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differenteagletragedy · 2 years ago

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Two times you almost slept with Baxter and one time you did (hey-o)

Takes place during Step 3. As a Very Normal Person who thinks about this game in a normal way, I have been torn about how intimate MC and Baxter get if you do the romance route with him. Because our guy is such a flirt, but then no follow through? Suspicious.

So here's a possible scenario for all of that. Definitely not smut, but it's a little spicy!

The first time it almost happened was in Baxter's condo on a random Wednesday afternoon. You didn't have to work, Cove did and Baxter was, as he always liked to remind you, flexible, so you were sitting together on his couch, watching a movie.

The thing was that you'd never watched a movie with Baxter before, so you didn't know how bad he was at it. He was more concerned with making a cute little commentary than following the plot, and while it was cute -- it was Baxter, after all -- at a certain point you didn't know what was going on.

So you chose to pass the time in a different way.

Right after he cracked another lame joke and turned to give you a smirk, you met his lips with a kiss instead. It took him a moment to react as it usually did when you kissed him, but he got the hang of it before too long.

It started out a little slow and awkward -- you hadn't had had too many long kisses at this point, mostly more chaste pecks here and there -- but soon it was a full blown makeout session. You slipped your fingers through his hair and you felt a little sigh against your mouth. He was having fun.

Things got more intense, and you suddenly found his hand on the back of your thigh. Before you could say anything, he gripped it firmly and pulled you up so you were straddling his lap.

"This is new," you said, looking down at him nervously.

"It is," he agreed, the normal bravado in his voice replaced by a sort of excited uncertainty. "Is this all right?"

In response, you kissed him again and settled into the position. This way, you could feel just how much fun he was having. It was exciting.

Feeling a wave of boldness, you leaned back and took your shirt off. He gazed at your body openly, and with a tenderness you weren't expecting, his raised his hands off your hips to stroke your back.

You let out a low moan, and there it was -- that smirk that had been missing. Still with the same gentleness as before, he started placing soft kisses along your collarbone, moving lower down your chest.

While his mouth and hands were occupied elsewhere, you made quick work of the buttons of his shirt, and soon you slipped it off his shoulders and threw it behind you, then went in for another kiss, pressing your skin together.

After a nice little while of this, he leaned back again and found your eyes.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yes," you told him plainly, not leaving anything up for interpretation.

You kissed for a while longer, then you felt his hand on your stomach. He held it there for just a moment, then started moving it lower. You felt his fingers move between the waistband of your shorts and your skin, and they worked their way lower and lower ...

All at once, you felt his body tense under yours, and he snatched his hand back like he'd been burnt. He gripped your shoulders and guided you off of him so you were sitting by his side again.

"Perhaps we should slow it down a bit, don't you agree?" he asked, an unmistakable shakiness to his voice.

"Sure, if that's what you want."

You both silently found the clothing you'd lost then started watching the movie again. He didn't have any cute comments this time around.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The second time was in your room. Your moms and Liz were out for the day, so you had the place to yourself. You'd been texting Baxter, spending a lazy day in your room, before finally just asking him to come over and hang out.

He'd only been in your room once or twice before, and he treated it like a museum exhibit. He was studying you.

"What's this?" he asked, pointing to a shelf.

He'd spotted your seashell collection, and you told him as much.

"I used to know all the scientific names and everything," you said, moving to stand beside him so you could look at your little display.

"Used to?" he questioned, cocking an eyebrow.

"Used to and still can," you corrected yourself, laughing.

"Tell me about them?"

You laughed more, then snuck a glance at him. He was smiling too, but it was a sincere request. So you did.

You told him not only the scientific facts you knew about your shells, but the memories you had of when you'd found them. You showed him the big orange one you'd found with Liz when you were little, and the pretty little pink one you and Cove had come across after he'd moved to town.

Maybe it was your impressive show of knowledge, or maybe the fondness in your voice as you spoke about all these people and places and things that were important to you, or maybe it was just that you cared enough to share any of it with him, but when you were done he wrapped his arms around you tightly and buried his face in the crook between your neck and shoulder.

You held him back, and then his lips found yours.

Usually you were the one who took the initiative for any sort of physical affection, but this time he led you to your bed, and you felt almost a sort of neediness in how he moved against you. After the back of your knees bumped against your mattress, he laid you down and climbed on top of you, situating his body between your legs and lowering himself to kiss you again.

This time, he let himself explore your body with his hands, and you gladly let him. Your shirts ended up tossed aside again, but this time he took your shorts off, too. Whether it was on your mouth, your neck, your chest or, for a few tantalizing moments, even lower, his never let his lips leave you for long.

It felt like he was desperate to be as close to you as he possibly could. Which was fine -- you were desperate too.

He looped his thumbs under the sides of your underwear, bunching them up in his hands and landing a kiss on your hip. You shuddered and moaned, saying his name, and that seemed to break whatever spell he'd let himself fall under.

Baxter sat up on his knees and looked off to the side, a mix of emotions clear on his face. You couldn't pick them all out, but you could tell he was cutting your encounter short again.

"What's wrong?" you asked.

"Nothing," he said quickly. "It just seems like maybe this isn't the best venue for ... this," he gestured to your partially unclothed bodies.

"Nobody's going to be home for a while," you assured him. You grabbed his hands and tried to guide him back down to you, but he kissed yours and let them go. He climbed gracefully over your leg and sat beside you on your bed.

"Perhaps we --" he began, but you cut him off.

"Perhaps you can tell me why you're doing this again."

He finally met your eyes. He looked confused.

"This time and before, at your place," you told him. "We started fooling around and you stopped it both times. I thought you just weren't ready the first time, but this time you started it and then ... I don't get it. Is it something I'm doing?"

"No, not at all," he said, moving closer to you. You were upset, and he didn't like that it was because of something he'd done. "You're doing everything perfectly. Don't worry about that, please."

"Then what?"

He considered things for a moment, then looked at you again. Before he began speaking, he laid down beside you and placed a careful arm around you.

"It's just that I so deeply don't want you to regret this," Baxter said softly, absentmindedly making shapes with his fingers on your side. "Any of this. We haven't known each other for very long, and it won't be very much longer before I'm gone. I don't want you to move too quickly and then look back on our summer together and wish you'd done things differently. I'm afraid that would break my heart."

He didn't look at you through any of this, but when he was done he glanced up and gave you a tight smile.

"I wouldn't," you said firmly. "i won't. I promise."

You could tell that he wasn't convinced, but at least he let himself stay there with you like that for a while. He kept stroking idly along your stomach, moving his head to rest on your shoulder. Eventually you both fell asleep.

It wasn't the sort of intimacy you'd thought you'd get, but it certainly wasn't unwelcome.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The third time ... well, as they say, the third time's the charm.

It was nearly the end of summer, about a week after Miranda's birthday party and your impromptu Summer Soiree. You hadn't been able to stop thinking about how sweet Baxter's reaction to the whole thing was or how much he'd loved being able to have a proper dance, so you'd decided to set up another little party for him.

This time, the guest list was even smaller.

You'd asked Baxter if he could hang out that night, and he agreed -- he always put you above any and all other plans, and you knew it. So you gathered some supplies from your house and headed down to the beach.

As the sun set, you laid out a blanket on the sand, then pulled out your phone and set up a little speaker that went with it. You had a few candles you'd swiped from around the house that you lit, hoping the wind wouldn't blow them out at least until Baxter got the full effect. You'd also brought some snacks that you placed on the blanket as well, but you were pretty sure you knew what he would want to do when he got there.

And you were right.

You sent a text, asking Baxter to meet you at the beach, and he promptly let you know he was on his way. Then you pulled up a playlist you'd compiled -- some more traditional ballroom dancing tunes and some slow songs you just liked -- and began playing it. The sound quality wasn't great, but you didn't think it would matter. You smoothed out your clothes, a little fancier than what you'd normally wear here, and waited.

When you saw him approaching, you smiled at him. He paused, taking it all in, then gave you what may have been the most tender look you'd ever seen a person make.

"What's all this?" he asked when he got to you.

"Summer Soiree, Part Two, The Reckoning," you answered, gesturing to your little spread. His face was filled with wonder at the scene, and when you held your hand up in a wordless invitation to dance, he positively beamed.

You danced together as the moon appeared over the water. He held you close, your hand in his clasped firmly to his chest. You stayed like that for a while, swaying back and forth in a cozy little silence, before Baxter spoke.

"I'm not quite sure what I did to deserve such a marvelous dance partner this summer, but sincerely, thank you for this. It means a great deal, more than I can say," he said.

"You're worth it," you told him. You moved your hand off his shoulder to ruffle his hair, and he nearly purred.

"I won't forget a moment of this, any of this," he went on. "When I'm old and grey -- properly grey -- I'll look back on the summer I spent in Sunset Bird with the utmost fondness." He paused, looking at you deeply, and added, "I won't forget you. Not ever."

You rolled your eyes affectionately at the monochrome joke, then said, "Of course you won't forget me. How could you?"

You shared a smile, then you leaned in for a kiss.

By that point in the summer, you knew that you liked Baxter, so much, and that you wanted him. It didn't matter that this was essentially a fling and that he would be leaving soon -- he was here now, and after all you'd shared with each other over the past few months, you wanted him to know that someone cared for him, that he could be appreciated and doted on and even loved. You wanted to show him.

"Can we go back to your place?" you asked, willing him to understand what you meant and to trust that you knew what was best for yourself.

He searched your eyes for a moment, and you didn't look away. He swallowed, then nodded.

You packed up your things together and he carried your bag as you walked back to the neighborhood hand in hand. When you made it through the doorway of his condo, he put your things down carefully, then turned to you.

Personally, you were done with being careful.

You crashed into him, pulling him around you, and after just a short moment of hesitation, he met your intensity. He kissed you hard, your teeth almost clanking together, but you didn't mind -- you wanted him to finally let loose.

And he did.

Both of you were down to your underwear by the time he'd led you to his bedroom, and before you got in bed, he'd removed the final layers. You were naked together for the first time, but you couldn't stop kissing each other to get a proper look.

"You're absolutely sure?" he asked breathlessly, forcing his hands to stop roaming you body until he could get your answer.

"Absolutely," you answered.

This time, that was enough for him.

