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pumpkinpaix · 4 years

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Hi! Loving your meta on suibian :)) Just wondering what were your frustrations with cql, especially considered you've watched this in multiple mediums? (I've only watched cql)

Hi anon! thank you so much!

Oh boy, you’ve unlocked a boatload of hidden dialogue, are you ready?? :D (buckle up it’s oof. Extremely Long)

@hunxi-guilai please consider this my official pitch for why I think the novel is worth reading, if only so you can enjoy the audio drama more fully. ;)

a few things before I get into it:

I don’t want to make this a 100% negative post because I really do love CQL so much! So I’m going to make it two parts: the changes that frustrated me the most and the changes I loved the most re: CQL vs novel. (again, don’t really know anything about donghua or manhua sorry!!) Sound good? :D

this will contain spoilers for the entirety of CQL and the novel. just like. All of it.

talking about the value of changes in CQL is difficult because I personally don’t know what changes were made for creative reasons and what changes were made for censorship reasons. I don’t think it’s entirely fair to evaluate the narrative worth of certain changes when I don’t know what their limitations were. It’s not just a matter of “gay content was censored”; China also has certain censorship restrictions on the portrayal of the undead, among other things. I, unfortunately, am not familiar enough with the ins and outs of Chinese censorship to be able to tell anyone with certainty what was and wasn’t changed for what reason. So I guess just, take whatever my opinions are with a grain of salt! I will largely avoid addressing issues related to how explicitly romantic wangxian is, for obvious reasons.

OKAY. In order to impose some kind of control on how much time I spend on this, I’m going to limit myself to four explicated points in each category, best/worst. Please remember that I change my opinions constantly, so these are just like. the top contenders at this specific point in my life. Starting with the worst so we can end on a positive note!

Henceforth, the novel is MDZS, CQL is CQL.

CQL’s worst crimes, according to cyan:

1. Polarizing Wei Wuxian and Jin Guangyao on the moral spectrum

I’ve heard rumors that this was a censorship issue, but I have never been able to confirm or deny it, so. Again, grain of salt.

The way that CQL reframed Wei Wuxian and Jin Guangyao’s character arcs drives me up the wall because I think it does a huge disservice to both of them and the overarching themes of the story. Jin Guangyao is shown to be responsible for pretty much all the tragedy post-Sunshot, which absolves Wei Wuxian of all possible wrongdoing and flattens Jin Guangyao into a much less interesting villain.

What I find so interesting about MDZS is how much it emphasizes the role of external forces and situations in determining a person’s fate: that being “good” or “righteous” at heart is simply not enough. You can do everything with all the best intentions and still do harm, still fail, still lose everything. Even “right” choices can have terrible consequences. Everyone starts out innocent. “In this world, everyone starts without grievances, but there is always someone who takes the first blow.”

It matters that Wei Wuxian is the one who loses control and kills Jin Zixuan, that his choices (no matter how impossible and terrible the situation) had consequences because the whole point is that even good people can be forced into corners where they do terrible things. Being good isn’t enough. You can do everything right, make every impossible choice, and fail. You can do the right thing and be punished for it. Maybe you did the right thing, but others suffer for your actions. Is that still the right thing? Is it your fault? Is it? By absolving Wei Wuxian of any conceivable blame, it really changes the narrative conclusion. In MDZS, even the best people can do incomprehensible harm when backed into corners, and the audience is asked to evaluate those actions with nuance. Is a criminal fully culpable for the harm they do when their external circumstances forced them into situations where they felt like they had no good choices left?

Personally, I feel like the novel asks you to forgive Wei Wuxian his wrongs, and, in paralleling him with Jin Guangyao, shows how easily they could have been one another. Both of them are extraordinarily talented sons of commoners; the difference lies in what opportunities they were given as they were growing up and how they choose to react to grievances. Wei Wuxian is adopted early on into the head family of a prominent sect and treated (more or less—not going to get into it) like a son. Jin Guangyao begs, borrows, steals, kills for every scrap of prestige and honor he gets and understands that his position in life is, at all points, extraordinarily unstable. Wei Wuxian doesn’t take his grievances to heart, but Jin Guangyao does.

To be clear, I don’t think the novel places a moral value on holding grudges, if that makes sense. I think MDZS only indicates that acts of vengeance always lead to more bloodshed—that the only escape is to lay down your arms, no matter how bitter the taste. Wei Wuxian was horribly wronged in many ways, and I don’t think I would fault him for wanting revenge or holding onto his anger—but I do think it’s clear that if he did, it would destroy him. It destroys Jin Guangyao, after all.

(It also destroys Xue Yang, and I think the parallel actually also extends to him. Yi City, to me, is a very interesting microcosm of a lot of broader themes in MDZS, and I have a lot of Thoughts on Xue Yang and equivalent justice, etc. etc. but. Thoughts for another time.)

Wei Wuxian is granted a happy ending not because he is Good, but because public opinion has changed, because there’s a new scapegoat, because he is protected by someone in power, because he lets go of the past, and because the children see him for who he is. I really do think that the reason MDZS and CQL have a hopeful ending as opposed to a bleak one hinges on the juniors. We are shown very clearly throughout the story how easily and quickly the tide of public opinion turns. The reason we don’t fear that it’s going to happen to Wei Wuxian again (or any other surviving character we love) is, I think, because the juniors, who don’t lose their childhoods to war, have the capacity to see past their parents’ prejudices and evaluate the actions of the people in front of them without having their opinions clouded by intense trauma and fear. They are forged out of love, not fire.

In CQL however, it emphasizes that Wei Wuxian is Fundamentally Good and did No Wrong Ever, so he deserves his happy ending, while Jin Guangyao is Fundamentally Bad and Responsible For Everything, so he got what was coming to him (even if we feel bad for him maybe). That’s not nearly as interesting or meaningful.  

(One specific change to Jin Guangyao’s timeline of evil that I find particularly vexing, not including the one I will discuss in point 2, is changing when Jin Rusong was conceived. In the novel, Qin Su is supposedly already pregnant by the time they get married, and that matters a WHOLE LOT when evaluating Jin Guangyao’s actions, I think.)

2. Wen POWs used as target obstacles at Baifeng Mountain

I know the first point was “here’s an overarching plot change that I think deeply impacts the narrative themes” and this second one is “I despise this one specific scene detail so much”, but HEAR ME OUT. It’s related to the first point! (tbh, most things are related to the first point)

Personally, I think this one detail character assassinates like. almost everyone in attendance, but most egregiously in no particular order: Jin Guangyao, Jin Zixuan (and by extension, Jiang Yanli), Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen.

First, I think it’s a cheap plot device that’s obviously meant to enhance Jin Guangyao’s ~villainy while emphasizing Wei Wuxian’s growing righteous anger, but it fails so spectacularly, god, I literally hate this detail so much lmao. I’ll go by character.

Jin Guangyao: I get that CQL is invested in him being a ~bad person~ or whatever, but this is such a transparently like, cartoon villain move that lacks subtlety and elegance. Jin Guangyao is very dedicated to being highly diplomatic, appeasing, and non-threatening in his bid for power. He manipulates behind the scenes, does his father’s dirty work, etc. but he always shows a gentle, smiling face. This display tips his hand pretty obviously, and even if it were at the behest of his father, there’s literally no reason for him to be so “ohohoho I’m so evil~” about it—if anything, this would only serve to drive his sympathizers away. It’s a stupid move for him politically, and really undercuts his supposed intelligence and cleverness, in my personal opinion.

Jin Zixuan: yes, he is arrogant and vain and likes to show off! But putting his ego above the safety of innocent people? Like, not necessarily OOC, but it sure makes him much less sympathetic in my eyes. I find it hard to believe that Jiang Yanli would find this laudable or acceptable, but she’s given a few shots where she smiles with some kind of pride and it’s like. No! Do not do my queen dirty like this. She wouldn’t!

Wei Wuxian: where do I start! WHERE DO I START. Wei Wuxian is shown to be “righteously angry” about this, but steps down mutinously when Jiang Cheng motions him back. He looks shocked and outraged at Jin Zixuan for showing off with no concern for the safety of the Wen POWs, only to like, two seconds later, do the exact same thing, but worse! And at the provocation of Jin Zixun, no less! *screams into hands* The tonal shift is bizarre! We’re in this really tense ~moral quandary~, but then he flirts with Lan Wangji for a second (tense music still kinda playing?? it’s awful. I hate it), and then does his trickshot. You know! Putting all these people he’s supposedly so concerned about at risk! To one-up Jin Zixuan! It’s nonsensical. It’s such a conflict of priorities. This is supposed to make him seem honorable and cool, I guess? But it mostly just makes him look like a performative hypocrite. :///

Lan Wangji: I cannot believe that Lan Wangji saw this and did not immediately walk out in protest.

Lan Xichen: this is just one part of a larger problem with Lan Xichen’s arc in CQL vs MDZS, where his character development was an unwitting casualty of both wangxian censorship and CQL’s quest to demonize Jin Guangyao. One of the prevailing criticisms I see of Lan Xichen’s character is that he is a “centrist”, that he “allows bad things to happen through his inaction and desire to avoid conflict”, and that he is “stupid and willfully blind to Jin Guangyao’s faults”, when I don’t think any of this is supported by evidence in the novel whatsoever. Jin Guangyao is a subtle villain! He is a talented manipulator and liar! Even Wei Wuxian says it in the novel!

(forgive my rough translations /o\)

Chapter 49, as Wei Wuxian (through Empathy with Nie Mingjue’s head) listens to Lan Xichen defend Meng Yao immediately following Wen Ruohan’s assassination:

魏无羡心中摇头：“泽芜君这个人还是……太纯善了。”可再一想，��是因为已知金光瑶的种种嫌疑才能如此防备，可在蓝曦臣面前的孟瑶，却是一个忍辱负重，身不由己，孤身犯险的卧底，二人视角不同，感受又如何能相提并论？

Wei Wuxian shook his head to himself: “This Zewu-jun is still…… too pure and kind.” But then he thought again—he could only be so guarded because he already knew of all of Jin Guangyao’s suspicious behavior, but the Meng Yao before Lan Xichen was someone who had had no choice but to suffer in silence for his mission, who placed himself in grave danger, alone, undercover. The two of them had different perspectives, so how could their feelings be compared?

Chapter 63, after Wei Wuxian wakes up in the Cloud Recesses, having been brought there by Lan Wangji:

他不是不能理解蓝曦臣。他从聂明玦的视角看金光瑶，将其奸诈狡猾与野心勃勃尽收眼底，然而，如果金光瑶多年来在蓝曦臣面前一直以伪装相示，没理由要他不去相信自己的结义兄弟，却去相信一个臭名昭著腥风血雨之人。

It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand Lan Xichen. He had seen Jin Guangyao from Nie Mingjue’s perspective, and so had seen all of his treacherous and cunning obsession with ambition. However, if Jin Guangyao had for all these years only shown Lan Xichen a disguise, there was no reason for [Lan Xichen] to believe a famously violent person [Wei Wuxian] over his own sworn brother.

Lan Xichen, throughout the story, is being actively lied to and manipulated by Jin Guangyao. His only “mistake” was being kind and trying to give Meng Yao, someone who came from a place of great disadvantage, the benefit of the doubt instead of immediately dismissing him as worthless due to his birth or his station in life. Lan Xichen sees Meng Yao as someone who was forced to make impossible choices in impossible situations—you know, the way that we, the audience, are led to perceive Wei Wuxian. The only difference is that the story that we’re given about Wei Wuxian is true, while the story that Lan Xichen is given about Meng Yao is… not. But how would have have known?

The instant he is presented with a shred of evidence to the contrary, he revokes Jin Guangyao’s access to the Cloud Recesses, pursues that evidence to the last, and is horrified to discover that his trust was misplaced.

Lan Xichen’s willingness to consider different points of view is integral to Wei Wuxian’s survival and eventual happiness. Without Lan Xichen’s kindness, there is no way that Wei Wuxian would have ever been able to clear his name. Everyone else was calling for his blood, but Lan Wangji took him home, and Lan Xichen not only allowed it, he listened to and helped them. To the characters of the book who are not granted omniscient knowledge of Wei Wuxian’s actions and circumstances, there is literally no difference between Wei Wuxian and Jin Guangyao. Lan Xichen is being incredibly fair when he asks in chapter 63:

蓝曦臣笑了，道：“忘机，你又是如何判定，一个人究竟可信不可信？”

他看着魏无羡，道：“你相信魏公子，可我，相信金光瑶。大哥的头在他手上，这件事我们都没有亲眼目睹，都是凭着我们自己对另一个人的了解，相信那个人的说辞。

“你认为自己了解魏无羡，所以信任他；而我也认为自己了解金光瑶，所以我也信任他。你相信自己的判断，那么难道我就不能相信自己的判断吗？”

Lan Xichen laughed and said, “Wangji, how can you determine exactly who should and should not be believed?”

He looked at Wei Wuxian and said, “You believe Wei-gongzi, but I believe Jin Guangyao. Neither of us saw with our own eyes whether Da-ge’s head was in his possession. We base our opinions on our own understandings of someone else, our belief in their testimony.

“You think you understand Wei Wuxian, and so you trust him; I also think I understand Jin Guangyao, so I trust him. You trust your own judgment, so can’t I trust my own judgment as well?”

But he hears them out, examines the proof, and acts immediately.

I really do feel like this aspect of Lan Xichen kind of… became collateral damage in CQL. Because Jin Guangyao is so much more publicly malicious, Lan Xichen’s alleged “lack of action” feels much less understandable or acceptable.

It is wild to me that in this scene, Lan Xichen reacts with discomfort to the proceedings, but has nothing to say to Jin Guangyao about it afterwards and also applauds Wei Wuxian’s archery. (I could talk about Nie Mingjue here as well, but I would say Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen have very different perspectives on morality, so this moment isn’t necessarily OOC for NMJ, but I do think is very OOC for LXC.) This scene (among a few others that have Jin Guangyao being more openly “evil”) makes Lan Xichen look like a willfully blind bystander by the end of the story, but having him react with any action would have been inconvenient for the plot. Thus, he behaves exactly as he did in the book, but under very different circumstances. It reads inconsistently with the rest of his character (since a lot of the beats in the novel still happen in the show), and weakens the narrative surrounding his person.

None of these overt displays of cruelty or immorality happen in the book, so it makes perfect sense that he doesn’t do or suspect anything! Jin Guangyao is, as stated, perfectly disguised towards Lan Xichen. You can’t blame him for “failing to act” when someone was purposefully keeping him in the dark and, from his perspective, there was nothing to act upon.

This scene specifically is almost purely lighthearted in the novel! If you take out the Wen POWs, this just becomes a fun scene where Wei Wuxian shows off, flirts with Lan Wangji, gets into a pissing match with Jin Zixuan, and is overall kind of a brat! It’s great! I love this scene! The blindfolded shot is ridiculous and over-the-top and very cute!

I know this is a lot of extrapolation, but the whole scene is soured for me due to you know. *gestures upwards* Which is really a shame because it’s one of my favorite silly scenes in the book! Alas! @ CQL why! ;A;

3. Lan Xichen already being an adult and sect leader at the start of the show

This is rapidly becoming a, “Lan Xichen was Wronged and I Have the Receipts” essay (oh no), but you know what, that’s fine I guess! I never said I was impartial!

CQL makes Lan Xichen seem much older and more experienced than he is in the novel, though we’re not given his specific age. In the novel, he is not sect leader yet when Wei Wuxian and co. arrive at the Cloud Recesses for lectures. His father, Qingheng-jun, is in seclusion, and his uncle is the de facto leader of the sect. Lan Xichen does not become sect leader until his father dies at the burning of the Cloud Recesses. Moreover, my understanding of the text is that he is at most 19 years old when this happens. Wen Ruohan remarks that Lan Xichen is still a junior at the beginning of the Sunshot Campaign in chapter 61. (If someone has a different interpretation of the term 小辈, please correct me.) In any case! Lan Xichen is young.

Lan Xichen ascends to power under horrific circumstances: he is not an adult, his father has just been murdered, his uncle seriously injured, his brother kidnapped, and his home burnt to the ground. He is on the run, alone! Carrying the sacred texts of his family and trying to stay alive so his sect is not completely wiped out on the eve of war! He is terrified, inexperienced, and unprepared!

You know, just like Jiang Cheng, a few months later!

I see a lot of people lambasting Lan Xichen for not stepping up to protect the Wen remnants post-Sunshot, but I’m always flummoxed by the accusations because I don’t see criticisms of Jiang Cheng with remotely the same vitriol, even though their political positions are nearly identical:

they are both extraordinarily young sect leaders who came to power before they expected to through incredible violence done to their families

because of this, they are in very weak political positions: they have very little experience to offer as evidence of their competence and right to respect. if they are considered adults, they have only very recently come of age.

Jin Guangshan, who is rapidly and greedily taking the place of the Wen clan in the vacuum of power, is shown to be more than willing to mow people down to get what he wants—and he has the power to do so.

both Yunmeng Jiang and Gusu Lan were crippled by the Wen clan prior to Sunshot. And they just fought a war that lasted two and a half years. they are hugely weakened and in desperate need of time to rebuild, mourn, etc. both Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen are responsible for the well-being of all of these people who are now relying upon them.

I think it’s very obvious that Jiang Cheng is in an impossible situation because he wears his fears and insecurities on his face and people in power (cough Jin Guangshan) prey upon that, while we, as the audience, have a front row seat for that whole tragedy. We understand his choices, even if they hurt us.

Why shouldn’t Lan Xichen be afforded the same consideration?

I really do think that because he’s presented as someone who’s much more composed and confident in his own abilities than Jiang Cheng is, we tend to forget exactly what pressures he was facing at the same time. We just assume, oh yes, of course Lan Xichen has the power to do something! He’s Lan Xichen! The First Jade! Isn’t he supposed to be Perfectly Good? Why isn’t he doing The Right Thing?

I think this is exacerbated by CQL’s decision to make him an established sect leader at the start of the show with several years of experience under his belt. We don’t know his age, but he is assumed to be an Adult. This gives him more power and stability, and so it seems more unacceptable that he does not make moves to protect the Wen remnants, even if in essence, he and Jiang Cheng’s political positions are still quite similar. He doesn’t really have any more power to save the Wen remnants without placing his whole clan in danger of being wiped out again, but CQL implies that he does, even if it isn’t the intention of the change.

It does make me really sad that this change also drives a further thematic divide between Lan Xichen and the rest of his generation. Almost everyone in that generation came of age through a war, which I think informs the way their tragedies play out, and how those tragedies exist in contrast to the juniors’ behavior and futures. Making Lan Xichen an experienced adult aligns him with the generation prior to him, which, as we’re shown consistently, is the generation whose adherence to absolutism and fear ruined the lives of their children. But Lan Xichen is just as much a victim of this as his peers.

(the exception being maybe Nie Mingjue, but it’s complicated. I think Nie Mingjue occupies a very interesting position in the narrative, but like. That’s. For another time! this is. already so far out of hand. oh my god this is point three out of eight oh nO)

(yet another aside because I can’t help myself: can you believe we were robbed of paralleling scenes of Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen’s coronations? the visual drama of that. the poetic cinema. it’s not in the book, but can you IMAGINE. thank u @paledreamsblackmoths for putting this image into my head so that I can suffer forever knowing that I’ll never get it.)

I said I wasn’t going to talk at length about any changes surrounding Wangxian’s explicit romance for obvious reasons, but I will at least lament here that because a large percentage of Lan Xichen’s actions and character beats are directly in relation to Lan Wangji’s love for Wei Wuxian, he loses a lot of both minor and major moments to the censors as well. Many of the instances when he encourages Lan Wangji to talk to Wei Wuxian, when he indulges in their relationship etc. are understandably gone. But the most significant moment that was cut for censorship reasons I think is when he loses his temper with Wei Wuxian at the Guanyin temple and lays into him with all the fury and terror he felt for his brother’s broken heart for the last thirteen years.

Lan Xichen is only shown to express true anger twice in the whole story, both times at the Guanyin temple: first against Wei Wuxian for what he perceives as gross disregard for his little brother’s convictions, and second against Jin Guangyao for his massive betrayal of trust. And you know, murdering his best friend. Among other things.

I’m genuinely so sad that we don’t get to see Lan Xichen tear Wei Wuxian to shreds for what he did to Lan Wangji because I think one of the most important aspects to Lan Xichen’s character is how much he loves, cares for and fears for his little brother. The reveal about Lan Wangji’s punishment in episode 43 is a sad and sober conversation, but it’s not nearly as impactful, especially because Wei Wuxian asks about it of his own volition. I understand that this isn’t CQL’s fault! But. I can still mourn it right? ahahaha. :’)

I’ll stop before I descend further into nothing but Lan Xichen meta because that’s. Dangerous. (I have a lot of Feelings about how there are three characters who are held up as paragons of virtue in MDZS, how they all suffered in spite of their goodness, and how that all ties directly into the whole, “it is not enough to be good, but kindness is never wrong” theme. Anyways, they’re Xiao Xingchen, Jiang Yanli, and Lan Xichen, but NOT NOW. NOT TODAY.)

So yes, I’m a Lan Xichen apologist on main, and yes, I understand my feelings are incredibly personally motivated and influenced by my subjective emotions, but no I do not take concrit on this point, thank you very much.

4. all of the Wen remnants turning themselves in alongside Wen Qing and Wen Ning

Okay, back to plot changes. This change I would be willing to bet money was at least partially due to censorship, but it hurts me so deeply hahaha. It makes literally no sense for any of the characters and it completely janks the timeline of events post Qiongqi Dao 2.0 through Wei Wuxian’s death.

It’s not ALL bad—this change makes it easier for the Peak Wangxian moment at the Bloodbath at Nightless City (You know. Hands. Cliff. etc.) to happen, which I did very much enjoy. It’s pretty on-brand for CQL to sacrifice plot for character beats that they want to emphasize, so like. I get it! This moment is a huge gift! I Understand This. CQL collapses the Bloodbath at Nightless City and the First Siege of the Mass Graves into one event for I think a few reasons. One, Wangxian moment without being explicitly Wangxian, which is excellent. Two, it circumvents the Blood Corpse scene, which I do not think would have made it past censorship.

I’ll get to the Blood Corpse scene in a minute, but despite being able to understand why so much might have been sacrificed for the impact of the cliff scene, I still wish it had been done differently (and I feel like it could have been!), if only for my peace of mind because the plot holes it creates are pretty gaping.

The entire point of Wen Qing and Wen Ning turning themselves in is specifically to save their family members and Wei Wuxian from coming to further harm. That’s explicit, even in the show. Jin Guangshan demands that the Wen brother and sister stand for their crimes and claims that the blood debt will be paid. The Wen remnants understand that Wei Wuxian has given up so much for their sakes, that he has lost his family, his home, his respectability, his health, all in the name of sheltering them. To throw all of that away would be the greatest disrespect to his sacrifices. Wen Qing and Wen Ning decide that if their lives can pay for the safety of their loved ones and ensure that Wei Wuxian’s sacrifices matter, they are willing to go together and give themselves up.

So. Why did they. All go?? For… moral support???? D: Wen Qing says that Wei Wuxian will wake up in three days and that she’s given Fourth Uncle and the others instructions for his care–but then Fourth Uncle and the others all go with them!! To die!! There’s also very clearly a shot of Granny Wen taking A’Yuan with them, which like. Obviously didn’t really happen.

Wen Qing, who loves her family more than anything in the world, agrees that they should all go to Lanling and sacrifice themselves to…. protect Wei Wuxian? Wen Qing, pragmatic queen of my heart, agrees to this absurdly bad exchange?? Leaves Wei Wuxian to wake up, alone, with the knowledge that he had not only killed his brother-in-law but also effectively gotten everyone he had left killed also??

I can’t imagine Wen Qing doing that to Wei Wuxian. Save his life? For what? This takes away everything he has left to live for. You think Wen Qing doesn’t intimately understand how cruel that would be?

(Yes, I’m complaining about all of this, but I’m still about to cry because I rewatched the scene to make sure I didn’t say anything untrue, and g o d it manages to hit hard despite all of that, so who’s the real clown here!!)

Anyways. So that’s all just like. Frustratingly incoherent. It’s one of several wrongs I think CQL committed against Wen Qing’s character, but my feelings about Wen Qing in CQL are pretty complicated (I love her so much, and I love that we got more Wen Qing content, but that content sure is a mixed bag of stuff I really enjoyed and stuff I desperately wish didn’t exist) and I decided I wasn’t going to get into it in this post. (is anyone even still reading god)

This change also muddles Lan Wangji’s choices and punishment in ways that I think diminishes the severity of the situation to the detriment of both his characterization and his family’s characterization. The punishment scene is extremely moving and you should read this post about the language used in it but. sldfjsljslkf.

okay well, several things. In the context of CQL, which really pushes the “righteousness” angle of Wei Wuxian (see point 1), I think this scene makes a lot of sense in isolation: both Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are painted as martyrs for doing the right thing. “Who’s right and who’s wrong?” The audience is asked to see the punishment as “unjust”. That’s perfectly fine and coherent in the context of CQL, but I don’t think it’s nearly as interesting as what happens in MDZS.

Because CQL collapses both the First Siege and the Bloodbath into one event, Lan Wangji’s crimes are sort of unclearly defined. In episode 43, when Lan Xichen is explaining the situation, we see a flashback to when Su She says something along the lines of, “We could set aside the fact that you defended Wei Ying at Nightless City, but now you won’t even let us search his den?” (of course, this gives us the really excellent “you are not qualified to talk to me” line which. delicious. extremely vindicating and satisfying. petty king lan wangji.) Lan Xichen goes on to say something like, “Wangji alone caused several disturbances at the Mass Graves. Uncle was greatly angered, and [decreed his punishment]”. (Sorry, I’m too lazy to type out the full lines with translations, just. trust me on this one.)

Lan Wangji’s actions are shown to be motivated by a righteous love. Wei Wuxian is portrayed as someone innocent who stood up for the right thing against popular opinion and was scapegoated and destroyed for it, having done no wrong. (See, point 1 again.)

In MDZS, Lan Wangji’s crimes are very specific. It isn’t just that he caused some “disturbances” (this is just Lan XIchen’s vague phrasing in CQL—we don’t really know what he did). He steals Wei Wuxian away from the Bloodbath at Nightless City, after Wei Wuxian killed thousands of people, and hides him away in a cave, feeding him spiritual energy to save his life. When Lan Wangji’s family comes to find him, demand that he hand over Wei Wuxian (who is, remember, a mass murderer at this point! we can argue about how culpable he is for those actions all day—that’s the whole point, but the people are still dead), Lan Wangji not only refuses, but raises his hands against his family. He seriously injures thirty-three Lan elders to protect Wei Wuxian.

I don’t know how to emphasize how serious that crime is? Culturally, this is like. Unthinkable. To raise your hand against members of your own family, your elders who loved and raised you, in defense of an outsider, a man who, by all accounts, is horrifically evil and just murdered thousands of people, including other members of your own family, is like. That’s a serious betrayal. Oh my god. Lan Wangji, what have you done?

Lan Xichen explains in chapter 99:

我去看他的时候对他说，魏公子已铸成大错，你何苦错上加错了。他却说……他无法断言你所作所为对错如何，但无论对错，他愿意与你一起承担所有后果。

When I went to see him, I said, “Wei-gongzi’s great wrongs are already set in stone, why take the pains to add wrongs upon wrongs?” But he said…… he had no way to ascertain the rights and wrongs of your actions, but regardless of right or wrong, he was willing to bear all the consequences with you.

I think this is very different than what’s going on in CQL, though the differences appear subtle on the surface. In CQL, Lan Wangji demands of his uncle, “Dare I ask Uncle, who is righteous and who is wicked, who is wrong and who is right?” but the very act of asking in this way implies that Lan Wangji has an opinion on the matter (though perhaps not a simple one).

Lan Wangji in MDZS specifically says that he doesn’t know how to evaluate the morality of Wei Wuxian’s actions, but that regardless, he is willing to bear the consequences of his choices and his actions. He understands that his actions while sheltering Wei Wuxian are not clearly morally defensible. He did it anyways because he loved Wei Wuxian, because he thought that Wei Wuxian was worth saving, that there was still something good in him, despite the things he had done under mitigating circumstances. Lan Wangji did not save Wei Wuxian because he thought it was the right thing to do. He saved him because he loved him.

