#I'm almost feeling like he's a chessmaster in a sense.

[imminent-danger-came]

You know also just realized that MK is the "Plan Man" and Destiny has been explicitly stated as "having plans" (great or foul), like MK is Destiny or could go toe to toe with Destiny, depending on whether or not their plans converge or differ.

[chatonarya]

Gnosis Musings About The Manga

Original thread on twitter.

I think one of the things the manga makes clear is that Gnosis is Just Like That, and he's always been Like That even before BI. While focus is given to how Enciodes has not always been the smug chessmaster we know and love today but rather became that way through experience...

...we see that Gnosis by contrast has always been shameless, fearless, and committed. No shame faking drunk; no fear of radical actions; ready to do whatever it takes. It instantly hearkens back to his public "humiliation" in BI.

It also lends a whole new life to this line; I always thought it referred to the fact that he was blamed for the deaths of the Silverashes, but now I wonder if he meant it in a more literal sense, too.

We also get another view of Gnosis in general, and how he behaves around two of the people he arguably trusts most (though for half of it he doesn't fully trust Degen yet), and I find it absolutely fascinating, and how it demonstrates how tsundere he can be.

Ironically, despite his file emphasizing how he doesn’t have energy to spare for emotion, Gnosis is someone who’s very blunt and open with negative emotion: he displays displeasure and anger without hesitation, including towards Enciodes and Degenbrecher.

But Enciodes and Degenbrecher both are comfortable with this aspect of Gnosis: Enciodes doesn't bat an eye when he starts laying into him for some reason or another, probably because he's already used to it. (Look at child Gnosis in that flashback; he's always been Like That.)

While I'm sure we'll see more of this during RS, I feel like an argument can be made that Degenbrecher gets used to his squawking very quickly. She seems almost amused by him throughout the manga (consider as well that she's likely been living with them for 3 months).

Yet despite Gnosis being verbally dismissive or combative, there's a large emphasis placed on the fact that he'll do anything for Enciodes and Karlan Trade, but he'll never say so.

Even to himself in his module story, Gnosis insists that his loyalty is only to his own choices, but his choice is once again Karlan Trade, which is the company he co-founded with Enciodes and is the vehicle for their shared dream.

We also see Gnosis has always cared more about executing things perfectly than deep communication; he values things being understood and grasped wordlessly rather than explaining all, a rapport he shares with his partner. (Note that they likely had to improvise during their plan.)

It may be partly personal interpretation, but I feel like Gnosis bickers with people he cares about, almost in some way of showing affection. He may claim he doesn’t care, but his actions tell a different story. (And I love that Enciodes often bickers right back at him.)

I would also be remiss if I didn't mention his EP, which is absolutely bursting with emotion, love, and dedication. "Please don't leave" "The reason I fall, take my heart and save me from the end" "'Cause when we fall through dreams [...] we'll move beyond together"

Conclusion: Gnosis is a tsundere arson crane who probably has a literal crime record because he just doesn't care about what it takes because he's 110% committed (and doesn't think twice about plucking out his own feathers for brocade). I look forward to more of his antics in RS.

[twistedtummies2]

The Seventh Doctor - Worst to Best

Now that Christmas is over, let's focus on an anniversary I sadly neglected to acknowledge earlier in the year, and must acknowledge before the new year begins: 2023 marks the 60th anniversary of one of the longest-running television programs in history, that sci-fi camp classic, Doctor Who. Anybody who knows me knows that I love this series, both in its Classic and its "New Who" eras. The chances are also high that, if you know that, you know who my favorite Doctor is: Sylvester McCoy, the Seventh Doctor.

The Seventh Doctor was the last of the Classic Doctors, before the "bridge" that was Paul McGann's Eighth, and the beginning of New Who with Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth. To this day, he remains a slightly polarizing take on the character: for a long time, people seemed to greatly dislike number seven, but over the years he's gained more and more of a fanbase, with a lot of people claiming him to be one of the very best versions of the character out there.

Over the course of McCoy's three seasons - the final ones of the Classic show before it went on a LONG hiatus, to later be revived - the Seventh Doctor evolved in an interesting way. For his first season, the character is a more comical Doctor, somewhat clownish in nature...but even then, signs of his later development slowly began to take shape. By the end of his tenure, Seven had gone from one of the lightest takes on the character to arguably the single darkest: he could still be very funny, with a Vaudevillian sense of humor and style and many typical eccentricities, but he could also be ruthless, manipulative, and borderline sadistic. He was the Chessmaster Doctor: a master planner who could out-think his enemies sometimes several moves ahead...and yet he also loved playing the spoons and wearing silly outfits. Go figure.

I thought it would be fun, with the show nearing its 61st year - and having seen not one but TWO new canon Doctors added to the lineup this month alone, via Fourteen and Fifteen - to go over my thoughts on my favorite Doctor and his time on the show, in all its ups and downs. Over three seasons on TV (I'm not touching the audio dramas or anything else here), McCoy's Doctor had twelve separate stories/serials. So, today, I am going to rank them all! Let's waste no more time (or space), these are the Seventh Doctor's Episodes - From Worst to Best.

12. Time and the Rani.

It grieves me to say that the very worst of the lot is the Seventh Doctor’s debut/regeneration episode. In my opinion, this is the single worst introduction any Doctor has ever had, and it physically hurts me to say that since it is the first episode for my favorite Doctor. The first season of the McCoy era was sadly not very good, and I think that’s why some people have a hard time warming up to him and his Doctor. When the 24th season began, the show was going pretty much fully for comedy; it had some dark edges, but it was mostly playing itself almost as a space pantomime. That wouldn't be so bad, but the writing wasn't very good, and the production values were at an all-time low, both of which stymied its potential. “Time and the Rani” is the worst of the worst, for a very simple reason: if this was the only Sylvester McCoy episode you ever saw, you wouldn’t have any clue about what made this Doctor special. With every other Doctor’s big debut – no matter how good or bad the episode may be – you can at least say you get a sense of what this Doctor will be like. With McCoy, in his first appearance, he feels like a watered-down mish-mash of various other Doctors before him, and rather dimwitted. The only scene I really like is one where the Seventh tries on his new costume, but even that scene is basically a riff on a Fourth Doctor sequence. If you want to get a start on the McCoy era, don’t start with his actual debut; it really isn’t worth your time, and you can probably imagine better intros/regeneration tales in your head than this gives.

11. Delta and the Bannermen.

This story is pretty bad, too, but it’s not AS bad as “Time and the Rani.” This was the third serial from the first McCoy season, and it features the Doctor and his then-current companion, Mel Bush, being invited to participate on a holiday tour in 1950s Wales, by pure luck. (Trust me, pure luck is what gets Number Seven through most of his first season.) Less lucky is the fact that a fugitive extraterrestrial named Delta – the last of her kind – is also on the tour, trying to escape from an army of brutish killers called the Bannermen. Throw in a couple of bungling redneck CIA agents (yes, really; I’d be angry if it weren’t for the fact, as an American, I have no right to complain) and references to Disneyland (again, yes, really), and you have this episode. Admittedly, some parts of this episode make me laugh, and the overall direction doesn’t make the Seventh Doctor look like a total idiot, which is a step up from the previous pick. I also like the character of Ray – a motorcycle gal who basically became a prototype for the character of Ace (more on her later) – but it’s not enough to save this story, which mostly comes across as equal parts boring and obnoxious. A most unpleasant blend, indeed.