You spent the night together, wrapped up in each other. Baxter was sometimes sweet and gentle, sometimes a bit rougher, but for once, all his hesitation was gone. He wanted you just as badly as you'd wanted him, and he finally let himself have you.

The next morning, you woke up before him -- no surprise there. He had firmly attached himself to you in his sleep, and you felt a bit of dampness by your head that you thought may have been drool, but you didn't care. Not when he looked so cute.

When he finally opened his eyes and saw you beside him, he grinned and snuggled up closer.

"Morning," he said, nearly slurring.

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?"

"Mmm," he hummed happily. He didn't want to greet the day just yet, and that was fine by you.

For the next little while, Baxter dozed next to you, sometimes waking up enough to have a bit of conversation before it fell off again. In the times when you heard a light snoring, you let your mind wander.

You knew he'd made it clear that this relationship was temporary -- that had been established time and time again. You didn't think last night had changed that, you had never lied when you told him that you understood, but as he slept naked beside you, you let yourself think that maybe whatever this was that you'd built this summer was strong enough to last.

Maybe not now, but that was ok. Maybe later, when you'd both solidly found your footing in the adult world. Maybe you could build a closer friendship while he was across the country in college, then you could come back together.

You resolved to talk to him about it when he woke up, but for now, you shut your eyes too and cuddled closer to him, content to laze away the morning in his arms.

#our life beginnings and always #olba #olba mc #our life #baxter ward #baxter x mc #olba baxter #baxter ward x reader #our life baxter #our life baxter ward #baxter x reader #baxter ward x you #baxter ward x mc #baxter x you #olba baxter ward

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gold-pavilion · 1 year ago

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Toman and Buddhism + Tenjiku and Taoism

Another post to cover references in Tokyo Revengers!

This time, I'll be covering the links to two religions to be found in two gangs in the series, reference by reference, with the according explanation of each.

Some of these may be already known, I know one of them sure is (the whole buddhist manji confusion thing yeah yeah) but still, for the sake of a tidy compilation and of providing more detail, I'll go through them too. Some others are a lot less noticed, like Tenjiku's lean towards Tao, so it'll be best to lay down eeeeeeverything I've caught during my time enjoying this series. Plus, I'm pretty excited to get some of those less-known facts out here!!

Warning though, it's lengthy.

Let's start with Tokyo Manji Gang:

- Firstly, the gang's name and how it's written.

Despite Mikey suggesting the name as a short form of Tokyo Manjiro Gang, putting himself front and center, the kanji that ended up forming the name of Tokyo Manji Gang show that it went in a different direction of meaning. The manji used for the middle part ended up not being the same one from the name Manjiro, but a manji written as 卍. Aloud it's read the same way (many, many, many kanji are homophones), but has a different meaning.

卍 (manji) is an extremely common buddhist symbol (not even limited to japanese buddhism, but in hinduism and other aligned east-asian religions too), which represents the path of Buddha and the endless cycle of rebirth through samsara; the pursuit of leading a more spiritually balanced existence until the soul can reach enlightenment. In other words, it's nothing but deeply buddhist.

(To answer a common question around it: can it be called a swastika? Yes. The symbol in general, with each of the million variations that have popped up in different cultures, can be called a swastika as a broad term. There are a fuckton of swastikas. They mean a fuckton of different things. The tilt and the direction in which this one "spins" makes it different from other swastikas though, and it's always best to be precise and call this one manji.)

Moving on,

- Reunion spot.

The Musashi Shrine (based, but not exactly taken from any of the real-life shrines and temples of similar name in Tokyo, as far as I know) is a shinto-buddhist temple. And, apparently, a place where the founders hung out from time to time, but I'll add to that later!!

It's cute to me that the Toman members seem to use the temple very respectfully. They always meet in it at night waaay after it's closed (daytime meetings have always taken place in different locations, never the temple during visiting hours), they've never once set foot even near the oratory/sanctum/other buildings, never been seen bringing the motorcycles anywhere they shouldn't, and the one time a character was seen using the public temizuya (the little stone fountain where visitors purify their hands and mouth), he was proper about it in terms of pouring water into his hand to rinse his mouth with, not getting the ladle or the rest of the water dirty, as one should always do.

A fun fact: in Google Maps, buddhist temples are marked with the manji symbol!

- Gang's manifesto.

Embroidered on the chest of the gang uniform, you can see the text 天上天下唯我独尊 ("Above the earth and below the heavens, I alone shall be honored"), which is the gang's manifesto or motto. Sounds just like something Mikey would choose, yeah.

That phrase is also of buddhist origin; famously, the words spoken by Buddha Gautama Siddharta (bear in mind that buddhism isn't a religion with one god or anything like that, anyone enlightened can become a Buddha and many figures have been granted that status, but Gautama is the first and main one, the creator of the doctrine) when he was born. To be honest, this is very much interpretative, but I've come to get the impression that it's not so much a power or ego statement, but rather an expression of cultivating and honoring yourself…? It's absolutely up to personal reading and I'm absolutely not an expert. But those are certainly THE Buddha's words.

- Ceremonial sash.

Another part of their uniform that bears a slight reference: the sash worn by the commander, vice-commander, captains and vice-captains during important fights.

These are tasuki, sashes originally worn by shinto-buddhist priests during ceremonies, in order to keep long sleeves and such in place. However, eventually, they also began being worn by samurai and all sorts of warriors, 'cause of their convenience. In modern times, they even started being used by just about anybody who wears traditional clothing but also does manual work and needs the sleeves out of the way. So it can be concluded that, over time, they stopped being strongly linked to religious practicers. In fact, even biker gangs in general ended up adopting the use of tasuki! Not for their religious origins, but for the warrior part; a bōsōzoku gang member wearing one would look very prepared and determined for a fight.

That's why overall, Tokyo Manji Gang having them is only a relative reference; they could be paying homage to their reference religion, as they could be only honoring gang traditions.

- Additional notes about the leader.

I feel it's important to add up all these little factors of Mikey's choosing, with other little details about him as a person that kinda make it all make sense.

If I say "Mikey seems to be religious, to an extent", I understand this can carry a bunch of tricky connotations. Japanese religion isn't exercised the same way it is in other places, someone being religious SURE AS HECK doesn't mean the same things it means in the christian west. Shinto-buddhism is so commonplace in Japan, most people partake in all kinds of religious practices without even thinking of them as strictly religious, such as new year's celebrations, casual prayer during shrine visits, purchasing and giving charms and such. Religion is integrated in life in a lot of extremely chill ways.

And we can observe a lot of things about Mikey that put him quite above the average in terms of his relationship with local tradition and religion. His house is a huge traditional-style family home, his family is hinted to be active in religious practice (remember Emma's appearances during the Christmas Showdown arc? How she mentioned that their family does a lot of temple visits, and even she considered it weird at that time of the year?), he's much more prone to wearing traditional clothing than his peers, his motif in extra clothing designs is the lion-dog (temple guardians; statues of these can often be found in them), his personal beliefs around death and relationship to the dead run deeper than others' to the point they find him disturbing when he talks about Shinichiro or Baji still being with him... many little things that aren't that deep on their own, of course, but when added up they paint a pretty coherent picture of the guy.

And so, it does make a lot of sense that, even from childhood, a temple was a regular place for Mikey to hang out with his friends, leading to the birth of Toman in one. And it makes a lot of sense that he made all those little choices about the way the gang would be styled. In my opinion, it's likely that those things just all came natural to him because they're a part of his background and worldview. Of course, how actively religious he is, how much he believes in the things he happens to know and how much exactly he might know about buddhism are all up to headcanoning and interpretation. Personally, I'm just a roleplayer that takes it as a relevant part of his character.

- Following a Buddha?

A little out-of-TR-universe element that I love to bring up, 'cause it's just hilarious and cool as hell, is the creation of this statue:

This part of the 2022 Tokyo Revengers exhibition straight up imitates the famous Reclining Buddha in the Wat Pho temple, Thailand.

The ENORMOUS statue depicts the moment Buddha reaches nirvana, and his enlightened soul is at rest. The golden Mikey statue that imitates it very much intentionally likens him to a Buddha; funny to note that the exhibition staff even prayed to the statue, as you can read in the tweet itself.

What does this mean about Mikey's character? Well, this isn't within text in Tokyo Revengers, just a little outside factor, so I wouldn't take it too literally or too seriously, but it's interesting nonetheless. Personally, I see it as a hint that Mikey was supposed to be on his own little quest to enlightenment, or had the potential to be. Grappling with morality without having a natural sense of what's right, wrong, too much or enough is a major thing with his character. I can also imagine it might just be meant to represent the godlike view others have of him, the guidance they sought from him. Take it as you will!

The important thing is just that it exists, to confirm that there is an intentional connection of some type between the Buddha and Mikey.

Thaaaaat concludes the Toman and Buddhism section of this post.

Whew!! That was a whole lot.

The Tenjiku and Taoism section coming now is shorter, but I'm sure it contains interesting and less-known things (at least, I've never seen anybody talk about these)!

So let's see, Tao references in Tenjiku:

- Gang name.

Tenjiku is a now-obsolete word that translated directly to "heaven", while simultaneously being the japanese word for the country India (as taken from the chinese pronunciation, Tianzhu).

In modern times, it can be found mostly in ancient literature, the most prominent example being Journey to the West. Given that Kakucho and Izana mentioned this book and seemed to have knowledge of it as kids, we can conclude that's where they got the name of their gang from.

Why would they use the word for India to name their kingdom? What does this have to do with Tao? I'll get into that properly now:

- Kakucho, Izana & Journey to the West.

Journey to the West is one of the four great chinese classic novels (along with Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Outlaws of the Marsh, and Dream of the Red Chamber) which are enormous, ENORMOUS influences on east-asian literature and fiction in general. Journey to the West, itself, is considered the most popular east-asian literary work overall; of course, being super well-known in Japan, too. (To give my favorite funny example of just how omnipresent it is, y'know Dragon Ball? Hit anime series Dragon Ball? Unabashedly based on Journey to the West, which was to thank for most of its initial local popularity.)

