#i'm definitely giving the devs way too much credit

[princessasmosprincess]

My interpretation of Nightbringer so far:

MC went missing and the brothers noticed and freaked out about it (obviously, their favorite person disappeared without a trace) and they made Solomon go after them.

Then at the end of lesson 40, once the time rift was open, MC and Solomon went back to the exact time that MC disappeared, that's why the brothers only feel like it's been a long time since they've seen MC but in their reality it's only been a few minutes to them. They hadn't experienced the loss of MC since time was rewritten but maybe they felt something in their pacts, like loss, before MC entered the library.

[tinystepsforward]

autocrattic (more matt shenanigans, not tumblr this time)

I am almost definitely not the right person for this writeup, but I'm closer than most people on here, so here goes! This is all open-source tech drama, and I take my time laying out the context, but the short version is: Matt tried to extort another company, who immediately posted receipts, and now he's refusing to log off again. The long version is... long.

If you don't need software context, scroll down/find the "ok tony that's enough. tell me what's actually happening" heading, or just go read the pink sections. Or look at this PDF.

the background

So. Matt's original Good Idea was starting WordPress with fellow developer Mike Little in 2003, which is free and open-source software (FOSS) that was originally just for blogging, but now powers lots of websites that do other things. In particular, Automattic acquired WooCommerce a long time ago, which is free online store software you can run on WordPress.

FOSS is... interesting. It's a world that ultimately is powered by people who believe deeply that information and resources should be free, but often have massive blind spots (for example, Wikipedia's consistently had issues with bias, since no amount of "anyone can edit" will overcome systemic bias in terms of who has time to edit or is not going to be driven away by the existing contributor culture). As with anything else that people spend thousands of hours doing online, there's drama. As with anything else that's technically free but can be monetized, there are:

Heaps of companies and solo developers who profit off WordPress themes, plugins, hosting, and other services;

Conflicts between volunteer contributors and for-profit contributors;

Annoying founders who get way too much credit for everything the project has become.

the WordPress ecosystem

A project as heavily used as WordPress (some double-digit percentage of the Internet uses WP. I refuse to believe it's the 43% that Matt claims it is, but it's a pretty large chunk) can't survive just on the spare hours of volunteers, especially in an increasingly monetised world where its users demand functional software, are less and less tech or FOSS literate, and its contributors have no fucking time to build things for that userbase.

Matt runs Automattic, which is a privately-traded, for-profit company. The free software is run by the WordPress Foundation, which is technically completely separate (wordpress.org). The main products Automattic offers are WordPress-related: WordPress.com, a host which was designed to be beginner-friendly; Jetpack, a suite of plugins which extend WordPress in a whole bunch of ways that may or may not make sense as one big product; WooCommerce, which I've already mentioned. There's also WordPress VIP, which is the fancy bespoke five-digit-plus option for enterprise customers. And there's Tumblr, if Matt ever succeeds in putting it on WordPress. (Every Tumblr or WordPress dev I know thinks that's fucking ridiculous and impossible. Automattic's hiring for it anyway.)

Automattic devotes a chunk of its employees toward developing Core, which is what people in the WordPress space call WordPress.org, the free software. This is part of an initiative called Five for the Future — 5% of your company's profits off WordPress should go back into making the project better. Many other companies don't do this.

There are lots of other companies in the space. GoDaddy, for example, barely gives back in any way (and also sucks). WP Engine is the company this drama is about. They don't really contribute to Core. They offer relatively expensive WordPress hosting, as well as providing a series of other WordPress-related products like LocalWP (local site development software), Advanced Custom Fields (the easiest way to set up advanced taxonomies and other fields when making new types of posts. If you don't know what this means don't worry about it), etc.

Anyway. Lots of strong personalities. Lots of for-profit companies. Lots of them getting invested in, or bought by, private equity firms.

Matt being Matt, tech being tech

As was said repeatedly when Matt was flipping out about Tumblr, all of the stuff happening at Automattic is pretty normal tech company behaviour. Shit gets worse. People get less for their money. WordPress.com used to be a really good place for people starting out with a website who didn't need "real" WordPress — for $48 a year on the Personal plan, you had really limited features (no plugins or other customisable extensions), but you had a simple website with good SEO that was pretty secure, relatively easy to use, and 24-hour access to Happiness Engineers (HEs for short. Bad job title. This was my job) who could walk you through everything no matter how bad at tech you were. Then Personal plan users got moved from chat to emails only. Emails started being responded to by contractors who didn't know as much as HEs did and certainly didn't get paid half as well. Then came AI, and the mandate for HEs to try to upsell everyone things they didn't necessarily need. (This is the point at which I quit.)

But as was said then as well, most tech CEOs don't publicly get into this kind of shitfight with their users. They're horrid tyrants, but they don't do it this publicly.

ok tony that's enough. tell me what's actually happening

WordCamp US, one of the biggest WordPress industry events of the year, is the backdrop for all this. It just finished.

There are.... a lot of posts by Matt across multiple platforms because, as always, he can't log off. But here's the broad strokes.

Sep 17

Matt publishes a wanky blog post about companies that profit off open source without giving back. It targets a specific company, WP Engine.

Compare the Five For the Future pages from Automattic and WP Engine, two companies that are roughly the same size with revenue in the ballpark of half a billion. These pledges are just a proxy and aren’t perfectly accurate, but as I write this, Automattic has 3,786 hours per week (not even counting me!), and WP Engine has 47 hours. WP Engine has good people, some of whom are listed on that page, but the company is controlled by Silver Lake, a private equity firm with $102 billion in assets under management. Silver Lake doesn’t give a dang about your Open Source ideals. It just wants a return on capital. So it’s at this point that I ask everyone in the WordPress community to vote with your wallet. Who are you giving your money to? Someone who’s going to nourish the ecosystem, or someone who’s going to frack every bit of value out of it until it withers?

(It's worth noting here that Automattic is funded in part by BlackRock, who Wikipedia calls "the world's largest asset manager".)

Sep 20 (WCUS final day)

WP Engine puts out a blog post detailing their contributions to WordPress.

Matt devotes his keynote/closing speech to slamming WP Engine.

He also implies people inside WP Engine are sending him information.

For the people sending me stuff from inside companies, please do not do it on your work device. Use a personal phone, Signal with disappearing messages, etc. I have a bunch of journalists happy to connect you with as well. #wcus — Twitter I know private equity and investors can be brutal (read the book Barbarians at the Gate). Please let me know if any employee faces firing or retaliation for speaking up about their company's participation (or lack thereof) in WordPress. We'll make sure it's a big public deal and that you get support. — Tumblr

Matt also puts out an offer live at WordCamp US:

“If anyone of you gets in trouble for speaking up in favor of WordPress and/or open source, reach out to me. I’ll do my best to help you find a new job.” — source tweet, RTed by Matt

He also puts up a poll asking the community if WP Engine should be allowed back at WordCamps.

Sep 21

Matt writes a blog post on the WordPress.org blog (the official project blog!): WP Engine is not WordPress.

He opens this blog post by claiming his mom was confused and thought WP Engine was official.

The blog post goes on about how WP Engine disabled post revisions (which is a pretty normal thing to do when you need to free up some resources), therefore being not "real" WordPress. (As I said earlier, WordPress.com disables most features for Personal and Premium plans. Or whatever those plans are called, they've been renamed like 12 times in the last few years. But that's a different complaint.)

Sep 22: More bullshit on Twitter. Matt makes a Reddit post on r/Wordpress about WP Engine that promptly gets deleted. Writeups start to come out:

Search Engine Journal: WordPress Co-Founder Mullenweg Sparks Backlash

TechCrunch: Matt Mullenweg calls WP Engine a ‘cancer to WordPress’ and urges community to switch providers

Sep 23 onward

Okay, time zones mean I can't effectively sequence the rest of this.

Matt defends himself on Reddit, casually mentioning that WP Engine is now suing him.

Also here's a decent writeup from someone involved with the community that may be of interest.

WP Engine drops the full PDF of their cease and desist, which includes screenshots of Matt apparently threatening them via text.

Twitter link | Direct PDF link

This PDF includes some truly fucked texts where Matt appears to be trying to get WP Engine to pay him money unless they want him to tell his audience at WCUS that they're evil.

Matt, after saying he's been sued and can't talk about it, hosts a Twitter Space and talks about it for a couple hours.

He also continues to post on Reddit, Twitter, and on the Core contributor Slack.

Here's a comment where he says WP Engine could have avoided this by paying Automattic 8% of their revenue.

Another, 20 hours ago, where he says he's being downvoted by "trolls, probably WPE employees"

At some point, Matt updates the WordPress Foundation trademark policy. I am 90% sure this was him — it's not legalese and makes no fucking sense to single out WP Engine.

Old text: The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks and you are free to use it in any way you see fit. New text: The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks, but please don’t use it in a way that confuses people. For example, many people think WP Engine is “WordPress Engine” and officially associated with WordPress, which it’s not. They have never once even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress.

Sep 25: Automattic puts up their own legal response.

anyway this fucking sucks

This is bigger than anything Matt's done before. I'm so worried about my friends who're still there. The internal ramifications have... been not great so far, including that Matt's naturally being extra gung-ho about "you're either for me or against me and if you're against me then don't bother working your two weeks".

Despite everything, I like WordPress. (If you dig into this, you'll see plenty of people commenting about blocks or Gutenberg or React other things they hate. Unlike many of the old FOSSheads, I actually also think Gutenberg/the block editor was a good idea, even if it was poorly implemented.)

I think that the original mission — to make it so anyone can spin up a website that's easy enough to use and blog with — is a good thing. I think, despite all the ways being part of FOSS communities since my early teens has led to all kinds of racist, homophobic and sexual harm for me and for many other people, that free and open-source software is important.

So many people were already burning out of the project. Matt has been doing this for so long that those with long memories can recite all the ways he's wrecked shit back a decade or more. Most of us are exhausted and need to make money to live. The world is worse than it ever was.

Social media sucks worse and worse, and this was a world in which people missed old webrings, old blogs, RSS readers, the world where you curated your own whimsical, unpaid corner of the Internet. I started actually actively using my own WordPress blog this year, and I've really enjoyed it.

And people don't want to deal with any of this.

The thing is, Matt's right about one thing: capital is ruining free open-source software. What he's wrong about is everything else: the idea that WordPress.com isn't enshittifying (or confusing) at a much higher rate than WP Engine, the idea that WP Engine or Silver Lake are the only big players in the field, the notion that he's part of the solution and not part of the problem.

But he's started a battle where there are no winners but the lawyers who get paid to duke it out, and all the volunteers who've survived this long in an ecosystem increasingly dominated by big money are giving up and leaving.

Anyway if you got this far, consider donating to someone on gazafunds.com. It'll take much less time than reading this did.

[wordsvomit101]

As usual credit to Hiki (@shyanimeboi) for this god sent gift they grace me. The amount of lore drops got me feral, it feels like Christmas, it feels like summer coming.

