#He was wrong but not about her being the culprit just about her being nice

[venus-is-thinking]

DRDT Chapter 2 Episode 14: Initial Thoughts

What an episode! I can't believe that we're probably starting to near the end of the Trial. But, considering we're almost there, we DEFINITELY have a lot to talk about. It's a longer episode, and there's a LOT to go over, so buckle in!

SPOILER WARNING FOR DRDT CH 2 PART 2!

T/W: Murder, hanging (with depictions)

The Reactions

Hu is literally so pretty.

I wasn't expecting her to get a whole mechanic defending Nico, but it makes sense. Letting other students cut in during the Class Trial is a great way to draw specific attention to a character point, and it's very clear that Hu's over-defense of Nico is going to be important moving forwards.

RIP to my "using the weight rack as the carousel" theory. The fan probably makes more sense. I just still have no idea how the 300-ish pound or whatever weight rack managed to get knocked over in the struggle.

I'm glad they directly pointed this out. Trying to kill everyone in the Class Trial was the EXACT thing Hu was so pressed about David doing. It's a weird double standard to be so forgiving of Nico when they tried to do the same thing.

Insane thing to say if Eden is the culprit and killed Arei because she didn't believe her. Then again, if my explanation for a lot of Eden Trial dialogue is "she's speaking out of regret for killing Arei now that she knows Arei was being legit," maybe she's just calling herself cruel as well.

This is honestly very valid.

Do you think "here" implies Nico trusts someone in the outside world? Based on their secret, it seems like they probably didn't have many friends. Could also be referring to animals? Or Mai Akasaki?

Big psychic damage to Hu though, considering we know she thrives on other people relying on her. She wants Nico to be someone who relies on her sooo bad, but they just... don't.

Like, girl. They literally JUST said that they don't trust anyone. That includes you.

She's clearly projecting in some way, though, which is definitely an oof. I wonder if Hu wishes she had someone who was undeniably on her side in the past...?

(To be clear: I think Hu is a very well written and interesting character. She fits the fucked up vibes of Despair Time, but coming from a more surprising angle of "that really nice and caring person can also be fucked up." She's just clearly in the wrong here, so I get to clown on her as I clown on everyone else.)

Ace is honestly so valid for this. Like, yeah he's kind of a bully and he sucks sometimes, but. Like. He did almost get murdered and people are, like, mad at him for it? Huh???

If Ace does end up being the Chapter 2 killer because he snapped, I honestly think he's so valid for that.

It is my personal agenda to record every instance of J being notably anti-murder. I don't know where it's going but if it does go somewhere I want my credit because it is Apparent.

(The entire fanbase nods in agreement.)

I know some people definitely still think/thought that Hu and/or Nico was responsible for the crime, so we've all DEFINITELY been squinting at that alibi. I fully believe it's true, but that doesn't change the fact that I wouldn't put it past Hu to make a fake alibi to protect Nico. Idk if Nico would go along with it, though.

I got so jumpscared by the Closing Argument-style CG.

I'm so glad we did get a definitive answer on how this thing worked. I was so afraid that we were just gonna solve the Arei murder method and the exact solution of Ace's would be a "left to audience interpretation" kind of thing.

I'm not exactly sure where the blood on Ace's fingertips comes from? Maybe he cut his hand on the wire when he was trying to struggle after he woke up or something.

This makes so much more sense than anything I saw theorized though, lol. The fan falling from drop hanging totally checks out as a way that the murder mechanism could fail.

I have NO fucking clue why Nico opted for this as the murder mechanism, though. I get wanting to use Hu's wire to frame her, but why didn't you just cut Ace's throat with the wire in the first place???

where did their cape go :(

Potentially suspicious line from Ace? I don't know what he's referring to as "go through all this." Like, maybe just reliving the murder attempt, I guess...? Could also be going through the Class Trial, though, if Ace killed as a result of Nico trying to kill him.

*Levi's secret quote looms*

Things that make me think Nico is either a victim or a survivor. Like, are you really gonna say this and then go try to kill someone else? ...Or Ace again, I guess??

Fun fact: this was actually what guided me to my initial killer picks, before I discussed with anyone else or read any theories! I thought the killer was trying to frame Nico, so it had to be Eden or Ace. The tape and everything else was just what locked it in for me. It's fun to see Teruko follow more or less the same path that I did when I was trying to solve the mystery :)

TAPE TIME :D

The use of the Bound Wrists truth bullet actually really confused me at first bc I didn't realize we were just talking about the tape. I was like, were Arei's wrists bound because Ace's were and it was intended to be another similarity???

Maybe Eden's just being nice, but I find it really suspicious that her instinct after all this time is "didn't MonoTV take it" and not "oh I guess Ace is probably the murderer."

Teruko has now outlined two different ways that it makes sense if the killer was in the gym that night. If I were Eden, and I were innocent, I would be realizing that there's a very small suspect pool left, and I know that I'm not the killer, giving me additional information. Instead, she's questioning the validity of the tape argument, which isn't useful for narrowing down the killer-- it's useful for keeping the suspect pool wider and not leaving herself as one of three (but basically two) options.

I kinda get why people are upset with Rose here, but it's also kind of an oof because they're only mad because Rose is really smart. Like, no one's out here like "oh my god Ace you didn't recognize the tape??" Y'know, because they think he's stupid. Rose has a really good memory, which raises the standards really high, which sets Rose up for failure.

In Rose's defense, she also never saw the tape in Nico's gym murder OR on the carousel for Arei's murder. She only saw the pieces in the trash can, which seemed to be inside out. Against Rose's defense, it would probably have been for the best if she'd gone in to look at the crime scene.

Am I tripping, or is "fish misunderstanding" a weird way for David to phrase this? The misunderstanding with Teruko was assuming that the murder happened last night, which was in fact because of the fish-- but the thing Teruko should have noticed, which makes it Teruko's mistake specifically, was the body swinging.

I'm probably reading into things too hard, but it's so hard with David. What do you know!!!

Damn, Teruko is SPEEDRUNNING this character arc. Considering we basically know she's locked in for all 6 chapters, I'm really surprised to see her making this much progress this fast.

I'm guessing that this means that Teruko is probably due for a major setback sometime sooner or later. But, interestingly, this makes me feel like Teruko realizing that working alone doesn't work isn't her character arc's end destination; it's the willingness to open herself up to caring about others even in the face of the consequences of losing someone you love. Teruko is closing herself off from everyone because she knows she's going to lose them. Maybe her end destination is allowing herself to love people, even if she might lose them someday.

This was fruity as hell btw. I'm starting to think Rose may be our replacement support if Charles does die in Chapter 3.

It's so funny that this is basically Teruko claiming in-universe protag privilege. Go off, queen.

I also said something along the lines of "Hu are we really doing this again." Totally forgot that the BDA is still relevant, lol.

I personally find the way Veronika phrased this to be very telling from an author's POV. Veronika doesn't say "she must not have committed the murder," she says "she must not have witnessed the murder." It would be totally reasonable for any of the students to forget that the rule is written in a way where a killer could fail to see the moment of murder, but DRDTdev wanted to draw attention to the rule's exact phrasing again, which is a deviation from the phrasing in the canon games.

To be clear here, I stand by this even if Eden isn't the killer and the BDA group really is Eden/Whit/Teruko. I still think it could be a reminder for a future chapter when it comes up. But, I don't think it makes sense to change the phrasing of a base rule unless there's a specific reason you want it to be different. Whether now or later, this feels like a reminder that it IS possible for the blackened to trigger the BDA.

I don't necessarily "believe David," per se, but I do think it's interesting that we're drawing attention to this. I don't really think it matters, especially because I doubt the characters remember, but I'd place my bets on Eden being the last one because of that, "Teruko, wait!" thing.

It doesn't matter because, if David or anyone else saw the body, no one can confirm which two of Teruko, Whit and Eden set off the BDA, but it's an interesting note.

It's so funny how no one, fanbase or in-universe, can tell if David is lying though. Like, he COULD have seen it, but he also easily could just be making shit up to try to throw the Trial again.

will I EVER understand what the fuck this man is cooking

Why. I thought you wanted to end the killing game to finish what Xander started. I don't know what's happening :( /pos

My guess for now is just that he's still trying to kill Teruko, in keeping with Xander's plans?? Idk how making her more distrustful makes her more likely to die, though.

I do find it very interesting that Eden's approach/reaction has been to be very quiet and freaked out whereas Ace's approach/reaction is to freak out VERY loudly. Ace's is fitting because what does he do other than freak out loudly, but I might have expected Eden to do... idk, something else? It makes enough sense though, considering either the group is right to suspect her, or she's still coping with losing Arei a little bit ago.

...*squints REALLY fucking hard*

The music and voice acting in this section is REALLY fucking good. It's sad/charming/soft enough that it feels like it could be genuine, but there's still a little something that makes you have to question whether or not it's real. You WANT to believe Eden, but it's so hard to do so fully.

Y'all think Eden's crying is reminding Teruko of whatever Arei's crying reminded her of?

i'm out of images :(

I really like Teruko assuming that Eden is innocent first. She's too distrusting and also reasonable (it is life or death after all) to just hard clear Eden based on nothing, but she's offering a bit of a reprieve to Eden. Eden's friendship means that she isn't going to get immediately targeted in her most down moment, and that's it. It's a small way to show Eden she does care.

On another note, the fact that Eden got to hug Teruko and that Teruko said the "let go of me" NOW is honestly one of the main reasons I trust Eden more. I felt like that was obviously going to happen, but I was expecting the post-Trial. Putting it here is wild.

Theory Update/Analysis

Oh boy, it's accusing time! It makes sense that we're going to start with Ace. At this point, I can honestly see it going either way. Major props to DRDTdev either way, but ESPECIALLY if Eden really is the culprit. I was so confident in it, but they're really making me question my assumptions.

I think that both Ace and Eden have good reasons to be the blackened or not to be, and good reasons to die here or to not. I'm going to do my best to make a list of reasons for both characters and give a bit of my thoughts on them. They're roughly ranked in most to least important order imo, but I didn't think too hard about it.

EDEN

Reasons Eden Would Be The Blackened:

THE TAPE: It would be easier for her to take the tape than Ace, as attention was on Ace in the gym. The tape's disappearance from the background also happens to coincide with Ace knocking her over and her standing back up.

THE NOTE: Eden already knows all the info she would need to know to write that note. She could have put the note back together to give herself a defense, to try to disprove herself as the culprit with her handwriting, because Rose was going to do it anyways, and/or to frame Arturo if she didn't know he had an alibi. I think any of these reasons, or a combination of these reasons, are enough to make it possible, and while Ace could've overheard, it's definitely less easy for him.

NOT BELIEVING AREI: Both Arei and Charles have, in this trial, been shown to question whether or not Eden believed Arei wanted to be Eden's friend. If Eden simply did, this plot point goes nowhere.

A GOOD PERSON: Eden has been called a good person, but other than that freaky CG, nothing has really come of it. Is the plot relevance of Eden being a good person really going to resolve by saying "Eden is a good person, she'd never kill her friend!"? If a good person isn't gold, Eden still feels like a missing piece of that puzzle.

INCENTIVE TO FRAME NICO: This one's a bit more of a reach, but I don't really understand the point of framing Nico if you're Ace. Of course Ace is going to insist Nico is the murderer no matter what. If you're Eden, you have a direct audience to setting it up similarly: Ace. If you can get Ace to go all in on Nico, that's one less person who was in the Gym who suspects you. Eden and Teruko feel less likely to say "oh well it looks like Nico's murder so it MUST be Nico."

HEAVY FOCUS IN CH 2: DRDTdev seems to give the chapter death's important content shortly before their deaths. Eden has been one of the most prominent characters this chapter, which could be a bad sign.

Reasons Eden Wouldn't Be the Blackened

HER EMOTIONAL REACTIONS: I think I stand with everyone else when I say that the thing giving me pause with Eden!Culprit is how devastated she truly seems to be. I do still think it could be a combo of guilt and panic over the prospect of dying, but it's hard to justify everything.

HER FRIENDSHIP WITH AREI: Sort of a spinoff of the last one, but Arei was at least offering to Eden to be friends and to protect her. If Eden did believe that, to any extent at all, it's hard to imagine her killing Arei in cold blood.

THE FISH: The biggest question when it comes to evidence as to how Eden could be the killer. If Nico fed the fish and they were all still there last night, and Eden had an alibi until after the Relax Room closed, how would she have gotten the fish to add to the crime scene?

THE BDA: Easy to ignore imo considering we've already called it into question within the series proper, but still worth talking about. For Eden to be the culprit, either someone else saw the body first and isn't claiming to have (or it's David), or we're burning the "Eden didn't witness the crime and thus could still trigger the BDA" card here.

GENDER BALANCE: Possibly an irrelevant point, but it is true that we've had 2 women and 1 man die so far. If a man was the killer, it'd keep it even. Unlikely to be relevant as any disparity could be easily balanced out in Chapter 3 with (presumably) 3 death slots.

Points About Eden That Could Go Either Way

THE FORK CG: I firmly believe that this could be setting up for Eden being a more important character throughout the series or to die after a moment of intrigue, possibly letting us explore/imply more in her post-death bonus episode.

RELATIONSHIP WITH HU: Hu has lost David as a sane ally. Nico is telling her that they don't want her speaking for them and that they don't trust her. Would DRDTdev prefer to fully isolate Hu moving into Chapter 3 by getting rid of Eden, or to leave Hu with one friend who still believes in her.

CHARLES HAVING EDEN'S SECRET: By telling us Eden's secret ahead of time by Charles revealing it to Teruko, extra focus was given to Eden's secret. Was this just the easiest way to get everyone's secrets revealed based on character dynamics, or was it meant to imply that Eden's secret is extra important? Is that because she's the killer? Is it a #ArEden sweep???

