#the contradictions make these games so much fun to discuss

[marinsawakening]

There's some real nuclear level cognitive dissonance to the way various monsters (Zora and Moblins, most notably) are clearly sapient, and the way you are simultaneously expected to slaughter dozens if not hundreds of them throughout your average LOZ game.

Even in BOTW/TOTK, which clearly tried very hard to make bokoblins/moblins equivalent to animals, they possess the ability to build human-like settlements and show capacity for complex strategy. In older games, particularly the top-down LOZ games, monsters' sapience is straight-up textual, with multiple monsters talking to you as people. It's pretty much impossible to pretend monsters like moblins or the old school/river zora are anything but people. And yet they're the fodder enemies. I believe this contradiction is what the kids call 'ludonarrative dissonance'.

Jokes aside, much has been written about both video games' and the fantasy genre's tendency to create sapient (or sometimes outright human) fodder enemies, and the racist/xenophobic implications hereof. I'm uninterested in summarizing or retreading these discussions. I just want to note some of my observations on how the series has dealt with the inherent tension between 'monsters are sapient' and 'you should kill every monster you see'.

First that comes to mind for me is the Oracle duology. To my knowledge, these were the first games to try and combine the old-school monster zora and the OOT-style friendly zora. It did this by dividing them into two camps: the savage river zora, and the regal sea zora. The sea zora detest the river zora and do not want to be associated with them, stressing their differences.

In this same game, however, there are multiple moblins who display sapience, most prominently the Great Moblin. The Great Moblin is a bandit who leads a large group of other moblins; he talks, has motivations and desires, can strategize, etc. In Seasons, after you destroy his keep, you can find him sadly making bombs by hand, trying to regain firepower. You can blow up his house for fun.

So although Seasons/Ages draws a firm line between the 'monstrous' river zora and 'civilized' sea zora, it also contains probably the most obviously sapient monster in the franchise. I don't think the Oracle games had any political intent/message, I doubt the devs spent even a moment considering the implications here. Mostly, it reads like a confused attempt at mixing 'old' and 'new' attitudes toward monsters (especially with the zora), oblivious to the unfortunate implications this creates.

Echoes of Wisdom then picked up this sea/river Zora divide and ran with it. EOW is a game clearly trying to marry 'old' and 'new' Zelda. It is a top-down '2D' game with traditional Zelda dungeons and enemies, but with open world exploration and a lot of player freedom. The sea and river zora's conflict can easily be read as representative of the conflict between 'old' and new' LOZ. In the end, the two have to come together in harmony to progress.

Nothing of the 'old' attitude toward monsters remains, though. EOW obviously does not consider the river zora as monsters, seeing as you cannot create echoes of them. The other monsters, though still capable of using human tools and building BOTW-style settlements, have even less indication of sapience than BOTW's monsters. Although it can't quite cast monsters are pure animals (not if it wants them to have keeps), narratively speaking, they are no more people than a snake. By removing the river zora from the category of 'monster', EOW is feels free to once again use monsters as nothing but canon fodder.

This very much seems to be the 'new' attitude toward monsters. LOZ has gradually been moving away from monsters as sapient creatures, or trying to, anyway. Monsters do not talk anymore, and their settlements are noticeably less technologically advanced than they often are in older LOZ games.

In fact, as monsters became less and less sapient, they also seem to have gradually adopted a... 'tribal' aesthetic, for lack of a better word, based on racist pop-culture depictions of a variety of non-white/east Asian cultures. Older art would often give moblins/bokoblins armor/clothes that were at least similar to Hylians'. But over time this has steadily diminished, with many games giving them overtly racialized/ethnic features (such as Twilight Princess' dreadlocks on its bokoblins), quite obviously to 'other' them from the European Hylians. Monsters have never been portrayed as 'civilized' the way Hylians are, but the racial coding very much does seem to have increased in tandem with animalistic framing.

TOTK goes so far as to make monsters explicitly creations by Ganondorf, for the purpose of serving him. I do not believe this is the first time monsters have gotten the framing as creations of evil (for one, BOTW and its blood moon sure did), but it's the most blatant I can remember, as it's in a major story-relevant cutscene.

What's interesting to me about this is that it makes little sense when we consider the fun facts about monsters that occassionally appear on the loading screens, or their entries in the hyrule compendium. These refer to their living habits, diet, etc. in ways more akin to an animal than a nebulous creation of evil magic. This contradition also exists in BOTW, where the monsters 'rise with the blood moon', reborn through the Calamity's power, but are also very much described more as animals than miasma.

To fully illustrate what I mean: compare a bokoblin to gloom hands. One of these is a part of an ecosystem, one of these is not. Yet both of them are supposedly creations from Ganon's evil magic. It just doesn't really line up, does it?

All of this to say: I think Nintendo and/or the LOZ devs are by now perfectly aware of the optics of using sapient creatures as fodder enemies. As video game stories have become more complex, tolerance for this trope has decreased. As such, the LOZ franchise has attempted to move away from this. However, they wish to maintain the bokoblin/moblins' basic conceit as, effectively, humanoid enemies with a degree of intelligence.

So in their attempt at compromise they have revealed some very telling presumptions. Less human = tribal aka not white or Japanese. Former monsters that are 'humanized', the zora, become by and large friendly with Hyrule (ALBW as a possible exception, depending on how you look at it). None of this development is strictly linear, of course; for example, EOW's monsters do not follow BOTW/TOTK's design principles. But it's nonetheless a pattern, and the optics aren't great.

I don't really have much of a conclusion to all this. If anything, I suppose that the series' treatment of its monsters fits into a long-standing pattern of LOZ attempting to address criticisms of racism/xenophobia without understanding how they actually connect to their world. Or perhaps: trying to fix their optics without wanting to fix their hearts. Depends on whether we presume ignorance or malice, I suppose.

[rorysterr]

@ellieco-astha ,

Your letter was received! ♡

Your romantic matchup is...

Satan!

❥ This is the first person who came to mind when I read your request. In terms of personality, you two are pretty similar in the sense that you both come off as serious and collected yet you’re both also emotional. It’s canon that Satan looks for someone who understands his anger and because you described yourself as being temperamental at times, I think you brilliantly represent this criteria. It’s as if the reactive side of you guys contradicts the typical composed demeanor that you two put up, but I think that this would bring you two together. I think it would allow for a deeper connection to foster between the two of you and because of this, Satan would feel safe with you. He wouldn’t feel misunderstood and like he has to explain himself nor would he feel like he’d have to hide his wrath. He’d feel safe enough to open up about his feelings with you and likewise you can do the same. 

❥ I do think that you two got along even from the start but it was shared interests that really made you two grow closer. You both enjoy reading so he’d want to have library dates with you or exchange book recommendations, but you also write so he’d want to read whatever you write. He’s similar to you in the sense that he likes to keep his mind stimulated. He likes to learn and sharpen his intellect much like you do, so I could see the two of you going on study dates together or having more intellectual conversations. Conversations where the two of you debate back and forth on certain topics. He loves literature and astronomy like you do so he’ll discuss it with you, and if you want to learn anything, he’ll teach you! He was able to name every constellation in that one lesson so he’s a wonderful source of knowledge in that field. 

❥ I definitely think that he’s also into strategic games because of how it works his mind, so I could see him playing them with you! I think he’d find psychological horror interesting, anything that gives him a thrill or leaves him wondering piques his interest! If you have any psychological horror book recommendations, he’ll be all ears. 

❥ Although despite how stoic and collected Satan can come off, he also has a fun side to him! He likes to play pranks on Lucifer and poke fun at his brothers. He’s a tease and he’s got a sense of humor. Because of this, I believe that he perfectly fits what you look for in a partner. He’s both intelligent and funny. 

❥ When you guys do date, Satan would absolutely adore the poems you write for him. Whenever you hand them to him, he’ll always have a hue of red across his cheeks and he’ll fumble over his words. He’ll treasure every single one of the poems you write for him, he might even make a little book with them! And we all know that he’s not big on organizing (at all) but he treasures the poems too much to lose them. He’ll make sure to put them in a safe place, like a designated drawer or a set spot on top of his desk. 

❥ And when you give him compliments? He will be all slick and suave about it at times, but sometimes it’ll catch him off guard and he’ll get flustered. He’s not super touchy in my opinion, but he’s fine with gentle gestures of affection! 

❥ Goodness, and he reads a lot so he’s good with his words. He knows exactly how to fluster you with words alone and he prides himself with your reactions.

Your platonic matchup is...

Solomon!

❥ This one was a bit difficult because I think that you and Satan would get on so well, it’d be as if you were best friends and significant others. It was hard to come up with another platonic matchup (because I’m not going to give you the same character twice) just because of how well you and Satan would get along, but I figured Solomon would get along with you pretty well too. 

❥ Solomon is extroverted in the same way that Asmodeus or Mammon are, but he’ll approach you first and strike up a conversation! He does want to get along with and better understand the other human exchange student after all. 

❥ But the thing with Solomon is that he’s witty and highly intelligent, he is the witty sorcerer afterall. But don’t be deceived, much like Satan he’s also got a fun side to him. He knows how to loosen up and is a major tease. He will relentlessly tease you and poke fun at you, of course he’s mindful of when it goes too far, but he loves to mess with people. So overall, I think he fits what you look for in a friend the best. He’s both smart yet cheeky. He may even play pranks on you with his magic or attempt to play pranks on other people with his spells and try to reel you in. 

❥ I also think that he would tease you for your fear of spiders but would kill them for you nonetheless. 

❥ I definitely think that you and Solomon would share some interests too, like games. We know he likes TSL so we can assume that he’s a bit of a nerd. He will likely know the literature that you’re interested in and I think he’d also be interested in mythology, so you guys can bond over that! Oh and this is also just a gut feeling, but I think he’d find psychological horror intriguing. He’ll be curious if you tell him about it. 

❥ Please teach him how to cook, but be subtle about it! This man is in dire need of cooking lessons, I love him but he cannot cook for the love of him.

[falciesystemessays]

Alright, let's make this quick. You're playing a dress-up game, maybe Style Savvy, maybe Love Nikki, because you want to express yourself creatively. The game gives you some explicit goals, it is a game after all. Maybe it's to dress up in a certain theme, maybe it's to max out certain stats, but the goal is to use incentives to make you try different outfits. Fair enough, right?

Here's the problem though: Players will naturally gravitate towards the solution with the most reward. There's a common joke in RPG spaces about wearing ugly armor for better stats, but it is so much worse in a game where dressing nicely is the primary appeal. Love Nikki is especially nasty in this regard, giving you an exact score on how fashionable it thinks you are.

This is what game designer Alex Jaffe calls the "Quantified Creativity Problem," and it is one of many Cursed Problems in Game Design. As he lays out, a cursed problem is one that is unsolvable, because it comes out of a contradiction of two core promises. In this case, you come into a game like Style Savvy (but this also applies to other games like The Sims) for intrinsic goals of creativity and expression. But these extrinsic goals inherently detract from the intrinsic joy of creation.

If you want to deal with a cursed problem, you have to make some kind of sacrifice to one of the promises.

You could

Embrace the bastard behavior and say "this isn't about creativity, you're dressing up for explicit goals." This is what the Hitman reboots do, for instance. You're not dressing up for aesthetics, you're dressing up for stealth.

Incentivize creativity like the games I've described try to do. This does certainly give a variety of ideas for nice outfits. However, as I've laid out, this does still detract from the intrinsic motivators.

Simply make it impossible to minmax, which here would manifest as clothing options having no mechanical attributes at all. This is what Picrews and doll-makers are, and while they're fun in their own way, I personally feel a sense of aimlessness and overchoice with a lot of these.

Make the extrinsic motivators less intense, although still there. This is what Artificial Fashionista does, which is my favorite of all of these and the reason I'm writing this essay.

So, this game is very nice, for a variety of reasons. The game is free, with regular DLC rather than scummy microtransactions. Its writing is genuinely well-executed in making every character delightfully annoying. But more than that, it's the first fashion game I've played that gives me direction without making me feel pressured.

Simply put, the game still has Nikki-style stat requirements, for example the starting Office Lady mission requires 4 points in Cool and 6 points in Formal. However, you are shown every single clothing item's exact stats in advance, and the game will straight-up tell you when the outfit you've made meets the requirement, as well as its equivalent of an S-Rank.

And the game has no actual scoring system above that rank, so you can dress in any way as long as it meets the threshold. Which means that this

and this

are both equally valid in the game's terms. I call that second look "violating the dress code but no one seems to mind," by the way.

What this all amounts to is a dress-up game that gives you just enough direction to come up with unique outfits, while giving you the room to be creative to your own liking. Sure, you probably won't make the "expected" outfit, but that's part of the fun of it! Artificial Fashionista confidently cuts through the Quantified Creativity problem by making the game easier than most other games of its type, and honestly? I appreciate that.

I'm talking about fashion games like this because I think it's a sorely needed discussion in our discourse about game design. Like, most of the Game Analysis I've seen on social media and YouTube tends to be very focused on challenge. Level design, systems design, and pacing tend to be made with idea of "game as challenge to overcome" as the primary appeal. But there are many different appeals a game can have, and expression is a big one. So why don't I see dress-up games brought up more often in these discussions?

I say, knowing the answer.

(Also, check out "Why Fashion in (Most) Games Sucks, and Why You Should Care", a GDC talk by Victoria Tran that I like a lot!)

