#idk the first bad ending in his route makes sense for his character and i wouldn't take it away per se

[natasha-in-space]

My biggest crime ever is never writing anything fully Danger Ray related on here. I don't know how I snoozed on it so badly, but it's my duty to fix it.

As a side note, I always had a very (admittedly) petty grudge with Cheritz for not making a Bad Ending specifically showcasing this darker side of him to the fullest. Preferably in his route. We get told that Ray is just as 'twisted' (putting this in quotations because we damn well know it's more complicated than that but I digress) as Suit is, but we never get to actually see it. We have those two Bad Endings during V's route and Common Route, but those get brushed aside as 'hey, it's not Ray's route, so of course he's a little unhinged there'. Ray from V route and Ray from his own route sometimes get treated as two different iterations of him :/

Give me a bad ending showcasing Ray getting lost in his fantasy and refusing to accept reality, as it is far too painful for him to do so. Give me direct parallels between Suit's bad ending, showcasing how they are two sides of the same coin. Give me Ray directly referring to you as his 'precious doll' - just a different way of Suit calling you his 'useless toy'.

I would have also added a new soundtrack, one that brings in some notes from 'I am the strongest', much like Suit's theme has notes from the 'Endless Struggle' in it, but that's just my personal fantasies at this point.

[maxthesillyy]

what do you think about the characters in Double Exposure so far?

the characters themselves arent that bad,, but i definitely cant say i really care for any of them yet. as in i wouldnt be that upset at any of their deaths

at first i was NOT vibing right with Safi at all considering literally all of her jokes are straight up hit or miss, but the more we learn about her (or. learn that we have a lot to learn) the more i’ve grown interested and fond of her. she kinda gives Way Too Excited For 8 AM Teacher vibes.

Moses is kinda intriguing to me right now, but is also pretty much a nothing burger,, i can only assume (and hope) i’ll see more about him after chapter 1. so. he’s kinda silly, thats about it.

OH Loretta. i hate her so much, she’s so funny, i love her. i always love to hate a good bitchy girl character. oh my cod— ESPECIALLY when the look she gives Max if u try to call her bluff. im definitely hella excited to see more of her— especially since she clearly brought out the more bitchy side of Max. honestly so far i think these two’s dynamic is my favorite. she kinda feels like Max, Victoria, and Rachel all smushed together.

then theres Gwen,,, the game’s definitely setting us up to be suspicious of her. i dont have many thoughts about her though other than that. shes hot ? kinda endearing when shes not pissed at us. thats about it.

Amanda……………. 😒 she exists ig. no fr though, she’s literally fine. she feels more like a quirky best friend disney channel character than a real person. and then theres with the game SHOVING her and max together… idk! maybe ill warm up to her. i dont want to hate her but the game is very quickly pulling me down that route.

oh then the other guy max can flirt with for some godforsaken reason?? Vinh is his name i think. i dont trust him, and i dont think were supposed to. personally i think it feels ooc for max to openly flirt with him back— especially so quickly,, even if she’s doing it jokingly or smth. like girl you were just either talking about how you can never recognize when youre being flirted with or need to take time before flirting back with someone— AND even then. you’d think max would be more wary of overly charming who show an interest in her.

which brings me to Lucas. im guessing if anything happens with him he’s gonna be a red herring. maybe it’s just me, but i wouldn’t be surprised if were supposed to be reminded of jefferson when we see him,, at least he doesnt have any real interest in her though.

pretty sure Amanda and Vinh are the only two love interests? either way i honestly dont think it makes sense for Max to be seeking either of them out romantically. this may be the Aro in me, but chloe was a realistic “love interest” in the OG game because well. they were Max and Chloe. and besides that Max was already with her basically 24/7, and was obsessed with her. they made sense. they werent forced or obviously placed there just to be love interests— it was natural.

honestly Amanda and Vinh just seem like.. love interests for the sake of love interests.

tbh any love interest for Max right now just feels,,,, maybe could’ve been the right person but WAY too wrong of a time. like i dont even see an interesting unhealthy dynamic— and if i wanted that i would just go to current DE!pricefield so.

this brings me to Chloe… im happy she’s haunting the narrative rn,,, could be doing it a little harder imo—but other than that im. trying not to form any huge opinions on the Max and Chloe situation. when we (hopefully istg decknine) get the whole picture ill probably talk about this more. im just pretty conflicted.. and also wishing decknine just CHOSE one of the endings (bay WHO SAID THAT) instead of leaving it open to not piss anyone off.

oh uh then Reggie and Diamond,, i dont have any thoughts about them really except for being mildly intrigued by the amount of attention handed over to Diamond. im guessing she’ll have more plot relevance later,,, but Reggie will prob stay a very side character.

i thinkkk thats everyone? OH. Yasmin. not much about her. can appreciate how much she cares about Safi’s murder. but yeah nobody else comes to mind,,, and if i did miss somebody i guess that just goes to show how little i think of them.

so i guess overall my thoughts about the DE characters are “we’ll have to see what happens.”

[williamaltman]

Life is Strange 2 thoughts/feelings/review

So, Life is Strange 2. I finished the game yesterday and watched the other endings today. Things are not as fresh in my mind as if I had just finished and I talked a bit about it in other places so this feels a bit hard, but I'll try to lay down all my thoughts...

First of all... All my homies love LIS2, fuck you if you don't like LIS2! Seriously though, for years I've seen people say that the game wasn't good, that the characters weren't as good as the ones from the first one, that the Sean/Daniel relationship wasn't that interesting... I kinda did suspect it was just nostalgia goggles or whatever, but now I know for sure. I don't think there's anything wrong with connecting more with LIS1 and having a deeper relationship with it, but in this case I think you shouldn't even be comparing them and expecting the game to live up to that to you in the first place.

Now, onto the actual game. God, this was so fucking heartbreaking. I think I cried in every single episode. The very core premise of the story is just so sad, so unfair, and despite the powers so rooted in reality that it left me legit feeling uncomfortable with how fucked up their whole situation was. There are good moments, sure, but honestly every single thing that happens from the moment their dad is shot is just... Not how their life should've had to be.

Sure, LIS1 and BTS had dark themes too. But here, it's like, they lose everything from the beginning. Sean doesn't get to go to his party, to hang out with Lyla, to continue his normal life in any way. Daniel loses a part of his childhood. They're both forced to grow up so much faster than they should. There's a line Sean says in episode 3, and it's just a little idle VO, but it fucking crushed me, "Stop overthinking. You're not a teenager anymore". Even though he's fucking 16... He's 16 and he has to essentially become a parent. I knew what the game was about and lowkey followed it a bit when it was releasing, knew a few spoilers, but that didn't make anything any less heartbreaking.

I thought it was beautiful how the game took the opportunity to showcase and celebrate alternate lifestyles. The "family", Away, their freedom and how they interacted with society brings so much into perspective. I'm still a bit conflicted about Karen tbh, but I'm glad that at least they did show something beautiful through her story.

My biggest problem overall is probably how they handled the Finn romance route... I knew back when the game was releasing that despite adding a male LI, they pushed the female one more onto you and gave her more content, while locking the option to kiss him with a "bad choice" (I didn't know what exactly it was). And yeah, that is still true. I still think it was a mistake to lock the kiss with accepting the heist, and while I kinda understand the writer's explanation for that, I still think it could've been handled in another way, or they could've just let him kiss you and "betray" you by doing the heist anyway, since he still does that when you're friends lol.

