#or maybe i fail to commit

[starcrossedspirit]

I'm kinda thinking about role playing for tes again. It's been on my mind the past few days but I can never tell if it's just me entertaining the idea or actually wanting to do it lmao.

[spicyraeman]

I love the domestic bliss of shadzel raising lil baby xan, but something about single mom lae'zel is incredibly compelling

[jichanxo]

playing LJ and idk what’s in the japanese water but Yagami is INSUFFERABLE!!!

He’s so fucking annoying his only argument is “muhhh sawa sensei” when Kuwana, Reiko or Ehara say the horrible things their kids endured like SHUT UP!!!! Reiko and Ehara’s children killed themselves bc they were bullied, I understand and support them fully for getting revenge, especially since the justice system is shitty when it comes to such cases

Did you feel the same or am I tripping?

putting this under the cut

sorry i know you sent this days ago and maybe your opinion has changed since then but i'll answer the best i can? (also i hope i don't accidentally spoil anything ahahah)

this take is not uncommon (and i felt the same at some point, though i've since changed my mind) so no, you're not tripping lmao. despite changing my mind, the fact that people say this pretty regularly probably means the writers didn't execute the idea as well as they could have. i would say that it feels clumsy and almost like a joke (cue sawa-sensei counter) to the point that it detracts from the point they're trying to make. i think some people will disagree with me on this -- rather than the writers, it's the players who aren't fully understanding what's being said to them in the text -- but regardless of whose "fault" that is, yes it's a Known Thing

(funnily enough, during my first playthrough, my sister mentioned seeing a meme about "sawa sensei" getting repeated a lot, and by the time the 2nd/3rd time hit we were like OH MY GOD THE MEME WAS REAL. which is a funny memory to me. lmao)

i think the thing that's getting lost here is that the "sawa sensei" argument is not meant to discredit how kuwana, reiko and ehara feel about the injustice. this part is not in question. yagami's stance on doing illegal shit is also not relevant to this conversation (and i'm not sure i could provide a compelling argument on this front anyway, aside from that he's very anti-murder, lol. clearly he does illegal shit himself so he's not against doing illegal shit based on principle alone. depends on circumstances probably)

sawa gets brought up because she clearly did not deserve to die. almost everyone agrees that sawa was a good person. kuwana puts her on a pedestal for confronting him about kusumoto being bullied, idealises her and muses that she would've understood him for what he's doing (killing people. and this is clearly a stretch). reiko says that sawa was the only person who visited kusumoto in hospital without an ulterior motive, which is one of the best testaments of character that she could give, really, imo. ehara probably holds a negative opinion of sawa for her false testimony about there being no evidence of bullying -- but this was clearly done under pressure of the people around her, and ehara's opinion is the exception to the rule.

so, sawa is a good person. so what? who cares? what's the point of bringing her up?

the point of what kuwana is doing is that he sees it as a way of righting the wrongs that the justice system leaves unaddressed. he needs to believe that what he is doing is right, because it gives him purpose and distracts him from his guilt.

sawa's death contradicts this. even if he and reiko didn't kill her themselves, it's proof that their extreme actions have negative consequences. they can say that the system is wrong, look what this monster did to my son, etc etc. but what they are doing also harms innocent people. the justice/revenge/whatever they pursue is at the cost of other innocent people. sawa herself represents the unforeseen cost of kuwana's self-imposed mission to kill bullies. they can justify themselves all they want, but sawa's death is a reality they can't talk around. they acknowledge she was a good person, but she died because of their actions. is this a worthwhile cost? yagami doesn't think so.

and the thing is, kuwana and reiko can be persuaded.

at least, that's kuwana's opinion about reiko

and later he says this about himself.

these screenshots are pulled from a youtube video w/ english dub so take it with a grain of salt, but you get what i'm trying to say here.

i think the repetition is the point. they agree sawa was a good person. they can be persuaded away from their current stance (that murder is an acceptable response). by repeating himself, yagami is using the argument that's most personal to them, mostly likely to convince them. repetition is not a bug, it's a feature. whether or not this was conveyed well by the writers is another argument altogether, but yagami's point itself is sound.

truthfully, i think LJ could have benefitted by leaning into what makes this case personally compelling to yagami. if you're not paying attention, the "but sawa sensei" argument can feel pretty flat, but putting emphasis on yagami's experiences would help it feel more rich and justified aside from "innocent people dying is bad" (even though that is a sound argument on its own). he does mention emi, i believe it's only once, so it's not like they don't do it at all, but i would like more. the impact of emi and of JE specifically is that yagami doesn't like to leave things unaddressed when he can do more, and that's clearly a motivating factor here. he won't leave kuwana alone for as long as there is 1. something yagami can do about it and 2. kuwana still intends to keep killing

think about the fact that yagami's parents were killed by someone seeing vigilante revenge, both a deeply personal tragedy, and a life defining event that set him on the path he walks now. leaning more into that would have helped, or at least been interesting, in my opinion. obviously it's not 100% the same since yagami's father was the lawyer and not the accused, but the key parts (vigilante justice + collateral damage) is there. of course yagami is trying to change kuwana's mind. not only does yagami understand kuwana's pain wrt the pain of inaction (yagami's regrets about emi) but he's experienced the aftermath of collateral damage, himself.