[dude-wheres-my-ankheg]

Abdirak - A Contradiction In Faith (Link to AO3)

Word count: 3.2k

Characters: Abdirak, Loviatar

Summary: An essay exploring how Abdirak's behaviour and beliefs tie into the overarching Loviatan faith.

Tags: Essays, Meta, Nonfiction, Analysis, Character Analysis, Character Study

Find my fic master list here.

Because I've heard a lot of people prefer to read meta on Tumblr, full essay is under the cut:

Start Notes

This essay is not meant to diminish or debunk anyone's thoughts, opinions, or headcanons about Abdirak's character. It is simply an exploration of my own findings and a discussion about the lore surrounding him. I fully love and support everyone's own interpretations of the character. However, my own reading of Abdirak is extremely personal to me and the reason why he has resonated with me so strongly. As such, I wanted to explore more about his character and the discussions about him both in and out of the game, and give some context to where my own personal reading of him came from.

Worth noting that I am not an authority on anything, just some guy with an obsession and some books.

Introduction

Abdirak was for many the highlight of the Goblin Camp, despite being a brief flash-in-the-pan of an NPC with a single scene and a potential gameplay buff. So how does such a character captivate the hearts and imaginations of so many? The obvious answer is that he is sexy, dangerous, and fun, and provides the opportunity for some cheeky companion banter. However there is more to him than meets the eye, especially for those who know a little about Loviatar and her worshippers.

Right from the start, Abdirak is a man of contradictions. Charming yet blood soaked. Enticing and yet promising pain. Offering healing through harm. But as we dig deeper, we can see just how deep the contradictions truly go.

A (Very) Brief Look At Traditional Loviatan Beliefs

Traditional Loviatan tenets are fairly clear cut when examining the lore. For all of my research, I have been unable to find any reference to healing through pain as Abdirak claims to.

Loviatar desires pain and suffering through any and all means, including psychological torture and manipulation, seduction and heartbreak. Their goals are to spread discontent and misery. Loviatans are characterised as being cruel and manipulative, often using winning peoples' trust and breaking it as a way to hurt them.

The only reference to healing I have found exists in the following passage from a speech given to those new to the faith:

"Let mercy of sudden abstinence from causing pain and of providing unlooked-for healing come over you seldom, but at a whim so as to make folk hope and increase the Mystery of Loviatar's Mercy. Unswerving cruelty will turn all folk against you." [1]

Here, we see healing used as a manipulation and a break from pain, not a result of the pain. It is simply a trick to convince people to fall more deeply into the devout's clutches. If we trust the lore books, all Loviatans should be gleefully spreading misery. Which would make sense - Loviatar is an evil god with evil followers who thrives on misery and suffering. She likes to be feared and charges her followers with spreading that fear [1].

Abdirak

Enter Abdirak. A charming, handsome, lightly blood splattered man who claims he simply wishes to help the player character. He explains his faith and how he believes that his work is beneficial to those around him and not only his goddess. With what we know about Loviatans, surely this is an act? Loviatans make it their life's work to twist and trick people into harm. A quick encounter within a Goblin Camp may not seem like much of a chance to win a heart and shatter it, but certainly enough to lie about the health benefits of being smacked with a mace.

There are, however, little things about him that are off.

For one thing, he was invited to the Goblin Camp to torture Liam, a task which he is not performing. In fact, he seemed disgusted with the thought of it - pain should be, as Abdirak himself says, an "intimate and loving thing." That doesn't sound particularly in-keeping with the traditional Loviatan beliefs, and neither does passing up the opportunity to torture a man.

Another contradiction is how Abdirak is insistent that those receiving the penance be well enough to do so. While Loviatans may not want broken bones or severe injuries themselves—as such hinders their duties and their worship—what would it matter if a stranger was injured during the course of a penance? Yet Abdirak is insistent. Only those well enough may receive his "gifts" and those who lose too much health during the penance will immediately see it stopped.

Then of course, there is simply the way he is. The way he speaks. The care and consideration in his words. Of course, this could all be a part of his act - a smooth and clever manipulation. A very convincing one at that. However, there are reasons to believe otherwise.

The Contradiction

The idea that Abdirak is simply a smooth manipulator is somewhat thwarted by several factors. For one, an argument can be made about his behaviour as above. For another, the developer's notes within the game files and the comments and context added by Rachel Quirke (Abdirak's writer) and Declan Perring (Abdirak's voice actor) paint a very different picture of his motives to that of a cruel and selfish manipulation.

Let us address the character's actions within the game first, as these are easiest to dismiss. Abdirak does his best to convince the player character to undergo the penance, but makes no move to force them. In fact, beyond his simple pitch—this is good for you, it will help you—he does not push. He doesn't try to find new ways to tempt the player and does not try to twist his arguments to entice. He lets the offer stand on its own merit rather than overly pushing the issue and trying to convince the player character. Of course, this could be attributed to him not wanting to cause trouble for himself. It gets more interesting when we look deeper into the game meta.

One of the most noticeable things about the acting direction given within the dialogue game files is the repeated use of the word "sincere." It is applied to Abdirak himself, to his beliefs, to his words. It is used over and over to describe this man and his desire to help the player.

"This is a sincere and genuine offer, He believes in what he is doing and that it will, ultimately, help the player." [2]

"It is a sincere and genuine offer, he believes it will help." [2]

"He's looking the player in the eyes and is concerned - he can see the player has been hurt (emotionally) and is worried. This is sincere." [2]

"Player has told him to bugger off, basically. Abdirak assumes the player is embarassed [sic], he is sincere - he has seen pain in the player's eyes and wishes to comfort him." [2]

"He believes that the beating he is about to offer will genuinely help. Sincere." [2]

"Explaining about his goddes [sic] Loviatar. Sincere. Believes pain is a beautiful thing." [2]

"The priest should look very sincere in this scene. He genuinely thinks he's helping you." [2]

This sentiment is further echoed by his writer, Rachel Quirke, who has also commented directly on his sincerity in online discussions with fans. [3]

In addition to these notes and comments, the following quote is from Declan Perring, the voice actor who brings Abdirak to life, and is a section of the acting direction notes he was given prior to recording Abdirak's voice lines. It goes: "He sincerely believes in what he is doing and that each offering of pain to the Goddess lessens his own pain and that of others." [4] This is a fascinating quote which gives us huge insight into Abdirak's thoughts and far more questions than answers. It is in direct contradiction with the tenets of Loviatan faith, as discussed above, where pain and suffering are shared for the sake of pain and suffering alone. When Abdirak tells us that he wishes to alleviate the player character's pain, he means it. It seems to remove the potential for Abdirak's prior mentioned sincerity to simply be very good acting.

Unlike what the lore relating to Loviatans would have us believe, Abdirak is not lying or twisting his words. He is not concealing ulterior motives. In his mind, he is a healer of sorts. His believes that his desire to worship the Lady of Pain aligns with his desire to help people - and believes that he is succeeding.

There are other small things as well that Abdirak says in his short time with the player character which seem out of place for a Pain of Loviatar. For one, he implies that he does not like to kill. Traditionally, Loviatans do not seem to have many qualms about such, and have frequently been involved in warfare. [1] In addition to this, as mentioned above, Loviatar wants to be feared by the world. Abdirak however preaches about her loving embrace and wants the player character to trust him and seemingly by extension her. Even after the penance, Abdirak makes no move to make the player character concerned, even if they were not deemed worthy of the blessing.

Implications

Abdirak's seemingly unique outlook on Loviatar worship certainly raises some questions, and gives us several potential routes to explore when we consider his relationship to his religion and how it ties into mainstream Loviatar worship.

Is Abdirak some delusional outlier, espousing a false version of his own god's creed? This seems unlikely. Abdirak claims to be in communication with Loviatar, supported by the fact that he is capable of personally handing out her blessings. She seems to approve of his strange methods - is this simply because he is so effective? Loviatar's focus tends to be upon the suffering itself. Abdirak's methods and unique outlook could be tolerable to her simply due to his enthusiasm and success in providing pain and suffering to her, even if he's doing some therapy on the side.

Another potential explanation is that he is part of a smaller sect of Loviatan worshippers, whose values differ slightly to those of the main church. This explanation is without any lore foundation, but it is certainly interesting to think about. Both real life and the Forgotten Realms have examples of religions with disagreeing or even rival branches, so it is not a stretch to believe that a sect of Loviatans could exist who believe their abilities to inflict pain also bestow healing of sort. Though again, this is not supported by any other suggestions within the game or external lore that I have found, but definitely opens some fun headcanon potential.

Another possible reason for Abdirak to be the way that he is is that the church has simply moved on and evolved, much like the modernising of real life religions. Again, this hypothesis is without basis and pure speculation.

There is also the possibility that Abdirak is a model Loviatan, simply following dogma to the letter of the law. Does Abdirak believe his crueller tendencies should be reserved for those who would do harm against him rather than run-of-the-mill penitents? The Loviatan teachings do note striking against "those who offend." [1] This still does not account for the fact that healing through pain is not mentioned in any part of Loviatan dogma I have found. While it does state that they can share their gifts to "those who enjoy them" [1], there is no mention of the health and well-being benefits of the process for the receiver. This appears to be a belief that Abdirak himself has adopted - could this be due to his own experiences? The developer notes imply that the Loviatan practices helped Abdirak deal with his own trauma: "Player has asked how he knew something terrible had happened them. Abdirak sadly replies. He is think [sic] of his own traumatic past, which ultimately led him to turn to Loviatar as a way coping with the trauma." [2] Loviatan dogma states that pain brings pleasure and power, but makes no mention of healing or mental well-being. It is presented as a traditionally evil form of worship, one that centres around hedonistic desires and the pursuit of power [1]. As such, this particularly theory feels very difficult to marry with the existing lore.

A final explanation could be based upon Loviatar's own interpretation of Abdirak's actions. Reference texts tell us that "Her understanding of humanity, for example, relied on the fundamental assumption that they were innately selfish. Truly heroic or self-sacrificing behaviour could untangle her carefully woven plots." [1] Could this suggest that she tolerates Abdirak's methods because she simply does not understand them? Abdirak is a loyal and enthusiastic follower and, as discussed above, perhaps that is enough. Could Loviatar be unable to comprehend that Abdirak's methods are anything other than selfish, that his talk of healing is not simply lies? It's certainly a fun thought that such a large misinterpretation could occur between a god and their follower, especially one that appears to hold a well regarded position within the church.

Notes on Abdirak's Character

"Pain is pain, dear one. It is above 'good' and 'evil'." [2]

These are words spoken by Abdirak, and they are accompanied by the following notes in the game files: "Player has told him that his goddess is evil and that he wants to [sic, presumably should be 'no'] part in this practice. His [Abdirak's] argument about pain is sincere, he sees it as neither good nor evil, simply as proof that we are alive - and that is worth worshipping and experiencing." [2]

Alignment is an important concept within the realms of D&D. While the game rules have moved away from such previously rigid structures, its influence remains thickly throughout the world of Toril.

As previously discussed, Loviatar is an evil god. Traditionally, Loviatan priests could only be one of the three evil alignments, with Pains further limited to Lawful Evil. [1] Evil alignments, particularly Lawful and Neutral, are characterised by a selfishness that comes at the cost of others [5], which does not seem to align (ha) with what we know of Abdirak so far.

That is not to say that the case for either of these alignments could not be made—they certainly could, especially with how little of Abdirak we see. However, the sincerity and care shown by Abdirak lack the selfishness that one would expect to undertone an evil character, as evidenced by the developer notes that go with his dialogue.

Could Abdirak be more easily ascribed to a Lawful Neutral alignment? While it would certainly be a stretch for a follower of Loviatar to be Lawful Good in character, Abdirak displays a certain amount of selflessness and desire to aid others. A Neutral alignment would support his beliefs about pain and allow him the freedom to practice his faith (in his own special way) while still maintaining that streak of altruism he seems to bear.

Could Abdirak represent an evolution of Loviatar worshippers? Rigid class restrictions have changed over the years - after all, there was a time when druids were limited to True Neutral only [6]. Or is Abdirak simply a law unto himself, a complete outlier in the ranks of the church?

Another interesting point of Abdirak's character is his belief that pain is intimate and loving. As stated in the sourcebook:"Loviatar teaches that the world is filled with pain and torment, and the best that one can do is to suffer the blows that cannot be avoided and deal as much pain back to those who offend." [1] This seems to contradict Abdirak's belief that pain is a gift and should be applied with love and care, an act of healing the mind with pain to the body. This opens two possibilities. That Abdirak is simply lying to the player when he says that pain is only loving. The developer notes say that Abdirak is sincere in his desire to help the player character and in his belief that his methods are beneficial, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he reserves that care for everyone. While this might bring into question why he refuses to torture Liam or push the goblins beyond their limits, it could be attributed to a personal code of who he deems worthy of uncaring hurt. That quote could be interpreted as saying that the usual care and consideration should not be applied to those who attempt to harm the priest themselves. This could point to an explanation for Abdirak's behaviours and beliefs, and hint at a far more dangerous side to Abdirak that we do not get the chance to see in game.

Even with the developer notes and the lorebook sources, Abdirak's character requires close inspection and dissection, and still there is no clear truth to his overall life philosophy, leaving the door open of a myriad of fan interpretations and characterisations, and giving Abdirak fans a wealth of opportunity to explore.

