#ALSO MAKOTO FROM PERSONA 5 SHE'S V GOOD

[magical-girl-brainrot]

give me a magical girl who punches shit and i will love her on the SPOT

[nepzero]

Cybele キュベレ

x

as she appears in the shin megami tensei series

Origin: Greco-Roman Mythology, European Mythology

First Appearance: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner

Alignment(s): Light-Chaos

Race(s): Lady

Arcana(s): Lovers, Priestess

depiction by kazuma kaneko

history

Cybele is the deity of Phrygia, a realm in ancient Anatolia, that represents the idea of a mother goddess, similar to Gaia of the Greeks. Cybele is also associated with various natural elements, including wildlife and vegetation. Wild cats in particular were often associated with her. It's possible she was derived from an earlier mostly Hittite goddess, Kubaba.

In Greece, Cybele was a protector of several city-states, one of which is Athens. Her most celebrated Greek rites and processions showed her as a foreign and exotic mystery-goddess. She arrives in a lion-drawn chariot to the accompaniment of wild music, wine, and a disorderly, ecstatic following. She was unique among deities worshiped by the Greeks as she had a transgendered, or eunuch, priesthood. Many of her Greek cults included rites to a divine, castrated, Phrygian shepherd-consort known as Attis. She is associated with mountains, town and city walls, fertile nature, and wild animals, namely lions.

In Rome she was known as Magna Mater, meaning Great Mother. They would reinvent her as a Trojan goddess, which made her a goddess ancestor of the Roman people by way of the Trojan prince Aeneas. With Rome's eventual dominance over the Mediterranean, a Roman version of Cybele's cult would spread throughout the entire empire.

appearances - SMT / PERSONA

Shin Megami Tensei NINE: Lady Race (Unused)

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux: Lady Race

Shin Megami Tensei V: Lady Race

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Lady Race

Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers: Lady Race

Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon: Volt Order, Boss

Persona 3 / FES / Portable: Lovers Arcana

Persona 4 / Golden: Lovers Arcana

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth: Lovers Arcana

Persona 5 / Royal: Priestess Arcana

Persona O.A.

Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth: Lovers Arcana

Devil Children Fire/Ice Book

Shin Megami Tensei Trading Card: Card Summoner: Lady Race

Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2: Lady Race

profile - SMT / PERSONA

Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers

"Phrygian goddess of the earth. She had a cult following even in Rome. A goddess of the mountains of Phrygia, she is often depicted on a throne with lions on each side or on a chariot pulled by lions and known as a mistress of animals. Cybele was incorporated into Greek mythology as well, but was often seen as Rhea, who was another earth goddess, and eventually assimilated with her."—Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers 3DS compendium

Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon

"The embodiment of Mother Earth, as well as her protector, it is revered in the mountains of Turkey. Cybele commands wild beasts, using lions in particular. She was later celebrated in Roman culture as well."—Gouma-Den devil chart

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth

"Phrygian Goddess of the earth. Attis was her son and consort, but she drove him mad, and he castrated himself. Her orgiastic cult spread to Greece."—Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth compendium

Persona 5

"The Phrygian mother goddess of the earth, she is often depicted with wild animals, and lions in particular. She had her priest, Attis, as a lover, but drove him insane when he was forced to marry another."—Persona 5 background

Cybele is the ultimate Persona of the Priestess, unlocked for fusion after completing Makoto Niijima's Confidant. Itemizing Cybele creates Sabazios, one of the strongest melee weapons for Makoto which grants a large boost to critical rate. She is also the only natural source of the Drain Bless skill.

trivia

Serving the role as the unlockable Persona of the Lovers Social Link in Persona 3, Cybele's title and history as "The Great Mother" could be looked at as a loose reference for Yukari's Social Link having a good emphasis on her relationship with her mother, and like Cybele and Attis, their relationship is considerably strained at least in the beginning. Yukari's ultimate Persona Isis also is worshiped as the ideal mother and wife in her own mythology.

(4/15)

deities, goddesses, and beings i actively believe in, worship, or follow as a practicing pagan and how they appear in my favorite JRPG; shin megami tensei and persona.

everything comes directly from the megami tensei wiki.

[karkashan]

Cyberpunk 2077, developed by CD Projekt Red, is an...interesting beast to talk about. Even though full development didn't start til around late 2015, a teaser trailer from a few years earlier let us know they were at least in the planning and concept stages already. Which, in retrospect, might've been a mistake as it fed into a hype machine that couldn't stand the thought of delays. Delays that kept happening and happening until it finally launched last month. Thing is, it could've probably used a couple more months in the oven cause CP2077 is like the most delicious frozen casserole you've ever eaten, but part of it was still cold after you'd taken it out. There are glitches, there are wonky AI paths, there are T poses, and worst of all there are CTDs. (keep in mind this was all played on a PS4 Pro with an internal 3rd part SSD for an internal drive instead of the stock HDD) There are, however, like 7 (8?) different autosave slots and 20 Manual save slots so I never felt like I lost a lot of progress, it was just annoying and irritating when it happened cause it always seemed to happen at the quietest moments, not the bombastic ones. Driving feels pretty good, but driving in traffic is a nightmare because everyone else on the road are literal idiots (so like real life I guess). Getting a motorcycle alleviates this problem by almost 90 percent due to being able to weave in and out of traffic and make sharper corners. The VA for the voice of female V (Makoto from Persona 5, A2 from Nier Automata) freakin' killed it, I must say. I could feel every little emotion she was feeling to a point where it didn't seem like I was directing the conversations, but she was. Keanu as Johnny Silverhand was great too (when he felt unhinged he freakin' sounded like it. When he had those contemplative moments I felt it). Side Quests are the bread and butter of this game. You never know when it's gonna be a simple 3 minute quest, or you'll start a 5 hour quest chain that feels deeper than any movie you'll watch that'll also unlock an ending choice later on in the game. I didn't 100% them though because there's just...way too many and I'd like to not get stuck on one game for too long this year (like I did in 2020). My character focused primarily on Crafting and Quickhacking, so my instinctive nature to just go everywhere and loot everything after a fight was well rewarded. I've lost my train of thought, like I usually do on these, so I'll wrap this up. I put 41 hours into this game (not counting deaths or CTDs) and highly enjoyed 94% of those minutes. I didn't spend money on this game, so perhaps that's coloring my more forgiving perception of this game (got it for Xmas), but even though I loved it I would not recommend people go out and buy it for another 3 months at the least. This Cyberpizza is still a bit frozen in the middle, and needs more time before it can be held up there with the greats.

[akechicrimes]

Hey crimes, feel free to disregard this tangent but, do u ever feel like P5 inadvertently or otherwise implied Goro was right with his fake “vigilante justice operates outside and the law and thus must be brought to heel” opinion? What with the fact that the Yaldabaoth confrontation implies the thieves work perpetuated humanity’s sloth AND THEN after an entire game showing us the hundreds of people who were at the v least COMPLICIT in shido’s machinations, a system which is (1)

ohhhhh this one is fun!! this is a super neat question, ty for asking!!!

hmmmmmmmmm

im going to try and break this down into parts, partly because persona 5 is such a convoluted mess with its own lines of thinking, so tell me if i dont do it right. the issues are: (1) goro definitely did say that operating outside the law was bad just on principle that you shouldn’t operate outside the law, and (2) persona 5 did definitely go on to say that all of the phantom thieves’ operations outside the law didn’t come to anything in the first place anyway, because they were only targeting individuals instead of mass systemic corruption/their presence was enabling people to become more apathetic.

i think what persona 5 is trying to get at is that it’s not necessarily that acting outside the law is bad, but that, like you said, targeting only individuals doesn’t work as a tactic. so vigilante justice (e.g. batman style of taking down supervillains) cannot compare to societal reform through collective action.

when i say collective action, i mean that i think persona 5 is trying to point out that “systematic” corruption is really just a corruption of many, many, many individuals working in concert--and that “reform” could just be said to be the opposite, which is activism from many, many, many individuals working in concert.

obviously the ending cutscene where akira;s social link network gets together to protest his arrest is the best example of collective reform, but i think one of the things that i rly like about shido’s wide-spread conspiracy is that it does a rly good job of paralleling akira’s social link network, and pointing out that in the same way that shido’s conspiracy is a collective effort of many many many people that make up a “system,” akira’s widespread social link network creates the opposite effect of a collective effort of many many people that make up a force for change. 

which is why having the phantom thieves as a group itself just promotes more apathy--you get one group of people doing all the work for the rest of society, when if anything’s going to change, we need everyone on their feet.

which surprisingly correct, insofar as i’m aware. if society’s going to change in a substantial way, beyond just changing the hearts of a handful of abusers and letting the rest of the system remain untouched, everyone’s got to be involved. collective effort. do your part. wash your hands. stay indoors. don’t forget to vote. seriously, wash your fucking hands.

but when it comes to whether or not persona 5 says that you shouldn’t be acting outside the law... 

i think persona 5 really really really really really doesnt want to be caught promoting lawbreaking while also being You Should Break The Law: The JRPG.

part of this trouble, i think, is just because they need players to actually like the characters in the game, and therefore all the character have sympathetic reasons for breaking the law. because persona 5 has to sell marketable characters, too, persona 5 itself makes it pretty clear that people who operate “outside the law” are usually not evil dipshit criminals who love sin. the people in persona 5 who act outside the law are usually people who dont have enough power to operate inside the law in the first place. akira, the pt, and goro all seem to have resorted to what they did because they had no societal power at the start, wound up with a persona (aka fast and easy power source), and wouldnt have been able to do anything about their situation otherwise. characters who operate outside the law (like takemi with her vaguely illegal practice, or kawakami and her also vaguely illegal sex work, or iwai and his vaguely illegal gun business) are still supposed to be waifus you are sympathetic towards. 

(...i think i accidentally called iwai a waifu? hmm. on second thought, i’ll just leave that sentence as it is.)

and i really do have to point out that persona 5′s attitude of FUCK COPS is insanely strong. like. persona 5 HATES cops. and that doesn’t let up basically ever, at all, at any moment. for anything. persona 5 wants me to believe that makoto will become a good cop in the future, but if i wanted to find an existing good cop, i’d have to go all the way back to persona 4. like!! shit!! goro akechi is the closest thing we have to a good cop, and he has a pet guillotine for CEOs and his middle name is komaeda.

and that part of the big attitude with FUCK COPS is that it’s another way of morally exonerating the phantom thieves. i think... although the game ultimately concludes with “you should probably not break the law any more because the metaverse is gone,” it’s difficult to argue with the fact that persona 5 is a game in which it presents you with 10000000000000 reasons to break the law and feel Great about it.

