#(even though i pretty much know all the major plot points and you know i've seen the movie)

[sparkpup-likes-drawing]

Okay I need to scream into the void about something because I just saw a post that reminded me of this idea for an AU I've had, and I started ranting in the tags but it's better as a full post so people can actually see my ideas for this okay? I wanna just throw it out into the world for y'all to judge

So, TGCF, right? What if- and hear me out on this- TGCF... But the ghosts are actually vampires? Pretty much all the major plot points are the same but the ghosts are vampires.

It would work think about it

(also spoiler warning for some stuff obviously)

He Xuan feeding on water ghosts? No, maybe vampires get stronger from consuming the blood of other vampires, and the strongest of the strong can even suck out lower vampires' powers as well, leaving them as nothing but a husk, a shell of the vampire they once were

Ghost City? Vampire City, duh. And the Gambler's Den deals mainly in blood no I will not be taking a second opinion on this.

Hua Cheng's title, "Crimson/Bloody Rain Sought Flower"? Puh-lease, it's so obvious. Bloody Rain Sought Flower?? It's because he's known as the strongest vampire of all, of course, and the blood from his bloody rain?? Oh-hoh, just imagine him standing there, fangs glinting as he smiles, wiping his thumb on his cheek and licking the blood off with a cocky grin 🤤😍❤️‍🔥

Mt. Tonglu spitting out spirits and being the gauntlet for them? Nuh-uh, it's Mt. Yinlu now. Silver Kiln Mountain instead of Copper Kiln Mountain. Vampire gauntlet. Something something evil miasma or whatever that turns people into vampires, IDK haven't thought about too hard yet but let me cook ok

And the ghost rut?? Hehe, well it's the vampire rut now. Bloodlust everywhere. They all have a desire to hunt and to feed and that's why it's considered so dangerous.

Also about the vampire rut, so in the books we all know and love how Hua Cheng gets desperate for Xie Lian, kissing and making out with him during that scene etc etc BUT what if instead he gets the unsuppressable urge to feed? Xie Lian is right there, and he's so trusting and so easy to just bite, but Hua Cheng's subconscious refuses to let him drink Xie Lian's blood, because who is he to be able to even taste a drop of that divine ichor? Anyways, Hua Cheng starts holding Xie Lian down and kissing him after Xie Lian hugs him because of course he does, and his fangs are out, so they brush against Xie Lian's lip and- fuck. He tastes blood. He's trying so hard now not to just bite or fuck Xie Lian and Xie Lian is having a time discovering the very problematic fact that he really likes the feeling of Hua Cheng's fangs on his lips and skin.

Vampires are able to turn into animals, of course. They can also turn into an incorporeal dark mist because I say so. Vampire powers oooooo *wiggles fingers*

Vampires can cultivate as well as gods and shit so they also have other powers (so basically my lame ass excuse for why vamp! Hua Cheng can change his appearance and do magic shit)

Aforementioned cultivation makes it so Hua Cheng can hold his silver scimitar E-Ming without it hurting. Yes he's a cocky bitch about it

Speaking of turning into incorporeal mist, that's what Hua Cheng does in place of dispersing when he frees Xie Lian from his shackles. Does the mist dissipate on the wind while Hua Cheng regathers a corporeal form? Does the mist hang around Xie Lian like a little puppy, terrorising people as they wonder why His Highness is being followed by a shroud of terrifying maroon mist with an evil-as-fuck aura? IDK haven't thought that far but you can imagine whichever scenario you like the best

And, I can definitely not hear you asking because I'm definitely not in your walls: "But Sparkpup, what about ghost's ashes? What about the "soulmate getting the thing that controls your life" thing?" Okay. So. Vampires' blood is considered inherently dirty and cursed, even though it like. Tastes just the same or maybe even better than other blood. Anyways, all vampires have a single drop of the pure blood in their heart, called the silver blood pearl (as it is their greatest weakness, and this purest drop of blood is silver-coloured), and when a vampire trusts and loves another with all of themself, they will take this purest drop of blood and turn it into something physical; an amulet, a pearl, a diamond- or, a crystal clear ring. They will give it to the one they love, and that purest drop of blood can control the vampire, and if it is destroyed, it destroys the vampire. He who holds the silver blood pearl holds total power over the vampire. This is their way of showing total trust and love for someone. Of course, as in canon, it is often abused, as people will force vampires to give up their silver blood pearl and use it to either make the vampire kill themself or force them to go on rampages and cause chaos. But ofc Xie Lian believes in agency and individuality even though Hua Cheng would be 100% fine with being his puppet.

Also young vampires tend to hunt and feed on animals, but when vampires get older, they are expected to find a mate, and they will 'mark' that person, as that person will become their primary food source. It requires a lot of trust between the two parties overall, and yes if you're thinking it I could not help myself I did bring in the omegaverse-ass mating bite thing into this because fuck you I do what I want.

So obviously it's implied with the whole "only doing it with a mate" thing but it's considered a very intimate act to feed directly from someone. Feeding directly from animals in adult vampires is only done as a last resort if they don't have a mate and is considered crude and improper. If needing to drink blood and not having a mate, adult vampires will drink blood from pouches, or artificial blood in the case of the vampire version of vegans. They also can eat normal/other food and get nourishment from that, but a vampire who doesn't eat blood or artificial blood cannot fuel their powers and will constantly feel unsatisfied from their meals that way, hence most of them find a blood or blood-like alternative.

Xie Lian is a very willing food source for Hua Cheng. Hua Cheng is definitely not hard when feeding from Xie Lian, and Xie Lian definitely isn't hard from Hua Cheng biting him.

On that note, asexual and aromantic vampires who don't have mates will either just drink blood from pouches (most common method) or will continue hunting wild animals (those who do this are considered weird for this but non-aroace vampires don't want to cross the scary aroace vampire hermit clans in the forest so they just vibe with it)

Anyways I've thought too much about this and haven't written it at all lmfao

[undecized]

The struggle of watching an old show and wondering what Tumblr opinions are and what meta people wrote, but not wanting to check the tag in order to not be overflown by spoilers

[prythiansprincess]

chicken noodle soup.

pairing: mattheo riddle x reader

song inspiration: is it really so strange? by the smiths

author's note: just a soft fluffy comfort fic cause i've been thinking about matty lately and i needed cheering up after the end of kwaf. let's all laugh at the fact that i set a 1k limit on this fic only to fail miserably lmao 😭

Mattheo Riddle was not a fan of Mondays. 

Most of the time, Mattheo spent the first day of the week nursing a hangover and getting higher than a hippogriff at the Astronomy Tower with his friends to achieve equilibrium. The only thing he looked forward to every week was the prospect of riling you up in class. To be fair, it didn’t take much to get under your skin. Being himself seemed to do the trick. 

As he walked through the castle halls, Mattheo smiled to himself as he plotted out all the different ways he could provoke you on this dreadful day. For some sick and twisted reason, he reveled in the fact that only he could manage to rouse such a violent reaction out of you. There was something satisfying about the way your eyes blazed, your rosy cheeks tinged with heat as you told him off.

Maybe he'd flirt with you today. Tell you how good you looked in your short little skirt. Watch as you turned as red as the tie around your neck. His pretty little Gryffindor good girl. In Mattheo's mind, you were his to tease and taunt.

With his usual swagger, Mattheo sauntered into Advanced Transfiguration fully prepared to test out his new tactics on his nemesis, but you were nowhere to be found. 

At first, he figured that you were just running late. Throughout the duration of your rivalry, Mattheo had never once witnessed you skip class. He would’ve bet his entire cigarette supply that you’ve had perfect attendance since first year. When Professor McGonagall started the lesson and you were still missing in action, Mattheo was understandably concerned. 

The uneasy feeling in his stomach didn’t mean that he was worried about you though. This was purely about mutual benefit. Mattheo couldn’t very well have his Transfigurations partner skipping out on lessons. Even though he regularly did so himself. But still, that was different. Everyone knew he was a delinquent. You, on the other hand, were anything but. Until today, you’ve probably never missed a class in your life. 

Mattheo waited. Surprisingly, the two of you had the majority of your classes together. All of which dragged more than usual since you weren’t there to yell at him for dicking around. When you still hadn't turned up for Charms or Herbology, he became convinced that something was horribly wrong. Missing one lesson was alarming, but three in a row? That was entirely out of character for you. 

When Professor Sprout finally dismissed the class, Mattheo sauntered over to Granger’s desk. As always, she was surrounded by her two dimwit friends who immediately tensed the second he loomed near. Potter and Weasley shot him matching menacing glares, but Mattheo ignored them entirely. 

“Granger,” he drawled, leaning against the wooden desk. “Care to tell me where my partner’s been all day?” 

The Gryffindor girl appeared a bit perturbed by the question. “Why do you want to know where Y/N is?” 

Mattheo sighed in exasperation and produced the set of notes he’d taken during class. A first for him. He couldn’t remember the last time he actually listened to an entire lesson, let alone take notes, but he knew that you would have a million questions for him when you returned. The notes were his way of saving himself from your relentless interrogation. 

“Figured the little know-it-all would want my notes.” 

“Y/N is feeling a bit under the weather,” Hermione said cautiously. “I can take the notes to her if you’d like.” 

“No.” Mattheo declared rather suddenly. He cleared his throat and attempted to smooth over the sharp response. “No, McGonagall tasked me with it. I don’t want her docking points from my house when she finds out that you did my dirty work for me.”

Hermione raised a brow. “Sure.” The quirk of her mouth told Mattheo that she wasn’t convinced by his excuse. “Well, Y/N is resting up in the tower if you fancy a visit.” 

After a quick detour to the kitchens, Mattheo made his way over to Gryffindor tower. It was surprisingly easy to gain access to the lion’s den. He simply threatened a third year to let him in and got on with it. They truly needed to upgrade their security measures. One glare was all it took for Creevey to crumble and cave. 

With a satisfied smirk, Mattheo walked past the gaudy common room. For Salazar's sake, hadn't the Gryffindors ever heard of subtlety? The decor consisted solely of crimson and gold and the furnishings looked like something out of that muggle show his nan loved to watch—Antiques Roadshow. Antique was right. The worn out couch that he passed looked older than him.

Merlin, now he was starting to sound like Malfoy. Mattheo hurried along before he caught the urge to fold origami notes and chuck it at Potter's head. Fortunately for him, the place was devoid of the Chosen One or anyone for that matter.

By now, his fellow classmates were all in the Great Hall eating dinner, which he was thankful for. It was no secret that Mattheo’s presence wouldn’t be welcome here and he wasn’t really in the mood to fight his way through the Gryffindors just to deliver a note from the kindness of his black heart. Thank Salazar that there wasn’t a single soul in the tower to bicker with. Until he reached your dorm, of course. 

The relationship between the two of you was volatile to say the least. Despite Mattheo’s reputation, you weren’t shy about telling him off. When you were first assigned as partners, Mattheo had fully intended to let you do all the work while he skipped class to smoke, but he quickly realized that this would not be the case. You hunted him down at his hideout in the Astronomy Tower and discovered him blissfully sharing some premium grade mirthroot with Theo and Draco. When you found him, you were so angry that you dragged him by the ear all the way to the library, much to the amusement of his friends. Needless to say, Mattheo never missed a study session again. 

In a way, Mattheo admired you for it. Aside from his friends, everyone in the castle feared him. It was sort of refreshing to have someone call him out on his shit. Especially if that someone was a funny, feisty, ferocious Gryffindor who he enjoyed pestering every chance that he got. Mattheo always did have a penchant for girls with an attitude problem. 

Even as he knocked on your door, the Slytherin boy couldn’t help but chuckle to himself when he heard you grumbling from the other side. 

“Oh, for Godric’s fucking sake, what is it now?” 

The door swung open, revealing a very pissed off Y/N. Clad in striped pajamas and fuzzy bunny slippers, you placed a hand on your hip and frowned. Even in the throes of sickness, you still somehow managed to inject venom in your glare. Mattheo grinned like an idiot. 

“Nice slippers, princess.” 

You huffed, crossing your arms. “What do you want, Riddle?” 

“To make sure my partner doesn’t slack.” He waved his set of notes around. “Don’t think your sickness excuses you from studying.”

“This is payback for making you revise with me after you fell off your broom and broke your arm, isn’t it?” 

Mattheo cringed as he recalled the quidditch accident that sent him to the infirmary for a week. In true Y/N fashion, you were sitting by his bedside with a stack of books in your lap the second he woke up. Madam Pomfrey hadn't even put his arm in a sling yet before you were drilling him on proper spell enunciation and wand movements.

“You terrorized the infirmary with your mnemonics,” Mattheo said with a dramatic sigh. “It’s my turn now. This is sweet revenge, Y/N.” 

You squinted at his barely legible handwriting. “I’m just surprised you took your head out of your arse long enough to take notes.” 

“Glad to see that illness hasn’t lessened your bite. If anything, those teeth seem a little sharper than usual.” He leaned against the doorframe and smiled down at you. “Feeling a bit feral, princess?” 

“Why don’t you come a little closer and find out?” you quipped, baring your teeth at the aggravating boy. 

The gesture appeared intimidating for a full second until you sniffled and launched into a coughing fit, which made Mattheo frown. 

“Are you alright?” 

“Of course I am. I regularly cough my lungs out on nosy Slytherins whose sole purpose of existence is to make my life a living hell.”

He pressed the back of his hand against your forehead. The way his brow furrowed strangely resembled concern. Mattheo trained his chocolate brown eyes on you, examining the rosiness of your cheeks and the slight pinch of discomfort in your features.

"You're burning up." Mattheo's hand dropped from your forehead to the side of your neck. He pressed his fingers against your pulse point, feeling the erratic beating of your heart underneath his touch. It was strangely intimate. "You have an elevated heart rate."

You flushed and swatted his hand away. "Well, yes. That usually happens when one is ill."

"Come on, you should sit down."

"Don't tell me what to do, Riddle."

Mattheo rolled his eyes before dragging you by the elbow. Your protests fell on deaf ears as he barged his way into your dorm and walked you over to the bed. You watched as he pulled up a chair next to you before rifling through the contents of his backpack. Out of the sordid mess of his belongings, Mattheo produced a small container of soup. With a flick of his wand, he conjured a spoon. 

“Here, have some of this. It should help.”

As soon as he pried the lid open, the heavenly smell of chicken noodle soup filled your senses. Mattheo scooped up an equal amount of soup and noodle and blew on it to cool it down before tilting it towards you. The sight of him offering you food like you were some helpless toddler was only slightly insulting. You swore to Godric that if Mattheo started making airplane sounds, you’d strangle the bloody twat.

 “I can feed myself, you know.” 

