#and also because i wanted to talk about her ultimate talent development game because it was so fucking funny

[rosy-crow]

Yeah, after watching the teaser, I’m really starting to think Square is doing the Arcane thing.

I’ve been talking about it with @altocat for a while now, and I feel like it’s starting to get real. So, this is just gonna be my final theory for the story until proven otherwise.

Spoilers for Arcane: League of Legends, but for anyone that doesn’t know, basically Arcane adapted LOL and developed one of their most iconic villains, Jinx, into a very well-written character with a story that showed you exactly who she was and why she eventually lost her mind. Before this show, she was probably about as developed as Seph was in the OG.

Even though Jinx is more flamboyant and emotionally chaotic, she and Seph are weirdly similar villains from what I’ve seen. Seph reminds me a LOT of Jinx and vice-versa. I’ve even drawn them together and compared their designs—it’s funny how mad villains in video games tend to have key similar design points, even down to hair-styles and clothing, but I’ll save that for another post lol.

Anyway, from the FS teaser it looks like we have a big climax in that ultimately leads to this scene with Seph and Rosen, who have been set up to be mirrors of each other.

All I know is that the trailer showed Rosen telling Seph to make a choice about which life he wanted to save (Japanese version made this a bit clearer), and the other lives in danger are Team Glenn. Seph is gonna have to choose between them, and….well, since we know Team Glenn lives….uhh…and also….

Rosen’s dog is trying to alert the others of something. Seph made a choice or did SOMETHING, and I thiiiink it’s gonna result in Rosen’s death. Whether it was intentional or an accident, we don’t know, but it’s clear this is when sane Seph when was still good and caring, even if a little psychologically stunted and conditioned because of Shinra. He’s been consistently this way throughout the First Soldier and doesn’t change until Nibelheim.

But I get the feeling everything went wrong with Rosen. That’s why Glenn is at odds with Seph years later.

This is also why we’re getting Arcane vibes. If it’s a misunderstanding or rift caused by Seph’s intentions to save his friends…well, that’s very familiar to this notorious Arcane scene:

Basically, Jinx…or Powder, as she’s known here, makes a drastic decision to save her friends and sister from genuine danger. However, her own talents are her worst enemy, and she causes twice as much destruction as the enemies her friends were struggling with. Almost everyone ends up dead, except for Powder’s sister. It was a horrific mistake and creates a massive rift between Powder and Vi (that’s the sister).

Vi also cements the idea in Powder’s mind that she’s a “jinx” or a curse of sorts. A complex that Powder had already been struggling with, and one she later embraces as her persona.

Glenn and young Sephiroth have been established to have a bit of a brotherly relationship so far, with Glenn being the down-to-earth and honest older source of influence. There was also the whole arc between these two revolving around Glenn initially calling Sephiroth a “cyborg” as an insult to say the kid was modified and different, not a “normal human.” This lowkey came off like a deliberate reference to Sephiroth’s later meltdown over not being human, yeah?

So you guys see what I mean, the themes here are similar to Arcane and Jinx’s psychology. If Seph makes some fatal mistake or a bad choice to save his team, and they walk in on this? Or get the wrong idea? Yeah, it’s gonna turn what was supposed to be an act of heroism into something much worse. It’s also gonna be the perfect reference to Seph’s later big moment in canon…errr, Nibelheim itself, where he just embraces inhumanity and finally goes berserk against everyone’s expectations, traumatizing the main protagonist and his eventual rival in the process.

Again, the theme of “tragic mistake paralleling or foreshadowing a villain’s first deliberate act of cruelty and evil” would be VERY similar to what happens with Jinx in Arcane.

I’m not saying SE is doing this on purpose, really, but the shared themes of identity collapse and “monsters you created” between Arcane and FF7’s main “mad villains” are interesting. Their stories obviously will play out differently, but it wouldn’t surprise me if The First Soldier ultimately culminates in a life-altering decision that Sephiroth makes, one that does NOT end well and births that conflict between him and Glenn.

That’s my theory for now. These teasers are convincing me more and more. We’ll see.

[rubberduckyrye]

IT MEANS SO MUCH THAT YOU LIKE MY REJECTS AU TO THE POINT OF TAGGING THANKS SO MUCH, THIS MADE MY DAY

 ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و ♡

This idea sprung up from a mix of desires: I’m just suuuuch a sucker for the spotlight being shone on those who were “left behind” or “forgotten” in some way. Those who were rejected! Those who nobody really considered or thought about until it was slapped in their faces, and they’re forced to finally notice them.

In this case, while canon rightfully showed how the Ultimate system crushes the talentless, what about those with talent who just weren’t good enough? Those who tried hard and were good at what they did, but juuuust missed the mark due to circumstances outside their control? “You tried so hard and come so far, but in the end, it doesn’t even matter”.

Another desire was the inclusion of a lucky student, because you can go crazy with luck talents!  Also a desire to just dunk on HPA lmao.

Again I haven’t developed much yet since I only recently thought of this, so for now I’ve mostly just been thinking of who would have been in which class (77 or 78), and of the OC. She does have a luck talent, but I’m thinking the way it works is that she’s essentially a lucky charm. Her presence brings good fortune to others (it mostly affects minor, short-term everyday things), but when she’s alone, her luck is kind of standard. Sometimes she gets lucky, sometimes she gets unlucky, other times it’s somewhere in between, same with most people. This means she's almost never won a game in her life. Online games that she plays by herself are a different story though, and that's why she prefers them.

Her luck has led to her being taken advantage of her whole life, but eventually she decides that if people are going to use her, she might as well get something out of it, so she ends up turning her luck into an underground business of sorts at her school. For a price, she’s upfront about her luck and is willing to accompany someone or be in the presence of someone else when they’re doing something luck-based. The “business” ended up successful, but she’s unhappy that many people see her as an object rather than a person all her life, and would rather people see her for who she is rather than what. 

So lots of luck when she’s with others is second-hand luck. If she needs to undergo an extremely risky surgery, it’ll be successful, since the surgeon got lucky. But if someone is trying to kill her? They’ll be successful!

Yeah, she’s terrified in this killing game, needless to say. Who knows which person/people her luck decides to favor? She’s aloof and stays away from others, but she’s intent on surviving and wants everyone else to do so as well, so slowly but surely she eventually trusts the “protagonist” character enough (haven't decided who that is yet). That’s how she became the “sidekick”!

Obviously I gotta develop all this way more and everything is bound to change, but again, thank you for your kind words and for allowing me to info dump! I’ll share more about RejectsV3rse if I develop more if you’re okay with it!

👀👀👀

I'm so into this AU rn??

Okay but also??? I recently was talking about Umeko (The Ouma Twins Mother) and what if she was an HPA student--And she would have been the Ultimate Luckster--But she also would have been the "Lucky Charm" type! Her luck is a bit more extreme though, and it got her looking into the supernatural and occult stuff/witch stuff to try to make sense of it. She resents people who try to use her luck so she scares them off. It's part of the reason why she was easy for a Young Kenzo to prey on.

God I love how we came up with a similar idea but two very different characters and reactions to that idea~

[volturialice]

ok I wasn't gonna do this twilight advent thing because y'all know I'm Not Great at consistent participation but if it's Jasper's Hobbies Day I obviously have to weigh in so here goes

listen. the important thing to keep in mind about jasper is that he's boring. he's soooooooo boring. he has all the tastes and proclivities of a middle-aged dad. just utterly bland dadcore taste in everything. I have this little remix snippet of one of @goldeneyedgirl's human alice/vampire jasper stories where even in human!teen!alice's wildest, horniest fantasies she can't imagine him as a peer or cool fellow teen and instead casts him as a 45-year-old nerdy professor.

which is what makes SUCH a hilarious contrast with his anything-but-boring background of violence and drama. he's kind of a jon snow-esque character in that his skills do not at all line up with his desires. by age 25 or so his only real want is to be Left Alone and yet life will not stop putting him in Situations. even when he manages to escape the cycle of violence, he ends up brother to the Main Character and husband to the World's #1 Meddler And Architect of Situations. even if alice were not an irrepressibly active person who loves nothing more than Doing Things, she's so overpowered that she creates international political incidents just by existing. jasper will never truly know a moment's peace and that's so funny and delightful.

but when he does get a moment's peace, here's what he'd like to do with it:

I agree with the canon/fanon that he's into scholarly pursuits like philosophy and history. I think history-wise he often overlaps rosalie's interest in technological history, because he blinked and missed the entire industrial revolution. I mean, he went from being human during a time without indoor plumbing to rejoining society around the time of stuff like the Space Race and the development of nuclear weapons! that's bound to pique anybody's interest. the rate of technological development is so much faster now! I can see him spending long hours talking with rose about robotics and space exploration and the future of green energy. I think he likes the logistics side of engineering because of the emphasis on efficiency and elegant solutions.

he's also happy to take all the Crime hobbies from carlisle. a whole new area of strategy where he gets to pull out all the stops and use his intimidation skills but doesn't even have to kill anyone!! what a rollicking good time.

I also agree with the fanon that as a human, jasper was a total Horse Girl who liked animals. as a vampire I can see that manifesting as an interest in conservation and biodiversity, or sustainable agriculture.

also as a human, he's very into athletic pursuits. his natural talent is for team sports and even coaching, but his interests lie more in the direction of stuff like swimming and climbing and martial arts—anything with a big emphasis on self-discipline and improvement.

in terms of the cullen family dynamic, his extreme patience means he's also voted #1 Most Likely To End Up Helping Other People With Their Hobbies. esme needs a hand with construction or renovation? he's there. rosalie needs someone to stand around and act as a car jack for hours? that's a jasper task (emmett would be her first choice except that he always gets bored and ends up trying to distract and seduce her, which inevitably works.)

the only people who can ever really coax jasper out of the dadcore mold are alice and especially emmett. emmett is a veritable genius for tapping into jasper's secret petty side. he can transform that jaded ex-war criminal nerd into a stupid goofy teenage oaf in 3.5 seconds, usually by goading him into some kind of competition. whenever they invent new games like Emmett And Jasper Ultimate MegaChess together, jasper tries to focus on developing a complex system of rules and emmett provokes him to smash right through them and play. ditto when it comes to things like pranking edward (pranks involve a lot of strategy and skill ok. they're totally a mature grown-up activity!!)

