#before getting bonked on the head

[baesooraya]

Enver Gortash, what have you done to me?

[teeterarting]

So familiar

[galaxythreads]

have you ever thought that maybe loki stabbed coulson becuase he was getting too close to finding out that the invasion was staged?

coulson said that he 'lacked conviction', and then loki killed him. coulson was probably onto loki. he knew that something was up. maybe he talked to thor about loki. and then he went and tried to figure it out.

i bet if loki had instead knocked coulson out, he would have told the avengers to recapture loki while he was still on the helicarrier, and then there would be an interrogation. there, coulson could call in some people- maybe thor and natasha and fury- and loki might sneakily clue them in to the fact that the invasion is staged and the tesseract is on stark tower. and they stop the invasion. the Other can comes and does some telepathy torture. the mind control is broken with a solid hit from mjolnir. and then loki goes to asgard for killing 80 people in 2 days-

[synthshenanigans]

Is this ur evil twin? /j

Oh no. That is my close best buddy. I use to play Saxophone so me & Sax Shenanigans go WAY back

This fucker however-

[sesamenom]

Some design sketches for Bilbo and Lobelia, plus a bonus thorin

[happi-dreams]

lil wips :D

[entering--hyperspace]

going to bother you about the Rytleo BUT who between them initiates kisses more often and what does affection between them usually look like.

Would you believe me if I said Rytlock.

I see Rytlock to be a man of action that struggles with conveying feeling/emotion verbally, even in more personal relationships. And between the two of them has always been the more physically affectionate one, specifically in private. Rytlock so extremely loyal to the people he cares about and has a softer side he just doesn't publicly show because its reserved for very specific dynamics.

Meanwhile Leo had never experienced a long term relationship and even made it a point to avoid them, so I think physical romantic intimacy was outside of his wheelhouse, and Rytlock was fine initiating that sort of contact. It makes me feel insane knowing that despite their history of being intimate for 6 Years before they officially get together they never actually kissed, Leo is the one to kiss him first. It's a big moment for the two of them that cements them officially entering a long-term a relationship with each other.

(I have Thoughts on the implications of legion charr deciding to choose mates in a society where its very uncommon. But that gets a little off topic.)

Anyway!

In terms of like, "Love Languages"/ how affection looks for them, I see Rytlock as prioritizing Physical Touch and Acts of service. He respects Leo deeply, and there has always been a bit of gentleness thats granted to him, I also think between the two of them hes able to shed a certain demeanor of expectation, so I think doing small things like sharpening his sword for him, having their armor prepared for the next day, bringing a meal back for him. In physical touch this is more generalized but I think they have a little night ritual where Rytlock will usually groom him bc it makes Leo go to sleep easier <- gripping my chair abt this. Rytlock being the big spoon is a privilege Leo gives him and only him. This also sorta changes in HoT/Ls3 Leo is often the one caring a bit more for Rytlock as he adjusts to being a revenant with Leo doing his best to help him where he can.

I see Leo leaning towards "Quality time' and "acts of service/words of affirmation"

Leo is the one to pull them both out of the constant whirlwind of events to take a break or at the very least taking a mission thats just the two of them. Rytlock tends to tunnel vision and bulldoze ahead on things that he kinda needs Leo to grab him by the ear sometimes and break that for a bit. Smthn smthn Leo is 80% of his impulse control. And doing small things for the other extends to Leo as well. Leo is also the more verbally affectionate/playful of the two of them and is more willing to initiate physical affection "publicly " as long as theyre away from the Citadel or yknow things that would require them to be more professional ofc. Theres a moment later in the story I can pinpoint where Leo does something that very clearly shows theyre together and half the group is like HUH and the other half is looking at them like ermmmm yeah thats been a thing for years (it hasnt. Kinda.)

I will say I think the thing I imagine them doing the most is the big cat head/neck rubs, its just such an endearing cat behavior and sooo sweet to me.

