#If Level 5 won't give her a character arc I'll FIND ONE

[101flavoursofweird]

Brenda deserves better.

I’ve talked about some of the other under-appreciated PL ladies like Katia, Janice/Melina and Marina. Now here’s Brenda.

In PL4, Brenda appears in a grand total of two cutscenes (with 0 voiced speaking lines), in a bonus episode and a few credit pictures. At first glance, her character profile doesn’t give us much insight into her personality either. She doesn’t get her own description in the PL4 character section of The World of Professor Layton, just a quick summary in Luke’s Family section. It’s easy to see why people don’t get immediately attached to her.  

There are plenty of other female characters in PL4, even those who aren’t ‘reoccurring characters’, who leave a much bigger impression— Rosa, Emmy, Arianna, Loosha, Marylin, Wren (A lot of my personal favourites!)... Listing them all now, I’m just realising that it’s no wonder Brenda doesn’t stand out! 

We first hear about Brenda when Layton asks Clark how she’s doing. Clark replies dismissively, ‘My wife is fine. She’s away. Family matters.’ Liam O'Brien doesn’t get enough credit for how well he plays Clark. Seriously, as much as he snaps at Luke, if you replay PL4 you can hear the anxiety hidden in Clark’s voice. He then quickly moves on to Luke. Layton says that he hasn’t seen Luke since he was a baby, which would suggest he hasn’t seen Brenda since then either. 

Brenda enjoys travelling, as her character profile indicates, so her absence wouldn’t seem too suspicious at first for Layton. However, it’s the manner in which she left that’s odd. If you talk to Brenda’s NPC friend, Thomas, he’ll discuss Brenda’s departure with Luke. Brenda would usually chat about her travel plans with Thomas, but this time, she left without a word. Thomas wonders if there’s a reason for this. He notes that Brenda always loved family vacations, unless she and Clark were fighting... He could be referring to fights Brenda and Clark have had in the past, or to more recent fights during the spectre attacks. Brenda noticed how Clark was acting like a different person after Evan Barde’s death (something Luke also picks up on), so that might have led to some misunderstandings.  

Luke thinks his mum left because she couldn’t deal with his dad anymore. (Or that Clark had even hidden Brenda away!) But she would never just leave without telling Luke. 

Beth the maid notes that Clark has changed since Brenda left and she’s been hearing noises from the Tritons’ cellar. 

As awful as it would be for anyone to be trapped in a dank cellar for months on end, it must have been especially awful for someone who loves travelling. And in their own house too! Sure, Angela got locked in a hotel room. Yeah, Flora was trapped in a barn. Bill Hawks got taken to Future London for like a week—no one cares. But at least they all got rescued fairly quickly. Much like Angela, Brenda had a hunch about the villain in her town... and she ended up getting imprisoned by Descole.   

When Brenda and Doland escape from the cellar, Brenda’s first concern is Luke and Clark’s safety. Emmy asks if she’s OK, but Brenda doesn’t answer. She’s just shocked to hear that Luke is with the professor. Professor Who? Hershel Layton?! Again, this suggests Layton hasn’t seen Brenda for many years— since Luke was a baby. 

In Layton’s bonus episode with Clark, Layton mentions how Clark and Brenda have always been close. Layton is the one to suggest that the Tritons should come back to London. 

Sadly, we don’t get a conversation between Luke and Brenda, or Clark and Brenda, during PL4.

We do learn that Luke is protective of the bear his mum got him for his birthday. There’s also the heartbreaking bit about Luke calling out to his mum in his sleep while she was missing. But then, we get THIS precious picture from the PL4 credits:

Thankfully, we get more interactions with Brenda during Azran Legacy, and we get more of a feel for her personality. Luke spots his mum in Kensington High Street and wants to say hello to her with Aurora. Brenda is surprised to see Luke, as she thought he was off on a trip with Professor Layton. (She actually calls Layton ‘Hershel’ when she speaks to him!) Brenda is quite happy to let Luke tag along with Layton. Though, she does tell Luke to be on his best behaviour— no reckless rushing around. 

Luke mentions in a dialogue box that he got his blue cap from the fancy hat shop in Misthallery. @laytonerd​​ came up with the idea that Brenda may have bought Luke his classic hat. (In the Layton universe, giving someone a hat is a sign of love*.) And from what we see of Brenda during Azran Legacy... yeah, that sounds about right.

I love how something so simple like the Dress Up Minigame can reveal so much about a character. Brenda is elevated from Loving Mother to Hippie Angel Lady. That quirky part of her personality was already alluded to in her character profile. But now we see that Brenda doesn’t just collect odd souvenirs... She has a very unique style as well. (Her top hat appears to be inspired by Hershel’s top hat—again, adding some weight to their friendship!) Luke thinks her whole outfit is just too much, but Clark thinks she looks stunning and it suits her to a T. This is probably just one outfit amidst a huge wardrobe of wacky outfits. Perfect for Brenda and Clark’s wedding anniversary! Clark states that Brenda’s angel outfit reminds him of when they first started seeing each other... and he doesn’t know what he did to deserve her, making Brenda blush. Luke wants no part in this.

