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kaibutsushidousha · 2 months ago

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The Hundred Line character design team interview from Famitsu issue 1895

Hello, Mr. Komatsuzaki and Shimadrill. Tell us how you felt when you read the first project presentation for The Hundred Line.

Rui Komatsuzaki: The initial project proposal already had a pretty solid general idea of the plot, so I only needed to expand on that. The Hundred Line's key concept was 100 endings, so I could already predict that my usual amount of illustrations wouldn't cut it. The actual number went way above my already high expectations. I wasn't used to working this much (pained laughter).

Shimadrill: I joined Too Kyo Games because I was a fan of Kodaka's and Komatsuzaki's work, so I felt like I had to keep up no matter how tough it got. Kodaka and Komatsuzaki are particularly fast workers. I didn't even have time to complain without how much I needed to do.

What exactly was requested for the designs of the Special Defense Unit members?

Kazutaka Kodaka: I gave Komatsuzaki the story's script and a document listing characteristics and nicknames of each character (delinquent for Yakushiji, punk rock for Amemiya, and so on) and asked him to come up with the designs.

Komatsuzaki: The design workflow was the same it was in the previous games. Instead of nailing their characterization one-by-one, I started with a draft of the whole cast based only on the amount and general characteristics of them. I used that to fine-tune the collective balance of the cast, and only after that part was settled that I gave the characters individual attention.

Was the process smooth?

Komatsuzaki: Speaking of things being the same as usual, the first version of the mascot characters was never altered. SIREI got approved at the first try.

Kodaka: Back then, I still hadn't given SIREI's character much thought, so Komatsuzaki could go with whatever design he wanted. SIREI's quirks derived from the design rather than the other way around.

Was NIGOU just as easy?

Komatsuzaki: Yeah. I was told NIGOU could be just a palette swap of SIREI, but I wanted them to be a little different, resulting in the current design.

Any other important points?

Komatsuzaki: I really wanted SIREI and NIGOU to be transparent. After that, I exposed their brains and hearts.

Kodaka: I didn't know how to react when he drew a brain after I had already told him SIREI was a robot. I wasn't sure if it was okay for robots to have brains. But later I came to the conclusion that the best computer imaginable would be one capable of utilizing a live human brain. My final decision was that SIREI and NIGOU are equipped with advanced computers that only resemble human brains, but that's a lore tidbit that never gets said in-game.

Cool.

Komatsuzaki: Also, having read the story, I could imagine this game mascot would take some serious damage, so I thought it was better not to make them animal-themed like Monokuma was. I don't want to see an animal-like mascot being seriously harmed. So I tried to give him a design more tolerable to brutalize.

Changing the subject to the Special Defense Unit, who would you consider the most memorable student?

Komatsuzaki: Unlike my previous games, The Hundred Line has combat outfits, which are mostly uniform for every character. To make the characters easier to identify during combat, there was a greater need to give them diverse, distinct, and memorable body types and heads. This means their conceptualization had great emphasis on their heads and physiques. I'd say Amemiya is the most memorable character. She set the bar for how striking they should be. I tend to use muted colors a lot, but Amemiya's design was an attempt to use colors I normally don't. The cast was balanced with her at the center of the scale.

Speaking of characters, I noticed they have a lot of sprites, as usual. How many did you make per character?

Komatsuzaki: The plan was making about 20 per character, totaling around 300 sprites, but I was wrong in predicting the real number would be 3 digits. There are so many that I stopped counting along the way.

How many did you have counted by the time you gave up?

Komatsuzaki: The total of sprites about 1 year before the game was gold was 1368. I kept making more after that, but I can't give a general figure because I was too afraid to count them.

Drill: No estimates for the final number?

Kodaka: We have over 100 per character, with the biggest ones reaching 200, so… I guess over 2000 in total?

How did you get this many?

Komatsuzaki: Sprite production involves the following steps: 1. I draw drafts for the sprites based the expressions and scenes that pop up in my head while I'm reading the story. 2. I refine the drafts. 3. I put together the sprite list while examining which variations are essential and which are redundant. However, this time the story was too long and I could never be done reading all of it, and until I finish reading, the sprite list only keeps increasing. I had a lot more expressions than usual before the first selection.

Kodaka: We tried to lower the amount. But there's a good reason why the number spiralled out of control: in The Hundred Line, each writer did the screen composition for their own stories. One goes "Keep this one, I'll use it", another goes "Keep this one, I'll use it", and little by little we end up with less thing to cut off, and even more things to add (awkward laughs).

Komatsuzaki: I obviously didn't predict this bloat. Face portraits are far from the only thing I got the amount of digits wrong in THL. I never want to be in a game this overblown again…

Kodaka: But thanks to Komatsuzaki drawing full-body sprites, we could do things we couldn't in previous titles. In Danganronpa, the characters had fixed on-field portraits and only changed expressions when zoomed in for conversation. In The Hundred Line, their sprites can be placed with expressions that fit the situation right from the get-go, making this game feel more living and breathing than its predecessors.

How did the designs for the Class Weapons and Class Armors came to be?

Komatsuzaki: The initial plan was to get the Class Weapons designed by someone other than myself. I had to make The Hundred Line's concept art in a period where I was extremely busy with another game and didn't have much time to work on it. But, for reasons I cannot disclose, requesting the other person stopped being a viable possibility. In the end, I had to do everything myself. I chose the weapons for every student, but since that's very relevant for combat, I first asked Media Vision to give me a general idea of size and shape, then added the defining details based on that.

Kodaka: Amemiya's Class Weapon are kitchen knifes that float midair for no reason. That's something better conveyed by showing a mock-up than by describing verbally.

Some of the Class Weapons are very peculiar. Do they have a shared theme? If yes, what?

Komatsuzaki: The design idea was that they had to seem made of bone and blood, so many of the smaller details look fleshy.

Any favorite Class Weapon?

Komatsuzaki: The most costly ones to produce are the ones that occupy my mind the most. Specifically, Yakushiji's bike, Kawana's AC, and Ginzaki's robot. The robot in particular was hell for Media Vision. I'm truly sorry about that. Most weapons match their mock-ups in size, but the robot was the only one I had to make bigger than they wanted.

Why?

Komatsuzaki: A robot needs to be big enough to comfortably fit Ginzaki inside the cockpit (awkward laughs). Also, thanks to me inventing the whole gimmick of the robot transforming into a shield, Media Vision had loads of extra work for the transformation sequence. I'm very grateful to them for producing a functional transformation sequence despite how the concept art I gave them illustrating what part moves where was so full of errors.

Kodaka: We sorta went crazy with the amount of animations on the robot, but thanks to Media Vision, it looks awesome.

Next, I'd like to ask about Class Armor. What was the design process like?

Komatsuzaki: Like with Class Weapons, I remember producing them on my spare time from other work. First I produced Sumino's to be the base for the other suits, and I wanted them their outfits to look unkempt by default. I actually wanted them to run around in mantles, but since those are time-consuming to model in 3D, that idea was cut from the game. Class Armors are made from blood, so having mantles or not doesn't really matter… That said, the battle models were made by Media Vision's modeller and I had to be insistent to get him to make them the way I drew. I feel so sorry for the sheer amount of constraints he had to work through.

Kirifuji's suit really stands out.

Komatsuzaki: That was a high-effort design. Kirifuji's suit had to be different from everyone else's, for lore reasons.

Kodaka: I was okay with hers being just a palette swap of the others, but Komatsuzaki went with a design that much better reflects her lore.

Komatsuzaki: It's a great design that I came to regret once I had to make multiple sprites for it. It's not the easiest design to draw (pained laughs).

What exactly was requested for the monster designs with the School Invaders and their Commanders?

Kodaka: I told Drill to make the Invaders colorful and toy-like. The popness of the enemy designs contrasts against the overall seriousness of the story, making them more unsettling, in my opinion. It was also decided from the start that the enemies could take more vicious forms, so I believe starting colorful would add to the creepiness of the transformations.

Drill: This request from Kodaka was the basis of the Invader production, and I also took a page from Komatsuzaki's book, only finishing them individually after I had already figured out the balance of the whole group. I remember that, when lining up the full roster of Invaders, I focused on making their silhouettes resemble capsule toys.

Komatsuzaki: I remember you going out to check real figures.

Drill: I took a trip to Nakano Broadway to study soft vinyl kaiju figures.

They're so colorful that every battle had me wanting to eat them.

Kodaka: Did I ever say I wanted the Darumarrs to look like a mixed blob of jelly beans?

Drill: You did. Then I suggested that displaying them as flocks of 3 in one tile would highlight the mixed blob factor and give off the feeling of fighting against large numbers. The idea of placing multiple enemies in the same tile was inspired by Warhammer 4K, which I used to play a lot.

I can see that. Any other production secrets regarding the monsters?

Komatsuzaki: Their coloring was redone soooo many times.

Drill: Their original models were really well-made, but not as saturated as I wanted their colors to be. Changing the lighting wouldn't fix the saturation, so their coloring had to be adjusted by redrawing them. That's what gave them the vibrant candy colors you find so tasty.

Did Kodaka have specific requests for the Commanders design?

Kodaka: The fodder Invaders were colorful, so I asked for the Commanders to look monochrome and divine.

Drill: Those two were the only requests for the collective, but there were specific things he wanted for each individual Commander. For example, the prompt for the Squad 1 Commander was "I want him to look too strong to reasonably be the first boss".

Kodaka: I also told you to make him huge. The debate of "is making TRPG enemies big is a good thing?" is a can of worms I told Shimadrill to ignore and just make the first one you fight look big and strong (laughs).

He sure looked big and strong (laughs).

Drill: That's why I decided on the dragon theming for the Squad 1 Commander. I've seen some demo players reaction to sudden strong-looking boss appearing, so I'd say the design did exactly what Kodaka wanted it to.

The Commander also had a humanoid design. Who did this one?

Kodaka: Komatsuzaki.

Komatsuzaki: We initially wanted Shimadrill, the monster design expert, to do them, but he didn't have the time for it when he was simultaneously working on another game, so I did all of it on my own. The humanoid Commanders also had a major share of restrictions coming from lore and production cost reasons, but with enough attempts, I feel like I managed to make them reasonably distinct from one another, within the limitations. It's easy to tell from how they all have different masks.

Kodaka: When checking the pictures for approval, I thought the way the mask design resembled Skull Knight was so cool. We were almost behind the schedule at the time we assigned the humanoid designs to Komatsuzaki, and there are many of them, so I was expecting simpler designs. Him making their design with this much care and detail in so little time was a pleasant surprise.

Is it true that Shimadrill designed the school backgrounds?

Drill: Correct. I was in charge of the school's exterior and hallways, and drew them in great detail.

Kodaka: Komatsuzaki and I have something of a "When in need, ask Drill" mentality. He is often helping out with the most random situations. For example, we thought the design for the alarm speaker that rings when Invaders attack was lame. Worried that this wouldn't convey tension to the player, we called Drill to make a more striking speaker design.

Drill: If we're counting that, I also redesigned the weird wooden boxes (awkward laughs). That request came quite close to the deadline, and it was something I wouldn't think needed adjustments, but Kodaka is a director particular about the details.

Komatsuzaki: There were so many things we got Drill to redesign because they looked too normal.

What was the hardest part of the background designs?

Kodaka: The first thing to come to mind is the school's exterior. It's always visible during combat, so I asked Drill to draw something memorable. He came up with multiple variations, including more hawkish school illustrations. The Last Defense Academy lore back then wasn't the same it is now, and one of the ideas of having a cannon like the one from Battleship Yamato frequently shooting at the field.

Drill: We actually took reference sheets from Battleship Yamato.

I'd expected you take reference sheets from real schools. Were you avoiding that on purpose?

Drill: We were. For some reason, I had to study exclusively warships, tanks, and spaceships to draw a school (laughs). The Last Defense Academy is important enough to the game to be part of the title, and as someone with the mission to support Kodaka and Uchikoshi at Too Kyo Games, I couldn't afford to put out something uncreative. My job is to figure out what would be fun, and create the showy designs Kodaka and Uchikoshi love so much. I always try my best to be ahead of the game when it comes to their expectations.

I was impressed by how each floor look so different from another. Is that essential to the Shimadrill style?

Drill: No, it's essential to the Kodaka style. He requested every floor to be different, so the hallways wouldn't feel samey to the player.

Kodaka: I got him to come up with multiple hallway variations and chose which of them to use and what color they'd have. There are a lot of objects placed on the hallways, and all of them reflect elements of the Tokyo Residential Complex's culture and history that won't get fully elaborated in-game. Drill came up with lore reasons for the presence of each object in the academy, so you can theorize on how their inclusion makes sense.

There's some really… unique furniture in the background. Special mention to the cooking machine being a Thousand-Armed Kannon statue.

Drill: The robot Kannon was my idea. Kodaka asked me to come up with an automatic cooking machine, so I sought inspiration in pre-90s sci-fi art and Expo videos.

Kodaka: AI could never come up with a Thousand-Armed Kannon cooking machine (laughs).

Never (laughs). Next, tell us about the event CGs.

Kodaka: There are over 600 CG illustrations in The Hundred Line. Most of them are drawn by third-party workers, but Drill and Komatsuzaki finalize the art. They have a base standard of quality, but we do go harder on the more plot-significant ones.

Komatsuzaki: That's right, about 2 months before the game was gold, we were still working on improving the important ones.

Drill: I remember that.

Kodaka: Wasn't there a few that Drill made from scratch because there were too many for the third-party workers to keep up with the production pace?

Drill: I was called "just for a little finishing touches" and when I looked at it, I had to do even the lineart… Normal projects demand a lot less work than that when the game is just two months away from going gold (pained laughs).

I see you were in hell for as long as it could keep you there…

Kodaka: Checking if no CG illustration was contradicting the story was so much work. The most common mistakes were having the students dressed normal in scenes they were supposed to have their Class Armor, and randomly including students that would be absent at that point in time… This kind of verification is usually easy because it's done by the writer who knows everything about the story, but with the size of THL's story, the workload here had to be split between multiple people, plus my part was too big for me to remember all of it. In the end, I had to reread the entire story to see if any of the art had a mistake in it. That took forever.

Komatsuzaki: The Hundred Line is far from our only game conceived to be excessive in scope, but it is a league above the rest. We couldn't have completed it without help from a lot of people beyond just us of Too Kyo Games.

Kodaka: I'm the last person who should be saying this (awkward laughs), but this wasn't a project any normal person would consider realistic, and yet we completed it. I'm proud to say every detail is the way I wanted it to be, and that going into debt for it was the right call. In a choice between a life where I make The Hundred Line and a life where I don't, I'd pick the former without thinking twice. But if you asked me if I wanted to make a second The Hundred Line…

Komatsuzaki: No (pained laughs).

Kodaka: That's where I'm at right now, too. Do not say the word "sequel" in my presence (pained laughs).

(laughs) You heard Kodaka's feelings on it. If you're interested in knowing what kind of game could do this to him, please check out the demo.

Komatsuzaki: The demo currently available only shows the tip of the iceberg. The full game contains experiences you can't even imagine. Please play it for yourself, at least until you reach an ending.

Drill: I know I'm asking for too much, but if possible, I'd like you to play all endings instead of stopping at just one. I want as many people as possible taking a proper look at the CG illustrations I drew, if nothing else.

Kodaka: I feel that. In the writer team interview, I answered "You're free to stop playing whenever you're satisfied", but my honest opinion about it is "Play everything".

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Links:

Writing team interview

Music team interview

Special guest interview

#the hundred line #last defense academy #kazutaka kodaka #rui komatsuzaki #shimadrill

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hollowsart · 7 months ago

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Thaal Sinestro of Korugar

-cracks knuckles-

Here's ALL of his lore that I cooked up:

(warning for: the sheer ungodly length of this, mentions of death, and a low-key humorous mention of alien physiology at the end cuz I couldn't help myself--)

(Some of this might still be a slight work in progress and/or may be subject to change later on. I'm not sure yet.)

