#somehow i expect nothing from atlu and it still lets me down

[nie7027]

Can we Akechi fans start crying?

[patchesthegothictramp]

Part 3 of P5R review: Akechi

Next up, my favourite part: Akechi! Also mostly likely the last part since I don’t think I missed anything else. Feel free to hit me up though if you’re wondering about anything I haven’t mentioned

Akechi was undoubtedly, and still is, persona 5’s most hotly debated character. From what I’ve been seeing people who even loathed Akechi are starting to become fans of him, or at least don’t hate him anymore. Royal expands on his character in a way that fans of his love because it confirmed so many of their suspicions of what he’s really like but also just adds more depth to him. I could even understand why people who played vanilla only saw him as ‘boy takes things too far cos daddy issues’ cos, well, without deeper analysis that is what atlus was presenting. There was a lot more to his character in vanilla but I don’t blame people not looking into him because what they saw on the surface didn’t interest them enough... though that being said the abuse and torment given to his fans was super uncalled for.

Let’s start with his confidant and take it from there- it’s special, it’s fun, it’s emotional and it’s so layered I could watch it a million times and I’d probably still miss something from it. It’s special because it’s the only confidant where Ren just gets to hang out with someone, with nothing expected in return. All Akechi wants is a conversation and to play billiards with him. All of the other confidants want your help in something, want you to solve their issues without any regard for what they could do for you in return. Of course when Ren’s in jail they help him out then but it’s only when he’s facing the worst-case scenario. Interestingly enough, Akechi goes to jail for Ren at the first opportunity he gets and in that world none of your confidants ever return the favour of Ren changing their lives. To nail this point further, his confidant does have some requirements for social stats, but it’s the only instance where it’s made clear that it’s for Ren’s own comfort, not for someone else’s. Akechi says he needs someone charming and knowledgeable because he’s genuinely concerned for the abuse Ren might get if his fans didn’t consider him worthy of their idol’s presence.

It’s unexpectedly fun too, you’d think that an Akechi confidant would be just about rivalry or him talking to you about his Tragic Backstory but you get quite a few moments which are just… fun. The first one has them playing billiards and uncovering that he’s ambidextrous, and while it is a set up for their rivalry it’s still just them playing billiards like regular teenagers would. There’s the café date where silliness ensues and funnily enough you end up finding out more about Ren in that interaction than you do Akechi; about how Ren too hides from the public and has his own mask (glasses) that help him cover up who he really is.

But of course, it’s also emotional, like the bathhouse scene where you finally get to know more about Akechi’s past that’s not just a random info dump, there’s him clearly crying for help in the final billiards rank where he talks about the game as if it were his own life and even asks you if you’d help him (even though he doesn’t let you help regardless of what you say).

Term 3 Akechi… well he’s everything I hoped he would be. Sarcastic, sardonic and all around Done With This Shit. He never holds back anymore, both on the battlefield and real life and he doesn’t care what the Thieves or anyone else thinks of him anymore. He’s done with the detective mask and the charade and can finally be himself for once, and I absolutely love it. He’s gone from a character I can only theorise about being rude in my writing to one who’s everything I hoped for and so much more.

Now to the shuake stuff: Oh my god its so gay. 

Yes a lot of it is regular friendship stuff but also if you can’t be friends with your boyfriend then that’s just casual sex, not a relationship. And I’m not talking about the bathhouse scene. Actually, what’s interesting is what happens after which is when Akechi specifically says that no ones ever seen that part of him, Ren’s the only person who he’s been able to open up to like that. There’s the jazz club, which you find out later is a special place for Akechi to the point that the owner says he’s never brought anyone else there. Ren is clearly special in Akechi’s eyes, he’s the one person he can be around and be his true self.

You even see it in term 3 when he’s sarcastic and sardonic around Ren but still continues to put up a façade around human Morgana, Futaba, Sojiro Wakaba and later Kasumi, at least until they see him for who he really is inside the palace and he’s forced to show his true self. The writers make that so obvious that Akechi’s face visibly changes when he’s talking to Ren and when he’s talking to everyone else.

And Akechi is equally special to Ren. Ren doesn’t wish for his criminal record to disappear or to be a Phantom Thief again, he wishes to keep the promise he made to Akechi even with the knowledge that the other was going to kill him. We’ve seen him mourn Akechi’s death in p5a proof of justice- the OVA that was so clearly meant to set up royal considering how many similarities it had with that more so than the original game. For a silent protagonist and a self-insert Ren shows more feelings towards Akechi than he does any other character. 

Even down to their showtime, everyone else has these elaborate plans that they have to explain to each other then to Ren and hope that the wishing star will make their wish come true and yet Akechi and Ren are just able to improvise it completely on the spot, staying completely in sync. Interestingly enough if you compare it to Joker’s only other one- Sumire’s, she’s leading him into the showtime, she’s the one who has to have him follow her, but with Akechi, he’s equal, they’re in sync, all it takes is Ren shouting ‘Crow!’ for him to jump at the enemy without further instruction. Just as their showtime says, they’re two sides of the same coin.

There’s a reason that somehow, despite never having spoken about Akechi to him, Maruki knows that’s what Ren’s biggest wish would be, he knows that it’s the only way he might be able to stop Ren and the Thieves from infiltrating the palace, and in one alternative, the dream ending, it is enough for him to dangle Akechi’s life in front of him for Ren to fold. He insists Akechi’s life isn’t just something small that he can sacrifice once again.

Our Light is even further proof of it, it’s a love song, not to Kasumi, or not from her, it could clearly not be more obvious that’s it’s from Ren to Akechi. The song describes missing someone who’s gone in such a romantic way that seeing it as Sumire to Kasumi is borderline incestuous, and seeing it as Ren to Sumire or vice versa makes no sense either since they’re just a train ride away and even speak about seeing each other soon. It’s unlikely to be about anyone else either since yeah, Ren can just go and visit them any time and for that to be the ending song of a remake where the only character who’s made more important than he was previously is Akechi. It wouldn’t make sense for the song to be about that one girl out of 10 that you can romance but doesn’t really change the plot as significantly as he does.

In this way, P5R does a great job of showing, not telling. There are frequent comparisons of Maruki and Rumi’s situation to Ren’s and Akechi’s (not direct ones but it’s obvious the two are similar) and if they were a het couple that romance would be unquestionable. At the end of the day, persona is and always will be a game about choice where the protagonist is mostly a self-insert which is why they’ve never been able to outright say ‘this is the canon romance route’ but honestly, if it were to be anyone, it’s so painfully clear it’s Akechi.

Especially when you remember the director’s words of this being a love triangle. We know Sumire has a crush on Ren but doesn’t seem to have an interest in Akechi and outside of being a possible conversation partner, Akechi clearly isn’t interested in Sumire. So then if they’re a love triangle the only logical conclusion is that they’re both vying for Ren’s affection. From Ren’s perspective, the player can choose if he will romance Sumire but regardless of what Ren says to Sumire, he always ends up having Akechi’s life dangled before his eyes and can always choose to have him by his side.

TL;DR Goro Feral, Shuake Canon

[jenivi]

Top 5 Persona Characters?

oh i’m so glad you sent this ask!! for this, i’ll try not to include any of the protagonists because they technically don’t have a canon personality; their personalities are mostly widely known fan inferences rooting from their dialogue options and overall attitude (which i also believe as well,, but yeah we’ll just not include them in. plus let’s just have the other characters shine!). keep in mind, i really am not the best with putting my thoughts into words, so some sentences might seem kinda funky lol. and everything here is my opinion :]

1) yosuke hanamura (persona 4)

sometimes, it saddens me that people view his character from the surface level and are quick to renounce him as homophobic and pervy. to add fuel to the flame, atlus kind of flanderizes yosuke’s character in golden and the animation (trust me, i love the animation and they did add some parts for yosuke that i love, but you gotta admit they could’ve done his character a bit more justice). of course yosuke’s flaws should be recognized and be critiqued, but honestly, these flaws are what make yosuke yosuke. removing those things, in ways, takes away from the 3 dimensional-ness of his character.

i feel that it was made clear what his “stereotypical role” was going to be in the story from his easily perceived surface personality traits. some of these traits were his recklessness, competitiveness and the fact that he was constantly being dunked on by the other characters, making him seem like just the comic relief. but throughout the story, you find out he’s more than that (which i will talk more in detail a little later). most prominently known by fans, there is the “bro” aspect to him. in this game, yu is the one who has to walk up to people and ask them to hang out, but yosuke is the only one of all the characters who takes the initiative to get to know yu. he nicknames you partner, constantly calls you on the phone at night, and always kind of asks you questions and says things to get a reaction out of you. from this, a natural friendship between blossoms and you feel like you get know really know yosuke personally. you learn that he’s actually very strategic and intelligent, incredibly loyal and cares deeply about his friends, and is overwhelmingly insecure and repressed. okay, we have to talk about this part. he seems closeted, and that can be the reasoning on why he sometimes makes homophobic remarks. i do think it’s a shame that his romance route was scrapped when it obviously was far in development. for some, the bro aspect can super fixated on and might be one of the only reasons why someone likes yosuke. this sadly kind of subconsciously fetishizes their relationship. of course that’s not the case all the time! but it’s something to be mindful of. even looking past the souyo ship (which i love deeply!), they are such great friends platonically, and yosuke himself is such a great character. throughout the story, he matures and develops into someone more humble, thoughtful and appreciative. from the moment he first showed up on screen, i kind of had a feeling he was going to be my favorite. and it’s kind of crazy how much i grew fond of him over time and realized the impact his character made on me.

2) elizabeth (persona 3)

elizabeth is so underrated, and i speak that from the bottom of my heart. she is so hilariously naive and funky, while also being one of the most powerful and intelligent persona characters. the way you are first introduced to her are through fulfilling her requests in the velvet room. as you fulfill her requests, you’re kind like, “you want me to do that,, really?” she tells you to bring her oil?? for some reason? and to feed a cat so it can prosper forever and ever? those are just some things i can think of at the top of my head. from these requests, you kind of get a peak at her funny weirdness and you’re just like “okay you’re weird but i like you.” and when you get to take her on dates (but i just see them as hangouts :]), you are essentially helping her make new experiences of the world outside of the velvet room and get into a lot of wacky hijinks. with this, her endearing weirdness and naivety really starts to shine, making you fall in love with the character. so now you’re like “wow, you’re really weird i love you lol.” her funny weirdness also translates to her dance style in persona 3 dancing, which i absolutely  love. it really encapsulates that side of her character accurately (and you gotta admit she’s got some cool funky moves).

beyond the funny side of her, you find out how truly powerful she is as a being. she can wield thanatos, which was only previously held by someone with the universe arcana), and is unfathomably strong as she is one of the harder boss fights in the entire series. it is also important to note that she is also very determined and i found it bittersweetly heartwarming that she is still mourning over makoto/minato(i nicknamed him virgin walk)’s death years afterward (as seen in persona 4 arena) and that she is dedicating herself to free his soul that is bound to the door of death. she misses her dear friend, and i just really love that she threw caution to the wind and went on this journey to try to find a way to resolve something that is seemingly impossible. and she is still doing it to this day, into the persona 5 timeline (because persona 5 royal shows that minato/makoto/virginwalk is still bound to the door). persona 3 happens in 2009 and persona 5 happens in 20XX (which is assumed to be 2016). it has almost been a decade. i truly think it’s in her character to keep searching for a way to free him no matter how long it takes. with all aspects of her personality in mind, i love her character with my whole heart. 

