#that honest to god legitmately hurt this playthrough's gonna destroy me man

[dirtyoldmanhole]

ch23 opens with one of the funniest moments in a video game ever despite the morbid conversation.

ryoma opens with something he's been pondering over.

extremely reasonable, and he's already pretty sharp for a FE protagonist for noticing this, and not glossing it over like corrin just did. (when ryoma x alphonse 'we notice shit no other FE lead does?' forging bonds in FEH?)

(worth noting that leo and takumi have probably been thinking about this too, but left the floor to ryoma to broach it with corrin, considering his closeness with scarlet.)

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Corrin: That can't be! Ryoma: Think about it. We were the only ones who jumped off that bridge. Gunter: And you said yourself that you and Scarlet were attacked as you were falling, milady. Corrin: Ah, I see now what you mean... Ryoma: For you to be ambushed as you fell... The killer must have jumped with our group. You've wanted us all to trust each other, so I didn't want to say anything... At least, not until I was certain. Corrin: I appreciate that, Ryoma. Ryoma: However, it's possible that we'll encounter even stronger resistance from here on in. We may even reach Anankos soon.

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i can't. I cAN'T

you know the funniest thing about gunter

the man has the dryest, sickest sense of humor i have ever seen. HE SAYS THAT WHEN HE NOT ONLY KNOWS buT IS PLANNING ON BETRAYING YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YOU FUCKER

....

honestly this screenshot's pretty priceless too

YOU

ARE

STARING AT HIM,

GIRL

GOD! GOD!!!!!! I CAN'T!

the man frikkin full on trolls the absolute shit out of every royal in that little scene. and he doesn't just go 'gee i wonder :D' all nodding thoughtfully along. NO THIS FUCKER HAS FUN WITH IT. 'it would be tragiiiiiiic' MY ASS

[tearfully muffled between my hands] god i am in so deep in this brain rot

....

ANYWAY

ch23 ends and

hoooooooly shit

there's crazy symbolisim with these camera angles i completely missed the first time around. the scene is arete's real death, right (azura's mother, since possessed by anankos. we're gonna see a lot of possessions coming up.)

guess who was blatantly right behind arete's sprite in the opening, in a total blink-and-you-missed-it-moment .5 seconds right before she popped up?

... wha-ba-ba-bam!

now, could me frantically pointing at the shot symbolism here be coincidence/me reaching?

I'd probably agree if this shot was in a vacuum, but given the parallel of azura>possesed mom, and corrin>possessed(psuedo)dad, and the chronological order that this + the possessions are going in, plus some more angles below, I genuinely think this is intentional. "layers" of possession, if you will, and anankos steadily working his way closer to corrin's inner circle.

ryoma calls out- "it might be a trap!"

(WHICH IS ANOTHER ECHO.... OF GUESS WHICH UPCOMING SCENE.....)

(second screenshot's of CORRIN DOING THE EXACT SAME THING WITH HIS POSSESSION YEAH.....)

holyshitholyshitholyshit

and then if the action / script echos wasn't foreshadowing enough you get THIS freaking angle right after arete's death with gunter unsubtly, and "weirdly" enough (to most players) very much front-frame focused all the sudden.

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