I think when he and alice first joined the cullens, jasper had lowkey forgotten how to have hobbies and considered them frivolous. until he saw how much joy and fulfillment alice got out of her hobbies and realized he'd better find some of his own or he was gonna feel lost and clingy. luckily for him these megarich vampires who never sleep have nothing but time and resources on their hands, and were happy to help him find some!

[solargrove]

in honour of marlowe and lark coming back could we get some lore about them👀 ily <3

hiiii oh my gosh this question has been living rent free in my mind ever since you sent it, and i have a LOOOOT to say so it will be underneath the cut but i promise it's worth reading hehe these sims are my everything <3

marlowe is an only child! she envies lark in that regard because lark is the second eldest of 5 children in her family, and for that reason, marlowe wants to have lots of babies (lol) to cultivate that big family she's always dreamed of

lark is actually really good at cooking, her skill in game i think is set at a 7? if i recall? and she is who primarily cooks meals for herself and marlowe. (throwback to the first harvestfest they spent together and lark prepared their grand meal)

both girls are actually quite tall! lark is taller but just barely. in my mind, i imagine that marlowe is 5'9 (approx. 175cm) and lark is 5'10 (approx. 177cm) so naturally once they have a bunch of kids, they could technically qualify as their own basketball team lmao

marlowe loves to knit! (evidence a, b, c, d) and she has even taken time to make some onesies for the little one coming soon 🥺

lark is actually incredibly adventurous (it being one of her traits) and that is due in part to being the only girl in her household besides her mother (as previously mentioned, she is the second eldest of 5 children, the other 4 siblings being brothers). she grew up around daredevil brothers who always pushed her to new limits, and so naturally, she adapted to survive in that sort of environment and loves the thrill of an adrenaline rush or two! she personally enjoys snowboarding quite a lot, and hopes to teach her kiddos some of her skill one day (albeit in a much safer way than the way she was taught lmao)

marlowe is a vegetarian and has been since middle school. she doesn't mind others who eat meat, it's just not something she considers essential in her life and so she doesn't eat it. as she's grown into a young adult, she developed a knack for gardening though, and has been enjoying growing food for herself and lark to eat!

both lark and marlowe enjoy watching films, but marlowe takes the art of cinema incredibly seriously. i imagine her letterboxd profile is full of in-depth and insightful reviews. meanwhile, i imagine lark's letterboxd reviews say a lot of "this happened to my buddy eric once" and other similar nonsensical phrases lol

while lark is active and adventurous, she's also very clumsy lmao the amount of skinned knees and busted elbows she has acquired throughout the years is astounding, but it never stifles her tenacity.

marlowe recently began working as a freelance writer! she has always loved writing (and even debated on attending university for journalism, but ultimately decided that university wasn't for her) and being able to bring in some money using what she considers to be a hobby rather than work has been very rewarding!

lark isn't working at the moment as her primary focus is growing her child lmao, but she has aspirations of one day becoming a world-famous athlete, perhaps a olympic-level snowboarder? realistically though, she knows that most likely won't happen, and so she does have a more practical backup plan of becoming a teacher. not very thrilling, i know, but that's why it's plan b.

marlowe can play the piano and is actually pretty good at it. she took lessons as a child, and i imagine her parents thought of her as some sort of protégé, but marlowe never felt that way about herself, even though she was quite talented. it was just something she did over the years because she felt like it's what her parents wanted. she does play a mean nocturne op.9 no.2 in e flat major though, and would happily show you if you asked to listen.

that's honestly all i have the brain power for at the moment but if there is anything else that anyone would like to know about these sims pls let me know i am dyingggg to talk about them lol 🫶🫶🫶

[zeroshine]

@peigay made two characters for your killing game au I hope you like them

Moriyo Tsuyoshi

Ultimate: botanist (plant scientist)About the character: she is a sweet and gentle person, a very shy person if she meets new people but still quiet people. She is not dumb she will know if you're using her or manipulating her, and about that, she will pull punch on you. If you try using her for something bad, she wants to see the real person in you and not fake it out. She has been used a lot of times in the past, and that made something crack in her to do something really bad, and she doesn't want that to happen again. She also can see a person getting used or manipulating very easily, and that's why she likes people who are victims of that kind of stuff, so if you try manipulating her, she will know about as quick as the wind.Facts: she actually works out a lot for her free time if there's no work for her ultimate. She actually loves plants like anything about them and will talk about a lot of facts about them if you let her. She knows to fight to she knows a lot fighting too.Background/backstoryIn her school life was kind of hell for her, but her home life was good, she was only a child with her dad, her mom died by giving birth to her so she doesn't know really lot about her but her dad talks about her and shows pictures of her mom her and mom just look like. Her dad works a lot, so she doesn't see him a lot, but still, they have a good relationship and will spend time with each other all the time if her dad has no work. She was really tiny for her age, and that made her school life terrible. The people in her school just bully her , ignore her, or just use her, so she had no friends, and that makes her just sad, thinking she is not important somebody at her age should not be thinking that. The internet she kind of killed one of her classmates years of bullying, using her, and people did not care about her that made something crack inside her. She just got a brick and just smashed their head, but she didn't even mean it, but she did it.Ps: For scars on her neck and stomach yea, one of the classmates did that to her. I don't know why, really.

Hironobu Koemi

Ultimate: cult leaderAbout the character: despise him being a cult leader he doesn't really see the ultimate on him that's not really a talent when he see it that. But his personality he really says the truth unlike his past self in a past killing game,he survived a killing game and he was the antagonist in it but he changed he seen lying can caused him a lot of trouble (he was lying about his ultimate talent and he backstab a lot of people, controlled and manipulated.) He got character development but theirs some things that didn't change like his childish personality, and he has this habit getting people in reality he doesn't care people need truth if it's the cruel hard truth he had to face reality first to know that but he did that to over people in the killing game he survived in. He is smart, not school smart, but like human smart, like reading people emotional or telling someone lying really easily because he lied a lot back than and if you try manipulating him he will tell really quickly so it's really hard or impossible to manipulate him and he see manipulating people to do your dirty work as pathetic if you can't do it on your own and if you control somebody weaknesses to do it he see you as pathetic, weak and trash human in life so he does his own thing by himself and not really people to help and that's something he needs to can of fix.Facts: With his childish personality, he keeps a lot of toys and bound games for his free time to play with. He is very flexible, so he can make a lot of weird poses with that ability, so he uses it with a passion.Backstory: He was born in a family cult , and he had a lot of siblings that he didn't really remember them that much. He didn't go to school he was homeschooled by his family, but he wasn't locked in his home they let him out outside a lot of time. (Don't really have a lot for his backstory, but it was cult, so he didn't really have a normal childhood )

If there's a chance to make these characters important in the killing au I give you a role for both them they could be friends with Monaca not to change her but like someone she hangout with to gain their trust in the killing game to be in side you know

Ps: they would be cute tiro and you could make something happen to them too🤪

Thank you if you're reading this

[yakool-foolio]

I know you post mostly Rain Code related content, but I wanted to touch upon a thought I had with Danganronpa.

When Asahina tries to get everybody killed, we know it's because she sincerely believed the survivors all deserved to die. Who can blame her? Asahina believed that her best friend has committed suicide due to the actions of the other students.

When Komaeda tries to get everyone, except the innocent Nanami, killed, we know it's because he sincerely believed the rest of the class all deserved to die. Who can blame him? He doesn't have much life left and he wants to contribute to the world, and in his eyes by getting rid of the Worst Terrorists in their world, he can do just that, change the world for the better.

The only difference is Asahina is easier to understand, more empathetic, and relatable, while Komeada is one of the most complex characters in the entire franchise.

Neither of them are right, but you understand why they responded that way and did what they did. Which is why it's so annoying to me when people use it against Komaeda as a character, if you have issue with it, then you should have issue with Asahina as well.

Feel free to talk with me about Danganronpa as well! I've played through the mainline trilogy twice and UDG once (and never again), and I've completed Ultimate Talent Development Plan and have grinded through a decent amount of Summer Camp by sheer willpower (I've also watched the Trigger Happy Havoc anime adaptation and DR3). I'll definitely need to brush up on some aspects of the more minor details of the games, but overall I think I'm up to snuff to tackle this discussion!

Nagito definitely gets a bad wrap for his actions post-Octagon. People may look back and not realize that he pulled the whole mass-murder suicide scheme all because he gained the god awful information that all of them were sickeningly horrible people except for Chiaki who was made to help redeem them. In his eyes, the people he once thought were vessels for hope were all beyond redemption after being touched by the tainted hands of despair incarnate, and decided the world would be far better off without any of them in it. It's not a necessarily good thing, by any means, but it's understandable why he thinks the way he does.

Aoi's thought process is just as intense, but it comes from emotions that people tend to sympathize with more (the feeling of wishing you could've done more to save the ones you love and pushing that onto others), along with it being a moment that doesn't really require retrospect. It's more palatable to the average player/reader, while Nagito's actions really make ya have to do a few loop-de-loops to really get a better grasp about why he does what he does throughout DR2. And neither of those writing techniques are wrong! Simple or complex character writing doesn't mean one person is written worse than the other. They're both explored in ways that make sense for the grander scope of the story being told and how they fit in it.

