#potentially useful JP fact

[mishimakitan]

~ Potentially useful JP fact ~

Once upon a time (300+ years ago, before modern science), Japanese people thought the echoes you hear on mountains and canyons were made by this friend-shaped creature that looks like it's shrugging (¯\_(ツ)_/¯) named Yamabiko (山彦 or 幽谷響).

Yamabiko isn't typically known to be malicious or harmful, but people thought the delayed echoes (e.g. when you yell atop a mountain, your voice echoes back) heard on mountains, canyons, and valleys was this little furry creature's fault.

More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamabiko_(folklore) Nowadays in Japanese, when people say "yamabiko" it is usually about the mountain echo phenomenon or Yamabiko (JR East bullet train name) depending on the context. Source 1: https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%B1%B1%E5%BD%A6-144298 Source 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamabiko

[fure-dcmk]

FINALLY WATCHED THE MOVIE first impression rambling >>>

[MILLION DOLLAR PENTAGRAM SPOILER WARNING]

HEIJI WAS SOOOOO COOL. HANDSOME. TERRIFIC. the first 20 minute is just me losing my mind from all the heiji details

>> heiji and kid bantering about fairy lips in the intro. kid going your fault for not noticing hmmp! <- huh? are you a tsundere heroine

>> HEIJI ORIGINAL DUFFLE BAG!!! CAMEO-ING IN 2024!!!

>> 4 new outfit from heiji that fits him so well... handsome guy

>> a fairy lip redraw. i died

how the hell did heiji brought his bike with him all the way in HOKKAIDO. you can almost way osaka to tokyo is only half of the travel to hokkaido how many day trip would it take to reach that far. also a jp tweet i read once brought to question how a high schooler was able to use the high way. did he brought kazuha with her in this extreme trip? with the excuse that he's going for a kendo tournament... when his bigger agenda is to confess. everything about the bike being there doesn't make sense but i give it a pass for being cool 😁👍

and the heikazu scene.,.. i came there fully expecting to not care at all but they actually made me invested. ran was SOOOO CUTE her excitement directly influenced me to also want to see heiji succeed. heiji asking if the legendary 100 million night view is better than big ben and ran agreeing just to placate him for the sake of her otp 😭

THE STUN GRENADE! the fact that kazuha immediate reaction is to protect heiji ears.... her self sacrificial nature a call back to mermaid island in the most subtle way 🥹🥹🥹 heiji shocked eyes was so cute. and heiji confession speech isnt cringe and is actually cute! shocker! (sorry trauma from heart anniversary lines its so awful im dnfuebdjfjf) devastated such an ideal confession scene was wasted. but its from kazuha trying to save heiji SO FORGIVEN

need to make sure ppl know im a momiji enjoyer. all her faults are forgiven purely cuz she is funny. let a rich girl be delulu !

also loove how they keep cannonizing her keen hearing from m21 THIS IS THE APPEAL OF KAZUHA THEY GET IT

touichi gifting a lost national treasure to his little brother yuusaku for winning the macademy award, as well as keeping in touch with him and gifting various trinkets.... meanwhile keeping his own son completely in the dark that he's alive this entire time...

conclusion 1: worst parent award goes to kuroba touichi 🥳🥳🥳

conclusion 2: ah he's definitely a brocon huh

kills me that everyone is dejected that the katana with the star shaped guard is a lost treasure. meanwhile its quitely sitting in kudo yuusaku's store room cuz his big brother gifted it to him LIKE SDJDJFF!? turning your justice leaning lil bro into an accomplices. the gag potential here is so made for me

shoutout to sonoko who took up haibara's usual information provider role. every scene with her was animated so cutely IM SHOCKED m27 doing excellent job at showing off her cuteness. there is a fun parallel to think about, sonoko was the first person heiji went to to get information on kudo's whereabout, and now heiji is also going to her for information ♥️ heiji-sonoko friendship crumb thank you for the food

this movie really play a lot with the crumbs from kendo school tournament arc. heiji-ran friendship makes me want to cry, ran efficiently karate chopping hijiri to make sure theres no distractions for heikazu 🥺😭 ive been convinced on okita's cuteness the past 3 month cuz if the okita fanart boom in my corner of jp twitter but watching it for myself... he really have it bad for heiji LMAO wdym "it's boring if hattori ain't here~" how much did you say this for kaitou kid to catch that its a good trait for an okita disguise. im glad this movie give a good balance of real okita and fake okita, m10 still makes me so sad for having ZERO real hakuba 🥲 kid's dosu e~ is so moeblob

ah i still got so many word vomit on this movie it seems to be never ending 😭😭

my final review of the movie is this is my no 1 fav conan movie of all time, 2nd place is bride of halloween. i still havent rank anything below that properly. im truly entertained by this movie it got so many characters i care about with a lot of bombastic scenes. as much as i want to say my ultimate fav is m7 and m21, both of them are kinda... slow with all the deduction talk. im here for eye candy after all 😔 mixing kid's energy is doing wonders for the tone of a heiji movie. heiji's presence is also doing wonders for KID as well cuz gosh!!! KID has never emit this much childlike moe blob energy. heiji and conan being the straight man to kid's prank is the dynamic really help to emphasize his whimsical energy

and the final theme i caught; parallelism where hijiri is willing to do anything to protect his father's legacy only for us to find that its all for naught.... now why does this sound familiar 🤔🤔🤔

rewatching the movie tomorrow so ill probably do another ramble on it

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

“red flowers”: fae, vargas camp 2, and glorious masquerade

THERE’S SOMETHING IN VARGAS CAMP 2 THAT MADE ME DO A DOUBLE TAKE 👁️ 👄 👁️

So in 2-2, the pixies of the forest are trying to put out the campfires. The boys then talk about how there was a miner's campfire a while back that caused a forest fire, which naturally spooked the local fairies. AND THEN VIL GOES AND DROPS THIS DOOZIE OF A LINE:

EXCUSE ME, VI L SIR??????? ?? ? ???? ? ? ?? ? ? ? Did you just say RED FLOWERS? Is that not similar to the CRIMSON FLOWERS/LOTUSES that ROLLO tried to use to establish a magicless Twisted Wonderland in Glorious Masquerade?!

ADDENDUM: I learned recently (very shortly after this post went live, actually!) that the “red flowers” may also be a reference to what the animals in the live action Jungle Book call fires. I’m not personally familiar with this film, so I’ll be running with the crimson lotus/Glorious Masquerade connection for the duration of this post!!

Looking at how the phrases are written in Japanese, they use the term 赤い花 ("akai no hana"/red flower) in Vargas Camp and 紅蓮の花 ("guren no hana"/crimson lotus flower) in Glorious Masquerade. Crimson is basically a specific kind of red, and lotus is just a certain type of flower. Even more damning is that fact that in 3-8 of Glorious Masquerade, Malleus EXPLICITLY describes the spreading crimson flowers as having "a brilliance like that of fire". You can see from images of the crimson lotus that they do, indeed, seem to glow like fire.

If you look at the real life timeline of these events releasing, it also coincidentally lines up!! Like, the original release of Vargas Camp 2 (for JP server) was in mid to late SEPTEMBER 2022. Then Glorious Masquerade would come out mid to late OCTOBER 2022. Vargas Camp 2 was literally the new story event that came out RIGHT BEFORE Glorious Masquerade... WAS THIS FORESHADOWING??????????????? And even more importantly than that... What does this mean for fae??????

One could call "red flowers" just a poetic way for the pixies to label something they don't understand. But what's confusing is that there are clearly also fire pixies living in the forest; we see several of them in Vargas Camp attacking the students. It's not as though the fairies are unfamiliar with fire itself, so why not just call the campfires 'fires'?? What if... (and stick with me here) the pixies named the campfires thus because it's potentially a reference to something far deadlier (than even the forest fire) that they experienced or heard of in their history? In the time period of ~400 years ago shown to us in book 7, we learn that human invaders drove fae out of their homes and began mining their land for resources. This, more specifically, impacts the Briar Country up north, who are fighting against humans that arm themselves with iron (something which appears to repulse the fae). These humans are also known to use deceptive tactics, such as distracting the messenger team of Lilia and co. while they launch an assault on Mallenoa's castle, where she and her unborn son are. So... what's to say they wouldn't resort to other underhanded means as well? Mean such as... utilizing a flower known to suck out the magic from living beings :))) like maybe the... crimson lotus, perhaps?

In Glorious Masquerade, we learn that the crimson lotus has been extinct for a long time now. They were destroyed by humans centuries ago because of how dangerous they were to mages. We don't have an exact number of years, but "centuries" is enough to land it in the rough ballpark of the human-fae war. Malleus himself, who is canonically 178 years old, didn't even recognize the flowers at first (as very few records of them exist in modern times); this could imply that the crimson flowers were around before he was born, which further supports that they were present during the war era.

What's more, if we look at Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (ie the second live action Maleficent movie), we see a VERY strong parallel to the crimson lotus flower. In the film, we are introduced to the Tomb Bloom, a flower that just so happens to also be red and glows a little like fire.

