#he doesn't have any comparison!!! and it is the saddest thing!!

[palismet]

hunting palismen ending storyboards you will always be dear to me. it always makes me feel something so soft and forlorn. that lil smile? the gentleness of it all, even as it fades into something more pensive?

the cradling of flapjack's staff, the ease already at his presence; tinged with fear and hesitance, but the comfort still there. to finally have something that is freely given, that doesn't have to be continually earned. to have a friend that chose you, even where you are now, even at your most contrasted against the story? to be chosen. not destined, or fated for something, but chosen, freely, wildly, as in i am here, with you, of my own volition. i am yours above all else - i choose you.

no wonder he wasn't expecting that, no wonder he immediately held it close, and then at a wide distance. what do you do in the face of a feeling you have never felt, never really truly believed you'd earned before? you hold it as close as you can. you dream of one day earning it. you push it as far as you can, because you know, you know - it is a day that will never come.

and then it does, it does, it does.

[go-go-devil]

for the character ask i send you 3: clara the changeling, somsnosa, reah of thorolund?

Excellent picks, my friend! Though I'm going to exclude the favorite picture of them segments since they all come from video games and I don't wanna overthink which screenshots of them I find the most interesting.

Clara the Changeling (specifically from Pathologic Classic since I really haven't seen much of her in Patho 2 in comparison):

favorite thing about them: I love her sense of humor, even despite the horrible situations she's forced into. I swear Classic's Changeling route has some of the funniest dialogue exchanges in the entire game largely coming from how snarky and overall DONE she is in dealing with all the nonsense of the adults around her.

least favorite thing about them: How her religious ideology often leads her to show a very black and white understanding of morality. Obviously she's not an adult and is largely being manipulated into these ideas by her adoptive parents, but that doesn't mean she's innocent of some of the legitimately rude things she can say to other people's faces (or even just racist since I'm pretty sure I remember her calling Aspity a "heathen" or something along those lines).

favorite line: Of course the "I detest trickery" line is one of the most iconic quotes in the whole game, but I also really love that one line she can say to Daniil on Day 11 when he asks how she was able to get to Peter's loft unscathed: "I can walk through bullets and flames." It's so needlessly dramatic and untrue but also EXACTLY the kind of thing Clara would say to hype herself up XD

brOTP: I will constantly remind people that Classic tells us that she has a friendship with Sticky and Murky. The fact that the devs either ran out of time or simply forgot to show us this friendship in Changeling Route is one of the saddest missed opportunities of the whole game T_T

OTP: I don't really "ship" Clara with anyone, but I do think Clara/Grace is cute. Creepy neurodivergent girl relationships are always a win in my book, and honestly I could see these two getting together when they grow up.

nOTP: I'm not gonna get into this in detail here, but for the love of god people STOP FUCKING SHIPPING HER WITH BLOCK, OR ANY OF THE OTHER THE ADULTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

random headcanon: I truly do adore the idea of her having pet rats 🐀🐀🐀

unpopular opinion: I don't believe her going away with Commander Block is in any way the "good ending" for her. He certainly cares about her, more than the vast majority of the other characters even, but also literally says to her face that he wants bring her into a WAR solely because he too is so consumed by religious prophesies that he believes this malnourished teenage girl will be able to lead his troops to victory with her miraculous powers! What I'm saying is that he's got the spirit, but is also basically just as insane as the Saburovs when it comes to how he chooses to see her.

song i associate with them: As far as I'm concerned "Crucify" by Tori Amos and "Precious" by Depeche Mode are basically Clara's two theme songs. They just fit her storyline SO PERFECTLY T_T

Somsnosa:

favorite thing about them: I can't go into too much detail about this since you haven't listened to Absent Moon yet, but I love how much actual character development (and even character regression) she goes through in this series. Considering how extremely space characterization is in this series, that's very impressive!

