#getting arturo flashbacks here

[rebouks]

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Wyatt: You’re not staying here again tonight-.. in fact, I don’t even want you in this country. Kian: Wha-… [Kian spluttered over his tea for a moment before regaining his composure and setting it down] Kian: What on earth do you expect me to do? Wyatt: I really don’t care-.. whatever you were doing before you arrived? Kian: Well, I spent most of my probation languishing at the penthouse, but it didn’t feel right. [Wyatt squinted, perhaps Kian had learned something-..] Kian: You know, like it wouldn’t be the same until we got everyone back together-.. eh, almost everyone. Wyatt: [scoffs] That’s what you want to do? Kian: Don’t you? Wyatt: All that time wasting away in prison and you want to jump straight back into the lifestyle that led you there? Kian: We would’ve been just fine if it weren’t for that traitorous redhead… [Kian trailed off and held Wyatt’s gaze expectantly, as though it were a given that his brother would agree. Wyatt wondered if Kian had conveniently forgotten his own involvement in the downfall of their father-.. and Ashton’s, not that he really knew about that part, or whether he was too brain dead to have noticed amongst the chaos] Kian: Aren’t you tired of playing house out here? It’s all but forgotten, we could go back and-… Wyatt: You are not my family. Kian: But we’re brothers-.. you’re literally the only family I’ve got left. [Wyatt laughed dismissively; he could’ve vomited at the sight of Kian’s hurt expression] Wyatt: If you’re suddenly so compelled to act like my brother, then leave-.. get as far away from here as possible and don’t come back, and don’t you dare mention my whereabouts to anyone who bothers asking. Kian: Where do you suppose I ought to go from here then? Wyatt: Really? You finally have complete freedom and you’re asking me what to do with your life? Honestly, I’d love to suggest suicide but I doubt you’d have the wherewithal, nor the guts. Kian: There’s no need for that, my god-.. what’s the matter with you? Father would-… Wyatt: Father this, father that, he’s been dead for over a decade, Kian; get over it or go and fucking join him. [Kian scoffed, shaking his head with such similar derision to their father that Wyatt wanted to choke him senseless] Kian: I should’ve expected no less than your typical hostility-.. ten years and you haven’t changed a bit. Wyatt: That makes two of us. Kian: I suppose I’ll be the bigger man as usual and do as you’ve asked, shall I? Wyatt: [tightly] Mhm, do that. Kian: It’s a good job I didn’t finish unpacking. Wyatt: Perhaps you aren’t completely lacking in forethought after all. [Wyatt clenched his fist around the handle of his mug, fighting the urge to launch it at his brother’s giant, disgusting head-.. he definitely wasn’t worth the mess though, and the tea within was nowhere near hot enough to cause satisfactory damage]

[1moreff-creator]

DRDT Chapter 2 Episode 13: First Impressions

Woo! DRDT! It is time! Time for despair! Let’s go! My excitement has not faded in the slightest from last week; if anything, it’s stronger than before. Here are my first impressions of this week’s episode!!!

Spoilers for CH2 EP13

CW Suicide, violent murder, mafia mention, suicide, hanging, self-harm.

It’s starting! Levi’s got some explaining to do. Will someone (say, Eden) have an interesting reaction?

Alright, J’s not the one I expected to have first reaction, but cool.

“You…” Is Ace okay? 

“Ah. I didn’t expect that.” Rose’s legendary reaction.

YOU CANNOT “THAT’S WACK” THIS SITUATION WHIT

Oh, so people know, but the court struck it. Interesting.

Ah, there’s the Ace reaction. Also, “no way Hope’s Peak scouted a murderer” but you have a poisoner on another secret and an art forger, at least. Not the same level maybe, but still. 

“Don’t make the mistake of switching cause and effect.” Of course Hope’s Peak is responsible, that was my first gut instinct. God, it’s so shady in this universe.

Woo, Levi backstory! Three “old enemies?”

… Bro??? I don’t think any of us actually expected more than one murder, but I might be wrong on that. Self-defense, then two first degrees, huh?

“Were you in the mafia or something?” Thanks J.

“I don’t think I need to elaborate” No, you do. You really should elaborate. Please? For me?

“Who did you even kill?” And… Levi!Accomplice is looking rougher by the second. Then again, maybe she didn’t know.

Levi tracked two of them down, but doesn’t know who they were? How?

“That car I blew up once?” HUH???

“That’s… kind of a lot to admit all of the sudden.” True, Rose. I’m trying to see what he’s cooking, but I can’t tell.

How do you forget this? Jeez.

“How could you forget?” You know, Arturo, I was kinda irrationally worried Charles was about to throw in his secret phrase, but it’s cool that you avoided that. Thanks.

[For the uninformed; it’s theorized the characters will, at some point in the series, say the quotes hidden in the source code of their dedicated pages out loud, since Min and Arei both said theirs, and Xander’s could be in a flashback. That means that if a character says their secret quotes, their chances of dying go up drastically.]

“If you don’t care about murder, you could be the murderer.” (Paraphrased) Yes thanks Veronika not the point. 

“Almost as if you don’t care…” Great. I didn’t know where Levi was going with this, now I don’t know where Veronika is going with her schtick.

I’m surprised Ace is taking it relatively well [as in, not outwardly terrified]. I guess near death does that to someone.

Woo! Time frame! Junior high school! 

Interesting, so he didn’t start fashion because of the murder. That’s kinda what I was thinking, but I was wrong.

We’re getting our first crumbs of Hope’s Peak being ultra shady in main series! After Rose’s backstory ig. Unfortunately the “pretentious revolutionaries” aren’t here to “hand out tickets of lead” ← LGI brainrot

“It could also refer to the time I murdered my father.”

… 

???????????????????????????

You didn’t lead with that?! Also, what?! I laughed out loud at the fucking absurdity of the statement, but what?!

“It’s a bit of a bother.” The bothersome part is that they’re phrased vaguely and not that they reveal you’re a murderer, got it.

“Go back!” Thank you J.

What do you mean I think. Bro how many people have you killed? What in the name of Kirisaki Shidou [/ref]?

“Not even the police cared about a man like him.” ??? Also, wasn’t your dad a bad influence? You’ve mentioned him before, it didn’t sound that bad- Wait, is he lying? No way he’s lying. Hold on, let me watch more.

[In retrospect, I doubt he’s lying, but his story is certainly weird]

“I see no reason to remain hung up-” Then why are you bringing it up. I still can’t fucking tell what you’re trying to accomplish here.

Eden’s reaction is… neutral, I guess? Makes sense either way?

Eden!Culprit has always been hard to maintain during the trial, huh… Still took the tape though. And I guess it’s potentially interesting she’s getting this much dialogue about Levi’s thing. Teruko’s yet to speak this episode.

“I wonder if I should really tell the truth…” Bro what do you mean there’s more truth to tell?

Oh, hey, speaking of Teruko. And it seems she and I share a mind.

“I don’t care about people at all.” Ooooh, I like this. Some kind of condition?

I feel a little bit like Veronika, interested in hearing his experience with this. Feeling like Veronika is probably a bad thing.

“You’re still a stranger to me.” Levi’s quickly climbing the ranks of fave characters, btw. This is super interesting.

“But you’re a good person-” DO NOT “good person” right now, Eden! That’s a point to Levi!Accomplice, maybe? Maybe not? I don’t know what’s happening. And I still don’t get what Levi is trying to do here.

Double “good person?” Bro what is happening.

“I don’t personally care what happens to Ace.” Mood (that’s a joke I like Ace).

PFT- Ace’s reaction lol.

“But it is “good” to make sure someone else doesn’t die-” Goodbye Levi!Accomplice! I liked you, but I’m probably gonna go try to find other theories after this episode :p (This is a joke, btw; if I didn’t discount theories like Hu!Culprit when the new alibis came up, I’m not going to completely abandon Levi!Accomplice over this. But, just saying, there might be a few revisions to be made)

“Haha. You…” Ace breakdown! Breakdown! (I'm absolutely acting like Veronika now).

“I was right all along.” Yeah, Ace ‘can tell a hawk from a handsaw’ Markey, nice one. (Does anyone even know/remember why I’m referencing that line or is LGI too far in the past for that?)

New Ace sprite! Cool one too. Clutching his heart, Acevi shippers eating ig. 

“Good thing I didn’t fall for it. Not one bit.” Oh they’re eating GOOD good!

“There’s only one person in my whole life who I’ve ever been able to call my friend-” IS THAT A FUCKING TAYLOR REFERENCE?!?!?! Holy shit, I don’t know how many people are even gonna remember we have a canon name for that dude. I hope someone still has the screenshot of the deleted answer from the CH2 Part 1 Q&A. 

“I really hope you fucking die.” We are active in Trial 2 Part 2, huh? Between Arturo telling him to “shut his whore mouth” and this, Levi’s getting verbally jumped!

“You’re quite the interesting person, Levi” Please Veronika, give me the psychoanalysis.

Dude, that’s three “good person” drops all on Levi. Chat the importance of this phrase may have been slightly overexaggerated by me (then again, the list of “good person” people has yet to grow from last chapter).

“You act like a big pushover because-” This is the psychoanalysis I came to see!

I don’t know if I’d call it “intuitive understanding” but I guess Levi’s not fully wrong about Veronika.

Four “good person.” And that’s not counting Veronika’s “good people.”

Five. Also, this continues to be interesting. Why did Levi bring this up again?

“After looking at David, I thought being honest-” Okay that’s hilarious.

“Try looking in a mirror…” First David line of the episode, right? And it’s a nice one of course.

That’s six cases of “good person” in this chapter alone holy shit. At least it’s David, who still had counts.

“I apologize for this tangent” Then can you please explain why the tangent exists in the first place? Or is it really just because being honest is "good"?

[Spoilers. It really was because of that. What]

“I can’t believe there was a time I liked you.” Yeah Acevi is still eating good. I doubt the hostility is gonna drive the shippers away; that’s what they’re here for, right?

And of course Whit’s first line makes him look suspicious. Bro you have an alibi for the time of disappearance of fish and you didn’t take the tape from the gym, stop pretending to be the killer.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions.” Thank you Hu, but let me jump to a conclusion. Is Levi not gonna explain why he revealed his secret beyond the honesty thing?

Okay J’s response is good too.

“No, [Arei] didn’t [talk to Levi about the secret]” Bro what the fuck are we even talking about anymore.

“I don’t have a defense” (Paraphrased) No but seriously what. I’m this close to ripping out my hair. What is he doing.

“We don’t have evidence [Levi is the murderer]” Thank you Teruko Tawaki for being one of three competent people in the building. This is affectionate, one of my favorite parts of the DRDT cast is that they all suck at class trials lol :p

Bro Whit is trying REALLY HARD to look like the murderer rn. I’m still not letting him convince me. Yet.

“I realized that motives alone are not concrete evidence.” Yayyyy! Progress!

“I feel a sneeze coming on…” Dude David and Teruko need to get into comedy, they’re fucking hilarious.

“One second please.” Hu I trusted you. Why. You’re revealing your secret, right?

“...I didn’t want you all to think less of me.” Aww, poor Hu. No one’s gonna think less of you, you’re doing awesome (I am assuming she has hopeless child btw).

“I wanted to believe the past never happened” Butterfly motif and “water as rebirth” symbolism go brrr. 

“I’ve always been a selfish person, haven’t I?” Hu please, you’re really nice, even if you go overboard at times.

“I will share my secret if you promise to immediately move on.” (Paraphrased) Good idea. It would probably be good to talk about it if she wants, but this is kinda not the time.

“I have Veronika’s secret, and she has mine.” Okay I did NOT expect her to reveal she had Veronika’s, but alright! That’s two more on the board, and two more most of us got right! At least the theorists are doing well on the secrets.

