#which is why he feels so refreshing as a protag

[thedevilscarnival]

like i can't even call johannes a villain protagonist or even an antihero really because he's just fucking miserable but doesn't realize that he's miserable. yes i understand, by definition he is an antihero, especially in book 1, but. hear me out here. he's just doing his own thing and is so focused on doing that thing he has ignored every single emotional need he's had in like 10 years.

the cabal books are watching someone at the tail end of their Karmic Tragedy being dragged kicking and screaming into realizing "damn that kinda sucked, actually. unfortunately friends can be nice" and then sitting and fuming about it. yes he is a borderline eugenics advocate but he's also someone who got stuck in the denial stage of grief for so long he's been cauterized.

[galedekarios]

Hello, big fan of your Gale content um I just saw this post on X that really annoyed me that was a graphic saying Gale would use 3 in 1 shampoo implying he is lazy with his hygiene and that another character was more like that and it had like 6k likes and I just wonder why everyone mischaracterizes our best wizard so much? Generic male expectations? Justice for Gale. He deserved that lavender bath.

thank you for your message and kind words! 🖤

i haven't seen the post you're referring to so i can't say too much about it, but if we talk about the general concept of hygiene and personal care, in my heart i know the following truth:

gale loves his little indulgences and that includes the finer things in life, like taking long baths, perfumes, massages, and the like.

once he feels better again and has the spoons to fully appreciate it, he would have a ridiculously elaborate 13 step self-care routine, beard oils and all of that.

(we know his year of isolation likely led to him neglecting himself, given tara's repeated lines about not eating enough, as well as gale letting his beard growing out.)

in early access, he had this dialogue with the protag, about dreaming of a nice lavender scented bath:

Gale: Time is a precious gift. With time, we may even reach Baldur's Gate, a city rife with magic, wizards, scholars, and perhaps: solutions.  Player: In that case I share your optimism. Here's to the journey ahead.  Gale: And here's to your company.  Gale: Oh, I can picture it now: academies, libraries, laboratories – the assembled knowledge of centuries that may just set us free. Better yet: soft beds, home cooked meals, and all the other little luxuries this wilderness so brashly denies us. Gods, I'd pay a king's ransom for a hot, lavender-scented bath – minstrels serenading as I close my eyes and let the water's warmth dissolve all woes. Plenty to look forward to.

this was sadly cut.

i also seem to recall another line of dialogue in early access where a companion commented on gale using a waterdhavian scent/perfume, which had woody undertones. if i can find it, i'll be sure to post about it.

but still, he still has similar lines in the full release version, like in this banter with shadowheart:

Gale: I must tell you, Shadowheart, the bathing waters here leave much to be desired. devnote: A bit know it all Gale: The ablutions offered at the Temple of Beauty in Waterdeep are far superior. And they have the most excellent soaps. devnote: A bit know it all Shadowheart: Hmm. I was wondering why you always smelled like a wealthy dowager. devnote: Teasing

bathing waters, excellent soaps and ablutions at the temple of beauty in waterdeep. the temple of beauty is a temple to the goddess sune, the goddess of beauty and passion.

"Her temples usually held social salons and displayed mirrors for use by lay parishioners. Some of them even had public baths for the local populace. Her shrines often stood on the corner of busy city streets. They would have a small ornate overhanging roof with a mirror underneath. They were used to check one's appearance while honoring Sune with prayer. Some shrines even held perfume and cosmetic items for those who could not afford such luxuries themselves." [x]

volo's waterdeep enchiridion says this in particular about the temple of beauty in waterdeep:

"If you need to refresh yourself during your travels, or perhaps to primp before an important meeting or a night out, visit Sune’s faithful at the Temple of Beauty. Its marbled public baths and mirrored salons are open from before dawn to after dusk. There’s no fee for these services, or for the advice and aid of the temple’s many pleasant attendants, but donations are encouraged."

there are some other banters & lines of dialogue in the same vein:

Player: I want to be with Gale. I'm sorry. Shadowheart: Don't be. He's charming enough, well-read and well-groomed.

there are more banters and comments like this from other companions as well (including minthara, for example), so yes, i think it's safe to say that gale is not a 3-in-1 shampoo type.

[randomnameless]

Thoughts on BKO so far -

It's so refreshing to see a protag care about his mom and having his mom care about them in return :')

She gives him money through letters - like pocket money - and writes to him to ask how he's doing, Sagi even returns her affection so much that him caring about his mom will later be a plot point lol

I'm surprised that the game was still released in 2023 without changes made to the script, Guillo calling Geldoblame a fop and a "prissy fellow"? Could be chalked up to Guillo being in general a sarcastic tin can, but still it's... well, it has nearly been 18 years, and I must say, what was acceptable then might not be seen as "acceptable" nowadays.

