#but also i have no idea how to add all necessary characters (aka the party)

[evil-ontheinside]

Can I stop making up weirdly specific and totally unnecessary aus please? I do not need a byler Heidi au I am actually very well stocked with lots of other aus in my docs thank you

[fondnesses]

roscoe’s notebook post

A while back I said I was going to write a post about the way I use notebooks for writing projects. This is the first of several posts about Writing Process I’ve been tossing around in my drafts for a little while as a result of conversations with friends, so bear with me.

I. Love. Notebooks. I genuinely would have to deeply overhaul my whole Process of writing anything on the longer side if I were to go paperless; I find physical paper pretty invaluable when I’m outlining, brainstorming, and researching, and I still probably write ¼-⅓ of all my actual content on paper first. (That proportion used to be a lot higher, but I’ve gotten better at being productive on a computer in recent years, which is great.) I’m a very visual person, so notebooks really help me visualize my ideas, story structure, etc. It’s very helpful to be able to use arrows and diagrams and physically strike things through, and the tactility is really soothing to me. If I show people my notebooks or talk about them, I often get a response like “this is so organized”, which is sort of true, but I have to stress that it’s “organization for a disorganized mind”; I can’t misplace ideas or notes if it all goes into the same physical object, vs. electronic notes, which are much more, like “Did I say that in a voice memo? PM it to myself on Discord? Leave it in a desktop sticky note? Write it directly into the Google Doc? Who knows! It’s lost to time!”. It’s very much an ADHD management strategy.

It helps that I’m a very neophyte stationery hobbyist and appreciate any excuse I have to use my pens, but I also will go off at any opportunity about how helpful I find them for writing projects, which is why I decided to just make a post about it. Right now I mostly use them for (fan and original) fiction projects, but I used a notebook for a very similar purpose when I was working on my undergrad thesis, and I have a slightly different but equally necessary-to-me approach to notebooks I use at work.

My typical structure for a notebook that’s devoted to one project only looks like this:

I always leave the first couple pages blank so I can go back and retroactively index bujo-style. I don’t always actually do the index, because sometimes I get too lazy, but I like having those blank pages there to give me the option. I also usually put epigraphs/inspo quotes on the first page.

After that, there’s often (but not always, I’ll talk about it) a couple pages at the start where I’m frantically jotting down loose brainstorming ideas before they've coagulated into a story structure. Just, like, vomiting into the void.

Stemming out of that, I usually write out about like 5-10 pages of outline-style notes in chronological order, laying out all the main story beats and charting out the story trajectory. This will inevitably get revised and rewritten many times, but I find the process of writing these wide-angle synopses really useful for dislodging ideas, making connections re: thematic threads, etc. from my brain.

I’ll devote a couple pages after that to specific things like "sex scene brainstorming", "random scene ideas/minor details that don't have a clear place in the outline right now but I'll turn to for inspo later" [this is what I refer to as “bits” in one of the later photos], "page where I just outline the Motifs And Themes", "research notes", "to-do list", "stuff to check on a second pass", "things to put in the a/n and AO3 tags", etc.--the specifics vary with the story.

Then, I skip ahead to approx. halfway through the notebook and cordon off the rest of the pages to be “free writing” space, AKA writing of actual content rather than planning, with the expectation there will be no internal organization and I’ll transcribe to laptop as I go. Writing on paper feels less binding than typing something on a computer; it’s like a little secret kept with myself, and it doesn’t need to go anywhere or be seen by anyone if I decide I don’t like it. Setting aside pages in the back half of the notebook means that, as more things come up re: planning, I can go back and add those in the rest of the pages that were intentionally left blank. This is how I avoid (for the most part) having the whole thing be a jumbled mess where there’s no separation between the notes and the actual story writing; I learned this the hard way via the first notebook I’ll show you in a second. I’ve recently gotten really into using Muji sticky note tabs to label any pages/sections of particular import that don't want to have to refer back to in the index and would rather just flip to instantly.

I do use notebooks that aren’t specific to any one project, but those are much less organized and less worth sharing.

Before I look at more recent stuff, here are some selections from my notebook for the project that got me into writing longfic, my Golden Kamuy canon divergence AU (with apologies for the bad photos, my phone’s camera is trash). I worked on this from Sept 2018-July 2019. It was a learning experience in a lot of ways, and notebook utilization was one of those. I’ve always used notebooks for keeping track of writing projects, as I said earlier, but before this it was largely without much organization or structure; just total chaos. Having a physical notebook became really important for this project because it was a sprawling multichapter story with rotating POVs and a lot of historical research. I also learned a lot about what not to do with a notebook, personally, or at least things that don’t work so well (for me). This was a college ruled spiral-bound Decomposition Book, for the record.

By the time I bought a notebook for it I already had a (very basic) plot outline in mind, so I wasn’t doing that very initial ground-zero brainstorming in here; I was copying out of my phone’s notes app, basically, and then going from there. 

This is one of the first pages in this notebook; I wanted to visualize the relationship web between the four central characters in the story in terms of how they feel about one another. The two colours correspond to the POV characters (Sugimoto in orange, Ogata in pink), and I used this colour-coding throughout the notebook with highlighters, etc. to keep track of information that was more relevant to one character than the other. Tsurumi and Yuusaku aren’t POV characters, but they’re prominent in the story and their presence impacts the central relationship between Sugimoto and Ogata, and it was helpful to me to map out the emotional ecosystem, as it were.

(There are coffee stains all over this, because I wrote the vast majority of the story in coffee shops because I didn’t want to be around my roommates, lol. This is part of why I never do fiction writing in notebooks that are too nice, I get neurotic about needing to keep them tidy. I can’t use ones that are too shit though, either, so it’s a bit of a narrow window. I’ll talk more about brands and paper quality etc. later.)

As you can see, this is the first page of many I set aside specifically for jotting down different pieces of historical information relevant to my story. It’s about fictional characters who are members of an army division that existed in real life, and both the canon and my fic involve a high level of attention to detail with regards to which divisions were present for which battles, etc., as well as general historical details specific to the Russo-Japanese War setting--what did people eat in the trenches? What did they do to fill time? How did they get through the winter? What did third party observers have to say about the conditions? What were the specs of their weaponry (particularly important because one of the POV characters is a sniper and gun nut)? I did a lot of reading (and watching of antique gun collector Youtube videos... the things I do for love, eh), and it came in handy so many times, because it turns out it’s much easier to write trench warfare slice of life if you have factual details to pull from when you don’t know what to do with a scene! Imagine that!

This is the first of three “grid outlines” I made; this is a way I sometimes like to visualize a story outline all on one page, with the columns representing chapters and the squares within the columns representing sections/scenes within the chapters. As you can see, early on I was hoping to get this done in five or even FOUR chapters (whatmakesyouhaha.mp3), with POV switches happening internally within the chapters. This proved to be unwieldy for many reasons, so I revised the outline:

Here I’d come to terms with the fact this story was going to have a lot more chapters than I’d planned, and I rearranged things so that it would happen in ten, with each chapter belonging to only one POV character. This also needed revising later, and in the end the story looked a bit more like this (though it did in fact end up being twelve chapters, but only because Chapter Ten was like, 12k, and needed to be split in two chunks):

I must have remembered to bring my fineliners to the coffee shop this time, lol, because as you can see it’s properly colour-coded this time. This outline was made when I was already four posted chapters into the fic, which hopefully gives you a sense of the way in which I am sort of a planner and a pantser; I can’t get into a longer project without an outline, but the outline inevitably changes many times throughout writing and I often end up with a finished product that looks pretty different from what I was intending. My creative M.O. as always is Do The Maximum! Amount! Of! Work! Possible!

This is what a “free writing” page looks like, for me. In this notebook I didn’t set aside any specific spaces for free writing so it’s strewn throughout the notebook in a really disorganized way and I was constantly flipping through looking for bits I’d written and forgotten to transcribe, and I decided to be more organized in future as a result of that. If something’s crossed through, that means I transcribed it. As you can see, they’re often small sections, sometimes just a coupled decontextualized sentences. About 3/4 of what I write in a notebook makes it into the story, I’d say; some of it never goes anywhere, and that’s OK. I have less of an issue killing my darlings if they never make it off the paper page.

A very brief, top-down chapter outline, where the goal was not to get too bogged down in details and just to visualize the beats and pin down what they’re trying to accomplish. Chapters for this fic typically ran about 6k, and five or six scenes per chapter was pretty common, so the average scene length was about 1-1.25k words/scene. IDK why I called it storyboarding when I didn’t make drawings. (Margin numbers are to keep track of word count, since I was using a daily word count tracker while writing this.)

This page was, as titled, for keeping track of the various balls in the air when I was about 2/3-3/4 of the way through the story and really feeling the pressure with regards to tying up the various loose ends. This was... a struggle. I hadn’t ever written anything longish (this fic ended up just under 70k) that had an action plot before, let alone a canon divergence scenario where I had to engage with and explain away various canon plot elements so I could maintain the audience’s suspension of disbelief.

Now, I mentioned earlier that I learned various “things not to do” with my notebooks while working on that project. One of those lessons I learned is to be more realistic when assessing how big a project is likely to get, not least because I RAN OUT OF PAGES around the chapter 9-10 mark. In my defense though, that’s because I’d never written anything even half this long! But I know better now, and try not to be in denial. Finishing the notebook early was a way bigger problem than I’d anticipated, and was part of the reason the last few chapters took several grueling months to finish. The issue was that I needed to be able to use a notebook to maintain my workflow--attempting to do it only on a computer was dismal--but it seemed silly to start a notebook of a similar size to the one I’d finished (80pg, approximately B5 dimensions) when there was no way it would need that much space, especially since the reference pages, like the historical notes, didn’t need to be transcribed over. I was also pretty broke at the time and didn’t want to spend money unnecessarily, lol. I tried to get by using a Moleskine Cahier for a month or so because I had one lying around, but it was horrid; it was too small to be used comfortably, it wasn’t spiral-bound so it wouldn’t lay flat, the ghosting is terrible and I hate the way Moleskine paper feels, etc. Eventually I caved and went to Muji and bought a 30ish page A5 with closer to lay-flat binding, and I finished the story in there. I would take a comparative pic for you of the relative notebook sizes and include some of the scene staging diagrams, etc. I put in there, but I can’t find it :(

So I learned that specs really do matter, and it’s okay to be picky if the pickiness is going to make the difference between actually using a notebook or not. Things that are important to me in my notebooks:

Ruling (gotta have ruling, I can suffer through grid but blank or dot is a no-go)

Size (I can’t use anything smaller than at least a medium-large notebook, I find it claustrophobic and get miserly about page space)

Binding (twin ring is my preference because it looks and feels better than a classic spiral but has the same comfort of use with regards to bending the pages back to suit workspace size and laying flat with ease)

Paper quality and colour (I don’t like anything too slippery/smooth or with too much visible ghosting, and I strongly prefer an off-white paper to bleached paper--part of why I don’t use Decomposition Books anymore, the paper is scratchy and it’s too damn bleached!)

