#what with eiji being a masato parallel and ebina being A Masato Parallel

[todayisafridaynight]

IW spoilers but I think it'd have been sick, especially w Ebina vs Kiryu being the end fight, if Ebina was from Sunflower; man can have pretty much the same backstory and cope and seethe abt the yakuza all he likes and NOT JUST BE ANOTHER AOKI SURPRISE BONUS ARAKAWA FAMILY DRAMA

I know this would take away from Ichi focus again but it aint as if the narrative hasn't already done that by making him deal w old wrinklyass munakata 2 cult boogaloo as his story and not letting him sit with family time

i desperately need kiryu to think for more than 2 minutes about Kazama being not perfect

NO BUT LITERALLY IF EBINA HAD TO HAVE CONNECTIONS TO A YAKUZA TO HATE THEM ALL THEN SUNFLOWER WOLUD'VE BEEN PERFECT

esp with the substory in gaiden it feels like the franchise keeps edging us into having kiryu fully accept kazama wasnt perfect and seeing how he affected Everyone Else That Wasn't Him. like GREAT for you kiryu that it worked out, everyone else tho !!!! uh !!!!!!! 👁️‍🗨️👁️‍🗨️

like he gets that realization in small doses but ebina couldve been a great bigger example of that ...

[astarsor]

infinite wealth ending spoilers ahead!!!!

some gifs i made + my thoughts

i don't normally write posts like these with my thoughts but i've been Thinking since finishing LAD8:IW last night

i was SHELL SHOCKED when this happened. it is so believably in-character for kiryu to do and makes for a great additional surprise with how kiryu's baring his heart out to ebina. but god the way he drops is. it's got me sweating. sorry.

like why's he gotta cradle his head like that 😭😭😭 (yes i know why, it's for the emotional closeness and to hammer home his apology. but this shit is GAY)

and i loved the conclusion of eiji's arc, with ichiban carrying him to the police station after so lovingly urging him to turn himself in, while being harassed by The Haters, and how much it parallels masato's arc in 7 (without the obvious happening). i got misty eyed seeing eiji sobbing into ichiban's shoulder with trash flying by them...

tbh i was lost how eiji got to where he is, though. i thought he got shipped off to hawaii to represent bleach japan? so why's he back in japan looked rugged as hell? i was genuinely confused when he appeared on screen during chitose's last stream, like i was saying who tf is he

i think too much happened off-screen near the end, like yamai's arrest, the bullshit arc regarding wong tou's son, and wtf happened to ebina??? brushing ebina off with bryce and just saying "oh those two just disappeared from the public eye" confused me; after all the talk with ebina, and he gets lumped in with bryce's fate? i don't care what happens to bryce after the game, he's served his purpose as an evil monster that's been defeated. but cmon at least vaguely tell me what happens to ebina. and i wish we saw one last glimpse of chitose, like as the chairwoman or something.

and oh my god don't get me started on the ichiban/saeko fuckwad romcom--

anyways.

i've been thinking about this scene of sawashiro A Lot heee hee. i love this fucked up gramps. sooooo fucking foul of ebina to put him in a wheelchair LMAO it hurts. it hurts 😁.

[kronim195]

The parallels in Infinite Wealth's ending when compared to 7's ending are so well done man god I love shit like that

Ichiban's ending with Eiji and Eiji's opportunity to redeem himself and start over from rock bottom is exactly the ending that was denied to Ichiban and Masato in 7 and it's so fucking good idc what anyone says that scene fucking rocks. I just kinda wish there was maybe like one extra chapter with Eiji as Ichi's final boss or something cuz him being back in Japan looking all scruff and Ichiban somehow getting back to Japan after being in Hawaii like a minute ago feels a bit dodgy timeline wise but otherwise like zero complaints with what the writers were doing there.

In fact the only major issue I have with IW's ending is they had that whole story arc between Ichi and Saeko only for the payoff to be a joke that puts them right back where they started in chapter 1, and that's lame as fuck. Didn't like it.

But back to positives, Kiryu's arc of regaining his will to live again I thought was beautifully done here, as was his recognizing the cycle of violence and revenge and brother vs brother that the Yakuza perpetuates. Kiryu's like nuh-uh, I wanna put a stop to that, and his breaking down crying at Ebina because of the overwhelming guilt he feels that he ran away from what he feels was his responsibility to change the Yakuza for the better and stop that cycle, genuinely I thought it was so well done. And then the way he drops his name at the last second of the game, meaning that he is no longer afraid to go by it and is either actively going against the Daidoji or they've loosened up a bit (I expect this to be addressed somehow in the next game) was very powerful. And even though we didn't get to see the moment they reunite, Haruka being at his hospital bed makes it crystal clear they did finally get to see each other again after all this time, so I was happy with how Kiryu's story ended here.

[one-vivid-judgment]

So I was enjoying looking over your tier list and I noticed that Ebina is very low, which is very valid, but I love his face and his voice so I sent in a request or two involving him but I wanted to double check that you are cool with writing for him? Is anyone in particular off the table for you?