“Just eat the damn soup, Y/N.” 

You rolled your eyes in return, but obliged nonetheless. Despite the source, you could never resist comfort food.

“Chicken noodle soup?” 

As soon as you tasted it, you knew that it wasn’t just soup. It was your favorite soup. The very same one that Winky made every third Wednesday of the month. You knew because you looked forward to it every time. It was even marked on your calendar. That’s how much you liked it. 

Mattheo nodded absentmindedly. “Yeah, I know it’s your favorite so I bribed Winky to make some.” 

You furrowed your brows in confusion. “How do you know it’s my favorite?” 

For once in his life, Mattheo looked utterly uncomfortable. He averted his gaze and busied himself by stirring through the carrots and celery. “You, uh, mentioned it in class once.” 

You couldn’t help but smile. Maybe it was the fever talking, but you thought that was sweet. “You remembered that?” 

Mattheo looked up, a stray curl kissing the tops of his cheekbones as he met your gaze. The shy smile on his face was alarmingly endearing. Sometimes when you looked at those angelic curls and stupid big, brown eyes, you forgot that you were supposed to loathe him. “Of course. It’s my favorite too.” 

You chuckled, sniffling a little. “It’s like a hug in a cup, right?” 

The curly headed boy nodded. “It totally is.” 

After you finished the soup, you expected Mattheo to take his leave. Instead, he inspected the vials of potions laying out on your night stand. He read through every label, frowning a little. 

“You should really have some pepperup potion in here.” Mattheo remarked as he arranged the vials one by one. “Are you sure this dose is potent enough? Maybe you should ask them to brew something stronger.” 

“Pomfrey prescribed them herself. No offense, but I think I’ll take her years of healing experience over your expert opinion.” Mattheo gasped rather dramatically, which made you chuckle. “As much as I appreciate the notes and the soup, I don't think it's wise for you to stick around. I’m feeling a bit better, but I might still be contagious.” 

Mattheo shrugged. “It’s alright, I’m not scared of a little cold. Besides, I still have to go over the Transfiguration assignment with you.” 

“Aren’t you worried that I’ll get you sick?” 

“Not really,” he said, waving off your concern. “I know you’re going to pester me about everything you missed in class, so I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone.” 

To your surprise, Mattheo’s notes were extremely detailed.  It was a bit hard to read given his boyish scrawl, but with a little help in translation, you were making great progress in becoming fluent in Riddle. The more Mattheo explained the concepts and ideas that were discussed in each class, the more baffled you were. You've always known that he was smarter than he let on, but this was borderline impressive.

“How do you know all of that?” 

“I asked.”

“You asked?” Mattheo stared blankly at your surprised expression. “You never ask questions in class.” 

“I never had to since you're always there interrogating the professor like the little know-it-all that you are. Thanks to your absence, I had to fill your role in class today.”

You grinned. It grew wider and wider, spreading until your cheeks hurt. Mattheo glared at your joyous expression. “What? What’s that shit eating little grin for?” 

“You missed me.”

Color flooded Mattheo’s cheeks. You were surprised to find how well crimson suited him. It was almost the exact shade of your house colors. “Don’t be ridiculous—”

“Riddle, you asked questions in class. You took notes for me. You brought me chicken noodle soup." Mattheo flushed as you pointed out the obvious. "You totally missed me.” 

“If you tell anyone, I’ll hex you.” 

“Admit it, Mattheo. Your day was utterly dull without me.” 

Mattheo rolled his eyes, sighing in defeat. “Fine, you’ve got me. I was bored out of my mind without you around. How else am I supposed to pass the time if you’re not there for me to argue with?” 

“There’s plenty of other people in the castle that you could bicker with.”

“Yeah, but they’re not you.” 

He seemed a little shocked by his own statement, but he didn't try to retract it. In fact, Mattheo almost seemed resigned to it.

“Careful, Riddle. It almost sounds like you have a crush on me.” 

“I’d have to be a bloody idiot to fall for a girl who absolutely despises me.” 

“That wasn’t a denial, you know.” 

He pinched the bridge of his nose like the very idea of it vexed him, but you caught the little smile he hid beneath his fingers. Mattheo snatched the notes from your hands. “Focus on the lesson, will you?” He grimaced as soon as the words left his mouth. “I can’t believe I’ve just said that. Look at what you’re doing to me, Y/N.” 

“You’ll live, Riddle.” You poked a section of his notes that you hadn’t quite deciphered. “Now what in the bloody hell is the Gobstopper Ruffian?” 

“The Goblin Rebellion. Merlin, my handwriting isn't that bad.” 

“Are you kidding? A kindergartner writes more legibly than this.” 

The hours passed while you bickered and bantered. You hated to admit it, but you missed arguing with him too. Laying in bed all day had you positively bored, but yet time passed within the blink of an eye as you went back and forth with Mattheo. Somewhere between discussing the possibility of Longbottom running an underground exotic plant ring and arguing over the best Smiths song, the sun had set over the horizon. Mattheo rubbed his eyes and yawned. 

“You look knackered, Riddle,” you teased, patting the spot beside you. “Do you want to lie down for a bit?”

Chocolate brown eyes widened at you. “Lie down? With you? On your bed?” 

“Yes, that’s typically how people do it.” You smirked as he shot you an apprehensive look. “Unless you’re too scared.”’

Never one to back down from a challenge, Mattheo lifted the covers and gestured for you to make room. “Scoot over, then.” 

The jest seemed to have backfired on you because now Mattheo was crawling into bed and making himself completely at home. All the apprehension from earlier melted as he pulled you against him, his chest pressed against your back as he nuzzled into the crook of your shoulder. You stifled a giggle as Mattheo released a satisfied little sigh. 

Mattheo wrapped his arms around you until you were covered in the scent of amber, cinnamon, and leather. You never expected to unearth the fact that Mattheo Riddle was a great cuddler, but yet here you were, reaping the benefits of this newfound revelation. He slipped his fingers through yours and nuzzled closer. 

"Who would've known that Mattheo Riddle was such a great cuddler?"

"If you tell anyone—"

"You'll hex me. Put a curse on my family. Set my possessions on fire. Yes, I know, Riddle. You keep threatening me, but you never follow through. I'm starting to think that you're losing your touch."

Mattheo squeezed your hip before twining your legs together. "I wouldn't test me, Y/N. You're in a very vulnerable position right now."

You chuckled as he scooted even closer. "Maybe, but you won't do anything."

"Why's that, princess?"

"You like me too much," you retorted, chuckling as Mattheo buried his face in your hair. "One day without me and you're already a needy mess."

"You infuriate me," Mattheo whispered against your ear. "But you're also the best part of my day. I couldn't imagine fighting with anyone else but you, my dear nemesis."

"I totally loathe you, Mattheo Riddle."

He chuckled as you snuggled into him. "I loathe you too, Y/N Y/L/N."

The irony of the statement contrasted with how tangled up you were wasn't lost on you. For two people who supposedly hated each other, cuddling with your enemy had never felt so right. The steady beat of Mattheo's heart lulled you towards sleep. You were slowly succumbing to its hypnotic lullaby until Mattheo's voice broke through the silence.

“Y/N?” He murmured against your hair.

You shifted, your eyes feeling heavy as his warmth enveloped you. “Hmm?” 

Mattheo’s voice was low and gravelly, flowing like honey in your ears. “This is nice.” 

You smiled against the pillow, staring at your intertwined fingers. “Better than chicken noodle soup?” 

You felt him grin against your skin before he leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss on your temple. “Way better than soup.” 

TAGLIST

@annaisabookworm @bubybubsters @criesinlies @niktwazny303 @therealallisonspear @athenalikethegoddess @clairesjointshurt @vixzwrites @elle4404

[crescent-usagi]

Devin May Cry Netflix

Look. I've never played Devil May Cry, not a single game. I knew very little going into this show. But man this was a really good and fun show!

All I see is a bunch of negativity coming from the DMC fan base, and look I can accept you wanting an proper adaptation of your video game; but that doesn't mean you have to be an ass hat to this new continuity.

This is a non-canon story, if you want the original DMC then go back and replay the games! Complaining about the story being different in this is like complaining that Sonic 3 isn't the same as Sonic Adventures 2. Its not meant to be exact, its meant to take the characters and ideas and use them in a way to reintroduce them to a newer generation of people.

A Majority of complaints I've see are about Lady being the main character instead of Dante when that's blatantly untrue. God forbid a WOMEN be important to the story. Another complaint I've seen is Dante being weaker then his game counterpart. This Dante wasn't trained to fight by his father like he was in the games; he has no idea how his powers work until the Rabbit explains it to him. He didn't even KNOW he was half demon! Lets allow the character to learn and grow and get stronger thru the series. While Lady has been training and is in a special forces unit for fighting demons. Even though Dante has been fighting demons for a while he has mostly been relying on his extreme healing factor and speed rather than actual technique from what we can really see.

I also see people complaining about backstories. majorly that we don't fully get Dante's full story just the clip notes of it. But you have to realize the creators were only given 8 episodes to tell their story. unfortunately that means cutting things for time and Dante's back story at this point is not the most relevant to the story. We get Rabbit and Lady's back stories because they are relevant to the current plot of the show (Lady's is more so used a mirror to Rabbits). If we are to get another season it would most likely be focused on Dante finding and fighting Vergil where we would most likely get to see the entire back story from both boy's point of views.

People seem to be forgetting that the goal is to get another season to keep exploring these characters. I'm sure that in the first video game Dante isn't the same person he is in the last because he had time to grow. These 8 episodes are introducing us (and Dante) to EVERYTHING. He will (hopefully) grow in future season(s). People are expecting to much from such a short season. Unfortunate as it is this is how streaming services do things, as much as id rather we get 12 episodes or more we are only given 8 and they have to make due with what they have.

And the immigration analogy. So much about this is hated but its because people are only looking at it at face value. Yes, Rabbits plan is WRONG but that doesn't mean everything he stood for was wrong. letting in every demon is a bad idea. Yes. But dose that mean all those innocent Makaian's should be dyeing and suffering to the corrupt and gruesome ruling class of demons? No. I would BET that this idea will be working towards Dante (or maybe Virgil?) becoming the new ruler/king of Makai after defeating King Mundus. Perhaps after kicking out the American invasion and closing the door to hell behind them and sealing it he will be left (maybe with his brothers help) to restructure and try and repair Makai. (pretty sure he and his brother get trapped in hell in the games? could be wrong I've only watched one hour long video about the games so I could be misremembering.) I would expect Dante to grow and change as a character before this were to happen but again that's the point of multiple seasons. The perfectionists solution to immigration isn't to let everyone into another country; its to fix the situation they are coming from.

While no we don't need politics to be part of the show it is not our choice as viewers to make. This is what the Director wanted to go with so it's what we are getting, if you don't like it then don't watch it and just enjoy the games. This isn't the games, and maybe if it was a reimagining of something I cared about and grew up with I'd view it differently but as a new comer to the series I really enjoyed it and will be looking more into the franchise as a whole. This show succeeded in its mission to bring in new people to the fan base, just as the sonic movie did for its franchise.

I really hope we get another season and this isn't just left as a one and done show. Please look at this is in a new lens and not as a connection to the video games. Allow them to tell the story they want to tell. Maybe I'll re-watch the show and have different feelings in the future but after a first watch I really liked it. The animation and soundtrack are spectacular and really nostalgic for me as someone who grew up watching AMV's on YouTube in the 2010's.

I don't normally post my opinions about things online and just keep to myself but this felt important for me to talk about. If anything I've said was wrong or you disagree with any of my statements feel free to let me know, just please don't be a jerk about it, like I said I'm not overly familiar with this franchise and I only watched thru this season once so I could also be misremembering or just have rose tinted glasses from a first viewing. I don't really know how to end this now. byebyyyyyeeeeee <3

[directdogman]

Dogman, how do you write SO WELL!?!? I love all your characters and I need to know what/where you find inspo from...

Ha. Every writer is just someone who apes the creative processes of their inspirations. For video game writing specifically, there's two answers for me.

Toby Fox is always gonna be a huge inspiration for me. I've written plots and characters before and had to abandon ideas after realizing I'd accidentally written part of UT again. Even some of the ideas I used were undeniably inspired by UT in a subconscious way and ofc, I included several explicit references to UT in my last series. Toby's a very clever guy who likely pays very close attention to the art he consumes and tries to figure out how to maximize how much his work connects with his audience. Whatever his process is, it works.

The other answer is a lil funnier: Scott Cawthon, but specifically the legend, not the man. For context: Back in the earlier days of the FNaF fandom, people had a hyper-inflated view of Scott Cawthon's writing skills that largely came from how little of a presence he had back in those days. In the vacuum of Scott actually explaining his own process in detail, people got caught up in his genuinely creative way of hiding exposition in his games using cryptid and (then) unexpected methods, and a narrative formed (one that he's since refuted.)

While he never implied it tmk, fans broadly believed that he constructed these sweeping and complex narratives with tons of cohesive moving parts, with the games essentially acting like the mere tip of his lore iceberg. People even thought he wrote so much that he had whole games worth of lore outlined from the beginning! In the first Dawko interview he gave, he clarified that this wasn't the case and explained roughly what his process was (basically just outlining rough theme ideas + aesthetics for future titles.)

However, that legend made younger-me's mind run wild and any time I wrote a story, it became very difficult for me to not keep writing down ideas while completing the grunt work that followed me finishing my scripts. When I finished DSaF 1, I already had DSaF 2's draft written and by the time 2 was done, I had enough lore for a 3rd game on paper (and a lot more stuff that I didn't use.) By the time three was out, I had pages upon pages of unused concepts/story ideas and more or less just had to decide to call it quits or else I'd be pumping out entries forever!

That's why if you go back to those older games, there's references that directly refer to future plot-points in pretty casual/easy to miss ways. (Like Henry's mention in DSaF 1, Dave being heartless in DSaF 2, Jack being soulless in 1, and even Blackjack being Jack's soul in 2. Most of 3's major plotpoints are implied somewhere in 2 and some of 2's in 1.)

DT is much the same. By the time I finished writing it, I had fairly detailed drafts for arcs for each of the characters, some early material ended up getting completely recontextualized (and even modified in small ways to not conflict with the wider ideas I came up with.)

I get really into writing my stories/characters and I always wonder exactly how things ended up where they are, what characters think about but don't say, etc etc. This is why I have an obscene amount of Crown lore that I have very little to do with rn (since he impacted the whole world so deeply.)

This extra stuff also includes plenty of sequel material ideas, though I didn't think I'd even get a chance to use them since DT performed pretty meagerly before the big release and I was expecting to have to move onto something new. Though it turned out that Scott didn't actually write his games this way (by his own admission), it's the correct answer for what my core writing inspiration for writing game narratives is.