-----

Backstory:

It wasn’t supposed to end that way. He wanted her to be safe and far away from the threat of action. Unfortunately.. he had made a mistake and it cost him greatly. Both heart and mind.

The loss of his wife.. the loss of his best friend, Abin Sur’s sister.. it caused quite the disruption in their friendship.

Some time well after that horrible event, Sinestro and Abin got into an altercation. An argument while out on duty. Abin had heard of Sinestro’s plans, but he didn’t agree with them. Both men were already still rocky and broken from the loss of Arin. So, when Sinestro was plotting some way of utilizing his GL powers to enforce order and protection.. no matter how unreasonable. Abin Sur lashed out. Calling him crazy, delusional, that nothing will ever bring her back.

Sinestro.. well.. he wasn’t thinking and without any ill intention.. he attacked Abin Sur. He only wanted to try and reason with him. He didn’t mean to do it.. but a stray blast from his ring managed to wreck the ship they were traveling in.. and the blast severely damaged Abin Sur.

..Sinestro fled the ship in horror, not seeing the fate of his friend as the ship hurtled down to a particular blue planet. The thought of having presumably killed his own partner and friend on top of having already dealt with the loss of his wife.. well.

That absolutely destroyed him. Shattered him so deeply.. he’s grown distant. Disconnected and apathetic. Bottling up, locking away, and throwing the key away with his emotions..

This was the beginning of the end of his GL career.. and the lead up to him being picked up by the Yellow Corps. The immense fear and angst building up inside him being strong enough he found a new life with the Yellow Lanterns. However, he couldn’t take the life and went rogue. Taking the ring with him and starting his own little sect.

----

imagine. some late series episode that ends with a little close up of some guy who looks a bit like Vincent Price for some reason lowering his newspaper and staring in Guy & Feste's direction as they head back home for the day after having a chat at some outdoor cafe.

you don't know who this weird guy is until it's later revealed that it was Sinestro. He ALSO used his ring to go incognito and appear human so as not to attract any attention while he "stalks" Guy & Feste for some reason idk I didn't think this far.

---

it kinda adds weight to the act of killing him. but like.. it probably killed Sinestro, too.. to do it. maybe it was an accident..? unintentional… during a fight.. and Sinestro was hiding it. and although Guy reminds him of Abin Sur… he hates Guy because he reminds him of Abin Sur and what he did to him. like a weird sort of "reincarnation" thing?? if that makes sense??

Guy being so angry at Sinestro for what he did feels almost cathartic for Sinestro cuz he knows he deserves it.

---

Sinestro sees occasional visions of his wife and friend begging and pleading for his help that will never come. This fuels his fear to power his ring. he needs fear to wield it. and that is a big fear. the repetitive action of losing his wife and friend and not being able to do anything about it.

---

Miscellaneous:

Soranik Natu was given the Natu surname as she was raised by another family. whether on Ungara or Korugar is undecided, but she does keep it.

Sinestro was unable to continue raising her as he was in no condition to do so, and Arin was.. well. out of the picture.

Sinestro sees Soranik and hears her name and he knows that's his daughter and he feels sick. She looks like her mother, he can see it. There's the underlying fear of what she may think of him and how much she may take after him. He is very aware of the terrible things he has done but he is blinded, in a sense, thinking what he is doing is for the greater good. to protect people..

To protect Soranik.

From a fate that fell upon Arin Sur and many others.

---

Soranik is like a combination of the two. her horns are smaller and so are her ears. she has tiny "tusks" (fangs?) compared to her mom.

but she also has elements similar to her dad.

also I can't help but think about Sinestro saying he wishes for his daughter to not become like him, but to instead become more like her mother. honor her memory. it's a terrible loss for the universe for someone like Arin Sur to no longer be in it..

---

I 100% want there to be a moment in an episode where Sinestro's backstory is revealed. like… his life he had up to when Guy first met him. We get to see just how tragic his backstory is.

There's been some subtle little hints here and there before, like someone from on Oa hearing Guy make a remark about Sinestro's weird earring and they tell him what they know.. how it's actually something very meaningful, a combination of two races and their culture. how it is a show of respect and mourning..

the mourning rituals of both Ungarans and Korugarians came together when Sinestro lost Arin. The piercings worn by those who lost a partner from Korugar.. and the wearing of a specific flora from Ungara..

Sinestro's mournful earring has a unique flora depicted hanging from it. A custom metal made to resemble that flora from Ungara.. to honor the memory of Arin Sur. He wears it always except when bathing or resting, but he keeps it with him ever so close at all times.

Should he lose that earring at all… well…

we might just see Sinestro become a Red Lantern.

---

I do kinda like the idea that Ungara and Korugar are relatively close planets with their own races inhabiting them. and because of this, the two races are uniquely compatible, genetically speaking, which leads to how Soranik Natu was born at all when Thaal Sinestro got with Abin Sur's sister, Arin Sur. Sinestro & Arin were the first ones to discover this.

Also, Ungarans are taller than Korugarians. Soranik stands a little taller than Sinestro.

Sinestro is 5'5" (average)

Soranik is 5'9"

Arin & Abin Sur: 6'6" 6'8" (average)

---

(Warning for alien physiology talk & humor)

what if Sinestro has never seen a human before and the first time he sees Guy shirtless in the Oa locker room he notices Guy only has 2 n1ps and Sinestro is like:

"Only 2? However will you feed all your young? Surely they should starve with such a lack of bodily provisions."

And Guy stands there extremely confused. Asks him what in the ever-loving heck he's talking about. Sinestro responds by merely removing his own clothes and presents his 8 n1ps.

Guy is understandably disturbed by the implications now registering in his mind.

If Guy ever mentions pregnancy, Sinestro responds "The women carry the young and the men provide for the young. ..What does your kind do? Don't tell me the women do all the work and that you're utterly useless? You humans are quite the odd creature."

Guy is very much offended.

#my art #phone art #thaal sinestro #sinestro #green lantern #yellow lantern #sinestro corps #abin sur #arin sur #soranik natu #guy gardner #//long post #may as well tag them all in here #ask to tag #suggestive??#cw blood #tw blood #tw death mention #CAN YOU GUYS TELL HOW MUCH MY BRAIN LATCHED ONTO THIS? I hope posting this helps to remove him from my brain space.

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naivety · 24 days ago

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death, life, lycanthropy.

death is a central theme in teen wolf, largely because it's the most extreme form of both change and the unknown; a fitting combination for a show about shapeshifters, and teen wolf has never been afraid to explore it. death and resurrection are well-worn tools in the narrative to depict both horror of transformation and transformation itself, for the better or the worse. new kinds of living always require some kind of dying to make way, and the teen part of teen wolf is the fertile ground for the guttural uproot of this process. what's interesting to me is how autonomy plays into it.

funnily enough, i was researching the history of zombie folklore when my brain started picking up breadcrumbs. according to wyatt macgaffey, the kimbundu word "nzumbe" or "nzambi", roughly meaning "ghost" or "spirit of a dead person," is thought to be the origin of the word zombie. vodoun priests, bokors, induced this ritual with a magical powder called coup poudre containing tetrodotoxin as a key ingredient that paralyzed the victim and their respiratory system to the point of clinical lifelessness, allowing the body to be buried only to be dug back up some time later still living, though likely severely brain damaged; prime condition for outside influence. they would then supposedly remain under the bokor's power until the bokor's death. theft of not just the living body, but the will.

force of will is a familiar concept within the teen wolf narrative as well, painting the characters' abilities to complete spells, take pain, or rise to positions of power. will is a magical tool. life essence, in a way, and yet the concept of the zombie depicts a life-form that's void of this life essence. if death is life essence removed from the body, what does it mean when the body still moves? not alive, not dead, but something else. halfway between one and the other.

the lore within teen wolf puts the victim of an alpha werewolf's bite at a crossroads their body will step through with or without their consent; death or transformation. in the instance of our protagonist, this process is very much non-consensual, and a kind of death regardless of survival. his body healed of it's human ailments only to be subject to the will of the same creature that forced this transformation in the first place, and it wants him to kill people. in response, scott develops a new kind of allergy to the act of taking a life himself, regardless of where this line in the sand lands from situation to situation, and regardless of if his own life hangs in the balance as a side effect. scott dies a total of three times in the show with even more attempts on his life to number, all as the price for this transformation of self he wrestled from peter hale's force of will back within his own. were he not bit in the pilot, scott mccall likely wouldn't have turned into the kind of person willing to die so seamlessly, wouldn't have needed to, but he was put on this irreversible threshold of one change or another. die to himself to make way for peter hale's new creation, or create something of his own. change of some kind is inevitable and irreversible. in the moment of this choice, of will primed for action, you exist in-between. halfway between one choice and another. you as a concept become hypothetical, pure possibility, whether that's you as a body or you as you know yourself; your life or your will.

lycanthropy as an allegory for transgenderism has already been done before, but with teen wolf's themes of self-determination and the body, they've never been more apt, but i'm here to talk about bardo. bardo ties all these themes of life and death and change and in-between states together. as kira says herself, bardo comes from the tibetan bar, meaning ‘interval’, and do, ‘two’. between two states. it's a crossroads of death and rebirth, death and transformation. within tibetan buddism, it's a space articulated as stages of both your life and your death as they are inexplicably tied through time, and you can draw a direct parallel between each level with the stages of scott's growth throughout the text. teen wolf gives us enough to chew on throughout each season, but none more than its depiction of scott's canon bardo experience in episode 8 of season 4, time of death.

it's an episode immediately following weaponized, in which our shapeshifters are infected with a virus that kills them slowly, all while wrestling the physical manifestations of their supernatural nature from their control. their glowing eyes, their fangs, their claws, even their blood; unnatural, inhuman, even in death. weaponized, which features scott's father, rafael, killing someone in order to save a life. time of death opens with scott asking his dad about this experience in a way that directly parallels their scene together in season 3 episode 23, insatiable, when rafael recounts a moment of personal transformation that could only come about through a kind of destruction to scott's body; an injury scott couldn't recall and his loved ones purposefully denied the possibility to. father explains to son how killing isn't an easy thing, not even when you're forced to do it, and what it means to do it anyway. unbeknownst to the father, his werewolf son is already familiar with these elements of death and choice, transformation and will, the capacity to create and destroy either, however scared of them he remains.

to be a werewolf is to be on the precipice of choice every full moon for the rest of your life. the inevitable changes that come with living life now go through the visceral filter of your body that's not quite human, not quite beast, but something stuck between. in philip brophy's article horrality: the textuality of the contemporary horror film, he coins the term body-horror as a genre itself. he describes the destruction of the body as a pervasive element of horror due to its display of our physical selves severed from our control. the audience is made an audience to themselves with their sense of self extracted; on they look as a body that looks like theirs does things their bodies should not be able to do, let alone survive. die, resurrect, transform, bleed. the pain is hypothetical made visceral. the horror of lycanthropy is embodied. you're bitten and made new; still you, yet only halfway. the other half is subject to feelings unbridled; joy, jealousy, lust, love, rage, and in teen wolf's case, the will of the one who bit you. loss of autonomy is made as horrifying as loss of life. your self is now suspended between the most base parts of you and not you at all, your physical self at odds with your sense of self. whose body is it then, if not your own anymore?

by time of death, scott is firmly beyond peter's realm of control. he's anchored his wolf in others and himself, become an alpha of his own making through sheer force of will and prominence of character all before he's old enough to graduate, and as of 5 episodes earlier, he's bitten his very first beta. season 3 for scott establishes this sense of self into something solid and actualized, whether it's a tattoo burned into his skin or an alpha red into his eyes. it's poignant to me that out of the two, scott directly chooses the former while the latter once again happens to him more than he happens to it, same as when he bites liam. scott's transformation into an alpha is just as much a change he survives as his transformation into a werewolf. his will is secondary to the process of surviving the trauma forced upon him to attain these positions of inhuman power. trauma itself can be conceptualized as a fracturing of the psyche; you, as pieces. all the parts you can still identify with, and all the parts you can't.

teen wolf is riddled with an array of traumatized characters who are shaped by violence by either being able to identify with others through a shared sense of victimhood, or the adamant refusal to identify themselves as victims ever again. the self is broken apart, and you only have so much composure left after the trauma itself to pick up the pieces, however few or many you can hold without cutting yourself on the edges. dissociation is a trauma response, and its disorders are characterized by “a disruption of and/or discontinuity in the normal integration of consciousness, memory, identity, emotion, perception, body representation, motor control, and behavior”. trauma is its own crossroad, and season 4 is the culmination of all the instances scott's transformations have intersected with his will, moreover the ways it's robbed him of it as much as he's refused to let it. the season in which scott experiences bardo so vividly is the same season he's a fully fledged alpha, the same season he turns a kid for the first time, the same season peter comes back to take both his life and his will for a second time in an episode titled smoke and mirrors.

the fifth stage of tibetan bardo, the stage after the moment of death, is chönyi bardo, the bardo of dharmata, or the luminosity of the true nature. as andrew holecek puts it in his excellent article on these stages, "in the buddhist view, the essence of mind is the same for all sentient beings. but the surface structures that cover that essence are different. hence the journey through the surface structures (bardo of dying), into the essence of mind (bardo of dharmata), and then out of it (bardo of becoming), is not the same, but the general pattern of this three-stage process is universal. any meditation that allows you to become familiar with your mind will prepare you for death. in the bardos we’re 'forced' to relate to our mind simply because there’s nothing else." despite having a force of will the world only sees once every hundred years, scott's nature as a werewolf and an alpha were transformations forced upon him. scott's coping mechanism is to step into the change with the inverted intentions of those who sought to change him in the first place. however, the moment this coping mechanism falls short, all it takes is a little wolfsbane to impair the inhibitions and scott is ready to set himself on fire over it.

to be in-between is to be the anchor of two opposites. you are the similarity between opposing forces. the same thing that makes scott able to save lives instead of kill them is the same thing that makes him able to, well, kill them-- both with greater ease than humans are able to throughout the show. bardo is only shattered glass; what you see depends on you, the sole audience. if scott's goodwill comes at the cost of his own life, the inverse of this is scott hacking into his beta's body with a tomahawk until his eyes glow redder than the blood on his face. the only thing between these two versions of him is his own will, but all three points are still him. there is no real divide, and in death, all that remains is you, so why the horror?

if scott's life has become the pervasive theft of his body, death of the body over death of the self, scott’s bardo is the theft of his human will. death of the self over death of the body. this stage of grief, of denial, that he's neither monster nor man, but something in-between. chönyi bardo is known to possess the capacity to frighten and confuse as much as it can liberate. it's death as a stage of transformation-- an inevitable transformation, but bardo is the crossroads at which a choice is made; further fracture, or integration. fear primes for action, for decision, premeditates change as much as force of will. halfway between human and wolf, the choice between the mortality of the man or the immortality of the monster is visceral; change or die. there's no space to grieve for either in a state of base survival, of trauma. until you can face yourself with enough curiosity to beget empathy, enough empathy to beget understanding to beget acceptance, there is no regression to the mean. there's no room for it in a corner. there are only two extreme choices to make; change of some kind is inevitable and irreversible. right?

that's the thing about death; everybody fears it, but nobody knows it. all we know is the time between it and our beginning, and how the world teaches us to survive it. for all scott's strength of character, he's just a kid, and he's is unable to integrate his fear as much as re-iterate his force of will over those who made him so afraid, and so he is reborn just to die young again. it's re-possession of the self so many have tried to steal, what his very next antagonist tries to steal yet again in the following season, but it's what digs his grave at the same time. will over life. change or die, and scott's forced in the same corner he's been in since his first brush with bardo underwater, since he was first faced with this non-choice: death. no funeral.