(another tangent: i feel like one of the big undercurrents of persona 5, and especially the TV station, is that the phantom thieves are justified in their lawbreaking because the police aren’t doing their fucking job. like, someone’s got to keep people safe, and if the cops don’t like the phantom thieves, maybe they should get off their asses and actually get the criminals before the thieves do. akira literally was on live television and he was like ALL COPS ARE BAD and goro was like wow. anyone else think that was really sexy? @ the guy in the glasses in the back, call me later when you’ve leveled up your charm and knowledge.)

so atlus is in this place where they’ve pointed out that people break the law because they dont really have any other choice, and also persona 5 the game HATES cops, and also persona 5 the game cannot tell you that breaking the law is bad because it is literally A Game About Breaking The Law, but at the same time, they cant really go around promoting crime. from a doylist perspective i was 100% unsurprised that they came up with a fancy narrative reason to get rid of the metaverse and their change-of-heart abilities and just the phantom thieves in general, because all of those are a threat to the status quo. although the game might be right that relying on the phantom thieves to change society for the rest of the population makes the rest of the population lazy and apathetic, it’s pretty convenient that this means that the kids are now no longer able to break the law. so persona 5 really wants people to do things the kosher way, e.g. protesting and such. 

hhfmgmhfmghfmgfmghmfhgg. taking this all with a grain of salt, because again, i do think atlus is trying very hard to avoid saying that people should break the law:

i think atlus wants to say that it’s not necessarily acting outside the law that’s not right, but the fact that just loading the phantom thieves with a ton of power makes people apathetic, and changing the hearts of a few individuals is Not enough to get rid of something like shido’s conspiracy. so instead they say, you shouldn’t break the law because it’s not effective without collective reform. 

i think another thing that persona 5 wants us to believe is that for the most effective reform to be achieved, people both inside and outside the law/system have to be involved in the collective effort to improve society. 

e.g., toranosuke wants to be a man of the people--someone who speaks for the people who are outside of the diet, but toranosuke himself is someone inside the diet. sae’s the other good example; the phantom thieves protest akira’s arrest at the end of the game, but sae, as the insider in the justice system, has to be there to hear and work with them. and this might just be because i watched haru’s s link last night, but i feel like takakura is a really good example: haru pushes back against the company’s shitty policies with her “outsider’s” perspective (quoted because she’s technically the largest shareholder, she just hasnt ever been really involved in how the company is run), but takakura, as the company president and most powerful person at okumura foods, has to be there to hear her request and agree with her, and make company changes based on her requests. 

and it’s for this reason that persona 5 wants us to consider maybe lawbreaking isnt morally bad, just not effective.

i wish i could say that that’s more bad atlus writing, but it’s not. i’ve only really examined changing schools on an institutional level, but the best examples of institutional change in school administration have always been cases where the administration, parents, and community members all work together. in some cases, parents bring up requests for the school to accommodate their needs, and the administration listens and works with them. something something--everyone needs an advocate. the point of a lawyer is to advocate for you. the point of a politician/representative is to represent you and your interests. so on and so forth.

(and i also wish that it could be as simple as saying, “wow atlus said something right for once!” because that’s not true, either--acting outside the law can be outrageously effective. persona 5 trying to tell us that acting outside the law to get shit done isn’t effect smells like corporate trying to tell its workers that unionizing doesnt actually do anything.)

(and i also wish that persona 5 would have acknowledged that sometimes, it takes more than just an extremely moral person to change the world. take toranosuke, for example--i’m sure that if he gets elected, he’ll go out there and be a wonderful representative of the people, but at the same time, can’t we also simultaneously acknowledge that any politician who can make “politics” a career for profit will always be incentivized towards self-interest? in the same way that a military for profit will always be incentivized towards war?)

but insofar as whether or not persona 5 thinks that vigilante justice/acting outside the law is in and of itself morally bad--i’d say probably not. i think they want us to think that it’s not effective.

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this is a slight tangent that kind of goes off the issue of whether or not persona 5 is concerned with whether or not breaking the law is moral or effective. i was going back through goro’s dialogue in the engine room--who knows if that’s going to be changed in royal--but i was trying to figure out exactly what the phantom thieves condemn him for. (fucking difficult as fuck considering how bizarre that dialogue was at places.) 

the first one is murder, which goro is unimpressed with (LMAO. KING). the second is that he operated outside the law, to which he replies that they did the same thing (valid). the third is that his form of justice was “selfish,” in that it only served his personal need for revenge. at that point, goro changes the subject--which is not really surprising, since goro admitted long before the engine room that his quest against shido was for his own personal satisfaction. 

that is to say, the phantom thieves can’t say that they don’t operate outside the law, because they do--however, if the phantom thieves can’t be legally exonerated, the phantom thieves are morally exonerated despite operating outside the law because they do it for the benefit of others. that’s actually not an incorrect statement from the phantom thieves, although i dont think they’re doing it for Society Writ Large. the phantom thieves in every single palace have taken on targets to help someone else: firstly ann and ryuji and shiho, then yusuke, then various shujin students being blackmailed by kaneshiro, etc, etc. i remember pretty distinctly that ann insists that she doesnt want to get involved with madarame just for drama or fame (whereas ryuji wants to pick a big target just for the sake of getting famous), but she agrees to get involved with madarame’s palace because she doesn’t want to leave yusuke to possibly kill himself like a previous student.

because the phantom thieves are not able to say that they haven’t operated outside the law in the same way that goro has, the dividing line between them is instead that the phantom thieves are doing so selflessly. but this is just an elaboration on the question of whether or not “is lawbreaking moral?” rather than necessarily “is lawbreaking effective?”

there’s an argument that nothing goro or the phantom thieves did was effective in the long run, and there’s an argument that sae is proof positive that working inside the system won’t be effective, either. 

anyway, unions are effective. so maybe we should agree to wash our hands and join a union.

[seasaltmemories]

Persona 5 Royal Review/Analysis

So I didn’t have a ps4 when the original persona 5 came out, so royal was my first experience with the game, as a result, I will be talking about spoilers for both the original content and Royal bc a lot of the additions seem mixed in aside from just the third semester stuff

let’s get the summary

Prepare for an all-new RPG experience in Persona 5 Royal based in the universe of the award-winning series, Persona! Don the mask of Joker and join the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. Break free from the chains of modern society and stage grand heists to infiltrate the minds of the corrupt and make them change their ways! Persona 5 Royal is packed with new characters, confidants, story depth, new locations to explore, and a new grappling hook mechanic for stealthy access to new areas. 

So one of the things that I picked up really early on into my playthrough was that Persona 5 feels like a very adolescent piece of media, like yeah it is about highschoolers, but more than just its cast and setting, it seemed really fixated on capturing and adolescent mindset, there is this fresh awareness to the injustices of the world and a burning desire to fix it without much understanding of how to even began to tackle those problems, and the fact it stuck so hard to to that worldview made me a lot more forgiving of its flaws then I might have otherwise been, not that there isn’t stuff to critique about the way it tackles controversial issues, but at the same time i just had this mindset of, “well of course they aren’t going to get everything right, what can you expect from teens?”

Anyone who knows me knows I am a pretentious blow-hard, but I think P5 is a perfect example of just how important style is to anything.  So much of the pure glee and joy I got when I booted up the game came from the fun presentation and commitment to the phantom thief aesthetic, I have a lot of thoughts on gameplay that seem to be contradictory to the general consensus but to keep things brief, all the “sneaking’ around a palace, grappling from places, ambushing enemies, and performing all out attacks just all gave this sense of being cool and stylish that was great, even if the writing stronger, without those fun flourishes I don’t think I would have enjoyed my experience as much

I also think the more than any other game, persona 5 does a great job of making me thinking “just one more thing” you got a lot of confidants to fill and stats to raise to fill them so there is always something to do, at most during the story sections things sometimes dragged, but i was eager to finish them to get back to finishing my goals, for as long as the game was, this made it feel so much more manageable

Unpacking an entire 110 hour playthrough is kinda an overwhelming task, so instead I’m going to talk about my four favorite characters and hopefully that will cover some good amount of material

1) Goro Akechi- one of the first things I knew about this game was what a controversial character this bastard was and it turns out I fell on the side that loves him bc I think I have a thing for traitor characters, I have to say though for most of the game I wasn’t sure how I felt about him, I knew his true role going in, so it was hard to get attached to Detective Prince Akechi as most of his interactions with Joker felt like an act, however his Rank 8 confidant link, when he not only pulls out a gun on you and challenges you to an one on one fight but also freaking throws a glove to challenge you in a duel I was like “oh so you’re a little bitch boy then!” and never turned back

To me part of what makes him so compelling is just how stubbornly he is set on his path straight to Hell, a lot of ppl were moved by his tragic backstory but honestly it does little for me, I think it is important to consider, but you have to remember he approached Shido about his powers first and basically volunteered to be his personal assassin, still it is hard to ignore that sense of lost potential, in a way I can see how getting to pretend to be a part of a safe and welcoming team environment almost made things worst because he just kept feeling like, “why wasn’t I allowed to have this earlier” and just too tied to his current path of self-destruction to waver from it, like even the fact the Phantom Thieves and he had the same goals regarding Shido in the end, he couldn’t side with bc that would mean acknowledging all the murder he did was for nothing, so they just continued to be another target on his list, made all the more dangerous bc of the affection he held for them

That said I don’t think I would have liked him so much without Royal’s updates, I mentioned Rank 8 being a key moment for me but aside from that, the fight with him in Shido palace had so much going on, it kinda dulled the weight of any one of the numerous revelations, 3rd semester kinda brought in the perfect amount and balance of the different sides of Akechi, the minute he appeared I swear me and my brother cheered in joy, obvious spoilers for the rest of it

I had seen 3rd semester Akechi called “feral” and while he is still as horny for murder as ever, i don’t really think that fits, there is still a sense of restraint to his actions, yet he doesn’t mask his true intentions and feelings so much, what I like is that his rudeness and outbursts come off as very deliberate and planned, as if he enjoys exposing the contrast between his “pleasant” reputation and his true bitterness, and with the reveal that oops he is supposed to be dead, you still have that determined “don’t be a fucking pussy, just pull the trigger,” attitude, I really like the dynamic that forms between a Joker that just wants the best for him and an Akechi that just emphatically refuses to be saved in anyway, he is an easy character to woobify but I love how canon just at every turn doesn’t let you ever see his true vulnerability even if we all know it exists down there, also just something about hearing him curse is always so much fun and delightful

TLDR: I have a lot of feelings about this edgy bastard and may or may not already have a playlist for him

2) Makoto Niijima- another character I had an interesting relationship with, while from the start she seemed like my type, the overwhelming love for her kinda made my hipster side apprehensive, however predictably I was won over and I did romance her in the end (what can I saw my Joker is into brunettes)

Part of what makes her stick out so much to me, is how the game felt much less afraid to show her unlikable in comparison to other characters, i usually don’t complain or really notice this but more than any other game series I’ve played, there is definitely a lot of self-insert fantasy elements involved, ppl rip the newer FE games apart for that, but I never really saw it as the terrible as the cast had dozens of life changing interactions with other characters, the fact most of the interaction we see are through Joker’s eyes, and the fact that he is the catalyst to changing several adults’ lives made this element a lot more noticeable

But not only does Makoto take an antagonistic role at first, but they let her be so smug and annoying that I probably hated her with the same passion as the characters themselves, yet even when she comes over to or sides, her flaws are still pretty open, like when trying to help out Futuba, she definitely had that air of, “neurotypical trying too hard to make you normal” that was understandable but still annoying, and I appreciate it bc it made the contrast between her good points all the sharper

I kinda wanted to roll my eyes at first at her archetype as an honors student, bc yeah i was a nerdy student who didn’t know how to connect with my peers and just kinda subconsciously sucked up to adults bc I didn’t know what else to do, but in comparison to the teeming tragic backstories involved, you can see a stark difference in scale, yet Makoto is just carrying all this familiar teenage girl anger that reminds me a lot of Serena from Arc V, and getting to see her embrace it is very cathartic, I also really enjoyed her confidant which was surprising after seeing everyone tear into it so much, I feel like a lot of ppl’s confidant’s centered around other ppl and it didn’t just start off with the Eiko stuff, you see her Makoto want to change from the sheltered snobbish life she has kinda trapped herself in and rediscover her dream of being a police commissioner, I also found it fitting for her to also kinda figure that out through her own little investigation and to see that exploration of justice explored through her acting with a third party