ACE

(why are they both orange)

Reasons Ace Would Be The Blackened:

NO EVIDENCE-BASED ISSUES: This is the biggest and strongest point across the whole board imo. There is no tangible, evidence-based reason why Ace COULDN'T have done the crime. Out of all 13 currently surviving students, he's the only one who that's true for. That obviously makes him a viable suspect.

WOULD ABSOLUTELY FUCKING DO IT: Ace has been Freaking The Fuck Out this chapter. I could VERY easily see him deciding to kill here. I don't think anyone is trying to argue that Ace is too emotionally attached to the cast to try to kill all of them, because he clearly isn't.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?: I'm not really sure where Ace's character is going to go from here. I'd be interested in seeing more from him, but, like, where is his character arching to if not a killer? Ace is so disliked and intense that it's hard to imagine him really, fully pivoting and caring about others, but if he can't do that, is he destined to be a killer eventually?

HEAVY FOCUS IN CH 2: DRDTdev seems to give the chapter's death important content shortly before their deaths. Ace has been one of the most prominent characters this chapter, which could be a bad sign.

Reasons Ace Wouldn't Be the Blackened

OBVIOUSNESS & POINT OF CHARACTER: Of course Ace would be willing to kill Arei or whoever and the rest of the students. This is kind of the inverse of my "would absolutely fucking do it" point-- I don't know exactly how much surprise it would carry if Ace were to be the culprit. And, more than that, I feel like the point of Ace is that he is a victim here, but he's so unlikable that no one wants to acknowledge that or believe in him. I think it'd be an interesting comparison, if everyone really wants Ace to be the killer, but he just isn't. To everyone's dismay, Ace is still here. Now what?

SECRET LARGELY UNRESOLVED: Ace's secret hasn't really had any plot relevance yet. It seems like most people's do. I'm like lowkey expecting them to bring back the starvation motive from SDR2 in Chapter 4 and have SOMETHING happen with Ace there. Either way, while it could be reserved for his bonus episode (a la Min and Xander), I'd expect that his secret would have more main-story impact before he dies.

EXISTENCE OF SCRUM DEBATE: We're suspecting Ace first, but we still haven't done the scrum debate for this trial. Unless the scrum debate is "do we just vote for Ace without ever really pursuing Eden" and the answer is "yes," I don't see how we get out of this suspecting Ace period with a scrum debate without at least entertaining the idea of Ace's innocence.

STRONG CONNECTIONS TO OTHER CAST MEMBERS: Ace is very relevant to the Levi, Nico and Hu plotlines right now. Are they really going to just... get rid of him, when that's what both Nico and Hu would want?

ABILITY TO FIGURE OUT THE CONTRAPTION: Ace would not only have to recognize the way in which Nico was trying to kill him (which, to be fair is easier if he did wake up partway through), he would also have to conceptualize and figure out how to make the playground contraption successfully. I think Eden's clockmaking skills and... generally higher intelligence imo would be better suited to that.

COWARDICE: Ace is so fucking scared of everything. Would he want to put himself into harm's way by becoming the killer and having a do or die moment in the Trial? But, is he more scared of dying as a victim in the killing game, after seeing how close Nico came to killing him?

Points About Ace That Could Go Either Way

TAYLOR LORE DROP: Ace's friend, named Taylor per a Q&A with the dev, got vagued about in this Trial. Is that something to be pursued in a later Ace free time (following the one with Levi), or is that something that's going to be explained further in Ace's bonus episode (which could VERY easily be about friendship, considering it's Mai fucking Akasaki as the other person in the convo).

ACE'S BREAKDOWN @ LEVI: When Ace said he didn't fall for Levi caring about him at all, was that him affirming himself that it was the correct decision to try to kill, even if it'd put Levi's life at stake, who he previously kinda liked? Or was he lying to himself, and, at least previously, he wouldn't have wanted to kill Levi, no matter how harsh he seemed on the surface?

Well, that's all I got! Please let me know if you can come up with any more points for any of the 6 categories, because I'm very very curious to hear them! I'm thinking I might try to do an expansion on this in a separate post before next episode if I have time, exploring the ins and outs of each point with more textual evidence to back it up. I'd love to discuss any reader-suggested points too, if y'all have some in mind!

For now, I'm still personally leaning towards Eden as the culprit over Ace, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it be either of them. Well, other than the fact that my reaction to the killer being revealed is going to be :O no matter what.

[hajihiko]

@firedemongaming

😎

[amoreva]

Hellooo helloo!! Could I have a request please for Luke Castellan x reader where idk just something really angst where she joins him betraying her own half brother Percy (yess she’s a Poseidon kid) but it’s just that their love is too precious for the world 🥺🥺

Thank youu so muchhhh mwahhh 💖🌷🎀

TOO LATE

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pairing: luke castellan x daughter of poseidon!reader

summary: love triumphs when your dad claims your half-brother and you.

warnings: not proofread, tlt spoilers, angst, frustration, revolves on reader’s emotions rather than the relationship

a/n: I feel like i twisted this request wrong. lmk how you like it, but i thought it’d be nice to have the reader’s emotions be the focus instead of the relationship.

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Wherever Clyde goes, Bonnie follows.

You’ve found yourself to be a permanent resident of Hermes Cabin. Another year goes by which meant another year of being unclaimed. Multitude of wishes and prayers are wasted: at this point those wishes, offerings and prayers look like pathetic begging.

You’ll forever be an unclaimed camper.

And you’ve accepted that. If you had been claimed, then you wouldn’t get the privilege of Travis and Connor stealing ice cream when you cover them or the privilege of Chris coming to you about his girl problems or the privilege of sharing a bunk with Luke Castellan.

What Chiron and Mr. D don’t know won’t hurt them.

It is a nice turnout because while you share a bed with the love of your life, another kid doesn’t have to sleep on the crowded floor.

Besides the fact you weren’t claimed, everything at camp was great. You didn’t feel alone or isolated anymore. You felt at home at Camp. You had a wonderful boyfriend and even greater friends (as corny as it sounds).

Until, Percy Jackson arrived at camp. Now, don’t twist this in the wrong way—Percy is just the sweetest kid and you were sympathetic to him losing him mom.

It was during Capture the Flag when you realized everything you knew was gone. You couldn’t resent Percy for that. Only your dad.

Luke triumphantly held the red team’s flag as the blue team retreated to the lake’s beach. Celebration paired with cheers and hollers. A proud smile as one of the campers hooked their arm around your shoulder, screaming your ear off.

Some of the campers were making a list of demands that the Red Team had to accommodate to when Percy’s shouting interrupted all of that.

You took off your helmet to see Percy in the lake. The culprit, Annabeth. Athena’s daughter was always two steps ahead of everyone, in Luke’s words. She seems to know something everyone else didn’t.

Luke looked distraught and shocked when it happened. A glowing trident hovering over Percy’s head. An outward statement claiming he is Poseidon’s son.

Yet, that same glowing trident was above your head. You felt your throat close up. So long…so long and now your dad claims you when Percy arrives.

It was common knowledge that Hades, Zeus and Poseidon made a pact to not father any more half-bloods due to destruction and war and whatever. But, what now? Poseidon claimed his son and daughter. For what? To boast? To showboat?

Questions kept ringing in your head. The life you knew gone. No more ice cream from Travis and Connor. No more information of Chris’ recent crushes. No more…sharing a bunk with your boyfriend.

“Poseidon.” Chiron trotted over to Percy. He gave you a smile. You were claimed! It’s what you always hoped and dreamed for. You should be ecstatic. Right? “Earthshaker, Stormbringer, your godly parent.”

It was inevitable. You weren’t destined to destroy or aid the world because you weren’t sixteen anymore. You doubt you were destined for anything.

Was this some fucked up way of your pops telling you he still cares? He still sees you? That he’s there for you?

It took him so many fucking years to claim you as his.

And the fact he did it when his son arrived at Camp Half-Blood. Did he want a boy to be the prophetic savior of the world?

Oh, so he wants to say he’s been there for you this whole time? Luke has been there. Cabin Eleven has been there, not your deadbeat pops. It wasn’t a surprise you joined Kronos so quickly.

You knew Luke was succumbing to the nightmares that plagued him every night. The voice in his head to revive the Titan. Now, you didn’t have anything against the other gods or Percy. It really was just some ol’ rebelling against your dear old dad.

Percy was tense staying still. The scorpion on his knee. He looked at it wearily. Luke was explaining his reasoning for betraying Camp. You couldn’t blame him. After so many years of neglect and the spirals his mother went through, you felt he had every right to be angry. As did you.

“The gods are my enemy, Percy. Poseidon made a mistake—he made a mistake by neglecting your sister.” Luke pointed Backbiter at the boy.

“Luke…” You placed a hand on his shoulder. His tense shoulders seemingly relaxed.

He let his arm fall to his side. He looked over his shoulder at you. A mix of a soft and intense gaze. Luke only wanted to defend your dignity, your honor, your glory. He thought it was unforgivable that Poseidon would claim you that day of all the days you prayed and wished and begged.

He’s seen how desperate you’ve gotten. How many tears shed. How many times he’s had to comfort you because you don’t feel like you belonged. Kronos would provide a New World. A new Golden Age where you didn’t have to suffer with a shitty father anymore.

Your palm held his scarred cheek. He met your lips in a soft kiss. Everything would be okay if you were with one another. Love is a very powerful thing to wield after all.

“I’m sorry, Percy.” You apologized, looking over at your half-brother. The pit scorpion on the back of his hand. “It’s…it’s nothing against you.”

You attempted to find the words to explain your situation. Luke’s calloused hand held yours gently. It was time to go. To flee from Camp.

“It’s our father that I hate, not you. You—you have to understand.” You hastily explained. “He left me neglected for year. I was content staying at Hermes Cabin and—he decided to claim me when I finally had a place here.”

“The world will remember us, Percy. Olympus will remember not to fuck with us—our dads will remember not to neglect any other half-blood.” Luke stated and twisted Backbiter in his hand. A determined glint in his eyes. Kronos’ calling him away to revive him already.

“Goodbye, Percy. This is the new Golden Age. You won’t be apart of it.” Luke slashed an arc with Backbiter, creating a rip through time and space to travel. The scorpion lunged.

You hesitated a moment, seeing your half-brother in agony. Luke told him sixty seconds. He’ll make it. He’s Percy Jackson after all.

You couldn’t delay your departure any longer. Luke needed someone by his side. To keep his sanity with Kronos calling out to him so often.

Wherever Clyde goes, Bonnie follows.

You departed from Camp, not knowing that would be the last time you se your beloved home.

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[1moreff-creator]

DRDT Chapter 2 Episode 14: First Impressions

Episode 14!!! If Ep 11 really was the 70% mark (apparently the dev said that but don’t quote me on it, I saw it in a YT comment), then it only goes up to Ep 16. In the first trial, the culprit was revealed in Ep 10, then Ep 11 was their final defense as the class unraveled all the remaining mysteries, and Ep 12 was mostly post-trial. If the pattern repeats, this might be the episode we get our culprit reveal!!! And it seems likely, with the forty minute mark. So excited!!!

Also fine if it doesn’t happen if course, but we’ll see!

Spoilers for CH2 EP14. CW: Hanging, murder, Eden!Culprit and Ace!Culprit discussion, blood and wires.

Nico! Nico! Explain the blood on the wires and my life is yours!!! I’m still surprised Teruko got “hanging” out of that crime scene to be honest.

Ace is so funny. He’s technically right that people should ask the victim and not just the killer, but he has nothing to offer.

“That’s why she didn’t ask you.” J really is becoming the voice of reason huh?

“It’s hard to remember the evidence.” (Paraphrased). Eden.

[Teruko lists the evidence] And… she omitted the tape. Yeah, the trial would get pretty derailed if Rose noticed the oddity there right away.

Wow, immediately Rebuttal Showdown let’s go! Really cool Hu animation. I wonder if she’ll end up being the Ace attacker or not? She could still just be defending Nico because.

“That’s why I have to interrogate Nico.” I love the voice acting, the chillest Rebuttal Showdown ever so far xD

[Sword Reveal] Fan?… Oh, because the fan being broken implies a hanging, right? That’s where she’s going with this?

“Lost their temper at Ace” is not how I will put attempted murder, Hu, but you do you.

[Cut] Oh, the fan was used as a pulley??? Fucking how???

“The fan being broken would suggest a hanging.” (Paraphrased) Oh I was kinda right with my start of RS guess.

“Isn’t that wire Hu’s custom weapon?” Woo, Whit with the brain cell!

“Nico stole from Rose, so they stole from [Hu]” (Paraphrased) Yeah! Teruko and I think alike!

[Hu triple dots] Was the wire stolen? I’m almost second guessing it with how reluctant she is to say that.

{Hindsight between keys: Man I went back and forth a lot this episode huh}

[Veronika talks about Nico planning for the trial] Even though that kinda contradicts what Nico said earlier (I guess maybe they lied, makes sense in retrospect), yeah she’s right (assuming they aren’t wrong about Nico trying to frame Hu). Is she trying to help her newfound bestie, Hu?

“Did they even want to learn to paint?” Poor Rose T_T Also Nico please say something.

“If something was bothering you, you could have talked about it with someone you trusted!” You know, Eden tried to do that with Teruko, and Teruko shot her down. I wonder if that’ll come into play…

“I don’t trust anyone here.” :O Well that’s a reveal.

Woo new Hu sprite! She is breaking down! But bestie please I don’t think you can fix them!

“Hu, I—“ Nico looks so done lmao.

“You trust me, right?” They just say they didn’t. Man, she is not beating the savior complex allegations with this one, huh?

Bro please let Nico talk.

“Are you a billionaire? Because that’s rich!” Ace you are not as clever as you think you are. xD

“Murder is murder…” Indeed, J the voice of reason.

“Why can’t either Ace or Nico simply tell us what happened?” You know we’re fucked when Arturo’s the voice of reason. Although I imagine Ace will shout at him that he doesn’t remember because he was unconscious.

