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incorrectallpersonaquotes · 1 year ago

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OKAY, SO WE FINALLY BEAT PERSONA 5 TACTICA AND THE REPAINT YOUR HEART DLC, FULL SPOILER REVIEW AHEAD

- First of all, I think the game is very good. I rate it 9/10, because although there are some stuff I don’t like, the good stuff is SO good that it makes up for it perfectly. It is a great game, and I don’t regret at all buying the Deluxe Edition on release.

- The gameplay is VERY good, no doubt one of the greatest points in the game. As a fan of tactical RPG fan, it’s a system that is very different than the usual “your character’s turn, move these squares, do your action, proceed”. The fact that you freely move the characters makes for a very peculiar experience, and it makes for a very fun gameplay, with cool puzzles that, although I recognized may be annoying for some people, were very fun to me. Very cool!

- However, I think the gameplay lacked more Persona/SMT elements. For example, the lack of a system based on elemental weaknesses was something I didn’t like. Because of that, I spent 90% of the game’s battle with a party composed of Joker, Panther and Queen, without feeling any need to alternate between different characters. Sure, there’s this mechanic that the characters have better status if you let them rest, só it’s valid to alternate the party, but that was literally the only reason, the aspect of changing characters because of their strong or weak points was kinda lost. Also, no Social Links aside from the Quests and the Talk menu, that provide some fun scenes, but doesn’t replace the social aspect of the Persona games.

- That said, the Quests and Talk scenes were REALLY cool, it provided us with some awesome interactions between characters and did a wonderful job at including the newcomers Erina and Toshiro. Things like Yusuke wanting to see Legionnaires fall from the sky, Haru blowing up everything to let off steam, Erina trying to summon a Persona and being a worthy rival of Ryuji in the aspect of yelling at inappropriate times… it was all very cool. Also, the Quests were amazing in gameplay if you like puzzles. I don’t like it, but I had lots of fun with it.

- The game is kinda short, and it felt like a waste to have only two Kingdoms with a strong historical theme (the French Revolution and the Meiji Revolution), the other two Kingdoms felt kinda bland. I think it would have been nice to insert at least one or two other Kingdoms with strong revolution sceneries.

- The story itself is very cool. Erina is amazing since the start, but Toshiro is a character that really grows on you. He starts off being very annoying, but since the main story is all about his development, you end up liking him more, and the transition from “adult pain in the ass” to “honest man trying to do the right thing” is very nice, and his background is amazing.

- There’s a specific scene where you, as Joker, can pick someone on the Phantom Thieves you’d want to marry, and that includes Ryuji and Yusuke as well. I really loved that scene because, although Ryuji and Yusuke scenes are more inclined to comedy, in no moment it goes like “whaaaaat, you want to marry Ryuji, that’s weird man, no homo”, quite the opposite, in both Ryuji and Yusuke options the act of them marrying Joker is seen as totally normal, without making fun of it, and well, it’s not just the boys’ options that tend to comedy, if you pick Makoto the scene is also hilarious. Sure, it could have been better, but we’re talking about Atlus, every baby step is a reason to rejoice in that way. Who knows, maybe in Persona 6 we’ll FINALLY have a MLM romance option.

- LAVENZA IS BETTER THAN EVER, it’s her best version of all times, she radiates 1000000% of that Elizabeth and Margaret chaotic energy and I FUCKING SCREAMED WHEN VELVET ROOM TURNED INTO A FUCKING TRAIN OH MY GOD THAT WAS SO FUCKING AWESOME HELL YEAH

- Salmael is the generic god final boss, normal to every Persona game. But one thing I didn’t like is how it’s not directly based on any entity like Nyx, Izanami or Yaldabaoth. Sure, you can argue that it’s based on Samael, but it doesn’t make any sense, since it’s only in the name, nothing in Salmael’s motivations have anything to do with Samael. Aside from that, well, can’t say much about it, just the regular “god-that-looks-for-excuses-to-fuck-up-humanity-while-trying-to-justify-saying-they’re-actually-saving-it” that we have on every Persona game.

- I think the game is kinda easy. Sure, it’s a good thing for those who want to enjoy the story, but I beat the game on Medium and had literally no difficult whatsoever aside from some Quests (and in those cases, the difficulty is more related to solving a puzzle than facing actually difficult enemies). The damage input is mostly small, the AI is not really smart and you have access to very strong skills early on. Dunno how that would go if I tried on Hard, but Medium felt more like Easy to me. And I don’t mean that as “I’m too good for this game, it’s so easy for my standards”, but I really think the game difficulty is not that high, which can be good for some and disappointing for others.

Now about Repaint Your Heart, the DLC:

- CAN’T BELIEVE THEY ADDED SPLATOON TO THE PERSONA + FIRE EMBLEM MIX, THAT��S SO CREATIVE, SOUNDS REALLY DUMB AT FIRST BUT WORKED SO WELL

- The story itself is not that bad, but not that good either. Guernica is cool, Luca is cute, but their story wasn’t that touching for me, I couldn’t empathize with them properly.

- Still, the DLC was cool not only because of the Splatoon mechanics, but also because of Akechi and Kasumi interactions. If you play it knowing what is happening at that time (it’s before Sae’s calling card, so Akechi is already part of the Phantom Thieves, is in the middle of the plot to betray them and assassinate Joker, and Joker is fully aware of that), it’s awesome because you can clearly see the moments when Akechi’s figurative mask fells off, and you have many dialogue options made to provoke him.

- Don’t have much to say about Kasumi, she’s cute and nice as always. Also, THAT SCENE OF HER LEGIT WILLING TO PICK UP TRASH WITH LUCA, HOLY SHIT

- I want to turn Jerri into fried chicken, but her motivations seem kinda dumb, I mean, she’s a servant of Salmael, who wants to “save” mankind erasing all will of conflicts, then she brainwashes Guernica to kill all of manking using conflict? Makes no sense at all unless she was rebelling against him, and that’s clearly not the case.

Well… it was quite an experience. I loved it.

#Persona 5 #Persona 5 Tactica #Toshiro Kasukabe #Erina #spoilers

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danrifics · 1 year ago

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Before coming out they probably really conditioned themselves to refrain themselves from being too touchy - especially during gaming videos where reactions are probably a lot more spontaneous than videos where they were more personas.

But the past 5 years they haven’t had to think about that at all, they’ve been unlearning all the no-homo stuff they conditioned themselves to do on camera. And now the gaming channel is back and they get to be gay and stupid and touchy in front of the camera and not be worried. The way they behave now is probably a glimpse into what they’re actually like together at home. What they’ve probably always been like behind closed doors with the camera off.

Feeling so normal…

I AM NOT OKAY

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hedgerlogs · 5 years ago

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so long gay ryuji

#anyone wanna hear some dumb hcs about an anime boy? no? ok here we go #i firmly hc ryuji as gay mostly bc the way his interactions with women are written is. bad #and forced/un genuine i think #so in My canon he doesn’t realize hes gay until hes like. ‘joker what if i kissed u 😳 but in a bro way aha’#then he forgets 2 say no homo 😔#and then he goes n takes ann + makoto out for crepes and apologizes for bein weird #i joke but tbh im 1 impulse control lapse away from writing smth about it #ive literally already some gay shit that i might post if i do some art to post with it #persona 5 #OH bi ryuji headcanons are also Top Quality btw all hcs are valid #so long as u dont hc him as straight🔫

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mcmusing · 3 years ago

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Cranking out this special request for my Baby Gorge @sinceritysstuff

Unlike the rest of the cinematic hellfire club, January Jones as Emma Frost physically embodied the comic character. In addition, she exuded the ice queen persona to the letter. So, imagine my incredulity at the negative reaction most of First Class fandom had towards the actress. Granted, these are the same people with the tendency to think Famke Jennson did more for Jean Grey than cement her as the most boring, unfaithful murderess in cinema. Seriously, Lifetime's casting agents do better on $2 TV budgets.

As with all the actors, I never previously knew of January Jones, including her all too fitting role on Mad Men. While I admit to not having the comics etched into my memory, I do know that Emma is a cold master manipulator. Stylish, classy, confident, and always working towards her own agenda. Her femininity is not a hindrance but a valuable asset. The 90s animated version of her illustrated this well. Yet, comic Emma also has this underlining nurturing side and resentment of homo sapiens for what they did to her young mutant hellions. Another 90s gem, the Generation X tv movie, showed that part of her flawlessly. FC focused on her darker side, but January Jones displayed great range and potential. She was introduced at the same time as Rose Byrne's Moira Mactaggert and with less screen time, January stood out. Rose Byrne is a capable actress and I still kept forgetting Moira was even there.

There are problems with Emma, but that falls on the writers, not January. Yes, Emma is traditionally the sexy femme fatale of the hellfire club, but what was up with her playing pet wench to Sebastian Shaw? Waiting around in an easily escapable government cell until the next mutant man makes her an offer. Even in the 90s *animated* show, she wouldn't let herself get reduced to some replaceable sex toy. She's a queen, for crying out loud!

Obviously, this direction with Emma was part of the production team's very shallow attempt to address 1960s sexism. So, a regular homo sapien like Moira can climb the ladder of the CIA but the powerful mental mutant basically serves as a live-in hooker? Keep in mind that Emma has two advantages over Charles. She doesn't have a moral code as a telepath and she packs a secondary mutation. In addition to being durable, sparkly prettiness, her diamond form boosts her combat skills and gives her shielding from other telepaths. What in the world is she doing on minion duty with wind boy and the demon of stinky brimstone poofing? Don't even get me started on the ancient nazi whose sage wisdom concocts a plot to take over the world in a fashion that even actual 1960s comic strip villains would call unforgivably stupid! Slapping on some last-minute insult to injury, Emma ends up joining Shaw's protege. The dude who just found out mutants existed 5 minutes ago and who strapped her to a bed and strangled her barely 2 minutes ago!...

This is the good X-movie, right? *Sigh* yes....

I swear, sexism abounds in pretty much everybody but Charles. No, enjoying the company of women and having a protective nature towards them does not a chauvinist make. As seen with his respect for Moira and inclusion of young girl mutants, Charles does not see women as inferior. If anything, he sees them as the more cherished sex. But look at Shaw, Erik, and these writers. Shaw and Erik are classic predators. They groom with fake charm and flattery to cover their obvious abusive tendencies then recruit women into a harem at best or end them when they become inconvenient at worst.

Regardless, January's portrayal of Emma left such an impression with me that I included her in my on-going series FC inspired. She became the first female mentor of the fledging X-Men, third in rank after Erik and Charles.

