#like i always loved him but hes not (was not?) my favorite rgg character but these are making me change my mind

[kamuro-junrenka]

I never thought going through the reminiscing spots in yokohama as kiryu would hit me this hard. he thinks so much about death and it makes me so sad to see he's completely given up on life

[royaltrios]

here's some notes on my recent chsc: what you're missing

-since i published as needed as last year's snow in january, i've been busy trying to graduate and not had any time to read or write or even really think about genshin. then i visited our chsc server friends for a few days beginning of june and i came back and haven't stopped writing since

-on the drive up me and taho spent most of the two hours yapping about chsc, and it was lovely but also extremely extremely strange for me to hear someone praise my writing irl. im genuinely just stumbling through word documents like a bow-legged fawn so

-starting back up with writing this summer i started working things out on physical paper in a notebook. its actually been really fun/feels different than notes app/sticky note-ing it. i still did use sticky notes for puzzling out intricacies of the smut tho (and then proceeded to pretty much use none of it) i'll attach a pic of my notes here for fun even though its slightly horrifying to do

-like most of my fics ive had this one waiting in the wings for a while, basic premise though was just 'chsc first time happens after scara backhands childe in front of people and childe gets very horny about that'. wrote it over about two weeks, fight scene fucked me up until i just locked in and wrote all of it at once at 2am. spent a while rearranging the smut then sent it to pachi to beta, forced myself not to look at it during those days, got it back and made isolated edits and was too embarrassed to read the smut i wrote 2 weeks ago again so i just posted it. hope its ok

-i always always always have trouble with scara during harbinger era. its because im a chronic overexplainer/overjustifier for characters getting together. for his actions during that time i lean on the little tiny bit we ever saw of it and that's mostly abrasiveness... but you gotta pull on how wanderer acts/ his backstory a bit too to like really see where hes coming from at that point in the story. halfway thru writing i realized he wouldnt act the way i was imagining him acting, had to fix that, then had to tweak the rest of the fic

-basically; i think childe would accept that he has a thing for scaramouche without too much thought. he's into mean people who're older than him + match his freak. he goes towards what makes him feel good. scara on the other hand i think... he immediately justifies the pull he feels as 'childe's stupid enough that i can use him'/'he worships me without being told'. this is a guilty pleasure for both of them until they realize its not (which is what i hoped to set up by beginning it with their abyss connections-- they're alike from the very beginning and they're both being used in different ways) <- i talked to pachi some in the middle of writing and it helped me puzzle out what chsc would be feelin a bit more. ty dr pachi phd in childe characterization

-had to have like multiple tabs open of bible's rgg pwp fics as emotional support. i filtered fics tagged 'cunniligus' in my bookmarks more than once. i was floundering. 90% of what i write or consider writing is E rated but i don't actually get much fulfillment out of describing smut. however i kind of tried really hard here bc i know thats what 99% of people are reading this for and even though i hate when i have to write the words scaramouche and clit directly next to each other i ended up pretty proud of the smut here.

random favorite bit:

“Well, it—” Childe's hips buck up into Scaramouche's fist. With a strained expression across his face and in a tone that sounds a little too genuine, he says, “feels kinda... different, since it's you." It's as bold-faced and earnest as anything else he's heard Childe say. But it's a sort of confirmation that Scaramouche was hoping to avoid—whilst simultaneously enjoying dancing around it. Stupid to give him this much leeway, this much permission, and not expect the guy who does everything else with the ruthlessness and loyalty of a hunting dog not to extend that to this.

i liked this bc i felt like i managed to nail down scara realizing he might've bit off more than he can chew without disrupting the smut. and childe + dog metaphor + shaky earnest confessions + L + ratio

-my penchant for having characters write letters in fic returns (almost as bad as my thing with inserting flashbacks in the middle of stuff) (i like first person but i dont like it in fic so this is the only way i can do it)

-looped teenage dirtbag (title + captured how i was trying to play childe here) (friend told me recently the singer of wheatus went to hs around where we grew up?), against the kitchen floor by will wood (taho's doing), some high energy 2000s stuff while revising the fight scene, my age gap oriented pl + will stetsons rabbit hole cover during the smut

i'll leave whoever reads this with a teenage dirtbag induced write-up i did to try and work out why i ended up liking the title i chose so much:

what you're missing-- what you're letting pass you by. what you don't have by not looking at me, what you'll want back in the future. what you don't have by not having me. what you've been trying to find, to grasp. what you didn't know you were missing.

[girlfatherfigure]

Top 3 favorite rgg characters and why

GOSHH omg just 3???? This is gonna be sooo hard but erm ok here goes 😁

1. HARUKA. HARUKA FOREVERRR. I love her a lot i just care about her so much she’s like a little sister to me and im very passionate about how dirty her character got done lol. I have an entire au for her story in my head that’s completely different from how they spun her narrative in the games but ya. She’s my forever girl and my daughter i 💖 her i think she should get to kill everybody who crossed her even just slightly thank you

2. Ok it’s gotta be kiryu. Like im sorry kiryu u kind of suck but u will always be famousssssss. I will always have a soft spot for him even if he keeps doing dumb shit bc at the end of the day he is doing all that dumb shit out of selfless love for his family. Although it’s still dumb so imma beat tf out of him w hammers a little. But just a little. Love him 5ever

And 3. Majima sorry these r so basic i have sooo many rgg characters i luv but narrowing it down it’s gotta be these three 😭 he is just soooo. I have a love hate relationship w him. But specifically y0 majima is my fav bc i relate to him a lot and his backstory just reallyyyy resonated with me. + i love the fact that y0 just basically confirms that majima is always performing u know…..he buried his real self a long time ago. It gives him so much dimension that I really love. And that is very compelling to me. Is he kind of a scumbag well yeah. But unfortunately he’s kinda my fav

[04tenno]

6, 12, 20, 23 & 25 for Sawashiro!

CHARACTER ASK GAME!!! 💫

6. What's something you have in common with this character?

I feel like I'd have to make the understatement of the century to make any of my experiences or characteristics sound equivalent to his LMAO but with something like the wiki, I can definitely relate to his frustrations with feeling like people don't pull their own weight or listen to my instructions, and I definitely don't hold back in expressing that. For better and for worse...

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

I guess it's semi-canon because of RGGO, but I like to think he wears perfume. Definitely something floral based on the petals in his heat aura...

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

Arakawa bro this is NOT a QUESTION😭😭😭😭😭I'm certainly curious what his relationships with with various characters will be like in Infinite Wealth, but I don't think he'll ever have what he had with Arakawa again...

23. Favorite picture of this character?

There are a lot of pictures of him I like that actually have his face in the frame (the Tsutsumi bias is UNREAL believe me), but since I have the same brain as @todayisafridaynight (whom most of my followers also follow) and he's posted them a fair few times, I'll take a moment to highlight this particular shot. It always sticks out in my mind on a symbolic level. The way he deliberately bloodies the hand that was clean...

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

I was really thrown off! I loved Sawashiro's character from RGGO and the two couldn't be more different, in both design and and personality. Learning he was a faceclaim cleared up my confusion somewhat, but I was still apprehensive I wouldn't like him as much as I did RGGO's take on his character, since he was tied with Mine for my favorite main antagonist at the time. Although he's not exactly in the running for that particular title given he isn't a final-boss-level antagonist, he is now absolutely one of my favorite characters in the franchise to date.

In terms of how my impressions evolved throughout my experience of the game, that's a little harder to track. I believe RGGS were doing playthroughs of most of Chapter 1 up to Jo's final scene in that chapter, which is all it took for me to look forward to the rest. It should be noted I specifically watched the Japanese version when it came out, about a year prior to its Western release.

I think I'd seen his second boss fight's dynamic intro/transitions prior to actually getting to that point, I believe, and Well. They Were Sexy. What can I say... Unfortunately, something else I'd seen (been told against my will, rather) before that point was the plot twist, but it does speak to the writing and execution that despite this and the fact I thought his abusive background with his father was a little hokey at the time (<- WRONG), the combination of Coin Locker Baby (the entire chapter) as well as his "scene" in the epilogue solidified him as a favorite. Even before then, I found it intriguing to note things like his deference to authority and the lore conveyed through his battles themselves and to compare and contrast him with how RGGO's Sawashiro was executed.

I couldn't honestly say who I prefer between RGGO or YLAD's Sawashiros even at the time. If nothing else, I fully believe they're both the kinds of characters who get better and better the more you revisit and discuss them--I changed my mind on Sawashiro's abusive background just from seeing how well it ties in to his scenes with the rest of the Arakawa family unit, for example. Talking to Snap very much rekindled my love for him as well, and I'm super excited to see him back in Infinite Wealth!

