#shin megami tensei iva

[lemmon-grove]

Honestly, if Altus were to some how bring back both SmtIV’s and the early persona games in it’s 2023 game releases, I’d actually pay it some mind.

[lemmon-grove]

I would like to push my they/them Nanashi agenda to the masses

i am a pretty big fan of the people in my inbox who now exclusively refer to flynn with she/her

[furinana]

The subtle ways androgyny is used in SMTIV&A and its context in the franchise

What if I tell you... there's more characterization than it appears to be?

The most consistent trait among Megaten protagonists is certainly their androgyny. Fastidious fans would accept nothing less than the most beautiful eyelashes someone could have the privilege of being born with as it became a long defined characteristic in Kaneko's art.

Considering the franchise debuted with a main character described as a guy that would look good in a skirt, it's no wonder Kaneko (and later, Doi) had to follow the feminine-looking boy legacy:

However, this aspect is not actually that commonly depicted as a self-aware trait in the games. Attractive? Sure. Wooing ladies? Almost always. Specifically having a spotlight on the feminine features, though? Hardly any would be at par with our originator Nakajima.

Which includes Flynn. That being said, even if it's not brought up in the story, Flynn's androgyny is still touched upon not only in his profile notes in the SMTIV Artbook...

...but also in the way he's perceived in demon negotiations:

Excuse me!

Going from a stinky swordsman to bestie <333 in a flash.

Lham Dearg having this dialogue when the motherfucker shares the same hair lenght as Flynn is some double standards BS.

And then Chagrin-chan gives you a Detox solution.

However, you also have a chance of becoming a target of gender rivalry for this same answer:

No good, Chagrin-chan.

And then you have the rather unusually neutral way Flynn looks at relics:

You could argue that it’s due to Flynn being a country bumpkin born in an artificial world currently in its medieval period hence even basic concepts that he would know of would be interpreted differently when seeing their modern versions.

On another note, we also have to recognize that the location with the most conservative worldview is Mikado.

And yet, it's Nanashi the one with very gender-specific commentary:

A feasible counterpoint perhaps would lie on the possibility that Flynn didn’t grow with many women around him, specially ones that would invest in their own appearance which would be difficult considering their peasant background.

And an indoctrinated one on top of that.

Which isn't to say that there isn't makeup culture in Mikado though, as shown by Isabeau and Gabby.

Regarding Isabeau, I commented before that her choice of fashion seems to be more adapted to her own self-expression rather than a default way of presenting for either Luxurors or Samurai women. At any case, it's still part of a larger issue.

In fact, Luxurors and even monks from the Monastery weren't shown to be as anti-Unclean extremists as the Divine representatives themselves.

In the myth, Gabriel is a messenger who was entrusted to deliver several important messages on God’s behalf. Therefore, as Gabby, Gabriel acts as a mediator and makes God's message understandable to people through adapting her appearance to reach the most hearts as possible.

In other words, we have the picture of peasants being fairly ignorant of new technology (with Flynn among them) and only having the bare essentials while the higher caste thrives over luxuries to the point that becomes normalized what would be considered slightly sinful.

So much that even the angels had to tolerate it to a certain level in order to become close to humans and manipulate them.

Nanashi, on the other hand, meets so many ladies worried about their appearance all over the underground that he somehow ended up knowing more than Asahi even.

So essentially, Flynn "isn't familiar with female expression" but "effortlessly passes as a woman" regardless of what he's wearing while Nanashi "knows" and "plays around" with it like a costume.

And in both cases, it seemingly comes more "at the player's choice" rather than being done in an unsolicited way.

Doi's comments on SMTIVA's wardrobe convey that Nanashi is into wearing flashy clothes. Some fashionable, some dumb, some awfully absurd for anyone to wear in the middle of a war-like environment.

Nanashi basically wants to stand out. He fully knows he looks weird and is having a blast wearing flamboyant shit while fighting demons around Tokyo.

Meanwhile most of Flynn’s wardrobe are basically “gears that Flynn would consider useful for avoiding hazards while being ignorant of what the design means”.

Nanashi does it for fashion while Flynn does it for protection. This is also applied to the situations where the player "can choose" to act feminine: Nanashi crossdresses and wears make up while Flynn lets demons believe he's a woman to get a positive reaction in negotiations.

To summarize, Flynn was intended to be seen as an individual with both male and feminine traits (or the lack of both in some aspects) beyond just the stylistic choice of his androgynous design. While Nanashi is aware of gender roles and his social standing as a guy but also breaks expectations according to his own will.

