#context for this dialog is basically

[ganondoodle]

recent panel i liked for chapter 2s rough draft (page 22), one of the more chaotic sketches

(comic wip)

[tomeoflies]

((Was checking out the leaks sub and someone posted some pics from the 4.6 event and

It's legit been like 10,000 years since Heizou was in something thank u HoYo.))

[randomthefox]

And we leave Dante and Vergil basically how we originally found them. Fighting. As Lady originally described "It seems as if they drive some twisted pleasure from this brotherly fighting." For them, fighting is their love language. And they have a lot of catching up to do. After Nero knocked some sense into them, any feelings of true animosity and desire to kill one another is pretty much completely gone. All of a sudden they're back to being kids banging wooden swords together. Hard to blame them for taking so long just indulging in a bit of good old fashioned brotherly love for weeks at a time instead of rushing to go back home.

DMC5 added Vergil as a playable character and extended the ending of the game with some extra scenes with him and Dante in the Underworld which I included into this. First we have another scene showing that Vergil is completely emotionally stunted and incapable of confronting the fact that he has a son and all the crazy mixed up emotions that brings in its wake. Which is cute. Gotta grade the guy on a curve, I'm sure he'll grow into those daddy shoes eventually.

I honestly really like the way the game leaves them off. Reminiscing about their childhoods so casually like that. It was such a painful thing for the both of them, remembering the past. Remember how in DMC3 when they first fought, Vergil only cared about their parentage in the context of using the blood of Sparda to get more power while Dante denied he even had a father. Now they can call back to childhood memories of their parents scolding them like it's nothing. They've definitely grown quite a lot and gotten over a lot of the pain and anguish they used to carry.

I find the dialog they end the scene with to be very poignant and sweet. Dante muses about what their parents would think of them now, as crusty adults. But Vergil just says in a seemingly callous way that it doesn't matter. What does matter is that they're alive, and they're together as brothers for the first time in as long as either of them can remember. And Dante agrees.

It's very sweet. These two deserve their happy ending. The culmination of a relationship that chronologically started with a duel to the death in the rain ontop of the tower to the underworld. All of that baggage and drama and hatred and anguish has been swept away. They're together again. And always will be from now on.

[fuanteinasekai]

Oh, hey. Maybe this is a good time to post the thing I've been trying to write for… more than a year. It keeps getting too long because I'm basically covering the entire manga, so instead I'm just going to hit the biggest points and let you fill in the gaps yourself.

In Volume 1, Natsume meets Tanuma for the first time. Much of the story revolves around Natsume's inability to tell what is ordinary and what is yokai, a problem he refers to twice as his "unstable world." This weakness is a major running theme, and he shares it with all other powerful characters. It is likely one of the main reasons they choose to live in isolation or in the exorcist/magical world. Focusing on this in the story about meeting Tanuma may have originally been meant to highlight his fear that Tanuma wasn't real, but it's the perfect foundation for his long-term arc.

In the author's note for Taki's storehouse arc (Volume 11), Midorikawa-sensei says this:

自分はおかしいのかもしれないと思っていた田沼にとって、不安定だった世界を肯定してくれる夏目の存在は大きな救いになったのに、自分はたいして夏目の力になれないというのはもう田沼が友人として抱えていかなければならないジレンマかなという気がします。 "For Tanuma who thought there might be something wrong with him, the presence of Natsume who affirmed his world that was unstable is a great relief, but Tanuma can’t really support Natsume himself. This is a dilemma I have a feeling he must be facing by now as a friend."

This "world that was unstable" is a clear reference to Natsume's "unstable world," but cannot actually be the same so it must be a parallel. The simplest possible interpretation is that the ideal solution to Tanuma's "dilemma" would be "affirming" Natsume's "world that was unstable." That is, the ideal conclusion to Tanuma's "dilemma" arc would be to somehow help Natsume navigate the boundaries between the yokai and ordinary world. In this same story, Tanuma is able to sense the location of the demon's leg before Natsume can see it.

In Volume 12's Omibashira arc, Tanuma spends most of the story sensing yokai-related things: Sensei not being Natsume, the bottle, the presence of the monkey oni, the separation of the yokai world itself, and Omibashira. Each of these is accompanied by the same "zawa" sound effect that accompanies Natsume encountering strong yokai energy. Tanuma gets hurt because he doesn't trust his senses, and tries to confirm Omibashira visually.

In Volume 16, Tanuma reveals he always knew Ito-san was not what she claimed to be, and that he had come to believe she was "an ayakashi or something like that" once he learned they were real. The same story reveals that Natsume's presence has stabilized Tanuma and allowed him to grow stronger physically and have fewer headaches and illness. In other words, Natsume's power offsets the negative effects of Tanuma's power.

In Volume 22, Tanuma has a vision while Natsume sleeps peacefully, adding another dimension to his sensitivity. Later he tells Natsume the staircase yokai is not the one he dreamed of because its face was different and it didn't feel "malevolent." As is often the case, Tanuma was dismissive of his vision (ability) until Natsume validated him.

Later in the same volume, we finally get the origin story for the Book of Friends. This implies a major turning point in the manga as a whole.

Tenjou-san, in Volume 23, is the story of the four boys and Homura-sempai's investigation of the eponymous possibly-cursed painting. At one point, Tanuma says this:

夏目の世界はあいまいなものがいっぱいなんだな　おれは…やっぱり時々夏目と同じ世界を見てみたいなと思うけど　見えるものが違うからこそ確認しあえることもあるのかもしれないなって "Your world is full of uncertain things, huh? I… still feel like I want to see the same world as you, sometimes. But I also think sometimes it's because we see differently that we can confirm things with each other."

The context for this is not the painting, but rather Natsume's fear that Homura-sempai could be a yokai—Natsume's "unstable world." Natsume brings this up again at the end, but Tanuma's role remains unresolved. That's because this dialog was never meant to set up the end of Tenjou-san—it's meant to set up the end of his entire arc. Tanuma couldn't help yet because he doesn't accept that he can "judge the authenticity" of magical objects until By Invitation of the Queen in Volume 29. Realizing he can also sense who is human and who is yokai is yet to come. If he can tell the difference, that means his power offsets the negative effects of Natsume's power.

In Intermission Detectives, Volume 24, only Tanuma is able to ignore the unimportant and notice the significant yet tiny details. Nishimura and Kitamoto are preoccupied with the leading lady and what her beauty implies, while Natsume is too distracted by the possibility of a yokai in disguise to think about anything else, arguably too distracted to enjoy the movie. That means every Tanuma story between Tell Me Your Name and Village of the Sleeping Vessels has had a yokai in disguise—or the possibility of one—as a major plot point.

Village of the Sleeping Vessels introduces Tanuma's "light," an ability he has had few opportunities to use. The same story introduces Ban, a character who can somehow judge the authenticity of magical objects. Ban's name literally means "companion."

This is the beginning of the "female collector" storyline, which also has undertones of "growing up." Hence the combination of Reiko (Natsume's foil must grow up before him), Natsume's interest in magic (to be independent of his mentors/protectors), and Sensei's vulnerability as well as his frequent long excursions (to motivate Natsume's independence or reliability). Tanuma is central because he is meant to be Natsume's life-long partner, without whom Natsume cannot have the life he wants.

