#chapter analysis incoming

[quinowskie]

Im too mushy abt ch. 128 right now. I'll think about it harder tomorrow

[bennetsbonnet]

Don't you think that Darcy was selfish with his family legacy by marrying Elizabeth for love since her lack of money and connections would inevitably affect Pemberley's coffers and the dowries of his future offspring?

Selfish is absolutely not a word that I'd associate with Mr Darcy when it comes to Pemberley. While he was undoubtedly selfish in many other ways, I think it's pretty clear based on what Mrs Reynolds tells Elizabeth and the Gardiners during their visit that he took his obligations as master very seriously and, consequently, he would never have done anything to jeopardise the estate's continued prosperity. He took his responsibility seriously in that department, perhaps to the detriment of his ability to give a good account of himself and make a good first impression on others (not that I'm excusing his behaviour!! He was awful!!) but I think there is perhaps an explanation for his apparent contradiction in appearing as a kind, generous master in Derbyshire vs conceited snob in Hertfordshire.

Darcy was very, very well off. I don't think it's inevitable at all that Elizabeth's lack of wealth would've adversely affected Pemberley's coffers whatsoever. Sure, he could've gained all the De Bourgh wealth and of course Rosings Park with all its expensive glazing if he had married Anne but... in not marrying her, Darcy was not rendered a pauper by any stretch of the imagination. His wife could've brought absolutely nothing and it wouldn't have made an impact, really. An income of ten thousand per year is not an insignificant sum. Plus there's all of the interest that a figure would've generated, that's a little complicated and we don't need to get into that but if he managed his money well (which by all accounts he did) then it would've increased year upon year, therefore leaving his and Elizabeth's children in a strong financial position.

As for the figure of ten thousand pounds itself, I'm not fond of simply translating it into today's money for scale because that doesn't tell the whole story so I won't do that.

Rather, here is an interesting breakdown of the finances for a year of a family with an income of £500:

(Here's the source for the above table, also featuring some more insight into finances!)

That table gives you some idea of the relative costs of a household. When you see that rent and taxes set them back 'only' £50 and the two maid-servants earned £15 for an entire year... it helps to put into perspective just how much money an income of £10,000 was!

Plus, when you consider that Jane Austen herself had an allowance of only twenty pounds per year and ultimately only earned £350 in her lifetime for all of her writing, whereas a lawyer earned £1500 a year and even that income, for a comparably high paid profession, is still far less than Darcy's clear ten thousand... it's very obvious he didn't need to marry for money at all. By all accounts his father ran the estate well and Darcy had followed in his footsteps. So, he'd absolutely earned the right to marry for love by being a good master. If he'd neglected Pemberley and needed a rich wife, like Anne, to balance the books but still put his obsession with a comparatively poor woman with fine eyes first, and married Elizabeth despite knowing Pemberley would go to rack and ruin then, yes! that's selfish! But that wasn't his reality.

Also, while you can look at Elizabeth bringing no large dowry and only really herself to the marriage as a bad thing, I would argue that actually merely viewing her contribution through the lens of her worth in terms of cold hard cash is somewhat simplistic and that, perhaps, such a view brings the baggage of the modern capitalist society that we (well, a lot of us) live in, to an era that it doesn't belong in. Women back then who were mistresses of large estates, such as Pemberley, essentially undertook full-time jobs they didn't earn salaries for. Sure, it wasn't truly arduous, intense, back-breaking work, but there was a lot of planning and management to be done; such as organising the staff (in conjunction with a housekeeper), visiting tenants, interior design, formulating menus, budgeting for clothes/linens, sewing items for the poor and doing their own version of networking with other wealthy families of respectable lineage (with social calls and hosting dinners).

So you see, it's not as simple as 'Elizabeth was poor so she brought nothing,' nor was her background necessarily a hindrance, because coming from the family she did would've taught her a great deal about economy, which was such a valuable skill to have as it could allow women to advance their positions in society by looking wealthier than they actually were. Knowing how to economise was vitally important, in a society where so much mattered on snap judgments people made about the clothes you wore, how many servants you kept and whether you had your own carriage or needed to hire one... if you could make an annual budget of £350 look like £500, that was an impressive, sought after skill. I'm not saying Elizabeth would've needed to economise to that extent, but it isn't as simple as 'more money = more worth.'

It would have been better for Darcy (and he was intelligent, I think he would've realised this long before he met her) to have had a wife from a less affluent background but who knew how to make a budget stretch, rather than have a wife from a rich family with a taste for the finer things in life who carelessly spent money on frivolous purchases. THAT would be true selfishness to his children, jeopardising their future with a mother who couldn't, or rather wouldn't, economise and leaving Pemberley in a worse state than it was when he inherited it. I can't imagine Elizabeth spending beyond her means, not when she would've frowned upon such behaviour by Kitty and Lydia and have watched her mother waste money, as 'Mrs Bennet had no turn for economy,' (Ch. 50). Such prudence with money would have been a very desirable trait in a wife. He would've felt secure she wouldn't overspend and ruin his estate. So, although she wasn't wealthy, she was still a catch in so many ways.

And I also want to point out that though I've been commenting on her lack of wealth, Elizabeth wasn't poor! She was of the same class just at a lower end than Darcy (but most people were, compared to him). His problem with marrying her was never about her family's comparative lack of wealth, his concern was with their behaviour and lack of eminent connections, as we learn during his first proposal. Though the Bennets and Longbourn were at the lower end of income for an estate and Pemberley was definitely in the upper echelon, Longbourn was a decent sized estate itself! Elizabeth would've known something about estate management.

Plus, that first proposal shows us that she absolutely wasn't after his money. A good marriage with a prosperous husband was important for a woman in Elizabeth's situation, yes; it was necessary in order to save her from the misery that would unfold after Mr Bennet's demise, but she had shown that she wasn't overawed by his money. In fact, I think it was a hindrance to her ever forming a good opinion of him rather than a help. That's probably what Darcy had been looking for his entire life, someone who genuinely loved him for him and not his wealth! Though he found it out in perhaps not the nicest of fashions, ultimately his dreadful first proposal made him even more certain that when she accepted him, she did it because she truly loved him, not because of any financial considerations.

Anyway, to wrap up: no, I don't think Darcy was selfish in the slightest when it came to Pemberley, nor that a lack of money from Elizabeth would have had a detrimental impact on Pemberley's coffers nor their future offspring.

His children (even if there were lots of them!) with Elizabeth would have been absolutely fine and had impressive dowries even if had to come entirely out of their father's wealth. Plus, even if the Darcy children were ever in a situation where they were cash poor, to be associated with such a family and an estate would open many doors for them, given the weight their name would've carried in important circles. Darcy was fastidious, he would have considered all of this before his marriage.

Ultimately, he earned his love match and happy marriage by not behaving like a Wickham and throwing money down the drain, and Elizabeth should be viewed as contributing an awful lot to the marriage in other ways than merely through the lens of money, which overlooks the hours of work she would put in to running an estate such as Pemberley.

Elizabeth and Darcy were a brilliant match in many ways and even their wealth disparity, though considerable as they were at very different ends of their class, by no means undermined that fact.

[heatwa-ves]

WE'RE BACK IN BUSINESSSS

[cavennmalore]

1000% agree. i think there is also another layer that keefe doesn’t want to acknowledge because, why keep cassius’s help a secret? why not expose him as the fraud he is? there certainly won’t be time for this in book 10, but i would love to see more of how their relationships develops and it was awesome to get to see a small window into how they interact without anyone else around

goodness I cannot be normal about them

On the one hand, I’m really glad Cassius is trying to be better from a genuine place. On the other hand, Keefe has absolutely no obligation to just suddenly be fine with the father who abused him for years.