That brief moment on the boat in FC when the telepaths crossed minds? Despite Emma being the enemy, Charles' reaction to her was notably different than with the other mutant abilities. When he met Raven, he was gleeful and protective. When he met Angel, he offered her a job with a no-nudity policy. When he sensed Emma, he came off as not only taken aback with captivation but aroused by the female telepath. He was also surprisingly and unashamedly quick to declare he would be of no help to the CIA with her. Maybe it's just me, but it seemed like Charles needed to 'calm himself down' a bit. Hm, I wonder if saving Erik was actually his second reason for plunging into freezing cold water....

Unfortunately, January's potential as Emma would never be realized. Because unfit parents Bryan Singer and Simon Kinberg regained full custody of the franchise and killed her. The potent, diamond encased telepath and favorite daughter of one of the wealthiest families in America was murdered completely off-screen. Decide for yourselves if that was more or less dignified than the metal-bending, nazi-hunting son of Abraham-Isaak-and-Jakob being held captive like an incompetent little Hebrew National weenie.

Although, it is reasonable to deduce that homo sapiens stepped up their game after losing an entire CIA department to mutant terrorism. Seriously, Pearl Harbor, 9/11- do you *know* what happens to outside threats that force Americans to cast aside our polarizing politics in the name of patriotism? The same thing that's happened to every one of them. Do not eff with us.

As for Emma, despite FC offering so little, I still walked away with a solid understanding of her character and potential backstory. Why the heck would she go along with Shaw's idiotic endeavour? Between Frost Family fallout and the gruesome loss of her hellions, Emma was plain done with humanity altogether and opted for a lifestyle of apathetic hedonism. It would explain why she seems so content to sit back and watch the world burn in-between chaos-causing career opportunities. Or you can believe- as Matthew Vaughn undoubtedly does- that she's just an unambitious, man-dependent, patriarchy-persecuted rent-a-hoe. Whichever narrative suits your personal agenda.

Wait, I just realized they tried to give Emma's rightful storyline to flippin Raven. Yeah, if Emma spent dofp using her powers and endless financial resources in an earth-scorching vendetta to liberate mutants it would've made actual sense. As someone who worked on mutant teams long before them, she would honestly be a believable foil to Charles and Erik. Maybe even include a chance for Emma to be humanized and redeemed without it costing her life. I know X-movies have a fetish for pointlessly killing off characters, but dare to step out of the box. Emma possibly could've joined Charles to help re-build the X-Men. Even convince Erik to further the mutant cause without destroying national landmarks or whimpering off to Poland. Take some responsibility for her poor choices and attempt to rectify things. But no, don't use the more experienced female mutant known to take part in the X-Men in certain versions. No, utilize Charles Xavier's spoiled, easily influenced kid sister known to be a self-serving villainess and deadbeat mom as the vehicle for your superficial empowerment message. Too bad January didn't land a once-in-a-lifetime leading role in a YA novel series turned film franchise like Jenni Law did.

Before I venture forth to cease feeding my writing addiction over my mortal flesh, I'm just going to leave this shameless plug for my own work right here: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/7512743/1/Rise-or-Fall

Content Warning

Contains unambiguous depictions of heterosexual monogamy.

Platonic relationships between the same as well as opposite sexes (not exclusive to the physically attractive).

Lack of hive-minded political bias.

Racial diversity and inclusion among protagonists and antagonists.

Gentile-passing Jews being Jews.

Acknowledgement of human life and loss with gravity and reverence.

Attempts at maintaining in-story continuity.

Use of mental gymnastics to correct egregious inconsistencies and plot holes cluttered throughout the X-Men cinematic universe produced by 20th Century Fox based on characters created by Stan Lee and recently sold into franchise internment camp Walt Disney Studios.

Disclaimer

No deliberate offense or detestation intended. All allegations to the contrary should be addressed to the Charles Xavier Institute of Individuality. Response times vary based on weather conditions and tedium levels. You may also message the writer directly for clarification, civilized discussion, and/or comedic mockery.

Reader discretion is advised.

Recommended to binge with the accompaniment of a parent/guardian, dom/domme of your local orgy organization, and/or most stereotypical progressive cancellation consultant.

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sissy-phus · 4 years ago

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I definitely need to go home from here -- not because he is not nice, or kind, but a little bit because he takes his life wisdom from self-help books and because he is head of HR at some company and rents for 2500 euro per month in the rich part of town but complains that the balcony is too small and that the cleaning lady didn't leave a note about breaking the mirror, even though that at least makes one object look interesting in the pre-furnished apartment -- but my vibe in the shower is that post-sex feeling of wanting to stay, wanting to cuddle up with someone to ultimately make yourself believe that it is going to be all right.

My sinusitis notwithstanding, I still can do my post-sex performance of lighthearted cynical jokes while eating my Ben&Jerries, just before I ask for that ice cream cone as well which, to his horror, I bite and not lick, but I can't help it if the texture lends itself better to biting than licking. His boyfriend is out of town but has been unemployed for a year and so this might be the last time we meet, although he fantasizes in bed about the possible scenarios (he has soccer three times a week so you can *** between 6 and 9 or whatever) but thankfully, as per the temporality of the hook up, I do not need to commit to any of that.

I have made a conscious effort not to memorize the two names next to his bell so that I do not look his boyfriend up (when you ring his flat, there is a camera that lights up and it must be one of those apartment complexes which have a name, Résidence XY) -- I am a stalker and a voyeur but I wouldn’t admit to it even to myself that nothing brings me such joy as catching a glimpse of authentic life through a window that I shouldn’t be catching -- but this being probably the last time, I give up the pretense in front of myself and take just two seconds more as I am opening the door to leave to peak at those names. As I am making my way to the bus stop 5 minutes before curfew (I will be "in the wrong" on my way home, a cheap thrill in a city where the penalty on outdoors drinking is apparently actually practiced), I type his name into Facebook and shit, that guy looks rather 21, but I do not actually care enough, even though I have made a phantasy-proxy of his persona in my mind, so when I am fucking this man or drinking his wine I am thinking that I am really this unemployed Canadian boy who likes to play video games all day long and lives on this man’s pay check.

Why does sex throw me into this introspective Carrie Bradshaw mood of "I couldn't help but wonder" - I reflect on my life all the time but there is a specific quality to this modality of post-hookup rumination. I think I mostly have sex so that I can think or write about it afterwards, collecting material for that book I'm never writing that's never making me famous, a queer homo post-sovieticus memoir, or whatever.

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penebui · 5 years ago

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Lgbt manga pt.1

If you had to put up with my sorry ass for a few years then yes you know that I have been searching for lgbt mangas!! I put up with the pain of going through most genres that sexualize/fetishize gender identities and sexualities (like yaoi and gender bender) and reading mangas to find if they have lgbt content so you dont have to suffer the pain of trying to! Clown on this post and please face my wrath

Keep in mind that these aren’t in order of ratings!! Its just a list. I also give summaries of the plot, the things that make it lgbt, and some content warnings!!

1. Welcome to Room #305! by Wanan

Kim Jung Hyun moves into an apartment (room #305) with a friend of a friend, named Kim Homo! Who (you guessed it) is gay! As Jung Hyung begins to live with Kim Homo, he slowly learns to accept him for his sexuality. Once he overcomes his homophobia and completely accepts him for who he is, other lgbt characters pop in too!! They all have their struggles with their identities, and it is very realistic, but the art style helps keep all that angst at bay! As far as english translations go, we have several lesbian characters, and a trans guy. You can read the english translation on several manga sites, but if you want the link to the original since this is a webcomic, here’s the [link]! Unfortunately english updates are very slow since translation teams have other projects, and legal companies who translate take their sweet precious time.

2. Bokura no Hentai by Fumiko Fumi

The title might seem misleading, however it can be translated as “Our Transformation”! Buckle up buttercup cause this manga will fuck you over emotionally. Three crossdressers meet up after being in a crossdressing group, with different reasons as to why they crossdress. Parou crossdresses to fall in love with a straight guy, Marika is actually a trans woman, and Yui crossdresses as his dead sister to “help” his mother with her grieving. There are some other characters who don’t fit within the gender norms!

Now let me tell you if you are dealing with some trauma and can’t handle very sensitive topics, this manga might not be the one for you. Although it isnt just homophobia and transphobia, it also contains content of sexual harrassment, pedophilia, and suicide. However these topics are not glorified or sexualized. They are trauma of some of the characters and they must learn how to overcome from it individually. However, there is a happy ending for them!! Please let that be known! I enjoyed reading it if sobbing your heart out counts as enjoying it, because it has indeed pulled my heart strings (although I am not a trans woman, I am a trans guy and I can identify with only some of the things Marika goes through, as trans women go through different experiences than trans men and have it harder on them.)

3. Hourou Musuko (Wandering Son) by Takako Shimura

This manga is one of the most well known mangas realistically depicting trans identity. It became popular when an anime adaptation came out! However the anime adaptation only covers the middle school part of our protagonists lives, however it encourages you to read the manga to find out what happens to them and their life! We have two protagonists. Shuichi who identifies as a girl, and Yoshino who identifies as a boy. Shuichi is the primary protagonist while Yoshino serves as a secondary protagonist.

This manga also realistically depicts how hard it is for transfeminine people to come out and be themselves while transmasculine people seem to have it easier (dont clown on this dear fuck). We have lesbian, gay, and genderfluid characters galore! Although they do have some touchy topics like transmisogyny and transphobia in general, it is less heavier than Bokura no Hentai.

Some people might not like the outcome of this story when it comes to Yoshino, however I am content with it because it shows that people should be able to explore their gender identity, and they are welcome to change it anytime as they see fit. Sometimes you won’t figure out your identity if you don’t explore.

4. Shimanami Tasagore / Our Dreams at Dusk by Yuhki Kamatani

Also one of the more well known ones, the mangaka of this beautiful story is X-gender and asexual! It follows the protagonist, Tasuku is contemplating suicide as rumors circulate that he is gay at his highschool (he is). He sees a woman jumping off a building nearby and runs to her aid. Her name is Anonymous/Somebody and she sees herself is asexual but other than that she does not like labels, she invites Tasuku inside the building she just jumped off, which contains a group of exclusively lgbt characters.

We have both trans, lesbian, and gay people. We see their struggles. We see how they overcome it. We see how even we ourselves can harm others even if we’re both lgbt. Of course there is homohpobia, transphobia, etc. however it is all handled perfectly and we get the satisfaction of these characters speaking up for either themselves or for each other. I also love Anonymous simply because she doesn’t like labels and chooses not to use them (excluding the asexual part). Not everyone whos part of the lgbt community has a label, however they are still a part of us!

