#and why its not adressed in game

[thewardenisonthecase]

btw tw for talking about abuse

I've seen a lot online about how the game never mentions Caterina's abuse of Lucanis while he was growing up (being beaten and starved, which is mentioned in the Wigmaker Job) and I think there's a small mention to it if you're a crow (when asked, he says it was torture training under the first talon and that he resented her for a long time)

And while I do think part of the reason why this isn't brought up is just due to how sanitized this game is when it comes to the crows, I think I do understand why in world wise it's not possible to just be like hey lucanis, fuck your grandma.

It's really hard, loving someone who hurts you. Because you know they're hurting you and yet, you still love them. It's even harder when they're family.

Because its not like Lucanis doesn't know that she hurt him. He says so himself - he hated her, he resented her, and althought I do think him 'justifying' it by saying that at least it prepared him for the life of a crow, at least he still admits that it happened.

But the thing is that despite all this shit, she's still his grandmother. And like, yes, blood shouldn't excuse justifing this behaviour, I feel like it's cultural. Idk how spain or italy works when it comes to family, but here in brazil, you'll hear so many stories of physical abuse happening in families, and its still a situation like Lucanis - i hate them, i resent them, i love them, they're my family.

It's a...complicated situation and I think Lucanis's situation is made worst by the fact that he only has two family members alive and that he cannot let go of.

She beat him, she starved him, he hated and resented her, and he was afraid of dissapointing her, even if in her eyes, i don't think he could. I mean, he comes back an abomination and she still tenderly says 'my poor boy' when you rescue her in the Villa.

All in all...it's tought and I think that it would not be Rook's place to suddenly make Lucanis want to kill his grandma bc he wouldn't. Sorting out those feelings is something he has to do himself, and i'l almost glad the game doesn't make rook do a therapy session with him to talk about it.

[arolesbianism]

Everyday I see another youtube video or whatever say smth along the lines of "this character is badly written because they're unlikable/annoying/insert negative description here" and everyday I end up massively disappointed because I came here for analysis on the actual writing of a character not just a description of the feelings they made you experience

[ghostbonetv]

Why do all mail companies hate me specifically?

[succubi-tch]

Second day that a friend who recently got new underwear has been talking about how it's so soft "it's like going commando"...

[twilightofthesandwiches]

you talked before about how it’s ambiguous how much tenna and spamton knew about kris’ situation with the soul, and i wanna point out how when the darkners in castle town use boss, it’s usually ambiguous whether they’re referring to kris or us. But one of the jigsaw joes called the player boss. Like it’s pretty clear he’s not referring to kris but rather us specifically. As a separate entity from them. Do they know??What?? Its weird

It is very weird!... and not the first time I am thinking about how weird that is, I actually have a post/Answered Ask about it from all the way back from when Chapter 2 came out lol

There hasn't been many new revelations about the Weirdness Of All of That so I'll start by plagiarizing my past self

Oh there is DEFOS something Funky going on with the Castle Town Darkners and “Boss”. For once, even when they are addressing Kris - and most of the time it seems that they are addressing Kris…

Why is Kris the ‘Boss’, and not Ralsei - the supposed 'Prince’ of Castle Town?? And if it’s about Kris being a Lightner, why doesn’t Susie get the same treatment? Add to that the fact that Castle Town is named “[PLAYERNAME]Town”. And that the Save Point calls it “My Castle Town”, while the End-of-Chapter-1 Check Point calls Kris’ room “Your Room”

(note from the future to add that the Save Point in Kris' Room in Chapter 4 calls it "Kris's Room", again reinforcing the point that person for whom Castle Town belongs to is not Kris.)

And then Jigsaw Joe adressing 'Boss’ in the second person, and than addressing Kris in third person…

It does seem like the Player - or whatever entity we represent in-game - is the real Boss of Castle Town. Kris is just our 'figurehead’ (and Ralsei’s just a figurehead to the figurehead). The interesting thing is that most Darkners don’t seem fully aware of that distinction. Like in that screenshot with Swatch I’ve posted above, Swatch reprimands 'Boss’ for something Kris did of their own volition. So it seems like some (most?) Darkners don’t actually distinguish between Kris Dreemurr and their real 'Boss’. So the fact that there is one Darkner in Castle Town who seems totally aware of the fact Kris and Boss are separate entities, and that this Darkner is friggin’ Jigsaw Joe is…. Well, that certainly raises some possibilities!

Like I said, I don't think much has changed since then. The one extra detail we have is that Elnina and Lanino never seem to talk about 'Boss', and only over refer to Kris.

But I dunno if that means they are making a distinction between "Boss" and Kris as much as it means that they do think of Boss and Kris as the same person, but just see themselves as being on first-person basis with their "Boss".

Plus... I mean, we do still have to ask ourselves where did the name [PLAYERNAME]Town come from in the first place, and how do all the Darkners know that it's "Kris" (and not Susie) that they need to address as Boss.