He is given thirty-three lashes with the discipline whip, one for each elder he maimed, and this leaves him bedridden for three years. Is this punishment horrifyingly severe? Yes! But is it unjustly given? I think that’s a much harder question to answer in the context of the story.

Personally, I think that question underscores the broader questions of morality contained within MDZS. I think it’s a much more interesting take on Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji as individuals. This asks, what can be pardoned? The righteous martyr angle is uncomplicated because moral certainty is easy. I think the situation in MDZS is far more uncomfortable if you examine its implications. And personally, I think that’s more meaningful!

(Not even going to touch on the whole, 300 strokes with a giant rod, but he has whip scars? And they were also sentenced to 300 strokes as kids for drinking alcohol…? CQL is not. consistent. on that front. ahaha.)

God, every point so far in this meta is just like “here’s one change that has cascading effects upon the rest of the show” dear god, okay, I’m getting to the Blood Corpse scene.

So in MDZS, the Wen remnants (besides Wen Ning and Wen Qing) do not go to Lanling. After the Bloodbath at Nightless City, Lan Wangji returns Wei Wuxian to the Mass Graves. Wei Wuxian lives with the Wen remnants for another three months before the First Siege, where he dies and the rest of the Wens are killed (except A’Yuan).

(Sidenote that I won’t get into: I love the dead spaces of time that MDZS creates. There’s very clear gaps in the narrative that we just never get the details on, most notably: Wei Wuxian’s three months in the Mass Graves post core transfer, and Wei Wuxian’s three months in the Mass Graves post Jiang Yanli’s death. They’re both extremely terrible times, but the audence is asked to imagine it instead of ever learning what really happened, what it was like. There’s something really cool about that narratively, I think.)

The Wen remnants are not cremated along with the rest of the dead. Their bodies are thrown into the blood pool.

At the Second Siege, when Wei Wuxian draws a Yin Summoning Flag on his clothes to turn himself into bait for the corpses in order to allow everyone else to escape to safety while he and Lan Wangji fight them off, there’s a moment when it gets really, truly dangerous—even with the help of the juniors and a few of the adults, they probably would have been killed. But then a wave of blood-soaked corpses come crawling out of the blood pool of their own accord and tear their attackers apart.

At the end of it, the blood corpses, the Wen remnants, gather before Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning. Wei Wuxian thanks them, they exchange bows, and the blood corpses collapse into dust. Wen Ning scrambles to gather their ashes, but runs out of space in his clothing. Several juniors, seeing this, offer up their bags to him and try to help.

It’s just. This scene is so important to me. Obviously, it couldn’t be included in CQL because of the whole undead thing, but it’s such a shame because I maintain that the Blood Corpse scene is one of the most powerful scenes in the whole goddamn book. It ties together so many things that I care about! It’s the moment when the narrative says, “kindness is not a waste”. Wei Wuxian failed to save them, but that doesn’t mean that his actions were done in vain. What he did matters. The year of life he bought them matters. The time they spent together matters.

This is also the moment when the juniors finally see Wen Ning for who he is—not the terrifying Ghost General, but a gentle man who has just lost his family for a second time. This is the moment when they reach out with kindness to the monster that their parents told them about at night. It matters that the juniors are able to do that! That they see this man suffering and are moved to compassion instead of righteous satisfaction.

(Except Jin Ling, for very understandable reasons, but Jin Ling’s moment comes later.)

It’s also the moment that we’re starkly reminded that many of the adults in attendance were present at the First Siege and directly responsible for the murders of the Wen remnants, including Ouyang Zizhen’s father. We’re reminded that he’s not just a comically annoying man with bad takes—he also participated in the murder of innocent people and then disrespected their corpses. But what retribution should be taken against him and the others? What retribution could be taken that wouldn’t lead to more tragedy?

There’s someone in the crowd in this scene named Fang Mengchen who refuses to be swayed by Wei Wuxian’s actions. “He killed my parents,” he says. “What about them? How can I let that go?”

“What more do you want from me?” Wei Wuxian asks. “I have already died once. You do not have to forgive me, but what more should I do?”

That is the ultimate question, isn’t it? What is the only way out of tragedy? You don’t have to forgive, but you cannot continue to take your retribution. It is not fair, but it’s all you have.

okay. so. those were my four Big Points of Contention with CQL, as I am currently experiencing them.

Honorable mentions go to: Wen Qing’s arc (both excellent and awful in different ways), making 13/16 years of Inquiry canon (I think this is untrue to Lan Wangji’s character, though I can understand why it was done), Mianmian’s departure from the Lanling Jin sect being shortened and having the sexism cut out (there’s something really visceral about the accusations against Mianmian being explicitly about her womanhood that I desperately wish had been retained in the show), cutting the scene where Jin Ling cries in mourning for Jin Guangyao and is scolded for it by Sect Leader Yao (my heart for that scene because it also matters so much)

but now!! onto the fun part, where I talk effusively about how much I love CQL!! this will probably be shorter (*prays*) because a lot of my frustrations with CQL are related to spiraling thematic consequences while the things I love are like. Simpler to pinpoint? If that makes sense? we’ll see.

CQL’s greatest virtues, also according to cyan:

1. this:

[ID: Wei Wuxian, trembling in fear, screaming “shijie!” as Jiang Cheng threatens him with Fairy in episode 34 of The Untamed drama. /end ID]

I understand that this is like, a very minor, specific detail change, but oh my GOD, it is like. Unparalleled. Every time I think about this change, I get so emotional and disappointed that it’s not in the novel, because I think it strengthens this scene tenfold. In the novel, Wei Wuxian calls out for Lan Zhan, which like, I get it. The story at this point is focused on the development of his romantic feelings for Lan Wangji, so the point of the scene is that the first person he thinks of in a moment of extreme fear is Lan Zhan, which surprises him. That’s fine. Like, it’s fine! But I think it doesn’t have nearly the same weight as Wei Wuxian calling for his sister to save him from his brother.

Having Wei Wuxian call out for his sister drives home the loss that the two of them have suffered, and highlights the relationship they all once had. Jiang Yanli is much more relevant to shuangjie’s narrative than Lan Wangji ever was, and this highlights exactly how deeply the fracturing of their familial relationship cuts. Wangxian gets so much time and focus throughout the rest of the novel. I love that this moment in the show is just about the Yunmeng siblings because that relationship is no less important, you know?

Calling out for Jiang Yanli in the show draws a much cleaner line through the dialogue. “You dare bring her up before me?” to “Don’t you remember what you said to Jin Ling?” It unifies the scene and twists the knife. It also gives us more insight into how fiercely Wei Wuxian was once beloved and protected by his siblings. Jiang Cheng promised to chase all the dogs away from Wei Wuxian when they were children. It’s clear that Jiang Yanli did as well.

Once upon a time, Wei Wuxian’s siblings defended him from his fears, and now one of them is dead and the other is using that fear to hurt him where he’s weakest. The reversal is so painfully juxtaposed, and it’s done with just that one flashback of Wei Wuxian as a child leaping into Jiang Yanli’s arms and calling out her name. Extremely good, economical storytelling. The conversation between shuangjie is much more focused on their own stories independent from Lan Wangji, which I very much appreciate. Wangxian, you’re wonderful, but this ain’t about you, and I don’t think it should be.

2. Extended Jiang Yanli content (and by extension, Jin Zixuan and Mianmian content)

Speaking of absolute goddess Jiang Yanli, I really loved what CQL did with her (unlike my more mixed feelings about Wen Qing). Having her in so many more scenes makes her importance to Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian a lot clearer, and we get to experience her as a person rather than an ideal.

On a purely aesthetic level, Jiang Yanli’s styling and character design is so stellar in CQL. The more prevalent design for her is kind of childish in the styling, which I don’t love (I think it’s the donghua influence?). And even I, someone who’s audio drama on main 24/7, personally prefer her CQL voice actor. There’s only a few characters in CQL that I look at and go “ah yes, that’s [character] 100%” and Jiang Yanli is one of them. I was blessed. I would lay down my life for her.

I’m really glad that CQL showed her illness more explicitly and gave her a sword, even if she never uses it! Her weak constitution is only mentioned once in the novel in chapter 69 in like two lines that I blew past initially because I was reading at breakneck speed and was only reminded of when my therapist who I conned into reading mdzs after 8 months of never shutting up oof brought it to my attention like two weeks ago. /o\

We never read about Jiang Yanli carrying a sword in the novel, though we are told that her cultivation is “mediocre”, so we know that she at least does cultivate, even if not very well. Highlighting her poor health in CQL makes her situation more clear, I think, and explains a little more about the way she’s perceived throughout the cultivation world as someone “not worthy of Jin Zixuan”. The novel tells us that Jiang Yanli is not an extraordinary beauty, not very good at cultivation, sort of bland in her expressions, and, very briefly, that she’s in poor health. I really love that description of Jiang Yanli, because it emphasizes that her worth has nothing at all to do with her talents, her health, her cultivation, her physical strength, or her beauty. She is the best person in the whole world, her brothers adore her, and the audience loves and respects her for reasons wholly unrelated to those value judgments. We love her because she is kind, because she is loyal, because she loves so deeply. Tbh, her only imperfection is falling for someone so tragically undeserving of her. (JK, I love you Jin Zixuan, and you do deserve her because you are an excellent boy who grows and changes and learns!! I can’t even be mean to characters as a joke god.)

Anyways, I just think the detail about her health is compelling and informs her character’s position in the world in a very specific way. I’m happy that CQL brought it to the forefront when it was kind of an easily-missed throwaway in the novel. It does mean something to me that Jiang Yanli, despite her poor physical health, is never once seen or treated as a burden by her brothers.

Something partially related that really hit hard was this:

[ID: two gifs. Jiang Yanli peeling lotus pods, looking up uncomfortably as her mother loses her temper about the Wen indoctrination at the table from episode 11 of The Untamed drama. /end ID]

D8 AAAAHHH this was VISCERAL. The novel is quite sparse in a lot of its descriptions and lets the audience fill in the missing details, so Jiang Yanli’s expression and reactions are not described when, after Jiang Cheng quickly volunteers to go to Qishan, Madam Yu accuses her of continuing to “happily peel lotus seeds” in such a dire situation.

“Of course you’ll go,” she snaps to Jiang Cheng. “Or else do you think we should let your sister go?”

This scene triggered me so bad lmfao, so I guess it’s kind of weird that I love it so much, but I felt Seen. Something about the way her nail slips in the second gif as she breaks open the pod is like. Oh, that’s a sense memory! Of me, as a child, witnessing uncomfortable conflict between people I cared about. I know this is an extremely personal bias, but hey, so is this whole meta. Because Jiang Yanli is often silent and quiet, it’s more her behavior and expressions that convey her character. It’s why the moment she lets loose on Jin Zixun is so powerful. We don’t get to see a lot of it in the novel, but because CQL is a visual medium, her character is a lot easier to pin down as a human as opposed to an abstract concept.

Anyways, in this moment, which I also think is a tangential reference to her weak constitution (it doesn’t feel like, “your sister can’t go because she’s a girl”; it feels like, “your sister can’t go because she couldn’t handle it”), we get to see Jiang Yanli’s own reaction to her perceived inadequacy. We see it in other places too—like how upset she is when Jin Zixuan dismisses her in several scenes, but this is the one that hits me the hardest because it’s about how her weakness is going to put her little brother in grave danger.

Last Yunmeng siblings with focus on Jiang Yanli scene that isn’t in the novel that I’m just absolutely wrecked over: the dream sequence in episode 28, when Jiang Yanli dreams about Wei Wuxian sailing away from her, but no matter how she shouts, or how she begs Jiang Cheng to help her, she can’t bring him back home.

I’m not going to gif it because I literally just like, fast-forwarded through it and started sobbing uncontrollably in front of my laptop, dear god.

I don’t know where the CQL writers found the backdoor directly into my brain’s nightmare center, but?? they sure did! IDK, I can see how this might be kind of heavy-handed, but it just. The sensation of being in a dream where something is going terribly wrong, but you’re the only one who seems to see it happening? But there’s nothing you can do? I feel like it’s a very fitting nightmare to give Jiang Yanli, who is acutely aware and constantly reminded of how little power she has in the world: not good enough for the boy she likes, not healthy enough to cultivate well, not strong enough to keep her family together.

The whole, elder siblings trying and failing to protect their younger siblings pattern is A Lot in the story, but there’s something particularly painful about seeing it happen to Jiang Yanli because of that awareness. All the other elder siblings are exceptionally talented or powerful in obvious ways. All Jiang Yanli has is the force of her will and the force of her love, and she knows it isn’t enough.

I care a lot about the Yunmeng siblings, okay! And I think CQL did right by them!

I’m only going to spend two seconds talking about Jin Zixuan and Mianmian, but I DO want to mention them.

Anyways, because we get more Jiang Yanli content, we ALSO get more soft xuanli, which is Very Good. Literally my kingdom for disaster het Jin Zixuan treating my girl right!! CQL said het rights, and I’m not even mad about it! I’m really happy that we get to see a little more of how their relationship plays out, and how hard Jin Zixuan works to change his behavior and apologize to her for his mistakes. The novel is from Wei Wuxian’s POV, so we miss the details, alas. Jin Zixuan covered in mud, planting lotuses? Blessed.

I think part of making Mianmian a larger speaking role is for convenience’s sake, but oh boy do I love that choice. Especially the Jin Zixuan & Mianmian relationship. Like, they’re so clearly platonic, and Mianmian is never once portrayed as a threat to Jiang Yanli. They just care about and respect each other a lot? Jin Zixuan’s distress when she defects from the Jin sect gets me in the heart, because it’s just like. God. I think there’s a lot of interesting potential there for her own thoughts re: Wei Wuxian. After all, she leaves her sect in defense of him, but he later kills a friend that she respects and loves. The moments shared between her and Jin Zixuan are minor, but they hint at a deeper relationship that I’m really glad was in the show.

3. To curb the strong, defend the weak: lantern scene (gusu) + rain scene (qiongqi dao 1.0)

I think I basically already explained why I love this so much in this post (just consider that post and this point to be the same haha), but just. Okay. A short addendum.

As much as I love novel wangxian, I really think that including this scene early on emphasizes why Lan Wangji loves Wei Wuxian so deeply. Of course he thinks Wei Wuxian is attractive, but this is the moment when he realizes, oh, this is who I love. Having that moment to reflect upon throughout Wei Wuxian’s descent is so excellent. I have enumerated all of my issues with the “perfectly righteous Wei Wuxian” arc that CQL crafted, but having this narrative throughline in conjunction with the novel arc would be like. My favored supercanon ahaha. (It would need some tweaking, but I think it would work.) It shows us exactly who it is that Lan Wangji sees and is trying to save, who he thinks is still there, underneath all the carnage and despair and violence and grief. This is the Wei Wuxian Lan Wangji loves and is unwilling to let go. This is the Wei Wuxian that Lan Wangji would kill for, that Lan Wangji would stand beside, that Lan Wangji would live for.

4. Meeting Songxiao

As much as I love the unnameable ache of Wei Wuxian never meeting Xiao Xingchen and learning only about his story through secondhand sources in the novel (and the really cool parallel to that where Xiao Xingchen tells A’Qing the story of Baoshan-sanren’s ill-fated disciples: both Xiao Xingchen and Wei Wuxian learn of each other only through the eyes of others, and that is Very Neat), I think the reversal that this meeting in episode 10 sets up wins out just slightly.

I said once in the tags on one of my posts that “songxiao is the tragic parallel of wangxian” and like. Yeah. Basically! If we take songxiao as romantic, the arc of their relationship happens inversely to wangxian, and that parallel is so much clearer and stronger when we have wangxian meeting songxiao in their youth.

The scene of their meeting really does have that Mood™ of uncertain youth seeing happy and secure adults living out the dreams that they’re afraid to name. Wei Wuxian’s eager little, “oh! just like me and Lan Zhan!! Right, Lan Zhan??” when songxiao talk about cultivating together through shared ideals and not blood is. Well, it’s Something.

When they meet again at Yi City, there’s a greater heaviness to it. So this is what happened to the people you once dreamed of becoming! Wangxian have already come to a point where they have an unspoken understanding of their relationship, but Songxiao have lost everything they once had. When Song Lan looks at wangxian, it’s like looking at a mirror of his past, and everyone in attendance knows it.

To me, that unspoken parallel is really emotionally and thematically valuable. All that good, and here is the tragedy that came of it.

okay, look! I managed to keep it shorter!! here are my honorable mentions: that scene where Jin Guangyao tries to hold Jin Ling and Jin Guangshan refuses to let him (it’s hating Jin Guangshan hours all day every day in this household), the grass butterfly leitmotif for Sizhui (im literally crying right now about it shut up), the Jiang Cheng/Wen Qing sideplot (look I know it’s wild that I actually liked that given that I headcanon JC as aspec, but I actually really like how it played out, specifically because Wen Qing and Wei Wuxian are NOT romantic—it sets up an unexpected and interesting comparison)

um. Anyways. I uh. really care about this story. And have a lot of thoughts, which I’m sure will continue to evolve. Maybe in 8 months I’ll return to this and go well, literally none of this applies anymore, but who knows! It’s how I feel right now. I cried literally three times while writing this because MDZS/CQL reached into my chest and yanked my heart right out of my body, but I had fun! *finger guns*

and like, I know I had a LOT to say about what frustrated me about CQL, but I really really hope it’s clear that I adore the show despite all of that. I talk a lot because I care a lot, and my brain only has one setting.

anon, this was like 1000% more than you bargained for, I’m SURE, (and I’m still exercising some restraint, if you can. believe that.) but I hope that you or someone out there got something out of it! if you made it all the way to the end of this meta, wow!! consider me surprised and grateful!!

time to crawl back into my hovel so I can write Lan Xichen fic and cry

(ko-fi? ;A;)

#the untamed #the untamed meta #mdzs #mdzs meme #mo dao zu shi #mine #mymeta #asks and replies #Anonymous #HOOOOOO BOY GUYS #we are just shy of 10k on this #*buries face in hands*#cyan writes #cyan gets too deep in the weeds #i will be shocked if more than like ten people read this #by the end it was just like well i guess this is just for me now lmfao #anyways. i will now. leave the internet for a while. thanks

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snailsnfriends · 3 years

Text

It has been a few months, six to be exact, but I wanted to revisit Tommy when he was locked in the prison.

A lot has happened since then, and I think the reminder of this would be nice since these moments affected Tommy so deeply, and watching streams over again can be time-consuming.

This analysis and summary will be split into three parts. The first three parts will be an analysis and summary of Tommy’s time in the prison, from pre-entrance to revival. From here on out, I will be discussing the characters on the SMP unless stated otherwise. Dialogue is color-coded: Tommy, Dream. So, let’s begin!

Stream: Tommy Gets Locked In Prison with Dream

The stream opens up with Tommy telling us, the audience, that this will be our last time visiting Dream. He wants to visit Dream one last time in order to gain closure. Tommy acknowledges that he has been, in his own words, “tortured” and “tormented” by Dream. Though Dream is locked up, Tommy is still anxious.

“Why am I still feeling like this? Why am I still feeling, you know, fuckin, miserable, I suppose. I’ve got my hotel, I’ve got my buis- I still feel kinda- a little bit low. A little bit empty. I think, I think it’s because I haven’t shut the book. He’s still in my life, you know.”

All of this confirms the fact that Tommy has yet to heal from Dream’s abuse. He is aware that he is safe and has everything he’s wanted, yet still feels unhappy. This also confirms that Tommy wants to heal and move on. He is making the conscious decision to do so.

“I wanna start living my life, because I haven’t lived my life since the start of this SMP! … it’s just been war after war, death after death, friend dead after friend! Death, you know? It’s been, dare I say, it’s been fuckin morbid! But um, he’s been the reason.”

This is further confirmation of Tommy’s thought process. He is aware that his life has always been busy in some way, and that conflict has always boiled down to him and Dream. It is important to note that he does not blame anyone else for his troubles except Dream. He does not blame Wilbur for L’manberg’s destruction, Philza for Wilbur’s death, or Technoblade for Tubbo’s death. For Tommy, it has always been him and Dream no matter what.

As Tommy goes over the required questions with Sam, he says that Dream does deserve to be in prison, but does not deserve to die. When Sam asks what Tommy’s prior relationship with the prisoner was like, Tommy immediately yells, calling Dream a wrongen. However, his demeanor changes quickly. He says that they manipulated one another, and that Dream manipulated him. This is interesting because Tommy is aware that Dream hurt him, but he does not exactly know how he fits into it. Tommy has not manipulated Dream. Tommy does not and did not have the power to do that. Tommy has a hard time understanding his relationship with Dream, which is something we will continue to see as the stream progresses.

While Tommy puts his items in the locker, he apologizes for his nervousness and asks if it’s obvious. This is also something Tommy does frequently; he apologizes for his emotions regardless of the situation. Tommy has good reason to be nervous, and Sam even asks if Tommy really wants to visit Dream. Sam is not annoyed by Tommy, so he has no real reason to apologize. Tommy has a hard time letting his guard down around people he likes and feels the need to apologize for his emotions.

As Sam and Tommy make their way through the prison, Tommy thanks Sam for doing his job and looking out for him. After being genuine with Sam, Tommy is frustrated when he doesn’t respond, despite being aware of the fact that Sam puts on a face while doing his job. Tommy does not like being ignored, but quickly moves on to once again explain that he does not want to visit the prison again after this. He specifically notes that blackstone is triggering to him, which is another thing to add to his already long trigger list. He also asks Sam to promise that Dream will be locked up forever. Once Sam confirms this, Tommy calms down. He says he would have no reason to visit Dream again unless one of his friends died. As Tommy blabbers on and on, Sam does a good job of being directional toward Tommy, telling him exactly what he needs to do. This is a good thing because it gives Tommy a specific task to complete, and does not give him time to panic. As Tommy waits for the lava to lower, he says this,

“I wanna make sure I always like who I am, and, you know, around this guy, I don’t think I do. I don’t think I like who I am around Dream. Let’s close the book.”

This is very important because it helps establish Tommy’s relationship with Dream for the audience. Tommy very clearly does not like Dream and does not like the kind of person he is while around him (hurt, afraid, confused, quick to anger). Dream, on the other hand, does not feel this way. He wants to be around Tommy. He wants to hurt Tommy. Dream sees this as fun, while Tommy does not. This is something we will also continue to see as the stream goes on.

This is minor, but I think it’s important to note, as it’s part of how cc!Tommy plays his character: As Tommy and Dream greet one another, Dream says that he lost his clock. Tommy jokes that if you remove the “L” a new word is created, and Tommy smiles. In response, Dream says, “That’s the Tommy I know.” Tommy’s face immediately drops after Dream says this; this feeds into Tommy’s dislike for himself around Dream.

Dream attempts to make conversation, saying that he wishes Tommy would visit more, but Tommy ignores this to explain that this is his last time visiting Dream. Dream tries to make Tommy second guess himself by saying that forever is a “long time.” Tommy pauses before speaking again. Something important to be aware of is that Tommy is very susceptible to Dream’s manipulation, especially now. In this situation. There is no escape. It is just him, Dream, and the lava. There is no one to break up any disagreement they have. There is no one here to stop Dream. And because Tommy is so anxious, he is an easy target. Tommy does try to combat this by being direct with Dream. He refuses to answer Dream outright as of now, and instead just tries to get his point across.

At this point in the stream, it crashes, but right before, Tommy explains to Dream that if there is anything he wants to say, he has to say it now, because Tommy won’t be coming back. Dream responds to this with a confused “why?” Dream cannot think of even a single reason why Tommy would never want to see him again, which plays into the fact that Dream believes that his relationship with Tommy is fun. It also shows that Dream thinks this relationship is mutual; Dream believes that Tommy feels the same way about him, which is not true.

After fixing some stream problems, Dream talks about possibly getting out one day. Tommy immediately denies this and stops Dream from talking about it any further. Here, Tommy is trying to keep some sort of power in the situation. He is trying to keep an even temper, but this doesn’t last very long once Tommy brings up exile.

“What you’re doing now, this is like exile. Do you remember that? Do you remember ex- I don’t know how much you remember with all these tears n shit, this is, this is like exile, man. I don’t- I don’t wanna know you-” “I mean, exile, it wasn’t, it wasn’t too bad, right? I mean, you still, you had, you know, like, we hung out and stuff.” “I fu- You fu- You fuck- You bastard, Dream! You threw my shit into a hole! I can’t go near plains biomes now without getting a little trembly in the fingers! You- Yeah no, it was fucked, you’re fucked!”

Here, Tommy is aware that he is not in power. He knows that he lacks control in this situation, especially because he is emotional. Comparing this to exile shows that this is what Tommy bases his opinions of Dream on, and this is where most of Tommy’s fears come from. This also shows that Dream has no sense of the severity of exile, despite the fact that he carried out the abuse. Dream describes it as them just hanging out, which, again, shows that Dream thinks his relationship with Tommy is fun. He does not think that what he did was abuse, despite Tommy’s clear indication that it was. He doesn’t think that it was too bad despite the fact that he cannot come up with any reason why it wasn’t bad. He does not complete his sentences because he cannot think of anything good. In order to gain the upper hand again, Tommy asks about the books he wanted Dream to write last time, but we quickly move on from that to this:

“Listen, when I’m around you, my brain feels like I’m conditioned to be your friend, but also when I have a knife, I wanna just plunge it into your heart, and it’s like I don’t- you don’t make me a good person.”

This, again, shows Tommy’s conflicting feelings toward Dream. Tommy is very aware that he doesn’t like Dream and is not the person he wants to be while around Dream. However, he still feels inclined to be his friend. Tommy is aware that he is being manipulated, as shown by the word “conditioned” here; he knows that he does not actually want to be Dream’s friend. Tommy just does not know how to make this feeling stop. What Tommy does know is that Dream has ruined everything for him, and he does not want to see Dream ever again. Tommy goes on about how Dream is horrible, specifically calling him out for almost killing Tubbo. In response, we get this:

“I did bad things but- Everybody thinks they’re right from their perspective-” “That’s not true.” “Wow. I mean, I think I’m right. I did bad things, but I did them for good reasons but-" “What do you mean ‘good reasons’ you’re a psychopath-” "but I’ve learned. I did bad things. And I’ve learned that I shouldn’t have done them." “What good reasons? No, please, enlighten us, please, enlighten me-” "I just wanted to bring the server together, have it be a happy family, you know?”

And this, my friends, is a lovely example of Dream’s mindset and ability to manipulate. Dream repeats that he has learned from what he’s done, but that is not true. He tries more than once to excuse his actions by saying that everyone is right from their own perspective and that he was doing bad things for good reason. He does this in an effort to make Tommy think he’s not that bad and can be either let out or revisited. This also proves that he hasn’t learned at all, because if he truly did learn, he would acknowledge exactly what was wrong with his actions. He would’ve apologized to Tommy a long time ago if he really believed that what he did was wrong. Tommy immediately disagrees with Dream’s points, which, again, shows that Tommy and Dream do not have the same mindset, despite what Dream believes. I think the most important thing to take note of is the “happy family” bit, which has been dragged through hell in back in discourse posts. In order to bring the server together to create a happy family, all of the members would have to be involved, and all of them would have to be happy. Based on Dream’s actions, he doesn’t actually want this. Abusing people does not make them happy. Threatening to kill others does not make them happy. Leaving your friends behind in pursuit of your obsession does not make them happy. In Dream’s mind, a “big happy family” is one that he can do anything to without repercussions, which is something Tommy calls out. Later, he says,

“I am better than that. I am better than you. I am done here. You ruined my past, Dream, but you will not ruin my future.”

Other than this being a banger line, this basically sums up everything Tommy wanted to accomplish with this visit. Dream tries to make Tommy second guess himself by asking him to visit, and saying that Tommy visiting would help him get better. Thankfully, Tommy knows that it’s not true, and refuses. But because we can’t have good things around here, right after Tommy says goodbye, TNT starts to go off, and Tommy starts to yell for Sam and panics. Dream does not have much of a reaction to the explosions. Tommy once again tries to bid Dream farewell, saying “It has been an honor knowing you, but it will be an honor forgetting you.” but is quickly distracted by more TNT. As more TNT rains down, Tommy grabs the item frame off the wall to use as a potential weapon. Eventually, Tommy asks Dream to let him out, which signals to Dream that Tommy is in a vulnerable state. Dream capitalizes on this by saying that Tommy might be stuck with him for a while. As they argue over not knowing any better than the other, Tommy doesn’t believe that Dream doesn’t know anything about the TNT.