[narugen-moved]

keep thinking abt hoshina and mina GOD.. (spoilers for manga and kn8 bside)

given what hoshina said about his previous division treating him like a burden/parasite just because he can’t handle firearms and specializes in his swords… how tiring must it have been to have to work with those people each mission despite having a common goal?

and how tiring must it have been to be constantly told off by his own father for wanting to continue his family’s tradition, or to be told to give up on being part of the jakdf by his own teacher -

before mina, a high ranking commander personally reached out to him, to recruit him into her team?

the fact that she didn’t see him during joint trainings and think: why bother with that? why bother with blades when bigger kaiju will appear? when she personally deals with bigger kaiju herself.

but she instead saw him and thought: he can help me, he can cover my weaknesses (mina not being able to handle a vegetable peeler is hilarious) and he’s someone i can trust

she sees potential in him, she sees how he can excel within her division, she saw hoshina and as captain - has probably heard everyone talk shit about him but she was still certain that he’d be one of her division’s greatest asset

(and even when platoon leader ebina refused to let hoshina help out, mina stood firm on her decision and her claim that hoshina would be useful. when she asked him if he could take down the big kaiju, and he could only promise saving the child within it - she believed him, took his word for it and waited until he carried out his promise.)

and now hoshina is the vice captain, putting faith in a new recruit whom most people wouldn’t have believed in… full fucking cycle..

tldr: it makes me rly fucking emotional to think about how hoshina was given a reason to continue improving with his swords after being told to give up all this time… and how mina had never once thought his abilities were useless 👍

also makes me crazy how protective he is of his position as vice captain, as the person who stands by captain ashiro’s side…

[msommers]

3, 11, 19 for ghily (gilly?) and riya!!

thank you!!! new dadnd oc nickname spelling just dropped (it's ghilly xoxo) // oc asks: roots edition

3. How did your OC feel the first time they left home? Why did they leave?

GHILLY — excited! she had finally been given her vallaslin (she was around sixteen at the time, so not a long time to wait at all but she was eager) and was ready to hit the road within the following month, and having her father with her quieted any fears she had of starting the journey. she felt safe under his protection and that left her free to embrace the enthusiasm of following her calling. lore! arts!! arcana!!! so much of that forgotten elvhen history is out there, fragmented within the spirits that she can interact with if given the time and patience required. it took her a good while to start missing some folk back with the clan ngl

RIYA — unfortunately, scared out of her wits. her first time leaving home was supposed to be on a reckless, frivolous trip to Orlais with Victor to celebrate their tourney victory, but instead what she got was a rushed, frantic escape from the city with Bastian holding her hand the entire way because she didn't know what the fuck to do about templars hunting her down. she was terrified, still in shock over Victor's murder, and immediately aware of the ache in her chest that came from leaving home.

11. What was your OC scared of as a child? Are they still scared of that?

GHILLY — naturally there's the Dread Wolf and all of the spooky tales a little kid is told to keep them on their best behavior, she can't escape that one. i don't know exactly what it'd be, but i imagine she accidentally spoke with the wrong spirit one day and it shared a particularly scary memory of the past which left her spooked for months (or even years) on end. perhaps a glimpse from an emerald knight’s final fight, that'd be sure to fuck a kid up for a bit. she's no longer afraid of such memories as she holds any recovered history sacred no matter the content, but on the other hand yeah as displayed in-session she still holds onto those Fen’Harel superstitions. 

RIYA — irrationally afraid of her father being too far from her, the monsters Regulus unintentionally made scary by including one too many details in his stories, the dark, embarrassing herself by not understanding a topic/lesson, etc etc. she grew out of most of them (the dark was simplest, as her manifested magic provided simple solutions), perhaps the father thing being the only one to really linger. she could take them being apart for a while but Riya's a ridiculously clingy and needy lady, on top of being a daddy's girl. the devastation of time apart is too much to handle, somebody help her-

19. What traditions or stories does your OC carry forward from their childhood to the rest of their life?

GHILLY — kinda all of them? in a way?? throughout her childhood and later travels they're the things she holds most dear, whether learned through clan interactions or arcane means, and they never leave her. i’d say most notably, because of their history, Ghilly’s clan is one of the few who keep their knowledge committed to paper and it’s from that tradition that she keeps a tome of her own to record her travels. she still favors oration and storytelling, but preserving history is more important than personal preference 🤷

RIYA — i’m counting her deep love of art and pageantry as an upheld tradition because it’s Nevarra’s whole thing and obviously something deeply ingrained in her, add on her appreciation for good plating and presentation with food as well lmao. she’s kept all of her brother’s grandiose tales of dramatic, heroic deeds close to the heart since she heard the very first one, as well as the countless ones her mother shared of the great and noble grey wardens from their family history (these ones are uh. particularly heavy nowadays).

