#Haven't we all thought of some symbolic art to do with this game?

[queenburd]

The use of color in The Stanley Parable: HD and Ultra Deluxe (with honorable mentions to the Demo)

dedicated to @squuote who needs more TSP analysis to rotate

A little over a year ago, I (only somewhat jokingly) lay out the argument that while The Stanley Parable is notorious in its use of yellow, the color yellow is not actually associated to the Narrator. The color most associated with him, I argued, was red. [1, 2]

I've had plenty of thoughts regarding color and TSP in the interim and I want to go over those thoughts today in as much depth as I can manage. You know, for fun. None of this is to argue about creator intent, but it's a fun way to stretch the critical thinking and literary analysis portions of my brain. It's also super cool if you don't agree with my readings, since the point is to get you thinking about these things and studying them to interpret for yourself.

Anyway let's gooooooo

(note: all images are embedded with a link to the source page I pulled them from. For those on mobile, be careful with your scrolling and tapping!)

Yellow

Okay let's start with the “obvious” one. Yellow is seen as one of the main colors in the game, it's the color of the main office and the primary assets associated with the Parable. We see yellow PRIMARILY in the beginning of the office, before the two doors room. It lines the cubicles and the walls are often interpreted as yellow (eh, they're more of an off-white. They're actually absorbing color from the brown-yellow carpet, and they do the same in the lounge).

It's the color of the Line(TM), it's the color of the cargo lift in the warehouse, and, most strikingly, it's the color of the SKIP Button.

We'll get to you.

Okay, so yellow is a color with conflicting interpretations, which is par for the course for all of them, we're not going TOO insane on color theory and color psychology we will be here ALL DAY and I was an ART student. So let's just look at the most basic reading. Bright, oversaturated yellow is a color that can exhaust the eyes easily. It grabs our attention like a highlighter and burns our retinas.

It can be a color of excitement, but it can also be a color of sickness. I've been thinking about the short story The Yellow Wallpaper the past couple days. Or maybe I've been thinking about it for longer. It's just that I haven't reread it in actual years, but every time I saw someone talk about the wallpaper in TSP, I thought about the story. Here's some passing thoughts on the short story in comparison to TSP. [3]

Sickness, and madness, and beginnings, and infinity. In the end, yellow, to me, is the color of the Parable grabbing the player (and by extension the Narrator) by the nose and saying “let's get moving. We have a story to play. Play the game, and keep playing.” Notable to me is how the SKIP button is almost scathingly yellow in contrast to the room it's in, and as the room gets darker the glow gets more foreboding. The Parable did this. The Narrator might think he made it, but he doesn't control it. Yellow isn't his color, and it never was.

Red

“Stanley walked through the RED. DOOR.”

The use of red in TSP is probably the most interesting and fun to analyze for me. It's used extremely intentionally and it's commonly associated with power, anger, and passion. We see red in the Boss's Office, in the Countdown ending, as the door to the Starry Dome, and a TON in the TSP2 Expo. There's red doors and signs in the Escape Pod Bay.

So I've joked that the color red is the Narrator's color, and while it's still a fun interpretation, it's not one I'm married to. I think it's more accurate to say red symbolizes control. The Zending Door is you letting him control the story. The Countdown screens are him taking control from you. And TSP2 is the Narrator trying to exert control over what the developers have made. It's a response to New Content and to the SKIP button. I have a million trillion thoughts about the TSP2 Expo but I won't get into them here.

Anyway, red feels very obviously to me associated with the Narrator trying to take control, or things only being possible when he has control. I'm thinking about the signs in the Escape Pod Bay telling you that it won't work without him. (I'm thinking about how the same door asset for the Zending is used in the Escape Pod Bay. No. shhh. Staying on topic.) So I don't have much more to say on the matter because I feel like I've tread this ground before. Red is about control, and it is held in direct contrast with blue.

Blue

Oh, blue. Soothing blue, sweet relaxing lounge and ocean paintings and boss's bathroom and blue door that leads to broken textures and an irritable Voice.

If red is the color of control, then blue is the color of rebellion. Small rebellion, sure. Rebellion that means nothing in the scheme of things. Blue is the stepping stone to bigger deviations from the path. I mean, the lounge is only the first step to the right, and you can still get on the “correct” path. The blue door you have to go through repeatedly, you have to make the choice multiple times, for it to lead to the Games ending. The boss's bathroom doesn't GO anywhere until after the epilogue. These are “rebellious choices” in a game where you don't really have a choice, and it's the closest you get to defiance.

I like to make it Stanley's favorite color for obvious reasons.

(Hey, fandom, why you keep associating it with the Curator? The only blue in the Museum is in a couple assets on display.)

Green

I gotta admit, while there's definitely something to green and its use in TSP, a clear meaning for it is eluding me, and I've been thinking about it on and off for a couple days now. It's a fairly infrequent color in TSP as a whole, but it does make an appearance. Besides being the color of plants (such as the ever important fern, the potted plants scattered through the office and the ones in the TSP2 expo, and of course the growth in the SKIP button room), it's also the wallpaper in the Demo, and the same wallpaper is used in the Boss's Office in the Real Person Ending. Thinking further, it also appears in the small room before the stage in the Press Conference Ending, and it's the color of the carpet in the HL2 Office that is found under the Games ending. (It was also brought up by my pal glitch that green is the color of the cursor on Stanley's screen, the first thing you see before gameplay begins. Good catch!)

Thinking about it, it's hard to find a throughline. There's something familiar about the green. Not necessarily safe, but it usually comes before something much bigger. Maybe this is a bit of a stretch, though. Let's say for now green is associated with the familiar in the face of the unfamiliar.

(There's possibly a thesis here about green being associated with gifts and surprises. The Narrator makes the Press Conference ending something that teases but also praises Stanley, the Green Room in the Demo is the space where the Demo is meant to be revealed to you, and that alternate Boss's Office is supposed to, in the Narrator's mind, be the first step to a wonderful story made just for you.)

White

Most people, when they think of white in The Stanley Parable, immediately think of the Museum. And they're right to! It's one of the most prominent environments that uses white. With that in mind, we can't forget the other places it appears, since it's best to keep everything in mind when trying to formulate a meaning for it.

So, other places where white is prominent: We have the out-of-bounds ending, and the Art ending (aka play that Baby game for four hours). We also have a massive part of the TSP2 expo.

Honestly, there is a lot of white in the rest of the office, but it tends to be absorbing the colors of the environment in ways that make it less noticeable. White's really good at that, which means the times where it's by itself as the outstanding color are outliers and feel intentional. So what do these things have in common?