The fact she is related to Sae also gives her interesting relationships we get to see from a different POV, and a greater investment in arcs outside her own, it just naturally gives her the feeling of being more well-rounded to have it spread out, and while her romance stuff did have the same sort of fantasy elements (that I greatly self-indulged in) overall I never felt like Joker was “saving” her in some way but growing and exploring along sides her

Overall, a great character and while i think best girl debates are dumb, I will not stand for hearing her described as worst girl

3) Ann Takamaki- honestly before I got this game I expected her to be the “main girl” with a lot of popularity and focus so seeing how little love she gets was heartbreaking for me, bc she is part of what made the early phantom thieves so enjoyable

I’ve heard the discussions about the issues around her sexualization and I think things on that access come out to be a wash, the developers kinda brush near some interesting ideas about the struggles women face with sex and attraction but don’t really know what to do with that, and so I think trying to trace and overall arch one way or another about her and her body issues is kinda a lesson in futility

in the end though what made her click for me is just how much fun her personality is, like I feel like in other stories her cheerfulness might come off as generic, but the fact that she is introduced so depressed and sullen makes her attitude shift come off as refreshing, like we know she can be serious, but the fact she isn’t being repeatedly sexually harassed by her teacher gives her like plenty of reason to goof off and enjoy herself

Again despite all the criticism I really enjoyed her confidants, the Mika stuff was honestly barely a blip in the thing and most of it alternated between her shooting the breeze and just having fun and still dealing with that lingering guilt and issues surrounding Shiho and just not having been able to save a close friend when she really needed her, I think the contrast is very much needed, especially to keep things from feeling like wallowing, which i felt was a problem with some other confidants

In the end though the main reason i didn’t romance her was bc as much as I liked her as a character, I didn’t want her to be with Joker specifically, i wanted to support her and see her finally confess her feelings to Shiho and the two of them go ride off into the sunset lol, still there’s a reason I reached rank 10 with her first

4) Takuto Maruki- lol so in this section I’m going to basically go into all my 3rd semester thoughts, again the first leg of his confidant was kinda dull, but I was prioritizing him bc of the deadline, once we got into his personal past that is where I got interested

On one hand part of the charm was just getting to see a more adult story, while there are other adult confidants I found the grad school and like academic stuff relatable, plus like the little moment with the steamed glasses was very funny, he’s just a down to earth guy and his kindness is genuine

However when he stepped up as the antagonist in the third semester, that’s when he got interesting, I found the conflict itself of a dream world to be kinda simple, aside from the fact obviously we need to oppose this for a plot to happen, Persona 5 is all about this humanist approach to personal growth and change, most of what I found fascinating about Maruki was the kinda self-martyring narcissism to his approach, like aside from treat the phantom thieves with kid gloves at time and just doing his best to avoid being a bad guy, there is this simmering resentment he masks and tries to replace with his desire to basically save the world, rather than deal with his own drama and baggage he tries to invest his energy into solving other problems

And you can see some of the parallels between him and the phantom thieves that points out some of hypocrisy of themselves, calculating the exact risks and harms of altering ppl through the Metaverse is hard to do due to a variety of factors, personally I don’t even have other Persona games to look to, but in general while it is for the greater good, the phantom thieves basically impose their will onto ppl who didn’t consent to that change, and in the end they decide to oppose Maruki purely based on their desires to not live in it, the game doesn’t do much with it, but I found the contrast more interesting than the Holy Grail one, plus his boss battle was more fun bc you actually got to use the main mechanic of the game, exploiting weaknesses and baton passing

But yeah all this comes to a head at the latter half of the boss fight where he just is so desperate and refuses to lose, it is like abundantly clear that this dream world is much more for himself than it is for anyone else, it is a desire to turn all his trauma into something more meaningful than just pain, and nothing shows that more clearly than the fact he fistfights a high schooler even after he has basically lost and tries to let himself die rather than face the consequences of his lost.  All in all I think he was the my favorite antagonist and palace holder

Some last thoughts I couldn’t fit elsewhere: Casino was my favorite palace, while weak story-wise, Okumura was far from my least favorite palace gameplay-wise and his boss fight as frustrating as it was might be my favorite for engaging with the player, if anything my least favorite palace was Futaba’s, my favorite showtimes are probably Morgana/Ann, Makoto/Ryuji, and Joker/Kasumi, Caroline and Justine are a delight and I really miss them, Tycoon is addicting and distracted me from being able to beat the game for a while

I got more hot takes I might elaborate on in length in the future, but in conclusion this is another rec where I can see and understand ppl being disappointed in some of the writing and its quality but at the same time i think there is still value ppl are too quick to dismiss and definitely multiple reasons to still enjoy it, I think this is going to stick with me for longer than I first thought it wound

[linkspooky]

persona top 1-5?

There’s only four characters in the persona series I’d call “Faves” so sorry for shortening the answer, but these characters are some I especially love. 

1. Ryoji Mochizuki - “You’ll have… to kill me.” 

Ryoji is a dead boy. No, he’s not just a boy who died, he’s a boy who never lived, due to the fact that he’s the living embodiment of death. He is the idea of death, made conscious and given an ego. Ryoji is the person who is going to call for the deaths of everyone in existence, and…

He loves life. There’s no one more in love with life than Ryoji is. It’s like he loves every single aspect of being alive, and every single person alive. Ryoji is somewhat aware that his vague existence (or non-existence) is wrong but he forces himself to forget. Because all he wants to do is live. He wants to live like everybody else does. 

In a story where death is a tragedy over and over again, Ryoji is the most tragic character at all because he’s not given a choice the way the other characters are. He was never alive in the first place. All he gets is the solace of feeling alive, and pretending to be human for a few short months before he kills everything. 

His character reminds me of why people want to live so badly, despite struggling with loss, despite the fact that it’s all pointless in the end. Ryoji had no choice in the end, he became a monster and couldn’t become a real boy, but still he was alive once, there were people he loved. He lived for something. 

2. Minato Arisato - “…” 

Choosing a silent protagonist is basically just cheating, but everyone choose sone persona protag they would die for, and Minato is mine. I’ve always read Minato not as someone aloof, but rather avoidant. He’s not strong, but gentle. The reason Minato is quiet all the time is because he’s desperately trying to hide his vulnerabilities, to not feel things, because what he feels is always much too much for one person. 

Minato lost everything before he was even old enough to process the lost. In a way he’s been frozen in time since the accident on the bridge. He hasn’t been living simply going through the motions with headphones in his ear. Minato’s a wonderful person but nobody would ever notice, and Minato does not know himself because he’s too busy trying not to be a person.

Which is why the year in the plot is so meaningful, because the entire year is Minato learning to be a person once more, to live as a person knowing that one day he might die. He might lose everything again like the time he lost his parents, and still he keeps on struggling to live.

3. Goro Akechi - “Why? Why? Why? Why doesn’t anybody want me around?”

Atlus doesn’t love him so I have to. Goro Akechi is a character I see as focused on survival above everyone else. He was thrown into society at a young age, and had no agency at all in the early circumstances of his life. He was made aware of just how much an unwanted child he was and you can tell that’s stuck with him his entire life.

What I like about Goro is how much of a controlled mess he is. He’s like a perfectly composed symphony of people screaming all at once. He has so many unresolved issues, but he tries to file them away into neat little drawers in his brain and keep smiling.

Akechi spends all his time playing the part of a perfect, likable,v ersion of himself. Which means he’s like some young celebrity. He’s adored by fans, and constantly in the news media, but it also means no one really likes him as a person and he has no real friends. And for Goro this has always been a means of survival for him. The only way he could survive among the adults was by tricking them and getting the adults to like him. He doesn’t have the same solid ground to stand on as everyone else, it’s like he’s constantly drowning. 

Akechi’s act does no favors for him in the end. The person he’s most afraid of is himself, all of the horrible, ugly, negative resentments inside of him as he tries to keep them down and keep up his perfect good boy act. However in the end they all come out anyway, and what you get is not the shining white hero he desires to be, but Loki, the murderer in black. 

4. Makoto Nijima 

Makoto is a character I did not expect to like, because I thought she was going to be strong all the time. However, when we meet her in story she’s almost nothing like the motorcycle girl she’s advertised to be.

She’s a fussy stickler for the rules. She’s an anxious nerd who studies too much. She always tries far too hard on everything she wants to accomplish. She has practically no friends because she spends most of her time sucking up to the adults around her. She gets pushed around by basically everyone in her life, from her sister, to the teachers taking advantage of her, and Makoto still lives practically only to please them.

Makoto’s projection of strength in the world of shadows is what she desires to do. To break free from everything and just do what she wants, to prove that she’s strong and powerful on her own, and not useless. Then Makoto returns to the real world and goes back to smiling at everyone. The fact that her change is so gradual over the story and means integrating both sides of her personality, the strong decisiveness she projects, and her weak and indecisive self she despises is what makes her character so impactful to me. 

[ryouverua]

Trial 6 -  Oh, I am one yet many (5)

The above inspirational picture was taken seconds before disaster.

Trial: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Tsumugi is not the one-trick pony we thought she was ABORT MISSION, ABORT MISSION!!!!

NO YOU AIN’T! NO YOU AIN’T I DID NOT SIGN UP TO BE HAJIMEMED, NO SIR I DID NOT!

i mentioned it during the text hellstorm I unleashed when I was mid-playthrough but the way Shuichi says ‘cosplaying’ here is ADORABLE. I love his VA she is so good -

also

oh no

oh no

o h      n o

I can’t just... express how deeply that feeling of ‘oh no’ pervaded my being. My soul.

“THIS IS JUST COSPLAY“ SHE SAYS - AND GOD, THE MUSIC, THE MUSIC IS SO WACKY LIKE THESE ARE JUST SOME NORMAL FTE ANTICS -

wait no this is the ‘let’s start the killing game music’ -

ah that’s why I’m lowkey terrified right now

W-What in the world are those white smears across Hagakure’s eyes??? And oh god the first game too???

WHAT THE HELL TSUMUGI YOU’VE REALLY BEEN HOLDING OUT ON US TELL ME HOW YOU’RE DOING THIS I-I mean oh no, how dare you, this is so awful...

SHE’S TAKEN FULL OWNERSHIP OF JUNKO!PERSONA

AJSLKDF

TSUMUGI

HOLY SHIT

TSUMUGI

IS THIS YOUR FINAL FORM

ironically this got me thinking ‘this would be a really cool cosplay + prop’ once I got over the sheer terror of the situation and I starting thinking, oh, wouldn’t it be cool if you even had a sort of pinwheel mechanism (with the main body of it being hidden by her long hair) that rotated all of these pieces, and have you ever realized that there is a small piece of you that is the monster

also I just realized... she kept putting her glasses on as Junko. But I’m assuming she won’t ever wear them as Hajime. So it’s true - the moment she actually took off her glasses, we really did get to see her final form..

