#so i think for some people they can start coming up with theories that Rika is with Unknown

[killjoy-prince]

You know, in hindsight, there were signs

[8bitsupervillain]

Higurashi When They Cry Hou ch. 5 Meakashi pt. 8

A brief recap, Shion went to the school pretending to be Mion to try to find out what's going on with Satoshi. Satoshi rebuffed her by telling her to ask herself why he's being so cold and distant to her. She takes this harshly thinking it's an attack on her when it's really delivered to Mion. Going back to the classroom she sees Satoko crying, and so she attacks Satoko going so far as to try to slam a chair across her and Rika "in an attempt to make her stronger." Or something along those lines. Half-hearted apologies are said, and now everyone's just ducky. Because, you know, people can just forget and forgive assault just by saying sorry.

Shion, buddy, pal, Satoshi is unaware you even exist. Every single interaction you've had with the guy you've been masquerading yourself as Mion. Every interaction, every head rubbing, every manic breakdown freakout where you batter a ten year old he thinks is Mion.

This I feel really sums up Shion, always looking to shift the blame around rather than reflect on her own actions. Satoshi must be in the wrong for rejecting her, it must be Oryou's fault Satoshi rejected her. She is aware that the guy is under some serious stress, but is utterly unwilling to accept that maybe he's just lashing out.

Previously I had mentioned that I think Shion is only latching on to Satoshi because he was the first guy with a pulse to focus on her since leaving the school. I had genuinely forgot about the notebook page there that more or less confirmed my statement. I swear I'm not just trying to regurgitate what the VN says but put my own spin on it. It only looks that way. Also I see in the future Shion will still be unable to let Satoko just live. She committed the most vile crime, living.

So it cuts to the day before Watanagashi 1982, she's living her depressed life because the boy yelled at her, and wasn't instantly on her side when good ol' Kasai shows up.

While I find this interesting that this somewhat confirms that the Sonozaki family aren't responsible for the deaths I am getting hung up on a really small detail. "There were cases of multiple victims in the past." You mean, all of them? With the exception of the foreman, every one of the Oyashiro killings has been a couple. The Houjou parents, the Furude parents (then eventually the aunt Tamae Houjou, and Satoshi, and Tomitake and Takano a year from now). It's just such an odd translation error to make, I thought maybe that Shion didn't know about Rika's mom, but I double-checked and when she learns about the curse killings she is told point blank the mom is one of the victims as well.

Oh come now.

Come on Kasai, be a pal, kill a child for me! Shion-san... you seem weirdly invested in this child dying. Just do it you small-fry mother fucker!

Mion then calls Shion telling her to call Satoshi. She does so, and the two start talking, Satoshi apologizing for the way he acted after stopping Shion beating up Satoko.

This confirms this version of events takes place in a different timeline from at the very least Tatarigoroshi. In that chapter Mion mentions that Keiichi is saying things that were very similar to the last time she spoke to Satoshi. So unless we need to start thinking that every single time Mion is on-screen it's secretly Shion it seems very likely that the timeloop alternate timelines theory is the correct theory. Which, boy don't get me started on that particular conspiracy theory.

So, I wonder what this silence means. Did Mion say something different when he asked her about the curse? Or is he just giving up because try as he might Mion just refuses to accept the idea the curse exists? I would very much like to see that particular conversation. The two then end their conversation because Satoshi's aunt is approaching, and Satoshi asks Shion to keep an eye on Satoko forever. Which she doesn't reply to.

If this is the embodiment of Hinamizawa or Oyashiro I wonder why they decided to take the direct route and converse with Satoshi directly? Assuming the supernatural elements of the narrative are real, and not just the hallucinations of a diseased mind. I don't think this is an actual factual demon/god/spirit, I'm leaning on this is his mind reaching its limit and snapping like a dry twig. Like how Keiichi snapped and became demonically methodical when he decided to kill Teppen.

[kusukixcrystal]

Zen & Rika are Trapped in The MM World Part 1

I’m splitting this into 2 parts because it would just be too long. This is sort of a continuation of my “Zen is A Prince From Grass” theory and “Saeran/Ray created Another Story” posts. In one of them, I suggested the possibility that Zen is a bunny prince who is trapped in the Mystic Messenger world. In the other, I do talk about Saeran, but I added a follow-up delving into Rika, Saeyoung, and V and how Rika is trapped in the MM world, too.

In this post, I will focus mainly on establishing background information.

Pocket Universes/Dimensions

First, I have to establish that I believe that the world of MM is a pocket universe. Basically, it's a new universe completely different from a real universe. For example, characters from Nameless and Dandelion all live in a real universe. Dandelion is where the term ‘pocket universe’ first comes up in the franchise, and refers to a new universe created by The Wizard by using a large amount of his power. He did this because he wanted to be with a woman named Heejung, but couldn’t descend to Earth because he couldn’t leave his dimension. So, he created a pocket universe where he can enter it and brought Heejung along.

So, why do I think MM is a pocket universe? Well, basically pocket universes don’t operate under the same rules as a real universe. See the example I gave above with The Wizard and Heejung. In a real universe, The Wizard couldn’t physically be in her presence. In this pocket universe, it's different. Because he made it and probably established the laws of how this universe works, he physically can be with Heejung.

In my previous posts, I mention off-handedly how the MM world is ‘fabricated’ or ‘fake’. This is what I mean. It's not a ‘real universe’ but a ‘pocket universe’, operating under different rules and created by wizards.

I hope that makes sense. Now let’s get into all the signs of why MM seems to be a pocket universe.

These signs mostly manifest as the 4th wall breaks or references we see throughout the whole game. It’s not just a “hehe haha this is a videogame” thing from Cheritz. It's diegetic. No, it’s the characters literally realizing that they are living in a pocket universe. As for the references, I will go deeper into their relevance. First I will list the most relevant of these instances, and then break down why it's all important in part 2.

I won’t list all examples of 4th wall breaks, but here are some big examples:

1. Casual Story Common Route Bad-ending (4th Wall Break)

I discussed this ending extensively in another post, so I won’t get into too much detail. Basically, this ending shows how the RFA members might be machines, following an algorithm/script, and being controlled by V and Saeyoung. Yoosung says that the messenger is fake and that their only purpose is to hold the RFA parties. I also talked about how I think that V and Saeyoung are wizards who created this pocket universe. 

Just a tiny addition to this point is that Jaehee breaks the 4th wall in this ending as well. After Zen and Jaehee visit Yoosung, worried about him after he started raving about how they are machines. In the screenshot above, at first, Jaehee treated Yoosung like he was delusional, and sent him to get a mental health examination. Despite saying this, her last 3 messages indicate her true thoughts. She believes him and chastises the MC/player for getting this ending. You only get this bad ending if you either don’t participate in enough chats or don’t get enough hearts to get into a character route. Jaehee is directly telling the MC/player to choose a route next time. Some people can get this ending if they try to balance getting hearts with characters, too. That’s actually how I got this ending originally because I was indecisive and kinda wanted to see what would happen.

2. Another Story Common Route Bad-ending (4th Wall Break)

I went into detail about this one in my Saeran/Ray made Another Story post. In this ending, Saeran says that the RFA are AIs. In the surface story, this turns out to be a lie. Here in this bad ending, though, Ray talks about the RFA as if they actually are AI, even going as far as to mention Saeyoung (’that redhead’), asking if we played ‘his version’. I speculated that what he means by this is the Casual and Deep stories.

3. Dandelion and Nameless (References)

The first screenshot is from day 3 of the Casual story common route, the next 2 are from the April Fool’s DLC. 

Zen is dressed up as Jisoo from Dandelion in the first ss, which is apparently a play that is being adapted from a book. The other reference to Dandelion is in the 2nd ss, an animal hospital named Dandelion is mentioned by Jumin and Jaehee. The characters from that game were part cat/rabbits, so this ref goes deeper than just a name drop.

Nameless: The One Thing You Must Recall is referenced too. Tei’s Tea Leaf is one of the plays Zen starred in. This is a reference to Tei from Nameless, Cheritz’s game before this. (I don’t know where this is mentioned in the game). Another example is in the last screenshot, the password that Jaehee mentions is from the title of the game. There is also a big reference to Nameless in Deep Story that another Tumblr user named smol-grey-tea has brought to my attention.

The story that Jumin reads to MC directly references Nameless’ backstory, which is revealed in the true route in secret ending 2. Nameless is the character pictured above as ‘???’ and he is a stuffed bear. The scene that Jumin reads is when Eri’s grandfather buys Nameless for Eri. The person who gave this book to Jumin is Rika. I will talk about the significance of this later.

EDIT: Here’s part 2 btw

[marshmallowprotection]

Hello I have a few questions if you don’t mind answering:

on Vs route who is it that come out was it suit saeran or unknown since I’m finding it a bit difficult to tell, since one moment I lean to suit and the next I lean to unknown.

The other would be why does the other alter come out in Vs route, cause I dunno it’s feels a bit sudden since with what I can understand for suit he comes out because of Ray, pretty much being severely hurt after the ceremony and I think unknown came out because of having to gradually adapt to rika’s constant changing demands (sorry if that doesn’t make sense and please correct me if I’m wrong).

The last one would be the call on day 9 after the chat room “Seven’s persuasion” is he pain due to the elixir or is it something else? ( sorry if the last one seems like a silly question)

Alright, so, this isn’t a perplexing question at all. I can start off by saying that there are people who personally believe that it’s Unknown in V’s Route at this point. I’m not one of them but I do think it’s an interesting theory. It simply does not align with what I believe and write with so I don’t generally lean that way for my stories. So, I believe in what you said here. I connect Another Story to Deep and Casual Routes. If there’s no MC, Ray and Suit Saeran slowly waste away to darkness and Unknown is born from their collapse and eventually goes on to be the one that tricks you into the apartment.

It makes a lot more sense to me when I think about that. I can make sense of this by adding some of that chatroom that you mentioned underneath the cut to make sense of it. The way that the Unknown user speaks in this chatroom is all the same makings of Suit Saeran when he speaks the way he does about what happened in Ray Route. He wakes up in a daze, confused, and all he knows is that Ray is suffering miserably without you there in Mint Eye.

The context of Suit Saeran’s arrival in V Route is not the same as what it is in Ray’s Route. So, he doesn’t wake up knowing a lot about you... he doesn’t have this innate urge to come to you and make you pay because Ray suffered due to how much he did for you. Ray was punished for kissing you, making you avoid a dosage of elixir time and time again, and just generally everything that Ray does that would not make Rika happy to find out. Suit Saeran is more aware of you in this circumstance because Ray had more time with you.

In V Route, Ray barely gets time with you after the 4th day.

