#while The Big Plot revolves around them

[esteemed-excellency]

I don't have enough animation skills for this but I'm thinking about an animatic with Hiram's butler and the Deviless' maid: the screen is divided in two sides and the pov follows them around during a random day. On one side the maid plans the Deviless' social schedule, welcomes people at her place etc, while the same thing happens on the other side with the Butler at Hiram's townhouse. At one point they move in sync by shutting the doors in the face of two particularly annoying guests. They both make a 😒 face, and it looks like they're looking at each other to complain together.

Towards the end they swap sides, as the Deviless sends the maid to Hiram with a letter, and he replies sending back the butler with some flowers. As they go back to their respective townhouses they meet in the same location to chat for a bit and the scene becomes one. The video ends with the synced split screen again as they return to their lodgings at the end of the day, closing the entrance doors at the same time.

[notebooks-and-laptops]

Why Fenris could Never Cameo in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

In the run up to Dragon age: The Veilguard, I was almost certain that Fenris would be our main legacy character from previous games. Not only has he been central in the comics released between DAI and DATV, he is an escaped Tevinter slave who's plot revolved around magisters, magic and the structural prejudices surrounding elves in Thedas. Not only that, but he's canonically in Tevinter killing slavers currently so he's geographically in the right place for us to meet him.

About halfway through the game though, it was clear to me: Fenris could never cameo in The Veilguard. Because he'd break it.

How the Veilguard treats Thedas is...odd to me, to say the least. I will be writing another post about how much I adored the expanded big lore in this game (the titans, ancient elves were spirits, where the blight came from etc.) and yet while these large lore expansions worked for me, the actual culture of modern Thedas is entirely softened, its sharp edges filed down until it's a sanitised fantasy world devoid of what made the franchise so vibrant and compelling in the first place.

So let's start with Fenris and slavery. In all three games, the reality of slavery is pushing at the corners of the world. In DAO Loghain allows Tevinter Magisters to enslave elves in order to raise money for his war effort. In DA2 Fenris is fighting to be free from slavers who will not leave him be, let alone the reminders that the city was built by slaves which are everywhere. In DAI one of the two possible mini-bosses is Calpurnia who was a slave, and characters such as Gatt and Dorian both show us how much slavery is tied into Tevinters culture and success.

But DATV the first game actually set in Tevinter where we get to see the famed Minrathous...it's like the game purposefully wants to avoid the issue. I can feel it tilting the camera away to not allow me to see. Slavery is mentioned, but never talked about in depth or as a specifically ELVEN problem in Tevinter. This might have been done to be less problematic, it feels ignored.

We are in DOCK TOWN. We are at the DOCKS. You would think that slaves from all over Thedas who are being smuggled and bought by various groups would be everywhere. You would think that the injustice in dock town would be partly built on the back of ships we've seen in the comics crammed with elves in chains. This is the world Dragon age set up for us. And yet...nothing. zilch. A tiny easily skippable side quest where we free a couple of venatori slaves, but only one of whom is an elf.

None of our Tevinter characters seem to have been influenced by their culture even a little bit when it comes to how they view elves; there is no moment when Neve fucks up and says something prejudiced, no moment when Bellara or Davrin are distrustful of her for being a Tevinter mage.

The same goes for Zevran; a character who epitomised the issues with the crows. The crows have consistently been characterised as very morally dubious assassins who kill for the highest bidder and who buy children on the slave market and torture them as they grow in order to assure that they reach maturity able to withstand torture without giving away a client's name. Zevran is very explicit about the fact that if you fail a contract your life is forefit.

Nobody responds particularly to you if you're an elf. Nobody trusts rook less for it in Tevinter. Nobody treats Rook any differently. Even DAI had better mechanics for this; with nobles in Orlais less likely to trust you as an elf.

Considering one of the main plot points of this game and what makes Solas sympathetic is the fact that he was fighting against the slavery of ancient elves...you'd think the game might want to mirror that in modern Thedas. It might want to show us how characters fighting to end slavery in Tevinter are similar to Solas and how the society Solas fought against was similar to the one that characters we love such as Fenris have fought against in modern Thedas. Maybe we'd want to explore how in a world of slavery like this, how could the answer NOT be to tear it all down? Maybe we should have that option at the end of the game so it really can chose whether we agree with Solas and his plans or not.

Adding Fenris to this game would entirely break the game because Fenris refuses to allow you to look away from this horror. He is a sympathetic character who had to learn to trust mages again because of course he didn't trust them. Of course he didn't. Fenris wouldn't allow the camera to shift focus because he's literally covered in the lyrium scars that show how slaves are used as experiments in Tevinter. Fenris WOULD question Neve on how she feels about elves and slaves. Fenris WOULD have things to say about Lucanis and the crows (let alone the fact Lucanis is an abomonation). So he could never be in this game; he'd drop a bomb on it's carefully constructed blinders to the very society its supposed to be set in.

And yet, in DATV, the crows are presented as...a found family of misfits and orphans? The politician who opposes the crows having absolute power in Antiva is framed as a comically evil idiot who doesn't understand that the crows are ontologically good. Yet...they're NOT. Crows in this game act more like a secret rebel group than an assassin organisation. We see no crow taking contracts with the VERY RICH venatori magisters despite being hired killers. We see crows just refuse to kill people despite having a contract because 'its crueler to leave them alive'. The crows don't feel like the crows here, they feel like a softened version of a cool assassin group who are cool because they wear black and purple.

Our pirate group are also sanitised; the Lords of Fortune are good pirates who only steal treasure that's not culturally significant. Theyve clearly read the modern critiques of the British Museum and have decided to explicitly stop anyone levelling similar critiques at them. There is no faction of the Lords of Fortune who aren't like this, no internal arguments about it. Everyone just. Agrees. And is able to accurately tell what a cultural artifact is vs. what treasure that you can have yourself is. Rather than showing us why a pirate stealing cultural artifacts might be bad (like in da2 where such a situation literally causes a coup and a war) it just tells us it's bad. But also pirates are cool so we still want them in our world.

This issue seaps into Thedas and drains it of any of the interesting complexity and ability to SAY anything that this franchise had before this game. It becomes a game about telling and not showing rather than the other way around. The games have ALWAYS asked questions about oppressive structural systems and their interplay with society, religion and culture and how these things can affect even the most well meaning character. Dragon age at its best IS a game about society and how society functions both for and against it's characters and what happens to societies built on cruelty and indifference. The best bad guys dragon age has given us are those who are bad because they embody these systems or have been shaped by them. Our main characters have had to wrestle with questions surrounding how to exist in these systems, fight against them, learn and grow.

Yet every group you come across in DATV is sanitised and cleaned up to the point of being as non problematic as humanly possible. None of our cast of characters have to wrestle with where they came from or the world that shaped them. None of them have to confront their own biases. They start the game perfectly non-problematic and end it that way too.

And this just...isn't what Dragon Age has been in the past. It isn't why I love the franchise. The whole game just felt, in a way, hollow. And this was a CHOICE and it is why the legacy characters are few and far between. Too many dragon age characters are just too...angry and complex for this game. You can feel them pulling their punches on this one. I have to imagine they did this because they didn't want to be criticised or have too much controversy? But I think it honestly goes far too much in the other direction and just makes it bland.

I can't imagine what I say here will be unique, but it is the basis for a LOT of my other thoughts on this game so I wanted to get it out of the way first. The softened Thedas and characters make this game by far the weakest in the franchise.

[gghero]

uhhh... squeak a way out? that might have worked better if I'd made any of these characters a rat or whatever. ah well

full lineup and thoughts under the cut!

these were a ton of funnnn I wanted to play around with animal assignments for a while. characters like Akane or Ace already have strong themes going on but I wondered what about the rest and well here we are

my favorite anthro designs are those that really emphasize the size differences between species. maybe these are not completely accurate but they're accurate enough to convey the sense of scale I think. These were referenced both from pictures of the real life inspirations but I also studied and referenced sketches and concept art from the Zootopia production because its kind of the energy I was going for

As I said earlier, most of these assignments are just based on vibes, though there are some fun themes and ideas I also wanted to play with.

Junpei is a ram because I like the idea of him being a herbivore that nonetheless has pretty powerful means to fight in his horns and powerful legs. Also theres an idea somewhere in there about him being a sacrificial lamb of sorts in the plot of the second nonary game

The Fields are very obviously dogs to me. Friendly, intelligent and fiercely loyal but at the end of the day they are carnivores that can and will use their teeth and claws. A personal headcanon of mine is that they're half siblings, so this allowed me to play with mixes too! I knew I wanted Clover to be a Cavalier King since the silhouette allowed me to translate her hairstyle pretty seamlessly, and I kinda became obsessed with Aussievaliers while researching mixes

The Kurashikis as rabbits fits surprisingly well. It's the obvious choice for Akane, and if they weren't related by blood would have probably made Aoi a rat or a badger, but him being a rabbit too fits surprisingly well even from a meta narrative point of view since a lot about his character revolves around Akane. I went with the harlequin variant because I like how it plays with the duality theme for both of them... though Aoi is albino himself so he doesn't have black patches, haha.

Rhino for Seven because he's big, strong and imposing but mostly chill. Lotus as a frilled lizard because the mental image of that temper of hers making her frills go wild was pretty fun.

Kubota is a pigeon because I read somewhere that perhaps his nickname might have been Pigeon if he'd gotten to choose one due to a Japanese pun/onomatopeia thing with "ku/kyu" and pigeons. And there's some fancy pigeon breeds that have crazy feathers that resemble his hair (though unfortunately these breeds struggle to groom themselves)

Ace as a lion is also pretty obvious but it just fits so well. Looks noble and reliable on the outside, subverts things a bit by being a bit of a cowardly lion, but he's still an apex predator that can be pretty brutal

Finally we don't know much about Nijisaki or Musashidou as people, but I wanted Nijisaki to be a canid too so the body swap plot still makes some sense, and I feel like the cultural associations to foxes also works with the cunning second in command vibe he has going on. The silver fox's coat color simply translates into his design better than a red fox. Finally, for Musashidou I wanted a larger animal that looks like it has the kind of gravitas and aura of power he gives off so I thought a walrus made sense, especially since the tusks and rounded head also translated parts of his design pretty well!

anyways thats about everything I have to say about these! I honestly dunno if I'll ever color them because I tragically saved over the file with the separate sketch layer so I'd have to redraw everything... thanks for reading all of that if you made it here!

[tossawary]

There has to be a term already for when stories accumulate this... "narrative debt" that they end up not paying back. When stories fail to stick the landing when it comes to character development or thematic development, a mismatch between what the beginning of the story apparently constructed and what the final scenes ultimately ended up being.

I want to compare it to "The Empty Mystery Box Problem", almost, where the story lays on twisty element after twisty element to pull you into some great mystery, only to ultimately reveal that the writers never had a cool explanation for any of this and were pretty much just jerking the audience around to keep them watching for as long as possible. It has a similar feeling of investing your attention, only to get nothing satisfying and to feel betrayed for caring.

There's a disconnect between author and audience. A sense that perhaps the author, who has their own visions in mind, is not even aware of what they ended up depicting in the execution. As an audience member, I do sometimes have to ask myself, "Was I just projecting my own arcs onto this while the author wanted to do something different? Am I upset just because I didn't get the resolution I anticipated?" And sometimes I come to the conclusion that, no, if the author always intended for the story what they claimed, then they did it badly, and the parts that I found resonant were definitely there, just... perhaps done accidentally and/or carelessly.

Like, let's say that there's some show that ends up depicting a protagonist who has substance abuse issues.

The show repeatedly shows the audience that the protagonist feels dependent on alcohol, we see lots of shots of them drinking, often at very inappropriate times. As the plot goes on, the show even appears to be showing us the consequences of this addiction, in that the character's relentless over-drinking apparently negatively affects their job performance, their love life, their relationships with friends and family. The character is miserable, perhaps even explicitly expresses some of their depressed feelings, and it seems obvious that taking a known depressant is a big part of this tangle. There may even be some looming threat that if the protagonist doesn't get this issue under control or get help, there will be even more serious consequences.

So, we've spent aaaaall of this screentime dwelling on this obvious character problem, but then... well, one way for the story to handle it poorly is to just not handle it. It's just never really addressed. A potentially great character arc about someone struggling with addiction just fizzles out because the plot climax takes up so much space that you think... maybe the writers... somehow forgot that they made unhealthy alcohol dependence an enormous part of the character's life? Maybe???