These qualities are coherent to the lore of the story while simultaneously working on a gameplay perspective, as those are ways to bring diverse options for the average player while making female players also feel 'included' even if the protagonist is a boy (as emphasized by Doi himself), which is, to this day, an unbreakable tradition in mainline games:

Somehow, it turns out that Nakajima's legacy comes in handy with a seemingly unisex-presenting main character that is able to fill the gaps of an audience.

On an ending note, while we have yet to see a more complete official breakdown of SMTV's art direction through interviews, one can understandably connect a similar reasoning for the design choices behind Nahobino.

The fanbase of the series combined with Persona has a male-to-female ratio of 40:60, to which confirms the feminine-looking boys indeed reach a bigger female audience than male.

As interesting as it is, one can't help but wonder if we would ever actually reach the other side of the gender spectrum in an actual title. We have horny mods, so there's that at least.

[rustoma]

Love how Nanashi is implied to be battle-pilled in some of the relic descriptions. Kid's ready to throw hands using some of the most mundane stuff laying around.

[rustyvanburace]

I cannot help but see some parallels between the kidnapping of Akira's sister in IV and Asahi's death in IVA.

Both girls are taken into an ovoidal vessel that would ferry them along with countless others to another world as part of a god's grander scheme. Akira's sister is kidnapped as one of God's Chosen and holed up in a giant cocoon, which in the main timeline did succeed in flying her off to what would eventually become the Kingdom of Mikado. Asahi was killed and her soul became one of the many others trapped in the Cosmic Egg, which would have led to the birth of a new universe that all the souls would be reborn into. Different circumstances and outcomes, but still the same idea.

There's unfortunately nothing that states or even directly implies that Asahi is or was ever intended to be the reincarnation of Akira's sister. But when considering her intrinsic closeness to Nanashi as foster siblings, how Nanashi is always made to keep an eye on her, and even just the parallels between the cocoon and Cosmic Egg, I think there is a reasonable degree of implicity that Asahi is or could be the reincarnation of her. At least, even as pure fanon it wouldn't be a far-fetched one.

Akira succeeded in reaching the Firmament, but because of the Tokyo-Mikado time dilation and the years it took to even dig through the ceiling, he never got to reunite with his sister as she would have already died a long time ago by then. The DLC timeline note in IVA's database states that 300 years had passed on the surface by the time Akira breached it.

In a way then, Akira and his sister are vindicated when Nanashi enters the Cosmic Egg and rescues Asahi in the Bonds route. Time is a flat circle.

[shelbswastaken]

Me and someone in the demon haunt discord came up with an smt iv au where everything is the same but the world outside of japan is fine and Stephen managed to jerry-rig an internet network for tokyo/mikado so the main characters have social media accs and I decided to sketch a silly scenario

[navarresimp]

I hope he rots in hell (Affectionately)

[newtypecosmonaut]

Nanashi should be vulnerable to hama.

[oozmium]

Don't think I've seen pictures of these circulating online, but they displayed posters for the jp releases of mainline smt games (except strange journey) at the Atlus/Sega AX booth.

Completely forgot to get close ups of smt 1, 2, and if posters but they were in the photo OP area and I didn't want to hinder their operations too much.

[vinegar-on-main]

@beantothemax @meme-boys-blog

Day 6 - Gloves

[ask-tamaki-uchida]

Breaking the forth wall more, if you had to pick one (aside from technically yourself) who’s your favorite SMT Protagonist?

Oooh! Okay, this one's really hard, because all of them have their merits, yanno? So first off is Kazuya. He's a bit older than me(physically, we're not counting that weird 30 years thing), but his eyes look like that of an old veteran who lived through the horrors of WW2. He's quiet a lot of the time, and doesn't really try to interact with me, but I know its because he's lonely and grieving. I feel for him, seriously. One of my friends got killed and was turned into a zombie, and it was by my blade that she fell. But he's not a very fun person to be around. Next is Aleph, who is a TOTAL sweetheart. He's always really curious about what I have to say, listens to me without interrupting, and is eager to do any activity I suggest. He's kinda like a big dog? He's got the body of someone powerful and capable of a lot of damage, but all he does is love. I like being by his side a lot, but I feel like he can't always keep up with me. Not a bad thing of course, but it does get a bit tiresome to explain things when I'm just in the mood to rant. After them is Demifiend, AKA Naoki. He's...interesting. I wouldn't exactly say we fought the first time we met, but we definitely didn't get along. We still don't, but now its just at the level of "agree to disagree". His methods and ideology is too extreme for me, personally.