Conclusions

Abdirak's contradictions and the way he subverts expectations based upon his faith make him an incredibly intriguing character, in a way he would not have been if he had been written as a classic Loviatan. The subtle and clever writing paired with an outstanding acting performance elevate this five minute character from a single scene of laughs and titillation to an enigma with the potential to stay in the player's thoughts far longer than he has any right to.

As anyone who has known me before this long and convoluted (and absolutely not exhaustive) ramble will be aware, Abdirak has captivated me since I first encountered him. Now this isn't to say that I don't love a sexy villain, because that would be a lie, but without these layers within Abdirak—the subversion of expectations that come with him as a Loviatan—he would not be as compelling, and certainly would not have grabbed my imagination in the way that he has done. The twist that Abdirak, this creepy and unsettling devout of pain itself, is one of only two characters in the whole of Act 1 to help the player character without want of anything in return, who does so only out of their desire to aid another, not only turns perceptions of him on their head but also of the other NPCs within the act.

With this apparent mismatch of Abdirak's motives with known Loviatan scripture, what could have been a one-note gimmick character becomes something far deeper and interesting to those who know the lore behind the deity. A subtle nod to those aware of the world they are playing in and something that has made the character absolutely captivating to me.

And on that note, I leave you with my favourite dev note of them all:

Abdirak: Yes - I must try this technique. Or perhaps this one… Hand on chin, considering the book before him. Pain Priest is reading his open book. He is reading a book on pain and torture techniques, musing out loud which to try, like someone reading a book on cupcake recipes and wondering whether to try buttercream or sugar icing next. [2]

References

(1) Julia Martin, Eric L. Boyd (March 1996). Faiths & Avatars. (TSR, Inc.), pp. 100–105. ISBN 978-0786903849.

(2) Baldur's Gate 3. Directed by Sven Vincke, Larian Studios, 2023. Multiplatform game. (Links to extracted dialogue and development notes can be accessed here: https://www.tumblr.com/roksik-dnd/732776567631183872?source=share)

(3) Quirke, R [@quirkiltons]. (2023, Dec 7). Oh, absolutely! Yes, Abdirak is into pain, but he's incredibly sincere about it. He'll stop if you're hurt badly and only resume once you've healed up. The scripter and I wanted to reward people who tried it, not punish them (that's Abdirak's job 😜) [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/quirkiltons/status/1732734892981600479

(4) Streamily. (2024, Jun 27). Streamily.com Presents: Declan Perring THE Abdirak [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/live/TsIxFkLQp9Y.

(5) Jeremy Crawford (August 2014). Player’s Handbook. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 122. ISBN 978-0-7869-6560-1.

(6) Ed Stark (August 2000). Player's Handbook 3rd edition. (Wizards of the Coast). ISBN 9780786915507.

End notes

As I could write endlessly about Abdirak, I wanted to keep this as concise and on topic as possible, focusing purely on how Abdirak relates to the overarching Loviatan church. This might be a one off or the first of a few essays exploring Abdirak's character and the Loviatan faith in general. It depends on when inspiration to actually write the damn things strikes, and whether or not people are even interested in these sorts of posts haha.

Anyway, if you read all the way to the end of my enthusiastic rambles, thank you <3 If you have any of your own thoughts, feelings, opinions, disagreements, etc, I would LOVE to hear them because I love talking about this weirdo.

[meear]

umineko fans are the original "if you don't like it you just didn't understand it" people. I genuinely cannot think of anyone more annoying and obnoxious, except SNK fans, except not even them, because in Umineko's case that behavior is enabled by the author himself. It's crazy how a story that spent hundreds of hours discussing the value in several coexisting interpetations will have both characters and fans turning around and tell you that actually you're completely wrong for thinking a certain way

The crazy part is they don't even realise how their smug attitude about being part of R07's very special club of people who "have love" and the superior way they act about holding the true answer are EXACTLY the Erika traits they criticise in readers who don't think like them. "He spells it out but you still cannot see it? Lol" "are there still people who can't accept the literal canon answer? lmfao" "you know you're exactly the goats r07 wrote about right?" (Because r07 is a god who cannot possibly be contradicted, this is supposed to be the worst insult somehow) (these fans cannot seem to decide who the goats are an analogy for, considering they'll scramble to say they only represent the story's witch hunters as a criticism of true crime fans when you call out r07's arrogance, yet they'll smugly tell you you're just a goat when you question the story itself. Thank you, it's nice to know that Ryukishi wrote about me, but that doesn't answer the fucking question, Brian)

It's incredibly ironic. How did a story like Umineko create and encourage so many people to sanctify one "official answer" and taking any other attempt as an insult?? Like is anyone feeling how ryu07 completely fucked up at what he was trying to do?

"So I won't open the catbox and reveal what actually happened on the island." oh, that's cool, I actually really like that! I agree that ultimately the true events of that day are a pretty trivial part of the story, and it's way more interesting not to know - "anyway it's Rudolf and Kyrie and it happened exactly like so and so, and Shkanontrice did this and that".

... Okay, well I really wish that had remained a mystery forever, since the point was that any truth would've been anticlimatic, and the choice to reveal that genuinely kills a lot of what made Umineko's appeal to me, but I guess we can still have fun with EP1-4 and try several alternative theories for the sequence of events- "here's the manga explaining everything in detail and if you didn't get it have you tried maybe having some more love? It would be sooo clear if you had love lmfao. you literally cannot comprehend my work unless you have"

... I really wish that guy would stop making assumptions about the inner mind of complete strangers who read his work, but I do enjoy getting to choose an ending! it really fits in with Umineko's theme of choosing the truth for yourself and making your own path that you can be happy with, as long as you keep thinking- "the Magic ending is meant to be the true end btw. if you prefer the other one you pretty much have no heart lol, it's obviously framed like a bad ending and there's only one acceptable choice and one way ange can find happiness"

... man, I'm so bored. Why write a game like that and then make it so that some choices are better than others instead of letting people think for themselves? Why would you force an interpretation on people/Ange when I've been led to believe that the narrative was against that sort of things? You want to highlight the value in your vision of "magic", fine, but why am I the heartless bitch for disliking that perspective and even trying to see things differently?

Why would you write a whole game around the really fun concept of several tales happening at the same time and the existence of endless truths inside the same catbox only to open the catbox and tell me "NO, you need to think a certain way, and if you don't like my answer FUCK YOU"

I understand that maybe he just had a specific answer in mind but I'm sorry the way he write the ending simply does not match the vision he seemed to have in the earlier chapters.

I genuinely respect Umineko as a work, I think it's one of the most ambitious stories I've seen and there is some amazing writing in there, but if Ryukishi wanted to allow for people to keep thinking and discussing what it means, he has failed miserably and I'm not talking about confession of the golden witch, I'm talking about the way he and his minions have shut down any possible discussion under the guise of "you just don't get it" (rephrased to "you don't have love" to make it sound more enlightened) and it's soured my enjoyment of something that should've been an amazing story. What is even left to discuss here when everyone has pretty much already made up their mind?

[lookingforhappy]

The Birth Locations/Suitcase Reveal Sucks

before you read please don't take this too seriously, I don't have a problem with people who enjoy this reveal I just wish more people would consider/analyse this as I feel like it's very half-assed and not at all well thought out

I know I've written something like this before and i'm sorry to write this again, but I think my arguments have developed and I want to explain better why I hate this decision.

I am referring to this set of posters for season 3

as the stickers on the suitcases were revealed to be their birth locations by Jeff King (executive producer and director) on instagram

the actual answer to his question is "lila's sticker" but semantics/specifics who cares (me)

why I distrust the theory/trivia as a whole

something I think should be considered here is that this is the only confirmation of this piece of trivia.

another example of TUA trivia that has been confirmed by the creators is the statement by Blackman (god ik just ignore that part for now, that isnt the point of the post & he's still a/the creator) on a reddit AMA that Grace helped the siblings choose their names based on their birth countries

however, these are both poorly researched/prepared pieces of trivia because they blatantly contradict each other

Luther's birthplace is Sweden, but Luther isn't a Swedish name, nor was is popular in either 1989 when he was born or 2002 when he was first seen using his name.

Diego is always a fairly popular name in Spanish speaking countries like Mexico but it's hardly high on the list (only statistic I can find is ranked at 31.)

Allison is neither a South African name nor is it listed as it's top names.

Klaus is Germanic (kinda fits the theme) but as far as I can see Klaus is not a biblical name which is much more typical of the Amish. Klaus is also not listed amongst the top Amish names that I've seen.

Five obviously is an outlier here.

Ben is clearly not Korean, and while I have had fun discussing the roots of his name with others (Jae-min becoming Benjamin, and Bin becoming Ben) I don't think that there's any way that the creators will acknowledge this. Ben has origins in Hebrew and is not at all popular in Korea.

Vanya (the applicable name, as Viktor wasn't yet revealed) is a male name in Russia. it's female in other countries like Bulgaria, but not Russia. It's a nickname/evolution of the name Ivan. Vanya is also not a popular name in Russia, but Ivan does seem to be. And I seriously doubt that they're going to reveal that Viktor originally named himself Ivan while he was identifying as female and then decided to change his name anyway?

which is to say, the word of the creator cannot always be trusted/believed, because that's not necessarily what will be reflected in canon or by the other creators.

there is quite a history in fandom of creators not understanding the themes/plotholes of their own creations, so i'm a little stunned at how quickly everyone integrated this into their canon without a second thought.

i have arugments as to why these locations are bad choices for the characters, but first lets take a look at what i believe these stickers were meant to represent

Placing down a read more because this became huge.

what the other stickers reference/mean

it's no secret that i think the stickers were hints to the events (related to each character's arc) of season 3.

but before i get to that let's breakdown the rest of the stickers and their meanings:

all of the umbrella's have an umbrella sticker. Lila is the only one who doesn't (so if we're playing the "who is the odd one out" game then it still falls as Lila because she is the only one without the umbrella sticker)

Luther

Luther dies in Hotel Obsidian, and never makes it physically inside Oblivion or has any part in powering it - so his sticker has the colours/design of Obsidian.

Diego

Diego is one of/the first to discover Hotel Oblivion, so he has the Oblivion colours and logo.

Allison

Allison is involved in Reginald's plot to use Oblivion to reset thte universe, so gets Oblivion's logo instead of Obsidian.

Klaus

Klaus was the one to know and direct them to Hotel Obsidian, so he has that logo.

Five

Five's revelation that he was the Founder of the Commission, and the impact of that discovery, links him to the Commission more so than either hotel.

Viktor

viktor has the hotel Obsidian logo because he has very little impact on anything to do with Oblivion and is one of the votes that decides to remain and die in Obsidian.

Lila

Lila has the Commission because she was raised in the Commission, not the Umbrella Academy.

Lila has the Obsidian logo in opposition to Diego's Oblivion logo as she chooses the opposite of Diego (I personally believe they should have swapped these two but..)

why the birth locations are more likely/appropriate as hints for the events of season 3

Luther - Stockholm, Sweden

This is probably my strongest argument: He is made fun of for having "Stockholm Syndrome" within the show

found: Season 3, episode 3, minute 13.

Luther, obviously spends all of his character development/moments with the Sparrows and Sloane - being kidnapped by them and developing "Stockholm Syndrome" for Sloane (romantic) and for the Sparrows as a whole (platonic/idealism/escapism)

Luther's mother's newpaper cutting also mentions 911 being called, but 911 is not the emergency number of Sweden, 112 is. Argentina, Canada, Dominican Republic, Jordan, Mexico, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, the Philippines, Sint Maarten, the United States, and Uruguay use 911 but not Sweden.

If Monica wasn't in Sweden at the time of Luther's birth, then Stockholm is hardly his birth location.

throughout the seasons we get a few instances of Diego, Ben and Viktor speaking their native languages, hinting that the 7 were all taught their mother's languages (with Allison at least likely learning all 7)

But if Luther is Swedish, why didn't he or Diego know what Oga For Oga meant if that's Luther's mother's language? and why was Five the only person who seemed to understand Swedish when he's not the Swede of the family? Why did Diego not at least recognise his brother's supposed second language? Or Luther for that matter?

Luther was a part of the Academy for 23+ years, longer than anyone, yet Reginald (who expects the best of his children) didn't bother enforcing this as a part of his education? his number one had a worse education than his number 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7?

Diego - Mexico

Diego apparently doesn't even get the luxury of a city, place or region. But I can confirm that his mother's newspaper cutting states that he was born in a "small town in Northern Mexico".

However, Diego's sticker could instead be a reference to the Aztecs or Mayans - his sticker has mayan/aztec pyramids on it, I believe maybe Chichen Itza specifically?? Ancient civilisations that were very advanced for their time, and that are somewhat frequently involved in alien conspiracies.

Diego is one the one to open Oblivion when he removes the harpoon, and is the first to enter it and confront the Guardians.

Oblivion is an Ancient building/place built by an Ancient civilisation of what is assumed to be aliens, and Reginald (confirmed alien) is the one to have directed them into Oblivion at first as well.

Allison - Cape Town, South Africa

Nelson Mandela is pretty famous for his part in the anti-apartheid (segregation) movement, helping to end segregation in South Africa. He was jailed in a Cape Town prison for attempting to sabotage the pro-segregation government, and then later his office as president was located in Cape Town.

an easy connection to make with Allison's arc in season 2, and the significance of it in her arc in season 3, with her dealing with PTSD, grief over Ray, and feeling alienated by her family who didn't have the same experience as her in the 60s.