[loonatic-moon]

Back again! You have a great point. 0 is what really revived the series in the west and Akiyama hasn’t really been prominent since before that. At least he was in 6! But yeah… not the most prominent… at least the Akikiryu food there was good.

I always thought Akiyama’s appearance fit in pretty well in 5 myself. Sure he didn’t really have a dream of his own to pursue (an interesting aspect to his character!), but in a way, his whole shtick is helping make dreams come true. To help those who need it most… but yeah I can also sorta see what people mean. 5 has to contain some of my all time favorite Akiyama moments though so I’m no doubt extremely biased.

And oh! You started with 5? Wild! Now that makes me super curious as to how you felt when you went back and played through 4 since I feel like there are slightly different vibes between the two. Not so much uncle/dad energy for one.

I can definitely see what you’re saying about Yagami! I’ve even seen some people say that Yagami’s fighting style (Crane really) fits what Akiyama wants to do. It makes a lot of sense.

True. I am happy to see Akiyama in whatever, even if he plays a minor role. He fits in pretty well as a supporting character so if that’s all RGG can/will do with him then… so be it. And yeah! Hana! Bring my girl back RGG! And hey, if Akiyama’s next role is in a turn based game, Hana would also work really well in that system! We know she can kick ass!

And omg if you write more Akikiryu, you’ll be my hero. I mean. You already are for feeding us fans with some great food, but more content of the moneylender with another man’s face on his necklace, a man he is definitely not yearning for, from you is a welcome treat!

Oh god, Y4 was a very different experience for so MANY reasons, lmao. I vastly prefer Y5 Akiyama to Y4 Akiyama to be honest, but there's something to be said about Y4's protrayal.

I went and played through Akiyama's Y4 bit right after I finished 5 because I had to know what this guy's deal was (and because I had already made the insane choice to jump in the deep end with the franchise). I definitely didn't love the whole Yasuko plot and being a dead ringer for his ex-gf, nor the shit that had also carried over into Y5 like having female clients work at a hostess club as a test. Questionable creative decisions at best. But like most other characters in the RGG universe, the narrative also doesn't make any bones about the fact that Akiyama is a flawed human in an industry that's often adjacent to the criminal underworld, despite his more noble philosophies. That's much of why I find this series so enjoyable, after all.

But anyway, after having played Y4 and the rest of the series by now, I personally still think Akiyama has one of the best opening/introduction scenes for any character in the franchise. I think his conversation with the baby yakuza is wonderfully done just from a narrative standpoint. And damn, all that shit he said to Kiryu in New Serena when they first met? Kinda confirmed my strong suspicions from Y5 that this guy has a Thing for Kiryu. Like most people, to be fair, but his Thing is with a capital-T. It was enough to prompt me to write Dragon and the Sky, haha.

Anyway, I didn't mean to go off on a rambly quasi-analysis, but I've thought a lot about the reasons his character fascinates me and has had staying power with fans-- not the least of which is he's like Kiryu in that he was once someone who was at the top of his game, who then took the fall for someone else and lost everything. I always found that to be an interesting template that RGG chose for him...

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, as always!

[undercooked-spaghetti]

As someone who has written to infinity and beyond in the Judgment fandom, I feel like I should say a little something in terms of the Kaito Files DLC. I've briefly mentioned it here and there in my notes on my fics, but I absolutely just didn't like the DLC all that much. I liked small things here and there; I thought Mikiko and Jun were good characters, I liked that we got some Higashi lore: he used to make and serve tea for the Matsugane Family, he gets a new arcade in Ijincho (WHICH WE DON'T FIND AT ALL IN INFINITE WEALTH). BUT... a lot just felt quite lackluster and unlike what I've come to love in RGG games. LET ME COUNT THE WAYS!

First of all, it's a DLC about Kaito. Which is FINE! He's not my favorite, and at times he's really fucking dumb and I don't believe he can be a GREAT detective (or even a good MAIN protagonist for the series), but he means well and is strong. I think he's a good fit alongside Yagami and backs him up. And I guess for big Kaito fans, it's great to finally see him in action! However, the whole "you were engaged 16 years ago and you fall HARD when you're in love" feels like a last minute decision to write some bigger backstory for Kaito.

Now, we know a bit already; he joined up with Matsugane right after graduating middle-school, his dad was a drunk, he went to highschool for a year (??? He mentions it in Lost Judgment, and I guess I assume Matsugane tried to have him go, but it feels off, but whatever). It all seems to fit in with Kaito's character, but the whole engagement thing felt off only because the DLC makes such a big deal about it, shows us flashbacks of him and Mikiko, show us how much it means to Kaito... but until the DLC tells us about the engagement, it just never seems like it comes up or did anything to change his character in any way. It seems more like an afterthought rather than something that works out with an already established character. And it's not the WORST thing at all, but it just really sticks out to me.

I actually really liked the flashbacks of Kaito and Mikiko. It was clear that Kaito cared and Mikiko was a strong woman who wouldn't put up with his bullshit, but instead call him out on it. Kaito would absolutely come to her aid, but she wasn't helpless either. BUT... her introduction rubbed me the wrong way. Not for Mikiko; she was sticking up for her baby sister and doing what she could to protect her. But you can't tell me that an office worker, whether she used self-defense or not, could totally leave the Matsugane office weakened that they needed Kaito to come in and save the day because she could totally take on several yakuza by herself. I know they needed a quick way to tell us she was a no-nonsense woman, but I just felt like it was a weak way to get Kaito around to meet her.

They made it too obvious Kyoya was the bad guy. I don't know if maybe I have a sixth sense for plot-twists or maybe it's just their writing (RGG twists are never the STRONGEST, but sometimes I don't see it coming), but they kept going with every intention of making it OBVIOUS he was not a good guy. He was rich, worked a lot, and then hurt Jun because the kid was just looking at some knives he found. There was NO subtlety about Kyoya, and the fact that he somehow seemed a million times more evil than Soma just seemed annoying, mostly because beyond Kyoya wanting money and to be rich, he barely felt all that complex. Like, he felt cartoonishly evil.

It leads me to the next point that the whole game itself just seemed so predictable. I knew Kyoya was going to be the big bad, I knew Kaito wasn't REALLY gonna be Jun's dad but it would make him want to help more and more even thinking he MIGHT be, and I knew that not only was Mikiko never going to do any damage during her revenge rampage, but she would end up with Kaito. I know I said RGG twists aren't always the strongest, but I feel like despite it, they still weave an intriguing story with twists and turns that become unexpected. But I could almost see everything a mile away and none of it was particularly interesting, if I'm being honest.

The ending I think is what truly soured me to it all. They're on a rooftop, Kyoya has been subdued, and Mikiko is seconds away from shooting him and getting her revenge because Kyoya had his "bestie" Kenmochi burn down her family's house (which apparently he assumed the house would be empty which is why he was okay with it, but he never checked and was really upset he killed people. OKAY?). Kaito stops her and mentions that Jun would be alone, and Kyoya was already in a bad spot and she could end her rampage, so Mikiko DOESN'T shoot him. And it's weird because she already had the detectives (which we never heard about until the DLC) watch Jun while she planned to infiltrate the party. So like, what were her plans for her kid once she DID get her revenge? It's mentioned a lot that despite it all, she loved Jun and tried to always be there for him before her disappearance, but suddenly she needs KAITO to bring up that her kid would watch her shoot his father and then she'd be in jail. Whatever. Kenmochi strangles Kyoya, DIES HIMSELF FROM THE POISON (Kyoya is super evil by the way and poisoned and killed EVERYONE. BECAUSE. HE. IS. EVIL!!!!), Jun is likely traumatized from watching it (plus all the trauma from EVERYTHING ELSE), and... it doesn't get brought up how much that'll fuck him up. Whether his dad was the most evillest villain or not, it's gonna fuck Jun up. And even when Jun talks to Kaito on the roof about wanting to be strong to protect those he cares about, he barely seems affected by watching people die RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM. YIKES!

AND THEN DON'T WORRY! Mikiko ends up with Kaito in the end! Because not only did the doctor who cared for her during her amnesia fall for her, but for some stupid reason, despite Mikiko now being free from her rampage to pick up the pieces of all the shit she's been through, the best thing to do is to saddle her with a man! AND WHAT BETTER WAY THAN TO FIGHT FOR HER LIKE SHE'S JUST A PRIZE TO BE WON?

