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marieanneline · 3 years

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wait wait hold up i am actually seething about the reveal

ya boi's not a dabi stan. at all. the only reason i'm remotely interested in his character is if he's actually related to shouto and how that would affect hero society in general. i remember reading the training camp arc, seeing him being one of the villains there, him saying todoroki's full name, and thinking "SIBLINGS?????" because agshdfjlk their EYES are SO SIMILAR!! i really want to give credit to horikoshi being able to portray their similarities from artstyle alone because that's talent.

(it's more apparent in the anime since you see the eye color— but appearance-wise, shouto takes after rei and dabi takes after enji the most, so this definitely isn't the best photo to prove my point...)

anyways,,,, dabi's ideals of heroics fall in line with stain's ideals and so we all already theorized how if he was the long lost big brother touya, it would be because of the fact that his father really wasn't a hero. this makes sense. and so, we're all fucking right. props to us, really, and props to horikoshi for all the foreshadowing because i had fun :)) in terms of story and plot, i think this reveal is fantastic.

alright, on to why dabi is a dick

(i'm assuming this was his choice and no one pressured him after all)

the todoroki family is on the road to recovery!!

- shouto finally visits his mother back in season 2 and visits her every chance he gets. you see the effort he makes and it's nice to see him change from season 1 to 2 (early-roki!!)

(guys he even sends her letters- look at that sparkle by his face!! he's sweet :)) and rei's smile!!!!)

- enji (whether we wanted it or not, i don't mind much personally) is trying to atone for everything he's done to his family

- natsuo, who originally wasn't fond of shouto because he had their father's attention (although he does come to the horrible realization that shouto was one of the most unfortunate) and mother's attention (because she wanted to protect shouto), has a closer relationship with his little brother now (can you believe he didn't even know shouto's favorite food was cold soba until ch. 192?? i was sobbing). he really regrets the prejudice he had against shouto and he's trying to be an actual brother to him now.

- rei's almost recovered enough to be released from the hospital!!

- fuyumi and her idyllic "happy family"– wHICH, BY THE WAY, ALMOST CAME TO FRUITION. their mother coming home, shouto connecting with his siblings, and enji being not-the-way-he-was-before is the best outcome they could have hoped for. and it was happening.

and i realize that all of that setup is for this very moment

this? this. this. this is being broadcasted. to everyone. that means the citizens know that their new #1 hero is directly related to a member of a really bad villain organization (i almost called it a terrorist group oop-).

by ruining endeavor, the citizens faith in heroes will collapse. this also affects shouto's reputation as an upcoming hero, and i am so terrified of what this could mean for him. imagine your career ending before it even started, just when you found your passion for being a hero again. all that progress he's made for himself since starting UA could be seen as pointless to him and i would hate for him to retrogress like that because it's not his fault. i would absolutely hate it if the media starts bashing shouto for being related to a villain, when he was also a victim of abuse.

seeing this look on shouto's face is making me dehydrated istg i'm fucking SOBBING— he doesn't even look angry!! in the last few chapters he was angry and worried for his friends, teachers, father maybe, other heroes... but he just looks sad. and the fact that the panel chooses to show the left side of his face is.... there's so much to unpack.

but yeah, this is being broadcasted. does fuyumi know? the cameo she had showed her working so maybe not. natsuo's cameo showed that he was at a lecture, so he also probably didn't see.

but rei did. that's like- that's the person i would want to keep this from the most.

the effects of this entire reveal genuinely scare me. how will this affect rei's mental state? she'll realize that what enji did is actually so much worse. their first child being a villain?? i'm terrified for how she'll react, she's doing much better in recent chapters after all. her kids are visiting her, shouto sends her letters to keep in touch, and enji sends her flowers and respectfully keeps his distance. i really don't want this reveal to result in a relapse. and if she does relapse, then fuyumi's ideal of a happy family is once again out of arms reach. the future of their mother finally coming back home is so far away again and it's genuinely so heart-breaking.

plus— how will fuyumi's little elementary school students react to her being related to a villain? will the school fire her because of her connection to a villain and how that might cause concerns for students and parents????

it's also hard to say exactly how this will affect shouto and natsuo. natsuo was the closest to touya when they were kids so what would his whole opinion be of what touya's become? will he have a moral crisis?

in terms of moral crisises, i guess i'm more concerned about shouto. the boy knows he wants to forgive his father, but this is just making it so much harder. and after this, will he still want to? and finding out that his own sibling is a villain... remember the stain arc? there were some parallels between midoriya's, iida's, and todoroki's positions in the last chapter and i'm worried about what that could foreshadow. from that arc alone, we know that shouto doesn't agree with stain's views at all [i forgot what he said but it was really compelling]. we know that dabi's a stain follower though, so will this disrupt shouto's sense of justice? i hope not.

but family has always been kind of a weak spot for shouto, hasn't it? i hope this doesn't affect his resolve to be a hero because i do think that there's a way to– somehow– not have a corrupt hero society and i want him to fight for that.

touya being a villain is perfectly valid though, i don't doubt that. it's just disheartening to address that while every other todoroki was working hard to become a normal family, here's their oldest brother, who's not really dead. what's going to become of that altar at their house now?

learning the extent to touya's hatred towards endeavor is truly terrifying. we know enji is or was a horrible person and his redemption arc is based on the very fact that he can't be forgiven, despite some of his family trying their best to do so or at least get over it. but the fact that touya has even thought about killing shouto? that's just. ouch. touya's definitely gone through too much abuse, and all of the todoroki family problems are because of enji's bad parenting. but this does not justify murder and especially that of his younger brother, who also got the brunt of the abuse.

needless to say, i am a fool. i don't know if anything i just said will ever be true, but the important thing to take from whatever the heck i just shat out is that all of this is/could be a result of this reveal. it's the fact that dabi seems to have no sympathy. it's the fact that he doesn't care if his blood related family crashes and burns. really, if this is solely about endeavor and what he did, there's no need to bring the rest of the family into this. rei was sent to a hospital for god's sake. shouto has a scar. it's excessive and unmoral and although questionable ethics and values are key traits of a villain, it doesn't justify how much he's hurting the todorokis.

(look at this shit eating grin he has. no remorse. he really doesn't give a shit about the others but I DO and I'M so SAD)

and assuming that the whole "endeavor's wife admitted into hospital" was swept under the rug in terms of media, will that suddenly come back to light? because it shouldn't. maybe it should be known that she's in the hospital because of marital abuse but either way rei should not be dragged back into this disaster, and neither should the rest of them. there's also a chance that the media will accuse rei of having abused her kids too, which is messed up for different reasons. they're trying so hard to have any semblance of a normal family, and if dabi's way of revealing this to the world ruins that in any way then i hATE THIS REVEAL ASDFGHJKL—

#tw: abuse #this is just a rant for myself i'm so sorry for those who have this on their dash #how the fuck do you add those ''under the cut'' things on mobile??#and this is a long ass post #i wrote too much #and i was redundant #and i wrote this at 4 in the morning #many many typos...#i needed to let this out though #bnha 290 #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #notey

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inspriredlyuninspired · 3 years

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The Stalker

Part 7

Modern!Ivar x Curvy!Reader, Able-bodied!Ivar x Dark!Ivar

Hey Guys!! i know its been a really long, i’ve been struggling a lot lately and i had the motivation to write! i hope you enjoy!

First peron POV (this s my first time doing first person POV in this series so let me know if you guys like it!)

The night with Ivar was so much fun, i can’t remeber the last time i had this much fun with someone. From pillow fights, jumping on the bed, ordering as much room service as we could. Ivar and i laid on the bed spread out with full bellies.

“i don’t want to eat anything every again” Ivar said taking a deep breath after.

“Hey, last time i checked you were the one who ordered it” I said back, just getting a grunt in response.

He slowly got out of bed and started walking towards the bathroom, closing the door behind him. Not thinking anything of it i just rolled over and started admiring the room and the extravagancey of it.

A few minutes later, Ivar emerged from the bathroom and motioned with his fingers to go over to him. Without a question i obliged, i don’t know how he had this effect on me.

i followed him into the bathroom and when i walked in a saw a drawn bath, with candles all over the place. This was the most romantic gesture anyone has done for me, it felt as though i could start crying. Too many emotions just ovewhelming me.

“Oh Ivar” is all i could manage to say. The smile on his face brightened the candle lit bathroom. He walked towards me, putting his hands on my hips, gently lifting my shirt.

No one has ever seen me naked or even almost naked, well technically Ivar had but i did everything in my power not to think about that. I did not stop him from lifting my shirt over my head. He ran his hands ever so lightly down my sides to the top of my shorts.

He kneeled down, sliding them down my legs, peppering kisses to the top of my thighs on his way back up. Once standing again, he looked me up and down.

I moved my arms to cover myself, which he didn’t see immediately because he was taking off his own shirt and shorts leaving him in his breifs.

‘Wow’ is all i could think, he was lean, toned, and out of my league. The thoughts wouldn’t stop, thinking about how handsome he was, and then how i looked.

I was taken from my thoughts by feeling his strong hands gently pull my arms to my sides

“Never hide yourself from me, you’re the most perfect woman i have ever seen, you are all i have every wanted.” His voice was soft and calm.

His hands slowly reached behind me to unclip the hooks of my bra. i grabbed his arm to stop him.

“Ivar, no one has seen me like that before” i said matching his volume

“not even you” I managed to whisper

“i know little dove, if you want me to stop, i will and i will let you bathe alone.” he said. He didnt sound mad or annoyed, he sounded sincere.

“im just scared, that you will see eveyrthing, and wont like it.”i said, a slight saddness in my voice. Because i had not told him to stop, he started to slowly unclasp my bra as he said

“In my eyes there is noting more beautiful than you, you are my light, you are my love, you are my everything. I love you Y/N, and i love your body” he began to slowly pull the straps down my arms, i immideatly moved my arms to cover myself. He did not stop me.

He peppered kisses from my neck, to my chest, down my stomach until he got to my navel. He looked up at me throuh his eyelashes, as if asking permission. I nodded and then closed my eyes, i did not want to see his reaction when he saw me. All of me.

I felt his hands leave my body and i kept my eyes closed, expecting the worse, but not too long afer i felt his arms wrap around me again. I opened my eyed to the most piercing blue eyes looking at me.

“you are so perfect” He whispered

By this time he had taken off his briefs, we both stood there completely open and exposed to each other.

He moved his hands to gently hold my jaw, unconsciously my hands left my chest, now completely exposing myself to him, to hold onto his arms.