#j writes #teen wolf meta #scott mccall #not even doing this properly rip i've had ENOUGHHH i cannot look at this #got too earnest about the teen wolf while microdosing what's up. i have 5 mins left of meta may we ball #lycanthropy as adolescence as trauma as death as change as autonomy as survival as grief <3 yippe <3 #teen wolf above all is about teenage tragedy #so scared people will think this is victim blame-y but that's not what it issss we are doing brain surgery on scott mccall #on the human experience moreover. to me #on what it means when trauma ages you before your time and how it can damage you beyond repair and how you can still heal from it anyway #against all odds. all the ways scott mccall both does and doesn't. to me!#on fucking teen wolf yeah #do you see the vision because i feel insane #would you believe me if i said i could go on even longer #mental illness etc etc #i am going to bed live laugh love

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mrcompass · 9 months ago

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A critic of the Legendary Bladers concept.

The concept of the Legendary Blader is central to Beyblade: Metal Fury, playing a significant role in shaping the third part of the MFB series. Through this, new characters, themes, lore, and ideas were introduced. In this analysis, I will explore the Legendary Blader concept by focusing on three key points.

The star fragment and bey obsolescence

The Star Fragment is obviously a central element for the Legendary Bladers, as it is what sets them apart from other Bladers. The Star Fragment serves as a convenient excuse to evolve the Beys of pre-existing characters: Gingka, Kyoya, Ryuga, and later Kenta. Evolutions in the MFB anime are actually quite rare. Unlike the manga, characters don’t evolve their Beys through progress or special events. In fact, it’s more common for a character to change part of their Bey (like Chaoxin), and sometimes characters even change them entirely (like Zeo and Toby). However, the latter case was due to their need for a fresh start after being subjected to Hades Inc. Masamune received an evolved version of his Unicorno thanks to Coach Steel’s modifications, but he did this precisely because he learned Gingka’s Pegasus had evolved and wanted to become a Legendary Blader. Finally, Ryuga was able to evolve Lightning L-Drago into Meteo L-Drago by conquering the dark power.

This illustrates that in the Metal Saga, Beys are an essential part of a character’s identity, and they don’t often change them. Beys are considered partners and are too deeply intertwined with the supernatural and the characters themselves (after all, the characters’ designs are based on their Beys) to be modified on a whim. For example, it would be strange for Kyoya or Gingka to ask Madoka to modify their Beys, given the values they hold for them.

This is actually a disadvantage for MFB, as the goal of the anime is to sell Beyblades. As a result, whenever you introduce a prominent Beyblade that you really want to sell, you have to create a new character. This might cause issues with character development, considering the number of characters already in the show and the limited number of episodes.

This is where the Star Fragment is a genius move: it allows the Beys of previous characters to evolve into the new 4D system. This way, they can present the new system as special. Additionally, it was already established that Beys are made of meteorite material, so a fragment of the same thing powering the Beys seems logical.

This doesn’t mean the concept is perfect, though. The first problem is that it is reserved for only a select few, and the evolutions only apply to pre-existing characters. This actually limits the new system to a handful of people: the Legendary Bladers, the Nemesis Bladers, Ryuto, and Masamune. The second issue is that it clearly sets these characters apart from all the others. Even though some of the Fusion characters were outclassed by Gingka and his group, as demonstrated in Battle Bladers, there was still hope for them to come back stronger and remain relevant in the show. After all, Tsubasa and Yu maintained consistent roles in later seasons, and Tobio even returned during the Destroyer Dome.

But now that we have a group of Bladers certified as the "strongest in the world" thanks to the Star Fragment, the hope for other characters to shine, surpass the Legendary Bladers with their own skills, or even create tension in a match has been demolished. The proof is that no Legendary Blader has ever lost to a non-Legendary Blader, and no holder of a 4D Beyblade has lost to a Blader with a non-4D Bey. For example, Yuki was able to beat Cycnus, and Johannes was able to outplay Dashan.

This perfectly illustrates what I call "Bey obsolescence," which refers to a new kind of Bey or system eclipsing the others within the same generation. For example, in Fusion, characters with Beys using plastic fusion wheels played a relevant part, yet in Metal Masters, these Beys are reserved for background characters. This kind of Bey was used by Kenta’s friends, whom we don’t see anymore after Fusion, as well as Hikaru and Hyoma. The latter two were strong enough to defeat Kenta at one point and participate in Battle Bladers, but they are the only participants of that tournament who have given up competitive Beyblading.

Of course, there’s the factor of their trauma, but Tsubasa overcame the dark power, and they could have had their roles switched with others in Battle Bladers. However, it didn’t happen, and I think the explanation is that it was simply convenient to reduce the presence of two characters using an obsolete system to make more room for new Bladers and Beys. As conspiratorial as it might sound, if you look at any team in the World Championship, none of them—not even Team Desert Blaze—used plastic wheels. This obsolescence is real, as seen in Zero-G, where the generic Beys use the Ray and Spiral fusion wheels, which were once used by prominent characters.

I think Metal Fury is painfully aware of this and tries its best to counteract it, mainly by showing close fights, like Gingka vs. Kenta in Beyster Island or Kyoya vs. Yu. In a way, it works. It’s almost impressive how these characters can hold their own with their Metal Fusion Beyblades against Legendary Bladers.Another point the anime insists on is that Gingka and Kyoya needed to learn how to use their new 4D Beys. Before their defeats against Ryuga, they often relied on mode changes, much like Johannes and the rest of the Nemesis Bladers did. It’s notable that Johannes, Pluto, Hershel, and Cycnus don’t have a special move, and for the latter three, they don’t even have a Bey-beast or aura. These are characters who over-rely on their Beys’ abilities rather than fully utilizing their potential. This is presented as the “wrong way” to use a 4D Bey. It’s also noteworthy that Kyoya and Kenta created their special moves by defeating one of these Bladers. So, in a way, the anime tries to tell us that while it’s great to have a powerful new Bey, if you just rely on mode changes, you’re not going to get very far.

So, even though the Star Fragment is a great idea for changing the Bey system, it kind of limits the possibility of characters benefiting from it. Especially considering that only four characters received drastic evolutions. It also confirms the tendency to leave characters behind, depending on their beys. Nonetheless the series finale addresses this issue by having all the Bladers transfer their power to Gingka.

The Legendary Bladers and Character Development

The second point that needs huglight is the legendary blader themselves and how they perforemd as characters. This is not about critizing the choice of these characters for the legendary blader postion but rather seeing if there is more to them than their title and if they are developped. Now characters developpment is all well and good but it is better if a charatcers is fleshed out so they can stand out more.

Gingka, Kyoya, Ryuga and Kenta

On the eleven people that received a star fragment only four were introduced in a previous season: Kyoya, Gingka and Ryuga and Kenta. All fo them were well established charcters and they all had their time to shine in the season. Kyoya had his little arc, Gingka put an end to Nemesis thanks to all the blader ijn the world and Ryuga and Kenta built a bond with each other. We actually saw more of Ryuga, how he trains and how he lives thanks to his tribulations. For Kenta this was the occasion to grow stronger but also distance himself from Gingka and the rest of the group, which allowed him to stand out more and gained independance. Bulding a relationship between Kenta and Ryuga was obviously surprising and welcomed. As the two had never really interacted with each other and are actually very different. We have Ryuga who was always strong and narcistic and Kenta who built slowly but surely his strenght and tries his best to help friends whenever he can. His journey with Ryuga is actually refreshing and unexpected. In my opinion it is the most succesfull things metal fury did. Reagarding their selections as legendary blader I think it what obvious they would be selected. Kyoya, Gingka and Ryuga are the strongest blader in the world with a lot of achievement to their credit like battle blader and tghe world championship. Kenta succeding to Ryuga as the lengadry blader of summer is a perfect consluon to his charcters journey not only in fury but in the whole series as well.

Yuki

Yuki was introduced very early in the season, being one of the first characters to appear in Metal Fury. Much like Kenta, Yuki starts off by being attacked, unable to defend himself until Gingka intervenes. They quickly become friends. After Kenta left the group, Yuki somewhat filled his role without replacing him. Yuki has elements that set him apart—he is determined, enjoys astronomy, and uses his passions to his advantage (like when he figured out how to open the door of Dynamis's temple). He is intelligent and loyal. However, his biggest weakness is his lack of confidence in himself as a Blader.

After he became a Legendary Blader, he participated in the Tag Team tournament alongside Gingka, and his confidence improved—a trend that continued over time. Overall, Yuki was a well-developed character; he had time to be properly fleshed out, and he actually grew during the season.

The main issue comes when it’s revealed that Yuki is a descendant of one of the Bladers who fought Nemesis in the past, which allowed him to gain the star fragment. Yuki’s reaction is one of pride and joy, as one might expect. However, for me, this was a missed opportunity for introspection. He’s supposed to be a clever and level-headed character, yet he never questions the influence of destiny on his life. Was he always destined to become friends with Gingka? Are his achievements only due to his ancestors? This could have led to Yuki affirming himself—not in opposition to his fate, but as his own person. This would have been a nice way to parallel Rago and Pluto, who mindlessly follow the prophecy of their own ancestor.

Aguma

Regarding the case of Aguma, I believe he also benefited from an earlier introduction compared to the other Legendary Bladers. He is also the first to join Nemesis, which sets him apart from the others. Aguma is part of the Beylin Fist, a rebel faction of the Beylin Temple. He wishes for his faction to get the recognition they deserve, which is why he allies himself with Johannes, who promised that in the "New World," the Beylin Fist would become the one and only school for Beyblade. This integrates Aguma and the rest of his clan into the world of MFB by using the pre-existing Beylin Temple.

Though Aguma does not develop a rivalry with Dashan, he does have an antagonistic relationship with Kyoya, which plays into Kyoya's solo arc. By being one of the antagonists during Metal Fury alongside Johannes, Aguma manages to stand on his own and gain some individuality. After his successive losses to Kyoya, King, and Tithi, as well as Pluto's betrayal, Aguma faces an internal crisis about what to do next: help the Legendary Bladers, do nothing, or side with Nemesis.

This moment of introspection could have been a positive turning point, if it hadn’t been interrupted in the worst way possible. Dynamis reveals that Aguma's ancestor sided with Hades in the past, before switching sides to join the Legendary Bladers after an encounter with Tithi's ancestor. Because of this, it feels like all of Aguma's choices have been dictated by fate, as he ends up replicating the same mistakes his ancestor did. This makes him seem more like a puppet of fate rather than a fully developed character.

King

King was introduced around the middle of the season. Like Yuki and Aguma, he participated in two tournaments, showcasing his performance to the viewers. The most important aspect of King is the friendship he built with Masamune. In my opinion, they complement each other very well, as seen during their battle against Hershel, and King quickly became a part of Team Dungeon.

Of course, King suffers from the same circumstances as the other Solar System Bladers, but what counteracts this is his genuine love for Beyblade, much like Masamune and Gingka. Additionally, his ancestry never got in the way of his actions or choices, and he didn’t seem to place much importance on it. Even if he wasn’t a Legendary Blader, he still had a unique Beyblade, Variares, that can spin in both directions, which already makes him stand out.

In summary, King is a very unique, iconic, and well-integrated character.

Dynamis

Dynamis first appeared in the arc just before the Beyster Island tournament, and he didn’t participate in it. Just like in the manga, he doesn’t have much screen time compared to the previous Legendary Bladers. I think this is due to the fact that his primary purpose is to deliver the lore behind the Legendary Bladers, making it harder to dissociate him from that role.

Later on, Dynamis gets possessed by a dark power, which might be an allusion to Tsubasa’s dark power arc. This is fitting since Zeus, represented by Dynamis's Beyblade Jupiter, has an eagle as its symbolic animal.

Dynamis’s main problem is that he doesn’t have any real meaningful relationships with other characters, making him feel more like a plot device.

Chris

Chris was also introduced fairly late in the season, but fortunately, he has a backstory. He suffered a similar situation to King, being ostracized and abandoned because of his strength, which alludes to the fact that Legendary Bladers in the manga aren’t allowed to participate in tournaments due to their overwhelming power. Unlike the other Bladers of the four seasons, Chris wasn’t introduced in previous seasons, nor did he have an impressive record before winning Beyster Island. He suffered from unfortunate circumstances that prevented him from going to the World Championship.

However, Chris brings with him an interesting concept—that of a mercenary Blader. This is relatively new to the series, and it seems to fit well in a world where Beyblade holds such a significant place. It’s almost strange that we didn’t see more variations of what a Blader can do outside of just fighting in tournaments. Unfortunately, this concept was introduced far too late to be fully explored, especially considering Chris seemingly gives up the mercenary way. After he lost to Gingka and sided with the Legendary Bladers, it appears Chris turned over a new leaf, but since this happened just before the final fight against Nemesis, we didn’t have enough time to appreciate his development.

Tithi

Tithi was the last Legendary Blader to be introduced. What’s original about his introduction is that, unlike the others, he isn’t found by Gingka but by Kyoya and Yu. From the start, we get a good sense of his personality—he’s a shy kid who just wants friends to play Beyblade with, a feeling Yu understands well. Their bonding was very sweet to watch and helped reintroduce Yu into the new season.

During battle, we see that Tithi has a joyful personality. He can be unpredictable and a little wild at times. Of course, who could forget him annoying Kyoya by calling him "Tatakyo/Yoyo"? Tithi later battled Aguma, which contributed to Aguma's doubts (along with Pluto’s betrayal).

Overall, I think Tithi was fleshed out well, but the problem is that he was introduced so late in the season that it feels like he was mercilessly thrown into the Nemesis crisis. Think about it—he was just a little kid minding his own business, finally finding a friend to play Beyblade with, and less than two days later, he’s forced to face this universe's version of Satan. However, his potential was clearly wasted, especially considering he stayed with Dynamis, with whom he had almost no interactions.

Rago

Rago is one of the main antagonists of Metal Fury, and he is also the only Legendary Blader to be truly evil. He appears in the latter part of the season, which seems at odds with how the anime presents him—as the ultimate villain Gingka and the rest must face. Rago is merely the man who wields Nemesis, nothing more and nothing less. He shares similarities with previous main Blader antagonists like Ryuga and Damian by being narcissistic, boastful, and insulting. However, Rago's issue is that he didn’t have the same buildup as Ryuga did in Metal Fusion. He feels like a character pulled from a catalog, especially considering that he appears alongside the Nemesis Bladers.

Though he endangered the entire world and kills Ryuga, there’s no progression to his evil actions. The problem is that we already know he wants to destroy the planet and end all life. In contrast, Ryuga's actions in Metal Fusion became increasingly unhinged, making us fear and anticipate his next move. However, Rago has something that sets him apart from other villains—he's not Gingka's villain but Ryuga's. There isn’t much of a parallel between Gingka and Rago. The Legendary Bladers of the Solar System, much like Rago, are bound by fate, while Ryuga is different.

Ryuga wanted to bury his past in the Dark Nebula, particularly the time he was possessed by L-Drago. Then, in Metal Fury, Doji returns alongside a new Blader who controls a seemingly unstoppable dark artifact that just absorbed L-Drago’s power. Ryuga feels insulted, but the main reason he fights Rago is because he sees himself—Metal Fusion Ryuga—in him and wants to destroy that part of himself. Additionally, Rago is a threat to his supremacy in the Beyblade world, so if Ryuga wants to live up to his title, he must either fight him or die trying.

Overall, I think Rago is a pretty solid antagonist. He serves his purpose, and while his fight with Ryuga meant more for the latter’s character, it allows Rago to be more integrated into the story.

Most of the new characters who became Legendary Bladers serve their purpose well; they are unique characters. Some are more integrated than others into the wider MFB canon. However, they all would have benefitted from more time to be fleshed out, particularly Dynamis and Chris. The new lore surrounding them adds more substance to the series, but at the same time, the over-reliance on it and on fate hurt some of these characters badly (like Yuki and Aguma). The main problem is that Metal Fury was 12 episodes shorter than the previous two seasons. With that amount of additional episodes, the new characters could have benefitted greatly from further development. In summary, this is a big waste of potential, and most of them don’t succeed at being more than just Legendary Bladers.

Gingka Hagane and the concept of fate.