10. Paradise Towers.

Of all the bad McCoy episodes, this one is the LEAST bad. It ALMOST works. This was the second serial of the first McCoy season, and, much like “Delta and the Bannermen,” it starts off with the Doctor trying to do something nice and pleasant with Mel, only for things to go to Hell in a teapot once they actually arrive. The Doctor takes Mel to a resort called “Paradise Towers,” which was made to provide people with peaceful relaxation and fun, as any proper resort would be. However, multiple conflicts have led to Paradise Towers becoming the epicenter of an effective civil war between several groups. What was once a happy and beautiful place is now home to cannibals, killer robots, Space Nazis (the Seventh Doctor faced Nazi-esque characters quite a lot; these ones are called the Caretakers), street hoodlums, and a vaguely Lovecraftian psychic abomination. The only one who doesn’t get involved in the violence is a single peaceful soul named Pex, who many defame as a coward. The concept has the potential to be a really twisted, imaginative story, but all of the varying plotlines don’t mesh well, and, again, much of it is played for absurd comedy, which really deadens the effect, in my opinion. True, this is kind of a crazy idea, but it could have been so much more than it was…in fact, that basically sums up a lot of this first season in general: it could have been so much more.

9. Dragonfire.

“Dragonfire” is the last serial of the first season, and it is also the best serial of the first season…which isn’t saying much. It’s…just okay, really, but that’s better than the other three. Once again, the Doctor tries to take Mel somewhere nice (this time a sort of space mall, in a place called Iceworld), and once again, shenanigans ensue. This time, said shenanigans involve a lost treasure, references to “Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and “Alien,” and the villainous Kane - an icy antagonist who frankly could give Mr. Freeze a few lessons in frostbitten fiendishness. It also features one of the most infamously silly cliffhangers in the show’s history. What really makes this serial work though are our three main characters: with this episode, McCoy’s Doctor finally starts to evolve a bit more into the character we know and love from later appearances. It also features the return of the loveably roguish con-artist, Sabalom Glitz, who had previously appeared a couple of times during the era of the Sixth Doctor, Colin Baker. But the true point that makes this work are the two companions involved: this is the last story we get with Mel, and the first story featuring Ace. Mel is (or, at least, was) one of the worst companions in the show's history, in my opinion, but I actually kind of like her in this episode, and while her departure makes absolutely no sense, it's legitimately sort of sad to see her go. Ace, meanwhile, is my favorite companion in all of Doctor Who (just as McCoy is my favorite Doctor), so seeing her arrive on the scene is a blast. It's their combined presence, above all else, that makes this story worth seeing.

8. Silver Nemesis.

The 25th Season of Doctor Who - McCoy's second - was where the show REALLY started to take off, and it might actually be one of my favorite seasons in the entire series. Having said that, "Silver Nemesis" is what might be called "the worst of the best," just as "Time and the Rani" is "the worst of the worst." Intended as a celebration of the show's 25th Anniversary, the serial features the Doctor and Ace having to deal with three different factions of antagonists: a group of Neo-Nazis from contemporary times, a witch from the 17th Century, and - as you can see her - the Cybermen, one of the Doctor's most long-running and infamous monster antagonists. All three warring factions are trying to gain control of a living statue, called Nemesis, which apparently can grant whoever wields it immense destructive power. The Doctor, it's revealed, is the one who apparently CREATED Nemesis, and must now find a way to keep this mysterious creation out of the hands of his enemies. The episode does some interesting things - most notably with it really playing up the Doctor as a mysterious figure, in a way that hadn't been done in a very long time, if ever before - but ultimately, it's tonally scattershot, the pacing is a bit off, and most of the villains turn out to be shockingly ineffectual. The story is also basically a giant ripoff of "Remembrance of the Daleks" (more on that later), featuring a lot of similar plot and thematic elements throughout, which definitely deadens the impact. It's not necessarily a TERRIBLE story, as it has a great cast and a lot of cool scenes and ideas, but it's definitely on the lower end of "meh," in my opinion.

7. Ghost Light.

Believe it or not, I actually had a hard time choosing between Ghost Light and Silver Nemesis. It is potentially unbelievable because most fans agree that Ghost Light is a better episode than Silver Nemesis; many call this episode a triumph of the era, with the other as one of its weakest pieces. In some ways I agree, but in other ways…I won’t say Silver Nemesis is superior, because it isn’t, but I feel this episode is SLIGHTLY overrated. This was a serial from the 26th season – the Seventh Doctor’s third and final season in the series. “Ghost Light” is a three-parter, and – in my opinion – it truly could have benefited from having a fourth section. The first two thirds of the serial are quite brilliant: the story is a really great one for Ace, as it taps into dark elements of her past, and the style of this tale is absolutely DRIPPING in Gothic Victorian atmosphere. It deals with scientific and philosophical concepts of evolution, change, and social status, and blends elements of various classic stories together, such as Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and a heavy helping of H.P. Lovecraft's works. I love the style, the atmosphere, and a lot of the concepts presented…but the problem lies in the execution. The first two parts move at a decent pace, but in the third part, everything feels very rushed. It becomes REALLY hard to follow what’s going on, and lots of things feel underdeveloped, as well. I also feel that the reveal of one of the main antagonists – Light – is a little underwhelming; the character is supposed to be an awe-inspiring presence, like some sort of avenging angel, but the performance and especially the costume design make him feel less intense than he should. It’s still a good story, but I don’t think it’s the masterpiece a lot of people seem to claim it is.

6. Battlefield.

In a weird way, "Battlefield" is one of two episodes where you could arguably sum up the reputation of the Seventh Doctor and his era - with fans, that is - in a nutshell. This, and another story I'll get to later, used to be considered pretty bad eggs on the whole...but nowadays, people have a lot more respect for them, and several folks I know (or just know about) have labeled them as being among their favorites. I definitely have a soft spot for this one, myself: "Battlefield" features the Doctor facing off against a legion of dark knights from another dimension, where the legends of King Arthur are real, and the Doctor himself - apparently - is Merlin! The issue is, the Doctor won't become Merlin until a later regeneration, so this is - confusingly - his first time meeting any of the Arthurian characters: most notably the main villain of the story, the mysterious Morgaine. To try and deal with the problem, the agents of UNIT - an elite military group who are a recurring presence throughout Doctor Who - are called into play. This brings back the Doctor's old friend and companion, The Brigadier, in his final appearance on the show. While the episode is not perfect, there's a LOT to love here: I love seeing the homages to earlier eras of the series, with the return of the Brigadier and "Bessie" (which I can only describe as the Doctor's equivalent to the Batmobile), and I love the thematics and motifs of Arthurian myth and legend. The supporting cast is great, and we get one of the best-looking monsters in the series, courtesy of a demon known simply as "The Destroyer." Definitely a fun outing that deserves more credit than it sometimes gets.

