#so it is odd at how imo we all memory hole

[orangedodge]

I always forget how much of Mekanix is just panel after panel of hurt/exhausted Kitty, resting in Xuan's strong arms. And then reflecting over how all of the men in her life are trash, so that Xuan can brush her hair and go it's okay baby, I'll take care of you. Usually before giving her food or medical attention.

I've definitely reread it more than I have any other comic and it still ends up being surprising how, like, memory understates how obvious the art and writing were.

[niobiumao3]

Okay separate from 'who is Clone X' let me make an explicit list of reasons I think it's not Tech.

This is NOT to say I think Tech isn't alive. He definitely is IMO. Just not as Clone X.

So. Problems that arise if this Clone X is Tech, and would require some sort of explanation or at a minimum handwave:

Why is Pabu still standing? The moment Omega and Crosshair get away, a Clone X Tech would be activated so Hemlock can ask where they're going. Full stop. It's been way too long and that hasn't happened. An argument here could be he has amnesia. This works to explain not knowing where Pabu is, but now we're to, why was this Clone X not activated when Omega and Cross escaped? He was only activated once the other one was lost. That seems like a huge oversight. An added meta-issue here is so now we have a Clone X Tech who ALSO has amnesia. That's pretty convoluted and honestly I don't see how that gets dealt with alongside our other awaiting plot threads in the remaining episodes.

Why didn't Crosshair know? There's literally NO way Cross wouldn't have told Hunter, Wrecker, and Echo that Tech had been indoctrinated and needed rescuing, that would have been the first thing out of his mouth. He clearly doesn't do that. Possible explanation: Cross doesn't know. But these guys are clearly trained in cohorts and groups, we see Cross being rotated through with them frequently. So if Tech is a Clone X he has to have been trained completely separate from Cross. This seems odd because now two separate Clone Xs have known who Crosshair was the moment they laid eyes on him. It also adds another convoluting layer to the above: Tech has amnesia, and had to be indoctrinated fully separately from Crosshair with a totally different group or groups. Certainly Tantiss seems large enough for this but we're getting to a lot of folding layers to make this fit.

Why did Cross not break while Tech did? Crosshair talks about Clone Xs like they have a 'choice', but ofc that choice can easily be 'convert or suffer eternally'. Certainly that was implied by Cross' no good very bad time. This indicates Cross didn't break and Tech did. The man who hobbled around on a busted femur and shot out a connecting hinge without hesitation nor a waver in his hand and had the nerve necessary to race against droids. Cross says he thinks his resilience is because he's defective. He could be wrong about that, but if he's not, okay then once again, why Tech and not Cross? We could go with, well maybe Tech was badly injured and had serious trauma. Okay so NOW, he has amnesia (to explain why Pabu is still intact) and a traumatic injury, which makes him susceptible to indoctrination. Once again, that's a lot of shaving to fit this square peg into the round hole.

How did Wrecker, Hunter, and Crosshair all fight him not realize it was Tech? These guys grew up together, trained together, fought in the war together, and Hunter and Wrecker have been with Tech since then as well. How would they not recognize Tech in a fight? If we want to claim his style has changed, that runs counter to the Clone X's per Cross' description--they're not mindwiped, their memories aren't gone, their personalities aren't gone, they're just indoctrinated. Their personalities are still there, they've just been distilled into True Belief. Tech would ultimately still have Techlike tendencies, yet showed almost none of them. For example:

This guy is athletic as hell and never slips. If you go back over S1 and S2, Tech is slipping on solid unmoving surfaces all, the, time. It's an amazing bit they do for him. This guy? None of that.

I'm only slightly joking when I say, he does not one single completely unnecessary roll or flip. Tech did those all the time. He was born to be extra.

He tries fruitlessly to use his suit controls for his ship, never once makes an attempt to fix them.

Why was the throwdown with Crosshair and this guy so very personal if it's Tech and Crosshair doesn't know, having never met him? The Clone X is busy echoing Crosshair's own words to Hunter from S1 right back in his face during their brutal fight. Chances, choices, etc.; it's the same things Crosshair said once upon a time in an uglier life. This guy is a Shadow!Crosshair, in effect, which really does NOT work as a plot point if he's actually Tech (because per above, Tech would have to have all agency and choice stripped away to become this--he really, really would). This fight is personal; this person watched Cross go through the program and refuse it. This isn't someone who 'heard about' Cross denying them. Crosshair would then know this is Tech.

It is possible they can somehow explain all of this, I just don't see that happening without it turning into some sort of marlinspike-worthy twisting of the rope to work in amnesia and succumbing when Cross didn't and Cross not knowing AND Hunter and Wrecker not recognizing his fighting style. That's a lot.

Separate item:

What if it's Tech and Cross feels guilty and isn't telling anyone?

My main reason for thinking this doesn't work is that when Howzer stunned the Clone X off Cross and over a waterfall Cross failed to react about it in any way. I just do NOT think that would have happened if it was Tech and he knew. He'd have wanted to capture him at all costs and hope for SOME kind of solution, any kind.

Instead it's 'let's get the fuck out of here after we talk to Wolffe who is being a himbo about things'. Not a single thought to that guy.

I personally suspect Clone X is either a Named (Dogma, Slick, Cody, whatever) or, a random reg that Cross went through indoctrination with. They both tried to hold out, desperately. They were both about to slip. This other clone did; Cross was thinking of giving in ('I belong in here'), when Omega announces they're escaping. She saves him from that fate.

[dreamersscape]

In Which I Attempt to Wreak Havoc Upon Panharmonium's Heart. Or Something.

Because I am an awesome friend, clearly, and possibly making people sad/verklempt is definitely an excellent way to (belatedly 😔 but I did start before the 15th!) celebrate Kakashi's birthday, right? ;)

I will admit up front that this is nowhere near as deftly structured and compiled as your Kakashi fanmix, @panharmonium, but that is precisely why I'm not even going to try to organize all these songs into individual playlists. Yet. Plus, I have a tendency to over-explain so this way I can better expound on why certain songs remind me of certain characters. Sorry that I sorta went a little... overboard?

Everything--except a few that aren't available on spotify, I'll link to them directly--can be listened to HERE.

What I'm Looking For - Brendan Benson | Kakashi → I may be a little biased with this one because it fits SO many of my favorite characters so well, somehow, but there's just something about the upbeat/tongue-in-cheek musical cues/delivery of lines such as 'I visit hell on a daily basis, and I see the sadness in all your faces' that just feels so Kakashi to me.

Happy Ending - MIKA | Kakashi → This is presumably a breakup song, but I enjoy it so much more in a non-romantic context (and the song itself isn't really boxed in with overtly romantic framing, so I appreciate that!). Anyway, some very important instructions IMO for listening to this with Kakashi in mind: everything before the bridge is about Kakashi up through his ANBU years, but when you get to the 'little bit of love' refrain, picture Kakashi meeting Tenzo, and then becoming Team 7's sensei, opening back up to Gai, adopting all the other leaf genin, assimilating Sai and Yamato into Team 7, and it keeps building with Kakashi gaining more and more loved ones to fill the hole in his heart, and then cry tears of joy with me! Just my personal suggestion. :D

Light - Sleeping At Last | Kakashi & Team 7 (/all his kids)

with every heartbeat I have left I will defend your every breath

→ I've seen this song used for ship vids and I'm all ????? about that because this is clearly a song about the love you have for your child! But I suppose if one of my favorite pastimes is aggressively re-interpreting love songs in non-romantic ways, I can't begrudge the opposite process... too much, lol.

Heroes - MIKA | Team Minato

your blood on me/and my blood on you/but to make you bleed/the only thing I wouldn't do/.../I wish there was a way/to give you a hand to hold/'cause you don't have to die in your glory/die, to never grow old

Long Lost Friends - Transit | Kakashi & Obito

how long/do you have to say that/this is not the person I used to know/you are not the person I used to know/.../because lately, you've been looking at me like you've seen a ghost/and isn't it obvious who's been missing who the most

→ What the heck! What the heck! What the heck! What the heck! What the heck!

Against the Voices - Switchfoot | Kakashi

'cause everybody knows/the hardest war to fight/is the fight to be yourself/when the voices try to turn you into someone else

Out of the Darkness - Matthew and the Atlas | Obito? Yamato? Kakashi? Itachi & Sasuke? Naruto & Kurama? → I'm a bit undecided about this one, or if I should just not worry about choosing one character and just let myself feel all the "inner darkness is not an innate characteristic, Danzo! They're just grieving/in a lot of pain, and they can find their way out of that dark place!" feels.

Save A Place - 1969 | Kakashi & Sasuke

so I'll keep away and save a place for you/and I'll only make the same mistakes as you/.../when all the blood all over your fingers is dried up/the pain will still linger

→ I'm not uber-confident in picking out really fitting Kakashi & Sasuke songs yet, but I hope this hits a lot of the right notes for you. :)

Thrive - Switchfoot | Kakashi

I'm always close, but I'm never enough/I'm always in line, but I'm never in love/I get so down, but I won't give up/I get so down, but I won't give up

→ See, it says right there that he's never in love! Not the crux of the song, and he's not always 'in line' either, but still! :)

Disarm - The Civil Wars | Kakashi & Obito

the years burn, burn, burn

→ I don't know how I keep collecting fictional relationships that work so well for this song, but literally every single line of this song hits so hard for these two?? Will never recover from this. (Also, I usually disregard when 'my love' pops up in the last line of the chorus, as the mood dictates. :) It's pretty incidental as is IMO.)

Renaissance - Paolo Buonvino & Skin | Sakumo & Obito & Kakashi & Naruto

let me show you one last time/let me show you one last sign/you can find it/I can't say that I can change the world/but if you let me, I can make another world for us/let me suffer all for you/make this vision all brand new/we can fight them/I can't say that I can win it all, [but] come with me and I will make my words stand tall

→ Okay, this is a very odd choice given that it's actually the theme song for a different show about the Italian renaissance (if you happen to see this, Mirjam, don't hate me!), but this could be IT! The "those who break the rules are scum, but those who would abandon their friends are worse than scum" anthem that's all about building a better world based on these principles! I really hope our sharing-a-brain talent translates to listening to this song in this way because I am feeling SOME KIND of way about this!

The Lament of Eustace Scrubb - The Oh Hellos | Kakashi → I really liked the song you chose from this album for your fanmix, so now I've feeling a tiny bit too on-the-nose with my choice, but I guess this is just a Kakashi album all around. 😆

Glass Heart Hymn - Paper Route | Kakashi(+ Obito) & Sasuke(+ Itachi)

memories as heavy as a stone/ I am empty, in my end you are my beginning

This Is Home - Switchfoot | Yamato & Kakashi (+ Team 7)

and now, after all my searching/after all my questions/I'm gonna call it home

→ All finding-where-you-belong songs are actually Yamato songs. True story!

Faust, Midas, & Myself - Switchfoot | Obito

you have one life left to leave/you have one life left to lead

→ Could this be any more perfect for Obito? It even has creepy-old-man!Madara!

Pluto - Sleeping At Last | Kakashi

Always Gold - Radical Face | Kakashi & Obito/Sasuke & Itachi/Naruto & Sasuke

all my life, I've never known where you've been/there were holes in you, the kind that I could not mend/and I heard you say, right when you left that day/does everything go away?/yeah, everything goes away/but I'm going to be here till forever/so just call when you're around

→ ...but mostly Kakashi & Obito because 'there were holes in you' 😭😭😭

Lemon Boy - Cavetown | Yamato & Kakashi → You already know the delights of this song of course, but I gots to be comprehensive. :)

Everywhere I Go - Lissie/cover by Sleeping At Last | Kakashi & Team Minato

danger will follow me now everywhere I go/angels will call on me and take me to my home/well, these tired eyes just want to remain closed

→ I chose the Sleeping At Last cover for maximum angst, 'cause sometimes it be like that.

Uneven Odds - Sleeping At Last | Kakashi

maybe your light is a seed, and the darkness the dirt, in spite of the uneven odds, beauty lifts from the earth

→ ...just like an earth style: mud wall :') Okay, okay, bad jokes aside, the seed metaphor of course makes me want to associate it with Tenzo, but this is clearly a Kakashi song!

Twenty-four - Switchfoot | Kakashi & Obito

life is not what I thought it was twenty-four hours ago/and I'm not who I thought I was twenty-four hours ago/still I'm singing spirit, take me up in arms with you/you're raising the dead in me/I wanna see miracles/to see the world change/wrestled the angel for more than a name/for more than a feeling, for more than a cause/I'm singing spirit, take me up in arms with you/and you're raising the dead in me

I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme) - John Rzeznik | Kakashi

and how can they say I never change?/they're the ones that stay the same/.../they can't tell me who to be/'cause I'm not what they see/.../and their words are just whispers/and lies that I'll never believe

→ Yeah, I might've accidentally imprinted on Treasure Planet as a 14 year old, and then someone made sure this song would forever live in my heart by making a fanvid of it with my favorite character from my robin hood show, but! He's still here!

See You Again - Wiz Khalifa (feat. Charlie Puth) | Kakashi & Obito/Team Minato

how can we not talk about family when family's all that we got?/everything I went through, you were standing there by my side/and now you gon' be with me for the last ride

→ I am being very unoriginal here, and there are in fact already fanvids made for these relationships set to this song (along with many others featuring different Naruto relationships), but I don't think I'll be able to rest until I translate the movie playing in my head whenever I hear this song now into an actually watchable format. After all, they have come a long way from where they began, and I intend to make that both as touching and ironically hilarious as possible!

Goodnight, Travel Well - The Killers | Kakashi → Admittedly, I got this idea from a magnificently crafted fanvid done for my robin hood show, but I genuinely think it would be really interesting to make something similar for Kakashi centered around the time he technically died but got better? I don't know how to explain it, but I think it fits quite well.

30 Lives - Imagine Dragons | Kakashi & all the people he's loved and lost → can be listened to here.

A Pound of Flesh - Radical Face | Kakashi

then today I wake up feeling easy/and find I'm on more familiar roads/I got a darkness wrapped inside me/but now it ain't so hard to let it go/so keep a candle burning in the window/I'm almost home

Hold Back The River - James Bay | Kakashi & life getting in the way of him being with his precious people (you may be sensing a pattern here) → @the road of life: Let! Kakashi! And his People! Hold! Each! Other!!! Also, 'tried to square not being there, but think that I should have been' is absolutely about Sasuke's defection and Kakashi adding it to his long list of undeserving self-recriminations.

