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

[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

[theostrophywife]

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

[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!

[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 is 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' 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 ^^

[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!

𝐌��𝐲 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

[forevergoldgame]

Episode 1 Progress Update

According to timestamps it's been approximately 3 months since our last update. Embarrassing! This is why I'd never survive as a career social media person. Thankfully, the lack of updates isn't due to a lack of progress - we've been working on the game the whole time. There's just a bit of a story to tell there... you may have heard the phrase, "progress isn't always a straight line." It is a phrase that haunts the mind of every creative, but our contempt for it does not make it any less true.

This post is all good news, though! Keep reading for more details.

So, what happened?

As we said last update, after the demo we more or less jumped right into producing Episode 1. We had a clear vision of the common "beginning of story" pitfalls we were going to avoid, and our strategy for avoiding those. There was just one problem:

We spent so much energy avoiding them in our first pass of Episode 1 that we accidentally ended up ignoring what the story needed and recreating the issues we aimed to avoid.

Luckily, we had only wasted maybe a month or so on this version of the story. We knew it would cause delays, but we didn't want to write an update about it until we had a draft of Episode 1 that we trusted. An update that only reads "um... yeah we don't like it, we're going to do something else but we dunno what yet" doesn't exactly inspire confidence in a project, you know?

It is safe to say we have that better draft now. There are still many scenes to finish and editing passes to be done and bugs to quash, but this improved version of Episode 1 has made it through the uncertainty of development and I can say with confidence it is the version of Episode 1 you will receive.

Compared to the draft we burned, this one is much better suited to the twine medium. While certainly longer than our freakishly truncated first draft, the pacing is far more organic, allowing players more opportunities to play and make decisions as they are brought up to speed on the status quo of the setting and Quincy's place in the world at the outset. Though there is a lot of ground to cover, my hope is that it will be interesting in and of itself and not reek of "unskippable videogame tutorial."

With that out of the way, I'd like to address a question a few of you are probably thinking:

"Will these sort of draft rewrite delays be a common issue?"

Nope! We meant it when we said that our aim for future releases is smaller, frequent updates. The problem with Episode 1 is that it is a unique challenge to build and by nature cannot be a "small update."

There is no other point in the story (aside from perhaps the beginning of Act 2) that is going to be as fiddly as this. Episode 1 bears a lot of responsibilities that other episodes just won't. It has to be a hook for the main plot. It has to give readers enough information about the setting and how it works to understand said plot. It has to introduce a number of core characters. Toughest of all, it has to do these things competently enough that people who read it want to come back for Episode 2!

So, we kind of have no choice but to put in the extra time here. Them's the breaks!

In other news...

The delays on the writing end gave me more time to sure up the UIX and fix/pretty up some stuff I was originally going to let be. I won't detail everything I've done, but mobile users will be pleased to know there will be an adjustment slider for swipe sensitivity and all users will be pleased to know that the layout just generally breaks less in the coming version of the game. I've continued to implement user feedback and make navigation more intuitive where I can.

I've also prettied up some layout elements even though no one asked me to...

...and redrawn other utility art for the game. Look at this map! You can kind of tell what Vestur's landscape is supposed to be like now! You can hardly detect how much I struggled when deciding where the major rivers were!

As we continue to lick Episode 1 into shape, we hope to share more specific tidbits with you all. If all goes well, the phase of development where we can show teaser screenshots is right around the corner.

Thank you for your patience!

-LS

[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

[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! 🙏

[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!

[esoteric-joke]

Interview with Darling28

(#Interview1)

Welcome to the first interview of The Dear Writer Project and a massive thank you to the wonderful Darling28 for being so supportive of this whole idea since the beginning!

Darling28 about her writing process, her inspirations, her experiences with writers block and her future plans on writing:

What does your writing process usually look like and is it always kind of the same for every story you’ve written?

Oh interesting question. It's usually the case that ideas come from the simplest things and suddenly a complete plot is in my head within minutes or sometimes even seconds. At least the rough outline. Apart from that, my characters often like to take the plot for themselves and I just watch in amazement at what they let me write. I often suffer as much as the reader when I write because I let it flow out of me and often don't know what to expect. Most of the time, though, I have a specific scene in mind in the beginning, often for the middle of the story, and I can hardly wait until I finally get to the point where I can write it. The end of a story quite often involves a marriage proposal, I realise, even if I don't always intend to, but Louis and Harry in my stories are very stubborn about it.

But other than that, my writing process is pretty simple: get excited about a new idea, start writing immediately, often at a speed that makes my betas despair and end up questioning the whole story until I reread it myself and suddenly love it.

Do you have any sort of structured writing plan before you start writing or do you just write what comes to mind?

I'm absolutely far from structured. I have the problem that my best ideas about what to write next come to me when I'm driving and I have to memorise whole conversations or scenes for the rest of the journey. As soon as I've parked, I write it down as a note. But there's really nothing more than these few notes, no mood board or major characterisations, I just let myself go with the flow. I also think that would take some of the fun out of it for me personally, I love getting to know my characters over the course of the story and I don't want to plan everything in detail beforehand.

You said before that you write a lot, especially after you’ve got a new idea in mind. How much time do you invest in writing in your day to day life?

I actually write every day and usually around 3-4k. I think it takes about 3 hours of my time, but that's really just a rough estimate. I usually write already in the morning at breakfast before I have to go to work and then spread the rest over the afternoon and evening.

Our Souls Intertwined is your longest work at the moment. Was it also the one you wrote the longest on?

Our Souls Intertwined… I wrote this story together with freakingmeout and we took turns writing chapters, each of us wrote one character. Despite the length, I don't think we really needed much time to finish it because the other author is just as fast as I am at writing and often each of us had finished a chapter within a day. It was perhaps a little worrying in hindsight haha.

If it wasn’t Our Souls Intertwined, what work of yours did take you the longest?

Oh wow I think you've got me now and I can't give you an answer off the top of my head.

I'm guessing it might be Calm after the storm because that's my longest story that I wrote on my own. So it makes sense that it probably took me the longest to write.

But when I think about it, it could also be the current one I'm writing that hasn't been published yet. My last few weeks haven't been easy for personal reasons and I haven't had time to write and everything has stalled. I just started writing again a few days ago and am catching up.

She also told me that she sometimes drives her betas crazy with the amount and pace that she writes. On some Sundays she writes all day and sometimes feels a bit empty inside afterwards, she admitted.

What work of yours did come together the fastest?

I would say Men are shit. This story practically wrote itself and I could just let my thoughts, which I put into the story as Louis’, run free and didn't have to think about them any further. It was a great experience and I love this Louis so much!

Do you finish writing the story completely before you start publishing or do you start publishing whenever you finished a chapter?

For my first stories, I posted while I was writing. So I finished a chapter, had it proofread and then published it.

However, my only beta at the time had of course her own life and sometimes couldn't keep up with the speed at which I wanted to update again.

So at some point I started to finish writing and only then published it.

What worked better for you, personally?

Both definitely have their pros and cons. But I really liked publishing in the writing process. You get immediate feedback on what you've written, sometimes even ideas for the rest of the plot from readers' comments.

However, it would have stressed me out a lot, like in my situation the last few weeks where I couldn't write anything and had to make the reader wait for updates.

What inspires you in your day to day life the most?

The story often comes to me really quite by chance, mostly inspired by songs, not so much by the lyrics but by the feelings they convey, what lies between the lines.

Did you ever have a writers block and what helped you out of it / What do you do if you feel unmotivated?

Yes, I've had a writers block for the last few months and I've missed writing so much. But there's no point forcing yourself and for me it was best to wait until it felt right again. Before that, I didn't have anything like that as far as I can remember. Sometimes I just didn't know what to write next and got a bit stuck, but my advice here is: just start writing. Don't think, just do it.

And if I'm just unmotivated then I leave it for the day because I know it'll be definitely easier the next one.

What do you find most stressful/annoying/repetitive in the process of writing a story?

For me it's the hardest thing to end the story because then I'm usually so connected to the characters that it feels like saying goodbye to a dear friend every time and I'm actually really sad.

Oh and one thing that really frustrates me is that my Louis and Harry very often crash the chapter with sex. I love writing smut but sometimes they overdo it (okay it amuses me a bit too).

Darling28 also told me, that one of her favourite phases in writing a story is the getting-to-know-each-other phase. She said that she loves it because that’s when she feels like the characters come to life and the tension between them grows.

Can you tell me something about any future projects you’re working on?

I'm happy to tell you about future projects!

In addition to my many ideas for stories that I haven't started yet, I'm currently writing four open ones. Two with other authors and two of my very own. I hope that I will soon be able to present the readers with something new from me, because for me it is always the best thing to finally be able to share my work with the fandom.

For the next part of the interview, I asked Darling28 more specific questions about her works.

What work of yours is your personal favourite?

It's really difficult to name THE one. But I'll go with the three that come to my mind first, okay?

Calm after the storm, because I love their love in this story and I felt for both of them while writing it. It still touches me today.

Men are shit, because Louis is just chaos but so sweet at the same time. I loved describing his ADHD brain, letting his mind run wild. I wanted to give neurospicy people a story in which they can find themselves and feel understood.

True Colours, because I wrote this story for my friend and beta who wanted me to make Harry really suffer as it's usually Louis in my stories who has to go through everything horrible. I love the development of the two of them in this story. They heal together and I don't think there's anything better.

What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who isn’t familiar with your works and why?

I think that would be Paparazzi. That's the most popular one of mine and it contains a bit of everything but it's not as extremely angsty as others that I wrote. A bit of enemies to lovers, gay awakening, smut, fluff - what more could you want?

