#which. will probably make them fully miserable LMFAO

[turian]

like idk. personally if the ex military buzzcut guy with a dead wife tersely told me that i didn't know what the wasteland was like before the colonial entity he was raised up in got their hands on it and that the ncr was actually "civilizing it" or whatever. and i then pieced together that he had been conditioned by the military he was a part of to mercy kill and is therefore very against that now but also definitely did that to his wife. and he then informed me that i should leave him behind because he was literally incapable of not shooting anyone in certain faction armour indiscriminately. my response would not be to try dating him. even if i did not know about the specific war crimes he'd done yet.

[maliro-t]

Happy Witcher eve! Since this is a blogging website, I’m gonna put up a long Blog Post™ I wrote a really long time ago about adaptation just to get my thoughts out there before new material comes out-- book spoilers abound but I don’t actually explain them.

I will always credit The Magicians for changing the way I think about what ‘good’ adaptation is, which is ironic, I know, but the fact that it stumbles so spectacularly in places is part of what did it for me, so ultimately thanks for the mess, I guess! I owe a lot of that to the fact I watched that show before reading the books, which obviously changes your perspective.

But that isn’t the case with The Witcher, and with all this endless talk of show deviations I’m like...there’s some Witcher stuff I honestly do not want to see adapted accurately lmao. I am tentatively curious to see what they do with the Rats & Mistle etc, mostly because I fully just....don’t want to see that story as written on screen but also have absolutely no idea what they could do to change it. I would say Time of Contempt and Baptism of Fire are my favorite books in the series with Tower of the Swallow close behind, so I don’t dislike the Rats storyline overall--in fact, I think it’s thematically very good in the grand scheme of things--but when I first read it, Time of Contempt ending Like That after being my favorite book yet by far definitely put a damper on my excitement to start the next one, and while I don’t hate the story as it is (and do really like the nuance with which the group & Ciri’s place within it is fleshed out in Tower of the Swallow), there is truly no part of me that wants to see people adapt that page by page in uhhh 2023 onwards. Which is complex, too, because let’s say they fix the Mistle/Ciri relationship, give it a consensual start, make it less dysfunctional and low-key abusive: then can they be accused romanticizing the original source material? I mean, they’ll certainly be accused of shamefully deviating, but again, I really don’t mind that. But I don’t think I would prefer a version of them that’s healthy per-se, because the dysfunctionality is part of the point. Like, the Rats are interesting because they’re a bunch of kids who have been absolutely mistreated by society, totally uncared for, and they let their anger at the world overtake them so completely that their only vocation is violence-- they’ve been so deprived of a kind world that, despite their closeness, they barely even know how to properly care for each other, let alone other people. And they're still children! Angry, murderous, un-guided children! For Ciri they represent a kind of ‘cycle of violence’ style trap, which she eventually is forcefully shunted out of. The ‘love’ that she does find with them is fueled by hatred and conflict. But also, it’s like. How do you navigate that without being a) a little too close homophobic tropes for comfort and b) just like. fully unfun to watch at some parts???

That’s honestly how I feel about 85 percent of the Ciri stuff in Tower of the Swallow, which again, is a book I LOVE, and that stuff makes up probably at least half of it. But it’s also absolutely fucking miserable lmfao!!! I simply do not want or need to see it all on TV as written!!! I would appreciate a new take!!! It's miserable and I love it and I don't need it replicated. All three are true. Ultimately, it will be what it is, and I may enjoy it, or I may not.

But anyways-- all of that aside, demands for accuracy always fall flat for me because the books are so specifically literary anyways, with their frame stories, and in universe documents, and storytelling via witness testimony and gossip, letters with old census-style misspelled names, intermittent slices of Dandelion’s memoirs, etc etc etc--lest we forget the random chapter near the end of Baptism of Fire where the whole thing suddenly becomes a story being told to children squabbling over which characters they want to hear about next! This is one of my absolute favorite things about the series, and it’s something which with no uncertainty cannot be even slightly replicated in the show lol!!! So why shouldn’t they figure out what works for them in a different medium? Especially when it means there are many significant characters that we only see in slivers here and there in the books because of the amount of much third-party information being used to convey events. In a TV environment, I think the time they’re giving to flesh characters like the sorceresses is, for the most part, phenomenally well used, and I’ve really enjoyed seeing their takes on them. Cahir is another one I love, and he has definitely been taken in some different directions (although again his presence is so scarce for the first several books that they have that freedom) but he also has Things About Him in the books that I’m glad they are not adhering to thus far!

I certainly have my own disappointments with how changes turn out sometimes, which I’ve talked about a little--I speculated after watching season 2 that part of the reason for the changes that they made (which weren’t my favorite by the end of the season, but which were still enjoyable enough television) were because they felt locked into the action focused monster-of-the-week formula of the first season. That formula was a demand of adapting the short stories, but one which also created certain audience expectations for viewers coming in blind, so a hard turn into adapting a novel with very little actual plot was a risk they weren’t willing to take. (This is something that I later had uhhhh 100 percent confirmed watching an interview with the showrunner where she said this almost exactly lmao!!). I do still think it’s odd that they fully omitted some of the plottiest stuff with Philippa near the end in favor of their invented conflicts (conflicts which ALSO changed almost beyond recognition my favorite Yen & Ciri stuff from Blood of Elves but I digress), but that is the story they told so there really isn’t any point in could-have-beens. It’s way more useful for me to look at the show they are making and decide if it’s still fun or entertaining or interesting or ‘good’ or whatever on its own.

My point is really that a 1:1 adaptation really isn’t possible across media for this series, but even if it were, there really just isn’t a need for that, right? To capture the spirit of a story even with differences is still to honor it, and when the source material relies so much on being a book is there really anything wrong with an adaptation taking a different path through the same woods? Like, their differences don’t actually affect one another. The show being its own thing doesn’t ‘ruin’ the books. Change is not disrespect; it’s just change.