Hope this helps!

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

THE HUNDRED LINE: LAST DEFENSE ACADEMY - Journal #8: Route 0 (Ending) Days 91-100. [MASSIVE SPOILERS]

//Man...what a ride this was.

//But all good things must come to an...end? Well, at least it's ONE end. We still have what is probably 100 more to go at this rate.

//Before I start, I have to be completely honest about something.

//After I got to day 100 of the first route (Route 0) I kind of started binge playing through my second playthrough. Truth me told, I wasn't feeling very well last weekend, and was stuck in bed for most of the day, so I spent pretty much the whole time playing Hundred Line.

//The way I've decided to do things is I'm going to change up the format of the journal's a little bit. From here on out, after this one, I will be covering the routes in full, and my highlights from each.

//I know that feels like a bit of a dramatic change, but the truth is after all this time, I don't want to write about my experiences with this game regularly. I just kinda want to play it.

//The reason I bring this up is because there's one or two things I learn in my second playthrough that reflect back on here. Meaning I might use terminology that people who are following along with me haven't experienced yet. It won't be much, just one or two names.

//But once again...

DO NOT READ THE REST OF THIS POST IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED/SEEN THE HUNDRED LINE: LAST DEFENSE ACADEMY. I WILL BE TALKING ABOUT VERY SPECIFIC PLOT POINTS AND MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE GAME.

//So let's get started:

DAY 91:

//So this day starts off really shit. Which is super on point for just how bad these last couple days get.

//These days are also very long and there's a lot to cover in each of them, just so you all know. I remember being super scared of what might happen during them, and as it turns out, I had a right to.

//Eito shows up first thing in the morning acting shifty. He has been for the last few days ever since the Supreme Commander showed up with the negotiation offer to surrender. He's clearly been mulling it over for a few days now, and gets everyone to gether in the War Room to deliver his take on the matter.

//Eito suggests that there's truth in what both sides told us, and that the thing inside the Defense Room is indeed, as the Supreme Commander said, a weapon that will wipe out all the Invaders on Earth. While also taking us with it.

//And everyone just...believes that.

//Okay?

//So ultimately, Eito says that the best course of action would be to surrender after all, and submit to our enemy. This sneaky bitch really started getting on my nerves at this point, but the worse part is that everyone believes him.

//But what really gave me the chills about this whole scene is that when Nozomi gives an impassioned speech about it, it gets turned around on her SO quick.

//Because, somehow, everyone found out that Nozomi was connected to Kamukura General Hospital. They now all know the full story, in that Nozomi was part of whatever project it was that caused us to be sent here.

//Even though the only person who knew about any of that stuff was Takumi. When she told him privately in her room.

//But of course, Takumi never told anyone. We would have seen it if he did. And he never let anything slip either that someone could have caught attention to.

//Now, obviously, the would-be traitor of the school; the one who's been causing all of this shit to happen in the first place, has to be behind this. But of all the sneaky, shitty things they've done, even comparing it to killing Hiruko and the prisoner, burning all our food, and everything else, this takes the absolute cake.

//If there was ever an obvious sign that Eito was the bastard behind this, it's now. It's been a long time since Nozomi told us that info, which means he's been HOLDING ONTO THAT for a WHILE. Why else would the truth come out right when it's most convinient for him? Ammunition against the would-be voice of reason in this situation.

//I have grown to absolutely adore Nozomi over this playthrough and a half. She is one of my favourite characters in this game because she's pretty much the perfect person. Every time something bad happens to her like this, it just crushes my soul.

//What makes it especially bad is she blames Takumi for blabbing about it; not that I blame her. Again, Takumi is innocent, but he's also the only possible person who could have done it.

//And what I hate about this part of the story is the more he tries to get to the bottom of it, the more everyone insists that he's the one who tattled.

//Like...okay, genuine thing here. As much as I do love this game, and as much as I do love this cast, there is one thing that I REALLY don't like about them, at least in this route.

//Collectively, they are all SO...FUCKING...STUPID!!!

//I get that Eito has presented himself as a swell guy so far, but the reason why we're all on edge is because the Supreme Commander told us that by the end of these 100 days, we'd all be dead anyway. That's genuinely all she said, and yet, immediately, we jump to the conclusion that humanity are going to wipe us out along with the rest of the Invaders once we're done.

//We have...NO! PROOF! that this is actually the case. It was literally a SUGGESTION, and threat from one of our WORST ENEMIES!

//And yeah, I get that there's not an awful lot of reason to trust the people on the Satellite, because we haven't heard from them, but...that then automatically means that the Invaders are RIGHT!?

//What really pissed me off is how this same mindset almost immediately turned everyone against Nozomi. Nozomi, who has been a voice of reason, a team player, the LITERAL HEALER, and NOTHING but NICE to EVERYONE since the very start!

//Meanwhile, the Invaders have mutilated, absorbed, and done unspeakable things to some of our friends, to the point where Moko is dead, and Ima is stuck in Sirei's body, and yet, when things hit the fan, we believe THEM!?

//The fact that Nozomi is connected to Kamukura Hospital simply SUGGESTS she's a traitor. The Invaders are EVIL!

//It doesn't make ANY sense that EVERYBODY turns on Nozomi like this. Especially Kurara, who is not only against her now, but is basically the RINGLEADER of the opposition! And when Nozomi starts struggling with her rejection symptoms, Kurara tells everyone to just sit back and let her suffer!

//Like, I love Kurara, but this was LOW! Even for HER.

//Maybe there's some explanation to how it works, but I find no logic in it. It makes me SO ANGRY.

//Especially because this is just a rumor, and not only IS it a rumor, but Takumi can't even find out where it started from. Everyone seems to have heard the truth from a completely different person, until it loops back around.

//Takumi even points it out to everyone, and yet NOBODY finds it even remotely suspicious. NO! It HAS to be Takumi! HE has to be the one who did it.

//So this is an absolutely shitty situation to start this final arc off with. Everyone is going to surrender to the Invaders, Nozomi has been seperated from the group, and her relationship with Takumi has been compromised, in one swift motion.

//Everything went to shit just like that.

DAY 92:

//Day 92 is the last day of Route 0 where you get Free Time.

//I don't know if this was intentional, but the only person I can hang out with in the morning is Darumi. I.e. the one person who doesn't really give much of a damn what's going on about all this. Everyone else is just very against Nozomi, and Takumi too to an extent.

//The day ends with another dream of Karua; our first one in a while. But strangely enough, we've already seen this dream.

//In fact, unless I'm misremembering, this is the first flashback to Karua we ever got in the game. It's the same flashback where we first see Karua's scar, and Takumi originally making the promise to protect her no matter what happens.

//Yeah, I think I know what this is leading up to...

DAY 93:

//Today starts off very interestingly, as the Tsukumo Twins show up to Takumi's door, and give him some very important information.

//To recall, during the earlier incident when Ima was captured by the Invaders and forcibly merged with one of them, his DNA was altered, allowing him to comprehend the Invaders’ language and, more significantly, their internal culture.

//Ima ended up using this ability to feed information to us from the other side, but he has kept a crucial secret that he's only now shared with Takumi.

//It turns out the Invader Commanders adhere to a deeply rooted religious code. This belief system governs their actions with unwavering rigidity.

//Among their most sacred doctrines is a strict prohibition: absorbing the Cryptoglobin of another life form is considered an unforgivable transgression, a taboo of the highest magnitude.

//This revelation casts recent events in a new and disturbing light.

//If the Invaders truly abide by their religious code, as Ima’s understanding suggests they do, then the deaths of the captured prisoner and Hiruko, whose bodies were found drained and mummified from Cryptoglobin extraction, could not have been caused by the Invaders.

//With this, Kako pieces together a chilling deduction: the perpetrator must be someone on the inside. Someone with access, knowledge, and the willingness to betray their own kind.

//In other words, there’s a traitor among us.

//COOL, IT ONLY TOOK IS 93 FUCKING DAYS!

//Again, the sheer stupidity of this cast to not think for a moment that there might be a troublemaker in the group really gets under my skin for no reason.

//At the very least, the twins don't think it's Takumi, which is why they confide in him.

//Shortly afterwards, Eito shows up at Takumi's door, and let me tell you, I was NOT happy to see him.

//But he shows up in the afternoon telling Takumi that they'll all be celebrating their "last night" since all of them have given up on fighting, and hope to end the war tomorrow.

//Kyoshika is somehow drunk off of soft drinks...

//And DARUMI IS DOING DRUGS!

//Amidst the, ahem..."celebrations," Nozomi enters the cafeteria to very grim reactions. She tries one more time to get everyone to snap out of it and remember what we're supposed to be fighting for. But nope. Everyone's already given up. They're just completely checked out.

//Eventually, Nozomi realizes there's no getting through to them, and accepts it. Not because she agrees, but because she knows she can't force people to care.

//Still, she makes it clear she's not backing down. She's going to keep fighting the Invaders, even if it means doing it alone. Despite being sick with her rejection symptoms all by herself, she's fine dying so long as she's dying for what she believes in.

//At the same time, she says she won’t mess with whatever deal the rest of us want to make with the Invaders. If we’re going for peace or trying to find a way home, she’s not going to get in the way.

//Nozomi is such an angel, honestly. This last part of the story, as well as what I've seen from her in my first route so far, has solidified her as the absolute best girl. I think she might even beat out Hiruko and Kurara for me now.

//I said it already, but in general, she is just incredibly admirable, and I don’t think I’ve ever been this frustrated with the main cast. They’ve been treating her like garbage lately, and she doesn’t deserve any of it.

//I love Nozomi. I know that the rest of the cast is scared and never really wanted this in the first place, but it somehow feels like she’s the only one actually acting like a reasonable human being.

//The day ends with Takumi going to bed, and the UFB shows up again. Unfortunately, it seems that time when he rescued us was a one and done, because I can't hear him anymore.

DAY 94:

//...Today is the day. Where ALL of it goes to shit.

//Before all that though, it took me a little while, but I finally noticed something about this. In the last few days, Sirei has been introducing himself with this screen of puppets of all of us. And even though I've seen it a few times at this point, for some reason, I only just now noticed that Nozomi isn't included in it.

//I mean, makes sense, but still, I'm ashamed of my own narrow-mindedness. You'd think I was a member of this game's cast.

//So the school alarm goes off, and we all meet up in the War Room, everyone except Nozomi. Eito claims he tried to talk her into joining us, but honestly, I’m not convinced. It feels like he didn’t even make the effort and just said he did to save face.

//Then we all suit up in our Class Armor just in case, and head outside to meet the Supreme Commander of the Invaders. Who begins her speech by removing her mask.

I didn’t catch it on my first run, but on my second playthrough after finishing the main game, I found out her name is V’ehxness (pronounced vesh-ness). By the way, that is not an easy name to spell, and it kills me every time.

//Also, the rest of the Invaders have similar names that are either difficult to spell, or they are pronounced a way that they reasonably shouldn't be. For example, the blimp commander that was dropping eggs is called Quenzelle, but his name is pronounced "quen-zel-uh."

//The only one who has a normal name is the character who the group took prisoner, who's real name is apparently Eva.

//This exchange made me laugh more than it should have. Even at her worst, Kurara contnues to be so entertaining and unhinged.

//And yeah, I do agree with Gaku. She would be hot if she wasn't so hopelessly evil, as we'll soon see.

//Ima mentions that taking off their masks is a huge deal for the Invaders. Much like the whole thing about not absorbing Hemoanima, it's a sacred taboo, and they only do it when they are surrendering. We saw Eva do the same thing earlier in the story.

//V’ehxness starts speaking, and Ima translates most of what she says. Then she pulls out what looks like an escape pod for us, basically offering a way off the planet and back to the Artificial Satellite.

//I feel like Takumi’s not falling for it. He’s finally using that one brain cell. That, or he's still just too worried about Nozomi.

//And hey? Guess what? IT WAS A FUCKING TRAP! BECAUSE OF COURSE IT WAS!

//The "escape pod" is actually a dome-shaped cage that neutralizes our Hemoanima powers, just like the ones they used in the school courtyard. It traps everyone inside, except Takumi. And just to make things worse, V’ehxness grabs Ima and takes him hostage.

//What makes all this even more shocking is that it completely goes against the Invaders’ taboos, so it's strange that V’ehxness would do this and break the sacred rules of her people...EXCEPT there's ONE thing that we never considered.

//V’ehxness sees herself ABOVE GOD. Or rather, her ultimate goal is to become the "new God of this world."

//Which, honestly? That’s such a bold character move, and a really clever way to go about this scene, as obvious as the trap was. Just setting up all these expectations for how the Invaders behave, then having their supreme leader break them out of a lust for power.

//And then, in true no turning back fashion, she kills Ima right after she’s done talking.

//I haven't seen enough of V’ehxness to call her a top-tier antagonist yet, obviously. Honestly, I'm not too crazy about her, but...that could very well change in the future.

//As much as I hate to admit it, I was pretty gutted that Ima ended up getting squashed. I finally started to like him a lot.

//But Ima's death, as sad as it made me, does not COMPARE to the next segment and the next character to fall.

//Even though she’s in no shape to fight, Nozomi shows up to save the rest of us from the trap. Everyone’s caught inside the pod, and here she is, charging in like a total badass, despite barely being able to stand.

//Deadass, Nozomi is the only person here who deserves to make it out of this alive…and of course, she’s probably not going to.

//Then comes the cutscene, and after that, the first round of the final battle kicks off, with just Takumi and Nozomi on the field. I figured out pretty quickly that I had to destroy the cage to free the others. That part was fine. But then I…kind of accidentally got Nozomi killed.

//Yeah...

//See, in every battle before this, when Nozomi "dies," she just retreats. Obviously, she can't be brought back with the Revive-O'-Matic, and it's always been more of a story thing than a gameplay thing. So I had her self-destruct, to heal both herself and Takumi, thinking she’d be fine.

//But...she died. And I lost the battle in the one round where you're not supposed to lose it.

//Whoops!

//Weirdly, it worked out in a way, though. On the redo, I got the 300% Voltage bonus, which let Takumi go nuclear with his ultimate moves and end the round super fast. So…silver lining?

//And then it happens. Exactly what I KNEW would happen, but I hate it all the same.

//Once the pod is finally destroyed, we get a brutal cutscene. V’ehxness appears behind Nozomi in a blink, full-on "nothing personal, kid" mode, and stabs her right through the back with that monstrous sword.

//I KNEW SHE WAS GOING TO DIE AND I’M STILL SO ANGRY.