least favorite thing about them: Nothing. She's literally perfect 💙

favorite line: Oh man I dunno... "Oh hey Wayne. I left my magic gauntlets in the basement... and now its infested with ambulant skulls." is a very iconic line from the Hylics 1. Wonderfully absurd premise for a "mission," and it's unique in how it implies her and Wayne already know each other!

brOTP: Wayne, Pongorma, and Dedusmuln

OTP: Wayne, Pongorma, and Dedusmuln. They're all in a queerplatonic polycule together 💛💙❤️💚

nOTP: Gibby and/or Odozier, I guess.

random headcanon: Her cat in H1 is named Bug. Unlike Wayne's cat it doesn't own the house she resides in, but does help her hunt insects on occasion and has agreed to guard her fridge as long as it gets free access to any fish held inside.

unpopular opinion: I don't think I even have one lol

song i associate with them: Since I'm nearly done making a character mixtape for her, I'll go ahead and say "The World Backwards" by Broadcast. Both the melody and the lyrics give me major Somsnosa vibes, largely because I imagine her being the one singing it.

Reah/Rhea of Thorolund:

favorite thing about them: Her determination for sure. When you find her in the pit Patches kicks you down into she's the only one of her party who's kept her sanity, and I always read her request for you to put down Hollowed Vince and Nico as less of her lacking the skills to do so on her part and more so that she can't bring herself to kill her two friends herself. Also that one line she says to you in the parish about how she's lost everyone she's ever cared about really hit me emotionally when I least expected it T_T

least favorite thing about them: How we never actually get to SEE her preform any of the powerful miracles she teaches us, even when we aggro her. My assumption is that she wants to be a pacifist whenever she can, which makes sense for her character and explains why she brought knights along with her to do all the dirty work for her, but still I hate being denied women showing off their powers, and she clearly has them!

favorite line: I always loved her end of conversation line in the parish: "Vereor nox." Which translates (roughly) to "Fear the night." It's a cool line by itself, but also does so much to tell us how Reah's viewpoint on the state of this dying world and how she's aligned with linking the fire without her having to outright tell us.

brOTP: Vince and Nico for sure!

OTP: Like with Soms & the Crew, I too enjoy the idea of her having wanted to be in a polycule with her two friends, only it was never meant to be due to the mission they would never return from.

nOTP: I hope I never stumble upon anyone who ships her with Petrus...

random headcanon: The reason Vince and Nico were chosen to be Reah's knights was because she specifically requested it to her father, the ruler of Thorolund. Petrus, however, she has no close relationship with. She let him join the mission out of pity, since after he naturally died and became undead this mission would be his only way out of being carted off to an asylum.

unpopular opinion: Reah is NOT innocent. She may prefer to be a lonesome pacifist, but there's no way in hell she's a fully helpless little maiden. Only the highest ranking clerics are given the mission to seek the Rite of Kindling, and she is objectively the most powerful in her squad thanks to the ivory talisman she carries and which Petrus wants to desperately to steal for himself. She also has a frankly absurd amount of humanity held within her if you steal it via the dark hand: 12 to be exact. That's more than Sieglinde, the only character canonically not an undead, and much more than Lautrec, Patches, and Maneater Mildred, the three of which all having so much because they're MURDERERS! Reah fucking stole humanity from many undead to reach that number, either by her own hands or using her knights to harvest them for her. She hates herself for what she's done for the sake of the mission, but she still let it happen...

song i associate with them: I... honestly haven't thought of that yet. Let's pray that maybe one day it'll come to me 🙏

[keyh0use]

favourite barry headcanons?? like where’s his family from just like his life u know i have so many thoughts about this man

(as an afterthought, gonna preface this by saying everything is pre-Rafe, because I think their relationship would remedy a lot, especially in scenario 2)

