#has never said any of that stuff and imo her work doesn’t even imply half of it. there is a difference between deciphering media and forming

[thefirstsprout]

Let people decipher media

idk why u sent this to me bc i love deciphering. probably in my top 5 favourite hobbies

[hoseas-angry-ghost]

YES YES YES I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR UR THEORIES

Hello anon! I am very surprised anyone wants to hear my chutney but here's my Strange Man Hot Take with some hopefully interesting info for curious parties:

To be honest, R* included so much misdirection around the Strange Man's identity (especially in RDR1) that I'm not *totally* convinced they're married to any one idea. RDR2 also complicated things by introducing new religions into Red Dead's world (Voodoo, Old Norse, etc.): he's no longer limited to just Christian / Western interpretations, as in RDR1, and it's possible R* might try to syncretise him with figures from other faiths (they did place Bayall Edge in Bayou Nwa, where most of the Voodoo stuff is).

At the same time, though, I think RDR2 actually narrowed things down somewhat in terms of the direction R* chose to take his character, and what we were shown of that. There's still a level of misdirection in RDR2, but IMO, it almost comes off as half-hearted in comparison to what was basically trolling in RDR1 -- it seems like they were a lot more focused on playing the "bad news" angle the second time round.

Based on what we know, and on the balance of things, I'm not convinced that the Strange Man is necessarily meant to be any one thing or figure, but I do think he's meant to fulfil some type of Satanic role within Red Dead's world, either in main or in part.

I won't compare and dissect other theories or anything, I just thought I'd list off some things that people might find interesting:

Armadillo. The deal between the Strange Man and Herbert Moon seems to be a pretty textbook Faustian bargain: Moon is offered earthly rewards ("happiness or two generations"), and although the price was (tellingly?) never specified, it seems like the recent Blood Money update for RDO all but confirmed that the cost was probably his soul. Although it's left ambiguous what Moon actually chose, the Armadillo curse was possibly an unforeseen (for Moon) consequence of the deal's terms, which would fit with similar tales of the devil or demon in question taking liberties with their end of the bargain.

In the files, there's some great audio of Moon off the shits and straight-up saying "I've made a deal with the devil, and I will never truly die!" It's possible this was cut for its own reasons (too overt?), but as a lot of stuff was apparently cut from Armadillo, I'm guessing it was either cut when Arthur in New Austin got cut, or it was part of something that R* didn't have time to implement in the epilogue. Either way, if it's not actually in the game then it's not technically canon, but it is an indication of what R* was thinking during development.

There's a lot of audio from the Armadillo townsfolk in general about devils and "devil curses," but the only thing I know of that definitely made it into the game is a line from the town crier ("Devil has the town in his hand").

There's audio of the Armadillo bartender saying "I heard the Tillworths made a deal with the devil to keep from gettin' sick! I don't wanna die any more than the next man, but ain't no safety worth a man's soul." Possibly idle gossip, but given Moon, possibly not.

RDO seemed to flirt with the idea of soul-selling a little bit with Old Man Jones' line "Well, this is America, so anything can be bought -- even souls," but then RDO pretty much just came right out and said it with Bluewater John in the Blood Money update. Bluewater John also apparently made a deal, almost definitely with the Strange Man (given the Moon deal and how close Bayall Edge is to all the drama); he was based on blues musician Robert Johnson and the myth that he sold his soul to the devil for mastery of the guitar. It's basically a rehash of the Moon deal, except it's... not subtle in its dialogue about deals, devils and souls.

"I GAVE EVERYTHING FOR ART, AND I LEARNED TOO MUCH AND NOTHING AT ALL" written on the wall at Bayall Edge also sounds like a reference to another one of these deals to me ("everything" being their soul, and "I learned too much and nothing at all" the foolishness of accepting eternal damnation for temporary knowledge). I think Bayall Edge might have originally belonged to a painter who struck a deal with the Strange Man for artistic skill, but then the Strange Man slowly possessed him or something -- which could be why some of the landscapes depict RDR1's I Know You locations, and why the writings on the wall kind of look like they deteriorate in quality. The puddle of blood at the foot of the portrait might also be linked to this somehow (whose is it?).

It's the deal-making for souls that really pushed the "devil" theory over the edge for me, because I can't think of whose wheelhouse that would be in except a devil's, or someone similarly malevolent.

Alternative name. The Strange Man's character model is called cs_mysteriousstranger in RDR2, and he's referred to as "the mysterious stranger" at least once in RDR1's in-game text. This could be a reference to The Mysterious Stranger, written by Mark Twain between 1897-1908, in which the stranger is a supernatural being called Satan. (At the end of the last version written, he tells the protagonist that nothing really exists and their lives are just a dream.)

Bayall Edge. Bayall Edge was possibly based on a Louisiana urban myth called the Devil's Toy Box, which is "described as a shack. From the outside, it is unappealing and average. ...The inside of the shack consists of floor-to-ceiling mirrors, including the walls. No one can last more than five minutes in this room. ...According to the legend, if you stood inside this mirror-room alone for too long, supposedly the devil would show up and steal your soul." The Strange Man does show up in the mirror eventually, and it's kind of curious that the paintings that change depending on your Honour act as metaphorical mirrors. This was also cut, but in the files, Arthur's drawing of the interior of Bayall Edge is unusually sloppy, like his faculties were impaired or something.

"Awful, fascinating and seductive". John writes this about Bayall Edge after the portrait is finished, and I think that's as good a description of something like the / a devil as any, but "seductive" is a big red flag for me, because it's such an odd choice of word and, from a Christian perspective, it's so loaded with connotations of evil and sin and temptation.

I Know You. Some have pointed out that I Know You in RDR1 resembles the Temptation of Christ, as it also takes place in three separate locations in the desert, and John is given moral tests in which he must choose between higher virtue or worldly vice. John is also, in a weird way, a kind of Christ-like figure in that he ultimately sacrifices his life for others. I do think the "temptation" in these encounters is very surreptitious but very much there ("Or rob her yourself" -- excuse me??), but they may also be operating on a Biblical definition of the word, i.e. a test or trial with the free choice of committing sin.

RDR1 dialogue. I don't want to get *too* much into this because I feel like we're all just getting punked in RDR1, but I think the Strange Man's dialogue broadly fits with something like a "devil" interpretation, or at least doesn't contradict it.

I'm thinking particularly of lines like "Damn you!" / "Yes, many have" (which would work metaphorically but also literally, given that the devil was thrown from heaven by God and his angels), and "I hope my boy turns out just like you" (of all the leading theories, I think Satan is the only figure who's popularly conceptualised as having a son, or prophesied to have a son -- God obviously had a son, but that ship kinda sailed).