[fierykitten2]

Disclaimer: the images in this post are arranged in a way so that the Scarlet images are all on the left and the Violet images are all on the right. Obviously I only took on the Academy Ace Tournament in one version at a time

Took on the Academy Ace Tournament in both versions and here were my opponents in the order battled (apart from the fact the Scarlet images are all on the left and the Violet images are all on the right). I’ve learned two things from this - 1 is that Miriam can be the first opponent (like in Scarlet) or the 3rd opponent (like in Violet). She has the same lines in both positions. The second is that Nemona can actually be battled in this tournament (genuinely she’s never appeared to me in this in Violet and I haven’t had the chance for her to appear in this in Scarlet up until now). Also her Pokémon don’t have an order they’re sent out apart from her starter being her final Pokémon and probably her leading with Lycanroc (I remember Orthworm being her penultimate Pokémon in Scarlet because Luna was struggling and nearly cried so I swapped it out for Blueberry only to bring Luna back against her ugly croc (I had every wish to send out Quax or keep Blueberry out instead but I had plans involving Terastalising every single one of my aces and I’d already used Quax against Tyme and Blueberry against Penny. I also kinda wanted Clavell to be my last opponent in Violet so I could beat the shit out of that ugly croc twice in one day but I got Nemona with her fabulous gay duck instead) but she sent Orthworm out really early on against me in Violet. Also Dudunsparce I think was her 2nd Pokémon in Scarlet but her penultimate Pokémon in Violet). Oh yeah the third thing I learnt (or possibly fourth) is that Dark-types can cry. Both Luna and Spriggie nearly cried at some point (I returned Luna to its ball and took out Blueberry to deal with Orthworm and also use a full heal on Luna while Spriggie has a Shell Bell on him so he just gradually healed up as the battle continued and he kept taking out Raifort’s Pokémon)

My aces Terastalising for no reason other than it’s pretty. It’s hard to tell what’s going on in half these images so in order Fire Tera type Char (Armarouge), Fire Tera type Char (Ceruledge), Water Tera type Quax (Quaquaval), Grass Tera type Spriggie (Meowscarada), Water Tera type Blueberry (Walking Wake), Psychic Tera type Cherry (Iron Leaves), Dragon Tera type Luna (Roaring Moon) and Fighting Tera type Knight (Iron Valiant). Roaring Moon are honestly kinda ugly but somehow Luna got out-uglied by Nemona’s Skeledirge (okay that’s enough Skeledirge slander for one post)

Blueberry and Cherry making entrances in the third battles, the ones where they were the ones Terastalising

And of course my aces shouting after defeating their final opponents

As you can see, Liko’s Sprigatito and Dot’s Quaxly in both games have evolved into Liko’s Floragato and Dot’s Quaxwell. As much as I prefer their fully-evolved forms I want to wait a bit and use their middle stages so I haven’t allowed them to fully-evolve just yet

Still, because I chose Quax/Quaxly/Quaquaval in Scarlet and Spriggie/Sprigatito/Meowscarada in Violet I now have the Pokédex entries for Floragato in Scarlet and Quaxwell in Violet

[skrunksthatwunk]

ok so. kiwami 2. rooftop scene. the ending. it's a bit of a clusterfuck but i wanna talk about one detail, a problem they bring to your attention by Fucking. Talking About Her.

haruka is watching all of this unfold.

[this post is like 4.5k words long + pretty critical + has spoilers for kiwami and kiwami 2, and really minor/vague ones for a couple others. they're not that bad though, trust me (and i added a warning in the one place it is major)]

ALSO CONTENT WARNING i'm gonna talk about kiryu's passive suicidality a good amount in this one, so stay away from this if you think that might affect you negatively/you'd be better off skipping it. i'll also make a tl;dr (which i will highlight in red) at the very end if you really wanna know what my point is that will exclude those elements <3. i am also going to use a lot of choice-based language in regards to kiryu's contemplation of suicide because i think it's the lens through which the games treat the topic, but i personally don't find it a productive or realistic way to look at suicide or suicidal ideation at all. someone dying by suicide absolutely does not mean they don't care about their loved ones enough to fight on or whatever. i love you, and proceed with caution on this one.