Pagecount relative to size of project

Portability (in non-COVID times; anything bigger than a B5 wouldn’t fit in the satchel I used to bring to work at my old job), etc.

But everyone’s taste is different in this respect, and the only way to figure out what works for you is through trial and error, I’m afraid. I also suspect I’m more neurotic and particular about the sensory experience of using a notebook than most people are, but I yam what I yam.

Now to talk about the notebooks for my current projects, where I’ve refined my approach somewhat. I’ve included less photos for these because they’re ongoing WIPs I don’t want to spoil completely, but I’ve tried to include some outline-type stuff to give you an idea.

My big bang fic is in the very ugly twin ring notebook on the right; I got it at a dollar store by my house because I needed something to work in and didn’t want to wait for an online order, but it’s been very serviceable for my needs. The paper isn’t even bad. The bigger notebook (B5) is my Sangcheng fic.

I wanted something with a lot of pages for this, because I knew it was going to be a long story, and for some reason the fact it’s smaller than my usual preference doesn’t bug me (I think it’s an A5?); it just fits this story, somehow. I’m not sure exactly how many sheets are in here but I’d guess about 150.

Because this notebook has upwards of 100 sheets, I made a lot of use of sticky-note tabs to label high-priority pages. The colour coding of these doesn’t mean anything, it was just whichever ones I had at hand at any given moment. These are those tabs from Muji I mentioned, I’m really obsessed with them--the shape makes them so much less obtrusive and more practical than conventional squares/rectangles OR flag shapes, IME.

My big bang story is nonlinear, so, similarly to what I did with colour coding for the two POVs for my GK fic, this story has two main colours corresponding to whether a given section takes place in the “before” or the “after” portions of the timeline, with blue as “after”, yellow as “before”. This is what the most current version of the outline looks like in there:

If you squint, you can see the alphanumeric notes in the top right of each section entry; I gave them each a code like “A3″ or “B5″ corresponding to their position in the story sequence (so, it goes A1, B1, A2, B2, etc., through to B9 and then the epilogue). [Unintentional that this schema overlaps with notebook size labeling and so is kind of confusing in the context of this post.] At first I was just keeping track of the sections via the highlighted titles, but it got confusing because I’d write down “Wedding” or “Yiling” in my notes and then refer to the notes later like “but there are multiple marriages?? and multiple scenes in Yiling??”. Stuff gets struck through with a straight line if it’s been written in a more-or-less complete form and crossed out with a squiggly line if it’s been cut from the outline or made redundant.

As I said earlier, I started out all the initial brainstorming for my Sangcheng fic in its notebook, instead of brainstorming it in someone’s DMs/my notes app/a voice memo/etc. and then transcribing it into the notebook in a somewhat more organized fashion, which is how my stories usually start out. Because of this, the first five-ish pages are basically just stream of consciousness rambling where I was trying to jot down every disconnected thought I had about the story concept. I don’t have photos for that because it’s too spoilerific for later developments in the fic, but I can show you some of the stages the outlines went through, once I was able to corral those initial notes into a story structure:

All the chapters in this fic have their own highlighter colour, so when I started trying to make sense of my initial brainstorm notes I just went through and highlighted stuff in the colour of the chapter it would make the most sense for, and then transcribed things more-or-less in chronological order into the relevant chapter outline. I later ended up rewriting all the chapter outlines AGAIN to refine them and divide them internally by the individual scenes, which makes them a lot more legible and less wall-of-text-y. They look like this now, with about four sheets per chapter:

Because this fic is on the longer side, I have some pages that are just for keeping track of other story elements, like this, where I refer back to whatever the fuck the “themes” are supposed to be whenever I forget what this fic is about:

It’s all about the visionboarding... Anyway, that’s most of what I have to offer, since most of these two notebooks is Forbidden Content.

With regards to brands/supplies, I really like this Kokuyo Campus Wide notebook that I’m writing Sangcheng in, it’s pretty perfect for me. I also like the B5 Muji twin rings, but those only come in 30 sheets, so I wouldn’t use it for anything above a ~20k project. The B5 Maruman Spiral Note 6.5mm ruled/80 sheet is another good one, though I wish it was twin ring instead of spiral. As you can tell, I like Japanese stationery brands because it’s easier to find decent paper quality and minimalist design without shelling out $$ than it is with American/European brands, at least IME. I like Rollbahns too. But honestly, I can usually find pretty serviceable random notebooks that aren’t brand-name from Asian dollar stores; it’s really not something where you need to shell out tons of money.

[casualotptrash]

Why the Persona 3 FES vs Portable Debate Makes Me Want to Fly Into the Sun Pt. 3

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Da da da daaa!

Part 3 of this lovely emotional rant is here, for anyone who wants to spend their time reading these. With the last two posts, I have mostly tried to be informative or just complain a bit about why this debate makes me want to fly into the sun, but for this post it’s going to go a little different. Perhaps a bit more subjective than the others.

In this post, I’m going to go over everyone's favorite clusterfuck...a definitive version of Persona 3.

Now, as we established in the previous post, we know that the argument of FES vs Portable is essentially pointless because everyone’s opinion on either game is subjective. However, I have neglected to bring up this topic that puts a huge ass nail into this dusty old coffin: the fact that there is objectively no definitive version of Persona 3.

Everyone can argue all day and night about which version of P3 is better, but no one can deny that either version are “definitive.” By definitive, I mean that the game has the most content that is offered, like Persona 4 Golden or Persona 5 Royal. The reason none of the P3 games are definitive is because base P3 lacks stuff from FES and Portable, FES lacks stuff fro Portable, and Portable lacks things from FES. It’s a gamble of whether you want to experience cutscenes, an overworld, and The Answer, or a whole new route with the FeMC and the brand new option of dating male party members and saving...you know who.

One might be able to say FES is definitive because it has The Answer, which I believe is considered canon according to the Arena games. Another could say Portable is the definitive version because it came out after FES, added the FeMC (who is technically canon as per the second Persona Q game), and removes The Answer (which a lot of people said The Answer messed with the core theme of P3). However, the definition of definitive in this case, and with all of the other games, is that the game offers the most content. Arguably, FES and Portable provide the same amount of content, just in different ways. This is why this whole conversation of which one is better, or which to play first, spawned in the first place.

The reason I am bringing this up in this post, about why this whole discussion physically pains me, is because having a real, definitive version of the game could finally put this discussion to rest. At least, it somewhat would. People would probably still argue that FES is the best for some reason.

Now, the argument becomes...well, what does a definitive version of Persona 3 look like?

I have seen quite a bit about this topic, and people seem to really miss some common sense points. For example, they get caught up in whether it would be considered a remake or a remaster. I know some use those terms interchangeably, but the “official” definition for each is that a remake is a game that is made from scratch, while a remaster is made by updating the existing assets and engine. For example, the upcoming Nocturne HD release is a remaster. Personally I find it difficult to neatly fit the typical persona definitive editions, like Golden and Royal, into either of these categories. It may just be me not fully grasping the differences between the two, but I believe they would fit into more of the “remaster” category. It is true that there are new assets and content being added to the game, but it’s so minor that I’m not sure it could be considered a remake. On the other hand, because new content is added it couldn’t just be defined as a remaster because typically the effects and such aren’t even changed that much. It’s just gameplay and story content that is tweaked.

When people get so caught up in what it would be considered, logic seems to...go out the window? For example, in a debate between a P3 remaster or remake, a person made a comment that if a remake was to happen then people would demand that all of the social links be available to anyone. Now, that just isn’t possible for a variety of reasons. There’s no way we could ever mix and match social links to get a preferred grouping. Another issue with this is that if just a remaster was made, then one of the two games would be left out.

This is why I don’t really think about whether a definitive edition is a remaster or remake, because using such strict labels make it harder to judge what could, or should, be in one. This is why I’m just referring to this process as making a definitive edition. That being said, I would consider a definitive P3 game to be more of a remake (not that it really matters) because my ideas would essentially combine FES and Portable, in a way?

So here we go, into my idea of what a definitive version of Persona 3 would look like. (Warning: This will contain spoilers for all of the P3 story and *gasp* may be a bit biased toward Portable because I like it more)

1. Presentation

In simple terms, I would want the game to essentially be Portable...but with updated graphics, cutscenes from FES, and an overworld. It’s easier to use Portable as a base because it’s already closer to the format of P4 and P5, so then adding in the good parts of FES with the cutscenes and overworld are par for the course. As far as graphics go, I would like the models and environment to look more like P3D (aka whatever engine they used for Persona 5?) because damn did the characters get a glow up.

2. Gameplay

Along with the format of Portable, I would also want the gameplay of Portable to be in this definitive version. That means no jealousy system, no fatigue until after you leave tartarus, the vision quest, and the other changes I mentioned in the first post. Sorry FES fans, but yes...I would still want the option of controllable party members. However, a new change that should be added is backup members earning exp. I don’t think baton passes or anything should be added, we don’t want a clone of P5, and the combo attacks in P3P kind of fill this role anyway. The idea of having social links give certain perks with ranks, like how confidants work in P5, is interesting but I don’t think it would be necessary. I would also say that the soundtrack should be exclusive for each side, like how it is in Portable, and that there should be an option to choose which skills are inherited.

3. Social Links

The stance I would take with social links would essentially be how Portable did it, but with a slight tweak. No matter how much it would be cool to date Rio or Saori as the Male MC, or vice versa with Kaz or Keisuke and FeMC, I don’t think any mixing of the two sides would really be feasible. However, I would love to see cameos of those characters in the opposing routes. For example, you see Yuko and Kaz in the female route, but in the male route you could see Saori and Rio at school. That being said, and this is probably one of the biggest issues, I would want the male protag to be able to have social links with the entire party, men included. This brings up the issue of what social links you would cut out because you can’t have two social links be the exact same arcana. Unless they want to add more arcanas to the game, which would probably not go over well either, the best option is probably to prioritize the male party members and then have who would usually be in their place just show up sometimes. For example, Kenji would show up in the social link with Junpei instead of the magician social link just being about one or the other.

I know this seems weird, but it does kind of avoid shafting one or the other. If it was too hard to fit the two together (such as Chihiro and Ken both being Justice), perhaps a few more school scenes could be added where the MC interacts with the school friends that are not seen as much (Kenji, Chihiro, etc.) However, and this might piss off 1% of people but whatever, but the moon arcana with Nozomi (Gourmet king dude) could just be completely taken over by Shinji. Nozomi is a meme, but he is not needed in any way. Also, I would prioritize Yuko in the male route over Koromaru since, although he is a very good boy, he is still a dog. Also, please get rid of the option that you’re forced to romance every girl in the male route, and personally I would say keep in the fact that you cannot date Junpei. In a headcanon sort of way, I totally dig the idea of the MC being able to help Junpei through his rough time after Chidori dies (if she dies?) and feelings grow from there, but from a story perspective I think it’s integral to his character that he friendzones the player if they try.