I think it's possible that the Grand Fountain and Castle Town were originally created for the Player on some level, so any Darkner animated by it is just sort of... imparted with some amount of knowledge? understanding? a compulsion? Something that tells them that we are their 'Boss' now. And for the Darkners who don't understand who's really puling the strings they understand it as the 'Boss' actually being our Vessel/Cage, Kris.

But that still leaves the question of why the hell Jigsaw Joe is the only Castle Town Darkner who makes an active distinction between "Boss" and Kris... but why? Is it some sort of Tutorial Character Power that he shares with Ralsei? Why doesn't he bring it up? Kris seems to be currently interested in keeping their Possession a secret from Susie, so.... doesn't it bother them?

I... guess that as a Darkner who's used to live under the whims of both Lightners and the capricious royalty of Card Castle he might just not understand the horror/importance of the situation. He just thinks that if his Boss is nice to him that makes it enough to make them a Boss worth following, Unknowable Time Demon Possessing a Teen or not.

[kryaaas]

LISTEN. I KNOW ITS A MISTAKE TO GO TO TWITTER BUT FUCK. this is just racism??? right??? it needs to be fucking adressed?? idk guys maybe considering a white guy who showed up for 5 minutes (whose fanon backstory is completely made up) to be more "deep", "interesting" , "engaging" or "worthy of essays" than a canonicaly queer POC deuteragonist who is like on screen nearly all the game is fucking bad !! Even *if* people were right about jean, reducing a Kim, one of the best written nuanced character in fiction, to just "he is just nice :)) and thats why people like in comparion to deep and complicated sufferer white blorbo" is fucking INSANE

[starrgirlella]

Lurking for love? More like lurking for LORE

Hi everyone! Just two days ago, I made some interesting discoveries about LFL by just digging around the website

I'm not sure if anyone else found this out so that's why I'm going to be sharing what I found because it's very interesting

This post is going to be pretty long lol and full of my rambling. If you're interested, please take a read! Do note that English isn't my first language so I may express myself a bit weird 😭

Also IK the screenshots are pretty shitty but I'm lazy oops

To start, I have a habit of checking the sinistershrike website along with the LFL itch.io game page. Why? Well I just like looking if there are any new updates (and its my hyperfixtation so I'm constantly looking for new content)-

And I noticed that on the sinistershrike website there was a new update which some of you may or may not saw.

In summary, the game is getting custom music, prounouns are getting removed so MC is going to be gender neutral and getting called only by their name and most interesting of all: a new main character is getting added, and they're going to be dateable!

Pretty interesting, right? I immediately got curious on who that character might be since they're going to cause drama and more mysteries.

But wait! I'm still not done, hehe

Afterwards, I was just randomly looking at Jacob Alden pics thru google. Again, why? Well, I don't know either lol. It's just a habit that I do when I'm bored and sometimes when I'm lucky, I come across new things.

And this time I was lucky!

So I scrolled down to the end of the results and I saw this post which caught my eye:

What's so interesting about it? Well the fact that the creators website is linked to it. Curious, I clicked on the link and was suprised at what I saw.

(Mind you I still dont know if I'm an idiot just finding this out or not...)

Basically, it's a site containing all info about Jacob! I got really excited when I saw it bc I LOVE learning all the facts about my favourite characters and finding new official content!

When I finished looking through it I noticed two things:

1. The website adress (is that what it's called? Im sorry english isn't my first language)

So when you look at the website adress you can notice how it's linked (basically an extension) to the creators webiste which is: sinistershrike.neocities.org

The thing is; you can't open Jacobs page on the creators site. Like yes, there is a tab which says CHARACTERS but if you click on it you'll get nothing but a scary looking Jacob. Which means to get to this page you have to type the adress in yourself.

So I'm assuming the creator is purposefully hiding this Jacob page (maybe because he wants to finish pages for all characters and more)

And here's the link if you want to take a look for yourself:

https://sinistershrike.neocities.org/character/jacob

2. At the end of the page, you have links to other characters made by the creator.

Not just lurking for love, but other ocs made by him!

Though, if you click on them, you'll get nothing. Maybe they're still being made? I'm not sure.

Now, when you look at the characters for LFL, it's very interesting because we now have info on Sarah's last name AND... an unknown character? Noah Vega.

At first, I was stunned. Who could this character be? Then I went back to the creators website and remembered the mention of a new character, can you see where I'm going?

Noah Vega must be the new character! He was never mentioned before; neither in the game nor in the creators deleted blogs.

And pretty quickly I found proof which helped my theory (I SOUND SO DUMB OMG)

Now going back to the website adress thing.

So I concluded that the Jacob website is hidden from the main website for an reason, hence you can only acess it by finding it yourself. I decided to mess around with the website adress a bit, to see if I could find any more extensions/links.

I started by putting different names in the adress. I tried out: Austin, Sarah, Cedric and Alfred but they didn't lead or anything.

BUT

The only name which lead to an extension was Noah. And holy shit-

I'm finding it hard to express how shocked I was at this discovery

This is a pretty big lore drop imo! So his website shows a pinboard with various notes.