(also i'm using the kiwamis as my point of reference because i uh. don't have a ps2? those are the games that i played, and though the differences are likely slight, i wanna be clear about that. also,, ignore the watermark on these screenshots,, i didn't notice them and i'm not retaking them. we're all gonna have to settle for youtube cutscene comps for now xoxo)

first, we have to talk about the ending of the first game.

[note: i am Really Really Confident kiryu has a conversation earlier in the game about his going to jail in nishiki's stead being him running away and choosing not to resist his two options (go to jail or let nishiki go to jail) and define his own path, fighting his way against fate to make it happen. part of why i'm so confident it exists is because it made such an impression on me at the time. it's pretty important to my interpretation of things but i also can't find it for the life of me, so uh. sorry ✌️ i really tried. this post's takes/analysis will be dependent on this scene existing, so keep that in mind. if anyone knows where to find the scene/screenshots of it, lmk and i'll add a follow-up with it]

kiwami stuff

so as she's dying, yumi tells haruka this:

that she may be dying (painfully, and right as she's getting everything she wanted), but she doesn't regret it, because at least she did something rather than running away from it all. that you shouldn't run away, ever.

shortly thereafter, when the police find kiryu and haruka, this exchange happens between him and date. here's the play by play:

date tells kiryu he can get him out of trouble with this, and that if he doesn't, he'll get life in prison; kiryu declines his help:

kiryu is so devastated (understandably) by the back to back losses of the three people closest to him that he resigns himself to life in prison, and the death-in-effect that would be. he would prefer to waste away rather than struggle through a life without them. prison was monotonous and isolating, but coming back after a decade was overwhelming, and coming back to everything being so warped and twisted, and then losing the corrupted scraps he had anyway, well. he wants to go back to sleep. he doesn't want to be in a world where everything's the same except he's on his own. better to return to safety, to die slowly in a hell he knows well than weather a new one where he has control and agency, and thus one where he has the ability to fail and to lose anything at any time. he explains to date that that loss is why he can accept his death:

date shakes him and asks him if there's really nothing left for him, no reason to keep living at all:

then echoes yumi's advice to haruka:

which makes an impression on kiryu:

date gives him a reason to live in the form of haruka, saying she'll be on her own again if he goes to jail. he hijacks kiryu's tragic protector complex to keep him alive, because she needs him, and because she's someone precious to him:

after the dust has cleared,

kiryu and date also have this exchange, where date tells him to stay away from the cops (and presumably arrest and a return to prison, the aforementioned fate akin to death), and kiryu cites haruka as his reason to stay away, one he holds to with no uncertainty (showing again that he's accepted date's logic, that his reason to keep living even when it's incredibly difficult is to care for the more vulnerable haruka). given the weight of the consequences, to me, it feels like date's telling him not to be alone with his thoughts or something. it's almost frightening:

so, what's our takeaway from kiwami?

kiryu lost everything and hit rock bottom, but he chose to fight, and to live life on his own terms, even when it got difficult. that's the narrative life lesson he had to learn to avoid repeating the events of 1995. he made that choice for haruka's sake. it's seen as growth.

and without him, haruka would've just returned to the orphanage (assuming she could make it back to sunflower at all) with no one who knew or understood what she had been through, no one to mourn with her, and no one to give her the attention, care, and protection she needs. kiryu knows what it's like to be an orphan with a limited parental figure who only checks in every so often (kazama, "aunt" yumi), and what someone will do for attention/affection from that person (via both himself and nishiki swearing up, climbing the ranks, etc. arguably haruka coming to kamurocho by herself to find "mizuki" is similar), and what it's like to lose them anyway (again, kazama, yumi). their situations parallel each others' somewhat, and that binds them further. and after losing everyone (which he blames himself for to some extent, as one can probably assume from this and 2, and something key to his arc in later games), he chooses to protect her. and this time, he won't fail. at least partially because failing would hurt him, too. he'd have nothing left again.