It's the story of the buddhist monk Tang Sanzang, who travels to Tenjiku, to India, to that certain heavenly kingdom, to obtain sacred texts for Buddha Gautama Siddharta (the guy I described as THE Buddha in the Tokyo Manji Gang section above). The quest doubles as a search and exercise of enlightenment, as Tang Sanzang is aided by three protectors that are atoning for their sins and learning from him. The main guardian and arguably the true protagonist of the book is Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, a fighter "so strong he could carry a mountain on each shoulder, and still dash as fast as a meteor". It's a huge, epic, 100-chapter monster of a book, in which each chapter is already a fantastic and entertaining anecdote about the characters or what happens in their travels, but also a long spiritual journey that pretty much serves to subtly teach the principles of Tao (term that can be translated to "the path", chinese religion and philosophy).

A tangent: let me just show you how large it is (and why I haven't been able to finish it, 'cause I cannot take this brick of a book anywhere lmaoooo).

(Cover says Journey to the West: The Adventures of the Monkey King. It's in spanish.)

My guess is that Izana and Kakucho studied about it or read some chapters in school, 'cause dang, there's no way they read all of this at that age?!?! BUT ANYWAY.

While there's obviously quite some buddhist influence in the story, most of what it works with throughout is rooted in chinese folklore and Taoism. The edition of the book I have even begins with extensive notes and introductory explanations about Tao, as its themes of harmony with the universe, self-cultivation, internal alchemy, its main ethics and values, etc etc etc are the basis from which the book is built up. The characters very actively engage with Tao. Sun Wukong is an ardent student of Tao who obtains a bunch of powers through it, for one.

I've gone into this much into detail because Kakucho and Izana make it pretty explicit that, to them, Izana is like monk Tang Sanzang leading to Tenjiku, and Kakucho is like his guardian of unmatched strength, Sun Wukong.

In the end of Journey to the West, it's both Tang Sanzang and Sun Wukong that accomplish their goal and also obtain enlightenment, finally ascending to buddhahood. Had Izana and Kakucho's journey with Tenjiku reached their original destination (not "to become a criminal syndicate that controls Japan" but "to build a kingdom where everyone without a home could exist"), had it been like Tang Sanzang and Sun Wukong's pilgrimage… they would've learned true balance and they would've found the necessary enlightenment.

Again, I find this little connection with characters that could've been on a quest towards buddhahood, but as far as things went in the main TR timelines, all failed.

- Uniform & logo.

Finally, something lighter and quicker to add, haha.

There are symbols and references that are so so so widespread that they become more of an aesthetic detail than a symbol with meaning, in the eyes of the general public. The yin-yang is one of those symbols that just… appears in a lot of places, fashionably, and one kinda gets used to seeing it without thinking much about it. Sometimes it's not meant to stand for much more than a decorative detail, yes, that definitely happens, but sometimes it's very much a thoughtful choice. With Tenjiku, given its connection to Taoism, I'm gonna treat the yin-yang as a meaningful choice.

So! On the back of the uniform we have a yin-yang, Taoist symbol that represents the balance of the two complementary and opposing forces of the universe (note: it's not a good vs evil type of thing, as tends to happen with western black-white dualism, but rather… the fact that reality needs to be composed of push and pull to get anywhere, hard and soft things with their own function, sun and shade. A common comparison is how a mountain will have a sunny side and a shady side when looked at in a certain moment, but the sun and shade will switch over at another time of day, in a needed cycle). Other features of the uniform are a mao collar instead of a more common style for gang jackets, and an intense red color, the main auspicious and prosperous color in chinese culture. These last two little features could easily be coincidental, but when paired with the yin-yang, I feel like it's intended to lean towards chinese aesthetics.

And with that,

I end this reference post!

Did you learn anything you didn't know? Did you enjoy learning it? Any thoughts? I LOVE TO TALK ABOUT THESE THINGS, SO FEEL FREE TO DROP BY MY ASKBOX with any comments or questions or such!!

#tokyo revengers #tokyo revengers meta #tokyo manji gang #toman #tenjiku #kurokawa izana #sano manjiro #izana kurokawa #manjiro sano #mikey #kakucho #thoughts and talk and so #tokyo rev #wanted to write this one forever #just never quite got around to it

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chromaticleaf · 10 months ago

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Been thinking about Tessa and the Murder Trio, and I've started wondering... how do the drones even feel about Tessa, in canon?

Reviewing what we have, it's a bit less clear than I expected, so I'll break down what we actually get in canon for each pair.

Tessa / J:

J having romantic feelings for Tessa is quite the popular fanon of course. I like that interpretation quite a bit myself, and a few subtle details I've seen discussed can even imply it as subtext.

As far as actual text goes, though, J is a loyal sidekick. She follows Tessa's lead and seems proud to assist and protect her. Pretty clearly a positive relationship, and easy to extrapolate further for shipping and fun head-canons.

But canonically, it isn't too different from her relationship with Cyn, or even the "company" in episode 1. Loyal, proud of her capable service, dedicated. Blasphemous as it may be, one could question if she actually cares for Tessa specifically, beyond her position as her "boss".

And this isn't to accuse J of being heartless: she reacts with clear horror at the thought of V (and the other library drones?) being discarded in episode 5. She cares about V (and, I would argue, N) in some capacity. Her rejection of them in episode 8 is easy to read as a defensive denial: casting them as a lost cause in order to justify fighting them to herself.

Even so, I do still interpret J and Tessa as having a close relationship, especially since contrary evidence is lacking.

Tessa / V:

We get basically nothing with actual Tessa. V has a few interactions with Cyn as "Tessa", though. She shows no real loyalty to her, seeming to go along with their excursion into the labs only for N and Uzi. She's very quick to snap at "Tessa" for her inability to protect them, but also seems quick to look past that. Most notably, she's quick to save "Tessa" from a bullet, so it's easy to read her as being as "tsundere" towards her as she is towards N and Uzi.

So canon doesn't necessarily imply a very strong relationship between them, but at least some basic level of loyalty probably existed, at least before Cyn's rampage.

Tessa / N:

This one is pretty interesting. Tessa's adoration of N is very apparent, of course. But we don't actually see any reciprocation from N. With actual Tessa in his memories, he seems to begrudgingly accept Tessa's affection, but his primary focus at the time was Cyn (and the ghost witch sending him messages). Perhaps this can be written off as extenuating circumstances, especially with Uzi's interference influencing his perception of the memories.

The other meeting we see, with Cyn as "Tessa", has Cyn mimic similar affection. N however seems more worried than excited to see her. Especially notable, in the same meeting, he seems delighted to see J (the same goes for V too, on both counts). "Tessa" gets a worried frown from N, where J gets a smile.

"Tessa" of course does little to endear herself to N during their lab mission. N shows plenty of concern for V and Uzi, and almost no concern for "Tessa". However, he still seems willing, if reluctant, to follow her orders, up until he catches her in a lie, upon which he beheads her with no hesitation. Even with N's genre savviness, he did not know she was Cyn at the time. Again, compare to J, who even as an enemy receives a hand-drawn IOU from him.

One can again argue extenuating circumstances, but it stands out for the golden retriever "I love doing anything" drone, doesn't it?

Conclusion:

It is surprisingly easy to build a case that the drones do not actually care about Tessa all that much. And it is even more surprisingly easy to build a case that N rather dislikes Tessa.

Do I think this is the intended reading of the characters? Not really.

I think the murder drones did like Tessa. There's not much positive evidence that any of them disliked her while they were in the manor, and all of them probably felt loyalty to her for repairing them and at least attempting to protect them from her parents.

Cyn's easy manipulation of N and V while pretending to be Tessa almost certainly relies on their lingering loyalty to her, overriding their natural wariness and doubt about the situation, so the fact that they aren't even more hostile and distrusting of "Tessa" on Copper 9 is probably a positive sign for their past relationship.

Still, it's an interesting thought experiment to interpret their relationship with Tessa in different ways and see how it can fit with canon.

Anyway, that's my sleep deprived ramblings on the topic. Hopefully someone finds them interesting!

#murder drones #tessa james elliot #serial designation j #serial designation v #serial designation n

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yes-i-read-sappho · 11 months ago

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So you want to read "No Longer Human"

One of the things that fascinates me most in this world is translation, and when it comes to reading literature not originally in English I always wonder how accurate what I'm really reading is, especially seeing how much a work can vary from translation to translation.

With this in mind, I set out with a friend to read all three official English translations of Osamu Dazai's Ningen Shinkkaku (best known in English as No Longer Human) in order to figure out which one was the best.

DISCLAIMER: I do not read Japanese so my ability to comment on the actual accuracy to the original text is limited, so most of what I am saying here is based in the readability in English etc. (That being said, if you know more about the original and the accuracy to the original of any of the translations below PLEASE let me know I would be so so interested.)

With no further ado, here are the translations in the order I read them:

1. No Longer Human, trans. Donald Keene (1958)

This translation is easily the most familiar to English speakers (for BSD fans, this is where you can find "page 21, 'Mine has been a life of much shame.'") The main pro of this translation is that is very easily accessible in the literal sense. On top of this, the writing style is relatively easy to understand, if a bit antiquated (see: published 1958).

Unfortunately, while much of the vagueness in this book is almost definitely a consequence of Dazai's own writing, this translation is far from perfect. When discussing it with my friend, we realized that a confusing scene (pages 153-154 in the paperback) actually appears to be a consequence of a mistranslation, as both of the other translations we read presented the same contrary interpretation.

Overall, Keene's translation is fine but can feel incomplete.

2. A Shameful Life (Ningen Shikkaku), trans. Mark Gibeau (2018)

New title alert!

Gibeau's translation felt more complete than Keene's (and I may have gone a little insane using my limited Japanese knowledge to see if a single detail was accurate which it did appear to be). The only real downside to this translation was the lack of italics used within the text, which made it a bit more difficult to follow at times when it came to the character's inner thoughts. That being said, I actually like this as a literary device, especially given that the framing of the novel is in the form of personal journals.

What really made this version stand out to me, however, wasn't necessarily the translation itself, but how the translator addresses it. This book provides a translator's afterward (rather than an introduction as in the other two) where Gibeau gets into the historical and cultural context necessary to really understand the novel, including the I-novel literary movement and Dazai's own life. This really helps readers (especially those less familiar with Japanese history and culture) to really understand some of the nuances of the novel, while the placement at the end - pointedly - first allows the text to stand on its own. Also, in addition to the afterward, Gibeau also provides a brief "Note on the Current Translation," where he explains the merits of multiple translations and a bit of his own process/experience translating, which I enjoyed reading.

