#VERY long rant

[codenamesazanka]

I'm sorry, I'm fixated on The Walk because it has seemed like such a pivotal point in Shigaraki's life, and in the story. And then when it finally came time for Deku to save Shigaraki/Tenko... it gets relegated to two measly panels. 

In Chapter 69, Shigaraki reveals his resentment of basically the entire world for being so carefree when they know, logically, someone is out there suffering - "someone, somewhere...is off killing people, for whatever reason... these fools keep smiling and laughing... living their lives." 

Later, building on this idea, he realizes - and states out loud to Deku - that All Might annoys him because All Might has created a false sense of peace. Plus, All Might himself smiles so bright and cheerful, as if he's invincible, as if he can and has saved everyone: "The reason these fools can smile and live their lives... is cuz All Might's always got that grin on this face... Smiling wide, as if to say... There's no one he can't save!!" 

Paired with a flashback of a severed hand, much like the ones Shigaraki wears, the implication is clear: Shigaraki resents how no one came to save him when he had a quirk accident that killed his dad/family; moreover, specifically, he seems to hate the bystander effect - that tragedy and suffering can happen but the people around such incidents can just not give a single crap. There are people in trouble, but the majority of the world doesn't bother to help, because they think Heroes will take care of it - All Might, especially, has made them feel like it's just not their problem. 

This was before Shigaraki regained his memories, but his life since the amnesia hasn't really disproven any of that. He was picked up by AFO, a Villain, first of all; but he would later create the League, all members of who have clearly suffered from something and was never saved - not by Heroes, but also not by people who are supposed to protect them, like parents and family, and not by their fellow humans. 

There's a reason Shigaraki targeted Bakugou to kidnap and recruit - he saw someone who seemed to be restricted and suppressed, literally bound and gagged on live television, a thing allowed and even awkwardly laughed at by the people around him. All Might was smiling as he presented a medal to the clearly upset boy. And so he thought Bakugou would understand.

When Shigaraki remembers his past, his memories also don't disprove the bystander effect and his hatred of it either. In the house his father built, everyone saw he was suffering, but did nothing. They never stepped in to stop Kotarou’s harsh punishments; in fact, they only ever come to him in the aftermath to try to coax him to stop crying - essentially telling Tenko that hey, they aren't going to stop the actual problem (Kotarou), but they will try to make Tenko accept it. As if it's not their problem, but rather Tenko's. Tenko says that all he needed was just to hear a word of encouragement from them, but they couldn't even give him that. 

All this passivity in the family eventually leads to the moment when Kotarou slaps Tenko hard - twice! - and yet his mom and grandparents only stood by and watched. (Afterwards, they apparently also allowed Tenko to be forced to stay outside, crying, until nightfall.)

Then, of course, is The Walk.

Dozens of people saw a clearly-distressed lost child walk past them, and did nothing. Tenko at that moment is tragedy and suffering made manifest - he's a tiny little boy, alone, scared into silence, bloodstained, barefoot on concrete in a city. He's not hidden away or in some unknown corner of the shadowy edges of society - he's there in front of everyone, in broad daylight. 

And no one bothers to give a crap. Or, even if they do, briefly feeling troubled at the sight, they look away. The one lady who did try to help ends up deciding this was above her pay grade and explicitly states never mind, Heroes will take care of it. Everyone at the scene feels it's not their problem. 

(And the thing is - Tenko knew he deserved to be saved. There's one line that always stuck out to me: "I thought maybe the reason no one helped me was because I was being punished for killing my family." 

Tenko knew he did something bad, he was feeling immense guilt, so much that he was rendered mute, but he wasn't expecting to be punished then and there - he hadn't written himself off. Not being helped wasn't a foregone conclusion yet. He killed his family, but he wanted help - he knew he should be helped. Basically, it wasn't immediately, "I did something bad, so of course a Hero won't be here, now I need to run away and hide" - it was "[I did something bad, but] somebody... anybody, just me tell [what to do]. Someone help me." The idea that he deserved being ignored because of what he did seemed to have only come afterwards. 

This is why, I believe, in Chapter 365, Inner Tenko thought, "I wasn't broken back then... but it's not like anybody reached out a helping hand to me. It's not like anybody even looked at me." 

Two of the flashbacks are scenes from after he did a Bad Thing - Hana running away after he killed their dog; the old lady turning away, after he wandered into the city post-massacre. He did a Bad Thing, but "I wasn't broken back then..." 

There's also the flashbacks of the family pre-massacre. Scenes of his grandparents trying to pacify him, of his mom looking sad, of Kotarou being angry with him - all likely because Tenko was in trouble for talking about Heroes again, which was against the household rules, but wasn't/shouldn't be a strike against him. He was restricted and suppressed and couldn't fit in with the family, but "I wasn't broken back then..."

All those people in his family, on the streets - none of them ever helped.)

The Walk is the ultimate embodiment of his long and ongoing issue of Heroes and regular people doing shit nothing. It's the exact complaint Shigaraki was giving in Chapter 69. It's completely damning. 

This is what Shigaraki means when he says "everything I've witnessed..." in Jaku in Chapter 281 (and again in Chapter 379). He's seen it all - how there's all this pain, but Heroes have not done anything about it. And because Heroes are pillars of the community - because Heroes are civil servants, essentially representative of the governing system - the regular masses of citizens both follow their example while also becoming complacent. Now they just smile and laugh, living their lives, as if Heroes will and should take care of everything and all will be and is fine. 

Early on, Shigaraki put most of the blame on Heroes and so focused most of his plots on them - the USJ attack and Camp Raid were on Hero students - but he very much disliked the civilians and their bystander apathy too, and was already starting to make plans to destroy the system that enabled that. It’s remembering the Shimura Household Dysfunction and The Walk - the lack of help, the rejection, all civilians that passed him by - that really solidifies his hatred and conviction, causing him to fully embrace destruction - his attacks post MVA doesn't target just Heroes, but everything and basically everyone.

AND YET. Barely any of this shows up when Deku comes to save Tenko in Chapter 418. 

In fact, it starts in Chapter 417, when Nana and Deku intervene in Kotarou's slapping of Tenko. The rest of the family is noticeably absent. The only thing Deku and Nana needed to do was stop Kotarou. That Tenko also had an issue with how the family kept taking Kotarou's side and abiding by the abuse? Not relevant anymore, I guess. 

(Also, Tenko actually does believe he's broken, been broken from the start for being born with Decay. He even wonders why Deku would come help him. Somehow "I wasn't broken back then... but it's not like anyone even looked at me," has become "I'm broken and who could ever look at me given the way I am?" Note additionally that Deku doesn't actually discourage this notion. He only says "Well, I'm here to take your hand and give you peace.")

Meanwhile, The Walk is no longer part of Tenko's origin - or at least, not significant enough to warrant a Memory Environment. Yes, it's true that stopping and saving Tenko at The Massacre means Tenko wouldn't go on to walk The Walk, and I suppose you can argue that technically the issue of bystander effect has been solved since someone did finally show up to help. Deku didn't have to help, but he did. He made it his problem to figure out why Shigaraki seemed so sad inside, and he reached out a hand. 

But like. The Walk is still a thing that happened? It's still a problem? All those people still ignored a five year old? Deku saving Tenko doesn't mean the old lady suddenly gained a backbone and conscience to not walk away. In fact, it just makes it even more 'not her problem' because after all, a Hero did show up! She did exactly what she was supposed to do - nothing. 

It’s just not addressed. To quote @stillness-in-green, “Shigaraki gets way more dangerous to the common civilian after he gets his memories back, and it's a real crock that the story doesn't address that specific turn and what causes it, instead retrenching to "The Slap Bad; AFO Bad.””

I don't like Deku much, and I probably would've rolled my eyes at it, but I did really think Deku would get to be at the memory of The Walk, and he was see all these civilians ignoring Tenko, and he would be gutted and horrified, and maybe he’ll hear what the old lady say about “the police or a hero or somebody will help” as she leaves, and he’ll think something like ‘that's right, a Hero should be helping… but that doesn't mean all you civilians can't even ask if Tenko’s okay and walk him to a police box’, and he would chase after Tenko to save him, and maybe even say something like ‘What you said at Jaku about civilians being coddled. I know it too well that they didn’t want to get dirty. They're trying to support Heroes better now, but they should also support each other. We should all help each other. Let’s change things. I’m here now.’ Because it would make sense and provide a conclusion to this whole thing???

But no. Shigaraki wants to destroy because Tenko was sad he was born with an evil quirk and because of that he doesn't know how to love himself and so the source of the problem ultimately lies with himself. Deku is here to validate his existence so Tenko can feel better that someone accepts him so he can learn to love himself and stop all this nonsense. Except wait it turns out AFO gave him Decay and also turns out AFO manipulated his life since even before his conception so who knows what's even real anymore. Maybe the people on the streets really wanted to help Tenko but AFO made a gas leak fill the city with Asshole Gas and so no one helped and Shigaraki has been operating under a gaslit delusion for the past 15 years and his grievance against bystander apathy is completely invalid. Bummer. 

The series hasn't ended yet, and it's possible that the Walk will still be addressed. I've seen it theorized that civilians will show up to help stop AFO and finally save Shigaraki/Tenko like he had wanted all those people on the streets to do all those years ago. 

