You know, when you consider Azure Moon as a self-contained narrative, the use of ‘unanswered questions’ and ambiguity as a reinforcement of the themes of the route are really effective. I honestly think having the route not address the Slithers was the best narrative choice IntSys could possibly have made given the themes of Azure Moon.
Like. The developers didn’t really expect people to actually play all the routes; they designed the game so ‘everyone would have a different experience.’ As a result, all the routes have very different themes and scopes. Azure Moon is the tightest, most character-driven narrative despite not being the shortest route.
And Azure Moon is about grief.
Grief hangs over the entire route; except for Mercedes, every single one of the Blue Lions is haunted by the Tragedy of Duscur and the unanswered questions surrounding it. Felix loses his brother directly, and his worldview and best friend to the aftermath. Ingrid loses her fiance, but also her sense of security; without Glenn, her people may starve, and her personal future is now uncertain. Sylvain and Glenn were the same age, so we can assume they were friends, though his loss is less direct; Sylvain is surrounded by people broken by loss, including his own father. Annette’s father leaves her family in disgrace over being unable to stop the tragedy. Ashe loses his foster brother to the aftermath; and later his foster father as well.
Dimitri and Dedue lose everything.
All of them spend the whole route wanting to find answers and some kind of closure for this event. It drives the entire narrative for all of the Lions actually from Faerghus. Mercedes, meanwhile, stands as an outside observer to that tragedy - but she is also dealing with her own personal tragedy and unanswered questions about her brother, and that drives her during Azure Moon.
And the thing about grief is that sometimes you never get closure. But you still have to move on, anyway.
That’s the whole point of Azure Moon. Dimitri has to move on. All the Lions have to move on.
Mercedes cannot regain her brother, whether you find out his identity or not in the route. She has to move on anyway. Dimitri cannot reconcile with his family, not with Rufus (Did Dimitri kill him? We the viewer can never really know for sure) and not with Edelgard. He never finds out whether Patricia wanted to kill his father, or whether she loved Dimitri at all (and we the viewer don’t, either). He has to move on anyway. The Lions never find out the cause of the tragedy.
They have to move on anyway.
Involving the Slithers at that point would not only add a bunch of last-minute narrative complications that aren’t necessary in Azure Moon, it would undermine the emotional impact of the route (in much the same way the last map of Verdant Wind does, honestly). The themes of Azure Moon not only don’t need to answer the question of the Slithers; not answering that question is the point. Bringing up the Slithers at that point would take all the air out of the personal drama the route takes its entire runtime addressing.
Dimitri hesitates at the end. He stops, and tries to look back, and Byleth stops him. He has to move on. He can’t keep looking back at Duscur. He’s got to walk forward.
And that means leaving his questions unanswered.
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wait okay i DID fall asleep days ago when i said i would post about this and then was too busy to Blog. but here are some points on the tori/minato au
it is time travel late game plasticity!tori. so just assume she can basically do anything she wants with fuinjutsu (with sufficient time/resources) but she's not a ninja. instead she's just in ame midway through the third shinobi war one day. which SUCKS-- ame is a fucking mess and tori is essentially homeless and no one knows her. so tori's first idea is that she'll LEAVE ame, get to the coast, and then take a boat somewhere with no war. unfortunately this is means crossing through active ninja war zones
the Mood for tori in this is: imagine her muddy and damp at all times. she is floundering around the elemental nations mainly by attaching herself to other civilian groups trying to relocate and, when necessary, scamming ninja. her ability to take down ninja is all over the place, but if she tricks you into making the wrong move, you WILL end up stuck in an unbreakable barrier or dying horribly and she will take your things.
and then the mood for minato is: he's like 19-20, so he's young and more reckless with less direction than i usually write him. he is only JUST now getting an international reputation for hiraishin related shenanigans. he feels dusty and overworked all the time, but also he currently has no strong ties to konoha as a physical place (jiraiya and his genin teammates are rarely there due to war, he and kushina are buddies but not dating, and he hasn't been assigned team 7 yet). so basically he's loyal to konoha but he's not like.... eager to get back or anything. he's fine fucking around in weird corners of the world during his down time. he is basically a Nice Guy but he has no problem with murder as the quickest and easier solution.