//Side note, I want to give an MASSIVE shoutout to Jay Rincon; Takumi's English Voice Actor here. He's been consistently great throughout this game, but he went to TOWN with this scene, and he nails the emotion here. Raw, frantic, and completely believable.

//Seriously, give this guy more roles. He, Christopher Ragland (Shouma), and obviously Elsie Lovelock (Kurara), are my absolute highlights of this game.

//While holding her, desperate to save her, Takumi lifts Nozomi’s shirt to stop the bleeding///only to freeze...

//Because there it is. A surgical scar across her midsection. One that looks EXACTLY like Karua’s.

//I KNEW it! I CALLED it! I FUCKING KNEW that the scar was gonna be what gave it away!

//So...yeah! Looks like Nozomi was Karua after all!

//But it’s not a triumphant reveal. It’s devastating. Because on the one hand, we still don’t know why she forgot him, or how Karua became Nozomi in the first place. And we don’t get answers, because Nozomi dies in Takumi's arms before she can explain anything.

//Other playthroughs I guess.

//But the real issue is that the one person Takumi has been fighting for since day one, the reason he endured all of this...just dies in his arms.

//And now she’s gone.

//The aftermath is just…rage. Pure, burning grief and RAGE. And it's EPIC!

//Takumi pulls himself together just enough to rally the others. And for the first time in 94 days, the Special Defense Unit is finally FULLY united. Not by hope, not by duty, but by shared loss and fury.

//Ima and Nozomi died right in front of us, and we couldn’t do a damn thing to stop it. At this point, our fears, doubts, and personal agendas don’t matter anymore.

//All that’s left is REVENGE. The only thing we care about now is KILLING the FUCK out of these Invaders! Every last one of them!

//...But it ends up being weirdly more complicated than it should be.

//Out of nowhere, the smaller enemies that we have been battling throughout the game, suddenly begin to speak in fluent English. In real human words, not in twisted alien growls or screeches.

//Furthermore, they are not yelling threats. They're in tears. begging and pleading to be spared for combat. Some cry out for help like frightened kids. They should things like, "Where is my daughter?" and “Mommy!”

//This threw me off. I wasn't expecting it; I'm not sure how anyone could.

//Like Ima hinted earlier, the Commanders, like V’ehxness, are a separate species entirely from the grunts we’ve been mowing down. They're lab-grown and synthetic. But if that’s true…does this mean the foot soldiers aren’t aliens at all? Are they people? Humans, or something close, transformed into monsters and thrown into war as disposable weapons?

//Wouldn't put it past this game honestly.

//I actually don't like this. Like, in a meta way, I get what the game’s doing, but gameplay-wise, hearing them scream and cry like that while I’m trying to fight is more than a little distracting.

//Is there a setting to turn off the human voice lines? Because…yeesh. I mean I DOUBT it, but I'm telling you, that part sucked the enjoyment out of the final fight for me like a straw.

//The fight itself isn’t full of gimmicks or puzzles, it’s just brutal. I can’t even put my finger on what made it so hard. The enemies hit way harder than usual, and the pressure never lets up.

//It didn’t help that, mid-cutscene, the game decides to kill off my healer! Thanks for that!

//But that final cutscene? Worth it! Takumi loses it completely, and rushes the final boss, screaming like a FUCKING ANIMAL! He just snaps. The pain, the rage, everything comes pouring out as he drives his blade straight through V’ehxness!

//But then, something weird happens. By absorbing V’ehxness’s Cryptoglobin, which...he somehow was able to do through his sword instead of his Infuser, Takumi somehow gains the ability to understand the Invaders’ language.

//So for him, V’ehxness's dying words are in his own language.

//With this new power, he tries to get answers. But even on death’s doorstep, V’ehxness won’t give him much. She kind of just laughs at him and taunts him. Tells the group that killing her means nothing. That their fate is sealed, and what’s coming is worse than death.

//You know, that cliche villain bullshit.

//Also that we were pawns too, forced to fight in a war none of us wanted, and turned into weapons just to die meaninglessly, just like the monsters we've been fighting all along.

//And then… Kako absolutely snaps.

//She just watched her brother, someone she barely got back, get murdered right in front of her. There’s no mercy left in her. Once V’ehxness finishes talking, Kako goes full-on berserker and tears into her. She stabs her again, and again, and again, until there’s barely anything left.

//Yeah, you go girl!

//Again, of all the characters in this game that I felt bad for, because their life just SUCKED because of this war, it's Nozomi and Kako. And even to the end, those two were done the dirtiest by this game, no question.

//This final fight is also the first fight in the game where I didn't get an S-Rank finish.

//Not surprising, though. I was barely keeping my shit together, trying to plan everything out and figuring out who needed to go where. And again, when Nozomi is straight up taken out of the fight by being killed in the cutscene, the fights in this game just get that much harder.

DAY 95:

//It's a lie!

//That WASN'T the final boss! It's time for the ACTUAL final boss! God help me!

//The next day, after holding a quiet funeral for Nozomi and Ima, we all come to a conclusion, largely led by Eito, but we all ultimately agree to it. If we’re going to die here, we’re not doing it without answers.

//We’ve spent this whole time defending something in the Defense Room, this supposed weapon of mass destruction, without even knowing what it really is. So we decide it’s time to find out what’s behind the Defense Room door once and for all. Eito steps up to lead the charge, and we head to the Defense Room door, ready to smash it down with our Class Weapons.

//I took a moment to talk to everyone before I started the final assault. The mood’s heavy, as you very well might expect. Funny that losing Nozomi basically makes everything feel pointless and lonely. That's the true power of a heroine right there.

//Everyone also kind of admits that the trap WAS obvious; just that they didn’t want to see it. We were scared and clinging to any chance of peace, even if it meant ignoring Nozomi.

//In hindsight, it’s clear that if her secret hadn’t been leaked, we probably would’ve listened. But someone made sure that didn’t happen. It's a clever mood that makes my teeth itch.

//Just as we’re about to break into the Defense Room, the Undying Flames Boy appears, not just speaking to Takumi anymore, but in front of the whole group.

//And now Takumi can actually hear him clearly for the first time.

//Honestly, why was it that only Takumi was the one who saw the boy? I know that he appeared in front of Tsubasa that one time, but why was every other time him seeking out Takumi? Because Takumi was the only one up at night? I doubt that.

//But we learn that apparently, the boy’s been inside the Defense Room the whole time. And now, thanks to the Cryptoglobin Takumi absorbed from V’ehxness, he’s able to "tune in" to the boy’s voice. No one else can hear him though, so Takumi has to translate.

//We start getting real answers.

//First off, the way the flame boy looks is not his actual appearance. It’s an avatar made from Cryptoglobin, same as his voice. His true body is what’s locked away behind the Defense Room door.

//On top of that, according to what he says, like the rest of the Special Defense Unit, he was brought to the school under the pretense of protecting humanity. But he was different. Due to some sort of genetic anomaly, he ended up with an incredibly rare and powerful form of Cryptoglobin. So powerful, in fact, that he can generate and control the Undying Flames. All of them, including the massive wall of fire surrounding the school.

//He’s been in the Defense Room this entire time, gathering and charging that power, stockpiling it for 100 days. According to him, when fully charged, the Undying Flames have enough destructive force to wipe out all life on Earth. Specifically the Invaders.

//Neither Sirei, nor anyone else, ever told him the real reason he was doing this. Like us, he was just following orders.

//Eito steps forward. Calm but serious, he asks the boy to open the door and let us see what’s inside. And the boy agrees.

//Looking back, it's really clever how this bit of dialogue managed to slip by me. Eito claims that he can't hear the boy, yet he still somehow knew that the boy's apparition wasn't his real body. Takumi even hesitates upon hearing it. But I didn't catch it. Takumi himself didn't really mention that part, at least, he didn't vocalise it.

//Inside, the air is dense with heat and silence. At the center of the chamber stands the so-called "superweapon." It’s a series of missiles lined up in a circular array, each one charged with the Undying Flames.

//The plan is to launch them across the globe to completely purge the planet of Invader life. It's a scorched-earth solution, the kind you don’t come back from.

//The boy, his avatar gone and speaking to Takumi purely through the cryptoglobin, explains everything. He’s been here for nearly 100 days, trapped inside a capsule at the heart of the room. Unable to move. Unable to speak. His body’s been hooked up to the system, and all it’s done is drain him. Every drop of his Cryptoglobin is siphoned away to power the missiles.

//It’s a fully automated process. Whatever he really is, he was manufactured to be a living fuel source. A weapon. Not even given a name.

//He tells us that the avatar he projected was the only way he could ever reach out, to try to be part of the Special Defense Unit. But until now, even that was limited. He couldn’t speak to anyone, not until Takumi absorbed V’ehxness’s Cryptoglobin and could finally resonate with his voice.

//He laments that he couldn't have talked to us all earlier. And it’s true. Looking back, he was trying to warn us. I mean, we knew that the whole time, but it's still kind of gutting to hear it.

//The real surprise here comes from when Takumi walks closer to the capsule, and peers in to see the boy's real body...

//Viva Reverie Voice: It was a BABY??

//Yeah, so, this is the real body of the Flame Boy. Barely more than a newborn, yet burdened with enough power to destroy the world, lmao.

//Shocking revelation, but before Takumi can even react, or even process the horror, everything explodes into chaos. A scythe whips through the air and slams into the side of the capsule.

//Takumi barely dodges it, then gets shoved down the steps by this unknown assailant. Who is it?

//Bro, who the fuck else?

//Congratulations Hundred Line. You have officially gained the Kodaka Krown for worst kept secret in any of these types of games.

//Eito walks up to the capsule like it’s nothing, slices it open, and straight-up kills the baby. Then he absorbs all of the Cryptoglobin for himself, making him superpowered.

//Now...I...Well...*sigh*...

//Okay...I'm just gonna level with you guys on something.

//When this game came out, I was trying to dodge spoilers like the matrix. But I admit that I knew this whole time that Eito would eventually betray everyone because I got spoiled on that very early on.

//Again, worst kept secret. Even among the fandom.

//So every time something happened in this game that actively went against what we were trying to do, I knew that Eito had to be somehow responsible for it. This was something I was made aware of accidentally very early on.

//HOWEVER!

//I think of all secrets in this game that I could have gotten spoiled on in advance, I'm glad it was this one. Because this game has so many secrets and plotpoints, that I can't be hit with ALL of them. The reason I'm glad that I figured this one out is because one: even though I knew Eito was evil, I didn't know how it was going to be revealed. I never saw the cutscene, I just got given that information.

//As long as the reveal was performed well, I think I would have been okay with it. And thankfully, the scene itself, and the way this final fight happens, is pretty damn masterful.

Two: Once again, Eito being a villain was as obvious to me BEFORE the game even came out. When you take the basic premise of Nagito Komaeda, and recreate his mannerisms into another character, Eito in this case, you can't expect me to NOT be sus of him. So even though I got spoiled, it was more of a confirmation of something that I had already figured out a long long time ago.

//The moment that shit started to happen internally, I knew that someone was up to shit, and he was the easiest person to point the finger at.

//And three: even though I knew that Eito was doing so much awful stuff, I never found out WHY. And now, I know. It's far from what I expected, but you know what? I fuck with it.

//He looks full-on evil now, holy hell.

//What I really love about this ensuing scene is that Eito is clearly tired of having to put up this friendly front for 95 days straight. So now that the full scope of his deviousness is revealed, he's just out confessing to EVERYTHING he did, in complete, total detail, even if it's unnecessary. For example, he explains that he was able to kill Sirei by taking him out in one hit, so even if Sirei blew him, he could be revived with the Revive-O'-Matic, while Sirei himself wouldn't be able to come back.

//Then he finally lays out his motive, and...yeah, it’s not what you’d expect. He’s not working for the Invaders, and he’s not trying to win the war for either side.

//He doesn't care if the Invader's win so long as humanity LOSES. For he wants humans to go extinct!

//Eito’s whole philosophy is based on this really dark, nihilistic worldview. He believes human beings are inherently cruel, selfish, and broken. That all of our conflicts, wars, and destruction, especially what we did to the Earth, prove we’re not worth existing. In his mind, the only moral thing left to do is wipe us out before we ruin anything else.

//It turns out Eito was born with some sort of rare cognitive disorder. The game doesn’t name it, but the way he describes it is messed up. He literally sees other people as monstrous, twisted things. He can’t stand the way humans look, nor can he bear the sound of human voices, and he’s hypersensitive to their scent. He’s been physically and mentally disgusted by everyone since birth.

//As a kid, he isolated himself and spent most of his time in the library, which he actually does mention earlier in the game. While hiding away, he read up on humanity’s history. But instead of finding hope or inspiration, all he saw was an endless cycle of violence, war, and suffering.

//It made him believe that his view of humans was the correct one, and that it was the world that was broken, not him.

//So by the time he arrived at Last Defense Academy, he saw it as the perfect chance. If he could stop the Special Defense Unit from winning, he could finally make sure humanity disappeared for good.

//He admits to everything. Most of it during the ensuing boss fight actually. Some people might not like it, but I am actually all for Eito going on a yap spree in his fight, because again, he’s just done pretending. He starts monologuing, going into full detail about everything he’s done, whether we need to hear it or not. It honestly feels like he’s relieved to finally be himself, as am I.

//He killed Sirei and Hiruko to cut us off from our guiding hands, sabotaged our food supply so we almost starved, knocked out Takumi and left him to die, freed Eva so she could kidnap Ima, then killed Eva once she’d done it, and most importantly of all, he started the rumor about Nozomi being an outsider to turn everyone against her.

//Turns out he was literally hiding under Takumi’s bed during the private convo with Nozomi and overheard the whole thing. That’s how he knew about her being from outside the group.

//I actually got the heebie jeebies by the way, from seeing this scene. This is the creepiest thing he does and it makes my skin crawl.

//And while Kurara and the others are understandably furious, Eito throws it back at them. He says all he did was spread the info. THEY were the ones who decided to stop trusting her and belittled her like they did. In his eyes, that just proves his point even more.

//And I do actually agree with him on this one. Eito just took advantage of what he believed humans were like, and these dumb motherfuckers proved him right.

//Also, all those scenes earlier in the game where Eito looked sick or had chest pain was just him having a full-blown visceral reaction to watching the others succeed. He was literally getting physically ill from seeing everyone work together and make progress.

//Now that he’s got the Undying Flame boy's Cryptoglobin inside of him, he’s done pretending. He’s sick of holding back. He wants to finish the job and kill every single one of us, just because he genuinely believes the world will be better off without people in it.