I see people complaining that because they moved from place to place each episode, there wasn't enough time to connect with the characters... Idk if I'd say I disagree, but it just wasn't really the case for me. I was very invested in all the relationships, in Finn, Cassidy, Jacob, Chris, Karen. Everyone at the farm was cool and everyone in Away too. Lyla. You get so many tidbits about the characters even when they're not there on screen. The only thing I have to say which is kinda related to that, is that I think the time jumps were maybe a bit too big, and that the way they handled Mushroom was... weird.

I got the Parting Ways ending, and I'm satisfied with it. I kinda planned to get it, but only in the sense that I was spoiled that you get with Finn there. I didn't know that the whole morality thing had anything to do with it, and I played the first two episodes without even knowing that there was a points system about that and about brotherhood. I just made all the choices that were high morality (besides killing the cougar and the heist) because it was what I would do, and tried to be a good brother for Daniel. I figured that choosing to cross the border would most likely give me that one, but I just couldn't accept Sean having to go to prison for 15 years for something he didn't even do. If we were able to choose between Parting Ways and Blood Brothers, then I would actually be conflicted about which I wanted.

With the way the game's system works though, where you need to have low morality to get Blood Brothers, I couldn't really do it. I can't imagine myself teaching Daniel to be selfish and not care about killing people. I actually think it's super cool to watch Daniel use his power offensively and fuck shit up, but it just wouldn't be my version of the story. It's funny because, if we just played as Daniel, I wouldn't mind going that route. But since we play as Sean, with it being our job to raise Daniel, I feel a different kind of responsability towards leading him to become a good person. I also think it's beautiful that he gets to have the rest of his childhood, teenagehood, and live a "normal" healthy life with his grandparents. He does it in the redemption one too, but as I said, that just screws up Sean too much.

So, I'm a little disappointed that they're separated (and maybe can't ever see each other again? I'm a bit confused about Daniel's situation and whether he could visit), and that it's a bit shorter than the others (at least than the redemption one), but it IS the ending my playthrough led to and in that I'm satisfied.

I think this story is just incredible. It touched me so much, and the fact that some people can't see it genuinely frustrates me. The people complaining it's too political in particular can just go fuck themselves. It might not be perfect, but like with all things I appreciate, I'm just so glad it exists.

[almea]

I finished the 2.5 story and I enjoyed it overall, although it didn’t hit me quite as hard as Penacony did. I think maybe that’s something to be expected with a Trailblaze Continuance vs a Trailblaze Mission. I don’t know, I just cried so hard at the end of Penacony, both 2.2 and 2.3, lmao.

Truly my favourite thing is that they seem to be giving Stelle more voice lines during the story that aren't just internal dialogue. It is my dream for them to continue giving her more and more voices lines so she can really be an actual character.

It was a little surprising for me when I realized how little Stelle did in the story though. I think she just went to investigate Stargazer Navalia with Yanqing and Feixiao, found Moze in Exalting Sanctum with them, and then was fighting the borisin in Aurum Alley with Moze. I did like how she mentioned her not being at the Skysplitter to help fight Hoolay when she’s talking with March at the end. It doesn’t bother me a ton when Stelle doesn’t have a lot to do in a specific story, I love how often they used the perspective swapping in the story so we could see what was going on with everyone, because she’s always around so it doesn’t feel too bad if she’s a little out of focus once in a while, but it kind of sucks for Moze that I don't think he got any really big moments since he has less chances to be relevant. I wish they had made him and Stelle finding a nearly dead Jiaoqiu an actual scene instead of just text so we could get a little more out of Moze, but it is what it is.

Jiaoqiu’s little trick with poisoning Hoolay by poisoning himself being foreshadowed with his comment about the green peppers was pretty cool, but I’m curious about whether it was intentional that it could have also been a little foreshadowed in March’s training event last patch since in his route there was some talk of Lingsha’s blood having special properties because of her having consumed so many medicines over the years. idk it was the first think I thought of when I realized what he did.

I've grown pretty fond of Yanqing over the course of the story. He’s just so earnest and I think his childish, competitive side coming out with Yunli is very cute. And I really love the relationship that has developed between him, March, and Yunli. It’s so sweet that Yanqing and Yunli are both so proud of March and she’s also so fond of her two little masters. I really hope we get to continue seeing more of their interactions in the future.

This does not stop me from being like, stay the fuck away from my pulls. He's already at fucking E4 and I still don't have Gepard.

March, Yanqing, and Yunli fighting a berserk Feixiao was soooo good. I really loved Yunli attempting to just fucking grapple her when she's so much smaller than Feixiao. It really adds to her feral cat energy. It’s very sweet, in a weird way, that Feixiao put her faith in these kids and fully believed they would be able to hold her back and keep her from causing too much destruction while she was rampaging. Especially because we later find out that Fu Xuan left Jing Yuan a prediction that they should trust the younger generation.

I thought it was funny that during the story March was like "If I had known we could use other weapons, I would have brought my bow with me" and then she just fucking summons it in the cutscene when they’re fighting Feixiao. Sometimes I think about the logistics behind the way they summon their weapons in cutscenes and I should probably stop trying to make sense of it because it really does seem to be governed by Rule of Cool. Seeing her preservation ult in a cutscene was so fun though. A while ago I was thinking about how cool it would be if was ever a cutscene where Stelle switches between her paths in the middle of a fight by switching her weapon and March ended up getting to do it before her and it was just as cool as I thought it would be.

I loved March just clinging to Feixiao's leg in the cutscene when she regains control of herself. She's just trying her best to help. And I’m just very proud of the three of them for managing to not get fucking obliterated by a general. It was also very cute seeing them support Feixiao and helping her stand. I don’t know, they’re just all good kids and I love them.

I don’t have a really concrete reason for it, but I just really like Feixiao. It may just be my weakness for hot, strong women, but she’s just so cool. I love how strong her resolve is, strong enough that this is the first time in the story that we’ve seen someone other than Stelle draw an Aeon’s gaze, and that she seems as devoted to Jiaoqiu and Moze as they are to her. She also has SUCH cool cutscenes. The one of her using Yukong’s bow to fire a a giant arrow all the way to Aurum Alley because it would have taken to long to get there to help????? Hello???? Who let her be so cool???

I really am looking forward to seeing more of her in the future and this plotline she has of trying to restore Jiaoqiu’s eyesight. And also seeing the repercussions/benefits of her swallowing the crimson moon.

It’s like a little funny to me that Jiaoqiu is blind now just because it doesn’t matter anymore that his eyes are always closed, he wouldn’t be able to see with them open anyways.

When Lingsha was announced and I saw she was a Vidyadhara, I was like. My opinion on her is 100% going to be based on how she treats Bailu because I love Bailu very dearly and every Vidyadhara that’s introduced is going to be judged by whether or not they’re nice to her. So I'm really happy to see that she appears to be very kind to her and Bailu likes her enough to call her sister.

I think it's so sweet that Dan Heng is always asking for Bailu’s opinion. He’s so protective of the rest of the Astral Express crew and it seems like that protectiveness has extended to Bailu and it makes me so happy every time it comes up. I hope they get more into Bailu being sick of being used as a puppet and wanting to leave soon because I too am sick of the way she's disrespected in universe. Let Dan Heng bring her on the Express with him. I would also accept Lingsha protecting Bailu and helping her have more freedom since she’s the new Cauldron Master. I don’t know how much pull she actually has, but I can dream.