The Fall - Imagine Dragons | Yamato & Kakashi → 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

Shadowman - K's Choice | could work equally well for Kakashi or Obito, I think

any time tomorrow a part of me will die/and a new one will be born/any time tomorrow/I'll get sick of asking why/sick of all the darkness I have worn/any time tomorrow/I will try to do what's right/making sense of all I can/any time tomorrow I'll pretend to see the light/I just might/.../and doesn't it make you sad?/to see so much love denied/see nothing but a shadowman inside

Paint - The Paper Kites | Kakashi & Team 7

still there's a wound and I'm moving slow/though it don't show, though it don't show/I've got a hole where nothing grows,/how little you know, how little you know

→ A song for just how much Team 7 doesn't know about their sensei.

Always Find Me Here - Transit | Kakashi → ...most likely at the memorial stone. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (why am I like this)

Taste - Sleeping At Last | Kakashi

it’s bittersweet, it’s poetry/a careful pruning of my dead leaves/it’s holy ground, a treasure chest/I'm on my knees and only scratch the surface/like fists unraveling, like glass unshattering/we’re breaking all the rules, we’re breaking bread again/we’re swallowing light ’til we’re fixed from the inside

Help - Hurts | Yamato & Kakashi

take my hand and lead the way/out of the darkness and into the light of the day/.../'cause I know what I've been missing/and I know that I should try/but there's hope in this admission/and there's freedom in your eyes/.../I can feel the darkness coming/and I'm afraid of myself/call my name and I'll come running/'cause I just need some help

→ NO ONE TOUCHE ME.

Your Soul - RHODES | A mish-mash of Kakashi & Tenzo and Rin & Obito & Kakashi and Gai & Kakashi vibes? → So like, 'oh you know when you're alone/I'm holding on and on and on and on/to your soul' reminded me of your 'when you're all alone...the only thing you really think about is dying' 'but when there are two of you...the only thing you can think about is surviving.' and now kakashi - who just saved his life - is asking him 'did you want to die' and yamato is saying 'no' there are two of them and yamato wants to SURVIVE. tags as well as Gai's steadfastness as a friend, and 'I just wanna hold your hand' made me think of Rin's "Well then, I'm just going to have to connect the two of you." while holding their hands, and the sunlight/'soul shine'/'your light' motif is just A Lot in this song!!

7 Years - Lukas Graham | Kakashi → Alright, yeah, there are already approximately a gazillion pre-existing Naruto AMVs for this song and even one or two focusing on Kakashi, but they don't capitalize on all the angst possibilities in many of the lyrics or reach the fluff potential of 'will I think the world is cold or will I have a lot of children who can warm me [when I'm old]' and I cannot abide that!

Putting The Dog To Sleep - The Antlers | Kakashi & Sasuke → Okay, on one hand, this song is One Big Oof. But I do like the (potentially odd) way I've conceptualized it for Kakashi & Sasuke? Like, the first half is Kakashi going through all the tragedies in his life and getting lost in ANBU, but then in the second half it transitions to him wanting to prevent Sasuke from having to be as alone as Kakashi once was and they can face life together? It makes me emotional!

Trust Me - The Fray | Kakashi & Obito

I found a friend, or should I say a foe?/said there's a few things you should know/we don't want you to see/we come, and we go/here today, gone tomorrow

→ There are a few lines that call Tenzo & Kakashi to mind, but mostly it's Obito & Kakashi.

The Lightning Strike (What If This Storm Ends?) - Snow Patrol | Kakashi → I had to, right? My mindscape is a little murky/scattered about what specifically I want to think about when I listen to this, but obviously it has to do with Kakashi in one way or another.

Kettering - The Antlers | Team Minato(???) → Honestly not sure if this will make any sense, but yeah, vague team minato vibes?

Swans - Unkle Bob | Kakashi & Obito/Rin/Minato/Kushina/Sakumo → They should be by his side always!!!

Looking Too Closely - Fink | Kakashi → I honestly feel rather ambivalent about this one too, but I can't deny 'truth is like blood underneath your fingernails/and you don't wanna hurt yourself, hurt yourself/looking too closely' always destroys me because... well, you know. I love suffering. :(

Souvenirs - Switchfoot | Kakashi & Obito & Rin

wolves - Switchfoot | Kakashi

snowfall for the battlefield/roses for the father's sons/see them red on the ground:/bleeding/when the revolution came/we were more than hungry men/we were hoping for more:/bleeding/end. begin again./all of my world is collision and spin/hope is a world that has yet to begin/awaken, oh sleeper/awaken, oh sleeper/a new day begins

→ I wanted a wolf-related song too. :)

PRODIGAL SOUL - Switchfoot | Obito, Itachi, & Sasuke; just all them wayward Uchiha boys

Coming Down - Dear Euphoria | kid!Kakashi & his relationships

the shell/that I wore/it wasn't for fun/it wasn't to make you/stick around/it was for survival/it was what I've learnt/it was for the sun/.../our love has grown/our love has flown

→ Another one I'm a little unsure of whether it makes sense outside of my head or not, but I like the vibes?

Ghosts That We Knew - Mumford & Sons | Kakashi & Yamato? → Hmm, can I maybe submit this as a Kakashi-&-Yamato-just-need-to-mske-it-through-this-war-so-they-can-have-a-bright-bright-future song?

All Is Well (It's Only Blood) - Radical Face | Kakashi → ...he said as he's bleeding out or after he's thrown himself in the line of fire protecting someone he thinks is a better person than himself...

Bleeding Out - Imagine Dragons | Kakashi

when the hour is nigh/and hopelessness is sinking in/and the wolves all cry/to fill the night with hollering/when your eyes are red/and emptiness is all you know/with the darkness fed/I will be your scarecrow/you tell me to hold on/oh, you tell me to hold on/but innocence is gone/and what was right is wrong

→ In a similar vein to the previous song. But goodness gracious! Were they NOT straight up describing Kakashi here?

Amaryllis - Shinedown | Yamato & Kakashi → Just tossing this one out there, not sure if it will make sense or if it's a reach... but I like it?

lost 'cause - Switchfoot | Kakashi & Sasuke

are we a lost cause?/or are we just lost 'cause/we won't be the future we refuse to see?/and if I'm your lost cause/it'll be your lost 'cause/you won't see me as I am, the possibility/that I'm not the enemy

→ 214 feels. (And before and after that, but yeah.)

Through the Ghost - Shinedown | Kakashi & Obito

so many silent sorrows/you never hear from again/and now that you've lost tomorrow/is yesterday still a friend?/.../everything that mattered is just/a city of dust/covering both of us/did you hide yourself away?/I can't see you anymore/.../did you hide yourself away?/are you living through the ghost?/did you finally find a place/above the shadows so the world will never know?/the world will never know you like I do ... like I still do

Little Talks - Of Monsters and Men | Kakashi → Just Kakashi having little chats with his ghosts, totally the most heartwarming way to conclude this section. 😅

Sleepyhead - Passion Pit | Kakashi → Just kidding! Here's a slightly less morbid song for the Most Tired Boy Of Them All.™ (Random aside: this was my customary song to listen to on my walks to 8AM organic chemistry classes; I found it strangely soothing! On a different occasion, after a particularly long day for her, one of my roommates didn't have the energy to make it to her bed but nevertheless requested a lullaby from us. So I obliged by playing this song for her, but she didn't seem to gain the same peace of mind from it as I did. 😄 I know it's not my place to propose anything like this, but it does amuse me to imagine bookends!Kakashi in these situations, even though it's not OChem classes he has to go to.)

General/Miscellaneous:

Rise Above It - Switchfoot | Ensemble

don't care what they're telling me/we can be what we want to be/.../just because it's law doesn't mean that it's fair/.../don't believe the system's on your side/.../the curse is spoken/the system's broken; rise above it

→ I mean, how could I not think about Naruto when this song also has the lines 'hear us sing tonight like the last night on earth/we will rise like the tide/like dead men coming back to life/we are rising, rising'? It's fun to be literal sometimes!

Doorways - Radical Face | Allllll the traumatized children → Someone has to put all those tragic childhood flashbacks to good use, after all.

Ghost Towns - Radical Face | take your pick of Itachi, Sasuke, or Post-Kannabi-Bridge!Obito

there's no comin' home/with a name like mine/I still think of you/but everyone knows/yeah everyone knows/if you care, let it go

Blinding Light - Switchfoot | Hey, Hiruzen? You may have coined the phrase, "children are the king" but I don't think you truly understand it... (insert Princess Bride joke here)

hey boy, don't believe them/we're the nation that eats our youth/.../still looking for the blinding light/still looking for the reason why/still looking for the sun to shine/all my life I've been living in the darkest night/still looking for the blinding light/to take me higher and higher

Brother's Blood - Kevin Devine | EVERYONE → ...but certainly so much you could do with Itachi & Sasuke, Obito & Kakashi, Shisui & Itachi, even Hashirama & Madara! Sakumo's teammates turning their backs on him and saying 'I don't know one thing about my brother's blood'?!?! There are SO MANY ideas I have for this song! It gives me chills and makes my brain scream.

We Need Each Other - Sanctus Real | Ensemble → Already mentioned this one to you, but I have to include it here for thoroughness' sake!

Whispering - Alex Clare | the Hidden Leaf's lost/ostracized children/orphans

who will care for the falling?/who will care for the falling leaves?

So this is probably a strange concept to come up with and apply to this song, but the 'whispering, whispering, whispering' parts brought Konaha's virulent gossiping/passing judgement about others and often kids they don't even know problem to mind, too, and yeah?

The World You Want - Switchfoot | Ensemble → If I were to make a fanvid set to this song, I would definitely keep a broad focus, but I can't deny that the lines 'you start to look like what you believe, you float through time like a stream, if the waters of time are made up by you and I, I could change the world for you, you change it for me' FOR SURE has strong Obito & Kakashi/Kakashi & Tenzo vibes.

Red Eyes - Switchfoot | Ensemble, but definitely many dashes of Uchihas 😄 → I would like to thank Masashi Kishimoto for creating a world where red eyes are a Thing of Importance so I can one day make a fanvid using this song in not just the tired or teary bloodshot-red eyes way, but in a very literal sense too.

TAKE MY FIRE - Switchfoot | The Will of Fire → 'Cause I think I'm sooooo clever. 😄

Above The Clouds Of Pompeii - Bear's Den | various parent & child relationships → This obviously derives from the not-caring-about-your-female-characters problem, but it always gets me that all the single parents in the Naruto universe are almost invariably the fathers! I guess sometimes you can safely guess that the mothers are still alive/exist, but either way we hardly ever get to see them. :/ The one exception I can think of right now is Kurenai, but maybe I'm forgetting another conspicuous single mother. Anyway, I don't know if this helps or hinders more a potential Naruto fanvid for this song, but regardless, it still gives me feelings?

Who We Are - Switchfoot | Ensemble → It just makes me inordinately happy that the chorus for this song starts with 'who we are (in the fever of our youth)', you know? :D

Brother - Kodaline | all the friendships we can stuff in here and then some → Quite a well known song I'm pretty sure, but I love how many dynamics one could showcase in a potential fanvid of this. And, not gonna lie, 'oh brother, we go deeper than the ink beneath the skin of our tattoos' deserves to be used in some sort of Tenzo 'n' Kakashi or Team Ro fan creation!

Special Bonus:

Shake It Out - Florence + The Machine | Kakashi & Obito → I'm not sure whether I would have realized how well this works for Kakashi & Obito on my own, funnily enough, but then I found this fanvid of it (containing only scenes you've seen naturally!) and it hit me like a ton of bricks. It's so well done!

[yan-genshin]

- warnings: general yandere content (nothing super hardcore imo, since jean is so righteous she isn’t a super intense yandere), some minor spoilers for jean’s story.

♥︎  jean gunnhildr

jean has decided to dedicate her entire life to protecting mondstadt- she’s given up the usual life of most young ladies, spending her days hard at work, getting little to no sleep and time for herself for the sake of the city she loves

because of this, it just... catches her off guard when she realizes she’s harboring such strong feelings for someone. jean loves all of mondstadt and its citizens, but this is... different. it’s stronger, all-consuming; enough so it gets in the way of her everyday life

it’s perhaps one of her deepest secrets how... dearly she craves love. days of her childhood (and sometimes evenings when she allows herself some rest) spent reading romance novels, jean has always longed for a soft and reciprocated love, for the gentle emotions that are so delicately portrayed in words in those novels

“thank you, master jean! i’m so sorry for taking up your time for this...” the way they sheepishly thank her after she did something as minor as help them carry their food to their home makes her heart flutter. it’s no shock the acting grandmaster would be helping a citizen with a mundane task- it’s common for everyone to ask for her help with any task no matter how menial or odd. and yet, despite the fact she’s always running around working or helping, she only feels butterflies in her stomach when this particular person thanks her. she thinks of her romance novels- thinks of those words of love, emotions gentle and fragile like silk. but... that’s not quite it; as they walk into their house, jean feels her heart twisting, feels a dark side of her brain whispering little nothings that she tries to brush off. she quickly tries to brush off the dark emotions clouding her mind as she walks back to her office, resisting the urge to look back and try to catch a glimpse of them as they organize their groceries through the window.

she tells herself she’s a knight of favonius before she’s a person, that her duty is more important than any emotion. but like a persistent weed, ignoring her emotions only makes them grow stronger and more intense. she finds herself thinking of them the second her mind strays from whatever she’s doing, and then they’re always in her head even while she works- she finds herself giving little excuses to see them, help them even before they ask despite the fact that she’s got more work waiting for her in her office

those closer to her, such as kaeya and lisa, don’t have to make much of an effort to notice how the acting grandmaster is suddenly so centered on someone. and to all others, it seems sweet; they want jean to be happy, they want her to live her life a little. whenever they try to push her to get a break or rest, they always try to push her closer to her “crush”. as outsiders see it, this is the acting grandmaster finally doing something for herself

... if only anyone could tell how deep the rabbit hole goes, perhaps they’d be desperately trying to get jean away from her beloved instead of pushing them closer. it can’t be blamed that noone can tell- jean keeps herself regal and formal at all times, composed attitude hiding the downright obsessive tendencies and thoughts that swirl around her head, as if intoxicated by the mere thought of her beloved

it’s the middle of the night. mondstadt sleeps- the taverns have long since closed, even drunk bards and citizens having crawled back to their homes to sleep. and yet, jean is awake, finally having finished her workload for the day. it’s not unusual for her to finish work so late, and it’s not unheard of for her to take a walk at said hour to unwind; but it’s definitely weird to see her as she stands in front of a house’s window, just watching. the rational part of her brain tells her to step away, to stop doing this, but the other side of her- the side of her that longs for love, that can’t think of anything but them- just fuels her desire to stay, to watch them sleep through the window. she can’t even register that she’s quite literally stalking them; as she watches them, her heart fills with a warmth and possessiveness she’s never felt before. this isn’t the same type of love she feels for mondstadt- no, this is perhaps, jean’s first intensely selfish desire in a long time

jean is more subtle in her obsession. while to others she might come off as lovestruck or like she’s a young woman exploring her first crush, that’s far from the truth. she’d never dare use the knights or their resources for her own personal desires; jean takes it upon herself to sate her increasingly selfish heart. it’s almost stalkerish how she always seems to make time to keep an eye on her darling, be it when she has to run an errand or once she finishes work at ungodly hours of the night

it only grows worse when they begin to stop by her office, be it to drop off some snacks or just say hi. of course she suspects that lisa or kaeya put them up to it- after all, those two always worry over how hard she works, and it wouldn’t be farfetched to think that they’d go so far to ask the person they know jean likes to come and cheer her up. their actions, while well-meaning, only seem to feed the monster growing in jean’s heart; the domesticity she craves, the soft love she craves so badly, now that she’s gotten a taste of it, how is she supposed to return to her everyday life...?

