#this is an excellent game and I dearly wish more people get to play it bc it's a lot of fun and has fantastic characters and writing

[mapoeggplant]

thoughts and small review on tokyo babylon // spoilers

not even the kindest of hearts can survive the trick of destiny: clamp once again shows how they excel with the creation of magic and a huge universes.

one thing that i absolute adore abou clamp's writing is how they are able to create this whole new world from start to finish and make all the stories inside of it plausible and connected. the sensation of getting in contact with everything they ever created and recognizing characters and stories are one of the most beautiful things about reading their work, specially when you read one after another. it took me a while to read tokyo babylon after i read some of their other works from the same universe, but the feeling was there nonetheless.

TB was a surprise. i am very used to clamp's playful writing that adds very political themes to their magic, but i wasn't expecting to find so many in a story from 1990. it discusses from consequences of abuse, be it sexual or familiar; the growing housing crisis that affected (and still do) whole tokyo, leading people to their extreme; xenophobia, when they talk about how immigrants aren't seen as real people since they can't speak the language; and so many other political debates. this was the best surprise to me, for sure.

another thing i usually really like about clamp's work is how they value individuality and emphasize how each person's pain cannot be compared to or felt by another, since it belongs only to the person who feels it. of course, there is empathy and ways of associating, but never denying or belittling someone else's pain, since we are not in their shoes to feel it. the siblings dynamic was beautiful. it's heartwarming to see how much love and respect the twins have for each other and how they will do anything to save the sibling they love so dearly, even dying in their place. hokuto's final moments brought tears to my eyes, specially when i saw her body on seishirou's arms.

now, to the elephant in the room: i don't think the romantic feelings between subaru and seishiro is very clear to me yet. let me explain.

i know that the narrative shifts on X and the development of their relationship begins to change, but in my opinion, the plot surrounding both, up to now, was based on grooming and manipulation. seishirou was playing emotional games with subaru with the intention of fulfilling his wish and only that, just to challenge himself and his nature. he even manipulated and played with hokuto, making her an ally, which was one of the reason that lead her to her death, since bearing the thought that she was the one to bring seishiro and subaru closer was way too much for her to handle. she died carrying an immense guilt. i also don't think subaru understand exactly if he loves seishirou's romantically yet, and the moment when he stops to try to understand it and say "i do love him", he was under the influence of all his spell, as if he was lead to believe that

what he felt was romantic because of all the little games seishiro played with him, pushing his fake feelings into him. subaru's love is completely tied and mixed with his guilt, since he considers himself to be the reason why seishirou is blind in one eye. it's not that subaru didn't care about seishiro: no, he did. he considered him to be someone very important to him, i just don't think it was romantic. and this gets a little clear to me when he lets himself to be killed, not even reacting or fighting back, which i do believe one of the reasons why is because he so full of guilt and compassion for this man that he believe he loved romantically and was the reason why his whole life changed.

i also want to say that despite what it might have sound, i do like seishirou and i think he's an amazing character, very well constructed, bringing a lot of clamp's skills with writing complex characters that navigates through very grayish areas. the more he revealed to be hiding things, the more i wanted to know more about him.

i'm very excited to start X now, because i feel i'll have a lot more answers. not only about subaru and seishiro's relationship, but also more about hokuto's death, their whole family dynamic, sakurazuka's clam and so much more.

thank you for reading up to here!! it will be a pleasure to discuss it with you if you feel like it 💛 don't forget to support the authors!!!

EDIT: i want to make something clear since I did had this discussion with some people (which i'm not complaining, i looooove discussing). i'm not here to deny the canon confirmation that seishirou and subaru are in love with each other and are a canon couple. i know about it and I'm sure X will give me a way better clarity over the topic. it's just my interpretation on tokyo babylon, which doesn't mean I'm denying canon. don't worry!!

[hakugreenfinch]

Ooh Mouthwashing discussion! It's so weird how the fandom went from hating Jimmy to hating Curly!! And the the weirdest thing of all to me- the people who go "well if Anya had just told Swansea about the assault and not Curly, Jimmy would've gotten his ass kicked!" And it's like... no? Part of the point of the game is that nobody would've done anything! Whether it's because they're the captain, too new, or just doesn't want to get involved, no one was going to help Anya. It's wild to me that people can villainize Curly and Jimmy but not Swansea.

ok so uh sorry anon this ask has been buried in my inbox for like to months ToT

but yeah the way especially among fresh new fans there seems to be a need to have a "good guy" and a "bad guy" has been kinda fascinating to me. im going to just ramble with some excellent posts from other people who i think have the biggest brains if you dont mind!

so i will never deny that i fell for most "first play" tricks, especially because the insane replay value is one of the games biggest charmpoint to me. i will also never deny that i first became interested in mouthwashing because i saw post-crash curly's design and ti amo started playing in my head i was hooked on his design immediately because hey what happened to this guy? does that not hurt him? however i will say that despite having been told "he deserves to burn in hell" i did avoid that one thing. i could not imagine anyone deserving to go through all that pain and abuse. so now planning my 9th run and looking back it is even more fascinating how far some people will go to demonize curly, ignoring every circumstance that he couldnt help and that stopped him from thinking rationally or doing what we think he should have done. its actually quite ironic, people censoring jimmy's name and refusing to see him as anything but an inhuman monster while doing the exact thing he did and blaming curly because "hes the captain".

now, about swansea. there is also an irony to how people want him to be a savior to anya and to untangle this we need to understand that the tulpar crew is not a group of friends, they are coworkers, two of whom happen to have been friends for a while. and because of this it is very important that anya asking curly for help wasnt an act of friendship but an employee reporting abuse to her boss. the irony here is that people are hard on curly because he is the captain and he should have done this or that while also saying anya should have asked the mechanic of the ship for help and not her superior. and then theres also the part where anya does in canon ask swansea for help, to which swansea very likely gives a negative response (anya is crying when we find them in the cockpit) and a month later gives jimmy the axe, not lifting a finger to help anyone until daisuke gets hurt.

and im glad you hint at daisuke also probably not being as willing to help as we want to think he would be because mhm! mhm! i think this is the point to say that i very dearly love all of these characters. their writing is brilliant and i wish they all got the help they needed with their problems. but trying to sort them into boxes of "good people" and "bad people" is ultimately a misunderstanding of what the game wants to say about human nature and morality. daisuke wouldnt have helped not because hes a bad person but because this isnt something he can or should deal with on his own. when your coworker is being weird to you, you dont go to the student doing dishes for $30 a week, you go to the manager.

all this to say, i dont think swansea (or daisuke) should be villanized, just like how curly should not be villanized. heck, i kinda dont like it when jimmy is referred to as a "villain" because that to me implies an intention and motive that he doesnt really have - but thats another tale for another day when i dont fear people reading things i dont mean into my words. my point here is that yeah, it is ignoring many aspects of who curly is as a person and swansea's complexities that make him one of the most brilliantly written characters ive ever seen. which is a shame, this story is supposed to be turning our gears and forcing us to make peace with our favourite characters making mistakes and hurting those around them and suffering the consequences.