#i know he's fictional but better to speculate about a fictional character than a real person

[for-the-love-of-javert]

Javert fans, don't bite me for this, but........

I came across a post on tumblr this evening from a mental health blog and the details of the post got me thinking about Javert, his personality and they way he chose to live his life. As someone who is studying mental health with plans to eventually become a counsellor/psychotherpist I found it interesting and I'm wondering what other Javert lovers think of this idea.

I know Javert is a fictional character but I think this could be an interesting discussion subject. Also it seems less harmful imo to speculate about a fictional character than a real person. Do any of you think it's likely that Javert had Schizoid Personality Disorder?

I'm not sure and haven't researched into whether or not this would have been a thing back in the late 1700's/1800's. I just wanted to ask you guys what you thought of this idea. There was just something in the info about SPD that made sense to me when it comes to Javert and his isolated life away from his work, the fact that he had no real friends, no family and so on.

[leohtttbriar]

I think Michael like for all that she is she is definitely an anthropologist like I think she takes a very great cultural lense before a scientific

you know, i think you are absolutely right! thank you so much for bringing this up! i wasn't even thinking about her academic specialties when i wrote this post. her first question being about "praying" could very easily just have been the way she was trained to meet alien peoples where they are first before obnoxiously being like "what is that, tho"

and, to your point about the cultural v scientific lens:

for better or worse, i'd say star trek collapses the boundaries between a lot of academic disciplines. "hard" v "soft" science doesn't seem to be a distinction in the star trek speculative world, where linguistics and anthropology are as much about physics and biology and no one is going to pretend like learning languages is a different kind of Study to learning chemistry. this sometimes does not work, imo, because sometimes the writing will accidentally slip into an unexamined essentialism with the alien cultures, which renders the whole of the allegory sort of silly and potentially all kinds of offensive. but it sometimes does work.

discovery, from what i remember of the first two seasons (i'm only just now starting the third, bc i lost my cbs account between 2 and 3, alas! etc), seems more able than other series to collapse the distance between disciplines and walk the line between what is cultural and what is material culture informed by biology. like saru constantly talks of his alien species and how their history of being hunted on his planet manifests in a perpetual anxiety and tamed-curiosity for him but also lends a level of care and sensitivity that he excels in---all of which fleshes out the character while giving him the awareness and consciousness to know why he may be acting a certain way compared to others and why he shouldn't ever be demeaned for it and where his body and his body's millions-of-years-old natural history can be challenged with that consciousness and how his consciousness can be valued precisely for its origins.

the klingons and vulcans, while not as sophisticated as the character saru, also seem to be largely cultural products that are informed by their specific biology. michael, somewhat caught between the cultural product and her own biological reality, can affect vulcan mannerisms and is very often portayed as thinking like a vulcan, while remaining very recognizable to us. her phrasing and her pattern of speech, while not monotone, are normally utterances that move from established fact to logical conclusion. I have nowhere to go back to...the only thing I can do right now is trust something, she says, upon being thrust nine-hundred years in the future. it's the statement of a stoic philosopher (probably one of the "vulcan" influences). she is concerned with what is material and what is real and what is real to others.

which is why i really like what you pointed out about her anthropology expertise--culture is real and often naturalized to those who live in it. michael is definitely someone, what with her studies and how she was raised, who is intimately aware of how the alien can be made familiar, how bodies can't be denied but you can learn to know them, how consciousness is strange and existence-in-causal-time stranger, and how people (all creatures included) are never all one thing or another.

obviously there's no perfect speculative fiction creating speculative cultures. the hurdles of making a sell-able show and the ingrained biases and limitations of the writers are not insignificant. but the storytelling here is engaging with conceits concerning the preciousness of life and the immutability of that preciousness--even if you don't understand it.

(also i just love michael burnham with all my heart. don't think it was a coincidence she was named after the angel who carries a sword.)

[bewaretheidesofmarchyall]

what the fuck is the Wire Mother book. Sociology has lore now?

oh boy okay

so you remember the Divergent books? the YA boom of the early 2010's? The Wire Mother was one of those series. they turned the Harlow's monkey experiments into dystopia factions.

yeah. i know. bear with me

The first book, The Wire Mother (2010) is pretty standard YA dystopia fare. There's this girl named Leo Groves (the Leo's short for Leonore) who lives in the court of the Cloth Mother, a city where people live in comfort and camaraderie and a general vibe of hold hands around the campfire and sing, except for the people who die at random. This is accepted with unsettling what-can-you-do calm from the main characters. (Eventually, it's revealed that's happening because only a 1/5th of the food served in the city is real, so most of the people are dropping dead of starvation but their bodies are quickly hurried away as to not kill the vibe, so no one worries all that much about it).

Which could have been cool speculative fiction! A handy story about desensitization to violence or complacency or something. Unfortunately, this was 2010 YA, so the concept is quickly kicked under the bed in favor of. yeah. A love triangle. Leo, being a special little narratively significant thing, finds her way to the mysterious other city on the other side of her hometown, the court of the Wire Mother. And when she's there, she meets a boy. Coil 54810.

Coil goddamn 54810.

That brooding son of a bitch. His last name is 54810 because the concept of last names and family doesn't exist in the court of the Wire Mother, only functionality, so 54810 is just the number of Coils there's been in the city. He's not a clone or anything, it's just the amount of people who've had that name. It's like being named Jeremy 54810. Killer of plot pacing. Swoopy of hair. He would have deserved to be named Jeremy.

God, anyway, I'm talking a lot about this. Anyway: The Wire Mother is exactly as good as the average YA dystopia book from the time period. It has some high points (the Cloth and Wire mother are cool ominously looming entities, and the main antagonist Jane-Mary has a level of batshit mad science energy to her that makes her the most fun villain in the series) and some low points (the forced Romeo and Juliet references. the forced romance. It is so clear that Benjamin St. Jobs, the other guy in the love triangle, doesn't stand a chance, but we have to keep who-will-it-be-ing for so long anyway. And Coil's a dick), but it mostly just balances out.

There were three more books in the series. There was supposed to be four, but. Well

Anyway. Book Two, The Wire Mother: Hounds' Toll (2012), actually kind of slapped. It went to more tragic and horror-influenced places than the original book. One thing I'll give Angela Lee (the author) credit for: I don't think this was a sequel for the sake of having a sequel. I think that the series was always supposed to be a pentalogy.

Some of the stuff in this book has still stuck with me to this day- I have to hold myself back from adding ominously ringing church bells in so many of my projects. Also, it really filled out Leo Groves as a protagonist- I could take or leave her in the first book, but I started to genuinely like her by the second. And the stuff they do with Stellarose Ardent, her best friend turned rival... God, I could make a whole post about Stellarose Ardent.

this book series is good, readers thought. surely the third book will be as good if not better

THE THIRD BOOK WAS HELL. The Wire Mother: Ordained Voltage (2013)...I think it did everything wrong. There was a reason that there was a two year break between the first two books, and book three being out only a year after Hounds' Toll really shows.

It's incredibly rushed. Leo barely gets to do anything. Stellarose is killed off in the most unsatisfying way possible. And while it seemed like Book Two had neatly put the love triangle to bed, no! It claws its way out of its grave!! To torment me specifically!

The only good thing we got out of this car wreck is Anesthesia 3, lab rat girl and apocalypse maiden extraordinaire. I adore her. She's got real Fish Inside A Birdcage vibes. Everything else, though? Horrors.

But readers held out hope. At least the characters ended up trapped in an interesting setting at the end of book three. The merciless, multi-layered prison of Tithonus, the central antagonist of the series. It seemed like that was a good set-up for a prison escape storyline. Those have to be entertaining, right?

Somehow, some way, no. Book Four, The Wire Mother: Endless Sentence (2014) is not just bad. I could forgive bad. But it is bad, and it is boring.

so boring that I'm not even going to waste my words on it. It's a school night. I'm not staying up to describe that thing. The only interesting thing about it is how it could manage to be boring while being an homage to the fucking Stanford Prison experiments.

And that was the end of a lot of people's hopes for the Wire Mother series. Only one good book out of four isn't a great track record, you know? A lot of readers were willing to put Hounds' Toll down as a one-off.

Then, in November of 2014, the preview for Book Five, The Wire Mother: Quantum Claws came out. It was three chapters long. And people lost their shit.

First of all, it was good. Maybe as good as Hounds' Toll. Maybe better.

But more than that, it was a break from the relatively grounded, safe, company standard dystopia of the series. Because this bad boy was going to be about time travel. Tithonus, in his evil plans to live forever, had built a time machine and activated it just at the right moment when the plucky heroes were about to kill him once and for all.

Which seems like something that would be a train wreck, right? If this author can't handle the easy-to-please tropes of prison breaks and romance, what business does she have trying to handle a time travel story without completely fucking up the series?

And maybe that would have been true. But the first three chapters were insanely promising. They were refreshing, original- they got time travel. We were able to get characters like Stellarose and Jane-Mary and Turpentine back after the story cast them aside so soon. And it promised to really examine what Leo Groves meant for the book's world. So, hopes rose again.

Unfortunately, we'll never know if it would have been good or bad. The fifth book was never published. We don't know why. It was just promised, for months and months, and then. Poof. The updates stopped. It was gone.

And it haunts me. If you haven't stopped reading by now, you can probably tell that. The fandom was like a fraction of the size of the Divergent fandom, and I don't know anyone IRL who's read these things. I don't even know if I can or should recommend them.

But sometimes something doesn't have to be a literary masterpiece to burrow into your brain and not let go, I guess ASJSJS

[wannaeatramyeon]

Hi~ I just wanna ask you, how do you think/feel about Eli & Heather's relationship and their 'history'? Like some people said that Heather took advantage of Eli's innocence, some people said that it was Eli's mistake.