UNCANNY RESEMBLANCE, NO? 🤡

Tomb Blooms are said to grow on the graves of fairies, and, when mixed with iron, creates "red dust". This red dust is considered deadly to fairies upon contact--and in the film, a fairy-hating queen lures a bunch of fae into a wedding venue to eliminate them en masse with the stuff. The crimson lotus flowers of TWST, meanwhile, are deadly on their own, draining the magic out of any magical being they touch (and permanently depriving them of magic once all the magic has been taken out of someone). For fae, who rely on magic for basically everything (travel, cooking etc.), it would be a miserable existence symbolically synonymous with death.

(Side note: in hindsight, this somewhat explains why Malleus is part of the Glorious Masquerade SSR trio. If the crimson lotus flowers were, in actuality, inspired by the Tomb Blooms (something which was weaponized against Maleficent and her kind), then it just makes so much sense for the antagonist of the event, Rollo, to utilize similar plants against Malleus, who is twisted from the Mistress of Evil herself.)

OKAY, now knowing all of that, here's what I propose as a possible timeline of events if we consider all of what I just said: ~400 years ago, crimson lotuses were plentiful. When the human-fae conflict escalated, the human side decided to play dirty to eliminate those pesky fae--because even the great Draconias would be susceptible to the magic-leeching properties of the flower. However, they discovered, upon repeated experimentation, that the flower could also harm their own mages, so they had to reformulate. Maybe this was when they learned that they could combine iron with the powdered lotus (increased surface area, and therefore also increased potency) to create something even more deadly to fae (like in Maleficent 2). Alternatively, this could contribute for the reasoning for the iron armor they wear in battle; iron repulses fae, but it could also protect them from the crimson lotus flowers due to how much of the skin it covers. For example, the Dawn Knight is said to wear a helmet that completely cover the face, and many Silver Owl NPCs do the same. There is little skin visible, unlike the armor of the Briar Country fae. But anyway, the point is that, some way or another, the humans abused the crimson lotus during this time. Once the war concluded (or in the period of reconstruction that followed), fae and humans came to an agreement to destroy all the lotuses as a part of their peace treaty/negotiations, agreeing that it was mutually beneficial to all magical creatures and mages. Humans were mainly responsible for this extinction, as there was a larger population of them that were magicless and could therefore handle the flowers without consequences. Because of the war engulfing an entire continent, fae in other parts of Twisted Wonderland would have heard about the events, fae migrated out of Briar Country to get away from the conflict, OR the conflict itself was a Twisted Wonderland-wide issue, not just contained within Briar Country. Any one of these could explain why eventually pixies on Sage's Island, in the Silent Woods (where the boys went camping), would know of the calamity caused by the crimson lotuses of the past. When they come across wild campfires, the pixies may be frightened by them due to their resemblance to the crimson lotuses and the trauma associated with war because it's human outsiders that are invading their home and propagating these 'fires'... the same situation as the human-fae war. There was the literal manmade forest fire that was far more recent, yes--but again, this doesn't fully explain why the pixies, who should be familiar with fire, would call it a "red flower" instead of just 'fire'. The association with "red flowers" being dangerous may be a result of what they recall from the war--that crimson flower which sapped away their strength and robbed them of their magic. Then, in modern day, we have Rollo somehow stumbling across seeds and breeding crimson lotuses of his own in secret for his own nefarious purposes. History (mayhaps???) repeating itself??????? ?? ? ????? ??? ??

DKJNsfhbvoqef32ygtr69r137fbofasib IDK, MAYBE I'M JUST TALKING OUT OF MY ASS AND EXTRAPOLATING TOO MUCH FROM LITTLE DETAILS 🤡 I just think it's kind of a fun theory, even if the whole timeline ends up being thrown out the window in the next main story update... Don't mind me, I'm still on my "Rollo will come save us all in a cruel and ironic twist of fate" copium--

[memoriashell]

another year, another birthday tweet...i actually really (mostly) liked this year's message, so i prioritized working on it asap. lol. one day i'll get around to doing some of the ones from the previous years, but not today. also bc twitter is a ticking time bomb and i am doing my part in archiving content o7

disclaimer, i’m not fluent in japanese, so i’m not claiming that this is perfect or potentially not without misunderstandings. i’ve also included some translation notes to clarify some things that i felt needed clarification and to offer explanation as to why i reached the conclusions that i did.

i'll also have everything under the cut for easier accessability! sorry if there are typos it is almost midnight as i schedule this up for tomorrow >.>

--

大和田

「あぁ？誕生日だぁ？ Ah? [My] birthday?

やめろや、恥ずかしい。Quit that, [it’s] embarrassing. **

オレは日本最大最狂最悪の暴行チームの頭だぞ？I’m the leader of Japan’s most biggest, craziest gang, you know? ***

こんな事で喜んだ姿を見せてられっかよ……けど、まぁオメーらにだったらいいかもな。 [I’m] not sure if I can show how happy I am [for this sort of thing]...but, well, maybe it’s okay [to show that emotion] if it’s just you guys, right? ****

兄弟からも『本当の強さとは弱さを見せられる相手を持つ事だ』って忠告されたばっかだしな 」 “True strength is to have somebody to show your weaknesses to.” That’s the advice that Kyoudai gave me.

//

** やめろ generally is translated as stop it, but the や emphasis at the end gives the idea of this being a little more intense, which is generally on point for Mondo. To try and get across that it’s more than just a normal stop it, I decided to translate it as quit it instead. 

恥ずかしい just generally translates as being embarrassed or that something is embarrassing, so contextually you could read this as “Stop that, it’s embarrassing [that you’re celebrating]”, or “Quit that, I’m embarrassed [that you’re celebrating me]”. I went with the former because in the overall context that one made the most sense to me, but I think it’s probably okay to read it either way.

*** Okay this one was a bit of a doozy to try and make sense of, because 最大 is biggest, 最 is most, 狂 depends on context but one of the more common ways is to describe someone who is crazy enthusiastic about something, and 最悪 is for worst/terrible. It didn’t seem like there was an easy way to translate this without it becoming a mouthful and also not really making much sense, so I tried to compromise in the translation. 

As a bonus fun fact, since I cross referenced it trying to figure out how to translate,  最大最悪 is used for infamous: the biggest, most awful [most tragic event in human history] line in DR.

The other issue with this line is that uhm. I am hoping Kodaka just accidentally made a typo? 暴行 (boukou), I am hoping, was supposed to actually be bousouzoku (暴走族), which is the term used for referring to Mondo’s gang/deliquent activities. 暴行 is a word that can be associated with violence, but specifically SA. Sorry that I have to bring this up. Anyways, I tried to google to see if there was perhaps some slang I was missing (including the チーム/team from the original tweet), but that really only gave results for things related to sports teams and SA. Considering that as far as I could tell, no one on the JP side said anything about it, it might be something just lost in translation? But even searching the term on twitter didn’t seem to suggest that it’s a term used commonly so I don’t think it’s like a fan abreviation for bousozoku >> boukou. Anyways this god awful tangent aside, I’m working with the assumption that we’re talking about biking!!  Please know I was this close to giving up on this tweet because I did not want to have to explain this mess.

**** Okay so like this part is pretty straightforward, but I figured I’d give a few note anyways:

The first part of the sentance here technically is skepticisim about being able to show delight, but hesitates to say that it’s okay to do so. The following sentence builds on that, which suggests that he believes that showing happiness over celebrating his birthday would be weak, but because he takes what Kiyotaka has said as advice, he presumably takes it into consideration. 

It should be noted that 相手 is usually translated to like companion, partner, or company (singular), so I considered translated it as friend but, I opted to leave it a little more vague and use somebody instead. It seems intentional that it is supposed to be a very narrow translation instead implying that this is something that should be conveyed to anyone/everyone. In conclusion, the train of thought is something like: I’m a gang leader >> It’s embarrassing to be celebrating birthday’s >> I can’t show that emotion.

Then with the following sentence: There’s strength in showing weakness >> It might be weak to show emotion but that’s okay >> I can show that emotion around some people.

[onesunofagun]

The implications on Ganondorf and his background in TotK suggest some very interesting things to me.

First of all, like. I love him. He specifically did not disappoint me. His JP audio fucks so hard. I love his design. He's glorious.

And Hyrule as an imperialistic divine hegemony is not a new concept in the slightest, obviously, the Ganondorf corner of the fandom have known and discoursed about the potential story ramifications of those themes since OoT, but Fujibayashi really went ham on it in his run. (And look. Zelda is made in Japan. Framing a divine imperial authority as a good thing narratively is pretty par for the course JP nationalism, to be really blunt. It is what it is. Grain of salt.)