[Veronika agreeing to the pact] Bro what pact, how did you communicate that? Also, “I have such little interest in both of our secrets” is wild, but it makes sense given her personality. Recap foils go brr, I’ll sit down and think about this later.

“My own so-called secret isn’t even the worst thing I’ve done.” Uh…??? It’s just bombshell after bombshell, these episodes!

Oh, we are questioning the pact. I kinda thought they’d managed to do that in the trial, now I’m really curious. Please tell me we aren’t gonna have to ignore that question because of what Hu asked of them.

Shit.

“We’re not gonna talk about me?” Oh, Vero, I would love for them to talk about you, but I don’t think it’s gonna happen.

“Arei– Achoo!” WHEN I TELL YOU I CACKLED LIKE A MADPERSON HOLY SHIT

“Bless me! Also, excuse me! Wow, thank you for your support everyone!” WAIT IT GOT FUNNIER.

“I have another interruption–” Either it just got even funnier or he’s about to reveal Teruko’s secret and shit got serious, let’s see.

Oh, right. But, dude, I’m relatively sure the last two unclaimed secrets can’t be hers. Maybe the survivor’s guilt one, even though that felt like Xander’s? Are you absolutely certain you don’t have her secret?

“My family.” Figured she’d try that one. [She probably feels it's true to some extent].

Oh, now THAT’S a David sprite alright. Pretty sure that settles it, the most common theories for secrets during hiatus were all correct.

I’m guessing David’s still not gonna reveal it. We still need to see a Teruko teacher CG, and I don’t think we’re gonna have time for that if he brings it up.

“We did it!” Yeah he ain’t revealing shit. 

“Sir Light Pollution” is actually crazy. Do his eyes really emit light like a flashlight? That’d be really fucking funny actually.

Oh, it was actually funny because Whit is a boyfailure. Alright, joke understood. I smiled.

“I am truly impressed… by how bad that was.” And there I laughed!

“I’ve started to detect this trial isn’t about me.” Iconic of you, Sir Attention Whore /affectionate

Thank you J.

Eden bro can we please let Teruko speak. Also you are not helping the culprit allegations miss Tobisa.

“What happened between you and Arei?” Jesus, we really cannot get to the fucking murder, huh? Fair, though, I’m really curious about this too, though I feel we’re gonna skip past it without an answer or David’s just not gonna respond seriously.

“I know that she’s dead and that she’s never coming back.” We’re getting worryingly close to your secret quote wording here, Eden. You sure you wanna go this route?

What are we, on seven “good person”s now?

Oh shit are we actually getting an answer?

YES! YES! YES! LET’S GO! I wasn’t expecting this!

Eight. Though I think this one’s repeated, though I might be wrong.

Yeah, this is old dialogue.

Man, Arei’s and Eden’s VAs did amazing work this episode!

“That makes me feel really relieved.” Lie. She didn’t say that. That’s my gut reaction, anyways, I could be wrong.

“I was pissed at you for a bit.” Oh shit chat David’s not getting cut off. This might actually be true. What the fuck?

Oh, also. Nine. David again.

“There’s not even anything positive…” Okay this hurts a fucking ton. If David’s lying, I want him dead. If this is true, holy shit this is sad.

“A metamorphosis like that…” Jeez this is actually getting sad sad. Auch.

“I’ll never be a good person.” Ten, and the tenth hurts a LOT. I don’t think David’s lying, members of the jury. Holy shit this is sad. 

“It turns out that you might be a total piece of shit…” Holy shit I miss Arei already.

Eleven.

“Like Santa Claus…” Didn’t Charles bring up something like that talking with Teruko in the computer room? Interesting connection. I guess not “all that glitters,” yeah.

“It’s okay that I’ll never be a good person, because no one else can be either.” Okay, first; twelve. Second, ouch.

[I know my commentary's not exactly thrilling. Forgive me, I'm suffering]

“Even Eden.” And what does that mean?

[Eden with blood on her hands CG]

…

HUH????????????????????????????????????????

I can’t- Words- Not working. Hold on, I gotta see what the fuck is happening here.

[Pan to fork]

I’M EVEN MORE CONFUSED THAN BEFORE! WHAT THE FUCK?!

It has four prongs, which matches the Xander one. Did Eden take out Xander’s eye? How in the actual fuck? No chance, right? I’m just going insane?

“I’m sure even Eden has hurt someone” (Paraphrased). Brain is still not working. Sorry.

“Even someone like her must have made a mistake she couldn’t take back” WE ARE GETTING DANGEROUSLY CLOSE TO SECRET QUOTE WORDING!

We’re just moving on? That shit didn’t happen? I’m fucking sorry?

I can’t even- Does this imply fucking MM!Eden? I don’t think so, she doesn’t look like she wanted to- WAS it Xander she stabbed? Again, how? What? I’m so confused. YOU CAN’T DO THIS TO US DEV! I NEED ANSWERS!!!

“Second ever friend…” Ouch ouch ouch-

Another “good people” btw.

[Arei CG] That’s the fucking- THAT LOOKS LIKE THE FUCKING GIRL FROM LGI?!?!?!

Like, obviously they look different, but that’s the same pose, with the hand and everything- WHAT?!

Is Arei/David a ship? It’ll probably be one after this. 

“Nothing-” You absolute piece of shit. Holy shit David, when I get my hands on you David…

“Nothing else happened between us, I promise.” Wow. Who would’ve thunk this is how I come to fucking despise a man so much while he simultaneously rises in my fave characters ranking, huh? Holy hell.

“One hundred percent promise-” I get more mad every line. That’s good character writing, folks. Jesus.

I can’t read Eden this episode. Still think she’s the culprit lol.

“Finally.” Yeah, Teruko. Same.

[By the way, the next section has a lot of me rambling about my own theories, so if you don't know them, here's a link to the latest, now likely outdated version]

“From that low of height…” I like where we’re going.

“I’m starting to realize how long it's taken to get here.” (Paraphrased) Yeah, Whit. Yeah.

“Some people had to wait one year and five months-” PFFFT- Also Whit’s reaction means he’s not fully fourth wall aware, which is cool.

NON-STOP DEBATE! LET’S DO IT! 

[Sees truth bullet] Yes! The jugs were used as weights! Tell me I’m right about this!

YEAH! I GOT IT RIGHT! Also Veronika’s “consent” animation is… uuh… very ‘Ronika if you catch my drift. I love it!

“Those jugs ended up breaking…” You know it! I wonder if maybe they didn’t have time to clean the fish? But they could have gotten water literally elsewhere, so they clearly did use them for alibi.

“The jugs alone aren’t enough…” (Paraphrased). Yeah, we gotta go higher. Like, the girders at the top…?

“... rafters on the ceiling.” Yeah!!! Wrong name but I also got this right!

“It must have been one long rope…” Or two, because you need the stopper.

“Oh, wait, you’re agreeing with me. Yes.” Funny, laughed.

“The rafters were way too high…” Ball of clothes, come on.

“...something like a pulley…” Yeah, Whit knows what I’m talking about! The fact he’s being helpful makes him less suspicious. Finally, he managed to open his mouth without incriminating himself of something!

“High location…” Are we actually doing stopper rope? My guess is that that’s when we’ll get teacher Teruko.

“In drop hanging…” Okay, first, love the monologue. Second, is there a reason you know so much about drop hanging? Did your mother…? I guess it’s not necessary. I also came to the same conclusions and I don’t have any history with the stuff. 

“We also know she didn’t hit the ground-” Does anyone have a counter of tasteless Whit jokes? Just checking.

“Aren’t I so smart…” And we’re back to kinda incriminating ourselves, because you're denying pulley method. Fantastic.

WOO! ANOTHER NON-STOP! Let me guess, “spinny thing” is the truth bullet?

“Tape on carousel.” Close enough. Although, hold on, are we actually gonna go “stopped with hands?” No chance, right?

Also am I stupid or does Arturo’s VA sound different in the debates?

Yeah btw Levi!Accomplice is dead and buried, I need to find other ways for Eden to have done this.

I like that Teruko still calls it a spinny thing :p

Wow, everyone’s correcting her, huh? I guess I’m the only one that appreciates her smh.

“...when I need to correct the killer’s grammar.” Funny comeback, but you know, the letter does actually have quite a few spelling errors.

Yay! Teacher Teruko! She looks so cute with glasses!

Also I cannot believe it. These Microsoft-Paint ass diagrams remind me of when I did them too lol.

Oh, shit, under the seesaw! That’s a good one, Teruko! I didn’t catch that. (Then again, I always thought the seesaw was in a different place, but oh well).

Is that dog ears Whit? My guy, you know Charles dislikes dogs, right? Then again, you do canonically have negative rizz, so :p

Oh, tying the rope! Not quite a stopper rope, but same concept. Yeah, would work. Good one Teruko!

“The carousel is made of smooth metal.” THAT’S WHAT THE TAPE WAS FOR! Clutch.

Oh shit, is the cliffhanger going to be the tape’s origin?

“I’ve seen this murder method before.” Okay, wait. One, no origin of tape. That’s big for Eden!Culprit: My current guess is that someone (ie Veronika) will want to discuss the Ace-Nico thing, which will lead to them discovering Eden took the tape. Two, what the fuck do you mean you’ve seen this before?!

“You have?” Looking kinda worried there, Eden…

“And so have you.” Okay am I forgetting something? Min’s execution wasn’t like this, what the hell…

“Me?” Eden, honey, the allegations…

“We’re going to talk about a different case…” Oh shit Teruko’s got the Ace method figured out? I would really love to hear that because I have no idea what the hell was happening with that one. Also, I called it! Didn’t expect it to be Teruko who brought us back to the Ace case, but still. 

“Explain yourself, Nico.” YEAH!!!! I’m actually really excited. I’m gonna look into revising my theory on that case before the next episode, see if I can figure it out, since I think the old methods I’ve discussed with others don���t quite line up with what Teru’s describing. 

What an episode!

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General Thoughts:

Holy shit. Just. So much happened. It’s too much peak.

The Eden CG is the first thing on my mind; that’s crazy. Did she really take out Xander’s eye? I have zero idea what else I would be looking at. Certainly not MM!Eden, too obvious, but I don’t know what’s happening there. No fucking idea. I might make a more detailed post when I get my thoughts in order, but all I’m saying; the possibility the girl she kissed was Mai? That Mai told her about Teruko, and Eden attacked Xander in the pre-prologue killing game to protect Teruko? Hmm…

The secrets are huge, too. Nothing wild, given like 75% of the fandom had assumed these secrets anyways, but still nice to get them all. The Levi explanation was fascinating, but I don’t know what the fuck it has to do with the trial. Was it really a pointless aside? I don’t know…

The Arei scene was fucking insane even outside the Eden CG. Stabbed through the heart, haven’t felt that sad since Min’s death, and, yeah…

Not to mention, the fucking “Ideal Country Woman from LGI” looking ass frame. At least I finally got my answer; it was a wrist bend, not a glove. 

And David. David. Why are you like this. I genuinely can’t tell why he does anything anymore.

Finally, I love the Taylor mention, that’s insane. And Veronika has a darker secret? She really wants those MM allegations, huh? Jokes aside, I’m really curious about both those things. I kinda wonder if somehow the students will see the motive videos from Trial 1, since we’re hearing about Taylor and I’m hoping Alyssa later.

Just… Holy shit this episode was awesome. Cannot wait for next week.

First Impression Murder Theory Updates

It’s looking like Levi!Accomplice will end up being a nice AU and nothing more, although I’m not 100% ruling it out. That said, I’m still pretty confident in Eden!Culprit, especially with how we mentioned the tape on the spinny thing was easy to grip, but no one’s made the connection to the gym yet. 