3. No Longer Human, trans. Juliet Winters Carpenter (2023)

(I don't know why this cover image is massive but oh well.)

Most of what I remember about this translation is wanting to like it more than I did. I was excited to read a translation by a woman because of how female characters are treated in the novel, but I do not remember there being a distinct difference. (The only notable difference was in the specificity of the language used at one point in the first journal, but this wasn't related to gender and I'm not going to get into it here.)

This translation initially endeared itself to me by directly referencing Bungo Stray Dogs in the introduction for its role in increasing the popularity of the novel among English speaking fans (even though Winters Carpenter somewhat misrepresents the series), but the introduction as a whole does very little to contextualize the novel, especially not compared to Gibeau.

Broadly speaking, I found this translation forgettable.

In conclusion,

I would recommend Gibeau's translation over the other two. However, each translation has its advantages and disadvantages, and you will still get the story from all of them if that's what you care about most.

#this is so long oh my god #uh #actually need to stop stressing over this like it's an essay for a grade and not a post on tumblr dot com #anyways #i hope at least one person finds this interesting and/or useful #no longer human #dazai osamu #ningen shikkaku #japanese literature #translation #bungo stray dogs #bungou stray dogs #bsd #okay i think that's everything

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inventors-fair · 3 months ago

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A Few Thousand Words: Artist Spotlight Commentary

Without a mechanic-specific angle or a sense of flavor direction, we really kinda went nuts this week, didn't we. And all the more power to it! I'm happy that we got this opportunity in the first place and that @bread-into-toast was willing to provide. Really, this was about the community and the importance of different creative works, a spotlight for an awesome artist and the way that our little corner of the internet all comes together.

Some of the pieces had a lot of cards with similar space, and some took place on the same worlds, and at the same time there were a lot of interesting interpretations that I didn't quite consider. It goes to show how some pieces of art can show action in ways that others don't capture, and others represent characters/objects in ways that can also open the pieces up to interpretation for other card types. I'm a huge believer in the importance of a fully-realized card even at these stages. How can one envision the piece as it would be held in the hand, played on the table? Maybe that's just me, though, because I know there are lots of other ways and reasons to make cards. Just the basis of a set's design is important enough, and sometimes just directing the art from a card that might not have the easiest depiction is someone's strength, too. So much goes into making cards, and y'all have the hardest job of putting it all together. Never forget that.

It was super hard to highlight some JUDGE PICKS from the submissions this week, but I'm gonna pinpoint a couple for the sake of consistency. Read on, learn on, and let's talk.

@bergdg — Seraph of Light and Shadow (JUDGE PICK)

There's something to be said for the really simple designs that say a lot without needing to say much, and it's difficult to really judge them in this kind of contest. This card is, of course, very good. It's a card that people would love to play and see played, and they'd be excited for the fact that they could open this in a pack, and it would definitely make waves in the applicable formats. Better than Baneslayer? The world may never know. But then also, oh man, there's the cycle of enemy cards, are they in the same set, is this something that'll get spread out over the years, etc. I feel that this card says less about you specifically as a designer, and a whole lot about your attunement as a MTG player.

Not to ramble too fully: that's a positive thing. Even though this card is all about the callback and doesn't specifically tread untested ground, it's a great example of what a good design looks like for the bigger picture of things. I can totally see how the art swayed you in that direction. I'm no professional, of course, and I'm not greenlighting any specific set in which this card would appear. I would 100% love to see a world in which this design and/or the rest of the cycle gets printed, though, and take that how you want to. It's sensible, that's what it is. A practical piece of power based off of player expectations, MTG history, and contemporary evolution.

@bread-into-toast — Sink or Swim

Of course I can't be too biased now, but also, hello! The clam was a popular one indeed, and for good reason. Is it a creature, an idea, or something strange in between? I'll be honest: the only two "strikes" against this card are the rarity and the lack of reminder text. As a rare, maybe you don't need the reminder text, but this card really feels like an uncommon to me. I was surprised that I couldn't find an exact analogous card, but we do have Vigean Intuition as a five-mana instant uncommon that does almost the same thing, and with comparable power I think that this card could've been a great uncommon indeed at sorcery speed.

I'm super curious about what you envisioned for the flavor aspect in the sense of a larger world, because that flavor text is pretty incredible. Is the background of the clam's ink supposed to reflect Towashi, or a city in general? That push and pull of technology is kind of interesting for sure, and the more I look to where MTG has gone the more I do appreciate some aspects of Neon Dynasty a lot more than I did at the time. What a gorgeous set, for real... Regardless though. I don't quite see the connection mechanically but there probably doesn't have to be one if this is a card advantage generator that needs to be in the set more than it needs to be a story spotlight or whatever. Overall: solid enough for me to be satisfied, if that means anything.

@corporalotherbear — False Hope

Duskmourn? Duskmourn. I think. I hope so, for the sake of context, because I cleared out the notes from earlier and I forget who adds extra detail and explanation. Regardless: this is a hell of an aggressive card and a really interesting perspective. I think that the idea of the character being the one spoken about in a distant context adds dimension here—unless it's—hold on. You know what? I actually don't know whether this card is implying that the character in the background is Flint being attacked, or if Flint has turned into a monster, having been turned while on his mission, now preventing other survivors from reaching the goal he once sought. Either angle works beautifully, and regardless of whether or not that was your intention, it's the strength of ambiguity that enhances the card.

Mechanics are another story, and I wonder if the pump is a little too much. It's quite aggressive, much more aggressive than we've seen in this color combo before. What kind of archetype would it play into, and for what purpose? That's a pretty broad set of questions—and it's a combat trick which kind of fulfills its own role in limited regardless. But all the same. I'm imagining the enchantress/aura/heroic style decks being able to use this with evasive and/or double-striking creatures to absolutely decimate much earlier than anticipated. I've been playing a lot of Pioneer... Illuminator Virtuoso would absolutely love this card. +4/+4 may be too much, and even +3/+3 may be pushing it a tad. Still, I don't...hate the concept? I feel that the numbers may need tweaking based on the environment, and the idea is definitely putting aggressive pressure on the field. Not bad pressure, but pressure that needs testing.

@cthulhusaurusrex —Overcome by Avarice

This card is easy enough to grok and also, as far as I can tell, has no precedent. Having both those creatures die makes sense, but when does it trigger? That's the actual problem: let's say that you choose two random creatures with death triggers that would both die if they fought. When exactly does the Treasure trigger go on the stack? It's intuitive enough, kind of, and I picked a simple example with a possible explanation of "you just put it after the death trigger of your choice," but...I mean, does it go there? It wants to go after one or the other, not both. The actual rules questions that try to see two things dying at once are...honestly stranger than I can explain from my middlingly-L1-judge-ish idea of how these things work.

Now this could easily be fixed with giving each creature the text of: "When this creature dies, create a tapped Treasure token." Which you should also capitalize, BTW. It's not the most exciting, but if you leave one creature alive, you still get a Treasure, right? And that's because the other creature fought and killed it. I feel that keeps part of the flavor while also not dealing with the specific weird rules baggage that's been accidentally made here. I feel the flavor you're trying to go for but to me it actually makes a little more sense to split it up. The cost could be 1BR without sacrificing too much. Additionally, I do like the flavor text a lot, and the connection to the art is quite interesting. I don't think you need the specific world to still get that sense of treasure hunting gone wrong, which is cool.

@dabudder — Clam Up

The name is, of course, appropriate to the concept. The connection between the name and the art is fine. The art to the concept? I'm not sure, for the sake of this contest, that I quite get what you were going for. I get the sense of someone is being tortured and/or staying silent under torture, and as a result of that they're forced by outside means to keep quiet magically. Right? A literal giant clam doesn't have much to do with what that's exactly depicting. That said: I do enjoy the concept of external silencing that can be interpreted as stubbornness, that's pretty cool. And I do think it's funny as a name. New Capenna really did have a good vibe to it when you got into the whole gangster vibe.

The gameplay of this, though, feels really nasty; if you're behind, it absolutely turns off your best threat for enough turns that it might as well be permanent, unless for some reason you're cashing it out super early. Losing all abilities is important, albeit slightly harder to track, but the stun counters do help, so that's fair. Doubling up on those threats is...whoof. Not that force-tapping or stunning is game-breakingly oppressive, but the fact that it's only a single XU means that you're getting a lot of value at parity, and if you're ahead then this is a win-the-game button. I think that XUU might've been a little more balanced for the sake of limited. With slightly more menacing flavor text, I could see this card with less literal art. Hm. You know, looking at it from another angle... Did you interpret the ocean floor as, like, someone's neck, with the clam as a head? If so, that makes more sense. If not, well, now I can't UNsee it.

@deg99 — Prophetic Hyppocamp

Omens on Theros got a lot of praise from me last time, and I'm still pretty down for it. It's a clear signal that the UR draft archetype and the general set archetype revolves around Izzet Omens and a little bit of spellcasting in that regard, and I think that that's pretty awesome. Really, just as that, it's a success of a card. You're not the only one to see this creature and think of the plane, so yeah, that's definitely a win for both you and the artist. Some art pieces are strong because of their wide interpretations, and some art pieces are strong because they really signal to a specific aesthetic. The latter is absolutely valid.

I think dealing 4 damage repeatedly (if you can reshuffle into it) is pretty wild for burn, but the fact that you have to then drop the five-mana creature and lose the omen to potentially find another one balances it out for sure. There's a lot of text on the right side of this card, and the left side, I feel, could've used the reminder text both for general aesthetics and for expert-level printing—per usual, insert "it's a me thing not a design thing" here. The name of it could've also been, I dunno, "Thunder Sign" without squishing the text in there, but that's small potatoes. Overall the card feels like it's combining the good parts of draft synergy and plane exploration with new mechanics, so yeah, I'm down for it!

@dimestoretajic — Abandon the Beast (JUDGE PICK)

I worry a little bit about this card, but not really, because strong exile is still something you can do at rare. It's a slow pseudo-version of "as an additional cost, return a creature you control to its owner's hand," but worded in a very smart and specific manner. Is that fine as a rare? For what you're going for, it's really difficult to tell, but I think that I actually like what you're doing here. Removal spells at rare can be a little bit of a feelsbad unless they're over the top and/or incredibly good. What we got here is a card that's efficient, synergistic with ETBs, allows your stuff to slowly reenter if it's been enchanted or stunned or whatever. Like...it's not perfect, but it's REALLY good, too good for an uncommon, and that's pretty hard to gauge. Definitely a notable balance.