But I do appreciate that it revisited some OoT plot beats even if it... really drove that point home again in retrospect

I guess new fans are in for a treat unpacking that;;;

Anyway in the BG of that, I'm interested in the particular minutia of what was happening with this Ganondorf specifically to flavour his particular brand of 'fuck you'

And a few important points that give broader context to things are these and I'll put under a cut bc spoilers obviously--

Rauru's repeated 'invitations' to join Hyrule and benefit from their protection (presumably some advanced technological access or strong magical allies as part of that promise, which I believe is probably anti-monster focused within world context) which Ganondorf as a King has very much ignored (and good for him tbh).

Clearly, he has an interest in keeping Gerudo independent.

Ganondorf is acknowledged as a Hero to his people. Not only does this heavily resonate with the very particular themes of his actual character design and both its Buddhist reference and Samurai trope homages, but like-- we're actively shown an explanation for WHY he may be considered such.

Being who he is, he's already magically inclined with a kinship to monsters. We are unapologetically shown him in command of a Molduga Army. Trained Moldugas, under his command-- and not under specifically his mystical command, either, but musically conditioned. Trained to follow sound based command cues, which makes plentiful sense given Moldugas are sound sensitive and Ganondorf usually has musical inclinations. Plus it's Zelda franchise, magic command music is also very much a thing but--

Moldugas are, at least medicinally, very important resources. On a larger scale, they're also a very present threat to desert dwellers and travellers, and from the looks of it in much larger numbers, back then.

Given the context of everything, Ganondorf was a badass even before 'he took a magic relic and fucked up the Hyrulean Royal Family' as he tends to do. Sporting as ever, he fights Link one on one as just a Gerudo, also showing once again that he does in fact have some personal code of honour when it comes to fighting worthy opponents. But it gives us a yardstick of how capable he probably was even before he nabbed the tear.

Capable enough of tangling with most big uglies in the desert, such as Moldugas, which he has at least trained and at most maybe even raised.

Exemplified Power as he ever is, I'd like to point out that in this case, he's demonstrating a flipside of what Power looks like-- benevolence, protection, guardianship. Once again, we have the pieces that indeed he is capable of that and showing that to his own people. He also flexes the Molduga Army as a show of Gerudo and its own power.

To anyone other than Rauru, who is an incredibly powerful Sage already, a Molduga Army would have absolutely won the day, I think. The reaction of the other Gerudo is pretty telling.

Ganondorf's faction were deeply shaken by the display of Rauru's power. And as a guy that's been knocking on your King's door and saying 'you should come and bend knee to me' when Gan already has the worst problem in the sands sorted out?

Very understandable.

From their perspective -- what do they need protection from, exactly, if not Hyrule itself? Their monster problem is a non-issue. From the viewpoint of Gerudo loyal to Ganondorf, everything about this looks like a pressured threat.

Which comes back around, of course, to what Ganondorf plainly lays out to Rauru when he gains the tear-- this is because Rauru tried to control him. And yes, that's Ganondorf and his pride and his nature in full tilt too. He will not be pulled beneath anyone or anything.

But that's the point about that hubris on Rauru's part, he felt superior and he underestimated both Gerudo and Ganondorf-- as a warrior and a leader, and as somebody who was likely managing things very well on his own.

But I mentioned factions. This is something that should be made clear.

Pointed ears are, canonically, associated with faithfulness to Hylia and/or the worship of Hyrulean spirits. This gets debated all the time, but that's the fact of it. We have been shown again and again that humans from outside of Hyrule have round ears (as long ears are associated with hearing the voices of the gods; ie being open to them). Exposure to Hyrulean aligned divine elements can lend pointedness to previously totally round ears. We see this happen.

It has been doubled down upon that the ancient Gerudo (such as in oot and FSA, with FSA having the introduction of the floral association in Gerudo design and OoT heavily centering mirrors in their spiritual practices) worship different deities, whether derivatives of Din or Hylia or completely different myth. The Goddess of the Sands has been confirmed as a deity that Hyrule itself views as evil and false.

I generally interpret this to mean that part of the reason boils down to this-- Hyrule's main concern is that pointed ears are living lives closer to the gods, and therefore more insulated against corruption and demonic influences. Rather fittingly, their patron's foremost spiritual antagonist tends to find his reincarnation in unprotected, non-Hyrulean tribes who are 'open' to demons.

Now that may be another layer to what Rauru means when he says protection, also. Worshipping the 'right gods' affords certain protections (and certainly supports the security of Hyrule itself).

In SkSW, by the way, there's a really cool point of questioning early human society too-- the fire temple depicts demons and monsters and snakes quite a bit, and these were built in a time when I suspect the humans were mostly a large proto-people.

Sidenote: I think Hylia's faithful went to Skyloft and generally shook out to be the Hylians we know later, where some stayed on Earth to serve Hylia's plan and became Sheikah, many more people were transformed into demons in a reverse-Batreaux situation, and some humans just scattered far and wide to avoid conflict.

Anyway that temple depicts Bokoblins making hand signs and long story short, the overall motif and meaning of that temple shows demons offering to teach things, approaching humans with a different kind of enlightenment. Whoever built that temple was very much in a state of open spiritual and mystical curiosity.

Now the takeaway there is, ultimately, the ancient Gerudo very much seem to be descended from such a sect of people. They have their own gods, and they're not part of Hyrule proper, and they have round ears because of it.

Botw departed from that very clearly, but in doing so, also erased and replaced almost all traces of the ancient Gerudo deities with new Hylian analogues.

The Seven/Eight Heroines count as Hylianised deities, and I believe the reason for this-- first suspected in botw but I feel it's weightier after totk-- is that they represent tear holders / Hylia aligned Sages in the seven group (edit: and apparently a Hero in the Eighth) such as those in the decline timeline. They are functionally the reason that the Gerudo of modern day possess long ears-- even where they are selective in what they worship, they are still worshipping Hylia aligned aspects of Divine Hyrule.

And in case this wasn't absolutely irrefutable to me beforehand, the ancient Gerudo Sage from Rauru's time is both loyal to him, and possesses pointed ears under her camel mask.

I would also point out the Hylians of Rauru's time seem to have longer ears in general, probably owing to having a Zonai King, ostensibly a Hylia aligned Deity himself.

Ganondorf's ears are rounded, of course. He clearly doesn't believe in Hyrulean worship even in lip service, and it's little wonder why.

But following another beat of OoT, that ancient sage is a very obvious Nabooru type character. And, in much the same way, that suggests that even when Ganondorf was King of the Gerudo only, there may have already been factions splitting up amongst their people based on spiritual practices.

I don't think it's beyond the pale to speculate there may have been a mixture of Gerudo at the time who had both pointed ears and round, signalling the confusion from and conflict between their spiritual leaders.

It seems likely that a schism probably existed, regardless of ears, but that schism-- and the sage who may well have been leading it-- may have been caused by people who decided respond to those calls from Rauru and join Hyrule without their King.

Which gives a lot more context to why Ganondorf would be in the mood to send a giant Molduga shaped "back off" Rauru's way, also.

I take particular note that Ganondorf's destruction intentions are faced towards Hyrule and her allies, and specifically those who oppose him in that goal. And while I concur that his whole Red Inheritance party ran hard and may well have had a decent hand in frightening the bejeezus out of the Gerudo who were previously faithful to him-- maybe even inadvertently sent some running for camp Hyrule-- it seems he considers modern day Gerudo, fully converted to pro-Hyrulean status, to be traitors.

We have no idea what happened to the Gerudo who followed him, so that's really up in the air as to how messy that may have gotten.

Even the woman who plays to summon the Molduga has pointed ears though, so I tend to lean that his camp got converted to Heroine worship (or at least those with pointed ears mostly did if the mixed ear situation was happening).

But heck, it would not be the first time some Gerudo got ran outta dodge after a King went belly up.

Food for thought.

[tekkenenjoyerblue]

Can barely contain my thoughts of excitement for M. Bison’s DLC I don’t normally do insane rambling so I’m gonna put this under the cut. Spoilers for Bison’s World Tour stuff below if you haven’t seen and want to experience that yourself!

Ohhhhh my god the absolute relief and joy I feel that they didn’t do away with M. Bison’s amnesia with his world tour. I think the way they went about that in general was pretty well done! I had my concerns about how they were going to handle his story but giving Bison a clear cut disinterest in Shadaloo beyond what it can do for him is GREAT. I think most important to me he is still Bison, just in a brand new package. Personality wise he’s still his violent, jerkish self with a new layer of hostility and disinterest in others due to his amnesia. I love that there’s a consensus in the game that no one views this version of Bison as “complete” even Bison himself making statements about it. And us as the viewer seeing how characters react to that. F.A.N.G is obviously not thrilled with the whole outcome, JP’s win quote paints him as intrigued about Bison not being “his whole self yet” it’s something every Shadaloo member seems to want to remedy and mitigate as fast as possible, but Bison…does not seem to care beyond the annoyance and curiosity of foggy flashing memories. He states even if a more perfect version of him came along he would simply crush them and take their power for his own. In his own words

His specific point of not really caring about reestablishing the organization (he really went “we’ll see about that”) is a huge relief to me. Because the fact he’s more interested in seeing things play out/not particularly bothered or threatened by the existence of the remnants of Shadaloo means that JP can still run his schemes without me having to worry about Capcom using Bison as an “in emergency break glass” Villain (I hope…)

The only reason Bison is hanging around the ruined lab is just a curiosity for the potential strength hidden in these residual memories, even claiming whether or not they actually do anything matters very little to him. He’s perfectly content with his vessel as is only seeking ways to complete it further if the opportunity presents itself. Biding his time and satiating his hunger for strong fights that fuel his psycho power and give him a chance to control it further.