The context is different but this is still Suit Saeran. Glance below to see what I mean:

He talks about Ray the same way that Suit Saeran does. He’s annoyed by all the sappy nonsense that Ray talks about when it comes to you. He’s curious about it but he’s more determined to figure out what makes you tick... why does Ray like you so much...? What kind of person are you to make Ray believe so strongly in his desires that his voice is louder that Suit Saeran’s? What is it about you? Why are capable of these things?

He doesn’t want to consume you here in the way he did in Ray Route.... but he surely wants to pick you apart. He wants to see what makes you tick. He will do that if nobody gets in his way. He wants to drag you back to Mint Eye to keep for himself... the Savior wouldn’t mind too much, right? It’s not like she’ll like you for long after all that trouble you caused with V. She’ll tire of you eventually, and he’ll get to play with you instead.

That’ll make Ray good and mad. Good. In the phone call that takes place after this, he tells you outright that he wanted to drown V in elixir but Ray stopped his torture halfway because he couldn’t stomach it anymore after starting it. He had started it but he wouldn’t finish it... that’s mostly what Saeran is angry about at this point. He wants to taste revenge and Ray isn’t going to do enough to make them both feel better... and he could get you as a prize out of it.

This Suit Saeran is interesting because he’s not drowning in animosity or the desire to bend you for what happened to Ray since that didn’t happen in this timeline. No. He’s more like a wild cat stalking his prey because he wants to see what the mouse will do when they’re trapped underneath a paw. I mean, he is the one who says himself that he bites. Suit Saeran bites. That’s literally the one thing that made me chuckle because Saeran bit you in Ray Route. This is meant to be a reference to that.

Anyway, I believe this is Suit Saeran and all leads point that way to me. If you think it’s a baby Unknown, that’s cool, too! I don’t know how you’d pull it back together to make it make sense for Unknown to be there at that time given what I’ve pieced together about my theory, but hey, it’s a game and we’re allowed to guess our own theories and HCs.

[animeomegas]

Hi!!!, first, congratulations on 1000 followers!I wanted to ask you something, could you make a list of omegas that would have worse self esteem during pregnancy.if you can't don't worry, have a nice day and again congratulations.

(Hey, thank you so much for your congratulations!! Hmm, I’m sure I can make a little list~)

Warnings: Insecurities of all sorts, mentions of sex.

Insecure over appearance:

· Itachi – Itachi is worried about how skinny and sickly he is. He’s always been on the small side but pregnancy has stopped him being able to keep much food down, and so he just kept getting smaller and smaller. It’s a small insecurity at first, but he does find himself staring at his reflection and wondering if his mate finds him attractive. Itachi goes a long while without sex because of how sick he gets during pregnancy and after birth, and that feeds the insecurity that his alpha doesn’t find him attractive.

· Tamaki – He’s completely fine until he gets lost in a rabbit hole on some parenting and omega focused forums. He finds all these posts from other omegas about how their alphas don’t find them attractive anymore, and about how they’ve stopped having sex. Now, Tamaki is extremely sexually needy during his pregnancy, so he’s suddenly paralysed with fear. Has his alpha been forcing themselves this whole time? Have they just been doing it to please him without enjoying it themselves? He cries about it quite a bit until his alpha finds out and knocks a little bit of sense into him.

· Asmo – Asmo puts so much effort into his physical appearance. He’s very proud of it and he’s very reliant on his appearance to carry his self-esteem. So, a drastic change of any sort would be extremely distressing. He buys every cream and treatment imaginable to stop stretch marks, and acne etc. but things still change with his body. And because Asmo views his worth through looks, he assumes that his alpha does also. He tries to hide, to turn down sex, but of course, this alerts his alpha immediately to the fact that something is wrong. He never really gets over the insecurities while he’s still pregnant, but his alpha can minimise the effects with copious love and praise.

· Julian – He’s extremely insecure as it is, constantly questioning why his alpha finds him attractive at all but being pregnant adds enough layer on to the pre-existing insecurities. He always tries to reassure his alpha that they don’t have to touch him if they don’t want, that they should leave the room before he gets changed or when he’s bathing because they probably don’t want to see him like that. His insecurities run very deeply, just like Asmo’s, so they can’t be fixed, but they can be helped with lots of comfort and reassurance.

Insecure over abilities (e.g., being weak physically etc.):

· Sasuke – The fact that he can’t go on missions or train pisses him off. And as the months go by, he’s gaining weight and losing muscle definition and it freaks him out because he feels like he’s losing who he is which drops his self-esteem. Training has been a part of his life for as long as he can remember. Just design some softer workout routines for him with a mednin and remind him that he can still practice throwing kunai before he loses his goddamn mind.

· Bakugou – The physical condition of his body changing isn’t that big of a deal for him. He has a very small tummy, especially considering he’s pregnant with twins, and he knows he can bounce back after the birth because he’s super dedicated to his physical routine. What he’s not so confident about is the slipping control he has over his quirk. He has (had) an iron clad control, and the random explosions while pregnant are so embarrassing. Not to mention the disruption that his quirk causes in his nest. He has to replace so many cushions which makes his instincts go wild because significant changes to an omega’s nest while pregnant is distressing. If his friends tease him about the loss of control, he gets genuinely mad about because it’s something of a sore spot.

· Jumin – Jumin tries to keep his life while pregnant as close to his life before being pregnant as possible and in many ways, he nails it. He buys copies of his favourite suits and has them tailored every other week to fit his growing stomach. He buys non-alcoholic wine and drinks it with a grimace. He schedules lots of massages to keep the aches and pains away, so he feels normal. But there is one thing that isn’t so easy to keep normal: his emotions. Now, this fits into this category rather than the one below because Jumin gets insecure about how his emotional control impacts his ability to work. His emotions had never impacted his career before, but now he can’t help but tear up when he gets overstressed, he can’t work long hours without getting lonely and wanting to go home, he can’t take business trips because he doesn’t want to leave his nest for too long. It makes him feel a little like he’s lost himself because these things are things he’s been doing with ease for his entire life. He’s quite irritated by it and it damages his self esteem somewhat.

Insecure emotionally (e.g., unsure about being a good parent etc.):

· Tamaki –Tamaki also makes it onto this category. His insecurities are very specific, but he worries about being a bad role model socially for his pup. If his alpha is very socially adept, I’m not sure he would worry as much, because he knows that his pup can learn from their other parent, but if Tamaki’s alpha is also a little shy or prefers not being around people, then he gets really worried about it. Him being so shy and anxious has really impacted his life and he really doesn’t want it to impact his pup in the same way. He really worries that he’ll be a bad influence in that regard. (but the prospect of an extremely extroverted child is an equally terrifying concept in a different way haha.)

· Lucifer – He is very worried about being a good parent because all he can focus on is the past times when he wasn’t a good older brother. I mean, Satan hates him, and that’s as close to a father/child bond that Lucifer has, so surely that must mean he’s not cut out to be a father? He’s not good at emotions or reasonable punishments or showing affection or… well, point is he doesn’t think he has what it takes to be a good parent, when all he’s ever had is a shitty father himself, and all he’s ever been, is a shitty older brother that drove his family apart.

· Levi – Levi is insecure about most things that have to do with himself, so it’s not surprising that he gets very insecure about being a good parent which drops his self-esteem to an all time low. He can’t even watch any anime that focuses too much on parent/child relationships because he can’t help but compare himself every time, and he works himself up into a mini panic. It’s difficult to calm Levi’s insecurities but his partner can help him somewhat.

· Hawks – Keigo is very insecure about his abilities to protect his pup. His has this conspiracy theory that the hero commission will try to kidnap his child. They were furious when they found out he was pregnant during the peak of his career and they pushed him heavily towards abortion. Keigo leaked the pregnancy news to the public to force the commission’s hands, but he’s still so paranoid that they’ll stage a 'tragic accident' for his pup to force him back into hero work, or try and kidnap and raise his pup as they raised him. He doesn’t have any proof, per se, but he’s terrified that he can’t protect his pup so he really doesn’t like to leave his alpha’s presence. When he’s close to his due date, he’s too insecure with all his conspiracy theories clouding his mind to even let his alpha shower by themselves.

· V – Jihyun sort of convinces himself that he’s cursed when it comes to looking after people (Rika, Saeyoung, Saeran), so he’s very upset by the prospect that he’ll probably fail at raising his child too. He originally says that he wants to give the pup up for adoption to save them, but eventually you talk him around and start working through his problems. He just doesn’t thing he’ll be a good role model. The longer he waits to have children after the more traumatic events of his life, the less these issues crop up.

Miscellaneous:

· Aizawa – Shouta gets insecure when people pay too much attention to him being pregnant. He doesn’t like people giving up their seats for him on public transport, he doesn’t like his students and colleagues asking invasive questions, he doesn’t like those awful shop attendants that try to shoehorn him into buying baby supplies he doesn’t need. He wishes people would just treat him normally. (and he absolutely starts to activate his quirk every time someone tries to touch his tummy without asking first.) But yeah, all the eyes and attention makes him super uncomfortable and it makes him overanalyse everything he does which does impact his self esteem.

· Light – Light has a very specific insecurities while pregnant which revolve around the fear that he’s lowering himself by carrying a pup. All his life he’s had people tell him that because he’s an omega, he should give up on all his dreams and have pups and stay home instead. It really doesn’t sit well with him that he’s doing what all those awful people told him to do (at least it feels that way to him). He feels ashamed and he hates it. He avoids everything stereotypical while pregnant. He’ll kick you in the face if you try to rub his feet, he does everything in his power to avoid giving in to cravings, and he doesn’t make a nest. It all takes a serious toll on his health but it would take one hell of a stubborn alpha to get him to bend on any of that. It puts a strain on the relationship.

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Higurashi Sotsu Ep15 [FINALE]

For better or worse I think Ryukishi achieved exactly what he set out to do with this series, and I guess everyone’s just gonna be forced to reckon with how they feel about his own perspective on this franchise versus how they feel about it, lol.

Anyway, thoughts under the cut, plus Umineko spoilers.

I’m not entirely sure where to even start with this, but I guess the TL;DR is that I honestly think Gou/Sotsu was ultimately just fine despite it’s issues, and part me of can’t help but be like ‘I told you so, lol’ about how this really did end with this episode, and also committed pretty hard to the Umineko prequel elements.

It’s not like all of my theories were correct in the end, but I at least think I was pretty spot on in my prediction last week that this would end with the miracle of them side-stepping the sword issue entirely and choosing the third option of forgiveness and reconciliation. And also them ending it with an epilogue where we go back to the Matsuribayashi timeline and get a happy ending for Rika and Satoko that provides a ‘non-magical interpretation’ for the story while also giving us an idea of how Bern and Lambda formally split off into their own entities and start the relationship we see in Umineko.