(except for when CDPR just like...forgot that Regis doesn't drink alcohol in the games; that WAS disrespect bc he is literally a character about addiction. but he WOULD be a connoisseur regardless so it is FORGIVEN)

[striigon]

What is their strongest aspect? What is their weakest aspect? What is their character alignment?

pitanja & odgovori // @draconisa

he would disagree with me so severely but I ARGUE that his strongest aspect is his sense of love. he feels it so deeply and so fully and it makes him dangerous but it also makes him a completely different person than the kind he thinks he is. he considers himself a heartless monster but like. he looks at his loved ones and he definitely isn't ?? he's just a man ?? he's a man with so much of himself to share and give and hold and protect and cherish ?? yes it gets him hurt so many times over the years but he is still kicking and he is STILL CAPABLE of feeling it. i think it's his love that the witch would fucking hate to see still surviving after she tried turning him into a creature of hate, and like, he's almost there, except for the fact he still cares for people when they let him.

his weakest aspect is just like........... how stubborn he is probably lmfao like. he is so severely mentally ill and no he will not seek help for it. no he will not show some vulnerable parts of himself to those he cares for because he just doesn't want to be fretted over. he tried to kill himself after killing anna and again after killing luka and neither time worked obviously so he's like fucking fine if i have to be stuck here then i'm gonna make things as miserable as possible for everyone involved. he is a MULE who refuses to let up !!!! like king not every thing has to be a fight !!! you can relax sometimes !!!!! this might be part of the reason why ur so unpleasant to be around !!!

his character alignment is most likely true neutral which i put on his dossier. like he has a set of personal laws he tends to follow - but he's not lawful, per say. he incorporates some level of chaos into his life, mostly to keep people on their toes. he kills for profit sometimes, he kills for his own personal gain. he enjoys torturing people. he likes inflicting pain on others. he loves drinking their fear and watching the life ebb from them and seeing that realization in their eyes that they know they're going to die. he also was never meant for any of this and if he was born in a different time and wasn't ruined by the witch he'd have been a perfectly normal, happy man with a normal happy family who never would've believed himself to be capable of the things he's done. so it's hard to say. he swings lawful and chaotic, good and evil. he doesn't put much thought into it. he just exists.

[sleepymarmot]

2.06 – Like the Light by Which God Made the World Before He Made Light

Louis could bear to play a hypermasculine patriarch businessman for like two scenes and then tapped out lmfao. It was NOT a good look on him; at first I assumed he was only posturing for Armand, but when he came home and started talking to Claudia in the same tone, I got worried. Luckily, it didn’t stick.

---

Something is ringing false about the Dubai scenes. Daniel’s fear for his life is unconvincing; throughout the entire show up to the last episode he’d had the fearlessness of a man with nothing to lose, why the change of heart? The time jump between episodes 5 and 6 is also surprising, I assumed the episode would continue where the previous one left off, but apparently everyone had this Very Important Conversation offscreen?

---

WLW 1 : MLM 0. Love loses: the episode. Really, loumand couldn’t get a single episode where they were happy together? Last time we saw them in Paris they were committing to the relationship, the next time we see them in Paris it’s already dissolving.

---

The men get entire seasons dedicated to their complicated romances, and the women get together for one episode, demonstrate a positive example of a healthy relationship, then get killed off in the next one. Do I need to explain the sexism? Yes, it’s an adaptation which is necessarily limited by the flaws of its source material, but they could have done more.

Claudia feels sidelined the whole season. The recast also doesn’t help, since the two actresses have fairly different acting styles, and their Claudias feel more like two different interpretations of the same concept than the same character with a different face. Though the way her appearance is styled with zero intent of establishing visual continuity doesn’t help either. It occurred to me recently that the season really needed an episode fully narrated by Claudia, like 1.04 was. It would have reestablished the character voice and the viewer’s emotional connection with her, and compensated for her diminished screentime. As it is, she is lost among the sea of new and returning characters.

---

Madeleine’s traumatic backstory is being publicly shamed and now she’s going to be publicly shamed and executed...

---

Louis and Armand

As with the previous episode (and probably the final ones), I’ve already seen most of this one in gif form. The one scene that was completely incomprehensible without context was “Are you asking or making me?” so I was looking forward to finding out what it was about. Turns out it was about both of them rolling a crit fail on this social interaction. Louis is inviting his significant other to his daughter’s wedding which is also his own childbirth, a deeply meaningful event for him, and said significant other lacks the emotional maturity to answer seriously and instead turns it into a guilt-trippy kink thing Louis is already getting tired of. Armand continues to feel torn between his old values and his new relationship, and asks his significant other to make it easier for him and also re-declare his love and commitment by doing their special call-and-response, and when that doesn’t happen, feels rejected and abandoned. For Louis love is passionate spontaneity, and for Armand love is faithfully adhering to an approved script. They just got together and are already talking past each other. The trial hasn’t happened yet. Incredible. In Mass Effect terms, Louis had both the paragon (I’m asking) and the renegade (I’m making you) interrupts available, but he let them time out and got the bad version of the encounter. (And there’s also no way Louis would have picked the renegade option because this is an important family event and he wanted Armand to be there genuinely, not lurking in the corner being miserable and also getting off on being miserable.) Louis isn’t even mad, just disappointed (hm.), he reassures and comforts Armand before leaving, but it’s too late: Armand would have probably been satisfied with either answer, but he saw Louis was disgusted that he even asked in the first place, and that was it. This also brings really sad context to the similar scene from the previous episode: in 1973 Louis knows to play along because he’s learned what happens when he doesn’t.

(Louis: So we’re not going to have this conversation in good faith then? Okay, suit yourself, see you later. Armand: You’re not rocking with me ⁉️ I’m going to kill Claudia)

Not to be reductive, but the implication that this scene was the last straw for Armand is tragically funny. You know how sometimes you say the wrong thing in a conversation and your partner cringes and looks at you with pity, and it makes you so embarrassed and mad that you decide to kill him and his entire family about it?

---

I don’t know if I mentioned it before but I find Armand’s “duty-vs-love” thing so unengaging and stereotypical, and unfortunately it takes up the vast majority of his screentime in Paris... There’s a lot of interesting things to his character that we see in Dubai and San Francisco, but the “main” storyline, in which he is The Love Interest, focuses on the one thing you could get in many other stories.

---

I wonder how long the time skip between Paris in episodes 4 and 6 is supposed to be. The bench scene has a fairly traditional romantic tone, intimate and almost ceremonial. In episode 6 the tone seems to be dissonant on purpose; both Louis and Armand seem to regress into their worst selves, Louis’s rough persona even bleeds into his interaction with Claudia at home, he takes a step back and then the next time we see him he’s not excited to play this game anymore. Was this always supposed to be nothing but a maladaptive manifestation of their most immature past selves, the posturing cold-hearted businessman and the irresponsible child? Or was there something good there that got out of hand? It’s sad to think about, and kind of ruins the bench scene retroactively.

And it’s very intentional that the scene in Armand’s office draws a direct line: Louis’s relationship with art becoming hollow just like his relationship with Armand (an artist) does. We know Louis cares about the modern visual art and has a good eye for it even if he has neither talent nor patience to become a good photographer himself. At the start of the scene he sounds excited and inspired, explaining what is remarkable about the painting... and then he talks about it as an investment. Similarly, what seemed to be a genuine gesture of reaching out to Armand and accepting his gift of emotional vulnerability has become a performance for the coven to peek at through the glass doors.

(By the way, was there an ulterior motive to that performance? I would have said that it was a part of the plan they had talked about, to shift some of the power from Armand to Santiago (with the eventual goal of making Santiago look like a worse leader), and they were doing it by making it look like Armand was too distracted to focus on his duties... But nothing in the actual text of the episode confirms that, and the relevance to the season’s themes seems to exist on the Doylist level only.)

