#honestly this series means so much to me

[everything-just-peachy]

No matter how much my taste in media changes 12 year old me would be happy to know that Given is still an incredibly important part of my life.

[dustykneed]

hey psst. Stop scrolling ensign the triumvirate has some affirmations for you!

bonus:

ok you can keep scrolling now. But they think you did a very good job! And they want to remind you that you are loved, and deserve to be loved, and that you are, and have always been, enough.

(live long and prosper out there everyone! remember that they are so very proud of you for being here🩵💙💛)

next affirmations post here

[thatstoomanysausages]

There are people that have said that the crazy themes of the wild cards are preventing progress and lore storytelling, and I get you, but consider: whimsy and fun✨

Like yes, there’s less flow and progress cause they’re all exploring and trying not to die from crazy mods. However, creative freedom like this can make for some intense lore deaths that can be overanalysed and interpreted. Fuck your angsty narrative, these fuckers are high on acid 24/7 and they’re enjoying it after 5 1/2 seasons of stress and edgy lore.

I honestly do see the point, and the people who are politely saying it are valid, but this feels a little like the lucky block videos you’d see on Stampy, DanTDM, and PopularMMOs’ channels back in the day. I’m just enjoying the chaos and perhaps with less of a storyline, certain people will feel less inclined to convert to the bitter wants for certain duos to not team ‘as often’.👀👀

2am thoughts are hitting rn, thanks for the Halloween boops everyone❤️

[turtleblogatlast]

Thinking about the Don Suave scene and what it means in terms of LGBTQ+ representation because my brain does nothing if not torment me with random topics to ramble about on the regular.

Anyway, I just wanted to ramble about why I like the scene but to get it out of the way - the scene can very easily be interpreted in so many different ways, and all of them are valid. I personally see it as Leo having at least some attraction to a man. And the following is an explanation of my own interpretation and thoughts on it and what it means especially for Leo’s portrayal in the grand scheme of things.

Long-winded interpretation under the cut!

Now, to start with, it’s important to me that in the scene Leo looks at Don Suave in the very beginning and then for the entirety of the rest of the time the man is on screen, Leo’s eyes are closed. Yet, in the end, he is still visibly enamored with Don Suave, happily cuddling up to him as he’s being carried away.

You can very easily interpret this as Leo being spellbound and that’s honestly super valid and I believe he likely was at least somewhat in the beginning, but considering how fast he looked away and how he never looked again, I personally think it makes more sense to read it as Leo just finding the man attractive, at least somewhat. (For the record, I personally headcanon Rise Leo as bisexual with a heavy preference for men, but I want to be blunt when I say that any interpretation is valid. Literally any. Ace, pan, gay, bi, none of the above or a mixture of something new literally all of it is more than okay and fair. Hell you could even interpret this entire scene as more romantic attraction than physical and it would still work. Anything goes!! Don’t bother people, guys, really.)

The main reason I take this scene to be at the very least LGBTQ+ adjacent isn’t just because of how it’s portrayed, but because of who Leonardo is. Not in terms of Rise of the TMNT, but in terms of the entire Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles™️ franchise.

Leo’s a character who, while changing with each iteration, has still at his core been around for decades upon decades as “the blue one”. One fourth of the team. He’s the one most are going to look at as the Leader, and oftentimes he is the one closest to having the title of Main Character. Not to say the others aren’t just as important, but Leo’s presence in the A plots of basically all TMNT media is often something very main character-esque.

And that’s very, very important to note. Here we have a Main Character of a prolific and decades long-running franchise distributed by a children’s television network. You can play around with his and his brothers’ characters all you like, but there is always going to be challenges to dodge around, especially since this was still in 2018-2019.

For example, you can play around with their designs so long as they’re color coded turtles, but their sexualities? Now that’s tricky.

“But what about Hypno and Warren?” Not main characters and also they’re Rise originals. They have a lot more room to play around with than a character like Leo does. But even talking about main characters in the franchise, you could arguably have an easier time playing around with Donnie or Mikey’s sexualities than Leo or even Raph, as (unfortunately) the former two tend to get more B plots, so they’d likely have had a little more leeway (still not a lot though.)

So, where does this leave us?

It leaves us in a place where outright stating and/or showing undeniable proof of Leo’s attraction to men is very, very difficult. So, workarounds!

Workarounds like the entire Don Suave situation.