The concept of fate and supernatural forces has always been present in Metal Fight Beyblade. In Metal Fusion, we had Ryutaro, who had visions about the future, while in Metal Masters, Julian and Damian used a vague concept of fate to justify their positions and why they should win. Despite this, Gingka was able to beat them all and even overcame fate. Ryutaro had a vision of an apocalyptic future, but after his losses to Gingka in Battle Bladers, he saw that a different path was possible. Madoka's computer predicted that Gingka had less than a 1% chance to win against L-Drago, yet he succeeded. Finally, let's not forget that King Hades' prophecy hadn’t fully realized itself because Gingka and the whole world defeated Nemesis. The point is that Gingka has a habit of triumphing over fate and preconceived ideas. For him, being a blader is about fighting with his heart, loving his Bey, and getting back up when he loses—it’s how he becomes powerful. Yet, in Metal Fury, some of the most powerful bladers are those who have special ancestors and a star fragment in their Bey. The reason the star fragment chooses those particular bladers is related to fate, as the attribution was tied to the prophecy and is known by Dynamis. This use of the concept of fate and predetermined power in Metal Fury fundamentally undermines the themes that were built in previous seasons of Metal Fight Beyblade. Gingka’s story in Metal Fusion and Metal Masters was about defying odds, challenging fate, and rising through sheer willpower and love for the sport.

The concept of the Legendary Blader brought some fresh elements to Metal Fury but ultimately constrained the series. While it introduced new characters and deeper lore, the overreliance on fate limited the potential for character growth and reduced the tension in battles. Characters like Yuki and Aguma were overshadowed by their predetermined roles, while others, like Dynamis and Chris, suffered from lack of development due to the shortened season. While there were positive developments, such as the evolving relationship between Ryuga and Kenta or the bond between King and Masamune, Metal Fury ultimately fell into the same trap as its predecessor by superficially handling an expanded cast. The season reflects a broader fatigue with the Metal Saga, struggling to balance the introduction of new elements with the need for meaningful character development.

#metal fight beyblade #mfb #gingka hagane #metal fury #kyoya tategami #ryuga beyblade #chris mfb #tithi beyblade #dynamis beyblade #kenta yumiya #yuki mizusawa #aguma beyblade #king beyblade #masamune kadoya

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pinkblanket7 · 6 days ago

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Stupid alien stage au…. More info under cut for anyone who gives a gaf

Just a warning a lot of this lore will not align with alien stage exactly, I’m not the most caught up person on everything so I kinda just ball… also they don’t have the same exact relationships as their AU counterparts as u will see…

So like the characters basically go like:

Sua: Yolay

Mizi: Sarah

Ivan: Knight

Till: Greg

Luka: Petey

Hyuna: Lil Petey

(These sketches r high key lazy sorry…) Sarah and Yolay have kinda the exact same situation mizisua does, I haven’t totally thought out their story more than that…

Petey’s main goal is to win and will do whatever it takes to. He has that same skill Luka does with the copying other people, he does it on Sarah during ruler of my heart. Similar to alnst, she ends up beating the shit out of him near the end (u go girl…), and gets saved by the rebellion; Lil Petey pulls up and drags her out

I’m still working out Petey’s backstory and how Lil Petey even got into the rebellion or whatever but all I got is LP is a clone created by the aliens and he somehow escaped orrr he somehow got into alien stage and had a similar thing to hyuna like getting rescued by the rebellion…?.?? I will get back to that…

Greg is a humanoid dog similar to Petey in this AU, he’s quiet for the most part, tends to not speak unless absolutely necessary and obvi when he’s singing. He and Knight grew up in Ohkay Garden (instead of anakt garden Ik I’m a genius), together and became super good friends. Knight was a really talkative kid and it’s part of the reason why he got along so well with Greg, they were basically yapper and listener besties

When Greg and Knight go up against each other, Greg is 100% ready to lose on purpose for Knight so he doesn’t try as hard during his performance. Knight was also ready to lose on purpose but realizes what Greg’s up to, so he has to purposefully drop his score by attacking Greg instead; he does the same choke thing Ivan does except without the kissing. Greg can’t really like fight back cuz he’s being choked but with the little strength he has left, all he’s able to do is get closer to Knight and leave him a few scratches on his forearms, which messes up the aliens’ aim (don’t ask how just… use ur imagination). Both Greg and Knight get shot, Knight gets shot in the head and DIES, and Greg gets shot on the side leaving him barely conscious. They both fall on each other, The lights go out, and Greg is left to look at Knights dead body and eventually loses consciousness. The aliens start freaking out cuz they messed up big time… and one of the aliens is like “okay hear me out… what IF we sew the dogs head on the man’s body :D” so they collect the corpses, do their thing, and that’s how DOG MAN is made!!! So. Yeah.

Then DM and PT go up against each other in blink gone and it’s cinema yeah (more super scuffed sketches…) I love detey but in this au they don’t rly have much chemistry except for some weird gay tension in blink gone I guess… shrugs…

There is so much more I gotta figure out but that’s enough for this post 😭😭😭 also this is all subject to change… any1 feel free to ask or point any flaws out it will just help me develop this further 👍👍 hoping to make more art of this au and i can just like info dump under

#dog man #dogman #petey the cat #dm alnst au #idk how to tag this

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unhappytimeleaper · 2 years ago

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Character analysis; main concepts

A lot of this references some hints to lore and stuff I found. Not a lot are direct spoilers, but since Venti is built on his vagueness to his past, this likely will be able to be subject to change as time goes on.

Also, I wasn't sure if I asked if anyone would reply to whom to pick for my analysis. I asked some friends on a Yandere discord server, and in passing, one of them mentioned Venti, so I just went with it. Shout out to them. I hate making decisions. And leaper lore, but Venti is the reason I got into Genshin, so I guess it's fitting he is first.

The final quick personal note is I wanted to thank everyone for the 150 followers. I know it's not a lot, but I am thankful for the handful I know have been around for a while and for those who have considered following; Tumblr and most other SNS are rough for creators as reblog ratios are so low and other issues, but I am very grateful for those who keep coming back.

Venti [Barbatos]; Unedited. Gender neutral reader. Part 1

Warnings; yandere!! It touches on every main category of the troupe, so if you are sensitive to manipulation [emotional and mental], alcoholism, codependency, guilt [even self-imposed], obsession, lying, stalking, some general creepy behavior, breaking and entering, possessiveness, delusional thoughts, unwanted touching [sfw], and anything else you can think of being related to yandere troupes, then it's best to just not read. Also, a massive warning for talks about religion, idolization in the 'church,' and abuse of power within religious settings.

Word Count: 8.4K

This blog is 17+ please have your age in your bio or tagged; any ageless blog and below the age asked for will be blocked at the end of the week.

Maxed Stats

General manipulation

As a key component, Venti is a general trickster; he comes naturally with the skills of forgery, fabrication, pilfering, and illusion-making. These tools under his control make him naturally an enigma but build into easy traits of manipulation as he needs not just to you but to anyone. And for an early establishment, Venti's natural manipulation is not just tied to these specific skills. Still, it almost comes coded into how he exists as more of himself is revealed. Though these particular skills of lying are much harder to pick up on, between the riddles of his words and decent, innocent appearance, it's easy for him to pull off a twist of words or lie his way out of a situation.

As pointed out, manipulation is a skill that Venti can best use against anyone. To you, he is likely able to find excuses to keep up his actions. Outside of the wall of Mondstadt, he can quickly find reasonings as to why he's there, too. More often than not, he's somewhere close. While in areas like Windwail and Brightcrown, he can stay hidden, only needing to reveal himself if you find yourself in trouble, in regions like Starfell and Galesong, you can often see him not too far off in the distance. Even if you doubt his reasoning, it's hard to find proof of his stalking, making the moments unsettling, but his cuteness and way of words make it hard to get upset. Guilt festers as he looks so sad with accusations of something more sinister and that he has ulterior motives. Or how within the walls Venti is quick to find you and cling on, either in close proximity of walking or physically bound to you somehow— it's easy to tell when he's been drinking as he tends to be much more touchy in those moments. While it takes a lot for him to truly get drunk, he likes to play it up as there are so many more benefits and things you let slide. You have to take care of him in some way, and he always has a reason to be around longer.

In cases of late nights together, Venti sometimes lets you feel as if you have the upper hand, too. Pretending to be more drunk than he is and more open, allowing you to handle your chance at burning questions as he wistfully gives answers. Often, they are still vague but do let you delve more into his past, the trauma he has endured, or the loneliness that has come into his life. The more you learn, the more guilt grows at the idea of rejecting him. Of leaving Mondstadt in favor of exploration or answers. It's also not one where everything he shares is a goal of manipulating these feelings or actions.

Venti's love is absolute; for that, he wants to share what he can, with his goal of being bound to you, which means sharing these personal moments. For him, learning about you is so much easier with his status and age. Still, you can seldom learn about him in the same way, even more, as he can't fully spill his guts about his past at a moment's notice. However, he can think of this as an added benefit; manipulation, even if it's not the goal, is still emotional manipulation.

These times, there often are levels of manipulation about other places and people he puts in place. Different regions and gods aren't free from their past either, and Venti is known to share moments of these in his riddles. Aspects of how the lands have changed, how they have changed, but the imposing struggles carry through their lands. It's not really shit-talking them, nor a full-on slander campaign, but the language and words he uses are often dulled in favorability of what they could be. Similarly, he might often find ways to weave in things that could cause greater fear in you to manipulate you into thinking you are much too weak for the creatures that lurk there. While some parts you can chalk up to his story-telling nature and that by making it more dramatic, it sounds better, there often is a growing uneasiness about how vicious parts it could really be. More than countless times, there have been moments of your own danger, only saved by the grace of the wind and Venti nearby… In contrast, he speaks of Mondstadt and its people much more positively, and while he has some jealousy of those in his region you gain closeness with, he also tends to have a much more positive relationship with them, allowing those to be better tools to help in his love life than those in say Sumeru or Inazuma. He tends to maybe add in some more lighthearted jabs that can have an air of jealousy in them, even more if Venti feels you've been around them a lot recently, but in the way he talks, it often is more of playful bad-mouthing than down right insults.

As touched on, Venti's manipulation of you isn't always intended or done with negative goals. One side of this is again linked generally to how he speaks. Being this enigmatic person whose words are always wistful and hold more profound meaning, there is a natural draw to learn more. It's only made more of something that is hook when he doesn't often go around sharing this self-lore to someone so known but distant in Mondstadt to just anyone. It's almost like a balloon or bubble; the hints that are added build up little by little as time goes on without seeking out Venti for more until it pops. A droplet of information at a time until it consumes your mind, going back looking for more details to answers to the questions you'd had running in your mind for days. Soon enough, you are the one asking where the mysterious bard is to the townspeople, only cementing more in their minds the nature of your relationship being more than platonic. It also, again, just makes you feel special, a self-imposed superiority that you are the person who knows him best [which this ego can be inflated more if you know him as barbatos as well]. Venti knows these actions are manipulative in a sense, and again. At the same time, it doesn't truly harm anyone; it's still manipulation at its core in building this unique reliance on him.

And Venti's manipulation is ever present in the town and the people of Mondstadt. The key ways he uses these are to get more information about you and, as usual, get away with things. However, as briefly stated, Venti uses the wind and himself as a factor in starting rumors that there is naturally more to what is happening between you that can be exploited for later use. But back to the first point, Venti is able to once again use his 'charm' and way of speaking to easily coax others to give out more information about you. He literally likes things about your past, interests, personal relationships with others, likes, dislikes, and such through his friendly demeanor and guiding the conversations. And while he can easily track and monitor you through the wind, by talking to others around and having them tell him where you are, it helps set up a close alibi if you were to question him later. Essentially, in this case, the guards and townpeople become effective scapegoats for his stalking if needed. Furthermore, these questions end up helping intensify any rumors as the questions, over time, can become more and more romantic.

His manipulation does also be a benefit as he really is one with the people, if not distant in details. By having personal connections to groups like people in the Adventure's Guild and Knights of Favonius through people like Jean & Kaeya, they easily can be tools to help with his… well, propaganda. Even the temple with Rosaria. You ask about traveling and other nations to people in the Adventure's Guild, and they tend to often only share more gruesome or darker aspects of their stories. Of have plenty of tragedy by the time they reach the 'positive goal' that it's a natural persuasion to not want to often venture too far outside of Mondstadt. Or say you are one to leave; Venti could use points of manipulation he's built to have, say, Rosaria or Kaeya go with you, depending on where. The wind can always join you, but Venti isn't up and one to fully be able to run off from Mondstadt for long periods of time. If you plan to go on just a trip for travel, it's one thing for him to run off and join you, but freedom itself in Mondstadt is unique. It's not necessarily true freedom, and while he's awake with a purpose, he can't in his heart run from Mondstadt to travel with you. And while he'd be able to do anything in his power to persuade you to not leave, he's one to physically force it unless you're genuinely trying to run off for something dangerous. However, if someone else were to go. Friends of you and Venti… you'd have to come back, right? Kaeya can't leave his post forever, and it was him who accompanied you for this task, so it would be unfair to go on alone and not see him back… Yes, through others, you'd always be lured… guilted into returning home to him eventually.

Manipulation is also used here in more of a test; he does this often with people but imposes an idea or thing involving you. Those he wants to use in a way of getting close, he bluffs some lies out, and their reaction or steps they handle in regards usually is how he tests to see if they are reliable in what he needs. It's nothing extreme, but it's best to know if he can trust their feelings and opinions on you before letting you get too close. If they fail, well, a little bending of the truth to make it so neither of you wants to interact and never really hurt anyone.

This all helps build into how appearance tends to help. Not only for the general public but even for you, as his boyish charm and looks naturally tend to frame him as innocent. People are quick to brush off his questions even if they progressively get more concerned as 'puppy love' or that it's simply 'too cute' to see the young love from the bard. Many might even favor this as they see it as him likely being willing to turn a new leaf and grow into something worth settling down [i.e., get a job and place to live, though really, instead, it grows more into him crashing at your home and still playing song for whatever he can— money or alcohol]. His verbal actions are easily brushed off, but even the physical side of things, too. Pilfering is a great talent of his, but when caught with your items or breaking in when you're out, he tends to be pushed aside if he plays up his demeanor and lies. Scolded with warnings, sure, but scratching his head and sighing with a 'promise I won't do it again' tends to get everyone to roll their eyes and back off. As mentioned, his appearance can even present him as harmless to you; if someone brings it up, you might also awkwardly laugh and brush off the events. It's just Venti being Venti. He truly is primarily harmless, and he's stayed over so much at this point him breaking in was likely just a result of a habit of being in there…

And the limits of manipulation can be pushed if he so chooses. Call it divine intervention, more or less cause while he does so more with a dirty conscience, he can be driven as Barbatos to truly step in. Religious intervention. It seems weird when the Church of Favonius suddenly comes in contact with some old documents, ones with never seen details of an old love interest to their beloved god. The news and rumors sweep the nation, and even weirder, most of the details and notes recount someone… like you. Things seemed to get stranger, and from there, only more documents could be found of this exact figure appearing throughout history, like some sort of reincarnation. The fascination of it all quickly became the center of the topic, and with the likeness you bared in the story and aspects of appearance, you're status seemed to shoot up within the night. Not so much a holy figure but deemed with some strange uplighting in the way people spoke. That is, or how Barbatos ever seemed to come back to Mondstadt, you'd need to be there just like how the past reminisced. For those who do know, it weirdly only pushes you away from them if you ever seek help, that that story must be bound to fate, and that Venti can't be as much of a nuisance if you give it time. The problem is only dug in worse as Venti creates poems and ballads of the sort, claiming he actually had heard of these but never sought to share them until now. As the stories grow, you're pushed more and more to the church with the idea of gaining barbatos' favor and attention. Leaving… just became much more complex.