Eventually, Dream says that this is a good thing and that they can bond. He remarks that this is just like exile, and Tommy immediately begins to curse at and hit him. Tommy continues to hit Dream and pace all panicked, and it only gets worse when Dream says that this is the best thing that has ever happened to him in the prison. Dream tries repeatedly to give Tommy food and books, but he refuses them. Eventually, though, he eats the food. As the two argue some more, Dream says that they will have a lot of fun together. This, again, shows that Dream has a warped perception of what “fun” is, and does not see any reason for Tommy to panic. And to end it all, Tommy says, “I was about to be done.” as he realizes that there is nothing he can do.

#dream smp #tommyinnit #dreamwastaken #dream smp prison arc #dream smp analysis #snailtrail.slimes

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lil-lycanthropy · 3 years

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How to write an essay (especially when you struggle with writing essays)

[Image Description: A graphic titled “BASIC ESSAY STRUCTURE”. There are 3 sections. The first section is regarding the introduction, labelled “Agonize for an hour”. The second section is regarding the body, labelled “oh hell yes i can do this no problem i got stuff to say i’m on a roll”. The third section is regarding the conclusion, labelled “I am going to walk into the sea”. /End Image Description]

I saw this post about essay writing with this as the structure and I just. Screamed a bit. The outline above (imo) makes a very boring essay that is UNNECESSARILY DIFFICULT to write. I was gonna just add onto the post, but I thought I’d make my own because I have a LOT to say.

So, to start off, I have spent far too long making this handy-dandy graphic with an essay structure that I find to be a lot more helpful.

[Image Description: A graphic titled “ESSAY OUTLINE”. There are 7 sections. They include the outline for the Introduction, Body, and Conclusion, along with tips for all three, and then a section for General Tips. /End Image Description]

There’s some pretty lengthy explanations under the cut, and I spent way too long on this. However, I’m passionate about writing and hate seeing how much people struggle to write simply because they haven’t been given the right tools.

Without further ado, here we go!

Introduction (1 paragraph)

Opening Statement: This is your intro/hook. With an effective opening sentence, you want to introduce the main topic of the paper, and make it interesting for the reader to draw them in. The introductory sentence should be somewhat objective; your thesis will be your arguing point, but we need to know the general topic without the bias. As for the hook part—your prof/TA/teacher/whoever is grading your paper has read the same paper 600 times. Your paper probably won’t be entirely unique, BUT you can still make it stand out. This is where the “hook” comes in. An easy way to do this is to simply start with a verb. Reading papers that all start with “the” or “a” can get really repetitive and boring, so an action word can be a good way to grab the reader’s attention. You don’t want your opening statement to be too long; a sentence or two should be your goal.

Allude to Thesis: Right after the opening statement, use a sentence to briefly allude to your thesis (the stance you’ll be taking on the topic). This way, you can state your argument points without having to worry about wording your thesis correctly right away, or risk your thesis getting lost within the introduction. This is kinda a segue to your points rather than its own official “section”, so keep it brief.

Outline Supporting Points: These are the points that help support your argument. Avoid using a list form for this by using things like semi-colons or commas; each supporting point should have its own sentence. Saying that, definitely use transition words to help the sentences flow together so it doesn’t just seem like a laundry list. Don’t limit yourself to three points unless that’s explicitly part of the assignment. At least two is good if you can expand on them enough to do the paper, but don’t be afraid to use four or five if you’re still able to stay within the limits and expand on them enough to be individual points. However, sometimes too many points can make it hard to expand, so see if you can group some together if you have too many.

Thesis: Your thesis should be a statement, subjective, demonstrable, and specific. It therefore should not be a question, objective, hypothetical, or vague. This is because your thesis is a definitive stance on a specific issue or topic that you can prove with evidence. As for placement, I always put my thesis at the very end of the introduction. I would say it’s up to personal preference whether to put it at the beginning or the end, but please never put it in the middle. When it’s in the middle, it’s very likely that it won’t stand out as a thesis, and then you’d have to come up with both an opening and closing statement, which is hard. I like putting it at the end because I find that if I do it at the beginning, it can be REALLY hard to balance having a clear thesis while also introducing your paper and making it interesting. Plus, if it’s at the end of your first paragraph, it still stands out, you don’t have to do a concluding statement, you don’t have to balance any other aspect of writing (like an intro or hook) with it, AND it creates the perfect transition to your supporting points. Limit your thesis statement to one or two sentences—you want it to stand out to the reader as the thesis, and you don’t want to muddle the message by being too detailed. You’ll have the rest of the paper to expand.

Body (2-10+ paragraphs)

Introduce Evidence: For each piece of supporting evidence (your main points), make sure you introduce them clearly before actually explaining everything about them. Don’t be afraid to word it in an interesting way (although remember, you still want your message to be clear!). I also want to give you an incredibly important tip: the amount of supporting points you have DOES NOT have to correspond with the amount of body paragraphs you have. They drill the five-paragraph essay outline into you for years, and it’s BORING—for you and whoever’s grading your paper. It’s also bad writing, because then you get unnaturally long paragraphs that take up a page and a half. So, unless your assignment rubric says otherwise, don’t be afraid to get creative with the paragraph amount. Always start a new paragraph when introducing a new main point, but definitely consider splitting the main point into two or three paragraphs if needed. Disclaimer: sometimes if you have to split a point into multiple paragraphs, that means you might want to consider splitting the main point into multiple main points. On the other hand, sometimes combining two main points into one can help make a paragraph more substantial.

Expand: For each point, expand. Explain any extra details. Relate the explanations back to your main point so you can stay on target and not go on tangents that take up half the page.

Connect to Thesis: After you expand each point, as a concluding statement, relate the main point back to the thesis (the whole point of the paper!). Anyone can list evidence—show that you understand why this evidence is connected and how it proves your stance. If you can’t connect the point to your thesis, it’s probably not relevant or you need to do more research. By making the connection between the evidence and your thesis, 1. This is how you get bonus marks, and 2. It makes for an excellent concluding statement/transition to the next main point.

Repeat: For each main point, follow the structure of introduce-expand-connect.

Conclusion (1 paragraph)

Restate Thesis/Main Points: Rather than coming up with another introductory statement, restate your thesis and the main points that helped to prove your thesis. Please try to reword it so it’s not repetitive, and it’s best to keep the restating brief. You’ve already established all of this in your paper, so you don’t need too much detail. A sentence or two is fine. Another tip is to avoid basic concluding words. Sometimes it’s unavoidable, but definitely avoid the ones that involve the word “conclude” or its derivatives (e.g. “in conclusion”; to conclude”, etc.). Keep this part to one or two sentences to avoid the dreaded repetition.

Explain Relevance/Make Connections: Here is something I NEVER see in the common essay templates, and honestly, I feel like it’s one of the most important things with essay writing. It’s the difference between just another essay in a pile of 200, and one that stands out as exemplary. SO. We know your thesis. We know your evidence. You’ve even briefly restated it in case we forgot. Now, WHY is your thesis (and by extension, the paper you just spent a few hours on) actually important? Why is it relevant? Who cares? You don’t want to give too much “new” information, but you really should be able to find some connection as to why your paper matters. Because if you don’t see the point in it, how are you gonna convince the reader that your paper is worth reading? Essays are about arguments, yes, and convincing people that You’re Correct and You Know Things, but you need to be able to connect with other things to see the true relevance. Make connections, folks!

Concluding Statement: Truly the bane of anyone’s existence. A good tip is to look at it as your Mic Drop moment—your time to wrap it up, drop the mic, and walk offstage. Tie your thesis, evidence, and connections together into a sentence or two with a little pizzazz and sense of finality, leaving no room to argue.

General Tips

Know your audience: This can sometimes help with finding the balance between over- and under-explaining things. With essays, the person grading (the audience) is probably a bit above your current level, unless it’s being marked by another student or something. So write at your level—or the average level of your class/group. For example, if you’re in a second-year university biology class, you probably don’t need to explain what photosynthesis means. But if your essay is on a little known technique to measure chlorophyll levels in plants, you might need to explain some things that you already know, but others might not. Remember, your goal is neither to dumb yourself down nor put yourself on an academic pedestal—your goal is to communicate a message in an effective way that can be understood by the appropriate audience.

Pick a relevant topic: Sometimes this doesn’t apply, as you have limited choices. But, whenever possible, choose a topic that you actually know something about and/or are willing to write about. Sometimes even asking your teacher/prof if you can choose your own topic is worth it. The main point: picking something you find interesting makes you more willing to put in the work to write a good essay. Pick you favourite topic out of the options (or, at a minimum, the one yo hate the least).

Experiment with the writing process: Some people swear it’s easier to write the conclusion first, while others absolutely have to write the essay in chronological order. Some people need to finish what they start, some people need to flit around and add things as they think of them. Ultimately, the order you write things is very much a personal preference, and something worth experimenting with if you’re struggling!

Cater to your writing needs: Writers will tell you that they need to set up a space to write. Some people like writing on their bed or in a cafe. Some people need absolute quiet while others can’t focus without background noise. Some people need frequent breaks for the best results, others need to sit through until they’re done. The time of day can affect your writing—writing in the morning might be really difficult if you’re most alert at midnight. Lastly, experiment with different media. Maybe writing on a laptop just doesn’t work for you, and pen and paper is the way to go. Typewriters are fun. Microsoft Word might work better for you than Google Docs. Find out what works for you and gets you into a writing headspace.

Repetition and word choice: To avoid sounding like a broken record, make sure you use a different first (and even last) word for each paragraph. I always notice when an essay writer only starts paragraphs with the word “the”. Another helpful way to vary your word choice at the beginning of paragraphs is to use different types of word, preferably words that aren’t articles (a, an, or the). Using a noun, verb, or transition word can keep things interesting and help your writing flow.

Write with an active voice: Writing with an active, positive, and resolute voice fortifies your writing. An active voice is when the subject is the focus rather than the object, whereas a passive voice is the opposite. Example: “Sally ate a grape” is active because Sally (subject) ate a grape (object). “A grape was eaten by Sally” is passive because the grape (object) was eaten by Sally (subject). Essentially, if the sentence includes (or could include) “by [Subject]”, it’s passive. Even if you wrote “A grape was eaten,” that’s still passive. An active voice includes the subject doing the action, whereas a passive voice includes the object having something done to it. It’s a wishy-washy way of writing, though it’s sometimes inevitable in formal writing because you can’t use subjective pronouns. As for a positive voice, it doesn’t mean your essay has to be happy or perky—it means your writing, when possible, should focus on the positive part (what did happen or was added) rather than the negative part (what didn’t happen or was taken away). Example: “Sally didn’t eat an apple” is negative, because it just says what Sally didn’t do. “Sally ate a grape” is positive because it said what she did do. Lastly, use a resolute voice. Be concise and to the point without muddling the message with unnecessary words. Example: “Sally just a grape” is tentative. “Sally ate a grape” is resolute. Word like “just”, “maybe”, “really”, “perhaps”, “necessarily” are not resolute and can weaken your argument. Definitely take this advice for your thesis.

Communicate clearly: Using long or complicated words can improve your writing—but if they’re overused or used unnecessarily, it can actually weaken your argument because no one understands what you’re trying to say under all that academic jargon. If you can’t explain your argument in an understandable way, you probably don’t have a good grasp of your argument. This isn’t to discredit people who have a hard time articulating while writing or people who need to use complicated words—but the whole point of a paper is to communicate a message in an effective way. If you’re too caught up in using big words, it’s very easy to lose the actual focus of the paper.

Fortify your opening/closing statements: If the person grading your paper has a lot of other papers to go through, they’re not gonna read every word you write. Focus on strengthening your first and last sentences of each paragraph to perhaps improve your mark with the graders who skim.

Proofread: PLEASE read through and edit your work. You don’t have to completely rewrite your paper (who has the time???), but definitely proofread it when you’re done. If possible (I know it isn’t always, but it really helps), give yourself as much time as possible, then do another read through. Even waiting an hour or two and then going through it again can help you catch some last-minute mistakes. When you’ve been staring at the same paper for three hours, you kinda just ignore the mistakes because they’re burned into your brain. Going back can help you catch them and fix them before handing it in. Double check the assignment requirements, including formatting, sources, grammar, etc.

Kudos to you if you made it to the end! This took me 4 hours? 5? I hope it helps some of you in school. Essays can be a really fun thing to write if you’re passionate about the topic, and they shouldn’t be nearly as hard as school makes them. Even if you didn’t read this whole thing, I hope my graphic can be helpful! The original essay structure from the other post made me mad because no wonder some of you guys struggle! When you don’t have the tools, it makes life difficult.

Here’s a pic of my cat and dog for making it this far!

End note: I’ve never done an image description so I apologize if it’s not perfect!

#writing #writing advice #quasimodo speaks #i spent so long on this pleaseeee #essay #school #college #university #paper #education #advice #life hack #infographic

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mostly-mundane-atla · 3 years

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Well I got at least two people interested (@esmeralda-anistasia and @deathsmallcaps) so why not.

Quick disclaimer: I understand that some fans can be very sensitive to this topic and take general criticisms as personal attacks and jump to the defensive. Please don't justify your ships to me if you have that reaction to anything said in this post. It's not my business and if I'm honest I really don't care. Your experiences are not mine and will not change mine and nothing I'm about to say is meant to be read as an insult.

Okay onto the rarepairs in question!

I was ten years old when the episode Zuko Alone first aired and Ursa fascinated me. She was so elegant and sweet, and yet the implication was that she was also capable of assassination. Her disappearence and the fact everyone involved kept pretty hush-hush about her gave her character an air of mystery and Zuko's memories involving her made him a great deal more interesting and sympathetic (i still rolled my eyes every time he showed up and thought he didn't deserve all the cute moments with Mai until The Day of Black Sun, and even then still thought Jet was cooler in every way, but you can't please them all). She had quickly become a favorite character and I've held onto that adoration for about 15 years now.

I also really wanted her to kiss Hakoda.

They had compatible personalities and deserved some luck in love after all the heartbreak and trials, and they both loved their children despite having to leave. Ursa was never treated as dead, just gone. She could have been anywhere and there was nothing to say she couldn't have crossed paths with Hakoda and his men.

There was also something about it I didn't quite have the words or media exposure to explain. Often, in fandom or canon, if a relationship is biracial, the partner who is fairer-skinned and/or of the dominant or invading culture, who the audience sees themselves in, is the man and the one who is darker-skinned and/or marginalized or colonized is the woman (heteronormativity got a head start on this one). There's a lot of ugly "taming the savage" rhetoric in this, usually paired with blatant misogyny that's supposed to be in the woman's favor (like suggesting that a woman could only be complicit in this culture because it was what she was told and didn't know any better). The woman's family and friends who oppose this are depicted as unfairly prejudiced against this strange man as if their distaste for people who can be or have been responsible for things like genocide or subjugation is the same as the other side seeing these people as deserving of genocide or subjugation for the crime of not being like them. Sometimes it's the other way around, where the partner seen as "more civilized" is the woman and the one seen as "less civilized" is the man, in which case the woman is often abducted or otherwise the man's defining feature is his brutishness. This supposed brutishness is both intimidating and attractive to the oh so delicate if a bit repressed captive/wife (as well as the audience) and can manifest as being fiercely protective of her, which is how he shows his affection if there is a language barrier between them. And if you grow up Native, this is easy to pick up on and often in the back of your mind, because at least 90% of your media representation likely has some aspect mentioned above.

(Man that was a lot of academic style analysis)

But the dynamic between Hakoda and Ursa wouldn't leave room for any of that. Hakoda, as an absent parent backstory, is defined by having to leave despite how much he loved and would miss his children. Ursa, as an absent parent backstory, is defined by the crime she was willing to commit for her children (for Zuko specifically, but how long would it actually take for Azula to shoot her mouth off at the wrong place and time and also be targeted by Azulon?). Ursa was the one whose willingness to kill sent her fleeing into the night. The culture of her nation betrayed her and made her choose between her own safety and that of at least one of her children. Hakoda is charismatic and a good leader, but he is also soft spoken and understanding, and above all else, gentle. He isn't here to hurt innocents. He's here to see to it that the next generation of his people will not fear invaders or raids or even know that snow can be black from soot. And he's someone Ursa can finally feel safe around and confide in, and she could be the same for him. Someone he doesn't have to be the leader for, to whom he can admit that he just wants to be home and let the tears fall.

I'm honest enough to admit that one of the reasons I liked The Search was that Ikem wore his hair a lot like Hakoda did and that was close enough to it being canon for me.

Another one is Jin/Smellerbee. Something about their personalities strikes me as being so wonderfully harmonious and I like to imagine Jin, smooth-talking and streetwise but still the most genuine person, being the one to sit Smellerbee, who never really got a chance to think about these things, down and explain that anything she might be is okay. That it's okay to not be in love with a guy friend who gave her a purpose and loyal companionship. That it's okay to like girls. That she can have more than one partner. That it's okay to be different from what's considered normal and proper and not have an easy word to describe it. And eventually she'd realize it's true. And eventually she'd realize that she wasn't teasing when she called her beautiful in a wild sort of way.

I also like to think that Smellerbee clearly has more specialized fighting skills and is very good at what she does but Jin is strong enough to bench press her no problem. And Smellerbee acts all tough (because she is) but blushes whenever Jin calls her cute or pretty because she's not used to it.

Sometimes Longshot is involved too. Not as a third wheel or the exact same kind of partner, more like a ghibli style relationship with Smellerbee. Like is it a gentle romance? Is it an intimate friendship? It's love and they know that and don't have to define it by others' perception. And Jin gives Longshot kisses so he doesn't feel left out, which gets him a bit bashful because she really could have anyone, she already has Smellerbee of all people, and she still finds him deserving of a peck on the cheek. They probably all bunk together.

This actually started from a fic I wrote but don't intend on posting more than snippets of. Basically, i was tired of a lot of fanfic tropes, especially those having to do with friends to lovers and soulmates (this world is not kind to aromantics and the last thing I wanted in my escapism was romance being established as a level up for relationships), so I wrote something to actively subvert all of them. Jet and Smellerbee were each convinced they owed the other a romantic relationship after all they'd been through together, even though neither actually wanted it, because that's how all the stories go. So after he dies, she remembers all those times that would have been romantic if either was actually interested, but were instead just uncomfortable because it was entirely social convention and no feeling. But then she comes across Jin, who she's never met before, but who takes her in her arms and reassures her and sympathizes with her, and in this tiny apartment in this seedy side of town, she feels safe. She seeks permission for every touch and kiss and tells her this encounter doesn't have to be anything she isn't comfortable with. And when Smellerbee has to leave, Jin insists she take a candle to light her way, and winks when she says she can return it the day after. She gives her an excuse to visit again. And Smellerbee blushes and accepts it.

And then there's Teo/Haru and Teo/Ty Lee. No special reason I just think both would make a cute couple and want Teo to be happy. He's a good boy, more people should love him. Let him impress people with wheelchair tricks and get smooched.

#response #i also just think Jin has a string of admirerers in ba sing se #and the si je defaille daydream scene from mozart l'opera rock is just an average tuesday for her

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queen-ofsunflowers · 3 years

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Literal Theatre Kid Ren, Act 2: Summer in the Desert

Please note that times given in each game -- especially A3! -- have been messed around with a little to make things work out. Relations have also been messed with on some regard to make plot work out.

Chapter 1: After Spring Comes...

This part opens with the clean-up at the end of May in P5R. In addition to Ryuji, Ann and first year gymnast Sumire Yoshizawa, there are additional interactions with Banri trying to pick another fight with Ren as well. Ren, much like before, simply dodges until the rest of his friends to show up to help, with Sakuya dragging the student council president, Makoto Niijima along to help cool things down.

A few days later is when Madarame’s confession takes place. The Phantom Thieves are relieved that their heist went off without a hitch... so to speak, Ren did almost miss closing night of Romeo and Julius because of poor planning and exhaustion on his part.

All that's left is for the Phantom Thieves to relax a little before they find their next target. But summer is around the corner, and with that comes a new troupe for Mankai.

Chapter 2: The Summer Troupe Audition

Prior to Summer Troupe’s audition, there is one P5 event that we have to get through, and that’s a certain field trip for Ren, Ryuji, Ann and Masumi. Yes, it’s time for more characters to meet this colorful cast. Anyway, back on track, social studies field trip to the TV station. One of the TV show’s guests -- a snotty brat as Masumi later notes -- doesn’t leave the best first impression on Ren and the Thieves at all. They think he’s kind of an asshole.

Later on, while waiting for Masumi to catch up, the Thieves discuss what to do after the trip. Just as Masumi rejoins them, their conversation is interrupted by one of the station’s guests -- the Detective Prince, Goro Akechi. Though the interaction is brief, there are two things that Akechi does that the Thieves pick up on. 1: He recognizes Masumi, but where he can’t remember. 2: he brings up something very specific that only Morgana had mentioned. That last one will be put aside for now.

The next day is when it gets interesting because the kids get to sit in a on show’s recording, and that just so happened to be the interview that Akechi is a part of. It’s here that its revealed that he’s working on the Phantom Thieves’ case alongside the police to try and uncover their identities. The conversation soon turns to whether or not the Phantom Thieves are just. Things get a bit worse when a member of the audience is asked their opinion on the subject -- that person being Ren.

To Ryuji’s and Ann’s surprise, Ren doesn’t choke up like they expected him to, considering the last time he had been confronted like this, his nerves got the better of him. Ren stands up for the Phantom Thieves, disagreeing with Akechi and catching the detective’s interest.

Later, as everything ends, Ren is left standing to the side while waiting for Masumi so they could walk home together. He’s honestly standing there trying to figure out why he’s so scared to stand on stage since he was fine with the interview during the station. Maybe because it was not just him being criticized (unintentionally) but his friends, too? ...wait--

Ren’s train of thought is interrupted when Akechi finds him again. Apparently, he liked what Ren had said and the fact that he argued with him when so many other people are unwilling to do so. He wants to keep in contact to have possibly more discussions like the one they had before. Ren agrees, and it’s at that moment that Masumi shows up again. He is just pulling Ren along because of the fact that they have the summer troupe’s auditions to get to. Since Ren is assistant director (technically), he has to be there.

It’s then that Akechi recognizes Masumi after Ren explains Mankai briefly -- he had seen Romeo and Julius. Theatre-goer Akechi is now a thing. Ren invites him to come and check out the new show before he’s ultimately pulled out of the conversation to get to the theater.

Needless to say, Masumi and Ren are the last members of Mankai to get there for auditions.

Chapter 3: The Genius Actor Turning Heads

When Masumi and Ren make it to the theater (Ren apologizing for being late), all the auditionees are there, including Kazunari and Yuki. To Ren’s surprise, the same snotty boy from yesterday is there to audition. This is Tenma Sumeragi, who already has a bad impression with Mankai’s assistant director that Izumi introduces him as. The last person there is one of Yuki’s classmates, a shy boy named Muku Sakisaka.

Either way, as auditions get underway, Ren does have to admit Tenma’s a very talented actor. Though he does remark that Tenma could cut back on all the criticism.

(Morgana does pipe up that Tenma acts the same way as Ren does when confronted with the stage’s spotlight, at which Ren shoves his head back into his bag).

Chapter 4: The Hack

As expected, all four auditionees make the cut. Mankai needs everyone that they can get. When Tenma gets mad about it, Yuki and Ren are both quick to form Team Tenma is a Hack. (Ren honestly finds Yuki’s remarks to Tenma entertaining.)

Though, when it’s brought up by the new Summer Troupe members why Ren didn’t audition when he could have, Spring and Izumi are quick to jump into say that he was busy as Izumi’s assistant and couldn’t. Izumi remarks to Ren later that he should tell the new troupe members about his probation later, but only when he’s ready to. Ren thanks her for covering for him.

Chapter 5: Brewing Move-In Trouble

There is a brief discussion about whether or not Ren’s mother knows that he’s currently staying at Mankai. She does, as Izumi had called her to let her know about the situation after being given her contact info.

(Let’s just say the man who was supposed to be Ren’s guardian got quite the earful, but Izumi’s keeping tight-lipped about who it is.)

When Ren tells Ryuji and Ann about what happened at auditions during school the next day, they are stunned to find that the brat they met on set was movie star Tenma Sumeragi -- who had been there to announce a brief leave of absence. The conversation’s topic changes to their encounter with Akechi yesterday and what he had said about the Phantom Thieves. This gets Ryuji very fired up, talking out loud about how they wouldn’t be acting as the Phantom Thieves if someone else could help them. Ann and Ren are quick to shush him, but they are still caught by Makoto Niijima, who had been snooping around the school for the past few days looking for the Phantom Thieves.

After their brief confrontation with her, the gang goes to meet up with Yusuke along with Masumi and Sakuya, as the Thieves had promised to help move in Summer Troupe during the wrap party for Romeo and Julius. The conversation turns to the Phantom Thieves and the team finds out the two troupe members opinions on them: Sakuya is for the Thieves, and Masumi refuses to comment because while he’s on the fence about what the Phantom Thieves do, they did save his butt in Blooming Spring, and again. He knows who they are, so that has some effect on how he feels about it.

Looking to change the subject, Ren brings up the suitcase and portrait that Yusuke has with him. Yusuke announces that he’s moved out of his own school’s dormitory (where he had been staying after Madarame’s confession). Before even thinking to ask Izumi about it, Sakuya invites Yusuke to come live at Mankai with them.

Chapter 6: The Theater’s Urban Legend

So, the group tries to figure out how to convince Izumi to let Yusuke stay at the troupe’s dorms like Ren on the walk to the building itself. The Phantom Thieves meet the new Summer Troupe, and it’s also brought up that Ann is familiar with Tenma on some scale as the pair have done modelling work together before. She is quick to put him in his place. The rest of the Thieves are also officially given their nicknames from Kazunari.

When Ren and Sakuya try to bring up the situation with Yusuke is about the same time that Matsukawa interrupts the conversation to bring up the fact that Room 203 -- one of the Summer Troupe’s dorms -- is haunted.

With the Thieves in tow, Summer Troupe goes to check it out for themselves (neither of the guys notice that Ann has lingered behind with Izumi at this point). Ren’s Joker side does come out a little bit when it’s time to go into the room itself. And so, with Yusuke, Morgana and Ryuji behind him as if this were a fight in the Metaverse with Shadows, Ren flings the door open...

Chapter 7: The Free Spirit

...and is met with a stranger holding up onigiri. Here the boys were expecting a fight, but nope. They have one Misumi Ikaruga instead... whom everyone suspects is a ghost at first, leading to some interesting reactions. They’re quick to find out he’s normal thanks to Morgana stepping forward. (Misumi can somehow understand Morgana. Ren’s not sure if that means he can understand Morgana figuratively or he can actually hear him talk.)

The guys are quick to realize that Misumi is technically trespassing. Ren is also shocked that Misumi has been living here for weeks and somehow no one noticed, not even Morgana who prowls around at night. When they try to apprehend him, Misumi goes running. The group gives chase, though the only ones who are able to keep up with Misumi are the Phantom Thieves due to all of their work in the Metaverse.

The three boys kind of stun the Summer Troupe and the rest of Mankai with how their moving. Ren eventually catches up to Misumi, tackling him to the ground as soon as they make it to the common room where Citron is making onigiri for lunch with the girls and the rest of Spring Troupe. This is enough for Misumi to throw Ren off of him and snatch the rice ball away.

But still, Misumi is cornered. When questioned and explains he has nowhere else to go, Izumi is quick to invite him to join the Summer Troupe. She also adds that it’s alright for Yusuke to stay at the dorms in Ren’s room. This is why Ann lingered behind -- she asked in the boys’ place.

Yusuke has been officially adopted by Mankai Company, working on painting the sets with Testuro in his spare time (something that Yusuke insisted on doing as an exchange for being allowed to stay at the dorms). Ryuji kind of runs his mouth here, reminding Ren not to tackle people like that, otherwise he could be up for another assault charge.

And just like that, Ren has to explain things to Summer Troupe before everything gets out of hand like it did with Spring. He goes into a bit more detail this time with his explanation, as how it was an accident and how he can’t even remember the guy responsible. Under the guise of third person and a bit of acting themselves, the Thieves promise that they’ll help Ren change his heart when they find him.