So TLDR; who the social link is about would mainly stay true to the original route (male route with Kaz, etc. and female route with Rio, etc.), however in the male route the party members would take priority (so Akihiko would take the star arcana place and Mamoru (track guy) would just be featured in the link sometimes), and in both routes Shinji would take Nozomi’s place as the moon. Important note that besides including the other character, the main substance of the social link shouldn’t be changed; aka they should not change the format of the social links to operate more like P5 social links where the MC is just solving all of their problems.

(Sidenote: This is imply my idea on how to include party members into the social links for the male route, however if they just decided to keep the social links the exact same as Portable with no male party member social links with the male route then I’d be fine with that too. It wouldn’t really take away from the game as a whole for me, personally.)

4. Romance Options

Riding off of the social link talk...and I know this is like the least likely option of happening, but please make some gay options Atlus? If we can romance every single girl in the male route, why not just add the romance option for the men too? Yes yes there’s the whole argument about the issue of “making everyone bi” (thanks for erasing sexuality that care more about connections rather than gender?), but I say look no further than how Dragon Age 2 did it. Every romanceable option in that game can be romanced be either the male or female main character (barring a DLC character who is only romanceable by females), and it works just fine. Turns out, no one really gives a shit if it’s “realistic” enough (aka only having one or no bi/gay people apparently?) because it’s a video game and people want to romance whoever they want...because it’s a video game. Even if you really, really don’t like this approach there is also the option of going the Dragon Age Inquisition route, where characters are able to be romanced by certain genders and not by others (race also plays a role in this in the game, since there are elves and other fantasy races and such, but this is not applicable to Persona obviously). This is simply a hypothetical example, but how this would work is that like Fuuka can only be romanced by the Male MC, Akihiko and Yukari could be romanced by either MC, and Mitsuru could only be romanced by the FeMC. Obviously social links specific to a run would be a romanceable option to the MC in their route (as in Yuko would only be romanceable by Male MC because she’s only in her run, and social links like Saori could be a romance for FeMC because she’s specific to her route). I have a gut feeling this would cause an even bigger uproar with the fandom, so having any romance option (barring route specific social links for the route they’re not in) be available for either male or female MC is the best option in my opinion.

Take out Ken’s romance option altogether though. I know some of the language is different, so it doesn’t say you “spend a long night together” or whatever, but that doesn’t really make it any better. I do think it’s fine if Ken has a crush on the MC, and maybe has a whole Kenji thing of thinking they are together cause he’s 10 and kids can be like that, but the MC wouldn’t actually act on this and the player could be given the choice to actively dissuade Ken. The only good thing that came out of Ken’s romance option was the fact that him and Akihiko can argue in Tartarus if you romance them both, and I don’t want to lose that hilarious dialogue.

5. Tartarus

Tartarus...uh...to be honest I’m not really sure what to do with this beast. It’s boring and tedious in the first place, probably by design for symbolism in the game, but I’m not sure how to make it interesting without copying the dungeon/palace format. Perhaps the blocks could be restructured to act more like a big puzzle that needs to be solved, like certain sections of palaces in P5, but also have bosses and shadows thrown in. For example, perhaps one block could be more reminiscent of hide-and-seek stealth tactics while another is formatted like a series of arena-esque gladiator fights. Also probably lower the number of floors you need to climb? It gets a bit ridiculous when you realize there are 264 floors of Tartarus and 99% of them are the same but just with more funky music and slightly different decorations. This job is suited for someone with actual video game making experience though, and not me.

6. Awakenings and Pacing

Let’s talk about some quick fixes to awakenings and pacing of the game. Now, since this is a definitive version and not a true remake, I wouldn’t want them to rewrite the entire story or something. Most of the party member’s original awakenings happen off screen, which can be kind of lackluster. The MC’s and Fuuka’s are the only two we really see, and those moments were really cool in my opinion. Obviously we wouldn’t see Mitsuru’s, Akihiko’s, or Shinji’s original awakenings, but that is fine. Yukari and Junpei also fall into this boat because Yukari awakens before the MC gets to the dorm, and it would be hard to show Junpei’s awakening while also having his whole “reveal” moment when he comes to the dorm to live there. I don’t know if it’s ever mentioned when Ken awakens to his persona, but making a scene to show both his and Koromaru’s would be helpful instead of just saying Ken has the potential and he’s joining, and hearing about Koromaru awakening but not actually seeing it. As for the pacing, I’m mainly talking about the summer time where you can’t hang out with a good number of social links. I would just change this so that you can hang out with school social links during this time more readily, like if they’re just hanging out somewhere in town if they’re not at school. Like I said, this isn’t a remake (and I’m not a video game designer) so I didn’t want to get into how to fix the overall pacing of the story, which can be pretty slow until October or so. My one suggestion is maybe adding in a few extra scenes with Strega before October so it’s not like we run into them a couple times and suddenly they’re a major villain.

7. Shinjiro

(Spoilers for after October) I know certain people will definitely not like this point, but I think the option to save Shinji should remain in the game (and Chidori too). I’ll go into this in another post, but my main reason for keeping this in is because some people really do like this option, so it would be kind of unfair just to get rid of it because other people don’t like it. However, I would suggest a change to his social link so that there is the option to save him or not while also being able to complete the social link. Perhaps after rank 10 would be when you could give him the pocket watch, so that people could get the rank 10 and not be forced to save him. 

8. Extra Content

(Spoilers for the ending of Persona 3 and The Answer) Each definitive version has extra content in the “third semester” (because Persona 4 and 5 both essentially end after December), but in Persona 3 the natural game ends in January. I am not sure if they would try to add another whole months or so on, but because The Answer already exists, but I assume they wouldn’t add extra content in February or something for the MC. For The Answer, I would keep this in the game as sort of the “extra content” but add a FeMC version of this. Obviously it would be largely the same, except with the FeMC and perhaps the male party members could get more of a focus since the female party members get a larger focus in the male route (ie. Yukari breaking down with the keys. Maybe Junpei or Akihiko could take on this role as the people who don’t want to let go). Also, as a possible new addition to The Answer, Shinji could be a part of it if he is saved during the main game. In the NG+ run of Portable FeMC route, if you romance Shinji he comes to the rooftop for that final scene, so in a way it could be possible for him to recover by the time The Answer happens in March.

Now, if Atlus decided to add a more typical “extra content” thing, I hope they wouldn’t try to cram The Answer in on top of that unless they were able to do it cohesively. It might be a lot to have the whole ending of the game in January, come up with a reason to have extra content in February (presumably with the MC still alive, but also combat would need to be a part so then the issue arises of Tartarus coming back or something?), and then have the answer take place right after near the end of March.

Well that’s the end of that I think. This will also be the last post in this little “series” because I pretty much went over everything about this debate that makes me want to fly into the sun. I know the things I talked about in these posts will probably never stop, but I really hope that if a definitive version comes out at least the discussion will change to saying what is good or bad about each game rather than FES supremacy or whatever. That being said, above all I really hope this debate doesn’t discourage new fans from Persona 3 or the series in general, because that would probably be the worst outcome from all of this. It’s a great game, and it’s a shame that the game itself is kind of held back by being split into two (I’m not counting base Persona 3) different forms.

[madsdefencesquad]

Pleaseee make a list of the foreshadowing that the baby mama is Madison! I'm so interested in finding all the hints because I have a feeling they've been hinting for quite some time 🤯

HIIII yes, okay this is a complete info dump so bear with me here. I tried my best to make sure that the evidence talks about her becoming the baby mama or them being endgame because that it also HUGE. Like huge. Even more than the baby mama, to be honest. So, without further ado:

Season 4:

Strangers Part Two - obvious pregnancy and minor details like Rebecca’s deathbed and that decoration hanging above her bed like Madison has at her house (could be red herring but it’s such an odd choice of decoration for these days and only Madison had that shown). Also, Madison confirmed as Kevin’s “stranger” is the most telling here.

Clouds - Madison telling Kate why she slept with Kevin in the first place because he saw her for who she is without needing to be “perky or appealing”. Also note that Kevin pretty much slept with her for the same reasons because he was just allowed to be sad and not judged for it; just listened to and consoled. Madison wanting the intimacy of marriage that Kate and Toby has and the most telling: preparing for marriage by listening to lots of relationships of podcasts hoping “she’ll need them someday”. Well, yo girl’s gonna be the fiancée so she’ll definitely need them sooner than she thinks.

Cabin/HOAW:Part 2 - showing that it’s not just Kevin who gets “annoyed” with her, she also gets annoyed with him too when she opened the door and she saw it was him. But then she invites him over for tea and that being referenced in the 40th birthday flash-forward as a way to alleviate her morning sickness. Coffee was a thing with Zoe (teaching him how to brew) and Sophie (inviting her for coffee) but now it’s tea with Madison. Also, both of them migrating to Madison’s house and spending pretty much the rest of the day/night together means that there was a connection there even if they didn’t know it yet. Also, the dismissal of them “falling in love” or whatever is obviously the writers trying to make us think they’re never ever going to, so that just makes it even more compelling that they are.

The Pool: Part Two - As per the gif, when Kevin gets a call about doing a movie in Chicago and then resumes to go and fill up the clipboard for their activity but he got distracted when he heard baby Jack cooing in his crib and he goes in and it cuts straight to Madison listing the things she put on her clipboard. Was it necessary? Nope, but now we know it’s a clue. Apart from the s2 finale when Kevin returned to L.A. and held Jack, this is the first time Kevin and Kate bonded with baby Jack and Kate saw how good he was with him. And now he’s going to be a dad with damn fudging Madison. Also, this may be reaching but if you watch closely when Madison first arrives and Kate opens the door, Kevin briefly looks at her at the door. It may, of course, be because the scene needs to move forward with Kate and Madison’s talk but LITTLE.THINGS.

Light and Shadows - Kevin in the middle of his “finding his great love” phase just before he met Sophia Bush’s character at the coffee shop: who comes in just before the grand gesture happened? Madison with the pineapple string lights and his look is telling enough that he still finds her cute and amusing but he’s like nope, definitely not this girl right in front of me who’s been here the whole time. My love story is going to be grand like my parents, etc. Yeah, whatever Kevo. Also, isn’t it cute that Kate and Toby found out that Jack can “see” shapes and lights because of the very pineapple string lights? It’s adorable and shows the subtlety of Madison’s significance to the family without her (or them) consciously knowing it.

Earlier Seasons:

Brothers - Madison finally became “part of the family” as Kate’s best friend when, lo and behold, she found out Kate was PREGNANT. This makes even more sense for Madison to react so joyously even just after they were screaming at each other because, as we realise in s4, she couldn’t get pregnant. So, knowing someone is, made her so elated and supportive to the point that it can be misconstrued as craziness but now we understand why.

Vegas: at the Bachelor/Bachelorette parties, they showed Kevin entering Toby’s suite then Madison straight after and then lingering on her, cutting between her and Kevin as they both talk to Kate and Randall respectively. Why do they keep making a parallel between her and Kevin and lingering on her if she was really just going to be a minor character in Kate’s life?! Also, reaching, but Kevin loved the “Ptero-Jack-tyl” joke that Toby made and who was the first person who made those name puns? Madison. In fact, Toby hated it when Madison called him “Tobe-lerone” but loved it when she called him “Toby Bryant”. He obviously learned from the best.