However, without the problem explicitly stated or even known - Deku never sees the family passivity, and he seems to have only caught glimpses of The Walk (and of course has no reaction/introspection/opinion on it) - this feels unlikely. Plus, the recent chapter hasn't filled me with hope or inspiration. The best the civilian could do was offer an All Might t-shirt. That's not exactly "I won't assume a Hero will take care of it and I'll take action myself"; it's more "I'll trust in Heroes even more to take care of the problem." I know that's not exactly fair, in that fighting AFO and helping a lost child are problems of very different magnitudes. But the fact the story hasn't given the civilians an opportunity to ‘redeem’ themselves, so to speak, in the latter case kinda proves my point, I think. 

So far, the story seems to think that Shigaraki's issue with passivity and complacency is actually irrelevant. Or has been solved by Deku. Who took on the immense task of saving Shigaraki because he possesses a drive to save others that eclipses all common understanding. So Deku is special, and thank god someone so special existed to save Shigaraki. Because otherwise, Shigaraki wouldn't have been saved. Due to the majority of people being passive and complacent. Which isn't a thing that needs to be dealt with.

(Or, I guess you can say that it was All For One who planted the hatred of bystander effect into Shigaraki/Tenko (if he didn't somehow manipulate the people on the streets (and the Shimura family, previously) into ignoring Tenko), since he did say “Everyone just passed by, pretending not to see, thinking some Hero would save the day. Who decided to make the world this way?” when he first found Tenko. So even that hatred and grudge isn't ‘true’ and we can dismiss it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

[silly-tails-prower]

I love Amy Rose, and her mischaracterization makes me so sad. I’m no literary analyst, but dang, is her character underappreciated!!!! SHE LOVES HER FRIENDS SO MUCH!!!! She is ultimately an extremely kind and self-sacrificing person, and that is the kind of love that fills her to bursting till it comes out her ears. I don’t think she ever wanted to be creepy or make Sonic uncomfortable, but she just has so much love she doesn’t know how to turn it off, and yeah, that might come across as unsettling or overbearing… but either way, she’s a TEENAGER!!!!! Teenagers are notoriously learning how the world works and how to navigate social cues. (I know, I am one!) I love her for being unapologetically filled with love even if others might judge her. Sure, she’s made mistakes, but she’s HAPPY and PROUD to BE HERSELF, and she’s also SO INCREDIBLY STRONG, TOO!!!!!! That doesn’t get talked about enough LOL.

(One of my favorite Amy moments is in Sonic Battle when she’s exhausted, about to run out of energy… but then, shockingly, she takes her bracelets off—and they CLUNK to the floor!! They were weights the whole time!!!! Miss girl is wielding that hammer AND extra weight like it’s NOTHING, AND has a smile on her face!!!!!!!!)

Normally, I don’t play as her when she’s playable because Tails is my #1 babygirl, but I’ve been so obsessed with her in Sonic Dream Team. She’s just so extremely happy and excited and filled with joy!!!! I truly truly truly believe that no matter what Sonic decided to do romantically or who (if anyone) that he ended up with, that Amy would still be one of his very best friends and she would have his back even in the worst of times.

Conclusion: I will not take any Amy Rose slander on this tumblr page!!!!!!!!! No matter who you ship, Amy Rose would support it because she wants her friends to be happy!!!!!!!!!!! WE <3 HER

[anumacy]

Lesbian

Taking this chance to rant

OH MY GOD THEY'RE SO GORGEOUS

FROM THE FEMMES TO THE BUTCHES TO EVERYTHING BETWEEN

LONG HAIR SHORT HAIR MEDIUM HAIR NO HAIR

BLUE EYES GREEN EYES GRAY EYES BROWN EYES HETEROCHROMIA EYES CHANGING COLOUR EYES

ANY RACE

MWAH GORGEOUS

FROM THE IM DEADER THAN A VAMPIRE TO SUN KISSES ME DAILY

WOMEN>>> THEY'RE JUST BUILT DIFFERENT

From my flat girlies to my curvy

Freckles to none

Perfect complexion to acne/dermatitis/psoriasis girlies

To gorgeous straight hair to beautiful locks/afros

THEYRE JUST SO <333333333

I LOVE WOMEN

I WANNA HUG THEM KISS THEM DATE THEM MARRY THEM

I WANNA BUILD A FAMILY WITH THEM

I WANNA HOLD HANDS UNDER THE STARS

I WANNA DANCE WITH THEM LIKE WALTZES

I WANNA DO EVERYTHING WITH THEM <3 JUST BREATHING NEXT TO THEM

AUUUUUHHHH I LOVE WOMENNNNNNN ❤️🧡🤍🩷💜

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ THEYRE JUST EEEEE

To my real life ones to my anime fictional gals

Beautiful. Outstanding. Gorgeous. They are literally the light at the end of the tunnel

idc if you got hair idc if you don't. GORGEOUS. 😤 love yourself as much as I love women, mkay?

Rant over

[0heartangel0]

PERSONA 5 TACTICA IS NOT GREAT: A VERY ODDLY-CONSTRUCTED RANT

If you've been following this rant series thus far, you've probably noticed a trend for almost every issue I've had with this game: no matter how hard I try, the topic always circles back to one individual. In some way shape or form, they're always involved.

The reason for this is due to how the game centers around this person, whom I believe to be the cause of almost all of the issues.

They're why the thieves get less attention and are almost obsolete in the story.

They're why we got the stupid hat people.

They're why a vast majority of the villains are unintimidating and feel kind of ridiculous in their motives.

They're why the dumb story even happens.

And they're why Erina is kind of a nothing burger of a character and why she exists.

Ladies and gentlemen, in my opinion, the worst thing about this whole game - the biggest reason why I feel it sucks - is because of a man by the name of:

Pt. 8: Toshiro Kasukabe

Where.

The HELL.

Do I begin?

Let me start by saying once again, that you're okay for liking Toshiro. I'm not gonna judge you for liking something that I just couldn't find a reason to enjoy.

If you are able to convince me he's great, you're a bloody miracle worker. But as it stands-

I have never met a character that has frustrated me more than this wet tofu of a man.

Let me reiterate: I have never had a character make me go through the five stages of grief before, until Toshiro broke down the door like he's the Kool-Aid Man.

I WANTED to like Toshiro, I REALLY did! But as the game progressed, it slowly started to dawn on me in secreting horror that I just could not get myself to like this dude. And by the time his awakening rolled around, I gave up on ever finding a reason, and just accepted that he's just the worst. I could even make the argument that he's my least favorite character in the Persona 5 era - I specify "era", because I actually have characters in Persona 3 (Junpei) and Persona 4 (Teddie) that I hated more than Toshiro.

I TRIED finding something to like about Toshiro; just ONE thing! I was searching and scanning for answers IN EVERY LINEEEE! FOR SOME KIND OF SIGN-

I can only think of ONE thing that I liked about him, and it was his voice acting being pretty decent. While not my favorite performance in a Persona game (Max Mittelman and Tom Taylorson come to mind), MacLeod Andrews does a pretty good job for what he's given. A golf clap to you, good sir!

I guess another pro I can think of is more of a HALF-pro than anything. He has some funny moments at the beginning, but not by much and they don't save his character for me.

Going through what I didn't like about him by comparison resulted in my brain getting all kerfuffled with just how much there was. There's sadly so many cons to go over to the 1½ pros, that the only concise way I can go about this is by separating them by sections. So, that's what I'm going to do! Strap in, 'cause it's gonna be a long one!

(Warning: I'm not lying about this. It's VERY long.... Toshiro just got me rambling. Sorry in advance....)

HIS DESIGN

Unlike with Erina, Toshiro doesn't have his design as a saving grace. I mean, the fact he's more slick and clean with a basic suit and tie with gelled-back hair is a good indication of how dedicated he is as a politician, with his glove seeming part of that until the reveal, is....good characterization through the design.

BUT,

That also makes him kind of boring to look at. He doesn't particularly stand out, and he never evolves from this look as the story progresses to show his growth out of that clean, presentable politician for the public. The ONLY thing that changes is that he loses his glove, revealing the scar he got from the train accident years ago. BUT THAT'S IT!

Of course, I'm gonna bring up the elephant in the room that is his lack of Phantom Thief attire, and I'll never stop bringing up the elephant until it leaves the room. And seeing as this will most likely never change, I'm not gonna shut up about it anytime soon.

Why the Hell doesn't Toshiro have a Phantom Thief outfit? Literally, EVERYONE ELSE does! And before you say Sophie, she at least changes her appearance to indicate when she's in fighting mode before getting her Persona, and since she switched to this anytime she was fighting alongside the Thieves, that became her Phantom Thief attire when she awakened to Pandora. The visor she always wore broke apart as a symbol of her mask, indicating her summoning Pandora!

Toshiro only loses a glove and has a mask for, like, ten seconds before never seeing it again.

And I know what you're gonna say. I know what ALL of you are gonna say!

"But Angel, what if his politician attire minus the glove is his actual Phantom Thief outfit, since that's how he sees his rebellious self?"

First off, the only source I can find of this is through his Shin Megami Tensei wiki page, and we all know how ACCURATE the wiki is! It's NEVER WRONG!!

Second, why would he picture an outfit that he's worn for his position as a politician - which he admits was a position thrust upon him rather than something he chose - as something to represent his rebellion? Isn't that a bit contradictory?

Why not lean into the fact Erina is his rebellion and have his outfit be akin to hers, or even Ernesto's design? Like, give him a revolutionary look. And if you want to keep the scar, have the gloves have openings in the back, or just not give him gloves at all (as much as that goes against each Phantom Thief design).

In general, I just want some visual change that isn't just ONE article of clothing!