I'm so sad that they sent Fu Xuan away to a different ship for this story arc because I miss her!!! Let me see her!!! I still think she had the coolest intro cutscene in the game and I couldn't not love her after that. And because she's been carrying my ass through everything since she's the only limited sustain I have lmao.

God, I am so excited for Ruan Mei potentially being a menace on the Luofu. Like, girl, what have you been up to? Did you do anything fucked up to Tingyun? Aren’t Himeko and Welt supposed to be delivering fossils to you? Why are you on the Luofu? Oh but maybe they’re the ones who brought her to the Luofu. I need answers!

When Tingyun started talking, I was just like, oh no, this is going to be the end of the story for this patch, isn't it? And then it was!!! And next patch is just Rappa, and from her character intro thing I assume we’re going back to Penacony, so who knows when this Tingyun plotline is going to pick up again.

[just-a-carrot]

And there I go again with the 2 question in a row spam but I didn’t want to clump it all into one ask for ease of answering 👉👈

Here I go again with reading too much into the narrative and symbolism of this game, but I can’t help it(british English lit/language has fundamentally changed the way my brain operates), so woulds’t thou be so kind as to share your thoughts on my analysis 😅

upon finishing catching up on all the different character route endings, I have once again likely read way too far into narrative analysis of symbolism etc when comparing the differences between the routes.

Mainly 2 key things I thing can serve as cool metaphors:

The difference between where each talk takes place. For Orlam, it takes place in the bed, by far the most comfortable of the options when compared to other endings, which likely is representative of his lavish lifestyle in the wonderland+how this lifestyle was shared with Iggy in Arc 3. For Genzou, there is warmth(ie the kiss+laying together infront of the stove) to be found in the pain and the cold of the part of their talk that takes place outside; this mirrors any things. For one, the bravery to confess and admit to one’s feelings, which is particularly a hurdle for Genzou. It could also be reminiscent of how their romance blossomed most in Arc 2, even if it arguably was the most painful for them. Also completely diabolical of me to mention but laying next to the stove, in a dark humour sort of way, mirrors how in a lot of the bad endings they both end up cooked by Orlam. As for Gidget, nearly the entirety of the experience is cold, and leaves them with pain afterwards; it is uncomfortable. But there is just the slightest glimmer of warmth(the warm cocoon when they’re together). This, obviously, mirrors how Gidget arguably hurt Iggy the MOST, in the romantic sense anyway.

The other comparison I thought could be clever between the routes is the response from each character to Iggy staying behind as a kid. Obviously, Orlam’s “I know you want to hold my hand” is reminiscent of his self-confidence and possibly a tendency to be overly keen to assume people like him more than they do. With Genzou, on the other hand, Iggy is the one who grabs his wrist, which mirrors how he’s the one to make the first move in Arc 5(kissing him). As for Gidget, I’m a little confused, but the comparison of them having no touch at all with Iggy in that moment, could possibly be hinting at their character development of learning to accept boundaries? Idk

oh these are so interesting...

i did put thought into like, how each of the specific scenes would feel and play out based on their histories and the dynamics. and though i'm not sure if those specific thoughts were in my head and guiding those parts of the scenes, i definitely had like, inner reasons for how i wanted them to ultimately feel once they were finished and how i wanted them to kinda reflect on their dynamics. like with genzou's being the only one with a love confession as they're the only ones i felt like had reached that point, and their scene next to the stove feeling the most "homey" of the three in a way, as their dynamic just feels very homey to me in general. orlam's obviously being entirely based around their push-and-pull dynamic and how it always comes back to dancing and the final shot on the bed because of the three they've spent the most time lying in bed together with all their time spent in the castle so to them it was like returning to this place they'd once shared. and gidget's being the only one that doesn't feel inherently romantic and doesn't include a kiss because they are not ready for that after everything and i didn't really want to continue them as a pairing until after the reset when they could grow together in a more healthy way. though i hadn't thought before about the coldness and their discomfort being a symbol before that's actually really cool and makes a lot of sense

i think some of those same things are reflected as you said in that final scene after they all wake up as kids as well. the continued dynamic they have even if they don't remember everything specifically is still there. i really just tried to paint everything in their dynamics as well as i could in a way that felt most apt???

[gureshinlover]

Ok Saeran AE good ending dump, here are some random thoughts

The president plot was ended really underwhelmingly, but I'm glad that although Saeran chose to forgive him, the writers are aware this isn't something anyone can do and let saeyoung continue hating him. Honestly, forgiving or not forgiving him aside, I just didn't like the way they made the president go 'ah.. you're right maybe I am a lonely bad guy' LIKE NO WAY THAT ASSHOLE CARES ABOUT THAT, I couldn't take any dialogues seriously

First of all. Why the fuck is jumin han a politician all of a sudden 😭 And like, forget being a politician, he is a candidate for presidency??????? Am I reading it right?? How exactly..???

Anyway I FORGOT ABOUT YOOSUNG AT PATISSIER AWWWW It's so nice to see him find himself even if this is saeran's route! You're doing so good love <3 I was gonna say it doesn't make sense that they made him chase his patissier dream when in his own route he thinks about why he wants to become a vet and decides to go that way, but I realized, since another story is 2 years before the casual one I guess he felt more free about leaving his medical studies 😭 he was able to change his path more easily because he just started school, and also he doesn't have a lover like mc in korea unlike his route so that might also affect his choices. But I think he's happy in either ending so I'm glad <33

They did well with Yoosung but. why didn't Jaehee get the same treatment. I don't get it. They were clever enough to remember other characters' goals and worries and made them happy in this AE, except for Jaehee. I wish they made her leave her position too, since Jumin Han is now involved with politics it could be the perfect excuse for Jaehee to stop being his assistant. I'm guessing that this is also because AS is 2 years earlier, which means Jaehee hasn't suffered in her job enough to leave yet, and she probably doesn't have the money to open a coffee shop anyway (she isn't even into coffee professionally yet although she said she was interested a bit) But idk I wish they left us a clue that Jaehee will also get to find her happiness in the future 😭😭

Another thing I'm confused about is that where the hell does saeran get money from 😭😭 how are we 'lovey dovey at some place romantic'😭 Saeyoung probably has more than enough money so he might have forced Saeran to have it all lol that's the only explanation I can think of. In the alternate ending Saeran has a greenhouse (considering that he said himself to be careful of people raising herbs in the wild I find this funny but well ofc it's the dream job for saeran) but I'm not sure what we're supposed to be doing in this ending lol

Like, apparently we're hippies now?? Feel love and peace~~

Saeran AE has its problems, but I still love it anyway and I'm not sure how they would be able to make a good ending differently, so I'll just take the good stuff and leave out the bad writing lol I remember going crazy about new illusts in 2020,,, can't believe it's been 3 years already. Happy new years btw I guess? 🌱 Idk how to end this post

[scummy-writes]

may i ask what got you into gilbert? i am reading his route now and find him oddly terrifying

Sure, I don't mind, but... hmm.. I feel like I won't make much sense (i just woke up an hour ago). Also, I hope you know that just because a chara is popular, its fine if you don't vibe with him.