I think the "accountant" line refers to Honour (which even uses an invisible numerical system), and how John's fate depends on the number of both good and bad acts he's committed throughout his life, and how these weigh against each other. If the Strange Man likes to collect souls, then he would have a vested interest in auditing you and seeing if your accounts are in the black or the red, as it were (and providing you with opportunities to push yourself further into the latter...), because if you're bankrupt, you're his.

Blind Man Cassidy. Interestingly, Cassidy seems to distinguish between "Death" and the Strange Man, implying that he's something else beyond his understanding: in one of Arthur's fortunes, after his TB diagnosis, he says "the man with no nose [Death] is coming for you," but in one of John's fortunes, he says "Two strangers seek thee: one from this world, perhaps one from another. One brings hatred; I'm not so sure what the other brings."

Arthur's cut dialogue. In the files, there's audio of Arthur having the exact same conversation with Herbert Moon as John in the epilogue, asking about the Strange Man picture because he "just seemed familiar". I think it's interesting that, like John, Arthur also would have apparently recognised the Strange Man despite (presumably) never seeing him before. Given how strong a theme morality is in Red Dead -- and how much both John and Arthur struggle with it -- my theory is that they find the Strange Man vaguely familiar because they're both familiar with the evil within themselves, or the potential for evil; and likewise, the Strange Man "knows" John because he embodies evil in some sense, so is aware of John's worst sins (like his involvement at Blackwater), or possibly even all of his sins (which would be, like, a lot).

Honourable mention: There's such a greater emphasis on conspiracies, myths, etc. in RDR2 that I half-wonder if the Strange Man's RDR2 incarnation was partly inspired by Hat Man (~excuse the link~ but often it's hard to find good sources for the kind of weird shit R* includes in their games).

ANYWAY, this got a little long but I hope someone found all this at least passably interesting. Thanks again for letting me ramble about the video game man, anon!

[theuniversitychallengereview]

UC 51.03 - London Business School vs Hertford, Oxford

Since it was introduced at the 1988 Olympics, every single Gold Medal in the Women’s Team event in the Archery has gone to South Korea. Including yesterday’s win that’s nine straight victories, and their period of unparalleled dominance continues. The men’s team have also won six of the nine they have contested, and a mixed team won the first staging of that event in Tokyo too. Adding their success in the individual events, South Korea have won 26 gold medals, and 42 in total, in the 43 archery events which have been thus far staged at the Olympic Games. 

As Twitter’s own @tarequelaskar pointed out in the brilliant article which alerted me to this story, this is a perfect example of specialisation, an economic concept whereby countries or companies focus intensely on one particular aspect of a given industry and come to serve that niche in such a specialised fashion that they become the ultimate experts and nigh-on irreplaceable. This is done in government and business by providing companies with incentives to specialise, and supporting those who succeed at it. 

With respect to Korean archery, similar forces are at play. There are a bunch of professional teams and leagues in the country, giving archers financial stability while they focus on their training, something not as common across the world. Said training involves such things as practicing in live baseball stadiums and replicas of the Olympic venues, to mimic first the atmosphere and then the conditions that will be present on the day of the actual tournament. 

This philosophy of marginal gains - the same system used by Team Sky and Chris Froome to win multiple Tour De Frances on the trot - puts their preparation miles ahead of the competition, which goes some way to explaining their dominance. It is not the only reason. Before the fine-tuning of the elite shooters comes the discovery of the promising young ones, and the inspiring nature of past success (along with a historic national love of the sport) helps to create a virtuous cycle which give Korea a far larger number of archers to choose from than any other country. This greater choice means that there is a greater chance of finding the next Gold medallists.

Making the argument that professional footballers are at a higher level than other elite sportspeople, Michael Cox used this same argument in a recent article for The Athletic. To summarise, he stated that because there are a far higher number of people who wish to become professional footballers, that must mean that the ones who do make it are at a higher standard than those who make it in other sports. Initially, I was drawn in by the pure maths of this point, but having thought about it some more I’m no longer sure to what extent I agree. 

Now, the fact that hundreds of millions more people play football than rugby, or basketball, will certainly confer some level of “eliteness”, but only up to a certain point. Because football has been so popular for so long, the general standard of the play, relative to what it used to be, has had longer to improve. In the same way that if you transplanted a 100m runner from the Olympic final in the early 20th century to now they probably wouldn’t even qualify for the games, a footballer from the 80s would stand less of a chance of making it were they playing today. Many other sports don’t have that level of natural progression, afforded by decades of technical and tactical advancement - at least not globally. 

But the numbers argument only goes so far, as can be demonstrated by the Korean archers. Yes, there are more archers in Korea than anywhere else, relatively, giving them a higher chance of uncovering those with a natural aptitude, but the reason behind their bow and arrow dynasty is the specialisation. The hyper-detailed level of training and focus which allows them to be the best they can possible be. 

Now, archery is unique in that there is a theoretical maximum score (I understand that this is to some extent arbitrary, and related to the rules of the game as defined by some human being, semi-randomly, but it works in terms of this argument, because it gives a percentage score of how good the archers are based on the agreed-upon parameters of the sport), which, at the Olympics, is 720. The Olympic record is 700 (held by Korean Kim Woo-jin, giving an implied “eliteness level” of 97.2%. 

The best player in the history of football (don’t @ me) is Lionel Messi, and few would doubt that he operates at or above that level of perfection in his sport. But I also don’t think you could doubt that Novak Djokovic, or Serena Williams in her pomp, were similarly magnificent at tennis. Cyclists on the Tour De France put their bodies through more in three weeks than most people endure in a decade, and have every aspect of their training and diet strictly controlled so as to bring them as close to perfection as possible. There will certainly be a higher number of these elite performers in football, because there are a higher number of paying jobs for said elite performers, and because more people attempt to become elite performers, but I don’t think that it follows on from that that they are better at their sport than other elite athletes, all of whom have undergone years and years of specialised training to get them where they are.

Does any of this matter, in terms of how each sport should be enjoyed? Probably not, but its interesting to think about, and kind of awe-inspiring to try and appreciate just how good those at the top of their respective games are. And if there is some discrepancy in the level of eliteness between the different sports it doesn’t detract from the fact that they would handily dispatch any civilian challengers without breaking a sweat. The joy comes from watching people who are good at stuff doing that stuff - and, as evidenced by the crowds which gather for non-league football, it doesn’t matter whether or not they are at the absolute pinnacle of said stuff. They’re still going to be much better than the rest of us. 