I have two I sort of pinball between (one is waaaay happier lol) and I'm not sure which I prefer more so have both:

like a lot of the kids in the cut, Barry didn't have a great upbringing. His mother left and has never (to his knowledge) tried to reach out, leaving him to be raised by an abusive but usually absent father Barry left home earlier than the law would allow, crashed on friends couches or in storage facilities or really just anywhere he could sneak around without getting the cops called on him and dragged home. Of course his father never reported him missing, probably didn't notice. Barry spent his time by working odd jobs under the table, getting by easily in school despite rarely attending, searching for a safe place to hunker down for the night until he was old enough to enlist in the army. Those years were probably the least loneliest he'd ever had but also the saddest, watching all his buddies go home for the holidays while Barry had no one, no home, nothing waiting for him. But he did make some life-long friends who still keep in touch after he's left Barry used his savings to buy the cheapest property he could find in the OBX, which so happened to conveniently have the camper & trailer already there. of course that wasn't his plan, he wanted to build some little house eventually, just big enough but the trailer will do for now the former island dealer was relocating, an old high school friend of Barry's who offered to let him take over his clients while the man looked for a job Barry's good with his hands, so besides drug dealing he also does some freelance work, working on bikes and vehicles and building sheds and doing yard maintenance, just trying to get by and save what he can

If he doesn't stay busy the weight of being alone crushes him and he has to resort to drinking or snorting or smoking something to forget for a little while

Barry's dad still lives on the island in the same house, doing the same things. They pass eachother often and have sat a couple bar stools down from one another but they haven't talked since Barry ran away all those years ago, and either his father is still pissed or just doesn't remember he even has a son.

Barry is pretty convinced he'll die young, probably in conflict over drugs or money, he gets in enough fights to back up that theory

And he'll have nothing to show for it. No family portrait on the wall with the love of his life on his arm, no soft memories of vacations or holidays, no mark left on anyone. All he did was work and try to survive for a life he really wasn't happy living

He's insecure about his body, wearing clothes that are too big on him, torso scarred up from his father's mistreatment and the hard life that followed

He doesn't feel like he deserves good things because he has very little to give

OR

Barry grew up in a very loving family, with doting parents who encouraged him to be strong-willed and kind to everybody, but not take any shit.

His mom taught him how to cook and bake, it was something they did together almost every night. She would let Barry pick something from their family recipe book, passed down through generations

Even though he was always ahead academically, Barry got in trouble at school all the time for starting fights (he was defending other kids who couldn't do it themselves)

He realised his family struggled a lot and not just in comparison to kooks, so he started mowing lawns and washing cars and chopping wood to scrounge up whatever he could go help

That mentality never left him and he was always working, usually more than one job and fixing up their modest house in his spare time

He wanted his parents to be proud of him (they would be no matter what), to do something with his life and he knew they wouldn't be able to afford college & fighting with the kooks for scholarships was out of the question, so he joined the army.

When life wasn't affordable in the Outer Banks Barry's parents moved, but when he thought of home all he could picture was the rundown bookstore on the corner by their old house and the beautiful beach covered in solo cups after a summer party, so when Barry left the army that's where he went

The trailer was listed for sale on the paper menu of a local diner, Barry's first stop once he made it down to the cut and was able to talk the owner down a little, using up almost all of his savings

The majority of Barry's family live south of the border and he hasn't been able to visit since he was really little. When he makes the drive to visit his parents, the three plan a trip they know they'll never be able to afford but it puts a smile on each of their faces

Barrys family sends him handmade gifts every year for every holiday; sweaters knitted and paintings from his little cousins and packages of spices

Everytime he's on a call it turns into a big thing, one minute he's trying to tell his auntie happy birthday and the next every cousin and family friend is fighting to be in frame, asking him about work and his house and when he's going to settle down and get married

Driving by his childhood home makes him unbelievably sad, wanting nothing more than to work his ass off until he can make an offer on it and fix it up

Barrys lucky to work at the garage where he's appreciated, lucky to have supportive parents and a big family to reach out to when he's lonely, and a small group of good friends

