#so I don't know quite how cynical Will is or isn't about Normal's future

[babacontainsmultitudes]

[just venting a bit into the void you understand you understand 😌] Lately I've been feeling very caught between "I have a lot of thoughts on Sparrow and Normal and all that with the ending and teen talk and feel like I need to get them out and voice them for my own piece of mind and resolution" and "I am lacking the strength and energy to actually sit down and write it all out and kind of really just want to fully move on to other things (AUs, fics, anything else)" but my brain can't seem to commit to either and that's quite frustrating cause it's just left me very restless. *Sigh*. Idk! Just needed to complain about that a bit ig, it's silly but this is what has been ailing me as of late.

[lu3ky777]

Well this isn't something I normally do but I'm going to give some thoughts on the last line right before it comes out. Partially to quell my excitement and also because I want to get my thoughts down before the game is out there for everyone to enjoy and critique. If you want to skip around here is a table of contents, because this will be a long one. Also if something i said is outdated or wrong when you're reading this like a month into the future, then that just means you are time traveling and quite frankly I think YOU should do something about that. (Ya freak)

Characters

Story

(Brief interlude: Zero Escape)

Gameplay

Endings

Final thoughts/Summary

Characters: So firstly I should mention that I haven't seen any trailers other than the first one, I want to go into the game as spoiler free as possible. That said I did play through the demo and I definitely would say the characters was where I'm the most conflicted. This game was presented as sort of a love child creation of Kotaro Uchikoshi (the creator of Zero Escape) and Kazutaka Kodaka. (the creator of Danganronpa) Now I was hoping that the characters would follow more in Zero Escape, but they definitely did tend more towards Danganronpa. Now Danganronpa isn't exactly amazing writing, that's also not really the reason I like it. I do think the characters are Danganronpa’s strong suit, but in a sort of mixed way. More than anything else Danganronpa has charm, but if a character isn't able to charm you then you probably hate them. V3 especially i feel is the most divisive in it's characters because they are so stereotypical, so if you don't like their gimmick you'll just find them annoying. Now for the most part I like around half the characters in 100 line, which isn't great but apparently there are more I haven't seen yet so we will see. Maybe I'm more cynical now but most of these characters don't have that Danganronpa charm, even the ones I like feel more like Zero Escape based.

Now luckily for me the characters I liked the most are the ones that are playable in combat, which made me very happy. Now since I want to end on a high note I'll discuss the characters in order from least favorite to favorite starting with-

Gaku is a little bitch, during his introduction every line he says was worst than the last. I hope he grows on me but I mean seriously. He starts by saying someone is picking on him because he's poor, then says he's going to cancel you (I physically gagged- not a joke) then is like vaguely racist? I think at least, it's a whole mess. He never does anything quite that annoying again, just is kinda a self-centered ass the rest of the time. But I swear to Plain, if he unironically says cancelled I'm going to kill him.

Shouma is next, not a lot to say because he's just kind of annoying. Don't hate him but he needs to calm down, or like help? Ima is also tied here, honestly I'm not as annoyed by this character as most people are (I think) but that's just cause he sounds like a surfer dude and that's funny as shit. But as someone who played this game with a sibling watching, it was uncomfortable.

Tsubasa and Kako both are going here since I like them about the same, I like them both but mostly on vibes alone. Kako is just kinda whatever and uncomfortable while Tsubasa has passion and I appreciate that. Not a lot to say about these two.

Don't know where to put Sirei but I'll talk about him here, I like how he does appear to in fact be a bad person. I mean he's very intriguing and he represents whatever government is running the academy and what they are planning. He's a good hateable character and I appreciate that.

Darumi Amamiya other than being the sister to Joker persona 5, is probably the character I don't get why people like. Other than the obvious reasons of course. I liked her gimmick at first but it really got annoying after awhile, then wrapped around to being funny before getting annoying again. I hope she makes less Danganronpa references and more just gaming references, because that I can at least appreciate. Also she seems like kind of an insult to Danganronpa fans, I mean the game literally says one of her likes is “torture porn” which I feel says something. Especially considering V3 I wouldn't doubt it.

Takumi is certainly a protagonist, I'm not completely sure how I feel about him but overall it's good. I like how he says he's normal and has literally my hair, bright red. I like the relationship between him and his childhood friend/inevitable ship, I do think that dynamic will go somewhere interesting and potentially very in depth. Overall high hopes for him.

Takemaru I immediately liked based on the fact that he tells you he can't control his anger, that alone basically shows his personality but I'll go on. The tough caring guy is an archetype I really like and he is great, specifically I love the dynamic between him and the other teammates. Specifically Darumi because they have an almost sibling like relationship, I hope more characters get dynamics with others like this. Not a real complex character but still great

Hiruko Shizuhara: Mommy? Literally what else is there to say? I like how she has bad taste in art? Who do you think I am, she has an axe and kills people literally she's just me.