I looked up his concept art, and found this one design that is absolutely great, and it makes me sad that it never became the final design:

This design is so much more interesting in comparison to his final design. He seems to exude more personality, pops better with the blues and bit of red and actually helps him stand out, especially when compared to-

-HMMMhmmmHMM!!!

.................I'm not gonna say it. I promised myself I wouldn't say it, so I won't.

Moving on-

That's all I really have to say about his design, which is kind of sad....

HIS PERSONALITY/RELATIONSHIPS

In terms of personality, much like his design, Toshiro is really, really, REALLY boring. By that, I mean he's very one-note, only really having ONE trait to go off of: COWARD.

Every five seconds, this mother flipper's option to everything is to get the hell out of dodge. And you might say that that's the point; that he has to grow out of this character and become more brave as the story progresses, but here's my issues with that:

This so-called "change" in his character feels forced and unnatural, and you're just supposed to buy it. Even then, this "braver" version of his character is also boring, just being a generic, heroic dude.

His scaredy-cat personality at the beginning is so annoying that it's hard for me to get invested and root for the character to grow out of this. They don't even give him anything to balance out this side of him to make him more tolerable. They try to, by adding "comedy" to what he does, but A) it's usually not that funny, and B) most of the comedy is from him just being a coward, so we're back to square one!

Speaking of which, he really has nothing else to him. Okay, that's technically not true, but what we get on the side is also either uninteresting, or the game really tries to force it down your throat than make it be natural to his character for it to be entertaining or interesting.

He's apparently smug, but the characters constantly point out every time he is this way, making it feel almost like the writer is unconfident if he portrayed this right, so makes sure the audience gets it by having the characters say it. Once again, it's way too forced for me to get behind this trait that doesn't really show up often.

He also gets a running gag, where he'll make up an utterly ridiculous name to an operation/plan he comes up with, causing the characters around him to eye-roll at this. This is fine, until it's revealed later in a flashback that he actually got this trait from his mother, so it's not even original to him! The only reason I feel they did this was to try and tug at your heartstrings, but like I've said back when I talked about the antagonists, I don't care about Yuki, so this failed to do its job for me!

Finally, he's constantly trying to be the "adult", by scolding the kids - Erina in particular - of getting themselves into danger, and has to remind them that he's the older one here. In fact, the game tries to repeatedly remind you that he's older than the thieves, to the point where Futaba starts calling him 'Pops' or some other synonym for it.

And I know what you're all thinking................I'm still not gonna bloody say it......

What I AM going to say is that this "gag" or "trait" doesn't really work in this instance, because when you really think about it, Toshiro isn't really THAT old. Not only does he not look it (the chibi style doesn't particularly help), but he mentions how he's the youngest member in the Diet.

According to my research, the youngest you can be in the Diet is 25 or 30. I say "25 OR 30", because there's two different houses; one lower, one higher. Respectively, they're the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors. You have to be 25 at the youngest to be in Representatives, while 30 to be in Councillors. Because the game never specifies WHICH house Toshiro falls under, and he states he's the youngest member of the Diet AS A WHOLE, I'm just gonna say Representatives. My argument continues to hold water when you learn that in order to run for Prime Minister, one has to be 25 at the youngest as well. And considering Toshiro the whole game is slated to become Prime Minister-

So in conclusion, Toshiro seems to be around his mid 20s to early 30s. That.....is not that old.

It's not helped by the fact that he's ironically always hiding behind the thieves or being bossed around by anyone who has a voice. It starts getting sad, to kind of annoying and predictable.

This also kind of ruins any potential dynamic or relationship he could have with any character he interacts with, specifically the thieves. Because, instead of having a fun back and forth that gets better developed as the story progresses, we get the thieves + Erina basically preaching to him every five seconds to grow a pair, or simply pat him on the back for having such a tragic life, oh woe-is-you. It becomes pretty obvious what the writers want you to feel in regards to Toshiro and his plight. Toshiro, as a result, becomes less of a character we choose to sympathize with after getting to understand him as an individual and CHARACTER, and more of a man baby that is always in need of being coddled and infantalized by the cast for the sake of telling a MESSAGE. At that point, why should I even consider him as an adult man or even a character I should follow?

To make matters worse, not only is his relationship with the thieves underdeveloped, but he, along with Erina, don't really feel like they add anything to the thieves' dynamic.

A rule of thumb in my eyes is that if you remove someone from a group cast, and the dynamic of it doesn't change, then they shouldn't have been in the group to begin with, or at least add something to them that would actually warrant them being a part of that group.

It's why I felt Haru was the least warranted Phantom Thief in the original game. Apart from getting the gang a trip to Didney Worl, there's nothing she really adds to the group nor does she really have a developed back-and-forth or dynamic with either of the thieves, aside from maybe Morgana. It's not JUST her relevance to the plot, but just how little she really interacts with the group that makes her suffer as a character.

I could make the same argument with Yoshizawa in the Royal version of P5. Personality and development aside, Yoshizawa suffers from how little she interacts with ANY of the thieves whose names aren't Joker. So when the twist behind her is revealed, it makes no sense for them to care about her plight, 'cause THEY DON'T KNOW HER OUTSIDE OF MAYBE ONE OR TWO SCENES IN THE WHOLE GAME. Her overall integration into the PT feels unwarranted and rushed as a result.

Like I said previously, Strikers fixes this issue by giving Haru more to her character, and by extension, her dynamic with the PT.

And Yoshizawa in the Tactica DLC-

Still. Doesn't get any form of development. So there's that-

Toshiro and Erina have the same issues as the two ladies just mentioned.

In terms of interactions or character moments, both Toshiro and Erina only really talk to and affect each other. Apart from maybe one or two moments, the thieves never once really talk to Toshiro or Erina all too often, unless they're trying to make fun of Toshiro, coddle him, or talk about how amazing Erina is. They are only important for each other's development, so the thieves are rendered minute and unnecessary.

Strikers actually had the opposite problem with its duo, but I honestly preferred that because it resulted in them feeling less like a matched set and are still able to have an amazing dynamic with the PT and are better developed as a result.

Even then, I'd argue the littlest of interactions the Strikers duo do have are FAR more entertaining than any of the Tactica duo's interactions. I'd rather watch Zenkichi football-tackle Sophia to the ground than having to watch Erina and Toshiro butting heads for the billionth time.

When Erina isn't giving Toshiro a big motivational speech on the ethics of not being a total pansy, her and Toshiro are just constantly arguing and bickering. I hate it with Morgana and Ryuji, and I hate it with Erina and Toshiro. Say it with me:

Constantly arguing and butting heads does not equate to friendship/romance.

It's dumb and makes no sense.

Now, in terms of personality and role, the Tactica duo still don't fit in well with the group dynamic, not only because of their limited personalities, but the personalities they do have, another thief already has along with their given roles!

Erina is energetic, always rushing into fights without thinking, and generally doesn't listen to authority.

.............that's just RYUJI!

Okay, okay....what about her role to the team?

She's the leader of the Rebel Corp, and gives inspiration and motivation to fight for rebellion,and almost becomes a martyr for a twist bad guy to attempt to kill.

.....that's Joker......

OKAY! HER ROLE IN THE STORY!

She's a mysterious girl who doesn't know why she exists to begin with, and starts to have a conflict with herself in regards to it. Once she does find out who she is, and gets used by the twist bad guy at one point, she awakens to her true power despite having been playable for the entire game up till this point, and has to say goodbye for the sake of fulfilling her made purpose at the end.

............................................

.......................sophiaaaaaaAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH-

She's just three of the PT members stitched together, which I know is unfair of me to break down on her character like this, but that's all that she really boils down to here. The most frustrating part about this is that the aforementioned characters are much BETTER when applying these traits to them.

The reason being, they're given nuance to what they DO have to better flesh out these traits.

Ryuji might also have the reckless and energetic nature like Erina, but he's reckless in order to protect his loved ones and fight for himself due to how much he's been beaten down, and the added energy leads him to being more proactive in what he wants to do and makes him one of the more friendly PT members when he feels someone trustworthy, giving this sort of golden retriever vibe.

He's weary of certain people, but it doesn't make him dumb like Erina, because he tends to have a good reason for not trusting a certain person.

However, his reckless and energetic behavior leads to him getting into more trouble that the thieves have to pull him out of. It's both his strength and his weakness. I also find it kind of weird that the thieves constantly make fun of Ryuji for being the "dumb one", but when Erina exhibits similar traits, she's not regarded as such....

Joker might be the leader who's inspiring to many, but he earns it through the decisions he makes that generally leads him and the thieves to constant victory (unlike Erina, who was losing her cause before the PT arrived). Joker also has the charisma and cockiness that allows him to pull off certain daring stunts and win people over.

And for Sophia, she might be the mysterious girl who doesn't know her purpose, but her curiosity fuels her to actively go and search for the answers on what her purpose is, apart from being humanity's companion. Through her journey, the thieves teach her what it truly means to have a heart, and by extension, what it means to be human. And when her free will and humanity is taken away from her, she finally understands what she wants; what she desires. And in gaining a desire, she gained a heart. And by gaining a heart, she was able to gain a Persona.

All of these characters have nuance to their roles and personalities that set them apart from the rest of the group, allowing them a fitting spot. Erina doesn't have that, so she doesn't particularly work.

Same goes for Toshiro.

Toshiro is a stern, smug, law-abiding, suit-and-tie-wearing man, who's constantly made fun of by the thieves for being pathetic and old.

........

..............

........................

As for his role, he's the tactician, and later, this motivational speech-maker.