He leaned down and pressed the sweetest kiss to my lips, it was as if his lips were made for mine, the way we fit together was so natural. I felt safe, i felt protected, and mostly i felt something i never thought i would. Loved.

We bathed together, just admiring each others presence, me leaning back against his chest as he cupped the warm water and poured it over my shoulder. a sweet gesture that meant more to me then i think he thought.

There was nothing sexual about this, it was sweet and loving and more than anything i ever wanted.

*A few hours later*

We laid in bed together, me curled into his side listening to him talk about his upbringing, school, and his family a little more. It fet so nice to just lay here with him and hear his stories, i listened to every word that left his mouth. He stopped abruptly and looked down at me with a pouty look on his face

“can i ask you something?” he said with a whiny voice i giggled softly and nodded

“can we switch positions? Will you hold me?” i gigglle lighlty again and without saying anything i flipped over onto my back and he immediately curled into my side, laid his head on my chest and threw a leg over my waist.

It must have been a funny sight, a man almost double my size laying onme like a child. But i loved it, i gently played with his still damp hair and listened to him continued with his stories.

The conversation gradually shifted to the party we would be going to the following day

“stay by my side tomorrow night, i dont wanna lose you”

“ivar its just your family”

“exactly! i would not want you getting stuck in a druken conversation with one of my brothers” I giggled lightly and ruffled his hair

“It will be okay Ivar”

i saw his tone change almost immediately, he got tense all of s sudden as he sat up and leaned over to his bag

“i actually have another question for you, i told them all you were my fiancé, so if thats okay with you ill introduce you as that. I have this to make it more believable. I know that after we leave here we will probably never see each other again, but after the party you can keep the ring as well. ” and he handed me a small ring box.

i opened it to reveal the most beautiful ring i had ever seen, not to mention it was also huge

it was the ring i had always wanted.... and he knew it. I tried to shut those thoughts out of my head.

i just nodded slightly and handed him the box, he placed it on the bedside table and shut off the light.

When he laid back down he didn’t try to hold me, or cuddle into me again, he just laid next to me.

The entire mood changed immediately, back to grey.

I wanted to scream or cry, or bury myself away never to be seen again.

I had finally opened back up to him, just for him to remind me that this is temporary, that we were nothing, and that when we got back. i would never see him again.

i turned on my side facing the wall, i didnt want him to think that i was being petty or that i was mad at him. it was just, looking at him made everything harder.

i fell for him, hard. I was in love with the man who had stalked me. He was the first and only person to see all of me. But we were nothing, and were not going to be anything.

The thoughts kept pouring into my head, keeping me awake. I could not sleep knowing that the only person i have ever loved, stalked me and then madem e fall in love with him, not by force.

Pretending to be in a relationship with him tomorrow won’t be difficult, because it came natural to me. I loved him, and i wanted him. Despite everything, i wanted the man who had stalked me.

I heard his soft snoring, and i let out a small cry. I did not want him to worry, so i waited until he was asleep to let it out.

All i wanted was to turn arounf curl into him, but i couldn’t. it would make it hurt more.

i let myself cry until i was too exhausted to keep my eyes open, falling into a restless sleep.

Taglist:

@youbloodymadgenius @lostgirl14480 @artstyle

#dark!ivar #ivar x reader #modern!vikings #modern!ivar #ivar lothbrok #alex høgh x reader #alex høgh andersen #alex høgh andersen fluff

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blue-bird-lamentation · 3 years

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this the story post: melohax[.]tumblr[.]com/post/639167543643340800/warning-spoilers-ahoy-only-read-this-if-youve the game has like so many secret scenes it shocked me

Thank you so much for the link!!!

I really liked reading it. I tried to skip the hikikomori route part as I will try to calmly play it, but I‘ve read a few and, as a person who saw that seen of a man trying to cut a tree and saying “you’re not my son” it intrigued me a lot what kind of information I will get from there.

I’m still puzzled and still didn’t try to see what would happen if I collected the wrong letters and if I has opened the door to Mari.

I went far on this answer and wrote a lot of random topics that are also mentioned in that post and other things I remembered too. It’s still too messy, but my memory is fresh and I decided to write about what I was thinking, even if not organized. Sorry for using your ask, but I was inspired by the link, which I think it’s a very interesting reading. I’m also sorry for the mistakes and I may come back later to correct them. There are so many fascinating things in the game, and so many others I haven’t yet explored, besided I feel good writting all of this as it is kind of asfixiating to thing about it and not having anyone to discuss it with.

This game was a rollercoaster. I knew from the begining that the cute artstyle and the pastel colours in the begining were deceiving, especially when you start in a weird whitespace room and take a knife. Omori as a black and white coloured character among the other paster colours also felt weird.

One really interesting comment I received from my brother when he watched me playing a bit, in a fight, was “oh your character is the real neutral one, the others seem happy” while all of them were in neutral mode. Also his happy expression was scary and he was the one who got to maniac aside from villains (at least for me). The fact he has a knife intrigued me a lot if I should really fight but at first it looked like there were no consequences (aside from feeling tremendously bad for being called bunny killer. Also about these little enemies, it’s interesting how many of them were bunnies when the person we find who has a bunny is Aubrey, which is also the girl from the group that is now “against us”, at least most of the time in the real world).

Also about the knife, there are two other moments that totally hit me:

- the suicide in whitespace, which could foreshadow his suicide in some routes, but is also the means to wake up;

- Kel and Aubrey in the real world who call us out for bringing a knife, which, since the begining, was the correct thing to do.

I really wonder a lot about his family and their decisions.

It’s been 4 years. I wonder if Sunny’s mom ever put him into some kind of therapy, I wonder if her absence was on purpose because she wanted him to say goodbye to his old friends one last time. I wonder if Kel’s visit wasn’t a coincidence. I wonder if Hero coming back was also part of a last chance to bring Sunny back. I don’t know if the other route answers it, but seeing the notes and messages that mother leaves, she seems to be worried about him. I would say a mix of worry and fear, so there must be some strong reason why she’s not there besides going to buy some furniture or whatever.

Saying this, I think only Sunny’s parents know more or less what happened, but not from their son’s mouth, from autopsy report perhaps. The house was adapted to the changes: no family picture, as opposed to what I saw in Kel’s house (and I wonder if it’s only because of Mari or also with his father too as described by the cutting tree scene. I had thought this was directed to Omori and not to Sunny, but this is also part of the dream realm, so it could be Sunny’s interpretation to the end of his parents marriage which was related to Mari’s death), Mari’s bed is gone (which made the scene when she knocks the door even creepier. I never got to open the door because I was scared, but I’m also curious). Also about the 4 years, I liked the detail of the 4th floor sign in Last Resort, which was resting there on the floor, as the number is also cursed because it symbolizes death.

I find fascinating how the complexity of the situation is represented in the dream world. His team is composed by his old friends, which are human. Mari and Basil are also human but they weren’t totally present. Mari is the safe point and overprotective of Omori, but she is also the element who encourages him to face his fears. As he faces his fears, he unravels more information about what he repressed, also helped by the presence of the blackspace Basil. But it’s ironic as the more he unravels, the more corrupted the story seems to evolve, but also the more they lose the main purpose of rescuing Basil, which is more evident in the deeper well.

I believe the human figures are the most important to him, and then there are the elements that combine real world figures with fantasy, as the candyshop girl and the fiction space boyfriend. Each story is fascinating but it also makes you lose focus on what you were supposed to do. And in my case, there was a point where I just wanted to wander around in these stories because I was to afraid to face the real story that was masked by this fictional colourful world.

These olde friends represent perhaps what Sunny never wanted to have lost, but also what he does not want to face.

When Sunny woke up in the hospital, I first followed the kids, and no, that wasn��t the right path. That was the safe path, where there is no confrontation with reality. As it was when Sunny was with company. I think it is Aubrey who says he doesn’t like to be alone, and well, that was me the whole game, imploring to not be left alone, because once the character was alone, his world seemed to be corrupted by the black space, which was also a stepping stone to reach the truth, the dark truth.

And I really like how this is all Sunny’s mental effort, which, I would say, it’s helped by him leaving his house and meeting his friends once again, as well as facing Basil one more time.

I was really sad with how the story developed. What started I was assuming it was a facing your fears story, transformed into an overcoming someone’s death, which at first I thought it would be Basil’s, to go to Mari (which was a total mystery to me why had she died (my ingenuity believed it could have been some traffic accident or something else) at first), to go to save Basil again, but now with some dark remarks about the character himself. In the middle of this development, first time the character wakes up, it is clear that the dream world character is not the same as the real world one, age wise, but is part of him.

I had written that at first I was reluctant about the fights, but well, they were necessary to me to face the villains of each arc. But at the same time thery were never too difficult (I think the most difficult part to me was to be strong enough for the Dino Dig and the rest was pretty easy). When, at the end Sunny had to face Omori I was shocked. So, the guy I had been training which was very seemingly sadistic, did I simply train him so that if Sunny wanted to face his trauma, he would hunt him with his strenght? Like the stronger I made him, ther bigger the reluctance to overcome the past. And while this sadistic character seems to be what I would compare to a Chara in Undertale, to me it was the harsh self conscious, critical part of him who could never forgive for what he had done. And which was also manifested as the monster surrounding him and Basil. It was their perception that what they had done was unforgivable, but at the same time neither of them wanted to carry that burden alone: Sunny “forgot” it, Basil manifests it by making those toxic remarks like “you aren’t going to leave me alone again, are you?”.

I don’t know if we get to see more of Basil’s backstory but he also got me curious. I think that what both of them did was bad, but given what happened between Sunny and Mari, it was really hard to know how to face it. I don’t think it makes them willingly villains, but scared children who were very self conscious and didn’t know what would happen if people found it out.

However, hadn’t Basil been there, Sunny would have been found right away next to Mari’s corpse. So I wonder what led Basil to propose such idea and to make Sunny’s burden heavier, which made him ambiguity of his disappearance with the will to save him as a friend.

I don’t think it was an ill intention, but Basil created excuses to protect Sunny because he was important to him and to the group. As the photo album showed, Sunny was the younger element, seen as the baby of the group, and he was shy, but he loved his friends even if he looked the most expressionless.

I think these elements awoke in him the need to protect Sunny from the darkness that lied ahead his actions, but he didn’t realise how heavy of a burden that would be. At the same time he probably had some issued regardin expectations and self worth which probably told him that they could never be tied to such a cruel action, even if it was accidental.

In my perspective he didn’t see the dark shadow surrounding Sunny at the time, but he engraved the memory as an act not commited by Sunny but by something surrounding him, pretty much like when he started attacking him at the end.