And with these notes we can conclude two things:

1. He has an gambling addiction

2. He is investigating Jacob

He definitely an detective trying to solve an old murder case involved with Jacob. Hence why the mention that the new character will add more drama and mystery to the game.

The three murdered highschoolers must be his old friends mentioned in the game: Steve, Monty and Kenny. Which he claims that they haven't talked since highschool. In reality, they were murdered by him for reasons that are unknown for now.

The website link:

https://sinistershrike.neocities.org/character/noah

And that's about it! I had fun digging around finding this new info and writing this post. I hope to see more of interesting secrets like this in the future because it's fun finding them!

I hope this post was of interest to you :)

[guthraiel]

officially finished kcd 2 so now im gonna complete the younger hans and henry meeting fic and some art wips i have because my brain is overtaken by this game HOLY FUCK

(spoilers under cut but its just my rambling mentioning the ending and some plottwists really)

ive been a hansry truther since the first game in the sense that henry is sooo clearly a bisexual loser and so is hans. imo the two most logical choices for henry's romance are hans and theresa, who, in each of the games they're romancable in are the ones who henry has known and trusted longest. theresa in KCD 1 is his childhood friend, the one person who shares his survivors guilt and the memories of skalitz. while in KCD 2 hans is the one person who has been with henry throughout this whole thing and never really left his side (excluding the arguement at the start and the various kidnappings and being taken hostage)

like either way imo those are the most 'cannon' romances to henry and i really wish kcd 2 adressed the existence of theresa a bit. she's by far the most interesting woman in the franchise since warhorse does lowkey struggle to write women in a way that's logical. i mean the way every female around henry throws herself at him except his main LI's who all follow some version of the girlboss trope is... man come on. i actually do really like both rosa and katherine, but i think there could've been just a teensy bit more done with them

also like what the fuck is up with henry's mother. idk if her name or any personality being excluded is meant to be an artistic choice to show how henry remembers her as just 'mom' and ignores any other part of her character but like wtf. both radzig and martin get names, a backstory and a deep relationship with henry while his mother is just. there. i get that this is the 15th century but in the first game it's clear in the tutorial that hal and his mom are CLOSE like i wish we got to see a bit more of that tbh

i have words to say about samuel as a character but none of them are appropriate for tumblr so i will abstain. tldr i actually like him a lot henry getting a brother-butnotreally is actually really sweet. like despite the fact that he lost his family and everything dear to him there is still someone who cares about him in a familial way. i hope we'll het to see more of him in some of the upcoming dlcs although i doubt it since he can technically die during the game (and i'm pretty sure in a canon run you should leave him behind)

okay last point to the characters is one ive had since kcd 1 but THE NAMESSS WHY ARE THEY NAMED THATTT

henry of skalitz my ass bro THAT'S JINDRA 😭😭 jindříšek even!! like i get that ř may have been an issue but just have him be jindra instead of jindřich then???

hans capon is just a bit silly like jan ptáček could be a pronouncable name, not to mention there is SO many characters named jan already so even Jan Capon i could lowkey get behind more

also i do fully believe non czech speakers miss out on the game a bit, there are parts of bg dialogue that are in czech and add just a bit of humour and immersion to the game (like in taverns, markets or during henry's nightmare in suchdol where the skalitz/maleshov people hiss 'you killed us')

okay ttldr this game is really good i just needed to yap since my friends whove finished it dont share any of my sentiments

if u have thoughts to share please do im curious what impression others got

[sooyaumvm]

MC thought it was going to be a calm day

Grim for some heavenly reason decided not to trow a tatrum when he had to woke up, Ace hadn't done any "joke" to make Deuce go deliquent mode, Epel wasn't complaining about Vil, Sebek was screaming less then usually, it was obvious something was going to happen, but they decided to have fate, it was lunch time and they were trying to make Ruggie admit he did infact stole Grim's lunch "Oh, hey, Headmage. Did you get the paper work i did for you?" they said when Crowley appeared in the cafeteria "Yeah, I looked it over. Nice work." it wasn't unsual for Crowley to complimeant MC work but everytime he did was weird "Good. Thanks, dad." with one word the cafeteria went silent, not a comfortable silent, a mocking and unconfortable one, "Why is everyone staring at me?" MC said breaking the silence "You just called the Headmage "dad."" ace said in a mocking way "You said, "thanks, dad." "What? No, I didn't. I said, "thanks, man." the prefect tried to cover the small mistake they made "Do you see me as a father figure, prefect?" now it was Crowley turn to talk, or mock "No. If anything, I see you as a "bother" figure, 'cause you're always bothering me." "Hey, show your father some respect." Lilia said with a small grin on his face while hanging on the ceiling "I didn't call him dad." this couldn't be happening "No, no, no, no, MC." Crowley interrupted "I take it as a compliment." "It's not a big deal." Epel said trying to help "I called Vil "mom" once, and he's my Housewarden." "Guys, jump on that! Epel has some unsolved mommy issues." "Old news. But you calling Crowley "daddy"..." Ace retorted "Hey, "daddy" is not on the table here." MC said in return "But you did call him "dad," dude.' Ruggie said "You shut up. You've done nothing but lie since you got here." "All right, all right," he started "I was lying about the holdup. But the dad thing, that happened." "Aha! He admitted that his alibi was a lie." MC jumped from they're sit "It was a trap, all part of my crazy, devious plan." they said trying to recover from the embarrasing mistake "I believe you." Crowley said "Thank you." "Son/Daughther" MC sighed "Do you want to talk about it later over a game of catch?" Crowley offered "I'd like that, yes....."