I didn’t quite expect them to go down the route of having them agree to just spend a few years apart and accept that they don’t need to literally always be together, but I think that was a really good way to wrap things up between them. It’s pretty much the healthiest compromise to their conflict that doesn’t come across like it completely invalidates one of their dreams. I get why it feels too anti-climactic and convenient for people, but when you pull at that thread you get into wider topics of what the entire story is about, since this was always going to end with Satoko being redeemed and forgiven. People might not have taken him seriously, but Ryukishi was 100% genuine about his regrets about Matsuribayashi’s ending, and how part of why he came up with this new story was to create a better ending, while also doing more with Satoko as a character.

Basically I think a lot of the fandom negativity towards this boils down to people fundamentally disagreeing with the idea that Matsuribayashi was even ‘flawed’ in this sort of way to begin with, or that Satoko was badly written. It’s valid to disagree on this stuff, but at the very least we all have to grapple with how Ryukishi has his own specific relationship with this series.

People like to focus on how he’s a troll who likes to mess with people, but I feel like this is a bit of a wake-up call for people about how he’s actually extremely sincere, almost to a fault, and he likes to use his stories as a vehicle for expressing his personal philosophies and ideals. 

This whole story is also a good example of how he just sees this as ultimately being a fictional story about fictional characters, and not literally a matter of real people who need to be sentenced for their crimes or whatever. As early as the original VN he was almost being outright preachy about the message that nobody is irredeemable, and that philosophy carries through to this. But to be more specific, nobody *in this story* is irredeemable. He’s pretty open about the fact that in practice you can’t apply this sort of ideal to real life, but fictional stories are their own separate matter.

I think this whole issue of how he views this as a story first and foremost is also the central reason why this ended in a way that comes across as Satoko being let off too easy for her crimes. One way or another, Ryukishi’s made it clear that he sees this as being no different to how other characters had arcs where they committed crimes but still got forgiven, or how Takano is basically a straight up war criminal who also got forgiven for her crimes.

Anyway, this episode at least committed to the Umineko stuff, so that was satisfying. Sure there’s people that still want to deny it, but at this point I think a lot of people are just being stubborn, so it’s not like anything would have really convinced them, lol. I’m also genuinely not sure what people even would have expected them to do beyond what we saw her, aside from having the two of them literally put on their gothic lolita outfits and turn to the camera and go ‘we are literally Bernkastel and Lambdadelta from the video game series Umineko When They Cry’. I almost feel like there’s some kind of misunderstanding from people who aren’t familiar with Umineko when it comes to the idea of what it even means for this to be ‘an Umineko prequel’, or ‘a Bern/Lambda origin story’. I mean, this is quite literally exactly what I expected and hoped for in that regard. It’s not like I was expecting them to incorporate anything related to, like, Beatrice or the Ushiromiya family.

I think this is also one of those things where you just have to decide for yourself whether or not you want to earnestly engage with the story that’s being told, or if you want to assume that there’s some level of malice or trickery going on.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting them to literally have Rika and Satoko recite part of Bern and Lambda’s final conversation with each other word for word, lmao. Combined with the scene at the end where ‘Witch Satoko’ talks to herself about how she’s going to give her body back to Satoko while she goes chasing after Rika, it was literally just the exact origin story of their relationship as it’s depicted in Umineko.

I still feel like this would all only really be ‘worth it’ if we actually get something like a full on anime remake for Umineko, but at this point I can’t help but feel satisfied with this part of it all.

It’s not like I think Gou/Sotsu as a whole is perfect or anything, though. I don’t hate it as much as basically everyone else does, but I think Ryukishi’s the sort of VN writer who really struggles with the shift to writing for an anime. I think a big part of the frustration people have is just from how this is formatted as a weekly anime series spread across basically an entire year, instead of being something like a stand-alone VN chapter that you can read at whatever pace you want, even if it ultimately takes the same amount of time to read as it would to watch all of Gou/Sotsu.

There’s also the whole issue of this being a sort-of-remake, which snowballed into a whole list of structural problems. They absolutely tried too hard to have their cake and eat it too, and they should have just committed to it being made for old fans only, instead of trying to sincerely incorporate elements from the VN that old fans don’t care about anymore because they’ve gone over it already.

And as I’ve said several times before, it was a major issue for them to decide to put Nekodamashi in the middle of Gou and then spend like 20 episodes on flashback answer arcs until finally getting back to that cliffhanger. I’ve been waiting until this all ended to decide exactly how I feel about that, and now that it’s all over I still think it was a really bad idea. I don’t think it was an issue for them to reveal that Satoko’s the culprit that early, but having the gun cliffhanger specifically happen that early just gave people misguided expectations and tainted the answer arcs because people were just impatient to get back to the cliffhanger. And then the cliffhanger itself ended up being somewhat anti-climactic, which is what I’d been fearing would happen. It would have worked fine if they shuffled it around so that the cliffhanger happened right before Kagurashi and was followed up in the very next episode, or if this was a VN where you could binge your way through the flashback stuff, but spending like half of an entire real-life year to get back to that point only to have the resolution be ‘Satoko just shoots Rika and the death loops keep going’ just didn’t really work properly.

I’m a lot more generous towards the Akashi arcs than most people are, since I think they really over-estimate how much re-used content there is there, but they still suffer from the central issue of the show trying to be accessible for new fans. It could have been heavily condensed otherwise, without losing anything in terms of Satoko’s whole character arc.

On the other hand I think the first half of Kagurashi was awful specifically because it highlighted how bad of an idea it was to put Nekodamashi so early in the story. They still ended up having to go back to that arc and repeat it anyway, in the most 1:1 recap-y way in the whole show, but that wouldn’t have even been an issue in the first place if that was instead the first time that arc happened in the show.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I would rearrange the story to make it flow better while still following Ryukishi’s intentions, and I think they could have condensed it into a 2-cour season with this sort of structure if they did something like this:

-First arc where Rika gets thrown back into the loop and quickly figures out that somebody intentionally caused this to happen, and it’s not Takano because at least in this idea of mine she’d try and investigate her only to find out that this version of Takano regrets everything and is planning to flee the village with Tomitake.

Basically I think this could tie into the idea of Satoko initially wanting to just concoct an idea world for Rika so that she won’t want to leave this time, but sort of like what I think happens in Saikoroshi, Rika would still reject it, and this time around there’d be the additional layer of her knowing that somebody did this to her for an unknown reason. Maybe they could even initially market it as a new adaptation or a remake of Saikoroshi, and then reveal that it’s a sequel, to keep that whole element to the series. Either way I think this would end with everything going to shit when Rika rejects that fragment and wants to go back to St. Lucia’s, and Satoko basically snaps and kills her, and that way the audience can find out about her being the culprit without Rika finding out about it yet.

Maybe there could even be some dramatic irony where Rika’s attempts to meddle with certain ‘trigger events’, and her displaying her looper side, inadvertently triggers people around her to get paranoid, and the whole fragment would start to spiral into tragedy from there. I think they could at least use the whole conflict in Tatariakashi about Teppei actually being good this time as a starting point for that sorta thing.

-Second arc, rounding out the first cour, which is basically just Satokowashi. I don’t think there’s much that you’d need to change here, but like I said above I like the idea of her initially trying to just invent a perfect world for Rika and her to live in, instead of jumping straight to murder. But maybe instead of her literally just watching Rika’s loops, she could instead just be stuck using her looping powers to try and figure out how to create that ‘perfect world’ in the first place, by personally investigating all of the different tragedies and how to prevent them.

-Staring the second cour, a third arc where we basically just get to see those loops Satoko goes through, and her whole process of solving the tragedies and ‘purifying’ characters like Teppei and Takano, until we eventually see her perspective on the first arc, and how she reacts to Rika ultimately rejecting the world she tried to make for her.

-A fourth and final arc which is basically just Nekodamashi + Kagurashi, where she just totally snaps and tries to just torture Rika into never wanting to leave the village again, and eventually Satoko gets exposed and they have their direct confrontation with each other.

With that sorta story structure, you’d keep all the relevant bits of Gou/Sotsu as it is now, while being more focused on Rika and Satoko instead of doing kinda half-assed reruns of the Rena and Shion arcs. It’d also push the big cliffhanger between them until near the end of the show, while still revealing to the audience relatively early on that Satoko’s the culprit.

I’d also like them to do more with Satoshi and Shion, so maybe like with how Teppei gets redeemed and Satoko almost gets to have a happy life with him in Tatariakashi, the central question arc of this hypothetical story could also involve Satoko making sure that Satoshi wakes up from his coma, and Shion also gets to have a good relationship with all of them. You could probably do something interesting with the idea of Satoshi and Shion being in the camp of not trusting Teppei and his whole redemption arc.

Honestly I could spend a long time talking about how I would have done things differently, lol. For one thing, I think the Akashi arcs would have been much better if they just changed it so that Satoko used psychological tactics to make people paranoid, and we completely cut out the whole syringe plot device. I get how it fits with Satoko’s whole certainty gimmick, but it made those arcs way too predictable. Even if we knew the outcome, it’d at least be entertaining to see exactly how Satoko might go out of her way to set up the different tragedies. We kinda got glimpses of that sorta plot point in Wataakashi when things seemed to go outside of her control, but they didn’t really do much with it.

Anyway, this is a whole lot of words to say that I think that in spite of the serious structural issues going on, I think Gou/Sotsu as a whole is fine, and was at least working with a lot of perfectly good ideas that could have been executed much better.

Also, on a side note, that one scene during their fist-fight at the start where the art-style changes a bit was kinda weird, but I really liked how it looked, and part of me almost wishes the whole show looked like that, lol. I like Akio Watanabe’s character designs, but I feel like that sort of stylized, almost TWEWY-ish art style would have been really fitting for this series, especially in the horror/action parts.

Oh, and the new rendition of You was so good it almost felt emotionally manipulative, lol.

[tsuisou-no-despair]

Tsuisou’s Theory Time: Teppei, Trickery, and Thunderdome

Thinking about the “Satoko is a looper” theory - I think the only way for it to work would be for Satoko to have been trapped in her own seperate loop (where Rika’s perfectly normal) for hundreds of years, reach whatever sort of state/conclusion that the loop-empowering entity wanted, and then get thrown into the Gou-loops to compete against Rika in some sort of looper thunderdome. After all, an important part of the looper’s life cycle is the early stage of realization of the issue and the subsequent freaking out, and if Satoko started doing that with a looping Rika around, that definitely would have been noticed.

Now, I was going to make a second counter-argument based on Satoko’s behaviour vs. Rika’s - how it’s far easier for Rika to make it through because she’s a much more passive individual who can smile and headpat and niipah her way through the time loop without needing to do more than she’s required, while Satoko meanwhile has to play a bunch of roles including gremlin, little sister, victim, and abuse target - but then I started thinking about it more.