5. Fukakai na boku no subete o (Fukaboku)/ Love me for who I am by Konayama Kata

Fukaboku is a very special manga to me, as it goes in depth on gender identity and sexuality. There are two protagonists, Tetsu who is a cis guy and supposedly straight (we later find out that he is not), and Mogumo, who is both intersex and nonbinary.

Tetsu works as a chef at Question Cafe, and everyone employed in fanlations are called girlyboys, however in the official translation they use otokonoko which is anyone crossdressing as a girl regardless of their gender. There are plenty of transwomen, gay people, etc.! Tetsu falls in love with Mogumo, so he isn’t straight, however he isn’t explicitly gay because he recognizes Mogumo as what they identify as, nonbinary. It is safe to say that he could either be pan, bi, omni, etc. however we can’t confirm since it hasn’t been explicitly stated.

We learn how transfeminine people have certain struggles, like shoes that dont fit them, breasts, and voice feminization. We also have a dose of family struggles when it comes to Mogumo in later/current chapters.

Before you dm me, yes. Yes I know about the shit prequel. The prequel actually features a gay couple in fukaboku. I have read it. Reluctantly even if it was only 24 pages. However just because the prequel is shit does not mean we should cancel Fukaboku. There is a thing called being critical of the content you’re enjoying. If we treated it like cancel y because of x, then things like persona 4 and danganronpa would be cancelled, but lets not get into that.

6. Kanojo ni Naritai Kimi to Boku by Umi Takase

I haven’t heard of this one as much as I have the others, so I was very much pleased when I heard about this! There are two protagonist (yes there are a lot of lgbt mangas with two protags I’ve noticed too), Hime and Akira. Hime has a crush on Akira, who identifies as a girl. However this manga is also realistic, as Akira doesn’t fully ‘pass’ as a girl herself. Hime wants to do anything she can to help Akira feel comfortable on her first day of school wearing a girl’s uniform. Because of Akira being made fun of, Hime shows up to school in Akira’s male uniform to help Akira in solidarity.

Their teachers are fully aware of Akira’s situation, however instead of discriminating her they accept her. Their homeroom teacher helps Hime overcome her internal problem about lashing out at others who try to befriend Akira, and she slowly realizes that just because people can’t accept Akira straight away, they will slowly get used to her and come to terms with the fact that Akira is trans in their own time rather than have it being forced on them.

Hime and Akira make friends slowly and we see that even little things (like calling Akira cute and/or a girl) helps Akira, even if theyre small things we dont usually notice. Hime also struggles with her crush as she sees Akira as a girl, yet she cant accept the fact that shes attracted to girls.

Although Akira doesnt feel the same way as Hime does, she doesnt just like her as a friend, but also not as a lover either. Its safe to say that these two have a quasiplatonic relationship with each other.

7. Yuzu no Koto by Arai Shou

I have noticed that there are plenty of mangas with transfeminine characters as the focus, rather than transmasculine, so heres one for the transmasculines! Ichigo’s best friend Yuzu comes back to school, however he is enrolling as a boy! It is very humorous as Ichigo tries to understand and get used to her best friend’s new identity. Although it is slow as each chapter is a single page, it is hinted that Yuzu has a crush on Ichigo (or if thats just me squinting really hard).

8. Ohana Holoholo by Torino Shino

It is a story about two bi women who are ex-girlfriends, raising one of the women’s baby together as a little family! There is also an idol/actor who helps them out and visits them occassionally! If you want something warming and wholesome, this is the manga for you!!

9. My Androgynous Boyfriend by Tamekou

Wako, a woman who works for a publishing company is in a relationship with an androgynous/genderless man! Her boyfriend wears dresses, makeup, and is an instagram model! It is not necessarily treated as crossdressing. It is handled pretty well, and the chemistry between Wako and her boyfriend is very strong. They both love each other so much and help each other with their hobbies and interests. This is what a loving and healthy relationship is supposed to look like!!

10. Inside Mari by Shuzo Oshimi

It is debatable if this is actually considered lgbt, considered the circumstances, however I put it on this list because it shows how mental illnesses and disorders really feel to the person whos suffering from it. Please read throughout this whole section to understand why.

Inside Mari is about a man named Isao who stalks this young girl named Mari. He follows her back outside of a little convenience store, but when she turns back and looks at him he wakes up inside her body and doesn’t know how to cope with it. He tries to find Mari while putting on a facade and living as her. He meets a girl named Yori who instantly recognizes that Isao isn’t actually Mari from his mannerisms. This girl has had a crush on Mari, just like Isao. Isao tries to prove to Yori that he switched bodies, and when he goes to his apartment, he finds someone living as him, but it isn’t Mari.

The more we delve into this manga, the more we figure out exactly what happened to Mari and Isao. As Isao and Yori visit and retrace his steps, Isao gets flashbacks to memories of Mari. Isao soon realizes that he isn’t actually the real Isao, but a introject of Isao, and that Mari actually has DID because of childhood trauma. The ending is bittersweet, as Mari comes back but Isao unfortunately becomes dormant/disappears since I don’t think what happened was them merging.

11. Seibetsu "Mona Lisa" No Kimi He by Yoshimura Tsumuji

In the world, people can choose what gender they want to be when they’re 12. When they’re 14 their appearance corresponds to their gender. Hinase however, is 18 years old and they still haven’t chosen a gender. They prefer to be neither. However when their two best friends suddenly confess to them, their hormonal development suddenly starts to increase.

Imagery and symbolism is very clear in this manga!! As we revolve around the color blue/cyan and the debate and interpretations of Mona Lisa’s gender. I’m very hopeful that Hinase will stay as nonbinary rather than choosing a gender, simply because both of their best friends confessed and asked them to become the opposite gender to be with them. It is very much hinted that Hinase will be in a romantic relationship with their male best friend however. I love this manga simply because the protagonist doesn’t want to identify as either male nor female.

12. Jun And Kaoru: Pure And Fragrant by Neiki Zui

Jun and Kaoru have a special condition, by midnight they both switch genders. Because they both have this condition, they hang out with each other and help each other with clothing, etc. It should be addressed that these two do not have the “I wish to be a girl/boy” etc. The problem that they have though is their growing crush on each other. They are either genderqueer, or genderfluid, or whatever you prefer since it isn’t directly stated within the manga. They’re not cis or straight! It is a very fun and comedic love story and I wish to see further updates on it!!!

13. Sakura-Chan to Amane-Kun by Asazuki Norito

This story revolves around Sakura who identifies as a girl and Amane who identifies as a boy. Amane spots Sakura dressed as a girl and instantly recognizes her, however instead of belittling her he asks her out on a date, only if she goes as a girl. During school however, they have to pretend to be the gender theyre assigned with while not interacting with each other.

Since there is a lot more but I dont want to break tumblr, I will be making a part 2 and I’ll post it tomorrow!

#lgbt #lgbt manga #manga #lgbtq #lgbtq manga #trans #gay #my post #long post #i enjoy doing stuff like this #prolly because its how i found out i was bigender

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violethowler · 4 years ago

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Highlands Poppy: An Analysis of Clone Shiro’s Role in the Story of Voltron Legendary Defender

It pretty much goes without saying that Shiro’s consciousness being merged with his clone in S6E07 Defender of All Universes was a controversial decision with the fandom. Many had been expecting the Clone Shiro plotline to be resolved the way that such stories usually go in your typical science fiction story. The clone would go through an existential crisis realizing that everything they know about themselves is a lie before eventually deciding to build a new identity for themselves independent of the original. So from that perspective, many fans saw the merging of the clone and the original as one character being killed off because the other was seen as more real, and therefore more important.

However Voltron: Legendary Defender is not a purely science fiction franchise. With its druids and magic, and the Altean basically being elves in all but name, the show has the trappings of an epic fantasy set in outer space. So when discussing Clone Shiro’s role in the overall narrative of the series, we should not be looking at it from a purely sci-fi perspective. Meaning that despite the name “Operation Kuron” and being labeled as such on-screen in Seasons 6-7, “Kuron” does not align with traditional sci-fi tropes about cloning. To more accurately describe what he is, we should first look at the function that both Shiros fill within the overarching story of the series.

A recurring narrative device used throughout VLD is to link two different characters or events by framing them as parallels. These parallels thematically tie the two together and serve to link the similar elements together in the mind of the audience, often with the additional purpose of highlighting the parts where the two are different. The most immediately obvious example would be the fight against the gladiator robeast in S1E03 Return of the Gladiator, where Voltron’s battle against the robeast intercuts with brief flashbacks to Shiro fighting the warrior it was built from back in the gladiator arena.

However sometimes these parallels are more subtle, and aren’t directly pointed out in the narrative. Instead, the more subtle parallels are depicted through similar elements, or through visual details that signal that the events being depicted are of a similar nature. For example, despite being separated by at least 18 episodes, Pidge’s grief when she finds Matt’s grave in S4E02 Reunion parallels Shiro mourning Adam in S7E09 Know Your Enemy. Meanwhile, the bits of light floating off Lotor’s body in S8E10 Knights of Light: Part 2 resemble the ones seen coming from his parents’ eyes after their resurrection in S3E07 The Legend Begins, signalling that Lotor is not dead, despite WEP removing all trace of his survival from subsequent episodes.

After Allura transfers Shiro’s consciousness into the clone body, his eyes fill with a solid pink light that contracts before fading to show his pupils as the merger of Shiro and Clone Shiro completes. After this point, Shiro has all of his and the clone’s memories (although thanks to WEP’s meddling with Seasons 7 and 8, we did not get to see this shown on screen). The only other time in the series where we see this visual of a character’s eyes lighting up with a solid color before the light contracts and fades to reveal their pupils is when Haggar leaves Oriande and completes her transformation back into Honerva.

From a storytelling perspective, this signals to the audience that what Honerva experienced in Oriande after forcing her way past the White Lion’s trial in S6E01 Omega Shield is similar to what occurred with Shiro and his clone in S6E07 Defender of All Universes: a merging of two selves. This connection ties in to an existing pattern that has been present in the show since Season 4 and still remains in Seasons 7 and 8 despite the extensive executive meddling that resulted in the culmination of this plotline being removed.

When speaking with Lotor in S6E05 The Black Paladins, Honerva refers to her Haggar persona as something she was transformed into. Something different than who she really is that she was changed into against her will. Lotor also treats Haggar and Honerva as separate entities in the same episode, and in S4E05 Begin the Blitz, even though we as the audience know for a fact that they are the same person. Shiro, too, makes a distinction between his own actions and those of his alternate self in S7E06.