They both make sense.

Something I love about Shannon’s exploration of this relationship is how it is simultaneously true that Keefe does not have to and is not going to forgive him and will continue to hate him for what he did, but Cassius is still making a genuine effort which could lead to him being a better person in the future.

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Thinking about how the Dregs canonically have a pleasure house but Kaz vehemently had nothing to do with it even when he was involved in the finances of all their other businesses, and that shutting it down was probably one of the first things he did after the coup

See below cut for evidence/quotes and lil smidgen of analysis

In chapter 3 Van Eck calls Kaz “a bawd and a murderer”, to which Kaz replies “I don’t run whores, and I kill for a cause”. Whilst the more obvious implication of this would be that the Dregs isn’t affiliated with a pleasure house, we learn later that this assumption is incorrect. When Kaz pays off her contract Inej believes she’s moving to another house and Heleen replies “Haskell does own a pleasure house, somewhere in the lower Barrel, but you’d be a waste of his money there”, both confirming that the Dregs have a pleasure house and implying that they get very little income from it. Since we know that Kaz is the only one who actually does any work with the finances and that many times it’s been said that the Dregs would collapse without him not only because they would lose a lot of the fear his presence brings but also because they would lose most of their income, it’s fair to assume that the reason this business is unsuccessful is because Kaz refuses to be involved with it. I think that Van Eck’s accusation comes from him looking through the Dregs’ businesses (he has a collection of papers and information on Kaz and reads them during this conversation) and assuming Kaz is involved in all of them, and we can also follow the implication that Kaz is offended by this false accusation since he’s so quick and blunt in defending it during an otherwise lengthy and often philosophical conversation.

[gittetj]

You've mentioned that you hc Reigen as ace, can you elaborate?

I agree w/ that but can't sort my thoughts out well enough to make a coherent analysis ;w;

Yeah, that's the vibe he gives me. No concrete "evidence" and I don't care all that much about the sexual orientations of fictional characters, but I guess for me, the headcanon comes down to three things:

1) Reigen is super disinterested in other people being attracted to each other. I feel like there are several small examples of this, but first one that comes to mind is that case with the esper who can astral project and uses it to stalk his neighbor. When they discover this, Reigen has such a non-reaction. I've seen a lot of people bring up these panels

which, yeah, but when they find the culprit, Reigen also doesn't express much of an opinion. It's just "it's a stalker, stalking is bad and illegal, this is a job for the police." No more introspection from him, he immediately moves on, it doesn't interest him. Mob is the one doing all the reacting.

2) Reigen never resorts to flirting despite how he's known for bullshitting his way through anything else to complete a job. Like, no matter how horny Studio Bones is for the guy, they can't change this. He could deliberately capitalize on the fact that a considerable amount of his income comes from massaging middle-aged ladies who find him attractive, but he doesn't. It's accidental. It does not even seem like something Reigen thinks about.

3) Reigen's a self-conscious person, yet doesn't act like it bothers him that he's seemingly never been in a relationship before. He explicitly has a crisis over being lonely in the confession arc, but it's about friends and connections and doing something meaningful with his life. Romantic relationships don't factor into it, even though it easily could, considering it has great thematic relevance for Mob who spends the entire story being in love. Not that you can't fall in love with someone if you're ace, this goes a little bit into aro territory I guess, but either way.. it just gives me that vibe. The indifference. I mean, even in chapter 99 when Mob point-blank asks Reigen for advice about Tsubomi, Reigen first asks Serizawa, then looks it up on his phone, exactly like he would with any other topic he doesn't know jack shit about.

Also, at the end of the scene, he muses about what's important in a relationship, and his conclusions just.. don't sound like he's talking about romance? To me?

I don't know, that entire scene gives me flashbacks to being younger and not yet knowing what asexuality (or aromanticism) is and having to navigate conversations like that without giving away that you fundamentally can't relate to this thing everyone else is so preoccupied with.

Them's my takes, I don't have much else to say about it.

[3wisellamas]

Analysis: Spamton Kept Something of Tenna's, Too

(long post incoming)

For funsies, I threw together all three Deltarune OSTs into a playlist so I could listen to them back to back. But this led to me...noticing something, about NOW'S YOUR CHANCE TO BE A, BIG SHOT, and the audio version of Tenna's introduction VHS that Toby just threw onto the soundtrack for whatever bizarre reason.

So, I'm NOT the first person to notice that Tenna's got way more voice acting than any other character in Undertale OR Deltarune. He's got an entire 40-second cutscene where he's speaking the entire time! And he calls out his "IT'S!! TV!! TIME!!!" catchphrase every chance he gets.

When old video games around the late 80s-early 90s first started incorporating speech samples, they were often HEAVILY compressed, having very little resources to work with -- even on really good arcade hardware the speech quality was...not great, and it got even worse on home consoles like NES, SNES, and Genesis, sometimes making things difficult to understand. Not impossible, but difficult. Notably, there were two major issues this level of compression introduced: The first was basically Elmuh Fudd Syndwome, where Rs get distorted and basically drop out completely. A very famous example of this first type of compression error is the "Rise from your grave" sample at the beginning of Altered Beast.

The second, and I'd say more common type of error, is a distinct hissing sound on sibilants (S and Z sounds). The NES Ghostbusters title screen is a very good example of this one:

This is the one we hear HEAVILY in all of Tenna's speech (it actually gives him a pretty noticeable lisp!) Listen closely whenever he says "It's TV time!" and you'll hear that hissing from the compression on the first word, and during the VHS scene you can also hear it pretty clearly on "Coming Straight from your houSe!" and "The SenSation of your Screen!"

(This also applies to Jevil as well, since his voice samples are compressed in the same way -- you can hear it whenever he says "Metamorphosis"! I'm like 90% sure that all the voice acting in Deltarune is the same person, likely Toby Fox himself, using the same recording and compression so it makes sense.)

So, why am I talking so much about shitty 80s speech compression and Tenna's distinctive lisp from it? Because we've heard it before, in chapter 2. Specifically, in both of Spamton's battle themes.

You heard it here last, folks: throughout NOW'S YOUR CHANCE TO BE A and BIG SHOT, the phrase (what else) "Now's your chance to be a big shot" is repeated over and over -- in the former it's higher-pitched, sounding more cartoony, while in the latter it's pitched back down and sounds closer to a normal voice. But, in both songs, all sibilants (S sounds) have that same hissing error from the compression. And what's more damning, the "lyrics" in NOW'S YOUR CHANCE sound a HECK of a lot like Tenna's normal voice, while BIG SHOT's lower-pitched lines also aren't far off from certain lines in Tenna's intro VHS.

So, the gist of my theory is, the "singer" in both of Spamton's themes was actually Tenna the whole time. I like to think that, when the two of them first formed their partnership, it could've been something Tenna said to Spamton as part of his "sweet talk" in order to seal the deal -- "Now's your chance to be a big shot!" -- and even after taking off and developing his hatred of Tenna, blaming him for all of his misfortune, Spamton still remembers that one moment of encouragement. Or is just repeating it over and over in mockery. Honestly with Spamton you can go either way.

But I'm not done yet; I also own a talking Spamton plush. And one could reasonably assume that the voice "spoken" by it would be Spamton's canon voice, right?