Allson's mother has nothing connecting her to South Africa outside of this, as far as I'm aware.

Klaus - Pennsylvania, USA

This one I will concede is about his birth location. But in this case, it's also heavily related to his season 3 arc, as he is the driving force of the mothers plotline and literally travels to Pennsylvania.

PA is a strong and relevant hint for his s3 arc.

Five - Dublin, Ireland

Five could be connected to Ireland in multiple ways.

(there is a link between Five and JFK, "the 1st Irish American President" but I can't see the link to s3 here so honorary mention only).

A link that I understand is a somewhat touchy topic for any Irish citizens is the stereotype of drunkeness in Ireland. While there have been studies to prove that Ireland doesn't drink more than other countries such as England, it remains a well-known stereotype and the Irish people are statistically more prone to alcohol dependency/addiction.

There is also the phrase "make it Irish" which means to put alcohol in a drink, one of the more popular drinks to do this to is coffee. Which brings us back to Five - he is known for his love of coffee and for getting spectacularly drunk.

season 3 in particular features his drinking addiction in it's full glory. it's also plot relevant as his drunkness causes the murder mystery setup of the final episodes.

(also, while it's not great to have Ireland be the hint to alcohol, it's also not great to have Five, the alcoholic of the series, be the Irish representation)

Another interpretation could be the root of the name "Dublin" meaning "black pool". It was likely derived from the River Poddle which would have been stained black with peat. This could be a hint towards Five's elusive role as the Founder, as his life so far has been stained with childhood abuse, the apocalypse and his foray as an assassin, making the reveal of the Founder a shock.

One other interpretation is the Irish vs. English. Five is perhaps the most skeptical of Reginald throughout season 3, moreso than even Luther or Diego. While England has enraged many countries, Ireland is one of the most well known for it's dislike of the English, and has a lengthy history of war and altercations with England. So Five's sticker may be a hint for his re-ignited distrust of Reginald. It also works well as a predictor for Five and Lila's (English) bathroom fight.

Five's mother's newpaper cutting has several contradictions to the Ireland, Dublin location. First and foremost being that she is cited as being from both a "small seaside community" and from "county clark".

There is no County Clark in Ireland, but there is a County Clare and a County Cork. However, County Clare is on the opposite side of Ireland to Dublin and County Cork is even farther away,

Dublin, as the Capital City, is also not a "small seaside community" by any stretch of the imagination.

And the Irish police would likely not be referred to as "provincial" but instead be called Gardaí or The Garda Síochána.

Viktor - Moscow, Russia

Moscow is seen in season 1, episode 1 very briefly as Reginald arrives to adopt Viktor. You can see both the Spasskaya Tower and St Basil's Cathedral. Viktor also speaks Russian, something that none of his siblings have demonstrated.

However, this is not actually Viktor's birthplace (if we believe that the props have canon information, as most argue that Diego is definately from Mexico due to his cutting stating his mother was in Northern Mexico, etc) as according to his book Viktor was born in "small town off the Southern coast of Russia".

Moscow is nowhere near the coast and is not exactly southern either, nor is it a small town. And while this isn't exaclty specified that the "small town" he visits is the place he was born, it wouldn't make much sense if it wasn't, as Viktor was able to track his mother down via newspaper articles about his birth.

Moscow could mean a lot of things for Viktor's arc:

it could be a reference to s1, ep1 but instead of his exact birth location, it could simply hint to his mother's country and toward Harlan's involvement in the mothers' deaths - and the long reach of his powers from America to Russia.

It could also be a hint to Viktor's significance as a much more involved and aware plot driver this season as Moscow is the politcal centre of Russia as its capital city.

It might also hint at his disconnect from his family (not being a part of the Academy and not understanding the hard decisions and necessary teamwork that come with it) causing tensions, as while Moscow is the political capital, Saint Petersburg is considered the cultural capital.

Plus Moscow's history as the capital works well as a parallel to his journey with his powers, and works as a hint to Viktor developing his powers with Harlan because Moscow also briefly lost its status as the capital to Saint Petersburg, possibly a parallel to Viktor, the most powerful of the Umbrellas, losing his powers to Reginald's drugs. Moscow was later restored as the capital, paralleling Viktor's regaining of his powers.

Lila - Berlin

Lila is nice and simple, she was considered the outlier by Jeff King anyway as her suitcase doesn't match her confirmed birth place (London), and instead is a pretty obvious hint to her time in West Berlin, Germany, with Trudy and Stan.

why i dislike the chosen locations as the birth locations

in general I think it's silly to choose almost all capital cities: Dublin, Moscow, Cape Town, Stockholm, Seoul..

I know these are populous places but there must have been some variation? (aside from Klaus, who has plot armour for this point due to his Amish origins, and Diego, who is the only non-capital city purely because he wasn't given the dignity of a named city/town/village)

it's also lazy writing (and i believe somewhat racist?) to have every sibling come from the country/continent you'd expect?

the latino is mexican

the black woman is african

the asian man is asian

the blonde haired/blue eyed man is scandinavian

even Klaus, Five and Viktor are all white men from predominantly white countries.

at least try to subvert expectations?

to an extent i understand that they were trying to incorporate the actors ethnicities with Justin having korean roots, and David being raised in mexico. But the only irish thing about Aidan is his surname, and Emmy has no known connection to South Africa. I'm also pretty sure Tom isn't swedish at all and Elliot isn't russian.

it's lazy, poorly planned and honestly highly questionable writing at best

[toxicsquad]

There seems to be a lack of ask for my gorgeous wife Anjali so I'm here to fix it ‼️ Can we get fun facts about her??

Hi anon! Sorry it took me so long to reply but I hope I have satisfied your curiosity with the following answer.

The mutant community had to be quite large, therefore, we decided to create two representatives that would give the image of a well-established community with good foundations. Mutants were always thought of as a necessary resource for the survival of the human community. They have more experience surviving and managing a large population but, prejudices were strong and would bring new conflicts. With that we could give a big boost to the camp in the middle of a resource crisis but, opening the door to other kinds of challenges.

Anjali never wanted to be a leader. Dio was more prepared for it because he was an engineer and managed to add a lot of infrastructures that helped them grow and improve the quality of life inside the tunnels but, he always had the obstacle of not being a charismatic person, nor with too much tact. Anjali helped a lot during the first years providing psychological help to the mutants, which quickly won the affection and respect of everyone around her. In a short time she began to establish herself as Dio's counterpart. If he was the mind, Anjali was the heart. For some time he had already discussed what they would do if they managed to leave the tunnels. When you managed to free them, as hard as it was, it was always clear to them that the resources and the group should be divided. Anajali would be of more use on the outside where you needed to mediate and appease the environments, while Dio would stay in the tunnels with most of the infrastructure to make sure the mutants always had somewhere to go.

Anjali is of Indian origin and her name means ‘angel’. Her name has no double meaning, she is simply a savior for her community and we liked her for it. And although she makes mistakes like everyone else, her will and heart are always in the right place. Her third arm, for whoever is interested, is fully functional but, it is a bit uncomfortable when she sleeps and her antennae help her to sense vibrations. It is not in itself a very useful power but, he could sense the collapse of tunnels many meters away thanks to them. Almost all mutations are adaptive. That's why Anjali's antennae had a function inside the tunnels, like the swimming gills of others of her companions, etc. If you ask me personally, who is the most upstanding and caring character in the game, probably, I would say her. No matter if Arael's intentions are pure, sometimes her actions contradict but, Anjali is sacrifice, effort and honesty made character. She is always available for anyone who needs a therapy session anytime.

Ask masterlist

[the-somwthing]

Welcome to my little meta analysis essay called

Why do we misremember Flower Husbands as being “nicer” than it was?

Disclaimer: I’m not here to talk about whether or not FH is “toxic” or anything like that. It’s just a fact that many old fans rewatching FH POV and new fans who are watching it for the first time after seeing fan content tend to be surprised at how they actually behaved in the series compared to how everyone remembered them being back in the day. This will NOT go over whether or not I think FH is unhealthy or whatever and instead just discuss why I believe this phenomenon has happened.

So, if I try to make this a fancy well written essay, I’ll be here all day, so I’ll just get to the point. 3rd Life came out during the DSMP era of mcyt. MCRP has been around for ages, but the DSMP style of RP (which I’ll be calling “smp rp”) was pretty much popularized by DSMP, mostly towards the end of 2020. For reference, 3rd Life started early 2021, so there’s about a half a year between these two events, and DSMP kept going for years so 3rd Life was absolutely happening during the golden era of DSMP.

But what does DSMP have to do with this? Well, it sort of created this idea of “lore” and only specific things being “canon”. You can make fun of me for the way I worded that, but you know what I mean, DSMP was weird about that stuff. I don’t really blame them as it was kind of a new style of RP they accidentally spawned, but still, it was a confusing time for SMPs.

3rd Life was actually less like DSMP and more like the modern SMP RPs, where there’s no (known, lol) scripted events and the fandom itself deciphers what is or isn’t “canon” rather than it being told to them, with mostly everything being considered canon. HOWEVER, I do believe that DSMP’s style did still affect the fandom, specifically with the topic of this essay, Flower Husbands.

But why would it only really affect Flower Husbands? Now we get into a rough topic: shipping discourse. Back in those days, shipping in the mcyt fandom was heavily frowned upon. Moreso than it is today (I know it’s still around, but it was a lot worse the earlier we go lol). I’ve even seen old relics of ppl saying flower husbands should only be portrayed as platonic cuz it’s wrong to ship them, despite their team name literally being husbands. But more importantly, for A LOT of people, flower husbands was the One Ship people felt “allowed” to ship, BECAUSE it was canon. So they would allow FH and shun every other ship.

My point isn’t actually that, with it being the only “acceptable” ship everyone tried to make it more wholesome, though I suppose that could be a contributor. But my ACTUAL point is where all the things I laid out finally close in on each other:

Ships were a Dangerous territory in mcyt fandom, and ships being “canon” was something a lot of people weren’t prepared to deal with. People don’t want to get too close to RPF territory, but back in the day their ideas of c! vs cc! wasn’t as great, so they default to the DSMP Rule of “if it’s stated to be roleplay, then it’s canon to the characters, if not, it’s noncanon and just the CCs hanging out”.

You see where I’m going with this? When trying to follow this rule for a character relationship where they don’t explicitly state what is or isn’t RP, they hear “we’re married” and instantly mark that as canon to the characters since it clearly isn’t true to the CCs, and tend to block out anything else, otherwise you’re risking it not actually being true to the characters. Especially when it’s things like Scott saying something mean about Jimmy; that directly contradicts the “these characters are in love” thing, so it must not be canon, right?

But wouldn’t people still remember that these things happened, or did they actually straight up not process any of it? My answer to that is: of course everyone was paying attention, but with the context that it’s the CCs playing a video game, all of the teasing and other behavior seems WAY less serious. It just looks like average friends playing a hunger games smp together. And as I explained earlier, the fandom was ONLY processing this as a CC thing, so Scott’s treatment of Jimmy never stood out because that’s just how it is playing games.

Back to DSMP, I’m not active in that fandom anymore but I’ll see snippets sometimes, and I’ve seen the claim that beeduo was actually boring in canon and the fandom was the one that made it interesting. I feel like this is exactly what happened with FH. Nobody was actually expecting anyone to go hard into romantic roleplay, so the fans just take whichever pair says they’re getting married and fill in the blanks themselves. And that was normal back then, it wasn’t fans making stuff up for no reason, it was kind of expected of us.

So yeah, I personally believe that this whole confusion about FH is a result of its time. Whether you want to finally look at the actual substance of the relationship rather than following weird rules about what is or isn’t “canon”, or you believe that since FH was from a time where romantic RP was confusing and weird it would make the most sense to take into account the time period it came from and ignore the less appealing bits in favor of the fanon, I don’t really care honestly. But man isn’t this an interesting situation.

[strawberry-halla]

dragon age: the veilguard - a review: part one - the setting & reality

hello everyone! this is the first part of a multi-part review of dragon age: the veilguard.

disclaimer! i am not a professional reviewer, i am just another fan that thoroughly enjoys the dragon age series. my opinion is not at all the pen-ultimate truth, i'm just here to share my thoughts!

criticism and comments are welcome! i appreciate any and all discussions about dragon age! feel free to dm or send an ask if you'd like to share your own thoughts!