Well, they kind of show the seams of the game? Take this with a grain of salt, but the Museum is designed to show you some of the design process for the game, effectively taking you out of the setting to give you a top-down perspective (hehe, literally in the case of the diorama of the office up to the two doors), and the out-of-bounds ending is a joke about breaking the map, falling out of the world , which can break immersion in other games. The TSP2 Expo is the Narrator showing off all the features for his sequel idea, giving a “sneak peek” of what will be included.

The Art ending doesn't fit with this thesis, but it does involve the... revelation, I suppose, of the “character” of the Essence of Divine Art. What I'm trying to get to is that white is a color of revelation and display.

Gray

Gray is not a color that tends to stand on its own merit in The Stanley Parable, and that in itself is intentional. Gray is used as a texture of “unfinished” things, things the Narrator doesn't want you to look closely at, and would prefer you move past Right Now Right This Second Please.

It's the walls of the Broom Closet, as well as the walls of the maintenance room. It's also the walls of the room right outside the Starry Dome—the hall that leads right to the stairs. (Honorable mention, @chirpbudgie brought up that the desks in the office are gray, which is also an implication of the way Stanley's coworkers seemed to disappear with work unfinished. There is a sense of “wrongness” in how they've all vanished. Nice eye, bud.)

You're not supposed to dwell in these places. Go back to the story, please!

Black

“Blackness, and a rising chill of uncertainty. Was it over?”

Last and least is black, less used as a color in its own right and more a use of shadow. It really stars primarily in the Mind Control Facility, dark rooms with a sense of foreboding. Honestly, what is there to say about black?

Only, I tell a lie. You see quite a lot of black in this game, don't you? After all:

It's the Loading screen.

Blackness is uncertainty, and mystery, like the game tells us, because anything could be hiding in the darkness, and anything could happen when that screen is finished loading. It's white's opposite not just in value but in meaning. You don't know what's going on, you just have to wait and see. Any time you might have an answer, or an ending, here comes that loading screen to wipe the slate clean and say “hey, what haven't you found yet? What haven't you tried? What tricks does this game still have up its sleeve?”

(And now I'm thinking about the Figurines ending, and how the Narrator shouts to stop the loading screen, to go back and stay in the familiar please!! Because the fellow hates uncertainty, really he does. But that's a thesis for another day.)

(We also can't forget that Ultra Deluxe's Setting the Time is also set on a black background, and there's always, to me, a sense of foreboding and uncertainty there too. What happens after this is the game, right? Is this for something? Is this doing anything? Is it changing anything?)

Silver

It's a bucket :)

Okay that's the end of this post. There's probably plenty more to say about this subject, this isn't exhaustive by any means. Color is an incredible tool, and visual storytelling and color interpretation is not in any way a science. As I posted bits of this in my server for extra feedback and examples of color, other folks brought up an entirely different interpretation of the color green. And I didn't even bring up Mariella being dressed in full green!

Anyway I didn't bring up orange because there's only a couple instances of it in the game but its always about unfinished things/assets (Baby game, just a lot of Games ending things) but it also shows up in the TSP2 Expo (Button That Says The Name of the Player Playing The Game (Jim)) for features that uuuuuh. Aren't done. So that's funny.

Like I said, there's almost certainly more to say about color theory and the game, but this thing is hitting 4 pages long and that's not including images oops.

I hope this was a fun read! Some of this stuff has been percolating in my brain for a while and it's good to finally get it on the page. Talk to me about TSP I love this game.

[drenched-in-sunlight]

Hi there! I wanted to say your art is absolutely incredible and always brings me back to Elden Ring when I forget just how amazing the game is. I live for your depictions of Marika.🥹

I was partly just curious after you posted the recent family tree, is there a reaspn Ranni and Radahn don't make as much of an appearance in your drawings? What is your thoughts on their questline/storyline in general?

Thanks for all the cool art, you're getting better with every piece!!

tbh... i think draw Ranni a lot, she's literally the cover of my first fromsoft fanbook 🥲🥲

though most of my art of her is from 2 years ago, i wouldn't say i don't draw her often at all 😭 i've drawn Radahn 4-5 times too. i understand because i draw too much, it's easy to have an impression that i draw some specific characters less, but compared to, say, the Omen Twins or Rykard or Melina (who i keep meaning to draw but haven't got around to do so yet), Radahn and Ranni are two Carian characters i draw the most of that side of the family (well, Rellana is looking to dethrone them soon but you get what i mean aksfkjdfkj)

Radahn dudebro fans keep pointing fingers saying i hate him but i actually like him. as a guyfailure that is so obsessed with these symbols of a Lord in his father and Godfrey, yet failed to live up to any of them (*stare at that scene of Morgott whooping his ass*). his involvement in the DLC is an interesting spin on things to me, and make a lot of sense in the grand scheme of things (when i saw that we found like... 11 Miquella's Lily in places most personal to Radahn like Carian Manor and Sellia. hoo boy).

lately, i lowkey think Radagon specifically picked him for Miquella and encouraged his obsession with being a Lord. to me at least Radagon is really bitter that Godfrey is the First Lord and not him (her actual other's half! sentenced to live away from her while another man got to be her first in everything! the injustice!), so him not only discrediting Godfrey's descendants (whole thing with Hunters of TWLiD) but also preparing a whole new pair of Lord and God that should have been how he and Marika could have been from the start sounds like the kind of overcompensation he'd be doing (look honey that could be us but you tripping).

so in a way i do feel for Radahan and Miquella falling victims to Radagon's list of issues (though it's only one reason in many other reasons for them to turn out that way ofc. Radagon merely nudges the pieces into certain direction, they go barreling head first down on their own). and i actually like that i could come up with all that thanks to the DLC. imo it actually adds a lot more to Radahn and Miquella's character (depends on how you view the story though whoops).

you can say i like him (and Miq) the way one likes AC6 Iguazu... or Genichiro. the kind of hater characters that are doomed to fail from the start, but they are stubborn and will run head first into the wall again and again. and it's fun to put them in a jar and shake them.

Ranni... after the DLC my feeling for her is a bit more complicated. before i get why she did all those things and i like her story enough, but after the DLC as you see i come to really like Godwyn and links him closely to Marika. so now it's kinda awkward for me to insert Ranni in all the scenarios im drawing lately?

it's not that i stop liking her, it's simply that the scenario doesn't line up for me to add her in that's all. and it goes to other characters i haven't drawn tbh. not because i don't like them, i simply don't have anything in my brain about them to draw out. i don't think there's any characters in Elden Ring i hate tbh (yes i do like even the Hornsents. i find the stories in the scorpion stew and dried flower talisman really somber and give them a lot of humanity too, fucked up rituals aside).

and thank you for your kind words! my editor has been on my ass for a whole year about my art and it does help me improve a lot, im glad to know it shows in the quality of my fanarts as well!