Squeezing the thing usually plays one of the following lines:

"Now's your chance to be a big shot!"

"Now's your chance to be a big shot!" (lower pitched)

"Be a big, be a big, now's y- shot!" (I admittedly had to look up and copy this one from the wiki, I never could figure out what the hell he was saying before "shot" ^^; )

"Be a big, be a big, (laughing) shot!"

All four of these are clearly copied from his music, without any instrumental backing but WITH the heavy compression and hissing on sibilant sounds. Which means...Spamton is literally speaking in Tenna's voice. This likely means he's using Tenna's voice in the game, too -- I've seen others speculate that his bracketed adspeak text is actually supposed to be a failed / glitched attempt to copy Tenna's fancy speech quirk. If he's literally using Tenna's voice, then this is definitely plausible! As a walking advertisement Spamton is also clearly able to copy others, more or less word for word -- at one point during the Spamton Sweepstakes he even repeated something Noelle included in one of her blog posts revealed during the same event, complete with her XP emoji.

I would think that, if he's mimicking others' words, he can probably mimic their voices too, right?

And we already know Spamton LOVES mimicking more than just others' words/voices to try and get ahead. His current look -- black hair and suit and two-toned glasses -- was a blatant attempt to copy Swatch, according to his own shop dialogue, and some artwork (particularly that one air freshener) depicts Big Shot-era Spamton in a red suit and yellow tie, heavily reminiscent of Tenna's outfit.

So, if he copied Tenna's looks in the past to try and make himself a success, why not his literal words as well? Why not try to BECOME the Big Shot he saw his former partner as, in more than just taking inspiration?

One last thing to point out with this is that scene in chapter 3, you know the one.

So, Tenna doesn't recognize Spamton at all. That makes sense -- he's clearly changed a lot since his Big Shot days! But, something I find really interesting about this scene is how Tenna reacts, or rather DOESN'T react, when Spamton speaks to him. If you haven't seen someone in years, they're bound to look different, but still sound the same, right? And they were former partners, in whatever sense you want to interpret it. Tenna likely has tapes of their old shows and commercials together. He knows very well what Spamton G Spamton's voice sounds like...and in this scene, he didn't hear it. So, Spamton isn't just unrecognizable appearance-wise, but his voice has definitely changed since leaving Tenna behind too.

But what it's changed TO makes Tenna's overblown freakout so much more appropriate! Imagine if you walk into what you think is your own private room, your greatest secret lying exposed in the middle of the floor, and then suddenly this...thing appears, that kinda-sorta looks a little like your old partner but not really. And then it starts speaking -- "[Trash heap]!!! YOU KEPT IT!!!" -- IN YOUR OWN VOICE.

I'm with Tenna on this one. Foam that creature and GTFO.

[tom8o-pot8o]

Ao3 crashed down but luckily I was in "entire work" mode so I got to the last published chapter, phew. And I thought I'd post about it here as a recommendation (Ghost x Soap in Call of Duty).

So, the title is "And we'll make death proud to take us" by Literal_Satan on Ao3 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/44482165?view_full_work=true) and it is such an action packed plot it feels like I'm watching a Mission impossible movie and it's a wild goose chase and I don't want to spoil too much, but read the tags and if that's all good then I'd highly recommend it. Like, the plot is amazing, but I really don't want to spoil anything so I can't ramble much any. But I did cry. And laugh. And wave my hand in the air appreciatively. And the Ao3 crashed as I was rereading it, don't fret too much about the uncompleted status, pretty much everything gets resolved except the final celebration.

And I can't post a recommendation without mentioning my comfort fic: "Some things are unchangeably wild" by storm_petrel on Ao3 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/64840633#main). A MWIII fix it fic where Soap turns into a dog and it is sooo cute and heart warming and it is short enough to just read at any time for a quick pick-me-up. Did I mention that this is my comfort fic? The only triggers have already been triggered by the ending of MWIII and now it is only getting better.

Another fic that touched my heart and I accidentally listened to my current favourite comfort song while reading this fic: "Spectre-Unit" by Zosch (and I bookmarked this, but closed the tab and Ao3 is still down so I can't get the link and take the spelling with some autocorrect). Soap is part of a special group, the Spectres, which have a genetic trait that make them lethal in battle. It is a quite heavy fic, since Soap has to do some bad things to his mind and body to become a spectre (don't want to spoil, again) but there should be warnings in the tags. (Misoc analysis incoming!) I like this because it captures the heartache to care someone who might not be able to care for themselves and it resonated with the choral song "Even When He's Silent" composed by Kim André Arnesen and I listen to it performed by the Chamber Choir of London. And since I was not listening, I interpereted the song as a love song between a couple where one os closed off and can't respond to the others love, but the knowledge or trust that love is there exist through (today I think it os about God, since I heard the phrase "I believe in God" but hey, I can believe in Soap). And I cried to this too, but maybe it was the music, maybe it was the fic. Now they both remind me of each other and I want to sit down in a blanket and cry (this is a good cry for me, the emotional masochist that I am). And I want to reread this too, but I haven't had the peace and quiet to bundle up and cry for some many hours soo until then.

Now, if you want I'd love to hear your ghoap/tf 141 fic recommendations. I read most things with a happy ending and can handle heavy themes. And also, although the works listed above are very light on the smut, I do enjoy a steamy fic (or many) so any ghoap fic YOU like, I might also like! (Please) and if I've read it, I'll be just as happy to find someone else who also likes the same fic yay!

[queenofapeacefuldawn]

SPY × Family: Chapter 93 analysis

this is my first time doing something like this, and I'm no expert so please take my analysis with a grain of salt! all of this is my own theories, so you might disagree with me. please don't be mean, though (also, long post incoming!)

SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 93 UNDER THE CUT

The chapter opens with the Eden kids getting the results of their marks, with Anya's...

overall rank shooting up, from 213th to 168th. Showing how she's slowly adjusting to the school and its pace of learning, despite being younger than everyone else (and, also, presumably doing extremely advanced things.... I remember seeing the pythagorean theorem on the board once in the anime)

Damian got highest in History (good job, buddy!), and Anya got second-highest in Classical Language (the one exam she genuinely studied hard for). But what I want to focus on is her expression:

Shock. She'd put up that front (that fake-face, if you will) in front of Becky, Damian, Emile and Ewen, pretending to be all cool and suave but when she sees her results, she's genuinely surprised to get good marks in Classical Language. And even her excited reaction. She was scared of disappointing Twilight (and maybe even Sigmund and Barbara) because she'd genuinely worked hard for this exam, tried to understand, and gave it her best attempt.

But, then, it all comes crashing down with her 24 points in math: but a win is a win!

Maybe this is Twilight's turning point in the fact that acquiring knowledge can be interesting, exciting, and not just a tool of survival? Twilight himself doesn't have a great relationship with studying, (see: his father scolding him as a child for not studying, later: his friends dying because he didn't know enough about the campaign they were going on... but Twilight's relationship with knowledge and its pursuit is a whole other post in itself).

Honestly, him realising that Anya is actually thriving in the setup where education is fun for her, opens up two new avenues:

Twilight himself trying to make learning fun for Anya (unlikely, he tried that before... it didn't work.)

Him leaning on Sigmund and Barbara to tutor Anya (this seems more likely- Endo is probably going to cement the Authens as recurring characters, so them being Anya's surrogate grandparents/neighbors/tutors would seem like a great way to do so!

And then...