I actually do like Ebina’s voice too! Daniel Dae Kim was a choice (though I can’t help but wonder what was the logic behind modeling Wong Tou after Daniel Dae Kim and then, instead of making him voice Wong Tou, they gave him Ebina for some reason). I guess I was mostly mad that Eiji was SO RELEGATED at the end when THE MASATO PARALLEL WAS RIGHT THERE, WHAT WAS THE NEED TO MAKE EBINA ICHI’S BROTHER, THEY DIDN’T EVEN FIGHT AT THE END.

In any case, I’ve written a lot of Ebina requests already. Even if he’s that low on the tier list, I have no problem writing for him! I don’t fuck with anyone on the last tier of the list, except for Ebina (which, the reason I don’t fuck with him is more so RGG’s writing fault than the character himself if we’re being honest; if they hadn’t made Eiji basically disappear from the story and instead,,, idk, show him actually team up with Ebina and maybe give them a proper boss fight,,, I wouldn’t have cared) and Ishioda (he was an ass, but I thought he was funny at some points tbh), so I don’t mind if people request them.

[todayisafridaynight]

Do you mind dumping all of your thoughts on ebina for us?

i dont even know where to begin on ebina he just sucks major horse cock and i cant be swayed on this but ill put it under the cut for everyones sake. this is rambly as hell too idc i refuse to spend any more time thinking about ebina more than i already do

like what is his purpose. like i KNOW his purpose but it sucks- him being a Plot Twist baby is the dumbest shit in the world and they dont even ATTEMPT to do anything meaningful with it i do not care what anyone says

why even HAVE HIM be related to ichiban if he never even interacts with ichi in a meaningful way, esp when ichi's whole theme is family-- WHEN THE GAME IS LITERALLY ABOUT ICHI MEETING HIS MOM (or it was until they decided they didnt care about akane in the plot anymore)

like we mentioned it before here but if you have to have ebina related to a yakuza from the past for his ol Bring Down The Yakuza gig then why not make him an orphan from kazama's orphanage ???? literally nothing wouldve changed except it would've made more sense with how much kiryu deals with him instead of ichi. it wouldve been a great way to round things off with kiryu's saga too, what with having to confront the consequences of kazama's actions directly and finally and officially burst that fanatic bubble of his (i dont wanna HEAR nothing about gaiden that's not enough for me im GREEDY). theres something in here too about kiryu and daigo but i cant articulate it... i just know that wouldve been better too .... something something kiryu brought daigo into this life and now that he sees kazama 'bring' ebina into this life hes projecting ... idk ..

the game def didnt seem to give a fuck that ebina was arakawa's son considering they fucking revealed it in a bland-ass in-game cutscene FROM DAIGO OF ALL PEOPLE daigo respectfully why the fuck do you know this

i dont know how many people watch my streams but i was so obnoxious about ebina's villain monologue before his fight because its just ...... it just SCREAMS Hey You Guys Remember Aoki Right. fucking Masumi Arakawa Had Two Sons: One Who Loved Him And One Who Hated Him LITERALLY SHUT UP AND DIE I HATE YOU MASATO ARAKAWA WAS RIGHT THERE AND HE DID IT BETTER THAN YOU fucking stealing his bleach japan shit too. you might be able to steal bleach japan and piss me off about it the entire time because fucking everyone and their grandmother besides zhao seems to have forgotten fucking bleach japan but you can NOT steal Number One Hater Son from masato arakawa GET AWAY FROM HER 🗣️🗣️🗣️ 'why did masumi arakawa have to get himself killed' BECAUSE HIS NUMBER ONE HATER SON HAD HIM KILLED BECAUSE HE WAS A BETTER HATER THAN YOU SHUT UP

another thing that pissed me off to no end was the sawashiro shit fuckin Oh He Kept Him Alive Because He Wanted Him To Stop Him SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP I HATE YOU . i really wouldve preferred if they just killed sawashiro like old man why are you here- WE DIDNT EVEN GET TO SEE YOUR EYE GET GOUGED but im getting off topic. NOTHING bout what we've seen from ebina could convince me he Wanted To Be Stopped like absolutely nothing i dont want to hear this bullshit excuse. it is MERELY just reminding me of ichi being like 'i wish i couldve been there to stop you' @ aoki and its making me pissed

like im the only person who cares this intensely because im the only person who likes aoki enough like this and im trying NOT to mention him so much and just focus on ebina but its just so annoying... like its impossible NOT to see the parallels, especially when the game is practically bashing it into my brain every three seconds. like if we're talking aoki/masato-adjacent antags then i like eiji so its not the fact that HE IS aoki adjacent that pisses me off its just that he has no agency OUTSIDE of being a ghost of him. like there's nothing interesting about him in the slightest and he's barely even on screen why are you forcing me to give a fuck about this twat. if anything the one aoki thing i wish they did mirror onto him was dying at the end i do not care about this man