Dependence [reversed]

Dependence comes in a weird form, at least compared to others. While in general fashion, dependence typically is the idea that they want you to solely rely on them for everything, not only for power and love, it can even be with money, housing, or other necessities. While Venti likely would be much more dependent on him being really the main source of your love and affection, the rest… he doesn't care so much about. Power may be a little; he doesn't need or want you to depend on him for it, but it does give him a little ego boost when you have to or ask him. And too many other aspects of actual dependence go against aspects of his belief in freedom. Venti's course of manipulation never truly prohibits your own freedom; again, less you actively seek to do something he knows poses a threat; it just often forces you to rethink and become more hesitant in actions or thoughts.

As for other forms of dependence, well, Venti doesn't have them. He steals, only really eats apples, to your knowledge, and is homeless. It's quite pitiful in a humorous way. However, as you get closer and bond more with the bard-friendly nature, it is hard for you to let him live like this. Well, in certain ways, stealing alcohol or bribing others to give him some with songs you can't really stop unless you plan on going bankrupt. But more frequently, you invite him for meals and shelter him in your place. Even more frequently if the weather is bad or as winter approaches. Venti isn't manipulating you necessarily into these tasks, but dependence some with a factor of self-guilt. He's your friend, someone you've gotten close with, and with that, he's come to truly rely on you for these things. He was fine in the past, but to leave for who knows how long and let him fall back into such a life would make you a bad person. Right?

Logically, Venti knows he doesn't need to depend on you for these things as they don't have any real effect on his life, but it's so domestic. He gets access to all your items; you put time and love into meals, or even sharing what you purchased from Good Hunter fills him with warmth. On cold nights, he finds it easier to slip under your blankets and, even if it's fake, pretend to sleep like how couples would. Being a god comes with a lot of good but a lonely life, and after seeing so many, there comes a time when it's nice to indulge in it. Gluttony has always been a crime of his, it seems, such as with alcohol, but this also can't be that bad if no one is getting hurt. So just let him depend on you a little longer. At least until he can find out some solution before he sleeps again.

Self Harm

Similar to dependency on basic things, one form of manipulation that Venti doesn't do on purpose but knows that there still is a benefit to his actions is his indulgence in drinking. While it takes a lot for him to truly get drunk, as noted, he does like to play it up for you, and it's not uncommon for you to have to take care of him or come help him. In all sense, Venti, while not necessarily drunk, is an alcoholic, and to a detriment, it is a form of self-harm. Through learning more and hearing the tales and songs of his past, it's apparent the wounds run deep, and Venti's only way he knows to deal with them is through drinking in an attempt to numb or forget. The reality of knowing this is hard; you see it with others you've likely gained closeness with and how drinking has affected the lives of so many.

This leads to two outcomes: this, again, guilt that breeds when thinking of leaving. The connection Venti has formed is tangible with how deep it is to you, even if you don't reciprocate in that way. That's if you were to leave, would things only get worse with his drinking problem? Unlikely, he would died from drinking, but it's more than just drinking; it's the mental state of him in that position and how the loss of more people would rip the wound open even more. Furthering, if you had actually spent time talking about his past and working to unpack and find better ways to cope with the trauma outside of alcoholism, leaving would be a dick move and revert all that progress no matter how you explained it. How much could you're conscious take knowing this? How far could you make it without the guilt of him back home as the stories of his past cloud your mind? The wind tickling your skin and almost like a whisper reminding you of it. It's one thing to share a drink or two with the bard and have a fun night in the tavern, listening to his songs and dancing. It's another to picture him alone under a tree, empty bottles scattered from stealing from him alone, reminiscing about his lost friend and the imagery of war. The wind gets colder, licking the back of your neck, and the guilt is painful, ready to burst out your chest for even thinking of it. Some wounds you cannot heal, but the idea of making them worst or abandoning the person who's come to need you most is mentally crippling.

General obsessiveness

Venti doesn't necessarily read as obsessive. Not outwardly, at least, though it's easy to blame his charm for that. Okay… well, maybe not charm, but within his manipulative nature and looks, his actions and questions regarding you don't play as obsessive to those who listen. It's unlike many others who you can just look at them and feel in your bone there is something off, or in how they speak, they care just a little too hard. His sharp tongue and trick of words allow people to very easily give up information without thoroughly having them aware they have, making his tendencies go far under the general public's radar still. And for those who do somewhat witness it, he doesn't mind playing up his role a little more. Just a young, helpless bard looking to woo someone. It isn't a crime, right?

The mask he wears holds many layers. The bard, the god, the lost wind. Not many will ever get a look at what really goes on and what is an exaggeration. Or under exaggeration when it comes to you. In most cases, Venti stretches his stories up, his words riddled and larger than life that people have to dim down to work out the true meaning. So when he sells his obsessive love as much less, people are quick to brush it off or dim it down further to avoid those actual layers of emotions being peeled forward.

A chunk of this also extends to the shame and questions it brings out of freedom. Venti has never tried to take it away in a solid way, but is it true freedom to either of you when you fill so much of his thoughts that you can't really do anything without him? It is the thought that replays and replays of you and him doing things; it's the obsessive nature of having to know where you are, who you're with, and what you're doing. Are you safe? Are you planning on leaving? Should he come to find you just to be sure?

What about the images. The visions he remembers from the wars, from the people he's lost, and that truly, at any time, perhaps something will happen, and you'll be next. The flashes of violence and fear that only make the goal of getting his next drink to numb them go away— or you. The sight of you, the smell of you. Having you hold him and remind him that the past is gone.

You'd be able to see it, maybe not the full extent, but you've come to know the bard enough to tell when the cogs in his mind are turning and the way he tries to drown out aspects of himself. It's hard to tell what he's thinking, but you know some of it is tied to the past as he holds the stolen wine in one hand and grips you so tightly with the other as you try to stumble back to your home and out of sight. You can tell something is off when he's snooping through your things early in the morning as you're just waking up and when he's clearly been inside your place while you were out with a friend. Or that he's been leaving more and more questionable lyrics? No, less like poems or lyrics but ramblings about love and fear and what can only be aspects of you on the counter as he runs around god knows where. It's worrying. It's uncomfortable to an extent, but not enough or in a way that you can just cut him off. Kick him out. Maybe just talking or setting a little break, but the pressure in your chest and bile in your throat at the thought of cutting contact brings you to a sobbing mess each time.

But, what does keep him from being fully obsessive is that Venti still has things to do. Freedom of Mondstadt and giving up his title as the god doesn't mean he's abandoned his role truly, and if he's awake, that means between drinking, being with friends, telling stories, and everything about you, there is something he has to do. He still is out fulfilling a duty no one, but he knows of, and really, part of that seems more scary than anything he's done to you. You know he'd never hurt you; it's not a fear of that, but as Venti opens up more to you, the parts he still keeps hidden remind you that this is only a fraction of what you know. Guess it's good that you still have some time and space to yourself, but as obsessive as he is in his thoughts and other flaws, he can dial it back if needed for a short amount of time. At least from your perspective.

Wrong idea; type 2

In a sense, Venti is give an inch; he'll take a mile. Like a stray cat. You feed him once he keeps coming back for more. One thing is that this wrong idea can start more slowly, but the second you mess up and do something more romantically affectionate, it instantly becomes much more intense in the progression of what he's willing to take or do.

As mentioned, for anything to start, you need to be at least on a friendship level basis with Venti, and a sorta higher level of one. Nothing extreme, but the type of friends who do spend a considerable amount of time together and, for example, willing to open your house to him to stay in occasionally. Not even in a 'stay in the same bed' type way, but he knows aspects of your personal life, and to a level, you learn more of his 'Venti' side for any of his traits to really start manifest. However, it is already very easy to set off more and delve into the realm of leading him into the wrong idea territory.

Some ideas of how this might be are such as gaining more physical contact. While the intent is friendly, Venti is from a different time, and being touchy already seems less common than you already have a 'flirty' aptitude. Grabbing his arm or hanging off of him when sober makes his heart flutter that there could be more. Certain gifts, flowers, or making uniquely special foods just for him. Not just any meal, that's normal, but if you were to make something sweet with apples that wasn't a typical dish, it leads his heart to beat just a little harder. Or that one time when he did stay over and you fell asleep holding onto him rather than the usual routine of wandering off to your own spot after putting a drunk Venti 'to sleep.' You must have been exhausted… but this is his first time really getting to see you up close.

You must be doing all this with some… ulterior motive. Sure, he's heard of courting; he's older than people think and knows more of the ins and outs of things. People treat him like someone far more innocent by these looks— not just with drinking. And yeah, it comes in handy sometimes, but not when people talk down to him about this. At first, there was some apprehension. Teyvat was in a dangerous time, and as carefree as he plays himself up, he's always guarded about his next move.

Obsessiveness starts more simple. His questions are more of curiosity about many things, and what is better than to trick it out of people and you. Sure, he knows most basic things of your life, but that couldn't mean you aren't linked to more questionable things and had figured out he was Barbatos, either. He comes off a nosey at best. When digging to see if you'd ever been caught doing 'bad things' most inform sure— but in the sense you had been a kid and teen once. You'd easily gotten into trouble more than a few times but never was it for anything imminent or serious. He digs more into the lineage of your family and the other people you associate with. Nothing strange… fine, but perhaps a different route. He remembers some old common courting techniques, and he's seen some of them in this era, too. He's not blind to it, but as he shares more of the details, the more people tell the 'young' bard. It's probably a hint that he should reciprocate. I mean, he already hangs off of you like a hangover anyway. It's surprising he isn't already attached at your hip with how much you both sort of rely on each other. Although you tend to treat him more as a companion than him, he depends on you like a leech.

And the switch flips.

In certain aspects, if you did have some sort of crush, it likely would melt away with how quick his obsessively wrong idea notion takes over. What was harmless flirting testing the waters is instantly blown into a large scale. Even if you didn't like him in that way and other signs were one of platonic closeness or accidents, it doesn't seem to make a difference. His touchiness is insatiable, and the amount of time he starts demanding you spend with him is much more intense. If you try to brush him off, his poutiness damps the air, and things just an uneasy tingle. You find him trying to make all sorts of snacks and now haggling not just for drinks but for gifts. Every story he tells, every song he sings, and every poem has some romantic undertones that, paired with former questions and actions, people know it is about you. And the stalking doesn't help.

Venti's turning point makes him feel like there is more and that there could be more. He's not fully delusional. There are aspects of a lucid point that you're pulling away, but that just means he needs to try harder, right? He's seen so many relationships go like that. If you stop trying, if you let them pull away, that's really how you lose them. It's obvious how much time he puts into this, how much he thinks about how to move forward, and how he can use things like his skill sets of manipulation to keep you bound to him [not literally but in a figurative state]. However, it is only time before you get worn down from trying to fight and redirect… adapting does become just so much easier. Conversations, trying to explain, just don't seem to reach him. Lucid and all, you can't understand him or his goals anymore, and even when he does calm down back into a slight breeze, the second you give him a bit of that former closeness back, it picks back into a blustery.

Stalking

While Venti's stalking habits have mostly been pointed out, there is one other big thing that needs to be recognized. Sure, in Mondstadt and the borders of other regions, he often can find himself about to sneak away and physically follow you around for extended periods of time [days, weeks, etc.]; what happens if you leave. Of course, Venti can easily manipulate others to go with you as a safety net and use it to get you back home, but things are rough when you're gone. Luckily, or to your dismay, you aren't ever really alone as the wind follows you. No matter how far you go, how pleasant the weather is, or how rough the wind is a constant companion following in your wake. It's often a nice breeze, though it picks up a significant amount if you're nearing danger or in danger. Though a strange pattern of it picks up when you spend a little too long talking with locals…

Yes, the wind itself can't do much, but its following reminds you of your faithful companion back home, the one you'll have to eventually return to. And while 'freedom' is given, it's never truly 'free' as the wind follows far and wide until you come back to your love.

Final [unique]

Where final comes in is related more to Venti's 'sleep.' From the context, it seems Venti has less control over when he sleeps and for how long. It's not that he chooses to abandon his land in the time. It's that he cannot fight when he goes into his slumbering state. For hundreds of years, and the times he wakes up are only that when there is something of great importance. This wouldn't be much of a problem before you— Mondstadt was given their freedom, and it was just how it was. He awoke, he came, he helped, and he left; nothing more or less.

However, he had been awake for longer than usual. There was something, even outside of you, that had brewing. Something deeply important kept him awake, even if he didn't know what. And he established a life. A true life this time, with friends in the taverns and everyday 'enemies' with his habits. He found a 'job' and a 'home' within his city as one of the people. And he fell in love. It's one thing to become intrinsically a part of an environment, and even if you don't feel the same way, have that connection knowing any moment it could be lost. To go back into a long-standing sleep with every person, even facet of that life is potentially gone when you are to wake up again. To lose that loved one to time.

Venti has lost so much, each person he's established a bond with passing or having to move on to more incredible things. When he awakes, everything is different; every person is mostly a new face, with few exceptions of those only being a few like him. Is it wrong for love to be so fragile when he knows the change of fate of it being lost is greater than the reward? That if he were to fall asleep, you would easily be able to move on. Find someone new, forget about him, or at least be nothing more than a distant memory. He knows other types of love can be platonic, that the affection you give to the city kids isn't the same, or the way you play with the cats as he watches from a distance. He knows that when he sees the couples in Mondstadt, he's supposed to be happy for them, and imagine if it was you two rather than have the breeze pick up ruining their outing. That he shouldn't be this jealous or bitter; it's unsuiting of his persona, but how else are you supposed to know when love is useless if not with you, the one person he could so quickly lose. When you're not around, this gets worse. Celestia, be damned if he were to fall asleep without at least getting to see you one more time.

This acknowledgment does considerably bring out more of his obsessive nature, almost like paranoia, but in a way that no one can quite place. That he needs to have knowledge of where you are and how long you've been gone, or that he needs to be with you to make up for the time. The obsession leaks into you're time together; since he doesn't need sleep, he'll just lay there watching you. Hands sometimes ghost your face as he pulls you close, worrying about if he can't save you if he were to suddenly fall back asleep tomorrow and never see you again. It's the way sometimes he grips your arm a little too tightly and breathes in too deeply when hugging. That he needs to find a solution to keep you immortal so if he does sleep, you'll still be there when he awakes, or even better, you can sleep with him [and awake] at the same time. You'd never have to be alone, he'd never have to be alone. And sure, it's a stretch, but it's not a loss of freedom because once awake, you can still go anywhere you want together, and even with this idea, you still have full mental awareness and control over your mind.

General Delusional [unique]

Venti isn't delusional. His perceptiveness to things around him and his need to protect himself, plus his lifetime, has made him more or less hyperaware of things and life around him. He hears the prayers of people and the lives of others, and being lucid/logical is simply a must for that of a god. But he hears the prays, he hears the others speak, and he yearns in a sense to be able to have the luxury of being delusional. Of just being able to let everything go and pretend things are good or that you like him back in that way. It sounds nice. Easy. To be able to imagine your life together as some fantasy story, he's the knight who'd come and save you and live happily ever after.

Scratch that. barbatos isn't delusional, but Venti can be. The mask, the person he's playing can be. He isn't just a storywriter; he's a storyteller. An actor, a character of his identity. So no, deep down, he knows the truth; he's extremely aware of that, but why not just play the part. Let him play as if he was lost in those delusions and that whatever it is can be that way. When you're cooking dinner for each other, Venti knows you're just making a meal as always, but why not play it up. That you're coupled and that this is making a meal together as a such— it was a little weird when he came over to help, but you didn't question it. At least he was doing something. But meal times together when he would help progressed weirdly. Putting his arms around you as you try to cut things, holding out utensils for you to try things on. It got very strange the one time when baking, he leaned over and licked a crumb off your face. You didn't bake for a while after that.

Or going out. What once was normal progressed into him inching closer and closer, then hands briefly touching. You didn't think much. It's the bard unless your Diluc. He's been pretty much harmless around the city. You think. So what if he was one to try to hold hands or brush arms that just matched his bubbly personality. Though the linking of arms and leaning into when waking, staring into your eyes with such affection did change things a lot.

