#but i'm trying to keep the unimplemented stuff out

[godslush]

The 'new' classification system with Dan's 'ask chat' ability is fascinating to me. I dug some up in-game, but since it takes soooo long, I ended up just going into the files and digging them up manually (enemyType: string in the Enemies.json file). There's some interesting thought process going on here.

I won't list them ALL because I do have to go to work. A bunch of them are pretty obvious; a lot of characters you'd guess are classified as "Cursed" are, in fact, Cursed.

A few interesting things have stood out to me so far:

Cursed doesn't apply to everyone who looked outside, or got mutated; even Joel and Hellen are classified as "Human", as well as most of Joel's family (except Baby Teeth, who is "Cursed"). Leigh, as "Grinning Woman/Beast", is fully classified as "Cursed".

Even "Stressed Out" (IE William, the wounded door encounter after his lower half turns into a monster) is classed "Human"

Morton is classed as "Insect" right out the gate, not Cursed. This means 'Chat' figured it out even before Sam did, which is very funny to me.

Rat King is "Cursed" (Frankie did straight up say on stream that Rat King is Fabrice; Frederick's friend who saw his painting), while Rat Freak, and most of the 'body part' rats are classed as "Human". Weirdly, Rat Hole is "Cursed" despite describing its situation as transforming through having been bitten a lot.

"Witness" appears to apply to those very basic beginning game enemies, but the knife neighbor and Vincent are still "Human". Eternal Eye is "Cursed" so perhaps it's a "level of transformation" thing. However, Mutt is also classed as a Witness.

The only other character specifically classed as "Witness"? Jasper.

("Chorus of One", "Unholy Duet", "Discordant Triune", and "Chaos Quartet" are Cursed, while Exalted Four is "Ascended"... XIN-AMON is also "Ascended")

SPEAKING OF ASCENDED there are a few others with this class: Spore Mother, Faceless Fred (!), Furnace, and some unimplemented bosses I won't speak of here but have deliciously fascinating names.

Branching off of Spore Mother, "Fungus" is obviously it's own class and which characters are fungus should be obvious, but weirdly enough Laughing Mold is considered "Cursed" instead.

Lokjaw is a "Mutant" which also applies to Tumorhead, EyeCluster, any of the Worm Parts associated with Rafta-infested Nestor, the 'remade' creeps in Edwin's dark apartment and... weirdly enough, the first couple enemies in the garage (the cone and the tires). That's it. Very small clade.

"Painting" should be obvious, but once again it is interesting that Faceless Fred is "Ascended" but becomes a "Painting" once his face is returned. "Cowboy Hat" is "Human" but I am presuming this is when you attack it while it's on Sam's head, so technically you're attacking Sam. "Not a Cowboy Hat" is still a Painting.

Another obscure one is "Passenger" which only applies to things off the bus, but not EVERYTHING off the bus (Crawing Hand is Cursed). Things in Henderson's apartment are "Conscripts". Trench Digger is Cursed.

"Pipe Man" is it's own class for the sewer (includes the 'corpses'), but the Boiler Beast is "Cursed".

"Frostbitten" is its own class, which applies to all the frozen enemies including Enforcer in the basement, but NOT to PomPom, who is Cursed.

"Taxidermy" is its own class, which applies to all the enemies in that apartment except Suture Wire, which is Cursed.

It does seem like a single 'Cursed' surrounded by a bunch of hyper-specific enemies in a special area indicates an infection that spread, with the 'Cursed' being the Patient Zero for that area, but not always.

It's worth noting that nothing in the plant apartment has an enemyType: and is just listed as a lowercase "monster" in-game (which might just mean the devs forgot)

The "???" shadow enemies have the class "Shade" until you get to the BIGGEST ones (that don't have words, only variations of "???? ?? ?? ?"), where they become classified as Cursed.

And to make matters EVEN MORE CONFUSING, "Shadow" (IE, the white mask) is classed as "????"