The Wedding: obvious sexual attraction and the first time they met each other properly. She enters the cabin just as soon as Kate leaves and Rebecca and Randall look at her like “Who is this?” and Kevin acknowledges her with obvious attraction and amusement at her antics. Kevin singling her out when the bridesmaids were getting ready. Like, the “supermodels” comment? Yeah, Kev, that was all for Madison, we get it. Also, he wanted her to come on their search to find Kate but Randall says no. More lingering stares and flirtation. Most telling: “Don’t let me sleep with her” because he knows that’s not a good idea given that she’s Kate’s good friend. Also, last shot of them with Madison grabbing him and pulling him on to the dance floor and yet he ends up with Zoe in the end because if they did end up sleeping together afterwards, then Madison would just be another girl in Kevin’s long list of has-beens. But obviously, she’s more than that and will be more significant in his life. AKA BABY MAMA/FIANCEE/WIFE

Clooney - When she got dizzy and hurt herself revealing that she has Bulimia and needs genuine help, we realise she’s not just some ditzy weirdo who goes to ED group for laughs. She genuinely needs it to get better. Now, she’s actually pregnant and the “fiancée” has “morning sickness at all hours of the day” which ties in with her bulimia and a story to tell there with the pregnancy and how she’s gonna cope.

The Waiting Room -  Madison saying herself that she’s not part of the family and who calls her out? Kevin, which is ironic now that she’s going to be permanently part of the family. Most telling: Miguel and Madison chat. Was the chat for Miguel? Nope, it was for Madison, but we were distracted because Kevin was still with Zoe. Also, first person she sees to come out of the lift? Kevin, looking a little remorseful that he hurt her feelings by telling her to go away, but she was like “nope”. We think it’s the end for them. But NOPE.

The Graduates - At Kate’s “graduation” party, Madison comes in and offers Kate and Kevin a non-alcoholic drink. Most telling: her knowing he was on the “sober” trail (even though he actually wasn’t at that time) and when she left, Kevin’s gaze lingers on her briefly, almost taken aback that she offered him a non-alcoholic drink. Why did they include this scene? It could’ve easily been omitted and just left it with Kate and Kevin chatting but NOPE. They just had to show Madison’s significance in Kevin’s life as someone who knows at least the important parts of him even if everything else is “strange” and “unknown”.

And that’s pretty much most of the per-episode ones but there are HEAPS more, I’m sure so feel free to add some more there especially from @the–big–three (loving your analyses and pointers too). I’ve got another draft of why Kevin and Madison are so so good for each other so I’ll post that later. Hope this helped in some way and illuminates the incredible foreshadowing to Madison as the baby mama/fiancée/wife.

[nona-gay-simus-main]

How to Fix White Room Syndrome In Your Writing

Disclaimer: I do not claim to be an authority on writing, I'm simply trying to share something that has helped me.

White Room Syndrome was something I struggled a lot with, when I started out, and still do, in some scenes. In fact it was the second biggest issue with the last draft of my novel. (The first was its structure, but that's a post for another day.)

WRS is what I call it when there's a dialogue scene, but the characters feel like voices in a white room. They don't really feel grounded in the setting, you can't see the way they are standing in relation to one another, and you can't see their bodies moving.

If you've ever gotten your work critiqued, it's unlikely that anyone has called it white room syndrome. Some of the feedback I received said things like: "you need to add more details /interaction with the environment", "you need to flesh out the scenes", "" the characters are at a party, but it doesn't feel like it", "there's no setting", "the conversation feels stilted and unnatural", "the conversation has no space to breathe", "the conversation feels too fast" and so on. (One beta even said "this is not how real people talk" about a different old draft, although to be fair, to this day I have no idea if she was referring to the dialogue itself or the fact that the scene was white-roomy and I probably was still overusing dialog tags.)

So how do you fix it? 

There are several things you need to pay attention to in a dialogue scene, aside from the dialogue itself: body language, vocal cues, visceral reaction, and internal monologue.

Body language is pretty obvious. 93% of communication happens non-verbally, so how characters' bodies (and faces, but be careful not to restrict descriptions to facial expressions only) move through the scene SHOWS their emotions, instead of having to spell them out for the audience.

Vocal cues are about the way characters' voices change in different situations. Do they raise their voice when they are angry? Do they start whispering, when sharing a secret? Do they get breathy when they're aroused? I wouldn't overrely on them, but when used appropriately, vocal cues can really add to the setting.

Visceral reactions are instinctive gut reaction to a stimulus. One problem with them however, is that there’s only a limited number of gut reactions, so you need to think of more creative ways to use them. The other problem is that they are strong so they may seem rather melodramatic if used too often. Personally I also avoid describing them about anyone who isn't the POV character, because they are so personal, it might read like you are switching perspectives (also called head-hopping and a big no-no).

And finally, there's internal monologurme. People don't just talk about situations, they also think about them. But be careful not to name the exact emotion the character is experiencing. Emotions should be shown, not told. Also, a character's internal monologue shouldn't repeat their dialogue with minimal, if any, changes in wording. Characters should be saying something or thinking it, but rarely both - this can feel like you're holding your audience's hand and talking down to them. Most readers are actually pretty smart, so give them the benefit of the doubt and don't overexplain your story.

(NB: sometimes you can use the same words in both the narrative and the dialog for a joke, or in order to characterize your characters, or both - but this is a trick that should be used sparingly.)

I don't know what the best process to fix this in your own writing would be, but here’s my process: 

On my first draft of the scene, I write ONLY the dialogue, with no description ls of any kind, not even dialogue tags. Once in a while, I might add an action tag or two just because I see it so clearly in my head, and I might put a placeholder description like "and then they ate diner", but mostly I write pure dialogue.

There are two major benefits in drafting dialog scenes this way:

The first is that you don't have to break your flow to wonder what's the best description or thought to put here, so it doesn't slow you down or distract you.

The second is that you can more easily spot places where the dialogue becomes repetitive or you break one character's dialogue with a question when that's unnecessary. For example:

A: I went to the library today.

B: Wait, really?

A: And i found the book on secret pirate treasures.

B: What did it say?

Sometimes this structure can be used for emphasis, but more often than not, this exchange would stronger as:

A: I went to the library today and I found the book on secret pirate treasures.

B: What did it say?

After I’ve drafted the dialogue scene, I read it again to cut repetitive parts (as shown above), the occasional filler word like just or really or characters elaborating on their point when that's not really needed. And if there are more than two characters speaking, to better distribute the dialog between them.

Then after all that, I finally go back to the start and set the scene. If you know what the setting around them is, it makes it easier to know what elements can the characters interact with. The five senses are your best friend. All 5 are rarely needed, but what your character pays attention to characterizes them and shows their voice.

Then I start weaving the aforementioned four elements through the dialogue. Keep in mind that sometimes you don't need any of these elements and you can let the dialogue speak for itself for a couple of lines, that’s okay too. 

Some resources to help you further:

The Emotional Thesaurus. I really cannot recommend this book hard enough. Not only does it teach you all this in-depth, but it has thesaurus of all the main emotions and all the body language, sensations, verbs and so on associated with them.

Alexa Donne’s Video on The Topic

Setting the scene for dialog

Action and Movement In Dialog

How To Create Space

The Case of Vanishing Setting 

[tvshowfreak]

Thank you so much for translating the part where she talked about joana😊😊 are there any other important parts in the video that us aka non Spanish speakers need to know? Like cris talking about how she realized she was bi or idk, something else

Hey sweets, it’s @croanaexiste on insta who translated the whole section so kuddos to her, I don’t speak spanish well enough to give a complete accurate translation, I just get the general idea of the sentence most of the time 😂

I can try to give you basically the break down of the things they talked about but for a full and accurate translation we’re gonna have to wait for fluent spanish speaker angels.

They start the interview by talking about Skam’s popularity and what it was like to go from being anonymous to having people from all around the world talking to her. 

Then he asked what it feels like to be chosen to be a main character of a season, she said it’s an honor, that it’s amazing to have such huge visibility, for bisexuality, relationships between girls and mental illness, and because it’s so necessary to talk about these important subjects.

Then they talk about bisexuality and how it’s not a sexuality that is represented or showed much on spanish tv. She talks about how rare it is to have two central characters of a show be two women in love, and that on top of that are both bisexual because usually bisexuality is completely absent. 

Then she talks about the amazing impact of the show, how she got messages from people who were able to come out to their friends and family or even feel better about their sexuality because of the show. 

Then they talk about Cris’s character as a party girl who hides things from her parents, and something nowadays generations staying at home - I’m sorry I didn’t quite understood that part 😂

Then they talk about the scene Lucas finds out about Cris and Joana at the party, and how beautiful was that scene and how important it was for those two characters to have a connection. They talk about how they went further with Lucas’s storyline by giving him a youtube channel and showing awareness on his instagram posts and how important it is. Irene adds that giving Lucas a youtube channel was also a way to give more space to his character because it’s an important one, and that he was also important to put light on how different it is for bisexual girls for example and gay guys, in how people perceive them or recognize them in the street, she was referencing to Lucas getting harassed I presume. And how important it was to show the solidarity I think (sorry I couldn’t understand the specifics).

Then there’s a whole part in which they talk about parties again, but I honestly couldn’t understand anything 😂😂

Then they talk about Croana, that part that was translated 😊

Then they talk about whether or not she thinks Cris knew she was attracted to women before Joana. Irene says that no, and that when she met Joana and felt how she felt she didn’t realize it because she thought it was an effect of the ecstasy and she had so much to think about with the pills and the fight - so she confused everything, and it’s only maybe a couple of days later that she really realized what she felt for Joana.

Then they talk about the subject of BPD, of why they chose to change the original illness which was bipolarity in the og. Irene explains that BPD is apparently a lot more common in women and that it’s often diagnosed during the teenage years, and that they saw it as an opportunity to shine light on a mental illness that is very unknown. She said that herself didn’t know BPD existed before the show, and that since then she talked with so many people who have BPD and that it’s really nice for them to be represented. She says that they talked to psychologists, and between themselves so they could help Tamara represent it the best way possible without dramatizing it or making it just extra drama to the drama. They wanted to do it in the most normal and sane way possible.

Then they talk about Cris having to deal with such important matters at a young age and how it took her time to understand and make choice concerning her relationship with Joana. Irene explains that Cris is 17, she’s got a lot on her plate with school, being a teenager which is a pain in the ass (her words 😂) and on top she discovers that she’s bisexual and that her girlfriend has a mental illness, and that it’s a lot to handle, especially when you don’t know anything about the MI. And that you don’t know that things can be easier if you’re informed, if it’s treated well, and that, like Viri says, it shouldn’t have more importance or be more difficult than to be with someone who has diabetes. She think that Cris’s reaction was normal because she needed to think and wrap her head around everything and be sure that she would be able to handle it. Then she says something about being happy with Joana 😂

Then they talk some more about how badly mental illnesses are shown sometimes, like it’s just people being crazy.