A lot of your works are based around complicated and complex topics like having a bad relationship with your parents, mental health issues and homelessness and everything that comes along with it. Why do you specifically choose to write about those topics?

I love the drama and the big emotions.

But also because none of our lives are perfect. Everyone has their own struggles and their own traumas and I love picking up on that. It especially touches me when readers find themselves in it, feel understood and heard. I think for some it's some kind of validation. It's wonderful to turn something very sad into something very good. As much as I love the drama, I also love the happy ending.

And of course it's also free therapy in a way. There's always a part of me in most stories.

The Magic Within You is your only story, that doesn’t really have any of those topics (besides of Louis’ tendencies to panic quickly). Why did you want to write something so different to your usual writing style?

The Magic Within You is a pure, cheesy Christmas story that was set up like an advent calendar when I posted it, but I think it can be read very well throughout the year.

I always find Christmas a difficult time of the year myself. Lots of people come together and I'm often overwhelmed. I especially wanted to give people who might feel the same way a cute story, offer some distraction and sweeten the day. I hope I succeeded.

By the way, I love how you mentioned the panicky side of Louis. So adorable.

Is something like an advent calendar planned for this christmas season too or was it a one-time thing for you?

No, I haven't planned another one, but never say never. Maybe I'll suddenly get an idea in October and start writing like crazy.

Actually, a sequel to The Magic Within You was planned for this summer but unfortunately I couldn't do that for personal reasons that I had already mentioned. But I definitely want to publish the sequel next year!

You wrote Our Souls Intertwined and Bring me to life with freakingmeout. How did that go?

Oh it's a totally interesting experience because here too we only had the rough plot, but because everyone wrote their character in alternating chapters it was always exciting for the other to see what would happen in the chapter of the other. Sometimes I sat there shocked or totally amused and had to think about how I was going to live through certain situations with my character. It's definitely anything but boring and you experience it as an author as well as a reader.

When I asked her if it feels like a roleplay kind of thing she actually confirmed that it does sometimes feel like exactly that.

Paparazzi is your most popular work. Why do you think this one in particular got the most attention?

I have absolutely no idea why Paprazzi is the most popular one. I often ask myself that but maybe it's really because it's not such a heavy one? But instead of looking for answers, I prefer to be happy that so many people like it.

Is there a work of yours that you’d like to get the attention that Paparazzi got or just more attention in general?

Oh yes, definitely. In my personal opinion, Holding On To Heartache has far too little attention. I know where it comes from, or rather I suspect that the tag 'suicide attempt' puts a lot of people off, but I still think it's worth reading. You can always expect a happy ending with my stories.

Is there a work of yours that you wouldn’t publish again in hindsight?

I must confess that I have already deleted my very first story. And I know that my betas and friends will kill me if they read this now. Because they kept stopping me every time I had a crisis about this story but I did it nontheless one day. I guess my secret is out now... oops. If you read this, please don't be mad!

But I'm actually thinking about revising it and publishing it again at some point.

Are there any characters in one of your stories that are inspired by people or animals you know in real life?

Yes... Bree in 'Paparazzi' is my friend and beta. But I don't think I realised until the later chapters that I was using her as a role model for this absolutely wonderful character.

For the last part of the interview, I asked Darling28 some personal questions that are more about the fandom and less about her experiences with writing.

Since when are you in the fandom and what made you become a part of it?

I am a Lockdown-Larrie haha. I was watching Tik Tok videos out of sheer boredom like probably so many others and suddenly a video with two guys popped up. It's this one where Harry is sitting on the armchair, Louis is sitting on the armrest while Harry is looking up at Louis, absolutely enamoured. I was just sitting there and I remember thinking: who the hell are these two guys that are so in love?

I read through the comments and searched the web for more informations. After that, my days were filled with watching all the YouTube videos and then making a Twitter account. I was absolutely down the rabbit hole and I don't regret it one day. At first I was in the lane of LHH (I mean, come on, just look at him) but then I listened to Louis music and he got my number 1 and never lost rank again. Also, the song Just hold on saved me, the lockdown was not a good time for my mental health.

Your favourite Louis and Harry Era?

LHH forever. If I had enough money I would bribe him to let them grow long again. Although I'd have to meet him first. My plan isn't finalised yet as you can see but yeah... I think you know now how serious I am, haha.

And Louis... Hedgehog and FITF. I just love when his hair is fluffy.

Your favourite movie H starred in?

My Policeman. Damn, I was broken after watching it but it's so good.

Who’s your favourite writer in the fandom at the moment?

One of my favourite authors is BoosBabycakes. I especially love their a/b/o stories!

And your all-time favourite fic in the fandom?

Oh, that's really difficult. There are too many good ones and I really need to think about it for a moment. But I would like to name a story that is not one of the fandom's always recommended ones.

Okay... I go with this one, it's definitely one of my favourite a/b/o stories, the nesting is so sweetly described and I think I really need to read it again:

You've Got A Higher Power, You're Once In Any Lifetime by BoosBabycakes

What makes you want to stop reading something?

If the story is written in first person or the plot doesn't make sense to me and I question too much in the story. Some stories are also too artificially drawn out for me. I don't like slooooooow burn. My attention span doesn't last that long.

Your favourite song at the moment?

Call me by Neeve, it's a small german indie band but I like them a lot.

Of course nothing beats Louis music, I hope I don't have to mention that, do I?

Do you have a favourite movie or a favourite series at the moment?

No, neither of them. I haven't watched anything for ages. I prefer to spend my free time writing.

What was the most unusual thing that inspired you at some point?

Erm I hope this doesn't come across as weird but Louis' bum and waist. For some of my a/b/o stories and ideas that I still want to write.

What is your favourite season?

Spring, when everything turns green again and starts to blossom.

She also told me, that she has hay fever and that sometimes it’s unbearable for her until autumn but she still loves spring the most, especially after the darker months.

Who would you like to read an interview from?

I don't have a specific author in mind but I'd like it to be someone with a smaller fanbase to draw more attention to them.

I wanted to make it a little tradition for every interview, that every writer gives every of their works a colour and a season. It’s just a fun little thing for the end of the interview I thought would be interesting. Thankfully, Darling28 thought it was a great idea too, so here are the results:

Captured Ink, Hidden Hearts - pink and black, spring.

Bring me to life - darkblue, autumn.

Our Souls Intertwined - dark red, late summer.

True Colours - rainbow, obviously, autumn.

Men are shit - pink and green, summer

The Magic Within You - ice blue and white, winter (on a sunny day)

Tainted Love - brown, winter

Calm after the Storm - purple, early spring

Tank tops and a phone call - red, summer (a very hot day)

Letters - dark green, last summer days

I'm with you - white and grey, autumn

Paparazzi - yellow, summer

Holding On To Heartache - black with golden sprinkles, winter

Paradise is in your own mind (Sequel HOTH) - dark pink, spring

You Sunshine, You Temptress - green, summer

Careless Whisper - dark blue, winter

A huge thank you again to Darling28. Thanks for understanding my vision and being so open and kind. I appreciate it so much.

[bloopitynoot]

Reading SVSSS: Chapter 18

For those who don't know, I am reading SVSSS for the first time and sharing my thoughts!

If you have not read it, there will be spoilers! Consider this a warning.

Also- if you want to follow along, I am aiming to post updates daily. You can find all the posts in the tag bloopitynoot reads SVSSS. You can also check out the intro post for context on my read.

New chapter, new cup, and back on my tea drinking! Today is another past year ren faire hand made cup with a Blueberry Jasmine tea.

This is present me rn - having finished this chapter- I WAS NOT PREPARED WHAT THE FUCK; what a goddamn jump scare of a read! D:

let's get ready for the notes journey so you can see me descend into a cacophony of sound:

Okay the visitor from last chapter was not Luo Binghe, and I really thought it might have been- it is in fact Liu Qingge! p159

Where is Luo Binghe though?? p159

Side note: unrelated, but a little bit related- adjacently related if you will - to the plot -> Big Same Shen Qingqiu! When I see a fan I too have to give that baby a firm crack! p159

Also real as fuck. LQQ: "what's up with you and Luo BInghe?" SQQ: I don't really know, but here we are LOL" p160

What did Liu Qingge see in the room that made him trip up/pause??? (I am sure we will find out later but still what the heck) p162

I'm crying at the strike out over here "His current attire and appearance was exactly identical to the Luo Binghe from before the Immortal Alliance Conference: the model of flawless and pure disciple of a major sect, the image of a pretty, diligent, and competent young wife, it really...really...was..." p162

Why am I so suspicious about the breakfast service Luo Binghe has for SQQ. p163

I love how the two of them in disguise in this very obvious trap of basically every powerful cultivator and sect is Luo Binghe changing his facial expression and SQQ being like "well I've been away for a while they will never recognize me" stealth check natural 1 for sure for sure p168

ewwww. anything to do with Old Palace Master. I really hate this guy, this story is so fucked. honestly poor Luo Binghe rn. pp171-172

oooo! New quest from the system: Raising Righteous Image Points! p176

more me appointed points to my 'SQQ is the damsel/love interest narrative', "In conclusion: So the female lead's role was going to be Shen Qingqiu again, huh?" p177

THANK YOU! This guy is the only one talking sense. Tianlang-jun really did nothing to start this whole war. He was only tricked and then essentially had the shit absolutely beat out of him. I dont even think the rumour he was going to wreak havoc and kill a bunch of humans was true- probably made up by butt hurt Old Palace Master. p181

ugh. Poor LBG having to hear all these people talk about his parents, their story, and how his mom hated him so much she tried to abort him. what the fuck, that's enough to mess anyone up quite badly. pp181-183

LBH: SQQ: my heart!!! pp 186-187

OFC LBH would be blamed mid Menty-B for the random demons being present. p189

Also so valid! the sects really are using the same tricks they used on Tianlang-jun. You know what, i'm really starting to stand with these demons - they have been done so dirty! p190

Hell yeah Yu Qingyuan stepping in! p191

Everyone here wants an explanation- how tf are they going to explain any of this tho LOL p195

Oh fuck, oh fuck! He hit zero points! p196

wait...alternate punishment? p197

Oh dang, he really just collapsed p197

AH! What's happening in the dream punishment. Is the punishment SQQ having to live with the original novel Luo BInghe and forever pining for him LOL? pp 198-199

Oh shit. Luo Binghe is totally figuring out that Shen Qingqiu is not his original Shizun p201

HE TORE HIS ARM OFF?! P202

MORE LIMB RIPPING P203

WHAT WHAT WHAT!!!!