I like to think that, good ending wise, the malevolent side, Omori is not necessarily a potential evil that was always within Sunny, but the self guilt and lack of self worth. The fact the Sunny wouldn’t leave the house and didn’t even take good care of his health shows it. He is self destructive, because guilt consumes him, not a person who needs to apply suffering in the outter world for his own satisfaction. The whole struggle is within Sunny and not ot become a bad person per se.

Some of Basil’s dialogue was too much for me, mainly when he kept repeating for Sunny to not leave him. However I totally understand why. Sunny covered the what had happened while Sunny had to live those years knowing what they had done, as if he was the only one carrying the burden.

It’s a real complicated story where everyone was the victim.

It was so hard to see how sad and angry Aubrey was, and how she had to make new friends to overcome, how alone she was all the time. How Kel kept being such a good person, however had to move away because he didn’t know how to face the others, afraid of being misinterpreted. Hero’s pictures with Mari break me everytime. “A match made in heaven” Basil had written in the description of one of the photos. The fact that he is the element in the group that cooks, but 4 years later he had given up. The fact he can’t face Mari’s grave. The way Kel describes his struggle over Mari’s death. The way he didn’t make new friends in college, although he says it was lack of time. Basil is completely broken and can’t even touch the camera anymore and tries to “destroy” the old memories, which Aubrey discovers. Sunny’s parents, as their life turned upside down. And probably everyone around was too afraid to know how to act around them.

I really like how despite everything, the human figure that Sunny creates of Mari is forgiveful and so cheerful. Mari is such a good influence that wants to help him overcome the trauma for himself (especially when she helps him overcoming the fear of drowning and calls him Sunny for the first time. The ways she asked for his forgiveness for pushing him so hard into playing the recital. It is still part of Sunny’s dream but it’s so in Mari’s character. I believe this part is also connected to the scene where we see her saving Sunny in the real world).

I will end this text here. I will eventually come back to it, and to the omori tag, because this is certainly a very good game with a lot of space for debate and reflection.

#omori #omori spoilers #tw: knife #tw: suicide

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butchez · 3 years

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heres my thoughts on aa5

Introduction

Firstly, this post contains heavy spoilers for AA5 (and AA4 because I can’t help talking about that game JSDGHSDJ). I talk about culprits, I talk about backstories, I talk about major plot twists. If you’re planning on playing this game spoiler-free, don’t read this. If you haven’t decided whether or not you want to play this game, I would advise against it- the gameplay is insanely boring and the story is told in a way that’s about as compelling as a wiki page. In fact, just read the wiki if you’re interested! This game isn’t worth playing, and it’s definitely not worth paying for if you have no way of pirating it.

I also want to add that these are ultimately my own opinions and interpretations. If you liked something that I didn’t or vice versa, that’s like fine. I’m not really trying to call anybody wrong for their own interpretations by typing this. This also isn’t a callout post for AA5! I’m just a hater!

And fair warning, this post isn’t well-organized at all! I’d rather play through AA6 and make a better post about both the 3DS mainline games than put a lot of effort into a post about just one of them. The like Correct Grammar appearance is just to make it easier for me to read because it’s a lot sdjhgfdhksf. In this post I try to organize my complaints by the order of when they come up in the game, which is a little complicated when multiple things I wanna complain about are happening at the same time, so bear with me.

Episode 1

I’ll start with the easiest complaint: it looks bad. Not JUST in the sense that it has an ugly artstyle, but in the sense that it just doesn’t feel like a real Ace Attorney game. Whenever they try to recreate a sprite from the past games, it looks fake if not impossibly ugly, and whenever they try to do their own thing, it just looks generic and empty. Note that this applies to the music and voices just as much as it applies to the sprites! I don’t think it’s just because the sprites went from 2D to 3D, by the way. The Professor Layton crossover came out a couple months before AA5 did, and although the 3D sprites in that game aren’t perfect, they still feel more like Ace Attorney sprites than anything from this game IMO. Honestly, though, AA5’s appearance is super low on my list of problems with this game. It’s an issue that could easily be fixed without changing the content of the game itself- something you can’t say for the deeper problems.

The beginning of the actual game is very jarring. One of the first things you see is Apollo covered in bandages and wearing a weird blue jacket over his shoulders. While you’re still confused about that, he collapses in front of you. While Athena is going through the first trial, she gets stuck and starts having flashbacks of her as a little girl being scared and covered in blood. In the middle of the trial, Apollo gets ATTACKED and sent to the hospital. Most shockingly of all, a woman has a huge crush on Apollo? It’s shock after shock, question after question, and the game doesn’t give you any answers until it’s almost over. I can’t tell if this is the game’s way of trying to capture the player’s attention or if it’s the game trying to make the cases tie into each other, like many notably good games in the series do, while completely misunderstanding how connecting cases works. Either way, it makes for bad storytelling.

Aside from all the weird shock value shit going on, this trial still has a lot of issues. The player starts out as Athena, taking over the trial for Apollo because he’s too busy falling over and being edgy. Because Athena doesn’t have a co-counsel, the Judge and the prosecutor (a Payne) have to play the role of Tutorial for the player. The player’s opponent who they’re supposed to hate (and who hates the protagonist!) is helping them just because that’s what the gameplay requires at that point. It’s stupid and could’ve been easily fixed by having a more experienced lawyer be Athena’s co-counsel, like Phoenix. Just to name an example. Who knows, though, maybe the game just like forgot he exists like mistakes happen it’s- nope Athena gets stuck like 10 minutes into the trial and Phoenix has to come Save This Poor Damsel by taking over the tutorial case entirely.

On top of Athena getting booted from leading her own fucken case (that she did take from Apollo yeah but whatever it was girlboss at the time), she takes the role of Tutorial for the player (who is now Phoenix). This is marginally better than having your actual opponent be the tutorial, but not by much? Athena is literally an 18yo rookie lawyer. Not that she’s incompetent, but why exactly is she teaching Phoenix how to be a lawyer when he’s like twice her age and has years of experience?* Wouldn’t it have made more sense for Phoenix to be the co-counsel instead? The only reason I can possibly think of as to why the writers chose to write this the way they did is that they wanted to establish as quickly as possible that “hey the REAL main character is back in his normal protagonist spot we promise he’s normal now. please buy game.” This effort to appeal to trilogy fans at all costs does come back later, so keep it in mind.

*Note: I imagine some people excuse this because Phoenix had been disbarred for seven years, so it’s not crazy to imagine that he’s just rusty and needs refreshers. However. Those who played AA4 should remember that although Phoenix hasn’t been an official defense attorney for seven years, he’s perfectly able to lead several discussions during the trial in the first episode (he even takes the role of co-counsel in the second half of this trial, because AA4 is a good game). Additionally, he literally organizes a murder trial to test out an experimental trial system that HE helped design. Badge or not, he’s obviously still involved with the legal world before the events of AA5- no need for basic refreshers.

There’s one small part of this case that I believe acts as a sign of a much clearer and bigger problem with AA5. A piece of evidence for this trial is a bomb disguised as a mascot for a group of people critical of the court system. While discussing the defendant’s motive, the game asserts that because the defendant has had bad experiences with the legal system, she must be critical of it (she really isn’t, fyi) which must mean that she’s a literal bomber and murderer. The second half of that assumption is never really questioned, by the way! Literally all six of the games that came before this one were openly critical of the court system. Why is this game suddenly changing it up so quickly? I will admit that at this point I am maybe looking a little too deeply into one thing, but this does become a major theme in the game, so I think it’s worth bringing up.

Another bigger issue with this game that we can see early on- a basic piece of advice for writing stories is “show, don’t tell.” This game crumples that advice up and throws it out the window right off the bat. I could point out every single time that this game just tells you something and prays that you take it at face value instead of actually thinking about the content of the story. That would take ages though and I have other things I wanna write 6k words about, so I’ll only be mentioning the most notable examples. Onto the actual point: the game flat out tells you that Athena represses her feelings from the start. Several characters make clear remarks about it that go nowhere. These lines seem to solely exist to convince you that Athena is a super interesting character without the game having to actually write Athena as a super interesting character (I say “seem to” because these lines end up having a much more stupid purpose, but we’ll get to that in the next episode). Let’s compare and contrast this with AA4 my beloved AA4- with Trucy, in particular. Trucy, like Athena, is a female character with a troubled childhood who puts on a cheery facade so that others don’t worry about her. This character trait of Trucy’s is made clear in AA4- not by having Apollo or Phoenix nonchalantly observe and remark on it, but by dropping hints every now and then of it and ultimately only Really revealing it during the finale case. The player feels for Trucy and wants her to open up and grow for her own sake. Athena’s internal struggles, on the other hand, aren’t designed for the audience to really think about. They’re just a passing observation that later becomes an excuse for plot holes and eventually becomes a part of the game’s shitty ending. Let’s put that aside for now, though, because we still need to wrap this case up.

The case ends with a cutscene where Apollo suddenly takes a leave of absence, and Athena later internally literally asks “Why is Apollo shutting us out? :(“ This exemplifies TWO points that I already brought up. Firstly, this game is presenting something shocking out of nowhere and without explanation. Secondly, this game is TELLING the player what they should be wondering, instead of just writing a story that makes them wonder that question on their own. Also, Trucy literally doesn’t say anything as Apollo leaves in front of her but it’s not like she has any attachment to Apollo or any already established abandonment issues or like any personality at all /s /s /s /attack /kill

Episode 2

The culprit isn’t actually introduced until a lot later in the episode, but he’s in the opening cutscene and comes with a glaring issue so I’m bringing it up first: this character is written with a lot of offensive undertones? To summarize, the killer is a big man obsessed with wearing makeup and perfume, and he constantly gets called a freak for this by the main characters. I don’t remember him ever being referred to as a woman by himself or others, so I’m reluctant to call it transmisogyny (I’m TME, so it’s not my place to say anyways). I’m not really sure what else to call it, though, other than like disgustingly bigoted. Unlike the other stuff I talk about in this post, this issue does come up in previous games, specifically AA3 with Jean Armstrong. So this isn’t really an issue that AA5 created so much as it revived. It’s still shitty!- I’m just not trying to argue that the other games are better on this front. Lastly, transphobic undertones do come into play again in Episode 3, and I think the writing in this case should definitely be considered while analyzing the next one.