3) yukiko amagi (persona 4)

if i’m completely honest, yukiko was not one of my favorite characters at the time i played persona 4. i was one of the many people who overlooked her character because the others pretty much outshine her. because she is introduced in the beginning as the first dungeon, you start to put her towards the background once kanji, rise and naoto are introduced. from the surface, the first impression of her is “okay, i guess her quirk is that she laughs a lot?” i initially thought this too, but thinking more about it, i began liking that about her, and with more thought, i realized that i liked other things about her character as well. her sense of humor is so dumb? she laughs at lame stuff and fixates on things in conversation that just make you go “uhh okay,,, yukiko??” i think i opened my eyes to this when i was playing her story in persona 4 arena. i found it so hilarious that she fixated on the quality of the box lunch she prepared for everyone out of all the things happening, and that her whole arc in that game revolved around how bad it was (putting it into simpler terms). i also really think its funny how blunt she is too. she’s ready to shoot people down, and most of the time, it’s unintentional. 

and other than her quirks, i kind of like how her arc developed in the game. i know that many people saw that the end of her arc as “wrong” because they were expecting the usual resolution to problems similar to hers. they expected her to “follow her heart and pick freedom” if she feels trapped in her role as an innkeeper when she inherits her family’s inn in the future. but that wasn’t the point. i actually kind of like that she ultimately chooses to stay. in her social link, she decides to stay in inaba and to run the inn because it’s her own choice. she chose this out of her own will and that’s the only thing that mattered; no one else is forcing her to inherit the business and she decides that’s what she wants. i also really like that the animation showed the responsibilities and hard work she has to go through at the inn; it was a nice touch and really displayed how responsible she was and how much she prioritizes and dedicates her time at the inn. although she is responsible, she is not necessarily the “mom-friend” of the group. she can be a bit crazy like everyone else too. honestly the whole investigation team runs rabid because there is no mom-friend to keep them in check (persona 3 has mitsuru and persona 5 has makoto). anyway, really taking the time to think about yukiko’s character made me love her.

4) yusuke kitagawa (persona 5) 

okay, this is going to be very straightforward, but i think that yusuke was one of the most enjoyable parts of persona 5. i loved whenever he was on screen,, he’s super eccentric and i find it so funny to see the whole starving-artist thing taken literally. he’s definitely awkward but is trying his best! he definitely has the most stage presence compared to the other phantom thieves. the other members are pushed to the background whenever he speaks. he’s dramatic and over the top, but somehow this hilarious absurdity is relatable. 

other than the tendency to steal the show, his social link is more focused on his own development and his own personal growth. whereas, with the other characters, it kind of focuses on the character and the people they associate with outside the phantom thieves. for yusuke, in comparison, it’s much more personal. you travel around with him to help him to figure out what the aspects of the human heart are and to help him get out of his artistic slump after opening his eyes to the abuse he went through with madarame. he originally had a narrow perspective but overtime he learns to broaden it. i just really like how the social link plays out, it was really satisfying. and i just love how genuine and sincere he is as he is always doing things out of pure intentions. it’s also so admirable to see how much passion he has for the things he loves. yusuke, with certainty, is one of my favorite phantom theives. 

5) yuuki mishima (persona 5)

mishima is such an important and underrated character in persona 5. mishima throughout the whole game has been nothing but nice to you, even with akira/ren’s reputation. sure, he can be awkward and can be seen as overbearing to some, but he’s always had his heart in the right place. i’ve kind of always liked his dumb awkwardness and seeing how he’s trying hard to be our friend (it’s a shame our dialogue options toward him are always kinda mean but hopefully he sees it as teasing). he is so crucial to the story because honestly, he’s the one who got the ball rolling by creating the phansite, and that phansite actually helped so many people. he, himself, doesn’t even get recognition for making the site, he just really believed in the phantom thieves and wanted to help them in the ways he could. he did have an arc to humble himself after getting hungry for fame, but in the end he changed his own heart with his own will (and is the only character to do that!) which is pretty powerful. 

i also love that he’s always been a supporter of the phantom thieves no matter what happens and what other people think. when the phantom thieves were being trashed on, he still held onto hope and believed they were doing the right thing (plus him supporting them in those times just proves he wasn’t just doing the phansite for fame!!). another moment that screams this most is toward the end, when everything was in destruction and people were forgetting about the phantom theives in the time literally needed someone to believe in them most. mishima was the only one who still had faith in them and knocked some sense into everyone else. without him there, things could have turned out pretty badly. and i know i’ve heard that some fans wanting him to be a phantom thief himself, but it would just mess with a major part of his character. there’s something about him not completely knowing who the members of the phantom thieves are and him deciding to help with the phansite despite this, you know? yeah i like mishima a lot :))

some honorable mentions are kanji tatsumi (persona 4) and aigis (persona 3)! some of the honorable mentions are characters i like over some others that are on the list but i wanted to make sure i included people from persona 3, 4, 5 (because honestly this list would be persona 4 dominated if i didnt lol).

[some-cookie-crumbz]

writing prompt for some angsty kidge! 😈: mission gone wrong

HO BOI HOPE Y’ALL ARE READY FOR EVEN MORE HEARTBREAK MWEH HEHEHEH!!!

TW: Gore, Mutilation, Disfigurement

With Earth becoming a hub for alien activity after Voltronswooped back in to remind the universe what Voltron was all about, there was amix of good and bad. On the plus, the coalition had returned to help repairsome of the damage that Sendak and his forces had caused. It had only been agood year or so since then, and the Earth was nowhere near the same as before,there was comfort in things starting to resume as usual. With the coalitioninvolved, as well, they’d started to do more networking with smaller but justas vital planets, sending small groups from Voltron, the Garrison, the rebelforces, and the Blade to start up positive relations.

And ultimately, that had all been going well. They weresuccessfully extending their network, which opened up new avenues fordevelopments in the war. With the help they were getting, they’d gotten newmaterials, and those new materials were being used by the incredibly talentedhands of the Holts, Slav, and a technological development team composed of thesmartest minds from various worlds. The upgrades that had been given to the MFEships, the Atlus, and the basic battle cruisers they were planning on bringingalong once they went star faring again had gained great advantaged that wouldfurther cripple the Galran forces.

This also, however, led to people like Commander Hortazshowing up.

Hortaz, as they learned, was yet another ex-Zarkon leechthat had broken off during the after effects of the power vacuum. He’d gained asmall following of his own, with a small but impressive fleet of his own. Hehad sent down a notice to inform them that he had taken Krolia and Shirohostage. He claimed that he had intervened with their ship on its way back toEarth, and insisted that only a trade would grant their safe release.Specifically, a trade involving the Lions of Voltron for two of their mostprominent leaders. He told them they had four hours to decide before there’d beserious consequences to pay.

Keith’s response was to insist they enact an incrediblyrisky maneuver to sneak on board and save the duo.

“Now I’m not trying to be pessimistic here. Butthis,” Hunk said, indicating Keith with the wave of one hand, “seemslike a really bad idea.”

Lance nodded, shifting a bit as he crossed his arms over hischest. “I’m inclined to agree with Hunk here. We have next to no infoother than their demands and that they mayhave a hostage or two. It’s way too risky,”

“Too bad it’s not up to you two. Pidge, get thecoordinates pulled up and send them to Green. Everyone else, get ready to getin your Lions for cover,” Keith snapped, glaring at the duo before turninghis attention to the young woman. She seemed surprised and frowned at him,fingers tightening around the datapad in her hands.

“We haven’t heard back yet from the rebels about theirsituation, though! They could still be with Matt and his team doing recon overon planet Faqur!” Coran insisted, poised at the communication channel andtrying to reach out to the planet in question.

Keith growled and wheeled to instead turn his fury on theolder male. “We’ve been waiting for overan hour! It’s time to take action!”

Hunk stepped up again, both his hands up in an attempt at aplacating gesture. “Dude, they need some extra time! The rebels don’t runwith state-of-the-art equipment on low-risk assignments like that! This leadsto a delay in the transfer rate for their communicators!”

“This has been waytoo long to be simple delayinterference!”

“Keith, we understand your concern but-!” Allurachimed in, trying to take a similar approach to Hunk.

“No, you don’t! My Mom and Shiro are the only family I have left!” He bellowed, wheeling to glare down at the faces ofthe other Paladin’s, all gawking at him. He felt his hands clench into fists athis side. “If there’s even the slightestchance that they’re on that ship, I haveto go and get them out!”

He turned and stormed out of the room, not even bothering tolook back at them again. None of them really understood how he felt, about howterrified he was. For so long he’d had no one to rely on, had no one who lovedhim or believed in him. He’d already lost Shiro once and had missed so muchtime with his mother, he couldn’t stand the thought of losing either of themagain.

He heard footsteps behind him. He paused and turned,unsurprised to see Pidge jogging up along after him. “Hey, hold on. Can wetalk for a second?”

“If you’re just going to try and convince me thatthey’re right then you’re wasting your breath,” He said bluntly.

She frowned a bit as she strode up so that she was standingright in front him. “I’m not saying that we shouldn’t go out there anddeal with Commander Hortaz, but I think the others have a good point. We needmore information before we go in there shooting - or, rather, stabbing - firstand asking questions later,” She explained. She readjusted the grip shehad on her datapad, as if she intended to pull it up and show him something.“We should figure out where, exactly, he could be holding Krolia and Shirobefore we go storming in.”

“You mean where he isholding them! We would have heard back from oneof them by now if they weresafe!”

“But we don’t know if they are in danger! Hunk already explained to you why we may not haveheard back yet! We have another three hours of time before Hortaz comes lookingto fulfill the exchange; that’s morethan enough time to hear back from Matt. While we wait, we can do someinvestigating with drones on the ship so we have a better idea of what we’refacing if it does come down to a matter of executing a rescue mission. Doesthat sound like an agreeable plan?”

He growled and leaned down to her level, getting in herface. “We don’t have time forall this stalling! If we sit on our hands and do nothing, it guarantees that they’ll bekilled!”

“And running in half-cocked will only get us and them killed!” She snappedback angrily, not even bothering to step down. He had always admired herferocity and stubbornness, but now he just found it frustrating. Her gazesoftened a bit, though, and she reached out to set one hand on his upper arm,squeezing lightly to try and reassure him. “Keith, please. Work with us, not againstus. We’re a team and we need to worktogether like one. We can save them if they are in danger, but we need to workas a team.”

He stared at her, at the pleading gaze in her bright ambereyes. Of all the Paladins, he’d always felt that Pidge understood him the best.Despite the two of them coming from drastically different backgrounds, he’dseen how passionately she protected those she held dear. He couldn’t recall allthe times where her sensibility and logical approaches to problem solving hadsaved Team Voltron as a whole. Her input was one he valued and could rely onwhen his own was in a questionable place.

Well, most of the time, anyway.

He wretched free from her grasp. “I was expecting that,if anyone understood how I felt, it’d be you,” He hissed lowly.

Hurt took over her features for a moment before anger slidback into place. “I never putthe safety of the whole team on theline to save my family! I went looking for Matt alone!”

“Sure didn’t mind putting you, Shiro and Matt at riskfor your Dad, though,” He scoffed.

“How do you know about that?” She asked in slightsurprise.

“All you need to know is that I do. And that I knowyou’re being a hypocrite. So, just saying, make sure to be careful whenclimbing down from that high horse you’re up on. Wouldn’t want you to hurtyourself,” He sneered, shifting to walk away again.

“And somehow you’rein the moral right regarding this? Is thatwhat you think?” She said with a sharp, incredulous laugh. She followedafter him, shoving her way in front and forcing him to face her properly.“Bad news, pal; you aren’t! You’re putting all of us at risk over what a Galran commander is claiming he did! Without giving any of your own teammatesthe chance to confirm the validity of hisclaims!”

He squared his shoulder, his own fury growing at herpersistence. “I outrank all of you!Instead of picking a fight with me, just do what I fucking said,Pidge!”

For a moment, his shout echoed in the corridor around them.The look in her eyes was hard to read for him, but he could see that somethinghad been shattered between them. Trust, respect, comradory… He could place anexact label on it, but he knew that he had broken whatever tender relationshipthey had. For a moment, he wanted to back pedal and apologize, admit that shewas right and he was just falling back into his old habits of using aggressionto solve his problems.

However, he knew she wouldn’t accept it. The damage hadalready been done.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, taking a stepback and holding her hands up. When she looked at him again, her eyes were nearglowing with contained fury. “… Fine. We’ll do things your way, ohvaliant and noble leader. But if something goes wrong, I’m not saving you out there. Remember that,” With that, sheshifted around him and headed for the hanger to get the necessary preparationstarted.

He shoved down the uncomfortable churning of guilt andself-doubt in his belly as he returned to the command room, letting the othersknow to get to their battle stations for the in enactment of his plan. Alluraand Hunk exchanged worried glances with each other and Lance as the moved past.Lance himself, however, glared Keith down as he exited the room, making sure toshoulder-check the darker haired male as he did. The Black Paladin optedagainst commenting or pushing his luck further with his team; with his bondwith Pidge clearly fractured, the last thing he needed was to give hisrelationships with the rest of Team Voltron the axe treatment.