To be honest, as left up to interpretation and lowkey and deniable as it is, this whole scene means a lot to me because of who Leo is as a character. It’s just nice when we get so see even the bare bones of representation with characters that have been such a large part of pop culture for decades, y’know? Even if more would be so much nicer, this is better than I thought we’d ever get for these boys.

And, again, literally nothing I’ve said is the only way to interpret it, I’m more than happy when people interpret media on their own honestly, it’s just something I’ve been thinking of lately and I was wondering if others felt the same way.

Whatever you think when you interpret this scene or Rise Leo as a whole, I just thought this would be interesting to think about, even if it was ramble-y, haha.

[sojourner-between-worlds]

Ngl this is probably the greatest joke in the entire series

[lucentstarss]

Sometimes I get hope for unraveled but then I remember how much of an ick I got from keefe when reading unlocked and get sad again

[jaythelay]

I'm honestly stunned that Sony dropped the ball for their Sackboy as hard as they did.

Now it's astroboy or somethin' and fine, but I don't imagine they'll do better with them.

Had a fuckin' Mario Tier Mascot and it went to shit so fast I don't think it'll return and even then, it'll just be another brand. Kinda sad, it really did have potential.

[satorugojoswiife]

What do you think about gojo ships

I feel like I'm pretty indifferent to most of them. This is super cringe of me, but whenever I fall super in love with a character I don't often like shipping them romantically with anyone. 💀 (im delusional I know)

It doesn't help that for some reason the jjk fandom (especially twt) is weirdly aggressive about ships. I know it isn't all the shippers and it's mostly just the loud minority, but seeing so much of the discourse has kinda put me off and I don't really engage much with the ships in the fandom except for rarepairs and selfships bc alot of the time those communities are more wholesome and cozy (if that makes sense LOL)

[mild-mirror]

assorted tatsuya suou s.links

so these links are from around the start of innocent sin! ep shall be discussed in the notes. based almost solely on vibes and a bit of wiki trawling

(more notes after the read more!)

Fool RANK MAX - ??? - You don’t remember them.

once tatsuya gains his memories back, changes to: "Fool RANK MAX - Original Masked Circle - Your childhood friends. It's been a long time since you played at the shrine together."

Empress Rank 1 - Reporter Duo - A pair of reporters who have awakened to their Personas.

fun fact: tatsuya is the one classifying these bonds and mistakenly assumes his empress is a duo bond. this is to obscure the fact that he already had a(n unfinished) link with maya- the bond is actually a solo bond with yukino. you can update it ahead of time if you ask igor about it haha, he'll clarify and change it to: “Empress Rank ? - Yukino Mayuzumi - A reporter for Coolest and experienced Persona-user. She fights alongside you.” after she gives up her power, changes to: “Empress Rank 8 - Yukino Mayuzumi - A reporter for Coolest and experienced Persona-user who gave up her power. She can still protect others.”

Lovers Rank 2 - Lisa Silverman - A girl at your school who seems to have feelings for you, she’s awakened to her Persona alongside you. She seems familiar.

starts at 2 because tatsuya knew her from school and formed the barest bones of a bond (rank 1), gains another rank when they summon their personae for the first time. after mt iwato, changes to: "Lovers Rank 5 - Lisa "Ginko" Silverman - Your childhood friend who likes kung-fu and seems to have feelings for you. She fights alongside you." after facing her shadow, becomes: "Lovers Rank 8 - Lisa "Ginko" Silverman - Your childhood friend who likes kung-fu and fights alongside you. She will love you no matter what." buuuut unfortunately if you pick jun as your romantic interest, changes to: "Lovers Rank 8 [REVERSED] - Lisa "Ginko" Silverman - Your childhood friend who likes kung-fu and fights alongside you. She will love you no matter what, but she needs time to process..." ^if you picked maya or eikichi or didn't say anything, it's the same but just doesn't reverse oops. it only reverses if you pick jun, though, because she seemed. a bit sadder in that one. sorry lisa o7 it unreverses after re-gaining her joint contact tho!! at that point, becomes: "Lovers Rank 9 - Lisa "Ginko" Silverman - Your childhood friend who likes kung-fu and fights alongside you. Though her feelings are unrequited, she will love you no matter what. " ^this is also her rank 9 for picking eikichi, maya, or not picking at all. catch all description. if you pick her as your romantic interest, though, changes to: "Lovers Rank 9 - Lisa "Ginko" Silverman - Your childhood friend who likes kung-fu and fights alongside you. You return her feelings of love." maxes at the end of is when the group decide to go back and give up their memories.