I want to introduce this next complaint by bringing up something I actually enjoyed! Jinxie Tenma is one of 2.1 characters from this game that I found myself liking despite everything. Although she does fall into the dead parent(s) trope that the series is addicted to, the trope actually serves a purpose for her character beyond just making the player feel sad- it’s used to further develop Jinxie’s relationship with her surviving parent. Jinxie definitely isn’t one of the more well-written characters in the series, but for a one-off character in a game as bad as this? Jinxie is surprisingly decent! Congrats 👏👏👏👏👏 I still have my complaints to get to, though. Jinxie is introduced in Apollo’s one (1) actual conversation with Trucy throughout the entire game. Trucy introduces Jinxie as a close friend of hers, but they hardly interact at all. This character’s introduction itself exposes multiple major flaws of AA5 (that have already come up!): Trucy’s character is ignored in favor of using her as a plot device, and this game only tells the player about the characters instead of actually writing them. This game tells the player that Trucy and Jinxie are best friends, and the player is left with a choice: take the game’s word and have a fun time imagining how good these things (that aren’t actually in the game) are, or refuse the game’s word until you see actual content supporting it and have an awful time thinking about how good these things that aren’t actually in the game could’ve been.

Let’s talk about another character introduced in this episode: Simon Blackquill! Athena and Simon have a dynamic that’s clearly meant to parallel the dynamic between Phoenix and Edgeworth. Athena’s entire motivation to become a defense attorney is to ~save Simon~ from a false conviction for murder. This motivation isn’t fully revealed until the last episode of the game, much like Phoenix’s motivations. Unlike Phoenix’s motivations, though, it makes no sense for the game to keep this motivation from the player’s knowledge for such a long time. In AA1, Phoenix is largely motivated by Edgeworth, but he doesn’t actually know what’s wrong with Edgeworth or why he changed so drastically. All Phoenix knows is that Edgeworth has changed, and that’s enough for him to want to seek Edgeworth out- if not to save him, at least to find some answers. Phoenix is left just about as in the dark as the player; the only information he withholds is about the class trial from ages ago. Athena, on the other hand, literally knows exactly what happened to Simon. Athena’s motivations couldn’t be clearer to herself- but the game doesn’t want them to be clear to the player yet! So the game takes Athena’s “repression” (you know, the thing the game conveniently told you about in the last episode) and uses it as a way to cover the story’s plot holes. Athena doesn’t mention or even think about her strongest motivations even when she’s in front of the person she wants to save because “she’s just THAT repressed!” This game constantly withholds important information from the player for no reason other than that it’s just what their narrative happens to need at the time. It’s just lazy writing.

My last remark about this case is something that’s been an issue for the entire game so far: it’s hardly a game at all. The gameplay of Ace Attorney largely revolves around having the player use logic and their own thoughts to point out contradictions, uncover new testimony, and investigate crime scenes. When players would rather focus on the story and avoid the gameplay, they usually use a walkthrough that gives them directions in a straightforward way- no racking your brain trying to find any faults in some testimony, no wandering around crime scenes praying that new dialogue appears, just a good story. This way of playing the game is perfectly fine! The story is honestly the stronger part of most of the games, and people not bothering with the gameplay is their own choice. They’re still able to enjoy the game through the story, and isn’t that the purpose of games? To be enjoyed?

I’ll get to my point: this game is extremely hard to actually play. It’s easy to read, it’s easy to press the right buttons, but to actually use your own logic and thoughts? Borderline impossible. When the game doesn’t give away the answer right after asking, it’s because it gave the answer away before asking. The “hints” the game gives you are so obvious and numerous that the only way you could have a chance of figuring anything out for yourself is if you never pay attention to the dialogue. I will say- this was nearly an improvement. You can tell the people who made this game wanted it to be more accessible to people who didn’t care as much about the gameplay. A mechanic of sorts is introduced in this game that acts as a to-do list for investigations, so that the player doesn’t end up wandering around for an hour because they forgot to present a piece of evidence or talk to a certain witness or whatever. Additionally, if a player is struggling to find holes in a testimony, the game offers a helpful nudge to the player that drastically narrows down their possible moves without giving away any answers. Both of these mechanics are entirely optional, too! While the game does let you know that these mechanics exist in fairly natural ways, it never actually makes the player look at them more than once. These mechanics allow for players to focus more on the story if they want, while theoretically still providing them with a challenging mystery to solve. As we already know, though, these mechanics are completely useless because the game forcibly gives you the answers anyways. The protagonist you play as almost always announces where to go next in the investigations and what evidence to use in the trials. While I was still at this point in the game, I kind of just passed it off as the earlier cases going easier on the player to warm them up. The game never stops giving you the answers, though. This is a problem that persists throughout the whole game. When I started this game, I already knew I wasn’t going to enjoy the story, but I figured that at the very least I would be able to enjoy playing new cases and solving new mysteries! So, in a way, this boring gameplay was almost more disappointing than the dogshit story itself.

Episode 3

This episode contains a lot of firsts for the game. For one, this is the first full case that Athena leads! It’s also the last episode where the player even plays as Athena! This is also the first case that doesn’t show you the culprit in the opening cutscene. What the game does instead is immediately introduce a Big Scary Man with an unreasonably creepy smile and Corrupt Ways. Side note: literally every culprit in this game is a big/rude/otherwise intimidating man. This is the first game in the series to not have a single female culprit! I don’t think it’s actually that big of an issue, but it’s still overly predictable and underwhelming.

I might as well talk about the culprit’s ~corrupt ways~ now, even though it only gets worse. The culprit is a professor at a legal academy whose main philosophy is “the ends justify the means.” The player knows that this is his main philosophy because he repeats this exact phrase fucking 50 times in every scene he appears in, and the player knows that this is a Corrupt philosophy because every single time he mentions it a main character says something like “wow... this is truly the Dark Age of the Law...” (which, by the way, is another phrase that gets grossly overused in the game despite meaning virtually nothing). The closest the game gets to forming any actual political commentary is when this professor says he encourages his students to use false evidence to “win” trials (as opposed to the other professor in the case who discourages this), and the game tells you that this (among exactly two other things) is the source of the “dark age of the law.” The source isn’t corruption or a broken system, it’s one teacher’s bad grade policy. The game never really challenges the player’s beliefs or teaches them anything- it just flat out tells you the moral it’s trying to get across and expects you to already agree. And this problem with the writing only gets way worse in the next case!

I mentioned early in the Episode 2 section that this episode contains some transphobic undertones. To Summarize: Robin Newman is a character introduced as a guy obsessed with masculinity who later gets proven in court to be a girl because she likes wearing “girly clothes.” While everybody is still under the impression that Robin is a guy that just “screams testosterone” (actual fucking line in the game btw), they treat the fact that he wore feminine clothes as embarrassing and weird. Robin ultimately proves that she’s a girl by taking off a bracer that was flattening her chest (yes, this game does the thing where a character’s “true gender” is revealed by awkwardly emphasizing specific body parts, it’s uncomfortable as hell) and revealing that she was raised as a boy by her parents despite really being a girl.

I’ve seen some people try to argue that the writers intended for Robin to be trans, but as much as I want to believe it I just don’t think it’s the case. Robin doesn’t identify as a man at all- she expresses nothing but relief upon being proven to be a woman and says that she hated having to act like a man- so she’s definitely not a trans man. Although there isn’t exactly textual evidence against Robin being a trans woman, the game (and series) has already established what it thinks of trans women and AMAB people who don’t perform masculinity correctly, and it’s not good! Robin is treated with nothing but respect after her reveal, and (unfortunately!) I just don’t believe that this game would afford her that respect if they intended for her to be a trans woman. I want to add that it’s really not unheard of for cis authors to write stories where a cis character is forcibly raised as the opposite gender (YTTD does this, for example) so it’s not hard to believe that this is what the authors were doing for Robin. Lastly, I want to make it clear that I’m not trying to argue against trans headcanons for Robin. If I cared about Robin, I’d headcanon her as trans myself- it’s hard not to. All I’m trying to argue is that we shouldn’t give the writers any credit for writing a trans character because they don’t deserve that credit after writing such a cisnormative gender-role-addicted shit game.

Anyways, this case ends with Athena getting stuck at the end and needing somebody to come Save This Poor Damsel AGAIN. It’s definitely less shoehorned in than the first time it happened, but it’s still just annoying that it keeps happening.

Episode 4 & 5

You might be wondering why I put Episode 4 and 5 together. I did this because they’re the same fucking story split into two parts because ????? I don’t KNOW. There’s so many baffling writing decisions in this game like . this might as well be happening. who care. By the way, if my frustration seems to show more in this part of the post, it’s because this part of the game is just. such a mess.

The case opens right before the trial (that’s right, no investigation) with Apollo and the most forgettable defendant in the game being sad about Clay’s death. Do we know who Clay is? Do we know anything about the defendant? Or the case at all? Nope! The entire set-up for this episode is in one conversation where Apollo and some guy tell the player that Clay was a good guy and that it’s sad that he was killed. Once again, this game is telling you things instead of showing you, and it’s even doing that incredibly poorly! This game makes it borderline impossible to care about Clay, while also making it borderline impossible to care about the episode if the player doesn’t care about Clay. Scenes that are meant to be depressing are boring, scenes that are meant to be uplifting are confusing, and scenes that are meant to be deep are just frustrating. The fact that this episode opens right into the trial without any preceding investigation is fucking insane to me. Not only is it completely unprecedented for a multi-day trial, but a pre-murder investigation could’ve done wonders for developing Clay and the defendant! I can’t wrap my head around this shit! It’s not even lazy writing at this point- there’s no writing at all!!

Remember earlier when I said that I liked 2.1 characters in this game? Clay is .1 of those characters- no thanks to anything in the game! Despite being such a focal point in these episodes, Clay is hardly a character at all. He has like three lines total in a short flashback, and his only “character” traits are 1) Good Guy and 2) Dead Mom. Remember how the dead mom trope actually managed to serve a reasonable purpose in Jinxie’s character? All the dead mom trope does for Clay is give a reason for him and Apollo to be friends, because apparently there’s just nothing else that could’ve connected them together. It’s just sad backstory for sad backstory’s sake. I really can’t even point out anything well-written with Clay, embarrassingly enough! The only reasons I like him are because he has a nice design and a connection to a character I liked in a previous game. This game SUCKS

Speaking of sad backstory, by the way, they literally give Apollo’s CATCHPHRASE a sad backstory. Apollo apparently says his “I’m fine” thing because he and his now dead bestie used to say it together to cope with like not having parents. It’s stupid and unnecessary and I hate it basically.