//And honestly, for how unhinged it is, the game does a pretty solid job making his logic feel internally consistent. He’s not a mustache-twirling villain. He’s just a guy who looked at humanity, didn’t like what he saw, and decided to end it.

//Much like Ultron, to be completely honest. At least Ultron from the MCU.

//So the boss fight...First of all, we can't talk about this final FINAL boss without talking about...the music...

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?

//What the hell kinda drugs was Takada on when he decided to pick this as the boss theme!?

//Eito’s boss theme is this insane track called “RUMBLE” by Paledusk, a pretty huge Japanese band. Apparently, they’re big enough now that they actually overtook Babymetal on the Apple Music metal charts, which is kind of wild considering how long Babymetal held that top spot.

//So yeah, pretty bold move by Kodaka and Takeda to use a song that current and chaotic for the final fight. But it weirdly fits.

//The song itself is all over the place, like genre whiplash in the best (and most confusing) way. It really hammers in the feeling that everything has gone off the rails.

//And honestly, that matches the fight itself perfectly, because the Eito boss battle is FUCKING BRUTAL! Like, GENUINELY hard.

//My ENTIRE party got wiped out except for Kurara, Yugamu, and Gaku. And Gaku basically kamikaze'd himself just to land the final hit. I’ve played a lot of tough fights in this game, but this one actually made me sweat bullets.

//Eito has total movement freedom on the battlefield; he just flies wherever he wants, no terrain restrictions at all. He hits a massive area, counterattacks every time you land a hit, and occasionally summons reinforcements to keep the pressure on. Plus, he can set parts of the map on fire, so stepping on those tiles deals constant damage.

//And since he absorbed the baby’s Cryptoglobin, his Specialist Skill has been powered up. A bunch of his attacks randomly inflict debuffs, which makes it harder to avoid damage or move out of dangerous areas. Basically, if you’re not planning carefully, he’ll grind your team down fast.

//The fight strategy is kind of the same as always. Take out the adds, whittle down the boss, keep your healer alive. But actually pulling that off is way harder here. He just has way more health and does a ton more damage. You’re basically in survival mode the whole time.

//Eventually, I did manage to take Eito down, but it doesn’t feel like a win.

//The moment he killed the baby powering the superweapon, the whole thing shut down permanently.

//What that basically means is that everything we've done, and everything we fought for, as well as Nozomi and the others' deaths have been completely, wholly meaningless. Right at the last hurdle, Eito screwed us all over, which means this pointless war has become just that. So much bloodshed, no longer for a reason.

//And to top it all off, Eito’s last words set up for something else, would you believe it. Apparently, once he absorbed the Prisoner’s Cryptoglobin earlier, like Takumi, he also gained the ability to understand the Invaders’ language. And he found something major out. But instead of telling us what he learned, he just dies with that knowledge, leaving us in the dark.

//So Takumi has no choice. He kills the guy who used to be his friend, absorbs Eito’s souped-up Cryptoglobin, and now carries the burden of everything that’s happened—along with whatever horrible truths still haven’t been revealed.

//Rest in piss, Yaoi Fangirls.

DAY 96:

//So yeah, these last 5 days are basically the wind down after all the shit. After Eito kills the baby powering the whole system, pretty much everything in the school shuts down. The Defense Room loses power, all of the O'-Matics shut off, and even the Undying Flames that were keeping the school sealed off just vanish.

//The entire facility basically goes dark, like all the tech and security stuff we relied on for 95 days is just offline now. So even if the Invaders don't kill us, our limited resources will.

DAY 97:

//Takumi is completely wrecked at this point. Nozomi, who he finally realized was actually Karua, the person he’s been trying to protect and reconnect with this whole time, is dead. Eito, one of the only people he thought he could rely on, also turned out to be manipulating everything and is now dead too.

//Basically, the two people who mattered most to Takumi are gone, and with them, so is any clear purpose or direction.

//His whole reason for fighting, surviving, and pushing forward was all tied to Nozomi/Karua. Now that she’s gone, and with Eito’s betrayal still fresh, Takumi is left standing in the ruins of everything, completely empty.

//It's like everything that gave his life meaning just got pulled out from under him, and all that’s left is this huge, aching void.

//This is really difficult to watch for someone who has grown to just love Takumi. I think he's a brilliant protagonist, despite what people say. Fundamentally flawed in all the places it matters, but someone strong enough to bear them.

//More on that in a bit though. Point is this sucks for him and I feel miserable.

DAY 98:

/FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK-!

//Okay, yeah, not gonna lie, this was a literal jumpscare for me. Just came out of nowhere and sent my nerves into hyperspace.

//When the scene happened, Takumi described his body getting really hot, and then all of a sudden, the undying flames appeared in his room, and I deadass thought that what was happening is Takumi was becoming the Undying Flames boy.

//In one of two ways. Either because he absorbed Eito who absorbed the baby, the power of the Undying Flames is now within him, which...is not TOO far off from what happened. But the other alternative was something I'd thought of for a while.

// @rpganon had a theory a while back that the UFB was an alternate version of Takumi. Takumi possesses a special ability that allows him to send his memories back to his past self, which explains the in-game retries and redos. He suspected that the UFB might be an iteration of Takumi who has experienced multiple time loops, returning to the past to warn the current Takumi about his future.

//I did think this was legit, but it seems like they're entirely seperate characters at this point. However, I really did think that maybe, this was where Takumi would transform into the UFB, and the timeline reset with HIM in the pod, and a NEW Takumi Sumino taking the place of the character.

//Ultimately, that's not what happens. But I will give them credit for coming up with something that interesting.

//Speaking of the UFB, he actually shows up again!

//Turns out, because Eito absorbed the baby’s Cryptoglobin and then Takumi absorbed EITO, that power is now inside TAKUMI. So now Takumi basically has all, or at least most, of the power the UFB had.

//This gives UFB just enough presence left to speak to Takumi one final time. And even though his real body was that of a baby, he says he’s actually the same age as the rest of the SDU. He just never physically aged because his body wasn’t strong enough to handle the insane amount of power he was born with. It’s like his body stopped growing to keep from being torn apart by his Cryptoglobin. A huge tradeoff for being born with that kind of power.

//Even with all his strength, he admits that he doesn’t really understand what Cryptoglobin or Hemoanima truly are. He just knows that he’s been stuck in the Defense Room his whole life, treated as more of a weapon than a person. He was mostly raised by Sirei, but even that was more like being managed than parented.

//Because of how unstable his power is, he couldn’t let anyone get close to him. He never had the chance to make friends or live like a normal kid. But then, he heard that a group of students, Takumi and the rest of the SDU, were brought to the school, and for the first time, he felt genuinely happy. He wanted to meet them. That’s why he created the flame avatar. He just wanted to be part of the group.

//So wait...You mean to tell me...

//That this guy was THE 16TH STUDENT HIDDEN SOMEWHERE IN THIS SCHOOL WATCH OUT FOR HIM!!!???

//Sorry. Couldn't help myself.

//Of course, Takumi didn’t know any of this and thought the flame avatar was some kind of enemy, so he was always wary. Takumi apologizes for that now.

//The UFB explains that, even though he couldn’t interact directly, he kept showing up to try and warn everyone of the danger. He wanted to help protect them. And even though the group had its share of drama and conflict, the way they still fought together to protect each other and push forward was something he envied. He thought it was beautiful.

//UFB is baby. Metaphorically as well as literally. I will burn my hand patting his head.

//At this point, Takumi completely breaks down, apologizing for everything—for the misunderstanding, for failing to protect the people who died, for all the loss they’ve endured. Classic Kodaka moment of the main character shouldering all the guilt at the end.

//But then UFB drops something heavy: he asks Takumi, if he had the chance to go back and redo all 100 days from the beginning, knowing what he knows now, would he take that opportunity?

//And that’s not just a hypothetical. Because now, with all the power he’s absorbed, Takumi CAN actually go back. The option to reset everything and try again is REAL.

//I have to give a MASSIVE kudos to Kodaka, because the way that he sets this up is REALLY CLEVER!

//Eito’s Specialist Skill is called Special Fortunetelling. Basically, every time he takes an action in combat, he gets a random effect. Most of the time, it's something like an attack boost, a shield, or, sometimes. he just gets fatigued instead. It’s a gamble-type ability, which is another Nagito connection I spotted early on.

//But once he absorbed the baby’s Cryptoglobin, that ability got a serious upgrade. Instead of giving him random buffs, it instead gave the party random debuffs during his boss fight.

//Now that Takumi has absorbed Eito, and by extension, the baby too, that power has carried over and changed his own Specialist Skill as well.

//Takumi’s original Specialist Skill is called Special Redo. It’s got two main functions in the game: "Retry," which lets you start a whole battle over from the beginning, and "Wave Reset," which lets you restart the current enemy wave if things are going badly. It’s basically a second-chance mechanic built into the story.

//But now that Takumi’s Cryptoglobin has been supercharged with all that insane power, the UFB suggests that he might actually be able to push that ability way further. Like, not just restarting a fight, but rewinding everything. All 100 days. A full reset.

//In other words, Takumi could potentially start the whole story over from Day 1, only this time with all the knowledge and power he has now. That means he might be able to prevent everything that went wrong, stop Eito before he betrays everyone, save Nozomi, Ima, and all the others, and maybe even avoid the war turning into such a pointless bloodbath.

//So yeah, Takumi’s "redo" ability has gone from a gameplay mechanic to a major story decision, giving him one last shot to fix everything.

//Absolute genius move when gameplay meets story like that. Although I will say, it's a bit awkward that the Specialist Skills haven't been mentioned to be canon to the story so far for this exact purpose. Or...maybe I missed it.

//But those are the final words of the UFB, as he disappears for good. Just when we were getting to know him too...

DAY 99:

//Takumi starts checking in with everyone who survived to see how they feel about the idea of resetting everything and starting the 100 days over.

//Takemaru, Kurara, Kyoshika, and Kako are all for it. They say if there’s even a chance of reaching a happier outcome, they’d be willing to go through it all again. They want to try and fix what was broken.

//On the other hand, Darumi, Tsubasa, Gaku, and Yugamu are just over it. They’ve been through so much trauma and loss that the idea of reliving any of it sounds exhausting. To them, it’s not worth it.

//Shouma’s kind of stuck in the middle, not really sure if it’s the right move or not. So in the end, it’s an even split.

//That alone makes the decision hard, but honestly, there are still so many unanswered questions. We never really found out what happened with Karua, or how exactly she became Nozomi. And we still don’t know what truth Eito discovered after understanding the Invaders’ language, since he died without ever telling us. That mystery alone feels like a good enough reason to try again.

//Personally, I’d want to redo everything, not just to save people, but to finally get some answers.

DAY 100:

//It's time...

//So, weirdly enough, even though the school's power was supposed to be down after the Undying Flame Boy died, the War Room randomly boots back up, and it looks like the “Omni-Directional Attack” is being activated.

//Which makes zero sense, because the weapon shouldn't even work anymore after Eito killed the baby. Graduation music starts playing over the speakers again, which I think is a great thematic touch.

//But OH MY GOD, did I get so pissed here!

//There’s been a freaking escape pod this whole time!

//An actual, functional escape pod!

//One more time...

//There...

//WAS

//A!

//FUCKING!!

//ESCAPE POD!!!

//NOZOMI got absolutely DRAGGED for wanting to escape, and turns out she was completely right! We all called her a traitor and she literally died over it! WE DIDN'T EVEN FUCKING BOTHER LOOKING FOR ANOTHER WAY OUT!

//At the very least, everyone looks SO guilt ridden over it, and they FUCKING SHOULD BE!

//Naturally, Takumi blames himself, but honestly, that’s not fair. He was the only one who believed in Nozomi from the beginning. The rest failed her—not the other way around.

//It’s actually kind of hard to accept how much everyone fought and suffered, only to realize they were their own worst enemy the whole time.

//But Takumi thinks back to what the UFB told him about jumping back to fix everything. To start anew and give everyone a happy ending they deserve.

//Then suddenly, I get to make a CHOICE!

//Except NO I DON'T LOOOOOOLL!

//Clearly it's setting up to my decision making in the future of this game, but this hasn’t happened since Day 0 at the very start of the game.

//Unfortunately, saying "no" does nothing. You can technically choose it, but the story doesn’t move forward unless you agree. You don't even get a funny bonus scene like the one with Sirei at the beginning of the game.

//So much for agency, but hey, at least I tried.

//It’s still really unclear what happens to everyone if we do go back in time. The current timeline could vanish, or it could split off and continue existing separately. The game doesn't really give a definitive answer, so I guess it's up to everyone who's playing.

Takumi ends up deciding not to go back to the satellite with the others. His reason for fighting is gone, and without her, he just can’t find a reason to keep going forward in this timeline.

//It’s honestly pretty heartbreaking. I had my moments of frustration with Takumi throughout the game, but seeing him come to terms with everything and still want to fix it...

//That hit hard.

//He watches the escape pod launch toward Earth with a little smile, knowing at least his friends are going to be okay.

//Then, he walks back to the courtyard and uses his Specialist Skill to jump back in time, ready to relive the 100 days and try again.

//But right after he disappears, the escape pod that left… comes back. There's just a walkie talkie inside. Takemaru and Tsubasa are calling in, saying there’s something wrong with the satellite. Something they didn’t expect.

//But Takumi’s already gone.

//That last moment is so ominous. Gave me chills, and is a GREAT setup for the future of this game.

CONCLUSION:

//And then the credits roll. I caught a few names I recognized, and apparently, the voice of the Undying Flame boy in Japanese is Daiki Yamashita. That’s Deku’s voice actor from My Hero Academia!

//I obviously don't play this game in Japanese, but I do like Daiki-kun. He's a very entertaining and enjoyable person.

//Also, a lot of the credits are blacked out, probably to keep major spoilers hidden.

//But...Yeah! That's the first of many endings of the Hundred Line!

//Such a wild ending. So many loose threads. I’m gonna be thinking about this one for a while.

//Like I said already, the way that these journal's are going to be structured will be different from here on out. Up until now, I've been breaking down my gamplay throughout the days. But since we have so much to get through, I've decided that my posts about Hundred Line going forward will be about the routes themselves.

//I.e. instea of documenting things day by day, I'm going to keep a record of the highlights of each route and ending I get, and then talk about them in each post.

//I get that that's a pretty big switch up, and it means the endings will be posted more spaced out, but the thing is I really like this game. And I want to play it as much as possible. And the more I write about it, the less I play it.

//I'll make it work somehow, promise. But in the meantime, Route #0.

//I have a feeling that even with the 100 different endings, THIS ONE has the potential to be up there, because this first route was TOP NOTCH!

