#he's here to be adored and thats it

[screechingfromthevoid]

Orym is giving very "I have fallen in love again and that feels like a betrayal to my dead husband" energy.

He's also giving "I care so much about my friends and I have to protect them but the love I have for one is so strong that it's distracting me AND it's not fair to the others"

Like there is so much love contained in the Orym and also so much guilt.

[relgnira]

Sketched them on their first date cause tbh I squealed! I love Mazey so much this season has the most top tier npcs fr

[luck-of-the-drawings]

"I think this is the most inhuman; and human, that I've ever felt.." MUCH CAN HAPPEN IN A YEAR. IN FIVE YEARS. A DECADE. imagine how much can happen in a century. just ONE (1). How will you grow? what phases do you find? even in 5 years, you will find patterns.

[chronologically-challenged]

Everything around the Isabeau confession is so well written.

Firstly, the set up. When you're playing the game, killing the King is just a vague goal. A natural one! But other than the vague desire to hit an end point, there isn't really a strong emotional reason compelling the player forward. But Isabeau!!! Telling you he will tell you something once you beat the King!!! That!!! That is a tangible goal to lean onto especially over time as you get more and more endeared to the whole party. Even if you're not aware of it being a love confession, getting to Isabeau to hear what he has to say is still a compelling reason get to the end.

And if you're Aware of how these things go for stories like these, you may also say, "Well shit, we're not gonna get a confession until the end of the game, are we?"

Second, the interruptions. The order of the interruptions are so quietly brilliant. I can't get over it. Bonnie interrupting first is such an excellent choice. You know Bonnie!!! Bonnie has been jumping into conversations all game so far. So interrupting Isabeau doesn't seem all that out of place. Then Mirabelle interrupts next time. And you go, okay. Thats two of three.... but surely Odile won't interrupt, right? By this point, the player has seen Odile tease Isabeau multiple times about him liking Siffrin, so surely she won't interrupt... right? Right??? But she does. And despite it being obvious that she would, the player is still left in tension if she would.

The way things are set up, there's a plausible deniability each time. You don't expect the first interruption, Bonnie naturally would interrupt so Mirabelle could be surprising, and Odile interrupting feels so outside of what she'd usually do that you don't expect it.

And yet!!!! Saying all this!!! This is very tropey!!! Very time loop tropey!!! Stopping people from messing things up so you can have your moment is quintessential time loop tropes and yet!!! It doesn't feel tropey due to good characterization and story structure.

(And if you do realize that all three are going to interrupt from the beginning, you get a wave of DREAD when you realize that you're going to be here. Again and again. That you have to beat the King again and again and again... and as you watch the confession fizzle, seeing the Head Housemaiden there, despite Siffrin's happy demeanor, you can't help but feel it all about to crash down before it even happens. In that moment you have a taste of what the game is about to put you through).

Third, the family quests. I have two points here. Firstly, "yelling at your screen like it's a telenovela" is the best summary of my feelings on the stargazing scene. Even if you KNOW Isabeau isn't going to confess until the end of the game bc that's how these things go, it won't happen until the end because that's how good writing works, You Still Want It To Happen. So Badly. You want Isabeau to confess to Siffrin!!! You want that tension to release!!! But you have to watch and see that perfect confession slip away every time and it hurts to watch, especially if you do the quests multiple times. Second point is the fact you can't continue the Isabeau confessions on a family run kills me. It's so good. Like you're never going to get everything in one go no matter what you do so you have to pick and choose. And!!! That plays into Siffrin feeling like he's manipulating Isabeau!!!

Of course Siffrin isn't actually manipulating Isabeau but when you're so aware of what you're doing and how events could have played out, it's difficult not to see a situation where you changed the outcome as manipulation. Which... of course leads us to Siffrin's feelings at the end of trying to stop the interruptions...

Fourth, Isabeau stopping himself when confessing. It hurts so good. Idk just. Denying the player that payoff. Denying Siffrin that moment of confession. Because really Siffrin didn't learn the lesson needed to actually get this moment of vulnerability between the two of them. It's such a genius choice that brings that awful dread and hopelessness. And in the end, I suppose all five of them stop the confession from happening because from that point onward, Siffrin interrupts the confession every time. Siffrin doing everything they can to get what they want only to accept that they're never going to get it. Never CAN get this because he doesn't deserve it.

Finally, bad touch. People have talked about bad touch enough, so I dont need to go too far with it. I will say I appreciate how much it doubles down on subverting the "romancing someone in a time loop" narrative. These loops while in some ways made Siffrin more perceptive, they're also PAINFUL. They mess with his head, lean towards making worse and worse decisions, and a large part of that is his role in his family's lives. Especially with Isabeau!!! So yeah. Of course the surprise kiss doesn't go well. Especially with the context that Isabeau doesn't think Siffrin wants to be touched let alone kissed? It ends in disaster just like most of the sidequests do.

In general, the ongoing Isabeau plot is very well implemented. The seeds for it are planted immediately, and it takes a lot of commitment to see all the parts of it. As a result, unless you try to do a ton of runs in act 3 immediately just to get the confession, it's a very slow burn part of the story, doing well to parallel Siffrin's mental state and the growing hopelessness in the loops. It grounds the story in a tangible goal from the beginning and in many ways, once you get to the end of it, get to bad touch, you're left bereft. Something... lost after you spent so much time being aware of Isabeau. That tangible feeling that you're slowly running out of things to do, of ways to spend these two days.

(And of course, then you have act 6 confession, and the pure relief, the joy in finally having the confession after it being set up from act 1. Siffrin doesn't need to reciprocate for it to have its impact. Something has CHANGED they have changed. And finally FINALLY after all this time, the moment can happen. And it's beautiful).