What I wanted most from his DLC story after seeing the trailer was for him to remain disinterested in Shadaloo (we already have a whole cast of characters deeply embroiled in the sort of feud between Neo Shadaloo’s ranks and all the stuff with F.A.N.G and A.K.I), and for him to still have that personality I love so much even if his methods or motives changed, and I got both of these things so I really am a happy camper.

Other things I really liked about this include pretty much everything around Bison’s bond with his horse

- Bison only sparing us initially because his horse likes us (100/10 reasoning I am obsessed with this)

- then proceeding to tell us in another interaction that said horse is above us on the pecking order and that being useful is the only continued reason for his training of us

- the fact he nursed this dying horse back to health complete with psycho power infusion because he could see how determined it was to stay alive is just AAAAAA

Horse enthusiasts M. Bison is my favorite thing besides just his new looks in general and BOY do I think he looks good. I am chock full of ideas of my own and curious about any new things we may still learn! But needless to say the buzz of excitement is still heavy for me. And I didn’t even get into his arcade mode art phewwwww l’ll put those in a separate post. I also want to say that I love the potential that with Bison’s current disinterest it opens an opportunity to see versions of Vega and Balrog without their direct involvement with Shadaloo, something I would love to see.

Overall though I’m glad that amnesia or not Bison is still himself in the best ways possible and I have so many ideas for stuff especially revolving around my oc now. In the meantime just…just look at him <33

[lifetrimmed]

Hellooo again fellow 💀⚡ lover!

How's everything? Any new thoughts on 💀⚡?? Your post made me remember that ask you sent about them in December, it was fun!

What do you think about the latest twst main story update and 💀⚡ interactions? It's ok if you haven't seen it! Maybe some ideas about 💀⚡ going to the beach together, since there's Stitch event on En server?

Random fact I once mentioned while sulking they didn't include Seb in that event because the potential lol + random 💀⚡ for inspiration

anyway, have a nice day/ night!💚💚

HELLOOOO life's been mostly fine lol. You too I hope? (⁠人⁠ ⁠•͈⁠ᴗ⁠•͈⁠)

I always have new thoughts about these two hnggggh. I have a bunch of 💀⚡ mini comic ideas (I can show you in dms if you're interested jsgshshd), but I really struggle with storyboarding... Also I hate sketching and doing lineart, then add my perfectionist tendency, those ideas basically are doomed to be buried in my basement forever LOL. I have so little energy man ｡⁠:ﾟ⁠(⁠;⁠´⁠∩⁠`⁠;⁠)ﾟ⁠:⁠｡

Pssst I do have one applepom 💀⚡ comic wip, it's a single page with 3 panels, lineart's already been done by my friend DDT (usual art collab partner) months ago. The lines is sooo detailed and already looks fucking gorgeous by itself, so I have to compensate with complex coloring LOL. This thing's super high effort hsgdjsgs. I'll be honest I'm kinda procrastinating on it since my brain's been allocating all of its art juices on a bunch of fandom events lately (and now I'm also adding a bunch of trades HAHA), but I hope this comic would be done by winter at the very least orz

About latest main story and 💀⚡ in it. I'm not up to date with jp sowwyyy (⁠ ⁠；⁠∀⁠；⁠). But I heard about some bits here and there, I know idia already teamed up with sebek and silver. And he said something along the lines of "stuck between all this armor and hard muscles" SHSKHDHD. He totally finds hair down + armored sebek hot. It's canon cuz I said so <⁠(⁠￣⁠︶⁠￣⁠)⁠>

💀⚡ going to the beach together. BOI pls do not tempt meeee I already have 2 jack centric fanarts planned for this event HSJSGSHS. But thanks for planting this thing in my brain, it'll be all I think about until the next couple days LOL. I think sebek will enjoy the weather and scenery so much (welp he's a croc) while idia isn't used to the heat and is suffering under the parasol HAHAHA. But it's not so bad since he can ogle at sebek's wet n sexy body to his heart's content sees sebek enjoying the trip so much~

Omg that salmon joke jshsjshs I stumbled on it years (?? my sense if time is so skewed) ago but now I see that it's so them lol. Semi related: I imagine 💀⚡ dating and one day sebek's dragging idia's ass to an eastern (or the japanese equivalent in the game) resto. Sebek ordering various sushi and ofc salmon sashimi, and idia –whose least fave food is raw fish– is gagging just by looking at the other's plates LMAO

And thank you!! Rambling about these two dumbasses is always so fun lol. You too have a nice day/night hehe~ 💙💚

[ofindigoskies]

while I do agree that it is funny to assume the characters in the fell xenologue are simply personality flips I also think it would be so much more fun to take it as an examination of the characters, what changed to make them different from their counterparts, and how it reflects on the ones that we know in the main story

so with that said….. here's my essay on why despite the fact that it looks like personality flip with no basis, alternate Alcryst (Altcryst) is actually not that unbelievable, just a version taken to the extreme due to the nature of the alternate world

"must I do everything for you, my pathetic excuse for a brother"

a good example that it is not simple swaps can start with Celine, I have seen many point out that the alt version of her is not necessarily a personality swap, just her ruthlessness to do whatever it takes for the benefit of her people taken to the extreme in a harsher world

"if they must suffer in order for our people to live, so be it"

(and this is just from her B support with Alear)

Celine cares deeply for her brother, and by extension the nation of firene.

(A support with Fogado)

Now this version of her has grown up in a world where peace isn't a norm and has to be fought to assured, pushing her ruthlessness to achieve it to the front.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if alt Fogado turns out similar to alt Celine

(A support with Celine)

ultimately they are willing to do the extreme for what they believe is for the benefit of their family and kingdom, but since they have grown up in relative peace, they do not often have to act on it and as such this side is rarely shown.

Due to the world fell xenolgue presents which is much less peaceful, this tendency and side is pushed to the forefront. This I believe can be applied to Alcryst as well

(images you can hear)

From just one line, it is already a shocker that 1. Altcryst is extremely harsh and 2. he is demeaning alt Diamant (not giving Diamant a funny nickname sorry)

regarding the first point. (slapping alcryst like a car) this guy can fit so much rage and hate in him. This negative energy in general is primarily seen directed towards himself but we have seen it directed at others before, mainly towards those he does not respect and consider his enemy

(chapter 11 where being a hater overrides respecting diamant)

this cold brutality also can be seen in his introduction scene, he has an aggressiveness that is quite fitting for a country of might, and has a very attack first, apologise (profusely) later policy

this is also seen towards Ivy and Hortensia who used to be his enemies and he does not drop that attitude towards Ivy until their C support when he realises that she no longer needs to be considered a threat

Camilla notes in her bond conversation with him that he is different on and off the battlefield. She also says that they are similar in their duality of kindness to their allies but lack of mercy to their enemies

(from their A bond conversation)

this is especially shown in how his critical lines are quite different from how he normally speaks, in the eng version this comes across as him being confident and assertive and in the jp version he comes across as being steadfast and serious. (I enjoy both and I'm not trying to pit them against each other but think there is enough difference to point it out)

I was going to insert clips but tumblr doesn't allow more than one video per post :/ you can look at the eng version here and the jp version here

notably, Alcryst's attitude and manner of speaking while in battle is similar to the personality Altcryst shows in the trailer. This leads me to believe that this is the aspect of Alcryst more prominent in the universe

so while Alcryst is a sopping wet cat, he has absolutely the potential to snap and bite, the gap moe is vital to his characterisation even

which brings us to the second point, that Altcryst does not seem to have those boundaries and is able to berate even alt Diamant. so. why?

first let's look at why Alcryst has low self worth in the first place, and why he puts Diamant on such a high pedestal.

Conveniently, Alcryst's B support with Fogado lays it out because Fogado straight up was like hey Alcryst can you tell me about your childhood so I can understand why you are Like This

which, in short, Alcryst was born with a significant age gap between him and Diamant, and as such grew up hearing everyone praise Diamant and compare him negatively in regards to Diamant's achievements, ultimately making him internalise it as having no worth at all. which. uhm. why are you comparing a child's achievement to someone probably in their teens.

(support B)

Alcryst has put Diamant on such a high pedestal that he is flawless in his eyes. (this also isn't helped by Diamant's own issues that is afraid of showing weakness) He seems to have his world blown when he learns that Diamant actually has fears and weakness.