Brenda’s favourite colour is yellow. A colour associated with the sun, flowers, hope, cheerfulness and energy. (Like Emmy!) But it’s also associated with sickness, cowardice and deceit. (Again, relating to Emmy!) I wouldn’t call Brenda a coward, but she was a pawn in Descole’s plan and it probably took some time for her to recover from that. But, from her demeanour, she seems cheerful when she’s in London!

Brenda’s obviously quite close to Doland too. He worries about her when they escape from the cellar. It’s not like he does all the chores around the house! Brenda is the one to cook Luke’s favourite meal (roast lamb) when their family is reunited. Brenda knew when something wasn’t right with Doland while Descole was in disguise. She even refers to him as ‘Our Doland’. Awww!  

We get several conversations between Clark and Layton in PL4, along with a bonus episode, demonstrating their friendship. But I really wish we could’ve seen more of Layton and Brendas’ friendship. Brenda is very relaxed about Luke going with the professor on his trips. (This isn’t surprising as she is a fan of travelling herself.) Brenda is very similar to Layton in how she picks up on other people’s behaviour. Brenda noticed that Doland was acting out of character, and she noticed Clark was being manipulated. She tried to go to the authorities (though, Third Eye Jakes wouldn’t have been much help...) and so, Descole had to take her out of the picture. She, like Layton, posed a real threat to Descole’s plans. Brenda describes Hershel as being very dedicated and hardworking when he was a student, but he’d also disappear for days on random adventures. With Brenda being a traveller herself, that’s another thing she and Hershel have in common! 

To this day, I’m still not 100% sure what Brenda does for a living. In Luke’s Family section in The World of Professor Layton, it’s mentioned that Brenda was ‘also Professor Layton’s classmate’. I’m assuming this means she studied archaeology as well? During AL, she talks about how she’s going to Gressenheller’s Library to do some research for a paper on plate tectonics... I thought that had more to do with geography than archaeology, but who knows? Maybe she does both! So, she might either teach at Gressenheller like Clark and Layton, or she has returned to university to do some studies of her own. She doesn’t seem to work in the same department as Clark, at least. She ‘drops by’ to see how Clark is doing, and to get a look at his department’s cutting-edge technology. 

Brenda, like Professor Sycamore, is partial to the odd pun! She then proceeds to give them a puzzle— ‘Mutual Meeting Place’.

It’s about four friends going to the theatre! ...Four friends. Could that possibly be a reference to Layton, Clark, Brenda and Claire? The girl in the puzzle picture also just happens to have red hair and she’s wearing green! (I just made myself sad.) Unfortunately, Claire doesn’t get so much as unnamed reference when Clark, Brenda and Layton talk at Gressenheller, but it’s easy to imagine Claire was close with them back when they were students. 

I’d like to think Brenda was particularly good friends with Claire. (They may even be a rare ship of mine...) *Who else was obsessed with quirky styles, and bought a hat for someone she loved? Brenda’s top hat in her Dress Up costume looks just like the hat Claire chose for Hershel. Brenda has an interest in new technology— imagine how many hours she spent discussing science with Claire! “You want to be the world’s first time traveller? Sure, go for it!” I find it quite significant that Claire’s death— and the institute explosion— were referenced in PL4. (Chelmey’s bonus episode is so hard to watch!) Had the Tritons already lost touch with Hershel (and Claire) before Claire’s death...? I wish Level 5 had given us more content for the Gressenheller gang. 

I can’t really say Brenda went through any under-appreciated character arcs, like Katia or Janice/Melina. She starts out as Luke’s-loving-mother... and by the end of the prequel games, she’s still Luke’s loving mother, which is fine! By AL, I guess you could say her relationship with Clark is much happier, if they were fighting before? And in the AL bonus episode, she admits she was initially worried about Luke when he wanted to go on adventures with the professor, but she can see has Luke grown up since then. She even helps Luke choose the blue sweater that he wears during the original trilogy games. Brenda and Clark don’t appear during the original trilogy- obviously, as their characters weren’t invented yet. But we could take this as a sign that they’ve accepted Luke’s growing independence and they still trust Hershel immensely! 

There is a picture of the Triton family meeting up with Layton, Flora and the Barde siblings. Luke, Arianna and Tony are looking at a photo, remembering the time they spent together in Misthallery. Brenda is smiling at Flora in the background. Brenda’s clearly happy and, like the Barde siblings, she was able to move on from what happened with the spectre.  

@the-triton-family-blog​ was also a great help for this post!