I don’t mean to sound judgmental about what these serial murderers do and say to each other in the bedroom — but while Armand can change his masks at will, Louis cannot, and the role he plays with Armand bleeds into other aspects of his life. He’s not an actor or a liar, he can’t pretend: we’ve seen it in 1.07, we’ve seen it in his pathetic attempts to hide the truth about Lestat in this season. Maybe his entire marriage with Armand is going to be like this, playing the role of a happy spouse until he starts to believe it wholeheartedly.

Parallel: Lestat being attracted to Louis pulling a knife on his beloved little brother to maintain his macho public image vs Louis coming home from his toxic masculinity display for Armand’s benefit and talking to Claudia still in the tone of the strict, emotionally stunted patriarch.

And another: 1.01 Louis knows his business is exploitative but still engages in it for his family; 2.04-2.06 Louis dislikes the coven rules and the cruelty of their performances, but decides to help Armand run it.

---

In the light of all of the above, it’s also wild that Daniel basically says to Armand “I remember the time you acted as my servant, and you were good at it”. Daniel, why are you flirting with him right now?

---

A loumand fanvid to “No Light, No Light” has to exist, right?

Next: 2.07 →

Interview with the Vampire notes, episodes 1.07–2.08

Here are the notes I took after watching every episode of IWTV, starting with the first season finale.

This post is just the intro; see the reblogs for the full text. I’m not sure that it’s possible to fit 20k words into one post, and even if it is, such a long post would be painful to navigate. More importantly, this way the contents of the posts shouldn’t flood the site-wide search results for pretty much every possible character and ship name I mention here. There is some negativity in these notes; if that bothers you, please scroll past.

I tried to simulate a fandom experience for myself, taking a break after each episode, checking out what other people said about it, and writing down my reactions mostly to the episode itself but sometimes to the things I’ve seen posted about it.

For context, I watched the first two episodes of season 1 back when they came out, loved them, but failed to keep up with the weekly releases and decided to catch up later. When season 2 aired, I checked out the trending posts every weekend, and after it was completed, I finally restarted the show from the beginning. Oh, and I had seen the movie half a lifetime ago as a teenager. This means that I was familiar with the premise and some of the main characters, was aware of the impending tragedy (one of the few things I remembered from the movie, and one of the reasons I was afraid to catch up and break my heart), had no idea about the events of the late season 1 or what the fandom was doing during the hiatus, but knew pretty much every major spoiler from season 2.

I didn’t take notes during season 1, because I was familiar with the opening episodes and satisfied by the following ones (I thought the first four episodes were flawless television). After the first season finale finally had things that bothered me enough to write about it, I started taking notes. Initially I just wrote down the things that I disliked or had questions about, but with each episode I got into the habit more, and had more fandom reactions to sift through and prompt further thoughts. By the end of the season, I was having long-winded arguments with myself. Since the point was to record my own evolving opinions, I didn’t go back and amend the previous entries, except for one or two marked paragraphs; all editing for that part was for clarity only. I wrote all of that in the notes app on my phone, for the first time in my life. The exception to the above is the final section with my opinions about the finale and the entire season: I kept periodically adding to my original phone notes during the almost two months between watching the episode and publishing this post. That’s why it took me so long: completionism finally took over and made me attempt to write down every thought about the show I had and attach it here, then proofread the resulting wall of text more times than it is healthy.

That’s enough for an intro. Direct links to each reblog:

1.07 – 2.03 / 2.04 / 2.05 / 2.06 / 2.07 / 2.08 / season 2

[kareofbears]

persona 5 strikers thoughts and feelings

This is going to be a long post. Like, the type of post you’d only really have time to read when you’re trying to sleep but you’re not ready to be unconscious yet so you’re just looking for something to do to spend your time with minimal effort. 

So in 2018, a masterpiece was born into the world: Into the Spider-verse was released and it was amazing—it’s honestly the best spiderman movie we have without a doubt, and it’ll be very far into the future before Spider-verse is beaten as the best spiderman movie. Them’s the facts. Then in 2019, Spider-man: Far From Home was dropped. It’s a great movie! Great characters, great continuation of who these characters are and works fantastic as a continuation of a story. It’s really hard trying to take the torch of a previous movie (or in Marvel’s case, juggling twenty something movies) and come up with a new movie that both works on its own, as well as being the next step in this series of films. Thus, with that idea in mind, I think it’s kind of unfair to judge into the spiderverse and far from home, because these are two movies with two completely different objectives in mind. 

Okay, so this is still a persona 5 strikers post, I promise, but the idea is the same: Persona 5 could basically do whatever it wanted—new story, new characters, new everything, and it’s just plain old awesome. However, Persona 5 strikers did not have that sort of freedom. It was bound to the original game, and it had its own rules and stuff it had to keep intact, characters they had to work with, and on top of that, it had to justify its existence as a sequel (lets pretend money doesnt exist lmfao). 

SO, the big question is: did it do that? Did it justify its existence? 

And my answer: holy fuck did it ever do that

I came into this game knowing the extreme bare minimum. I knew there was someone named Sophia, and i knew there was roadtrip, and i knew there were Personas. That’s my knowledge of it before i played it on the Switch.  I should also clarify like, early on, that i was not expecting anything from this game. At all. I was the world’s biggest cynic of this game—if you scroll down my p5s tag far enough, youll just see me complaining about a game that hasn’t even come out yet. I was fully expecting to have this be a Waifu show, and any male character that isn’t Akira to just be shoved aside like some kind of nerd in a high school hallway, and i have never been more pleased to be wrong. In fact, i actually owe it an apology, because of how fucking rude i was for no reason!!! Because this game deserves everything to be honest. 

Persona 5 strikers is, frankly, insane. Insane in the sense that it got to pull shit off that just would never have existed in the original game, because the original game is scared. It had to be as impressive as possible and garner as much attention as possible. Strikers does not have that problem—every single person who bought that game does not need to be convinced that persona 5 is a good game. They already played it. That means Atlus can just fuck around and have a good time, and man did they have a good time. There’s still scenes that still shock me if i think about it too hard, because i’m used to atlus having to follow this sort of rule set when it comes to persona 5 (or any of the main games im assuming, but i havent played them.) And on top of that, there’s still shit that’s Atlus Trademarked Branded in a good way. The style of story of story telling, and revealing the mystery that is so integral to what p5 is, is still there. 

So, to make this even a little bit comprehensible, i will make a list! 

First of all, What is this game?

In short, this game is an OVA of an anime. It’s bonus side content that has one thing in mind: to showcase these lovable characters more by putting them in fun situations. That’s it, and it is just phenomenal. That was the main point of, i’d say, like forty hours of the game. It’s just fun times with fun characters. 