Following Naoki is Flynn. He's got this energy that makes me feel like I could tell him anything, and he wouldn't judge me for it. He's a bit goofy, always having weird names for normal things like cassette tapes and scooters, but he's kind and dedicated. I really appreciate his company, and there's understanding between the two of us that death lurks in both of our pasts. Everyone else has that too, but with Flynn it feels a bit more personal. Then there's Nanashi, who, while Flynn understood me, has a much more literal understanding of the feeling of death. He knows the feeling of a Guardian possessing your body, of gasping for air after waking up face down on the ground, of finding blood staining your clothes and matting your hair. Not to mention, he's the second closest to me in age. Besides all of that though, he's witty and quick, and always has some sort of joke that makes me smile. I definitely would be friends with him. Yet, there's one more. Nobu Akiyama, my other self. He shares my birthday, my mom(not my dad, weirdly enough. I've always wondered why...), my life up until now. He and I have been through the same bullshit with Hazama, the same horrors at Karukozaka, the same anguish at Yumi deciding to cut us off in an attempt to forget her past. He and I are two sides of the same coin. Still, he's not that fun to be around. His humor feels off, and I can read him almost too well. He feels like the brother I've never had. Out of these six, my favorite has to go to Nanashi! He just feels like perfect friend material. (ooc: I like Kazuya the best, but he feels way too depressing for Tamaki!)

[windupvivis]

smt:iva redraw (we love u flynn)

[furinana]

The origins of Dagda and what gets adapted into SMTIVA

Colonization, religious syncretism and famine all play roles in this unusual representation.

1) Who are the Tuatha Dé Danann?

There was a series of invasions of Ireland by a succession of peoples, the fifth of whom was the people known as the Tuatha Dé Danann.

They faced opposition from their enemies, the Fomorians, led by Balor of the Evil Eye. Balor was eventually slain by Lugh.

With the arrival of the Gaels, the Tuatha Dé Danann retired underground and eventually became the fairy people of later myth and legend.

A quick overview to situate those unfamiliarized but their tales aren't the subject of this post.

2) Who is Dagda?

Dagda is the chief of the Tuatha Dé Danann, portrayed as a large bearded man in father-figure and druid roles. He is often described as an ideal of masculine excellence (although with a comical tone). He had many mates among female Irish figures.

Dagda possess items that gave him advantage over the Fomorians:

→ A magic club of dual nature: its end could kill nine men in one blow but with the handle he could return the slain to life → A shirt of protection from sickness → A cloak of shape-shifting → A magic harp not only able to command people, but also the seasons → And last, a cauldron which never runs empty. Through these, Dagda becomes able to control life and death, the weather and crops, as well as time and the seasons.

3) Humans or deities?

In truth... The lore of Tuatha Dé Danann being descended from a previous wave of inhabitants of Ireland comes from euhemerized accounts. In non-euhemerized accounts, they are descended from Danu, the mother goddess (lit. "Peoples of the Goddess Danu").

The medieval writers who wrote about the Tuatha Dé Danann were Christians. They described them as neutral angels who sided neither with God nor Lucifer and were punished by being forced to dwell on the Earth. Due to the hesitance in calling them by ‘gods’, they were often stripped of this title and instead lessened as simply ‘humans who had become highly skilled in magic’.

Medieval sources depicted Dagda as “a king of Ireland for eighty years, until turning it over and being killed in battle against the Fomorians”; however, this was an obvious attempt to rationalize his divine nature. Not only Dagda is a leader of gods, it’s not in the exact same sense of a king either.

Thus, it’s fair to assume an intended contrast between the “diminished human form” Dagda depicted in the obviously Christian-biased surviving sources and SMTIVA’s “deity-like” Dagda that doesn’t make use of numerous tools to in order to have the means to display unique powers.

4) The Celtic Otherworld

In Irish mythology, Tír na nÓg ('Land of the Young') is one of the names for the Celtic Otherworld (or part of it).

It’s an island paradise and supernatural realm of everlasting youth, beauty, health, abundance and joy, where times also moves differently. Besides deities, it’s also a realm for the dead.