...even though I intially thought it was basically complete bunk, I think that I’ve come around hard on the “Satoko is sus” theories. Note that the following doesn’t give any indication as to why Satoko would be doing any of this, but it’s calculating how she could:

If Satoko’s a looper (or even just empowered in some way), it can probably be assumed that she has a way around Teppei as getting out from under his boot would be priority number one. This could be where Teppei’s medicine comes into play - “play along, old man, or the pills you need to live go down the toilet” combined with a bit of looper creepiness would probably get the job done.

The proof that Satoko’s been abused since Teppei’s return is mostly in her absences from school and, of course, the freakout. Any physical evidence is distinctly not present as she’s unmarred in the shower scene. The former could be her getting up to no good while hiding under the cover of her uncle. The latter could be a routine she’s perfected after a hundred years of it - her slapping Keiichi’s hand away could, in fact, be her making sure that the physical trauma of the scene doesn’t kick in so she can freak out on her terms alone. (She does bounce back really fast after the freakout, I’m just saying...)

If Satoko’s acting in bad faith, she could be lying about a lot... like, say, about how her uncle was dealt with when she’s talking to Keiichi over the phone - something which could very much help set up an ambush by Teppei on the night of the festival. Now, “Satoko subverted the power dynamic and Teppei’s acting as her lackey in Tataridamashi” is a batshit theory, to be sure, but Tsuisou’s Theory Time isn’t for grounded, logical theories.

Going back to Watadamashi - this probably isn’t new, but Satoko being at the Sonozaki compound at all in that arc is sus, given that the old reason of “Rika visited but never came back” isn’t on the table. Her being there while the compound is being stormed by the Yamainu is even stranger - come to think of it, I wonder how Satoko would look in a black beret...

Back again, to Onidamashi - I had assumed (to the point of drawing it) that Rika had stabbed Satoko in a murder-suicide, but really we don’t know what happened at the Furude house that night. It could have been that, or it could have been the other way around - hell, if Satoko has people doing her bidding, there might’ve been more truth to the “oh, a burglar broke in and killed them both” theory from Mion than we gave it credit for.

Anyway, TLDR: I’ve come around on Satoko being sus, and I vote that we refer to the idea of a time-looping Satoko going up against Rika as “looper thunderdome” from here on out

[sternbilder]

ok I'm about halfway through my first run so lemme rank all the characters in terms of how much I currently want to date them, because I think it would be really funny to look back on later. ready

zen: 7/10. I find him very attractive and likable! like don't get me wrong, he is extremely in love with himself and very desperate forward but he's also a total dumbass about it so it comes off as more funny than off-putting? I knocked him down a few points bc I feel like the biggest appeal of a korean dating sim for me is that exciting moment when the other person finally asks if you can drop the formal speech and just call you 너 and I will never get that with zen bc he is a rude little bastard who started using casual speech with me pretty much immediately, but overall I do find his ridiculous flirting fun and I do like him, especially now that he's started to show hints of Sad Backstory™.

yoosung: 4/10. he is a college student and. it sure shows. no offense to college students, but I am twenty seven earth years old and I would much rather be dating adults. he's also.......very dumb?? which I like about him as a character bc his naïveté is extremely precious and also very funny when he falls for everyone else's obvious teasing, but it does not particularly make me want to date him. he gives me little brother vibes, I am not attracted to him but he is adorable and I do want to protect him and wish the very best for him.

jaehee: 9/10. I'm biased bc I'm already on her route but jaehee is extremely dateable. smart, hardworking, competent, cute, wears a suit, and is patient almost to a fault?? she was pretty curt at first and I can tell she is still trying very hard to be professional but whenever she's like "I feel like u just,, get me, I love talking to you I hope we can be closer from now on" I'm like 🥺🥺🥺?? also I do resent cheritz a little for making her look like That and telling me I can only end up in a platonic relationship with her. ok cheritz.

jumin: 8/10 every warning sign is screaming at me not to date jumin bc he's an unapologetic asshole in every way with zero self awareness but unfortunately he's very hot and has a nice voice so I cannot help myself. I wouldn't date him irl bc I do not trust people who grew up wealthy but what are dating sims but a vehicle to indulge your fantasies of dating a hot irredeemable bastard with zero actual consequences? also his obsession with his dumb cat is stupidly endearing, even though I'm forcing myself not to encourage him for jaehee's sake.

707: 6.5 7/10. he's very goofy but I'm into it? I feel like he's very suspicious and maybe in cahoots with Big Evil (though I don't get evil vibes from seven himself, yet,) but that air of mystery and danger and the thrill of possibly being stabbed in the back only intrigues me more. I would rate him higher if he like. actually knew how to cook food and had a savings account bc, again, he reads to me as extremely early 20s in a way that is totally unappealing to me, but I do quite like him overall.

v: 5/10. he is very polite and nice I guess and I can smell the tragedy on him from a mile away which is very appealing in a fictional character sense, but to be frank, I know exactly nothing about this man. is he even a dateable option?? I saw he has a route but none of my responses to his chats are giving me hearts. maybe he's just difficult to please. or maybe he's still hung up over his dead ex, which is perfectly understandable but a major no from me in terms of dateability.

rika: 3/10. I don't think she has a route but I do have a vague theory that she's not actually dead and is like. pulling some strings somewhere?? the only interaction I've had with her is in that one hallucination (?) where she said some vague creepy thing about the afterlife, so so far my impression of her does not particularly inspire affection, but I guess I'll find out more about her later???

that white haired bitch who kidnapped me in my first run (ray??): 0/10 fuck off!!!!!!!!!!

[fandomplethora]

so, i have seen something going around the mystic messenger fandom...and i would like to just share my thoughts on it. 

i would like to quickly add that this is just my opinion on it and my perspective. i also am not sure if this has been confirmed or not - but, either way, my personal thoughts mostly stay the same. 

in my eyes, it is no small thing what’s going around...whether this is a fictional story or not.

tw: heavy mentions of suicide and mental health. major spoilers ahead. 

i have had several discussions based on this going around. i have also seen it on instagram, heard it is going around on twitter and have seen it on tiktok.

i think, to go so far as to put something like that on another character is a bit much...even in a fictional game. it could, potentially, mess up a lot of people’s mindsets playing. i do not think it is a fair perspective on players or what this game is even about. it could also be possibly triggering to players. yoosung is depressed. he lost someone really close to him, that gave him motivation/inspiration. and his grades started slipping, he lost his drive and he just distracted himself with lolol without taking care of himself. and if we really look at it...no character takes care of themselves here. zen doesn’t eat properly...a diet of salad and beer, long hours. he sometimes smokes. jaehee works long hours without getting proper rest or meals - relies strictly on caffeine to keep going. jumin says he takes of himself but it is canon that people have seen him take multiple espresso shots to get going in the day at once. not to mention how he turns to drinking in different points of any route and his sleep schedule is crazy. saeyoung hardly sleeps either; just eats junk food, or mostly chips and soda, and struggles to take care of himself. jihyun is also not taking care of himself, including not receiving needed medical care, as he tries to solve everything going on in the background. saeran isn’t able to take care of himself either when you get to his route due to his situation, including further poisoning his body with the elixir. vanderwood is even in a similar position as saeyoung but, perhaps, dealing in different ways we have not seen much of yet.

so much of this can be attributed to, again, the stress every member is under due to their jobs, student life and situation. so much is attributed to their trauma, mental state, mental health... and so much we find out about in every route. it is also based around their relationships, families and secrets we uncover.

and, coming back to yoosung...i will say that, heartbreakingly, suicidal ideation may happen. and connecting it to the other members once more; there is a moment in jaehee’s route where jumin purposefully, while under the influence, endangers his own life. saeyoung is also severely depressed and “jokes” about his will to live at different points...and in jihyun’s after ending, when he believes his brother has passed, he no longer wants to live and has to be stopped by jumin and vanderwood. jihyun himself is so self-sacrificial...he is willing to risk his own life in order to protect others and to even prove his “love” to rika. and saeran does attempt suicide at the end of jihyun’s route after giving a farewell call to mc...and then has to be saved by jihyun who thanks god for him being alive. and, even before that, expresses (similarly to saeyoung) his lack of care for his own life. and mina (rika) is also shown to idealize self-harm and, perhaps, even suicide as well. 

...and then looping back to yoosung, i do think he is a character who needs help (much like everyone else in the game) and he does need to be acknowledged about this and for his struggles. his mental health, stress as a student, lack of motivation due to all of these facts and reeling from the “death” (another apparent suicide) of a family member close to him. again, i believe there may even be moments from yoosung about his own suicidal thoughts (i’m not denying this fact)...things said in passing based in moments of high emotion and severe depression. 

suicide, mental health/illness, including (in some contexts) suicidal ideation are all, heartbreakingly, major themes and subjects in mystic messenger. 

but, also, i have to add...that to say that someone would have committed suicide without another certain character...is detrimental to some of the positive themes shown in this story. themes of recovery, forgiveness and self-love. of showing actually getting better, healthier coping mechanisms and forming strong bonds with healthy relationships. 

perhaps, this theory (or fact, if it has been confirmed, i have not seen such confirmation yet though)...is saying, more in the sense, that without intervention for yoosung (and any member) these unhealthy coping mechanisms and pain they were going through would not have been properly acknowledged. it is a major part of the whole storyline to acknowledge their feelings and help them through that...to highlight the importance of that. (and not doing so, or encouraging further toxic behaviors, is what leads to the bad endings...this is not hating on completing bad endings or saying you shouldn’t do so - but that is what those can represent. and why only the good endings are considered canon.) 

but i fear that if anyone were to take the stance of “_____ would have killed themselves if _____ was not there” is almost along the lines of “i would no longer want to live if you were not here” or “i would k*ll myself if you were gone”...both of these mindsets are not okay, severely toxic and painful. and, in terms of forming healthy and strong bonds like these characters should (and eventually do)...it ruins the theme of that. the lesson in that.  

my point is; it is all about perspective and showing the deeper context of such a statement. and to please, please be careful when sharing such a statement or reading it.   every character in this story is not in a good place at all when you/mc/hana enter the picture. and, sure, it can be said that mc gives them that boost of energy (brings the spring breeze again, so to speak)...but, really, they just encourage them to do it themselves and talk to each other. while i love the hc where we can have a more active part in helping everyone - to say mc (or hana) does nothing as it is now is not true. 

they holds their hands, they are kind and they listen. they encourage them to take care of themselves and is just there through it. and when helping someone going through something - that’s what it’s really about. (there is no english translation for the webtoon yet so this part is just based on me skimming the chapters as they are released.) but hana seems to also be kind, encouraging and gives them that kick again. everyone in the rfa truly does care about each other and, sure, they needed someone to remind them again. but i genuinely think to take that dark of a possible “what if” is not fair to the story at all or the characters.

things like this never take just one person or are on one person’s back. it’s everyone involved - it’s a support system. that is just what the rfa needed to see more clearly. (even before mc came in and helped...it’s still said that, while the rfa were worried and didn’t know where to go from where they were...they still did use the chatroom as an outlet to talk to each other. so, they were getting there. could things have gotten more complicated if mc hadn’t come? yes...again, they changed the course tremendously. but for things to go that far is just...not true to me.) 