“master jean, are you sure these knights should be promoted to patrolling outside the city...? they’ve been working as inner city guards for years now...” an older knight stares at the new orders jean has just issued. his concerns may be genuine, but she isn’t one to make hasty decisions. she nods her head, taking the paper from his hands and pointing at the names of the inner city knights to be sent out for patrols.

“it’s precisely because they’ve been working inside the city for so long that they’re being sent out. i have personally seen them train- their skills in battle are great, and we need our strongest knights out in the paths where hilichurls have been setting up camps. the troops that have been patrolling for long now grow weary; it’ll be good to switch them out for some time.” as with every decision she makes, jean always thinks of mondstadt before anything else. and yet, this time, there’s a secondary factor to her order. the memory of accidentally stumbling into her beloved being chatted up by one of the knights stationed inside of mondstadt burns in her mind, the way he was so clearly trying to flirt with them, making them giggle and blush- she might have stepped in and reprimanded the knight for slacking on the job, but that wasn’t enough. in the list of knights to be sent to patrol outside, his name seemed to almost stand out to her- he’d be fine, assigned to a well-traveled route with little incidents; but he’d be far away from her beloved, and that was good enough for her

perhaps it’s lucky that jean trusts the knights so much, that she considers her darling to be safe inside of the city. she must protect mondstadt; she must keep her darling close. jean can feel the shame burning at her gut when she twists some strings to offer them a job as a secretary of the knights- she’s abusing her power, she’s being selfish, but... isn’t she allowed to at least once do something for herself? the job is well paid, it’s not like she’s manipulating them into it, she’s just helping them out; all of the knights seem to be happy that the acting grandmaster is taking on someone to help tackle her ridiculous workload, so it’s all... it’s all fine, isn’t it...?

it’s hard for her to pinpoint where her self restraint breaks. perhaps it’s just because her heart can’t take spending so much time around her darling while keeping up a semblance of professionalism, or perhaps it’s hearing them cheerily speak of their friends and people they’re close with that lights a fire of jealousy in her; it’s as easy as one day jean simply embracing them and pressing her lips to theirs with no warning

it doesn’t matter if they feel the same way. it’s incredibly off-putting once they realize that the composed, regal, and rational acting grandmaster is so delusional. it’s as if days and days of hard work make some part of her rationale just break. this is her perfect romance. this is her perfect love story, and she’ll make it so no matter what

it’s so hard to be mad or to run away. jean is gentle in her affections, but she’s strong. and perhaps more pressuring of it all, she’s now their boss- they happily accepted to work under her, and even though she never even implies it, it’s not hard to imagine she could fire them just as easily. it’s easier to put up with it, to let her indulge her delusions, to make them sit on her lap while she works, to let her brush their hair and snuggle into them, if once the workday is over they can head home and lock the door, try to forget the day and go on with their life until they’re once again going to be in a locked office with her all day

“i love you so much. i promise i’ll never leave you.” jean’s words are sweet, but the soft tone she speaks in doesn’t do much to help how her darling tenses. she’s just returned from a mission that took a couple of days- it’s rare for her to take on fieldwork nowadays, but when she does, it’s almost a prized break for them. and when she returns, she’s worse than ever; clinging to them, not letting them even pretend to try and do their “work” as secretary. she might say her parents splitting and not having had a regular childhood doesn’t affect her, but by the way she swears to never leave, holding them tightly as if she’s scared they’ll run, it’s not hard for them to hazard and guess that she might be trying to fill the void of affection she never had with them.

she’s never hurt them, perhaps her instincts to protect all citizens of mondstadt being stronger than her obsession- but there’s times when she’s come close to it, they can tell by the way her eyes look when they push away, when they try to make excuses to leave work early. there’s not much they can do. if they quit and told everyone that master jean did all she did, who would believe them? nobody in mondstadt would ever believe jean, beloved by all of mondstadt, who works until late into night for the sake of the city, would ever do anything negative to a citizen. they could try to run away, but they don’t have a doubt in their heart that she’d catch them (she’s so much stronger, so much faster. she’s blessed with a vision, trained since birth. and them? they’re just a citizen, someone who’s been protected by the knights all their life). as she holds them close, they can feel her heartbeat; surely she can feel theirs, too. her heart beats fast with love, theirs with anxiety. she takes a deep breath and speaks again. “i think it’s time we moved in together, don’t you think...?”

[watch-grok-brainrot]

Hi! So I saw some of your commentary on translation and decided it's worth a shot to ask. Sorry if it's a bother! What is, in your opinion, the most faithful translation of this line? "Who cares about the crowded, broad road? I'll stick to my single-log bridge until it's dark". I've seen a few variations, including "into the dark". It's a minor difference, I guess, but it's such an important line, I want to know as much as possible!

Not a bother at all! I’m so honored someone would ask my opinion of a translation! And your question is delightfully open ended. i’ve been needing an excuse to go down a rabbit hole of chinese and cql! That means if i wander and end up super off topic, it’s ok! (also, this is the first ask i’ve gotten about something not due to a tumblr game so i’m really excited!) 

Any-hoot! The line in question is:

管他熙熙攘攘阳关道 我偏要一条独木桥走到黑

In short, both “into dark” and “until dark” work. But let’s talk a bit in depth about the elements of the line since you want to know as much as possible. Also, translation, IMO, is personal so you can decide what you prefer. Hopefully i’ll give you enough information to help you form an opinion. 

管他 - guan ta -  no matter, who cares. 管 has a lot of meanings: tube, pipe, valve, manage, control, care, jurisdiction, etc. 他 is him/other. In this case, together, the phrase is a VERY casual (borderline rude) way of saying who cares -- fitting of WWX’s relaxed speech pattern.

熙熙攘攘 - xi xi rang rang -  bustling/full of people. Per Baidu, this is a 成语 (1)  referring to a line from 《史记·货殖列传》: “天下熙熙，皆为利来；天下攘攘，皆为利往”. 史记 is commonly thought of as China’s first “biolographical history”. Written in the Han Dynasty, it chronicles all Pre-Han dynasties and kingdoms. It set the precedent of not discussing the current dynasty in a piece of history writing because under the circumstances one cannot be impartial (i.e you can say whatever you want about previous rulers but not those related to the current ones lest you want to risk decapitation). The passage the term is from is a section that discusses merchants. The line can be translated as “Everyone [under heaven] is happy, all arriving for profits; everyone [under heaven] is troubled, all leaving for profits.” The coming and going captured from the source is reflected by the current usage of the term as bustling/full of people. 

阳关道 - yang guan dao - character by character: sunny, pass, path/way/road. 阳关道 is a reference to a road going through a pass on the Silk Road. There were two options onto the silk road back in the Han Dynasty. The north road forces you through 玉门关 (Yu men guan). The south road forces you through 阳关. Located in modern day Gansu Province, 阳关道 is said to have been 120 meters wide (which is massive even by today’s standards!). Within this context, it indicates a well known, well traveled, busy, broad road. (2) (3)

我偏要 - wo pian yao - character by character: i, wilfully, want. So, in short, “i insist on”. Like 管他, WWX is just being casual in his speech here. The idea of willful, though, is important as a character trait for him. He will do what’s right; he will follow his path; come hell or high water. 

一条 - yi tiao - a. Seriously, the first character is one. The second is a measure word for a stick-like thing. This is a fun (aka highly frustrating for non-native speakers) part of chinese! When you refer to an object that can be counted, you need to use measure words. You use the wrong one, and the implications get odd. Sometimes I would translate measure words via “a [measure word] of [something]”. E.g. A unit of person. A head of cattle. A cup of water. BUT! If you use the wrong measure word, it seems really weird. E.g. A cup of person. A stick of water. 

独木桥 - du mu qiao - character by character: single, wood, bridge. Aka a single plank bridge. It is often paired with 阳关道 since they contrast so well. There is also a chinese saying: “你走你的阳关道，我走我的独木桥” which basically says you walk your broad path, I’ll walk my single plank bridge. It means to each their own. This is definitely part of what WWX is trying to do. He saved the Wens. He’s exiled himself from the Jiangs and the cultivation world. He says to Jiang Cheng that he just wants to be left alone to live out his life. And that sentiment is reflected in this statement about busy broad paths and single plank bridges. 

走到黑 - zou dao hei - character by character: walk, reach/until, black/dark. In this case, the color black indicates an ending. I’m thinking death or some sort of fall from grace. Usage-wise, it can just refer to the end of an alley (alleys existed even in the Tang Dynasty since cities were organized in grids). Sometimes, in a slightly longer phrasing, the wording can mean stubbornly choosing to do something without looking back. So how do we want to interpret this part of the line? Based on context of WWX, his stubbornness, and his 独木桥, I would say he is mindfully heading towards the end. For that reason, I prefer “into the dark” over “until dark”. (4)

That said, we can also be less literal with our translations! Let me offer this as an option of a fairly liberal translation that still captures the essence and the tone: “Who cares! To each their own!  I’ll walk my own path come hell or high water!”

And I’d like to leave you with the idea of LWJ saying to WWX: The feeling of “walking my own path come hell or high water” isn’t bad indeed.

Footnotes: 

成语s are idioms and are usually 4 characters long. They are super common in modern chinese. As a child, you either pick up their meanings from context or are taught the meaning. Oftentimes, the meaning derives from a story or a literary reference that are only tangentially related to the characters of the idiom. 

It’s actually a modern day tourist attraction! In my wanderings on Baidu, i saw a picture of modern day 阳关道. There was a picture of a stone memorial and the writing on the stone literally said former location of 阳关. I don’t know why i found this so funny... oh, well. 

Both  阳关 and  玉门关 are well known to Chinese children due to their presence in Tang Dynasty poetry.  For example: 送元二使安西 作者：唐 王维 (Sending Off Yuan Er Towards Xi’an by tang poet Wang Wei) 渭城朝雨浥轻尘，客舍青青柳色新。劝君更尽一杯酒，西出阳关无故人。(Morning rain in Weicheng dampens the light dust ， Making the inn verdant and freshening the willows’ color 。 I implore you to drink one more cup of wine ， Once west of Yang Guan you will have no more familiar people 。)

Full disclaimer: I might be partial to into the dark because of that Deathcab for Cutie song “I will follow you into the dark”. Also, uh… LWJ’s mood when he named LSZ (5), right?!  “Love of mine, someday you will die/But I'll be close behind and I'll follow you into the dark” FOLLOW YOU INTO THE DARK. I AM SCREAMING. What are wangxian feels?! Why are they EVERYWHERE. 

In case you don’t know, LSZ’s S and Z are 思 (si, to think/miss) and 追 (zhui, to follow/chase). LWJ explains it as 思君不可追, 念君何时归. People (i think both in chinese and english speaking fandom) explain it as “missing you but can’t go after/be near you, thinking about you and wondering when you’ll return.” I always interpreted this line very dramatically: LWJ wanted to follow WWX into death but could not because of this child. By bestowing the name on the child, he expresses his desire to chase after WWX. (also, WTF does my footnote have a footnote?!)

(I want to say I consider myself a native Chinese speaker but I grew up outside of China. I didn't go to school in China but I did manage to work my way through textbooks (aka my dad sat me down nearly every day for 10 years to teach me the language) so that I have at least a late middle school/early high school reading level. I have read the unabridged/simplified Journey to the West but none of the other famous 4 novels. From interacting with people, I believe I have good language sense. I also pick up wordings and phrases pretty easily. The language makes sense to me. However, I am not well read or well studied.) 

Welp, @ ho-heystranger let me know if you’re happy with this. If not, feel free to follow up in the notes or something. oof. this got way longer than i anticipated!

[obeymefanatic]

Just started following you (really love your art ❤️) and I feel the same way with how uncomfortable the way the boys are projecting onto MC as a replacement for Lilith. When the main story is updated again, I really want it to focus on them learning how to work through their trauma of losing their sister, realizing how obsessing over the past is unhealthy and recognize that MC is their own person. What do you think? What other content do you want to see in the main story?

Hehe, thank you very much! I appreciate it.

Right, right! I would've loved for something like that as well. But they've lived for so long and not all of them are as hung up on Lilith as Beelzebub and Belphegor, imo.

Out of all the brothers, the twins are the ones, actually---Beelzebub is the MOST affected by her death. While the others weren't happy about her death, I'm sure, they seemed to have moved on enough to at least not remember her every waking day of their life. Meanwhile, Beel kept having nightmares, and his regret really ate him up from the inside. It didn't help that Belphie was kept away from him for a long time as well. Out of the bro's, he was the one who's always thinking about it, always reminiscing so sadly.

Mammon and Levi are always occupied by their money and games respectively, it's all they talk about. Asmodeus is as cheerful as ever, we all know this one goes clubbing a lot. He has a lot of distractions. Satan on the other hand isn't even acquainted with her, she's practically a stranger, and the only memories of her that she knows is not even his. They're Lucifer's. When MC was brought up as Lilith's descendant, Satan said he felt happy, but he was confused. He doesn't know why he was happy and relieved--but it's because he was once part of Lucifer.