Competitive quizzing is different from the activities previously mentioned in that any normal person can have a guess at pretty much any question, with a chance that they’ll get it right. What sets the contestants apart on shows like University Challenge is the speed of their recall under pressure - the quickness of their knowledge as well as the knowledge itself. But there are plenty of armchair quizzers who think they could wipe the floor on the show, so just how good are the actual contestants? (Compared to an elite footballer or archer on an imaginary scale that accounts for relative skill in all disciplines?). I don’t know (and in case you hadn’t noticed by now I’m just fascinated by people who are really good at anything, and wanted to share some of that fascination with you all), but I’ll try and have a go at answering it anyway. 

So, the World Quizzing Championships have been dominated by British and Irish quizzers since its inception in 2003, with 16 of the 18 winners coming from either Britain or the Republic of Ireland (who have four wins courtesy of The Egghead Pat Gibson). This, in my mind, makes this neck of the woods comparable to South Korean archery. It is a hotbed of talent, and the infrastructure is in place to encourage and aid talent maximalisation. Indeed, if you scroll down the list of highest ranking players at the WQC in any given year you can see a significant cohort of UC alums, so clearly there are a number of elite quizzers who have passed through the show. 

This specialisation can be seen in microcosm with the preponderance of top-level quizzers produced by Oxford and Cambridge, who both have a long-standing culture of competitive quizzing far beyond other Universities. The debate is there to be had on the fairness of each institution having so many teams, but clearly they produce enough elite players to compete with far bigger Unis when entering as (sometimes tiny) colleges. 

In conclusion, I think it is pretty obvious that UC is a breeding ground for world-class quizzers, and though no one has won a World title straight off the bat after appearing on the show, there are top-50 and top 100 finishes abound, which is still greatly impressive, and helps to give an idea of just how good these students really are. 

Hoping to justify the 1000 words I’ve just written about their exceptional talents are two teams from the London Business School and Hertford College, Oxford. The Oxford side have never made it beyond the second round, but LBS reached the semi-finals in 2006, their only previous appearance on the show. Anyway, there is quite literally no time for me to recite the rules; here’s your first starter for ten... 

Paxman mentions that LBS were in the show in 2006, but doesn’t mention that they reached the semi final, which is lazy imo. A bunch of them are studying for MBAs, which makes sense. He doesn’t mention Hertford’s previous appearances either, but that’s more understandable.

Hertford’s Hitchens takes the first starter with Kennedy, and the Oxonians added a full set of bonuses on words made up by authors - including a couple of educated guesses. LBS hit back with the next question, but can only manage one bonus on famous scientists. One of the two they miss is Rosalind Franklin, and Paxman teases them for not spotting an apparently obvious clue within the question.

The first picture round is on national emblems, and LBS are first to recognise that of Vietnam for the starter. They don’t know Laos or Belarus, but do know that Mozambique has a machine gun on its one. Butterworth then jumps the gun with argon on the next starter, giving his answer just as Paxman says it in the question. Butterworth makes up for it with the music starter, recognising Fat Boy Slim before anyone else, and LBS know Primal Scream and Wu Tang Clan too. They’re still fifty points behind though, and will need a big second half to turn things around.

This task gets more difficult for them, as Hitchens takes another starter. Lloyd adds a second in a row for Oxford and they are nearly one hundred points clear. LBS really need to get some points on the board, and Ruess duly obliges, knowing that there is a massive sculpture of a spider called Maman, which sounds needlessly scary, to the extent that I’m not even going to google it.

The comeback is ended before its even begun as Oswald takes a starter for Hertford, which gives them the picture bonuses - the starter having been dropped by both teams. Lloyd produces another excellent guess of Reuben, demonstrating how useful it is to have vague knowledge as well as specific knowledge. This is one of probably five questions he has answered in a throwaway manner, but which turned out to be correct. 

By this point LBS seem to have accepted defeat. Ruess takes another starter, but there is little to no urgency on the bonus questions. They’re right, granted, to have none, they have no chance of winning, but if they gave it a go they might scrape a high scoring loser spot. Ruess is the only one who seems bothered, and bags himself ten more points. They have an amusing discussion about methods of poisoning in Agatha Christie novels (’it was used as a curry ingredient?’, Ruess wondered aloud, trying to figure out which spices could be poisonous, before Butterworth pointed out that it wasn’t something commonly used as a curry ingredient, prompting respectful mirth from the audience) on the bonuses, but still languish miles behind. 

Lloyd grabs the last starter of the night for Hertford, who win by eighty at the gong.

Final Score: London Business School 100 - 180 Hertford, Oxford

At the end, Paxman mentions Hertford’s stellar guesswork, which means I wasn’t chatting nonsense (at least on that front, the jury is out on the rest of it), and says that they’ve done a really good job. Incredibly effusive praise for a score of 180. He really is going soft in his old age.

Phew, that was a long one. If you made it through the intro you deserve a prize. And that prize is that you get to come back next week for the next episode of this blog!! Woop woop! 

And if this wasn’t quite enough UC content for you then you can subscribe for extra blogs on my Patreon, which features Retro Reviews from the 2015/16 series of the show. Ta x

[benisasoftboi]

Unorganised thoughts on Trails of Cold Steel IV:

WHY ARE THEY CALLED CLASS VII?

WHO ARE CLASS VI?

Anyway - I started playing Trails in August, and I’ve finally, finally caught up (yes I know Hajimari I can’t read Japanese) and like... what do I do now?

It’s a fantastic series and I’m so, so glad I picked up Trails in the Sky on a whim last summer

This game was long. Is it longer than the other ones? It felt that way

The best part was the first chapter because Rean wasn’t in it and yeah I still don’t like him!!! But seriously, it was astonishing how much more I was enjoying things without him

I audibly groaned when goddamn bonding points returned in the second chapter

Actually that was a lie, the best part was Any Time My Angel Estelle Was On Screen

I missed her so much

I let her get the final hit of the game against the boss because she’s the best

Speaking of angels I caught three Wazy cameos!!!

Also Gilbert came back and if there had been a camera on me... I quite literally teared up a little I was so thrilled

I hate the curse it is dumb and rips all the nuance out of the characters. People do not need a goddamn evil curse to be swayed to extremes by overzealous nationalism. Trails I know you are better than this, I played Sky and Crossbell

Fav new location was Milsante (liked Alster too, though). I really like going to tiny little outposts and villages in JRPGs, they make the world feel more real

What the hell was up with the Osgiliath Basin? As in, Giliath Osborne??? Is this going to be a Hajimari thing?