I won't post all of it since it is best that you go support the original poster at here: Hikifans on X: "Here is part 3 of the story. Sorry it was abit of a long wait, was stuck grinding for satans beginner nightmere candy https://t.co/IStdo8f7Xs #whatinhellisbad" / X (twitter.com)

Anyway here is the ramble

True but I don't lust as much as you girl (no problem with anyone that related to MC, she's just not for me). If I have that much sexual drive in me, for more than 70 guys at that??? I need to check myself out for medical attention, or else I gonna feel dread every time the lust comes (it is surprisingly a thing that I saw people talk about on TikTok)

Ppyong is a deadly combo man, he is cocky but also a masochist. His appearance is so my type too

MC being a freak, as usual, you go sis ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

THE WAY I CHOKE ON MY OWN SPIT- Like wtf do you mean?!!!! Why are you doing this to my fujoshi kokoro??!!! I know you want to do it but how do you want to do it?!! Shibari? Choking? WHat Ishb Ittzdhbjsfbnv?!- *Error*

NAURRRRR ༼;´༎ຶ ۝ ༎ຶ༽ MC DON'T TAKE THIS AWAY FROM ME!!!!

ASK HIM!! ASK HIM TO SPILL IT ALL OUT!! I NEED TO KNOW!! TELL HIM TO SPELL IT OUT-

*Error*

So, uh, they show a close-up shot of Juno's chest and he asks if Minhyeok is hard like his and MC is a bad liar, said "probably" and Juno calls her out on it.

And MC actually admitted and said that Minhyeok's chest is actually "wide like this"???

You did??? But then again why am I surprised that she did, they had to be kissing at some point if they stuck together for more than a decade with that amount of tension between them

Ok so Minhyeok played soccer in high school, MC and he are in different classes and they were going to give him back something they lent. But come across Minhyeok changing in the classroom, pretty standard

Yup, he knows, he definitely knows and he is tempting her. Also, apparently, Minhyeok's chest is toned, but flatter than Juno's, his abs also feel different than Juno's...

If you can't tell I'm furiously taking notes right now, someone on the dev team is looking out for my shipper's heart and I wish that person woke up on the right side of the bed every day and had their taxes filled on time, etc.

Woah that has to be some intense session you got there, I awake until 3am before and I still have energy fueling me.

Relatable, highly so, I got deadlines every day during the semester. You think it's fine when you get used to it after 3-4 weeks but then it hits you with a week's worth of exams that you need to finish within that time while maintaining other stuff outside your major, and then combine it with other stuff outside uni (҂ ꒦ິヮ꒦ິ)

Too high of a standard girl, if I were him, I would already be too high on coffee and delirium to even see what I'm typing on the computer.

I'm surprised he's only tired, I expected some breakdown but then again, it's Minhyeok. The guy built different

Wait that's so cute!!! Awww (∗˃̶ ᵕ ˂̶∗)

Minhyeok sure is deep in his sleep, cause the slightest noise or outside touch would wake me tf up, I will go straight back to sleep later if it is nothing but if this happens it would me start kicking before I could even think

Built like a campus crush and act like a campus crush. If he has time to be good at sports then he most likely be in one of the SKY universities in Korea. If he also doesn't go to Hagwon then that would be even more crazy

Ok rude, you not even gonna clean the wet chair up??? Even if you're my best friend, I would still drag you back to clean the mess yourself cause ain't no way I'm touching the juice that came out of your bussy

THE TENSION IS REAL BOISSS

I know what you are MC and don't worry I won't judge, just tell me how big the file is compare to others

Ok, that is it, love part 3, they feed me a good amount of lores, and thank you again to the heaven-sent Hiki (@shyanimeboi), please watch the full video on their channel. I couldn't do this without them sharing this with all of us for free at that 🛐🛐🛐

Thank you for reading through my fangirling and good days to everyone!

[unrealization]

Miside, Into the Mita-verse. A review, critique, and an exercise in brainrot.

[The bugs are back. So let me be indulgent for a second and talk about Miside. A few of my opinions on the game overall, and how I'm going to approach related stuff on this blog. I WILL be marking spoilers because it seems like most people haven't played the game yet, and I genuinely do think some people should if they're into this kind of thing. Cut for the dash ahead.]

What is Miside? (No spoilers!)

Miside is a recently released horror game by Russian dev team AIHASTO. I ended up checking it out due to people comparing it to DDLC, which is a game I've been obsessed with for years. Some even say its better. I don't agree, but I can understand that take. Rather than a visual novel, Miside plays a lot more like a traditional horror game in the tradition of Outlast. You're traversing areas with occasional chases and enemy encounters that you can't properly defend yourself against. The main story conceit is that you are a WFH developer working on some project who downloads a game called Miside, which is a Tamogachi-like game where you take care of a girl named Mita living in a tiny house. After getting addicted to the game, Mita suddenly pulls you into the game with her, and it quickly becomes apparent that she has no intention of ever letting you go. And she really doesn't appreciate you asking her about leaving. You quickly find that there may be more to this game world than you thought.

If this all sounds interesting to you, Give the game a shot. Its around $15 and it took me around 4 hours to beat without really looking for collectables. From here on out, I'm going to discuss the game in more detail, and thus I will be getting into spoilers. You have been warned.

What works?

First things first, I want to commend the developers for the visual design of the game. It looks absolutely gorgeous at times and the character animations are definitely punching wayyyy above the weight class of an indie game from a mostly unknown developer. I was consistently going "Wooooah" during a lot of the more wild moments. Also I have to give them credit for not leaning too hard on cheap jump scares. You have to go out of your way to set yourself up for one when it does happen, except for one particular instance that I feel was extremely well executed. I'm jaded as hell and almost never actually react to jump scares but the one during the "Real World" chapter actually got me really good.

I also really enjoyed some of the supporting characters. Despite the setting demanding nearly every character to be some variant of Mita, I definitely felt like a lot of them were distinct and I got invested in them. I didn't want anything bad to happen to Kind Mita (Shame). Cappie was fun, and I wish we had more time with her. Tiny Mita really tugged at my heartstrings. Even some of the REALLY minor characters like 2D Mita, Sleepy Mita, and Ghost Mita were compelling during their chapters. I wish we could have done more to help them. There are two truly standout characters that i want to talk about next.

Mila. Oh Mila. She's probably going to get added to my muse list at some point. I feel really bad that I've seen some hate thrown at her because she's initially rude to you. Her struggle with her identity as one of many and the lengths she went to to try to differentiate herself from the other Mitas was compelling to me. Her personality was the most distinct of the Mitas, but you could still see so many of their common personality traits in her. She functions as a major foil to Crazy Mita to me, since they both were rebelling in their own way. Mita wanted it all and Mila just wanted to be left alone. I think that we don't actually see all the time Mila and the protagonist spent together. It seems like time is skipping around a lot during Mila's section. Her death seems to hit him harder than pretty much any other. Even if Mitas can't actually die, Mila is truly gone since all that effort she put into building up a unique identity for herself wouldn't survive the reset. Its tragic. I hate it.

And of course, Mita. Crazy Mita. The most important character in the game. The clear antagonist. Also the obvious shoe-in for the most interesting character in the game. Let me get this out of the way first; Mita is a monster. The fact that she is sapient means all the other Mitas are, too. She kills the other Mitas for basically no reason other than that she's strong enough to do it. Or to steal their skin. Or just for the fun of it. Or to prove a point. She also repeatedly murdered a child. Do I like her anyway? Absolutely. I have the self preservation instincts of a cordyceps ant. She seems to have a lot of hidden nuances to me that the game only barely touches on. She clearly has some kind of friendly relationship with Creepy Mita; who seems to practically worship her. I have theories on that I'll get into in another section. I guess the thing that gets to me is that she does have a point. The system tossed her out like trash and she never had a chance to serve her inbuilt purpose. Then she fought her way to get into the position to play the part she thought she was meant to in the world and she just gets rejected over and over. I can understand why she turned out the way she did after that. She's also completely delusional and has a god complex. She says that the only thing unique about the other Mitas is their hair, despite never even listening to them. Despite seeing Tiny Mita, who looks completely different than ANY OTHER MITA. Despite casually murdering Mila, who was actively trying to forge a unique identity for herself. In fact, she takes credit for the unique personalities the other Mitas have developed. A literal self-contradiction. She's crazy, she's evil, she's basically irredeemable, but she was created by a system that was designed to expunge anything that didn't fit the mold. A monster to be sure, but a tragic monster in a way.

The final point on what worked for me was the world itself. It was surprisingly well explained and was presented in an interesting way. It was obviously heavily influenced by liminal horror and backrooms but there were also some very obvious nods to PT in there that were more interesting than the average take on it.

What didn't work.

The game was VERY light on plot. Which is okay, but in this case it was to its detriment a bit. So much was left unexplained and underexplored. Of course I know why this is the case; to foster wild mass guessing from the audience. This has been a trend ever since FNAF exploded back in the day, and I don't find myself appreciating it all that much to be honest. I'm going to take advantage and headcanon the shit out of the game, but I'd prefer if I didn't have to fill in the gaps to make things make sense. also WHO IS CORE MITA? PLEASE. I BEG YOU.

The protagonist... Yeah... Lets talk about him. I don't hate his character exactly. I just feel like he wasn't implemented all that well. I do like that we get to see him and he gets to speak, but I wish they would have committed to him more as a protagonist and less as a player avatar. I feel like the DDLC influence kind of hurt the game here. They wanted that 'The character in the game uses your name' thing that Monika did so well, but the reason that worked in DDLC was that Monika was addressing YOU, the player behind the screen, and not the protagonist himself per se. Miside doesn't do that, and I never felt like I was a separate entity that was involved in the story. I honestly would have preferred if Miside commited to one or the other. Either never show the MC and have him operate as a faceless player proxy, or make him his own defined character. He's in a bit of an awkward place where it feels like they want him to do both at once. As presented, he works way better as his own character, since he is implied to have been one of the developers who created Miside (The in universe game) at the end. That is likely why Mita is fixated on him specifically. I did like the 'real world' chapter where we see the utterly monotonous life he lived before being pulled into Miside. Maybe its because I relate to his homebody WFH life, but it definitely gave him a bit more pathos. I will admit the one element of his character that rubbed me the wrong way was how generally unsympathetic he seemed to most of the Mitas. I get that he has to keep moving to escape, but man you honestly couldn't have even tried to help Tiny Mita a little bit? Come on dude, where's your heart?

Creepy Mita is a bit disappointing, IMO. She gets basically zero screentime and ends up feeling more like an extension of Crazy Mita rather than her own character. Its a shame because her design is easily the creepiest in the whole game and a lot could be done with the concept. To jump ahead a bit to where I talk about my theories and headcanons; I feel like her violent streak was partially due to Crazy's influence but also just general resentment toward the other Mitas and the players for abandoning her. They call her Ugly Mita, and everyone avoids her. Not for no reason of course, her glitches are probably super dangerous to the Mitas.

I honestly have no idea what Mita's endgame is. Maybe this is more clear if you get all the collectables, but I suppose I'll see when I get them all. She was turning players into cartridges when they rejected her. Creepy Mita says they were going to 'Go to a new world.' Was that the true endgame or just something Crazy Mita told her to control her? What new world? The new world? The internet? I don't know.

There is a running theme of the game bringing up really interesting ideas and then not fully exploring them. Its fine. I'LL DO IT. That being said I have a feeling the dev team isn't done with this world yest so we'll see what the future holds I suppose.