"Battle explorer" is a heck of a title. And that flavor text, wow, I don't know the full context or if this is on an established world but I'm actually quite invested. This art, as it was pointed out, had some of the most variable interpretations out of any of the pieces that were submitted, and this is yet another interpretation that I'm enjoying the view of immensely. I mean, it's incredibly sad, and the implication that someone's companion has been abandoned to their fate in order for a battle-hardened survivor to find their way back to the surface is... Whoof. This was definitely a contender, and it was super close, and I appreciate the balance that went into this one. Not an easy choice to make but a great design overall.

@fluffycattens — Corpse Drifter

This piece of art was the one that I honestly thought was the hardest to go off of. And there were a lot of jellyfish, I'll tell you hwat. It's just literal enough to be a slightly difficult interpretation for an abstract spell, and it's just weird enough to necessitate a freaky creature design. That said, I wonder: did you intend for this to be something that can repeatedly copy? Or was this more about the ability to have a one-time copy effect? It's kind of hard to tell, because it feels on the surface (heh) that it could be a card that makes creatures attack into it so that it can copy them, and then do the same thing when new creatures die, but as it's worded it becomes a copy and then that's it. Maybe that's fine, then? If so, I would honestly put the activated ability first.

Giving protection from the attacking creature is a little weird, I'll be honest, but I get the idea that you're luring the creature into a trap. I almost feel that it would make more sense with, like, a wholly undersea bioluminescent creature, but there's some light there, perhaps? It's one interpretation! I mean, my own biases aside, I think that this creature is really hard to deal with, especially because at instant speed you can give it protection regardless of whether or not it's in a time window where the other creature can attack. I would for sure make that activated ability a once-per-turn sorcery thing. Still, I think I'd like to play with this creature all the same, and I want to know your thoughts about whether or not making it a copy until the end of someone's turn might be a cooler design for repeatable destruction rather than a one-off copy-and-done effect. I really want to hear what your intentions were.

@harunakonomi — Mourner-o'-War

An old card with slightly newer paint feels...less exciting than it should, honestly. Let me back up for a second, because I know that there's more than meets the eye. Unearth! Right. Getting the creature back from the graveyard as a hasty bouncer is a little bit better on the combat field than the original. Man-o'-War's ability to bounce things is good, and swinging in afterwards is good on a hasty body. You know, all things considered, I would've liked to have seen 2U for the unearth cost instead of UU, not just for the callback but also because UU feels pretty awkward for a common there. The main cost for bouncing is a fine way to secure a spot in limited, but having Man-o'-War from the graveyard for its original cost would've felt a little better to me.

The interpretation from the art is totally understandable, even though again it's not really titillating me. That's fine, and sometimes cards just need to be practical for the set that calls for them. Regardless, the fact that it's a spirit jellyfish is kinda cool, I'll admit. The way that it reverbs and has a little bit of a death bend, sure, I can get behind it. I suppose I wonder what you're imagining for how this jellyfish got to mourning in the first place, if indeed that's what it's all about. What's the general connection there? I'd like to see more of that thought process.

@helloijustreadyourpost — Compleation Pod (JUDGE PICK)

Yeah, that checks out—it's glowing green, it's shiny, it's menacing: must be Phyrexian. Wording-wise, the second ability should be "that player mills" instead of "they mill" but I'm only 90% sure of that. As far as the rest of it goes, the notion of pod-to-Phyrexian is really straightforward here. You can use it during your turn or during a crazy combat to get a creature that died somehow, or you can let the mill take everything away and get their biggest thing. Regardless of the incubation hits, the fact that you're milling them at two every upkeep is really great. This is a crazy powerful limited wincon and I'm on board, even at this aggressive cost.

Incubating really takes a toll on the mana resources, but once you get to three mana, it's mill, incubate, flip, boom, every turn, even if you never hit another land drop. That won't always win you the game of course. Could it win at least one against a do-nothing opponent? Absolutely. The way that the art feels Phyrexian does enough, even if it's a little small compared to the mechanics seem to want to fully process a body, IMO. Flavor text is...fine? A little purple? I dunno, "fear not" doesn't feel very Sheoldred to me. Not quite malevolent enough. I might just be reaching for my own version of Phyrexians, though, who knows.

@hypexion — Demonic Negotiation

Fun fact: this card is really great. The not-as-fun fact: this card is also combo potential when you're hellbent in a way that's ultimately way too good. Running out everything and then slamming this means that your next few draws are spoken for and you have the freedom to set up basically anything you need for the next couple of turns. Limited and casual play is another story. Getting those tutors off and getting some cards at the risk of life loss is really cool, although let's be real: you're not going to play this card if you're any kind of control deck or if you have any card advantage as the main theme of your build. This is combo, slamming hellbent tutors, go nuts with all the freedom you need. In that sense, it's a slow breaking, but it's still fairly broken in terms of combo tutoring.

But isn't combo tutoring always just a little broken... In a strict advantage-only deck, I'd say that this card's a little trickier than Castle Locthwain but not as tricky as some of the other tutors they've printed over the last few sets. It's really hard not to see a new tutor as more or less broken, especially when you can get around the clause like that, but the punishment, ooh the punishment, I want to work around that, because I really like the notion that you've come up with here. This aspect of drawing/losing and having that trigger revolve around a search is really interesting. I think there's a way to make it happen in a different way than how this card's currently presenting it, but it wouldn't reflect the card as it's envisioned... Lots of ways, I mean. These are a lot of words to say that combos are broken but the card's pretty neat, so I'm gonna end it at that before I write an accidental essay.

@isitaristocrats — Effervescent Kelpie

There's some unspoken templating on cards that you pick up on the more that you read them. For one, the keyword flash comes before any other relevant text, unless it's a cost reduction of sorts IIRC. It's the most relevant thing about the card! Additionally, you're gonna have to walk me through your rarity choice. I'm going to assume that this was rare, but without knowing exactly where you want that, it's real hard to tell. The "special" rarity does match the color scheme, at least; it's still there to give me more information that I'm not currently getting. Bubble beasts are the name of the game though, and with all those nitpicks aside, I actually quite enjoy the concept of this card.

What deck would love this the most? Soul Sisters Flash. Is that actually a deck? Well, no, but there's enough incidental lifegain that you can work with in these colors to really make it a pain in the butt. I'm picturing the flash shell for this archetype and how much this card would make it a real pain to play against in constructed—more than limited, if you can imagine. The limited side would be untapping some lands, but that's not actual advantage without ways to use the mana... Admittedly, flash helps with that a fair amount, even if it's not strictly advantage. The fact that it's each end step is a little odd and harder to track for me. If there's a specific reason for that, I'm curious, but that's about all I have to say. I wish there was a little more information behind the thought process and perhaps a line of flavor text just because.

@j2miner — Scyphozoa Rebirth

Alright, let's go through some templating wording. This card should read: "Delve [reminder text]" followed by "Destroy target creature you control. Create a token that's a copy of that creature, except it's a Jellyfish with flying and deathtouch in addition to its other types." See Will of the Temur and others. Cost reducers almost always come first, and Delve fits the bill. As far as the flavor text goes, don't forget to have the attribution on another line. If you're using MSE, I recommend jumping into their Discord server so you can download and get the right font choices. There was some bug for a while that prevented that from coming up. I also assume that "resisted" in the flavor text is supposed to be "rested" instead?

Lots of little snippets and motions around there. With the cost of this card, I'm a little impressed, weirdly enough, with how the flying/deathtouch works around the hybrid. If you're paying GB, then the black covers flying and green covers deathtouch, and if you're paying UB, then blue covers flying and black covers deathtouch. I think that's pretty neat. The flavoring of jellyfish hybridization between these guilds on Ravnica with Delve as an overlapping mechanic of sorts doesn't make much sense to me, I'll admit. Still, it's not the most egregious, and we're delving in Standard right now with that big old dragon, so. I kinda get the artistic bend here. You have to admit with me that it's a more unique interpretation—but that's kinda the point of this whole contest, isn't it? Fair's fair in love and jellyfish.

@melancholia-ennui — Mimicking Man-o'-War

About what I was saying one card earlier regarding interpretations—right. Heh, you know, it's kidna funny that despite some cards depicting the same event or character in radically different ways, this jellyfish has spawned two different o'-War names and three different clone effects. This one, I will say, reads the clearest to me in terms of artistic interpretation, mechanical cohesion, and straightforwardness. You surveil, you clone. How? Perhaps it's slurping up the bodies from the ocean. Boom, done, no questions asked. The defender clone is definitely less powerful than some other clones in its ilk. The ability to clone and block your opponent's creatures as well as surveil upon entering is still really good, though, and this is an uncommon control card to boot.

I think I'm picking up the shell that you're putting down here. A little self-mill and a little control with some defender kindred, perhaps? Blue/black defenders isn't an archetype with the most support outside of Dominaria United's five-color-kinda defender pile. And that was one heck of a deck, lemme tell you. Did I ever get to run it? I honestly don't think so. Did I ever try to? Stop asking so many questions. I'd give this card a go, I'll say that, although perhaps with a little more evasive control support than anything. Defender, despite being really cool to me, isn't the most powerful of the potential mechanics that a clone can have. I think I'd have to play with this card and/or see it played to fully grasp its potential.

@reaperfromtheabyss — Blazing Deathrattle (JUDGE PICK)

If there's any card I'd have loved to see flavor text for, it was this one. Really dang cool overall and really powerful as an effect. Dealing that damage is awesome, especially for three, and while this is a limited-only card for sure (unless, idk, mono-red mirror?) you're going to have some amazingly fun times with it. I think that it should've been any number of targets, honestly; what's the harm in this hitting players or planeswalkers for this amount of mana? Sacrificing to have an Exquisite Firecraft is pretty baller. Perhaps burn would have some fun with sacrificial mana producers like Wild Cantor, but not in any way that I feel is unbalanced.