And it's mostly for comedic effect I guess, since of course this rando RIPPED doctor would never win the girl when the protagonist is RIGHT THERE, but it's just... so stupid. They just go with Kaito despite EVERYTHING THAT WENT ON like it'll all be okay. And I think that's what really fucking chaps my hide. It felt like Jun's the only one who grew (KIND OF. He got over his fear of knives, I GUESS), and they all lived happily ever after. And don't get me wrong, I like a happy ending too, but it just felt too perfect. Nothing ever felt tense, it never felt like anything was at stake, no one seems all that hurt by anything that has happened (except, again, JUN). On paper I think the outline for the plot seems okay. But man, it just felt like a way to give Kaito some attention because... I dunno, maybe fans were sad he wasn't in Lost Judgment for half the game due to his stab wound?

I know I'm in the minority here. I want the guys to be happy because they've all been through shit, but man, I don't know, it felt too perfectly weaved to end the way it did. Despite how much I liked Kaito/Mikiko, it just feels like it's a leap for Mikiko to uproot her and Jun's lives after ALL THAT SHIT, to go live with Kaito all because... LOVE CONQUERS ALL!!!!111 It just felt so trite and unbelievable given what I'm accustomed to, I guess. I believe Mikiko would see how much Kaito would have changed in so many years, but she has a lot more going on and a lot to unpack, I just guess I don't see her as being so charmed and wooed after everything that had gone on just because Kaito won some stupid dick measuring contest FOR HER LOVE! It felt like they just wanted to have some form of wrap-up, and we got... this. I've seen a lot of talk about how Kaito wouldn't be so bad as a main character, and I FULLY disagree. I think he's a strong side character, but he doesn't feel smart enough to carry a game of mystery and intrigue. I know it was after the fact, but we saw how it went in Gaiden when he was the lead on a case; he had it all wrong and was running off before he heard a client's full story, and then ALSO throwing Higashi under a bus for not picking up that they had been tricked by a yakuza family.

There's a lot of little things that annoyed me as well, such as random woman working at Charles despite part of Higashi's character is that with the Family dissolved, he's been working toward getting Charles profitable so he can hire his guys to work for him because he cared so much about them. And it's not so much that he has a woman working, but more that she's only there so she can be a damsel in distress to show off Jun's character as fighting for what's right and protecting those who don't have the strength to protect themselves. They ditched some small established character lore to create lore for a new character when they could have done it a million other ways. It's a nitpick, but I'm a huge Higashi fan and entitled to my opinion.

I also hated Hoshino's bit. I could see him helping Kaito out on a case, but then he talks about troubles in his and Saori's relationship, how there's distance between them, which is also mentioned here and there in Lost Judgment as well but never taken further. So of course, Kaito says Hoshino should propose. WHY? Who the fuck knows, I guess to foreshadow the upcoming backstory. It's stupid. It's. All. So. Stupid.

Mikiko randomly snooping through Kyoya's laptop and finding evidence he was behind her family's death just also felt lazy. To be fair, I can't quite remember why it was explained she was snooping around, but with how meticulous and calculating they made Kyoya out to be, I just couldn't see him keeping any kind of documentation about it, especially not somewhere where his family could find it so easily. It felt too convenient.

Phew! I had to get it out of my system. I've been playing Lost Judgment here and there, and the stupid DLC stares me in the face when I open the phone, and it's annoying. I nearly gave up on the DLC after the first chapter because I was just so uninvested in it, but I pushed through because achievements and man. It just didn't feel like it got better. And not only was it too formulaic and predictable, the difficulty spike just felt odd. Like fighting as Kaito was fun, but the enemies felt like a chore to get past to the point that I set the difficulty to easy just so I could get through it faster.

Everyone praises the writing, and I'll say the writing was fine. They told the story they wanted to, it wasn't necessarily even a bad story, they even gave us some good characters in Jun and Mikiko, but it just didn't quite feel like a Ryu ga Gotoku story. It felt devoid of any real tension, intrigue, and it never left me feeling like I HAD to know more and at the edge of my seat. I'm glad it came free if you bought the Judgment Collection, because paying any big amount for the DLC would've been a slap in the face.

ANYWAY, Higashi lore was the best part of the DLC for me and it showed what a big heart he has despite trying to keep his edges. Love that for him!

[skysquid22]

i've recently read your minedai fics and they're so good... bangkok necktie especially was my fav but seriously! you write them so well! i'm very excited to see what else you write for them ^^ your fics are some of the best minedai fics have read! thank you for sharing your wonderful work hehe

i was wondering about your experience with the rgg franchise... would love to hear about how/when you got into it, your favorite games/the ones you've played, fav characters or moments in the series overall, etc. ^^

Thank you so much!!!! It feels great to know the works I write are also enjoyed by so many others. The tension and themes I can wring out of these two are incredibly fun to write and as I write more of them, I just find more and more facets to explore. I’m not sure if I’ll ever write more within the ‘universe’ of Bangkok Necktie, but I really should write all the ideas I had for what would happen next in a tumblr post and just share that instead.

Okay so about my RGG journey you gotta promise not to laugh aldjdkdjdndmd

So the only RGG game I’ve played was Y0 back in like 2021 I want to say. I wrote a Kiryu/Majima fic* that I left sitting dusty in my Google Drive until around this past June when I got a sudden and vicious urge to replay Y0, but alas—no way to. Instead I did what I didn’t manage to do in 2021 and just give in and watch the cutscenes for Y1 because I needed the Yakuza fix lol. Later watched Y2, then Y3, and… I haven’t gotten to any of the other ones LOL. I don’t really care about spoilers and engaging in a fandom means I already have an idea of how things play out and some characters, but I still gotta consume those tasty all cutscenes videos on YouTube for the rest of the franchise.

I do want to play the rest of them (particularly Y2, Y7, Ishin, and Y8 eventually), I just don’t have the means to. In terms of favorite characters, I think the order goes Mine, then Daigo, then Majima. I like the formal business types that are actually dangerous, just clicks with me and Majima is just flat out a fun and interesting character. Really, I’m gravitated to the characters I can chew on the canonical information given. Doesn’t have to be much, it just has to lead to interesting examinations. Favorite moments include Mine showing up to Kiryu and his band of friends with his kyodai’s head in a briefcase as an act of apology and just before he leaves decides that he can’t hold back so just shit talks Kiryu’s decisions to his face. Also every scene with Y2 emo Daigo. ALSO that scene in Y0 where Majima is beating the shit out of Lao Gui and Dojima shoots a gun at him and the camera focuses on the missed shot in the wall before focusing on Majima’s Hannya and he says “you can wait your damn turn. I’ll just be a sec. You get to be next.” KING! The cinematography of it all……. Show stopping�� love that scene so damn much. Anyway thank u for da ask, always happy for an excuse to ramble about either my own works (future or past) or about things in this series.

*I did at last post it yay and before Minedai took over I do have two half written fics involving Majima that I haven’t touched since July. I’m sure I’ll get around to finishing those two eventually lol…

[ratmoth]

Zhao 1, 2, 7, 8! 🥰

character ask game!

1. My first impression of them

"hm fuckboy alert" no but seriously i wasn't super impressed and was even prepared to not like him very much. i was more excited to have joon-gi in the party and zhao was more "oh i guess he's here too" at the time. i liked his look (because i'm cringe), but i was honestly pretty lukewarm about him.

When I think I truly started to like them (or dislike them, if you've sent me a character I don't like)

probably when it first shows him with the other ijin three and it reveals that he's… actually not this cruel, impatient, bloodthirsty gangster type. like, as soon as he mentions that he just feels like he's ~supposed to act that way for the sake of his men i was like "ohhhh okay that's more like it." i think it was through the drink links and party chat where i warmed up to him, because that's where it shows he's got a soft heart under what he pretends is apathy or even callousness. he cares A LOT about the people around him, even when he doesn't know what to do with himself at all and is battling through a lot of identity issues and confusion. idk he's a silly little guy and he's doing his best.