i was rewatching BB99 and when i saw this scene all i could think was Twst so i had to do a mini drabble abou this, and while were on it, sorry about the bad english its not my first language, and i couldnt find any neutral way of adressing son without being "kid" and i dont think it would be on context for this scene....

[pizzaprotozoa]

guess who just played the hit red dead redemption 2 mission "banking, the old american art" thats right this fella here!!! spoilers ahead! i am not mentally stable especially not anymore!

okay so full transparency i KNEW this was the mission where hosea and lenny die and i was able to put it off for like an hour before my little brother peer pressured me into doing the mission because he doesnt wanna watch me do side missions sighhh. i had to pause the game like 3 times throughout and walk around the room because i kept getting emotionally devastated. me when i play the game known for having a tragic story and its tragic. also after the mission youre just in guarma and. everyones just locked in are we not going to adress them? the dead elephants in the room? hosea........lenny............ HE WAS SO COOL,, HE WAS SO SILLY,, LENNYYYYYY SNFNFHFHFHFHGHHH SHHRGGGFFF 😿😿😿😿😿😿 however i do fw hercule fontaine so much honestly? WHY DO NONE OF YOU TALK ABOUT HIM? DO YOU NOT REMEMBER HIM? HES SO AWESOME RGHH

[skybristle]

im gonna get flamed for this but ive been ruminating on it and i think that the bspice update was doomed to be DOA for actual intrigue because gc doesn't have meaningful flaws in canon!!!!!

yes shes incredibly vain and prideful but her storyline potrays that as rather positive. and im nto saying i don't like that in fact i ADORE how they interpret greed and how it works with their culture. i think its ridiculously cool! and i understand why they moved away from her greed being a bad thing considering shes an ancient hero

my biggest issue is how i feel they really didn't adress how utterly fucked the digital kingdom is. like. you're trapping their souls, preventing them from moving on, and LYING to everyone except a very select few that their reality is false. [much like eternal sugar.... but She's the villian!]. like. especially when its falling apart! think about fucking fettucine! how many other cookies are suffering a similar fate? how long can she hold on before the soulcheeses rot? it's SO compelling but instead they focused on like. dumb smoked drama or whatever.

not to mention my biggest gripe with it is that she gets to just. put the digital kingdom down like a game. i know this would be BOLD for crk but man. i wish she destroyed it at the end. i wish she let go. i wished she realized that by keeping a dragons hoard of people's lives, she was in the wrong. her grief and delusions are so compelling but she faces absolutely no punishment for her behavior! not even that but its just. so uncompelling to have them just Avalible. she can wake up smoked at her leisure in BY 3/4. maybe i think she should be wrathful and a little violently unstable with nothing to lose. i think her perspective on WL is interesting and maybe they should have leaned more into that- her being furious at her for being a traitor like that! idk!

which gets to my issue with her and burning spice because its like. gc didn't come out of her story with serious issues. dca is still incredibly stubborn and his people still struggle. hollyberry is a huge alcoholic and hasnt had a moment for herself. pv has to grapple with lying to his friends about WL and what he needs to do about DE. etc etc etc. gc? it's just... nothing. she gets to walk away from her digital kingdom like a game.

when you REALLY boil it down its just them beating the shit out of eachother, which i think is a shame, gc showing her kindness by helping the spices and etc or whatever [and i do think it was fun how obsessed she was with war spoils] is just her showing how awesome she is compared to her foil. yeah she gets her wings ripped off which was fucking awesome but its just one brief ITS SO OVER moment and i feel like. idk ....

my main point is i think that gc should have destroyed her digital kingdom and it would have made her dynamic with bspice, the light of destruction, a billion t imes more interesting. the man who, when he got bored and desperate, burned down the world starting with his own people. with a heartbroken and violently angry gc who has just been forced to put her own down with her own hand. like FUUUUUUCk it could have been so cool

[chronicallyonline101]

Hello, chronicallyonline101, lets play a game. You have to asign each la squadra members (+mc bcs she is canon to meee :333) their multiplayer category

a) bullies kids online (intentionally)

b) pro gamer

c) tryhard toxic player that will find your ip if they lose

d) could win even if they tried

e) just a chill guy

You have [time] minutes

I HAVE MINUTES???? OKAY OKAY RISOTTOJIGSAW

Bullies Kids Online - Intentionally:

- Sorbet

- Illuso

They both play together and troll little children, they were the type of people to dress up as John Doe on Roblox and run around scaring kids - Sorbet has a TRILLION backup accounts on every game ever because he keeps getting banned for saying slurs and Illuso is the type of guy to report anyone who offends him, even if they've done nothing wrong.