Anyways Episode 4 ends with Athena being accused of killing Clay and becoming the defendant. Because this game was in need of more Damsel in Distress Athena. This accusation comes about because the detective in this game, Bobby Fulbright (who I haven’t mentioned up until now because he’s so fucken unremarkable), finds a piece of evidence with Athena’s fingerprints in the victim’s blood. For the majority of the rest of the game, this is the only piece of evidence that the player is given against Athena. However, multiple convincing pieces of evidence against Athena already exist in the story at this point. Athena and Apollo are even fully aware of this evidence before Episode 4 even starts, but the game withholds these from the player until much later. The game does this because it doesn’t want you to actually suspect Athena- not for even a moment! They want it to seem like it would be completely insane to even think about doubting Athena, and they do this by depicting Apollo as ~blinded by grief~ and irrational for daring to suspect his co-worker. Apollo, of all characters! Apollo, the character that had to prove his literal boss guilty of murder. TWICE. This game wants you to think it would be crazy for Apollo to do something that he literally justifiably did in the game that came directly before this one!

This brings us to the final character in this game that I liked: Aura Blackquill. Basically, her thing is that she’s mean and evil but she does it out of love for her brother. If there was any nuance in this game, Aura could’ve been like, a really good character. Sadly, though, she’s just not given much depth, and this game stumbles over its own themes too much for Aura to really challenge any of it. Also, fun fact! Aura was initially conceptualized as a character that would “seduce” Apollo to the Dark Side. This didn’t quite make it into the game, but it’s official information that exists and it makes me want to eat glass.

Aura is still used to show how ~warped~ Apollo is becoming when they’re both shown bonding (platonically, thank god) over their dead besties and investigating Clay’s murder without the Wright gang. It’s been made obvious to the player at this point in the game that Aura has an irrational hatred of Athena, too. By associating Apollo with this character, the game is further depicting Apollo’s doubts as comparable to irrational hatred. It’s frustrating to me because it could’ve been really interesting for the game to set up legitimate tension between two protagonists and take both sides seriously, forcing the player to question their own beliefs and the characters that they themselves played as! Instead, the game refuses to let the player take Apollo seriously and just assumes the player couldn’t possibly want an actual reason to believe in Athena’s innocence beyond “only Scary Rude Men are murderers and Athena’s just a sensitive innocent damsel <3” Not only is this writing throwing away a lot of potential, it’s shooting itself in the foot by not letting the game make any fucking sense!

The rest of this episode is honestly so bad that there’s really no way to neatly summarize its issues in a few paragraphs, so I’m going to walk you through the story beat by beat for a bit. In Episode 5 (which starts after Athena becomes the defendant), Phoenix is the protagonist. Athena is too busy being accused of murder, and Apollo is too busy being edgy, so who’s left for co-counsel? Trucy is the only character left at the Wright Anything Agency, so the game is forced to include her in the story. Finally. She joins Phoenix right before the scene with Apollo and Aura, and then . she leaves . right after that scene. So Phoenix is once again left without a co-counsel, and it doesn’t seem like there’s any characters left to fill that role... But Wait! Who Is That At The Door! Why, It’s Pearl! From The Ace Attorney Trilogy! Thank the fucken stars /s

Pearl is my favorite trilogy character. I really could go on and on about how badly AA5 fucked up with this (they didn’t change a thing about Pearl’s appearance or character despite her being twice as old as before) but at the end of the day it’s just more of this game doing a bad job at sucking the trilogy’s dick.

So, Phoenix and Pearl head back to where Trucy disappeared only to find out that she’s been kidnapped. Remember in AA4 when the game pretended that Trucy got kidnapped, only to reveal about a minute later that it was just a trick Trucy pulled to buy Apollo some time. Because the AA4 writers knew it would be fucking ridiculous for the series to pull that plot twist again out of nowhere. Look at how far we’ve come since then. Anyways. The kidnapper’s one demand is that Phoenix reinvestigates and holds a trial for a past case that Just So Happens to be connected to the current case. Pretty much every finale case in the series involves taking a look at an unsolved past case, but they usually give the player an actual reason to be interested in or care about said case. The only reason that this game can think of to get you to focus on this past case is Trucy’s life being in danger. The motivations and plot twists are so shoehorned in that it’s hard to give a shit about it.

So the kidnapper wants a trial, but who’s prosecuting? The main prosecutor, Simon, is the one that the past case declared guilty, and nobody gives a shit about Klavier, so it doesn’t seem like there’s any characters left that could fill that role... But Wait! Who Is That At The Door! Why, It’s Edgeworth! From The Ace Attorney Trilogy! I’m So Mad! Unlike Pearl, the game does change Edgeworth up quite a bit. He’s even wearing glasses now, to show that time has passed :~) His character changed too! Remember how, after the events of Turnabout Goodbyes, Edgeworth was all about investigating the truth and protecting innocent people from false accusations and struggling against his role as a prosecutor, literally getting his badge taken away at one point because he couldn’t bring himself to let an amnesiac teenager get taken advantage of and be accused of a murder she clearly didn’t do? Well. He’s changed . :~)

On top of removing any struggle Edgeworth had with his job, AA5 actually makes Edgeworth the chief prosecutor. I would be more upset with this writing decision if it wasn’t obviously just there to cover up plot holes. For example, why is Simon, a convicted murderer, being allowed to prosecute so many cases? Don’t worry about it, Edgeworth gave him Special Permission 👍 Also, why did Phoenix get his badge back so quickly? Don’t worry about it, Edgeworth used his Influences to get it back easily 👍

So, once the trial starts, Edgeworth takes advantage of a teenager’s amnesia to accuse her of a murder she clearly didn’t do. :~)

(Brief aside, this trial takes place in a courtroom that was bombed and is crumbling to pieces. The game literally has a character tell you “This courtroom is symbolic of The Dark Age Of The Law” like fucking VERBATIM. I couldn’t make this shit up if I wanted to.)

Obviously, Phoenix is eventually able to prove Athena’s innocence of the past murder. At this point in the case, Edgeworth tells the player about the meaning of a trial. The defense attorney is meant to do whatever they can to defend their client, while the prosecution is meant to do whatever they can to prove the defendant guilty. It’s through this adversarial system that the truth is most efficiently uncovered. I cannot stress this enough: the game is trying to argue that this is the way trials should work. It’s completely antithetical to all the games that came before it! Edgeworth and Klavier were both considered to be two of the few good people that were prosecutors because they were both bad at being prosecutors. They’re good people because they don’t let the goal of their job (to get the defendant declared guilty) get in the way of their personal goals (to uncover the truth even if it involves directly helping the defense). AA5 completely stumbles over the series’ past themes and characterizations to reach the conclusion that “Bad Trial Systems Don’t Result In False Convictions, Bad People Do!” AA5 tries to convince the player that the status quo is just fine. They don’t even keep what little reforms they made to the court system in AA4- that jurist system isn’t even mentioned in this game.

You might be wondering, though. If the game never really questions its own court system, then what was all the fuss about the “Dark Age of the Law”? Well. The game outright tells you that the “dark age of the law” started with Phoenix’s disbarment and Simon’s conviction. Before that the law was Just Fine 👍 and now that Phoenix has his badge back and Simon’s been proven innocent, the law is Just Fine once again 👍 . I don’t feel the need to explain why the court system was clearly not fine in the trilogy, or why corruption and imbalance of power didn’t explode in the courtrooms over two (2) fucking cases. This game’s attempts at political themes are a fucking joke at best.

Back to the trial- we’ve been able to prove that Athena and Simon are innocent of the past murder, but who WAS the culprit? And what about the current case with Clay? It’s only at this point in the story that the player FINALLY learns about all the evidence against Athena in the trial for Clay’s murder- far too late for the player to be able to take it seriously. It’s also at this point where Apollo reveals that he doesn’t really suspect Athena, he was just doubting her because he trusts her so much :) isn’t that so sweet. Seriously, Apollo is the character with the BIGGEST justification to doubt someone he works with and the game not only treats it like a completely irrational idea but tells you that it was fake the entire time! What the fuck!

After a really long battle in court, it’s revealed that Bobby Fulbright (remember him?) was behind the current case AND the past case, AND that he’s an international shapeshifting superspy with literally (like literally literally) no actual character. This is never foreshadowed or hinted at through the entire game! It’s pulled out of fucking nowhere because this game just needed one more Shocking plot twist. It’s stupid and meaningless and he gets caught because he sucks at blowing up rocks and Athena has a cool earring.

One remark about the ending: when Trucy gets released from being kidnapped, about two characters go “wow Trucy I’m glad you’re safe :)” and Trucy goes “I’m just fine ^_^ I even did magic tricks for the other hostages” because magic tricks are the only character trait that Trucy is allowed to have in this game. The kidnapping is completely brushed off like it wasn’t important in the first place because guess what? It WASN’T important. It was just a stupid plot device to get the story going where it needed to in a shocking way, like everything else in this stupid game.

Final Thoughts

My review of the game is that it suck left nut. Like I said earlier, just read the wiki if you’re interested in it, because the game won’t offer you a better experience. Its gameplay is boring, the characters are disappointingly flat, the story is empty, the plot twists are just there to shock the player and cover up plot holes, and it completely tramples on what makes the past games so good. A lot of people say to play this game for Athena and Simon, but IMO all they really do for the majority of the game is serve as an example of just how bad this game is. AA5 isn’t worth playing!

I rate this game 7.2/7.5 Imagine Party Babyz.

#jude talks #aa lb #long post #<- jic the readmore doesnt work #lmk if theres any weird formatting btw i had to like redo everything from google docs #ALSO tw for transphobia bc this game has that

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theskeletongames · 5 years

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Hey there! I am very shy so please forgive my anonask ♥ I love your artstyle, I am not very good with digitalart (yet.. I guess haha Im still learning). But my question is ehm.. there're so many individual styles when it comes to the skeles, but Im kinda scared that if I make some skeles that they're going to look to much like someone elses skeles.. if you understand? Do you have any tips to kinda.. put your own style on the skeles haha? I dont know.. Hope you have a good day! ♥

I’ve been told my style is unique, even though I don’t feel like it really is. I never set out to develop a “style” and I’ve found that styles are the other way around anyway. They exist, even if you don’t want them.

I don’t know what level you’re at with drawing, but my advice is not to worry about style. Instead worry about learning as many techniques as you can. You will end up picking and choosing from those techniques and recombining them in a way that is unique to you.

This is what is known as “style”

The common decisions of how to represent 3d objects on a 2d medium. What colors to use. What lighting. What types of textures. How thick and thin are the lines. When to use line vs when to use color to define shapes.