5. Survival.

The final episode of the Classic era. While not a perfect way to cap off the show as a whole, nor McCoy's central tenure in the program, "Survival" is, nevertheless, hardly a bad note to close on, either. The story focuses on the TARDIS Team returning to Ace's hometown and time period: then-modern-day Perivale. The Doctor and his companion soon discover that a bunch of people around town have been mysteriously disappearing. It's revealed they are being transported to a mysterious alternate dimension, known only as "The Planet of the Cheetah People" (yes, that's really what the monsters are called). The Cheetah People are half-human, half-cheetah beasts who hunt people for both sport and food; those who don't end up as cat chow end up slowly turning into Cheetah People themselves, their aggressive instincts and more animalistic desires coming to the forefront. Wrapped up in all of this is the Doctor's arch-enemy: the Master, who has taken control of the Cheetah People, but is also trying to find a way to escape their world before he becomes one of them. This was one of actor Anthony Ainley's best outings with the Master (he's my favorite person to play the role), and it was great to see him go up against my favorite Doctor. It's so strangely fitting that the final episode of the Classic era featured the Doctor going against his arch-enemy for what was, at the time, perceived to be the final time, and I'm not sure how planned that fact was, based on what I know of the production history. Regardless, while this episode is a bit silly in places, it's mostly a really great and surprisingly dark story, dealing with some interesting themes and philosophies, and having some fine action sequences to its credit, as well. If you were only to watch this one episode, and no other, from McCoy's era, it wouldn't be a bad choice.

4. The Happiness Patrol.

This is the other episode I mentioned, alongside "Battlefield," where you can kind of see it as a (likely unintended) symbol of the Seventh Doctor's era as a whole. At the time this story came out, it wasn't much liked by the public, and there are still those who don't especially care for it...but nowadays, generally speaking, respect for this story seems to have grown quite a lot. It's not perfect, but it's definitely a highlight of McCoy's time in the series, and for good reason. In this story, the Doctor and Ace travel to a human colony in the distant future, called Terra Alpha. The place is run by Helen A: a parody of Margaret Thatcher herself, played by Sheila Hancock. Helen A has declared that no one is allowed to be sad: people must wear bright colors, tell silly jokes, only listen to cheerful music, and generally always behave like everything is sunshine and rainbows. Anyone perceived to be a "Killjoy" faces one of several horrible punishments: one is being shot down in the streets by the titular Happiness Patrol - her special police squadron. Another is being sent to "The Waiting Zone," which is Terra Alpha's equivalent to jail (and where you can be killed by either trigger happy guards or rigged arcade games). Finally, there's being forced to pay to suffer the wrath of the Kandy Man: a self-aware robot made almost entirely out of sweets, designed as a parody of Bertie Basset. The Kandy Man either experiments on people in his laboratory, feeding them candies that are so good they literally make you die of pleasure, or drowning people in boiling hot syrup via an execution method called "Fondant Surprise." The TARDIS Team must find a way to dethrone Helen A, destroy her minions - especially the Kandy Man - and give Terra Alpha the right to be unhappy again. I love the paradoxical nature of this episode, with things that are bright and colorful being made wicked and nasty, and with the whole premise focusing on letting people feel sad rather than joyful. The story plays off the idea that happiness and sadness are "two sides of the same coin," and that neither emotion can exist properly without the other. There's a lot more I could say, but this description is already getting too long; basically, if you like things such as "We Happy Few" or a certain episode of "Fairly Oddparents," this may be a story you enjoy, as well.

3. Curse of Fenric.

Many consider this to be the single best episode of the Seventh Doctor's era. I obviously do not agree with this general feeling, but I also can't deny this serial is a great one. "Curse of Fenric" was the debut story of Season 26, and it is one of the darkest stories in all of Doctor Who history. Ace and the Doctor arrive near a military base in the heart of World War II, where English and Russian soldiers are working together. While trying to solve the mystery of some mysterious relics found near the base, military personnel seemingly awaken a race of creatures called Haemovores, which I can only describe as "squid vampires." The Haemovores can only be held back by one's faith; the stronger the exhibition of faith one has in something, practically anything, the better it wards them off. The Haemovores, it's revealed, are just pawns in the game of Fenric: an entity of pure evil older than the universe itself, which apparently has faced the Doctor before. It's revealed that Fenric is not only involved with these beasts, but that many past events from the past two seasons were actually part of an elaborate scheme the evil entity was concocting to get revenge on the Doctor. I love so much about this story: I love its themes of faith and doubt. I love its dark setting and even darker storytelling elements. I love both Fenric and the Haemovores as monsters/villains, and I love the fact this story ties a lot of past threads together in such a subtle way. I especially love what this episode does for Ace, as a character, and how it shows newer, even darker dimensions to the Seventh Doctor that we hadn't seen before, and which have now become central to who he is in years since. I may not think it's the perfect masterwork everyone else does, but it's hard to think of anything particularly wrong with it, either; definitely one of the Seventh Doctor's crowning moments.

2. Remembrance of the Daleks.

If I had to choose one episode of the Seventh Doctor's era that I would call the definitive story - meaning, if you are going to watch only one episode, this would be the best one to see to give you an idea of everything great about it - that would undoubtedly be "Remembrance of the Daleks." This was the debut of Season 25, and going from "Dragonfire" to this is like switching a lightbulb: it is ASTONISHING how much the quality of EVERYTHING about the show seems upped, right off the bat, in this serial. The Doctor and his Companion, the supporting players, the writing, the visual effects...everything here is a MILLION times better than ANYTHING in Season 24, and it's the story that officially cements the kind of Doctor Sylvester McCoy's would really be moving forward. The plot has the Doctor returning to where it all began: Coal Hill School and Trotter's Lane, the setting of the very first episode of the very first serial in Doctor Who back in the early 60s. He and Ace discover that a Dalek civil war has broken out - between the gilded Imperial Daleks, and the more rugged-looking Renegade Daleks - and both sides are fighting to gain control of a piece of Time Lord technology, known as the Hand of Omega. If either side can take the Hand, they'll basically become Gods, and we obviously can't have that. However, it's revealed the Doctor was somehow prepared for all this, and has devised an elaborate plan to outwit the Daleks at their own game...the problem is that he wasn't expecting two warring factions, and he has to make sure the wrong set of Daleks don't interfere with his scheme. The episode has great action, great philosophies and themes, a few surprising twists and turns, and a surprisingly somber and ambiguous ending. It also features what many consider to be the most iconic scenes/moments for both the Seventh Doctor and Ace alike.

Greatest Show in the Galaxy.