the meetcute:
tori is good at what she does but her scams/lies/manipulations obviously don't always work, and failing to trick a ninja can end with dire consequences. she has 'died' a couple times, been imprisoned and moved by ninja and civilian groups AWAY from her goals and had to escape, etc
she is currently having a Very Bad Time. she's been captured by ninja and they're actively harassing/humiliating her. she doesn't have an opportunity to DO anything bout this so she is quite upset
minato shows up and murders the ninja. this has nothing to do with tori's presence-- it's his mission to clear enemies in the area.
minato doesn't care THAT much about helping random civilians who aren't even fire country, but he IS very good and smiling prettily and asking people if they're okay.
he asks tori if she has a safe place to go. she lies and says yes bc she doesn't want to find out what happens if the fucking YELLOW FLASH talks to her for longer than necessary.
but also she is. she is very flustered. she's not used to being saved with no strings attached. he's handsome and being kind to her. she's SO upset
they part ways. tori stomps off into the woods and she's COLD and LOST ALL HER SUPPLIES because she ran away before she could LOOT THE CORPSES.
and! the worst part is!! she keeps having idle fantasies about if she HAD said she needed help and minato? helping her?? WHY WOULD HE HELP HER. how would he 'help' her. she bets it would feel good
she INTENTIONALLY gets herself recaptured while she knows he's in the area just to be saved again. except this time she's a small group of people and he gives the same exact speech and offers help to everyone? he does not seem to recognize her even though she keeps thinking about him? tori NOT special???
tori: okay so he's psychological torturing me
tori: guess i should.... kill him....?
tori: only if we ever meet again though.
tori: which we probably won't
so while this interaction will haunt tori for months, minato mostly forgets about it immediately. however there ARE mounting rumors that SOMEONE has a fuinjutsu master running around. it's unclear which village is responsible for it. jiraiya's investigations indicate it's probably a wandering-nin because the things this person is doing make no SENSE from a 'village at war' perspective, because he's following around tori's wildly inconsistent path of destruction. jiraiya only even cares because a few times she's been forced to leave behind active seals, and they're? insane looking???
so the sequence of events that ends up happening is:
minato is in the same area as tori, because he's helping hunt down this mysterious fuinjutsu user. he ends up chasing a bunch of ninja out of a civilian village because it is, in fact, more convenient to him if civilians like him and let him use their resources. he gives them the same speech he always does about are they okay and everyone is safe now. one of the villagers, a young woman, approaches him and is like "hey can you help with this weird ninja technique down by the river, it's killing the fish?" and minato is like "yeah sure" and he follows her down the river and voila! one of the weird seals he's looking for!
and then? somehow?? he ends up IN the river AND the river is fucking BOILING. he gets out because he can fucking teleport, but he hasn't been spamming his hiraishin as much as he will in the future and he ends up having to teleport pretty far away. he's decently injured because BOILING so he seeks medical attention and doesn't go back for a few days. but when he DOES the girl is gone and the villagers are like "oh yeah we have no idea who that was"
tori: hi sorry, you seem to have not noticed i'm the main character. die horribly, i guess
minato: i think the renegade fuinjutsu user is..... a random civilian?
jiraiya: proposterous
jiraiya: that makes no sense
all of konoha leadership: nope, sounds wrong
so now it's minato's personal mission to refind tori, despite konoha leadership's orders to drop it, because he's 100% sure SHE is the mysterious fuinjutsu user. i don't think it would actually take him that long because he is a highly competent ninja and tori is tricksy but she's also... a walking disaster. (basically, she's good at getting herself out of immediate problems, but she's bad at long-term problems, so she does things like "flee before hiding evidence of insane fuinjutsu" and "gives her name as Cup Noodles to more than one person")
meanwhile, tori is wandering around backwater hot water country like, "i did it. i fixed my feelings on the yellow flash. u_u" and he shows up again like "hello!!!" and she's like "NO FUCK"
the problems minato immediately runs into are:
he doesn't actually have specific orders on what to DO about tori, on account of konoha thinking she has to be some sort of bad ass ninja. the game plan for the mysterious fuinjutsu master is basically just "identify and then report back" and he already did that
he COULD just drag her in and sit her down with a yamanaka, and then probably jiraiya would be like "huh, good work, kid" and he would get another accolade for excellent service he doesn't care about. but, consider: he wants to know WTF is up with her, how her seals work, and also how is she doing them if she's not a ninja
he figures out pretty quickly that they HAVE met before, twice, and she targeted him specifically to try and boil him alive. he's had ninja fixate on him before but.... the disconnect between tori's perceived threat and how close she got to boiling him alive is absurd
he's
he's kind of into it?