[talentswaphavoc]

Talent-swap Havoc [Chapter 3 daily life: Wolf in sheep's clothing]

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Aoi's execution ended and everyone is ready to go. Junko was about to leave and noticed Sakura still standing there, Leon was already being comforted by Sayaka. Junko decided to comfort her friend Sakura, she went closer and tried helping her understand what she's going through. Sayaka was trying to calm Leon down, they were both doing their best. Leon and Sakura however were missing their now gone friends... Their memories live forever with them.

Everyone heads back to their dorms but no one speaks a word, no one dares to. Everyone is split off into even small groups then before, there are only 2 groups of 3. Junko thinks to herself if her actions were wrong, just like before but before she can develop further, Monokuma appears.

"Since Yasuhiro's secret was boring and no one else's secrets got revealed there wasn't much drama as I hoped. So as your headmaster I decided I'll reveal mine! I know, I'm so kind. Ok ok, here it goes!

There's a traitor among you."

Everyone froze in their tracks and stared at the screen showing Monokuma before it faded to black. Their was fear, panic and interest in people's eyes. No one knew what to say, except Kyoko. She immediately accused Byakuya of being the traitor, saying he has yet to share his talent and somehow knew all the answers.

Junko jumps into to defending, stating that it's dumb to assume so soon. Kyoko continues to back up her argument, explaining that he said he couldn't say his talent but may just be a stupid lie so his real talent isn't revealed. Toko ran up and argues back yelling she hasn't done anything to help the group. Kyoko responds back by explaining everyone knows her talent and who she is, but no one knows. His talent could be the Ultimate Killing Game Maker for all they know.

Mondo yells at her to stop the crap, explaining all she'll have left is enemies if she continues. Byakuya stops him, saying he can explain himself. Byakuya continues by stating he can't say his talent or the reason why he can't say his talent. Kyoko starts to get annoyed, she wants an answer. She smiles like she has a plan and continues arguing, but now Toko steps in instead.

Junko starts to think and focus her attention on Byakuya. wondering if Kyoko's suspicions may be true, however her doubting is discouraged by how much Byakuya has actually helped. He may be mysterious but is that any reason to think he's the mastermind?

Kyoko leaves to her dorm sharing some final yet chilling words. Celestia stands there awkwardly watching her leave while others stand near their friends. Taka asks if Celestia is really her friend and Celestia explains that she agrees with Kyoko and that they should also think it thru, she may be right after all. Celestia leaves and everyone starts to separate back to their dorms, no one feels safe but they'll act like it.

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The morning announcement runs off again and Junko groans but gets up, she always hated mornings. Junko wondered if what happened last night really affected everyone, she thinks it did but who knows. Junko went to the gym because she heard singing, Leon was singing and Sayaka was praising his work. Chihiro was trying to break up another petty argument Taka and Mondo were having again. Junko smiled, she was glad nothing to serious went on especially with Leon. He really needs this.

Junko worried about Sakura instead, thinking that the 2nd floor pool is where she'd be. She was, Sakura was looming over the area Yasuhiro was found dead in, the place Aoi always brought them to. Junko and Sakura share some worrying and cheerful words to each other. Junko tried cheering her up and Sakura brought up how this pain she feels must be what Junko felt, it was. they hug and cry all their pain out before talking about moments they loved with their now dead friends.

Junko remembers and old book she and Mukuro read together and wants to look for it in the library, so they go. Sakura asks what the book was and she describes it in great detail on their way there. They don't hear screaming or yelling till they open the door, it was chaos. Junko and Sakura stare at the scene before them. Byakuya had a large cut on his head being taken care of by Kiyotaka, Chihiro was taking care of the cuts on Toko while Mondo was yelling at Kyoko and Celestia.

Sakura rushed over to stop Mondo and Kyoko's bickering while Junko ran to ask Byakuya what happened. Byakuya explains he was reading when Kyoko tried slicing open his head but he threw a book at her instead. He noted she wasn't trying to kill him, just harm him. Celestia was also there attacking him to, but Toko ran in front and got those cuts. Apparently, Toko's scream alerted Mondo, Taka and Chihiro who were walking by which resulted in this.

Sakura took away the knife Kyoko had and told them their all going to the gym to talk. Sakura and Mondo both go away with Kyoko and Celestia, Kyoko was angry while Celestia was rather reserved but pissed. Kiyotaka and Chihiro help Byakuya and Toko go who both resist any other help or questions. Junko is tasked with finding Leon and Sayaka, so she runs around and realizes there's a 3rd floor opened.

Sayaka and Leon were heading up those stairs, they asked where everyone went so Junko explains what happened briefly. They rush over to the gym and Leon asks what the fuck happened to Byakuya and Toko, also why Sakura has a knife. Mondo explains it was Kyoko and Kyoko sticks her tongue at him. Celestia coughs before explaining the story from scratch; Kyoko had planned to make Byakuya reveal his talent by force but she didn't think Toko stalked him enough to know he was in danger.

Mondo scolded her for dragging Celestia into this mess and that what she did was horrible, Kyoko ignores him. Sakura sighs and as Junko is about to ask something- Monokuma bursts in angry. He demanded to know why no one has went up to check the 3rd floor after he announced the new rooms, Sakura reexplains. Monokuma points at Celestia and Kyoko, stating they will be punished for their actions by having their secrets revealed from last chapter instead of just dying.

Kyoko isn't worried at all but Celestia is.

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Kyoko's secret: Kyoko has done illegal gambling, some being young for her to do.

Celestia's secret: Celestia Ludenberg is a fake name, her real name is Taeko Yasuhiro.

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Celestia yells freezes, having no idea what to do and Kyoko watches her. Chihiro asks if it's true and Taeko looks down in shame, soon nodding. Junko sighs and asks what they should call her, Celestia said she'll decide soon, for now the name Celestia was fine. Byakuya gets up and starts leaving, suggesting they can skip this for another time. Kiyotaka asks how he could push something like this aside but gets ignored. Toko follows and soon everyone does.

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During the investigation, Junko finds a strange photo on the floor. It shows a picture of Aoi attacking Yasuhiro while Hifumi is watching, there was another figure in the corner but it was hard to make out- only there arm was out after all, it looked covered bandages. Just as Junko was going to show the others- Monokuma snatched it which resulted in them arguing. Junko decided she knew she couldn't win but kept note of this discovery and continued the investigation as normal. Junko decided to tag along with Sakura and Kyoko, who were fine with it.

Once they found the nurse's office, they treated Byakuya and Toko's wounds more carefully.

❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁

Nighttime rolled around and before everyone went to bed, Mondo made a suggestion. Explaining that they couldn't let an attack like this happen again, Kyoko and Celestia had to be watched. Sakura agreed to watch over Kyoko but Sayaka argued that would be to much, they need to split times up. Mondo, Sakura, Sayaka, Taka and Leon were the strongest so they could easily watch over any of them with not much problem. Byakuya, Junko, Toko and Chihiro were left without any tasks which Junko was very grateful for. They would decide times after.

Kyoko sighed but agreed and Celestia agreed as well, saying it is what they deserve after all. Then, they all went back to their dorms to sleep again...

❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁

Junko woke up feeling somewhat better then last night despite what happened yesterday. She decided to stay in her room and worry about that photo. Wondering if she should tell anyone, she thinks if anyone would believe her, it'd be him. So she ran to find Byakuya but stumbled into Kiyotaka who was carrying a book, Junko asked what it was. Kiyotaka quickly covered the title and stated it was a book she used to read as a kid, Junko was hesitate but nodded. Junko asked if she's seen Byakuya and Kiyotaka points where, Junko runs off yell a thank you to Kiyotaka.

Junko finally finds Byakuya in the laundry room and asks why he's here. Byakuya asks her if she remembers what happened here, Junko gets defensive and asks why he's asking. Byakuya looks at her and sighs, saying now isn't the time. He asks her what she wants, Junko explains the photo she found before but Monokuma took away. Byakuya ponders for a moment, saying he's not sure what it means but that she shouldn't say things that may be used against the mastermind so easily.

Before leaving, he explains that the bath house does have no cameras and it's the only place they have where Monokuma can't watch them. Junko decides to check for herself but agrees to say everything else there. They both separate and Junko heads straight to the bath house. On her way, she passes Mondo and Kyoko heading upstairs to either the 1st or 2nd floor, no one else. Junko checks the bath house, finding no cameras she smiles in relief and starts to feel anxious. Should just one person be trusted with Kyoko? Especially someone like Mondo?

Junko ponders and decides to check on them- then she ran straight into Chihiro which threw them both on the ground. Chihiro sniffles and Junko yells in pain. Sayaka- who was talking to Chihiro helps Junko up then Chihiro. Junko apologizes for disturbing them and slamming Chihiro into the floor, Sayaka says it was alright. Junko tries comforting Chihiro who was starting to calm down, Sayaka gave Chihiro also. Soon later, she calmed down and thanked them both. Sayaka said it was alright again and Junko said she had to help. Junko soon brushes them off and leaves again, Chihiro also left Sayaka and followed Junko to the second floor, then left on that floor...

❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁

[villainanders]

agh i wanna hear about your cousland so bad!! what kind of person is she what’s her relationship w sir gilmore why did she side w the templars 👀👀

ahh i hadnt checked my askbox in a few days so just saw this but thank you for asking anon i love you!!

her name is roisin cousland and she's been very fun to play so far bc i didn't have much of a vision for her at the start beyond "cousland who marries Alistair but has leliana as her mistress at the end". (also this picture - the source of which i cannot find its from pinterest - which made me go FUCK i need to start my cousland playthrough) so seeing the way she's been developing has been very fun.. she starts out as, while very capable and a talented warrior and seemingly cool under pressure, deeply privileged and frankly naive about the reality of the world. she sees no reason why she can't live a charmed life as a ladyknight and eventually a great lady in her own right!

of course this all comes crashing down in the most horrific way imaginable in her origin as she suddenly basically realizes that she has been in an entirely different genre than she believed. you thought this was chivalric romance? this is dark fantasy bitch! this fucked up world ate everyone she ever loved so she needs to bite back, and hard, before it eats her too. basically roisin is grappling -- and badly so -- with how brutal she needs to be survive in a world that is fundamentally unjust beyond anything she imagined. that's why she sides with the templars -- she doesn't want to see the mages hurt, but she saw horrors beyond comprehension in the tower and imagines that a response that echoes that same swiftness and brutality must be the only way to respond.

but at the same time she's still kind of naive and getting used to living outside of her nobility bubble.. funniest part of this playthrough was when they met bandits on the road and i realized she would not realize she was being robbed so she just earnestly paid their tax not realizing how weird it was or how expensive it was. (it's one highway tax, alistair, what could it cost? 500 silver?)

i'm still playing in relatively early stages of the game so I'm not totally sure where this is going from here, though i imagine she's going grow past this stage of her grief and understand that mercy and hope have their place as well (this is making me realize it might be cool to do the dalish quest last so making peace can be the conclusion to that arc... hmmm) but we shall see where it goes. right now I'm obsessed with her dynamic with zevran they make me laugh every time they talk because roisin only let him live bc she was fresh out of ostagar (s/o to zev asap mod) and having just witnessed a SECOND brutal betrayal with unimaginably bloody consequences, was really starting to settle into "the only way to save the world is to start REALLY playing dirty. even if it means working with this awful reprehensible assassin. i might need someone this morally bankrupt to win" but ofc as she very slowly begins to start talking to zevran she starts to realize that assassin = evil is not as simple as she thought and that she unfortunately sees a lot of herself in this guy that seems so different from her. so i think that's going to be an important friendship in how she ultimately grows

as for her and gilmore, they were childhood friends growing up, but i think their relationship is probably going to break down a bit as time goes on. I'm still getting to know him via the mod, but the impression i have right now is that he's still very idealistic despite what he went through in highever, and i think it's going to upset and frustrate him to see someone he loves coping with the same thing in such an opposite way, in the same way it's currently pissing off roisin that he isn't drawing the same conclusions about the world from their experience that she did

[nagito-kissmaeda]

Oughh failed Kamukura project OCs have my heart, despite the fact I went a complete different direction with my own OC lmao. I'd love to read more about your OC <3

Thank you for also expressing interest in my silly OCs skfjskfs, I will talk a bit more about what happens AFTER Sachiko's time at HPA. the TLDR is that she ends up like Kamukura if his emotions still worked. She's a wreck. After graduating. She quickly notices that most of her classmates are able to easily find work with their talents, ironically, she doesn't have any such luck. as luck really uh, isn't an employable skill. As time passes, she grows more isolated, quickly realising that despite being unable to find any fulfilment in life, her luck will always give her everything she needs to survive.

Sachiko essentially becomes a shut-in. when she needs food, a delivery van will crash outside her house, and when she needs money someone will accidentally transfer it into her bank account. For a brief moment, she (on the hunt to feel SOMETHING) starts robbing banks, but even that doesn't bring any joy. It's just...too easy. She never has to try if she wants something it just...happens. She gives up on crime. Instead staying inside for multiple years. at some point, she develops a fascination with her luck, and how far she can take it. I won't go into detail, but it eventually leads to her trying to take her own life, and it never works. What was once experimentation has now become a desire. What is wrong with her? Why can't her luck give her the one thing she wants? Then the tragedy hits. And even that doesn't kill her, but it does kill all of her HPA classmates. She is the only one left. Sachiko never leaves her house, even as it is destroyed and falling apart around her. At least, until several years later, when she catches wind of a development. The world is healing. the Ultimate Hope Makoto Naegi is reopening Hope's Peak Academy. Well. After what they did to her, she can't have that, can she? Sachiko starts a new killing game with the first batch of ultimate ready to enrol in the brand new HPA. Partially to ruin any chances of the academy reopening, and partially, because she hopes she won't make it out alive. (Sachiko doesn't know this for sure, but she suspects that since her luck is artificial, that HPA specially made it so it won't kill her. As a contingency. She was an expensive investment, after all)

[predict485]

I wrote the prologue outline to a randomized touhou fangan i made

I want to improve and welcome feedback, especially from peers, so comments are especially welcome. I also accept constructive criticism. I spent a little while on this and I’m very proud of it, so please tell me your thoughts on it!

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

The are also some things I saw as necessary to tell you:

- There are 14 students in this

- Any pronouns for Nue

- This is an AU where everyone is human

- It ended up being pretty long...

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

This is the link to the original Google Doc. If there’s an access issue, I’m very sorry.

outline

If there’s an access issue, here’s the entire thing in this post. It’s been put under a keep reading tab because like i said, it’s a bit long. I also apologize for the format and if it’s difficult to read or understand.

Chapter 0

Lunasa is being driven to the Academy with her sisters.

They are excited about going to a high-level school and are proud of the talents they’ve developed

They realize they’re going to be in different classes because they have the same last name

They vow to still talk to each other between classes

They get out of the car and walk up the school steps

They relay their promises

But as soon as Lunasa walks into the school doors, her vision goes blurry and she passes out.

Lunasa then wakes up alone in a classroom with Kosuzu looking over her.

Lunasa is panicked because she’s suddenly away from her sisters and in an unknown location

Kosuzu says she’s also confused about the situation

They realize they’re in the Academy

They investigate the room and find nothing, so they decide to cautiously leave

In the hall, they meet Shou, who seems nice but is in a very professional mode and seems too nervous to say anything about herself. She does help them investigate a bit. 

They go down to another hallway and see Aya and Megumu arguing about their current situation. Aya claims she is right because of her talent, but Megumu claims she is right because of her position as being older than the rest of the cast.

They go into another classroom like the one they woke up in

They find Akyuu, who has only recently woken up and is still figuring out where she is

Kosuzu decides to help Akyuu, and Lunasa walks out behind them

Lunasa goes into the gym and finds the rest of the cast

She introduces herself to the rest of the cast

She meets Yatsuhashi, and the two become fast friends when they realize that they both play stringed instruments and they’ve both been separated from their sisters in this situation. 

Kosuzu and Akyuu both come into the gym, realizing that’s where Lunasa went

Kosuzu sees that Lunasa has become friends with Yatsuhashi, and becomes a bit jealous, but promises it’s nothing strong and she’ll probably get over it

They then awkwardly end the conversation

Lunasa then goes to talk to Nue, but as they’re about to tell her who they are, Aya and Megumu barge into the gym.

Megumu loudly announces who she is and says that she will be the leader of the group because she is older than everyone else there, since they are SHSL (Super High School Level) and she is SDCL (Super Duper College Level). 

Aya tries to argue, but then all the lights in the gym suddenly turn red.

ALICE comes onto the speaker and tells everyone that the game is ready to start.

Everybody panics

Megumu demands information on what is going on

ALICE tells them that she is an AI running on the Academy motherboard and is only following commands given by the “head administrator”.

The “head administrator” is using ALICE to anonymously run a game with the students of the Academy to select an “Ultimate student”.

The girls will participate in the killing game as an elimination process until only one student remains, who will go on to graduate as an “Ultimate student” and become part of the Academy Student Council, whatever that means.

Things are purposely left confusing.

ALICE then leaves, reminding the girls that she will still remain active until final shutdown and is monitoring the cameras and if they break any of the rules, they will be immediately executed.

The girls are left standing in the gym, all distrustful of each other.

Especially Lunasa, who thinks that Nue is sus and is also worried about Aya. She’s more or less okay with Kosuzu and Akyuu being friends, but is still a little nervous.

Yatsuhashi says that Lunasa’s going to be fine and she’s going to make sure she stays safe.

Megumu assures everyone that she will make sure nobody kills each other, but Nue objects and questions that nobody really wants to kill each other and says that at least one person wants to murder another in this room.

This just makes everybody even more distrustful.

ALICE gives everyone a tablet with the rules on it that you are able to see profiles of the other people and message them with.

The girls leave the gym and go their own separate ways for the night.

 Lunasa and Yatsuhashi maintain their friendship and talk to each other through the chatroom, before opening a private message board and having a talk about trusting each other. 

They decide they’re going to trust each other and remain friends since it’s always good to have someone on your side in a situation like this.

Suddenly, Lunasa receives a message from Yatsuhashi on the private chat board that she’s being ambushed by Nue and that she urgently needs to come help.

Lunasa rushes down the dormitory hall and into Yatsuhashi’s room, but only hears a shower running in her bathroom. Lunasa is confused and slowly approaches the bathroom before it cuts to a CG.

The camera pans back and reveals a darkened figure standing in the doorway with a baseball bat. They swing it and a loud “THUNK!” sound effect plays before the screen goes black.

Lunasa’s eyes slowly reopen and it pans to a CG of Yatsuhashi looking over her worriedly in the infirmary. 

Yatsuhashi says that Lunasa was out for about thirty minutes and says she’s probably going to be okay. 

Lunasa talks with Yatsuhashi about what happened and Yatsuhashi says she is still scared and confused about the whole thing. Note: Yatsuhashi’s hair is wet.

Lunasa leaves the infirmary and goes back down to the dormitory hall before ALICE interferes on the speaker and announces that this attempted murder will make a good test for the class trial system.

Lunasa and Yatsuhashi, as well as Momoyo, Shou and Kogasa (who were standing in the hallway at that time) ask what’s going on and how all this works.