It's nothing more than a role, or sort of game to Venti. The delusion is there, but it is more like oil sitting on top of water. He can turn it off at any moment, but where is the fun in that when everything in his life is so serious. With you, it's easier to just pretend. At least he still has all the control and lucidity of the problems when needed.

Projection

This has been touched on already, but to relate it back, Venti isn't so much delusional in the sense he believes it's real but that if he projects the message hard enough through stories, through songs, and to the people of Teyvat that you're together then in some way, that will be true. The projection of his words he knows are false, and he knows in some way, even if it isn't true, that if a story is spread enough, people take it as fact. And if everyone takes it as fact, then it's just easier for you to accept it as well. He really doesn't have to do anything to force you. It's not taking away anything. It's just altering it so that way things work out in his favor. Much like the general sense, it pairs as well. If he tells himself it's true, perhaps he can force that delusion to cloud the lucidity he feels about all of it. It's almost like in a state of being drunk, where you know what's going on to a certain level, but it's foggy. It's rose-tinted enough that if everyone thinks it, he can, too.

This projection is only made worse if he gets involved as Barbatos. It changes things from just the slightly weird couple who, honestly, the people of Mondstadt can't really explain how they ended up that way. They remember bits of it, but it seems like someone through someone, though some random grandma just mentioned you were taken, and everyone ran with it. But if the church were to find the falsified relics and stories, then there just is nothing you can do. Now, it's not only Venti trying to project something there but the whole church following, believing that you are some saint and by having you married? Honestly, you aren't really sure what all this goal is to have you 'connected to Barbatos' even means, but whatever it is… it doesn't sound good. The expectations of you are doubled, and the projection of you being more than human is suffocating. But it's only made worse when Venti comes forward as Barbatos to you, saying you should just play the part. Stay with the church as some saint and with him. You'll still have a life of freedom outside of it, just with some more expectations about how you interact with others. You'd be bound by the marriage of some sort, and he'd find a way to make it eternal. It doesn't sound too bad, right? Freedom isn't truly free, but it never has been. It's an elusive concept, something subjective, but if you still have the right to enjoy your life and the good of being such, then it should be okay. You can still leave the church figuratively and travel, arguing it's on some journey for something. You aren't restricted in how you speak or think, but things like infidelity and how you speak of love need to be more kind. Yet you'd live a life of peace, one of never needing to be allowed and have the blessing of a god in your favor.

If not, think of the projection people will have if you say no. If you try to run away, you lose everything. That would be the true loss of freedom. The loss of your friends, your loved ones. Your home. Venti projects this idea of love and what love should be for you two, not between you and him necessarily, but to everyone else, making it all the more terrifying at the consequences when he finally does. Not if, but when.

Monopoly

This is where things get rough because Venti is possessive in a way that can't be controlled. He feels it settling in his chest when he spends too long talking to the shopkeeper or giggling a little too hard at a friend's joke. He hates it when you work and when you dedicate your time to the kittens outside The Cat's Tail. He whines when you have to leave in the morning and when you turn up to Angel Share just a little too late, begging to know who you are with. It hurts him. He can't explain it in the way it crushes his soul, seeing you give your time to others, your energy, and your care. It pains him so deeply to see you run yourself thin for the world around you, for those who could never understand you like he does.

Venti knows it would be easy to whisk you away. To use his godly powers to keep you safe, to keep your attention and love only on him. How things would be so much better for you, for each other, if you could just monopolize your time for him and you and no one else. The idea weighs on him like a pile of bricks. He knows it's wrong; he knows it goes against everything he stands for. And call him childish, but he can't help how he feels.

It's true he never really acts on it. Clinging onto you and carping over it, sure, the way he tugs slightly on your arm after you keep talking to the passerby you bumped into, an old friend, ready to drag you off to somewhere in Mondstadt, you can be alone. How he holds on just a little too tight when you talk about events at work and the people you chatted with, quickly wanting to move to a more interpersonal topic.

Venti never really monopolizes you or your relationships, but his bratty and more childish act really is brought out more with you around. You still get the socialization and ability to be around whoever, but it always needs to be rightfully compensated with some alone time with the god as well, so pick your battles sparingly and just go with him when his fuse starts to burn out.

Bizarre Seeking [unique]

Tying back to his sleep issue, the case of bizarreness only relies so much on how far he's willing to push to keep you immortal, either through godhood or other means. It's surprising he'd even consider it; his testament for Celestia is apparent in conversations, and the path to godhood is not seen in a much higher light based on conversations. But Venti knows sacrifices need to be made to get what you want, and if that means the pursuit of godhood or immorality to not lose any more of his loved one, then that's a sacrifice to be made.

Because of this, Venti ends up pushing you into countless more and more weird scenarios. You end up visiting a certain alchemist more, not really ever knowing the reasons why, and stranger things of yours seem to be going missing. What is that strange bruise on your arm, and why does this one piece of hair seem slightly shorter than the rest? You also swore that Caramel Pinecone tasted weird last time, but even when you ordered the Love Poem instead, it was still off…

The limits of Venti's morality are very much pushed with the goal of finding a way to extend your life more permanently, and while the actions he takes are questionable, they aren't anything he would do less deemed necessary. Beyond that, once he finds the key to unlock it, his bizarre-seeking tendencies end up dying down or stopping altogether.

Also, while he considers and will try to push for a Celestia ascension if push comes to shove, the ability to actually achieve godhood this way is much more complicated and dangerous. Something he might keep trying for, but this way is much less likely to succeed, and he knows this, which is why other bizarre tendencies take priority.

General protectiveness

Overall, protectiveness is a standard feat. Venti doesn't want you to get hurt and will do nearly anything to prevent it, hence a considerable factor of his stalking outside of walls of the city or towns. Even with others, if he thinks they pose some physical threat, Venti has little fear of stepping between you and 'the threat.' It's not so much a protective coating or an extreme case where he needs to check everything you do, touch, eat, drink, or interact with. Still, there is a natural sense of him wanting to protect you and watch over you to make sure that nothing can gravely hurt you. This mirrors why the wind follows you if you travel and picks up to warn you and redirect you away from dangers, a protective aura of Venti that trails after you. It's not even a doubt that you can't, but the inherent need to make sure you make it back in one piece.

There is, again, only one primary reason Venti will use full force to intervene, and this is if he knows you are purposefully trying to run off somewhere that will put you in danger for any reason. Often downplaying his strength of wind, the storm, if needed, will border Mondstadt making it. Hence, nothing gets in or out until you agree to drop it, tearing nearly everything that comes in contact with the barrier if you don't agree to listen to him first and think of a genuine plan. The wind sees all, and while terraforming isn't much on his bucket list anymore, Barbatos has no fear of proving his worth and power if in the name of love and protection. Even if it hurts you to know whatever your goal is foiled, if it's the one-stop against your freedom, there are some things not worth being risked.

Lowest Stats

General [none]

The one trait Venti inherently lacks is sadism. Nothing he does to you or others is derived from the pleasure of hurting or seeing others hurt. And while those such as the abyss creatures for fatui foot soldiers are at the whims of his fighting, it's not done with the goal or satisfaction of a battle but rather a necessity for 'his' people and you.

It's apparent that actions that long-term hurt you or have serious effects, both mental and physical, that fundamentally change you aren't truly a goal. Yeah, the immortality would literally change you, but not with the goal of making you conform or transform into a new mental mindset. At least not right away, as he knows that a long life naturally changes people, but there never is a purpose to rid you of traits. To tie you down and break you until you love him the way he loves you.

Freedom, as touched on, is never truly free. Not of people, not of actions, or even of mindsets. But is it that Venti wants you to be you; be the self you choose to be and the freedom that comes with that, even if aspects of it hurt him. It's why if he has to let you go to Sumeru for a festival he knows wouldn't be possible for him to also attend, he lets you know you'll come back to him without the burden of being changed or conformed to have to come back. It's why, in every case, Venti does whatever is in his power to keep you from being genuinely hurt, even if he can't always fulfill that promise. It's why, despite everything, he can't hurt the people who create the fires of jealousy in his core being.

Venti has an awareness that many of his actions are immoral and that he has dirtied his hands in the past just as much. he knows of the guilt you struggle with, and then he is using his skills to manipulate and play everyone like a fiddle, but in the eyes of a god and one who believes in freedom, it is not in his role to harm anyone in the light of you. It's a turning point he could never come back from if he were to directly hurt you or anyone else with the goal of keeping you with him, and it would be a dishonor to everything he was created from. A stain on the nameless bard he honors so deeply, so while the envelope of what is okay is pushed every day with his other actions, there is never once a hand that is laid on you for the sake of 'love' from Bardatos.

──⭒─⭑─⭒────⭒─⭑─⭒──

Statistic diagram; Venti [Barbatos]

#leaper.analysis #yandere #yandere writing #yandere x reader #yandere headcanons #yandere scenarios #yandere genshin #yandere genshin headcanons #yandere genshin impact #yandere venti #genshin.leaps #genshin x reader #venti x reader #tw: yandere #tw: manipulation #tw: alcohol #tw: stalking #tw: religious themes

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thefreshprinceofjunes · 1 year ago

Text

soriku endgame: an imagining

OKAY WELL HERE IT IS

TEN WHOLE PAGES OF HOW SORIKU ENDGAME MIGHT ACTUALLY PLAY OUT

i was rewatching vin play RE2 and fsr this invaded my thoughts and wouldnt leave

this is barely proofread and i reused a lot of the same words/phrases BUT its just meant to be an outline/abridged version so keep that in mind

(if i got any lore wrong tho pls let me know)

btw if you dont want to read this on tumblr for whatever reason, heres a link to the google doc

note: this is going off the assumption MoM saw everything (or at least everything soriku) through the gazing eye

scene is quadratum probably. master of masters (or whoever the bad guy in kh4 is) has sora and riku caught in a bad situation (for temporary visuals im picturing something similar to the dark guardian restraining aqua and ven in kh3)

sora and riku are struggling to break free, while the MoM just laughs. some kh dramatic banter occurs, before MoM changes the subject and starts monologuing (with sora and riku probably interjecting here and there)

MoM: [to sora] you still havent figured it out yet, have you?

MoM: dont you ever wonder why rikus heart holds as vast of a darkness as it does?

MoM: its not because of jealousy, or ansem, or even his desire for strength since you were children.

MoM: no, its much simpler than that.

MoM: remember that dream you had, sora? before the islands were destroyed?

MoM: there was a voice speaking to you, from deep within your heart:

MoM: 'the closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes.'

MoM: well, the road goes both ways, kid. the deepest of darknesses can only come from the brightest of lights.

sora: wh-what are you saying?

MoM: its been in front of all along, but you were too blind to see it.

cut to voiceless flashbacks of all the times sora encountered the brightest light: when receiving the keyblade, when almost pulled out of sleep by the memory of aqua on DI, during the dive to heart at the beginning of kh3 (assuming it really happened and wasnt just for gameplay purposes), and after using the power of waking at the KBG (the tunnel scene)

sora looks at riku, then back at MoM. riku is grimacing.

sora: that… that was… that was rikus light?

MoM: bingo!

MoM: but theres even more to it than that.

MoM: theres another force of power in this universe that keeps light and dark in harmony

sora: another…?

MoM: you feel an unfathomable depth of it in your heart for, well, pretty much everyone youve ever met.

MoM: what lies in rikus heart, however, comes from the same place, but is also very, very different. its something you claim to not understand, even though youve encountered it many times during your adventures.

rikus eyes widen and he tries to interject, but the MoM physically stops him; sora calls out for him

MoM: its more than just friendship. its hearts that are really, truly connected between two people.

MoM: think about it. think about all the times when everything seemed hopeless, but something, something, kept the bad guys from winning. it wasnt light.

cut to voiceless flashbacks between many of the disney couples sora has met: the beast arriving at hollow bastion out of sheer force of will in his search for belle, flynn sacrificing himself for rapunzel and her tears bringing him back to life (some shit with will/elizabeth and sam/quorra too maybe idk), and finally, herc gaining his strength back as he rescues megara from styx, followed by herc saying, 'people always do crazy things when theyre in love.'

sora stares ahead at nothing in particular, before wincing in pain; suddenly, a forgotten memory surfaces in his mind (if the convo with NS confirms he hasnt completely forgotten, then its the key details that have been missing):

rikus sacrifice in the KBG

riku calls out for him and struggles, but MoM just laughs some more.

MoM: there, now its coming back to you. and that wasnt the only time riku sacrificed everything for you, yknow, although it was probably the most heroic instance. remember him taking on ansems form to beat roxas? and his dive into your heart to wake you from slumber, despite the tremendous danger? you only met her briefly, but one of the princesses of heart experienced something very similar.

MoM: aurora. maleficent placed a curse on her when she was a baby, causing the princess and the rest of the kingdom to fall into a deep sleep on her 16th birthday. but the heir to a nearby kingdom, prince phillip, valiantly fought his way to the castle, and woke up the sleeping beauty– through a kiss. a kiss, of true…

MoM trails off and looks at riku, then back at sora, expectantly. riku is still struggling to free himself before the truth is revealed, but its no use.

sora stares off again, before looking MoM in the eyes.

sora: … love…?

MoM does jazz hands and poses.

MoM: ding ding ding ding! we have a winner! it only took you, what, 12, 13 years to figure it out? honestly, i just couldnt stand watching it go on for any longer.

MoM: but, hey, i still have my honor. if im wrong, im more than happy to apologize.

MoM turns to riku then.

MoM: well? am i wrong, riku?

riku doesnt respond, and MoM sighs dramatically.

MoM: still no answer? okay, guess well have to do this the hard way.

MoM starts hurting sora, causing him to cry out in pain while riku watches helplessly

MoM: come on, riku! do it! use your true strength! unleash the power hidden within your heart!

sora gasps and winces, barely getting out rikus name

suddenly, theres a bright flash of pink energy (maybe rikus eyes also turn dream eater pink too?)

(if the power of love is too cheesy even for kh, then maybe its a black and white darkness/light combo attack)

riku breaks free of whatever MoM did to him, and then channels the energy through his arm, blasting it through soras restraints.

unfortunately, sora was being held in the air, and starts to fall– but in the blink of eye, riku is there to catch him in his arms.

MoM laughs in triumph and draws back slightly.

MoM: there we go!

MoM then shrugs.

MoM: well, this was fun, but ive got places to be. and im sure you two have a lot to talk about. toodles!

MoM disappears, leaving sora and riku in stunned silence.

after a moment, riku sets sora down and turns away from him, avoiding soras gaze.

sora meanwhile takes a second to catch his breath, before staring at riku with wide eyes.

sora: r… riku… is… is that...? is that really… how you feel?

riku clenches his fists at his sides and stays turned away. after a pause, he responds.

riku: … even if it is, it doesnt matter.

sora: what do you mean?

riku: i know… im not the one for you.

riku takes a deep breath.

riku: … when you were put to sleep for a year to fix your memories, some of them found their way into xion. they happened to be your most important memories– the ones you couldnt wake up without.

riku: those… were your memories of kairi. and xion took on her appearance because of them.

sora is stunned, only having been vaguely made aware of what happened in that year.

sora: k… kairi?

riku nods solemnly.

riku: yeah. and the only reason your memories got messed with in the first place is because the organization forced namine to make herself the person most important to you, instead of kairi.

sora pauses.

sora: you mean… castle oblivion.

riku nods again.

sora watches, before feeling a pain in his heart and grabbing at his chest instinctively.

underneath his hand, he can feel the cold metal of his crown necklace.

and thats when it finally clicks.

everything blurs, and theres a sudden rush of memories.