Eito is definitely my favorite of all the characters, despite me being annoyed with him near the end of day 7 for his lines being kind of over the top and random. But he's my favorite, he's socially unaware but in a way that's actually clever and makes sense. (Even though near the end they make it a gag, which I hope they don't do more) He basically says whatever I'm thinking about why this situation is suspicious, how what Sirei is trying to do is manipulation usually. Honestly being Anti-war is based, especially when the soldiers aren't being told shit. They really tried to make me hate Eito near the end of the demo but I think he'll turn out fine in the end, as long as they don't make him the focus of “comedy” which would suck.

Story:

Now I've only played the demo, so the story isn't exactly clear at this point. But overall I have high hopes for it. I like how the characters are split between fighting the invaders and trying to break free from Sirei. The fact they live in like this dome society that seems a bit dystopian is really interesting, as the people giving them the power to fight the invaders are likely also the same people who control their whole dome world. Considering this game is going to have a lot of endings and choices to make I believe this game has a ton of potential for what the player wants to do. I do hope there are multiple “good” endings or at least not all bad endings, but because this game was made by the same people who made Zero Escape I think it'll be great.

Brief interlude, Zero Escape: Now I mostly make posts about Danganronpa so it's pretty obvious I like Danganronpa, but I don't see enough people talking about Zero Escape so that's why this is here. Zero Escape is genuinely one of my favorite game series. It would be my favorite if the third game was a bit better but that's not the point. If you haven't played them I would suggest picking up the nonary game collection, it's the first two games and honestly is worth it for the quality and price. When it comes to games with multiple endings, I think especially the second game has perfected it. I don't know how else to describe it then the most “video game” video game, those who play it know what I'm talking about. It would be really hard to transfer the games to a different medium, which makes them all the more unique in my eyes. It's the series that really opened my eyes to the storytelling that can only be done through an interactive medium like how games are. It's a very emotional, expertly written and in depth story, which I'm hoping will carry over to 100 Line. Anyway all of this to say, play Zero Escape.

Gameplay: I was surprised by how good the actual gameplay was, not that I expected it to be bad. But when it comes to game design I tend to be a bit picky usually. What I like most about this system is the way you gain momentum, it always feels like you can play the game a bit better and that is so addicting. Gaining voltage is the best example of this, you gain it when taking out enemies which encourages you to snowball your effects and damage by spending it to deal more damage or gain buffs. Good game design demands you to change up your strategy when faced with different obstacles, this game encourages in multiple ways. For example, do you buff yourself near the beginning of battle or do you wait to use your special attacks to clear a lot of enemies. I will say the one boss you fought was a bit disappointing, but it was fine. I do play the game on the hardest difficulty, but I am a bit interested in how you can customize your characters. Having too much customization can break a game's combat, but honestly it's probably not going to be a problem. This is one of the few times I am excited for the gameplay as much as the characters and story.

Endings: The game claims to have 100 endings that are all unique and not just generic bad endings. As I said before I hope there are multiple good endings, or for the true ending to just be really satisfying. I doubt all 100 are going to be satisfying, (in either a good or bad way) but I do look forward to being proven wrong. If I had to guess I assume at least 20% of the endings are either going to be boring or basically copies of each other. I do wonder how the endings will work though, will there be different plot lines that lead to different endings. (which I hope for) Or will there just be a lot of choices that can lead to bad endings, or maybe a lot of the bad endings happen when you lose a battle. Considering this game was made by the mind behind Zero Escape, (which as mentioned before perfected the multiple ending game formula) I'm quite excited to see how this aspect of the game turns out.

Final thoughts/Summary: (I procrastinated so much on writing this, when I started there was like a month left now it's going to be here later tonight) I am very excited for this game and definitely think it's going to be an amazing experience. The love child of two games that I really enjoy and from a genre I really enjoy. (strategy games) The characters are alright for the most part but with a few stinkers and the story seems really engaging. Especially if they go down the different storylines path (Flow charts babyyyyyyy) I can see this game becoming one of my favorites. Very rarely have I been so excited for a game release as this one. I might post updates on how I feel if you all would be interested, also sorry for the brief inactivity as I got a bit busy unexpectedly. I'm probably going to not post as much for a few weeks, but will answer some asks from time to time in the meanwhile. So let me know if you liked this sort of rambling, I might make some content or something out of it.