A quote of them that you remember

"no matter how much i hate you, no matter how far you fall, you're still my brother." -- zhao @ mabuchi because this whole scene/personal mission is really good and i always love it when a ~cool, chill character loses that cool and actually kinda has a meltdown because they care too much. ):

Your favorite outfit of them

i mean, i love his default outfit (like, he better win that rgg drip tournament going around atm). it's perfect and ridiculous and his black nails? immaculate. but i do love his hell's stew heavy metal outfit as well as the dumb daigo get-up you can put him in because that look will always be special to my emo heart. but yeah idk i'm weak for a black and gold color scheme. he looks great just the way he is and i'd kill for his shoes (: **OH but i did just remember his look as heisuke todo in ishin and his bun and glasses are very cute and deserve an honorable mention

[aaronieros]

i remembered that i never posted this here so here is my yakuza games tierlist (only of ones i've experienced so no dead souls kenzan etc) and here is my reasoning for each under the cut: (warning: this shit is long as hell)

1a. yakuza 6. first of all, the only game in which i like kiryu instead of being ambivalent at best towards him outside of funny substory moments. the absolute best thing they could have done with him, especially with the dragon imagery/reputation always associated with him, was give him something to protect, fiercely. he's old and tired and stressed out and he's all out of patience. one of the first things he does is tell a cps guy to go fuck himself and kidnap a baby. and it's the first game where he actually feels Threatening rather than being in stoic pacifist mode all the time. i do think he was genuinely ready to kill joon-gi for example, and he did punch his entire son-in-law through a glass door.

joon-gi is in 6 which automatically gives it a tremendous amount of points because i love him as he is and then i retroactively love him more due to the fuckery in 7, but the hirose family and the general plot are good enough that, upon rewatching a playthrough, i wasn't gnawing my arm off the whole time waiting for him to show up, because the game is already phenomenal without him. i fully acknowledge that some games (mainly kiwami and 3) i only think highly of because of one specific character, but 6 would still be good even if you replaced joon-gi my absolute beloved who i am obsessed with, with literally anyone else. also the ending was cheapened by kiryu being brought back into the fray of course but that doesn't change the fact that even Thinking about the steps scene brings tears to my eyes. love that shit. also fujiwara's voice acting as yuta is so fucking good. especially when yuta is going through some shit and his voice sounds completely hoarse and broken, and the subtlety with which it's delivered in some scenes as if he's trying to hide how affected he is (in serena while nagumo is asleep comes to mind). all in all just super super good. i love yakuza 6.

1b. lost judgment. my first actual rgg experience i fully sat through after playing yakuza 0 for a few hours but not enjoying the gameplay nearly enough to bother continuing. lost judgment is what ignited my passion for the series and essentially served as my actual entry point since i'd given up on 0 for the time being, and for several years no less. lots of beloved characters but i also really appreciate the actual storyline, more than any mainline yakuza game in fact. the scene on the roof with sawa might be my favorite in the whole game. the side stories are also very good, especially the boxing club one in my opinion (it's also neat that the school side cases are entire storylines in lj). i also really enjoyed the motorcycle gang one, and the minigame for the dance club was the main reason i even bought the game for myself after having watched a full playthrough.

a lot of people claim that judgment was better than lj, especially in terms of writing, but in my opinion, the only places lj falls flat in terms of writing are kuwana's character (there is so much about him that should be interesting but he is just a piece of cardboard to me) and the way yagami wields sawa's name after a certain point in the story. it really becomes a "drink every time yagami says sawa-sensei" type deal, which is comedic at best and annoying at worst. but every other thing in the story is not only good, but there's something else very specific to my experience that i'd like to talk about.

lost judgment made me rethink the way i view storytelling. i talked about this on twitter a long time ago and made these graphs to represent the way the characters are presented in the narrative of most stories versus the way lost judgment feels, with the black line being the protagonist's path and the colored lines being the rest of the characters in the story.

if you can't tell what i'm talking about, don't worry too much about it. it's difficult for me to put into words and i doubt people would readily agree with my perspective (or even that it's a better way to handle storytelling) even if i did explain it perfectly. it's just something that i really appreciate, that this one game allowed me to walk away with something so major, especially as a writer myself.

2a. yakuza 0. i have been talking too much already from my goated with the sauce category so i will try to keep these next ones more concise. 0 obviously deserves respect for being the technical starting point (unfortunately resulting in retcons and inconsistencies because it wasn't actually the first game) but it's also a fantastic game on its own. mainly majima's side. you will see a running theme where i just can't really care much about what happens to kiryu except in 6 unfortunately. but the cast in 0 is huge and all the characters have things to love and hate about them and it's so easy to get attached to them, seemingly moreso than other yakuza games (or people just play 0 to get in and then don't play any games after that, so it seems like the characters are more popular. it's also easier to give them attention Because of 0 being the starting point, because you can still get new fans who aren't deep into the series to relate if you're drawing/writing/talking about stuff from 0).

all in all 0 is very good and definitely deserves the popular opinion of it being the best yakuza game, especially with the work it did to revive the series and give it life in the west in particular. it demands respect on principle in the same way the first game in any series does, even if that game (not 0) happens to suck or be hard to play, just because it established the series and allowed better, more fun games to be made later. y0 is nice because it doesn't have the caveats of "well you have to respect it BUT" it's just a good game.

2b. yakuza 7. where to even begin. first of all, ichiban is infinitely more fun of a protagonist than kiryu. i happen to be extremely critical of all protagonists in every piece of media because they tend bore me extremely easily which sucks because they're the main character so they get the most screentime and we're stuck with them forever. ichiban never has that problem where it feels like a drag to be with him at all times. i happen to hate the brawling gameplay of the mainline yakuza games (and i only use crane style in lost judgment because it's the most fun) so it being a turn based rpg is extremely good. i bought it both because i knew i would enjoy that gameplay (especially with breaker ichiban in the funeral suit, that's such a good flavor that i wish was the canon default for him rather than hero/freelancer but i understand why it's not), but also because i am completely obsessed with joon-gi and wanted to witness every line and detail of him for myself without having to hunt for all of it online (especially since i only like the jp dub).

joon-gi's whole thing is my favorite part of 7, but only by a small margin. the plot of y7 in general was something i was extremely absorbed in and intrigued by, and my favorite scene in the game was the first coin locker scene. i, like many people, feel like the ending was extremely cheapened by what happened, seemingly for no reason, and especially with it being presented as a total non sequitur, but i do love that it gave ichiban the ability to perfectly parallel my favorite scene, all the way from what must have been an hour into the game, if even.

i happen to love all the party members including eri, who i wish had an actual role rather than being an optional party member. most characters in this game, i liked or appreciated in some way (for example, i do appreciate aoki but. "like" is a stretch.) so it didn't feel like a pain in the ass to max everyone's drink links. one complaint about the drink links i have though is that zhao's made it clear that he was only a party member as an afterthought, because for some reason his direction was different from all the rest, which i can reasonably assume was because it was directed quite a while after all the rest.

2c. judgment. i said i would try to shut the fuck up and then didn't so let's try it here. love the characters, love the story, i just didn't enjoy it *quite* as much as lj. i like kuroiwa but i do think people who say he's better than soma in any way are insane and high on copium.

2d. ishin. my beloved. as the tier name says, this one is only as high up as it is because i love historical dramas, but holy shit. first of all, obviously i am very happy to see izo (nishiki) and hijikata (mine), especially considering ishin gives us the opportunity to see mine when he's not in the middle of a combination homosexual and existential crisis because there's nobody in particular he feels insane about and capitalism hasn't ruined his life. but characters aside, the ending to ishin resonated with me something fierce and i regularly quote ryoma's little monologue about the future to myself and it makes me very emotional. the future's secure in the hands of so many others we've never known, whose faces we've never seen, whose voices we've never heard.

3a. kiwami. i think the tier name says it all. i am here for nishiki's corruption arc and how incredibly interested i am in chewing on him. i also recently watched a playthrough of the original yakuza 1 on ps2 and. i have to say, the retcons to turn nishiki into an actual character were a godsend. because based on nishiki in kiwami, you can't tell how or why shindo and kanda ended up as the next patriarchs considering nishiki's entire downward spiral started when he killed a rapist, only for some lame ass sex pests to succeed him. but in yakuza 1, it kind of makes sense given the line that implies nishiki thinks beating kiryu in a fight will make yumi "his". it gives the impression that he's so much more shallow and that he only killed dojima not to protect someone he cared about but because he was encroaching on something (someone) he felt entitled to. kiwami's retcons here are gentle and make it feel much more like he loved yumi but wasn't a freak about it, and that he killed dojima to protect her for her, not for himself. in conclusion, nishiki hard carries the game.

3b. yakuza 3. i do hold so much love for mine, but luckily he is not the only good thing about the game. the orphanage is introduced, you have the ryudo family and especially rikiya, but mine remains the best part of the game to me. only thing he did wrong was the ableism but to be fair he was having a complete and utter gay moment and freaked the fuck out because daigo didn't wake up within 5 seconds.