But he often feels lonely once he's home and struggles to figure out where his life is going

[marshmallowprotection]

I'm starting to think they're gonna stick with the high school (or at least teen years) for the bdays this year 👀

That has to be the working theory for right now. If they've chosen violence against our hearts, I'm only wondering how they're going to make it work for the characters that have it rough. The twins? There are many ways they can handle that. A split screen of the twins on their birthday like the 2019 photo but they're celebrating in V's house for Saeran and the college Saeyoung went to in California. That way it doesn't break immersion if they want to make them teenagers without involving both the Mint Eye and Agency's nonsense.

A secondary theory is that it's the boys sharing their promise on the twin popsicles right before Saeyoung left. That's a nice way to do it but that makes them assuredly younger than they used in comparison to Yoosung and Zen. Zen is 14 in that photo and Yoosung is in high school so anywhere from 14-18. Saeyoung left roughly around the time he turned 14. I just don't want to see the boys in their mother's home on their birthday if we can do anything about that. My third theory is that they're gonna use that photo from the Special Believer box with the twins, V, and Rika.

That leaves us to discern the others. V could be a teenager with his mother before the accident. That might be the saddest thing I can imagine but what if she made him a cake before she died? There is no confirmed date on the exact death. Other than that, they'll put him with Jumin and they'll be doing that. Jumin is the same. They can easily put him with his best friend and that's the best bet. I don't want to see him sad at a party his dad brought him to that he didn't want.

Rika has to be with Sally. I refuse any other option for Rika's birthday.

Jaehee is also tough because her teenage years had birthdays that weren't a celebration. I don't think she celebrates her birthday that often because her aunt and uncle probably made it a big deal and she didn't want to be a bother. But, can we just have her with a nice hot cocoa on her birthday? Just let her enjoy the moment for once?

[satans-wafer]

What is your favorite deadly sin? Which sins do you think each of the Papas represent?

ooooh, my favorite deadly sin is pride by a MILE. half of my motivation to do anything is "i can do this thing better than THAT, and ill do it PERFECTLY first try." I do not ever do it perfectly first try. I still believe that i can if I just try hard enough. (makes it impossible to learn new skills, though)

ghestie i am so Fascinated by this question, I was thinking about this my entire shift today, and heres my opinion:

Primo- He's so hard to pin down for one!!! I'd have to argue Sloth, even though we don't see much of his character at ALL. It fits the best, I'd say, just because Ghost didn't take off with him and he doesn't seem to engage with the public much beyond the stage in order to complete the goals of the Clergy. (I know, out of canon reasoning is that Ghost just begun, but in-canon, he has never done much to tempt others that weren't already at the concert. I'd totally accept any argument that said differently, btw.)

Secondo- I'd argue Gluttony, though I think he's honestly too sad to be reveling in his sin, if I'm honest. He's definitely the saddest of the Papas, and he comes across (to me) as if he enjoys the finer things in life in order to make up for that sadness. He hates his job? Be more commanding on stage in order to tempt more souls! He feels lonely? Find someone to make out with in a hotel hallway! Hes just plain sad? Fine food and wine! I feel like he fits Gluttony rather than Greed better just because he comes across like he doesn't want those things to show off or to feel like hes superior to others because of it all, but more in order to make-up for living a life he hates.

