#'he was bleeding like crazy!' game shows zero blood asbel never even turned richard over 😂

[windor-truffle]

Wallbridge hhhhhhhh... for as much as the dungeon itself sucks it's probably one of my favorite parts of the main story, i have many feelings about it...

i know it's the fucking point but god the juxtaposition of how Richard acts before and after Wallbridge just breaks my heart 😭 (though i love his gay ass poses lmao work it bitch). Richard is fun as an antagonist very angsty and all but I'm REALLY gonna miss having him in the party because I, like Asbel, actually like Richard as a person. He's perceptive and clever and caring, he's emotionally wounded but trying to make the best of a horrifying situation, and he is genuinely grateful and kind to his friends for supporting him here. The writers managed to make him a likeable character quite quickly considering he doesn't spend that long in the party.

If I were to change anything about the writing around this part, I might actually try to highlight Richard's resentment pre-Lambda too? I know I just said how much I love his kindness but part of the reason why he falls is because he and Lambda fed off of each other's negative feelings, which he admits to at the end of the game and seems still haunted by in L&L. As the story is, with the intentional whiplash between considerate and ruthless, Richard's post-game guilt can almost seem like he's blaming himself too much and that Lambda was the real problem (granted he is like 90 percent of the problem). It wouldn't hurt to have Richard's tone carry a little more anger and hurt when speaking about his uncle prior to Lambda's interference (as he speaks in canon it tends to be more somber than resentful) in order to explain why Richard was particularly susceptible to Lambda's influence. I think Richard can be altruistic on the wide scale while holding a spiteful grudge against those who have wronged him personally, that's actually quite human. But maybe I'm just saying this because I'm an angst magnet 😅 also this could be something that was lost in the localization, I haven't checked the japanese footage yet.

Moving on...

RIP Pascal's EXP 😅 I just want to know why Malik was carrying a sea bream??? Also I love Asbel's blunt courtesy: "This resounding defeat was brought to you by your former student."

also forgot to mention this extremely missable skit, you have to go back behind Duke Dalen's manor after the cutscene. Once again Pascal being the one to interfere with the shippy vibes, but this one is definitely more homophobic 😅 they weren't even talking about anything inherently romantic, Pascal just saw two guys having a close conversation and decided it was too icky -_-. (I'm blaming the writers though not her character). It seems like this was set up to be a "Pascal comedically misunderstands a thing because she's so quirky lol!!!" moment. Isn't she just so silly for thinking that intimacy between men is inappropriate, romantic or not? 😜

sorry i arranged these pictures to be deliberately misleading, the skit happens long before this scene, but I feel the need to continuously dunk on sulky Asbel 😂 I enjoy exploiting his flaws, i feel like Asbel has a bit of a rep for being a one-note do-gooder who believes in the good in everyone no matter what but he actually loses faith in himself quite easily, I mean look at this:

I literally don't have time to unpack all of that bc I've been at this for hours and I have to go to work soon but bro. BRO. you've got some issues here that read as potentially homoerotic and codependent my friend