#(even at early stages of conceptualization)

[gamebunny-advance]

Today's NSR Trivia: Rare(?) DJSS + DK West Art

Likely due to being the first proper boss in the game, DJ Subatomic Supernova has a lot of unused/cut content, including a theme for a nonexistent "approach" level (which can be heard in the "NSR Approach Megamix"), cut voice lines, and no debriefing profile.

While the official twitter has shared what this hypothetical debriefing would have entailed, I don't think the unused art for his profile has ever been posted through a first party source or exists in the game's files.

However, it is viewable in a Steam trading card.

Similarly, DK West, who also lacks a proper debriefing, is a part of this set and thus also has unique art only shown in these trading cards.

Whether this art was drawn specifically for the trading cards or if the art existed prior is currently unknown. (Though I personally suspect the latter.)

[leporellian]

actually i could write a whole essay on why referring to opera productions as '''traditional'' is not only a nonsense term but an actively revisionist one when concerning the history of opera.

when people SAY 'traditional', what they actually MEAN are productions that employ late 19th century standards of realism. while realism had existed as an art movement starting in 1848 (the year everything happened), the conceptualization of it applying to theatre really started around the 1870s. the realism movement, in opera, became what we now call verismo. (there's some kind of lesson here in how even the verismo operas have batshit premises like murder clowns and flowers that kill you, but that topic of conversation is for another day.)

anyway, so if you're staging something like tosca which was part of that verismo movement, then yes, you could reasonably stake the claim that going about it from the angle of 'everything is meant to happen as if it were happening in real life with real people' is the traditional one. but that leaves 272 years of opera history in which 'realism' didn't exist, and therefore... there were 272 years in which 'traditional' productions as we know them didn't really exist.

let's whip around to an opera that 'traditional' staging is particularly egregious to apply to: our good old, fairy-tale-potential-allegory friend, the magic flute!

'what the fuck is happening in that image? is it racist?' no, IN THIS CASE the magic flute is not being racist. those dubious dark shapes are meant to be animal costumes. this is part of a set of early engravings by the schaffer brothers of the first magic flute production, which are invaluable both in researching this opera and opera production history as a whole. this is the scene in which tamino charms the animals with the titular flute, in the year of our lord 1791, and they decided to have it look like this!

anyway, once romanticism kicks into gear in a couple decades magic flute productions start taking a turn with it. remember at this time 'the magic flute is meant to happen in egypt' was still something everyone was sticking to, so we end up with these interpretations of magic flute set designs:

you've probably seen at least a couple of these before because that one on the top left is one of the most famous opera set designs ever. anyway, the design philosophy here between these productions, because there's at least two included here, is weird. there's like 3 things going on: you've got the aptitude for spectacle, this vague orientalist approach towards ancient egypt that was influenced by then-recent discoveries but still very obviously rooted in exoticism, and the cosmic abstraction you can see both in the famous hall of stars and sarastro's temple.

all very interesting! but still not 'traditional'! these, at the time, were a radical re-interpretation of mozart's work- compare them to the above engraving. but because these illustrations have a gorilla grip on the public consciousness they superseded the original 'a bunch of skintight suits constitutes animal costumes' production, and now when an opera company wants to go 'traditional' with their magic flute they do this:

hello my good friend august everding! anyway this is seen as the 'traditional' production out of the two magic flutes in repertory at the berlin staatsoper and yet this isn't what the opera originally even looked like- this is a negotiation with the later early romantic illustrations of the work. sure, it's 'traditional' in the sense that you look at that and immediately know what opera that is meant to be. but at the same time was it ever mozart's intention to stage the magic flute on this grand a scale? is this 'traditional' production really in the spirit of the mozart opera designed for a much smaller stage and with a much smaller set? famously mozart is dead so we will never know.

but then that brings us to the question of What would an actually 'traditional' magic flute look like? well we have multiple options here. first, we have ingmar bergman's film version of the opera, which is sort of the equivalent direction-wise of an opera nature cam. modeled after the drottningholm theatre, this recording tries as hard as it can to emulate the magic flute as it might have been seen in the 18th century:

i mean that does look very 18th century, and wouldn't be out of place with the above engraving. but there's still a fatal flaw here: the magic flute was written as an opera for everybody, and was performed not in the drottningholm (which belonged to the swedish royal family and which resides in their palace) but in the theatre auf der weiden, which was, while certainly impressive (trap doors! fly systems!) also a commoner theatre where everyone could just go hang out and watch fairy tale operas. this is a great snapshot in time of what a 18th century magic flute should have looked like. but what would a 21st century magic flute that still adheres to the original 'vision'- no grand sets, no massive theatres, performed by a cast that isn't even entirely opera singers, done with a bunch of jokes meant to appeal to an everyday audience- look like?

well the good news is we might have an idea with the matchbox magic flute, which is on tour right now and which i hope continues to run on said tour.

the matchbox magic flute is the magic flute. it's also not really the magic flute. this is technically an adaptation. it's also not really though. this is the closest i have ever gotten to being in a theatre, watching this opera (which i have seen many times at this rate) and thinking 'shit, yeah, this is what the theatre auf der weiden must have been like all those years ago'. the matchbox magic flute scales down the whole thing into a very small orchestra and ten singers, who alternate roles like crazy. it is designed for very tiny theatres. most of the cast do not sing opera! they have a few classically-trained singers in there but it's actually sung, in modern english, mostly by musical theatre performers. the jokes are regularly updated; since i saw it in chicago, there were jokes about the evening commute on lake shore drive. parts of the plot are entirely updated or worked around.

and yet, it reflects the original design vision of the original magic flute and what mozart and schikaneder set out to accomplish so perfectly, i almost WANT to say that in some way this too is traditional.

(also, they should put tamino in a dress forever and ever. he gets to twirl it even. really good.)

So, what have we learned here. well for one thing 'traditional' productions, as a catch-all category, don't exist. is a traditional magic flute the one based on the early 19th century designs, or the one based on what 18th century theatre would have been like exactly, or the one that tries to reflect its original spiritual vision?

It's all of them because traditionalism as a term is an inherently reactionary term that upholds a time in operatic history that never really existed and which rapidly changes meaning based on the personal values of who is ascribing it, often forgetting that every opera production represents a negotiation and not a reproduction and that the notion of how it ought to be is one of the most dangerous ideas someone in the arts can have. Go watch who's afraid of modern art by jacob geller on youtube and come back to me.

[project-sekai-facts]

After seeing the fun fact about Becoming Potatoes, I now wonder how far back does the process of one event is from conceptualizing it to fully releasing it. Is it months? Years? I know development and planning can be long but how far back are things planned for Proseka's events in spesifics.

i have an extra fun fact about that song that i don't think i've mentioned before: it's the only song to never have a teaser before it's released in-game, probably because there was no point in it since the vocaloid version had been released months prior. annoyingly, neru never did a corocoro producer interview, so it's basically impossible for us to know what exactly went down in the development of that song.

here's some stuff i can tell you about event planning and such (most is song related lol bc there's far less interviews with the writers):

in an old Q&A around the 1st anniversary, the writers said it takes around 6-12 months to complete an event after conception

in the same question, they said they immediately have to prepare a summary after commissioning so they can pass it on, suggesting the commissioning stage comes first

i know i usually don't mention leaks but these aren't leaks anymore. back in early 2023 around the time of Little Bravers, the song titles and producers for commissions up until Samsa leaked. The producers for Hug and Regulus also leaked 1-2 months in advance. p sure there used to be a staff leaker LOL but at least they confirmed the comms are finished a fair amount in advance

for early events though, some accounts make it sound like vocaPs were being commissioned like years in advance. PinocchioP, Oster Project, NayutalieN did not receive a story summary.

NayutalieN also said that he was contacted very early on in development, only being shown character designs for MMJ. He literally says that "nothing had been decided and he was fed more details as they were finalised". and later in his interview mentions that the "omoi no kakera" lyric was not an intentional reference [to what is known as wish pieces on EN], since those didn't even exist yet.

Syudou says that Jackpot Sad Girl was made in 2020, not very long before the launch of the game, so there's a little less time there.

Surii said he was commissioned ~6 months before launch, so around a year before Pale Color ran. It's also worth noting that he was given story details at this point in time, meaning Pino/Oster/NayutalieN were commissioned before this point.

The designs were completed in early 2019 according to CGWorld's prsk feature, so we can assume that the vocaPs who weren't given story details were commissioned around this time

The story has a planned ending and has had this since early development. The overall story has always been decided but only as an outline, more specific details and the actual events are written as the game goes one.

However certain details, such as Mafuyu running away, were planned in advance.

Apparently it takes about a week to get to the final draft of an event story, after going through checks with other staff and re-drafting (same source as the "specific details" link)

Additionally: card art. According to that 1st anniversary q&a i mentioned earlier, the art team takes two months or more per card. might be longer now because of the higher art quality. The art team sometimes bases set themes off the commission (such as Hitsuji ga Ippiki & kiuan set), or off the event story, which again gives us an indicator of how far in advance this stuff is finished.

[aihoshiino]

Oshi no Ko 145: A Story Without 「アイ」

The question of how exactly Aqua and Ruby were reborn is something that floats around vaguely in the early stages of the Oshi no Ko, teased as a mystery that will exist in the background as opposed to one actively pursued for resolution. My theory is that this element of the story was likely more prominent in the version of Oshi no Ko that was originally conceptualized (i.e, the one that did not involve Ai's death) but the abrupt change to the story's dramatic tone and intensity pushed it into the background. As it stands, Aqua's wishy-washy statement that he'll figure it out once he's done enjoying Baby Mode about matches the weight this is given is the narrative, at least to begin with.

Even with the turn in tone and focus the manga takes, we do ultimately circle back to addressing and answering this question via the presence of Crow Girl/Tsukuyomi who seems to be the one responsible for facilitating their reincarnation in some way or another. Admittedly, this reveal in 145 comes a bit abruptly and the implied motivations it ascribes to Tsukuyomi don't… really line up with the things she says and does prior to the Movie Arc. But what really left me a little cold with this reveal is that it does not involve Ai whatsoever. Her name and even her image are not even once mentioned, not even in passing by GRSR.