We also get the rest of Mankai’s opinions on the Phantom Thieves thus far. Muku and Kazunari both think the Phantom Thieves are pretty cool; Izumi, Citron, Tenma and Misumi are a bit wary about them; finally, Itaru, Yuki and Tsuzuru disagree with them to some extent.

...oh boy.

Chapter 8: Uncertain Etudes

Summer Troupe and Yusuke have now settled into Mankai. The former is starting to get ease their way into acting and improving their skills. Ren, much like the others, is honestly surprised by how good Misumi’s acting is. The triangle lover was on par with Tenma -- a professional.

That being said, Ren’s not so sure what to think about Tenma leading the Summer Troupe. Yes, he’s the most experienced when it comes to the entire cast, but he’s also kind of a jerk. As Yusuke later states, he’s not on par with “our own leader”, referring to Ren. Tenma was brash and abrasive and worked against his fellow actors. Ren, on the other hand, is easy to adapt to situations and work with the Phantom Thieves’ own skills and problems rather than put-down and criticize. That is going to be something that has to change quick, otherwise things are gonna fall apart.

After school a couple days later is when Ren is pulled aside by Makoto Niijima. In privacy, she reveals to him that she had recorded the conversation he had with Ann and Ryuji just a few days prior, including the part about them being Phantom Thieves. Though Ren tries to quickly explain this away and get her to delete the recording, it doesn’t work.

However, she does have a proposition for the Thieves that they should here. Ren takes Makoto to the team’s meeting spot, where she reveals the recording to them as well. Makoto’s proposition is this: so long as the Phantom Thieves can prove that what they’re doing can truly be justice, then she’ll delete the recording and no one else will ever hear it... someone like, she doesn’t know... the company that Ren and Yusuke are now living with?

Makoto is quick to learn that the Mankai Company is just as important to the Thieves as their job itself when they get rather defensive the second it even seems like she would lay a finger on them. (She wouldn’t, she’s bluffing but still, it surprises her.) She doesn’t go any further than that, leaving the Thieves to discuss it on their own before giving away any more details.

Chapter 9: Everybody’s the Lead?!

Ren spends the walk home trying to figure out a solution of getting out of the trap Makoto’s caught the Thieves in with Yusuke and Morgana. They do not find one and are really left with little to no choice but to go along with her blackmail scheme.

Luckily the boys have something to at least temporarily distract themselves with the Summer Troupe meeting they arrive in on. The group is discussing their debut performance and what show that they should do, along with Tsuzuru who needs to get started on the script pretty soon.

Much like their predecessors, Summer Troupe decides to base their show off of the former Summer Troupe’s old shows -- comedies that had everyone in tears with laughter by the closing of the curtain. Given the hard press stuff that they’re currently facing right now with their double-lives, Ren and Yusuke (albeit after being talked into it a little) agree with this idea along with the others.

However, when it comes to the subject of the show, it gets a little harder when everyone in Summer Troupe pipes up that they want to have a leading role. It’s only lucky that Tsuzuru seems to already have an idea in mind about what to do to make that happen.

That’s the problem solved on the Mankai front, but that still leaves a problem on the Phantom Thief front. The thieves (excluding Yusuke, since he goes to a different school), meet with Makoto and tell her that they agree to her terms. They don’t have much of a choice, anyway. It’s either that or be outed. And if Ren is outed as part of the team -- or worse, their leader -- he’ll be sent to juvie immediately because of his probation.

Makoto instructs the thieves to find and change the heart of a yakuza boss who had been pulling teenagers (such as students from their school) into phishing scams. Only problem is that no one knows the boss’s name, which complicates things for the thieves since in order to get into a person’s Palace, they need their full, real name. Makoto gives the thieves two weeks to do their thing and leaves. Unable to argue, the team is left to search for who exactly this man is.

It takes the team a couple of days to find a solid lead. They’re led to Shibuya (let’s pretend that Veludo Way is in Tokyo for sanity’s sake, because I couldn’t find any information on where in Japan it was) and the possibility that high schoolers are being manipulated by yakuza to do some of their dirty work, taken advantage of and having their pockets drained. While they’re getting more information, they still don’t have a name to work with. It doesn’t help that Makoto is hovering over them from time to time like a mother hen.

When it eventually gets brought up that Ren does have contact to someone in the yakuza (it’s Sakyo, and Ren was joking when he said it), the other thieves pressure him a little into talking to him about what’s going on. Ren eventually gives into peer pressure (don’t be like Ren) and agrees to do it. They don’t have another lead, and it couldn’t hurt to ask, right?

Wrong. It hurts. It hurts a lot. Ren manages to corner Sakyo (and Sakoda) outside of the theater while he’s running an errand for Izumi and as soon as the word about the scams in Shibuya comes out of his mouth, Sakyo gets very aggressive. A lot like an angry parent, telling Ren he shouldn’t be getting involved in those things and to not stick his nose where it doesn’t belong. Ren almost believes that its Sakyo who’s behind all of this, until the man slips up in one regard. Ren overhears him and Sakoda talk as they leave, inadvertently giving him the name that he needs: Junya Kaneshiro.

With the name they now need, the Thieves meet up to try and eventually find their way into Kaneshiro’s Palace... which is all of Shibuya distorted into a bank and the main hub is in the sky. Only “customers” of his can enter, which the Thieves are obviously not. Another road block. Dammit.

The next day, they explain the issue to Makoto as much as they can, saying that she can’t help them. They don’t explain why though, which causes a major issue because of something that happened between Makoto and her sister, Sae, the night before -- Sae had called her useless. Determined to do something, Makoto marches off and the thieves follow with concern.

So, because of Makoto, they get caught up in Kaneshiro’s scheme and meet the yakuza face-to-face... and get immediately blackmailed by him. If they don’t pay him three million yen in the next three weeks, he’ll leak pictures of them being there with him everywhere. Knowing they can’t take this risk and fight back in reality, the Thieves take Makoto out of there.

As soon as they’re safe, Makoto apologizes for her recklessness, and says that she’ll take care of the situation. But the Thieves refuse. They had a deal, and they’re going to uphold their end of the bargain. Besides, she just might be their key into the Palace after all.

The Thieves take Makoto into the Metaverse with them, and since she’s become one of Kaneshiro’s “customers”, the Palace allows her and the Thieves entry. As they go through, they explain exactly how they do what they do, as well as the concept of the Metaverse to Makoto. She latches onto the concepts pretty quickly, to their surprise. It took everyone else a while to get it.

Unsurprisingly when they get into the bank itself, they are confronted by Kaneshiro’s Shadow. The Shadow provokes them, laying out the plans that he has for them: he can offer a loan that will allow them to pay off their debt, but with the interest rate of said loan, it will keep them in debt. They would become his pawns -- especially Makoto and her sister, Sae, who would be dragged down with her. When he says that Makoto would be a good girl and let him do this... that’s when Makoto finally snaps.

And now there’s another Persona User on the team. Makoto awakens Johanna, lets loose chaos and the Thieves have to get out of there because Awakenings tend to exhaust the person who undergoes them.

So now, Makoto joins their team, able to fight in the Metaverse and wanting to make her wrong right again. She also begins to serve as their tactical adviser, since the Thieves had mostly been winging it up until that point.

All of this has taken a week, and in the meantime with Mankai, Tsuzuru has been working day and night to get the script for Summer Troupe done.

Chapter 10: The Thousand and One Nights

With Makoto now a part of the team, she has to learn about Mankai. However, she’s already kind of figured this out. The information about Sakuya and Masumi’s performances is public knowledge at this point. She had seen Ren walking to and from school with them, so she assumed that he was a member of the troupe as well. It surprises her that Ren isn’t exactly part of the troupe, when she has noticed he’s a fairly decent actor. When asked why he isn’t on stage, Ren avoids answering the question. He still doesn’t know why he can’t stand on stage despite how much he wants to.

Instead, trying to distract himself from it, he and the team enter the Palace for the day. Makoto is suspicious of what’s going on with Ren but doesn’t say anything more on the matter. Ren’s still thinking about it as he and Yusuke walk home later that afternoon. When they make it back to the dorm, they’re greeted by Summer Troupe and Izumi... and Tsuzuru, who they haven’t seen for a week, groaning and exhausted.

So, Tsuzuru collapses from exhaustion and Ren, like the rest of Summer Troupe, shrieks. Remember, he had arrived at Mankai after Romeo and Julius was written. This is the first time he’s witnessing the end result of Tsuzuru’s writing process. Izumi reassures all the boys that Tsuzuru is just fine. While Ren and Yusuke move him onto the couch, she runs off to get the script from his computer.

When Tsuzuru wakes up, Summer Troupe, Ren and Yusuke are kind of hovering around him to make sure he’s okay. Morgana has also made himself at home on his chest. When asked about the script, he explains that since everyone wanted to be the lead, he went ahead and made the play based around Arabian Nights.

Everyone gets excited, with Kazunari, Yuki and even Yusuke already getting started on graphics, costumes and set designs in their heads. Tenma, on the other hand, is confused a bit by the fact that they’re doing this all by hand and on their own. Ren reassures him that this is the way things at Mankai are done, and he better get used to it.

Matsukawa comes in, interrupting the session with a video tape of the original Summer Troupe for the newer members to take a look at. And it’s thanks to Kazunari’s connections that they’d soon be able to.

Chapter 11: Muku Sakisaka’s Dream

It takes only about a week of Palace exploration before the Thieves are ready to send their calling card. Having Makoto on their side really has been helping out. Ren sets Yusuke and Ryuji to work on making them, spending most of the next afternoon on the task. Makoto has come up with just the right plan to get things in order, but they’ll have to wait for night to do it.

Because the boys are there, Izumi pulls them and Muku -- who had just gotten home -- into go grocery shopping with her as soon as they’re done. Since Ryuji will be leaving with Yusuke to meet Makoto that night, he’s kind of staying for dinner that night, too. Might as well help where we can.

With the four boys, how much Izumi buys isn’t that hard to carry between them. The whole time they’re out, though, Ryuji’s glancing over at Muku with a serious expression that Ren’s not really seen on him before. Ryuji brings up the fact that Muku stands favoring one side more than the other. He does the same thing because of his leg and what happened to it. Talking about how he used to be on the track team to Izumi coaxes Muku out of his shell somewhat and gets him to talk about how he used to run track, too.

Ren doesn’t miss how devastated Ryuji looks when its soon revealed that Muku had gotten hurt. He had been expecting it, but Muku’s also younger than him. His dream got crushed pretty quickly.

So former track stars bonding over career-ending injuries? And how they were able to bounce back from crushed dreams by finding something new (Muku with acting, and Ryuji with the Phantom Thieves)? Yes. Ryuji becomes Muku’s favorite among Ren’s friends. Ryuji’s adopted him as a little bro and encourages Muku to go on with his new dream. He’ll be rootin’ for him.

Ren thinks it’s very sweet. He, Yusuke and Morgana tease Ryuji about it a little, but it’s mostly in good nature. Boys being boys, ya know?

Chapter 12: A Bumpy Reading

Yusuke and Ryuji spread the calling card throughout Shibuya under Makoto’s direction to make sure that Kaneshiro sees it. And see it he does, because the Treasure has taken form when the Thieves storm the Palace. And much like before, they are confronted by Kaneshiro’s Shadow self. A fight takes place, and our Thieves are victorious.

Before Kaneshiro’s Shadow fades away to rejoin with its self in reality, he does let slip about something that the Phantom Thieves failed to realize: there’s someone else using the Metaverse for their own gain -- a man in a black mask. They’re the ones behind the mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdowns that have been happening in the news.

The Thieves are unsure about this, not knowing if Kaneshiro was telling the truth or not, but it does seem plausible. Yusuke can briefly recall Madarame’s Shadow mentioning the same, but since the Thieves were in such a hurry to get to the theater that night, he’s unsure.

Makoto also gets to meet the rest of Mankai, albeit briefly, after the fight, since Morgana was injured coming out of the collapsing Palace.

Speaking of the theater, with the weight of Kaneshiro’s threat and no one blackmailing him anymore, Ren is able to peacefully return to working with Izumi for the Summer Troupe’s show -- Water Me! As the troupe reads through the script, Ren’s there to help them where they struggle, primarily with Muku, since his voice is so quiet, and he has a hard time projecting. That also leads to a bit more spite between Ren and Tenma since Muku is trying his best. Not everyone can be professional actors like Tenma, as both Ren and Yuki are quick to remind him.

Needless to say, there’s a lot of tension with Summer Troupe that’s not gonna go away anytime soon mostly stemming from Tenma. Izumi’s trying to keep the peace, and while Ren should be helping, he isn’t. It’s only Morgana pointing out that by arguing with Tenma is making things worse that gets it through Ren’s head. They need to find a way to work with each other rather than against each other.

Chapter 13: The Secret to Solidarity

A few days go by, and Kaneshiro confesses to his crimes, getting arrested in the meantime. As much as the thieves want to relax, they have a few things to deal with. There’s the possibility of another Metaverse user messing around in the cognitive world, and as Makoto reminds them, final exams are coming up, too. On top of that, Ren is still having issues with Summer Troupe. For the most part, he’s getting along with all of them except Tenma. Ann suggests letting him cool off since he’s never acted on stage before, but Ren’s not too sure. Putting his foot down isn’t working like he had hoped. Maybe it was time for another approach...

Though, the topic is quickly changed to something a bit more upbeat: a celebration of their latest victory and Makoto joining the team. Last time, they celebrated by going to see Romeo and Julius, but since Water Me!’s debut isn’t until the last weeks of August, there’s not much that can be done. Instead, the team suggests a fireworks festival that they can go to with the rest of the Mankai Troupe if Ren wants. Maybe it would be good bonding for them in the long run.

They’ll have to figure it out in the meantime, since Ren and Yusuke have prior engagements: Ren working with the actors and Yusuke helping with Testuro’s set designs. Ren asks the troupes about it when he gets to the practice rooms, getting ‘yes’s all around. Although, there’s one person from Summer Troupe that’s missing...

Tenma is brooding like an angsty teenager outside in the dorm’s courtyard while Ren helps the rest of Summer Troupe with their acting. The only one really out there with them is Morgana, who had wandered out of the practice room to go bother Tenma -- at least that’s what he thinks. It’s an interesting sight to see Tenma venting to the cat about the others’ acting, and how he’s being treated like the bad guy in this scenario.

Tenma only stops when he sees that Sakuya’s caught him in the act. It’s awkward, but Sakuya soon breaks it by making conversation and saying hello to Morgana. He tells Tenma how exactly Morgana came to live at Mankai -- he’s not the company’s cat. He’s Ren’s specifically. The story Ren had told the troupe about him being a stray that he picked up isn’t something that Tenma expects from the delinquent assistant director. Thought after thinking about it, it starts to make sense. Sakuya also tells him how much fighting there was with Spring Troupe originally, just like he’s going through with Summer Troupe now. He even goes as far as to explain how everyone acted upon learning about Ren and his criminal record. it was pretty bad.

Sakuya explains to Tenma all that they did to help mend the rifts and even help each other build their acting skills and improve them. When he gets to the Stage Sleepover that they did, it gives Tenma an idea to do the same.

Izumi is the one who later extends the invite to the fireworks festival to Tenma when he goes to her to talk about his idea. He’s unsure but is kind of surprised that Ren asked him to come. Maybe Ren wasn’t trying to fight with him like he thought after all...

Chapter 14: Summer Camp

The week of finals for everyone comes and goes, and soon it’s time for the fireworks festival. Ren’s surprised that Tenma shows up along with the rest of the company, and the Phantom Thieves on top of that. It’s a pretty big group, but everyone seems to be getting along and having a good time.

...that is until a storm hits and the fireworks festival gets cancelled. Everyone has to rush back to the Mankai dorms, getting absolutely soaked as a result. The Thieves spend the night when the rain shows that it’s not going to let up. All in all, the change in celebration was still good even if it doesn’t go as planned... for a while.

Kazunari gets a call that Ren happens to overhear. It’s something of him trying to calm someone down who’s obviously panicked. When he gets caught, it’s explained that the person Kazunari was talking to was his mother. There was some stuff going on back home that she called to let him know about. He reassures Ren that he’ll be fine staying and rehearsing, that it was just a little something. However, considering the state Kazunari was in while talking, Ren’s not so sure.

Things get a bit worse when there’s a news report on Medjed -- a hacktivist group that’s seeking out the Phantom Thieves. As of right now, the Phantom Thieves aren’t sure what to do about them, either. For now, they have no choice but to stay on their toes since their leader is about to get an extra week of his summer break.

Oh yeah, did I mention that Tenma’s idea was a summer training camp? Thanks to the sway he has and Izumi’s talking to the school, Ren gets dragged along for the ride as the assistant director. The Phantom Thieves are to keep an eye out for any possible activity, and they’ll act on whatever happens when Ren gets back in a few days. (Makoto is in charge.) Despite initial plans to leave Morgana with Spring Troupe, the cat manages to sneak his way in Ren’s bag anyway. He’s not going anywhere.

As usual, though, with rehearsal, Tenma’s still got something to say, no matter where they are. Well, at least his criticism is pointing out specific things now, not just general statements. Things are finally starting to flow on the theatre front.

Chapter 15: Crossing the Line

With the Phantom Thieves looking for things on Medjed... The Thieves can’t find much, and they’re starting to wonder if it was all just an empty threat. They really hope that it is but promise to keep looking.

And here Ren thought things were getting good for Summer Troupe. That evening though, he’s swiftly proven wrong. Izumi assigns the cast the task of making dinner with her and Ren. Tenma’s starting to nitpick again. He may be getting better with the Summer Troupe during rehearsals, but offstage is a whole other thing entirely.

It all comes to a head when Tenma yells as Kazunari, calling out his relationships for being shallow, as well as Kazunari himself for being fake to please them. Tenma storms out after realizing what he said. Ren, deciding to take action when he eventually doesn’t return, deposits Morgana onto Kazunari’s lap and follows.

Chapter 16: A Leader’s Role

Ren finds Tenma brooding on the steps outside, and when asked what he’s doing out here, Ren simply replies he’s here to make sure that he eats and hands him a plate of curry. Though Tenma protests, he eventually does start eating. Remembering what Morgana had told him a while ago about working with Tenma rather than against him, Ren decides to break the ice, leader-to-leader (unknowingly so on Tenma’s part.)

To his surprise, it actually does work. He and Tenma have a decent conversation with each other. At the end, Ren suggests that Tenma try what he had been told before: work with everyone rather than against them. Balance out the negative with the positive. They are a team, after all.

It’s also during the conversation that Ren reveals something to Tenma that none of the other members of Mankai (or even the Phantom Thieves actually) know: prior to being expelled at his old school, Ren was a part of the drama club. He used to be something of an actor. However, one day shortly after he got arrested, he was confronted by the rest of the members while rehearsing about what had happened. Ren really wasn’t able to get a word in edgewise as the rest of the club kind of went off on him, which turned into a huge load of nasty things about him and his performances (a great deal of nasty comments that stemmed from his arrest basically that weren’t true and it just kind of evolved into them tearing Ren down.) He hadn’t found the nerve to be able to step on a stage since, which sucked because he had forgotten how much he loved acting until he began to help out at Mankai.

Ren has no idea that Tenma keeps that confession in the back of his mind.

Chapter 17: An Awkward Approach

During rehearsal the next day, it turns out that little chat with Ren actually ended up paying off in some regard. Tenma actually apologizes for the way that he acted. He also tries to balance out his criticism by pointing out the positive qualities to the Summer Troupe’s acting, raising them up a little while helping the change what they need to.

Ren’s phone starts going off during their lunch break. When he checks, he finds that he doesn’t recognize the account trying to contact him at all. It’s a user going by the screen name ‘Alibaba’. At first, he thinks that it might be Tenma (primarily because it’s his character’s name) but Tenma’s right in front of him and not on his phone at all. Alibaba’s replying to him in real time.

To make matters worse, this Alibaba knows about Ren’s identity as a Phantom Thief. They promise not to leak this information and even help them if Medjed decides to make a move so long as the Thieves change someone’s heart for them, going as far as to “prepare the necessary tool” for the job. When Ren tries to respond, all he gets in return is an error message.

Chapter 18: Summer Memories

As soon as rehearsal ends that afternoon, Ren’s cornered by Muku and Kazunari, who noticed he seemed a little off after lunch. Ren reassures them that everything’s alright before ducking away to contact the rest of the Thieves about Alibaba.

Over video chat, the group tries to figure out what exactly to do. All they manage to figure out are two things. The first is that the “tool” Alibaba was talking about was a blank calling card for them to use. It had been dropped off at the Mankai’s dorms and addressed to Ren. Yusuke was lucky enough to get to it before Spring Troupe could’ve. The second is that Ren’s phone possibly was hacked, which is how Alibaba was able to contact him in the first place.

Things get worse when Medjed posts another threat on their own website, saying that they’ll target those who sympathize with the Phantom Thieves if they continue. Knowing how certain members of Mankai (the first person that comes to Ren’s mind is Kazunari, who has shown before that he is an avid supporter of the Phantom Thieves) feel about the Thieves, it is cause for some worry. If Medjed tries to go after the troupe, then the Thieves are definitely ready to fight. There’s just a lot of confusion going on right now.

Izumi then chooses to knock on the door to draw Ren back out, saying that there’s a group activity he needs to be a part of. Makoto suggests that they continue their discussion when Ren comes back tomorrow and after a good night’s sleep has cleared their heads. The meeting comes to an end.

As it turned out, Matsukawa bought some fireworks for the troupe to light up since they missed out on the fireworks festival a few days ago. That was the group activity Izumi was talking about. Kazunari and Misumi want Ren to join them since the fireworks festival was his idea (for the most part) so he deserves a chance to make it up, too. With some urging from Morgana, Ren goes to light fireworks with everyone outside. Even in the midst of everything, he deserves to be an actual teenager sometimes. As a treat.

Chapter 19: On Love, Summer Edition

More teenage shenanigans thanks to Kazunari. That is mostly the subject matter here when Ren catches him texting someone during the meeting that Summer Troupe (and himself by default since he’s stuck bunking with them during this trip) has before they go to bed. Kazunari is rather anxious to hide the message, saying that he was texting a girl.

When a few of the others pester him about it (Muku primarily, Yuki wants out of it and Misumi and Tenma are just curious), Kazunari turns the topic on its head and asks them about their love lives. It doesn’t really work out as planned, as everyone is so busy that they don’t have time to date or are too shy to ask anyone out. This sort of devolves into the boys staying up talking all night. As Ren later notes, Kazunari was repeatedly checking his phone, texting someone until they all passed out.

In the end, though, by that morning, everyone’s tired from the lack of sleep. Morgana is disappointed in the entire Summer Troupe and Ren.

Chapter 20: Good Material

The afternoon that the Summer Troupe and both directors return home, Ren gets another message from Alibaba. They’re asking why Ren and the Thieves haven’t acted yet, despite getting the calling card that they were sent. First, as Ren explains, he’s not even home yet, and secondly, he points out that the Thieves need a name in order to steal someone’s heart. (It’s how the MetaNav works. A name, location and distortion at minimum are needed for a Palace, only a name for Mementos.) After thinking about it a moment, Alibaba gives them the name: Futaba Isshiki.

Alibaba goes on to add that if the Thieves don’t change her heart, then they’ll expose their identities to the police. Ren panics, but before he can get any more information or ask anything else, Alibaba cuts him off, and all Ren gets is error messages. Needless to say, the Thieves meet up at Mankai as soon as Ren gets back.

From what the team can gather so far is that Alibaba wants them to steal Futaba Isshiki’s heart. Since the calling card was sent to the dorms, they know where Ren lives. They also managed to hack Ren’s phone twice. It might just be a prank, or a test that the Thieves are being put through especially since they weren’t given a reason to steal Futaba’s heart in the first place. Regardless, they decide to proceed with caution and try their best to find out who exactly Futaba is.

Ren goes to the one person whom he knows has connections with everyone to see if he can help in some way -- Kazunari. However, when Ren asks about whether or not Kazunari might know Futaba or someone who does, Kazunari does a complete 180, going from willing to help to shutting down Ren almost immediately. There’s a moment after the outburst before Kazunari returns to normal, quickly apologizing before taking his leave. Both Ren and Morgana agree that whole thing was very suspicious. Ren’s starting to think that Kazunari might know something about Futaba after all.

Without much of a clue as to what’s going on with Futaba and with Kazunari being no help, the Thieves are left to ask around to see if they can find any information about Futaba on their own. They come up with nothing... until the end of the day as Ren walks home with Yusuke in defeat. That would be until they come across a rather shocking scene: It’s a woman arguing with Kazunari. This woman is Prosecutor Sae Niijima -- Makoto’s older sister. And she is just going after Kazunari, talking about having his parents’ parental rights revoked over his younger sister -- a girl named Futaba. Sae wants something that one of Kazunari’s relatives worked on that could be related to the psychotic breakdown case she’s working on -- something called cognitive psience. Kazunari eventually yields on the threat that his parents would lose custody of his sister.

Sae leaves, thanking him for this information. It’s only then that Kazunari notices that Yusuke and Ren were standing behind him. It’s awkward, because they overheard certain parts that Kazunari didn’t want them to hear. Yusuke and Ren try to get some information out him, wondering what’s up, but Kazunari is quick to shut them down. He’s not giving them any answers anytime soon. This does affect his performance a bit during rehearsal that evening.

It makes matters worse when that is the practice that Yuzo -- a former member of the original Mankai Troupe -- decides to shadow and give his critique on. While the rest of Summer Troupe is torn into for the same reasons as they get torn into in canon, there’s something else that Yuzo finds to tear into Kazunari about -- being distracted. Kazunari apologizes for it but doesn’t say anything on the matter about what bothering him even when asked by Izumi about it. Ren, however, has a pretty good idea.

Chapter 21: 8 MM Video

The next day after school, Ren and Ryuji take what they overheard between Kazunari and Sae right to the rest of the team while the rest of Summer Troupe rehearsing for their debt collector (Sakyo). After all they heard, it sounds a bit suspicious that Kazunari would keep shutting this down whenever Futaba gets brought up, especially considering how open he is. They suspect that his parents might be abusing Futaba, but if that were to happen, Kazunari isn’t the type of person to keep it hidden. Nor is Tsuzuru, Ren notes, as the two seem to know about each other’s home lives in some regard.

Before they can decide how to continue further, Alibaba contacts Ren again, asking why the change of heart hasn’t taken place yet. With the Phantom Thieves there to help him through the conversation a little better this time, Ren does his best to get information out of Alibaba about Futaba -- trying to ask questions to help figure out her keywords if she does have a Palace. It’s all a flop, and when Ren asks if they could meet Alibaba face-to-face to discuss this whole thing a bit better, Alibaba shuts down the idea super quickly. They call the deal off, saying that they’ll help the Thieves with Medjed with no strings attached and demands they stop looking for Futaba. The error messages return when Ren tries to stop them.

And that’s pretty much that. Still trying to wrap their heads around what just happened, the Thieves pretty much chalk it up to a prank on both Alibaba’s and Medjed’s parts, the logic with the latter being that they haven’t sent out any new threats in the past few days and haven’t acted upon the ones they’ve already made. But Ren is still left with a lot of questions and work to do, since Water Me!’s opening night is now a month away. It doesn’t help that Sakyo shows up to rehearsal too to remind the company of their debt and how well they need to do with this show too in order to pay it off.

Still curious about Futaba, Ren and Yusuke try to ask Kazunari a few things. Emphasis on try, because they barely get a word in edgewise since Kazunari’s finally got his hands on the 8 MM video player he was trying to get a few weeks ago so the Summer Troupe could watch that tape of the previous Summer Troupe.

Both of them are still so wrapped up with the mystery at hand that they don’t notice the boy in the video who looks very similar to the man threatening to shut down Mankai now.

The next day, Ren takes a break from rehearsal, going out with the rest of the Thieves to redo their celebration over stealing Kaneshiro’s Treasure and Makoto joining the team. They don’t make it very far though, as the whole fiasco with Kazunari, Futaba and Alibaba is still weighing heavily on their minds. Things get worse when they run into Akechi outside the subway station.