Like, there's not even a visual cue at the end that the character is now making an effort to tackle their addiction or something. There's not even a single line of dialogue in the epilogue to tell us that the protagonist went through rehab and they're sober now or something. What you may have read as a very serious problem just vanishes overnight. A story element that ate up aaaaall that screentime just never gets any satisfying resolution.

I'm not saying here that I need to see the story handhold a character through the rehabilitation process. It's not a requirement that all characters overcome their addiction by the end of the story. Sometimes, a story ends a little sadly, yeah, or is an outright tragedy. Sometimes, one problem is solved and another sticks around. I just think it's disorienting when I THOUGHT that the story was trying to actually say something about substance abuse, they spent all this fucking time showing us scenes that revolved around that element, and it turns out that the writers were like, "Oh, yeah, I guess! We weren't really thinking about that as a serious problem. We mostly just had the protagonist drinking all the time because it looked cool, and I guess that part ties in pretty well with how they were fucking up their life, actually, but we dropped it because we didn't think it was important."

The OTHER way for a story to handle an arc like this poorly is to do a total reversal at the end. The author is not only blissfully unaware that they have been telling a nuanced story about substance abuse until now, they don't even think that addiction is real. The ending yells really loudly: "Not ONLY is this character's drinking actually NOT a problem! It helps them save the day! And also every other character has been super mean to them about this; everyone else needs to grovel at the protagonist's feet and apologize for saying super mean things like, 'Don't you think it's inappropriate to show up drunk to a child's birthday party?' Because the WORLD would have ENDED if the badass protagonist hadn't been doing the objectively correct thing of being hammered all of the time."

At which point, the only thing to do is leave the show behind, because caring about it is a waste of time. But it's hard to stop thinking about it because the show paid all of this time... into a narrative element that felt SO obvious and crucial and like it was going somewhere... and it was an accident??? Like, the story was good when it was making all of these interesting promises, until the end came around and it turns out that it couldn't pay the bills and/or never had any intention of paying.

"The Empty Mystery Box Problem" except the box is wide open the entire fucking time and there's cool stuff in it, but the writers apparently aren't paying attention to the box or what they're putting in it!?!?!

[youryurigoddess]

Thy Kingdom Airways

Attention all passengers, please fasten your seatbelts. We are preparing for take-off. This time our analytic journey will revolve around planes as a recurring motif in Good Omens 2 and possibly Good Omens 3. Since a part of this post will add some new crumbs of information about the ongoing production to the discourse, please make sure to spoiler tag your replies accordingly.

We’re starting literally at the beginning, AND YES, I’m painfully aware that this is my third time breaking apart this particular scene from the new title sequence (Peter Anderson, I’m in your walls). We’re witnesses to the Second Coming brought to us via Thy Kingdom Airways.

And this big silver plane is actually a part of some good old — literally 20-year-old — spoilers from the never published Good Omens sequel:

Director Douglas Mackinnon personally chose the poster for A Matter of Life and Death / Stairway to Heaven (1946) to appear here as well. The movie itself is referenced multiple times in both seasons of the show, but what interests us here is the fact that its MC is a British pilot who dies in a plane crash.

He gets another chance at life due to an angel’s error and eventually must argue for his life before a celestial court, hoping to prolong his fledgling romance with a radio operator who shared his last moments on Earth over the airwaves.

Douglas is also responsible for the movie playing in the background of The Resurrectionist pub scene in S02E06 — The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), a biopic of Charles Lindbergh, the pilot who made the first nonstop solo flight from New York to Paris.

To finish the transatlantic flight, Lindbergh has to stay awake for 33 hours (33 happens to be biblically significant, i.a. as the age of the crucified Jesus). He succeeds by talking to a fly that had buzzed into the cockpit and reminiscing to it about his life (via flashbacks).

Once an accident, twice a coincidence, three times a pattern, right? So there’s a plane. And a character traveling through time and space to navigate some dangerous circumstances. Looking for help or… clues? The danger is either their own feelings or something more ominous here.

Flash-forward to 2025. It might be completely off, but considering the overall panic I think it’s worth mentioning that I found some crumbs of information suggesting a Good Omens film shoot with a certain amount of angels at an airport right now.

I was casually screening the extras’ profiles for Good Omens 3 the other day, as one does to learn that e.g., one of them is a professional contortionist (really!) and after a while, it came to my attention that a few of the profiles repeated mentions of “angels”, “2nd unit angels”, and “airport” across a few days in late February. Interestingly, some of them also listed sword fighting skills and law enforcement background underneath.

The implications seem obvious to anyone familiar with the plot of the unpublished Good Omens sequel and what I just shared above: please take a minute of your time to consider Aziraphale in a new suit, new hairstyle, a headset, and surrounded by at least one unit of angelic bodyguards in dark glasses.

Now, the filming dates in question consist of days and months only, so technically could also refer to their Good Omens 2 work since some (not all) of the extras were also employed by the show at the time. And Heaven’s corridors scenes could be shot at an airport instead of a studio, right? But the thing is, the background angels seen on screen in S2… don’t seem to match the profiles I found.

A perfunctory social media screening revealed one mention of Boeing 737 interior scenes filmed this month in the area, at Dunsfold Aerodrome. Is this connected? No idea, but if at least some of my speculations are correct, a follow-up exterior shoot at an airport would make sense.

Another interesting crumb that may or may not be related in some way is this photograph from the set shared by Guy Spangler, a professional dressing props specialist and armourer on Good Omens 3. Not quite the big silver plane of Thy Kingdom Airways we’re waiting for, but still!

[binniesangel]

late night baking | s.reid x reader

genre: fluff!! duhh

content warning: none!!

content: husband!spencer, reader is afab, pregnant reader (its mention but not the whole plot), girl dad!spencer, spencer is the best dad obviously, spencer and reader have a daughter together, this is cute, so yeah, wrote this with impractical jokers playing in the background

wc: 629

spencer was the kind of dad you fantasized about when making your ‘future life’ pinterest board at sixteen. some might think, that due to spencer’s awkward nature, he would be a confused and clueless dad. This, was not the slightest bit true. together, you and spencer were expecting your second child, a daughter. You two also had another daughter, a three year old little girl. already, he was an amazing father.

even though spencer was swamped with his intense career every day, he still made you, your daughter, and your baby the top priority. over everything and anything else. your daughter was a toddler, and her entire world revolved around spencer, he was her favorite person.

adeline, your daughter, helped you around the house and stood by your side all day long when spencer was at work. but, when spencer got home, she was glued to his side. everyday she waited by the door and looked out the window.

and today was no different. adeline stood on the couch, staring out the window the second you told her “daddy’s almost home from work, addy.” when those words came out of your mouth, she darted from her playroom, jumping onto the couch. you followed her, a fond smile on your face as you watched her.

a big gasp ripples through addy’s body, as she sees spencer’s car pulls into the driveway. she jumps up and down on the couch shouting, “mommy, mommy look!! daddy’s home!!” before plopping off the couch and going straight to the front door. you could here her small feet tapping all the way down the hallway.

you made your way over to the door behind your daughter, and as soon as you did the door opened. spencer’s tall frame came in, shutting the door behind in. he grinned, immediately leaning down to pick addy up, holding her easily with one arm, the other holding a briefcase.

“hi there, sweetheart, how was your day?” spencer asked addy, brushing her messy blonde hair out of her face. addy smiled, almost cutting him off mid sentence, “good!! me and mommy we- we had a tea party, and, and then we made a fort!! And she said we can make cookies tonight!!”

spencer raises his eyebrows, looking at you, you just laugh softly in return. “did she? well, I guess we have to make some cookies then.” spencer said, seriously. he put addy down, walking over to you. pressing a small kiss to your forehead, and putting a gentle hand over your stomach.

“c’mon, c’mom!!!” addy rushes, grabbing spencers hand and dragging him to the kitchen. you smiled at your little family, disappearing behind them into the kitchen.

baking with a rambunctious toddler was messy to say the least. spencer was a germaphobe, but when it came to his precious daughter, that didn’t matter.

you were heating up the oven, while spencer was mixing the cookie batter. addy grabbed the chocolate chips bag off the counter from the chair she was standing on, dumping almost the entire thing into the bowl of batter.

the force of the many chocolate chips falling in caused a bit of flour to puff up into the air, some falling onto addy’s nose. your laughter rang out through the kitchen as you watched the scenes unfold. spencer looked at addy with such a look of fatherly love, brushing the flour off her nose. “that’s a lot of chocolate chips, honey..!” he teases.

but addy just nods confidently, “mhm!! chocolate makes everything better!” obviously, the two of you complied.

it was moments like these when you knew spencer was meant for you, he kept you sane even throughout the toughest times. Yet, he brought such joy, warmth, and love into the small family you had together.

[bunannabun]

as a whovian since 2009

ive NEVER spread hate on anything the series did regardless of my opinion on their decisions and plot holes and whatnot, and boy oh boy is not easy being a whovian ive been accepting everything with an open heart, yeah you wanna retcon shit? you wanna leave a plot open for ever? you wanna over do nostalgia? alright, i'm here to have fun and love all the things that made me fall in love with the series, i can ignore things that were not my taste, DW was never about being a flawless production anyway, it was always about HEART but you know what? I can only be so patient for so long! This finale has a list of things that made me watch the whole thing in denial, not wanting to believe my own eyes, trying my best to trust the show until the end just to end up in desbelief and as frustrated as i was watching Star Wars episode 9. And you know what, I could still take all of this shit but i can only be so patient when it comes to dealing with BIPOC characters with so much cowardice. So take my hand and let's take remember how RTD writes them? I will not even take into account the annoying outcast boyfriend of female (white) lead, Mickey, or the let's play with Asian stereotypes but hide them under an alien mask, Chanto. let's look at the big ones, shall we? Martha Jones - had one great episode centered on herself as the great heroine at the end, and it's implied she becomes this motherfucking cool UNIT agent that we don't get to see much. Collaborates with torchwood, etc. BUT, her own series: always is standing on Billie shadows, always rejected by the 10th for not being Rose, always humiliating herself for a one sided love, like despite her brains and her skills her life was revolved around that alien man. No so much important as she could be (she had potential to be greater than Billie even) compared to all other companions on RTD era including the ones that last one episode. and that's it for RTD 1.... RTD 2: he did some nice things: got our first officially Black Doctor (remember we still have Jo Martin pending, no one knows her story yet), he did an entire episode with 100% black cast taking the Doctor to Africa (bc Ncuti asked). First time 100% non-white Tardis, as Belinda Chandra becomes companion. Great. BUT

instead of introducing our first black doctor normally, there's a twist! He had to share his big moment, big reveal, big spotlight with David Tennant - for fan service purposes. Has our first black doctor sharing the tardis with a white blond girl (and don't take me wrong, i love Ruby, just stay with me here a bit), alrite, she has a black wonderful family, super well written, super charismatic. 2nd companion Belinda. Don't even have a whole series for herself to shine. I don't feel her like a companion at all since she don't even agree to be there and it's all only circumstantial. She's a great character, but don't show so much grow. Disappear for a whole episode that we have Ruby back (the episode is great, but again, keep with me here cause i have a point). Ruby is the one that saves the day on the finale (both Wish and Poppy issues) while Belinda is more like a background character. The Rani: once again, comes from a white character and has to share her big entrance with her. Is underwritten has always to share screen time with Ms. Flood and presumably dies at the end while her white counterpart survives.

Jo Martin is not RTD's fault, but he DID had time to fix this and chose not to. We had literally seconds of her onscreen. Then we have Ncuti regeneration. Beautiful scene, beautiful moment with Jodi, but come on! Not even Eccleston had so little screen time as the doctor as he had! And he had to regenerate on a blonde woman only for fan service purposes again??? Can we see a pattern here? BlPOC RTD's characters always stands on white characters shadows, they're always underused, always have to share their spotlight and this kinda make it seems that all the positive representation stuff he had done in the series was for show this is sad, is frustrating and i can't tolerate this anylonger quoting Eccleston here: "Sack Russel T Davies" (i mean absolutely no hate to anyone from the cast, great team, great actors, only love to them)

[blossomthepinkbunny]

So the latest episode of Helluva Boss was really...not good.

It had some fine aspects. I didn't mind the song as much (at least from how it sounds, it's fine) the plot is interesting on paper, meeting Satan was kinda cool (though I'll get to how I actually feel about him later), Andrealphus was animated really energetically, it gave some room to have Stolas own up to his shit, the moments of care between Blitzø and Loona were kinda sweet.