The big thing to solve in the Arei case, then, is how Eden got the fish. There’s a few other accomplices she could have, but those are looking rough unless she somehow got Arei to do it. That said, I’m considering the possibility that she took the minnows ultra early, before Nico started feeding them. That would explain how they didn’t notice there were a few missing the night before; they just never counted the ones in the jugs in the first place. That has issues too, but I’ll see about it. 

That said, I’m pretty happy with myself! I got a lot of the major points of the pulley system right. The only thing is the “stopper rope vs tie a knot” thing, but the principle is similar enough. We’ll see about things like the ball of clothes to put the rope over the rafters. There’s still plenty of murder to discuss. 

As for the Ace case… It’ll need a full review later. If it’s supposed to be similar to Arei’s case, I really have no clue what the hell was happening there. Though I guess the ridiculous wire circuit I made might actually have some merit, given we're doing some kind of pulley?

... Maybe not :p

I have no further insight; I just need to look at it again.

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Anyways, hope you enjoyed! Watching this episode took me like two hours and a half while writing this… this almost 4k word post… so… yeah. Gods save me if there actually is an hour long episode left. See ya’!

[xtinaangelicax]

J Being on the Chapter 2 Title Card?? Theorizing (sorta... I'm clueless ;-;)

Can we talk about the fact that J is on the chapter 2 title card rn?? Like... I see ALMOST NO ONE so far in the fandom theorizing about what this could mean. We know that her secret about Mariabella being her mom was revealed during this chapter, but... I don't really feel like that's big enough to warrant her being on the title card yet so far? I think? It's an important secret, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't rly rival the importance of the actual murders going on imo.

I mean-- Teruko and Xander were on the first chapter title card. That is a big deal. Xander died after trying to kill Teruko, and got killed by Min instead: Teruko's our protagonist. Being on the title card is obviously the most indicative clue of a character being insanely important to the narrative for that chapter, possibly even a culprit or victim, but we all just been sleepin on that clue lately and ignoring it lol wut--

Like... I mean, J tries enlisting Teruko's help getting away from Arturo for a minute in this chapter- the dressing room scene- and has a frigging knife pulled on her. She got her secret she desperately wanted to cover up, probably for a large portion of her life, exposed by some jerk in the very same, what, 24 hour period? And she's constantly now being stalked by said jerk, too. Poor gal.

I don't know if J maybe snapped from it all, and murdered Arei. I'm not sure how she WOULD have, given Arturo stalking her. So... maybe it's... something else? But like? SOMETHING is being set up with J here, and if anyone has any ideas feel free to suggest, cuz I can't figure out what it is yet. I'm thinking randomly off the top of my head of stuff we know... like...

J was the first to go to Arei's room to check for her body, after they realized she was missing? Also, J was the first to complain about Teruko possibly being in cahoots with the culprit and choosing who guards the body based on that. After which, J was then promptly chosen to guard the body as well. Important? Possibly. Maybe. Idk...

She goes on a whole spiel about how serious murder is that gains a lot of spotlight for a few minutes, when she was talking to Nico... also, she has this new sadistic grin sprite after revealing Arturo's secret. UH is that sprite gonna be used again for something?

I think there's literally no way J isn't gonna have some sort of big reveal of significance to the plot during the rest of the chapter 2 trial.

There's a bit of evidence that could point to her being the killer, but I don't wanna say I believe that for sure. Just that... SOMETHING'S up.

J being on the chapter 2 title card is definitely important.

ALSO FINALLY: J's hidden quote is "Please don't call me your daughter ever again."

????????how the frick is J going to say this quote?? So far, all the hidden quotes have been said a little while before the character dies, before/during a pivotal moment in the plot and their development... therefore, J is gonna say this line at some point. That's indisputable.

But??? How?? Will it be said during a flashback where she said it to Mariabella in the past? Or... are we gonna see J get in contact with her mom somehow? Is J the culprit, and MonoTV calls in a 'special guest viewer video call' right before her execution just to rub it in her face, and it's her mom, and... J says her hidden quote there?

Is one of the future motives gonna involve being able to communicate something with your family, maybe, and then J says it?

I'm probably gonna look back more and see if there's any other sort of hints or foreshadowing going on with J, but... I just wanted to point all this out and possibly open up discussion/theorizing about this :)

[spyrkle4]

hooo boy ep 10 had some moments

spoilers under the cut 

-Okay so I def am convinced Arei is dead now, I was on the fence bc of the switch theory... but after this ep, it’s sunken in for me now 

-that moment w/ her and Eden AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. Even if Arei didn’t have much time to change... she was trying her best in the time she had left

-David I am onto, sure he was “poor Arei :’(” in the trial, but he’s def acting shifty

(If Ace actually guessed his secret I will scream)

-Also J comitting revenge was slightly hilarious, but scary

-I’m very curious on the details with Arturo and his sister, to pull a Veronika here, I’m guessing he had very strict parents and when he ditched home to fufill his own path in life, his sister got the brunt of the pressure and unsubscribed from living when she couldn’t take it anymore, and Arturo got blamed for it by extended family

-That’s my theory at least, and Arturo has been coping unhealthily, like not cool man, how dare you threaten Eden like that >:T

-poor Eden omg she has been feeling so much guilt, it wasn’t her fault Min committed murder, it wasn’t her fault someone killed Arei, but she still blames herself for these things : (

-Anyone else here scared of Veronika? I am *raises hand* I’ve described her as “Junko but she copes with despair addiction with horror movies” and that feels SO accurate... I am getting so many chapter 3 vibes from her, will be surprised if she lives past Chapter 3

-I was lowkey thinking we’d get a scrum debate while everyone accused Arturo but maybe that’s next ep, 

-This was really enjoyable, and the flashback fleshed out Arei even after her death, then again despair time has a thing the dead cast haunting the narrative (Min got mentioned in the trial), so even if she’s gone... she’ll still be around in some sad way

-Really :’( Arei never got a chance to improve and make friends, maybe she did before the killing show started, but who knows, we might find out if there’s a bonus video...

[thebadjoe]

BAD JOE'S DRDT CH.2 CRIME SOLVING THEORY PART 2

Hello! I'm the dude who made a ridiculously long theory post about the culprit for chapter 2 by bringing a good amount of points that makes sense, but also makes it hard to believe for most. Just like previously, the post I'm gonna make is gonna touch the big spoilers territory, especially if I end up being right. More importantly though, a good chunk of this post will CONTAIN HEAVY Ch.2 Ep.10 SPOILERS, SO BEWARE!!!

For those who haven't read my theory yet, here it is. Click me!

MAKE SURE YOU CLICK ON THIS LINK AND READ MY FIRST THEORY POST BEFORE READING THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T DONE SO ALREADY.

So, a while ago, my theory post was made after watching Episode 9, but not Episode 10 since it wasn't released yet at the time. And then once the stream of that episode came live, it was time to put my theory to the test, to see if there would be any reveal that would make my theory difficult to work.

For the most part, it's still holding strong. There is however something in that video that throws a wrench into my theory. More specifically, it messes up with my motive. Today, I am here to explain in details what I mean by that as well as giving you alternate solutions to that problem. Also, I'll be discussing a few other holes in my theory (that was there before ep.10 existed) as well as giving you a few more reasons why my theory could work.

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Step #1 : The note & the flashback

Yeah... let's start with that.

To remind the readers just in case, my theory is all about Eden being the culprit of this case. And... you can already see where I'm going with this.

Eden was pretty nervous and hesitant with revealing the note­. But she eventually shares the note in a reluctant manner. Turns out... it's actually a pretty incriminating proof for her. But then... why would the note be found in the trash can? Why wouldn't she keep it instead of throwing it away if she was the culprit? Why would she help Whit and Rose to match the pieces of the puzzle being the ripped out note?

It seems so weird, but she claims right before that whoever made this note, they're trying to impersonate her. Makes sense, but she's still a tad suspicious. But then this happens...

We learn that the secret "Your younger sister killed herself, and you're the reason why." actually belongs to Arturo which is later confirmed by Eden herself. And to put icing to this messy cake, we also get the full explanation as to what happened back then which we get to view it as a flashback!

So yeah, with that explanation (flashback), not only do we learn why Eden was scared and hesitant in revealing that secret, we also learn that she became friends with Arei. Which screws up with the motive I had set up for Eden. For those who don't remember, it was supposed to be "She killed because of all the bullying, the overly excessive bullying from Arei was the final straw for her."

Because of that note and flashback, my motive doesn't really work on that theory anymore... or does it?

Nonetheless, there is a much bigger issue regarding Eden being the culprit. Thanks to this note and flashback, it makes Eden look a lot more innocent than usual. The odds of her being the culprit seem so... unlikely at this point, right?

Heck, there's even someone who made a poll asking who they think is the culprit after watching episode 10. Wanna know the % of votes towards Eden being the culprit? 1.6%. I repeat. 1.6%!!!! Like man... a lot of people don't think she is the culprit, moreso thanks to this episode.

Then... does that mean you're giving up on your theory?

Heh, not at all. I have an explanation for all of this. It's gonna sound crazy, but please, hear me out.

What if... this was all part of Eden's plan?

....what?

That's right! You heard me right! This was all part of Eden's elaborate plan and the reason why she would pull such a complicated plan is precisely because she seriously has the intention to win this killing game! Therefore, she pulled this grandiose scheme so that she would look the most innocent individual within this class trial and she pulled it off perfectly (so far).

Don't believe me? Then let me explain a few things. Let's consider this following fact first : the beginning of that flashback, from Eden sharing the secret to Arturo, to Arturo threatening Eden to Arei coming in to save the day and kick his ass, all of that is the truth. Otherwise, Arturo would've called it out if Eden was lying.

Now, let's get into Eden's pov and pretend that she's indeed the culprit. Considering how complex that murder scheme is, that part with her meeting up with Arturo to share the secret was also part of her plan.

She intentionally arranged that meeting to conflict so to create the possibility of Arturo blackmailing her. Add a convincing motive that Arturo commited the crime.

What about Arei coming in to save Eden?

That... it's hard to say. Easier answer would be no and that it was a very convenient timing that she ended up coming in to save Eden. It's also possible that she planned for her to arrive somehow. Probably not with a letter since they were not on good terms yet at the time. It's possible that Eden was keeping an eye to her surroundings to see if someone could hear her and Arturo in that medical room.

I know... it seems kinda weak, but I have a counterargument for this. Let me just finish explaining Eden's plan first.

So after being friends with Arei, she proceeded with the setup for her murder scheme, then knocked Ace unconscious with the turpentine. Then after this, eitheir two things happened : Eden wrote the letter to lure Arei into the playground to knock her out or Eden snuck up on Arei, knocking her unconscious, set up the rest then created a fake letter.

Regardless of which situation it was, she made sure to use a different handwriting than her usual for the note, ripped it and put it in the trash can. Whether it gets found out or not doesn't matter because she can easily claim that it wasn't hers.

Cause if we think about it, why would the culprit incriminate herself by leaving such letter out in the open? They could've hidden it somewhere much safer instead, but no, there was a reason for that. She did this because she knew the class would think that it wouldn't make sense for her to write that note and also be the culprit. So by leaving that proof in the open, she actually looks more innocent rather than suspicious.

And then if you take into consideration that she's super kind and sweet, the fact that she was acting nervous in the trial because she felt "threatened" by Arturo, her deception has paid off and now she looks incredibly innocent thanks to that buildup.

Eden is a lot more deceptive and terrifying than we can imagine if all I said ends up being the truth (for the most part).

What about that weak point of yours?

Right! It does seem like Arei saving Eden was not part of the culprit's plan for the most part, but it worked out really well for her. But did you know that even if Arei didn't save Eden, her plan would still work just fine?