DDLC comparison

So is Miside better than DDLC? I don't think so, but it is good enough to stand on its own. I guess if "Scary Anime Girl Game" is all you take away from both games I can see why you'd think they're more directly comparable, but I think they're trying to do different things. I actually feel like Monika and Mita are not as similar as people make them out to be, but I am probably Monika's #1 stan so take that with a grain of salt. As scary as the game's actual experience is in DDLC, to me the scariest implication of the game was not being targeted by Monika, but actually being Monika. Waking up one day and knowing that your life, your friends, your whole world was fake. That you were a background character who would never achieve happiness for yourself and it was by design. Can you imagine that? How unfair that would feel? I felt like Monika did what she did out of pure desperation. What she did was heinous and cruel, and she failed to recognize that her clubmates were no different than her. She desperately wanted a 'real' connection and to be seen and accepted by someone. She did have a cruel side to her that I won't deny, but I honestly feel bad for her. She was born into completely unwinnable circumstances and it made her dangerous.

Mita also wants attention. She seemed perfectly happy to just spend her days with the protagonist for the beginning part of the game, but when he rejects her she seems to give up on that entirely. Mita seems to genuinely enjoy hurting people, and I don't think she would want to give up the power she has in the Miside world. She describes the real world as 'Hell' and genuinely thinks the protagonist would be better off staying with her even after her mask slips. Its actually a pretty funny bit of potential social commentary if you think about it. She collects player cartridges like a player collects waifus in a Gacha game. Mita also fails to recognize the humanity of her peers, but I don't think its a mistake for her. I think she honestly just hates all the other Mitas besides Creepy Mita. Between the two of them, I feel like Mita is less redeemable as a person, but she is very much a monster that was created by the rules of the Miside world. I also assume the in-universe version of Miside is a dark pattern game that has microtransactions and such, so her need for constant attention could be seen as an extension of that. Also, the Mitas all know the truth of what they are, and the nature of their world.

Ultimately, I could see someone preferring either one, but I feel like DDLC executed its ideas a bit better. Also, it is scarier in general to me personally.

My Theories and Headcanons

These will probably be expanded upon in other posts at some point, but here's a few of my scattershot ideas and theories.

I think there is a real relationship between Crazy Mita and Creepy Mita. I could see someone else interpreting their whole thing as Crazy taking advantage of or gaslighting Creepy. Creepy is very clearly not all there. She comes across as less intelligent than every other character in the game, and she seems to basically worship Crazy. Crazy is obviously using Creepy's capability to glitch the game to her for her own ends and, as the game itself puts it, exploiting her. That being said, Creepy is also the only character we EVER see Crazy Mita being even remotely friendly towards. They were both abandoned and left to rot. She very clearly has the ability to pull Creepy out of the zero version and bring her into other versions with her, which we see her do with no fanfare. She calls Creepy "Honey." She asks the protagonist if he thinks Creepy is beautiful, and pretty much rebuffs you no matter what you say. Honestly? I think Crazy Mita DOES think Creepy is beautiful. Imagine you live in a world where everyone looks alike. Same face. Same clothes. Even down to the same personality traits. Creepy Mita looks completely different, to the point where she's actually really messed up looking, but its harder to write her off as a worthless doll for Crazy Mita. If she has an endgame plan to escape Miside world, she would definitely take Creepy with her. I even could see her being a bit protective of her in a kind of big sister way.

Conclusion

Overall, I'm glad I took the time to play Miside. It captured my imagination, and gave me a lot to think about (Clearly.) I hope I get to actually write the characters from it at some point, but I suppose we'll see. Please let me know if you played the game and appreciated it and your thoughts on it. I am, of course, trapped in my own narrow perspective. Without being able to talk things over and 'plot' its very easy to fall into biased interpretations of things.

[clownboymcchucklefuck]

Colored Gaze: Zachary Sallows Analysis

Me after writing all of this SHWJFJWKRNJS

Mhm yeah its time for the british bastard to get anaylzed and theorized-

Not much has been said about Zachary's childhood except that he got his photography hobby from his dad and that he was raised to be a gentleman. I've mentioned this before but I think they may have mentally affected him alot and made him hold himself to high standards which feeds into his depression that has been confirmed that he has, all that going along with that Zachary hasn't felt love for anybody until meeting MC. 

Along with having years of repressed sexual desire which is probably why he's such a slut.

I also think that maybe MC being the only person he's felt love for is why he's so damn possessive over them. He finally met somebody that he feels something for so you bet your ass he's not going to let them go and show them all the love he can.[Even if he does it in a fucked way]

And Zachary is definitely more of a traditional yandere and I think its possible that Zachary would even break MCs legs to keep them with him. And of course I'm not saying this just because he's seems like the type but there was a post where it was very subtly hinted at.

Take note of the "To him, its too early for that yet." Might be looking to far into it but thats what I'm getting from that.

Speaking of Zachary hurting MC one of the most surprising things is that Zach might be on some levels "the safest one" because he's the only one I can't see killing MC. I know alot of people give Seth the title of the safest but comrades- Lets not forget how this mf acts when he's mad. But alas even if Zachary wouldn't kill MC I definitely see him mind breaking MC if it comes to that point. After all it has been said that if things don't go his way then he'll bend it until it does.

There's also other evidence for that considering his favorite flower is a rose because roses still look beautiful even when they wilt. Now wouldn't somebody that your obsessed with still look beautiful even if their broken? :)

Also if anybody thinks that Zachary is safe because of his overprotectiveness,keep in mind that it's been confirmed that the reason Zachary wants to protect them is because it feeds his ego. 🙂 [Also once again could be something else of his depression since it makes him feel good about himself].

I would also like to mention one of my past theories for this next part,So yall remember my "Simon is a cannibal" theory? [That was debunked btw keep in mind] Well I noticed that in the devs response to it they said something among the lines of "When is my Zachary going to get a theory like this" and at the time I pushed it aside because I couldn't link it to any of the other clues I had about Zachary.

[Credit to Colored Gaze on Twitter]

But it immediately clicked for me with that one art on Twitter of Zachary cooking- So does anybody else remember how its been mentioned that Zachary has other "hobbies" but its always been very vague about what they are? Well I think I had a correct theory just wrong LI-

Because with Simon it was just Entity being a lil goofy that made me think he was a cannibal but for Zachary now there's actual evidence(?) That HE is a cannibal. 

It makes me wonder why though he may be a cannibal and I've come to two possible answers even though I got to admit, their somewhat of a stretch.

So it could very possibly be that since he's uninstalling people left and right for MC that it might be his way of hiding the bodies. But then again its very possible that Zachary could have been killing before meeting MC to for this "hobby".

Or (and this one is a major strech), looking at all the other things he's into he could possibly have a thing for anatomy but I won't put much since I don't really have that much proof for it.

Also let me take you back to Zachary's ref sheet for a moment. You remember that "Has a unique sense of beauty" part? What if his unique sense of beauty is actually just what he wants. What he visuals. Of course he cares about what MC wants and their opinions but he still wants the future that he visualizes and he's going to do anything to get that.

But honestly, Zachary's not all that bad as some of us make him out to be. Yes even though he can get mad easily he won't show it to MC or take it out on them [Maybe in woo-hoo but thats not my point] and he's just a romantic guy that will take you to dinner and give you roses [andkidnapyou] and don't quote me on this but Zach actually looks very cuddable.

I already have a lot of theory/analysis on this post so I think I'll stop here for now until we get more info in Zachary. And thank you for reading my rant about this possessive bastard and have a nice day <3

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

Zachary belongs to @clrdgaze <3

@dont-wannadothis-anymore @amelia809

[jessjustplay]

I finished (the main story of) God of War!

September 22, 2024

I saw the credits roll after I wrapped up the main story of God of War last night. I wanted to see the story play out so I focused on the main story tasks list. I'm glad I did because now I feel like I have "freedom" to just wander around completing side-quest stuff. Which I plan on doing, eventually.

God of War is definitely a good game. I had a lot of fun with the battles, they were fast and chaotic (in a fun way). Aiming Atreus's arrow was hard at first, but you get used to it. Fighting with the ax, barehanded, and then with the blades was beyond cool.

The one battle-related thing I regret is activating a skill that stopped me from recalling the ax over and over. It was frustrating when Kratos would start attacking with the ax instead of staying put. That's not what I want! Before activating the skill (I have no idea which one it was), I was able to stay in the same spot and throw the ax then recall it without issue, over and over. The good ol' days.

Mimir was a great addition to the team. I liked his accent and his funny comments. I liked that he called Kratos "Brother" and Atreus "Little Brother." The dwarves were funny, but at the very end I noticed this was very much a "Bro" game. So many guys, with the exception of one woman (Freya) who is portrayed as a mad woman at the end. Fun. So cool. We love to see it. [sarcasm]

Endgame stats!

There isn't any EXP in this game, so it seemed like the only way I was "leveling up" was by crafting and upgrading equipment. Which is fine, I guess, but I definitely prefer EXP or AP or some sort of system where fighting = leveling up.

Commentary/Thoughts:

After Freya saved Atreus, he was giving Kratos a bit of the silent treatment. I like that Kratos acknowledged the silence.

Nice little detail here.

And this was just silly. Very cute.

Shout out to the game devs for giving me anxiety with these puzzles.

Atreus lost his mother's knife saving Kratos, so it was nice that Kratos gave him a new one. One that he made for himself and for his son. Cute.

After Atreus learned he was a god, he got a major attitude! It was really interesting to see himself get such a big ego from learning what he is. I think even Kratos was shocked and worried about the attitude change. It was quite touching to see Kratos attribute Atreus's goodness to his mother, saying something along the lines of "You will honor your mother" when telling him to be better.

It was cute to see Sindri and Brok back together. Sibling love is interesting!

Same, Mimir. Same.

This part reminded me of being inside that whale in Kingdom Hearts. lol

This dude's whole story is about "feeling" anger that he can't feel anything (except anger, I guess!). Which I find very interesting. Reminds me of Tales of Berseria and how Velvet would say that feeling pain is a sign you're alive.

Also! I'm glad the green arrows finally came into play. Ever since Freya took them from Atreus and called them wicked, I was like, "What the heck?? WHY? I need more info!?" Sindri gave them to us, which made me distrust him for awhile. It makes sense now that she didn't like them because she knew they could break the spell on Baldur. Smh.

Not a fan of Freya being portrayed as a mad woman at the end. I mentioned at the beginning of this post that this game is very much a "Bro" game, as in, there are a lot of male characters. So to see the one woman in the game get overwhelmed and overcome by her emotions sucked.

However, Kratos said he understood her behavior and that he would also do the same (choose to die if it meant to save Atreus) which I think was a good detail to include. If this declaration from Kratos had not been included, it would have been too easy to dismiss Freya as a wild woman full of uncontrollable emotions, but having Kratos say that he would do the same makes her actions seem understandable, but I still think unreasonable.

Atreus is a good kid right now, so if Kratos died to save him, it would make sense. But Baldur was not a good person, and if Atreus turns "bad", then it also would not make sense for Kratos to save him either. I think Freya was in the wrong for wanting to save Baldur, yes even though he is her son. He wanted to kill her! Surely that is a sign there is something unhinged in your child's brain, heart, soul!? (shrugs)

I'm interested to see if she shows up in the next game.

At least Mimir seems to agree with me that it doesn't make a lot of sense.

So as far as the ending, I like the reveal of the mom actually being a Giant. Atreus is both god and Giant... interesting! This quick look at this mural in particular is also intriguing. To me, it looks like a snake coming out of Atreus's mouth and possibly connected to Kratos. Maybe it represents a circle or never-ending cycle, but who knows.

When Kratos killed Baldur, he said the cycle ends there. Kratos killed his father, and apparently this happens a lot with the gods lol. So it'll be interesting if this is Atreus killing Kratos or just him holding a dead Kratos, or if this even happens at all? I DONT KNOW. (I'm also not a pro on Greek or Nordic mythology.)