[olderthannetfic]

People going on about how they're representing this whole Greek thing are missing that that one anon had a pretty good point about how "cultural appropriation" rhetoric gets misused. People do really need to be more specific about what the issue is, or it very easily turns into basically just arguing for cultural segregation. I've seen that happen numerous times on this website over the years. I've seen people argue that it's appropriative to do something like *learn about* another culture or learn its language. I think it's really important for people to keep an eye on what are the actual issues with cultural appropriation (mostly about exploitation and colonialism) and not just the idea that cultural mixing is bad, or that being interested in a culture that isn't your own is bad. Because the truth is, whether you intend this or not, if you're just arguing that everyone should only keep to the culture of their ethnicity or their place of origin or both, then you're basically in agreement with white supremacists. It's not that cultures mixing is bad; most culture is a result of some mixture. It's when it's done in a way that's exploitative and/or disrespectful: like reducing sacred symbols like indigenous war bonnets to a fashion accessory, or incorporating the art of another culture into your own art without giving credit and without paying anyone from that culture who taught you or added to your work.

FTR, I don't think you can "appropriate" ancient mythologies. I think people are getting twisted around though because there is a genuine history of colonial exploitation of Greek artifacts by colonial powers to fill their museums, as with the Elgin marbles. I do think it's still a good idea to be properly informed about them, regardless, at the very least because those make for the more interesting retellings. For all that people (who IME, largely haven't read it, I'd love to hear if people who have read it disagree though) rag on Song of Achilles, I actually thought it was a pretty good example of a retelling because the author, who has an educational background in mythology, takes great pains to try to recreate the society and cultural norms of Greece at that time rather than sugarcoat it. Achilles may be even more of a jerk than he was in the original Iliad, tbh. It's telling to me that the author's other books that are less "shippy" don't have as negative of a reputation on here in that regard as Song of Achilles, despite being fairly similar, and it makes me wonder how much of that is because it's popular among "fujoshi fandom" so people just assume it MUST be shallow and fandomified, and I was super shocked at how much it really wasn't that at all. As well as I saw that a lot of people expecting something more like that were disappointed by all the period-accurate misogyny and so on.

Which brings me to another point: another reason I'm skeptical of a lot of this discourse is that it seems like often it's more of a high-culture, low-culture thing. A thing that is popular with M/M fanfic writers can't POSSIBLY be doing it right. A thing that is a popular video game or Tony-winning Broadway musical that is popular with the fandoms for those things, can't possibly be accurate. And I get that a lot of that is because a lot of populist things that took from Greek mythology have been inaccurate (Disney's Hercules, for instance) but if you're going to criticize the accuracy of something, I think it is worth engaging with the original work and what it actually does rather than just assuming It's Popular It Must Suck. It feels like a lot of this turns into lording that you were into it before X over others. And being aware that Tumblr Recommendations often do a poor job of actually giving you a good idea of what the work is really like.

As well as, of course, asking yourself - as we should with any sort of historical inaccuracy etc. - if the inaccuracy was deliberate or not. Sometimes people are not really telling that story in order to tell the most accurate version of something but to make a different kind of point, and so the changes might be deliberate. I would argue this is true with something like Hadestown.

That doesn't mean you can't still dislike it for that reason, of course. I know a lot of classical musicians who dislike the movie Amadeus for being so inaccurate about Mozart's and Salieri's lives. I like it despite that because I think the point it is trying to make is stronger for not sticking to the historical fact. I just wish more people did know the historical fact, though.

--

One would think the "Is it bad if I learn to cook Thai food?" thing was a strawman... but I've seen it in the wild far too many times.

[astralartefact]

Hello, wanted to ask your opinion on the theory I've seen pop around that Noelle and her sisters are the basis for the Attack type androids that Yorha makes

My long standing theory was that she's one of the dragon weapons that are mentioned in some of the timeline nitty-gritty. I actually already wrote a little bit about my thoughts about this before (here) since there is some stuff in YoRHa Dark Apocalypse that hints at some bigger connection - but that was when her chapter first came out so it's a little bit out of date

But inspired by your ask I took a look around her new story stuff on nierrein.guide a little bit - and I found out that Recollection of Dusk actually has stories like the ex stories and Noelle's has just released like a week ago.

My findings:

In short: Kind of. A little bit. In a little bit longer: What the fuck

(spoilers below the cut for like everything, i go into a little bit too much detail here)

Read the Recollections of Dusk story, it's wild (and as always the art is beautiful... the colors they use for the final one? amazing. best art design in all of gaming)

So Noelle is actually a surviving human (probably a clone) that androids found frozen in cryostatis and then modified to turn her into a weapon who is also now able to turn into a red eyed dragon beast person whenever her sister who remains in her mind (probably the original human noelle was cloned from) makes her lose control in order to enact eternal vengeance against the world that did this to her(*put a pin in this).

She is also continually hunted by defense androids that are programmed to kill her ever since she left the research facility - and since they do eventually catch and kill her, it's unlikely that she is a 'prototype YoRHa model' in the sense we would probably think of. Doesn't mean that the androids working on her didn't use their research to develop the defense androids into the YoRHa models (the focus on (passing on) memories that is part of the story has big YoRHa black box vibes to me), but especially since she wasn't even an android to begin with I would call her more of a cousin or aunt to YoRHa rather than a straightforward "this is the next step".

It also basically confirms that she is indeed one of the dragon weapons. It would fit right into that spot in the timeline since humans are dead but androids exist (also Ex & RoD Noelle wear very similar coats to Ex Yuzuki and Hina's Hamelin coats and if I remember correctly Hamelin were involved in creating the dragon weapons) and in one of the RoD story chapters she drives through a canyon - which kind of implies North America to me - which is where the Kingdom of Night is - which is where the dragon weapons are. The only thing missing is the mention of Machine Lifeforms or the Aliens to really solidify it.

There is also something going on with the YoRHa Dark Apocalypse stuff I pointed out in my old post and the Seed of Resurrection Copy from there. I haven't really formulated a full theory yet, but it's likely that Noelle's dragon stuff and cloning comes from a (Pseudo-)Seed.

Now, to return to the point about Noelle's sister in her brain - this actually is also touching on another theory I have, but this time not a lore theory but more of an interpretation theory:

Does Drakenier have an overarching bad guy? The answer is of course yes, the motherbeast awaits freedom not really in a straightforward way, but if we do look at a common theme then maybe we could point out that there are a lot of evil red eyes of mind control in Drakenier.

But Yoko Taro games are always about something. Did you know DoD 1 came out on 9/11 and then Replicant, which is about 9/11, references DoD 1 in place of 9/11? They always have a point - so surely if there is an overarching thing coming back all the time it has to be a symbol for something, right?