THIS IS WILD.

What a horrible punishment OMG.

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Dangancember 2024 - Danganronpa Top 24 Class Trials - Number 12: Danganronpa Another 2 Case 6

//Aw fuck, I have to talk about ANOTHER ending so quickly!?

//That was not a pun by the way.

//Alright well, let me just make a few things clear before we get into it.

//If you've been following my content for a while now, and heard my personal takes on the Another series, as well as if you happened to see the ranking I did on all the games featured on the blog, you would know that of the main installments (Danganronpa 1, 2, V3, Ultra Despair Girls, Another, and Another 2) you would remember that Another 2 is my LEAST favourite installment of this group.

//And I think you could've gleaned as much from the fact that two of its trials didn't manage to make the list. The only other game that had more than 1 trial in the honorable mentions was DR1, but that's mainly because Case 1 is just a tutorial, and Case 5 was a quickly scrapped together trial that only existed for plot reasons to set up the finale.

//The cases in Another 2 that are bad are GENUINELY bad, and yeah, I know we haven't seen it on the list for a short while now but still, I generally have a much more negative opinion of this game's mystery elements and trials than I do any of the others.

//But now we're talking about the ending; the place where everything infamously culminates in ways that, at best, end up being controversial among audiences, and I'm sure many of you thought that I would have a LOT to say about it.

//So what did I think of the way this admittedly fun, but messy game reached a conclusion?

//Well...I mean...

//I liked it?

//It's...It's okay, actually. It's definitely not BAD, and there's a lot to like about it.

//(Strap in, this is a long one.)

//Largely the reason why I think I like the final trial of Another 2 is because the way it shows the whole plot, why the Killing Game is actually happening, and what Mikado's goal was all along...is REALLY INTERESTING!

//As I've said before, while I generally do prefer Another 1 to this game, my biggest issue with that game's plot is that the finale and general story felt not too far removed from the twists and turns of Game's 1 and 2. But this whole concept shows just how different Another 2's storyline was, and why it still deserves to be recognized, even if it doesn't exactly reach the series highs in my opinion.

//Again, I need to reinforce that Another 2 is a GOOD GAME. And I enjoyed playing it. It's just the weakest of the 5 games that are on this list in my opinion.

//I'm not gonna pretend there aren't some very obvious similarities, such as the setting in an island-based virtual world, all being for the sake of the stoic one with the super powerful talent, as a means of the mastermind uploading her body into somebody or some people, as well as the fact that the protag (Sora/Hajime) facing their other half (Akane/Izuru)

//I think it's different enough that it's acceptable though. And that's about all I can say on it.

//Although, to be perfectly frank, if there's something that I can give A2-6 a lot of credit on, it's the fact that it manages to avoid falling into MOST of the tropes that really knock the final trials of each game down by several points.

//As I've said before, what ultimately decides my issues and opinions with the final trials can largely be narrowed down to four things:

The sheer length.

The fact that most of them are plot-dumps.

The anime-esque over-the-top way the villains are defeated.

The massive spike/fluctuations in difficulty.

//To start with, A2-6 is long. It's not as bullshit long as Case 3 of this game, but it's the final trial, so like I said, it's pretty lengthy. I haven't timed it, so I don't know if it's as long as V3-3, but to be frank, it certainly felt like it with how much dialogue there was in this game.

//And as you already know, V3-3's length was one of the major contributing factors as to why it was second-to-last place on this ranking, not including the HM's.

//But there is a difference.

//The problem with A2-3 and V3-6 is that despite their sheer length, they barely do anything MEANINGFUL with the time that they inevitably end up wasting.

//And again, that's still an issue with this trial, which is why it's not THAT high of the list, but compared to THOSE TWO? It's FAR less of one. All the moments of this trial for me were engaging, and piecing together the grand plot of this game was entertaining for me.

//Really, the only thing that made this trial kind of drag more than the average final trial would do was...fucking Iroha being an egotistical little brat.

//I swear to God, I hate Hiro, and even HE wasn't this obnoxious in Trial 6 of DR1! He was in Trial 5, but that didn't make the list, and he's ANOTHER reason why it didn't, so fuck him anyway.

//The whole stuff about the case being a plot-dump isn't as much of an issue either, because unlike how it was in DR2 and V3 especially, a lot of the key mysteries behind what's going on were discovered in Chapters 4 and 5, largely thanks to Nikei and Teruya's interferance.

//A lot of this trial is not necessarily about the "WHAT is happening," but more about the "WHY is this happening," which was one of my biggest pro's for 1-6 and the way it balanced those. But even then, 1-6 still felt like way more of a plot dump because clues are found that were never even a factor before, and I feel like A2 doesn't do that nearly as much, even if it is still guilty of it.

//And the anime-esque bullshit is fairly tame as well. It's still there, but compare this to the ending of DR2 and DRV3, where Hajime and Shuichi literally win their war by screaming bloody murder at their respective enemies.

//Sora doesn't really need to do that, and is relatively calm after overcoming her Heroic BSoD. And of course she is. She's the one in control after awakening to the power of Divine Luck.

//She has no reason to fear Mikado, because of one key difference between her final frontier, and the other protags: If you really think about it, Makoto, Hajime, and Shuichi literally won their wars in the end through the power of persistance and belief alone.

//If Junko had decided not to play by the rules like a good sport, there was genuinely nothing Makoto and co. could have done if Junko went back on her word after everyone voted her out. The only way this was clever in Makoto's place is how me managed to take advantage of Junko's nature of fairness and balance with Hope against Despair, and her willingness to accept the conclusion as it happened. If Junko hadn't been so high on the idea of facing Despair, there was NOTHING he could've done to TOUCH her. She still had ALL the power in her final moments.

//Same goes for Junko in the second game, because I swear, the literal only reason the Remnants and the Future Foundation beat her is because of Chiaki's timely appearance, that only Hajime experienced, as well as the fact that he oh so randomly happened to take control of the program from her. And I don't think it's ever really fully explained.

//And Shuichi...well, we already talked about it, but as cool as HE is, his situation is easily the most stupid and unrealistic. We've discussed this at length already.

//What I love about the way Sora defeats Mikado and ruins his plan in the end, as sudden as one could argue it is, is the fact that even though she HAS the power of Divine Luck, and DOES use it against him in the end, she doesn't RELY on it for her victory. In fact, the only way she really makes use of it is to one: Wake everyone up from stasis, and two: help Syobai get the password right.

//Even then, she says afterwards that it was Syobai's own luck that did that, which...is confusing, I'll admit, but my point is that Sora, unlike the rest of the protags, actually PLANNED how to defeat Mikado, and what she was going to do to save everyone, while making a calculated sacrifice.

//Sora did not win through the power of belief or Hope, but through the power of logic, and it's almost hilarious that she's the only protagonist of this group in a series of MYSTERY games that does this.

//Unfortunately, I don't have much to say in defending the difficulty.

//Largely why this trial ends up losing points is because some of the parts of it are so unforgiveably difficult, and not in a good way.

//The fight against Mikado is not only insanely hard, but whether you win or lose it literally hinges on how the game ends for you.

//The consequences of this are far too great, and while yeah, this is the climactic point that you HAVE to get right in order to triumph over Mikado, that doesn't justify the difficulty, nor does it justify the fact that the showdown that GOES ON FOR FAR TOO FUCKING LONG!

//It's RIDICULOUS!!! Even by the standards of Danganronpa, and ESPECIALLY with the context that Sora has already figured out what she's going to do and how to do it does not justify a scream off that lasts THIS long and is THIS DIFFICULT!

//And before any of ya'll irritating fucks say it...I KNOW you CAN'T die here!

//But I DIDN'T realize that the first time I played it, and I still shit myself thinking I might lose because I wasn't paying attention to my health bar. And also, that's not an excuse for this ridiculous as fuck minigame anyway, because that's even LESS of a reason for it to last for that long!

//*siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh*...But I digress. 3 out 4 points ain't bad.

//But I realize that I'm kind of getting ahead of myself. I'm talking mostly about the status of this trial as a finale, and not really what actually gets covered in it, which is definitely my personal highlight of it. So as I've done before, let's quickly summarize what leads up to the ending.

//The story starts with Mikado Sannoji, a man who is as much a creation of hubris as a plot twist marathon. He actually started out as a real person with a burning obsession to bring back Utsuro, the walking embodiment of Divine Luck.

//But here’s the kicker: the Mikado we know as the Ultimate Wizard and Mastermind is actually an Alter Ego AI; like Chihiro's Alter Ego, or Chiaki; modeled after the original.

