#I didn't even watch the cutscene first I just did it

[faggotbeloved]

Three Steps Ahead | Yandere!Wesker x GN!Reader

1: Reunion (~3k?)

Cw: Reader is in Jill's place at the Spencer Estate, this doesn't follow the cutscene very much, Chris x reader is a plot point, chrisker if you squint, Wesker is jealous, Wesker and reader are exes, not kidnapping but certainly not willing to leave, reader gets pat down, pre-re5, Irving and Excella introduced, Irving's a tool, plot deviation, flashbacks, Albert gets nicknamed

This work does not contain smut but is 18+

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"Watch out for this next room. Seems like a trap," you warned quietly to Chris as you readied your gun to where you were sure Wesker would be looming. "He's waiting for us. He's going to be prepared."

As the door was kicked open, Chris stormed in first. "It's over, Wesker!" He shouted, pointing the muzzle right at Wesker's turned back. You followed after quietly; you were much more one for stealth. You hid behind a nearby pillar, prepared to open fire as soon as Chris was endangered.

"Well, isn't this a nice surprise?" Wesker turned slowly. He looked different than you had seen before. Chris and Jill were the ones primarily dealing with Wesker, you only remembered him as your captain of S.T.A.R.S. (and lover, before you knew he was a traitor), so it was odd seeing him with a full-black trench coat and matching leather turtleneck and leather pants. He seemed more... defined, too. Not just his body, his face—his jawline, the slope of his nose, his lips. You were getting distracted. "Don't you usually work in pairs? Where's your better half? I've been told Miss Valentine got into a mess in Raccoon City with Dr. Birkin. You have someone else with you, don't you?" Wesker sneered. "Who could it be? Surely not them of all people? That's not your better half, they're mine. Surely the BSAA knew it was a bad idea. We had a history, Redfield—did you forget that? Or are you ignoring it, hoping they'll turn to you instead?"

"They aren't here. BSAA sent me alone. It only takes one bastard with a gun to kill a bastard with a gun," Chris lied, glaring right back at Wesker. "You'd do well to remember it's been years since they've seen you, and they work with me to hunt you down. I hope it doesn't sting too bad to know they've moved on," Chris added, creeping closer to Wesker.

"They've moved on? To... bigger and better things? Last we checked, Redfield, you're to my shoulders and certainly no better than I am," Wesker bent down to a mocking 'eye level' for Chris. "They're hiding somewhere. I just want to catch up with an old flame; you wouldn't object to that, would you?"

"Enough games, Wesker. You're not getting a rise out of me," Chris spat out, firing ruthlessly at Wesker's chest. However, somehow Wesker teleported away, his speed so fast he didn't even have to try to escape the bullet. You knew at once he'd genetically modified himself, but with what you hadn't figured out yet. In the fight that ensued, Chris wasn't able to as much as reload his gun before Wesker got to him and began to attack.

You waited on Chris's signal to show yourself, but no such signal came. When Wesker began a flurry of painful punches, you'd still watched for the hand signal. When he slammed Chris into a table and dragged him across just to fling him into the opposite wall, you waited. Chris had a habit of trying to seem stronger than he was, but you entered the fight prematurely once he picked Chris up by the throat and began beating him into the ground.

"Chris!" You rolled out from behind the pillar, firing a couple shots at Wesker. In leaps and rolls no human could make, Wesker dodged every single one. Chris was thrown onto the floor by your feet while Wesker strode halfway across the room in the time it took you to blink. "We're stopping you, Wesker," you maintained even as Wesker met your eyes through his sunglasses.

"There's the person of the hour. Eavesdrop on our gossiping, did you? Maybe you can settle this matter of debate. Me... or Redfield?" He grinned, strutting forward lazily with his arms out like he was coming in for a hug.

"What? That is childish and ridiculous," you replied. "I'm not picking 'you or Chris' like it's a high school crush, and even then I'd obviously choose—"

"You pick me," Wesker interrupted, stopping and stepping on the neck of the still-reeling Chris, "and Redfield gets to live. You pick him, I'll crush his windpipe with my heel." After a beat, Wesker continued with condescending softness, "Come on, you chose me over him back in S.T.A.R.S., didn't you, sweetheart?"

"Wesker, stop. You're—" you tried to look away from him, but he wanted to stay directly in your line of sight. He grabbed your chin and stared intensely into your eyes.

"No, no, no. We're a bit more acquainted than my last name, aren't we? You call him 'Chris,' don't you? What's the difference now, your made up morals? You should know how frail morality is, dear heart. Go on, try again. Properly this time," he encouraged smugly.

You felt a snarl make its way onto your face. "Wesker—"

"Wrong. Once more before I lose my patience and grind your little boyfriend's neck into paste," Wesker snapped, pressing his foot down where oxygen flowed, enjoying the sound of Chris's choking.

"Albert," you forced out, a hint of disgust rising in your stomach. "Get off of him now. I'm not choosing you or him. That's juvenile," you scowled, not wanting to outright reject Wesker in fear for him making good on his promise.

"Oh, darling," Wesker replied condescendingly. "You don't have power here. You can't choose a third option. Either Redfield dies and you go with me unwillingly, or he lives and you don't have to be sedated. There's a clear winner."

You didn't reply, but when you saw Chris's body violently gag and gasp for more air, his lips changing color, you couldn't stall any longer. "Fine! Fuck, fine, Wesker!" You spat out, relief flooding your veins as Wesker lifted his foot just enough for Chris to get a couple more breaths in. "Put your gun down, I'll put mine down, and let's talk," you bargained desperately.

"We've done enough talking. Goodbye, Chris," Wesker sneered as he grabbed your wrist. For good measure, Wesker delivered a swift kick to Chris' stomach.

Chris gasped out your name and you resisted Wesker's tugging on your arm. "It's—I'll find you," Chris promised. You hesitated by Chris' side so that hopefully he'd slip a tracker in your sock; the BSAA could find his base of operations. After a harsh yank, you followed after Wesker and onto a chopper.

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The helicopter ride began with a pat down from Wesker, of course. A very thorough pat down, though he maintained your dignity. Then, a metal detector. He found the tracking chip and chuckled at your boldness before crushing it in his hands. Afterwards, you were changed into new clothes—you matched him, you realized numbly. Sans the trench coat. Was this your new life?

The entire ride there, Wesker propped his feet up and sat beside you, barking orders into a radio every few minutes as he flipped through a thick book in his lap. He managed to read with one hand while the other rested on your thigh. He used the book hand to use the radio, fix his hair, and push up his sunglasses so he didn't have to leave your thigh. Once the helicopter landed, he led you to a sleek black van and helped you into the back.

By the time you stopped in a facility in some unknown country—someplace warm and dry where the night sky was clear of light pollution—you were more than sick of sitting beside Wesker. His calmness and silence was eerie. But he offered his hand to help you out of the car and kissed your knuckles once you were with both feet on the ground.

"You'd probably love it here if I ever let you out of the house. Well, before I can show you to your new home, I'd like to introduce you to some people you'll get very familiar with if you decide to actually join me and turn on the BSAA," Wesker explained as he grabbed your arm and led you into the building, outside of the heat. You looked around with distaste at the lab coats and whirring machinery and buzzing flourescent lights. "Hm. Or you'll join me after the project is done, and they'll be dead. Either way, they should feel lucky to meet you."

It seemed busy on the inside, several people greeting Wesker with a respectful nod and quizzical glance at you. Wesker ignored them and entered a room with a couple people you quickly recognized. "What's this shithead doing here?" You nodded to Irving, the notorious illegal weapons dealer that the BSAA had been trying to figure out how to catch. "Bombing Raccoon City wasn't fun enough, was it? Wanted more bioweapons?" You growled into Wesker's face as he sat you down with a smug smile. He seemed to enjoy getting you annoyed.

"Ricardo Irving. Have we met? Youse got a face I think I'd rememba', so I musta seen you in my dreams," Irving flirted shamelessly. Wesker scowled, placing a gun on the table as a warning. "Hey, hey, I didn't mean nothing by it! Just sayin' Wesker, you've got an eye for—oh, okay!" Irving cackled as Wesker turned the safety off and aimed it directly at him.

"That's Ricardo Irving, though you seem to know him already. However, if he doesn't watch his tongue..." Wesker threatened vaguely. "And this is Excella Gionne, of course, of Africa's Representative of your very own anti-Umbrella organization: Tricell." Wesker paused and stood behind you, nosing your neck to speak low in your ear. "Isn't that ironic? Not even they truly care about keeping the world safe. Darling, you must get it now. There isn't any chance on Earth you'll be saved by Chris or any other of your little friends; you'll stay with me and you'll learn that sooner or later," Wesker crooned in your ear as he grasped your hips gently. You felt an uncomfortable flush and broke out of his hands and stood behind him.

Wesker chuckled and retreated, beckoning you to follow. You were ushered into an inviting, luxurious place that was surely meant to be your new home, but definitely too small for two people to coexist without sharing amenities. From what you could see, it was mostly an open floor plan with baroque roots, not unlike the Spencer Estate you'd just come from, with a big kitchen and comfortable living room, but it appeared one bathroom and one bedroom, plus what you hoped was a study but was probably a linen closet. "...Is this your living area?"

"It was. Now it's ours. I hope you don't mind the close quarters, but I'm sure my presence shouldn't be a bother," he smiled wryly, grasping your shoulders reassuringly. "It'll be just like that October evening—you remember, of course?—where he talked about living together once we retired from S.T.A.R.S... of course, we both were drunk and were just coming off a night of excellent lovema—"

"Stop, Wesker. Albert. I'm not... we aren't..." you tried to say, but the words failed you when you felt his hands leave your shoulders and his back straighten.