Wheel of Fortune RANK MAX - ??? - You don’t remember them.

you know who this is :) it's maxed, because Of Course It Is :) after tatsuya remembers the exchange, changes to: “Wheel of Fortune MAX RANK - Boy With Your Father's Watch - Your childhood best friend. He is your other self.” after mt iwato, updates to: “Wheel of Fortune MAX RANK - Jun Kurosu - Your childhood best friend. He is your other self.” (and hanged man ranks up at this time as well)

Justice Rank 6 [REVERSED] - Katsuya Suou - Your older brother, a police detective who loves to bake on the side. He just doesn’t understand you…!

heehee. this arcana is reversed not because katsuya is mad, but because *tatsuya* is. LOL is stagnant for all of innocent sin, but unreverses in ep and can then be worked on! ranks will stay on this side's tatsuya even when the other tatsuya returns to the other side fun fact this is the Only arcana that remains the same for both tatsuyas- in the different worlds, he has created the same bond twice lmao. (and its still reversed LMAO) maxes at a poignant moment BEFORE the final boss of ep.

Hanged Man Rank 1 - “Joker” - A strange being who grants wishes when summoned. They seem to seek revenge on you.

why yes, we get a separate link for joker! why? obfuscation purposes :) after mt iwato, it becomes: "Hanged Man Rank 5 - “Joker” - The person Jun became after ten years of misery. You can't decide how you feel about him...” after he joins your party: "Hanged Man Rank 6 - “Joker” - The person Jun became after ten years of misery, now fighting alongside you. You can't decide how you feel about him…” during/after the leo shrine; if you pick "I don't hate him." or "He only did what I would have." the second sentence becomes "You can understand his feelings." if you pick "...Maybe so..." the second sentence becomes "You can't forgive him, but you can understand his feelings." (no matter what you pick, the bond will Not reverse, but if you decide you hate jun, the bond stalls at rank 9 For Ever. or something) after lisa's shadow: ..hm. can you pick jun as your love interest in the same save file as saying you hate him? well, i assume not. but if you don't say you hate him and you pick him after the fight, the second sentence changes to "You understand the depths of his feelings, and return them in kind."

Death Rank 1 - Eikichi "Michel" Mishina - The boss of Kasugayama’s gang and leader of a band, he’s awakened to his Persona alongside you. He seems familiar.

after eikichi resigns, changes to: Death Rank 3 - Eikichi "Michel" Mishina - The leader of a band at Kasugayama High, he’s awakened to his Persona alongside you. He seems familiar." after mt iwato, changes to “Death Rank 5 - Eikichi "Michel" Mishina - Your childhood friend who is the leader of a band at Kasugayama High. He fights alongside you.” after facing his shadow, becomes: “Death Rank 8 - Eikichi "Michel" Mishina - Your childhood friend, the leader of a band at Kasugayama High who fights alongside you. It seems he's found his own happiness.” maxes at the end of is when the group decide to go back and give up their memories.

Moon Rank 7 [REVERSED] - ??? - You don’t remember them.

this one isn't rank 10 and has spent a decade completely ignored; of course it's gotten reversed in that time haha. not to worry though- it silently turns upright again when you meet maya again, but the text isn't updated until mt iwato. at that point, changes to: “Moon Rank 8 - Maya Amano - Your childhood friend whom you vowed to protect. You can protect each other now.” if you pick her as your love interest after lisa's shadow, changes to: “Moon Rank 8 - Maya Amano - Your childhood friend whom you vowed to protect. You have a shared intimacy.” ^otherwise, stays the same ......maxes out when she gets stabbed after the final boss. the traditional rank 10 gift is mr bunbun. changes to: “Moon RANK MAX - Maya Amano - Your childhood friend whom you vowed to protect. You failed."

Sun Rank 1 - Friend Group - Your Persona-wielding friends who are looking into the rumors with you.

levels up through story progression haha. is level 9 all throughout endgame, maxes out the very second eternal punishment starts :)

Aeon Rank 1 - Philemon - A mysterious being with a butterfly mask that granted you the power of Persona.

philemon time! twas originally judgment but i changed it bc this is more fitting :) and i have a better judgment below lol rank ups happen when you visit his cathedral thingie, which happens *checks notes* not very often i think. therefore it jumps multiple ranks at times. i think the first entry of the velvet room also ranks this one up. perhaps a rank up happens when ultimate personas. idk how its spreads out, but reaches max rank when you hit/thank him. unique in that the description stays the same all the way through is, but once its maxed it begins changing to reflect tatsuya's opinon on him. even though it's maxed and an unbreakable bond already. he's just built different when ep hits, changes to: "Aeon RANK MAX - Philemon - A being with a butterfly mask that granted you the power of Persona. After losing a bet for humanity's potential, he gave you a second chance." and so on and so forth fun fact "this side" tatsuya would get the mysterious: "Aeon RANK MAX - ??? - It's all because of him." it is the only bond that this side's tatsuya didn't have previously that he gets to keep.