Akechi grills them a bit about the Phantom Thieves -- saying that it’s suspicious that those with ties to the Phantom Thieves’ cases are hanging out together. (i.e. going to the same school that Kamoshida taught at, and how Yusuke was Madarame’s student.) Thought this is easily thrown off thanks to Makoto and Ren acting fairly quickly, Akechi does leave them with something rather important that they regret overlooking: Medjed has declared war on the Phantom Thieves. And upon checking their website, they find out that this is true. If the Thieves don’t turn themselves in by August 21st, then Medjed will conduct a “cleanse” of Japan, destroying their economy in the process.

The team is in deep shit, and kind of need Alibaba’s help to stop Medjed. The only issue is that they have no idea who they are. Their only connections are to Futaba, who they know is related to Kazunari. However, since he’s being so fucking stubborn when it comes to talking about Futaba, it’s going take something major for him to actually open up. The only thing that they can think of that would work happens to still be saved on Ren’s phone because hindsight is 50/50.

The team make a choice and ask Kazunari to meet them in Ren’s attic. It’s there that, in order to get the information about Futaba out of him, they show him the messages that Alibaba had sent Ren. In the process, this also outs themselves as the Phantom Thieves, but at this point, they don’t have much of a choice.

Kazunari is kind of stunned for a moment because holy fucking shit, these kids are the Phantom Thieves what the fuck-- but as soon as that wears off it hits him about what had actually happened. The day before Alibaba asked Ren to change Futaba’s heart was the day that he had stayed up with the others talking and texting someone. This other person was Futaba, who had been having a pretty bad episode while their parents were out and since after moving out Kazunari checks on her... I think you can see what happened. Kazunari stayed up with her until it had passed. After all this sinks in, the Thieves explain that they need Alibaba’s help, but aren’t sure how to contact them. Since they know Futaba and Kazunari knows her, they were wondering if he knows who Alibaba is. As it turns out, he does because Alibaba is Futaba herself. It’s the handle that she goes by online while she’s hacking.

When asked why the hell Futaba would want the Thieves to steal her own heart, it’s when Kazunari’s own breaks a little. He takes them to meet Futaba, as his parents are out and won’t be home until late. At his home, they meet Futaba -- albeit briefly, as because the moment she spots them, Futaba panics and zips back up to her room. Once Kazunari calms her down (as there was a storm going on that knocked the power out as soon as they arrived) he returns to the team.

To explain what just happened, Kazunari tells them Futaba’s story. Futaba is Kazunari’s younger sister through adoption. They’re related through their mothers since they were cousins, and his family took her in after her mother died two years ago after throwing herself into the street in front of Futaba’s eyes. Since they had always been close, Kazunari was the one who was mostly there for her afterwards. It was why he and Tsuzuru became friends -- since Kazunari knew the latter had multiple siblings of his own and asked him for help. Togethers, they helped Futaba open up again... until a few months ago, right around the time that Spring Troupe formed. Futaba began experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations of her dead mother. She locked herself in her room, refusing to speak to anyone and it’s taken so much for Kazunari just to be able to call her and text her to check in every night. He was afraid of what would happen if he said anything about it because of what was going on with his sister. He just wanted to protect her. But her pain had distorted her world, and as much as she wants to get rid of these feelings herself, she can’t.

The team promises Kazunari that they’ll help Futaba after they uncover that she does have a Palace of her own, and he in turn promises to keep their secret. Besides, he’s been on the Phantom Thieves’ sides since day one and is partially responsible for the thought of having them steal her heart being put in Futaba’s head with how much he talked to her about them.

And now, the Phantom Thieves seek out to do what they had formed their team to do in the first place: to help people who couldn’t help themselves.

Chapter 22: Photo Shoot

With a promise under their belts to fulfill and a desire to save Futaba, the Phantom Thieves get to work as soon as possible. Unfortunately, a new Palace means that Ren’s going to have to skip a few rehearsals to actually go. You think that it being summer break now too would help. Nope! Just a few more days to rehearse. But luckily, with Kazunari now in on the Phantom Thief secret, it gets a bit easier to make excuses for his absences. Well, his and Yusuke’s, but it’s always been easy for Yusuke. While the photoshoot for promotion material is going on that day, Kazunari uses the excuse that Ren’s running an errand for him to explain away his absence.

Because Kazunari showed them where Futaba lived, it isn’t hard for them to go and visit her. ...even if she is still hiding in her room and only speaking through the hack she has on Ren’s phone. But even this method is enough for them to get the keywords that they need to enter Futaba’s Palace -- “Futaba Isshiki”, “Futaba Isshiki’s House” and sadly, “Tomb”. This leads directly to her Palace -- a pyramid in the desert.

Although at first the Thieves aren’t seen as a threat, that quickly changes after a run in with Futaba’s Shadow -- who in this world is a mummified pharaoh. It becomes apparent fairly quickly that Futaba isn’t in control of her own Palace after the Thieves hear the disembodied voices that have been plaguing Futaba for quite some time -- all of them shouting, calling her a murderer, etc.

They are then promptly kicked out of the Palace for the time being. Their hideout is also changed to the Mankai Company Theater, since that’s the one place that they can all easily meet up at without an issue. Ren decides to keep what’s going on inside Futaba’s Palace from Kazunari for a few reasons. A) it’s very personal and it’s probably best that Futaba tell him herself and B) it’s going to make him worry a lot more than he already is.

Speaking of which, Ren and Yusuke return to the Mankai dorms just as the photoshoot for Water Me! is wrapping up. Yusuke takes his time complimenting Yuki’s handiwork on the costumes while Izumi takes a moment to introduce Ren (and Yusuke who’s not really paying much attention at this point) to the photographer, Omi Fushimi. When Omi expresses and interest in taking a look at the theater before heading out, Izumi sends Ren with him while she handles rehearsal.

Ren’s a little nervous about being with Omi alone, mostly because he doesn’t know him, but he warms up fairly quickly when Morgana takes to the photographer. If he has a gold star in Morgana’s book, then that’s usually good enough for Ren (even though he’s still on the fence about Sakyo, who has the same thing.)

Ren takes the chance to invite Omi to come and see the show when the latter expresses something of an interest in the theatre. By the time they’re done, Ren has an idea in mind that he might just put into motion later, after Futaba’s Palace is taken care of and after Water Me! ...he just needs Izumi’s approval, first.

When he gets home, Kazunari’s ready to update the website with the pictures from the photoshoot earlier. The only change he makes is at Tenma’s request, removing the latter’s image and name since he doesn’t want to rely on that for publicity.

Chapter 23: Posturing and Idolizing

A few days of exploring the Palace do not do much to help ease the Thieves’ mind about Futaba’s situation. Through their infiltration, they’ve managed to discover quite a bit that Futaba was keeping locked up. It all comes back to one conclusion: that Futaba believes that she was the one responsible for her mother’s death, since the “note” she left behind claimed that she should’ve never had Futaba in the first place. To make things worse, Futaba believes that she should die for such a thing. This is something that the Thieves choose to keep from Kazunari for the time being, because as before, it would probably make him worry about her even more than he already is.

However, their last day of infiltration is also the same day that the flyers for Water Me! arrive. Each of the Thieves gets a stack to distribute on their way home from the Palace, which is fairly early in the afternoon for once. Ren does manage to get one of the flyers to Futaba thanks to Morgana’s help, with the cat crawling in the window with the flyer in his mouth to drop into her lap. He’s hoping that it might do something to help her feel better, even if it’s only temporary.

The team splits off into separate groups of two to get the word about the show as widespread as possible. Ren and Ryuji pair up, with Morgana accompanying Makoto and Ann teaming up with Yusuke since as soon as they’re done, Ann’s going to help him with Futaba’s calling card this time. They’re going to steal her heart tomorrow, and there’s nothing that’s going to stop them... besides the mental door blocking their way, but that can be solved easily by getting Futaba to open up her bedroom door in reality.

So, Ren and Ryuji are passing out flyers when they come across a pair of familiar faces doing a street act. It’s Tasuku and Haruto, whom they had run into during Blooming Spring while investigating Madarame. A bit curious, the boys watch their performance. While they are fairly good, Ryuji does remark that the fan service that Haruto pulls off kind of sucks if they think that’s all it takes to pull in tickets.

And this gets Haruto’s attention. Haruto v. Ryuji: Round Two, let’s go.

Haruto recognizes the boys, and immediately starts dissing the Mankai Company again, calling them nobody actors and the like. This does get under Ren’s skin, as most of Haruto’s insults seem to do. It’s also here that they finally get the message to Haruto across that the boys are not actors. Ren’s the assistant director, and Ryuji’s just a volunteer helping out. A volunteer who keeps trying to fight Haruto with ever snide comment that the latter makes.

Even with Tasuku and Ren trying to step in to get both to back down before they literally start fighting each other (a fight that I should note, Ryuji would win due to Metaverse experience), it takes God Troupe’s director -- Reni Kamikizaka -- to actually get Haruto to calm down. In turn, Ren’s able to reel Ryuji back a little. Though fairly calm and open with the two, Reni’s mood changes when he sees that they’re passing out flyers for the Mankai Company. The one that they handed him is immediately torn up, much to the boys and even the crowd’s shock. He promptly leaves with his troupe members in tow, and Ren and Ryuji are left wondering what the fuck just happened.

Needless to say, trying to brush that experience off, Ren and Ryuji continue passing out flyers, making their way around to a new spot as they go. However, this also leads to another run in: Muku and Yuki, with the latter being harassed by a couple of junior high boys. Ren recognizes the uniforms that boys are wearing as the same ones that Muku and Yuki do. They go to the same school.

Ryuji’s ready to fight a couple of middle school brats after hearing what the boys are saying, but Ren holds him back while Yuki handles the situation calmly and without much of an issue. He even flusters the boys, handing them a flyer and sending them on their way. It’s only once the boys are gone do the two teenagers make their presence known, startling Yuki in the process.

It’s when Ryuji compliments Yuki on not lashing out at the bullies that kind of changes things a little. He was younger but stayed calm the whole time unlike Ryuji would’ve. He was pretty mature for his age. It gets Yuki to tear up a little, having not expected it.

As Muku and Ryuji calm Yuki down, Ren feels like Ryuji’s a bit closer to Summer Troupe than he is at this point. The four of them pass out the rest of their flyers together, and head home. After all, tomorrow it was go time.

Chapter 24: Kazunari’s Opinion

It’s time to steal Futaba’s Treasure and for the Thieves to fulfill both their promises to Futaba and Kazunari. It turns out to be a bit easier to get Futaba to open her door than expected, even if she does end up hiding in her closet. They manage to coax her out, even for a moment. But that moment is all that they needed. It’s also here that they plant a seed of doubt in Futaba’s mind over whether or not she actually was responsible for her mother’s death, and a bit about the MetaNav. They leave the calling card with her, and after she reads it, they enter the Palace.

The trouble they run into is... it’s not what they expected. At all. For one, behind the door in the Palace is nothing but an empty coffin. And normally when stealing the Treasure, they’re attacked by the Palace’s Ruler -- their Shadow. But in this case, the entire top of the pyramid is taken off by a giant sphynx that the Thieves struggle fighting against since it’s hard to reach and too fast for them to bring down. The beast is absolutely wiping the floor with them.

No one is sure whether what happens next is a blessing or a curse. When the Thieves told Futaba about the MetaNav, they weren’t expecting her to have it on her phone. They especially weren’t expecting her to follow them into the Palace, either. Her Shadow makes the seeds of doubt from earlier start to grow, making her truly wonder if she was responsible for what happened. It’s at this point that the Thieves and the beast notice her. And Futaba realizes the sphynx shares her mother’s face.

Yeah, the monster that they’re fighting this time isn’t a Shadow. It’s a cognition -- more specifically, the cognition of Wakaba Isshiki, Futaba’s mom.

Thanks to the reassuring words of the Thieves and the urging of her Shadow to open her eyes, something... interesting happens. Much like wit the Thieves, Futaba starts to get a headache, speaking with her Shadow and forging a contract with it -- much like how the Thieves have done with their Personas upon awakening them. And like that, Futaba’s Shadow is engulfed in light and transforms into a UFO-shaped Persona that immediately pulls Futaba into it. Unlike the other members’ Personas, Futaba’s Necronomicon is... special. It’s not used for combat, but rather support and navigation. And it’s thanks to Necronomicon’s set of skills that the team is able to bring the cognition down.

The cognitive Wakaba returns to normal, and Futaba finally gets some closure over her mother’s death. It’s also when she leaves the Palace that the Thieves realize something. Futaba herself was the Treasure. And Since both Futaba and her Shadow are gone now... yeah, they absolutely book it out of the Palace before it collapses on them. It didn’t go as usual, but they still accomplished their goal. Futaba’s Treasure is gone, her Palace is gone and her heart is changed.

Ren takes to calling Kazunari to share the good news when something... The Thieves realize that Futaba hadn’t returned to her room. When she left the Palace, she collapsed outside of her house. Awakening her Persona, even if it was in a different way, took a bit out of her. That on top of having her heart changed... yeah. And Kazunari hears all of this. Without much context.

So, it’s not much of a surprise when he shows up to check on her and see what the fuck just happened. To the Thieves’ surprise, after spotting his sister, he’s relieved. Futaba passing out like this has happened before, usually when she’s used up all her energy without “recharging her batteries” so to speak. She’ll be fine in a few days. All that’s left is to wait. ...and hope that Futaba’s awake to deal with Medjed because they’re still a problem, and there’s no other hacker that can get the job done in time. But they’ll be fine. They have a good few weeks until their deadline.

...right?

...yeah... Futaba’s out like a light for a WHILE. The days fly by until there’s only one more week until opening night and only a few days until Medjed’s deadline. The Thieves (primarily Ren and Yusuke) have been working on the show to keep themselves busy and trying to keep Medjed off of their minds.

It’s here that Ren brings up another suggestion to change the show’s pacing, much like he did with the sword fight in Romeo and Julius. Though, it’s a bit simpler this time in the case of playing up the action sequence a bit more. Though everyone seems concrete in their opinions on the matter, Kazunari is bouncing back and forth with his own opinion. And he’s their tiebreaker who can’t make up his mind. This irritates Tenma somewhat, who snaps at Kazunari to just have his own opinion rather than backing off everyone else’s. This brings rehearsal to an end and returns tension to the air.

Chapter 25: Starting Tomorrow!

With tension in the air again, Ren decides to try his best to set the record straight before things escalate like they did last time. He calls Kazunari to the attic to talk with him and Yusuke and find out what’s up.

When he asks what the trouble was during rehearsal, Kazunari explains a bit of why he couldn’t make up his mind. Which is strange considering how stubborn he was about not letting the Thieves know about Futaba in order to protect her, and how stubborn he was when it came to how the play’s photos looked.

There was some truth in what Tenma said a while ago. When in middle school, Kazunari had trouble making friends to the point where the only person he could consider one was Futaba. Upon getting into high school, he scrambled for as many friends as he could, which lead to him only saying what others wanted to hear so he wouldn’t be alone. That’s something he doesn’t want with Summer Troupe or with Mankai in general. He trusts them. Eventually, even just talking to the two teenagers is enough for Kazunari to make up his mind and change his people pleasing ways.

On the flip side, Ryuji’s out on the street after checking in on Futaba for Kazunari when he runs into Tenma. Ren’s already told the Thieves about what happened, so this sort of leads to Ryuji talking about what happened that morning with them. He kind of gets why Tenma would get so pissed -- he would too -- but there’s something ‘bout it that doesn’t make sense.

Tenma’s just sort of ticked off that while Kazunari has opinions -- bringing up the photos as an example -- he doesn’t speak his mind when its important, like with the scene. They need to talk with each other, something that Ryuji brings up when he remembers that’s what Ren always tells them when in combat. That’s similar, right? But it’s hard to say what you want when a bunch of people talk over you. That’s something that Ryuji gets from personal experience due to the incident with Kamoshida a year ago. Yelling ain’t gonna do jack. You gotta just act sometimes, and make sure that you’re louder than the haters.

Kind of like that little voice in Tenma’s head that makes him be a prick. Mostly it comes back to talking to Kazunari rather than just shouting like that. That’s what Ren’s taught Ryuji anyway. Besides, Kazunari’s a good guy. If he feels really strongly about something, he’ll say it.

i’m not gonna lie, i just really wanted ryuji and tenma to interact for a bit, it’ll be refined later. ...and ironically later, ryuji’s gonna need to follow his own advice, but that’s for act 3.

Chapter 26: Trouble at Home

The next day, Kazunari states his opinion on the action scene. He wants to do it. Thanks to Kazunari breaking the tie, that’s what they decide to go with. Tenma even apologizes for yelling and that he probably should’ve just talked to Kazunari about it rather than snap. With the air somewhat cleared, rehearsal goes smoothly. Everything’s starting to come together.

...that is until that evening when Tenma’s manager shows up at the door. Apparently, Tenma’s parents found out about the show, which is strange considering Izumi had called them to fill them in on it the day that Tenma auditioned. The truth comes to light. The person that Izumi had talked to was Tenma’s manager, who serves as Tenma’s guardian when his parents are away. However, his father is back in the country and is not pleased to find out that Tenma turned down a movie offer to do the show.

In order to talk to his father about this, Tenma has to briefly return home... with his manager urging the troupe to find a replacement. But Tenma’s stubborn and there’s no way he’s letting that happen. If worse comes to worse, he tells them to let Ren take his place -- probation or not, he’s the only one that they got. The thought of performing in front of a crowd full of eyes focused on him and his every move, just waiting for him to slip up sets Ren’s anxiety skyrocketing.

He really hopes that Tenma can convince his father to let him stay.

A few days go by, and dress rehearsal is getting closer and closer. There’s no word from Tenma until one night, Kazunari rushes in with news. Tenma’s updated his social media to say that he’s joined the troupe, talking about the show in detail despite not wanting to advertise it previously. It’s thanks to this that the rest of the show sells out in an instant. However, the troupe can only hope that this means Tenma’s gonna return to them soon.

Chapter 27: School Arts Fest Memories

The clock ticks into late in the night with no word from Tenma. The troupe is worried until Tenma walks in through the door with a noticeable black eye from his father. Ren rushes to dip into the first aid supplies from things that he’s gathered in the Metaverse to help try and ease the pain, as well as help the bruise heal faster.

Apparently, the black eye was because Tenma had walked away from the movie deal without saying anything first. He had a long talk with his father afterwards, eventually getting him on board. This all ties back to Tenma needing to do this to take the next step as an actor.

As a kid, he was acting in a school play. He was already a child star, so that should’ve been easy for him. But the moment that he stepped on stage, he froze and forgot his lines. He just stood there until the curtain closed. It was the first time he had messed up so badly, so it’s stuck with him. With film, multiple takes can be done. On stage, it’s a one-time thing, so if you mess up, there’s no going back to erase your mistake. Being on stage again, he “starts to act like [Ren], freaking out and getting all tense.”

Remember how I said that Tenma wouldn’t forget Ren’s confession to him about being in theatre prior? Yeah, this is where that comes into play when Tenma reveals he has bad stage fright like Ren does. Only Tenma didn’t have an excuse to not step on stage like Ren.

The others -- Ren included -- are floored. Ren didn’t even realize that he had stage fright, but... after what he told Tenma, he guesses that it makes sense. He is afraid to stand on stage again, after all. The Metaverse to him, while like a stage, is different from one, too. There’s no one there to tear him down like his drama club did as soon as they found out about his arrest. He’s wearing a mask, no one can see who he really is. There’s no criticism in that world, and no harsh words... it’s those things that he’s scared of. It’s what’s holding him back. It’s why he won’t stand on stage.

Basically, while Tenma’s fear stems from not giving a less-than-perfect performance, Ren’s comes from the anxiety he gets when faced with negativity and rejection. He’s afraid of being criticized and torn apart like he was before.

With this realization, Ren sort of admits to it. However, he does add in that while he did hide behind the excuse of his probation, Tenma had the courage that he lacked to stand in the stage’s spotlight. He isn’t a coward. He obviously takes pride in his work after all and should strive for the best or even make things better. Ren promises his help later on that night, much like he did with Sakuya and the sword fight. In exchange, Tenma promises to help Ren get over his stage fright so that he can get up there himself. He’s not stupid, he’s seen how much Ren loves it.

“...one step at a time, Tenma.”

Chapter 28: Once Again...

The next morning, Tenma practically gets tackled by the rest of Summer Troupe when they find out he’s here to stay. Ren finds it somewhat hilarious and takes a picture of it. It is later uploaded to both Mankai’s blog and sent to the Phantom Thieves’ group chat.

Tenma explains the business about his stage fright to the others (and keeps tight-lipped about Ren’s in the process.) To his relief, the others accept that part of him. Stage fright or not, they weren’t going to let him drop out so easily. There wouldn’t be a show without him, after all.

Chapter 29: The Secret of the Protractor

With Tenma announcing he’s part of the show, Mankai has become swamped with interview requests to the point where they’ve opened dress rehearsal to the press. It’s a lot to handle, but it has been keeping the Thieves’ minds off of Medjed for about a day or so. The team even steps in for a bit to help so that no one gets overwhelmed with all the work. As a bit of a thank you, they’re allowed to sit in on rehearsal that day alongside Yuzo.

The Thieves applaud the performance, even if it was just a rehearsal. Makoto comments how amazing Misumi’s acting is, especially compared to how he seems to be normally. Yuzo explains that it’s most likely because of his grandfather -- Mankai’s previous playwright. Honestly, hearing that has a few people curious.

Later that evening, Ryuji and Ren take a break from running around all day, accidentally luring out Misumi with the smell of rice. Ren was helping making dinner for everyone while Izumi was busy, and it’s Misumi’s favorite onigiri. ...actually, that’s just part of it. Ren’s been trying to perfect one of Izumi’s curry recipes and Ryuji’s wasting time being his taste tester. It’s here that Misumi’s grandfather gets brought up again.

Misumi’s grandfather is responsible for Misumi being so good at acting by showing him videos of the old troupes and never giving up on him, either. After a suggestion from a friend of his that he used to spend a lot of time with, Misumi’s kept the protractor his grandfather used to write scripts with on him at all times as a memento.

When Ryuji asks about this strange friend a little more, Misumi tells him he hasn’t seen his friend in years, but Ren reminds him a lot of him. And both the boys already feel like they’re good friends to him, too. He wishes for them to be on stage together one day, something Ren’s a bit sheepish about getting on stage (and still working on finding the courage to, he’s let the thieves know about his stage fright, but not the rest of the company). Ryuji... backpedals, but still somewhat considers it, which surprises Ren a little.

Hey, he’s been having fun. Give him a break.

Chapter 30: The Dress Rehearsal

Dress rehearsal just so happens to fall on the same date as Medjed’s deadline. So, Ren and Yusuke wake up stressed as fuck. Even Kazunari’s a bit worried because Futaba’s never recharged for this long. Though, all their worry flies out the door pretty quickly that morning when there’s a knock at the door. It’s Kazunari’s yelp that has everyone running because it’s Futaba, who had walked her by herself with her laptop tucked under her arm and a flyer that her hand is wrapped around.

She had woken up a while ago and wanted to make sure that he knew that she was fine, stop blowing up her phone with texts, Kazu. She came by to see him while doing her work to make sure that he was fine. However, there is the little matter of dress rehearsal. He’s gonna be busy with that all day.

So, Futaba kind of... commandeers his and Muku’s room for the day to get what she needs to do in order to bring down Medjed done. She made a deal after all. Though a little nervous, Summer Troupe and the Thieves leave her in Spring Troupe’s care (specifically Tsuzuru since she already knows him) and head off to dress rehearsal.

The theater is packed with reporters and cameramen by the time the troupe arrives. It’s kind of crazy how many cameras there are. And it’s easy to see that their presence is making Tenma nervous. It’s also easy to see that while he’s up on stage.

Things are made a bit worse when the rest of the Summer Troupe notices Tenma’s nerves affecting his performance. That in turn affects their own. To top it all off, Tenma forgets one of his lines, blanking out on stage. Luckily Yuki takes the reins from there to cover it up, but it’s still a noticeable mistake.

When the Summer Troupe makes it back to the Mankai Dorms, Futaba’s passed out in front of her laptop with her job done. Medjed has been taken care of, and there’s a weight off of the Thieves’ shoulders. They let her sleep in Room 202 for the rest of the night.

...at least one good thing happened today. Because the press, while most were covering the action with Medjed, still managed to get out some articles about the dress rehearsal. And thanks to their performance, the reviews aren’t looking too good. They need to make sure what happened today can’t happen opening night... especially in Tenma’s eyes it can’t.

Chapter 31: My Weakness

Upon hearing the news about Futaba, the rest of the Phantom Thieves rush over to the dorms to check out if it’s true or not. It is, and Medjed has retracted their threat on the Phantom Thieves. Like I said, it was one good thing that happened yesterday. When Futaba wakes up, she’s sort of stuck to Kazunari’s side. Unlike before, she’s kind of realized where she’s at and is surrounded by mostly strangers. Depressed strangers because dress rehearsal sucked. So, before things get worse, the Thieves take Futaba upstairs to the attic to get a little space to breathe, as well as to talk to her about the Metaverse stuff in private.

Unfortunately, Futaba is difficult to talk to. Kazunari had warned them about this prior, that Futaba wasn’t the best socially like he was. But they didn’t expect the hacker to be brushing them off when they ask her most questions. The only thing that she doesn’t brush away is when they ask her to join them, getting only a small ‘yes’ as a reply.

Just like with acting, everyone has to start somewhere. The “Help-Futaba-Open-Up” Plan that the Phantom Thieves come up with is relatively simple. They’ll each spend a day with her and get to know her little by little for the rest of the week. If she’s comfortable enough by the end of the week and pasts the test of spending the last day at the beach, then Ren and Makoto talk about a small surprise they could plan if Futaba’s able to stand in a crowd without a problem. Or is willing to try to. Because of the show’s run being the same week, Ren’s going to be busy all day. To remedy that, Futaba’ll spend the week at the dorms. Though she initially is hesitant and scared, Futaba agrees.

As Futaba notes later that night when she returns with a bag for the week (as well as permission from the director and her parents), everyone is still majorly bummed out by what happened at dress rehearsal. This is evident at dinner later that night. It eventually gets to the point where Tenma walks away from the table, dragging Ren out of the room with him.

Ren is basically dragged out by Tenma against his will to the theater. When Ren asks what the hell Tenma’s doing, he is kind of surprised by the reply. He wants to practice on his own to fix his mistakes so they don’t mess up opening night. And he can’t do that alone, and since Ren did offer to help him, he was the prime candidate. It’s just a bonus that he already knows the show as well as the actors.

We get another nice Ren and Tenma moment here. I didn’t mean for that to happen so much, but it kind of did. Oh well.

So, when Izumi and the rest of Summer Troupe find the two, they’re in the middle of a scene between Ali Baba and Scheherazade -- the exact same scene where Tenma choked earlier. Initially, it’s not taken as it’s supposed to. There’s a lot of teasing from the troupe directed at the two of them for sneaking off on their own. But then, the troupe gets together for one last rehearsal -- ironing out the details before opening tomorrow night.

Chapter 32: The Huddle Engine

Day One of the Futaba Plan as well as opening night for Water Me! has arrived. Makoto arrives to spend the day with Futaba and Yusuke at the dorms while Summer Troupe is scrambling around trying to prepare for the show. Makoto takes Izumi off to the side beforehand to ask her about something. Though Futaba is a bit curious about the matter, Ren and Yusuke quickly direct her away from it.

Futaba ends up spending the day with Makoto and Yusuke in the common area, and surprisingly also with Sakuya and Citron, too. Since she’s going to be staying there for the week, the reasoning is that she should be comfortable around the troupes, too. Though the initial small talk discussion doesn’t do much, there is some ground found once Futaba gets started talking about Featherman. It kind of evolves into the five of them marathoning the show together and Futaba explaining all the finer points of it to Citron. Kazunari is proud of her for stepping out of her shell like this, but there’s no time to relax. It’s only the start of the week, and the show’s opening is that night.

With the messy dress rehearsal, there are more eyes on Summer Troupe than originally thought possible. The thought of messing up again makes Tenma very nervous. But Tenma’s not going alone out there, he has the rest of the troupe to back him up. Kazunari drives this point further with their huddle... which Ren finds amusing, since it involves everyone’s hands on Tenma’s chest for some reason. Though, it does the trick and calms Tenma down.