Because, yaknow. Gilbert is oddly terrifying. He does a lot of cute stuff, sure. He has a lot of good moments, yeah. But at the end of the day, he's still a dude that has killed many many people and knows just how to push a situation to make someone horrified with him.

A lot of it is due to [spoilers]. Honestly. But a chunk of it is primarily the fact that before I got into otome games, all I ever did was simp for the villains in games and shows often. A lot of villain type characters, or just bad guy characters, have a lot of charm to them.

Hmm... Gilbert specifically though... non-spoiler reasons: I liked how he treated the mc. I liked how in the first event he essentially told her that listening to her heart was important and not to let that be corrupted. He goes on to admit it disgusts him, but the first point he made was good advice towards staying true to held beliefs. (This event was like a year or so ago so I don't have the exact verbiage).

I believe he also scolds ('scolds') chev in regards to the body that is left outside of her balcony that day. I think he even briefly talks about his soldiers having ptsd essentially in regards to stuff like that.

And with that small tidbit, it shows a lot about Gilbert imo. Why would a terrifying dude give a single shit if a random fake noblewoman saw a dead body? He's killed a shitton of people, why isn't he more like Chev in that regard? And picking at that as I went through events and such showed that Gilbert had a very odd caring streak that contradicted some things he said/did. If you pick at that more as you go through events and stuff, you start to realize the nature of his 'beast' more.

Which, I think at that point, is moreso of a question of does that outweigh the reasons behind why he can be terrifying? For me, it's tipped over in his favor a bit more, and since he'a fictional and due to some rules he seems to have with these things, I'm willing to go hog wild about him.

But a lot of people aren't, because that squicks em out. And I think that's very fair, especially with the possessiveness he has.

Brain isn't working well, but another thing I love about him that shows in his route, is the way he encourages Mc to think further about certain things happening or her beliefs.

Idk if you care about spoilers, so I'm gonna put some under a cut to chat about them, just in case you do mind them. It's fine to just ignore whatever I say under the cut.

Some spoiler things that sealed the deal for me was that he primarily kills corrupt nobles/bad people. He gets upset when children are involved, he likes kids, he cares a LOT about obsidian to the point of doing his damnest to make a lot of advancements to better the lives of the people there (the killing of corrupt nobles was also for that reason as well, and others), the nature of his beast is essentially he was Very Much Like Emma, until the two people closest to him were killed.

And the nature of his possessiveness ties into that trauma as well. It's not a surprise for a man who has had the people he loved brutally taken away from him is possessive towards the person he finds hope and love in. They seem to be slowly working through Some possessive tendencies in future events (not taking them away fully at all, but working on smaller parts about it).

He's a dude who threw away his humanity solely to try and make Obsidian better, so others wouldn't have to go through what he did. And unfortunately that got skewed to dramatic levels, of course. But. Idk, I am a sucker for that shit- bad guy turned bad from an overwhelming amount of care for others to where he's turned his heart off to the best of his ability to try and make things better. And then ooooh noooo the mc makes him have part of a heart again!

I'm a sucker. Thats that. Bahahahahaha

[p-receh]

I'm very curious for 2, 7, and 12 :]

Would love to hear your hcs!

Alright! Which character btw? How about Boboiboy as a starter? 😅

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

The fact that he's ambidextrous is really really amazing as a character. Not only he wields two weapons but also can constantly switching between right and left handed side in the midst of a battle.

And I be honest, the fact that Monsta keep that movie 1 white hairline glitch as canon is what people called a "Serendipity" or happy accident. Another serendipity glitch in animation media for me is the iconic nose touch scene from httyd 1.

Who knew this bug could become his sole identity? It doesn't lesser his image but it does made 10x better as the result of a genetic mark within generations. Thus it creates "the Butterfly Effect" in designing Amato and adult Tok Aba.

In sense, Oboi become a shonen character since child with that look lol

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

I don't follow much with what happened to Boboiboy's fandom recently, still making me a headache whenever I visit, but I always appreciate when fandom united to correct blatant hoaxs. It's often surprised me.

Oh and memes lol. Screenshot memes whenever new episode arrived is a never not entertaining cus it was usually flooded in my timeline. 🤣

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

Since I only made headcanon for elementals, I think it's not fair that the real main protagonist has not yet get his headcanon. My bad :p

Oboi may or may not able to make a clear communication with Amato after all these years and I have two scenarios:

If Tok Aba still alive, Oboi might be more comfortable and more open to Tok Aba about his daily life rather than Amato. He still talks to him, but struggles to keep up a simple conversation from both ways, and eventually Oboi starts to make excuses to end it by "Helping Atok at his shop".

If no. 1 doesn't happens, Oboi might a bit cold to Amato at first. He try so hard to avoid any conversations with him and just focus on continuing the Kokotiam Shop as an escape route.

One of my questions regarding him, "How does he remember every events during split/fusion/3rd tier?" My deduction to this headcannon is this: firstly after he wakes up all memories will be blur due to his dizziness in the aftermath. He might remember some of it but his brain is not yet fully capable to comprehend all of it quickly. Then, all those event will be shown during his sleep. It sometimes disturbing his sleeping schedule and wakes up abruptly in the middle of night from a lucid dream.

Idk why, but between Audio sensory, Visual sensory and Action sensory Learning technique. Oboi is the person who learn and solve problems by practice it in real time. He may not the guy who absorb a quick information, but when he tried to think about it, he implements his thoughts by action such as moving hands or walks around. (I onced very obsessed with psychology especially with self learning types during my high school days but now I forgot most of them lol)

He has a hidden fanatic side of him all over the news as a hero with the evidence of all his photos from movie 1. He might eventually remove them when he gets older. He doesn't want to admit his embarrassment with his obsession publicly lol. (Of course he treasure it somewhere )

I forgot where's the source of it, but I read a post that Oboi once tried to cut his white stroke hair but it grew back. He never knew why but he eventually let it be afterwards. Maybe he wears that hat not only as a gift from his dad but also to cover his white hair? Idk :-\

That's maybe all headcanons I got so far. I guess I'll admit I might need to dig for more Boboiboy magazines and older post of his social media ones. There's still so many trivias that I missed throughout my life. :(

[kingsmoot]

do you have any miscellaneous thoughts about theon and asha's storylines in winds? (big question i know sorry, you can answer short as you like)

AKH no this is a v neat question and i will confess i have actually not read any of the winds preview chapters :o back in 2013/4 when i read the series for the first time i made the decision not to read them because i didn't want just a taste of the next book i wanted to be patient and wait for the whole thing

that said i actually struggle to envision where their storylines are going tbh!!! theon's arc concluding with saving jeyne and himself and reuniting with asha makes. sense. it is a very narratively satisfying end. what he does beyond this reunion is a mystery to me although i hope he gains some weight back and gets some good dentures and some warm wool and furs and experiences ����that feeling of sexual healing that makes him feel so fine 🎶 courtesy of his big sister but that's just my own personal wishlist!!!!!!!!!!!!

i want him to reunite w jon at the wall and i am. genuinely kinda scared that jon will behead him NNNNNOOOOOO JON!!!! this isn't super likely bc i think killing theon after All That™️ would be... idk it would be a very strange narrative beat i think. like grrm is obviously known for killing off characters but i do NOT think he does it nonsensically and i do NOT think he does it for shock value. i think a v clear theme in theon's entire arc post-acok is that he doesn't get to die. he needs to live with who he is, what he did, and what was done to him. he doesn't get an easy out. he needs to carry the pain over onward and through. so i don't see death in the cards for theon. i do think it will be interesting for him to meet jon again, this time both of them as dead men. and i would LIKE!!!!!! for them to reunite with cat. the three undead final remnants of house stark who the old gods refuse to let go of. delicious.

but in general i am extremely bad at predicting anything in asoiaf. like the story just feels too massive to me. i feel like i understand most of it in a way that i feel confident dissecting, but i have never had a sense of "oh i see where this is going" or "i have a good sense of what will happen next". like i've just never been able to sense the shape of it in that way.