[the-laridian]

FO76 Steel Dawn initial thoughts

And spoilers

In a move that should surprise no one, the Brotherhood of Steel are a bunch of dicks. I mean, it's lore. They're not nice. They want tech and they want it for themselves and everyone not Brotherhood is "civilian" and not worthy of notice, unless they want to join the BOS, because who wouldn't? BOS is awesome of course. And civilians have to prove themselves to join the awesomeness that is the BOS and then look down on other civilians. This is obviously going to appeal to certain people / player-character archetypes. It is really not my cup of tea. If I try this arc, I'll have to use Slade (the alt who isn't even level 5 yet) because Willow already hates the BOS, and Volkov is destined for the Raiders. Now, what's the proof? Well, canonically, they're not nice, in just about any game. But here, one of the first things you're tasked with is, "go talk to these people petitioning the BOS and find out what they're yammering about" (not exact words but close). Those people's reasons for contacting the BOS are: *I'm a farmer and I'm willing to trade my surplus crops for protection *I'm TOTES NOT A RAIDER, I'm just a wee orphan gal, yep yep, who wants some of those big shiny guns to, ah, defend myself and my poor li'l friends with! NOOOOO I'm not a Raider, nope nope! *I'm a scientist/doctor/healer (look, labels are irrelevant after a nuclear war) who really wants to get hold of an actual lab so I can get back to my medical research, which could help people a lot *I'm a farmer who is PO'd because a bunch of you Brotherhood dicks came and 'requisitioned' everything I had and didn't pay or ask if I agreed to it, and I want recompense and confirmation it won't happen again.

Raider Gal is a bit side-eye, but the others have valid points. So Willow goes to the BOS guy to tell him what their requests are. BOS guy responses: *We're not mercs, we don't take food in exchange for protection, ignore *I wouldn't have given her any guns anyway *We are not a charity, unless he develops some new technology or weapons, then we might be interested, but we just don't do that, ignore until useful *That wasn't Brotherhood who robbed him. "But they said they were." They weren't. "Shouldn't you look into it?" We don't have time to look into every complaint about something we aren't involved in. "But this kinda looks bad for you?" NOT OUR PROBLEM, CIVILIAN.

Sooooo the BOS guy grudgingly admits that maybe Willow could POSSIBLY sign up since he at least followed the order given to him (go talk to these people to give the impression someone cared). Willow heads outside, already determined to flip the Brotherhood the bird, and some BOS (or initiate or hopeful, not sure which now) says something like "Hey, you might wanna get rid of that mutation if you know what's good for you." Now, Willow doesn't have visible mutations. His mutations are: *Speed Demon (moves faster/eats more) *Healing Factor (heals faster/meds don't work as well) *Marsupial (superjump and extra carry capacity/massive hit to intelligence, so yeah, I had to pump a crapload of points into INT to keep him baseline) *Electrically Charged (chance to shock melee attackers/shock yourself) *Plague Walker (poison aura if you're diseased/not sure what the slap here is, actually) *Unstable Isotope (chance to radiate melee attackers/radiate yourself) (I'd get rid of UI, and maybe EC, but you can't randomly pick and choose when you attempt to clear up mutations, and I like the others) None of these are actually visible. Some mutations are, like Scaly Skin or Talons, but none of Willow's are. Either the BOS has a mutation detector up or maybe Willow has a certain aroma around him or smth, idk. The point is, Willow is kind of offended on multiple levels by the Brotherhood now, so he double-flips them off and says the hell with these jerks, maybe we need to get rid of them before they get a good foothold here. (no, not really possible, given the storyline, but we can dream) So that's the end of THAT for now. This was longer on my PF where I typed it up but Tumblr has a limit so

[serenagaywaterford]

1) Feel free to keep rambling! Not only I love talking with level-headed fandom people, but our opinions seem to converge (even if my wording comes off as weird/wrong because of Tumblr's word limit). Anyway. I had many issues with S2, besides Serena's arc I mean (I'll get back to her). Blessed be the goddamned plotholes! Fred becomes a cockroach that just won't die (Red Center), because he's essential to the plot. Same goes for Aunt Lydia. (Although I'm kinda glad that she's alive, because

2) I LOVE Dowd’s acting and I’m excited about her background story.) Emily comes back from the Colonies and is smfh 100% healthy. Moreover, Gilead has been surprisingly lenient with Fred and Serena’s constant fuckups in S2 (mutilated fingers aside). June won’t leave with Emily, bc MOTHERHOOD (more like there’s a s3 on the horizon and drama is needed). And don’t get me started on that slow pace. The beginning and the finale were explosive of course,but some mid-season episodes?

3) They were dragging on and on. Examples? 2x11, where only 2 things happen: a) June gives birth to Nicole, b) Fred and Serena make it clear that they want to tear each other apart (duh). The only redeeming qualities of that episode was the wolf symbolism and the excellent cinematography. I get it, the series is successful and has more seasons ahead. But if only they had squeezed some episodes, it would have been so much better.

—-

OMG YAY!!! I’m gonna answer these in pieces since I’ll prolly flood a giant essay otherwise. Cos, lbr, if I didn’t know better, I’d swear I had multiple personalities and was secretly sending these to myself from a fugue state, that’s how much we agree! Cos I’ve just read through all your messages and sat here going “YES! YES!” lol. I think you, me, maybe 5 other people on tumblr, and 1 TV reviewer are of the same mindset and it’s such a relief to find others who are reasonable and critical about the show/Serena.