The ride in Green Lion to Commander Hortaz’ main ship wastense and uncomfortable. He stayed silent himself, not wanting to push Pidge’spatience any further, and she didn’t even grace him with questions or commentsabout their progress. She used a scanning device she’d upgraded the Green Lionwith to locate an empty hanger – most likely vacant to have room for the Lions,if he wagered a guess – and hacked the mainframe to open the door. There was asmall squad of sentries inside but, with Green’s cloaking still active, theywere easy to remove and settle in.

They left Green in the hanger and began searching, Pidgeshifting through codes and files and unlocking any cell that could potentiallyhave someone inside. Their searching turned up nothing, though, and dreadstarted to fill Keith as they approached the main deck. Perhaps CommnaderHortaz had foreseen their impromptu rescue mission, and relocated the prisonersto where he could monitor them personally?

When they charged in, though, it became clear by the legionof soldiers and the smug look on Hortaz’ face that it had been a bluff. AndKeith led them right into the trap like a bunch of blind mice.

Chaos broke out the minute he and Pidge breached the maindeck. The sentries and soldiers surged forward, clearly intending to overpowerthe duo. They handled themselves well enough, dispatching their opponents withthe kind of skilled grace to be expected of seasoned Paladins of Voltron.Commander Hortaz was barking orders at his underlings as they fought, but Keithwasn’t paying much mind to what he said. His bigger concern was taking Hortazdown for what he’d done.

Suddenly, there was a force slamming into his back and asharp shout of, “Keith, look out!” He stumbled forward and turnedjust in time to see some strange, orb-like device latching onto Pidge. Therewere large, piercing metal prongs that suddenly speared out, piercing throughher armor to latch on to the crook of her neck on the left side. She cried outand reached up, trying to yank the device free frantically.

“Pidge!” He shouted, turning to charge forward andhelp get it off of her.

But, then, the device began flashing, and an explosionerupted. There was nothing but the sound the explosion, the sight of theexplosion blast, and the smell of burning; burning skin, burning hair and theburning of whatever material their armor was constructed from. Pidge’s bodywavered for a moment, her silhouette in the resulting plume of smoke all hecould see, before she dropped to her knees and hit the ground.

And then all he saw was red.

“Pidge!” He howled, barely recognizing his ownvoice. He rushed forward, pulling out is luxite blade and hacking at thesentries and soldiers indiscriminately in his path to her. Hortaz came at him,trying to halt him, only for Keith to smack him rough across the head with theblunt side of his bayard. The Commander wasn’t used to combat, obviously, as hestumbled back with a cry. Keith paused and struck the other twice more, justfor good measure, and then easily sidestepped his body to get to his followteammate.

He dropped to his knees beside her, hands shaking as herecalled his bayard and set his luxite blade aside. She’d taken all the damagefrom the explosion, and the armor seemed to have become nothing more butshrapnel to cause even more damage. The side of her helmet the bomb hadattached to was completely destroyed, and the glass from the screen wasshattered on the other side, murky with grim and blood. All of her shoulder waspierced open and there were clear bleeding lacerations along her neck. Therewas the faint gleam of silver from the small prongs, still latched into herskin. He shifted to pull her closer and froze when he saw the mangled mess ithad become. “O-Oh, God, Pidge…P-Please, say something!” Hechoked out. He stole a glance down and saw only a faint movement of her chest,some slight he almost missed it.

He would need to act fast if he wanted her to live.

He opened up the communication channel before carefullymoving to pick her up. He shifted to carry her over one shoulder, in thefireman carrying style with his right arm looped under her knees to keep herpressed close. “We need an extraction, now!” He shouted as he dartedout of the room.

“W-What? But you have Green Lion! You can fly out thesame way you came in!” Hunk sputtered before letting out a shout, thesounds of laser blasts reaching through. The fleet may have been small but itwas clear they hadn’t wanted the Lions having a chance to link up.

“Pidge isn’t going to be able to pilot! We need someoneto tow Green with us inside!”

There was static for a second, followed by an impassionedshout from Lance. “What do you mean?What happened to Pidge? What did you do?”

“Lance, now isn’tthe time!” Allura snapped back. Keith skid to a stop in the hallway for amoment, looking around as he tried to remember how far back they’d had to goand what kind of turns they’d made. “Get back to Green and let us knowwhen you’re there. We’ll find you and get you out.”

He swallowed hard before he darted down a corridor to hisright, recognizing a dent from where Pidge had slammed a drone into the wall.He kept going, desperate to find his way back to Green. “You’re gonna be okay,Pidge. I promise,” He choked out, forcing himself to remain composed. He neededto stay focused on making it back to Green in one piece. If they didn’t, Pidgewouldn’t make it out of this alive.

His stomach churned as he remembered what Pidge had said,about how she wouldn’t protect him if this mission went bust. He wished thatshe had stayed true to that, that she’d let the bomb blow up on him. This wasall his fault, his bull-headed decision, and she didn’t deserve to suffer forhis refusal to listen to his team.

He would have to apologize her, once she was well enough, hethought as he barged into the hanger. The moment they arrived, Green’s particlebarrier lowered and she dipped her head, opening her maw to them. He rushed in,charged into the cockpit, and settled down. He placed Pidge down gently andcarefully. “We’re in!”

“Send out a distress signal from Green’s comms! Theships defenses are down so we should be able to track you down!” Allurasnapped. He carefully shifted over and the console lit up, Green most likelyaware of what was needed and giving him a minimal amount of leeway withcontrolling her. “It’s showing for me; is everyone else seeing it?”

“Got it! Heading that way now to run defense!”Hunk called.

Lance was the next to chime in. “Same! I’ll heat blastinto the ship to get Green space-borne!”

“Excellent. I’ll see if I can handle towing Greenalong. If you two can cover me, I think we can make it,”

“Roger!” The two said in unison before putting the makeshiftplan together.

With the plan set in motion, Keith stumbled away from thecontrols and headed back over to where Pidge was laying. He paid barely anyattention to what was occurring, glancing up briefly when the hanger was meltedopen and the ship knocked into an angle. He watched as Green shifted, floatinga bit and slowly twirling out into the stars. The minute Green was out farenough, Blue appeared, staring at Green for a moment before shifting upwards,settling her paws along Green’s back and starting to surge forward.

He knelt down beside her and shifted, unsure of what to do.Would removing the helmet be a safe idea? She clearly suffered from headinjury, so would removing the helmet be too much jostling for her weakened formto handle? But she was bleeding so much and from so many places… Would it bebetter to try and stop the bleeding?

He rushed over to one of the smaller compartments in thecockpit, where they kept small amounts of rations and first aid kits. He fishedout the kit and then headed back over, kneeling beside her again, and poppingopen the kit. As he reached in to start getting out supplies, he had to freeze.So much damage had been done, where should he even begin? His brain told himthat her neck was the logical place to start with getting her injuries undercontrol, but then the issue of what should be removed and how safe to do so itwould be, cropped back up.

He could feel his mind whirling a mile a minute, panic andanxiety grasping around his throat like a choke hold. What if his attempts tohelp only made things worse? After all, he risked the chance of causing morebleeding if he removed pieces of the shrapnel, right? He could feel his handstrembling as he grabbed a bottle of antiseptic from inside. “Pidge, comeon! Katie, please, say something! Give me something, a-anything! You have to be ok!” Hedropped the bottle and pressed one hand against the cool metal of the cockpit,hoping that it would ground him. “This can’t… This can’t be happening. Not to her.”

There was the now-familiar prodding at the back of his mindof a Lion reaching out to him. For a moment, he thought it was Black Lion,sensing his unsteady frame of mind and reaching out to him. Once he allowed thepresence into his mind, though, he realized that the Lion was unfamiliar tohim. “My Paladin… Where is my Paladin, Black Paladin?”

“Green…?” He asked quietly, lifting his head andlooking around the barely lit cockpit.

“My question, Black Paladin. Answer it,” Green’s presence became more aggressive, the edgesof her consciousness beginning to bleed anger into him.

He shook his head a bit. “I… I dont know what youmean! Sh-she’s right here, withme!”

Green’s anger boiled higher at this, pressing on his mindwith a sharp pressure that left his vision spotty for a moment. “Do youthink me a fool? I will not be taken in by your lies!”

He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath before glaringtowards the ceiling of the cockpit. “It’s not a lie! She’s here in front of me! Right here!” He looked back down at her and then sucked in aharsh breath, his heart stammering for a second at the lifelessness of herbody. He pressed forward, setting a gentle hand on the chest plate of herarmor, praying for just the slightest movement. Thankfully enough, he could seeher taking incredibly shallow breathes. It wasn’t much, but at least it showedshe was still fighting. “She’s… She’s still breathing! She’s going to make it!” He shouted,whether for himself or for Green, he wasn’t entirely sure. He opened the communicationsagain. “We need to have a medical staff at the ready the minute we get back to Earth!”

“Easier saidthan done! Your brilliant plan of kicking thehornet’s nest is getting us swarmed!”

“Lance is right, Keith! We were barely able to get you out safely, and I can’t fight with Greenattached!” Allura chimed in. He heard her mutter some kind of swear inAltean under her breath, some of her frustration starting to leak out. “Ifwe had Voltron we could handle this with great ease!”

Keith glared off to the side before letting his eyes fallback on Pidge, watching her like a hawk to assure she was still breathing.“Voltron’s out of the question; we’re down a Lion, regardless of what wedo. Even if I did call Black Lion to me, it doesn’t change that Pidge can’tpilot,”

“Is there any way we can switch Lance to towing duty?Red’s faster so she and Lance can get you guys back down faster so Pidge canget treatment! Then he can come back to the battle, and Keith can get Black tohelp out! At least with four Lions we have better odds!” Hunk chimed in,just as Yellow rushed in front of Blue to ram into an incoming ship.

“Great idea, Hunk! Also, thanks for the save!”

“Aw, thanks! And don’t mention it!”

Red could be seen a bit away from them, weaving between shipsand wreckage with the greatest of ease. "That should work. Allura, I’mheading over to switch with you,”

The switch went relatively smooth, thanks to Hunk running interferencewith any incoming ships. Once Red’s paws were settled along Green’s back, Lancepunched it into overdrive, the sudden chance of force and speed nearly topplingKeith over. He forced himself to stay upright, though, and carefully placed asteadying hand against her good shoulder. She released a quiet whine at theaction, but he took it as yet another sign that she was still fighting.

The minute the ground was in sight, a medical team standingby with a stretcher, Keith shifted and picked Pidge back up. He focused onhander her over, ignoring the horrified sounds of the staff. A glance over hisshoulder showed Red Lion frozen in air for a moment, Lance most likely catchinga glimpse of the damage and being too stricken to move. He turned away andrushed to getting Black, intent on getting some kind of revenge for what hadhappened.

With him partaking and Commander Hortaz dispatched, dealingwith the fleet was handled well enough. The whole team was fueled by the angerof knowing one of their own was seriously injured by these soldiers and theirleader. He was kicking himself the whole time, wondering why he hadn’t donebetter, why he hadn’t led the team better.

Hadn’t he learned anything?

Was he just doomed to repeat the same ignorant approaches toproblems, harming those he held dear for eternity?

The thought plagued him the entire mad rush from the hangerto the medical bay. They were forced to sit in the lobby area with Sam andColleen once they arrived, as she was still in surgery. Coran stayed with themthrough most of it, but left to inform Matt, Shiro and Krolia of what had occurredonce it was confirmed they were on their way back. He had been the one goingaround and taking the time to reassure and comfort everyone, but with him gone,no one else dared move or speak. The silence was only occasionally broken up bysoft hiccups from either of the panicked, terrified parents. Keith didn’t havethe courage to lift his head and say anything or even face them. How could helook them in the eyes, knowing this was all his fault? That the bomb was meantfor him, but he’d only been spared because of their daughter’s quick actions?That none of this would have happened if he’d simply listened to his teammates?

All of his bravery had left him in the face of this, leavinghim nothing but a heart and belly that felt weighed down by lead.