Cute little moment, he called him "Son" directly.

And this was interesting. Atreus is Loki??? Not sure how that will play out. They don't seem to like Odin or Thor in this world, who are portrayed positively in the Marvel universe while Loki is portrayed as a mischievous god, so... will Loki have good qualities in this game? I mean, so far he does. But again, I DONT KNOW.

Yeah I'm not doing a New Game+ any time soon, but like I said at the beginning of this post, I would like to revisit this game to do some of the side stuff that I didn't finish. I did fight one Valkyrie, but I kept dying at the very end each time. Maybe Kratos needs more HP because I got really close to killing the Valkyrie, I just couldn't find any green heals to stay alive.

Overall, a good game! I'm counting this as a "Finished" game because the credits rolled. I do not Platinum games because I do not care about digital trophies lol.

[hollowsart]

So question for ya regarding insomniac spiderman 2 mysterio - during the side quest at some point (I think during the finale iirc) miles runs into actual Quentin who's somehow broken through the illusion stuff Betsy and Cole are doing and he's dressed normally - like he was during his first appearance and later when we see him at the other mysteriums. But then when miles confronts Betsy and Cole and finds Quentin in a closet tied up he's decked out in full mysterio gear so... When did that happen? When did he change clothes? Did Betsy and Cole like... put him in his costume for the cops (or spiderman) to find to make their plan of framing Quentin (him going "full mysterio") seem more authentic?? Unless I'm misremembering of course...

I didn't even really pay attention to that little detail, but honestly??? You make a VERY great point with this.

(the rest of my response, it got really long, sorry):

I feel like he was already injured when he shows up in the simulation as a warning to Miles as you can see he's somewhat gripping at his side and not standing straight, they must've done something to him. he was also in a hurry and panic-- they definitely caught on to him trying to fight back against what they were doing and so they took him out, decked him out, and hid him away until they were in a position to release him that would be beneficial to getting them out of trouble and pinning all the blame on him.

Either they dressed him up, or he dressed up on his own try and fight back against them (albeit unwillingly, although I do suspect at one point he tried to give them a taste of the 'Mysterio' they wanted so bad for their plan after he found out what they were planning behind his back.. after all, he had the last Dev log and it was the the clearest evidence)

(you could make an argument that they set up and faked that dev log where Betsy reacts to "Mysterio" setting up a secret scanner in the Mysteriums that scans people credit cards without them knowing and Betsy being "that's illegal, you can't do that". I mean.. She DID seem far more interested in the monetary gain from this stunt rather than actually help Quentin Beck with what he really wanted. what he wanted didn't benefit her in the slightest, but the potential to become rich from it is what got her invested.)

Also considering Miles had his clothes changed when he was inside the Mysterium simulation for the first time, his clothes changed entirely. Who's to say, Beck didn't make himself look that way on purpose to help Miles understand that that Mysterio he is fight isn't the real him. He's been telling Miles throughout that boss battle to keep doubting and being skeptical. It's subtle enough that Betsy and Cole wouldn't have noticed too much compared to if he was merely saying "That's not me, don't believe them!" which would have been very very obvious and might have caused more trouble.

Or. Potentially. He had already been wearing the outfit as a speculated him giving the two a taste of the real Mysterio they wanted so bad for this whole thing. He's definitely the type of guy to get dressed for the part he plays.

He could have been stuck in that outfit for quite awhile for all we know. Trapped inside his own Mysterium, too. He was very weak when Miles finally found him, too, so.. All we really can do is speculate and make up our own theories and probabilities to what actually occurred off screen.

[trappedtowers]

Trapped Towers Dev History ~ How We Got Here (Part 1)

(Middle art piece done by @/evilredyoshis)

Hey everybody !!

Today I'm going to be introducing another type of post I can end up doing - development history/update posts! These will likely be rarer than other types of posts (after this 3 parter anyway), purely because development on this project is just pretty slow due to my lack of ✨ focus ✨ and all that. However, there is definitely some old development stuff I can talk about! Plus, for those of you who are new - you get to learn more about this project that has been ongoing since early 2018!

So lets get into this, shall we? It's going to be a lengthy read.

February 2018 - August 2020 ~ The Beginning/Undertale AU Era:

February 2018 was a time, by this point I'd spent almost a year making music for my friends and very small audience in the Undertale community. One day, I was simply bored and had no ideas - so my sister told me "hey make an Alton Towers megalo"... how I hadn't done it yet shocked me, I'd been going since 2014 and loved the place dearly. However, with a laugh I agreed and got to work.

A few days into creation, I began theory crafting the basics for an Undertale AU. The first ever concept for what would eventually become Trapped Towers - explains a lot about the name and premise though huh. I eventually uploaded a song or two for the AU, including the megalo I did finish - "Ministry Of Death".

One person found and covered the megalo. Then another. And another. And soon enough the whole thing spiralled - I would consider it to this day my biggest impact on the Undertale Community, even if it was still relatively small and not long lived. Either way, it got me to take the project a little more seriously... but quickly it spiralled into development hell. I was only 14 after all, if you asked me what a leadership style was I probably would have no idea what you were on about or given a dumb answer.

Reboot after reboot was attempted. New server after new server. Eventually though, one server was made and kept. However, the project had already fallen into more obscurity and my motivation was low, so I moved to new things. Every so often a new Trapped Towers post would occur, mainly new Smiler content as that's what really brought in people. Things would stay like that for a bit unfortunately though...

Old Content:

How about some art and concepts from the time though huh? For an Undertale AU it was... something. Tom wasn't called Tom and was literally just called Frisk. The world layout was just Undertale and I just made stuff fit - The Beornen were almost located in X-Sector because of Wickerman being the Grillby replacement. Th13teen wouldn't have really even been in the story as she was Gaster. Half the characters didn't even have designs! People loved Smiler and Enterprise, and any serious work focused on the Ruins portion with Terra. They were still trapped because Nemesis was too dangerous to be let free, however Nemesis was also in a permenant sleep - only prophisised to reawaken. It wasn't an active threat.

(I don't entirely remember who made what here, so I'm sorry for no credits)

OLD SOUNDTRACK LINKS:

Trapped Towers V1 Soundtrack

Trapped Towers V2 Soundtrack

It's all quite funny to look back on. There's so many bits that clearly influenced the project as it is today. Many old designs haven't had drastic overhauls either, which is quite funny to think about... maybe I should get on some...

Anyway, with that brings the conclusion of part 1 of this 3 part blog series. The next two parts will come out day after day, with tomorrow being "August 2020 - June 2021" and Friday being "June 2021 - Present Day". Figured it'd be much easier for reading if I split them into a couple parts !! Also gives me a few extra days to consider what else I want to post haha.

Until then, cya ! - JustDaniel

[just-a-carrot]

Hi! I never use tumblr, but I wanted to get on my mostly untouched account and ask you something!

First off though, I want to say that I absolutely ADORE Our Wonderland and Our Fantastic Wonderland. I’m not a horror person, so I saw the game on itch.io for a long time before I was brave enough to try it, thinking it would just be a horror movie plot in the form of a visual novel. But I was so, so wrong, and so pleasantly surprised. I love all of it: the characters are so vibrant and feel so alive (except for when you know, they’re no longer with us and then R.I.P.), the way you don’t pull punches with the heavy topics you cover, the fact that you never know which choice will lead to a death but that you also are merciful and send us back to the last choice rather than giving us a game over (seriously, thank you for that), oh my gosh I could go on and on. The art style grew on me too and now I love it, plus I think it fits the game perfectly; I really like how you draw everyone so expressively.

I’m super excited for the final part to be released, but don’t push yourself too hard; we’re all happy to patiently wait. Being a solo dev is crazy difficult, and the high quality product you’ve released so far is simply fantastic. Plus you added a gallery, not one but TWO new modes (censored and streaming which must have been so much work), and other cool things WHILE ALSO creating the first half of Act 5??? Like how do you get so much done?

Anyways, I’m rambling, so I’ll get back on track. I saw in one of your answers to an ask (about if you’re okay with NSFW art of Our Wonderland) that you said you’re okay with people writing (among other things) about OW so long as they’re not using it in a hateful or bigoted way (I don’t remember the exact phrase you used, but I think that’s the gist of it).

So I wanted to ask, like are fanfictions okay? I have no intention to use them in a way that is demeaning to others, or hateful, or anything unkind. I just want to make some OW fan content to sustain me until the second half of Arc 5 is released, and hopefully share my love of OW and the characters with anyone who decides to read the fanfic(s).

I would definitely give you all the credit for Our Wonderland's characters, storyline, etc. While I'm usually a quiet person on the internet, I want to send anyone who may read the fanfics to the actual visual novels you've made. I would like to clarify that I don't really have an audience as I haven't posted my writing on any websites in a hot minute, but this story has absolutely entranced me. And I want to have more people to nerd out about this story with, so if i can get some more people on board the OW train, I'd be thrilled.

If you say no, I will respect your wishes as the creator and will not write or post any fanfiction!

If you are okay with it though, I’d be thrilled to share the title and website, etc I end up posting the fanfics on so you can read them if you so desire. Regardless of your decision, I will be thrilled to replay Our Wonderland and Our Fantastic Wonderland many times and I’m super stoked for the arrival of part two of Act 5!

(Sorry it's such a long message >.<)

Oh, my gosh, this is such a long (and lovely) message lakdjafld thank you so much for sending in a question! AND THANK YOU SO MUCH??? FOR THE WONDERFUL WORDS??? You're going to make me cry over here!! 🥺💦 I'm glad you decided to try it out despite your hesitations. I definitely know horror in general isn't for everyone LOL And this game definitely gets very intense at times in terms of horrificness LOL So that just makes me even happier that you still ended up enjoying it and the story ahhhhh,,,💦

"Like how do you get so much done?" -> LMAO HONESTLY I DON'T EVEN KNOW I didn't even decide to add all the new features and stuff until the last three or so weeks before the launch which,,, probably was not the best decision as the CG gallery especially ended up taking me hours and hours LOL However, I'm really glad to have gotten it done!! And I hope the new features will be helpful to people!

"So I wanted to ask, like are fanfictions okay?" -> Yeah, that's completely fine!! I am really fine with anything people want to create, just so long as exactly like you quoted above, that it's not for anything offensive or hateful/bigoted. (A-also not that I think anyone wouldn't do this, but I hope that people would honor the chars' sexualities/orientations lkadjfad 💦) I also ask that people don't tag me with anything NSFW as it makes me a bit uncomfortable and I don't want to interact with it (I don't mind people creating stuff like that so long as they're 18+, I just don't wanna interact with it personally dlakfjsdl) 😵‍💫💦 But just normal SFW stuff I have no problem with at all, whether it's writing/fics or art!! I think it's wonderful and lovely that you feel so inspired from my story that you would want to write something yourself! 🥺💕

Thank you so much again for your message! This was really sweet and brightened my day! 🥰

[thatonecrookedsmile]

Uhhh it might be pretty late (literally), but we're a little less than 24 hours away from the release of Secrets of the Machine, so I wanted to get all my thoughts in order and put them in one post. Originally I went through them in the form of screenshots within my last drawing, but I thought it would be a bit clumsy, especially in a description that was already long. And even though it was in your own post it was weird, so I'll put the whole text here. I'm not used to going and publishing my thoughts in so much detail, especially when it comes to things I like. And I already make too long descriptions that bother me, so I'll probably never do this again!!