In an author's note, Midorikawa-sensei describes Tanuma as "surely able to support Natsume, but unable to come." This is a marked shift from the critical tone of most previous Tanuma notes, a shift which is maintained throughout the "female collector" stories. This is also the same "support" from Tanuma's "dilemma."

Like Intermission Detectives, By Invitation of the Queen (Volume 29) juxtaposes Tanuma's high perceptiveness with Natsume's confusion and fear of yokai in disguise. The same story is Natsume's first physical meeting with the "female collector" Shinobu. It is not a coincidence that she meets him at Tanuma's side, or that Tanuma is the "hero" of the story. His strengths will be relevant to the rest of Shinobu's storyline. Natsume is the one who realizes Tanuma has the power to sense what is real or not, and Tanuma himself is initially skeptical. However, his description of the "occult" fakes as "clean or pure" and Ban's dolls "oozing something sinister" suggests that he is sensing spiritual energy. It is also similar to how he described the yokai in the Volume 22.

Portrait of a Girl implies that Tanuma's power is significant through Matoba and Ban. Matoba's curiosity and the constant threat of meeting Tanuma builds tension, and Ban's shock at Tanuma's ability to see the light in the mirror suggests that they share the same rare ability. The ceiling yokai is able to hide from Ban by hiding from the mirror, implying Ban also shares Tanuma's weak sight. At another point, Natsume overhears an exorcist talking about his ability to use "good tools" even with fading (weak) sight. This isn't about Natsume or the regular exorcists, so it must be about Ban and his dolls, Tanuma, or both.

いつも友人の側に行きたい気持ちを抑えて蚊帳の外で待たなければならない田沼がすでに内側にいる状況 [や、一族の中で生きてきた的場さんの身内の事情や術具についてなど、] 描くことができて嬉しかったです。田沼は実際は出来ることは多いのに本人出来ることなんか大して無いと思ってしまうタイプかもしれないと感じました。 "I was happy drawing things like Tanuma, who has always had to wait outside the mosquito net, repressing the desire to go to his friend's side, but is suddenly on the inside […] I have a feeling Tanuma might be the type who thinks there's not much he can do when in reality he can do many things." (Volume 31) [n.b. the "mosquito net" idiom was used in Nitai-sama when Tanuma described being allowed to help "instead of being outside the mosquito net"]

Matoba is almost suicidally obsessed with "tools," his sister (perhaps spitefully) collects them, and Ban is a scout for magical things, so it makes sense during this storyline to focus on Tanuma's own ability to scout. However, there's little to no set-up for this ability in the manga. Even Tenjou-san, which was the perfect opportunity to hint at his ability with the painting, hinted at identifying yokai instead. The coexistence of the "pure" painting with the "pure" humans is not coincidental, but a retroactive hint to future readers that the ability to recognize what is "real" is the same whether the the "real" applies to an object or person.

So while Tanuma's ability to scout "powerful" tools may be important in the short term, it's a mere step toward his true power. The ultimate goal is to reveal that Tanuma's sensitivity to spiritual energy extends to yokai as well, and that he can tell Natsume what is yokai and what is not and even, it seems, what is malevolent and what is not. Through this, he would become irreplaceable, the only person Natsume can trust to give him peace, to affirm his unstable world, and to allow him to be as indifferent to random yokai as Shinobu.

The only thing that works against this is the inconsistency with which Tanuma appears to notice yokai. But this has been addressed through his "ability to judge authenticity." When Natsume first points out that Tanuma knew the box wasn't real, Tanuma initially dismisses his feelings as a "hunch," before going on to talk about how he never had a chance to be exposed to fakes before. He then admits that the "occult" collection felt "clean or pure," but he only noticed because he had Ban's dolls as comparison just before.

Natsume himself describes Tanuma to Natori as "cautious" and "deep thinking." In other words, he is the opposite of impulsive, only acting when he has gathered enough evidence to make a case. Tanuma would have felt things many times without reacting until he had more to go on. Fun fact: when Natsume first brings up Tanuma's power, he actually starts by talking about how he was "spinning in circles" "confusing [human matters] for ayakashi matters" unlike Tanuma who "sees people clearly." Midorikawa-sensei is a troll.

Tenjou-san (yes, again) addresses this gap from a different angle. When Natsume considers telling Nishimura and Kitamoto the truth, Tanuma suggests Natsume still needs the "space to be treated normally" "unlike me, who always worries and asks if there's something there." In other words, Tanuma feels bad about talking about yokai unnecessarily, which means he's not going to mention a feeling he doesn't think is important. This likely goes back to Volume 5, when Natsume admitted to lying about yokai and wanting to keep things "normal" between them. (The original Japanese is an incomplete sentence, but this is what he seemed to be getting at.) This is why, for example, Tanuma says he "didn't want to bother" Natsume when he wasn't sure he was possessed in Volume 8. He's not just unsure of himself—he's actively avoiding potential validation to give Natsume space. This is also probably why he gets more… excitable recently—the more Natsume talks about yokai, the less Tanuma feels the need to hide his interest.

All of this only addresses Tanuma's power and how it solves his dilemma. It is heavily implied that Tanuma's dilemma is at the heart of his sense of inadequacy and, in turn, his "characteristic sense of distance" from Natsume. This suggests that the reveal of the true extent of his power could lead to him being more open and finally closing that gap. But I'm not quite sure of this. Despite Tanuma's feeling of a "wall" between him and Natsume and being "unable to keep up," they're much closer than they used to be. This could mean that it's their closeness that will lead to revealing his power, thereby centering Natsume's emotional development rather than Tanuma's insecurity. And that matters because their emotional bond is at least as important as what their powers mean to each other.

While the hints at Tanuma's power have been comparatively subtle, his emotional support has not. Throughout the manga, Tanuma has helped guide Natsume through his anxiety and emotional trauma. He listens to him talk about his grandmother being an unwed mother with powers like him, confronts him over hiding his true needs, and sees through his lies or silence when others can't. In Volume 13, Tanuma's role in Kitamoto's story implies that he grounds Natsume and allows him to accept attachments to the town and the Fujiwaras. In the Volume 26 notes, Midorikawa even says that Natsume is able to deal with "sorting out his feelings" by spending time with Tanuma without even talking. This emotional connection is particularly evident with the Fujiwaras, whom Tanuma is invested in because of their importance to Natsume. In Volume 20, for example, his conversation with Natsume about the Fujiwaras is clearly framed as something between the two of them, that Taki can only observe.

This Fujiwara theme makes its appearance in Portrait of a Girl when Tanuma gets invested in Morio's relationship with his adoptive parents. These characters are an obvious mirror for Natsume and the Fujiiwaras. At the end of the story, it is also Tanuma who resolves Natsume's feelings of anxiety about why Morio sold off all of his parents' belongings. I had previously thought of Tanuma's emotional support as a kind of parallel to his power, but the mingling of the above with Tanuma's increasing involvement with the exorcist/magic world changed my mind.

Tanuma's emotional support relies on his empathy, understanding of people, and ability to see what others don't. It's not one single thing. When Natsume talks about Tanuma's ability to "see people" he also brings up his "night vision" which is a completely separate ability from all of the above. There is overlap in the abilities he uses to help Natsume with the ordinary world (e.g. Fujiwaras) and the abilities he uses to understand what is yokai and what is ordinary. This is why By Invitation of the Queen is simultaneously about Tanuma's ability to see through people and his ability to sense the "purity" of the box. Tanuma's extraordinary perceptiveness is an entire collection of talents, all of which he can use to see what Natsume can't, to give Natsume inner peace, to allow him to live in the moment instead of constantly looking over his shoulder. But only if he's there—just as Natsume can only offset Tanuma's sensitivity if he's present.