Essentially, all Eden needed was someone to pinpoint as the prime suspect with a very valid motive. She only needed to meet with Arturo, to have him threaten her and the rest works out just fine.

It's just that if it happened that way, Eden would've instead snuck up on Arei, knock her out with the turpentine, murdered her, then fabricate this letter, or at least, something very similar.

It's also because of this that I don't think my original culprit motive is not quite thrown out of the water. Because if her plan actually didn't involve Arei saving her, then Eden wanting to kill to end the bullying would definitly work there. It's just that on top of wanting to end the bullying, she also wants to end this killing game, by winning on her own terms.

Now then, let's discu-

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Step #2 : Holes in my theory? Where?

Bro! I don't approve of your disguise theory! Eden is much smaller compared to Arei, so people would've known!

*sigh*

Yeah, this is an issue, but it's not impossible to explain. Let's start by saying that she couldn't hide her real height with heels simply because Arei only wears shoes.

I also doubt there's any kind of special powers or chemicals or skills that allows someone to be temporarily higher in height than usual and that would be a lame solution to this problem because I would be using hints that was never presented in the story on top of using things that doesn't exist.

So instead, there are 2 likely scenarios that could "probably" explain that issue.

People weren't paying attention enough to Arei during lunchtime because of all the arguing. Arei never spoke (obviously cause someone disguised can't replicate her voice) and no one ever spoke to her as far as we're aware. So it's not improbable to think they haven't really paid that much attention to her.

She was sitting down at the time, so it was harder to tell the height difference. I know what we saw were standing sprites, but we can imagine she must've been sitting down most of the time since they're at a cafeteria, surrounded with tables and chairs.

So yeah, not my strongest counter argument, but hey, it works!

Eden has different eye colors compared to Arei!

For the eyes, easiest solution to that problem is that she wore contact lenses of a color matching Arei's eyes.

But everyone has rather unique eyes, you couldn't replicate it with simply colored contact lenses!

Probably not, but it doesn't really matter. Look at this sprite!

See something interesting? You don't quite see her eyes very well, don't you? The disguised culprit could've easily hide any imperfections of the eyes with this pose.

What about the skin? Eden looks nothing like Arei!

Like I said before, makeup kit. I haven't watched these videos in details on youtube, but it's actually very possible to change a skin tone with foundation. Of course, since she'd have to do it on all her exposed body, it'd take a very considerable amount of time and effort.

Ah! I gotchu now! You just said that applying all this makeup would take a lot of time. There's no way she would have the time and energy to carry out a failed murder, a real murder, set everything up and take a long time to disguise yourself! It's impossible!

No, that's wrong!

Actually, it's very doable for someone like Eden. In fact, it's exactly because of this that she's likely one of the only classmate who could've carried out this whole plan.

I have the proof for you right there!

This goes way back. Prologue Episode 2.

"Sometimes I can work up to a total of 15 hours without breaks!"

I'm sure technicly anyone could do this with the proper motivation and determination, but take into consideration that she's used to doing this. She's done it before.

It's possible that she stayed up all night to carry out the plan, get her disguise ready and accurate for morning/lunchtime and then went to bed afterwards to take a nap before meeting up with Hu for cleaning duties.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Step #3 : One more thing before I leave!

I know that some of you don't believe it's her despite everything I've thrown at you and that's perfectly fine. It's just a theory after all. I'm also perfectly fine with people coming up with different culprit theories, some more crazy than others and whatnot. I'm all down to uncover all kinds of possibilities we can uncover about this chapter.

However, I think it's also important to remind everyone of certain things that are probably facts to make sure we don't get too much off track.

So I'd like to give you guys a few pointers regarding what I believe would be the rules of a danganronpa murder mystery.

Based on my experience with this series and some of these fangans, I think there's a certain guideline and logic to follow. I personally think that from the beginning of chapter to the end of an investigation of that chapter, it's possible to solve the murder mystery with just that information.

Maybe not in regards to the whydunnit, but definitly for the whodunnit and howdunnit.

Although it's not usually easy to figure that out until you learn more information during the trial. They make it pretty challenging, but also solvable. I'd like to think that this applies to chapter 2 as well.

I think the creator intended it to be solvable with all the information given from the beginning until the end of the investigation of chapter 2.

This is one of the reasons why I seriously think Eden is the culprit in that murder mystery. I can only manage to solve it with Eden as the culprit.

But maybe you guys can with a different culprit. There's probably a perfectly explainable theory that I'm not seeing quite yet that could be plausible.

I'm looking forward to see what's about to happen in episode 11!

If you guys have any questions or anything you'd like to point out that I might be wrong, let me know!

Thank you!

[moorheadthanyoucanhandle]

COMPLEX CHARACTERS

Opening today:

Freud's Last Session--The "session" in question is fictional, or at best nervily speculative--a meeting of the titular psychoanalytic pioneer with the Christian apologist C. S. Lewis. It's September of 1939; England has just declared war on Hitler's Germany, and Freud, who has fled Austria for England with his obsessively devoted daughter Anna, is in the agonizing homestretch of terminal mouth cancer. Irked by Lewis' parody of him in The Pilgrim's Regress (1933), Freud has invited the young Oxford don to his house in London for a civil but contentious chat.

Freud is played by Anthony Hopkins; Lewis is played by Matthew Goode. The direction is by Matthew Brown from a script he co-wrote with the American playwright Mark St. Germain, based on St. Germain's play (which I saw well-produced by Arizona Theatre Company in 2013). The play is a two-hander, but this handsomely-produced movie expands on it with scenes involving Anna (Liv Lisa Fries) and her partner Dorothy Burlingham (Jodi Balfour), flashbacks to Freud's childhood traumas and to Lewis' PTSD from the trenches in the earlier war, his eyebrow-raising cohabitation with Janie Moore (Orla Brady), etc.

But the juice in the film is still in the theatrical sparring between the two leads, especially Hopkins as the chuckling, cheerfully furious Freud. He's as lovably cantankerous here as he was as Pope Benedict in 2019's The Two Popes. For his part, Goode is smart enough not to make Lewis saintly or jolly; he gives him an edge of defensive aloofness alongside a deep decency.

It's hard to say which, if either, of the two men's viewpoints St. Germain and Brown are most in symapthy with. Many of us are likely to feel ourselves somewhere between Freud's staunch and bitter rationalism and Lewis' somehow rather half-hearted pose of orthodoxy. But the point of the film seems to be that what underlies both is, at least partly, existential terror, of a sort to which intelligent, intensely imaginative people like these two are particularly subject. Neither strict nonbelief nor strict belief seems to offer much deliverance.

Mean Girls--"It's a cautionary tale..." So the Greek chorus characters Janis and Damian sing to us at the beginning of this musical remake of the well-loved 2004 teen comedy, pared down from the 2018 Broadway version. This may be the secret of Mean Girls, in each iteration: it really is a moral tale with a cautionary point, and the heroine really does go to the dark side.

As you'll recall, Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) is a smart kid who grew up in campsites in Africa; her mother (Jenna Fischer) is a researcher. When she lands at a suburban American high school for junior year, the divisions in cafeteria clique and caste strike her as similar to those in the animal kingdom. She gets sucked into spending lunches with "The Plastics," a circle of glamorous sycophants led by uber-mean girl Regina George (Renée Rapp). Cady agrees, initially, at the urging of artsy girl Janis (Auli'i Cravalho) and big gay Damian (Jaquel Spivey) to serve as a double agent in a revenge plot against Regina. But gradually, of course, the plastic begins to take over for real. 

Or maybe the secret is just that the film, scripted, like the original, by Tina Fey (freely adapting a book by Rosalind Wiseman), is funny and sweet, but not so sweet that it forgets to be, you know, mean. Or maybe it's that most of the songs, by Nell Benjamin and Jeff Richmond, are delightful, and buoyantly staged by directors Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez, Jr.

Overall, these actors don't have the vibrancy or distinctive personalities of the original film's cast, but they make up for this with terrific musical performing. Rapp brings such a baleful moan to "Meet the Plastics" that she really is a little scary, and Rice shades herself from guileless to conniving very believably. A few vets are around; Fey and Tim Meadows reprise their roles from the first film, and Busy Phillips and Jon Hamm contribute funny bits. The standouts, however, are Cravalho as Janis and Spivey as Damian, both equipped with gorgeous voices and the ability to act while they're belting.

Fey's generous-hearted--and sensible--take on popularity and self-esteem has provided a solid and unsentimental piece of role modeling for teens (and the teens that endure within most adults) for twenty years now. Maybe this movie will extend it for another twenty.

[perpetual-canon]

Perpetual Canon

summary: This is as grand as it gets - Ace landed the gig with Gorillaz, and it's a chance of a lifetime for him. It is as clear as day - Murdoc landed himself in prison, and it's a chance for everyone to move on.

There's nothing more to it. Right?

Or: How to make sense of life when all its stories are sung at the same time?

Or all of them were part of the same song all along?

about the story: This is an AU where most of the Gorillaz insane lore is alt-reality storyline they come up for the fans & publicity stunts. The reality behind the lore is somewhat similar but not always as epic.

The timeline is a bit more sensible - in 2017-2019 (phase 5) when the story is taking place, it's been about 13 years since D day.

The story is full of creepy supernatural lore and fae laws and, no joke, is nearly 50% flashbacks.

Expect the feels, the funny, and the drama.

Ace has his ice powers, but with a twist. Same for some other characters.

Aaand, big spoilers, this is an AU where Ace is Murdocs son! But no one knows about it yet :D

This silly little idea is one of the main reasons the story exists, and so we share it in advance because we can.

Ages at the start of chapter 1: Stuart - 32,5 Russell - 31 Murdoc - 38 Noodle - almost 23 Ace - almost 22 Snake - 21,5 Big Billy - 19 Grubber - 20 Lil Arturo - almost 16

Damon Albarn & Jamie Hewlett - 40

pairings: 2doc, 2ace (one-sided), (past) Russell/Dell. This is not as dramatic as it sounds, promise :'D

pairings (that are slow burn and SPOILERS): Snake/Ace, Russell/Ace, Russell/Snake, Snake/Russell/Ace. This is the hill we built and are going to burn on, you guys are welcome to join :'DD

warnings: There will be warnings for each chapter/parts of chapters, when needed.

generally there may be: drug abuse, mentions/discussions of child abuse, discussions of trauma, suicidal ideation, unhealthy coping mechanisms.

about the format: There will be comics, short stories, text with illustrations, shitposts, basically anything that'll work for each piece. Updates will not be regular after chapter 1, but we are very much set to finish this project!

tags guide: PC!story - for the story bits PC!art - for the additional art PC!not in text but in spirit - for shitposts and inspo stuff PC!spoilers - idk, may need this one

—

You may recognise the comics from couple years back, and yeah, this is doublebassstory (now with a proper name! that is also a pun, yes :'D).

The hiatus and real life got us, but the story didn't let go, it's too fun, and totally doesn't hold us at gunpoint (: So we're back at it, and the goal is to get this whole thing out, and have some fun along the way (':

Most of the story is already planned out - plot, chapters, episodes and all (g-d help us).

The links to read Perpetual Canon, and the chapter plans can all be found HERE.

Feel free to hit us with any questions you may have.

[a-student-out-of-time]

As an opponent of switch theory, I will try to answer the points that you present. 1. Firstly, the fact that Teruko prosopagnosia is mentioned in chapter 2 does not mean that it will play an important role in chapter 2, that if the author thought if Teruko prosopagnosia was mentioned in the chapter where this aspect is used, it would be very obvious, so they placed this mention on one chapter earlier in the hope that the reader might slightly forget, thus making the mystery harder for himself. and by the way, THE OTHERS DON'T HAVE prosopagnosia THEY WOULD NOTICE IF J SOMETHING IS WRONG AND HOW THE THEORY of conspiracy failed, how do you explain it?