(Support B with Diamant)

It is important to note that Alcryst in fact does have a good relationship with his family, we see Diamant and Morion be nothing but supportive towards him and his mention of his mother in his support with Saphir imply a good relationship there as well.

the impact that outside influences can still have on someone should not be underestimated though. I imagine this dissonance of being doted by his family and criticized by outsiders (who are likely nobles and private tutors who he still interacts a lot with) complicates his feeling of self worth and exacerbates his imposter syndrome

and the thing is that Alcryst is actually pretty skilled! It is straight up stated in his Ally notebook

(from serenesforest)

and in his A support with Diamant he scores 8 out of 10 in their archery competition while Diamant scored 9 out of 10

(A support)

which, you can take at face value like Alcryst that Diamant performed better than him, or note that it is actually pretty impressive for him to be so closely matched with Diamant considering their large age gap and thus the amount of experience they have

he is also very strategic that is noted in both his solo and paired endings, as "brilliant yet humble strategist" and "unrecognizably composed and powerful force in government" respectively. he also seems to naturally note the strategic effectiveness of areas he's in based on some of his exploration quotes

(from serenesforest)

lastly... regarding inner strength...... Alcryst may be far more stronger in it than Diamant. He is more decisive than Diamant, who is more hesitant and struggles with self doubt and his readiness for the throne. Ironically this may be due to the expectations Diamant has experienced since young, leading him to be far more reserved and careful due to potential repercussions. Meanwhile Alcryst already thinks he's at the bottom and as such has no qualms making a potential mess to fight for what he thinks is right. Basically:

diamant: oh I asked for no pickles :/ ah well

alcryst: EXCUSE ME !!! he asked for NO pickles !!!!!

this particular decisiveness is actually what makes Morion say this:

(chapter 8)

actually this whole part shows a pretty important glimpse into what kind of enviroment the Brodia Bros grew up in so I'm going use my singular video embed on it.

(girl I did not notice the promos at the top until I downloaded it and clipped it on my phone I am not going to bother redownloading another video)

someone out there in Diamant Nation has probably dissected this more thoroughly than me but when Diamant expresses his worries, Morion does not outright dismiss it, but still brushes it away, not taking it very seriously. Morion is still a pretty good dad! both his sons clearly love him deeply but he also unknowingly contributed to a lot of their mental health problems, which Morion himself likely acquired from the environment of Brodia as well. he straight up says that he does not fear death, but fears being known as a king who runs from battle.

Diamant is similar to his father in that way, carrying a fear of not being a proper ruler and king for Brodia. Diamant struggles to uphold the values he was taught with but to instead use it to bring peace and separate it from a nation that uses it to wage war. and amidst all that he worries and worries and is told yet again that fear has no place in Brodia.

and despite all of Alcryst's low self worth, he does not hesitate or worry, he is decisive and quick to make harsh decisions. He does what he believes needs to be done, including dealing the killing blow at their father to spare Diamant from the guilt of having to do so

(and the tone of voice he says this in both eng and jp is the same one in his crit lines and therefore what Altcryst uses YESSSSS I am COOKING)

also this is a bit [guy with conspiracy theory strings] moment here but it may very well reflect in how they work as units as well. fe engage's gameplay encourages the player to go on the offense, which Alcryst excels at, Diamant on the other hand is has sol and geared more for defensive play (and the sol barely activates due to his low dex oof) while alcryst with luna that scales off his high dex is activating it every other attack. this is also an excuse to link a funny video I found

so!!! due to the environment Alcryst was raised in, he grew to believe that Diamant was better than him in any way and as such placed him on an incredibly high pedestal. He in return perceives himself as having very little worth, when in truth is very skilled and possesses many traits that one could argue are very "Brodian"

well what kind of enviroment did Altcryst grow up in?

we can see that Altcryst is harsh to alt Diamant, Diamant is no longer on the high pedestal our Alcryst has placed him at (or arguably never there at all? there's not enough information to know)

so what's going on with alt Diamant? from the trailer, the way he speaks sounds much meeker to the Diamant we know. from a surface glance of that, it might be assumed that the brothers simply swapped personalities, but you have already read my argument on why the world is not a simple swap, just a change of circumstances that brings sides of the characters we know that is not so easily seen pushed to the front. and the same can be said of Diamant, who we've already seen struggles with anxiety, self doubt, and hesitance on his readiness for the throne.

Morion notes that Diamant has increased worry lately, from what I can assume is from the threat of a full war. I don't find it difficult to believe that alt Diamant, who grew up in a much less peaceful world, will be much more anxious. as such, the anxiety and fear that Diamant keeps buried is brought to the forefront in this world.

Altcryst interestingly says "must I do everything for you" implying that he believes he can do a better job than Diamant and take over the task, that he has done this multiple times before, and maybe even a frustration that he has to do so. If it's difficult to imagine Alcryst believing he can be better than Diamant he actually achieves this in their A support!

in this context he follows it up by saying

(which is another important part of Alcryst's character, that he will push past his boundaries for the sake of his loved ones)

there's no direct connection, but I do find it interesting how he says this after he realises that Diamant isn't as perfect and flawless as he thought

going back to Alcryst and Fogado's B support, this very interesting idea is brought up:

and Alcryst's response to why he wouldn't is:

which poses the question of, how would Alcryst have turned out if he realised much earlier that Diamant isn't as flawless as he thought?

well the fell xenologue is right there

half joking, while I do think that is part of the reason, the other reasons that I have mentioned play a role as well. along with the fact that due to the restless state of the world, Altcryst is put into "battle mode" more often bringing out that side of him more

okay so here comes my own interpretation that has less of me pointing back to canon and more of me going a bit delusional (I say as if I am not over 2k words deep in this)

In this world with more prominent conflict, alt Diamant is unable to cope with it like our Diamant can. As such, the worries and anxiety that our Diamant already hides is brought to the forefront for alt Diamant, making him come of as much more meeker than the one we know.

Due to this Altcryst does not place alt Diamant on such a high pedestal that our Alcryst does. I won't be surprised if the comparison still happens though, because it was already illogical in the original world. However, instead of taking it lying down and internalising it, Altcryst instead channels the rage and anger that our Alcryst is already capable of to prove them wrong. and from the competency already seen in our Alcryst, this is entirely doable.

I also believe that due to the state of the fell xenologue world, there are more conflicts thrown at them. and compared to Diamant's hesitance, Altcryst's quick thinking decisiveness often leads to him stepping in and taking charge. (much like how alt Celine is more ruthless in this world and alt Alfred, while reluctant and hesitant, still calls for the invasion to Brodia)

"must I do everything for you"

and while Altcryst's harshness to alt Diamant probably adds to alt Diamant's list of Problems (tm) it is likely a compounding addition. with their large age gap alt Diamant didn't grow up with this and likely developed his meeker personality from the other factors previously discussed

I still think that Altcryst cares in some way for his brother. much like how Celine and Fogado's ruthlessness is tied to the love for their family, Alcryst's capacity for rage and lack of mercy is strongly tied to how much he cares for his loved ones

(rotates this comment from their A support in my head in contemplation)

IN CONCLUSION

the fell xenologue world is not a simple swap but the aspects of the original counterparts that were not so obvious being brought to the front due to the harsher world they are in

the aspect that is brought out in Alcryst is his rage, brutal competency, and cold decisiveness

due to not placing Diamant on such a high pedestal, Altcryst does not suffer from as much lack of self worth and is able to channel his rage more easily (because this guy cannot cope properly in either universe)

Alcryst's capacity for harshness and lack of mercy goes hand in hand with his capacity to love, and I think Altcryst still cares for alt Diamant in his own way

thank you for coming to my TED talk

no seriously if you read all of this thank you so much

[mishimakitan]

~ Potentially useful JP fact ~

Slang: クソバイス (kuso-baisu)

クソバイス (kuso-baisu) is a term coined by Japanese essayist Kamiko Inuyama.

It's a portmanteau of クソ ("shit") and the English word "advice."

It refers to shitty ass unsolicited """advice""" people say to others.

クソバイス is the type of advice that when you receive it, you wanna go, "Who tf asked for your goddamn """advice"""???"

Inuyama popularized this portmanteau word with her book on クソバイス published in 2015. Source: https://www.weblio.jp/content/%E3%82%AF%E3%82%BD%E3%83%90%E3%82%A4%E3%82%B9

[mageknight14]

Something I always find funny when it comes to TWEWY discussion is how people tend to take Hanekoma’s words at face-value when it comes to the TWEWY mythos and his opinions on the Shinjuku games’ structure and take everything he says as fact when the games show, subtly or not, that he’s a heavily biased source who will outright LIE in the Secret Reports and that he’s not always the right moral viewpoint.

And that’s what I honestly love about his character because like any well-written character, he is often fraught with his own subjectivity.

I think an important thing to note is that in the Secret Reports, there is a small mistranslation that shapes a lot of what Hanekoma has to say regarding the events that takes place within the story; namely, Rindo DOESN’T have a high Imagination. It’s actually rather low or mediocre and his Replay power mainly comes from his pin, with Nagi and Fret being the real powerhouses.