Oh yeah, HOT TAKE, Alan Richard >>> Giliath Osborne. I was reading an LP of Sky FC while playing the game, and Richard’s motivation is clearer and less over-complex, more sympathetic, and he’s just generally a far more human character

Alan Richard best political antagonist in the series fight me (Rufus Albarea distant second)

For best supernatural/cult-y antagonist I’m stuck between Weissmann and Joachim. Or maybe Campanella lol

Oh uh speaking of characters named Georg I will never not hate everything about the George and Angie subplot. Angie should have died and George should have stayed evil, or it shouldn’t have happened at all. As it is, it was a complete waste of time - you could take it all out and NOTHING would change

Angie would have been the perfect character to sacrifice as well, she’s just important enough that it would feel like ‘oh shit’s getting real’ but not so important that it’s unbelievable

(like Olivier. I could not fully believe they’d actually kill him, and the moment Laura told me ‘they never found the bodies’ I was like, oh, so they’re definitely all still alive, cool)

I mean, it would be a Bury Your Gays, but honestly... there are things I like about Angie, but is anyone really looking to her as a lesbian role model? I hope not. Yikes

So yeah I guess I hate George now for getting my hopes up and then being boring. Shame

I did the Towa romantic ending, of course. I genuinely think she’s the best match for Rean, of all his love interests

Chaaaracters

Rean: Still the least interesting person. Not a good sign when I’m sadder about the robot dying than the main protagonist yeeting himself into the sun (side note, the two endings thing? Unnecessary and dumb). There is no reason girls would like him this much, blah blah I’ve said it all before. Liked his new hair. Honestly would have respected it if they’d had the balls to kill him off. I basically never even used him in battle lol, Juna became my new team leader

Juna: Honourary protagonist imo. I’ve changed my mind since CS3, she’s my fav new Class VII without a doubt. She’s just really good and full of personality and depth and OH GOD WHY IS SHE CRUSHING ON REAN WHY FALCOM WHY

Kurt: pls falcom don’t try to force this aroace king into a nonsense ship with Sully I liked her but what are you doing, anyway Kurt is great and he got cool new swords and he got to hang out with Mueller, who I adore, I love Kurt

Altina: I also love this little bunny. Her relationship with Millium is so lovely and seeing her grow and become her own person made me so happy and OH GOD WHY IS SHE CRUSHING ON REAN WHY FALCOM I LITERALLY SAID SHE HAS THE BEST RELATIONSHIP WITH REAN OF ALL THE GIRLS BECAUSE SHE DOESN’T DO THAT IN THE LAST GAME WHY DO YOU HATE ME????

Musse: Yeah I’m still not sold on Musse but I liked her better this time! I like a smart, confident girl! Just stop being weird about your teacher and we’d be golden!

Ash: Good boy. Sweet boy. Ash and Joshua game now Falcom

Alisa: Still cannot believe she’s presented as the deuteragonist by the marketing - but you know what? Solid arc, she got some closure with her parents, maybe she and Jusis can get together for tea and complain about their messed up families. She’s never going to be a character I like all that much, but I don’t dislike her. I just wish she hadn’t clearly been written as ‘Rean’s love interest’ before anything else

Elliot: I love Elliot, I really do. I mean, I wish he hadn’t been flanderised to the point of speaking in music puns half the time, but he’s a solid, consistently pleasant character

Laura: Goddamnit Falcom please give Laura anything resembling an emotion regarding her dad dying. Also you tell me she’s kind of oblivious and stuff but we never see it. I like Laura but she really could have been more

Machias: I love Machias, fight me fan base. He’s so funny to me. It feels like, at this point, all he really wants is a nice office job, near a nice coffee shop, where he files papers and sometimes gets to yell at corrupt rich people, but NO, he has to run about in dungeons and fight monsters, and are you FUCKING kidding me, ANOTHER crazy snake cultist!?!? It’s great, he’s the only one who’s just done with it all and love it

I low key headcanon that he and Jusis are kinda dating at this point, but we don’t see anything because the games are from Rean’s POV and they don’t want to tell him because they know he’d be weird about it

Jusis: I still really like Jusis! He’s interesting, and his surrogate brother-sister relationship with Millium is so sweet (yes, I saw that bouquet catch, Falcom, and I hate it, stop it, gross). Awesome to see him confront his brother, obviously I let him have the final blow. Rufus was a great antagonist. Jusis has some of the best development over the games, and is also really fun to use in battle (apparently I am the only one who feels this way though :/ ah well)

Fie: I was surprised by how much I liked Fie’s confession scene, seeing as I don’t like Rean/Fie at ALL. Fie finally gets to have feelings about her dad, and we see her working with Zin at the end! Very happy for Fie, best girl

Emma: Ahhh I still find Emma kinda dull and exposition heavy, but she also had a nice arc, I liked her relationship with Rose, all good

Rose beat me at Vantage Masters for 40 minutes lol

Gaius: It’s still extremely funny to me that Gaius became one of the most important people on the continent *off screen*. And he still doesn’t really do anything. He has his own airship now, I guess. Justice for Gaius

Sara: Kind of faded from relevance after CS1, but I do really like her all the same. And I loved her speech at the end

Crow: At the end his hair got darker and everyone was like ‘you’re back to normal!’ and I literally did not realise he was meant to have been looking different

But anyway Crow is a really good character and I literally never didn’t enjoy him. I love the bit where Jusis and Machias team up to call him a cringy edgelord, because they are right. Crow is fantastic

Towa: Towa has never done anything wrong in her life and all of Erebonia should pay for her therapy

Patrick: I cannot believe how much I love Patrick now, compared to CS1. He’s just such a sweetie. Good boy

Elise: Take her to the sun with you, Rean. Pointless character

Alfin: Is she the heir now? I hope so. She’s such a funny character, not my fav, but I enjoyed her

Angie and George: Should have died, moving on

Celine: I love her, but did she really need a human form? No, no she did not. Great character though

Tita: Special mention, because you know what? I do not like this version of Tita! Like I said, I was reading FC recently and she was so much better there! Now a third of her lines are just her saying ‘Agate’ in various different tones. And it feels like she’s lost a lot of her confidence, where’s the little girl who followed us up Carnelia Tower? I would have preferred them to just not bring her back at all

Duvalie: Haha I love Duvalie she’s great. Stop implying that she’s crushing on Rean. Literally WHY would she. Ugh

Rose: Everything about Rose is great, I would play a full game about her backstory. More Rose

Ships!

Obviously I like Machias/Jusis because I am BASIC

I didn’t like Olivier/Schera back in Sky, but you know what? They sold me. It’s cute (even if I feel Schera’s character was neglected in favour of Being A Love Interest, sigh). Though I’m not sure when Olivier made the switch from ‘Schera is one of many people I flirt with’ to ‘Schera is my one and only’?