Finally, after two hours that felt like an eternity, one ofthe doctors came down to lead them up. Thankfully, she had swapped out hersurgical scrubs for the expected white lab coat. He didn’t recognize her anddidn’t bother with reading the ID badge she had clipped to her coat. They allfollowed her down the hall, but once she reached the door, she took the Holtsaside and spoke with them quietly. Keith swore he saw something break in themat whatever she said before she opened the door and quietly ushered theminside. Once determining that the two were settled in with their daughter, sheexited the room, shutting the door with the utmost care, and turned to face theother Paladins.

“How’s Pidge? Is she gonna be okay?” Hunk blurtedout, his tone frantic but seeming to recognize that volume control would stillbe necessary.

Lance was next, scrambling out of the small plastic chairhe’d settled in. “When can we go in and see her? How long will she needbefore she can bounce back?”

The doctor held up one hand, clearly not anticipating to bejumped so enthusiastically following her return. “She is stable,” Shesaid, directing these words to Hunk before turning to look at Lance, "butit will be some time before she is able to do much of anything. The damage wasextensive and will require a lot of additional treatment and surgeries goingforward to help her adapt to the aftermath. For now, we don’t want her beingoverstimulated, so we only want one or two people going in at a time, and forno more than ten minutes at a time. She’s stable, as I said, but there wasquite a bit of trauma to her head so she can’t keep up with things going onaround her near as well as she could prior. Right now, until Commander and Dr.Holt come out, no one else should go in to see her.”

Allura shifted to sit more upright in her own seat, armswrapping around herself tightly in concerned. “Aftermath? What does thatmean?”

“Well, the explosion was in close proximity of herperson, correct?”

“Yeah,” Keith croaked, the first words he’d spoken in hours.“It… It was some kind of bomb that attached directly to her, along hershoulder and… And part of her neck. She was trying to pry it off when itexploded.”

The doctor hummed, plucking a clipboard from a tray besidePidge’s door and beginning to write on it furiously. "Well, that certainlyexplains quite a bit of it,” She paused once she was done writing, gave asmall nod as she skimmed it over, and then returned the clipboard to its tray.“She’s got severe burns on the left side of her face, as well as somegashes from the combination of bomb shrapnel and her helmet being destroyed.Furthermore, she’ll be deaf and blind on that side. Amputating her left handwas also necessary, as the damage to the muscle was too extensive to recovernaturally. Commander and Dr. Holt have both already been informed of this, sowe know a prosthetic will be a fast reality for her. It just depends how fastshe feels well enough to have the prosthetic attached.” There was a quietchime within one of the pockets of her coat. She pulled out a small beeper andhummed to herself, switching it off and nodding her head at them politely.“You’ll have to excuse me. I need to go make my rounds with my otherpatients.”

And, once she disappeared from sight, all Hell broke loose.

“A bomb wentoff in her face?” Hunk wheezedout, stumbling back a step as he stared at their somber leader.

Lance, however, wheeled around and seized Keith up by thecollar of his Garrison jacket. “This is all your fault!” He shouted, slamming him into the wall justbeside where he’d been seated.

“Lance, stop!”Allura protested, getting out of her seat and moving towards them.

Keith held one of his hands up at her, trying to stop her. “No,Allura. Let him shout about how right he was while he can,”

He almost regretted those words as a look of pure murdertook over his teammate’s, eyes icy in more ways than just color. “Is that what you think this is about? Aboutgetting to say I was right? Being right was the last fucking thing I wanted to be; especially if what happened to Pidge was the cost!” He seethed, his volume lowered but pure menacedripping off his words. But this was what Keith had wanted by choosing thewords he had. Of all of Team Voltron, as loathe as he was to admit it, he knewthat Lance was the one that would always be completely honest with him, withoutholding anything back. And that reality – thathurt –was what he needed. “You could have gotten her killed! And for what?To chase after a blatant lie? If we’dwaited another thirty minutes - just like the rest of us said - youwould have known they we bluffing!Instead, Pidge had to lose a hand, her sight, and her hearing on one side! Areyou happy now that you almost got her killed because you just had to rush into a fight? Like you alwaysdo?”

“… Let go of me,”

“What, can’t handle the truth?” Lance sneered.

Keith snarled and lifted his head, meeting Lance’s furiousgaze with one of his own. “I saidlet go!” He roared before tearing the other’s hand off of him andtaking off for the elevator.

“That’s right, run!Run away from the problems you makelike you always do!”

He rushed into the elevator and made his way up to the roof,desperate to find a place to be alone. He had antagonized Lance intentionally,sure, but he hadn’t necessarily expected that. Those words… Though he felt themto be true, hurt to hear coming from someone else. To have his own feelings -the dark and awful feelings he kept buried deep down inside – asserted as atruth hurt deeply, but he forced himself to swallow it down.

He deserved it. But, for as much as he knew he deserved it,he had been a breath away from lowering himself to fisticuffs with Lance, andhad forced himself to just leave.

He stayed up on the roof as he watched the sun dip behindthe mountain range, the inky dark of night enveloping them. He watched as thestars began to slowly spark to life, tracing out his favorite constellations asthey appeared. He couldn’t remember how many nights he’d snuck out to the roofto think, the sight of the sky helping to soothe the unease inside of him.

Once that familiar comfort had fully soothed him, he headedback down to Pidge’s room. He hoped that Lance was either gone, or at leastcalmed down some. To his surprise, the other Paladins were gone, but Shiro wassettled in one of the seats. He’d most likely known that he’d come slinkingback at some point with his tail between his legs.

“Keith,” Shiro said as he rose from his seat.

He walked past the older male and stared at the door. “Howis she?”

Shiro heisitated, looking off to the side before sighingquietly. “She’s… She’s hanging in there,” He sounded choked up. Heprobably hadn’t expected the kind of horrific damage that Keith had caused tothe feisty young woman. “Everyone else has already gone in. So, if youwanted to…”

He let out a hollow little laugh. “Do I even have the right to go see her?”

“Keith… Of course you do,”

“I don’t feel like I do. I feel like all I’ve done is revealedhow wrong it was for the Black Lion to ever put me in the leader’s seat. Idon’t deserve to be a Paladin of Voltron… I don’t deserve to be a pilot… AllI’ve done is proved everyone that ever said I’d never be worth anythingright,”

Shiro reached out and set one hand on Keith’s shoulder,giving a small squeeze. “You made a bad call… That’s true. Learn fromthis and never do it again. Work to make amends with the others. All you can dois do better going forward,”

He stared at him for a moment, not really sure if hebelieved the other, before looking back at the door. “Now or never, Isuppose,” He said before opening the door and slowly going inside.

There were a lot of monitors and devices hooked up to her,mostly the standard ones from what he could tell. The entire left side of herhead was covered in white gauze. The IVs had been placed into her right side,which made sense, but the chair in the room had been moved to settle by thefoot of her bed. It made sense, though; if she couldn’t see or hear on her leftside, company would need to approach from her right, but it was clear that theyalso needed to be weary of her hookups.

Her visible eye was cracked, a little hazy, but shifted tofix on him as he slipped into the chair.

"Hey, Pidge,” He said quietly.

“Oh… Hey,” She trailed, her words a bit slurred.Probably from the pain medications, he wagered.

He reached out and gently set one of his hands on top ofhers, making sure not to put too much pressure for fear of irritating any ofthe IVs she was hooked up to. “Pidge, I’m… I’m so sorry. I should have listened to you and the others. If I had, none of this would have happened. Youwouldn’t have been hurt, and I understand if you can never forgive me for this,”He choked out, blinking frantically to keep the tears at bay. He hated himselfso much for what he’d done to her.

“It’s okay. We all do stupid stuff, I’m sure… Atleast, I think so, anyway,” It was strange to hear her sound unsure.

“I’m just so glad you’re alive, Pidge,” He said,lifting his head to look at her again.

“Thanks, um… Uh… Who are you?”

[calliecat93]

RvB16 Episode 6  Review: A Pizza the Action

A common complaint that I’ve seen thrown at the season so far is the comedic focus. It’s an understandable criticism. We’re going into Episode 6 and aside from one or two moments, there has been very little plot and the little we have is confusing. It’s safe to say that we’re due for something big to hit us about now. Can Joe deliver on this? Well... the fact that I can’t think of a segway should be a big hint. 

Overview

We begin in 16th Century Italy where Grif is trying to get the local inhabitants to start inventing pizza. Since he can’t speak Italian, it goes about as well as you’d expect. Doc is watching, clearly getting tired of the pizza quest by now. I looked it up and according to Google pizza was invented in 1889. That would be in the 19th Century so... yeah Grif sucks at history. I now 100% believe that he just went back too far in Episode 4, Sammie’s didn’t sell pizza at first, and those kids were just fucking with him. Would anyone be surprised? So yeah, Grif continues to fail and refuses to just invent it himself cause laziness. Doc is tired of the whole thing, wanting to use the Portal Gun for more important things. Grif continues to refuse, so Doc decides to invent it himself.

Meanwhile, Tucker and Sister have not had great luck with their plan to bang celebrities. Essentially Tucker crushed people with horses. How? IDK. But he did. So the two have ended up back in the present at the retirement moon. Tucker decided to go there since he assumed that everyone else would get the same idea and they could all meet back up. Since no one else is there though and the two are pretty sick of each other, they decide to go get drunk. Little do our bickering Blues know, however, Muggins is nearby...

Alright, back to Grif and Doc where it looks like Doc succeeded in making pizza! They did briefly go to the present to pick up ingredients so kudos for the foresight there... but still fail to go to the correct century so they’re still doomed to fail. To be fair, Doc makes the pizza correct... but got healthy ingredients so Grif is pissed. Finally fed up., Grif decides to take a nap, mumbling about how what he loves was taken and now he has to fix it. More on this later. Doc once more pushes for the ‘saving lives’ ideal, revealing that a part of why he became a medic was because his little brother drowned and he failed to save him. It seems to go ignored as Grif snores away, leaving Doc to just mumble about how if hadn't betrayed everyone, they’d have been able to save people. There’s a noticeable shot on Grif as the scene ends though, so... yeah he totes heard all of that. More later. Oh gosh, so much for later...

We cut back to the moon where Tucker and Sister are drunk as fuck. They continue to bicker. Apparently the base got a shipment of booze and a new body for Lopez... so I guess that Grif called for resources during his exile and the delivery guys took their sweet ass time. Typical. Anyways the two continue to argue over their failures at celebrity sex, though we do find out that they murdered Hitler on purpose. SO YES GOOD. Anyways, it looks lie they’re about to have hate sex when Mugigns shows up. He gives one HELL of an intro to King Atlus, but since Tucker and Sister know that they’re drunk, they just assume that they’re hallucinating. At least until Tucker realizes that they’re having the same hallucination. Too little, too late as Atlus... blows them up... yeah... well fuck.

Back on the 16th Century, Grif is up and goes to Doc, who si already bracing to hear the same pizza spiels again. But while Grif makes it clear that he DOES still want his pizza... he’s decided to finally cut Doc some slack and let him go save lives. That... that is so sweet OMG! I am so happy! Grif starts to hand Doc the gun... until Huggins reveals herself, telling him to stop. Grif is confused... and Doc uses the open moment to grab the gun and knock Grif down. He begins laughing evily, his voice noticeably becoming mroe menacing sounding. My friends, O’Malley is back. He opens a portal and escapes, leaving Grif alone with Huggins in the 16th Century with no way out. In other words, FUCK.

Review

HOLY. SHIT.

Okay, so... lets do Tucker and Sister first before we get to the big stuff. So first,t hey are not dead. I do not believe for a second that they are dead. What happened to them IDK. Maybe they opened a portal and got out. Maybe someone else swooped in and saved them, like Donut. We’re probably not going to know for awhile. But there is no way in Hell that they are dead. Aside from that, their scene was amusing and they killed Hitler. So good. What’ll happen with them now IDK, but I think their celebrity banging is done.