4. yakuza 4. what can i say. akiyama was great, love his character and his story, and especially love the cutscene direction. i thought going back and utilizing the money explosion in y1 was very clever, and was impressed that they built an entire fleshed-out character around that. will confess that i literally have no idea why he has the slut reputation that the fandom slapped on him, but i also barely know anything about dead souls as of right now, so maybe he shows hole in that or something.

the parts of the game that were not akiyama. well. kiryu and tanimura were fine. saejima was not. initially it was fine, but the prison escape thing is highly cheapened by the fact that this man is fucking addicted to prison so you have to do it AGAIN in the very next game. not only that, and not only the extremely uncomfortable scene with haruka, but saejima suffers from the same problems ryuji and sayama do (i will get to them.), where the game overhypes the fuck out of them just for them to not really do much of anything. the rubber bullets thing is stupid but it doesn't change the fact that saejima *thought* he killed those people, i'm not saying he's actually a pussy for not having committed Real Murder (it's just that god forbid a playable yakuza character actually does a killing). it's just that he doesn't really have anything interesting to say or anything cool to do except that scene in purgatory where he humiliated the whole audience down there for not valuing human lives beyond ending them for entertainment. i was fine with him for a while before that due to not knowing any better yet, but it's now retroactively the only scene where i don't kind of hate him.

5. yakuza 5. guys? it's not good. saejima is addicted to prison and still not a well-executed character in the slightest, with baba being the only bright spot in his section (but still a bit overplayed). but shinada is y5's biggest problem. it's not just that i don't give a fuck about baseball, it's that you have to be EXTREMELY passionate about baseball to let the absolutely ridiculous and dragged out and, rather quickly, extremely predictable story slide. i spent months trying to get through yakuza 5 and hated the experience so much that i thought i just wasn't into yakuza anymore. then ishin came out and i loved that and i decided to just skip the rest of 5 and go straight to 6, only to discover 5 was the problem and i do still love yakuza so incredibly much. luckily, the start of 6 recaps the ending of 5, so finishing it wasn't even necessary. and thank god for that.

6. literally anything else you can think of.

7. kiwami 2. i am nowhere near enough of a misogynist nor a brainless homosexual to like anything about kiwami 2. the only people i see who like ryuji are the ones who are attracted to him which is beyond me. people who like sayama i can only conclude have zero standards for the way female characters are handled. let me dive into this the same way i've bitched on twitter about it 109280437127421897432 times.

first, i will just quickly mention again that ryuji and sayama have the same problem as saejima. the game itself hypes them up so much that they almost have no choice but to fall flat. but sayama falls so much fucking harder than ryuji. and so does yayoi. yayoi's thing is quick, so i will cover that first.

you are telling me. that this strong, scary, takes-no-shit woman. gets manhandled *without even being restrained* and needs kiryu to come save her. and then when openly sexually assaulted just gives shindo one pansy ass slap across the face. almost like it's a gag in a rather sexist comedy sketch. realistically, according to her character, she should have pulled out a dagger and killed that man the moment he tried to kiss her. unfortunately, she is a woman in yakuza kiwami 2.

but at least yayoi just has one scene where she is dragged relentlessly through the mud. sayama is stuck being a woman in yakuza kiwami 2 for the entire game. pretty much the first thing she does is get shot in the shoulder. the shoulder. and while any male character in these games would either shrug it off or die dramatically from a single non fatal injury depending on what point in the game you're at, sayama, for some reason, faints and develops a fever. which means she needs kiryu to carry her all through kamurocho. and then a bit after that, she calls him while he's out to tell him to buy her underwear. and then when he brings it to her, she reveals that she just got out of the shower and drops her towel in front of him. if you can't understand why it's infuriating that the only major female character besides the Small Child is treated this way, i genuinely don't know what to tell you. she then spends the rest of the game asking endless questions and acting flabbergasted by everything (me too, girl). only good thing she ever did was shoot that one guy. and then of course the ending is a make out scene. only for kiryu to never think about her again after her cameo in the beginning of 3 (referred to yumi, inexplicably, as the only woman he has ever loved in 6 (he loved her?????))

in conclusion. from what i can tell, people like kiwami 2 for the following reasons:

they like the gameplay

they want to fuck ryuji

they think sayama's girlbossing makes her a good female character

mix and match any of the above. this game's only redeeming quality is that emo phase daigo is funny (if completely pathetic)

if you actually read all this, thanks for hearing me out and i am deeply sorry you wasted your time on some guy on the internet's opinions.

[lostjudgmnt]

hi actually i am sharing them now. this is gonna get rambly because i have a lot of thoughts about yagami takayuki and i also love puyo puyo so im running with the fact that it technically canonically exists in his univers. under the cut though so as to not clog up the dash

when yagami was a little kid, his dad got the madou monogatari games and let yagami watch when he played them. yagami was the same age then as arle was in that game! there were some parts his dad wouldnt let him see though because he was like five and there are parts of those games that are unnecessarily fucked up. but its how the two bonded while yagami's dad wasn't at work, for the most part.

the first puyo puyo came out when yagami was eight, and they played that one together as well, but yagami's dad let yagami play it himself, too. it was the first game he ever played and completed entirely on his own. when puyo puyo tsu came out a few years later, yagami and his dad started playing puyo against each other. a lot of yagami's fondest memories are of playing this game with his dad, and its one of the reasons he grew up to be so competitive.

yagami's parents had already died before the next puyo game, puyo puyo sun, was released. in my headcanon timeline, yagami's parents died in early november 1995, and yagami ran away to kamurocho that december. he'd meet matsugane, who'd begin taking care of him best he could. matsugane would find out about yagami's love for those games when puyo puyo sun came to arcades in december 1996, as yagami began talking about them and how much he enjoyed them again. matsugane would then end up buying a sega saturn and the game so he and yagami could play them together, when it came out on the saturn in february 1997. its in playing puyo puyo sun with him that yagami began to consider matsugane his second father.

eventually yagami and kaito would stop fighting and become friends, and mastugane, now yagami's father, would continue buying him puyo puyo games for his birthday and stuff. yagami would continue to be fiercely competitive at the games, and kaito would try to play with him sometimes but would almost always get his ass kicked. one time, though, he set off a six chain by total accident and won and it pissed yagami off so much he physically attacked kaito and matsugane had to ban them from playing together.

puyo pop fever, which came out when yagami was 20, ended up having the mode that became yagami's favorite, and the one he’s best at: fever mode. then they'd play puyo puyo 7 when it came out a few years later, as well as both the anniversary games.

ive decided that the puyo puyo tetris games aren't in the rgg universe in the same year they were released in real time just because the puyo puyo arcade cabinets were beta versions of those games with the tetris characters removed. i know thats just because sega doesn't have licesnsing for the tetris characters, but im leaving them out for reasons im not getting into <3 ex and yagami are best friends forever okay im not elaborating. which would mean puyo chronicle would be next.

puyo chronicle came out not long after the okubo case and the death of terasawa emi. yagami would have just started his private investigator carreer, but it would still be way too fresh of a wound for him at that point. he would have just moved in to his new office, but since he was just starting out, he never had any work, and would spend most of his time curled up on that sofa that just became his bed or at the office tucked in matsugane's room so matsugane could try and protect him from the family's bad faith teasing, but still spend time with him. he'd end up buying puyo chronicle for him then (on whatever equavilant of the 3ds they'd have in that world, i imagine yagami would already own one), and he'd play it while sitting in that room. there's a song in that game that's a new arrangement of the dungeon theme from the first madou game, and i think yagami would recognize it and remember playing those games with his first dad, now playing this game with his second one. and i think it was probably a bit of an emotional experience for him, but in a cathartic way, considering how shit his life had been at that point.

puyo chronicle would be the last actual puyo game to come out in that universe until much much later whene the puyo puyo tetris games are released. matsugane would be gone by that point, too, but hoshino would take interest in the games and start playing them with yagami then. kaito would start trying the games again now that they technically weren't banned anymore, and while he still wouldn't be as good as the others, he'd start to enjoy playing eventually. it sort of spread after that, with mafuyu and saori picking it up, so they'd all start playing against each other (higashi acted like he wasn't interested, but it was mostly that he was intimidated by how good the others were, and their competitiveness, and decided he'd rather not get involved with that)

playing puyo puyo with people essentially is one of yagami's love languages. he'll kick your ass at it probably, especially if its fever mode, but he has a lot of fond memories attached to the series, and finds a lot of joy in it, and sharing that joy with other people is one of his ways of showing love. even, if not especially, he acts like he wants to kill you over it.

im gonna talk about my yagami puyo headcanons in a bit. you will hear about them

[watasemasaru]

if you're still feeling like playing the rgg game can you answer: a3, a4, a7, b4, b5, c2, c10, e2, f7?

Yeah yeah yeah! <3

A) Just Your Faves:

3.Favorite Protagonist(s) Ichiban Kasuga Ichiban is just such a breath of fresh air; he's funny, relatable, charismatic. I'm more partial to a protag that's upbeat and a little dumb as opposed to someone stoic. I'll give Majima an honorable mention as he's also a lot of fun to walk through a story with.