Left: "Land of the Ever Young" (Arthur Rackham) in Irish Fairy Tales (1920). Right: the DLC location Dagda takes you for grinding macca, EXP or items

Means of entry

It exists either in parallel alongside our own, or as a heavenly land beyond the sea or under the earth. Despite its elusiveness, various mythical heroes—such as Cú Chulainn and Fionn —visit it either through chance or after being invited by one of its residents. They often reach it by entering ancient burial mounds or caves, or by going under water or across the western sea.

Sometimes, mortals suddenly find themselves in the Otherworld with the appearance of a magic mist, supernatural beings or unusual animals.

Tech Duinn

In Irish myth, there is another otherworldly realm called Tech Duinn ("House of Donn" or "House of the Dark One"). It was believed that the souls of the dead traveled to Tech Duinn; perhaps to remain there forever, or perhaps before reaching their final destination in the Otherworld, or before being reincarnated.

"Who is the Dark One?", you might wonder.

5) Donn, The Irish God of Death

If you’re familiar with ancient Mediterranean polytheistic religions, you might notice that Donn (the Dark one) shares “death god” similarities with Hades and Pluto.

"One is struck here by the resemblance to the Greek lore of Pluto and the ferrying of souls across the river Styx. The similarity may be explained as a common ancient tradition concerning the dead which had come down to both Greek and Celts but… it seems more sensible to regard it as having originated in general Greek influence. Since the emphasis in these death-beliefs was on the imagery of the west, it is not surprising that the lore was further extended to the westernmost island of Celtdom, Ireland itself.” The Sacred Isle: Belief and Religion in Pre-Christian Ireland (1999)

Donn is responsible for guiding souls from the land of the living to the land of the dead.

Donn’s island, Tech Duinn, is in reality little more than a rock (now known as Bull Rock) situated off the coast of the Beara peninsula. But for centuries that rock inspired fear in the minds of the ancient Irish.

"[...] three red horsemen appear as an omen of death, and they announce: ‘We ride the horses of toothless Donn from the tumuli, although we are alive we are dead!’ Donn is here a personification of the elders buried in the tumuli, which illustrates the physical aspect of funerary practice." The Sacred Isle: Belief and Religion in Pre-Christian Ireland (1999)

Myth vs Pseudohistory

A purely mythological figure, Donn the death god would later become conflated with the quasi-legendary Donn son of Milesius.

“Medieval Irish texts describe the ‘belief of the heathen’ to the effect that souls go there to Donn, and in the pseudo-history Donn is euhemerised as one of the leaders of the Gaelic people when they came to Ireland. We read of this pseudo-historical Donn, however, that he was not destined to reach the shore of Ireland, but was drowned near the rock which bears his name.”

The Gaelic people are also known as the Milesians, namesake of Donn’s dad Milesius. The Milesians were the final invaders/settlers of ancient Ireland. They were the ones who defeated the Tuatha Dé Danann and sent them underground to their tumuli in the euhemerised version.

Donn was an important Milesian military commander and the eldest of Milesius’ eight sons. He seemed like a character fated for a heroic life, yet in every account of Donn’s deeds during the Milesian invasion of Ireland, he was doomed to fall off to his death in the sea in the island and intermixed his tradition to that of death god Donn.

Pre-Celtic roots

On a following note, some historians suggested that Donn might be actually an iteration of Bilé, Irish god of death who originated in ancient Gaul. Bilé, in turn, is the Gaelic iteration of a much older Celtic god who is often referred to as Bel or Belinos in the Brythonic tradition. He is the namesake of the Celtic feast day Beltane, which was—and among some groups, still is—celebrated on May Eve and May 1st.

In some Irish texts, Bilé is euhemerized as the father of the aforementioned Milesius. Therefore, Bilé is the quasi-historical father of Milesius, making him Donn’s grandfather, and clearly establishing Bilé as the original, more senior Celtic god of death.

"Mistifying" enemy nations

Bilé and the rest of the Gaels who invaded Ireland are described as coming “from Hades.” On a different note, the god of death Bilé is described as also being the source of human life:

The Mythology Of The British Islands: And Introduction to the Celtic Myth, Legend, Poetry, and Romance (1905)

And as shown earlier by what we discussed about Tír na nÓg, the Celts didn't consider the Land of the Dead as being a punishing and oppressive place like hell.