But am I the only person who’s kinda on the Oliver/Schera/Mueller train? I’m not normally into OT3s, but Olivier and Mueller have one of the best dynamics in the series, and Schera and Mueller would probably get along great if they were ever allowed to properly interact. And you know Olivier would be down

Like I say, I do not like Jusis/Millium at all, it’s not a ‘I like another ship better’ thing, it just massively skeeves me out because of the maturity difference 

Ash/Tatiana was unexpected but adorable

Patrick/Elise, because I want Patrick to be happy and Rean to be mad

Also Elise/Alfin, sorry Patrick

I hope Anton and Sharon really do get together. Sharon deserves unconditional love and Anton deserves a happy ending

Sharon also deserves to hook up with Sara like once

I also sort of feel like Sara/Claire would be fun

I’ve actually like Gaius/Linde from CS1, I’m happy it’s kind of a thing now!

If Lila/Maybelle is the LET’S GO LESBIANS Trails ship, then Emily/Theresia is LET’S GO BABY LESBIANS

Vincent/Margarita. They’re both horrible people. At least this way no one else has to deal with them

Joining my Kloe/Josette in the ‘crack ships I love that have very, very little canon basis’ is Fritz/Kairi, based on their interactions in that one mission and then that they’re eating together at Mishelam. It’s pretty much just a height differences thing, lol

Miles/Elnan. I have literally no justification for this

Other stuff There was this one scene where Gaius says how nice it is that Mueller cares about Olivier and Mueller just snaps his head round and the scene ends, and I don’t think it was meant to be funny but I laughed for like a full minute

The intro to the music at Mishelam is extremely creepy to me

I love the Pom Party mini game a whole lot

There were... a lot of typos in the second half of the script. It’s massive, so I’m not mad, but I hope there’s a patch at some point

BERYL BERYL BERYL BERYL BERYL I love her

Uh if we’re still doing romance next arc please give us a gay option, no Crow did not count

I hate divine knight battles! I really do! That last one against Ishmelga was really hard and not in a fun way! In a ‘this is bullshit fake difficulty’ way. Please don’t bring them back!

The true final battle, though? FANTASTIC, now THAT is a final boss! One of the best in the series, like that’s such a fun gimmick!

I got it trapped in break state and spammed Heaven’s Kiss/Quick Star, because I’m a strategic gamer 

I am embarrassed by how long it took me to recognise Lucy

KLOE CAMEO!!!

Oh and I assume Kaela is going to be important next arc, since it’s in Calvard?

I love Thomas??? And Rosine???

Why was the grandmaster reveal hidden behind watching the ending twice, why do that? Great scene, though

My theory is that she is Aidios, I will cling to this for as long as possible

I probably have like a million other things to say that I’m just not remembering right now. Look forward to random shouts into the void about it in upcoming weeks, followers

I really enjoyed this overall, despite the problems I mentioned above. It was just fun, I like the cast, the gameplay is great... just a solid game

Trails is a really fantastic franchise - not perfect, but what is? I’ve had such a fun time with it over the past half-year, and I cannot wait to see what happens next. Thank you, Falcom, the localisation team, the VAs - stellar job all around

This is normally where I’d end on a joke but like. Nah, I’m just happy. Cue ‘The Whereabouts of Light’

[jalapenocupcake]

SU White Diamond

I'm going to be critical and talk about the new 1 hour special, so there's going to be a lot of spoilers under the cut.

So I'm going to say what was good before I critique the bad/off stuff in the scene. We get an entire scene dedicated to White Diamond being an awful manipulative dictator. Which is great! We finally see what makes the main antagonist of the series so powerful, so terrifying! She zaps people and makes them her puppet slaves! Cool! A power befitting of an evil dictator! And the visuals were amazing! Maybe a slight animation error here or there forgetting the location of gems (blue and yellow swap places) but it wasn’t distracting from ait's a beautifully animated scene where Steven becomes Steven.

There wasn't a lot of dramatic tension going into this scene imo. Steven and Co just drop in from the mecha fight, and we see the crystal gems get zapped by the laser eyes. Nobody really does anything to avoid being hit? Yes, Amethyst has an excuse, she was blindsided. But not Garnet, Pearl, or Steven. Garnet and Pearl are also, well, warriors. They fought in the gem war, and suddenly they don't have the capability to realize they're in danger? After seeing their friend get zapped, they just sit there and make no attempts to dodge or attack or anything? Like I understand this is nitpicking but it would've been cool to see the crystal gems do something in this scene, and not just stand there like deer in the headlights screaming "No don't do this".

Then we see white talk about the impurities of the CGs. And honestly? She has a point. Steven doesn't help the crystal gems with their flaws of insecurity, dependence, or obsession. He's usually just kinda there, giving them a pat on the back and giving a thumbs up, but not helping them with their shortcomings to better themselves. Pearl is still obsessed with Rose/Pink Diamond and still can't let go, even having a crush on mystery girl, a dead ringer for Rose. We never see Garnet unfused, except when Ruby and Sapphire disagree, and when they are unfused both Ruby and Sapphire can't really function on their own. And Amethyst is actively trying to work through her insecurities but it's not through Steven she's getting better. We can even kinda see this from Lapis in Can't Go Back. She voices concerns to Steven and he pretty much pats her on the back and says she's perfect, while she's conflicted and terrified and trying to explain it to Steven.

The scene kinda devolves from there. Steven defends his friends having flaws, White Diamond gaslights him into thinking he's his mom. (Sidenote, White knew Rose was Pink and said nothing to the other diamonds. That's messed up.) And then white removes Steven’s gem. I think it's funny that when Steven was reforming,  White's lines are "I only want you to be yourself" as she's shooting beams at him, when she was just saying how she wants everyone to be perfect just like her, and using the same attack that turns gems into her puppets. It doesn't really match what's happening. 

But other than that I really liked Steven coming together and loving himself, and not being Rose. I thought it was a great character moment for him and really capitalized on showing us his relief that all the doubts he had about himself weren’t warranted, and that he is, and will always be, just Steven. 

From here on the scene stops making sense. We see White lose her cool, which should be scary. The matriarch of an intergalactic empire who puts an emphasis on everyone being the same, who’s wiped out entire civilizations to expand her  own, is screaming and having a fit. She has Steven’s friends hostage. We’ve seen Yellow and Blue cower in fear before her, and they have voiced that they are afraid of her.

So what does Steven do in this circumstance? He mouths off to her and says “I’m a child, what’s your excuse?”, which makes White Diamond embarrassed. This doesn’t make sense from what we’ve heard about White. Why would she be embarrassed, and why would this quip not make her angrier? If Blue doesn’t even know humans need to eat food to survive, why would White know what a child is? Why would she care? She refers to humans as pets and constantly dismisses them. Why would someone making fun of her make her stop and think about her actions, especially when we’ve seen yellow and blue get angry at this kind of disrespect? More importantly, why is this path of action chosen over more reasonable ones that would be more in line with the plot thus far? Steven has made it pretty clear he wants to have heart to hearts with everyone and convince them they’re wrong rather than fight it out. So why not go that route, with the established notion of perfection versus imperfection, maybe have Steven point out that everything has flaws but it’s what makes everything unique and interesting, point out he has flaws and is half human and to white a lesser being but is still strong, still capable and make the point everyone should be loved or something? He could loop back to Blue and Yellow’s earlier pleas about fixing the family, and that if White controls them are they really themselves, and can they truly be happy? 