My main focus is on the fact that he mumbles this (also his face. But that's irrelevant). Twilight may claim, "I don't understand children", but he's an extremely perceptive man. As much as I love to clown on him, he's highly skilled at picking up on cues of people's feelings. The few times he's failed are mostly due to Anya's shenanigans trying to hide her telepathy, mixed with his usual flavour of overthinking.

But the couple of things he knows about Anya are this:

She was probably raised in an environment where Classical Language was used.

She's not fond of talking about or remembering her past.

Which is why he didn't have the heart to fully sound out the question. In the case of Anya, this is an extremely delicate matter, and he doesn't want to upset her (or, in his words, "ruin Operation Strix.") The way he asked the question and it's portrayed made it feel like he'd been pondering on it for quite a while (which he has; since the beginning of the Cruise Arc), but more so usually. Most likely due to her high marks in the Classical Language tests (aka a dead language), and the fact that she got excellent marks in it, despite formally studying it for less than a year (at least, as far as he (and we) know.) He's been thinking of the possibility, and also thinking of a way to ask her. In the end, when he does ask her��

she lies.

and he lets her. (at least, that's my interpretation)

Obviously, he knows she's not ready to speak about it yet (though we know it's probably connected to her telepathy, so she's not ready to divulge that info).

Look, as much as I love talking about how clueless he is with his own feelings, in this scene, he was just... perceptive? I don't know if that's the right word. But he was trying to keep Anya happy, and bringing up this complex topic without ensuring proper care for her wouldn't be fair to her. And he knows that. So, he leaves it at, "Just forget about it, okay?"

This entire scene felt so... tense, and in itself felt like a fucking gut punch, so I don't know how I'll react to the reveal.)

And now, onto the main focus of the chapter:

him.

If I'm being honest, I thought Demetrius was, like, 16-19 (judging by his voice in the anime), and not... fucking twelve.

Honestly, that just makes his character all the more tragic: he's barely a teenager, and yet... he's going through this. From his awards ceremony, we can see that he got, what, 6 stellas? In addition to the eight he's gotten to be an Imperial Scholar, and if he performs this well in every exam... bro is literally hoarding the Stella supply of the school (sorry, bad joke).

But...

this panel comes up. It's definitely not Anya's telepathy malfunctioning, (heck, it works on Bond and even penguins). Honestly, I think, again, it could be one of two things:

He was experimented on, like Anya

He was trained, (most likely by Donovan), to keep his mind blank.

We're told that he and Donovan had an extremely close relationship:

This could be in support of both the theories: it could be Donovan checking up on his "experiment's" progress (a crude term to refer to him), or, it could have been him subconsciously training Demetrius to hide his thoughts, keep them safe. Anya's project is connected to Desmond's administration, and at the time she was "made", Demetrius would have been around 7 or 8. Old enough for him to figure out what he wanted to have been in life (ofc, that's different for everyone! It takes time, and 8 is an extremely young age to figure out what one wants to do). But, like, how Damian wants to be a politician, it's most likely that Demetrius, the prodigal, studious, first child, would have to follow the path of politics laid before him.

So it could have been Donovan teaching Demetrius to protect his sensitive thoughts from the "weapons" he himself was making: the test subject(s) of Anya's project (again, a crude term to refer to them). Donovan was putting a lot of faith into creating telepaths (most likely for covert work), and them having unwavering loyalty to his administration was not very likely.

And, even if Anya's project was the work of another administration or even country, there's no doubt that Donovan would want to keep his thoughts hidden from these kinds of spies: ones than can see into your very mind, especially if the world is at war: a physical battle or a war for information.

The first theory of Demetrius himself being a test subject is probably Not What Happened; so I think it's probably just Demetrius being trained to keep his thoughts hidden.

But then, we get some of his thoughts:

Which is a lot reminiscent of:

So, it's probable that Demetrius imbibed this from his dad.

It's honestly a bit scary to see how Donovan's "parenting" has affected him: for him, age 12, to be like this.

After this, the chapter ends lightheartedly: Anya trying to emulate Demetrius, and Loid Being Tired™️.

I'm mostly curious about Demetrius: I was so excited when he was finally revealed! But I hope we get to see more of his thoughts, soon. Especially more about his relationship with Damian. But, this chapter was fantastic!

(This was super fun to do- if i do posts like this for chapters as they come out, would you all like it? Again, I'm not an expert in psychology (or even analysis). It's just me and my silly lil thoughts. I hope you liked it!)

[mys0419]

Hi! Since this blog is cool, I wanted to share something that might be hot takes. I think people forgot that the irony of Kris as a character is that we don't know them, and they have (so far) no intention on giving us intel. The only way we were able to get information on Kris, is by talking to people who knew them, like Noelle, Rudy, Toriel. We learned so far that they pranked Noelle a lot, were probably inspired musically by Dess (and looked up to her a lot), that they like their friends and ready to protect them in need, etc... But then, the part that everyone seems to forget, the things that are hidden from us. Because while we have the "happy parts of Kris", we don't know anything about the rest: why do they have a knife, why are they hiding stuff that defines their personality, even if it has nothing to do with what they are doing with the people they are in cahoots, what are they like when no one is looking at them. And then, there is these lines in Chapter 3, after beating the Shadow Mantle Holder:

There! That's what I wanted to see!

Flickering red, like pretty little flames...

Your eyes can't hide it, Kris. Without play...

The knife grows dull.

This is weird to me, and I never saw anyone comment on that. Why does this character knows so much about Kris? Especially what no one else seems to know? It's kinda the same with Ralsei. Because of all the emotional scenes in Chapter 4, people forget to mention that he never really told anything new. He said he "knew about the rules of the world" and "how the prophecy ends", but it's clear throughout the chapter, he had/has no intention of saying anything. To put it simply, what I'm saying his that he confirmed he knew stuff, but no WHAT he knew. Again, he's definitely not evil, but he's dishonest, and even if it's to "not hurt" Kris and Susie, the truth might've been better told sooner rather than later. The reason why I say these are hot takes is because since everyone is agreeing that "Carol is manipulating Kris" and whatnot, and that people are already drawing the ending of the game, people forgot that we are basing this on the partial image we have of Kris (a kid who liked pranks, likes their friends, is goofy/stupid, depressed, etc...). We don't know what's the other side of their person, nor the plan itself. I'm not saying Kris is evil (because I don't see how that would make sense regarding how they act towards Susie and Ralsei), but I'm saying that viewing them as the "poor kid being a victim of life left and right" might be wrong, and kill the nuance and mystery of Kris being a strange kid and character as a whole, not just a depressed teenager. Same thing with Ralsei, he definitely has more stuff to say, stuff that could/should be told, and the fact that people are already dropping characters as their definitive personnalities and motives is pretty wild to me (we are only at the Halfway Mark...there is still so much that could happen) Sorry if I sounded stupid.

You didn't sound stupid at all, Anon! I read through all of this, and I can only say this is such an accurate and interesting analysis of Kris' character, and honestly, you're completely right about the fandom dismissing their true personality and goals over what the story of the game does with them.

Rambling incoming!

Like you said, we're only on the halfway mark, and things might change in ways we never expected, but overall, I wanted to make it clear that I don't think Kris is helpless at all. We have seen how smart and cunning they are, and how despite working with Carol and the Knight, they still are doing things that benefit their own goals against their best wishes. I want to put emphasis on working with, because while Carol is obviously coercing them with a certain promise they made, they are not refusing to act following orders. (BUT again, they slash Toriel's tires, they leave the door open, they hit harder in the knight fight when their friends are down, etc etc. Clearly on their own agenda that we don't know about.)