DO take into consideration the only way one would canonically find these in game is through Dan's "Chat" so take that as you will.

THERE'S PROBABLY MORE TO GLEAN, but right now I have to go to work!!!

[twilightknight17]

One last one and I'm done because I just wanted discussion, not to fight, but no I've rarely seen Shuake that is not dark or angsty, most of the fic recs are dark sad fics. I don't see good traits discussed, you're not on twitter but even on tumblr most of the time he is called irredeemable, a psychopath and evil. All the memes about being evil have him tagged! Even "fluffy" fanart has him threatening to kill Akira. The take on him in Royal is that he's not redeemed and likes being an ass.

I don’t want to fight with anyone either, but I’m not sure how much of a discussion it can be when the two sides are basically “I only see him portrayed as pure evil” and “I don’t really see that very often at all.”

But okay, let’s roll. You want a serious answer? Here’s a serious answer.

(Po, my dear, there are actual major endgame spoilers in this answer, so don’t click on this one.)

There’s definitely plenty of sad fanfic, but I mean, their situation is pretty sad. That doesn’t mean the fluffy kind isn’t there. Or the slightly silly kind. Seriously, have you read the fic where Goro’s trying to win Mothman out of the gatcha machine? AO3 has all sorts of tags, it’s not that hard to find soft stuff. And I literally reblogged fluffy napping fanart like 2 days ago.

Anyway, “psychopath” is a very strong word, and I don’t think it describes his character at all. Nothing in the game indicates to me that he enjoys killing. He usually seems like his mindset is “I did what I had to, even if I didn’t like it, because all that matters is taking out Shido.”

And no, the way he acts during Maruki’s Palace doesn’t contradict that. Those are lesser shadows, not people, and he’s very aware of the difference. He never suggests killing Maruki, even as a joke, despite how much he hates him and his ideal reality. And if I remember correctly, he never actually says that he wants to kill Shido. Just ruin him when he’s at his highest point. (And yeah, dumb plan overall, but he was an angry, depressed 15-year-old at the time, and I choose to believe that he ended up too far in, and it came down to his life or his targets’. Shido was planning to have him killed after following his every order; disobeying would have just signed that death warrant more quickly.) The only time he targets someone and it wasn’t an order from Shido is the engine room fight, which is basically him hitting rock bottom and having an emotional breakdown even before he uses his powers on himself.

Third-sem Goro is...abrasive, yes. He’s tired. He’s clearly done with All of This Bullshit. He’s got no memories of anything after the engine room. He’s aware that yet another person is trying to control his life, except this time, in the most condescending, for-your-own-good way possible. He’s got to work with the people who saw him at his lowest, which is probably mortifying. He’s got to face his own death a second time, while knowing that he was Akira’s wish. No one has ever really wanted the real him, his entire life, and now that someone does, someone that he cares about too, he has to give that up. I’d be pissed off too.

But despite that, he’s still brave. He’s still determined. He’s still strong. And he still cares, underneath his gruff exterior. The first thing he did when he found himself in Shibuya on Christmas Eve, no idea what had happened, was to find Akira and Sae and take responsibility for his crimes so that Akira wouldn’t go to jail. When Akira’s wish basically glitched the matrix to ensure that Goro got out of jail almost immediately, the first thing Goro did was find Akira to figure out why. Many of his navigator lines indicate that he’s worried about and/or protective of Joker.

And if we take the unimplemented scene they found as canon, when he woke up and found himself at the center that once took care of his mother, he still made plans to return to Tokyo and make sure Akira got out of jail. He could have walked away, but he still went back for his rival. The most important person in his life.

I don’t know if this was what you wanted, Anon. I’ve realized I don’t really know what you think, since you’ve mostly told me what the rest of the fandom supposedly thinks. If you want to keep discussing this, you can PM me, or send me an ask off anon so I can reply privately.