(side note: the only thing that makes me sad is how someone could be potentially left out when you’re on another route. it’s why i wish for a final route where you can help everyone. and/or what i’m wishing for the webtoon to be.) 

but each route gets to show the possibility of hope and recovery for every single character in this game - and how that strength and care and love was in them all along.  again, i have no idea about anything like that being confirmed or not. mental health is a HUGE theme in mystic messenger as a whole - but i take the perspective of what i said more when thinking about it either way. (along with some other things that I’ve posted about on tumblr before.) anyways, in your life, reach out for help if you need it. there is hope..support each other and you can find strength within yourself again. & in my opinion, when playing the game (or now reading the webtoon), that’s something it teaches and shows as well.

edit: this is not a “this is right and this is wrong” post. things are never black and white - mental health and recovery is never linear. i just want to add that in case anything here came across as preachy or like i was trying to sound...well, lecturing even. i am not a professional by any means and am just someone who also struggles with their own mental health. so, i hope nothing in this post came across as offensive, hurtful or insensitive.

[cafedanslanuit]

pairing; v x anne

authors; @sunshinejihyun​ & @cafedanslanuit​

words; 50k slowburn 1.7k

playlist; available here

notes; happy birthday anne! thank you for being a great friend. with all our love, bryn & allie <3

“Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways”. ~Oscar Wilde

Being an artist without being able to see color was something that proved difficult on its own, but combining that with searching for your soulmate at any given turn just to be able to see color was even more difficult. Jihyun Kim was the only person in his advanced art class in his sophomore year of college who couldn’t see color.

“Jihyun, I know the color theory doesn’t apply to you right now, but you may want to pay attention for when it does.” His teacher’s stern voice had pulled his head from his sketchbook and he nodded his apology. Either she didn’t notice or didn’t care, Jihyun had no idea, but she continued her lecture and Jihyun tried his best to show he was paying attention, though his fingers were working to quickly sketch something new before the idea left his brain.

Most people like Jihyun, people who hadn’t met their soulmate yet, focused on drawing and painting in either black and white or grayscale, but not Jihyun. No, he had a fascination with color and it didn’t matter if he could see it or not, he wanted to portray that fascination in his painting. Besides, what does it matter if he can’t see color? Every color looks good together; they have to, why else would colors be so important in everyday life? A lot of people have described what colors go with emotions, so Jihyun tends to go with that when he paints. Emotions are funny things, especially when they’re used to show emotions.

As time in the class was diminishing, Jihyun’s professor made his way towards him and he quickly slammed his sketchbook shut as she cleared her throat. “There’s going to be an art showcase tonight and I have to select a student from each of my classes to have art on display. I want to display some of your work. The color choices are… unique and I think your story would be well perceived.” Jihyun nodded his head and the teacher gestured towards his canvases he spent the last semester creating. “Go ahead and choose three pieces of yours for me.”

He spent his time choosing. There was one that he particularly liked that he had named Envy. The colors of it were green and red, or so he was told, and it described his feelings of being one of the last people he knew to meet his soulmate. He painted this after Jumin had met his. Her name is Allie and she was sweet, kind, and as Jumin described, all the best things in the world combined. It wasn’t that Jihyun was jealous of Jumin for having her, he was jealous because he wanted a person to call his own too.

The next one was based on sorrow; it was all blues and oranges and it expressed Jihyun’s feelings of losing his mom. How he wished they had more time, how he wished he hugged her and told her he loved her when he had the chance.

The third one he decided on was one that he depicted what he thought was love. It was all reds, pinks, and purples. This one was drawn based off of how other people described love: passionate, sweet, and filled with happiness. Flowers, hearts and delicate swirls were the main focus in this piece. This was his favorite, it showed everything he longed for and everything that he would someday have to himself. It showed more than love, it was filled with hope.

“Those are some of your best works, very good choices.” At the professor’s words, Jihyun’s heart swelled with pride.

“Thank you, professor, I will see you tonight.” Jihyun promised and he quickly exited the room, biting back a smile at the thought of his art being showcased to anyone who could walk in.

It was one of those days.

The kind of days where there wasn’t anything really wrong happening, but you just need the day to change. The sky was always grey -had been for as long as they could remember-, but it felt extremely colourless as they made their way to the Engineering and Architecture building. They had a test the next week and figured it was as good a day as any to try and get some reading done.

The walk to the buildings was just like any of the other times, listening to music while getting lost in their thoughts as they crossed campus. It wasn’t really cold, but most people were wearing scarfs and there weren’t as many people as usual walking around. That helped a big part in Anne being able to notice the small poster on one of the buildings she walked past.

Curiosity made her stop in her tracks and come closer to the poster.

It was announcing an art showcase happening in a close building. It was supposed to be an important one, by the way the poster had highlighted the ‘carefully selected students only’.

Anne pursed their lips, pondering their choices for a moment. They looked at the sky one more time, its dullness giving the last bit of motivation she needed to change directions and go to the Art building.

There weren’t as many people as they pictured, which was good, knowing they wouldn’t have to accidentally bump into anyone as they went over the art pieces. Appreciating art was a challenge when you couldn’t recognize any of the colours the artist used, but the different hues of grey were usually a big help. It couldn’t be that different from actually seeing the colours, right?

A few of Anne’s friends had already found their soulmates and would go on for days about their newly discovered ability, and while they were happy their friends had found their soulmate, they couldn’t help but wonder when would it be their time. Maybe it was bound to happen in college, maybe it would happen at their first job, or during their weekly shopping trip. Anne tried not to put too much thought into it, but the art collection she was admiring at the moment made her daydream about that moment one more time.

Someone who would get them. Someone who would find the perfect balance between acceptance and encouragement to become their best self. Someone who would evoke a laugh on the chilliest days and would be a key element to the special type of quiet that was a great element to blissful weekend mornings.

As Anne kept walking around, they spotted a young couple. The woman was petite and thin, long and wavy hair falling to her waist and the sweetest smile Anne had ever seen. The young man was facing the other way, broad shoulders and probably one of the tallest people they had ever seen. The young woman kept talking to him as she pointed to one of the paintings, the man just nodding and scratching the back of his head.

Before they could notice anything else, Anne’s phone buzzed, forcing her to take it out their pocket and look at it. It was an email from a professor which, considering an assignment for his class was due the next day, it was probably urgent. Anne kept walking as they clicked on the notification to read the whole email.

They had read only the first words of the email when they crashed against someone, their arms and phone crashing against their chest.

“Sorry! Sorry, I wasn’t looking. Didn’t mean to--” Anne started as they looked up to the person they had just bumped into just to find a beautiful set of mint eyes looking back.

“I’m so sorry I--” Jihyun cut himself off as his world exploded into color. “I wasn’t looking where I was going.” Rika was still chatting away, not even noticing that Jihyun had stopped in his tracks a few paces back, his eyes locked on the person standing in front of him. “I’m Jihyun.”

The person in front of him - no, his soulmate blinked once before they shot him a bright smile. “Anne, nice to meet you.”

“So, soulmates, huh?” Jihyun scratched the back of his head, something he always did when nervous.

Anne nodded and behind Jihyun, a painting caught their eye. “Is this yours?” Jihyun turned toward where they were gesturing and cringed as his eyes met some of his artwork. 

“Yeah… I liked it much more in black and white. I guess my professor was right, I should have paid more attention when they taught color theory.”

It was a bad joke, a really bad one, in Jihyun’s mind but Anne must have thought it was funny because they laughed, which caused Jihyun to laugh because he just couldn’t believe that he was standing next to his soulmate and they were laughing together. It was something out of his dreams.

“Jihyun,” an annoyed voice brought him back to reality and he met eyes with Rika’s green ones. “I was talking to you and you just disappeared.”

“Oh, Rika, my apologies. This is Anne, my soulmate.” Rika blinked once before her eyes filled with tears threatening to spill and she plastered on a fake smile.

“Soulmate? I just… I thought--” Rika shook her head and smiled sadly at the both of them. “Nevermind what I thought. I’m happy for you, both of you.” With one last glance at Jihyun, Rika walked away and while the thought that Rika could be hurting upset him, he knew that right here, with Anne, was where he was supposed to be.

Sometimes, days were still grey. And dull.

But as Anne felt Jihyun putting his scarf around their neck to protect them against the chilly weather, they thought maybe it was fine after all.

It was the hues of grey in everything that made the colours of his soul shine even brighter.

[kirishwima]

For scenarios... could I request rfa accidentally meeting MC before the party? no drama like "there's a bomb so I gotta run to your place" they just accidentally meet somewhere and MC recognises them from the pictures in the chatrooms and goes to greet them. Rika's apartment can't be far away from where the others live so it should be impossible. (if you can find a way to squeeze in V that's okay but you don't have to)

i really liked this idea! hope i executed it well ^^

YOOSUNG:

MC and he were actually studying at the same university, but different subjects!

They had a common elective course of modern history though, one that Yoosung’s friends convinced him to take with them since they could share notes, and MC simply had an interest in it, and well, needed the extra credits

Neither of them really noticed each other at first-it’s a big classroom and it’s in the afternoons, so oftentimes Yoosung just skipped lmao

Once though Yoosung’s friends couldn’t make it to the class so he offered to go and take notes for the day, and rushed into the class a little late, so he took the first seat available-right next to MC

He struggled to both write and listen to the professor at the same time, and eventually he got a little behind with his notes. MC noticed his cute frustrated face and shared their notes with him, tapping him on the shoulder as they quietly pushed their papers to him

Yoosung’s happy face was stuck in MC’s mind-he wore his feelings on his sleeve and it was so refreshing to see someone this innocent at this day and age.

They became fast friends afterwards-exchanging facebook accounts and talking via messenger often, sometimes about the class, sometimes about anything and everything else

They even had study sessions to help each other study!