PART OF THIS I TRULY FEEL IS BC GEORGE DOESN'T OUTLINE ANYTHING. AND IT'S LIKE WELL YES KING WE CAN TELL.

generally when i get This Into a series i feel like i have a sense of it and can make predictions based on my working knowledge of canon but i've never felt this way w asoiaf. i just feel like i'm along for the ride.

i'm very curious what will happen to asha because i have a sneaking suspicion the show's route of her actually leading house greyjoy might have some semblance of truth in the books... like i don't see vic, euron, and aeron surviving long enough to rule, so i think asha and theon being the only two left (i know theon dies in the show it's fucking stupid and george wouldn't do that) is pretty likely. especially since house greyjoy is already a big worm riddled house of usher situation. and especially since ironborn independence has been a futile suicide mission for generations. so that'll be interesting to see!!! i also wonder if theon might stay on the mainland and take the black. not exactly a CHOICE to take the black but i don't see a version of events where he gets to the wall and jon tells him "no hard feelings" and they hug it out and then theon gets to go home. UNLIKELY. HE KILLED AND RAPED A WHOLE BUNCH OF PEOPLE. TWO OF THEM CHILDREN.

so this answer is a whole bunch of nothing i'm sorry!!! i generally think that theon making it to stannis' convoy to reunite w asha will be a brief respite and not a permanent one and i do not see them ending the series together (here not implying romantically just like in proximity to one another). if they do make it back to winterfell and overwhelm the occupying bolton force i hope they find a bed 😎👉👉 and that theon has a panic attack and asha is like jesus christ i should've bought a dog off craiglist instead of picking one off the kill list at the local shelter this is too much work 😒

SORRY GOT DISTRACTED AGAIN ok i see asha making her way back to the iron islands and i see theon taking the black. what will happen between those things is a bif fat question mark for me but i hope at least some of it is lewd ✌️

[protect-namine]

mitsuki's role in weekend lesson is so interesting, because... there's no challenge for him? why doesn't the mean casting director in neji want to challenge him?

(disclaimer that I'm on suzu's route and have only done kisa's route before this)

like, okay, so neji finds out that amber isn't participating in univeil's summer performance. his strategy would be something like a mix of fall and winter: aim to win, but also use the opportunity to train your new actors. since there isn't a chui to beat in this scenario, he and fumi can relax and risk a bit of the performance to train the new guys. alright, makes sense, cool cool.

so neji writes the characters and assigns the roles, right. the third years have some inner conflicts to overcome, and the first years have some growing to do. we have fumi playing the talented genius who quit competitive dancing, and kai who plays as someone that limits himself or is otherwise unambitious for the sake of supporting others. okay, same conflicts, let's see if the character development transfers from role to actor.

we have suzu playing louis who has pages and pages of monologue specifically, because suzu is bad at memorizing lines unless it's built around a conversation with another person (opposite of sou, who can memorize lines on his own). and also he has to do it while dancing, which he also needs to improve on. sou plays a jeanne who is cheerful, sociable, literally acts as the glue that binds everyone together through instigating the competition -- a departure from sou's own personality (plus sou, at this point I think, still wanted to play jack roles, though idk if neji knew this, or if it mattered to him). kisa plays a jack role for the first time, while also dancing and singing, and had to deal with neji sending her off to spy/steal ideas from other classes for her own improvement (in the guise of letting other classes try to poach her from quartz). neji always pushes a little harder on kisa, because he's always amazed that kisa will just do any of his own unreasonable demands (he says something to this effect if you let kisa choose neji to help her during one of the rehearsals).

so, okay, we've got a training plan down for everyone... except mitsuki. mitsuki doesn't get a challenge. shiroma is a side character, a prize to be won, very flat compared to even mukai (who has more depth to his personality even without the last minute improv). neji even throws in the random jazz lounge singer just so mitsuki can sing, which ends up looking more like a favor to mitsuki (since he only likes singing) and a "might as well use your talents somewhere" scenario.

(lmao shut up mitsuki, you got an easy role. sou has to dance both the great galleon and the random social dance kanna does in the background in andou's studio, and the dance she does with louis. the only characters who don't dance as much are mukai and employees A and B).

neji seems to place mitsuki in the same category as otori and himself: reliable in the roles they're good at, with no need to push for improvement compared to the others. but that's so interesting to me because like... why wouldn't he push mitsuki more? why wait until late into the year during the winter performance? and even then, initially, he wanted mitsuki as al jeanne more so to train kisa and fumi, rather than mitsuki himself. like, this is the scriptwriter who has no problems using other people's own inner conflicts as inspiration for his writing. neji can be a mean casting director when he wants to be. there's no reason why mitsuki is an exception.

I guess shiroma being a prize to be won and nothing more does mimic how mitsuki is valued for being a tresor and nothing more. but there is no space in the play for shiroma or mitsuki to do anything about that, unlike fumi and kai whose characters (andou and hasekura) both change throughout the play. mitsuki himself realizes very late into rehearsals (like, around a week before the performance) how he can connect with shiroma

and I mean, sure, that sounds compelling, but I don't think that's what neji intended nor do I think mitsuki is just talking about shiroma at this point, but hey this is the "theater is a metaphor" game sooooooo

anyway. I just think it's so odd that neji doesn't push mitsuki that much... but then I think about otori. I'd bet if otori wasn't so hilariously antagonistic to suzukisasou, he would also get the mean director neji treatment. not because of otori himself but more like. neji writes around actor chemistry and otori's rapport with the other actors is just less inspiring for drama and more inspiring for comedy LMAO (sorry otori). chui himself had a missing takihime bc he didn't really vibe with anyone on the stage.

and maybe that's it? mitsuki is also a person who distances himself from other people, and doesn't really put in the effort until later in the game. and before he even makes the effort for quartz (that neji sees), he really only made an effort for kisa. (I still maintain that mitsuki cares a lot about quartz even from the beginning, but whatever, I guess early game mitsuki that wasn't compelling enough for neji)

and I think it makes more sense why neji couldn't write anything for mitsuki. early game mitsuki doesn't have interesting relationships that neji could see. neji could write fumi and kai together and let their own internal conflicts be reflected in their relationship onstage. hasekura lets andou shine. mary jane wanted an equal (some form of it, a "friend" in the play) and that's why she created jacob. neji sees suzu and sou fighting in the hallway and in the next play writes jire and fugio fighting over chicchi. neji sees otori... being otori, and either writes him as funny side character A or a small-time antagonist to kisa.

which makes it extra hilarious why neji didn't understand oh rama havenna. neji wanted to experiment with fumi as a jack and kisa as a lead role. and mitsuki finally, coincidentally slots in as someone who could fill in the gaps left by fumi not being the al jeanne, and as someone who has a good relationship with kisa. and yet. mitsuki excels above and beyond during oh rama havenna, precisely because he makes rukiora his own character (as opposed to how neji initially wrote rukiora based on a younger version of himself; hence rukiora's relationship with domina) and rukiora's chemistry with chicchi reflects mitsuki's own relationship with kisa.

idk, I think all of this is just neat. kinda wish neji pushed mitsuki a little bit earlier, but also I think it's cute that he kept giving mitsuki easy roles for a while. he can push and prod the other actors, but he's making sure the princess doesn't have too much to complain about.