But overall, it was just incredibly undercooked. I wanna start with the apparent fatphobia which was probably more prevalent in this episode than ever. We see Mammon literally stuff his face with food as all the skinny (sympathetic) sins watch with disgusted faces.

Even the sin of gluttony looks disturbed, because drinking, partying and eating excessively is apparently only cool when you're not fat (even though she has no reason to care). Also, it's truly incredible, how one of the few characters that is explicitly named as not wanting to be fucked by anyone is also the only prevalent fat character there is in HB. And the question is also, why that was apparently the only thing Bee had to rub in Mammon's face, when he was confirmed to be Asexual and has never seemed to care about that stuff. It sometimes seems like the only Insults Viv's characters can come up with are: "You're just mad I'm hotter than you" or "You're just mad, people don't want to fuck you". Really hurtful guys, really savage.

Moving on to Satan, he was hugely awaited and his debut just kinda eh. He has to share his debut episode with all of the other sins (which also includes the two sins we were anticipating too) as well as the awaited character of Vasago, another appearance of Striker, more development for Andrealphus, a huge turn for the Stolitz relationship and big emotional moments, which really overshadowed him, to the point he barely left an impact (at least to me).

When we look at the Asmodeus, Beelzebub and Mammon debut, while there were definitely other important moments that didn't necessarily revolve around the sin (esp for Asmodeus), there was still the feeling of some grand reveal. That just wasn't there for Satan. And since Leviathan and Behemoth were also just dropped in this episode pretty unceremoniously, I don't have high hopes for their official debut.

Satan didn't even get a Musical number or something to show his business and how he embodies the sin of wrath. Asmodeus had a song to explain his Sex club and the episode took place there, Beelzebub had a song as well and the whole episode showed the parties she was throwing and while Mammon didn't get a song, the episode in general centred completely around his business and competition. Satan was just kinda there. He is a judge apparently for whatever reason, how that relates to his wrath, I have no idea. Unless you want to say that he uses the trials to take his anger out on the subjects by punishing them, but he also has an anger management coach...why? Just to have a new ship between boss and employee to push? (Which would be the more cynical reading as opposed to something Viv didn't really think through or care to explain enough).

So Satan wasn't that good and neither was the revelation that HB has no serious main antagonist. This show can't have smart villains, it seems like it's just allergic to that. Fizzarolli and Asmodeus are good guys now, Verosika is not a serious antagonist/villain, Barbie has done nothing that would warrant her becoming a new main antagonist, the Agents of D.H.O.R.K are literally named after being unserious and stupid and they and the CHERUBs have not been shown to be intimidating or anything. And Crimson doesn't feel as important, since he has no real personal gripes with Blitzø or Stolas (who are pretty much the main characters now).

Striker is so stupid now that he can't even remember two lines of dialogue and who is mostly just a henchman for other, bigger villains. Stella has been consistently portrayed as stupid, not even remembering to mention probably the most important fact that could help her and her brother win their case.

Then there's Andrealphus, who was probably supposed to come across as the true mastermind (get it?), but he is also not really smart at all. What was his plan with the trial? Why wouldn't he involve Stolas in the trial if the whole point was, that he finally has something that he can use against him? Andrealphus was happy about the illegal stuff Stolas has been doing because he can actually report him to the authorities now and can take his part. So it makes no sense that he would make Blitzø seem guilty in the trial, cause that would just end in Stolas being seen as innocent. If the trial had worked out the way Andrealphus had planned, then Blitzø would have been executed and everyone would assume that Stolas is a victim. Wouldn't that go against everything Andrealphus wants? It would have been smarter for Stella and him to gather genuine proof of the illegal activities Stolas was assisting with and then they could tell the truth in the trial, which would lead to Stolas being found out and Andrealphus being able to get a deal as compensation.

The fact that Stolas showed up saved their whole plan, but it couldn't have been planned like this because Stolas showing up only happened because A: Stolas was conveniently watching TV and saw the trial happen; and because B: Stolas actually decided to show up at all. Two things that Andrealphus could have never predicted precisely, as to put them into his plan.

So Andrealphus' unfinished plan that doesn't make sense leads us well into discussing Stolas, which seems almost unavoidable when talking about any new HB episode. First off, the scene between Stella and Octavia was probably put there to portray Stella as a bad mother, but it didn't really succeed. The show needs to understand that there's a difference between being a bad partner and a bad parent. It isn't uncommon for people to be totally nice to their partner or child, friends or coworkers and be absolutely nasty to someone else in their life. Unless they show Stella being actively neglectful or abusive towards Octavia (as they have with Stolas), there's no reason to assume she's a bad parent. Especially since Stolas still allows Octavia to visit her, which you'd assume he wouldn't do if he was the good parent and she was super abusive or didn't care about her daughter at all. Also, Stolas is just fine with dying in this episode to save the Imp who still realistically doesn't owe him affection after his sacrifice. And all of this without even thinking about how Octavia would be left in Stella's complete custody, which would surely not be the responsible thing to do, if she was truly as abusive to Octavia as the fandom tries to portray her.

And in the end Stolas is finally the powerless, helpless victim that he's been pushed as. How nice. He confessed to some of the stuff he put on Blitzø, but it's done in a way, where it's now expected of Blitzø to immediately forgive him and take care of him. He can't have time to heal and make the decision to help Stolas, Stolas needs him now! Can't he go to some of the people that would be much more equipped to take care of him? Why not Asmodeus and Fizz? They don't seem to have a problem with him and they even have connections to Blitzø, so the two could still keep in touch while sorting out some stuff on their own. Why not some of the goeita that seemed to feel good towards him? Vasago could take him in and we could have him involved in the plot like that.

But nooo, Blitzi has to help him, he's his soulmate and just has to forgive him now! Stolas told the truth so now everything is fineee!! I can't be the only one who notices that Blitzø always has to deal with the stuff he causes in brutal ways, like being hated by his best friend for a long time, losing contact to his sister, having a whole party of people who lavish in their hatred for him, getting constant reminders of everything he does wrong and how much of a broken person he is.

And then Stolas has to face his consequences for once (in a way that isn't even as brutal as it could've been) and now he immediately has to be cuddled and coddled and everything has to be forgiven. I don't think the constant demeaning of Blitzø and the coercion will be brought to focus. Because everything is fine now and anyone who complains is just kicking someone while they're down I guess. Stolas even gets a goodnight kiss. A great way to forget about how Blitzø was nearly almost actually killed and can't continue his business in the same way now. And it's not as if Stolas bathed and tucked him in after that happened. How nice.

[paarthursass]

Of course everyone is entitled to their own opinions, stories will click differently with people depending on their experiences and preferences, etc etc.

However at this point I am going to be INCREDIBLY skeptical of anyone who tries to genuinely say that Nocturne is worse than the original Castlevania series.

As someone who deeply enjoyed the original Castlevania show, it was flawed. Season 2, though it had fantastic moments, was paced terribly. The show kept going back and forth with "Dracula's generals are plotting and arguing again" and "Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard are still in the library researching" for episodes on end. It ended on a high note, but god was the middle portion of that season rough.

Season 1 of Nocturne also had its pacing issues, but season 2 was so much tighter in comparison. While there were some lulls in certain plots, there was always something else to keep up the energy. While Annette, Richter, and Alucard were in transit, we were getting Drolta backstory and Maria was having her patricide moment. There was always something to keep the tension and momentum going.

I also think the relationship development in Nocturne is miles better than it was in Castlevania. I adore Trevor and Sypha, I do, but the show put very little effort into actually showing the development of their relationship. They bantered in seasons 1 and 2, and then season 3 we timeskipped ahead to when they were already in a relationship. I was fine with this, but I do wish the show had given them more development so we could see how that relationship came about. By contrast, the development of Annette and Richter was so good this season. Richter's unconditional support and unwavering in faith in Annette was incredible, and seeing him stumble over himself and be an absolute goober around her was endearing and cute.

And speaking of Annette, the development she, Maria, Drolta, Tera, and Erzsebet got was phenomenal this season. What's more, the narrative absolutely revolved around all of them. And while I adore Sypha and Carmilla and Greta, I will also be the first to admit that the original Castlevania show struggled when it came to the arcs for its female characters. Sypha was well-rounded and fleshed out as a person, but the show was never, really, about her. The big character arcs were saved for Trevor and Alucard, Sypha herself wasn't ever truly given the same narrative weight as them in spite of being part of that core trio. Carmilla also took a severe backseat after season 2, with the show never really going into any sort of depth to her motivations other than "evil girlboss." We get glimpses into her backstory, but no further depth is truly given. Compare this to what we were given with Drolta this season, which was incredibly fascinating. The show was able to make her a deliciously evil villain while giving her a sympathetic enough backstory that, while not excusing her, gave some fascinating insight into how she became who she is now.

None of this is to retroactively call the original Castlevania series bad of course; I still love it dearly and rewatch it frequently. However it did have its weak points, weak points that Nocturne has massively improved upon. As someone who went into this season with tempered expectations (based on previous seasons of Castlevania) I was absolutely blown away by the writing this season.

You are free to dislike characters, to prefer who they were in the games, or to prefer the cast of the original show. But at this point if anyone insists that Castlevania: Nocturne's writing is bad, I do have to wonder if they've actually been watching it.

[the-crooked-library]

I noticed something near the end of Dracula when Jonathan and Mina separate for a final time (so she can go to Dracula's castle), that a difference between Harker and Hutter is also near the end.

For context, several chapters earlier Jonathan gets two weapons “put these flowers round your neck”—here he handed to me a wreath of withered garlic blossoms—“for other enemies more mundane, this revolver and this knife;.

Then when Mina and Van Helsing are about to depart for their ride to the castle, Jonathan keeps the knife and gives the revolver to Mina. Even for me a large-bore revolver; Jonathan would not be happy unless I was armed like the rest.

I know the phallic analysis of the weapons in the book are overstated in scholarship but I think it's telling that Jonathan insists Mina to be armed with a big gun while he lets her go do what she wants without him. Thomas didn't arm her and likely wouldn't even it were suggested imo.

omg yes! That is definitely another detail that really stood out to me during my watch, and yet another reason I genuinely start getting annoyed whenever people conflate Thomas with Jonathan - because frankly, that is allowing Thomas to reap what Jonathan sowed, so to speak. I've seen a lot of people absolutely in love with him, and yet the traits they list as the reasons are none that he possesses; in fact, the great majority of them are in exact opposition to his canon personality, and this is one of them.

Don't get me wrong, I love Thomas as a character. I think he is quite sympathetic - and, on the Watsonian level, really trying his best; but at the same time, I think it is essential to acknowledge that he is deeply flawed, if only because on the Doylist level, these flaws are fundamental to his arc in the story. It is purely a question of structure and function; because, at the end of the day, he is a fictional character, and thus, a narrative component, rather than a person.

In this case, his choices prior to the vampire hunt provide the viewer with further evidence -> of an aspect of his characterization -> that acts as one of the driving forces behind the plot of Nosferatu. Specifically, he does not notice that Ellen is lying to him; he leaves her at home as he goes off to "fight"; he doesn't even consider arming her; and he does all these things because, even though he does care for Ellen, he never really thinks of her as a person.

Thomas doesn't notice that Ellen is lying, even though she is clearly nervous when she does it, because he doesn't know what she looks like when she's hiding something (I personally think it is because she masks around him, at least to some degree - throughout the film, he is uncomfortable every time she's honest). He doesn't bring her to the hunt because it doesn't occur to him that she could help with tracking down Orlok - despite him being aware now of her immense psychic abilities, despite Von Franz describing her as a native in a world he is only visiting. And, exactly as you said, he doesn't even think to leave her a weapon; because, even as he sets out on his "quest," even after she's told him of Orlok's obsession, even though the point of the hunt is apparently to "save" her, he doesn't consider the possibility of Orlok going after her.

Contrast that with Jonathan - who knows Mina so well that they can get concerned over three lines of writing, who works with Mina's brief psychic connection to Dracula in order to track him, and who arms Mina before the final fight, because he is not satisfied unless he can do everything in his power to ensure her safety. When it comes to their relationship, Mina's revolver, while not exactly phallic (seriously, why is that topic so overwrought?..), becomes a narrative symbol of his thoughtfulness.