Yes, Fred not dying was just so fucking stupid I couldn’t deal. Like, it’s not even like, “Well, he didn’t die which is crazy but he’s horribly injured and disfigured cos I dunno, he was like 15 feet FROM A MASSIVE BOMB EXPLODING.” But noooo. Instead we get Fred in hospital with a scratchy throat for like a few weeks, and when he comes back he’s got a little bit of a limp. No burns, nothing. And, to top it off, he’s got all the strength and balance of a perfectly healthy man to whip the shit out of his wife. I get they needed to get him out of the way and out of service so Serena and June could have all sorts of treasonous hi-jinks together but surely… they could have considered having Fred not 15 feet from the bomb. It killed handmaids that were way farther away than that. Just a thought. Deffo an eye-roll moment.

Aunt Lydia I’m less irritated about simply cos, like you, I love Ann Dowd and think she’s done a fab job. And we honestly haven’t got enough of her backstory and I wanna know that too. I think this show can only really captivate if it tells ALL the women’s stories, not just the victims. Like how does a woman become an Aunt? How do they justify that? Or is it simply a type of socio-religio-politcal brainwashing, akin to a lot of Nazi Party supporters? Is she a True Believer? Like, honestly, wtf is up with her? Like, cos so many of us can empathise with the Handmaids and we understand how that came about–but it takes more sides to tell a full story. So, Aunt Lydia being back… I’m not too fussed about. I really do consider Emily so damaged that I would never trust her with a baby–but that’s me. She’s been so broken, so traumatized, and like I don’t blame her at all ofc, but she needs softness and patience and no stress ever again. Like, she is not well emotionally by any stretch.

Which leads into the Colonies bullshit. That was just really bad writing. She, Janine, etc, were there for MONTHS. Like, June ran away and was gone for 92 days (Thanks for that count, Serena!). And then add on whatever time passed between her being returned to the Waterfords house and when Lilly set off the bomb. That is a long ass time to be splashing about in radioactive waste. Emily’s teeth were falling out, right? Like, how she went from literally dying of radiation poisoning to “Totally healthy enough to pop out some totally healthy babies!” I’ll never understand. The loss of the Handmaids in the bombing isn’t a good enough reasoning. A dictatorship like Gilead could easily have just conscripted a bunch of Econowives with the sweep of a pen. That is how these militant theocracies work. They’re already half-indoctrinated anyway. It was dumb to put Emily and Janine there in the first place if you knew they had to come back, as they are main cast members.

I always thought Fred and Serena were getting away with too much but I wrote it off as Fred (and Serena lbr) being a HUGE part of bringing about Gilead in the first place so they get some leeway. But then, you see Warren and Cushing being dealt with fairly severely for basically hearsay. (Okay, Warren’s I get cos you had outcry from Janine in a massively public display and backup from Naomi.) I guess because Fred/Serena’s fuckups were a little more ~private, they could excuse/lie about them/cover them up them easier? Cushing was dealt with way to easily. Like… no. “Fred” signs some paper and suddenly Cushing is being disappeared immediately. I suppose Fred took over Pryce’s place in the hierarchy? Who knows. And from what I understand, nobody in SOJ knew about June’s escape to the big country house. But c’mon, one Handmaid kills herself, the new one another starting shit every where she goes with other Handmaids and is pals with two of the most notorious other Handmaids (Emily and Janine), then is “kidnapped”, is partners with the bomber, then runs away again, then again… Sigh.

June not leaving… I just… it was so obvious that she wouldn’t cos otherwise there is no show. But why bother with all that drama then. Like, what if Emily hadn’t been there??? June had no way of knowing she’d be meeting up with Emily. She would have just dumped Nicole in some van and run back? Ugh.

And the pace was bad. ITA. There are whole episodes I don’t even bother with on rewatches. I thought the season premiere was great, then it fell of a cliff and lost my interest until about the 5th episode? Then it got going nicely (altho 2x07 wasn’t great either), then took another nosedive in 2x10 and sort of coasted almost aimlessly until the finale. I don’t like to hate on June but honestly the really 100% June-centric episodes bore the shit out of me. 2x02/03 and 2x11 being the biggest culprits. I’m just tired of the excessive use of flashbacks that all basically say the same thing now. And Moss is a great actress but there’s such thing as too much of a good thing. Not to mention, Nick and June bore me to tears as well (SACRILEGE! Send the indignant rabid fangirls on a rampage into my inbox!) so when there’s a lot of focus on that clusterfuck of inanity, I tune out. I can’t help it. I find them so annoying lol. (Which is were I usually lose common ground with basically everyone in this fandom cos everyone loves Nick for some reason I just cannot understand. If you like him, I apologise! I just can’t. I liked him more at the beginning but as it’s gone on the less I give even the slightest shit about him.)