But to get deeper of what i think is happening, or what they were thinking during the development, is that this is a second opportunity. Persona 5 (as we all know) had a lot of problems, and we were not quiet about those problems. We yelled it all out, made posts, made complaints on every social media platform ever. And Atlus heard all of them, and Strikers is a way to mitigate those mistakes. Aside from being a fun OVA, Strikers also works to be a deeper exploration of these characters—more specifically, the characters that did not receive much in the original game. Creating this sequel is having the ability to redo what they felt (or to be more specific, we felt) in the original game while adding new ones. I will get to that in a second.  

The format of the game 

Absolutely brilliant to throw them on a road trip. P5V already forced us to experience Shibuya for 200+ hours, and im so glad that they didn’t do that again. Going from town to town, making us experience these new places alongside our favorite characters is so good, and it just makes sense. It’s fun, it’s lighthearted, and it’s actually shockingly good. But one thing i do want to talk about early on is the way the story unfolds and the villains that they use, and what they do with it because it’s very interesting. 

So as we explore japan and stuff, we encounter jails, and with those jails comes an antagonist. This antagonist works to be a parallel to one of our characters. That character will find it in their hearts to feel bad for the antagonist, because the antagonist could have been them had the original game not happen. At first I thought all of the thieves were gonna get an antagonist, and i was really hyped for the ryuji one. And then came to hour forty of the game where i realized “yeah that’s not gonna happen. There’s just not enough time.” And i was right, and the game ended. But i am not salty at all, honestly, because the people who got a direct antagonist were: Ann, Yusuke, and Haru. (we wont count zen and sophie). 

Is there a trend??? Yes. these are all characters in the original game that have received the worst treatment by atlus. The three of them are basically cast aside the minute they finished their original arc, and its horrible! BUT that’s why this is the path that atlus chose for them—to give them more depth, and screentime, and a way to show their inner self. That isn’t to say that the ones who aren’t those three (makoto, futaba, mona, akira, ryuji) didn’t get anything. Futaba still has her thing at the end with ichinose, and she was very prevalent and animated during the rest of the game. Mona and Akira have to be a focal points, that’s just the nature of the game. The other two though, I will talk about in depth in a second.  

Makoto

Y’all i poke fun at shumako fans sometimes cause its kind of easy and fun, but i honestly love makoto. In my very first playthrough of p5 (my first ever jrpg game, first persona game, i had no idea what i was doing), i had only maxed out two characters: ryuji and makoto. And i know she had a lot of screentime and love in the original game which is great, but i truly felt like she was dissed in this game. Her only roles were

A driver

Someone to tell them “we don’t have a choice. Let’s keep going and see where this takes us.” (seriously, if you replay this game, you will see how much she does this)

Idk, i just wish she had more to do, especially compared to how much love they gave the other characters. 

But let’s talk about some of the new characters! 

Zenkichi

Damn you atlus. Damn you and your insistence at bringing in cop characters. I was fully on board with hating zenkichi, i was fucking ready for it. I was convinced that there was nothing they could do convince to like zenkichi. I was immune to their copaganda. 

And then i ended up loving him, which makes me sad a little bit. I didn’t realize how desperate i was to have an adult who has a persona. Someone who wants the world to change just as much as they do, while still having that aspect of them that makes them adult. Like??? As someone who is technically an adult, its a breath of fresh air. An adult. Who fights. For justice. Using a persona. And god i love akane so much, and her obsession with the thieves (that scene is probably in my top ten fave scenes of the game). Also what i loved about zenkichi is that he fucking hates the cops!! He hates the system of the cops!! And thats why i actually really started to love him!! Because i thought it was atlus saying that the systematic problem of the police cannot be solved by one person, and zenkichi threw away his badge. I actually cried at that part!! 

But then he became a cop again, and i was just :/ but as a character, i really love him to bits and would love to do a study on him, or at least use him as an outside pov. But! i absolutely love his persona, since im a les miserables fan hehe

Sophia 

she’s probably my favorite new aspect of the game. I was ready to not like her—again, i just suck like that, lmfao—and when i saw her, i was scared that she was just another waifu. I mean, she was very cute after all. But then as the game went on, i thought she was a little too cute. And even further into the game, i finally slapped myself in the face and realized oh my god shes not a waifu. Shes a sister. 

That blew my mind, im ngl to you. A female character that isn’t supposed to be romanced? By jove, what a miracle! 

And she…is an amazing character. Im sorry, i just love her so much. I love her so much that she  probably ranks as my fifth or sixth favorite character which is surprising even to me. Everything about her is delightful and invigorating. She’s funny??? Her comedic timing is amazing, and she has such chemistry with the rest of the team. She’s actually useful to the plot, and while her character design is a little too on the nose for me in terms of cuteness (i mean, good god she’s wearing oversized sweater to show how cute and tiny she is, and her hair has literal hearts in it), she is absolutely lovable. 

But what i actually really wanna gush about for a second is sophia at the last stage of the game. You get the idea, i dont really like to get excited over things, so at this point i figured that there was nothing this game could do to shock me. 

And then sophia had a persona awakening. 

Like. holy fuck did i yell. I didnt realize what was happening until the music had already kicked in. and its just so fucking smart!!! Sophia??? The ai?? With no heart?? gOT A PERSONA???? AWAKENING??? BECAUSE SHE LEARNED WHAT THE HEART IS AND THE PASSION THAT YOU NEED IN ORDER TO GET A PERSONA??? I started crying honestly, because it was just so smart. And looking back on it now, its obvious!! Of course it would lead to this, it only made sense that the culmination of her character arc leads to her getting a persona, nothing else would have been as good. Also, her voice actor is just amazing?? When she was talking to ichinose at the end, i actually got incredibly emotional because of the line reads. Its just so spot on and it really captures the essence of sophia.

Muah. five stars Atlus. You got me. 

Ryuji <3!!!!

Oh man. Oh boy. Okay. so where do i start. 

Yall know i love him. Hes probably my favorite fictional male character of all time, and he is the one i was the absolute most cynical about in this game. I was expecting literally nothing. Nothing. Like. nothing. I thought he was just gonna keep being used as a joke, or a gag, and he’s gonna be super horny all the time for the other girls and it was gonna make me mad and there was gonna be some insane homophobic/queerphobic jokes in every other scene and i know i was being unfair, but i cant help it. 

And then i played the first two hours of the game, and i cried the entire time. Because ryuji has never been better than he is in this game. Its crazy. 

The ryuji in persona 5 strikers is who ryuji should have been/how he should have been treated this entire time. From the actual funny jokes (for example, the gold bar joke + his reaction to it in the beginning of the game), defending his female friends instead of being the one people need to defend from (natsume arc), and the fact that he was the one to be there with morgana and akira in the very beginning of the game. Its such a small thing that they didnt even need to do, but it was such an integral part of the original game for me, that i just was convinced that nothing like this was going to happen. But then it happened. Its just small stuff like that that could have been overlooked but it wasn’t because this game? Persona 5 strikers? Fucking loves ryuji. 