Pro-Gamer:

- Formaggio

He owns every single gaming utility that has ever been released; XBox, Playstation, Nintendo - EVERY year they release a new device, he's saving up to buy it even if the last one runs perfectly fine. He's the whole reason the team plays games.

Tryhard Toxic Player That Will Find Your IP if They Lose:

- Ghiaccio

King of crashing out FORREAL. He loves gaming but it STRESSES HIM OUT because HE NEEDS TO WIN. He's the type of person to get into an argument after losing, respond with "kys" and then their leaked IP adress. #1 Doxxer out there.

Couldn't Win Even if They Tried:

- Prosciutto

- Risotto

Prosciutto doesn't understand 'games', he thinks theres far better things to be doing with his life than playing silly little pixels, so he's naturally dogshite at playing them - he also can't handle the way everyone makes fun of him when he loses so he refuses to ever go near them.

RISOTTO ON THE OTHER HAND, sees no issues with games, he's played a few times with the others just to unwind! He's not good at competitive games; he doesn't like the adrenaline rush, he feels that on a day to day basis with his job, why would he want to relive that feeling? He prefers cosy games !

Just a Chill Guy:

- Melone

- Pesci

- Gelato

The most casual gamers of the lot; they don't stress over winning or losing, they just enjoy the process of playing. Melone and Pesci prefer simpler, cosier games like Risotto while Gelato likes to play more hardcore games - he mostly plays with Sorbet and Illuso but he's not as extreme with the bullying as they are.

NOW, for our beautiful and beloved MC, i could see her fitting into the "Just a Chill Guy" category, BUT, i also think she Bullies Kids Online - ACCIDENTALLY

She'll be playing DTI or something similar with Illuso and she'll get third place on the podium and within SECONDS she's spamming hate into the chat about how shit everyone else is at the game and how the system is rigged

Anyways. i like to think La Squadra has a shared Minecraft world they all play on together and its utter chaos because Sorbet keeps blowing up everyones houses. thank you for reading; take a Melone

[chi-the-idiot]

Ok but we need to adress how Slay the Princess shows that the concept of Eternal Happiness is so incredibly numb and boring. Sure, in concept it sounds nice, and Im certain that if we could all choose to have it we would.

But it's an unrealistic concept. And the Shifting Mound is the proof of it. She embodies Death and Destrucion, certainly. But She also is Life and Existence itself. Without her, there is nothing. But The Echo, The Narrator, he just sees the ugly parts. The unhappiness attached to her. And that is why he tasks The Long Quiet to kill her.

As a whole, the meaning of Slay The Princess is that without pain, without an end, there is nothing. It hurts like a bitch sometimes, but without those moments there is no meaning to happiness.

Think about the Thorn. You hurt eachother, even in an uneccesary ammount at points. But when you both choose to change and forgive, to trust eachother, you come together. You may even get the kiss you may have been waiting for, and it isnt only a fun scene to watch, but its a sweet scene. The one that, at its core, symbolizes the entire meaning of the game. It's no coincidence that at no other point of the game do you get this interaction. Love hurts sometimes. But if you both want to try and change and heal, you can overcome anything. Even the thorns blocking your way out. And its even sweeter, considering everything you've been through.

But this isn't only about love. Happiness is a long path. And at the end of that path is a cabin. And what awaits in that cabin may hurt you, and slice you open, and rip your guts out. But overcoming it, and seeing the way foward after it, will be even more gratifying than anything eternal happiness may have given you otherwise.

[the-necromancer-wife]

John Doe: Nothing scarier than the detriment of mental health.

TW: Adressing mental health issues and awareness, Spoilers for John Doe game, very long rant.

As the title suggests, I'm sharing my take on this horromance visual novel called John Doe. This was supposed to be only one of those super deep analysis i usually make, looking for symbolisms and deep diving into this game but it quickly turned out to be something slightly different. I will try to adress it with all the respect it deserves.

Origin of the name:

I started thinking about this game for a while now. I was curious on what the name "John Doe" meant in this context. As the guy doesn't really seems able to pronounce his own name in a way we can comprehend or it's kinda infohazardous to hear. So he just asks you to call him "John Doe".

But where did we heard that before?

Funnily enough, John Doe is what we known as a placeholder name used (i think only) in the UK. The feminine equivalent being "Jane Doe", it is a name commonly used for referring to people which name is unknown or intentionally concealed. Of course there are many variations of this placeholder name and in the context of law enforcement in the United States, such names are often used to refer to a corpse whose identity is unknown or cannot be confirmed.