"Very well. Believe that as you may, I have the utmost confidence you'll grow to both accept and assist me," Wesker forced out. "You're probably eager to explore this little home. Go on! I have business to attend to."

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You're not sure why he left you alone in the house until you were... well, left alone. Upon further inspection, he'd counted on your resourcefulness and the TV was not much more than a plastic casing on a sign that read 'ASK FOR ELECTRONICS. YOU AREN'T TRUSTED WITH ANYTHING THAT CAN GIVE A SIGNAL YET.' You kind of assumed it was Wesker's handwriting.

The same could be said for many other appliances; anything that could be removed from Internet was, and there wasn't a screen in sight that actually worked aside from the microwave's and oven's screens (that showed it being permanently midnight), which had another note saying you weren't trusted with anything that could start a fire. It amused you to think of him writing out these notes and baby-proofing the house for you.

You discovered the furniture was too heavy to move for a normal human, the windows didn't open or break, and the bookshelves were empty aside from a couple paperbacks until you proved yourself to Wesker. It was just one common room, one bathroom, and one bedroom.

Perhaps if you pretended; if you went along with him, pretended to yourself that he was the same Wesker you'd once loved and pretend to him that you turned on the BSAA, you could radio for help or get location tracked. But a small part of you doubted it.

Albert was always three steps ahead. He worked his way up into Captain one way or another, and he was apparently a genetic scientist, and the one who researched that damned T-Virus, at that. You feared for what would happen if you crossed him.

You found yourself uninterested with books and sitting on the couch, thinking about how good you and Albert were. Back before the Mansion.

"No, no, I'm trying to think!" You giggled as you laid with Albert in the bed of the S.T.A.R.S.-issued pickup. "I'm not a fan of Bert. Definitely not Bertie," you listed, to which Albert tapped your nose playfully.

"Oh, definitely not. The accent is hard enough, could you imagine what that would do to my reputation? Captain Bertie Wesker. It's abhorrent," he said with graveness, then chuckled and smiled down on you where you lie in his lap.

"Okay, so Al? I'm not sold on it. Al...bie. Albie? That's a child's name. It's cute, honestly. But B! I like B. It's cool, it's quick to say, it's... not the name of a church organist," you teased. "Al could be nice. It's cute. I think I've settled on B, though. Maybe I'll change it up? Keep you guessing," you suggested, to which Albert rolled his eyes and brought you into his arms to watch the stars.

"It's nice, slipping away like this. We spend so much time saving lives, we forget how to live our own," Albert murmured thoughtfully. "Do you think you'll retire, darling? We could retire at the same time. Get a place of our own—ample space for us, but kids may not be in the cards at our age."

"Ah, we could foster Becca. I'm sure by the time we retire, she'll be... what, able to drive?" You joked, snuggling into Wesker's chest. "Brave of her to join at 18. Gets a lot of flak from people who are jealous that she's stronger than they are at their age."

Albert hummed. "I know how it goes. 'Prodigy' makes the other special 'prodigies' go mad when they're not the youngest or smartest anymore," he said, kneading your tense muscles as well as he could when you were laying across his legs. "You didn't answer my question, though. Would you retire with me?"

"I would," you confirmed, kissing his exposed collarbone. "I think that'd be nice. Living a civilian life with you—no radios, no training, no MRE's. I'd make us something really good for our first night together; a full, warm meal."

Your memories were interrupted by the door unlocking. You realized from the thickness of the opening door that it was probably either solid metal with a wooden veneer or just really fucking thick wood. "Mmh. I explored a little," you mumbled as you glanced at Albert, who smiled at you and sat down.

"Not much to do, is there? I'm sure if you went with me at the mansion when I asked you, you'd be allowed to do whatever you want unsupervised by now. Of course, there's always time," Albert looked at you with pride in his eyes. Of course he was proud. He had you contained in a place with him with no choice but to go with whatever he said.

You were trapped like a dog in a gilded car.

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New storyline with Wesker, I'll probably focus more on this one tbh. I have plans that i would like input on so I'll start adding polls so my favorite ants can help shape the story. Also, love the gif so much WHY IS HE ARCHING LIKE THAT!!

[chrismas95]

Someone uploaded this cutscene to Twitter without music and people were asking "where's the music", so

[cherriibombfics]

You know something folks don't often talk about with Self Aware AUs that I really think more people should discuss when writing about it? Sequence breaking. Specifically the inherent sequence breaking that comes with Gacha games allowing you to meet characters that you haven't met yet in the story if you haven't played that far ahead.

For example, I actually just started playing CRK nearly 2 weeks ago after watching a bunch of animations and cutscenes about the latest Beast Yeast episode online, right? And as a result, I got enough F2P currency from being a new user to get, in this exact order: Pure Vanilla Cookie, then Black Sapphire Cookie, then the soul jams to awaken PV, then Shadow Milk Cookie. All of this happened before GingerBrave canonically met any of them.

So basically Shmilk woke up one day, was out of the tree he was trapped in for what felt like an eternity, appeared in some random small kingdom, sees PV who was now all glowy and angelic and hanging out with his minion for some reason, who immediately walks up to him and says something like, "Hey man. I experienced enlightenment and I have no idea how. But through context clues from The Baker, I think I just ruined your entire corruption arc you had planned for me? Sorry about that. You wanna beat up some cake monsters as these children learn the dark lore of our existences?"

I don't think PV talks like that, but you get the picture. I like the idea of accidentally ruining the entire plotline by having some lucky gacha pulls~

"ɢᴇᴛ ꜱᴜᴍᴍᴏɴᴇᴅ ɪᴅɪᴏᴛ!"

ᴡᴏʀᴅ ᴄᴏᴜɴᴛ: 540

ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢꜱ: ɴᴏɴᴇ

ᴍᴀꜱᴛᴇʀʟɪꜱᴛ

ᴀ/ɴ: ɪ'ᴍ ɴᴏᴛ ᴛᴏᴏ ꜱᴜʀᴇ ᴡʜɪᴄʜ ᴄᴏᴏᴋɪᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛᴇᴅ ᴍᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴡʀɪᴛᴇ ꜰᴏʀ. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴀ ꜰᴏʟʟᴏᴡ-ᴜᴘ ᴘʟᴇᴀꜱᴇ ʟᴇᴛ ᴍᴇ ᴋɴᴏᴡ.

ꜱʜᴀᴅᴏᴡ ᴍɪʟᴋ ᴄᴏᴏᴋɪᴇ x ʙᴀᴋᴇʀ!ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ

✧ SHADOW MILK COOKIE would be ecstatic about finally being released from the Silver Tree, and with a physical form no less? All so far ahead of schedule? Oh, he was over the moon! But where was he? This wasn't that silly faerie kingdom. As a matter of fact, was he even still on Beast-Yeast?

✧ In the context of the story the existence of the Cookie Kingdom is, well, horrifying. New cookies being summoned were a common occurrence within its walls, from different regions, time periods, and even ones that had crumbled long ago. After a certain point the ruler of the kingdom started finding ways to allow cookies to adjust to their new life, but of course that system didn't work for everyone.

"For the last time, I do not want to join your silly kingdom! Where are my minions? And where on Earthbread am I?"

✧ He'd be livid that his powers don't work here for some reason, safe for a couple of things like summoning a plush rabbit of all things. Why was he being reduced to this mockery? Who was turning a former almighty cookie into an equal to the foolish cookies who lived here? Seriously, is that mask-wearing buffoon always lifting something?

✧ He'd eventually comply, albeit reluctantly, because after a while he'd realize there's no point in resisting the inevitable. You held the power here, over everyone, and for the first time in years there he felt completely powerless.

“Do you enjoy seeing me kneel before you? Do you find pleasure in watching me be reduced to this?! I’m the one holding the strings, I AM NO PUPPET!”

“Why are you yelling at the sky?”

✧ At some point you’re forced to talk to him directly since he was causing troubles for the other cookies with his ramblings and general abrasion.

“You, YOU! You’re the one who did this to me! I was happier inside of that stupid tree than I am here! Why me? Why not one of the others? Why did you decide to torture me like this?”

“I dunno, the gacha just picked you I guess.”

“What are you talking about?!”

✧ He’d become even more upset when you explain the gacha to him and, by extension, the fact that their entire world was technically a game. So his current situation was entirely chance. You sent him away after that, promising that you’d build a few structures for him in return for good behavior.

“Wow, this is humiliating. Why am I being stuck cutting wood? I’m a jester not a lumberjack…”

“Shadow Milk Cookie!”

✧ Being reunited with his minions was nice, for a short while, it gave him some sense of normalcy throughout the newfound confusion. Because at least he wasn't alone during this. That Distorted Tower you promised seemed that nice, and you weren't that bad he supposed. It could've been worse…wait. Was that Pure Vanilla Cookie? Why was he glowing?

“Oh, hello again! I believe I experienced enlightenment during your absence. I’m not too sure on the details, outside of that spire, but I’m grateful we’re meeting in better circumstances. It’s nice to see you be given a chance at redemption.”

“You what?”

✧ Nevermind. This sucks.

[mythalism]

You seem to be both a solavellan and mythal fan so maybe I won’t get shot for this question lol

Veilguard was my first game. I kept default settings, which meant solavellan world state.

I genuinely wonder: what makes people think Solas loves Lavellan? Or that if being with Mythal possible, he still would choose Lavellan?

He is so clearly not over Mythal. Last game is filled with references to their connection, she herself confirms that both still love each other. He is very protective of her while arguing with Elgarnan. Statues of them everywhere, him painting and playing songs about her, his very own room having statues of Mythal… In the end he discloses he does it all for her, refuses to stop after Lavellan’s appeals, and only does so after Mythal shows up.