While "Remembrance of the Daleks" may be the most definitive episode of the Seventh Doctor's era (and I would argue it and "Curse of Fenric" might be candidates for the technical best episodes), it's not actually my personal favorite. That goes to this story: "Greatest Show in the Galaxy." The plot begins with the Doctor and Ace getting intergalactic junk mail, tempting them to visit the Psychic Circus on the desert planet of Segonax. It's ultimately revealed, however, that some mysterious force is controlling the circus performers and workers. This force - which I shall not name here - seems to literally thrive on entertainment itself, and so the performers are forced to bring anybody who attends from the crowd into the arena to perform, in order to save their own skins. Because as soon as you stop being even remotely entertaining, you die. I love how the episode is more subtle with the Doctor's chessmaster ways here; he's not exactly planning everything out in advance, but he's also not totally hapless throughout the story either. It's somewhere in the middle, and it's hard to say how much of what happens was something he expected or not. The supporting cast is also great, from characters like Mags the Werewolf, to the insufferably geeky Wiz Kid, to one of the greatest oneshot villains in Who history, the devilish Chief Clown, played by Ian Reddington. The whole serial seems to be a subtle riff on Doctor Who ITSELF, and how it was being perceived by critics, producers, and fans alike at the time, which makes it pretty interesting once you see it from that perspective. Even without that idea in mind, however, it's just a fun, somewhat surreal story that really shows the strength and fun of McCoy's Doctor, gives a little bit of depth to Ace (not as much as some later stories, like "Fenric" and "Survival," but still), and provides plenty of memorable moments. It's not necessarily the best, it's not necessarily one I would suggest as the first and only story people watch...but without a doubt, "Greatest Show in the Galaxy" is my favorite Seventh Doctor Episode.

[the1weepinqguitar]

tally hall sketches and other assorted doodles

Here ya go guys! I also have improvement pics from last year! Almost two years in the Tally Hall fandom! Woohoo! My Marvin's CD is gonna hate me even more after all of this

A Ross sketch! I'm super proud of how it turned out! Below is a close-up!

The aforementioned close-up, showing the shading on his face and the folds of his sleeve!

Zubin! I love the side profile, and I used his picture in the MMMM booklet as a reference! Close up below, so you can see some of the more fine details/shading

the close-up!

Here's Andrew! His hair is kinda hard to not fluff-ify, but I dealt with it anyways and tried my best to keep it close to reality. Obligatory close(r)-up below.

next will be some other random stuff, mostly tally hall, but some of it is oc art

drew this drawing of Ross last September. Not amazing but very stylized, which I love/hate. the tag on the bottom left reads, "he's rather disheveled but this is the best I could do back then"

wtf is he doing? He in an action movie or something? btw this was last-year's andrew. very stylized. i hate it.

decided not to include the other last-year Rob cause i hate it deeply. this one's much better. very fluffy. i dont like the collar tho

just me poking fun at my horrendous attempts at stylizing joe. im not gonna draw him as much as the others btw.

This is from an au created by @bonkdd, but i did rob and andrew's designs bc i never saw his designs for them. i also added a lot of lore and plot stuff because i really liked the concept. in simple terms the tallies are robots that were abandoned by Marvin after he passed away so now they're falling apart n stuff without him to care for them (that's why rob hides his face). Anyways, huge thanks to Bonk for the original idea! They're a great artist, you should go check them out!

Edith, drawn/sketched with a ballpoint pen.

Another one. I like this one better, but I spent two days on this one versus a half on hour on the other so i guess it makes sense

Adrian and Reuben (OCs), done in a college-ruled notebook bc i ran out of pages in my sketchbook. next is a close-up so you can see more shading.

probably my favorite gay couple i've ever written ngl

Ace again, but wearing Reuben's favorite sweater.

Looking mighty fine!

He's lookin' tough, he's got the stuff, he's got the spiffy shades... (/lyric)

pose practice

Boll weevil, why don't you get out of your home? (/lyric)

old art jumpscare - i actually kinda like this one, might redraw it. Below is the full thing

why is zubes staring like that??? its creepy

here's another. i don't know why it's sideways. andrew is scared of joe btw, this isn't the entire drawing

Did an embossing peice. It's the Mojo Chessmaster! I tried by best to make it as detailed as possible, and I think I did pretty alright. The neck was probably the worst part to do. Below are close-ups

the head of the guitar was a pain in the ass.

This part was also pretty tricky but it came out okay. the dials at the bottom are raised as much as I could get them to go, so I'm not worried about them. My issue here was the pickups.

I also added Flansburgh's little signature guy but i drew his hair because why not? Anyways this piece took me a good hour or so to finish, I think it'll fetch a good grade (it was for my metal design class).

I'll add a sketch I just did as a bonus:

it's from a tally hall fanfic/au i made back in may after my grandpa passed away. It was a great stress-reliever and I still really like how it turned out. It's about cryptids and monsters and shit. I'll post a summary on a different post because this one was mostly for the drawings. I might post a few installments of it on my ao3. It could be a weekly thing since i usually have time on fridays to write.

Once again, a close-up is available below.

I put literal hours of research on cryptids and of the area (ann harbor, MI) while writing this fic. It was fun though, and it helped me a lot. Feel free to ask me anything about the plot or world-building !

[oumakokichi]

I've been thinking about your "Ouma lives" AU for a while, and it really interests me a lot; especially the Chapter 6 trial. I'm curious about one thing though, in the original trial, we had Kiibo momentarily take the role as the protagonist. If Ouma survived, how would that scenario change, if it even happened at all?

Thank you so much! I’m still really invested in seeing thatparticular AU come to life in one way or the other. If I didn’t have so much onmy plate between irl obligations and meta/translation (and the time loop fic) I’dtry to write it myself!

As for that particular moment, that’s a good question! Icould picture a number of possibilities, but I do think for the most part thatit would go largely the same at first. The thing with that particular moment isthat none of the other survivors are really as suited for stepping into thesort of Hope’s Peak, “hope vs. despair” role as Kiibo is.

Ouma himself is someone who denies extremes and idealsentirely, preferring to stay to a middle ground almost the entire time; he’sextremely good at differentiating between truth and lies and recognizing whereboth have their uses, but like Saihara, he’s definitely not interested inpicking a side in the “hope vs. despair” conflict. Something of interest Inoted while translating the scene in Chapter 5 where Ouma tells the group the “truthof the outside world” is that even prior to the Hope’s Peak remember light actuallyshowing up, Ouma actually uses the words “hope” and “despair” twice each. He’sthe only character to bring thosewords in particular up prior to the Hope’s Peak remember light, actually.

Despite the fact that he was clearly intended to fill therole of the ringleader and be Tsumugi’s idea of “SHSL Despair” if possible,Ouma rejects all of that pretty emphatically. He mentions both hope and despairin that particular speech, but not in the sense of adhering to either one.Ideals are dangerous; ideals get people killed by rushing into reckless action(as Chapter 5 in general is pretty excellent proof of). He would much ratherstick to truth, to reality that he can confirm with his own two eyes, and tolies which can themselves be “elevated” to reality if they’re accepted as suchby other people.

Even just before his death in the flashbacks we see afterthe Chapter 5 trial, Ouma mentions the word “despair” twice, and fascinatinglyenough, only in the sense of weaponizing it against the ringleader themselves.The possibility that he was perhaps given a talent very close to SHSL Analysis(I still say SHSL Chessmaster but there are quite a few possibilities),something meant to make people turnto despair and want to do cruel, awful things to other people, is extremelyinteresting.