(maybe a memory sequence that you actually play through?)

sora, holding kairis wayfinder in castle oblivion. suddenly, the memory gets static-y, like during soras memory restoration.

cut to namine confessing to sora shes not the girl he cares about– but every time the word is feminine, its distorted by video static. (this is how we fix the aitsu thing)

"no. the g̸͓̦͙̫̮̦̠͗͐͗̊͑̕͝i̷͖̝̝̱̐ͅͅŗ̸̄̆̓̆̊̄̿l̶̮͉̦͓͔̹̀̂͗͝ͅ you care about...the one who was always with you... its not me. its ḧ̴̳͔̻̾̇e̵͚͂̀r̸̺̣̠̓̂̀̚."

cut to namine speaking to sora before he goes to sleep.

“but theres another promise you made—a promise to someone you could never replace. s̵̹̀͗͜h̷͇͇͌̆̐e̷̡̛̱'̷̦̆s̵̫͖̦̄̈̄ your light. the light within the darkness. if you can remember h̷̼̼̜͚͒e̸̢̡̤̹̬͖͐̒͒̾r̸͓̣̜̼̜̠͚͂̋̃...all the memories lost in the shadows of your heart will come into the light."

cut to a flashback of repliku talking about their shared promise. again, the feminine words are indecipherable.

"there was a meteor shower one night when s̶̳̄͑̆̅̆͗h̴͍̞͖͙͑̔̋̈́̎̈̾ę̷̧̰̰̖̝͆̆̕̚ and i were little... n̸̨̙̼͑̽ả̴̗͕̮́͊͝m̴̻̳͚̒i̸̳̟͑n̶̡̥̋̑̌é̸͍̦͑͐͋́ got scared and said, what if a shooting star hits the islands? so i told ḧ̷̡̬̽̅͆̊ė̸̙̩̠̥̿̃̚͠r̶̛̥̻̖̉̾̽͝, if a shooting star comes this way, ill protect you! and then—"

cut back to the memory pod.

"look at the g̴̬͛̄̚͘ŏ̴̞̙̰̍͂̀ö̴̘̥̗̱̐͋͆ͅď̷̨͙̙̩̓́͝ ̸̢̋̈́̂̚ļ̷̯̥̲̪̐̋͌̾̚ṵ̵̼̥̥͖̎c̸̱̟̹̚ķ̸̭̱̖̓̇ͅ ̷͇̳̃̑́͑͐͜ͅc̸̢̤̈̈́̊̚̕h̵̙̗̓͊̾ͅą̷̣̮̞̾̈́r̶̜̜͓̥̀́͋͝m̸̺̖͈̖͓̊̀̕. i changed its shape when i changed your memory. but when you thought of ẖ̴͚̙̆ȅ̴̡̛̞̲̥̼̋͐r̸̹̱̐, it went back to the way it was."

finally, a few more lines from namine.

"remembering one thing leads to remembering another, and then another... your memories are connected, like links in a chain. those same chains are what anchor us all together. i dont destroy memories. i just take apart the links and rearrange them. you still have all your memories."

cut back to sora in the real world. everything is still blurry, but now rikus voice can be heard in the background calling for him, distorted.

and then, a flash of light.

nighttime. its still. everything is quiet and peaceful.

young sora and riku are walking back from the beach.

suddenly, theres a bright streak across the sky.

sora and riku both gasp.

then, another. and another. and another.

the night of the meteor shower.

riku watches the sky in amazement– until he feels a tug on his arm.

he glances at his side and sees sora, utterly terrified and clinging on to him for dear life.

sora: wahhhh!! r-r-riku, the sky is falling!!

riku laughs.

riku: no, those are shooting stars. theyre way up high in the sky.

sora however is not convinced, and keeps shaking as tears start to well up in his eyes.

sora: b-but…! theres so many of them. and theyre so fast!! what if a shooting star hits the islands?!

the reality of soras mood finally sets in, and riku is left staring as he tries to think of what to do.

hanging from his pocket is his wooden sword.

the words of the man with the real sword echo in his mind:

“no more borders around, or below, or above, so long as you champion the ones you love."

riku grabs his sword then and holds it up to the sky as he looks at sora, courage glinting in his eyes.

riku: if a shooting star comes this way, ill protect you! ill hit it right back into outer space!

sora sniffles as he watches riku swing the sword around.

sora: r-really?

riku nods his head confidently.

riku: i will. i promise!

after a moment of thought, riku reaches into his pocket and pulls out a silver chain with a crown dangling from the end.

riku: here. take this. i found it the other day.

with the magic of cutscene, riku somehow turns the chain into a necklace, and then reaches over to hang it around soras neck.

riku: whenever you get scared, all you have to do is look at this, and remember that ill always be there to protect you. no matter what.

tears run down soras face as he looks at the necklace.

the voice of the strange girl theyd met before rings through his mind:

"so then if something happens, and riku is about to get lost—or say, he starts wandering down a dark path alone—you make sure to stay with him and keep him safe. thats your job, sora, and im counting on you to do it, okay?"

sora gulps and then reaches out to grab rikus free hand in both of his own. riku is surprised by this.

sora: ill… ill protect you too! i-i know im not as strong as you, but ill… ill try! i promise!

riku is taken aback for a moment, before he smiles gently at sora.

riku: … thanks, sora.

afterward, a multitude of quick flashbacks to all the times sora and riku protected each other, culminating in seeing the KBG sacrifice one more time.

fade to back.

in a hotel room (or smth similar), sora suddenly sits up straight in a bed, heart beating rapidly.

sora: riku!

(paralleling when riku called out for him after waking up from the dive into his heart in ddd)

riku has been seated at the edge of the bed, waiting and worrying. when he realizes soras awake, he scoots down the bed towards him.

riku: sora! youre okay!

after catching his breath, sora looks around the room, confused.

sora: … what… happened?

riku: you passed out, so i brought you here. how are you feeling?

sora puts a hand to his head, grimacing slightly at his pulsing headache. but that doesnt matter right now.

sora: im… im fine. listen, riku… i saw… i saw some of the things that happened at CO.

rikus eyes widen.

riku: you did?

sora: yeah. i saw you… well, a version of you. and namine. namine…

sora looks into rikus eyes.

sora: she… she was wrong. or… maybe i was wrong, and she just played along for my sake…

riku: huh? what are you talking about?

sora swallows as his voice starts shaking, just a little.

sora: kairi… kairi wasnt the one most special to me. you were. i remember… i remember the night of the meteor shower.

sora clutches at the crown necklace.

sora: all this time, id thought id remembered everything important… but i forgot about it. [sighs] im sorry, riku

riku stays quiet for a moment, before putting on a forced smile.

riku: its fine, sora. we were little kids.

sora frowns.

sora: but… you never forgot, did you?

riku shrugs, and theres a moment of silence between them, before riku speaks again.

riku: maybe i was the one most important to you back then, but its not the same now. thats alright. im just happy to be your friend. i know how you feel about kai-

sora suddenly moves forward, closer to riku, now yelling as he cuts him off.

sora: i get to decide how i feel, riku! its my heart!

riku is taken aback at the shouting, and stares in shock. sora realizes hes gotten loud, and takes a moment to calm down.

dearly beloved starts to play in the bg

sora: i… i know now. maybe it took me a long time, but… i figured it out. the person most important to me… all along, its been you.

riku freezes up in pure shock. he cant believe what hes hearing. hed talked himself out of hoping for this day long ago.

sora finally smiles again.

sora: youre the one i love.

(paralleling prince eric with ariel)

BOOM FIREWORKS MAGIC SORIKU ENDGAME

riku is absolutely speechless, staring at sora with his mouth agape.

sora gives riku a sheepish grin, now growing nervous at the lack of a response.

sora: and… im the one you love… right?

after a second, riku returns soras smile– and, for the very first time in the series, starts crying.

he nods, shakily.

riku: … yeah. yeah, i do. i always have.

riku wipes at his eyes to stop crying, but its futile. the tears flow even harder.

sora feels himself start crying, too, but hes laughing at the same time.

he pulls riku into a hug, grabbing his upper back tightly.

without any hesitation whatsover, riku returns the embrace, holding onto sora in the same way.

(like so [sora in orange, riku in teal])

fade to black.

then they kill the MoM, get married, and live happily ever after. the end. :)

love balancing light and dark is largely taken from these tags by @osrinlore on this video of mine btw:

#kingdom hearts #soriku #kh4 #kh meta #ali's kh meta #ali's fanfic #not really but tagging for organization (altho i might post it on my ao3 if i decide to clean it up)#long post #text heavy post #soriku endgame actually #riku is the light #the necklace theory #pls appreciate my mspaint mouse drawing #also if the COM quotes seem off its bc i took them from the khwiki (theyre from the og game n i am too lazy to type up the recom versions)

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shihalyfie · 1 year ago

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It's a loaded topic that I generally try not to bring up much because of the various controversies surrounding it, and a few years ago, I was hesitant to mention this in public because there was no way to frame it in a way that didn't sound like a hate post. (That, and admittedly, I probably was not in the right mental frame to handle it well back then; a lot of things have changed in the last few years.) But now this has been on record and even alluded to via official sources, and I don't see a point in being touchy about it anymore, so here's something I really wish more people would understand when they talk about tri., Kizuna, and 02TB:

Between tri. and Kizuna/02TB, almost the entire production system was overhauled, and there are almost no key staff members in common.

I know it's tempting to treat "Toei" like it's some kind of monolith, but it's very important to remember that any stylistic differences in approach or concept between tri. and Kizuna/02TB aren't just because of answering critical reception, but also because almost the entire production system was scooped out and redone from scratch. The one key member they have in common is Kizuna/02TB producer Kinoshita, who was brought onto tri. as late as part 5 and has explicitly stated that he wasn't involved on its story.

The reason this overhaul happened also wasn't just because of something like "people didn't like tri. (in terms of story content)". For one, tri. was subject to a lot of troubled production behind the scenes -- and I'm not making this up, it's on record that they ran out of budget halfway through and had to rewrite the rest of the plot. But another important thing that may not be as clear to people who only learned about it after the fact is that tri. was a downright PR disaster at the time it was going on, such as:

The infamous "nade-nade" incident (ask anyone who was present during the tri. announcement and they'll probably be able to tell you the details)

The director openly saying things like the fact he deliberately does not look at the source material when making adaptations because he sees it as too limiting, accompanied by a number of other inflammatory statements in magazines, etc. suggesting that he probably had never seen the original Adventure to begin with and saw it as a series he needed to make as more "mature", even to the point of rejecting character-accurate scripts for it (that said, it is very important to remember that a series is far more than just one staff member, and there are other staff members who did say they watched it and clearly did their research, so the point I'm making is that the director's attitude naturally made a lot of people in the audience very angry and is a big reason he started currying a bad industry reputation during and even after tri.'s run)

Magazine interviews with staff members and other Q&As generally being so vague and unwilling to answer questions clearly that it got people upset (for example, when a social media campaign soliciting questions for a Q&A session was held for a screening of part 6, it was said to be "suspiciously" too dark to actually answer the questions)

So when you see discussion about tri. being controversial because of "contradictions in the setting" or whatnot, it's not people getting petty about characterization, it's because the production system for tri. managed to make a ton of public relations decisions that unilaterally pissed a ton of people off, so having contradictions in the lore and characterization came off as being due to carelessness and negligence more than anything.

Right now, the series has been over for more than five years, so I'm not bringing all of this up because I want to start an angry mob against the series or anything (I myself have a lot of favorite things that had clearly troubled production issues and controversial statements from staff members, so I'm not saying this alone should be grounds to evaluate a series). The point I'm making is that I see way too many people talking like tri. and Kizuna/02TB were made under the same mentality by a vaguely-defined concept of "Toei" and that any differences in approach are from some bizarre hypocrisy where they keep contradicting themselves. What happened here was that they saw the public relations fallout, realized it wasn't a good idea to continue getting people mad, and completely overhauled everything with entirely different people and an entirely different approach -- and the fact they did not do a similar complete overhaul between Kizuna and 02TB is conversely why they share more in common.

#tri negativity #(I mean I hope this didn't come off as too negative for people who like the series but nevertheless)

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yuseirra · 2 months ago

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On the Ambiguity of This Manga (Four Interpretations)

Hopefully I don't write more of these anymore o<-< I really want to feel every positivity and move on~~ but here's another thought I had for today regarding this piece once again~

I think I’ve managed to interpret over 90% of the truth behind this manga’s story.

I think I’ve interpreted it, but…

I want to bring others to see what I’m seeing here, but the work itself abandoned everything so irresponsibly, so it doesn’t really work... I’m sad.

Why is knowing this stuff important? Well, it’s not that important. Even if this manga fails, I don’t really care at this point. (Actually, I hope it doesn’t get popular. I hope they don’t make any more anime. Because it hurts people. I no longer expect this work to handle its subject matter respectfully. Confusion is okay, but this manga doesn’t provide a proper perspective on things that shouldn’t be handled recklessly. If you’re going to deal with them, you should at least be clear about what you're saying—if you leave it ambiguous, the focus gets lost, right? The message either doesn’t come across or gets fuzzy. And as far as I can tell, the author doesn’t seem to care about that. Why that might be is today’s analysis.)

More than anything... I just want the truth to be known, though, because it hurts. It’s too sad, too horrible, and pitiful.

I think if people just knew about it, it’d actually be easy to grasp what’s going on.

As for the author… the way I see it, there are four possible reasons for how they handled things.

They hold all the keys and secrets of the story, right? And yet, they chose not to reveal them in the end.

That means their stance is basically: “You figure it out.”

Let’s start with the most generous interpretation:

1.The Generous View: They believe they’ve given enough hints and are betting on readers discovering the meaning on their own, genuinely thinking that will convey more meaning than if they explained everything themselves.

This may not be entirely untrue, but if that were the case to a greater extent, I wouldn’t be this bothered and upset. Sure, there are hints, but they’re ambiguous, and the author didn’t give us any decisive ones. It doesn’t line up with real-world logic, and supernatural fantasy elements are involved. Plus, it’s culturally specific (tied to Japanese lore), so if they wanted to reach a broader audience, they should’ve done more to get things across.

Even putting aside the plot itself, the execution of scenes feels outright malicious. (As I’ve written before through various analyses, the plot actually makes more sense than it first appears and has supporting elements. Honestly, I even think the plot shouldn’t be changed.) But there are so many emotionally sadistic scenes—scenes that didn’t need to be that harsh to convey the point.

Like in Volume 1, when Ai gets stabbed—I should have predicted what was coming and dropped the manga there. But back then, I assumed the author had a clear point they wanted to make, and that they’d express a strong thematic message with this. I thought, “Okay, what are they trying to say?” So I stayed.

But no. The pain this manga gives doesn’t match the clarity of the author’s voice. Their words are vague, mumbled, superficial, and shallow. They want to make a sharp point without taking responsibility. They put the characters through immense suffering, but as the narrator, the author stays distant, as if saying, “Tsk tsk, that’s just how you all are,” with a detached attitude.

If they truly wanted to express sorrow or call for change or say something is wrong, then that final chapter or the volume extra (which I haven’t read, just skimmed the plot) shouldn't have ended up like that.

That was just running away from the responsibility of dealing with the topic.

Sure, how much can one person really do? I understand that to some extent, speaking from my own perspective. But if you're going to bring in material like this, you can’t leave things so murky.

2. The Author Got Hurt During Serialization and Gave Up At Some Point. Then They Chose a Message They Thought Everyone Would Find Acceptable.

This also doesn’t seem completely untrue. But it clearly isn't the only reason.

Because if you look only at the final chapter, yeah, the surface message is safe. It's probably something everyone may agree on.

But the events leading up to it? Not at all. Those developments were intentional. They were deliberate.

We had seriously intense incidents right before the end, didn’t we? The main character stabs himself, drowns and strangles someone. Total chaos. Then we see him gasping, saying he wanted to live, suffering. Then there’s a funeral scene where someone slaps a corpse across the face. The author drew all of that.

That’s not the setup for a “safe” story.

The idea that the author was hurt or exhausted—I can consider that. I won’t presume to know exactly what they were feeling. But looking at this, that possibility does come to mind.