In comparison, Solas describes what he had with Lavellan as “entanglement he selfishly grow close to” he both regrets and cherishes. Most of the romance is carried on Inquisitor’s shoulders, as she both explicitly tells what he means to her, reaches out to him and ultimately shares his burden of atonement.

I couldn’t understand why this ship was so popular, so I watched solavellan romance in DAI. And while it was beautifully done, having the context of Veilguard, I just keep seeing Mythal in every “we shouldn’t”/his face after balcony kiss/ultimately abandoning her in the end. It feels almost unfair and cruel for him to enter another relationship while his heart isn’t free. And to visit Lavellan’s dreams afterwards

What am I missing?

a lot of people would shoot you for this. but dont worry i am not one of them. be careful out there tho

i think the first thing i would say is that instead of watching a video, you would need to do play a full solavellan playthrough of the game if you do want to genuinely understand the relationship and why it is so beloved. im not sure which compilation you watched, but even one that includes all their conversations (rather than just the cutscenes, of which there are very few) cannot do the relationship justice. so much of understanding solas as a character and how he loves people, by extension, is wrapped up in how he reacts to the world at large, its people, its history, its institutions, and its metaphysics. assuming you're new to DA and wouldn't know this, solas's romance in inquisition is the shortest, most sparse romance in the game, and was added later in development. as a result, much of his essential characterization happens outside the bounds of romance content, but still adds deeper meaning, context, and depth to the relationship. even in terms of romance specific content, some of my favorite content occurs in banter that probably was not included in the video you watched. the solas romance is less a standalone love story, in the way many of the romances are, and more of a big juicy delicious cherry on top that helps you better understand the overall dragon age solas plot/cake you're eating.

theres a couple non-romance specific scenes that shed significant light on solas & mythal's dynamic from his perspective that i am not sure if you have seen and honestly i wouldnt recommend watching them because, again, i think you should just play inquisition and experience them in the proper context. but solas's companion personal quest is directly about his corruption at the hands of mythal, though we didn't know that until veilguard came out and contextualized it. and this quest pretty explicitly demonstrates how he feels about what she did to him: rage, beyond forgiveness, deserving of death. he also comments on her at the temple of mythal, and his comments are mostly neutral but verging on judgemental, and do illuminate that while he may have loved her, he certainly did not trust her. it is he who first clarifies that she was a goddess of vengeance, rather than justice. which i cant think about too long or else i'll get angry that they ret-conned it to benevolence -> retribution or whatever the fuck and erased the anders/justice/vengeance parallel... anyway

but i think more telling is his absolute refusal to drink from the well if asked, and most telling; how he fears for an inquisitor who drank.

he specifically calls mythal dangerous, arrogant, and fickle, absolutely refuses to submit to her will once again via the drinking of the well, and begs an inquisitor he loves not to do the same lest she suffer the same fate. he loves mythal, of course, but he also fears her. he is critical of her behavior and wary of her motivations. his love for her exists alongside his recognition of what she was.

another fairly vital bit of information is how according to trespasser (cole banter), solas used to wear mythal vallaslin until he burnt it off his own face when he developed his vallaslin removal spell. its how he got the little scar above his eyebrow. meaning, if vallaslin were slave markings, that solas was effectively enslaved to her. this is... pretty important context, obviously. but we never find out what it might have been like for him. veilguard.... didnt forget but rather deliberately ignored this because it wasnt willing to interrogate the issue of slavery which had been vital to solas as the leader of a slave rebellion. ugh. anyway.

this leads into my next point which is that veilguard really drastically changes solas's motivations to be far more mythal-centric than what was set up in inquisition/trespasser. we always knew something was up with them, and people always wondered if they might have been lovers, but veilguard goes in on this idea in a way that many people would actually call out-of-character compared to how he behaves in inquisition. veilguard itself though does present their relationship as rather complex though, in my opinion its one of the best parts of the game. the two moments that i chew on most frequently are the letter from felassan in mythal's weird little dragon pit that reveals how he made that island for her but locked it away when she was killed. and my ultimate fave is how she reveals that in the literal thousands of years she has been sitting there alone since her murder, many of which he was alive and fighting a rebellion partly in her name, and in the 12 years since he woke up from uthenera, he never went to visit her. not once. its giving jane eyre and i fucking love it. in this same conversation, she also says that when he killed flemeth, he wept. this, i think, is the crux of how he feels about her. he can barely look at her. he resents her. he will use her like he did anyone else. he loves her. he feels lost without her. he will never forgive her. he misses her. all of these things are true at once, and mythal seems to feel similarly; she loathes him. she understands him better than anyone. she resents him for betraying her and abandoning her. she calls him a pathetic little crybaby pussy ass bitch. she loves him.

i dont think anything you said in your message is necessarily wrong. i do think he loves mythal still. i think he always will. i think mythal is valid when she says that they have a bond that no one will ever understand. i agree he is protective over her. i also interpret their relationship as romantic though a lot of people do not. i just love drama. but i think you are misinterpreting his reluctance to be with lavellan as coming from his attachment to mythal as a person, rather than his attachment to his duty to what mythal represents - the world he ruined, everything he's ever done wrong. to say that solas would actually consciously choose mythal over lavellan if they were the final two contestants on the bachelorette is honestly, absurd. sorry. because actually he would choose neither, he would dramatically let the rose fall to the ground and run off to restore the elven people while chris hansen (felassan) dramatically runs after him. both women are secondary to him when it comes to the good of the entire world, and fixing what he broke. he has had plenty of moments to choose mythal and run away with her if he wanted. he has literally had her bertha-ing out in his crossroads attic for 10 years. he also literally does kill her via flemeth. which isnt to say that he wouldn't kill lavellan if forced to, i think he would. but the point here is that its not mythal vs. lavellan. its mythal vs. the world, and lavellan vs. the world. he should have chosen the world over mythal. he didnt. he created the blight instead. he destroyed everything. he cannot make the same mistake again, so he will choose the world every. single. time.

regardless, every time solas turns away from lavellan in the romance, he is not thinking "i wish you were her". he is thinking "if i do this to you, i have become her". prioritizing his own desires over the good of the world, stringing her along, using her as a tool to do his bidding (getting the orb back), are all things mythal did to him. he told her he would follow her anywhere. and when he begins to realize that lavellan would follow him anywhere (as she says in veilguard), he freaks out and has to end it. he knows he will have to continue to kill and cause destruction to bring his world back, so if he did allow her to join him in walking the dinan'shiral, or did anything other than break her heart and leave her, he would be corrupting her the way mythal corrupted him; a weapon to achieve his goal. but he refuses. in his mind, he already destroyed the world for love once; at mythal's behest. if he abandons the world for lavellan, he is destroying the world for love again, and making her an accomplice. so, every time he leaves her it is an act of love.

the way the inquisitor is the driving force of their romance is partly just... gameplay lol but its also consistent with the overarching theme of consent in a relationship that is fundamentally unethical and unequal. lavellan has to be the initiator or else solas becomes a predator. some would say he is anyway lol, but its clear much of the writing was designed to avoid this with the way he is constantly denying himself, backing away, trying not to give in. it might have been juicy, but for him to knowingly romantically and sexually pursue a young woman 10,000 years younger while lying to her about his identity and using her for his plans would make him an entirely different character. a character that would be a hit on romantasy booktok, but not solas. consent and ethics are so central to not only the relationship thematically, but to solas himself, and some of that is because of mythal and the inequality of their own past dynamic. solas is so passive in the romance not because he doesnt like this weird clingy bitch who wont leave him alone, but because he does not want to recreate the same dynamic that corrupted him into pride and uhhhh literally destroyed the world. i'll leave you with another essential quote that you may not have encountered yet:

Cole: It isn’t abuse if I ask! Solas: Not always true.

in trespasser, solas's duty to bring down the veil was more unambiguously to the elven people and the alleviation of his own crushing guilt, while mythal was collateral damage in his way and he used her like he would use anyone else (including lavellan loool) as a tool to achieve his goals. we see this when he kills flemeth and takes mythal's power. in veilguard they had to obscure this slightly to make him "less sympathetic", to use the devs own words. and they did this by shifting the crux of his motivations to mythal. i dont think his lap dog devotion is out of character, i adore it, but i hate that it came at the expense of his more complex and sympathetic motivations of saving the elven people and spirits from the damage of the veil. as a result, when looking at his behavior in the context of inquisition + trespasser + veilguard, i interpret it as mythal being symbolic of the destruction of the world at his hands. and not to toot my own horn but trick's interpretation that they shared on bluesky does support this, when they said that to solas, mythal represents the past and lavellan represents the future. ive written about his statement that it was all for mythal, and the tldr is that i think it is also supposed to be interpreted as symbolic and reflective of his psyche. but even if he did do it all for her, i dont think that necessarily negates his relationship with lavellan. he needs mythal to break the cognitive dissonance, alleviate his guilt, and release him, because she is the source of all of those things in the first place. lavellan could never break them because she is frankly irrelevant to those things. he is so caught up in his sunk-cost fallacy that he feels the only way is through. lavellan may not be able to break the hold the past has on him because she is separate from it, but she can offer him another path once it has been broken, a fork in the road he thought was straight; her, their future.

i think to say solas's heart is not free is a misunderstanding. he denies his heart's desire over and over, we see this clearly in the letter he sends to lavellan in veilguard that expresses how badly he wanted to put down his burden and stay with her. in his expressed reluctance to leave her in crestwood, how he refuses to lie and tell her it meant nothing. in "no matter what happens, i want you to know that what we had was real". his indulgent final kiss in trespasser. in "i will never forget you". its especially apt that you worded it this way and that vhenan means "my heart". if anything, his heart is the most free part of him. it is everything else that belongs to mythal: his body, created at her command. his path of destruction and ruin, which she set him on. his purpose, which she distorted from wisdom to pride. she, then, is the only one who can give it all back to him. and as soon as she does, he is free to prioritize his heart. and he quite literally does.

tldr; play inquisition <3

[r0-boat]

Can I get a mcfuckin uuuhhhhh yandere Elliott from sdv getting pussy drunk? Whether that's just eating reader out or can't stop fucking them is up to you, I just have a need 🥺👉👈

-🍜

Yeeeeeeee

My God Elliot my first husband my love.