The difference here is that, while Ellen is important to Thomas, this importance only extends insofar as she is his wife. He sees her as a responsibility, but never as herself; and, ultimately, he never actually considers her a factor that could conceivably affect his - or anyone's - decision-making. He plans their life without even asking what she wants from it, he neglects her emotional needs, and he leaves her like a sitting duck during the hunt, without a weapon or anyone to guard her. She continuously slips his mind, utterly inconsequential beyond whatever their surrounding society defines as her role and value; and Thomas, tragically, is unable to overcome this ingrained, rigid set of rules.

This is an essential aspect of his character - because, as stated previously, the plot wouldn't happen without it. If Thomas took Ellen's wants into consideration, he wouldn't have been so hell-bent on chasing a promotion, and he wouldn't have left her right after their honeymoon to go to another country, especially if she begged him to stay. If he knew her better, he would've picked up on the plan she made with Von Franz - or she would've told him!.. Most certainly, if he saw any real personhood in her, he wouldn't have dreamed of leaving her unarmed and undefended.

Nosferatu is about Ellen's continued systemic dehumanization. The point of the story is that every single human character contributes to it on some level, despite whatever love and best intentions they might have for her. It's about the inherent monstrousness of being othered by humanity, and Thomas is - inherently, narratively, crucially - human.

[twistedteatime]

WIPs List

Things I'm working on that you may feel free to cow prod me to finish.

Note: Alpine is in all of my Bucky fics in some capacity.

Scorpio AU (Not regularly updated):

Bucky x Female Scorpio Reader.

2nd person POV (Might read oddly. Don't usually write this way)

Fluff, comedy, romance, maybe eventually some spiciness.

Lots of pop culture references.

Technically can be read as standalone fics. Y'know, just in case I don't finish the whole thing because who knows if I will.

Howling Witch AU (Current Long Fic):

40s Bucky x 40s OFC, Bucky x OFC, Winter Soldier x OFC

3rd person POV (I write more naturally in this POV)

Lots of dialogue (I'm working on toning down my dialogue blocks)

Romance, angst, horror, action, trauma, fluff, eventual spice.

Long. Currently in its unedited state including the Prologue parts it totals just over 129K words. It'll grow as I edit and post.

Posted twice weekly. Still debating Mondays & Thursdays or Tuesdays & Fridays.

Prolouge Part 1 & Part 2 are up! Chapter 1 coming soon.

Juniper's Jewels (Current Short Fic):

Bucky x WitchOFC (no not the same one from Howling Witch, different type of Witch entirely. I'm in a Witchy mood lately.)

3rd person POV (once again, I write more naturally in this POV)

Someone that works at the Avenger's Compound made a BIG mistake. Not only did they cheat on the Witch they'd been secretly dating for several months but they also stole something from her and gave it to the sidepiece. Well, technically they stole multiple things.

I am not planning on this being as long as Howling Witch. I just need to get it out of my head.

Anger, discussion of cheating, angstish, fluff, flirting, violence, terror, betrayal, potential curses, more.

Cats, magical cats, magical "life finds a way" cats. Yes, that's a Jurassic Park reference alluding to one or more cats able to do what the dinos did. It's a fantasy world and it's my fantasy cat creature.

Alternate AU where Tony lives and he and Bucky worked it out (possibly under the supervision/threat of Pepper).

Posted on Saturdays.

Chapter 2 is out!

One at a Time (Gardening AU):

Bucky x GenderNeutral!Reader (2nd person POV)

Series of shorts centered around gardening and discussion of other heavier topics and the peace some people find in plants.

Fluff, plants, comedy, romance, some angst, discussion of heavier topics and trauma, etc.

Will be similar to Scorpio AU in that it can be read as standalones.

Will not be solely Bucky centric. May have other MCU characters and platonic love between them and reader.

Movie Star AU (Placeholder Name):

Actor!Bucky x Reader

Maybe 1st Person POV (haven't done this in a while). Currently undecided.

Reader and Bucky were friends in high school, had similar dreams, but reader's took a detour. They run into each other again and reconnect.

Mostly just vague ideas up in the ether of my brain.

This one is on the far back burner

Drabbles (Care fics, Non-series one shots, etc):

Currently working on a 1st person POV revolving around not being listened to until Bucky comes along. Bucky may have some slight soft!dark tendencies.

White Rabbit:

mobBoss!Jefferson (OUAT Mad Hatter) x Female(s)

AU where Jefferson is a mob boss. Multiple Female characters. Maybe. This one's nuts.

Lots of craziness.

Twists. Turns. Confusion. Switching POV.

Unknown length. Just writing the idea down so I can focus.

Silence (Placeholder Name):

Bucky Barnes x 3rdPOV original female character that is partially mute (she is not physically incapable of speaking but she has selective mutism which is discussed in plot)

Started writing it a while ago. Has to undergo a lot of revision. Currently at 13k.

This one will be Warning Heavy. Violence, trafficking, brainwashing, conditioning, slavery, violence, abuse, Raynor not being a horrible therapist (I can be nice sometimes), Bucky being very protective.

Bucky saves a woman from being assaulted in an alley, finds out she's mute, and she sticks to him like glue. He lets her because something tells him something much bigger is going on.

Wasn't sure if I was going to share this one even exists. Unsure of length.

[vil0vesme]

How do you like arcane when you see how poorly vi was written? I’m asking because I’m starting to hate the show for everything they got wrong but at the same time I just keep watching it over and over again.

Omg I feel the same way. Minus the watching over and over part.

Visually it's AMAZING. Story writing wise?.... Yeah, no.

I completely agree with you, ever since s2 came out my phase went out along with it. I hyperfixated so hard I hated the end product. I'll say it again, I know EXACTLY how you feel.

Having to hear the weirdness and "chaos" behind the scenes with the writers, and what the "writers" really were, made me realise how

Arcane was a beauty mask to cover the ugliness beneath it.

S2 woke us all up from the centrist writing, imo. I genuinely am starting to hate most of my favourite characters for how they were written in s2 - I rewatched s2 so much to the point I stopped because I can't handle seeing how shitty the entire season was.

The way how the sisters were sidelined in their own show because Christian and some others didn't find Vi interesting and wanted to focus more on the other plot holes they wanted to squish in at the last second.

S2 was just some cringe ass action movie/ corny fanfiction. I can't even watch it without getting the feeling to punch a wall or smash my computer or TV to bits😭

Vi was done the most dirty this entire season. Lobotomised and turned into Ca*tlyn's person pet. And don't get me started on that damn prison scene. I love Vi, but when I say I love Vi, I love s1 act 1 and 2 Vi. SPECIFICALLY, s1 Vi. Vi, the one that never took shit from anyone. The one that defended her little sister when Mylo said something to her or about her, the Vi who KNEW HER WORTH. The Vi who knew her and her family, and all of Zaun deserved BETTER than what they had. I hate the fact they made it seem like Vi and Jinx/Powder can't be a happy family or together in any universe - which us absolute bullshit considering the hug scene with Vander/Warwick in s2.

They genuinely wanted Vi to end up with no one from Zaun, sideline her, and Ekko's literal relationship - which I was hoping to see A LOT MORE OF. But seen jackshit. Only a literal interaction and glances, but they never fucking talked. I bet they only did it because they knew caitvi wouldn't actually work, and the stans wouldn't get what they wanted. Not to mention, Ekko would've literally called her out for her dictatorship, declaring martial law and oppression, and using police brutality against innocent Zaunites, HIS PEOPLE, and locking them in Stillwater. While he was in the alternative universe. In which is ANOTHER I hate that happened to Ekko.

Both Ekko and Vi were turned into the people who revolve around their girlfriends. I love timebomb, like - to DEATH. But where is that build up for them to actually work as a ship? Ur telling me Ekko HAD to go to the ALT universe just to realize his feelings or something for Jinx? Cute and all, but WHAT?? This is ARCANE we're talking about. Not some corny book and action movie. Also mentioning - Jinx being the one who worked with Silco and killed most of his friends SHOULD be addressed, why is it brushed over?? FANSERVICE. Omg.

Same with Caitvi, was genuinely looking forward to seeing their development and how the writers would take them given they're a wlw ship. And they did NOT beat the "oppressor x oppressed" allegations. Amanda is genuinely TWEAKING to be making caitvi a kinky fanfiction couple. Same thing what I just talked about with timebomb. They don't even address Caitlyn hitting her using a COP TACTIC. And her being a dictator AND oppressor. Let's not forget Piltover's government is based on AMERICAN GOVERNMENT AND MILITARY.

And that big fictional movie type ending and boss fight?? Ffs that shit was corny as hell to fucking watch.

And I genuinely can't get started with Jinx, or Sevika and Zaun in general.

ESPECIALLY the Zaun vs Piltover conflict.

Do NOT get me started on Amanda and Christian.

I can genuinely write a book with the shitty writing, horrible pacing, etc. Low-key the more I find out about the shitty writing and writers the more I'm starting to hate Arcane all together. It's painful, genuinely. But oh my GOSH. I can NOT with this show anymore. I'm having BIGGGGG hopes for beyond the spider verse but until then, if that doesn't work out I'll find something else.

S2 was genuinely disappointing and so ass. If you like s2, that's your own personal take - pls don't let mine take that love you have for it - these are my own personal takes on it.

,, V

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

THE HUNDRED LINE: LAST DEFENSE ACADEMY - Journal #10: Route 2 - CASUAL ROUTE [MASSIVE SPOILERS]

//So you know how the Retsnom Route turned out to be this really introspective route that put a lot of much-needed focus on Darumi, and ended up being a well-crafted story with characters that I think were written pretty well, and was overally a super engaging time?

//Here! Now we have a route that is NOT that!

//Okay, to be fair, the Casual Route is not BAD. And it's not like it's lacking in character. Far from it. This route is actually ABOUT character. And for what it's worth, I did find some of the moments in it enjoyable.

//But generally, this route kind of feels like the Ultimate Talent Development Plan/Danganronpa Summer Camp route of this game. By which I mean it doesn't feel like a true ending for the most part. More like a visual novel epilogue/sppinoff than a traditional RPG route.

//This one will require a lot of explanation, so once again:

DO NOT READ THE REST OF THIS POST IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED/SEEN THE HUNDRED LINE: LAST DEFENSE ACADEMY. I WILL BE TALKING ABOUT VERY SPECIFIC PLOT POINTS AND MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE GAME.

//So let's get into it:

THE SETUP AND PLOT:

//I think largely what puts this route down in my books is how the first half of it, which I presume is the story of the main scenario, is really good, and really engaging, and by getting this route, it kind of goes out with a fizzle. FAR from a bang.

//Individually, the Casual Route happens on Day 31, and just so I don't have to repeat stuff that's already happened here, we're going to pick up where we left off on Day 8 of the second scenario, where we originally diverged into the Retsnom Route.

//As a brief reminder though, on my first playthrough, the critical choice that diverged me from the main route was I decided not to rescue the characters at Second-to-Last Defense Academy. And with them dying, the Retsnom Route largely revolved around trying to find a way to bring them back to life with Darumi.

//Going back to that point now, I chose to remain at STLDA, and the party, which at that point consists of Takumi, Hiruko, Tsubasa, and Shouma, head over to the enemy base to rescue Nozomi again. Except this time, instead of taking her back to our school, we stay with her and fight the enemies in the base, which includes Parmith, the brainwashing arrow commander, and a brainwashed Moko.

//Unlike last time, this battle first involves rescuing Nigou from the Invaders, then fighting Parmith. And halfway through the battle, Yugamu, Kurara, and Kyoshika, now fully revived, rejoin the fight, and manage to survive this route. Parmith gets defeated, and Moko gets freed.

//And yeah, this is clearly the point where I was SUPPOSED to unlock Moko. But my first fight with her was the final battle of the Retsnom route. This is a much better first fight to learn her mechanics in.

//Unfortunately, it's not all good news, because by the time we get back to our own school, not only have the Invaders managed to break in and almost destroy the barrier, but Darumi is dead.

//And by dead I mean PERMANENTLY dead, because V'exhness absorbed her Hemoanima in this route.

//I saw this coming the moment I got to the Retsnom route and Darumi kept talking about how she would have died had Takumi not gotten back when he did.

//So Darumi's had her time to shine, and now we're not gonna see her again for a WHILE, assuming I continue with this route. Takumi also gets back to blaming himself, but I am surprised how the casualty problem has really dimished in this route. By saving LDA we lost 4 people. By saving STLDA, we lost one.

//And after getting to know and love Darumi, this honestly sucked. But again, I imagine most people don't do this route until later, and I'm someone in a minority that happened to get that route first.