But despite her claims to the contrary, we are shown that the only difference between Haggar and Honerva is her memories. Even before she took a bath in the rift on Daibazaal, Honerva was always willing to push ethical boundaries in the name of science. She does not react with horror at her actions after regaining her memories, and despite attempting to separate herself from her Haggar identity, she still adheres to the same tactics to stay in control of the people around her.

In the same way, the biggest distinction between Shiro and his clone is their diverging memory post-Season 2, and the fact that the events of S3E5 The Journey added more trauma on top of Shiro’s PTSD from his time as a prisoner of the empire, making him more short-tempered and less patient. But the Shiro in Seasons 3-5 at his core is so identical to the Shiro of the first 2 seasons that despite the Operation Kuron line in S3E5, many fans before Season 6 did not believe that he was a clone at all.

We do not get any on-screen acknowledgement of Shiro having two sets of memories, however the Season 8 episode Clear Day points out that Honerva and Haggar are the same person despite the change in her name and appearance. This indicates that we should have gotten a similar acknowledgement of Shiro’s situation at some point during the final season. We should also have seen both characters be forced to confront the reality of their situation in order to move forward.

The moment where Honerva is forced to confront the fact that she cannot absolve herself of her actions as Haggar was more than likely a casualty of Lotor’s removal from the final season. Her final conversation with Lotor would have forced her to accept responsibility for her actions as Haggar, and Lotor would likewise be forced to acknowledge the cruel witch Haggar and his mother Honerva as the same person.

While Honerva’s confrontation was centered around Lotor, Shiro’s most significant relationship throughout the overarching narrative is his bond with Keith. It would make perfect sense, then, for Keith to play a major role in helping Shiro reconcile with the memories and actions of his alternate self. And since all of Keith and Shiro’s personal interactions were cut out of the season in order to No-Homo their connection, scenes that acknowledged the merger of the two Shiros were left on the cutting room floor.

TL;DR: Shiro merging with his clone at the end of Season 6 is an external representation of what happens inside Honerva’s mind at the beginning. The two were each meant to have moments in Season 8 where they admit that their other selves were a part of them instead of separate entities, but these scenes were cut as a consequence of Lotor’s removal from the season and Keith and Shiro being No-Homo’d.

#voltron legendary defender #voltron meta #vld shiro #vld haggar #vld kuron #vld honerva #character analysis #narrative parallels

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brandoncarlo · 5 years ago

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Hockey Horoscopes

March 21st - April 19th - The Captain

at the end of the day The Captain only has one job that’s written down -- talking to the ref. Don’t like a penalty? Don’t like a missed penalty? don’t agree with a no goal call? well you literally can’t change their mind because it’s almost against the rules for the refs to do so, but you get to be the one to yell at them about it anyway. Are you actually a good leader? maybe. but it doesn’t matter. for you it’s about yelling. and making sure the rookies have their names written on their lunchboxes.

April 20th - May 20th - The Selke Winner

A player who wins the Selke will always be underrated. They could win the Hart and they’d still be underrated. Why? Because they fucking score and play defense? literally no other type of player does this. Is being relied on like this stressful as hell? sure but someone’s gotta do it. In some ways you enjoy it. Yeah it kind of sucks but at least if you’re doing it, you can try not to fuck up. No one else is trustworthy enough.

May 21 - June 20 - Trade Bait

A lot of the time the team doesn’t even want to trade you they just really want a first round pick and your name gets stapled to whatever package is being sent for it. Which team will you be on next month? who knows but jerseys are really expensive and you pretty much have all of them at this point, that’s just good economics. Someone who is trade bait has inherent value that’s proven over and over again but this can end up making you feel more like a possession than a person and you constantly struggle with your identity and your concept of personhood because of it.

June 21 - July 22 - The Bro

Summers are for fishing, golfing, dogs, and posting shirtless pics to instagram. Can real life have homo erotic subtext? ask the picture you posted at 5 am this morning of you messily hanging over another player on someone’s boat. Some think you don’t take your work seriously but of course you do because how else would you buy all your snapbacks? They’re not cheap these days. Do you bank on people finding your personality overexaggerated and a little fake as a way to keep them from knowing and therefore judging the real you? Probably. but hey, you’ve only been traded twice for off ice conduct and you haven’t had a scandal in three months. you’re doing fine.

July 23rd - August 22 - Good Ol’ Canadian Boy

Remember that time you yelled at an old lady in the grocery store? Doesn’t matter cause literally no body else does. You’re good boy image has done that for you. All you gotta do is say the same three things in every interview and all the 40-80 year olds who watch hockey will love you and at the end of the day, that’s 90% of people who watch hockey so you’re good. Does your lack of individuality and the constant pressure for you to be The Savior wear on you and cause you to make impulsive and stupid decisions? Oh for sure, but no one will hold it against you. or maybe they will. Your life is kind of just like an exciting game of reputation roulette.

August 23rd - September 22nd - 4th Line Enforcer

No one has to ask you to bloody your knuckles for your team, you’ll do it any day of the week. Your teammates all love you, they fetch your food and drinks for you. They clean up your locker for you and your goalie even lets you score during practice. You just can’t shake the feeling though that people do nice things for you as part of a transaction where you pay them back by beating the shit out of any guy that takes a run at them. You protecting those you’re closets with is of utmost importance, and you know they appreciate it. But you also know at the end of the day loyalty can only go so far and when it comes time for your GM to trim the fat off the salary cap, you’re first to go. but hey, during your first game back that rookie you took under your wing who’s now a full grown man will make eye contact with you, and for a split second you’ll remember why all of this was all worth it.

September 23rd - October 22nd - The Lone American

Maybe you’re patriotic or maybe you couldn’t give a shit but the truth remains that you are alone on a team in the middle of Alberta with 99% canadians. Your only confidant is your finnish d partner and the video review coach’s assistant, Jeremy, who just graduated from UMich and even he says “about” funny. Because of this you take every opportunity to repeat the miracle monologue and you insist on stopping at every dunkin donuts you come within a 50 mile radius from. You’re not used to being the odd man out but now that you are, you find that you are almost regretfully being proud of something you previously didn’t connect with. Did you know all the lyrics to the anthem before? nope but now you do if only to sing along loudly enough to piss off everyone else on the team plane wondering why you’re standing in the aisle with your hand over your heart. You may need to stop defining yourself by the things that make you different from others, before you sever the bonds completely. Until then, do you believe in Miracles? YES!

October 23rd - November 21st - The Rat

The Commish has you on speed dial and your coach made a soundboard so they didn’t lose their voice yelling at you all game. You spend your free time studying the greats, the founding fathers of trash talk. Being the one everyone loves to hate has become so much your identity that you may forget every now and then that you’re not just an entertainer, you’re a person. In between making cooing noises at opponents and criticizing hair cuts of your teammates try to say one genuine thing. Just at all. Before you lose yourself entirely in the persona.

November 22nd - December 21st - Second Line Centre

Sure people usually follow up your name by saying “...makes how much?” but you’re worth it goddamnit. Not everyone lead the league in playoff goals in the 2014 season even though your team didn’t win that year RIP. Despite doing your best at every turn you never can seem to really please anyone. You’re stuck in the shadow of someone you consider a life long friend and have to constantly surround yourself with good people and good words to not grow to resent your space. Those who like you, like you for your easiness and your work ethic. But remember, there’s nothing wrong with an over celebration and patting yourself on the back every now and then.

December 22nd - January 19th - The Vet

Welcome to the big leagues kid, work hard and you may find a home here... is what you usually say to others when they enter your locker room. You care and you take things seriously because that’s just the right thing to do. But you also can realize the importance of real life over a game you play for money. Your head is on your shoulders and you have a life time experience under your belt and you aren’t even 50 yet. So that’s pretty cool. But as one chapter ends and another begins, don’t forget what excitement and exhilaration feel like.

January 20th - February 18th - The University Graduate

Sure a lot of your teammates went to school, the american ones mostly, but almost none of them actually got their degree. Why should they? they’re making bank. Unfortunately for them but mostly you, they’re all fucking dumb jock meatheads and make fun of you for reading. You only got your Bachelor’s with a straight B average, but these guys make you feel like you got your PhD when you were 17. “You went to Harvard?” They ask in awe, as if you didn’t get in solely on your athletics scholarship. Try not to let your own academic success get to your head though, Kindness and compassion are a lot more valuable in the long run and you’d be surprised by what dumbass jocks have to say. or probably not. but i’m trying to make a point about how academia does not equal = intelligence. to again make another point about how when we’re surrounded by people with different values than us we may begin to feel superior when really we should take the opportunity to learn from them as much as they learn from us. this is all fun and games folks.

February 19th - March 20th - Almost Joined a Punk Band

None of your tattoos are lions or include your own last name/family crest, you’re too original for that. As a kid you used to dream of being on a stage more than you dreamed of raising the stanley cup, but hey in world juniors you scored an OT goal and got to play air guitar as your celly so it’s kind of the same thing. Your parents were iffy about you playing a sport with the same type of kids who would have bullied you in high school but you stand on your own. But you made friends by teaching your teammates how to play the guitar. So sure you’re the odd man out but people like you. and you know what it’s like to be judged, so your open minded attitude draws people to you naturally. Just make sure you don’t trust too much because that open and creative attitude can turn into you being jaded, washed up, and wishing you actually did join a punk band insted.

#nhl #horoscopes #zodiac signs #listen are most of these based off of my OCs more than actual hockey players? yes #is that a problem? maybe #I also made my own birthday the one i wouldn't like #not on purpose it just #*fit* so don't #accuse me of making your birthday specifically bad #because i played myself first and foremost #mine

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cawfulopinions · 5 years ago

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Persona 4 Golden and the Problem of Appealing to a Wider Audience

I’ve been questioning how to go about writing this essay ever since I first finished Persona 4 Golden back in 2013. When I first finished the game, I came out of it not liking it very much – mechanically, it felt unbalanced; and writing-wise, I found it poorer than its original. My opinions on the game have shifted somewhat since then, helped along by the release of Persona 5 and the realization that many of the game’s mechanics were testbeds for that game. However, with time, I’ve found that I can articulate a lot of the problems Golden has with its writing a lot better. What I’ve ultimately settled on is looking at the Persona 4 we were originally given, then looking at its rerelease, and seeing what changed there and why I didn’t like it. Let’s jump in, shall we?

(Note: There will be complaining about Marie. My opinions on that subject sure as hell haven’t changed in the past seven years. Also, there will obviously be spoilers.)