(Shout-outs to my friend ζ for this great document!)

In the original ENG translation, the report went "For better or for worse, he is able to maintain abnormally high levels of Imagination, thereby increasing the accuracy of each Replay."

When in actuality, it’s "The higher [the] levels of Imagination he is able to maintain, [the] increas[ed] accuracy of each Replay." Which basically means that Replay relies on him maintaining the focus of his Imagination, rather than how much Imagination he has in general. It also fits in well what we know about Rindo and how he contrasts his team. Nagi is a huge otaku with a passion for her favorite gacha game, Fret is a fashionista that’s caught up on the latest trends, Shoka has her entire thing with Gatto Nero and Neku and Beat are winners of the last Reaper’s Game, with the former already having high amounts of Imagination even before he got sucked into the game due to a combination of his love for urban culture and the arts and Hanekoma’s graffiti subconsciously raising his Imagination levels even higher. Meanwhile, all Rindo has is the words of a social media guru that he mindlessly parrots and a mobile game that he casually plays. Not exactly grounds for cultivating a high level of Imagination, no? That said, Rindo is still able to function as a potent user of Replay due to his ability to hold a LOT of information in his head at one time, giving him a holistic view of the situation that makes him be able to piece together character relationships and bits of information in a way that he can use to his advantage to turn a bad situation around to his favor. W1D5, W2D2, W3D3, and the final day are especially great examples of this.

This is an important distinction to make because Hanekoma actually dismisses Rindo multiple times due to his low Imagination, in contrast to how supportive he was of Neku in the first game. Hanekoma's prioritization of Imagination is him believing that it is a necessary foundation for people to have in order to face adversity; to interpret their world; to grow, self-analyze, and to properly contribute to society. With that in mind, Rindo not having a good level of Imagination to him is indicative of a kid whose potential to do all these things is not as impressive and therefore would probably fail the Shinjuku Reaper’s Game. And to some extent, he’s right since Rindo does fuck up at times and stagnate when people he believes to be more capable show up to potentially solve his problems for him; taking away his responsibilities from him.

However, Rindo does grow from his mistakes, which ultimately culminates into him rejecting the offer for Haz to solve everything for him in favor of striving for a better future for both him and the people he cares about and the Shinjuku Game’s ruleset does make him come out of his shell as a leader, which was what ultimately saved all of them in the end, not his Imagination levels. It’s important to note that unlike the others, Rindo doesn’t actively participate in Operation Awakening: he’s the guy who gets the pieces to go where they need to go in order to have the operation go by smoothly and navigates them to do their job correctly. Operation Awakening ultimately succeeds due to Rindo’s skill as a leader, which Hanekoma did not view as something to make ado about. Hanekoma's vibe was that imagination, and by proxy, the things it provides a person to do, is something that is predisposed..but Rindo proved that you don't have to be predisposed to imagination to do really amazing things or affect change on a grand scale; you can learn how to do it through your experiences. There’s a reason why World is Yours, which is basically Rindo’s theme, has the phrase "Making mistakes is proof that you’re challenged. The World is Yours."

This is also a pretty big contrast when you consider how the Shibuya Game operated, which was heavily biased towards high Imagination people to excel further while pushing low Imagination people out of the running. I mean think about it: out of a normal week in the original game (Week 1), only Neku and Shiki survived legitimately (Beat only got by due to Hanekoma’s intervention in order to make him a wild card later on). But because they have high Imagination, Hanekoma is fine with such a low survival rate for the others. If someone only cares about supporting the already "gifted", then it makes sense that Hanekoma would only focus on a model that promotes Imagination gain and self-reflection for those he deems worthy, i.e. already have good Imagination.

That’s not even getting into how the nature of psychs and pins already predisposes low Imagination people to be weeded out in the original game. And of course, there’s also this Report from the original to consider.

"So, what happens to those who survive the week? Those whose Imagination is less than outstanding are broken down into Soul, while those with excellent Imagination become Reapers. The most talented of these may travel to the next plane, inhabited by Us Angels."

Remember Sota and Nao? By Hanekoma’s and the Shibuya Game’s logic, those two deserved to be absorbed into Soul by account of them not being able to survive but it’s because how the Game operates, that’s just how it has to be, even though the circumstances were out of their control and they are shown to be genuinely good people. From Hanekoma's view, he sees the act of facilitating Imagination as the means to progress evolution; a way to improve the health of world's laws. And why wouldn't he, right? By focusing on Imagination, you are promoting people to think better, to build self-awareness, to grow and change into better people; to reflect. Hanekoma finds this to be ideal, but maybe doesn't consider the vast ways with which people could achieve high Imagination. Hanekoma essentially viewed the lack of focus on Imagination specifically in the Shinjuku Games as precluding the capacity to grow and change, but failed to account for ways in which the team system could allow for growth and self-reflection in other ways even without an entry fee, and arguably more so because of it. The great thing about Hanekoma as a character is that while he has good intentions, he still falls under the Higher Plane mentality of "the ends justify the means" and this leads to a heavily biased perspective from his end. Just take a look these excerpts from the original game’s secret reports:

"My art is widely accepted in Shibuya."

"This proves that those with Imaginations sufficient to create the future are gathering in the area. Shibuya's future is looking very bright."

"I imbue my art with two command codes. The first is "Enjoy the moment more". This strengthens the Imagination. The proxy received this signal loud and clear, though past trauma precluded him from responding accordingly."

"The second code, "Gather", calls to those with strong Imaginations. Hence the inevitability: why wouldn't the Composer find his worthy proxy standing in front of my graffiti?"

When you break it down, he’s essentially saying "My art is so good that it is propelling Shibuya into a better future. Just ignore how I implant my own codes within it to specifically cultivate Imagination." Sounds just a bit egotistical, doesn’t it?

Shibuya is a hub of youth culture and is where new trends are born. Of course the UG of it would value individuality and creativity -> influencing others through art and passion. Shinjuku is both a business district but also has a very expansive night culture. It’s considered "adult" in comparison so of course the UG would value having to work with many, many different kinds of people -> being able to navigate and work with people to your advantage. This also helps to explain why the concept of entry fees aren’t a thing because the team set-up is the challenge in and of itself. Obviously Shiba’s version of the game is an anomaly so huge teams like that probably wouldn’t exist in a "normal" version of the game.

But being a leader in and of itself puts that individual in the best position to ascend and gain power within the UG, but then the leader is burdened with being in charge of the individuals under them. Meaning they have to learn to balance the two and work with their team. Likewise, just joining a team means you end up at the mercy of just following along with what your leader says, meaning without the ability to actually challenge or discuss things openly, you will also fail as an individual within that team.

Let’s compare Fuya and Kanon’s teams for this example: Fuya is explicitly noted to have a high Imagination but that didn’t stop him or his team from repeatedly coming into second-to-last place and the mental breakdown he’s currently having while Kanon doesn’t have a whole lot yet she has her head on her shoulders and the social skills needed to be an effective leader, hence why she and her team are able to survive relatively comfortably in the middle. Just having high Imagination or high qualities won’t be enough on its own if you’re unable to work together and balance out your respective strengths The Wicked Twisters end up being the best example of this ideal since they’re able to work together and clash thoughtfully as a team and support one another in times of needs, with the final day in particular running entirely on this concept. If just a single piece was out of place, the entire thing would’ve fallen apart.

Ultimately, Rindo’s growth is a response to OG TWEWY in that you don’t need high Imagination or some other equivalent to be able to enact change and that there are other methods to do so, especially if you use your own unique strengths for them.

Then we must compare how the respective Games are operated. The Shibuya Reaper missions (other than the one assigned by Kitaniji) tended to be pretty simple: go here, defeat Noise, etc. The other stuff such as the need to fix 777’s lighting seemed less about intentionally giving a mission and more incidental. They additionally have harrier Reapers, who more or less fit as the game’s RNG element with their job being to actively hunt down Players like animals. With this and giving the Players simple missions with little structure to go on but letting them have to figure out any resultant complications, the Shibuya Game is a lot more chaotic. By contrast, the Shinjuku Reapers are a lot more involved and administrative, which is fitting considering their business aesthetic. You have them being around to answer questions (unless you’re Shoka but she’s had to do this repeating structure for ages without a shake-up of things so it makes sense that she would be sick of it), preventing unfair interference, providing help, and generally ‘administering’ the missions. You have ordered events like the Scramble Slams, with the commentator actively, well, commentating, more involved missions like decals being set up ahead of time, spot-the-difference missions, a pig treasure hunt, etc…

Of course, there are certainly chaotic elements as well (bribing Reapers for more points, having to act on the whims of the Game Masters, teams forming alliances with one another, etc) but for the most part, it’s a much more controlled structure and it really fits in well when you consider the individuality vs sociality mindset of Shibuya and Shinjuku respectively and shows why Hanekoma, an Angel infatuated with Shibuya, would look down on the Shinjuku games in comparison. In his mind, Shibuya’s more emergent mechanics and interactions allow for more Imagination to be cultivated and to him, Imagination is the sole important thing to focus on. But Rindo’s growth disproves that mentality quite a bit and shows that, like many things, there’s room for compromise between both sides. It may also reflect the devs' changing opinions as culture has changed. In 2007 Nomura and company may have focused more on individual talent under the idea of the spirited sole artist, but by 2018, they realized that leadership and followership, and the ability to work in teams, also really fucking matters. Individuality is still important at the end of the day, hence why Rindo needed to get his shit together and not just become a follower like he was before in order to achieve better things for himself and others, but accepting and learning to balance different viewpoints in order to achieve a desired solution is also extremely important.

