#They get tropier it's so funny

[manybcdthings]

felix's apartment

felix ranstrom and isabella belcourt @rviner

After enduring what could only be described as the world's most horrendous escape room attempt, Felix was happy to be home. And of course, happier that Bella was home with him. "I suppose it still counts as an achievement." he chuckled to himself about their evening but just as he tossed his keys and wallet into the bowl by the door, every single light through his space dimmed into a dramatic low glow.

Felix blinked, watching as Bella emerged further into his apartment that was suddenly dropped into a romantic atmosphere. Immediately, the gentle piano keys of La Mer filled the air throughout the space. "You're not going to believe me, but I absolutely didn't plan this. This is really not...my style of romance." Felix claimed, immediately seeing amusement in her eyes and unable to fight his own chuckle. "It's this new...home mod thing from the Sinclairs. Phina wanted me to try it out but it has a mind of it's own. I can't disconnect it from my phone." Felix continued to explain, his chuckles growing as he moved to the console on the wall.

"I've had a theme tune every time I get home for a week but I thought I fixed it." he trailed off, tapping away in a rush but unable to control his laughter. Despite his best efforts, the music only grew louder and the lights adopted a romantic flickering mimic of candles. "Oh, oops. No. Jesus." Felix muttered with complete amusement, trying another tap over the console which only cast a deep red hue across his apartment. "Oh God." he laughed again. "Not the prostitute lights. This is terrible. Isabella, please. Witchy it."

[animebw]

Late night update: I just finished Fate/Hollow Ataraxia! I’ve been playing it steadily since my break started, and I finished it up just an hour shy of midnight. And, as you might expect, I have Thoughts(tm). Non-spoiler, because I appreciate you.

Overall, I enjoyed HA quite a bit, and I think the overall writing quality is actually superior to Stay Night. Dialogue and pacing of scenes flows much better now. I guess Nasu finally learned how to edit. The actual plot doesn't really get interesting until the twists start unraveling in the back half, but that's okay; the attraction here is all the slice of life stuff, getting to see all the characters just living their lives in different scenarios. On that front, it's a rousing success. There are so many delightful little moments across this VN getting to see the characters living their new lives, being happy, interacting in new and fresh ways. That said, it does have a tendency to spiral off in some bizarre directions with some of the side stuff. It throws so many different scenarios at the wall, and most of them work, but sometimes, it just gets fucking weird. 

And I'm also not entirely fond of how it... eh, for lack of a better word, tropefies certain characters. As funny as Shinji was throughout a lot of it- seriously, somehow this living trash fire made me laugh my ass off multiple times- just treating him as goofy side character after everything he did doesn't really sit right with me. Ditto so many of Rider's segments being jokes at the expense of her attractiveness complex. Or the leaning into Ilya as imouto fetish. Or how Rin's suddenly taken on the Overly Violent aspect of being a tsundere when that wasn't part of her before. SN had problems with this kind of stuff too; the creepy siscon Ilya undertones certainly didn't come out of nowhere in HA. But the complexity and legitimate darkness of the narrative helped smooth those kinks out and present the characters as their best, most fully realized selves. Here, though, there are a lot of times where the characters feel Flanderized for the sake of Shenanigans. Not all the time, but enough of the time to be noticeable. I think Fate is at its strongest when it's pulling away from its more outright "anime" tendencies and letting the characters and story speak for themselves. But it can't help leaning into its tropier elements, always to its detriment.

Still, the good stuff is really good, most of the SOL stuff is genuinely charming and fun, and all the twists really got me good. I'm happy I read it, even if I'm ready to move on now. Suffice to say, it’s probably going to be a long time before I tackle another VN, if I ever do at all. I am just not built for these things, man.