I. A Brief History of Persona 4 as a Franchise

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (later spinoffs would drop the subtitle) released in the west in 2008 as a follow-up to the very strange (at the time) and very niche Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3. Persona 3 was notable for deciding to go for an urban setting, an avant-garde aesthetic, and heavy philosophical themes, something that was rare for RPGs before 2010 (though not for its own franchise). While Persona 4 kept the philosophical focus of Persona 3, it decided to dial back some of the artsier aspects in favor of a more down-to-earth, focused story. Where P3 told a story about the inevitability of death and took place in a very modern Japanese setting, P4 decides to tell a story about the lies we tell ourselves and takes place in a rustic, rural setting.

Some of the first things that Persona 4 tells you after getting to its setting, Inaba, are that the town really only has one tourist attraction, it’s far from anywhere of real note, and its local businesses are all being driven out of business by the construction of a corporate superstore. It’s relatable, particularly to anyone who’s watched their local mom-and-pops go out of business after a Wal-Mart decided to move in.

The tone of this setting permeates through Persona 4 – all of its characters are pretty down-to-earth, and though there’s some cartoonish exaggeration in their writing, they feel more like real people than your average RPG character. Yosuke is the new kid in town who struggles with feelings of inferiority, something that’s not helped by his dad running the superstore that’s driving everyone out of business. Naoto is a girl with aspirations of becoming a detective, but hides her gender out of a belief that if she does so, she’ll be taken more seriously by the male-dominated police force. Even the game’s idol character, Rise, is someone who quit the business because the pressures of the idol industry became too much for her. Most games would take the opportunity to have an idol character written into the cast as an excuse for a pandering song and dance sequence and to play up her “waifu” aspects. Persona 4 spends the first hour after Rise’s introduced having her in and apron and slacks, serving tofu, and dodging paparazzi.

Persona 4 is not perfect in how it approaches its characters – in particular, Kanji and Naoto’s storylines have gotten a deserved level of flack for having essentially written coming-out stories for a gay man and a transman, and then immediately backing off and “no homo”-ing them. There’s a number of Social Links that end with the character deciding to go do the socially acceptable thing for them to do instead of following their own hearts, too – Yukiko’s comes to mind. But the character conflicts and stories told in the game’s Social Links are grounded and relatable.

The grounded-ness of Persona 4 was what really made it stand out in 2009, a time where RPGs and games as a whole were mostly concerned with showing off the cool things they could do with their engines (keep in mind, this was the early era of the PS3, and Persona 4 was a PS2 game). Looking back, it’s easy to realize that Persona 4 was made as grounded and rustic as it was because of budgetary concerns, but what was done with its limited budget was incredible. It looked at its setting and tone and embraced them, and that helped to make the game stronger.

And it worked! Persona 4 was easily Atlus’s biggest success in the PS2 era. Though the game was hard to find in the United States due to its short print run, it was inescapable online, and the early Let’s Play era helped keep it in the public eye. There’s a large number of people in the English fandom who only knew Persona 4 existed back in the day because of the hiimdaisy comic and the Giant Bomb Endurance Run. Meanwhile, the game was huge in Japan and topped sales charts for weeks.

Source: Gamasutra

And then Atlus almost went out of business! Oops!

Here’s what we know about Atlus at the time that Persona 4 came out: it wasn’t doing good. The PS2 Shin Megami Tensei games were all desperate attempts to try and find success, something that Persona director Katsura Hashino has been fairly public about in interviews. Dataminers examining the PS2 SMT games have found evidence that suggests every game was built on top of the previous, with every game using SMT: Nocturne’s models and basic gameplay system until after Persona 4’s release. Persona 3 and Persona 4 are so similar under the hood that model swap mods are everywhere for the two, with literally the only adjustments necessary being a reordering of animations to account for Persona 4 having a guard animation and Persona 3 not.

Persona 4 was a huge hit, but it wasn’t enough to save Atlus. The last games released under an independent Atlus were Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (one of my personal favorites) and Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (a massive failure for the company). Following Strange Journey’s release, long-time franchise artist (and, more importantly, producer and creative designer for Strange Journey) Kazuma Kaneko near entirely disappeared from future SMT titles, only credited for writing the scenario concept for SMTIV and as a demon design supervisor for later SMT titles.

Soon after Strange Journey’s failure, Atlus was snatched up by Index Corporation. Very little is known about the internal culture during the Index era, but evidence suggests that it wasn’t great. The first few games Atlus produced after this point were all remakes, save for the strange, marriage-drama focused Catherine, a game that was assuredly in development before Atlus was bought out.

It was the original games and spinoffs that Atlus produced after they were bought by Index that started to show a shift in tone. Devil Survivor 2 is a notably different game than its predecessor (which was made while Atlus was independent). While I won’t get into that too much here (that game’s worth an essay on its own), it decided to trade it’s classical SMT-style aesthetic for something more bombastic and widely-appealing. Many of the characters in that game are better summed up by what anime tropes they appeal to than by their own character arcs, and the game’s plot is an unsubtle ripoff of Neon Genesis Evangelion. And it worked. Devil Survivor 2 very notably sold better than its predecessor despite being a DS game in the 3DS era.

At around the same time as Devil Survivor 2 was released, Atlus was preparing to release the first anime adaptation of Persona 4. Persona 4: The Animation was released in October of 2011, directed by Seiji Kishi (of Angel Beats! fame) and animated by AIC. I’ll leave my thoughts on Seiji Kishi as a director out of this and focus on the content of Persona 4: The Animation instead.

Let’s get one thing out of the way. Persona 4: The Animation is a comedy anime.

The anime is a fairly faithful adaptation of the game in terms of plotline. It follows the game’s story to the letter, hitting every plot beat. When it needs to get serious, it gets serious, and when it nails its emotional beats, it nails them well. While I’ll go on record in saying that I flat out dislike the anime, I won’t deny that certain episodes, like the Nanako arc, are done very well. However, when it doesn’t need to be serious, the anime decides to look at Persona 4’s subtlety in its character arcs, and says, “Subtlety is for cowards.”

There’s an argument to be made that there isn’t time for subtlety in a 24-episode anime, which is why everyone’s character arcs needed to be compressed and character traits shaved down to only the most exaggerated bits. I disagree. You can easily show character without exaggeration in short-form media – the entire short story genre is built off of that exact concept. The decision to shave everyone down to their most basic traits was a decision made to make Persona 4 more accessible to a general anime-watching audience, who likely came in expecting a more action-packed, high energy deal.

And it worked.

For many people, Persona 4: The Animation was their first experience with Persona, period. The anime was incredibly popular, and it’s clear that at this point, Atlus (or, more likely, Index) realized they’d struck gold. Persona 4: The Animation was the start of a large spate of Persona 4 spinoffs, all of which adopting the character exaggerations of the anime in some form or fashion. Any time you see a scene in a P4 spinoff where Chie’s reduced to her love of meat and kung-fu? Blame the anime. Further original games after this point seemed to take a more mainstream shift as well – Shin Megami Tensei IV and its sequel, Apocalypse, are both very different games than their predecessors, with characters and plotlines seemingly written to appeal to Persona 4’s audience.

Atlus eventually managed to claw their way out from under the hand of Index, mostly because Index got caught up in a huge fraud investigation! Oops! Sega bought a whole bunch of Index at this point, and Atlus has more or less kept on trucking under Sega since. However, the shift in internal priorities hasn’t changed much – Persona 5, while still a good game, is much closer tonally to the games that came out under Index, Shin Megami Tensei V has been AWOL ever since its first preview, and the less said about Catherine Redux, the better.

II. Less is More, and Maybe Inaba Doesn’t Need A Nightclub

Which, after a long detour, brings us back to Persona 4 Golden.

Golden is a remake of Persona 4 with additional content, released for the Playstation Vita (RIP) during the height of its popularity in Japan. Like Persona 3 FES, a previous patch/remake for Persona 3, Golden primarily exists as a gameplay patch to Persona 4 with additional story content in places throughout the game. While most of FES’s additional story was segmented off into the controversial “The Answer” section, Golden’s additional content is peppered haphazardly throughout the game. Because of this integration into the main story, Golden’s issues are more pronounced than FES’s were – in FES, you could just not play “The Answer”. Golden isn’t letting you go home without at least pushing you toward Marie’s dungeon.

Golden feels like it was developed with an understanding that anyone who’s playing it has watched the anime, and decides to lean into chasing that mainstream appeal while also throwing out the intrigue of its plot and setting. This is first evidenced when you boot up the game and watch the opening. While it hits all of the same beats as Persona 4’s opening, Golden’s opening has a much cheerier tune to it, focusing on a dance sequence and colorful visuals instead of the larger tone of the game. It’s not like the Persona 4 opening is completely absent from the game, but you have to go out of your way to watch it, and first impressions are very important.

This change in opening tone is only one example of the general tone of the changes that Golden takes. While there are big issues with the game’s writing (specifically one big one, which, whooo boy, we’ll get to her), most of the issues are in the little things – the new gameplay elements, the new areas you can visit, and the new scenes that were added to the game.

I talked a lot about how important P4’s setting is to its game for a reason: most of Golden’s changes are ones that disrupt the carefully crafted tone and setting of the original game. From things like slice of life scenes about the party buying scooters for themselves, to a winter trip to a ski resort, to a goddamn idol concert on the roof of the supercenter driving everyone out of business, it feels like the game is trying to pull away from its rural setting and down-to-earth tone to appeal to the lowest common denominator: teenage boys who live in Japanese cities.

A big sticking point for me personally has always been that you can visit Okina City in Golden. In Persona 4, you visited the nearby city occasionally in social link events, but never explored it on the whole. It gave a sense that Okina City was somewhere inconvenient to go to – someplace worth going to for a day trip with your friends, but too out of the way to visit on the regular. In Golden, the city and all of its trappings are just a loading screen away. Having a larger setting change like this so easily accessible detracts from Inaba’s setting – it makes the anxieties that several characters have about being trapped by the town feel fake. It detracts from a feeling that’s so integral to the game’s tone.

Also, the first time you go there outside of a Social Link is because Yosuke wants to pick up chicks with his cool new motorcycle.

The first trip to Okina City is ultimately indicative of a larger problem with most of the added scenes in P4G have: because they were written after the anime, they’re written to appeal to anime watchers. You can immediately tell when you’ve entered a scene that is original to P4G because the writing almost immediately drops in quality – characters become less complex, scenes have nothing to do with the plot or character development, and, to be quite honest, the jokes get worse. The Okina City sequence ultimately just ends with a fat joke and another “no homo” moment with Kanji. It’s… really bad.