Also, like I found 2x02 and 2x03 to just be… a waste of time? Like, okay, we got to see the Econopeople and how they live or whatever but to me, there was zero point to the whole thing because we all know June isn’t going to get away with it. So, why waste 2 whole episodes building to something everyone knows ain’t happening just for the sake of some worldbuilding that I’m guessing could have been done some other more cogent way? 2x04 was basically just to show more breaking June down in various ways. Then 2x05 was just to show the Colonies and had a lot of filler in it about that. I still don’t understand the point of the “wedding” bits. It wasn’t uplifting or hopeful at all. It was still really dark, like killing the Wife. I only really liked watching Serena go apeshit because her babyslave isn’t making proper gossipy conversation. It’s just an interesting angle cos finally Serena gets what she asks for with a super obedient Offred, and low and behold, it actually sucks and she wants June back. Story of Serena’s life and she never fucking learns lol. And Aunt Lydia flexing on Serena was hilarious. I just enjoy watching them go head to head. Not to mention the grotesque child brides thing. Gross. Super gross. Like, a bunch of stuff happened but I’m not convinced it needed to be dragged out over 4 episodes like that. Not to mention it was all really depressing. I remember watching and going, “JESUS, this show is fucking depressing. Why am I torturing myself?”

But yeah, 2x11 was super slow and all the important things that happened (that you listed) could have taken 10 minutes. Like I get too that she had to see Hannah in order to… make her decision in the finale make sense??? Was that the reason? I still don’t know. All of this could have been dealt with way more quickly and with just as much emotional gravity had it been done well.

I really like Moira but she’s been given shit all to do. I liked how we got a little insight into her and Odette. A LITTLE. But a huge weakness is that the Toronto peeps are so divorced from the drama that it often seems, not pointless, but something like it. It definitely slows the pace down to a crawl. That’s why I thought 2x09 worked well because it married both worlds. (I will never understand why 1x07 exists the way it does. What a stupid episode. I do not care about Luke’s journey, tbh. I’m here for the women–good, evil, or inbetween; not an entire episode devoted to him–especially not when we could have had Moira’s instead. I accept that his is intertwined with June’s attempted escape but… meh. It’s just like I will never care about Nice Guy TM Nick’s backstory or character. I don’t care about Fred’s childhood, or Warren’s marriage, or Luke’s manbabying, or Nick’s manpain. Eek.)

I dunno. Personally I think it could have been tightened up a bit better. But again, what do I know? I’m just a viewer. I’m sure other viewers have completely the opposite opinion.

[101flavoursofweird]

Barton’s dad (Inspector Gilbert) clearly loved his son, but when Chelmey suggests Barton will make a fine officer, Gilbert isn’t so sure. He says Barton is a good kid, though, and he loves to eat! 

Barton is a hard worker and he has his moments of brilliance, like when he notices Chelmey’s oversights. But in a world of puzzle-solvers and evil geniuses, Barton isn’t the smartest character... academically.   

This is the case for Lucy too. During Lucy’s introduction, Deputy Commissioner Chan Why does this guy exist? No one ever mentions him again! tells her off for daydreaming. Lucy says she did ‘particularly badly’ in her exams and she blames it on a bad Balti. Commissioner Barton then comes in to encourage Lucy. Barton must see a lot of himself in Lucy, right down to their large appetites. He gives Lucy the chance to prove herself and she does!

Barton also defends Alfendi. He believes there isn’t another officer at Scotland Yard who can match Alfendi’s powers of deduction. Just like Hershel, Alfendi can solve any mystery he puts his mind too. Deputy Commissioner Chan raises his doubts about Alfendi, calling him ‘unstable’ and possibly dangerous to Lucy. But Barton just says that they need to have faith in Alfendi Layton. (Also, Barton implies Lucy is bold enough to handle Alfendi!) How much do you want to bet Barton took Alfendi under his wing after Hershel’s disappearance? Barton helps Alfendi, just like Hershel helped Barton.

Barton with Alfendi:

[101flavoursofweird]

Marina - The Compass of Layton’s Mystery Detective Agency

I was inspired by @chewyloon​‘s post on Marina. So here we go…

Marina is the compass of the entire Relic Stones plot line. Lemme explain. 

When Luke goes missing, Marina actively seeks Layton out for help. 

Throughout the series, most of the characters we see requesting Layton’s aid- including his old friends and his own brother- write letters to him. The only ones who set out to find Layton are Espella, Flora and Emmy.

Espella didn’t know Layton- she went to him on Carmine’s instruction. Flora visits Layton’s office in Lost Future when she’s waiting for him and Luke to get back. Emmy was sent by Targent to spy on Layton. (Though, she may have wanted to become Layton’s assistant before she was assigned her mission, but there’s still that connection already existing between Layton and Bronev.) 

Marina’s just moved from America to London and she decides to go to Layton’s office. She’s never met the man himself- all she has to go off is what she might have read in the newspapers and what Luke has told her. Luke never stopped telling her about Layton and their adventures. Marina probably already feels like she knows Layton from Luke’s stories alone. 