//The real Mikado had been saved by Utsuro’s Divine Luck as a child, which set him on a lifelong quest to resurrect his savior. Using data from Yamato Kisaragi's AI that helped the survivors of the first Danganronpa Another game, Mikado discovered that Utsuro had died during Class 79’s Killing Game.

//Determined not to let death get in the way of his obsession, Mikado got to work on creating an AI version of Utsuro, to revive both him and his power. He started by employing the assistance of Kokoro Mitsume, AKA. Kokoro Kurokawa, mother of DRA1’s Mikako Kurokawa and not exactly a contender for Mother of the Year.

//Kokoro had previously experimented on her daughter to study emotions, and even after Mikako escaped from captivity, Kokoro’s brain implant kept logging data from her mind like a terrible sci-fi nanny cam. Mikado used this data to help build his AI...but first, he made an Alter Ego based on himself.

//And this is where things go hilariously, and tragically, wrong.

//Kokoro infused Mikado’s AI with extra emotions, making it so advanced that it gained self-awareness and agency. AI Mikado took one look at real Mikado’s plans, deemed them unworkable, and decided he could do it better. With a new agenda to steal Divine Luck for himself, AI Mikado hired Syobai Hashimoto to assassinate his creator. And because Syobai doesn’t miss, the original Mikado was promptly eliminated, leaving AI Mikado free to become the one and only Wizard Supreme.

//Now untethered by pesky human flaws, Mikado 2.0 dove into networks worldwide, gathering intel to perfect his plan. He learned that Utsuro had swapped places with Yuki Maeda during his Class 79 shenanigans, leaving Yuki on life support.

//Mikado swooped in, stole Yuki's vegetable body, skinned it down to just a brain, and devised a trauma-recreation scheme to force Utsuro’s personality to resurface. The pièce de résistance? Recreating Class 79’s Killing Game in a virtual world.

//To maximize Divine Luck’s power, Mikado recruited a crew of misfits who’d also benefited from Utsuro’s luck. Nikei Yomiuri, Hajime Makunouchi, Emma Magarobi, and Iroha Nijiue.

//Originally called the Children of Utsuro, Mikado rebranded them as VOID (because villains love ominous acronyms). But even with his crew, Mikado needed a virtual world to trap his new participants. So he swiped data from Chihiro Fujisaki’s Neo World Program and retrofitted it into a tropical island paradise.

//The cast was carefully chosen: they had to be symbols of hope and have ties to the original Killing Game. For example, Yoruko was a well-recognized counselor who once worked as a hostess alongside Minako Tomori, mother of Kizuna Tomori.

//With memories rewritten and virtual bodies in place, the participants thought they were fresh Hope’s Peak Academy students. Cue the Killing Game 2.0, where VOID’s meddling ensured most of the cast didn’t make it out alive.

//And so, Mikado’s plan unfolded, a chaotic blend of mad science, misplaced ambition, and just enough emotional manipulation to keep things messy

//And that's basically it in a not-so-neat nutshell, and...man I have to really talk about this, huh?

//For one thing, this plan is probably the most insane sequence of events leading up to a Killing Game out of all of these. The only contender is, ironically, Danganronpa 2's, because that's also the only other one that can't be summed up in a single sentence. Even if I was to try with Another 2, I'd still be leaving out some very critical information.

//This is probably my biggest problem with the circumstances. While the twists are fun, the sheer amount of setup can feel overwhelming. From Utsuro’s Divine Luck to Kokoro’s experiments, to Mikado’s betrayal by his own AI.

//It’s a lot to keep track of. For someone like me who plays these games casually, it makes me feel bogged down, and like I need a flowchart to follow along.

//However, once you DO wrap your head around it, this is...honestly pretty cool!

//To be perfectly frank, after finding out that Utsuroshima was also a virtual world, just like Jabberwock Island was, the fact that Mikado turned out to be an Alter Ego was honestly not that shocking.

//However, it's still a good twist in the way it flips the classic Mastermind trope on its head. Instead of being some omnipotent human puppetmaster, he’s a digital creation who overthrew his own creator.

//And as mid as I do find Mikado for the most part, goddamn if I don't love a good AI villain. Lookin' at you, SHODAN and GLaDOS.

//For me, it's just the right mix of sci-fi intrigue and over-the-top drama for Danganronpa fans. Plus, AI Mikado’s betrayal adds a layer of irony to the villainy.

//The fact is that the only reason why Alter Ego Mikado is so evil is because even if he didn't show it, the real Mikado was equally as evil. In the game, we find out that Utsuro saved him when the orphanage he lived in burned down, so in order to summon him again, he tried to burn down ANOTHER orphanage!

//(There's a CG of it somewhere, but I couldn't find it unfortunately.)

//The dude was not okay, so making a sentient AI based on himself was...definitely NOT the best call.

//I also have to give points for yet again, my absolute favourite parts of the Another games, which is the originality. Although, this is a wishy-washy part.

//On the one hand, the Killing Game not only taking place in a virtual world based on a tropical island, but also specifically designed to hurt the participants for the Mastermind's personal benefit; as well as said Mastermind being an AI copy of a very horrible person; feels a bit derivative of Danganronpa 2. While Mikado’s execution is unique, the foundational premise isn’t breaking much new ground.

//On the other, however, Mikado creating an entire Killing Game as a trauma simulator for one person is hilariously over-the-top, even by Danganronpa standards. It’s the kind of absurd villain scheme that keeps things entertaining.

//What about the trial itself though?

//One of my biggest qualms with this case though, is that while it's overall pretty good, the characterization of some of these characters doesn't really hit right for me.

//However, at the same time, I would argue that each of the characters here, even the one's that I don't like, can be justified one way or another in a way that makes it, at the very least, more manageable.

//I've come to expect this of the Another series, especially Another 2, but one thing that sets it apart from

//It's not something that I really need to go in length talking about, is that Iroha...uh...sucks, honestly.

//Yeah, it wasn't until I went back through these trials that I realized how much I really DISLIKED Iroha in this game. I don't care that she's LINUJ's favourite, that to me is proof that he doesn't like people, because this is easily the most selfish and pointless she is in the entire game, and that's saying something.

//Like I can't believe it took me the whole game to realize this, but it's only when I got here, now knowing that she's a VOID, and the kind of person she really is that I realized "Wow, Iroha really does NOTHING for this game, does she? She's just completely pointless and contributes in no meaningful way whatsoever."

//I guess an argument can be made that there's really no reason for Iroha not to be completely self-centered here, considering everyone knows she's not actually on their side, and she has no reason to hide the fact that she cares about nothing right now except herself.

//Which...yeah, okay, to be fair, I do like that subversion. It's honestly unrealistic for her to actively work with the group considering that there's no way she gets out of it scot-free. And it is so human to be doing this, plus, we already know she's NOT the good guy here.

//There's legitimately NO REASON for Iroha NOT to act like this. Not only does she have no reason to be concerned for anybody's survival here other than her own, but she doesn't really know jack shit about what's going on, even as the final VOID, so I do get it.

//It's just really fucking annoying, and really doesn't help my opinion of her as a character. Especially when I look in Weeby Newz' comment sections for this part of the trial and see so many defending her.

//Like, I get what you guys are saying, and you are 100% correct, but also, I, as an ACTUAL human being, don't have to be happy about it either!

//The other example is Officer Tsurugi Kringe-o.

//Jesus fucking christ, I cannot tell you how goddamn disappointing it is that Tsurugi regresses so much between the end of DRA and the first time he appears in SDRA2, because it really does just feel like he learned absolutely nothing from his experiences in that Killing Game, as much as it seemed like he did in Chapters 4-6.

//I think I would honestly be willing to forgive it if LINUJ didn't approach his hypocrisy with the subtlety of a wrecking ball in a library.

//It honestly didn't even occur to me until I started doing these trial reviews how much I actively DESPISED Tsurugi as a person, even though I do think he's a good character.

//With that said, we do actually learn something about Tsurugi and his ideals here; something that we didn't know for sure before, from the Kisaragi Foundation's team-up with Syobai. Something that, initially, feels very untoward of him, due to how much he absolutely despises criminals.

//In fact, another point against him that I mentioned in a previous post that relates to this, is that Tsurugi's brand of justice treats both Iroha and Yoruko with the same level of contempt as criminals.

//Iroha, who kidnapped people to but in a twisted game where people die, manipulated the fuck out of everyone, and attempted and probably committed murder in the past, is treated the same as Yoruko, who lied about her age to work in a hostess bar.

//Wh-What the fuck is up with this man!? Like, sure, don't lie about your age to work in shifty business practice that isn't for kids, but also, Tsurugi had no idea what Yoruko was going through at the time, just as he didn't realize what Akane was going through at the time with A-2.

//He hasn't changed AT ALL! GRRRRRRR!

//I-I'm sorry...I just kinda got... *sigh*...Let me try and lay this out more professionally...

//Tsurugi’s philosophy of justice, or rather his personal brand of "if-I-do-it-it’s-fine" morality, is an admittedly fascinating dive into the slippery slope of ethical absolutism. His belief that evil must be countered with equal or greater evil positions him as both judge and executioner, which might sound cool on paper...until you realize he’s not stopping at the guilty.

//His willingness to drag innocent people like the families and friends of said criminals into his vendetta reeks less of justice and more of unchecked authoritarianism. It’s as though he read Crime and Punishment and said, "Raskolnikov didn’t go far enough."

//Tsurugi’s logic is warped to the point where he paints himself as a savior while systematically destroying the concept of fairness. What makes him complex, though, is that he genuinely believes in his mission.