The actual respect they gave this boy is insane and i wasn't ready for it. Like, they gave the shujin trio lunch, they gave the little charm of the katana when they were in natsume’s jail, and, in my opinion this is the second-best thing that they could have given ryuji is sophia. Ryuji and sophia are the pinnacle of a brother & sister bonding relationship in the game that isn’t akira & futaba. And its really prevalent too?? Small stuff from the beginning of the game (pulling her out of a jail, calling her shorty), but then you have the iconic “shut the fuck up” scene, and that scene was so well characterized and written and voice acted, that somehow him saying “fuck” was the least exciting part of that scene to me. Ryuji is an older brother to her, like its undoubtable, and its only further cemented at the end of the game where Ryuji helps out ichinose because he knows how much sophia cares about her. This game. Love ryuji. And i love. This game. 

You know what else i love? Akiryu. 

Guys. i was fully prepared to starve in terms of akiryu. But theres just. So much of it. I wont get too deep into it, because i think this aspect of the game for me still needs marinate a little bit. Like, what was that last shot when EMMA died and Ryuji walked to approach Akira so they could relish in their victory together?? And the smile from both of them??? What the fuck. That was amazing. Also Joker being saved by Ryuji when he was about to fall from the cliff to save sophia??? WHAT. The LEADER AND HIS RIGHT HAND MAN? WHAT. anyway. If theres anything i want to keep for myself in my own brain, its the akiryu aspect of this game, so i wont talk too much about that part of things (instead, itll probably manifest in fic lmfaooo). 

Sure, there’s tidbits of stuff i dont like that they gave ryuji: sexualizing ann in that one cut scene and making him touch the jails even though it hurts, and i recognize those and frown at them, but for the most part, i am blown away with how they treated him.

Basically, Ryuji has never been better. From the opening of the game with him being the first text message and the one to sling his arm around akira, to the very last cut scene where it was ryuji wordlessly leaving because he’s so confident that they would never be separated for long, this game adores Ryuji and i am so so happy to say that.

The Royal aspect of things

Yeah, i had to talk about this, but itll be a short thing i just wanted to point out. Because the last part of this game...is persona 5 royal. Which is curious. Like taking reality and giving that power to someone else so you dont have to experience suffering anymore? And even like, the final section just looked a lot like the top half of maruki’s palace?? And whats even crazier is that we had a boss fight with sophia, just like how we had a boss fight with sumire? Royal and Strikers have like, the same thesis statement. It’s kind of uncanny.It’s interesting, it’s like atlus came up with these two ideas, and then just decided they liked both of them so much that they just did it twice. I don’t mind though—actually, in terms of how the last Palace/Jails go, i probably like them both about equally. 

Though i did love the final battle in this one more than i did in royal. Splitting into teams?? Thats cool as fuck, and really innovative and i didnt see it coming. It also kicked my ass. A lot. 

Now for the last stretch: the small stuff!

The music — bomb as fuck. In my heart, Daredevil is ranked the same as Rivers. Axe to grind is also amazing, but Daredevil owns me

Akechi — i really debated whether or not to talk about him, but i figured a bullet point should be enough. Im really shocked that he wasnt in this at all. Like not even a name drop. If this is an OVA, and the point of the game is to please the fans, and akechi is arguably the fan favorite character, i was really ready for something. But there was nothing, except for the pancake hallway if that even counts as a reference. Thats it. Thats all i wanted to say about him.

The humour — FUCKING HILARIOUS im convinced that in my fifty hour playtime, five of that is dedicated to me laughing and unable to continue the game 

Akira — so much personality! His lines of dialogue are crazy sometimes (like. Whats up with him saying Ryuji has ‘nice abs’ when they were in bath? Im crazy and even i dont know what the fuck that could mean) 

Battle system — oh my god i almost forgot to talk about this. I love it! I kind of miss the turn based aspect just because i found it very comforting for some reason, but this hack and slash style of gameplay is so invigorating because i do feel like it justifies shit like the baton pass and huge attacks.  This battle system fully encompases how the Phantom Thieves are supposed to fight, you know what i mean?

Anyway, thats my thoughts on strikers. Loved it. Amazing. 9.3/10, wouldve been higher but Konoe’s Jail almost bored me to death. Also im a monster and i didnt do any requests that isn’t a fun one, teehee. As if i play persona 5 for the persona aspect of things.

[sagetm]

『COURTNEY EATON ❙ CIS FEMALE』 ⟿ looks like SAGE HARRIS is here for SENIOR year as a POLITICAL SCIENCE student. SHE is 22 years old & known to be INTUITIVE, HEADSTRONG, PETULANT & IRRITABLE. They’re living in GORHAM, so if you’re there, watch out for them.  ( abuse tw )

sage grew up in a family of four in [redacted bc if someone wants a hometown connection w sage i can just make her from there so lmk wink wink]. there was her mom, dad, and older brother, caleb.

ABUSE TW!! there were Good moments in there, but essentially without going into too much detail her father frequently fell into patterns of abuse w lots of gaslighting and control issues. there were a lot of reasons her mom would use to excuse his behaviors and keep him around, a lot of it boiling down to the kids altho it was just a miserable situation all around. caleb pretty much tried to step up as the man of the house and got into frequent screaming matches w their father. he tried to protect sage from it all altho she was involved in the crossfire as well / internalized a lot of the situation. eventually things reached a point where he was arrested and there was a whole process w the courts and restraining orders until they were free of him. sage was late into highschool at this point. the aftermath of this whole situation still plays into the family dynamics (caleb started getting into shit, her mother currently lives w her sister, sage and her mother have a shaky relationship esp when there’s still the risk of her falling back in w her dad). ABUSE TW!!

sage was one of those kids were gifted from an early age and that was one of the reasons why caleb sacrificed a lot bc he wanted her to continue her education and succeed. she made the choice during sr year to go away to college and got into the pre-law program at radcliffe w a major in political sciences. her mom would’ve liked her to stay close at home but she jst couldn’t stand being in that town anymore. her brother was conflicted over the decision bt it’s one of the only selfish things sage has ever done for herself.  the thing is she’s been in a constant weird state where all the yrs of shit is catching up w her and she’s not rly doing as well as she should be bc of it. school isn’t as easy as it was when she was a kid. she’s just bitter and angry about a lot of things, and again it doesn’t help that she internalizes a lot of it. bad brain hrs 24/7.

has this complex about being Good and doing Good. she’s just one of those people that likes to rant about morals and doing the right thing even tho she, herself, always doesn’t hit the mark. it’s not fully bc she’s hypocritical or anything...she jst Struggles a lot w a lot of stuff she prbs needs therapy for. but ya she’s an activist n is very vocal. :~)

speaking like social-wise, she’s actually someone who is able to come off as Cool (will i b able to play her as such? who knows?) and has like a wide range of friends bc u know most of the time she’s able to keep it together and she jst has that vibe that u find both intimidating yet intriguing (lmfao again we’ll see how well i Play that). she’s only super close to a few people tho. can work a party very well. 