Terzo- Pride, definitely. He does seem like he would be lust because no Papa before him ever acted Like That (absolutely scandalous!), but I'd argue that pride fits him best because he was the Papa that was hinted at questioning the doctrine of the Clergy by questioning if there was a God or Satan in all of Meliora. He rarely wore his vestments (a break in comparison to previous Papas) because he had his stage costume he preferred over the tried-and-true traditional things, because he believed he would get more appeal from the audience in something different. How much confidence in himself can he have (to the point of getting surprised on stage by security taking him away) to believe that just because hes beloved by the crowds that the Clergy wouldn't get rid of him? Pride, all the way down. (also the fun association of lucifer falling because of their pride in believing they were above humans and god struck them down for that pride)

Copia- Envy, 100%. He's not from the bloodline and he has the AUDACITY to try and take power and become Papa?(joking) He seems like TF intended him to be an unlikeable loser who isn't able to get what he wants, ever (no Nihil to shit on him, a date with that nurse, a nice room, the respect previous Papas had, people thinking he's suave and cool) and has been quietly (and quite awkwardly) trying to take what he wants, though the idiot (affectionate) is too awkward and polite in order to ACTUALLY take anything (other than murdering the previous Papas, maybe??). Maybe my opinion will change once his character arc is over and the new Papa takes over!

This was really fun to consider, especially since I haven't done much of a deep-dive into the characters beyond how fanon views them, thanks for asking :-D

[woodswolf]

like on the one hand i just shouldve expected that very few people were going to engage with the Riddle and the various hints at What The Fuck Is Going Through Everybody Else's Heads because that's just not typically how the average person much less the average fandom person is conditioned to read a story, much less read fanfiction, which most people assume is inherently a lesser art form. unless you're already familiar with the conventions of the genre and can identify them in a minimal-information environment you're not going to KNOW that you need to be paying close attention to throwaway lines and trying to make connections between them. you're not going to KNOW that you're supposed to be looking for contradictions and that you're supposed to figure out how to justify them by any means necessary. i almost certainly read Forest wrong the first time i read it in high school, too focused on the metafiction aspect to see that it was OBVIOUSLY denpa.

this is almost certainly why almost every denpa ive ever read has explicitly been a mystery for at least its first 15 hours even if it turns into something else later on (SubaHibi, Umineko) to get the reader into the proper mindstate to properly engage with the real game of picking apart the problem you've been presented with. if you're just reading the words in front of you without poking your fingers between the lines looking for implications you're not going to get the most you can out of this kind of thing.

huge DLD spoilers below for a lower-consequences example, but if you've read chapter 5 you're fine

like, in DLD, you can determine EXACTLY what's going through olimar's head during the Pikmin sections just from the first real interaction they have after they bring him back. olimar is obviously terrified of being brought back from the dead under circumstances he doesn't understand for reasons he is never told, but the Pikmin don't get any of this, so they crush his will under their own and expect that to make him normal again. what the hell else is he supposed to learn from this scenario other than that he is utterly at their mercy, cannot trust them any more than he absolutely has to, and needs to keep them in the dark about everything and well beyond emotional arm's length? and you can see ALL OF THAT in how he reacts to every little scenario going forward, his ENTIRE MINDSTATE being absolutely focused on avoiding making them upset so they won't do the mind rape thing again.

the pikmin may have olimar, but up until the reconcilition after his terrified confession, olimar is entirely alone and completely trapped in an even more nightmarish scenario than the survival-horrorshow that literally killed him. he would ABSOLUTELY UNAMBIGUOUSLY rather die than try going after the radio, but he's too afraid of what the pikmin might do to him to kill himself. they've already proven to him that while they have him they won't LET him die, and using the radio to try to contact ANYONE AT ALL is a method of escape that the pikmin can't understand and therefore would not know to punish him for.

all of this! is completely wrong! utterly counterfactual! but it's what olimar sees as real, because this is what his experiences have prompted him to believe. it's not until he admits that he's terrified of them and they have NO IDEA what he's talking about that this breaks, and even then it's a really long and gradual process of him relearning to trust them and them FINALLY FINALLY giving him the reassurance and comfort that he needs in a form that he can understand and believe. it's why the scene where he finally finally finally allows them to sleep with him is THE saddest scene in the fic, to the point that even the scene where our other olimar does Suicide By Cave utterly pales in comparison, because it's the moment where leafling olimar realizes that the pikmin are all he has left and that he's finally allowed to mourn everything that was taken from him in the crash.