//The character development for everyone in this route alone was brilliant, the characterization was on point, the story was full of awesome twists and turns, and the ending was masterfully crafted and so bittersweet.

//I didn't feel this way about Rain Code when it first came out. I do like Rain Code, but I don't like it as much as I like Danganronpa. This game on the other hand has the potential to shoot beyond those stars from this one route alone, especially because it gets me excited for all the other outcomes on this game.

//But that is the end of our first playthrough. My takeaways:

I love this game.

-Mod

[herotome]

Hello !

I have no idea if this has been "asked" before, but I've finally found the motivation to make my own vn/dating sim. I was wondering if you had tips or "warnings" to give based on your experience ?

I've mainly been struggling with gluing all of my scene ideas together, even after choosing the ones that felt truly relevant. I've got the main plot points down, but it's pretty hard to find what to put in between. I also have trouble coming up with player choices ideas.

I'd also like to mention that I'm very much looking forward to playing the full game, no matter how long it takes you to make something you'll be proud of. It's pretty rare for me to find a dating sim where all of the RO appeal to me. The MC's real cool too.

The writing, the sprites, everything's absolutely brilliant ! The UI really fits the game and looks real good too (graphic design major here !).

Thanks for reading ! (Hopefully there aren't too many typos, English's not my first language).

I love hearing when people are inspired to make their own games! In fact I got to know @qkayoostudio from an ask just like this. 😁

Honestly, I struggle with the same things. In between important scenes, often I'll need to put some sort of transition... and coming up with that transition can be very challenging when I'm dry on ideas.

Similarly, dialogue choices (which used to be my FAVORITE part of writing) have become more difficult to write, because working on the main plot(+art direction+code+sound cues+etc) drains a lot of my creative energy, so there can be very little left to put towards the small things.

It sounds like you're focused in the right areas though! I guess my advice is... try not to sweat it. You can always put in a placeholder "insert dialogue choice here" and come back later. Some of my most popular choices and lines are added in waaaaay later in the process, if that makes sense.

A lot of my most recent script is peppered with "idk I haven't written this part yet."

Other advice...

For the most part, small indie games that die in development come from two realms of inexperience:

giving up too early

pushing oneself way too hard

Learn about burn out. Try not to do it. Your body will pay the price. If you're pulling all nighters to finish a project faster, consider that the project will be unfinished for even longer if you crash out from sheer exhaustion. Get some sleep and take care of yourself, that's the best way to ensure a project gets finished, period. You can't finish your game if you're unwell or dead.

As long as you're still alive and willing to work on it, the project isn't dead. I remind myself of that a lot.

[atamascolily]

So was anyone going to tell me they put the "Prologue in Heaven" sequence at the beginning of Magia Exedra (though after the CGI remake of the Homura vs. Walpurgisnacht battle from episode 1 and the Exedra OP) or did I just have to watch the video myself? Definitely did not have that on my bingo card.

The runes say "Magia Exedra" and the central logo is a star (aka the Memspark macguffins, which I cannot say with a straight face) and the moth/astrolabe wings of Infinite Iroha. So she's definitely involved in this somehow.

The lighthouse and a new mandala, because of all the cosmic worldbuilding symbolism. And then they do the projector thing, just like the beginning of the anime, before the frame narrative kicks in.

I keep seeing lots of speculation about Namae's true identity, but the whole point of the character is that she's literally a blank slate onto which the players can project themselves as well as taking on the forms of established characters to fight the battle sequences. The whole "you can find your true identity" thing is a great premise, but as soon as it's realized, the story ends (or at least has to find something else to do), so I don't expect resolution any time soon since presumably the game is going to go on for as long as possible.

Also, because the character is so nondescript, I have a hard time caring about this particular plot point, so to be honest, I'm fine with leaving it a mystery.

This guy, on the other hand...

Can you tell me what the hell your deal is, then? Who is your god? What master do you serve? ... No? Didn't think so.

Green Kyubey has a great personality, which is important because Namae has very little to work off of, so he's got to do all the heavy lifting in this partnership. He's literally an emotional support Incubator, which I find hilarious. I've seen theorizing that the lack of rings = ability to feel emotions, and while the sample size is limited (Kyubey, Mokyuu/Little Kyubey from Magia Record, and now this one), it certainly sounds plausible.

Green Kyubey's dialogue also implies he was created specifically for his current job as guardian of the lighthouse (by whom? Well, probably Madokami and Infinite Iroha), so I don't think there's going to be a dark plot twist where he turns out to be evil, actually. I mean, that could be a lot of fun, but I don't think that's where the game devs are going with it--the whole point of Magia Record was to make a lighter and softer version of Madoka Magica and go on indefinitely, and I think Exedra is going to continue with that. I also don't think he's secretly a character we already know, but they pulled that twist in Magia Record, so who knows.

Narratively, Green Kyubey's function is to guide and instruct the player, so while I'm very curious what his deal is, I suspect that backstory is also unlikely to be addressed for a while as the game seems hell-bent on recreating every single major Madoka Magica storyline in the franchise in CGI cut scenes/visual novel remakes.

Thus far, all of the stuff I've watched so far outside of the Namae-Green Kyubey interactions has been pretty derivative. Even the "Prologue in Heaven" segment above comes off as copying something that already existed rather than organic or as a homage. I mean, I'd love to be wrong, but given the game's fundamental premise is "revisiting the memories/experiences of every story we've already done", I'm not holding my breath.

I also suspect that while WnK's plot will inevitably get an event/level in Exedra, I don't think the two are connected much in terms of story outside of that. The two works serve two fundamentally different purposes, and Exedra's is to be a perpetual story machine and go on forever. I also don't think the creators would drop any hints/spoilers for WnK's plot by putting them in the backstory/premise of Exedra. But I guess we'll see.

Suffice to say, there's no shortage of material, but my primary interest is in the new stuff, so until we get to some original content, I'll probably tune out. But the image of the lighthouse in the void speaks to me on a deep emotional level and I would love to know more about it.

It's such a great image! Fingers crossed they do something interesting with it!

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Something has been bugging me since the end of the Playful land event: How does the world not notice that these people are never seen again after going to this park. Even if its stated that only the positive magicam posts are the only things that leave the park, surely those guest's families/friends/employers/neighbors that didn't attend the park wouldn't eventually notice their absence. Moreover, how does no one still on land notice that the moving park leaves whilst everyone is still on it, and it never comes back to drop them off.

Makes me wonder if Twst has some sort of United Nations that would be alerted of this and set a worldwide lock down, so when the park needs to connect to a mainland again the country's military can apprehended them.

One of the biiig question marks of both Glorious Masquerade and Stage in Playful Land are all of the potential repercussions of Rollo/Fellow's schemes coming into fruition. The stakes of these two events are notably much higher than your typical TWST event, and that opens their stories up to further scrutiny. I'll talk about GloMasq first, then Playful Land, since I feel the former is also relevant to the points the asker mentioned.

This is going to be kind of a long post, so I'll slap everything below a cut! ^^

I don't know how frequently this is brought up, but I've heard some say it's unrealistic how Rollo was able to find the seeds for a supposedly wiped out plant and cultivate a ton in secret for his master plan. Now, I'm willing to suspend my disbelief in this instance because:

Spite can make a person do insane things (and what is Rollo if not spiteful as heck)

Rollo has lore which paints him as a diligent person who has a talent for gardening, so it feels in line for his character; he also seems to have an interest in history and is extremely neurotic so I could buy that he obsessively researched until he came across records or some trail to the flowers

The Bell of Salvation's ringing twice in a row is what triggers the flowers to bloom, and this has not happened prior to GloMasq because Rollo is the one who is consistently tending to the bell + the bell normally has a preset schedule; anyone that passes by the flowers would do so when they are inactive, and they are such an old phenomenon to begin with that no one in modern day would really recognize it or the danger the flowers pose

The narrative of GloMasq does not call extended attention to HOW Rollo was able to get the seeds, so it's not something that comes to mind unless you as the fan speculate about it; this doesn't come across as a plot hole, but it would be one if the narrative had pointed it out because then it would practically be obligated to fill the details in

The other major fallacy of GloMasq is that Rollo's machinations would have inevitably led to chaos once the flowers reached the rest of Twisted Wonderland, as some sections of society are reliant on magic. Now, I disagree with the notion that mages could band together and fight back against the flowers; we've seen from how the NRC students handle it that this would be a pretty useless effort since only the super powerful (which are few and far between) would be able to muster up enough magic to overpower the flowers. The majority of people are non-mages though, so the argument could be made that these people could help the mages by weeding or something similar. The question is, could this truly outpace the growth and attack of the flowers, especially when the average mage has far lower magical reserves than the average NRC student??? Remember how long it took the NRC kids (who are mostly healthy, youthful, and strong) to weed just the flowers in the waterways? My money's on the crimson flowers just overrunning the entire world long before they can be plucked out.

I actually think most societies would still be intact and able to operate without magic, seeing as 90% of the human population (which is implied to be the predominant race) are non-mages. Only very select industries and professions require magic to operate, and these are overrepresented to us (the players) since we are seeing the perspectives of mainly students who attend an elite magic school. These magical sectors, as well as societies which run primarily on everyday magic use (like Briar Valley) are the ones that would be the most in danger. This most likely explains why Malleus in particular was so panicked about Rollo's plans: if fully realized, his people would be in peril. This is not outright stated, but can be inferred. The main story also retroactively affirms Malleus's fears of being powerless. He was always told by his grandmother that the Draconias have great power so they can defend their people's smiles. What happens if that magic is stripped away? Then he is no longer able to protect his people nor his loved ones. In this way, GloMasq works well as both a standalone event as well as supplements TWST’s grander story. It does not challenge what we already know but does support it.

Altogether, most details in GloMasq make sense and the event doesn't go out of its way to create more questions than answers. They all tie together in the end to feed into the overall themes of forgiveness and atonement, which are also consistently present throughout the event. This... isn't the case for Playful Land. In fact, I would say that Playful Land does the opposite (in trying to explain plot holes, it creates a LOT more questions) and tries to hand wave everything away with one thing: money.

Firstly, Playful Land is kidnapping and trafficking innocent people (even if the park is said to be a more recent phenomena). Would their friends and family not notice they went missing and report this to the local authorities? My guess is yes, it's just not elaborated on in the event itself since the perspective through which the story is told is limited (Yuu doesn't know this world that well + the NRC kids, who are the people Yuu gets a lot of the lore from, are mostly privileged and don't need to worry about crimes of this magnitude). I believe the "people go missing, why aren't the police doing anything about it" can maybe allude to real world crimes that occur but aren't reported or resolved, which is very scary to think about. I don't know if this was the intention of the devs, but the comparison is certainly there and can be made. Or maybe it’s just that law enforcement hasn’t caught up yet?

It’s also odd to me that so many people were able to be taken by this huge, very showy moving park. I think that Fellow lures people out under the cover of night (which was the case with the NRC students, I will assume this is the case for the other victims too) and the park starts moving away from the pier after the guests go inside, but???? Even so, there are night owls and cities that don’t sleep. You mean to imply there were zero witnesses whatsoever??? Even though Playful Land is so big and bright, especially at night… Maybe this part plays into the idea that crimes may be reported but aren’t necessarily resolved…? That’s the only way I can rationalize it in my head.

Where the bulk of the issues start to come in is in alllllll the surrounding details. For example, a lot of the NRC students Fellow is kidnapping are connected to wealthy and influential families. How the heck are Fellow and his benefactors going to keep Vil’s fans, the Kingscholars, the Shrouds, the Asims, the hypothetical Leech mob family, and maybe even Maleficia herself and Malleus, from coming after their asses???? AND FELLOW SPECIFICALLY FUCKED UP BY ENCOURAGING THEM TO “INVITE THEIR FRIENDS” FROM SCHOOL… because guess who will be spilling the beans to the headmaster about students going missing the day after inviting everyone to go to this supposedly “free” amusement park?? All the students Fellow told them to blab to just so he could catch more of them 😭 Then from there it would definitely escalate and governments might get involved since Leona is a prince and Kalim has royal relatives. I could see Playful Land having to go on the run (as in, have supplies delivered to them rather then docking for them, knowing that police or military would be there to arrest them at ports). But they can’t do that forever, especially since not being able to dock effectively prevents them from picking up new prey.

With the combined powers of the NRC victims’ families, they would surely be able to challenge the people behind Playful Land, no?? Unless you mean to tell me these mysterious people somehow have more power than literal royalty AND the Asims combined??? And we’ve never heard of them until just now??? Okay, you’re starting to lose me here because this is adding on top of the lore we already have but in a way that comes off as difficult to believe since the amount of wealth and power some of the NRC kids have is already ridiculous.

Playful Land is also supposedly constructed by very powerful mages which makes me wonder why they got together to create such a thing???? Did they literally all get bribed with enough money to agree to this project? Were they deceived about the true nature of it?? Are the other 4 of the top 5 strongest mages involved in any way??? How was this not publicized that it was a project that very strong mages were working on given how few mages there actually are and how much Playful Land is talked about in online rumors?? And let's remember that the park also somehow has tech that easily disables Ortho's functions so he can't send a SOS signal or anything. Okay??? And you're telling me this supercomputer child who was made by a genius inventor CAN'T override it???

Speaking of online rumors, that’s another thing. How are the people behind Playful Land able to monitor any and all talk about their park to this degree?? This is the internet we’re talking about here, surely stuff will fall through the cracks or come to light eventually. Someone would leak insider info or make up conspiracy theories about the park, someone would say something. It doesn’t work if you claim the park cuts off wifi after hours so the only things circulating on socials are the positive experiences of the park. That’s still leaving a data trail implying the last place these missing people were seen was in this shady park… And even if the people behind Playful Land purged the web of the proof, it doesn’t stop others from saving or downloading that proof. It also doesn’t stop non-attendees from theorizing or spreading the news.

And what happens to all of the non-NRC students who got puppet’d???? Their fates are never addressed, and nor do any of the characters mention helping them. You’d think at least Kalim would try to lend a hand, even if the others are self-serving. But no, the NPCs that got turned into puppets are never relevant again.

The easy explanation given for everything is that there are very rich and very powerful people running these operations. They would be able to silence people who speak out against them or bribe the corrupt into complying or looking the other way. Maybe that’s just a sad truth I don’t want to acknowledge (because this stuff for sure happens irl 😞) but that all sounds WAY too convenient for fiction (where the devs have total control over the circumstances) especially when we’re given so little lore for who these benefactors actually are.