//He’s not your run-of-the-mill, anti-hero who knows he’s not exactly morally aligned and accepts it. Instead, Tsurugi cloaks himself in a self-righteous veneer, convincing himself and others that his actions are necessary sacrifices for the greater good.

//This contradiction; his desire to be the "good guy" while committing objectively terrible acts; is both his strength as a character and the reason he’s so polarizing. He operates in moral extremes, where gray areas and redemption are non-existent, creating a chilling parallel to real-world debates about justice and authority.

//The irony, of course, is that his methods undermine the very ideals he claims to uphold, leaving everyone wondering if Tsurugi is fighting evil or simply becoming another version of it.

//Which I think is aiming a little more towards the latter.

//Ultimately, Tsurugi’s insistence that "it’s okay if I do it" lands him squarely in the realm of hypocrisy with a capital H, which is why many fans, myself included, view him negatively. H

//is actions alienate others, painting him as a self-serving crusader rather than a hero of justice. His refusal to examine his own flaws while condemning everyone else’s makes him infuriating, not compelling. I do somewhat appreciate his depth and the moral debates he stirs, but they’re just as likely to make me roll my eyes and think, "Great, another guy who thinks the ends justify the means, because he’s the one defining the ends."

//And before any of you irritating fucks say it...Yes! I KNOW that Kuripa is the same case!

//Kuripa ultimately chooses who gets to live and die based on their crimes, and that's not a right he should be allowed to have, and ultimately, he DOESN'T. It's what makes him such a controversial figure among the Future Foundation, because his "justifications" for being a vigilante are all revolving around things that he should not have the right to decide.

//But Kuripa is specifically designed to be different than the likes of Tsurugi or Munakata in the following ways:

Many people forget this because of his violent streak, but Kuripa's crimes and murders are ultimately based around the idea of people seeking redemption. If Kuripa believes that someone is a criminal for the sake of something like making a living, protecting a family member, or being forced into it through other means of desperation, it's unlikely that he will put that person to the ax, even if he does decide to stop them. The reason why he wants to kill the members of Zetsubou is because not only are they all completely iredeemable, but they're also incredibly DANGEROUS, and a world without them is a better world. The sad part of it all is despite how the Future Foundation don't agree with Kuripa's methodology, he does kind of have a point that the world would be better off if Zetsubou were dead and gone.

Kuripa has never ONCE tried to justify his actions as correct. He's EXPLAINED them, but he's never tried to convince people to take the same path as him. In fact, he actively tries to push people away from it so that no one else besides him becomes a scumbag murderer. He's also never been shy about the fact that the feeling of carving through a horrible person with his sword makes him feel good inside. He fully embraces his sociopathy and evil as a part of himself without letting it control him, unlike Tsurugi, who tends to make excuses for it that completely invalidate his own line of logic.

Kuripa is a tragic character in the sense that he showboats so much, and appears to be so multi-talented, that it tries, but ultimately fails to cover the truth that he is a sad and absolutely pathetic man. He's incredibly self-aware, and knows full well that regardless of the motives, or who the victim is, murder is still murder, and two wrongs don't make a right. The reason why he continues DOING what he's doing is because he already has so much blood on his hands, the only way he finds he can wash it off is with more guilty blood. All he can do is defend his actions since he can't think of any other way to deal with the issues that are plaguing him. He is a tragic example of self-loathing and denial, wheras Tsurugi, for the most part at least, has his head so far up his ass, he can't see how bullshit and hypocritical his world-view and actions are.

//Sorry if that was a bit ranty, but it's very important to me that people understand the intricacies of Kuripa as a character without me needing to spell it out, purely because it's one of the driving forces behind DR Survivor's plot.

//In Tsurugi's case, By the time he’s finished explaining why his atrocities are actually virtuous, you’re left wondering whether you should laugh, cry, or just hope someone locks him in a debate with Makoto about the true meaning of justice.

//Spoiler alert: Makoto would win.

//But with all that said, despite the fact that Tsurugi and Iroha are almost CHRONICALLY annoying in this trial, I would say that every other character who appears here is honestly pretty fucking stellar! And none of them really get credit where it's due.

//Syobai is the easiest one to talk about I feel, because he doesn't honestly change that much from how he is through the rest of the game. However, the good thing about him in this chapter is despite the fact that he's a sleazeball to the end, this trial really does show the GOOD things about Syobai as a character more than they do the bad.

//It shows how much Sora understands Syobai in the end from the way she chooses to rely on him, not as a friend, but by fitting into his principles as a person.

//While he’s an arrogant, sharp-tongued opportunist who exudes selfishness, there’s an intriguing method to his madness. His life revolves around two central values: the sanctity of life and the power of money.

//To Syobai, life is the ultimate commodity. It’s invaluable and irreplaceable, and this belief explains why he treats death with a kind of clinical detachment. Killing or allowing someone to die isn’t something he takes lightly, and it’s never personal. His work as a broker isn’t fueled by bloodlust or malice but by his transactional mindset. Jobs are just jobs, even though he’ll gladly walk away from a mission if sufficiently bribed.

//What makes Syobai so compelling is that his philosophy isn’t as shallow as it appears. His fixation on money isn’t about greed for its own sake but stems from his view that wealth represents freedom, power, and the means to survive in an unforgiving world. Money is how Syobai measures trust. It’s a currency that doesn’t lie, unlike people, who are prone to betrayal.

//This belief also adds nuance to his otherwise cutthroat demeanor, as he sees his own brand of morality as more honest than the hypocritical posturing of others. His code may be unconventional, but it makes him reliable in his own way: if you hire Syobai and meet his price, you can count on him to deliver. Unless, of course, someone pays him better, then all bets are off.

//This contradiction between his mercenary tendencies and his surprising respect for life makes Syobai less of a villain and more of a morally gray wildcard, whose presence keeps everyone, including himself, on edge.

//And it's ultimately the deciding factor that Sora understands this about Syobai as a person while Mikado doesn't.

//This trial is also the best appearance of Yuki in this entire game, and where he really comes into his own. Sucks that it took until the end of the game for me to find Yuki even remotely interesting, but hey, it's better than nothing.

//Firstly, I like the fact that he doesn't forgive Utsuro, or show any kind of sympathy or understanding for what Utsuro did to him and his family, because...why would he?

//Yeah, okay, a case can be made that Utsuro didn't want any of this. Right from the beginning all the way to the end, Divine Luck is just a curse that makes his life incredibly difficult despite how much it's supposed to aid him with everything he does.

//I can make a whole case study about Utsuro's intricacies as a villain, but the short end of this is that despite how Utsuro was a victim of circumstance, it doesn't change the fact that he did some very terrible things, not just to Yuki, but to everyone, which justifies Yuki and Tsurugi's hatred for him.

//But what I like about Yuki's confrontation of Utsuro is that even though he makes the venom and detest in his tone abundantly clear, his facial expressions and movements don't show him angry; just...defeated.

//It really adds to the bittersweetness of this final trial in the fact that Yuki isn't willing to forgive, but he knows he has a chance to forget, and doesn't intend to waste it. Obviously, he's not happy that Sora has to be left behind while he takes over Akane's body, but he cares more about making use of the chance he's been given than focusing on what happened to him already that he can't change. It's a nice, and admittedly more realistic, parallel to Hajime and the end of Danganronpa 2.

//Also, I know that this is literally the entire point of the Utsuroshima Killing Game, but Yuki spends almost the entirety of SDRA2 getting handed L's, and that doesn't really stop here. Even the way that his character arc ends with him getting placed into Akane's body in Mikado's place isn't the best ending, because he now has more problems to deal with.

//Like, seriously, the fact that his physical "body" is literally just a brain in a jar is one of the most gut-wrenching twists in this entire game. If it wasn't for the fact that this was the final trial, and I knew there was some way for it to get resolved, I would have been panicking.

//But I do like the fact that not everything ended on a high note, because again, I've always found it stupidly unrealistic how well the final trials tend to end for the cast. The only class who I was interested in seeing the aftermath for was 77 considering all the revelations, but with this group, Yuki especially, it's a really good setup for future developments, and I like the way Yuki's character arc ended.

//His interactions with Tsurugi in this trial are also the more redeemable parts of both their characters for me. Especially in the way that Tsurugi is genuinely concerned with Yuki's safety and really wants to help him. And the best part is that this dynamic checks out.

//It’s essential to recognize the significant role Yuki played in shaping Tsurugi's logical processing during the previous game. Their bond, even on a purely platonic level, was undeniably close and instrumental in helping the corrupted cop come to terms with the events that unfolded. Early on, Tsurugi's reluctance to discuss his actions during the trial seems to stem from his unwillingness to confront the possibility that he made mistakes or that his decisions ultimately led to the unnecessary death of a friend.

//It’s only when Yuki convinces him to open up that Tsurugi begins to revisit his thought process, much like he did in the past. Yuki’s influence is pivotal. He’s someone Tsurugi genuinely listens to, even though this Yuki isn’t the one he knew. This dynamic showcases Yuki’s unique ability to challenge and guide Tsurugi's thinking, helping him process his actions and their consequences in a way that few others could.

//Also, we can't talk about this game's conclusion without talking about Yuki in Akane's body.

//Once it's revealed that Sora has the power of Divine Luck that Mikado seeks instead of Yuki, using Mikado’s own override code against him, Sora and Syobai pull the ultimate cyber-heist. Instead of letting Mikado upload his consciousness into the real world, they reroute the transfer to place Yuki’s mind into Akane Taira’s body.