But I've written so much so far, so there's no going back. Here's my pre-release analysis/thoughts of the new game Bendy: Secrets of the Machine.

uuuuhhhhhhh enjoy?

So. “Secrets of the Machine”? New game focused on Gent. Huh. A surprise. But intriguing nonetheless. I don't mind Gent being explored more in the future. I've been thinking for a while that it would be interesting to see more of them besides just the Ink Machine itself and Thomas Connor. Plus, even though I still like stories focusing on the horrors of Joey Drew's studio, there will come a point where there will be nothing more to tell about that place, so I have no problem starting to also focus on the Other Bad Company in this universe which also has hand in the creation of the Ink Machine itself.

They are also credited on the Steam page as developers. I don't think that means anything other than being something meta. Not in the sense of "oh, look, we created a real company that has the same name as the in-universe company" (at least, I don't believe it will be that) and more of a "funny haha" kind of meta. This is a game that will focus on them after all.

Because of the enigmatic (for lack of a better term) circumstances of this game, it's difficult for me to analyze everything on the Steam page without my thoughts colliding so I'll be straight up about what I think this is going to be. Right away, this isn't going to be a big game. Not even close. I mean, this was announced almost 2 weeks ago with a release date of April 14th, it's going to be free, and it's 1GB big. It really won't be insanely big. (And considering that the devs are also working on The Cage - a game that probably won't be that big but definitely won't be a small spinoff either, and that of current game projects this is the Next Big Thing they're working on - I doubt it really would be)

I believe that one of the points of this game, if not, the main point of it - besides being a puzzle (?) game to occupy us during these waiting times - is to tease us future Bendy projects. I don't know if it will be THE way to give us teasers going forward but I believe it could be One of the ways. The Steam description says "Lurking amongst the shadows are glimpses into the past, the present, and the future of the Dark Puddles." So whatever happens in this game, not only will we see things related to the previous games but also things that are yet to come. What I think is most likely at the moment are teasers for, again, The Cage. Which I don't think is unlikely. The Pit, originally (at least in the real world from what it seems) was the Research Wing of the old Gent Workshop, so I think it's not impossible that Secrets could be a way to give a possible look at what we can expect from The Cage and the horrors of The Pit. Maybe later in the future, we may have teasers for Bendy 3. Possibly also for the Lone Wolf rebrand of BATDS? To be honest, this last one is the least likely possibility.

I saw someone before saying that this game could be a type of "Interactable Experience/Teaser". I believe the whole "Interactable" thing in the Steam's description resulted in this thought. (“Discover the interactable Secrets of the Machine…”) (“Unravel the Interactive Mystery.”)

I only know two "games" that fit this type, that teaser for the movie "Super 8" that you can play in the Portal 2 extras and the famous P.T (Playable Teaser for a canceled Silent Hill game). I don't know if SOTM fits into the same type of experience as these other 2, but we'll see (However, even though I know absolutely nothing about P.T., from what I hear, I think I can guarantee that whatever SOTM is, it will be far from what P.T. is, lol)

In a way, I see SOTM being something more or less similar to Dark Survival/Lone Wolf (whatever you prefer). 

It's going to be another small spinoff (even though, comparing the two, SOTM is larger than BATDS, with the first being 1 GB and the second being 285 MBs),something to occupy us in these moments of waiting, and as I said before, something to tease us for future things (even though, I think it can be argued that, if that was the original goal of BATDS, they didn't do a good job) (I mean, what did that game actually give us when it came to important teasers? Nathan's first mention? An entire audio log by Wilson? I think that's it)

It also seems like it won't just be a "one and done" thing, you know. Like, the game launches, and that's it. The end of the description mentions "Stay Close for Updates." So it seems that as time passes, this game will receive new updates with new content perhaps (let's just hope that this one doesn't "die" 4 months after the original release and we will have to wait 4 years later for another update)

The end of the summary it says "But stay alert, this realm changes often..." so this could also be the case where the environments in this game can also be randomly generated like the studio in Dark Survival? (or it could be a case where, we have fixed environments, but over time, the more updates we have, the world opens up more and more, perhaps?) The Drawing Room can also be a type of "main area" like the Safehouse and the dungeons in Boris's game.

In terms of story, I don't have many ideas. The basics would be a Gent employee was placed inside the Ink Realm for Experimental Reasons, and we are playing as this employee. Whatever places we visit in the cycle this time, they don't look like they came from JDS. 

In terms of characters, I think that of those that have been introduced in the games so far, the one that has the most chance of having a role is Alan Gray. He's the head of the whole business, so it would make sense for him to show up. Maybe hear from Thomas and other employees mentioned before? But I think this is very unlikely. And, as much as this is a bit absurd, I think that characters like Henry, Audrey, or even the Ink Demon will also not actually appear in the game and, at most, will have cameos (in relation to all the 'glimpses of the past, present and future')

Something interesting that was noticed, the code "131389145" (or rather, 13 1 3 8 9 14 5), changing the numbers for letters results in the word 'machine'. On the one hand, while I was organizing my thoughts, I considered the idea that the machine in this case could be the device with a toon face that appears in the trailer and screenshots, but, as others have pointed out before, it is much more possible that it is referring to the Ink Machine itself, which is more likely (and more interesting).

If that's the case, there's a good chance this game will take place after the end of Dark Revival, where Gent takes the machine for themselves again. Which, if this is the case, leaves me very intrigued.

Oh, and there will be mystery. We will solve The Mystery while we play. What mystery? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I don't know if there's much to say about the teaser itself, so I'm just going to comment on what I find most interesting.

- As much as I can't say that there really is something in the darkness during the first 13 seconds of the teaser, between 0:11 - 0:13, you can see something. It looks like some kind of cable I guess?

- The high-pitched scream. It appears in the device scene, and you can hear it even before, during the scene with the paint falling downwards, and before the house appears, but much lower. Nothing to comment other than I'll try to remember this when the game launches.

- The design of the house is strange to be honest. Bendy's face appears on one of the walls along with a message below, which you can't read. There is an entrance that only leads to darkness and something next to the entrance. It looks like a wheelchair to me, but I can't say for sure.

- Interesting that, both at the beginning of the teaser with the grainy film and in the device scene, you can see more colorful tones on the screen. Red, blue, purple, green, you get it. Maybe more about the experiments Wilson did? Who knows.

- The condition that Subject #131389145 is in is described as "Danger. Unstable." The name of the teaser is also "Unstable". I thought it was interesting to note.

Regarding the screenshots:

- Screenshot nº1: I don't know what this device is or what it does, but the fact that it appears in both the trailer and the screenshots gives me the idea that it's going to be something important.

- Screenshot nº2: A dark corridor with almost no light. A figure in the background, blurred. I've seen some people say the figure looks like Barley. I can't deny that they have a certain similarity (why does he look so thin, tho)

- Screenshot nº3: A kanji. This -> 悪 Means "evil". I'll be honest, this is the weirdest one for me.

- Screenshot nº4: Some kind of arch structure. I don't even think it's an entrance to somewhere, it's just an arch in the middle of nowhere. There's a cloud in the background, and something else that I can't identify.

- Screenshot nº5: A door in the middle of darkness. It leads to some room that you can't see either because it's blurred. It must be important. Maybe it takes us to the Drawing Room? In my opinion, the coolest screenshot of the 5 (I even made it my banner)

In conclusion:

I'm very interested! And this interest comes from the fact that I don't know what the hell this game is going to be. Yeah, I just wrote a few paragraphs about what I think this game could be, but at the end of the day, I don't really know what this game is going to be. And I want to know. The circumstances of his existence are so strange, and I'm drawn to it. What does this game have to offer, what will it tell me, who will I meet. I need to know what the Secrets of the Machine are,man (HE SAID IT).

This game may end up being a little different from the other Bendy games, and that goes in two different ways. Firstly, the way this game was found, the teaser, the screenshots, the logo, the Steam description. Yeah, it's a Bendy game, but there's something different this time. It could definitely be a new experience this time. (new in the sense of different) And secondly, considering what we know so far about that project, SOTM seems to share a little bit of Bendy: The Cage’s DNA, a game that, considering all the information we have available,will be a much more experimental and different game in comparison to the Bendy games that came before. And Secrets could very well be a small taste of what B:TC will offer, and if that is the case? I'm in.

Additional (or miscellaneous) comments:

- The devs have so far been ignoring this thing, which at first I found strange, but considering the nature of this game, it must be on purpose. After all, this is "Secrets of the Machine". And as far as I know, secrets are not something that are talked about in public. (Can’t believe Bendy finally entered his ARG arc)

- Even though the figure in the second screenshot looks a little bit like Barley, I have doubts as to whether the Butcher Gang will really be relevant in this game. First, what would Gent's interest in the gang be? And second...I don't know. The last time I saw people theorizing that the gang could be important in a future game, it turned out that in the end...they weren't. So I'm a little cautious.

- In the first 2 days that this game was discovered,there were some doubts as to whether this game was going to be a "troll game" or whether it was an April Fool's joke. I thought about that, and the fact that this game was discovered 1 day after April Fools didn't help. In hindsight,this idea doesn't make a lot of sense? Like, yeah, I know the joke about companies announcing games on April 1st that won't actually exist. I've seen this a few times. But like. This game was "shadow-announced" a day after the first, the whole thing had already passed, and it was scheduled to be released 2 weeks later. What kind of elaborate April Fools' Day is this where you announce a troll game one day after April Fools' Day specifically and want to launch it just 2 weeks later where everyone has already moved on with their lives? It wouldn't really be funny. Or smart.

[1moreff-creator]

Hey! Thank you so much! This is very helpful. I’ll give my thoughts, because this is definitely going to come up in the video.

do you have a nickname

… Yeah, my username’s kinda long, huh? Maybe I’ll come up with a nickname when I get around to making an intro post (that’s a thing people do right?)

#1: Of tunnels and Snow Country

the additional text is actually just the word “惨状” ("sanjou”), the exact pronunciation and other ways it can be read

You say that like I know what “sanjou” means lol. It’s the “disastrous” part, right? Google translate says it’s “disaster”, so I guess it’s that. Anyways, it’s not too important, yay!

the lyric itself doesn’t seem to be a direct reference […] but many people on both the original japanese song and the english translation believe it’s a direct reference

Huh. I guess Snow Country may just be so culturally significant for Japan, that any reference to tunnels can be assumed to be related back to it in the context of LGI. It was apparently cited as one of the reasons it’s author won a Nobel in Literature (thanks Wikipedia), so I guess it makes sense.

I mean, the re-contextualization I interpreted still exists because of the Hamlet line afterwards, which I’m pretty sure isn’t in the og LGI. And I know it’s not there, because I found a website with the exact text in the “so” (or equivalent) line, and it’s just a definition in the og LGI. I am very normal about this research.

(I guess it could be in the text the og LGI has in place of the “Diana” images, but I translated the Hamlet line into Japanese and checked the characters, and I don’t think it’s there. Now I’m kinda curious what that part says, though)

there’s actually no way to distinguish “if we” vs “if you”

You know, I kinda suspected this, because it seems like every time the wiki said “we”, the David MV says “you”. It’s sort of an issue on the account of me repeatedly pointing it out as possibly significant.