This card really takes a simple idea and makes me want to brew with it and/or pick it up as it's going around the table. Let me drop the magical edits and say that this is just creatures—even then, boom, first strike gets punished, early removal to make the way for attackers gets punished, and even post-combat cleanup nonsense makes this card excellent. What if they play something on their second main, and you just had to chump? Boom, you go from behind to parity before you draw. I think that this card's really funky and I enjoy it a lot for what it is. Definitely needed some flavor text and possibly needed a minor burn boost, but this is just me wanting to expand upon the strengths that are already there. What a deceptively simple but glorious card.

@stareyedesper — Ichorbog Gash

For modern cards, annoying as it is, the name is replaced with "this card" or "this land" as it happens. Also, the land has to be the thing to deal the damage; you can't just write "Deal 7 damage" there. But, those are minor notes on top of a bloody-looking bog. I like how the first interpretation of this art as it appears is that of an abstract negotiation, and this one is just carnage spread out over a naturally horrific place on the shard of Jund. I do love Alara, as everyone knows, and I love me some Jundian nonsense. Removal on a land makes this card strictly better than Savage Lands, although Savage Lands has kinda been outclassed by Ziatora's Proving Ground, so what do I know—well, there is a rarity shift, but whatever.

The point is that sometimes the envelope gets pushed and sometimes that's okay. Uncounterable removal on lands is pretty massive, but you need the extra mana that the land can't produce in order to use it, so by that point I really hope you've had your fixing. Seven damage, whoof, that's quite an amount. Hm. You know, I just noticed that you say "that creature's controller" but it also allows damage to be dealt to planeswalkers. Did you want this to be just creatures? If not, then the wording should've been reflected to fit that, and either way, definitely sorcery speed. Just to cut to the chase, I think that maybe for five damage this card could be focused in and be something really cool once the wording gets cleaned up and the speed gets fixed. It's a cool art interpretation and I love the setting. There we go, send it to print.

@wildcardgamez — Zagothan Invocation

Exploration, thy name is...not exactly Zagothan Invocation. You know, based on the Mamba and Crystal, I think this could've just been "Zagoth Invocation" and it would've been just fine, y'know? Regardless. This is a weird little beastie. I think the planeswalker aspect of this makes it slightly weirder than it needs to be, and even as it stands, moose feel pretty weird on Ikoria. Or not, I suppose, it's more pointy and there are deer-like things on the plane, so what do I know. Regarding the card itself, it is just kinda explore on an ETB with an extra planeswalker addition, so I'm not exactly sold on that front. But, the map in the mouth does make that feel a little more on point, if on the nose as well. This was definitely one of the weirder art pieces of the lot, but if I have to admit it, it was my favorite, and I'm glad it got chosen.

The fact that Vivien doesn't know what it is seems a little strange. She knows what spirits are, and she knows what a moose is, and she might or might not know that the "its" in the flavor text should be "it's" instead. Vivien has always been a planeswalker that I've wanted to play with for a while, and she's just never quite worked out for my decks, and I don't know why. She's really strong! I'm digressing—point is, because the abilities are doing a longer version of a known effect with a flavor that's slightly disconnected from where the character might be, I'm really iffy on this card. A moose with a map is hard to design a card for, I'll say that straight-up. It's really whimsical! But hard. I thought about a sorcery for it, honestly, although that's where I stopped. I feel the pieces that you were putting together, but they're just not meshing in a way that gets me excited about this card.

@xenobladexfan — Convergent Evolution

With how this art piece was interpreted, I was really surprised to see this card with this kind of effect. Now, I know that you had mentioned the wording was weird on what this effect could do (IIRC, anyway), but here's what I would do: "Choose a creature you control. If that creature has [keyword soup] and/or [last keyword], search your library with a creature card with the same ability that doesn't share a name with that creature..." etc. There are some WEIRD ways to go about it, but that's how I would do it, and wow, you picked a challenge for yourself. I think that the flavor text is honestly really charming to me. I also think that playing a Rograkh and searching up Ghalta is pretty funny! There are lots of ways to make this work.

In limited, you can still find one or two fitting cards, but this is definitely a constructed rare, no doubt about it. You get yourself the best creature you can and you'll be all set. Honestly, this feels like a Commander design, and there's nothing wrong with that. Maybe there's a combo, I honestly don't care if there is—I just want to use my dragon to search for more dragons, and/or use a dork to search for...more dragons. It's a Timmy card through and through. The wording is something that needs to take into account a whole lot of other cards and precedent, but props for finding a functional way of going about it.

There we go! Thanks again to artist @bread-into-toast for their awesome pieces this week, and I hope that we can do something like this again in the future. If you're an artist who's interested, let us know!

@abelzumi

#mtg #magic the gathering #custom magic card #inventor's fair #commentary #entries #artist spotlight bread into toast

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orvdiscrepancies · 5 months ago

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Discrepancy #17

AKA the start of the morality saga

Guys. Guys we’ve done it. We got to the reason I started this damn blog.

I started this blog because I was fascinated with the way Dokja’s morals are portrayed in the novel versus the webtoon because we get a more in depth look at his psyche.

In the webtoon, Dokja thinks about stopping all of the passengers.

[ORV Webtoon, Episode 2]

Interestingly enough, Dokja doesn’t say why he has to stop them. He just acknowledges that this is the same as the novel. He doesn’t say what he’s stopping them from or why. But what I want to point out is that he says “I have to stop them.”

In the novel, Dokja decides that he can’t do anything to stop any of the passengers. The only person he can stop is Sangah.

[ORV Novel, Chapter 3]

There is no mention of even wanting to save the others. He’s just thinking about how he doesn’t want to be mixed up in this.

And you might be like, but “OP, it’s probably a translation error” or “OP, he does want to say the others but he just doesn’t say that”

To that I say, translation errors are plausible. He does say “but there was no way,” which could be interpreted as “there was no way to stop them.” But this is a blog focusing only on the English translations of both the novel and the webtoon. Any discrepancies I see are treated as if that’s the actual text that was written, not as a translation error.

As for him not saying that he wants to save the others… he explicitly says in the webtoon that he has to save them. Not just Sangah. There’s no evidence he knows anyone else on the subway. He doesn’t even know Myungoh is there yet. So he has to be talking about the rest of the passengers.

In the novel, he doesn’t even entertain the thought of trying. He immediately gives up and says there’s nothing he can do.

W!Dokja has a feeling of responsibility. He knows what is going to happen so he has a responsibility to at least try to save them. He knows there will be a massacre. He knows that only two people will survive. Already, he’s showing evidence of wanting to change the story.

N!Dokja isn’t concerned with the safety of the others. He knows what will happen. It’s inevitable to him. He’s treating this like a reader being thrown into their favorite novel because that’s exactly what is happening.

Take your favorite novel where there is an action element. I’m going to pick Batman (because I have an obsession). If I was suddenly dropped into Gotham and told to survive, I wouldn’t be thinking about becoming a vigilante and saving everyone I can. I wouldn’t think about saving Bruce’s parents or saving Jason. I would be thinking about how to get the fuck out of there.

The majority of people, when actually put in that situation, will preserve their own life over others. There are very few people that would willingly try and save others at the risk of their own life and it’s those people that are the true heroes. But the majority of the average readers? We’re going to be more like N!Dokja than W!Dokja. We are going to want to get the fuck out of there.

You can argue all you want. But it’s just a plain fact. When thrown into a life or death situation like Dokja knows this is, the majority of people will focus on keeping themselves and the people they care about alive, just like Dokja does with Sangah.

Neither of their actions are wrong. It’s just a difference in how they react.

There are three (four technically) fear responses according to psychology: Fight, flight, freeze, and technically fawn.

W!Dokja is leaning more towards a fight response. He wants to save these people. He’s willing to fight. N! Dokja is leaning more towards a flight response. He wants to get out of there.

(This is oversimplifying the fear responses. They are much more complicated than this but these are the basics.)

It’s too early to say what this means for their character, but I’m excited to see how it goes moving forward. The screenshot I have for my blog header image is actually a moment in the novel where Dokja’s personal philosophy is shown. I can’t remember exactly what chapter it happens though.

#orv discrepancies #orv webtoon #orv novel #omnicient reader's view point #orv #orv webnovel #orv analysis #webnovel #webtoon #orv kdj #orv screenshots #orv kim dokja #kdj #kim dokja #webnovel analysis #webtoon analysis #psychology #fear responses #random psychology lesson lmao

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starlightbelle · 8 months ago

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Breakdown of noteworthy shots of the HTTYD live-action trailer

Just some things that stood out to me. Some pleasantly surprised me, others...severely underwhelmed me.

Berk looks cool. I like these exposition shots a lot.

Hiccup and Stoick's discussion sounds and looks amazing. I'm really liking Hiccup's voice in that scene. Surprise no. 1!

The dragons look really cool. Very reptilian, which I like. I'm just disappointed that Toothless doesn't seem to share that design choice.

My favorite shot of Stoick in the whole trailer!

I like the embroidery on Hiccup's sleeves. The costuming so far looks really good.

THIS SCENE. Hiccup's actor seems so sincere and genuine in his turmoil, his internal struggle. I love what we've seen of this scene.

Hiccup also looks very young (as he should), you really get the sense of how this young boy is grappling with the weight of pressures and expectations placed on him contrary to his nature. He looks so torn and I think the actor did a fantastic job making that believable.

The best Toothless looks in the whole trailer, imo.

eh. Toothless still looks so cartoony, so animated. I was hoping he'd look REAL. I'm a bit disappointed.

This shot really bugs me. Because of the character design in the style of the original animated film, Hiccup takes up more room in the frame. (The design gives him a bigger head which takes up more space) Here, we don't have that so there's all this dead space around Hiccup that makes for a very bland visual. It's uninteresting to look at.

We also really don't need this scene to be a 1:1 recreation of the original scene. I think that takes away part of its charm. They should make it their own and commit to interpreting it a little different this time around, I think that would be more interesting (and more welcome)!

This shot I included mainly because in the trailer there's this BOOMING triumphant sound that plays during Forbidden Friendship, which I strongly dislike. In John Powell's original composition, this is the quietest part of the piece. For good reason. It's supposed to make you hold your breath, it's supposed to make an emotional impact.

I realize they're banking on this scene (and the whole movie, really) being the nostalgia-bait because of its familiarity but this is actually my least favorite part of the trailer.