There is a yandere Elliott mod that I love with all my heart I will be using this as a basis!

(if you don't know there's a part in the mod where he kidnaps you and keeps you how arrested in your own farm if you try to leave the farm you'll get a cutscene where he pretty much tells you that you're 'very sick' and you need to come back)

Okay without further ado

Yandere Elliott x AFAB gn!reader

Drunk off your pussy

Nsfw

He insisted on carrying you back to the cottage in his arms. Elliot had been so busy with his next book that he had not noticed that you snuck out of the house on your own. He'll have to watch you more closely from now on.

Looking at you now, even with your heaving breaths, your chest rising and falling, your eyes red and wet with tears as you cling to him. It was hard to stay mad at you as much as he wanted to bend you over his knee and make your ass red for disobeying. He spent so many nights without you and his arms and underneath you; seeing you like this just made it harder even to consider punishing you for your actions.

To your surprise, instead of being over his lap, you lay gently on the bed. Elliot, instead of a look of disapproval, it was a look of hunger.

"You disobeyed me, my dear, normally I would punish you like I always do...but I've decided that perhaps I should... Change my methods of punishment." He purrs, licking his lips as he begins to roll down your pants, taking your underwear with it.

Not wanting to make your husband angry or change his mind, you submissively obey. Spreading your legs sweetly for Elliot.

He hums at the sight of your pussy; It had been so long since he had you like this. Maybe that's why you ran. Was it was all just for his attention? "Don't worry, my sweet, I'm here now." Elliot murmurs, his smile morphing into a crazed one. He spreads your lips apart. You felt a hot breath against your cunt before his wet tongue slid inside you.

Tasting your sweet wetness for the first time in a while He shutters.

"mmh, fuck! I've miss this."

Normally your husband would make moments like these more romantic whether it be candles around the cabin too rose petals in the bed, but. You did not deserve these pleasantries.

"No! Spread wider. Don't make me get the spread bar again. If you won't part these legs, then I will make you."He smiles.

If you were going to run away and flirt with some other man like a whore then you were going to be treated like one. Right now you are not his perfect beautiful spouse. You were his play toy pet, writhing and moaning underneath him your hand gripping his hair Your body fighting on whether you should push him away or bug against him. You had your answer You want pleasure struck like lightning feeling his fingers slip inside you in his mouth curl around your clit. Elliot knew all the best ways to pleasure you.w hat kind of husband would he be if he didn't know how to make his precious spouse cum? With him suckling your clit and his fingers working your sensitive spot inside. You tried to stifle your noises. Which made your husband frown.

"come on, my sweet, let me hear you."He begs, his eyebrows furrowing as he kisses your inner thighs.

He plays with your clit in a way you cannot resist and his fingers pick up their pace slamming knuckles deep inside you every tense of his arm.

You tried to close your quivering legs, only for Elliot to remove his hand and mouth only too strike your cunt with his hand after prying you open. Youre loving husband striking you in any way stunned you. He was sorry to hurt you like this, but if you do not listen, there'll be more where that came from.

As he feels you get close, he removes his fingers, replacing them with his eager tongue, not before licking them clean, not wanting to waste a single drop of your delicious cunt

his thumb pressing against your swollen throbbing clit.

"I miss the taste of your cum on my tongue. Are you going to be good and give it to me? Do I have to ring you out for every last drop you have? Hm?" Elliott purrs, dragging his tongue across your wet lips.

To wasted no time diving his tongue inside, brushing his nose against your clit as he licks and sucks you out like a starving man. Feverishly trying to spread you even wider, pressing your hips, making you grind your cunt against his face. You arch your back cumming on his tongue, and he rides out your orgasm moaning and bucking his own hips as he drinks every last drop of your cum.

His mouth glistens with your juices as he parts from you. His tongue lulled out, and his eyes glazed over with lust and bliss. He thought he had his fell as you tried to squirm away. He holds you down, nuzzling against your inner thigh.

"Where do you think you're going, beloved? We're not done. This is a punishment, remember?"

"I will eat your pussy; I'll make you flood my mouth over and over till You're too tired to even move from your bed tomorrow. Maybe then you'll finally stay put."

[eistro-phobia]

HCs for Russell Adler

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Throwing my hat in the ring cause I haven't seen many works on him recently, enjoy?

Warnings: Sexual references, misogyny

Is not a perfectionist. He's very much a slaps-duct-tape-on-it-and-says-good-enough kinda guy. Just look at the way he handled the whole Bell fiasco.

Does not like dogs. Or pets in general. Best he'll get his kids is a goldfish.

Has a watch collection; you know this mf has one.

Wanted to be a pilot growing up. He enlisted partially for that reason, but strayed off track when he realized CIA might be a better fit for him.

Has had a couple flings in the office. Never on assignment; only somewhere he can sit back and relax enough to even think about it.

Is/was a mild misogynist. We see that in the way he treats Park (and Park alone) and that character from the S1 multiplayer cutscene in Cold War. He might've mellowed out by the time we're in BO6, but he was an asshole in his prime (who woulda thought)

Got his scars in Vietnam, from an ambush. He was separated from his team and captured by VC, who tortured him for days. Without medical attention, his scars never healed right, until he broke out and could radio for help. It's why he never tells the true story.

Cannot eat cold things, his teef are sensitive.

Hates being compared to Robert Redford because everyone now thinks he copied his style.

At some point, the marriage between him and his ex-wife was so broken that they were simultaneously cheating on each other fully knowing the other was too. They went on like that for a couple months till ex-Mrs. Adler finally slammed divorce papers on his desk (good on you ma'am)

Got divorced just a short while before the whole Perseus ordeal, that's why he's so cranky.

Would pick navy blue as his favorite color.

Lives in a small apartment in the middle of [REDACTED], Virginia. It's quaint, tidy and surprisingly decorated, only reason being he wants it nice when the kids are over (rare as that is).

Did not want kids, in fact. Being a father is another headache he didn't need, and they were only gonna be put at unnecessary risk. He got the snip after the second one.

Transferred full custody to their mother after the Panama blame; no explanation, no notice. He never saw them again.

I have a lot more to say, and I probably will end up saying them. But I figured this is a good enough first post✌️

[jadeazora]

I feel like the Explorers games got away with so much shit for a Pokemon game, especially from the bad future onwards:

Upon arrival, you're almost executed by getting SHREDDED ALIVE, like that sounds like a horrific way to go. You also have to watch your partner, who is innocent in everything besides joining up with you and who looked up to Dusknoir, beg him to explain what's going on and why he's doing this, only to be completely ignored.

Grovyle being tortured by Spiritomb and (in Sky only) Dusknoir's later plan of having it destroy Grovyle's soul so he can possess his empty husk, go back in time and then betray and eliminate the heroes. Christ.

You basically come to the current time as what amounts to a su!c!de mission to put a stop to the bad future. You really only are told this later, but it's clear that you and Grovyle accepted that sacrifice that would have to be made in order to save the world. (Ofc, we find out in Sky that it seems a higher power saved everyone, but Grovyle didn't know that. Dusknoir's main motivation for doing everything he did was because he was afraid of disappearing, of dying, like, nobody foresaw that divine intervention.)

You pretty much die at the end of the main story, tho Dialga brings you back. If you play Sky, you'll be sitting thru a cutscene where Celebi and Grovyle cuddle together as they (believe they're about to) essentially die, watching the sunrise together.

The false Cresselia. Like, you and your partner are almost mislead into kys because your existence is said to be causing a distortion in space-time, which does make sense considering that, as far as the player knows, the timeline they were from and everyone else in it is gone.

The first time "she" gets in proper contact with you is when Azurill (a very young child) is put into an unwakeable nightmare.

There's even a part where you wake up after one of those Cresselia dreams (that your partner is also having btw) and they're gone. They're fine, but it's still an uncomfortable few seconds.

When you both decide against kys, there has to be some other way to stop the distortion from spreading, "she" sends Palkia after you in order for it to kill you. (And is soon after revealed to be Darkrai, who wants to put the world into an endless nightmare and who was responsible for the bad future and all the suffering happening in it.)

Darkrai trying to manipulate the player into siding with them, by giving them a vision of their partner joining him and telling the player that Darkrai will kill them if they alone join him.

There's even mild implications that Darkrai, even after losing his memories, might still have some ill intent within. (I feel a his lines about the darkness sleeping within him are a bit vague on whether it's just a "type" thing, or if he means that even the memory erasure hasn't quite shaken that evil nature.)

(Btw, there's an old fan-animation pairing Sky with Higurashi's Nageki no Mori that fits the mood of the game well.)