She knows she can trust him to bring Luke home. So, she goes right to him. No mysterious letters, no masks, she just wants his help to find Luke. 

Luke trusts Marina enough to tell her a little about his adventures with Layton and to let her see the photos in his study. I say ‘a little’ because she didn’t realise how the charms Luke had given her were linked to the mysteries- Flora’s ribbon, the Molentary Express, Subject 3... Luke has kept the finer details of these mysteries secret, for the sake of Spoilers! (in a meta sense) and for the participants of these cases. Flora wouldn’t be very pleased if Luke revealed St Mystere’s true secret. It kind of implies Marina hasn’t met Flora- or at least doesn’t know her well enough to recognise her ribbon- which makes me sad... 

Oh, well. Layton knew nothing about Luke’s marriage, which is still RIDICULOUS but moving on…

Luke didn’t want Layton to doubt Marina. She can trust Layton and much as Layton can trust her. 

Marina informs Layton that she and Luke used to solve mysteries together in America- which we don’t have time to see outside of a quick picture- but Luke pushed Marina way from the Relics mystery. There’s this short scene I really like where she’s delivering Luke tea but he’s locked himself in his study. She looks dejected, but we don’t see her screaming and banging on Luke’s door. She gives Luke the space he wants. 

This is an in-character reaction for Luke. He did the same thing back in Spectre’s Call when he was focussed on the spectre and again when he ran away from the hotel in Future London. Luke isolates himself from his loved ones when he’s upset, and on both those occasions Layton was the only one who could comfort him. Marina was worried about him, so of course she turns to Layton when Luke disappears. 

(She’s known this professor guy for like 5 minutes but welcomes him to her house. She’s practically accepted him as her father-in-law already.)

I actually like Luke’s map puzzle in his study. If it had been in the games, it would’ve been one of the first puzzles you solve. (Shame the anime couldn’t  give the viewer time to solve puzzles like Eternal Diva did…)

Ya girl Marina can’t solve puzzles and isn’t all that observant (yet), but in her defence, she’s only lived in this house- in this city- for like a month at tops. How was she meant to know where the British Museum was? I couldn’t walk to the British Museum without google maps and I live in Britain!  

Luke’s left another message of his whereabouts at the museum. This is another puzzle I like- and Layton gives Marina a chance to solve this one. (GOOD REDEMPTION RIGHT THERE. THANKS HINO.) What’s nice is that this puzzle is a bit more accessible to the viewer too. It sets up the bookshelf and the chandelier and we even get a hint from Layton. We get to solve the puzzle alongside Marina- we see a scrolling view of the room from her perspective. (You can imagine a DS stylus scrolling across the screen here.) Then Layton confirms the answer.

Next we get that fight between Layton and the thugs, Don Paolo’s reveal (which still doesn’t make much sense, given his change of heart in Lost Future…) and finally, they rescue Luke. 

Layton says Luke pushed Marina away from the mystery so she wouldn’t be in danger, but he still chides Luke afterwards for upsetting her. 

We get emotional hugs and Marina demands that Luke explains the Relics stones to her as well, which they thankfully do. Luke reveals that he didn’t want to tell her because the Relic Stones were thought to be cursed and brought misfortune to anyone involved with them... Kind of like a certain ‘witch’ who thought she was cursed and pushed everyone- even her closest friend- away. 

There are so many Spectre’s Call vibes in this episode I’ve never noticed. Luke shut his loved ones out just like he did during SC, but Layton reminds him you can’t just do that. And Marina was the one to request Layton’s help.

Marina asks if these dumb Relic rocks are really that dangerous. Luke gives her a brief history- blah blah blah- and after scientific analysis brought not results, the stones started emitting light in a certain direction, like a compass. The general gist is that the stones will eventually lead to the treasure of the Relics. 

Luke still insists there’s no need for so many people to get involved in the mystery but he apologises for trying to solve it alone. Layton says the two of them can work together to solve it. Then he suggests that the light of the relics forms a loop, leading back to the original stone. We get a circling shot overhead of our four heroes. Yay! We’re all connected and we’re all in this together....

NOT.

Episode 2 of the Relics begins with the backstory of how Luke saves Kat, and how Layton raised her. Okay, strong start. But then it turns out Layton and Luke are leaving to finish solving the Relics mystery when Kat is like... 11. Rosa even calls Layton out on this. (Thank you, Rosa.) It’s just the two of them going, not Rosa or Marina or anyone else. I know, they’re our iconic duo, but what about those themes of everything being connected from the first episode? What about Luke’s acceptance of letting Marina get involved? What about not shutting people out…?

Right, we’re meant to be talking about Marina’s character. I don’t think Marina gets so much as a mention during the second Relics episode. We see Luke writing to Rosa, but not his wife. 

After Luke and Layton almost get caught by cult members, Layton asks Luke to tell Marina not to meet with anyone. I hope he means ‘don’t meet with anyone involved in the Relics’, rather than ‘don’t meet with anyone, period’. 