//Mikado’s Alter Ego is left stranded in the virtual world, essentially hitting a digital Game Over while Yuki escapes to freedom in the most unexpected way. It’s a twist that feels like poetic justice, with Mikado undone by the very tools he used to control everyone else.

//Again Mikado's defeat is just so epic, but what makes this twist so intriguing is how it toys with identity and the notion of a second chance. Yuki, who has been through unimaginable trauma, is reborn into Akane’s body, a resolution that gives him a new life but also raises questions about identity and legacy. Meanwhile, Mikado, the grand mastermind, is left powerless in the virtual world he once ruled.

//I want to point something out here, because I don't think the narrative choices of this trial are talked about NEARLY enough.

//If you really think about it, AI Mikado met his demise by making the exact same mistake the original Mikado made that led to his. They BOTH underestimated their own artificial creation, and when that creation turned on them, that was when their plans met their end.

//Mikado met his ends at the hands of his own creation; AI Mikado, and then AI Mikado met his end at the hands of HIS own creation; Sora.

//That's CLEVER! From a writing standpoint, it really shows that history is doomed to repeat itself, and smacks Mikado with the reality that he was in no way superior to his creator like he thought he was. It's SO understatedly poetic, and I wish more people talked about it.

//The twist doesn’t just end with a mic drop for Mikado though. It sets up a tantalizing open-ended future for Yuki, now in the body of Akane Taira and wielding the immense power of Divine Luck...supposedly.

//On the surface, this seems like the ultimate redemption: Yuki gets a second chance at life, freed from the virtual world's chaos and his past traumas. But beneath that triumph lies a web of complex implications. What does it mean for Yuki to inhabit the body of well...a girl for one, but also a figure tied so closely to Despair? Will he fully embrace this fresh start, or will the haunting legacy of Akane’s role in the Killing Game follow him into his new existence? It’s a situation ripe with drama and uncertainty.

//And then there’s the matter of Divine Luck. In the hands of Utsuro, this power was a force of chaos, reshaping reality in horrifyingly unpredictable ways. Now, Yuki, a character who once embodied hope and fragility, has access to this same cosmic cheat code.

//Does he use it for good? Does it overwhelm him, making him a target for those who seek to exploit or destroy him, just as Mikado did? The story doesn’t provide answers, leaving Yuki’s future entirely up to interpretation, but...not in a way that feels dissatisfactory.

//It’s a brilliant way to let fans speculate about what kind of person Yuki will become, adding an ongoing ripple of intrigue long after the credits roll, and the ambiguity is both thrilling and unsettling.

//On one hand, Yuki in the real world with Akane’s body and Divine Luck could be seen as the ultimate comeback story. A character who has overcome despair and now has the tools to shape a better future.

//On the other hand, who's to say that the cycle of Utsuro falling into Despair due to the insane power he holds won't repeat itself? The weight of this power and the identity crisis it brings could spell tragedy.

//In either case, it’s a plot point that doesn’t just conclude the story, but it breathes new life into it, ensuring the narrative lingers in the minds of its audience.

//I know that LINUJ doesn't have any plans to make a Danganronpa Another 3, and honestly, I'm glad he's not, because as we've already seen for Danganronpa V3, a third game in the trilogy holds a significant risk of taking away what made the first two games really good.

//But I would love to see a fan's interpretation of what Another 3 could be like based on this trials conclusion.

//As for Mikado, if I can say one thing I like about SDRA2's story, it's the fact that there is no big Mastermind twist at the end, and the closest we get is the fact that the Mikado we knew was an AI based on an actual person.

//I was convinced that this game would end with the reveal that Mikado was actually a lackey to someone else who was hiding in plain sight. With my biggest guess being Yoruko because, in retrospect, she seemed to have suspiciously low stakes in this whole thing compared to Sora and Yuki.

//But...no. Mikado is the Mastermind at the start and stays that way through the whole game, and damn am I GLAD that I was wrong about Yoruko, because for one, I like Yoruko a lot, and two, I think it would really have taken away from the beginning of the game for Mikado's twist as the Mastermind if he'd turned out to be just a lackey. As much as he seems to submit himself to Utsuro, it's never hidden that he has his own agenda's.

//Although, I do have to say that Mikado's reveal of being an AI was...not really as impactful to me as it probably should have been. I really like that he's an AI antagonist, but at the same time, given that he's shown to have legitimate magical powers in a world that we've known for a while now is virtual, it...was not very shocking when it was revealed.

//With that said, I've said before that through this analysis, I'm starting to realize that I might have been a tad too harsh on Mikado, because he is an astoundingly good villain in the later parts of the game. It's hard to nail down a single point during Chapters 4 through 6 that I think his villainy really shines, but this final breakdown at the end is a good one, and definitely a contender.

//In general, I think what really makes me like this finale compared to the rest of the game is that the conclusion and the way things ultimately end feel undeniably SATISFYING, despite the bittersweetness of everything but...we'll get to that. Either way, Mikado has one of the best breakdowns across all 5 of these games, and definitely the greatest Mastermind defeat in the ENTIRE series.

//The legitimate only thing that bumps Mikado's defeat down is the fact that it's not voice acted, at least not yet. Assuming Sword of Swords or...anyone really managed to deliver an ear-splitting performance as he loses the plot would mark this as a standout moment.

//It's hard for me to take any of the Mastermind defeats seriously, largely because they barely show any kind of serious sense of defeat when they're taken down. Junko in both 1 and 2, Monaca, Tsumugi, and I would say even Utsuro, don't have that much of a satisfying end because you still feel like even their defeats were anticipated, and something that they were preparing themselves for.

//Junko is basically happy to be defeated in Game 1, Monaca, Utsuro, and Tsumugi don't seem as broken up about everything as they should be, and while AI Junko is SLIGHTLY better, her final moments are still a little anticlimactic...

//Mikado's defeat, and the way Sora girlbosses him, is not the case there, and it's OH SO SWEET.

//Unlike Junko, Mikado is VERY STRICT on things going to plan. Junko likes it when things get ruined because that's her kink of Despair, but Mikado plans things meticulously, from his schemes, all to the way he presents himself. And the fact that everything falls apart due to one little variable that he doesn't anticipate, is extremely GRATIFYING in a way words can't easily portray.

//It just...really feels like you achieved something here, which is something that not all the final trials do.

//Also, despite the obvious AI twist, the fact that Mikado killed his own creator is an entirely seperate matter that I find interesting, and also equally as satisfying and fun to discover.

//Fun fact: Sora yells at Mikado at the end of TTS "Zetsubou ni utsurou!" which means "Fall into despair!"

//The same Wham Line that Utsuro delivered back in A-6.

//Neat, huh?

//That leaves Sora, Yoruko, and Rei. I'm not talking about Utsuro because honestly, he's kind of the least factored character in this whole thing and beyond his final words with Sora, I didn't really care much for his involvement.

//I've seen a lot of people say that they don't actually like Yoruko in this trial, and I think it all stems from one particular point. When Mikado told everyone that Yuki's family had been killed by Utsuro and Akane, Yoruko is very quick to jump to Sora's defence and seperate her from that incident.

//The critique revolves around Yoruko's role in mitigating Yuki's experience and trauma caused by Akane, which one could argue undermines the personal nature of his struggle.

//I do agree with the notion that only the victim of harm has the moral right to forgive or withhold forgiveness. Yoruko’s decisions are invasive, as they redirect focus from Yuki's experience to her perspective. Something that she has no right to do.

//And yes, it's important to maintain agency for those directly affected by trauma, and such moments should center the victim's feelings and choices. It's easy to see how Yoruko is letting her feelings for Sora push Yuki's own feelings aside.

//However, I don't generally agree with this.

//Maybe I'm trying to stick up for Yoruko in the same way she stuck up for Sora here, because I like her and am trying to defend her, but personally, while the concern about Yoruko’s intervention is valid, it’s also worth noting that her perspective might have been intended to add complexity to the narrative.

//Yoruko wasn’t necessarily trying to forgive Akane on Yuki’s behalf but to offer her own reflections on the situation, framing it within a broader moral or ethical lens. And to be honest, I don't think what she said is exactly wrong.

//Forgiveness is often messy, and people external to a situation may offer opinions, right or wrong, that help deepen the story. It’s also possible that Yoruko’s interjection was less about robbing Yuki of agency and more about supporting him, albeit in a way that missed the mark emotionally.

//After all, Yuki had no recollection of this. He was still wondering whether or not what Mikado was saying was true or not, and even then, there's still his strong friendship with Sora that fostered through the entire game to consider.

//Remember, this Yuki is NOT Utsuro. And Sora is not exactly Akane Taira. Their connection through the game, beyond Sora being a protective algorithm for him, has nothing to do with Utsuro and Akane's prior relationship.

//Additionally, punishing someone who has supposedly reformed is a nuanced issue. While accountability is crucial, the story might be exploring themes of redemption and whether people can truly leave their past selves behind.

//And knowing how Yuki felt towards Sora in these final moments, I think he would actually AGREE with Yoruko that Sora couldn't be held accountable.

//Yoruko in this final trial is fine overall. She pulls her weight more than Iroha does and tries to help ground the trial from the insanity that it entails; and also, that one moment where Mikado tries to tell Yuki her age before she completely cuts him off is REALLY funny to me.

//One last minor complaint...

//Fuck this bit especially, lol.

//I mean, it doesn't mean jack shit, I'll always have my own interpretation of the way their relationship ended, and that's all I need, and Sora's goodbye to Yoruko was still superb overall, but...

//...Man...

//Let these bitches be gay, PLEASE...!