[dashielldeveron]

Hi Dash! I hope you're doing well. I'm writing this ask literally 1 hour before I need to leave for one of my sem finals (which I'll be fine at hopefully, since I studied). But while I was anxiously awaiting purgatory, I read one of my favourite of your works again - Monoma's route in Soulmate Trope. Istg I am not exaggerating, no writing has made me laugh harder than that single scene where he just... wordlessly pulled down his pants. I laughed so hard that my roommate had to come check on me. And the word "cum gutter" had dealt irreversible psychic damage to my brain. Sometimes while doing some mundane stuff, I think back about that scene, or countless other scenes from the book and had to remind myself I'm in public. I've only watched MHA up till season 3 and a bit into 4 but I was kinda already spoiled about the ending, so I'm so in love with the world you build there. I've always kinda wanted to try writing my own work because I sometimes have a budding idea that had me go, 'oh I think that'd make an interesting story', but then I realised I suck at writing. Writing just 1000 words took me an hour or more, I don't know how you wrote 60k words for 1 chapter!! That's absolutely insane. Also also, because your writing is so hilarious, when you get emotional, it hits so hard. "and i've gotta crow" is absolutely one of my all time favourite fan work, though idk what the title means. My writing, just after the first few paragraphs, feels like sandpaper to read. But your work really inspired me to want to at least try, even if I don't post anything. Especially after my finals, I'm going to try shitting this one idea out of my head in the summer (oh I'm in Australia so my summer is almost here). So yeah thank you for making me laughed so hard and also fingerbanged my heart. If you have nothing better to do, would you mind sharing your general writing process with me? As in, is there a forbidden jutsu move that amazing authors use when writing? For me, I feel like I'm typing and deleting and retyping until it forms a coherent sentence, but after putting them together it's dryer than my chicken breast that I forgot for 30 minutes in the oven. If not it's okay too, I hope you have a wonderful day!

yes.......YES.........let the monoma adoration flow through you!!!! we need more people in our monoma coterie!!! it's now you, me, 📌 anon, and like, two other anons i believe???? we are officially a Club, i say!!!

writing discussion/advice/process under the cut

okay, who told you you suck at writing? and why do they think so??? odds are you don't. odds are, you're overthinking your own work too much. when i look at stuff i've written, i see the writing process in every sentence, and odds are, you might, too. seeing the process takes away parts of being able to immerse yourself in the writing. so, your stuff probably isn't bad; it's just that you know all about how it was made!!!

writing takes me a long time! mostly bc i have academic/work writing to do all the time, so writing fic as my breaks from work isn't always efficient and fun. and i'm pretty sure some people may get frustrated with me for taking so long to update, but that's just how my life is rn. it's ultimately perfectly fine if you take a long time, though, because this is a hobby. we're not getting paid for this. we're providing art for free.

anyway......my process.....hmm. well. step one is to be haunted by visions.

step one is actually to think about that first idea you have to spark the fic. doesn't matter if it's in the middle or end, or anything. and you want to consider what kind of people would get in this situation (helps define what kind of character reader will be) and what could possibly lead up to it. it's okay if it seems like a bunch of disjointed ideas at first.

i am a big outliner, but i always allow seredipity during the writing process. as in, if something starts happening that's cool that i didn't plan, i'm cool with it, so long as it makes sense for the characters.

so, if i start a fic, i will start with an outline that's just a list of things i want to happen in the fic. sometimes it's specific events, and sometimes, it's something like "and they get romantically closer here through some tragic accident." put those events in an order that makes sense for the emotional progression of your characters.

i also keep running lists of hot lines of dialogue that i come up with, sexy outfits to put people in, sexy gestures, domestic things that would ruin me, or other fic-specific lists--like for tenko's soulmate route, i kept a running list of weird facts that reader could bring up. not many ended up going in the fic, but still.

like, this is a screenshot of a working outline/list from aizawa's route:

not all of this happened!! and more scenes got way fleshed out!!! i plan for Large Events and Emotional Resonance, but i am open to strange directions that just happen while writing the scene itself, so long as i get to where i need to go eventually. like.....the only one bed stuff on the undercover mission never happened, because suddenly, the club scene got super detailed, and aizawa would probably be too exhausted to spend the proper time having the argument, let alone sex, with reader that night.

but basically, i always want to know where i'll end up, even if i don't know how i'm going to get there. because the process of the characters getting there is where fun, detailed, character work happens. bc if your characters are distinct enough, they'll drive the story more than whatever plot you have.

i'm not every writer ever (obviously), so i know that more thorough outlining or not planning at all works better for other people!!! maybe try experimenting with completely planning and completely pantsing some shorter stories to see what works better for you.

i don't have a daily routine for writing bc i am Busy All the Time, but i carry a notebook in my purse if i am struck with visions, and when i type on my computer, i usually turn on an ambient mix from ambient.mix.com to block out other stuff. usually, i can find an ambience to fit the mood of the scene i'm writing, too lol, which doesn't necessary help but makes things more fun.

i honestly think i spend more time daydreaming about the story than writing it?? i am a big advocate for daydreaming. it's important that you spend time thinking about everything that could go wrong, bc it often makes for a better story if it's fucked up, somehow. idk it may also be bc of work that i'm away from a computer so often. i like writing in the notebook by hand bc it's less pressure to make it "good," and so i can edit as i type it in a word doc later.

and editing is, of course a huge part of the writing process!!! i would say it'd be weirder to write a sentence just right the first time, as opposed to deleting and rephrasing repeatedly! you're doing just fine!

but i wouldn't say there's any secret besides doing it a lot!!!! i know i'm not a great writer, but i know i'm okay, and that's the result of working and practising it for about two decades now. i just have practise, read a lot, and spend a lot of time, academically, discussing written stories.

so!!! if you're feeling like your stuff isn't as good as you want it to be, you just need to start allowing yourself to suck!!! nothing is perfect the first time!!! and eventually, you can edit your sucky stuff into stuff that's compelling.

good luck with your semi finals and finals!!! and thaaaaaank you for 1) valuing my advice as an artist (gosh!!!!!) and for 2) saying such nice things about the silly little stories i write!!!! it means a lot to me!!! you're so kind!!!!! i hope any of this helped at all!!!! and i hope your day is peaceful!!!! xx.

