#And says “I really hope that you do Kazuma. I'm hoping even more strongly that you'll say yes. ”

[fighting-these-demons]

@thedragonchilde had me thinking about proposals a lot lately.

The tags aren't a proposal but they're sorta close.

Sorry if they're a bother Op. o7 Thank you for sharing these photos they're beautiful!

[kobitoshiningneedle]

For the fandom hot take thing I have two:

Kazuma is not part of the found family and neither is Barok. The only members of that group are Ryunosuke, Susato, Iris, and Herlock. I fully admit I'm biased as a Kazuma and Barok hater but neither Kazuma nor Barok have a positive relationship with Iris and Herlock the way that Ryunosuke and Susato do. At best Kazuma has a separate found family dynamic with Ryunosuke and Susato but that doesn't make him a member of the found family as a whole.

As for my second hot take? People say Ryunosuke and Susato have a sibling relationship, but honestly I don't see it. I'll admit I'm biased since I ship them together but these two do not talk about each other the way siblings do. Their final conversation is as close to a love confession as it can get without them outright saying they're in love and the game having them kiss. As someone with siblings I'd never talk about or to my siblings the way these two do in the final scene of Resolve and even outside of it I feel like a lot of their scenes are framed/treated romantically. People just don't want to see it because of the age gap and, like, it's fine if people don't like the age gap but they don't need to make up reasons why they're siblings instead of lovers. If anything, reading their relationship as siblinglike just makes it feel incesty when you consider the romantic framing and while I'm not necessarily against incest ships myself I know a lot of people are nowadays. I for one, will never see those two as anything but lovers. Maybe not at the start of the duology, but definitely by the end.

You listed two takes I have very strong feeling about, beware! I will be rambling a lot!

So about Barok and Kazuma...

Strongly agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree | Strongly disagree

I want to say that Kazuma is one of my faves of all times, but I'm really critical about him, because he's an interesting mess (in an ugly way that's different from the typical twinkboy way), and because the fandom isn't normal about him and wanks him too much, and I'm mama's contrarian. So first of all, Kazuma was never a type of a character to be in a "found family" dynamic - too strong his dedication to Asogi's legacy. I'm sure he loves and respects Ryunosuke and Susato, and I hope he will befriend Iris, but he will never have the same sentiment as Ryunosuke about having "the best family in the world". Besides, my optimistic prospects of him adapting in London aside, the actual game showed us that his care for another people, especially Susato was really lukewarm and thus pretty condemnable if you ask me. So Kazuma, even after the truth he was seeking for 10 years is laid bare, is too much of a mess to be able to form meaningful connections. At least at this point

Now about Barok... He's technically a family to Iris, but it's a whole another thing to found family Iris found herself in with Sholmes et al. However, the uncle and niece started to have slow attempts to become closer. As much as broody Barok is, he probably won't miss a chance to suppoty Klint's daughter. Besides, there's this interesting begrudging friendship with Sholmes himself. Aaand respect for Ryunosuke. Still, neither of this isn't quite a found family make, and just like Kazuma, Barok doesn't have this type of commitment to consider 221B crew as such. So he's more like this brooding uncle everyone invies once a year or something

What I also believe is that Kazuma and Barok would be able to create a some sort of suppost network between each other and their closes colleagues like Gina or Maria Gorey (although Gina is 221B family member too). I won't be a family, and I'm not sure the two prosecutors need that, but they would do just fine not associating with 221B member as close as possible

The second take... *inhales*

Super-puper double mega agree | Strongly agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree | Strongly disagree

I think even without shipping Ryususa (which I do) the sibling dynamic doesn't make much sense. The only argument in favor of it I can think of is Iris calling them her siblings. Which doesn't mean anything in terms of their own dynamic, since

They did this partly to support and encourage poor orphan girl

They chose to be called Iris' siblings, not each other's. It's like saying a married couple suddenly become incest since one of the party's parents is another's parent-in-law

It's historical fiction, where familial terms don't define strictly platonic relationship. In older books you will see someone saying "You're like a brother to me" and this will mean "I want to lala you forever". So at some point maaaybe Ryunosuke will say to Susato "You're like a sister to me, Susato-san!" and mean exactly this, because this is how people in ye olde times articulated their feelings. They weren't familiar with twitter fandom discourse

And honestly? Even without shipping goggles there's hardly some sort of fraternal bond between them like with, say, Phoenix and Maya or Apollo and Trucy, or Franziska and Miles (of course it's subjective and one might not see their dynamics as siblingey either, so this is all my opinion). They feel like comrades, coworkers with their formalities and respect.