[randomthefox]

SO MUCH TO COVER ON THIS ONE! Been waiting for this

So Morrison is actually a character from Devil May Cry The Animated Series! He's Dante's "agent" bringing him in non-standard jobs that entail a little bit more than just Go Here And Kill Demon. And in the show HE WAS A WHITE DUDE

Capcom took the character from the show, but raceswapped him to be a black guy. And nobody cared lol. The people who knew he was a pre-existing character either didn't care, or thought it was an improvement. Because he does have a bit of a Morgan Freeman vibe going for him now don't you think? And like in the animated series, he's constantly skimming off the top and taking expenses out of Dante's "cut" of the job payment. You'll notice Dante is so down and out for cash that he isn't even paying his electricity and water bills, which is also taken from the show. You might think business isn't good, but the truth is Dante just constantly turns down payment. The entire idea of Devil May Cry being a business is practically a formality. Most of his hunting is done pro bono.

Patty gets a voice only cameo! She is also from The Animated Series! She's a cute little girl that Dante takes in in the first episode, and functions as the shows audience surrogate character since she isn't aware of what demons are until she starts hanging out with Dante. So she's an easy excuse to give exposition on the lore of the video games to the audience. She was also, like, eight years old in the show. And as you might notice, she mentions it's her 18th birthday in the phone call. Meaning DMC5 is set ten years after TAS, which is set at least a year after the events of the original Devil May Cry video game.

(I assert once again that it is laughably implausible that Vergil was wandering around in a state of being near death after the events of Mallet Island for ten fucking years, and no piece of supplementary material has ever bothered to explain this)

Anyway I think it is beyond cool that this game is acknowledging so much of the expanded material from the franchise. Paying mention to Nell Goldstein from the DMC1 novel. Cameos from characters from The Animated Series. Now it doesn't mean those expanded bits of material are hard canon, after all Morrison doesn't look anything like he did in the anime. But the games are still readily accepting the contributions of the other artists who have made contact with the series and incorporating their own version of it into the source material of the video games, which is so cool to see.

Dante doesn't want to go to Patty's birthday party but it isn't because she's the Amy to his Sonic or anything like that. Although the first episode of TAS had this line which didn't age particularly well.

It was 2007 grade it on a curve. It wasn't creepy back then.

Anyway it's clear if you watch the show that Patty views Dante as more of an older brother figure. Dante is avoiding the shindig because it'll be an event that OTHER human friends of Patty will be attending since she's quite a socialite. And Dante feels a disconnect from humanity due to his own self loathing of his demon heritage. One figures he might be more amenable to attending a smaller get together of only himself Patty and a few mutual acquaintances though, but he definitely doesn't want to hang around with a bunch of fucking teenage humans. Relatable.

so yeah, DMC TAS, go give it a watch sometime.

ASIDE FROM THAT we see V's introduction to the narrative in this scene. Please take note of how he says he has no name, just like what Urizen said to Nero in the pre-boss fight cutscene of the level right before this one. It's also a William Blake quote, and yet serendipitously V literally was "born" two days ago on May 1st.

Now please take note that when V tries to convince Dante that the demon he's coming to him about is a big deal, he says "this demon is your reason for fighting." If you'll recall from DMC1, Dante says the only reason he's in the demon hunting business is because he figures eventually he'll get the one that killed his family. The game red herrings Urizen's identity to make us think maybe he might be Mundus for a while, but that's really only going to work on people who aren't paying that much attention. Or paying the wrong kind of attention. Take note that when Dante asks if this demon has a name, look at the mouth shape V's lips take to answer.

He IS NOT saying "Mundus." And he is NOT saying "Urizen" either. He is CLEARLY telling Dante that the demon he needs to take this job to defeat is VERGIL. Urizen was just the name that he told Nero, probably because V assumed Nero is Dante's son and he probably assumed Dante told Nero about his big bad evil uncle Vergil. The name just sticks even after the intended reason why V told him that was the name becomes obsolete. Dante knew from the very beginning that Urizen = Vergil though, and you need to look at every single line of dialog Dante has about Urizen from this point on with that context in mind.

[lotusarchon]

Feel like we don’t have any black myth wukong Nezha headcanons.

So probably platonic headcanons especially during chapter 5 of the animation ending of black myth wukong with the demon bull king fight and all that

THEY DON'T LIKE MY POOKIE WOOKIE WAAAAAAAAAAAAH- then again kinda fair. Not everyone likes a character that shows up for five seconds. Unlike me sobs

As you didn't specify if you wanted this as an x Reader, I'm just going with my general idea of him from his brief appearance alone. Not lore accurate and definitely a bit ooc but shhh

⋆ The only reason he didn't show up with Erlang in the first cutscene was because he kept calling Wukong all kinds of names and they were so bad they actually did make Monkey King cry. So they locked him up until it was over

⋆ If he was actually a part of the game I feel like he'd just be so mean to the Destined One for no reason just because. Mean girl type shit, "Is that what you're going to be wearing? How....interesting."

"Oh, wow. Wukong didn't teach you much did he? Oh wait....right he's dead. Yeah you're wasting your time, just so you know."

"Oh um. Wow. I cannot believe you lost to that yaoguai. You're so weak."

"Are you blind on purpose? The path is clearly this way."

"You don't talk much huh? Oh, no, don't tell me, you have some superrrrr sad backstory which makes you a total emo. Ugh."

"No, yeah, you're really ugly. Not as ugly as the Monkey King but you're a close second."

(abt red son) "....that's a face not even a mother would love, my god? Why do you look like someone tried to waterboard you in blood? Why are you half bald, you're only a few centuries younger than me? Why don't you look like...oh. Ohhhh...wait I remember that nevermind."

⋆ He probably watched the Destined One get his ass beat and laughed about it. No, I don't know why either, he just feels like the mean time.

⋆ Seeing him shirtless was genuinely hella funny so I'm just imagining this Nezha is just really sensitive. Like, you know how certain type of cloths or something makes you uncomfortable and want to tear your skin off? Yeah, something like that. Also Li Jing told him to wear a shirt so he's parading around shirtless out of pure spite.

⋆ In my head he either has a deep, manly ass voice or something out of a shoujo anime.

⋆ ......buffer than his siblings....

⋆ Hates men (this is a joke.)

⋆ The hairstyle and his cute face made every person Nezha met think he's a girl. I feel like that contributed heavily to him walking around like that because he can't stand the amount of people calling him a cute girl

[heyhoneyfox]

✨PJO/HOO characters playing Stardew Valley in no particular order✨

Leo: it's a miracle his game doesn't crash with how many mods he's put in. He has several completed saves, all on different farms with different spouses. If anyone needs tips on the game, they go to him because they just know he has it all memorized.

Nico: he has a shared save with Will. He avoids the mines and the desert casino at all costs. He's mainly here for the cutscenes, Krobus, and the junimos.

Will: he does all the mining for Nico. He enjoys the grind and he relates heavily to Harvey. Him and Nico argue about whether to get a dog or a cat on the farm.

Percy: I don't think even he knows what he's doing. He didn't know he needed to water his crops, he gifts people random things without meaning to, and he put sap in the luau pot because he forgot to bring an actual ingredient. BUT, he knows every way to piss off Lewis and he takes every opportunity he can to do so.

Annabeth: she plans her farm perfectly and beautifully. She stays in the mines until 1 a.m., she ignores every villager but Linus, and she gets to level 100 of the Skull Cavern within a week of unlocking it.

Piper: I bet she's absolutely in love with Emily. Her main goal is to save her from Clint, and she probably marries Emily on Clint's birthday to REALLY break his heart. Also she probably mastered combat before any other skill.

Frank and Hazel: doing them together because they're a perfect team. They have a shared save and they accidentally speed run the game. Within the first two years, they're married, they've completed the museum, they've finished the community centre and the movie theatre, they've unlocked ginger island, and they're best friends with all the townsfolk. They don't know how they did it, it just happened.

Jason: he does the joja route just for shits and giggles, then gets really sad about it and starts a new save where he does the community centre route and marries Penny.

Reyna: she plays surprisingly normally. Nice and slow moving, not doing anything terribly dramatic, just hanging out and growing her farm. She really likes the casual gameplay.

Grover: he just watches other people play. He feels like he wouldn't enjoy it, but he looks things up on the wiki for his friends while they're playing. He knows all the lore just from the wiki and watching others play.

Thalia: honestly she'd probably use the game to live out all the romance she didn't get to experience, just for fun. She'd date all the bachelorettes at once but end up rooming with Krobus because she couldn't bring herself to choose. She'd also loooove fucking with Lewis tbh

[chambersoflight]

Nero DMC4 rewrite!!

When i first watched the cutscenes for Dmc4, we had a slight dislike for Nero. Which was mostly based on the fact that he feels a lot like another Dante and didn't really fit the Games premise. I couldn't wrap my head around the fact this kid with a demon arm and white hair came around and they were like "oh yes your allowed into this church" yes. He fights demons (which could be them using him as a knight) in the beginning yes he hides it in a cast but come on. He couldn't have been doing that forever so We came up with a worse idea. (This ofc isnt hate on og Nero he has slightly grown on me as a charachter but this is just a 'darker' take on it if you wanne be edgy)

A Child washes up on the lake behind The Order of the Sword, Where Sanctus finds him, crying, blood flowing from his tiny body.