If Natsume is allowed to support Tanuma in the same (or similar) ways, and if Tanuma realizes how powerful he truly is and Natsume allows him to help, then their relationship will be truly balanced. They will be able to support each other in all ways, in all worlds, without worrying about being too much or too little.

This is what makes Tanuma the Sasame to Natsume's Misuzu—without whom Natsume cannot be "fulfilled" even when "surrounded by liveliness." It's what makes him the light in the dark forest, Natsume's guide through the fog that all with sight suffer. Tanuma may need Natsume to live, but Natsume needs Tanuma to live.

[i-dropped-my-cake]

Comparing the medievalification of Czech and English language in KCD/KCD2 is so interesting.

For those who are unaware, yes, the games were made by a Czech studio, yes, the lead writers are Czech, yes, the source code is Czech. The items, quests, dialog lines etc. carry Czech words as part of their identification. But the primary language we're meant to consume it in is English: Czech is more of an afterthought, a language for the (Czech) devs to properly place their easter eggs in.

In both languages, the font for in-game writing is inspired by Rotunda, corresponding more to what scribes would use in the south of Europe, rather than in our part of the Holy Roman Empire. Because the blackletter which would have actually been used is fucking hard to read (literally the one good thing the N*zis did was to ban Fraktur, may it rot in hell).

We can no longer understand the language of 1403 very well. Medieval Czech would most likely sound to us like we are having a stroke. Jan Hus is the reaszon we don't wrzite like thys btw, as he was the guy to suggest writing acčentš above letteřs, replacing the di- and multigraphs that survived in Polish.

Canterbury Tales are from about the same period in English, and 1403 is smack in the beginning of the Big Vowel Shift. So again. It would sound like you're having a stroke. Or like a couple of Danes are making fun of you.

Which is why both languages are simply using their modern form with some anachronisms to "sell the bit."

Most of the time, it's enough to just have the characters talk about their daily stuff - after all, a modern person rarely talks about swordfights, brailes, or working the field. In Czech (more in KCD1 than in KCD2, weirdly enough) they pepper in slight Germanization. Most of us don't speak German, but there are some basic words that survive into the present vernacular, and while most don't use them daily, it's expected that you understand them. If you let the characters speak "common Czech" and not a super prescriptive version of the language from books, the illusion is complete without being overly intrusive.

The English language doesn't have the same luxury: it's too goddamn cosmopolitan. A stand-in for the old language has to be a collection of accents from the British Isles. Maybe Canada and New Zealand. But not Australia. This time, the common set of old-timey vocabulary definitely cannot be German (too much drift), or just plain ol' English-English (boring) or French (which would be popular among the upper, but not lower classes). What remains is using archaic words for normal stuff. The list of eligible words is surprisingly short. The language suffers from success, having too vast a vocabulary - an archaic word for an American would sound pants in a medieval context for a Londoner, or vice versa (I was told a long time ago that AE conserves the older forms a bit more than BE, but that could have been a ploy to make me more accepting of American grammar). Which is why you, bizarrely enough, get wenches instead of girls and handgonnes instead of pistols.

[pruneunfair]

Ari: a realistic overview of a mistress and manipulation.

I've talked a lot about how annoying the TOAWF is but now I'll go more into the actual story.

I have noticed the plot slowly getting to a slightly faster pace along with the dialog improving but the one thing I currently like about besides the realistic aspects of moving on from a toxic relationship is the mistress you'd normally expect to hate: Ari.

Ari is a 25 year old co worker who unknowingly became Mincheols mistress under the assumption that he was single. She is often portrayed as incredibly naive and even a tad childish in certain panels. Normally in manhwa mistresses are treated with even more contempt then the man, usually justifying this by making the mistress even worse then the cheater but Ari not only has no clue Micheol is still living with Hae soo but she's really not that terrible of a person outside of him, she's just an office worker with a crush and said crush never corrected her because he wanted to get petty revenge on the woman who was doing everything for him.

When she does find out the truth Ari is reasonably pissed off and leaves on the spot but a few chapters later she runs into Micheol again and starts to tell him off and he proceeds to basically tell her "yeah I'm a piece of shit alright, go find someone better because I'm just a loser" he guilt trips her and Ari runs back to him crying for him not to leave. A lot of readers took this as proof that Ari is a bitch who deserves to die and normally I would be upset that TOAWF would ruin the chance for women supporting women but with the context I don't think that's the narratives goal.

Ari believing Micheols shit and going back to him isn't supposed to be a way to convince the audience she's a bitch, it's a tragedy because Ari is going to become Micheols next victim of abuse and before you know it she's gonna end up just like Hae Soo if Micheol can't get back with his ex. That's what really sets Ari apart from other mistress characters in manhwa, instead of portraying her as another white lotus she is portrayed as an unknowing woman who was manipulated back into the cheaters arms after he guilt tripped her, Ari isn't evil she's a person with flaws like everyone else.

So far, I have hope that this story won't pit it's women against eachother for the sake of plot and it's just the toxic side of the fanbase misinterpreting the writing. (Please let this be the case 🙏)

[littleeyesofpallas]

Hi,

would you make meta stuff about Mayuri's way of speaking? I mean guy speaks strange way compared to other characters and me with friend don't speak japanese and would like to know more about it.

Thank you! 💜

So, i do want to remind anyone reading my blog but please remember i'm not at all fluent in Japanese. I understand the grammar on a textbook level, and with enough dictionary resources I can poke around and sus out nuances of some word choices (particularly stuff like fictional names of people and swords and attacks and stuff, as those kinds of creative choices are very overt*), especially in irregular usage, but when it comes down to things like dialect, slangs, vernacular or phraseology, or more subtle tone indicators I'm pretty blind.

*(sorry to further clarify: when it's stuff like fantasy jargon it's stuff no one would ever actually say, and so the choices made in crafting those words or names from scratch are all reliably very deliberate. But when looking at more casual speech a lot of character voice just kind of defaults to what "sounds" right, and so the distinction between choosing one common word over another isn't always meaningful or readily apparent, both in general and to someone not fully fluent like me.)

Like if someone talks in a stilted overly technical or dry way I might be able to tell that much, but I'd totally miss more structural things like whether it makes them sound more like a mad scientist -vs- a tryhard edgelord fake intellectual -vs- a man out of time -vs- a stuffy rich person --or what the differences i'd even be looking for between all those would be-- I really can't tell outside of what i might be able to glean from things like narrative context more than the dialog itself.

With the exception of some very tropey, and thus easier to identify things like, movie-esque yakuza slang, or melodramatic historical feudal drama formal titles --and even then those are things i might more readily catch when actually spoken than when written on the page-- i'm just as lost as the next person.

That all being said, there are still a few little things i can sort of pick at without feeling totally out of my depth...

I think it's been brought up on some random post of mine before that Mayuri does notably use a "more feminine" 1st person pronoun, watashi[私] which is a pretty common pronoun, although its usage feels weird to explain in English?

Like... it is considered "gender neutral" in that there are other pronouns that are more specifically feminine or masculine and it's not one of them. But then in practice, you'd basically expect men to opt for one of the more overtly masculine pronouns, which just sort of leaves women with watashi as a default?