Then White relinquishes control of her puppets and she’s “off-color”, what’s up with that? Was White always off color and no one in her entire empire, not even her fellow diamonds, could notice she wasn’t perfect? Or did Steven mouthing off to her somehow make her off-color, with the pink motif spreading from her and changing the room color? Was it the work of Steven’s empathy powers forcing White to feel empathy for imperfect gems and destroying White’s status as perfect? And in any case, why does she care? She leads homeworld, she makes and enforces the laws, she’s destroyed other civilizations for existing, why would it even matter to her that she’s not perfect? She is the standard for homeworld gems, she’s the top of the food chain. Of course, this isn’t to say powerful people can’t have flaws and feel ashamed about them, but what part of her is flawed? Is she a grey or pale pink diamond, being literal off color? Can she not perform her assigned function like Padparadscha, was she over or undercooked like Amethyst? This part of the scene doesn’t add up. It feels too convenient that White is/was an off-color, and that being the only thing that pushes her over to Steven’s side. We never see her apologize for anything she’s done either. It’s somewhat implied at the end during the montage of White, Yellow and Blue coming to earth and fixing the corrupted gems, but for an episode called “Change your mind”, Steven never actually convinces White she’s a bad leader, that her caste system is too rigid and harsh, or see him actually make a case for the Earth being worthwhile. For me it didn’t feel rewarding to see White be won over how she was. Comparing White to Navy of the Ruby Squad, who was the only villain Steven attempted to redeem and fail at it, it’s a little strange Navy is harder to win over than White Diamond.

And I do get it, one of the central themes of Steven Universe is forgiveness and redemption. But seeing the main antagonist of the series won over so easily didn’t sit right with me, especially considering all the horrible things she’s done that is never even touched upon. Maybe I’m thinking way too hard about a show about rocks for kids.

tldr; The white diamond scenes were pretty but weren’t well written. WD didn’t live up to my expectations and I felt she was converted too easily and conveniently to the good guys.

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Also how does Shadow Futaba break the game?

(sorry for taking so long btw, took awhile to type) Oh geez where to begin… Ok I think I should note I did talk about my issues with Shadow Futaba (or at least how I think saying she’s “P4 dungeons but better” is a vast insult to P4 cause no she is not, as well as what I’m about to go in here too but screw it might as well try to restructure my issue on her as a Shadow Self). And I’m only going to talk about the Shadow Self, not the….wholeass issue with how cognition is kind of inconsistent in her dungeon compared to the rest of the game (nor the fact we 100% didn’t need to face the Spinx, the biggest BS fight we are forced to endure when we didn’t have to, second only all the mid bosses in Shido’s dungeon :/).

So like….S!Futaba makes no sense, not sure if I remember saying “break the game” (I probably did), but she does create issues (in both P5 and other games).

So let’s get some points established. Shadows are usually stuff we reject (usually dark/bad but sometimes light/good, S!Futaba is the latter). S!Futaba is the manifestation of Futaba’s will to live, she wants Futaba to live, she also has the positive memories of her mother in her (this isn’t important tho, we’re gonna just focus on the living part cause that’s where the issues are). S!Futaba has no control of her dungeon (due to Futaba’s unstable state I guess). Other Shadow Selves in P5 are shown to be on the same page as their hosts and to be running the show/dungeon (aka they are acting on their desires).

Ok we got it? Good, so where’s the issue. So Futaba’s suppose to be special, not just cause she has a positive Shadow (but that is one thing), but because she has no control over her Palace. Right? So her not having control, would mean she wouldn’t have any influence on Futaba like the other antagonists (for example: Kamoshida, Kamo is def letting his Shadow run wild, Shadow Kamo thinks he’s a king and can do whatever he wants, Kamo irl does the exact same thing irl albeit it in a way he doesn’t get caught outright).

So explain…..why in the every loving fudge does Futaba’s interest line up with S!Futaba? Both don’t want Futaba to really die, that’s why Futaba got in touch with the PT! To keep her from killing herself! If her Shadow was not in control, why would Futaba do something her Shadow would probably want her to do (aka find some sort of help/activate some kind of living instinct)? And we can’t say “oh she was really in control” cause she states she is not. (Cause I mean, if Shadow Futaba embodies Futaba’s will to live, and if she was in control of the Palace, I don’t think Futaba being suicidal would be the issue. If anything the issue would then be that Futaba wants to live so bad, she doesn’t care who might get in her way and will harm other’s to do it…..not sure how without trying to think up unrelated scenarios, tho Suzaku from Code Geass comes to mind, but that’s probably how the extreme desire to live might manifest in a negative-distorted way).

So basically there’s a big issue with no explanation.

We have a character who is rejecting their will to live, and thus a positive shadow self is created to embody it. But that shadow self can’t control the palace, and thus the will of the host and shadow self shouldn’t align…..but some how they do. But how does that make sense? “I don’t want to live and I want to kill myself….but I’ll somehow have enough self preservation to want to still live?” Like……it’s weird. Chie was jealous of Yukiko, but she denied it, and pushed it down, down down down so that she couldn’t wouldn’t acknowledge it, she rejected it, and did things to try to hide the jealousy she didn’t want to acknowledge herself. And was only confronted with it when she was forced to via P4 means. Futaba doesn’t show the same form of rejection to her own life, which makes it really weird she wants to still live, when we’re suppose to believe she doesn’t and her Shadow is the true embodiment of her will/want to live. Cause then were’s the rejecting going on?

There’s also the fact Futaba believes she killed her mom, and the Shadow is supposed to be a rejection of that falsehood (as Futaba didn’t, and representing the truth instead). But for a good portion of the dungeon Shadow Futaba is like “I killed her, I should die, I must die.” And then later she’s like “Lol jk, you totes didn’t kill your mom.” Like pick a thing gdi. Are you being misleading on purpose? Or did the writers just change what you represented half way through? Or did they not realize the implications of their own dialogue? It’s kind a stupid to mislead tbh (and she’s def not helpful, I get you have no control of your palace but you aren’t exactly helping Futaba when we are legit the people who are trying to help Futaba, and Futaba asked and you know this and WHY DO YOU SUCK SO MUCH??? just be more helpful! freaking Metis had more of a reason, no she stated her reason for not trusting SEES, because technically they were going to screw the world over with their guilt/depression. But there’s no reason to distrust the PT, or at least not at least help them more while keeping an eye on them just…..if you had Futaba’s best interests in mind, you’d take the help that was being given a bit more seriously), anyway, it’d make more sense if Shadow Futaba was like “Futaba thinks she killed her mother” instead of “I killed my mom”.