“In Celtic belief the underworld was probably a fertile region and a place of light, nor were its gods harmful and evil.” The Religion of the Ancient Celts (1911)

Totally the same, right? Left: Hortus Deliciarum - 12th century Hell (Herrad von Landsberg) Right: "They rode up to a stately palace" (Stephen Reid)

Are you realizing where this is going?

6) Donn = Bilé = Dagda

"Irish god of the dead whose abode is at Tech Duinn (House of Donn) which is placed on an island off the south-west of Ireland. The house is the assembly place of the dead before they begin their journey to the Otherworld. In modern folklore Donn is associated with shipwrecks and sea storms and sometimes equated with the Dagda and Bilé." A Dictionary of Irish Mythology (1987)

We've reached full circle with our representative always being at the boundary between the world of the dead and the world of the living even under different names and locations.

Also, among Dagda's many names, two are relevant both on this discussion and for his SMTIVA portrayal:

-> An Dagda -> Dagda Donn "The Good God" "Dark Dagda"

While 'good' isn't particularly regarding his own morality, the same source mentions that Dagda is charitable, hence the title can be accurate in an altruistic sense as well.

Meanwhile, the possible (combined, even) reasons behind Dagda being called "Donn (Dark)"...

a) Due to having a dun tunic and a dark cloak b) Due to the death and ancestral god Donn (aka Bilé) originally being a form of Dagda thus being the original dark reflection of Dagda c) "Donn Dagda" being also... "Lord Dagda".

On a similar note, both Dagda and Donn have also been likened to the Germanic god Odin regarding shared motifs and, as pointed out by their dynamic in SMTIVA, Celtic cultures are the ancestors of Germanic people.

This is also emphasized by many of Dagda's other names:

Eochu Ollathair "Horse Great-Father"--generally taken as his "true" name

Fer Benn "man of the peaks" or "horned/pronged man"; could be a poetic reference to lightning, or could indicate a now-lost idea of the Dagda being horned, a not-uncommon feature in British and Gaulish iconography.

Cerrce It may derrive from *perkw "striker", i.e. lightning

Dagda (n)dur/Dagdai duir "harsh/stern" Dagda, but duir also may refer to the oak dair; the association of duir and dair also appears in the ogham tracts. Comparing the Dagda to an oak would also lend credence to the interpretation of him as a thunder god.

But back to the "Good Dagda" and "Dark Dagda" discussion.... What if SMTIVA took these two titles as two separate selves?

Donn Dagda -> Original dark reflection of Dagda -> The Ancestor Dagda from his Pre-Celtic era -> The "Old Dagda" that Nanashi fights against in Bonds while allies with in Massacre -> Immutable part of himself

An Dagda -> His heroic Tuatha Dé Danann self -> More aligned to how he's written in biased sources -> The "Entity created by Danu" that Nanashi allies with in Bonds -> Continuously reborn as long as Danu exists

Notice Danu's choice of wording. "My wish" Donn starts belonging to Danu as a Tuatha Dé Danann (Person of Danu) "good king" "good god" Donn was forced into a "personified" role over simply being nature itself. "forbidden magic" Danu is being self-aware about her true "pagan" origins, as she serves humans as both Tuatha Dé Danann and as Black Maria.

7) Effects of Christianity on Irish folklore

When Christianity was first brought in Ireland during the 5th century by missionaries, they were not able to replace the pre-existing beliefs in the Celtic societies. However, Irish folklore did not remain untouched.

As we mentioned earlier, the fairy folk, who were previously perceived as Gods, became merely magical and of much lesser importance, thus adapted to enforce Christian ideals.

All in all, the current Irish folklore shows a strong absorption of Christianity, including its lesson of morality and spiritual beliefs.

Most of these manuscripts were created by Christian monks, who may well have been torn between a desire to record their native culture and hostility to pagan beliefs.

The Tuatha De Danann were known to come from the heavens, but that may be from scribes not knowing how to execute their origin. So the scribes borrowed from past religions like the Greek, Roman, and Eastern myth to create an origin story.

Earth was also thought to be a woman at the time, so this was thought to be a metaphorical birth.

The uncertainty of Danu's origins

Danu has no surviving myths or legends associated with her in any of the primary Irish texts.

Danu is a hypothesised entity whose sole attestation is in the genitive in the name of the Tuatha dé Danann, which may mean 'the peoples of the goddess Danu' in Old Irish.