okay. now we get to kiwami 2.

if you forgot, the context is basically:

everybody's fighting on the roof of a building which i'm sure will not be a running theme or anything as the series goes on

there's a bomb that's about to go off and they don't know how to/can't defuse it

ryuji shot the twist villain to death, but took fatal hits to do so

sayama's like hey!! let's get out of here!!! and kiryu and ryuji are like nooo we have to settle this oughh it's punchin time and they stick her on an elevator and send her down so she doesn't have to watch

ryuji loses. sayama returns, they have a cute sibling heart to heart, and ryuji dies in her arms. sad

kiryu is in rough shape as well, and there's like 2 minutes left on the bomb's timer

here's the scene itself:

sayama tells kiryu they have to run, and kiryu says he can't. the gist is "let's run!" "you go without me" "i'm not leaving you!" "i'm in no condition to run" "i'll carry you then!!" sayama: *sees how fucked up kiryu is, realizes he's Going To Die Anyway* "ok, then i'm staying with you!" and then further bickering about that, before they give up and make out (as one does i guess)

date (he's here now) yells this at them from a helicopter:

before someone else in the helicopter tells date this:

we get this shot of haruka calling out to kiryu as the helicopter swerves away:

and kiryu and sayama have this exchange about haruka where they say they let her down, but that she'll understand:

then they hug and the bomb ticks to zero right when the credits hit. in post credits it's revealed that the twist villain defused the bomb when they weren't looking, betraying his co-villain for reasons i truthfully do not remember and am unwilling to look up. it's not about that right now.

so, how does this scene interact with the ending of the previous game?

the short answer is "badly <3" but here's the long answer:

it's about choices.

the thing about fiction is that anything you want to have happen, as a writer, can happen. it may not be effective, internally consistent, or logical, but you can write it regardless. audiences suspend their disbelief for the sake of engaging fully with your fiction, but everyone has a threshold past which they will stop being engaged in a story and either become uninvested or annoyed. writers usually have lines they're unwilling to cross as well. but in almost every story, there's at least a couple of places where they stretch reality a little to make the narrative they want happen. this is not a bad thing at all. that's how stories get told.

now, i'm gonna be real with you. i don't care about how feasible plots are like 95% of the time. it's not something i think about much, nor is it something i prioritize. i am a very character-centric media consumer, so if world building and/or plot are a bit stale or contrived, that doesn't really bother me much so long as i'm invested in the characters involved. some people can't stand plot holes or the ways musicals burst into song or whatever, and that's fine for them. but it's not something i tend to find that all that important.

this is all to say that i have a sorta affection for rgg's flavor of bullshit pulling. and it is a powerful flavor, maybe even an acquired taste, but i can and do rock with it so long as it doesn't damage the characters too much. this is why i'm not making a lengthy post howling into the void about joji kazama or the second joon-gi han or how many secret relatives there are. those things are silly and endearing and a clumsy yet heartfelt part of a series i care about very deeply. i'll joke about it, but i don't consider it much of a flaw. it's more like personality. flaws are texture, and they help a piece's identity. point is i am very, very willing and able to suspend my disbelief for these games in exchange for a good time, particularly via good characters.

(if you want another example of where i draw the line from within rgg, the answer's the YAKUZA 4 SPOILERS INCOMING rubber bullets twist, because i think 1) it's actively horrifically stupid (especially retconning a scene we SAW HAPPEN. WE SAW BLOOD ON EACH IMPACT, AND RUBBER BULLETS DON'T OFTEN BREAK SKIN THAT DEEPLY (THEIR DAMAGE IS MORE PERCUSSIVE THAN PENETRATIVE). THESE EVENTS HAPPEN IN THE SAME GAME YOU DON'T HAVE TO RETCON IT JUST REWRITE IT. OR DON'T SHOW THE HIT AT ALL SO THERE'S MORE PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY. DON'T DO THIS JUST TO HYPE UP YOUR SHITTY VILLAIN NO ONE CARES ABOUT. and 2) (a bit more importantly) i think it actively removes saejima's primary internal conflict for that game, that being his intense guilt over the 18 murders he thinks he committed, one i was invested and interested in. but this isn't a rubber bullets post.)