ALICE explains the basic investigation and class trial system and that they are trying this out with the attempted murder of Lunasa. She then promptly tells the girls to get investigating.

Shou immediately rushes and asks Lunasa if she’s okay, Momoyo says she thought Lunasa was smarter than to get ambushed, and Kogasa slinks away before she can be asked anything.

While investigating, Lunasa takes some time to explore the area and Aya and Nue get their official introductions. Lunasa talks to Shou a bit more, but Shou still refuses to say anything about herself except for her name.

Lunasa confronts Nue about the ordeal of them supposedly “attacking Yatsuhashi”. Nue denies her claims and says they were in their room the whole time.

Lunasa finds that the closet at the end of the hall is open, and there is a rack of baseball bats. One appears to be missing.

The two bedrooms next to the closet belong to Kogasa and Kaguya respectively. Kaguya, who was just exiting her room to explore when she got the news, says that Kogasa and Momoyo were looking in the closet for things to help them escape. She also adds that Momoyo left before Kogasa.

Lunasa then goes to check up on Yatsuhashi. She realizes that the lock on Yatsuhashi’s door is broken, before asking her what she was doing. Yatsuhashi says she was about to take a shower when the attempted murder happened and she also didn’t know how to turn off the tablet.

The two girls test this and it turns out the tablet auto-turns off after five minutes. Kosuzu and Akyuu come up to them and say they tested this too.

While all this is going on, Lunasa explores the area more. As well as the dormitory hallway with the closet at the end and the gym (that also functions as an auditorium, there’s a cafeteria with an attached kitchen, a soundproof music room, and an AV room as well as a chained-off stairway to a second floor.

Lunasa meets up with Aya in the AV room before ALICE goes on the speaker to announce that the investigation time is up and to go to the elevator to attend the class trial. 

Lunasa and Aya take a little bit of time to find the elevator, talking a bit in the process, but eventually they find it. Lunasa and Yatsu have a small back-and-forth about how they trust each other before getting on the elevator.

They go to the trial grounds and they go over the evidence. It’s a bit rocky, there’s lots of arguing, people are dumb, Akyuu and Megumu have to help out a little too much, but they eventually figure out that Kogasa did it.

Everyone’s like “what the hell?” at Kogasa and she says she absolutely needed to leave the Academy and she was going to drop out anyway. Long story short, everyone is now mad at Kogasa.

However, Nue says that they respect Kogasa and she’s cool for prompting a mystery that people had trouble figuring out. (The case was very obvious.)

Now everybody is just scared of Nue. Kogasa says she’ll never try to do that again and didn’t really want Lunasa to die anyway, and will join the others in their efforts to escape. 

People are still very untrusting and afraid of Kogasa, and what creeps them out even more is that Kogasa seems … happy about scaring everyone. And now Kogasa wants to become friends with Nue. 

Everyone goes their separate directions for the night. The girls are all very distrustful of each other, even more than before. They have no idea what will happen next and who will murder next. They all have some form of doubt in their mind, but they can only trust that Megumu’s efforts to escape will pay off. Hopefully. Just hopefully.

 Chapter 0: End | 14 Students Remain

@isthatafuckingcorpse

@fukanamis

@alterego14

[catboyebooks]

the first thing i want to say about chapter 6 is regarding nanami. earlier i talked about the scene where hinata and nanami have a conversation in the void:

^ this scene, this is the only screencap i have of it lol

my read of this scene earlier was that hinata isn't really talking to nanami here, that he's in an internal debate with himself (remember also that directly after this is a debate segment vs multiple copies of "kamukura" who all speak like hinata and just say his deepest insecurities out loud, so literally an internal debate with himself) and just projecting the argument he needs to hear onto nanami. i said this because nanami in this scene doesn't talk the way nanami always did in sdr2; she's way more direct, it's such a notable change that hinata even comments on it and wonders if this is really nanami he's talking to. and i still do think this is a reasonable interpretation of the scene, but another read of it occurred to me and now i need to talk about that too:

i've said before that sdr2 nanami isn't a real person. in a literal sense that's correct, she's just an AI created to fill a certain role in the simulation. her role is restrictive. she's not a real part of the group and knows it. her FTEs imply she cannot become too close to the real people in the simulation because of her nature as an artificial intelligence. there are limits on how much she can participate in the killing game; she can help investigate and try and nudge the group in the right direction during trial, but she isn't permitted to solve the cases or provide the evidence herself. she has only the vaguest suggestion of a backstory (something something dead programmer dad) and extremely little knowledge of the world outside of information directly pertaining to her gamer talent. it's fair to say that someone like that isn't a quote unquote Real Person, right? but as the game continues, and in particular during chapter 5's trial, nanami begins to find ways to work around the restrictions in her programming to continue to help the group. ultimately she's able to confess to being the traitor even when her programming wasn't supposed to allow her to, and i think this is how we can know that nanami was starting to become Real. maybe she began as nothing more than computer code, but over the course of the killing game, throughout her interactions with the group, she began to develop a sense of herself, of personhood, that she didn't have before.

i think part of the tragedy of chapter 5 was that by the time nanami was executed, she was arguably just as much of a conscious being — just as Real — as the rest of them. i think nanami developing her own consciousness and sense of self is the only real explanation for why she wasn't actually deleted after being executed, and showed back up when the simulation was glitching just like the other "dead" people did. if she was just computer code surely she could have been deleted, but a consciousness is trickier to get rid of, right? but that digital ghost of her that was left wasn't the "observer" anymore, and there were no more restrictions on what she could say, so she was able to speak her mind to hinata in this scene. and at the end of the game, as hinata is leaving the simulation and says "thank you" to nanami, she was able to respond to him. as Real as she may be, there is no body for nanami to return to, and she presumably was deleted for real when the simulation shut down. that thing she says to hinata at the end about how she'll always be cheering him on from somewhere and they'll always be friends... those are her dying words, she knows she's about to cease to exist.

in fact, back to the void conversation again, in that scene she knows that by giving hinata that pep talk she's sacrificing herself for a second time. nanami's role all along has been to guide the others towards a future that she can't be a part of. i should probably save any further nanamiposting for when i watch dr3 and we have to talk about how there was a real nanami chiaki in that class whose brutal torture/murder was used to traumatize and brainwash her classmates into becoming despair terrorists, and then they sort of collectively imagined her back into existence in sdr2 only for her to get brutally killed in front of them Again and then ultimately deleted in order for everybody else to survive, but uh... that's a lot to unpack, huh?

[crystalelemental]

You know. Maybe I was too harsh on Bravely Second yesterday. That first ethical dilemma could be an outlier, I'm sure they're not all this stupid, right? Haha...hah...

So anyway, I got to meet Mephilia again.

The event opens with Edea's swordmaster teacher giving her a letter to deliver to her sort of fellow student, whose name is literally Gho Gettar. Ace Attorney ass character. Gho is off working in the city, but in a shitty job. See, he not only studied the blade, he's also a really talented Summoner mage from the academy, where he was a four-star student (five is the max, with some mythical six tier for super eggheads, so he's pretty high up). He excitedly takes a job promising development of alternate means of generating wind power should the winds stop like they did in the first game again, and with his talents in magic he figures this is R&D focused and takes the job.

Turns out, it's manual labor, turning the wheel by hand despite the winds keeping the windmill going currently. Gho is rightfully furious with this place and wants to quit, and Mephilia just appears and Teleports him away because they used to work together, and she thinks they can unlock the ultimate summon together.

At this point you go back to his boss, who mumbles about not expecting him to quit so soon and maybe he pushed too hard, but the conversation is clear: fuck this guy in particular. Edea hits the nail on the head, talking about military training tactics that break someone down so they're easily molded into what you want them to be, and the guy confirms, even adding that smart guys like Gho need extra grueling stuff because they come in with a "big head," which basically means "knowing his worth and his rights as a person and employee."

So you go find Gho anyway to finally deliver this letter, which is Edea's master being a complete fucking bootlicker and arguing about the need to stay with it, Gho. You've only been at this for [redacted], and that is not enough time to truly determine if this job is right for you! You need to work hard and overcome! And Gho, being a hard-working student, is like "it's true, I've never left anything half-finished like this." Mephilia, the only one I respect here, points out that they don't respect him and his life in that work sucked, and he can do what he studied and what he loves here with her as they work toward a major breakthrough. This is when you are given the choice to bring him back or let him stay.

You know what I picked. But this time, out of morbid curiosity, I took the other path. See, to cut to the chase: I started with intended path, but the other side lives, so I wanted to see if they killed Mephilia anyway. Mercifully they do not. But she calls Gho a capitalist pig (only half joking, she does call him a pig) and leaves. You check up on him later and oh look, instead of manual labor, now they're implementing a real job like what was suggested, having him use summon magic to help fuel the windmill. Which is just another form of manual labor when you think about it but don't worry about that. See guys? He's happy! All he had to do was endure the company's abuses a little bit!

When you rightfully side with Mephilia and let him stay, Edea's master jumps out to berate her about how if he doesn't stay and work it out, he'll never learn the value of hard work and give up whenever he encounters any difficulty. Which is stupid as fucking shit because you don't become a high-ranking academic without a concept of hard work. Moreover, it starts to try framing this ethical decision as a matter of Gho dropping the job for summoning because he thinks he's too good to be a cog in the machine, and there's honor in doing the hard jobs that need doing. Which is so not the point! The point is that this dude is being wildly abused by his current position, brought in under a lie of what his work expectations would entail, by an employer who does all of this intentionally because they think he'll stay and break himself down so thoroughly they can control him! This isn't even subtext and reading into what happens, the manager openly admits that's the game plan!

I'm honestly kinda staggered. I didn't think we'd be able to hit the same tone-deaf non-dilemma a second time after "Feed the orphans, or blow up the city?" And yet, here we are. Bravely Default cannot write a story to save its fucking life, man.

[lyrical-lovely]

Anime Review - Love Live! School Idol Project (S1)

I have a very deep connection to the Love Live franchise, but the original anime was actually kind of disappointing... This is the first anime I've reviewed on this page that had a second season I declined to watch. I might come back to it down the line, but I'm gonna take a break for now.

Watch Love Live! School Idol Project if:

- You enjoy music and anime about music

- You like the premises of sports anime but got tired of baseball/basketball/soccer

- You like women (seriously- there's no voiced men in the entire series)

Do NOT watch Love Live! School Idol Project if:

- You are sensitive to the usual 2010s anime nonsense (minor sexual harassment, sexualization of minors, insensitive discussion of weight and diet)

- You want a cast of likeable characters (don't worry, I'm gonna touch on this below)

- You like anime with tidy endings

SPOILERS below, I have to talk freely about this, sorry.

Nobody here knows this yet, but I've been into Love Live for about 10 years now, just before Aqours debuted. And let me tell you- based on the cards and stories in the game, I was a big fan of u's because I thought their characters were much more complex than they are in the later seasons. This is still true, but after watching the anime, I hate basically all of them. But let's go back to the beginning.

Love Live is an anime about a girl named Honoka who finds out her school, with a history so extensive that her grandmother and mother both attended, is closing due to a lack of applications. After seeing another school's successful idol group, Honoka decides to recruit her friends Umi and Kotori to join her. She runs into opposition at just about every possible point- struggling with getting venues, a difficult student council president, troubles with advertising, arguments within the group, et cetera.

In order to fully understand Love Live, you need to have a grasp of the context- Love Live is actually a sports anime! Many of the issues that Honoka and her friends, which make up the group u's, run into are based on cliches from sports anime, and the characters are also based on sports anime cliches. For example, Nico ran the old idol club before all the other members quit because her demands were too high. Eli is the overzealous student council president who thinks the idol group is giving the school a bad image. Hanayo is shy. Maki is moody and difficult, but a real talent. Do you see it? Replace those names with male names and you've got the ingredients for a perfect baseball club.

Anyway, I had very high hopes for this anime, so it's my own fault I was disappointed. The number of main characters, combined with the sheer volume of hurdles that the group faces on their way to stardom, means that the complex characters I had gotten to know so well through the games were largely left undeveloped. Instead of the cool, calm, and collected traditional woman that Umi's character wants to be, we get a frazzled mess who's being dragged into antics that really don't seem to suit her at all. Instead of deeply struggling with her relationship with her own femininity, Rin just says "nya" a few times every episode and that's literally her entire arc. Seriously, it's a shame because I know she gets development in the second season, but she adds nothing but wasted time to the first season. And as a result of these failed complex characters, most of the Love Live idols to come would ultimately be shallow. I could go on and on about the failed character arcs in this show, but that ultimately brings me to the plot.

Nothing. Goes. Right. Absolutely nothing can be easy or insignificant. Each performance is for the fate of a school, and each hurdle seems nearly impassable. This would be great if the anime was supposed to be a thriller, but its target demographic doesn't want that from it. What young girls wanted to watch was a cute anime about girls wearing dresses and singing, and what we got instead was just a barrage of struggles. There was almost zero downtime, no cute little interactions between the characters that had no significance to the plot. Forgive me, but I think those mundane moments that develop relationships between characters are part of what makes an anime, specifically an idol anime where the emphasis is supposed to be ON the characters, good. In the end, they end up withdrawing from the competition because Honoka collapsed (cliche) and that's where they leave it. Fortunately, I think by this point the anime had been approved for a second season, so I think the dramatic ending was a ploy to draw viewers back for next year.

That's enough complaining, though, because there were some highlights. The music is wonderful (despite the lack of variety between the songs, ALL of which are about doing your best and following your dreams) and the costumes are cute by 2010s standards. They're a little campy now. Furthermore, this series was one of the pioneers of 3D idol performance animation integrated with 2D closeups of the characters. The 3D animation has improved significantly since then due to better software and computing power, but for the time, the animation was good. I also think the color palette was well chosen for this anime, and the voice acting was stellar.

Anyway. This turned into a rant about all my problems with Love Live, but I think any potential viewers should be aware of its shortcomings before investing ~5 hours into it. Overall - 4/10. Amazing for the idol anime genre and I really love Love Live as a franchise, but man, this anime was not for me. Thanks for listening.

[wantonwinnie]

The Bacta War Review

7/10. About halfway through I was feeling “eh,” and while it got better toward the back half, I think it still warrants a lower score than I have usually given for Star Wars books so far. I have a lot to say on this one because I'll be covering the first three books in the series a bit, as well.

To preface, I generally like canon better than a lot of the older legends stuff, but I still enjoy much what I’ve read so far (I also loved playing the KOTOR games). My main experience, albeit limited, is the first four novels of the X Wing series, and overall they were great! I really like the first three (Rogue Squadron, Wedge’s Gamble, The Krytos Trap). However, I think this one kinda suffers when compared to those.

Since they’re all a part of the same series, I’ll talk about what I liked in the first three. Rogue Squadron had excellent starfighter combat and engaging tactical discussion; Wedge's Gamble had interesting military strategy and related controversy, as well as espionage; The Krytos Trap, perhaps my favorite in the series, had questions about judicial policy, mysteries related to Isard and Corran, and Imperial subterfuge.

This begets a problem for The Bacta War – it has to wrap up whatever was left after The Krytos Trap, which wasn't much, without starting much new stuff. Most of the important mysteries were already resolved, including Corran's past, the main betrayal, and Isard's plans. And it’s totally okay to just want to continue the story with another fun adventure! Not every book will keep the same mysteries going, and the payoffs in Krytos made that a stalwart favorite of mine. People will read for the characters they came to know and love, which is totally cool.

__________________________________________________

Spoiler from here on

However, that leaves me in a weird position. I like the characters just fine, but I don't have the same attachments to them as maybe others do, nor do I find them especially compelling. Corran is courageous, cunning, talented, and charming, but is also just an ex-cop who half the time is lamenting Booster Terrik as a hardened criminal or whatever. Booster himself is fun but straight-foward. Mirax is fun but ultimately felt like Corran's love interest more than her own character in this installment. Wedge is Wedge – hardened fighter who always gets the job done. I liked Ooryl and exploring the Gand culture.

That brings me to the main problem – while it didn't need to start anything new, I think it lost a lot of the political dimensions that made Wedge's Gamble and Krytos so awesome. Maybe it wanted to return to Rogue Squadron's focus on space combat or something, I don't know. But I was pretty disappointed in the lack of attention in the 12-hour (audiobook) read to interesting political questions that got asked and were left unanswered by the story (other than to say that they're irrelevant). I mean, they mention the New Republic can't get directly involved because that would be a violation of Thyferra's sovereignty, thus leading to other worlds leaving the NR. This is stated as fact without the perspectives of the Provisional Council or Thyferran people, and even less, barely weighs on any of the characters (and why would they care when they already decided it was a worthwhile venture?). Of course, the in-universe angle justifies itself; Isard is definitely evil, and making sure she doesn't control the Bacta cartel (+ liberating the Vratix from human oppression) is undoubtably good. But Rogue Squadron doesn't have to worry about sovereignty, and they honestly barely care about liberating enslaved workers (it’s more about Isard = evil). And that makes sense. But since we are only given their perspective, we never develop the political issues involved here.

Moreover, after defeating Isard, the establishment of a new government is an afterthought in the story and pretty fucking simple somehow. It’s literally turn the page and now Thyferra has a provisional government joining the New Republic. Blink and you'll miss it.

I think the most dimension The Bacta War gets is from the economic disruption of Isard's bacta supply, which is interesting, and definitely necessary to make the book a more worthwhile read.

I don't feel like the major characters had much development in their story arcs here. Corran is slightly more aware of his force abilities, though highly limited. He and Mirax grow closer. Corran gets over Booster a bit. Wedge gets more tired. Tycho tries to let go of his past trauma for a bit. That said, I don't think the characters are the strong-suit.

Speaking of, diversity is a big issue in this book (as with the first three, where most of the characters started). It’s human-centric, which isn't a big deal (Andor was probably the best show Star Wars has made yet, and that had an extreme lack of non-humans). However, this installment was even more human-centric than the others in terms of the characters given sufficient time, though non-humans were still relevant (Vratix, Ooryl). But more important – I was BEGGING for some non-white humans. I mean, holy shit. Corran? White. Wedge? White. Mirax? Booster? White. Isard? White. Tycho? White. Iella Wessiri? White. Gavin Darklighter? White. Pash Cracken? White. Elscol Loro? White. I just named almost all the major characters in this novel (and many are major to the first three).

There are exceptions (Wookiepedia doesn't say the skin tones of humans Erisi Dlarit or Fliry Vorru, who are both major characters, and Winter is described as "tan," though she's a minor character). I don't want to belabor this point, but I think it’s an important one. The author could have stood to make a few more non-white characters in the first place, especially considering how many non-legacy character options there were. And I've always thought it was so weird that, with Luke Skywalker being a white man, and Wedge Antilles being a white man, the author decided to make the titular character of the series (Corran Horn)... another white man? Not to mention the second new and important character, Tycho, another white man? I think we have enough of those in Rogue Squadron alone to cover our bases here lol. I can only speak for myself (another white man), but I have to imagine it’s difficult for non-white readers to see themselves in this series and especially this installment.

Of course, any relationship or potential relationship in this series is depicted as heterosexual, and all the characters have binary pronouns, though I never had any expectations in that regard. I'm really spoiled by The High Republic and other modern canon books, because those do a much better job than 1990s legends, which is both hopeful and unsurprising.

So, ultimately, how did I feel about this novel? I think the most important question for any novel is: did I have fun while reading it? Yes, I did. The space combat was exhilarating, tense, and surprising; the tactical questions were interesting; and the story had its moments. I don't feel like I wasted my time reading it. However, at the end of the day, I think it’s pretty, erm, skippable. It’s another story with the same characters, and I totally jive with that, but I think the missing elements made it a bit of a letdown compared to the first three books, which got better with each successive one.

I think next on my list is either the Doctor Aphra audiobook or Shatterpoint.

[simkjrs]

the making of enoshima junko

junko is a fascinatingly funny villain who defies so many attempts to understand her, reason with her, or empathize with her. i think the creator of danganronpa even said she was made to be a villain who’s impossible to relate to or understand. BUT HERE I AM, writing a meta about the inner workings of her mind and her motivations as a villain and how much of a tragedy she really was, because i am out here empathizing with her and loving her with all my heart.

i think she can be difficult to understand, and it’s easy to give up and explain away her actions as just “an obsession with despair” but there’s so much more going on that i just can’t leave it at that. 

SO HERE WE GO: what the fuck is going on in junko’s mind?

[contains MAJOR spoilers for the first and second games and danganronpa 0; includes content from unlocked bonus mode games]

to start things off: if you said that junko's motivation for destroying the world was just because she wanted to and for no deeper reason, you'd be correct. but like, you wouldn’t be right.

critical to understanding junko is danganronpa 0. we learn a few things about junko, the first and most important of which is the fact that her TRUE shsl talent isn’t fashion, or despair -- but analysis. 

junko has a mind that works very, very well. scarily so. she has a brain that:

after watching someone fight for approximately three minutes, can near-flawlessly predict their moves and lay an elaborate trap to knock them out despite the fact that they are much faster and stronger than junko

in fact, she predicts them SO WELL that she doesn’t even have to LOOK at them in order to dodge their attacks while they’re chasing her

just... three minutes, and she completely saw through their fighting style. that’s unreal. 

can analyze others’ speech patterns, thoughts, & mannerisms, to the extent that she can nearly word-for-word guess what someone is thinking or going to say. so we get gems like this: 

“If my prediction is correct, he‘s going to realize very soon that the source of my newfound power lies in my notebook.      [...]     Madarai reached a conclusion. There was some kind of secret hiding in that notebook.” 

“Does [Junko] think this is a game?!     ‘You‘re probably asking yourself if I think this is a game, but I‘m not gonna tell you either way...’”

can generate countless connections and possibilities at a moment’s notice: (from the bonus “ultimate talent development plan” mode)

can anticipate the way everyone is going to react to certain situations, as if they aren’t all complex independent organisms but instead actors whose lines she’s reading off a script... 

junko has a mind that accumulates data about the world very, very rapidly, and makes this.... GIANT database of behaviors, and patterns, and predictions. she's smart. she can lay a plot that accurately predicts the actions of people MONTHS in advance, to the point that she can make her plots run almost entirely on the reactions she predicted other people would have; she can craft a plan that would run completely in absentia of her, powered only by the decisions she predicted others would make. 

that's what she does in dangan ronpa 0. and it goes down without a hitch: 

“Just answer me!” Frustrated, Matsuda raised his voice angrily. “What is it you want to achieve? Just what is it you‘re trying to do?”

Enoshima tilted her head slightly to the side.

“Nothing really. I don‘t want to do anything.”

“... What?”

“It‘s too late, I shan‘t do a thing. I‘m not going to do a single thing, I have everyone else doing it for me. Guys like the student council, the headmaster or the steering committee... and also that girl who you absolutely adore... EEEEVERYONE is running around, doing my work.”

so what you learn from this is that junko is frighteningly good at breaking down the behavioral patterns of the world & people around her. good enough to predict other people, down to their thoughts, speech, and decision making process... good enough to predict fashion trends and make a name for herself as the ultimate fashionista... good enough that, with a little bit of time and observation, she can read her environment like it’s an open book. 

good enough that she’s completely, utterly bored. 

bored of talking to people because their responses are SO predictable, bored of schoolwork because it's SO easy, bored of doing things because it's just the same patterns repeated over and over and over again. junko can predict people months in advance; reading people in the moment must be a joke. 

for example, during her events in the bonus “ultimate talent development” game mode, junko has an encounter with asahina aoi and hanamura teruteru, in which hanamura invites asahina to his kitchen and junko cheerfully inserts herself into the conversation. there’s a little banter that junko takes part in at first, but then, before hanamura can get around to telling asahina what he invited her to the kitchen for--

turns out hanamura wanted asahina to taste-test some of his donuts. before he’d even mentioned it, junko figured it out. and to her, it was completely trivial to figure out. 

this is what daily life is like for her: nothing new, nothing exciting, just an endless parade of people moving according to a script. a script that junko read, divined, memorized, learned by heart, and is now completely and utterly bored of. 

life for junko is the perpetual, endless torture of boredom. it is about as engaging as being locked in an empty room with nothing to do but watch a clock ticking away at the time. 

and if you had no way to leave that room, no way to escape -- eventually you’d have nothing to do except take apart the clock itself, wouldn’t you? how long could you hold out before -- out of sheer frustration and the need to do something -- you’d try to dismantle the clock piece by piece? 

what junko wants, more than anything else, is relief from the numbness of boredom. she wants stimulation! interest! something exciting, something that can stir her to passions she could never reach under the endless cafard that weighs her down so in daily life! the highs of hope and joy, the lows of utter devastation and despair... how could she not chase that? she so desperately  wants it! she wants that excitement! she wants, more than anything else, to feel.

and boy howdy does despair make her feel. taking, for example, this passage from when junko personally murders her beloved matsuda yasuke (dangan ronpa 0): 

[Junko] loved him so much, that irreplaceable existence, more important than anyone else, almost obsessed with him to the point of insanity, always wanting to be within his embrace, even living in a world with only him would be fine. And by losing that incredible existence, just how much despair would [she] fall in?

She nurtured her love for Matsuda all this time just to get a taste of that feeling. Seeing her loved one be smothered by despair during his last moments, she pretty much lived to experience that spectacle.

Finally getting to taste that despair... 

“...INCREDIBLE!!”

It was more than anything she could have hoped for.

"Too depressing! Too good! My chest is gonna tear open! This is true self-loathing! I want to die! This is! This is the despair that comes from losing a loved one!”

While Enoshima‘s being was assaulted by that despair, she kicked Yasuke Matsuda‘s corpse with all her strength.

“Amazing, amazing! Amazingamazingamazingamazingamazing!”

and again: 

Looking at this notebook brought back memories of Yasuke Matsuda. Remembering him, she could feel her chest tightening. Consumed by disgust at what she did to him, she was compelled to cry and scream out. I want to forget this already! I want to just get rid of this notebook!

“Aha! All the more reason to keep this on hand!”

despair is just about the only thing that can reliably make junko feel something -- anything other than the utter boredom that plagues her so, that dogs her footsteps wherever she goes and eats away at her mind. it’s the only thing that can bring her relief. it’s her drug, her nepenthe, her poison of choice 

and for this reason alone, despair is the only thing that junko can cling to. as long as she’s bored, as long as she’s trapped by the very nature of her own mind, the only thing she can do is chase the purity of despair. 

in fact, it would be accurate to say that despair is junko’s only hope for being satisfied with her existence, and her only hope to be happy. Or, as dangan ronpa 0 puts it, “Junko Enoshima wishes for despair above anything else [...] finds hope within despair more than anyone else.” 

with this context, we can finally understand what ikusaba mukuro tried to say about her sister (again, in dangan ronpa 0): 

“[Junko] has lived her whole life with despair by her side. She lived while immersed in despair. That‘s why she began looking for despair in others. She learned to enjoy pushing people into despair [...] she learned to enjoy inflicting despair onto herself. That‘s how the link to despair began. As she chased down despair, she pushed it onto others on the way. Doing so, it caused her to desire falling into despair even more...and because of that chain to despair, the Super High School Level Despair was born.”

junko has been, and i quote, “bored since the day [she] was born.” despair is the only thing she has. by causing others to fall into despair, she can experience it herself. the more she cares about her victims, the better, too -- the worse she’ll feel, and therefore, the better she’ll feel. this is why junko gives so much special attention to causing the despair of those she loves the most, i.e. her childhood love matsuda yasuke, her sister mukuro, and her classmates at hope’s peak. 

BUT! there’s also an added bonus to all her convoluted plans for despair. it involves setting up situations that she’s never before seen -- and therefore, situations she can’t entirely predict! her pursuit of despair is her ticket to possibility of an unpredictable factor in her life -- and for someone as endlessly bored as junko? that’s as good as it gets. something exciting! something new! 

and if she doesn't know what's going to happen, then junko gets to feel things like ANTICIPATION, or SURPRISE, or FEAR, or DELIGHT -- things that are so often denied to her in her daily life because she can predict so much that she's just bored all the time!!! everything is boring!!! an endless plain of dull, boring nothingness with nothing to engage her for more than a minute, and junko HATES it, junko would do anything to find something even a little interesting or surprising in this world! she’d murder, she’d weaponize her empathy against herself, she’d destroy the world! she'd do anything to feel something besides boredom again!!!!

for junko, "despair" is associated with excitement and relief. she would pursue it to such a degree that she'd destroy the entire world and herself while she's at it -- just so she can feel something besides the endless boredom and nothingness that has burdened her all her life. 

of course, that means there’s a little dissonance in what junko claims to stand for. for junko, true despair would probably be akin to being locked in that empty room with the clock, and never letting herself take the clock apart. it would be... giving into boredom. and that’s something she could never bear to do. 

so then we have lines like this: 

With the sullen expression still on her face, Enoshima trotted towards Madarai‘s dead body. “It‘s your fault, y‘know. Take that!” She started jabbing her toes into the body. “Hey, say something! What‘s up with being so easy to kill?! You should‘ve at least made an effort to disrupt my plans! How can I possibly despair like that?!”

despair is about the thrill! the excitement! and yes, junko is making all these plans, hoping that they’ll succeed -- but how can junko despair if there isn’t at least the excitement of defeating all those who would desire to challenge her?! if there isn’t at least something a LITTLE new, a LITTLE bit unexpected?! she can’t, thats what! at least let your despair drive you to do something interesting and new for once in your life! 

or this: 

in all probability, junko -- more than anything -- would love an enemy who she can’t defeat. someone who, no matter how much she tries, she simply can’t overcome! because more than anything, that would represent a challenge -- and therefore, something exciting. junko’s happy ending is meeting her match, and more. 

too bad she doesn’t have anyone like that. 

so instead, junko has nothing to test her mind against, nothing to occupy her... nothing to save her from the boredom eating her alive. and so, from dangan ronpa 0: 

Everything turned out just the way she expected... Everything turned out just the way she hoped... and so she despaired.