Then they talk about the importance of the friendships in the show, the solidarity between the girls of the squad. Irene says that they wanted to make a show very feminine and feminist and that’s why the show is focused on a group of five girl friends. And that it was important to show the solidarity between women, and between friends - especially because friends are such an important part of your life at that age. The interviewer talks about how cool it is also that the group are outsiders and Irene agrees.

Then he asks about what’s going on with Ruben (lol who cares) and Irene laughs her ass off because indeed, who cares 😂 And she says that Joana was there so what was Cris supposed to do, and that he’s a good guy and she hopes he’s happy 😂😂The interviewer talks about the pills and the money and Irene is like well Cris is happy with her girlfriend now so let’s not bring that up again 😂

Then they talk about Amira and how nice and interesting it was to have a little bit more light on muslim culture. Irene says that Cris and Amira have been friends since kindergarten or middle school and that’s why it was so important for Amira to be a central pillar this season, because she has a big place in Cris’s life. Then Irene starts laughing and says that we’ve seen a little bit of Amira’s culture but that there’s a lot more and it would take an Amira season to really explore it. Of course the interviewer jumps on that and asks if it’s a subtle way to say next season is about Amira and of course Irene says she knows nothing, that she’s just saying 😂

Then they talk about a clip that we should petition for, I think a video of all the actors together, and Irene said she would propose it, I’m not sure I’m sorry i didn’t understand that part.

Then he asks how is the cast and crew are getting along - Irene starts laughing (🌚) while looking on the side, she can’t stop and the interviewer says that Nicole Wallace is there off camera and that they’re laughing together. Then Irene answers that everyone gets along very well, that they now form a small family and that it’s really nice to work with people that are so professional and so sweet. 

Then he asks in what capacity can the actors modify or give their input in the scripts and dialogues. She says they can but at the same time they can’t 😂They can modify the dialogue a bit if the way it’s written sounds off for their character and they think it should be said another way, she says it’s important so that Skam can be the closest to reality possible. 

Then they talk about when Cris comes out as bisexual and that there was a bit of controversy around the pansexual comment in the dialogue. Irene gets real nervous all the sudden 😂 She explains that for her personally, as Irene, she thinks the term pansexuality shouldn’t exist, because in a way it’s biphobic because it implies that bisexuals aren’t open to being with people who are trans for example. He keeps talking about how it brings up the fact that there’s a lack of knowledge of what all the sexualities and labels mean. She says that “there are made up sexualities”, and that it’s not necessary to keep adding more and more labels because it confuses young people, and they have trouble knowing what to identify as, just like Cris who had trouble finding her “label” because there was too many. That’s a rough summary, cause she says a lot of things.

After that she starts breathing again 😂

Then the interview is almost over and her asks how it felt to be the main character of a season. She says it was amazing for the most part, but that it was also a lot of work to appear in all the scenes, but that she’s so grateful to have had the opportunity to have such an amazing storyline, and play such a cool character with such cool people (something like that 😂) The interviewer adds that it’s even more special because it’s unique to Skam espana to reinvent the story and my baby Irene is proud 😌

That’s it 😂 Again this is a rough summary of what was talked about, it’s highly possible that I misunderstood some stuff 😂

[lanceville]

Hello, I really want to get this out of my mind, so I hope I do not bother you, if I bother you please ignore me, ok this will be long. I saw one of your previous answers, where you say that you feel different or with a weird mood, I've also been feeling weird, and I've been thinking about things that really stress me, I'm in a mood so pessimistic and depressing that I come crazy and terrible ideas about many things (part1)

one of those strange thoughts is this: LM and JDS have said (or so I’ve heard correct me if I’m wrong) that they do not want to talk much to avoid surprises about the plot of the following seasons … so I came this horrible thought. if they for example do not want to ruin the surprise about Klance by becoming a canon, Why do they talk so much about them? (part2)

why they give the fans so many hopes and make them believe that they will become canon if they want it to be a “surprise”?. then my pessimistic thoughts lead me to this, the surprise is not klance becoming canon, the surprise will be that another ship either All//ance, K and R or even worse She//ith is the one that will become canon. So if I’m not bothering you I’d appreciate it if you answered this, I’m sorry for bothering you with this stupidity (last part)

it’s alright bro, i gotchu. 

first, it’s true that lm and jds and known to be super secretive about the plot and upcoming events, and they have been vague about lance’s and keith’s relationship until this interview. there are instances were they were talked about them in a romantic context several times too but i’m just gonna focus on this video for now. there are two reasons that they have decided to openly talk about it like that:

1. they were approached specifically by the author of this article to hear out what they think about the “science behind shipping,” since they’re the executive producers of the show with the most popular ship on the internet.

2. they’ve realized it’s necessary to keep avoiding klance at this point. the klance fandom is huge, and no matter how much they try hide who the endgame will be or even sway us a little bit from it, the klance fandom only grows each time. they never expected klance to gain such a huge fanbase so quickly and for the fans to pick up on the hints that easily. it was as if they were still in shock and denial that their endgame surprise has been exposed, but there’s no use denying it at this point. they know we’ll forever believe in the ship, so since everything’s exposed, they don’t see why they can’t engage with the fans about them. if it is really not the endgame ship, they would’ve tried to do more damage control to not break the hopes and fail the expectations of the fans later, but they only spoke positively about klance in that video.

and don’t allow yourself to think that, annonie. i know that it’s really worrying because of how little keith and lance have interacted in the past few seasons, but that does not mean in any way that their relationship has regressed. season six especially was the very definition of intense, and there was barely any time for keith to interact with any of the other paladins besides shiro. keith, especially, was under a lot of pressure, and they were all stressed. but now since everything’s calmed down and keith’s finally back on the team, things will get better. have faith. 

(gonna put the rest under read more bc this has tuned way longer than expected)

and about other ships becoming canon, you can rule that idea out by the process of elimination.

keith/romelle and keith/allura are never gonna happen. you know why?

the endgame is between two main characters (”characters who have been present since the beginning″ aka the paladins). romelle isn’t

keith and allura have only ever interacted in what would seem like (but it isn’t) a romantic fashion in s2, and it was just bc of keith’s heritage. even though it’s kinda disappointing since i’d like to see more of their friendship, they’ve barely interacted with each other outside of missions. there’s no way they’re gonna develop romantic feelings for each other when neither has shown interest in the other.

literally

also dude keith’s clearly not straight. no matter how much you try to convince yourself otherwise, the man isn’t. one look at him is enough to know that.

biggest proof is allura, a gorgeous space princess who everybody swoons over, falling right into his arms and him not even blinking a goddamn eye. his indifferent expression still cackles me tbh.

also, it’s known that the endgame involves lance, so if it’s a ship that does not include lance, then nah it’s not happening.

not gonna even bother with why shiteihaha will never become canon in a bazillion realities because it’s ridiculously clear as to why to those who have at least 2 functional brain cells. don’t even let that idea cross your mind.

this leaves us with all//ance. tbh, it did have a chance of becoming canon up until s5. but dude, after watching s6, i was like “did they just really kill this ship.” all//ance is really cute and sweet, and i wouldn’t have minded it becoming canon since both allura and lance really care about each and i loooooooooove their friendship so goddamn much. but this is the thing. what allura and lance have is friendship. they both were really good friends up until the writers decided to bring lance’s crush back from the bottomless pits for drama’s sake. lance’s crush on allura is so valid man. he truly does like her. but the thing that killed the ship wasn’t this; it was the whole love triangle drama. allura fell in love with lotor and never requited lance’s feelings even when she knew about them, meaning she does not view lance that way, and it’s her right - she can like whoever she wants. the writers said that romance will happen naturally in the show. if allura would ever reciprocate lance’s feelings, she would’ve at least displayed some signs of that at this point. she got to know lance and see some of his greatest moments. she even got to experience what lance dying would feel like, yet she still didn’t develop any romantic feelings towards him. if feelings of loss and grieve didn’t make her realize how important lance is to her romantically, then that’s because there are no romantic feelings present in the first place. it would not make sense at all for her to develop feelings for him later on. she cares deeply about him as a friend, and romantic love is not some upgraded form of friendship love - it’s a totally different type of the same class, and that’s what she feels about him.

it would be utterly cruel and unfair for both if they end up together after the shit that has happened in s6. allura would never find a lotor in lance, and lance would always feel inferior if he gets with allura because he know’s he’s no lotor - that he isn’t who she wants (lance is much better than all the boys in the entire universe and whoever has him is literally the luckiest person ever but this is not the point so moving on). allura’s feelings for lance would not be genuine, which would make allura feel bad because she would never want to make lance feel like a rebound or a second choice. lance, on the other hand, really likes allura, and being the helplessly selfless person he is, would accept to be allura’s rebound while being fully aware of it and accepting his fate as a second choice which, god, would take a heavy fricking toll on his already bad self-esteem issues. seriously man, every time i think about them getting together after s6, their relationship is just full of heartbreak and hurt, and i don’t want either of them to feel like that because they don’t deserve it. even the showrunners admitted that them getting together right after would be a disservice to both of them. i fucking love them both and their friendship so much and i don’t want anything to ruin it.

i wanna also elaborate on another point. if you’ve noticed, allura and lance shared a couple scenes that paralleled klance’s but they’re slightly more romantically-coded (the scene might seem this way but since allura has 0 romantic interest in lance it ain’t, but anyway). the reason i think they included such parallels is to tell the audience that, “if you see those a///rance scenes as romantic, then those previous klance scene were meant to be romantic as well :)” as i mentioned before, the writers were quite surprised we have picked up on klance pretty quickly and early. since they might’ve thought we wouldn’t, they might’ve thought “something” was needed to hint at where they’re planning on taking klance’s relationship, and that “something” is all//ance. but unlike all/urance’s scenes (especially the dying lance moment which resembled the bonding moment) where the romantic interest is one-sided, the similar feelings in klance’s scenes are reciprocated by both parties (bonding!!!! moment!!!!).

now then, guess which ship we’re left with!!!!! yup! it’s klance. i could go on and on and on and on about how they!!! are!!! gonna!!! be!!! canon!!! but i’ve seriously spoken too much (and i cant feel my fingers anymore erfberk) and i don’t even know if you even have read it all the way to end bc ik i’m quite boring when i explain stuff ebjrvkebr but!!! seriously dude. just go rewatch s3. that’s all the confirmation you need of their budding romance. they have some of the most trope-y romantic scenes. and dude, i say all that but, whatever happens, i will forever believe that there’s no better ship in this show than klance. nothing will surpass it. 

edit: gonna just add the petty ask i sent voltron (that i knew they were never gonna answer but i had to send it nonetheless bc i needed to let the salt inside me out somehow lmao) because it’s succinct and summarizes what i said above lmao

[deadmomjokes]

So I finally got to watch the Extended Edition Lord of the Rings

And I have SO MANY THOUGHTS

First of all, I had no idea how rushed the theatricals felt until I saw what the Extendeds did for pacing and development. They felt like completely different films, and looking back on the theatricals (which I love/loved) I’m surprised things made sense given what the extendeds added.