In Cormac’s Glossasy from the 9th century, the goddess Anu is stated as the mother of the gods. Some scholars suggest that Danu was a conflation of Anu and is the same goddess.

in which case Danu could be a contraction of *di[a] Anu ("goddess Anu"). Also cognates with Dana

Left: Mother Earth image, Atalanta Fugiens Right: The Paps of Danu, a pair of breast-shaped mountains in County Kerry, Ireland.

Some later Victorian folklorists attempted to ascribe certain attributes to Danu, such as association with motherhood and agricultural prosperity due to a "general Mother Earth concept".

"Danu herself probably represented the earth and its fruitfulness, and one might compare her with the Greek Demeter. All the other gods are, at least by title, her children." Squire (1905)

As shown by the flimsy lore attempts regarding Danu, whether medieval Irish literature provides reliable evidence of oral tradition remains a matter for debate. This is indicated in SMTIV&A by how fragile and dependent on biased Christian sources her existence is.

"Nativist" claims have been challenged by "revisionist" scholars who believe that much of the literature was created, often in imitation of the epics of classical literature that came with Latin learning, such as the Illiad. They also argue that the materials depicted in the stories generally date closer to those of the time of their composition (such as bows and chariots) than to those of the distant past.

The Mythological Cycle, which comprised stories of the former gods and origins of the Irish (including the Tuatha Dé Danann), is the least well preserved of the four cycles thus many manuscript sources that could have been what later myth writers based on may have been since disappeared, leading to Tuatha Dé Danann eventually becoming forgotten in the current era.

English colonization

During the 16th century, the English conquest overthrew the traditional political and religious autonomy of the country.

The Great famine of the 1840s, and the deaths and emigration it brought, weakened a still enduring Gaelic culture, especially within the rural proletariat, which was at the time the most traditional social grouping.

In the state of things, with depopulation the most terrific which any country ever experienced, [...] together with the rapid decay of our Irish bardic annals, the vestige of Pagan rites, and the relics of fairy charms were preserved, - can superstition, or if superstitious belief, can superstitious practices continue to exist? - William Wilde

Moreover, global migration has helped overcoming special spatial barriers making it easier for cultures to merge into one another.

All those events have led to a massive decline of native learned Gaelic traditions and Irish language, and with Irish tradition being mainly an oral tradition, this has led to a loss of identity and historical continuity.

Dagda's (briefly mentioned in-game) daughter

Brigid ('exalted one') is the daughter of Dagda and "the goddess whom poets adored". She is associated with wisdom, poetry, healing, smithing and domesticated animals.

The goddess Brigid was syncretized with the Christian saint of the same name. Medieval monks took the ancient figure and grafted her name and functions onto her Christian counterpart, Brigid of Kildare.

Saint Brigid shares many of the goddess's attributes and her feast day, February 1st, was originally a pagan festival called Imbolc, the first day of spring in Irish tradition.

Art mural depicting the duality of Brigid the pagan goddess and Brigid the saint.

As the more well-known goddess, and later saint, the legends of numerous "minor" goddesses with similar associations may have over time been incorporated into the symbology, worship and tales of Brigid, including Danu and Dagda's own.

This is subtly brought up in the request she makes for Flynn prior to SMTIVA: she requires the rescue of her (then absent) father's cauldron that could feed crowds of people and wait for the return of Danu, the "representative piece" of their group, in order to turn it back to its original state.

On a following note, Brigid's affectional and protective nature is distinctive as she not only began the custom of keening (traditional form of vocal lament for the dead in the Gaelic tradition) while mourning the death of her son but even her animals were said to cry out whenever plundering was committed in Ireland.

Which leads us to the final topic of this post...

8) Irish and the celebration of death

Long before the rise of Christianity, Celtic druids preached that the human soul was eternal thus in death, one simply moved into a different plane of existence (which is the Otherworld we mentioned earlier).

Irish myths also emphasized to us that the barriers between the land of the living and the Otherworld are not always solid, which is perfectly displayed in the festival Samhain:

They believed that on the last night of the old year (October 31st) the lord of death gathered together the souls of all those who had died in the passing year [...], to decree what forms they should inhabit for the next twelve months.

The Book of Hallowe’en (1919)

Brigid alongside Dagda are "personified" concepts that show the picture of how intimate the Irish's relationship with death is.

To quote Scottish journalist Kevin Toolis, you’d be hard-pressed to find a country other than Ireland “where the dying… the living, the bereaved and the dead still openly share the world and remain bound together in the Irish wake.”