//Anyway, unimportant, but I love this line:

//The next diverging point happens on Day 11, with another pretty big change here. In the Retsnom route, Sirei didn't really do anything, because the more hands they had on deck, the better. But in this route, he decides to call Nozomi out for being a stowaway in the academy.

//This is where you get a choice to either tell everyone about Nozomi's history, or keep it to yourself and let her handle it. I did decide to do the former, but this ended up biting me in the ass somewhat, because Nozomi was a little bit put off by how much Takumi seems to know about her. Same kind of goes for the others.

//It's not that big a problem though, and it doesn't last. The REAL problem is that with Nozomi keeping secrets, it's enough to turn Kurara against her. BAD.

//Kurara goes from being Nozomi's best friend to absolutely despising her, and the other students are giving her a hard time for being an outsider too, no matter how hard Takumi presses that Nozomi is the good guy who saved them all in the end at the cost of her life.

//The next part of the story involves a new gameplay feature that I'll talk about in a bit, but over the course of three concurrent days, Sirei tasks Takumi and Hiruko, who are eventually joined by Kyoshika, looking for something to put Kurara and Nozomi at ease, to get materials for a superweapon charged by Undying Flames that will hopefully help take out V'exhness.

//Come Day 15 and we're forced to fight the combined duo of Valla-Garzo and Szanshin, who just like in the Retsnom route, get absorbed by V'exhness.

//By the way, V'exhness get's progressively more and more annoying in these routes because of how she always seems to wait for us to beat her commanders, then absorbs them when we're done, and yet it's very rare for us to expect her to do this, and stop her from doing so.

//Speaking frankly, I feel like I'm a little too OP for this route, because I actually did manage to get V'exhness's HP down pretty far. And I was going to suicide dive Takemaru to get voltage for Takumi, but for some reason, when I had V'exhness counterattack him, he wouldn't die. She just did 0 damage.

//Come the end of the fight and it becomes clear. V'exhness uses an attack that downs everyone on the field except for Takumi, Nozomi, Takemaru, Kyoshika, and Tsubasa.

//The last resort is the Undying Flame Bomb we've been developing, but there's a catch to it. There is no detonator, so a healthy dose of Hemoanima is needed to set it off. This means one of the surviving students will need to detonate the bomb personally, but of course if they do, they will be taken out with it, and be unable to be brought back.

//This is where you get a critical choice of who to sacrifice between Takemaru, Kyoshika, or Tsubasa. So the question is...who did I pick to sacrifice?

//This might seem like a weird choice to go with, though it turned out to be the correct one to continue the route as it was...but I picked Kyoshika.

//Tsubasa obviously didn't want to go through with it, so I didn't pick her. And while I'm sure many would pick Takemaru, this part of the story was giving a lot of focus to Kyoshika, and I thought if there was a way for this story to continue, leading to the conflict between Nozomi and the others getting resolved, it would be all the more poetic for Kyoshika to be the one to go out in a blaze of glory here.

//The narrative was on my mind, and that's all it was based on. Obviously, I wouldn't want to sacrifice any of these characters if I could help it.

//So yeah. Kyoshika ends up dying in the blast, and takes V'exhness out with her...supposedly.

//So as you can imagine, this situation already sucks complete ass for Takumi. He came back in time specifically to save everyone, and yet within just over 2 weeks, two of the party have been killed off permanently. And more are sure to go now that V'exhness is absorbing Hemoanima, because come on, there's no way that bitch is dead.

//In better news, Kyoshika's death was indeed the catalyst for Kurara and Nozomi to have an honest talk and become friends again.

//A couple of things happen during the main story before the route I ended up on, but Day 19 kicks things off in earnest. Nozomi shows up first thing in the morning to tell us that Moko’s gone missing again, so it's time for another rescue mission.

//We eventually find her surrounded by Invaders, which leads to a chaotic battle.

//Turns out she was just sleeping on the road. Or so we hope. She might not be possessed like she was in the previous timeline, but you can never be too sure with her.

//She later heads back to STLDA to retrieve something Kyoshika left behind, which ends up being a woolen sheath for her Holy Jumonji Sword. As Moko herself puts it, it's the swords "pajama's."

//Meanwhile, while we were gone, there’s some mystery around Nigou’s "hidden talent," as it clearly impacted the others, but I still don’t know what it is.

//More importantly, Kako is acting suspiciously around Ima again.

//On the plus side, we’re finally on good terms with Nozomi again.

//Remembering a promise that he made to the UFB, Takumi goes to talk to Sirei about potentially letting him mingle with the rest of the group. Sadly, Sirei only ends up doubling down on treating UFB as just a weapon, refusing to give him a name or let him hang out with the group.

//The main plot of this segment of the story is based on the Tsukumo twins. Kako and Ima’s relationship becomes rocky again, but in an interesting twist, this time IMA seems to be in the more sympathetic position.

//It honestly feels like karma for how he treated her back in Route 0, but I still feel kind of bad. Kako has become so confident in fighting, that she doesn't believe she needs her brother's help anymore.

//Honestly, I'm all for Kako going through a rebellious phase, but it did start to get annoying in the ensuing fight against Eva. Because she's so stubborn about distancing herself from her brother, she, the SNIPER, runs HEADFIRST into a fight!

//As a result, Kako almost gets merced until Ima steps in and takes a lethal hit for her. Which left me without Ima for the Eva fog fight, and GOD DAMN this segment is difficult without him!

//So yeah. Kako, I love you, but minus points.

//Hiruko’s tough love vibe that she gives Kako, forcefully pointing out that it's her mistake that caused Ima's death, is always appreciated, and thankfully the final round of the fog fight wasn’t too bad thanks to Last Yell buffing everyone.

//This is where we get the next choice, and one that's pretty crucial for this route. Unlike in the previous timelines I did, where the group collectively decided to spare Eva and take her prisoner, this time I can choose whether we take her prisoner, or just kill her here and now.

//They really try to milk the moral dilemma with Eva’s fate, but no way in hell am I killing her. I get where Darumi’s coming from, but blaming Kyoshika’s death on the Invaders when we made the call ourselves just doesn’t sit right.

//This is where we get the first suggestion of something more going on here.

//Just like in my previous playthrough, Takumi goes to talk to Eva after the fight.

//I thought Eva’s post-fight conversation would mirror the Retsnom Route, but instead, she flips the script and claims that not only do the Invaders hate fighting, but WE were the one's who started the war, and they’re only defending their home.

//But Sirei knocks Takumi out cold immediately after, cockblocking him from the critical information.

//Which kind of makes me think Eva was telling the truth. Sadly, I knew from the Retsnom route that next time we see Eva, she’d be brainwashed, and we won’t get any more honest answers.

//By the time Takumi wakes up though, it becomes apparent that Sirei might have used similar brainwashing technology on him, because for whatever reason, Takumi now completely trusts Sirei, and not for much reason.

//The next big thing to happen is Eito manages to escape from his cage. This happens as a result of him taking advantage of a blackout Sirei caused through brainwashing Eva, with his cage's hemoanima suppression abilities deactivated. So now he's escaped the school is is God knows where.

//Unfortunately, we aren't given much time to dwell on it, because shortly after Eito disappears, Sirei introduces Eva to the rest of the group, just like before, and...

//Oooookay I get what you guys were saying about fanservice now.

//Unfortunately, because Sirei isn't as upfront about his brainwashing as he was in the Retsnom route, everyone is very suspicios of Eva's true intentions, and thus, ostracize her.

//This culminates into Hiruko, Kurara, and the others trying to throw Eva out of the academy.

//Of course, with Hiruko spearheading this movement, there's reason to believe she has an ulterior motive, and is using these threats as a means of pushing everyone into action, much like she did at the beginning of Route 0. And THIS is where we get the critical choice that leads into this route.

//Because Eva won't, or rather, CAN'T give us any information on the Invaders or the war after being brainwiped, Hiruko instead demands Nigou give us that information, else they'll throw Eva out.

//Unfortunately, Nigou is programmed to not shed these details to anyone, but tells Hiruko that if she really wants the information, all she has to do is destroy Nigou, then upload his memory banks to the computer in the War Room. You then get the choice to either stop Hiruko, or let her go through with it.

//And while I understood the tension, I felt like Hiruko was being irrational, especially with how quickly she jumped to destroying Nigou, so I stepped in to stop her,

//and apparently, that was all the proof she needed, and all Takumi needed to realize, that Takumi was being brainwashed by Sirei into being obedient.

//Sirei then knocked all of us out cold. Or at least, he knocks out Takumi. Not sure how he got away with that with everyone watching.

//For a second, I honestly thought that was the end of the route. But nope, Takumi just got even MORE brainwiped. And...yeah, basically all the serious shit we were doing before gets turned around, and we end up in the Casual Route.

//What follows is a whole slew of random bullshit. The first part of this story arc begins with Takumi and Gaku having a bet over milk, and asking around to see which of their classmates would or wouldn't suck up every last drop in a carton of milk.

//Then the tone completely shifts into comedy: Eva wants to be Santa, Takemaru gets roped into Gaku’s experiments after a poker game, and Takumi trains him for a rematch.

//Takumi supposedly defeated V’ehxness but doesn’t remember. Now he’s caged next to Eito, and they’re letting their imaginary friends fight.

//By this point, it feels more like a goofy spinoff than the main story. Basically, all the high stakes and mystery's of the game get waysided.

//By the end of the route, it's revealed this is because Sirei brainwashed Takumi on when his loyalty became questionable, but it worked too well, fracturing his psyche, leaving his mind and body separated from one another. All the horrific shit he's experiencing just appears as fun CASUAL times in his mind.

//Honestly speaking, the stuff that goes down in the Casual Route is actually pretty fun. It just...feels really out of place after everything that happens. And I think that's largely the point.

//I guess the best compliment I can give to this story is that it definitely wasn't BORING.

//My biggest critique is that the narrative is all over the fucking place if you couple this route with everything that came before it. It starts strong with emotional weight and mysterious developments but suffers from inconsistent pacing and tonal whiplash once this route kicks in.

//The game just very suddenly shifts heavily into slice-of-life and parody territory, losing narrative urgency, only for the final arc to swing into psychological horror and metaphysical territory, evoking The Matrix and Danganronpa-esque drama.

//But yeah, that's the basic stuff and...I really don't have as much to say about this route as I do the previous one. Not by a LONG shot. Especially since it's much shorter.

GAMEPLAY CHANGES:

//I did this last time, but I'm not gonna make a common thing of talking about this stuff. Just bringing up a few new additions to this part of the story.

//First and foremost, this route marked my first experience with the optional battle skipping feature, which activates after you've completed identical encounters in earlier playthroughs.

//It’s a smart addition for players who want to focus on the story or move quickly through repeated content, and it certainly helps with pacing. However, it also caused a fair amount of confusion, and for me persionally, it just didn't...feel right.

//I only ended up skipping one major battle, which, as you might have guessed is the fight against Turamtammi and Nyewgank, AKA the Idol and Time-Reversing Commanders. Because fuck those two, they are so annoying.

//I'm not gonna write this feature off though, because I do completely understand it. Most people who play through this game aren't gonna want to do the same battles on repeat, so ultimately? It has my approval, even if I'm one of the few players who doesn't employ it.

//Hey, I'm not doing this for a playthrough. No one's problem but mine if I want to make it last as long as possible.

//In terms of structure, this route stands out due to its heavy shift toward visual novel-style storytelling. Like I said, interactivity takes a backseat, with long stretches of dialogue, character interactions, and exposition replacing the usual balance of gameplay and story.

//There is basically no critical decision making once the route kicks in, and, ironically, there is NO Free Time. Plus, combat sequences are much fewer and farther between, and when they DO occur, they often feel like narrative punctuation rather than core gameplay moments.

//This approach allows for deeper character exploration and emotional storytelling, which is kind of what this route is about, but once again, it does feel a little jarring immediately following the tense atmosphere that the main route has persisted with for 30 odd days.

//As a last point, prior to me switching to the casual route, the main route had missions that required you to go on explorations over the course of a few days. This must be exclusive to that route, because I never did it in Retsnom, or Casual, but I ended up doing it twice now in this route.

//The first time was to get the materials for the Undying Flame Bomb, and the second time was to get cold medicine for everyone.

//The latter of which I...don't understand why that had to happen. Other than pandering for time, but...there are so many other ways that could have been done.

//In the original timeline, there were 100 days, but not one of them ever felt like they were wasted. I just don't get it here.

//And the fact that this one was reliant on RNG, deciding whether or not you go out again on exploration the next day is bullshit. I would much rather save-scum it.