(tons more under the cut, I have Too Many Thoughts and Feelings rn)

Second, there were some things I could have lived without:

-The Entwine scene was cute, I suppose, as was the food/pipeweed-finding scene, but I felt personally that it didn’t add too much in terms of development and narrative. Sure, it shows Merry and Pippin being funloving cousins together. But it just felt a bit off in terms of pacing and feel in the surrounding scenes.

-I was ambivalent on the extra scenes inside the Paths of the Dead. The skull avalanche was just... Ok? (I enjoyed the part immediately after they got out and saw the ships, that was fine.)

-I really didn’t appreciate or enjoy the scene of the Witchking shattering Gandalf’s staff, either; I get they were trying to give Gandalf reason to doubt himself and his judgement, but really? It makes ZERO sense for the Witchking to be stronger than Gandalf the White. They don’t bring it up later at all, or say why it’s so significant, and it throws off the timing. The Witchking flies off from Gandalf because he see’s Rohan’s approach; but then it takes another 10 minutes for him to show up at the battle and get Theoden? Did he take a Starbucks break? Who could have possibly delayed him, if he was so much stronger than Gandalf? Altogether a bad scene (and makes no sense because Gandalf is a reincarnated Angel at this point so... Yeah, not happy).

-The discussion with Saruman at Isengard was great, but the utter overkill of him impaling on the wheel was just bizarre. It was almost comical, and not in a way it should have been. Also, way, WAY overkill. Too much. In a film full of death, that was excessive. I loved having the talk with him, and him dying was fine, but the spiky wheel and subsequent drowning just seemed out of place.

-I also didn’t care for the additions to the battle action scenes (not the aftermath parts, those were stunning). For the most part, they felt a bit superfluous. The one exception to that was the battle of Pelennor, and all they added with Eowyn and Merry. Those were great!

Third, and more importantly, there were TONS of scenes I adored, aka everything else. And I am SO angry they took it all out. I would give up whole battles if they had left in these scenes. I mean REALLY, who decided which ones to cut, because they clearly didn’t see the same film I did. They cut all the best parts, all the best acting, things that made everything come together, and most importantly, scenes of massively important character building. Here are some of the ones I loved most, and why I’m angry they cut them:

-The one I’m most angry about, all the Faramir scenes. They chopped the one scene that explained literally EVERYTHING he did and why. That family scene not only developed Boromir posthumously, it showed why Faramir acted like such a jerk, and why he ultimately turned. That was not at all explained in the theatricals. In the theatricals, he’s a random, shallow jerk who turns for no reason. With just the 5 minutes that scene took, he is shown to be complex and a deeply damaged child of abuse who lost the one person who believed in him. And it also explains the “A chance for Faramir, Captain of Gondor, to show is quality” line. Which was odd without context. Also, the end scene of TT where Faramir talks to the hobbits and Gollum about their next steps. Dang that was good. I’m just angry that literally every good, important Faramir scene got cut.

-All the scenes in early Fellowship they cut. The bits showing Bilbo was acting out-of-character. Frodo is worried, Gandalf is worried, Bilbo has a panic attack over the ring. All great stuff that made things make more sense (if you aren’t going into it with background knowledge).

-The scenes they cut of Boromir acting like a normal person, making his betrayal more upsetting. In the theatricals, he is reduced to an annoying, prideful jerk who is taken by the Ring from day one. With the new scenes, he is shown to be a truly complex character who is really trying to do the right thing, but is just misguided and scared. Especially the scenes of him talking with Aragorn. I love the argument they have for another reason, too, which ties in with this next one

-Just that little bit of Galadriel showing Nenya to Frodo. It shows that she knows what it’s like being a Ringbearer. So Frodo is more likely to take her advice, and think she knows what’s best. She tells him he has to be alone, and that his presence will break the Fellowship and ruin the people he cares about. And then we see that stuff happening. Frodo tries to shut himself off from the others, but he can tell Sam is hurt by it. And then he hears Aragorn and Boromir arguing and the Fellowship starting to break. That cements his decision to go alone, especially after the previously kind Boromir attacks him and is clearly under the Ring’s influence.

-All the extra scenes of Frodo. It rounds him out even more, and shows how the Ring affects him emotionally as well as physically. Also all the early scenes make Frodo into a strong, caring, perceptive character; in the theatricals, he goes from happy party boy to depressed child in 3 scenes flat. All the new extended and added scenes show a more complex person, and smooth the transition in a way that makes it feel more organic. Also it showcases some of Elijah Wood’s best acting. I’m salty at how many truly great scenes they cut.

-The scenes that show more of how Aragorn is afraid to accept his destiny. The bit with his mom’s grave was especially powerful. It’s a beautiful arc, and it’s just not utilized that well (really at all) in the theatricals.

-The scene of Frodo and Sam in Mordor. Even while the Ring is actively trying to get found, and is doing everything it can to break Frodo, Frodo still has enough presence of mind to think his way out of the situation. It just underscores how dangerous the Ring is, and how truly strong Frodo is, making it all the more shocking and upsetting and heartbreaking when he ultimately gets taken by it. A lot of scenes showed how strong, smart, and deeply emotional Frodo was, but this one in particular just clinches it for me. I’m so mad they took it out.

-Eomer finding Eowyn. DANG talk about acting. Good grief that about killed me. Eomer doesn’t get much in the way of development (not everyone can), but that was next-level, and gave a lot to him in terms of rounding. Especially after that scene where he’s talking to Eowyn about Merry, but really meaning it for her because he knows her.

The more I think about everything I just witnessed, the harder it is getting to pick out exactly which scenes were most important and impactful for me, because they really make it a completely different experience. Certain arcs and themes are more fully developed (Aragorn becoming who he was born to be, Faramir escaping the toxic cycle that ultimately killed Boromir, Pippin finding his courage, Frodo clinging to hope with Gollum as his own sanity and health start slipping, Sam’s important position as an anchor for Frodo, Eowyn clinging to Aragorn and learning to pull herself away from her past fantasies and ideas of valor, Frodo remaining as strong as humanly/hobbitly possible even far into Mordor... All the things). There were very, VERY few scenes comparatively speaking that I wasn’t angry as heck about their removal. Every single scene with the exception of the few I mentioned at the beginning was, in my opinion, necessary for the full, complete story and experience. I am shocked at how I went this long without having the whole picture. I honestly don’t plan on watching the theatricals anymore. They’re just not complete to me now that I’ve seen everything else.

Also, a few highlights from this binge watch with the husband:

-Lots of pausing at every new scene and hollering about how mad we are that it was cut.

-Too many jokes about Weed.

-Smacking each other in the leg every time an extended or added scene comes on and going “OOH, NEW!!!”

-Choking on a croissant when Frodo asked Gandalf which direction Mordor was I DIE it was so cute!

-Being personally offended that they took out Boromir’s Lorien scenes.

-Having to get up and walk away when we heard the “show his quality” line in the TT scene with Faramir and Denathor. I literally went into the kitchen to scream into a dish towel.

-“Well Frodo just basically spends the whole third movie in a state of dissociation, and this is where it starts.” -My husband’s very astute analysis when they get to Osgiliath. Have dissociated, can confirm.

-Huddled together on the couch screeching loudly at Sam’s line to Faramir about showing his quality (we had Too Many Faramir Feels, y’all).

-Gasping so hard at Sam pulling Frodo out of a #Moment where he realizes he’s probably going to die that I gave myself an asthma attack

-Staying up til midnight last night griping over and over again at how they DARED TAKE THESE SCENES OUT I know I keep saying it but I am never going to be over it

-My husband recoiling in shock and both of us scooby-doo-style-clinging to each other when Eomer screams upon finding Eowyn.

-Going full-scale football-fan cheering and hollering when Aragorn goes to face down the Palantir and taunt Sauron. Followed quickly by panicked shrieking when the necklace shatters.

-Legit gagging at the Mouth of Sauron scene. Homeboy need some Ultrabrite and about 12 gallons of Listerine. I swear I could smell it. I see why they took it out, no theater worker deserves to clean up pools of patron vomit.

-Totally lost it at “Smeagol Lied.”

-I have not cried at these films in 15 years but dang if it didn’t get me this time around hoo boy

[voltronqts]

halloween headcannons

lance

lance is definitely one of those couple/group costumes type of person.

he fucking loves halloween , he still goes trick of treating, this boy does not care.

he actually kind of uses his younger siblings as an excuse to go out and pretends to be watching them. but he’s the first one to snatch his favorite candy out of their bag.

you know those signs on the candy bowl that say, ‘only take one’, he doesn’t take one he takes like three pieces because he’s a rebel™ and doesn’t want to steal all the candy bc he feels bad.

with an s/o he’d do a couple costume, but probably like some pop culture reference one. like grease costume bc that’s really generic, or maybe like some anime character couple (would probably do an ed x winry costume and go all out).

with a group costume he would suggest magic mike without a doubt. everyone says no.

lance trades candy (aka steals it and claims he traded it).

he goes all out with decorations, the house and yard would be filled with Halloween decorations. the best house in the neighborhood™, all the kids love going to his house.

also he has to go to at least once haunted house a year, and surprisingly he doesn’t get scared that easily.

tries to summons demons on halloween and pretends to be possessed. everyone hates him for it smh.

he even still celebrates it while they are in space as best as he can. he gets really excited telling coran and allura about earth holidays.

he spooks everyone too, definitely plays the oujia board. and he tells coran and allura scary stories and urban legends and claims they are 100% true.

keith

surprisingly loves halloween too!!

he doesn’t really dress up but just loves the whole mood during the weeks leading up to halloween.

he watches so many horror movies the whole month and he kind of decorates his room.

he likes the idea of going to haunted house but hasn’t ever been to one. lance promised to take him to one once they get back on earth.

keith would do a generic costume, like a vampire. and like all he does is wear all black, have a cape, and dollar store fake teeth that glow in the dark. buys fake blood and just pats it on his face.

okay he dressed up as the grudge boy one year and freaked everyone out.

he doesn’t go trick or treating.

but he also doesn’t personally give candy out to kids. (i mean he lives in the fucking middle of nowhere) but let’s say he lived in a neighborhood he would just be that person that leaves a bowl of candy out and just tapes a sign on that says, ‘take a few. NOT ALL.’

he has no opinion on couple or group costumes. doesn’t care either way.

wow, get ready for this, but when he gets back on earth after the whole universe is saved and what not. he finally has a family to spend the holidays with and he’s so happy and he will do whatever they want too. he’s just so happy.

oh, he plays along with lance when lance is telling coran and allura about the urban legends and spooky stories. and says that lance isn’t lying that it’s 100% true.

even adds in his own details and makes up so. he’s literally so amazing at playing along.

he finds it really funny how spooked allura and coran are getting and how they keep saying humans are messed up.

he tells allura and coran that, “big foot attacked him in his house one day and he had to fight him.”

oh and he definitely takes a handful of candy when it says only take one. smh

shiro

shiro is a simple man. he enjoys the holidays. he went to halloween parties, he went trick or treating, he went to haunted houses / mazes.

he usually dresses up as a tv show/movie character though, and his costumes were always 10/10.

he enjoys decorating and he doesn’t go all out like lance, he has a cute and neat yard and house. you know like some styrofoam gravestones, an inflatable pumpkin or skeleton, spooky colored lights, spider webs, a skeleton somewhere and a bat. his folks are simple.

enjoys couple and group costumes a lot but hates planning it and getting everyone to go through with it.

watches a lot of halloween movies, not necessarily horror, just kidish movies from his childhood with the occasional spooky one thrown in.

considers the nightmare before christmas a halloween movie.

gives away a lot of candy, like two handfuls per kid bc he just can’t resists how cute and excited they look. always spends way to much on candy every year but it’s worth it seeing the children smile and get amazed. buys the brand names candy too.

he doesn’t play along with lance telling allura and coran about the spooky things on earth. just kind of sits back and relaxes, until he realizes that coran and allura are legitimately getting freaked out.

refuses to let lance play the ouji board. will through hands if necessary (jk shiro wouldn’t do that.)

pidge

the type of person to change their username to something ‘spooky’.

dresses up as a meme, ‘you know i had to do it to em.’

or dresses up as a cartoon character, one year she did mandy from billy and mandy the next year she did raven from teen titans. everyone loved it so fucking much.

queen of creating the best costumes.