Okay, that’s done! Lets get to Doc cause DAMN. I should have seen O’Malley coming. I really, really should have. But I did not. Might be because all last season aside form like five seconds and all of this one so far, O’Malley being a thing again was ignored. It feels like Joe took advantage of that and that most fans had accepted it by this point cause that reveal, HOLY SHIT. So the brother story was probably a lie. hell, apparently ‘deek’ means ‘a deceptive move’. But it does raise some questions. How long as O’Malley been in the drivers seat? Were any of Doc’s lines this season, or even last season, himself? Or as O’Malley? How long did O’Malley plan this? If I had to guess, at least since Episode 4 when eh first went on the ‘saving lives’ rally and by then, hey figured out how the gun worked. Plus I really don’t thin he would have saved Grif at least the first time, so yeah I imagine that Doc was Doc until they figured out the gun, then O’Malley began to make his own plans.

Honestly, the whole reveal was fuckin’ brilliant. Through the past few episodes, Doc acted exactly like... well, Doc. I kind of wondered bout if we’d see O’Malley, but even back in Season 13 O’Malley was strictly used for either comedy or to let Doc get violent during the final battles. Joe played the audience like a freakin’ fiddle. I am still not over the turn of events. Very well done. Also IDK if this means that O’Malley is the true Big Bad or not. If he was, I would like to assume that the Cosmic Gods would be focusing all their efforts on finding and killing Doc instead of everyone. No, it seems more like this is just one part of a MUCH larger plot that spells out the universe’s doom. Still, it is nice to have O’Malley back and the way he played Grif was freakin’ brilliant. Incredibly well done.

Grif... God Joe just seems to love making him suffer. Then again Joe has said before that Grif is his favorite, and writers like making their favorite suffer (speaking from experience here). But God... so lets talk about before the betrayal first. Grif’s line about how he lost what he loves and has to fix it really hits me. Okay, I am probably looking too deeply into this... but it’s my blog so I can if I want to! That line perfectly encapsulates Grif’s entire character so far this season. He’s referring to pizza no longer existing, but think back to Episode 2. He was trying to keep everyone away from every scenario that would cause an adventure. And he failed through no fault of his own. He wanted to go back to doing nothing with the others, and it got broken. He saw it as his job to turn things back to the way it used to be. Back when they didn’t have any fucks to give and when they used to just stand around and talk. He felt that he HAD to steer everyone back on that route. He had to fix it before everything he loved got yanked away from him again.

In other words, pizza is a metaphor for the Reds and Blues to Grif. I think he’s sticking to the pizza out of desperation to have SOMETHING good. Something normal. Hell, maybe he thinks that when he’s invented pizza and things are back to normal, the others will just eventually flock back and they can forget Donut’s warning. That’s stupid, but with Grif’s current state it is completely understandable. But he cant even get that because pizza somehow ceased to exist and Doc made the healthy type. He’s so fed up that he can’t even get a freakin’ slice of pizza without the universe giving him the middle finger. It just really sucks to be Grif tbh and this season in particular makes you feel horrible for him, especially considering last season.

And if the universe couldn't be anymore of a bitch well then look at the ending. Grif actually sympathized with Doc’s sad dead sibling story. Which of course he would. Considering he has a little sister and I imagine that there were plenty of ‘oh shit, she’s dead! WTF do I do!’ moments in his life, that is absolutely how you would get to him. Grif actually felt bad and out of the kindness of his heart, decided to let Doc have his way. Which is a very good character moment for Girf. Yeah he’s a lazy asshole, but he’s not a bad person. He does care about the others, even if he hates to admit it. He can relate to things like worrying over a sibling big time since that was probably all eh did during his childhood. Last season he missed the others so much that he painted their faces onto volleyballs just to have them around in some form/to express how much he regretted it. And even though he fell on his face, he did still try to attack Temple head-on to save the others when they were in armor lock and I fully believe had the lasso trick not failed, he’d have absolutely decked Temple in the face to save them. I can write an entire post on how much Grif truly cares, and this moment really showed that...

...and if he never displays and selfless tendencies again, we can blame O’Malley. But really think about this. OMalley completely manipulated Grif with no effort. That in itself will probably convince Grif to never trust anyone ever again. But really think about where things stand now. O’Malley has left Grif stranded in the 16th Century. Alone. Well Huggins is there, and I imagine that she’ll help him in some way and I am looking forward to their interactions/Grif potentially becoming a protective big bro figure to her. But still, ti doesn’t change the fact that after everything, Grif is alone. After he quit to finally be done with adventure, eventually went back, broke out of his lazy persona to deal with the Blues and Reds to be done with it, and tried his damnest to keep everyone out of adventures, what did it lead to? Everyone got separated, he got stuck with Doc, Doc used him, and now he’s been left alone. After all his efforts and going to Hell and back, Grif is right back to where he was in Season 15: stuck alone on the moon... well it’s Italy but you get the point. But at least in S15 it was by his own choice. This time? It was all by forces beyond his control. That... that is just incredibly cruel when you think about it... this arc better end with Grif happy or so help me.

FInal Thoughts

I fuckin’ loved this episode. It had one Hell of a twist that I did not see coming and it was executed perfectly. The plot is finally kicking in, and boy Joe is NOT holding back. It was funny, it was sweet, it was shocking, and I am still processing all of it. For those who felt lie the season hadn’t been delivering, then strap yourselves in cause Joe has arrived with the goods. I am incredibly excited to see what happens next!

[ac-jarl-vahlia]

Hale

Hello everyone! This is my first time writing a fic, please bear with me OTZ To anyone who’ll give it a try, I’d like to apologize and thank you beforehand... Comments and suggestions are welcome :)

This is an AU in p3p where Miki is alive, Aki is a big baby, and Shinji is the mother goose who could foresee the future -- heads up for a lot of cursing, OOCitis, and MinakoxShinjiro.

Oh, and P3P is owned by Atlus

Anyway, here goes! :D

Bright red flame.  That was now all he could see on the place that they once called a home.  He couldn’t quite process what exactly happened, but he knew that it was really terrible.  All he could do was stare dumbly at the burning orphanage, as the scene is now shrouded by the hysterical cries of everyone around him.  The most deafening was Aki’s, who was now kneeling beside a body which he recognized to be Miki, and that was when Shinji started bawling himself.

Shinjiro tried to wipe his tears though he couldn’t stop them from coming, and the moment he opened his eyes again, the vision of the growing fire disappeared. He was then by himself, standing on a blank plane with nothing but blinding light.

“Don’t cry, Shinji,” a gentle voice called out to him.

He turned toward its direction.  Standing behind him was a girl with crimson eyes, auburn hair, and a calming, new, yet seemingly familiar face.

Wiping the tears on his cheeks, she leaned down and repeated herself, “Please don’t cry, Shinji.”

“B-but… Miki and Aki, they-“

“Don’t worry, Shinji.  It will be alright.”

“Really?  Are you sure?”

“I’ll make sure everything will be right this time.  I’ll protect them, I swear.  I’ll protect you.”

Her gentle smile slowly reassured Shinjiro, and when she patted his head, he was finally lulled.

The moment he woke up, Shinjiro remembered the nightmare.  He tried to look for the girl who even swore that she’ll protect them, but all he saw were the other kids at the orphanage, still soundly sleeping.

It was a good thing that the siblings, Aki and Miki, heard him suddenly bawling like a baby and got up to go by his side. They tried to comfort Shinjiro, but he couldn’t help himself from crying even more after seeing Miki.  His panting and sobbing then continued, but not until Akihiko laughed at him, saying that ten year olds don’t wet their beds.

The dream kept him terrified the whole day and Shinjiro knew there’s something he had to do to keep that from happening.  No, he knew what he must do, so when they were on an escapade and Miki reminded that it was already time for them to go back to the orphanage, Shinjiro insisted to stay and continue playing. As he expected, Miki refused, so Shinjiro went on to execute his foolproof plan.  He began crying and rolling on the ground, begging to not return yet, and then the deal was sealed.

After playing way past their curfew and arriving at the farthest train station that Shinjiro swore he knew in the area (or second nearest, in actuality), they have finally agreed to go back as Akihiko complained for the tenth time of how hungry he is and looked about ready to punch or bite Shinjiro, whichever comes first.

Moments later, Shinjiro found himself in the same situation that he had in the dream.

The orphanage was burning down, and Aki was crying hysterically.  Mouth agape, he fell to his knees, knowing everything was almost like the scene in his nightmare.  The only difference this time is that Miki is standing beside her brother, weeping with him.

It has been a month since Shinjiro started having those dreams that ended up as reality the following day.  At first, he got so excited and even blurted out that he could see the future.  Aki and Miki were also amused, but later didn’t mind and shrugged it off as a kid’s random story, while the others never took him seriously.

Shinjiro has long known that those dreams were precognitions, but since that day when he managed to save Miki, he knew that it was an incredible gift meant for great things, like playing tricks on Aki, and yeah, other great things.

Though, as expected from a kid, it became hard for Shinji to take matters on his own hand, let alone answer the questions that he had in mind. First, he couldn’t figure out the identity of the girl who would always appear at the end of his dreams.  As he was thinking carefully about it, Shinjiro was tall compared to the other kids of age ten in the orphanage, but the red-haired girl was still a lot taller than him.  Who knows how many years older she is than him?

…Wait, she’s very pretty, and she was really nice to me, so if she’s an old hag, then she could be a goddess!

Another thing that Shinji didn’t anticipate since the incident was the fact that in his continuous dreams, Miki was still dead. The first time he realized this, he didn’t know what to do.  It was like a different world, much darker than where he is now.  Every time he had the chance, he always asked the goddess about it, but all she ever did was smile and say, “I told you, we’ll make it right this time.”

It took too long for Shinji, about a year of mishaps between him and Aki, to piece it all together on his own and somehow conclude that he had actually created an alternate reality from the one in his visions.

On his first week in middle school, Shinjiro had been fully aware that he has altered a lot from the occurrences in his dreams.  They were all still together; Miki was alive, and Akihiko didn’t have a reason to be obsessed over getting stronger.  Heck, the other world’s Aki was doomed as fuck, far from the naïve, cheerful kid who’s always beside him, but even after Shinjiro had learned of his dreams as mere fragments of a reality parallel from theirs, he couldn’t help but overthink and get paranoid.

Everything was a lot more peaceful than in his so-called precognitions, which made him more nervous and confused.

The visions are basically useless now, what the heck am I supposed to do? Should I really relax, now that everything isn’t the way they’re supposed to be?  Besides, she’s not even answering my questions… so much for a guardian goddess.

Taking his usual route to school, his train of thought was then broken by a hand that hardly patted his back.

“Hey, I told you to wait for me this time.”

Shinjiro sighed in exasperation, “Then you shouldn’t have eaten all those rice bowls, Aki.”

“I’m a growing man, I need calories.”

“Whatever.”

“Come on, Shinji, what are you acting all tough for?” A grin then sprawled on the gray haired guy’s face, “are you hoping for a middle school debut or something?”

“I’m a delinquent, you won’t get it,” Shinjiro immediately blurted out, which caused a laugh from the other boy.

“That being said by the guy who used to pee on his bed. A lot.”

“Shut up, Aki.” Feeling uneasy, and knowing that the vision-Shinjiro’s personality is finally rubbing off on him, he tried to divert the other guy’s attention. “Hey, have you joined any club yet?”

…I know I’ve altered a lot, and I don’t know why I’m hoping this, but please be in the boxing club.

His hope was broken by Akihiko’s response, “I’m in the soccer team.”

“…well, never would’ve pegged you for one who plays soccer.”

“Yeah, me neither.”

“What? …wait, do you even know how to play?”

“Nope, not a clue.”

“…You’re an idiot.”

“Shut up. What about you? What club are you in this time?”

Shinjiro’s smirked slipped as the answer escaped his lips, “Home economics.”

Weeks later, Shinjiro learned through his visions that Akihiko being in the soccer team and not in the boxing club was an extreme wrong turn.  When Shinjiro told her about this, the goddess even teased him, or threatened, he wasn’t sure, she was always just smiling, “you have led us halfway to our doom,” then proceeded on flashing her ever glorious laugh as Shinjiro panicked over what he should do next.

In order to get back on familiar grounds, or prepare them for everything, Shinjiro spent the following months fretting over making Akihiko stronger and pushing him to join the boxing club instead, but as expected, the guy adamantly refused, which made Shinjiro frustrated and once again try to get matters on his own hand, thus training Aki on his own.