The logo looks cool. I like the choice to stylize the text so that it looks like blades (since Hiccup is a blacksmith's apprentice and makes weapons), and I also really like Toothless as the 'O' in dragon.

Overall, my first impressions are:

Hiccup surprised me, I actually enjoyed what I've seen of his portrayal so far.

The designs of the (non-Toothless) dragons look really neat! Like they ran with the original designs but made them more reptilian and believable.

Unfortunately that doesn't seem to extend to Toothless, at least as far as I can tell. I've seen many people excited for the way Toothless looks, and I really wish I could share in that glee, but (so far at least) it isn't doing it for me. Also his animation looks like they used the exact same rig to get the movement parallel as possible to the original scene, which is offputting to me.

Costuming and scenery look cool. I'm excited to see more interiors; as that always fascinated me even in the original film.

The musical theme ALWAYS gives me chills. John Powell the genius that you are.

#how to train your dragon #httyd 2025 #my post #ramblings

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dimalry · 9 months ago

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Previous anon here 🙋🏼‍♀️

And yes I agree. Sjm did not handle it very well since people have been fighting each other for over a year now and I believe people can have different opinions on it. I accept that people can see the situation in different ways because of how it was handled and/or from the bits they remember since most of us haven't read the books in a while 😅. I too haven't read them in a long time but from what I remember I didn't see it as SA or know all the details of what happened. And there are a lot of very similar debates happening in the fandom and there aren't any new ones, just a repeat of the same arguments people used one month ago, I guess this is a way to keep the fandom alive since we haven't been given anything?? But idk lol. I just keep to myself most of the time when I see someone having a different opinion as me and just continue with the things I enjoy.

Because of the way she handles certain topics, he have people arguing over who‘s right constantly. It’s actually so interesting how everyone has their own Interpretation of the text. There’s some beauty that comes with that, but people rather want everyone to think like them and that leads to this wildness in the fandom. When you have someone getting so triggered over your opinions, not only do they attack you but they create 5 more posts talking trash about you, that’s how you know the fandom is WILD 💀

When Rhys was first introduced I shipped Feysand right away (I thought Feylin was cute but I love me some morally grey characters). Things started to become.. weird when I arrived at the utm scenes and they made me uncomfortable. I didn’t think much of it when I finished the book because I thought we‘re going to get an epic redemption arc. We didn’t. Though I still loved Acomaf, I was fairly disappointed with how it was handled. My second time reading the books it only frustrated me. I really wanted to see some good redemption arc from a morally grey character, but it turned out that he isn’t morally grey in the first place and that isn’t a trope that I particularly like 😬I like Feysand and they’re fun to draw (I have most of them still in my drafts). I sometimes think of how I would‘ve written the story. Especially after Under the Mountain, that’s when I imagine what route Feyre and Feysand together would take. I took some inspiration from the atla world (I‘m so excited to draw and share my thoughts on this when I get the time 🥹), and Rhys In my imagination is definitely held accountable (no character is safe from accountability, even my favs)

You’re one of the great people who can bring a safe space in the fandom. Minding your own business and enjoying life is very mature ✨

#feysand #acotar #sweet anon #my asks

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shock-micro · 1 year ago

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Hi, I'm Mira, a silly robot on the internet! I'm... frankly, a lot of things, so I'll bring them up as necessary. To start, I'm transfem and robokin! This much should be clear. It's who I am!

I used to mainly do Minecraft stuff, trying to make the game live up to its visual potential while staying within the confines of the vanilla game's engine. Now, I don't do that as much, but it's still a fun game to mess with. Take a nice sunset from those days!

My interests are mostly gaming-related, but I've tried to dabble in art occasionally. I like all sorts of games, like Zelda, Pokémon, Minecraft, Celeste, Hollow Knight, Rain World, Cassette Beasts, Risk of Rain, Ultrakill, Bug Fables, In Stars And Time... the list goes on. I like more than that, too, and I'll keep adding more as I play more games!

I get very excited over things sometimes, so please bare with me if I ramble a lot about stuff! This includes: vagueposting about games I've become obsessed with, ranting about music or game design in something, and more!

Feel free to send me asks whether we're mutuals or not!

I do have a sona, designed by a good friend of mine, @quantumpickle! I don't quite have a reference sheet, but I don't really care if you get it inaccurate- I love seeing how different people interpret the design. Whatever you do, though, don't forget the body fat- it's a reflection of who I am, at the end of the day. If you want a good picture of what I look like, look at Pickle's amazing work:

My posts are mostly reblogs, but I always end each session of scrolling with a post of my own, to know where to end next time I log on. I try as best I can to keep this account safe for work in both reblogs and original posts, though I am an adult. I will say something if this ever changes.

I am plural, sharing a body with a rabbit girl named Moon, a zoroark named Zoey, a wasp named Aspen, and a roach named Yui. They'll chime in every once in a while, with Moon being represented by her blue text and formal language, Zoey being represented by her red text and general attitude, Aspen being represented by her orange text and her demeanor, and Yui being represented by their purple text and their cadence. You can call us "Team Berry" as a collective!

Hello, all! It's Moon. It's always a pleasure to be here! I do love an opportunity to talk to all you folks, even if I'm not usually there to respond.

heya, it's zoey. not sure how often i'll use this thing, but it's good to keep options open, y'know? ✌️.

hey guys, i'm aspen! not sure how i got here, but it's quite a treat to finally learn how you giants live! i'm always open for conversation if you send me an ask.

Greetings. I am Yui, from the same place of origin as Aspen, though a different region. Fate works in mysterious ways.

I do have a partner, and I will always talk about them given the opportunity, but I carry a certain form of love for all of my close friends. The people I know mean a lot to me.

I love the simple things in life, from food, to nature, to the contrast of light and dark in both a literal and literary sense. I often find myself overwhelmed by everything that goes on in the world, but I find comfort in knowing the bad stuff is only a few bad people out of a beautifully diverse species.

If you couldn't tell, I generally prefer looking on the bright side and finding something to love about things rather than staying miserable all of the time. I don't get out much, and so I'd much rather give people that light to hold onto than spread the same old bleak story that you've heard from countless other people, regardless of how important it is to share. Change is built on hope, after all.

Change is something I believe in, more than any normal god. It's all around us, from the seasons, to the stars, to the rain, to the fleeting emotions of ours. I believe in our ability to change things, that we can all make a positive impact on our own lives, the lives of others, and the world. I believe in our ability to change ourselves, and that people shouldn't be afraid to become who they want to be. I believe some level of change is necessary for a happy life, and I strive to leave every day as a better version of myself.

Normally people put a DNI in their bio or their pinned post, but I don't really care to do that. If you're a bitch, I'll block and move on. I don't care how you use a label, or where the other folks in your head came from, or whatever other queer-adjacent drama is the hot topic, I accept you regardless. I'm ace, I still love my partner, I can love anyone, I use it/its pronouns, I'm robokin, I've got four other folks in my head and I don't know how they got here, do you really think I'd hate you for being you?

That's actually an important point- even if I do think something someone's done is unforgivable, I believe that bad people are still people. In some ways, that makes things better, they have lives outside of what they commit, but it also makes things worse when you realize someone woke up and actively chose to perpetuate genocide. Some people are genuinely that bad, others are just misguided and can be helped. Ultimately, it's not my job to "save" anyone. I just try to provide a light of kindness when I can.

Wow, that was long-winded for a post that's just supposed to describe me. I suppose that's in-character for me, though. Agree with me or not, I don't really care, as long as you're respectful. I hope you've found this post helpful in understanding who I am as a person, long-winded as it is. Have a good one, whoever and wherever you are.

(...now how do I pin this?)

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absurdly-overpowered-astronaut · 10 months ago

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@lemonpocalypse here is the Ryuji ramble :D

No pressure to read everything I ended up writing a lot (｡ó﹏ò｡)\

Okay so I’m going to start off with the bank scene because my interpretation and ensuing head canons are pretty self contained and touches on/establishes some key points of my reading. The specific scene I’m talking about is when in Kaneshiro’s palace Ryuji attempts to solve the puzzle and spells huge as H-E-W-J and I’m pretty sure he miss reads huge as hugs but its been awhile since I’ve played the game so I can’t fully remember what it is he miss-reads.

I want to play through the game in Japanese to see how this scene works in the original text but at least in the English version this scene is meant to be funny a “haha Ryuji’s so stupid he can’t even spell or read. Ryuji’s so stupid :)” but if taken seriously this actually has a some interesting and concerning implications.

Firstly this scene implies Ryuji can’t spell or write which means so many things like for example as far as we know Ryuji takes the same tests as the ones we see Ren and Ann take which are tests where you *read* the question and *write* an answer / *read* the multi choice options. If Ryuji can’t read then of course he’s failing the tests?! It doesn’t matter if you know the answers if you don’t know the question and of course he’s failing school if can’t read or write he doesn't even have the tools to participate in the system even if wanted to.

This is really fascinating to me because of how it affects the implications of his attitude towards school. Before the implication is that he’s lazy/doesn’t care about the exam’s but if he can’t do them then him not studying for them/his general recklessness attitude towards his education becomes more then laziness and more then not wanting to participate in a system it becomes that even if he tried he can’t even read the questions or physical study materials so what's the point?

Ryuji has a complicated relationship with school all the PT do to differing extents and this just layers it even more. Not only was he let down by it with the whole Kamashida situation but with this in mind he’s probably been left behind by it entirely.

we see with the PT and with track that in a different environment and when it’s something he’s passionate about he puts his whole heart into it but it seems like with school if he’s can’t read or write he’s probably had difficulties with school since he was very young and before he and his mum moved.

It also strengthens this cool parallel between Makoto and Ryuji that I really like where Makoto doesn’t see how the system has let Ryuji down and is still hurting him just sees him as not trying hard enough and Ryuji doesn’t see how the system has let Makoto down and is still hurting her because of her school president good student reputation.

In the bank scebe Ryuji seems so genuinely excited to contribute to the team so I think this shows how he trusts the PT and feels comfortable to try and spell/read but then Morgana calls him stupid…..again which is always frustrating but especially so because prior Ann tried to solve the puzzle and wasn’t treated as poorly. Ann doesn’t get berated or called stupid and this definitely isn’t to say she should be and it's still pretty mean of Morgana to say what he does but this difference in how their struggles are treated is something that's going to come up later so put a pin in that.