Near the end of the semester, and right when this extra class ended, is when MC stumbled upon the RFA messenger-and one look at Yoosung’s name along with his shooting star emoji got them excited to realise there’s a familiar face amongst this strangeness

The rest of the members found their friendship cute, and Zen constantly tried to play match-maker for the two, telling Yoosung that ‘he should’ve told the RFA he has such a cute girlfriend’ lmao

(*cue Yoosung flushing redder than Seven’s hair*)

ZEN:

No, contrary to what you might think, MC wasn’t his fan-they did however hear about Zen through friends interested in musicals, and agreed he was handsome

No, instead, they met him whilst helping out a friend who was working backstage at one of Zen’s shows-they needed help finishing up painting of some background sets, and MC offered to help them in their free time, and as a return their friend offered MC tickets to the show

Zen met MC whilst rehearsing-he knew MC’s friend and went over to say hi, and met MC, who he of course instantly tried to flirt with, even though he was half-kidding about it

Well, flirtatious nature aside, the two really hit it off, and became good friends-not that they were super close or anything, but Zen would stop and chat with MC after rehearsals, and he invited MC out along with the rest of the crew after the first successful run of the show

He didn’t exchange any social media accounts with MC, because quite frankly, he doesn’t have any lmao, and MC’s phone was broken so they couldn’t give him their number either

Zen insisted that if they leave it up to fate, they’ll meet again, and well-he was right

Lo and behold, MC joined the RFA, and whose face is the first they see in an oh-so-modest selfie?

Yup, Zen the Knight it is

His first words when he realised who MC was were ’See? I told you fate would find a way!’

Sure Zen,,,sure lol

JUMIN:

MC actually scored an interview as Jumin’s executive secretary!

They were so thrilled about it, and did their best to calm their nerves before the interview, knowing that being jittery and anxious would lead them nowhere

Well, they were more than shocked at Jumin’s cold behaviour, but they did their best to match his pace, answering each of his questions without missing a beat, mentioning their credentials without bragging about them

Honestly, Jumin was very pleased-he saw a perfect candidate across him, albeit a little inexperienced due to age, but that didn’t really matter to him-with a little training they’d be perfect for the job

Well, eventually though a better candidate came along, so MC was left with the rejection e-mail in their inbox, disappointed but ready to move on

They had all but forgotten about Jumin Han until stumbling onto the RFA and meeting him again, confused and surprised at the difference of his character in the chatrooms

They didn’t mention the interview at all, but Jumin has the memory of an elephant-one look at MC’s name reminded him of how he met them, and he reassured them that they were incredibly good at the interview and left an impression on him

It takes some getting used to his different attitude, but it’s refreshing to see a man they thought of as cold and calculated be a complete cat-loving goof-and it’s honestly one of the things that makes MC fall for Jumin

And vice-versa, Jumin remembers MC’s serious confident attitude at the interview, and is pleasantly surprised to learn what a gentle, kind person they are in the messenger

When they meet Jaehee though….boy are they glad they didn’t get the job lmao

*pat pat* it’s okay Jaehee…hang in there baby

JAEHEE:

MC was working part-time as a barista at a coffee shop near C&R!

It was a small independent shop, hidden in-between bigger franchises, but their coffee was great, and if there’s one person that loves good coffee, well, it’s Jaehee

The first time she visited the shop she was at a loss of what to order, the possibilities endless with all these brews of coffee they offered, and MC found Jahee’s flustered face adorable

They chatted her up to see what kind of flavours she likes and dislikes, and ended up making her a delicious cold brew with vanilla cream-just sweet enough to give her that sugar rush she needed, but not enough to hide the flavour of the coffee itself

Well, Jaehee was more than thrilled both at the taste, and at the cute cashier *wink wonk*, so she quickly became a regular at the shop

Yes this is your good ol’ cliche coffee AU DON’T JUDGE ME

She’d always stop for a cup of coffee before work, and would secretly be happy on the days she ended up meeting MC during their shift-she’d try and visit during her breaks too, when time would allow it, and would sit and sometimes chat with MC when the cafe wasn’t too busy

MC eventually learnt some stuff about Jaehee, that she works as a secretary to some annoying cat-loving rich dude (lmao sorry Jumin), that she loves coffee, and that her dream is to eventually open her own cafe, if circumstances allow it

One day, Jaehee went to the shop, knowing that MC had a shift at that time, but they were nowhere to be found-their co-workers said MC called in that they can’t make it today because something urgent came up, so Jahee nodded along, wondering if MC was okay

….well, she didn’t have to worry for too long, as not soon after she got her coffee and headed back to the office, a familiar name popped up on the RFA chatroom

Yup, this is a coffee shop au alright-just with some hacker and cat-loving twists lol

SEVEN:

You can never convince me that this boy is not an active reddit user, and you most definitely can Not convince me he isn’t in any and all paranormal and horror forums either

So he’s scrolling around on reddit one day, posting memes and trolling people, when he stumbles upon a really interesting thread someone made about the origins of mothman and possible sightings outside the USA

He’s hooked and spends a lot of time reading through the thread, intrigued by the sophisticated way the OP wrote their points and how well-thought of their evidences were

He started commenting on the thread and talking with the OP, who he soon became online friends with-he loved to chat with them about spooky stuff, cryptids, conspiracy theories and so forth

He didn’t talk much about himself, and would sometimes even make up some lies because he didn’t want to seem like a creep that won’t even share his name, but he couldn’t give out his info that easily; he did however tell them his code name, 707

Eventually they started talking outside of reddit too, through facebook messenger (i mean…we already know this dude has a facebook account and posts his cars there lmao), and is thrilled to find out more about his new online friend, MC, and to even find out they live far closer than he thought!

Well, he gets used to talking with MC almost everyday, and it’s actually one of the few highlights of his day-he’s never really had someone care for him the way this person, someone he hasn’t actually ever met in real life does. He wonders if they’d change their mind about him if they ever met him in real life, but shakes the thoughts away-it’s not as if this could ever develop into something more than an online friendship anyway

Well…or so you thought, Seven lol

When a stranger comes barging into the RFA messenger, he’s instantly tracing their steps and finding out all their internet activities, and lo and behold-whose facebook account is this that he ended up finding? Why, it’s none other than MC!

The moment Seven found out, he got suspicious; was MC just pretending to be online friends with him to hack into the RFA? Were they stealing information without him knowing?

It hurt to have to think this way, but how else could they be linked?

When he slowly found out MC was actually innocent, he was more than relieved-he secretly happy that he could now chat with them both online and on the RFA app, that he could share parts of himself with MC that he couldn’t before

to say he fell for them is the understatement of the century lmao

V/JIHYUN:

When he first started with photography, he took some classes at a local university to learn more about professional photography, photoshop e.t.c

And MC happened to be taking the same classes as him!

They often sat next to each other, not talking at first, but then their professors would sometimes ask them to pair up to work on assignments, and MC ended up paring up with Jihyun more than once

They became fast friends-Jihyun was a little distant, but always friendly in a cold, aloof way, and always polite, and he found MC to be so warm and gentle, he was naturally drawn to them

He did feel attracted to them, but never made a move-he was still struggling with so many things himself, he didn’t want to drag anyone else into his mess. He just wanted to focus on photography and that’s that

So whilst they talked a lot during university, as soon as they graduated, V drifted away, and when he even changed his phone number all communication was lost between the two

Well, time went on, and MC slowly began to forgot about the mint-coloured man they met, until they stumbled into the RFA chatroom

They didn’t realise it was Jihyun at first-he did change his name after all, and everyone in the char referred to him as V, but the way he texted was very familiar, even though MC couldn’t quite understand why

When he finally introduced himself, they were stunned. They didn’t want to ask him if he remembers them though-it’d be too embarrassing if he said he didn’t

But of course V did remember them-the moment Seven told him their name after his background check, all the memories came flooding back, opening up a Pandora’s box in his chest where he locked all those feelings away

Even if they’re back within arms’ reach, and even if they seem interested in him though…it’s useless. He’s far beyond repair, and if he didn’t want to drag MC into his mess then, he most certainly doesn’t want to drag them into it now

So he becomes distant again, more so than ever before but MC isn’t having it-they call him out on his bullshit, and tell him to square up and be honest otherwise they’re leaving

So V reluctantly admits to it all-to remembering MC, to his feelings towards them, and to his own cowardliness back then, and how it’s now too late to change anything; even if he wants to. God, he wants to.

hi I’m soph and i love to torture my favs lol

-send me a mystic messenger scenario/prompt for character reactions!-

[charlietheepicwriter7]

Mint Eye and How Cults Prey on the Vulnerable

Me, the moment I see Ray and Rika acting super nice to me in V’s route: Ah. That’s love-bombing. I need to talk about this.

I only started playing Mysme recently and just finished V’s route a few days ago. And one thing that really stuck out at me was how... familiar some of the behavior Ray and Rika use towards the MC was. Specifically, it reminded me of that one Film Theory episode where MatPat talks about Fifty Shades being a cult. So, I did a lot of digging to try to find the original article MatPat uses to describe the 8 steps of being indoctrinated and decided to compare it to V’s route and Mint Eye. 

Article here.

I’m going to start this the same way MatPat did and take a look at our potential victim: MC. MC doesn’t have much of a personality, since she’s only there for the player to superimpose their personality onto, but there are some things we can infer about her. She’s naive: she went to a random apartment because a suspicious app told her too and in V’s route, she allows herself to be taken to an unknown location because of the same suspicious app. She’s appears to be a loner, since no one outside of the RFA seems to be looking for her in V’s route even though she’s been missing for almost 2 weeks. Outside of these two things though, MC’s personality varies by the player’s choices. 

But, let’s look at the steps cults use to recruit people. 

1. Invitation to a non-threatening event

“Cult recruiters never give you the hard sell right off the bat.  After all, if the pitch were, "Come be a part of our group, have it control most to all aspects of your life, possibly cut off ties with those you can't recruit into the group, and make the group the focal point of your life until you die," then most of us would run the other way screaming.  So instead, a potential recruit is invited to a workshop, a poetry reading, a "party", a peformance, or some other seemingly innocuous event.”

Like, say, an invitation to test an otome game? Or in the prologue bad end, an invitation to get coffee?

2. Love-bombing

“At the event, cult members shower the potential recruit with attention and praise.  Psychologists call this "love-bombing".  The cult people are trying to create a positive association in your mind between attending the event and having a good feeling.  So when you're invited to the next event, you'll be more likely to accept because of the good feeling they instilled in you on your first visit.”

Between Ray basically falling in love with MC on day one and Rika trying to seduce you, this is pretty much covered. Unfortunately, we don’t get to see the other cult members interact with MC (if they do at all), so it could just be them, though I doubt it. 

3. Dangling “The Prize” in Front of You

“At some point, cult members will suggest that if you join or study with them, you can attain something special, such as, depending on the cult, happiness (most cults), the answer's to the world's mysteries (Scientology), a "cure" for homosexuality (Aesthetic Realism), or fantastic wealth (various multi-level marketing groups).  This offer could come before, during, or after that initial event you were invited to, but it'll be there, because they need you to want something from them, otherwise they have no leverage over you.”