Milly, despite being obviously the mole and oddly looking upset when some events are revealed, is well integrated to the plot, she often talks (nonsense), talks to NPCs (with various cutscenes demonstrating how she wasn't lying when she said she's a rich kid!), and has lines durings various bosses, from shit talking a young!Giacomo (despite us taking a beating each time he pops up!) - the one who is basically the former protag's nemesis - to being humiliated by a lava fish...

Bar the comments about Geldoblame, Guillo is basically the brains in the trio and the one who's here to voice the player's thoughts whenever some NPC, usually the totes not shady Verus "I know where you live and where your mom is, but it just shows how much I care about you, it's totally not creepy nor means I had you under my careful watch for a long time and now sends you to deal with various life threatening situations" says something that, well, that NPC isn't supposed to know. Heck, my fave line from Guillo is basically a mix of "how the hell do YOU know that?".

Unlike what I felt was the epic of gathering McGuffins and discovering places to save the world - with a traitor twist - I feel like BKO is more about Sagi being framed for X or Y reasons, and manipulated to be sent to fight against bosses we are scripted to lose again + rinse'n'repeat.

The game seems more dialogue heavy with several back and forths to the same place (the terrorist subplot...), but it's not that much of a hassle since, for now, the intrigue is interesting enough and, well, the OST/aesthetics are pleasing and pleasant enough.

That, and the trillions of NPCs who just exist to insult you because you're a peasant, or gush about their captain of the knights in less than NOA-friendly ways lol, the ones who happily exploit you charging 400 gold for something that was basically free in the first game, or the bajillion sidequests.

Also I love the "flashback in the really far far away past" to basically explain what happened in the world 1k years ago -

Baten Kaitos Origins is a prequel, both to Baten Kaitos Eternal Wings and the Lost Oceans, but also, has those 1k years ago flashbacks that basically tell/explain you what happened a long time ago, and how the events of legends - muddled as they were - happened.

By virtue of being a prequel, we know how it ends, it's basically a story that ends up in a tragedy, if Sagi'n'Milly are truly Melodia's parents, then they are Canas'd (they managed to survive to a world ending plot, but die to a flu).

Lyude was treated like shit by his half siblings Vallye and Skeed?

Oh wait, wasn't Sagi the one who told them (and their mom) that dad was basically cheating on her (forgetting his son's bday!) which later gave them a new sib?

Like, dude, for sure Lyuvann (the dad) should have kept his pole in his pants, but why giving the reveal to Camilla (the wife) that her husband was cheating on her with a woman named Almarde - with the holograms and all lol - in front of the kids?

Of course their first reaction is "my father would never", but when Almarde (the mistress) is hired to take care of Lyude - who's their sibling and popped up... well, not from Camilla, like...

They know the supposed nanny was Dad's mistress, and now they have a half-sib and the nanny looks after him? Hello?

Now it recontextualises Skeed shooting Almarde in BKEWLO, was it only because she was threatening them (when they were ready to shoot Lyude) or because he might have wanted to settle old grudges? Hell, even Lydue's mind-probing by the giant monster that looks like a willy and that creates nightmares had his half siblings tell him he never deserved to be loved, was it just a nightmare created by that monster, or...

Something his sibs really told him?

If Sagi never told them the truth, would Lyude's life have been better? idk. Surely not, Mintaka sucks after all, and maybe they would have been killed like the rest of the Azhani during Savyna's operation.

Speaking of which...

Savyna becomes the cold and aloof person who only knows how to kill... because we, the protags of BKO, either kill her dad in front of her, or let him die from the wounds we gave him as eldritch mist surrounds him... in front of her.

Shanath was an ass - but killing/or having him die in front of his child? Well, we know what happens next, she tries to join the sekrit d4rk militia, only to be inspired by Guillo out of anybody to "never forget that death is everywhere" - but hey, someone noticed that her animations when she deals a punch are oddly similar to Guillo whenever they use their, uh, claws/punch/piercing hands to kill enemies.

The prequel also has us beat Giacomo three times with apparent ease (when it's anything but!), prompting to despise Sagi, but most important, seek power at all costs... we know later on that he will become a test subject for his crazed dad and become obsessed with the "Magnus of Life", aka his dad's artificially created... being (with pointy ears!!) who can grant tremendous power.

1k years flashback wise... we basically follow the story of people who slowly grow more and more desperate until they feel like their only solution is to make a pact with evil entities/demons - known and feared as such by people! - to defeat another eldritch... thing.

Point being, let it be Sagi's story, the protags of the "1k years ago FB", Almarde's or even Savyna and Giacomo, we know how those stories end : they end up in tragedy.