Lucifer can also be argued as the one affected most, but he hid it so damn well, I'm sure that even though he was also hung up over her as somebody who knew she lived on as a human, he had to suppress his desire to watch over her. And in suppressing so, he had to have numbed himself and told himself that she's living a happy life now, and there is no room for him---someone who is now simply just a part of her past---to interfere and intrude in her life.

Compared to Beel, whose sadness always seemed to show, Luci handled it a little too well, and was still able to go through his daily activities without looking down out of the blue. He was still Lucifer, working hard, scolding his brothers, keeping up with Diavolo's whims and getting along with Simeon and Barbatos.

Meanwhile, Beel's "arc" revolved around her. And he was actually the one who seemed to be overjoyed by the fact that MC is Lilith's descendant. I remember it all too well. But I'm not confident actually,??, but I just remember it by feeling! He's really the one who misses Lilith the most, and he's always the one who's bringing her up. I doubt Belphie's feelings because he got over her too quickly and was quick to apologize to MC, even though he could've been more confused about how he's supposed to feel. It was because she fell in love with a human that he started hating humans. It's a bummer that his hatred was looked over, and he quickly reverted back to being gentle.

Still, I'm sure they were all affected deeply. It's just a question of who showed it the most, and that was Beel and Belphie. (Beel, who couldn't forget about her even in his unconscious. And Belphie, who started hating humans because of her reason for dying.)

It would be nice if every brother was given a time to think about the revelation. They just accepted it straight! So questionable and mysterious. If we want them to get over their tendency to link MC with Lilith, especially Beel, this would have to be addressed and brought back to the story, which is a little too late, I think.

So I'd like for them to have a one-on-one bonding time with MC, and actually give MC more options to be themselves! Which means more questions for them, and more options to choose. I want to see the brothers ponder, and just realize that MC is an entirely different person, and while they cannot replace the hole left in their hearts with Lilith's passing, I want them to realize how important the MC is to them, not to their family, but to them, as an individual.

And meanwhile, I want this kinda arc of bonding to be about moving on and letting go. But really, with how old they already are, how long are the lives they've lived, it shouldn't take much. I just also want to see a speck of immortality woes on the way they act. I want to feel that they're beings that have already lived this long! We don't feel that very often, actually.

And I'd also like to see a lot of action and plot conflicts in the future, instead of the dang family drama. Maybe if they focused on the present this time and the troubles that could befall their peaceful times, many things may be realized and could help them get over their past!

For example, MC's life might be threatened. Instead of how they glossed over that in favor of the joy the revelation brought in the last plot, this time, I want them to get scared, to actually think about it, and to act upon it.

The last plot concentrated too much on the brother's troubles. The MC was pre-occupied tryna fix their family instead of worrying about themselves. And with how the game's narrative ran, we were also only given chances to talk or "choose an option" whenever it's to move the scene forward (m not even sure about that) or when the brothers or the other people ask for our opinion. (I think the only time we get to do an action without it being a response is when we're tryna kiss or get in the brother's pants HSBSHSH--)

What I'm tryna say is, we really don't get to speak up or talk in the most crucial of moments where we want to have a say in! There are times when I wish I could've said something or said no in the game. When I could've DONE something instead of getting swept up with whatever the MC was getting into in the game!

That sneaking in in the past so that MC wouldn't be found out and accomplish their mission of tryna find out who let Belphie out! It was a little too forced how they were found out when we could've PREVENTED it from happening by being SMART and EXTREMELY CAUTIOUS about it!!!

But we weren't given an option to be like that. T'was like the odds were stacked against us so unfairly. I was so eager to accomplish that mission, because MC's pride was also riding on how well they'll be able to do it after challenging THE Lord Diavolo! It was the moment I was waiting for---MC's moment to shine!!! But no. We weren't given much of an option to succeed. We crashed and burned and witnessed our death, and because of that, the original timeline was erased. Like. Damn. But then everything quickly went back to normal and we didn't GET to give a DAMN!

....Anyway (god this is getting so long im so sorryHSHSHDBDVDG)

In the future stories, I want it to finally dawn upon the MC that the Devildom is a terrifying place full of demons with conflicting ideas, and not everything can and will be solved through the brothers and Diavolo alone.

In stepping unto Devildom and getting to know creatures from two other realms you didn't even know existed until you were dragged into their worlds, there are bound to be otherworldy things that can happen that would be far from the boring happenings in the daily life of a human. I want to feel that in the next stories to come!!

(So basically, I want them to focus on the MC's feelings more now!!! And show how important they are to the brothers---and I want more action! More magical battles and shows of power and all that stuff!! I want serious conflicts against the brothers and the MC--and how it will affect them and their peaceful lives!! I want to see how they will handle such troubles, and how their relationship with the MC will grow!! G I V E S E P A R A T E R O U T E S / E N D I N G S D E P E N D I N G O N O U R F I R S T C H O I C E S)

It's fun that we can go back and choose another option, but I'd like for the initial option to have an impact on where the story will lead us. That'll make it more interesting and fun!!

[dazais-guardian-angel]

This post has been sitting in my drafts since like mid-November around when I finished replaying the game, long enough for me to write and upload a fic about some of the concepts I wrote here, what the fuck. DGS brainrot is real. But aNYWAY finally, here are my massive thoughts on Unwound Future, the golden child of the PL series. This is literally *checks* 8k words, because I can never shut up!! and because there is just SO much going on in this game at all times, so many different interweaving plot threads and funny moments and incredible, fascinating characterization, especially combined with the games that come after it; I just had SO much to say. So much analyzing and headcanons and crying galore. :’) There’s a reason this is considered the best game, and that’s why I had so damn much to talk about.

behold the incoherent, rambling, unconnected mess of a novel that I hope makes a modicum of sense under the cut:

Continuing the trend, this game has simply AMAZING graphics/art/music, with a huge uptick in cutscenes and voice acting, and I feel like the sound/music quality is greatly improved too? I love the main bgm for London in this game, never really remembered loving it before, but it’s just *chef’s kiss* and so is the song that plays in other areas like the hospital and subway

Quickly mentioning the gameplay, I really love all the minigames, and the storybooks are especially hilarious to play with putting the wrong things in the spaces to create mad libs-esque crack that makes no sense; it’s so fun lmao

The beginning flashback segment with the time machine demonstration is honestly just so funny, for so many different reasons: Dimitri droning on and on with time travel technobabble while Luke, Bill, Chelmey, and Barton represent the definitive last four brain cells. Hershel being skeptical about successful time travel after all the magical shit they went through just like a year or two ago. The way that Bill’s sprite slowly and nervously shuffles onscreen after Dimitri calls him to the stage, like omg I don’t know why that cracks me up so much but it does. Dimitri’s lowkey savage shade he’s throwing at Bill throughout this whole thing. The way Bill says “wHAT” when Dimitri asks him to help, clearly about to shit his pants. Dimitri just standing there completely unfazed as the smoke from the machine flies past him. And of course, “sOmEtHiNg’S gOnE vErY wRoNg!”

…okay but in all seriousness, am I just stupid or do they never explain how they get Bill to the underground city, like the machine CLEARLY explodes with him in it, there was no secret elevator built into the thing like at the clock shop, so…???

also the presenter’s voice is really funny lmao

Still disagree that this is the biggest mystery they’ve ever encountered, despite being near the top; Luke you say that literally every game!! so what is the truth!!

Spring’s face is terrifying as FUCK in the two cutscenes in the clock shop… why they decided to show both of them in ominous, shadowed lighting in those scenes I do not understand a;lskdl;fds

I need someone to draw a diagram of how exactly the shop looks as a giant elevator because frankly I still can’t wrap my brain around it-

THE FACT THAT WE NEVER GET TO MAKE UP WITH HAZEL IS A TRAVESTY, HONESTLY

Belle… why…… ugh

Wish they’d had “Schrader” drop a casual nod to the events of Diabolical Box; it would have been cool :’) (especially since this is Paul so he’d know about all that)

College-age Hershel is just….. the pinnacle of adorableness. someone protect him from all the pain

One of the few flaws/plot holes in the story of Unwound Future that I only noticed during this replay with more media under my belt, is the that the developers didn’t really decide on what kind of time travel they wanted to portray, or more likely just didn’t scrutinize Clive’s fake role enough when writing it. This is blatantly obvious upon the very first meeting with Clive where he desires to test Hershel to make sure he’s really him. Obviously in a closed loop scenario, everything Luke and Hershel are doing “Future Luke” should remember doing himself in his past, so a test would not be necessary; this is a major trip-up on his part that it’s very odd Hershel doesn’t notice for how smart he is, imo. However, later on when meeting “Future Layton”, Paul calls Dimitri out on this exact principle, proving that he’s not actually Future Layton because he doesn’t remember the absence of a pen in Hershel’s pocket in this moment in his past, and it’s a nice little touch that Paul, on the other hand, an actual scientist, would mention this. Back to Future Luke, though, he should know how everything goes down with stopping Future Layton, because he lived it all as a child with Hershel, which makes it even more dubious to the fact that after seeing all this, Hershel still goes dark and everything plays out the exact same way it’s portrayed in the “future” of the game; it’s the idea that destined fate can’t be changed, but the suspension of disbelief is quite high, especially since we already doubt that Hershel would ever do such a thing, knowing what kind of person he is. Of course this wouldn’t be the case in an open-loop/branching timelines universe, but since the game uses the former type with the pen argument (and something else important I’ll mention in a second), I feel like the rest of the game should have adopted this idea as well and addressed it. Because Dimitri is outed via the fact that he should have memory of things he doesn’t, so it would have been easy to simply add Hershel adding that argument into his final explanation in the bar (”my suspicions were first raised when we first met Big Luke, and he didn’t know if I was really who I said I was- [etc etc]”). Even if they didn’t want Hershel to bring this up early else the entire story would fall apart, they could simply draw attention to the fact that he notices something in these moments, like with a “...” or “Hmm”, and then he explains it at the end like I said. Interestingly enough, Clive actually addresses these concepts at one point in the game with Luke in the statue plaza: he doesn’t want to tell Luke how things play out in his future, so that… things play out the way they’re supposed to…? Even though his entire story here is that he wished Hershel hadn’t gone dark and distanced from him, and ruined the city? But then he makes the suggestion that they could instead be operating on an open-loop/multiple timelines system, where in his past he never travelled to the future, but in our Luke and Hershel’s timeline they do. This is only a hypothetical he gives though, with him seeming unsure of how things truly are, which… again, in this story he’s concocted, he should know for sure, because if he doesn’t “remember” time traveling and how everything went down, then they’re operating on different timelines and it shouldn’t matter how much he tells Luke about his future. You can definitely argue that in-universe Clive didn’t think all this through when planning his dialogue for this role (but I honestly find that hard to believe, since he’s so intelligent, and he nailed the realism of everything else to a T), but it’s obvious just that the writers didn’t think it through, because like I said Hershel really should have picked up on his blunder when they first met, as well as later when Clive is surprised to see Flora suddenly with them and didn’t know for a fact that she and Chelmey/Barton would arrive there. Since the time travel scenario in 99% of the game isn’t actually real, I don’t entirely fault the writers for not getting every single detail right… and yet, that 1% exists where time travel is real, with Claire’s situation. It’s a very isolated incident though that wouldn’t be replicated, with only her going to the future… and yet, she does return to the past again, if only for a split second before dying and thus not enough time to do anything with her future knowledge, the real thing to note here being that they took care to show that she was wearing the same outfit when she died that she gets in the future, one she wasn’t wearing when she entered the lab originally. So they DID think about some things very well, like such a minor and easily-overlooked detail here (but that blows your mind once you realize it). All this is hardly enough to ruin the game or break the immersion completely though, especially since the player is already predisposed to heavily doubt everything with PL’s “the town is a lie” track record lmao, but I can’t help but be bothered by it now after playing games like Zero Escape and watching time travel shows like netflix’s Dark, which have bootstrap parodoxes and timeloops galore looool. My friend who watched me play the game blind this time around brought up all these questions as Clive said things, as someone who didn’t know if it would end up being real or not, and so I spent a lot of time puzzling (har har) it out with her… even though it wouldn’t matter lmao.

……In short, if it wasn’t obvious, despite Unwound Future’s time travel setup being completely fake, I’m really fascinated by the notion of how it would all work if it was real. >.> …and I mean, I know I’m not the first one; monocle Layton aus are popular, after all, but I don’t really care quite as much about the allure of an “evil Layton” as I do just about how everything else would be, I think.