There’s still way too many questions and even turning on suspension of disbelief couldn’t stop those questions from arising in my head. At best, I think we could give the devs the benefit of the doubt and say this was intentional to keep up the idea of a “shadowy” underbelly to Twisted Wonderland society. Even so, that doesn’t account for every little thing and the event’s attempts to explain it all only makes more things to explain. There’s also themes of poverty and privilege that get touched upon, but never elaborated on in a meaningful manner; it feels kind of carelessly tossed in there despite how tricky and nuanced of a subject it is.

I tried to explain my perspective as best I can here! However, I admit that there may be bias in my judgment because I’ve made it no secret that GloMasq is my favorite TWST story event. Please let me know if you have any other issues with GloMasq’s narrative or if you have explanations for the issues I pointed out for Playful Land; I would love to hear your takes too ^^

[all-pacas]

Canon you reject for Chase specifically

that he accidentally slept with a 17 year old in s7 :))))))))))))))) even though the show stressed he didn't know, he had every reason to believe she was 21, even though the doxxing episode is supposed to i think show him at his lowest point. nope. no thank you! why do this?

in general i lowkey reject a lot of s7 for him. i've talked about this before, but i think the execution was cartoonish: chase went from someone who was camera shy and unaware of his looks to a vain, preening idiot; he went from someone still pretty unwilling to date again at the end of s6 to a huge slut in e1 of s7. it isn't even that i think he couldn't have these changes, it's that they were taken up to eleven and largely out of nowhere, even if the show was pretty explicit that the whoring, at least, was more of a symptom of his general malaise. but i also think they did this plot much better in s8 with nobody's fault/chase sooooo.

in my head, it still happens, just in a more grounded way. he sleeps around a lot, gets caught in a cycle of increasing hookups to chase the high of feeling wanted, etc. just not to the same cartoony level, and with the doxxing episode to be completely rewritten so it isn't an "aww shucks!" joke but like. idk. an actual wake up call? he's/we are told in the episode that "you're a good guy who lost his way," which i think is the message. it's not a bad one. it does not translate at all.

i'd also change up his fatphobia VERY slightly. i'd keep it, for the same reason that other characters also have major flaws, he's problematic and that's just how it is. but where cameron's ableism and foreman's classism are tied to their characters and histories, chase's fatphobia is completely arbitrary. i'd make it clear he really DID get beat up by a gang of fat kids, or something. it shouldn't be justified, but it should have a reason, you know?

[thelonelyshore-if]

Morning! I read your Demo and very much enjoyed it. And hopefully I can say this in a positive way because it is positive! You actually do immutable story points pretty well! Its a difficult trick to pull off in IFs. Harder than I think most readers realize because the author is trying to tell a story but the readers want to feel like they can really interact with it too. The best example was the Doe Scene. MC was gonna end up getting their own place, the story demanded it (I assume), but resisting Doe allowed for some interesting and rewarding character building opportunities. So though one could argue in the end that the decision to make a deal with her was sort of moot it feels like it will pay off in the future how you handled it. I think the build up scene to the Car Ride in the Fog could use a little tweaking for MCs that believed them right off the bat (like if they believed them why bother trying to go on a car ride to escape? They are satisfied with the proof they've seen so far.) But the rest was handled very well as well and how an inevitable conclusion is handled by the MC continues to build their character.

Sorry for the wall of text but Thank You for sharing your fascinating story and I look forward to more.

Thank you so much for the message!

This is very comforting to read, in all honesty. The balance between player choice and plot is one I'm still trying to really feel out. I want players to feel like they get to decide where the story goes and what their character does--it's interactive fiction, after all. But at the same time, the plot does have to plot.

Like you suspected, the house is plot-relevant. I needed to get the MC there, one way or another. I'm glad the Doe scene worked for you! I'm quite proud of it. I really wanted to try and build a scenario where the player still feels like they have some control, even if the outcome is 'set'. Whether that be negotiating the deal or refusing and having ~something happen~

I also agree with the build up to the car ride, ngl. It's one of those things that is on my list for either my 'second draft' of the story, or for revisiting if the mood ever strikes to clean up some of the earlier parts. I don't want to rewrite before the story is finished, but that entire scene could really be improved by going at it with believer MCs a little more in mind.

At the end of the day I know that it's impossible to make everything work for every reader. There will be portions of the story that just...have to happen, and it really made me smile that you think I've done the majority of them well!

I'm trying, haha.

[genericpuff]

How long do you plan making rekindled? I loved Lo at some point, But now I cant get enough of your version!! And I wanted to know how did you come up with the darker back stories for Rekindled?

I have a semi-detailed skeleton of the plot with basically every story beat planned out, but I can't definitively say how long it will be as I haven't actually scripted every single episode out yet.

Not to mention a lot of the time my scripts will change from their original versions, by the time I get to an episode I've planned ahead for I've either thought of new ways to do it or don't like how it's paced so I change it. Case in point, there was a specific scene I had planned for the next episode and then wound up not liking the pacing because it was too fast so I moved it to several episodes away and restructured everything on the fly, took a whole new text document and scrapping sketches to figure shit out LOL I actually do have up until Episode 70ish scripted out in my documents with like, actual notes and dialogue for each episode, but I already have sooo many of those crossed out now because of how much I've had to tweak and change as time has gone on. This is why I plan ahead well in advance though, so that if I do need to make those changes, I can make them long before the episodes are even due to be drawn (and believe me, they get changed during the sketching phases too LOL).

What I can confirm for certain is that the current 'arc' we're in right now is definitely the bulk of the story. And that's not to say there isn't any content afterwards, more like the pacing just gets completely turned on its head in the last 30-40% of it where shit gets N U T S and just can't go back to the same energy that it was in the beginning. Without spoiling, there's a certain 'turning point' in the plot and everything after it isn't quite as long as the stint of story we're in now. This is mostly because the arc we're currently in is still establishing a bunch of stuff like the Underworld Corp, Persephone's schooling, etc. and once that turning point hits, it's basically all character development and focusing on the consequences of everything setup in the first arc.

I guess if I had to illustrate it, the story progression in the end will look something like this?

It's basically just this slow and chill climb that, once it hits that sharp peak, doesn't ever return to normal levels LMAO So I guess enjoy this part of the story while you can because it's the chillest it'll ever be w(°ｏ°)w And boy, I am EXCITED for that peak, but we have a long way to go before we get there. As for how long, well, I'm hoping I'll be able to have Rekindled's story wrapped up in the next 2 years, tops. Just depends on how the update schedule goes, and assuming the plans I have put down for the plotting don't change in any major way. I don't have as much of the latter half of the story actually scripted out yet so for all I know it could wind up being way longer than anticipated, but right now I have a pretty good sense of how the story beats will play out in relation to each other.

So it's kind of a wait and see thing, at least until I have every episode scripted out, and even then I won't be 100% sure because things are always being tweaked and fixed and changed on the fly! I'm guessing it won't go much longer than 170 episodes, give or take, but that's a very very VERY rough estimate.

Regardless, Rekindled still has a lot more story to tell, and I'm hoping y'all enjoy the ride with me <3

As for the darker backstories, y'all don't even know yet. Like... I've got stuff planned. Stuff that even Banshriek (my BG assistant) doesn't know about. Stuff that I keep buried very deep in Rekindled's episode documents that won't see the light of day until they have to be ripped out of the deep dark trenches of the characters' own buried secrets, and by that point, the toothpaste will be out of the tube, there will be no going back. So, again... enjoy it while it lasts. Because I don't pull my punches. And maybe even you won't be able to look at me the same way again once the final blow has been dealt.

Sleep well.

:)

[bearw-me]

Sense it's may the 4th can I request the hazbin crew reacting to teen reader celebrating star wars and explaining to them what star wars is sense I think most of them wouldn't know about it.

yess i can! and sorry if these don't live up to expectations! i've watched the movies but im not totally involved in the fandom!

𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟒𝐭𝐡 𝐁𝐞 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐘𝐨𝐮 — 𝐇𝐚𝐳𝐛𝐢𝐧 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬!

𐐒 ft : gender neutral! teen! reader, charlie morningstar, vaggie, alastor, nifty, angel dust, sir pentious, husk 𐐒 cw : fluff 𐐒 summary : you are showing the hazbin crew what star wars is no matter the cost + and their reactions 𐐒 note : ITS STILL may the 4th where i am! this counts!

Charlie Morningstar! Loves your enthusiasm so much she decides to watch the movies with you until she falls asleep. Makes popcorn for the two of you! I think she'd be pretty clueless though, as the princess of hell who's never been exposed to that kind of pop culture.

"Oh my goshh! Star wars!"

. . .

"What is that?"

She's got a good attitude about learning through you

Vaggie! Sits with you and Charlie, and although she has no idea what you are talking about (her being an angel and all and having no contact with Earth), everything you say to her just kind of floats through one ear and out the other.

GETS HEATED and physically mad when the storm troopers miss. every. shot. they. take.

likes she's cursing in spanish type of mad

likes bloopers (like when that one storm trooper hits his head on the door)

Alastor! Hates the television, so you'll have to explain everything to him through other means, even if that means him listening to you tell him the whole thing.

honestly, i think he'd be the most uninterested in the plot if it couldn't be explained well.

i think he'd actually like looking at the comics if you showed them to him "Well look at this fellow! Aren't they all charmingly misshapen!" when you show him aliens like Jabba, or Jar Jar.

likes the 'epic saga; between armadas and armies, jedi and sith. . . like he's smiling with his eyes narrowed and nodding as you point out everything that's happening.

Nifty! Retains NOTHING you are saying, she is just kind of staring through your soul. So when you put the movies on in the lobby she actually moves and watches while she dusts.

subconsciously retains the information and names some of her roaches after the characters.

she stops cleaning to just sit front and center in front of the tv.

LOVES the violence and fight scenes, especially when people get cut by a light saber.

asks you for pictures of the characters that she keeps crumbled into her apron (she adores darth vader)

always plops down onto a pillow in front of the tv whenever boba fett + anakin skywalker are on screen

WOULD LOVE to kill a storm trooper herself

Angel Dust! Like Charlie, I think Angel would be the best person to hear you out about star wars. I think he'd be a major geek with you, even acting out a few scenes and letting you win. He see's you like his sibling, so he enjoys your company. Why wouldn't he love doing something that you love?

loves the clothing in the movies, especially the queen of naboo's makeup. "And the hairr!"

loves the romances and sci-fi fantasy part of it

expect him to have ideas

Sir Pentious! I think out of all the people in the hotel he'd LOVE star wars. From watching the movies with you in the hotel's lobby to asking you a TON of questions! Like everything you know about star wars, he has to know too!

"I like thiss 'Sstar Warss'"

has to know everything and has his own fan theories

probably cried while he watched padme + anakin's love story. right up to the end

(he tries hard to identify with anakin)

he'll probably celebrate may 4th right along with you, t-shirt, movie cup, all his wrecked up merch in his hands just to watch the movies with you

tries to recreate all the gadgets and light saber's he see's without success. . . YET

Husk! Doesn't get it. He listens to you sure, while your sat at his bar counter and explaining everything to him about the plot and the characters. He asks a ton of questions, but it is sort of like explaining it to your dad.

He'll lean over the bar and ask you about plot holes, and when you answer back excitedly he kind of sighs to himself "Why is he getting so worked up on the plot anyway?"

like why is he forming an opinion now?

likes when you talk about it though, your enthusiasm is a little contagious

is 'subtly' watching the movies from behind you, turning away to wash some glasses when you stare over at him

[helluvapurf]

Thoughts on latest HB ep "Ghostf**kers" (*now that I've regained a bit more energy post-Halloween weekend lol*):

So the newest ep of HB has came & went from what I've seen- aaaand naturally feels like the best time for me to finally ramble about it now that its settled in my brain some more .3. Thoughts (+Spoilers) below~ NOTE: Most of this -does- get a lil rant-y below sooo... read at your own risk lol .w.;;

First things out of the way to start things off on a good note, the Pros:

To start off with... FINALLY we got some Millie focus for a major episode plot (-or more specifically, focus that doesn't get revolved back to Moxxie somehow lol)😭👏👏. Even if Millie's spotlight here did have to be shared with Blitz for a good chunk of the ep, their friendship was actually genuinely sweet & compelling to watch (esp. their backstory & how Millie was allowed to stand up for herself, give him space, BUT also coming around to acknowledging the good in Blitz, when it all came down to it🥺���). Which ngl, after these previous episodes reigning down HARD on this dude... idk, just felt refreshingly wholesome to see for this series, yknow?😊

New villain Rolando was pretty cool, and surprisingly spooky to watch as the second-half went on oml- .o.;; While I'm still a teensy bit confused how his powers/demon lore work (at least to what we already know about Hell limitations crossing to the human world, ex. succubi & their crystals), his underwater monster vibe gave some fun visuals to watch up until the climax. I'm not 100% familiar with John Waters' works, but damnnn he should take up voice-acting more often ngl~ 👀

FINALLY MAMA TILLA MAKES AN (on-screen) APPEARANCE 😭😭Her whole vibe & Blitz's clear love and regret over what happened to her... hhhhh my whole heart ;n; 💔

That pink client lady (Rita, I think her name is?) who assigned the hotel mission? I dig her vibe, its cute~ :3

I.M.P. feeling like a legitimate workplace family for once, with even Loona & Moxxie getting a nice lil moment towards the end?? More. Of this. Please. 👌👌

Even with the lil undertones of the Stol*itz drama from the past couple eps, I very much appreciate Blitz (+the show itself) acknowledging that what's been going is NOT a breakup ('cause... yknow, they never actually dated to begin with lol🤷‍♀️). It may not 100% fix how messy that particular narrative's been handled as of late (which I'll get to in a sec-), but eh... its a start in the right direction, I guess? .3.