This made me feel pretty uncomfortable for a variety of reasons I'll get into later but it wasn't until I started going through the manga to look more into how the reincarnation had been discussed before that I realized just why this felt so jarring - it simply wasn't consistent with what came beforehand. While the current explanation excludes Ai entirely, prior discussion of GRSR's reincarnation centers her to an equal and opposite degree.

Both Gorou and Sarina are thinking of Ai as they die, with both of them also (even if only symbolically) hearing her voice in their final moments. Gorou hears her singing as his ringtone plays and Ruby says Ai was "singing in [her] head" up to the very end. Ai's face is implicitly the first thing either of them see after being reborn and Aqua even speculates, as his first guess as to the nature of their rebirth, that it was this strength of feeling all focused on specifically Ai that caused it to happen.

Not only that, but Ai is even centered in the "fake" story of their rebirth that the twins sell Miyako to get her on board.

Perception of this bit in the fandom seems to vary from "it's just a joke" to "Jokes Are The Deepest Lore" and beyond. I myself don't put a massive amount of weight on it. However, in discussions where this is taken even semi-seriously as foreshadowing then it is flatly disingenuous to cherrypick the AQRB crumbs while not giving the same weight to the (imo, equally loaded) implication that Gorou and Sarina were reborn as Ai's children because she herself was favoured by the gods.

As the murder mystery elements of the story take prominence, this question is left unanswered but resurfaces towards the end of the Private arc with the arrival of Tsukuyomi. Here, too, we see Ai being centered as a key figure in Gorou and Sarina's reincarnation - the chapter is even named 'Mother and Mother', in reference to both of Aqua's mothers for each of his lives.

Most tellingly of all to me, however, is Tsukuyomi's appearance at the end of the chapter. Literally her first speaking line is commenting on how kind the gods must be to bring the Hoshinos together - describing them as (paraphrased) two motherless children and a childless mother and ascribing a great deal of weight to their togetherness.

Even if you disagree that the manga is centering Ai in this context, it is undeniable that the togetherness of the Hoshinos as a trio and specifically as a mother and children is what Tsukuyomi is highlighting as being meaningful here.

We even see a repeat of this in chapter 118 and her first on-screen conversation with Aqua.

I've seen people take this to mean, in the context of future chapter hindsight, that she is claiming the 'meaning' of his rebirth is his connection to Ruby. But if you go back and follow the thread that leads to this mic drop... it's a conversation that's about Ai. And specifically, Aqua is told to consider what it means that his soul was reborn in that body (emphasis mine): i.e, what does it mean that he was reborn specifically as Ai Hoshino's son?

With all this laid out, I really don't think it's a stretch to say that Ai, both as an idol and a person, is treated as a more or less equal part of the GRSR -> AQRB reincarnation as the two people being reborn. Which, like… she should be! She's their mother. But when we do finally get around to concretely answering this question..

Zip. Zilch. Nada. It had nothing to do with her. The closest we get to an acknowledgement that she even exists full stop is her goofy ass bunny mascot's face on (presumably) Sarina's snowman.

As I've said before, the basic beats of this as an answer to 'why reincarnation' are not inherently bad or unworkable. An animal repaying human kindness in some supernatural way is a tale as old as tales and given the ways in which Oshi no Ko plays around with mythological and folkloric ideas, making the reincarnation the result of a Tsuru no Ongaeshi-esque repayment of selfless kindness suits it quite well. The issue here is not one of an inherently broken idea, but flawed execution.

If this is the final word on the hows and whys of Gorou and Sarina's reincarnation - and I feel more or less settled that it is - then Ai has been entirely excluded from the birth of her own children. The sheer amount of weight placed on her role, specifically, as Aqua and Ruby's mother has vanished because after all the build up of why? the answer seems to be just that she happened to be pregnant.

I don't think I need to overexplain why it feels gross for Ai to be reduced to a convenient walking uterus in this regard. This was the element of this answer that made me so uncomfortable when from the get go: Ai's arc is so overwhelmingly about her being denied the right to agency over her own body and sexuality and her giving birth to Aqua and Ruby is, in part, a reclamation of it. It wasn't just an act of love performed for her children but also one for herself - she risked everything in order to give herself the family she had longed for her entire life.

If this incongruity was intentional, I think I would be interested in it as an element of Ai's tragedy - the idea that even the birth of her own children was hijacked by forces beyond her control and warped into something that existed to serve her fans. But I really don't get the sense that this was considered at all and honestly… that's kind of equally sad.

I was wordvomiting a much less articulate version of all the above in the Oshi no Brainrot Discord server and @penguinkyun said a few things that I think really nailed the heart of the issue here:

"theres barely anything of ai here when shes such a central character […] removing ai's own emotional stake in the matter and rounding it up to "crow girl felt bad for gorou and sarina because they helped her that one time and then reincarnated them" just…doesnt hold the same impact."

This is, I think, key to what made this reveal fall so flat for me and highlights this chapter's place in a much broader trend of Ai's place in the twins' lives being downplayed and favour of amping up the intensity of the GRSR relationship. To once again quote Lace because I think she sums it up quite neatly:

"[...] akasaka is absolutely ramping up the soap operaness of grsr with ai as collateral."

And that just kind of bums me out. :(

[apas-95]

Do you believe that there is some hypothetical future tech waiting to be harnessed on a easily replicatible scale that will change modern war fighting on the same scale that automatic firearms or flight did? Do you think it will require another worldwide conflict before it's discovered or are we already on the brink?

oh yeah there's like. a million different things that even in the smaller regional conflicts have made themselves clearly useful, like loitering munitions and squad-scale UAS. slightly more conceptual things like 40mm-launched top-attack missiles and the integration of datalink systems to the individual soldier would be realised within the start of a worldwide conflict, along with (as major powers are preparing for) the integration of the space field through antisatellite strikes etc.

I think the general trend of a future conflict at this point is pretty clear: loitering munitions, unmanned systems, CBRN etc rendering surface battlefields basically unliveable and putting more focus on urban subterranean fighting, and the proliferation of precision-strike munitions and hypersonic missiles making large force concentrations unviable, meaning more dispersed and interlinked forces -- but what comes after that is unclear.

in terms of revolutionary warfare, the urban guerrilla will probably take up a much more central role, and the ease of manufacture for 3d-printed carbines (as demonstrated in myanmar) makes the initial armament of insurgents prior to seizing arms equally practical basically anywhere, and the survivability of modern troops due to better body armour and medical practices would probably benefit guerrilla forces that properly apply them.

hypersonic munutions currently have made literally all surface navies and most military bases completely redundant, with no clear countermeasures yet extant or even really proposed, so we've already passed certain tech thresholds, but certainly a larger conflict would push us through more and more. sadly (not really but yknow) we'll almost certainly never see space combat beyond antisatellite strikes (which currently the west sorta suck at) but it's hard to make any positive claims as to what we will see past the early stages of such a conflict. any viable anti-hypersonic countermeasures would also necessarily be anti-ICBM countermeasures too so who knows

[fyeahlolita]

Secret Lolita Information From The Distant Past: Dashcon Lolita

A very long time ago, myself and another Lolita who maybe wants to remain unnamed, ended up joining the Dashcon "Lolita Committee"(before it was called Dashcon even, it was still going to be called Tumblrcon at the time), because they were sending out messages to a lot of Lolita bloggers/groups to advertise on their behalf and it seemed like a complete clusterfuck even in that early stage. It was still really really early in the planning and we were like "maybe we can unfuck this a little bit?" but we couldn't, and the rest of the team seemed to have zero interest in unfucking it, so we bounced after a few weeks. Obviously, Dashcon happened how it did, so me and mystery-chan didn't really mention that we were let in behind the curtain for this particular internet fiasco. But it was very surreal, even at the time, and we probably both definitely told like every person we knew in real life, just not openly online so there was no proof. The way it was set up was there were, like, "fandom committees", where there were literally dozens of "fandom committees" headed by one person with a small team of recruited people under them. They were in charge of fundraising for Dashcon (then known as Tumblrcon though), mostly supposed to be done through auctioning off fandom stuff, as well as organizing events for their particular fandom. The "Lolita Committee" was fronted by some like teenaged cosplayer/brony, who I don't personally fault for not knowing a single thing about Lolita, but they didn't seem to know anything about Lolita and were trying to set up all these Lolita events for a convention that, at the time, had no venue or money. I think ultimately the Lolita committee raised like less than $60 from one of the members doing some Etsy sales and spent a lot of time discussing a budget for a dream tea party and wondering how to get Angelic Pretty involved, but also were concerned about Angelic Pretty wanting to host a "competing" tea party at the con. We had money raising goals, but none of them ever happened, with any of the Fandom Committees really, at least early on, for some reason I was given access to a TON of google docs for all the other Fandom Committees like the instant they added me to the group.

I was very confused about the name change from Tumblrcon to Dashcon

What you got if you donated to this particular Committee. Although I don't think it even got as far to tell people this. Everything was just... conceptual. Then I think the Committees were mostly purged once Tumblrcon became Dashcon?

This was a message from the main admin for the con.

Ouch, sorry Committees. A section from the same admin written doc.

Hello, just me gossiping about it with a friend back when it was happening live.

Again, I don't fault the other members of the Lolita Committee, because they were absolutely young and unqualified and in over their heads, and they were trying really hard, but this is a weird part of my Lolita history that I've never publicly talked about before.

[danceofthephilos]

Who founded S, and when?

In episode 4 of SK8's dub, Reki refers to Joe and Cherry as "founders" of S, and this has led to a pretty widespread conception in the English-speaking fandom that the two of them were... well, S's founders alongside Adam, that it started when the three of them were in school, that they're still involved in it on a managerial level, or even claims that they founded it first and Adam stole it after the fact.

But what is actually being said here?

It's the word "初期メンバー" that was translated as "founders" in the dub, and while it can mean "founding members", in a sense, there is no implication in the word 初期 of actively being involved in creating something, simply that they were the earliest members (it means "in the initial stage.")