There’s four more of these additional sequences throughout the game, and they’re all similar slice of life sequences that rely on anime tropes to propel them. The next after this is a beach episode with the rest of your party. After that is the idol concert on the Junes roof, which gets a hastily written tie-in to the plot when an antagonist says that the concert was how he found the party. After that is the entire winter sequence of the game, which caps off with a ski resort trip that leads into the game’s extra dungeon (which we’ll get to), which THEN leads into the game’s second hot springs cutscene, which has even less purpose than the first one.

None of these scenes have any real substance – it feels like they were just included because they actually had the budget to include them this time around. It’s possible that Okina City and the nighttime areas in Inaba were originally intended for the original version of P4, and I’d believe it – the way nighttime jobs are implemented in the original version of the game is particularly awkward, and you visit Okina City enough times in Social Links that I fully believe it was intended for the full game. As for the idol concert sequence, it 100% only exists because they got Rie Kugimiya as Rise’s VA, but couldn’t fit a sequence where she sang into the original version of the game.

The problem is that these inclusions ultimately detract from the original story. They take a game with a pretty firm idea of what kind of tone it wanted to have and muddle it because, fuck that, we have a budget this time and we need more anime tropes, idols, and tsunderes for those kids who came in after watching the anime.

Which brings us to Persona 4 Golden’s biggest issues: its additional Social Links, the winter semester, and its new ending sequence.

III. We have to talk about Marie.

Like Persona 3 FES before it, Persona 4 Golden adds new Social Links to the game. The first of which is the Jester Social Link, which deals with Tohru Adachi, a local police officer and a major character. While I’ve never been a huge fan of this Social Link (I’ve always felt like it made the identity of the culprit too obvious), it’s fairly well received by the fanbase and I can see the argument for its inclusion, so I’m not going to spend time discussing it here.

The other is Golden’s new Aeon Social Link, who manages to encompass most of Golden’s issues in a single character.

Marie is a completely original character to Golden, the first of a long chain of Atlus “remake waifus” – characters who are added to a remake of a game that are intended to appeal to the otaku crowd, rarely fit in with the rest of the game, and introduce large changes to the game’s plot. These characters rarely work because the narrative wasn’t built around them, and the retcons these characters introduce are often detrimental to their games’ original plots or themes.

Marie has all of these problems. She feels like she was written by committee – designed to appeal to an otaku crowd with a fancy design and tsundere personality. On top of that, she’s voiced by a big name seiyuu (Kana Hanazawa), and her plotline is used to fill in gaps with the game’s ending sequence, since the original game struggled with setting it up and the anime barely even bothered to touch it (Persona 4’s True Ending was shuffled off into an OVA in the anime adaptation).

From the moment you first see Marie, it’s obvious that she doesn’t belong. It’s not that her character design is bad, but it doesn’t match with the rest of the game’s tone. This is something of a pattern for her. The first time you meet Marie, it’s in the middle of a scene that was originally dedicated to the protagonist meeting his new family in Inaba. It’s jarring, disrupts a scene that was about setting up the protagonist’s larger family dynamic, and interrupts the flow of the game’s opening sequence.

Personality-wise, Marie is probably the most tropey of Golden’s characters – she’s a tsundere with amnesia, has a mysterious past, writes bad poetry as a hobby, and has a very obvious crush on the protagonist. Romancing her is almost mandated – you’re required to complete her Social Link to access the winter semester of the game, and during the game’s new ending, she calls out the protagonist on television to talk about how much she loves him. You can choose not to romance her if you want, but the game does its best to push you into wanting to do so.

Marie ultimately becomes one of the Velvet Room’s new attendants, though a lot of the evidence suggests that she was intended to become one of your party members originally. This is partially because she has a unique Persona related to her, and partially because the game takes every effort to emphasize how much of a buddy she is to the party. Marie’s Social Link ranks are time gated, usually becoming available after a new party member joins your team. All of these early scenes are dedicated to the protagonist going on dates with Marie, and then a random party member will show up and immediately become friends with her. Probably the most egregious case is during any mid-game hangouts where you don’t rank up, because the entirety of your party will just show up at Junes at the same time as you and Marie. It’s so obviously artificially constructed and honestly feels insulting to the player.

This artificiality feels like it was a writer’s saving throw to justify why the team would go into Marie’s dungeon to save her. The problem is that it’s also an unnecessary move to take. The majority of Persona 4’s plot is about the party entering dungeons to save people that they don’t really know from a serial killer; it stands to reason that the party would decide to help Marie without that extra motivation. But no, it was important to the writers that Marie is also big friends with the party, so we got what we got instead.

Marie’s dungeon comes after the skiing trip that caps off the winter semester, a portion of the game that is only available if you’ve finished her Social Link. The skiing trip is mostly more slice of life/comedy scenes, right up until you get thrust into the TV World to help Marie. The dungeon itself is… notoriously bad. You’re stripped of your equipment and items, and can only use items found within the dungeon to fight back. On top of that, the dungeon constantly drains your HP and MP, and the boss of it can only be damaged by using items that give her elemental weaknesses, because she starts off immune to everything. Here’s hoping you didn’t bring Chie for that fight like I did!

As you go through the dungeon, it’s revealed that Marie was secretly Kusumi-no-Okami, a minor Shinto god in service to Ameno-Sagiri (the game’s first final boss). Kusumi-no-Okami’s purpose is that she’s supposed to observe humanity and suck up all of Ameno-Sagiri’s fog after the conclusion of the game’s plot, which will inevitably kill her. The dungeon ends with the party trying to appeal to Marie to convince her that she doesn’t need to die, and then beating her up to save her. It’s… not particularly well written, but if that was all to Marie’s character after that, it would be fine. Unfortunately, it’s not.

The game proceeds as normal after that point as you approach the actual final boss, Izanami-no-Okami. During the fight with her, there is a sequence where the protagonist is encouraged to keep going by all of his social links. In the original version of the game (assuming that you’ve done their Social Links), this sequence ends with Dojima and Nanako, the family he’s been staying with the whole game, encouraging him to keep going. In Golden, Nanako’s line is immediately followed by Marie showing up, once again taking a sequence about familial love to make it about Marie. It’s… kind of gross!

Then you beat Izanami, and in the scene immediately afterwards, it’s revealed that, just kidding, Marie wasn’t Kusumi-no-Okami after all! She was actually Izanami-no-Mikoto, the good part of Izanami that was shaved off so that she could do her whole evil plot. Once you beat Izanami-no-Okami, she absorbs that evil part back into her and everything is all hunky dory! Conflict resolved completely, no need to worry about it anymore!

The “Marie was actually Izanami all along” reveal undercuts the finale of the game significantly. It comes immediately after what was the final scene before the ending scene, where Izanami pledged to leave humanity’s direction to humans in recognition of your feats. It’s an unnecessary doubling down on a finale that was already pretty definitive, if somewhat bittersweet, by making it unambiguously happy. This remains a theme for Golden’s ending sequence.

Persona 4 ends with the protagonist leaving his friends behind at the end of the year. Though the killer is in jail and the mastermind defeated, Inaba is still in the same melancholy state as it was when the protagonist came to it, and ultimately, he has to leave his friends behind. There’s a bittersweet-ness to its happy ending – no matter what, you have to move on and trust that things will be okay without you. Obviously, the protagonist comes back – there wouldn’t be so many spinoffs if he couldn’t – but it’s important that Persona 4 ends the way it does at that point. It puts a definitive close on the game.

Golden, however, adds an extended epilogue sequence where the protagonist comes back a year later. In this sequence, you find out that Inaba’s businesses are recovering, Namatame (the false antagonist) is running for office with a lot of support from the town, Adachi (the actual antagonist) has been on good behavior in jail, and your party members are all making tracks toward happiness for themselves.

A theme of esoteric happiness runs through this entire sequence – it feels like it entirely exists just to tell the player not to worry, everything is fine now, don’t worry about any other points of conflict. If it was just one of these things, it would have been fine, but the gatling gun of happy endings makes every one of those little victories feel lesser for it. Marie, of course, is inserted into the ending sequence of the epilogue to cap off her involvement. The esoteric happiness started with Marie, and it ends with Marie.

Golden’s epilogue ties every conflict in the game up into a neat little bow, in a way that’s almost entirely at odds with Persona 4’s down-to-home nature. It’s a fantasy that doesn’t acknowledge the uglier parts of life that Persona 4 was all about confronting. It’s the same kind of lie that Izanami accused humanity of wanting to nestle itself into. Marie’s involvement in Golden sums up a lot of that game’s problems, but the epilogue brings them into sharp relief.

IV. So now what?

I wouldn’t call Golden a bad game – I’ve heard a lot of people call it the superior version gameplay-wise, and while I disagree with that (it’s got some balance issues thanks to its new mechanics), it’s definitely the most accessible version. But when it comes to how it relates to its original, Golden throws a lot of what makes it good out the window in favor of appealing to a more general audience with slice of life sequences, more familiar tropes, and a character who mostly exists to sell merchandise and tie up Persona 4’s ending in an unambiguously happy manner.

I realize I’m in the minority here when I talk about what I dislike about Golden – you’ll find a lot of people who dislike Marie, but not a lot who dislike the rest of the package. And if you have a Vita and haven’t played Persona 4 already, then you might as well use it as your entry point into the franchise. However, I can’t help but feel like Golden is the exact point where Persona as a franchise shifted from trying to tell philosophical stories with more grounded characters to chasing mainstream appeal. Even Persona 5, a game that tries to tell a story about very real societal problems, has a lot of the same problems as Golden does, and from what I understand, these problems only got worse with Persona 5 Royal.

At the end of the day, Persona is going nowhere anytime soon – Persona 5 is the best-selling game in the franchise period, and the influence Persona has had on JRPGs in general cannot be understated. But I wouldn’t mind if some of the things I disliked about Persona 4 Golden didn’t come back.

#persona 4 #persona 4 golden #p4 spoilers #opinion #video games #a massive pile of salt

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anarcoqueer1994 · 5 years ago

Note

Andi Mack but absolutely no one is both cis and het

So I loved this idea but got overwhelmed trying to think about squeezing in all the headcannon ideas I have for each character and their gender and sexuality and having it flow well in a single story. So these are a list of my headcannons for each character. I pretty much already picture ever character as either not cis or not straight, or both. Every once in a while Buffy gets straight, cis rights but not often. Anyways, if there is anything particularly interesting I may expand it into a story. I know alot is pretty well established but I needed to collect my thoughts into one list.

Please ignore typos, I'm running on stress and sleep deprivation.

Andi

• Pansexual/pan-romantic, cis girl, she/her

• She and Buffy got that serious pan/bi solidarity. (More on that later)

• In love with her amazing girlfriend, Amber. But both Amber and Buffy were ready to fight anyone who tries to erase her pan identity just bc her SO is a girl.