can be childish and sulky at like her lowest points, which she tries not 2 show in front of others to keep up her Cool Demeanor. she’s someone who rly pretends nothing’s wrong. not just in regards to herself but everyone else too. if someone’s crying in front of her she doesn’t know what to do...she’ll probably tell them to just drink some water :/. surprisingly super good at giving advice tho??? i think that’s everything. :-)

obsessed w plants...keeps a collection in her dorm. lots of succulents, cacti n jst regular plants. when things r going bad, her plants die. but she luvs them. they are the most important thing to her...!

plots-wise i’m open 2 the usual friends, enemies, exes, etc....let’s come up w some fun things together *holds ur hand*

[scummy-writes]

Thoughts on the V Route! (Spoilers)

Full on disclaimer: This is purely my opinion on the route, and in no way am I trying to force my opinions onto anyone, or am I expecting people to agree fully. We all have different opinions and that's okay! Please don't harass me over any opinion stated in this, as I'm just sharing this for people who are interested and my intention is that and that only. Thanks! 💕

So, starting off, I cannot say I didn’t have a fun time with this route. I mean throughout the whole game, I was so excited for every chat, even if it dealt with characters I didn’t enjoy at all (Which was mainly just Rika, to be honest.)

I’m not going to lie though, while I like V, there were some things I was kind of disappointed in, but since V isn’t one of my super favorites, I don’t think it’s appropriate to say that the route is terrible because of some of the things I didn’t personally like.

But...I wanna open this up with more than just complaints!

I do wanna talk about what I enjoyed!

So seeing all of the characters before the canon main story was very fun! It was neat seeing how different they were two-ish years back. Jumin seemed to remain the same out of all of them (Still confused about the world outside of what he’s experienced, still a lovable dork in my opinion, still pretty level-headed and trying his best to joke).

Jaehee, through the whole route, seemed a lot more blunt than usual, and after I was secured on V’s route (aka getting to day 5 with no problem), I was very happy that I could throw a lot of hearts to her without an issue, haha! I missed being able to be sweet to her, and the cute (and tired) selfie we got was great!

Yoosung was very….Salty. Very much so, and there were times where, at first, it was a little annoying. Right off the bat he starts trying to convince you V is shady, and I can’t really blame him due to it being set just six months after Rika’s ‘death’, and how he was there with the interview with V and the police- That would make me a little suspicious as well….But, like usual, he kinda...blew up about it at first, but I got used to it, especially later on once he learns about what Rika had been doing and starts freaking out (along with all of the other members). I really Can’t blame him for that orz poor sweetie ;;; I think that would be such a huge shock knowing a close family member did such things. I’m glad he was able to get help, but also as the route went on, I felt so bad that he apparently never got therapy when he first learned about Rika’s ‘death’. :( And it was also sad when Jaehee seemed to recommend it from possible personal experience. I mean I’m glad she was able to get help, but hhhhh my babies ;;;; The fact that he apparently turned to drinking a lot when Rika ‘died’, and later on in the route, h u r t s orz

And contrary to popular belief, while Zen isn’t my favorite, I did have a fun time with him in this route except for when he was an asshole in situations that it wasn’t necessary. V getting hurt and needing a doctor is an example, and I thought it was uncalled for when Zen chose that time, of all times, to nag at Jumin for wanting to bring in his personal doctor. Another time is calling Yoosung a ten year old when Yoosung started to text MC during a big mental breakdown moment of his- Finding out this stuff with Rika. But...Besides that? He was pretty fucking funny. The whole thing about his computer was great, and I really did appreciate him helping Yoosung out, and showing more what their friendship is like. My only other issue was that, at first, there weren’t many options with him that I could choose that weren’t either A- Relentless flirting, or B- being a complete ass to him. Later on this got better though! I really like it when he’s not trying to flirt with you a lot.

Seven……..Was fucking great LOL. Lately I’ve been liking him more as a character! At first I was just kinda ‘meh’ with him, or had days where I just didn’t want to think about how he was kinda rude on his own route, but just seeing him in the chatroom was always great. At first he seemed a little...Hesitant? But later on it was just great seeing him interacting with everyone. The car-ride with Jaehee was great, and according to a friend, I apparently missed a very prime opportunity to call and hear him impersonate Jaehee LOL. I felt extremely bad for him later on, but...I’ll get to that later >>. Regardless,  I enjoyed his goofiness and interactions! I especially loved when him and Vanderwood were able to interact. I honestly didn’t think Vanderwood would be in this, but it was great seeing him! (And realizing he wants to go by ‘Stark’ instead LMFAO). When Vanderwood took Seven’s phone and chatted with you- I can say I think that was one of my favorite chatrooms in the game. I laughed so much and just had a fun time talking to him!

For V...

While I highly enjoyed each chat, a lot of phone calls, and some of the scenarios we were presented with, I have to say overall that this route sorta lowered my opinion of V ;;; There were many moments I enjoyed, don’t get me wrong! I loved finally getting to talk to him on the phone, how kind he was with the player, and just seeing how V really acts. In the main route, we never got to see him much...So every chatroom with him and Jumin were great, and I loved being able to learn more about his past (and good god I love his mom a lot? I wasn’t expecting that ajfbsdbhf). I Also loved the chat with V and Zen, talking about when Zen got into that motorcycle accident? It was nice hearing that Zen didn’t really seem super bothered (??) about the fact that V was...stalking him. It was weird, but I suppose it’s because it led to Zen still being alive to this day ajkbfsh

There were a lot of moments in the game that I loved, and so I was really hyped for what his route was going to bring! I was hoping my worries were going to be answered, but it started going downhill quickly for me when he straight up lied to Seven about Saeran being the hacker. Like, I was all “Okay, well… Maybe it’s because adding even more stress into a stressful situation isn’t ideal right now…?” But...It just rubbed me the wrong way, and as the plot progressed and Saeran killed himself- It’s never shown with V telling Seven about who the hacker really was?? He got away with never giving Saeran a chance to be saved from that horrible situation, which could have been solved if he just told Seven. Hell ;;; I wouldn’t even have minded if V told Seven, and the outcome was still the same. It would mean he was at least trying to help Saeran.

Because of that, and because of how much I love Saeran, that...Really made me not like V as much anymore. I could handle him wanting to hide things from the RFA members- He’s a victim of abuse, he wouldn’t want to hurt them especially when it came into terms of how horrible Rika had turned out to be. But he had several chances to tell Seven about Saeran, even if it was just “The hacker is Saeran-” Because Seven would have damned well tried to rush into Mint Eye a lot sooner than Saeran had a chance to kill himself. I...Can’t really think of any ways to forgive him for that. That’s a huge mistake to make, and where it led just makes it harder to say I like V after this.