//Overall, this is subject to change, but this route is the most linear one I feel. The only significant decision comes at the very end, where Takumi has to decide whether to return to the real world and face certain death, or remain in an eternal, illusory dreamscape devoid of hope. It’s definitely emotionally impactful but structurally different, offering a slower, more introspective journey that trades gameplay for narrative weight.

CHARACTER ARCS:

//This is the meat of this analysis, because we get a LOT of these.

//The story sets its characters in a setting that is similar to a typical high school setting, temporarily removing the surreal elements and the main war narrative. This gives you a glimpse of what their lives might have been like in a more normal setting.

//This contrast provides a brief but significant sense of calm, which heightens the poignancy of the character interactions.

//A profoundly tragic and surreal undercurrent is also added by Takumi's slow decline into a coma-induced dreamscape. He must ultimately make the painful choice to either remain ensnared in a hopeless fantasy or return to the real world and face his impending death. And it's never easy to see him in a no-win scenario considering how hard he's constantly fighting to save everyone.

//Meaningful character dynamics continue to emerge amid the chaos, despite the appearance of normalcy. Before Takumi discovers he has been dreaming, the story is loosely broken up into four parts.

//Takumi and Gaku begin the first section with a playful wager on whether or not people would consume the final two drops of milk from a carton.

//Ultimately, this is the one that's LEAST heavy in character writing, because it doesn't show any new side of Gaku. Instead, the tone for this route's seeming lack of seriousness is established by this odd but humorous premise.

//The focus of the second part is Takumi's pursuit of a sock thief, which...I'll give credit to, is pretty funny looking back.

//Eva decides to become Santa after misinterpreting a conversation with Kako about Santa Claus. However, she makes a mistake by stealing everyone's socks and stuffing gifts inside.

The third section is arguably the most entertaining. Takumi attempts to train Takemaru for a rematch against Yugamu in a card game, with the stakes being Takemaru’s freedom from becoming a lab experiment.

//Unfortunately, Takemaru is hilariously bad at the game and has no poker face whatsoever, and Takumi is equally bad at training him. They go through a lot of shit, and Takemaru's fighting spirit is almost completely shattered because Takumi keeps putting him against the wrong opponents.

//AKA, this is a fucking Yu-Gi-Oh ass arc.

//Eva then steps in as his trainer, rapidly shifting roles to comedic relief, transforming into a loud drill sergeant and then a seductive teacher.

//Eva is genuinely my favourite part of this route. She is so goddamn funny and unhinged, and I live for it.

//The final portion of the route shifts tone dramatically. Takumi and Eito find themselves confined together, seemingly in solitary, after Eito tries to lull Takumi in with the hermit life.

//But it gradually becomes clear that the real prison is the dream world Takumi is trapped in. As cracks begin to show in the illusion, Takumi fights desperately to wake up.

//This final act brings the themes of reality, choice, and identity into sharp focus, especially as Sirei’s manipulative presence becomes undeniable.

//His moral ambiguity and psychological tactics cast a long shadow over the entire route, culminating in Takumi’s mental and emotional collapse.

//I think what makes this route worthwhile in the end is how it makes use of its diversion from the main plot to examine its characters in a genuine, humanizing manner, both during its more subdued moments and during its more frantic outbursts.

//The drawback is that it feels so far removed from everything else that it's almost like it's not the same game anymore. And the ending is so sudden, and is more of a case of telling instead of showing.

THE ENDINGS (#23-#24):

//The casual route only has two endings, and both end quite tragically. But then again, that's kind of to be expected.

//As mentioned already, the Casual Route is pretty much devoid of choices. You only get one at the end, when Sirei finally reveals to Takumi that he's been trapped in a fantasy this whole time, and gives him one of two choices. Once again, this decision is given to him at the final battle against V'exhness, where his team has already fallen because they haven't been able to rally behind him, and if he returns to that life, he will most assuredly die.

//Alternatively, he can live forever inside this fantasy world he's already in, even after death.

//It's a scene that very obviously parodies The Matrix, since he needs to take the red pill for the former, and the blue pill for the latter.

024: Casual Route: Embrace Fantasy:

//If Takumi chooses the blue pill, the route ends with a final, serene scene of him and the others drinking milk together, a callback to the beginning of the route and its quirky, lighthearted tone.

//Honestly, there's not much to say about it. The ending is bittersweet, providing a moment of tranquility in return for a lifetime of illusion.

023: Casual Route: Face Reality:

//On the other hand, if Takumi takes the red pill, he snaps back to reality in the middle of the final battle, only to find Nozomi dying in his arms.

//The SDU ultimately loses, and Takumi himself dies, but at least he does so in the real world, as his true self, rather than the broken illusion he had been living in.

//Tragic but appropriate, both endings work well in their own ways.

//Still, as I already said, my biggest issue is they feel abrupt, especially the red pill ending. Takumi’s sudden return to the battlefield and immediate trauma makes much of the previous development feel nullified.

//His actions in the dream world, while emotionally rich, seem to have little bearing on the reality he wakes up to. The one saving grace is that he dies on his own terms, having reclaimed his identity and clarity.

//What makes the whole situation even more frustrating is that it all stems from Sirei’s manipulations. As the one most desperate to win the war, Sirei ultimately undermines everything, and in doing so, he practically seals his own downfall.

//Also, there's no way in hell no one suspected that Sirei was behind why Takumi was acting so weird. He literally KNOCKED HIM OUT IN FRONT OF EVERYONE!

//'SPLAIN 'DAT!?

HIGHLIGHTS AND BEST MOMENTS:

//Once again, I'm gonna conclude this by going through all my major thoughts on my experience here, but I'm gonna split them in two from the point before the route diverges, and the point after it does, making it easier for people.

MAIN ROUTE HIGHLIGHTS (DAY 8 - DAY 31)

The fight against Parmith is a much better introduction for Moko, and at this point, I don't mind using her as much as I did in the Retsnom Route.

Even though I knew it was going to happen, considering how thick the Retsnom Route laid it on early on, it still sucked to see Darumi die after everything we've already gone through with her. I don't regret the Retsnom Route, but I kind of wish her characterization was evidence in the other routes too, like Ima and Kako.

Though it makes sense she'd be the first to go if you made these choices to immediately go into the next playthrough. Darumi is kind of given nothing to do for the first 100 days, so losing her too early on isn't the big loss.

Once again, Moko's line of "Bad times don't last, but bad bitches do," is so peak.

The whole situation with Nozomi's secret being revealed by Takumi is just super awkward. I hope Nozomi turning against Takumi doesn't become a regular thing, because that's happened twice now.

I might have mentioned this before, but honestly, V'exhness consistently getting a leg up on the rest of us is just so annoying by this point. It's just a vicious cycle of her waiting for us to beat her men, then absorbing them herself before we get the chance to. In the primary route, I accept it a bit more because of how dramatic it ends up being, but if this is gonna be a commonly occuring thing (and I know it will be) then I'm gonna be one unhappy camper.

I was warned in advance not to sacrifice Takemaru to V'exhness. I wasn't planning on doing that, but I can only assume it leads to some awesomely bad route. Not that my readers affect my decisions, but I genuinely think Kyoshika's sacrifice would have been more heartfelt.

And it was. Kyoshika's final moments were genuinely awesome, even if they dragged a little. Probably one of the best sendoffs in the game so far, especially since most of the other perma-deaths are just characters getting fucked over.

The scene where Kurara and Nozomi reconcile is great. And I wonder how it will pan out in the other routes depending on who I end up sacrificing. Or if there will be anything at all in the route where I don't personally clear Nozomi's name.

There's another scene after Kurara and Nozomi's friendship recovers where Gaku tries Kurara's curry for the first time again, and to emphasize how he leaps out of his seat at how good it is, they actually move his sprite out of frame, which is hilarious.

Shouma has another one of his flashbacks in the same scene. He reveals that, in reality, we've actually been experimented on at Kamukura general hospital for most of our lives. Which doesn't make sense, unless this game is gonna pull a V3 and show us that our lives as we know them were actually fabricated. (The route that I'm currently on is implying this quite heavily.)

One thing I didn't mention about the fight where we defend a sleeping Moko when she goes back to get Kyoshika's thing is like the absolute dumbass I am, I had Kurara run into the middle of the swarm to place a turret, and she, AND the turret, got obliterated within one turn. We still managed to pull off a win, but yeah, lesson learned.

Is this a Genocide Jill reference?

One thing I love about Moko is how girly she acts, despite very clearly being a brash bruiser. The sprite and sound bite she makes whenever she feels bashful is hilarious and endearing.

YOUR WEAPON IS A FUCKING SHOVEL!!! I get that you're rich and shit, but you quite literally have the best tool on hand to do this! What's the point of having that big-ass spade if you're not gonna use it!?

The day everyone went out to find Moko, because Sirei had already opened up most of the school, he instead invited everyone to the cafeteria to see "Nigou's hidden talent." Whatever this talent is, it's the reason that the conflict starts between the Tsukumo's, but it's one of those situations where it is played up, but never shown, to tease you.

On the same day, Takumi and Nozomi reconnect and Nozomi grows to trust him again, but in the back of my mind, I couldn't help but think "Takumi, you should probably check under your bed again to make sure Eito's not there," lmao.

One thing I never mentioned before now, for whatever reason, because it shows up a lot, but Ima has this one sound bite where he just makes this...weirdly loud and audible grown of discomfort. And in these scenes, that bite just gets spammed to motherfuck. And it's especially prominent in the scene where he opens up to Takumi about Kako's behaviour. It's just weird and kind of annoying honestly, but I imagine the point is it's swapping out the sound bite from the original Japanese version, which I doubt is as loud and obnoxious.

I feel like I'm gonna get put on a lost of some kind if I keep calling Kako cute, but her pouting and her rebellious phase in this sequence is really silly and adorable. And I was fine with it until she decided to run headfirst into the battle, despite being a backline fighter, and Ima gets taken out before the fight, making the fog battle that much harder, because he's just too useful for it.

I know this is probably just me, but Hiruko's tough love never gets old. There's something so methodical to what seems to be madness all the time. Even here when she aggressively berates Kako, you can kind of tell that she's only doing it because now really isn't the time to be fucking around. It does put me off a little bit how differently Minh Ton pronounces Kako's name, even if they use the proper pronunciation, because no one else does.

The fight against Eva was a lot harder this time around because Ima can't one-turn the smoke enemies, but the final round was pretty easy thanks to Last Yell. However, a lot of the damage I did against Eva in the mid-point of the fight was, funnily enough, when I had both Shouma and Moko in her attack range, and both of them just simultaneously bounced the damage back at her.

The decision to either kill Eva or spare her is one that is REALLY driven home. The dialogue debate lasts for a solid minute, with most of the voices shouting not to do it, but the loudest ones, Hiruko and Sirei, advocating the opposite. But killing Eva is definitely not easy for me, and won't be when I go back to do so for my next route, because I've grown to love this woman VERY quickly.

I did kind of mention this before, but to reiterate, I expected the conversation with Eva in the cage to pan out the same as it did in the Retsnom route, where, as a reminder, she was initially open to talking, but then got clammy when Takumi claimed that we were just fighting for our survival. Instead, she makes the suggestion that humanity were the one's who started the war, and that the Invaders are the one's DEFENDING their home from US, not the other way around. Considering Sirei knocked Takumi out immediately after, I have a feeling there's more to the story, and if the final twist of this game ends up being that humanity are the aggressors, that wouldn't surprise me. Throughout this game, we have seen several hints of bullshittery from the human government who run the TRC, largely from the books in the library, on top of the way this war seems to have been handled so far, where we were effectively abandoned and told nothing. Not to mention, experimented on against our will and knowledge. And we literally have a character on the squad with a deep-rooted hatred for the human race. I don't know if it's early enough to say that the human race are the real bad guy's in this one, but honestly, as pessimistic as that outcome is, I fully expect it, and hope it's done well. Unfortunately, those answers aren't gonna come any time soon, because Eva and Takumi both get brainwashed.

The scene on the morning of Day 23 is funny and reminds me that yeah, she's a bit of a bitch, but Kurara is weirdly endearing and adorable.

Serious question here, but am I the only person who ships Shouma and Eva? For a pair of characters who get quite a few scenes together, there's a distinct lack of any content for them online yet. Especially since at the point I'm at, I've seen that the only time Shouma ever steps up for someone else is when people, like Gaku does in this scene, start smack-talking her. He's as self-deprecating as ever, but it really is interesting to see a bond like this be so universal, even before Shouma gained the ability to comprehend Eva's language. Even if he doesn't appear as angry, he does do the same later when Sirei constantly abuses her, both with his brainwashing and with his flippant words.