The Summer Troupe steps out onto the stage and gives their opening performance their all. Although Tenma does trip up on a line, as promised, the troupe is there to help him get right back into the flow of things. The audience doesn’t even notice the mistake.

Chapter 33: Redemption

Curtain closes on Water Me!’s opening night and... Summer Troupe is given a rousing round of applause and cheers. Tenma managed to overcome his fears and the show went off without an issue that the troupe couldn’t resolve.

Much like the Phantom Thieves, Summer Troupe’s become a well-oiled machine. If they can keep up this pacing, then closing night would be spectacular.

...and if Futaba could keep it up as well, then the surprise that Makoto and Ren are planning might just get to happen after all, especially since Izumi pulls Ren aside to give him the okay for it.

Chapter 34: A Tense Closing Night

The week goes by without much issue. The shows have gone pretty well, and Futaba’s slowly starting to open up bit by bit the more time she spends with the Phantom Thieves, as well as the Mankai Company (though Ren is still surprised when the Spring Troupe member she gets along with the best ends up being Itaru of all people... then again, in hindsight, it’s not all that strange).

Eventually, they reach the end of the week. That day marks not only closing night, but Futaba’s final test: the beach trip. It’s only thanks to Spring Troupe filling in for Ren and Yusuke as stage crew that the two boys are able to go on the beach trip in the first place, promising that he and the rest of the team will be back for closing. Without a Palace in their way this time, there’s no doubt that they’ll make it back in time. Worst that can get in their way is traffic or a subway accident at this rate.

Fortunately, thanks to her days with everyone, Futaba actually does a good job handling the crowd at the beach. It’s a day that’s filled with fun, and by the time the sun starts to set, and they need to get heading back, both Ren and Makoto can agree that Futaba should be able to handle another crowd that night.

The Thieves pack up their things, change out of their swimsuits and start to head back to Veludo Way. On the trip back (which Makoto borrowed Itaru’s car for in order to avoid the crowd on the subway, thank you Itaru), Futaba opens up a little bit more about what she remembered happening to her mother. Wakaba didn’t just die, she was killed by someone who wanted her research into cognitive psience -- the very same things that involve the Metaverse, Shadows and the mental shutdowns that are going around. She fully promises to help out the Phantom Thieves in any way that she can in order to find out who was responsible for her mother’s death. She even chooses her official Phantom Thief codename: Oracle.

...Ren’s not sure how he’s going to tell Kazunari about that, but there’s not much time to dwell on it as the Thieves arrive at the Mankai Theater, much to Futaba’s confusion. Makoto goes on to explain that since the team saw Romeo and Julius, shouldn’t they see Water Me! as well? It was all Ren’s idea when he saw the flyer that Futaba was carrying with her when she arrived at the dorms. She should get the chance to see her brother shine onstage after all. This was also why she needed to be comfortable with Spring Troupe. Because of the sold-out seats, she would be standing and watching the show with them.

Futaba is really grateful for that. Kazunari had been texting her and talking about the show a lot, so getting to see it means more than she expected. So, the Thieves take Futaba into the theater while Ren and Yusuke head backstage to meet with the Summer Troupe.

When they get there, they find that Futaba’s not the only special guest that night. Tenma’s parents showed up as well. (Ren gets pissed off at this because while the swelling is gone, there is definitely still a lingering bruise around Tenma’s eye when not hidden with makeup.)

The rest of Summer Troupe reassures Tenma that things will be fine. They had a great run so far. Parents or not, there’s nothing that can stop them from making closing night just as successful. It’s time to prove them wrong about Tenma’s choice. With a little encouragement to calm their nerves, it’s time to step out onto the stage.

As a side note, just about everyone from Summer Troupe has someone important show up to see them: Tenma’s parents obviously came, Futaba’s there for Kazunari, Muku’s old track buddies showed up, the bullies that Yuki put in their places show up to see him and... well, a few old friends that Misumi found the courage to reach out to came to see him, too.

Chapter 35: Curtain Call

It’s taken months and a lot of hard work. Everyone’s grown and changed so much... but now here they are. The curtain rises on closing night and the show begins. The Summer Troupe gives the best performance that they possibly can. Now comfortable in the spotlight, Tenma’s upped it a little bit by adlibbing like mad during the show. However, Summer Troupe follows his flow every step of the way. Everyone’s relaxed and having fun, especially the audience.

When the curtain finally falls, the Summer Troupe is met with a standing ovation. Ren feels a bit bad about not being able to face his fears and stand with them, but Yusuke reassures him that he’ll get out there eventually whether it be the next show or the one after that. They’ll all be waiting to see him.

...speaking of which... they should probably get going. There’s one more surprise for the night, and this time it’s for Kazunari.

Chapter 36: Backstage

While the actors head backstage, Ren and Yusuke sneak out for a moment. They find the Thieves and together bring Futaba around backstage to see Kazunari, who had no idea she was in the audience and had gotten so lost in the performance that he didn’t notice her. As Futaba tackles him, the Thieves congratulate Summer Troupe on an outstanding show.

And it’s not just them either. A few familiar faces (primarily Omi, as Ren talked to Izumi about sending him a ticket if he decided to come and see the show) and a few parents... Tenma’s included. It takes a lot and about half of the Phantom Thieves to keep Ryuji from going at them. They give Tenma permission to stay at Mankai and continue to flourish as an actor before leaving.

Izumi hands over the reins to Ren temporarily while she quickly runs out to do something. Ren is confused about it a bit but says nothing on the matter. The Summer Troupe -- along with Spring and the Phantom Thieves -- head back to the Mankai dorms for their wrap party. There were gears turning in Izumi’s mind. ...and after hearing a comment made by Muku’s parents about his cousin showing up to see the show, Ann gets an idea in hers as well.

Chapter 37: New Recruit

Morgana follows Izumi to keep an eye on her, something that Ren doesn’t really notice until the former two get back to the dorms. So yes, Morgana does bear witness to Sakyo and Izumi’s exchange... and gets a little more information about something Ren has forgotten about at his point.

Chapter 38: A Heat That Never Cools

When Izumi returns with Morgana in her arms does the wrap party get underway. It’s here that Ren openly admits his stage fright when the topic of why he doesn’t get up on stage is brought up again. The Mankai Troupes are understanding about it and are determined to help him overcome it over the course of his remaining time at Mankai, as after his probation is up, he’ll have to return to his hometown.

During the party, Ryuji kind of gets pulled towards the Summer Troupe’s conversations by Muku, Futaba and Kazunari primarily, with Tenma jumping in a bit. And since the only troupe member Makoto really knows is Sakuya (they’re in the same class), she kind of gravitates towards Spring Troupe, leaving the rest of the thieves to bounce back and forth. Ren is relieved that the most important people in his life are getting along so well. And since he knows the root of his stage anxiety, it feels like there’s a weight off of his chest now. He’s feeling better than he has been in a while.

But there’s still the matter of Autumn Troupe to deal with. In a few days are the auditions for the next Mankai troupe, and this time, Ren is helping Izumi with recruitment. While she has someone in mind, there’s an offer that Ren sent out, too. ...but that’s to be discussed in Act 3. Right now, the company’s popularity is growing, so there’s hope that more than just the two people invited come to audition.

Oh yeah, there’s a few more things to talk about, too. Later that night, after the party is over is when Morgana tells Yusuke and Ren what had happened when Izumi left earlier

Izumi met up with Sakyo and invited him to audition for the next troupe, much to Ren’s surprise. Apparently, he had been in the old Summer Troupe video that they had seen, but since they were so wrapped up with figuring out who Futaba was at the time, neither Ren nor Yusuke really noticed. There’s also a little more to it that Morgana’s keeping from Ren, but all he’ll say about it is that he was right about Sakyo, seeing as the cat would greet him by rubbing up against his leg. Sakyo never showed signs of hating it, so he kept doing it. Ren gets a bit annoyed.

...when Morgana has a nightmare later that night, once again keeping his mouth shut about it, he gets a bit more annoyed but whatever it was seemed to freak Morgana out. Ren chooses the high road and soothes Morgana back to sleep.

Meanwhile, Ann’s walking home from the wrap party when she finds a certain someone flat on his back outside the station after getting his ass kicked by someone that he underestimated. She snickers as she stands over him.

“You didn’t think before you leapt again, huh Banchan?” “...shut up, Ann.”

Act 1 | Act 3 | Act 4

#persona 5 #persona 5 au #a3!#a3 act addict actors #a3 au #literal theatre kid ren #ren amamiya #akira kurusu #ann takamaki #ryuji sakamoto #makoto niijima #futaba sakura #tenma sumeragi #yuki rurikawa #muku sakisaka #kazunari miyoshi #misumi ikaruga

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plutoswrath · 3 years

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i’m sorry to annoy you with this again. i just look up to your kpop mixed with astrology content. but lucas’s neptune contact with his mc is going to annoy the shit out of me until this is fixed. the cloudiness that neptune brings to his public image is something that i think possibly fuels these situations further. false accusations and mixed perceptions based off of them is exactly what makes these scandals to continue on and on. and i’m sick of it. both sides ignore what the other is saying and it gets nowhere. neptune, the malefic bastard.

Hello! I saw your recent asks and I appreciate your words regarding my content, thank you so much for the kind words! <3

I will touch on astrolgy under the cut, but before this happens, I want to leave a few words. There's a reason why I didn't answer the previous questions I received (not only yours op) regarding the Lucas situation so far. For several reasons I didn't want to feed into any sort of (perceived) sensationalism in regards to the Lucas situation, even though I'd really love to look at the situation from an astrological point of view. That people are divided on this topic is to be expected, but I think the way it has been handled by majority so far is very bad. I really want to elaborate on my reasoning why we should rethink the way we talk about/represent the Lucas situation right now, but as this topic is very kpop specific everything will be under the cut.

My reasoning for avoiding any questions about it until now:

1. People already don't take the situation seriously enough: Regardless of what your standpoint is, I'd like for people to consider looking at it from a more critical point of view for a second: The allegations are not about him being exposed as ‘just a f-boy’ as some people make it out to be, they are more serious than that. Lucas allegedly manipulated and used these women for his own emotional/sexual/financial needs and ego boost. The fact that he has money and allegedly still used other people to provide financially for him just demonstrates the power play underneath it all. He abused his position of power as an idol, the power dynamics between him and fans who idolize him are plain and simple just completely off. Please think about the fact, that he allegedly decided who to date on at fansigns. This alone gives no security to any fans that want to attend fansigns in the future. TW SV: he also talked one of these women into having sex with him + doing it unprotected, which is not only emotionally/sexually manipulative/coercive and can possibly be traumatic for them but also heightens the risk for transfering STD's as END TW he was supposedly seeing people at the same time/cheating. In general, the behavior he gets accused of leaves trauma and is abuse, to be more specific abuse of power on multiple levels and his social position makes it just easier to continue abusing that power. As you've mentioned yourself op, there is a huge back and forth about the allegations, and I know people like to take situations like the one of Taeyong as an example to justify that not every public apology is real and that allegations turn out to be false years later, but I believe it's different this time and that the allegations that came forward were real. Even his cbar closed, a fanbase that works closely with Label V (!), that alone shows that there is 'at least' some truth to the story, or else his hardcore fanbase wouldn't have decided to turn their back on him in matters of just days. Also, all the 'jokes' and the portrayal of 'juicy gossip' people make about the situation just downplays and ridicules the possible traumatic experiences of the people that were hurt by his actions. If anyone decides to not believe these allegations until SM gives a more specific statement, that's fine, but please do so without making fun of the people who were victims of his behavior, as there is already little to no sympathy for them online. It makes it just way harder for any survivors in the future to speak out on their experience. People say it's 'nothing illegal, just morally wrong' but given the fact that he is also a person in power, the line between 'just' morally wrong and illegal can be very thin in some cases. And please overthink arguments such as: 'this is typical boy behavior for someone in his 20's'/ 'he's just an f-boy' or 'boys will be boys' because they are deeply misogynistic and we shouldn't normalize behavior like that, thus making the root of the problem actually way deeper than most people think.

2. WayV's future: This mainly goes for people who are fans of WayV. I know not everyone probably likes to hear this, but another thing why wild speculations, sensationalism or even possible defence about this situation should be kept on the low is WayV's career. I want to be honest here, but I'm scared for their future, their comeback for october has been cancelled for now and they are put on a hiatus for several months as far as I know. They were on a good path of gaining more and more recognition and establishing themselves even better as a c-pop group, but now Luca's reputation in China (their target audience) is as good as gone and that pulls all of WayV down to rock bottom with him. People really need to try seeing the story out of the eyes of the korean and especially chinese fans as well, their perception of the allegations (especially after the Kris Wu situation!) are way different and more serious than the ones of i-fans and i-fans have to accept that. Also, we all know how companies (especially SM) handle these type of situations: keep the people on the low till the storm has calmed down. But will the storm ever calm down for Lucas when his public image is basically destroyed, and thus WayV as well? What I want people to understand is that this whole situation affects WayV and their career directly, actually on the biggest scale possible. All the work so far is at risk to be for good and I think a lot of fans tend to forget that, things look especially critical for HenXiaoYanKun if WayV would be to continue/redebute/fall apart. It doesn't matter if Lucas talking bad about the members/the companies/shows he works with/for was real or not in the end, because unfortunately damage is already done, WayV's image (WayV= family) is already tarnished and WayV as a group will suffer from this. You summed it up with malefic Neptune the best actually: We all don't know the full confirmed truth about the situation and will most likely never know it. (small astro insight here as well, but part of Neptune is to accept fantasy for what it is: fantasy, and thus turn to cold reality when you're in too deep)

3. What O'd advice the fandom to do right now: Regardless of your opinion on the situation, what we as a fandom can do best right now is staying on the low, wait things out, and stop adding more fire to the situation with our actions and wait how the situation actually developes, since a) we can not fasten the process and b) a lot of rumors, false information and unnecessary details get exposed to mudd the waters and to discredit the statement of the victims as well. I've seen some strong reactions from both sides, but as someone who's a big fan of nct in general I really just want to say that part of the fandom throwing a fit on the internet leads basically to nothing, it actually only reflects even worse on nctzens/weshennies and thus on WayV's (and also NCT as whole) image as well. Things right now are handled internal, not extern. Whatever gets through to the public will be half of the story anyway. A lot of people seem to forget, that we talk about SM and all they care for right now is saving themselves economically (think about the domino effect this situation has on the whole group/company), so we will have to see what their final decision is going to be, if anything will happen at all. For now, be patient, wait and see. Last words: It's okay to feel hurt/confused/angry/drained. Even though most of us are aware that we dont know any celebrity's character, it's still hard to swallow and to digest because you were a fan of that artist. Let it take time and vent. Take a break from it if it gets too much! Talking about it to process your emotions better is okay and very valid, but keep in mind that you should not worsen the situation by doing so - it's already absolute chaos.

Also: This statement is by no means a direct attack to anyone or me trying to push my opinion onto you, just my two cents in how to handle the situation best right now, because our hands are basically tied. Also: agree to disagree. If you don't like that I side with the victims (unless there is an official statement that Lucas is proven not guilty, which I doubt, unfortunately) then so be it, but don't start a war in my inbox for our opinions differing.

-------

Now, to astrology:

Disclaimer: This analysis will not be very light-hearted, but remember that it's just a theory and not me trying to confirm anything!

First of all op, sorry for just answering you know, but I neded some time to think through how to adress this without adding to the fire with my astrological analysis! Boy, does the birth time fit the shoe right now. To be fair as I did my short rising sign analysis about him recently, I cancelled out every other fire rising except for Leo, because I got stuck on the ego part a bit. Anything for me made sense, as long as it highlights his ego, which by itself doesn't have to be a bad thing automatically, but there's always two sides of the coin as we all know.

I looked into the transits the past week and added a few asteroids/mathematical points as well. An anon before pointed to the full moon happening in his tenth house, conjunct his sun, etc. (I deleted the ask because I didn't know what was going on at that time and thought it was just the 'usual' rumors that once in a while get spread around, but after looking more into it I decided this was not the right time to stirr the pot in any kind of way or treat it as funny, hot gos). But yeah a full Moon in Aquarius happening in his 10th house AND on top of that Saturn in Aquarius, conjuncting that Moon and his natal Uranus in the 10th! Talk about destrcution of any stable foundation and a change in a public image! Honestly, looking at astrologically the way his public image just got radically destroyed over night, with Saturn and the Moon having been in a conjunction (in his chart it was in the 10th house) is kinda eery even. Talk about collective consciousness - not only exposing quiet literally the feelings of the collective, but also doing so in the favor of others and gaining collective emotional consciousness. Take this with a grain of salt (!), because we're still in a tense situation, but I'm tapping into the darker, unfriendlier side of astrology now. Taking his confirmed birth time, he has Nessus in Sagittarius in his 8th house and as I saw that I could feel myself shifting into the surprised pikachu face. I am not saying that this prooves the allegations whatsoever, but as you seemed to be very interested in anaylzing the case in-depth as well, the allegations fit his Nessus - jumping from partner to partner, carelessness (regarding physical intimacy as well), making people share all their ressources with him/finacial gain, and basically the whole jist of gaining control/being in a power position in intimate connections. Keep in mind that this is only one interpretation of Nessus though, Nessus can also show the complete opposite to someone 'turning to their dark side'. On top of that, his Nessus was conjunct transit Phollus the past week, so if anything, we can see that a large event triggered him to 'open his eyes' and face anything of an 'obstacle' that hinders him from seeing the 'truth' to a larger picture and his own nature/destiny. Pholus can symbolize change that will alter your perception of the responsibility you have for yourself and others.

But my latest new interest with these two asteroids aside (asteroids just add a little more nuance to a situation after all), I want to touch on Lilith too, since you (op) have mentioned Lilith before in one of your asks!

He has his Lilith exactly conjunct his Descendant when we consider his confirmed birth time. What happened just now can be seen as 'backfiring' of his actions, either Lilith embodying the women who expose him now for his 'inappropriate' behavior, but also simply fans shaming him now for his alleged manipulative/imoral behavior, especially shaming him about who he chose to date and how. Next to that, you've mentioned Lilith opposite Moon and it just makes me think about him possibly feeling very indecisive and potentially in denial about what he actually needs to be fulfilled in order to be emotionally happy and thus leading to him appearing to have this 'second, dark side' to him now. BML is not necessarily opposite the Moon in my opinion, it's just the side of the subconscious we don't really like to deal with and all we're told not to express and desire because it can be conflicting in the eyes of others (thus BML also leading to a lot of recklessness on the negative side). I think if we take the allegations into consideration, regardless of how much of it is true of it, it can be a good example what happens, when an opposition gets out of balance, as it also manifests outwardly a lot! Lilith shows in his 'double life' aka what he allegedly did with fans. Lilith wanted an outlet and found one by working behind the scenes. If we take in his supposed Taurus rising, which his Lilith is in an exact opposition with, it's a good example of what can lurk underneath the surface.

And of course, last but not least, Neptune and Sun conjunct his MC. People are quiet literally blinded by him more than they would like to think. Also: Lucas was always known for his 'flirty & charismatic' nature, this is another reason why people think we shouldn't be surprised he 'turns out to be like that in real life'. I'm not analyzing this argument right now, but what I think is very interesting is how Sun conjunct MC literally ties a good amount of their personality to their career - they want to be accepted and shine for their personality/big part of their individuality. Idols play a role, no matter how transparent they appear to us, but it's really funny how this 'image' of him melts almost seemingly with parts of his personality (almost af if you were to quiet literally sell your self) and as you've mentioned: Neptune only adds to that, unfortunately.

#replies #anonymous #might delete later??#idk depends if the situations gets even worse

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rinharu-purple · 4 years

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Mr. Love MC’s Choice: Gavin

We fellow producers all have our favorite LI in the game for whom we save our gems and dates, replay their chapters over and over again, sucking our bank accounts dry during the process. And that’s what makes this game so fun! However in my opinion MC’s personal choice is Gavin. I will try to explain it as thoroughly as possible in this post. Obviously they are only my personal opinions at the end of the day so please don’t freak out if you beg to differ ^_^

There are spoilers ahead and this post is a long one, you were warned!

A big, warm hug and grandious thanks to @smallersocksx for proof reading so fast and sharing her ideas! <3 </p>

Up until now, I’ve always analyzed ships in subtopics, so this time won’t be any different so I will just dive right into it:

Body Language

The law of attraction between two people in a romantic way has some thumb rules, one of them is that when you like someone then you try to touch them at every opportunity. From all of our LI’s Gavin is by far the one with the most body contact to the MC (The main story only atm, I will come to his dates in a minute ;)). I think the anime speaks for itself, in every single Gavin episode and some of other LI’s episodes (ahem…ep 10 but also ep 11…ahem) Gavin and MC are always in an embrace or a meaningful “hands-on” moment…In the game MC and Gavin are quite often touchy with each other, MC seems to not holding her hands back every time she feels like Gavin’s hurt and reflexively touches him, she is also highly concerned about his hair since every time his hair get messed up by the wind, rain or hormones (swh ;)), MC doesn’t waste any second before correcting his hair. Every reunion they have results in MC reaching out her hands towards Gavin and surprisingly never other way around. Even in a perillious moment in chapter 22 when Gavin goes completely wild and unleashes his “beast-self” the first thing MC wants to do is embrace him. In chapter 24, at the very end among all routes, MC only tells Gavin that she’s missed him and hugs him. Chapter 27...again MC wants to check Gavins body for injuries and tends to them the second they are alone in a closed room. They both yearn for each other’s touch all the way, no matter in which narrative.

If I were to start counting Gavin’s touchy touchy moments on the other hand, then we have to prepare a 4 volumes encyclopedia because that male individual is all about touching MC. Another hint for their closeness is that MC makes notes on Gavin’s scent quite often, mostly related to his jacket or his embrace and while doing it, she always uses adjectives like “clean”, “distinct” or “unique”. Again in ch. 15 she knows its Gavin standing behind her even without looking, because she senses his scent: “A scent that I’d recognize anywhere”. Surely there are many scenes, where MC holds hands with another LI or makes a remark of their scent, but they are not at the intensity or frequency level that of Gavin’s.

2. The Setting

All four LI’s are representing a certain archetypes women are usually attracted to:

Kiro is a pop idol (target audience 13-15)

Victor is the young successful businessman with a high dominant demeanour and Mr. Grey-ish attitude (target audience 25 upwards or any 50 shades of Grey reader)

Lucien is a young attractive professor with a mysterious and enigmatic vibe (target audience 20-24)

Gavin is the misunderstood bad boy (high school) and later a righteous police officer (16-19 for the bad boy Gavin and 20 upwards for the righteous police officer, special agent, military commander... a pilot?! anything including a uniform fetish)

So, in the game, Elex could take any of these paths and develop it in a way that the chosen path becomes a true love story. I gotta admit, Victor’s story comes at times very close to being one. However, his never-ending bickering and belittling in his 90% of the time cold demeanour just make him lose major points. Plus, MC mostly goes along with Victor’s tone, even though she is a kind and friendly person, she bickers with Victor not because that’s her personality but because that’s the way she can cope with him. If only he were a little bit less domineering.. Which is why I never feel like MC and Victor would belong together irl.

Seemingly Elex and Mappa take Gavin’s way imo. Because…

In the main story MC loves all of the LIs in a different way and also has romantic feelings to each one of them to a certain degree, but when we look at it closely and read in between the lines of MC’s thoughts Gavin is a little bit more romantically portrayed than the other guys.

a) First of all Gavin had a crush on MC during high school cannonically: Even though Gavin only says that it was a farewell letter, MC says once that she wishes that she could’ve read that “love letter”. I will stop here with Gavin’s feelings because this post focuses on MC.

b) MC, too, was kinda into Gavin during high school because in Episode 18, when she goes to Loveland Hugh during her farewell tour before going with her ultimate sacrifice , she remembers Gavin in intimate things like “watching his athletic body” or “wearing men’s clothes-meaning his-”. Additionally she remembers taking note of his face shining in the sun in the very back of the line during her recital. Even before it all she was specifically interested in him. Her memories with the other LI s are comprised of rather friendly moments like flying kites together but when it comes to Gavin she once again thinks about more intimate elements. Not to mention that the game gives MC a farewell with Gavin. In her final moments she only thinks that for Gavin her grievance would be the hardest. In the End of the Abyss era (ch. 15-18) MC meets all of the LIs after their changes again and reacts to all of them with joy…surely, but only when she sees Gavin hovering above her in the helicopter it is again…drum roll…drama: “The next second I saw a pair of amber eyes…shining like brilliant skies” this girl is always romanticizing Gavin.

“-Can you hear me?

-Can you see me?

-See my heart pounding again at the sight of you?” (so are you saying that your heart wasn’t pounding before? oh ok ;))

Fast forward to CH34 where MC fights Leto for the final time and remembers our guys and again, while she remembers other LIs for their sacrifices and their protection of her, she remembers Gavin's warm arms...

c)The game takes his time and turns the half of a whole chapter into a date in chapter15 Ep 1-9. There is no other chapter in the game where MC spends time with any of the other LI’s in which there is only the two of them, whereas nothing relevant to the main story happens and they share solely many sweet, romantic and almost hot (when MC tries to dry Gavin’s face in her flat and realizes that she stands way too close to him, she then prepares herself to say something, but gets interrupted by the alarm) and again, MC is getting close to Gavin, not the other way around like Lucien pushing MC against the blackboard, that little sneaky Lucien (actually I could write a post with a masterlist of Lucien’s advances to MC:D).

d) MC’s premonitions revolve mostly around Gavin (when they are not about the whole world or the black queen). Her dream about the rooftop rescue, her Room 404 dream, her daydream in the office in 6-13 in which Gavin’s suffering and from which she wakes up crying out his name leading to Willow, Kiki and Anna remark on playfully how unfair it is to dream about Gavin and disregarding the other guys. She also sees his future in episode 15 twice! If I am not mistaken, she only sees Victor’s future once in her dream and a vague vision of him in ch 18 but other than that she has no premonitions about Lucien or Kiro. Besides in the anime MC uses her power unintentionally yet instinctively twice while having Gavin in mind in episodes 5 and 8. The third time, she uses her powers in this way is in episode 11 with Victor but he is not her driving force for this but she is driven by the imminent danger they both are in and she doesn’t particularly think about Victor at this moment. In the game it additionally happens in chapter 22 when Gavin is cornered by the mechanical arms and is in a tight spot, this sight makes MC have a surge of rage and to unleash her powers in a great magnitude. Gavin is Queen’s soft spot i.e. More importantly Gavin is a constant part of MC’s future frame. She has her visions about other LI’s past but when it comes to Gavin it’s only his future. MC doesn’t have visions about Gavin’s past, like, ever. While Kiro, Lucien and Victor are stuck in their pasts with MC, Gavin has made peace with his past, is living in the present and looking forward the future (one of his best qualities imo, not being stuck in the past). Ironically, it’s MC, who’s stuck in the past in Gavin’s case.

e) I will intentionally not delve much into S2 stuff, but one thing has to be in this post…We know that in S2 MC goes back in time and relives the last 17 years. During these 17 years she makes sure to spend her high school years close to Gavin. So given the chance to rewrite her past, she would choose to make good for the lost years that she regretted dearly in S1 (she gushes out about her regrets in S2 Late Autumn Date in detail). We are yet to find out more about the nature of their relationship during high school, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a “will they, won’t they” situation. Since the game wouldn’t put any of the guys in an ex-boyfriend role, that would be the most romantic frame possible.

3. How other people see Gavin x MC

f) In CH 36, the one before CH 37, where every LI gets the same intimate moment with MC, only Lucien and Gavin are getting close to kissing her to which MC doesn't show any rejection towards... She is the one accidentally kissing Gavin btw and this is the only time before CH37 that MC either accidentally or willingly kiss any LI on his face or near his lips.

g) In S1, MC only posts two pics with the boys in her moments. One of them is a selfie with Lucien and the second one is with Gavin, hugged from behind. No other LIs ever have a moment with MC. Neither on their accounts, nor on MCs.

It is always a good indicator to look at how other characters perceive a particular ship. For Gavin and MC, it is almost obvious that once they are standing side by side, others see them instantly as a couple. Sure, at the orphanage some children ask Lucien if MC is his girlfriend or that one actress threatens MC to stay away from Victor because he’s hers (btw what happened to her?) With Gavin however, it’s practically a running joke.