But it also helps to recontextualise the cast's actions : Sagi's desire for revenge against Shanath (and possibly ending him himself!) ends up with Savyna being the cold and broken person we see in BKEWLO - who was ordered by Geldoblame to slaughter civilians - but Kalas doesn't threaten Giacomo after their final fight, leaving him the time to tell his two followers to basically help him save the world.

The desperate people from 1k years ago jumped to conclusions and wanted, again, quick revenge in their despair? They made a deal with demonic forces. Kalas... did the very same thing.

Short story long story : I like prequels when they both develop and give a new light to events we know, and I like tragedies lol

For the more midling points...

The OST doesn't feel as grandiose and loveable than the first game's - sure Chaotic Dance 2 is fun but it's a Giacomo theme! - so far nothing really made me pause and go "wow" save for Le Ali del Principio - obviously - the boss battle themes aren't mind blowing.

And the most negative aspect...

The battle system - it's different and less... static, with bits or real time picks and decisions but it feels much more simpler, there's no defensive phase, your combos are nothing as exciting as lining 9 cards from 1 to 9 or making pairs or what not, and worst of all, you can't even cook rice while fighting anymore :(

I liked the sheer stupidity of protecting yourself with a tea cup, a slice of tuna and a camera anymore, or create a "baked potato" by mixing fire and water magic but now we can't have those stupid combos anymore.

Maybe I'll grow to love it more as I play!

[yuseirra]

Thank you so much for the reply I am in fact very happy in reading your analysis it has been a while since I have read such a good take and well thought argument plus looking more into your blog I am fascinated by your posts you are a new fav of mine looking foward your posts about OnK next chapters, I am once again super happy about your reply I love aquakana ;; you do a very good work I really admire your talent it is refreshing and necessary

Thanks anon :) oh, you're so welcome! I went straight to bed after replying to your message earlier, it was nice seeing your ask first thing as I hop on tumblr!/// Aaa thanks for the compliment! ;v;) I could be biased, but I totally mean what I say.

I'm not worried about Aqukana at all because in terms of the ships in onk, I'm looking at a even more complex one right now with a lot of mess being thrown out.

No worries anon, that ship is just too obvious. Things did get a bit messy and confusing in the middle, but I knew it was going to happen and I was excited to learn I was on the right track when stuff like ch 146 and 150-151 happened. That's how I started reading more intently again~ I was following the series, but I wasn't this invested. The one Aqua has romantic feelings for is Kana. It's just.. stated there at this point.

Speaking of which, I "ship" hikaai right? more like I support what's just there... If we compare them to math problems, Aqukana would be like a linear equation, while Hikaai'd be calculus. I believe.. that Hikaai is sorta the advanced question-version compared to Aqukana. When I'm trying to crack that nut, Aqukana is just.. a much much easier question to solve. That's why I don't worry about the former at all. The former is just too clear as day.

Oh, goodness, and I already stepped in with 90% conviction regarding them(hikaai I mean), I don't play a game I end up losing. But this manga is making it so hard for me, I swear. It's super stressful although I realize they're probably doing it for entertainment value and Hikaru was a character we know literally nothing about through the entirety of the story with him being pinpointed as the "evil mastermind", to make it even worse. They gotta fulfill people's expectations about him by portraying him as menacing at least once or twice when he encounters the protags, I get that, but it's such a rough road I signed myself into. I know I have a high chance of winning though.

Fatal and Mephisto is EXACTLY how Hikaru feels about Ai. I'm serious, I just knew it the moment I heard Fatal like the first few seconds in. It was incredible how it felt, it can't be any other way and I have conviction that the author has them on their mind. but GOD, they make me so nervous. This manga makes me so tense. I was worried that I got anything wrong ever since I picked up this series AGAIN for like the past two-three months? was it? because their situation, if I get it wrong, could be deemed as unhealthy and toxic(NONE OF THE "MESSED UP" THINGS TURNED OUT TO BE TRUE, I WOULDN'T HAVE HAD IT ANY OTHER WAY. I KNEW. I JUST KNEW IT WOULD PLAY OUT TO BE LIKE THIS. HIKARU CAN'T DO SH- I look at the guy and he's just... too mild to the point he is naive. Ai chose her man well!!! I swear this has to be where the story will go!!! this is how it will go!! I JUST KNEW!! Just wait okay?? I'm sure I'll be right in the end),

Oh, I'm so sorry;; I really get carried away when I talk about them lately, this is Aqukana we're talking about. The point is, there's nothing you have to worry about the ship or those two who are involved.

I tell you though, I'm serious about psychology and picking up people's emotions. Let me bring up the fact that I major in Psychology AGAIN!!! I REALLY look at these things intently. If I'm wrong, then okay, I guess, but the author should not depict those characters this way if what I predict are to be false. I haven't had an instance where what I predicted came to be too off. I don't think onk will be an exception.

