#<- (lowkey)

[millionmaggots]

RGG Show was Mid, + a Tangent About Goro Majima

Ok, yeah, I'm glad I didnt get my hopes up, bc WOWIE the amazon prime RGG show is Not Good.

I wanted to like it, but in 100% full sincerity, i would recommend that you watch the unhinged 2005 movie over this.

The games beautifully mix genuinely serious story beats / subject matter with completely absurd moments of levity. This contrast allows you to see the silly and charming sides of the characters, making the story especially engaging precisely because those moments of happiness contrast so sharply with the characters' hard lives. Seeing what they could have makes it hit so much harder when they're put through the wringer.

Kiryu will go through the most gut-wrenching tragedy, then immediately after, you'll do a side quest about helping people find their lost items or something. Ultimately, the series is about humanity, and flawed people in horrible situations doing what little good they can.

The 2005 movie is ridiculous and borderline incomprehensible, but it still captures that mix of tragedy and farce. It's weird, it's campy, it's horny, and it makes little to no sense - It's fun.

I can't say the same about the new Prime series. It lacks the charm and silly antics that separate RGG from any other crime drama, and that self-serious nature just sucks all the appeal out of it.

I'm not upset that it isn't totally loyal to game canon - in fact, one of my main hopes was that it would reconcile Majima's super inconsistent characterization in Kiwami 1.

Him kidnapping Haruka just to get to Kiryu, holding a woman at knifepoint, etc., was all written for the original game in 2005 when he was meant to be a wildcard minor antagonist/villain.

The Majima Everywhere mechanic was added in the remake in 2016 after gradually becoming a much more complex and likeable character in 11 years worth of subsequent games after the original game's release.

However, the added content more in line with his later characterization was tacked on to the original iteration of him with little consideration for consistency, making him feel like one of two different people, depending on the scene.

With the show having the benefit of hindsight, I really hoped they would do something interesting with him, and balance out the genuinely detestable things he does with the silly amicable rivalry he has with Kiryu.

The story of the first game is mostly about Kiryu, Nishiki, and Yumi, but the marketing made a point to say it was (however loosely) adapting Kiwami 1. While I understand not wanting to advertise a brand new show with 2005 PS2 era graphics, I feel like that implied that it would reflect the minor narrative/framing changes and increased prominence of Majima, just as it does with Nishiki from the original game to Kiwami.

Essentially, I wasn't too excited about this series, but I had some hope because they had an opportunity to clean up the story and retell it without the limitations of being a remaster of an old game and following an eleven year old script almost word for word.

Instead, they told a gritty and joyless version of the same story without taking advantage of the freedom to rework a flawed but enjoyable story/script, and in doing so, lost its grip on the central theme of the series.

[sarcophagid]

hiii what do u think about morningstar visuals or lore

he's one of my favesss

visually it's a lot of fun, he looks good in all black! im a liiitle tired of them showing his face all the time but i do like the silly little golden face on the mask.

also think it's neat that one of the design sketches had feathers on it. i'm oscillating between bat/moth/bird as an ithaqua animal. but i see nathaniel as snake themed and i do like a good snake vs. bird symbolism.

lorewise, i think morningstar ithaqua was really a good parallel for his original story. although i wish they mentioned his mother since she's a major character his backstory. i do wonder if helel is supposed to be ithaqua if his motives were utterly devoid of love.

regardless, the way i saw it in the og, the norwell family (or at the very least magistrate norwell, although i doubt janet and nathaniel are ignorant enough to not know what they're doing.) likely didn't genuinely believe in demons or witchcraft. it was more of a means to manipulate the townspeople and gain social power, since cultivating a fear of accusation would benefit the judge. and this parallels how later on, ithaqua would use the same practice of leveraging fear and lies to manipulate the people and protect his mother.

and this is reflected in the way both nebuchadnezzar and helel used a false divine connection to claim their right as king. the line "new lies will be treated as the word of god." implying that nebu was also lying.

nebu posing as a vicarious voice of 'god' goes with how ithaqua calls the attackers "gods" due to the religious nature of their accusations. likewise, nebu condemns those below the tower as 'demons' similar to how ithaqua's mother was called a demon.

it's also neat that they used a fallen angel as inspo - as helel being nebu's twin, was originally a prince before his fake execution, like how og ithaqua was presumed dead and abandoned. (i do wonder why exactly nebu spared him. i know why for plot armour reasons but there's some interesting possibilities.)

and helel is a fun character! i liked the detail that people didn't obey helel that much out of loyalty or even fear but because they were mutually using each other. helel didn't gaf about being king and they didn't actually believe his claims of being the true king as long as everyone got what they wanted in the end.