[proxythe]

mamas boy? ? ?? aka i dont pay attention to any of the official lore they drop n i make up my own

[sciderman]

[helluvahotmess]

'I want you to continue to be who you are.' what if i fucking died what then

[justaz]

merlin standing to the side watching arthur address camelot, the sun shining on his skin and lighting his hair up as its own crown despite the actual gold resting atop his head, his red cap billowing behind him by the light breeze, his eyes shining with joy, merlin’s freedom spelled across his lips. merlin watching arthur be drowned out by enthusiastic cheers so he laughs and recedes back inside toward merlin, head held high and shoulders squared back, looking even better than the king merlin has shaped him into. merlin falling impossibly deeper into love as arthur returns to his side with a grin after repealing the magic ban

[arosebyan0thername]

If there are a million Reeve Carney as Orpheus fans in the world, I am one of them. If there are only two Reeve Carney as Orpheus fans in the world, I am one of them (Eva Noblezada is the other). If there are no Reeve Carney as Orpheus fans in the world, Eva Noblezada and I are dead 😔

[casualavocados]

@grapejuicegay pointed out to me that chen yi, who hates sweets, always celebrated his and ai di's birthday with cake bc ai di would get them cake. even after chen yi broke their tradition for 4 years he still brought a cake to prison the next time for ai di. who. ftr would not have been able to eat it because of. you know the whole prison thing. & glass separating them.

also just the implications behind chen yi, who also hates spicy food, running a garage called "cayenne auto shop"? that's all chen yi's. ai di runs the bar not the shop. so now i cant stop thinking about that. insane behavior. especially for a 17 year old being handed over the controls to a division of a gang. chen yi loves ai di so much hes so cute im gonna-

[stellar-jay]

pov ur prince dutiful and you just got rescued by this well-meaning kind and romantic gay nobleman and his terrifying manservant and you pass out and when you come to youre being taken into The Pillar

[luck-of-the-drawings]

OOH YEAH BABY! PARTY TIME BABY! MUSIC! DRINKS! SOCIAL PRESSURE & A PSYCHEDELIC BREAK DOWN! WELCOME TO VAMPIRE SOCIETY MOTHERFUCKER! ARE YOU SCARED? DO YOU UNDERSTAND YET? ITS OKAY IF NOT. FIRE DISSOLVED IT! ITS ALL GONE NOW. HAVE FUN!

[moeblob]

A succubus and a demon! (The succubi don't have names but the demon is Kronos and the succubus is one of his bosses in Hell and he's not /fond/ of the succubi for many reasons but they all adore picking on him)

Also because I love them and like to point it out, the succubi act more as pleasure dealers in the sense of they offer up whatever a human wants most in exchange for their soul. It's rarely of a sexual nature since it's what they want MOST in life. And most people's ambitions are outside of a bedroom. (happy pride, asexuals are able to get affected by a succubus now without discrimination)

[5-pp-man]

It's probably never addressed in-game seeing as this is a dlc outfit (there might be an interview floating around somewhere that goes more in-depth about the design choices in the sogabe designs, but I haven't found anything so far) but it's pretty obvious that the little bear is meant to be Teddie (if the outfit isn't enough to convince you, it even says マスコット aka mascot in katakana, and well, Teddie is p4's mascot)

But I've been wondering about the other two, at first I dismissed them as just cutesy characters not meant to look like anyone in particular, but well... I looked at some other official art and I'm pretty certain the pink bunny is Nanako and the green frog is Yosuke.

"But Kanji has been shown making bunnies multiple times, why is this one in particular Nanako?" let's compare then, shall we;

On the left, from some p4 the animation art, a pink bunny with purple pants (that doesn't really match anyone besides Kanji himself, since his theme colour is purple), in the middle; Kanji's phone strap in the anime, just a simple pink bunny with no further characteristics. But on the right; a white bunny wearing Nanako's dress with a little pink flower.

"But this bunny is pink, not white! And the flower is white, not pink!"

Behold;

I rest my case.

And now, the frog.

So yeah. mystery-that-nobody-really-cared-about-and-if-they-cared-they-would've-immediately-come-to-the-same-conclusion-as-I-did-without-all-that-extra-research solved!

Though, a new question arises, why these 3?

[vaugarde]

okay so as a gen 5 stan who does adore the story in bw and bw2, and now that gen 5 has experienced both a vicious hatedom that wouldnt hear a single positive thing about the games, and now a super protective fandom that insists they were perfect and had zero flaws... can we admit now that the bw1 story at least was. a little mid.

[tiredhawks]

I legit think Hawks has the worst backstory & life in general in MHA because at least these motherfuckers have like .... friends. Hawks made one (1) friend and immediately killed him for the mission he was groomed for. And we all headcanon Rumi but we know for a fact they ain't friends because during the billboard she talked about him as a complete stranger would. Like this was highlighted by Twice saying Hawks has no right to call him unlucky when Twice has the family he has. The family Hawks doesn't have. I would put Shigaraki directly next to him because they're so similar but again.... Shigs has the League and (falsely) believes he has AFO. So I'd give him like an inch difference

This bitch has no family, no friends, no pets, no car, his happy place is a fucking empty ass quiet room? His house is a small apartment while his mom lives in a mansion and he said he doesn't view her as his mother? His literal only comfort was a discount doll and still doesn't see anything wrong with that? Motherfucker in a war right now with 3 feathers and a sword. What is going on with him this man needs severe therapy and an intervention but he doesn't have a single person to throw him one. The fuck. It's almost 2 AM so this may be completely incoherent and I have no fucking clue