#hmmm I guess I really am ace 😭

[kavehater]

WAAAAT THE HECK

[hikennosabo]

#tristampparty day 9, episode 9: millions knives

i've been forgetting to tag @tristampparty in my recent posts whoopsies

so. episode 9. going to just... climb into the microwave ahead of time. get nice and cozy in there. let's. go.

okay let's hit the start button on that microwave now mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm beep beep beep beep

uagh his fucking expressions in this scene... and him playing "his" side of the piano, then reaching to "vash's" side of the piano to play the dramatic part. it's a cry of loneliness!!! from his heart!!!! AUAHAHGHGH

i remember seeing a post a while ago pointing out that knives cutting off vash's arm means they can never play the piano together anymore and that fucking HURTS, man.

i think we need to take the time to pay extra attention to knives's expressions... the character acting in tristamp is really good all-around

overworking them "cuts them off"... i guess it makes them unable to maintain the connection...?

knives touching the glass... reminds me of just before he absorbs the first plant in the manga.

the contrast of the city lighting up beautifully with the horror of the last run... man.

wait... city...?? this... this isn't july, right? the platform/corridor they're standing on looks the same as the one meryl and roberto end up on in the second half of the episode, but the plant containers on the wall are different so i don't think this is the same place... but we started the episode in knives's piano room, which IS in (not-yet-)july, so this must be close by because the alarm went off, which i'm assuming is connected to the plants somehow...??

also wait, we don't see this level of development from the outside. like in the faraway shot when vash spots this place. am i misunderstanding. it's only been 5 years since the crash, so idk if this much development would be possible in that time BUT the guys who show up said they overloaded the plants to speed up "reconstruction," so... uhhhhh... am i missing something?! am i dumb?! 😭

me every time knives makes an expression that hurts me deep in my heart: look!!!! look!!!!

screencaps absolutely do not do it justice, the way his expression changes... horror, shock, grief...

the timing of vash arriving... the cruelty of the humans, the way they talk about the plants... knives's sadness, his grief and rage--wait one of the randos gets his arm cut off

lost arm count: 6

as always i feel like there's a lot more to say but the only thing i'm feeling is my heart hurting so bad :(

vash might be speaking for himself here, too.

hmmm, he says this, but knives dismisses it as if he doesn't believe it. i wonder... i don't think rem would lie about this... but i wonder if conrad would. lie to knives, i mean. like is knives dismissing this just because he's clinging to his own beliefs or did conrad - who i'd think would be more knowledgeable about plants than rem given his position - tell knives something else?

AGAIN, "SINNERS" WITH THE CAPITAL S!!!

i forget, do we see how vash got his gun in the manga? knives gave him his gun in 98, too. interesting that knives is the one who gives vash his weapon in at least 2 out of 3 canons...

hmmm. in the manga, this scene was when knives learned about the black hair thing and drastically changed his plan, deciding he needed to absorb plants. here, though, it seems knives was already planning the higher dimension connection stuff, although he hadn't put it into motion yet. because the plants here are just... being used normally (""normally""), not stored for future higher dimension connection purposes or absorption purposes. knives does still "change his plan," though, i think, when he realizes vash won't cooperate with him. i wonder if/when we'll get the black hair reveal in tristamp. i wanna see knives with his black streak.

conrad and luida know each other... luida DID mention conrad by name last ep, but considering his position it wouldn't be that weird for her to know of his existence without actually knowing him, but no, they actually know each other...

ugh, when knives tells vash to kill luida, he's asking vash to choose between humans and plants, and it just hurts because. knives and luida are both his family. he loves them both.

wait knives with the lace up knee high boots... the drip...

this is the face he makes right before he gives way to anger. man.

he sees rem in luida and lashes out... vash saw rem in her too... ugh. my heart.

going frame by frame again and knives has a bandage on his arm... why? it doesn't seem to be part of his outfit, he doesn't have one on the other arm. there's on on his right leg too, under the boot?? why...

also i like how knives rides the pull of gravity to get close enough to cut vash's arm off. that's a fun detail

lost arm count: 7

the difference in context of knives cutting off vash's arm in tristamp vs trimax... it's a canyon... a canyon of difference...