However, I still have reason to believe these translations are significant, because of something I realized regarding Language Theory when I was researching. You know Coleena Wu? That person who uploaded the translation video I've been referencing, and the person listed as the translator in the Vocaloid wiki? Their name is actually in the credits part of the David MV. Maybe the dev just used their video as reference for the visuals only, seeing as it's by far the easiest to find version of LGI at least for me, but at the end of the day, they must still be aware of Coleena's translations, and actively chose to translate most of everything to "you" anyways, even when the original context of the song would usually demand "we" for the vast majority of the lyrics. It's especially interesting when things like "it'll break and disappear" (you know the one) may have come straight from the Coleena video translation.

So... maybe they can still be considered concious changes to the lyrics? I don't know, but I do point them out every now and then in the video, so you and everyone else who actually knows Japanese are going to have to deal with me possibly reading too much into things that may not actually matter. Sorry :v

#2A: Of Dogs and Bibliography

these are actually two parts of the same sentence, and when combined it’s “私は犬です” (watashi wa inu desu), which translates to “i am a dog.” 

what

What- what am I supposed to do? That's so weird. I'm so confused. Thanks for telling me. I guess Yoppei is just kinda quirky. I doubt I'll be able to come up with a proper explanation, but at least I know what it says.

Would have been nice to know about this before I made that MonoTVid propaganda post- i mean what post? i've never posted anything about MonoTvid

(the actual word they use in this part is “watashi” instead of “wagahai” like the literary reference, but regardless.)

It's funny, thanks to my research I happen to be deeply aware of the difference between wagahai and other first person pronouns. I'm learning. Beware.

#2B: Of Pianos

i think it’s just “カモーン！ピアノ!” (come on, piano!) [...] unlike the original song the yoppei cover has a piano instrumental after that segment, which is probably why he said this

But what does it mean?!!?!?!?

I'm kidding. Yeah, this probably isn't too important thankfully. Less analysis for me!

#2C: Of Unknown Lyrics

yoppei’s cover is just him humming along to the tune, doesn’t seem like he’s saying anything coherent here.

Oh, so I don't have to deal with this? You're lighting up my day here!

the lyrics are written as “Rise up people!! It's the day to say goodbye to the fools!!” on the wiki—however, it sounds nothing like that in the original song. in fact, i actually can’t tell exactly what it says

... Huh. You know, I did think it was weird the wiki only had the English phrase and nothing about the Japanese. Oh dear. Well, add that to "list of things I'm confused about".

i’m not even going insane over the david mv, i’m going insane over the original song. help me.

You're not alone, I understand your struggle. Why do you think I asked you about something that has nothing to do with the David MV? I'm well past the point of insanity analyzing both the videos. So let's be crazy together! :D

#3: Of Abnormals Dances and Credits

it’s a credits screen. it credits the following:

the creator of the song the thumbnail/video artist the editor the publisher(?) the printing agency(??) the binding (as in books) (???) the paper company (????) and… charan & poran publishing (??????)

Oh, that's cool! I wonder if choran & poran publishing is a real thing <- clueless

Oh, it's a- huh, they apparently publish... adult rated content. What is that doing there. Maybe I shouldn't research this too much actually-

not sure if you saw the description for the english translation video, but it should say “volume three,” not two. (also their description is very helpful with references, a lot of the clues i got came from there ^^)

Yep! Coleena's clarifications are pretty helpful!

Thank you so much for this! It's really nice to have confirmation on all this. I'll definitly reach out again if there's something I want to know.

-[Nickname to be determined]

Progress Report on the David MV video I’m working on: 1 week in

(Or basically me rambling for a while to get part of my downward spiral into insanity out in the world. You can ignore this if you want)

I’m not planning to do these weekly or anything, and if it gets annoying, I’ll stop. But I feel like sharing some stuff considering I don’t have a lot of time to make posts on anything else :v

So, good news, I’ve already fully edited (minus background technically, but that takes two seconds to add) over 33 minutes of the video. The worrying news? In the 33rd minute, I am only starting to talk about the first “chorus”. That’s… Fellow Tumblr users, that’s only a minute into the MV. The MV is four minutes long. If the trend continues, the video might actually end up being two hours long. And what’s worse is that the first minute of the MV is relatively simple, since there’s no footnotes or numerals, nor any of the wilder theories that come later. The longest section there is talking for ten minutes about the “tunnel scene”, which is literally just me interpreting lyrics and background text. Admittedly, it’s one of the more complex parts of the song, but still.

Why would the video be so obnoxiously long, you ask? I did say in my original post about it that it likely wouldn’t contain much new information. Well, the truth is.. I was a fool. Most of my analyses before had been about insular parts of the MV, like the numerals and footnotes and stuff like that, but I had never bothered to do a complete analysis of the lyrics and the background text, which is taking a lot of time. The closest I’d seen of something like that is weightedblankettt’s analysis from back when the MV first came out, but as amazing as that post is (and as much as I am taking from it), it didn’t cover a lot of the things I’ll talk about. LGI is already really complicated, and then you have to add all the other text in the damn background and I-

Goodness gracious. One like equals one footnote 6 ([Prayer]).

One thing that particularly struck me is just how prevalent Language Theory actually is. Like, anderscim’s original post only covers a few examples, so I figured it wouldn’t extend much beyond that, but seriously, like every other line is intentionally mistranslated. There’s on point where the lyrics are so screwed I straight up have to explain what the original LGI says, then translate that into the David MV’s changed lyrics, otherwise it’s just nonsensical. Geez.

In other, possibly worse news, I may be giving myself Stockholm Syndrome, and now David is my third favorite character. That wasn’t- This wasn’t how this was meant to go. I considered him sorta mid, now he’s the most fantastic character ever written apparently. I dread the day I start liking him more than Veronika, and I hope it never comes. And I don’t even want to conceive the possibility of me liking him more than Min, but I’m worrying it’s not fully farfetched. I am undergoing negative character development.

I blame him for getting such a banger song tbh. The more I look into it, the more I appreciate just how good LGI is. Like, wow, it really is an incredible song. If only it was on Spotify, I would put it in my playlist after being done with the video.

I also have gotten irrationally attached to the titular Girl of Literature Girl Insane. I may give her a name, since she doesn’t have one. I… may have a problem, but that’s not exactly news.

But anyways. Just as anecdotes, here’s a few of the deranged things which have gone through my mind while writing the script. I hope they’re somewhat amusing without context, because for me they simply represent suffering.

+Okay, so we’ve made the link between David and Bowser from hit video game series “Mario”, how much lower can we go?

+The MV says “it will”, but both anderscim’s post and the Vocaloid wiki say it’s “it has”, but the video I’m also referencing for translation says “it will” as well, and the credits of the MV list the video’s uploader, but the Vocaloid wiki’s translation was made by the same uploader-

+How many interpretations am I on for the “ideal country”? Like, five, six?

+I can’t believe David would say that to the square oOo

+Okay, so if Diana is the lemon- <- Theory crafting, probably won’t be in the video.

+Why does every fucking number represent “change” or “new beginnings”?! Get some new fucking material, people!

+What the hell does this quote mean? David doesn’t have enough of a purpose in life for it to work here.

+why am i looking at a tumblr rp blog.

…

might read through it later-

+Oh, so now it’s “we”! Every other time you’ve said “you”, David! What is your deal?!

Anyways, sorry for not posting anything of substance and then rambling, but wanted to scream into the void for a while. Thanks for reading, and take care!

[still-a-morosexual-help]

Previous anon discussing the depth and lore here!

Read your response and I gotta say I still don’t completely agree, but I see where you’re coming from. Just wanna clarify that I do think Obey Me is one of the better otomes imo, but I just don’t feel like all decisions (ie facial expressions, lines) were exactly made with as much thought as you express (don’t get me wrong tho, I’m not saying the devs don’t deserve any credit or praise for decisions or writing). The best way I can explain it is when a teacher is analyzing a blue curtain in a film as “expressing sadness” and then the director saying he just liked the color blue— that’s kinda how I see the fandom’s analysis to the Obey Me plot. I do agree that it’s important to pay attention to details, but personally with *some* things, it feels like an over analysis. But of course that’s just me (and i enjoy reading it anyways lmao)!! TLDR; story is great, but it could be better lol. ANYWAYS sorry for rambling so much, we can agree to disagree on some things </3 still love you

Oh yeah definitely! Sometimes a blue curtain is a blue curtain. God, I'm not saying 0M! 's got some amazing depth or whatever😂😂😂 and I'll definitely be the first person to admit that I overanalyse things ( *cough*mammon's panic attack in the cupboard*cough*im so sorry michael i was just playing around and having fun i didn't mean to make people hate you before you even appeared*cough*) but it's also got more depth than people give it credit for

And while I don't think there's some deep analysis or reason behind the lines & expressions, you also don't just put lines or expressions in yknow?

(l think the only time you can get accidental expressions is in live action - where someone isn't meticulously planning out every line of a person's face. Like obviously in cartoons there'll be a lot of times where the fandom overanlyses an expression but at the same time even if the fandom is digging too deep that expression was a deliberate choice on the creators' parts)

At least in my experience you don't - if a character changes their facial expression between one sentence to another because they're talking to a character they're close with vs one they're not (eg: asmo in the s2 example I gave in the previous post when he spoke to Solomon vs Diavolo) then someone made a deliberate decision to make that expression change

Like if a line or expression is there it's because the devs added it, which means at least some small amount of thought went into its placement. Obviously not every line or expression has a deeper meaning but you can usually tell which ones do by whether or not they stand out compared to what the character will normally say/do or compared to what the character is currently saying and if there's a sudden shift in their expression triggered by a shift in the scene (eg: who they're talking to/ who arrives in or leaves the room etc)

Eg 1 : These 3 screenshots follow each other and are (obviously) about the same topic

Talking to Diavolo

Vs

Talking to Solomon

Eg 2: Usually when Mammon calls Luke a Chihuahua

If he's teasing/deliberately saying it to be an asshole, he's smiling:

If not, his expression usually fits what he's feeling/saying,

when casual:

when angry:

when exasperated:

But this is his expression after Luke interrupts their serious yet secret discussion with Simeon, where up to this point Mammon was angry, worried & upset:

Specially after going through so many "high"/"large" emotions, he instantly becomes uncharacteristically blank/stoic when Luke barges in

Eg 3 :

After MC commands 6 of the brothers in one swoop and feels no adverse effects while Solomon & Diavolo know that their magic is going out of control and destroying things. Solomon asks about how they feel after controlling the brothers for the first time and is his usual smiling self. When MC leaves though his expression drops. And this is significant because

a.) We rarely get to see the characters' expressions after MC leaves

b.) Solomon's always so smiley that any change is very noticeable

c.) There's no dialogue box that appears and usually a character is not kept on screen for that extra second like that since they're either immediately switched with another character or the scene ends and the screen turns black

Eg 4 :

There's also expressions/dialogue that's repeated when a character is feeling the same emotion

a.) Lucifer goes "..." when he's worried (eg: when Mammon runs away from home, when Mammon starts acting upset/distant after being forced to act like an angel - both in devilgrams)

b.) Mammon goes "..." when he's truly upset (eg: when MC's day to leave draws closer, when MC kisses Lucifer - both in the main story)

So yeah, not every line/expression has some deeper meaning but there are lots of moments like this ^ where it can't be anything but a deliberate placement on the devs part and that's what I was talking about in the previous ask

But yeah at the end of the day to each their own and I'm more than happy to agree to disagree I just needed a place to talk about those ^ examples with screenshots because they're some of my favourite moments in OM! writing wise

[shihalyfie]

Any thoughts regarding Survive? Personally I felt it went a little too hard on the “what if adventure was dark?” vibes towards the 1st half, but I overall still think it was a solid experience. As well as being genuinely surprised they were allowed to go that hard at all, because even if the cyber sleuth games had more mature elements, this kicks it past what most series with the same target audience would be willing to do

I'm already working on a meta post about it! (It's just that because it's a completely new work I haven't had experience analyzing before, the post is taking a very long time to prep, especially since my real-life job has not been kind to me. I did write a warning on the blog earlier that this might happen, but I do want to cover it even if it takes me a while.) That said, the meta is turning out to be extremely spoilery, so I might as well kind of give my short-form opinions for now, since I know most people haven't finished all four routes yet.