"Yet they did not know that the new, sun-eating king was never interested in governing at all. He knew that the followers hated the corrupt royals from the kingdom that he fell, knew that a religion built on a foundation of lies would shatter easily at first touch. But that had nothing to do with him. His goal was always the king of the tower, Nebuchadnezzar, and this battle was all a selfish frenzy of revenge."

helel isn't power hungry, he's single mindedly focused on vengeance. i'll go as far as to say he's not truly an agent of just retribution, he's just willing to do anything if it helps him in his goal. it's like, almost funny how he just lets people take advantage of the political shift for their gain as long as nebuchadnezzar stays imprisoned. and helel's lack of moral inhibition when it comes to his goals is one of the key parts of ithaqua's character. i think that's one of the similarities between him and nebu, but nebu is the one who actually desires power and control, using violence to attain that, in an inversion of helel's motive+method.

speaking of similarities another thing i really liked was the "everything was turned upside down, yet everything still remained the same." line. despite how much he hates their sameness, helel has to become something of similar magnitude to the sun king to make any meaningful change, just as there are no bloodless ways for the nightwatch to command paranoia.

and i think the funniest bestest part of all this is that helel fails. his plan to indefinitely torture nebu gets cut short when one of his allies (based tracy) finds the supposedly dead king and makes good on the false claim by killing him for real. all of helel's concentrated effort and sacrifice was for nothing. and it does actually make sense when you think about it because nightwatch is present at the manor, and why would he leave his post to go there? despite killing nathaniel and creating the persona of 'ithaqua', his mother's still sick. and whatever happened afterwards, he had to leave. somewhere in ithaqua's story, he failed too.

anyways cool story yeah i like it a normal amount

[unlimitedgolden]

tumblr keeps trying to stop me posting this and its not gonna work

[flaming-tennis-ball]

@elongatedtennisball! Bad news! My cousin, @underwater-tennis-ball, is in town again. I hate him!!!

[coronangelic1]

having many many thoughts and none of them are in my market research and neuro-research bibliographic material

[ducktollers]

🐊🐊🐊🐊🐊

[idontmindifuforgetme]

i hope that in 2025 u get to take more walks, read more books, connect with more people whom u love and who love u, achieve ur goals (even if ur goals are having no goals and just living in the moment), exercise fun hobbies, move from a place of self-direction, and weave together a beguiling assortment of beautiful little moments. remember that no feeling lasts forever. love u

[mandatory-ftmbreeder]

pussy from a guy who was "the weird girl" growing up

[blueskittlesart]

knowledge long forgotten

got really into reading item descriptions on this playthrough. anyway did you know the silent princess is one of the only raw materials with a cooking effect to not explicitly list that effect in its description

[marcusbrutus]

tumblr: constantly be aware of your own privilege. constantly be aware of your capacity of be evil. hey i know you really like that new piece of media but make sure you're aware of all of the problematic elements all the time. hey i noticed you reblogged a post from a designated Bad Person so please make sure you do a thorough background check on everyone you reblog from to make sure they're not bad, otherwise people might get the wrong idea about you. always be aware of everything bad that's happening in the world all the time because silence is violence. i see you not reblogging this post btw. activist burnout is a privilege so be aware of that. xyz people are required to reblog this post. if you're not constantly fighting against designated Bad People you are inherently complicit and therefore a Bad Person.

people with ocd:

[nicomoon69]

the song made me giggle a lil as a trans guy

[lara-cairncross]

shadow gets adopted into the wachowski family and becomes the resident listener in a family that’s full of yappers send tweet

[clearlydusty]

Bro thinks she could just thug it out

[gayvampyr]

and my personal favorite:

i love getting validation as a lefty but also learning about new fun ways it continues to suck

[paintedcrows]

Whenever Bill sees KingOfNJ's fics through Stan's eyes he just thinks they have the same taste in fanfiction (disgusting. unthinkable) continued

[bakwaaas]