First off, as I've mentioned before, Makoto is the tactician, and has always BEEN the tactician. Toshiro is nothing new here (seriously, why doesn't the game ever utilize the fact that Makoto is the tactician?).

As for motivational speaker, while no thief is particularly KNOWN for doing stuff like that, the thieves in general would make motivational speeches to the bad guy of the week ALL THE TIME. In fact, the whole thing with the thieves is that they help inspire people to fight back for their own beliefs and causes. It's what gets them a following in the original game, and it's usually what leads to a vast majority of them to get their Personas.

Honestly, giving this trait to Toshiro early on in his development feels like they're trying to undermine the thieves' ability to rally people just for the sake of giving Toshiro a moment that didn't feel earned at the time (we'll get to that).

And like I've said, the only person to really motivate him was Erina, which once again leaves the thieves unnecessary.

The only original trait I can think of that Toshiro has is being a coward, since no other thief ever really exhibited that trait before. Not really, anyway.

So, the question remains: why are the thieves left to the wayside for the sake of giving Erina and Toshiro the spotlight in the story, and why am I still bringing up Erina still, despite already going over her in the previous part? The answer lies in the simple fact that Atlus didn't want to really make a story revolving around the Phantom Thieves, but rather, a story revolving one random dude and his best friend he kins, featuring the Phantom Thieves.

HE'S EVERYTHING

This is arguably the thing that annoys me about Toshiro the most. I don't exaggerate when I say that Toshiro is literally everything in the story. EVERYTHING!

He's the protagonist, he's (one of) the antagonist(s), he's the conflict, he's the deuteroganist (Erina), he's even the bloody SETTING! This mother flipper is the most important THING in this whole game!

Now, generally, I wouldn't mind it if the new character in a new installment gets a lot of the focus, just as long as A) the old characters still have a role and purpose to this story, and B) the story actually gets me to care about said new character.

Point B is especially important here, considering, with the way the plot is set up, the whole story HINGES on you actually liking Toshiro in order for you to care about the story as a whole. Disappointingly so, it fails at that....

Toshiro does NOT make for a good protagonist to follow or root for, mainly because his conflict is honestly pretty bare-bones.

What it boils down to, is he needs to stand up for himself. That's it. There's nothing to really expand on, nor does the game ever CARE to expand on said conflict to make it more interesting.

In fact, every single Kingdom/antagonist basically has Toshiro face the EXACT SAME CONFLICT EACH TIME.

Marie: He has to stand up for himself.

Yoshiki: He has to......stand up for.....himself.

Nakabachi/Shadow Toshiro: He.............has to stand up for himseelllllfffffffffff...........

There's nothing new to each of these conflicts, apart from the fact that they come from different parts of his life! There's no nuance to them, nor is there anything different when confronting each one of these Tyrants! It becomes repetitive and BORING as a result! Like, TOSHIRO! How the HELL does it take you ***THREE*** Kingdoms to get this lesson through your skull??

In the original P5, we were able to have different conflicts, because we weren't mainly focusing on ONE individual, with the added bonus that the protagonists are of suspicion of being criminals. Strikers is in a similar boat to og P5 in that fashion, with the added-on lesson of Sophia learning about different aspects of the human heart from the different Monarchs that they face.

Because we're forced to focus on one person's issues, there's not that much variety in the conflicts introduced each arc. It becomes predictable after a while....

They could've at LEAST given Toshiro more to have conflict with other than needing to grow a pair! Have at least ONE Tyrant represent him needing to stand up for himself, while the rest focus on another aspect of Toshiro's issues! It ain't ROCKET SCIENCE!

And BECAUSE we're only focusing on Toshiro and his conflict, that leaves the thieves to just be in the background most of the time. They aren't given anything to learn or to do with Toshiro that isn't just babying him. Aside from needing to do combat, there's literally NO reason why they should be here. The only Phantom Thief that actually adds anything to Toshiro or the plot, is Futaba, because apparently they only really knew how to write Futaba and ONLY Futaba! Everyone else is just background noise! You could take just about ALL of them out of the game, and nothing would change all that much in the grand scheme of things!

Why add the Phantom Thieves here, when the Phantom Thieves are obsolete to the overall plot??

oh, right.........moneyyyyyy...........

Also, let me just add that because of the twist revolving around Erina being Toshiro's Persona, this makes Erina feel less like her own individual character, and just tells us that she's just ANOTHER Toshiro! This duo becomes a one-man show, basically. And it doesn't work as a "his friend was always there with him and inspired him" yaddy-yadda, because with the nature OF Personas, he just basically sees himself AS his friend, which is just-

I'm not saying, I'm JUST saying.

I've been holding my tongue on calling him anything close to the writing term, 'Gary Stu', for the game comes DANGEROUSLY close to making him short of one, but dodges it only because the game also tries its hardest to make Toshiro the most tragic mother flipper you'll ever lay your eyes on.

A new Kingdom tackled is just a new topic that Toshiro should tackle with his therapist in the next session.

His mom died when he was little, his dad abuses and grooms him into being a politician that he hopes to puppet in the future for the sake of his career, his best friend got crippled via getting run over by a train, his entire school bullied him after the aforementioned accident, his dad arranges him with a psycho who manipulates and vocally admits that she sees him as her "puppet", and only agrees to marry him because she wants the benefits of being a Prime Minister's wife.

The more I hear about Toshiro's life, the more I begin to slowly realize that there really is a violin in this game! It's just being held hostage by Toshiro as he continuously plays it between his FINGERTIPS!

Toshiro as a protagonist COULD work, IF they gave him the time and buildup to develop into a fleshed-out character as the story progresses.

But they don't DO THAT!!

The game is CONSTANTLY rushing Toshiro's development, no matter if it fits the timing or not! Not only does it become predictable, but it gets tiring and doesn't feel natural for his character at the time those moments happen.

Take the final flag scene in the first Kingdom, for instance.

I've already mentioned that one of my issues with it involves neither Toshiro or Erina feeling like they changed after that scene ends, but arguably my biggest gripe with the scene as a whole is just how EARLY this happens in the story. At this point, we're still trying to get to know Toshiro as a character along with everyone else, and at this point, he has yet to fully grasp any sense of standing up for himself. The only time he was ever pushed to do anything brave was Erina's dumb speech to him when he's FIRST INTRODUCED TO US! So him all of a sudden growing a spine for this one moment to run headfirst in the middle of battle to plant a flag in Erina's place feels WAY too early to have happen in his arc! It's SO unearned, and as a result, it feels cheap.

Here's a clip of me reacting to this moment, immediately catching on to the bullcrap of it all:

And this isn't the only time a moment like this happens for Toshiro at such an early stage in his arc, and it annoys me to no end!

I've heard people PRAISE him for having these constant big moments all the time, but I feel it hurts his character since he lacks buildup for any of them and having so many big moments undermines what's supposed to be his BIG-big moment: his awakening, for it's supposed to be the culmination of his character arc becoming fully realized.

Scenes, like the aforementioned flag scene, the motivational speech he gives to the hat people, or even Yuki's death all felt like moments where his awakening should've happened. Because of that, his actual awakening feels less rewarding or exciting since this just feels like another typical Toshiro moment that doesn't feel earned.

And since I'm talking about it, I might as well talk about a certain aspect about his awakening (I'm actually not going to talk about his awakening, till the next part. It's a WHOLE other can of worms I have yet to open), that being, his Shadow.

SHADOW TOSHIRO

Someone commented on my last part of this rant, explaining why Shadow Toshiro really blamed Eri for everything in Toshiro's life. That because of his guilt of what happened, he feels that he shouldn't have listened to her and just stayed cowering. So, in killing Erina, he'd be killing the chance of something bad happening again. For the most part, I agree and believe that that's what the game was trying to go for.

HOWEVER!

The more I thought about this explanation, the more I began to realize just how nonsensical Shadow Toshiro as a whole is.

Let me just get this one thought in my head out in the open: Why Eri specifically? Because Eri wasn't the only person in Toshiro's life that inspired him to rebel, only for it to backfire. What about his MOM?? She died a few days after he snuck her out of the hospital, with his dad reinforcing the thought that it was all Toshiro's fault that it happened! I'd argue that's more traumatic than what happened between him and Eri!

At least in some fashion, Toshiro would feel more inclined to blame himself for what happened with his mom than what happened to Eri! Both him and Eri started an uprising with a bunch of students against Nakabachi and succeeded. What caused the accident to be initiated was Nakabachi being constantly harassed by other students despite him already being taken care of. Neither Toshiro nor Eri had anything to do with it, nor did they account for it to happen!

Meanwhile, Toshiro (as an impressionable child, mind you), decided to help his mom sneak out of the hospital to fulfill a selfish desire to spend a day with her at an amusement park. On the way back, she suddenly collapsed and died a few days after. To him, his selfishness caused his mother to die, once again, with the help of his father drilling that thought in his brain.

So, in my eyes, Yuki would make more sense as the thing to quash instead of Eri, since Toshiro's rebellion from her seems to appear to be born from selfishness of wanting to spend time with his mother as opposed to his rebellion with Eri, which was born from him wanting to help the school.

And now that I think about it, why do we have TWO examples of Toshiro rebelling, and it having a consequence, specifically, a loved one getting hurt in some way? Once again, the game is being SO repetitive with its storytelling! Unless there was a point to the repetitiveness, why repeat the same exact crap over and over again?

Getting back to the point, Shadow Toshiro pointing fingers at the wrong person isn't the only thing I'm hung up on about him. He doesn't particularly FEEL like a Shadow.