[Ace shouts at Arturo] Got the reason wrong, but the shouting was there.

“Don’t throw two birds and a stone in a glass house, asshole.” Mixing two idiots there, big guy.

“They put some sort of cloth on my mouth…” Ah, there’s the unconsciousness shouting. By the way, full confirmation turpentine is just chloroform in this universe, nice.

[Charles lays down the law on Hu] Thank you, resident brain cell holder! How did they even get out of the first trial without you?

“I was going to!” Yo new Nico sprite is crazy!!! They’re going in!

“I was going to…” Oh, they’re trying to remain calm. That’s pretty cool of them!

“If you say what you think happened, I’ll help.” (Paraphrased) Yeah I was wondering how the dev was gonna write this without it being a twenty minute Nico monologue, this tracks.

Yo “fake” Closing Argument is crazy.

THE FUCKING LIGHT!!!! HOW THE FUCK DID IT NOT OCCUR TO ANY OF THE FIFTEEN PEOPLE THAT TRIED TO SOLVE THIS!!! I guess cause nothing pointed to it but y’know.

“How would that have worked?” Broom to move the fan? I came up with that in my original theory on this thing, though I think that was for the very first method which was clinically insane.

[Broom reveal] Ah, close but not quite. That’s actually quite smart! I’m surprised no one thought of that either.

[Releasing wire] …Am I stupid or does this not work? What would the wire get caught on?

{Yeah I still don’t think I get it? Like if the wire was moving from above the fan to around the broom, there’s nothing stopping it from going from around the broom to above the fan, so Ace would just fall. Did it get caught on the tape somehow? But how would Nico be able to put it around the broom then? Also how does the fan break? The wire would exert force from above and the side, not below, which is what the image makes it look like. I don’t think I understood this I’m so sorry.}

Oh, Ace woke up before the murder attempt was over! Good job badjoe for calling that!

Also are we far enough in to confirm Nico did this by themselves? I don’t have anything against those that believed otherwise, but I personally like it better this way. I imagine the theories aren’t 100% dead, as always, but y’know.

“And then I… Y’know…” THAT’S WHY THE BLOOD ON THE WIRES DOESN’T MAKE FUCKING SENSE!!! Man, as much as I love the EP 6 CG, it was not clear at all that they were that close, especially when the loose wire seemed closer to the entrance. {Looking back, yeah, I’m just not good at perspective on these rooms. The wires were closer to Ace than it looked}.

… Well there’s the small bit on the end of the loose wire that I’m still not sure how it got there, but close enough!

{Yeah it’s not. Believe it or not, I don’t even think the canon method fully explains the fucking blood.

How the fuck was Nico using this exactly? I imagine the small bit of blood on the end is from the noose (which funnily enough, I kinda called there would be a noose, just got where Ace’s neck would be wrong), so then the middle is the part they used as a garrote. But… then where did the blood on the wire on the fan come from? Where they using both simultaneously?

Am I losing my fucking mind? How is it possible I still don’t understand the evidence even after All That? Has my brain simply rotted? And don’t even get me started on everything that wasn’t brought up! What the hell even is this case?

Then again, it’s midnight when I’m writing these hindsight observations, so I don’t think I’m operating at full brain capacity}

“What an interesting murder plan.” Veronika I love you.

“I tried to kill Ace and pin the murder on Hu. What else should I say?” I love you too Nico.

“And after all’s said and done, you can’t even say something as simple as “sorry”?” … Is Nico about to secret quote us?

“I tried to kill you because I don’t like you. Even now, there’s still no use to try and pretend that I like you. If I say “sorry,” you’re still going to hate me. So what else should I say?” Okay crisis averted. Still, this is a really interesting perspective, and I love it a lot. It calls back to Nico not understanding niceties like “please pass the salt,” which, relatable. If they’re not sorry, and Ace won’t get anything out of it, why lie? Very fun.

“D-Do you even regret what you did?” Poor Rose she’s taking this so badly T_T She still doesn’t have an answer as if Nico ever wanted to paint or not.

“I’m not Levi; of course I feel bad about something like that! I’m not heartless!” Yikes on calling Levi heartless, but interesting line for character analysis I guess.

“That was the worst choice that I’ve made in my life.” Wow, really cool new sprite and a lot of Nico info, this is awesome for us Nico enjoyers! (I call myself a Nico enjoyer like I don’t love every single character in the cast lol).

“My teachers, my classmates, my father…” Holy shit this is depressing.

“I’m not the victim here.” Damn, Nico. Just loving all this.

“So I don’t see the point in acting sorry.” Holy shit the sprites and the writing are on point today! {I’m sorry if my commentary’s not exactly thrilling, sometimes I’m just too invested to do anything but stare in awe.}

Rose: “I don’t know how to feel anymore” Sibling can you please give her a fucking answer damn.

“What does this have to do with the case? Everything.” Are we… doing “the pulley was used because they weren’t strong enough to murder otherwise” or…? I don’t know where else this would go.

“Coincidence? Hardly.” Does… Does Teruko already have Eden clocked (heh) as the murderer? No, right? It’s the strength thing probs.

“…They specifically intended for this murder case to be similar to Nico’s murder.” Wait does she actually think it’s Ace or Eden what?

[Non-stop, Bound Wrists] … I have nothing. Nico didn’t bind Ace’s wrists. What is happening.

[Bullet fired] Okay, slight nitpick that I’m pretty sure bothers me and no one else. I get that it’s hard to come up with phrases to shoot bullets at, but “there’s no evidence of that” or some variation is the thing that gets shot in, like, 90% of these Non-Stops Debates. Again, not really important, just wanted to point out a pet peeve of mine.

“One of the pieces of evidence was taken directly from the crime scene…” Oh now we’re bringing up the tape! Teruko didn’t identify it in the spinny thing so I was wondering if she was going to make the connection on her own, but I guess I should have never doubted the Queen.

“I finally figured out what this tape is…” Okay that makes sense. But has she actually clocked (heh x2) that Eden or Ace must have taken it? She’s acting real chill about it.

“It’s the tape from the gym.” (Paraphrased) Woo! It feels super satisfying to finally read those words in a trial setting. Another exceedingly common badjoe W, as they’re who pointed out the tape’s disappearance to me.

“That time Rose and I went to the gym together…” Oh so she knows knows.

“But didn’t MonoTV clean up the gym?” Yeah that would be convenient for you huh. There’s still a chance Ace is the culprit and she’s trying to defend him, but it’s looking rough.

{Actually in retrospect yeah what the fuck?}

“…I attempted to restore the gym to its original condition.” Which would include the tape being there. It might be over chat.

“… why didn’t you recognize it earlier, Rose?” She didn’t look at the crime scene queen. But it was in the trash. Geez Rose is just gonna feel awful after this trial, I’m really interested to see where her character will go.

“Wooow!” Fucking David jumpscare-

Yo why’s David of all people being a hater you wanted them to lose the trial.

[David blames Arturo for Arei’s death] Considering Felicity, low blow. I hate David so much (/affectionate).

“I can’t even recall what day that happened.” Oh so she’s breaking down breaking down.

[Rose speech] The Rose angst is insane this episode, I’m loving every second. In addition, there might be a line here that could point to Rose!MM. But to keep the habit, I’m not elaborating on that (on this post).

“Rose. You are helpful.” Let me ignore the Terurose agenda for a moment and point out that Teruko’s still being way too chill about this if she’s about to call out Eden. Is she putting on a front? She mentioned hurting when Eden talked to her in the kitchen, so she probably does care, but isn’t letting herself show it? Oof if true.

“That I could be dismissive […] without consequences.” Oh we might be starting the “Teruko learns to trust a bit again” arc sooner than I expected. Cool! Also she’s not about to secret quote us right? {She wasn’t}.

“Thank you, Rose.” Okay I am no longer ignoring the Terurose agenda this ship is about to pop off I feel and I love that.

“…that tells me exactly who the murderer could be.” It might be Edenover.

Select Two People! But she said after Ace ran out, right? Is she gonna point at Ace and Eden, or herself and Eden?

Nope, Ace and Eden. Well, those are the two I landed on!

“It’s you two, right?” [Voice Line] You make it sound like Ace!Accomplice or Eden!Accomplice are even like remotely possible, and I find that funny.

“What’s your reasoning?” Veronika I love you but she’s spent the last ten minutes explaining her reasoning.

By the way, while Teruko’s repeating more or less the same lockdown logic I must have explained in at least three or four different posts (honestly kinda surreal ngl), it’s gonna be really funny if the only reason the class can confidently rule out Teruko as a suspect is because her handwriting sucks too much which is honestly the best argument for her innocence besides protag privilege :v

“I’m the least suspicious because I’ve been helping” is the second best argument lol.

“But to be frank, most of you are incapable of [acting logically]” Tell ‘em Teruko!

I’ll refrain from pointing bv out every suspicious Eden line because I always feel like I’m leaning too much on confirmation bias for it, but let’s be clear, I’m seeing them.

Hu: “Eden isn’t the killer! Don’t accuse her!” Bro.

“I do have evidence!” BDA?

Called it! If we’re bringing it up this early, though… I’m assuming it’s not so simple.

“You all are moving way too fucking fast.” I feel the same way Ace. {For the first time in the trial}.

“Hold on.” Wait is David gonna be the one to bring in the possible workaround(s)? Why the- I thought you wanted to lose? What the fuck is he even doing anymore???

“Oh my my my. That’s an issue.” You saw the body didn’t you.

“Because I’m actually the first person to see the body.” Well, there goes the “See No Evil” idea, which I kinda liked. Unless he’s just lying, which would honestly make more sense; he’d be trying to lead the trial astray again.

Okay but this is adorable.

“… at least one innocent person.” David, it’s- it’s at least two. How are this bad at math.

Nico: “Do you expect everyone to believe such an obvious lie?” This really is the Nico episode, huh? But it does make sense for them to push Ace as the culprit, I guess.

“He’s lying? Really?” Poor Levi’s got no fucking clue what’s going on.

“… he just conveniently avoided [the BDA group]” oh right they searched the whole floor before going to the playground David’s story is practically impossible.

Alright who’s gonna make the “What’s your source?” “I made it the fuck up!” meme with J/Nico and David?

“The only person who I need to believe me is Teruko.”

…

?????????????????????????????

(I feel like I write that exact sequence of characters every episode)

Are you just trying to go for a Teruvid angle to counteract the Terurose earlier? (/silly but really what the fuck-)

[David explains about Teruko’s skepticism] Yeah I guess. But, just so we’re clear: David still thinks the culprit is Ace and is just doing this to make them lose the trial right? Because otherwise what the actual fuck.

“AllI want is for Teruko to distrust others.” Motherfucker what-

[David’s whole Thing] You know, I really thought, I really fucking thought after Ep13, that we would get a break of a few episodes of David Bullshit, but no! What in the ever loving fuck is he even doing anymore???? No theories at this point, it is almost 11 PM where I am I do not have the brainpower to deal with this son of a bitch.

Levi: “Now that I think about it, Eden is in a good position to be Arei’s killer after all.” I feel a scrum debate forming.

“…why would I help it piece [the note] back together…?” I was right to avoid the bias. This line could be perfectly innocent, but the moment I read it, my mind said “she’s saying this too confidently, she had it planned, it’s Edenover.”

“Why… Levi, why?” While I do think Levi!Accomplice just 100% died of it wasn’t dead already, this line does read very funny with the context of that theory.

[Eden Breakdown] Man, {even after how much I’ve been sussing Eden in this and every other episode}, it sure does look like Ace is the culprit huh? Like, this scene is so beautiful and incredible it might just sway me to Ace!Culprit. The CGs are amazing, the music and the voice acting is terribly moving, the dialogue’s fantastic, holy fucking shit. I almost want to cry that was so fantastic. I— I wish I had more words, but that just left me speechless.

-

General Thoughts:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!

(/positive)

I don’t think I could have asked for more, this is just fucking perfect. Nico’s whole thing was great, the Rose angst was unexpected but wholly welcome, the tape reveal was revealed, David… Chiem, and the Eden CG stuff. Just absolutely fantastic all around.

…Slightly miffed the blood on the wires is still somehow not 100% consistent with the described method but WHATEVER it WORKS i do NOT wanna look at those fucking things again.

Theory Updates

Yeah it’s Ace.

Okay that’s dramatic lol. Eden!Culprit is not 100% dead, but off the top of my head, I can’t actually think of anything the characters can use to clear Ace rn. The only reason I believed Eden!Culprit over Ace!Culprit is that I didn’t think Teruko and even Eden could have missed Ace grabbing the tape upon waking up, especially with the sprite disappearing when Eden was on the ground, but… uh… apparently Teruko doesn’t trust herself so much.

With that glaring issue fixed, I actually think Ace!Culprit is significantly more solid than Eden!Culprit. No workaround needed for the BDA, no weird “are they even strong enough to do this” questions, and while the fish paradox Exists, Ace might have thought that putting fish there would make people think of Nico. Which, given the killer also somehow expected the class to figure out the similarities to Nico’s method when only a grand total of four people saw it, one of them being Nico themselves; yeah, I’d think he might be stupid enough for that.

EDIT: Also forgot to mention, Ace waking up before the murder attempt was over solves the issue of him figuring it all out. He actually straight up saw the method, he’d know how to replicate it.

And those Teruko-Eden CGs, man… I always had to really suspend my disbelief on some of Eden’s lines, even with venus’ narrative defense, but… come on. I’ve said this before; I have my limits.

All that added to the fact that Teruko seems to really want to start her “begin to trust again” arc, the fact David pushed for Eden!Culprit… it’s looking Ace!Culprit.