[this post contains spoilers for the entirety of dragon age: the veilguard, please do not click the 'read more' if you do not want to be spoiled! you have been warned!]

before we get into the setting of veilguard, we have to talk about the setting of dragon age itself. dragon age is labelled as a dark fantasy series. there's discussions of slavery, sexism, racism, and so much more. this dark setting is one of the most compelling features about the series. many people (myself included) praise dragon age for depicting such well-written worldbuilding of these dark themes.

in veilguard, these dark themes still exist in some forms. however, the themes have been watered down to some extent. for example, minrathous has been described in all previous three entries as the slave capital of tevinter. it is all but normalized in their society, engrained in the politics and economy of the imperium. i can't help but feel like it was deliberately avoided by the writers to depict this society.

i want to clarify that i am not at all saying veilguard NEEDED to show slavery to the worst of its' extent to be labeled as 'dark' in any way. i am a firm believer that depicting dark themes should be done as respectfully as possible. it should make sense in context of the world around it and shouldn't be done for 'shock factor' or a fuel to make an 'evil' character 'someone the player should dislike.' and it definitely shouldn't be carelessly thrown into the story for the sake of just saying, 'hey our game is dark! look at this bad stuff in it!'

this is just one example of a problem i have with the setting of veilguard. cultural identities between nations and societies seem to blur together or are completely omitted. this leads into a whole other problem veilguard has: the lack of past choice diversity.

when i found out veilguard not only was NOT using dragon age keep, it was only going to import 3 choices....from inquisition. and two of them were locked behind trespasser.....a dlc. ouch. i was....not happy. i still am not. part of dragon age's entire identity is that the previous game's choices were reflected in the sequel. it was an extremely cool and fun feature that had me excited to see how different decisions impacted current events and characters. yeah well! it's gone now. sorry!

veilguard suffers from this decision. part of dragon age's identity is wiped away and the sting still hurts. the setting is locked into a difficult path of vague references to past events, hiding them in codices strewn throughout veilguard, or never brought up.

however! this does not make veilguard unredeemable. the setting they do salvage from this difficult situation is still a compelling one. i thoroughly enjoy northern thedas, even if it is not exactly what i envision due to the constraints. each location is unique and memorable in their own way. i personally LOVE nevarra and the grand necropolis. i love the gothic imagery, culture, and the mourn watch faction as a whole. one of the great many new additions to the setting of dragon age.

veilguard does a good job of showing the player all the new or, offhandedly mentioned stuff in previous titles, without contradicting itself (for the most part). a lot of returning factions (i.e. the antivan crows, the grey wardens) have new layers of depth that make sense! the passage of time between entries helps with this, because it's perfectly understandable that organizations change overtime and adapt to new factors. i would not have liked origins's depiction of the grey wardens and the antivan crows 20 in-game years later. i'm glad things were changed or referenced as lessons for these organizations to learn from.

i'm not here to forgive and forget all that we could have had with veilguard. i agree with most criticisms with the game. the setting is the factor that suffers the most because of all that was taken away with 'the 3 choices.' i mourn what we could have had if dragon age keep was considered viable. but sometimes you just have to accept or reject what you get. people that reject veilguard aren't wrong for doing so. it's extremely sad and upsetting of what we COULD have had with joplin or morrison. but we didn't get those versions of 'dragon age 4,' to be honest it's a miracle we got a fourth game at all.

phew. there's part one! i got a bit heavy at the end but yeah, there we go. part two will come whenever i decide to write it i guess? part two is going to be about the storyline! i think this part is going to be a little bit more difficult to shrink down because i have many thoughts! so many! see you then!

[coral0208]

Travis Touchdown and Shinobu Jacobs share a lot of similarities that we may not realize through the game. I will discuss how they relate through themes and numbers. The themes I will discuss are Love/Approval - Vengeance - Maturity.

Shinobu: In NMH1 (Vengeance), Shinobu is first seen with her classmates before Travis interrupts her. She then proceeds to confront Travis and kills her classmates because her identity as an assassin has been revealed. Shinobu harbored a deep hatred for Travis, thinking that he was the one who killed her father. She was consumed with vengeance, and her only reason to participate in the ranked fights was to avenge her father. When Travis defeated her, she instantly told him to kill her because she no longer had any purpose in life. However, Travis decided to spare her. Shinobu's view of Travis shifted—she was no longer willing to kill him. This change can be seen at the end of the game when she saves Travis from Jeane.

In NMH2 (Love/Approval), Shinobu addresses Travis as "Master." She begins to show great admiration for him, even to the point of attempting to kiss him. Despite her defeat and losing an arm in the previous game, she was willing to help Travis in the ranked fights. However, this attraction did not last long because Travis rejected her attempt to kiss him, stating that it was inappropriate. After that event, she is no longer seen in the game.

In NMH3 (Maturity), Shinobu is now much older and more mature. It is said in Travis Strikes Again that she began teaching martial arts to kids to lead them to a righteous life and that she maintains the dojo with money earned from assassination jobs. She is no longer driven by hate or the need for approval. Instead, she seeks to do what is right for others.

Travis: In NMH1 (Lust), Travis started his career as an assassin because he needed money, later joining the ranked fights. He was devoted to becoming number one because he promised Sylvia that if he made it to the top, she would have to "do it" with him. He was so blinded by lust that he felt no pity for his victims. However, after killing Holly Summers, he began to feel remorse. He also felt a bit of pity for Jeane after killing her, realizing that not everyone becomes an assassin for fun. It remains unclear whether or not he had an affair with Sylvia.

In NMH2 (Vengeance), Travis’s best friend was murdered. He felt the need to avenge his friend and kill the person responsible. This drove him to rejoin the ranking fights, even though it meant climbing a much longer ladder to the top. At one point, he forgot the reason he was fighting. It took many confrontations for him to realize he no longer wanted to continue killing because it was an endless cycle. He learned that killing was not the answer to grief, contradicting his earlier line, “I cut off heads.”

In NMH3 (Maturity), Travis is now a father. He even insisted that Sylvia keep him away from their children for their safety because he might attract other assassins. Travis no longer participates in ranking fights (against humans) because he realizes it is pointless and that the UAA manipulates his emotions. In Travis Strikes Again, he isolates himself from the city to live a peaceful life. Now, Travis seeks a life of peace, away from danger.

Numbers: The numbers I will be focusing on are 8 and 2 because of their deep connection to these two characters.

The number 8 represents victory and luck in Japan. Shinobu was the 8th-ranked assassin and was lucky to survive her confrontation with Travis. Although she was defeated, she still had a life to continue. Ryugi was the 7th-ranked assassin, making Travis the 8th. Travis finally found an opponent worthy of him. Their fight was fair and square, which is why Travis’s victory meant so much to him. He didn’t feel like it was another meaningless fight.

The number 2 is a symbol of love, friendship, personal growth, and learning. In NMH1, Travis was ranked 2nd. When Jeane was about to kill him, Shinobu appeared out of nowhere and saved him. This shows that after their last encounter, Shinobu had chosen to save the person who had cut off her arm and supposedly killed her father. It demonstrates that Shinobu was developing feelings for Travis.

In NMH2, Alice Twilight was the 2nd-ranked assassin. Before their fight, she told Travis that there was no meaning to killing—that it was a vicious cycle. Travis didn’t take her words seriously at first. However, after defeating her, he realized what she meant. This became his moment of realization and marked the start of his personal growth. He finally understood that all the deaths he caused were meaningless.

This game is so rich for analysis. Suda51 is truly a master at writing plots and characters.

[takepon007]

Detective Erika Furudo’s Serious Deduction11

Chapter of Erika Furudo’s EP7 Deductions

Direction of Motive Deduction

In the seventh game, the focus will likely be on motive deduction, but as a premise, we must construct a motive that does not contradict the following three red truths:

“The purpose is not to make anyone experience fear.”

“It is not for the sake of revenge against anyone.”

“…Beato does not commit murder for pleasure.”

In a mystery, the classic motives for murder—revenge, fear, and pleasure—are all denied by the red truth. Only two fragments remain, huh? That was quick. I’ll occasionally weave in deductions about magic, and the reason for doing so is that it’s crucial for interpreting Ange’s heart at the end. This applies to both the game board’s Ange and the writer Ange’s heart, which ties to the meaning of the Magic Ending. Why did writer Ange remodel the House of the Gospel to resemble Rokkenjima’s hall? It relates to that reason—a deduction about her deeply loving psychology. The key to unlocking this is the deduction of magic. The critical point is that magic has a front and a back, and those who use magic must know the truth behind it. Actually, my favorite thing to deduce is the eighth game. It may seem like there’s little to deduce at first glance, but that’s not true.

Stories That Reveal and Stories That Conceal

From my perspective, deducing a story that ends without revealing anything is fun, but stories that reveal and those that conceal each have different kinds of enjoyment. Choosing which enjoyment to offer is a matter of selection—you can’t have both. It’s a tricky thing. The enjoyment of a revealing story is like what’s happening in the manga now—the classic mystery pleasure of revelation. The enjoyment of a concealing story is easier to grasp if you play EP8 of the original after knowing the manga’s information: the joy of grasping metaphors. The truth isn’t revealed, but by deducing and forming hypotheses, you can sense what Battler and the others are trying to convey to Ange. That pleasure is incredibly fun. It’s an enjoyment only possible because the truth isn’t revealed, and such an experience is rare. Those who’ve experienced it with this work are truly fortunate. Treasure that experience.

Deduction of the Incident’s Truth

In the fifth game, we discussed Yasu’s deduction: he reached the truth too late. This can be understood from that deduction alone, but what’s crucial is what happened to Sayo on Rokkenjima in 1986. What plan did she devise, what beliefs drove her to carry out the incident, what actually happened on Rokkenjima as a result, what did she feel during the incident, what did she lose, and what outcome did the roulette present? Deducing this is extremely painful, but it cannot be avoided. Originally, this part was meant to be deduced logically, not emotionally burdensome, but with how much the manga revealed, the reality seeps into the logic, doesn’t it? That’s my concern. What will the manga do? Ideally, it would “fully reveal Yasu’s real-world truth,” but Confession left parts like “the promise inferred from a lie” and “the duplicate identity trick premised on a forged manuscript” unaddressed. They’re intentionally leaving some mysteries.

Which Motive to Deduce

Let’s move to the seventh game. Since the tricks and world structure have already been fully deduced, the main focus is Yasu’s motive and the contents of the cat box. First, let’s define the motive precisely. The motive I’m deducing is “the real-world Sayo Yasuda’s motive,” not “the motive of the game board’s culprit piece, Beatrice, aka Sayo Yasuda.” Since this is closely tied to the real-world Yasu’s story, I’m deducing the real-world Sayo’s motive. The difference between the two lies in whether murder occurs and the outcome of the roulette, necessitating this distinction. On the game board, the culprit piece, under GM Beatrice’s control, commits murder to pose a puzzle to Battler. From the meta-world perspective, it’s like chess, so the weight of murder is absent. From the piece’s perspective, murder is committed, but since the purpose is “to convey a message to meta-world Battler using such a game board,” strictly speaking, it’s not murder. Pieces are reset and revived with each new game board, so it’s merely a means. Deducing the motive of the game board’s culprit piece is meaningless, so let’s deduce the real-world Sayo Yasuda’s motive based on the clues presented in the story.

Typhoon

First, what was she trying to do in 1986? Let’s consider the typhoon. On the game board, a typhoon hits 100% of the time on the day of the incident, isolating the island. In the real world, when Sayo planned the incident, it’s impossible to predict whether a typhoon would hit that day—it’s weather, after all. Thus, it’s natural to assume Sayo didn’t incorporate the uncertain element of a typhoon into her plan. Whether a typhoon hits or not relates to whether the island is isolated from the outside world and whether the police are contacted. Since it’s impossible to include an uncertain element like a typhoon, it’s deducible that Sayo’s incident is “a plan that holds regardless of whether a typhoon hits.” Even if a typhoon doesn’t hit, it poses no issue, suggesting the plan isn’t one that would lead to police involvement. This involves some speculation, so keep it in mind as “likely such a plan.”

Cash Card

Next, consider the cash card foreshadowing from the fourth game. Nanjo’s son checks the money on the cash card at the bank, and over 20 lamps were lit. This means Sayo sent at least 20 cards to the victims’ families. Two possibilities arise: “payment to accomplices” or “apology money for murder.” The former is unlikely since cards were sent to nonexistent addresses, returned by the post office, and sent in numbers exceeding the people on Rokkenjima. It’s straightforward to deduce they’re apology money.

These two elements—typhoon and cash card—lead to contradictory deductions. The typhoon suggests a plan unlikely to involve the police, while the cash card suggests murder. Ultimately, the incident’s peripheral information doesn’t pinpoint the motive. Thus, we’ll identify the motive in two steps: first, pinpoint the purpose of the incident, then identify the specific plan to achieve it. One note: there’s a slight difference between the “real-world motive” and the “forged manuscript world motive.” While broadly the same, the game board’s culprit piece is “forced to commit murder by the GM,” making murder-based motive deduction impossible from the piece’s perspective. This will become clear during the deduction.

Identifying the Incident’s Purpose

What is the purpose? In the fifth game, these red truths provided clues:

“The purpose is not to make anyone experience fear.”

“It is not for the sake of revenge against anyone.”

“Beato does not commit murder for pleasure.”

Thus, it’s not a classic mystery motive. The incident in 1986 isn’t driven by such purposes. From the game board’s piece perspective, the “forced murder” restriction ties the motive to killing, but from the meta-world GM perspective, it’s not. Let’s refer to Clair’s line in the seventh game, which likely indicates the purpose:

“We held a duel. It was nearing its conclusion. But the year 1986 was far too merciless. Why 1986…?”

The word “duel” rings a bell. Yes, the Trial of Love duel depicted by Battler in the sixth game, as proof of understanding the truth. In the end, Shannon and Kanon stake their lives to fulfill their love. Will said that if Battler hadn’t returned in 1986, the incident wouldn’t have happened. Why? If Battler didn’t return, Sayo’s love would have focused on George. If the purpose of Sayo’s incident wasn’t revenge, pleasure, or fear but purely to resolve her love, Battler’s return in 1986 caused her loves to overlap. Beyond this love conflict, Sayo faces several obstacles.