Even more telling is Reki's use of みんな - he's talking about a larger group than two people here. He's not setting Joe and Cherry apart as "founders", he's counting everyone who skated at S at the beginning as "初期メンバー" and namedropping the two characters from that era whose names we know and who are going to be significant to the story. (This reference to "everyone" establishing that there's a larger group going unnamed is also cut from the dub; instead Reki says "Cherry, Joe... man, I bet they'd love to go off about that guy.")

Conversely, looking at how Adam is described...

...it's pretty straightforward.

He's also described in his profile on the official website (and consistently in other official sources that use these character profiles) as 創設者, which does mean founder, explicitly referring to "the person who first established something."

Cherry and Joe, meanwhile, are both referred to as Sの実力者のうちの1人, or "one of the big names at S." They're certainly both respected, influential people within the community - recognition they've earned, not something they're set apart for in any "official" capacity. They've never been described in an official source as 創設者, or in any other way that would indicate they were involved in S's creation rather than simply being two powerful people in the community as it exists now.

There are a few other details that tie into establishing this - mainly disproving the notion that Adam stole something already existing. In episode 5, as they're fleeing from the police, Tadashi says this...

...indicating that Crazy Rock was part of a regular police patrol route before Adam was able to use his money/influence to have it removed, something that Cherry and Joe (particularly years ago, when Cherry wouldn't have had the money he's earning now) would not have had the power to do.

And in episode 12, when discussing the change in course, Joe says this:

Literally saying "it became banned", this is wording on Joe's part that would make no sense for a decision he was involved in. He's describing this as something that happened totally separate from him. Early enough that the funeral course was still being used, Joe (and presumably also Cherry) were not making calls about the management of S like this.

There's also a relevant quote from SK8's screenwriter, Ichiro Okouchi:

When considering Adam as a character, I thought he would need someone beside him. If Kikuchi wasn't there, Adam would become a character who would do nothing but talk to himself, and it would be difficult for Adam to manage S alone.

(spoon.2Di, volume 72)

Part of Tadashi's entire conceptualization as a character was because without him, Adam would be running S alone. Early enough in the development in the series that Tadashi hadn't properly been created yet, S was imagined as something solely belonging to Adam.

Adam is S's founder; Joe and Cherry were simply in the initial group of members, along with other people who haven't yet been named.

Additionally, from only a few pieces of dialog it's possible to narrow down when Adam started S - and it wasn't during the DK era. When Joe interrupts Reki in episode 4, he says this:

Earlier in the same episode, Cherry says this:

And the two of them have this exchange at the beginning of episode 9:

Adam, Joe and Cherry are all 26 years old (25 going on 26, in Cherry's case; he hasn't actually had his birthday by the end of season 1, but this is normal for how ages are listed for anime characters.) Seven years ago would have been the end of their last year of high school (Adam, as the oldest of the three of them, would have turned 19 just over a month after graduating high school.)

When Adam skated with Joe and Cherry was seven years ago, before he left for America, and he hasn't accepted any of their challenges since he returned to Japan. In Joe's words, this time skating together was "way before S started."

So, all together:

For some time in high school, Adam, Joe and Cherry all skated together as a group (sometimes with some other friends/gang members.) Seven years before SK8 season 1 takes place, Adam was sent away to America by his father, ending his friendship with Joe and Cherry. Some time after that (presumably upon his father's death,) he returned to Japan and founded S with Tadashi to assist him in managing it, using his influence to remove the abandoned mine from regular police patrols to protect it, and Joe and Cherry were among a larger initial group of skaters who competed at the time. Since then, he's never agreed to a beef with Joe or Cherry despite them challenging him many times, so neither of them have skated with him since S started.

TL;DR - Adam is the person who started S and he and Tadashi were always conceptualized as the only people running it, and the idea that Adam, Joe and Cherry founded it as a trio comes from a mistranslation in the dub.

[raayllum]

i'm literally sitting here trying to figure out what EVEN i can SAY about aspec rayllum here? i think about them and i want to combust into heart emojis. i watched the first season when it first came out and then only happened to catch up last year with my qpp, and in between i was like. so infuriated when i found out they'd made rayla and callum a thing bc i - naturally - latched onto the green and purple character as an aroace icon at 18 years old, and my partner was like "no no no no TRUST me you've got to watch it, you'll love it"

they weren't wrong and after bingeing the whole show i'm stuck thinking about rayllum a LOT. they're written so much like my own ideal relationship that i kind of want to explode from it sometimes. anyway, my absolute favorite thing about them is how much emphasis there is about their friendship - to the point that when i watched season four, I can't remember which episode specifically it was number wise but when rayla suggested splitting up and offered to go with callum and he turns her down, my first immediate heartbroken thought was "she misses her best friend..." i just love how they're in love but they're in love cos they're best friends....11/10 no notes i need more relationships like that in media

ANYWAY long rambley ask about my loves aside, my question is what are some of your favorite moments where rayllum are so clearly best friends/goofballs in love?

No like honest to god though — me and the Rayla to my Callum are also in a QPR + dash of romance relationship and like... arc 1 and arc 2 Rayllum are just so goddamn sweet??

I don't agree generally that arc 2 Rayllum is more Mature™ than arc 1 rayllum — Callum is more patient and Rayla is more open, so they've matured as individuals — but merely just that they're different flavours of aspec-ness. Like arc 1 is the craziness and rollercoaster of meeting a stranger and realizing they're Your Person, and arc 2 is the deepness after the fact of "I know you, and I know that we can get through everyone so long as we have each other" mostly cause I think the main reason people label arc 1 Rayllum as more immature is because s3 Rayllum gushes over each other, but that's bc people have a hard time conceptualizing having deep admiration for your partner(s) that isn't infatuation... even though like? It's totally normal and welcome, like any long term relationship is "my partner is the most amazing person ever and i'm also very aware of all their flaws simultaneously" and like, arc 1 Rayllum hits that balance perfectly imo

I just love all of their stages and sides to them so so much

But yeah! Some of my fave moments Rayllum wise for the Best Friends quality has to be when they help each other up in 3x05 (Callum after the soulfang chase and Rayla on the ambler) because things are Weird but they're still always going to help each other? The "I missed my best friend" quality in s4 with no one laughing at Callum's jokes / talking about magic with him (vs their first scene in 5x01 being him telling her all about the magic stuff he's reading) and Rayla keeping her disappointment at bay always hits hard and I loove 4x06 when she's beating herself up and he takes care of her because a Good Relationship isn't about how you treat each other when everything's fine, it's 100% about how treat each other when life is hard/stressful and/or you're upset with each other

But I love all the gentle teasing in early S5 and the fist bump lives in my head eternally rent free. The 2x03 hug also means a lot to me cause that was the turning point she went from being a friend to being family and I think in a lot of ways, that's their relationship's most important turning point alongside maybe 1x06 (trusting her anyway!) 4x09 (forgiveness) and 5x04 (her opening up).

5x02 post-inn and stargazing scene are also faves just because of how happy they are talking about Nothing and everything, and like — that's just so fucking real, y'know? When someone makes everything automatically better just by being there

As Callum says, "We've been through a lot, and a lot has changed. Well, some things have changed, but not everything," and this never will

[your-phantomfield]

KOKONOE

i .. ii .. iii circa 2198 for @nkn0va, anonymous

Dating Kokonoe Mercury...

I.

Dating Kokonoe isn’t going to be the most traditional relationship. Her work will always be her first priority and she definitely isn’t looking to make friends. Whether you meet her outside the lab on one of her rare outings or through some dealings with Sector Seven, you’ll have to come to her to be a part of her life. That doesn’t necessitate working for Sector Seven, but if you want to see your girlfriend in the flesh on a remotely regular basis, it helps.

For her part, Kokonoe doesn’t care who you work for and she doesn’t care how much she sees you- at least, she’s damn good at pretending she doesn’t care about it.

She’d be fine with a long distance relationship carried out through calls and video chats. Hell, maybe you could start taking care of a few little ‘errands’ for her. Make yourself useful!

But honestly, Kokonoe is just… awful at intimacy. She’s not good at letting people in or sustaining her relationships. She can say it doesn’t matter as much as she likes, but the truth is, it’s much easier to hold onto your relationship if you stick close to her. A relationship that starts long distance likely won’t last, as she’s just too good at letting people slip away.

II.

To build the foundation of your relationship, you have to be near enough to her that you can worm your way past her defenses. The initiative will be on you. If she’s particularly attracted to you, she may engage in some flirting- lots of bullying, some filthy smug comments- but she’s not looking to have that go anywhere. She’s lived a lonely life, and has gotten to the point where the idea of any long-term relationships seem to go entirely over her head. She sees herself as someone who exists alone. She can’t conceptualize anyone sticking by her, let alone a lover.

Once you’re deep enough under her skin, she’s lifelong loyal and no number of months away can change that- but in the early stages, absence or hesitation risk losing her.

III.

Definitely not a mushy-gushy, sappy, cute little petnames or heart-shaped pancakes kind of lover. This is the kind of girlfriend who loves to give you shit. She does have petnames for you- a lot of them, actually- but they're all... well... let's call them 'lovingly derogatory.'

Kokonoe lacks social maturity. Her style of flirting looks a lot like that of a late-elementary or early-middleschooler's. A classic case of pigtail-pulling. The more she likes you, the more she wants to play with you, and she plays by bullying.

The second you enter the room, she gets much more talkative, and zeros in on you as her victim. Her assistants love you for taking the heat off of them the moment you appear.

She'll have some snappy remark to counter everything you say, standing up from her desk and grinning the whole time she's 'complaining' about how needy you are, coming down here all the time JUST to 'bother' her. She'll be heckling other staff members, telling them to pay attention, because you serve as proof that romance isn't worth the trouble.

"Don't let that cute face fool you! Let me tell you guys, managing my own personal idiot isn't as easy as it looks!"

IV.