In V’s route, the prize is happiness and Ray. Ray pushes you in one of the chats on day 4 to articulate that MC is not happy and presents the key for happiness (the elixir and staying at Mint Eye) in front of her. 

4. Extracting an Agreement that you Want the Prize

“After introducing the prize, they get you to agree that you want it.  This is actually pretty easy, because the prize is usually attractive (who wouldn't want it?), and because admitting your interest in it seems safe because you don't see any obligation attached. Once you agree, the cultists have sunk an important hook into you, and they'll use it.  By the way, notice some of the psychology here:  They don't tell you what you should want, they get you to articulate it.  They're trying to get you to feel that the idea came from you.”

This would be the period where Ray tries to get you to say you’ll join Mint Eye over and over again on Day 4. 

5. Shutting down your dissent by threatening to withhold the prize

“By this point, the sell becomes a little harder.  You'll be encouraged to do things that you might rather not, like devote more of your time to the group, start recruiting for them, pay for expensive programs or study materials, or adopt more extreme beliefs.  Naturally, you might protest.  But the cultists are ready for that.  When you show any resistance, they simply threaten you that you'll never attain the prize if you keep up that kind of attitude.”

V’s route doesn’t really include this. Both Ray and Rika really want MC in Mint Eye and aren’t willing to withhold the prize to get her. 

6. Establishment of guilt

“Cult leaders shame their recruits because that makes the recruits feel vulnerable and more susceptible to further manipulation.  It's also used to guilt-trip recruits into getting more involved with the group.”

Basically all the times Ray calls you trying to get you to return to Mint Eye, talks about how much he misses you, or mentions how much pain he’s in. I don’t know how conscious of this manipulation Ray is, since he is mentally ill, but it still counts as manipulation. Rika does this too, to both MC and V. 

7. Carrot/Stick

“Behavior is reinforced by rewarding "good" behavior and punishing "bad" behavior.  Since we naturally seek to minimize pain, this is a pretty powerful tool.”

Very few instances in V’s route, though some in Ray’s. MC is allowed to wander the building once she “joins” Mint Eye in Ray’s route, but has her freedom and food restricted once Saeran pops out. 

8. Control of identity, information, environment

“Once a recruit is firmly in, more advanced techniques can be used to keep them in.  One of the most powerful is getting members to disassociate from the previous family and friends.”

THIS, 100%. Calling believers “Believers” and by numbers instead of names. MC being moved to their location away from anything familiar and trapped on her floor, only allowed to move elsewhere in Ray’s or Rika’s presence. MC not being able to tell anyone about the “game” she was going to be testing. Using buzzwords like elixir and cleansing to disguise the actual definitions of things. Controlling the food she eats, the clothes she wears, where she sleeps. Being able to monitor all her conversations with “outsiders”. There’s so much, guys.

... 

I’m not entirely sure how much of the “evidence” I found was intentional on the part of the developers of Mystic Messenger, but I did think it was interesting that so many details were put into Another story. Being able to recognize real life signs of a cult is important and this was meant to inform using a fictional example. 

[lizz-revs]

Theory about Hinamizawa - SPOILER

Warning: Heavily Spoilers (I’ve currently read Chapter 4)

I think honestly that there is something like drug addiction or a disease or something going on.

Why I think so?

Well, first of all the hallucinations. Keiichi hallucinates in all of the chapters at some point.

In the first chapter it happens, when he thinks that Rena and Mion are evil or have a somewhat evil personality like, when Rena starts stalking him. Additionally, it doesn’t look like he is the first one to experience it because

It is mentioned that Satoko’s brother has acted the same, before he disappeared

He clawed open his own throat like the photographer Tomitake did

In the second one there is this whole business with Mion. Rena kind of mentions that there is the demon side of Mion, which awakes because Keiichi doesn’t care for her. This may sound like something supernatural, but also can be interpreted as a disease. Additionally, at the end, everyone dies either suddenly or commits suicide. I think the cause of that could be hallucinations as well, since there is a possibility for one to die from shock (sometimes exploited in horror games e.g. with using the heart rate of main characters).

In the third chapter Keiichi even literally hallucinates the murder of Satoko’s uncle. I mean, there wasn’t a corpse. It also seems like he develops a second personality throughout the novel, more like, he starts acting like a psychopath. Even in the first chapter this personality was hinted at, since at the beginning, I presume, Keiichi is killing Rena, while telling that he loved her. (tbh could also be Mion, but I am more likely to guess Rena because he prefers Rena throughout this chapter)

But why disease or drug and not a demonic entity?

Hmm… well, I really don’t think it’s a demon since other villages actually don’t come close to Hinamizawa residents and say that they are descendants of demons. Would be a really easy excuse for everything, if the residents are actually demonic. But basically, what I think instead, is that this disease may have to do something with the air or the swamp in Hinamizawa that is why I was suggesting drugs or simply toxic air. So, while demons might be an easy explanation, it’s more likely for me that the residents start feeling sick, when they stay in the village for too long.

What about Rika and the disaster that happens, when Rika dies?

That’s actually a good question because in every timeline, where Rika dies, the swamp erupts toxic gas and the whole village is wiped out. More surprisingly Rika is even able to foretell her fate, as we can see in the fourth chapter. Honestly, while this can be easily explained with supernatural abilities, it is very hard to explain otherwise. I think that Rika might really have a talent and that she is able to see the future. However, I don’t think that her death is the reason for the toxic gas. I think it is more like she can’t save the village from the toxic gas, if she is dead.

To sum it up:

I think that the village is plagued by a disease or some kind of drug (don’t really know, whether Irie has something to do with the drug, or the drug is just naturally produced by the swamp). However, I am sure the blue substance or something that the girls have in their pockets at the end of chapter two is something like a medicine against it. This disease corrupts the human brain, so that the person starts heavily hallucinating and act rather brutal against themselves or other people. It also corrupts relationships since the person feels that everyone is hostile against them.

However, Rika’s ability to foresee the future seems real. Additionally, that the Sonozaki clan is more like a mafia seems very real too. Therefore, I don’t doubt that Mion has some blood on her hands or at least has at some point done something rather illegal. Additionally, I think it is very suspicious that Rena seems to know something about the “demonic powers” of others. I feel like she might know something about the true happenings at Hinamizawa, but chose to say that it’s all the work of demons.

Additionally, I really don’t trust both Irie and Miyo. Miyo seems to be way too brutal and is interested in all that gruesome stuff…

Ah, yeah, if it’s a disease, then who killed all those people?

I think Keiichi did his fair share of killings and in the second part it was mostly Mion, who went berserk. However, Rika wasn’t murdered by them in the third and fourth chapters and also there were a lot of people murdered before Keiichi even came to the village. My opinion would be that the deaths of the people before Keiichi’s arrival were the work of the Sonozaki family.

Now, for the other murders, I think it depends on the timeline. In the first part it was Keiichi. In the second part the killings were done because of the Sonozaki clan. And in the third and fourth part I think it was the main antagonist of the series. Yeah, I honestly believe there is an antagonist, who has also some kind of medical knowledge because I really think that this person has an influence on the Hinamizawa “disease” and its progression (e.g. Tomitake, who clawed his own throat). While the protagonist(s) don’t live long enough in the first two parts for the antagonist to act, in the third and fourth part it’s enough time for them to get to their goal: Slice up Rika at the shrine as an offering.

That’s it for my theory.

[marshmallowprotection]

That discussion 'bout whether it's Suit or Unknown during V's route is very interesting. I'm pretty sure Cheritz wanted it to be Unknown at first, since this was before any talk about Ray's route, but it certainly does not make sense in the context of the story now lol

It basically comes back to the whole problem with: 'are Another Story and Casual/Deep stories connected?', which, honestly, is just another issue with continuity in mysmes universe... Either way, you have to fill in the blanks yourself, since the canon does not do that for us. Before the existence of Ray's route, it was definitely Unknown. You can look up old fanarts and fics before the release of Ray's route, and people absolutely perceived him as Unknown. He had the same manner of speech as him, he uses the same chatroom username and his voice acting is different from the way Suit talks. But with the release of Ray's route, it created this inconsistency we have now. It does not make sense for it to be Unknown, cause now Suit came into the picture, but it is also quite confusing since (at least in my eyes) he acts way different from Suit. So you have to fill in the blanks yourself. I believe that's partially why some people came to believe that Suit and Unknown are the same person... It's confusing when details like that are changing so drastically. This is not the first time that happened as well: if you try to write up a list of continuity inconsistencies in the overall story, it's going to be long one.

In my opinion, you can go both ways with this. Whatever fits your story better. It is an inconsistency in the writing and you can shape it whatever way you want! Whenever I write something about V's route, I use Unknown, but I certainly have to change up a few things in canon for it to work. Considering what we have now, it makes much more sense for it to be Suit, that's for sure. And I REALLY love how you explained his motivations during those events! But it definitely wasn't like that from the beginning... Being an oldy in the fandom is fun, cause you can remember those things changing quite clearly xD

I think the twins and Rika/V suffered from those inconsistencies the most for sure

Honestly, I don't know, either. That's why I said that it's really up to the player to decide if they feel like it's Unknown or Suit Saeran. I've just got in my head that it won't make sense to me otherwise if I'm not able to piece together everything in a way that makes sense to me personally. I'm a stickler for universe details, and we know that Cheritz can forget things and erase things very easily without any regard to past information. I've been here so long that I've seen so much change in regards to every character, especially Saeran as he grew from a mysterious person into something much much more layered and complex.

I always imagined the bits with “Unknown” in V were meant to be a big part of foreshadowing, and that's because I started thinking about that so much harder after Ray Route came out and I started to note similarities. Well, I felt like they were similarities. With Cheritz record on facts, you're right, it could very well be the implication of Unknown. I like to make things make sense in my head and Cheritz really makes us work for the information that we want to flesh out in the stories we create.

With no context for Suit, you’ll never know it’s him. See, I explain away the difference by saying that because Suit Saeran emerges differently due to the events in V Route, it changes how he reacts to things somewhat. That makes more sense to me! But, that’s because I write connect AS and CS/DP routes and if I don’t do that, I’ll lose my mind over here. Even though, it’s more likely that we should view them as alternate universes to each other and they’re not meant to be something that interlock. 

inconsistencies are everywhere. We, the fans, have to cry to make our own theories and assumptions with the information we have on hand, and then we have to change that and adapt after they say “hehe, actually, this is what really happened.”