The Red Eyes Disease in DoD 1, the Logic Virus, the Legion's Red Eye (which we saw with Yuzuki's Ex story) and now Red Eyed Noelle all are characterized as a manipulation of a human through hatred of the world/society as it currently presents itself. Basically every time a character gets to a point where they just really feel slighted and turn against the world their eyes turn red.

I think - and this is just a longwinded explanation to get to a "duh." level conclusion - that Red Eyes are Fascism.

I had to think about it again since Noelle's influence of her sister that makes her lose control was also mainly rooted in nostalgia (something the story specifically points out) and I remembered that i read somewhere that fascism is also very rooted in that (a 'return to a better time' sort of thing) - it just all fits together =v=

Anyways. Sorry for the ramble and for bringing in topics you did not ask about. But thanks for accidentally making me go on this journey! And thanks for being interested in my thoughts on this kind of stuff :3

[citrus-cactus]

I finished my first playthrough of Digimon Survive (Moral Route)! Some not-plot-specific rambling under the cut, but still spoilery if you haven't played the game at all:

Re: The moral route, I really liked it! The only things I wish I could have done better (and I’m a little mad at myself for not doing) is actually unlocking Labramon or Dracmon’s Mega evolutions (I made too many mistakes early on with Aoi and Kaito's affinity points. I had been trying to play naturally and not minding if I didn't pick the “right” answers for the first several parts of the game, but I gave that up around part 6 because I wanted to be better friends with Saki, and I HAD to continue being BFFs with Minoru and Miu!). I did get Floramon, Syakomon, and Falcomon's Megas though! I love all of those cutscenes so much dfasdfasjghaskdfha

I'm also a little mad at myself for being two points shy on Wrathful to unlock all three "regular" endings on my first playthrough. I was SO CLOSE!! I just thought I needed to keep the points even-ish, I didn't know until I looked it up that there was an actual numerical threshold. I feel like not doing that complicates my desire to play as efficiently as possible. Right now I have a save in Part 7 that I could go back to to bump up my Wrathful score, then play through Harmony and Wrathful from Part 8... but I may have slightly spoiled myself on those two routes and now I'm not even sure I want to play them, because OOF. But since recruited digimon and evolutions carry over between game and new game+, it does make sense to keep playing on the same file, regardless of which route I choose to do. I will also say that I am so INTENSELY curious about all of Labramon's Megas because her line from Rookie to Ultimate is SO INTERESTING (also I may have spoiled myself on one or two of those Megas, they are thematic AS HECK and I REALLY want to understand exactly how we get there character-wise for at least one of them. The mythology and symbolism and implications for Aoi as a character have me REELING... but playing that route... OOF!).

Right now, I'm really tempted to just do NG+ and go for the Truthful route, but I think if I do I will be even less likely to go back to Wrathful and Harmony. Technically I already started NG+, but I've only finished the prologue. Can you have all four endings unlocked at the branching point on your second playthrough, or once Certain Things happen, are you fully committed to Truthful? Anyway. I don't want to play the game all the way through four times to unlock all the things is what I'm saying, but I acknowledge it might be unavoidable.

I also kind of want to participate in Survive Week, which starts on January 27th, I think? I honestly don't know how that's going to happen for me personally, because so much of my spare time is still going toward playing the game, so maybe I just need to give that up as a goal and just enjoy finishing my playthroughs and creating art on my own schedule. I already have an idea for a specific piece that I want to make SO BAD, but I also really want to take my time with it and fully understand the things I am assuming about character arcs before diving in (but I will say, "Pair of Sad Digigirls with Flower Symbolism" is apparently a theme I like to explore in my art these days, who knew that would become a theme?) . I also want to draw a bunch of Minorus being goofy. And Miu!!!! Honestly, all my top favorites. This group of kids and their partners ended up being pretty great, and even though I do have some minor criticisms of the game itself (pacing, difficulty curves, translation, the nature of choice in visual novels), I really love how much it has made me think about platonic soulmates. Survive been a great ride thus far, some wonderful character exploration through psychological horror, and the Moral Route did end up warming my heart so much :D

[dinocanid]

30* Day Fictionkind Challenge (but in one post)

[Link to the original list]

All of the questions and answers will be below the cut since it'd be too long otherwise.

*Some days are skipped because either I haven't experienced it, I can't think of a relevant example, or I don't remember.

Day 1: What is your fictotype? Are you a specific character, a nonhuman species, or both? My fictotype is Beastpup, Pup for short, a monster wolf from UT (the game not, Utah lol).

Day 3: Who are you open about it with? I'm pretty open about it in online spaces, but not anywhere offline.

Day 4: Do you participate in the fandom of your source? How do you do so? I write fanfiction, but other than that no, aside from research purposes since I'm working on a fandom retrospective video. Day 5: Do you fictionflicker? Technically yes by definition, but I don't call it that. "Experience taking" maybe, but I'm not even 100% sure that's the right word.

Day 6: When did you realize you were fictionkin? How long have you been in the community? My fictotype didn't exist until around 2020, so about that long.

Day 11: Have you ever met other fictionkin? In real life or online? Online I've met plenty, but offline no.

Day 15: How do you deal with kin-for-fun? Individually I don't, since they usually don't listen/don't care and possibly throw around some ableist rhetoric for added flavor. I just try my best to inform in general that KFF and fictionkin are not the same.

Day 16: What are your thoughts on symbols, flags, etc.? Personally they feel overdone and I just sort of consider them spam. I've set up my filters to just block flags/symbols/coining posts or blogs entirely.

Day 17: Does fictionkinity connect to spirituality for you? It's heavily involved in my metaphysical experiences, and tangentially related to my rituals.

Day 20: How do you express your fictotype? Clothes, merch, cosplay, maybe even name? I have a Beastpup fursuit I made that I always wear to cons!

Day 21: What’s something about the fictionkind community that you wish was different? I wish it was more friendly towards fictionkin that aren't an existing/canon/AU character. Usually we get ignored in fictionkin spaces since people seem to only be interested in canon-relevant stuff and canonmates. I have lots to say about the world of my source, but not specific characters since I'm way older lol. In the time period I remember the most, a majority of the cast was either a baby or just not alive yet.

Day 23: How do you approach consuming your source? Analytically, obsessively, casually, reluctantly, etc… Analytically currently. See Day #4.

Day 27: What are some other characters/species that remind you of your fictotype? Beastpup's fur pattern is a black-phased wolf, just like my wolf kintype. I've also had a handful of people think I was a trico, but I don't see the resemblance tbh.

Day 28: Do you have a favorite piece of fanart? (Better to reblog for this day, do not repost someone’s art.) Not fanart technically, but I think my all-time fav is this shopkeeper edit I made a while ago:

Day 30: Talk about what it’s like to be your fictotype. I didn't want to leave out this one since it's question #30, but I'm not sure if I can describe it well. With my alterhumanity in general, I experience shifts in the sense that I more or less always feel like my kintypes (to the point where I don't use shifting terminology since it doesn't feel like it makes sense). Circling back around to Beastpup, that's the version of myself that my bodymap matches most often, it's what my brain defaults to when I'm not looking in a mirror. I also experience source homesickness sometimes.