You may need to take a quick course in speaking 'tsundere' to understand her banter, but it's evident by the look on her face how happy she is any time you visit her. It's not unusual for others close to her, such as Tager, to call you up and request that you stop by to force her to take a break. If you haven't visited in a little while, your presence can prevent her from even looking at her monitors until you leave. Eventually she'll start catching on that you're conspiring to slow her down, but she has to admit- a little fifteen minute break for some eye candy is probably good for her health.

Your playful banter is good stress relief for her. She's much calmer with you around, too- though those who can't read her may not realize that, given the way she goes at you like a cat that's just spotted a mouse. Your relationship keeps her grounded. It's a tether to what's left of her humanity.

V.

You’re not gonna be going on a lot of dates. She doesn’t see the point, when she has work to do and you could just hang out with her in the lab. If you wanna go see a movie that damn bad, go on your own, she won’t stop you! It’s hard for her to understand that your motivation isn’t the activity itself, but the time spent with her.

In that case…. Fine, sit your ass down and give her five minutes to finish reviewing these numbers… no, actually, go get some snacks! Two extra large buckets of popcorn because she won’t be sharing, and as many boxes of candy as you can carry!! You can put the stupid movie up on one of the projectors and she’ll work on drafting some schematics while you watch.

(PS- She will be sharing, if sharing means stealing your popcorn more than eating her own. She thinks stealing food is cute as long as she's the one doing it.)

VI.

It’s common knowledge that she likes video games, and she’s intensely competitive. If you play any, she’ll be interested in trying them out. She likes arcade shooters a lot, and anything that’ll keep track of her scores. Her goal is always to find a way to break the game by maxing out the score counter. Little miss “dating is for idiots” is constantly sending you screenshots of her latest score- or calling you over just to make you look at it with that big smug look on her face. It’s adorable, she can be just like a bratty kid despite how above-everything she likes to act.

She’ll try any genre of game you play, whether or not you invite her too. And somehow, someway, she’ll turn it into a competition. Doesn’t matter if all you play is Animal Crossing. She’ll pick on you for playing a “mindless baby game,” then get herself a copy and start racing to find all the collectables and fill up your museum before you can. Your girlfriend is a brat.

VII.

Kokonoe is much stronger than she looks. Her insane genetics save her from the severe neglect she's constantly subjecting her body to. She’s weak for a beastkin, especially of her lineage, but still much stronger than a normal human. Regardless of your size, she could probably lift you off your feet in a tight hug. Which looks hilarious, the bigger you are- she’s not much bigger than 5 feet and rarely takes care of herself enough to break 100lbs.

That said, she absolutely hates any kind of physical exertion. She doesn’t want you thinking she’s frail- don’t you baby her- but she will overplay the idea that she’s a shut-in so asking her to go anywhere without a chair waiting for her is a form of abuse. Asking her to get up and walk across the room to pick something up herself? Neglect! And if you’re working for Sector Seven, insubordination! Hell, treason, even! You want her to write up a report for the Committee?!

No? Didn't think so. Now go fetch, her chips are on that counter over there.

VIII.

She wouldn’t want to make it too obvious, but she absolutely loves it if you’re strong enough to lift her. She likes being carried around piggyback-style. She just might be a little touch starved, and there are a surprising amount of ‘cutesy couple things’ she does kind of want to try… she just can’t do it in any honest fashion.

Trying to force you to carry her around is her solution. She gets to ask you for physical affection and play, all behind a mask of evil bullying. She’ll make her little jokes about you being her pack mule or noble steed, claiming this is a much more efficient way for her to get around- it conserves energy for her very important genius scientist brain and it’s just flat out funnier than her using her scooter. She seems to have even more fun with it if carrying her is difficult for you. She’s a bit of a sadist, what else is there to say?

If you think you can readily lift her usual 90-some pounds (or if you put in the work to get to that point) you can turn this around on her. She loves her piggyback rides, but carrying her bridal-style kills her. She’ll pitch a whole fit, screaming and making threats and blushing so bad she might overheat that very important genius brain of hers.

Just learn to keep an eye on her mood and her limits for when it's time to put her down… She’ll give you plenty of (loud) warnings, but if push comes to shove, she's more than willing to scratch you.

[annawayne]

Heeeello Anna! :3 I'm back to pester you in the inbox!

You may not have seen this, but this artist ask game... I've got questions for you!

1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 14, 15, 21, 34, 35

(ahahaha... That's a lot.... Ahaha.... Welp ....?)

But! No hurries, and I'm sorry if this eats at your precious time but I'd be happy to hear you talk more about your art! (Can never get enough tbh :3)

Hope you're doing a bit better now, Anna, please take care and you're loved!

Oh, Moon T^T

Hello, and you're right, I didn't even see this artist ask game (maybe, some time ago, so I don't even remember...), and thank you so much for thinking about me and for asking all this stuff T_T I have a lot of fun answering it, and it really distracted me from everything else going on in life since last weeks are quite difficult. But I'll be fine, and thank you for all of these questions, I appreciate you and your attention so much!

1 what medium do you use most (if applicable, what software)?

As I'm drawing now digitally, so I draw in Adobe Photoshop. I'm familiar with this software since my early teens, so it's very comfortable for me :D

When I was drawing traditionally, I primarily worked with pencils. I tried watercolour a few times, too. I have a very soft spot for oil - and I hope to develop this one day, too.

3 your favorite piece(s)?

Oh, what a question... I guess, for now, these ones:

4 piece you wish got more love?

All of them :D

I guess, these ones:

5 how would you describe your art style?

(I really want to joke and just refer to 21 question but well, let's take it seriously :D)

I guess, I can call it "cinematic poetry" - there's a very long way to go to really match the title, but this is what I aim for.

6 favorite thing to draw?

Oh, good question, Moon! As for the sketch stage, I really love to draw clothes, and when it comes to the stage of rendering - faces (primarily, eyes and hair, but I love the whole process and always try to improve my face renders skills...) and backgrounds!

8 thing you struggle to draw?

I think, when it comes to the rendering - HANDS. I think, my sketches of hands are not bad, but when I render them, oh boi, here comes the struggle. As a result, it seems fine, I suppose, but it's always a product of a lot of swearing and redrawing :D

14 whats your favorite thing about drawing?

Telling stories though different dimension. I like to combine in drawing both cinematography and literature, and it sounds a bit funny, because it's two different art directions, but still, I want to tell stories though a lot of things which combine these arts: details, emotions, lighting, and as if when you look at the art - you can hear all the vivid noises around the characters of life going one around and of characters themselves speaking, but then, as if they were caught in a moment, and then, I try to show this moment in my drawings. Or, when it's more of conceptual art, it also can tell a story, but differently - not like a frozen mundane life moment, but rather like a whole story behind it, and instead of these frozen ordinary life moments where the story is also told, here, the story told through not so evident details, starting from the pose to the colour palette itself.

I know I have a long way to go with it, but this is what I'm trying to improve and this is what I always aimed for.

15 least favorite thing about drawing?

Hm, very good question, to be honest. I thought about it for a while, since I can't really grasp if I can name such thing, but I think that it's both good and bad thing - that it's a lifetime commitment, that you should accept that you will study the whole life. From one side, it's wonderful and it's the whole fascinating journey, on the other hand - it can be really frustrating and draining not to be able to transfer your ideas from your head into the actual image, and while a lot of artists realize it, it doesn't make it easier to get disappointed sometimes. So, I would say, it's both good and bad thing, and how we look at it - depends on us :D

21 what do you think your artstyle would taste like?

I won't lie, this question sent me into a great reflection, and then I ended up questioning my art style in general, ha-ha-ha... But alright, hm, I think, croissant with orange jam? Don't ask. Just... Croissant. That's it.

34 whats something you still like from your old art?

Oh... Hm, I think from the beginning, they had great composition. I try to improve it now, of course, but I guess it was from the beginning a very great composition and "camera" shot. So this, this for sure!

35 if you had one piece of advice to give your younger artist self, what would it be?

Come, and do it, you're much stronger and braver than you think you are. It counts for many things, to be honest, and not only art, but yes, I would just hug my past self and tell myself that you're much more than you think you are.

Thank you so much, Moon, for all of it - for these questions, for your thoughts to ask me this in the first place and for your interest and support T_T It's priceless, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

P.s. I learned with this post that the post has a limited amount of images you can add... I didn't know we could add only 10 images... Woah...

[queensectonia]

last night i was reminded of one of my extremely few Hater Moments (lighthearted) about this series and i never got around to fully articulating my thoughts on it, so it is once again time for our regularly-scheduled kirby rant:

the spider sectonia reveal was poorly-executed on every level.

to start with, this plot element was introduced when the series was in its worst throes of Not Putting The Fucking Lore In The Fucking Games, but I will happily concede that this reveal was at least in a game; just not the game it should have been in.

I almost wonder if the Sectonia Clone as a whole was a leftover from the fact that Robobot started out development as Triple Deluxe 2, but considering that a) TD2 was dropped pretty early on and b) Robobot is just full to the brim with fanservice and callbacks anyway, I don't feel there's much evidence for such a theory.

at any rate, reducing the otherwise very intriguing reveal of Sectonia's prior form to a blink-and-you'll-miss-it easter egg in an entirely different game is pretty... underwhelming. we've had plenty of "reveals" or cool nods and expansions to other lorebits in similar easter eggs, but none of them were nearly as important as "oh, by the way, here's what the character whose whole arc revolves around personal and physical image used to look like! in a totally unrelated game!"

but that's the tamest complaint. that's just the accessibility of this information, which could have been better but certainly could have been worse.

the biggest problem is Sectonia's design. it's bad. it is just not good, fellas. she is literally just genderbent Taranza. it fails visually, it fails conceptually, and it fails really hard story-wise.

this design was so uninspired that when people in the EN sphere first saw it, tons of people thought it just was Taranza. then when we got screenshots, model rips, etc., it was still so painfully similar to Taranza that it made people assume HAL was saying Taranza and Sectonia were related - which turned into just as much of a shitfight as you might think.

even if this weren't attached to such a crucial character reveal, it's just downright a bad design! instead of taking even the slightest efforts to differentiate Sectonia from Taranza, they did the laziest, most barebones "uhhhhhh what if taranza But Girl" design shift possible. she's wearing the exact same outfit as Taranza, just palette-swapped. so little effort went into both the concepting stage and the modelling stage. she's just Taranza's model with the merest tweaks to make sure you know this is a Girl Spider.

genuinely, I would be a hundred times more amenable to this entire plot point if HAL had just bothered to give her an actual design.

but the problem is, making Sectonia a spider kind of just fucks everything about her story and contradicts itself at multiple points.

the aesthetic and theme language in TD is very clear. this is one of the biggest strengths that both it and Robobot share - the identity and literary through-lines of both games pervade every single visual element of them. Robobot tells its tale of capitalistic tech-fuelled colonialism through every part of the game from level backgrounds, to enemy designs, right down to surgical decisions like mechanising the pinwheel tree that was such a fond image from KRtD. every tiny thing bore the mark of the HWC, whether metaphorically or literally, such that you spent the entire game never forgetting that there was one unified force behind all of this, and Haltmann at the end of the game was the culmination of this aesthetic.