and at this point im almost convinced that a ton of people just. never saw this. never saw ANY of this. because the point of the Pikmin sections, and the point of Olimar's sections for that matter, was that both of them are people with thoughts and feelings and reactions to things that are happening, and that those feelings are just as if not more important than the things that we're being shown, but that one of them is being denied the right of perspective because they're being treated as the dog. because they didn't come out on top of their little power struggle that did nothing except make both of them miserable. the point was that they wasted so much time trying to put each other down that, by the time they both reached the realization that the other party is also a person, that realization alone was no longer enough to save them. the only difference between them is that in one timeline they have a chance to build something new together, and in the other they let the dream den eat them alive.

just realized that the reason im so desperate for somebody to solve the riddle is bc i wrote a denpa. im so mad im so fucking mad you have no fucking idea how mad i am im so mad

[lamelinam]

The maid and the Cat, Ren and Akira: some musings

What gloomy love brightened the half-lives of the Sohmas’ most Cursed ones?

I often wonder what the relationship between the former Cat and his attendant would have looked like, twisted and sad as it must have been. Precious little is shown about those two, and only through Kazuma’s pov. We know she took care of and pitied the Cat, to the point that she even slept with him and bore his child. This is not unlike Kureno’s relationship with Akito. She might have treated him with the same kindness and devotion, distant, perhaps harmful, yet selfless.

Selfless? I think another way to extrapolate on the story of Kazuma’s grandparents is with Ren and Akira’s relationship.

Many great meta writers have already pointed out that those who fill in the positions at the extremes of the Sohma hierarchy, the Cat and God, or in this case the Cat and the idolized, deified family head, are foils to each other and are the ones that are dehumanized and isolated the most.

But now I think that you can also compare the way the previous Cat and Akira both chose ("chose" being a relative term in the case of the Cat) a romantic partner.

(Akira wasn’t God, but as the family head, he was worshipped just like Akito. His sickness also contributed to making him stand apart. Not only was he kept inside the compound because of his frailty, the hold that death had on him blessed him with this ephemeral, divine aura. “Was it the sorrow that befell him at such a young age that gave him that otherworldly beauty?»)

Both Kazuma’s grandfather and Akito’s father were doomed, Akira to die an early death, Kazuma’s grandfather to live the life of a living dead. Both were buried alive in the Sohma estate, either at the outskirts or at the center of it.

Both reached out to their progeny. (But Kazuma rejected the offered cake, and will endeavour to atone and honour his grandfather’s memory. Akito clung to every memento she had of her father and will need to learn to let go of him.)

And both the previous Cat and Akira found some measure of comfort in the affections and arms of their female caretakers, Sohma servants who saw their loneliness and expressed their compassion, though not in a particularly healthy way: Kazuma’s grandmother acting out of pity, Ren out of obsessive love.

It’s interesting to me how their respective position was reflected in their partners’ feelings : the imprisoned, despised Cat, Kazuma’s grandmother looked down on. The respected, otherworldly beautiful Akira was adored by Ren.

Kazuma sums up his grandparents’ relationship thusly:

Those correspond to the main "duties" that a wife is traditionally supposed to provide her husband.

The day-to-day caring.

Childbearing.

Attending their husband’s deathbed.

Obviously Ren wished she could have skipped the second one and be there for the last one. (I headcanon that she had prepared her last words years in advance, finding small pleasures and comfort, on the back of the wave of despair anticipating Akira’s death, in rehearsing the declarations of passionate love she would address to the dying man.)

The Cat’s companion attended her partner’s deathbed, seemingly very composed, even cold, as seen in Kazuma’s memories, while Ren, deprived of her husband’s last moments, that she felt were “stolen” from her by Akito (in reality by the maids :@), was mad with grief.