A "John Doe" is what in some countries is called an everyman. A John Doe could be me, you, or whatever person we can think about, it comprehends any age or gender. It's the idea of "everyone can be anything". Of course, the everyman archetype is often used in media to portray a character we can all relate to.

Although the usage became obsolete in the UK in 1852, in the UK usage of "John Doe" survives mainly in the form of John Doe injunction or John Doe order.

8.02 If an unknown person has possession of the confidential personal information and is threatening to disclose it, a 'John Doe' injunction may be sought against that person. The first time this form of injunction was used since 1852 in the United Kingdom was in 2005 when lawyers acting for JK Rowling and her publishers obtained an interim order against an unidentified person who had offered to sell chapters of a stolen copy of an unpublished Harry Potter novel to the media.

("The Law of Professional-Client Confidentiality: Regulating the Disclosure of Confidential Personal Information, Update")

There's something we can keep from all this and is the fact that John Doe didn't chose a random nickname, he chose THE nickname, the name that would place him as any of us since, at some point, we could all end up being "John Doe"s and "Jane Doe"s or unfortunately, "Baby Doe"s (yes, this one is for children). And i think this right here delivers a strong message. But more on that later.

We begin this game with really weird imagery. The "backgrounds" are not what we would expect on a visual novel. It kinda reminds me of this viral "name a thing in this picture" image.

Like...you know these are stuff you know and see everyday, yet you cannot name any of them. It's like your perception is altered when you look at it and suddenly everything looks...familiar...but you cannot really identify anything. You feel...disconnected. You know your brain should be doing its job and placing everything together to help you recognize the full picture...but it just fails in doing so. So you just stay there, scratching your head and wondering what happened.

And this exact vibe is transmited by the backgrounds in this game.

And here in the second image we get a glimpse on the MC: Wakes up late, hasn't showered in three days and overall has this distorted vision of the world around her. And she is, oh so forgetful, according to John Doe. As she "forgets" she invited him to her home in the first place.

There is clearly something wrong with the MC, or at least something is not working for her. And i don't mean it in a quirky or funny way, i mean it as in "mental health related issues". The game doesn't tell us why, but I'm pretty sure MC suffers from depression.

Everything listed earlier are things that happen when your brain functions with depression: Cognitive detriment (You aren't quite aware of your surroundings as you know what you see but your brain cannot really "decode" what are those things), waking up late (as this could indicate an irregular sleep schedule, another very common thing for depressed people), poor personal hygiene (i think this one is the most known) and memory related issues.

But every single one of those symptoms by itself is really not an indicator of a depressed state. In fact, as it also happens with anxiety, you need to make a distinction between a depressed state due to a specific event and long term depression, the later caused by stacks of unsolved issues, non-adressed trauma and lack of skills to ensure mental wellbeing. I believe the MC suffers from this long term depression, as she feels life passes by as an endless loop.

Same day, same routine. And this right here is the premise of John Doe (the game). The day repeating itself over and over. The "wake up, go to work, I'm not hungry, go home, sleep (or don't)". She doesn't laments her situation directly, but this also happens a lot with depression. You don't "feel it", it "makes you feel".

And there is someone else in this loop, stuck with the MC. That is, John Doe himself. I think John Doe encapsules pretty well the concept of "what if".

What if i behaved in certain way, what if i did this, what if i didn't do that. He never loses interest in you. As i heard someone mention somewhere, his "Lost interest" ending is just him leaving you be just beacuse he knows things can be different in the next playthrough. Doe begings thinking that there's a combination of choices that will lead you two to be toghether in a way that pleases him.

As it happens with depression, none of them are focusing on "breaking the loop". And as a fun fact, usually a person doesn't see an exit to their problems not because there is no solution, but because they keep trying the same old solutions over and over.

John Doe does his best. At some point he passes the question "what if everything was normal?"

And this is what we begin to see:

"What if everything was normal"

"What if everything was fine"

This time, the MC has a decent schedule, she seems to be able to see her enviroment clearly and the way she perceives John Doe is not altered. I think this also reflects something among the lines of "When you feel like shit and the world doesn't makes sense, it's hard to focus on any kind of relationship" Often the social isolation becomes something usual in the context of depression and interacting with the people around starts to feel...scary, very much like John Doe and the faces he makes and the way he approaches us. But MC is not depressed this time and he is a "nice guy" this time. He should be accepted, he should be "loved".

I'm getting out of the analysis for a moment to involve a personal experience, to share a piece of myself.

Some years ago i was really in love with this person. I lacked the confidence and hated myself too much and that made me think this person wouldn't remotely like me back if i didn't craft myself carefully like his ideal type. What i believed he would like based on what i knew about him. So i changed. And it felt good at first, because the love i felt for this person was so big that everything else was literally a small price to pay to be by his side. We became a couple and lasted for a long time, but one day i woke up and i didn't recognize myself as a person. I hated myself for being myself.

The truth is, John Doe's story could be anyone's story at some point. That's why his name is literally a placeholder name. The MC's story could also be anyone's story, our story, since we are the MCs after all.