I like aqukana too~/// I'm looking forward to their date in the anime! ;v;) They're the ones who get entire chapters dedicated to their dates, seriously. why would you do that to a ship that would flop if you're the writer, don't worry about them AT ALL. Really, don't worry. I don't feel my take is particularly unique or special. They're going to happen sooner or later.

Thank you!// You're looking forward to my analysis? It's an honor! I wish I DIDN'T need to put out analyses though ;v;... I love putting my ideas out here but I usually do it in the form of fanworks, not words. I didn't know I could talk on and on about something, but I just could not stay still and I guess that's what's been pushing me! Onk makes me so tense and I get relieved when they go on breaks (This applies even after 160. nervous laughs I can draw in "peace", just.. lately, every chapter they have makes me wrap my head so much and I need time to process, I can't do this anymore, HELP ME, it's pain, would have I liked it better if I didn't like this series and its characters as much and cared less? loving something is PAIN) but I will hold out and do my best! 'v')9 Let's have fun together. If the series makes me want to write out how I feel, then I will do just that. I'm sincerely grateful for those of you who tolerate me and/or even enjoy what I could offer!

If something about Aqukana pops up in the story, I'd love to draw them again too!~//They've been missing for some time and they really do need their moment, the author must know too and it will come and happen. This is something I'm sure of regarding this manga. I don't know HOW it will, but I know that it WILL. Believe me on this! :)

[g0nta-g0kuhara]

Saigoku,,,

Im assuming you meant both of them so !!

SHUICHI:

favorite thing about them: I really like how calm and sweet Shuichi is. He's my favourite of all 3 main protags for this reason, he has an air of calm introvertedness that Makoto and Hajime don't, which I find really relatable and endearing. least favorite thing about them: Every protag does it, but the little somewhat rude quips he can have about the other students in his head. Be nice to them!! Youre just as weird of a guy as they are favorite line: My freaking BLOG HEADER!!!! "We stand with one foot in fiction, and one foot in reality…" This struck such a strong chord in me when I played the ending of v3. Just thinking about this line makes my heart flutter.

brOTP: Shuichi and Rantaro should've had more time to hang out together. I think they would've really gotten along

OTP: OH MAN... It has to be saimota!!! Close contenders are saigoku and saimatsu! (holding myself back from naming 5 more ships)

nOTP: None that immediately come to mind??

random headcanon: Shuichi is trans, ace, and biromantic! He's one of the few V3 characters I have very specific queer headcanons about

unpopular opinion: Shuichi doesn't listen to punk rock or MCR or anything like that. He's not that kind of emo. To me, Shuichi is a VOCALOID emo!! Specifically early 2010s vocaloid emo. He's been listening to Rolling Girl, Lost One's Weeping, and Tokyo Teddy Bear on Repeat since he got trapped in the killing game

song i associate with them: (hilariously not vocaloid or emo) What's Wrong by Half•Alive

favorite picture of them: Probably any of the training ones!! Transmasc swag

GONTA:

favorite thing about them: His earnestness!! I love the way Gonta is genuine whenever he speaks, be it about the things he loves or feels passionate about or the things that upset him. least favorite thing about them: The whole... reptites..... backstory thing. In general I'm not the biggest fan of a decent amount of his FTEs. Thankfully if I don't look at it it can't see me. Gonta was raised by wolves <3 favorite line: Gonta has some great ones but two that are standing out to me right now that Occasionally get stuck in my head are "Smile like Gonta! :D" from the bonus event with Himiko or "You make mistakes a lot... A WHOLE lot..." From a backroute towards Miu ghdsjkfsd.

brOTP: GONTA AND RANTARO OH MY GOD!!! I think they would get along so well!! Back in ch1, during big group discussions, its usually Rantaro responding when Gonta speaks to begin with. I think Rantaro would love to help Gonta look/talk about bugs and Gonta's energy would be really refreshing to him.

OTP: GOKUMOTA. On a surface level they are both athletic with science talents, who are loud and passionate about what they love, but on a deeper level I think they could really help each other and be a shoulder for the other to lean on. Gonta is extremely self deprecating, and if he got close to him there's no way Kaito would let that stand. Gonta is also very expressive, so I think he could help Kaito learn that its okay to not be okay, and to express that to the ones who care about him.