TD did the exact same. every part of TD sells that it's a fantastical fairytale romp through a series of themed locations with a connecting thread of the invading Antr* force.

*(this is a way better romanisation than "antler" this is my hill)

if anything, I'd argue that TD's design language in this respect is tighter than Robobot's, because Robobot had a fairly broad theme of "industrialisation and hi-tech space future sci-fi" to draw its foes from, whereas TD had to condense its antagonists under the stricter banner of "evil insect army".

and they did incredibly. every point of design about the Antrs points straight to Sectonia and draws from her in some way or another. it's absolutely seamless. she's the perfect logical endpoint of Antr design from every angle: she's the literal queen bee of this insect hive and the perfect expression of their anatomy. she's bigger than the biggest Antr. she's more developed. she's more powerful. they were so careful and thorough about this design conceit that Antrs have multiple stages that all march straight up to Sectonia. we go from the tiny bronto burt and waddle dee clones with their little wings and eyes that seem so familiar, to the Antr soldiers, all the way up to the Lord Antrs who are one step away from Sectonia. they have stripes and facial markings to echo hers. it's all wrapped up with the genius bow of combining ants, bees, and wasps: they're all hymenoptera! the metaphor goes even deeper than that because there's a species of wasp that parasitizes spiders! controls them, even!

... except no actually, we've decided she's a spider too and all of that buildup and artful design means nothing.

it's awful. it's taking what is far and away one of the best-executed designs in the series and saying that all of that buildup and blatant connection of ideas meant nothing.

but that's just the visual end of it. Sectonia actually being a spider makes no sense in the lore, either.

first of all, TD's incredible design sense and artistic direction applies to Taranza as well. while he's obviously derivative of Magolor, within the context of TD he's clearly meant to evoke the sky fairies. he's designed to look much more like them than any of the insect characters. he's got the same body type, he moves the same way as them, he's a sky fairy with a spider theme. the game draws visual parallels between him and the sky fairies more than once; this is not unintentional.

this is part of what makes Taranza's role as Sectonia's right hand more impactful: he's only insect adjacent, and the design language would have you believe he's more closely related to the fairies than the insects, so him being with the bad guys is notable and interesting.

so why would a spider character be the ruling monarch of the insect hive? why would the line go ant, bigger ant, fancy ant, armoured ant, spider, wasp?

I mean, shit dude, the miiverse posts directly tell us that Sectonia used to "look like her insect underlings". it really feels like the decision to make her be a spider was a total spur-of-the-moment one, between how badly it interacts with the rest of the story and how lazy the design was. Sectonia's backstory had a couple of holes in it regarding the actual timeline of things, but those were just mysteries regarding what order everything happened in. she was both a bodyjacker and a good queen at one point, which don't exactly jive, so it becomes interesting to think about how those two facts coexist. on the other hand, her being a spider just gets shoehorned in there for no apparent reason other than to... heighten her connection to Taranza?

and that just dovetails into the complete mockery HAL made of Taranza's character development after TD, and THAT is a rant for another time.

there was just no point to it all. Sectonia being a spider adds nothing, removes a bunch of nuance and intrigue, and muddies both her story and the background world of TD.

[katsona-the-katsequel]

P3 Q&A (Part 3)

Q. I would like to know more about the myths and legends.

🔵: It seems that the rules for the unique Personas in this game are that the initial Personas are from Greek mythology, and after awakening, they are from other mythologies. This is to express in a system-like way that each person's potential expands as they awaken.

🦋: Now, let's ask the holders of each Persona to explain the origins of each one.

Orpheus

Main Character: ...

🔵: Ah, he seems a bit quiet, so let me explain. Orpheus is a character in Greek mythology, famous for chasing his lover Eurydice who went to the underworld. He is also the son of the sun god Apollo. The lyre on his back comes from an anecdote in which Orpheus was known as a master of the lyre, and even in the game, you can see a glimpse of his musical talent in the cadenza (meaning a solo impromptu piece) in Mixed Raid. In the anecdote in the underworld, he is shown to have done many things, such as putting Cerberus, the gatekeeper of the underworld, to sleep with the sound of his lyre. By the way, it is said that Zeus made the constellation Lyra out of Orpheus' lyre.

Thanatos

💀: I, the creator, would like to introduce this one. Is that okay?

Main Character: ...

💀: What? You don't care? Well, I'll go ahead. Thanatos is the god of death in Greek mythology. He is an unwelcome god born from Nyx, the goddess of night. Originally, he was a conceptual god, so his appearance was not clearly depicted, but he was first depicted as a god with a personality in Homer's epic poems. Thanatos was originally death itself, but as a result, he became a messenger god who only carried the souls of the dead. There are stories like rakugo stories in which the souls that were supposed to be carried to the underworld were stolen, and people could not die for a while. By the way, there is also a psychological term called Thanatos, which represents the instinct to desire death, including the drive for self-destruction, which is unbecoming of living things.

Messiah

🔵: This is a Persona that belongs to the Judgement Arcana. It is the highest rank of Judgement, and can only be created when the SEES rank is MAX. In the early stages of game planning, it was said that Messiah could not be created unless all Social Links other than Judgement were MAX, so I was surprised. Well, I'm glad it became easy. Now, this Messiah. This is not a god or demon in mythology, but a Hebrew word that means "savior". It is the English reading of Messiah. This can be abbreviated to Greek as "Christos", which is known as the origin of the word Christ.

The word "Messiah" originally means "the anointed one," and it comes from the fact that in Jewish culture, rulers and priests were appointed with oil. It came to be used to refer to a good leader, and ultimately a savior who would lead the people.

Hermes

🧢: Hey, it's Junpei! My Hermes is known in Greek mythology as the messenger of the gods. Apparently, he darted swiftly across the sky and was worshipped as the god of travelers and merchants. My Persona also has cool wings and looks incredibly fast, doesn't it? However, it's his speed that caught people's attention and he also became the god of thieves... Also, in mythology, he is known as the inventor of the lyre, and the lyre played by Orpheus was made by Hermes. By the way, there is also a story that he rescued Io, who was captured by the hundred-eyed monster Argos.

Yukari Takeba (from now on "🌸"): Geez, why do I have to be saved by someone like Junpei!

🧢: Yu-Yukari-chan, don't just barge in! Oh, by the way, you like branded things, don't you? The luxury brand Hermes is also named after Hermes. Hehehehe.

🌸: Ah, you're right. There's a similar mark on the Persona as well...what a waste.

🧢: Shut up!

Trismegistus

🧢: This one needs a little explanation. In the world of alchemy, apart from Greek mythology, there was a god-like figure of alchemists named Hermes. In the world of alchemy, this person was called "Three Times Great Hermes (Hermes Trismegistus)" after the god Hermes. I remember hearing a little about it in school, but he is said to have left behind many important documents in the history of alchemy, such as the Hermetic Texts and the Emerald Tablets, and is also known as the only person to have obtained the Philosopher's Stone. By the way, I once heard that Persona's Trismegistus is red because he is three times greater than normal, but according to Persona designer Soejima, this is not true. It's a shame though. This is the color of my heart, which is burning with passion after awakening to my mission, so please enjoy it. Hehehehe.

Io

🌸: Hi, I'm Takeba. My Persona, Io, is a character in Greek mythology. She was a woman who worked as a priestess at the temple of Hera, the wife of Zeus. But she ended up falling in love with Zeus, who was married, and was even told in a dream to do it, so she had an affair with Zeus. But Hera found out about it, and Zeus turned Io into a cow to cover it up. That's why my Persona is in the shape of a cow. But the worst happened after that. Hera, who knew everything about Io, captured her, and had Argos, the hundred-eyed monster, watch over her so that Zeus wouldn't mess with her. She stayed in the shape of a cow!? Somehow, Hermes saved her, but then she was attacked by horseflies summoned by an angry Hera, and she ended up having to flee all the way to Egypt. By the way, it is said that this is the reason why horseflies still swarm cows even today. Anyway, after arriving in Egypt, Zeus apologized, Hera's anger was appeased, and Io married the Egyptian king and became queen. Even though it is a Love Arcana, isn't this a bit too chaotic?

Isis

🌸: I mentioned earlier that Io went to Egypt and became queen, and she is identified with Isis in Egyptian mythology. In Egypt, white cows are said to be messengers of the gods, but I wonder if they are linked to the legend of Io? However, the original Isis has nothing to do with cows, and in Egyptian mythology, the god Hathor is depicted as a god with cow horns. However, this was later absorbed as an attribute of Isis, so she may have become identified with Io in Greek mythology. By the way, Isis is Greek, and her real name in Egyptian is Aset. Her husband was a god named Osiris, but he was killed by the god Set. However, there is a terrible story that Isis found Osiris's corpse, had sex with it, and gave birth to her son Horus... I can't imitate her, or rather, I don't want to imitate her. She also had an aspect as an earth goddess who loved Horus, and it is said that she later influenced the Christian belief in the Virgin Mary.