So it's not that it explicitly makes him sound ""feminine"" so much as it makes him sound less masculine; which suits his intellectual, non physical inclined, and at times cowardly or at least scheming demeanor. But like, it's also considered a little stuffy and sort of overly formal, or technical which is also appropriate to him.

Oh right and it's a formal pronoun as opposed to informal, but there's also a level of very formal pronouns, and it's not one of those, so that doesn't so much triangulate a position as it just leave in vaguely in the middle of the road...

Does that all make sense? it feels like super overexplaining for what is an extremely commonly used pronoun with mostly very neutral implications.

He occasionally ends sentences with a single katakana syllable rather than hiragana, indicating... not quite an "accent".. but like a sort of emphasis. Like a punctuating lilt in tone. Actually Nakao Ryuusei does this really noticeably in the anime and I don't know for sure if I heard it that way in my head and he just nailed it, or if i heard him first and it's just always colored my reading since.

A lot of the rhetorical NE[ネ] which begs confirmation, often translated into English as "...right?" (It's part of that desu ne[ですね] that you hear a lot in anime, where the desu[です] is just the verb to be, so together they tend to translate as "isn't it?")

YO[ヨ] which is again a sort of rhetorical thing that usually gets translated as something like, "...you know?"

and E?[エ?] which isn't even a word or part of speech so much as it's just like, an interrogative noise? Quite literally just "eh?"

But see this is one of those things were like... I can tell it's different from a sort of default neutral mode of speech, but I don't know what that indicates as, like, a point of characterization... Is it specifically condescending? Is it there to sound mechanical or stilted? Is it somehow old fashioned or polite/formal? I have no clue as to these sorts of specifics.

[edit]: I want to reiterate this is a rhetorical device, he's not literally asking a question and waiting for a response. If anything it's functionally the exact opposite, he's saying it to emphasize that he's stating things meant to be taken as facts, it actively closes the dialog off from further questioning.

He also says HOU[ホウ] a lot, which also isn't really a word so much as a sound, but given the pattern in speech above I feel like it's kind of inquisitive, or at least contemplative, which is (i think) how I remember Nakao delivering those lines too. Like a sort of, "Oh?" or "Huh..." or "Hmm..."

And given how close the camera gets to his face most times he says it, it gives an impression of being, not "quiet" exactly, but like you had to be close to hear it, so like, almost under his breath? Like it's clearly a noise he makes to himself, it's not like a thing or expression he's making to the other people int he scene.

FUU[フウ] or alternatively HUU, and I think once or twice FUN'/HUN'[フン] as a sort of grunt? not quite as guttural as that, but not quite a sigh? Like a "hmpf."

He also does your classic YARE YARE[ヤレヤレ] which definitely isn't unusual or unique to him but it has this kind "tut tut" or "tch"/"tsk" tone to it and tends to translated very loosely like, "oh my" or "good grief", but I think of it more like a "well, well, well..." but like kind of implicitly more exasperated than that sounds in english?

I don't know where to start trying to qualify, like... what kind of character says yare yare a lot, but it's definitely something that suits some characters more than others, and Mayuri it definitely fits.

He tends to laugh like ...KU KU...[...クク...] which is a kind of sharp snigger, sneer, or scoff. He really doesn't guffaw or cackle or have much of a more typical dramatic villain laugh, it's very understated.

Although in his fight with Pernida he does let out a full on maniacal FUHAHAHA[フハハハ] laugh for the first time in the whole series

I do love the fonts Kubo uses for a lot of Mayuri's dialog. At a certain point he starts to lean intothe same basic font as everyone else, but particualrly at the beginning he switches between a few unusual ones that are specific to Mayuri.

One's got that rough kind of pseudo handwritten quality to it. It reads to me as kind of scratchy, like a sharp pen nib on thick matte paper, with a kind of clotty ink flow that starts thick and wet but sorta tapers out too fast, leaving the lines spotty and rough.

But he also alternated with a thicker rounder font that has these subtle curls to them that I don't see other character use often.

and then he's got a second font choice that basically has all the same tones as the first one, except maybe a bit, like, louder(?) implicitly just based on context? It tends to be used in creepy action scenes where as the thinner one is more for creepy conversation?

In his very first appearance he chastises Gin, and he changes font between sentences, giving a very distinct sense that it's a change in tone. It reads to me like a low heavy hiss, almost like his voice is normally shallow or throaty, but when the font changes he suddenly drops his voice into a chestier range and speaks almost more smoothly?

Then there's just the perfectly regular fonts he uses sometimes, basically any/every other character uses these same fonts at some point or another.

and he has a neat thin wispy font that he only uses the one time when he liquefies himself. Along with the voice bubbles used, it gives a super distinct impression of his voice barely being audible.

He also one time speaks enthusiastically in an italic version of the more standard font when he arrives in Hueco Mundo.

And then in the Hell Jaw one shot he just has a completely different standard font because Kubo probably didn't keep track of what fonts he'd been using from like 8 years ago

There's also a subtly funky sort of font he uses briefly in the tbtp sidestory? I dunno what to say about this honestly. It gives me these vague 60s-70s vibes that I can't quite place? (I feel like I know i've seen it before but on what? A bowling alley sign? A little back alley cafe? a jazz album cover??)

I have no idea that the take away from that is supposed to be though.

And I guess that's it. I dunno how I thought I was gonna end this. It didn't really reveal any new facets to his character that weren't pretty apparent from the rest of his whole design and demeanor. Plus Nakao's performance in the anime basically nails all of this and i think makes it pretty apparent in tone even if you don't know much about Japanese.

[david-talks-sw]

I think it's interesting that - in order to make his "free-thinking Jedi" characters hold any semblance of rationality in their arguments - Dave Filoni needs to resort to artificially dehumanizing the other Jedi and painting them all with the same "we dogmatically worship protocol" brush.

He does this with Huyang in the recent Ahsoka episode.

"Lolz he's so narrow-minded, preachy and by-the-book, unable to think outside the box, just like the Jedi in the Prequels."

My first reaction was being amused at the fact that Filoni had to resort to making the Jedi Order's ideals and rules be embodied by a literal machine for his anti-Jedi headcanon to start making sense.

But then I remembered: Huyang isn't just any droid.

In The Clone Wars, he had a sassy personality, he had a pep in his step, he had a sense of humor...

This character was human in his behavior, he was fun and whimsical.

But now he's been reduced to, I dunno, "Jedi C-3PO"? Basically?

"Ha! He's blunt and unsympathetic because he's a droid, but it's funny because the Jedi were the same, they were training themselves to be tactless, emotionless droids."

And Filoni does this with Mace Windu too, in Tales of the Jedi.

Mace, who brought a lightsaber to the throat of a planetary leader to defend the endangered Zillo Beast...

... and who went waaay past his mandate by mischievously sneaking around Bardottan authorities and breaking into the Queen's quarters because he felt something bad was afoot...

... was reduced to being an almost droid-like, rule-parotting, protocol purist who sticks to his instructions (and is implied to be willing to let a murder go unsolved so he can get a promotion).

I mentioned this at the end of my first post on Luke in The Last Jedi... while changes in personality do happen overtime and can be explained in-universe... if you don't show us that progression and evolution and just leave us without that context, that'll break the suspension of disbelief, for your audience.

Here, we have two characters with a different (almost caricatural) personality than the one they were originally shown to have.

Now... we could resort to headcanons, to make it all fit together.