As mentioned above, her once daydream in the office with Gavin shoutout in CH 6-13 drew the attention of her co-workers, leading them to mock her for thinking about him too much even though her dream was rather a nightmare. Besides, Gavin is the one showing up the most in MC’s office and he also lift her up to his shoulders once in the Visiting Hours date and Homer took a pic of that hilarious moment.

Every time MC is at STF HQ, respectively, Gavin’s co-workers or subordinates too take note of her presence and in chapter 12 they are even caught red-handed by one of the agents as MC is busy “correcting” Gavin’s hair (because see point 1). Eli seems to be aware of the intimacy between the two and even probably assumes that they’ve done the deed, because in ch 12 he is surprised to hear that MC hasn’t seen Gavin’s wound yet. He presumes that she already saw him naked…oh Eli! Season 2 has even more eminent scenes, we just have to wait and see.

In chapter 15 when they deliver Perry to the hospital, they are mistaken to be his parents by the hospital personnel not once but twice! Needless to say, they don’t find it necessary to correct the misunderstanding. I mean Perry is, what, 6…MC 22, Gavin 24 but they automatically think that they must be the parents?! Sure thats common sense- wink wink nudge nudge ¬‿¬ -

In chapter 22 Shaw makes a comment on MC willing to go to where Gavin is with a “Really, all you do is following him, isn’t it?”. He uses MC to trigger Gavin in Airport date as well.

And of course, there is Minor…The ultimate number one wingman and the most original Gavin-stan! Minor uses everything in his power to bring them together both in the main story and in dates. He even calls her Sis-in-Law in public in CH 35 which MC doesn't reject. This doesn’t even need explanation.

Last but not least:

Their couple chemistry went viral lol.

Visually speaking, when they stand side by side, for me Gavin and MC look the most like a couple (Kiro is too childish and fashion icony compared to MC and Victor is too mature and business attire-ish making him look like her uncle rather than boyfriend, Lucien is the only one besides Gavin who actually suits MC visually). I am not saying that looks are the main indicator btw so don’t lynch me please ^_^

Come to think about it, MCs life is intertwined with that of Gavin's the most. Considering how she knows his father, brother and colleagues and spends so much time in "his world" whether it's at STF or NW. In the main story MC and Gavin have their favorite restaurants (ehm it's never souvenir due to obvious reasons 😉), share the same passion for music, have many common memories from high school and most importantly their world views are very similar. Both are prioritizing others safety over themselves and are compassionate for anyone who is in need. They are both ambitious and hardworking but not to the point of being power driven. Both are humble and finding hapinness in the smallest things. Maybe that's why they say the same things simultaneously or say the things the other would say simultaneously. MC and Gavin are highly compatible and have a harmonious, healthy relationship despite the conspiracy around them.

4. Anime

Okay okay, listen…Yes, the anime wasn’t the best adaptation and many of us were disappointed by the ending (including me), still, the anime makes a part of canon MLQC universe and no Gavin-stan should complain about the anime because the anime put canonically Gavin on a pedestal. In a total of 12 episodes, all guys had 2 episodes each BUT Gavin was actually blessed with 3 episodes and so many romantic moments to count…let’s count them anyways :)

Mappa introduces all guys in episode 1 so MC encounters them all in the first 25 minutes but she first meets Gavin in episode 2 and the two spend almost the entire time of the episode together, not to mention the extremely romantic first-fly scene in the sunset. As I mentioned in point 1, MC and Gavin are always in physical contact in any given episode. Anime made sure to portray every single interaction they have romantically.

They even went so far to mix Gavin scenes in other guys episodes (he offers her a ride to work in ep 3, she has an emotional moment with him after the first shooting misunderstanding while Lucien is standing right next to her in ep 4, Gavin is the one to catch MC mid-air in ep 10, this episode ends with them in their life and death embrace falling down in dawn… and then he falls on her in ep 11).

When it’s a Gavin episode MC has no romantic scenes with any of the other guys, let alone having any scenes at all. Its only about Gavin in Gavin episodes. Also, the storyline is edited in a way that between MC and Gavin a romantic story develops. Their meet cute conspiracy, their misunderstanding with Lucien, followed by the “drop the senpai” offer and finally that 5 seconds long gaze deeply in the eyes in ep 8 while holding hands.

It is really sad that the anime ruined this development in the final episode but taking into consideration that there might be a second season, they probably chose to make the change in Gavin’s character after the NW project remarkable.

Another point in the anime is that they kinda exaggerate Gavin’s Evol a little bit. During his stand-off with Lucien Gavin’s bullet cuts through Lucien’s shield and all in ep 8,11 and 12 there is a significant emphasis on the intensity and destructive power of Gavin’s Evol. I mean, whose Evol is the most upfront one in episode 12? We see Lucien using his Evol only twice, both very briefly, Kiro/Helios/Key and Victor even have to use guns to protect themselves and/or MC. Gavin’s shown using a pistole once at the beginning, after that it’s all turbines and tornadoes and just Gavin unleashed.

I think it’s an exaggeration because in my personal opinion, Lucien is actually the one with the strongest Evol, followed by Victor and then comes Gavin. Lucien’s ability to copy an Evol is simply the strongest trait one could have, sure it comes with the downside that he then doesn’t have enough time and focus to excel in any of those Evols, Victor can literally create black holes are you kidding me?! But because his Evol has its limits it puts him in the second place. But in the anime, Gavin’s Evol is extremely powerful and destructive and they also created some really cool scenes in which Gavin uses his Evol in various styles (accelerating his bullets speed, dodging a bullet, lifting MC in any and every situation, flying- obviously- and sometimes just overpowered destruction).

But in the anime in comparison, Lucien looks like a copy-cat of Evols and Victor like someone who travels through time to find out nothing can change the course of events (on a side note I will never understand why did Mappa toned down Victor so heartlessly, he is a powerful character and has countless sweet, emotional moments with MC).

5. Dates

I left dates to the end because they are highly subjective and don’t belong to the main story. NEVERTHELESS, Gavin’s dates include here and there some hints which may indicate that MC tends to like Gavin maybe just a little bit more. I will just add it as bullet points here since I’m pretty sure that the list will be enriched over time.

Slightly drunken date: Shouting out loud in public “Gavin! I’m crazy for you!”

When the Galaxy Falls Date: “...and in that moment, I make an eternal vow in my heart. To give all the blazing love and the most endless warmth to the person in front of me. Standing on my tiptoes, I carry a heart which is filled with courage to move forward, receiving Gavin.”

2 become 1 date “No matter whether the wedding is real or fake I only want to be your bride.” Here comes the Groom event where MC had a prob wedding with each and every LI but she actually only wanted to be Gavin’s bride (obviously Gavin’s heard her loud and clear since he’s bought a gem/ring right after) and that gem is brought up in…

The Returning from Afar Date - Thank you for silently watching over my mood. Thank you for always returning to my side no matter where you go. The white muslin drifts to and fro. My heart stirs, and I gently touch the muslin in front of me. Sunlight streams in. My fingertips brush the soft white muslin, tracing the word “Gavin” on it. I turn my head to the side, blinking at Gavin a little playfully. “This word - apart from it being your name, it also has another meaning. It’s “courage”. MC getting poetic, but who wouldn’t in that date (thank you @smallersocksx for reminding me and without @cheri-translates we poor Eng-server players would be left in the dark so thank you for translating season 2 for us!!!) but than MC verbally and literally makes her feelings clear in…

Late autumn date (2nd season translation by @cheri-translates) “I close my eyes, holding onto his solid arms. I lift my head to welcome his lips, savouring his unique breath. The person in front of me has shed off the roughness of youth, leaving behind only the purity of youth. He often makes me forget that he once used to be unrestrained like the wind. He has a body that is stronger than everyone else’s, a tough soul, a will that is as firm as steel, and a heart full of tenderness – it is soft beyond compare.

I cling to his waist tightly using my calves, wanting to brand every part of him into my heart.

“I want to bear his everything.”

Gavin: “Do you like it?”

“I like it…I like it very much…I like it so much that I don’t know how to prove how much I like it” “The rest of my life is yours, The years that we’ve missed out on are also yours” (whatever I have, I will give it to you. I will give everything to you, leaving nothing behind)

I rest my case

#mlqc #mlqc gavin #mlqc haku #mlqc bai qi #mlqc baek gi #mr love queen's choice #koi to producer #studio mappa #elex #papergames #mldd #analysis #tag your otp #romance #anime couple

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green-writes-sanderssides · 4 years

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You know the loving Virgil hcs? Well I'm awake at 4 am you know what that means??

Roman stans it's YOUR TURN let's get some LOVE UP IN THIS PRINCE

Once again can be interpreted as romantic platonic queerplatonic whatever but we all know Roman’s a gay disaster so LET’S GO

Thomas

Once he finally realizes how fucking INSECURE roman is he's like

Alright. Time to get this man some self care

So. Many. Improv sessions.

They'll have the other sides as an audience and sometimes they'll give prompts

Every time by the end of it Thomas and Roman are just laughing their asses off

They'll have brainstorming sessions together and get each other super hyped up the energy is RIDICULOUS

Then Thomas will be like "Roman you're a GENIUS!"

And god Roman just. Beams. Just that one compliment got him as happy as he was when Thomas was in a Disney show

Whenever Thomas suddenly feels insecure he immediately checks in on Roman

Sometimes this leads to face masks and relaxation and other times they just collapse on the couch together and try to get through it with a nap

But no matter what, they have each other to get through it with

Patton

Patton ends up the one praising him the most he just wants his boy to be HAPPY okay

But it doesn't really take cause Roman doesn't quite believe it

He thinks that's just Patton being a Dad(TM) and pitying him and Patton's gotta be like. No. I mean all of it.

They have to have a talk and Roman does not enjoy addressing all of his insecurities so directly, but by the end of it he's openly weeping in Patton's arms

Roman has always loved Patton’s room

He goes there when he needs a reminder of everything they’ve accomplished

Patton didn’t realize why Roman was doing it before, but now every time he finds Roman in there he reminds him that the future is just as bright

They reminisce together AND talk about everything to come

They both love to cuddle but they’re also both big spoons so they fight about who gets to hold the other

Patton usually wins because Roman secretly loves to be held as well

Patton likes to make flower crowns and he makes them for Roman the most

“A flower crown for a flowering prince!”

From then on Roman makes Patton so many damn flowers it’s ridiculous

There’s blue and pink flowers all over the house because there’s no more space for them in Patton’s room

#flowerboys

Logan

Their arguments turn into Logan aggressively praising Roman

“YOUR WORK IS AMAZING YOU GODDAMN IDIOT”

Despite this Roman still tries so hard to impress him

At some point Logan slips and says Roman already impresses him plenty and Roman’s like

What.

“I said you already impress me, Roman. Your creative ideas and dedication to your work is impeccable.”

Roman.exe has stopped responding

No but seriously Roman starts crying and Logan has no idea what to do

They have an awkward but nice hug

After that Logan does his best to throw in casual compliments on any of Ro’s work

Neither of them realized how much Roman needed specifically Logan to praise him

Look I’m not TRYING to make this gay this is just CANON

Roman starts actively coming to Logan to show off his work, always beaming with pride and a little nervous energy

Logan learns to only critique him if he asks for it, and they work together to make wonderful things

Virgil

He was the first to pick up on how insecure Roman was back before he was accepted

He never did anything about it because he assumed Ro wouldn’t care about his opinion

Lol yeah no he was very wrong and he didn’t realize that until the 12 Days of Christmas fiasco

The first time Virgil compliments him it’s just like “hey that’s a cool drawing” and Ro just freezes

“...You think so?”

Virgil realizes he has a lot of work to do but Roman deSERVES IT

Hey remember in the loving Virgil hcs I said Virge is just as protective over Roman?

Yeah when he hears about what happened in POF he’s ready to kill a snake

Of course that doesn’t happen and things turn out fine but the point is Virgil. will. kill. for. Roman.

Even Remus learns to fear Virgil’s wraith when it comes to Ro

When Roman realizes this he’s like okay but why?

“I don’t know. You just... deserve it?”

Truth is Virgil knows all the dark sides (including himself) have unfairly targeted him over the years and he wants to make sure that never happens again

All Roman can do is smile, thank him, and promise Virgil that he will always protect him, too

I’m sorry y’all I’m too soft for these two

Janus

Out of everyone, Janus has the most work to do

He screwed up the moment he used Roman’s insecurities against him

When he’s accepted fully, Roman admits that he may never fully trust him, but he can at least value his input

While that would be enough for Janus, he doesn’t give up that easily

He first asks Virgil for advice and he’s like “Have you considered HAVING AN HONEST CONVERSATION WITH HIM?”

“Yeah but he won’t trust my word”

Virgil, the master of seeing through Janus’s bullshit, comes with a genius idea

So they go to Roman and teach him how to tell when Janus lies

It goes surprisingly well

Janus: “I’ve always admired you, Roman.”

Roman: “I don’t get it. He didn’t show any tells that time.”

Virgil: “That’s because he’s tELLING THE TRUTH YOU IDIOT”

Roman.exe has stopped responding pt.2

Now every time Janus lies Roman goes “That’s a lie~” in a sing-song voice

Janus would be annoyed but he can’t help finding it endearing

“You’re absolutely hideous. I find your work just appalling. I don’t love you-”

“JANUS PLEASE-”

Okay this is getting too long Janus and Roman are just too powerful rijvnrfv

Remus (do not tag as ship)

This is where I start crying

It’s Roman who reaches out to Remus. It’s the hardest thing he has ever had to do.

He apologizes for abandoning him, for not understanding him, for being a bad brother

Remus doesn’t take it seriously. He doesn’t know how to take anything seriously, but Roman is insistent

“But that’s just our dynamic! The good and evil twins!”

“It doesn’t have to be, Reem”

The nickname brings him back to their childhood, and Remus gets angry

Roman listens and takes the yelling, and by the end of it Remus is crying and collapsing into Roman’s arms

It takes work on both sides. Remus has forgotten how to treat Roman like a brother, and Roman has forgotten how to interact with Remus in general

But this is about loving Roman so let’s get back to that

Remus loves to tackle hug Roman

He calls it “glomping” just to annoy him and Ro nearly murders him every time

“THIS ISN’T THE EARLY 2000′s ANYMORE PLEASE STOP”

Half of their dynamic is trying to kill each other but in a loving way

The pranks. Oh gods poor Janus cause you know they target him

Who else are they gonna prank? Virgil is flight or fight, Logan doesn’t have fun reactions, and Patton is too sweet. Sorry Janus get PRANK’D

Remus used to be so good at comforting him and the day Roman comes to him again for that same comfort it’s so hard for Remus not to just break down crying

Roman has a nightmare and he’s like “The only nightmare in your life should be me!”

Just... brothers, man. Let them be brothers.

Roman

He’s always been prideful, but they all see the difference.

Thomas sees it in the laughter of their practice performances

Patton sees it in the way he bounces about, always ready to take on something new

Logan sees it in their work sessions, taking criticism like a champ and striving to improve

Virgil sees it in the statements of confidence he always spoke, now with something much more true in his expression

Janus and Remus see it in his smile, the one they haven’t seen since they were children

And with his new - but not new - energy, he brings everyone up

Roman’s their hero once again, but not in the same way as before: Roman saves them every time he creates,

Every time he smiles,

And every time he gets to be unapologetically himself.

#sanders sides #roman sanders #ts fic #prinxiety #logince #royality #roceit #creativitwins #are yall crying cause i am #thoman #romas #loving hcs series #someday i will make one for each side

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bronanlynch · 4 years

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bi-ish weekly update

time sure passes huh. meant to do one last week but I wrote like 5000 words on Wednesday instead, and I’m not really sure what happened yesterday but maybe Thursday is my new day for these

listening: two for the price of one this week since I’m excited about both of them. first of all, obviously, is the Sangfielle theme by Jack de Quidt because it’s time for a new season of Friends at the Table. I love their description of this season’s music

the other thing I’ve been listening to is the new album from one of my fave bands, You’re Welcome from A Day to Remember. this is by far not the most musically interesting or complex song on the album but it is about, as far as I can tell, a bad breakup with a vampire and I love it for that just on principle, but also it’s fun! a fun pop punk-esque bop about breaking up with a vampire!

youtube

reading: since last time when I talked about many romance novels I was reading, I mostly just read more romance novels because sometimes that is all the brain can handle. shout out to KJ Charles for writing a historical romance with a nonbinary main characters, you really do love to see it. I appreciate that she puts trans characters in her books, and I hope that someday she writes one with a trans man as a main character, because that truly would be a book targeted directly at me.

I’ve also been reading the Kate Kane, Paranormal Investigator series by Alexis Hall (author of Affair of the Mysterious Letter, a weird fantasy queer Sherlock Holmes retelling that absolutely fucking slaps, highly recommend).

this is his author bio from the Kate Kane books, which really just sets the tone and also. what a fucking life goal

anyway. series starts with Iron & Velvet which is currently on sale, which is why I bought it, and it also fucking slaps. I’m like halfway through the last book right now but they have all been good and fun. Kate is like. archetypal disaster p.i. but done in an interesting way (i.e. the narrative actually addresses the depression and the alcoholism in a way that I personally really appreciated), and also pretty much every woman in the ~supernatural community she encounters is an ex or someone she will flirt/hook up with at some point, which is an accurate representation of every irl queer space I’ve ever been part of. she dates a vampire for a while. hot morally questionable vampire lady. the vampire power structure names positions after tarot cards it’s very fun and sexy and tailored specifically toward my interests. also she lives in the same part of London as my ex-girlfriend so it’s. fun to recognize place names and be like. oh I went there on a date once huh

watching: started watching Turn A Gundam because a twitter friend recommended it as being fun and also very different then any other Gundam series and they were right on both counts. the premise of it is ‘what if a bunch of people went to live on the moon and some people stayed on earth, the moon people got real into super advanced technology and the earth people are larping the 19th century, and now the moon people want to come back’ so there’s a fun mix of visual styles. would love to see serious analytical writing on this show by someone more versed in discussing indigeneity/colonialism than me though because there are things that I’m a little bit hmmm at but I don’t know enough to be able to explain why or know if that’s the right response to have

don’t know what’s up with the dude on the left’s sunglasses but my friend has promised me the fashion choices only get weirder

I know about the ‘wow cool robots’ meme but some of the mech designs are very cool and visually distinct both from each other and from the standard blocky humanoid shape that lots of mechs are, so that’s fun to see. and they’re all different sizes too, which for me at least makes it easier to get a sense of the scale of the conflict/threat. when they’re all the same size it’s easy for me to forget they’re like 40 feet tall but when some of them are 40 feet and some of them are like 10 feet it’s a lot easier to be like. oh. oh shit. these are big and destructive and scary as hell

there are mini versions of this big mech that are like. the size of one of its feet

also there’s some fun stuff about how the way society relates to a mech and what a mech is used for can change over time, which is part of what is maybe inspiring me to get back into trying to write games, because between Turn A and the fic I was writing about Integrity Friendsatthetable I was like. hey what if a hack of The Ground Itself by Everest Pipkin, a game about a place changing over time, except instead of a place it’s a mech

playing: finished Knife of Dunwall finally! please clap! I was kinda half-expecting not to keep to low chaos in the last mission because there are so many overseers but I did it! I did do a bunch of accidentally getting into fights, killing a bunch of people, and then reloading an earlier save so I could go back and not kill those people but it’s fine. anyway. fun game, fun level once I got the hang of it, and I do feel like I accomplished something a lil bit difficult so that’s a nice feeling. definitely harder than the main game. also, very sad about Billie and gay for Delilah. she shows up just to threaten you and then disappears again, and I think that’s pretty hot of her. also love the narrative parallels of having the choice to spare Billie and then the game ending with Corvo about to decide whether to spare Daud or not. I just think that’s neat

making: made some Thai green curry last week from this recipe, which was tasty and not too hard to make, but has just enough specialty ingredients to make it a lil bit too expensive to make too often. our grocery store only ever has lemongrass when we’re looking for things that look kinda like lemongrass but aren’t, and didn’t have any when we need it so we just used extra lemongrass paste and lime juice for the lemongrass, and for the kaffir lime leaves, which we were also supposed to substitute with lemongrass but. it’s fine it was still tasty

writing: a lot somehow, although it’s been over two weeks since last time I did one of these so I guess that makes sense. I wrote a couple of things for 15 Days of Friends at the Table, including Broun, Milli, and Thisbe cottagecore roommates, Clem and Gucci bickering/flirting, and an extended dream sequence that makes me very sad about Integrity (I’m very proud of the last one, I know it has a very small target audience because Sokrates/Integrity is very much a rarepair in an already small fandom, there are 6 works in the tag, 4 of them are by me, 2 of them are by the same other person, and one of those is a gift for me so. it’s mostly just me, but I think I wrote something pretty good)

also meant to write more for Persona 5 Girls Week, although so far I’ve only written one thing, a quick fluff fic which for once requires very little knowledge of the source material. meant to write something for today’s prompt but instead I had two job interviews and then cooked dinner for my household so that probably will not happen and I will probably watch more Gundam instead

#dreaming.txt #tuesday no problem extended universe #contains pictures of food below the readmore

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bookishdiplodocus · 5 years

Text

Writing humor

George of the Jungle: A case study

I’m analysing several forms of humor in the 1997 movie George of the Jungle, and I would like to share it with you. Remember, this is a family movie, the humor is not that finetuned and often targeted towards children. Even if a movie is not your style, you can learn from it. If you want to do your own analysis, I would advise you to pick a movie with a form of humor that’s relevant in your writing. (This seems obvious, but I personally enjoy more forms of humor than I can use in my writing style and genre.)

How do I go about it, analysing jokes?

George of the Jungle is a very joke-dense movie, it averages about 2 jokes per minute, often using different humor layers within the same joke. It’s a lot, considering it also introduces all the characters and set up the storyline in between the jokes!

Every time a joke is made, I write it down word for word and try to see why exactly it is funny. Try to be as specific as possible. This is the difficult part, obviously. I included some examples to make it clear for you. Often the answer is “Contrast” or “Subverting expectations”. Obviously not all the jokes are laugh out loud funny, and they don’t need to be. Some jokes just lighten up the scene without even making you smile, or without making casual watchers notice it is in fact humor.

Bonus points if you can tell certain forms of humor are tied to certain characters. (In this case: slapstick for George when he swings into a tree again, contrast between what is said and reality for mean guy Lyle etc.)

Some examples from the case study

But first, some warnings:

Obviously there will be spoilers for this movie in this post. It’s hard to show you how a joke works without giving you the joke.

Analysing jokes makes them less funny, in the same way that analysing plot lines or storytelling techniques can make books lose their glamour.

Alright, here we go. Because this will be a longish post, I’ll put the other examples under the Read More.

Example 1:

Lyle: “I am the richest, handsomest, smartest guy here, so I get to go first!”

[Established mean guy Lyle passes by everyone, almost shoving them out of the way. He promptly trips over a tree root and lands face first in a huge pile of steaming elephant dung.]

Lyle: [lifting his head up] “There’s an elephant around here.”

Carrier: [looking right into the camera] “Bad guy falls into poop. Classical element of physical comedy. Now comes the element where we throw our heads back and laugh. Ready?

Other carriers: [also looking right into the camera] “Ready!”

[They throw their heads back and laugh.]

[Nearby monkey also laughs and points at Lyle.]

[Off-screen, more animals start laughing at Lyle.]

Lyle: [Spits out some elephant poop] “Those are nowhere near properly digested.”

[Carriers still laughing off-screen]

Lyle: “In case anyone is wondering, I’m okay.”

Technical analysis:

Lyle might be the richest, but definitely not the handsomest and smartest guy: contrast between what he says and reality. (As I told you, this is a recurring technique for him, perfect to show his personality.)

Lyle faceplanting into a pile of elephant dung: poop humor, slapstick (physical humor), the feeling that he gets what he deserves.

“There’s an elephant...”: stating the obvious. And, he says it in a deadpan kind of way.

“Bad guy falls into poop. Classical element of physical comedy”: breaking the fourth wall big time, looking right into the lens, refering to genre conventions, explaining the joke to us. Breaking the fourth wall is a meta humor in which the characters are aware of genre conventions of a fictional story (in this case, the presence of the camera/audience) and sometimes, like in this case, of the fact that they are characters in a fictional story.

“Now comes the element where we throw our heads back and laugh”: refering to a trope, genre conventions, while still breaking the fourth wall by looking straight in the camera.

Repetition: first the carriers announce what they will do in detail and right after they execute it exactly like that. It’s similar to the jokes where the narrator uses a certain phrase and right after a character uses exactly the same phrase. (See example no. 5.)

Monkeys and off-screen animals: hyperbole. Basicly, an exaggeration, in this case, built-up in steps: first his companions, then one non-human, then what seems to be the entire wilderness.

“Nowhere near properly digested”: dirty/poop humor (eww he had poop in his mouth), characterisation (Lyle is the kind of guy who will complain about everything), subversing our expectations (that’s not the first thing you and I would say when we face plant into a pile of poop).

“In case anyone is wondering”: By now, we know what kind of a man Lyle is. This, and the fact that the carriers are still laughing, implies that no-one is wondering if Lyle is okay. Again, contrast between reality and what he says

Example 2:

Narrator: “When they finally beheld the mighty Ape Mountain...” [They see a mountain shaped like a gorilla head] “...they reacted with awe.”

All: “Aww.”

Narrator: “I said “awe”! A-W-E.”

All: “Ooh!”

Narrator: “That’s better.”

Technical analysis:

Ape Mountain is shaped like a gorilla head: visual humor, subverting expectations about geographical naming conventions, breaking the conventions of a fictional movie (the shape of the mountain is obviously a joke for the watchers, not for the sake of the inhabitants in this world, or a concidence), subverting the expectations of our geological knowledge (what are the odds of a mountain actually being shaped like a gorilla head? In the real world, we sometimes see animals or other figures in mountain shapes, but not as detailed as this.)

Aww / awe: It’s a play on words, because “awe” and “aww” sound the same.

The narrator interacts with the characters and the characters are aware of the nattaror: meta humor: breaking the fourth wall.

Example 3:

[Mean guy Lyle jumps on the rope bridge, making everybody swing dangerously. An indigenous carrier falls dramatically into the deep chasm.]

Narrator: “Don’t worry, nobody dies in this story. They just get really big boo-boos.”

Lyle: “You know, they shouldn’t let unexperienced carriers like that on these tracks.”

Technical analysis:

Meta humor: breaking the fourth wall: the narrator is aware of the genre conventions + he is aware of our presence.

“Big boo-boos”: Language, contrast between the children’s word and the tough men in the harsh wilderness.

Subverting expectations: when you fall into a deep chasm, you don’t expect to get away with just some boo-boos. A boo-boo is the kind of thing you fix with a band-aid and a kiss.

Lyle’s remark: he is the reason the carrier fell. Contrast between what happened and what Lyle says.

Bonus: characterisation. Remarks like these, and especially the contrast between what happened and how Lyle sees/portrays it, show how self-centered he is.

Example 4:

Lyle: [takes a polaroid picture of the carrier.] “Do you like it? Magic picture. Yet another gift from America. Here you go. You’re welcome.”

[Carrier answers something in Swahili, not translated.]

[All the native Africans laugh out loud.]

Carrier: “[Swahili] ... 35 mm.” [Takes a fancy camera out of his own backpack and takes a picture of Lyle.]

[All the native Africans laugh.]

Lyle: [not amused] “Translation, please.”

Guide: “He says he likes your magic pictures, but he prefers the resolution of the Leica 35 mm transparencies.” [Everybody except Lyle laughs.] “He also says your lens is dirty, but he has the equipment to clean it for you.” [More laughter.]

Technical analysis:

This joke consists of 3 parts.

The set-up: Lyle is the arrogant dck who’s come from America to show the indiginous people what cultural civilisation is. We think we know where this is going...

Subverting our expectations: The carrier is not impressed, he knows Polaroid and has a camera of his own. He’s Lyle’s equal, not subversive. The way the carrier takes a picture of Lyle is a mirrored action of Lyle taking a picture of him. The similarities between these actions accentuate the differences.

Further subverting our expectations: the carrier has a lot of knowledge (implied: more than Lyle), he’s probably culturally more civilised than Lyle, beating Lyle at his own game.

Bonus: He shows his superiority in a polite way, showing he’s a better man than Lyle.