We don't know what this ultimate goal is, but they are not clueless about how to go with it. I can only imagine the hurt and anger they must've felt when the prophecy called them a cage. What they wrote for Susie on the dinner window. What they talk about with Ralsei.

And that's the other thing! They talk with Ralsei alone and often. Ralsei most likely knows of our influence on them, and is the only one in the entire game that could possibly comfort them because he Knows. How he feels about Kris is clear. He cares about them and grew fond of them as a person, but how he feels about us is kind of a mystery. I wonder if he knows which actions and words Kris say come from them and which come from us...

And as I see it, I think Kris has always been strange. I mean, from the little tidbits we know of their past, they're the only human growing in a town fully populated by monsters, I think anyone would feel at least a bit isolated in that situation. We don't know for how long this soul control thing has been going on either (Noelle mentions "Recently," but during the first chapter, she doesn't mention Kris acting off.. Were they already being controlled before? If so, by who or what? And another thing, they already had the cage and the mysterious stain of blood in their room, AND they already knew exactly how to tear out their soul, and the fact that they can't go without it for long...) so that obviously contributes to how we perceive their personality.

They are clearly traumatized too and actively trying to forget a certain event that sent them to therapy while they were younger. They enjoy knives (or perhaps finds comfort in the protection they give?), but end up scared of swords after the soul outright attacks them after the mantle fight. In the weird route, we find Noelle, who is most likely the only positive link they have to their childhood, and manipulate her into being a murderer and doing as we wish. What I mean by this is that we are taking even the smallest things they have that give them individuality and taking them away from them.

Each chapter that releases we know a bit more about Kris and the relationships they had with both lightners and darkners alike. But I have a feeling we will never manage to truly know them, and honestly, they don't owe that to us either.

[ragde890]

HxH chapter 408 commentary and pseudo-analysis

There's a lot to say about this chapter, so let's analyze the information we've got bit by bit:

Heil-Ly and the Spider

The paralelisms between Heil-Ly and the spider are way too many not to be intentional.

Nobunaga states that Heil-Ly reminds him of the begginings of the Spider, when they were driven by rage

Both groups are made out of outcasts and people who have been rejected by society. Both the Carnival Children and the Meteor City inhabitants are "non-existant" according to official records.

Both groups are murderous, with Heil-Ly maybe being more chaotic

Both have specialists as their leaders. Both Morena and Chrollo have christian symbolism in their character designs and both isolate mentally from other human beings.

The human trafficking backstory. We'll get to that later.

This makes the incoming meet-up between the spiders and Heil-Ly more interesting. Not only that, but it also makes some improbable events possible. For example, what if Morena has the ability Chrollo is looking for? This chapter has established that Morena knows about Chrollo. What if there's a team-up between the spiders and Heil-Ly? Again, this is improbable, but it's possible given the context we're in right now.

About Contagion

This is unlikely, but the Card Game could be a new ability that Morena developed by reaching level 20 of Contagion. This would mean that Contagion can awaken abilities in people that already know nen. Again, this is very unlikely. But not completely nonsensical.

A less farfetched theory is that Contagion can keep up to 22 members because that's the time that happened between her "class" and the most recent (22 years). Therefore, the more Kakin's evil continues, the more powerful Contagion becomes.

Who killed Risnorth?

Let's start by saying that, in this chapter, we've learned just how isolated Kakin is from the rest of the world. With this in mind, if Risnorth, the one responsible for Sarasa's murder, is being talked about in the boat's news, we can ascertain that he's from Kakin. The panel with the news about Risnorth and Chrollo giving it his back seems to indicate that they were the ones to kill him. However, we don't know this. In fact, if the Spider killed him, then why was there no revenge note, unless with the Kuruta clan? Why hide themselves, if it goes against their whole shtick?

Both the Ryodan and Morena have backstories related to human trafficking, with Heil-ly being involved in the latter. Going back to the van scene where we see the kidnapped children at the back and Risnorth and the tattooed man (who could be Tserriednich's) in the front, there was also a third criminal sitting where the children are, whose face was hidden. Who could he be? A young Tserriednich, maybe, as he's the one who funds Heil-Ly? We don't know. But if he's related to this plot, damn, it's gonna get very bloody. And, anyway, it would mean that Morena and the Spider would have a common enemy — which doesn't necessarily mean they'll become allies. Who knows, maybe their backstories intertwine even more (with Sheila being related to Heil-Ly or Kakin somehow or something like that).

Tserriednich and the Carne Levare

Do the princes know about Carne Levare? Obviously Wobble, Marayam, Fugetsu and Kacho are too young to be in the know. But what about the others? What does "royals" refer to? Obviously to Nasubi, but he can't be the only one. His half-siblings? Followers? If Tserriednich knows about the Carne Levares and, thus, has participated, then why keep his "hobbies" a secret to his family? It doesn't make sense. It's not like these Carne Levares are top secret: if Borksen knows about "Carnival Children", then it must be an open secret.

As a side note, the act of separating festival orphan's in Meat and Track Fakers is similar to how Tserriednich wants to segregate people into two bins: useless trash and useful trash. When we add his nen beast, the "inside face" of which has a two slash mark reminiscent of the second class faker's, it looks like we've got a connection (specially considering that Tserriednich funds Heil-Ly).

Some people said that, going by interval and occurance of the carnivals, it might happen each time a new legal prince is born. Not much to speculate about this, but worth mentioning.

The real Morena Prudo

This chapter revealed that Morena doesn't belong to the royal family. This creates the mystery of what happened to the real Morena Prudo: why is she in Fake-Morena's grave? The fact that we don't even know Fake-Morena's real name really accentuates her dehumanization. In any case, exactly what happened to Morena Prudo (was she Fake-Morena's friend? Did Fake-Morena kill her?) might remain a mystery.

What we know is that Fake-Morena occupied Morena's placed and then murdered the Heil-Ly boss, a real Fake Tracker (who was maybe, following the pattern of the other mafia bosses, Tserriednich biological father).

Martial Law

The martial law announcement was sublime. Despite having built up to this for several chapters now, it still felt unexpected. I see Togashi wanted to convey the surprise and impact of martial law being suddenly imposed without warning, just like a random citizien from the ship would experiment it.

Martial Law actually benefits Borksen here: with a curfew, Dogman can't move around, so he can't search for specialists. This means Borksen can now stall time (unless Feitan and Phinks show up).

Also, we still don't know why was Martial Law enacted. The possibilities are:

Benjamin saw through Halkenburg's trick.

One of the mafia benefactors was murdered (unlikely).

Halkenburg took over Benjamin and declared it himself (very unlikely).

Something else entirely.

Borksen's and Morena's ideologies

Borksen's line of reasoning is very human. She knows about Kakin's depravity and crimes, but she hasn't experienced it first-hand. She can sympathise with Morena, but her main concern is her mundane life not being affected. She doesn't want no violent revolution. And, on the one hand, it's understandable: she's not out of line for refusing something so extreme, specially considering Morena's misanthropic and chaotic goals, which wouldn't solve anything. But, on the other, it's because people like Borksen exist, who are not monsters but will not do anything about them (so that they can mantain their relatively privileged quiet life), that things have become the way their are. It's the reason Kakin hasn't changed.