Ok anon. I have my thoughts but I reread the arc just to try and articulate them better. Fucking forgot Darius Hong was in this. And no one needs more Darius Hong in their life. Anyway.

Eli Jang/Heather Relationship rambles

In this essay...

Damn. This is rough. Please note I may be the least well informed person to give my thoughts on this. Happy for anyone to disagree.

Sigh. I think a lot of times we think of things in black and white, whereas almost everything is in shades of grey.

Eli Jang & Heather's background

First off, Eli has experienced a lot of trauma when he was first introduced, and clearly going through a lot mentally. He's also stunted in a lot of ways and 'deprived of an education'. Literally everything that he has known was abuse. Ran away from home at the age of 10. And whatever fucked up shit was going on with Tom Lee too.

I cannot stress how clear all of this is.

With Heather, the only real thing we know about her is she's 15. Both parents lawyers and very overbearing.

Eli Jang's 'recovery' from trauma

But by chapter 237: Eli Jang (6) a month passes and they have both met. Eli, from how he is portrayed, has already improved a lot. Healed a lot. Not fully. I think we need to remember that the passing of time and progression differs massively in Lookism than in real life.

If this was real life, nope. Lookism, ehhhh. Literally please suspend your belief.

This is in part a big reason why I don't blame Heather for her actions that night.

The huge fucking question mark over consent

I can also never fully agree with anyone saying that Heather groomed Eli. To me, she acts very much like a 15 year old girl with a crush. Less nefarious than what grooming implies. Could she have been better informed and set boundaries? Hell yeah.

From what we can see in the panels, Eli reciprocates her feelings. Sure there might be other things going on, but if there were insidious intentions I feel like PTJ would show it more front and center.

To me, looking at the storyline and art, it just feels like 2 people with a crush.

At the same time, if we apply real life morals to this, then yeah it's all pretty messed up. This isn't real life though.

(Sex education is a whole other kettle of fish I don't want to get into. Where I'm from, we have free contraceptives, free medical care, sex education. But oops, teenage pregnancies still happen an awful lot.)

Here's where people might disagree because I'm giving consent to people on their behalf - though we're talking about fictional characters here and all we can do is speculate.

My opinions on this are:

If we ask Heather if she believed Eli consented that night, she would fully believe so.

Similarly at the time, Eli would probably say yes he did.

I have little reason shown by PTJ to doubt that he would withdraw his consent present day as well.

As for Eli's mistake?

Uhh. Assuming they are both able to consent, and let's just say yes for the sake of simplicity, then I don't see how the night together is his mistake?

The whole mess afterwards and the poor communication and martyr thing going on I would say is his mostly his fault. Yes, he has his reasons for it. Two things can still be true.

And fucking Olly Wang.

But Heather was right there. Eli could have cleared the air with her. Said wtf I didn't message you those but he didn't.

Heather lashed out, which I think is a very human response to her situation and the sudden insane amount of pressure placed on her shoulders, however unfair her words are. She didn't have the full story though, whereas Eli did.

So like I said, I place more of the ownership of this situation on Eli even though I can also see where it all stems from.

In Summary

This goes back to what I said before about there are so many shades of grey, and this situation and relationship is absolutely not black and white. To me, anyway.

We can also imply all we want with things happening off-screen during any of the arcs though it's better to stick with what we can see or clearly read between the lines.

Taking in my thoughts above, honestly? I just think it's a tragic story about 2 kids that had unprotected sex one night and then it fucking spiralled. I don't see the blame lying with either one for their actions. Based on my reasons above.

This situation feels too nuanced here for me to say yeah Heather fucked up or Eli fucked up because there are so many details at play here, mostly to do with Eli Jang's background but also to do with the pacing of time and recovery in PTJ-verse.

TL;DR: No-one sucks here. Too many nuances. Sad af situation.

[blonding]

my thoughts on shima sousuke, a (semi) short character analysis.

so recently, i’ve had the pleasure of catching up on the skip to loafer manga, which is a seinen manga with romance elements (i know better now than to call it shoujo!) but that aside, ever since the beginning when i started reading it a year or so ago, shima sousuke, the male main character, stuck out to me.

more under cut + various major skip to loafer spoilers are included

shima sousuke is like. well first of all he’s one of the characters of all time, but beside the fact i like him a lot, he’s a character i relate to in a way i never thought i would relate to a fictional character. calling him multi-faceted just sands down the realness of his character otherwise.

shima is very much the type of character that doesn’t want to “stick out or make a fuss” mostly due to childhood trauma and neglect, he feels as if he is already a burden while not realizing the cause as to why. but along with that, he also bottles everything up until the point where his numbness to genuine emotion makes him feel like interaction & intimacy is just the other party, and him, taking advantage of each other in different ways. and, while some of this may be true, in his head shima already knows that he has built up an invisible wall around him, so that even if someone really did want to actually get to know him, mitsumi for example, he couldn’t let them in even if he tried to.

take this screenshot from chapter 46 as an example ^

the writing in skip to loafer (especially the character writing) is incredibly real and dimensional, and while i’m just focusing on shima for now- how he handles his relationships with others, as if he “owes” others his compliance and kindness, in one of the later chapters he calls himself a ‘status symbol’ as if he doesn’t even really see himself as a person worthy of his own autonomy at all.

^ here you can see how he truly thinks about himself.

the cause of this, at least the main cause, is shown to the reader throughout the manga- due to the fact that he was abused as a child, and made to believe that he doesn’t have worth outside of what others can make of him and what he can provide- he has completely alienated himself (or at least his real self) out of a fear of being resented, and honestly, such is the feeling of a child who has only known fear and darkness, it’s probably only natural that he’s extremely afraid to even try to leave that.

on the other hand, even if it was without knowing at first, mitsumi is the constant in the manga that is thoroughly and constantly trying to break this pattern. her kind bluntness and truthfulness aids her in this. i feel as if the reason why shima partially lets mitsumi into his life, with or without realizing, is because of the fact she has what he envies most— love. whether shima realizes this or not- he is jealous of her. he is jealous that she is able to speak her mind as freely and truthfully as she wants, and he is jealous of the fact that she is clearly someone who has those who truly love her.

^ you can see that another character even outright tells her right here.

in a way, these characters are polar opposites of each other. shima wants what mitsumi has, and mitsumi wants shima to open up to her- something he feels he is incapable of.

but even with that being said, shima doesn’t want mitsumi out of his life either, even with his jealousy aside he does actually like mitsumi- after all, what’s not for him to like. she was one of the first people in his life to actually want to know him, and not just the idea of him, but the real, honest-to-god him.

obviously this is all just my own personal speculation, but i do believe that all shima ever wanted was to feel genuinely wanted, but now that he actually is wanted for who he really is, he has no idea what to do, and even less of an idea as how to tear down the seemingly indestructible wall that he has built up around him.

regarding shima’s character, it’s all very this image ^

anyways, i think that’s just about all i have to say for now, thank you for coming to my shima sousuke ted talk, i hope you enjoyed it at least a little bit!

[saimotass]

unfortunately i do like the coffin of andy and leyley. however! i'm not one of those weirdos that ships andrew and ashley together, and you shouldn't be either! anyway more thoughts on my stance below the cut

i'm not a fan of the fact that the incest is there - i understand why, as another way that ashley can manipulate andrew's emotions and affections, and it's supported as an interpretation in the text. but their relationship could still be just as toxic and codependent as it is in-game without that being a canonized route. the overtones and subtext will be there regardless, and i do view it as part of andrew's character that he has a subconscious attraction to ashley, but there are other ways for their dynamic to change other than canonizing and romanticizing the romantic undertones of their relationship.

i understand that it's fictional and that it's also not the only morally reprehensible thing that the graves siblings do in the game. however, the incestuous dynamic between them only manifests on the route where they're both still alive and both coming to more of an understanding with one another. while, yes, neither route is a particularly good one for either of them, the questionable route being an offshoot of the burial route (the route where ashley continues to get everything she wants out of andrew) inherently paints the dynamic as a better solution than ashley and andrew getting their comeuppance for their crimes.

i am aware that not every story needs a moral backbone - some of the best stories have reprehensible things happen in them and their perpetrators never see retribution. however, when people outside of those stories read them, they affect reality and their perception of it. all good stories do. no matter what, fiction does affect reality and the way we interact with it, because fiction is inherently based in reality - even sci-fi, fantasy, speculative fiction.

people actively shipping and glorifying the incestuous dynamic between andrew and ashley affects the perception of incestuous dynamics in the real world for those people. ignoring the manipulative tactics that led to that route leads to more tolerance of those manipulative tactics. even when people claim that they know better, it still affects their perception, even the slightest bit. and people who aren't aware of the context seeing their incestuous relationship being glorified will assume the context makes the situation more palatable than it actually is.

ashley's been really good at manipulation thus far, it stands to reason that she could probably figure out a way to keep andrew along without resorting to incest. he's already pretty clearly devoted to her as an older brother, she could keep using their familial relationship as a means of manipulating him, or hell, eventually if andrew ends up fighting back there could be a route where she kills him and ends up using another person later, this time with romantic and/or sexual motivations. i've seen suggestions that it could even end up being julia, which would both make sense and add to the fucked up nature of ashley's motivations and manipulation.

andrew's underlying attraction to his sister could be refuted more openly and clearly. his reactions to other people noticing their dynamic could be more overtly against the idea. he could start trying to distance himself from her as a means of putting a boundary. he could be more forceful with setting up that boundary with her when she teases him about it. all of the reactions in-game lead people to assume that andrew wants this, potentially even more than ashley, and that because of that, it's okay because they're "consenting" to it.

there is no consent in this relationship - ashley has been manipulating him since they were kids, their power dynamic is uneven and leads to ashley taking advantage of his emotions, and ashley's been essentially grooming him into seeing her as the only woman in his life for years at this point. not saying andrew is without fault here, but putting myself in that position, if i had a younger sister who threatened me for a murder i was an unwilling accomplice to, all because she was jealous that i was starting to have a life of my own with people that aren't her, i would have felt similarly helpless.