• Literally Amber almost got into a fist fight with a girl who was insisting Andi was a lesbian even when she was corrected.

• Reminds people constantly that Pan and Bi are not always interchangeable and you should always respect the labels a person asks for.

• She, Libby, and Walker did everyone's makeup and/or face paint for their first PRIDE.

Buffy

• Demi-Bisexual/bi-romantic, cis girl, she/her

• Literally the reason she fell for Marty started with the fact that he was such a good friend. Also she thought he was really cute but will never admit it

• Is tired of trolls online belittling bi-girls validity, especially bi girls in relationships with men.

• Has a shirt that says "My sexuality is not your fetish."

• Loves Marty so much but is tired of justifying her bisexuality to both straight people and gay people.

Cyrus

• Homosexual/Homo-romantic, Cis Guy, He/him

• Definitely a theater gay. Like you can't tell me that he did not listen to "I'm not that Girl" from Wicked constantly when he thought TJ and Kira were dating.

• Literally makes gay puns constantly.

• He and Amber founded Grant's Queer Alliance. Straight, cis folks could be in it but didnt want them in the name like GSAs because straight people don't needed to be centered to be an ally

• Accidentally chaotic

• Ships Ryan and Chad

• Is a Tumblr gay

Jonah

• Heterosexual/Aromantic, Cis-Guy, he/him

• He loves making out but is not a fan of the whole heavy romance emotions

• People tell him constantly that he will feel those feelings someday when he meets the "right person".

• He disagrees.

• "Why can't it just be fun?" He has literally no interest at all in being in a romantic relationship.

• Like at all.

• He is happy with and values his platonic relationships and does not want more than that.

• Homosexual/Homo-romantic, Trans-Guy, He/him

• He was so stressed out when he realized that not only was he trans, but he is also gay.

• Built up emotional wall and mean persona to let everyone know that he was definitely a super masculine guy.

• He told Amber he was a boy when he was 5 years old, so she at 7 years old, snuck the scissors from their parents' room and chopped off his hair.

• His whole family has been so supportive.

• Cyrus was the 2nd non-Kippen to know he was trans, after Reed.

• Reed was his first crush because in kindergarten Reed kissed TJ on the cheek. That was his "first kiss." The crush eventually went away when he realized he just really wanted Reed as his best friend.

• TJ's mom helped him pick out safe binding options once puberty started. His mom also got him hormone therapy starting pretty early in his teen years to minimize the effects of puberty. He is super grateful.

• Always chaotic.

• Uses "I'm gay" as an excuse for anything.

• Made out with Cyrus in front of some shitty evangelical preacher protesting at PRIDE.

• Cant even picture ever dating a girl and has no idea how Cyrus ever thought he was straight.

Amber

• Homosexual/Homo-romantic, Cis Girl, She/her

• Sapphic queen

• Is overwhelmed by how pretty girls are

• Loves Britney Spears

• Probably too good for you.

• Is ready to ruin anyone's life if they say anything homophobic or transphobic to her girlfriend(Andi), Best Friends(Cyrus and Iris) or her little brother. (TJ)

Marty

• Heterosexual/Hetero-romantic, Trans Guy, He/him

• Runs fast to outrun that dysphoria.

• His family was not supportive like TJ's but TJ and his family have his back.

• Unsafe binding methods until TJ forced him to be safer

• Big dumb boy energy

• Is so proud of his girlfriend all the time.

• At a track meet, some asshole guy from another school kept telling Marty to go run with the girls because there is no way he can keep up with "real" guys.

• Marty beat every guys time and won in both events he participated in: Sprinting and Long Distance.

• He still can't believe how lucky he is to have Buffy as a girlfriend.

Libby

• Pansexual/pan-romantic, cis girl, she/her

• Attracted more towards fem folx but she has dated both fems and mascs.

• Polyamorous

• She and Walker are currently dating and are the cutest SAVA couple.

• Her other partner is Iris. They met through Andi and Amber. At Andi's 16th birthday, both Iris and Libby were there and they clicked right away.

• She was very open to Walker about this and they were so supportive.

• Best aesthetic

Walker

• Pansexual/pan-romantic, non-binary, they/them

• Polyamorous

• Obviously with Libby

• Recently broke up with their other partner so only dating Libby right now.

• Loves to wear androgynous, slightly more masc. clothing. As they gets older, they are getting more daring in their feminine clothing elements though

• They can't picture just feeling like one set in stone gender.

• Has days where they gets a little dysphoric about their body but has other

• If one more boomer says "They" is plural, so help me god.

Iris

• Homosexual/Homo-romantic, trans Girl, She/her

• She and Amber became friends in the third grade when a mean guy called her freak for wearing a dress to school. The guy said "Boys don't wear dresses." And she started crying and saying she was a girl. Amber saw him laughing at her so she kicked him in the not so nice parts and She and Iris have been friends ever since.

• She finally feel right when she is with Libby. She, herself is not polyamorous but is fine with Libby having other partners.

• Realized she was a lesbian about a day into dating Cyrus but wanted to try to be straight.

• Did not work.

• Literally the sweetest.

• She and Walker actually love playing video games together even when Libby is not around.

Reed

• Bisexual/Bi-romantic, cis boy, he/him

• Loves to flirt... with everyone

• Used to have a crush on TJ

• Even though he and TJ aren't friends anymore, he would never out TJ as trans bc that crosses a line.

• Has dated like half the school

• Will ruin your life and not give a fuck

• He made out with this cheerleader behind the bleachers and literally an hour later made out with her "straight" boyfriend

• Literally loves chaos

Gus

• Asexual/aromantic, genderqueer, he/him/she/her/they/them

• Really only wants friendships

• Pronouns dont matter to him but will alway respect yours

• Doesn't like to be touched at all.

#andi mack #tj trans #buffy #marty trans #bi buffy #cyrus goodman #jonah back #gus #walker #iris #libby

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anjaythenope · 6 years ago

Text

Anjay on Elité on Netflix

I recently finished it and I have some thoughts. These are just the most pressing ones that I can't get out of my head.

⚠️They are my personal opinions and are not intended to do any harm to anyone ⚠️

There are hella spoilers in this post, if you haven't seen it then don't read

It gives me a 'How to Get Away With Murder' vibe

The way it is shot and the order the scenes are shown. Showing the murder happened, then using the episodes to show step by step how it ended up like that.

Also the many different story lines and how they connect to the main event

2. I don't feel bad for Marina, and she kinda got was coming to her.

She knew Sam liked her, flirted with him, SLEPT WITH HIM (taking his virginity) all after she had already slept with his older brother and then /continued/ to see said older brother on the DL

Her having HIV was a really good perspective on how she deals with things, and it's not fair that the first guy she fell in love with did that to her. But this is still no excuse for some of her actions.

She did NOT have to sell out Omar like that. She could have just said "His name is Omar". She didn't have to add on that she was Nadia's brother!

All her helping Nano get the money to give to the shady dudes (I'm rewatching to get more info as to why he owed them money). Seeking out Carla and pretending to be her friend again just to have access to the watches.

Nano stealing the watch and giving it to Marina is the reason she is dead, and if she hadn't gotten involved she wouldn't have been killed.

3. Carla, Polo, and Christian are toxic (later I will go in on Polo as a whole this is just how I feel about the relationship)

Carla and Polo said that their relationship was dying and that's why they wanted to add Christian to the mix, but Carla really wanted to be the only one with Christian

As soon as Polo started having affection for Christian as well they kinda shamed him for it.

Christian liked Carla, but Carla had Polo, and still actively went after Carla.

Everyone telling Polo that he was letting Christian take his girl from under him was right, but he didn't listen because he thought he was in control

Carla is the real mastermind of the whole relationship but she likes the other two boys to think they have power over her. This is kinda evil as you see she acts like a puppet master and talks down to both boys.

I feel like Polo is shamed too harshly for also liking Christian, in what is supposed to be a threesome.

Carla just allowed Polo to watch so he wouldn't accuse her of cheating.

I have so many emotions about this whole relationship that I can't put into words.

4. Polo needs help and needs to be protected

Yes, he's a killer, but he didn't do it out of hatred for Marina or plan it out like a sociopath. It was a spur of the moment, running out of options murder.

Carla was so manipulative of Polo that he felt he couldn't be without her, so when he lost her he needed to do anything to get her back. He thought that the watch would get her back and became so fixated on it he had to get it for her.

He also felt isolated because everything all his friends said would happen did.

I am not a murder apologist, but he is not the only one to blame for the murder, just because he was the one to give the killing blow

5. Nadia and Guzman are adorable (and Lu needs a hobby)

The challenge that Lu gave Guzman was pretty f#cked up, and then telling Nadia about it when she realized it wasn't going her way, girl needs a hobby.

Sure it started off pretty bad, and Guzman was a douche but it got cute toward the end, despite interferences by Lu.

I love the way that Nadia was portrayed and they didn't make Las Encinas change her too much.

She wears her hijab right before and right after school and keeps her hair in braids.

Guzman doesn't not know how to talk to girls, he just doesn't know how to talk to /this/.

Anyway, they are super cute and should totally be endgame.

6. Omander!

The gay couple is finally the least problematic!!!

This first kiss scene was so real. Both wanting to lean in but also fighting each other to prove that they aren't what they are, but finally leaning in for the first kiss.

Super awkward gaybies that need to be protected.

Honestly a lot of their scenes were so emotional, because they are such guarded characters and they have walls that crash open when they are together let a waterfall of emotions pour through.

The way Omar as singular character was portrayed was so good, his familial relationships were so soft and sweet, even when he was in trouble he couldn't have any I'll will toward his father. His friendship with Samuel was really sweet, I love how a lot more male friendships are a lot less #no homo and a lot more #bromance.

Ander and his tennis and his father was so such a little side story, but it gave so, much more in depth into Ander as a persona and how he hides his true emotions to those close to him (His father and Guzman and examples).

7. The beautiful cast

They are so beautiful and so amazing at bringing this show to life and giving the characters such deep and well rounded personalities.

The visible connection between actors off screen shows very well in the show and I don't think anyone could have asked for a better cast.