NOTES:

i am new to p2, feel free to suggest corrections or other ideas :D

unlike in p3 onwards, this is just a catalogue of tatsuya’s relationships and thus, simply auto update upon reaching story portions/selecting dialogues. there aren't any events you need to initiate, they just kind of level up as story events happen. you would then be able to check them in your menu, or in the velvet room.

tatsuya does Not fill out his entire arcana. if it were a more modern game then we could probably eke out the rest of them with npcs from around sumaru and the p1 gang, but this is persona 2 and social links aren't real yet, so we'll just have to stick with the basics and essentials

gee tatsuya how come you get TWO group social links with your friends???

in all seriousness i selected fool for the 'masked circle' bc like. tis the beginning yknow? they dont know how its gonna go yet. the masked circle is simply a group of lonely children who made friends with each other. its maxed because it's easier to make friends as children vs in your teens, so even in that short amount of time they all just got really, really close under the umbrella of this group arcana (which also made it hurt so much when it all fell apart.)

the reason sun is Also a group social link for essentially the same people (weird, i know, but we need the current and former friend groups to stay separate due to it being a twist. and amnesia. mayhaps i am just making excuses) is because sun is tatsuya's own arcana, and there's some theory out there about the group fool s.links simply being a reflection of the mc and their own development measured by how they interact with others rather than 'this is the group arcanaTM'. dunno how accurate it is, but it serves my purposes very, very well :) also hey this one actually includes yukino

also part of the reason it's so dangerous for the friend group to, like, know tatsuya, in ep- is that he has maxed out those bonds; they're Unbreakable at that point. its literally just a waiting game/ticking time bomb since they all have their individual links, and are part of the fool social link, AND are part of the sun social link. not only that, but...

gee tatsuya how come you get TWO social links with specifically jun- (this has ramifications surely. maybe. idk)

the reason for this one was mostly to obscure joker's identity. buuut i also thought it'd be fun if the two links represented tatsuya's feelings on jun before and after The Decade Of Separation. of course he'll always cherish the childhood friend jun he exchanged mementos with, but jun changed a LOT in the time since- can tatsuya still call those two the same person? can he reconcile his feelings about how drastically different jun is now? the separate link for "joker" remains separate because they are, arguably, different people, separated across the vast gulf of ten years' time. is it not more poetic for tatsuya to have to decide if he can consider the jun of now still dear to him despite everything that has happened between them, to have him decide if the jun of then is worth reconnecting to the person who was behind joker? i think so. also i dont know how a persona game would deal with the two links merging. if they merged.

fun fact: i was debating on having the og jun link be tatsuya's sun instead of his own arcana fortune, for the reasons that they're literally referred to as each other's shadows/doppelgangers/etcetera and it would be doubly representative, but then i wouldn't have a good arcana for the New group link oops. maybe next time

yknow i thought abt giving philemon a title instead? but i forgor if he has any canon titles in the vein of nyarly's Crawling Chaos so i just left at at his name. however if he did i would like it to be the name used in this s.link the entire time, even before philemon mentions it or it is said out loud. just a little something to spice it up

EP SPECIFIC NOTES:

speaking of…. "this side" tatsuya is not aware of his social links nor how to look at them. better luck in another timeline my guy ! he and the other side's tatsuya don't share s.links with the exception of the aeon arcana, and only when ep tatsuya is in his body does he retain his s.links, both ones he brought from his timeline and ones he'll make in the new one. see below

nyarlathotep becomes tatsuya’s tower arcana in ep/at the tail end of is (under the title of Crawling Chaos obviously), and jumps like 5 ranks the second tatsuya realizes its the same guy behind everything. they're already well aquainted after all! i think this bond would be perpetually in reverse, but still able to be ranked up. he's just built different

anna becomes tatsuya's priestess arcana in ep. but he's not friends with anna in the is timeline :) it would be this side's tatsuya's bond, technically! it just kind of poofs into existence/is there when he wakes up on "this side". but but he and the other are the same person (kind of) so. if he wanted to, he could level up the bond, but since he doesn't wanted to, the bond would stay at its 'starting' rank for, mm, about the whole game.