You can’t force it, and it’s actually a lot harder to copy someone’s style than you think. (Just try and copy mine in a unique drawing, I can’t even stay consistent with my own drawings, so go ahead if you think you can somehow do better) Sure you could draw skeleton noses like I do, but that’s only part of hundreds of decisions I make when choosing what lines/color/shapes I wanna use to represent my characters.

It’s actually considered a drawing exercise to try and replicate someone else’s style, that’s how hard it is.

So don’t worry about style, worry about learning new techniques, and don’t ever limit your drawing by saying something like “I must draw it this way cause it’s mah style”

You draw it that way, cause you think it’s the best way to represent the character/objects for your desired outcome, and if it isn’t, change it.

If you’re somewhat of a beginner, it’ll look like you lean heavily on someone else’s style. That’s because you only have a couple techniques to choose from. Once you learn more, your art will become your own, so keep at it, and if someone accuses you of coping their style, call them an idiot, cause I doubt it’s a 100% copy and you’re still learning.

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goddamnwebcomics · 5 years

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Spinnerette: The Hostess Returns Part 1 Review 1/2

For some reason, this comic wanted to bring back Sarah Nicole back, which is close my two year old prediction of future Spinnerette arcs. Did anybody really want her back is anybody’s guess, but at least it’s not Adrastea or WereQuakkos. I kinda miss Espinn though, she is still probably the best character in the comic now because unlike my previous faves she hasn’t been ruined...yet.

Our comic begins with rude construction workers catcalling our villainous high heeler. She goes “might as well teach you a lesson for your SECKSAYSM”! God, Kraw definitely suffers from Reverse Nice Guy Syndrome. And then she grows into a giant, how you may ask? She has this strange watch on her hand, and there is no time to explain. Remember this immediately came after Fat Spinny. Why does Kraw keep insisting he respekks wimmen and is not a Nice Guy, but he makes them all into guinea pigs for his fetishes in his comic? If you just admitted you want to fap to gay owmen, giant women, furry women, fat women and superhero women, it wouldn’t make you any less of an asshole but at least you would be HONEST.

She is now a superHERO for some reason, after the construction workers apologize at her. Suddenly chibi??? Who drew this, Chalo??? I give it this, like i said before the artstyle is not as blinding as it used to be, but that might change.

Turns out that she was let go from a metahuman prison through mindcontrol, apparently Sarah Nicole has enough drugging blood to infect it on others because...science i guess. Old lady acts awfully nice about it, calling Sarah Nicole a victim. Understandably Mecha Maid is mad because Spinny was almost killed by her. Hey, remember when a major drama was that Mecha Maid hated seeing Spinny murder other villains? Yup, coma theory still applies. Then Mecha Maid SAYS THAT THEY SHOULD’VE DEALT WITH HER THE SAME WAY THEY DEALT WITH COLONEL GLASS??? SO IN OTHER WORDS, SHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN KILLED? MECHA MAID WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO YOU???

Okay, Coma Theory has to be fucking canon at this point. Just take my advice Kraw, that would be the only thing that would save for your past relic of a comic. Mecha Maid won’t forgive herself for almost killing Spinny, but then they spot her in an italian town and blah blah blah. Dr. Universe takes time to call for an offer he has for Spinny, because he saved her life. Wait? Like, Spinny gets fat arc mattered? I don’t know if that would be better or worse than just letting it be forgotten.

We see Sarah Nicole trying on her superheroine costume, as we’re treated to a painful shot of pop culture references. We also get FANSERVICEEEEEE~~ i RESPECT WOMEEEEEN~~ Also the page order gets really confusing, there’s this big panel that goes right next to the one that sets up drama with Sarah Nicole and a guy shouting off-screen...uh, for a while i got scared Kraw was trying to go for manga style.

Turns out it was a WACKY MISUNDERSTANDING AS IT WAS COUPLE DRESSED UP AS SPIDERMAN AND BATGIRL ARGUING AND NOW SHE’S LARGE AND HER COSTUME IS RIPPED HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA your humor sucks Kraw. Apparently, her growth watch is alien technology. Because of course it is. Maybe if i ever do that combined webcomic theory thing, i can claim that watch came from either Primes or nazi alien frogs.

Mecha Maid and Spinny storm in and literally kick her ass, apparently that makes her small again. Spinny and Mecha Maid try to trap her but she grows large again. These pages wouldn’t look out of place from a fetish comic. And look, there’s nothing wrong with making a fetish comic. If only Kraw had been more HONEST ABOUT IT SINCE THE BEGINNING THEN WE WOULDN’T HAVE A FUCKING PROBLEM.

Geez, i’m already getting mad. See you later.

#spinnerette

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comicteaparty · 5 years

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October 2nd-October 8th, 2019 Reader Favorites Archive

The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from October 2nd, 2019 to October 8th, 2019. The chat focused on the following question:

In honor of October, which horror webcomics should people be checking out?

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Not all the horrible kind of horror, but comics with spooky themes... The Hazards of Love http://thehazardsoflove.com/ Trapped in an alternate world, working for a demon, possibly going to be rescued by ghosts? The Night Belongs To Us https://tnbtu.com/ Vampire/werewolf romance, supernatural bureaucracy. Penny Blackfeather http://www.pennyblackfeather.co.uk/ Another one with helpful ghosts, or at least narrating ghosts. Hemlock http://hemlock.smackjeeves.com/comics/893745/0-00/ Loner forest witch and her person-turned-frog sidekick. Forever Autumn http://forever-autumn-comic.tumblr.com/ Clueless child witch and her accidental vampire friend!

Eerie Cuties http://www.eeriecuties.com/ Archie-style adventures at monster school broken http://broken.spiderforest.com/ Faerie general, eldritch monsters, and an accidental zombie friend Awful Hospital http://broken.spiderforest.com/ Woman on a quest to rescue her kid from the creepiest hospital Bite Me! http://www.bitemecomic.com/ Vampire farce in revolutionary France Serenity Rose http://www.heartshapedskull.com/serenity-rose/ Angsty witch with creepycute aesthetics lives outside a town that's a horror theme park Zebra Girl http://www.zebragirl.thecomicseries.com/ Woman gets turned into a demon, has to cope, meets other supernatural folks (including a couple giant talking rabbits)

keii4ii

Evil Witch Allie - http://www.evilwitchallie.com/comic/archive Teens living in a seemingly normal modern day town catch glimpses into a world full of cosmic horror. This comic does an amazing job at portraying magic that feels wrong yet beautiful. It's that "no mortal is ever meant to see it... but once you see it, you can't help but stare, even as it devours your body, soul, and sanity" kinda feel.

keii4ii

Arbalest - http://arbalest.spiderforest.com/ (Contains blood/gore, non-sexual nudity, implied sex, among other things) This one is different. It's atmospheric; if converted to a text-only medium, it might be more like a poem than a novel(la). The summary in the About page made me think it was a goal-driven story, like maybe it was a thrilling quest of the main character trying to find an escape from her would-be murderers, her fate. But as I read it, it quickly became evident that this is not about escaping imminent threats. At this time I would say it's about finding clarity. But that may change as the story unfolds -- and I'm eager to see it happen.

Nihinski

Daniel http://www.vermillionworks.com/daniel/enter Old school and very straightforward vampire tale that takes place in 1930’s Illionis. Daniel offers both terrific scares and cutting tragedy, -as all great horror stories do. The comic has entered it’s final chapters, so it’s ideal time jo jump in!(edited)

Neguri-Senpai-Author

Oooh I love noir stories :DDD

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Definitely second Hemlock, Serenity Rose, and Daniel. All really good reads

JUNK

A Ghost Story (https://www.aghoststorycomic.com/) by Bea S MyGod is about a couple of freelance ghost busters! It's got fun visuals and a great sense of humor.

RebelVampire

Since no one has mentioned it yet, Numb. http://www.niinaeveliina.com/numb or https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/numb-/list?title_no=36954 (since numb's site is down atm). It's got some really great atmosphere, really great visuals, and there are actual consequences. Like no fake outs of people being in trouble. They actually are in trouble and could legit die. It's no joke. But overall, I'd even rec it just for the great atmosphere the comic has.

The Q - working on WAYFINDERS

I LOVE Emily Carroll's short stories. She uses gifs in her comics for extra spook and her style is -chef's kiss- I especially love "the prince and the sea" because you think you know the format, and then suddenly... http://www.emcarroll.com/

rainbowbarfeverywhere

I'm not sure if this counts as horror but it's spoopy! Not Drunk Enough by Tess Stone (https://www.ndecomic.com/) A repairman goes to this lab but turns out! There's monsters lurking! He finds himself with two girls and one scientist trying to get everything back to normal. AMAZING visuals and art style plus really great lettering! Very lovable characters and expert panelling.

Oh! and the last volume (idk how many chapters) will start next week! very exciting times

The Q - working on WAYFINDERS

I can second Not Drunk Enough. It's an interesting story, but even if it wasn't, I'd read it JUST for the visuals!

Neguri-Senpai-Author

I just started reading the first few pages of it now and I gotta say I love the character design and the artstyle a lot! Reminds me of some shows I used to watch on TV when I was younger. Definitely bookmarking that one

FeatherNotes

Devil's Candy! It's got all the spoopy you need, and its a really fun time http://www.devilscandycomic.com/ Also gonna second Numb with @RebelVampire!! Traditionally done comics always floor me !!

Devil's Candy - ch10p12

Devil's Candy is a lush fantasy webcomic about boy genius Kazu Decker, the girl he constructed for his 9th grade science project, and the world of devils and monsters they live in.

sssfrs

I just have been reading Admiral and it's a cool depiction of the sinking of the Titanic from the view of one of the officers. Really nice portrayal of events and creative artwork https://tapas.io/series/Admiral-Comic(edited)

Steph (@grandpaseawitch)

Admiral is fantastic! And the creator, Matt https://twitter.com/MattHTaylor is an incredibly sweet guy.

sssfrs

Yeah I talked to him a little on Twitter! He's super nice

AntiBunny

Still very new, but for creepy comics I'd suggest The Finger Game http://thefingergame.smackjeeves.com/ as most of it takes place in an insane asylum.

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #comic tea party #ctp #reader favorites

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ludosgd · 5 years

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Designing Solitude — GMTK Jam 2019

Hiya! LudosGD here!

Recently, I participated in the 2019 Game Maker’s Toolkit Game Jam. For this jam, I made a game in just 48 hours. This game is called Solitude and you can play it here!

Since I love talking about my projects, I feel like this is a good occasion to talk about my experience in this jam! So grab a cup of tea (I prefer hot chocolate but you do you, I guess) and follow me in this 48-hours-long journey.