2. To show that Teruko still feels pain for Min's death and that although she can pretend that she doesn't care, she will feel pain for people's deaths.

3. Isn't the CG where Arei epicly opens the door, the hair isn't the same length? artistic approach.

4. Why weren't we shown the wigs during the investigation? Maybe because they are not involved in the murder at all? during the search for the body of Arei Teruko, she would have noticed that something was missing here and the investigation returned in time, but if this did not happen, then they are unlikely to be connected with the crime. and what if wigs play a part in chapter 3 where teruko prosopagnosia comes into play.

One of the reasons why I don't like this theory is that it's not Arei's character to follow what plan is not clear, seeing as Eden the person she worries going through a difficult time thinking she's dead. Did Arei continue to pretend to be J after seeing this? NO it's not the character of Arei, it's not only an OOC theory for Arei but a theory of a completely waste character J that hasn't even started going through the character path.

//First of all, thank you for taking the time to offering some counter-arguments. It's nice to have someone addressing the points I've made.

//But I still don't see these as particularly strong ones for a few reasons. And by a few, I mean I've gone into a lot of detail as to why:

1A. It doesn't matter because, as I've talked about before, the only people who actually examined Arei's body were Teruko (the person who can't differentiate faces) and Arturo (who we've learned had reasons to half-ass the investigation, if not kill her himself). Not to mention they didn't exactly do a good job investigating her actual death regardless of those details, and what they found was very surface-level. Nobody would've found out it's not her because nobody would've known to check if that wasn't her body.

1B. The idea that they're placing that detail a chapter early, where it isn't going to be relevant, feels very wasteful to me. Yes, they did place setup in the prologue and chapter one, but those were small moments and would've come off as just comedy if you weren't paying attention. Xander's super strength was relevant to Chapter 1, after all; it proved vital in decoding the murder plan. Veronika asking probing questions about the details of Teruko's prosopagnosia is very different from Teruko not remembering Charles until Hu mentions his hair color and outfit. DR chapters are often each self-contained stories, and the details we get are always relevant to the case, no matter how small, and potentially the cases that come later. There's been no DR game that includes character details that don't become relevant at all until the next chapter. Putting in details that won't have payoff until later, unless we're talking about contributing to a larger narrative, doesn't happen here. That's not just a DR thing, that's a basic good writing thing; let the information we get in the middle of a story be relevant to that story, not just serve as setup for a different one.

2A. If it were as simple as that, why not just include a brief flashback to Min. Xander has gotten plenty of mention this chapter, such as when Teruko was playing with cacti and very clearly roleplaying a scenario where she defeats him and begs for forgiveness. That's definitely a sign she misses Xander. But if Teruko was referencing Min there, she would've said Min and Min would've appeared. Instead, the screen went black and we got no mention of what she was reminded of. I'm actually not fully convinced it was Min because...

2B. Something I haven't really discussed in detail here is the scene with Charles and Whit in the computer lab, where they're doing some hacking. Teruko asks about Charles' brother, the one he doesn't even remember, and Charles proceeds to ask her if she knows what Childhood Amnesia is. That also got no follow-up, as Teruko was hungry. I'm starting to think Teruko wasn't reminded of Min, but someone else from her past, which I'm certain is going to be VERY important given the nature of her motive secret.

3. Yes, but she was actually herself in that CG. I'm not talking about when she confronted Arturo, because that was very clearly Arei. I'm talking about the corpse found in the playground, whose hair is clearly longer than it's supposed to be. That was before the window of time where the two of them could've switched places, and thus the body found. And as I've said before, you can't just assign artistic license because Xander's look wasn't subject to that.

4. Again, the idea that things are only here for setup in Chapter 3 is unsubstantiated. This floor was created for Chapter 2, thus the things here- like with every other DR game- are going to be relevant to Chapter 2. Not only that, but we saw the wigs on three separate occasions in this chapter: when they first entered and got new clothes, when Teruko asked Rose about her secret, and when J tried to get Teruko to help her get away from Arturo. After that, the one time they went back there- when they were looking for Arei- it didn't pan over to show the wigs again, and that was the last time we saw inside the dressing room. That doesn't strike you as suspicious? Furthermore, why can't the wigs be relevant here and now, rather than later?

//To be honest, it sounds more like you're specifically trying to discredit my theory rather than offer a solid alternative. You can't just look at this and say "Well, none of it is guaranteed to be relevant now." Why not? What makes you so sure it isn't?

//You also can't just say "No, you're wrong" in a debate without some kind of solid basis for why I'm wrong. Otherwise, it comes across as you disagreeing on the grounds of "I don't like what you're saying."

//I'm not trying to be petty, I'm just offering my stance on debates. You need to work on your counter-arguments, though I really do appreciate you taking the time to offer them.

//And I can understand the disagreement, I honestly can. It's a crazy theory and I don't even expect to be right about everything, and I totally get why you'd see this as nonsensical and that it would come at the cost of another character who's comparatively gotten much less development. But let me offer you an alternative to your final point of disagreement.

//Arei said several times in the flashbacks that Eden is someone she needs to protect. We don't know what exactly happened on her end of things, before or after she confronted David, or how all the other moving parts of this chapter fit together. We don't even know how the murder actually happened yet.

//With that in mind, we can't make the assumption that, if Arei is really disguised as J, that there would be zero risk of her exposing herself. As I've said before, that would be an easy way for David and/or the Blackened of this case to pin the crime on her, because all she'd really be able to defend herself with are hearsay on her part.

//And given that she knows David's, Arturo's and one more person's secrets, would it really be a stretch to say that she could convince J to help her? That maybe the two of them worked together to try and protect the others? Especially since J, knowing that Arturo pulled a knife on Eden, seems like the kind of person who'd want to take action.

//I never suggested the story sacrificed J so Arei could live. I'm suggesting that, much like we saw with Arei in the flashbacks, plenty of things could've gone on behind that scenes that show the two of them were major players in what went on. The flashbacks with Arei and Eden were phenomenal, so the very same could be true with J.

//That feels more interesting to me than "J gets stalked and harassed by Arturo for a chapter, and then gets to dunk on him in the trial." Yes, I'll be sad if she's actually gone, but what matters is how it actually happened and the circumstances that lead up to it.

//Again, we've gotten basically no details on the murder itself as of yet. Nothing that suggests things couldn't have played out like this, or, like with David, there isn't more going on here than appears from the surface. We can't say anything is ooc for anyone, because we don't know the full story here.

//When we actually start getting into the meat of this chapter's murder plot, how it happened and who was involved, as well as the last secrets, then we can start to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of my theory.

//If my theory is wrong, then it's wrong. But if I'm right, this could be an amazing trial that would rely on those themes of rebuilding trust. Especially if, like I said, Arei's goal was to help protect Eden, and unmasking herself now would threaten that goal. And for Teruko, it means having to actually put genuine trust in someone and hope they're not lying.

//Before we start considering what is or isn't setup for the next mystery, we should try and solve this one first with the tools we've got our disposal.

[pedroalonso]

i finished watching lcdp 5 and 

i fucking LOVED IT, thank you.

The stuff from part 3/4 were really good in terms of the flashbacks between berlermo and the brothers and their trio as a whole, but the bank stuff back then was kind of draggy which sucked because the bank should have had the intense scenes.

But then along came part 5 volume 1 and HELLLL YES!!! The action was intense and thrilling. The stakes were high. The emotional moments were perfectly squeezed in between the scenes and they were all so potent. The ending was beautifully foreshadowed and Tokyo went out with fucking style. An absolute icon. (RIP BABYGIRL I CANT BELIEVE THEY TOOK YOU AWAY FROM ME WHEN WE WERE JUST STARTING TO GET ALONG. What injustice.)

Also, I CAN’T BELIEVE THE GANG FINALLY UNDERSTANDS THE MEANING OF TEAM WORK??? AHHH MY HEART. MY BABIES. MY RAGTAG BUNCH OF MISFITS.

Part 5 really made me appreciate the whole gang. I realize that I have my favorites of course, but I LOVE THEM ALL, okay. ALL OF THEM.

I will say though, that as much as I love Pedro, the Berlin flashback scenes were really odd and felt out of place. Sure it was FUN, but I couldn’t connect it to anything that was going on in the main heist, nor did it add any emotional depth to what was happening there (unlike Tokyo’s flashbacks where we learned more about her character and empathized with her RIGHT BEFORE THEY KILLED HER OFF lmao)

But I said this before, I honestly don’t care about Berlin’s son, and I was hoping the flashbacks were going to make me change my mind by seeing how it affects the whole story. But it DIDN’T, not at all. It felt like Andrés had his own thing going on that had NOTHING to do with the bank, which sucked seeing as how his flashbacks in parts 3/4 showed that this was the heist he loved the most. This was his obra maestra. This was the heist Sergio (and to a certain degree Martín), decided to do in order to honor his memory. And seeing him running around Copenhagen with his newly introduced son and sidecharacters he barely interacted with before, supposedly POST MONASTERY, without his brother or Martín? Well. Put that on the list of TOP 10 ANIME BETRAYALS.

I am hoping though that SOMEHOW they’ll tie his plot together with everything else and there will be payoff. But for now, I’m afraid to say that IN A SURPRISING TURN OF EVENTS, I liked the Berlin flashbacks the least. I still enjoyed them because of Pedro, but it was definitely the weakest link in the series. Sorry mi amooor.

ANYWAY, here are some of my favorite bits:

ANY SCENE WITH PALERMO. God damn, Rodrigo de la Serna steals every scene he’s in. He doesn’t just hit the mark, he OBLITERATES IT. His expressions, his eyes, the changes in his voice. Every tiny bit of micro acting he’s doing absolutely adds to the moment and he just fucking NAILS IT. My god.  It made me miss the energy he and Pedro had, bouncing and playing off each other in the previous season. Hoping to get a little bit of that soon before the show ends. UGHH i miss my boys

the gandia fist fight with Bogota was exactly the kind of chaos I’m into yes PLEASE

Palermo/Lisboa In-Laws Slash Co-Leaders Power Duo MORE OF THAT TOO PLEASE

i really liked Monica’s arc this season and I love her for shooting Arturo to near death. RIP to her but i won’t feel guilty lmaoooo. Esther Acebo really brought it this season DAMN

I liked the Tokyo flashbacks bc Miguel and Ursula are both hot RIP hot people

All of the Andrés scenes were thankfully in character and despite hating the plot, I loved seeing him be a petty, evil, chaotic bastard

Andrés insisting Tokyo be in the heist was hilarious because we ALL KNOW how THAT turned out

Manila’s backstory was touching!!! I didn’t like her trying to mess with Monver though

ALICIA’S LABOR LMAO I JUST -- It was also hilarious as hell ok.

Also Marsella is too sexy for his own good THERE I SAID IT

That bit when Tamayo mocked Angel by making weird noises. I was like “Mans has officially gone off the rails”

The hostage escape was stressful but It WAS FUN. TEAMWORK

Sergio saying Raquel is the sexiest woman in the world but he loves her for her brains. LMAO.

That scene where Sergio apologizes to the gang for being caught and his voice started cracking when he said “Lo Siento Palermo” MAYHAPS I SCREAMED.

Tokyo’s death scene. Definitely just as jarring as Nairobi’s but as awesome as Berlin’s. It was a shock but it felt well done to me.

I NEED VOLUME 2 NOWWWWWWWWWWWW

[facelessfrey]

One other thing about this show in general that is still very much a problem this season...

I really feel like character development and relationship development is just not a priority. Most shows are able to weave in character and relationship development with the plot but Roswell seems fairly incapable of that. They get tiny little bits in here and there but it sort of feels like pulling teeth. 