Going back to what I was saying about humanity being the bad guys, Sirei brainwashing Takumi and making him compliant has really bumped the guy down in my books. I remember being really attached to Sirei and thinking he was entertaining after I played the demo, but the more I see of him, the less I like him. The guy is kind of an asshole.

But I AM gonna give him credit for this little jive.

During the scene in which we discover Eito escaped, Ima doesn't show up in the morning immediately, and after the battle where he sacrificed himself for Kako, he disappears for a short while. This is initially designed to make you suspect that he's been kidnapped just as he was in the OG timeline, but...nah, he's fine.

Real talk, I definitely like Ima a lot more in this route so far compared to the Retsnom route. I get Ima's concerns surrounding Takumi in that route, but at the same time, he is very clearly being a dick on purpose there, just for the sake of being a dick. And I definitely like how the Tsukumo's arc was handled here more than I did in Route 0.

Also, in relation to that, I find it kind of baffling that Takemaru has so many scenes with the Tsukumo twins, acting like he's their third older sibling. Ironic considering how things went down with Ima in the OG timeline, but hey, I'm not against it.

What I AM against is this pointless sequence of trying to get supplies for cold medicine. Again, I mentioned it a bit earlier, but while I'm not necessarily against these exploration missions, this one felt so dumb and pointless. Especially because it ends with an additional minigame where you need to spin a roullette wheel to determine whether or not Nigou makes the medicine successfully. If it fails, you basically need to go out and do the exact same thing all over again, which...well, fuck that. I ended up save-scumming it after I failed it the first time, but weirdly, it ended up skipping the days that I could have spent anyway. What was even the point of doing this mission if you don't get any benefits from doing it a few days early? I suppose it doesn't matter, because that's not what I'm here for.

The same day that everyone gets cured of the cold, there's this really cryptic conversation with Kako. She says she has a vision of someone in our team dying, and tells Takumi that no matter what, Gaku needs to be kept alive. If he does, then the truth behind what's really going on will be forever lost. This will play heavily into our next route discussion, so keep that in mind.

I kind of wish the game hadn't told me that, because it's a little hand-holdy, but at the same time, for anyone who wants to get the true route, it's a good enough indication of what you need to do. I think the same goes for Kyoshika's involvement in the plot prior to her death, but that one was at least a little more subtle.

CASUAL ROUTE HIGHLIGHTS (DAY 31 - 100)

//That's pretty much my coverage for the main route, now the stuff that's specific for the Casual Route.

I deadass thought that after Sirei knocked Takumi out, we were gonna get an ending right there and then. Honestly, had I done the route that I finished most recently first somehow, then I would have believed that more.

After the stupid sequence of Takumi and Gaku sharing shower thoughts over milk, the game made me save, which at the time I thought was ominous, but in reality, it's because it's preparing you for a long crawl towards Day 100 with almost no gameplay.

The route really starts to pick up and get weird on Day 32, when Kyoshika and Darumi are revealed to be alive.

I've played a bit further into the game from this point on, so by this point, I know that V'exhness survived the blast from the Undying Flame bomb. But the way that is handled in the Casual Route is confusing. Because Kyoshika survived, for everyone else, it's almost like the bomb event never happened for anyone other than Takumi. This route feels like it tries so hard to be mind-fucky that it doesn't make an awful lot of sense.

Never say this game isn't educational. I learned the word "excoriate" thanks to it.

I knew that Eva was gonna turn out to be the sock thief the very moment a bag was mentioned. Although, at first, I assumed the bag was filled with socks; not that the socks WERE the bag.

Like I already implied, this was the point where I really started to feel dissatisfied with this route. Granted, by this point, I'd only gone down one path, which was Retsnom, but compared to that, this was just really unimpressive. Even though I do think it's nice seeing something normal happen for once, it's so obviously fake and feels so forced it takes away from it.

This sequence with Eito involves Takumi making a pretty winded Silence of the Lambs reference, but for some reason, it took me a long while to sink in. I actually would super be down for this game to have a killing game/detective route where Eito is the Hannibal to Takumi's Clarice

By the way, because I haven't mentioned it yet, this route constantly plays a track from the game called "Words," which is the theme that plays whenever you play through a bonding event. It's one of the worst tracks in the OST in my opinion, because the instruments are so pitchy to me, which is another thing against this route.

This route also constantly jumps ahead by literal weeks with no explanation. DURING the sock incident, (not AFTER. DURING.) the game just skips from Day 35 to Day 47, with little to no warning. I can't complain, because this Route goes all the way to Day 100, and this way, it doesn't overstay its welcome.

When I unlocked the ability to skip battles, like I said, I chose not to for the most part, and the only time I employed the ability was the fight against Turamtammi and Nyewgank; the idol and time commanders. However, I didn't realize that skipping the battle meant skipping the WHOLE battle. I thought it was just the individual waves. Not sure how I feel about that, and I feel if I was given charge on this, I would give two options to skip the whole battle, or just skip specific waves of it. This isn't a HUGE problem though, just a nitpick.

In the Retsnom Route, this fight ends with two final blows; one against Nyewgank and the other against Turamtammi. But this time, for whatever reason, V'exhness is able to get them both. Still sick of her doing this.

Eva, are you okay!?

The whole sequence where Eva wants to become Santa is cute and endearing. Once again, while I have mixed feelings for this ending overall, Eva is the best part of it. Even with her constantly changing personalities, every time she's on screen, she makes the route where everything else breaks it.

Coupled with that, I find it hilarious how the concept of Santa might go down to alien invaders. If you think about it, he's a man who breaks into homes to give gifts to children. Hearing that for thh first time in your history would probably be mind-blowing, but at least it went down well for Eva.

The concept of Eva using socks as bags because she got confused over Kako telling her about kids putting gifts in stockings is equally endearing and hilarious though.

I think undoubtedly my favourite part of this whole route is Takemaru's card training arc. From start to finish, it was surprisingly entertaining, and it's heightened by Andrew Wheildon-Dennis's brilliant performance. The "GAH, FUCK!" after he loses to Yugamu for the first time is one of the most sudden and brilliant line deliveries in this game, and even though I don't typically do it, I'm actually gonna show it:

And he's like this for a lot of this route too.

This was the point where I really started likening this route to Danganronpa S. It's got nothing to do with the actual story and is more about the gang just having fun being kids.

Again, this whole sequence is hilarious and full of Yu-Gi-Oh ass battles. Takemaru's initial fight is against Moko, who intentionally holds back for the sake of a spectacle, and a spectacle they have, because Moko's card plays seem to physically damage Takemaru. Then he fights against Kyoshika, who makes a ton of JoJo references to D'Arby, and has surprisingly good luck for a game she doesn't know how to play. It's just super funny seeing Takumi try to train Takemaru, and instead, kicks his self-confidence in the balls.

The subsequent friendly four-person match between Takemaru, Gaku, Shouma, and Nozomi is wholesome and nice, but honestly, this was where I started thinking that I wasn't playing the same game anymore.

This segment is funny enough on it's own, but it descends into complete hilarity once Eva gets involved. Off-screen she seems to have developed a neighbourly relationship with Eito, which...is surprising, honestly.

But deadass, I can't tell you how this next part goes, I NEED to show you.

WHO WROTE THIS!?

O-Oh...! Uh...Y-Yes ma'am! Sorry ma'am!

Anyway, this drill seargent shit lasts for only a day, and the next time we see Eva and Takemaru, Sirei has altered her personality to be less violent. Instead, she's acting like a hot anime teacher rizzing up her student, which, while not AS funny, is still hilarious. It's moments like this that I sympathize with the casting studio, because you need to find people who are willing to play these fucking weirdo characters.

I for one cannot keep up with the mood of this game constantly changing.

I have no idea what the fuck is going on on the day AFTER Eva does the smexy teacher shit, but for some reason, it's playing the theme that plays whenever V'exhness strides up to eat shit. And it feels so out of place in an honestly hilarious way.

This all culminates in an honestly pretty entertaining finale where Takemaru locks in in a game against Yugamu where they play Old Maid and he wins. This kicks off another unexpected duo of Takemaru and Yugamu, which I actually kind of like.

A battle immediately happens after and this one is actually pretty interesting. Takemaru and Yugamu sync up in the fight next to each other, which causes Darumi to start shipping them, so that's a thing.

But the real interesting part is the boss fight here. The fight is against Zen'ta, who as a reminder, is the commander who in the original route disguised herself as Moko. We didn't fight her in the Retsnom route because V'exhness already absorbed her prior to this event, but not only do we fight her here, but we do so in her actual Invader form, which just takes the appearance of a gooey orb that spawns other enemies. Though I am surprised this fight didn't involve us fighting copies of ourselves like it did last time. This fight does end interestingly though, because after she's defeated, Zen'ta self-destructs herself to stop V'ehxness from absorbing her. Which I think does bump her up a few spots in my commander ranking. There's nothing I quite like more than dicking over V'exhness.

This leads to another scene that confused the hell out of me. Despite not absorbing Zen'ta, V'ehxness is still stupid powerful, leading to what is actually a kickass CG (which I've already shown; it's the one that's just above Gameplay Changes) only to wake up 16 days later and be told that V'ehxness got done. What confuses me is, in reality, the fight ended tragically; Takumi just didin't percieve it. But if that's the case, how come everyone is still alive after it, and the school is still standing. It doesn't fall until Day 100 clearly, otherwise Takumi would be dead already. Sure, it's not like we see anyone die on screen other than Nozomi, so the rest of the team could be dead, but the fact is we clearly did beat V'ehxness here in reality, otherwise the rest of this shit wouldn't happen, so how and why?

This final sequence in the route with Eito proves to be really fucking dumb, but I do like some of the cute little segments in it. The main one's are how Eito's name gets changed to "Interviewer" when he and Takumi are pretending to play news anchor when Takumi starts living in the other cage, and the really dumb but strangely wholesome interaction where they argue about who would win a death battle between the two imaginary people in their head.

This route very quickly becomes psychological horror after that, and while I expected it, the transition from casual to serious is just way too sudden for my liking.

Takumi is also super braindead in the sequence with Eito in the cage.

Things get even more confusing in the ensuing sequence that takes place from Day 88 to Day 99. Takumi begins to remember what happened, and realizes, same time as I do, that he's in a dream world. Especially after everything loops back and we return to that stupid conversation with Gaku about milk.

Then, completely out of nowhere, we're fighting Dahl'xia, but in an interesting twist, this is the first time in the game where Takumi isn't present for the fight. I guess this also means that I can't use his reset abilities in the fight, but I didn't really try to. Darumi and Kysohika also aren't in this fight, which I didn't notice the first time around, suggesting that this fight is taking place in the true reality.

This fight also ends with the SDU's defeat, but before Dahl'xia can end them personally, V'ehxness mercs him. Something that didn't happen in Retsnom.

So yeah, as I already suggested, the reality of this route is TAkumi has been trapped in his own little world since Day 31 when Sirei mind-wiped him, and by the end of the 100 days, he's stuck in a coma. The final scene is pretty visceral, as Takumi goes through the reality loop again, screaming like he's literally fighting his way out of the dreamscape he's stuck in.

Despite my issues with this writing and pacing, the scene where Takumi gets the story from Sirei is just another attribute to how good of a protagonist he is, and how little this experience has changed his core values. Even after finding out that Sirei used similar tech on him that he used on Eva, all takumi can think about is his friends, and how he involuntarily abandoned them.

I don't quite know how I feel about this route ending with an homage to the Matrix.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

//I will not immediately write this route off as "bad." Especially because by the time I'm writing this, I have reached a new low in the story that I will cover next time.

//But it's definitely not great.

//My biggest issue with this route is how little it explains what's going on, even in the end, and it ends so suddenly. There was so much that happened in it, and it's annoying that it didn't have a happy ending, no matter what was picked.

//Especially since this entire situation was just so out of Takumi's control. It just feels really dumb to me that Sirei was the one who caused this whole problem. It's him who brainwashed Takumi in the first place, and it's him who does it again after Takumi starts to catch on that he fucked with his brain.

//Honestly, as sucky as it is to see the SDU lose, this is the one time in the story where I think they deserved to. It doesn't seem fair though that everyone else gets dragged down just because Sirei wanted to pull off some bullshit.

//Also, something I couldn't help but notice is that this route is unlocked by making the simple choice of asking Hiruko not to randomly fucking destroy Nigou.