On the other side of the spectrum, we've got Morena's radicalized ambition, so big that it has become hypoctricial in itself. One of Morena's followers, Baconte, is a human trafficker. Does she not care about this? Have her motivations blinded her to the point that she accepts to collaborate with the kind of person that caused her to experience all that suffering if it's for revenge? Don't take me wrong: I'm not criticising her character for this. In fact, I think her whole deeply contrasting and contradictory character is very well written. I also love the way Togashi portrayed her more "human" side: her reactions to Borksen's actions, her fixation on games... It all shows the kind of person she could have been if Kakin didn't steal that from her. It makes her very easy to sympathise with.

Miscellanious Stuff

Morena never explained to Borksen the punctuation system (normal people = 1 point, princes = 50 points etc.). She might have omitted this so that Borksen doesn't suspect that Morena's real intention (maybe) is to use her to kill Tserriednich. The specialist talk was not a lie: she merely omitted some information, which is different. If she's omitted this, it's likely she's also hiding key details about her past and motivations.

Some people are confused about specialists not following normal affinity rules, although this is something we've already seen before (Pitou's abilities would make no sense if they were restricted to standard affinity rules). Basically, specialists can master any given category via training, but that doesn't mean that they have full eficiency on them: that's unique to Kurapika's emperor time.

The panel with the binary code background has multiple interpretations. It could be a reference to Matrix, with Morena considering her followers have "awakened" from the simulation that is Kakin/the world. It could also be another RPG reference meant to symbolize their detachment (like the "grinding area"), or just refering to how "binary" their reasoning is ("either you're with us, or you're against us").

[zer0-devoox]

My opinion of the ending of Murder Drones (which no one asked for but screw you)

Ugh... Okay, I've been putting off this post for a while, but here it is. I've heard many mixed opinions, "that it was a rushed ending" "that it was the best ending of the animation" and blah blah, well, this is my opinion.

It was... An ending.

X: Lmao, of course it was an ending girl, explain yourself

What I want to say is that we need to put ourselves in context a little, look people. Reality is what it is, Murder drones it was. A. Experiment. Those at Glich told Liam that they will develop the story in eight chapters to see how the project fares, and in the first chapters it looked as if they had a second season planned, only then the amazing digital circus arrived and even though it hurts...

AND NOT! I don't want to say that it's THADC's fault, much less @gooseworx I'm a follower of that series, I love the concept and I wish both series could have forty seasons as far as I'm concerned, but unfortunately, we're not Netflix, we're not Disney ( Thank God)

There were good parts and bad parts, scenes that I loved like N and Uzi formalizing their relationship in some strange way (although I wanted a kiss) and also really scary scenes, like Cyn giving Tessa's voice, and without going any further I am traumatized with a incoming call.

---Were there things to improve/that I didn't like?

Of course yes, for example the climax, yes, yes, I see people saying that Cyn was nerfed but that we are going to make the difficulty of creating such powerful characters, I guess.

One thing that bothered me was the treatment of other characters other than N or Uzi, for example Khan, Nori, or any other sequence, the one that annoys me the most, Lizzy, who is not a character I like, in fact I hate her, but at the very least he could have received SOME consequence for his actions, someone will come out and say that he had his development in the dance chapter, but I don't see it that way, I don't know, say you.

O thad who is top best characters and I love him

--DON'T MAKE ME TALK ABOUT J PLIS---

And what hurts me the most... V

What? Did you think I wasn't even going to talk about her? Well you're wrong!

I feel like the series struggled a lot to develop N and Uzi individually while also developing their relationship, but speaking of V... His development fell short.

I don't want to go on for too long (if you want a deeper analysis of the character, tell me and I'll do it) V had a very serious change from his personality in the mansion to the beginning of everything that happened in Cooper 9, becoming someone more sadistic and aggressive Since murder was her "job" in chapter eight we found out that she knew that Tessa was Cyn, but she was under changate (practically she and N each had a rifle in their heads, for God's sake)

The first time I saw the scene where V tearfully confesses everything to N, it broke me, I admit. But in retrospect, I feel like it wasn't enough. It was good to show the sensitive side of V that we were seeing through the impenetrable diva mask, but she herself tells Cyn that she "still can" which doesn't convince me.

I loved chapter six, it's simply one of my favorites, because with all the reasons to leave Uzi where Alice had them, he chose to save her.

Damn!

He defended her to tooth and nail, he seemed like a beast with -Tessa- and with N, he literally didn't want anyone to touch Uzi because she was hurt, without going any further

his damn last words were for her!

I loved that scene because literally and symbolically V took a step forward to break the block of ice that the two of they had placed in front of each other since chapter two, this is when V first calls her by her name, not cyn, not purple thing, not parasite... Uzi, just that.

And it bothers me that this was completely ignored in chapter eight (I mean, not completely but it was not given the value it deserved) From the bottom of my heart I would have wanted V to apologize to Uzi for everything he had done, for Uzi to somehow thank her and also apologize (because Uzi also almost killed her)

I know that neither of the two characters are the most emotional thing in the world, but I only ask for three dialogues, not a kiss and an emotional thirty-minute speech (which wouldn't have been bad either)

And spoken of the devil... The time

raised the hand who imagined that chapter eight would last (minimum) an hour. Because im yes, I feel that the ending was rushed, don't get me wrong, the final fight was beautiful, with framing shots and very very epic with the background theme. But, I don't know. I think that another ten minutes just to complete the developments, explain the unresolved doubts and give seriousness to some things was worth it (*cough, cough* Doll)

Anyway, this post already seems like a Twitter statement...

I love murder drones.

there isn't a joke that doesn't make me laugh or an emotional scene that doesn't make me cry, I wish with all my might for a second season of this series so much. potential, but it is what it is.

Anyway, I have a little faith in a spin-off or a continuation in some way because of the fucking open ending, nothing and no one is going to stop me from continuing to love these schizophrenic robots, or from continuing to ship my weird ships, far from it. to play eternal dreams at the faculty parties.

Leave your opinions in the comments or reblogs, I'll be reading them! And if you want V's analysis, say so! maybe we could reach 200 notes?? Who knows? Bey-bey devils don't get lost.

[solardriftx]

more batshit trailer analysis incoming—WHAT IS THIS FLASH FRAME. my theory is that the green tie is likely meant to draw a connection between this figure and damon (letters addressed to him and photos of him are other flash frames in this segment, indicating that all these relate to him), except this isn’t damon. going by the lady in the white dress on the right and the bouquet of flowers (?) to the left i’d actually guess that this is a wedding photo of his parents. perhaps this is a clue he finds around the school, or something given to him as part of a motive. this also adds a whole new layer to the chapter title—*veil* of hypocrisy? wedding veil??? maybe this chapter will shed light on damon’s upbringing and confront the hypocrisy of his outlook, an outlook likely influenced by his parents. are his parents connected to the utp?? who knows. do i sound crazy? uh, probably!

[singingcicadas]

Every time I see something along the lines of "Megatron was a slave because he was oppressed and forced to work in the mines, forced labour is slavery and oppression is slavery so what happened to Megatron was obviously slavery" a question mark pops up in my head and it's so fucking funny because. Social studies. History. Basic literary analysis skills.