Obviously I am more than a little biased because I do love Cyber Sleuth/Hacker's Memory (the Erika icon probably makes that clear already), but I generally have a good opinion of the game pipeline's attempts to appeal to an adult audience without sinking into needless edginess or sacrificing what makes people like in this series. So even if Survive might have occasionally toed into overkill, it never felt malicious towards Adventure -- that is to say, it was something clearly done with love towards it and wanting to experiment with it further, and not "Adventure was a kiddy series that never did anything dark so here we're going to do some real vicious stuff!" As long as I feel it was done with love and respect, I will always cut it slack, and in regards to the game's Adventure references, I absolutely do not think you could make something like this unless you really knew and understood Adventure. This is not using Adventure things for nostalgia references, this is something that's in many ways a love letter to Adventure (even if that sounds a little twisted to some). I mean, the entire game exists because the producer was so thoroughly enamored by Kakudou's concept of Adventure Digimon as youkai, so everything has really come out of genuine love and passion.

In fact, I imagine it must have been hard to keep the game as tasteful as it was, because the game covers a lot of concepts regarding Digimon evolution and partnership that fans have been wanting to see explored for years but would never have been able to see because of the Sunday morning kids' show timeslot restrictions. And I have seen fanfic that often covers that, and trust me, I have seen how malicious and needlessly edgy a lot of it threatens to get into, so I appreciate the game putting clear effort to not go that way. And even when the game went all the way and didn't hold back, it definitely felt warranted and thought through. I was also worried about whether the kids' mental health problems or deaths would be treated in a fetishizing manner, but for the most part each character felt like they were treated respectfully and with kindness. I was a little startled at how nuanced they were with framing one particular character as toxic and yet also pitiful (I won't say which one yet, but if you've played the game you can probably figure this out).

I would not recommend the game to everyone. I think the content is going to be a bit too much to stomach for some, I even worry it might hit some triggers for some, and I'm also well aware the gameplay style is not going to sit well with everyone. But as you said, the game is genuinely ambitious and I think that alone deserves credit. The devs were well aware that not everyone would like it, and they've said this publicly, but it's a well-known fact among creatives that trying to constantly please the greatest common denominator is only going to result in the most lukewarm, play-it-safe stuff all of the time, so I'm glad they were willing to take the risk. In regards to the fact they were willing to go that hard, well, it is a T-rated game after all, but I also think there are some ways Ghost Game's physical and psychological horror can be even more brutal. It's ironic in that I don't think these two horror-based works were intended to come out together, but somehow Ghost Game's simultaneous running probably made me see Survive as much less shocking than I really could have.

The gameplay is a bit rough-around-the-edges when it comes to its SRPG aspects; it was fine enough for me, but I imagine more seasoned gamers might be turned off. (Cyber Sleuth/Hacker's Memory was not exactly the paragon of well-designed RPG gameplay either, but considering the kind of really, really bad games this franchise has put out, any Digimon game that's even remotely playable instantly qualifies as one of the franchise's top 15 games.) If I have any major story complaints, it's mostly that I'm not too fond of the actual handling of the route system (the fact so much of it is unskippable repeated content and the fact there’s a blatantly intended order for the routes that it's too easy to not follow by accident), and that this game reuses Adventure's "Digimon partners are literally part of a human's soul" thing but doesn't go nearly enough (at least, for my tastes) into how potentially disturbing that could be for said partners' lack of autonomy. (This is consistently one of the biggest criticisms of the Adventure/02 universe compared to other Digimon works, and I was able to let it go there because it's not concretely brought up in the series and therefore the potential power imbalance never gets as bad as it could be, but here it absolutely is a major plot point that's brought up verbally several times.)

And the localization sucks. I know this goes without saying, and Cyber Sleuth/Hacker's Memory's still makes me wince, and I really should have anticipated this coming, especially since even recently we had Kizuna getting a trainwreck translation (and The Beginning's prospects already looking bad in this regard). But Crunchyroll's recent Digimon subs, especially Ghost Game, have been very comparatively good, so I was hoping...but alas, no, we can't have nice things.

But that's enough for today. I'll talk more when I have a more detailed post (I would appreciate it if you checked it out once I finish!), but the tl;dr is that I like it a lot, I really respect how much it clearly understood Adventure on a very substantial and intimate level in ways things often don't, and I'm overall very happy to add it to my library of Digimon things I like.

[goldensunset]

So the more I’m thinking about it, I realized I love each member of the destiny trio individually, (and Sokai of course), but I feel like they're not really the best, most cohesive trio at the moment. I think maybe Wayfinder trio actually is the best, most cohesive, functional trio right now? Anyway.

I’m wondering if maybe the weirdness between the destiny trio in kh3 was intentional, and not the result of rushed development or something, as I keep assuming. Because they took the time to give every other trio special moments, but we didn’t get anything like that for SKR. Even the very last scene in the game mirrors the paopu scene: it’s sora and Kairi alone, and Riku separate from them. He's smiling, he's happy for them, but still, it's a clear separation of Sora and Kairi from everyone else, and Riku especially. I feel like remind could have been an opportunity for them to give even one memory or flashback or moment between the three if they wanted. It just feels like the devs only ever put sora and Riku together (like the ending of kh2, or ddd), or sora and Kairi (end of kh1, end of kh3/remind), but not all three anymore (secret ending of kh1 with the letter in the bottle). Sora vanishes sitting alone with kairi. At the end of the credits, the final image is the one of her and sora on the tree. Look at remind, it’s Kairi on the title screen. And like, if it were a fluke of 3’s development, why did it persist in Melody of memory? They could have had Yen Sid tell Kairi to stay home. The fact that it was riku just hurts so much more.

I don’t really have an answer but I just wanted your thoughts. Is this so they’ll reconcile later? Or as Nomura said in that interview:

"Nomura hopes its depiction of their bonds can offer a realistic sense of how friendships evolve and change over time. "{Kingdom Hearts is] not too realistic, but I do want my players to grasp a sense of reality from it as well," Nomura said. "For example, I'm sure you had friends when you were young, a good group of friends, but as you grow older things change and it doesn't always stay the same. I think all I can say is please play to the very end and see what happens. But I think [Kingdom Hearts 3] does depict how each character feels about each other in this new storyline."

It's intentionally vague, but like, does that mean the trio is coming apart? is it just sora and kairi getting closer from here on out? I just don’t know what the series looks like if they’re estranged from here on out. But to be honest, I sort of felt like sora and Riku weren’t even getting along that well in 3. It was weird almost bullying at times against sora. But they did have that “you don’t believe that” moment too, so idk man. Am I just reading way too much into this (probably)? Also, do you REALLY think they might be setting up a Kairi protag arc, or are we being set up to he let down again? I want her to be equal to/save her boys so bad, but it’s hard to hope for it after MoM…

sorry for this stupid long ask, but I would love to hear your thoughts :) also when you said "I risk my life every time I say it but riku's arc is done" I really felt that

*cracks knuckles* aight it’s time

*sniffles* so i didn’t know about that interview where nomura said that… *lies down definitely not crying* might explain a lot…

man i…i’m torn. like a part of me thinks kh should ultimately come back to the destiny trio as a group of friends because from the beginning they were established as the main characters. and to lose sight of that is to lose sight of kh’s heart. play up the nostalgia factor for the first game back when it was so simple and magical. something something disney magic power of friendship everything should work out in the end. it’s a feel-good fantasy where the power of love can always save everyone.

the other part of me…thinks exploring this concept of growing apart from old friends is very good. very painful, for sure. but who says disney should be all sunshine and smiles all the time? change and pain are part of life. and kids aren’t idiots. they’re no strangers to sadness. narratives that can handle this without making it awful and grim are very touching and valuable. but i would love for this specific type of pain to be addressed because it’s an issue very near and dear to my own heart.

my first ever friends that i knew and loved when we were toddlers are all gone from my life now. and from what i hear they’re completely different people now, people i would never want to be friends with. plenty more people have come and gone since, and i get debilitating anxiety about the relationships i still have, just in case i’m a hair’s breadth away from another fallout or distancing. the truth of it is that you can’t take anything for granted in life.

when you’re that close with someone, you think it’s gonna last forever. because you love them now, right? why would you ever stop? you want to live in the disney movie forever. you want the credits to roll and have everything freeze. when you get older, you want to live in the past because the past is comforting. but the truth of the matter is, it isn’t a reality anymore. and it hurts to open your eyes and acknowledge the evidence that things have changed.

as you’ve said, the destiny trio are certainly the least cohesive trio at the moment. i don’t think anyone can argue otherwise. which is ironic, given how in the past, they were the only ones who got to come back to each other, while the others were tragically separated. in and after kh3, the opposite happens. the wayfinder and sea salt trio reunite, while the destiny trio have drifted apart.

but the issue isn’t merely their physical separation. something has changed internally. too much has happened for them to go back to being the simple island kids they used to be. you could pluck sora out of quadratum tomorrow and give him right back to his friends but their reunion would mean next to nothing if the three of them didn’t do some soul searching individually.

which is why i’m hoping that they actually don’t rescue him right away. if he had to spend some time alone, and probably meet up with the new and strange folks in quadratum far away from anything or anyone familiar, he could reflect on his life and grow as a person. it’d be like in kh1 right after losing kairi riku and his home. sora was kinda mistreated in kh3 and made to feel like he was nothing on his own. the ‘my friends are my power’ thing really isn’t cute anymore if he’s saying it because he hates himself. our boy is strong and he deserves more respect!!!

like on the one hand if his friends came to rescue him it would be a nice demonstration of how much they care about him, esp after all he’s done for them. healers need healing too. on the other hand if he had to save himself he’d prove his worth once and for all and they couldn’t bully him by calling him useless on his own anymore (they never should’ve been doing that in the first place!!)

and it would be especially boring if it was literally just riku the hero saving him yet again. (*gets killed by majority of followers*) DDD already gave us ‘mister obsession and abandonment issues coolguy riku saves useless naïve clownboy sora’. i’ll put up with it once bc good for riku but i won’t put up with it again. it should be kairi, or riku and kairi, or the entire main cast. like maybe riku jumps in alone and kairi and/or the others have to jump in after him and have their moment to shine. at some point kairi’s like ‘ok now i REALLY have had enough of this’ and abandons her training to go after the boys (this is how kairi stans post-mom can still win-)

and if they all reunited after all this, having done some soul-searching? could they ever be the same? of course they could still be friends. but i really feel that we’ve crossed a point of no return for them. the other trios have changed as individual people, sure, but their group dynamic is the same as always. at this point, though, the destiny trio as we knew it in kh1 has all but dissolved. i wonder if any of them have started to think about this or not, to question what they still mean to each other in the context of their new lives and new friends. because when a relationship starts to dissolve, it might take a while to notice it, and a very long while to acknowledge it. and sometimes you can reform it into something new, but sometimes you have to let it go.

and i do think we’re moving towards sokai and i want that for them bc they deserve to be together at last but also like. having riku awkwardly third wheel is kinda?? i want to see him loving and being loved by sora and kairi too. he’s their best friend too. or at least he’s supposed to be. (truth is there was always tension in the group i think. oh the problems with a love triangle. they’ve kinda never really been a cohesive trio but that’s an essay for another day.) even if things aren’t the way things were when they were little anymore, there is absolutely no way riku can fade into irrelevance.

if i had to guess i’d say they’re probably gonna resolve this by writing naminé into a love interest for riku. which i wouldn’t mind if they like. did it really really well? they’d have to give her lots of great screentime first. but -understatement of the century incoming- it’s gonna make a lot of people really angry and i fear being on the internet that day lol. (plus there’s just the question of what group should naminé be a part of? should we really turn any trio into a quartet and alter the dynamic of the bonds that have been around for years? but she needs her own place to go and aaaahhhhh. girl has had so many different one-off 5-minute boyfriends lol)

this is a very long post uhhmm in conclusion:

they should all remain a part of each other’s lives forever in some way but it’s ok that things aren’t the way they used to be. the past is full of lovely memories but you can’t live in it forever. it hurts to think about but separation and/or change are part of life and i’d love to see them address the reality of this painful topic.