//And...Nigou DOESN'T EVEN APPEAR in this route! Not even once!

//Like I've said a few times already, this felt like the game trying to go full visual novel. There was barely any activity, and while we did get some cool new fights, they were few and far between.

//The route also feels really rushed, which is clear through us skipping days for random reasons. And not even a few days. Literal weeks go by without anything happening.

//Anyway, this is squarely where it lands on my tierlist:

//And honestly, that's all I can really do to end this review. This route was the Casual Route. It was a casual experience that, while I didn't outright hate, besides one particular sequence, I did not enjoy as much as the rest of this game.

-Mod

[danmeidiaries]

"How could you miss?! He was 3ft in Front of You!" - When the Queer Option was right there the whole time.

I've touched on writers and execs not allowing queer relationships in media and forcing a heterosexual pairing before. Unlike my previous essay, this will be a short list of shows that sidelined a perfect queer relationship for straight washing.

The title is inspired by the immortal words of Mushu, because dear god how could these characters miss so badly with their love interests.

This list will include any bromance or BL dramas that fall into this category.

BBC's Merlin

Canon Pairing: Arwen (Arthur x Gwen)

Queer Pairing: Merthur (Arthur x Merlin)

Hell, I'm not even a big merthur shipper and I know that this would have made the show better. Angel Coulby and Santiago Cabrera have insane chemistry and can make an equally great side pairing.

2. 'Fangs of Fortune'

Canon: Wen Xiao x Zhao Yuanzhou

Queer Pairings:

Yuanyi (Zhuo Yichen x Zhao Yuanzhou)

Wen Xiao x Pei Sijing

Similar to Merlin, the main arc of the show is about Zhuo Yichen and Zhao Yuanzhou and the tragic promise they've made. Meanwhile, the show gives us these two gorgeous lesbians as well as a bonus. The tragedy of the show hinges on Zhuo Yichen and Zhao Yuanzhou's evolving relationship and a canon confirmation of their love for each other would have sealed the deal.

Thank god most bromance dramas don't have a female romance option.

3. The Devil Judge

Canon Pairing: Kim Gaon x Yoon Soohyun

Queer Pairing: Gahan (Kang Yohan x Kim Gaon)

Again, the entire show revolves around the evolving relationship of Kang Yohan and Kim Gaon. They make the show. Whilst Yoon Soohyun is an excellent friend to Gaon, their brief romance is the weakest part of the show.

(Been informed by @clawbehavior that the gif was not made by them and was made by either yohankang, yilinglaozu, baek1nho or another creator. To whoever made it, thank you!)

4. Supernatural

Canon Pairing: Dean with various female flings but I guess Lisa was his longest relationship. Pretty sure he doesn't have a solid female love interest from S7 onwards compared to Sam who has several long term relationships.

Queer Pairing: Destiel (Dean x Castiel)

Oh sure, have Castiel confess his love and then get sent to super-hell. Wow. Amazing. The show avoided giving Dean a long term love interest for entire seasons while Castiel was RIGHT THERE. Pretty sure most people were only still watching to see if they would kiss.

5. The Painted Skin: The Resurrection

Canon Pairing: Princess Jing x Huo Xin

Queer Pairing: Princess Jing x Xiao Wei

If anyone's seen that video of a dance performed by the two Chinese women wearing red and blue, it's based off of this movie. Now, obviously everything that comes out of China is heavily censored but the chemistry between these two is insane. Can we ditch the man? I understand he's plot relevant but can we ditch him at the end after we realise we love one another?

6. BBC Sherlock

Canon Pairing: John Watson x Mary Watson

Queer Pairing: Johnlock (John x Sherlock)

Again, I'm not a big Johnlock shipper and I was actually pretty okay with John x Mary. But the last season was bad overall and what they did with Mary was annoying. This was a popular 2010's ship for a reason.

7. The Witcher

Canon Pairing: Geralt x Yennefer

Queer Pairing: Geraskier (Geralt x Jaskier)

Did I watch season 2 just because of Geraskier? Yes. Did I know that Geralt x Yennefer would always be the endgame because of the books and games? Yes. Still think these two were a better option. But I heard they made Jaskier bisexual in season 3 just not with Geralt so yay?

Anyway, thank god for Thai BL and danmei. If anyone has anymore let me know, these are just the ones I could think of off the top of my head

[pianokantzart]

I get the feeling that the sequel cast might be split into two groups:

Mario, Luigi and Yoshi

Peach, Toad and Daisy

Or Toad will be like Peni Parker in Across the Spider-Verse and be a comparatively minor character. Either way, I reckon that they’ll do the antithesis of the first movie. Separating Mario, Peach and Toad so that Mario can go on an adventure with Luigi. And people will say that this was what the first movie should have done.

Luigi and Yoshi will be what Mario and Toad are.

There’s way I see it, they’ll have Pauline summon Mario and Luigi, now Brooklyn's greatest heroes, to City Hall. There’s been reports of a monster in the sewers, scaring workers away.

The Bros go into the sewers, possibly run into some stragglers from the Koopa Troop, or some enemies from the arcade games, and then Yoshi. Yoshi sees that Luigi is green and so is he. Therefore, Luigi’s his mama.

Luigi doesn’t like Yoshi at first and wants to take him back where he came from. Overtime, he grows attached.

What do you think?

While I am definitely hoping that Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi are the main trio of the next movie, I’m not sure how I feel about Luigi not getting to interact much with Toad or Daisy. Daisy especially. I feel like her debut movie appearance should heavily involve Luigi given how much Nintendo has teased them being a thing, and how many fans want to see them interact.

Peach and Toad make a fun little duo though. They had nice chemistry in the first movie where Peach was the power house, and Toad was her ray-of-sunshine emotional support with enough stupid-bravery to come in clutch when things were most dire. I wouldn’t mind too much if the sequel had a side plot that revolved around more of them working together.

As for your concept about how The Mario Bros discover Yoshi… I’ve got a few ideas of my own, one of which isn’t too far from yours.

I like to think there are some stray goomba and koopa hiding out in Brooklyn after the failed invasion; ones who made themselves scarce after the rest of the army got knocked out and warp-piped back to where they belong (which no doubt was a messy and complicated process.) As a result, Mario and Luigi… who clearly have the most experience in the area of dealing with Bowser’s minions… are given the responsibility of being on call whenever one is sighted so they can knock them out and return them to their rightful dimension. It’s less a “big summons to the mayoral office” and more just another phone call with a very specific hero-plumber related emergency.

They receive a call from a sewer worker who spotted something green and bipedal underground, and assumed it was another one of those freaky interdimensional turtles on the loose. However, upon investigation, Mario and Luigi discover that what they’re dealing with is not a koopa, but a certain you-know-who…

As for Luigi and the possible Mama Luigi arc, I don’t ever really see him “not liking” Yoshi. He’s just a baby after all. The issue with Yoshi is how much he stresses Luigi out with his tendency to run off and devour everything he lays his eyes on. Luigi likes the little guy well enough despite all the trouble he causes, but he doesn’t think he’s equipped to properly take care of him.

But as the story progresses, Luigi’s feelings go from “I can’t wait until this little tyke is safely returned home so I don’t have to worry so much” to “I am really really REALLY going to miss this guy :( I don’t want to say goodbye.”

[bibibbon]

I see that you're anti Bakugou blog, can I ask something because I'm really curious? Don't worry it's not hate ask (even if I'm Bakudeku shipper).

What I want to ask is the same in this post :

"I get preferring other ships, but if you hate them (BKDK), cannot stand them... you don't love the story. How could you? The narrative is built around their relationship. How they feel about each other at any given time is how you can tell the story is progressing. In both cases, they want to compete and surpass each other, which motivates them to train harder, to be better.

This is also why I don't get people who say they love one character but hate the other. Like, you cannot love Midoriya while hating Bakugou and vice versa.

They don't need to be your favorite characters, but you have to recognize their importance to your fav and their character arc. That is simply logical, in my opinion."

Thoughts, please?

First of all thank you for the question and not sending any hate comments that's very appreciated by me!

This is an interesting perspective and interpretation of the series, even if I don't see eye to eye with you or agree with this interpretation thank you for sharing it.

To begin this of I want to say that I don't particularly agree with the statement that you provided above. While the story in itself does revolve around izuku and bakugo to an extent its not exactly that big and I would argue that it shouldn't be that big of an involvement overall.

Izuku and bakugo's rivalry or the extended version which is the Canon one harms both the characters and the plot. This is because of how their rivalry naturally is which is toxic. @sapphic-agent goes into depth about how the wonder duo fails and of the toxicity of their supposed rivalry.

From the beginning izuku and bakugo's relationship was unhealthy whether that be from izukus non stop admiration even when bakugo abused him or bakugo who thought that izuku was a nuisance in his path. I think the best route for bakugos character was for him to ditch the rivalry route towards anyone. Bakugo as a character needed to accept that there are various people who will be weaker or stronger or different than him. He also needed to accept that society proping him up as this next big hero and ultimately feeding his ego was also wrong.

In the end I still have a lot of issues with bakugo's character individually that I did talk about previously and I think that overall he should of had an arc of breaking down his harmful thoughts, beliefs and behaviours. His arc needed more focus on his character and how he treats other people not just izuku.

I also want to argue that bakugo's arc isn't that well written at all. He doesn't really change and the change we do see from his underwhelming due to a number of reasons whether that be his horrible apology or his behaviour not really changing and being played off as a gag or the way we see bakugo still uphold his old behaviour heck it's all around his arc him being the only character to follow the idea of not saving someone or him just being hyperfixated on a rivalry that doesn't have equal footing.

I think the bakugo vs izuku fight part 2 showed a lot of bakugo and izukus problems within their relationship really well. I also think that was the arc where bakugo should of been separated from izuku having people acknowledge the toxicity of their relationship as bakugo thinks izuiu owes him an explanation when he doesn't or how izuku is supposed to overcome his admiration for bakugo and realise that what bakugo did to him was wrong. @delawaredetroit made a lot of analysis based on that fight which I think is worth checking out because they point out good bakugo critiques that horikoshi doesn't address and simply let's slide for bakugo while painting his and izukus relationship as perfectly fine and a healthy rivalry that moves the story.

In the end for bakugo he becomes a character attached to izuku ultimately having no real relevance outside of izuku and that sucks for him as he isn't even able to grow an we aren't able to see that change with the way he Interacts with the world.

Now moving onto izuku's character. Izuku due to horikoshis writing decisions also suffered a lot due this supposes rivalry. Izuku doesn't ever acknowledge the abuse that bakugo committed ultimately since he doesn't ever get to either introspect or freely express emotions about this issue his whole character starts to lack introspection and hinders him from forming valuable character relationships that can help push the narrative forward as he comes to understand heroes, civillians and villains alike. Izuku also never gets a say in the relationship he ultimately becomes more passive and a shell of his former self as the series goes on to the point that we don't see him react to losing his quirk (no the moment is focused on bakugo crying instead) and we don't see izukus response to the apology that bakugo offered.

It seems that throughout their relationship izuku who once had potential and so much going for him went through one of the worst cases of character regressions and assassinations that I have ever seen . At least before the rivalry started we saw izuku express fear, awe,anger and so many more emotions towards bakugo but now he is an empty shell a clean slate that cannot feel any negative emotions towards him at all.

Going back to my original point the narrative isn't fully built around their relationship and while they do have major themes such as win to save and save to win, their relationship in itself doesn't bring much to the narrative it actually just harms their characters and makes them lack depth even more.

Izuku already has a character who is supposed to be his rival, whose supposed to challenge his views, whose supposed to understand him and be understood by him and that character is shigaraki yet horikoshi doesn't build up on their relationship and only throws parallels around when it comes to those two making the final war arc a dissatisfactionary and disappointing rollercoster filled with mountains of wasted potential.

From the beginning the story to me had a clear path that bakugo wasn't supposed to be a primary character in the series he was supposed to be something that izuku overcame, he was supposed to be a challenge that showed the damage that society caused but that wasn't the case and the direction that hori took the story ended up harming every aspect of the story whether that be the unexplored plot point of quirkless discirmation (which many speculate is unexplored to make bakugo not look bad) or the final fight between shigaraki and izuku that lacked any build up whatsoever (toga and ochako had a better one because they had time to develop)

So to sum it up while the two characters relationship is present within the series its not a well written one at all and it isn't a primary relationship that develops both izuku and bakugo but more of a relationship that develops bakugos character and hinders izukus character.