What’s a better way to get back the guy’s damn speed and reflex other than throwing things at him randomly? Smashing stuff at him also worked, and was also so damn fulfilling.  By the start of the second semester, Akihiko was finally able to foresee, dodge, and even counter all of his attacks.  This made Shinjiro proud of the kid, but not enough to make him stop entirely.

The following year, however, when Miki entered as freshman on the same middle school and decided to join the boxing club, Akihiko followed suit.  In the end, Shinjiro thought, he shouldn’t have fussed over the brat. Whoever the hell knew that the siscon will solve it himself?

“I’m moving out.”

Akihiko’s statement that one evening on their third year in junior high didn’t surprise Shinjiro at all, contrary to how Miki initially reacted to her brother’s sudden declaration.

A few more minutes of trying to calm her down, Miki finally replied, “Well, I’m not mad, Aki-nii, but why is it so sudden?”

“Relax, Miki.  Maybe your brother just got hitched or somethin’,” Shinjiro teasingly interjected.

Miki nudged him and pouted, “Not funny, Shinji-nii.”

“Well, not immediately, but,” Akihiko sighed in defeat and sat down beside Miki, “I’ll be graduating this year, I mean, I have to prepare ahead for high school, so I’ll move in to the dorms and—“

“Man, don’t try bullshitting your way outta this,” Shinjiro laughed.

“Dammit, Shinji.”

This time, Miki was the one who heaved a sigh on both of them, “It’s fine, Aki-nii. Just… take care of yourself, okay?”

“Yeah, of course I will,” her brother finally smiled, relief evident on his face.

“And if matters turn to worse, remember that Mama Shinji will save the day, okay?” she said, winking at Shinji.

“What? How is he my problem still?  Anyway, I ain’t gonna stop you or anything.” I pretty much already know where you’re going and why. Heck, the other world’s Shinjiro was guilty of only joining SEES because that Aki did. “All I gotta say is—“  How the hell did you even get a persona this time? To be recruited to the team, that was the major requirement. So. How? “…crap, nevermind.”

“Aaaaww… Are you embarrassed, Shinji-nii? Come on, say it.”

“Don’t worry, Shinji. I’ll miss you too.”

“Fuck you, Aki.”

Dark sky, green moon – the Dark Hour.  They were sent out on another mission to defeat a rampant shadow and secure the area.  In this case, there were two bystanders, a woman and a child, and Mitsuru has once again reminded them that their safety is the top priority of the group.  As such, she immediately instructed the civilians to hide on the alley behind them and reminded both him and Aki to keep an eye on the two.

Of course, things went smoothly as Mitsuru has planned. They have figured out that the shadow’s attack and defense were pretty low, and though it can control minds in close proximity and summon lesser shadows which proved to be problematic ticking time bombs triggered through physical attacks, they have learned that its endurance and ability to do so is limited.

Since Caesar and Castor both depended on brute force, Mitsuru was the one who handled the summoned shadows while the two guys focused on using their personas to inflict damage on the summoner.

As the explosions became weaker, Mitsuru assured them that the shadow’s endurance is near its limit and after another Spirit Drain, she instructed them to execute an all-out attack.

At the corner of his eye, Shinjiro even saw Aki smirked at him, and he knew full well what that meant.  They were about to wing this. What they didn’t anticipate was the instant that Castor missed to land a blow on the shadow, which in turn was able to gain momentum on the little time that it had and once again use its tricks.  That was when everything went downshit.

A couple of bad decisions and Akihiko attempting to use his persona to shield everything led them to this state minutes later, wherein Shinjiro was cursing under his breath and everything Mitsuru was saying at the moment sounded like self-righteous nags to him as he struggled to once again get back to the shadow.

“Shinjiro, you have to be careful!  Need I remind you that this shadow can manipulate minds?  Close combat is not advisable for—“ Mitsuru was reminding him from the sidelines, but Shinjiro tuned her out.

“I got this!” he shouted back, still trying to close the distance between him and the shadow, that was desperately trying to move around on a fast pace.

We almost did it. One last hit and it’s over.

“Use your Persona!”

“Dammit, Mitsuru!  Aki used his, look what that got him!”

Akihiko, pinned on the ground, visibly winced at what he said.  Mitsuru, on the other hand, was looking after him while trying to exterminate the lesser shadows summoned earlier.

‘trustmewecandothissummonme’

A static voice rang in his head, but Shinjiro ignored it.  Bet the guy’s just itchin’ to hit something again.

‘listencanfeelittrustme’

Shut up, Castor!  You missed earlier already! Don’t mess up now!

Shinjiro kept on following the shadow no matter where it went, not letting it escape from his sight and reach.

“Shinji, don’t let it buy time!”

I know, dammit!

Finally cornering the shadow on an alley, Shinjiro couldn’t hide his smirk as he lifted his axe, preparing to give the last blow, until he felt a pang on his back. As he peered behind him, the last image he saw was a woman with dead eyes, holding up a shard at him, and then his vision went blank.

The searing pain on his back was now replaced by the screeching in his head. Anguish, desperation, fear – several emotions rushed through Shinji, which was severely amplified by the panicked buzzing in his head.  Shouting, calling his teammates and asking for help, probably rolling on the ground – he tried everything, but not even clawing his head or trying to rip it off from his body was able to stop the pain that he was feeling.  The torture seemed to drag on for far too long that even Shinjiro wished for the shadow to just slash him dead already.

After what felt like hours before the pain dissipated and his breathing returned to normal, Shinjiro’s sight finally returned, but the destruction he saw made him wish it never did.

His teammates—his friends, were now lying on the ground, beaten and defenseless, all the while looking at him with desperate concern on their eyes. Shinjiro ran to them as fast as he could, but stopped on his tracks the moment he spotted on the corner of his eyes what he dreaded the most.

The vision that night ended just like how it all began.

Another lifeless body was right in front of him, but this time, it was all Shinji’s fault.

…

This time, as he was dragged back to the blank room, he was again crying nonstop in front of the goddess, just like how he did years ago.

“You saw how it all happened, Shinji. Trust yourself, and trust in Castor.  I know you can do it, you just needed someone who’ll believe in you,” reaching out her hand to touch his cheeks, she looked at him in the eye, which made Shinji return in kind.

Why is it that whenever Shinjiro has a dream-induced breakdown, those striking eyes would always get to him? Damn, the goddess really had him whipped.

Shinjiro continued crying like a baby, until she hugged him in her arms saying, “It’s fine, I know you’ll be able to make it right this time.”

“Not gonna say ‘I’ now, would you?”

He felt her chuckle, which somehow lightened him up as well, “How about ‘we’?”

“Fair enough,” Shinjiro buried his face on her shoulder and placed an arm around her, which made the goddess hug him even tighter.

The moment he woke up, Shinjiro was filled with determination.  Maybe, just maybe, he’ll find a way through this. He went out of his room and ran straight to the lounge that morning, where he saw Mitsuru sitting on the couch. Shinjiro cleared his throat, running through his resolve a couple more times in his head before voicing it to their leader.

He approached her, and Mitsuru then looked up at him with questioning eyes.

“My left hand hurts. I’m gonna ditch the mission tonight, ‘kay?”

“…Shinjiro, you know that I am the student council president, right?”

“Yeah, so?”

“And you’re aware that the use of illegal drugs is prohibited in our school?”

“Wha—no! The hell? I just can’t go, okay?”

“Just what are you saying?”

“Oh… nothing.”

“That is highly suspicious, but I won’t ask you any further. I’ll… pretend this conversation never happened.”

Shinjiro thought of proceeding to plan B, but as he saw Miki snickering at the front desk, who obviously witnessed the exchange between the two, he decided to jump to plan C.

“Are you sure you want to spar with me?” wrapping his hand before putting on his boxing gloves, Akihiko asked him one last time.

It was already after school, and club activities have started. There was no reason for Shinjiro to back out of this.

“Dammit, told’ya that already.” Besides, that was the plan. Break a hand, hopefully the left one, and instantly have an excuse from tonight’s mission.

“Don’t you have club activities today, Shinji? Those pancakes ain’t gonna cook themselves, you know?”

“What, are you mocking me and my club?!”

“No, I just wanna eat something. Pancake sounds nice.”

Shinjiro tried to punch him, but since he was not yet wearing gloves at the moment, and Aki just swatted his hand with one, Shinji finally got what he asked for.

After all the trouble that he went to, Shinjiro still had to drag his ass to that night’s mission. Aki, Miki and Mitsuru were with him, and upon analyzing their surroundings and the shadow at hand, Mitsuru and Miki started strategizing.

Earlier that evening, when the alarm went off on the dorm and Ikutsuki-san has oriented them of the situation, Shinjiro was sure that he could stay out of it, but Mitsuru insisted that they needed more manpower and Shinjiro’s “injury” wasn’t enough to consider him as a liability to the team. Regrettably, Shinjiro could also swear that his actions earlier that morning made Mitsuru wary of him, as she evidently eyed him suspiciously the moment they all heard the alarm.

Focusing back to their mission, Shinjiro recalled the dream that he had and compared it to the situation at hand, noting what he must do to avoid the outcome. One, don’t be a dick. Two, Miki’s here, so they got higher odds of winning. Three, trust in Castor.

Easier said than done. Shinjiro became too conscious of his actions that he was only on defense the entire time.  His plan also backfired, as he couldn’t shift the weight of his axe from one hand to another like he normally do. And he knows he had to trust Castor, but would he really gamble it now? I mean, it all started when the guy missed a hit.

As Shinjiro was preoccupied, what got his attention back to reality was a scream that came from the sidelines. The horror flashed on his face as he remembered the woman whose death he had foreseen.  Turning to where it came from and seeing that what he heard earlier came from someone else entirely, however, didn’t cause him relief either.

The one who was struck this time was Miki, which finally snapped him to his senses. Enough is enough.

Shinjiro finally called out to Castor, and never before had he heard his persona clearer than this. The connection he sensed as he finally reached out to Castor was indescribable, as he felt replenished and the weight dragging him down disappeared.  This time, Shinjiro realized that he was not just commanding Castor to fight, he knew that they were protecting each other.

“You did it,” the goddess smiled brilliantly at him that Shinjiro couldn’t help but wonder, how could she possibly shine even more than she already does?

Smiling back, Shinjiro impulsively hugged her this time.

The shadow was defeated, Miki was fine, and so were the bystanders that they later found out to be mother and child. After all that happened, Shinji deeply wanted to thank the woman in front of him, his goddess, for guiding him and staying by his side.

The moment she hugged him back, Shinjiro admitted to himself that he was filled with contentment and bliss, and wished to stay that way with her. The urge to say so crossed his mind, but as he was about to open his lips, she spoke up.

“That was the last trigger. You can relax now.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve saved them, and you’re safe as well, as promised,” she chuckled.

“Heh, then nothing bad’s gonna happen now, right? We can relax now, yeah?”

Cupping his cheeks, she laid her forehead on his, “Yes, I assure you, everything will be fine. We’ve done everything we could, so if anything worse happens, it could be beyond our control, but please don’t give up, Shinji.”

All he did was nod.

“You’re the strongest, bravest person I ever met, I’m sure you can do that.”

Laughing, he replied, ”Don’t patronize me, and besides, you’re always there for me, right?”

There was a long pause before she said anything, which made Shinji lean back and look her in the eyes.

“Shinji,” sighing, she finally replied, “it was really great to be with you again.”

Shinjiro was surprised from what the goddess said, but he got startled even more when she suddenly kissed him on the forehead.  Dumbstruck, it took moments for Shinji to make up his mind and tried to reach out to kiss her, but before he did, he finally woke up.

Anxiety was all he felt the whole day, and if he could, Shinjiro was ready to pass out even in class, as he desperately wanted to see her again. So the second he stepped into the dorm, he went straight to his room and tried his best to catch his sleep.

As he started to dream, the precognitions continued, but the visions of her stopped.

Two years have passed, but he never saw her again, not even the place where he assumed she dwelled on and he had grown to call the blank room, though blank plane seemed more appropriate. Shinjiro knew that there was no way her memories would slip from his mind, but he figured, he just had to live with it, because life goes on, and the very core of what she imparted on him was to never give up.

Needless to say, Shinjiro focused on the Home Economics club, to the extent that he even encourages everyone to join cooking contests and initiate tours to further develop their knowledge in different cuisine.