"The only one who can save him"

Those parallels make me wonder whether or not the Cat’s companion might not have developed a saviour complex, like Ren, both believing that they were the only one able to save this lonely, condemned person they were taking care of, and relishing it.

“I love you” vs "I pity you"

On Ren’s side though, it seems that she believes she truly saw Akira, as the person hiding behind that otherworldly aura, filled with sadness and fearful of death. Seeing that Akira agrees with her ("Ren noticed I was lonely"), fought against the Sohma leaders and regretted on his deathbed that he and Ren couldn’t reconcile, I believe this is not a delusion of hers. Her love was genuine and passionate, and she and Akira were happy. Unfortunately, that happiness didn’t survive her pregnancy, for she was also jealous and obsessed.

Kazuma supposes that his grandmother believed that she was doing something good. I wonder at her expression. It is shadowed, enigmatic. Is it a smirk or not, is she sad or not? i wonder whether she was selfless in her pity, like Kureno, or selfish like Kagura, perhaps feeling better by «sacrificing» herself in associating with the Cat for the sake of a miserable soul.

(Whatever you can say or imagine about her, Kazuma doesn’t seem to suffer from the stigma of being the Cat’s grandson, nor does he bear any trace of an abusive upbringing - in fact, he was among those doing the abusing - or even the echoes of the previous generation’s, so my guess is that she was an okay mother and grandmother... which would have made Kazuma’s disappointment and hurt at her words all the sharper... Like Tohru thinking of the zodiacs members she finds so kind and adorable secretly looking down on someone else she realizes she cares about more than she thought.)

There is no way to know how the Cat reacted to a pity-love. But considering Kureno and Akito’s relationship, this might also have been but a superficial balm, and potentially just as hurtful. Then it depends on the interpretation. Kureno’s pity cocooned Akito and kept her from moving forward, but the Cat was condemned anyway to an eternity of imprisonment. Moving forward was forbidden to him. And if his self-worth was already completely destroyed as his role and his treatment are meant to do, he might have just felt grateful towards the attendant. There’s no way to say for sure whether he would have been hurt or not by the truth, and I don’t know which option is the saddest!

... but I know what could be sadder. Because is the maid entirely to blame? We know that in Fruits Basket, love requires a measure of selfishness. The one cursed with the Cat has no self, no existence, no wants and no future, and they accept this fate. They believe they deserve it. (Which is why the Cat's Room doesn't need bars in the manga, nor locks. Rin was under lock and keys because either Akito didn't completely trust her to keep her word or she didn't want someone to discover her.)

It would be very difficult for someone to fall in love with a person who has renounced to everything, perhaps including love. Because who's to say that the Cat loved the maid too?

Recognition vs indifference

How depressingly fitting that we don't even learn the Cat's name, while Akira’s is remembered by all and echoes back and forth in the later part of the story.

Ren marrying the Sohma family head was such a big political deal it provoked a family schism. The Cat’s story with the maid gets completely ignored. It is probably known, just not "officially recognized", says Kazuma. Like everything related to the Cat, it was relegated to the back of the minds, in the dusty closet of the things that are uncomfortable to think about but that you tolerate if it doesn’t upend your little world-view. Ugh, some maid is being inappropriate with that monster! Well, as long as she doesn’t free the loathsome creature, who cares. (And she wouldn’t, because she’s no Tohru.)

In contrast, the maids of the main family thought that Ren was stealing Akira from their grasp. Ren didn’t seem to care for the family, and in a way, her love allowed Akira to also escape from them, "snatched away" by "that woman”, for the old attendant. Unlike the Cat’s attendant, Ren felt like a threat to the Sohma strict hierarchical system. (Fortunately, God will be born to bring back the right order of things, phew! Certainly she he will accomplish what Akira-san was momentarily too misguided to do and rid us of that woman!)

Inheritance.

Both women's profession of their true feelings deeply marked their progeny and the way they view relationship, whether personal or not, romantic or filial.