‘Nightmare before Christmas is a halloween movie.’ those are fighting words

‘NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS IS A FUCKING CHRISTMAS MOVIE SHIRO!!’

not much of a decorater honestly.

buys candy to give out, but ends up eating it all before halloween comes around. actually doesn’t regret it but pretends too.

she of course watches horror and halloween movies the whole month.

loves scary people. smh evil pidge.

actually takes two handfuls of candy when it only says take one.

doesn’t like group or couple costumes.

definitely plays along with lance when he’s telling allura and coran spooky things.

hunk

always has a small get together for halloween and bakes the best shit. has the best goodie bags and the best decorations.

he either dresses up as gordon ramsey or a witch every year.

doesn’t really care too much for haunted houses or horror movies not that he’s necessarily scared of any of it since he knows it’s fake.

he prefers the more lighthearted side of the holiday.

he never really goes trick or treating he likes staying home and giving out candy. he’s actually the best house on the block all the kids rush to his house. gives out the big candy bars and like capri suns.

loves watching the kid halloween movies, makes him nostalgic.

okay but this boy does like spooking people on halloween. especially lance. will just randomly slam the door open while lance is in the shower wearing a scary mask. works every time to scare lance.

he doesn’t get easily scared though surprisingly.

doesn’t like group costumes so much but likes couple costumes.

says nothing while lance spooks allura and coran with his stories, waits to see how far lance can get before they start doubting him.

bonus

— once they get to earth the group costume is definitely scooby doo or stranger things themed costumes. anything that has a large group. definitely get allura and coran to participate it.

[peerless-soshi]

Intriguing DSP mysteries: Wadanohara and the great blue sea

Mogeko, aka Deep Sea Prisoner, has created a complex and extremely complicated universe, consisting of three games, three comics, two animations, one ice-thing and endless drawings or sketches. No wonder that in every new series we are able to find some major questions left unanswered as well as certain plot points that were not further explained. Considering the number of projects Mogeko is currently working on, it’s hard to judge if we are ever going to see continuations of all those stories, but we can always wish for them. For this reason I decided to waste some time, analyze all official series and in each of them (if I have patience) extract some most important and interesting questions, provided with my own theories and suppositions. 

Let’s start with a story containing relatively little mysteries - top 5 questions about famous Wadanohara and the great blue sea.

1. Who is the Sea King?

During the game we find out that the Sea King was the ruler of the Blue Sea in times when Meikai was still alive. Little is known about him. In the game his image is never shown, in the manga we are able to see the shady silhouette. Mogeko drew the Sea King on few illustrations, revealing his face.  When it comes to other information, we know that the Sea King was Uomi and Mikotsu’s father, King Artamos’ close friend, that he was the one who chose Uomi to be his successor and that he has fallen asleep. 

Question number one is what actually happened to him, that strong and scary god figure? It’s safe to assume that he was not sick nor wounded as none of his people have ever mentioned it (and if something happened to the king, they would surely remember). The fact that earlier he had resolved the inheritance issue tells us that the Sea King was aware of the slumber awaiting him and tried to prepare for it. Maybe he was losing his strength, maybe it was some kind of a spell or curse? It’s also possible that he, himself, planned to leave to kingdom to see how his daughters would behave or because he didn’t want to be the king anymore.  It’s also interesting how people in the Blue Sea believe that their god is sleeping but apparently they have no idea where he is? Did he fell asleep and then was hidden in a place where only Uomi can enter? Or did he leave his people, earlier informing that he is going to sleep for some time? 

Tatsumiya’s story about the King consists of some unclear chronological points, and the most notable is the fact that first she says that the King fell asleep, then that he has chosen Uomi. Maybe he left them a message but admonished to open it when he sleeps? Or is it in his testament?

Question number two: what was his relationship with Uomi and Mikotsu? If we were to use generalities, we can say that the relationship between the daughters and the father was rather good. Uomi seems to faithfully follow the king’s orders when Mikotsu, after waking up, tries to find her father, then several times wonders why he didn’t love her. Both women deeply love their parent and Tatsumiya’s words suggest that he also cared about them. But why did Mikotsu feel abandoned? Is it possible that her father favored Uomi? Or maybe he favored Mikotsu and that’s why choosing Uomi as a queen made her jealous? I guess it’s also important to ask if the king truly loved his children or treated them as some objects necessary for him to leave the kingdom? It leads us to the last question, so:

Question number three: what kind of a person the Sea King was? The answers are varied. Tatsumiya talks about old times as about the era when everybody was happy and calm, suggesting that the king was a great ruler. Yet Uomi also points that the king was a cruel man. Personally, I think we have two possible theories, based on the good king and the bad king image. 

Good king: the Sea King was generally a good person. All residents of the Blue Sea seem to respect him and Meikai, who in WatGBS played the role of a wise guide, follows him. It can mean that the Sea King was a righteous god. He loved his daughters, cared about his people and dreamed about the beautiful and blue sea. Knowing about his sleep, he planned to make Mikotsu the new queen. However, he noticed the signs of cruelty in his daughter. Slowly the king started to realize that Mikotsu is brilliant but also selfish and ruthless, finally understood that those traits would only deeper if she held power. The Sea King was perfectly aware that his daughter would feel betrayed but nonetheless broke the promise and gave the crown to Uomi. As he suspected, the conflict finally ended with the war. Uomi sees the king as someone cruel because he was ready to sacrifice a family member for his followers’ good and didn’t show any mercy to people who attack the kingdom to make sure that the sea is safe. That would make him a fearsome person but also a fair and good king. 

Bad king: the other possibility is that Mogeko is going to use the same card they played in Curse of the Sun. Residents of the Blue Sea follow the king because they were taught so, they are not able to notice his flaws. He creates Mikotsu and Uomi simply because he needs them and later protects them as they are necessary in his plan. Mikotsu’s deep love for her father is similar to Ivlis’ feelings, as such can be considered to be blind loyalty changing into full emotional dependency. When she shows any signs of weakness, the cold king gets rid of her without blink of an eye. Finally Meikai realizes that the king is the reason for Princess’ madness, but it doesn’t change the fact that Mikotsu is a threat to people from the Blue Sea. He seals her hoping that Uomi would turn out to be a better person than her father. 

2. How was the Red Sea created?

The explanation given to us by Mogeko is as vague as usual; the Red Sea was born the moment Mikotsu felt abandoned and unloved, then the madness somehow infected also her followers. 

First we can wonder why Mikotsu even had such a big army? As I hinted in question one, it’s possible that Mikotsu was the lawful heir to the throne and people expected her to be their queen. When Uomi was chosen over her sister, some people felt it’s breaking the law and committing a grave mistake. We can also assume that Mikotsu was generally much more intelligent and talented than Uomi and people considered her to be the best choice, so when the Sea King informed everyone about giving his crown to Uomi, rebels obviously decided that it’s like taking away from them the strong and suitable queen and leading the kingdom in the direction of destruction.  No matter which answer is true, for sure we can say one thing: the Red Sea follows Mikotsu because they believe in her and sincerely seem to want to serve her. Few characters - Old, Sal, Tsubari - mention how the Blue Sea was mistaken, what clearly suggests that the Red Sea wasn’t born just to start havoc but also because the residents share similar ideals. 

The Red Sea means its people, but it’s also special power. What is exactly that red, all-seeing force that Mikotsu is using? It affects everything around her, too. Maybe it’s the sea magic that was hidden inside of her this whole time. If that’s the case, then that would mean the structure of power changes depending on its user’s feelings and the same spells can be used in a helpful and a destructive way. It would also explain why all Princess’ supporters can use similar abilities. As we can judge looking at Tatsumiya and Chlomaki, all beings are able to learn magic. The Red Sea residents were just using their natural potential. But there’s also a different explanation - maybe we should consider a third party joining the war. This element repeatedly comes back in The Gray Garden; all mysteries lead us to some mysterious figures observing the events from behind the curtain. What if something similar happened in Wadanohara, too? Then Mikotsu herself would be powerless if she compared with the Sea King and Uomi’s magic. Someone, a person who perfectly knew about the Princess’ potential, found her and offered some special powers that could easily dethrone Uomi. Mikotsu, back then devoid of hope, gladly accepted the offer, not noticing that she was being used. The potential antagonist could be after the Sea Kingdom, the King... or something totally different, something we have no clue about. 

3. What happened to Sal?

The first two questions were much easier as in both cases we had at least some information. And honestly? We know almost nothing about Sal. 

Let start with the facts - Sal is said to be the Ambassador of the Sea of Death, the Red Sea spy, one of Uomi’s servants (implicitly with a high position in the castle since he is close to the Princess), Samekichi’s brother and Old’s son.  

Question number one: what is exactly the Ambassador of the Sea of Death? The most logical interpretation would be that Mikotsu took into consideration her possible lose and long before the whole Red Sea was sealed she made sure to leave a spy behind. It’s totally possible that Sal was chosen - but here comes another problem: the timeline. Wadanohara was confirmed to be born after the war. Considering that she and Samekichi are supposed to be close in age and Sal is Samekichi’s twin, the shark brothers either weren’t born too, were in eggs or back then were very little (I know once Mogeko said that Wadanohara is older than Samekichi but I’m not sure if it’s not just to get rid if people accusing them of pedophilia, so I add all possibilities). No matter what, Sal had to be chosen against his will as there’s little to none possibility that he remembers the war. What would make Mikotsu put all her hopes in an unborn child or even an infant? What was so special in him? The only eventual explanation is that she knew about Sal being Old’s son and decided that it’s safe to leave her will to the only descendants of the Red Sea who were staying outside. But Old’s character info says that nobody knows about his children and nobody obviously implies Mikotsu has no idea about Old’s special family situation. Maybe the Ambassador of the Sea of Death is not a specific person? We can wonder if Mikotsu left signs of power, evil will, a curse or something similar that would make someone obedient. It could be Fukami, Samekichi or even Wadanohara if she was less pure. It was a coincidence that Sal fulfilled all the conditions and finally got the title of the Ambassador. 