of course, yagami's personal experiences are only relevant to us, as viewers. sawa is still the best argument to convince kuwana and reiko (and i can easily imagine reiko brushing yagami off if he talked about his backstory LMAO), so that's what we get. sawa is what matters to them, so sawa is what he will keep reminding them of. that's why the sawa argument is what it is.

we can get into discussions about the inevitable failure of the legal system and what that means for "real justice", but we would never come to a consensus. instead, i think it's better to look at how kuwana and reiko are impacted on a personal level by their actions: neither of them have moved on, even after seeking their justice. they remain stuck in the past. their actions grant them no closure, and robs them of a future (reiko as a politician and mother, kuwana as a humble handyman: but as far as we know, a pretty damn good one considering how well he was able to leverage his connections to avoid being caught this whole time... at least in my opinion)

when kuwana argues, he asks how they should seek justice if legal avenues don't grant it to them. he asks, "what about the reiko kusumotos and akihiko eharas of the world?" he is right to point this out.

when yagami argues, he asks how revenge can be justified if innocents will suffer (and die) for it, even unintentionally. he asks, "what about the yoko sawas of the world?" he is also right to point this out.

there is no easy solution. they both have a point. that's what the story is ultimately about. kaito says it straight up at the end of the game:

well, that's my take. admittedly i'm not as well versed on LJ as some people are, so i could be remembering and paraphrasing some things wrong. i've seen people who really like LJ's writing, and others who straight up hate it LMAO, so yknow, your mileage may vary. hopefully this will at least help you understand the other perspective

if you want to hear another take on the sawa sensei argument, i'll put this here. i drew on it quite a bit while writing this, so yknow, credit where credit is due.

[badolmen]

My Zionist uncle, who spent a lot of time in Israel in the 80s: …and these Catholic monks - y’know, because the Christian Arabs sided with the Palestinians against Israel - they would get these imported cars, fill them with explosives and leave them in the Israeli parts of Jerusalem. Catholic monks! So this one monk tried reporting them to the Vatican and…

Me:

[internetgiraffekid1673]

If I have to explain to one more 40+ year old that I'm on a break from college because the last time I was there the germs and my anxiety medications attempted to murder me in quick succession AND THEN have to listen to them say "you're too young to have health problems, these are the best years of your life," I am going to fail at homicide.

[sticcmann]

Fucking arcane finale tomorrow??????????? Am I ready or not idk

[news4dzhozhar]

“The Worst of What Humanity Is Capable Of”: Pediatrician on What She Saw in Gaza

You can watch/listen to her full, disturbing interview at the link above.

[fortune-maiden]

CXS’s mother’s comments about someone else causing instability in the timeline is reminding me again of this post about a completely unrelated time travel series and its explanation on superpositions and observers

idk if that’s how the rules in link click work but it’s fun to think about

[depresseddepot]

weird thing about me is that I am so serious about new year's resolutions that the last week of december feels like I'm in one of those "preparing for war" montages (but in a good way)

[orangememesicle]

i have my own issues with arcane’s ending but i don’t… think they’re the same ones everyone else has.

[monstermoviedean]

A most holy man doesn't even exist to me it's so goofy and dull, so it's nice to see you also not appreciating it

i'm not going to remember that episode 48 hours from now and i'm fine with that actually!

[a-wins-a-win]

unpopular opinion?? maybe?

Matt & Ivy have a really interesting dynamic!! both pre- and post-canon!! with or without romantic undertones!! either reciprocal or one-sided!!

and obviously it has to be handled with a particular level of care/respect BUT I think if we allowed them enough grace there is space to explore a really interesting possibility for that relationship.

[istherewifiinhell]

"Let's all stick together, maybe watch some television while we wait. Unfortunately, I don't think that there'll be any good shows on during the middle of the day on Sunday."

Uncle Hideyoshi tried to stir up this gloomy atmosphere, acting cheerfully.

"Uu-. Good show, watch it, watch it. Uu-uu-!"

"Oh, really? Will Maria-chan watch television? Then, come and watch it with me."

I appreciate the fuck outta him for these momumental tasks.... my god.

[yellowjacketsource]

dont worry gang i have secured my preorder of the ben funko

[mystacoceti]

the invasion of ukraine and the hamas terror attack showed how many american leftists are just motivated by a guilt over being american which struggles to expresses itself as anything other than a reactionary anti-americanism. and then the fucking kicker is how many of the "radical" leftists protest and organize in ways that are comfortably within the wheelhouse of liberal protest.

[icequeenbae]

It's taking me sooooooooo freaking long to finish my wips. The ones I'm working on will probably be posted as mini-series like Desert Flower or Love Coach, too long for one shots.

In the meantime, I keep debating whether I should take some requests? At least to try it out. I have an extreme amount of plots and ideas stored in docs, but writing something short and easy to finish once in a while should be nice. Although I am not sure this format is my thing tbh... I dunno I dunno