(I also like saigoku!!)

nOTP: I already talked about not liking Kokichi and Gonta, Im also not really into Romantic Miu and Gonta or romantic Kiyo and Gonta, though thats to a lesser extent. Im pretty picky about Gonta ships

random headcanon: This is one I go back and forth on, but I do have the headcanon that Gonta Might have a little sister. Her name is Tsugiko and she was either extremely young or hadn't been born when he got lost.

unpopular opinion: Not really an unpopular opinion, just something random I guess? Lots of people draw Gonta with blue butterflies, which look very pretty, but I never understood why it was always the same type of blue butterfly. I think Orange matches his colour scheme a bit better, so I'm wondering if there's any symbolism I'm missing here

song i associate with them: The Room is Filled with People Who Love You by Foresight

favorite picture of them: Probably the bonus event with Himiko and Shuichi!! That one's very very cute

[seazethemoment]

MARLON’S “MAIN FLAWS”

(Whenever I make a new canon character blog here, I always like to check the pulse of the online fandom beforehand to see what opinions there are about the said character, if there even are any LOL. That little ‘screening’ helps me get a better picture of how the character might be perceived by other muses and muns, and I always have a lot of fun resisting, detailing, or doubling down on certain ‘stereotypical’ characteristics. Obscure canon muses rule for customization, as TPC and the fandom provide a loose framework for the character...and then you’re encouraged to go the OC route the rest of the way. It’s a blast, at least for me. Jupiter, Clair and Barry say hello!

So, what’s the point of this post? Well, I think it’s acceptable to say that Marlon isn’t very liked by the wider community, which is fine and fair. Good. Aside from not appearing much in the core games in general, the main critiques that I found are: (1) he’s totally oblivious during the Plasma events, and (2) he’s a pushover trainer and his Gym is not challenging at all.  Again, valid stuff. Let me take this post to explain how I’m going to interpret these two “main flaws” in my portrayal, because it’s already--not in a bad way!--come up a couple times.)

Obliviousness during Plasma events

In the games (and my portrayal), Marlon ultimately does end up helping the protagonist: he lowers the Frigate bridge, remember? Yes, he was/is almost completely unaware of Plasma’s doings, which I take as a combination of his personality and Plasma operating smartly. And yes, he does say that Plasma’s not bothering him, which is...yeah, not the best wording. But for my Marlon, actions will always hold more weight than words. He doesn’t see Plasma actually doing evil things where he’s at, so it’s hard for him to really care about them, for better or worse. 

Marlon also knows that only some of the Plasma members are truly evil, which is why he hesitates and asks thoughtful questions first. He has an open mind and is always ready to forgive people for the right reasons (perhaps forgiving people too quickly.) The ocean accepts all rivers, and he wholeheartedly believes that everybody has good intentions to start. I don’t recognize the take that Marlon wants to help Plasma at all. if he truly took the time to know what they were all about, he’d want to fight a bit harder. He’s not that oblivious.

But, during Plasma’s arc, he doesn’t go all out. For the most part, he’s chilling. And I want to say this: if your muse resents Marlon for his lack of action, that is fine and encouraged. He didn’t have any bad intentions, but for people in the know (aka the protags and power players on both sides), the damage has already been done. And I say let the feelings fly. Just know that Marlon truly didn’t mean any harm. He’s aligned to be overwhelmingly good. Maybe too good, too forgiving...but he’s got a big ol’ smile for everyone regardless. 

(’Pushover’ stuff under the cut!)

Eighth Gym pushover   

I actually sort of agree here: I always found Marlon to be an easy battle in the games, especially after battling Drayden’s dragons. In my take, however, Marlon didn’t get to choose where he was in the Gym order...he just kind of “fell in” to the eighth position after Unova needed trainers to replace vacated spots. Due to Humilau’s location, it got locked in the last slot.

It’s really refreshing for me in a way: Marlon’s not the strongest Pokemon trainer ever (definitely not Clair) and he doesn’t take his job seriously at all (which, IMO, is a major breath of fresh air.) You’ve heard of skilled eighth Gym Leaders challenging and beating their regional Elites, now get ready for a mellowed-out surfer bro who’s on the verge of losing his position because he keeps finding better things to do. Unique. Amazing. 

Now, with all this being said, my Marlon is still an extremely skilled trainer. While he’s not going to really challenge the Elites (or even Drayden) until he truly starts focusing on battles, his water team was raised with an overwhelming amount of love and care. Marlon is knows everything about the ocean, and he’ll always be a friend to all aquatic Pokemon. He’s no battlefield killer, and that’s okay. 

As for his Gym...I mean, I feel like trainers appreciate the mellow experience. It beats getting shot out of a cannon, right?