To be clear, there’s still things like Eden’s “Teruko, wait—!” that work better under Eden!Culprit, but I feel those are comparable to other potentially small foreshadowing moments such as Ace being weirdly fixated on the carousel. Eden!Culprit is, again, not fully dead, as other than strength, BDA and fish (all of which have workarounds), there’s not much concrete evidence clearing her. But at this point, I… don’t know. I’ve always felt kinda bad reading scenes like the kitchen talk with Teruko with as much suspicion as I did, but these final CGs, hmm…

Maybe my perspective will change with a clearer mind in the morning, but these are “first impressions” for a reason. They’re not meant to be very cohesive.

And if I’m wrong and it is Eden, well then I’ll have been wrong for a week or two instead of a year, so. Who cares at this point.

Speaking of getting things wrong, the Nico thing. I got Nico!SoloAceAttacker (is that the right notation?) right, and the really obvious stuff like using the stool to reach the fan. I’m also gonna give myself half points for guessing the broom was used to move the wire on the fan all the way back in my first post, but other than that, I did not cook. In my defense, a lot of the evidence (Nico’s missing cloak, the missing tape on the pull-up bar unless it’s somehow the roll, the isolated weights and toppled weight rack, and who knows what else) ended up not mattering in the slightest, which threw me off. Also, I call bullshit on this explaining the blood on the wires, that splatter pattern still doesn’t make sense with what was described. I guess my life isn’t Nico’s after all.

On the other hand, I’m a bit more confident on the remaining aspects of the Arei murder theory now that I believe the culprit is strong enough to pull it all off without issue, but we’ll have to see on that. My guess for culprit ended up changing for now, but the reasoning for arriving at them (tape) was solid, so we’ll see how that pans out.

All in all, immaculate episode. Chef’s kiss. Perfection. Holy shit. See you again soon!

[a-student-out-of-time]

Thoughts on DRDT Chapter 2 Episode 12

//Hey everyone! So, it's been 17 months since the last episode, which...holy crap, right?

//Now that we've come to the continuation of our story, we have some new things to discuss, and I'm not just talking about what I've said. Instead of just repeating myself again, let's break down what's been happening in this episode and then we can continue theorizing.

I have three big things I want to address in this, which we should consider going forward:

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

The Murder Was Actually WORSE than it seemed

So Charles' point about where they fucked up was about the murder. However, it was about something I don't believe any of us quite considered: that the water from the relaxation room was taken and held for later use. We do have jugs in the trash that prove it's possible.

It's nice to see Teruko admit that she made a mistake and that the time of the murder was wrong, but to me, this meant two things: our murder could've happened at quite possibly any time and it would've been worse than it sounds.

See, death by drowning is already one of the worst ways to die, but if they obtained some jugs of water and used those in the murder, it means that our victim must've been waterboarded to death. Drowning is bad, but waterboarding is an even worse and more horrific way to die. More importantly to this case, it's pretty quick for the culprit.

Without oxygen, you'll experience brain death within 6-10 minutes. Since we now know the murder was set up in advance overnight, this means that all they really needed to do was grab their target, carry out the drowning and then hang the body to break the neck and disguise the cause of death. It could be over in less than 15 minutes.

We also now know that, as we all predicted, the murder likely took place around 7:30-8 AM, not PM, when most people were asleep and only a few were up at breakfast. This has also thrown most everyone's alibis out the window.

Essentially, whomever our victim was, she was murdered via waterboarding and then her body hung up while some people were awake. They cut is so close that the body was still swaying, as Teruko noted. That wouldn't happen just from the fans.

2. What's David Game Plan?

I've made it no secret that I'm not a fan of David, nor do I agree with the view that he's set to be DT's rival. As I've said many times before, Teruko doesn't need a rival like him, since the only challenge he offers her is being an existential threat.

That being said, I both like and dislike what happened with David this episode. It's good to see him not consistently being an annoying troll who evades questions by being a dick, and to actually have something more to say and some actual questions he raises. He's been lying about being Arei's killer, and apparently, that's part of what he considers a noble goal on par with Xander.

David's point in this episode is that he wants to be a "good person" like Xander, which echoes my points in my theory about how that's what this chapter is about: The Meaning Of A "Good Person." Teruko is, understandably, still very bitter and hurt by his betrayal, so she considers that idea laughable. David's point that "I'm sure he had a good reason" actually made me laugh, admittedly.

But what's interesting is he gave us an answer in the form of a non-answer. He claims he believes in something greater than himself and the lives of everyone else in this game, and since they're all on TV, he questions why this would be happening if the people behind it didn't want to make things entertaining. He brings up how Xander wanted to end the killing game and he's been derailing the trial because he says he wants to do the same.

What's frustrating is, as Hu says, David has essentially decided everyone's lives aren't important enough to preserve, so it's better if they all just give up and die to end the game. Xander did not want that, he wanted to end it with minimal casualties. A Total Party Kill is antithetical to everything Xander stood for, so if David is being sincere, he's really spitting in the guy's face.

I'm really curious what exactly he meant by him being the only one who "recognized" him. The thing with J early on proved that some of these people were at least aware of each other pre-game.

But does this mean David is actually a good person with noble goals? What part of "You exist to manipulate others" is not clear? I can't accept that at this point, but here's what I can accept, because it fits in so well with what we've been seeing:

Consider: why exactly did Xander try to kill Teruko? Because someone wanted her dead and somehow convinced him to give it a shot. We know that someone out there wants Teruko dead for whatever reason, and direct attempted murder has failed. What's the next best thing? Convince someone else that she needs to be dealt with.

Remember the secret David got? "How could I even select what secret to be your motive? Just about everything you've done in your life is worth killing for. The killing game is all your fault."

And let's be real: it's gotta be Teruko's. Between everything we've seen, it can't be anyone else. I'm sure David just said it was Xander's because it was easier to blame a dead person.

So let's consider how easy it would be for David to see that secret and then convince himself that Xander not only had the right idea, it really is better to let everyone die if it means Teruko is gone too. I can buy his admiration for Xander could drive him to do something like that if he learned something that horrible about Teruko, and then decide it was all for the greater good.

That, of course, assumes he actually means what he says. I remain convinced that Hu was the one who carried out the killing in his stead, and with the Blackened rule- it's the one who's the "most mastermind-y," not just whoever deals the fatal blow- David's alibi is irrelevant.

"But Bubbles, didn't Hu and Nico say that they have alibis for morning?"

Yes, but I'm also convinced David drove both of them to attempt murder for these very same reasons, first with Ace and then Arei. Either this was a "selfless" act based on his blind hero-worship of Xander that required everyone to be sacrificed, or this is all a selfish act to end the game and escape with his own life. Until someone can independently verify that Hu and Nico have alibis, I can't believe anything they say.

As for why they wouldn't say anything, Hu made a very impassioned speech about wanting to live and that David has no right to decide who should live and die. She is correct, and if her secret is that she was a hopeless child who tried to end it all three times, that actually adds a lot more weight to what she's saying here.

...But at the same time, under the belief that whomever killed would be executed, why would someone who wants to live just admit to being the one who did it? I don't like to consider it, bu Hu's desire to live paradoxically makes her more suspicious in my eyes. At least in being David's patsy.

Oh, and speaking of murder, here's the thing we all called.

3. Levi's Secret

Let's be real: we all probably saw this one coming. In the closing minutes of the episode, Levi admits that his secret is being a remorseless murderer.

Now, where everyone got this wrong is in assuming that, because that's his secret, it means that he must've been the one to kill Arei. That theory can be pretty definitively put to bed because, as I said with Hu, why would a murderer just admit to being a murderer after all this has happened?

Moreover, his point wasn't a confession. He didn't say he was the one who killed her, he apologized for potentially derailing the discussion again, and this was when everyone had hit a dead end in how to progress. If Levi were the Blackened, why would he do that? It would be in his best interest to stay quiet until the very end.

Instead, I think this is where an even stronger point in my favor comes in: Arei really did visit Levi, and they did discuss their secrets, but he didn't kill her. They either collaborated, talked about it or at least made peace about it, since they both came from pretty shitty families and probably found some common ground.

David brought up what it means to be a good person, but Arei and Levi are also great examples. Both have done terrible things and wanted to find redemption from them, Levi with murder and Arei with being a bully. The only reason I can see this being brought up now is because we have yet to hear his or her side of this story, and that could bring us to more important revelations down the line.

//So there you go, my breakdown of this episode. It's answered some questions, pretty definitively ended a couple theories, and raised many more points of discussion. And thankfully now we only have to wait until Friday to receive some more answers : P

[robby-bobby-tommy]

There are some of my headcanons about the relationship between the past generation Lan bros and this whole family drama, cuz I have nothing better to do.

Now these might not be fully compliant with canon.

We know almost nothing about Lan Qiren's and Qingheng-Jun's relationship. It is implied that LQR sympathizes with his brother, but that's all.

My headcanon is that when they were young, they were very similar to LXC and LWJ. LQR was very devoted to the rules, so he had a pretty difficult personality and didn't have much friends. QHJ was more easygoing and nice. Yet he was more restrained and calm than LXC. And although he tried to get LQR more of the friends his age, he didn't always succeed. We also have no age gap between them, so I hc that it's 3 years.

Sometimes, when QHJ was 18-19, he met Madam Lan and fell in love at the first time. LQR initially didn't have anything against her. They even met at some point. QHJ was head over heels for her, but she saw him as more of a friend. Her and second master Lan were on good terms and sometimes talked for hours about music cultivation ect. They even considered each other friends.

LQR and QHJ had one teacher. I didn't think much about him, but let's just say he had his secrets. While he was nice to his students and they respected him, he had a beef or mb just somehow mistreated Madame Lan's family. He did something that forever left her family in the shadows. Madame Lan's family was shunned for a long time. Ofc ML hated this teacher's guts. It was never her intention to use QHJ's affection to avenge her family, cuz she wasn't that kind of a person to be so cruel. But when she found out, she started to carefully plan her revenge. The pg Lan Bros actually didn't know about teacher's secrets and had no idea about what was going to happen.

Since MXTX loves stuff going downhill during or after someone's 17th b'day, I imagine this whole drama happened right after LQR'S 17th birthday. A few days later their teacher was killed and ML was gone. QHJ went looking for her immediately, kind of leaving shocked and grieving brother behind. Once his brother was gone for a few days with his presumed friend, the Lan elders went on a search and found QHJ and ML in wedding gowns. As stated form canon, QHJ decided to save his love by marrying her and declaring, that if anyone wants to hurt her, they'll have to go through him. Elders were completely unimpressed, but they couldn't do anything because a) QHJ was already a clan leader at this point; b) the wedding already happened. Before this QHJ had never broken any rule, especially not as serious as this.

Due to the conflict of marrying his teacher's killer, QHJ decides to go into seclusion and lock ML with him. He orders the houses to be built on the neighboring mountain, but before he locked himself in his own room.

At this point LQR had his world turned upside down two times: firstly, his friend killed a teacher, who (in his opinion) did nothing wrong, secondly his brother disappeared and came back married to culprit. And he tried to talk to his brother, but before he could discuss anything, his bro is already secluded in his own room. When he found out that his brother is going to seclusion and doesn't plan on ruling the clan, it broke the camel's back. LQR was also very devoted to the rules and never broke them, but this day, merely a week after his birthday, he went of the rails. He asked to see his brother, loudly knocked on his door, desperately trying to talk with him. Even when the elders started to scold him and get him away from the door, LQR escaped their grip and continued to act "inappropriately" (Being rightfully upset and wanting to get some answers). Sadly, QHJ never let LQR in, despite all of the pleadings, for he believed he doesn't deserve to speak with anyone.

LQR receives his first ever serious punishment and is shamed for his "indecent" Behavior. He gets beaten with those wooden sticks pretty hard and is locked up in a room to rewrite the rules 200 times. At this point, LQR is literally broken. Two of his dearest friends abandoned him with a whole lot of new responsibilities and unanswered questions. His dreams were also shattered. He liked to teach and explore different clans, regions.

LQR never got the chance to speak with QHJ, cuz very soon his bro left to the seclusion with ML. I want to believe in good in this world, so QHJ never forced ML to have children with him, yet they had to produce the heirs. So a year or two after the whole ordeal, LXC is born. At this point LQR is still very young and totally exhausted due to the clan leader duties, and he wasn't really excited to get another brother's problem on him. LQR grew resentful of his brother and ML, he became pretty jaded and closed, disliked troublemakers. Tho, when he first held little LXC in his arms, he was smitten. He vowed to raise him properly and help him live a happy life of a clan leader. When LWJ came to the picture, LQR promised to teach them both to be good people and to never let them become what he and his brother became. To never let LWJ get all of his brothers problems and deal with them with no help. Ofc his methods were far from good and he was sometimes emotionally unavailable, he loved them very much.

This all I've got for now.

[sandcobangevent]

A Date in Pink

By @daemonbreath and @lilzezthenyan

At first, Sherlock wasn’t sure why the texts started arriving. The first time he’d met Carol Watson, he had been focusing on masking and not observing her, so he didn’t know much about the woman. He knew she was a widowed nurse, she had an undefined relationship with someone named Charlie, and that she was John’s mother. All in all, Sherlock had no idea why she was texting him, someone barely connected to her.

Ping!

Think of the devil and she shall text.

[CW] Good morning Sherlock love! :)

[CW] Started listening to that one with the horse today and Lord is it exciting! You and Johnny are ever so lucky you got an inside scoop on that one :)

[SH] I agree. I admit I was reluctant at first, but it ended up being quite enjoyable.

[CW] Lovely to hear dear :)

[CW] Must have been nice staying in a little cabin with just Johnny for company hm? Nice and private out in the country

[SH] It was alright. I still much prefer London’s busyness, but staying somewhere rural was a nice change.