And what’s most interesting of all is the fact that evenwhen pushed to his limits and even when Tsumugi and the Team Danganronpaproducers clearly wanted him to be this huge “big bad,” he only ever wanted toturn that despair right back onto the people who had dealt it out in the firstplace. Team DR and the killing game audience who find things like despair, pain,and suffering “interesting” or “fun” are the only ones he wants to see suffer.And considering how everything else in DR has dealt with despair actuallyfunctioning as a temporary “cure” for boredom, something interesting that takesthe edge off for characters like Junko and Kamukura, Ouma rejecting the idea ofdespair as “fun” is incredible and impressive, in my opinion.

This suggests to me that when Tsumugi really started bringingout the big guns in Chapter 6 by claiming credit for every individual thought,emotion, and desire they’d all had as “fictional characters” within the killinggame show, there are a few ways it could go, really. I don’t think Ouma wouldjump on board with any “hope vs. despair” nonsense—certainly he wouldn’t be theinspirational, motivational figure any more than Saihara was, moreso after allthe trauma him surviving Chapter 5 would entail what with getting poisoned andMomota sacrificing himself.

If anything, even he might be a little overwhelmed for awhile before being able to respond. After all, Tsumugi’s big “reveals” are sortof a worst-case scenario for him and all the characters involved. Absolutelynothing they went through or suffered had any meaning whatsoever, all of it wasengineered for entertainment, they have no loved ones and no one waiting forthem outside, etc. The idea of not knowing for sure what’s going on in his ownhead is a common theme with Ouma, and Tsumugi’s “facts” would probably takesome adjusting to before he could sort out the lies from the truth.

This means Kiibo would probably still be the only one in thegroup to actually respond to the call for a more traditional DR protagonistfigure and listen to his “inner voice” (meaning the voice of the ndrv3audience). That scene was tremendous fun and iconic because it played withexpectations so much—even Kiibo taking the lead and stepping in as theprotagonist was something Tsumugi herself hoped would happen because it was away to simultaneously make the game more exciting and also steer it into theoutcome of “hope triumphing over despair” that she and the audience clearlypreferred.

The difference is, with Ouma around… Well I’m not even sureif the scene would’ve been taken seriously, because considering Ouma’s hatredfor the audience, the fact that he clearly guessed Kiibo was connected to theaudience in some way even early on in the plot, and the fact that he wasabsolutely unconnected to the Hope’s Peak remember light means that I couldhonestly see him just laughing. Probably a bit maniacally, with some of hismore ruthless sprites.

Kiibo’s fun time to shine as a protagonist might have gottencut considerably short since Ouma would probably have revamped his villain actall the way up in order to laugh in the audience’s faces—something I’d quitelike to see, actually. It’s certainly true that the group needed motivation andinspiration in order to go on and not just give up. But like Saihara, Ouma issomeone who recognizes (recognized early than anyone, in fact) that playinginto those themes of “hope vs. despair” is just playing directly into the rulesof the killing game itself.

Choosing either one, especially choosing “hope,” meansreinforcing the entire cycle of the killing game. The “hope” that the audienceso badly wanted was itself a false hope based on nothing but wanting to see allthe characters suffer first in-game, then overcome things with the power offriendship and move on together right at the very end. And that isn’t somethingthat would give their existences as “fiction” any particular meaning, if theywere to just go along with it.

Ouma might well have interrupted Kiibo even before Saiharadid with his own version of a “what the hell do you mean ‘hope’” speech. Notonly that, but unlike Saihara, Ouma would probably very much have caught ontosome of Tsumugi’s more obvious lies, since it’s pretty apparent to anyone withan eye for detail that there’s no way she could have planned Momota’s illnessfrom the start, let alone controlled all their emotions or thoughts or romanticinclinations.

Tsumugi herself stumbled pretty noticeably at times, and Idon’t doubt all of these things would click into place pretty well inhindsight. So I’d love to see Ouma back on his feet and sort of calling her outrelentlessly on all these lies, really. No one else in ndrv3 is better atsniffing out the lies of others or seeing through them in about two secondsflat, and the fact that he would have so ruthlessly and relentlessly torn herargument to pieces would itself probably have shocked the other characters backinto responding and not feeling quite so depressed.

Ouma would never be the sort of character to willingly comeforward as a protagonist himself. As much as he loves attentions, he very muchprefers doing things either from the shadows, or else setting himself up as thevillain in some way or other. He’s not used to just straightforward attentionand recognition; as far as his in-game backstory goes, I doubt it’s somethinghe’s received a lot of outside of his time with DICE, perhaps. Not only that,but he clearly hates and resents himself for the sort of tactics he had to usein order to progress in the game as far as he did. Suddenly becoming amotivational protagonist is definitely not his style.

So even if he were to take the reins from Kiibo and startturning the conversation back towards “truth vs. lies” rather than “hope vs.despair,” I think he’d love to do so with his usual villain routine, ratherthan any heroic speeches or attempts to style himself as the protagonist. Itwould certainly help him to give both Tsumugi and the audience themselves ataste of “true despair,” just as he said he wanted to before he died in Chapter5.

Anyway, these are just my thoughts on it. Having Ouma livepast Chapter 5 opens up so many possibilities and it’s still one of my favoritethings to consider, since I feel he would’ve made an extremely interestingsurvivor (and I’m not just saying that because he’s my favorite character, Ipromise). Thank you so much for asking!

[oumakokichi]

I've been reading your metas and I want to say that they're really well thought and impressively intensive! Got a question that I'm not sure if you've answered however: if Ouma was meant to be a "pawn of the mastermind" and had despair imbued into his talent, do you think his amazing intellect might have come from actually having the SHSL Analyst talent along with his Leader talent?

I think it’s a distinct possibility! Ouma’s despair role isinteresting, because clearly it’s something he himself wasn’t the most awareof. Or rather, while he suspected himself of having been the intendedfigurehead for the real mastermind, and he knew he clearly had things abouthimself that were fitting for an “evil Supreme Leader,” etc., he didn’t knowabout hope vs. despair terminology, because those things weren’t something thatTsumugi actually busted out as her trump card until Chapter 5.

So while Ouma definitely seems to have been someone Tsumugiwanted to manipulate and use as a pawn the entire way through, I don’t think heactually was supposed to know or think of himself as SHSL Despair until thevery end. Had everything gone according to Tsumugi’s plans (meaning if Oumahadn’t been nearly as big of a pain in her ass as he was), she probably plannedto corner Ouma with a remember light specifically designed and entailed forhim, to make him “remember” about how he was “the successor of Junko Enoshima”and encourage him to go full Remants of Despair Leader, claim credit foreverything, and ultimately be “defeated and talked down by students of Hope’sPeak Academy,” only to kill himself in a fit of despair just like Junko did.

I’d bet that that’s quite literally how the script waswritten, if you will, not least of all because Tsumugi and the other charactersmake plenty of allusions to expecting “Ouma” (meaning Momota in the Exisal) tokill himself just like Junko at the end of their discussion.

Of course, it’s doubtful that the brainwashing ever workedon Ouma in the first place the same as it did among his classmates, precisely because he was twisted so far from hisoriginal character and the original state of things. As someone whose “evil organization”was actually ten kids running around, with a motto like “we don’t kill people,”pulling “laughable crimes” that got nobody hurt, it’s clear that trying toactually turn him into a sadistic, horrible mastermind character was mostlikely intended as some kind of message, or punishment.