Like I'm gonna be assuming whoever's in the 'Megatron was a slave' camp is talking about idw1 and tfp b/c those are the only two continuities that have Megatron coming from an oppressed background in depth. If it's idw1 then how could anyone miss the obvious communism reference in Megatron Origin? (Guaranteed it's a loose, twisted, villifying, Western-lensed, not-very-good reference, but point is that it's OBVIOUS and unmistakably RECOGNIZABLE.) Workers' revolt ring a bell? It's the first issue in the collection volumes so even if people run out of patience without finishing anything they should have been able to at least get through that before, y'know, making unfounded claims about canon. And the stuff I'm talking about should've been evident in the first chapter. Were the miners upset because they were forced to work in the mines? No, they were upset because the government was closing the mines and laying them off and replacing them with automation; they were upset because soon there would be no mines left for them to work and then they would starve.

'Slavery is forced labour' yeah but uh that's only one facet of it. Forced labour because of livelihood: 'I have to work here b/c it's the only job that's available to me and I have no means of obtaining the skills/licence/opportunity for a different job or bettering my circumstances, if I quit I'll have no income/food/shelter and starve out on the streets' is fundamentally different from forced labour due to state institution of ownership over people: 'I have to work here because I am the private property of the facility owner and am forbidden by law to leave or quit.'

Does anyone like, not see the difference between the two scenarios? Only the latter would be slavery since it has the defining characteristics of 1. legalization of the ownership of people and 2. restriction of liberty. In concurrence. The first scenario's just describing what every fucking exploited worker/peasant/wage-earning lowclass commoner in the world looks like, it's called proletarianism. It's a completely different class category in a completely different social structure that's in no way interchangeable or confusable with slavery unless you want to say that communist revolutions were done by slaves and every wage worker in the industrial revolution was a slave. why not go back further while at it and serfdom can be slavery feudalism is slavery indentureship corvee conscription are all slavery lmao way to rewrite history.

For the people who's only read MTMTE and nothing else there's even a specific scene in there that says this 🔽

This is talking about Rewind. The text literally gives us what used to be the equivalent in Cybertronian society and it's clearly not Megatron's class. And why was Rewind's class equated to slaves? Because they were considered disposable tools, not sentient people. The Ambus Test helped them get rights by proving their sentience as people, which further proves that they don't keep sentient people as slaves.

If it's TFP then did anyone notice that Megatron started as a miner but met Optimus as a gladiator? If he was so absolutely forced to work in the mines as a slave then how was he allowed to leave?

This is how Covenant of Primus describes Megatron going to work in the mines. It's "the only opening available to him". It doesn't say that he's assigned a master at birth and was legally obligated to go work in that opening on pain of punishment. Just implies that he'd be out of a job and income and would probably starve if he didn't. There's still an illusion of choice, of free will.

The closest thing Aligned had to slavery was the Quintession occupation era but the Covenant also spent a whole section talking about how it started out as a mutually beneficial relationship with the Quintessions presenting themselves as the more advanced race and Cybertronians eagerly accepting them as 'masters' (honourific term, not literal) in a pseudo colonizer-who-civilized-the-indigenous-barbarians-and-used-them-for-cheap-labour dynamic which got more and more exploitational as time went on until the Cybertronians had enough and drove them off. But even during the peak of occupation the Quintessions were still careful to give Cybertron the pretense of sovereignty. It was the Quintessions who introduced them to the electoral system and inaugurated the office of the Prime in the first place. The illusion of free will and equality was always there, despite everyone knowing otherwise.

Exodus is extremely clear in describing Cybertron as a birth-defined caste system with rigid hierarchy and little mobility. So that's exactly what it is. a caste system. Not a slave society. There's a reason they're different words, they're different concepts! I don't get why people would feel the need to replace one with the other, does slavery sound better? edgier? Is the purpose for making Megatron an ex-slave to have his backstory sound more tragic? to induce more sympathy? idc people are free to headcanon what they want but at least have the decency to refrain from framing it as canon and bashing other characters with it? Stuff like 'oh Optimus was so selfish/naive/entitled/stupid/insensitive/traitorous/opportunist/privileged to accept the prime title in front of Megatron the poor ex-slave' nevermind that Megatron had repeatedly expressed a desire for taking power through whatever cruel means necessary and was perfectly eager to become prime when he thought he was the one going to be chosen? Nevermind that the council offered up a chance for implementing all the social changes they wanted through legal means with the least amount of bloodshed and Megatron threw it all away b/c he didn't get to be in charge, by committing murder on the spot? Nevermind that 'Megatron the poor ex-slave' is a massive bigoted racist who looks down on Optimus' job and is disgusted by minicons and combiners and insecticons as well as being a devout believer of 'survival of the fittest and the rest don't deserve to live' -type social darwinism and a domestic terrorist happy to blow up factories full of his own caste members and places full of innocent people? Nevermind that Megatron and Optimus already had a deep rift between them because of Megatron betraying Optimus' trust by lying about his role in the bombings and Optimus already recognizing that their methods were never going to match up b/c of Megatron's disregard of innocent life and Megatron never really trusting Optimus anyway? As if making Megatron a slave somehow excuses all of that and pins all the blame on Optimus.

[p5x-theories]

Oracle in P5X

(last updated 7/4/25!)

Futaba Sakura is primarily present as a Phantom Idol, or cognitive teammate. She has not yet made any appearance in the main story, outside of her lines during the Sae Palace escape intro cutscene.

In the P5 Collab's Pyramid chapter, Oracle is first seen calling for help, fleeing from a shadow. At first, she mostly hides from Wonder's team, but after seeing they're also Persona users, she helps them out as they fight the shadow that was chasing her. While still uncertain about the group, she latches onto Wind (both as a fellow navigator and because she looks like a responsible bishoujo). Once they find Queen and Fox outside the entrance to the pyramid, she opens up a bit, though she still tends to stick closer to Wind.

They later reunite with Skull and Panther, but Oracle begins to complain their group is too big now. However, she later musters the courage to admit this location is based on her own Palace, despite Queen, Fox, Panther, and Skull trying to avoid telling the other group about that. She credits the Phantom Thieves for helping her, and says she's doing much better now. She and Wind also further bond over having repressed themselves (in Oracle's case, blaming herself for Wakaba's murder), and how their friends helped snap them out of this mindset.

Oracle is also the one to bring up the three poisons, from Buddhism, in relation to the animals in murals they see throughout the pyramid.

Later, facing Moha, she's angry to have to face the sphinx again, though she doesn't struggle to do so. Oracle notably manages to hack in a ballista to use against Moha, much like in the original sphinx fight. Alongside the others, Oracle is abducted up to the space station shortly after the sphinx's defeat.

Futaba can also be found in Leblanc in the real world, which Wonder is for some reason capable of crossing worlds to visit. She won’t appear until Wonder has met her in the Pyramid Chapter, but while she's nervous to meet him, she mentions she's been wanting to "forever" (presumably since first hearing her friends talk about him).

Oracle's Persona Necronomicon functions as a navigator. As seen in her previous appearances, Oracle sits within Necronomicon while navigating.

Necronomicon is an Elucidator Persona, the designation used for navigators, and her trait gives her "Analysis Progress" whenever a Persona skill is used by a teammate, gaining additional Analysis Progress whenever a weakness is hit. When "Hacking Complete" occurs, it buffs all teammates' damage for two rounds.

Her first support skill reduces the defense of all enemies for two rounds based on Oracle's own attack stat (defense is additionally reduced for incoming attacks that the enemy is weak to) and grants the team Hacking Complete if Analysis Progress is at 100% when the skill is used. Her second support skill increases the damage taken by one enemy for two rounds based on Oracle's attack stat, and while this lasts, the amount of Analysis Progress gained is increased; this skill also grants the team Hacking Complete if Analysis Progress is at 100% when it's used. Her third support skill requires Hacking Complete to be active to use, and lasts one round, buffing the attack of one teammate based on Oracle's attack stat, as well as inflicting all enemies with "Disruption Virus", which makes them one stage more vulnerable to that teammate's type (null/absorb/reflect becomes resist, resist becomes normal, and normal becomes weak); If their vulnerability becomes weak, they take 25% more damage from that weakness.