[heidigentille]

WHAT TARKOVSKY READ, PART 1: FOREIGN LITERATURE

Quotes about favorite and least favorite foreign authors and works by Andrei Tarkovsky from his diaries, interviews and speeches.

📚 I am rereading T. Mann. Genius writer. Death in Venice is amazing. This is with a ridiculous plot. (Martyrology. August 15, 1970).

📚 Read Vonnegut's The Children's Crusade. Yes. He is both a pacifist and a good fellow. Likho writes. But where, where is our Russian senseless and useless great depth?! Sad. (Martyrology. September 1, 1970).

📚 We must finally find out if Camus' "The Plague" was filmed. If not, then it would be worth talking to O. Teinishvili. Let him offer Gambarov two things: "The Plague" and a script about Dostoevsky, which we were going to write with Misharin. Solonitsyn could be a wonderful Dostoevsky. (Martyrology. September 7, 1970).

📚 I read Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle". Dark book. And smartly written. Still, pessimism has too little to do with art. Literature, like art in general, is religious. In its highest manifestation, it gives strength, inspires hope in the face of the modern world - monstrously cruel and, in its senselessness, reached the point of absurdity. Modern real art needs catharsis, with which it would cleanse people before the coming catastrophes, and maybe a catastrophe. (Martyrology. September 9, 1970).

📚 I read Akutagawa's story about water kappas. Pretty bad. Sluggishly. (Martyrology. September 18, 1970).

📚 I'm reading The Bead Game - a brilliant book! ... A super-art built on universalism, on the experience of all knowledge and discoveries. Spiritual symbol of life. Brilliantly conceived novel! Haven't read anything like this in a long time. (Martyrology. September 20, 1970).

📚 I finished reading "The Glass Bead Game". Amazing impression. (Martyrology. September 26, 1970).

📚 I am reading the amazing Thomas Mann - "Joseph and his brothers". Some otherworldly book. Otherworldly kitchen gossip. It becomes clear why the typist, having finished rewriting "Joseph", said: "Now at least I know how it really was." Yes ... and as for the film adaptation, I just don’t know what to say. So far, in my opinion, it is inexpressible. (Martyrology. September 15, 1970).

📚 About "Solaris": "... it attracted me first of all not by the fantastic nature of the events told, not by the amazing unexpectedness of the world composed by the author. What struck me was the author's realism in developing a situation that was fundamentally possible, the accuracy of psychological motivations in the behavior of the characters who fell into this situation ... ”(From an interview with O. Evgenyeva, 1971).

📚 I carry an unbearable burden on my shoulders. Mannovsky's "Doctor Faustus" is the most complex conglomeration of the life lived by the author, his lost hopes lost in his lost homeland, thoughts about suffering, the painful suffering of the artist, about his sinfulness. On the one hand, he (the artist) is an ordinary person, on the other hand, he cannot be ordinary, therefore, he pays for his talent with his soul. (Martyrology. December 5, 1973).

I have read Peer Gynt by Ibsen. Grandiose. (Martyrology. September 18, 1974).

📚 I am reading "Stiller" by M. Frisch. He is smart, he is too smart for a good writer, he is precise, economical, charming - a Japanese garden. He is very sweet and looks like his characters. This is also not a plus. I know him. He fed Larisa and me with dinner near Locarno. He was with a mistress whom everyone in Switzerland condemned for being his mistress. Dinner was delicious, the restaurant was wonderful, the tables were under oaks (or beeches?), and all those invited who condemned her talked to her sweetly and naturally, smiled at her. Good upbringing? Hypocrisy? Bigotry? Snobbery? And I liked him, a kind of puss in boots ... (Martyrology. July 4, 1975).

📚 I re-read the stories and Kafka's Metamorphosis. Somehow it doesn't work for me. (Martyrology. September 17, 1976).

📚 What a surprisingly clear relationship: Hoffmann - Hesse - Bulgakov. And what kind of children they are - pure, believing, suffering, not spoiled by glory, scrupulous, naive and passionate, noble ... "Golden Pot" - "Steppe Wolf" - "Master and Margarita". (Martyrology. April 14, 1976).

📚 I re-read Castaneda: "The Lessons of Don Juan". Wonderful book! And very truthful, because 1) the world is not at all the way it seems to us, and 2) it may well become different under certain conditions. (Martyrology. January 27, 1979).

📚 I read Lorca's amazing essays - amazingly passionate, sublime, deep and truly poetic insights. (Martyrology. June 6, 1980).

📚 "The Book of the World" ("Le livre de la paix") by Bernard Benson is some kind of delusional and stupid book. It is completely incomprehensible why it is: 1) popular and why 2) it needs to be filmed. I don't understand anything. Very strange. M. b., is this a provocation of the ideas of the struggle for peace? It's possible. That is what I talked about with Bibi A[derson] in Stockholm. (Martyrology. June 10, 1981).

📚 Since childhood, I have been very fond of the book "Robinson Crusoe" - I always liked it terribly and excited the enumeration of what was thrown ashore and what was Crusoe's prey. We live materialized, repeating the existence of space and time. That is, we live thanks to the presence of this phenomenon or two phenomena and are very sensitive to them, because they limit our physical limits. (A word about the Apocalypse).

📚 "Hamlet" is the best dramatic and poetic work that only exists in the world. (From a meeting with the audience in London, 1984).

📚 A romantic would try to invent this aura, because he guesses that it should be. But the poet sees it. You can say that there were poets among the Romantics as well. Of course, I do not argue. There was Hoffmann, whom I simply adore. (From a conversation with Jerzy Illg and Leonhard Neuger, March 26, 1985).

📚 I have great respect for Stanislav Lem, I love his works, and when I can, I read them. … He was interested in the collision of man with the cosmos, with the Unknown, but I was interested in an internal, spiritual problem. I picked up this novel only because for the first time I saw a work that I could define as a story of repentance. What is repentance, repentance in the literal, classical sense of the word? When for us our memory of committed misconduct, of sins becomes a reality. For me, Lem's novel was a reason to make such a picture. (From a conversation with Jerzy Illg and Leonhard Neuger, March 26, 1985).

📚 I read Flaubert's "St. Anthony": headily, secondarily (after the primary sources), illustratively and very magnificently. Serezha Parajanov would have made a wonderful adaptation of this. (Martyrology. March 26, 1986).

📘 Separately, it is worth noting that in the 1974 questionnaire, Andrei Tarkovsky answered “Doctor Faustus” in the column about his favorite foreign prose or novel, and Thomas Mann “Tonio Kroeger” in the column about a foreign novel; Maupassant.