so the mood then is: tori is being casually stalked by the yellow flash because he just thinks she's neat. she's wildly conflicted about this because she enjoys his attention way too much, but also, she hates how he makes her feel. she hates that her life is 90% being uncomfortable and terrified of being randomly murdered, and she HATES how minato being around makes all of that go away. she hates that she likes fucking around with fuinjutsu with him. she starts doing stuff that will self-sabotage her own quest to LEAVE THE CONTINENT just to get his attention.
the get-together:
tori gets herself into hot water that makes her go "oh, hmm, i may have fucked up for good this time"
current scenario i'm imagining (some rotating needed): iwa is ALSO onto Insane Rando Fuinjutsu User running around, and they end up grabbing tori and moving her into like. an actual field prison for ninja, in a major iwa camp in one of the smaller countries. the rumor among the other captives (mostly konoha ninja) is that they'll be moved to iwa proper eventually, and tori is.... pretty sure she's actually fucked forever if she ends up in iwa
but! she has other prisoners! who are ninja! and she's like: "look, despite knowing i can do fuinjutsu, they don't seem to have the slightest idea HOW i've been doing it, because i can still make a blood seal whenever" and she gets to be an integral part of an escape plan!
but she gets left behind/immediately recaptured because no one ACTUALLY cares about her and helping her >:(
i might change this but ONE concept i have for how this pans out is that hiruzen's non-asuma child (konohamaru's parent) is one of the captives. so it's a VERY politically important captive who isn't necessarily very badass by themselves. so the mood is like "this person needs to be rescued, but they're not like some A-tier person who can rescue themselves," which is why minato himself gets sent in
tori, while she's being smacked around by iwa leadership for being a part of the escape attempt that lost them their most valuable captive, realizes that she did actually fuck up in attempting to escape, because she HAD a shot at Konoha rescuing her if she stuck with the other captives, but now those captives are free, and no one is coming for her
MEANWHILE, minato has connected witht he escaped konoha-nin and pieced together that tori was with them but they left her behind
minato: oh
minato: BRB
and i've decided in THIS au, THIS is minato's "kills 1000+ Iwa-nin in one shot" moment
so he shows up, covered in blood, kills the guy who's been torturing her, and is like "tori, are you okay?" and it's his speech he gives everyone except he's not using his pretty smile she now KNOWS is fake and he's tenderly wiping blood off her face
and tori is just. SO fucking weak to this. you became the most lethal ninja in history? for h e r?! 🥺🥺🥺
and then they make out 😌
i'm not sure how the rest of the story goes. i think minato's preferred way forward would be for tori to go into konoha's employment, but i don't think she'd like that. but also she suddenly is less interested in leaving the continent so now she maybe has to fix some things?
tori: oh you have a genin team now? um unrelated but there is a cave near kannabi bridge with an old man you must kill
minato: wh
minato: why do you sound like like a wizard giving me a quest
minato, a month later, finding Uchiha Madara in a cave:
minato:
minato: TORI WHAT THE FUCK
but anyway after that when she's like "we have to find a plant guy and kill him too" then minato is 100% on board because she is. some sort of witch?
also she lets him draws a hiraishin marker on her For Safety and he's weirdly horny about it
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Alejandro and price tag teaming reader?
CALL THAT A TEAM BUILDING EXERCISE!!
Summary: Price needs to blow off steam in his favorite way, but the two of you are interrupted by Alejandro.
"That's it, love- you're so fucking tight," Price has you up against a wall in some forgotten supply bay at the Los Vaqueros base. He's fucking you like his life depends on it, his gruff voice ever-present in your ear.