Enjoyed all the colorful flashback looks given, never would I have thought I needed mercenary!Millie with a fluffy ponytail til nowww hlkjlk😩❤️

Aaaand as for the not-so-good bits (imo), aka the Cons:

Pacing felt kiiiinda all-over-the-place, I'll admit; like one min we've got a whole intro & a half to deal with Blitz's whining fest (+some other pointless banter at the hotel)... then the next it feels like we're breezing past Rolando's whole presence as the "big bad" villain. Which... idk, I guess I shouldn't be too harsh on given the production drama behind-the-scenes (aka: the leaked content that had to be cut & redone awhile back)... buuuut yeah, its just one of those things you can't help but take notice of, critique-wise lol 🤷‍♀️

The humor wasn't... exactly at its strong point here, mainly just a lil overdone in the sex joke department imo though I guess thats kind of "par-for-the-course" in the Hellaverse series nowadays, so lol

Now, idk if this may be an unpopular opinion or not; but was I the only one who felt like Blitz's month-long mope fest over Stolas was rather... OOC, all things considered? .-. Like, okay its one thing for Blitz to still be (understandably) upset over how the last two eps went down (but being the "boss" he is, continues working anyway to keep I.M.P. afloat, like in the latest HB shorts)... but for Blitz of all people to just randomly use ALL his company's funds on useless junk, force his daughter Loona to stay up all night/not go home, drive Moxxie in a panic from all the budgeting issues this past month was just... wut- 🤦‍♀️ ...Mind you, this is meant to be the SAME Blitz who not even a few episodes ago begged Stolas to not take away the Grimoire (aka the key to his + his employee's livelihood), clearly being willing to do anything to not lose all that he holds dear. You seriously expect me to believe he'd be the type to throw that all away (for a WHOLE month)... all to simply whine over some blue-blooded bird not noticing him? ...Yeaaaaah sorry, but I'm gonna have to call bs on that, chief- 🙄

Kiiiinda tying in the last point, but as much as I enjoyed the tense thills gained from the "Rolando enters Blitz' mind to make him see his own flaws/past mistakes" sequence... I do have a few issues with some of these other "flashbacks" added to the mix: 1) Loona's groin kick towards Blitz in "Seeing Stars" (*wasn't Blitz's fault since ALL he did was tell her to be nice to clients... and was right about to apologize to Loona just seconds before the kick 😒*) 2) Blitz pushing Stolas' hand away in "Ozzies" (*which Blitz only did after Stolas hide his face/didn't defend Blitz during the song*) 3) Stolas' hurt expression at the end van scene of "Ozzie's" (*mind you, taking place while Blitz is rightfully standing up for himself/telling off Stolas for being a privileged creep all of S1*) 4) Stolas trying to present the Asmodean Crystal gift in "Full Moon" (*a whoooole mess in of itself I already covered prior-*) 5) Stolas angrily walking away from their pool fight + trash-talking Blitz in the "Motherf**kers" song + drunkenly dumping his problems on him + making out with a whole other dude in front of Blitz (*again, a huge mess I covered prior but TL;DR... most of that WASN'T fully-Blitz's fault in those instances??😑*)

Like... I dunno man, I don't mean to sound like I'm just ragging on Stolas per-episode as of late... but these last few points just keep giving me mixed signals than any genuine idea as to WHY Blitz even has these "feelings" growing for Stolas, atm?🤨For any canon couple in fiction, I WANT to see reasons for why they work best together, what kind of interests/aspects they've got in-common, what special "spark" is there that helps them stand out above all the other dynamics in-canon... but from what I see so far on Blitz's end (& the narrative continuing to guilt on him being "the problem")... it honestly feels more like he's only now fallen for Stolas out of pity... not because of any genuine affection or attraction :/ Which... ngl, sounds like a really sad precedent to send for a main-endgame couple, regardless of series genre imo... 🤷‍♀️

-------

Soooo yeah, all that rant-y rambling aside... not a bad ep in the grand scheme of things! 👍👍Here's hoping the last few remaining eps (+possible shorts) for S2 keeps up the good work! 🙏

[lullabyes22-blog]

First of all, I just wanted to say how much I love your Arcane fics. I’ve been following FnF since I stumbled across it at 10 chapters long, and it’s been a wild ride since! Like a lot of people I’ve been all over the place with my feelings regarding season 2, but as far as I’m concerned FnF is my season 2 (and 3, 4, etc.) lol. You’re a gift to this fandom. Thank you for sharing your brilliant mind and imagination with us readers ❤️

You’ve answered some what-if asks and shared other Arcane thoughts on this blog before, so I have two questions for your consideration, but no pressure to answer either of them!

1. As a fellow writer, I’m in awe of the scale of FnF and the amount of planning/outlining that must be involved—HOLY SHIT! Are there any elements of s2 that have inspired you as you continue to write FnF? Have you considered adapting any s2 elements into later chapters (beyond what you’ve already predicted), or have you held fast to a specific Vision throughout the duration of this writing project?

2. Not sure if you’ve been asked this in the past, but what the hell would a living Silco’s reaction be to Vander’s hellish resuscitation as Warwick, assuming he isn’t immediately mauled in a confrontation?? Is Singed (assuming he’s the culprit) definitely fired??? This feels like such a MESSY terrible horrible no-good very bad situation for everyone involved lmao, and I would love to know your thoughts.

Aaaaah thank you so much! I'm super happy you're enjoying the story! I've been having a lot of fun with it, and I'm glad so many other folks are having fun with it as well <333

Also deeply honored you'd consider FnF in any way adjacent to canon material; that means so much T_T Especially since my own feelings on s2 are pretty mixed, and I'm not really sure what I would even do with those ideas, except maybe throw them out as a one-shot sometime down the road.

1. In terms of the s2 inspiration, I will say I was not the biggest fan of the plot's coherence/cohesion as a whole (too much stuff going on in too little time, too many threads left dangling etc). However, I was very gratified by the thematic journeys of the characters in S2, as in FnF they're actually following a similar trajectory (except for Silco who is, well, dead), and a lot of the same conflicts and themes are coming up. There was a happy sense of vindication that came from that, like, "Oh, so this was actually important, and not just me making a fanficcy mountain out of a molehill."

I will say though, that FnF has its own pretty airtight-ish plot, with many aspects already sketched out in advance, so I'm not going to go re-plotting things to match s2's direction unless and until it becomes necessary. In some ways, tbh, there's a sense of gleeful overlap, as a lot of the plot beats do mirror one another. (The Black Rose make an appearance by Act VII, there's a greater emphasis on magic and high fantasy going forward, Jinx is in the grip of an identity/existential crisis and Vi is stuck at a crossroads, Jayce has become disillusioned and split with Mel, Viktor has retreated underground and will be withdrawing deeper into his work, Ekko will be the one to snap Jinx out of a critical juncture and save Zaun in the long term, Sevika will take a greater leadership role etc...) All of the parallels if not the outright similarities were pretty satisfying.

As for how that's manifesting, a lot of the major developments and character arcs going forward are largely set in stone, but I do have a few key S2 events/details I've been mulling over in the background that I can see myself weaving into the plot at some point. But the rest is probably best kept as a surprise :>

2. As for the hellish resuscitation, well, I'd be lying if I said I haven't been thinking about that one a lot hehehe...

But long story short:

Singed is 100% fired because there is NO WAY Silco would sanction such a thing - and if it occured in the FnF universe, then Singed was absolutely doing it behind Silco's back and will now face the full consequences.

 As for Warwick himself - he'd 100% retreat to Silco and Vander's little Brokeback bunk in the mines. And Silco would 100% don his old mining duds and dustry greatcoat and go looking for him, because he needs to be SURE it's not just a rumor, and also because he does, subconsciously, desperately want it to be his Vander. And Vander, who has a good measure of the old Vander's memories, and is 100% aware it's not a rumor, because hello: deranged wolfman, will 100% run towards Silco with every intention of tearing him to pieces.

And that is where the similarities end.

Because Vander is too deeply trapped within Warwick's killer shell, and is therefore incapable of having an emotional reunion with anyone, and because Silco is not an idiot and would never go into a skirmish without a loaded gun and an escape route, the end result would be bloody, messy and tragic.

Worst case scenario: both men would kill each other, and in their final death throes, find boyhood memories resurfacing. They'd die in tears, messily and bloodily entwined, but finally at peace with their own demons - which is how Jinx and Vi, teaming up similar to S2, would find them.

Best case scenario: Silco would find Warwick and be forced to try and capture and contain him. He'd enlist Sevika's help and succeed, but when Jinx finds out, she'd be appalled and retraumatized, and convinced Silco is trying to erase her dead dad and supplant him in every sense. She'd go off the rails and have a complete breakdown, and Vi would be the one she'd run to, because Vi is the only person who understands and cares. The sisters would end up teaming against Silco to try and bust WarVander out, and this would cause an irreparable rift between Silco and Jinx.

Cue mass destruction and an epic family feud.

Sevika, who'd be the only person left in Silco's circle of trust, would have to make the call to have Warwick quietly killed in order to save the city from a war, and then lie to Silco, telling him Vander succumbed to his own madness and perished. This would cause Silco's mental state to completely disintegrate. He'd lose what little sanity he had left, and would descend into a pit of guilt and grief.

 Either way, it's a pretty awful tragedy on both sides, and it would take the entire remaining plot of FnF to resolve the fallout, and for Jinx and Vi to find any kind of peace.

So you can see why I've been mulling a lot, but also left it alone haha.

But who knows?

Maybe the story will change my mind, or I'll be struck by some miraculous idea and figure a way out, though I'm doubtful.

Thanks again for the lovely words and thoughtful questions! They really mean a lot <3

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

May i ask what your feeling of Marichat are? (I apologize if you've answered this before)

I don't think that anyone has asked for my dynamic preferences, but I'm happy to talk about them, just note that this is very much an opinion piece. I'll be doing some critical analysis, but I'm not arguing for any of the following, I'm just telling you why my feelings are what they are.

I don't dislike any side of the love square, but canon Marichat is easily the least interesting to me. It's the one side that I'll probably never touch in my own writing, though I'm happy to read Marichat fics and even have a few favorites that focus on that side of the square.

This semi-aversion isn't because the dynamic is bad. Friends-to-lovers is my bread and butter. It's what I write in most of my original fiction and even in a lot of the fanfiction I've done. But I was drawn to the love square because they're already in love. While I see the appeal of one crush switching, I don't really see the appeal of watching them both fall out of love with each other in order to fall in love again. This is especially true because the "side" that they're falling for is the side that lets them be the least open about their needs.

I'm not a fan of Adrien having to keep his home life a secret from his girlfriend, but he would absolutely have to do that if he started dating Marinette as Chat Noir. He knows that he's friends with Marinette in his civilian life, so he'd need to be extra cautious with his identity around her. That means hiding a lot of things that I want to see him open up about since all of his major struggles come from his civilian side.

That isn't true for Ladynoir, though. Ladybug and Chat Noir have no idea that they know each other in their civilian lives, so being open-but-vague with each other shouldn't be seen as a big risk since they shouldn't be worried that small personal details will reveal their identities. (This is a writing issue in the show, imo. They write Ladybug as absurdly cautious when it doesn't really make sense if she assumes that Chat Noir is a stranger. You can tell that her actions are being driven by the plot not quality characterization.)

Along similar lines, Marinette can't talk to Chat Noir about her Ladybug struggles if she's not Ladybug. That's why I prefer Ladynoir or Ladrien. Ladrien is actually the easiest to write because Marinette is pretty good at opening up to people about issues that don't effect them. I can totally buy her talking to Adrien about her Ladybug fears while being reluctant to share those same fears with Chat Noir because she doesn't want to burden him or look weak. I think you can work around that issue pretty easily by developing Ladynoir into more of a power couple, but Ladrien is the easiest one to work with without having to change anything about the canon setup. While we're on the topic of giving Marinette support, I'll point out that Adrienette often works best in fics that focus on civilian issues like the Lila conflict while playing down Marinette's Ladybug struggles specifically because it lets Adrien feel like a solid supportive boyfriend which he really can't be if she's dealing with Ladybug issues.

The other reason that I love Ladrien is that I am a massive fan of identity shenanigans and Ladrien is the comedy hi-jinks/identity shenanigans ship. While Marichat basically kills the other sides of the love square (more on that in a second), Ladrien enhances them. Marinette gets even more ridiculous around Adrien and the same goes for Chat Noir with Ladybug. Bonus points if Chat Noir knows for some reason - as in Ladybug knows that Chat Noir knows that she's dating someone - so that you can have Chat Noir slowly dying of joy and frustration while his girlfriend gushes about him or just generally talks about her crush. It's very funny. I basically can't write Ladrien without including a ton of Ladynoir moments to really flesh the ridiculousness out.

I don't include a ton of civilian moments, though, because I don't see either Marinette or Adrien being open about the fact that they're dating some mystery person. It's just a completely unnecessary risk for their civilian sides to take, though it is fun to include a few moments of Marinette being a disaster as she remembers that they were kissing less than 24 hours ago. Hero sides having a romantic partner that they have to be vague about make total sense though. (Yet another reason I like Ladrien over Marichat. Adrien is just too good an actor to be an open disaster around his secret girlfriend when they're out in public and her safety is potentially at risk. You need them one-on-one for it to feel in character.)

Meanwhile, Marichat is a friends-to-lovers dynamic, meaning that you have the slow death of the other sides of the square as the current square falls out of love. You don't get the new square dynamics until the new love square is firmly established, so there's just not much to do with the other sides in terms of hi-jinks until the story is almost done.

This is why most Marichat fics don't feature the other sides. It's just Chat Noir and Marinette hanging out on her balcony or in her room. You may eventually get some jealous Ladybug moments or see people commenting on the fact that Marinette is having a much easier time talking to Adrien at school, but that's about it because Marichat means you're starting from scratch. You have to go through the whole falling in love process all over again which take a ton of time and effort, meaning that Marichat fics generally don't have much going on beyond romance. With the other three sides, at least one of them is already in love, so you don't need to do the classic slow burn. This is why Ladynoir, Adrienette, and Ladrien fics are a lot more diverse in their content.

That's probably another reason why I prefer the other three sides. I don't write a lot of pure romance stories. I tend to have some other larger plot driving my narratives because I'm a huge fan of romance bonding a couple as they go through adversity or insanity together which, once again, Marichat doesn't really do. They don't have the ability to knowingly team up pre-reveal. On the other hand, with Ladrien, you can get Adrien involved with the hero stuff on the civilian side since he's a perfect inside man. Ladynoir is involved in the hero intrigue by default and Adrienette is involved with the civilian intrigue by default.

In summary, Marichat is a fine ship, it just lacks all of the things that I love to play with, which is why it gets the fourth spot on my tier list. Ladrien and Ladynoir are basically tied for number one, though I'd give the top spot to Ladrien if I had to pick. Adrienette is in third and Marichat comes in last.

ALL THAT BEING SAID, my absolutely favorite dynamic is a reverse crush setup where Ladybug was always in love with Chat Noir and Adrien was always in love with Marinette. In that context, Marichat is now Ladrien and, therefore, I'm all in. Though, oddly enough, Adrienette is probably my favorite to write in that setup, followed closely by Ladynoir. I just really like torturing Adrien with Marinette's crush, plus it's fun to have their friends more involved in the ways I picture them getting involved (it's a lot more holding back than pushing forward like we get with canon Adrienette. Just picture Alya, Nino, and maybe even Chloè reacting to Adrien's wooing tactics in real time and you'll probably immediately see what I mean.)

Partial-reveal canon Marichat is also a whole different story. I love a good partial reveal fic for any side because I am primarily drawn to the square because of identity shenanigans and partial reveals are identity shenanigan central!