I think I still prefer a V that is outside of this route, and based off of stories and fics I read before this route ;;;

Since we’re on the topic of Saeran, I cannot express enough how much I love him waaaah ;;; The whole Ray/Saeran bit gets me confused. I can’t tell if ‘Ray’ is how he really acts (which doesn’t make a lot of sense), if he has BPD (Which I guess is plausible but I don’t know anything about the disorder to be okay with saying he has that), or if the possible multiple personality is a side effect of the elixir? I honestly cannot tell. I know that probably makes me look insanely stupid, but BPD is something I’ve never looked into, and the few times I’ve seen it portrayed in various media, there’s always been a huge fuss over how its portrayed wrongly (like a lot of other mental health issues are).

Besides that, I loved every interaction with Saeran/Ray ;;;; I loved the calls, the messages, and it was always so difficult trying to purposely be mean to him. Orz Saeran is a heavy bias for me, so I loved all the content we got with him in this route. Him liking plants, researching flower meanings, the small details about everything he went through as a child (besides it being vague), the fuckcing emojis… I l ov ed. When day 10 happened, I died so much inside. I’m almost tempted to try writing a few fics (that are not….smut) dealing with Saeran and those moments. My fucking heart hurts too much ;;;;

I could gush about him for a while, so I’m going to take a hard lean to move onto trying to talk about my thoughts with the plot now, and then try to wrap this up! I’ve been trying to write this out for the past few days and failing miserably due to work.

I fully went into this game expecting this to be an AU (I mean...it is, right?), that a lot of the new details we learn about the characters are still canon, but it’s an AU because this wasn’t how they originally wanted the game to play out. (Does this make sense?) So, Zen having an old computer and being a doof when it comes to technology, Yoosung never getting therapy and drinking to deal with his feelings of Rika’s death, Jumin…………….being the same showing more interest in the supernatural, Jaehee being fully trusted as being the head of an intelligence unit- etc etc, all of that can be taken as canon!….Right?

(T_T I’ve never tried explaining it, but I’m sure you guys understand what I mean by that!)

Anyway, keeping that in mind and how this is nearly two years before we meet the gang in a more mature-er state (cough Yoosung cough), it was fun finding out more details about the characters that I didn’t expect, or having personal/friend HC’s confirmed!

Besides learning about the characters, we did get to learn more about Mint Eye, which I was thankful for. It was nice seeing how it worked, that they DID have a cleansing process (but apparently only needed to use it twice within the first six months?), what sort of ranking Saeran had, and how Rika was regarded. It seemed pretty big at six months, and I think Rika herself says that it’s been since months since they’ve moved into the building, so it does sort of raise questions again, such as was she getting people into her cult for a while before her ‘death’, the funds she got for it (I’m guessing possibly V’s money? Her parents, adopted or not, didn’t seem to care much about her at all), and so on. Also, since it seemed like there were so many members after the first few months, it’s scary thinking about how big it got after two years. 

And god, did we learn so much about Rika. On one hand, it’s nice seeing more of her backstory, her (delusional) reasoning for making a cult and brainwashing a child and many other adults. I really wanted answers, even if it was through some unpleasantness with Rika herself, and I got some of mine answered. I was thankful we could say no to her, as a lot of her actions and some of her excuses for her behavior reminded me of two very horrible people in my life, and it tremendously hurt seeing how much she had Saeran wrapped around her finger. I’ve heard some rumors about what the bad ends are (please don’t tell me!) and if they are true, it means there’s a chance a few sad hcs I had aren’t too far from the reality of the game. Which...Doesn’t make me a happy camper orz But regardless, their relationship worried me a lot, even if we knew he was really ready to do anything for her. Just seeing it just- shudder.

I also actually enjoyed the game showing that mindless devotion towards a partner doesn’t really solve...Everything. I don’t see that often! It was nice, especially since it was showing how they both messed up in the relationship (very much one messed up a shitton more than the other, with stabbing and dropping treatment, b ut it was nice seeing it nonetheless). 

With the plot, even if it could be seen as cheesy or generic, the only time I really felt it was strange was in V’s endings. The Normal ending was didn’t wrap up a lot of things, which you would expect from just a small ending (it was cute, though!!), but the Good ending didn’t really answer my more pressing questions that I had, and the one thing I was annoyingly upset about didn’t get resolved at all, so that kind of bummed me out. I think if you’re a huge fan of V, though, the ending would be good for you! Just the way the wrapped up the route was weird, but since the afterend isn’t out, there’s still a chance of some of my questions being answered in that department!

I’m trying to think of some things that really struck a negative cord in me, but besides what I’ve said, I’ve still really enjoyed this route. I’m upset about Saeran, of course, since he was a bigger fave than V for me, but... It’s not unusual for cults to have members commit suicide. I was moreso expecting a mass suicide, instead of Saeran having to blow up the building and just letting himself die in there rather than escaping like the plan seemed to have been, but...Saeran didn’t have anyone. He didn’t have us, Rika had left and was obsessing more obviously over V, and Mint Eye was in shambles and he was told to blow it up to get rid of the evidence surrounding it. I just really wish V told Seven. c h r i s t.

Regardless, I did enjoy this route. I can’t wait to worm my way through the bad ends, replay it for things I possibly missed before, and to hopefully crank out a few fics for it! Haha, I already have one in my drafts! I wish I could think of some more things to say, but off the top of my head these are just my general thoughts on the route!

Please keep in mind:  This is purely my opinion on the route, and in no way am I trying to force my opinions onto anyone, or am I expecting people to agree fully. We all have different opinions and that's okay! Please don't harass me over any opinion stated in this, as I'm just sharing this for people who are interested and my intention is that and that only. Thanks! 💕

[wandering-bitch]

Annotations on Falling in Love with Love (Again)

FiLwL(A) is my 3zun cinderella which is actually just about the importance of qin su and also reuniting with your exes. Here’s my behind the scenes/notes/lore for chapters 9-11. 

ch 9: nie mingjue being hot

i wrote this before i’d even written the Murder in ch 6;;;;; i just love nie mingjue

i so deeply believe in nie mingjue being smart and able to see through meng yao because he’s straightforward and strategic. 

“hmm” i said to myself. “how do i write the bois getting together??” after much thought i decided on “by stabbing one of them a bunch”

bits of this are still funny to me. rip meng yao sometimes you gotta be up close and personal with a hot dude’s bare sweaty chest 

also my version of “romantic and sensual” is just “doing math and deciding yeah, against your better judgement, you’re gonna smooch” because i love an overthinking murder twink

“on the bright side, the late-night guest was not jin guangshan’s type. unfortunately he was exactly meng yao’s type: nie mingjue” i can’t believe i let myself write this, bc it feels way too modern, but also the tone of this fic is just sarcastic enough that modern grouchy shit works 

ever since i discovered that camel was a delicacy in tang china i became OBSESSED with it. i nearly included it in ‘i have always loved the door’ and it makes an appearance in ‘blood in the cut’

the guan reappears!! or at least is mentioned.in case u forgot it from chapter 1 it is Definitely Not A Glass Slipper Or Anything

“i love ruining a twink’s life” i said in the author’s notes. i was not lying. my hobbies are making nie mingjue look cool and making jin guangyao suffer.