[tobiasdrake]

Alright, that brings us to what may be the biggest plot hole in V3. You know what I'm talking about.

People have gone back and forth a lot on cospox, because it makes absolutely no sense within the "true" metatext of V3.

It's presented here in the form of Tsumugi dressing up as Kaede, to demonstrate a horrible rash that spreads across her body as an allergic reaction to cosplaying a real person.

We're not going to talk about how patently silly that is because this is Danganronpa and Danganronpa does not give a shit. There is no ceiling for zany magical bullshit. If Tsumugi says cospox is a thing then sure, why not.

She literally wrote the script. She knows better than you or I do about whether this is possible.

No, the problem is that how it's introduced and how it's ultimately used are at odds with one another. If this is a real affliction that Writer Tsumugi suffers from, that's fine. If this is purely a quirk that she wrote for Character Tsumugi, that's also fine.

It would be entirely possible for Tsumugi to fake this. We see later in the game that her Cosplay skills are so advanced that she has super-speed quick-changes, able to swap wardrobes and even body types near-instantaneously. She could absolutely be fucking with Kaede right now.

The problem is that this becomes a critical plot point for revealing the truth of V3. Her cospox is central to revelations of the middle reality. We learn that the Danganronpa universe exists as fiction within her universe because she can cosplay as Danganronpa characters without triggering her cospox.

But. That. Doesn't make sense, does it? Because in this scene where she reveals her cospox, she's dressing as Kaede. Kaede is no more real than Makoto Naegi or Ibuki Mioda or Junko Enoshima. You can't even bullshit around that problem by saying that she's wearing the actress's clothes, because the actress came here in a different outfit. These clothes were provided to Kaede during the False Start opening as her character's costume.

Some people have taken this as undeniable proof of an even more hidden truth buried beneath the hidden truth that's buried beneath the lies masquerading as the truth. The ending even suggests as much, with the characters speculating that maybe the reality show and LARP was itself a lie and that the TRUEST TRUER true story of V3 has never been revealed.

But I don't truck with that shit. That's just mystery boxing. Deliberately not answering the questions that the story raises to trick the audience into making up their own explanations, which they will then project onto the original lazy story so they can convince themselves it's clever.

What exists within the text is a massive plot hole. Maybe Kodaka couldn't be arsed to notice that he wrote himself into a corner because he was actively burned out on Danganronpa when he was making this, or maybe it's an elaborate writing prompt. One that you can absolutely spin 50,000 pages of fanfic out of if you want to. But either way, it's my opinion that, as an audience, the main plot of the story shouldn't be your responsibility to fix.

One way or another, the way V3 handles Tsumugi's cospox is terrible.

[epickiya722]

I am for real tired of this "know it all" attitude a lot of you jerks seem to have. For fucks sake, not everyone will know every little detail about BNHA, okay? Do you know how big of a story it is with all the characters and arcs and whatnot?

People forget things, people sometimes are locked out the loop.

Don't come all like "well, you do know this, right" because you're just being a complete asshole.

What if that person is new to the fandom? What if that person didn't know?

Or or! How about this?

What if you're wrong?

There is this thing called "misinformation". Sometimes it happens through the grapevine, people mix up information by accident. Or people do it on purpose to cause a little drama.

Sometimes it happens because of language barriers! Translations can be a hit or miss!

So don't act as if you are so right about everything and know everything! For all you know, you just made yourself look like a bigger ass because you just couldn't help to make someone feel stupid.

Unless Horikoshi confirms it, it's not true and up to speculation. Hell, sometimes Horikoshi may have to look back on his own work to make sure he's right about his own story like "Okay, wait, did I say this or that".

If you're going to correct someone, at least be polite about it. Even provide the information if you can because they may want to see it. I'm the type who actually don't mind someone showing some information I didn't know before. I love learning new things.

It's treating me like I'm stupid is where I draw the line.

You're no better than me being all "Well, you know it was actually this, right".

I may not know something, but damn. What if you're wrong about it? I'm even going to side eye you if you don't provide the information, especially when if the information you just gave me about a character or something else doesn't make sense to canon.

Give me the actual source. If you don't remember, that is also just fine. Again, people forget things. That is cool. I forget things. Sometimes I have to go back and search up information.

But don't be patronizing. Don't be so condescending. Don't be so quick you prove someone wrong OVER FICTION, at that.

This is why people don't come into fandoms.

[katyspersonal]

ALRIGHT LET’S TALK ABOUT BLUBBORNE!!

Here are a list of things to choose from <3

Chat about Logarius or Alfred!!

Ideas for Bloodborne 2 👀

What do you think about Hemwick being connected to Cainhurst?

Talk about Gilbert!! I never get to see you chat about him! Lil guy!

Ideas on Arianna’s backstory!

Ideas on Adella’s backstory!

What would a Discord with the original Byrgenwerth scholar gang look like?? xD

—

Choose one or all! It’s up to you!! <3

Oh my GOSH fjdhfds Good to know you all headed my warning to never give me a choice because I answer EVERYTHING, huh -_- xD But in all seriousness though, these topics just happen to be those I do not have 20 pages essay ready for, so my answers will be short(ish) and I think I can discuss all this stuff in compact manner!

Chat about Logarius or Alfred!!

Well, they're complicated characters for me. You know I am physically unable to 'hate' a fictional character because no matter what they did, they aren't real and can't hurt me and if all else fails they exist to make the story better. But because of some events and reflection on life and society, these two in particular put a pit in my stomach on the notion of being trademark catholic-coded purists. There are so many things that can be speculated about complexity of Laurence's or Adrich's situations, but these guys feel pretty plain for me? The black-white thinking bastards that got so tempted with the idea of abolishing all evil that it made them ruthless, blind to nuances and purist that can't see how they become the REAL evil in the end.

I think Logarius/Rogeriusz is fairly underrated though and it cannot be blamed on him being unlikeable from moral standpoint, because we've all seen how popular Alfred is despite graphically killing a defenceless woman! But Logarius has a lot to like as a villain - he is noticeably tall and menacing, he was a powerful leader figure in Healing Church like Ludwig, he has a lot of mystery to his character as to why he uses Pthumerian magic and shares theme with Queen Yharnam (and as follows, why would he turn against a kindred clan/bloodline?), and what he discovered that made him gatekeep it? Besides, there is a translation mistake calling an item 'Skull of a Saint' something else - 'Sage's Hair', and when I discovered the proper description ( x ), I realised there is a big implication that following Healing Church's saints were wearing crowns after his raid on Cainhurst - both to honor him and to boast about having thrown the local monarchy!

This is just very odd that Logarius was a pioneer of the delusion about exterminating 'impurity', and managed to hit da briks before he became hated and showed true nature of his pursuit - unlike poor Ludwig that presumably had better intentions and less freedom to see through WHAT was guiding him, yet fought long enough to become accursed by everyone. It is UNFAIR. But Logarius is such an important element in the system, as a trend-setter rather than people brainwashed into following Church's agenda! Willem is never addressed for messing with unknown too, Logarius is never addressed for being ideal inspirer of hate and murder... Guess the REAL martyr here is Laurence every time! xD

Alfred is also a hard one for me, as for someone from the country that actively fabricates history facts, encourages distrust to outer information and ignorance, and just straight up lies with agenda. Like, sure, I am familiar with how easy average person can fall for a narrative - and how easy it is to discourage any skepticism and critical thinking before it formed. If anything, I pity him.

But I've grown to feel even more tense about this character when I reflected on the fact that he is SO eager to exterminate the 'enemy' that he goes after ones who can't even CAUSE any harm (he wants to kill Annalise who is absolutely defeated and defenceless, and he is the only summon in Old Yharnam where beasts that won't go outside live). There is a difference between trying to protect people from the possible threats (since whether vilebloods DO have cursed magic effect is up to interpretation) and "cleansing" the world from anyone affiliated Just Because. I've been doing Adella dirty for a long time calling her 'female Alfred' and I had since took it back because she at least gives Arianna a 'chance' as long as she doesn't share her blood that Adella's religion forbids. Not even one - she did the "three strikes and you're out"! Alfred is ruthless tho, in a very uncomfortable way, but it took me some unpleasant experiences to SEE truth about him. I think that no matter how far up you are in a religion, but whether you have a braincell to extend minimal reasoning about WHY you are fighting the 'bad guys' is on the individual and not on the source of this brainwashing, and Alfred fails this test.

That being said, he is still an interesting character, and I really love his unique appearance! His nose is a whole BEAK xD /pos I also headcanon that Alfred never met Logarius in person and his bond with him is parasocial, based on admiring the great person of the past upon feeling like he 'knows' him! The same applies for my versions of Amelia/Emilia and Laurence!

The rest of the topics are going under cut!

Ideas for Bloodborne 2 👀

Honestly, I think the best one I've seen executing the concept was HollarityArt in their contribution for Vaati's Bloodborne 2 concepts contest! Here is the link on Twit with their concepts: ( x ).