The idea that stuck with me was "Anyone could be this person".

We don't know who lives in a metaphorical endless loop, who lives in a constant depressed state, who is struggling with self-esteem. We don't know. And seeing it from this perspective, it seems like everything that happens is out of our control. That when we're depressed we have nothing more than this. There's nothing else we can do.

But that's when we're wrong.

There's a single thing in the game that seemingly has no effect but personally i like to interpret it as life giving us the ability to choose. Whe can choose to get a bath or not, meaning the personal hygiene is something we do have under control. It is not everything, but it's a start. From all the things listed before that made me think MC was depressed, "getting a bath or not" was the only instance in which we had a choice. If you don't choose it today (as sometimes depressed people don't have the strength to care about that), there is always a tomorrow. But if you do choose it today, that's something meaningful by its own.

And also, we have the fact that our words and actions matter a lot to others.

We matter a lot to others. We make a difference, at least for one person. And anyone could be this person.

...

Soooo if you notice this analysis is a bit more unorganized than others, that's because i didn't have a structure for it. It is more of a personal rant than an essay. But i like to keep it that way. Remember this is just my personal interpretation of the game.

Oh and also I'm planning to make a tag list in case there's people that want to be notified when i post this kind of stuff? Just let me know if there's anyone interested.

[quincyhorst]

Inazuma Japan Appreciation Post! ⚡️

Hello, I was wondering, but is there anyone in the fandom who's also a fan of the japanese representative?

I know that out of Block A they aren't the most popular team, but I can't deny I've been so interested on them. Their only relevance was on episode 102, when Red Matador goes to visit them for a practice match. The whole episode was focused on the team getting massive culture shock from all things japanese, that they accidentally forgot to give actual screentime to the actual selection. You can even compile it in a quick video! (Excuse some of the odd cuts, the spanish wouldn't stop commenting every two seconds 🤪)

Unfortunately after this episode they never get to appear again, which sucks a lot knowing captain Endou's promise of a rematch :(

I'm also not the biggest fan of how the fandom treats this team. Every so often I'll see people making fanarts of Orpheus and Unicorn yet leaving Inazuma Japan behind, and the amount of times I've seen people call them ugly is frustrating. Their designs aren't the best but come on, you just can't look at Sakuma and not think that's a top tier design.

The treatment from the japanese themselves is super weird too. I understand having your main representation be PENGUINS is strange, and to this day I'll forever wonder what Quinto Nivel was thinking while designing some of the characters (One has dreads and other has donut lips...). But I dislike that the only time they seem to aknowledge this team's existence, is only to use their pictures whenever irl Japan wins a match :/

So as to change this, I'll make some comments on them! Feel free to share yours below, too!

The most relevant players on this team are the keeper, Endou, and the trio that perform the hissatsu Koutei Penguin Nº3; composed of Kidou, Fudou and Sakuma.

I can't deny that on the few scenes he appears, Endou gave me the impression of being cocky. But after the match its shown he's quite the nice guy! I really wish we could have seen the dynamic with his team, I think he'd be friendly with all of them.

Also, wonder why his hissatsu is called "The Hand" is there's no actual hand on the first place. YOU HAD ONE JOB QUINTO NIVEL!!! Seriously!

Kidou is a character that's sorrounded in mystery, and the fact that this is his only appearance stresses me so much. Maybe he's a showoff? I dobut it, because he seemed too nervous over something. Maybe its the upcoming final match against Orpheus, and with a reason. Both teams got eliminated off screen :(

Also, Nº3? I know that later on the series we're shown that Brockenborg knows some Penguin Moves, but only the Nº2. There's also the in-game Nº1, which Jens and Sakuma seem to have. Can't deny the description for this move scares me, as it calls it "forbidden". Yet another plothole left unanswered! When I get to write a fic about InaJapan, I will make sure to adress that.

Either way, Kidou and the other two seem to be super close, just like our beloved Slingshot trio. I also can picture them having a similar origin: Sakuma and Kidou have a close relationship though were rivals with Fudou at some point, who'd start to warm up to them as they played the FFI together. Classic.

There's also this one manager that seems to be very keen on recording Red Matador. His name is Megane, apparently! It's never explained why he records Spain, but unfortunately we never get to see him use the information he got.

AND WAIIIT I ALMOST FORGOT SOMEOKA!! He's iconic to me because of his manga cameo. Even if he was there just to be Juan's 100th catch, I'm happy the two got on well at the end. Do you imagine what could happen if the teams were swapped? I like Samuel, but there's no way in hell he'd be like that to Endou...

I really want to ship him with someone, and all the 5 fanarts I've seen on Pixiv ship him with this one bencher called Fubuki. Dunno why but I APPROVE! 😍

I guess I could also comment on Tobitaka since he stops Joan's move. He has a nice hair. I think he'd be one of those people who REALLY puts a lot of love to it. His appearance also reminds me of the stereotypical japanese delincuent (Clever choice!), so I like the headcanon of him having a gang back at Japan.

