I drew all of this watching those Reddit videos with the Minecraft parkour in the background and I gotta say that made me finish this 3 hours later than it would normally take me
shoutout to those who have only recently realized and/or accepted that they are a system. the discovery process is usually not very fun, and it can be stressful, scary, and strange. but that's okay. it wont always be this way. you'll be okay. i believe in you.
it is okay to not understand all of this yet. it is okay to be confused or afraid. you aren't alone. take all this one step at a time. don't put too much pressure on yourself.
Do you think one could attain decent-ish ability to read Japanese just by studying kanji? Specifically asking because the kanji learnin' service "wanikani" is the single Japanese resource that works best with my brain, but then there are separate resources for grammar and vocab and and and.....
You will get REAAAALLLLLYYY far knowing only the kanji but you're going to have to know hiragana and katakana at some point too. Tofugu, the company that did Wanikani, has two mnemonics-based guides for the kana that are basically Wanikani Lite. They're how I learned the kana and I swear by them.
And katakana: https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-katakana/
Hiragana are especially vital to learning kanji; you won't be able to use 99% of Japanese-English dictionaries without them. BUT they're pretty easy and the rules for using them are consistent. You won't have to remember any irregular exceptions for any of them.
I haven't tried it yet, but I've heard really good things about the Crystal Hunters manga series as a fun/low stress way to learning Japanese vocab and grammar. It eases the reader into new concepts and then repeats them throughout the chapter so you remember them. There are free vocab and study guides/lists for each chapter too. Might be worth checking out once you get some kanji and the kana under your belt? The first book is also free.
Spoilering for some of my mutuals who haven't finished the game yet (spoilers for act 2 and 3!):
What made you ship it?
beloved discord friend: abigail thorn appears in act 3 as a sharran cultist, this seems relevant to your interests
me: haha nice
me after meeting said sharran cultist: I AM NOT THE SAME PERSON I WAS FIVE MINUTES AGO
"I wasn't sure if I'd ever lay eyes on you again" is such an H-bomb (homosexuality bomb) and it only ramps up from there.
What are your favorite things about the ship?
alright. alright. i'm gonna try to be normal and put my thoughts in order instead of incoherently mashing my face against the keyboard.
it's all about nocturne's devotion for someone who cannot remember her. it's all about shadowheart returning to nocturne again and again. it's all about how their bond strains sharran dogma -- enough to make a dark justiciar's resolve crumble, if shadowheart goes that way! it's about how they kept each other's heart safe, how they helped each other survive and keep their kindness more or less intact in an environment that snuffs all kindness and all joy. the paradoxical nature of their bond: they kept each other sane enough to defy sharran dogma, but their bond was such that they tethered each other to the cult, unable to escape to keep the other safe.
Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?
I get that Shadowheart tends to be the focus on fannish works because she's the one who has more development and whatnot, but there is so much depth crammed into Nocturne's brief appearance? Her status as an officer, her brave but quiet defiance, her complicated relationship with Shar (and with Viconia and with Shadowheart herself! being a caretaker is not easy and often breeds resentment!!) I'd love to see more from Nocturne's perspective.
Also, as I said before. Nocturne was an officer in the cloister. Her hands were not clean. She's very sweet to Shadowheart, yeah, but what about her darker side? There's a lot of untapped potential there.