Lucia

Fuuka Yamagishi (from now on "🐰"): Hello, I'm Yamagishi. I'd like to introduce my persona, Lucia. This Lucia is not a god in mythology, but a person celebrated as a saint in Christianity, who is said to have died during the persecution of Christians in 304 AD. Her official name is Saint Lucia, but perhaps Santa Lucia is easier to understand. That famous song was about this saint. One day, Lucia experienced a miracle that healed her sick mother, and as a sign of her gratitude to God, she tried to distribute all her assets to the poor. She asked her fiancé, who was worried about this, for help, but he misunderstood that his assets were being scammed, and because Christianity was banned at the time, he reported Lucia to the authorities. However, Lucia would not give up. The authorities, who were encouraging her to convert, mobilized 1,000 soldiers to take her away, but she still refused to move. This is similar to my Persona awakening. In the end, she was executed on the spot, but even as her throat was slit, Lucia cried out, prophesying the end of Christian persecution and declaring that she would become the protector of Syracuse. Amazing. Because of the state of her final moments, Lucia is famous as a saint who heals throat ailments. Also, because her name represents "light," she is sometimes said to be the protector of glass makers and eye diseases.

Juno

🐰: Lucia's powered-up Persona, Juno, is the goddess who became the wife of Jupiter, the chief god of Roman mythology. She is also called Juno (written in Romaji), which is the origin of the word June, meaning June (written in Romaji). As the wife of the chief god, she is famous as the goddess of family and marriage, and brides who get married in June are highly praised and called "June brides" because Juno is the guardian deity of June. By the way, she may seem completely unrelated to Lucia before she awakened, but in fact, that is not the case. In addition to being the guardian of the family, Juno is also known as the guardian of childbirth, and in that case, she is called "Juno Lucia."

Palladion

🤖: I would like to introduce my initial Persona, Palladion. Palladion is a god of inorganic matter, which is appropriate for a machine like me. Palladion is the statue of Athena worshipped by the Trojans in the Temple of Athena during the Trojan War, famous for the legend of the Trojan Horse. Some legends describe it as a simple treasure without a form, not a statue of a god, or it may refer to the fire or spirit of fire placed in the temple, but looking at the design of my Persona, it is appropriate to recognize it as a statue of Athena. It is said that the decisive factor in the defeat of Troy in the Trojan War was the loss of Palladion from the temple after the gates were opened by the trick of the wooden horse. It is a very scary story.

Athena

🤖: I was a mere inanimate object, just like Palladion in mythology, but by acquiring a little bit of humanness, my Persona Palladion changed into Athena. This Athena is well-known, so there is no need to explain. In Greek mythology, she is worshipped as the goddess of war and wisdom, and is also famous as the goddess of art, shipbuilding, and architecture. However, the story of her birth may not be well known. It is a rather spectacular story. Zeus impregnated a goddess named Metis, but it was predicted that the child would usurp Zeus' power. Fearing this, Zeus swallowed Metis. This alone is insane, but Zeus' headache would not go away, so he had another god smash his head with an axe. No matter how painful it was, it was a case of putting the cart before the horse. It is said that Athena, already grown and clad in armor, was born from her head. ...Even though it's a story from long ago, the plot seems a bit flawed.

Polydeuces

Akihiko Sanada (from now on "🥊"): My alter ego Polydeuces is also a god in Greek mythology. However, it may not be a very familiar name. However, if you are familiar with the constellations, you may know him as Pollux, the younger brother of Gemini. The only difference is that Pollux is the Latin reading and Polydeuces is the Greek reading. Born to the great god Zeus and King Psarotas' wife Leda, he inherited the immortal attribute of the gods and was said to have excelled in sword fighting and boxing. In mythology, Polydeuces is probably best known for his exploits as a member of the Argonaut expedition. There is also a story that when the Argonaut expedition visited Bebrix, he brilliantly defeated the king who challenged travelers to boxing matches and beat them to death. When the immortal Polydeuces lost his brother in battle, he lamented that he could not die as he was of divine blood, so he asked Zeus to turn him and his brother into constellations. It's a pretty touching story, isn't it?

Caesar

🥊: Caesar is Gaius Julius Caesar, a Roman soldier in the 1st century BC and a great politician. If you don't understand, try pronouncing the name in English. You've probably heard of Julius Caesar, haven't you? The name Caesar later came to mean "monarch," and it's a Persona that's suitable for the Emperor Arcana. There's no particular connection to Polydeuces before his awakening, and the design motif seems to be a giant robot. According to Soejima, the designer, it wasn't possible to realize it on screen, but it's actually a pretty large Persona. You can just imagine that the figure on his chest is about the same size as me. I would have loved to ride a giant Caesar and beat up shadows.

Penthesilea

Mitsuru Kirijo (from now on "👑"): First of all, there is something I want to say. My Persona's name is Penthesilea, never Pentelesia! I get annoyed when people mistake it for something else. Let's take this opportunity to make sure you remember it. Now, as with Aegis' Palladion, Penthesilea is also a character in the Trojan War. She is the queen of the Amazons, a nation of women who appear as reinforcements for the Trojan army. She makes a dashing appearance with 12 female warriors and ferociously corners the Greek army, but the outcome is decided when the hero Achilles joins the enemy camp. Penthesilea is killed in battle along with the 12 female soldiers. Immediately after she was defeated, Achilles mocked her corpse, but the moment he removed her helmet and saw her face, Achilles regretted defeating her. What a man! As an aside, it is said that Amazon women are skilled with bows, and that they cut off their right breast so that it would not get in the way when they were drawing their bows. There are traces of this event in the Persona design.

Artemisia

👑: It can be said that there are two origins for this beautiful name Artemisia. One is thought to be from Artemisia, Queen of Halcarynassus, a famous female warrior in history who completely defeated the Greek navy in the Persian Wars. Although she had no particular reason to fight herself, her natural strong desire for bravery led her to join the Greek expeditionary force of her own accord. I hate to say it, but she was quite a wild girl. The other origin is thought to come from the previously mentioned worship of Artemis (goddess of the hunt) in Penthesilea, and her role as a recipient of Artemis' powers. As the Amazons were a people of hunters, they were said to have worshipped the goddess Artemis. Incidentally, Artemis was also the goddess of the moon, and is sometimes identified with Diana in Roman mythology.

Nemesis

Ken Amada (from now on "👶"): My Persona is Nemesis. She is a goddess from Greek mythology. I'm a little embarrassed because I was shown in a shameful place in the main story, but she is the goddess of vengeance, which is the perfect fit for me. Moreover, in mythology, Nyx, the goddess of night, is said to be the mother of Nemesis. This is no joke, is it? However, in the original myth, Nemesis is not a human being's revenge against another human being, but a deification of something like divine punishment that a god gives to humans. Ah, but at that time, I was thinking about taking revenge on Aragaki-san, saying "This is divine punishment!", so I'm even more into it. I was young back then too... Yes, that's right, it seems that another side of Nemesis is that of a goddess who calms and heals the desire for revenge. Personally, I would like to take this interpretation. Oh, by the way, some people seem to be confused because I'm the one wearing the Persona, but Nemesis in mythology is a goddess. Don't get that wrong!

Kala-Nemi

👶: Kala-Nemi is the goddess Nemesis who has revealed her true power. It may be an unfamiliar name, but the planning staff boasted that "You probably won't even find her name if you search online!" She is a goddess who is only described in specialist books. She is an old goddess in Hinduism, and is also written as Kala-Nemi. The name is a little similar to Nemesis, isn't it? In fact, she is an old goddess whose name is the origin of the names of several other gods, including Nemesis in Greek mythology. Her name means "the outer wheel of the wheel of time" or "the outer wheel of the celestial sphere," and she is in charge of the reincarnation of time and karma. The planetarium-like shape of the Persona's Kala-Nemi was apparently inspired by the latter meaning. Another interpretation is that Kala means "black" (like the Kala of Daikokuten = Mahakala), and Nemi means "sacred place, sacred forest", and it seems that it can be taken as referring to the sacred place itself, the Black Forest. It seems quite difficult, isn't it?

Castor

Shinjiro Aragaki: Hey. I took a break from the main story, but I'm back for a bit. My Castor is the counterpart of Aki's Polydeuces. He's the older brother of Gemini, but unlike his brother, he didn't inherit the power of the gods. However, he was an expert horse rider, and the reason why my Persona is depicted riding a horse is because of that event. And there's one more thing, the sword stuck in the Persona's chest, there's a story about it that's not just someone else's story. One day, the brothers Castor and Polydeuces got into a fight with their cousins, Idas and Lynceus, over something trivial. But Castor was killed by a stone thrown by the other brother. But Polydeuces, who is immortal with the power of the gods, cannot die. That sword represented the fate of death that Castor held, and at the same time, it also hinted at my own fate of death.

Well, I'm glad Aki didn't take "Let's become a constellation together!" seriously.

Cerberus

Koromaru: Woof! Woof woof woof

Woof! Woof!

🤖: Well, Koromaru-san is very willing to talk, but since we are having difficulty communicating, I, Aigis, will act as interpreter. Cerberus-san is a famous monster in Greek mythology, as you know. It is generally known as a monster with three heads and a snake tail, but Hesiod's Theogony says that it has 50 heads. For now, just remember that it has a lot of heads. Born to Typhon and Echidna, he has a brother called Orthrus. He is also famous in the Megaten series. Unlike his older brother Cerberus-san, the younger brother Orthrus-san has two heads.

Medea

Chidori: I'm not good at talking a lot, but I'll try my best. Medea is the name of a princess of Colchis who appears in the Greek mythology of the Argo expedition. She is also a notorious witch in Greek mythology.

She fell in love with Jason, the leader of the Argonauts, who'd came to steal the Golden Fleece, the treasure of Colchis, and her life was a mess... Starting with her betraying her father and giving the fleece to Jason, she tore apart the limbs of her younger brother and threw them into the sea to throw off her pursuers (she escaped while her father was crying and picking up the limbs), used a trick to have King Pelias, who didn't want to hand over the throne to Jason, boiled to death by his own daughters, and when Jason's new wife lost interest in Medea, she burned her father to death... I feel relieved... but no, she did a lot of terrible things. She's a witch who is completely different from me, who is driven by her emotions, but the fact that she appears as a Persona means that we may have some similarities...