We could justify Huyang's tone shift 'cause "Order 66 changed him". And we could make explanations about TotJ's Mace:

Being younger and thus more ambitious and a stickler for the rules, and only really becoming more flexible after getting his seat on the Council and gaining more maturity.

Being such a teacher's pet in the episode because we're seeing him through the eyes of a notorious unreliable narrator, Dooku.

There'd be nothing wrong with opting to go with either of those headcanons to cope with this. After all, Star Wars is meant to help you get creative.

But the problem I encounter is that:

Filoni has an anti-Jedi bias, so the above headcanons clearly wouldn't really track with his intended narrative.

We'd be jumping through hoops to extrapolate and fill in what is, essentially, inconsistent characterization, manufactured to make Ahsoka and Dooku shine under a better light.

And that sours whatever headcanon I come up with.

Edit: Also, yeah, as folks have been saying in the tags... wtf is "Jedi protocol"? The term isn't ever mentioned in the movies, I skimmed through dialog transcripts of TCW, never saw it there.

So it's almost as if - if Filoni wasn't draining characters like Mace and Huyang of all humanity and nuance - his point about "the Jedi were too detached and lost their way, but not free-thinkers like Qui-Gon, Dooku and Ahsoka" wouldn't really hold much water.

[miscling]

do you have any advice, guidelines, or experience you can speak from about how to maintain consent around friends and other partners in the context of a primarily kink based relationship where casual kink is just like, a normal part of, or has a substantial overlap with, everyday life? I feel like the theoretical ideal is generally to talk to everyone in advance but i guess where i get a bit confused is the degree to which it's necessary/wise to talk everything out with everyone who might see stuff, because presumably most people in 24/7 or otherwise openly kinky relationships, are not having as extensive a continuous dialog with say friends who come over and may for ex. see you use a partner as a beloved ashtray, than the extensive amount they would necessarily have with that partner in that role

basically how do you work to achieve an appropriate middle ground where you're being considerate of other peoples comfort between:

"here's everything you may see when me and X are together" vs. "we are kinky and you may see some of that"

I feel like weirdly enough in a public setting it's a little simpler because people generally have the ability to ignore it and completely disengage at basically any time. tbc I don't buy into respectability politics, I think moral panic surrounding like seeing someone wearing leather or being collared or otherwise kinky or fucking in public is ridiculous nonsense (especially when access to private spaces where people can have sex and practice kink without extreme consequences are so heavily pay walled) but in private spaces it feels like a different dynamic. it seems to mean something different socially to act in such a way that results in people leaving/disengaging in more intimate spaces. my intuition tell me theres a greater responsibility to ensure consent in one's home while having guests over or when socializing with friends and other loved ones vs. strangers and im struggling to pin down what that really means in practice and how to make sense of it wrt casual kink

this got more lengthy than initially intended :p

it's definitely a minefield and not one that's easily navigated.

what advice it has is going to come down to using your head and paying attention to the people you invite into your space. if the kink is casual enough, it might not even register in people's perceptions, though specific actions (like your ashtray example) are definitely going to raise an eyebrow.

from our own observations, there's three levels to play: the vanilla, the casual, and the scene. vanilla covers any space that's in public and you behave as you would in any public space, casual covers places where your dynamic may show or be talked about but you don't engage in kink or sex acts directly, and the scene covers anywhere from a play club to your home where you've got together for the purpose of doing kink. transitioning between them can be organised or informal, depending on who's around.

it comes down to risk awareness. you'll need to think about what it is that you want to do, what the consequences would actually be, and what you're willing to risk. a lot of things are low risk with no consequences at all. people won't know if you're wearing a chastity belt under your clothes. people won't know you're wearing a shock device, sometimes even if it goes off while you're talking to them if you've got a practised cover story. people probably won't care if you're a overly demanding/defering with a partner. most people won't recognise a kink thing unless you make it obvious, and if they don't recognise it, you're unlikely to draw comments or get in trouble.

having a kinky relationship and performing kinky acts in front of others is going to come down to decorum, and what others expect of you in that social setting, and if you want to shift that out of what is considered 'normal' or 'expected', then you're going to need to talk to the people involved. if you don't think they'd be receptive to even talking about it, then arrange with your partner ways to still affirm your dynamic without the specific act itself.

to use the ashtray example again, instead of being used as an ashtray, you're instead responsible for making sure there is a regular ashtray within reach - the same duty is kept, but its expression is altered depending on context.

it doesn't know if that helps, but it has said a lot on the subject!

[captaincrumbz]

What's your favorite game?

The lego Movie Game (OF COURSE)!!! I really just love everything about it, ESPECIALLY the dialog and interactions, its SO fun and silly!!!The cut scenes also provide enough context while also not being too long!!! (So you can play the game without watching the movie before just fine.) I also love small things like how when Emmet confronts Lord Business you can hear Finn saying "You" at the same time Emmet does!!!!!! thats always been quite fascinating to me. The game is just so vibrant and fun (EVEN outside of Cloud Cuckooland.) I like how you can go to bricksburg, oldwest, just all the realms and choose the levels you can play from there. I beaten all of the games in story mode and have all of their characters but STILL i am only at 48.7% So i like how theres so much more to do there.

UNFORTUNATELY I CANT SAY THE SAME THING ABOUT THE SECOND GAME💔💔💔 Its SO lonely feeling, its like JUST free roam but theres levels that arent really there if that makes since?? Basically the game just feels like 'Run around everywhere for 2 hours and hope you run into something." I am STUCK on the third world thingy(??) It doesnt even really tell you want to do💔 Lack of dialog and music is what causes it to feel lonely. Also trying to unlock certain characters can be a pain..... Other than like that, the visuals are good!

[mooshs-crack-headcanons]

Do you agree ?

The more I read and really think about it? The more I'm like "technically yeah" than an actual hard yeah because while I get it's a meme and stuff the things presented can be half truths:

Doom Guy yes 100% in green (except for optional skins in the modern games that doesn't really count) Link 99% green 1% being blue in botw/totk (who also has costumes in those games and therefore also doesn't count)

"Never talks" isn't correct as both have canonically talked, with Doom Guy it's much more explicit and you hear him in Doom Eternal and TDA, with Link you don't outright hear him but he does speak through dialog prompts since ocarina of time and more modern games have given a canonical explanations why recent iterations are selectivity mute like this. So it's not "Never talks" but rarely talks or what I like to interpret as only talks when it's important.

"Intended to symbolize the player" used to be the case for Link in the very older games, Doom Guy has had an established backstory since 1993 but it did I guess have some wiggle room to insert yourself in but 2016 came and wiped that potential insertion away. They've had their own unique identities for years now. They are not self inserts.

This is where they're different, Link is different a different person each time, only rarely getting more than one initial adventure through direct sequels - Doom Guy is the Doom Slayer and Doom Slayer is the Doom Guy, with the exception of Doom 3 (people can fight me on that idc) he has basically been the same person in the games since 1993. With Link it's reincarnation of stepping to your destiny over and over again while with Doom Guy it's: "I punched my CO once and now I'm fighting Cthulhu."

Yeah.

Most monsters are considered "demons" in Zelda I guess but not all of them, some things are clearly just plain nature in natural habitats defending itself and its territory. In Doom they are explicitly just demons or things equally in the realm of fucked.

No. Besides some finishing moves on bosses (mostly Ganon/dorf) Link has nothing on Doom's glory kills.