[the-suns-beloved]

without further ado, Perseus' C supports with Mercedes and Lorenz! they play out much the same, but also VERY differently, aha.

MERCEDES

[-c: they play a game together.] PERSEUS: Oops, it's the moon. A symbol of secrets and illusions… I won't be earning this trick, at any rate. MERCEDES: Ah, but it's hardly all doom and gloom. It can also mean imagination and fantasy, right? PERSEUS: Oh, are you familiar with this game? MERCEDES: Mm-hm! I used to see it played quite a bit when I was younger. Did you learn it along your travels? PERSEUS: Actually, I picked it up in my hometown. MERCEDES: Interesting… I bet I could guess where you grew up, then! PERSEUS: If you'd like, then by all means. MERCEDES: Hmm… Did you, by any chance… live in Boramas? PERSEUS: Nope. MERCEDES: Then Enbarr, perhaps? PERSEUS: Close. My father's territory was just east of Enbarr, on the southern coast. MERCEDES: Ah, I seem to remember something like that. So you were born to House Centoleau? That's a very recent barony, isn't it? PERSEUS: Er, yes. I seem to have talked myself into a bit of a corner, though… MERCEDES: Forgive me! I don't mean to bring it up if you don't want to talk about it. MERCEDES: I just find it funny that we both began in the Empire, and we both ended here. MERCEDES: With no more titles or honours to our names… Now, we're simply ourselves. PERSEUS: Yeah…. It's quite nice. PERSEUS: Shall we go another round, then? MERCEDES: Oh, of course!

(I've got synopses written up for future supports, but to put it shortly Mercedes and Perseus have quite a bit in common!)

LORENZ

[-c: they're at tea together.] PERSEUS: I do appreciate your humouring me with this. I wouldn't normally trouble someone of your position, but I felt we might have things in common. LORENZ: Nonsense. We as noble folk relish the opportunity to form cordial relations with our subjects. And I can always make time for tea of such quality. LORENZ: It's quite incredible, you know. PERSEUS: Hm? LORENZ: I've noticed that for a commoner, your tea etiquette is immaculate. The shape of your dominant hand is perfectly formed, and I haven't heard your spoon clatter against your cup once. LORENZ: If I didn't know better, I'd think that you were raised by only the finest noble standard. PERSEUS: Ah… Well, um, thank you…. LORENZ: Who taught you? If you're not of noble standing, then surely you must've learned from someone who was. PERSEUS: Oh, you know, I've picked up many things on my travels. It's, ah, not really important just where… LORENZ: But it's quite important! Really, the art of etiquette is nearly lost nowadays. LORENZ: You'd be astonished how much even some nobles fail to grasp. Why, I dined with Heather the other day, and her table manners were atrocious. Elbows on the table and everything - simply ghastly! PERSEUS: If-if-if you don't mind, I'll be going now. PERSEUS: I thought that tea would be a nice talk. I wasn't prepared to be sized up like p-prize cattle. PERSEUS: Good afternoon, Lorenz. LORENZ: Hm… And for all that praise I heaped upon him, he left his napkin on his chair…

(I have less written up for these future supports. basically, the B support gets worse before it gets better, as Lorenz learns the truth about Perseus ;0)

[ask-a-boyo]

[Something to do with being a prodigal son]

[destiny-smasher]

DownRight Fierce Dev Update (9/2021)

Not sure if this is something folks here would want to see, but I'll share this update I shared with patrons for the original visual novel I've been working on, DownRight Fierce. It was conceived back in, like, 2014, but since just before the pandemic hit, I've been working on it as a visual novel. It's sort of like...if Street Fighter and Butterfly Soup had a kid? That was born before Butterfly Soup came out? And has been slacking off for a few years? There is a fully playable, mostly presentable demo of the prologue and first three chapters, feel free to contact me if you're interested in trying it out and providing feedback.

Thanks to the support I've received on Patreon lately, I've been able to commission more outfits for the main characters, new expressions, and was able to pay Hayley to re-organize the sprites so I have some more control over mixing and matching different things. We've also implemented a new pose for Nishiko's sprite when they're sending text messages (on their antiquated cell phone).

(all of the character art so far I have commissioned from my friend Hayley Sakura-Rose12)

I ended up deciding to have that sprite made when I implemented a whole text convo with Seiko near the end of Chapter 3. (or partway through the chapter, depending on what the reader chooses - OR they can even skip this conversation altogether, potentially)

The biggest updates to DRF lately have mostly been cosmetic: adding in more facial expressions and effects.

One example of this has been incorpating a more seamless and atmospheric effect for moments when Nishiko gets lost in thought.

There will be a recurring and increasingly important component tied to this, so I'm glad Jenny helped inspire me to pursue this kind of idea. You can also see here a version of Nishiko's sprite which has been visually updated with more texture, alternate color, etc., and that's something she intends to do with the other characters when time allows (she's been very busy for like, over a year now).

Fire and smoke are key visual symbols for Nishiko's character, so Jenny has been helping me figure out ways to express this more through the UI, etc.

(my wife Jenny has worked on the UI, giving it a more gritty look, and she's modified Nishiko's sprite in this image to give extra atmosphere to the character sprites; she also took a placeholder image and did work on it to showcase a potential art style for the backgrounds; we're considering something like this, though maybe including more color, perhaps intentionally depending on the setting)

But it's not just been visual stuff. I've also been adding in extra content, and incorporating more choices and elements that affect and are affected by the stats running in the background.

I've added in new short classroom scenes to help better illustrate Nishiko's experience inbetween social activities, while simultaneously using them to imply elements regarding Nishiko's attention span, as well as flesh out the lore of the world.

I've been a bit inspired by Tuca and Bertie in some weird ways, as well, trying to build lore within my own fighting game inspired world with references that double as, well, world building (like alluding to Street Fighter antagonist M. Bison via a political dictator who existed in this universe's history), including entire chunks of conversation that go in different branches based on weird Capcom humor that also serves to establish backstory.

Nishiko and Kayla bond over love of a dumb cheesy horror flick that's essentially one big meme featuring the 90's Street Fighter cartoon.  The drinks in the vending machines are all Capcom references, but serve as a means of letting the reader more manually increase a stat of their choosing - and since they're vending machines, they recur, so as the reader might get to know what each drink is, they might make a deliberate choice to increase a specific stat on purpose, in a similar way to choosing to exercise, or meditate, or study.

A convo about Nishiko's prior schoolyear incorporates Dark Stalkers references while also, again, letting the reader affect stats in a narratively retroactive way.

I've fleshed out conversations in Chapter 3 to have lots of dialogue most readers won't see in a single playthrough, as well as making more efforts to lean readers toward experiencing certain scenes or moments they might have missed earlier, while allowing the possibility of skipping or missing out on scenes entirely should they choose.