Hypnos

🤡: This is my Persona, Hypnos. In Greek mythology, he is depicted as the son of Nyx, the queen of the night, and I think he is a very fitting Persona for me. In mythology, he is known as the god of sleep, and at the time, sleep was thought to be close to death. That's why he is the son of Nyx and the brother of Thanatos.

By the way, the wing-like parts of my Persona's design are said to be based on the peripheral nerves. There is a theory that we sleep to relieve stress. In other words, the god of sleep is also the god of stress, so the nerves, which visually represent stress, were incorporated into the design. When you look at Hypnos with that in mind, don't you feel a tingling sensation in the corners of your heart?

Moros

💣: My Moros is also a god in mythology, the son of Nyx, just like Takaya's Hypnos. He's also called the god of karma, which is hard to understand, but he's in charge of things like fate. Also, there's that really bad leader of SEES, right? Thanatos, the god he uses, is also his brother. And why does he have such a mechanical appearance? Well, it's mostly because I'm a geek for machines. It also represents the fact that the fate of death is mechanical and unavoidable. See, it's pretty profound, isn't it?

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[rallamajoop]

What are your thoughts on some of the unused concepts within Village? I thought the idea of a sort of shamanistic figure alongside the “five” houses with Karl’s father as the mayor would have been interesting but given the small scale of Village, so perhaps something to that extent if they village was larger — not to mention Moreau’s unused section. At any rate, yeah — I honestly really enjoy reading your analysis of the lore so I’m curious as to what you think of the game’s unused concepts.

Well, this one's tricky to answer, because it seems like whatever you're really asking got lost in a long run-on second sentence there. But I'll do my best.

I think we should start by pointing out there's no reason to think there was ever "a sort of shamanistic figure alongside the “five” houses with Karl’s father as the mayor." Project development is like any other kind of history: it doesn't all happen at once.

The Shaman appears only in the trial storyboard, and that features only four lords. The only hint that there was ever a 5th lord is a half-sentence attached to one piece of concept art of the Duke that says he "was going to be the fifth lord in early drafts." Does that mean there was a fifth lord present at some version of the trial, that he was even going have his own village area? Or was the Duke always meant to play the role we know, but with a reveal he was actually a long-deposed lord to Ethan near the end of the game? Heck, was there a version where the Duke leads the trial in place of the Shaman? I have NO IDEA, and nor do you.

There are concepts which mention Heisenberg's father as the village's mayor, yes, but there are also concepts which describe Urias as the village's former 'leader' (does that mean mayor?)

There are still other concepts for 'the leader of the village's religion', who isn't Miranda and doesn't look much like the Shaman from the storyboard either.

There was another point where Sturm was apparently going to be Heisenberg's father.

Lots of different ideas along those lines were obviously thrown around at different stages of development, and lots of characters clearly had conceptual backstories that there was no need or no space for in the finished game. Some we know were cut because there wasn't the time or resources to realise them (such as the idea of building an entire fishing village for Moreau's area, or for putting 100 witches in Dimitrescu's castle). But others would have been reworked because unrelated changes make them superfluous.

Take the four lords, and their families. Heisenberg at some point apparently also had a father, a mother, and at least one twin brother. Heisenberg refers to his household in plural in the storyboard, and even Moreau alludes to a family of his own. There are concepts of a large Beneviento family with multiple children too.

That's all the more interesting because family (particularly families that are twisted and dysfunctional) is one of the strongest running themes in RE7 and 8 (and I'll be very interested to see if it continues on in RE9!) Back when it was a Shaman leading the trial, there's little suggestion that the four lords represented any unified family ‒ but perhaps the family theme would still have been present with their individual families, in their individual domains?

Once Miranda and her quest to resurrect her daughter have been reworked into the centre of the cult, however, her fixation on motherhood comes to the fore, and the cult itself is now a one big, dysfunctional family: at that point, giving all the lords their own families was probably redundant (and not having to create that many extra characters and potential boss fights was probably a bonus too). I'm curious as to what the Heisenberg family dynamic might have been like, but I'm also fascinated that he's still so recognisably himself in that early storyboard, even though Mother Miranda doesn't exist yet.

Personally, unused concepts are of most interest to me not as cases for 'imagine if this was in the game' but for what they can illuminate about elements that were mostly-but-not-completely-cut from the finished product ‒ see, for example, the case of Moreau's movie poster. The idea of the Duke as a 5th lord is intriguing mostly because it suggests there was a time where we were going to get some real explanation as to the Duke's implied powers and relationship to the village ‒ perhaps even some story as to how he became estranged from his position. In the finished game, he's left very deliberately mysterious.

I'm very curious about the phase where there was apparently a plan for a huge, three-way battle between Chris' team, the lycans and the BSAA in the village ‒ not because I think the game would be better for having it, but because what's left of the BSAA element in the finished game feels like an awkward footnote that just doesn't fit.

I'm fascinated by those unused red eye textures for Rose that survived all the way to the released game ‒ and only more so after someone pointed out to me you can even see a shot of Rose with red eyes in a storyboard for the start of the final battle with Miranda, which appears just briefly in the background of a making-of video. The same commenter also suggested that Rose was draining Miranda's powers in that shot, which seems like a bit of a stretch to me, but would explain why Miranda's power suddenly leaves her for unexplained reasons in the finished game. Unused concepts have so much potential to answer questions the finished product left dangling!

The knowledge that Miranda was originally just supposed to be a foreign research sure casts those photos of her from the lab in a very different light, and even makes me wonder if they were created much earlier in development than I would have assumed. And heck, there are so many fragments of an extended and surprisingly coherent pre-game timeline still lying around the early chapters of the game that I'm very curious as to whether there were originally far more scenes planned before the main action began.

Cut content featuring Elena has me incredibly curious too ‒ mostly because bits of it made it all the way to the early trailers, and there's a quote from the actress herself talking about how the character originally died in different circumstances. Those aren't just early concepts, they're aspects that came really close to making it into the finished game.

If you really want tantalising unused concepts though, one of the most intriguing is this one screenshot where they talk about early plans to have the story jump back and forth in time, with a major chapter set in medieval times. That would be like nothing RE's ever done before, but it certainly hints at the intent to create an even longer and more detailed history for the village. Would we have had a whole separate protagonist in the history segments, ala Clancy from RE7 from the videos, maybe?

Speaking personally, the one thing I felt was really lacking in the lore was the whole cadou concept. Nothing in RE8 feels more like a weak attempt to copy RE4 than the fact the mould is also parasite now, for some reason. Nominally, the cadou is part of how Miranda converts and controls her creations, but Eveline does all that with mould alone, and even in RE8, we see someone transform into a lycan after merely being bitten. Documents talk about cadou-implantation, but the ending sequence shows villagers becoming lycans after a mere injection (and we know this doesn't predate Miranda's creation of the cadou, because there's one floating in a jar).

So what is the process? What does the cadou add to the mythos that simply injecting people with mould wouldn't? RE4's lore is an incoherent mess that falls apart under the least scrutiny, but it at least commits to the parasites as central to its cult and monsters. C'mon, RE8, if you must stuff the parasites in somewhere, work them into your theming! Don't give me some weaksauce bull about them being 'based on nemotodes' in the Japanese text, at least tell me Miranda births them like Marguerite does her bugs, and really lean into all that twisted-mother imagery! They already look like mutant fetuses, the next step is right there!

So it's very interesting to me that there's art of an earlier concept for the creation of the lycans, where victims were encased in mould to form a very cadou-looking cocoon, from which a lycan would eventually emerge. That strikes me as a potentially way more interesting concept than the vague nematode-parasite stuff we got. Alternately, the idea from another piece of concept art of villagers becoming lycans after they 'drank from a chalice' puts a whole different spin on the giant's chalice as a plot point.

Fascinating as some of these concepts are though, I do feel that most of what didn't make it into the finished game was cut for good reason. Pacing and streamlining matter, and plenty of mysteries don't need to be explained. RE8 would not have been a better experience padded with every unused idea to the length of the new RE4 (and I'm not fully convinced even the new RE4 needed to be that long). I would happily pay real money for a proper RE8 artbook with yet more juicy details on how the game came together, but most of what wound up on the metaphorical cutting room floor probably wound up there for good reason.

[scarlet--wiccan]

Do you think it’d be worthwhile to age Luna up? She arguably got soft de-aged after QSNS, so maybe the point is moot, but it does seem like teen/YA characters are more likely to get to do things than kids/tweens (though how old Luna is meant to be rn is beyond me. 12? 14?) I’ve seen speculation that Amaranth could be Luna aged up somehow which is obviously a bit out there (I don’t actually think it’s the case), but like, conceptually Luna being a mentee to Wanda (or anyone in their family) would be kind of nice.

I feel like there’s probably a hesitance to make her too old because that would age the Maximoff twins beyond the vague early thirties or so characters of their generation are stuck in, but… it’s comics, they can give her some kind of unrealistic age-up. But I’m curious if you think she’d be better off as she is now or a bit older and more autonomous. Also, since there’s going to be new students in AvAc and presumably more Strange Academy in some capacity, would you be interested in seeing her in one of those environments?

I've written about Luna's age a few times-- long story short, I think if Pietro is in his early thirties, Luna could feasibly be a preteen or middle-schooler. Characters used to get married younger more often, and I've always taken it as read that he was in his very early twenties when Luna was born.

Luna had cameos in Quicksilver: No Surrender and Fantastic Four (2018) where she appeared to have aged into a very young teenager. In Scarlet Witch and SW&Q, her outfit and hairstyle actually seem to be based on the previous FF cameo, but Luna herself looks a bit younger. I can't decide if this was intentional, or just a slight misjudgment on the artist's part, but I think it would still be very easy for her to show up as a young teenager next time we see her, and, honestly, I hope she does.