Though it makes Ryuji finally studying with the PT even more cute because they can/do read the questions and he can see how they write the answers. It also works really well with the themes of the game about how finding support networks can help people remove themselves from/stand up to/work with in/take down toxic systems.

Because of this line that implies he can’t read and write I headcanon that Ryuji has some equivalent to text to speech and voice type on his phone to make up for not being able to spell and read himself and that provides an in-universe explanation for why his accent shows up in his texts.

I think whenever we see him write something in the base game (idk about Strikers and P5T I have even worse a memory of them as I do of P5R) The posters during the kaneshiro arc / the calling cards. He always has access to his phone and we don’t see him do it so this head canon is surprisingly canon complaint ^^;

—————————————————————————————————

Another thing that I find super interesting with Ryuji's character is his relationship to and narrative surrounding violence. There is ofcourse what happened with kamoshida/his dad but also what he does with the PT/ex-track mates and how he gets treated by them. When Ryuji stands up to Komashida he gets his legs broken as “punishment” , when he comes back after the explosion at shidos palace he gets beaten up as a “punishment” and its possible that when he and his mum where living with his dad he might have framed his physical abuse as a “punishment.” So it telling that during his confidant he offers himself up to get beat up as a punishment for what happened to the team even though it wasn’t his fault.

He seems to conflate violence/physical consequences with punishment/repentance for lack of a better words. Which makes his tendency to self sacrifice (put a pin here too) even more interesting because if he has internalised this idea that he needs to compensate for failing by being hurt then his self sacrificing tendencies and even his status has a physical party member one who drains their health points (HP) to attack becomes more complex considering this.

As well as conflating physical punishment and making up for past actions it seems he has at least in my reading internalised that things are more often than not his fault. When his legs are broken it’s his fault for not taking the abuse again when the team gets disbanded it’s his fault for not taking the abuse. The PT just assumes he’s wrong and stupid like in Kaneshiro's palace and the school just assumes he’s stupid/trouble/not worth the time which just feeds this toxic mindset.

And I think it's this dichotomy that's at the core of my reading of his character. This feeling of injustice but also like he deserves it and being hurt by the people who are and are supposed to protect you ie parents , teachers friends and the resulting lack of self worth and feeling like he has to make up for existing/mistakes that aren’t his fault.—————————————————————————————————Digging more into the self sacrificing I’m pretty sure I remember something about Ryuji and him having a higher chance or a skill or something that means he’s more likely to take hits for other party members but even if my brain just made that up we still see him do lots of self sacrifice to the detriment of his life/health. He jumps in front of a car in the Kaneshiro arc , he does the boat sacrifice in Shido’s palace , jumps in in the 3rd semester , I think theres a moment at the start of P5T and is the one to touch almost all the trauma doors in Strikers.

This all ties into what I said earlier about his relationship with violence but also with how the PT treats him. Ryuji is belittled , insulted , devalued , seen as lesser in comparison to other characters especially Makoto and Ann.

Morgana and sometimes other party members call him stupid and even when other thieves don’t join in they are still complicit. Because of this I believe he has internalise this idea he has to compensate for existing essentially and just like how he feels he has to compensate for his mum having to take care of him alone by getting into a good university with track just like how he feels he has to compensate by being part of the PT.

Conversely I also think he is self sacrifices because he cares about the PT so much! That's his community! The people he feels a kinship with , those are his guys, his friends! :D The people who he feels like he understands and who can understand him on a deeper level.

(To get side tracked quickly I think that's why he hates Akechi so much. He see’s Akechi as a threat to that family, that community , that acceptance and validation he sees him as an insider as just like one of those rotten adults criticizing them but then after he learns about him he’s not longer an insider he’s a victim of the system like them and that's why his opinion flips so quickly. Akechi much like the phantom thieves to the world was a symbol to Ryuji and once he became a person and no longer a symbol / saw how he was just like the PT he cared about him.)

Ryuji can be inconsiderate and rude but he cares much about the PT and I’m glad that this is an aspect of him that receives a lot of fandom focus from what I’ve seen. It's also one of the big reasons I love him so much as a character is because he cares! —————————————————————————————————I feel like Ryuji’s character is driven by yes a sense of belonging / anger at the world but also a deep sense of guilt: over what happened with the track team , overburdening his mum or even just expressing himself/his ideas sometimes. Ryuji wants validation that's why he gets so caught up in the PT’s fame he wants to know he’s doing the right thing he wants to help people like him and his friends.

When you grow up in an abusive environment to over simplify you tend to fall into thinking either

You must be doing something wrong because why would a parent , someone who is supposed to care about you hurt you if there wasn’t something wrong with you.

You must be right and your parent is in wrong because why would a parent someone who is supposed to care about you hurt you if there wasn’t something wrong with them

You either cling to the certainty that your parents must be right or the certainty you must be wrong. (again oversimplification due to the scope of the post) and I think Ryuji has internalized both these ideas and applies them to school and the PT.

—————————————————————————————————

I’ve talked about it a bit in the prior paragraphs but now I really want to dig into the narrative implications of the jokes constantly made at Ryuji’s expense. Ryuji is a bit of a punching bag for the narrative…quite literally. As much as I despise these scenes and feel like they go against the game's narrative , tone and themes with the PT just repeating the same toxic mentalities of the systems that oppressed them, the implications of the jokes do actually play off some other stuff in interesting ways.

There is this idea throughout the game (and throughout the post I did not expect to harp on about this so much :’] sorry if it's becoming tiresome...) that Ryuji is the “dumb one”

With in the narrative we see him called call stupid constantly , put in embarrassing situations at his own expense , almost get the PT exposed and such but even beyond the dialogue these ideas are even somewhat reinfected by game play. If you have Ryuji in your party up until Futaba’s palace your going to hear a lot of Morgana complaining about Ryuji just from the fact he’ll inevitability he is going to miss hits. The player is often given the choice to gang up on Ryuji/throw him under the bus the first example that comes to mind is when you can tell Akechi Ryuji and only Ryuji is a phantom thief (though there are times where you can stand up for him they are less often) so even the game play reinforces this tired joke.

(Another aside I think Morgana calls Ryuji pathetic and such to compensate for his own self worth issues. He need to re-affirm that he is important and needed and if he’s better then Ryuji then he can feel good about himself/important and he doesn’t actually stop to think how his words could effect Ryuji because to him its not about Ryuji being dumb its about him being important. So when Ryuji calls Morgana useless (I think as abit of a jab back at morgana) it really gets to morgana because of the reversal of power dynamics now ryuji is the one calling him useless so he can’t use Ryuji to re-affirm himself)

Ryuji’s experience is devalued in comparison with others, specifically Ann. Ann’s sexual assault plot is treated with more dignity , seriousness and weight as it should be. When Ann gets harassed it's an issue the other PT and the narrative care about and treat with the seriousness and respect be fitting the situation (uh mostly….Ann’s outfit and the jokes at the expensive of her due to it do contradict the more seriousness the issue otherwise has) but when ryuji is at the very least kidnapped and harassed during the Kanoshiro arc it is just a joke and the PT get made at him for being late when was literally kidnapped and Ren/Morgana did nothing?!

Another example is when he sacrifices himself on in shido’s places his experience of almost dying is devalued in comparison to the other PT’s pain over thinking they lost him.

The Shinjuku scene specifically makes me really angry that anyone ever thought it was a good idea but also that the PT’s just don’t care that their friend was kidnapped by two older men they don’t know?!

A problem I have with both p5 and p4 in general is how they want to have their cake and eat it too tonally.

They want to have the grounded narrative of physical abuse with Ryuji but want to turn around and do physical slapstick. They want to have a grounded narrative about predatory behaviour and turn around have a joke about sexual assault (and that’s not even getting into the homophobic and sexist undertones of the Shinjuku scene)

I also mentioned Mikoto earlier and how establishing her as smart kinda came at the expense of Ryuji. With lines like when morgana says Mikoto is so smart! not like Ryuji but the thing is I really don’t think Ryuji is dumb? He’s just behind in school/internalised the fact that he is. He shows he is actually pretty introspective/emotionally intelligent when he calls up Ren towards the end of the game , during the whole Akechi situation and he contributes to the planning of the PT operations more then people give him credit for. To bring back a prior example we see with the bank puzzle mentioned earlier he was on the right track not quite there but close.

—————————————————————————————————Talking more about personal headcanons I like to headcanon that Ryuji’s mum saw being in a relationship as necessary and that's part of the reason she stayed she stayed in an abusive relationship for so long on top of social pressure the difficulty and shame associated with divorce ect and I like to think that Ryuji picked up this idea that he needs a partner/warped perception of relationships from her as well as society at large because to me at least it would make sense and I think provides more nuance to their relationship. Though I don’t have any specific scene or evidence to support this.

Both Ryuji and his mum want to help each other. So she works and worked really hard at her job and he wants to help her so he worked really hard at track. They both want to protect the other so I think they lie about things. Ryuij’s mum about the toll of the abuse / working and Ryuji about the phantom thieves and some other struggles.

Ryuji says alot of not so great things about women and this and the aforementioned head canon isn’t to justify and say its okay but his interest in girls comes off to me as performative? YEs SincE ITs JuST Us DuDE bRo GuYs LeTS TaLk ABoUT girls! thats what GUYS take about right?

I think he thinks whether that be because of his mum , someone else or just society in general that this is how he is supposed to act/this is how masculinity works and maybe this is just me but this feels like such a com-het response.

————————————————————————————————— aghghghg I haven’t really managed to articulate my thoughts well but hopefully it’s at least somewhat coherent ^^; theres a couple things I didn’t get to just because I don’t remember enough of the games to provide adequate evidence for my points but to sum what I did write up my thoughts I think Ryuji wears a mask in his own way this isn’t to say he isn’t a extremely honest , outspoken and genuine person just that I think he’s learnt to internalised he’s stupid/wrong and to perform masculinity/that things do bother him as much as they do ect and that the PT both provide him with the environment and support he needs but re-enforce some toxic mentalities. He was done a dirty by the narrative by constantly being made into just comic relief but somehow it all loops back around to being interesting.

#THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR OPPORTUNITY TO RAMBLE ON ABOUT THE BOY :D #TYSM!

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