characters in this series walk off a lot of life threatening injuries. they survive miraculously, they escape in the nick of time, and they pull through in the end. kiryu still somehow hasn't killed anyone. almost every game in his saga ends with an "is kiryu gonna make it out this time?!?" shortly followed by a "yeah lol. lmao" postcredits reveal. kiryu fucking punches a marble statue into dust in the first game. having a story that asks you to suspend your disbelief so much and so often means that when a decision is made, it's not the writers saying, "well, this would have to happen so we are obligated/forced to write it happening" so much as "we wanted this to happen for some reason(s)," because you already know that they're not guided solely by logic. again, this is true of all writers, it's just amplified in stories like these because they've already given you so many hard mode suspension of disbelief moments (they've broken you in like leather, yeah? or like how obvious internet scams allow for self selection by being so obvious that only the most vulnerable people would fall for them. they curate an audience willing to play along with their bullshit flavor so they can tell a story that's more likely to satisfy that audience. in a good way, in a fun way! mass appeal is overrated). there is not much limit to what this series is willing to try and sell you.

so when ryuji takes lethal damage taking out the big bad, that's a choice. when he doesn't die immediately, that's a choice. when ryuji and kiryu send sayama away in the soon-to-be-forgotten elevator so they can settle this like men or whatever despite the literal actual bomb about to go off, that's a choice. when sayama comes back, that's a choice. when ryuji does die, that's a choice. when kiryu determines that he can't escape in time, that's a choice. when sayama is unwilling to leave him, that's a choice. when she says she'll carry him out and there's an elevator right fucking there and then she's like never mind i guess i won't anymore we're dying together right now kiryu like they're not gonna even try?? wouldn't distancing themselves from the blast give themselves a better shot, something that's super possible given the 2 minutes they have with that elevator??? sayama you met him like a week and a half ago why are you ready to die with him that's not a plot hole i just think that's kinda strange whatever anyway, that's a choice. when kiryu stops arguing with her so they can kiss (next to her brother's corpse), that's a choice. when date shows up, that's a choice. when the helicopter can't save them because the bomb was going to go off too soon, that's a choice. when they put haruka in that helicopter and take her away, let her only impact be reminding kiryu and sayama that they can't help her, that's a choice. when they spend their last moments talking as if they're already dead, then simply waiting, that's a choice.

they're all choices that the writers made for the characters, and we are asked to believe them for the sake of achieving the writers' vision, as with any story. the only problem is that the writers' vision here fucking blows.

i'm not saying it would be realistic for kiryu and sayama (and even ryuji) to make it out alive, but it wouldn't be out of character for the series in the slightest. kiryu is suddenly unable to power through here, and that's a choice. so, what is their vision?

put simply, i think they wanted a romantic last stand for kiryu and sayama, a tragic scene of doomed, devoted lovers. and i think they wanted an edge-of-your-seat fake out death. they wanted spectacle.

here's how some specific choices they made undermine all that shit we talked about earlier from the first game.

once again, kiryu is called by date to live, to pick himself up and keep going, no matter how impossible the odds are. he's even reminded by haruka's presence, his one anchor in keeping himself going. the growth he had in the parallel scene in the previous game is challenged, and he fails.

it's not enough this time. and that's a choice.

it's also one i can't think of a good reason for, and that's the real kicker.

characters can have developmental backslide just like people do, and if they're given good reason for it, it can be just as, if not far more compelling that purely linear growth (i am a chimera ant arc enjoyer, and that's all i'll say. sorry if you haven't seen hunter x hunter. uhh. i am also a zuko avatar enjoyer if that helps). but i can't think of anything that happened in that game that would cause this from a character perspective. if anything, kiryu should be less likely to do this intentionally. he's spent around a year raising haruka, and a year has passed since he lost his loved ones. at the very least, the pain should be more dull, though it is established through an early nightmare sequence that his ass is (justifiably) not over it yet. given that their deaths were the initial motivation for his willingness to rot forever, theoretically, he should be more motivated to stay alive than before now that he's got more investment and stability in his life outside of them, particularly when it comes to haruka, his reason for surviving. and if the ongoing nature of the trauma was the motivator for this, then they should've had it affect him more past that nightmare scene (it really serves more as a recap of the last game than anything else) so it didn't come out of nowhere. so the reminder of the lesson that saved his life and then guided it for at least a year afterwards, one that the whole resolution of the previous game relied on heavily falls flat for... some reason.