While her mother affirmed that "a woman only needs one man", Akito leaned on the love of the zodiacs ; Kazuma viewed and loved Kyo as a human and dreaded that his son would find himself in the same situation as his grandfather but also with the same kind of companionship. (His reaction to Kagura speaks of a long-held anxiety). But Ren's hatred for Akito coloured the way Akito interpreted her words, while Kazuma’s grandmother’s declaration shook Kazuma, his personal relationship with his grandmother notwithstanding.

This comparison isn't about good or evil, neither to judge those characters. Furuba isn’t about that. Obviously, they are not blameless. But it is very difficult to say whether or not Kazuma’s grandmother was wrong to act out of pity if it provided a bit of comfort to a prisoner. And is it surprising that Ren developed this saviour’s complex when it seems she was the only one willing to breach Akira’s isolation bubble?

Anyway, Takaya-sensei is really good at making foils. Either because she does it on purpose or because her characters are so deeply intertwined with the themes of the series the parallels appear on their own. But in this case, I don’t think it’s for nothing that the chapters recounting Ren and the Cat’s attendant stories follow each other (chapters 114 and 115).

Of course, this meta is less an analysis and more suppositions and conjectures (frankly, I wonder if I might not as well have written a fanfic). From the little we see, the Cat’s companion and Ren work as distorted yin-yang mirrors, their differences highlighting the similarities of their situations, from the ugly effects of the inner workings of the Sohma cult to the messed up inner workings of the heart. Genuine but obsessed, jealous love... Pity, perhaps self-serving, in the guise of martyred love.... One thing I can say for sure is that these two both gave me chills in their own way.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

What exactly did "father" say about Louis in the dev commentaries? I'm surprised to hear he treated him like a joke 'cause I got the impression he had a good understanding of his character (based on some Asks I've seen him reply to). I really hope he doesn't actually think Louis' character can be reduced to a simple jokester, especially when the game does such an incredible job breaking that trope and showing that there's so much more to him.

Well, to be honest, he barely said anything, but what he did say was kind of annoying. 

He did say that Louis is adorable and you can tell he likes Louis... but also you can tell he can’t be bothered to give any further details about him or his relationship with Clementine unless he’s actually on screen. And even then sometimes he doesn’t say anything. 

But the big ones in the commentary are when he talks about Louis and Violet and how the flirting games begin or whatever, and while he says that both routes are vaild and bring Clementine happiness, he also said “you can choose to have fun times OR you can choose to have the badass warrior lesbian.” On top of the way he phrased that which is just.... bruh, but it’s always the way he says it is just annoying. 

Also Melissa goes “I know Violet’s the more popular options but I can see why Clem would need a laugh” in reference to Louis and I just...bruh.

Then when they talk about mute Louis, father goes “Hey that’s the funniest and saddest thing about making a joke to Louis after he loses his tongue! He can’t make one back! No tongue!” and it’s very much laughed about. And then they’re all “hey it’s actually sad that he has no tongue.” like... bruh. 

Oh, and don’t even get me started on the bullshit he pulled out of his ass that is “Violet didn’t have time to think about how bad it is that Louis has no tongue.” That is one part that genuinely pissed me off even though I knew it was coming. 

And hey, y’know something hilarious. They literally say nothing about mute Louis in the ending. Nope. They say nothing about the note or how he’s doing or ANYTHING. 

But you know what they do talk about while that scene is playing...?

Burping. 

Oh yeah, the scene where Louis gives AJ the thumbs up and Clementine the note they’re all just talking about how they got everyone in the cast to burp. 

I just... bruh. 

BRUH.

So yeah, they actually barely talked about Louis in comparison to everything else. And what they did say wasn’t the best. Like... I know father’s played Louis’ route. I know he has because he’s played it a million times and yet I guess the “Everyone hears the jokes and piano, after that they stop listening. You didn’t.” didn’t stick because boy do they not talk beyond the jokes and the piano.