[CW] Nothing wrong with knowing what you like! :) But sometimes it’s nice taking a chance at something new 

Sherlock didn’t know how to reply to that, so he didn’t bother trying. That was another thing Carol did, besides texting him out of the blue— she would, without fail, bring up John at least once. He was her son, so it made a small amount of sense, but Sherlock still felt it was strange. Victor’s father had never done anything like that, and Sherlock’s own father certainly hadn’t. His father usually only talked about him or Mycroft if he was bragging to someone rich and important. Still, her eagerness to talk about her son helped add to Sherlock’s constantly growing pile of John Watson Facts.

His favourites included— but weren’t limited to— John was ambidextrous until his injury, but still retained some skill; he failed almost all of his history classes in elementary school; and that he had a collection of moles and freckles on his back that looked like the Cygnus constellation. Sherlock had to look it up as his knowledge of space was limited to their solar system and the North Star, but he quickly decided it was his favourite constellation. 

None of his new Facts became relevant until John kicked a smoke bomb away from them with a high amount of skill and precision— it came from all the years he spent playing football as a child and teenager.

“Ha ha! Get a load of that!” John cried, grinning. “John Watson has still got it! And by it, listeners, I mean everything I learned playing foot—”

“Playing football as a child, yes,” Sherlock said at the same time as John.

“—ball, yeah.” John squinted up at Sherlock. “How’d you know that?”

Sherlock froze for a second. Shit. Was it normal to be friends with your friend’s parents? Was it normal for the parent to talk up your friend? Would John think it was weird that Sherlock often exchanged texts with Carol Watson that usually revolved around him? Possibly. He could just make something up.

“Partially the way you talk about the matches on television,” Sherlock said, grasping for other memories to make his claims stronger. “It’s also not the first time I’ve seen you kick something— you tend to kick with the side of your foot, instead of the toe, which means it’s a habit you spent several years building. A habit you still have as an adult.” 

“Huh. Yeah, brilliant,” John smiled up at Sherlock, and he felt himself puff up a bit at the praise. Good. Another successful social interaction.

The rest of the case concluded without much fanfare— culprit tracked down, culprit chased, culprit arrested and handed off to the police, then Sherlock and John take the tube home. Once back at the flat, John made a beeline for the shower. He’d tackled their culprit and the pair of them had landed in a very muddy puddle,which left John rather filthy. Sherlock retreated to his room to change into more comfortable clothes, and check his phone for any notifications he may have missed. Somewhat unsurprisingly, he had a few texts from Carol.

[CW] Hello Sherlock love! :) How are you today?

[CW] Everything alright? 

[CW] Ah probably working I’ll leave you to it :)

[SH] Yes, we were out on a case.

[SH] Sorry for not replying. I usually keep my phone on silent while working so I don’t get distracted.

[CW] No worries love I understand! :)

[CW] Back home then? Any plans for the evening?

[SH] Back home, yes, and not currently. Why do you ask?

[CW] Well I met some girlfriends for brunch today and one of them told me about this lovely little restaurant in London that she went to

[CW] And I’d love to visit but they haven’t got a website so I don’t know if they have food I’d like

[CW] I’d be ever so grateful if you and Johnny could go and see what they have :)

What on Earth.

That was… new. Carol had made comments about John’s dating life in the past, but never something like that. It sounded like she was trying to set them up.

[SH] Carol.

[SH] Are you saying I should take your son on a date.

[CW] Perhaps ;)

[SH] Send me the address.

When John stepped out of the bathroom, he almost ran into Sherlock, who had a hand raised like he was about to knock on the door.

“Oh, good, you’re done,” Sherlock said, looking down at John. “We’re going out for dinner tonight. Change into something nice.”

“Since when have we had dinner plans?” John asked. He nudged Sherlock aside so he could go to his room to change— he’d learned that it was often better to just go along with what Sherlock said.

“Since about five minutes ago,” Sherlock called through John’s closed bedroom door. “And don’t wear blue jeans, wear the black ones in your dresser. Button down if you’re up for it, plain long sleeve shirt if not.”

John sighed, and put down the jeans and t-shirt he had picked out. Once dressed according to Sherlock’s suggestions, he styled his hair a bit, and almost added a spray of cologne when he paused. He was getting ready like this was a date. God, he hadn’t been on one of those in ages. Surely this wasn’t one, though. They usually went out to celebrate after finishing a case, and this was no different. No point in getting your hopes up, Watson, John told himself. Sure, he’d love to actually go on a date with Sherlock, make his feelings clear and all that, but Sherlock had never shown any interest in things like romance. John suspected there was once something between Sherlock and Victor, but neither of them had said anything, so suspicions were all John had.

The Uber ride to the venue was full of John trying and failing to guess where they were going. All John knew was that it wasn’t somewhere they’d been before, it wasn’t fast food, and that it was some kind of European. The place they arrived at looked both very posh and very cozy, with lots of plants at the front, large windows, and some exposed brickwork. 

“La Baie Rose,” John said, looking up at the sign. “The Pink Bay?”

“Yes.” Sherlock smiled at John. “I’ve heard good things about it, and wanted to give it a try.”

“Well, let’s hope it lives up to the expectations.”

“Indeed.”

Sherlock took John’s arm and led him into the restaurant. Sherlock had somehow been able to snag a reservation, and their waitress led them to a table in the corner somewhat obscured by a faux hedge. They were given menus, Sherlock picked out a wine and asked for a jug of water, and then they were left alone to peruse the options. The whole menu was in French, but Sherlock was more than willing to translate and explain what things were. He’d also promised to pay, so he and John happily picked out several courses— appetizers, soups, pastas, entrees, salads, vegetables, and desert.

Once their order was placed, the appetizers arrived surprisingly quickly. John hadn’t been able to pick between gougères and smoked salmon canapés, so they had gotten both. The gougères were little balls of soft pastry loaded with cheese, clearly fresh from the oven with how warm they were. Sherlock had gone for the salmon first, which was also great. The canapés were also warm, and both the salmon and fromage blanc seemed to melt in John’s mouth.

After that came the soup, consommé julienne, made of a broth so clean John could see the bottom of his bowl through the thinly sliced vegetables floating around. The soup was also the perfect temperature— not too hot, but not so cooled that it’d be cold before he finished it. Then came another dish John was excited for, which was gnocchi romaine. Unlike typical gnocchi, these were discs of cheesy dough that had been topped with more cheese and baked until golden. The texture was similar to potato gnocchi, but maybe a bit better, in John’s opinion. 

While conversation flowed as easily as the wine and sparkling water, there was something… off about the whole deal. John had noticed that Sherlock left his phone on the table as they ate, which wasn’t unusual— he complained about it pressing too hard against his leg, so John didn’t mind seeing it on the table. What was unusual was the fact that Sherlock seemed to be getting texts every five minutes or so, and would always reply to them. It wasn’t a case, that much was obvious, otherwise Sherlock would have dragged John out of the restaurant at the first text. John honestly had no idea who could be texting Sherlock that often, and he was burning with curiosity.

The opportunity to sate said curiosity came while they were waiting for their entrées. Sherlock excused himself to use the bathroom, and left his phone on the table. As John stared at it, he received another text. He knew he shouldn’t, but he couldn’t help himself. He picked up the phone and read the text.

[Carol Watson] Oh don’t worry love I’m sure Johnny is enjoying your date

What on Earth.

Had all the texts been from his mum? Why the hell was his mum texting Sherlock in the first place? And why had she called it a date? John put Sherlock’s phone back, well aware he’d probably notice it was moved.

Was this a date? John had assumed it was a normal end-of-case-dinner and hadn’t wanted to get his hopes up thinking otherwise. Then again… John glanced around the restaurant, trying to channel Sherlock’s methods of observation and deduction. Most of the tables were for two, which could suggest it was popular with couples. The tables were on the smaller side, meaning the guests would be closer together. They were also decorated with small candle and flower centrepieces, giving off a very romantic vibe. On another look around, John figured that pretty much all the other guests were in romantic relationships. 

There was also the fact that his own mother seemed to believe this was a date.

Damn. John was on a date with Sherlock Holmes and he had no idea.

John had enough time to conclude that he wasn’t upset by the fact that they were on a date, and then Sherlock was sitting back down. He smiled at John, then glanced at his phone. His eyes widened a bit, and his gaze snapped to John, his face now a blank mask. The tightness in his mouth and shoulders gave away his nerves, so John decided to just cut to the chase.

“Sherlock,” John said evenly, “has my mum been the one texting you this whole time?”

“Have they given us an update on the entrées yet?” Sherlock asked, not looking at John. “We’ve been waiting a while, I don’t think it should take this—”

“Sherlock. Please answer the question.”

Sherlock sighed, sinking down in his chair a bit. “Yes. Carol’s been texting me all night.”

“Does she text you a lot, then?”

“Yes. Every few days, we have a brief conversation. She brings you up a lot.”

“Is that how you know so much about my childhood? God, I hope she hasn’t told you anything embarrassing— No, no, I’m getting off-topic. I know you know I looked at the text she sent while you were in the bathroom. Why’d she call this a date?”

“Because… it is one?” Sherlock made a face. “It is a date. Carol has both implied and outright said this is a date, and I agree with her. I apologize for not making my intentions clear, and I also apologize if I’ve misread things between us and overstepped.”

“Definitely haven’t misread things,” John said, smiling. “This has been a great date so far, and I’m not mad. Yeah, would have liked to know it was a date when you asked, but I’ll let it slide this time.” 

“Ah, good. I’m glad that’s settled, then.” Sherlock relaxed and smiled back at John.

Now that they were both on the same page, the rest of the date was brilliant. John even made a few attempts at flirting that seemed to work, judging by the fact that Sherlock sometimes ended up speechless and a bit flustered. John was also happy to note that after Sherlock had replied to John’s mum, he hadn’t checked his phone again after that. 

Later, after Sherlock had paid and they were leaving the restaurant hand-in-hand, John pulled Sherlock to a stop.

“Hey, Sherlock?” he said, facing his partner.

“Yes, John?”

John leaned up to press a kiss to Sherlock’s cheek, grinning at the blush that darkened his face. “I’m planning our next date.”

[alicepao13]

Hudson and Rex S06E15

So, as I’m sure a lot of people have already figured out, we just watched the intended season finale. CityTV, you better hope I never get to cross that ocean. I mean, every season finale aside from the two where Peter Mitchell was in charge (coincidence?) were run of the mill episodes which could have fit anywhere in the season. Maybe it will be fitting for this season to start and end with viewers wondering what they watched. But I’m getting ahead of myself here and I might be wrong. Let’s focus on 15 which may very well be the best episode of the season for me, probably tied with S06E04.

The spoiled scene with Charlie and Sarah’s mentioned anniversary. Rex totally wants to stay with Jesse after their “celebration”. I’m trying to figure whether Jesse is pretending to be naive or is actually being naive about it. Or if the whole response is the writers being unable to outright say that Charlie and Sarah really spent their anniversary having sex all night.

Speaking of, two years, Charlie Hudson? What are you waiting for, an epiphany to hit you in the head? Oh, wait.

What do you mean, we didn’t save the day? There’s a dead woman? Huh? 

Nice bomb explosion by the way.

“My bosses are gonna hate this but tell me more”. lol Jesse

How did we end up as security detail for the woman who might become prime minister?

Look, I like when there’s a case where they’re toying with supernatural elements. That’s why I loved Castle so much. And Jesse is always eager to believe. Charlie on the other hand looks like he’s got tons to say on the subject. Rex too. Apparently he doesn’t believe in time travel either.

Any so called time traveler should come back to the present with the numbers for the lottery. That would be ample proof for me :P

Can I say how much I like the camera work on this one? Good directing by John Vatcher.

Rex is getting so many pats in this episode. Deserved.

This campaign manager is on par with the Veep campaign managers. And by that I mean he’s ruthless and self-centered and I want to punch him.

That food now possibly has dog hair in it.

I come from a country where it’s pretty normal to put a musical montage right in the middle of an episode (even a dance number), so I’m not going to say anything about the needless song.

Thunk! There goes Charlie. Again. I’ll spare y’all the concussion speech. Besides, time moves in mysterious ways in this show, maybe it’s already been six months since episode 11.

Seriously, why do you tell Rex to chase a lead if you can’t survive being ten feet away from him?

I can’t remember the last time any of my shows put a bomb vest on one of the main characters. The latest that I remember was FBI but it was on a minor character. That had been a great episode too.

I haven’t yet decided whether that bomb vest looks too amateurish. To be fair, given who the culprit was, it shouldn’t look professional.

Sarah finding Charlie as he has a bomb vest on is like, the best thing that has happened lately on this show. Her look. His look as he realizes that he’s got his entire family now in this (and the mantra of no, no, no that must be playing in his head, I’m filling the blanks, don’t mind me). The slight zooming in of the camera in both of their shots, denoting the direness of the situation.

I was almost waiting for Charlie to say “this isn’t as enjoyable as it was last night” as Sarah was touching him while she’s checking the bomb vest. It writes itself, come on.

In my last review post I wrote that I was hoping the earphones would serve for Charlie to call Sarah and tell her goodbye or something like that. This certainly exceeded my expectations.

We’re a bit late for love confessions under duress but when Charlie was asked about whether Sarah was his wife and he replied “Not yet”, that was a nice moment. At least we know where his head is at.

Their silent communication. They’re so in sync.

Elsewhere, Joe and Jesse are quietly trying to figure out a way to save innocent people and somehow not get their friend blown up.

Superintendent Joe Donovan making airplane noises. I laughed so much.

They are holding hands as they’re walking to their doom! Oh, by the way, interesting music choice. I wonder if it’s score created for the show or non-original music. I’ve certainly not heard it before on the show.

Goodbye kiss! I love it here. And look at the shot of Charlie and Rex leaving as Sarah is staying behind.

Me: no way it’s the convict. Five minutes later: it’s the fucking convict!!! Ten minutes later: it’s not the convict???

Ha, Charlie using the mute button which is pretty convenient but almost no one uses on calls. 

Okay, they fooled me with the bomber. But the takedown went pretty much as I expected. Nice communication with Rex through hand signals, again. Although the detonator flying off the lady’s hand… anything could have happened.