Still, if the plot stemmed from their convictions, like I mentioned in 1, then those convictions were executed in a way that was overly vivid and cruel.

They could have avoided drawing the scene of Aqua and Kamiki drowning together, or strangling each other, or that funeral slap.

Kana slapping Aqua? Sure, that could fit her character.

But it could’ve been shown differently. She could’ve said something like “I should’ve slapped that guy” while talking about Aqua.

The author chose this method—there were other ways.

This is using your talent to deliberately hurt someone.

And if you do that, there’d better be a payoff or a message that’s equally strong.

If there were, I’d go along with it, try to understand.

But like I said earlier, they just muddle through. They don’t say what they want to say. So this isn’t the kind of story that can just be tied up with pretty drawings and sparkles. And I think the author knows that. But they’re pretending not to. It’s not that they don’t realize. This author knows full well what kind of story they’re writing, what kind of feelings it’ll evoke in people.

Didn’t they write romance manga? Then that means they have at least some confidence in understanding human psychology. Actually, that's what pulled me in!! That's my interest, to the extent that it is my major! Seriously, I've never brought up about this before I read this manga, it's so frustating...

Reading this manga, you start to think the author may be someone with some deep wounds.

Every single character in this work—except maybe background extras—has some twisted part in their heart.

Even a character like Frill, who’s played for laughs, gives off a slightly forced vibe that feels unsettling.

Maybe the only one who seems genuinely untwisted is Kotobuki Minami? But even she has that odd trait of speaking in a dialect despite being from a region where they don’t normally have one.

Melt? He’s fairly okay, but his past was twisted, too…

All of them have inner darkness. Which is fine—but they’re all a bit overly sensitive and on edge. And that’s because they’re all hurt.

Kana, at least, is open and unfiltered about it, which makes her kind of endearing. She’s actually the relatively bright one out of the cast.

But in a different genre, Kana might have ended up being the main source of conflict, not because she’s a bad person, but because of how her character operates.

Yes, no one’s completely free of inner darkness. Having flaws does help make a character more three-dimensional. But in this manga, every character is made to be twisted after being created.

They all bottle things up, never say anything, and carry them around alone. It’s not just a few characters—it’s how all of them function.

At this point, it feels unnatural.

Which makes me think the author sincerely believes “everyone’s like this,” so they shaped their characters accordingly. And that’s probably why the ending turned out the way it did.

A massive storm swept through—and then, pretending everything’s calm.

“They’re shining somewhere far away. There were hardships, but!”

That kind of ending.

But inside, I think they’re all rotting. What I think this story needed was to open the wounds and perform surgery.

Drain the pus, reset the broken bones.

But this work doesn’t do that.

In my view, this wound isn’t something that can be patched up with a bandage and a pretty layer of fake skin. But the story just ends as if that’s enough. The thing is, even while doing that, everything shows in their expression, you know? That look of cold sweat and discomfort, pretending everything’s fine?

Just say something! Say you need help. Say what you actually need.

But maybe they don’t even know anymore. What they need to do. I honestly don’t think they truly believe they’re okay themselves, not deep down. They clearly don’t look fine. Still, maybe they’re acting like this because they don’t know what action is needed… or because they’ve already decided that saying anything wouldn’t change a thing.

Yet they show the pain—clearly and constantly. It’s like they’re waiting for someone watching them to figure it out and make the call, get them treated, schedule the surgery. But they won’t take that first step themselves.

That’s why I describe this manga as being passive-aggressive toward the world.

3. So now we’re at interpretation #3 (and yes, these interpretations are shifting from more generous to increasingly less charitable): maybe the author wanted to mock those who don’t "get it," or maybe they didn’t actually care much about the core subject to begin with and never intended to propose a real vision. Or maybe it was just self-indulgent—showing off—or perhaps they gave up entirely.

I didn’t want to think this way, but this possibility is hard to ignore. In fact, this is what stands out most clearly for me, which says something. I try not to engage in baseless criticism of others, and I did my best to stick with interpretations 1 and 2… but there are simply too many moments that don’t make sense within those readings alone. If it were only 1 or 2, I wouldn’t be angry—just saddened.

Like I’ve said many times, this manga doesn’t have much to say relative to the amount of pain it inflicts. If it were purely personal, that would be one thing—but if it aims to say something on a social level, I think it has to convey the author’s own thoughts and reflections more clearly. As it stands, it feels shallow. Like someone grumbling at the news with a sigh and a “tsk.”

It’s not that the work lacks all sense of awareness—but even so, it feels like a candle with a faulty wick. You light it, and it flickers briefly before dying out. You light it again, and the same thing happens. The flame is there, and you can see what it’s trying to say—like critiquing society’s rejection of idols in love, or how the public sometimes cruelly lashes out at celebrities based on limited information. But it never goes any further. It just… presents the issue, then moves on. Even the main characters don’t talk about it at length.

Think about it—Aqua and Ruby’s mother was murdered for having children while being an idol. So shouldn’t this story, at some point, explore their perspective on idols and love? Like: “Our mom still loved us. It’s wrong to deny that love,” or conversely, “Our mom truly wanted to love, but it seems our dad got her killed for it. Is love itself a curse for celebrities? Is romance impossible for them?”—even that kind of doubt would’ve been something. But the story never engages. It brushes against these themes, then simply watches from a distance. Aqua and Ruby's very mother got killed on the idea that idols can't have lovers or children, right? Why don't the two kids who had that tragedy happen to them ever question that idea or how wrong that situation is?? And it's not like they were normal children, either, they are reincarnated human beings who lived at least a decade after having been born into their new lives. But what they decide to do is take revenge on the father who had kids with their mom. Like getting rid of him would make things better. Even if he's really the one who wanted Ai dead(which is so far from the truth), this is such a; shallow approach to things. In the end, literally nothing changes. Who knows the same thing won't happen to Ruby if she decides to get together with someone? That can still happen for sure, but shouldn't the work tackle this subject?? Say something about it? Question why it is that way? Or does it believe it's pointless because it's too obvious?? But this work drags around with deciding if whether Kamiki should be punished or not, if he's really the culprit or not/going after the guy for so long- that doesn't seem like the priority of the story. What I felt the authors think is that the priority is that they believe this is fun, playing guessing games about who's the real murderer or not, but this is a subject that hits too close to real life. They need to give clarity on how this subject should be handled!! That's a responsibility they must have taken to bring in the subject of a celeb being murdered by a crazy fan!!! It doesn't do that and leaves all this ambiguous!!

Speaking of which, what really baffled me was when Kamiki’s experience of childhood sexual abuse gets mentioned, and the narrative just transitions into: “How long can someone stay pure in this industry?” Sure, someone says, “That’s not okay,” but… that’s it. That’s all. This happens every time. Nothing gets resolved, nothing is proposed, and the characters who suffer just grow up blaming themselves. And the story doesn’t do anything about it.

You might argue, “What could one person possibly do?”—but even up to the final chapter, the manga maintains this approach. Aqua believes that killing one man—the man who he claims would ruin Ruby’s future—will somehow fix things. And yet, to me, what Kamiki says makes more sense. What does killing Kamiki change? Ai died. Ruby was attacked. These tragedies came out of society’s warped expectations of idols—expectations taken way too far.

But Aqua doesn’t seem to reflect on that at all. He just says, “Whatever, my mission is to protect Ruby,” and kills Kamiki, then himself. Meanwhile, Ai was trying to save the man she loved. And honestly, I don’t think this man ever meant to hurt her. He believed that Ai ended up that way because of him, and he went mad trying to do something for her. To me, he’s the one who suffers most in this story. I really do think he only meant to send her flowers.

And then this man—driven mad by grief—gets drowned and buried like a monster. As if that wraps everything up neatly. Maybe that is the message. “We’re all the same. You act nice, but nothing really changes. Even if a celebrity like Ruby goes through hell, you’ll just consume her story like entertainment, as long as she shines on stage.” Maybe that’s what this manga is saying.

But I just can’t believe the authors wrote this only to say that. Is that really all there is?

Surely they wanted to express some empathy toward people. Some awareness of the industry’s problems. At the very least, I think they must have wanted to say, “Something is wrong. Something must change.” And if so, then the bare minimum should’ve been to make that clear, especially by the end. Not this thing where Ruby cries and throws up for a while and then runs forward, and suddenly everything is wrapped up in a shining glow.

If you want to show that something can be changed, you have to show how. That it changed because someone did something. That’s what gives the story weight and direction. Otherwise, it just feels… abandoned. Irresponsibly tossed aside. It wouldn’t even take much—just one or two lines.

And the worst part? I predicted this ending. If you go back and read my analysis before the final chapter came out, I said that Ruby would still shine, still spread love, still save people.

Because Kamiki is Sarutahiko-Okami—the god who grants wishes—and he answered Ruby’s wish.

Because Ruby is Amaterasu.

Ugh, this is so frustrating.

4. Finally, the interpretation that might come off as the most disrespectful: maybe the creators just capable enough to discuss this in depth.

Honestly… that’s the simplest explanation. And I think a lot of people would agree. I read Glare & Sparkle—was that the one with the creator interviews?—anyway, I vaguely remember something about the writer admitting they weren’t particularly interested in the entertainment industry at first.

Still, if you’re going to publish a serialized story tackling these topics, even if you yourself as a person aren't so interested in celebrities and how they work, you have to approach it with a basic human sense of empathy—frustration at injustice, compassion for others. Especially when real people work in that industry. You should treat it with care and respect.

I don’t want to say this manga completely lacked those things. I imagine they did a lot of research. Probably quite thoroughly. And I appreciate some things that are present within the work. It did make me think about some things.

But if this is the best they could express, then I think we’re back at square one. On why this work is so ambiguous at that. There are a few possibilities.

The ambiguity was intentional.

They wanted to go deeper, but it was too hard, so they gave up.

They hold a kind of elitist contempt for their audience.

There was external pressure, or it became too heavy a burden.

It just wasn’t a topic they found personally meaningful.

This really was their best effort.

Maybe they were actually trying to tell a different story altogether (like focusing on occult/mystery elements, believing that would serve the narrative better than taking a clear stance on social issues).

Maybe they felt their own level of reflection wasn’t enough to take it further—and that this was “good enough.”

But if so, then the level of insight this manga ends up offering is:

“People are too caught up in their own worlds to understand someone else’s pain. They just want pretty stories, and as long as it all looks good on the outside, they think everything’s okay.”

…Did they really write a 16-volume series just to say that?

As for what’s been written—well, that’s the author’s freedom, and I respect their creativity. Honestly, the setup and structure aren’t bad at all. Like I said before, I think this author is very intelligent.

But again, as I keep saying—if you’re going to tell a story where people drown, get stabbed, lose their families, take their own lives… if you’re going to go there, then at the very least, I think you should clearly communicate to the readers what it is you're trying to say through all of it.

The readers have followed that story, watched that suffering unfold, and felt that pain with the characters, haven’t they? And even if they didn’t feel it deeply, surely they were curious. “So why did it turn out this way? What happened here? What is this story trying to say?”

Yes, sure—there is a surface-level plot. But me, right now—I think I get what this story is trying to say. I can see that there’s something underneath it all, something more than what’s shown.

But the reason for not saying it out loud—fine, do what you want… but I think saying it clearly would’ve been far better than not saying anything at all. At least then I’d be able to understand. I like it when I can see clearly what the author was thinking, how they felt, and what they were trying to convey when they wrote this story. Isn’t that why authors write in the first place? Because they want to communicate something? Or is this just about dumping out what’s in your head and leaving it there for people to stumble over and figure out?

But if you’re really the kind of author who doesn’t care what kind of reaction your story gets, then you wouldn’t write a story like this, right?;; It’s just so obvious—this person is not emotionally detached!! Honestly, judging by what I’ve seen of them, this author seems incredibly sensitive. I feel like they’re the kind of person who gets hurt very easily. Or am I wrong?

Again, I just wish that if there’s something you want to say, just say it. You’re an adult. You’re older than me, you have more experience than me.

Did this person see deeper into the abyss than I did? Then again, I probably don’t understand the abyss at all… I watched a video about idols today and—ugh… There really are all sorts of people in the world. Maybe they got into this topic while researching and ended up going dark inside. Maybe they thought, “How can I write something cheerful about a world like this?”

But still—at least say what you want to say!! That way, there’s something to take away from it. “Ah, so this is how this person thinks.” That’s what I wanted to see.

Even if I don’t know much about the industry, there are still these universal emotional undercurrents that we all share, right? I’m honestly not that interested in the entertainment world either. I barely pay attention to celebrity news unless it’s about a major crime or a really heartwarming story. But even with just that level of interest, you can still talk about people.

I don’t get why this manga keeps being so passive-aggressive. And even if I can tolerate the passive-aggressiveness, what’s so frustrating is that it still ends up muddying what it’s trying to say!! If you're going to drag in such serious issues, take some responsibility for the material!! Beautiful artwork isn't everything!! Just because the character designs are pretty and the characters have strong personalities doesn’t mean that’s enough!! If you’re going to tell a story about that world, then at least pick one thing you really wanted to say and make it clear. Don’t run away from it.

Yeah, that's all for now.

…Ugh. You know what? I’m just going to stop overthinking my interpretation now and push forward comfortably.

In fact, Kamiki is probably the most internally torn character out of everyone, and yet—ironically, he’s also one of the least twisted in terms of his inner judgment. Ai, on the other hand, got pretty twisted. But that was because the author deliberately placed her character in such a situation where she'd suffer like that. She's, in fact, such a pure and kind-hearted type, but because she was hurt so deeply, she became disillusioned.

Kamiki, on the other hand…I believe he was someone who really wanted to believe in people. That’s what led to all the problems. When he was young, he didn’t know how to be wary of others. He kept thinking, “If I do well, if I just do this, things will be okay.” And when things went wrong, he kept blaming himself. All the way to the day Ai died—he took it all onto himself. That’s what drove him mad!!

He’s not some malicious person who would send a knife-wielding man to Ai. What he wanted to send her was flowers. Flowers. And regarding Ryosuke—Kamiki knew that he was someone Ai would recognize. She did recognize him, remember? Kamiki knew Ryosuke was Nino’s boyfriend and a fan who went to handshake events. So then—do you really think Kamiki sent Ryosuke to hurt Ai? No way. Did he think Ryosuke would harm her? Scare her? Absolutely not!! If he had thought that, then Ryosuke would’ve been the worst possible choice. He’s a fan. Who imagines a fan hurting their idol?? Kamiki had known him for years and thought he was a good person. He trusted him—and I think that was all genuine.

If Kamiki had held any ill will toward Ai, he would’ve chosen someone else. Someone with no connection to her at all. But what he really wanted was to go see his kids. To congratulate Ai on her dome concert. Then things happened… and he couldn’t bear it. He broke. He wanted to do something—for Ai, about Ai—and that’s what kept him alive. But that, in whatever way it spiraled out, led to these devastating consequences… and that's how Aqua has tracked him down.

I keep, keep saying this. I figured this out before it even came out. And the fact that people still haven’t caught on—it’s frustrating and painful. The author shouldn’t have left this unspoken like that!!!

I just wanted to uncover this for everyone. I really wanted to pull this part into the light...

Surely people at least figured this part out? They must have seen that much, right?

But by leaving it vague like this—honestly, the effects it has are really not good. The focus here shouldn't be on whether Kamiki is the evil one or not, what this manga should have been discussing is something else entirely, and I see that, I actually consider it as a pretty good message but the fact that the authors themselves bury it is so frustrating. But like I said, it really doesn't go so much about the subject matter so much either, so perhaps they feel they achieved everything they wanted and are really satisfied with it.

In that case, I may be holding my expectations too high. But that's called believing in them! I thought they could do good and be really thoughtful about the materials they handle, it's not like it doesn't exist at all, right.

#long post #oshi no ko #oshi no theories #hikaai #oshi no ko spoilers #hikaru kamiki #ai hoshino #aqua hoshino #ruby hoshino #spoilers

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