Big pocket brothers.

In Zelda things just poof into smoke so no blood baths. Rip and Tear is Doom's mantra.

I mean, Link is in a Nintendo game so I don't know what you're expecting anything actually sexual there but Link is very respectful of every woman he meets, especially Zelda (🥰 ) and is always at her defense no matter what and which in skyward sword and botw/totk is very very clear in your face that they have something romantic going on through context clues than being outright stated (because Nintendo are cowards) In Doom given its a M rated franchise its different because they could've gone there (be a Duke Nukem) and given he's such a badass had him have many love interests and have him having sex all of the time but they haven't which is based, in The Dark Ages they could've easily done that with Commander Thira but Hugo Martin confirmed that things between her and the Slayer are pure platonic meaning their interactions in the game are nothing but just pure respect and honestly? I like that approach more with them than a tacked on romance it would've been with the series first woman that isn't in a antagonist role who has her own arc learning how to control her abilities and the Slayer respects her. Being respectful to women and more focused on slaughtering demons is cool👍

Everyone is legally obligated to play ocarina of time and Doom 2 Right now.

Either way they are cool and based 🗣

Thank you for the ask 🫶

[sojourner-between-worlds]

How can a single of line of text/ dialog be translated [for subtitling] to mean two entirely different things and reference two entirely different characters in the process?

I asked a friend of mine about this, who has experience with French translation, and she was also completely baffled about how something like this could happen, so now I'm yelling it into the tumblr void and hoping someone yells back.

Like, I completely understand that certain things like idioms, puns, and slang terms get a little lost in translation and have to attempt to have an equivalent replacement found, but this... is not that. I also understand that since this is a Japanese anime from 2008 that older translations can be a bit... off in places, I guess, since they were more often than not subbed by fans. (And, since they're old, unless they are super popular, the less-than-legal sites often never get updated to official subs.) In this case, there was also a DVD release that is no longer available for purchase in the US (except off Ebay and shipped from overseas). I have no way of verifying if the same subtitles appear on the DVDs as appear when streaming on Crunchyroll. So the discrepancy is between the "official" Crunchyroll subs and either the DVD release or fansubs. But either option still makes this...weird. Even if the DVDs are older, there shouldn't be this big of a discrepancy. But I also can't blame it solely on "bad fansubs" because in all my years of watching this with varying subs across varying less-than-legal platforms, I have never had anything that has stuck out to me like this exchange this does. Difference in word choice, sure, that's basically inevitable; but I've never seen a conversation where the words spoken are about two entirely different characters.

For greater context, here are the two different ways the dialog in question is presented:

Source 1:

N: He's even stronger than before. Y: His opponent was weak, right? B: Yeah, he was completely played by Jack. Y: He's bored.

Source 2:

N: He's getting even stronger. Y: Was he facing a wimp? B: Yeah, Jack completely toyed around with him. Y: He was probably no big deal then...

So as you can see, this exchange is mostly the same. The baffling part is that last line. In the first one, Y is making a personal observation about someone he knows; in the second, he's making an impersonal observation about someone he doesn't know. The difference is getting information about a character (both the one spoken about and the one speaking) and just being a throw away line that doesn't mean anything at all.

This has been driving me nuts for literal years at this point, as to how this big of a difference in translation could happen. Again, it could have been a whoopsie on the part of a fansubber but everything else largely lines up between the two (as far as I can tell), and you'd think it would at least still be referring to the same character, which just makes it Weird to me.

So if anyone can actually explain how this happened, I would love you forever, haha.

[nights-nonsensical-ramblings]

So for the @year-of-the-echidna 'communication' prompt i'm putting forward a snippet from an upcoming chapter of friendship persists

But some context is required first. This fic was started back when frontiers was getting its first trailers and many of us were theorizing that it was gonna be an amnesia plot. So other than the basic pieces of 'there are weird ancient robot things, there used to be a civilisation here, cyber space is a thing and the general look of the first island' (maybr the others will stay the same, but that'll depend on the flow of the story) most of frontiers has nothing to do with this story, the pieces are completely remixed. (Sage doesn't even have anything to do with eggman in this version, the titans have a very different origin planned, (which is low key a self indulgent excuse to make expys of the botw champions.) i wont say yet cuz its become a major plot point, but the titans don't have 'pilots' and their origin warns doom for Sonic, Knuckles, Amy and Tails (i so wanna say cuz im excited to ramble)

But that aside the last bit of context required is that knuckles' knowledge of 'english' was erased along with the rest of his memories and so is dealing with a language barrier.

Im using a cypher for Knuckles' dialoge where i split the word in half and swap those halves, (if the word has an odd number of letters the middle letter stays where it is) ill put translations at the bottom.

so with out further ado, a snippet of dealing with a language barrier.

Pink lost her smirk and her face grew soft. "You got to remember he can't understand what we're saying, just how we're saying it. I think he took how you spoke about his claws and tongue as an insult."

Blue sighed. "It wasn't meant to be an insult, it just feels weirdly right to tease and poke at him, and at first it seemed like he felt the same. I don't wanna actually upset the guy, just annoy him a bit."

"Well you're certainly good at doing that."

"yeah, and he's good at doing it to me." Both Pink and Yellow snickered. At the start of the digging Blue and Red had made a game of 'accidently' tossing dirt on each other and it had made quite the delay on the burrow getting started.

The shield remained up, and they could hear dirt being flung about and no sign of it stopping.

"well he's gotta let us in when he's done."

"still feels unfair to make him do it by himself." Yellow glanced back to Blue and ended up noticing he'd taken his gloves off at some point and his hands were covered in dirt.

"What did you say that got him so upset?"

"Well I said he's got some pretty cool claws, but apparently I didn't sound like that and he poked his tongue out at me, and it was oddly long and he seemed to take me staring at it that well and kicked me out." Yellows twin tails flicked, there was something beneath the fog of lost memory about being physically singled out that resonated with him, but the harder he searched the more he felt resistance. He could bring forth the memory of Red getting huffy when being called strange though.

Yellow stepped forward and lightly knocked on the shield, there was a pause in the sound of dirt being tossed about and then the echidna's head popped out of the hole. Red's hands came into view and yellow was able to see that unlike the rest of them, who had bendy fingers tipped with a claw, his entire finger was practically a claw. When Red noticed his staring he growled and narrowed his eyes.

"Wait! before you get mad at me look." Yellow turned and pointed to his twin tails then to each of his friends singular ones. "I've got something unique to."

Red's face became thoughtful and he climbed out of the burrow and took a closer look at Yellow's tails. He then reached up to yellow's head and gave it a stroke. "Red?"

"Reuyo rentediff ot" Red used one of his claws to lift one of his quills slightly and then pointed to the quills on Pink and Blue.

"I think he understood my message!" Yellow turned back to Red when the echidna gently picked up his hand and had a closer look.

"Uryo si os llasm." Yellow’s hand was minuscule compared to Red’s. The echidna would be completely capable of closing his fist around both of Yellow’s. The fox could feel the strength held in those muscles just by the way his fingers twitched and yet Red’s grip was never too tight and the sharp claws brushed along his fur but Red didn’t leave a single scratch.

Blue moved in closer and Red immediately gave him a suspicious look, the hedgehog responded by pointing at Red's claws and giving a genuine grin. "They're cool Red, no need to get all huffy." Red continued to study Blue's expression and eventually let out a frustrated sigh.