Turns out this idea was pointless because Marina still gets captured by the cult. They never explain how- maybe she was following Layton and Luke, who knows. 

The evil priest uses her life as leverage to make Luke and Layton surrender. 

At the end of episode 3/4 is where the ‘cult member Marina’ theories stated appearing. Which is still an awesome  theory and would make a great AU! 

Imagine if the helpless damsel in distress who requested Layton’s aid was actually the main villain. Kind of like Clive! 

That’s not quite what happens in the next episode, but what we do get is still a cool alternative to Marina being a helpless victim. And it really does her character justice.

Whenever Flora followed Layton in the past, she usually ended up getting kidnapped. (Nothing wrong with Flora, but we all wanted more for her than that.) Whenever Emmy followed Layton she always ended up saving the day… but she turned around and betrayed them in Azran Legacy. (Nothing wrong with Emmy- she still helped save the world- but I personally wanted her to stick in to Bronev.) Marina is a blend of both Flora and Emmy. She does get captured, but she gets her own back on her kidnappers too.

She enters the Relics chamber, all spooky-like, and warns Kat she can’t touch the pods yet. 

Marina explains how she was captured by the organisation eleven years ago. However, she infiltrated the cult and investigated the Relics. We don’t know what happened to her during those eleven years, though she does say, ‘Because you apprehended the priests, I’m able to work freely now.’ Chances are, she was held captive  by the cult for ELEVEN YEARS. Otherwise she would’ve, I dunno… gone to the police? Told someone?

She didn’t know where Layton and Luke were being kept, but she stayed with the cult long enough to obtain valuable information on the Relics. She found out how to free the inhabitants of the coffins. So, she frees Layton and Luke. (And to think, they were so determined to leave her behind…) 

It must’ve been horrible being captured, but without her, Layton and Luke would still be frozen. She used the villain’s knowledge against them and saved the heroes. (She even hints at the secret organisation hired by Dellender called ‘Witch’…)

Layton and Luke get taken to the hospital. Marina shares an emotional conversation with Kat. Marina assures Kat that Layton and Luke will be alright. Marina wonders what Luke will think of her now that she’s aged eleven years. Kat assures her that a reunion in a reunion. 

It’s one of Kat’s more sincere moments- she’s comforting Marina but it’s implied she can’t wait to reunite with her dad too. 

Kat and Layton finally reunite... We hear from Luke about how he reunited with Marina. Luke says he’s sorry for dragging her into this- though he didn’t really, he tried not to involve her- and for being gone for so long. Marina tells him it’s ok and then gives one of the best lines in the anime:

She’s being more forward about her feelings now. She won’t be hovering outside Luke’s door anymore - she’ll be knocking it down until he gives her a straight answer. but that’s fine, because she still loves his adventurous side. She listened to his stories about Professor Layton and when Luke was lost, she knew they could turn to the professor. She led the professor back to Luke, led the cult to their downfall when she got caught, and her actions led to Kat reuniting with her father. 

Marina is the compass because she brings everyone back together. 

[101flavoursofweird]

Separating Janice from Melina

Hi! I’ve been planning this post for a while. An attempt to analyse Janice and Melina as separate characters. Some of this comes from personal headcanons, of mine, but they’re all based on what we see in the movie. 

We’ll start with their character profiles form The World of Professor Layton.

Janice: ‘A 23-year-old female who has a mature air about her and wears a beautiful purple pendant around her neck. She is a former student of Layton’s who went on to become a celebrated opera singer...’ There’s also this comment about her character design- she ‘generally looks like someone who has an interest in music’.

Melina: ‘Melina was the only daughter of opera composer Oswald Whistler, and best girlfriend to Janice. Tragically, an illness took Melina from this world a year ago, at the youthful age of 22. By all accounts, she was a beautiful woman with a gentle soul.’ Another character design comment- ‘Melina was pretty much developed like Janice.’ The difference is that she was given the look ‘of an extremely intelligent but sickly young lady, brimming with potential.’

From their character designs alone, Melina was meant to resemble Janice. Both of them wear purple and have their hair tied back. They were the same age until Melina’s death. Both of them love music and both are self-sacrificing. (Melina’s London Life profile even points this out.) 

Janice had to be very similar to Melina, otherwise she wouldn’t be able to retain Melina’s memories from the Detragon. Whistler searches for talented young girls to become hosts for Melina’s memories- and they had to be as talented as his daughter. But, as Layton explains, the results were imperfect. However, Janice is similar to Melina and as an added bonus, she shares many memories with Melina. 

But that doesn’t mean Janice and Melina are identical. Even in that short character bio, Janice is described as ‘mature’, while Melina is described as ‘youthful’. More on this later...