4. Favorite Antagonist(s) Jin Kuwana. Like many who love this character, it's tied to a personal history of being bullied. There's only so much "waiting for things to change" before you can't take it anymore. Having someone like Kuwana who has decided that kids are dying now, I'm not waiting for the law is a comfort. "Doing what is right" isn't always going to mean following the law. AND HE'S SUPER CUTE JUST LOOK AT HIM. HE'S MY BABYGIRL

7. Favorite substory(ies) I loved hunting for the squirrels in Lost Judgment, and looking for cats in Judgment. In general I love answering the call of the primal urge to hunt and gather.

B) Let's get Personal:

4. Who would you like to post more, but don't? Why don't you? Watase...because I've combed through his tag like five or six times and reblogged everything just as much...and a good bit of the tag is just me being an idiot LMAO

5. Which character do you think you would bump heads with most if you knew them in real life? Masato Arakawa & Yoshitaka Mine. The problem being we're too much alike. The three of us in a room would be an insufferable nightmare. Three introverted loners, two with a complex of being the sibling no one not even your own parents liked? We gotta open a window the edge and depression is curling the paint help.

C) Let's be Subjective

2. Which game had the worst plotline? It's a tie between Y4 & Y6. TBH I couldn't tell you one fucking thing about Y6 and I played it twice other than its shit ending...all of it is shit I hate Y6 LOL. And Y4 is just - I don't get how it's a fan favorite, Akiyama I'm certain is the only reason why anyone holds it in such regard.

10. Which game do you think should get a remake? You could remake Y6 and retcon Haruka shaking up with bighead and I'd be satisfied. You could retcon all of Y6 and I'd be over the moon. Part of that game's problem is it just felt like prestige tv. One really long showcase of star studded named like Shun Oguri, Beat Takeshi, Tatsuya Fujiwara, and Hiroyuki Miyasako. I mean I guess Y0 did that too but it did it well, this one did not.

E) This or That?

2. Bops: Haruka Sawamura, T-SET, or Dream Line? Haruka Sawamura. So Much More is THE song okay. It's bright and catchy. And of course the all star remixes are so goodddddd. It's funny her VA sings the same way for Rise Kujikawa, but I absolutely hateeee her! The character's personality definitely helps make music likeable.

F) Insert Yourself

7. Who are you fighting on top of the Millennium Tower rooftop? I'm getting at least one swing at Kiryu and I'm gonna be screaming my qualms and crying the whole time cuz I'm so mad LMAO. You could line them all up and let me get one hit in though, I'll think of a reason why later >:3

[itsybitsylemonsqueezy]

Hi! I happened to stumble across your analyses on both Majima and Saejima and boy am I blown away by them! You captured their personalities so well it’s awespiring. Is there a chance you’ll write a post about Kiryu as well? It’s just that originally I’ve had a hard time liking him as a character because of the numerous mistakes he has made across the series (and the fact that others don��t really address them for some reason). Despite that I’m a huge fan of kazumaji and that’s why I feel conflicted sometimes. Anyway, I would really like to hear your thoughts about it!

Awww, you’re very kind ^^; Thanks for asking for more c: So, the reason why I haven’t yet made a post about Kiryu is NOT due to my lack of feelings about him, it’s quite the opposite. I have essays worth of feelings about Kiryu and just... have not found the time to really give those feelings credit ^^; But, since you ask and you’re having a hard time with his character, let me at least start. 

As a preamble, let me first say that there’s a difference between a character making a mistake and the writing making a mistake. This is not to say Kiryu never makes mistakes, far from it. I have a lot of feelings about Kiryu’s mistakes, they’re one of the reasons I love him, but a lot of the more egregious fuck ups are the writers making weak or poorly thought out choices. For example, like you point out, Kiryu makes mistakes and no one ever calls him out for it... that’s a writing flaw, not a problem with Kiryu. 

(Please note that to give my best reading of Kiryu, I’m going to reference as many games as I have seen, which is through game 6. If you do not wish to be spoiled through at least game 5 (I never reference game 6 if I can help it), do not read further.)

Continuing with that example... I cannot tell you how simultaneously OVERJOYED and FURIOUS I am about game 3 when Mine, MINE YOSHITAKA, a character who was introduced that game and then never appears again, is the only person who criticizes Kiryu’s decisions when he has DEMONSTRABLY made bad ones! Like, Mine’s criticisms are ENTIRELY valid, but because they come out of his mouth it’s hard to say if the audience is meant to sympathize or not. Especially since Mine is sort of the antagonist of that game and he’s not really pitched as a sympathetic character. You have to really be willing to be critical of Kiryu to hear what Mine’s saying there and agree with him. The way the scene is played, you’re sort of supposed to still identify with Kiryu and insist that he’s never done anything wrong ever, even though he’s put all of his friends in a vulnerable position and IS arguably to blame for the state Daigo’s in now, as Mine points out. 

And the writing is on some level aware that it is Kiryu’s fault or they wouldn’t have brought it up. They wouldn’t have had Mine say that if they didn’t see that problem. But the problem is they’re afraid of letting Kiryu be flawed. They’re afraid that if Kiryu’s wrong, even once, he won’t be The Good Guy anymore and the audience won’t like him anymore. This is weak and cowardly writing. Characters aren’t compelling because they’re never wrong, characters are compelling from what they do when they’re wrong. Any character who’s never wrong is unrealistic and, ultimately, boring. We all fuck up, we’re all only human. You ultimately will not identify with an infallible god because they would make choices you wouldn’t. I’m sure we can all think of characters who were pitched to us as infallible that, sooner or later, we ended up hating because of this very trait. So trying to pitch Kiryu as infallible is a ginormous mistake. But an understandable one, especially in a franchise that depends on the likability of its main character. But this means that they don’t trust their own writing, they don’t trust Kiryu’s inherent appeal and they fuck up the story around refusing to take risks. It’s one of the most heartbreaking writing decisions for me that those words come out of Mine’s mouth and not one of Kiryu’s friends. 

Because it’s Kiryu’s friends who deserve to get to say that. It’s Kiryu’s friends, the people who are directly affected by his actions and the people who CARE about Kiryu, who have the right to criticize him. Not some fucking young blood with a chip on his shoulder. Having Mine say it makes the criticism look biased an illegitimate when it isn’t. I understand the writing impulse to not let us criticize Kiryu, but think how much more compelling it would be to show that Kiryu’s relationships are strong enough to handle criticism. That the trust and love is there for a friend to come to Kiryu with this and to force Kiryu to confront himself and listen rather than ignore the problems and insist that he’s never done anything wrong. But to make that call, to let us doubt Kiryu, you, as the writer, have to trust your story, you have to trust your character, and, worst of all, you have to trust your audience. Many many writers of popular media do not trust their audiences. They don’t trust that if they let you doubt, you’ll come with them and see where the story leads. They’re afraid you’ll lose interest and turn away. Many writers feel that they cannot take the risk of trusting their writing for fear of losing their base and therefore their income.

And, again, part of the issue is the aims of the story. At the end of the day, RGG is here to produce a fighting video game, that’s it. Wrapping that up in a compelling story makes it more sellable, but their primary focus isn’t the story itself. It’s getting you to buy a fighting video game. If the mechanics aren’t up to par, if they fights aren’t cool and interesting, the rest doesn’t matter. RGG came up with a story to link the games together and invested in making an interesting protag, but it was to sell the games. If the point of this story was the story, I think we’d be seeing different writing decisions and maybe some of these flaws could have been avoided. And I don’t actually mean to point this out as a criticism and say why aren’t they creating art for art’s sake? I mean it really as a grain of salt that I personally use to try not to hold the writing here up to the standard that I would a novel or something. That may not be useful perspective for anyone else, but it’s a thing I like to keep in mind. 

So, part of what we see in Kiryu is that the writing fucking sucks. And it’s fair not to want to redeem Kiryu’s character or dig deeper into him when the writing hasn’t provided you with much. So no one feel bad if you’re not persuaded by my assessment, I’m not here to shame or convince anyone, I’m just offering my two cents. 

And now alllll of that said... Let’s talk about my boy, Kiryu Kazuma. 

I said earlier that characters are compelling based on how they react to mistakes, how they deal with them. Let me tell you, Kiryu is aware that he’s made mistakes. And he has regrets. 

What I find compelling about Kiryu is that he tries so fucking hard to do the right thing, all the fucking time. What I find compelling about Kiryu is that he wants so much to make people happy, to make people proud of him. He is scared all the time of doing wrong by people and making himself untrustworthy, making himself scary. He has lost so much, he has lost everything and he still gets up every goddamn day and tries. 