Similar to stories of the Messiah, they take him in and take in account his impressing healing abilities. 5 sisters are assigned to raise him while they pledge they know of their new savior, but that he must be hidden away from the public eye. Praising the heavens and the Father for this gift of divine.Until around the age of 7. The child's arm begins to grow dark blue unnatural veins starting at the finger tips, morphing into sharp claws and glowing tendons. It's then they realize the full demonic power of the boy, his arm glows and holds power inhuman, sharp razor teeth (that has something to do with my redesign of all the sparda family in general). Thinking he may have been cursed by some unholy force, they baptize him repeatedly, every day for hours. Praying over him, doing everything in the highest power they can to try and reverse the curse he's obtained. As we know though it's not a curse, and the veins continued to spread until his entire arm glowed blue. The boy was claimed to be under demonic possession. In attempts to 'exorcise' him, they cut off his demonic arm and hurt him, refusing to give him real treatment, only patching both of his eyes and arm stump with dirty bandages never to be cleaned orLike goblin children usually do behind the backs of the harsh sisters, they ridiculed him at any chance. Calling him the antichrist, throwing rocks at him and even as he grew older, Credo used him at training practice. But by the second his senses became stronger, even if he couldn't see he started becoming more sensible to noise. The feeling of sword swings, steps. As more time passes and he isn't removed like they said he would be, he's able to detect movements of meters away based on vibration. He grows to adapt to fighting styles and learns to fight back. redone, blinding him. To keep him away from people, he must be even more isolated. So they did the most rational thing and chained him behind the Main Sparda statue, guarded by gates and hidden from the public eye still.(The thing with the Order of the Sword here is that they don't worship Sparda directly, they use him as a symbol of overcoming sin but they still worship God and condemn demons.)Sanctus baptized the rest of the children they took in and the idea of not being around him was branded into their minds. But that didn't stop them.

[loquaciousquark]

greetings from a fellow skeleton cultist i mean mourn watcher! i'm (very slowly) watching your DAV archive as time allows, but i'm so eager to learn more about your crypt baby. how did Kata end up in the necropolis as a baby? did she have a special area of study or particular passion? how did being a non-mage in a necromancer order impact her? i'm just making all the grabby hands, basically, i love learning about peoples' Ingellvars.

—girlwonderers

Do you know, I had no idea that it was weird to play a non-mage Mourn Watcher until @jadesabre301 was watching me do character creation, and she was like, "a rogue Mourn Watcher? What—how does that even work?" And then it became a personal challenge to figure that out, nyeh. (I also have sooo many screenshots of Kata I need to share, but that'll be separate!) Just one for now!

I also (because this is the way I play RPGs) am only just now getting her into a coherent shape now that I've finished the game. My PCs are always such blank blocks of marble when they start; I don't really know who they are until the details of the narrative shape them, and then I work backwards from there to figure out what kind of person would have made this or that choice, and then what events in their past might have contributed to that personality. Here's what I know so far!

Kata is short for Katakombe, which is where they found her

bright and bouncy personality, very cavalier, very lighthearted

I like to think she made a joke when she met Varric that reminded him so much of Hawke that he just had to take her under his wing

always a little sleepy (got them heavy-lidded eyes)

have also just had the thought that she cat-naps everywhere and anywhere she can as a result, which I think is another cute contrast to Lucanis, I'm running with this

the word I leaned into during CC was "gaunt," though she fills out a little in armor

by complete accident, she is also max height for a human female, so.....a real string bean I guess

pretty blase about threats to her life but deeply intimidated by powerful women (Adahla, Ghilan'nain, Myrna, Taash in that first "smell" cutscene before they come out)

comes off as pretty dumb & spacey on first impression, had a hard time making friends as a kid

does think everyone thinks she's dumb, questions it herself occasionally (she's not dumb though! she just doesn't know it!!)

is convinced Myrna hates her as a result, though Myrna actually likes her just fine & has pleasant chats about her with Vorgoth after she leaves

was devastated to leave the Mourn Watch but adored Varric; she really thrived with him & blossomed from a competent rogue to an excellent one

I think Varric was the first person in her life to really see who she was & could be, and she loved him for that

I think she was found a little older than a baby (maybe early toddler? don't ask me how she stayed alive between baby>then, I don't know yet) and Vorgoth basically raised her; even when she had that "roaming the streets of Nevarra" phase, Vorgoth was Dad

navigated the Necropolis very easily all her life as a result, and was recognized for that skill early on; when she didn't end up a mage, she was still useful in their protection/potential combat situations, so would often go out as a bodyguard-type detail once she got through school—I think this is why she stuck around as long as she did

(gets lost constantly in Lucanis's mansions as a result; she's not used to the labyrinth not helping her)

still didn't have many deep friendships, though—while she wasn't bullied, she never quite made the same connections as everyone else, so she also spent a LOT of time in the gardens & with wisps & became quite good at those

has some musical knowledge and was in the Necropolis orphaned children's choir, which was guest-conducted once by Emmrich

had a handful of flings, all pretty superficial summer romances

I think she's actually quite good at meditation/rituals/forcefully clearing her mind when she wants to, even though she's otherwise impatient and restless. I think she initially clung to rituals as a method of ensuring social acceptance (if I'm doing this ritual right & with all the other kids, then I'm not doing Something Wrong and I won't be shunned), and over time she grew to enjoy them for their own sake

Andrastian but weird about it (no burning, freakishly into reliquaries, looooves the old High Church stuff where all the architecture is made out of a million bones), idolizes Divine Cassandra

has never asked "why" in her life—has absolutely zero interest in wondering why things are the way they are (a major and hilarious source of friction with Solas)

may or may not be a trifle clumsy when she's not paying attention

has a very high tolerance for the monstrous, which is why she likes Solas (sometimes)

my gosh this list got long when I wasn't looking, I know more than I thought!

Now, for your actual questions—these I'm not as sure of, tragically! I don't know anything about her parents yet (aside from the fact she's extremely jealous of Emmrich), but I'm toying with the idea of one of them being an elf. I originally thought she was pretty mundane and nonmagical, but a few of the banters/lines she gave throughout the game (I suspect with the writers anticipating the MW would be a mage) make me think she might have a tiny ounce of latent magic somewhere. Not enough to do anything deliberate, but maybe enough to make the Necropolis like her and the undead's bones hang together a bit better when she's around. That kind of thing!

(I also have an image in my head of her gently kissing the forehead of an upset undead child in the Necropolis, so maybe she worked some with them? Does the Necropolis have undead after-school programs?)

I do think she was quite good at her schoolwork, mostly; she's excellent when she's set to a task & she has a high tolerance for tedium if she's convinced it's worth the effort. I do think there were some history classes she absolutely blew off & flunked, but then later meeting some of those people in the Necropolis spurred her interest & she went back and learned EVERYTHING about them, which really annoyed her professors. "I tried to tell you this was important the first time? Why didn't you listen?? No, 'because I didn't care about it then' isn't a good answer!"

That said, I do think excellence in its own right is important to her (within a narrow scope), and she really treasured her time with Varric teaching her how to be a better rogue. His approval was super important, and the endgame sequence ran her over like a truck.

Anyway, this has already run away from me again; I'll have to make a separate post about my musings on her relationship with Lucanis and how it ends up where it does. Thank you SO MUCH for letting me talk about my girl—I'm incredibly fond of her, and I'm so excited to dig into the rest of her on this next run! <3 <3 <3

[descendant-of-truth]

I think the reputation Kingdom Hearts has is a prime example of something I've been thinking about recently, which is: if you go into a piece of media without taking it seriously from the get-go, any of its attempts to be serious will come across as funny.

Let's be real, KH is viewed by the general public as a bit silly, right? Like, you're telling me there's an RPG series where you play as an anime boy but your party members are Goofy and Donald Freakin' Duck? And it's filled with complicated plotlines about clones and hearts and time travel?

The crux of what makes people not take the game seriously is the fact that it's a Disney game that wants to be taken seriously. Those two things combined instinctively make people want to laugh at it; after all, Disney is just kids' stuff, it's not meant to be taken that seriously. Even if you're a fan of Disney, it's so inherently different from something like Final Fantasy that the tonal clash alone creates a certain expectation.

That expectation being: this is going to be stupid, and funny because it's stupid. The same level of joke as making cute characters swear or use guns, I think.

Kingdom Hearts is, of course, a lot more sincere than that. But if you're not willing to meet it halfway, then its sincerity becomes the joke.

Of course, even KH fans like to laugh at how the dialogue reads when it's taken out of context, which takes me to something I've actually wanted to talk about for a bit:

Data Sora: Mickey! It's Riku. They put bugs in him!

Make no mistake, I'm not saying people are wrong to joke about stuff like this. But the whiplash I felt at seeing this moment become a meme was kind of insane, because it genuinely never struck me as a funny thing to hear Sora say.

Using the term "bug" to refer to a computer bug felt completely natural, and it's a much more tangible term than "glitch" which brings to mind more like, environmental or physics-based glitches. Similar deal with the word "virus," even if that would've sounded cooler.

But either way, by this point in the story, they've been talking about bugs with complete seriousness for over an hour. They've been a corrupting force that you have to fight the whole game, and when Data Riku is injected with the stuff, he screams before freezing up and staring dead-eyed into space, as shown in that screenshot.

That's freaky! And a really scary thing for Sora to have to see happen to his best friend!

So him telling Mickey what happened in a panicked voice didn't even register as a line to take special note of, because why would it? What else was he supposed to say? I was way too invested and stressed out to care about what it would sound like out of context; I was IN the context! And the context had me on the edge of my seat!

This is the case with a lot of lines in this series that get paraded around as evidence that the writing in KH is sooo chaotic, so silly, so embarrassing, so cringe. I'm not saying that every line of dialogue comes across as totally natural, the series is capable of taking me out of the experience because of something being stilted or awkward. But rarely ever when it's trying to be sincere or dramatic.

Replica Riku: Because I'm you. Riku: No, I'M me. Replica Riku: "I'm me," he says.

This is another example. When I actually sit back and watch just that first bit of the cutscene, yeah, it sounds a little ridiculous. The back-and-forth happening here is just redundant enough to follow the "rule of threes" to comedy, so I get why people get a good chuckle out of it when it's isolated to just this.