IS THAT KOMAEDA’S HAIR

ALL OF THESE THINGS, I RECOGNIZE ALL OF THEM OMG

This............ this is terrible, terrifying, and also really, really good

don’t say you’re jealous don’t say you’re jealous don’t say you’re jealous okay I’m a bit jealous FFU --

SHUICHI I THINK THIS IS ONE OF THE TIMES WHERE YOU DON’T WANT TO PURSUE THE TRUTH I HAVE A TERRIBLE, AWFUL FEELING -

oh no oh no

here I was doing mental gymnastics to justify why she’d be able to cosplay as Junko, a real person

but I was over-complicating things as usual

even the egg has been compromised for her nefarious scheme this truly is the worst timeline

What is with me and stumbling into series that just bloody smash their fourth wall until there’s nothing but broken pieces left

thank you for having twogami right after togami it’s not something I realized I needed and among all this heartbreak is a blessing

THIS IS NOT YOUR CUE TO START PLAYING THE CREDITS MONOKUMA

I am only making it through this trial by sheer force of will and the power of Sweetcheeks’ adorable voice.

Dangan.... ronpa....?

oh god she said ‘we’ she said ‘WE’ THIS IS REALLY NOT GOOD

‘Don’t get too whacky with your theories,’ I said. ‘You don’t want to sound like a total crackpot,’ I said. DAMN YOU SELF I SHOULD HAVE LET MYSELF GO ABSOLUTELY WILD AFTER ALL

So this was invented completely from nothing??? My initial theory had them seeing themselves in someone else’s actual memories as themselves, and having their own brains play tricks on them that way - but all those scenes with them being interviewed by Makoto, of applying to Hope’s Peak, and possibly everything else about them - oh god - how powerful are these lights? How much detail was crammed into them? Can this all be done with a mere flash of a light???

‘We.’ Her use of ‘we’ is interesting, here. It really does feel like Tsumugi sees all of her cosplay personas as actual people that she can channel to ‘help her’ as opposed to just mere characters. Like entities fighting along side of her, not just through her...

also hello ibuki I forgot how much I enjoyed your VA they make me hear seagulls in the distance

aaaaaaw look at how much the art style has improved from the first game!!!

Y.......... YES.......?????? wait actually as someone who is lowkey interested in props and set design - BUT NO WAIT STILL THIS IS WAY BEYOND THAT -

How... the hell... do you cosplay the world?! The entire world?!?!

Is that possible?? If the entire world isn’t real - if it’s all being propped up by you - then -

Who - who are we playing this game for then??? Why make us play it??? Who is watching the game???

I KNEW IT

I AND PROBABLY HALF OF THE PEOPLE PLAYING WERE JUST WAITING FOR YOU TO SHOW UP

......

Did. Did you just say it takes place in the real world.

Oh no -

It... It’s real fiction... because they’ve kidnapped actual people... and brainwashed them... and then trapped them in a situation where they were forced to kill each other to get out?? For things that didn’t exist??? For reasons that weren’t ever real???

Wait - so that means they can get out and it’ll be fine?! That’s..... t-that’s not as bad as I thought, but...

‘STAFF’ OH THAT WORD IS SO OUT OF PLACE -

...............................

There are. There are people backstage. It’s not just Tsumugi. This. This is super not good.

insert inappropriately-timed comment about how I love this VA

Okay. This actually took me by surprise. And I’m kinda terrified to ask.

W.... Why not? Is - Is this actually a space separated from reality? Can they physically.... not go back....???

no wait -

what are you doing

PUT THAT KEY BACK RIGHT NOW

oH

OH UNCANNY VALLEY-LEVELS OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

NO DON’T THROW REAL FACES UP THERE -

IS THIS A BLOODY COMMENT BOARD

I mean I know in my head that this is a niconico parody but the fact is they have to translate the comments to suit an english audience so -

omfg no I cannot believe what is coming out of the screen right now

wait wait

Kyoko is my waifu

My husbando Shuichi

first

Sakura is my muscle waifu good taste anon

Bring on the spoilers

LOL are you watching?

I feel like I’m participating too!

she’s shaking

Aaaw, Himiko is still alive.

Wow it’s on? LOL!

this is what the creepy kid at the beginning of the chapter was about

this was who that Makoto kid was

WHERE IS HIS CREEPY-ASS FACE I KNOW YOU’RE THERE MAKOTO

Is this the everyone... the real everyone Tsumugi says she represents, then??? That she’s fighting for? Omg was Kirumi’s motive/trial foreshadowing all along -

Anyway, damn Tsumugi is proud of her viewership.

#humblebrag #musclewaifu

EVERYONE???? LITERALLY EVERYONE?!?!?!

SURELY... SURELY THAT IS THE CONCEITED TALK  OF A MANAGER TRYING TO TALK UP THEIR ‘BABY’.... SURELY...

I appreciate the use of Celes here. This is.... damn dark. They’ve achieved such a peaceful world that the have to manufacture darkness and blood-sport for people to get their kicks???

STIMULATION?!

first of all where’s miu when you need her

SECOND OF ALL ARE YOU SURE HUMANITY WAS BEAUTIFUL, KOREKIYO??? ARE YOU SURE?

“It’s simple economics.”

THERE YOU ARE MAKOTO YOU CREEP

oh no he was... literally... using this game to cope with his problems.... and he said that one day he wanted to be a part of it... oh no.....

..... D... Did one of the comments say that it had been years? That they had been waiting for a few years for the sequel?

Does - does that mean something, or is it just a throwaway audience comment? Why years? If Rantaro was in the last one, why would it have been years for this one to happen??? How old is Rantaro? How old is Tsumugi?!?!

FML I had been wondering how ‘Monokuma’ could exist without Junko existing since they’re inextricably linked. FML.

MONOKUMA CAN YOU STOP ROLLING THE CREDITS, THE MUSIC AND THE TITLE CARDS FOR A MINUTE PLEASE I AM BEGGING YOU

Because I don’t enjoy having Saioinji’s terrifying eyes trained on me while she questions my intelligence, so I’ll sum up the next question - what season of this gameshow from hell are we apparently on?

I mean, considering Junko’s title... well...

..... yeah it looks better with a V.

the real answer to why they used V3 even though it’s technically not the correct way to say ‘53′ - it’s the aesthetic.

FFFF

I actually screenshot all the parody!title cards and they’re amazing. I’ll post them just once a bit later when it shows up again because this post is entirely too long, but needless to say, whoever designed them had fun. And the titles of the games, too - Birth of Despair? Dream Danganronpa? Sign me tf up! oh no does this make me part of the problem I’M SORRY SWEETCHEEKS

I can’t believe I was bitching about Junko being the mastermind for the third game when apparently audience members have had to sit through 53 Junkos

You couldn’t have changed it up??? Not even once??? Like, one led by Mukuro as a prologue idea or??? quietly denies the existence of the anime

Oh, speaking of which, I do like the excuse they came up with as to why the drv3 creators didn’t create new characters from the supposed other games why Tsumugi didn’t cosplay anyone outside the first two games - it’s for the class’s benefit, since they only knew those two casts, and y’know. She cares. about shock value

DON’T YOU PASS THE BUCK, GIRL

Ah, so that ‘staff’ you mentioned earlier...

why is this so funny to me

T-Tsumugi, do you have a tumultuous relationship with your managers or something

why are you airing out your dirty laundry on live television

is it all the incest plotlines

I feel like at this point it’s less ‘Tsumugi is trying to rub into the students how completely and absolutely they are boned’ and more ‘okay, it’s time to give a shout-out to everyone who put this production together! Perfect time to slap on that logo, guys!‘

oh my god that was supposed to be a trailer in-meta too alsd;kfj i’m losing it

AND AGAIN, THOSE TITLE CARDS - THEY ARE AMAZING.

SHE IS SHE’S TOTALLY ADVERTISING MID-SHOW

TSUMUGI STOP BEING A CORPORATE SELL-OUT

"NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR YOUR CRAPPY SHOEHORNED ADVERTISING!!!”

oh god oh no

who’s going to tell him -

MONOKUMA DON’T YOU DARE

i’m having an existential crisis alongside sweetcheeks ngl

there are so many layers

....

we need to go deeper

So, just to clarify, there are three layers right now:

There’s us, the players. In a sense, we could be considered ‘equal but different than the tier’, but we do still operate on a plane separate from the metafiction of Tsumugi’s ‘everyone in the world’.

There’s the ‘audience’, the outside world. This is the space that’s been breached at this point. And this... this is the level where the students are from, too - aka the reason I think we and the audience should exist as separate entities.

And there’s the domain of the Killing Game, a space created to play out this story, using real people - a place separated from reality... how? If Tsumugi is talking about a set, it could easily be the real world, which means they’ve been isolated somewhere. At the same time though, when they managed to reach the end of the escape tunnel and saw the outside world, they all started to choke and suffocate. So... could this be VR still? Or no? Can these existences known as Shuichi Saihara, the Ultimate Detective, Maki Harukawa, the Ultimate Assassin, Himiko Yumeno, the Ultimate Robot, K1-b0, the Ultimate Robot, and even Tsumugi Shirogane, the Ultimate Cosplayer, leave this space in any way, shape or form... or not at all? Is them suffocating ^ like that a sign that they literally cannot exist outside of this space?

She is literally throwing the same question back in Shuichi’s face ghdfkgh

NO I’M ON SHUICHI’S SIDE I COULDN’T HELP IT I HAD TO CHOOSE REAL PEOPLE

no!!! no!!!! NO!!!!

no seriously I still chose real people because I am stubborn

sweetcheeks et al. do not deserve any of this

Of course they brought out despair!Mikan for this. Of course.

I have to say, I do like these little character touches - the decisions that have been made as to which ‘cosplay’ says what. I mean, it’s supposed to also act as a way to throw our known and loved favourites in our face too, but having Celes comment on how boring ‘peace’ is? Having Ibuki smashing through the fourth wall to speak directly to the audience, Gundham remarking on their abnormal existence and Leon commenting on how cool the ‘aesthetic’ of the title card is? It’s such a nice touch. also horrifying. butalsonice

Oh we really are addressing the prologue now??? And - I’m assuming Tsumugi is referring to Hajime when she says ‘me’, but is there a chance she isn’t?

Just as I initially suspected, though - they really were normal when they got in. So how did they decide who got what personality/talent, or was that random? I mean, that might be the case - it was potentially hinted by the motive video switch of Chapter 2..

............. Huh.

But..... in what sense? Like the 16 talents were stored in those lights and they were ‘picked up’ by the most suited participant? How could you make sure there were no doubles? Or - and this is possible because of the vague language - did the talents build on what the student knew already? In which case, how would they know what the talents would end up being and plan the labs around them?

No, it would... have to be... the first one. Talents had its own selection in the flashback creating machine, though without verifying what the subcategories are it’s hard to confirm or deny anything... but I also can’t shake what Maki said at the beginning of the game? How it felt like their talents were given at random?

So... so they’re not only back where they started - completely isolated with everyone they’ve ever known and the world they knew completely out of reach (in this sense, dead/not actually existing are functionally the same), but they get a helping of a totally warranted existential crisis on top of that.

And... their bodies are real, so everyone else really is dead. No happy sdr2 ending. Well, unless I mental-gymnastics that to read ‘they have physical bodies to return to, but as manufactured personas it’s pointless.’

Me too, Sweetcheeks.

We can’t go 5 minutes without a WHAM line.

B-But they were kidnapped weren’t they -?!

fujisaki does not deserve this slander

Return of the hat!!!

