#suspendedemotion

[lokiarsene]

suspendedemotion replied to your post “Do you know the phrase- “ If you love someone, you let them go”, it...”

Hi I’m crying in public

They’re going to find each other again~ They made a promise and if Ren and Goro are anything, they are determined to stick to their convictions~ They won’t settle for anything less~

[theexistentiallyqueer]

I would like to hear what you have to say about p5r

Oof so like–bearing in mind that I can’t understand Japanese, did not watch most of the livestream, and very much believe we all need to calm our takes down until the English release comes out so we have a better understanding of what is actually happening yadda yadda yadda–

I’m excited. I’m very excited. It looks really really good. They really dug into the meat of Goro’s character and served us a supreme fucking feast in that respect, and I’m very glad for that. His confidant is amazing, from what we can get from reading @lokiarsene‘s translations. His very central role in third trimester arc is excellent. The way Kasumire and Takuto are integrated into the stories of the existing cast rather than dominating them, a la Marie from P4G (also bearing in mind I haven’t played P4G but that’s the general impression I’ve gotten of the game), is also excellent. Additions should comment on what is already there.

I’m disappointed Atlus seems to be going for a Big Tease about whether Goro survives in the end. I know exactly why they’re doing it–so they can string us along and hype up Scramble–but I hate that they’re doing it. I get that they claim Scramble is a direct sequel but like….is it? Is it really? My money is on Goro and Sumire being DLC characters for that game.

When I say “shuake canon now,” I’m saying it with the exact same degree of belief as when I say that I personally am a Hugo award winner because I have fanfiction posted on AO3. Shuake is unfortunately not canon, because Atlus are a bunch of cowards. I haven’t played Catherine so I can’t speak to how well they handle Vincent’s relationship with Rin in that game, but the fact that they let players date Rin, a crossdresser, in Catherine, but don’t let you date any of the guys in Royal is….not a good look for Atlus. We’ve been very clearly and very successfully queerbaited, and I can both acknowledge that and make fun of Atlus for accidentally coding Akira’s relationship with Goro as so heavily romantic that you really can compare it to Shinji and Kaworu or Utena and Anthy or Madoka and Homura, but at the end of the day if Atlus were allies (and they’re not), they’d have cut those gross predatory gay men who hit on Akira and Ryuji on not just one but TWO occasions.

I will not give Atlus credit that Atlus categorically does not deserve.

I’m seeing a lot of valid criticism of the game as well. The addition of cognitive Shiho in a bunny costume to Kamoshida’s boss fight is fucking disgusting and I want to personally destroy the career of whatever jackass came up with that idea and also whatever other jackass approved it. Ryuji still gets beat up by the girls after Shido’s palace collapses, because haha, female on male violence is harmless and funny. You can still be an absolute dick to Mishima. 

Most frustrating for me is that Haru remains criminally underdeveloped and it looks like hers and Futaba’s feelings about Goro aren’t really explored with remotely any degree of what I would personally consider nuance (and believe me, as someone whose father was murdered, I have a very low bar where that’s concerned because nuance on that subject is not a thing most media is capable of). There also doesn’t seem to be much direct acknowledgement from Goro (going off of what @lokiarsene has already translated and posted and also told me while she’s working on future translations) of the very personal hell he put Futaba and Haru through, which I would again stress–I have a low bar where that’s concerned.

What I’m most interested in is how the third trimester arc is focused on mental health, specifically mental health care, a thing for which Japan is famously garbage at managing. Given that the Persona franchise is one of the few examples of overt Japanese counter-culture we get access to in the West (in that the games are openly critical of some pretty major aspects of Japanese society), I’m curious to see the extent to which Maruki’s arc critiques the Japanese mental health system. Is it just going to be about shitty malpractice? Is it going to comment on how mental illness and neurodivergency are just covered up and shut away? Is it going to talk about how when people do go to doctors, they usually just get prescribed medication as a band-aid but therapy is basically nonexistent in any meaningful widespread form?

Given the Persona series’s track record, Royal seems to be pretty par for the course: a flawed mixed bag with some really solid writing and some really glaring blind spots, if not abject failures. From what I’ve seen of Royal, I think the solid bits weigh out the not so solid bits, at least for me personally. I look forward to engaging with the finished product in a language I can understand and then picking it all to pieces with everyone else on here, come March.

[lineffability]

14 for the bookish asks :))

14: Name a book where the movie/tv adaption actually was better than the original

Pheew the word “better” doesn’t sit too right with me here since I try to see movie adaptions as works in their own right :’D buut since I am a fool for the 2005 Pride&Prejudice and also the LotR movies I would say those. (In both cases I actually saw the movies before I read the books so that might be a factor to consider as well...)

[fxvixen]

Not a question, just wanted to say that your header pic is adorable

aaaaaaaa, thank you!! i love it so much @painpackerrisingsun drew it for me because she’s an absolute doll

[gumihoni]

suspendedemotion hat auf dein Foto geantwortet “Studying korean hard so i can finally understand all the bokuaka...”

Whoa what's the study tumblr

haha, i’m sorry, I don’t have one.  I was kidding because I am actually really useless at taking organised notes

[lokiarsene]

Thank you so much for your all the effort you put into translating! And also for including your thoughts on every post! It is very much appreciated :)) It genuinely made my night to go through this blog and see all the translations and analysis. I hope you’re doing well

You’re very very welcome! I only have what the game’s script gives us to go on as far as my theories go, so I tried to be as clear as possible about any layered meanings, and any possible references they make back to earlier conversations.

I spent a lot of years when I was younger on Silent Hill message boards, and as those games were all about symbolism and subtle themes and layered meanings, it’s kind of an old habit of mine to try to peel apart narratives that don’t hand us everything in a neat little package. P5R is exactly that because it’s inspired by mystery novels.

The main theme of Akechi and Ren’s bond is how layered they speak–they’re always saying more than what they actually say, but Ren can speak more freely than Akechi. I think that carried over into what happened on 12/24, as well as the third semester. Atlus answered the one question we had (did Akechi survive) and gave us a new one: how? My theorizing is just an attempt to come up with possible explanations in the meantime, until Scramble and subsequent material answers those questions.

[lokiarsene]

Did the interrogation room dialogue change?

None of the streams I’m keeping tabs on have either gotten there yet or showed it, so I won’t know for some time or until I get paid and import the game myself. Which won’t be ‘til the end of the month at this rate :(

If the dialogue changed, I will be translating that too, of course.

[lokiarsene]

Not sure where I saw it but people were interpreting Goro’s opening lines from the eng P5R trailer (“Are you really this spineless?!”) as being from his dialogue after protag decides not to fight on 2/2. What are your thoughts on those lines as the official translation of Goro’s dialogue?

It’s fine and it works. It’s essentially the same thing, as it conveys Goro’s frustration that Ren isn’t sticking to a commitment and is willing to ‘bow down’ to someone out of fear.

[fxvixen]

suspendedemotion replied to your post: who’s awake and willing to talk about...

I mean I was awake

I am awake,,, sorry I'm awake but I guess I'm not functional enough to properly respond

haha, if you want to chat that’d be cool but i think i’m also crashing mentally so maybe it’s not a good idea to keep trying to write anyway? ugh im just frustrated >=(