“xichen was disappointed when he didn’t see you there” “and you of course, weren’t” “on the contrary i was happy to see you” is one of the exchanges that was like. core to this fic. similar to “i met someone” “i don’t know what you want me to say to that” “neither do i”

when outlining fics i tend to include some key dialogue/exchanges that strike me as the Mood TM and half the time these exchanges go through incredible rewrites or just get deleted, but it’s always nice to see them survive

the xiangqi was so much fun to write, not bc i have played the game a bunch (i haven’t) but bc it gave me a fun way to talk about the conversation without talking about the conversation.

“a controlled leak qould have been very useful” makes me so happy it’s such a MOOD and nie mingjue immediately going heart-eyes over it is complete wish fulfillment. when will a hot sword lesbian be enamored over my ruthless scheming???? im taking sword lesbian gf applications over in my ask box

“But it hadn’t been easy” this paragraph originally included “Nie Mingjue had broadened his moral compass, and Meng Yao had learned to trust” or something but i couldn’t  really figure out how meng yao would describe his own personal growth since he left qinghe. like he DID grow he DID learn that he can trust the people he loves to trust him and that it’s worth bringing people in on your schemes and plans.... but he’s too dumb to describe this. 

the xiyao troll’s comment on this was “LMFAO that oocness from both meng yao and nmj where nmj is suddenly JGY levels of cunning and JGY is dumb enough to make mistakes XD”

this has stuck with me so hard

how do you read Falling in Love with Love and only discover after 16k words that i think meng yao makes mistakes?????

how do u consume any adaptation of mdzs and think that nmj isn’t smart enough to go “huh that cunning twink who is absolutely mooning over me and xichen and also plays weiqi like my old buddy seems REAL FUCKING FAMILIAR” nmj canonically sees thru jgy machinations all the time

anyway i love nmj and the xiyao troll

did you know there’s an exchange to celebrate the troll’s works??? i discovered it after signups closed but im going to enjoy reading all of them

ch 10: and with very little trouble

this took me like a month to write oops but that’s just because a lot has to happen

the opening where meng yao is being mean to qin su was so hard to write. meng yao getting overworked?? fine. meng yao getting abused??? cool. meng yao being slightly short with his sister, who is in no way hurt by this bc she can tell it’s not about her??? HORRIBLE!!!

the detective scene happened. there’s not a lot to say about it, i don’t think, except to note that han meilin did try to stand up for qin su

ch 11: impossible things are happening every day

cinderella time mother fuckers!!! this is another one that took time!!

ch 10 took time bc i wasn’t 100% sure how it would play out

this took time bc even though i knew exactly what would happen and how, it has to be Real Good, y’know? it’s tying up the entire fic. if these 2k words don’t work, then the rest of the fic will feel less good and ppl won’t come back to it

(please everyone come back to this over and over if only to laugh at my obvious qin su agenda)

qin su and meng yao fighting over who gets to take the fall for their joint murder. i love them.

i wasn’t planning for this fic to start the sunshot campaign but here we are. in the war. 

How did this version of the sunshot campaign go? Well. not good. because someone has no reason to invent necromancy. But not as poorly as you’d think. Jiang Sect isn’t destroyed, and the Cloud Recesses are functional (although not at full capacity), so they have more strength on hand. Plus, Meng Yao encouraged Koi Tower to funnel money and resources into the Qin Sect, specifically so if the war started before he expected it to (whoops!!! it did!!!!), those resources would be somewhere he could encourage to fight. 

on the one hand, the sunshot campaign’s territory is divided in half by the wens. on the other hand, that means the wens are fighting on both the northern and southern border (since, again, jiang sect is still alive)

anyway i’d say it’s a more steady war, as opposed to my recollection of canon where like. everyone’s fucking miserable until our sexy goth boi comes out with his corpses and wrecks shop. 

then han meilin and qin su look at their families and say “if you do not let us marry right now in a way that combines our sects equally...... we will just do it anyway.” 

(meng yao in the background, holding a thin knife: fucking try me. try me. i want you to be mean to my sister just so i can stab you with my knives.)

anyway it’s time for the epilogue where meng yao is vice general and there is no more wen sect

(have i thought about the dafan wens in this ‘verse? no. i probably should not, either, as wwx would be less ride-or-die for them and that means maybe wen qing and wen ning would die in a war camp)

never mind!!! happy thoughts only!!!! like how qin su and meng yao are getting ready to kill again bc they are the bi crime sibling club!!!! 

jin zixuan is invited to family brunch but he’s never invited to bi crime sibling club because qin su and meng yao refuse to let him lose his innocence. 

“ge, jie, i’m married with children, i don’t have any innocence to lose--” “oh didi, precious baby, our infant brother, shining beacon of our heart...”

mo xuanyu is also forbidden from joining bi crime club. he’s too baby. 

they do discover other jin bastards and invite them to lunch and sure, there might eventually be another bi criminal.

3zun visits each other in 2 month chunks, with one to two month breaks as needed. so the epilogue is the beginning of 2 months hanging out in meng yao’s house, and then later in the year they’ll hang out in the cloud recesses or whatever

qin su and meng yao both have secret lists of places to acquire babies for each other. han meilin knows about both of these lists and laughs every time she sees the same orphanages on both lists.

the final comment from the xiyao troll on this was: “Interesting choice to write a bland ooc AU, but I guess this is all you can manage with your writing skill. ;) This way you don't have to worry about JGY lying to Xichen for years, murdering NMJ, attempting to murder Xichen's family in the second siege, stealing secrets from the Lan sect, corrupting a healing song Xichen trusted him with, and fully betraying LXC's and NMJ's trust.”

like. yeah. of course i sidestepped the bad things. that’s what a fix-it au is for. it’s where i say “here’s an alternate universe, where certain bad things do not happen.” it’s where i say “if meng yao had always had qin su around to counteract the messaging his mother gave him, he might not have gone so far in his quest for power”. duh. 

also like kiddo, troll, friend. the pitch for this fic is “cinderella except with murder and qin su rights”. i’ve been clear from the top that this is an Indulgent Fic with No Pretenses of Quality. im proud of some sentences and passages, but this ain’t Blood In The Cut where im tryna Say something or either of my jiang cheng-centric fics where im focusing on good characterization. 

it’s a cozy murder where qin su gets to live and have a cool wife