Rex’s influence to the system will be more K9s lol. They may also have ensured unlimited funding for the SJPD.

Can the time traveling guy tell us if Charlie is going to propose anytime soon? Or is the “not yet” considered a non-proposal proposal?

This is the first time I’m hearing about the so called Alice in wonderland syndrome.

“Everybody needs a Rex”. Ah, yes. Our catchphrase.

Charlie, put the phone down. When is that man clocking out? Who’s going to make sure Rex is getting adequate rest? I need to talk to his superior. Joe!

Well, I kept saying that I wanted Charlie and Sarah to be in danger again together since they hadn’t after they had become a couple, and I got my wish, thank you, show. We could have had an aftermath scene with them but I’m not going to complain about it in an otherwise good episode.

Promo: I’m beyond frustrated that they keep shuffling the episodes and they wouldn’t even give it a rest when they got the season finale or the 100th episode on their hands. Today’s (yesterday’s) episode would have been a better 100th episode than The Rookie’s for sure (which is embarrassing for The Rookie). But instead we get to watch it as episode 99 and have a run of the mill case for the 100th, which, unless it ends up in a huge celebration scene, is going to fall flat. We basically end off exactly as we started, expect I now know this is 100% CityTV’s fault.

Speaking of, is CityTV even going to acknowledge that it’s the 100th episode? Is anyone? I’m obviously not expecting the magnitude of promotion ABC gave The Rookie or 911 this season (and that was a lot) but something that shows they’re not completely neglecting Hudson and Rex. It doesn’t seem like we’re getting renewal news anytime soon, so I’d settle for them celebrating the episodes they already filmed. There are quite a few production companies involved too, this does not only fall on CityTV. If Shaftesbury wants to celebrate this milestone, I won’t say no.

[pokemenlovingmen]

Oh neato new blog!! I enjoy reading peoples different interpretations of characters through x reader imagines, and it’s nice to see another one pop up. If you’re comfortable with it, would it alright if I request a scenario using any Pokémen of your choice developing a crush on a male reader who’s a big, intimidating buff guy..but in personality is actually a softie and an attentive single father to his young child. (Who is tinyyyy. Just a lil thing to contrast dad) I like romance and found family..what can I say.

oooooh that sounds so fun and cute!! Since it seems like you meant one guy, I’ll do one dude, but a longer post! Usually that’s my form, one person gets a longer post whereas multiple get shorter segments… however long it takes me to adhere to that. Because I have no self control. Anyway, my man of choice for this ended up being Grusha, because some nice and warm fluff should melt that frosty exterior.

And on the romance and found family thing, you are speaking my language fluently, you’re talking to a guy who worships those things in fan content. You can’t!! Go wrong with it!!

Soft as Snow

Grusha x Intimidating Male Reader (who has a kid!)

So. In your relationship Grusha might be a bit uh.

❄️ — Grusha is not a kids guy. Not at all. He’s the literal opposite of sunshine and rainbows. But hosting arguably the most intense and therefore exciting out of Paldea’s gym matches and spending so much time in a snow-covered mountain that is, realistically, so much fun for a kid to go to, he sees a lot of kids. Usually glued to their parents, which he’s grateful for, because rounding up some kid who runs off is about the last thing you can expect him to do successfully. So all in all, he limits his interactions with kids as much as humanly possible, but understands his job puts him around them a lot.

❄️ — A frequent culprit of drawing in rugrats he’d really rather not interact with would be the Cetoddles he looks after. He supposes he can’t blame the kids, they’re pretty cute and definitely not something you see anywhere but the mountain. And that’s exactly what gets him awkwardly interacting with some unknown little girl when he’d rather be doing anything else.

❄️ — A little girl had come to look at one Cetoddle, and with no parents in sight, he had to stay near. So, sighing, he stuffs his hands in his pockets and walks over, making the Cetoddle chirp excitedly when it sees him. He clears his throat and makes some horribly awkward attempts at small talk at this random child, no older than seven, who is just staring at him so intently now.

❄️ — “You, uh… like Cetoddle? Yeah… um. I think he likes you,” he tries, but he’s no… well, any other gym leader, even Larry, would be better at entertaining some random child while phoning the league staff on site that some unsupervised kid is running around.

❄️ — But he never actually has to make that call, because you run up shortly after he hesitantly approaches, frantically calling your daughter’s name. Like good lord, she is so fast. You blink once and she’s gone. You’re pretty fit, but even now you’re sweating profusely from all the times she’s bolted off on you.

❄️ — Grusha just stares at you as you approach, bug-eyed and wondering how the earth didn’t literally rumble as you ran up. Because holy shit, you’re massive. Legitimately built like an Ursaring and for a second he fears for his life and regrets ever approaching this kid thinking she was lost, because he could swear at the speed a guy who looks like you is approaching, you’re about to bite his head off for getting near her. Once again, interacting with kids proves more trouble than it’s worth, considering he’s so sure this is going to genuinely cost him his life. People get rash when it comes to their kids, understandably.

❄️ — But instead, you look at him, then at your daughter and immediately fall into bowing your head muttering thanks and apologies. “Oh, hey, I’m so sorry, she can be so fast when she wants to, I hope she wasn’t pestering you and your Pokemon for too long!”

❄️ — While you’re gently chiding your daughter for running off and imposing on a stranger, he looks from her to you. Then to her. Then to you. She’s not even, like, a quarter of your size. Being a former athlete, he’s seen some built dudes, but you’re giant and he’s still taken aback by how different your attitude was compared to your appearance and how doting you clearly are over your daughter. (A big heart AND nice body? Grusha isn’t even aware of how many of his boxes you tick because he’s just never thought about those things since his accident.)

❄️ — He clears his throat, scratching at the back of his neck awkwardly. “Uh. No problem. She wasn’t causing any trouble.”

❄️ — Both of you awkwardly mumble out some small talk (Grusha really isn’t one for talking and you’re kind of struggling to hold up the conversation), but when he mentions he’s got to get back to the Gym, you’re shocked. Oh! He’s the gym leader?! THE retired snowboarding prodigy?

❄️ — Turns out you and your daughter had just moved to Paldea, and to warm up to your new home, you’re taking her to see a few of the Ten Sights of Paldea. She ran off when she saw the Cetoddle on their hike, though, and you’re pretty surprised you just kind of bumbled into a pretty famous trainer who you’ve seen in a lot of informative pamphlets and ads for the region. It also makes you increasingly apologetic for your daughter imposing on him because he definitely has a job to do, and shouldn’t be pulled away from it.

❄️ — The conversation doesn’t last much longer, and you part ways shortly after. Grusha doesn’t even realize how attractive you are to him, you’ve got his heart thumping but he doesn’t even consider feelings for someone being a reason why. He’s just sort of resigned himself to be alone. But deep down, seeing a man so attractive (like phew. you are FIT.) be so caring and soft is actually really resonating with him. Basically, you’re a type he doesn’t even know he has.

❄️ — He’s a bit surprised when he sees you and your daughter again after a week or two, back on Glaseado. You wave and give him just the sweetest, happiest greeting when you meet again and sheepishly explain that your daughter became fascinated with the local Ice-type Pokemon and had been begging to go out and see them again. (He’s not sure if he can imagine that child emoting. His interactions with her, including now, all she’s done is hug your side and stare blankly at him.)

❄️ — But you’ve done something rare, and like most of his feelings, Grusha doesn’t realize it—you’ve struck a chord with him somehow and he’s too much of a die hard, stubborn loner to understand why. So when you meet for the second time he awkwardly offers to let you and your daughter meet the local Cetoddle pod that he watches over a lot.

❄️ — It’s cute. Seeing someone of your towering stature playing with the Cetoddles, who somehow don’t fear you at all despite how intimidating you are. They’re crazy about you, probably because they see how your daughter interacts with you and just flock to your parental nature. That and your daughter herself just having a good time while you laugh with her, sometimes throwing halfhearted snowballs because you know if you actually tried to could hurt someone with one, and she mostly just wants to pelt you with them than get hit herself. (Kids)

❄️ — The whole time, Grusha’s watching, not even aware of how smitten he is. But someone else is, because after a bit he’s startled by something shaking violently on his poke ball belt, and then with a crack! and no other warning out comes his Altaria, which grabs his scarf in its talons and drags him the hell over to you. When it shoves the flustered Grusha your way, it lands and begins preening itself, instantly capturing your daughter’s attention. (Because what kid wouldn’t want to pet the fluffy cloud bird? Altaria’s cute, and it knows it.)

❄️ — While Grusha’s giving his dirty traitor of a Pokemon the stink eye, you just give this warm and hearty laugh that has his heart doing flips all over again, and pat Altaria on the head. “Aw, this is a friendly one! Isn’t it pretty?” (To which your daughter vigorously nods.)

❄️ — “Uh, yeah, sorry…” he glares at it, and out of the corner of its eye Altaria glares back. “She’s usually not like this. I don’t know what her issue is.”

❄️ — “Haha, it’s no problem!”

❄️ — Then silence. And silence. …And silence. Grusha’s out of things to say, which didn’t take long at all. You cough. He clears his throat. The both of you watch your daughter and his Pokemon play in the snow. He’s only just now realizing how strangely desperately he wants to find something to say to you. And then, while playing with your daughter, Altaria gives him another Look.

❄️ — Oh. Oh, Altaria knew, too. Altaria was trying to bide him time. Well, he couldn’t let his Pokemon companion’s efforts go to waste, as embarrassing as it was…

❄️ — “So, uh…” he clears his throat. “Wanna… come back to the gym with me? Got a coffee machine there. Get something to warm you up.”

❄️ — Your eyes light up and it feels like his heart just got body-slammed. “Hey, that sounds great!”

❄️ — You call your daughter, and he calls his Pokemon, both running at the promise of some hot chocolate from the coffee machine. As you and him are both turning to head back in the direction of the gym, you completely miss a certain interaction nearby.

❄️ — Your daughter tugs on Grusha’s scarf, and when he looks down at her, she gives an unsettlingly blank stare as she studies his face. Finally, as if it’s a complex equation she just solved, she happily announces: “You’re nice.”

❄️ — Oh, uh… thanks? Those are the words Grusha wants to say, at least, but your daughter keeps going with a genuine verbal gut-punch.

❄️ — “I think you and my daddy should get married.”

❄️ — Kids say the darndest things, huh? (You exchange numbers by the end of the day, and who knows… maybe one of you will follow your daughter’s advice some day. But definitely not today. Grusha has to go crawl into the void and die of embarrassment first.)

[cdyssey]

Elsbeth, 1.05 Thoughts:

the tennis theme of this one reminds me that I need to go watch challengers.

Ohhhhh, I like the angle of this culprit, that he was a dad trying to help his son get ahead and it went super fucking wrong.

I need the show to figure out some way for Elsbeth not to immediately arrive at the culprit the first time she lays eyes on them woqoqoqoowjsnsns.

Elsbeth bouncing on the exercise ball!!!! God, I love her so much. Carrie Preston is just wonderful.

Elsbeth not liking her own name is a fascinating recurring trait.

“But then you lowkey un-alived him.” [insert steve buscemi how do you do, fellow kids? meme]

The way they’ve written this ball girl’s dialogue is the funniest fucking thing ever.

Ahhhh, Wagner using Kaya to try to figure out what’s going on with Elsbeth. Hhghhshhhh. And Kaya’s loyalties are definitely conflicted.

And now Wagner is trying to shmooze Elsbeth. If I had to guess at this point in the season, my money is on Wagner’s potential corruption being some kind of misdirection… but I’m not sure of what nature yet.

“… he doesn’t like it when I butt in.” There’s definitely a little bit of strain in Elsbeth’s relationship with Teddy. :((

I love the way Elsbeth’s mind works. The way getting the warmed hand towel immediately puts her back on an associative train to the case, but she also knows she was “rude�� and just interrupted lunch. Just… an amazing representation of neurodivergence and how it can affect day-to-day interactions.

“This is why people don’t like lawyers.” / “Really? I thought it was the frivolous lawsuits and overbilling.” AKSNSKSNS

I love tht so much of Elsbeth is a commentary on cops being lazy and not being curious/attentive enough to weed out the truth. feels right

Omg, Elsbeth’s tennis fit is so fucking adorable.

GJEOWOWOWOWJS, Elsbeth being horrible at playing tennis.

Hunter figuring it out. :(( Another cool thing the show is consistently doing is making us care about the guest characters, and hell, sometimes even the culprits themselves.

Wagner getting Teddy a job. Aughhhhh, but Elsbeth immediately knows that it muddies the waters. Is he bribing her? Is he being sincere? Some mixture of the two? The tension is this particular subplot is being nicely threaded throughout the season as we continue to question who is Wagner, and what is his deal?

[runawaycarouselhorse]

[Black Iron Submarine mini-review, spoilers]

I finally saw Black Iron Submarine (on a Saudia flight as an in-flight movie—the subtitles were interesting because they used the Arabic dub names (some characters got atypical pronunciations like Shinichi got rendered Sinichi, pronounced more like Senshi in the Arabic dub, Kogorou is Tougo and Sonoko is Souko/Soko???) and a sort of masking of the Organization's codenames, translating them in odd ways to make the alcohol origins a little unclearer, I guess, but otherwise, solid subs. The advisory warning at the start amused me, but reasonable, given the blood and violence (that bullet ripping through that woman's head. -shudders-)

It was an exciting and fun film, absolutely adored the Haibara Ai/Miyano Shiho focus, Gin looks great in the anime again (I'm curious as to who decided many of his scenes should have flowing hair bathed in golden light, it's gorgeous, but MAN... so glad he looks good in the anime again), Naomi Argento being grateful Shiho took the attention off her as a new subject of bullying, but being too scared to stand up for her, so Shiho's alone in all her school security camera pictures in the States... is so, so, so sad, but so believable. A lot of people are too scared to speak up against what's wrong, fearing they'll be targeted, so quietly look the other way.