It's how he prefers to blow off steam- fucking and drinking. But-
"But these 'Vaqueros' drink that tequila piss and I need bourbon."
So, fucking it is.
"John," you whine his name and he chuckles, threading his thick fingers into your hair and tugging gently.
"What do you need?"
"Harder-"
"Ask nicely."
"Please!" you manage to whimper and his change in thrusts is instant at the sound of your pathetic plea.
Your face feels warm, your legs weak. You're so close to the edge, teetering on the verge as he drives at you, shoving your face against the cold metal of the wall and grasping your hips for leverage.
When he stops, it's suddenly, and you open your mouth to protest before you're cut off.
"Shhh, love, I think we have company."
Your stomach drops as the figure of Alejandro Vargas looms into sight out of the shadows.
"Can I help you, Vargas?" Price asks smugly, still buried to the hilt inside you.
Your face is hot with embarrassment. You want nothing more than to push Price away and sprint into the shadows. To disappear completely. Perhaps to sink into the floor and cease to exist.
"Maybe," Alejandro bites his tongue as he considers the sight in front of him. Something in his expression is unreadable, but the faint hint of want meanders across his face for a moment.
He should be furious with Price, with you. Disrespecting his base, disrespecting him- but he doesn't look like he is.
Is he...?
Before you can finish the thought, Price laughs and asks the question for you, "What? You want a turn?"
You glance up at him, but his eyes are locked on Alejandro's, his grip loosening slightly on your waist.
"Well?" the prompt snaps the Vaquero out of his trance.
"Yo ha-"
"English, Vargas," Price snaps, you jump, and Alejandro stumbles over his words for a moment before answering.
"Yes," he almost seems embarrassed for a moment by his own eagerness, but it's quickly replaced by a poker face once more.
"You okay with that?" Price lowers his voice and catches your gaze, his expression concerned, "Want to let the 'Vaquero' have a turn?"
This is new. Out of character for him. You glance at Alejandro- the look on his face is halfway between need and hesitancy.
"Well?" Price cocks his head, "Don't keep the man waiting."
"I'm okay with it," you respond quietly and he pulls out of you slowly. The sudden emptiness makes you huff as he fishes something out of his pocket and tosses it to Alejandro.
"You put that on, or you don't touch her. Understand?"
Alejandro nods and you feel compelled to look away as he frees himself from his fatigues and slips the condom on.
He's bigger than you expected.
Price watches him carefully, analyzing his every move. Occasionally, he glances at you, searching for a sign that you've changed your mind.
It doesn't come.
So instead, he settles for observing as the Vaquero runs a gentle hand down your back and lines himself up with you.
When Alejandro takes hold of your hips and pushes inside you, he hisses, squeezes his eyes shut and lets a string of Spanish curses fall from his lips.
You wonder for a moment if he's ever going to move.
When he does, it's your turn to curse- "Ah, fuck-" he's hitting a spot inside you that makes you see stars.
Price feels a pang of jealousy at the sound, thinks for a moment of shoving him away from you.
He resists the urge.
"You feel so good, hermosa," Alejandro is panting, his voice hoarse, "He's lucky," he jerks his head toward Price, who smirks in response.
The sound of him fucking you is obscene, echoing along with your panted breaths and whimpers. Alejandro could listen to you all day long- he wants you to scream his name, to beg him to fuck you. He wants you to think of him every time Price fucks you.
"Alejandro!" you cry out as you come around him, nearly losing your footing when the tension snaps. You splay your hands on the cold wall in front of you to keep yourself on your feet.
Music to his fucking ears.
His grip on your hips tightens as he fucks you through your orgasm, pushing you well past the threshold of bearable in pursuit of his own high.
When he comes, it's with another hiss of Spanish curses. The room is a blur as he pulls out of you and it takes everything in your power not to simply slide down to the floor to relieve your weak knees.
"Did you like that?" Price sounds as if he's speaking to you through a tunnel.
Alejandro has already departed, leaving the two of you alone in the room. You pause to hope that he is tight-lipped about this encounter. The last thing you need is Los Vaqueros whispering behind their hands about you.
"Yes," you pant and he chuckles, offering you a hand to help you upright.
"Don't get used to it."
You sense a twinge of jealousy in his voice.
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