. By people not even acknowledging their existence, it makes the fact that they are nowhere to be found even weirder. Also the new gen girls don’t care about their parents or finding out who they were/are... like, okay, it would maybe be in character for one or two of them, but all three don’t give a fuck??? 2. Kirinmaru/the rainbow pearls: Idk how familiar you are with the story, but similar deal with Naraku and the shards here. Kirinmaru is being set up as the villain, still a mysterious figure; our new gen trio is supposed to collect the rainbow pearls that... some of his henchmen have? Or he is after them? Or is that Riku? Unclear. ANYWAY the new gen girls often forget all about the pearls’ existence :D 3. Setsuna’s memories: Setsuna’s dreams have been stolen by the dream butterfly and they need to get them back, because without her dreams she has no memories and is unable to sleep. Cool! Finally a solid, easy-to-follow plot line! Except wait! Towa, who supposedly made it her goal to get Setsuna’s sleep back, forgets all about it! All the time! Like, none of them make an effort to look into this other than being like “oh yeah, know anything about the dream butterfly?” to random folks every now and then. The Inugang back in the day was putting some grad school level research towards their goals, just saying. It just feels like everything’s all wishy-washy and there’s nothing really solid tying the series together. People just remember shit exists when it’s convenient.

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Character development is MIA. I’m not expecting ground-breaking char dev in 13 episodes (though I do know 12 episode series that were phenomenal in that regard), but like... I do expect the series to focus on building the dynamics between the main three characters. So far, the series is more focused on teasing the audience with glimpses and promises of the OG cast instead. The creators are using nostalgia and bait (esp of a certain pairing) to drive interest in the series, rather than developing the new characters as fully-fledged characters for their own sakes. 

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Moroha is was the only thing I actually liked about the series. She is a little spitfire and you can somehow instantly see both Inuyasha and Kagome in her, while she also remains very uniquely herself; I have never seen such a successfully developed main pairing child in any series. She featured quite prominently in the first few episodes -- and unlike both her parents, she’s got a great memory and knowledge of lore -- where she balanced funny moments with badass fighting moments and being the token supernatural encyclopedia. It was great! And then... they’ve like... forgotten her. She’s been left behind so many times by the twins. She’s the butt of every joke. She’s become the type of comic relief that’s, well, insulting. More like a buffoon than anything else. And it’s basically all for the sake of giving the floor to Towa :/

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Setsuna is okay. Not offensive, but unremarkable. She’s got her dad’s personality but like way toned down due to her different growing up circumstances, which is nice, but like... I feel she isn’t given any room to grow or breathe or anything. She’s also basically there as a device to enhance Towa’s development.

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Towa... oy. I tried to like her, I really did, but she just doesn’t work for me. They set her up having a very Kurosaki Ichigo type deal with beating up bullies and getting into trouble at school and shit -- I’m fine with that. That’s cool. Esp if it’s linked to not feeling like she fits in bc she’s a hanyou? Awesome. Except once she travels back in time to the feudal era it’s all “Oh killing is bad you shouldn’t kill people” and “even though they attacked me I can’t possibly hurt them” and “you need to empathize and talk things out” and “friendship is magic” and shit. It feels like she had a personality transplant, it literally makes no sense. Her design is totally nonsensical too -- out of everyone at her school, she’s the only one dressed in a bright white suit? Do protags not wear the school uniform? Someone should tell Kagome lmao. She’s a pro at hand to hand, and she can absorb demons’ powers and fling them back at them like a personified Tessaiga, and she has a lightsaber sword, and she’s immune to miasma, and -- like... you get it. It’s too much. It’s way too OP for the type of universe that Inuyasha/Yashahime is set in. She’s hanyou for fuck’s sake; remember all the training Inuyasha had to go through? When he couldn’t lift his sword? When his sword attacked him? Sango, Miroku, Kagome, even Sesshomaru all had trouble with their weapons and had to work to become stronger. But Towa? Nope. Towa is straight out of the Yas Queen/Girl Boss manual, so she gets a free pass on everything.

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UGH they are doing the VLD/bad writing thing where things happen (like, BIG THINGS) and none of the characters actually react to them. Or stuff happens and there are no consequences. No one ever talks about anything. It’s wild.

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Everyone has amnesia!! :D People either don’t know or don’t remember anything or anyone. People who absolutely should know things all of a sudden magically don’t know them. Like, Kohaku -- traveled with an undead priestess, spent years in the company of demons, traveled with Sesshomaru... and yet had NO CLUE that Setsuna is Sesshomaru’s daughter or that she is hanyou, despite her living and working with his team of demon slayers all this time. Like... how, man. How. And Kaede! Don’t get me started. Since when does she perpetuate random demon-boogeyman type stories as facts? Demon children will kill each other in the nest so that only the strongest one will survive, therefore Setsuna must have killed Towa when they were infants. O_O What are they, sharks? Has she been hanging out with Kisame? Wtf?? And she’s speaking about Sess’s kids as though she doesn’t know him or anything about him, when she has had Rin under her roof all these years. It just makes. no. sense.

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Things that happened in the original series are happening again now! Because that’s the best we’ve got, recycled plot elements wooo! No, but really, characters that died or things that were resolved in Inuyasha keep coming back. Why? What was the purpose of bringing back Kinka and Ginka? To have a foil for Towa and Setsuna as twins? Someone please tell Sunrise they can just create new characters. Like, it’s one thing to have call backs to the original or cameos, references, whatever. But like... this is entire (dead) characters and interactions.

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No one knows how long it’s been since the original series ended. Fans initially heard 20 years from promo material, then “over 15″ and “10 years since” in-series regarding two different events, and now in a future episode summary we’ve gotten 18 years since Hosenki II gave Inuyasha the black pearl. But like, which black pearl? Because the one in Inuyasha’s eye doesn’t exist anymore, but Hosenki II had told Inuyasha that it would take 100 years for him to produce one. So, are we retconning that or where the fuck did it come from? Also, this doesn’t help one bit, it just confuses things even more. Back to the point, though, we have no coherent timeline or real frame of reference whatsoever, and I’m betting it’s in large part to keep the mystery of who is Sesshomaru’s wife going, as it keeps Rin’s age very vague. Everything is vague and mysterious in Yashahime, to the point where no one knows what’s going on, in fandom or in-story even. It’s kinda like how too much plot twist/shock reveal ruins a story, too much mystery does the same. It’s insane that both shippers and antis of that ship can lay equal claim that the “18 years since” announcement works in their favor.

tl;dr: Idk man, Yashahime is a clusterfuck of a series. Even if the mother of Sess’s twins is either of the characters I ship him with, I will still not like the series. There’s no saving this writing. Every episode feels like this:

#baked-hylian #i've been wanting to rant for a while about this series thanks for enabling me! :D #i'm actually not upset about this sequel which is amazing; i thought for sure it would impact my love for the OG but nope! #it is so wild and out there that my brain literally cannot comprehend it as part of the same material #i'm just watching it out of the kind of morbid curiosity you'd watch a horrifying experiment with #and watching the fandom drama too ofc #popcorn in hand #so it's a win-win all around ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ #talk: yh