Her passive skills buff all teammates' stats based on Oracle's stats, allow her to start every battle at 100% Analysis Progress, and make it so that Hacking Complete also grants all teammates a shield based on Oracle's attack stat for three rounds.

While she doesn’t strictly have a melee or ranged weapon as a navigator, P5X does have tools that the navigators use for their abilities, also obtained through the weapon gacha, and hers are laptops.

Her recommended card sets are 1) 3 of Coins (Works) + King of Coins (Determination), 2) 4 of Coins (Power) + Page of Coins (Growth).

The game has no particular recommended teams for her at the moment.

[reco-obsessed]

do u have any super awesome reko hcs ?? id like to hear yr thoughts :3

*cracks knuckles*

most of my ideas on her are based on canon, so ive never considered them outlandish enough to call headcanons, but i guess technically pretty much all of my rants about her could be sorted as such, since they try to build on what we already know and extrapolate an analysis. i have too many to list. ill try to compile some here, though. longer ones are under the cut.

i moreso stole this headcanon then made it but i agree that reko cant cook for shit. she lives off takeout and stuff she burnt in the microwave, much to her protective older brother's dismay.

i believe reko was putting on her makeup and styling her hair every morning in chapter 2. again, i stole this one.

i think reko would be really good at video games

reko would be very good at ice skating

despite being good at drawing her eyeliner, i dont think she can draw very well on paper.

reko paints her nails sometimes (she likes the smell) but its always chipped somehow, even if she just painted them.

she doesnt have an extensive (if any) skin care routine (thats more her brothers thing) but she does have a hair care routine after almost frying off all her hair several times trying to bleach it herself. she only dyes her bangs now but she still takes good care of her hair (especially with the way she has to style it everyday).

reko is either out of the bathroom in 2 seconds or she takes an hour because she gets distracted and starts messing with her hair or makeup. it used to drive alice crazy when they both lived with their parents. not now alice, you can go shit in the bushes, reko is using her eyeliner as face paint.

reko tries not to do this when shes working on new songs, but shes the type of person who almost always listening to some kind of music. she loves finding new music and new subgenres.

shes not really a messy person but shes not very neat, either. she usually has trash slowly building up somewhere. nothing 15 minutes of panic cleaning cant fix, but its there.

i think reko made / makes a lot of her own punk clothes and accessories, and generally has frugal habits around her style. it started when she was a teen because her rebelliousness and delinquency led to her being perpetually grounded, so no allowance. shes awful at customer service so she couldnt really get an entry level job. her music wasnt really marketable and she probably didnt have her own band in her younger teens ( i think samurai yaiba was probably only started when she was about to or already graduated high school) so there wasnt much if any income from there. she may have done some odd jobs but they didnt pay much and she was intimidating to people, so it was hard to get gigs. all this led to her getting good at sewing, dying, bleaching and otherwise making her own clothes. probably owns a bunch of pins, studs, and zippers in bulk just to sew onto stuff. i think the same thing applies to her make up- she uses fancier water / sweat proof on stage, but off stage? dollar store eyeliner and foundation. she doesnt care about the risks, she goes through her make up too fast to bother with the fancy stuff.

reko has an impressive memory generally, but when she struggles with it, she makes little songs or rhymes to help her remember (she did this to sometimes help her speed memorize for tests in school. then, she had to whisper-sing it under her breath and swing her foot to the beat and itd be all you could hear in the test room, and shed either get in trouble or just be really embarrassed).

speaking of school, i dont think reko went to college or post secondary school; in ytts theres a whole thing about her hating school. but aside from that, the timing would be really tight. shes canonically 23, samurai yaiba was 2 1/2 years ago, so she wouldve been 20-21, and you graduate high school at 18. i cant say i know a lot about japanese college, but if it has the same status of degrees as in the US, it wouldnt really make sense for her to have gone to college- she was likely a drop out or never went in the first place.

i think reko has some burner account(s) where she dumps experimental music. its not always avant garde, but she likes playing with different genres. the problem is they keep escaping containment, even though shes embarrassed by them and thinks theyre all shit. no one can know about her breakcore album with 6 million views that she made while she was drunk and garage band crashed halfway through so theres weird chunks missing and distorted audio. no one. no one can know about the ska music made. god, not the ska.

reko has theater kid energy to me (both the yabusames do), but i doubt she was ever in any productions. her band/orchestra vibes are stronger and thats probably what she wouldve devoted all her time to instead. maybe, like, one musical, but she mightve not gotten the role she wanted and immediately quit. if she was, she drove everyone up a wall cause she was so hard to work with. shes a natural but she never shows up to any practices and is so easy to piss off, especially during the acting portions. skipping practice isnt a big deal to her because she can memorize things quickly, but it screws all the other actors up. she just isnt a team player (or rather, reko really wasnt a team player in highschool).

reko is a caffeine addict. she has overworking tendencies and i (used to) headcanon her as someone who abstains from alcohol / drugs / etc, so she resorts to coffee instead.

speaking of- i used to strongly believe reko wouldnt be the type to smoke or drink, specifically because i misinterpreted a line she said about her father ('hes not the best at staying true to his convictions, and gives into temptation') as being about addiction, when it was probably just supposed to be about her dad giving into the temptation of trying to make reko famous. looking back on it, thats closer to canon, and with the stress of being in the spotlight at such an early age and her self described 'delinquent phase' it makes a lot of sense to headcanon her as being a smoker or using other stimulants. i still think that you could possibly interpret her dad as having started doing those things at some point once they had surplus money from rekos early career, and i like the details that adds to her character; her trying to rebel from the industry not just out of a growing hate for it from being forced to do it, but also a wake up call for her father and hoping maybe hell stop if she refuses to be an idol anymore. her partially being so high strung later on because she never lets herself off the hook or resorts to substances that could calm her down.

i strongly believe reko has no idea how to actually be friends with people. like, yeah, when you talk to her during discussions she holds conversation pretty well and its not as if people dont want to be her friend or even that shes bad at it- its just that she has no experience. she doesnt know what shes doing. during pretty much the entirety of her developmental years, she was either getting forced into music stuff she didnt wanna do by her father or doing the music stuff she did wanna do. probably the only people she hung out with, if at all, were people she could hop the fence with to skip, and they werent really friends. alice even states himself that she had a habit of pushing people away and was alone.

in the same vein, alice may have dated more people than his far more charismatic sister. i refuse to drop this headcanon because its funny as hell. alice comes off strong, which you think would be a deterrent, but a lot of people are into that. its not as if reko doesnt, herself, but.... she has to deal with sheeping and girls thinking theyre just friends on top of that. moreover, i dont see reko as a flirty person- a lot of side content involves her getting flustered in some way. reko has an awkward flustered streak and it doesnt come out often but when it does it comes out strong, and its easy to find if you know where to look, so to speak. i mean, did you see the way she talked to nao on the 2f landing?

okay, i could keep going, but i ill spare you and stop here. thanks for letting me yap. or, rather, thanks for being my victim. if youve got stockholm syndrome, feel free to ask me for a part 2.