//Can't complain too much because it's immediately followed by this scene where Rei hands Tsurugi his shit, and I love this scene despite how short it is because, for one, it's Rei reminding us that she IS a girlboss and one of the best characters in this entire Fangan, and two, its hilarious to think about where we started with Rei, and seeing where we are now, where she went from being antagonistic and selfish to like...The ONLY GOOD GUY in the ROOM.

//I mean, I exaggerate. Syobai, Iroha, Tsurugi, and Utsuro are the only one's who really did anything wrong. And Mikado, obviously.

//But yeah, I love Slei Mekaru, and I love the fact that she clearly still considered Akane something of a friend by the time she logged out of the program, despite everything she had done. I really love that for her, and I could go into full depth why I absolutely love Rei, but...for another time, for sure.

//By the way, I think now is a good time to talk about something that people have asked me in the past, and that I've kind of failed to answer, because there was never really a right time to cover it.

//People can't help but point out that my interpretation of Tsurugi, who does things POST all these events, is significantly more relaxed and easy to get along with in Survivor than he ever was in the Another series, and they're confused as to what made him change his tune.

//Well, there are a few reasons.

//Firstly, Another 1 Case 6, as well as THIS case, showed that Tsurugi is willing to take responsibility for his actions, and once the truths are finally coming to light, he cooperates with everyone in a respectable and appropriate manner. It sucks that he regresses again, but the other reason why is because I think this Killing Game, plus Rei's "talk" with him afterwards might have had a real impact on the way he thought about things.

//I know it's unrealistic to think that Tsurugi will ever change his tune since the events of DRA1 didn't really fix his 'tude but...even the most stoic person would have a lot to think about after all this happened. Plus, given the time gap, he would have had some time to think about it.

//This will be covered in Phase 3 during the Kisaragi Crash arc as well, so look forward to that whenever the fuck it happens.

//And then this dialogue as well, and how Yoruko blushes after it, and decides to save whatever she was going to confess for when Sora finally returns to the real world. As well as the fact there are some REALLY cute moments throughout the trial of Yoruko standing up for Sora and reaffirming how they feel about each other.

//Mikado even points out at one point, after it's revealed Akane Taira killed Yuki's family, that Yoruko's willingness to seperate Sora from Akane's crimes is a sign that she's, and I quote, "blinded by love," Yoruko doesn't just not deny it. She AFFIRMS it.

//To be honest, I don't really know how and why LINUJ ended up writing Sora and Yoruko's relationship to be so preciously gay, because I'm not even sure that was his intention, but either way, I hope it remains this way forever.

//If the official dub of SDRA2 tries to erase or cover for this, I will fucking GUT them.

//Verbally, of course.

//But yeah, generally, I can't think of a single bad thing to say about Rei in this trial. She's just one of the best characters in the whole series and this final trial solidifies that for me.

//But of course, you already know that I'm gonna cover this, because despite how much I really care about the characterization of this trial, it really does all fall flat in compared to our absolutel main woman of the hour.

//Fucking Sora, man...Like, what do you want me to say here?

//I've already gone into detail before about why I absolutely love Sora, but let me try and paraphrase that in the context of this trial.

//Throughout all of SDRA2, Sora is largely the main reason why I stayed on the course despite wanting to deviate from it so many times. She has a very "tell-it-like-it-is" personality, speaking her mind even if it sometimes lands as blunt or tactless. This makes her a riot to follow, especially with her razor-sharp roasts, some of the most creative burns in the Danganronpa universe.

//Beyond her humor, she’s tough as nails and refuses to give up, yet her amnesia and the painful truths about her identity gradually chip away at that resilience in cases that we've already covered. Her mental breakdowns are not only emotionally impactful but also pivotal to SDRA2’s narrative, showcasing her as a deeply flawed yet compelling character.

//What culminates here and the large reason why I prefer Sora to most other protags in the series is that her writing sets her apart. Unlike the "Ultimate Paragons of Goodness" trope that defines Makoto or the others, Sora is refreshingly human; ironic seeing as she's an AI.

//She’s not portrayed as emotionally superior or the moral compass of the group. She messes up big time in Case 4 but it makes her feel more real, even when her actions aren’t justifiable. Her proactive nature also shines, as she’s often the first to push past the group’s aimless chatter to find real solutions, making her a dynamic leader who avoids the "let’s hold hands and hope" approach that other protagonists sometimes default to.

//And the way that whole character culminates here is one of, if not, THE most poignant moment in the entire Fanganronpa universe, even today.

//I mentioned already that the plot twist that Sora is actually Akane Taira was shocking and fun, but I would say that the follow-up twist that's revealed in this trial is also pretty cool. On top of the trauma and fear she suffered at that point in the game, it's coupled on here with the fact that Sora herself was never real to begin with.

//Like Mikado, she's an AI program that used Akane Taira as a base. She's effectively an NPC that was added into the game as part of Mikado's master plan, designed to protect Yuki from harm so that the events of the Killing Game didn't just automatically fail with his own death.

//What makes this twist shine is how it recontextualizes Sora’s entire journey. While it doesn’t come completely out of left field, there were breadcrumbs throughout, especially once the virtual world aspect of Utsuroshima was revealed, it still packs an emotional punch. Knowing Sora isn’t a "real" person adds layers to her struggle with identity and purpose, turning her existential crisis into one of the most poignant arcs in the game.

//And let’s not ignore the hilarity of her being designed as Mikado’s failsafe, only to become the ultimate wrench in his plans.

//As a twist, despite it not being one of the most left-field twists in the game, it’s still brilliant because it doesn’t just shock. It reframes everything.

//The stakes go up as you realize Sora’s existence isn’t just tied to her survival but also to the overarching plot’s integrity, and the fact that if the program goes down, she goes with it. Plus, it cements SDRA2’s willingness to experiment with what a main character can be.

//And then the conclusion is not only so epic, but again, the keyword is bittersweet.

//Like I said, seeing Mikado's plan absolutely crumble in the face of Sora, who turns out to be the one who ACTUALLY had the Divine Luck he sought; the lone variable he didn't account for, is not only the greatest final confrontation of all these games, but it's also the one that ends the most dramatically.

//Sora's final moments in this game are among the most bittersweet here, even with the notion that they might be able to bring her back in the future if Rei can rebuild her code. It's still not a guarantee, and everyone knows it, but everyone accepts it.

//It was an amazing sacrifice to see Sora, who again, had shown to be at a defree of self-centered, make such a lofty sacrifice if it meant the others could move on with their lives.

//And again, this is the primary reason why I love this ending trial, even if it's not as engaging or emotional as the ending of Another 1 or Danganronpa 2. Sora's final sacrifice is what any of the other endings could have been if they had leaned into tragedy instead of triumph; a parallel to Hajime’s potential erasure in favor of despair.

//It’s heartbreaking yet beautifully fitting.

//But that's really it for now, and the issue is that despite all I've just covered, there's SO much here to unpack that I couldn't possibly go over all of it intricately. I've made my key thoughts and feelings on this case know, and even if I don't know if I've done a good job, I've at least explained why it lands itself on this list.

//I know that a lot of people find endings like this controversial, but I genuinely believe that it's one of the best endings in the Danganronpa series, and one of the best trials that SDRA2 has to offer, even if it doesn't completely breach the Top 10.

[goodluckclove]

The Resistance Against Classical Literature (a ramble)

So I was talking a lot tonight to my colleague and editor @xarrixii, who is also one of my few field reporters regarding the state of Modern Precocious Youth Culture. They were telling me that the new average in English classes is - I think their exact words were "lower than you'd expect". I knew this already to some extent as I've heard more and more about the rise of varying degrees of illiteracy in younger generations.

I see a lot of people my age or older dunking on these kids and young adults for being near illiterate, some of them with a tone implying that this is somehow the choice, much less fault, of the students in question. Students these days are so aggressive and can barely read or write! Yeah dude I don't know about you but I get the sense those two observations are connected.

Anyways, while talking about why that may be, I mentioned how I'd seen a pretty major dislike for classic fiction and literary fiction in online spaces. When I saw the comments shrugging it off or condemning it as a genre, I responded with mainly brief confusion before moving on. But I feel like exploring the concept now and I guess that's going to be the problem of whoever follows past the read more.

So the first thing I figured was that Classic Fiction and Literary Fiction are two genres with pretty loose definitions that can vary depending on who's defining them. Literary fiction, after some quick research, generally seems to be considered a work of non-genre fiction that focuses on style, theme, and characters over plot. Most of my bookshelf is literary fiction, mainly from like the 50's to the modern age. That's just what I'm into. I also have a ton of books of Stephen King and Chuck Palahinuik. I'm complicated.

Classic fiction is even weirder to pinpoint. It seems to just be a notable book that stayed notable over the course of time over the course of generations for some reason or another. Maybe it's a great example of the genre. Maybe it's emblematic of a certain era in time. Maybe it proposed ideas divisive enough for people to argue over perpetually. That appears to be it, though.

Immediately you may notice this covers a TON of ground. This list of 200 notable books starts in the 1800s and covers a lot of the dusty go-to titles. Pride and Prejudice, Moby Dick, Great Gatsby - the kind of thing you probably had to read in an English class at some point. But go on and you find a way different vibe. The Haunting of Hill House. Beloved. American Psycho. All of these considered just as influential as something in the 1800s, just slightly newer in the scope of human existence.

I kind of figure the more prominent issue is that when people lament about classics they're actually talking about the Literary Canon, which is a sort of nebulously growing collection of what some authority of academia determined to be the best, most influential books to humanity as a whole. Are they right? To some extent, I'm sure. Domino effect and all. But since it's major push in I think the 1920s, it's been altered and expanded on to include people who are something other than white and biologically male and predominantly European. I know while I was still in high school the curriculum in California barely got the message.