i think this is a good time to mention that, generally speaking, you don't write arbitrary choices into characters. sure, people in real life are often sporadic, but when analyzing fictional characters, every choice is filed into a portfolio of characterization that can and should be analyzed. going for pure realism can obfuscate their development, motivations, themes, etc. their choices and reactions may be unorthodox, but they must be internally consistent. this is very related to how i view plot contrivance as well. characters drive the plot, not the other way around. stories are about the ways characters affect their worlds/lives and vice versa, and they're the human face to the themes and ideas the writers are trying to explore and express. maybe my stance on this seems hypocritical. i don't know if it is. but to me, plot issues are usually a matter of engagement and investment, while character issues are a matter of substance.

i hope this doesn't feel patronizing explaining all of this, but i want you guys to know where i'm coming from in my analysis. starting at my base philosophy on writing is the easiest way to do that, i feel. defining the terms of the debate, and all that. anyway

and i mean, look. they survive because "it was defused the whole time we just didn't see it happen", so it's not like narrative tension or realism or whatever was THAT big of a priority overall. if it was gonna be a cop-out anyway, they should'nt have ruined kiryu's development too, yeah?. and sayama fucks off to america after this game anyway, so it's not like the doomed lovers thing had much payoff or meaning after this one (though you could argue that's more an issue with yakuza 3 than yk2, which has some merit to it). which means that they chose to sacrifice kiryu's prior development and internal logic for the sake of cheap tension for their finale that was both kinda illogical in and of itself (the elevator!! the elevator!!!) and a romantic climax that neither required nor really benefitted from this staging. (like. you coulda had them make out and then get saved by date, or kiss on the elevator in a "it's moving, but will we make it in time??" way or whatever. look i'm not saying those are great options either but they're SOMETHING okay. it would remove/reduce the amount of time wasted on characters sitting around with their thumbs up their asses for no reason in this finale).

instead the message of this finale is that, actually, sometimes it is impossible to change your circumstances and fight for your own way out of an awful situation. and what should you do about this unfortunate truth? uh. die! i guess. it's the exact opposite of the encouraging, optimistic message of the last game. zetsubou chou pride my ass.

note: i feel i should mention that when suicidality is brought up within the series (particularly in substories), it is always something someone has to overcome themselves through wanting it badly enough. they simply need the inspiration and the motivation to keep going. it's arguably treated as a moral obligation. frankly, the series is broadly very meritocratic (<- bad) when it comes to this topic (and others, but that's a Whole Other Thing. see akiyama's weird loan shark tests as well). sheer will and resolve is enough to conquer any problem, be it physical or mental/emotional, and it's irresponsible to act/feel otherwise. this is the logic the games operating under, and kiryu is often the mouthpiece for this bootstrap-pulling "tough love" sentiment. so when kiryu "chooses" to die, yet faces no emotional fallout from date, haruka, or anyone else, it feels very out of place. it's not just an odd choice; it's specifically, once again, an odd choice to make in context of the game/series/character it appears in.

kiryu's just like eh, haruka'll watch her only family die right as she gets some sense of tentative stability and lets her guard down after a devastating month the year prior (and a relatively dismal upbringing before that) that we trauma bonded over. sure, she likely came to view me as the one who would stay no matter what, who was too strong to be taken out, who she could always rely on, and so i know that dying would hurt her immensely, but she's smart enough to know it'd happen eventually. her eventual recovery means it's okay for me to do this (somehow, in a way it wasn't in the first game). it's an excuse within the narrative's logic, and one it is uncritical of simply because it's kiryu. he gets a pass.