..... is it bad that I miss his hat. I. I really liked his hat. I know that it was representative of the way he held back and used it to hide himself, but - but I liked his original portrait. And I liked the way it was incorporated into his sprites and all the movements he makes with it and without it, like it‘s a phantom limb. okayI’llstop

Why... are we not getting a name here? Was Shuichi Saihara a made-up name too?

oh -

oh no

D: A... Anything...

H-He’s.... a complete fanboy too.................... holy shit. cute but terrifying he looks like much more of a schoolboy super!fan than real Shuichi

S-So wait, it’s not even autosuggestion then - he asked for it? How - how does this work with the flashback lights? It can be targeted like that??? god I’m going to have so many questions after this is all over

I think this may be the death knell for his psyche oTL I certainly wouldn’t be able to take this if I was in his position.

LOOK I KNOW I GET EXCITED ABOUT CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT TOO

but this is a bit much c-can you please keep that drool in -

asdfkjlsdf w h a t

was

was this omitted or something

I - I swear they were kidnapped they seemed a lot more freaked out?!

Even Rantaro, who seemed to know more than he let on at the time - ?!

I... I think I really need to go back and replay the prologue.

ME NEITHER K1-B0 I FEEL LIKE I’M BEING GASLIT

d-did

did you use it on me too

That... that I can believe. No matter who they were before - if they were consenting or not - it might not even matter, if they can’t return to how they were. In a sense, the Gopher Project story was practically preparing them for it - the idea that everything they knew and loved were gone, and would never come back. Oh... oh that’s bad....

TSUMUGI IS ACTUALLY TERRIFYING

SHUT UP NAEGI

wait why is seeing him say that worse than seeing Junko say her normal despair stuff

it’s the insincerity, probably...

YOU NERFED KAITO?!?!?!

YOU NERFED KAITO!!!!!!!

okay I take back what I said Maki you have my enthusiastic blessing to recklessly murder as necessary

RIP Tsumugi and all of her new depth

“I’m also the one that kept sneaking all of the death flags into his room while you were out training every night!”

Y O O O

YOU NERFED HER CHARACTER TOO?!?!?! YOU GOTTA LET THAT HAPPEN ORGANICALLY!!!

LMAO

Souda will never show this much awareness in his actual every day fictional life and that makes this 100% funnier

Everything has a writing credit.... every single thing? Every bit of development?

Even Kokichi’s coup and Kaito’s cooperation? And Kokichi manipulating Gonta? You just seemed so - so angry about that after the trial. Surely those, if nothing else...

At this point they’re just kicking a sad, beaten-down puppy. What more could you possibly do at this point - ?!

oH GOD I DON’T WANT TO SEE THIS

WHAT THE HELL WHO EVEN SAYS SOMETHING LIKE THAT

nNOOO

NO LET ME REMEMBER HIM THE WAY HE WAS

DON’T YOU CROSS THIS BRIGHT RED LINE SHIROGANE

NO

NO THIS IS ILLEGAL I’M CALLING THE POLICE HE LOOKS ABSOLUTELY MAD -

GHGHGGHGHGHGH

GHGHghghghghhh

ghghgh

sdkflj

n o  o o o oooo o o o o o o o

gggkghk

I-It’s not a lie! Even if it was manufactured, even if it was coded into them - their feelings were real to them! It might be by design, but - oh this sounds so hollow. It’s one thing to talk about ‘fate’ and ‘this was the work of a higher power’, but having it brought down on you in such a trivial way must be absolutely soul-crushing.

this is the saddest iteration of hangover!Shuichi that I have laid my eyes on in the entire game

nihilism.

tbh I never found Izuru that intimidating as a final villain in the last game - but here? Terrifying. Maybe it’s in contrast to Junko here, who has the overbearing destructive personality of a tornado, but the quiet emptiness and lack of a higher purpose, of absolute futility that he stands for here - that scares me a lot.   Maybe it’s just because it seems to bring the concept of DR’s despair to a place that I can personally understand?

I keep saying ‘this is terrifying!’ but I mean, to be fair... it... kind of is. as always, fantastic use of text DRV3!

also can someone please shut up the peanut gallery for five minutes

well damn Monokuma that one felt aimed right at me

It reminds me of what Komaeda would say about his own motivation: it was watching everyone struggle with adversity, or the ‘despair of the killing game’, with the end goal of them ‘reaching hope’ - of seeing them overcome and grow stronger for it, that drove him forward. From the outside that makes sense; seeing other people overcome struggles, even ones so terrible, give us the mental strength to overcome our own problems. But for someone on the inside looking out... how perverse would that feel, to think that your suffering is basically being used as inspiration!p0rn? Knowing that there were voyeurs getting a kick out of your struggle?

What happens to game pieces after the game board is closed and put away?

Do they go into stasis? Do they just... exist, outside of time? Frozen forever, until they’re taken out to be ‘played with’ again; left to rot?

If they ‘win’.... they have no future. There’s nothing for them to move forward to reach. A piece learning that they’re a piece, and knowing their dreams after their trials will always stay just out of reach... how can anyone move foward like that?

“love that reaction” OH SHUT UP LUDENBERGxLUVER37

Fight for yourself! They fought to get you this far - Kaito and Kokichi died to give you this chance, even if they are a ‘lie”!

But Shuichi has never been able to fight for himself, only for the others...

Tsumugi, after spending the last hour verbally beating them down and shredding his and everyone’s sense of self to shreds: wow lol what a weakling

Everything is terrible and yet her saying this still got a laugh out of me, damn it.

S-SHUICHI? SHUICHI?

I-IS HE EMOTIONALLY SHUTTING DOWN -

OH GOD

HIS

H-HIS POV - IS GONE -

And nothing but despair left...

Did - did we just lose Shuichi...?

SWEETCHEEKS!!! SWEETCHEEKS, NO!!!

SWEETCHEEKS I’M SO SORRY!!!!

[zerolites-sanctuary]

Little intro and F/o list!

Heyo! Just call me Alira! This is going to be where I freely post whatever crosses my mind with my self-ships! For the most part, said self-ships are separate from my other stories, as normally it’s just me plopped into the world of the f/o from the ship, much unlike my other stories I have elsewhere posted with loads of ocs which in a few cases may show up XD

I don’t particularly mind other people having the same f/o as me, honestly it makes me happy someone likes the character as much as I do! As long it isn’t shoved down my throat or as long as I don’t get flack for having the same f/o /accused of stealing I’m more than willing to talk and interact with others who have the same f/o as me ^W^

For the most part, this is gonna be romantic stuff, but there’ll definitely be platonic and familial self insert goodness here as well! ^^

Now, onto the list! It’ll be divided by romantic, platonic and familial :) Bolded is one I’m super into right then and there!

Also, i’ll have a separate list for some of my, probable interesting ones, Cuz I am Pansexual Biromantic, I’m not just attracted to humans or aliens and the like x3

List is prone to being updated at any time and I generally age my romantic f/os up if they’re younger than me! 

Romantic:

Luca(Dragalia Lost)

Siegfried(Fate/Grand Order/ Fate/Apocrypha)

Noctis Lucis Caelum (Final Fantasy XV)

Noel Kreiss (Final Fantasy XIII-2)

Vixel(Dragalia Lost)

Kaze(Fire Emblem Fates)

Takumi(Fire Emblem fates)

Chrom  (Fire Emblem Awakening)

Princess Fjorm(Fire Emblem Heroes)

Prince Hird(Fire Emblem Heroes)

Prince Bruno (Fire Emblem Heroes)

Lif (Fire Emblem Heroes)

Tracer(Overwatch)

Mei(Overwatch)

Genji(Overwatch)

Garry(Ib)

Connor(Detroit Become Human)

Markus(Detroit Become Human)

Sebastian(Stardew Valley)

Terra(Kingdom Hearts)

Makoto Yuki(Persona 3)

Yu Narukami(Persona 4)

Goro Akechi(Persona 5)

V/Jihyun Kim(Mystic Messenger)

Venoct(Yo-kai Watch)

Caster!Cu Chulainn(Fate/Grand Order)

Hearthstone(Magnus Chase books)

Jason Chase (The Heroes of Olympus books)

Sebastian Michaelis(Black Butler)

Itsuki(SAO: Fatal Bullet)

Sinon(SAO 2)

Tabasa(END ROLL)

Fenris(Dragon Age 2)

Thane Krios(Mass Effect)

Vetra Nyx( Mass Effect Andromeda)

Yato(Noragami)

Tei(Nameless ~The One Thing You Must Recall~)

Jieun(Dandelion “Wishes Brought to you”)

B-52 (Food Fantasy)

Caviar(Food Fantasy)

Brownie (Food Fantasy)

Keith(tentative, still need to finish show) (Voltron)

Shiro (tentative, still need to finish show. No giving me crap please please please, I know about his canon relationship and while I think it was forced rn I won’t hate on it, I’m freaking pansexual ffs. I just want to have fun and i’m only at like S1 ep6.T^T;;;; ) (Voltron)

David (Don’t Escape 4 day in a wasteland)

Claude(Fire Emblem Three Houses)

Kamika Mado(Fake name for f/o, sort of nervous to reveal her even if she’s close to my age. She’s from Madoka Magica though.)

Adrien/Chat Noir(Miraculous Ladybug)

Jack Frost (Rise Of The Guardians)

Danny Fenton (Danny Phantom)

Jim Hawkings (Treasure Planet)

Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars: The Clone Wars cartoon)

Sal Fisher (Sally Face)

Troupe Master Grimm (Hollow Knight)

Hollow Knight (Hollow Knight)

The Knight/Little Ghost(Hollow Knight)(I got attached while playing as him, can you blame me XD)

Quirrel(Hollow Knight)

Martouf (Stargate SG-1)

The Doctor(Tenth incarnation)(Doctor Who)

Rapunzel (AU VERSION) (Tangled The Series)

Cassandra (AU VERSION) Tangled The Series)

Bismuth (Steven Universe)

Rainbow Quartz 2.0 (Steven Universe)

Diamond (Land Of The Lustrous) (Season one/before winter/before episode seven/ AU VERSION)

Alastor (Hazbin Hotel)

Sir Pentious (Hazbin Hotel)

Hop (Pokemon Sword)

Steven Stone (Pokemon Omega Ruby)

Platonic/Familial:

Young Azura(Fire Emblem Heroes)

Alfonse (Fire Emblem Heroes)

Elias(Dragalia Lost)

Sarisse(Dragalia Lost)

Hornet (Hollow Knight)

The original SG1 team, Jack, Carter, Teal'c and Daniel (Stargate SG-1)

Phos(AU VERSION) (never lost arms or Antarcticite) (Land Of The Lustrous)

Antarcticite (AU VERSION)(was never lost during Winter) (Land Of The Lustrous)

Angel Dust (Hazbin Hotel)

Charlie (Hazbin Hotel)

[bmblb-fanatic]

So since I have seen a lot of people freaking out over finding out the voice actor for Jinn is the same as Luffy from One Piece I was reminded that not everyone is a weird voice actor nerd like me so I thought I would draw your attention to some of the bigger named voice actors RoosterTeeth has managed to land for our beloved RWBY.

Jen Taylor

Now if you've been paying attention to the credits you may have noticed that she is the voice of Salem. Jen lends her voice for video games and some of you gamers out there may have recognized her voice from a certain AI

Cortana from the Halo series. And yes she also provides the voice for the Windows Cortana that lives in your computer or Windows phones. Do you know how freaky it is for me to set a reminder on my computer just to have Salem tell me not to forget to call my mom today?