For example, the end of Chapter 3 is focused on Nishiko's relationship with Seiko. There is a text chat convo that can happen in one of two different parts of the chapter, and an in-person convo I'm currently working on (the last planned new content for the demo). Both can be experienced, or one or the other, or the can both be skipped. I don't want to make the entire social life something optional, but I do want to have there be parts like this where the reader can choose to skip interacting with a character if they truly don't want to, to help reinforce the idea that every interaction is, in a sense, a deliberate choice.

Even something like picking 'the BAD' choices is something I want to not just feel like, say, Undertale's infamous 'genocide run' but rather something that is an expression of anger at the world around the main character, which even has some specific benefits - because people don't just become jerks because they like to feel bad, but because it serves them in some beneficial way. As a slight example, if the reader pushes Nishiko to become aggressive, their 'Psycho' stat will increase, which can lead to them having even more aggressive choices later, which further increase that stat. But as that stat increase, Nishiko will become more physically perceptive to certain details about the world around them, but in material ways rather than social ways. For example, they might sense certain inklings of things that allude to later plot points earlier than someone who is more cooperative and might learn more social backstory elements. It's likely not going to be some huge, monumental difference, but it hopefully will make a second playthrough feel noticeably different and give the reader more insight into certain things.

The planned demo will feature the prologue and the first three chapters. By the end, all four main characters will be introduced, and the reader should get a pretty good idea through bits of writing and visual presentation that the choices they make won't change the primary narrative, but will affect certain details and aspects of how things play out. This is actually related to a big plot element itself that will become important later. But for now, it's been really fun adapting content I wrote over five years ago into this format, fleshing it out, and trying to work out ways to not only make that content function better in an interactive format, but also just how to lay more foundation and foreshadowing for what's to come.

While the visuals are still far from finalized even for this demo, I do have a private build uploaded for anyone genuinely interested, as I still haven't received much in the way of feedback so far. I'm planning on releasing a public demo to itchio later on when we can get the visuals to look more finalized.

[katyspersonal]

Honestly, "Fromsoft is homophobic because they have gay character be sexual predator" shit is the reason why gatekeeping as a concept should NEVER truly go away, it should just be moderated.

But more of you guys should learn to tell those takes for the madness, detachment from common sense and bad faith that they are. It is very easy to get intimidated by those normies going "b-but us queer people struggle with harmful stereotypes in real world that we are sexual predators that will groom even our family, why do you want to support devs that perpetuate hatred against us 🥺", (they will also say this crap to other queer people too and pretend they haven't noticed). But creativity should NOT be censored through the lense of fear that some bigots who already believe that gays are predators will play the videogame and nut from feeling seen by the writer. Bigotry is the problem of the society, not of the creativity, and so far always portraying cishets as enemies and queer people as the good guys in some popular media pieces never helped anyone, it just made art rot and pissed off everyone. Including demographics they tried to cater to. I didn't namedrop any TV show or a videogame but you instantly thought of some, right?

Creator does not have obligations besides writing a story they want to tell and can tell, and they sure don't have an obligation to agree with the insanity of associating queerness with moral rightness. If anything, a bad and evil gay character is a huge W in the sentiment of "gay people are people", because people can have any morality, any behavior, any history and any role no matter how much the mobs are trying to convince us for over a decade that all evil comes from white cishet males and everyone who is not these things would only live happily and healthy without them as inherently pure creatures that they are. Besides, Martin's role should not be downplayed in writing Elden Ring's story, and we all know that he does not discriminate in writing predators, they come in all demographics.

P.S.: How does the "Fromsoft is bigoted against queers" squad explains Marika and Radagon being both man and woman and it explicitly shown, Ranni being canonically bi because her questline is falling in love with Tarnished of any gender, Miquella being either genderfluid or trans and Rykard being bisexual with a male friend before they had to cut 500+ ideas during production? Are they bad rep in their eyes because they're war criminals + Miquella could be? But we all know these characters are loved, especially Rykard, fandoms never had problems with loving war criminals and in fact fans often think one being queer is empowering. Being a war criminal, besides, a staple in Soulsborne games, not an exception! All of these characters are very nuanced, complicated and realistic. Nobody should suddenly get special treatment and their wrongdoings, completely adequate to how Fromsoft always writes characters, now "telling something about creators" as soon as queerness is involved. Because, again, queer people are people, not the face of the demographic or symbol of morality and faith. This should be applied to fictional characters as well: each is their own being, not a "symbol". Mohg is like this because of his specific, specific, SPECIFIC (!!!) backstory and personality, not because Fromsoft thinks that's how gays are.

Welcome back to “Soulsborne fans trying to feel special by making controversial opinions”

Today, we have several posts across many platforms accusing Elden Ring of being homophobic an transphobic due to how the story portrays Mohg and Miquella. Again, the “oh no this queer character isn’t a perfect paragon the creator has to be bigoted”. Applying black and white morality to any of Fromsofts games is a fools errand, that’s why I love them. They’re so nuanced and fromsoft manages to write such multifaceted characters and that flies over a lot of people’s heads for some reason. I hate mohg, slightly more than I hate the other demigods, but I also understand he’s so much more than that campy secret boss that shouts “SEX!”. Same with Miquella, even if I disagree with most interpretations of him. People either see him as a hypnotizing manipulative mastermind or an UwU soft boy who’s done nothing wrong. While I do think his abilities had a role in how he made the haligtree, I don’t think he’s brainwashed everyone. I think, yes, his abilities draw people to him, but what makes him so different from other demigods is that he was actually accepting of people like the Albinaurics and Misbegotten, but people just write it off as JUST “he’s taking advantage of them and brainwashing them!”

Idk man Elden Ring discourse is wild, maybe that’s because a lot more “normal” people entered the fandom considering how mainstream Elden Ring is.

[kaialone]

Quick question. I saw on twitter that you mentioned that the Shadowside had things set up, but were changed after Hino stopped writing. You said something about Junior, but were there any other things you think were supposed to be different. Genuinely curious, because I haven't noticed anything, but I'm usually not very good at noticing these types of things. (Love your blog, and I hope you have a nice day!)

Thank you! (Sorry for the slightly late response ^^;)

Well, I’m not sure if I have much to say on this, I don’t have any actual background information of course, there’s just a bit one can read into it.

It’s gonna be a bit long, so I’m putting it under a read more.

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The first episode is written by Hino, and in it we see some set ups that don’t really get picked up much afterwards.

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One simple example is actually that Movie 4 and the PV for the first episode still used the OG tribes, Charming, etc, but by the time the first episode came out, the Charming symbol on Jibanyan’s arc was changed to Mononoke, from the new system. This means at that point, the new tribe system was just getting invented, and it also indicated Shadowside was kinda suffering from the fact that it was made before YKW4, so changes in mechanics like this were harder to implement.