Luna works well as a little girl character in the context of the Inhuman Royal, or Pietro and Crystal's off-and-on marriage, but since the Inhumans are shelved indefinitely, I do think that aging her up a tiny bit would give help her fit into other books. I have a lot of ideas about Luna coming of age, even just as a young teen-- I definitely would be in favor of expanding on her powers with magic, and I think in general she's the perfect character to stage some meaningful conversations about the Maximoff family's heritage, since Wanda has so far missed out on doing that with her boys.

And yeah, I think she'd fit right in at something like Avenger Academy, or even a reboot of Future Foundation. (my JohnnyPietro agenda) (joking) (unless...). Strange Academy already has a lot of original characters that need more care and attention, I don't want to overcrowd them. It would be fun to see Luna adopting the Darkhold kid as like, a surrogate cousin/sibling, though.....

[zeravmeta]

You know now that you brought it up multiple times: how would FGO work as a console game? You think they would add/change some stuff in the story? And how would they progress along with the events?

My main fear is that, Nasu being Nasu, the moment he tries to or even have inkling of an idea to do a port, he'll rewrite the whole damn thing, dragging Higa and Sakurai with him.

fgo as a console release would be laughably Easy: Bread and butter standard type moon visual novel

Like i feel it bears repeating but for as used to FGOs gameplay loop that we've gotten, would anyone really say its actually... good? fun? maybe sometimes during challenge quests or grail fronts (fgos best gameplay innovation tbh), but overall it's not exactly fulfilling the way other gachas may entice people with their gameplay (see my other two gachas Arknights and Alchemy Stars) A console port of FGO as a proper visual novel would be spectacular, and moreover, your point on rewriting? I would 100% take a remastered streamlined experience. IF and honestly WHEN there are rewrites, Id suspect they would only change out some of the early game stuff (and also agartha) to actually have some substance (see. boudicas interlude voted Worst In Game and Artemis having 3 [count em on your fingers] interludes that are all basically the same interlude). Were there certain advantages to the experience of FGO being a gacha? i would say yeah, I think there are absolutely memorable moments as a community experienced where all players contributing to things like raids or the mad dash of spoilers to parse what the hell happened on a different server were all fun, but an FGO reconceptualized proper vn release would be just that: reconceptualized. it would be done after the fact, a remaster taking the best part of fgo from the past decade

Would there be a non visual novel gameplay element to it? MAYBE, in a game this extensive I would not be surprised if there were equally extensive cuts made to the roster for the conceptualized console release (this is in part what I suspect that FGO arcade may have existed to test), but i dont think it would be impossible, as other visual novel series' like Danganronpa or 999, Ace Attorney and the like all have other gameplay elements integrated as part of their visual novel experiences. for a game with like, what, 400+ playable characters each with their own profiles, event appearances and (mostly) unique interludes per character? YEAH, that would be a truly herculean task to port, so I would not be surprised if there were character cuts or massive downsizing, which would also mean your special scrimblus blimbos doesnt get in. However, I do think it would ultimately be an improvement

Overall. Yes. ive psychically brainwashed nasu with my mystic eyes to give the go ahead on mahoyosweep and tsukihimesweep to bolster the visual novel audience across the globe and prepare the perfect stage for the fgo console release

[a-fantasy-lover-surfing-the-net]

Till the end of the moon review

I recently rewatched the drama and felt like reviewing the first Cdrama I ever watched. After watching some cdramas in the past 7 months since I first watched the drama, I now trust myself to write a decent enough review after somewhat familiarizing myself with the genre and overall cdrama space.

Rating: 9.5/10 (1000 bonus points for searing itself in my mind and staying there even after 7 months)

Acting: 10/10

Story: 9/10

Chemistry: 100000000/10

OST: 10/10

Costumes: 10/10

Hair & Makeup: 9.5/10

Production/Set Design: 10/10

Visual Effects/CGI: 10/10

Rewatch Value: 10/10

Li Susu, an immortal time travels 500 years into the past to prevent the ascension of the Devil god, who goes on to destroy the world in the future. It's a story of love and hate, good and evil, redemption and damnation. The characters are very well conceptualized and depicted beautifully by talented actors, stunning costumes, really good hair and makeup, and great cinematography. The amazing production and set design along with impressive visual effects and CGI really immerse the audience in the world of TTEOTM. This was a high budget drama and it shows... each and every frame of the drama, it feels lavish. If you are even a little bit interested go watch the first episode and l promise you'll be hooked and end up finishing the drama.

Now unto my spoiler filled thoughts:

I find it interesting that the typical backstory themes and some character arcs of the male lead and the female lead have been swapped here. The FL usually has a dead parent or abusive household or terrible luck and so on. The ML usually comes to the FL's rescue or stands up for her and so on. We all know that Tantai Jin is Disney Princess coded given his dead mother, abusive and neglectful upbringing and his animal telepathy powers. LSS both as Ye Xiwu and LSS repeatedly saves TTJ and stands for him. While TTJ also saves her many times, he does not get a chance to stand up for her because she usually takes care of herself and she is not suspected or wrongfully accused where she would need someone to support her. Also, TTJ basically became a part of LSS's family as her uncle took him under his wing and he promised to stay in Hengyang Sect with her in ep 35 before all hell breaks loose. And who can forget that LSS marks TTJ with her Phoenix mark, typical ML behavior.

Their romance is my ultimate enemies to lovers pairing. It has just the right amount of fighting, messiness, animosity and angst for me. I feel that other pairings don't have enough of it for me to consider them as an enemies-to-lovers couple. Their visuals, their chemistry, their acting and the story everything was so great. Who else has three epic weddings in one drama? I am still not able to move on from this couple and drama.

While the misunderstandings were obviously supposed to lead to a turning point in the story, I feel like it was in character for them to jump to conclusions and assume the worst without fully thinking things through and which then led to them acting rashly. I mean both TTJ and LSS had bad history between them so in the early stages of their relationship where their trust in each other was shaky, it's understandable that they were prone to misunderstandings. Also, they're both not good at communicating with each other. In the mortal arc, LSS was never fully honest with TTJ and they never addressed their past misdeeds properly (like OG Ye Xiwu was very cruel to TTJ and he never talked to her about it and just brushed it off). In the immortal arc, TTJ deceived LSS when he became the Devil God.

For the most part the story was gripping, progressed at a good pace and conveyed many themes that become apparent on rewatches. Though it was obvious that the last 5 episodes and the ending were rushed because the censorship rules changed as they went into production. This was one of those dramas that needed at least 5-10 more episodes to properly flesh out the story. It was a missed opportunity that we didn't get to see LSS ruling the Demon realm and Ami's antics.

Another victim of the decreased episode count is the arc of the second leads. Tbh, I wish that Pian Ran and Ye Qingyu were the SLs but I think I would have enjoyed seeing the complete character arc of Xiao Lin/Gongye Jiwu and Ye Bingchang/Mo Nv and the resolution between them. That said it was appalling that they didn't bring back Pian Ran and Ye Qingyu in the immortal arc. I really missed their dynamic with each other and with the main leads. It is disappointing that they didn't even get an open/ambiguous ending to give us some closure and satisfaction.

The actress did a phenomenal job in making us hate her as Ye Bingchang and Tian Huan. Those characters as villians really worked as they were in a way the ones who had the markings of the female lead (these characters at the start of their stories could easily be heroines in any other story) but they turn into villians. Tantai Minglang was a good, serviceable villian and the actor did a lot with how little he was given. Di Mian was selfish and manipulative traitor who was almost scarily competent. I mean he did achieve what he wanted by becoming the Devil God and opening the Tongbei formation. The point of Devil God as a villian is not his character and his motivations but rather he represents our inner demons and how each of us has the power to overcome them.

Out of all the dramas I've watched, only TTEOTM's entire OST is on my regular playlist to listen to. Every time I listen to "Let's be like this for 10,000 years", I feel the love and tragedy of Sang Jui and Ming Ye's story all over again. It's impressive that a song can make you relive those feelings and the story every time you listen to it. All the songs fit wonderfully in the scenes they're played over and also make us feel those emotions again when listening to them separately.

On my first watch, the dream arc felt a little out of place and jarring, which, in hindsight, was probably due to the fact that it was my first cdrama. Upon rewatch I've come to appreciate that it gives a look into the age of Gods and it shows that the Devil God was so powerful that to stop him the Gods had to sacrifice themselves and only Ming Ye was able to survive. The action sequences here are just magnificent to watch and they definitely seem movie level. It also serves as a warning to the audience, LSS and TTJ that they could also have a tragic end if they don't learn the lessons from it. Unfortunately, in the mortal arc they did have a tragic end. However, in the immortal arc, TTJ is able to learn from his experience as Ming Ye and succeeds in defeating the OG Devil God and becoming the Devil God himself with control over his own destiny.

One of the most prominent themes of the drama is redemption and that love and compassion are powerful enough to change a person's fate. The themes of Taoism and Buddhism are evoked throughout the drama. There are also many other minor themes like the food is used as a guesture kindness (when LSS first gives TTJ a proper meal), affection/care (when TTJ gave LSS the goose themed meal), love (when LSS gives badly cooked meals to TTJ), betrayal and trickery (the poisoned porridge) and comraderie, friendship, brotherhood and familial love (when TTJ shares meals with his sect brothers and master). Both TTJ and LSS have dead moms, terrible fathers and great adoptive dads (Zhao You and Qu Xuan Zi), these are just some observations I made.

I may not love the ending but I don't hate it either as it was obvious to me that they reunite once again and live happily as a family (the audio ending really makes it clear). Even though I'm irritated we don't get to see it, I'm still satisfied that we get a hopeful ending rather than a tragic one.

Until now I've mostly been lurking in fandom spaces by liking and very rarely commenting and reblogging but never posting my own original post. The fact that my first ever post is on TTEOTM shows how much I love it. I'll probably be posting more TTEOTM analysis stuff so be on the look out for that if you're interested. Also, I welcome your recommendations as I'm still a newbie to cdramas and kdramas.

You can also check out my costumed cdrama rankings here.