Gotta love Vodka being a classic movie mobster surrounded by more hardened criminals, complaining about another organization member trying to climb up the ranks, even if he does so by hurting others... I also love how he's totally down to believe Sherry shrunk into a kid somehow and calling up the very skeptical Gin about it, fff. But the movie also still remembers Vodka is no stranger to cruel threats and punishments...

Naomi's family being threatened, her tears over her father, the way her pure-intentioned system meant to protect everyone regardless of age or race and locate missing persons was under pressure to be repurposed for sinister goals... it was such a triggering situation for both Hondou Hidemi (Kir) who remembered being forced to shoot her father to complete the mission herself and throw off suspicion of her being a spy like he was... and Sherry's sister being killed and her parents' drug which she had to continue developing being repurposed as a method of murder by poisoning...

Real-world technology has advanced so much that the aging up we saw in an earlier movie now can be pulled off by AI. Artificial intelligence was actually very realistically portrayed in this movie, because aging up photographs of kids and getting a disturbingly close representation of what they might look like as adults based on data about bone structure and patterns it learned is spot-on and a real world concern?!

Absolutely loved Vermouth doing her best to help her Silver Bullet protect that girl.

I felt really bad for Conan when a man caught a falling Ran and Conan briefly lifted his arms and smiled ruefully... he knows he couldn't have caught her himself in this form, it's sad...

Lots of Conan and Haibara scenes to shiptease the AiCon fans too.

Nice throwback in Sherry's nightmare to her Street Corner of Betrayal Gin nightmare. "I've been dying to see you, Sherry..." they sadly did not interact much directly, but it's also understandable, given how much of their past relationship is shrouded in mystery. The writers likely don't want to contradict or misinterpret... it's still too tricky to get right.

False positives and AI's potential for error being signifcantly plot relevant was so clever and great.

Love the post-credit scenes tying it all together!

Haibara was so sweet, giving up her Fusae brooch, when we know how much she loves her brands. ;3;

I didn't figure out the culprit at all, but I smelled red herring all over the racist German dude Leonhardt. He was just too easy to hate, but lacked a real motivation for crime, he's just made to be easy to hate and easy to blame.

I am SO glad this movie did not decide to kill such a lovely original character as Naomi because Sherry deserves more friends, especially ones around her real age. ;__;

[nerd-cat-rambles]

V3-3 Trial

erm so about my theory with the katana being the same one from thh, here's evidence.

Jajajjajaja 1-1

--- The Start:

Things I said during the psyche Taxi gameplay:

"Hitting babes with my car hell yeah"

"Shuichi wants them hot babes"

"Just hit the Culprit with your car shuichi"

"Why am I following road rules, I can go 200km/h (*proceeds to hit a car*)

"Honk honk outta my way the bitch machine is coming through!"

Also, wouldn't it be cool if shuichi picked up the remaining survivors instead of random babes.

Like how cool would that be!

The Middle ---

KOREKIYO IS GOING INSANE? HE DID IT? WHAT THE FUQ-

Korekiyo in 4K ---

Why is he tweaking now lil bro.

"Their words are all hollow" what the skibbi

Did he get fucking possesed bro what the hell

Apprecitation Ramble for the Kork fans---

VA appreciation rq: "IT'S FULL OF DOUBTS! OF MYSTERIES! OF A DENSE, IMPENETRABLE FOG! NOTHING IS CLEAR AT ALL!!!" Holy shit bro kudos to you for that performance, I love that man, good job.

"BUT THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE, WAS THERE SHUICHI" oh goddam my respect for the character and the VA goes up, why DOES NOBODY TALK ABOUT THIS OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BRO???

Alot of people HATE this trial, but I actually enjoy it! I like it better than majority of the THH trials tbh, but maybe I'm biased? I have alot of respect for Himiko (not being killed off as soon as she gets development, GREAT VOICE ACTING FROM HER OMG) and Kaito (YES KING, LOVE YOU HELPING HIMIKO OUT!!!) and Korekiyo! (I know you killed them both, but goddam my respect for you is high rn, great acting, nice plan!)

Wait he highkey sounds like a more chilled version of Light Yagami "N-no... I'm not the culprit!" I hear it bro I hear it and I think I'm insane for it...

NO I CAN HEAR THE PAIN IN HIS VOICE, THE CRACKING THE WAY THE VA IS BREACHING HIS LIMIT HERE, EVERY TIME HER TALKS AUGHHHH! (Maybe I'm glazing idk, but goddam bro this guy is sick.)

And he still keeps his "Kehehees" in place. Nice.

3rd trial syndrome---

APOLOGISE?? WHY IS HE TWEAKING BRO??? IS ANGIES DEMON POSESSING HIM BECAUSE THE SEANCE WENT WRONG?! IS THIS THE CURSE BRO WAS SPEAKING OF???

AND OH MY GOD WHEN HE GETS CAUGHT... HIS SCREAM... OH MY GOSH CHILLS, LITERAL CHILLS, THE TALENT! I LOVE KOREKIYO FOR THIS BRO HE'S FULL OF SURPRISES!

CUTIES!

ANGIE AND TENKO AND HIMIKO AND SHUICHI ALL LOOK SO CUTE IN THE COMIC STYLE AHH!

Angie didn't even know what he was planning.. :/

THE END FINALLY AUGH! ---

Spinning Kaede is so funny

"My regret... my only regret... is not being able to make 100 friends."<- Komi-San???

--- Conclusion:

I GOT AN A

A FORRRR ATE!!! DEVOURED! SLAYED! SERVED! LEFT NOOOO CRUMBS AT ALL!!!

--- Motive:

....

Incest subplot in 2024 is wildddd....

I audibly screamed "WHAT THE FUCK!!!" and started crying... kork, babes, you good there mate?

HE KILLED 100 PEOPLE FOR HIS GODDAM SISTER?! WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS MATE!

OH HE GOT BURNED???

MONODAM NOOOOOO

Wait why is his sister throwing salt on him? I don't get ittttt-

DON'T CRY TSUMUGI NOOO DON'T CRYYYYY

AUGH THE TENKO FLASHBACKS REALLY HURT OH MY GOD

"Tenko... Angie! I'm so lonely!" OH MY GOD HIMIKO NOOO :( IM CRYING :((

AWWW GONTA IS HELPING HER OH MY GOD HE'S SO SWEET :(

(Talking to Kaito) "If you dislike scary things, then you should've said so earlier. I thought you were sic-" oh... Maki the cutoff... OH MY GOD KAITO'S SICK ISN'T HE???

He's coughing....?

WHAT?! HE'S COUGHING BLOOD?! WHAT??? KAITO BB?! HE HASN'T GONE TO SPACE!HE'S DYING. KAITO. KAITO DON'T DIE HERE PLEASE OHMIGOD-

--- FINALLY!

We finished chapter 3! IMO the trials just keep getting better, AUGHHHH TENKO BB I MISS YOU.-

Yeah that's all.

[leonawriter]

A probably unintentional side-effect of making all of the best detectives of the series non-police even if they're affiliated means that the rate of arrests where the wrong person is brought to trial is... probably still quite high, as long as none of those same detectives show up at the crime scene, or gets involved.

There are STILL going to be false accusations, and people with criminal records for things they didn't do - up to and including murder.

In fact, there's a fair number who are brought up within the series itself.

The irony is... if you look past the shiny veneer of "look how amazing Conan's police force is! How nice and good they are!" they're still the same people who will just say "we have enough evidence, this is clearly [suicide/not done by the actual criminal]" and they just... let people walk free.

They're still people just doing their job.

The best cases are people like Takagi, Sato, and Shiratori, of the Tokyo PD, and the Nagano trio, who all seem to be actively trying to get to the truth, some with a good head on their shoulders as well. The detectives of the Nagano trio were able to solve a crime at their intro with barely any help! Shiratori probably figured out the cinema cherry blossom killer without any extra help, too!

But... so often we still see either "I just want to do my job and go home" or even Yamamura's "Clearly it was [wild theory that holds no water] and THAT person is the culprit!" which... is going to get an innocent person's life RUINED.

Also, yes, I am totally going to judge Shinichi when his own actions caused Yamamura, who he himself calls a "hack," to be promoted because of "solved" cases as a Sleeping Detective, who will then have even MORE power to... arrest the wrong people.

In short? DCMK's police force is full of people who either want to be good cops but aren't quite able to solve a complex crime on their own in a matter of hours, or who by inaction or incompetence have likely left a trail of cold cases and wrongful arrests in their wake.

Which reminds me of something that I've wanted from the series ever since I've gotten into Persona 5, which follows someone who lives with a criminal record for something he didn't do - what's it like for the person who's affected after that?

What about criminals who have gotten out of jail, and who don't want to do crime anymore?

What about criminals who wanted to go clean, but something drags them unwillingly back in - how are they seen? How kind is the world to them? How forgiving are the police and the justice system? It sends people to jail, but does it care about making sure they can break free?

Sera was based on Natsuki Koshimizu because Gosho couldn't use her again due to her being a "sympathetic murderer" as the tropes say. I'd love to know if he meant that in the sense of "there's no way she'd get out of jail before they're supposed to have already finished everything" given the floating timeline means it's still under a year having taken place, or "I cannot make a main character who has killed someone and who is not part of the FBI/CIA/PSB/etc, and therefore does not have the hazy legality of being able to. Criminals other than Kaitou Kid who does not kill are not meant to be protagonists."

If it's the former, that makes sense. If it's the latter... what the actual fuck.

[beevean]

While I know Andrew is not perfect, a lot of people are swinging the other pendulum and acting like he's just as evil as Ashley if not more and the real abusive one of the situation or outright downplaying any nice trait he has (or any justified reason for why he acts the way he does)

Like, even if avoiding the consequences of his actions is a primary motivator, he really did feel bad about Killing her as well as Ashley's nonchalant reaction to it and the fact she used Nina's death to blackmail him, most of the venomous words for her are because said death and what she forced him into (which likely carries to how he treats her in high modern day)

Also the fact he knows what guilt w

I've been marinating in TCOAAL analyses, and the takes on both characters are fascinating.

My take is that Ashley is immoral, while Andrew is amoral. There is a difference between the two. The conflict comes from the fact that Andrew is aware of this, he's aware that it's "wrong", and tries very hard to be Ashley's moral compass to compensate. Ashley, ever since she was a kid, was made painfully aware that there was something "wrong" with her, no one except her brother loved her (and even then, who said that he wasn't pretending?), and her reaction was to embrace it.

(I'd really love to talk about their childhood, how Leyley displays behavior that she could have only learned from others, how they seem to have learned the lesson that "bad children don't deserve love" and how they cope with it)

The crux of the matter seems to be... did Andy really feel bad about Nina, or was his primary concern going to jail and being separated from Leyley? Is the trauma that stemmed from the incident from the feeling of guilt and remorse, or because that was the point where he became his sister's plaything and could not escape from her anymore? This seems, from what I've seen, what split the fans.

Rewatching the scene, Andy's first coherent dialogue is all about how the situation looks. "Why would have she clawed the lid if she was there willingly?" "She'll start to rot" "They're gonna know!". This once again hints at how Andy's first concern is "can this be traced back to us?". But to be fair, Leyley was the one who first said "you took off the stick, so it looks like she went there willingly", so he's responding to her.

But then he says "they'll throw me in prison for the rest of my life!" Which is very. Mh :)

Interpretation 1: Andy is being as self-centered as kids are prone to be. Nothing more to look into.

Interpretation 2: Andy only cares about himself and the consequences he's going to suffer. His sister's fate is up in the air. Lowkey implies that Andy didn't care much about her before this mess happened.

Interpretation 3: he genuinely thinks he's the main culprit of this incident. I want to add that this line happens before Leyley starts to hammer into his head that now he's bad and no one will love him anymore :) this would imply that Andy felt actual guilt.

There is probably not a concrete answer as of now. I hope episode 3 has more flashbacks because man they are so fascinating.

Anyway, to get back to the point. Andrew is not "evil". Andrew is a profoundly damaged person who was forced to become the everything of his even more damaged sister. Ashley is the "criminal mind", as it were... but to me, it looks like Andrew is on the same wavelength - remember, Ashley mused to herself that the dead neighbour was "a lot of meat", but Andrew, after the initial shock, immediately started to consider the implicit proposal of eating him. While Ashley wears her heart on her sleeve, is painfully honest, and couldn't care less about what anyone (except her bro) thinks of her anymore, Andrew is profoundly in denial about his own "abnormal" thoughts, and the difference between Decay and Burial is how he decides to accept himself.

Does that make him a better person? Well, he seems to be able to fit in more, at least. He's charming and can seemingly attract girls very easily, much to Ashley's chagrin. Maybe, without Ashley, he'd be able to live a normal life without crimes and all. But again, to me it looks like he lacks a moral compass in general, even though he has a strong sense of guilt and responsibility (which to me stems from being Leyley's sole caretaker since a tender age).

As to him being an abuser... well, he does threaten to slap and backhand Ashley a few times. She even calls him "wifebeater" at one point. Not enough to call him an abuser, but the threat of him becoming physical is always there. He's more than capable of subduing Ashley, when he wants to. Ashley's abuse is much more overt and constant, with her manipulation and guilttrips (and she got physical at least once too), but Andrew calmly choking Ashley and making her make a case for her life... has some implications.

I don't think I'm making sense lol. TCOAAL is a fascinating game that hides all sorts of moral questions underneath its over-the-top tone, and I love it.

[attorneys-against-court-violence]

Alright sit down I'm ranking Dual Destinies culprits. Spoilers abound!

Just going to list my thoughts on all 5 culprits in order of beloved to beloathed. Expect me to be mean.