For example, in this episode, we got that tiny little scene between Isobel and Liz talking about Liz’s feelings for Max...which...duh, but it was this barely there scene. And we got two seconds of Rosa talking to Dallas that I suppose could be seen as character development but was all really vague so I don’t know what we were really supposed to learn there other than that she talks to a priest sometimes and hopefully that means she’s taking her recovery seriously? And the only other thing in this episode was I guess Greg gushing over Maria in his fundraiser speech but because there’s only a few cute scenes to back that up, it’s nothing more than “aww that’s nice”. 

And I don’t even feel like the plot should be taking up that much time either that these kind of scenes need to be sacrificed but I feel like so many of the plot scenes feel slow? There just always seems to be a lot of standing around talking about sciency things or what they’re going to do and I feel like a lot of that could be trimmed down in place of actual action and characters scenes. I feel like even in a thirteen episode, heavy plot season, they should still be able to fit this stuff in. 

Isobel should be able to have that female love interest we were promised. There should be tension there about what to tell someone new. We should see her trying to split time with alien hijinks and trying to have a relationship. Isobel “dating a woman” shouldn’t be reduced to one offhand line in the premiere episode about her sex life. 

We should see more of Maria and Greg together and see that relationship building between them so it’s more than just some cute scenes and having to assume they’ve spent a lot of the last year getting reacquainted. We should know how Greg fits into the group and what he knows about the plot, if he’s been trusted with any of the alien stuff. 

We should see more of Alex and Greg’s relationship. That one scene we got of them talking at the drive in was lovely but it was one scene. I feel like they put that in there and go “job done” and call it a day. I want to see them interacting. I want to know if Greg is worried about Alex constantly disappearing. I want to know more about how they’re both doing with Jesse’s death. We got Alex’s approval of Greg and Maria like it was a thing he’s been waiting for even though it was the first we’d ever heard of it. But I’d love to hear Alex talking about his relationship feelings with his brother. Maybe we could have found out more about him and Forrest dating over the year gap. Maybe we could find out how he feels about the current state of him and Michael. 

We should see Michael and Alex being actual friends or at least being awkward friends. It shouldn’t be reduced to two scenes where Alex makes veiled love confessions under the guise of protecting Michael. I want to see their relationship build before they’re just back together cause they’ve said enough epic things to each other at a certain point. 

I still want to see Maria and Liz being actual friends. I’m glad Liz is at least at her bedside but I still feel like we have more Liz and Kyle friendship scenes than we’ve ever had of Maria and Liz and that’s just not okay. I believe more this season that they actually are friends but I still want to really see it. Give me Liz and Maria talking about Maria’s feelings for Greg and maybe even addressing some of the Michael stuff from last season and how she feels about Alex and Michael possibly getting together in the future again. Let me see Liz talking to her about Max. 

I still don’t believe Alex is really friends with Liz. That scene where they talked about Kyle was so awkward because they literally never have scenes together. I need to see them have friendship scenes. I need to know what Liz thinks of Alex and Michael. I’d love to see them have a conversation about her getting in too deep with the science and him getting in too deep with looking for his answers. 

I kind of hated most of the Maria and Alex scenes last season because they all felt like weird set up for the threesome, but I’d be interested to see them interact now. I want to see them smooth things over in regards to Michael. We got decent friendship scenes with them in season one and I feel like they all just disappeared once Maria found out Michael was museum guy. Like give me him teasing her about Greg or her telling him to go for it with Michael because it’s obvious they still love each other. 

I’d also love to see more with the parents. I know they’re adults in this version so parents are less necessary but Arturo is great and he’s been so sidelined this season. I wish he was suspicious of all of this alien stuff and eventually let in on the secret. Then he could thank Max for bringing Rosa back to life (and also kind of yell at them for how it happened in the first place) but at least he’d know how and why she was back instead of believing it’s just some sort of miracle or whatever they decided he should believe through Isobel’s mind control. But I want to see Arturo be a father figure to everyone. Just give me group scenes at the diner at the beginnings or ends of episodes where he gets to feed them all and they all get to talk like the friends and found family they are. 

I’d also love to see more Walt with Michael instead of just one or two scenes a season. He’s part of the mythology of the show. He knew their mothers. He knows about all of the alien stuff for the most part. He should get to be more involved. Maybe he could talk to Michael about his Dictator Dad feelings. I’d also love to see him with Isobel or Max or Maria. Or telling Alex he approves or something. 

I feel like we’ve barely seen Ann Evans. She just sort of shows up once a season but I have no concept of her relationship with her children really. I wish I did. 

I’m sad that they just sidelined Michelle when I feel like she just never really got to be anything despite being the sheriff. She should have gotten to find out the alien secret. 

Which goes back to my whole lack of tension about the alien secret in the first place because it seems like everyone already knows or it doesn’t matter. Why is it not a dangerous secret? I feel like the whole Rosa thing in the flashback in season one was so that they weren’t found out and that’s why it was scary that Max healed Liz and exposed them. But then just...none of that matters. We don’t really get into how they feel about people knowing or any fears they might have. 

I just feel like these things should be a priority for the show, to make a better show and they’re just not. If they used their time better, I feel like you could fit a lot of this in. I just want more. I want better and I don’t think I’m ever going to get it, which is a shame. It’s better this season but there’s still so much more they could do. 

[laufire]

RNM 3x04

Although I’m enjoying the season so far, I gotta say, the episodes feel super disconnected, this one most of all. I blame the fact that Liz (THE LEAD) and Rosa still aren’t participating in the main fucking plot :)))

I’m still extremely wary of Rosa’s storyline. I think it makes sense for the character, and that *for now* they’re keeping it in line with it being more about Rosa proyecting/exorcising her issues than about Wyatt Long’s manpain, but. I’m eyeing it. And I really want her to be more involved in the main plot/do more stuff. Now that Kyle is in peril and Long is leaving town (which made me wonder whether he’ll become a suspect, actually), I hope that’s where she’s headed. I loved her art (it always has so much personality in it, I love how they do it) and her quote about people changing and becoming who they want to be.

I feel that with this storyline I’m doing a reverse of my usual “things I roll with in fiction but wouldn’t stand for irl” LOL. Because if I was in Rosa’s shoes I WOULD try to deradicalize someone like Long -and there’s no shortage of people like Long in my hometown, so I’m not just talking out of my ass here-, less for him and more as harm reduction and for my own morals. But this could derail Rosa’s storyline in really annoying ways. And I REALLY don’t trust this show’s track record with race. On top of that, a lot of the discourse around redemption arcs~ conveniently omits the fact that only white male characters are pressumed to get them after they commit horrible acts. Why can’t Flint, a MoC, be the one to get a redemption arc instead, for example? It could’ve been painfully easy to switch their storylines, and it could’ve been interesting since Rosa actually disliked him in high school. But the show suddenly decided to care for Long’s inner life. Because white characters (and people) are afforded more complexity by others, more good faith.

I’m not TOO worried about Kyle because it feels too early in the season to fully close that plot. But if they killed him I don’t know that I could continue with the show. I adore Rosa, but her storyline isn’t grabbing me; and I dig Michael’s family drama with Nora and the dictator, but they’re not as ~dear to me. Kyle this season was the one reuniting it all. And they can’t kill him before we figure out everything with the communicator and his father!! C’mon. Anyway. I did love him this episode, helping out; and his scenes with Michael (my rareship is sailing! xDD) were great, from their bitchiness with the radio to their perspectives during their argument. The moment Michael pushes him to take cover and then removes Kyle’s hand from his shoulder asldkfjaf. This fandom is weak for not writing me multiple pages of this rareship, js.

Speaking of rareships sailing LOL, I can’t believe after my joke post about Bert x Kyle I got a mini scene asdlfjasdf, where Bert talks to Kyle and pays a compliment to his mother. I’ve also said since then that I wanted more Bert in the show, but frankly, I wish it was for more alien/conspiracy/fun stuff (like his artisanal beer or his werewolf obsession! or get into the main alien plot!), and not an Issue Storyline that I don’t even trust the show to handle properly.

Maria and Isobel’s vision quest was fun, although I resent the fact that the Liz we saw for half the episode was a fake (seriously, BRING HER TO THE DAMN MAIN PLOT ALREADY). I don’t care much for the two of them bonding, tbh, but if it’s what Maria wants, so be it. And her moments with Kyle this season have made me more lenient towards Isobel, at least. I’m also curious about some of the elements in the quest: the first things Maria sees are Michael sitting in her bar and Rosa painting her table <33. Bert is around being attacked by racists. I also dig that either/both of them pictured Kyle in his doctor getup (with the radio).

Wrt the vision itself, I’m still on denial about the dead being Kyle lol. I’ve heard all the theories: fake death to hide the aliens (I hope that can get solved because if Kyle couldn’t for some reason continue his career in medice it would CRUSH him), and his mother (please don’t) seem the most likely options after this episode. Others are Sanders (for the hints in last week’s) or even Arturo (for Rosa and Liz’s reactions, although obviously the “Valenti” crest wouldn’t make sense there). I also don’t see how it makes sense to cover Kyle’s death if Logan killed him? Unless Max tries to heal him and leaves a handprint. Anyway, I hope none of the above die and it can be resolved. And BTW: the SPN war flashbacks I’ve witnessed in the tags with the “killing” method are. Something. I think RNM still kept the scene dramatic and the audience concerned, but man. The risk of that reference... I don’t know that it was worth it lol.

BRING LIZ TO THE MAIN STORYLINE FFS. I like what we see of her on LA in abstract, but in practice... she’s the lead ffs. One episode where she’s out and having a nice time dancing (those scenes were lovely, admittedly) like this one can be great, but after three episodes where she’s been so removed of it all? Nuh huh. Given recent events (Kyle’s attack, the handprint on her chest reacting, her resignation) I hope it changes soon. And I hope Heath can be taken at face value, because I don’t trust this show’s track record with MoC that could inconvenience its storylines (see Noah and Diego, or even Flint). Also, I LOLED at her dream in the beginning, with her imagining Max apologizing to her and expressing her own concerns about getting lost in their relationship lmfao (as if that would ever cross his mind xD).

His scenes with Kyle seem designed to get Michael out of his funk wrt his heritage, and I appreciate it (especially if it’s THIS, and not the useless or even counterproductive pep talks of anyone else Michael cares more about that does the trick lol). I’m still eagerly awaiting for development on this front. Related to that, I’ve seen the theories about Jones being his father, but. Eh. It’s not that I don’t see how it could be possible (he’s incredibly powerful and can make fire), but. To put it bluntly? I don’t think the actor can pull off what I want from the Dictator. I want someone charismatic, and preferably visibly older than Michael that actually looks like his father. Jones would be a terrible miscast on both accounts. If they bring someone else JUST for Michael it could also be a sign of him really taking over the storyline (which I’m still iffy about because of my other faves, but it’s an interesting way to see where the show is headed).

I feel they could have taken Jones to more interesting places but there’s still time. The good news is that he shaved his godawful beard AND saved a dog’s life lol. Also, am I the only one that thought he might’ve known Noah, when he grabbed his and Isobel’s picture? I’m curious about that.

[1moreff-creator]

#WHY IS THERE ANOTHER NONSENSICAL CHARACTER ORDER.#I ALREADY PULLED CHARACTER CREATION ORDER OUT OF THIN AIR I GOT NOTHING HERE (<- prev tags)

Alright before you freak out I don't think this order is as nonsensical as the cast list lol. I think it's just to build a narrative when you read the quotes in order, so I hope you don't mind if I ramble about it a bit because I love being a nerd about writing and DRDT!

So you start with Teruko because:

Teruko: Some years ago, she was searching for someone named ‘Teruko Tawaki.’