Red looked away muttered to himself. "Stju shwi I ewkn atwh uoy rewe ingsay." He then shook his head and gestured for them to follow. "Meco no, mi ostalm nedo"

The echidna lead them into them into the burrow and once his eyes adjusted to the darkness Yellow could identify the deep gashes in the dirt came from Red and the shallower ones came from Blues faster scrabbling. Even with their bickering and head bumping the two had dug out a quite comfortable looking burrow and it was large enough for them to sit inside without bumping their heads. They'd been fine just sleeping on the ground the previous night, but Yellow would like to get some sort of bedding if there was time before the storm hit.

A loud crash sounded from outside the burrow and Yellow tensed. His breath began to quicken and his heart pulsed in his chest. The storm was coming, A thunder storm. Yellow eyes blurred and soon all he could see was the coloured blurs that had given each of them their names. Another crash made his ears lay flat against his head and he began to tremble.

Until a large hand came to rest on his shoulder. 

"Yellow! Reoyu, fesa wndo rehe." Purple eyes came into focus. The face that held them was serious and stern but yet still comforting. "Inghnot llwi teg uoy thwi ym eldshi up." There was pride in Red's voice as he pointed to the entrance where the shield has once again been put up.

Now Red's shield did bring feelings of safety, much like Red himself. Everything about the guy practically screamed 'protector' but there was still something that concerned the fox. "You've only had this power a short time you don't know if you'll be okay keeping it up for a while."

The echidna caught Yellow's concerned tone and gave him a comforting pat. But of course, Red gave no answer to Yellow's worries.

"You'll be alright bud, even if Red's shield goes down we'll keep you safe." Blue smiled and Yellow smiled back. The hedgehog tapped next to him and Yellow walked over and sat where he indicated, the hedgehog was good at keeping Yellow distracted from the storm and he barely noticed Pink and Red carrying supplies in and eventually plopping down with slightly damp fur and in Pink's case, joining the conversation.

Pink didn't miss the way Red's shoulders dropped when Yellow walked away from him to get comfort from Blue. The echidna's face screwed up and his throat tightened. Pink had no clue what he had said, but his tone sounded like he was trying so hard to be comforting. But his words meant nothing to them, and theirs meant nothing to Red.

She really didn't envy poor Red. 

"Hey Red, help me get some stuff from the plane." Pink pointed to the entrance and Red lowered his shield but remained where he was. Pink sighed and pulled him out with her. "No, no. I want you to come out here with me"

Most of the supplies would stay perfectly dry in the plane, but she'd spotted some blankets that would make it more comfortable if the night grew colder. 

Red stopped at the part of the plane that had the word 'Sonic' on it and brushed his claws along it. His gaze was hard and focused but no recognition shone in his eyes.

"You can't read that, can you?" Red looked over his shoulder and the frustration that twisted his face was like a jab. "If it counts for anything, that word is 'Sonic'. You'll at least be able to read one word." She pointed towards the plane to emphasise that 'Sonic' wasn't just another part of the sentence.

Red tilted his head and took a step back. "Sonic ro Sonic?" with the first Sonic he pointed to the word 'sonic' and spoke sharply, then he gestured broadly to the entire plane and drew out the word sonic a bit more. Pink stepped closer and tapped the word itself then ran her finger along each letter as she once again said 

"Sonic"

Red nodded and had a slight smile and repeated the word again, but this time with a proud certainty to it. 

"There we go we'll be able to understand each other in no time." 

Translations

Reuyo rentediff ot = youre different to rsuyo si os llasm = Yours is so small Stju shwi I ewkn atwh uoy rewe ingsay = Just wish I knew what you were saying Meco no, mi ostalm nedo = come on im almost done Reoyu, fesa wndo rehe = youre safe down here Inghnot llwi teg uoy thwi ym eldshi pu = nothing will get you with my shield up Sonic ro Sonic = Sonic or Sonic

[randomthefox]

So let's cover the bossfight itself before unpacking the cutscenes. The fight is basically a victory lap, it's practically impossible to lose on normal mode. Vergil has significantly less HP, and Nero is given infinitely replenishing devil trigger. The only struggle is making the fight last long enough to get the unique dialog lines to trigger. Vergil is obviously much weaker after his fight with Dante, but also Nero is fueled up by the shonen power of being morally correct. If you want a "real" fight between Nero and Vergil, that's what replaying the game on a higher difficulty is for lol. Nero's devil trigger functions the same way it did in DMC4 funnily enough, it adds additional hits to every attack. Just instead of being a Stand ghost slashing the yamato, it's the angel wings slicing and dicing. I didn't manage to pull it off, but there's also additional grapple animations for Nero grabbing onto two enemies at once and bashing them together which is pretty sick and something he's able to do now because both arms have the Bringer capabilities going for them instead of just having the one Devil Bringer.

So as we've established, nobody understands what's going on in Nero's head right now. Everyone's telling him "noooo we know you want to kill Vergil sooooo bad but we can't let you do that to yourself!" but that's the furthest thing from his mind. There's a whole of turmoil going on inside him right now, he's confused and mixed up inside. So when he sees the payphone, of course he calls Kyrie.

Again, Nero HAD an adoptive family growing up and he loved Kyrie and Credo from the bottom of his heart. But in DMC, blood relations matter. Nero is saying "all of a sudden I find out I have a family" because he's referring to his biological family members with whom he shares genetic material. In DMC blood is thicker than water, please leave your obsession with found family at the door lol. Remember the overarching theme of the entire franchise is family, legacy, the ties that bind, and familial love. Legacy in particular is the primary theme of Nero's story, because he's the most true to Sparda out of the entire cast. One could imagine Sparda going to Eva with his self doubts, just like Nero is calling Kyrie.

And Kyrie knows exactly what to say. Nero has no reason to doubt himself, he always knows what is right and what is wrong. What is at the core of Nero's feelings right now? Put aside the bullshit over "oh no my arm," put aside everyone elses drama over wanting to kill Vergil, put aside the angst over his dad apparently been alive all along and was simply a deadbeat. What is at Nero's core right now? He wants his family. He wants the family he never had. He wants to protect the people that are important to him. He wants to make up for his inability to protect Credo when it mattered most. Nero fights not for revenge or to improve himself, Nero fights to preserve.

And with his awareness and acceptance of his demonic heritage and his resolve being absolute, he awakens the devil inside and unleashes Sparda's true power. I find it very important to note that Nero's devil trigger looks ANGELIC. He looks like a demonic angel, with wings and his horns evocative of a halo. You might almost say he's an angel of the underground =P

Also note how his arms look exactly like how the Devil Bringer did, proving the Devil Bringer was a permanent partial DT.

What I think is particularly interesting and lowkey funny about Nero confronting Dante and Vergil is there's kind of a mutual misunderstanding happening here. Nero's "there are other ways of resolving your differences" line in particular is hilarious given the context of Dante and Vergil's relationship. He doesn't really understand that fighting is their love language, Dante and Vergil's entire concept of brotherhood is founded on fighting each other. Look at the way Vergil laughs and says "you came all this way just for that?" Vergil thinks the idea of Nero trying to get them to stop fighting is silly, because of course they want to fight they're brothers don't you get that? Now I do think they were willing to kill each other during this fight, so Nero is right to stop them in that sense, but he's right for the wrong reasons.