Marlon Rimes

Easily the most nuanced and sympathetic of them all, and a well-written one to boot! His grudge against the orca is understandable, yet flawed in a very human way. He had no intentions of harming anyone - in fact he wanted to save his co-workers from what he saw as a dangerous animal. When Sasha was arrested he went out of his way to lie in order to get her off the hook. When push came to shove, he accepted his sentence to save her and punish himself for unintentionally setting up the Captain's death. It's all the more heartbreaking that Azura wasn't even killed by the previous orca, rendering all of his hatred and actions resulting from it irrational and unfounded. He sort of reminds me of both Simon and Aura in a few ways; taking the fall to save a friend, trying to enact revenge on someone he saw as a crazed, emotionless animal... his plight has plenty in common with both. 5-DLC gets a lot of praise in my books for its parallels to the main conflict (not that the other cases lack them) and Marlon is no exception.

The thing that makes Marlon so compelling is that he isn't a monster. He doesn't even have much of an ego, calling himself too weak to save anyone. He's a man who acted on his rage and made a dreadful mistake in doing so, trying to right his wrongs and eventually being forced to give up and admit that he had no right to do what he had done. Even agreeing that he had no right pruely on the basis of it causing someone to die inderectly. Him being rehabilitated at the end is the feather-on-the-cap to show that he's someone the characters genuinely care about and wish to do better in spite of his flaws. It took a while and plenty of evidence, but the Captain's words finally got through to him and he's a lot better for it. His animations are wonderfully creative, by the way! Turning the spyglass into a faux microphone, re-using the bucket of fish for a Popeye-esque transformation, the name-tag turning into a rapper's gold chain, his breakdown turning the witness stand into both a helm and a set of prison bars - so much visual creativity with this guy! It's such a treat.

The worst I can say about him is that the rapping is a bit of a stereotype. Yes, this is the same game that body-shames the one fat character, has no idea what a trans person is, and... well we'll save that part for later. No one enjoys that. That said, I'm willing to say the good far outways the bad here. It lead to one of the funniest witness testimonies in the series so I can't be too mad!

2. Ted Tonate

What a peculiar character... semi-verbal, anti-social, obsessed with explosives, and overall a strange specimen to behold. It doesn't feel like he has a specific quirk more than it feels like everything about him is off-beat, ranging from uncomfortably still to absolutely feral. I like it!

More importantly - while he did commit murder and assault - he does serve an important role in the plot and is not completely incompetent or heartless. That courtroom would have become a graveyard without his warning, after all! He's a bit like Frank Sawhit where he'll resort to physical violence under pressure but doesn't seem to have intended to kill necessarily. Difference is Frank was a common thief, while Ted's a bona-fide member of the police's bomb disposal unit who - black market deals aside - actually carries his duties out and does a good job. Nice little misdirection there too. That opening monologue fits the phantom better than Ted but we don't figure that until near the end. It doesn't erase the fact he's done some terrible things but at he's not a monster. Just a woefully anti-social guy who doesn't respond well to being called out.

Dual Destinies gets a surprising amount of mileage out of its Case 1 antagonist and it's a treat to watch. There's plenty that case does to give the game a bad first impression, but Ted's not one of them. He can stay!

3. Aristotle Means Aaaaaaaand we've nose-dived. Prepare for snark.

Means is emblematic of a much larger issue with Dual Destinies; it doesn't seem interested in treating the main conflicts of its cases as much more than generic good vs evil despite having an abundance of material to make things more interesting. Yes, I know Ace Attorney culprits aren't the most 3-dimensional bunch - usually the character conflicts they cause are the most interesting parts. Though they usually make things fun by being smarmy bastards. Means is just repeatitive. It's one thing to be a shallow bad guy, it's another thing entirely to beat you over the head with a single catchphrase without putting any spins on it. Manfred has the same one-track mind in his philosophy but he never felt this aggressively tedious about it. There's also the fact that, well... the ends DID justify the means in the end. Dual Destinies' main conflict would not have been solved without Aura taking extreme measures to save Simon. Having that while saying "doing bad things is bad no matter what!" with this guy makes him feel all the more flimsy and misguided. Him wanting to save Juniper and honour her wishes by any means necessary is a nice way to add flavour to the conflict but it's grossly overshadowed by him being a flat cartoon for the most part.

I feel like there's a sorely missed opportunity here for him to point out that Phoenix Wright also exercised that philosophy at times. Yes I'm talking about forging evidence in 4-1, it would have been a nice way to make his conflict with Athena more interesting. Pointing out that her boss is an exemplar of "the ends justifies the means" - especially with Apollo in the same room - is an idea that fills my brain with thinks. Might have even been the reason why he invited Nick to the academy too... oh well. It takes a lot to bouy a one-track villain like him up as it is without actively adding more baggage through redundancy and lack of presence. He doesn't even do much of anything or have a chance to BE evil before his hair stands up like other villains. He's just. Annoying. I know I keep comparing him to Manfred, but imagine a version of him that didn't do anything until the tail-end of the last trial and with none of the backstory and gravitas. That's the level Means is at.

A crappier Manfred. Joy to the world!

4. ???

YOU COULD HAVE BEEN SOMEBODY! YOU HAD SO MUCH POTENTIAL! Hell, he arguably does have dramatic weight as-written. He's the embodiment of the distrust and denial of ones true feelings/identity that has caused this racket in the first place. Dual Destinies as a whole is a game about people who put on masks to do what they feel is right or necessary, then being forced to take the mask off, confront themselves and their actions for what they truly are. Having a villain who's hidden his identity this entire time is such a fitting choice! It's just a shame that he, oh you know, it's small thing it doesn't really matter... DIDN'T HAVE AN IDENTITY WORTH HIDING TO BEGIN WITH!!! Dual Destinies beats you over the head about how scary this guy is for having no personality. And that's exactly the problem. When you spend that much time telling people the villain isn't worth caring about then that's what people are going to take away. Nevermind that his personality for most of the game was a goofy detective man who valued JUSTICE! above all else, a man who is willing to question his own definitions of it despite what others may think but still allows it to justify doing awful things like zapping Simon. Maybe that could have been the answer! That he allowed his perception of JUSTICE! to warp so much that he became this ghoulish ghost who kills and commits acts of terrorism without remorse. His life being threatened when his literal mask falls acting as a metaphor for how he is unable to confront himself for who he is and what he's done; he, in his own eyes, would be the least justified of them all, and so he has forsaken his identity to avoid that truth. A truth that would spell the end both within and without.

But no. The game does everything in its power to tell you he's a hollow, empty husk of a human being. More importantly, even if the above was the case it doesn't do anything at all with the concept. It just comes across that his main conflict is "who tf am I?" Which is... oddly sad and worrying? Yes, I do think the idea of letting your true self go leading to awful, terrible things and the horror of realising that that's exactly what you did - even denying it or using it as a point of strength - is an interesting and befitting idea. They just don't do anything with it before he's already carted off to the pile of characters we'll never hear from again. There's nothing there by design to the point where it doesn't feel like there was anything he COULD have discarded in the first place. His lack of identity feels less like a concept the writers wanted to explore and more of an excuse to get a twist villain who could pretend to be anybody.

It's a diservice to both the story and to the false identity he had before this. "Bobby Fulbright" somehow ended up a more interesting character and he's the one who's chastised by other characters for being a simple idiot! And he was discarded for this guy! "Bobby" should have mattered more, both to the characters and to the phantom's identity. Not get an unceremonial "he was dead the whole time" reveal and be completely divorced from the phantom's character in every way the story can think to do. Erasure in more ways than one... no wonder people felt betrayed. In a bad way. You shouldn't feel betrayed by the writing if it's any good and that's how plenty - myself included - felt. Oh, and having the only character who's low/no emotion be the shallow bad guy is not a great look... I'll say it again; the problem isn't that he's the antagonist. It's that he's not a well-written one. A psychopath would be fascinating as a character in ANY role in this psychology-focused mystery game if Dual Destinies had the gall to make one that's actually interesting. Remember what I said about Means crushing the conflict into something too simple for the concept behind it? The phantom does that on a wider scale and it deals a massive blow to Dual Destinies to have its overarching villain so infuriatingly empty and disposable. It makes themes of trust and masks I mentioned fall flat.

I'd rather Athena kill Metis over this. It'd be a similar concept with more justification behind it without completely dismissing the players emotional investment or cheapening the themes of the game. Or at least execute those things in a better way than this. In justice we trusted...

Sidenote: I was torn between ranking Means or the phantom here. While Phanty is definitely more interesting to talk about than the living staute, him sucking hurts more than Means due to his status as the main villain. It's easier to get away with being a shallow puddle when you weren't meant to swim much in it to begin with.

5. Florent L'belle

You'll notice I didn't put an emotional marker on this guy. That should tell you everything you need to know. At least the phantom makes me feel something, even if it is abject despair at how much of a gaping hole he leaves in the story. Florent just... I mean he's... His breakdown's creepy, that's kinda fun... I got nothing, he's just sort of there.

Lick a toad, you inferior Redd White. I'm going need to borrow Bobby's Jolt of Justice next time you show up.

At least I'd feel something that way.

[weenis-world]

Hank x Fem!Reader angst to fluff?

Plot: Hank's S/O is possesed by The Auditor. He manages to snap S/O but she's unconcious. After she recovers, they have a nice cuddling session.

Have a great day!

WOOOOOO FIRST REQUEST LETS GOOOO

Sorry Its A Little Late Lol School Ya know

It Was Just Like Any Other Misson, Well It Was Supposed To Be Atleast. Hank And His S/o Raiding a Seemingly Abandoned Building For Weapons And Other Resources. Doc Had Said The Tip They Had Got For It Was A Little Strange But Hank Thought It Was Nothing You Two Couldnt Handle. But He Was Wrong. The Both Of You Stood Surounded By Mags. You Both Were Injured, Unable To Fight Any Longer You Both Surrendered, And Thats When The Sea Of Mags Parted To Reveal The Firery Leader Of The AAHW. Hank Wrapped His Arms Around You, Trying To Do Anything To Keep The Light Of His Life Safe. ''Hello Hank And...Friends?" Hank Did Not Respond. The Auditor Took Notice Of How Hank Protectively Wrapped His Arms Around The Other Grunt And A New Plan Formed In His Mind. "Seems Youve Found Yourself A Lover, Dont Mind If I Do." He Rips The Grunt Out Of Hanks Arms While They Desprately Hung Onto Eachother. "Let Go Of Her!" Hank Yelled Up To The Auditor. "What are You Going To Do Hank, Fight Me?" He Let Out A Particularly Vicious Laugh And With His Army Of Mags Set Off To Complete The Auditor's New Plan. Back At The Base Hank, After Being Pached Up, Paced Around In Docs Makeshift Infirmary. Hank Lifted His Hands And Began To Sign. "We Need To Go Get Her." "Hank I Understand You Fear For S/o Saftey But We Do Not Have The Supplies To Do A Rescue Mission Right Now And Thats Final" "Fine, i'll Do It Myself." "Did You Not Hear What I Just Said? None Of Us Are-" The Door To The Infirmary Burst Open, The Culprits? Sanford And Deimos "Hey Guys, Your Gonna Wanna See This." The Four Men Rushed Out Of The Office To See S/o Sitting On The Lumpy Uncomfortable Couch Watching Whatever Trash Tv Was On. Hank Grabbed Her And Held Her Close. The Fear And Anger Brewing In His Depths Was Completly Replaced By Relief. But She Seemed Off. "Hank, Not right Now Please, I Have Something I Need To Tell Everyone" They All Surounded Her Expected To Hear How She Managed To Escape. "Guys! I Found A Place Full Of Resources And Weapons!" "S/o Is That All?" "Yeah Your Not Gonna Tell Us How You Escaped?" She Went Stiff "Err Well, Thats Not Important Right Now. Lets Just Go Get The Truck And Go To The Place To Grab The Stuff, I'll Tell You Guys About It Later." They All Looked Confused, Why Was She So Adament About Going To That Weird Place? "Sure S/o Go Get The Truck" Sanford Threw Her The Keys. When She Left They All Turned To Talk. "Whats Going On?" "Yeah She Acting Weird, Usually She Would Be Joking Around And Braging About How She Managed To Escape" Hank Began To Sign But Was Cut Off By His S/o Barging In "You Guys Ready to Go?" "Im Going To Stay Here I Have Work I Need To-" "Nuhuh Doc Your Coming To We Need All Hands On Deck, Cmon" "Now Wait A Second We Need To Make Sure Its Safe." "I know Its Safe!" "Yeah Cmon You Just Got Home Dontcha Wanna Yaknow Relax." "No! We Are Not Relaxing We Are Going Now! All Of Us, Right Now!" They All Looked At Her Shocked At Her Strange Outburst. "S/o Your Starting To Concern Us, Were Not Going Until I Can Give You A Checkup." "You Know What, Fine. I Wanted to Do This The Easy Way But, SInce Im Already Here Ill Just Take You By Force." She Raised Her Arm And Her Possesion Became Obvious By The Way Her Eyes Glowed. A Black Flame Raised From Her Hand But Before ANything Could Happen Hank Took A Jar And Trapped It. The Moment He Closed The Lid His Lover Fell To The Ground, Unconsious. Everbody Stood In Shock Until Hank Put The Jar On The Counter And Grabbed His Lover, Taking Her Back Into Thier Shared Room And Placing Her Gently On The Bed. He Was Going To Go Back To Talk With The Others About What In The World Just Happened When He Looked Back Towards S/o. Her Soft Hair Splaying Out On The Pillow While She Snuggled Up Under The Covers. He Couldnt Help Himself, He Was Just So Worried About Her. Hopping Into Bed And Holding Her Close. He Could Feel Her Soft Warm Breath Against His Skin And He Decided That He Would Never Let The Events Of Today Happen Again, He Will Do Whatever It Takes To Make Sure That She Is Safe.

Ahh Im Not To Proud Of This But I Hit The Text Block :/ This Was A Fun Promt Though I Really Enjoyed This!