The Reveal Scene in Eternal Diva is quite a unique one. Layton doesn’t expose a traitorous villain, but rather, a thought-to-be-dead friend who has been accompanying them in secret. Melina’s situation is very similar to Claire’s during Lost Future. Here, Melina isn’t just wearing a mask- she’s possessing Janice’s body and mind. (Does that sound weird? Sorry, I made it sound weird.)

Janice, likely having been the first ‘host’ for the Detragon, buried her memories voluntarily so Melina could act in her place. There’s no confirmation if ‘voluntarily’ meant Whistler gave Janice the choice to become the host, or if he even told her about the Detragon’s true purpose. We do know that when the time came to accept Melina’s memories, Janice did so willingly to save her friend... much to Melina’s ‘very great surprise’. There isn’t anyone guarding Janice during the memory-transferral process- Whistler even walks away- or when she wakes up, so maybe Janice was somewhat compliant. What is clear is that Janice is an extremely selfless person, putting her own life on hold so Melina could live through her. It also suggests that Janice is the more passive of the pair of them... 

Melina died a year before the opera. We don’t know how long she posed as Janice, but it was enough time to leave the island, reassume Janice’s life, prepare for the opera, and realise how wrong it was for her to steal someone else’s life. After being ill for so long, Melina is able to ‘walk and dance and sing’ again thanks to Janice. All of these things she obviously enjoyed doing before she got sick. I really like how Melina admits that as time went by she came to realise how wrong it was. At the start, she actually enjoyed it- who wouldn’t, after suffering for so long? Yes, Janice let her take over, but Melina still felt somewhat selfish. Maybe she was selfish. But that’s ok, because it’s a character flaw she manages to overcome. Not every female character has to be an martyr, Level 5

Melina doesn’t just enjoy dancing and singing- she’s a true romantic and a thrill seeker. On the beach, Melina chats wistfully about how the game for Eternal Life, the island, eating on the beach, and watching the seashore with Layton feels like a dream. Layton agrees these are perfect surroundings with puzzles and ruins for them to examine. At first, it’s kind of funny and you think it’s just Layton being his usual puzzle-obsessed self... but actually, that’s exactly the kind of thing he would have discussed with Janice when she was in his archaeology class. They probably visited loads of ruins and dig sites. But Melina isn’t interested in that. Puzzles- maybe. She was an intelligent lady. But ruins, not so much. Melina’s passions lay in music, not archaeology. (Something tells me the same applied to Janice, but for whatever reason she still studied archaeology.)      

Melina wants romance and adventure. (Can you blame her, after being bed-ridden for who-knows-how-long?) She’s excited at flying in the professor’s homemade helicopter, childishly comparing it to a ‘giant grasshopper’. Luke tells her she can hold on to him if she’s scared, but Melina assures him she’s not scared. She’s having fun. 

“This is FUUUUUUUN?” screams ten-year-old Luke.

“Yeah!” the twenty-two-year-old technically dead woman replies. 

With Janice being the more ‘mature’ of the two, you have to wonder what her reaction to the helicopter would be. Probably less happy...

And now here’s two of my favourite screenshots from the whole movie. One is hilarious, the other is very poignant and heartwarming.

In Screenshot A, Layton is so startled when Melina and Luke hug him that he raises his voice. Yeah, he is trying to land the plane, but this is probably also out of character for Janice. I like all my uni tutors... but never enough to hug any of them. It’s awkward enough if I bump into them in the cafeteria. Sure, Janice is ‘fond’ of the professor, but I feel like this is more something Melina would do. Melina is a hugger. She’s effusive and wants to connect with more people. (I can’t imagine she got many visitors when she was sick aside from Whistler, Janice and Descole...) She hugs Layton and Mr Whistler. She pulls Luke away from some fire on the Detragon because you can’t touch fire, Luke. And she lets Nina snuggle up to her on the lifeboat. This last part especially demonstrates the ‘gentle soul’ part of Melina’s profile. She’s has a gentle soul... but she’s also a thrill seeker. Rather like Emmy! 

On to Screenshot B- one of the few interactions we get between Layton and the  real Janice. Janice has jut lost Melina again, along with a part of herself. She looks and sounds so empty. Layton approaches her and she asks him, “Is there no way to get [Melina] back?” Layton doesn’t say anything, because he knows the answer after losing Claire. He just puts his hand on Janice’s shoulder- a sign of empathy and comfort. This is much more appropriate than the two of them sharing a hug. I see Janice as being almost as reserved as Layton. Perhaps she was more open-hearted before Melina’s death... but out of she and Melina, Janice is the more withdrawn one. Before she leaves, Melina tells Janice it’s time for her “to start living her own life again”... 

She has to let Melina go, while still remembering her, and learn how to be herself again. She can pursue her interest in music now, if that’s what she really wants, and meet new people... 

(I really, really tried to keep the Janice/Melina content to a minimum- they’re just gal pals- but did I mention there are lots of parallels between these two and LayClaire...?)

At least three years after Eternal Diva (after the credits), we see her visiting Layton and Luke. She looks happy, going about her life. 

And finally, the best part of Melina’s character. She’s loves DOGS!