Because, like, lets be real? taking the prequels into account with Unwound Future’s proposed setup, the potential is endless. It honestly KILLS me that the prequels didn’t exist yet at the time of UF, because!! so many people from Hershel’s past!!! SO MANY REASONS FOR HIM TO WANT TO HARNASS TIME TRAVEL AND CHANGE THE PAST, NOT JUST FOR CLAIRE’S SAKE. FOR RANHENGELA’S SAKE. FOR LUKE AND EMMY’S SAKE. FOR HIS PARENTS’ SAKE. FOR DESMOND. listen, listen, you don’t understand how much the idea of Desmond being involved in UF’s concepts destroys me. I wrote about this in my last fic but. imagine if Desmond learned about Hershel going down a dark path for his sake and everyone else’s, just like he did. Or imagine if, instead of Hershel being the one to do it, it was Desmond himself; he’s willing to play the bad guy once again, one very final, this time definitely final, time, if it means he can undo everything that caused all of them so much pain in the first place: his betrayals, the death of his former wife, he and Theodore’s separation, their father’s betrayal, ALL of it, and Hershel would never know. When Luke first is like “oh it’s gotta be Don Paolo right” and Clive says no, i LITERALLY screamed “BUT IT COULD BE DESCOLE!!”. JUST. PAIN. And where would Randall be in this future; what would he, too, think if it was Hershel going after time travel? Imagine him trying to smack some sense into him just like Hershel does in MM, trying to tell him that despite those lost 18 years of his life, despite everything wrong he ended up doing, he’s still happy, and so are Henry and Angela. So is Desmond. And Emmy, she wouldn’t want undone those years she had with Hershel and Luke and then Aurora and Desmond, despite how sadly it ended. Just… so much pain. So much potential. I hurt :’)

and adding on to this, i love love LOVE the idea of Clive knowing about some of this stuff in Hershel’s past, in order to faithfully play his role as Future Luke. Like obviously he wasn’t in Misthallory with them all, he wasn’t on the island in ED, he wasn’t at Monte’dor, and he wasn’t on the Bostonius or at all those Azran ruins that I can’t remember the names of right now, of course he wouldn’t know the intimate, specific details of what all went down, but if there was just one npc who was in the right place at the right time at any of these locations, who knows what beans they could spill? Maybe even an ex-Targent person or something. Hell, fucking Bronev is in jail for at least a little while before the events of UF. There are possibly MANY people Clive could have gotten information from to pull off this role - he’s a reporter, he’s skilled at digging for stuff. Not to mention just reading and hearing about large incidents in the news. And this makes his character so much better because he’s admired Hershel for so long, grateful that he saved his life all this time, to the point that he asks him to unknowingly come and save him again… and he most definitely didn’t know back when he first encountered Hershel that he’d already experienced so much loss and pain as well (some of which Hershel hadn’t even gone through yet by that point), but learning about everything he’s suffered? I think it would really affect him, and possibly contribute to why he asks him for his help in the first place in UF: because Hershel has suffered just as much as he has, and he feels a connection to him, feels like he can relate to him, and wants someone who can empathize with him, and show him how to cope. All of these reasons and emotions would probably be completely on an unconscious level, but they would exist - he’d use this limited but meaningful knowledge to try to connect with Hershel more when he’s still in Future Luke mode, to try to convince him he’s really Luke, at first, but unconsciously it’d be an effort to get closer to him emotionally, which is what he truly desires deep down, until his so-called act somewhat stops being an act, and talking about these things makes his vulnerabilities start to show (again, i wrote a fic about this). This all just adds to why Hershel is the perfect person to help and support Clive - the prequels make their similarities even stronger, more than just with Hershel losing Claire, and those accidental parallels when the writers hadn’t even conceived the prequel trilogy at the time of UF are just *chef’s kiss* beautiful.

THE CASINO SCENE IS JUST ICONIC, IT’S SO FUNNY. LUKE BEING SCARED OF THE SHOOTING AND HERSHEL JUST DITCHING HIM. CLIVE’S LITTLE HOP AND ROLL BEHIND THE SLOT MACHINES. THE SLOT MACHINE GUN IN GENERAL. THE CLONE FAMILY MEMBERS FALLING OVER LIKE DOMINOS UPON BEING HIT. BOSTRO CRYING AND SPLINTERS AND LOCKJAW RUNNING IN CIRCLES PANICKING WHILE LAYMAN JUST IS LITERALLY PUSHED BACK SLOWLY WITH ONLY A CHAIR TO DEFEND HIMSELF, I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH HOW FUNNY LAYMAN AS A CHARACTER IS TO ME. it’s just so glorious, oh my god. this series is ridiculous i love it so much lmao

Luke wanting to use the time machine though… there are so many reasons why he might want to, mainly from Azran Legacy. :’)

The statue is the worst thing ever for multiple reasons. The fact that it represents Hershel & Luke’s relationship, the two main characters, who have been through so much together and have such a strong bond that can never be broken, and how it ties into the whole Evil Layton scenario and seems to foreshadow that their bond does end up breaking, as “Future Luke” seems to be proof of (though the game doesn’t really put much emphasis on this; Luke is more worried about the fact that he’s moving away soon straining their relationship, and not the whole Future Layton thing. imo it would have been interesting to see his actual thoughts on/feelings about it, since he’s surprisingly calm throughout the entire game before the reveals happen; you can argue he just has complete faith in Hershel and doesn’t think he would ever go dark, but then why doesn’t he bring this up, insist that this can’t be true? I think he should have). The fact that as I just said it foreshadows how Luke will leave Hershel at the end of the game, something that Luke worries about later on in the game. And most of all, the biggest, worst thing it foreshadows… Hershel’s relationship with Clive. Clive had that statue made himself, put it in his giant set. He WANTS that kind of mentor-student bond with Hershel, that’s how he sees them, just from their one interaction in front of the exploding buildings… or at least, that’s how he wants to see it. He sees how close Hershel and Luke are throughout the entire game, and he yearns for that kind of bond with Hershel, too. The fact that the boy in the statue story has an illness that he eventually dies from, but that their friendship withstands… it’s probably meant to represent Clive’s insanity, that he hopes Hershel will save him from - he is Clive’s light of hope in his despair. Or, to be more accurate to the statue, even if Clive’s madness ends up killing him (which it very nearly does, and by that point he fully expects that it will), he’ll still have had those memories of that time he spent with him, and Hershel will never forget him, and that will mean something special. man though can you imagine an AU where Clive is literally terminally ill too, and that’s why he’s yolo-ing this entire thing so hard and doesn’t care if it ends up killing him in the end, at least he got to be with Hershel one more day; ahahahaha turn up the angsttttttttttttt-

Shmelmey and Shmarton do not at all look like Chelmey and Barton, smh

For everything Clive accounted for with his role and setting, he’s honestly way too rude and crass sometimes to be Luke lmao, even if you try to imagine a world where Hershel did go dark and Luke was changed by it… at least imo

the like 4 puzzles that give Clive’s solving animations/dialogue are the most serotonin-boosting things in the world

“you will come back, won’t you?” Clive asks Hershel about his trip to visit Chelmey, desperately wanting him to stop him before it’s too late :’)

Rosetta and her....... sessions....... with Hershel........ hajkkALSKDLD

Okay but Hershel is kind of dickish sometimes though, despite his whole “gentleman” thing??? There’s the elephant in the room which I’ll Get To, but like first he guilt-trips Chelmey into getting him access to confidential information about the lab explosion, and then he has the absolute balls to tell him “Bill Hawks is being held in the future” and that’s IT. No explanation, nothing else, just THAT, and then he LEAVES, after he’d promised to share every last detail with him. I don’t blame Chelmey at all for tailing them and barging in to get information himself, like damn Hershel, why so savage sometimes in not a good way

which brings me to Ranting About Flora’s Treatment, Part 3: The Finale. Y’all I literally cannot even BEGIN to describe how much the way Hershel and Luke treat Flora in UF specifically makes me seethe..... It was already bad in DB, no doubt, but in this game they are straight-up rude to her, mostly Hershel, for absolutely no reason, and I CANNOT fathom why. He constantly makes the excuse that he’s concerned for her safety, and that the places they’re going to are too dangerous for her, but it all exudes a level of thinly-veiled annoyance, even confusion as to why Flora is so upset that they never bring her along and wants to go with them at all... almost like her “frail” feminine appearance (which isn’t helped by how the games make her feel sick or dizzy or tired multiple times), compared to someone like Emmy who could fight and has more masculine traits, means she’s less capable in Hershel’s mind, which, like, even if it’s unconscious on his part... how about no?? I could accept being worried about her, even if I’m still frustrated at her being left behind, and her constant kidnapping (which isn’t Hershel’s fault, even if he probablyyy could do a better job both times at protecting her), but I CANNOT excuse how short and dismissive Hershel is with her in this damn game; it honestly borders on ooc to me for him, I don’t know what the writers were thinking; do they just hate Flora that freaking much??? He treats her like a burden the entire time, apologizes to people for her, acts irritated at having to accommodate for her, when poor Flora just wants to spend time with him and feel like an equal to him and Luke. Meanwhile Clive of all people is the first one to treat her with kindness and respect and pleasure to see her when they first meet, like when Luke bitches about Flora being excited to see the river and not taking things seriously and Clive tells him to go easy on her (Clive, the one who has been rushing them along this entire time himself). honestly can see why it’s so easy to ship them, when literally everyone else treats her like crap It’s SO depressing honestly. Flora asks them if they thought to wonder where her future self was, and Hershel is just like hhhhh we’re kinda busy thinking about... you know.... important things... sorry not sorry....... like BITCH I WILL STRANGLE YOU, BE NICER TO YOUR DAUGHTER!!! Luke at least is a kid, but Hershel??? there’s no excuse!!! Luke be like “damn I hope Becky doesn’t look down on us for leaving Flora behind... >.>” THEY KNOW. THEY KNOW IT’S NOT RIGHT BUT THEY DON’T CARE AND DO IT ANYWAY. I’M SO MAD

Beasly just gets... straight-up murdered yo... between him and Subject 3, what were they smoking when coming up with the animals in this game, jfc. Test subject animals?? that’s unnervingly dark, despite how glossed over it is and how hilarious Subject 3 is a;lksd

LUKE LOVES SHERLOCK HOLMES THIS IS NOT A DRILL. THE DGS CROSSOVER IS WAITING, LEVEL-5 AND CAPCOM. MAKE LUKE’S (AND MY) DREAMS A REALITY

the intentional zoom-in on Clive’s sinister face in front of the tower will never not amuse me, and baffle me as to why they drew attention to it lmaooo

And okay back to time travel bullshit shenanigans, WHY the fuck does Dimitri not pick up on why him not remembering about the pen is such a big deal as soon as Paul first brings it up?? bruh. bruh. aren’t you a fucking TIME TRAVEL SCIENTIST. WHY DO YOU NOT KNOW SUCH A BASIC CONCEPT THAT BREAKS YOUR WHOLE FACADE IN SECONDS. It’d be one thing if he just couldn’t provide the right answer, but no, he straight-up HAS NO IDEA WHY HE SHOULD HAVE TO KNOW ABOUT THE PEN. “HOW THE FUCK SHOULD I KNOW-” bruhhhh. Dimitri. my dude. i love you but you are actually so dumb sometimes, like holy shit (more on this later though)

Paul talking to Dimitri about his plan is really good; he has a “...” moment before telling him what he’s doing can’t be excused, like “oh shit let me jump on board, wait fuck i gotta stay in character, Layton is a wuss he would never agree to this god dammit Layton-”. jokes aside though, I’m honestly confused as to how much he actually knew before Dimitri’s exposition in the pagoda, and why exactly he goes along with helping Hershel stop him... and what Dimitri was thinking roping him into this. Because I can’t really figure out Paul’s motives here and how they changed, if they did at all. The only information we get about how he first became involved is that Dimitri was paying him a lot of money to get Hershel to the pagoda and to him - he knows that “future London” isn’t real, he knows Future Layton isn’t real, so the extent of his knowledge seems to be that “this man wants to screw Layton over somehow and is giving me $$$ to get it done; there’s no downside here, never mind this suspicious as fuck fake London and all these people that shouldn’t be here”, but then Hershel gave him more information, probably that Claire was involved in what Dimitri was doing, and his concerns about a traitor being involved if he had already begun to suspect Clive by that point, and then he suddenly decided to turn against Dimitri? Even though you’d think saving Claire would be a reason for him to want to help him...? Or did he plan to turn against him from the very start, and wanted Hershel to come because he knew he could stop all this (part of his character development)? The latter is the most likely, though I still don’t entirely understand or maybe I’m just having a brain fart, that’s very likely too. And Dimitri on the other hand, did he know that Paul liked Claire too and would want to save her (and maybe about his salt for Hershel too), and that’s why he got his help? That makes more sense... but also doesn’t, cause as I said it seems like Paul didn’t know Claire was involved until Hershel told him and then Dimitri told everyone at the pagoda, so maybe he literally just said “here’s some money, help me fuck over Layton, not telling how” and just trusted in him that much, even though Paul is an evil genius who could and does put a stop to all his plans with his machines... once again, Dimitri looking dumb....

Clive, in the most deadpan voice ever at the top of the pagoda: oh no, the prime minister is in danger, someone help him

Flora as they’re escaping the tower: “professor no please take me with you instead of future Luke” Hershel: *ignores her feelings and makes a decision for her yet again* Clive: “shhh don’t worry Flora; i know i’m going to kidnap you in like an hour but i’m just trying to rescue you from these insensitive jerks. not Don Paolo though; he’s a gentleman.”

It’s interesting to me that Luke and Hershel keep acting as if Future Luke and future London are legit even after Future Layton has been revealed to be a fake. Hershel at least probably knows none of it is real by now, even if he hasn’t exactly figured out Clive’s role in everything yet, and is just not revealing his knowledge for now, but Luke is still rolling with it... wonder what’s going through his mind by this point. again, it frustrates me that Luke really has no emotional reaction to anything in UF, aside from the statue and his worries about leaving Hershel soon and how that in particular will affect their relationship

I also wonder what Clive is thinking by this point. Now that the Future Layton jig is up, what kind of story is he going with now? We never find out because Hershel reveals everything completely the next time Clive joins up with them again, but in the (unreasonable) case that he hadn’t, would Clive have just acted like he didn’t know that Alain Stahngun was actually someone named Dimitri, who was actually pretending to be Layton, and that the real Layton was somewhere else out there that they needed to find? I don’t know WHY I’m so interested in details like these that don’t matter at all in the long run a;lksdfklfd, but I am... he tells Flora to continue the “investigation” without him, so clearly he still had something in mind, and didn’t expect Hershel to out him quite so soon after that even if deep down he wanted it

Chelmey really cares for Barton and it’s actually so sweet, oml :’)

I didn’t really praise Paul’s character development in this game enough before, but I really do love it, even if I don’t quite understand the circumstances that started it. It’s not something I would have expected with how he’s presented in CV and DB, but it’s very nice to see this be the culmination of his character, and it’s kinda sad that it feels a bit more natural than Descole’s sudden shift in backstory/character between ED and MM/AL... It’s very funny and good to see him and Luke bicker at each other, and how he seems to have a soft spot for Flora... it’s all cute. I just wish there’d been a bit more time for him to talk to them, but that’s what fanfic is for

Don’t make me have to see Hershel beaten up in the street :’(

The sprite of Dimitri standing in the bar is incredibly hot.... damn why are all the older male characters my type >.>

Alright but it’s about time I finally talk about Dimitri without dissing him for being stupid sometimes and say that in short, I love him. He might even be my favorite new character in UF, even more than Clive; I don’t know if it’s just the Liam O’Brian Tragic Sexy Tired Villain effect or what (nah let’s be real, that’s a huge part of it lmao), but he’s fantastic and utterly breaks my heart, in a much more understated way than how the game shoves Clive’s angst in your face, but his tragedy is nonetheless impossible to ignore. The flashback with young Dimitri is my favorite scene in the entire game, it is devastating and feels so cinematic, so raw and painful, and I’m glad they animated that part because it humanizes him so much more. Claire was his everything, he loved her so much, but it is so obvious to me (and to a lot of the fandom too, I think) that his love was entirely selfless - he might have been a little sad, but he was still mostly content letting Hershel have her, and when it comes to after her death, Dimitri would have been absolutely happy not being able to have her if he managed to save her life; he just wanted her to live. He was in love with her, yes, but he also loved her, as a friend, as a scientist, as a person whose time was cut far too short for entirely selfish and unnecessary reasons, and the majority of his anger and bitterness and drive came from a desire to fix such an injustice - to save an innocent person’s life. And the saddest part of him doing all this and trying to sustain Claire’s existence in the present once he finds her, if you go with the closed loop time travel theory, is that Dimitri should already know it’s impossible for him to succeed in this as long as he remembers finding her body in the past - him succeeding would create a paradox, thus, he can’t save her. But he’s so deep in his despair and obsession and insistence on preserving her life that I don’t think he ever stops to think about this - or he does, but refuses to acknowledge it. I’m sure he was incredibly sweet and kind and soft in the past, with her, and with his passion, and it’s heartbreaking to see how broken he is now, how miserable and tired he is, how much everything changed him. And wanting to get back at someone like Bill, who had it all to begin with and then carelessly used them to gain even more, well, I don’t blame him for that. >_> Not to mention his relationship with Clive, which is all kinds of fascinating to think about: the most chaotic, dysfunctional mess of a half-business partnership half-father/son relationship there is, ahaha... Both of them are unhealthy to the extreme in different ways, but with how much time they spent together, it’s inevitable they had vulnerable moments around each other... Clive is the only other person Dimitri would have around during his research to possibly grow to care about, even if it was entirely unconsciously. Learning he was using him would, well, ruin their relationship even more than it was already messed up, but maybe he would visit Clive in prison at least once, assuming Hershel was. I just crave content for them, ugh. Dimitri just deserved so much better, he makes me so sad </3 and I honestly hate that we don’t get to see him say goodbye to Claire at the end before Hershel; sure it would have utterly killed me, but surely he deserved that much...