I feel this is prolly why we don’t got tribe songs anymore, which is a real pity. Like Shadowside the anime couldnt have them, cause the tribe system was literally still being invented as the show was made, and YKW4 the game couldnt have them because well, gotta stick to what the anime did.

But thats more a mechanics thing and isnt tied directly to the narrative.

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For a narravtive example, the first episode is mostly told from Keisuke’s perspective, and while I don’t think that has to mean he was going to be the main character at some point, it did make it seem like there was at least  the idea of more character development for him.

It made sense to start the series with him, since he has this outsider perspective, but it also sets him up as this easily frightened kid who denies the supernatural. So in the first episode, a major point for him is accepting the existence of yokai, partially through the help of his deceased friend, who has become a yokai.

The episode ends with him saying to himself “Yokai definitely exist, I know this because my best friend is one”.

And yet, immediately afterwards in the next episode, we see Keisuke trying to calm himself by singing “yokai dont exist at all”. Now, one could do something interesting here, like Keisuke fluctuating between what he wants to believe, and have some conflict with that, but

From that point on, all Keisuke ever does is be frightened as a running gag, like the once per episode rule is that he gets scared by the yokai of the week, and thats it. He gets one or two episodes, but even those dont do anything with his character.

In episode 1, Keisuke was a multi-faceted character who happened to be easily frightened and insecure. Every episode after that reduced him to the single trait of “scared”, which maybe a little bit of sass sometimes, but everyone is sassy in the YKW animes.

And then in the final episodes he gets the confidence to help out, but there isnt really much that causes it, outside of a speech from Junior, but in either case, like 50-ish episodes of 0 character focus doesn’t get undone by a tiny bit of focus at the end.

Adding to that, another interesting thing is that like, even though Bourei Banchou is literally his best friend, he never has any interaction with Keisuke again, really.

He gets summoned once in episode 5, where he is taken out in 1 hit with no lip service, and then he is summoned again in the finale as a bit of a nod, but there is no real character there.

What makes this interesting is that in merchandise, Bourei Banchou was actually shown to have a Lightside, Banchō, whom we even get to see some anime-style render of on some cards/stickers:

Considering the development of YKW4 was probably really early at this point (see the part about tribes) it’s unlikely they wouldn’ve created this design unless it was meant to be in the anime.

And when you look at him, he has very typical Yokai Watch sidekick look, doesnt he? So based on that I feel it’s likely that at some point, Banchō was meant to be Keisuke’s yokai partner, and be shown hanging around him and be an actual character and stuff.

But who knows.

One might say “well I don’t care about Keisuke, so I’m glad this didn’t happen” or something, which is a valid opinion to have, I’m just saying it seems obvious there was something dropped here.

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Next we get the “Kaima” aspect. In episode 1, Fukurou’s dart hits a human which transforms him into a “Kaima”, which is what “Wicked Yokai” are called in Japanese, but the Japanese term has slightly different connotations, so…

Anyway, the question in hindsight is like: What the heck was that about?

This never happens again.

In episode 2 he hits the boy, but it doesn’t transform him, it shoots “evil” at Charlie the bike yokai, and Charlie turns bad.

After that he accidentally hits Jinta while trying to hit a human? And I think from that point on he either misses all the time or just hits the yokai directly.

And we never really get any explanation of what these darts even are, really.

Like, we know that supposedly it’s to look for the princess, but why?

Why does hitting humans and/or yokai with evil darts help?

One could assume make it’d awaken the Princess, but then why did he aim for what was clearly random punk jerks?

Did only Fukurou have those darts? If yes, how? And if yes, why was Shuten Douji not upset when Fukurou perished, at the very least over losing those darts?

Why did it only transform people in episode 1? In the very finale, we get people being transformed again, so I feel it maybe have at some point been tied to that, if they had a vague idea of what Soranaki was going to be yet.

But it’s clear there’s specific details that were meant to different.

Also, given what we learn later, why was Fukurou serving Shuten Douji, considering Shuten Douji’s main agenda is eventually revealed to be tied to restoring the power of the Oni Tribe, which Fukurou is not a member of.

It’s not like Shuten Douji has countless minions, he just as Douketstu and Fukurou, so I really gotta wonder why the latter is there.

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Lastly a bit about Junior.

Now, Junior does not appear in the first episode, so this has less to do with Hino’s writing in particular, but I still think there might’ve been different intentions for Junior originally.

In the show itself, Junior is eventually revealed to have been born from pieces of Jibanyan’s body, and that’s really it. Despite this reveal, Junior doesn’t even get any major interactions with Jibanyan.

That in itself kinda feels to me like the anime writers didn’t have much of an idea of what to do with Junior, like they do with most characters.

And in any case, I really do think that originally, at some point in the production, Junior was meant to be born from Jibanyan and Whisper.

I’m not saying he was meant to be their literal baby, but I think he was probably meant to have been created in a similar manner to the show, but with parts of Whisper involved as well.

I mean, Junior’s design invokes traits of Jibanyan and Whisper alike in such a way that I have a really hard time to believe this wasn’t the intention at first.

There’s another reason I believe this, too.

Before Shadowside the anime was out, Hino showed of some early art during an ���Inazuma Walker” stream, which mostly focused on Inazuma Eleven, but has some other stuff, too.

When Junior was shown, his co-host jokingly said “Well, everyone can tell this the child of Whisper and Jibanyan”, to which Hino replied “Um, it’s a bit different.”

While Hino does say that “it’s a bit different”, I also feel the co-host probably wouldn’t have made the “it’s Whisper’s and Jibanyan’s kid” joke unless there was a bit of truth to it?

But this is only speculation on my part again, I could be wrong.

Regardless of what Junior’s origin was going to be, we can also see early teasers of YKW4 showing him next to Natsume, almost like a counterpart to Whisper&Jibanyan for Nate, and Nekomata for Shin.

This makes me think that earlier on, Junior was possibly intended as Natsume’s main yokai “sidekick” or at least one of them, possibly fulfilling a role to her that would be similar to Whisper and especially OG Jibanyan.

But in the final product in both Shadowside and YKW4, Junior is more of a tag along, who doesn’t have a particular bond with any of the human characters.

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Alright, those were just some of my thoughts, I hope this is what you were asking about?

Note that I have no idea what the behind-the-scenes of YKW looks like, this is just speculation. And even if I was right, that doesn’t mean any of this was done “behind Hino’s back” or the like. Even when he’s not writing directly, he could still be approving of any change, as far as I know.

To me it just personally felt like the anime writers couldn’t, or didn’t want to, follow up with some of the set-ups Hino made, not just story-wise, but especially characterization-wise.

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