Does he fuck up? YES. ABSOLUTELY. ALL THE FUCKING TIME. But he gets up. Every. Fucking. Day. And tries. And you can’t buy that. You can’t ask for that. That’s just who he is, a guy who tries. 

I don’t... have time to explain the depths of my love for Kiryu, but let’s take my favorite Kiryu, what I think the best characterization of Kiryu is in the entire fucking series: game 5. Game 5 Kiryu is my favorite fucking Kiryu, including 1, including Zero, bar fucking none. I fucking love game 5 Kiryu. 

And Game 5 begins with a colossal mistake. 

Before the game starts, Kiryu is convinced, either earnestly or nefariously, to leave his little family and specifically abandon AHEM release his daughter Haruka to someone else. This is the stupidest fucking thing Kiryu’s done since giving up the chairmanship. But he does it because he is told that he is a greater threat to his family WITH them than abandoning them. I want you to think about that. Kiryu loves his family so much he would sooner leave them than do them harm. I need to remind you that Kiryu has already destroyed and rebuilt his own life once already. He has repeatedly given up everything for his dream of having a family and for all his beautiful kids more than once. And he just loves his little Okinawa home so much, he can’t stand the idea that he would bring it harm, so he fucks off. This is categorically the wrong decision and any other reasonable adult would know this. I’m sure you yourself understand intuitively why a parent, no matter how dubious, can’t just leave a brood of underage children to fend for themselves in the world.

But here’s the thing: Kiryu’s made a number of dumbass decisions that have led him to this point in his life. He doesn’t have any adult, peer friends to counsel him about this. He’s deliberately estranged himself from Majima, from Date, from all the people who could have helped him out here and told him not to. And deep down Kiryu’s always been worried that he was unworthy of this. He’s always been afraid that he didn’t really deserve to be happy, deserve his little family of innocents. And the plot SURE AS FUCK has confirmed that for him, repeatedly putting the kids in danger and reminding him that you can never actually leave the yakuza. Kiryu knows he’s fucked up. He knows adopting his family was a mistake, but it was too late, what was he gonna do now? But here comes this little insidious voice confirming his worst fears, telling him he needs to go, and Kiryu listens. He has no one else to listen to and he’s been so beaten down by the plot by this point, he’s lost so fucking much now, that he doesn’t have the strength to believe in himself anymore. So he goes. Believing that he is doing the right thing.

And then, as it always does, the plot comes for him, telling Kiryu he needs to come help, telling Kiryu only he can fix it. And Kiryu, for the first time in his life, puts his foot down. He’s so fucking tired, he won’t fucking do it, not one more time. Because every time he gets his ass up to help, what happens? Someone else dies. Someone else dies and it’s Kiryu’s fault all over again, and it’s Nishiki all over again, and Kiryu can barely fucking live with himself for all the guilt that he feels. He starts to help and he just loses. Every fucking time. So this time, no, this time he won’t do it. He can’t do it anymore. He just wants... everyone to be okay. And he’s so sure that everyone would be better off without him. 

If that’s a huge screaming red flag for anyone else IT SHOULD BE. Kiryu is in a depression spiral. He’s suicidal. He’s cut himself off from all his meaningful relationships, he’s not participating in his favorite hobbies, he’s alone and isolated in a new city where he doesn’t know anyone. He’s Not Doing Good. Game 5 is about finally, FINALLY confronting Kiryu’s demons, all the pent up unresolved guilt and turmoil that we never fucking addressed for 5 games running. (And if you’re hearing Bitter Resentment in the way the games have handled Kiryu’s emotional reactions OH BOY YOU BETCHA but that’s for another post.)

So Kiryu finally says no. He won’t fucking do it. But the plot comes for the fucking carotid. It’s Majima. It’s Majima. The only person Kiryu really, truly trusts. The person Kiryu was relying on to still be there, to be strong, to do the things Kiryu couldn’t. It’s Majima this time. And Kiryu loses his goddamn mind. That was the one thing you had left to take from him, his belief in Majima, and you took it. Kiryu nearly has a psychotic break at the news and decides, fine. Fine. I’ll go fix this, and then I can die. Then it’s over. Because there ain’t nothing left for him now. 

And he does. Kiryu gets his ass down there, he solves the fucking problem, and then he does his level best to die there. Because it’s what he feels he deserves. He’s let down everyone. All those losses, all those people... they’re his fault. If he was really the hero, he could have saved them. If he was really a good person, these tragedies wouldn’t keep happening. It must be his fault. Fuck, even Majima died, even Majima... and he wasn’t even there, he couldn’t even have helped him, he just... He abandoned him. And Kiryu feels intensely that guilt and grief for his mistakes and his missed opportunities. And all he can think to do with that feeling... is die. It’s what Nishiki did before him. It’s what Kazama did before that. That’s what you do when you’ve fucked up and you don’t know how to fix it. You die. Then no one has to deal with you anymore.

But Haruka. His daughter. The best thing he ever did. She’s up there on stage and she loves him. She still loves him and wants him to be her dad. She’s been with him the whole time, she knows all about it. And she’s not scared. And she doesn’t think he’s bad. Maybe... maybe he can stay alive then. Maybe it’s okay if Haruka is still his daughter. And against all belief, he finds his way back to Haruka. He stays alive for her. He won’t repeat the mistakes of the past. And maybe... he can learn to do something different this time.

Kiryu... makes mistakes all the time. But he knows. And he feels so guilty. The writing doesn’t always do a great job of showing it. We don’t process Nishiki the way we should. We kill Rikiya for no reason. We forget that game 3 should have been TRIGGERING AS SHIT. And we awkwardly no homo out of Kiryu’s most important relationship while still insisting that it is Kiryu’s most important relationship. The writing is spotty and flawed and sometimes you can barely piece together a coherent narrative out of it. 

But at its white burning core is a guy who just keeps trying. Who gets up the next day and tries again. Because he’s lost so much. Because he loves so much. Because he believes there is value in being nice to people and being a good person. And I love that.

[theclampdown]

Majima :smirk_emoji:

(im guessing this is runa? ty for sending me this i love you so much <33333)

First impression: so my First first impression of majima, bc i followed some bloggers with terrible rgg opinions before i knew what rgg was, was that he was ~crAazy~ or whatever. but when i actually started rgg0 i really liked him right off the bat. i think my first thought about him was “oh neat shoes”

Impression now: despite everything he is very dear to me i especially love his relationship w saejima in 4 and 5 and also his dynamic w daigo he is genuinely an interesting and complex Supporting character

Favorite moment: hmm this is tough. the bomb moment in k2 is always a fun one bc funny but a genuine moment for him would probably be him and saejima reuniting in rgg4. i love brothers

Idea for a story: honestly i think his like, Story has been Told but i think i would at least like lore on like, why he joined the yakuza since he was probably super young when he did, how he met saejima, etc

Unpopular opinion: this isn’t unpopular if youre like, smart, but hes not Crazy or anything like that. hes kind of fucked up but hes still moving forwards hes just a dude. hes a guy.

Favorite relationship: him and saejima are so brothers it makes me crazy. he and makoto are very sweet as friends as well (i am ignoring the k2 majima saga because it was dumb)

Favorite headcanon: i think that he’s big into metal music and when they were younger he and saejima used to go to metal concerts :)

[cloneslugs]

7 thoughts dump -__- disclaimer that it's one of the games i will need a 2nd playthrough for so any negativity is kind of shaky

climax + everything unfolding in ch12 (-ch13) kind of weird pacing esp ch12 but it's whatever the weird jump suddenly helping the tojo clan (w majima + saejima + kiryu (+ daigo)) was not to my taste between solving polit drama, ik it's all intertwined and it throws arakawa back on the good guys team ~☆just like he was always meant to be☆~ but whatever.. at a certain point i think the story would feel stronger w/o shoehorning past characters which imo is what made JE so strong as a standalone/new chapter/new story but it's not like seeing them ruined anything and they are my friends (:

double coin locker baby is actually surpassing rubber bullets saejima for "i know theres a twist coming up but this was the last thing i expected" i figured arakawa just lied about maybe having twins or something, and tangent off of that but (and idk masato's reasonin for things yet, but Ichi asking why he's so afraid to fail stuck w me) but idk if i would prefer he knew if Ichi was his bio son or not bc i feel like if he did know than like masato's whole issue (that i think he has?) w his dad favoring Ichi is kind of :/ i always figured it was something since they're both born new years (eve) so it's whatever i kind of wish it was less stupid but ik that's asking for a lot </3