The utter, frankly amazing, stupidity of Flora’s kidnapping has been stated everywhere, we all know it, but just.... yeah. smh

Seeing the mobile fortress be like *war flashbacks to the Detragon* “Not This Shit Again” Hershel why tf you putting Luke in more danger AGAIN???

The car scenes with the mobile fortress are, at least to me, the funniest parts of the entire game, even better than the casino, oh my god they’re AMAZING. Luke screaming and flailing his arms while Hershel deadpan flings the car towards the fortress, all the bumps they hit riding across it later on, the car just FALLING and Bill almost falling out of it, and then the plane, all the while Hershel displays no more than mild frustration while everyone else is PANICKING... “a plane? This is an automobile!” ...iconic. top PL moments ever. Luke don’t you recall the time when Hershel built an entire mini plane out of a chainsaw and a barrel in ED, come on now

Onto Claire. Claire doesn’t get much screentime, but some of the moments she does have are very good; she’s one of the best and most fleshed-out female PL characters imo, and like a lot of things, I appreciate her a lot more after this replay than I did years ago... LayClaire is a cute ship and all, but I was never really obsessed with it; rather, I’m realizing now I’m more invested in what Claire has to offer by herself. I hate to use the term “strong female character” cause that sounds so cliche... but she really is strong. The entire part with her wanting to save Clive, their conversation, and her bringing him out... god it gets me, it really does. She’s known she’s going to die for ages, and at this point in the game she knows it could be any moment now, so she has no reason to try to keep herself safe; she’s doomed no matter what, so she might as well spend the last few minutes of her life saving another life, and not just anyone: someone who’s just killed countless people, who anyone else would see as insane, who doesn’t care for her, doesn’t care if he lives or dies - but Claire is compassionate enough that, despite everything, she fiercely believes he deserves to live. Because of her own guilt and sins she believes she bears, yes, but also simply because she believes he can still change, and doesn’t deserve to die, despite the HORRIBLE atrocity he just committed. She’s just that good a person. It’s no wonder she and Hershel loved each other and were made for each other; both of them are such kind, loving, selfless people who see the best in anyone no matter what. Perhaps she hoped and suspected that Hershel would look out for and care for Clive once he was in prison, so she wanted to make sure that could happen, even if she wouldn’t be around to ever see it.

sorry I just get really emotional about this part, about the entire mood and tone of Claire desperately trying to save this kid, and the way the camera focuses on the massive scale of the fortress and how it dwarfs them in size... It’s a really powerful and melancholic scene (just like Dimitri’s flashback scene; have I mentioned how much I adore the atmosphere and cinematic direction of this game? cause god I do) with the knowledge of her real identity and circumstances, the visuals and the music are so good, ugh i just have so many feels. mom Claire hurts me </3 she’s so good... Despite the fact that she dies, and so much of what everyone is doing is because of her death, her presence in the story is so strong, and it never feels like her only purpose is to die for everyone else’s development and that’s it (unlike... well, a lot of other pl females :’); she has her own things to do, she stops the fortress alongside Hershel, and literally saves the main antagonist’s life. Seriously I just adore the fact that she of all people is the one to rescue Clive in the end even though she wasn’t at all obligated to (although I’d be interested and cry over an AU where Hershel saves him instead; it honestly surprises me that he wasn’t going to until Claire said something...), because Clive is the only character (of the adults) who doesn’t have a direct relationship with Claire, but they’re still connected by the explosion, and so it makes for an interesting and terribly sad dynamic, even if they only have a few minutes with each other, for all the reasons I said earlier. Claire doesn’t think what he did was right, but she knows what she and the other scientists did wasn’t right either - and it’s too late for her now, but it’s not too late for him; she knows he has a kind heart, deep down, and that he needs help if he wants to redeem himself. She feels responsible for him, feels like she owes him that second chance, after indirectly taking his parents from him and causing him such misery and brokenness... She’s so brave and strong-willed to be able to do and admit all that she does; I just love her. It clearly kills her to leave Hershel, I don’t think she intended at first to ever let him know who she was (hence Celeste), but she’s not too upset in the end, because she (rightly) knows that he will be all right. ;; She’s so beautiful, too... wish we could have seen her interact with so many of the other characters </3

and so my favorite “insert Descole into the main trilogy” AU is where Descole intercepts Claire and makes some sort of body for her, like how everyone headcanons that for Aurora post-AL. (or/also just mobile fortress vs. Descole robots, that’s cool too lol)

And finally, Clive, the infamous star of Unwound Future, thought I talked about him a bit already (and also in this post a few weeks ago). Clive is probably the PL series’ best written villain Anton excluded, I absolutely love him, like everyone does. Nothing really about him hasn’t been done before elsewhere, but that’s not a bad thing; when I was younger and first played the game I really only paid attention to his sympathetic side, but now I’ve also grown an appreciation and fondness for that kind of unabashedly awful, manic, evil insanity a villain like him has, it’s just SO entertaining to watch. If PL was a more mature/higher rated series I’d love to see his chaotic crazed energy played up even more, just to really hammer in how messed up he is, ahaha, but of course that would make it harder to sympathize with him..... and unfortunately, it already is kind of hard, because.... shit, the number of people he must have killed? It’s a LOT. A FUCKTON. The level of sympathy the game gives Clive and the way it presents him at the end is not at ALL relative to the astronomical amount of people that had to have been squashed to death by his machine, to the point that it honestly makes me uncomfortable, and I try to just retcon that in my head, as hard as it is to imagine a scenario where that thing could have come up to London and not hit any houses, because like..... There’s no coming back from that. He knew exactly what he was doing, madness or not, and I honestly just... don’t want him to be such a mass murderer. Maybe it’s wrong to ignore it, but the game wants me to feel sorry for him and see his potential for redemption, and his relationship with Hershel is so good... dammit game, why’d you have to show those houses being crushed. Ugh. Because Clive is so compelling as someone who feels betrayed by people in power, who desires revenge not only for himself but for all the people who suffered just like he has that he says he bore witness to as a reporter; it’s a very relatable position and a good story, for his well-meaning intentions to be skewed and lost in the midst of his rage and despair and hatred and insanity, where his very valid point of “hey people in government are fucked up and don’t give a shit about us and that needs to change” gets turned into “they all need to die even if the very innocent people I want to save get hurt by this as well”, and I really wish that whole angle of it had been played up a bit more, and there had been more of an opportunity for Hershel to reason with him and argue that in the midst of his blind need for revenge, he’s become even worse than the people who need justice handed to them (cue some Descole allusionssss). He wouldn’t have to win him over, Clive is already too deep by that point despite how much he wanted to be stopped, but just having more of that than just what happens in the surveillance room would have been sooooooo good, I love that conversation. It would have made Clive even better and really drive home that he’s 1) kinda right about some things and wants better for people 2) still very fucking wrong and selfish at the same time and has taken it all way too far 3) very fucked up and broken. Not that the third point isn’t already abundantly clear, but... yeah. It would have given him even more depth, made him more sympathetic, and helped juuust a little to offset how much the game handwaves his mass murders... just a little... One of my favorite Clive scenes though is when the fortress is breaking down and he’s still there, desperately trying to save it, still in denial about the fact that all his plans have failed and that everything he’s done (and himself) is about to go up in flames; I know everyone loves making fun of him and that that scene is pretty memeable (he does get bodied so much in the game, lmaooo), but it makes him look so vulnerable, all alone in there by himself, like a child, which is what he really is, deep down: he never truly wanted to do something so abhorrent and evil, but his emotions and mind spiraled so badly out of control and it led him to such a dark, horrible place, where he couldn’t stop himself, no matter how much he wanted to, and in the end all he can do is watch helplessly as the reality of what he’s done and his unwound future all comes crashing down in front of him, never to be salvaged. And he believes wholeheartedly that he is going to die, that he deserves to (this is my favorite Clive scene; he’s so hurt and resigned, the voice acting kills me ugh), he doesn’t understand at all why Claire wants to save him, especially if he knows she’s one of the scientists (as his line of “why are you of all people helping me” implies), because he always thought none of them ever cared about him and people he saw as like him, thought everyone was like Bill Hawks, but Claire still cared enough to want to save his life, even though she was one of the people he was actively targeting with his revenge... I wonder how he would have felt at the time if he had known about her situation and that she was dying. </3 I just want so many good things for him, as so much of the fandom does. He’s so messed up but that’s what makes him so interesting, and his potential relationship with Hershel that the ending of the game suggests could happen is so touching and lovely and uplifting, one of my favorite kinds of relationships in fiction: Clive’s issues would persist for so long, for forever, really, but Hershel would support him and help him heal, and be there for him always, no matter how much Clive would feel like he didn’t deserve it. I eat this dynamic up, I really do, every single time I encounter it in a story, and it’s made even better by the fact that as I’ve said, Hershel has so much in common with Clive, and so they would get along very well for that reason, and Clive could unknowingly help Hershel just as much Hershel tries to help him. They’re so good for each other. Add Luke too, and Flora, and Desmond...! just ahhhhh........ there’s so much goodness. Clive you absolute glorious, fucked-up mess of a character, I love you. :’) and I love fic writers who explore facets of his personality and write about him. He’s only in one game, and there’s still a few hiccups, as I said, yet he’s handled far better than Descole or Randall in my opinion (though I love them too)... just an amazing fucking villain, and character. I wish UF could have gone deeper with him than it did, but even so, the possibilities with Clive are endless. I love him, so much ;;

and some of the themes of the plot in this game, uhh, hit a little close to home in good ole’ 2020/21 time we live in? :’) #FuckBillHawks

Hershel saying goodbye to Claire.... god. One of the top scenes in the entire series, probably the #1 most iconic I’d even go so far as to say. I don’t even really ship LayClaire, but there’s an indescribable emotion that finale gives me... it’s just breathtaking, in the most gutwrenching, nostalgic, beautiful way. I still maintain that Diabolical Box’s ending is sadder than this one, for a multitude of reasons, just comparing the stories and situations the characters are in, but I 100% don’t blame people for bawling at this scene more than any other, just because of the way it’s done yes I know I won’t shut up about the cinematography; the lighting, the camera angles, the pacing of it, Hershel’s fucking kicked puppy faces, the dialogue oh god the dialogue; it ALL hits like a TRUCK and comes together beautifully. At this point in his life Hershel has been through so much loss, so much so that it is unbearable - when he cries that he doesn’t want to say goodbye again, that he can’t say goodbye again, that he refuses to, nothing in the world is more true: this man has been through too much, and he’s hit his breaking point. even if you don’t have the prequels in mind when watching this, as most people don’t/didn’t the first time through, the overwhelming sense of burden and loss Hershel is feeling is so palpable, so painful - you get the sense that this isn’t just about Claire; Hershel has never shown emotion like this before up to this point, so for him to finally break down like this... it speaks volumes. After so many years of holding everything in, he finally can’t take it anymore, and basically stabbing me in the fucking chest would hurt less </3 I complain about Hershel never showing emotion like this (never crying) in the prequels whenever he’s hit with an equally horrible bombshell, and I still feel that way, but at the same time a part of me is also glad that’s the case, because it makes the very last (two) scenes in the entire series hit so much harder, knowing that he finally loses his composure after dealing with so much. As the titular character of the series, Hershel’s development is very understated and subtle, so it’s all the more meaningful when he actually snaps, because it makes him feel so much more real and human than he ever is the rest of the time, when he maintains his facade of being a perfectly composed, calm, and together gentleman; this scene finally say that, no, Hershel is a person, and he is broken in a lot of ways, because some puzzles you just can’t solve no matter how hard you try, and it’s so sad. And this sad tone of loss and longing permeates the entire cutscene; the way the title is dropped in Claire’s dialogue (both versions equally haunting imo), and Hershel taking off his hat for the first time ever, and the pan up and transition back to show the falling snow as “Time Travel”, my favorite instrumental in the series, kicks in... y’all there is no other feeling in the world like the feeling that elicits, there really isn’t ಥ⌣ಥ ❤️💔 the only thing that might even come close to it is the ending of Azran Legacy with Surely Someday, simply because it was the ending of the series, but the ending of Unwound Future hits me harder knowing it’s the end of the timeline, and with everything else in hindsight. And then an unknown amount of time later, even with Luke gone and Hershel only having Flora there with him anymore unless we headcanon DESMOND COMES BACK BECAUSE OF COURSE HE DID RIGHT, Hershel is still no longer wearing his hat, to show that he’s finally started to heal from his pain, and accepted the loss(es), because throughout all of UF Hershel had never really gotten over Claire’s death no matter how much he tried to pretend like he had, but you don’t realize that until you see the ending, until he got one final chance to see her. I just... ugh I love it so much, so much. It means so much, for Hershel and for the series, and that’s why it makes me cry (and don’t even get me sTARTED on Luke’s goodybe, and how upsetting yet beautiful THAT is. yes, Luke isn’t a gentleman yet, and Hershel finally learns that maybe he doesn’t always have to be one, either :’’’’’’)