Ouma’s clothing and treatment, the location of his lab, andthe entire role planned for him in the game went above and beyond what wasplanned for or expected of any of the other characters. As smart as he is, hewas bound to notice the discrepancy between his real memories and the things he“remembered” only because the remember lights told him they were real. So evenif Tsumugi had actually gotten this far, it’s an interesting question ofwhether it would’ve worked or not. Either way, that was clearly just her idealscenario, because she felt Ouma would have played the role of Junko-likevillain so perfectly.

And if he actually had been given some kind of SHSL Analysttalent or something very similar as a “surefire way” to try and make himdespair, because that’s exactly what happened to characters like Junko andKamukura…well, that would explain a lotactually. If the innate ability to see ahead and predict things and knoweverything leads to boredom, and boredom inevitably leads to despair, then thatwould perhaps have been Ouma’s “given talent.” I could see him having been apretty smart and perceptive kid even pre-game, but this kind of talent woulddefinitely take things to the next level, and explain why he’s able to predictjust as much as he is, to the point that it’s actually a little terrifying.

It wouldn’t be the first time ndrv3 had a lot of imagerywith “dual talents,” either. Ryouma quite literally has two talents at once,and two labs to embody them. As the survivor of a previous killing game show,Amami is speculated to have been “given” the SHSL Adventure title his firsttime around, and he earned “SHSL Survivor” as his talent for entry into thesecond one. Kiibo is clearly meant to have been “a SHSL Robot” by virtue of hisexistence, which is perhaps the closest thing to Naegi’s uncontrollable andun-asked for SHSL Good Luck, and he was supposed to become SHSL Hope later onin the game the way Tsumugi planned for Ouma to be SHSL Despair.

Ouma having “two talents,” or at least the fact that hisfirst talent was more of a cover for something else we can’t quite know about,seems like it wouldn’t be very far from the mark at all. After all, Junko, whowas known as a SHSL Gyaru, and who actually introduces herself as SHSL Despair,honestly does trace all the way back to being a SHSL Analyst, and that itselfis the cause of her despair.

There seem to be quite a lot of hints too that while Ouma iscertainly good at leading, and can and will do so from the shadows ratheraggressively, his SHSL Supreme Leader title is blatantly a lie of some sort.Kaede questions as much within his first two FTEs, and I believe even in thedemo and in his introduction, Naegi mentioned that the only information he hadaccess to about Ouma was just what were on the entry-level files available toall students. Saihara also brings up not being able to find any clues orinformation on Ouma being a real-life “evil Supreme Leader” of anything—and ifthe detective can’t find clues to the mystery, it likely means they don’t exist,because clues have to be presented.

Even in additional bonus content meant mostly for humor, Komaeda of all people can’t find asingle thing on Ouma being a Supreme Leader, or on any kind of actual secret,evil organization. The interaction between Komaeda and Ouma was likely meantfor comic relief, to some degree, but I think it was a valuable hint that therereally is no way Ouma could be leading any kind of actual crime organization orbe any kind of Supreme Leader in real life, because if there were anyinformation at all, Komaeda would be able to find it. Komaeda’s luck works insuch a way that he finds absolutely anything and everything he wants, as longas it exists to be found. So the logical conclusion is…it doesn’t exist.

All of this tells us that him having an actual hidden talentis extremely likely, and that this talent itself was likely how he was “imbuedwith despair” and meant to be turned into Tsumugi’s “pawn.” SHSL Analyst is alikely one, although given that Ouma is still considerably nerfed down comparedto Junko and Kamukura, I’d like to think perhaps he was given a slightvariation of this.

Which is how I present to you my own theory, which of courseis tentative, but I think it would fit: SHSL Chessmaster.

Where Junko’s analysis (and Kamukura’s) works largely bybeing able to take in absolutely every single bit of information in the hereand now, and being constantly, continuously aware of what almost every singleperson is planning and thinking and doing and therefore “knowing” what’s goingto happen to them as a result, Ouma works much more with hypotheticals. Hesticks to chessboard theory, treats everything around him as a game to be won,and predicts according to future “moves,” always having to look at hisclassmates as though they are pieces to be moved around or avoided depending ontheir most likely set of actions.

This means that sometimes he’s looking so far ahead at the “nextmoves” that he actually gets a little distracted in the here and now. Helegitimately just gets way too far ahead of himself and has to remind himselfconstantly that the other characters aren’t quite following him, and thenbacktracks and tries to bait them into realizing something or other (usuallyvery impatiently).

A perfect example of this was in Chapter 4, when it wasalready so obvious to him that he couldn’t have murdered Miu right from thestart of the trial that he seems legitimately just caught off guard and blankfor a second when Himiko reminds him that of course he has reason to lie tothem about it, because he’s a suspect. He pauses quite a long time in thatmoment before kind of forcing himself to rewind and come down to their levelfor a bit, because he was so far off in his own plans that it’s hard to go atwhat must seem like such a slower pace.

SHSL Chessmaster would make perfect sense in my own opinion,considering his black and white imagery, the checkered scarf looking like agameboard, and the fact that his name references two chess pieces, the King andthe Knight. The part of him that is extremely cold and calculating existsprecisely because this kind of cold, hard logic is what he excels at—and in themeantime, the fact that he can only really excel when he’s playing things “as agame” would explain why he tries so hard to counteract the boredom by spicingthings up and making everything fun, because lighthearted pranks are so essential to his character.

If Ouma were a chessmaster, and I personally think he was,he was a fascinating one, because despite how easy it would have been to “winthe game” from the perspective of Tsumugi’s and the usual killing game rules,he wanted to play by his own rules. He snatched control of Tsumugi’s game farbeyond what he was supposed to do, tried to grind the game to a halt, andultimately refused to play the part of any pawn. And when he had everyopportunity to “remove pieces” that might have made his life easier, like Maki,he stopped, because he had done that kind of thing before with Gonta and Miu,and was no longer finding the game worth playing. Resorting to those kinds oftactics was unforgivable to him, and he couldn’t bring himself to do it again,and that’s why he took his own piece off the chessboard at the very endinstead.

Anyway, I’m getting super long with this so I’ll go aheadand stop, but this was so much fun to write about, and I really enjoyed it! Ifeel like SHSL Chessmaster is very, very close to what Kodaka at least intendedfor players to get out of Ouma, or at least understand that it’s a talent thatis supposed to be “like Junko’s but different,” because Ouma went so far offthe rails of what any other character in DR has done before, and intentionallytried to fight the killing game and the mastermind every step of the wayinstead of just doing what they wanted him to do. Thank you so much for givingme a chance to write about this, anon!

[oumakokichi]

What do you think about the nature of Maki and Kaito's relationship? Like, even though Tsumugi says she set the scenario up, do you think that it's possible that she was lying? I'm interested to hear your thoughts about their chemistry. Love your blog btw 💕💕💕

Thank you for these questions! I’m putting them together andwant to answer them like this because while the answer to this question is veryimportant in regards to Maki and Momota both as characters, I want to answer itspecifically because I feel like this question is vital to pinpointing whereand how Tsumugi starts lying in Chapter 6.