BEFORE THE JAM

Ok, maybe we’ll start a bit earlier than the jam’s beginning. When the GMTK Youtube channel announced the jam, I was so hyped. I was already getting started with the Godot Engine and was only looking for an excuse to make a game. This jam was the perfect opportunity.

During the months between the announcement and the jam, I participated in another jam: My First Game Jam! ( @myfirstgamejam )

It was a really cool experience: it made me much more confident about my abilities, the community was wholesome, kind and engaging and I had a blast participating in it. It’s worth noting that My First Game Jam was my actual first game jam. My first ever published game is my submission for it: it’s called First Few Blocks and you can play it here!

Now, back to the GMTK Jam. Compared to the chill and welcoming atmosphere of My First Game Jam, the GMTK Jam was intimidating. Like, a lot.

Sometimes I asked myself if participating was a good idea. To give perspective: I made a single platformer level in two whole weeks for My First Game Jam. How could I do something in just 48 hours? In the end, I convinced myself that I had nothing to lose and it would be a waste of a fantastic opportunity.

It went well.

Like, very well.

C’MON AND SLAM, AND WELCOME TO THE JAM!

The theme of the jam gets revealed and I’m already banging my head on the desk to get an idea that fits the “only one” theme. You see, I didn’t want to make a normal game who deals with the theme only partially: I wanted it to be central to my design.

After a good talk with my sister, the idea struck me like a lightning: I asked a really stupid question. “What if it’s a game where there’s only one thing on the screen?” It sounded stupid enough to work. I decided to go to sleep and work on it the next morning.

The next morning, I made the point of the situation.

I needed good sleep, pauses and hydration. If I wanted to make it alive through this, I knew I needed to treat myself well. Nearly everyone is more productive (and happier) if well-rested and healthy.

I didn’t have much time to work with. I knew from the start I would have had simple graphic and a simple design. I wanted a cool little game rather than a big, unfinished and clunky one.

“Only one”.

Ok, so, how do you do a game where there’s only one thing? Rather than having only one thing, I thought it would be cool having only one visible thing. I coded a prototype of a simple top-down game, and then added the main mechanic of the game: the player can scan the level with WASD to reveal things around them. To maintain the theme, I made it so that every time the player scans their surroundings, their sprite becomes invisible (so that only one thing is invisible).

This made the gameplay a lot more interesting: you have to plan each of your movements and be very careful. You can’t really plan ahead in this game, but each and every movement must be thought out. You can’t just “go ahead” without thinking. This slowed down the pacing of the game but didn’t make it less enjoyable: it is instead more intense than your average top-down game, and its gameplay kept the player on their toes.

To reinforce this “I don’t know what’s next” feeling evoked by the gameplay, I used sound effects, music and, to a certain extent, graphics to give the game an unsettling atmosphere.

The main mechanic of the game (you can only see one thing at a time) makes the game much more difficult than a normal one; so the levels were adjusted accordingly.

The first level introduces the player to the world, to the mechanic and teaches them what an enemy looks like. I made it very easy to not scare the player (it’s easy for them to just change game). I want to hook the player and let them beat at least one level.

The second level is more challenging and feels like it's the first "real" level.

The third level introduces you to a new mechanic: the key.

The level structure is different too: instead of being a fixed path, here there are four "rooms", so the player has to explore the area once they find out the door is locked.

The fourth level is where the difficulty raises a lot (too much if you ask me). This should have been the fifth level; once I realized I wouldn’t have been able to make five levels, I decided to take a risk and sacrifice the “real” fourth level, because I wanted something spicy for the hardcore players!

As for the graphics, I chose a minimalistic artstyle for many reasons:

I’m just beginning with pixel art;

I needed to make the sprites in a timely manner, since I had only 2 days to do the whole thing!

Since the game isn’t really about the looks (is it about “non-looks?”), I thought that a minimalistic approach was enough.

After tinkering with the music and sound effects (I used Audacity to adjust the audio), the game was finished! I uploaded it on itch.io, added the key-holding sprites of the player (this way the player always knows when do they have the key) and re-uploaded the game, just in time to be involved in the whole “itch crashed because the jam is too big” thing. Both the itch team and the GMTK team handled this well but man I was scared. All went well in the end though!

THE FEEDBACK

I got a lot of positive feedback! The game did really well and received a lot of comments saying how much they liked the game. Many offered constructive criticism too! I’m still stoked by how many people liked my lil’ project. Thank you!

And then, on August 12, the impossible happened…

Solitude got ranked 74th! I couldn’t believe it. For starters, being in the top 100 means that Mark Brown, host of Game Maker’s Toolkit, gets to see and play your game! (Do you feel the “senpai noticed” vibes?)

I’m really grateful for all the positive feedback I’m receiving.

Thank you all.

I don’t feel intimidated anymore.

THE STATS

So, to conclude this absurdly long post, I’m gonna list some of the things I learned from this experience, both from the hits and the misses.

Because of this jam, I used Godot, Audacity and Photoshop. I used programs for screenshots and gifs too. Not to talk about using itch.io. I used a lot of things in just two days. Honed my skills on a lot of programs!

I learnt how to use raycasts in Godot! I think coding-wise this was the biggest challenge for me.

I met a lot of awesome peeps ( @doujindev I’m looking at you ) and got a bit more in touch with the gamedev community!

I missed many little details, like showing the enemy for a brief moment when it touches the player; this way the player knows what killed them. This was suggested to me by Game Endeavor (check out his Godot tutorials)! I think it’s a fairly important detail because the player shouldn’t feel “cheated”, and this little feature can prevent this feels-bad moment.

The last level is simply too much, it requires the player to pass a three vertical-moving-enemies column, two times! It would’ve been a fair level if it was the 10th level, not the 4th...

Spamming WASD seems to be a strategy many use, but it generates eye-hurting flashes. It’s another little detail that I consider pretty important.

I had a good workflow, even if I passed the majority of my time in front of the screen; probably I need more pauses. You can understand me though: it was just TWO days!

I think that sooner or later I’ll add all these details and correct the mistakes in a future update of the game.

VERDICT:

This was an awesome experience and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I’m happy with how I tackled the various challenges too!

What can we learn from this? Don’t be scared of opportunities. It would have been an awful mistake not to participate in this.

Thanks for reading! Do you have any questions regarding Solitude or my experience in the GMTKJam? Ask me here on Tumblr or simply tag me on Twitter (I’m @LudosGD)!

Have a magical day!

- LudosGD

#indiedev #gamedev #GodotEngine #GMTKJam #GameMaker #GMTK #indiegame #indiegames

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rex-dangernoodle · 5 years

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A Long Overdue Self-introduction!

Hi there everyone! Let me just start off by saying I absolutely did not expect to gain this much popularity this quickly from all my terrible Rexposting, and be accepted into this wonderful community. Every like, reblog, reply or ask makes me more happy than you can ever imagine, and as of right now I’m currently at 99 followers! That’s crazy!! Thank you so much for all your support of my headcannons, memes and everything else, and for reaching out to me :)

I was thinking though; most people only really know me as That Person Who Will Not Shut Up About Rex Dangervest, and while that an absolutely correct interpretation of me, I thought I’d do a little self-intro post so y’all can get to know me if you so wish! Here goes nothing...

- Hi there, my name is Nicole, (but please call me Nicky!!!!) and I’m from the UK!

- I’m half British, and half Romanian, though you’d never guess that. I am the least Romanian Romanian person that ever existed.

- I go by they/them pronouns, I’m panromantic, and I’m a minor.

- My birthday is August 5th, making me a Leo!

- I’m also an INFJ, and Lawful Good!

- I’m into way too many fandoms, though my main fandoms would have to be The Lego Movie 1+2 (ofc), Steins;Gate, Robotics;Notes, Vocaloid, Hypnosis Mic and Bandori!!

- Fictional characters have always been the greatest source of comfort for me from a very young age. I lovemail them, I ramble on endlessly about them, and I make them myself (I make a new OC like every day).

- My biggest comfort characters are (surprising literally no one) Rex and Emmet! My minifigs of them go with me everywhere, and them as characters have helped me through some rough times. Seeing them always makes me light up with joy, be it in a shipping or platonic sense, I don’t mind at all!

- My other big comfort characters are these anime kiddos!

Okabe Rintarou (Steins;Gate), Jinguji Jakurai (Hypnosis Mic), Kaito (Vocaloid), Hidaka Subaru (Robotics;Notes) and Yamabuki Saaya (Bandori)!

- I love to draw (though my artstyle changes like every week)!! Here are some recent pieces I’m proud of:

- I also love to write! My AO3 is here!

- I have a s/o, the most wonderful person in the known universe aka Haze!! Please give them a follow and tell them their dorky s/o sent you!! (⌒▽⌒)

- I’m often a little scared to initiate conversations and interact with others, so I’m sorry (I also apologise too much. There it is)! Please don’t hesitate to interact with my posts or DM me for any reason, if you just want to gush about TLM with someone or need help with anything, I don’t bite and I love interacting with all of you, even if it’s often a little nerve wracking for me initially!

- I have seen the Lego Movie 2 three times, and am going to see it again later today. I really love this movie a lot!! The messages meant a lot to me and seeing these characters I’ve known and loved for what feels like forever, as well as some fantastic new ones just gives me so much joy every time.

I’ll end it here (otherwise I’ll probably waffle on for all eternity) but thank you so much for reading this far if you did! And thank you all again for your support, it may not seem like a lot to some but it really means the world to me.

Until we meet again pardner! I’ll just be here, Rexposting into the void. 🤠

- Nicky 💚💙

#not sure how to tag this bc it’s a really long post oops #hope it’s ok that i waffled on this much #thank you for reading if you did!!#i’m always looking for more tlm mutuals so 🤗#the lego movie 2 #the lego movie #rex dangervest #emmet brickowski

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melete-the-melodious-diva · 5 years

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Alright, time to dump my thoughts here about RWBY Volume 6!

Definitely my favorite Volume so far. The first one where Team RWBY is back together in the new artstyle, and they all look gorgeous. The animation this time around looked wonderful, and it helped the story tremendously to have more access to different models and expressions for the characters so the story could be more show and less tell. The general consensus seems to say this volume was amazing at the beginning, and then faded into decent in the last five episodes. I’d actually pinpoint the problem at the last episode, but I will say the Cordovin “arc” was poorly paced and did not help with the character development at all. This arc entirely existed so we could get a Shadow of the Colussus fight, and that’s an issue when the arc takes up a precious four episodes of time to introduce and complete. That said, I’m going to try and separate this into different arcs and espouse the merits/demerits of each

1- Train 6/10

Cool fight scene, nice to see QRWBY fighting together. Also did well by introducing Maria as crazy but with common sense, and sowing more seeds of doubt about Ozpin.