At the end of the day, Rindo’s growth is a response to OG TWEWY in that you don’t need high Imagination or some other equivalent to be able to enact change and that there are other methods to do so, especially if you use your own unique strengths for them and even Hanekoma himself seems to realize this when he praises Rindo’s ultimate decision and the courage he had to have to make that choice and sincerely hopes to meet him someday.

Ultimately, Rindo’s growth is a response to OG TWEWY in that you don’t need high Imagination or some other equivalent to be able to enact change and that there are other methods to do so, especially if you use your own unique strengths for them. And even Hanekoma himself seems to realize this when he praises Rindo for this courage he had to make his final decision and that he sincerely hopes to meet him someday.

[project-sekai-facts]

I'm surprised you haven't mentioned this since you love lore (I even scrolled through days of your posts to verify), but what do you think about the fes MEIKO and KAITO stories?! I think they teased 2 different people potentially going to be shown in a future group? Or maybe they're from 2 different groups idk but what do you think? I think we even got one of their names in KAITO's story. There's a new background in MEIKO's too. Not sure about KAITO's since I don't play JP. I'm curious and excited since these feel like a continuation of fes Luka's story?!

mm, I dunno about them being in a future new unit. like since miku fes 2 and luka's fes 1 the vsinger fes stories have always been about going to other SEKAI aside from the main 5, and I don't think there's a huge link between any of the owners (in fact it's sort of implied that the owner of the SEKAI Miku visits might be dead). if anyone gets used in a future unit i get the feeling it could be the shibuya street performer from Luka's fes card.

What we learnt about how SEKAI work in these new stories was super interesting though. So in MEIKO's she went to a Fragment SEKAI belonging to a writer, and met their unnamed OC who just existed in there. When I was reading this I thought it would be something that could be interesting to use in the Wonderland SEKAI in future, but then I remembered that it already has the plushies which are like.. kind of Tsukasa's childhood OCs. Anyway I think MEIKO also made a vague reference to Meiko Haigo at the end so 3 cheers for MEIKO being self-aware.

I cannot find a translation of KAITO's card so I just had to use google translate for his one so there's probably errors here. But I'm not even sure if he went to a SEKAI? From what I understood he was just straight up in some kid's dream and then told him to look up KAITO Vocaloid on niconico at the end (obviously without the brandnames but that is what happened). God knows how the fuck he entered this kid's dream like what the fuck? they can just do that now??? I mean the vsingers made everyone fall asleep after the first time they entered SEKAI but it wasn't like everyone was asleep the entire time they were all awake when they first went to SEKAI. I'm actually really interested to see if they ever bring this back and elaborate on it because what the hell colopale what do you mean the vsingers can enter dreams???

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Idk if anyone brought this up yet but is Malleus calling Yuu "Child of man" supposed to be a reference to Jesus having the title "Son/Child of man"? There's already a few references to religion in TWST so I'm just curious

... Wouldn't that imply Yuu is some Jesus-like figure in the narrative 😭 when they don't actually do that much/j Personally, I don't think that's the case! The strongest religious themes that I can glean are featured in an event that isn't tied to the main story, Glorious Masquerade (it makes sense given the source material and is vague enough to not be in reference to one specific religion, though the same sense of general spirituality is still there). I don’t know if the devs would intentionally include religious ideas when it is specifically aimed at the player character when it doesn't really serve a purpose there (especially when this would be putting a spotlight on a few specific religions, ie the ones with Jesus in them, over others) and could potentially alienate non-religious fans or fans who follow religions that don't include Jesus at all. It is for these reasons that I think the "child of man" thing is just a quirk of Malleus's completely unrelated to religion. It’s a pretty common trope in fiction for non-human creatures to refer to humans as “children of man”. However!! I do think that you can still read the text that way if you wish. (I asked a religious friend of mine and they reported that they did see the phrase as an allusion to Jesus.) Maybe I just don't see the religious aspect of it because I'm not religious myself. Part of why TWST is great is because it can have mass appeal and many different interpretations depending on the player/fan, so honestly I'd encourage you to not take my opinion as fact. Everyone is allowed to see the story and its characters however they wish! Brief aside, as I've mentioned in an older post, "child of man" is not actually a nickname Malleus exclusively grants to Yuu. It is not given capitalization (which would make it a proper noun referring only to a specific individual, say “the Chief of Police” or “Principal [Name here]”) meaning the term is not meant for Yuu and Yuu alone. Additionally, Malleus is shown to also use the term to refer to groups of humans—and this is what I believe the intended use of the phrase is. It ("child of man") is actually a general noun to refer to other non-fae beings, whether a single one (be it Yuu or other characters) or multiple people. Note how Malleus uses “a” before “child of man”, implying there is more than one, rather than Yuu being the only one. I think part of this confusion comes from some fans who do use child of man as a proper noun ("Child of Man") or treat it as a special nickname Malleus gives to Yuu. So if the Jesus thing were hypothetically intentional, then every non-human is Jesus/j

Here are some examples (which are in EN, but it is the dialogue is same in JP as well; the text screenshot comes from MysteryShopTLs’ Malleus Broomquet vignette translation, as there is currently no official EN version of the card.)

[trulyatessfan]

How eould you make s8 a good season? I've always felt curious abt that jshsbs

I am going to write this one, because I feel like it's gonna be too much text,,,, Before I start, this is how I envision it Season 8 should be rewritten completely in my opinion, but I am going to keep some elements! First, the main cast! I have been an Aro-Ace Carrie advocate since day 1, it would be cool to have the American coming to the city of love when she doesn't experience attraction to anyone and is just there to find her brother!

For Hugo, I would keep his current personality, but he definitely needs a reality check or two, same for Enzo. I feel like they get away with their comments pretty easily (literally Carrie told him off and then two seconds later, they are dating AND getting married???) Also I would NOT make Carrie and Enzo canon,,, It was the definition of rushed and not realistic :/

Émile needs more of a personality, like me and Katrina would joke about, he is the definition of a white bread (with a tinder account). I think that he needs just a little something to make him more interested (maybe a mix of Alex Turner and another person) I don't think Gauthier and JP needs much change, but please give more information about Gauthier's life, we barely know stuff about him! I would not change a single thing about JP.

Nadia needs to be tone down massively in terms of personality. Some of her comments are very,,, disgusting, especially when it comes to dead bodies. I am not saying to rewrite her entirely, but her sexual comments should not come each 2 seconds and make people uncomfortable around her. Maybe some could give her like a comment like "Hey, this is not the moment" or something.

Léa needs a bigger role for sure. I don't think she should have the same route as Mia, but maybe she would be a district killer or something along those lines. She has a lot of potentials of being different than Mia, but right now, she is more bland than Émile.

Now, for the number of cases, 17 cases was clearly not enough for sure, it was very obvious that they cut corners :/ I would give like 30-45 cases for season 8, 50-60 would be too much.

As for the rest, I'll make it into bullets points:

I think Jones appearing was a great idea, but really by the end of the season. Maybe other familiar faces appears in one case or the AI! Keep the moment when they all show up at the end, that was very adorable!

The fact that Martine doesn't recognize us???? If she appears, she should definitely recognize the player,,, Jones did, but not her?? Smh,,,

Make Eleonora more of a treat. I think they should give us false hope that Antoine is the main villain when in reality, it was always Eleonora.

Make Cody less bland and rewrite the entire Carrie and Cody plot. She found him like so easily,,, If only it was this easy irl,,,,,

A good balance of new characters and old suscpets from other games!

Almost everyone needs a redesign, like look at Isabelle Picard, she looks HORRENDOUS D:

I think that's it for now,,,, I would love to hear if you guys have any suggestions to add to this list teehee

[yuurei20]

EN vs JP: Kalim Vignettes

Original Riddle: Considering both you and Leona-senpai…maybe sons of wealthy families are ill-suited to being housewardens…?

EN Riddle: You and Leona are immaculate examples of how one can be ill-suited to be house leaders.

Original Kalim: Curry, bamya, saltah...

EN Kalim: Curry...

Original Jamil: It is all thanks to Kalim.

EN Jamil: (removed)

(It is interesting that this line was removed, since promoting Kalim above himself despite the toll on his mental health was such a large factor behind Jamil's overblot.)

Original Crowley: “Impossible! White monkeys in a place like that!? I had no idea that bugles could be used in such a manner!!”