Of course, things are largely still going to be a matter ofspeculation, because the entire point of ndrv3’s ending is to remain largelyuncertain to both the players and the characters themselves. But I feel likethere were a few huge hints droppedby Tsumugi throughout the trial, and these really glaring contradictions in herclaims are what make me not only think it’s possible, but that she was very likely lying about setting thewhole romance scenario up.

Part of the reason I think so many people had such a hugekneejerk negative reaction to ndrv3’s ending is precisely because of the scaleon which Tsumugi starts claiming things at some point. If it were only one partof the twist, like with the characters never having attended Hope’s PeakAcademy or not having SHSL talents of their own, that would be one thing. Ithink people could have handled this particular twist on its own fairly well,not least of all because sdr2 had similar, or even wilder twists, with theentire Neo World Program and the deaths having all been fake.

The problem is that Tsumugi goes above and beyond the normalscale of things, because ndrv3 is all about lying. People in the heat of themoment and right in the middle of Chapter 6 with all the “reveals” hitting themone after the other are kind of inclined to take everything she says either atface value, or else deny literally all of it to themselves because they hatewhat they’re hearing—and I think that’s exactlywhat Kodaka wanted and expected.

As with everything in ndrv3, the answer lies somewhere inthe middle. You can’t take anything entirely at face value, because you have tothink critically about what’s being said and analyze it for yourself. But youalso can’t just discount everything Tsumugi is saying either, because then youget no truths or reveals whatsoever. Until you believe the mystery is going tohave clues presented and that it’s going to be solvable, you never actuallymake an effort to try and solve it.

When Tsumugi claims that she set up the romance development betweenMaki and Momota, and even between all the other characters’ interactions aswell, including Saihara and Kaede and even Tenko and Himiko (she doesn’tspecifically use romance for himitenko, but I’m glad they were included on thesame scale when everyone started talking about dead love interests anyway), shedoes so very deliberately.

Tsumugi might not have SHSL Analysis or be a SHSLChessmaster the way I suspect Ouma is, but that’s okay, because she doesn’tneed it. Her smarts don’t lie in analyzing or predicting things before theyoccur, but in reacting to the situation after they happen, weaving an entirelynew scenario out of any twist that comes her way, and ultimately fakingsomething so perfectly it becomes indistinguishable from reality. She might notbe a genius, but she’s very smart, and make no mistake that she knows how to manipulatepeople, and which things to target in order to manipulate them the best.

When she starts lying about implanting everyone’s feelings, rightdown to every single miniscule thought they ever had or every little thing theyever did or said, she does it because she knows that that’s the single best wayto break their willpower. Up until she said that, everyone was talking aboutgetting out of the school, investigating the outside world, finding some placefor them to go back to. Even though they realized their talents and backstorieswere “fictional” they were still relatively comfortable knowing that at leastthey ways they reacted to things within the game were real.

So of course, Tsumugi tries to smash that into pieces. Shewants them to feel uncomfortable. She wants to give them no sense of security,to take credit for everything so that they will ultimately do two things: 1.)Feel insecure and uncertain enough that they no longer have any willpower toquestion her lies and therefore can’t escape the school or open the catbox, and2.) Despair, give up completely, so that she can then count on Kiibo to comearound as her hope-filled protagonist and carry the killing game broadcast toits inevitable hope vs. despair conclusion, which is what the audience wants tosee more than anything.

It’s a brilliant plan, because the characters and theplayers fall for it pretty easily. With no way to refute her claim and noimmediate way to objectively prove she didn’t control everyone’s emotions orwrite out every single scenario from start to finish, it’s such a…well, adepressing blow. It’s not the kind of story anyone wants to hear. Finding outthat all these little twists and turns of character development had nothing todo with the characters’ free will is the most depressing blow Tsumugi couldever land, and it works like a charm.

The characters give up. Saihara gives up completely, onlycoming back around to question the real truth of things again when Kiiboactually chimes in with the SHSL Hope routine. This was probably the exactpoint at which I’d be willing to bet most people playing the game almost gaveup and became very, very unhappy with the way things were going.

And now this brings me to why I’m so certain that this was alie, and part of Tsumugi’s claims rather than anything actually within therealm of possibility—because I’m really, almost entirely sure. There’s one factin particular that almost 100% undeniably proves that Tsumugi was blindsidedabout certain developments and took credit for them anyway, and that is Momota’s illness.

During the Chapter 6 trial, Tsumugi takes credit not onlyfor Maki’s romantic feelings towards Momota, but for pretty much everythingabout their little school lives and scenario in general. She claims she andTeam Danganronpa were the ones who gave Momota his sickness in the first place,that it was all a twist she thought up, but the thing is, it’s the mostobviously bullshit claim out of all her claims save for perhaps the one aboutOuma being a pawn.

There is no way Momota’s illness was anything she planned,and that’s because there was literally nothingabout him being sick in the remember lights that she gave to him.

At the end of the Chapter 5 trial, when Momota finally comesclean about the state of his body, it’s really, very apparent that Tsumugi hadno idea about this. The fact that he was sick, really sick, even though in theremember lights she’d provided them all with they were all supposed to beperfectly immune from any kind of virus that wiped out all of humanity, caughther off guard. She and the others ask Momota at what point he remembers gettingsick, or when it started, but he says he literally has no idea, because it’snot something he remembered at all prior to the killing game.

Literally, he only realized he was sick when he startedcoughing up blood and feeling horrible within the game itself. In all his “memories,”all the things implanted for him via the remember lights, including hismemories of SHSL Astronaut training, he was just fine. And these are allmemories very specifically crafted and concocted by Tsumugi.

If him being sick had been one of her “developments” sheplanned in order to “make the game more exciting,” there’s no way she wouldn’thave had him remember being sick in the remember lights. Those lightsthemselves were the way in which she “rewrote” the game, every single time. Andyet, there was nothing about his illness at all, in any of them? I simply findit hard to believe that that would be the case unless Momota’s illness wassupposed to be objective proof that there were clearly things she and the killing game producers could beblindsided on and knew nothing about.

And considering how obviously she was sweating bullets uponrealizing that Momota had been sick the entire time and that she’d nevernoticed, I think that means there’s a fair amount we can guess about some ofthe things in the outside world being true, like the virus. There’s no way thestate of the outside world could be entirely peaceful or fine if there’s still thisbrutal, debilitating illness that can destroy people’s health in a very shortamount of time.

If Momota’s illness works as proof that Tsumugi was willingto take credit for things she clearly had no idea about (and I believe itdoes), then I think it’s very much the same with not only Maki’s feelings forMomota, but all of the characters’ feelings. Remember lights can only implantbits and pieces of backstory and ideas, and try to get the characters to makedecisions based on those. They can’t implant feelings, and they can’t completely overwrite what a characternormally would or wouldn’t do.

Because all the characters are still undeniably living,breathing human beings with free will of their own, the things they do in thegame are all inevitably up to them. Tsumugi’s remember lights could help tosuggest certain things, and she could certainly use them as a way ofmanipulating the situation to her advantage, as she did in Chapter 5. But theyabsolutely could not decide how a character would think or feel about anotherperson.