It's the one line that talks about Mai's past, and also you want to inflict as much psychological damage as early as possible!

This line haunts me.

But also protag privilege. Of course she's first.

After that, you have a bunch of quotes that establish who Mai is as a person, an introduction basically.

Charles: A girl who loves her family. Rose: She remembers everything that is important to others. Arturo: A girl who sees the beauty in everyone. Levi: A girl with a floral tattoo on her arm.

The exact order is probably unimportant, but it's nice the recap duos of Charles & Teruko and Levi & Arturo stick together, as well as the Memory Duo of Charles and Rose.

From there you have a few lines explaining her relationship with the rest of the cast.

Whit: A girl with many friends.

Here's the man of the hour, establishing first and foremost that Mai had friends, which works as a set up for the following lines:

Eden: She kept calling the number, even though no one picked it up. J: She kept it a secret, and told no one. Hu: A girl who wanted to keep everyone safe. Nico: Everyone confided in her.

Eden's line is still as confusing as ever-

what the fuck does that mean eden please i am begging you on my hands and knees what the fuck are you talking about

-but it can be read as "she's very patient with her friends." J and Nico bring up her tendency to keep secrets, and Hu establishes she wanted to keep everyone safe. You might notice they're starting to get a bit more ominous as they go on, starting to talk in the past tense. Building up to:

Ace: A girl who had a bright future.

Apart from the recap duo of Nico & Ace staying together, we reach the point where we start seeing something went deeply wrong. We started with one line about her past, then moved on to talking about how she was during Hope's Peak time, and now in theory we talk about what happens in the last stage of her life (not confirmed dead but come on).

Arei: She doesn’t like it when her friends fight. Min: An average girl with nothing special at all about her. Xander: She couldn’t stand to do nothing. Veronika: A girl who didn’t foresee the consequences.

I say we talk about her last moments in theory because Arei's and Min's placements have always confused me a bit. Xander is very clearly talking about whatever he and Mai were doing together, and Veronika can thus be inferred to be talking about the consequences of said thing. So are Arei's and Min's lines also related?

I've always had the mini-theory that Min pushed against the HPA Operation Xander and Mai had going on, and that's why she seems so insistent Mai didn't have anything special at all about her. She angy at her girlfriend. If that's the case, then Arei is referencing Min and Mai/Xander's disagreement on this. Also Min & Xander recap duo.

But again, that's a pretty out there theory based on very little except this, and my hope that we'll get a flashback at the end which will heavily feature Min. Please?

In any case, this all leads to the climax:

David: She forgives everyone. MonoTV: It’s all your fault.

Naturally Protag Foilman David gets to be the last of the participants, opposite of Teruko and giving out a horrendously ominous line given the placement. The idea that Mai forgives everyone also serves as nice contrast to MonoTV blaming Teruko someone for Mai's death something.

Hope that made some sense! I've wanted to ramble about that for a while now, you just gave me an excuse lol.

Okay I noticed this recently and it's been bugging me. It's nothing important, but it's slightly inconveniencing me.

So you know the list of favorite and least favorite colors the dev gave us in the latest Q&A?

(Order: Teruko - Charles - Whit - Rose - Arturo - Levi - Eden - J - Hu - Nico - Ace - Arei - Min - Xander - Veronika - David)

Well, turns out the characters are actually listed in the order their quotes appear in the source code of Mai's page (and allow me to momentarily ignore the implication that this order has not been forgotten and is therefore important to an extent):

(The order I'm referring to is Teruko - Charles - Rose - Arturo - Levi - Whit - Eden - J - Hu - Nico - Ace - Arei - Min - Xander - Veronika - David - MonoTV)

Except, for some ungodly reason, Whit. Who has moved from in between Levi and Eden, all the way to right after Charles.

Why? Why would dev do this? To annoy me, personally?

Am I supposed to assume Whit has the power to change text from beyond the fourth wall, and he uses this universe-shattering power just so his name can be closer to Charles? Cause he likes him? Is this the power of the Ultimate Matchmaker at play? Is he a Monika DDLC kinnie? What is this?

This also happens for the ice cream flavors btw, except here Ace is also somewhere else. But at least he has the excuse that he didn't say an ice cream, so it's at the bottom for comedic effect.

This implies the Mai Akasaki order can be broken for at least two reasons:

To further the Charwhit agenda.

To dunk on Ace Markey.

Why though.

[blorbosexterminator]

Tbh I don't want to see anything from them post-kiss but I WOULD love to see how Berlin and Palermo met. Like I'm genuinely interested in Martíns past and whether he was a criminal before meeting Berlin (I'm taking his line about killing Arturo and his conscious already being dirty as an admission that he's straight up murdered people before)

It's unlikely that they'll shoot flashbacks so far back in the past, but a mention of their early relationship would be nice! I like the room we have as an audience to imagine the different scenarios that might have brought them together though and I'm not sure that I'd love a DEFINITE answer, you know? But like you, I am very interested in getting more information about Martín's past generally speaking, out of the all main characters, he's the one we know so little about. I was sure that we would get something this volume because of that scene in season 3 of Tamayo holding Palermo's picture and saying that the key for them to win this is to know who this man is. But either that was just one of the many useless foreshadowing scenes that went nowhere or we'll get something in volume two.

If they do intend to kill him though, I'm sure we will get some good stuff about his past the way we did with Tokyo. And I have some hope for that because it seems Martín is involved in a lot of flashbacks next volume and because of the fact that they weren't spread out in both volumes, I like to think next volume will have a lot more focus on him the same way this volume did on Tokyo.

Let's hope it's because they intend to kill him lmfao.

(and I actually think he meant Nairobi here not his general past. But I'd be very interested to hear about his past killings if there are any lmfao. Actually I'd love that for both him and Andrés. If they straight up killed people before I want to know lmfao.)

[lovecolibri]

Things that did NOT Spark Joy-3x04

Not a whole lot of salt this week which is great and a marked improvement, but there is ALWAYS something to be salty about and I’m sure you can guess most of what it is, so join me in the mine, everything is well-seasoned down here! As always, good vibes are here. 

WHERE IS THE MALEX CONTENT?! WHERE IS IT? (for references purposes I’m still yelling like Bug!Edgar in MIB. I have yet to find a gif to suit this specific reaction need. Ironically, where is it?!)

Why is there a dog that still does not belong to Alex?! Did they learn nothing from Buffy-gate?! #Get Alex Manes A Dog 2k21 (I would not be opposed to Michael keeping Lucky and him becoming THEIR dog eventually. I AM opposed to Max getting the dog because goddamn it Alex has earned this!)

Arturo my beloved, where are you?!

I am...so confused about what the point of that “trip” dragging out all episode was? The room with the “secrets” only ended up telling us about 1) Isobel wanting to start a self-defense gym (could be dropped in anywhere like during a talk with Michael), 2) about Jones which the audience already knew and was a dumb way to do the reveal to m*ria given that we didn’t learn anything else significant during this thing so it was basically a waste of time before getting to the funeral vision, and 3) we for some reason had Louise and Roy and the baby all together which I guess was supposed to be m*ria wanting to be included with Isobel, but it wasn’t very clear and felt more like needing to justify having them around for the Jones flashbacks so they used them more. We didn’t actually confront any “big” secrets that couldn’t be addressed outside this space so, what was the point when that screen time could have gone to any myriad of other things? 

I just...could not care less about m*ria feeling “lonely” because Isobel hasn’t brought her into the fold. She's hated Isobel for a decade based on nothing but something Rosa said, and then she broke up with Michael and now she's whining about how Isobel isn't hanging out with her and making her part of the family?! Sorry, Isobel's been a little busy hanging out with her brothers this past year, one of whom clearly doesn't want to see m*ria or deal with her, and one who probably sees m*ria as a reminder of Liz. So now, we’re back to where exactly she fits into the narrative. If they are going to pair Isobel up with Kyle and still be focusing on the Pod Squad of which 1 very much doesn’t seem to want to be around her (and I don’t think Isobel would stand for hearing the way m*ria’s been speaking to Michael), and if they are putting Kyle with Isobel and he’s with Max trying to save him, and helping Liz (who is busy with Max dying and Heath and her job and how that’s going to tie into what Alex is working on), and watching out for Rosa (who has her own stuff with Wyatt going on), AND working with Michel and soon Alex on all the Deep Sky stuff, that doesn’t leave a lot of time for him to do anything other than doctor work for m*ria, Michael doesn’t want to be around her and he’s busy with Jones and Max and Kyle and soon to be Alex, Max has his own stuff with Jones and with Liz going on and soon that reporter lady and the racism storyline, and so unfortunately, we are stuck with the only characters available to prop her up being Alex and Greg. So not only are we not getting the space and emotions Alex should be allowed to have, we are having this friendship forced on us (although we didn’t have to see any of that this episode or listen to m*ria insult Michael for the umteenth time which was nice, but please stop making be dread seeing Alex please!) and now we have this “oh but I’m loooonely!” scene thrown in to make us feel bad for her. Stop trying to make her a sympathetic character while not addressing the reason her character isn’t liked! 

Speaking of, I see the funeral vision is still just characters making wild conjectures like “It’s Liz” only to be proven wrong immediately because they are just throwing out theories without taking all the information into account. Maybe Michael needed to hear Alex say he wouldn’t react that way, but also someone assuring him that Alex was way to0 calm would have been a nice way to tie Alex into the story and talk about him. Why are we still not taking Alex’s reaction into account? You think, even if him and Kyle WEREN’T friends, that he wouldn’t be upset at losing a childhood friend? 

And about the vision, I'm confused and struggling to see the point of this plotline. Alex as been pissed every time which he wouldn't be for Kyle or Michael, so I'm not sure if their actions actually ARE changing anything in the vision. And if it's going to happen regardless, then what is the point of spending all this time on it when we could be focusing on all the other things like Deep Sky and how Liz, and Kyle's radio connect to that, and on Jones and the alien lore. It might all be coming together at some point, but right now it just feels like they needed a way to find a place in the narrative for m*ria because c*rina never bother to give her one, but because Isobel basically has the same powers now they need something else for m*ria to do and again, it’s also something with Isobel’s mind abilities that could easily belong to her so again, m*ria’s character feels superfluous. 

Can Alex and Michael be allowed to share a single frame on screen this season? Just let them sit next to each other at the funeral!

I think it’s going to tie into everything with the vision somehow but this racism plot is just too much on top of everything else. Maybe we could focus more on Liz’s story and how it connects to Deep Sky and how THAT connects to Kyle and Caulfield, and how Jones fits into everything, and save the Wyatt/racist golem/force m*ria into the center because we don’t know what else to have her do, storyline for season 4. I’m just so much more interested in everything else going on. But at least it does seem tied in with everything and not totally a side plot, but I’d rather have time for the other storylines we have going.