[parismystere]

after the reference to the sleeping beauty do you think the theory of a 5 season without adrien is true? i hope not because it would be boring as the sixth season of teen wolf without stiles

actually, this is not the first reference to adrien as the sleeping beauty the show has made! thankfully, you're a normal human being that isn't hyperfixating on a show for 7-year old girls and don't have to remember it.

once upon a time... back when chloe still had a redemption arc... we got this moment in 'style queen':

so, my biggest worry as of today isn't exactly that adrien is framed as a princess/sleeping beauty, because adrien's entire narrative is deeply feminine-coded, but that the show would end his story with being saved by another character (you may guess who). last week i might've been super cynical about it, but today i liked the new episode a lot so i'm cautiously optimistic that... they won't go there? please don't go there?

now that we've gotten that out of the way, the creators have confirmed that season 5 is the end of the agreste arc, so it's reasonable to not worry about adrien's place in the show until then! i've cautiously speculated, however, that seasons 6 and 7 might be adrienless. there is this post about gabriel's future post-defeat that i chimed in, and you can see more ideas in the notes!

the biggest problem, the way i see it, is that ml is at its core still a quite light-hearted show, even if it has been bold and heavy in some moments and is currently moving to a more complicated narrative than the simplicity of, say, s1-s2. so they'll give us scenes about adrien and gabriel's relationship, but will also make them subtle enough so that it isn't too much, you know? the real question is how the show can continue, especially if it intends to keep its light tone, when we have a 14-year old child that will lose its family and will have to live with the knowledge that his father is the villain he's been fighting all along? and we're not even talking about the twin rings, felix, emilie's involvement and so on. that's just the tip of the iceberg we're hitting. how can the show be faithful to adrien's emotional burdens without dumbing them down or glossing over them, and still continuing to, well, exist for the little kids? some say that we might get a time skip and aged-up character. i personally speculate that adrien might get even less screentime or be a little... written out of the show, as the show builds some magical storyline around marinette (more on that in the post i linked!). and i don't want to, because... honestly... adrien/chat is the star of the show? that might be the most absurd 'shooting yourself in the foot' moment ml may have.

i really wish that i could say with certainty, anon! i wish i was able to be 100% sure and assure you that, yes, you will get your catboy for as long as ml airs. i'm sure that MANY in the fandom will be able tell you that. but i also want to be honest with you - i, personally, am a little worried, and i'm preparing myself for it (the way i'm not preparing for sentiadrien lol), in case it happens. but really, you shouldn't listen to me, i don't have any insider knowledge! you should really make up your own mind instead.

[elizabethfraser-va]

Link: https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/caring-for-our-collections/refashioned-recycling-in-the-vas-textiles-fashion-collection

Questioning how repair could also mean 'refashion' or 'repurposing' -> linking past, present and future?

How can 'repair' be extended? Can it? Does it simply mean an effort to restore something to its former condition or extending its lifespan, as its previous purpose isn't relevant anymore?

I want to question how things we wear from the past can be changed and modified to fit the current ideals of whatever time it happens to be in, which can cynically be seen as 'restoring' it to 'what it should be'. Therefore, how much leverage do we as humans really have over the natural changes that occur in the process of ageing and damage due to use or time? No matter how much we try to reverse the effects of change, does this really do whatever we are trying to restore justice? Or is it the 'moral' thing to do?

Garments and clothing can be considered a second skin. We are the only species on earth that use an external material to cover ourselves up everyday, and this is purposed for weather, practical use, aesthetics and self-expression. So, repair and restoration in clothing is a very important matter to many, however more so to civilisations without access to mass-manufactured and consumable garments, such as people in the 16th century. Skills of repairing garments has been lost slightly due to this, mainly in the western world, however it has gained some increase in people wanting to extend the life of their clothing due to environmental concerns.

What's crazy is that repairing clothing was a normality to most people in, for example, 19th century England, and even wealthy individuals did not have many clothes. Therefore, there was more of an emphasis on repairing your clothes wherever you can. There were also the values of society that influenced this. For example, during WW2 people were encouraged to salvage their clothing into anything practical and repair when necessary, and clothing rationing was a huge reason for this. Today, when buying new clothes is something that is persuaded and a normal part of 'modern' society, repair simply isn't exactly needed. The most I have done to prolong the life of a crappy, bad quality H&M t-shirt was cut it shorter and make it look more 'trendy'. I have also sewn quite a few shirt buttons, often with different coloured thread (so how much is it really repairing it when it just changes it more?)

There's also a weird element of elitism when it comes to this kind of stuff. It appears things have switched: from a time when almost every poor peasant in the country had to know how to repair their clothing (and it was embarrassing to see that you had repaired your clothes), to now when it's almost seen as a trendy, hip thing to do. People who actually have time to repair their tattered clothes, who by the way might already be good quality fabric enough that they are salvageable, usually have a slightly privileged attitude to this job. It can be seen as a pleasure, something that might not even be necessary. On the other hand, this is a very good thing. The more people trying to prolong their garments' lives is only helping decrease how much garments contribute to waste on the planet. Furthermore, why shouldn't repairing your favourite jumper be a pleasure? Doesn't this only contribute to producing less waste? Is this attitude also an elitist attitude?

But this also ignores how much we actually know about the way our clothes are made. It's a comfort to us to not know, really. We don't want to know what really happens in the factory. We can afford to turn a blind eye.