and i think with the previously mentioned passive suicidality and general series-long mental health issues kiryu displays (i mean. yakuza 5's literally his depression arc), this could be retroactively seen as an interesting choice, like a piece in that particular narrative. i don't even dislike that viewing, especially in terms of fan approach. but (assuming this went down the same in yakuza 2), they likely didn't have that in mind. all they had then was the first game and the movie. and they took the first game's Entire Message and contradicted it for nothing but a scene they wanted to have happen because it'd be suspenseful and/or emotional (without actually doing the work to earn it). and they're not fans trying to analyze his character, they're the ones making choices for him. and they chose to massacre my boy. and if the subject of kiryu's mental health was a priority of theirs, why didn't they explore that? haruka and date's feelings on him not resisting and their words not being enough (whether that blame is justified by the narrative or not (it shouldn't be btw)), the uncomfortable drifting that resigning yourself to death and living afterwards anyway often brings, literally any conversation about it besides the minimal shit we get post credits of date being like "did you know about the bomb not having a fuse?" which like. bad answer either way (which is why they weren't straightforward about it, the cowards). you can't just be like "oh uh. idk he just gave up this time. yeah he was gonna die on purpose for some reason. good thing the bomb was fake lol" and then pack up and go home!! that's stupid!! any merit the idea of kiryu dying by suicide in this scene and in this way could have had from a character-based perspective loses its weight because 1. it didn't happen (for kinda stupid reasons), which makes it fall flat and 2. no one is really affected by the fact that it almost did, including him. they sacrificed his ass and replaced it with nothing, even when there could have been interesting outcomes to it.

so the narrative effectively chose to kill him by making the situation impossible, and this impossibility is ultimately arbitrary, given the series' usual approach to miraculous, illogical escapes. that, or the choice to stay was up to kiryu and sayama, one that 1. doesn't make sense and is actively regressive in context of kiryu's arc in the only other game in the series (as well as his whole saga in retrospect) and 2. one that contradicts how the series sees/treats resignation to death/death by suicide in all other contexts without being addressed, challenged, or condemned in ways it would in all other contexts. because they don't want you to think about it like that. they want you to think he (and the narrative) had no choice, that it made sense to do that. but it didn't. it doesn't.

and look, honestly? if i was bleeding out and had like 2 minutes to live, there's a non zero chance i'd say fuck it and kiss a girl too. i get it. but i am (and this is crucial) not a fucking yakuza character. and i'm certainly not kiryu kazuma.

tl;dr (basically just rephrasing the second to last main paragraph)

there are not sufficient character reasons for kiryu and sayama not trying to escape. additionally, because the narrative regularly facilitates even less likely escapes, it's not so constrained to logic and reality that it couldn't pull this one off. the choice to let their situation be impossible this one time was a cheap and arbitrary way of forcing a scene they thought would be cool and dramatic, and in doing so they chose to cannibalize a key emotional note of the previous finale (namely kiryu's mission to dedicate his life to protecting haruka) for hollow last minute stakes-upping in this one. it is then completely disregarded anyway. god damn.

[ilikecorndogs]

kinda hate how "copy link" and "report as adult material" buttons are RIGHT next to each other with no pop up for the later

there have been so many times i went to copy the link to OP (mainly an artist, to credit them directly) and i overshoot the copy link button and WHOOPS this very cool and very SFW art now has a warning going RIGHT to staff saying how its actually NSFW. (and dont get me started on my thoughts about staff and adult material)

[sculptambitio]

[lovinggreeniehours]

i know im a broken record machine but man. horrible day but :) five. i like five

[articskele]

HEEEEYYY i think this is my first time telling you something directly but uuuhm i wanted to thank you for always reblogging my posts and not only that, always analyzing them and things like that THIS IS WHAT I APPRECIATE THE MOST JEKEJEK i llove reading all the tags you put and not only in my posts, in other things you reblog or post!!! soo yeah thanks‼️

AAAA thank you so much!!!! I love love love seeing all the little details in what people make, it's so fun :D

And sometimes art has a certain taste or feel to it? Like that "this is all so gratifying" art has an inexplicable coldness on the tip of my tongue? But it's subtle, like breathing in cool evening air mixed with the sting of smoke.

Something about the cool colors and the machinery and knowing this is the moment before everything goes wrong for him lol. I just adore how art can really get you immersed in the environment, especially with how you do backgrounds!!

[waspgrave]

my worst habit is that i tend to read by skimming over things and going ‘huh??’ later. Example being my shock when i discovered Nate and Mason weren’t werewolves