While his team may not be the strongest, Marlon’s Pokemon are taken care of to the max. And, just like their trainer, when they do feel the rush for battle, they truly give it their all. Every time. 😊  

(Whew, this got long! It’s a stream of consciousness ramble by now, but in the end, this post isn’t meant to dispute any of Marlon’s “flaws.” I’m also not demanding that people treat him any different. Just offering my perspective and take(s) on said conceptions, and (hopefully!) providing a bit more character depth for my favorite surfer boy as a whole--because TPC sure didn’t. I’m doing it myself... 😤)  

[m1ckeyb3rry]

FR im glad that probably won’t happen for a while for BLLK since there’s still a lot of material that needs to be made before it can be over…

THATS WHAT I SAID??? I wanna know what editor sat through reading it and approved it for publication like??? And what compels people to put this out there like….imagine having to see this in a bookstore like oh my

Ooooh you’re so right…I think it was the hype from s1 and the gap in between the release (plus the movie!! Almost forgot that existed) that really built up s2 especially since the beginning was very gojo centric….speaking of I almost forgot you consume jjk too, are you caught up with the manga? I have some thoughts…(only some because although I’m technically caught up I got so confused for a very large chunk of it that I barely pieced together what happened for a good section…)

So real he’s way too yolo for the elite life!! He would not give af about social status or keeping up the status quo, maintaining reputations etc. LOL Something about yuki always having some position of status in the social hierarchy as like a side character is something I love like….no wonder he’s a model in canon he definitely gives off these really poised elegant vibes like he is DEFINITELY a noble I’m very excited to see the diff dynamics in hollyhock!!!

Morally grey assholes are my personal fav LMAOO when I first read that y/n offers up hiiragi I was like rubbing my hands together (there needs to be a better phrase for this?? Like when villains go hehehe and rub their hands together ykwim?) I love the way y/n isn’t your cliche mc where she just seduces Otoya on spot or something I CHEERED when I read that like let’s go??? I’m so excited to see her selfish side like I feel like in these settings it’s such a unique way to go about the mc?? I remember watching/reading some series with more historical settings (like my happy marriage which I mean. It’s a romance so I guess I should’ve expected it LOL) but the mc is usually very…submissive…? I get how that fits into the contexts of the time too (eugh misogyny) but it’s refreshing to see more bold characters than your token shoujo protag LOL

Also every time you write Itoshi bros crossed out I giggle LMAO honestly yeah their tag is alive and kicking comparatively too and I do see many similar if not identical tropes and prompts (no hate to any of the writers because I have found some gems in there too! Just bc of their popularity and characters very susceptible to similar tropes and ideas lolol)

We love a writer that does research?? I’ll speak on behalf of all your readers when I say we definitely feel the effort you pour in <3 everything’s thought out so nicely I love how your stories develop!!

Umm speaking of developing SLOW BURN I’m a SUCKER for slow burn maybe that’s also why I love your writing too…I feel like you give the story and characters proper time to develop and evolve without rushing them through to a conclusion which makes it sm nicer honestly….like even if some pieces have more open endings I feel like the stories are much more complete because it felt sometimes more slow burn esque? Compared to just jumping straight into a relationship after a few sentences or something

AWW ILL BE YOUR NUMBER ONE YAPPER HAHA It’s honestly hard not to get invested like I need to know what happens next…this kinda just piggy backs off the paragraph above this one LOL also side characters ALWAYS grow on me like it’s a given and BLLK has so many interesting ones ill gladly absorb more content for them…so trust I’m not going anywhere soon!! (Also I think YOURE the one doing the Otoya nation a great service LMAOO)

-Karasu anon

nah because that got APPROVED LMAOAAO maybe the author self-published it?? idk i guess everything has a niche audience so maybe some people are into that…

yes i am all caught up!! i keep up w leaks too so i know everything that’s going on. to be honest i don’t 100% love how the story’s been going and i def have felt my interest in jjk waning as of late but i’m sure gege has some kind of end game planned that will be interesting. reading weekly has def been disheartening as it’s hard to invest when the same fight has been going on for SO long yk?? i feel like things that would’ve gotten me hyped before now just feel like…okay…like not enough is happening chapter to chapter or smth idk. once the arc is finished and it’s animated i’m hoping the pacing feels a bit more natural!!

YES otoya is almost like irreverent i think?? he’s not immature but he just truly does not care he’s doing his own thing. whereas karasu is very concerned w what people think of him and yuki has an innate classiness and dignity to him so i think they could pull off the noble vibe well. though quite honestly karasu gives me more knight/samurai (in this au) vibes — still a fighter, but a more honorable one who has a moral code he strictly follows compared to otoya’s willingness to do wtvr