There’s also the fact we have another character who is suicidal in P5 and the way their shadow acts is…..very….very different. While we never see it, it’s heavily implied by the game that Shiho’s shadow is what drove her to attempted suicide in the beginning. But that’s…..strange….. We have Futaba, who has no will to live (at this point theoretically cause the game’s not backing it up what it’s stating anymore, cause again, her Shadow IS her will to live and Shadows are made by rejecting shit so *flips table*). But Shiho’s seems to be embodied by her rejection to her want for death as a means for escape her pain/prison (as Shiho also stated, she didn’t wish to die she wanted to live but also wanted to escape and rejected the idea of killing herself as a means until it became too much). As she said, it felt like someone was whispering in her ear to just do it. And…..that feels more logical as a Shadow Self tbh, she rejects it, but soon succumbs to the shadow (similar to other Palace owners and Mementos bosses do, they succumb to their desire for something, in this case it was probably Shiho’s desire for escape). But why is it so different? Shiho wants to live and rejects death as a means of escape before giving into that desire like so many other Metaverse Shadows and Hosts (aka their desires line up). But Futaba, who apparently rejects living and has a Palace her Shadow can’t control (and thus doesn’t seem to be able to influence Futaba), yet somehow they are on enough of a page to seek help….despite so much apparently working against them…..and there’s no explanation.

Now if Futaba was similar to Shiho, and she was rejecting the idea of killing herself, but her Shadow was the embodiment of her suicidal tendencies she was ignoring. That’d be one thing. Sure she wouldn’t be a Positive Shadow, but it’d at least make sense without trying to bend itself over backwards at the very best, and at the very worst bending over backwards to just fail and create issues and never fix them (which seems to be the case imo). Or you know, just focus on her mom issues and just……nothing to do with the suicidal bs? That part is a bit cleaner, well on Futaba’s end, Shadow Futaba is being wishy washy with her fudging dialogue so who the fudge knows. Or you know, if they wanted to full lean into the positive shadow thing, have Futaba actually not reaching out for help but someone else (maybe Sojiro, or maybe Tae might even know about her) and asking on the Phansite for help with a suicidal girl. That would mean S!Futaba can still be positive, and it doesn’t cause issues with irl Futaba (and they can keep the rest in the dungeon relatively the same, I mean make S!Futaba not be wishy washy with some of the stuff she says but other than that it’d work out better lore/world building wise).

There’s also the fact she sucks as a positive shadow self. She’s emotionless compared to Metis, and sucks at trying to protect her host unlike Metis. For a Shadow that’s really concerned for her host, she doesn’t really show it, nor does she make too much of an attempt. This isn’t so much game breaking as much of a disappointment character/writing wise she is (as both a positive Shadow Self, and just a Shadow Self in general). Like, shit, tbh Metis is basically Aigis’ will to live too (as well as emotions), since Aigis was basically just going to off herself (well basically, she’s gonna turn herself off) at the end of the day too, with Metis being like “Hell no *ties a bunch of pillows and bubble wrap around Aigis* YOU ARE GONNA LIVE, I’M GONNA PROTECT YOU! AND IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO YOU, LIKE IF YOU DIE, I’M GOING TO KILL EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM AND THEN  MYSELF! BUT THAT’S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN BECAUSE YOU ARE GONNA LIVE TOASTER-ONEE-CHAN!” Like writing wise, S!Futaba is such a downgrade from Metis, like I’m sure some might find Metis annoying, but god DAMN did that Shadow have conviction. And like while I think it’s just bad character writing on S!Futaba’s end, you could very well make the argument that it might be a world building issue too. Aka, “They’re basically the same kind of shadow but they don’t…….act or react in the same way…” And like when I mean same, I don’t mean they need to be exactly the same beat for beat. S!Futaba could totally be a bit more chill than Metis, but having similar consistency to Metis would….just make more sense than not having similar consistency.

[love-y-o-u-3000]

Okay, I forgot about something VERY important so I had to rewrite that post... which isn’t really that bad because writing meta at 3 AM on mobile... not the brightest idea. So, anyway... I of course copy + pasted some of what I have written which I still agree with. 

My third take on this, now considering the fact that John’s phone buzzes differently in different scenes AND the details I completely forgot about before.

I THINK and I basically base this entire post on this - that there are six scenes in TST where we can hear John’s phone buzzing. Four times buzzing taking a pause and then buzzing again. Twice buzzing just once. And I think that when it buzzes just once it indicates that scenes are fake. The pictures above are from all (I think) the scenes where John’s phone buzzes twice, pictures 1,2,5 and 6. 3 and 4 and 7 are there for a different reason, I’ll explain.

Now, I think that when they showed the montage of John cheating, while all of them were sitting in the plane, it was mostly fake, except, they snuck in two real scenes and that is the John in the kitchen scene and John texting “I am not free”. I am more or less, sure about the first one, not SO sure about the second one it’s just bugging me terribly and that scene (pic 7) simply fits no narrative save for one. But back to the kitchen scene, he already did the smug surprised/pleased smirk once before deciding whether to throw it into the bin or not so why acting exactly the same way again?

Maybe it won’t make much sense to anybody, maybe it’s terribly stupid but I really think, that the scenes where John’s phone buzzes only once are the sign that the scenes are fake. It buzzes just once in the second version of the bed scene and in the scene where John and Mary both get a text from Sherlock. But in this scene these texts from Sherlock are signed, why? When in the first bus scene Sherlock doesn’t sign his anymore and coincidentally enough, John’s phone buzzes twice when he receives them. They changed the buzzing between two scenes in the bedroom for a reason, imho, to indicate that one of them is not real - the second one. BOTH those scenes where John’s phone buzzes only once come after Sherlock and John’s trip to Morocco. At that point his phone only buzzes twice in a FLASHBACK to the kitchen, the second flashback to the bedroom however is already altered so it buzzes just once. Now, back to screencaps. I arranged them in the order I think the real events happened. John doesn’t flirt with the woman, woman doesn’t bite her lip and she is already fiddling with that ticket, as somebody already pointed out. Which means, she was most probably delivering the number and it is not her own. 

He looks a little uncomfortable, awkward smile, etc. not really that interested like in the second version, the typical John, BUT he still runs his fingers through his hair. And it has also been already pointed out that once John leaves the bus he puts something in his pocket, which means that LiR E most probably handed him the number in the bus. And THEN what follows at some point some day at 11AM, idk when because John, unlike Mary John changes his shirt every fucking second, John checks the number for the first time in the kitchen, imho. Then grins, like he used to grin when Sherlock did something clever, those were the good times. Now... we have two options, the Johnlock option and... well, not a Johnlock one. 