“But, it‘s so unsatisfying when your plans always succeed... Whose fault is this? Is anyone going to take responsibility?”

and again, from the last trial of the first game: 

in the end, despair is only a poor substitute for what junko really wants; a pale, cheap imitation. what junko wants the most -- excitement, purpose, relief from boredom -- will forever be out of reach, as long as she’s trapped by the confines of her own mind. 

i think the saddest part about danganronpa 0 is that we get a look at what it would take for junko to be really, truly happy. junko wipes her own memory; more than that, she makes it so her long term memory is nonexistent, and she forgets things almost as soon as they happen. and the kicker is that junko is happier like this, living as the forgetful otonashi ryouko, than she was as herself. 

because she constantly forgets everything, she’s not bored. everything is a new experience. she’s happy to be with matsuda and feels no need to chase despair. as ryouko, junko is still self centered and somewhat callous, but she’s also passionate, excitable, cheerful, upbeat. she cares about those who are important to her, and would try her best to preserve their happiness. 

but when her brain is in perfect working condition, she can only helplessly fall back into the hopeless boredom that she hates so much -- and that she’d do anything to escape. 

it is a boredom so complete, she can’t stand it. she can’t even stand herself. her own predictable self, whose mind, thoughts, actions she knows so well... in danganronpa 3, junko actually has something of a seemingly stable personality, but by the time the end of the first danganronpa game rolls around... 

... she’s so bored of even herself that she feels the need to constantly switch up her personality. 

the sad thing this implies is that junko’s mind just -- couldn’t take it, anymore. it gave out under its own weight. her boredom was so absolute, her mental state could only deteriorate. she could only become increasingly unstable, and increasingly desperate to find something, anything, to keep her boredom at bay. 

no wonder junko has this sentiment, then: 

junko’s analytical mind is her greatest blessing, but also her greatest downfall; the source of her boredom, and thus, her descent into despair. she went to all these efforts to relieve herself of her boredom; and to do that, she chased despair, defined herself by the concept, even. but in the end, what junko needed the most was an escape from being herself. 

for someone like that... no wonder she welcomed death with open arms. here it is: the end of the line. no more boredom -- no more anything, in fact. only the fear, the terror, the excitement of her execution -- the great unknown -- and then, her death. 

the tragedy is that for junko, this was the only happy ending she could have. as long as she was alive, she’d never be happy, never be satisfied. death, for her... was a relief. 

so when naegi started to tell her that executing herself wasn’t necessary--

she became angry. this was all the wanted in life, this was all she could ever hope for. this was, in her eyes, the only way for things to end. 

this is the tragedy of junko enoshima: a girl who, in a desperate effort to keep herself from going insane, destroyed everything she touched. 

[trubbishrubbish]

Danganronpa S and the Mistreatment of Genocide Jack.

Danganronpa S... What a fucking disappointment.

When this was first announced back in E3 2021 and seeing Genocide Jack in that swimsuit CG I was so fucking happy. I wanted new Genocide Jack content as I have wrung out all other sources of her pretty well. I was ready to see my favorite character, my idol, the one I love the most having fun in the sun with every student.

But when I finally got my hands on the game, after paying a microtransaction to play her right way, what I got wasn't what I expected. Instead of fun Genocide Jack events we get her mentioning Byakuya every half second, her being a jerk to everyone except Komaru and all the fun, random wackiness and boy crazy of her character from the mainline games.

This rant will hopefully explain that Genocide Jack has be quite frankly, handled awful in DRS.

Let’s hit the nail on the head right now. DRS Genocide Jack is not the same Genocide Jack from past games. To compare, let’s look her character in Ultimate Talent Development Plan.

I keep forgetting that UTDP was a thing, rarely people bring it up nowadays but boy am I glad it exists now. I needed a refresher on what events she had so I went to read them all and holy shit. She is so much more fun, more crazy, more friendly, more EVERYTHING that I love about Genocide Jack. The difference between DRS Jack and UTDP Jack are night and day but we need to compare the two in an actual event. The best one is with Sonia as both games have an event with her and are about the same thing. Sonia talking to Jack.

Here’s the UTDP event.

And here is DRS.

Can you see the difference?  UTDP Sonia is enthusiastic while Genocide Jack is happy with the attention, playing along with Sonia because why not, surprised by the praise but enjoying it while still being her killing horny self not caring she is talking to royalty.

DRS Jack is kinda... I don't know, boring. That's how best I can describe her in DRS. Boring. They made her boring and an asshole in DRS. She isn’t friendly with other students. She’s a jerk. I know her gimmick was that she’s a serial killer and everyone is scared of her but she was also a goofball in past games. That’s what made her special and so endearing. This serial killer would crack jokes, say really horny and random stuff and be super friendly to other students even if they are scared.

DRS Jack is none of these things. When other students try to be friendly with her, she pushes them away for Byukuya.

UTDP Genocide Jack would enjoy being called Geno and she would love being with Ibuki and Kokichi but not DRS Genocide Jack.

As far as I know, there’s only one event where Jack is not a jerk to another student other than Komaru. It’s this event with Mikan where she cured Jack of her cold.

For once, Jack is actually NICE? But it’s not the same type of nice like in UTDP. And that last line really bothers me.

“Somehow, I doubt I’d have ever received gratitude from Genocide Jack without my nurse talents.”

What the fuck does this mean? DRS Jack would never express gratitude to anyone without them doing her a favor? Why? UTDP Jack would be super happy if someone gave her attention! Why is she so selfish and a bitch to every student? Students whom she knew for 3 years? Komaru is the only person Genocide Jack likes. I mean events with her are ok but I can’t STAND whenever she brings up Byakuya and it happens in every event she is with Komaru.

Speaking of Byakuya that brings me to my final point.

I know Byakuya has to be a thing and I accepted that there would be events with him in DRS and I would avoid them. But holy shit they went overboard in DRS. There are too many events where Jack brings up her “White Knight.” UTDP doesn’t have nearly as many events with Byakuya in them. I did the math.

Here is every Genocide Jack event in UTDP. The red highlight shows an event where Jack said “Master”

And here is every event in DRS with a red highlight showing which events she said “White Knight.”

14/23 events in UTDP has Genocide Jack NOT mention Byakuya

4/21 events in DRS has Genocide Jack NOT mention Byakuya (Campfire event has Kurokuma event with no mention of him)

But that's just name alone. There are events where Jack mentions Byakuya but the event is not about him. Let's add those events to the count

18/23 events in UTDP where Byakuya is not the main focus.

8/21 events in DRS where Byakuya is not the main focus.

Even with only 14 out of 23 events that is not Byakuya mentioned. THAT'S STILL MORE THAN HALF THE TOTAL EVENTS. DRS DOESN'T GO HALFWAY EVEN WHEN HE IS NOT THE MAIN FOCUS WHAT THE FUCK.

This is a huge problem. Disregarding the opinion that Tofu is a toxic ship (It is) having this many Byakuya mentions leaves no room for variety in her interactions with other characters. All her events boil down to "hey where is white knight!" or "hey will you help me get to my white knight?" That's it.

UTDP where events did not focus on Byakuya had Jack doing so more. She had a silly morning conversation with Chihiro, she helped Nekomaru get pretty boy customers, she wasted Izura’s time joking about his hair, HELL. Korekiyo and Jack has multiple events together in UTDP and they actually had a friendship of being serial killers.

You can read all these events in full here but I will share some good lines.

This energy that UTDP Jack has is non existent in DRS. Her best line out of every line she gets is honestly this.

To close off this long rant I will quick fire a few more issues with DRS Jack.

She didn’t get a line in the intro where the swimsuit CG was shown. DESPITE HER BEING IN IT.

Incorrectly labeling a png of Toko as Jack in one of her rank cards.

Accidently leaving a dot on one of her Swimsuit sprites, also not using all her normal sprites when making her swimsuit sprites.

Bringing up vore and joking that Genocide Jack would eat someone.

TWICE.

In conclusion, the writers for Danganronpa S failed in writing Genocide Jack. They didn’t make her fun. As such, I can with confidence conclude that they wrote Genocide Jack out of character in DRS.

The writers didn't do enough research for Genocide Jack and wrote her based on what they thought she was. Just a threat who is a jerk to everyone and only loves Byakuya and doesn't like anyone outside of Komaru.

They rushed this game, the shallow gameplay and main story, the countless glitches and soft locks I had. It all points to the devs rushing this product for the holiday release. Genocide Jack became a victim of this. Other characters had more enjoyable events and were more in character then her in DRS. The only positive DRS has is that they respect Toko and Genocide Jack as a DiD system. That’s it.

Fuck Danganronpa S.