I have very little ideas on this but I agree that part 2 would be the best placed in sea/ocean setting! But the MOST tricky thing about the sequel would be that one of the potential Bloodborne endings is our Hunter becoming the new Great One that governs the cycle, instead of Flora. And another one is them replacing Gehrman. So the sequel must deal with addressing how no matter WHICH ending player had in Bloodborne, it didn't matter! Basically, something should happen with Hunter's Dream or the current Moon Presence that would leave any ending still palatable. So, addressing the current 'queen' Great One would result in the cycle still ongoing (aka our Hunter as Great One inflicting the same cycle, so it is not possible to pin whether Flora is still active or Hunter is). And, sure, for some reason, the Hunter's Dream is broken, just so we could not see our Hunter from previous game. This is extremely depressing, but feels in the spirit of From's games.

What From would need to do with Bloodborne 2 is to add information that doesn't quite confirm or deny exist fan theories, but instead adds more to WORK with! And creates MORE questions. So, reveal extra details about what we see in Bloodborne, but in a way that didn't answer the question. As in 'yeah there was a Great One counterpart for Flora', 'yeah there was someone in Isz that did birth Ebrietas as little celestial larvae many centuries ago, here is her statue and nothing else', 'yeah look at the ruins of the waking world version of Fishing Hamlet' etc. Some characters I think should reappear but in a way that feels expected while also not REALLY telling us anything new. So, Queen Yharnam not in the wedding dress, Gehrman functioning like his hunter self (like I said, Hunter's Dream should get broken), Maria having her recollected memory from when she was a caretaker of Research Hall, Adeline in a Kin form somewhere in a secret nook of Sea location (presume she ascended with or without Paleblood Hunter).

I like the idea that Yharnam in the sequel is a ghost town that has no messenger lamps or huntsmen, only rare NPCs and enemies who are largely people and/or Kin of the type we haven't seen before. Yharnam would have a bigger layout that makes much more sense geographically, some buildings and areas would look notably different if not more civilised. So that'd return the question whether Yharnam we play in even WAS real or this sequel Yharnam simply the same but changed from the last time, so people can argue whether this Yharnam is "real" and not "dreamed" one or developers simply improved their mapping and designing skills xD Maria would be able to travel there with us by waking up in the body of the Doll that still stayed in Old Workshop, and many people in Yharnam would act hostile towards both her and the player; later in the plot turns out that Hunter's Dream breaking was the result of external powers, and roaming people and unfamiliar Kin work together and target to remove the traces of influence from Stars and Moon! They'd be more alien Kin that urged to help with grasp of Flora and Fauna had on the Earth and its mortals, but in reality more or less want to establish their order. But protesting them would restart the cycle of vices of humanity, so... yeah, again, the game would be depressing and point out how there is no choice, only diverse ways to suck.

I also think the next game should extend beyond Yharnam, and using a ship to travel between locations would be a cool idea! Maybe getting to visit Valtr's home, or whatever Loran is now. @val-of-the-north had an idea that there is a legit country known as New Loran, but it would reveal more about history and heritage than just a bunch of electric beasts and sand. If I try to describe more concepts I might get really sucked into this swamp, so I'll leave it be here, but meeting relatives of some characters we've known would be great too! I always have this image in my head about Valtr's niece that heard he chased some monster and never came back, so we meet her when she is an adult that wanted to investigate on the mystery of her uncle. Also learning more about the fuckery Micolash and Laurence did do in the past through item descriptions; again, in a way that actually doesn't disrupt anything, more like 'well we already knew they had to commit a lot of crimes, we just now know the details'. The war criminals are still here in spirit! xD

What do you think about Hemwick being connected to Cainhurst?

Well, I said that sometime before, but I do think that both Cainhurst nobles and Hemwick are mixed human+pthumerian (and sometimes just human) descendants that preserved a lot of practices from ancient Pthumerian civilisations... and matriarchal traditions, too. They have different practices, as Vilebloods use blood magic and consume blood for power, whereas Witches use magical binding rituals, necromancy and disturbing tools as well. Ironic that they had 'Blood vs Eyes' conflict of Blood vs Arcane Healing Church factions before it was cool, don't you think?

Yharnam used to be monarchy but so many foreigners and neighbouring cities rubbed in on the area, that they became practically equal with higher class Yharnam citizens, and had to count people like Willem as equal. Maybe if Healing Church didn't form so swiftly, Yharnam would never have a mayor. But yeah, basically, Witches were something of peasants in relation to Cainhurst nobles. But they cooperated enough, and Witches would often offer medical help to the nobles who entered trouble with the curse living within their blood, or struggled to control pyromancy upon first periods. Witches maybe lived in poverty and dirt without much convenience, down to having to pay taxes TO Cainhurst, but they have unspoken knowledge within themselves that they are, in fact, superior to the nobles, as they have better grasp on the arcane secrets and are waaaaay less helpless before supernatural. I believe Iosefka and Fauxsefka are from Cainhurst, and Witches were how Iosefka studied ways to purify the blood from Frenzy + Beasthood inducing effects. Why that practice never picked up? Because we live in a society, indeed.

Talk about Gilbert!! I never get to see you chat about him! Lil guy!

Ahhhh right! I just didn't have much reason I guess? I do have a face design for him, that features some facial skewing like many Yharnamites have!

Like his beasthood form suggests, he was afflicted with Ashen Blood, which I believe was not a planned action but an honest mistake by using the blood of a poisoned beast (Blood-Starved Beast crucified in Old Yharnam). However, back in the day where Yharnam was not quarantined away from the rest of the world (to the point you are not supposed to SURVIVE being there if you never had holy blood transfusion), there were plenty of people picking stuff up and illegally selling it abroad. @val-of-the-north has an idea that Valtr and his friends caught one of such groups, just when one of them transformed into a beast upon getting too much of his own "medicine" and I stealeded it xD

But Gilbert I think was a victim of one of such things, contracting Ashen Blood by consuming a poisoned "medicine". He never was able to connect the dots between getting worse after it as someone who already had his own illnesses. The more I learn about Victorian era, the more I realise how shockingly ignorant they were about medicine. I mean, they were having mercury pills for god knows how long! So, yeah, he saught Yharnam, and naturally had his strange sympthomes sustained by consuming the blood as someone who got beasthood 'activated'.

I like to think that he used to be a hatter, and it WAS what made him sick initially; they were number 1 victims for mercury poisoning, because of the materials used in their craft. However, it were not just hats that he could do well, and after arriving in Yharnam, he gladly worked to produce more clothes, sewing mostly Yharnam Hunter garbs obsessively! And is one of the rarest people who met Ludwig in person and is still around AND sane! Hence how he had his Flamethrower - the Healing Church shared one with him to help him to self-defend. But, he was out of use and got too sick before he got to kill even one. Being bedridden, he used to read books a lot, until his eyesight got afflicted too (apparently beasthood attacks the eyes the most), so he mostly entertains himself with fantasies and reciting memories.

Ideas on Arianna’s backstory!

Heh, like I said already, I love the idea that her mother ran with her from Cainhurst when Arianna was still a baby, so she never GOT to know the noble life. But, she did inherit her mother's noble dress, and vague idea about their blood being special enough to offer to the hunters. I entertain the idea that Alfred was Arianna's brother but had to be abandoned since he was older and their mother could only care for one child in the hard situation, but it is up in the air.

In either case, Arianna's mother died soon(ish), most likely from violent death. But instead of some Church fanatic killing her in "righteous" wrath, it was that her mother went insane unable to consume queen's blood or find any management for it, so she, like... had Vileblood version of becoming blood-drunk and was shot before she transformed into a bloodlicker completely. When she was about to turn on her own daughter to drink her blood dry, no less! The hunter that saved Arianna was Henryk, who picked every other orphaned child under his protection because he was aware Choir takes orphans and they are never seen again. I swear, at least once Choir had to confront him about whether his children are all 'really' his, and Valtr had to wear a dress and pretend to be their biological bother dsjfhdsfdsh

But for the most part he was not able to properly care for his adopted babies; Viola was exceptional case that stayed close enough. Most of the orphans under his protection were wandering around looking for their purpose, and Arianna was like this. She clinged to Crow of Cainhurst, trusting him as the only remaining hook with her Cainhurst past, but he did not feel qualified or interested enough to play a dad for her - something he regretted upon meeting Arianna again years later and seeing WHAT she has to do to survive.

I also think that Arianna reacting on female Hunter differently is not a homophobia (?) internalised in Yharnam, but remains of her mom teaching her that women are "superior"; she speaks from the standpoint that she doesn't pity men all that much, but would dread to 'dirty' a woman with something as questionable as a loveless sex. It is not something beyond her that men will be like animals, but she feels inferior compared to other women, and it really gets to her.

Ideas on Adella’s backstory!

Likewise an orphaned person. When she reached puberty, she was this 👌 close to attempting to sell her body, like Arianna, before she managed to get herself a place in the Healing Church. It happened on the rift when Choir fell from uhhh... "grace"?, as well as the daughter of the current Vicar, Norbert/Herbert, turned into a celestial kin together with the children she was overseeing there. As result, he was compensating by picking up every other child/teenager and raising them within the Healing Church's walls like an actually good dad figure. He saw how Adella was doing and basically dragged her in (punching the old bastard that did want to use her on the way).

The decision to become a Blood Saint and not just part of the staff was her own, though; she bought the narrative about hunters being brave and protecting people while it was choking out its dying breaths but still existing. So, she wanted to help people.

Localisation slightly messed this up, by making it sound as though Adella has severe insecurities regarding the quality of her blood, but that's not quite the case:

Whereas the religious 'we all must admit we are sinful by nature and should bash ourselves all of our lives' vibe might apply, within the original context it seems to be that she is insecure about having to do it in 'battlefield' conditions rather than in the setting of great religious reverence it SHOULD be. Like, all she does is extracts her own blood in a vial. She only talks with us in Yahar'gul if we convince her we are Healing Church staff too; so, she still thinks we ARE one of their hunters. It seems like internal Healing Church rules about 'proper' blood sharing are what makes her feel "vulgar", not her blood overall.