MORALLY GREY CHARACTERS WHO ARE ACTUALLY MORALLY GREY MY BELOVED 💖 oh yeah 100% if i was going a bit more cliche i could’ve had y/n try to seduce him or smth but i tried to avoid that (although eita does make one slight joke of a sexual nature during their convo but he’s just being goofy so i think it’s okay) as i really wanted to set her up as someone who’s not afraid of being brutal/ruthless to get what she wants. and i agree there’s a lot of more subdued fmc in historical aus but honestly it’s an au so why not give my female characters agency??? i’ve def written the more stereotypically “weak” fmc before but i didn’t want to go that route this time given who she’s inspired by. plus a lot of it is rooted in westernization i think — people view the history of other countries through a european lens when a lot of the time that doesn’t apply. for example y/n being a bastard wouldn’t be a huge problem in japanese society as bastards/cheating were actually relatively common back then!! and even accepted…if a lord didn’t have legitimate heirs he would adopt his bastards and that was that 🤷🏻‍♀️ that’s why y/n being “cursed” and the daughter of a maid, as well as reiji being the legitimate heir, is important to her backstory and why she suffers in the way she does, as well as an explanation for some of her later actions. in a european-based story, just being a bastard would be enough of an explanation for all of that, but in something based on sengoku-era japan, there needs to be further context. but also even setting that aside if i can have ninjas in my story (who i am trying to keep more accurate than their general portrayal in fiction but i’m still going to take liberties with) then why not a ruthless selfish fmc who goes to war and takes over the kingdom?? anyways there’s records of empresses in japan, china, and korea alike, so long story short i think that writing y/n like this makes sense and is about as historically accurate as the rest of it, so why not?? plus it makes for a more fun story

HAHAHA the itoshi bros are like the only bllk characters who i see with a tonnn of fics!! the others don’t have quite as many (although kaiser is getting up there i think). i do think that a lot of the stories have similar tropes due to the nature of the characters…they both feel like very “stuck” characters in that you can’t do too much w them or change them a lot — they’re so into soccer that putting them in an au for example would fundamentally change their characters, so you most likely won’t catch me writing more than a one shot or two abt them. whereas as we’ve discussed tabieitaken, kaiser, nagireo, and even hiori all feel like they have characters outside of soccer so it’s easier to put them in other scenarios and play around with how they’d react to them

I LOVEEEE A GOOD SLOWBURN!! even stories where the characters get together quickly in terms of time i try to really show the buildup. i always want the relationships i write about to feel believable, so i need to write every step of them falling in love or else it doesn’t feel accurate to me. that’s actually an issue i had with peregrine — because it started in the future, after that buildup, i felt weird writing nagi being in love w the mc because it didn’t feel “earned” yet.

oh you can never keep me from my research LMAOAO i’ll take any excuse to do it!! even white butterfly had me googling the flora and fauna of japanese fields to ensure i didn’t mention any animals that wouldn’t natively live in y/n and hiori’s field HAHA

OMG YAYYY I’M GLAD TO HAVE YOU!! i agree side characters always end up growing on me and the bllk ones especially there’s just so many i love and am constantly chatting about…proud to be supporting the otoya nation 🫡 i’m hoping we get a few members of otoya nation and karasu nation alike after season 2 (and yuki nation even though i don’t talk abt him hardly as much as i do abt tabieita)

also i did see your request posts hehe let me finish up my current karasu one shot and a couple of my event requests and then i will get to them 💖 i loved all of your ideas though!!

[advrik]

Books of the Year | 2022 Edition

I read a lot of books this year. Way more than on average. Partially thanks to a sudden overwhelming interest in the body horror genre, which I CAN link back to John Carpenter's 'The Thing' as being my favorite horror movie. I just love the concept of microscopic terrors getting into the living and turning them into horrific monstrosities.

As of the time of the first draft of this post (12.5), I had read a total of 15 books this year, with the 16th less than a hundred pages away from wrapping up. And while I don't think I'll be edging any more in that would make this list, I felt comfortable in compiling my thoughts of my Top Five for the year 2022.

#5

I had the Kingkiller books recommended to me multiple times throughout the years, but I just never got around to it until a co-worker gave me a few books that she didn't want anymore, one of which was the sequel and the novella. This had finally sparked the fire beneath me and I went out and bought The Name of the Wind shortly after.

And you know what? It is absolutely a must-read for fantasy fans. Heck, the school and emphasis on social links should put it on Persona fans' radars as well.

Rothfuss is a word wizard. The way that he writes is, to be frank, beautiful. Many times did I find myself re-reading whole pages just to fully absorb what he had written.

#4

I ended up picking up several books that were recommended to me based on my interest in parasitic-induced body horror. Most were good at best, while the rest were absolute filth (Scott Sigler and his Infected trilogy), it was Nick Cutter's 'The Troop' that stood out amongst the gross-out horror selection this year.

What Cutter delivered here was something very much akin to a Stephen King production, only it came at you much quicker than some of the long-winded tomes that King puts out. The violence was intense, the gore plentiful and the story fast-paced.

Without spoiling it, the interlude chapter that gave some background on the whole mess, the infected chimp and the following documentation of its horrific death from the second it was infected to the second it breathed its last breath was the type of horror that I had been looking for and will continue to look for.