Unwound Future is a masterpiece. Diabolical Box has my favorite characters and story for the new characters, and favorite settings, personally, but Unwound Future is such top-tier storytelling and writing; it feels so epic and sweeping and (here i go again) cinematic, it’s so polished and everything flows so well, the pacing is wonderful, everything ties up so perfectly and there’s very little I would change Flora bitching aside and practically nothing that feels like filler, even though some of it technically is. The tone stays consistent and they really push the boundaries of how serious and heavy these games can be, and it works, and doesn’t feel silly or glossed over or too unrealistic or too heavyhanded like some of the other games are at times; the plot twists/reveals feel the least absurd and the most grounded in reality, despite still being wild, and it focuses on some really relevant stuff and themes (again, it feels really grounded and raw, and the least fantastical, which isn’t a bad thing for the other games/movie per se, but being more realistic works in this one’s favor. No one is going to have their family separated and murdered by a criminal secret organization working to unearth ancient advanced civilized ruins, or lose years of their life and memories in said ancient ruins, or have their life ruined in an eternal unaging state from hallucinogenic gas, but being screwed over by people in government who will do anything to make sure they never have to face consequences? now that’s a mood). It’s just a really fucking good game, by far the best Professor Layton game, and I’ll always stand by that, despite preferring DB just a bit more cause it hits more of my personal tastes (DB is still very good too though, don’t get me wrong), and it’s also enhanced even more by the prequels, though it stands perfectly on its own. The perfect culmination of Hershel’s character arc, and the absolute high point of the series. It’s one of the ones I keep coming back to the most, just because it has so much to offer; as someone who is absolutely enamored with near-perfect stories of this caliber, I couldn’t ask for more. ❤️

[aschenink]

Wait what. Zelda fanfic??

Me, seeing this in my inbox: “my sins have caught up with me” 

I feel obligated to start this with the disclaimer that the reason I really started writing (ie actually committed to a project and started developing any inkling of skill) was so I could write unrealistic gay smut Zelda fanfic when I was 13. Also, I’ve got a Navi tattoo on my foot so I’d like to use this opportunity to just go ahead and declare the LoZ-trash throne for myself. 

So yeah! I’ve been quietly working on this gigantic Skyward Sword canon-divergence/post-canon story for a couple months now? I was at my parents’ house for spring break in March and on a whim set up the Wii to play SS, which was a weird experience since I hadn’t played it for several years and on loading it up was faced with the reminder that I’d named Link “Baby~” to get a kick out of Ghirahim saying it, and after all the cringing that invoked, I was drop-kicked by the reality that my memory’s not entirely faulty and Ghirahim–and honestly all of SS–really just Is Like That.

And once I got over that bout of cringing I realized Ghirahim actually still vibes with me and 13yo me knew what she wanted and was onto something; I simultaneously redeveloped my hatred for SS!Zelda and figured I should shove all of that into one fic, because, why not? And then the stars aligned and I didn’t sleep for three days because the fanfic writer in me had taken back over and punted me to 2012.

Anyway the concept for my fic is under the cut to spare innocent souls but unrelated takeaways: 

This fanfic is the only writing project I’ve literally ever had where I’ve sat down and been able to plot the entire thing in one go and have it make sense and I’m… still overwhelmed by that. 

I wrote 30k in 4 days because of this bad boy *slaps fic*

I love writing for Legend of Zelda. The fandom itself is very chill and that’s great but, imo, more importantly the characters are perfect to write for. There’s so little canon characterization (esp. for Link) that you’re really just given a few core concepts and get to run free with the characterization–canon is huge so there’s infinite space to run there and, simultaneously, the vague characterization makes it easy to transpose into AUs.

Skyward Sword spoilers under the cut but it’s 2019 sooo ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Okay secondary (& tertiary) disclaimer: it’s absolutely a GhiraLink fic because it’s what 13yo me would have wanted and it’s what current me wants too tbh but Ghirahim is out of character because… man, I love him, but his canon behaviors are just A Little Too Much for me and I’m incapable of recreating that (and unwilling to try). Imagine if Ghirahim was like… five years more mature. And looked like Matteo Martari. And had at least five brain cells. 

:’) I pretend I’m bigger than this but I’m not, and we should all know it. 

Anyway the premise is basically: What if Hylia wasn’t necessarily a benevolent goddess and Demise wasn’t necessarily a world-eating demon, and it was only portrayed this way to convince the bearer of the Triforce to side with her and keep the world under her influence? What if Link wasn’t necessarily destined to be the bearer and it was essentially a role up for grabs, one that Ghirahim desperately wants for himself? What if they’re equals? What if--

What if none of that is necessarily true either, but it’s what Ghirahim tells Link to further his own plans?

And it sort of goes on like that for a while. 

It’s super long and starts out with canon and follows the entire game with minimal divergence, with the exception that Ghirahim works with Link to temper Fi’s blade because Link is slow, Ghirahim can’t do it himself, and also it’s kind of fun for both Ghirahim and I to watch Link torment himself about having Friendly Feelings for his rival only for Ghirahim to stomp on his throat. Also, Ghirahim rather bluntly comes out and warns Link that he’s being used and Link, who’s reasonably resentful about how Hylia’s using him and his feelings for Zelda, sort of just goes

Alas, it’s not enough, Link is a Good BoyTM and Demise gets sealed away and Hylia wins, canon as usual. Except Link likes Ghirahim an embarrassing amount and Ghirahim manages to bind to him before Demise can completely crush him, which is great!

Because now we’re like 90k in the hole and finally getting somewhere!

Ghirahim’s in an absolutely horrid state after the battle with Demise and Link, after his own recovery period, is pretty desperate to get away from Hylia, so they (angstily) agree to do whatever it takes to repair Ghirahim, which is basically to temper him the way Fi was tempered but with demonic flames instead. The flames are in temples based off of Ocarina of Time’s Shadow Temple, and Twilight Princess’s Temple of Time & Snowpeak Top.

So they’re alone on the road together for months, and: Emotion! Angst! Saving each other’s lives! Several deadly sins, but especially lust! Slow reveal of Ghirahim’s Tragic BackstoryTM! Quicker reveal of Ghirahim bathing because emotionally I’ll forever be 13 years old and will never get over my desire for stupid flamboyant villains! Ghirahim reveals magic that doesn’t just throw kunais, like heating spells that require them to cuddle when it’s cold and they’re camping in the wild!

What. I already said I’m trash and not above anything. Cuddling is the fastest way to a hero’s heart and that’s the hill I’m dying on.

Oh. Important: I headcanon that Fi doesn’t actually have to physically manifest to speak with Link, and could just talk to him in his head--so now that Ghirahim is sword-bound to Link, he’s the one in Link’s head. That generally goes about as well as can be expected and is why Ghirahim is almost constantly physically manifested, because Hero Trauma has made Link’s head a MESS

Hylia also happens to be able to weasel into Link’s head, which is a source of Big Angst, bc Link has definitely caught feelings for one (1) stupid tall demon, and Ghirahim...

I mean, I said Ghirahim has five brain cells and at this point that’s more than even I have, so he’s got a plan that’s much bigger than what Link knows of. One way or another, he’s going to be one to pry that Triforce from Link, he’s going to be the one to live forever in a reincarnation loop, and he’s going to be the one who decides which way the world tilts in the grand scheme of things. 😈

I’m not posting it anywhere yet because honestly I’m an overwriter and self indulgent and frankly it’s a huge concept!!! I’m convinced this fic is gonna be at least 250k words so I don’t want to post it until it’s completely written bc the odds of me drafting half of it and then giving up are Very High. But like. I have so much fun with this project (currently titled En Passant, after the chess move, for, uh, symbolic purposes I guess), it’s super relaxing to work on in comparison to original fiction 😍 

If you’ve read this to the end I owe you my soul and I am so sorry for my nonsense.

[adoringdo]

EXO Theory Pt.6 - RF_05 = the Beginning of the War?

I literally am so tired, mostly because I just woke up (like 8:30 am when I started this haha) and EXO has a new thing out I see and like...where do I begin? Holy crap!

<<– First Part  |  <- Previous Part |   * Theory Masterpost

Sequence of Events:

MAMA/History/What Is Love - Miracles in December - Romantic Universe - KoKoBop - MAMA 2016 VCR - (Parallel Universe) - Lucky One - Overdose - Love Me Right - Wolf/Growl - Lotto - Coming Over  -  Pathcodes/Call Me Baby - Monster  - Sing For You  - For Life - Parallel Universe - RF_05 - The Eclipse - MAMA 2016 Performance

First, let’s go through this new clip in order, pointing out the important parts, imo! The clip starts with the subtitle [Past Data], followed by “Booting System RF_05 // RF-05 System Activated” and then the weird door opens.

This really reminded me of this bit from KoKoBop though:

(Ignore the choppyness of this gif I made it for different reason before!) However, I think both of these clips are representing the Red Eye. In the top one, from today’s clip, it literally has a red centre, and in the KKB one it has a red outside, but also fades into the imprint of a light that always reminds me of a hospital light (like in surgery) which always makes me think of Lucky One even though there’s actually no scene like that in the MV. Anyway, I think this is representative of the Red Eye, the Red Forces that have them trapped, I think the name RF_05 = Red Forces_05... the 05 could be relating back to 2005 when Sooman allegedly started working on this theory? Or it could be the 5th batch of EXO Members? There’s a few possibilities, I guess!

The video then begins to list the members. Starting with Chanyeol. While Chanyeol is on the screen, the voice overlays “Activation Success Engage First Combat on EXO Planet #1795″. I was super confused about this number for a while, until I suddenly just thought maybe it’s the date of the comeback? 17[0]9[0]5 - 5th of September? It’s the only thing that makes any sense to me, personally. I don’t think this is the First Combat ever on EXO Planet, because obvs not, but I do think this can be linked to my theory in Part 5 where I talk about the Sepia toned flashbacks.

The Red Forces have been running simulations for years about memories on EXO Planet, memories of the EXO Members together, and this new activation is no different. It is still very much a test, just something different happens this time.

Next in the sequence is Suho. It says “Acquisition of Targets' Power Orbs Complete” which is pretty self explanatory, but then it gets interesting.

When D.O is on screen the voice reads “Failure to Obtain Target's Power Orb of Light”. I do not think this is a coincidence. Nor do I think that it’s a coincidence that Soo is the only member in this video we see with a visible injury on his face.

Obviously, the Power Orb of Light belongs to Baek and we see the outcome of this sentence later in the video. But D.O is meant to be the main Guardian of EXO K’s half of the Tree of Life in my theory, and that means he is Baekhyun’s Guardian. So, them failing to obtain Baek’s Power Orb is pretty substantial, right? And is the scratch on his face a result of this conflict to get rid of Baek’s Power Orb?

I don’t think I ever actually started writing my ideas about D.O and injury in the MVs (at least I don’t remember doing so) but I always thought it was a little bit weird that we never actually see Kyungsoo getting hurt in them. Even in Monster, Lotto and that, we see him with injuries, sure, but not obtaining them in the first place. In fact, the only time we do see this is in the Growl/Wolf Drama MV when Lu (with red vision.................!) hurls him across the room.

So, yeah sure in this RF-05 clip we didn’t see Soo get the injury, but it’s still important that he’s the only one who even has one here! At least imo! And I think it’s very connected to Baekhyun!

Also, is it just me that thinks the symbols on the orbs look different to how they looked back in the MAMA MV? Cause Soo’s used to be:

Yet now I think it looks kind of wolf like...?

But returning to the order. Next up is Sehun, Chen, Xiu. “System Filing for Danger. Warning. [Sehun]. // Data Updating [while on Chen] Initiating Development of // 'DISTORTION' with Power Orbs [while on Xiumin] Development Complete.” What I take from this, is that the system is rerouting with the new information that they don’t have Baek’s power orb, it is distorting the members into...

“Press switch to degenerate target into 2D combat.“ I think it’s cool that Kai’s symbol looks like a key hole. Because Kai really is the key to this part. Degenerating the members in 2D combat really links them up to the whole comic book theme we’ve been getting since KKB and those photocards! Not to mention in the last clip when the parallel members themselves were reading the comics of the EXO Members. Kai’s teleportation, which means he’s the key to transporting between worlds, between planes. 

One of the things I thought was interesting about this, was that Baek was in the middle of the big picture on the right, and that his power orb is in another square (in Kai’s in fact!), and that on the back on Baek’s power card, it says ‘The War’. I just really think this is highlighting Baek’s overall importance. He is the central role in all this.

Quickly going back to an earlier part, but I always thought was odd though was that instead of trying to reach his orb like all the other members, instead D.O, if I’m not mistaken, is holding a gun and is aiming it to shoot at Baek’s power orb. I think this could be how Baekhyun’s orb is missing, and why D.O has the scratch on his face. The only thing ambiguous to me, is the motive for this? Why would Soo want to destroy Baekhyun’s power orb. Well, I have an idea. 

The final line in this whole clip “Apply switch with orb to activate all modes of RF_05.” The degeneration is activated through use of the orbs, and without his orb Baekhyun likely can’t be degenerated right? Is this a good or a bad thing? Honestly, I’m leading towards bad. I really think this is just focusing so much attention on to Baekhyun, and not in a good way. This is blatantly letting the Red Forces know exactly who and what Baekhyun is, in the long run. We haven’t seen Baek use his power really since KKB (in my sequence of events), except briefly in his Pathcode. And this is for a reason, to not bring attention to who he is, really. Even if Baekhyun doesn’t know it consciously. Even if none of the members don’t know it consciously, which is what I think, they know to keep Baekhyun hidden. Except then why did Soo do this?

I have two theories for this. Though they could link up really. Anyway, remember in Monster we have that very clear ‘Baekhyun is a traitor’ motif up until the very end. 

I’ve gone into why I’m sure Soo thinks Baek’s a traitor in a lot of detail before, but I’m coming back to Monster because it’s the most obvious one, and close to his RF_05 part of the story. Kyungsoo may never have been convinced over this scene, of Baekhyun revealing to have saved them. At this point, all the members know they’re trapped, in this dream state, this parallel plane, under the watchful eye of the Red Forces, and that everything they do is kind of predetermined. If the Red Forces exert enough control over the members to even insinuate so strongly that one of them could be a traitor, they could also have enough control to fool them into believing he’s been saving them all along.

Although I do believe that the end of the Monster MV could have greater meaning, that Baekhyun really will be the true saviour of EXO (in the War), I also think Kyungsoo could remain suspicious of Baekhyun even after this moment. And that forces him to shoot the orb and stop him betraying them in the later entrapments - this new 2D one for example.

Another thought I had is that Soo was doing this to protect Baekhyun, and I do think this is more likely actually. He could still think he’s a traitor and the previous point could all be applicable, but along with that, Soo knows he has to keep Baek safe even if he is betraying them.

Either way, this is the onset of the War. Why? Because the Red Forces know that Soo made a controlling power move here by breaking Baekhyun’s orb. And they know it’s for a reason. This will not be ignored by them, and now they have a greater influence by having separated Baekhyun truly from the rest of the members (excepting Lay.. which is important)! 

Also they said this comeback meant war so... yeah...

I’m interested to see what happens in the MV and to see whether any of this still stands to reason.

-> Next Part

[abumblebeeat221b]

A List of Remarkable Things about ‘The Lying Detective’

Sorry, I’m late. There should be a law against holding a company’s annual general meeting the day after a Sherlock episode airs.

TD 12. A memory-altering drug is an interesting addition to the Sherlockverse (as opposed to the Whoniverse, for example).

Sherlock’s flashbacks of that one gun from the beginning, and a syringe. Oddly enough, John gets the same (very similar?) flashback without the syringe.

Your life is not your own. Keep your hands off it.

That almost sounds as if Sherlock believed Mary didn’t have the right to save him. My heart.

The game’s afoot.

Henry V’s famous pep talk. Niiiiiiiiiiice.

Mrs Hudson. (I really hope Una Stubbs gets at least nominated for a BAFTA, because she is brilliant). She is there when Sherlock watches Mary’s video. The whole thing. She is in on this from the very start. She watches Sherlock *go  through hell*. And she puts on that act for John.

Ode to Joy. It is actually a poem written by a Friedrich Schiller, which then Beethoven (yes, THAT Beethoven) adapted in the last (and probably most beautiful) part of his 9th symphony. Why am I telling you this? Because the part we hear in the episode, just so happens to be also the official anthem of the European Union. The very European Union some British do not want to be part of any more. They could have used literally any other classical piece of music to make that scene work. But they did not. If this is not a political statement then I do not know what is… (On a side note: the original German lyrics we hear in the episode, do not belong to the anthem, officially, but there are a lot of people who sing them along anyway).

The boot was mean.

Let’s not forget that Sherlock was in the boot of that car through that ride. And I think she *did* surprise him there, which means he really scared poor Hudders. Which in return means, while Sherlock has a plan, Hudders is not sure how much of this is real, and I don’t know Sherlock is sure either. If he really drives himself to a point where he can’t beat Culverton Smith on his own, then he really must have loved Mary to give up that one thing he’s always been able to rely on. And he did it BECAUSE SHE ASKED HIM TO, and knew she was right. I really hope she comes back from the dead simply because I want to see more of that friendship.

For a moment Sherlock forgot he had been dead for two years. I’m not convinced, it’s because of the drugs (or something else). It’s more fun to imagine there were just more important things to keep in mind, so he deleted it.

Dead!Mary explaining Sherlock’s deductions to John. What is there not to like about that (apart from, you know, her being dead)?

[Who shoots up at a hospital and why would John be okay with that? Is this a plot hole (= something that doesn’t make sense), a plot point (= a crucial element of the plot that is to follow), or just something that is there because it works for the story (it proves Sherlock’s addiction beyond doubt, and shows John puts his doctor-y duties on hold for a moment, because Sherlock said he had a plan, and that he needed John on his side)? I don’t know *sobs* ]

You should be wearing the hat. The kids would love the hat.

Note the “you”. Maybe Sherlock is hallucinating her too. And I love how Mary laughs softly every time Sherlock tries and spectacularly fails to tell one of their cases because he keeps giving the solution away even before he’s properly started. Maybe, that’s what he is trying to do in the first place.

No-one’s untouchable.

The way John says that line. Welcome back to the thrill of the chase.

Look at him! Go ahead, look at him, Dr Watson!

That scene hurts. It is Moriarty at Kitty Riley’s flat all over again. Culverton Smith gives himself the power to change reality by the command of a word. He gets off on seeing other people’s fear, on making them understand that there is nothing they can do against him. He makes the rules, and then shows off how he can get away with breaking them. He may not be Moriarty or Magnussen. But he is the emotionally most exhausting villain I’ve ever, EVER seen.

Not long ago he shot Charles Magnussen in the face, we did see it coming.

Erm John, are you sure Lestrade was supposed to know that?

Let him do what he wants. He’s entitled. I killed his wife.

If the other scene hurt, then this is where they crush this fandom’s soul. Because if he really just imagined Faith at 221b, then how did he get the case? How did he get those details about her note? The meeting? He was supposed to save John with this case. And he did not just fail John, but also Mary.

John’s cane. And this is where things become tricky: Sherlock must have known the woman who brought him the case was not Faith. Because if she had been Culverton’s daughter, he couldn’t have manipulated John into beating him up in the mortuary, which put him into Culverton Smith’s 2nd most favourite room at the hospital, which in return prompted John to leave the cane there (the episode is called The Lying Detective for a reason). But this begs the question: did he recognise Eurus? If yes, why didn’t he tell John? Did he tell Mycroft? At least it would explain why she was so good at avoiding the cameras. Also, Sherlock’s “big brother’s watching” just got a new meaning.

The secret sibling. Who is Eurus? I know she claims her parents are Mr and Mrs Holmes. But isn’t it a bit odd that in TAB when MP!John suggests that maybe Emilia had a secret twin, Sherlock is outright against the idea, even though he is actually trying to answer the question if Moriarty could have faked his death. I know we are talking a secret sibling here, but wouldn’t Sherlock having a secret sibling stashed away somewhere be reason enough to give MP!John’s idea a go?

Get out of my house, you reptile.

Hudders says that because Mycroft didn’t leave her flat, and thereby admitted not to have a single spark of human decency. I just love Mrs Hudson, okay?

The Dying Detective. Culverton Smith at Sherlock’s hospital bed. Now, that’s how you adapt Doyle.

- You’re okay? - No, no, of course I’m not okay. Malnourished, double kidney failure, and frankly, I’ve been off my tits for weeks. What kind of a doctor are you?

Because I was talking about The Dying Detective a second ago: I love how Moffat turns the original scene where in the end Holmes tries to console Watson’s hurt feeling (because he claimed earlier he didn’t trust him as a doctor) upside down.

And, of course, I hadn’t really anticipated that I’d hallucinated meeting his daughter.

Liar. If he hadn’t known she wasn’t the real Faith, John would have never beaten him up in the morgue (although in all fairness, he is Sherlock Holmes. He knows how to push John’s buttons). I know later we see Sherlock saying “she was real” and getting too excited about that note. Do you really think Sherlock wouldn’t recognise his own sister? But then, who knows, maybe, she is not his sister after all.

The useless recording of Culverton’s confession. When John is about to leave and Sherlock says how the recordings can’t be used as evidence he is really trying to make John stay a bit longer. Awwwwwww.

Actually, he should wear the hat as a special tribute to me. I’m dead, I would really appreciate it.

Even John’s subconscious in the form of his lovely Dead!Wife is trying every trick in the book to make John stay.

Irene’s text alert. As much as I’d love them to bring Irene Adler back I’m not buying it. Yes, it is Sherlock’s birthday, and odds are she wouldn’t forget something like that and would therefore text him (that also would mean that John said his long overdue *it was not your fault* on Sherlock’s birthday, which is a nice touch. AND that Sherlock made sure to keep that alert on his new phone). But. With a possibly faked death, a mystery woman on the loose, and whatever “Sharinford” is referring to, I think this story has already enough going on. So, I doubt she’d make an appearance. (I’d laugh if it tuned out that text wasn’t from our all-time-favourite dominatrix. I mean, this episode was officially written by the Mighty Moff who likes to be unpredictable).

High Wycombe. What has High Wycombe got to do with anything? Is this a clue? Are they being clever? Is there an inside joke I’m not aware of? Foreshadowing? This show has ruined me, hasn’t it?

John’s confession to Dead!Mary. Wow, Moffat really wants Sherlock to know about the woman on the bus.

Dead!Mary’s reaction.

Now, that is a bit self-serving isn’t it? Yes, it was just texting, and Mary would have forgiven him, obviously. But that scene still feels wrong for a reason. IMO it’s that we have Mary forgiving him in a heartbeat in John’s fantasy that leaves a sour after taste. It’s not the worst thing which happened on the show. But I don’t like how by the next episode that texting will have lost this fuzzy emotional impact, in favour to be turned into a neatly defined plot device. It’s a bit like them insisting on Janine being Mary’s best friend, but when Mary dies nobody as much as mentions her. How convenient.

I’m Sherlock Holmes - I wear the damn hat! Isn’t that right, Mary?

Awwwwww. He does have hallucinations about her too. Of course, that scene should have ended with John looking back, and seeing her sitting in Sherlock’s chair, smirking. For various reasons. [ PS: If they really bring Mary back (and I really hope they will), I need Sherlock and John to do the classic “you can see her too” trope.]

Faith’s note. Okay. If Culverton Smith gave Eurus that note (odds are not completely voluntarily, even if (or because?) a certain common friend and criminal master mind was involved) then the moment Sherlock mentions that Culverton invited Faith to a special meeting, Culverton knows who is really playing Sherlock Holmes.

Faith’s gun. Great. They turned John’s and Sherlock’s flashbacks of that gun  into the gun Eurus points at John (what is time other than wibbly-wobbly-timey-whimey stuff? Oh, right. Wrong show). Of course, once she pulls the trigger the scene should have gone dark, followed by a pause. A bang. And the end-credits.

[carot-dj]

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Pictures Mr. Finegan has produced another in his very successful series of books about the pleasures offered by the golf courses in Great Britain and Ireland. The text is of the same high quality as the photographs by Messrs. Lambrecht and Thompson. The result is an elegant book which stimulates happy memories for those that have played the courses and which should whet the appetites of those who have not. Go to Amazon

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Work ! In the world's "Top 100 of golf books" this is, for me, alone at #1. We are planning our fourth trip to Ireland/Scotland (3 to Ireland, the next to Scotland) and have used this book as a starting point for each. We have found Mr. Finegan to be most accurate in his assessments of the courses (along with the "Hidden Links" group), and, more importantly that he devotes the proper coverage proportionately to the proper courses. (We go for 11 or 12 days, play between 8 and 11 courses, and may not get there again, so it is important to us to put together the best group of courses possible). The photographs alone make this book a bargain. There are a ton of them. They are full-page and they are stunning. Our sincere thanks to Mr. Finegan. Extraordinary at $38. Go to Amazon

4.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous but a wee bit tame... As a Scot who has played most of the courses Jim Finegan has reviewed in this and his previous books, there's very little to dispute, and the pictures do convey the wonderful beauty of many of them, especially Machrie, Boat of Garten and others. However he seems to have toned down the criticisms of some courses he made in the prose books, and I find his Damascene conversion to Carnoustie a little strange; it hasn't changed THAT much since he was pretty scathing (unjustly, IMO) about it in the other book. Despite all that, Jim clearly knows what he is talking about, and I loved flicking through this so much I bought a copy for me and my golf-mad uncle. Go to Amazon

5.0 out of 5 stars Where Golf is Great Very good coffee table book with numerous large photographs of the great golf courses of Scotland and Ireland, many of which are unique. Instead of using existing very recognizable stock photos, the author has composed photos of well known holes from some very interesting perspectives - that give new insights. The narative is equally strong and worthy. Where Golf is Great is well worth having as part of any golf library. Go to Amazon

4.0 out of 5 stars Golf is great Golf is truly great and this book show you how beautiful golfcources can be by the most georgeous pictures I have ever seen. The book is huge and heavy, but the best cources in Scotland/Irland are mentioned. The reason for not getting 5 stars is that such a huge book should really have covered much more. There are just too few courses discribed. The one in it though are probably the best and if you have enough cash when travelling here you are ok. Go to Amazon

4.0 out of 5 stars Where Golf is Great: Make your Step-day happy I bought this book as a Christmas present for my step-day. He loves to golf and has been wanting to explore Scotland and Ireland for as long as I can remember. The book is hefty and the pictures are glorious so you feel like it's an attainable destination. I hope it inspires him to go. Go to Amazon

4.0 out of 5 stars Will Rogers introduction to links golf I do own this book.I love links golf as much as anyone, but Jim Finnegan is like Will Rogers, he never met a golf course he could criticize. Larry Lambrecht's photographs are spectacular and many of the recommendations for lodging and outside activities are only safe at best. This is a fine and wonderful even feel good book, but know its limitations.This book is lovely to look at but don't expect any critical reviews here. Jim is quite a passionate fellow but take the writings with as a starting point. Those with real experience will recognize that the book is written to highlight the highs, ignore the not-so's and exacerbates the American golfer's tendency to go and notch the belt by visiting "only the best" golf courses often at astronomical prices.There is a lot to be learned by visiting many "little" golf courses in the UK and Ireland to truly understand how links golf is a such a treasure and how it is part of local life. Links is not just some eccentricity that one must do to complete one's golf life. There is so much to be gained by just traveling willy-nilly to the "little" places such as going the 5 miles to Girvan to play the odd little half-links course there while on your Tour Bus trip to Turnberry. As an example, the book almost excludes the fine Kintyre course which Mr. Finnegan merely gives a third of a page coverage. Girvan, what Girvan? There you can meet and play with locals on their course while playing 8 of the best par 3's you will ever play and not approach the wee par of 64.Indeed, this is where golf is great, but the book offers an incomplete elitist view of the American obsession with only the best. I do admit that for most, this is probably all they ever really wanted in the first place. Go to Amazon