Vic Mignogna

It's a mouthful I know. He voices our dear Uncle Qrow. Vic is a popular name in voice acting. Even some of my friends who are horrible at knowing who voices who are aware of who this guy is but for those of you who aren't aware he most recognizably voices this pipsqueak.

Edward Elric from the FMA and FMA:B series. Quite the difference in voice delivery isn't it? You would also recognize him as Ikkaku Madarame in Bleach, Zero from Vampire Knight, and Rin Matsuka in Free! Fun fact? Dudes also a singer!

J. Michael Tatum

This man delivers us the charming voice of Weiss's butler and, honestly, father figure, Klien. He is the only voice actor I have met in person and seriously guys he is a sweetheart! It was at a con last year and my best friend was fangirling so hard over this man I though she was going to faint when he passed by and waved at us when we crossed paths in the hotel restaraunt. But this guy must have a thing for butlers because you may recognize him as certain demon butler

So he voices Sebation Michaelis in Black Butler! You may have also heard his voice as Kraft Lawence in Spice and Wolf, Scar in FMA:B, or Erwin Smith from Attack on Titan.

Cheramie Leigh

So this beautiful flower gives us the voice of Ilia Amitola. She is one of my favorite voice actors (along with the next two I will be mentioning) and has also dabbled in video games. But aside from our precious reptilian child you would also recognize this short stack (serious guys she's five feet even) as a certain badass swordswoman.

Asuna Yuki, the second best player in SAO and probably the only thing that terrifies the actual best player in the game who also happens to be her boyfriend and in game husband. When she isn't voicing Asuna you may have caught her voice in Lucy Heartfillia from Fairy Tail, Patty Thompson from Soul Eater, Sailor Venus in Sailor Moon Crystal, and, most gut wrenchingly, Elicia Hughs, Maes Hughs daughter, from the FMA series where she ripped all out hearts out by asking why they were burying her father when he had to to to work the next day. On the video game front you may have heard her as Gage the Mechomancer from Borderlands 2, Makoto Nijima from Persona 5, A2 in Neir: Automata, and female V in the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077. You may have also seen her in a live action movie with Shane Dawson titled Not Cool.

Monica Rial

Though we only see her for like five minutes Monica voices a character everyone was very suddenly attracted to. High Leader Sienna Khan. Typically known for voicing characters with a high pitched voice you may know her as a wizard with the heart of an angel and the soul of a devil.

Also known as Mirajane Strauss. This woman has quite the repertoire under her belt, lending her voice to hundreds of characters but some you may recognize are May Chang in FMA:B, Bulma on DBZ (Kai and on), Tsubaki in Soul Eater, Yukari in Rosario + Vampire, Stocking in Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, Mei Rin in Black Butler, or Chitaru in Riddle Story of Devil. Fun fact about this woman? She loves to troll people. Often finding people cosplaying as characters she's voiced and asking for a picture with them only to do the voice and scurry away.

Colleen Clinkenbeard

She is the most recent addition to RWBY and the whole reason for this novel sized post! The voice of the mysterious naked blue genie, Jinn. Known for lending her voice to the incredibly hot badasses some people consider Colleen to be the sexiest voice in English dubbed anime. You may know her as a special Lieutenant with damn good aim.

Ah yes...Roy Mustangs babysitter and residential badass of the FMA series, Riza Hawkeye. Among the other badasses she voices is the rubber pirate Monkey D. Luffy (which came as a shock to many people including my brother), Erza Scarlet in Fairy Tail, Yuko Ichihara in xxxHolic, Rin Asogi in Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne, Vampire Moka from Rosario + Vampire, and Titania in Ancient Magus Bride.

And that's all I got for you folks! Sorry for the book here just wanted those who maybe recognized the voices but couldn't place them to know they weren't crazy!

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

I downloaded the soundtrack. I am not a fan compared to P4D soundtrack though =/

Same. ;w;I do think P3D is solid, and at least matches the visual theme/aesthetic of P3D (aka the techno theme). But…..I mean….P4D was disco….and they didn’t rely only on disco…. They had jazz, swing, pop, dance, rock, hard rock. P4D had a very big selection of different genres, both with it’s base and with it’s remixes, it helped that it drew A LOT on the P4 Reincarnation OST.

P3D DIDN’T draw on the Reincarnation OST tbh, it took two songs. When Moon Reaches To the Stars, and Burn My Dread (former isn’t really too different to the original game’s OST except it has more lyrics, and the full ver of BMD was first featured on the Reincarnation OST). Tbh those are the two songs that are the least Reincarnate-a-fied out of either P3′s or P4′s OST, and the Reincarnation has SOOOOOO many great songs to offer for P3D, and it really changes up the genre of each song compared to how it is in the original game. Like, I really do like Junpei’s Deep Breath remix song in P3D, but I’d drop it in a heart beat for my fun boppin little love song ver on the Reincarnation Album:

But you know what would’ve been fun? And it’s a dance I think Junpei could’ve pulled it off, I mean it def fits P4D’s aesthetic (aka the disco aesthetic), but Junpei was the first one to emanate this. And it’s this funky fresh remix of Want to be Close:

Like c’mon! If anyone could dance to that it’s totally Junpei! ;w;

Or how about something jazzy? Guess what there’s something for that too!

Heck….man, FeMC’s Sun is a great track too, and you know it’s not the fact it’s an FeMC song they didn’t use it (they def could’ve remixed it and maybe added lyrics if they REALLY wanted to):

Like why aren’t these in here? Like the remixes are fine, I actually really like them tbh (both as songs in general, and the fact they really got the beat down while I was playing, it really pulled me in) but these should also be in here (esp since P3/5D have less base songs than P4D, and like 4/5 less songs that aren’t MVs/are the characters actually dancing). Plus they also have PQ, Arena/Ultimax, the stage plays, the movies, EVEN THE PACHINKO MACHINE HAD AN ORIGINAL SONG! P3 had all these places to pull music from and it didn’t. ;w;

I also don’t understand why…..Burn My Dread is the last song…..I think the Last Battle Mix would’ve been better, or really just a remix of the song, I mean….P4D had a remix of it’s iconic song so you’d think P3D of their’s…..

Heck, ending on the Reincarnation remix of Memories of You would been good too (or even just a side song), it would’ve worked great as a interpretative dance too boot (just added this part but I guess there’s a limit to how many videos you can add 8U)!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiiPjfueZEQ

OR! They could’ve done a dual mix of Memories of You, with Yumi and the PTS version (aka the male singer who did P3P’s opening, Shuhei), and make it seem like the two singers are singing at each other. Actually that would’ve been a great bonus song, esp if it involved Minato/Makoto and FeMC dancing at the Seal (with Yumi representing FeMC, and Shuhei for Minato). Ahhhhh so many possibilities flush down the drain cause they had to release P5D too instead of just expanding on P3D (with P5D being released later and being expanded on too). ;w; Also here’s a ref to Shuhei’s ver:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGnocs3gzaY

Ok like P3D still had more variety in it’s OST than P5D, I’ll give it that. But there could’ve been more, there SHOULD’VE been more. 

Also like what were they thinking of for Aigis’ dances? Like I like the dances, they’re fine…..BUT WHAT THE FUDGE WHERE THEY THINKING? YOU HAVE A GD ROBOT! UTILIZE THAT! LIKE NO, THEY SAID THEY WOULD DO THAT AND THEY DIDN’T. THEY JUST AIRPLANE ARM’S HER THE WHOLE TIME! No no no, where’s the Mr Robot Dance moves? Why isn’t she the one dancing to the dubstep/techno stuff? I get the dancer could only do so much but oh my god there are people that specialize in these dance moves! Like I c’mon I was expecting AT LEAST ONE SONG/DANCE TO BE LIKE THIS:

But no instead Junpei is the one that gets these types of songs? Like he does a good job but…..c’mon ;w; 

P5D? The only remixed I really like was…..I think the Twins….Anne’s Rivers Remix did get me on beat like the P3D ones but I didn’t really like it. When it came to the P5D remixes I thought they were either “fine for the most part but overstayed their welcome and made the song go on longer than it should’ve” (how I felt about the Wake Up Remix), or they were “good when they weren’t resembling their base song” (and by that point they could’ve/should’ve been original songs, the original beat was wasted as a remix). I was really pulling for these remixes too tbh. 

I also think they misused a lot of the music with the dances. Anne, Haru, and Ren are pretty good dancers….the songs they chose for them SUCK ASS tho. Anne is a sexy dancer, and would thrive with either some sexy song (that Persona does not have so, crap can’t use that), or a pure pop song (something like in American pop, or P3/4, which P5 has zilch of any of those in it’s OST). Haru is a great ballet dancer, and while i think she makes her songs work the most, she’d benefit so much more from Yukiko’s songs imo, it’s really bring out her dances more (but P5 doesn’t have those songs either, except maybe Encounter: Lovers, but that’s not long enough). Ren, while I think the Wake Up Remix overstays it’s welcome, it’s so energetic and really fits him, but everything else I feel smother’s his talent. With the Last Surprise MV (ignoring the obvious problems of sexulizing the girls for now) it’s a good, well shot and danced to MV…..BUT WHY LAST SURPRISE???? Like with Anne’s base dancing, this MV is suppose to be sexy, it’s danced to sexy, it’s shot sexy….BUT LAST SURPRISE IS NOT A SEXY SONG! WE NEED AN ORIGINAL SONG! OR A SEXY REMIX OF ANOTHER SONG! WHY WASTE LAST SURPRISE? 

And then there’s P5D’s final dance (and again I had a similar issue with P3D)…..Why not be like P4D and remix an iconic song? Wake up and Last Surprise (or even Life Will Change, tho that one worked great as an MV so let’s focus on the former two instead) are your most iconic! Remix them if you need to! They should be your final closing number!

Ahhhhhhh such a waste for both games, they deserve better. ;w;

That being said, for the OPs and Eds. I think P3D had the better one compared to P5D (I’d tie it with P4D, but I found P3D’s 2nd half a little lacking, and one line made me face palm….which isn’t as bad as P5D’s which made me throw my head threw a wall out of embarrassment XP). But I think P5D had the best ending song out of the 3, but on the other hand it doesn’t sound like and ending song and is wasted as one (it would be a perfect alt night theme). It was also wasted as an MV song, it has fresh music to offer P5D and they won’t have anyone dance to it. ;w; Ngl I don’t remember P3D’s ending song, it wasn’t bad, but for now I gotta rank it lower than P4D’s since I can’t remember it. XD ;w;

SO uhhhhhh there’s my essay on P3/5D’s music and song choice I didn’t realize I was gonna write. Sorry Huh you opened up a can of worms. ;w;

[stellamancer]

fandom meme

thanks @joz-stankovich for the tag!

Rules: Choose any three fandoms (in random order) and answer the questions, then tag 10 people you wanna know better 

Three Fandoms:

Mystic Messenger

Persona 5

Fire Emblem Fates

The first character you loved:

707 - LOOK AT HIM. GLASSES, FLOOFY HAIR, DRINKS DR. PEPPER. HE IS MY TYPE!!!

Ren Amamiya/Akira Kurusu/Protagonist - guys he just looks like a black haired 707

Leo - I actually fully intended on marrying him before I even got the game.

The character you never expected to love so much

Saeran Choi - IF YOU’D BELIEVE IT. i partly blame kelsey. and i partly blame that anon who told me that they wished i wrote saeran differently, look what you people have done.