I actually really like Masato + Sawashiro as characters they are honestly some of my favorite antagonists <3 i liked Sawashiro more before he started like tattling on himself and feeling guilty bc like once he explained everything it was kind of :/ like i would rather him be calculating evil than like . coward who cant even really own up to his shit + the subsequent trying to make you feel sorry for him -__-, Masato i just really love + there's stuff i wish he hadn't done so i could like really give him my heart but hes a giant asshole so he just gets </3 i really like his relationship w Sawashiro and how it reflects on his relationship w Arakawa but </3

Arakawa i shifted between liking to disliking to liking to disliking his final scene before dying was actually really </3 he's one of the few rgg dads i can almost get behind bc he actually feels guilty for using Ichi as a pawn rather than person + im glad that he addresses how fucked up he was, and then Ichi's blind loyalty + forgiveness is really</3 i still think he was a pos dad though -__-

overall rn i think the story jumps to a lot of diff focuses from the omi v tojo to gov drama to tojo vs gov + etc etc etc it reminds me of k2 or maybe even 6 or 4 in the sense i need to really double down for a clearer look at all the parts working together

[botseeksbot]

rgg (001) + uhh kiryu or tachibana (003)

Favorite character:

uhh kiryu, haruka, nishiki, majima, tachibana, makoto, hana, akiyama, and POCKET CIRCUIT FIGHTER

Least Favorite character:

sagawa, kazama, oda, mine

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon):

akiyama/hana, kiryu/majima, kiryu/tachibana, uhhhhhhh

Character I find most attractive:

kiryu, akiyama, majima ...

Character I would marry:

... tachibana, akiyama, or majima

Character I would be best friends with:

nishiki + haruka :]

A random thought:

uhh fandom is gross and 99% have shitty ships

An unpopular opinion:

everyone is trans

My canon OTP:

does akihana and kazumaji count

Non-canon OTP:

uhh tachibana/kiryu

Most badass character:

uhhh kiryu, majima, and ... saejima O__O

Pairing I am not a fan of:

nishiki/kiryu and yumi/kiryu is incest, sagawa/majima is abusive, sayama/kiryu is a weird fucking age gap, oda/tachibana is unhealthy, akiyama/majima or kiryu is also weird age gap

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another):

kiryu was a creep to his cabaret girls in k2, kazama deserved to be antagonized, ending of k2 seemed out of character, hana's treatment in 4 is gross esp, nishiki deserved better, tachibana deserved to be recognized and remembered akin to makoto outside of kiryu offhandedly mentioning he worked in real estate, probably more

Favourite friendship:

Makoto + Majima and all the boys in 4 :]

TACHIBANA

How I feel about this character: 

GOD he is such a well written character... his grey morals but still being an absolute sweetheart ... his love for kiryu despite believing he could only use people ... all his lines are really good hes such a good character i love him so much ;__;

All the people I ship romantically with this character: 

. its just kiryu

My non-romantic OTP for this character: 

??? im sorry mr tachibana u have no friends

My unpopular opinion about this character: 

him and oda r not good together

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

ch 14 should not have ended how it did

My OTP:

kiryu/tachibana :3

My OT3:

majima + kiryu + tachibana 🙈

KIRYU bc i cant shut up

How I feel about this character: 

UGH hes so GOOD i cant express how good kiryu is ... hes stupid and funny but also so gentle and makes me emo ... he always has such good scenes and lines and hes so loving and trusting and hes just important to me ;__;

All the people I ship romantically with this character: 

... majima and tachibana

My non-romantic OTP for this character: 

uhh rikiya and akiyama ? they r his younger buddies

My unpopular opinion about this character: 

he's trans and likes men

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

UH rewrite ending of k and k2 entirely it seems out of character

My OTP:

kazumaji

My OT3:

😳🙈 majima/kiryu/tachibana

[joyandeggs]

3, 6, 19, 33, 34, 60 for the video game ask!

3. Favorite childhood game?

Oh gosh...there are too many. A lot of them are n64 games or gamecube games, which nearly all of them I watched my older brother play. Since he was much older than me, he wouldn't let me play "his" games majority of the time. He would literally take up every save file and tell me not to mess with them. 😧 Despite that, I do have fond memories watching the games I loved like a movie. Like...Ocarina of Time, Banjo-Kazooie, and Paper Mario, off the top of my head. Paper Mario was the biggest one I always loved watching. For gamecube games, Luigi's Mansion, Super Mario Sunshine, and both Pikmin 1 and 2, off the top of my head. There are too many for me to list that were big parts of my childhood.

One of my most favorites will always be the original Animal Crossing. I have such great memories from it. My mom would it every morning when she woke up and made coffee, she absolutely loved the game. We'd both drink coffee together and I'd watch her play. Something that I miss severely. I would watch her play Wild World, and I would play New Leaf, and we'd just sit side by side in bed playing and showing each other our games, even though that was during college, so not too long ago. But I still miss that. My mom doesn't play video games at all anymore, but she still enjoys them. Even whenever I talk to her about newer or different games she hasn't heard of, she's just like "Oh, cool!" (She actually saw a picture of Iori on my phone one day and I think she fell for him. LOL She was just ahhh!!! Couldn't get over how pretty he was!!) She is so cool. ❤

If I could pick a whole series, I would go with Smash Bros. Ever since the original on the 64, the series has given me the greatest hits in my life. The series means the world to me, I love it so much. Not only has it given me joy, but helped me get to know characters I would never know and love today. Melee and Brawl were both such a big deal to me, Melee because of Marth and Roy, and Brawl because of Sonic and Meta Knight. Which is crazy to think back on. I never had internet until Brawl came out, so looking up more about Kirby and Sonic blew my mind when I was younger. Now, we have Ultimate with everyone along with new characters, and... This is a whole story by itself. Maybe another time. 💌

6. An underrated game from the last few years?

I actually need to look up what games came out in the last few years... I actually really loved Dragon Ball Fighterz! Playing it with Corin was always fun. I loved the story mode, how the characters interacted, and just...ahh, it hit a soft spot in me, but that's because I really enjoy the series. Jump Force I actually liked, even though nobody ended up liking it. I just always love how they get all these characters together to fight. Even though...there's a lot of more obscure characters missing from the newest game. Huge bummer. And of course there's Judgment and Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise. Those two are heavily underrated. I love them both a lot, but I enjoy all of the games from RGG Studio. There I go back on anime again. wwww Whoops. Oh! And Shenmue 3, of course! I absolutely love the Shenmue series! Severely underrated. That game is so good, and so beautiful. I'll never understand why people wouldn't love it.

19. Hardest game you ever played?

Truthfully? ...The King of Fighters games. I've tried playing them, but I am so awful at them. I can't even beat a single match, nor do any input moves. Even set to level one, and the games just...kill me. When you really love video games, but you're absolute garbage at them. 💔 I love the series so much, I want to cry. Maybe I'll get better one of these days!

33. Favorite female npc?

Hm... Let me think. There's Pauline from the Mario series! She's the best in Odyssey, along with Princess Peach and Princess Daisy. Even though Peach and Daisy are both playable in most games. Technically Chuchu is playable in Kirby's Dreamland 3 as a friend, but she isn't usually. She's very obscure, but I love her so much. Ribbon and Adeline from Crystal Shards, too! So many cute girl characters from the old games. For some reason I'm having a hard time thinking of human characters! Off the top of my head...I think of Maria from Sonic Adventure 2, and Yuki from King of Fighters. Oh! There's Roll! From Mega Man Legends. There are many, many more I'm sure, my mind just blanks so bad.

34. Favorite male npc?

Well...there's Ren from the Shenmue series! I want to say someone like Bowser...or even Meta Knight, but they're playable in most games. And I still love Papyrus and Sans from Undertale, even though my love for the game isn't as strong as what it was years ago. Wow, I'm so much better at naming characters that I can play as rather than nonplayable ones, aren't I?

60. The game you are best at?

There's another game from my childhood that I can actually say I am the best at, and that's Pokemon Puzzle League. It's been years since I've played it, but I use to play it all the time. I got so good at making combos and everything that I was just super fast at it. I loved it. I really miss it. I remember just sitting in a chair in my mom's room relaxing with it. ❤ More good memories.

Smash Bros as a whole I'm quite good at! Nothing fancy or up there with people who play it competitively or anything, but I am pretty good. And Mario Party!! Ahh, I'm a master at the joystick rotating from the first one! Along with the face lift and pizza eating minigames, too. 😛

And I'm also surprisingly good at Rocket League! I played it with Corin and his cousin over the weekend, and I was great at it, without ever playing it before! It was too much fun. I'll have to play it with Corin again.