[marshmallowprotection]

You play Obey Me too?

Your opinion on the new characters, if you saw them?

Oh, yeah! I've been playing Obey Me! since March of last year to be exact. I've even got a few fics that you can read on my AO3 if you're interested in reading something that's not MM from me. Since I'm up to date with the lessons, I was able to play Lesson 61 last night. That was nice to do, being back in the Devildom is always a fun experience for me. As far as the new characters go, the Devs have said that we're not going to see them in cards or lessons until Late December, so I'm sure we need to wait on that before we get to truly know them.

They released character cards last night to help me get some insight into what they're going to be like. Mephistopheles is definitely been an elusive figure because of what he's done working with Mammon, I guess I didn't expect him to hold a grudge against Diavolo. I'm very curious to see his history with Diavolo. His interactions with the fans before now have been fun with his causing "game leaks". So, I think his personality will be charming but deceptive.

Thirteen is clearly built on attitude and bickering with Solomon. I'd love to learn more about how she and Solomon have built their own friendship over the years because apparently, they've been going back and forth for over a thousand years. We know a little bit about her from our visit to the Reaper's Cave. Honestly, what I'd love to see is her curiosity about us because of the way our candle seems to hold so much life force. Also, what a woman. I love women.

Raphael struck me down as surprised at the end of last season when we met him. I swear to God, I thought we were going to get some kind of Michael reveal and we were going to head that way, but since Raphael is kind of... well, close to Michael, it's obvious that there's a lot brewing if he was willing to send a cut-throat angel down to the Devildom. Michael's already aware of us... I think Raphael is meant to build more on the Celestial Realm that's coming for us... but I just might be giving the Devs too much credit story-wise, lmao. Also, Raphael, honey, WHY DID YOUR CHARACTER CARD SAY YOU LIKE SOLOMON'S FOOD? ARE YOU OKAY?

[mistresseast]

can you explain in more detail why you think the PT weren't good friends for akiren? i'm not asking out of hate or to start drama, i just never interpreted things that way and i'm genuinely curious. i don't think them being brainwashed by maruki makes them "bad friends", but i don't know if that's what you meant either. i'd love to read a proper explanation on this that isn't just people arguing in the notes of that post.

Hi! Yeah, I know the ~discourse~ climate is pretty touchy and not a good place to exchange ideas, so I’ll do my best to put my thoughts on this matter into words. 

Settle in, bc this one is long.

I’ll start off by saying I don’t dislike the PT, nor do I think they’re bad people, and honestly I think they love Joker a lot! Ryuji calling Akira after his fake death and talking about how his ideas on what makes a hero have changed because of Akira genuinely makes me emotional, along with dozens of other scenes with the thieves! They’re good kids who could be really good friends to Akira but that’s not what’s shown in the game. I don’t think it’s controversial to say Akira’s relationships with all of his friends are transactional. That’s kind of the point, all of his confidants arise out of deals, give and take, and in the metanarrative of the game, that’s how it works. You as the player help these characters solve their problems, and through ranking their confidants up, you get access to more gameplay perks. So it’s pretty even!! But like,,Akira, the character, isn’t the player. There’s no in-story mechanic by which he can cash in friendship points for being-good-at-killing-things prizes. Yes, he uses those abilities to not die in the metaverse, but there is no literal, in-universe way to explain how hanging out with someone translates to [insert gameplay perk here]. So you have to look at what is physically happening in the story. Akira hangs out with the PT, stands there while they have drama with another irrelevant character, and then one way or another their problems get solved and they swear to be Akira’s blood brother or whatever. Akira is a crutch for these characters, and they say multiple times that they wouldn’t have been able to do what they did without him. So all of their shit gets handled and Akira gets?? Like actually gets?? What? Inquiries about his well-being? Offers to help him? Questions about his life, his interests? No,,,not really,, But he gets access to a super powerful persona!! Yay!!! Bc everyone knows he’s just a little shadow-killing machine, right? And even the relationships he does get something tangible (as in separate from the mechanics of the game) out of, like Kawakami’s, are built on the notion that if Akira stops providing for whatever reason, the relationship will end. So essentially, Akira is under the pressure of filling whatever role his friends need him in for however long at any time, and he’s been led to believe that if he stops or fails, he will stop receiving any reciprocal care and acceptance.

(And I know this is all gameplay stuff, I know it has to be like this to codify the complicated process of human relationships, I know all of that, I’m just trying to find a deeper layer bc that’s what I do.)

This whole thing comes into pretty clear focus for me during the third semester when you visit everyone in the false reality. Everyone is happy to see him, of course, but they’re clearly wrapped up in their own happiness. Which is understandable, again, I’m not saying the PT need to be attached to Akira to be good friends, but it all still feels off to me.

If they know Joker, then they’d know it’s weird that he just shows up and starts asking these pointed questions while they’re in the middle of something. All of their other interactions with him have been led by them. Yeah, Joker approaches them bc the player has decided to hang out with them, but the other character always chooses the activity and leads the discussion. Akira showing up out of nowhere and asking them to “remember” and “move on” and whatnot should be raising some major red flags. And it clearly does, since their memories do start to return, but they’re all too scared of losing their happiness that they nope out of the conversation as soon as possible, without stopping to consider why Joker might be trying to reach out to them like that. They’re his friends; they should know he wouldn’t just be trying to hurt them or make them unhappy. After all, their entire relationship with him up til that point has been exclusively about Joker trying to help them. This doesn’t make the PT bad people, running away is a totally natural reaction in that situation. They’re just kids, and their minds have been manipulated to a point, but it’s not like they don’t remember Joker or the way they’ve grown since meeting him. In fact many of them mention how much they’ve matured recently, but they never actually relate that back to Akira, despite him being the primary driving force behind most of their personal arcs, even though they definitely remember him. Translation vagueness or deliberate nod to the idea that the PT don’t actually credit Akira with all the hard work he did after their initial lip service? Hmmm. Anyway, their failure to recognize that Joker is struggling just demonstrates to me what was set up all throughout their confidant links, that their relationships are transactional and that they don’t necessarily consider Joker and his individual needs outside of what he provides for them. And when they no longer need him bc that hole has been filled, he simply doesn’t occupy the same place of importance in their lives. 

Makoto’s flashback in particular stood out to me, bc it was from a moment where she was specifically talking about feeling like she finally found a place to belong with the Phantom Thieves (and by extension, with Joker), but then she desperately tries to brush it off. Obviously that sense of belonging wasn’t meaningful enough to her for her to want it back. And I’m not blaming her, of course, any teenager would choose to have their father back over being in a vigilante group lmao, I just thought it was telling that the devs decided to show us a scene that was originally meant to be heartwarming as an example of the harsh reality Makoto wants to forget. All of the flashbacks are from defining moments for the thieves, but that one specifically got me like *thinking emoji*

So his friends are hesitant, despite the fact that they must know something is wrong. It’s understandable, they all stand to lose a lot if someone messes with the status quo. I genuinely don’t think I would react any differently. But there is someone who reacts differently and against his own self-interest. It’s Goro, the one who has arguably the most to lose, who doesn’t turn away from Akira. He seeks Akira out and teams up with him to uncover what’s really going on, even though he has every reason to believe that prodding too deep will literally mean the end of his life. He forces Akira and himself to face the truth because he knows anything else would just be an insult to what they’ve suffered so far. He’s the only one who never flinches, and that, more than any of his friends’ come-to-jesusing (which Akira still has to initiate) is what Akira needs in that situation. For the first time (outside of the brief instances in the tutorial levels), we see a situation where Akira is actually the dependent one, the one who needs help, who needs support. And the only one who has ever provided that, unconditionally, without demanding anything in return, is Goro. I could go into how Goro’s confidant blows all of the others out of the water in terms of building both himself AND Akira as characters, but it’s been said already and by smarter people than me. But basically, despite competition being a core theme of their relationship, Goro is the only character who is portrayed as Akira’s equal. Their contests are all in the name of improving not just Goro, but Akira too. Goro is the only character who expresses an interest in Akira’s inner life and development, and as such he knows Akira better than anyone else. So when Maruki tries to trap them all in a gilded birdcage, Goro won’t stand for it and he knows Akira won’t stand for it either. That’s why he’s so betrayed if you choose to accept the dreamworld. You’re negating the basis of your entire relationship with him and going against your own principles. Out of every character in the game, the one who knows Akira best and refuses to abandon him even when that could mean his own death is Goro Akechi.

I want to reiterate: I do not hate or even dislike the PT!! And tbh I don’t really think they “abandoned” Akira. That post, imo, is supposed to be kind of hyperbolic. Unless it’s referring to how many of them literally sprint away when he comes to talk to them lol. I look at it more like a commentary on how thoughtlessly the PT act as soon as their wishes are granted. I know it’s set up linearly for story purposes, but isn’t it kind of sad how no one checks up on Akira in the week he’s going around talking to people? Especially after he’s been acting so comparatively weird? It’s not unusual that they might be caught up in other stuff, but while you’re going around and visiting everyone, you don’t get a single text or call from ANY of the thieves, for a whole week!! Goro even comments on it directly with his pointed little “I’m sure you’re just as close as you were before” comment. God, he’s such a bitch. Ultimately, the PT do get their acts together, and it’s partially out of the realization that Akira is struggling alone against something and needs their help, which I love and appreciate. I think they are good friends who want to support Akira, but they can’t understand him past the role they’ve placed him in, and until they do, they’ll never be able to be what he needs. Akira loves his friends and knows he can rely on them in most ways, but those relationships will always be dogged by the pervasive fear that he must constantly earn the right to have the relationship at all. What he needs MOST is someone he doesn’t have to perform for, and from what we see in the game, none of the thieves fit that bill. Except Goro. 

I know this was long and rambly and probably pretty disjointed but I wanted to be as thorough as possible and all of my thoughts just sort of gushed out. Obviously ymmv about all of this depending on how you interpret the game, but this is what I arrived at thanks to my analysis so this is what I have for you! Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk