#but then Maul comes back

[tragedy-for-sale]

Lingering Pain

Whoever decided to have Obi-Wan's hair fall out of place to symbolize when he himself is falling apart is genius.

When he's fighting Maul, he doesn't want to defeat him, he wants to kill him. He's so angry, flashes of Qui-Gon lying lifeless on the floor go through his head and suddenly he's 25 again losing the only father he'd ever known. Suddenly, he's channeling all the rage of his youth and it consumes him because this isn't Maul versus Obi-Wan now, this is Maul versus a young man who'd never known loss like this.

Now notice all the lightsaber marks, and notice how they all come from Obi-Wan. Maul doesn't slash the wall. Maul has the advantage, he's calm, collected and he knew exactly what to say that would rile Obi-Wan, and it worked. All that trauma Obi-Wan went through with Qui-Gon's death, there wasn't a Jedi that could help him in the way he needed. So he buried all of it, but then Maul came back from the dead, and so did all that pain.

Maul still being alive isn't fair. It isn't fair that he got cut in half and was able to live when Qui-Gon didn't survive. Obi-Wan finds himself so angry because how does a creature so evil get to live and his master didn't? You see can it in his rage, it isn't fair, you can see the mournful root of his anger, it isn't fair, you can see it with each careless, striken blow, It isn't fair.

[blondeweasel]

Darth Maul: *gets cut in half and falls down a reactor shaft* *survives*

Palpatine: *gets thrown down a reactor shaft and explodes* *somehow returns*

Tech: *falls into clouds* *dies*

[moonymelly]

me when

[byfulcrums]

I know everyone likes to make fun of Ezra for believing Maul, but I honestly really liked that, because. Like. He's been working so hard to learn to trust people again. His new-found family is teaching him how to open up and how to let himself love others without being too afraid of losing them to connect

And he doesn't immediatly trust Maul, which shows that even if his trust issues are much better now, he's still not stupid and knows to be careful around strangers, especially if you found them inside a Sith Temple

But. Maul shows and tells him what he wants to see; he acts kind with him, reassures him when he's in doubt, and manipulates Ezra (who is a CHILD) into beliving in him so he could get what he wanted

Then he betrays him, and by blinding Kanan, he proves Ezra's 'little me' right

[stellarbit]

There’s a lot of “Tech couldn’t survive a fall like that” and “it just doesn’t wouldn’t be plausible”

But like

I’d like to present this as evidence to the court

[americankimchi]

it's so hard to take star wars seriously nowadays because i'll watch someone get skewered by a lightsaber and then somehow walk it off with a bacta patch and a slap on the ass. like you're telling me a weapon that can carve furrows into foot-thick solid durasteel doors, dripping melted slag in its wake, when applied to the flesh of a sentient being leaves behind nothing more than superficial damage. like be so ffr. "it cauterizes the wound instantly" this is not a little cut. this is not minor burns. you were IMPALED BY A BEAM OF PLASMA. your ORGANS have been COOKED. your BLOOD has BOILED. your BONES were INCINERATED. what are you TALKING ABOUTTTTTT

[langernameohnebedeutung]

Something I really find interesting about Don E is that he a) seems relatively squeamish about too much blood and violence happening in front of him considering the line of work he is in, like that's an acting choice that comes up on several occasions b) he also seems really into watching Blaine torment and generally mess with people (especially psychologically) and it makes him so weird.

like, Don in the "zombies tearing up a prison bus" scene:

Drake's gutshot scene

Chief's death

but also:

you even have that scene where he specifically drags Tanner back to Blaine's office in hopes of ganging up on the poor guy

also I'm going to argue that this scene - also an example of this dynamic between them

I don't really have a conclusion to any of this other than -

but also you get scene like the one where they're torturing Gabriel for the utopium recipe where he's clearly having a good time but also is visibly wincing everytime they beat Gabriel -

[weregonnabecoolbeans]

I miss tech.

[zibiscusloon]

POV: You’re Jacob Hopkins and one of those kids you’re convinced is a demon from Mars has decided that you have broken onto Mrs. Noceda’s property for the last time-

[somestorythoughts]

[theflowerofthecommonwealth]

Jasmine, Danse, and MacCready: (Camped out in an old building- awaiting Nicks return)

Jasmine: (Blinks up at Danse innocently from her sleeping bag) “I wanna tell you my secret now.”

Danse: (Sets down his gun he was tinkering with, turning to the teen) “Okay….”

MacCready: (Listens intently as well because Jas sounds serious)

Jasmine: (Takes a deep breath, her gaze moving to stare off at nothing in particular) (Whispering) “..…I see dead people.”

Danse: (Skeptical hum, raising a brow) “In your dreams?”

Jasmine: (Shakes her head)

Danse: (Remembers Dunwich Borers and begins to panic) “While you are awake?”

Jasmine: (Nod her head, a slow smile spreading on her sweet little face)

MacCready: (Hard swallow) “Dead people like…. In graves and coffins?”

Jasmine: (Makes a motion around her with one hand) “Walking around like regular people.”

Danse and MacCready: (Exchange fearful glances)

Jasmine: (Sighs heavily as she cozies up in her sleeping bag) “We don’t see each other- they only see what they want to see. They don’t know they are dead.”

Danse: (Clears his throat) “H-… How often do you see them?”

Jasmine: “All the time. They are everywhere.” (Eyes fixate on the spot next to her, giving a small wave to a unseen figure)

MacCready: (Internally screaming)

Jasmine: (Briefly glances up at her big brothers)“Word of advice- don’t go out in the dark when it’s 3am. That’s the witching hour, and they will find you.”

Danse: “Wait- what?!?”

Jasmine: (Cheerfully) “G’night!” (Pulls the blanket up over her and promptly closes her eyes, leaving the boys to seep in their panic)

[Later]

Nick: (Enters the building, mentally exhausted) “I’m back-….”

MacCready: (Frantically runs up to him) “Valentine! What have you been feeding your kid?!?! The heck is wrong with her?!?!”

Nick: (Tired Dad sigh as he folds his arms) “What did my girl do this time?”

MacCready: (Incoherent rambling as he paces the room)

Nick: (Raises a brow) “Danse?”

Danse: (Stays quiet for a few moments) “….Have you ever considered hiring a priest to preform an exorcism on your daughter?”

Jasmine: (Appears behind the two men, a smile on her face) (Creepily) “Why? I was not lying to you- I was just trying to help prevent a tragic accident from transpiring.”

MacCready: (Nearly poops his pants as his soul leaves his body then and there)

Danse: (Jumps out a window in fright)

Nick: (Pinches the bridge of his nose in exasperation) “Dear God give me strength…..”

(Wait until she tells them about La Llorona)

[tennessoui]

Cannot wait to see Quinlan and Ahsoka's reaction to this, and for all the angst of the consequences of Ovi-Wan's lying.

i am considering doing a tasteful sort of timeskip by a few months--bail insists on obi-wan being Knighted for his bravery, the Council knights him, ahoska is stiff in her congratulations but ultimately they're talking again; she doesn't know what obi-wan told her master, but she regrets her outburst because she can see that two people she cares about are miserable. she probably eventually corners new knight obi-wan to tell him she was wrong and they should get together. obi-wan has to confess the truth again, but the actual truth this time.

ahsoka is upset but she isn't as angry; she understands obi-wan was trying to do the right thing. she, quinlan, qui-gon, and the jedi council put their heads together and assign knight kenobi and master skywalker on a mission together where the truth, the actual truth and nothing but the truth---the whole truth from the bet to why obi-wan wasn't anakin's padawan---comes out. then they fuck in the space ship

(duh)

[ouroboobos]

Fave lesbian whos ever hit on me on this app was this girl who wrote everything out with a very potent old fashioned southern accent (darlin, hun, sugar, left the Gs off the end of words even in writing, constantly talking abt how country she was, etc) and I was like hm this feels a little forced. But whatever who am I to assume. And anyway it turned out she was from fucking LA and she just acted like that for no reason

[chiropterx]

Honestly, Man-Bat would be such a horrifying creature to stumble across in Gotham? At 8'6, he is HUGE, strong enough to carry off a man in his claws while barely slowing down. He might lack the same intelligence he had as Kirk Langstrom but Man-Bat still has keen problem-solving intellect such as picking up an entire wooden desk and throwing it at Batman to hold him in place long enough for an easy bite to the throat. It's that uncanny area between what was once human vs. a hyperpredator making Man-Bat one of the most dangerous creatures to cross whether he's simply hungry enough or has developed a grudge against you for some reason. You can't outrun him and there aren't many places you can hide because not only can he fly, he's able to squeeze into places you yourself would be able to fit into.

[scramble-crossing]

i deffo agree with your entire analysis (including the questionable canon of the anime canon) and yeah for sure the original game supports this imo. for one thing i don't think that hanekoma would have supported sho even as a back-up plan if he thought that sho would've destroyed shibuya or fundamentally ruined what HANEKOMA liked about it. hanekoma considered a shibuya under sho to be better than a shibuya erased by joshua, so whatever shibuya sho would've made couldn't have been a dumpsterfire or whatever. like not saying that sho would've kept things squeaky clean or something but hanekoma considered it 'good enough to support'. hanekoma isn't exactly the best but i think that he wouldn't have picked sho if he didn't think that sho had some attachment to shibuya.

in NEO we literally see him come back to his shibuya on W3D7 to fight soul pulvis even though he could've just fucked off. yeah we have the scene of neku "convincing" him, but the dude already came back to shibuya and decided to stay to fight for his city. he also literally warned rindo about soul pulvis and about the presence of angels (the japanese version with him talking about "hyper-real" numbers is even more obvious) back on W3D4 even before neku showed up!

the wicked twisters and all of shibuya would've lost without him and his contribution to operation: awakening. period. (along with everyone else)

he learned his lesson about teamwork! when he goes to another day, he makes a fuss about "you're joining MY team" but he actively walked up to the guy signing up team members and went "hey i need a team lol" like a student asking their teacher for help getting a partner for the group project. he's gone from "not a social animal" per megumi to "zetta dig[ing]" konishi's "style" to teaming up with the WTs to protect them to understanding the value of working together in an equation for the sake of his goals

also it's worth noting that the line about only doing it for his sake is slightly different in jp. neku says that they have to get to shiba as soon as they can and says "渋谷を守るため もし力を 貸してくれるなら――" (if you can lend us your strength to protect shibuya). sho interrupts him and says, "フン、俺は 俺の目的のために 動くだけだ" (hmph, i only work for my own goals/i do want what i want) basically, telling neku to stop telling him what to do. neku says, "それでいいよ おまえも渋谷を 狙ってただろ" (that's fine, since you're aiming for shibuya too, aren't you?) and then "その渋谷の崩壊は 許せないよな" (shibuya's erase would be unforgivable, right?/you can't allow shibuya to collapse, can you?). so like yeah it's similar to what the english script did but it has a very different implication. here neku isn't convincing him to help but rather being like, "yeah, you'll only do what you want to do, and i know that you're going to do things that help shibuya because you're aiming for it as well." like i said, we literally see sho ALREADY have been offering rindo helpful advice before neku even showed up.

he gives the WTs tons of advice in the first week that have nothing to do with his interest in soul pulvis but rather to expand their powers. in field walk rpg he has a ton of random character dialogue about how he loves random shit in shibuya like the holographic hachiko statue (tokyu plaza) because he thinks that dogs are stylin' or how he thinks that rhythms that shake the heart (specific to him being interested in picking up music records from tower records) are as beautiful as a flawless equation or whatever. why would he want to destroy all of that? he wouldn't

he doesn't even care if other people cart away his artworks! he didn't seethe about that in the og, just made more and then walked away

i agree with him being obsessed with beauty and art and probably shibuya's. i mean the guy wanders around the phone booth of love at molco and shit trying to pick up cool pieces for his next artwork (and leaving something precious of his own in its wake, suggesting that he isn't interested in stealing shit, he just has a unique value system of exchanging items and art and stuff), makes people play Tin Pin Slammer and doesn't even participate himself but just hangs out in the crowd watching and seethes when joshua cheats him out of an interesting match, and possibly even stuck negative noise on ken doi to catch their attention about ramen given that the negative noise in W1 was all mission-related that a reaper must've put on someone (and with their relationship in another day). he's not a "good person" but people treating him like he's evil or sadistic or whatever just pisses me off. he's an arrogant asshole who, as far as we can read from the text, genuinely wants to see a shibuya full of cool art projects and sick murals like the udagawa one he likes and cool people like the WTs with their interesting UG powers and stuff.

ok thanks for listening to my essay. 3.1415926

Hey there.....it's been a couple months and I live in shame

Thank you so so much for this I absolutely LOVE your thoughts! I wanna try to respond them in as organized a way I can so I'm gonna address each point individually and in chronological order.

First of all, I 100% agree with what you've said about Hanekoma. If he wasn't able to directly remove Joshua from power even when he threatened Shibuya's very existence, and instead had to approach him in an extremely tedious and roundabout manner by guiding Neku when he could and using Sho as a sort of half-proxy, there's no way he would've shoved a dangerous or otherwise incompetent person into the Composer's seat and forced himself to repeat this whole process weeks later once Sho had a grip on Shibuya. Like you said, "hanekoma considered a shibuya under sho to be better than a shibuya erased by joshua," and that means something coming from a person who belongs to a class of beings who willingly "purify" cities that do not live up to their standards. It's not impossible to think that if Hanekoma thought Sho unfit and saw no other alternative, he would've come to see Shibuya as a lost cause and let it fall, preferring a dignified end over allowing it to rot and fester as a shell of its former self. Granted, he doesn't exactly sing Sho's praises. He certainly seems to view him as being convenient over an actual good candidate for the position. However, regardless of the fact that Hanekoma's criteria seems to be "the biggest, most unlikable freak in the UG," I think my previous point still stands. Would Sho have been a good Composer? Impossible to know for sure, but if nothing else we can extrapolate from what we understand of Hanekoma's values that he would've at the very least safeguarded Shibuya against erasure and kept it intact enough to still be worthy of existence in the eyes of some very, very picky Angels. And this is saying something when Joshua refers to Shibuya as being a massive influence on the world around it, so much so that he fears it corrupting other sectors of the UG. To put it simply, maybe Sho just passed the bar when it came to Hanekoma's standards, but that bar was set extremely high. Also! Just in case anyone mentions it, while Hanekoma saying that he relied on Sho's attachment to Shibuya is exclusive to the anime, technically speaking it's canonical that NEO is a sequel to the anime rather than the game. It's still very much relevant to Sho's character in NEO, if not his character in the original game...

Which leads right into your next points! Just for a moment, I want to jump to what you said about the japanese version of the game because I find it extremely interesting. That's SUCH a different implication from what we get in the english version!! Whereas we're given more of a sense that Neku is corralling Sho into working with him and the rest of the Wicked Twisters on the basis that he can't be Composer without a city to rule, basically using his preexisting goal to try to get him to adopt a new one, that of saving Shibuya, here he's saying that he knows that Sho already has a goal of saving Shibuya. It's less "Look here asshole, you have to save Shibuya because you can't be Composer without it," and more "You and I both know that you want to save Shibuya, so stop being so stubborn and help us out already!" Yes it's subtle, but personally I think it lines up better with the version of Sho that's put forward by the anime's ending, and, perhaps more importantly, lends better to interpretations of Sho's motivations In english, it reads closer to "Sho wants to be the Composer -> therefore he must save Shibuya. In japanese, it can more easily be read as "Sho wants to save Shibuya -> Ergo, he clearly cares about Shibuya -> Sho wants to be the Composer because he cares about Shibuya. Again, it's minor stuff, but the japanese version, I feel, more obviously connects his motives with his actions, presenting him helping to save Shibuya as a natural result of his affection for the city instead of it being an obstacle in his way or a diversion from his ambitions. It's really a shame that this nuance is lost in the english version. Sho is already kind of a mess in the fact that it can be difficult to discern what the writers are trying to do with him. He's built up as a persistent and deadly threat all throughout twewy only to be unceremoniously killed off in a scene that feels more like a bit than an actual serious story beat. Neo's promotional material paraded him as a core character in the protagonist's group, and yet he ends up being booted out 1/3 of the way into the story and made unplayable until post-game. He is one of the most integral characters to the plot, and yet what, in the end, does he have to show for it? Nothing! He leaves the secret ending having returned to the exact same position he was in at the start of the first game, at the exact same level of power, still gunning to take on the Composer. It feels like he's being used as sequel-bait in a series where it took 14 years to make another game, not to mention the fact that the last time something interesting was implied to be happening to him, A.K.A A New Day where he was positioned to become Neku's partner, that plot thread was dropped hard and absolutely nothing came of it. I'm not saying he's been completely abandoned by the narrative. He's definitely shown to have improved as a person since the events of the first game, and I love that! I love his cryptic mentor/moderately shit big brother arc and the fact that Neku, Mr. Twewy himself, is willing to put his faith in him. But to me at least it feels like he's being underutilized, especially in comparison to characters like Beat, who I love, but who certainly didn't need as much as he got in neo given that he had a totally satisfactory arc by the end of the first twewy. Sho is perfect for a redemption arc that's reminiscent of Neku's while still being unique and complex, one that would fit seamlessly with twewy's themes of growth and the necessity of human connection. If we ever get another twewy game and this is exactly what happens I will kiss neo on the lips for being the PERFECT in-between phase and kick-off for this arc, but I mean...it's twewy. Waiting for another game to complete his storyline is like pushing Sho off a cliff with nothing to catch him but a prayer and the world's shittiest little kiddy pool. Also the hose that's trying to fill it with water is clogged by a giant knot in the shape of mickey mouse ears.

But I've gotten sidetracked. Mostly because it's been so long that I totally forget the post that spurred this ask in the first place. I might be stupid. But honestly I think you've already put it perfectly. I'm especially grateful for the info on the field walk rpg because it's something I know very little about. I'm glad Sho got to have a fun day out with his child soldiers/teenage besties :] Overall, it's absolutely true that Sho is a very morally complex character. I tend to dislike labels like "good person" vs "bad person" because it leaves little room for nuance, something that this series is chock-block full of. The idea that Sho is an utterly selfish and sadistic individual who can never truly change irks me because it's so antithetical to the messages of this series, "Anyone can change for the better," and, "By letting others in, approaching their different worldviews and values with genuine, good faith, and by extending compassion towards each other, we make the world a better place for both ourselves and the people around us." Sho is doing this. It may be with baby steps, but it's clear from his interactions with the Wicked Twisters, as well as his enthusiasm for art that is not his own whereas before he expressed disdain for any artistic vision that wasn't his, that he is making an effort to be better and allowing these experiences to change his worldview. If he is never extended the same narrative reward that other characters are shown for this exact same kind of growth, if he is instead trapped in this cycle of scratching and clawing and desperately yearning for some sense of divinity only to crash fantastically, met with violence and isolation and the loss of the few, good things he's managed to scrape out of life...well that'd be pretty miserable, I think.

[langernameohnebedeutung]

Sorry to drop in unannounced. But this guy on the bus, he was so bald. I could almost see his brain. I had to take the edge off before things got weird, and you were closest.