The oppressive YHVH forced those whose existences contradicted his own to step down from being gods. The divided Danu wishes to "claim back her lost authority" while still respecting the will of people that interpret her as part of Judeo-Christian lore. Meanwhile, Dagda subverts both YHVH and Danu as desiring to go back to being nature itself rather than its personification that continues the cycle of human dependency on gods and viceversa.

Death begets life. And the most fertile soil is that which is rich with the remains of the once-living. Dagda, as the spiritual father to humankind, wishes to become 'fertile soil' for Nanashi and a new world of humans.

The Donn reflection of Dagda, which is linked to the mythological ancestor of the Gaels, is crucial to the circle of life itself.

[vinegar-on-main]

HAHAHHAAHHAAHAHA yes you’re so right

Dagda’s so mad all the time it’s so fun writing someone who will not tolerate Kurokamis bullshit vs someone like Lucifer who will absolutely tolerate her bullshit

It’s Asahi and Nanashi whispering to each other!!! I also meant to italicize the *me* at the end of Nanashi’s part but I missed it :(((((

Edit: I ALSO FORGOT TO COLOR DAGDA SCOFFING AT KUROKAMI AAAAAAAAAAAAaa

And also as promised, Fic B of the ones i promised, now with color!

~~~~~~~~

“…And when the time comes, you can watch helplessly with your precious fairies.”

(Groans)

“And of course you show up. Why wouldn’t you!”

“We merely had to seize the moment. It is not often you-”

“What the hell do you want.”

“Hm. We would like our apology.”

“Hmph. As far as I can tell, you were the one to look at my Godslayer so closely. So why should I apologize?”

“You…”

“…”

“Make an excellent point.”

(Laughs) “Your stunned silence tells volumes. Did you assume us to be as unrepentant as the Angels?”

[Through gritted teeth] “I can think of many other things you share.”

“We apologize for taking up your time like this. We shall be taking our leave-“

“…Oh no you don’t.”

“Hm?”

“I’m not done with you just yet.”

“Oh really? May we remind you who holds the power here?”

“Shut up. What are you doing with the kid?”

“Nothing nefarious, we assure you.”

“Bullshit. I’ve seen the way you act around him. Did you think I wouldn’t notice?”

“Is it a crime to have an interest in a particular human?”

“He’s mine. If you want your own, go find it yourself. I’m sure his girlfriend is free.”

“…What?”

“You heard me.”

“…Do you think we are trying to compete with you? You made it clear from the moment we laid eyes on him that day that he is yours. We have no desire to claim your charge. We swear it.”

"Sure. whatever you say. Just make sure to keep-"

“It is clear that you are not going to believe us.”

(Scoffs)

“Actions speak louder than words, but a lack of it is a bit quieter than most.”

“We hope you will be able to listen.”

“…Dagda?”

“…”

“Do you know what happened just now?”

“Fuck off.”

(Is it just me, or did Dagda look a lot madder than earlier?)

(Not just you. The bastard barely even curses at me.)

~~~~~~

Thanks to @meme-boys-blog (Lance) for helping me get the characterization right on Dagda. as well as consulting for the colors for everyone in the scene. For the record, Danu doesn't know what just happened, she just knows something happened. She doesn't have a good enough reason to break through the timestop like Dagda does.

THE WEIRD THINGS FOLLOWING NANASHI AROUND ARE FIGHTINGGGGGGGGG

dagda!!!!!!!! big fan of how you write dagda!!!!!! a!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! father does NOT want whatever kurokami is messing with *his* godslayer… hik thinking kuromami is competing with him for nanashi…. I mean can you blame them. look at him. he’s simply a little guy

and one question, who are the blue and purple texts for at the end

[inquireanerdyberd]

((Oh what?? Something that’s not Berdly??? Wanted to take a crack at Spamton since everyone was drawing him, and I drew Navarre from SMT IV Apocalypse because I really like him, he’s a little gremlin, and his character development is kinda my inspiration for my Berdly portrayal. I’ll hopefully get another response uploaded today!))

[rustyvanburace]

In the Neutral route, if you go speak with Fujiwara, he comments how he had met Akira in the past and actually got the idea to tunnel through the ceiling from him.

What I find very noteworthy here is the comment on Akira's age. I don't blame people for not knowing this, especially with IVA's backstory and concept art showing us an older Akira, but he was actually just a little boy at the time shit went down in Tokyo. And already had his own demon summoning program at that too!