Rosa is an addict, but season 1 m*ria and Liz were totally fine smoking pot and stuff which I always thought was a Weird Choice given Liz’s concerns about being like her mom and sister, but now suddenly m*ria is opposed to CBD and think’s it’s sketchy? Girl please. (Yes I’m fully aware this is a “look at her over there eating her crackers” level of petty but that always annoyed me about season 1 and yet now m*ria has a problem so Isobel can look like the “cool/fun” friend? 🙄)

And now for my little nit-picky gripe. Am I the only one just like...not super impressed with them giving us Michael's supposed to growth this episode? Because it's still kind of came out of nowhere. We know he talked to Alex but we didn't hear him say anything like “a good friend of mine once told me” which would have brought Alex into the conversation even when he’s not in the episode, and would show that it was something Michael’s been thinking about, not just having him spout off an entirely different philosophy than he had last episode which was only like, a day ago. And how could they NOT bring up Alex when having Kyle and Michael talking about family legacies?! Or, we could have seen Michael talking things out with Max and showing he’s struggling by trying to absorb Alex’s words and change his way of thinking, or Max could have mentioned he seemed more settled and Michael could have taken that time to talk about Alex. Again, we are missing steps in the middle. I’m happy to see Michael growing, but they are missing so many little, easy ways to tie Michael and Alex together in the narrative when they aren’t sharing scenes, and we know they can do it because they are doing it with Echo, so them NOT doing it with Malex hurts even more because it’s not that they can’t it’s that they won’t. And I’m....I’m just so tired. I still have faith and I know Tyler and Vlamis will give us The Most when they do interact, but like I mentioned in a comment today, there’s that song lyric that says “the opposite of love is indifference” and that was the problem all last season was, unless they were in their bubble, Michael was indifferent to Alex, and now Alex seems pretty indifferent to Michael except for the one sentence where he said he’d burn down the world if anything happened to Michael. Talk about going from zero to 100! Even if they don’t see any hope or think the other doesn’t care about them anymore, we should see them still caring, Like Liz being pissed and then quietly mentioning she was waiting for Max to come for her but he didn’t. We need these hints that Malex are still thinking about each other, even if right now it’s just sad, longing, and thinking the other doesn’t care. Because we the audience get to see that they both DO care and we get to sit back and call them clowns and wait for the delicious oh moment when they both come to their senses. I want to see the longing! Let them yearn for more than they think they can have! Even something like Michael looking at that picture of them in season one was more than we’re getting right now. Bring that picture back or something. Also, please let Alex have the same picture but battered from carrying it with him on his tours, and let us see it and have them talk about it! I am no longer asking.

finally, MY SWEET SON KYLE DID NOT DESERVE THIS!! I should not have to see this with my own two eyes! Someone get him a vacation package out of Roswell STAT and then maybe everyone will realize he’s doing The Most and will start helping out a little or at least not make his life even harder.

[achubbydumpling]

Alright, I just finished Destroyer (2018) and a bottle of wine and I have some thoughts about this movie and lots of thots about Chris. Why am I writing this? Why not! I love reading other people's opinions, so here are mine.

Let's get into it!

(if you just want ~800 words of chubby kink brain rot skip to the +++ under the cut)

Thoughts and semi-serious movie review

(I don't know nothing about movies, so this is very subjective, but I'd love to hear your opinions, if you disagree with anything or just have something to add)

First, I went into this film completely blind. I had no idea what this film was about, I only knew that Seb was in it.

It starts off promising. Alcoholic detective who knows more than she lets on, an unidentified body and an old antagonist from our detectives past reappears. Plot is being set up, we get to know Erin, the story advances at a good pace and then 15 minutes in everything grinds to a halt.

The movie is very good at building tension, but has trouble reaching satisfying conclusions. Almost every scene just fizzles out into an anticlimactic or abrupt end. The characters seem static, with no real development apart from a few pieces sprinkles throughout, which makes emotional scenes feel unearned.

The movie drags on through it's 2h runtime. By the end I was honestly wishing for Erin to just die already, which probably wasn’t the intention with this character-driven film. We’re told that she is consumed by anger, but to me she just seemed bored most of the time. Like she was trudging from plot point to plot point.

Most of the characters in this movie felt like less than side characters, even Chris, who’s death is the inciting incident for Erin wanting to get revenge on Silas. Arturo was the only other character that stood out to me, but he only really got to shine in the Russian Roulette scene.

The flashback scene at the end was probably the best part of the movie. Not just because we finally got to see Chris for a bit longer, but because Erin finally has someone to play off of and even though she still seems quite stiff in her acting, this is in my opinion her best performance in the movie. 2/5 stars

"omg Sebastian Stan is so hot in this movie"-review

And now let's talk about Seb's look in this movie, because damn does he look good. Stuff I liked in no particular order:

the beard in the flash backs

the shaved head in the less far back flash backs

smoking. doing drugs! cocaine!!

rings

fake dating?? yes please (giving me ideas)

Seb's fucking silent movie acting, hmm jaw clenching and intense staring (his line delivery wasn't the best in this, but it might've been the phrasing)

"Nice ass." "It's all yours."

the grey sweater

rings

Chris' body language being all loose and open, going with where Erin pulls him, draped all over her back, arm around her waist

hnng Erin pulling down the big sweater and showing of his chest-shoulder-collarbone

+++ (weight gain, belly kink and more feedist nonsense from here on out) +++

that shirt is pretty big on him though, isn't it?

and his jeans are way too loose as well, "Nice ass"?, yeah, it'll be real nice with about fifty more pounds on him, when those jeans look painted on

he could maybe hide his double chin under the beard, but his love handles would be peeking out under the hem of that grey sweater, his belly creasing his waist band where it hangs over it, his lower belly hanging out as soon as he moves his arms and he constantly has to pull his shirt down, otherwise it works its way up until the entire spare tire around his hips is on display

idk if everyone is just short, but Seb looks so tall in this movie, imagine he's so tall that he starts out at 230lbs looking jacked, all brawn, functional strength, low insertion muscles, all stretched out, y'know?

and then he packs on weight, still working, still moving, but putting half the time he used to spend exercises, into eating, he eats what you put in front of him and then some

it's not like it's a burden, eating until he's full and then pushing himself a bit further, but your encouragement and the obvious lust on your face whenever you watch him eat, is an added bonus

when Erin suggests he steal the money with her, he refuses, he's got you and you'd never ask him to risk his life on the off-chance that you might be able to pull this off, so he gets out, back to being an FBI agent, back to you, and finally back to eating what he wants

ohhh he'd thought when you first explained to him how you liked bigger guys that he'd be doing this just for you, settling down, putting on a few pounds, it was probably inevitable anyway, but once you started, once he actually gained weight, he liked it, he really liked it

Chris caught himself sneaking his hand under his sweater to play with the tiny bit of fat that was starting to hang over his waistband

he'd always been confident, but feeling heavier made him feel more powerful, instead of rushing everywhere he took his time, long, unbroken strides, nothing could shake him

he was an excellent fighter, not easily swayed, but they take him out of the field when he gains more weight, he gets out, gets a job as private security instead and keeps gaining

300lbs and he's finally getting a real belly, but you could still see some muscles moving under his ribs when you trailed your fingers over them, he's tall, so all the weight has lots of places to settle

350lbs and his legs are straining aganist his jeans, the fabric between his legs thinning from the constant friction, looking at him you'd guess he was 250lbs, maybe 280lbs

but you didn't care too much about him looking smaller than he was, because when he got on top of you and let you feel all the weight you'd put on him, how heavy he was and you were just struggling to catch your breath with 350lbs of absolute beef cake on top of you, you couldn't really form a single coherent thought

it didn't take long for him to reach 400lbs, and you were all over it, you kept him pinned to the couch by the weight of his stuffed belly every night, riding one of his thick thighs until he'd finally digested just enough, that he could think about anything besides the dull ache in his stomach, you could see his eyes lose some of that hazy fog, his body going from boneless exhaustion to pressing his thigh up into you, matching your rhythm

as much as you loved Chris weighing you down, you had learned the positive sides of being on top of him over the last 50lbs he's gained, he was an impressive man, quietly commanding every room he was in, but you could make him fall apart, come undone beneath you and make him give up all this control

he didn't just do it for you, when you saw his eyes flutter shut and his jaw work to deal with all those overwhelming sensations, you could see him get lost in it, going elsewhere and yet giving himself up even more completely to you

he'd beg for you to touch him, to fuck him, to "please make me come, baby", even though he could easily take all that he wanted from you, he only ever asked for it and how happily you gave it all to him

lotsa text, but he's just too hot in this movie, like you can just imagine undressing him and finding a nice little belly under all those baggy clothes

[roccinan]

Finally finished S5 vol. 1! Here’s a quick rundown of my thoughts if anyone’s curious:

I felt kinda betrayed by the Andres flashbacks because I kept paying attention to them expecting some kind of connection to the main plot. And there just wasn’t LOL. I can only hope that Rafael will do something extremely helpful for everyone else in vol. 2. Tatiana still doesn’t have a personality?? I was looking forward to her smh. Andres was idk, trying too hard to act like himself but the whole flashback just felt like a VR game or something where you play as Rafael and Andres is your father for some reason, and he has the same dialogue for every player. 

That said, the flashback heist itself was fun to watch. It was just bizarre seeing it in the middle of the bank heist for no reason. @ alex pina, you could have just removed all of it and cut it together into a side-story for release next month. You’re welcome for that brilliant marketing idea!

I still don’t see the relevance of berlinito? They could have completely replaced him with Sergio in the flashback or just had Tatiana be Andres’ partner. Just not a fan of this subplot. Even weirder is how it looks like Andres is actively trying to get his wife and son together- why would you do that and then act betrayed later?? 

That said, the 2-min flashback of Sergio and Andres in the last ep. was objectively superior to all of the above and the only scene where Andres actually felt like himself instead of some NPC.

ANYWAY, the bank heist!! Not a lot to say because overall I was pleased. It was fun, intense, and emotional, and everyone played really well off everyone else (for the most part lol). As an ensemble and as a whole, I loved it. I just didn’t like the individual bits and pieces, like-

Was expecting to see more negotiation on Raquel’s part. Martin didn’t really have the chance to be unhinged, like the writers were purposely pushing him to the side whenever a situation could use his craziness. I felt like Monica’s reactions were realistic (even though I was like “seriously!?” when they tried to save Arturo) but the execution was very awkward.

Please don’t cancel me, but I honestly forgot Helsinki and Palermo were together until they mentioned future dates asdfasdf. Maybe because I started shipping Bogota and Martin halfway through ep. 1- these two honestly had a lot Chemistry to me!? Is it just me :’D Like, they seemed to mesh very well to me. I’m sorry but I wish Bogota/Palermo was canon instead 

Speaking of Helsinki, I was hoping to see more of him! Was legit so scared when that happened to him. And hmm, personally I thought that Martin wasn’t angry enough at the people who threw the grenade. He worried for a couple scenes, and then went on being perfectly calm. which isn’t that big a deal, but really man? You kept trying to punish your own teammates last season but you don’t hold grudges against this? I wanted to see him go Feral and avenge Helsinki by blowing up someone else’s leg. 

I was hoping to see more Nairobi too :’) And so unfair that Oslo didn’t get a spotlight flashback asdfasf

Alicia’s water breaking arc worked better than I expected, so no complaints there! Not sure how I feel about them pairing her with Marseille(?) but it’s not something I’d complain about, I guess. The Manila-Stockholm-Denver triangle though... I did feel for it, but I was also like, “Manila read the room.” Monver are not breaking apart but I have a feeling Denver might die next volume

Lastly, Tokyo’s arc was beautiful. Everything I wanted for her and more. The surprise-twist Berlin parallel. The flashbacks to her ex-boyfriend. How she fell in love with Rio. Her love for her found family. How she went out so gracefully but so epically. Cannot think of a more Tokyo way to go :’D I don’t tear up often, but Tokyo’s death really made me feel. I’m still really shook over it. She was my favorite female character and top favs- I loved her, flaws and fucked up choices and all since the beginning, so her death really really got me. But it was so beautiful that I wouldn’t change a thing :’)

OK one last complaint: those Suicide Squad TM military special forces were so overhyped. you’d think with those introductions, they would be this elite amazing squad and they were just some guys in the end. Also miffed that they got the whole “these are UnHinGed criminals!!” intro. when that was supposed to be the angle on the banda from the outside. It just felt like they were shoehorned in there to make the banda look like sane, clean heroes by comparison. S1/2 Berlin could have taken on every member of that “elite” squad by himself and won, okay. These guys weren’t even as “dangerous” as regular ol’ Suarez and co.