Haru Okumura - I do wish she had more screen time, but I absolutely love her and her awakening. :o I stand by the belief that Makoto is best girl, but Haru is damn good too.

Takumi - When I bought Birthright, I expected to marry Kaden, but then Takumi tsun’d at me and there was no going back.

The character you relate to the most

If you mix Jaehee and 707 you’d probably get me.

Futaba?

Felicia

The character you’d slap

it depends on the route mostly, but probably V and Rika (and Jumin from Jaehee’s route)

also depends on what point in the game, villains aside, probably Ryuji.

also villains aside, Kaden.

Three favorite characters (in order of preference):

Saeran, 707, Jaehee and Zen are tied at third.

Protagonist, Akechi, Haru

Takumi, Leo, Corrin

A character you didn’t like at first but do now:

UH. Saeran maybe. I was really indifferent to him before, so idk if that counts as dislike...?

Morgana, I only liked that he was a cat.

I actually don’t know. 

Three OTPs:

Saeran/Kira Saeran/MC, Seven/MC, Yoozen

Protag/Makoto, Ann/Ryuji, Sae/Tae (I THINK IT LOOKS GOOD OKAY)

leorrin, takurin, camilla/hinoka

OKAY TIME TO TAG:

@benichi , @fabicchi , @panhime , @skele8rity , @b1a4seeyou , @worldofpyr , @angelsdoexist , @officallytheduchess

[fheythfully]

fanfic author meme

my friend tagged me to answer all the questions in a fanfic author meme, and it is primarily for the Final Fantasy XIII fandom, so it’s located under a read more. :)

Fanfic Ask Meme

A: How did you come up with the title to [fic of your choice]?

Most of my fic names come from lyrics in songs that have to do with the story content, no matter how vague. Poetry also makes its way in there, and on the very rare occasion, something I come up with that sounds pleasantly appropriate.

A Series of Firsts was the only one in the past five or so years to get a title that accurately and simply described the story, something which I typically never do.

B: Any of your stories inspired by personal experience?

No, actually. I write primarily angst and I have a very satisfying and healthy life, so… it all just comes out from somewhere? I am not entirely sure where.

C: What character do you identify with most?

Most recently, maybe Makoto from Persona 5? Growing up I felt that I had all these expectations on me from my family and the adults in my education (which I totally dug myself into by being smart and eager to please) and I always wanted to just say “fuck it” and stop caring about pleasing others and being the perfect student. Which took me until my third year in university to actually achieve but hey, better late than never.

D: Is there a song or a playlist to associate with cause I’m a vampire smile (you’ll meet a sticky end)?

The title comes directly from the song ‘Vampire Smile’ by Kyla La Grange and it entirely fits so well for that fic. I definitely had it on replay the entire time I was writing.

E: If you wrote a sequel to Serendipity, what would it be about?

EDITED because I wrote for A Series of Firsts instead oops.

Serendipity would have a much shorter sequel - just lots of the gang being happy, of Fang and Vanille traipsing around the world, Yeul living in a big city and being amazed by all of it, Serah and Snow in a small French village with rose bushes and a kid or two and Light living in the same village with Hope being the Cool Aunt. Snow would have a motorcycle (and try to modify it to have a baby seat). Sazh would have a farm with chickens and livestock and live with his son and finally get the life he deserves. Maybe he runs into the reborn version of his wife and she remembers him. And live happily ever after. 

F: Care to share a favorite hurt/comfort fic?

I don’t have one :( I even went through my favorites on both FFnet and AO3. I just like anything that makes me cry, and I cry easily, and sad fics make me happy.

G: Care to share a favorite crack fic?

I rarely read crack but an amazing one I’ve been reading is Sincerely, Me by Ignis_Sassentia and SharkbaitHooHaHa on AO3. It is a FF15 texting fic and just phenomenal.

H: How would you describe your style?

Lots of run on sentences and disjointed narration. I prefer writing drabbles because I feel like that format lets me get away with using the style better. I like using metaphors and a good balance between simple and more flowery language.

I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?

Angst. All the angst. Also, if a fandom has some sort of divine figure in it, then you can bet it’s gonna be worked into my fics – usually as either a passive or active antagonist. This is a big reason why I still love writing for FF13 so much, because thank you, Bhunivelze. And Etro. Mwyn too. I need to write more Mwyn.

J: Write or describe an alternative ending to any Bhunivelze!Hope and Etro!Light fic.

I said to the sun, tell me about the big bang is my favourite out of the few (two?) I’ve written where both take after the divinity. Alternate ending to that one would be, their friends catch on and end them before they can succeed in destroying and recreating the world.

For just Bhuni!Hope, of which I wrote more, eve as my latest one – I considered Light actually realizing what’s happening within the fic itself and being the one to kill him. She would realize this in the midst of a relationship Bhuni!Hope has succeeded in constructing with her, and there would be lots of tears, and horror, and the symbolic knife stuck in Hope’s torso.

Gosh, I just can’t give you guys happy things, can I?

K: What's the angstiest idea you've ever come up with?

The premise in A Series of Firsts, where Hope and Snow have to come to terms with failing the world, and Light dying and becoming the Goddess, and then having to witness Light and Serah as children and then take them in, and do all in their power to prevent Orphan, and having them be family and Hope has a child with Light and then… they fail. And have to start all over again.

I’ve always appreciated time loops.

L: What's the weirdest AU you've ever come up with?

I discussed an idea with RainbowSerenity about a texting crack fic in the new world about the gang placing bets on how long it will take for Light and Hope to get together, and just being little shits in general (with a very liberal use of emoticons) and then Light and Hope are just there, like… should we tell them? When do you think they’ll realize we’ve been together for months now?

Also, an appearance by Bhunivelze via repeated friend requests to Light’s Facebook through a multitude of accounts. The sentence “how the hell does he have service in the deep ass of space!?” is written down in my phone.

I have to be in a very specific mood to write something of this sort, haha.

M: Got any premises on the back burner that you'd care to share?

The AU fic above. Hope finding the temple with Light’s statue in 13-2, and ritually visiting it before it becomes inaccessible. Also, a fic I will shortly be releasing on – once again – Bhuni!Hope.

Outside of the 13 fandom, I have further ideas for my 14 OCs and how they meet, fall in love, and then go their own ways. An idea for an original fantasy story I’ve been sitting on (I have the entire plot written out, too…).

N: Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you?

If someone could read my mind and finish that one FF8 fic I started in 2007 and never finished, despite rewriting like three times, it would be a miracle. The OC I created for it has grown alongside me all this time and I treasure her deeply, even though her story will never be properly finished.

O: How do you begin a story--with the plot, or the characters?

I usually start with a plot idea I want to write about and then the characters usually write themselves.

P: Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an "architect" or a "gardener"? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?)

The way I write my oneshots, the most planning I ever do is I have the final sentence in mind and then I have to write to get to that point. When I write (wrote) multi-chaptered stories, I typically had the plot mapped out and sometimes things would just write themselves in the process.

Q: Do you have any discarded scenes/storylines/projects?

That FF8 fic. I don’t even want to talk about it, haha. Also a Narnia fic I was writing and had like, two sequels planned for. I am just horrible at finishing things.

R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?

Not really? I always write however and whatever I want. I really admire attica on FFnet, though – their writing takes me breath away.

Also Sylvia Plath and E.E Cummings make my heart skip a beat.

S: Any fandom tropes you can't resist?

Bhuni!Hope, and Etro!Light. As has been made obvious.

T: Any fandom tropes you can't stand?

Whenever Snow is being written as useless or dumb. That’s my biggest one.

U: A pairing you might like to write for, but haven't tried yet.

…Light and Snow, very brief in the original 13. I actually had something written down when the game first came out, but never properly wrote it.

Don’t kill me. It would be very sad where they share their angst over Serah and then realize what they’re doing and part ways.

V: A secondary (or underrated) character you want to see more of in fic?

Yeul. YEEUUULLL. I love Yeul. So much.

W: Do you like more general prompts, or more specific ones?

Specific ones.

X: A character you enjoy making suffer.

All of them. Primarily, Light, Hope, and Yeul.

Y: A character you want to protect.

All of them. From me.

Z: Major character death--do you ever write/read it? Is there a character whose death you can't tolerate?

I love reading it if it’s written well, and I’ve never written specifics just background plot. There aren’t any deaths I can’t tolerate, because if done well, it can throw things into a nice twist.

[symphonicwinds]

Sophia Reviews: Persona 5 Confidants

I keep seeing people posting thoughts/opinions of each social link confidant of p5, but I noticed a lot of them were based on not 100% runthroughs, aka they didn’t finish everyone’s social links and don’t 100% understand everyones character arcs. And I guess I wanted to talk about everyone/my experience going through EVERY SINGLE FRICKIN SOCIAL LINK besides caroline and justine’s or else I wouldn’t have a reason to NG+ to full competion. 

This discussion only covers the development/characterization of each confident within their own link, and the overall quality of the social link and their benefits to the gameplay. This does not include how I feel about the character as a whole, especially the ones with a significant amount of screenime in the main story. Me not liking a confidant’s link =/= me not liking them as a character. 

I should also mention that I flip between the words “social link” and “confidant” a lot. For those of you who haven’t played past Persona games, social link was the word for confidant before Persona 5 decided to get Edgey™ and change the name.

This is the first of a series; because I tend to talk a lot and there are 21 stinkin’ confidants in the whole game, I will be dividing this into parts. This is part one, and it covers Arcanas 0 (the fool) to 4 (the emperor). I will release them as I finish them, with 5 arcanas at a time. Stay tuned for arcanas 5-10, tomorrow!

PSA: BEWARE OF SPOILERS. This is a spoiler-tastic discussion, since this discussion includes late game/end game social links. If you haven’t beat the game yet, please, good lord, please do not read this until you’re done. Don’t do that to yourself.

0. FOOL - IGOR

Igor’s link was probably one of my favourite social links, mainly because of the twist of Not Igor towards the endgame. I know some people dislike auto progressing social links, but I think it worked just because of the twist. I played persona 5 blind (besides using a confidant guide because holy shit there would be no other way I would be able to do that in my first play through otherwise), so I legitimately didn’t pick up on the Fake Igor thing. I also played persona 5 with the Japanese cast because I’m a fucking weeb I’m learning Japanese right now and holy shit I need all of the listening practice I can get. I knew the voice was off but I figured they didn’t want to impeach on the original talent of the previous voice actor, who had died. 

Honestly, I still don’t 100% understand the final arc, in the rebirth v staying the same, and I’ll revise this section once I do get a comprehensive understanding of it, but I liked the idea of the Protagonist breaking free from his chains to the point where it’s visually shown in the velvet room. The fact that he only breaks free from the velvet room’s chains by the time the reveal happens was really interesting to me, and the fake igor plot was really intriguing because it completely changes your perception of the game. 

As a social link, on the gameplay side, Igor’s is great, but also expected. More personas, extra EXP when fusing personas. You get these as the story progresses, so you can’t miss out on them.

I. MAGICIAN - MORGANA

Again, another story progressing confidant. I do like Morgana as a character, and I especially think that he is much better than Teddie, but I kind of found Morgana’s confidant to be slow moving. Igor’s social link was similar in that regard, but it’s expected to be because the beginning of Igor’s social link is more mechanical/for the sake of the game than actual character development. And the effect of the twist is compounded by that. The highlight of Morgana’s social link was definitely his disappearence, as it helped resolve some character issues along with advancing the plot along. I also didn’t like how everything came together at the very last second; again, this works with Igor because you don’t expect Igor to have growth/his own character, but Morgana does, so the pacing of his social link was kind of rough. Obviously this is because it was tied into end game plot points, but I wish his dreams were more explicit, or that he learned a bit more about himself over time, rather than shoving it at the end. 

