#Floyd beach wear vignette spoilers
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raven-at-the-writing-desk Ā· 3 months ago
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What did you think about Jade's role in the latest book 7 chapter? I found it hilarious how between the tweel's dreams his was more chaotic. It was also funny how they brought up Jade's motion sickness since I think the only moments it's been shown was in flight class and I think in Vil's playful land vignette after a rollercoaster ride. I'm really curious about your own highlights ^~^
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Honestly, I felt pretty meh about Jadeā€™s involvement in the Octavinelle update ļæ½ļæ½
***Book 7 part 10 spoilers below the cut!!***
His own dream segment was alright, it got a few chuckles out of me (though as expected, we didnā€™t really learn anything significantly new about Jade because of the shallow nature of the dream). Jadeā€™s crybaby dream!Azul was about what I expected, but his dream!Floyd certainly wasnā€™t. The goofy face on his twinā€¦ It made me wonder how Jade truly sees Floyd. Does that weird face mean Jade sees his brotherā€”who comes off as imposing to many othersā€”as cute and harmless? Or does that mean Jade actually looks down on Floyd and thinks of him as a simpleton who likes to eatā€¦? Itā€™s hard to tell (personally I like the former interpretation), but itā€™s been fun looking at the different perspectives of the same information.
Something I find interesting is that the twinsā€™ moments of waking mirror each otherā€™s usual approaches to a task. Floyd usually foregoes a plan and prefers to use his fists to get the job done. However, he is slowly roused by reminiscing about his memories at NRC and the promise of being presented with a challenge. The final blow that shocks him awake is the presentation of a dream!Azul and dream!Jade who attempt to lure him deeper into the dream. Floyd doesnā€™t fall for it; in fact, he gets mad instead, and that fury, so biting and clear, snaps him awake. The opposite is true for Jade. He is someone who meticulously plans before acting, and would rather control the circumstances and use other roundabout methods before resorting to violence. But ironically, the master manipulator Jade is the one who falls for his own dreamā€™s manipulationsā€”all because he trusts himself above all else. He only wakes up because of a very strong physical force (ie Sebekā€™s UM) striking him. Prior to this, Jade was putting up a very good fight and the blows be was taking were not sufficient to wake fully him. Soā€¦ Floyd, the brother who prefers brawns, woke up after reflecting and experiencing strong cognitive dissonance between his fake reality and bis true reality. Jade, the brother who prefers brains, woke up after being smacked the right amount. They woke up after experiencing an intense shock related to what is essentially the opposite of their preferred problem solving strategies.
I liked seeing Jade and Floyd fight! Book 7 is showing us a lot of things that were brief off-handed mentions elsewhere (like how Rook used to be in Savanaclaw, how Lilia is a war vet, etc.). The twins having violent brawls was previously brought up in Floydā€™s Beach Wear vignettes, and itā€™s nice to be able to view the full extent of it ourselves. Floyd was NOT joking when he said they got into serious fightsā€¦
I have mixed feelings about Jadeā€™s behavior within Azulā€™s dream. Iā€™m NOT saying any of this is out of character or that all of his moments were bad. There were lots of little standouts (like Jadeā€™s motion sickness, the passive aggressive ā€œAzul-sanā€, smashing up the restaurant, and, of course, him and Floyd grabbing onto Azul and then trusting him to make it out on his own before choosing to let him go). Unfortunately, there were just as many examples of Jade wasting time and meandering, which I was a little annoyed about. The world might be done for if yā€™all donā€™t hurry it up šŸ˜­ You do NOT have the time to casually smash plant pots or to sit idly by and go ā€œā€¦ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦ā€ while you watch Azul act like an idiot. I know you have a bigger brain than THAT, Jade. If you already knew what Azulā€™s weak point was, then you should be acting on it much sooner, not wasting my time like this.
I can see the reasoning for some of this to an extent. Jade is the type of person to drag things out; he wants to enjoy the show as others struggle to attain what they desire. The problem is that this segment still feelsā€¦ forced or artificially drawn out simply because of the already established pattern of ā€œwell we gotta dedicate more time to the OB boy, we have so many other novel assets and scenarios to show off!!ā€ There continues to be so little urgency while prioritizing showing off new assets or even things that seem cool in concept but may be lacking in execution because of how fast new stuff is being thrown at us. Itā€™s just so frustrating because it creates this domino effect where the implication is that Jade doesnā€™t seem to be taking the situation seriously even though he, as an individual who is skilled in reading others + pinpointing their weaknesses AND as one of Azulā€™s close aide, should automatically clock what would reasonably wake him. But nooooo, Jade doesnā€™t do it right away because HEY, we need to create contrived scenarios where he, Floyd, and Azul have to use their UMs once each. Why? Because we have to follow the patterns weā€™ve already established in the updates before theirs! No other reason, weā€™re not allowed to stray from the formula! This is even worse when you think about how Jade was somehow unable to deduce that Azul would have moved the contracts to his own roomā€¦ Like shouldnā€™t that be the FIRST place you think of, Jade????? No??? Is this an excuse so you can waste time using your Mouse mandated UM on dream!Jade to get the location??? šŸ¤” Okay, I guessā€¦
The one last thing I have to note is that Iā€™m so glad his and Floydā€™s Groovies donā€™t show them crying. I feel like a lot of people were anticipating that because we previously had Kalim and Rook breaking downā€¦ However, it would be remiss to equate all the characters as being as emotional as those latter two are. (Lilia, Sebek, and Ortho were also limited story cards and none of them featured crying.) Thatā€™s not to say that I think the twins are incapable of expressing intense sadness, itā€™s that I donā€™t think theyā€™d shed tears while attacking each other or Azul. Not crying doesnā€™t make Jade and Floyd ā€œworseā€ or ā€œless emotionally availableā€. It, in fact, alludes to the strength of the trioā€™s bond. It means they trust the others to be strong enough to take the hits, to fight back and to survive. The same thing is demonstrated when Jade and Floyd willingly let go of Azul and allow him to sink into the darkness, even wishing him well before they do. And to that, Azul just says the same to them (in a smug tone). These three trust each other, and that is why the twins donā€™t shed tears; how can they cry when they fully believe the ones theyā€™ve chosen to spend their time with are strong enough to make it out on their own?
Overall, I just šŸ’¦ do not like the rigid skeleton of these dreamsā€¦ (which Iā€™ve already expressed before here!) Iā€™m so tired of the same thing back to back, and no matter how many details they try to change to make it cool or feel unique, it always comes at the cost of pacing or, in this case, some character integrity being removed. xbjsvskwjekw Maybe Iā€™m just more sensitive about this since I hate it when a smart character has to actively be dumbed down in order to progress the plot in a certain way. This is a much more subtler of a dumbing down than what book 2 did with Leona, butā€¦ It still doesnā€™t leave me feeling very good šŸ˜” If anyone has played the first Ace Attorney game, this feels a LOT like that part in case 2 where Phoenix is too dumb to check the back of a receipt until Mia literally tells him to. The character has to actively be made stupider because the scenario calls for it, and that really rubs me the wrong way.
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