once again screencaps don't do the character acting justice, the microexpressions he makes... the disbelief, the shaky laugh... he's about to cry. vash couldn't point the gun at luida. but he points it at knives. and then he stands up and turns away, and the way his voice shakes?? dude. he's crying.

but also why does he say it'll take a century to build a world of plants? where is he getting that number from? later in the episode, zazie says that a century is nothing to plants, but knives is like. six. a century would probably still feel like it'd be a long time to him. is that his own personal estimate of how long it'll take to execute his plan? is it conrad's?

wolfwood doesn't react at all when brad says this. funny, but also why.

i hope they can. i hope they can make up. (<- crying screaming and throwing up)

reminds me of vash saying he'll save knives in 98. im gonna throw up

IM GONNA THROW UP!!!!!

it's so weird that ZAZIE is the one explaining earth. like they know a LOT about it, huh? what it looks like, what the life on it looks like (looked? should i be using past tense?)... who told them all this? knives? conrad? this isn't common knowledge either, even honors student meryl doesn't know anything about earth. but why? a lot of knowledge was lost when the ships crashed, and time has passed, but... why would the state of earth and the reasons for the colony ships not even be taught in school? the survivors from when the ships crashed were FROM earth. (well, i guess some of them might have been born in space, but...?) did they not teach their descendants about what happened? were they ashamed? or is this another thing that conrad/EoM/whoever is suppressing information about - and if THAT'S the case, why?

uuaaaghhh i'm writing this post late again and it's 3am and i can't think. sorry this was mostly incomprehensible screaming

[faerociousbeast]

hello! which one was your favourite palace in persona 5?

THANK you guys for actually sending stuffhdnfnsjf it means a lot :) under the cut! spoiler warning as well.

hmmm...... sae's. definitely sae's. i got spoiled for the fact she had a palace, and even if i hadnt makoto's behaviour throughout some particular scenes hinted pretty obviously at it, so i already had a guess formed that the moment in which past and future meet- would be related to sae's palace.

since we didnt have enough info at the beginning for me to realize the situation, plus i wasnt exactly... paying the most attention for possible theorizing in the first casino cutscenes, it had honestly always baffled me a bit when palaces got explained later. why the people looked normal, how the police seemingly entered the metaverse, and if it was the real world why we were wearing our phantom thief outfits, etc etc. so getting all those questions answered while also gaining a lot of new ones during it was!! woah!! it was just a lot different than other palace situations, because youre already tensed for different reasons.

even plot aside it was just. FUN!! the atmosphere was sleazy but also formal and everyone was so focused on winning and there was always the looming threat of. when will it happen? when will we get caught? akechi as black mask reveal was always somewhat obvious but the content of him in the palace while also knowing his secret personally as the player (at this point in the game, i didnt know about the plan or that i knew IN game as well), was bringing tensions very high. hanging out with him in and out of the palace and knowing so many things but still not enough... having to question every act he took.... yeah :)

ALSO also. i like sae a lot!! she may even be my all time favourite p5 character. fully admitting it was just because we found out shes a prosecutor in her first introduction and i am an ace attorney fan first and foremost but now its because shes just.. cool. even in her palace her original intentions were obvious, wed seen her actions and desperation during the interrogation scenes, she really WAS corrupt and it was sad to realize how.

but also, if we're including royal in this, i liked both futaba's and maruki's a lot- just because the intent of both of them were so.. different to what we had gotten used to? neither of them exactly had bad intentions, but they still were way too far gone with their desires and seeing how that applied to the system of palaces, shadows and the like was very interesting. plus, the uniqueness to both of their situations doesnt even end there- theyre both not only palace rulers but ALSO persona users which is like!! dang.

and also, while i did know maruki had a palace, i had NO clue about futaba. it was just... emotional, i guess, which isnt something that usually happens in palaces, you know? i actually did hers immediately, which made the situation afterwards a little bit. Awkward as well to say the least. she slept for 3 weeks straight in my playthrough 😭