Shadows, from what we know of them, are basically the other self not yet turned into a Persona. A Shadow is the you that you either deny about yourself or intentionally keep hidden from the world. In accepting the Shadow and/or finding your resolve in changing from that Shadow or showing it to the world, it manifests into a Persona.

First off, Shadow Toshiro doesn't feel like a representation of anything Toshiro wants to hide from anyone, or even anything he denies about himself. Shadow Toshiro's motivation is to kill Erina so Toshiro continues to be a wuss. We kind of already knew Toshiro was a wuss, and it didn't feel like anything he wanted to hide about himself.

Maybe he wants to hide his guilt over what happened. But....he doesn't deny that, either.....

Okay, what about him blaming Eri for giving him false hope? Except....there' no indication on him blaming Eri for what happened. He makes it very clear that he blames himself due to the guilt. And the only time we're told all of this is through the Shadow, and no other hint or indication from Toshiro himself.....

At least other Shadows in the series have a clear indication of what their other self wants to hide or deny. Persona 4 is a good example of this due to the nature of how awakenings work in that game.

Yosuke's Shadow represents his boredom of living life in the boonies as a store manager's son, and finds Saki's death + the discovery of the TV world as an excuse to escape that boredom and play hero.

Chie's Shadow represents her liberation in knowing her best friend Yukiko relies on her. And since Yukiko is seen as the school's popular girl, she thinks that she, too, could get attention through Yukiko.

And before you say that this is exclusively Persona 4, Persona 5 also shows us Shadows that represent things the other selves want to keep hidden, mainly, their heinous actions and personalities. I've already talked about Kamoshida and Madarame as good examples of this back in the antagonists part of the rant.

Shadow Toshiro has NONE OF THAT CRAP! Hell, he doesn't even LOOK like a Shadow! Other Shadows typically have sickly yellow eyes that glow. Shadow Toshiro has these weird pale yellow eyes with a black sclera! Why does he have this??

He looks less like a Shadow, and more like SHAN YU!

And while I'm on appearances, why the bandages? Why do they glow purple? What does that say about Toshiro? I just don't get it!

I know I said it back when I talked about Erina, but......why doesn't he become Toshiro's Persona? Just so we have something for Toshiro to fight? So Erina can be unique, while giving Persona lore the middle finger?

Also, why does he stay after Toshiro gets his Persona? He should've conceded when Toshiro found his resolve. That's the POINT of a Shadow! And yet, he still chooses to not only fight Toshiro after the Awakening, but then summons a demonic version of Eri as some last ditch effort! It's so stupid!!

AND THEN HE COMES BACK GREY LATER, UNDERMINING HIS FIRST APPEARANCE AND JUST FINDING A WAY TO MAKE THE GAME EVEN MORE REPETITIVE-

.......sorry. I got a bit carried away, there.

All I'm saying is, Shadow Toshiro is dumb and he confuses me, and it makes me upset that he's one of the only two Persona users in P5 to actually have a physical Shadow to confront. And would you look at that! The other one just so happens to be Futaba! Can you guess which one of the two did it better? I'll give you a hint: it's the one that actually had the Shadow actually turn into the Persona, and no, I'M STILL NOT OVER THAT-

GAMEPLAY BAD

As soon as P5's worst awakening ends, Toshiro becomes a surprise edition to the party. He has many things that separates him from the rest of the team, none of which I feel are beneficial.

For starters, along with the outfit and mask, Toshiro is annexed of a melee weapon and gun, so can't directly hit enemies out of cover. While his Persona does provide a gun attack that doesn't cost anything (we'll GET to that), this means that he can't get an upgrade to his gun for more damage unlike everyone else.

"Well, doesn't he get a better gun attack by upgrading his skill tree?", I might hear you ask. To answer your question, I'm disappointed to announce that he doesn't even get a skill tree. That means that not ONLY is he stuck with the skills that he's given when he's unlocked, but he doesn't get any other benefits that would help him in battle, like an extra One More, extra movement, more Sp and Hp, NOT EVEN A SPECIAL ABILITY FOR HIS PERSONA TO USE ONCE YOU FILL THE STAR GAUGE!

What we DID get is a gun attack, a magic attack (we'll get to that one, too....), a support ability, and three passive abilities; one that refills a large amount of sp per turn (I'll admit, that's pretty good), one that allows a Triple Threat for the Thieves to set up after a One More - because he doesn't even get a Triple Threat for himself, since there's now four - and one that allows him to DASH! Y'know? Something ALL of the Thieves can do without NEEDING A GOD DANG SKILL FOR IT-

There's also a 7th skill he gets, but it' just an updated version of his magic attack, so I won't count it.

"But Angie! Why not just equip him with a Secondary Persona if you're so bothered by this??"

Funny you say that, because, as a matter of fact, you can't. Dude can't even hold Secondary Personas.

Because it's been a bit, I thought I might've had a brain fart and assumed wrong. I tried to look it up, but couldn't find a source that actually confirmed it (except for the AI answer provided by Google, but I don't trust that thing, and for good reason). So, I rolled up my sleeves, and re-downloaded Tactica on my computer for a third time - which is a third too many - and opened a random save file where I unlocked Toshiro. And sure enough,

He ain't 'dere!

And I'm extra correct on him not having a skill tree, either! Dude is just full of disappointments.

So, if Toshiro sucks this bad in combat, and is only really there to be a convenient fourth slot, why not just take him out of the party all together?

.....you can't. You. Flippin'. CAN'T!!

Like Futaba, Toshiro is glued to the party PERMANENTLY no matter what you do, but unlike Futaba, Toshiro isn't at all useful or gives any welcomed benefits. He's like a tick that just refuses to let go no matter how hard you pull.

But that's not even the biggest sin Toshiro commits through his gameplay in my eyes. No, the real sin comes from when you study his two main attacks real closely and come to a scary realization:

His two main attacks, Baywell 45 Mkll and Liberater, are respectively gun and almighty moves.

Gun. And almighty.

Gun......

And almighty........

GUN.

And.

Mother.

Flippin'.

AlmightyyyyyyyyyyyYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

(Due to the length of this (SO sorry about that...), I'm gonna split this into another part, where I'll be showing you an example of a character Tactica was trying to replicate, but failed to do so for one reason or another. Stay tuned!)

Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3, Pt. 4, Pt. 4.5 Pt. 5, Pt. 6, Pt. 7

[funzige-gedachten]

I want to complain about the book im reading for a bit, ignore this👍🏻

Ok so im reading an informational book about sustainability through the ages (its called “we weten al hoe het moet” and its a translation from the german book “wir konnten auch anders”) and i was very exited to start reading it because sustainability and history are two things that are very dear to me. But once i started reading all they were yapping about was economics and shit and im not here for that😭 now im getting a bit further into the book and for some reason this author can not stop talking negatively about both the past and the present and somehow also keeps insulting the reader. How are you supposed to teach us about how they used to do things and tell us we can learn from the past when you keep bashing it and keep bringing up economics??? And why do they constantly downtalk the reader??? It keeps assuming the reader doesnt know anything about how history works and here i am as a history nerd who primarily focusses on the day to day life of people in the past, reading this… very very weird to me but okay

Anyway i will continue reading and hoping it gets better further into the book and i hope they tell me something that i do in favt nit know that doesnt have to do with the price of piece of meat in 1200s germany because i did bot start reading this book to be told about numbers

Ok rant over sorry HAHAHA

[dottiehuhh]

Blue lock orchestra au bc I have an orchestra concert on Thursday

Violin 1

Kaiser obviously (lol)

Rin

Isagi maybe?

Noel

probably Zantetsu

Nanase?

Violas

Sae

Ego probably

Reo definitely

I feel like Raichi maybe?

Chigiri

Aiku?

Cellos (I play the cello btw!!!)

NESS

Kurona

Lorenzo

Nagi

Bachi!!!

Aryu

Naruhaya :D

Sendou

Hiori?

Bass

Kuni

Charles probably

Gagamaru

Barou

Sendou

Niko

Harp

Shidou

Tokimitsu?

Ness

drum set?

Snuffy

probably Lavinho

Piano

Ness

Loki

Nanase

Extra

I put some characters multiple times so I’m basically just explaining why lol (and a lil extra)

Ness probably knows how to play th piano, harp and cello because his parents were probably strict about grades and wanted him to have extra credit.

I think Sendou would have started out playing cello but switched to bass once he realized he didn’t really like playing the cello.

Nanase is just hardworking ig?

Rin doesn’t like that Sae switched from violin to viola :(

Naruhaya and Barou did a duo in an ensemble festival during middle school but shortly after Naruhaya stopped playing cause he couldn’t afford the cello but still keeps in contact with all the players he can :D

me(cello) and my friend(viola) did a duet at a ensemble festival so i reimagined that into a ReoNagi duo (we played carol of the bells so they did too)

Tokimitsu broke some of his harp strings when he first played cause he was so nervous

Ness is really talented but is super humble and modest so when Some members found out he did (and was good at) a bunch of extracurriculars other than just the cello they were shocked 😭😭

anyway thx for letting me rant <3

[adainesfroggieboggy]

long ass rant about writing the field trip to ellis island for a criminal minds fic below the cut.

the problem with this chapter is i didn't anticipate the emotional weight a trip to ellis island would hold with me.....

on my mom's side, my great-great-grandparents came to america, and they landed on ellis island. her family has been here for generations, and we're still very portuguese and very italian. (i live in a town with a very large portuguese my grandparents visited new york recently and told me how cool it was that they stood in the same place their grandparents had.

my dad moved here when he was 18. he's a white man from new zealand, so i consistently forget that he's an immigrant, but he is. he obviously didn't go to ellis island to get here, but still

i'm still writing this, thinking about my great-grandmother and how her name was misspelled on all of her documents because her parents couldn't read or write. she spoke fluent italian, but i never heard it, because she was taught that she should be as 'american' as possible. my great-grandfather was portuguese, and so were his parents, and he was proud of it. we go to festas every year, we eat sopish, and we celebrate. we have my nonni's old recipes that she got from her mother, that she wrote down because her mother couldn't.

it's weird to remember, i guess. i think we're pretty connected to our culture, and that even though i'm definitely american, and i know most portuguese and italian people wouldn't consider me either, but they're important labels to me. yes, i was born and raised in america, but my family came here and worked hard so that i would grow up here.

i don't know, all this is to say, i got too emotionally invested in the wrong part of the story. i had to get this out.