[sunnysduet]

@not-siri i really hope you don't mind me responding to your comment here instead of in the replies since there's a character limit and i have a lot to say---

so in general, here are my thoughts on why exactly omori is symbolized so much with "red hands" and why they're a huge theme of red space, one of his if not his BEST attack in the omori route, and in general why they are the way they are :] it might not make total sense but it's just what i've come to the conclusion of!

heavy spoilers for the ending of omori (both routes, sorta) ahead!

so my take on it is that omori is the sort of ugly manifestation of what the trauma has done to sunny, encompassing guilt and lifelessness and emotionlessness; he's what sunny doesn't want to be, but what he also fears that he is, if that makes sense? that's why omori is so content to sit back and let his friends live under the over saturated, too happy delusion of what headspace is. headspace is sort of them, frozen in time; their best moments. omori is content to keep it that way because he believes that covering it up is better. letting it be the way that it is, having things stay the same, it's better if no one knows the truth. sunny, at the beginning of the game, also believes that.

but as the game progresses, the true route makes sunny begins to diverge from what omori thinks and believes. it's really difficult for me to put into words exactly what i believe omori is and what he represents. in general, in sort of basic terms, i believe omori is sort of a coping skill, too? a bad one, though, obviously. he's overly violent on purpose (probably to try to block out the guilt of hurting someone sunny loved more than anyone by accident), he's constantly emotionless and never gets afraid (unlike sunny who's terrified of so many things), and in general, omori seems to always be in control, for the most part. he leads the party (unless you manually change it, but he's the default), the's the one who has to be there before the adventures begin, whereas sunny let the world pass him by for four years. he lost total control over his life in one split second mistake.

obviously omori is meant to be a parallel, a perfect opposite; but he is also what sunny needs, or what he thinks he needs. all that being said, it brings us to the topic of red hands.

much like how omori's purposeful violence is a way to take back sunny's mistake and take control of the situation and be the one to choose when somebody dies instead of by accident, the red hands are also sort of like that. they're a sort of reminder, but also i think that the symbolism of omori sitting atop the throne of red hands is another sort of self-destructive coping mechanism. omori controls the red hands. he controls when people get hurt. omori owns the red hands as a way to absolve the guilt of the first time red hands occurred, which was sunny to mari.

red hands is, in my opinion, sort of just omori's "something". it's a metaphorical reminder of what happened. but only omori learned how to deal with it, admittedly through an awful way, and get it under control. overall i think omori just has a lot to do with the concept of taking back control of your trauma the only way you know how, sort of just like aubrey did and how she became angry and violent. omori just takes it to other levels.

idk if this makes much sense at all but that's my take on the whole thing! i'm trying to do this kind of quickly so this reply doesn't come through out of nowhere like an hour later haha and i'm sorry if this is weird, i just feel really strongly about omori's (as a character and as a game in general) symbolism :] but either way i hope this is sort of somewhere coherent and makes sense!!!

thanks for reading, anyone who did! :D

[vampiromano]

okay uhhhh all my thoughts are scrambled so this is just kind of midnless yapping. about. stuff

1. okay so the king is. yeah idk why I trusted him when I should've logically understood that the guy has absolutely no idea about the previous convos we had. it does make me wonder whether I could've changed his mind by asking EVERYTHING and gifting him th flower all over again but. I doubt it. why would he change if this is all he has y'know. and if his literal god sorta told him he was doing what he had to.i dunno he's very interesting and I'm actually looking forward to the next fight

2. also looking forward to my next chat with loop. gotta wonder what they'll have to say about the guy who was so desperate to be understood thry Wished to get another self to talk to. I'm not sure it's gonna be the chat that gets me to The Reveal Of Loop's Identity as Siffrin2 or whatever BUT it's certainly heading that way if it isn't.

or maybe not! they're fun like that.

3. colours!!!!!!!!! nothing more to add just Colours.

ACTUALLY definitely something to add. did the same thing that happen to colours happen to the island????? is that it???????? will it be explained????? i really doubt it'll be explained. alas.

4. How Does Loop Feel About Their Home Country No Longer Existing. do they feel like Siffrin? or are they avoiding it the way Siffrin was for a while? are they detached bc now it's technically not theirs (assuming they're Alternate Siffrin and not Future Siffrin, bc I don't think Future Siffrin would make that much sense? okay maybe. some sense but. idkkkkk)? LOOP I NEED TO LOOK INSIDE YOUR BRAIN

5. Isabeau is soooo perceptive I luv him. my aversion to the crush has gotten slightly better the more Siffrin is reciprocating it and the less I'm thinking of Siffrin as Guy I'm Playing As (the more I think of them as A Character and not An Avatar, is what I mean). so I'm growing to appreciate him a lot more he's my fave guy. truly so cool. I get him. if nobody got me I know my man isabeau got me. he's my best friwnd.

6. fuck okay where was i. anyway everyone's reacting differently the more time passes and I think it's bc Siffrin is having such an astronomically bad fucking time it's transcending time. i feel like if I were in a room with them I'd just DIE I'd just say fuck this stupid baka life and drop to the ground and never move again from how rancid their vibes are. Siffrin is having the worst time anyone's ever had and I feel so sorry for him I hope I can at the very least lead him well enough he'll TALK to ANYONE(other than loop) about ANYTHING or else.

(I feel like talking to Loop is not very helpful bc Loop is just THEM but WORSE. like they already had their worst life. I don't think much good can come from talking to the version of yourself that DEFINITELY had it bad as well and seemingly BECAME A FUCKING STAR about it. idk. I'm rambling. I need to know more about Loop I need to help them also. I hope they get a happy ending with my Bones.)

7. Odile my best friend Odile is ALSO being very perceptive but she's kinda scary about it. either way I hope god do I HOPE she'll be the first to figure the loops out. or SOMETHING. bc I need Siffrin to talk to her about them I need to know what she THINKS.

8. irks me that nobody ever mentions that Siffrin poses for the picture!!! they're literally smiling!!!! every time!!!!! anyone say anything please!!!!!

9. Siffrin cut himself on glass. I was surprised! not sure it's quite self harm yet bc it didn't seem intentional BUT I have a feeling we're heading down that route!!! which is interesting!!!!!! they're certainly very self loathing and quite safe of Proper Death. idk. need to keep playing I guess.

10. Messi❤️

11. anyway yeah that's it I've got a lot of thoughts I hope someone found them mildly amusing at least!!!!

[elendsessor]

ok ok didn’t know there was a new smtv rising revengeance preview so i decided to check it out and here are my thoughts

everything’s below the cut so if you don’t want spoilers at all skip this :)

first off MY WISH CAME TRUE!!!

your partners can summon demons!!!! i mean i don’t really know how to feel about partners taking up party slots but

hey they brought back a cool thing from 4a and i’m here for it look at the silly bird and dazai channeling his inner pokemon trainer

then of course there’s the new drip and imma be real (and this is not the last time imma bitch) this uh. doesn’t vibe with me. i mean it’s fine??? i guess??? the new move looks cool but something about the design doesn’t really fit the serenity of the nahobino’s design. i really liked not having some completely edgy vibe especially since it contrasted with the other nahos so well. feels like its being taken away. though this may be more aogami dominant or something idk. i like a lot of 5’s demon designs so this was a bit of a letdown.

side note i like how the protag and aogami sitting on a bench are included in a lot of press release screenshots it’s just. really funny to me.

now here’s a really hot hot hot take

i hate this. i hate that they brought mastema back the way they seem to be doing. hear me out for a moment—

it has a lot to do with the law bias megaten has. i like mastema in strange journey but god they fumbled him in the chaos route by turning him into another angel who openly admits they just want complete control and i’m really fucking tired of it. he was basically a drug dealer in 4 and did like. absolutely nothing and was a whiny bitch. i wouldn’t mind him returning as a strictly summonable demon, but due to his framing in the trailer, he’s either going to be a part of the main plot or part of a sidequest.