No matter if Mikotsu planned to make Sal the Ambassador or if Sal joined the Red Sea later, the second question remains: how was the communication between the Blue Sea and the Red Sea even possible? Meikai’s spell was said to be extraordinarily powerful so most likely any scratches on the seal allowing to send messages to Sal are out of question. But as I said before, Sal probably doesn’t remember the war. He talks as if he was there, so he must get information from another source. Who told him about the Ambassador, the Red Sea etc.? - maybe Mikotsu had cast a curse and when Sal reached certain age he gained memories of the war? - maybe Mikotsu had left a book or other encrypted message and Sal was the one who found it? - if someone really gave Mikotsu her special powers, there’s a possibility that later the same person found Sal and made him continue the task after Mikotsu failed - another conspiracy theory is that Mikotsu’s followers stayed outside of the Red Sea, maybe even in another world, and contacted with Sal 

Question number three: how did Sal’s life looked like? The game itself doesn’t give us many hints but some clues can be found in Mogeko’s other sketches. Once DSP draw Sal and Samekichi as children. The drawing with innocent kids suggests that not only they were growing up together, but also getting along well. What’s more, back then Sal’s eyes were blue, just like Samekichi’s. Both Wadanohara and Fukami’s eye colors changed when the Red Sea possessed them, so for sure we can say that Sal wasn’t born bad. Something - who knows what? - happened to him later. Another picture shows Samekichi and Sal in times when they were much older, perhaps as young teenagers. They are still together but turned backs from each other. Their faces show annoyance and Sal’s eyes are already red. The last picture is with brothers in clothes they were wearing in WatGBS. They don’t even look at each other, we can’t see their faces. Based on the drawings we can guess they Samekichi and Sal used to be quite close, then Sal found the Red Sea and slowly the darker power was taking over him.  Once again, it’s possible that the drop of red was present in Sal since he was born. Some time passed and Sal fulfilled his destiny. In this case being the Ambassador of Death was his fate and Sal couldn’t fight it, even if as a child he was much better. Themes like unavoidable fate, crawling back to you even in those moments when you try to deny it, are present in TGG and Mogeko surely likes it. Probably Sal’s destiny was decided from the start. Another option is that Sal was a nice child but later negative feelings - like anger, jealousy, hater - have turned into something much worse and Sal, unlike Samekichi, didn’t try to fight with it. In this case being the Ambassador was a choice, not his fate. Maybe Sal’s backstory is similar to the story we saw in the Betrayal END? That ending once again proves the Red Sea finds all those who hide their negative feelings, strengthens hater and finally uses against others. 

4. What is the Sacred Blade?

The game never asks this question directly, yet the sword appears to be a very mysterious artifact. We know that the blade holds extraordinary magical power - Sal first steals it to break the seal, then Samekichi uses it again to seal the Sea of Death. 

The origins of the Holy Sword have been never made clear; the sword simply lies in the castle and the residents apparently take care of it. Giving its magical potential, it’s obvious that the sword is not an ordinary weapon. The designation ‘sacred’ suggests that the Sea King was the person who had created the sword to later leave it to the Princess as her heritage. If that’s true then should we consider it to be a godly blade? Is it similar to Eti’s diamonds or Siralos’ spears? The game never really specifies how long Wadanohara needed to heal after Sal’s attack but Tatsumiya claims that the wounds inflicted by the sacred sword aren’t easy to cure. Ivlis, a devil and a powerful being, still has scars after his fight with Siralos so it is rather possible that the sword was the Sea King’s creation. But if it’s really so powerful then why wasn’t the sword used by Uomi to defeat Mikotsu? 

Maybe the sword’s purpose is not fighting. Maybe its properties are limited to sealing. Sure, Sal does attack Wadanohara but he didn’t try to use the sword for larger purposes. He broke the seal, however if the sword was some holy weapon he could as well use it to get rid of everyone in the Blue Sea. Instead, regular soldiers are send to fight with the Blue Sea residents. So maybe the sword’s power aren’t about fighting? 

On the other hand, if the sword is really a sealing tool then why did Uomi need Meikai to seal Mikotsu? She could do it alone. It leads us to theory number two: maybe the sword was created by Meikai. That would explain why nobody tried to use the sword for fighting (or at least we don’t know about it), why Sal could break the spell with the sword and Samekichi could later renew the seal. 

Theory time! As it was said before, possible the Blue Sea knew that one day the Ambassador of the Sea of Death would come. Take it as a prophecy, a legend or something similar. Meikai, suspecting that the Red Sea left a spy behind, either created the sword which he then left to Tatsumiya or created the special spell connected with the King’s sword. The spell was like a door and the sword was like a key. Even if the doors were to be open, people would still hold the key that helped them close the doors once again.

5. Who is Wadanohara’s mother?

And here we move to the last question for today, that is: who was exactly Wadanohara’s mother and Meikai’s wife/lover? 

Families appear to be quite a complicated issue in Mogekoverse. Many characters simply do not have parents or any relatives, being created or left without a detailed backstory. For example, have you ever wondered what happened to Memoca and Dolphi’s parents? The girls are still children, in theory they should have some relatives, yet they are happily traveling through the world together with Wadanohara and never mention their parents, what clearly says that they have no one except of Wadanohara and Fukami. Similarly, DSP has never said a word about Samekichi and Sal’s mother. However, the Sea Witch does have mother who was mentioned in the game and this automatically makes her an interesting character. 

Wadanohara’s mother was never mentioned during the main plot but her existence was confirmed in the Bonus Room. Meikai, leaving Wadanohara to Tatsumiya, says “I, the sea... She, the moon... We will always watch you”. The words may appear to be simple, but we can also read a lot between the lines. Firstly, we know that Wadanohara has or had a mother. It may sound obviously but in Mogeko’s works this fact is far from being a truism. Many characters happened to be created by gods and devils, were born from power, have only father. Meikai’s words proves that there was someone whom he loved and who, possibly, had lay the egg. 

Another well-known hint: the moon. As it was pointed many times before, the full moon is an important element of WatGBS’s plot. It comes back over and over again; Wadanohara notices that watching the sea and the moon makes her calm, Samekichi confesses in the moonlight, after the Red Sea has awaken Sal laughs that the moon is no longer Wadanohara’s friend. Tatsumiya compares Wadanohara’s egg to the moon and the pearl holding Meikai’s soul was said to remind the underwater moon. Those two elements - the moon, the sea - are the foundation of all Wadanohara’s powers.  The mysterious mother may be connected with the moon powers due to its association with an ocean. Because of the phenomenons such as the moon phases affecting the sea tides, the lunar motives are extremely common addiction to the aqua motives, and in collective consciousness the sea and the moon are almost always linked, completing each other, walking hand in hand. 

Considering that Wadanohara’s mother was said to be the moon, she most likely wielded some lunar power. Theory number one: she is a Moon Witch, or even the Great Moon Witch. It would explain how Meikai met her and why Wadanohara later grew up to be such a powerful mage. However, thanks to Minami we know that even if only one parent is a witch/sorcerer and the other parent didn’t study magic, a child can still be a mage. So Wadanohara’s mother may not necessary be a resident of the Witches World. Maybe she was a deity or a goodness? We can consider how gods’ powers usually focus on one element, to mention Etihw’s diamonds/white creation magic, Siralos’ sun powers, Liliya’s flowers. Is it possible that the women whom Meikai loved was a god? Maybe. There is a popular Japanese legend about a princess living on the moon, named Kaguya, who can be partly an inspiration for Wadanohara’s mother figure. Even if she wouldn’t be a god sensu stricto, she would still have a holy position.  If we talk about legends, I’m going to remind another popular theory. Some fans believe that Wadanohara’s mother was born in the Tosatsu Kingdom, as a proof seeing the Japanese story about a rabbit making rice cookies on the moon. King Artamos and the Sea King were close friends, so before the Blue Sea King fell asleep both kingdoms probably had quite friendly policy. If Wadanohara’s mother lived on Artamos’ court, Meiaki could very easily meet her. However, the bunny land doesn’t seem to be connected with the moon in any way. Some also mentioned that The reminiscence of a star could be Meikai’s love. But she is a star, not the moon, and doesn’t seem to know Meikai. 

The last interesting fact about Meikai’s farewell is hidden in the context of his words. Let me remind you - first he says that he would like to protect Wadanohara and watch her growing, yet he won’t be able to give it to her. Then he says that both, he and some mysterious ‘her’, would always watch Wadanohara. The way Meikai expresses his wish makes me believe that it’s the second time when a parent cannot take care of Wadanohara, that her mother earlier had to give up on daughter. Of course, the first association is simple - Wadanohara’s mother is dead. She could die in childbirth or shortly after the egg appeared. Thanks to that theory we could answer some questions, like why has the mother never searched for contact with Wadda and why - most likely - the daughter hasn’t even met her. Another fact in favor of this theory is that Meikai says his final words shortly before he “dies”, so now he is going to watch Wadanohara just like her mother does - from above. But there is one more thing to be added. I mentioned that Wadanohara’s mother could be a goddess. Notice how gods never have families. They do not seem to live in romantic relationships (for now the only exception is Etihw) or have children (here we must note Siralos, but his “children” were simply the expansion of his power. Siralos doesn’t even refer to Ivlis and Igls as his offspring, instead saying they are his slaves). But it’s not the end! Not only gods live without family, also all holy beings don’t seem to have families. Some angels have siblings, like Igls or Chlomaki, but it’s probably a synonym for being created together. Demons often have big, multi-generational family but we have never heard about married angels. If some live in relationships, like Taffy and Olive, it’s most likely not official. The last thing is that angels hardly ever have kids. The only deviations from a rule for now are the tenmas, who were fruits of forbidden affairs.  Let’s assume that in Mogekoverse all residents of different heavens must live in celibacy. It wouldn’t be surprising, considering how in most religions any kind of priests and priestess usually swear purity. Now, as in real life, not everyone follow the rules. From gods to angels, all have hearts torn by feelings, all love and often have affairs. However, it stays more or less secret - that is, even if all knows, still the relationship can’t be too official nor open (I will leave my Eticalb theory as it is not relevant now). We can assume another thing - Wadanohara’s mother was some kind of a deity. She met Meikai and fell in love with him. As long as the were seeing each other in secret, nobody really cared. However, soon Wadanohara was born. It was the open violation of rules and Meikai’s lover could be punished. The most rational decision was painful, yet Meikai decided to take the little egg and never let anyone know who Wadanohara’s mother is. There’s an element making this theory a little more possibly, namely Meikai, saying goodbyes to Wadanohara, doesn’t really die. He knows that he will be able to watch her, even if Wadanohara doesn’t hear his words. It would be a reason why in that monet he mentions his lover, being alive and forbidden to ever see Wadanohara. 

Will we ever hear any answers? Will any of the theories come to be true? Of course we can’t say much as we don’t  have enough facts to either confirm or destroy any possible idea. However, it doesn’t stop us from having fun!

Part two - someday, somewhere.