Adella mentions a friend she could possibly turn to during the night of the hunt if we refuse to tell her of the safe place, and I made it be a person you pick black church garb from in the alley where Arianna is. It is a shrodinger character, of course, because it is a gendered set, but I default all sets to 'male' because default Paleblood Hunter is some guy with grey hair and I love using this as "official" option! The window NPCs in this area mention "thanking" the Church in a rather passive-aggressive and fake manner, that makes me feel like the guy was killed here out of spite. I think he is Adella's EX that she still keeps clinging to, and... well, he was in this area because he wanted to help Arianna by telling her of a safe place, as he had a bad feeling about this night. Again, irony.

What would a Discord with the original Byrgenwerth scholar gang look like?? xD

Pfffft you mean if they made a small group Discord server for familiar people only? Laurence would be a moderator, that nobody asked for, because it is a small (mostly) closed Discord group and not an official server... But he'd insist on bringing some discipline and civility anyway.

Server would have expected standard channels for drawings, research notes, general chat, jokes/memes, debates, Rom's (daily) pictures of the bugs and spiders, vent and announcements... Except, they would have to create more and more debate channels all the time, because every time it'd be either Caryll and Laurence, or Micolash and Julie cluttering the debate channel so much and refusing to stop. xD Like, they'd have to spawn new debate channels just so other people could have a talk too sdfhhdfds

Damian would share health / self-care advices regularly, like "don't forget to hydrate!" or "10 advices to avoid studying burn out!" and tell others to stay safe and not overwork. Unfortunately, nobody follows his advices. He also always answers everyone in vent channel.

Rom tends to overwhelm any channel when she is online by spamming whatever she is thinking about, but nobody tries to stop her because she tends to accidentally drop something useful, like a solution to the homework, or a significant breakthrough. They have a locked channel accessible for everyone except for Rom and Yurie/Julie, where they discuss Rom's ramblings as they happen and decide what to take from her without credit :(

Micolash sometimes has mad ramblings, similar to Rom but HIS are unhinged and genuinely creepy and disturbing. They have a locked channel accessible for everyone except for Micolash, Damian and Rom, where they laugh at his wording or mock how weird he is :(

Patches is only active in the server to promote the shit he's selling or questionable links, but if anyone gets scammed and calls him out on the server, he gaslights them that he did them all a favour and showed with a concrete example how important it is to know basics of the internet safety xD And might accept their apology for getting mad at him, if he's feeling nice fhshfdhsfds

Thank you for asking! It was a trip dshfhds

[iamanartichoke]

Aren't u tired of the "Taika hates tom" thing? I don't think its tom. Taika just doesn't like the british

(Sorry anon, I started to answer this last week and then completely forgot about it until last night, bc I was thinking about Tom's apparent lack of attendance at the London Thor 4 premiere.)

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I don't think I ever got invested in any of the "does Taika like Tom y/n?" wank in the first place. I mean, I'm sure I've been snarky about it, but it's not something I gave a great deal of thought or speculation to.

There's a real issue of lack of ability to separate the person from the work, both in fandom and in life. This is not an issue that's limited to just one side of the wank or even just this fandom (I mean, the whole ideology of purity culture stems from the belief that one cannot separate reality from fiction and therefore fiction depicting Certain Things is inherently ~problematic~ and immoral, but that's another conversation), but it's an issue that is at the root of the "Taika vs. Tom" wank.

By that, what I mean is that my perception of Ragnarok is that Taika was, at best, dismissive of Loki as a character and, at worst, actively disliked him. His comments about Loki being a wannabe goth or emo space orphan or whatever, his "jokes" about Loki getting locked in a porta-potty, etc (deleted, but still scripted and filmed) are indicative, I feel, of an overall sense of disdain toward the character - perhaps coupled with a vested interest in actively making Thor look better to compensate for Loki overshadowing Thor in the previous films.

Now, whether or not Taika actually feels that way or if that's just, like, his sense of humor, man is impossible to say; all I can do is speculate based on the evidence presented (ie, the aforementioned comments and deleted scenes).

^^ This is just my opinion, I'm not asking anyone to agree with me or stating that these are definitive facts. What I'm saying, though, is that I am certainly not the only person to have this opinion and when viewing Taika's personal feelings behind-the-scenes through the "ugh, Loki" sort of lens he's put out there, it's very easy to fall into the assumption that Taika dislikes or hates Tom, or that Taika and his bff Chris were sort of "conspiring" against Tom to ensure he/Loki didn't steal the show again, etc. when that may not be the case at all.

We don't know. We don't know what these people's feelings are - we can parse things from what they say publicly, but even public statements are filtered for, yknow, consumption by the public and aren't necessarily 100% factual, either. Additionally, we don't know what happens behind-the-scenes, we don't know what happens in negotiations and what happens once the execs get their hands on the product or who's ultimately responsible for what, and how. And this is the case for all entertainment, not just the Thor franchise and not just Marvel.

When you're enmeshed in fandom, it's easy to let the lines between person and product get blurred; it's easy to get so invested in these people that we feel like we know them - we're on a "first name basis" irt how we refer to them, their lives and their work is on public display, and we are increasingly living in a world that wants to categorize everything as black or white. All of which makes wank like "Taika hates Tom" flourish. (And, incidentally, is what makes the anti "anyone involved with the Loki series" wank flourish in its spaces, as well, like for example how some people prefer to believe Mike Waldron or whomever made a shitty series bc he had a personal vendetta against Loki bc of Reasons, rather than believe what is more likely the truth: dude's a mediocre writer and part of a larger team that set out to explore the character in ways that are inconsistent with previous characterization [which is kind of the point, though, in that the whole premise is Loki as a variant; I digress] and regardless of the fans' emotional responses, the motivation is Not That Deep.)

Which was an awful lot of word vomit to basically say yes, I am tired of the "Taika hates Tom" thing but in my defense I didn't put much stock in it in the first place; however, I understand where it came from and why it's still a Thing in this fandom, so it just ... it is what it is.

As for Taika not liking the British, well, I'm pretty sure that's an entirely separate conversation but also, again, this is an assumption of Taika's feelings based on limited interpretation of his public words and action and whether or not it has any merit is anyone's guess.

Incidentally, all of that aside, no one has to like anyone else. Sometimes people just don't vibe and neither side is wrong for that. So make of that what you will, too.

[s10127470]

The Rick and Morty Voice Acting Situation

As most of you probably know by now, the co-creator of the long-running Adult Swim series “Rick and Morty”, Justin Roiland, was faced with various charges and allegations for crimes such as domestic abuse and grooming earlier this year.

And although the court cases have been dropped, Roiland was still fired from not only Rick and Morty, but also every other project he was working on at the time.

This made of lot of people wonder what would happen to said projects, specifically Rick and Morty.

But those wonders would fade quickly as it was announced that Rick and Morty and Roiland's other projects like the Hulu original animated series "Solar Opposites", would still being continuing....but just without the involvement of Roiland.

Or....lack there of.

Oh yeah. Shortly after that announcement, a lot of people who worked on Rick and Morty came out about their experiences working with Roiland.

And apart from revealing how much of a shitty person he truly is, they also revealed that beside voice acting, Roiland hasn't really contributed to much to the show (like directing and writing) since Season 1.

So yeah, Rick and Morty was more or less going along perfectly fine without much of Roiland's involvement, and will pretty much continue to do so.

And after everything we found out about him, let's be real, the crew are really better off without him.

If only we could have it both ways.....

Anyway, although the series is going to continue on just fine without Roiland's involvement, there is one notable area where his removal has put the crew in a bit of a tight spot....

Voice acting.

Roiland was not only the co-creator of Rick and Morty, but also the voice of the titular duo.

And since Roiland's gone, the crew are currently looking for new voices for the duo.

A lot of people have been speculating and suggesting that the crew would look for imitators (particularly fans of Rick and Morty) who can should just like the duo.

But after a recent announcement given by Adult Swim, it seems that's not gonna be the case.

When Adult Swim president Michael Ouweleen was asked about the current casting process, he said that the crew wasn't really looking for imitators.

In his own words....

"No, not imitators... In any case the idea is that we feel that they are the same characters.....I'll take an example: there have been several great Bugs Bunny voice actors, and I love what Jeff Bennett has done with them. But it's not Mel Blanc! And yet we recognize the character. I even think that for Rick and Morty we will do even better... It will be fine. It'll be great."

This was a pretty insightful quote into their casting process.

And although many are hoping that one of many imitators, specifically Sean Kelly, to get the thumbs-up, the quote seems to indicates that the show isn't really looking for fan imitators, but instead professional voice actors.

I know that a lot of people (knowing how Rick and Morty fans are like) would be against this, I feel like this route has a bit more integrity.

It seems like they want to get actors who can actually deliver the best lines and performances, rather than just getting actors who could so 1-to-1 with Roiland.

And while I'm not against them casting imitators, I think they're better off casting professional voice actors since they tend to have much more range and more importantly, much more experience.

Plus, the comparison to Bugs Bunny also does bring up a good point.

Bugs has had many voice actors over the years.

Such as Jeff Bergman, Billy West, the late Joe Alaskay, and his current voice actor, Eric Bauza.

And although none of them sound like Bugs' original voice, the late Mel Blanc, or each other, their performances still fit the character perfectly.

Hell, just about every cartoon/fictional character that has existed for many, many decades have gone through this.

Having more recent voice performances that while fitting the character, don't sound quite like their original voice performance.

So if they can do it, Rick and Morty can do this as well.