It did not feel ridiculous after watching the series of harrowing events Replica Riku goes through before getting to that point. It certainly stops being ridiculous when he follows it up with this speech:

Replica Riku: Must be nice being real. A fake like me could never get away with saying that. That's right, I'm a phony, a fake! The way I look, the way I feel, everything I remember! And even this newfound power! I thought by finding some new strength, I could finally be someone - someone who's not at all you! But... nothing changes... I'm still just empty! Everything about me is borrowed. As long as you're around, I'll never be more than a shadow!

I bring this up to segue into another point: even KH's fans have a hard time moving past their perceptions of what it should be as a Respectable Video Game. Particularly whenever it does something that's just a little too weird, or lame, for the average mainstream.

Something like, oh I dunno... putting relevant story content on handhelds?

While this wasn't intentional, both of the examples I've used so far have come from games that were originally made for the Nintendo DS and GBA respectively. I just used screenshots from their Playstation versions because I like how their body language is animated in them.

(I also wasn't intending to make both examples about Riku, it just kind of happened)

But anyway, handheld games are also something that's generally considered to be "less legitimate" than their console counterparts. This isn't to say that handheld gaming isn't extremely popular in its own right, because it is! Series that stick to handhelds, like Pokemon, are loved for their portability.

But outside of some exceptions like Fire Emblem, if a series has games on both types of systems, the handheld ones will always be considered "less mainline" by default, regardless of what's actually in them. For an example of this, I would point to the Zelda series, and how little its handheld titles are talked about compared to its console releases. Furthermore, the Link's Awakening remake (while technically on a handheld-console hybrid) decided to ditch the pixel art in favor of going full 3D, which showcases a slightly different but related stigma.

So what happens when Kingdom Hearts, a game that debuted in 3D on a home console, starts putting the majority of its story onto handhelds?

Well, a massive chunk of the fanbase starts calling them "spinoffs," of course! Even though the ratio of console releases to handheld ones literally looks like this:

(That's a 6:8 ratio, for reference, counting KH4 and Missing Link which haven't been released yet. It's even more slanted in the handheld's favor when you consider the short length of 0.2 and especially Melody of Memory in terms of story content)

And now we still have people talking about how we waited 13+ years for KH3 after KH2, as if nothing really important happened in between those two games, or as if a game arbitrarily having a number 3 on it is going to make it more important than everything else. And this is said by people who DO CARE about the games that were released during that time! What is happening!!

People loooove to act like you can skip over games like Coded or Union Cross and they especially love to complain that a series like this would even consider putting story content on a phone. And in such a cute art style?? A cute 2D art style??? How in the wORLD am I supposed to take something sEriOUsLY when it's on... the most accessible gaming device out there??? For free?????

(I'm willing to bet that some people will be slightly more inclined to play Missing Link because it's in 3D, but most are definitely going to just be asking "why isn't this on consoles" as if the story isn't intertwined with the gameplay format they chose at all)

And so we run into the same problem as the people who haven't even played the games: dismissing something as not really worth investing their time into based on surface-level judgements. Because even if you're down with KH's brand of storytelling, there are other barriers you could have to the series that it will repeatedly ask you to lower, and you might not be willing to.

Kingdom Hearts is a series that demands you get over your biases about what counts as real art to be taken seriously, or it WILL leave you behind in the narrative. Don't want to play a phone game? Don't want to even look up the story on YouTube? Too bad, it's required reading for the next ~Numbered Title~ that you respect so much. Good luck being confused the whole time.

Don't want to play a DS game? And you won't even watch the condensed movie version that we put in our Respectable Console Collection? Okay, but don't come crying to us when its recurring narrative themes seem like they came out of nowhere later on.

This is a series that does not have spinoffs, and trying to explain that to someone who hasn't played it makes it sound absurd. "The mobile games are important?" a non-fan asks, laughing at the concept. "Yeah, it's pretty stupid," the fan responds with a laugh of their own, because even after everything, how can they really engage with this story on its own terms when it makes such silly decisions? When it has such cringey titles? When it's so embarrassing to like?

I think I might've strayed a bit from the initial thesis statement of this post, but my point is that Kingdom Hearts exposes a lot of elitism in people regarding games and art. It pushes the limits of what it can expect its audience to take seriously, delivering purposeful, engaging storytelling no matter if it's 2D or 3D, a Triple-A Video Game on your Playstation console or a free-to-play phone game. Which makes it pretty darn neat, I'd say.

And also sometimes I get thrown off by what becomes a meme, because I get so invested in the story that I forget things can be funny out of context

[magical-illune]

I just beat Kirby's Return to Dream Land (Deluxe) for the first time, and damn

DAMN

That felt GREAT!

I'd like to talk about my experience with the endgame, if you don't mind...

The day before, I'd gotten quite frustrated with the long, challenging levels in the final world. It really was a Dangerous Dinner! I got all three done, but I was mad at myself for once again having to skip a dimensional rift segment and just for struggling so much in general. Everyone says Kirby games are easy -- baby games, even -- but I can still have a hard time with them. Actually, Kirby games' so-called easiness make them the only platformers I can actually beat by myself. My reflexes and hand-eye coordination are absolute shit. I struggle with pretty much any game that involved dodging or the like, I knock things over and drop things and bump into everything all the time, I make so many typos whether I'm using a phone or an actual keyboard... As a wee child, I had to go to physical therapy to, among other things, learn how to button a shirt...

Look, what I'm saying is that I'm really, REALLY bad at platformers, and I adore Kirby games for being platformers I know I can play. But I was just so frustrated at myself for being bad at a "baby game" that I didn't take on the boss that day.

Today, I woke up feeling much better, and earlier this afternoon, I picked up my Switch, determined to beat the final boss.

(as a note, I didn't have the Helper Magolor thing on, I never have, but I do like to take a souvenir energy drink with me into every level)

First, I took on Landia with the Wing ability. I love Wing, so that was great right off the bat. And Landia would split into four, giving me more targets, so thank you, Landia! I beat it my second try, with a shred of health left. Instead of a triumphant jingle, a dance, Kirby just stood there, and Landia lay motionless on the ground as the screen faded to black.

And as I watched the following cutscene, something occurred to me: Kirby gained nothing from either of the Halcandra boss battles. There was no ship part to be taken -- the bosses were just in the way of Magolor's plans (and, well, attacking us lol). And on that note, Kirby and his friends never really got anything out of beating the five bosses on Popstar, either. We were just helping Magolor fix his ship. We went through level after level and ran through collapsing dimensional rifts and fell into pits and were crushed by walls and swallowed by giant eels while frantically swimming away from giant floaty spike balls and died and died and died all to help Magolor, and how did he repay us? By turning on us, vowing to conquer our home!

I thought about this as I did that awesome Another Dimension shooter bit. I love shooter segments, so it really pumped me up for the final fight! And by the time I'd reached Magolor himself, I was out for blood.

It took me two tries, but I kicked his ass in the end, and it felt incredible.

Take that, Magolor! With the power of friendship, this spear I found, and lots and lots of violence, I have defeated you and saved Planet Popstar!

I know this post was all over the place, but I just wanted to say what a wonderful time I had with this game, even when I was frustrated. I love Kirby games so much :D

Now I'm so psyched for the Magolor Epilogue!!

[just-a-carrot]

random off-the-cuff curiosity post

but I was wondering if OW ever made you cry? and if so, what parts

I was thinking about myself, even as the creator there's a few parts that still make me cry, some that did even while I was working on them and some that only have started hitting me later:

the final wish of arc 1; I didn't cry at all working on this part, perhaps because it took me forever to finish the final arc 1 cutscenes and I was exhausted, but every time I've watched someone stream the game I've started crying at this part...

the bedroom scene of arc 2; this was the first real moment of catharsis I had while working on the game...I cried a bit while working on it

genzou's death in arc 4; I still sob at this, both on my own and when watching others play it

the orlam and Genzou cutscene in arc 5; I actively cried while working on it once I reached the pivotal parts, the song itself can still make my eyes well up

the bucks and hunar cutscene in the finale; the song in particular

the freaking my choice part in the finale GOD this was the hardest part of the game for me to work on I had to take breaks because I would cry while trying to time the images to the song

the final cutscene towards the end sob especially when all the wishes start floating out...

those are the scenes I can think of personally... but curious if there were any other scenes or something that hit ppl. like if the ones that hit others are different from me as the creator somehow I'm curious ig fhfhd

anyway if anything else this post was just to confess my weepy scenes 🤣

[charlie-pippin-faraday]

My danganronpa v3 chapter 6 running commentary:

"MY NAME IS MAKOTO??????"

excuse me you black-haired bitch you're not makoto naegi

bro what the HELL was going on in that cutscene i'm so confused

"if my actions result in your deaths so be it" nah there's something wrong here, that doesn't sound like that keebo i know

keebo's protecting us he's stalling keebo i love you i love you so much

guys i gotta level up my FRIENDSHIP POINTS to move ROCKS

ah shit fam we finally found kokichi's lab. it looks like a door from fallout in a literal tunnel underground lol

kokichi wants to be a batman villain so bad

is kokichi actually the ultimate improv comedian or something what is this

what is the "inconsistency" in the hope's peak academy book that shuichi pointed out but won't tell me? come on now don't leave me hanging. is it that makoto established the academy for normies actually? or is it something to do with the secret DR2 killing game?

i'm not wrong about either of those facts, am i? am i misremembering? didn't makoto say in i think the anime that he wanted to establish the new hope's peak for everyone and not just ultimates? and weren't the events of jabberwock island kept a secret from the general public? the fact that he was trying to rehab the remnants of despair in the neo world program was supposed to be a secret, right? to protect them?? am i wrong about that??

that flashback light only had me more confused

woah you can go outside and watch an action sequence of keebo fighting an exisal that's fucking sick

kokichi has the wax figure of rantaro?? just strung up by his bed?? what the????

oh THAT'S where the caged child document went!

so he really WAS the leader of the ultimate improv comedy group

i bet they do flash mobs

i think a more accurate title for him would be "ultimate little shit"

obsessed with the whiteboard in his room with all our pictures on it. he wrote who murdered whom, then wrote "suspicious" by maki, "weird" by keebo, "trustworthy?" by me, and "annoying" by the monokubs lol

REAL makoto naegi??? in the flashback flesh???

hell yeah we're FINALLY going to rantaro's lab!