Make no mistake, I think Tsumugi liked the romancedevelopments that occurred. As someone who lives primarily for the sake ofentertainment, she knew that the audience would buy into them, and they werethings that she wanted to encourage because they were good for the ratings. Atone point in Chapter 5, she even tries to imply that there’s some kind oftriangle development with Saihara, Maki, and Momota, questioning Saihara on ifhe has secret feelings for Maki. I feel it’s clear with little glimpses ofTsumugi like these that she wanted these things to happen, that she felt they’dbe really exciting for the viewers—but they weren’t something she had directcontrol over, clearly, because as we can see, Saihara clearly doesn’t have anyromantic feelings for Maki, or vice-versa.

The reason Maki fell for Momota was entirely of her ownaccord. As someone whose in-game backstory left her feeling as though she’dlived her entire life without ever having any free will or making any choicesof her own, Maki was not accustomed to feelingthings. And the fact that Momota was so undeniably supportive, so aggressivelytake-charge of his own life, and so willing to encourage her and to believethat she had options available to her besides just being an assassin, wassomething I feel she was very drawn to.

It was the first time in her life she was able to feelsomething and recognize it as something she wanted, and that’s why she waswilling to kill for it in Chapter 5. To someone like Maki, who had no degree offree will in the past, getting just a taste of it was enough to make herincredibly reckless and willing to risk everything for it.

And because it was the first and only thing she was eversure about wanting for herself in her life, that’s precisely why Tsumugitargeted those feelings in the last trial, and tried to make her and Saiharaand Himiko all feel as though they weren’t ever truly acting of their ownaccord, that they didn’t make any steps of development that Tsumugi herselfdidn’t want them to. Tsumugi is perfectly willing to lie as an antagonist. Shespecializes in creating situations where it’s almost objectively impossible toprove that she’s lying, because it allows the perfect degree of uncertainty andillusion for her to hide behind.

But since a mystery has to have clues presented and therehave to be things to give us some idea of how to take the ending and theepilogue, I think certain things were definitely left in to tip us off,especially on a replay, that not every claim Tsumugi made was possible for her.And Momota’s illness I feel is perhaps one of the bets tip-offs in the entiregame to this fact, and is precisely why I’m almost entirely positive thatTsumugi’s claims from that point on were mostly just her doing a grand-scaleillusion and taking credit for anything and everything that would make thecharacters feel more defeated. After all, there was no reason for her to lie somuch and so hard unless the characters were actually hitting very close to thetruth.

I hope I got my points across pretty well! I feel like withmomoharu as a ship, there’s definitely room to interpret how Momota felt aboutMaki pretty freely. Whether he reciprocated her romantic feelings or onlythought of her as a really good friend who he wanted to support and see improveherself, she was very clearly important to him. With Maki, her romanticfeelings were undeniable. They’re a huge part of the plot, just as Saihara’s feelingsfor Kaede are, and Himiko’s feelings for Tenko.

And it’s precisely because of how plot-relevant andimportant these feelings the survivors had for the ones they cared about werethat Tsumugi tried to weaponize them and push them down and call them fake. Bydemeaning those feelings, Tsumugi was able to crush not only the will to go onof the characters, but almost of the entire fanbase, and that’s prettyincredible.

Kodaka made a point of wanting to include more “confirmed”romance this time around in ndrv3, according to the last interview of his Iread. Nothing too terribly confirmed, since ndrv3 usually does a pretty goodjob of leaving most relationships either confirmed only on one side or up tointerpretation as friends. But you can tell he definitely did confirm a lotmore romantic feelings among the characters this time around, including Maki’sfeelings for Momota, and I feel like it was for this exact purpose. By gettingthe players invested in these romances themselves, the very act of questioningthose feelings later only hurts more.

It was a devious, brilliant move, both by Tsumugi andKodaka, and I have to say, it’s pretty fun to go back and pick it apart andfigure out why it’s a lie. Thank you both for asking about this, and I hope Iwas able to give some insight!

[angstandhappiness]

INTERESTING

OP's tags @imminent-danger-came: #aka he is a Destiny defying boy#or he is doomed by Destiny...#somehow he is both#I'm almost feeling like he's a chessmaster in a sense.#'Just a piece in a game you can not possible comprehend' oh but he's the one who plans#He's a piece and a chessmaster...at the same time!#Hmmm. Or maybe we're goin' the Azure route#You know#being too oblivious in your own delusion to realize that you're a mere piece in someone else's game#BUT. I feel like some folk can be on the receiving end of this but from MK.#Like. In a sense....LBD was a mere piece in MK's game...you know what I'm saying?#It's late and I'm a bit unhinged but that's okay#Leethee will understand me perfectly#game motif#lmk rant#lmk speculation

@241cookies: #again#PLEAAASE CHECK THE ORIGINAL POST#the tags are brilliant lore fuel

@imminent-danger-came: #NOT KICKING THE CAN DOWN THE OL' HALF MARATHON#thank you for the food leethee#this fine line MK walks is so interesting because like#in 1x05 he isn't even tempted by the 'perfect' world#Like not even a little bit. He likes that his friends have their flaws/quirks. He likes them for who they are#But he also like....can't cope with how flawed the world is???#Like he knows that his friend's are good people. But he can't deal with/straight up ignores SWK not being a good person in the past#He can't cope with his own tragic role of hurting people#I am like. Hmmm!#Once again MK see's the strengths and individual characteristics of his friends (like different chess pieces)#But he hates being the chessmaster#But his friends can also be like ''Hell yeah MK move us around in a way that'll let us win''#I need to learn how to play xiangqi apparently#Which. After googling it that is definitely the piece Tang threw at MK at the beginning of 2x07#Oh. Oh noooooooooooooooooooooooo#Wait isn't MK's name in Chinese literally Qí Xiǎotiān#Qí Xiǎotiān. Xiàngqí. Someone who knows more about the Chinese language than I is there a connection#I believe Qí Xiǎotiān is some variant of "little heaven''

@fluffypotatey: #oh dam 🫠#guve me a sec I’m on the road I will be back

@spoofyleaf: #super interesting#got me thinking#and I’d like to stop thinking /j

@ideas-of-immortality: #bruh those tags?????#hnnnnngggg#MKKKKKKKKKK

@solarartzz: #YOU CANT DO THIS TO ME

@its-leethee: #i just have to look at them next to each other. this brilliant game of tag we're all playing together @imminent-danger-came @fluffypotatey#lego monkie kid#also asked my partner. xiàngqí means elephant (xiàn 象) chess (qí 棋). there's a piece called elephant (& horse and soldiers etc)#father in law tried to teach me and kiddos to play and we are still terrible at it#小天 xiăo tiān little heaven and it's a play from “great sage equal to heaven” qítiān (w heaven/sky) dàshèng (big holy) (齊天大聖)#but my partner speaks cantonese and my mandarin is barely past “túshū guăn zàinăli” so i'm just white girl googling from here#forbidden op lore

@fluffypotatey: #i am swimming in a pool of my own insanity

You know also just realized that MK is the "Plan Man" and Destiny has been explicitly stated as "having plans" (great or foul), like MK is Destiny or could go toe to toe with Destiny, depending on whether or not their plans converge or differ.