Obstacles to Love

Her inability to bear children. Being the daughter of Kuwadorian Beatrice, making it an incestuous relationship. Facing 1986 without confessing these issues. These are significant obstacles. Sayo’s purpose in carrying out the incident likely stems from this: “Using the incident as a roulette to resolve her overlapping loves and, if a miracle occurs, achieve happiness in reality.”

Interpreting the Mass Suicide by Explosion

One crucial element: on the game board, the incident includes a mass killing by explosion. As deduced in the second game, this is a “risk setting to fulfill a magical miracle,” rooted in the magical system’s philosophy. Let’s quote some foreshadowing. From Kinzo in the second game:

“Today, I will perform a ceremony. It’s closer to a gamble than a ceremony. Because magic without risk cannot house a miracle.”

From Maria:

“Magic requires risk. (…) Every great magic has a weakness or risk. No, it must have one.”

“Humans can create miracles by risking death. An immortal human would have no reason to create miracles. …Our lives, witches, and ceremonies—we can achieve nothing without taking risks.”

Finally, from Battler in the fifth game, when he reached the truth too late:

“Don’t mess with me… If it’s such a complex, boasted mystery, don’t set a time limit….”

“…No, …I get it…. In that fleeting miracle, …you prayed, didn’t you…. …You were the same as Grandfather.”

See the philosophy? For Sayo, with her numerous love obstacles, to wish for happiness in the real world, she must carry out an incident risking her own death. Only then might her love obstacles be overcome, and a miracle achieved.

Love Obstacles and Solutions

Are there logical solutions to her love obstacles? Possibilities exist, but they’re highly unlikely. For the incest issue, as mentioned before, Sayo was likely raised as “Sayo Yasuda” in the House of the Gospel, receiving a headship registry from the state. Legally, she’s not in the Ushiromiya registry, so the blood relation isn’t apparent, making marriage legally possible. However, this requires hiding the truth or “gaining the partner’s understanding,” the latter needing a miracle of acceptance. The infertility issue is similar—George’s acceptance requires a miracle. The overlapping loves also require a miracle during the incident. For Sayo’s love to be fulfilled in reality, miracles are needed—elements beyond her control, left to prayer. If she still wishes for happiness and miracles despite her circumstances, she’d perform a ceremony to achieve them. That’s the mass suicide by explosion—a risk setting where she and her loved ones might die. If a miracle occurs during the incident, her love might be fulfilled. This deduction is built from the story’s foreshadowing.

The Roulette of Love

What is the roulette Sayo set as a means to resolve her love and achieve a miracle? The fifth game explicitly provided clues, already deduced, but let’s review the red truths:

“No one gains anything from someone solving the epitaph.”

“The gold of the Golden Land originally belongs to this child. There’s no need to let someone find it or steal it.”

“Whether the epitaph’s riddle is solved or not, this child gains nothing.”

“Whether the epitaph is solved or not, Beato gains nothing.”

Beatrice’s love interest is Battler, as shown in the sixth game’s wedding foreshadowing: “I created this story to be with you. Thus, this world’s purpose is fulfilled.” However, solving the epitaph brings Beatrice no benefit, per the red truths. Logically, Beatrice’s love depends on Battler reaching the incident’s truth. Sayo’s roulette for choosing Battler is “Battler solving the epitaph murder mystery, recalling his promise, and accepting Sayo.” The act of solving the epitaph interrupts the Battler route, benefiting Shannon, who has nurtured her love before the incident. Thus, solving the epitaph equals the Shannon route. Since one of Sayo’s love obstacles is resolving the overlapping loves, the incident is designed to have someone else resolve it. The incident must achieve “marrying George” or “marrying Battler.” The only roulette explicitly shown in the story is the “epitaph and epitaph murders” from the fifth game, leading to the deduction: “Solving the epitaph means choosing George; solving the incident’s truth means choosing Battler.” However, there’s one issue.

Kanon-Jessica Route

In the real world, the “Kanon and Jessica’s love” is highly complex. It’s unclear from foreshadowing whether Kanon exists in reality, making it an undeducible element. From the roulette perspective, no Kanon route is found, suggesting Kanon doesn’t exist in reality, but this is too rough a deduction. The disappearance of bodies during the incident hints at fantasy, but it’s not conclusive. It’s frustrating to rely on speculation, but let’s hypothesize: “Since Kanon doesn’t exist in reality, his roulette doesn’t exist.” That’s likely the case.

Identifying the Plan

From the deduced elements, let’s identify the specific incident plan. Sayo’s purpose is to resolve her love through the roulette of the epitaph being solved or Battler uncovering the incident’s truth, aiming to achieve happiness. Let’s devise a plan that doesn’t contradict this purpose, the typhoon, or the cash card.

Planned Murder Theory

Assume Sayo intended to commit murder in 1986. If the epitaph is solved before the incident, it ends without victims, achieving the George route. However, if someone is killed during the incident, as in the third game, and the epitaph is solved afterward, a logical contradiction arises. A murderer being accepted and fulfilling love is impossible. Even if a miracle occurs, Sayo’s purpose becomes unachievable, lacking psychological consistency. Since her goal is to resolve love and achieve happiness, actively eliminating that possibility contradicts human behavior principles. The same applies if Battler solves the mystery—the Battler route only exists after the incident, so murder makes the purpose unachievable. Additionally, it contradicts the typhoon’s implication of a plan unlikely to involve the police. Logically, Sayo cannot plan murder in the real world.

Hoax Murder TheoryAssume it was a hoax, not murder, just a performance. This doesn’t work either. It contradicts the cash card, which suggests mass murder, and the “explosion risk setting for a miracle.”

You’ve likely realized it, but the possibilities narrow to one. Execute the incident as a hoax murder until the eighth twilight, and if no miracle occurs by then, proceed with a mass suicide by explosion after the ninth twilight. This solution satisfies all elements without contradiction—a fully logical plan.

Foreshadowing of Hoax Murder

Let’s review the hoax murder foreshadowing, specifically the special clause in the witch’s letter:

Special Clause:

At the end of the contract, Beatrice has the right to reclaim the gold and interest. However, if someone uncovers the hidden contract’s gold, Beatrice must permanently relinquish all rights. Interest collection begins now, but if anyone among you fulfills the special clause, everything collected, including what’s already taken, will be returned.

Even if people are killed, solving the epitaph returns everything, including those killed. This is feasible only with a hoax murder. As an aside, Sayo’s motive can also be inferred from Clair’s words to Lion:

“Thank you… Be happy. Meet a wonderful person… I hope you live as a human, not awakening as a witch… With one soul, love your one true love completely… I wish for you to live such a life.”

This suggests Clair’s awareness of multiple overlapping loves.

Why Deduce the Motive in Such Detail?

Before tackling the cat box, why do we need to deduce this? Sayo’s motive and the cat box’s contents are deduced to logically determine “what happened to Sayo on Rokkenjima and what happened to Battler as a result.” This aims to identify “the true real-world truth,” the story’s core. Thus, motive deduction builds meticulous logic to make these elements deducible. It enables deducing “the heart of Beatrice, who drowned herself.” In a mystery, even the heart must be deduced logically—and it’s possible. I believe so, as a detective.

The Cat Box’s Contents

We’ve identified Sayo’s incident purpose and specific plan. Now, the cat box’s contents. The manga revealed this as the truth, but let’s deduce it based on evidence. If the cat box’s contents are deducible from clues, the question is whether the seventh game’s tragedy story is true or false. If false, the contents become unidentifiable, so it’s likely true, but it must be deduced from clues. There are four major clues to ensure consistency. Let’s verify them individually. Even the unrevealed cat box can be deduced to a “likely this” degree.

First, consider Eva avoiding the 1986 explosion at Kuwadorian. What route did she take? The clues are: “The underground VIP room has a path to an underground passage leading to Kuwadorian,” and “Rosa stumbled upon it from the forest as a child.” The latter is unlikely since Rosa said, “I couldn’t go back even if told to.” The former is probable. Going from the underground VIP room to the passage suggests the epitaph was solved during the incident. It’s highly likely the epitaph was solved on the real Rokkenjima—clue one.

Second, why only Eva survived? If it were Eva’s conspiracy, as rumored, George and Hideyoshi should have survived, but only Eva did. This suggests someone else killed them.

Third, Eva’s attitude toward Ange—not revealing Rokkenjima’s truth. Possible reasons are “maliciously withholding” or “protecting Ange from a painful truth.” The eighth game suggests the latter.

Finally, writer Ange’s encounter with Yasu’s testimony: “We escaped to the submarine base.” The plural “we” implies someone else, deducible from the tragedy story. Kyrie and Rudolf’s guns are often noted as “having faulty aim.” When Beatrice was shot by Kyrie, it’s written, “The witch spilled blood from her mouth,” not that she died. When Eva awoke from Kyrie’s gunfire, it’s described: “Beside her was the corpse of her beloved husband. The corpses of Krauss and his wife, Rosa’s corpse. A room of death with bodies strewn about,” but Beatrice’s corpse is notably absent. This suggests Sayo and Battler escaped, tying to the island escape depicted in the eighth game. These four clues all point to the seventh game’s tragedy story.

The deduction is that the tragedy story is the truth. The circumstantial evidence aligns perfectly, so it’s almost certain. In that story, Beatrice explains things to the family who solved the epitaph but is extremely listless, as if everything is meaningless. Matching this with her motive, it’s deducible that “Shannon’s victory condition was met, determining her own death.” There’s foreshadowing for this in Beatrice’s character description:

It’s a futile dream for a human to kill me.

Even shooting lead bullets would only rebound like a mirror.

But there’s one way to kill me.

That method is in your hands.

Though it’s likely impossible for a mere mortal like you?

Kihihihihihihihihi!

Kukkukkukkukkukku!

This “method” is likely solving the epitaph. Solving it cuts off Beatrice’s love, leading to her death during personality unification, along with her love for Battler.

The cat box and motive deductions are complete. With these two keys, what happened to Sayo on Rokkenjima should be identifiable. I’ll tackle that in the eighth game. For now, consider it with these keys—you’ll surely understand.

Beatrice’s Funeral

Let’s move to other parts. In the seventh game, Beatrice’s funeral is held, where Will says something important:

“People are saved only when understood by someone. Even years after death… A pitiful witch who ended her life without being understood by the man she most wanted to understand her—someone should forgive her now.”

“In the end, he remembered. But long after you gave up and vanished.”

The notable part is “even years after death.” This refers to Yasu’s deduction in the fifth game. Reading the message bottle, Yasu understood Sayo but was too late—a hint of that.

My Master’s Red Truth

My master’s red truth: “This game will not grant a happy ending.” This was deduced in the sixth game. Considering the red truth’s scope, it applies only to the fictional world, not reality.

By the seventh game, deductions about tricks and the world structure were fully completed, leaving little to deduce beyond the motive and cat box contents. That’s the end of the seventh game. Only one remains for the game board deductions. This time’s detailed deductions fried my brain. In Confession, it’s said that if the epitaph is solved, she’d follow the solver. The motive deduction explains why. On a murder-based game board, the only love possibility is “the epitaph being solved before the incident.” If Battler solves the incident, the murder eliminates love possibilities, leading to “please stop.” There’s a difference between the game board and reality, but Sayo’s heart interpretation is clear and I like it.

[xycuro-illuminati]

The GTA 6 second trailer easter egg

I'm gonna open a discussion about a certain easter egg from the gta 6 trailer and I would love to hear what other gta fans have to say about this. Gonna put in under cut in case anyone hasn't seen the trailer.

Ok, so Rockstar Games has stated before that 3D verse and HD verse are in two separate timelines, but we got to see PHIL CASSIDY from gta vice city appear in a commercial.

This brings up a lot of speculation. I know the logical conclusion to this is that it's just an easter egg and it'll probably be in this one scene and that's it. But it brings up so many questions and who knows if this leads to something. I have two theories going on with this:

1.) 3D verse is an in universe media within HD verse. This could be a commercial within a movie and that movie being vice city. GTA 3 could've been a tv show. Etc etc. Definitely a fun nod to the older games and would fall into easter egg category.

2.) Rockstar games finally decided to make 3D verse and HD verse be within the same timeline. I don't understand why they didn't do that in the first place since each game is spread out evenly and there wouldn't be anything contradicting one other. So now Phil's appearance is confirming that they're in the same timeline-

BUT

Phil's appearance here wouldn't make sense timeline wise.

Phil appeared in Vice City which took place in the mid 80s. For those that played the game, yall know that Phil loses his arm towards the end of Vice City and shows up again in gta 3 much older

In this commercial, Phil has both of his arms and looks significantly younger. He has the handlebar mustache in the commercial, a design he had in vice city stories that took place before vice city, and from my perspective, that commercial looks way too modern to be an 80's commercial. The sound is way too clean and it doesn't have any black bars to show the ratio. If 3D verse and HD verse are now in the same timeline and we're going off the fact that gta 6 is set in the 2020's, Phil would either be a senior citizen that still has a few years left in him, or dead. So now things brings up two new theories:

1.) The Phil in the commercial is Phil Cassidy's son; He's a junior that looks v much like his father and took over the ammunition business. Maybe he's just an easter egg or maybe Lucia and Jason might get weapons from him for a mission who really knows.

or

2.) This is an alternate version of Phil Cassidy; not fully confirming that 3D verse and HD verse are in the same timeline, but rather that certain characters from 3D verse has HD verse counterparts like a whole ass multiverse type deal.