the problem is that due to how much megaten pushes “law bad” it requires butchering characters. a lot of it definitely has to do with japan’s history with christianity and whatnot which is 100% valid. i don’t think i need to explain how abrahamic religions have impacted the world pretty negatively due to the evangelicals, but the fundamentals of religion are actually well intended. what matters is who preaches them. how it is often portrayed in megaten is controlling and sacrificing individuality when law as a concept is a lot broader and also comes with other downsides often overlooked and also often depicted as being almost downright exclusive to abrahamic religions when that couldn’t be further from the truth. heck japanese society is conservative af and punishes “underperforming.” so basic capitalism. as such, many of the angels in smt are also often depicted as slaves to god’s system or wanting something to be gained, and a lot of law reps are either depicted as being blindly complicit with things they were shown to be against or be made just as mindless.

law has been done well before. getting amane’s ending not only makes a lot of thematic sense but leads to one of the best written scenarios in the franchise along with one of my favorite exchanges in gaming. dsrk2 handles law stuff in a completely unique way that asks a lot more questions than any mainline game has ever done. it’s just a shame that status quo tends to be kept.

i’m not entirely worried since there’s a chance he could be handled well. abdiel is still the best written angel of them all because she wasn’t looking for control, rather approval, even if it meant committing a taboo/tearing herself apart to please god, which is a perfect commentary in it of itself and fits her namesake. law in 5 was actually pretty tame and not nearly as extreme as it usually is. though, considering how mastema’s character has been reduced to being an untrustworthy ass as opposed to just being relatively hands off when it came to pushing the good word of the lord, i don’t think that’ll change anytime soon. again have to stress i don’t dislike his inclusion because i don’t like him as a demon (i really do), i’m skeptical about his inclusion because of his character being assassinated in the name of the generic law bad thing and he clearly is going to be given a role outside of possibly usable demon.

to end on a good note tho

the ability to play as nahobeeho is very welcome in every reality

and though i already made a post on them gonna show them again

I LOVE AMABIE!!!!

[inkofamethyst]

March 3, 2024

It's so weird to already know what instrument I'm going to learn next (and also to have purposefully selected a time to learn it). Like, I didn't know I was going to want to teach myself the saxophone in high school, it just kind of happened (though these days I do lowkey wish I had gone for alto rather than tenor (will not make the same mistake with the bass, will prob go for a short scale)). Same with the uke--I was just bored one summer. But knowing that the bass is coming up (but that I'll be waiting over a year for it still (not a bad thing, as I'll be able to use this summer to learn more about my community at large)) makes me a bit antsy to just start playing. I'll be listening to music and will have to make a mental note of a cool baseline I'd like to learn (the "Life Will Change" bridge !!!!!!!!! (though I'll prob have to learn something like "Mask" from P5 before that if I want to play while singing (supposedly notoriously difficult on bass which is lovely)--slower, more repetitive)) but like, that's over a year away. I mean the wait gives me time to save and plan, sure, but I also just want to play something sometimes.

Speaking of planning, when I get to that fateful day next May of picking a bass (not sure if I want to go the cheap route and grab something used online or the Main Character route and have some hot guy in a guitar shop help me pick one out based on his expertise and then offer to give me lessons and then we fall in love (can you tell that Hadestown has pushed the dial right back over to R??) (though the guitar shop plan makes more sense for my first one (of one? of many? who knows) since I don't know any bassists and I don't know what I'm doing (yet))), I'm also going to have to decide whether I want to go for lessons. Honestly? I'm considering it. I know my whole deal is like "hur hur hur im a self taught multi-instrumentalist" (!!!! I'm a multi-instrumentalist !!!!!) but also if I can't find good videos on/am unsure about technique, might as well talk to a professional.

God I'm so excited to learn that instrument. Can you tell?

Speaking of saving, one thing about my savings goals notion page is that I wish it was more.. dynamic. In that, sometimes I save extra towards a goal one month, and it'd be nice if the suggested monthly savings amount went down to reflect the new minimum needed to reach that goal by the desired date. Or alternatively, change the end date based on the amount saved if the minimum payment stayed the same. I don't know how to code either of those, but they'd be a nice touch.

Though, kind of on a similar note, saving so aggressively in January and February has meant that, after typical spending habits, I've been left with basically nothing at the end of the month lol. Everything else taken into account, I've got ~$200 for random discretionary purchases monthly. That's been perfectly fine (aka just enough) but it also feels a little tight? Idk. I suppose I can rationalize it by the fact that it will keep me from overspending and will allow me to reach other goals quicker but it still feels like I'm livin paycheck to paycheck hehe. But this will only last as long as my ultra-aggressive saving strats do, so for about another year, then I start letting up (if all goes to plan).

Also, went ahead and did the per-day calculations because I've always heard that it's cheaper to make your own food than to buy it, and I am actually saving so much by making my own meals every day*. Like, so much. Now, at my uni, getting breakfast or lunch a la carte isn't terribly expensive, but it certainly can and likely would add up.

*Granted, I do benefit from the occasional free lunch or dinner.

Can you tell I'm rationalizing anxiety with over-strategizing? I truly do not make enough money to be so focused (rationalization: start good habits early). The moneydiaries subreddit has fried my brain I think.

Thinking about putting on some fake tattoos at the end of spring break. Partly because they make me immensely, unreasonably happy, partly because I'm curious if anyone would ask about them hehe. The last time I did a full sleeve and met up with some friends (years ago) they were a lil shook.

Today I'm thankful for.. a lazy weekend. And nighttime rain storms.

[ashersbraincell]

Also, upon finishing catching up on all the different character route endings, I have once again likely read way too far into narrative analysis of symbolism etc when comparing the differences between the routes.

Mainly 2 key things I thing can serve as cool metaphors:

The difference between where each talk takes place. For Orlam, it takes place in the bed, by far the most comfortable of the options when compared to other endings, which likely is representative of his lavish lifestyle in the wonderland+how this lifestyle was shared with Iggy in Arc 3. For Genzou, there is warmth(ie the kiss+laying together infront of the stove) to be found in the pain and the cold of the part of their talk that takes place outside; this mirrors any things. For one, the bravery to confess and admit to one’s feelings, which is particularly a hurdle for Genzou. It could also be reminiscent of how their romance blossomed most in Arc 2, even if it arguably was the most painful for them. Also completely diabolical of me to mention but laying next to the stove, in a dark humour sort of way, mirrors how in a lot of the bad endings they both end up cooked by Orlam. As for Gidget, nearly the entirety of the experience is cold, and leaves them with pain afterwards; it is uncomfortable. But there is just the slightest glimmer of warmth(the warm cocoon when they’re together). This, obviously, mirrors how Gidget arguably hurt Iggy the MOST, in the romantic sense anyway.

The other comparison I thought could be clever between the routes is the response from each character to Iggy staying behind as a kid. Obviously, Orlam’s “I know you want to hold my hand” is reminiscent of his self-confidence and possibly a tendency to be overly keen to assume people like him more than they do. With Genzou, on the other hand, Iggy is the one who grabs his wrist, which mirrors how he’s the one to make the first move in Arc 5(kissing him). As for Gidget, I’m a little confused, but the comparison of them having no touch at all with Iggy in that moment, could possibly be hinting at their character development of learning to accept boundaries? Idk