#would you believe an archived page of a game informer article about a Yakuza game being touching to someone who was homeless inspired this

[buccellato]

I'm not 100% sure if these thoughts count as like, super spoilers, so I'm gonna put them under a cut just in case but I'm declaring it Razloposting hours

I think one of the hardest (and frankly also best) parts of Wolfwood's death is that the person who fought him the hardest and gave him the most grief isn't even particularly horrible. Yeah Razlo is rude, rowdy, and really revels in violence compared to Livio's rough-and-tumble yet anxiously polite host personality, but he isn't fighting to specifically spite Wolfwood or Vash or the orphanage, he's doing it out of a misguided sense of belonging given to him by a man (and doomsday cult) who essentially groomed him into being an ideal soldier. And it's hammered home when he shows back up later on just to help Livio defeat Elendira—he developed as an alter to protect Livio from the things that hurt or scared him, and ultimately wants what's safest for his host (and of course Livio is actually the very bestest little big boyscout, so the readers want to see him survive too).

Personally I think it's kinda nice tbh, because it would've been very easy as a writer to go "actually the second personality was evil but he's been defeated and demoralized so he's gone forever haha"—it might've even been very tempting to do after successfully endearing the audience with a character that killed a beloved fan-favorite character, too, just to clean your hands of something that may cause discontent—but Razlo got to stay a part of Livio and help him fight when he needed it most and I dunno if I'd call it absolution but it sure felt closure-y (to me at least).

Anyways not much else I wanted to say. Love me some Razlo and Livio. That's all 💖