Either way, it's really poking at my brain and again, I know the logical answer would be that it's just an easter egg. You're gonna see this commercial once in a cutscene and that's it. But I really hope it's not that case and we see more of this because it does changes a lot when it comes to 3D verse and HD verse.

[scummy-writes]

Hello, please call me Scum! If that is too direct for you, you can call me Scummy as an alternative.

I am 29, I go by she/her pronouns, and I use this blog to post my fanfiction as well as my general fandom ramblings and such. I am primarily interested in Ikepri and currently only write fanfiction for it, but I enjoy cybird's other games and various mobile/console visual novels/otomes.

I am pretty explicit at times, and primarily write smut, so I do not want minors following me.

My main account is @strawberry-scum. I do not recommend following it, however if you want to properly block me, you need to block that account as well as this one.

─── •✧ Favorites

Prince: Gilbert, Roderic, Clavis, Silvio, Chev, Keith

Vamp: Isaac, Arthur, Theo, Comte

Villains: Elbert, Alfons, Victor

Tier list here!

─── •✧ Ships (between suitors)

Gilbert/Roderic, Gilbert/Silvio, Gilbert/Chev, Gilbert/Clavis, Isaac/Arthur, Arthur/Theo, Theo/Isaac, Comte/Sebas, Elbert/Alfons- and variations of these ships with mc or an oc in a poly relationship.

─── •✧ Other Blogs

✧ @scumberly - I've been getting into streaming games, and this is my blog regarding updates for it! I stream visual novels, horror games, and... whatever I want, really.

✧ @c-bookwyrm - Oc blog for my ikepri oc Constance. I decided not to RP her, I just put comms there and random drabbles.

✧ @askgilbertvonobsidian - askblog where I rp Gilbert. Due to being busy, it's not frequently updated.

─── •✧ Writing Info

✧ I am not a stickler for IC / OOC. I believe that since we're not official writers for these games, everything we write is OOC. I personally will try to stick to my belief of what I think IC for the character based on what I interpret from the game and don't like arguments about this.

✧ I enjoy various kinks and try my best to warn/tag it, I don't want complaints about it.

✧ I usually don't see any of the characters as strictly straight and so will ship suitors together at times, or have the suitors romantically interested in each other when writing polyships. I will also reblog trans hcs and such too if I enjoy them. If that bothers you please just leave me be.

✧ I write for myself first and foremost. If you dislike it, just leave me alone.

✧ Always happy to answer qs about my fics or blog

✧ I have a lot of issues IRL and so it's hard for me to write often, and guilt associated with this is why I do not do requests often.

✧ I prefer having a healthier relationship with writing and fandom content as a whole. This is a hobby for me, and I greatly dislike the attitude that I 'owe' people more than labeling warnings the best I can.

─── •✧ Misc Info

✧ This is my 'writing blog' because this is the blog I post my writing blog to. However, it's also my otome and pseudo personal blog.

✧ While I enjoy talking to people, I am very busy and tend to not reach out to others. I think this makes people believe I am standoff-ish, but I'm generally shy or too anxious, or bluntly don't have much to say.

✧ A huge part of fandom for me is reading other people's interpretations of characters. I think discussion surrounding characters is fun, and I enjoy seeing the various conclusions people come to about how a character is. Because of this, you may see me 'contradict' some things ive written when reblogging others works/discussions, or even discussing things on my own. It's just fun to consider a character through multiple angles.

✧ Fandom is fun, but odd at times with make believe hierarchies. I don't like thinking of it like that, so I don't. I do not believe there are '#1 fans' of charas, I don't think a follower count = fandom respect levels, etc etc. Unfortunately if you're pretty rude to me, even after a chance to step back, then I'm likely going to be rude back/block. Don't be a weirdo about this.

✧ I used to create for My*me, but I no longer wish to participate with that fandom. If you ever have specific questions regarding my fanfics from that time, feel free to ask, but keep in mind I may not always want to answer.

─── •✧ Last Updated 01272025

[mysteryoftwilight]

What's the Deal with London in Kingdom Hearts?

I mean is that worldbuilding poorly explained or what? Bad jokes aside, I now need to steal people's eyeballs for a moment while I gesture wildly at inconsistencies in Kingdom Hearts, specifically KH1 but I'm sure the other games as well... which is completely strange and totally new for this fandom.

The main thrust of what I'm trying to get at is that both Edwardian London (if not all of England, which I'll get to in a second) and Victorian England (if not Alice's family's estate in Victorian England) are both worlds in the KH Universe with a second point that world travel is easier than the games try to present. I'm going to break this up into three main pieces of evidence, in order of importance, before moving into conclusions and fun things it means if I'm not misconstruing the evidence. Which is possible, I'm a fallible human being but I'm going to post this anyway.

{ the rest is under a read more because I'm not an asshole and this is roughly 3,500 words so it'd clog dash. You have been warned }

Main Argument: Edwardian London exists in Kingdom Hearts, and it is not connected to Neverland, and Victorian England exists in Kingdom Hearts and is not connected to Wonderland.

Okay kiddos, let's start with some important context and definitions. When I say 'Edwardian England', I specifically mean the era of English history from between 1901 to 1914. For setting the time periods of the worlds I'll be discussing here, I am going to assume that the Disney films roughly line up with the books they are based upon. This post primarily focuses on three worlds: Wonderland, Neverland, and Deep Jungle. As you'd guess from that selection, this is very much a KH1 oriented post and I'm sure we could probably dismiss them as being later retconned but I can't think of anything that directly contradicts them so...

Also I'm assuming that the Disney films aren't too far off from the original source material, so if they are uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh sorry.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, to my knowledge, does not specify a date in the text itself but considering the background of it being written for an actual real-world child, I will assume that the publication year, 1865, to be the in-text year and also the year the movie (and by extension, the year Alice herself comes from in Kingdom Hearts) takes place. This places her roughly in the middle of the Victorian era (I know I defined only the Edwardian era before but this will be important for something else later). Pinning down the year for Neverland is slightly more difficult, as its source material is from two linked sources: the original play, Peter Pan: or, The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, and the novel Peter and Wendy. The play was first debuted in 1904, while the novel (which is similar yet different) was first sold in 1911. Both are well into the Edwardian period, and I again cannot seem to find any confirmation of the date in-text so we're going by publication date again. Deep Jungle's source, the novel Tarzan of the Apes, does actually give a rough enough in-text year: Tarzan's birth parents are marooned in 1888, and the main plot takes place when Tarzan himself is 21, making the year 1909.

That effectively means that, roughly speaking, the London we see in Kingdom Hearts I at the end of Neverland (which is confined to Big Ben but we see the whole city below) could very well be the same one that Jane and Clayton (and presumably Jane's father but we never see him so make of that what you will) left to get to Deep Jungle.

Now that the concept is established and definitions clairfied, let's move on to my evidence for this and other Weird Things™️ that occured to me.

Main Evidence 1: Deep Jungle, the Union Jack, and the Globe

So, I'll start with Deep Jungle because it provides the biggest puzzle piece I think. I know that Deep Jungle will probably not show up again in the series, but it did in 1 and so it gets to be here. Deep Jungle is the second largest wrench into the 'world order' shtick they brought up in Wonderland (and then never again), because it is pretty clear that Jane & Clayton are not from the jungle. They have a camp, for one, and for two they are the only humans (besides Tarzan) in the entire world. Jane asks Sora if he's 'also here to study the gorillas', which mean her and Clayton came to the jungle / island / whatever it is. They also have more technology than the rest of the world would imply, a physical map of Africa, and, most damning for this post: a Union Jack on the flag pole. This means that, in the Kingdom Hearts universe, Jane and Clayton are English folk from England, as they feel the need to fly their flag. Moreover, the map of Africa (on the far wall of the tent with Jane in it) means they are aware of other continents from Earth.

Also an important note is that they have a globe in the base camp. I'm going to take this as further evidence of them coming from a place that is scientifically advanced enough to know what the continents of the world roughly look like.

Here's where things get tricky, though: how did they get there? As far as I can tell (looking over the dialogue from a script someone uploaded to GameFAQs so take it as you will as well as just generally looking around what you have access to in the game), they don't have a vessel that would have gotten them there, much less get them back. Did they come in a ship that just let them off there for a while, like the movie? Possibly. Hook's ship is able to do that, after all. Which just further puts a hole in the world traveling mechanics the series presented: how were they able to get their ship from England to the other world of Deep Jungle without them getting eaten by Heartless? Was their ship a gummi ship? Is Hook's ship actually a gummi ship? (Unlikely, it's too smooth and he still had it in Birth By Sleep, during which Gummi Blocks weren't a thing iirc)

Or are there other, safer ways to traverse between worlds than gummi space or the Lanes Between? Can you use a sea faring vessel to sail the Ocean Between and get to those New Worlds? Also doubtful but probably the easiest answer.

(Also, just to note because I can't think of anywhere else to say it and I thought it was interesting: Clayton's rifle is a double barreled rifle and, more to the point, a common hunting implement for gentleman hunters back in the day. The fact Sora can tank shots designed to bring down elephants is pretty bonkers. Clayton is also one of two Kingdom Hearts characters (internationally) to use a gun, the other being Barbossa in his fight in Kingdom Hearts II. Fun facts that only two people pull out actual gun-guns in the whole series... unless you're playing the Japanese version of II, then one of the undead pirate mooks uses a flintlock rifle, which is why their crossbows in the international version makes a gun sound. )

Main Evidence 2: Neverland, Big Ben, and the Absence of Wendy

Okay, so Neverland has appeared in other games so it holds a bit more water than Deep Jungle. Now, in KH1, I don't know why they call it 'Neverland', because it's entirely Hook's ship and Big Ben... which is in London. And seeing as, to my knowledge and brief searches through the scripts of Days and Birth by Sleep, they never bring up Wendy or London, and there doesn't appear to be a hint that it is otherwise connected, I am led to believe this is another case of characters that shouldn't be able to easily traversing beyond their world easily traversing beyond their world. Wendy was kidnapped as far as we're told in KH1, and maybe Pan only really met her when she was kidnapped by Hook. The bigger issue comes during the outro of the world, where Peter Pan straight up says 'oh yeah, just bring Kairi to Neverland when you rescue her!', as if it's completely normal to travel there from somewhere else. Peter doesn't seem to have an issue traveling the Ocean Between, and neither does Hook for that matter, but he's a villain so we could possibly handwave that as 'he was given those powers by Maleficent', who herself is a whole can of worms but this post is long enough.

Wendy proceeds to never be brought up again throughout the DS version of Days. I'm not sure about the manga, but I'm mostly focusing on the games so if she does uh... sorry, but good on you for reading the manga it's good. The point here is that if it was as simple as Peter says to simply 'remember Neverland and you can see me again', she probably would be some level of presence. I'll bring it up again in the Wonderland section of this post, but I think this solidifies that it is, indeed, a separate world: the worlds separate after KH1 and travel between them should be more difficult.

Now, there is the slight hole of the world map icon in both KH1 and Days having Big Ben on display (despite not going there in Days, but it seems to just be the KH1 icon flipped). I'm choosing to view that as a gameplay concession and a reusing of assets that didn't need to be changed, because otherwise we're opening another can of worms of how is Neverland two worlds connected like that? Most worlds in Kingdom Hearts are fairly uniform and aesthetically consistent due to being based on individual movies, and while that explanation would make sense, it doesn't account for Wendy not going back to Neverland and Roxas not going to Big Ben in Days (though that second one can easily be handwaved as 'fighting at the clocktower would've been a pain in the ass using a DS d-pad'. The only world that gets is kinda an outlier that goes against that sentiment is Disney Town / Castle, which is connected to the old black & white animations in the distant past (which we visit as Timeless River) and then the Country of Musketeers in the less distant past, but there's handwavey explanations for those. Other than potentially Wonderland, this would be the only world like this.

Speaking of...

Main Evidence 3: Wonderland, Victorians, and Implications

Wonderland is keeping me up at night because of one missable interaction in KH1. If you speak to Alice while she's in the cage while you're looking for evidence, Sora and co. will introduce themselves to her and they'll have the following interaction:

Alice: Who are you? Sora: I’m Sora. Goofy: I’m Goofy, and that there’s Donald. Alice: Pleased to meet you, though I do wish it were under better circumstances. I’m sorry you got mixed up in this nonsense. Sora: Why are you on trial in the first place? Alice: I should like to know the very same thing! Apparently I was guilty from the moment I took the stand! Sora: That’s crazy! So, where are you from? Alice: Hmm, curious. I can’t quite remember. You see, I found this mysterious rabbit hole. When I tried to peek inside, I tumbled in head over heels… And I found myself here. Sora: So you’re from another world! Goofy: That’s funny. Maybe you don’t need a ship, then. Donald: I don’t get it. Alice: What do you mean “another world”?

This, if not outright confirms, heavily implies that Alice is not from Wonderland. Which... duh, that's just kinda the point of the story. But in the context of Kingdom Hearts is very important, and highlighted by Goofy: it's possible to get to other worlds without a ship. Which, again, we see later: Dark Corridors, star shards, wishing on one's heart, the Power of Waking... these are the proof in the puding, but we'll circle back to that third one because Beast also does something that makes some major implications if you don't believe in Word of God.