[tarhalindur]

You know, I’ve seen a bunch of complaints about the lack of prominence of non-Rika and Satoko members of the Games Club in Gou, but... is there any reason for the other three to be prominent other than just because we want to see them?  Unlike Rika and Satoko, their character arcs are finished:

(Higurashi and also The World God Only Knows spoilers under the cut:)

- Keiichi’s arc is mostly learning to trust his friends, with a side of learning how to put his talents to use to to help his friends inside the system.  The former arc is completely resolved by the end of Tsumihoroboshi-hen (and the lesson sticks; Onidamashi-hen does him a bit dirty, but with Rika’s help he does remember), and the latter arc by the first half of Minagoroshi-hen (carried into Tataridamashi-hen).

- Rena’s arc is related to Keiichi’s: it’s okay to ask friends to help with big personal problems.  Again, this is resolved by the end of Tsumihoroboshi-hen (pending full answers for Onidamashi-hen - if H173 wasn’t involved there then Gou did her dirty).

- Mion, unlike any of the other Games Club members, doesn’t really have a character arc at all, as fitting the one character who never goes L5 in OG.  She basically starts off having already learned the lessons needed to escape Rule X and Rule Z of the OG loops (the former by personality, the latter by virtue of her position), and is functionally a static character whose role is to provide a safe space for other characters (the Club) and access to resources to help everyone escape June 1983.

The one exception here is the “who does Keiichi wind up with?” question, and I think it’s pretty clear from Gou that Ryukishi07 has no intention of ever providing a canon answer to that question.  I’m a little dubious about that from a characterization perspective (4-5 years is an awfully long time for teenagers to crush on each other without either getting together or moving on), but it’s a bend rather than a break - I can absolutely buy Keiichi (who was nerdy before moving to Hinamizawa) not really understanding that Mion and Rena want to jump his furry seal for years on end even *before* factoring more restrictive Japanese cultural mores, I can buy Rena pining but not really doing anything for such lengths of time as well, and AIUI Mion (the character most likely to actual take action to resolve the situation) has apparently been living away from the other two for an extended period.   Aside from that, though... well, there’s the issue of “why were the club bonds insufficient to prevent the events that lead to Gou and could this have been avoided?” (AFAICT the answers are “friends sometimes grow apart with time” and “no”), and if you moved the timeframe forward a few years I could see a new interesting arc (how would these three characters react to the economic slump of the early Heisei years just as they’re graduating college?), but other than that all three are basically in the same boat as Mion was in OG (only relevant insofar as they can help the other characters who still have arcs solve their problems).  They’re less relevant this time around because so far they have no reason to be relevant.

Contrast the other two full members:

- There was already enough hanging Rika threads to support Saikoroshi-hen as an epilogue arc.  More importantly, on top of the dangling Seacats connection one of Rika’s key character flaws (a certain kind of selfishness) was never really resolved in OG (Saikoroshi-hen suggested that the loops alleviated it, but never resolved it - and indeed the arc ending can be read as the triumph of that very flaw!)

- Satoko should have learned to not bottle up and try to bear it on her own when she’s having trouble and ask for help just like Rena did (Minagoroshi-hen), so if Gou is as presented she’s been done dirty there (if the mirrored narration theory is correct and Rika is actually in Satoko’s situation then this melts away, mind - in that case the issue is the very same selfishness issue I mentioned in Rika’s section).  But her abandonment issues remain, and there was also the old dangling question of “is there a connection between Satoko and Lambdadelta?”.

(Now, that’s not the entire story.  There’s one other big dangling plot arc left unresolved by OG Higurashi: the Satoshi situation.  That ties into Satoko’s situation; more importantly, it means that there is one occasional Club member whose arc is not quite finished: Shion.  Actually, that’s not quite right since Shion’s got two arcs and one is finished in Meakashi-hen (her understandable resentment at her family) - but the other (her love of Satoshi) was left stalled at “I will wait until he wakes up”.  Except, of course, for some reason Gou has so far completely avoided covering that dangling plot thread despite the other character most affected by it being the new nominal MC, so Shion has been left in the lurch.  The Clinic is coming up next episode (and that one official art does have Satoko holding what looks like Shion’s ribbon), so we’ll see if that changes - but as it is, the dangling Satoshi thread is one of Gou’s biggest flaws, and Shion should really be more prominent in Gou than she has been.)

(You know, this entire argument is reminding me of back when The World God Only Knows was still ongoing, where I called Chihiro as Winning Girl within a day of the chapter that finalized the five goddess host candidates during the Goddess Arc (the Chihiro Incident) - one of the three key reasons was because four of the five girls had a reason for still being plot-relevant, but not the girl who didn’t have a goddess (who was always going to be Chihiro, because Normal Girl is not compatible with being a goddess host)... unless she was Winning Girl.  Actually, at least one of the other two reasons also had elements of this, too: I’d recognized that Keima’s character arc was acceptance of the real world and getting together with a girl who wasn’t an eroge archetype was the logical endpoint of this (and by Keima’s own admission that was Chihiro.  Somehow large parts of the internet never got the memo; apparently 4chan’s rage was legendary when the final chapter came out.  Learn to narrative-fu, people.)

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Higurashi Sotsu Ep8

They see Satoko rolling~~ They hating~~

Anyway, thoughts under the cut.

Not to be petty or anything but it’s getting more and more funny how like half of the fandom is going through the five stages of grief as it becomes increasingly obvious that this literally is meant to be a bridge between Higurashi and Umineko, lol.

I mean sure there’s always the chance that he decided to make a new Higurashi anime as a vehicle to elaborately troll the fans of a different, decade-old VN that was infamously way less popular than Higurashi was, but I think we can all agree that that just feels like coping at this point.

Now I’m just curious to see how many ways they’re gonna find to spell it out for us. We’ve seen Satoko bring up the idea of certainty multiple times while mocking Rika’s reliance on miracles, Featherine is literally a character in Higurashi now who gave Satoko her looping powers, they’ve referenced this new set of loops as a ‘game board’ with ‘pieces’ several times, and now they’ve literally used the word witch. Are we gonna see Satoko come up with the name Lambdadelta to describe her witch persona, like what happened with Rika? Are we going to get a look at Lambda’s character design from Umineko? Who knows at this point. Even after everything that’s happened up to now I didn’t expect them to actually bring up witches, since that doesn’t really fit with Higurashi’s whole Japanese mythology motif. But here we are.

Anyway, in spite of how pleased I am about the show barrelling towards the conclusion I’ve been predicting since like halfway into Gou, I’m definitely in the camp of thinking that Sotsu hasn’t needed to be anywhere near as long as it’s been thus far. I still think that a lot of it is just due to them wanting to cater to new fans as well as old ones, but I feel like even that only really applies to Oniakashi, since that’s the only answer arc thus far that’s actually built upon stuff from the VN answer arcs that Gou didn’t already cover. Wataakashi didn’t actually involve or rely on any material from Meakashi, so I honestly think that new fans could just have easily have figured out the mysteries to that in advance, and Tatariakashi also isn’t really based on any material from the VN. Tataridamashi was already more of an adaptation of Minagoroshi than Tatarigoroshi anyway. So it just feels like everything after Oniakashi could have just been summarized in a montage.

It’s kinda odd, since they have the whole framing device of Eua watching everything unfold, which could have been used more frequently as a way to skim over these arcs and just show the important bits, but we’ve only gotten a few scenes like this. It might have gotten a bit repetitive if they made it too frequent, but it’s also just kinda boring to spend most of each episode going over stuff we’ve already seen.

I think all of that is a genuine issue with the writing, and I doubt anything from this point on will retroactively improve it, but in spite of all that I still like what Ryukishi is trying to do with this series, and how it fits into the franchise as a whole.

I recently went back and reread some stuff from the VN to check it, and I feel like a lot of complaints people have with this series basically boil down to fundamental disagreements with how they view the story vs how Ryukishi himself does. I don’t think it’s wrong for people to disagree with him or see things differently, but still. Specifically, it feels like the whole premise of this series is built upon his afterword for Matsuribayashi where he talks about how that arc doesn’t actually represent the ‘ideal ending’ for Higurashi based on it’s world-view and philosophy, since it ends with Takano being the villain who everyone gangs up to defeat so that everyone except her can get a happy ending. He then poses that the ‘graduating question’ [aka where the title of this new series comes from, lol] is figuring out what the ideal ending would be, if it’s not Matsuribayashi. So in a lot of ways this is Ryukishi’s attempt to go back and fix his perceived mistakes with the VN, and the issue is just that a lot of people don’t think it even needed to be ‘fixed’ in the first place.

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the sort of idealistic, non-violent philosophy of absolute forgiveness that Ryukishi seems to feel strongly about, but I honestly appreciate just how far he’s willing to go to explore and communicate that message in his writing. I think it takes a lot of courage to go back and re-examine a famous story you wrote from the perspective of ‘the way it ended wasn’t actually perfect, and here’s what would happen if we kept following the characters and saw all the consequences of what happened’.

Ironically, I kinda feel like a lot of this narrative stuff ends up feeling like a somewhat half-baked version of Umineko, since a large part of Umineko was already about revisiting and expanding upon the ideas of forgiveness and abuse from Higurashi, but in a less literal way than what Gou/Sotsu is doing.

Anyway, now that we’re a couple episodes into this arc, I’m getting less confident about how they’re going to wrap this all up by episode 15, if we aren’t getting some kind of unannounced continuation. We’re two episodes into this arc and thus far we’ve basically only covered the first two episodes of Tataridamashi, so unless the pacing picks way up after this, it might take this entire arc just to get through this loop, before even getting to the Nekodamashi stuff.

But on the other hand, I think that after this point in Tataridamashi we don’t really see Satoko again until near the end of it, so if we keep following her perspective, we might just gloss over all the protest stuff with the main crew, and we might be able to get all the way up to the end of this loop in just one more episode.

I dunno if that’d be enough time to set up the descent into self-doubt and regret that they seem to be setting up for Satoko, but there’s a lot they have to get through before this can all wrap up. I’m at least assuming there’ll be a full arc left after we catch up to the cliffhanger from Nekodamashi, anyway.

I don’t think this episode does a whole lot to affect my theory of how this arc will go from Satoko’s perspective, but i’m more unsure now about when she might start to doubt herself and go back on her plans, if she does at all.

The scene at the very end with Eua watching Satoko’s classroom breakdown is kinda interesting, though, since it made it more ambiguous than I expected as to what Satoko was thinking in that scene. On paper you’d just think that she’s continuing her whole charade, but the way that we zoom out and see it from Eua’s more antagonistic and judgmental perspective, and how we see Satoko’s eyes flash red for a split second as she starts freaking out, makes me kinda unsure just how much she was faking it.

Also I just have to admit that seeing Satoko rolling around in the dirt while laughing maniacally was genuinely hilarious, lol. I still think that a lot of this is meant to be morbidly funny in a self-aware way.