And what Dante and Vergil don't understand is that to Nero, an orphan who grew up without a family, this entire conflict is FUCKING STUPID and he HATES it and wants the fighting to stop. You might say "oh well then why is he willing to fight Vergil then?" but you'd be being deliberately obtuse. He's not fighting to kill, he's knocking their heads together to get them to stop. And there's also a fair bit of "forcing the absentee father to acknowledge his son" involved. Nero is ANGRY at Vergil right now. Notice how much Nero is swearing up a cuss storm during this whole fight? Nero RARELY curses, and certainly never dropped F bombs before. But in this fight he's calling Vergil a fucking asshole. He is incensed, and as they say during the fight Nero wants Vergil to acknowledge him as a son. He's fighting to stop them from fighting, but he's also fighting because he wants a little bit of "Cat's In The Cradle" catharsis too let's be honest.

What's funny is narratively, the fights a formality. As Dante says "whatever, I don't really care." All the animosity has been sucked out of the room. If Dante and Vergil were struggling to think of an excuse for why they wanted to fight beyond their own personal baggage before, there's LITERALLY no rational reason for Nero and Vergil to fight. Nero already got what he wanted before the fight even started. Even Vergil is setting the terms that if he wins against Nero then it counts as a victory over Dante, meaning VERGIL DOESN'T EVEN CARE ABOUT PERSONALLY KILLING DANTE ANYMORE, he JUST wants the salty runback. In many ways Dante and Vergil have been cowed by Nero's mere presence, the overwhelming aura of his confidence and resolve. Whatever killer instinct they may have had towards each other has been permanently neutered. They're a family, whether they like it or not. And Nero is the living proof that they cannot ignore. Nero put a stop to their sibling rivalry, and the brothers heed to his superiority.

That brings up another thing which is the element of demonic culture being a factor in the fight. As Dante says "he won, so you have to do what he says." We've discussed in DMC3 how when Dante defeats a boss, they acknowledge his superiority and become a devil arm for him, and in the ending Vergil lost to Mundus and was forced to become his weapon in the form of Nelo Angelo. It is clearly a factor of the might makes right culture of demons that the loser must submit to the victor. In a sense, that's what Dante and Vergil are doing by setting their desire to kill each other aside.

They're still happy to fight, because fighting is their love language, but all the hatred and desire to maim and slaughter one another has been discarded basically because Nero told them to and Nero won so they HAVE to do what he says. Vergil insists "I can still fight.... but we should take care of the evil tree first" as a face saving way of ceding to Nero's will without having to stain his pride by admitting he lost. In a way, Dante and Vergil are running off to cut down the Qliphoth because they're acting as Nero's devil arms. And they won't try and kill each other anymore because as his devil arms they gotta do what he says, just like how Dante told Agni and Rudra they weren't allowed to talk anymore.

Vergil leaving Nero his book of poetry... remember the entry from the old library man in the games gallery. Vergil wrote his name in the book so that it would truly belong to him. Symbolically, Vergil is leaving Nero a piece of his soul as a way of accepting him as his son. And Nero seems to understand the importance, even if he can't possibly know the truth of why. Vergil is so repressed and shaken up by the revelation that Nero is his son that this is the best he can do lol.

In the end everything has been settled thanks to the power of family and this gun Nero made.

This also isn't the first time Dante drove into the depths of hell and then returned, so I wouldn't be too worried about it.

[purpledemonlilyposting]

Going off her streams Lily really seems to like Veilguard, what's your opinion on the game? (I'm sorry I never caught your gaming streams pls don't hit me)

It's... complicated. At the beginning of last year I was sure Dragon Age was dead for good when I heard Mary Kirby had been let go from the company. And I still have no faith in any future installments, especially with Sylvia Feketekuty now also leaving the company.

(For context: Kirby is the writer of Varric and was the lore keeper for Orlais and the Qunari. Feketekuty wrote Josephine, Emmrich, Hezenkoss and a good chunk of the Mourn Watch.)

So on the one hand I liked getting most of my lore answers from Veilguard and I really like the gameplay. I had a blast playing rogue especially (haven't quite warmed up to mage, might try warrior).

On the other hand... it's undeniable the writing is a downgrade. Which is unfortunate because that's typically the best part of these games and why the fans love them. And it was likely interference from "sensitivity reader" types or some of the team self-censoring for the same motive.

We finally see Tevinter, where slavery is infamously legal and a key part of their Roman Empire-like social and ruling structure, but we saw more of the horrors of slavery in past games than in Veilguard.

I played an elf and would have conversations with Davrin about how elves are discriminated against but I never once experienced it. Give me that conversation in Ostagar in DA:O where the quartermaster assumes I'm a servant because I'm an elf and I get to be really really Dalish at the ignorant shem. Or that conversation where you can make Leliana sweat with shem guilt as she tries to assure you some elven servants are REALLY well paid in Orlais like fr. Hell give me even Fenris rolling his eyes at being called a manservant in Mark of the Assassin.

They definitely sanded off rough edges in other places too. The Crows, or at least the Crows in Treviso, are suddenly not as ruthless and don't torture kids to turn the survivors into trained assassins. Other aspects like them being akin the to assassin's guild in Discworld and basically controlling large portions of the country were already there though.

And then just the dialog and character interaction. Yes I'm afraid to inform you everyone talks to each other like HR trained co-workers at a business convention in LA.

And then there's Taash. The true blight on the ass of this series. I dunno what the fuck happened there. I know Patrick Weekes started identifying as non-binary like 4 years ago but even "woke" brain worms couldn't make someone's writing take THAT much of a catastrophic nosedive. Especially since Solas' writing is still intact.

Someone else must have come in and gave it all a terrible rewrite, and you can kind of tell because there seems to be scenes missing from the plotline and a far superior child of an immigrant story peeking out from underneath.

So overall a very flawed game, disappointing in many ways, but it does have some flashes of brilliance in places and fantastic gameplay. I'm glad we at least got something after they left the franchise languishing for 10 years and cancelled the 4th installment twice despite Inquisition having Bioware's highest first two week sales ever.

[bananasfosterparent]

The magic "lesson" with Gale scene confuses me when you play a Sorcerer.

This scene is non-canon for my Tav, because it just really doesn't make much sense to me and doesn't fit for her lol so she never triggers it and just walks away, but I decided to try it and it really doesn't logically make sense imho.

There are sorcerer specific dialogs, which is fun, but the dialogs seem to miss the context that Tav is, in fact.... a sorcerer lol

I am not super versed in DnD lore but from what I understand, Sorcerers and Wizards both use the Weave. That is the source they both conjure from. For sorcerers it is inane, for wizards it is learned. But it's water from the same source, so to speak. And both become intimately familiar with the Weave.

The Sorcerer tag basically explains this:

So it's weird that Gale acts like Sorcerer Tav has never done it before and that he's so proud of them for trying it, as if it's something they've never done before lol

And I find the Sorcerer dialog response to that strange too.

Maybe it's just me and how I interpreted it, but the Tav dialog feels as if they also aren't used to channeling the weave and Gale has helped them do it successfully for the first time and they're trying to not give him too much credit. Idk it's just a weird response for someone whose body itself is infused with the magic of the weave.

I love most of Gale's sideways comments toward Tav if they're a Sorcerer, but this particular interaction is just a bit weird to me. It feels almost pointless to have the Sorcerer dialog tag there cause it doesn't feel like it even has weight in the conversation 🤔