Aki and Miki more or less figured out back then that he might have been heartbroken, and though he denies it, Miki insists on helping him find someone and dragged her sibling to tag along with it.

Miki kept on setting him up on dates, but later didn’t bother when Shinjiro insisted on his specifics and turned down every girl he had talked to. Shinji thought Miki finally gave up, but it turns out she just passed the baton to her brother in finding the woman suitable for Shinjiro. Thankfully, the only time he ever bothered Shinji was when he was on a one-week tour in another city and Aki suddenly called him out of the blue, only to talk about a promising new member.

What Shinjiro didn’t expect was that as he was still on the tour, one night, he finally saw her again, not on the blank plane, but on the dream that was supposed to happen the following day.

Akihiko called him out to the hospital, said he got injured from the last shadow operation. He was about ready to leave, when more visitors came in to Aki’s room, and the goddess, real and alive, was one of them.

The next day, Shinjiro rode the first train back to Tatsumi Port Island. On the ride home, he texted Miki.

‘is aki on a hospital right now?’

‘(O-o) no… y?’

‘please push him off the stairs for me, am on a train home’

Unfortunately, Miki didn’t follow suit.

Arriving back later that evening, Shinji was preparing to ask a favor from Aki, but as he opened the door to the dorm, he dropped all of his stuff, seeing the new SEES member at the lounge, staring back at him.

All she did was smile, and his step turned into a full-on run.

1I really have no idea how this thing works... This has been sitting on my laptop for months and I never really intended to post it, being the lurker that I am, buuuuut going 37 hrs without sleep and a dead-end thesis made this sound like a good idea. Welp.

[blissful-thinker]

“I may have underestimated how much stuff I got at Anime Expo in general until I finally got a picture of the overrall haul this year: a summary.”

So after a few days of rest I finally got around to doing the usual masterpost of what is now my third year at AX. SO AFTER PROCRASTINATING FOR A WHOLE MONTH AFTER THE CON IS OVER I’M FINALLY POSTING THE MASTERPOST OF WHAT WAS MY THIRD YEAR OF AX CAUSE THIS ACCIDENTALLY GOT BURIED UNDER VARIOUS DRAFTS. WHOOPS MY BAD BUT ANYWAYS...

It was my first time going all 4 days with nothing stopping me and I think that might be why my haul is bigger than expected and why the read more is gonna be very, very long this time (which is why it took me like a fuckin week to do it.) So feel free to read on if or don’t cause this year was something else to the point where I ended up organizing the highlights by day.

The cosplays this year fricking amazing and cool to see again!! There were many, many cosplay I wanted to take pictures of (but so little storage space in my phone or I was going one way and the cosplayers was going the other way. That latter happened a lot.) Will probably post the photos I managed to take once I get those sorted out.

NOW LET’S GET TO THE PART WHERE I TRY TO REMEMBER WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED THIS WEEKEND CAUSE IT WAS A LOT TO TAKE IN:

Day 1: -Gets to the con at 7:30am with friends to pick up badges; end up in badge pickup limbo for about an hour. Ended up seeing a guy inflate his Pikachu cosplay up at the parking area and also talking to a guy who was the expanding brain meme and the salt bae meme. Only when the line moved did I realize I forgot to ask for a photo ;__; -Got our badges around 8:45am-ish and ended up in LineCon2k17 to get into the convention itself. I think it might have been due to them upping the security measures so honestly I’m not complaining too much (It did go faster for the remainder of the con.) Okay maybe I was kinda anxious that day to get in cause I needed to get to a certain booth quickly that day. Anyways it took like 1 1/2 hours to get in cause by the time they opened a few more doors, it was already 10:15am and then me and my friends were kinda walking fast and quickly going over meet up plans before we split to do our own business. -RAN MY ASS TO THE GOODSMILE BOOTH TO GET ONE OF THE LAST QUEUE TICKETS OF THE DAY FOR 3:30 (Aftermath: Came back around 3:30 and managed to get one Free Skate Yuuri Katsuki Nendoroid which I am thankful did not sell out until the next day. Might’ve been because the autograph signing and the panel for Sayo-kun and Kubo [YOI creators] were that day. I’m kinda thankful I’m not too interested in autographs or panels to go. Dude at the GS booth was surprised Yuuri didn’t sell out yet and I explained it might’ve been cause of that. He did get sold out the next day so yeah. But also I hope everyone had a good time at that panel!!!) -Explored Exhibit Hall while waiting for a friend who was at the Atlus booth. I swear there were more vendors this year. -SO MUCH GREAT ART IN ARTIST ALLEY, SO LITTLE TIME TO APPRECIATE IT ALL CAUSE EVERYONE IS SO GOOD THERE (repeats this for 3 more days cause it’s true) -some guy cosplayed as Symmetra's photon projector beam.... I realized hours after leaving it’s the same guy who cosplays as Deadpool every year  ACTUALLY RAN INTO AN OLD HIGH SCHOOL CLASSMATE WHO WAS TABLING IN AA. IT WAS REALLY NICE TO SEE THEM AGAIN HONESTLY. -somewhere along the late afternoon me and my friend managed to find the Crunchyroll foyer. may have taken a picture with the yoi kiss and cry set up there. itwasboundtohappen -they changed up the layout of the entertainment hall so much. i actually prefer it it’s so nice :D -ran my ass to the blizzard booth when I got inside the entertainment hall. that was also bound to happen eventually -played arms with friend at the ninendo switch area. got thrust into a sudden game of mario kart 8 with someone else cause the person in front thought the controller stopped working. i’ve never been more panicked in my life than in mk8 -chilled out behind the blizzard booth at the overwatch rest area for the rest of the day. got to watch the trivia go down for an hour until going back home regretsididntdotrviaatallisworeiwasgonnadoitbutichickenednout -saw lucio’s VA while resting at the booth ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

DAY 2 -got there early and linecon was over (mostly) so waited around for the opening and took cosplay pictures. (note: if you saw some weirdo eating a to-go bowl with their fingers, that was me. i didn’t have breakfast that morning) -hung around exhibit hall properly this time while looking for certain booths since the “definitely need to get now” priority rush was over -me at the two people at arunning a certain booth as my other friend decides what to get from there “I’m just watching this unfold my dudes, I’m just the bystander here.” (not gonna specify anymore than this. the people at the booth were pretty chill though) -that psycho pass prop gun demostration was 10/10 holy shit -AA part 2: the “less hectic but still hectic version and still deciding what to get” feelings -my friend tempting me to get a pillowcase of the legendary birds with him...I was pretty close to actually get it (he got it regardless and honestly it is the softest of pillowcases) -”Alright I think I got everything i needed from ___ fandom- sHIT WAIT I KINDA WANT THAT” -me, who has never played persona 5 in her life but knows enough about it, getting more prints and charms than my other friend, who has played over 150+ hours on that game alone and got like 2 prints from it -hanging around the entertainment hall again before leaving early that day. probably best I left early cause I was deadass tired. for the first time in years I slept before midnight cause AX

Day 3: -okay honestly the only thing I remember this day was that my friend and I were at the Blizzard booth resting and waiting for triva to start and Symmetra’s VA was hanging around the booth. So when trivia was gonna start, the top prize for winning the trivia current triva round was a Symmetra funko pop signed by Anjali. As soon as that was said, Anjali suddenly appeared out of nowhere grabbed the funko pop from one of the guys leading the triva rounds, tried to make her escape by carefully manuvering around the beanbags and then trying to roll away.... only for her to kinda trip during her roll from my friend’s foot and then landed right next to me and my friend before recovering and then running away from the booth (and then returned after a few minutes). Honestly it’s been 3 weeks a month at this point and I’m still shook as fuck -also she asked some of the trivia questions as Symmetra. that was also really cool

Day 4: -since it was the final day, it was just making sure of last minute gets at AA -”I got a charm at AA of Yurio yesterday and somehow he detached from my badge today but I’m not even fucking upset I lost him or surprised cause he was dangling along with charms of Yuuri and Viktor and he honestly fucking would straight up ditch them at some point in a day in the life of Yuri[o] Plitsetsky”: a thrilling one shot of the morning. I managed to get another one before I forgot to and Yurio2 was grounded to my bag until I was home -an interesting shirt hunt up in exhibit hall for my friend requested from his friend. it was... quite the shirt to get and probably the strangest thing to get for him and it wasn’t even for him Honestly the only way I can I summarize this year was that is was heck a lot of fun and hopefully will go next year. Maybe if I’m not that lazy and able to I’ll cosplay next year too. Will I actually put up the masterpost of the merch I got- honestly probably not cause I have no idea where I put my merch pictures.

[nataliejean2412]

Thoughts during the Nintendo Switch presentation 01/12/17

While waiting to watch the presentation, I realized I really wanted to write down what I was thinking. So, here are my thoughts during the presentation. I haven’t really done anything like this before, so it may seem a bit odd. Note: Every one of these reactions were real. A few of these were typed while the video was paused, which I think worked out better than typing while watching. Either way, these are best read alongside watching the video, linked here.

Enjoy!