[warriorpax]

Warning, the following post contains a lot of ranting about what is going on in Gaza since 2023. If you don't want to read about it, or hear my grievances and bitching, DO NOT CLICK THE "KEEP READING" BUTTON. You have been warned.

TLDR; Possible scammers trying to pester the fuck out of me even though I'm a broke-ass bitchboy that roleplays on Tumblr, and I've finally had enough.

Y'know what, I wasn't going to make a post about this, but I've been getting so many asks about it that I feel like I HAVE to at this fucking point.

So...if you've been living under a fucking rock the past couple years, shit is NOT cash money over in Gaza right now. Why is that the case?

Well, a terrorist organization, named Hamas, decided to basically play a game of fuck around and find out with the Israeli military...and then got bitchslapped. HARD.

So for anyone wondering, Israel are not at war with Palestine, it's just people in Hamas that are of Palestinian descent. In fact, the very country of Palestine has come out and said that they denounce Hamas.

And unfortunately, due to the fact that the IDF don't handle things the same way folks like us do over here in America, lots of civilians have gotten caught in the crossfire because, well...much like Isis and Al Qaeda and other groups on that part of the world that can't just leave people the fuck alone, Hamas are the type to not wear any sort of uniform, and they hide behind women and children and call the people they decided to piss off, war criminals.

And now we get to why I'm even talking about this in the first fucking place.

I dunno how many people are experiencing the same shit that I am, but over the last couple of weeks, I've been getting a BUNCH of just...random fucking anons, claiming to be people in Gaza, asking ME, a broke-boy dipshit that roleplays on Tumblr, for support.

I dunno why, other than the possibility that it might be a scam (and if it is, to those that are doing that...shame on you and your fucking parents for raising a limpdicked scumbag that's trying to take advantage of innocent lives being in harm's way), I just know that it's fucking annoying. To the point where I might just shut off anons altogether for awhile.

Obviously, yes, it sucks that there's innocent lives being caught in the crossfire because Hamas and organizations like them can't just fuck off and leave people alone that're just minding their own business.

But at the same time, pestering random people on TUMBLR of all fucking places, is NOT going to earn you any sympathy from me. To quote Major Paye, if you want "sympathy" then look in the dictionary between "shit" and "syphilis."

Just leave me alone with that shit. Quit trying to drag me into this. Simple as.

[getyourfuckingticketsready]

Got saddled with the new train for 2 rides. I hate these god forsaken trains. I don't even want to put in any effort here. If on the old ones I'd really try to check every passenger then here I don't even want to fucking try. The stairs alone are a deterrent of productive work but the passengers feel more shitty here too. Because sure on the old trains people rarely have their tickets ready but then at least I have relatively memorized them. And with my face blindness it's a hassle, but manageable because the train carts are different. Here the carts are literally identical. I can't even count how many times I've gone further than I need to just because I'm going on autopilot because you cannot function any other way after working 12h sleeping 4h and you still have to work 8h. I got off topic but the trains are shit and passengers feel shittier because barely anyone has their tickets ready and I don't want to awkwardly stand there while they rummage through their black hole of a bag to find their crumpled up ticket that I then have to try to scan. I'm becoming more and more pissed off and annoyed by this company and it's treatment of workers and to be honest even passengers. Because one would assume that new, freshly made trains would think about the common man. Well they did. We have a toilet, outlets, climate control, place for baby stroller/wheelchair. But one thing that we don't have is a place for bikes. Where the fuck are the passengers supposed to put their goddammed bicycles? In the place for wheelchairs/baby strollers? Like seriously not a single space for a bike!

[teratomatica]

you always land on all fours

[royalarchivist]

Pac: …I miss Morning Crew. Man, I really do.

Pac: If there's something I think about that's really cool, it's how Philza and Fit are Minecraft legends in other countries, you know? Fit is a legend in the United States because he's a pro-player from the craziest SMP in the world, and Philza is simply a Minecraft icon in Europe! And I got to meet them, I played with them, and I think it's really cool. I was lucky, there's no denying it.

[Later]

Pac: Guys, I'm still dumbfounded! I can't stop thinking about how… The British guy who's friends with my American boyfriend sent me a raid. You get how crazy that is? [Laughs] How crazy is that!

[ Full Subtitle Transcript ↓ ]

—

SUBTITLE TRANSCRIPT

Pac: Guys, this here is unbelievable. Man, this is unbelievable. [Looks at chat] I'm VIP! I'm VIP in his chat!!! I'm VIP in Felipe Minecraft's chat!

Pac: Guys, why are they in England?

Pac: [Reading chat] "Say hi" I'm low-profile. I'm a lurker! I'm just a lurker. I'm not going to send that– No! They're responding to chat, talking to the guys, I'm just going to observe. Fit's voice sounds different, huh?

Phil: [Reading Chat] "Pac is watching." Why are you fcking doxxing our friends?

Pac: HEY HEY HEY! What is this?! What- hey! [Covers his mouth] Man, why– [Laughs and covers his mouth] You guys told them I'm watching!

Pac: I'm not going to say anything except "Hi" [Laughs]

Pac: [Copying Fit] Calma, calma, calma!

Pac: [Laughs] They're talking about Ao3! Ah, I arrived at a good time, I always wanted to know Fit's opinion about this– [Laughs]

Pac: I'm going back, I'm leaving- I'm going to leave them be, but it's really cool seeing the two of them together, huh Chat? What a joy, it's crazy. Crazy, crazy, crazy. I wish I was there! [Laughs] I couldn't believe that F– Well, yeah. Wow, I was actually nervous guys. And I didn't know I was a VIP there! …I miss Morning Crew. Man, I really do.

Pac: If there's something I think about that's really cool, it's how Philza and Fit are Minecraft legends in other- in other countries, you know? Fit is a legend in the United States because he's a pro-player from the craziest SMP in the world, and Philza is simply a Minecraft icon in Europe! And I got to meet them, I played with them, and I think it's really cool. I feel really wild sometimes, because… It was really crazy, right? It's really cool. I was lucky, I was lucky. I was lucky, there's no denying it.

Pac: [Reading chat] "And you are [an icon] in Brazil" Ah, yeah. But– I don't know! It's just that I never had another perspective you know? I never got that other perspective, right? I don't know how to explain, I think you get it.

Pac: Guys, will Philza and Fit do another stream like this? Does Philza save his VODs? Just to know.

Pac: Guys, I'm still dumbfounded! I can't stop thinking about how… The British guy who's friends with my American boyfriend sent me a raid. You get how crazy that is? [Laughs] How crazy is that! [Laughs]

[sharkylad]

Thinking about the fact that Mabel and Dipper didn't know they had two great uncles.

Yeah they are 12 and at 12 I had a shotty understanding of my family tree- But really? Nobody brought up their great uncle? Stanley? Especially since they'll be staying with his twin brother, Stanford?

Shermie never went to Stan's fake funeral, which to me means the twos relationship was strained on some level. If Shermie is older that means his view of Stan was poisoned in some way, that even as kids they weren't close. If Shermie is younger then he never even got to meet Stan and all he knew about him was how he failed his family. Hell, people probably barely mentioned Stanley TO Shermie.

The fact that Stan had become a black stain upon the Pines family name makes me so vividly upset. Stanley faked his death and the family just- seemingly decided to strike him from the record. To pretend he didn't existed to spare themselves the sadness and shame.

Stanford and Shermie Pines. The only children worth mentioning of Filbrick and Caryn Pines.

It was never Stanford that was lost to the world. It was Stanley, ever since he had to leave New Jersy- it was always him that had to be struck from the record. Change his name, change his state, change his affiliations, destroy the remains of ghost that was Stanley Pines. Kill him so the family doesn't bring him up, doesn't ask questions, stops asking "Stanford" about his twin.

I just keep thinking about the fact that since the day he made one single mistake all the way up until Ford walks out of that machine- Stanley Pines was killed and did not exist. And Stan himself had no one to blame, he had to play the part in his own demise- He is the only one who ever knew Stanley was alive and has been for decades.

He lives in the multitudes of every personality he's ever taken, all in the hope that he himself can stop being Stanley Pines.

[alakirist]

Well, I was told to scroll past which is a sure way to get me very curious, so of course, I read it xD.

I see what you’re getting at, and I think this was their intention, that both Arcann and Vaylin were broken in their own way, but they just failed to execute it. You say yourself that there should’ve been options to not use Vaylin’s conditioning, but the lack of those options means that the entire point of the story is lost, in my opinion at least. The tragedy of “a person being broken beyond any help” does not work if nothing of substance was even tried. The Outlander can’t refuse to use her conditioning, can’t show any sympathy over Nathema. Arcann never apologizes for betraying her, and neither does Senya. There were no good attempts, if there were and those didn’t work either than this would’ve been made sense and have been actually tragic.