2-Ozpin Backstory Arc 10/10

This is my favorite arc in the show and one of the best done in the entire show. And I’m not saying that because of the lore dump, that’s nebulous. So the episode where Ozpin actually loses his cool and the lamp was done amazingly well. Even when losing his composure, Ozpin is very quick to try and focus on the task at hand and be pragmatic about this situation. Not to mention, Yang’s constant prodding is very unwarranted and it shows how Raven’s seeds of doubts mixed with Yang’s temper have brought out the worst in her. Oscar, for as little screen time as he gets in this series, also has one of his biggest defining character moments by willfully defying Ozpin and airing his thoughts to everyone else. Oscar hasn’t had much character establishment. We know he’s not exactly fond of Ozpin just because of the current situation, but he’s not overtly antagonistic either. However, he was having none of Ozpin’s shit the moment Ozpin willfully continued to lie to Ruby. So the actually backstory. Holy shit. Not only does it humanize Ozpin and make it clear that this guy does not have all the answers, but it also gives far more complexity to our main villain. You’re not meant to sympathize with her now, but you understand how Salem became a vindictive witch of the Grimm. She’s been warped by centuries of grief and a lack of self-determination, all compounded when Ozpin tears away her happy ending from her when he tries to steal their children away. Also, now the story finally has a freaking endgame! This backstory helps contextualize the journey of our heroes and what they’re doing. It wasn’t outwardly spoken, but the message was clear from Ozpin’s actions. Humanity is fucked if the gods come back to judge it. Our heroes don’t have to be opposed to Salem’s ideals or plans(whatever those are), it’s just that her methodology of gathering the four relics will kill everything because humanity doesn’t have its shit together. I will admit that Jinn’s genie nature and the obvious specificity of the “Can I kill Salem?” were a bit too on the nose, but hopefully the series won’t string out that plot line for more than a volume.

3- The Apathy Arc 8/10

Goddamn if there was ever a time for RWBY to do a horror arc, it chose the literal best setting and time to do so. Ozpin is gone, everyone is in shock and feeling betrayed (especially Qrow and Yang), and a blizzard is fast coming. Everyone knew immediately that something was wrong just based on the muted colors of the house and the Ruby’s mention of how everything is abandoned rather than destroyed. The dead bodies in the beds were chilling and one of the most graphic things this show’s ever done. From there, the viewer immediately is screaming “GET OUT OF THERE”, but the cast legitimately has no other place to go unless they want to brave a blizzard. Maria was a very welcome addition to the cast, and this arc really let her shine as a dry-witted voice of reason. Allowing her eccentricity to reveal the true nature of Bartleby’s farm was done very well and nothing about her exposition or behavior felt forced here. Qrow’s alcoholism getting worse was a very interesting character analysis because we see how much Ruby hates this, but she can’t bring herself to reprimand him. It also shows how much his broken trust in Oz has affected him, which is a wonderful lead-in from the previous arc. When the cast is affected by the apathy, it is one of the best examples of tone through visuals and voice acting that I have ever seen. Nothing is technically wrong, but things are very off. Their pupils are just a bit too big for comfort, their voices are a bit too dry and emotionless. Yang’s suggestions make sense for her emotional state after Ozpin’s betrayal, but it seems irresponsible to throw their responsibilities away for someone else to find. The actual Apathy fight itself is a nice horror movie conclusion, with no actual jumpscares, but terrifying imagery, all ending with Blake simply accepting death before we get Silver Eyes out of the situation and onto the next arc. Good conclusion by confirming that Yes Maria was a SEW as a lead in to her backstory and also in jumpstarting that plotline after ignoring it for two volumes.

3.5- Maria’s Backstory Won’t go into this much but all the character designs were gorgeous and it helps establish Maria very well and I love that Tock the Croc’s kill timer in universe was the exact same irl :D

4- Argus Pre Cordovin 5/10 (good score, means the show did as well as expected)

This arc was a good breathing point to compare to the intensity of the episodes up to this point. Terra and Saphron were adorable with their little baby and the cast’s reunion was sweet. Team JNR’s reaction to Ozpin was done really well. Jaune’s always been very prickly to Qrow about this mission, so it makes sense that he’d be super pissed about Oz lying about the mission and leaving. Nora and Ren’s anger was a nice addition. They weren’t ornaments to Jaune’s emotional breakdown, they were struggling with this information as well. Oscar’s disappearance was a dick move on behalf of the writers, because everything was set up for him to finally confront the nature of the person inside him and his eventual merge with that person. But they skim over this for a fakeout with a nice speech where Oscar just accepts the death of his personhood without resistance. This would have been not a dick move if the show’s creators didn’t leave us with a “Oscar has dissapeared” cliffhanger for two weeks. Jaune meeting Pyrrha’s mom and talking to Ren/Nora about his issues was wonderful and done super well. They really needed that discussion and I’m very glad the show finally had it.

5- Cordovin Arc 3/10

Haha little lady in a shoe with a napoleon complex. cool. why was this arc the finale fight? No seriously, the Leviathan didn’t get a fight, he just got a silver eye debuff that led to a one shot kill. Cordovin is the last fight in the series and it’s... underwhelming. Not that the animation or choreography is bad, that’s all gorgeous. But the story and characters screech to a grinding halt to focus on this fight for three episodes. No one is getting developed, The plot is just waffling so we can get a full 13 episodes before we move onto Atlas. This battle should have lasted one episode, and then have multiple episodes to focus on Silver Eyes and the leviathan. Hell, don’t even make a fight. Just have Team RWBY succeed at turning off the radar, at which a Leviathan grimm comes and starts destroying the city because no one anticipated it. Adam can still come and distract Blake/Yang from the fight, and QRWBYORNJM can have their big shadow of the colossus fight. Cordovin’s character is also woefully simplistic, which would be fine! If they didn’t give her a last minute redemption that felt horribly out of touch from the rest of her actions. It was a writer’s asspull to get everyone to Atlas, which I’m thankful that they didn’t stall on, but it could have been done so much better.

5.5 Adam Arc 9/10

God this arc was amazing. Adam’s character was never complex. His motivations were always clear, and his M.O. was rather run of the mill abuse perpetrator. Blake has a reason to sympathize with him, but he ultimately used her and made her feel worthless so he could feel more powerful. However, this arc is such a cathartic and important emotional moment for Blake and Yang. Yang finally faces the source of her trauma head on, and she’s scared. Adam has taken away a part of her before, and she’s not prepared to lose anything again. But Yang’s character hasn’t changed, she still reacts to problems with “punch IT” and Blake validating her strength and comforting her was so good. Blake has gotten over Adam, as evidenced by her actions in Volume 5, but that doesn’t mean that the scars of what he’s done don’t still affect her. I’m unsure of it’s intentionally, but the scars that Adam leaves on Blake aren’t noticeable. They hurt, they cripple her, but the cuts are on her hip, a place that would usually be covered by her coat or her shirt. It’s a good meta textual reference of how abuse usually hurts people in ways that can’t be seen by others. Also, Adam’s face reveal was probably the best possible thing they could have done with Adam’s face. After so long of making him a monster with a grimm mask, we finally see the source of his anger,and the source of Blake’s symapthy. Branded right on the eye by the Schnee Dust company. Ouch. This is not a moment meant to make US sympathize with him, that flew out the window when it was revealed that he actively abused Blake before she left him. But this moment is an important reminder that Adam is not a Grimm. His brand of monstrosity isn’t as simple as a being of pure destruction, it’s much seedier and harder to catch until he’s already in a position to kill you. Yang and Blake’s duo stab through the heart with the broken remains of Gamboul shroud was one of the best moments in this entire series and I don’t have anything to say other than that I paused the video when it happened and just stared. Blake’s reaction after killing Adam is also perfect for her. She loved Adam. She definitely doesn’t anymore, but he still was able to get under her skin and remind her of everything she hated about herself. Which is why when Yang comforts her, they add that all important piece of dialogue about Yang knowing that Blake won’t break her promise. Yang isn’t putting herself in a position of power over Blake, she is comforting her as an equal that respects her and her strength. That, and the fact Adam and Yang’s semblances are near identical, goes really far to show how much healthier Yang and Blake’s relationship is than Blake and Adam’s.

6- The Leviathan/ Silver Eyes 3/10

Gonna jump around a bit but silver eyes were finally explained in this arc. As currently presented Silver eyes are... terrible. They cut all tension out of the story when the main threat of the series can be solved by happy thoughts and puppy dog tails. Salem just becomes a non-issue if all of her forces can be killed by Ruby thinking happy thoughts. I’m hoping that some sort of catch or consequence will come later. Like: Using the power of the Light diminishes your own light, and therefore would give Ruby more destructive impulses because she simply has fewer protective impulses to draw upon. Ruby doesn’t even get tired when using the dang things. As they currently stand, Silver eyes will cut the tension out of any Grimm encounter. In the post credits scene, we see Salem making her flying monkeys. Hooray, wicked witch of the west. Problem. Why should this have any meaning? Ruby can just kill all of those Grimm at once. This doesn’t negate every conflict in the series, there’s still the problem of the asshole humans/faunus, but the show’s main villain and her main method of attack are just nullified now. The one good thing about this is Maria’s confirmation that no one knows wtf silver eyes are. Qrow and Ozpin know about them, but Maria’s explnation strongly imply that no one actually knows how they work. Oz and Qrow likely just knew that Summer had the power to kill Grimm and just didn’t know how she did it. This makes the previous volume’s act of ignoring the things at least slightly more palatable. So the Leviathan. Ruby’s conclusion to the Silver Eyes arc by activating them all on her own. This was mostly just a montage to redraw scenes from the show and get a Summer Rose face reveal. There wasn’t a story purpose, and the character purpose was very thin because we really don’t learn anything about Ruby here. We know she’s haunted by Penny and Pyrrha’s deaths. We know she enjoyed her time at Beacon and likes her teammates. We know she loves her mother and looks up to her. There’s nothing new presented here about her, she just has to go through a series recap to activate the eye death lasers. Hate to end it on such a negative note, but I really do love this volume wholeheartedly, including the parts I rated low. Here’s to waiting until next October! haha.... expect fanart of Neo and Cinder by the by

#muse talks for a LONG TIME #rwby6 #rwby6 spoilers #spoilers #rwby spoilers

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