Pre-Start: Was this 30-mins of store-brand chillstep necessary? 33:33 - AAAAAAAHH! It's releasing too soon! My body is not ready! Help me, Reggie! Where are you? 35:42 - Nice, I actually expected a $400 price tag 36:13 - inb4 paid subscription 36:40 - Called It 37:14 - Hopefully Nintendo can help reverse the trend they started with region locking. I like the occasional imported game. 37:36 - Please tell me they aren't going to repeatedly snap for the next hour... 37:53 - Lol we think our audience doesn't know the term "Design Philosophy" 39:02 - Wait, where's the "DNA" of the Virtual Boy? Did it not get invited to the Switch orgy? I wanted VR gaming that would burn my eyes out within 10 minutes! 41:27 - 41:36 - I swear, Nintendo loves repeating themselv... WTF!? That is a shit battery life!!! 41:44 - Ok, it has a USB standard. I'm ok with the battery if I can get an external for it. (I'm calling it now, Charger bags for the switch are going to be a thing.) 42:10 - Nintendo sure wants its' demographic to leave the house. 43:33 - I can't get over these Joy-Con things. What are these, controllers for ants!? 44:35 - "Whoops, we forgot to program in our new sharing features. We'll put it in later." 44:52 - "Now you can shimmy shimmy shimmy with your new Nintendo Switch!" 45:10 - Yep, those shoulder buttons totally won't get broken being in the connector piece. 45:40 - "They fit in the palm of your hand" if you're a small child, yeah. Which, that's a good thing to bring up. They are not targeting kids in this at all. Everything i've seen is targeting the young adult crowd. 45:53 - See, this is what i'm talking about. "You can release the tension from your shoulders, and relax while you play." They're targeting the working crowd, not kids. ...well, I hope they're not targeting the working kids demographic... Also at 45:53 - "Mario Paint me like one of your French girls" 46:14 - What is this... 46:24 - Oh, look, the magic of hype marketing! 46:45 - Now you can shimmy shimmy shimmy without throwing your controller. 47:24 - Careful, Nintendo, Don't say the C-word. It's a trigger word for the Orwellians in the audience. 47:40 - ... 48:20 - I don't know why, but this whole part is making me uncomfortable. 48:36 - Nintendo seems to have a hard-on for galaxy-looking stuff nowadays. 48:51 - Yeah, this snapping thing is going to go on forever. 50:45 - Ok, now what the hell am I watching? 52:36 - Nintendo sure wants its' demographic to socialize. 52:55 - "4: Spend half an hour arguing over what to play. 5: Lament that Smash Bros isn't on the Switch. 6: Regret your early purchase." 53:54 - Oooo, some kind of fighting game, that would be interesting. They /did/ say it would be challenging. 54:00 - Office worker fighting a middle-school girl. This ought to turn out well. 54:34 - wat 54:45 - wat 55:20 - ...what am I watching? 56:08 - Arms? ARMS? Why would you name it that? They don't /have/ arms! 57:20 - Hmm, those are interesting controls. 59:20 - Arms: Because having a new idea ALWAYS means you should make it. 59:40 - Yep, wildly flailing your hands = Strategy and tactfulness, and they recommend carrying the game into public to wildly flail your hands at other people doing the same. Real social booster, Nintendo. You know your demographic well. 59:50 - Ah, Splatoon, it's so good to know Nintendo still has a hard-on for their new money maker. They totally won't repeat the mistake of letting other things fall apart from focusing on you too much. 1:01:50 - I would like to take this time to give a shout-out to whoever the English translator is in this presentation. He has just completely given up on trying to convey the emotional nuances in the presenters' speech, and it's making this much more enjoyable to watch. 1:03:07 - Oh good, now I can hurl my entire console across the room when I lose a game. It's what i've always wanted. 1:03:51 - Oh. My gods. I just saw that. That pose was actually a thing. Wait wait wait, i'mma rewind it. 1:04:25 - Well, no need. He did it again. 11/10 best dab 1:04:52 - [after that lame pan, I got up, went out for a cigarette, and contemplated life.] 1:05:05 - Ooo, another Jet Set Radio-style game? I'm down for that. 1:05:20 - wat 1:05:30 - wat 1:05:40 - Okay, so a Mario game in an urban setting? Eh, seems like a cool idea... 1:05:50 - or not 01:06:07 - Well, at least the graphics are really niDAMMIT!!! What is this low-poly nonsense? 1:06:26 - Ah, jump-roping. My favorite of classic Mario gameplay. 1:06:33 - All jokes aside, these landscapes are freaking beautiful! 1:06:50 - Ah, hat tossing. My favorite of classic Mario gameplay. Seriously though, that does add an interesting idea to the classic platform formula. 1:07:01 - 'Bowser & Peach: A Royal Wedding'. Wow. I wonder what that that kid would look like. I know Bowser Jr. turned out not to be her kid. Dammit, now I have the image of Bowser with long flowing blonde hair. 1:07:05 - Oh no, he crushed the hat. Good thing it isn't alive. 1:07:06 - Wow, Bowser Jr. and gang are looking a little white-washed. 1:07:25 - Well, Super Mario Odyssey looks pretty good. Pretty epic gameplay. 1:07:33 - AAAAAAAA! THAT THING HAS EYES! IT'S ALIVE! Mario: "Yeah!" 1:07:37 - AAAAAAAA! NOW IT HAS EYES ON THE LOGO TOO! 1:07:41 - AAAAAAAA! OH GODS NOW IT'S REAL! 1:08:32 - YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT I NOTICED THEM! 1:09:28 - They're launching without a Mario title. Have they not learned their lesson yet? 1:09:50 - Oh good, another Xenoblade. [skips forward in the video] 1:10:06 - [stops skipping] Wow, the graphics actually don't look half bad. That framerate looks atrocious though. 1:12:07 - Oh look, another Fire Emblem trailer that tells me nothing [massages forehead] 1:12:35 - Oh boy, it's time for the yearly Third-Party Garbage Fire! 1:12:44 - Funny, I didn't know Unity and Autodesk made their own games. It's almost like Nintendo wanted to fill this image with whatever they could scrape up. 1:13:21 - Meanwhile, at Square-Enix headquarters: "Crap, we don't have anything to put on the Switch yet. Let's just port a few games over to it for now." 1:13:41 - Oh, an Atlus game. I'm actually excited! Maybe we're getting a new Shin Megami Tensei! 1:15:00 - ... Right, moving along. 1:15:44 - Ok, this actually looks really good. Mental note: keep an eye out for Octopath Traveller. Maybe this won't be the garbage fire i'm predicting. 1:16:36 - This snapping thing... I swear. 1:17:00 - This translator is so done. I can't stop laughing. 1:17:40 - Oh good, Bethesda can now pat their own back on Nintendo Switch. Seriously, I actually don't like that they remastered Skyrim. They could have put that effort into a new game. 1:18:50 - Ok, I feel bad for this guy. That was awkward as shit, and you can tell he immediately realized it. 1:18:54 to 1:19:05 - Ok, the translator literally stopped talking. You can actually hear him scoff at 1:19:01. This is the best part of the show. 1:20:00 - And here we see the garbage fire I was predicting. This presenter looks like he just got shoved out on stage at the last second, and has no idea what he's trying to say. Even the translator is having trouble understanding him. 1:21:18 - Thank the gods that's over. Moving on. 1:21:29 - Oh dear sweet zebra, it's EA. Hold on, I wanna guess this one. Some sports game, no footage, and we'll get to the end somehow having lost knowledge along the way. 1:24:37 - And nailed it. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have reached the end of the ride. Thank you for attending the 15th Annual Third Party Garbage Fire. Please keep all hands, feet, and accessories inside the vehicle until the vehicle comes to a full stop. Please exit through the Gift Shop on the right, and have a wonderful day! 1:25:05 - Ok, there's the montage. It's the standard signal that it's almost over. ...wait, where's LoZ? 1:28:28 - I like how they're talking about how it's going to have a version with colored controllers like it's a game-changer. 1:29:00 - Yay, let's jump to Nintendo Europe, where they get to hear about how they are getting no information yet! 1:30:15 - Oh gods, I was just kidding before. They really did get nothing. 1:30:27 - Oh, Reggie! I'm so glad you're here. I need help! My body isn't ready! 1:30:48 - Is that Miyamoto just chillin in the background? I think he may be stuck in the US now. He's been showing up on US television a lot lately. 1:31:55 - "If you listen carefully, you can hear it floating in the air. Yep, there it is. I'm high as fuck." 1:32:22 - Yep, it was Miyamoto. Why did I recognize him from the back of his head? 1:32:32 - They are talking to each other in their own languages. This is great. 1:32:44 - AAAAAAA! Why the hell are you just jumping out of a hiding spot like that? Don't you know that's like taking the express lane to gettin’ hit? 1:32:57 - "When are we releasing Loz?" "Idk, ask him." "Oh, idk either. Ask someone in another country." 1:34:29 - Yay, finally! LoZ! Time to find out if it's a launch title! 1:35:40 - Neat, full voice acting! 1:37:55 - Woo! Launch Title! Aaand that's the end of it. That was a bucket of fun, and every bit the train wreck I thought it would be. I personally think they are rushing the release of this console, and it looks like I can count on one hand how many games there will be at launch. Like I said at the beginning, this was the first time i’ve done something like this, and it was much more fun than I anticipated. I may do a video saying this over the presentation later on, i’m on the fence about it. I may just shelve the idea until another video.  Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!

[scottsdumbgameshit]

Most anticipated games of 2017

After writing up my Best Games of 2016 I thought “What better to follow up with than what I’m looking forward to this year?” 

So I’m doing that.

Obviously leaving out games that aren’t coming out this year (So no Death Stranding, Last of Us Part 2, God of War or Resident Evil 2 Remake) and also no remakes (So no Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy)

5. Resident Evil VII: Biohazard

So me, the guy who dislikes first person horror games is now very excited for Resident Evil 7.

When the game was announced this past E3 I was not keen on it. I thought to myself that it was going to be another generic First Person Jump-scare laden horror game. 

But everything I’ve seen since then had me more and more intrigued to the point where I’m at now. Seeing more and more concepts about the game be revealed such as the setting, storyline and combat has me at the point where I’m stopping myself buying other games so I can buy this later this month.

Straying away from the Zombies and World spanning catastrophes of past Resident Evil games RE7 is taking a more down to earth approach, pitting you against a family of what appear to be cultists (reminiscent of the first season of True Detective), In the search for your missing wife, not much is known other than that but from the demo they put out there is a strong implication that Umbrella Corp. – The series' staple evil corporation – is involved somehow and I'm eager to see how the story pans out.

4. Scalebound.

Scalebound the new Action RPG from the good folks over at Platinum Games directed by the great Hideki Kamiya looks to be.....

Oh wait its cancelled.... Never mind.

4. NieR Automata

NieR Automata is the new Action game from the good folks over at Platinum Games, a studio with an almost impeccable track record (aside from a couple licensed games but let’s ignore those), which is honestly the main reason I'm excited for this game.

I have never played NieR or any of the Drakengard games so I expect to be a bit lost when it comes to Automata story-wise but I'm nonetheless excited due to the team working on it.

The game is very reminiscent of Metal Gear Rising: Revengence – Another one of Platinum's games and my personal favourite of the bunch. (along with The Wonderful 101) So I'm expecting the same tight action gameplay that Platinum have perfected over the ten years they have been a studio.

3. Cuphead - in Don't Deal with the Devil

This game has been on my Most Anticipated games list for the last 2 years, so hopefully this is the last time it shows up on one of these.

Cuphead is a 2D Run-and-Gun platformer being made by indie studio “Studio MDHR”, which admittedly Is overdone at this point, but Cuphead differentiates its-self from the others with its incredible art-style, drawn in the style of early 1900's cartoons like Disney's Steamboat Willie or Fleischer Studios' “Betty Boop” cartoons.

That visual aesthetic is carried over to the overall style of the game, with the bouncy look of the character designs and the music, Cuphead is looking to be a perfect fit for animation nerds.

The game also looks to be very similar to platforming classics like Mega Man in terms of difficulty and level/boss design, all of this put together makes Cuphead one of the most promising Indie Projects in the last few years.

2. Nintendo Switch

As I write this it is January 13th 2017, the Nintendo Switch Reveal all event is in 3 hours and we don’t know much about it, and I realise its probably cheating to put it on here but otherwise this list would be pretty much all Switch games.

I'm looking forward to the console its-self the gimmick is genuinely interesting from a hardware perspective and I'm anxiously awaiting to see what the line-up of games will be, So here’s a mini List within a list of the things I'm looking forward to from the Switch

3. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I've admittedly never been the biggest Zelda fan (Aside from Wind Waker and A Link to the Past) but the new open world aspects of BOTW have me incredibly curious to see how Nintendo do with their first open world outing, I've not watched much gameplay either but what I have seen has me interested

2.Monster Hunter For Nintendo Switch

Nothing has really been announced about this or if it is even happening aside from a few retailer leaks but I cant wait to play Monster Hunter on the big screen. Monster Hunter is a series I enjoy and really want to get into more than I already am but it being generally Hand-held exclusive has hampered that a bit.

So the prospect of a new Monster Hunter game on a home console has me real excited, whether its a port of Monster Hunter Generations or a completely new one built for consoles I don’t mind as-long as I get a new one soon.

1. Whatever that new 3D Mario is called

I could probably wait 3 hours to find this out but the Switch reveal video showed a lady playing a new 3D Mario game before going to a sick roof party like us millenials always do, the prospect of a new Mario game being the biggest piece of news to come from that trailer since everything else either leaked or was Skyrim.

3D Mario games are 6/6 for being fantastic games, so obviously I'm looking forward to this, the trailer also implied that Co-Op which was great in Mario 3D World is coming back so needless to say I can’t wait to get this in my hands and play it on somebody's roof .

1.Persona 5  

I'm kind of breaking my own rules here seeing as this game released in 2016 in Japan but hey I can’t play it yet so I'm counting it.

This game is like Cuphead where it has been anticipated for the last like 4 years, I still remember the reveal of this game, some weird stream that announced Persona: but with Dancing, Persona: but it's Etrian Odyssey and Persona: Fighting game 2.

And at the end of that stream it flashed on screen Persona 5: 2014 on Playstation 3.

It is now 2017 and the game still isn’t out yet here, but flash forward to 2015 when the first big trailer comes out for this game and the hype train just drove past me and dragged me by the collar. That trailer single-handedly got me hyped for this game with its style and amazing music.

So I thought, “I should probably play Persona 4 then.” So I went out and bought a Vita and Persona 4 Golden because of this trailer and I played through that game in under a month sometimes playing it all day and now Persona 4 Golden is my second favourite game of all time.

Persona 5 looks to be just as amazing. As someone who is not fond of turn based combat the rest of the game manages to pull me in that it doesn’t matter to me, the sense of style the Persona series exudes is like no other and Persona 5 looks as if it will take that to the next level, stuff like the menu design to the post battle animations is just a joy to look at.

I never usually pre-order games, or spend more than £35 on them, but not only have I pre-ordered Persona 5, I've gone and ordered the £80 Special Edition because I feel so strongly about this game, also big props to Deep Silver for getting the game to European regions the same day as the states, instead of the usual 8 month wait we have for Atlus games. 

So looking on to 2017 and all of the amazing games lined up, Persona 5 – to me – stands tall in-front of them all to be my most anticipated game of 2017.