Vaylin and Senya

Vaylin hating Senya should not have been something that should’ve used as a proof that she’s irredeemable and beyond help, and I think the writers intended for it to be so, unfortunately. Senya get her away to be tortured for years while promising that it would help her while Vaylin was a little child, that must sting horribly. It’s something some people would never able to forgive, it’s not even comparable with any irl forms of abuse considering the force’s involved, and while Senya did come to regret it but by that point Vaylin was not only abused, but her brain was tampered with both chemicals and force powers by that point, she was a broken person who was left in a nightmarish cage and forced to become a monster.

Now, of course, wanting to kill her is going overboard, but I don’t think hating Senya or wanting nothing to with her is. I hope that when they bring Vaylin back as Syl, she will have her own story focused around Satele and their newly formed relationship. Senya and Arcann are dead for some people, so the best way to include them for those that are alive would be a couple of interactions where Vaylin let’s go of her hatred and just says that she wants to live a life without them because she can’t get past them hurting her. It would be a very mature and bittersweet conclusion to their arc. And of course this would mean that for people for whom they’re dead they can still enjoy a full arc with Vaylin rather than it being severely trimmed down because you killed relevant characters two years ago.

2. Arcann, Vaylin, and glee

I see a lot of people say that Arcann didn’t show any pleasure in committing atrocities while Vaylin did, and I don’t think it’s fair. This is not the only variable in who deserves redemption arc or any sympathy at all, and not all of them get discussed.

First of all, Arcann did actually show glee. While I agree it was overall less than Vaylin but it’s still very much there. Just look at his Asylum fight. He says “You will hang on my wall for eternity”, after he kills HK he enthusiastically says “I can’t wait to kill all you friends”, at the start of the chapter he brags about killing scions because they are “blinded by faith and prophecies” while he makes hard choices and forges his own path, all while standing on a pile of scion corpses. He also says Mandalorians kamikaze-zing themselves is amusing. It may not be as much as Vaylin but to say that he takes no pleasure in his villainy is incorrect. Could they write this differently? Absolutely, they could portray Arcann as someone who tries to be a semi decent ruler who despite his tyranny, is not a maniacal mass murdered. They could’ve Mande Vaylin be the one who commits crimes, either pushing Arcann to commit them or going rogue and committing them herself. But they didn’t, and I don’t want to let bad writing slide just because the non-conveyed intent probably had more sense than the presentation. The presentation is what we god.

Secondly, there is body count. Now, of course both Arcann and Vaylin are responsible for countless of people’s deaths, and it would be silly to say one is more deserving of redemption because one of them has a bit more zeros on their number, but it is important to note that Arcann commits greater atrocities, they are just always off-screen. Vaylin kills three knights because she doesn’t like odd numbers? Arcann makes them all fight each other to death until one half kills the other(!!!). Vaylin bombs Voss? Arcann bombs five planets but we never see the process nor are those planets the players are familiar with in some way. Vaylin kills a comp? Well, so does Arcann, but he conveniently got a resurrection chapter just before the choice to redeem Arcann dropped(I know it’s easier to bring back a droid than a person of flesh and blood without force, but I’m willing to bet there was some sentiment of ‘people won’t hold HK against Arcann when it comes to Voss, so you know, now would be a good time to give him a resurrection plot’). Also, Arcann commits actual definable genocide as he exterminates a religious order, which are included in the Wikipedia definition just like ethical and racial groups. Vaylin does not, all she cares about is killing specific people. Yeah she kills people Arcann tells her to kill, including the scions and the 5 bombed planets, but she wouldn’t have done without Arcann’s command, so most of the responsibility hinges on him. However, this isn’t what I believe to be a pivotal matter in comparing the two. All the body count stuff does is just make me question whether Arcann deserves any redemption or forgiveness at all. I believe that a certain point the person has crossed a moral horizon where their ability to change doesn’t matter, they should die either way to deliver retribution to countless people they harmed in their rampage. Onto the next one.

There is a matter of diminished responsibility. I don’t know much about it beyond a quick Wikipedia skim, so sorry if I’m making mistakes, but it seems like something that is used in courts to lessen the criminal’s sentence if there were strong mitigating circumstances as they were not completely in their mind. Vaylin, I believe, qualifies. It doesn’t help that the purpose and effect of many of the torture scenes isn’t clear and is just thrown there for edge, we know quite a bit. She had chemical implants installed in her brain, was forced to spend years on a planet that drives force sensitives to madness and hollows them out as people(just look at Lana’s reaction or what) became of Nathema zealots after prolonged exposure. She is also shown to have been suggested to rituals which in the trailer shown to forcefully have made her eyes go yellow. It seems to go beyond just abuse and torture, it’s actual brainwashing. She is never directly mindcontrolled in her twisted state, but the reason she ended up in this state was due to a uniquely mortifying experience that most Star Wars characters and literally not a single person irl can grasp. I think that makes jer legible for diminished responsibility.

Arcann doesn’t have that. I will say that I know many people say that comparing abuse is bad but in this case, I don’t think so. It would be bad if Arcann and Vaylin were not massive war criminals and this whole abuse discussion wasn’t central to how sympathetic or deserving of forgiveness at all they are. Arcann is never shown to have been victim of forceful rituals, his mind was never tempered with and while he did have harsh physical training with knights, Valkorion, but Valkorion never twisted him the same way he did Vaylin. The main source of Arcann’s rage is shown to be his father’s detachment or neglect, which is kinda the exact opposite of what he did with Vaylin. He took interest in Vaylin because she showed power, because she showed potential that he didn’t see in the boys. His treatment didn’t go behind being the victim of dismissal or neglect of a clever abuser, but that doesn’t put him on the same level as Vaylin or at least it shouldn’t. The force seemed to reinforce his inner evil, but it was never enforced upon him. Like Dooku, Maul, Anakin, many others, he was nudged towards dark side by a person who was pure evil, but he never has his choices or freedom taken away from him the way Vaylin.

Their cases not comparable as it this point I call bullshit of the narrative of ‘Vaylin being troubled from the start’(btw Senya says the boys were aggressive in one of the dialogues as well, so they weren’t perfect flowers either). I don’t see how a person that became evil of his own volition with a ‘push’ from outside forces is somehow better and more sympathetic or deserving of redemption than someone who was literally drowned forcefully in the sea of darkness, if we’re talking metaphorically.

but maybe their message is “it doesn’t matter how many crimes you’ve committed, what truly makes a person redeemable is that they can and want to change”? Perhaps, but they messed that up too.

3. Arcann’s ‘redemption arc’

Or to call it like it is, a brainwashing arc. Saying he chose to make amends is not too different from saying that the Imperial Agent choose to be a loyal servant of the Republic that hides info from their own organization. Okay, not THAT bad, but running up. He made no choice to become better, at all.

One thing he unquestionably chose to do was to save Senya. Does this show that he’s somehow capable of change? Not really. I guess you could say it’s similar to Vader saving Luke in the iconic ROTJ moment, but Vader’s redemption is just getting him a few peaceful moments with his son who forgives him before Vader dies. No one is forced to deal with Vader roaming around freely or not serving any punishment, this redemption arc is very much between Vader and Luke. If Vader actually did survive and got the Arcann treatment, I’d be very quick to call Luke a selfish asshole who puts one family member above the wounds that were inflicted on the entire galaxy.

So what about Arcann? He never hated Senya, him saving her was in character for who he was in KOTFE. He never hated his mother, he never openly defended her near Vaylin either, but he was far less enthusiastic about killing her as you said yourself. He even nudged Vaylin to remember some of the good times they spent with her in chapter 13, a failed attempt but it was still there. I don’t think he would’ve killed Senya even if she lied at his feet, defeated, at least not without enough hesitation to let her slip away. He felt all that while still bombing planets, bragging about genocide, hanging off the walls, and his carbonate collection. Both of those were path of his character. So yeah, him saving Senya after she mourns his loss and pouted out her heart is natural development and does not contradict anything we see from him before.

The ONLY case where he shows any remorse if he goes through a shady Voss ritual which ‘cleansed his rage’ and ‘washes away the hate’(it’s even in the dialogue). What happens if you kill Arcann’s mom? Well, he doesn’t t change at all, he remains the power hungry dictator with the only change is that he accepted the love for his mother and wants to avenge her. There is no learned lessons, there is no desire to fix mistakes. He could’ve been trying to become a better ruler and fix the mess his family created without wanting to ally with the Outlander. He doesn’t do any of that. To be fair, I once tried to look at Dark Arcann scenes with this particular interpretation in mind(that he learned some sort of lesson and wants to change, just without siding with the person who killed Senya) and there is nothing in the game to contradict is, so I will say it’s a viable headcanon, but it’s still headcanon. All we know for sure if that he is largely the KOTFE Arcann. I honestly really love the short non redemption arc in KOTET they give him if you choose to kill him, it shows that not everyone who can be redeemed should. And every time I think about how he bragged about being the master of his own fate, the more poetic it becomes that his fate was to have his execution broadcast for the whole galaxy to watch, the justice for countless people he harmed while he dies on his knees and has completely failed all of his goals.