Option A, the version where the scene in pic 7 is real: It unfortunately makes a little more sense this way, he was probably smirking because a random pretty woman gave him his number hooray he can finally get some. And he most probably texted *her*. And, yes, the scene is unfortunately most probably real. But we never get the real version of the other half of the bed scene, so we do not know how their relationship continued. But we know how it ended. John saying that it is not a good idea, he is not free, I firmly believe that the scene is real but I might be wrong of course. So it seems that in the end it really was cheating, but John probably didn’t sleep with her, they just got to know each other a little.

BUT for whatever mysterious reason we are led to believe he did. The second, altered bedroom scene “it’s been too long” and “miss you” and John checking whether Mary is already returning were fake but on the first glance you, you must get the impression that they have been sleeping together for months already while in reality they were probably, hopefully just texting. Which doesn’t make it any better tbh because I don’t understand this character “development” it would make me like John much less, I simply wouldn’t be able to trust him any longer, I am already having  major issues with all this. Because such texting is still cheating, the temptation was still there he still grinned like that because that woman gave him that number (if we consider this option real) and… ugh just what happened to developing his and Sherlock’s relationship? Never mind, anyway, the point is, John having an actual affair with that woman still must be a part of covering up the truth of who actually shot Mary, somehow, idk how. Because the next time John receives a message and it buzzes just once is when he and Mary are summoned by Sherlock. And I consider that scene… not really what happened at all.

Option B, the version where the scene in pic 7 is not real, because that damn scene really makes me question everything (because you know, that scene makes it sound like they didn’t sleep with each other, that they were only texting, contrary to what the bed scene 2 is implying, which is why I believe that this option 2 is probably just wishful thinking and pure speculation):  

I have to put some johnlock googles on for a little moment for the sake of… idek, it just makes no much sense to be Sherlock? 

But anyway, back to the kitchen scene, let’s imagine it was Sherlock sending LiR, along with a secret number they can communicate via with John. 

We don’t know what LiR E told John in the bus in the first version of that scene before handing him the ticker. Maybe she told him enough for John to figure out whose number it really is. John texts “hey” and they made the point of saying that Sherlock deletes the texts that start with HI nobody said anything about HEY though. We could argue that after John texts he gets a way too rapid answer and Sherlock is practically always on his phone, but bear in mind that he texts the number he just saved, so that isn’t Sherlock. Unless Sherlock switched phones or is using one to communicate with John only, but… that’s a… major stretch… ignore that. But, in this version, it is possible that John’s pleased-i am gonna-fuck-that-woman smile is in fact pretty-damn-smart/sherlock-is-brilliant smile, John figuring something out, who is the one who sent the woman (which COULD be Sherlock, he is the one who suggested the bus, right? too bad that it was in the scene that definitely happened AFTER the woman already give him the number... well, but there is still a chance that if he suggested that once, maybe he suggested that before as well, you know, if anything he is well aware of john using bus to travel to work)

Now, let’s imagine Sherlock and John really are in cahoots and they’ve been using codes (yes, okay, vampire and night owl might actually be codes between the two of them, but the scene is twisted so it looks like they are from LiR E, that scene is 100% fake but the text messages might have been real, since we never see them in the first bed scene... although they sound nothing like Sherlock but if you want to believe that then be my guest, this scene is fake anyway imo so it doesn’t really matter) and secret phone numbers to communicate this entire time, prepared to take down Mary, pretending for all that time. Remember, they must have started tracking the AGRA flash drive even BEFORE Mary stole it from Sherlock. Then Mary runs away. They follow her to Morocco. But it’s exactly where the fake unreal stuff starts getting even more fake and unreal. It’s in the plane where we get those two altered scenes. LiR E’s reflection in the window. But... Sherlock’s already used to creating wonky alternate universes while sitting in a plane. It starts getting awful from THIS precise moment where John touches Mary’s hand, the second he touches her Sherlock suddenly appears on screen.

Well, John forgives Mary AGAIN, without actually saying the words “forgive you“ but not in reality, this is Sherlock’s narrative. Hell, maybe John was actually pretending to forgive her, still ready to take her down. It is NOT a coincidence that from this moment on we get scenes where John’s phone buzzes only once, except for a flashback which who knows when happened. This is Sherlock’s version of reality, John forgives Mary, John chooses Mary (again) but then on their flight back we get the sequence of John actually cheating on Mary, having an affair with Lir E and now having to feel guilty for it. We get some fake scenes some real some altered, because for whatever reason, John having to have an affair with that woman is somehow important. Like, you can imagine how, if they have to cover up the fact that they have been secretly talking about taking down John’s wife. It is a smaller crime, to cheat on your wife than plotting her doom with your best friend.

Well, then they return to London and... well, fast forward, Sherlock texts both of them, John’s phone buzzes just once and Sherlock SIGNS his text even though he didn’t do that in the beginning of the episode... nor in any other scene actually, except that one? Which screams FAKE. That scene is part of Sherlock’s massive lie, just like everything that happens in TST. But this is like a triple bluff, a lie wrapped up in a lie, hints of hallucinations every now and then. Like, I still do believe that John might have been the one who shot Mary so the entire point of Sherlock changing the details and imagining that John forgave her again, is to cover up the real story. No, Vivian didn’t shoot Mary, John did, but they have nothing on Mary, she is known and recognised as a lovely innocent wife (seriously, do Mrs Hudson and Molly and Greg even know she shot Sherlock???), not an assassin, they would have no proof even if she was threatening either Sherlock or John. John would be a murderer. So they had to make up this story.

And now here’s the saddest part. The version of reality Sherlock chose to sell the world is the embodiment of John (Molly)’s words (a little out of context but still).

“[John] said he’d rather HAVE anyone but you. Anyone.“

Now, fast backwards...

John pushing Sherlock away, refusing his help, BLAMING him for everything that had happened. Loving Mary much more he had ever loved him.

John choosing a random woman from a bus over Sherlock, there was never any plan, no deal between them, the number that woman gave John was actually hers and they texted/sexted/slept together, John is a cheater, he doesn’t smile down at Sherlock’s texts in this version, he smirks and flirts with that woman instead

John forgiving Mary, choosing her over Sherlock (again)

Like I realise that this is most probably totally confusing incorrect and wrong, everything. But still...

TL;DR: The main point, the scenes where John’s phone buzzes once, it indicates they are fake and/or altered somehow imho. Also, Sherlock is sad and in love with John but he doesn’t know what to do about it. Also, they might or might not be in cahoots.