And in all honesty, I find pretty admirable that the crew want to cast voice actors based on their merits rather than being able to sound just like Roiland.

Also, I hope they get separate actors for Rick and Morty.

I feel like that having the titular duo being voiced by separate actors would allow for better chemistry since they're not being voiced by the same actor, and don't have to rely on the honestly over-done improving that Roiland was know for.

But in that regard, I want to leave you off with this.

Out of all the professional voice actors you know, would do you think be the best choice?

Although they wouldn't be able to sound just like Roiland, who do you think would be able to capture the spirit of Rick and Morty the best?

[iamthecomet]

Hi Comet!

I'm taking a few weeks of vacation at the moment, and I have set a daily goal of reading at least 50 pages of a physical book to broaden my horizons instead of only reading fanfiction.

I'm currently reading a speculative fiction book from 1999, written by a male author, and it's made me feel so much better about my own writing and plots. The objectification of women makes me want to roll my eyes, and including how attractive they are when introducing them but not distinguishing how attractive male characters are is so frustrating that I am being powered by spite to dare to do better. The casual misogynism of that time combimed with how terrible men can be when thinking about women as just objects of their desire without their own inner lives and wants is a great inspiration for a new forever fic that I'm writing.

Before that I read a Terry Pratchett book and the difference between the speculative fiction one and the Pratchett book is like night and day. A Pratchett requires a lot of general knowledge that I feel like I lack as a non-native English speaker, but I've understood some of the jokes so at least that's something!

Do you have any book recommendations or authors you can recommend whose writing style inspires you?

-Ghoulette Anon

HI! Congratulations on your vacation! That's exciting. I hope you get to relax. And I hope you read some really good books. I love when I read a book that makes me go "oh god I can write better than this" or "I treat women better than this" or any of those things--like you're experiencing with that book. It feels weirdly powerful (and also annoying, like come on, man. Women are people, write them like they are). I'm so glad it's giving you inspiration for your forever fic, that's really fun. I've never actually read Prachett (I know! I know!). I'm not even really sure why. I just haven't ever picked one up. I hear he's wonderful. But I do know enough about his style to totally get why he's tougher for non-native English speakers. I ABSOLUTELY have recommendations. I'm a book monster. Recs under the cut to save space <3 <3.

Leigh Bardugo - Both YA and Adult. Dark Fantasy. Dark Academia. Gritty. Dark. Realistic despite everything being fantastical. INCREDIBLE characterizations. I am in love with every character she's ever created. The Grisha Trilogy has one of my favorite endings of any book series ever.

Neil Gaiman - On the off chance that you haven't already read him, you really really should. American Gods is an incredible book. And the Ocean at the End of the Lane changed my life. Taylor Jenkins Reid - Lots of hype around her that is very deserved. I couldn't put down The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and Malibu Rising was also just real real good. Madeline Miller- again, there's lots of hype for Song of Achilles with good reason. Fucking heart wrenching and incredible. And Circe is even better (I'm in the minority on this opinion but we like stories about women fucking men up in this house, so...yes). Just gorgeous, gorgeous books. And two YA Recs, because YA is not just for teeennss. Sabaa Tahir- has a fucking incredible fantasy series (The Ember in the Ashe). And her stand alone All My Rage is justjkhasf;asfa. Sabaa knows how to make me cry--which is not a thing I do a lot. Ruta Sepetys - Specifically Salt To The Sea. All of her books are good. Salt to Sea is one of the very few books I've read multiple times. Very character driven. Based in WWII. Doesn't even think about shying away from really rough shit. Just...I love it so much. Talking about it makes me want to read it again.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Sometimes, I’ll find myself making assumptions about people whom I only know about through their comedy. And then I’ll remind myself not to fucking do that, because I don’t know anything about these people. I know what characters they play on stage, that doesn’t translate to real life. They’re personas that are only vaguely, if at all, based on the real person.

I remind myself of that, when I start to think I can make assumptions. But sometimes, I still find myself thinking things like what I thought repeatedly last year while watching all his TV shows and stand-up DVDs, which was “Wow Stewart Lee seems pretty autistic.” And then I said no, come on, it isn’t even okay to armchair diagnose people if you do know them personally and well. You definitely can’t make an assumption like that about someone based only on their stand-up comedy.

Then this year he did a show that contains a story about how he was recently assessed for autism, and I thought, okay, maybe sometimes an autistic-seeming comedy show may have some relationship with some autism having a hand in creating it. You can’t armchair diagnose, but also, sometimes the clues are there, clues that can be read if someone sits in a doctor’s office and spends an hour talking about their life and thoughts, but maybe a few of them can also occasionally read if someone stands up on stage and spends an hour talking about their life and thoughts. Maybe. I believe Pierre Novellie (writer of a 2023 Edinburgh show that… I’m not saying it should have won the big award because nothing was better than Ahir Shah’s show, but it definitely should have been nominated, it was fucking brilliant and if anyone has the opportunity to see Why Are You Laughing? they should take it) can attest to this.

Obviously, I don’t extrapolate from those couple of situations and believe that making assumptions like that about comedians is fine now. It may have worked once or twice but the basic rule of not assuming things still stands. Obviously. (I did somewhat recently complete a college diploma in autism studies, and I definitely do not believe that my textbooks could have saved a lot of space if they’d just replaced some of their long-winded descriptions of diagnostic criteria with pictures of Andy Zaltzman.)

I do a similar thing with relationships among comedians, but even more so, because that’s even further removed from their onstage personas, so I have even less knowledge of what’s really happening. Sometimes I’ll find myself making an assumption about some sort of dynamic between people – not even intentionally speculating, but just operating under the general assumption that the dynamic works a certain way – and then I’ll have to remind myself that I’ve just made that up and have no way of knowing. I can’t even accurately make guesses about the relationships between people I do know in real life, because knowing what two people are like does not mean I’ll know what they think of each other or how they’ll interact or get along. So I definitely can’t make those assumptions based on fictionalized stage personas of people I don’t actually know.

I usually think that. And then sometimes, I'll hear something like this:

and I'll think - oh, right. People are, in fact, just people. Sometimes they do behave exactly the way you'd expect them to and their relationship dynamics are exactly what you'd assume they are based on the circumstantial evidence.

[hyacinthsdiamonds]

F1 drivers are not characters from a tv show that you can dissect and analyze. They're real, living, breathing, complicated, complex people. The fictional version of them in your head (good or bad) is just that; fiction. We don't truly know these people and they are just that; people and like every other person on this planet they have their own set of traumas and losses they have to deal with. The only difference is they aren't afforded the same privacy to deal with them. People speculate to pass the time but quite simply, we don't know what goes on behind closed doors, not really. We end up just funding the rumor mill and keeping that wheel turning.

I'm highlighting Mick and Max, but it goes for every driver, have seen the very worst infractions and breaches of privacy the media and people in general have to offer.

Mick has seen it literally his entire life and it got infinitely worse after Michael's accident. He was 14 and having to be coached on how to deal with the media because vultures were already scrounging looking for story. He's been the subject of so many narratives - good and bad and just downright intrusive - at this point I doubt the media itself even remembers half of them. I do want to be clear regarding one that has been doing the rounds not in the media but on here too recently; Seb is not Mick's second dad, he's a friend and mentor figure but he is not Mick's father. Mick has a father; that father will always be Michael. No one could ever take Michael's place. They've both clarified that many times but people have refused to listen.

Max's father is for lack of a better term a controversial man. We've read the stories, even heard some of them directly from the horse's mouth. He's glorified by some for the things he did that ended up "creating Max", and he's called out by others for a long history of abusive behavior (regarding to not just the incident in the South of Italy with Max but his behavior with his past romantic partners as well), who say Max is who he is in spite of that, not because of it. We don't know these people, we'll never know the full truth, we're not entitled to the full truth. Abuse and domestic violence are serious topics, serious topics that impact real life people every single day, it's not a fucking theme to exploit for a Tumblr post for a few notes. We've heard the stories, Max and his family lived them. It's not our place - it has never been our place - to tell him, his mother, his sister, ex-stepmothers etc how to live their lives afterwards.

We all get dealt a shit hand at one point or the other, that's just how life is. Just remember that there's a person at the other end of the screen and that just because an F1 driver is a public figure, it doesn't their privacy doesn't matter or that they're any less real or human than you or I. Their lives are not a story or a fiction. As someone who lost her father and has faced speculation on my childhood and the way I grew up (of course not in the media but I have an awful family member who I caught spreading outright lies about me and my close family to multiple people), I can't even find the words to explain how intrusive the post about Mick and Max's relationship with their respective father's is/was (last I checked it was still up). Violation is the only word I can come up with.

You don't have to like every driver but Jesus Christ going into their personal trauma is the only time you felt any human sympathy towards them? Empathy and decency are clearly things we all too easily take for granted. You don't have to like every driver but you do not have like someone in order to emphasize with them, especially when it's the fictional version of them you dislike; I'm going to quote Max Fewtrell who put it best, you don't know them. You don't have to like every driver but you can remember that they are an actual living breathing person before posting hate and/or violence/death threats. You don't have to like every driver but you don't have to be a dick about the drivers you dislike and that goes for everything.

[grey-spark]

The Symbolism of Spamton, and what he says about us

I don't usually analyze Undertale/Deltarune characters but I love Spamton. In this post I'm going to go over what Spamton represents, and all of his relevant symbolism. I'll try to keep this one short and straight to the point.

Before we can talk about Spamton we need to explore the context of Chapter 2. It should be clear to most people that Queen, her plan, and level are a metaphor for social media. Specifically Twitter. More specifically Twitter Drama.

Even her name is a play on the word “drama queen”

The whole level is centered around a blue bird character, Berdly. A possible reference to Twitters blue bird logo. I mean, just look at her boss battle. If taken out of context, what do you see?

You see a person sitting in a chair controlling a blue bird to attack people. 

Is that not Twitter? 

Although its important to note that Berly himself doesn't seem to connect to this social media metaphor in a narrative sense, you could still argue that Berly's front of intelligence could represent how people act online, trying to appear as someone cooler and smarter than they really are.

Point being that like the first game, Deltarune was created to be a commentary on fiction and role play. The first chapter is literally about games, and this one is about our digital presence online.  

Another more obvious reference to Twitter in the chapter is the sidequest about collecting “blue check marks:

You have to bring the Hacker “checks” which could be a reference to “Verified Checks” on Twitter, and when you give them to him he creates a fireworks show “in dedication to you.” Symbolizing how for many people on the internet, getting a verified twitter check is the symbol of becoming famous, worthy of celebration. A sign that you've become a “big shot” now.

On that note, let's finally talk about Spamton.

The most obvious connection is that Spamton seems to be like Mettaton. 

Spamton and Mettaton have similarities, beyond their names. Both are “robots” that want to steal your “heart shaped object” to become big and powerful. 

But the key difference between the two is the motive, and this is where the social media angle comes in. In the first game, we meet Mettaton who at first seems cut throat and sinister, but is revealed to have a real passion and dream. He wants to “get big” to make music that everyone enjoys, and even decides to stay behind out of an altruistic devotion to his fans.

Compere this to the cynicism of Spamton. Notice how in the first battle with Spamton you progress the battle by engaging with deals, but he doesn't seem to care about the money itself. You cant pay him off because its not about the money. He just wants to feel like a “big shot” making deals. The thrill and freedom of feeling like someone important.

In this sense we can then divide Mettaton and Spamton into two types of influencers. Whereas, Mettaton has a dream. Spamton just wants clout.

The kind of influencer who wants to use their platform to enrich themselves and fuel their ego, as oppose to someone like Mettaton with a real desire to change the world for the better. In one of the genocide routes, we can even see him take over Queens mansion, representing how these types of influencers are bound to take over the social media structure, sans the right people step in.  

Given the social media and fame metaphor. Its impossible to examine this boss and not read into the context of its creation. Although this is purely speculation, its possible that Spamton was created as open meditation on Tobyfox's baggage regarding his own fame, and also the effects of social media fame and clout chasing in general. Imagine the pressure of being that famous, of everyone expecting you to follow Undertale with something just as good or even better, and Toby probably doesn't even know what made the original game blow up like it did in the first place, and probably never expect it to. 

Consider this line in his first boss theme:

“... Now's your chance! Now's your chance! Now's your chance! Be a big- be big- beeee-”

Over and over. It can almost be read as Toby's internal monologue. An unrelenting pressure to outperform and succeed, to make sure the game is a success that fulfills everyone's expectations.  

Simply put, Toby is a big shot now.

In the matter of a single year, Toby went from being a nobody on the internet to being twitter famous celebrity. Getting “calls” from Nintendo. Again this is all unconfirmed, but its even possible that Nintendo offered Tobyfox a deal. A chance to be a big deal, with a big salary; a corporate puppet.

Toby would (hypothetically) rejected this offer. Like Mettaton, he cares about his fans, but has no interest in the acquisition of clout and power for its own sake. But hey, that's just a theory.

Which brings us to his central message about internet drama. While its not my place to psychoanalyze how someone is feeling from afar, a message is certainly here about internet fame and clout chasing. Its clear that Toby has become twitter famous, and consequently has found himself thrust into the heat of internet drama time and time again. It seems that Toby Fox is horrified by the affects social media is having on the indie gaming community or just more broadly society in general. In the past, toxic fame was a niche problem faced by a handful of Hollywood stars and musicians. But now Social Media has democratized fame, and all its problems to everyone that owns a phone. 

Chapter 2 seems to be Toby's response and warning: that being a big shot is not all its cracked up to be and certainly not worth parting your soul over.

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Ramblings and crazy theory time about GK chap 308 “Both alike”

So it’s again time to say goodbye to someone… or not?

In case you don’t know, the quote is from the real Hijikata Toshizou… but I think the spirit of the fictional one will also live on in the hearts of all of those who loved him.

But, as usual, I’m running ahead so again, back on the runaway train to hell we go.

After a quick summary of where’s who...

...we go back to how Hijikata, thinking he’s slashing down enemies, is actually cutting down the bear’s face. He doesn’t kill it but the bear still is smart enough to understand the wisest choice against this old man with an antique sword is to run away as fast as his legs can carry him.

However, in doing so, the bear pauses a moment to bit Shiraishi’s head in a not fatal way because… humor.

Okay, who knows me also knows I’m not really fond of this running gag, especially in this case because the gag feels out of place with Ushiyama lying on the ground and Hijikata with his skull split (not mentioning the bear’s bite should have done serious harm and instead it’s just handled as a light napping).

But whatever, maybe it’s just me and everyone else loves a gag here to tone down the drama, besides, credits when it’s due, Noda uses it as an excuse for Shiraishi to notice that Tsurumi, who evidently walked OH SO SLOWLY after receiving the quiver from Tsukishima, has FINALLY walked through the whole train car and is now jumping on the 2nd car.

Why he took so long and what he was doing in the meantime is up to everyone’s speculation.

Okay, he probably wasn’t really doing anything, this is just a request of suspension of disbelief on Noda’s part for the sake of the plot… so… whatever.

I guess I’ll put it here because it’s a place as good as any other.

This whole runaway train to hell arc has alternated A LOT between asking us to suspend our disbelief when the characters were doing something cool (like Ushiyama disposing of a car filled with men of the 7th or grabbing a hand grenade seconds before it would hit him) or ‘funny’ (Shiraishi being bitten by the bear and remaining relatively unharmed) or time related (characters walking oh so slowly or oh so very fast so they’re in the right position when it’s more convenient for the plot) and realistic consequences of wounds for the main characters (like, yeah, death, loss of limbs, loss of consciousness), after an arc which actually relied a lot on realistic war (fort Goryokaku was all about people realistically dying out of consequences for attacks with very little space for the rule of cool).

Now… both the rule of cool and realism are something that can be very enjoyable in a story and make it great, the rule of cool adding it an epic feeling and a sense of amazement while realism adding drama and inner reflection.

The scene of Tsukishima being fine after having been slammed left and right and having a hand grenade tossed above his head is no better or worse than the scene of him being all of sudden unable to move his arm due to… what? Another hand grenade? Ushiyama tossing him away? I’m not really sure, probably it’ll get fixed in the volume.

But I personally have problems when I’m asked to believe, for example how, one moment, Tsukishima is the Tsukinator, and therefore has a titanium skeleton and the next he’s just a mere human and his bones can break.

Mind you, it’s not that I don’t understand why Noda is doing it. Characters have to die but, before doing so, he’s trying to give them a moment of pure coolness. I get this, but still it leaves me upside down.

It’s my personal flaw and you might not share it but this part of me is going to come up in this meta so consider yourself warned.

Anyway, back with the story.

Tsurumi opens the quiver, pulls out the arrows (which might turn useful later for our main characters as they fall on the roof and, likely remain there) and the land deed, which he scans briefly.

Then, while Ogata is turned on the opposite direction, tells Ogata to use him as bait and snipe Sugimoto and the others, who will be climbing up there.

We don’t get Ogata’s reply, if he agrees or if he comes up with another plan, or if he tosses Tsurumi off the train since now he has the land deed. Everything is possible.

Anyway, honestly, since Ogata is turned away from him, I would expect Tsurumi to pocket the land deed and then hand him the quiver, use Ogata to get rid of Sugimoto and then get rid of Ogata, because I trust Tsurumi the same way I’ll trust a hungry shark not to eat me if I were to swim right in front of him, as in, not even a single bit and I REALLY HOPE Ogata remembers he used not to trust Tsurumi as well and hadn’t been completely retconned into someone who swallows all Tsurumi says hook line and sinker.

Really, it’s bad enough he’s giving Tsurumi his back.

Meanwhile the bear has run back into the 2nd car in which the valiant 7th division soldiers are still alive but can neither scare/stop/kill the bear and mostly just try to escape from it because not everyone can be Hijikata Toshizou and scare a bear off with a katana.

I’ll be honest and admit I was hoping the bear had done a short work of all the remaining soldiers in the 2nd car (and of the soldiers in the 1st car as well) but no, he has spared quite a bunch.

Why? Plot reasons.

So the surviving soldiers, since the bear has left them alone, thinks they can now go attack Sugimoto, probably hoping the bear has done a short work of him and they won’t have much to do, and find themselves facing Hijikata.

At this point though, the soldiers have remembered that HEY, THEY HAVE RIFLES IN THEIR HANDS AND KNOW HOW TO USE THEM so they start shooting at Hijikata, who could handle just fine having his skull split in two but, after a couple of shoots, he’s starting to feel a little worn out.

Okay, no, I get the split skull is also not helping, never mention the previous wounds and so on (previous wounds that previously didn’t so much as slow him down or make him feel faint) but this is again another abrupt moving from the rule of cool to realism and, as said before, I don’t take them well.

Besides since up until now the soldiers hardly shoot, we could have done without them shooting at Hijikata and have him merely falling on his knees after making the bear escape.

Instead Noda wanted them to be there and shoot him so that Sugimoto moves past Hijikata and the latter has fallen on his knee, and Hijikata, looking at him, sees his younger self ahead of himself and then realizes the one he’s seeing is actually Sugimoto who’s now the one slaughtering the soldiers.

So, in the middle of the massacre, Hijikata calls Sugimoto back to entrust him his sword, claiming it’ll be of use to him, the soldiers (there were quite a bunch alive in the 2nd car) conveniently disappearing/stopping to shoot/going back/whatever so that Sugimoto can go take Hijikata’s sword without being riddled with bullets. And yeah, for this to work we’re back at suspending our disbelief and accept the soldiers wouldn’t conveniently attack in a clue moment.

Whatever. Back to the plot.

Now Sugimoto was a judo guy, not so much a kendo one as far as we know, but I wouldn’t be surprised if, as Hijikata said, the sword would be useful to him just the same (and hey, maybe since we’re at it, with a little use of the rule of cool he can use it even better than Hijikata to slice Tsurumi to bits), though, hopefully, Sugimoto wouldn’t use it merely as an object he throws at people or that slams on people’s head like one would do with a wand while the sword is still in its scabbard. But well, I wouldn’t be surprised if he were to do it either.

Anyway Hijikata tells Sugimoto they’re alike, they’re two men who are willing to give their life for what’s right, so he’ll pass on Sugimoto the debt he has to repay in hope the gold and the land deed will save the Japanese and the Ainu.

I guess Hijikata is discounting the time he used Sugimoto as a bait in Abashiri and the time he tried to kill Sugimoto in Sapporo as unimportant.

Sugimoto (evidently agreeing Hijikata’s past betrayals were unimportant and that he wasn’t distrusting of him and interested to kill him until Asirpa forced him to partner with him in Sapporo) accepts the sword and walks away...

...since, apparently, no more soldiers are coming even though in the 2nd car there were supposedly still a bunch alive… but I guess they decided that between the bear and Sugimoto this was a good time like any other to take a break from duty and… I don’t know, do a crossword puzzle?

Really, the damn bear left so many of them alive, why they aren’t attacking?

Or did Hijikata and Sugimoto managed to murder them all while we weren’t looking? I don’t know.

Whatever.

Said all this, yes, it was a running theme how they were similar, and I know some fans even theorized they could be related so yes, what Hijikata is saying makes sense from the story’s perspective, this arc even lampshaded it HARD when Hijikata said Sugimoto follows the Bushido.

On a personal note I feel Sugimoto and Hijikata were more morally gray characters when the story started and now they’re painted a tad too white for how they’ve been through the story but whatever, it might be just me… or it’s just that we’re at the end and Noda thinks the final fight will work better if we forget that it’s dark grey versus light grey and think it’s pitch black versus shining white.

Anyway, as Sugimoto walk away, we can see Asirpa deeply upset at the idea Hijikata too is going to die and, again, liquefying.

I wonder if the whole liquefying thing is symbolizes the tears she can’t shed and that she’s keeping bottled inside herself as, from when it started with Ariko’s supposed death and the discovery Boutarou died to, she still has to cry, which is pretty unhealthy.

It’s true though that Asirpa never cried for her losses through the story. In Abashiri she only quickly shed some tears for her father (and Sugimoto) being shoot but, when Ogata joined them, although she seemed to scream and fall...

...but her eyes were dry and the same applied to when she saw Kiroranke dying, though, back then, she didn’t liquefy.

...not when he died nor later on as Shiraishi buried him under the ice.

She has cried when remembering her father’s words and when meeting Sugimoto again… but not when losing Kiro.

So the liquefying might symbolize this, a pain she keeps bottled inside herself and that now needs to come out.

Or it might represent her losing parts of herself.

From when she has escaped from Tsurumi she has kept on seeing people she knew dying left and right, which is traumatic, so maybe Asirpa is losing herself. We’ll see.

Meanwhile Nagakura and Kantarou get on the train and find Tsukishima and Koito being conveniently unconscious.

Really, Tsukishima, how far were you thinking to go in such state? But okay, up until moments ago you were into the Tsukinator mode so maybe you assumed you won’t run out of battery if you were to join Tsurumi.

Whatever, Nagakura reaches for Hijikata while Kantarou checks on Ushiyama, claming he doesn’t believe it. There’s no mourning for Ushiyama and I wonder if the ‘I don’t believe it’ might refer to him being still alive because yes, I’m still in denial for Ushiyama’s death.

Call me a fool, I don’t really care.

Anyway Hijikata entrusts his regrets to Nagakura, who this time has managed to reach him and be at his side as Hijikata, slowly, dies.

Hijikata claims although they had lived in interesting times, he was hoping he finally would live in even more interesting times and that the springtime of his life was only just beginning… because yeah, Hijikata totally doesn’t know his own age and possibly feel even younger than Sugimoto and it’s such a shame he’s dying...

And in a way this old man is an example to us all because he lived his life always looking toward the future and living it to the fullest. He didn’t stop thinking ‘I’m old, I’ve done my share, let’s pass the ball to someone else’, no, he continued fighting for what he believed, for Japan and to repay his debt.

Hijikata finds a shame that his life has to end now, but he’s smiling as he says so, leaning against his old friend and this tells us he clearly never meant to die in a glorious last battle as Nagakura feared.

No, Hijikata really wanted to keep on living, to keep on going, to keep on running for Japan.

So maybe it’s Nagakura the one who longs for death… which worries me as Nagakura is the last person on the wrong side of the road of survival so yeah, I don’t expect him to survive till the end but I’d like a break from all those deaths.

Still, Hijikata dies and Nagakura and Kantarou mourn him and, with them, us fans.

It’s the death of a great character who was with us from the start and I’m sorry about it. I get that the idea is that this ‘golden kamuy’ they chased after is cursed, possessed by some sort of evil spirit and leading people to death as Makkanakkuru said in Vol 2 but… it’s still sad to see beloved characters after beloved characters to abruptly lose their plot armors and leave us.

The scene though, switches and, although Tsurumi said he would work as a bait for Sugimoto, it’s Ogata who’s all alone on the roof of the 2nd car (which was confirmed also by a scene shown during Hijikata’s death in which Ogata was on the roof and Tsurumi was nowhere to be seen).

Well, all alone but not for long, as the soldiers of the 7th divisions in the second car who yes, are still alive (and no, the thing doesn’t please me at all) are, instead than attacking Sugimoto, busy to somehow encouraging the bear to climb up the roof. How they persuaded him to do so instead than run inside the 1st car is up to anyone’s speculation.

Ogata, worried the bear would reach him, shoots him in the head, which, of course, does to the bear minimal harm. So, only now he remembers how Asirpa told him bears had thick skulls and that he shouldn’t aim for the head...

...which really, was something I wanted him to remember so bad that I’m glad he finally does. Too bad it apparently served nothing so the fact he remembered didn’t really feel as useful.

In fact it’s kind of too late, because, before he could shoot  the bear, Sugimoto stabs him from behind (while Ogata is holding the rifle in the wrong way so I take Noda will have to redraw this scene or mirror the image… but more likely he’ll redraw it).

While the bayonet apparently went through Ogata, there’s actually only minimal loss of blood involved so it’s possible Ogata only got his arm stabbed. Of course Sugimoto might aim to merely push Ogata in the bear’s warm embrace instead than personally murder him so he didn’t really aim at giving him a fatal wound.

Tsuurmi, who was meant to play bait for Sugimoto, is, OF COURSE, nowhere to be seen.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he escaped with the land deed and left his men, the bear, Ogata and Sugimoto’s group free to murder each other while he reaches a safe shelter with the land deed.

Sugimoto instead, has just proved he’s the Speedy Gonzales of “Golden Kamuy” because while it took hours for Tsurumi to cross a car, Sugimoto could climb up to the roof and cross a car the moment Ogata turned his eyes away from the direction he was coming from.

On a personal note, unless Noda is going to speed run through a lot of explanation or just cut it all, I don’t think Ogata is going to die in the next chapter. There are too many loose threads still tied to Ogata, and the wound he got from Sugimoto doesn’t seem serious (though, of course, this is always a matter of plot armor, if Ogata dropped his own, he can easily get killed by a paper cut, if he is still holding it instead Sugimoto can’t murder him not even if he were to walk over him with a steamroller).

Anyway we’ll have to wait for the next chapter but, sure thing is, I strongly doubt Ogata is going to die for such wound as the one Sugimoto gave him. If Noda wants to kill him, he’ll need to have Sugimoto inflict something more substantial.

Now… people know I like Ogata as a character so of course I’m going to be sad if he dies… but I’m not sure I managed to drive home the fact I like him as a character because he’s interesting.

So if his time has come I can accept him to die… but not him to become uninteresting.

Ogata has been with us from chap 4. It’s before Shiraishi and Tsurumi were introduced.

He was involved in many plot points that were left hanging and caused a lot of people to bang their head trying to figure out things about him. If all this is going to turn into loose threads and all we will have is chap 304 or something else along the line of chap 304 (which was a goddamn mess by the way because it seemed to retcon scenes from the manga for no real reason) I’m honestly not going to like it.

Yeah, I know some will prefer if Ogata is a random bad guy for the sake of being a bad guy and that Noda can’t make everyone happy but handing a character like this feels such a goddamn waste!

Though yeah, I saw Noda tossing away Vasily and Sofia so it can happen. I just absolutely don’t want to believe Noda, who previously took so much care in developing Ogata, will handle him the way he handled Vasily, someone he should have killed long ago but kept around for only God knows why.

So, really, I hope Ogata will return on being interesting, making sense with the previous scenes in which he was involved and be given a satisfying conclusion to his arc. I’m fine if he dies afterward, okay, no, fine is a big word, I’ll be distraught but I’ll cope as long as his story will make sense. If it’s another chap 304, just call me out.

Anyway, that’s it, that’s the end for this chapter, let’s stay tuned and see you in the next!