His regret and desire to change comes from being subjected to a force ritual. There couldn’t have been many days passing between KOTET 1 and 6(since they all follow directly from one another as a plot thread), so it’s not like he had some long time to reflect. Even if he did, this being shown off-screen is unsatisfying and unreliastic. When he comes back, he is an entirely different person. He doesn’t care for power anymore, he is very kind and compassionate, apologetic, and shows zero signs of rage. He never struggles with it either, all of his words about it are superficial. he says he “fears that he becomes his old self” but we never see him lapse into the person he was, even for a moment, the show don’t tell principle is completely messed up here.

He just undergoes a complete 180 switch and no one in the Alliance says a word besides some very mild comments from Lana and Theron. Not Koth? Not Aric? Not the Star fortress companions that had to endure mini Death Stars on top of their home worlds? It’s ridiculous. The fact of the matter is that Arcann never ever shows remorse for anything but killing Thexan unless he’s actively brainwashed by Voss. And yeah, similar rituals were performed to some PCs in Vanilla, but they never forced them to have a complete personality switch. They served to cure actual tangible force diseases like Inquisitor’s mind being cleared of force ghosts. They never cured the entire personality and made people into completely different people. I find it very ironic that in KOTET trailer, they show force rituals being done on Vaylin as something that makes her turn evil and to the darkness. The do exact same thing with Arcann. We don’t even know if he was willing to do it, he was unconscious and Senya warns us that he will turn against us all if the ritual doesn’t happen. Vaylin never has anything like this done on her, the Holocron only frees her from direct mind control and Jarak procedure frees her from the command phrase, there is nothing that’s done to undo the force rituals or the damage that was done to her mind, it’s simply not attempted.

TLDR: Arcann’s actions and character after dies ex ritual is meaningless, he might as well be some Voss spirit they summoned to possess him.

4. Conclusion

As to whether the question of “does Vaylin deserve a second chance?”, I’m honestly not sure. I’m torn between lessening her sentence because of the diminished responsibility and sending her in a psychiatric ward. She definitely commited enough atrocities and I can’t say killing her is evil, even if she supposedly changes her way. 95% of my character killed Senya and Arcann, whether LS or DS, and they would do the same to Vaylin because they’re not interested in buddying up with chaotic mass murderers.

But Vaylin certainly deserved better treatment from the game and is imo by far the most sympathetic member of the family. If they want her to be a tragic person that cannot be saved, then show other people making attempts. Show Senya saying the words she did in Echoes while Vaylin is still alive, show Arcann apologizing and admitting that he mistreated her, too, show the Outlander extend genuine sympathy to her instead of using her conditioning. Without it, the story falls apart, and in this case, it was not a good story

Unpopular opinion

But before we start, some warnings are on the way.

Don’t waste your time on this post if you are a big fan of Vaylin. Just scroll.

I’m not kidding. I know there are a lot of people who wants to have a redemption arc for Vaylin, and this post is more likely gonna make these people angry at me, and none of us want this, so just scroll. 

It’s not Vaylin hate post though. I like her, and I don’t want to spread hate any more than there are already. If anything, Vaylin deserves redemption no less than Arcann or anyone else. Yet I have some “but” about it, and this is there you better scroll.

If anything, you are free to hate and unfollow me. Just do not misunderstand me. That’s the only thing I ask.

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[physical-manifestation-of-spite]

I just found your post on Malevolent and queerbaiting and can I say thank you, as a Malevolent fan whose getting a bit 😖 with the discourse around shipping and the creators attitude towards his own characters?

I literally just read Harlan’s interview where he says he’s super proud of how people have embraced John as a trans allegory and it made him do research so he could write the character in a way that would speak to a trans audience

And then same day, I come across a post about how he barely seems to tolerate queer readings of his work and how Malevolent is basically Supernatural 2.0

I’m just…do not get that vibe, people

Is Harlan Guthrie actually mean to shippers and queer readings of his show ala Sherlock, or is he sometimes just joking about how popular the romantic interpretation of his characters are?

I think there’s a difference here, though also from the sound of it, some people are being overly harsh in their view of a creator, because he wont make a ship romantic

It can get exhausting, how circular the arguments have become. I won't lie: I get angry with people who take it as a personal affront that their favorite podcast won't canonize their favorite ship. That HG is somehow against them specifically, and certainly not because of their own desires for another romantic pairing are overshadowing the overall message of the podcast: that friendships are strong, vicious things that can be just as heartfelt as any romance. This dismissal is apparent in those particular readings of "Malevolent bad because Jarthur won't kiss and therefore the creator has a barely restrained contempt for queer people." It's bad faith, and not something I'm willing to engage in.

A small part of me is frustrated with the fandom for pushing the perception that romantic Jarthur is canon, only because it misleads new listeners, who are expecting another Jon x Martin and then are obviously disappointed when they don't get that. I understand a yearning for queer stories, especially romantic. But not all of them have to be romantic to still be queer. It's clear as day that John is a strong trans allegory. And as an aroace person, how Malevolent approaches friendships is exactly how I do. I would die for my friends, and I feel myself reflected so vividly in this celebration of friendship. Others may not, and that's okay.

And again, the creator has no beef with romantic Jarthur shippers. Him not making it canon is not a personal attack on them. If they think that way, well... honestly, good luck but stay away from me because I don't like you + I fucked your dad + I did better than you in my math exam + blows up your pancakes with my mind.

[vaguely-concerned]

thinking about how deeply lucanis' life has been defined by a lack of control of that life -- as he himself points out, even before the ossuary went and carved the headline out again with big bloody letters. of course he reacts badly to losing what little control he did manage to construct for himself even within those circumstances.

(namely: experience has taught him that things (caterina, loss, pain, love, all horribly and indelibly intermingled) will happen to him whether he wants them to or not and there's nothing he can do about that... but he gets to decide what's let in or out of his soul as it happens, even if he has to close it all down and deaden and numb himself out in the process. (even if that means he drifts further and further away from illario, who's been desperately reaching out and trying to keep hold of him until he finally gives up completely and tries to cut the bond all at once when lucanis doesn't seem to reach back anymore.) it's such rare well-observed freeze logic solidly constructed from the bottom up, I'm still so impressed with it.

the way illario seeks constant external means to cope with caterina's abuse and importance in his life -- he can't win her admiration or acceptance or warmth (or like. acknowledgement even, at times :') ), no matter what, so he goes out and finds those things in others and then disdains and dismisses it for how easily and falsely it's won from them. he plots, he conspires, he tries to beat her at her own game however clumsily, he tries. lucanis doesn't try things that way. he's not about 'how do I improve my situation' by nature, he's 'how can I stop this from getting worse'. he avoids, he internalizes, he hunkers down and makes himself nothing until the pain maybe ends. he's fundamentally not a plotter, he's a reacter. an expert assassin pantser, if you will, to illario's clear and stated exasperation fhsak. man I love them. illario says 'get us out of here!!! if you loved me as I love you you'd help me get us out of here before it kills us both', lucanis says 'there is no other place, there's nowhere to go, all we can do is endure. and if it kills us... well, that's just family. that's what love is (the way things are headed I'll die first anyway so it's fine I won't have to face losing you)', and they're equally baffled and hurt by each other's POV. but they're both right, and they're both wrong. there's no 'right' way to deal with caterina's treatment of them, or their situation. the house always wins, if you pardon the expression. house dellamorte still stands and that is what matters to caterina in the end more than anything.

it also fits so well b/c like... their core wounds are that illario is the least favourite and is constantly dismissed, so he has to prove to caterina again and again that he matters. not even that he's worth love or respect or warm regard, but that he's here at all and as such should be considered. he has to shout 'in case u forgot I EXIST!!' at the top of his lungs or else be rendered nothing within the family structure (and himself, because it's all about family, that's all that really matters. in some weird twisted way I think caterina openly declaring him before all the other crows to still be of house dellamorte -- and no one from house dellamorte kneels -- is kind of a victory for him, as much as it's also a furthering of a prison sentence and public humiliation. house dellamorte brainfuckery goes hard.). lucanis is the favourite, and it's the double-edged sword that he gets all the affection and attention but also all the control and impossible expectations. drowning under all of that constant stress and close evaluation, his brain whispers 'I don't exist' to try to escape, to hide and hold on to the deep parts of himself that are crucial to life but not part of the perfect grandson caterina demands of him as the price of her love.)

I think a lot about how what seems to disquiet lucanis the most post-ossuary (as it would anyone with that psychological makeup) is the dissolving of internal boundaries and control he's been relying on, which is part of what spite symbolizes. his anger and reactivity has seceded from the union to the point of personification as a little guy (a little guy he resents and fears for his unpredictability and invasions into regions of his psyche he wishes to stay frozen and barren, and yet cares about deeply, loves! and also constantly dismisses and frequently helplessly lets down unless he's helped to learn to do otherwise. does this remind you of another relationship in his life, perhaps. it makes me feel nuts to think about the illario/spite parallels thanks for asking), and now that little guy is out there running the show freely the moment he glances away or closes his eyes. literal nightmare scenario I feel for him so deeply. so much of his coping is predicated on being able to Not do or feel or want certain things, and that's out the window now, Spite has Opinions. Spite refuses to stay wisely in place even if that place is hell on the logic that if you move you could find yourself in a place that's even worse, somehow. Spite actually wants to experience the world, however fucked up and scarring the way he arrived here, not just endure it. Spite means he has to face that maybe illario wasn't wrong all those years, at the same time as having to admit and face what illario has done to him, and figure out what to do about any of it.

anyway. mary kirby ma'am that's some good fucking metaphor work. thank you, and sorry about all the shit that happened

[anewp0tat0]

i lied i had like atleast one more weston thought to expell from my brain, before i miss this boat entirely. we're heading to green lands woooo