...now that i'm in here i instantly regret it i don't like it in here

how did kokichi know about the vaults in rantaro's lab early enough to leave those notes? did HE even leave those notes? and WHY do the vaults have a monokuma USB in them?

is it gonna have that message from rantaro that we saw in a cutscene earlier?

ha i knew it

ultimate survivor? maybe himiko wasn't joking when she said maybe he went on a bunch of game shows lol. get this man to CBS

"i never imagined rantaro the first victim would come up again like this" i mean, *i* could! at least i was hoping. there were way too many unanswered questions about him

the voice of one of these unnamed classmates in this flashback sounds SUSPICIOUSLY like bryce papenbrook. i've learned never to take his presence lightly in these games

cold sleep room?!

aw hey the whole gang back together in the flashback! man it's been awhile since i've seen some of these people

i'm sorry, kaede has a TWIN??????

bro this game actually game overed me because i spent too much time clicking on people to talk to. I WAS TRYING TO BE THOROUGH IN MY INVESTIGATION!!!!!!! i didn't think it would do that to me, i just thought the time limit would be done once i'd completed everything. ffs

...motherkuma?

oh the mastermind just be making flashback lights to include whatever memories they choose? so yeah they all have to be COMPLETE crap

if himiko suddenly reappeared and is once again being super unhelpful about how she escaped the sealed hidden room, i'm guessing that means there's another door to that room

oh shit fam a hidden passage in the girl's bathroom? hm

hey they repaired keebo's ahoge! which was the key to his inner voice clearly

ha i knew those "small bugs" were actually cameras of a sort

"i'll hit them with my 'all your relationships will end up being love triangles' curse!" damn himiko that's cold. i feel like a remnant of despair would enjoy that tho

you know, if you'd asked me to predict who my final group would be, i NEVER would have guessed himiko and tsumugi. maki absolutely, keebo maybe, but never those two. this is such an odd grouping to be the final one

wait how the fuck do you know about jabberwock island, shuichi? or was that less secret than i thought?

i need to know more about this "previous game" rantaro survived

god how i fucking WISH rantaro was the ultimate game show host that would be so funny

your honor my girlfriend kaede was innocent!!!!!!!

are you telling me that the throwaway joke the game grumps made about the shot put ball landing right next to rantaro and not actually hitting him is what ACTUALLY happened???

i knew everyone kind of brushing off that tsumugi went to the bathroom back in chapter 1 was odd

we're doing a closing argument now? we haven't even hit intermission. i assume part 2 of this trial is just gonna be off the rails then

they're literally all begging tsumugi to tell them she's not the mastermind but she can't do it

dude if kokichi were here he would be tearing her apart verbally

junko the 53rd?! new ultimate despair?

is tsumugi just doing a REALLY effective cosplay rn?

they all keep trying to tell me that kokichi was a remnant of despair but i don't believe he was

don't tell me that makoto went back on his promise to have hope's peak be for normies

i like to believe that toko wrote this book

yeah i knew all those memories were fake as shit. we're in like a hunger games arena i'm calling it now

lol they weren't even hope's peak students? i'm willing to be they're not even ultimates at all, and not a single one of their backstories is real

i like to imagine everyone who's died so far is watching this from another room like everyone eliminated from a season of the bachelor or survivor watching the finale episode

the ONLY piece of evidence leading me to believe anything told to us might've been even remotely real is kaito's strange illness. other than that, i'm fairly certain every single thing told to us about the backstory and the outside world is fake. i bet there is no gofer project, there were no meteorites, there is no disease

what the- HAJIME?????

mahiru? okay this is starting to get a little batshit. felt some whiplash when she turned into hiro and then soda

hey don't you DARE turn into makoto naegi that feels disrespectful

bro does this take place in a different universe from the other two games???

this is getting way too meta

i have no idea where this goes from here if this isn't in the same universe as the other games

wait are we actually in a time loop of sorts, like i'd predicted awhile back?

oh dude i just noticed there are little "V"s and "3"s in the eyes when tsumugi is cosplaying

is this girl really blaming her actions on ~society~?

bro this is getting WAY too meta. like, past the point of being fun

shuichi just shouting at them to shut up is my mood rn

is this a roundabout way of saying they're all quote-unquote actors?

damn even that illness was fake huh

bro not her actually becoming soda to make the tenko comparison 😂

guys i'm not really sure what to make of this. idk where to go from here

like i genuinely feel like a bucket of cold water was just poured on me. like. what the fuck is this

guys i'm gonna be real: this fucking sucks. i've never been a fan of "it was a dream this whole time and none of it mattered or was real" storylines. it's lazy writing. and i really feel it here

bro i got the BAD END??

...or maybe not?

oh my god is keebo gonna be my actual savior??

i knew keebo was the only bitch around here i could trust

hang on am i playing as keebo now?? it's my dream. he had an ahoge for a reason! the TRUE true protagonist! this game is starting to redeem itself

lol of course that was an antenna. and he was basically the first person camera for the audience? interesting

you know this means in the final chapter the audience wasn't watching the rest of us running around finding clues for the situation, they were watching keebo fight exisals lol

ULTIMATE HOPE ROBOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

there's always an ultimate hope at the end of these. and it's very interesting that unlike the other games, they didn't have it be the character i was controlling for a majority of the game. and tbh i think that was the correct choice. shuichi you're great and your heart's in the right place but you're not the ultimate hope lol

oh this is now a battle to save keebo's life???????? oh i am putting my ALL into this

the fuck kind of rules are these? even if we win we gotta sacrifice two of us? huh?

speaking of, what happened to the 11 other people in this game? are they actually dead? or not? that feels very unclear now

i gotta fight shuichi in verbal sword battle? i gotta fight essentially myself?

i was never good at the sword minigames i could never figure out the best way to control it

oh man that poor boy is just so clinically depressed

and the fact that we had that sword fight to clair de lune...oh man

shuichi i am unsure about this logic of yours

oh am i shuichi again now?

yes shuichi we stan a weak king

tsumugi don't you dare talk as makoto you're making a mockery of everything he stood for

wait now i get to be himiko too? i better get a turn as maki by the end of this

oh thank god i do

thank goodness i didn't enable the "more time" skill

did they fry keebo?????????? unforgiveable unforgiveable UNFORGIVEABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh my god they took him over i hate this. let me go back to playing as keebo again

THEY ERASED HIS PERSONALITY??????? i'm never forgiving this game. this last chapter is like the finale of how i met your mother

at least he came back to say goodbye 😭

I CAN'T BELIEVE I GOT THIS FAR AND THEY FUCKING TOOK KEEBO FROM ME NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

can't believe i had to fight keebo and not tsumugi in the final battle

"we're friends, aren't we?" oh shut the fuck UP, tsumugi

no votes? thanks keebs

keebo fucking razing the place to the ground and executing everyone else in the process was NOT how i expected this game to end

oh shit they pulled a fast one on me with this epilogue - shuichi and maki and himiko lived?!? damn

they've made it unclear whether or not this is ACTUALLY in the same world as makoto and friends ughhh

i hate that they ripped keebo from me at the last second. they erased his personality and made him self-destruct. he was the hero but at what cost. this is a personal betrayal

could they rebuild him? maybe? all i want is a reunion with keebo and the survivors (VERY small survivor pool this time btw)

i'm going to be thinking about keebo nonstop for days fyi

guys, i gotta be real with you. this was the most unsatisfying horseshit. it felt like nothing mattered, and honestly it felt like they were making a mockery of us for enjoying the previous games and content. i didn't like it. and honestly it felt...lazy? like i had been speculating so much about how this would connect with the rest of the danganronpa plot and how this would build upon the already established story and characters. like you should've seen the theories i had in my head (one of my best ones: tsumugi was a rogue hope's peak student who idolized junko and wanted to do a killing game in her honor. keebo was a plant from makoto and the future foundation/academy to guide the others and eventually help lead to their rescue - that would've been a great plotline tbh). but no, none of that happened, it didn't build on the story, it didn't add to it, it wasn't part of the same story. it was just............nothing. it didn't lead anywhere, it didn't build up to anything. it just went nowhere and did nothing, it wasn't connected. it felt like all the investigating i did to find out the truth was a waste of time, and all the plot twists and turns that happened and all the choices the characters made had no fucking payoff. it was so frustrating. there are so many creative choices they could've made to build on the story in the danganronpa world but...that meta bullshit was not it.

in other news, i have already started writing a fanfiction: an alternate version of v3 that actually takes place in-universe, therefore making all the games connected! and i think what i've thought up is pretty good, ngl. it might be related to that theory i mentioned above. if you're interested in reading, lmk and i'll work to write it faster!

and thus officially concludes my v3 gameplay commentary! i might post here and there about my experiences in the bonus modes as i do them