But why is Alice so central to this post? Because, unlike Jane, Clayton, and Wendy, she's not Edwardian. She's Victorian, and removed from the early 1900s by 44 years. Meaning (again, assuming that the above exchange is meant to imply she came from her 'real world' into Wonderland, with that 'real world' being Victorian England) that there isn't one England in the Ocean Between, but two: one Edwardian and one Victorian. Even if we say that her family's estate is simply connected to Wonderland through a rabbit hole and nothing else, that still leaves Edwardian London (and again, presumably more of England but we'll get to that) as a separate entity. And, no, Alice can't 'just be Edwardian', because of one very big thing: her dress. Alice dressed in a animated approximation of a Victorian child's dress (more of her legs are exposed, meant to allow her to run and play as she is a child and there is more of a structure to the skirt, giving it a bell jar-shape look), which would be seen as incredibly quaint in the Edwardian period (for comparison, Edwardian children's dresses had less of that structure, with the dress falling more flat against the body. This was also reflected by adults of the period, but we're focusing on children so shut up. Also I can't really draw a comparison with Wendy herself, seeing as she's in a nightgown so historical examples upon ye.)

Now, I'll admit her not knowing Wonderland is 'another world' could sink the ship... if Alice in Wonderland didn't build in an explanation: she legitimately doesn't think she's in another world, and the ending of the story has her waking up from a dream. While in Kingdom Hearts this is unlikely (as the Realm of Sleep exists, and Wonderland doesn't seem to be a Sleeping World but hey maybe KH4 will say it is and I'll firebomb Square), it's completely possible that her wish to go to a world of nonsense brought her there while she slept... or she did legitimately end up there, following a world traveler (more on them in a tangent section because I don't want to go down another rabbit hole) and was sent back to her original world after the events of Kingdom Hearts I as she also doesn't appear during the events of Days.

(I'm also sidestepping anything that happened in X or Dark Road because I don't know what happens in them that deeply, so I can't wait for that to blow a hole in my entire point here)

Tangent: Traversing the Ocean Between

Okay so these are moreso side things I wanted to point out because I made a point about the rules of world traversal making no sense and I wanted to further highlight that the World Order is, in fact, real fuckin' dumb. These are just rapid fire points tho I'm not going crazy over it.

1. Beast and the power of being a simp — Hollow Bastion has a lot of things that Break the Rules™️, but the relevant one here is that Beast survived the destruction of his world, somehow didn't get consumed by Heartless despite having a Heart full of Darkness, and just... wished real hard to get to where Belle was taken. Nomura later walked that back and said that Beast used a Corridor of Darkness, but that makes less sense because if you're not wearing the Anti-Darkness Drip™️, you get completely drained of vitality and probably become a Heartless. Either way, that seems like it shouldn't be something just anyone can do, but no one comments on it so I guess it's not overly weird.

2. Hook's Ship — I feel like we don't talk about how Hook's ship can just... sail the Ocean Between with seemingly no issue. It literally just rams Sora's ship and captures them right out of space. Again, it's not commented by anyone as an odd thing to happen, so is that just normal? If the Islands didn't get destroyed, would Sora, Riku, and Kairi be out in the Ocean Between? You evidently don't need to breathe out there, because you're on Hook's ship's deck and outside the Mysterious Tower just fine... Unless it's Spelljammer rules, actually. That could probably work, actually...

3. What does unlocking the paths do, actually? — I know it's just a gameplay mechanic to keep you more or less knowing where to go at any point in time, but in-universe it seems like you only need it if your preferred method of travel is a gummi ship or Keyblade Glider. I mean, Hell, the Guardians of Light have their own answer to corridors of darkness, as seen in Birth by Sleep and the mobile games.

4. No One Cares Your a Duck and Dog and that's also weird — No one ever points out that there's walking anthropomorphic animals with Sora. I'm willing to ignore it rarely coming up (the only instance that sticks out in my mind is Minister Frollo, who was desperately close to using a slur) that Sora has weird fashion, but I'm pretty sure Donald and Goofy would turn heads in like... a good number of the worlds we visit? Like. Are anthros a common sight? How are they getting around? Or do people just assume they're related to Moogles? What the actual fuck does your average denizen of Port Royale think of the humble Moogle? They're shopkeepers that operate through holograms and that's weird.

So we have established that the World Order is bullshit and discarded for good reason. Let's move back to my main point.

Final Evidence: Worlds are Bigger than Seen in Game

This is kinda a given and more than a little obvious, but I thought it worth highlighting. We can't land on the streets of London when we visit in KH1, we see more jungle in Deep Jungle but again, can't go that way. Twilight Town apparently has access to a beach that we straight up never see. We don't go through the Imperial City in the Land of Dragons to get to the Imperial Palace, despite it being visible from the mountains and checkpoint. Scala ad Caelum has a bunch of areas we don't get to explore, even in ReMind... you get the picture. I'm not using that to dig at the games; they're games at the end of the day, and a 1:1 recreation of a realistic setting or areas that don't have anything going on aren't fun to anyone but people like me who enjoy verisimilitude, but even I say that there's a point where it becomes completely redundant and not fun. I'll fill in the blanks myself because it's fun to me, but I don't expect a game not about simulation to do it.

I bring this up to highlight that it's impossible to say if the London we see at the Clocktower in Neverland is all there is to that world, or if it's more of England, or even the entire United Kingdom. Because the rules are so flimsily established and so quickly discarded within the games themselves, I'm left gesturing aggressively to an unsolvable mystery. While my personal headcanon is that each 'world' is roughly the size of a dwarf planet, I obviously don't have any evidence to back that up. It also falls apart because it doesn't answer how their suns work, because how do they have suns?

Hell, KH4 could introduce a world themed after Treasure Planet or even Star Wars, and then we're really fucked because they're in space. Do we make every world something like the Spelljammer Crystal Spheres, where each world has its own solar system but from an external viewpoint you only see the important location in that place? That'd probably be the cleanest solution, but it doesn't feel right.

Conclusion: There are no Rules, Put a Three Kingdoms Period China World in Your Fanfic so Sora can interact with Liu Bei or something

In review, it seems like there aren't any hard and fast rules for what can and can't be a world. Every major historical period for every culture under the sun and every story ever could be its own world, as evidenced by Alice's Victorian England being in the same universe as Wendy's Edwardian England. It also doesn't seem like there are as many hard boundaries between worlds if you know how to do it: Alice came to Wonderland by falling into a rabbit hole that connected the two, similar to Gates in something like old Forgotten Realms lore (or folklore but I've already leaned into old D&D lore I might as well go all the way), Beast either simped his way to Hollow Bastion or used a Corridor of Darkness, Hook's ship can just Do That with no given explanation. Hell, we don't even know how Cloud gets from Olympus to Hollow Bastion (presumably from wherever he ended up after fighting Sephy but I'm not even 100% if that's canon).

So, ignore what purists say, put anything as a world in your Kingdom Hearts fanfic and it'll fit if you handwave hard enough. It's the ultimate isekai, you don't even need to involve god-like beings. I myself have added a Sengoku Jidai world to my fanfic and no one's any the wiser /j

...I feel like a KH Musou game would fucking slap, though...

[girlgawain]

for the ask game, asking something obvious like damian + 1, 4, 8, 21

and asking something less obvious like miriam caskey + 5, 9, 12, 26

because blackwater needs some love

character ask game

Great choice of blorbos: you always know how to get my attention <3

Answers under the cut because it got long winded very fast; also tw for self harm discussion

Damian (Darkest Dungeon)

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

Where do i even begin? I love how self destructive he is, or, to be more specific, how he turns his self destruction into a holy mission, the only valid way to repent for his and other people's sins, feeling superior to everyone else because of said "holy" self destruction. I love the contradiction between his self-punishment through mortification of the flesh and sense of superiority because of the same mortification of the flesh: for this reason i headcanon him acting "holier than thou" especially towards the other religious characters, as if his way of worshipping the Light is the only "true" one, while the others aren't willing to literally rip themselves apart for their faith (i especially headcanon him mocking Reynauld for wearing armour, but this is not a question about headcanons so i digress).

I also love what they did with him in the second game, taking his zealotry and its contradictions to an extreme. I know that not everyone was convinced about his fear and ability to escape Death, but i think it fits the character: he wants to suffer, not to die (or at least, not die as a consequence of his self-harm). The game itself makes this moment more about the pleasure he feels by hurting himself, but also i think there is a less explored angle which is hinted at in some barks (i am thinking especially of the "I am already damned - what's the harm?" bark at the Academic's Study and the several barks talking about "deliverance"): that he fears death not only because he doesn't want to stop suffering, but also because he feels like he hasn't suffered enough to deserve salvation yet. I wish this angle of his character was explored more, but in a game with so relatively little dialogue, i'll take what i get.

Also i like how he works in gameplay: giving enemies massive bleeds while an inch away from death makes me feel powerful.

tl;dr: i think his relationship with self-harm and religion is very interesting and i have spent way too much time thinking about it.

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

You know this because we discussed it irl, but i think it would be funny if he and John Ward (from Faith: the Unholy Trinity) switched games.

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

I don't engage a lot with fandom outside of my mutual circle (or even in said circle), but a thing i've noticed and started to dislike is when people reduce him to "loony (sado)masochist".

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favourite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

My first ever fanfiction was about him! His characterization is just that compelling to me. I love that i can have a lot of fun and be super extra in my writing because he is that extra in the game; also getting in that "self-destructive but holier than thou" headspace while being able to step back and acknowledge to myself how dysfunctional it is was a very cathartic experience for me. (also i have an idea for another fic about him, but i don't know when/if i will ever write it)

As for things i don't like, i can't think of anything, at the moment.

Miriam Caskey (Blackwater)

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

I never thought about this, but just as i read the question my mind immediately went to Oh no! by Marina, which is weird because i haven't listened to this song in ages, so there's your answer.

9. Could you be roomates with this character?

I think yes, but only if we just shared the space and never talked to each other if it wasn't necessary, otherwise she could get on my nerves pretty quickly.

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

My girl is aromantic as fuck: how else can you explain her reasoning behind finally getting married at forty years old literally being "oh well, that's an item i haven't checked off my checklist yet: guess i should do it *shrug*" and then her choice being first guy she could think of because he was around her all the time already?

26. What's something the character has done you can't get over? Be it something funny, bad, good, serious, whatever?

There are many moments i could pick from but i chose the one from book 4, when she chooses to attend the Catholic college just to surprise (and maybe even spite) her family, has a terrible time there but doesn't even consider going back home because she thinks they wouldn't welcome her, and then finally opens up to Grace and Sister when they come check up on her: it's the first time we see the fragile, wounded girl under her tough exterior, it's the starting point of her character development and it's the point when i realized that she would be my favourite character of the entire series.

[fraeuleintaka]

Little Thief

This is the 46th post in the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection Countdown: 35 days left until release!

Today's topic: Little Thief or crime scene re-creation!

One thing I like about Kay as an assistant (and also one of the reasons why she's my favourite "obligatory teenage girl" sidekick in the series) is that she has her very own new gameplay mechanic that only she provides: Little Thief.

Investigations does a great job of introducing it since it's not just a random thing she has but comes from her connection to the Yatagarasu and ends up being directly plot-important because she puts it on the line in the battle against the main antagonist to bait them into staying longer. Apart from that, it's also just a really neat mechanic.

With Little Thief Kay can re-create entire environments in a holographic fashion from the data she puts in. These holograms not only look fancy but can also be examined like your usual crime scene so it's essentially a way for Miles to investigate locations and situations he doesn't have normal access to (e.g. the crime scene immediately after the murder took place). The game isn't always the most exact when it comes to what kind of information Kay should logically be able to input but for the most part it works really well with the lack of information or possibly false information creating contradictions in the re-creation that lead to completely new conclusions. Investigations 1 shows this off especially well, in one case the fact that you work with a re-creation instead of the real crime scene (as a certain someone BOUGHT IT to prevent you from investigating) leads to several missing pieces that you have to deduce from the limited information you have.

Investigations 2 adds a new feature to Little Thief where you can examine scenes at different points in time (e.g. directly before and after the murder). It's a lot of fun and has some great opportunities for finding contradictions and gathering more information. A neat way to keep the mechanic fresh and interesting that also serves the plot really well. In general, Little Thief is used really well, in situations where it makes sense and feels necessary and not just for the sake of having such a gameplay segment. With how long these segments usually are (an entire investigation phase) it also feels appropriate that they're not in every single case, so that it doesn't become stale and the times you do have them stand out more. I especially like the way the mechanic is used in the final case of Investigations 2 as you examine a crime scene from 15 years ago at a location that literally doesn't exist anymore! That's so cool!

One last thing I want to mention is how much I love everybody's reactions to seeing a re-creation from Little Thief for the first time. They're usually a mixture of shock and awe and so fun to watch. It makes sense as Little Thief is pretty high-tech compared to most of what we see in the series and someone not used to it would definitely be shocked to see an entire gigantic green hologram appear around them. These reactions aren't in your face or have much time spent on them (good because it would be annoying to have to discuss its validity every single time Kay uses it), they're a nice background detail most of the time and I love to see the progression of characters' reactions when they get more used to it. Like Shi-Long, initially being sceptical and not trusting it but using your conclusions from it against you when necessary to reluctantly impressed when he sees the full scale of what it's capable of and can attest to it being used for good to genuinely finding it useful and appreciating it to barely reacting because he's used to it and has other stuff to think about. I love it.