And of course we all know that people who insist that Ryu and Susato are like siblings don't actually genuinely appreciate their dynamic from this perspective, they just looking for reasons to invalidate a ship that rivals their OTP

[cosmickestrels]

Please tell us your Thots on Barok and Gina for the ask game!

I'm going to do Gina first bc. you'll see.

Gina

Sexuality Headcanon: Bi as well as demiace/demiaro

Gender Headcanon: Girl but also in a v loose sorta agender sense. I think it really boils down to - she honestly just doesn't care. Being gendered is fine, not being gendered is also fine, but she doesn't feel strongly either way

A ship I have with said character: Goulstrade! Ginasusa & ginasusahao are also noice, but I don't have any preference here

A BROTP I have with said character: I already mentioned her siblinghood with Iris when answering previous ask, but Kazuma worsties are the funniest thing I've seen in some time and I love it. Also her found-family-ism with Herlock is super cute and just...!!

A NOTP I have with said character: Can't rly think of anything specific, so just apply the same NOTP rule as Susato

A random headcanon: Ever since she was v young she loved horses and when she had a chance she would sneak out even to just look at horsies. Even now she hopes one day the Scotland Yard will asign her a horse (or she manages to buy one)

General opinion: V good character, but divines i wish she had more screentime!! One of my faves ever since my first playthrough and yall make me like her even more <3

And now. Barok my... yes <3 (anon what did you do. now i wont shut up for a week)

Barok

Sexuality Headcanon: Aspec first and foremost. He's definitely grayace with strong leaning on ace, but what flavoring of aro is he? Nobody knows and certainly not him. Don't even ask him what gender he likes, he'll bluescreen

Gender Headcanon: Guy... maybe. I think he never really questioned it bc he didnt need to, but at the same time he also wasn't raised with strict gender roles so he has a vague understanding of what a 'man' even is. Also considering everything that happened in his life gender is just so, so low on his thinking-about list. I can absolutely see him just realising he's agender as well as being just guy[tm] and everything in between.

A ship I have with said character: Vanlock my beloved,,,,, thank you for making me rotate them in my mind again (I mean this in a good way!). Both Barok & Herlock are such strong personalities that I can't help but love it. There are just so many aspects of them that i love!! Starting from the very surface level opposites (sad vampire - essentially a sunshine) to the more complex stuff like the fact that they're balanced just right to be able to find support and solace in each other without one of them auto devolving into a 'i-can-fix-them' state. I mean it - at the very core they're both flawed or even broken people. Barok's is just way more visible because he's all 'mysterious' and angsty and Herlock is mostly masking it with being silly. Anyway if I write any more this will turn into an essay,,, Also DLC case English side my beloved

A BROTP I have with said character: Aside from the canon friendship with Albert probably Runo post-canon whatever kinda friendship thing they have going on. I mean with how big-hearted Runo is and with Barok showing that he can change & repent for being, well, collosal asshole I can easily see them being friends. I can imagine something similar for Susato but she should be allowed to throw him to the ground first

A NOTP I have with said character: Him and Kazuma is probably the clearest "no" for me. Worsties turned cordial turned maybe eventual friends sure, but I feel like there is too much grievances and trauma between them to result in any sorta healthy relationship

A random headcanon: You even wondered how he's still so flexible? Barok is still practising ballet. In secret of course!

General opinion: Easily one of my favorite DGS charas and by a landslide my favorite prosecutor (I know my avatar say otherwise lol). He's incredibly complex and honestly I just have a soft spot for characters that are just so trauma ridden. I have opinions about that part of his arc and I would just rewite it to hating Asogi's specifically and Runo by extension since they're associated/friends. But at the end of the day and what really solds Barok to me is that he shown that despite being fucking awful he can change. He's not an immovable rock, he can understand being wrong, hell, he can apologise. Try to be better person. I can't help but adore that But yeah he absolutely should have his ass handed to him once or few times, no denying that (I could say also much more but divines I really dont want this to turn into an essay lol)

[ask game]