Morgana’s unique confidant boost is the ability to create infiltration tools, which are really useful in your Palace runs. You will not be able to miss out on getting this, but it is a great individual benefit. He also receives the standard party boosts but he lags behind other party members in this regard because he doesn’t reach rank 10 until the end of the game, making him the last party member to get maxed out. Obviously this isn’t as much of an issue if you didn’t max out all of your party members beforehand, but because of that he was always backup for me, besides during boss fights. 

II. THE HIGH PRIESTESS - MAKOTO NIIJIMA

I guess I should start this off by saying that, Makoto is best girl. 

Makoto appealed to me, mainly because I related to her the most, out of pretty much the entire cast. I sympathize with her dynamic with Sae, her desire to be “useful”, and her struggle with creating an purpose for herself, rather than doing what other people tell her. 

In terms of her social link, I really liked her dynamic and relationship with Eiko, as they were really great foils to each other. Persona 5 is great at having minor NPCs/other characters affect the character growth of their confidants, and Makoto’s link is no exception to this. I really liked how Eiko and Makoto helped each other grow, and watching them bond was sweet, especially since you know that Makoto hasn’t really had any friends prior to joining the Phantom Thieves. I think the biggest thing I enjoyed about Makoto’s link is how subtle it is; she doesn’t have a huge fundamental change as a character, but rather, she gains the resolve to follow her dreams. Ann’s link functions in the same way, but it’s a bit less subtle than Makoto’s. 

Makoto’s romance exclusive scenes were great, but they weren’t spectacular. As someone part of the Queen’s Guard (Makoto fanboy/girl), I liked them a lot! And getting her flustered was absolutely adorable. My only gripe with Makoto’s romance option is that it is too subtle. While this works for her character development, I kind of wish her feelings for the protagonist were more apparent. Her confession felt kind of forced, especially in contrast to other romanceable social links. Once you romance her, it’s great, but the confession itself is kind of flat.

Makoto’s social link bouses are the same as any party members, so they’re very useful! Her unique attribute is letting you see enemy drops, which I never found to be that useful. 

III. THE EMPRESS – HARU OKUMURA

I really, really want to talk about Haru, because all of the discussions I’ve seen around her sum up to be “She was okay, but I didn’t really finish her link.”

LET ME AMEND THAT FOR YOU.

I do like Haru as a character, don’t get me wrong. I appreciate her gentle, sweet character. I also think it’s hilarious that she uses an axe and a machine gun as weapons. But I don’t think her character was handled very well, especially with her father’s death.

I know, for story reasons, that we couldn’t have Haru out of commission for long for the sake of her grieving. But Haru never openly grieves about her father’s death, and it seems like she’s completely unfazed by it. I understand that grief comes out in different forms, and it is explicitly shown that Haru stays with the Phantom Thieves to avenge her father, but there is no sadness shown. The death of a parent, especially your only one, can’t really be “gotten over” in the span of a week or two, it’s something that follows you for the rest of your life. I understand that Haru didn’t want to bring down the rest of the team, but I kind of wish that in her actual social link she does show signs of distress behind closed doors. Of course, that would probably make her social link busier than it needed to be, especially since she already has so much going on, but I feel like that should have been addressed.

Haru’s link is essentially her trying to figure out what she wants to do with her future, between trying to dissolve the arranged marriage between her and Sugimura, figuring out who to trust in the swarm of advisors trying to help her manage Okumura Foods, to her own life goals and aspirations outside of her father’s company. And while these are all great ideas, ultimately I feel like Haru’s link was too overloaded with different problems for each issue to develop in the best way possible. And because of that, completing Haru’s link left a lot to be desired for me. I think what’s there is fine, and I especially enjoyed Haru developing her passion for gardening and later coffee making, but I wish there was more time to explain or to go through the other issues presented in her link. I also think that the whole “Sugimura lied to you about your engagement” resolution felt like a cop-out to what could have been an interesting story in itself.

One more thing I wanted to mention: Haru’s social link does succeed where Makoto’s doesn’t where it shows Haru slowly falling in love with the protagonist, cumulating in an adorable “denial” of her feelings for him. It genuinely hurt me to turn Haru down, because I had already romanced Makoto.

Other than the standard party bonuses, Haru’s confidant also allows you to grow veggies a la Persona 4 Golden. The veggies are great, especially because they’re SP healing items. What makes this better than Leblanc coffee is that it doesn’t take time out of your day to plant and harvest your veggies, as Haru essentially does it for you. While it’s not absolutely vital to plant veggies, especially when you can make coffee/curry at Leblanc, and you probably have SP adhesives at this point of the game, it’s definitely a good bonus.

IV. THE EMPEROR – YUSUKE KITAGAWA

Yusuke is another one where I love his character, but his confidant wasn’t my favourite.

While there aren’t any major glaring flaws like Haru’s link, Yusuke’s link just wasn’t as memorable to me. I know a lot of people love his link, and I know a lot of people wanted him as a romance option but really the true OTP is Akechi/Protag, but I think his link was…okay.

I do appreciate Yusuke’s internal struggle; either “selling out” to earn a living or staying true to his ideals, while trying to figure out the true meaning of beauty, but it didn’t really resonate with me as hard as some of the others. I’m not entirely sure why? Perhaps I don’t relate because I’m not an artist. However, I will say that, while it didn’t personally wow me, Yusuke’s link objectively was well done. Yusuke is a comic relief character in a lot of ways, and his social link had a great balance between comedy and more serious moments. I also really like how Yusuke always appreciates the Protagonist’s company, and this social link does a really good job at showing the bond between Yusuke and the Protagonist, rather than the social link just happening while the Protagonist is just there.

I also want to disclose here that, I have no idea what Yusuke’s sexuality is. While I don’t necessarily think that he’s straight, I also don’t believe that Atlus intended on making him queer, just because Japan is still incredibly conservative about sexuality. And from the way his character is presented, he seems more eccentric more than anything else; he doesn’t strike me as queer in the same way Kanji from Persona 4 does.

Yusuke’s confidant bonus, besides party skills, is the ability to duplicate skill cards. If you manage to get a good skill card, this is a fantastic skill to have. I personally didn’t utilize this as much, but that was because I didn’t use or obtain that many skill cards during my playthrough.

[artpharos]

bersia.. and p5?

Ooh boy no hiding from spoilers for this one huh

Berseria: 

My favorite parent-child relationship: Laphicet and Velvet ;v; I’m so happy that the majority of the game was dedicated to Velvet (and later the rest of the gang) taking care of Laphicet and raising him to be a really amazing kidddd. Like Laphicet says, she’s really kind even if she’s also really scary. I know it’s not outright parent-child because let’s face it Velvet has her own issues and can’t really be the mother figure that an amnesiac kid needs but I still think their relationship is probably more like this than anything else. 

My favorite sibling relationship: Laphicet and Rokurou. I like how Rokurou’s like ‘this is a bad thing, but if you do this I will totally cover for you’ to Laphicet 100% of the time. And I like how he’s protective and considerate over Laphicet even when they first met. And since Velvet is off screaming revenge half the time at the start, how Rokurou ends up being the one checking up on Laphicet ;v;

My favorite family relationship (other): Can I say Celica and Artorius. Like in the times when Artorius isn’t going SUPPRESS FREE WILL I love how he and Celica are like an incredible tag team where each one supports the other and make each other happy.  

My favorite friendship between two people: Rokurou and Eizen. I’m sorry the rhinoceros-stag beetle debate is just way too good. I love how they only take one dungeon to become bros and then become drinking buddies after that. 

My favorite friendship between a group: The entire Van Eltia crew+ main party. They’re all outcasts and nasty people but they’re all very supportive of one another and each others’ goals. 

My favorite mentorship: Eizen and Laphicet (are you sensing a pattern here). I like how Eizen is the one who explains pretty much the entire world to Laphicet and is the one who encourages him in his hobbies (like map making and adventuring) and is always willing to be the one to teach the younger malak how to do stuff. 

My favorite rivalry: Velvet and Eleanor. I like how they start off on opposing sides and opposing values but they don’t really bicker and they slowly come to see each others’ POVs and develop a healthy respect/trust for one another ;v; 

My favorite hatred/antipathy: Artorus and Velvet. Considering that this was the basis for almost 70% of the plot it was really well written and developed. And you can understand where Artorius is coming from, just as much as you can understand why Velvet hates him so much. They act as really good foils for one another. 

My favorite potential relationship between characters who never talk in canon: Ehhh either Velvet and Oscar or Laphicet and Edna. 8′DDD

Persona 5:

My favorite parent-child relationship: Sojiro and Futaba Sakura ;___; He seems like such a gruff mean person at the start but he really cares about Futaba a lot (and respects that she has her own grief and stuff) and tries his best to take care of her despite not even being blood related to her. And from the S-links you know that that he cared for Futaba and her mother even before Wakaba died and he still cares for Futaba as if she was his very own. And I mean he’s an A+ dad to Akira too but let’s be honest Futaba comes first in his life.

My favorite sibling relationship: Morgana and Akira. LOOK AS MUCH AS PEOPLE MEME ABOUT THE ‘YOU MUST BE TIRED YOU SHOULD GO TO SLEEP’ I like how Morgana tries his best to take care of Akira (at first through selfish motivations but that eventually develops to respect and genuine care/trust) and I like how Akira is the one that takes care of Morgana and how the two of them are nigh inseparable ;v; 

My favorite family relationship (other): I KNOW THAT SAE AND MAKOTO ARE TECHNICALLY SIBLINGS TOO AND NOT OTHER BUT YOU’RE REALLY HARD PRESSED FOR ANOTHER FAMILIAL RELATIONSHIP (barring Madarame/Yusuke). Also the two girls try their best to take care of each other despite their parents being dead and having to deal with the trauma of that while growing up as two very young women. I like how they’re both extremely similar in terms of ideals and personality and I bet they’d work extremely well together. 

My favorite friendship between two people: Mishima S-Link is one of my favourites and I love how he starts of trying to repay Akira, and then learns and grows because of it. I like how Akira has enough trust and faith in Mishima to overcome the weakness of his own heart by himself and how the two of them are like the partners and foundation of the Phantom Thieves. 

My favorite friendship between a group: Phantom Thieves

My favorite mentorship: Sojiro and Akira. I MEAN APART FROM THE FREE MASTER COFFEE I GET I FEEL VERY HAPPY WHEN SOJIRO COMES AND TELLS AKIRA THAT HE’S GLAD AKIRA’S LISTENING TO HIS COFFEE MONOLOGUES.

My favorite rivalry: Akira and Akechi. Obviously. I MEAN I LIKE HOW AKECHI WAS ORIGINALLY PORTRAYED AS THE ONE WITH THE UPPER HAND IN TERMS OF KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS AT FIRST BUT THEN THE SITUATION IS REVERSED AND HE’S ACTUALLY JUST A PHONY. BUT HE STILL SORTA SERVES AS A GOOD FOIL TO AKIRA?? I THINK??

My favorite hatred/antipathy: Also Akira and Akechi. 

My favorite potential relationship between characters who never talk in canon: Morgana and Igor RIP me