One last thing, but shoutout to the female managers!!! THEY'RE ARE SO CUTEEEEEE 😭 Outside of Spain and Germany we don't get to see other managers in the FFI, so knowing the japanese do have some too is comforting. If only we knew their names...

(The scenes with them and Isaac were rather awkward, however. I also wish Virgina was here to intereact with them instead, but oh well, she had to visit her cousins anyway)

That's all for now, everyone! In the future I'll post more stuff with Inazuma Japan, and if anyone's interested I'd like to also do stuff for Unicorn and Orpheus :>

I sometimes wish there was an alternate universe were these three had more relevance... What if there was an entire trilogy centered about Endou instead? I'd gladly go there if it existed.

I've heard rumours of my city's obelisk hosting a plant-alien thingy that can transport me to another dimension, but I'm not sure how it works. Guess I'll pay it a visit today.

See ya!

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AND HAPPY APRIL FOOLS!

[idiotsonlyevent]

p4re.............. ahhhhhh i want to see it so bad.......

i need to not be too optimistic bc i think it will be Bad, but not Bad in the way i want it to be.... based on what they did with p3re, i think they are likely to water down/simplify the characters and align the visual and combat elements of the game to be more similar to p5, while any structural issues and writing inconsistencies will remain completely unadressed 🤧

things i think they need to fix but won't:

- removing/reworking additional scenes from p4g (fatphobia and yosuke's ooc Additional Misogyny Moments): these are bad. like there's nothing to even say here, all of them except for the band one sucked and they should be deleted forever or be changed to not suck

- rework naoto's social link: as discussed a million times, if they want to maintain that naoto is a cis woman after All Of That, the social link should shift to more directly show and adress misogyny and infantilization in the workplace, and all forcefemming (especially as part of the romance initiation) needs to be removed

- maybeeeee rework yukiko and rise's resolutions?: i've thought about the conclusions of these links a lot and while i'm definitely not as vehemently against them as a lot of other people are... eugh idk. i could go either way on this

- engage more with adachi's nihilism

- timeskip designs: most of them are fine-to-great but whatever they did to naoto and kanji needs to be retconned to oblivion bc jesus fucking CHRIST they would not dress like that. even in the year of our lord 2012

things i think they might change but shouldn't:

- removing or toning down homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny present in the base game: this is a pretty controversial one, but i think these elements serve two critical purposes: 1. they date the game by showing (god icb im about to use this phrase 💀) period-typical homo- and trans-phobia and 2. if the game is trying to explore and discuss gender and sexuality, i do think it HAS to at least adress that these are experiences that happen(ed in 2012) bc We Live In A Society. its different that the random trans npc in p3 who just exists to be a punchline - the game Is trying to adress these things, even if it's not always doing so particularly well, so i hope they stay, though i think in some cases it makes sense to adjust how they are presented/handled

- removing any of yosuke's iconic gayass lines: if i don't see "bromantically entangled," "meat lover's combo,"' "you look like you're good with your hands," "yosuke looks happy for some reason," etc. you WILL find me on the news

- changing kanji's and rise's dungeons: as uncomfortable as their dungeon experiences are, i think that discomfort is intentional and important

- "new" (p5-esque) dungeon and battle mechanics: i get that p4's dungeons and combat aren't The Greatest Thing In The World so i'm open to changes and improvements but i DO like them, and if i end up having to play 100 hours of a Less Good p5 clone.... i won't 🫶

things i want Personally for Personal Reasons:

- alek le as yosuke: if he's already taken over for yuri lowenthal in p3re, why not here too? seriously tho, he clearly puts a lot of thought and care into connecting with who he's voicing, and you REALLY can't half-ass yosuke w how prominent he is And w the amount of development he gets. i think if anyone could pull off that range, it's aleks. plus we could get "running around inaba with lesbians 2" sooooo let's get on this!

- yosuke romance route: 🙂‍↕️ self-explanatory. based on what the did with ryoji in p3re, i think (maybe foolishly) that they Will keep all of his flirting lines and mighttttt even go so far as to add more, BUT i'm not sure i believe they have the guts to add back the full romance route 🤧

- sexy menu BUT one that maintains the more obviously "dated"/retro design elements

- overall visuals that are less steeped in p5's/p3re's style: god especially w the shade of yellow they choose.... the whole screen could look like piss 💀 let's be careful....

- i like the stupid overworld models.... i hope they stay a little ugly 🙂‍↕️ let's keep everyone humble!

- remixes/ost reworks that aren't ass: iirc shihoko hirata confirmed recently that she was recording something, and w the domain registration, it's likely it was for p4re so vocals are safe and will be 🔥 but i need any instrumental reworks they do to be solid too bc p3re's were SO inconsistent in terms of quality and things like instrumentation 🤧 if they fuck up heaven you WILL find me on the news

im thats it for now ig if there's more i'll add it at some point . if you read this i'm sorry. peace and love 🫶