Follow my Elité side blog @omandereliteshitposting

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randomfuzzbunny · 5 years ago

Note

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who reblogged something from you. Learn to know your mutuals and followers ❤

1. Frogs (animals in general but like you gotta admit, frogs are pretty neat)

2. Being gay with the homies

3. Vibeo gaymes (currently obsessed with animal crossing new horizons and persona 5 royal when I get it)

4. My homies/ discord peeps (love y'all varying degrees of homo)

5. Art, whether it's drawing it or seeing someone's art or reading whatever they write, it make brain go purrr with happy chemicals

#sonny speaks

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raoul1999-blog · 5 years ago

Text

Clean Bandit presents ‘Rockabye’: een ludomusicologische videoclip

Videospellen, waaruit ludomusicologie is voortgekomen, vertonen enige overeenkomsten met videoclips. Ten eerste worden ze allebei op een beeldscherm, televisie of mobiele telefoon, waargenomen. Bovendien spelen ze zich allebei in een virtuele wereld af. Enerzijds is deze aan de echte wereld gelinkt, omdat hier de virtuele wereld ontstaat en anderzijds liggen deze twee werelden juist ver uit elkaar, omdat er in de virtuele wereld dingen gebeuren die in de echte wereld weinig of zelfs nooit plaatsvinden. Daarentegen zijn de plekken van de virtuele werelden van videoclips meestal in de echte wereld terug te vinden, terwijl dit voor videospellen niet geldt. Bovendien zijn videoclips niet alleen maar spel, aangezien het erin spelen één van de werkzaamheden van een artiest is en deze vorm van spel dus ook in de echte wereld betekenis heeft, wat met de theorie van de toovercirkel tegenstrijdig kan zijn. Deze theorie, bedacht door Johan Huizinga, houdt in dat spellen zich in een afgezonderde wereld plaatsvinden <1>. Hierin krijgen de handelingen vervolgens betekenis. Videoclips hebben blijkbaar dus ook daarbuiten betekenis. Een ander noemenswaardig verschil tussen videoclips en videospellen is dat het verhaal in videoclips reeds bepaald is en de waarnemer er geen invloed op heeft, terwijl in videospellen de uitkomst door de waarnemende speler wordt beïnvloed.

youtube

De clip die hier besproken zal worden, is ‘Rockabye’ van Clean Bandit, Sean-Paul en Anne-Marie <2>. De locaties waar de clip zich afspeelt, bevinden zich in de echte wereld, namelijk in Londen en in Begur in Spanje <3>. De clip vertelt het verhaal van een alleenstaande moeder die in een café paaldanst om geld voor haarzelf en haar zoontje te verdienen. Beelden van deze dansen worden afgewisseld met shots van de muzikanten die samen zogenaamd een liveoptreden geven. Verder is te zien is hoezeer de moeder zich om haar zoontje bekommert. Deze clip is een goed voorbeeld van hoe een clip als spel gezien kan worden. Het is namelijk vrijwel meteen duidelijk dat de clip grotendeels uit een enscenering of rollenspel bestaat. Waar dit aspect meestal als vanzelfsprekend wordt afgedaan, wordt dit in ‘Rockabye’ juist extra bevestigd en zelfs overdreven. Vier zaken zijn hierbij opvallend: ten eerste de bühnegordijnen die na het eerste refrein opengaan en dus bevestigen dat het een opvoering of act is, terwijl deze al bij de eerste seconde begint; de toeschouwers en de barman lipsyncen/zingen samen met Sean Paul het tweede couplet, waardoor wordt gesuggereerd dat deze figuren op de hoogte van het verhaal zijn en dus niet slechts toekijken; de belangrijkste personen staan op een podium en deze worden aan het begin door Sean Paul geïntroduceerd en getoond. Dit is een conventie uit de filmindustrie, aangezien in films altijd vooraf aan de film de belangrijkste figuren en hun rollen bekend worden gemaakt. In dit geval speelt een Italiaanse paaldanseres genaamd Rita Conte de alleenstaande moeder, speelt Anne-Marie een barvrouw <4>. Net als Sean Paul, fungeert zij hier als zingende verteller of voice-over. Samen met de band (Clean Bandit) zijn zij de belangrijkste gezichten van het verhaal dat in de clip wordt verteld. Een belangrijk aspect van deze clip is het zogenaamde liveoptreden dat in de bar plaatsvindt. Volgens Simon Frith wordt in een clip performance op de voorgrond voorgezet en dit is dan ook hier het geval <5>. Echter, dit optreden is, net zoals alle andere gemediatiseerde optredens, allesbehalve live. Dat blijkt met name uit het feit dat de muziekinstrumenten die worden bespeeld, niet dezelfde zijn als die je hoort en bovendien wordt de reeds bestaande opname van het nummer afgespeeld. Op deze wijze wordt in andere clips de muziek ook meestal geïntegreerd. Dit doet enigszins denken aan de ABC-documenten in de tekst van William Cheng over het spel Lord of The Rings Online, waarin een muziekstuk dat van tevoren is gemaakt, later op een willekeurig moment afgespeeld kan worden en dan ook in de beelden wordt uitgedrukt <6>. 'Rockabye’ staat in dat opzicht nog dichter bij het voorbeeld uit Lord of The Rings Online. In de meeste clips worden namelijk slechts de vocalisten getoond die zichzelf al dan niet begeleiden. De muziek is hier supradiëgetisch <7>. Echter, bij dit optreden worden ook muziekinstrumenten getoond die zogenaamd bespeeld worden. Hiervoor zouden een aantal redenen kunnen zijn. Clean Bandit is de belangrijkste muzikale uitvoerder en Sean Paul en Anne-Marie spelen als het ware in het nummer de tweede viool. Aangezien clips onlosmakelijk een promotionele functie hebben, is het te bedenken dat Clean Bandit zelf ook in de clip mee wil figureren, terwijl ze zelf op de achtergrond blijven <8>. Dit is uiteraard niet een standaard, want denk bijvoorbeeld aan DJ’s die vaker niet dan wel figureren. Tevens ontstaat hierdoor een diëgese voor het nummer. Doordat hier namelijk de schijn wordt gewekt dat het nummer daadwerkelijk wordt gespeeld, wordt getracht het nummer diëgetisch over te laten komen. Dit is kennelijk bedoeld om het paaldansen van de alleenstaande moeder geloofwaardig over te laten komen. Deze vorm van optreden wordt namelijk meestal begeleid door muziek die niet live is. Het feit dat de muziek in de clip kennelijk ook niet live is, sluit hier dan ook goed op aan. Muziek speelt hier dus zeker een belangrijke rol als het om creëren van context gaat. Het is ook een voorbeeld van een schizophonic performance, aangezien wordt gesuggereerd dat er ‘echte’ muziek wordt gespeeld, terwijl dit niet het geval is <9>. Dit wordt benadrukt door het eerdergenoemde feit dat de muziekinstrumenten die in beeld worden gebracht, andere zijn, dan die daadwerkelijk gehoord worden.

Net zoals bij spellen als bijvoorbeeld Guitar Hero, zorgt de muziek in clips ervoor dat de figuren zich in de tooverwereld verliezen. Dit kan veroorzaakt worden doordat de muziek die erin wordt afgespeeld, voor hen vertrouwd voelt, aangezien deze meestal van de figuren zelf is, of omdat de figuren het horen en er vervolgens in meegaan. In ‘Rockabye’ zijn allebei de verklaringen te vinden, maar het nummer zorgt er tevens voor dat de rollen die Anne-Marie en Sean Paul hebben, worden verankerd. Het zijn dus personages of, in termen van Philip Auslander, personae die ze spelen <10>. Wanneer Anne-Marie in het begin contact maakt met de paaldanseres, kan de kijker dit interpreteren als een mogelijke afspraak tussen Anne-Marie en de danseres en dat zij met elkaar afgesproken hebben dat Anne-Marie haar situatie in woorden uitdrukt. In dit geval zou muziek uit sociale interactie voortvloeien.

Over het algemeen is de gouden regel in videoclips ‘show, don’t tell’, uitgezonderd de liedtekst. Dat is in deze clip ook het geval, maar het feit dat de hoofdpersonage niets zegt en alleen maar fysiek handelt, roept ook associaties met mimespel op. Daar staat tegenover dat er door de vocalisten gesproken wordt en voor het paaldansen een object is vereist. Het paaldansen zelf is natuurlijk ook een vorm van spel, weliswaar een erg treurige in de gespeelde situatie, maar het heeft in de clip een belangrijke rol. Het laat namelijk zien hoever de vrouw gaat om voor haar zoontje te kunnen zorgen.

Als de theorie van Caillois, waarin spel wordt gecategoriseerd, hierop wordt toegepast, is dus eigenlijk van drie vormen van spel sprake: de gehele clip, het optreden en het paaldansen. Het paaldansen zit waarschijnlijk in de categorieën ilinx en ergens tussen ludus en paidia, aangezien bij paaldansen controle makkelijk kan worden losgelaten. Waarom het moeilijk is te stellen of het bij ludus of paidia hoort, is omdat enerzijds de bewegingen door de paal gestructureerd kunnen worden en anderzijds de danser er juist redelijk vrij in is. De gehele clip en het optreden behoren tot de categorieën mimicry en ludus, omdat fictieve situaties automatisch nabootsingen zijn en in het optreden het nummer ook wordt nagebootst en ludus, vanwege de structuur van de clip en het nummer<11>. Hierdoor zou je kunnen zeggen dat de clip wat wegheeft van een musical, opera of ander vorm van toneel. Dit komt dan weer niet overeen met hoe Frith over een clip denkt <12>.

<1> Johan Huizinga, Homo ludens: proeve eener bepaling van het spel-element der cultuur (Haarlem, 1938), 37.

<2> Clean Bandit, Sean Paul, Anne-Marie, ‘Rockabye’, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=papuvlVeZg8

<3> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockabye_(song)#Music_video

<4> https://twitter.com/cleanbandit/status/1054489660876038144

<5> Simon Frith, ‘Performance,’ Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996), 225.

<6> Isabella van Elferen, ‘¡Un Forastero! Issues of Virtuality and Diegesis in Videogame Music,’ Music and the Moving Image 4, no. 2 (2011): 30.

<7> William Cheng, ‘Role-Playing toward a Virtual Musical Democracy, ‘Sound Play: Video Games and the Musical Imagination (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014), 117.

<8> Andrew Goodwin, ‘From Anarchy to Chromacy,’ Dancing in The Distraction Factory: Music Television and Popular Culture (University Of Minnesota Press, 1992): 28.

<9> Rayond Murray Schafer, The New Soundscape: A Handbook for the Modern Music Teacher (BMI Canada, 1969): 43-48.

<10> Philip Auslander, ‘Musical Personae,’ TDR: The Drama Review 50, no.1 (2006), 100-119.

<11 > Roger Caillois, Les Jeux et Les Hommes (Paris, Galimard, 1958).

<12> Simon Frith, ‘Performance,’ Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996), 225.

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