new group to fight shadows i mean demons with, new bond! in ep, tatsuya will gain a judgment group arcana for the party of ep (it maxes when he decides to go back to the other side). i think it'd be funny if it started when he gave maya the emblem, but ranked up only when he was actually fighting with them. so, a level up when he features in the blimp part, but it only really picks up steam after he joins the party for real. thought it'd be fun to have an equivalent to the p3/p4 final boss runup social link for ep's latter half :D

im still thinking about if tatsuya would get a bond with sudou. he would hate it so much but it Would be interesting... except i'm not entirely sure which one he'd have, bc i already gave tower to nyarly?? so not sure. maybe maya gets that particular s.link instead...... yeah...

i actually really wanted to give katsuya the hierophant. i still want to do it so bad actually, you dont understand, im flip flopping between justice and hierophant for him lmao. i put him down as justice here because that's his own arcana and has interesting implications on how tatsuya sees katsuya. but if you want you can imagine it's hierophant and it would still make sense imo!!

baofu gets devil i think. the man is shady but not malicious! im open to suggestions tho bc. its not like i can give him the hanged man oops.

oh, yeah! ulala would be the star! even though priestess and empress are already taken, i feel like whatever role she plays in his life does actually fit her own arcana better.. not sure if he and ulala really have a super strong bond but i do think ep would end up giving him her max rank by the end. baofu as well. and even if not, judgment will max for sure.

when ep tatsuya leaves, he takes all of his s.links with him, and this side's tatsuya is left with only his initial links- justice and priestess (including any progress the other side's tatsuya made on those links)... and an aeon link he didn't have before.

not like he knows tho since he isn't even aware they exist. LMAO

hope this was an enjoyable and fun read, i had lots of brainworms for it! please be sure to tell me your thoughts :)

[ishikawayukis]

welcome back kang younghyun 💕

[rotisseries]

chapters 51 and 58 of bloodmarked are absolutely CARRYING bree/nick/selwyn polyamory truthers

[sysig]

You’ve caught my Wandering Eye ♥ (Patreon)

[thyfggfy]

Me after creating a mental list of my favourite characters from certain medias :.... I may have a type

Female characters that constantly have to prove themselves cuz no one believes in them and there is always someone who surpasses them get behind me.

[thats-my-passion-right-there]

I finally saw the mean girls musical (the movie one) I have so many fucking thoughts oh my god

[steakout-05]

//ableism mention tw

ok just gonna say something really quick: i absolutely hate Abe's characterisation in the reboot of Clone High because it is nothing like how he acted in season 1 and it just. isn't funny. they've turned this good-intentioned but flawed loser kid who just wants to be like the original Abraham Lincoln but doesn't know how to, into a self-centered and arrogant asshole who literally almost said a horrible ableist slur twice in the first episode. like. i'm being serious, he almost says the R-slur twice in the same minute and i dunno about you but i really don't find it very funny when a) the only "joke" behind it is "oh look at how bad Abe is compared to the more progressive sensitivities of the new generation of clones, isn't he just terrible", and b) they felt the need to completely rewrite a pre-existing character that fans are already attached to to do something against his own morals for the sake of a shitty joke, and c) TOPHER WAS RIGHT THERE!!! isn't he supposed to be the asshole or am i missing something?? like...

i'm not saying you can't have "edgy" or "dark" comedy or whatever, but personally, i don't find it very funny when a character that actually means quite a lot to me and is one of my favourites is twisted and rewritten into an arrogant asshole in an apparent attempt to appeal to the people who hate Abe for his flaws in the original show. especially when he's rewritten to be someone who would say a slur that's literally been used against my fellow disabled peers, myself included. it just feels... wrong. it actually hurts a lot to see a character i once loved and found to be one of the funniest and most important characters in the show be turned into an arrogant dick, with barely any thought or meaning put into him. i don't like what they did with the rest of the OG cast as well (such as Joan making a complete 180 in her entire character, JFK's character assassination, the removal of Gandhi, Cleo barely being in it etc.), but to me, they did Abe the dirtiest in this season and i'm really disappointed that one of my favourite shows had to continue like this :(

[the-bi-space-ace]

not to be a downer but I am suuuuuuper worried that because Hunter is going through it and is pissed he's going to say something to Echo blaming him for what happened to Tech.

I am not prepared for that kind of pain.