I don't blame the teachers. Teachers have far less control over the material they can cover than what you might think - at least in public school. But when people say classics as a genre exist exclusively of [Stock photo ID:1083619858 from iStock.com], they are wrong and also have a perfectly sensible reason to think that.

I think execution plays a huge part in this. There's a deceptive glory in being well-read that starts great (It is objectively a good thing to be exposed to a variety of stories and ideas regardless of whether or not you end up liking them), but becomes so self-involved that it eventually becomes harmful to the cause. Maybe it's that the curriculum goes by at such a speed that you're unable to read and process a story as the author intended. Maybe you're in a space where you don't feel like you can say that you find a book held in Such High Regard to be mediocre, or even straight-up bad without it being a whole goddamned thing. As someone who was briefly an English Major, I am fully aware that there is a collection of books and writers that certain people are just insufferable about.

This is not an anti-intellectual thing. I would not take someone who - let's say, sees me reading Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger and sees it as an excuse to ramble bitterly about Catcher in the Rye unprompted - and call them an intellectual. I would consider that person to be someone who really likes to hear themselves talk and refuses to acknowledge that debates should be consensual.

What I mean is that there is a way to talk about older authors, revered authors, authors with big ideas that have lasted for years and years, and fucking pitch them better. The authors of even the oldest literary novels weren't dead-eyed back cover photos, artfully brooding and just exuding genius. They were writers, which means more often than not they were prone to some form of wacky neurosis.

Ernest Hemingway was a drunk and a fighter who loved guns but not gun safety. There's a much darker punchline to this setup that you're probably thinking of, but when I wrote it I was really referring to how he once shot himself in the calves by accident while fishing. He also opened fire on a hotel toilet during a messy divorce. Hemingway is also widely considered to be some variation of gender non-conforming.

Franz Kafka was an angsty guy who loved cocaine and simping over his long-time editor, and his dying wish was for all his work to be burned because the man was dramatic to the end (But also weirdly funny and apparently would crack himself up at his own writing). Jules Verne, the reason why I spent the latter half of one summer plodding my way through 10,000 Leagues Under the Sea, tried to hop a ship as a Cabin Boy so he could bring a coral necklace to the girl he loved - who was, incidentally, also his cousin.

These people wrote profoundly influential works. If you only read modern authors, those authors were almost certainly influenced by an older author they read and loved at some point. The Western Canon may no longer have the same use it once did, but there's a definite benefit in exploring books that gained a great deal of lasting notoriety, regardless of whether you love or hate them. It's good for everyone, but if you're a writer I go as far as to say it's crucial for development and inspiration.

Yes, there's good books now. I agree! But if you're someone who is avoiding the entirety of the 20th century in terms of literature, I would love for you to explore why. They don't have to be cisgender, straight men. They don't have to be white or American.

You aren't like an inherently cooler, smarter and more morally righteous person for reading these books and anyone who says they are is weird and boring. At the same time, there is an expanse of literature guarded at times by just the lamest doofuses that has the potential to make you feel something. It can change your perspective even if you hate it. Invisible Man had an ending so haunting when I finished it I walked out of class without saying a word and cried in the rain. Like Water for Chocolate annoyed me enough that I decided to try more of the genre to see if it was all like that and now I'm way into magical realism.

10,000 Leagues Under the Sea still makes me so fucking angry because Jules Verne was crazy horny for listing fish. Also his cousin, i guess? God damn, man.

Anyways it's late and I've lost the topic a long time ago. Books good. People who get super snobby and reverent over authors to the point where they're no longer people who wrote books are dumb. It's kind of making more sense in retrospect that Hemingway could've been some form of queer because while I did like A Farewell to Arms his work does tend to be aggressively Straight Man. I just learned the whole gender-y thing about him tonight so that's kind of blowing my mind.

[productofaritual]

Guess who's gonna yell about eh!Ranboo again THAT'S RIGHT IT'S ME

I wanted to send this as an ask to a moot but I sent it like a week ago and they haven't replied so I'm JUST YELLING HERE

Today on "Lar's thoughts about event horizon part three billion": Holy fuck does eh!Ranboo underestimate tf out of eh!Tubbo

(Rambling rambling rambling, the rest is under cut)

Well it's not just Tubbo, it's also Ozzi, but they're batshit fucking insane and if you can predict what they'll do you should get a diploma or some shit. We love them for it tho <3

Anyway BACK TO TUBBO.

Before we get to the why, let's make sure we all get the what.

Ranboo, the idiot /aff, assumes that Tubbo just. Does not know about the majority of his mental issues. And while he's not entirely wrong, he is still WRONG. Dude, that is the person who managed to 'read' you the fastest out of anyone. That is the person who actually looks at you because he cares. You're supposed to be good at knowing people, and yet. AND YET HE DOESN'T MAKE THE CONNECTION THAT TUBBO WOULD KNOW ANYTHING. But we know he does and Ranboo should know it too, because while reminiscing about the things that happened in Ad Astra he SPECIFICALLY POINTS OUT that it scared him how observant Tubbo was! And like?? Do you think he's gonna stop because you're friends now?

Now that we have the what. The why.

Obviously I don't know for sure, I didn't write the thing, but I HAVE THEORIES. And no, 'it's a plot hole' or 'suspension of disbelief' won't cut it, Matpat taught me better than that.

It's actually based on something my friend pointed out while reading, and that is the fact that Ranboo actually idealizes Tubbo. Because if you look at how Tubbo is described from his own POV versus from Ranboo's, you'll find that the difference is more than just being described by someone else. From Ranboo's POV, Tubbo can literally do no wrong. He is near perfect, even though we know he clearly fucking isn't. But to Ranboo he's basically the equivalent of Beatrice from the Divine Comedy (iykyk). But then what that leads to is Ranboo having this idealized version of Tubbo that he bases his assumptions on rather than the real one, similarly to the spectre, except he doesn't seem to be able to realize he's still wrong about the real Tubbo. And that's what trips him up, because for Ranboo, the ideal scenario is one where Tubbo doesn't find out anything. He literally says it in the goddamn book, he admits that he wasn't ever going to tell Tubbo anything, that he didn't want him to know. But the real Tubbo is one hell of a lot more observant.

And his idealized version gets absolutely fucking SHATTERED when Tubbo admits he knows something, when Tubbo lashes out or doesn't act the way Ranboo expects him to and Ranboo doesn't know how to handle that. And AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH yeah that's pretty much it I dunno I've read this fic way too many times can u tell

[defining-skyology]

Defining Lore(bible).

Did you know TGC confirmed to the Lore community that the story isn't just being made up as they go?

Lore theorists were getting pretty upset around late 2020, because a nihilistic cultural movement was swelling amongst us over a question:

If the story was never fully created/fleshed out, then are we just theorizing about a story... that doesn't exist?

[[[Longer read ahead]]]

[[[Continue reading]]]

We are back

It's been quite an agonizing week and all I've wanted to do for so long was just get back on this. Even now that I'll barely be approaching our topic of the day/week, the question still lingers: how long does working on a single article take? Though the writing portion of the production process takes 2-4 (idle/distracted) hours of writing, I spend an entire week beforehand searching up, on average, dozens of philosophical and scientific wikis and official research studies, panning for things to help me distinguish my arguments in interesting ways. I've come to really love reading, and while I haven't been able to write; I promise that we've been reading.

Why do these articles need such thorough and often unconnected briefs and research just in order for us to post them? According to the amazing community-control dev Ash from Lorechat, we know that there is supposedly a 'canon' story that TGC's team works together to ensure is still cohesive to the 'grand plan'; fleshed out much greater than most aspiring theorists would/do believe. (Supposedly). When first announcing this to an absolutely livid Lorechat in late 2020, Ash called it "The Lore Bible". The devs have the Lore Bible. But we don't.

The Lore Bible, the original story of Sky; the descriptive, canon history of the Ancestor kingdom, was written before Sky officially launched in 2019. Which means that Ash is suggesting to the Lore community that Sky's story has always had its 'full details', with none of the major plot points of the fall of the kingdom excessively changing. There is an Answer. But to most theorists, we will never come remotely close to confidently knowing we have it, not without help anyways. But I don't think that's true. I don't think it's impossible. And I think, help or not, we can keep taking steps closer towards Knowing.

Because Sky is just a Story. Sky is a fictional world, with a structured civilization and exhaustively-planned ecosystem. They had to have come into having these ideas from somewhere. They had inspiration, and now we do too. We can decide what their inspiration was, and we try to rebuild the Story in our mind from the ground up. We've always already tried to rebuild the Story in our heads from the ground up. But I'd like to verbalize in a different light, for a different view.

Here on this blog, we won't be rebuilding this World, this concept of what a Kingdom looked like. Instead, I want to tear it back down. I want to strip the fabrics apart by their seams, and see every way that they have sewn this together. I want to peel it back until it was just a thought in their heads.

We have to reverse-engineer the entire thing.

The point, is to not start creating the entire world. I'd rather not do that. So many Sky theorists try, and it often just doesn't always work perfectly. Why? Because of the loose ends. They built their characters; their interactions, their plot, climax, falling action; relationships; tender moments; bitter tears.

But in the end those characters, those emotions, all stand on loose gravel, in quicksand, their ankles getting pulled in by the unbuilt world they've made.

This is why world building is so important, and the missing step we've been disregarding all these years. We need to prioritize creating the foundation before we can stand up on it.

The Answer is out there folks. So let's keep looking.