Example 5:

Narrator: “Meanwhile, at a very big and expensive waterfall set, Ursula was amazed that she was lost in the wilderness with a jungle man.”

Ursula: “And here I am, lost in the wilderness with a jungle man.”

Technical analysis:

“At a very big and expensive waterfall set”: breaking the fourth wall, referencing the fact that this is a movie with a set and a budget.

“lost in the wilderness with a jungle man”: literal repetition immediately afterwards. If Ursula can hear the narrator, it’s like he’s telling her what to say (meta). If she can’t hear the narrator, the joke lies in the “coincidence” of her saying exactly the same words he used about her, moments before.

Example 6:

Narrator: “... the carriers came dangerously close...”

Narrator: “... that is, dangerously close to shove a coconut up in Lyle’s...”

Narrator: “... (pause) sleeping bag.”

Technical analysis:

Playing with expectations: The first sentence implies they are close to a dangerous situation. The second sentence implies they are so irritated with Lyle they want to shove a coconut where the sun doesn’t shine. The third sentence doesn’t take away the second implication, but just makes it more family friendly, but it’s still a turn on our expectations of how the sentence will/can end.

Young children will find the turn between the second and third sentence hilarious, especially the implied “dirty humor”.

Example 7:

[Love interest Ursula has taken George home to Los Angeles. Her best friend shows up and starts to question Ursula.]

Ursula: “He’s in the shower.”

Friend: [Distracted by something behind Ursula] “Not anymore...”

[George enters the living room, still all wet, obviously naked (barely SFW), and for the first time his sexiness is accentuated, ironic for a man who wore a loin cloth for most of the movie.]

George: “Bad waterfall. First, water get hot -” [A saxophone starts playing off-screen.] then George slip on this strange yellow rock.” [George shows a bar of soap and drops it.]

[The perspective changes, shows the 2 friends from between George’s legs. They are obviously checking out his naked crotch.]

[Ursula sighs happily.]

George: [sees Ursula’s friend now] “Hi! George of Jungle.”

Friend: [eager] “Charmed, I’m sure.”

[Ursula strategically hands George a large book to cover his crotch. The camera zooms out now and we see George also from below the waist, still wet and tan and muscular. The friend is staring.]

Friend: [mumbles to herself, appreciatively] “Now I see why they made him king of the jungle.”

Technical analysis:

First, this is a gender reversal of a trope commonly used on female characters. I saw it described as “Born sexy yesterday”. A (usually female) character is new to this life/society/body/... and doesn’t realise that being naked has a certain effect on the other gender. In the 1990s, this was very common to happen to female characters, and not common at all for male characters.

Friend, distracted: the friend has a dirty mind.

Bonus: characterisation: Friend serves here as a contrast for Ursula, who hasn’t objectified or ogled George at all. In fact, this is the first time George is shown as sexy, so we see his sexiness through the perspective of the friend. This tells us something about the friend, but also about Ursula: he likes George for who he is, not how (incredibly sexy) he looks.

The saxophone: the movie is playing with genre expectations (off-screen saxophone means sexy time) as a hyperbole. The movie makers are pulling out all the registers in this scene to show off George’s sexiness.

“this strange yellow rock”: word choice, mental distance from an everyday object, contrast.

“I see why they made him king of the jungle”: this could be a continuity thing, but no-one has used the words “King of the jungle” up till now. So either a line was cut in which they use this phrase to refer to George, or the friend is aware of genre conventions, refering to Tarzan.

These are just some of the many, many jokes in this movie. I tried to make a small yet diverse selection.

I hope this was helpful. Don’t hesitate to ask me any questions, and happy writing!

Follow me for more writing advice, or check out my other writing tips here. New topics to write advice about are also always appreciated.

Tag list below. If you like to be added to or removed from the list, let me know.

@therska @writingwordsanddrawingpictures @the-words-we-never-said @writingwhithotchocolate @i-rove-rock-n-roll @maskedlady @no-time-like-write-now @timefire25 @black-lakritz-dragon @nzmayart @fandomrandomness-stuff @dangertoozmanykids101 @anaestheticdisaster @storytellingofravens @purpleshadows1989 @mathematicpony @i-don-t-know-words @notquitenovelist @coffeescribles @reffaces-old@livingthelovelylife @katsglabella @lokitty-is-my-spirit-animal @thefallenbibliophilequote @watchmewritedumb @sting-the-scribe @kais-writing-shit @dameschnee123

#writing #writing advice #writing tips #writing tip #writing humor #humor #writing jokes #george of the jungle #writing analysis #how to tell me a story #sanne

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marumafan · 4 years

Note

Hi! I’ve been reading your KKM analyses, and I absolutely love them, most especially the YUURAM ones! Can you do some detailed ones on Love Letters and Crossheart too? Please, please?!

Hi @celinelean!

Of course! I'm having a day and may not be drawing, so why not?

Also to everyone who likes analyses/discussions, you can always leave some questions/requests in my mailbox if there's anything you're interested in. I'll try my best.

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Love Letter

"Love Letter" was Takabayashi-sensei's first new short story in about 6 years. The first part features Yuuri and Wolfram writing sweet stuff about one another.

The excuse of being 'from Greta's point of view for her homework' gave them both the excuse to express their true feelings.

(Now a cultural point here: The more I live in Japan the more I notice people never tell you the truth about anything. They either don't say anything and let you know 'in some way' or you never find out. A fan of maruma I once met, who could speak English, thanked me for continuing to talk about a topic even after we had disagreed at some point about something. She said people who disagree in Japan simply drop the topic XDD . True story. XD They avoid talking about 'truths' in general. So I feel like this whole keeping your true feelings hidden is a very Japanese thing (which is the target audience for maruma, don't forget). So in this story, both Yuuri and Wolf can express their feelings for one another.)

As for the things they like about each other:

The first thing Yuuri sees that Wolf has written in the cards was some compliment about his awesome black hair. But when Yuuri asks if he should write about Wolf's appearance "How good looking he is" " How his green eyes are like gemstones", "How even his eyelashes are blonde", Wolf's like "Of course not, that's not something Greta cares about". (Wolfie, never change. XD)

Wolf also writes: "How well he gets along with his spouse" which really shows along with his entire demeanor during this story, that even though there's no official title, he really thinks of himself as already married to Yuuri.

Yuuri then writes: "He never abandons his PARTNER" Again, this is a word you use for people you're romantically involved with, but in a more 'earthly' slang. This reminded me of the Seisa arc when, during the bed scene, Yuuri mentions how happy he is to have Wolf there.

He writes another 12 good things about Wolfram, and he mentions that "his left cheek was hot due to the flames of the fire" , implying his right cheek was blushed due to what he was writing. So he's putting in there things that make him blush.

Yuuri asks then if they will get these cards back, and Wolfram assures him that yes they will. Yuuri:"So that we can read them many times and remember how much Greta likes us."

Wolfram: "Of course"

Meaning: Yuuri: "So that I can read many times all the wonderful things you really think about me?" Wolf: "Of course"

However, Yuuri tells Wolf about the futility of having the cards, when you have the other person right there living with you. Yuuri says" Even without something like this, I'm sure that the feelings would be conveyed, " (XDD see this is what I'm talking about! This Japanese mentality of ‘expressing in some way without words’ what you feel)

BUT! this is when Wolf says that in that case, the cards would be more useful to remember people who live apart from you.

So Yuuri's 20th thing he likes about Wolfram is " He tells me things straight to the point".

This means, it's Wolfram who pretty much tells Yuuri to go visit Conrad and have him write stuff about him, cuz he's not living in the castle and so that Yuuri won't miss him.

Wolfram asks if Yuuri's going out. Yuuri says yes. Wolfram's last card says: How honest he is. Yuuri's last card says: How kind he is.

And I mean, damn! If this isn't yuuram af, I don't know what is.

Second part is what was introduced in the first part, Yuuri goes to visit Conrad, he's living above Jozak's bar in a cold, dirty room. And Conrad writes and gives him the card about Yuuri, and it 'warms Yuuri's heart'.

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Comments on Love Letter: I used to think this was a lot more conyuu than it is, but re-reading it and seeing that it was all Wolfram's idea to begin with (and Yuuri knows it was Wolfram's idea), it really shows that strong relationship between Wolfram and Yuuri and includes Conrad's current situation (not living in the castle) as a trigger for getting in a little conyuu in the story and making those fans happy.

You see this 'conyuu afterthought to please the fans' in the first two stories she wrote after the break "Love Letter" and "Lame star Wars". After that, they're all yuuram centric stories. And before the break, they were very much so as well.

It's very clear in everything Takabayashi sensei writes, that she really likes her main couple, and had always planned for them to end up together.

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Crossheart

This is an older story (2010ish), even if it was only published as an extra for the omnibus release in July 2013, and it was also used as part of drama cd 70 released in January 2013. But the contents of this story are the origin of another story published in 2011, so it must have been written before that. (EDIT: I found the original information at Ray Clover: CROSSHEART IS FROM APRIL 2006! (file: asuka1302). It was published as a mobile story, and republished as an extra in the omnibus re-release! )

The title: Although it could be a combination of crossword and heart, like hearts crossing/intertwining; or crossword and the last word of the puzzle" kokoro->heart", I like to think that sensei, knowing a bit of English based it on the phrase: "Cross my heart and hope to die"; as in 'a promise' -> which is the topic of this story.

Then the intro line starts with "That day, there was a strong wind blowing since morning, so I couldn't really go outside." This line, much like the title of novel 4, has the concept of 'wind blowing' that makes reference to the proverb 「明日は明日の風が吹く」`Ashita ha ashita no kaze ga fuku'. Tomorrow, tomorrow's wind will blow. Which means something like "there's no point in thinking ahead" or "What comes next is up to life". Whenever sensei writes that enigmatic first line, it usually carries a lot of meaning and foreshadows what is to come.

The story starts with Yuuri and Wolfram alone at the office. Some event is taking place and everyone but them is busy. Yuuri is doing a crossword and struggling. Wolfram finally gets closer to see what's bothering him.

The first hint for the crossword, is 'a pet name for children'. Wolfram then remembers his mother used to call him Honey-chan (Hachimitsu chan). Yuuri immediately likes the name and says "Maybe I too will start calling you that from now on, honey-chan."

(Additional info: In MisePan2, 2011, Wolfram gets angry at being called honey-chan, because "Yuuri is younger than him" so he has no right to call him something that older people call younger people. Clearly, "Crossheart" where Yuuri discovers Wolfram's pet name comes chronologically before Misepan2. So we can pinpoint that Crossheart was written before 2011, maybe it was even a failed attempt at Misepan2. Misepan 2 came out with the last DVD box, which was delayed a year due to circumstances with Takabayashi sensei. We know this because in the afterword of Misepan2 , the author says: "I really can't apologize enough for this.... I honestly apologize to all of you for keeping you waiting. I'm really sorry for the inconveniences I caused to all the parties I kept waiting for this." So sensei apologizes and blames herself for the delay of the last DVD box. This might have been due to her health issues, which she only mentioned once, in 2010. EDIT: I found the original information at Ray Clover: CROSSHEART IS FROM APRIL 2006! (file: asuka1302). It was published as a mobile story, and republished as an extra in the omnibus re-release!)

The second hint for his crossword was the name of a famous mouse, so of course Yuuri is thinking Micky, since the last letters are cky. But it turns out to be "Rocky" a famous mouse character. So there's a legend that small animals, like mice, squirls, rabbits and even birds can see spirits. And this particular mouse is said to deliver messages from the dead to their families.

This triggers Yuuri to ask a question to Wolf: "What would you do, if I never returned?". Wolfram asks him to clarify what he meant. And Yuuri asks: Would you cry? To which Wolf says: I wouldn't. At first Yuuri is a little hurt by the cold answer, like you wouldn't miss me? But Wolfram explains, of course he'd miss Yuuri but he wouldn't cry. Because if he did, Yuuri wouldn't be able to live a happy life back on earth. Wolfram's promise of not crying so Yuuri could be happy, left Yuuri speechless and then he noticed the word that was formed vertically in the crossword.

The hint for that word: "What you use to share your feelings with your partner."

The word is never specifically said, but in the drama cd it's "ko-ko-ro" -> heart. Which would also circle back to the "heart" in crossheart.

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Comment on Crossheart: This story as well as its natural continuation, Misepan2, are very yuuram oriented. Do you want an exorcism, another contemporary story of these two, is also largely yuuram. And the same goes for all of sensei’s work including the very last doujinshi.

I also want to point out the pet name she chose: Hachimitsuchan. Again, I may be over reaching, but she has enough English knowledge to know “Honey” is something you call children AND your significant other. The fact that Wolfram eventually gets angry at it, adds to the comedy of errors, which is one of the underlying tropes in maruma. Yuuri’s sweet words are generally misinterpreted by Wolfram.

I've been saying this for years. Takabayashi-sensei has liked this couple from the very beginning and has been building their relationship for novels on end. Every story she's written, shows them happy and together. The very last one even has them married with Wolfram wondering if Yuuri would want more 'wives' (as in, what about the other ships?) and Yuuri assuring Wolf he only wants him (no other ships are sailing from this port).

People who ship Yuuri with other characters aren't basing themselves on novel canon, which is fine, of course! But the novel canon is yuuram. Note: I use yuuram as a word to denote the relationship between Yuuri and Wolfram, also because it’s shorter than royal couple. I’m NOT talking about ‘who’s top’ in the relationship. I feel like this whole ‘top’ bottom’ talk is so 90s, we should get over it, much like Takabayashi-sensei herself has expressed she doesn’t care about that whole ‘top’ ‘bottom’ thing.

#kyou kara maou #kkm #maruma #yuuram #novel analysis

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skybird13 · 5 years

Text

My Thoughts on Clover’s Introductory Scenes in RWBY vol. 7

Ask and ye shall receive.

@fairgame-is-endgame actually requested that I go off on another long-ass ramble about Clover Ebi. (Okay, full honesty, I don’t know if he was actually expecting another massive post but... it’s happening anyway. Such is life 😉 ). Rambling about Clover and Qrow has been my favorite thing to do since they came on screen together so how could I possibly say no? As the title states, I’ll be focusing primarily on Clover’s introductory scenes back in volume 7 chapter 1, the narrative decisions made by CRWBY in framing and animating those scenes, and whatever other little tidbits I can coax out in the process.

But first, a quick shoutout to @lady-branwen who made an awesome post about these same scenes a few weeks ago I think? You can check it out here and you should definitely check it out. It’s fantastic and we touch on a lot of the same things.

[vol. 7 spoilers ahead]

Also, this thing is freakishly long so I’m going to put it under a cut. Happy reading y’all!

The Lead-In

I was going to start this post off with the first glimpses we get of Clover Ebi’s character, but I think the moments leading up to his arrival are pretty damn important to this analysis, so let’s take a look at how this whole thing is set up.

The events just before teams RWBY, JNOR, and Qrow are captured by the Ace Ops is one completely focused on the “kids” (Ruby in particular) and their reunion with Penny. Qrow is there but he’s mostly uninvolved in the whole thing, hanging in the background.

The scene shifts focus on to Qrow a little when we get to see his actual reaction to Penny’s return, but he’s still being portrayed in the context of something that doesn’t have a whole lot to do with him personally:

That’s not the best still shot of his somewhat goofy smile but he’s clearly very happy for Ruby and pleased overall with how things are going in Mantle so far. He says something to the effect of Penny’s arrival is a surprise “but not unwelcome. I was honestly expecting things to go a lot rougher.” That line right there is a pretty classic narrative device to signal to the audience that some type of shit is about to go down. The fact that it is said by Qrow himself is pretty significant. This interaction could have been played out by Weiss, Blake, and Yang, and it would have accomplished that same tip-off, foreshadowing effect. Instead, through his delivery of the line, the narrative focus is very subtly shifted to Qrow. This accomplishes a few things:

1) It reminds us of Qrow’s Semblance and his base-level expectations for just about anything in his life (as if any of us could forget, but this is relevant to a point I’m going to make later).

2) It transitions Qrow from background to foreground in a narrative sense. Again, Penny’s arrival had very little to do with him personally. He didn’t know her, never interacted with her, and probably would have only heard about her from Ruby (or potentially James, though considering the nature of their relationship in vol 3, I find that highly unlikely). Thus, this shift offers the audience another clue: whatever is about to happen, it will have a lot to do with Qrow specifically.

3) It establishes the grounds for the subversion of expectations. Point #1 ties into this. Because we are reminded of Qrow’s Semblance and his own personal expectations, we are fully set up to believe that whatever is going to happen next is going to be bad. We expect this because he expects this, and because we have been conditioned to expect the worst when it comes to Qrow. CRWBY absolutely leans against, plays with, and then subverts those expectations entirely, which I will get into when Clover actually shows up.

4) Closely related to #3 is the fact that it brings out a line of tension surrounding Qrow specifically. What that tension is going to be as of this moment, we have no idea, but we know that it’s going to be closely tied to (if not revolve entirely around) Qrow himself.

5) Because of the shift in focus, it smooths the way for what happens next.

Narrative Focus Shifts Fully to Qrow

This scene right here is where the narrative shift to Qrow reaches completion. The line delivery right before this, which is the last thing said before they are captured, functions as a sort of transitional phase. It does bring Qrow back into the forefront but doesn’t put him center stage. This scene, however, does do that.

Now, from a character’s perspective (i.e. the incoming Ace Ops), if you’re going to make an arrest on a large group of people, subduing the most dangerous member of the group first is probably the best way to go. We can see in this shot where Qrow is standing in relation to the others:

Qrow is by far the most physically imposing and the oldest of the group, which sort of makes him the de facto leader, at least from outward appearances. He’s not out of reach or significantly distanced from any of the kids. The sensible thing would have been to take him out first and then deal with teams RWBY and JNOR. Instead, we get these progressive shots of team JNOR being targeted followed closely by team RWBY.

Then there is a pause in the action. Qrow is left standing alone, as depicted in the header image above, weapon drawn, ready to fight. This pause, like everything else in these scenes, operates on a couple of different levels:

1) It gives the audience a chance to absorb what’s happening and sets up the Ace Ops to enter the scene. We know from the relatively “gentle” nature of the take-down that whatever is happening, while not ideal, probably isn’t going to be as bad as we (and Qrow) would normally expect. Salem’s agents sure as hell aren’t going to try to capture them all with some fancy bolas; they would just kill them all on sight, with the exception of Ruby. It’s also not Grimm. So the subversion of our expectations starts here.

2) It also functions to completely divert any errant scraps of our attention onto Qrow. Again, the narrative shift is completed in this shot.

3) It reinforces the fact that the following events are going to have a lot to do with Qrow personally. He’s alone in the frame here, the sole center of narrative focus and attention.

4) Again, this focus paves the way for what happens next.

The Arrival of the Ace Ops and Clover Ebi

With our focus fully resting on Qrow now, he is able to function as the lens through which the audience is meant to experience the next sequence of events. We’re with him when he gets snared. We’re with him when he hits the ground. And we’re with him when the camera pans out to show the kids around him and the arrival of the Ace Ops behind him.

Here is where things get fun.

The first glimpse of the Ace Ops is another massive step in the subversion of expectations. They’re about the furthest thing from threatening that we can probably get while still maintaining some level of weight in the scene. They’re uninformed, which is typically not a bad thing (it lets the audience know that they’re likely some sort of official Atlas patrol force) and their postures are not aggressive in the slightest. It’s made pretty clear that we’re not meant to be overly concerned with them, which means that the tension of our main cast being in any sort of danger disintegrates almost instantaneously.

So where does the tension go, you may ask?

To the dramatic entrance of Clover Ebi, of course! More specifically, it goes to the fact that while all of the other Ace Ops are introduced as a group, Clover is deliberately and carefully singled out, just as Qrow was singled out in the scenes directly preceding this.

Remember that Qrow is supposed to be the lens for the audience in this whole sequence. Now take a look at the way that Clover’s damn boot is framed. Remind you of anything?

(This man and his whole portrayal by CRWBY is so deliciously extra, I swear.)

From the very beginning, the scenes between Qrow and Clover are framed in such a way that, even when not spatially close to one another, they are still depicted as being together. Connected. And it all starts with the hilariously deliberate placement of that damn boot.

Now, I’m not saying this is where the romantic tension begins (that comes in chapter 3). It’s a little hard to introduce it when Qrow is tied up on the ground and all we have is some footwear from Clover (unless you’re that kind of person, in which case... god’s speed to you). But it does set it up to come into play later in the volume.

The fact that we don’t get to see Clover directly is also pretty significant and, once again, this decision does more than one thing for the story.

1) As I stated, Clover is singled out. This is accomplished not only by his delayed entrance into the scene and the fact that he enters from the complete opposite direction of his team, but also because we don’t get to see him right away. You know who sees him first? Qrow. And because we’re meant to experience the scene through Qrow, our attention and curiosity are immediately piqued because we’re being denied something that he already has: a view of Clover.

2) It kicks up dramatic tension, which at this point I’m pretty sure is almost a necessity to Clover the way oxygen is for the rest of us, but on a narrative level it really works out. Despite the fact that everyone has just been apprehended, in these moments of Clover’s appearance and Qrow’s reaction, the Teams and the Ace Ops are 100% in the background. The narrative focus at this point has not only shifted but has completely inverted from the norm, putting full focus on these two characters as opposed to Ruby or any of the others or even the group as a whole. This is, by the way, the nature of nearly all of Qrow’s and Clover’s scenes together, no matter how brief. CRWBY bookends them out (usually through key visual cues, such as the not-quite-over-the-shoulder thing), lingers exclusively on them for a time, and then shifts right back into the main narrative structure. This is not something that can be achieved accidentally.

3) It really does this amazing thing where the focus is bounced around between Clover and Qrow until we realize that we’re supposed to be focusing on them together. We get Qrow in this shot and Clover’s entrance as a sort of disruption. Literally, the man walks into Qrow’s shot the way he walks into his life, and we the audience are meant to feel the impact of this.

4) It answers the question put into our minds during the post-Penny build-up to these scenes: if the next events after Penny’s departure are going to revolve around Qrow in some way, how? What exactly is the big impact going to be? Clover’s entrance, and particularly the way it was handled by CRWBY, gives us that answer. It’s not the things that are happening or anyone in the scene behind Qrow. The significant missing part of the equation is Clover himself.

5) Continues to subvert expectations. Remember waaaay up there where I said that the subtle reminder of Qrow’s Semblance and his typical mindset was important? Well, here would be why. I’m not sure what I was expecting on my first viewing of this episode, honestly. But that nudge at Qrow’s Semblance amped up my nerves a little and I’m pretty sure that was entirely on purpose. At first we the audience see the arrest as a potential side-effect of Qrow’s Semblance (again, we’ve been conditioned to accept this correlation). But the fact that it’s Clover we’re meant to focus on, and not the arrest itself, takes that off the table. This scene isn’t about Qrow’s Semblance screwing him over again. It’s about this particular man being introduced into his life.

Clover’s Full Introduction

That right there is the second glimpse we get of Clover. Again... THE FRAMING!!!!! But I’ve said enough about that in this and other posts, so I’ll go into some other details that get laid out in the following interaction.

First of all, Clover walks right up to Qrow (completely bypassing Ruby, which I’ll get to in a second), further cementing the fact that we are meant to be focused on him through Qrow as a lens. If you have doubts, look at where Qrow’s focus is. We get a little more of Clover in this shot and, honestly, I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but I find the fact that we get a glimpse of Clover’s long coat (something that directly echoes Qrow’s own coattails/cape) at least worthy of note. Especially in light of the next shot that shows us just a little more:

*cough* Framing *cough* (Seriously. This might be a drinking game next volume where I fully expect them to get some more screentime together.)

The lucky rabbit’s foot offers a pretty significant clue to who exactly is standing in front of Qrow. It’s this slow piecemealing out of Clover’s appearance that leads me to believe that the shot where we can see his coat wasn’t 100% by chance.

This shot also totally removes all others from the scene, thereby keeping them in the background and Clover and Qrow in the narrative foreground.

And then, finally:

In the previous shot, Qrow tries to offer some explanation that he hopes will get him out of the bolas and off the ground: “Hey, pal, I’m a licensed Huntsman. Just helped save everyone?”

And this right here is the shot we are given in direct response: Clover Ebi in all his glory. Lucky rabbit’s foot, four-leaf clover on his chest, horseshoe... everything that we would pretty much identify as the antithesis of Qrow’s character.

Now. I will fully and completely admit that there are a large number of ways CRWBY could have taken this whole scene and everything that comes after. He and Qrow were clearly framed together in the shots leading up to this, but as of this moment, it could have just as easily leaned towards a rivalry rather than a romance. Clover could have done any number of things that would have established him as an ass-hole that we all would have hated right along with Qrow. But he doesn’t do that. He doesn’t gloat or give off any malicious vibes. The guy is cocky and at ease, but that’s part of what we all love about him.

Also worth noting is the fact that this is the first look he gives Qrow. This is the established baseline right before he bends down to pick up Harbinger. He’s not hostile or off-putting or smug (at least not overly so). He’s professional with a healthy dash of confidence and a hell of a lot of presence.

We’re still with Qrow here, obviously, and the steep angle of this shot makes it clear: we are meant to see Clover Ebi the way Qrow does at this moment. Inherent in this perspective is the line of tension that we are meant to be following. (A quick clarification: the word ‘tension’ here carries no negative connotations. I’m talking about narrative tension, the forward movement of a story, the thing that makes the audience perk up and go “Oh? What’s this?” And I would say these scenes accomplish that extraordinarily well.)

The Harbinger Moment

*cough cough* FraMInG!!!!!!! *cough cough*

Funny story. This particular shot where Clover picks up Harbinger is the one I was actually asked to comment on. But as no scene exists in a vacuum, I think the analysis for this relies heavily on everything I’ve already said. It’s all about the build-up, the already established framing, the line of tension that we are meant to be following (namely, who is this guy going to be to Qrow?), and the way that Clover again enters the scene as a sort of disruption into Qrow’s space.

Now, if Clover had done any of those things I mentioned above (gloated, smirked in a hostile way, sneered, etc.) that’s all it would have taken for this disruption to be coded as negative. Setting them up as rivals would have literally been that simple. But because he didn’t we’re left in an area of... comfortable curiosity, is the phrase I’m gonna go with. The first disruptive entrance into Qrow’s scene (with the boot) introduces Clover as a character, and the second (this one) makes sure to let us know that, while CRWBY isn’t making it entirely clear what exactly these two are going to be to each other just yet, their relationship is going to be far more nuanced than the obvious antagonistic crap they could have gone with.

As far as the event itself (Clover picking up Harbinger), this is absolutely meant to resonate on an emotional level with the audience. We watch this unfold, again with Qrow as our lens, and knowing what he has been through with that weapon, we know what it probably means to have another person handle it. Clover does so respectfully and carefully and without comment. Also notice that while Clover seems to be ambidextrous for the most part, he wields his own weapon almost exclusively with his left hand, which is the same hand he picks up Harbinger with. If anyone wants to get into deep psychoanalysis of the implications behind that, I will love you forever, but if you don’t I’ll probably circle back to it at some point XD

Worthy of note here too, though I’m not entirely certain what to make of it just yet, is the fact that Clover’s armband is fully visible in this shot. And we all know how CRWBY loves their armbands.

Choices

And that pretty much wraps up the extent of the interactions between Clover and Qrow in this scene. This shot above just illustrates something @lady-branwen pointed out, which I find incredibly funny.

Upon entering the scene, Clover has two obvious options as to who he approaches first. Even if he comes down from a roof, he is either approaching from the front (top of the image), in which case he had to bypass Ruby (and the relic!) entirely to reach Qrow. Or he comes from that side street off to the left side of the image, in which case he is probably equidistant from Qrow and Ruby (and the relic! which he knows about!) and still chooses to approach Qrow first.

Intent, people. None of it is accidental.

Bonus:

The remainder of the scene does a pretty fantastic job of shifting the focus to Clover and establishing who he is. He’s charming, professional, a people person, and definitely lawful good. All of this further draws out that line of narrative tension between him and Qrow, leaves us wondering where exactly this is going to go, and perfectly sets us up for all of their scenes after this.

#fair game #fairgame #lucky charms #luckbirds #qrover #qrowver #qrow branwen #clover ebi #rwby7 #rwby #is this my longest one?#it feels like it #holy crap #passes out

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