EN Crowley: “Impossible! Now there are white monkeys?”

(This was likely a reference to Disney's animated Aladdin.)

The line "nothing so sinister" was added to Kalim's dialogue in response to Jamil asking if he had been attacked by a relative, but in his original dialogue, Kalim does not acknowledge Jamil's comment at all.

This is potentially a character point of Kalim intentionally refusing to face the fact that the attempts on his life might be coming from inside his own family (Riddle makes a similar comment, and Kalim similarly ignores it), which makes it unfortunate that his NA dialogue was rewritten to him accepting the possibility.

Original Kalim: My home has its own kitchen staff, and Jamil’s made my meals since I started living in a dorm.

EN Kalim: My home has its own kitchen staff, and Jamil’s made my meals since I started going to college.

Original Kalim: Hello...wait, hey there. What's wrong? You look really down.

EN Kalim: Whoa, you practically sighed out that hello. You sound about as blue as that hair of yours.

Original Kalim: THAT Idia, playing outside?

EN Kalim: Idia does stuff that doesn't involve staring at screens?

Original Kalim: When you're feeling down, the best thing to do is to make some noise.

EN Kalim: They say laughter's the best medicine, and Dr. Kalim's authorized to fill prescriptions!

Original Kalim: Shall we dance or something?

EN Kalim: I propose a dance-off!

(in his original dialogue, Kalim does not propose a competition)

Original Kalim: Dance along to music and all the bad stuff flies away in the blink of an eye--did you not know?

EN Kalim: Y'know, toe-tapping! Hip-shaking! Letting loose and moving your body to a catchy tune.

(Kalim's original dialogue ties in to a line he has in Book 5 about how "a little food, rest and dancing are all I need to purge whatever's bugging me from my mind."

As this is Aniplex USA, it makes sense that dialogue sometimes gets rewritten to sound more "American", in order to be more appealing to the EN audience.)

[sang8262]

in a yapping mood, and i cant draw well, so here's some *gasp*, self insert-OC related ramblings?!?!?

the elevator pitch summary is:

A fledgling author and researcher who becomes unwittingly enthralled in JP's schemes after visiting Nayshall for a thesis project.

Forced to work for his NGO (and later Neo Shadaloo) as an advisor after showing promise with Psycho Power.

Wrestles with doing the right thing and opposing JP's influence, yet unable to abandon her deeper emotions towards him.

...with more deets below-

I don't even have a proper name for her yet, since I'm bad with that lmao. But I guess as a sorta self insert, they could be Millon.. for now?? Eh I'll figure it out later.

---

The impetus and circumstance for which she meets JP is that,

she's researching Nayshall's rapid devlopment, and the public health problems its facing as a nascent country. Particularly, how the visitors and participants of the Suval'Hal Martial Arts Tournament (SMAT) have access to the best doctors and emergency aid available... yet the greater local population lacking reliable access to affordable health care.

She has the chance to interview and speak with tournament organizer, Johann Petrovich, about the SMAT and current issues. She surprisingly finds him agreeable, polite, and level-headed. Realizing he has a lot of power as the country's policy advisor, she tries to convince him towards implementing healthcare policies that would allocate more resources for those who need it.

Her mistake is trusting JP as someone willing to aid the suffering, someone who wants things to be better for everyone. Once she does though, it's far too late to rid of his clutches on her.

---

I'm imagining she initially is on good terms with him. She respects his investment into developing the country, and even finds his NGO, Terra Network Partners (TNP) potentially a place to work at. Of course, this is before realizing the money laundering and his connections with Shadaloo.

I can see JP convincing her into relying on him and being complicit in his schemes by offering her a stable position within his NGO. Or funding her research and writing. Having the support and endorsement of someone his calibur would be a huge boon to her academic career afterall...

Then, maybe it's either from her own prying, or after a not-so-chance meeting with Kalima and the resistance, but she eventually realizes the kind of person JP is.

By then though, she's far too entangled with JP and his organization to cut ties and escape. In fact, she realizes that her discussions with him have been helping him make more predatory decisions.

---

In a heated revelation of the truth, he might use Psycho Power to fully subdue her: mostly with expectations that she'd not survive it, silencing any incriminating publication about him in the future. And because even if she didn't die, she would now be dependant on him as a mentor, to continue surviving the awful power forced upon her.

Turns out she has a lot of disdain and despair, enough to fuel and sustain Psycho Power. He's not fully interested in helping her per se, but decides she will do less potential harm if kept close under his watch. And so she struggles now, to find a way to escape Shadaloo and quell her bloodlust. But it's not an easy influence to overcome...

---

I mean, it's a self SHIP afterall, so I'm having it be like a development of:

-wow this guy is GREAT, i respect him a lot! he's so kind! we could work together to do a lot of good things :)

-wow nevermind, this guy SUCKS, i have to escape/ stop him!! >:(

-Psycho Power makes it very difficult to think clearly and all my worst emotions are amplified a ton! i am also forced to learn under JP, and work for him, and woah did he always look so handsome :0

Then throw in a healthy amount of manipulation and sweet talking on JP's behalf and poor self insert OC is doomed to tragedy.

---

Design wise, I have no idea!!!! I guess I would make them The Cooler Me, but right now I got nothing. I'll come back to it lmao

[kostnyan]

I love all Kalim ships equally, I do really, but there's just something about shipping Kalim with the Octovinelle trio... They're so silly together that I just can't explain it lol. Not to mention extremely interesting with exploring each character and how their dynamic would work with each other! Each relationship brings forth a different aspect of each character that I truly think should be explored. I know octo trio x Kalim is considered rare pair status in the en fandom(and in the jp fandom to some extent (Azul)) but I think more people should open their eyes to their potential!

For Azul x Kalim you have so much to work with! Azul canonly wants to get on Kalim's good side or have Kalim owe him a favor in order for him to build business relations with Kalim's father. Kalim's family are highly influential, and I love a point someone made about Kalim and Azul as characters; Kalim isn't the type to hold over deeds and actions he's done for people over them, while Azul sees the world where no one is doing something for free without a catch, and Azul doesn't want to be caught in a situation where he owes some. Kalim would 100% introduce Azul to his father no coercion needed, but it's so much funnier to imagine Azul making a long convoluted plan to get to meet Kalim's father that ends with him and Kalim married with three kids(it's all part of the plan baby, this way Kalim can't back out this situation so easily! They've started a family together! It's totally not like he's accidentlylost sight of his original goal, totally) and Kalim going, " babe, you do realize that I would have introduced you to my father without this whole 2000 step plan, right?" and Azul sweating bullets. Jokes aside, I do think their personalities would be very interesting to mess around with! Azul acts very mature and highly intelligent, and he is! But he does have his childish side, tending to be a bit of a cry baby and childish in other regards. Kalim on the other hand, though he seems very air headed and silly, he can be quite mature? I think they complement each other wonderfully.

Jade X Kalim is also interesting as well! I remember seeing someone saying something along the lines like " that the Leech twins probably look for someone who reminds them of their siblings in their partners, " and I can totally see that. That being said, on a surface level, Kalim is very similar to Floyd, but he's a little easier to handle compared to Floyd and his mood swings(though I don't think Jade minds them that much though lol). I do think Jade would probably be interested in Kalim at first because of this, but falls for Kalim as Kalim. Kalim is interesting in that since in the fact that he really doesn't see the worst in people, and he's hopelessly optimistic. The same could be said about Kalim as well, looking for someone who reminds him of Jamil(though the same thing could be said about Azul I suppose lol). I do think Kalim would try to find the similarities in both boys, but would find out quickly how different they are. Jade can definitely use someone who wouldn't see the worse in him till the bitter end, and I think that could lend to a lot spicy and angsty content if you're willing to get brain works like me! Jade is weird and obsessive in a way that just makes me go crazy.

As for Floyd X Kalim? I think surface level wise, they're a very feel good ship to me! They're both very high energy in different ways that can bounce off of each other, plus they share a few similar hobbies, like dancing and music( I remember reading some where that Floyd plays the drums(among a numerous assortment of other instruments lol) and I can't stop thinking about that??? They both play drums??? Holy shit) that I think it'd be rad to see them dance and jam out together. But at the same time they both have a depth to them that I think should be explored. I do think Kalim would be the calmer of the two, and would be able to mellow out Floyd to a certain degree if they were to get into a relationship. I also feel like regardless, they'd still be an extremely chaotic duo. I can just see the type of noise they'd get up too... They'd be like one of those super artsy fartsy space case couples you see on tv and such that are all over the place but are madly in love with each other.

Regardless, I love the octovinelle trio with Kalim... Especially because I know it'd just fuck with Jamil, regardless with who he ends up with. I like seeing Jamil suffer in the stupidest ways possibly. Like making Azul Kalim's boyfriend and never hearing the end of it from him. Absolutely awful(for Jamil that is, Kalim is obviously, and Azul would be a smug bastard). And don't get me started on the Leech twins...