Needless to say, however, if you are squeamish and/or are sensitive to violence against animals, steer clear of this one.

#3

If you're a creature-feature fanatic like myself, you've likely read one of Hunter Shea's books and you either loved it or you hated it.

I personally love his work as it's fast-paced, violent, and filled with cryptids.

But if you're of the latter and have not found much enjoyment in Shea's bread and butter, I suggest picking up 'Creature'. Now I'm not going to lie and say that it doesn't have any of the quality and monstrous charm that Shea is known for, but it IS a different beast from his normal output and one that DEFINITELY is not for the squeamish as the main character deals with a very real auto-immune disease that results in some horrific descriptions that had me clenching up on numerous occasions.

You really do end up feeling for the protag in this, you sympathize with her husband and can't help but commend his dedication to her. That's pure love, man, which was EXTREMELY refreshing to see in a book like this.

But again going back to the torture porn aspect of the book, the actual monster is hardly the most gruesome aspect of the book, and that is absolutely saying something when it's a Hunter Shea book.

#2

For years I've dreamed of a piece of zombie fiction that not only detailed the very chaotic beginnings of a zombie apocalypse in a realistic manner but also followed through to the very end while showing the collapse of the planet in between.

And The Living Dead delivered on that in more ways than I had imagined.

Now why The Living Dead is so high up on the list (It was originally #1) is because it's the Romero brand of zombie story; It has all his usual criticism of society at play, from consumerism to political and racial strife. It's all here and presented in a way that any fan of the Romero zombie flicks could immediately pick out. And for the real eagle-eyed reader and film connoisseur, there are references to particular places and events from the movies, though they are by no means pivotal to the stories being told within the book.

By the time the final pages flash by my eyes, I felt complete. That the story that George Romero started in Night of the Living Dead had finally seen a conclusion, even though it occurred years after his death. I was very much satisfied with how the ending came about, and just about every eventual happening along the way.

Honorable Mention:

The Shadow Glass from Josh Winning was a SUBSTANTIAL surprise to me when I stumbled across it while browsing the shelves at Barnes & Noble. It was accompanied by one of their hand-written placards that said "For fans of 80s dark fantasy like The Dark Crystal and The Labyrinth", and since The Dark Crystal is one of my favorite movies, period, I snatched the book up and began reading it before I even got out of the store.

#1

Oh boy. I was not prepared for this in the slightest.

I had this book recommended to me based on a request for Final Fantasy-like novels, and man did it deliver in spades on that front.

The Band, Book 1 is what I imagined the offspring would look like if Final Fantasy and Monty Python's Holy Grail had a child that grew up listening to rock & roll music from the 1960s and 1970s.

The characters are all extremely loveable despite being jaded middle-aged men. The fantasy elements more than makeup for the greater lack of it in modern fantasy following A Song of Ice and Fire's rise to popularity. Magic is plentiful, and monsters are everywhere, in every shape and size. There's no skimping on the fantasy elements at all, and I think that even before the hilarious dialogue and actions of the main band, were what kept me reading.

When I read epic fantasy, I want fantasy. Political strife is fine, but if that's ALL I'm going to be offered with the occasional reference to a dragon or some other common fantasy beastie, then you're not writing a book for fantasy readers. At least, that's how I feel about it. Warring kings are no different to me than a book/movie set in the modern day where two countries at going at each other's throats. It's not interesting, particularly BECAUSE it's constantly happening in the real world, and I read fantasy to escape this nonsense, not indulge in it.

And Nicholas Eames understands that.

I really was not expecting to read such a heavy hitter so deep into the year, but I'm glad I did because I can't stop thinking about the world within, nor can I wait to read the second (and eventual third!) book.

[madmaryholiday]

two movies i desperately wish more people were aware of but never get a chance to recommend to people:

jesus christ: vampire hunter. it's about the literal jesus christ being summoned from his beach vacation to save ottowa's lesbians from vampires. he is accompanied by el santo (or at least a parody impersonator of el santo the masked wrestler) and at one point stakes vampires with toothpicks. he also fights a clown-car full of atheists and there's a random musical number halfway through. it's a love letter to 70s kung fu movies and it is unironically one of my favorite things ever. i just bought the "special edition" DVD because i needed a new copy after i wore my old one out.

kamikaze girls. based on a book by the same name (that i also love dearly), this little romp is about a selfish, standoffish girl who really loves lolita fashion accidentally becoming friends with a dumb biker chick in rural japan after selling her fake designer goods from her dad's failed yakuza business. which is also why they moved to rural japan in the first place. anyway, hijinks ensue, and the lolita girl turns out to be an embroidery wizard. this wizardry saves the day, but the only lesson she learns from it is "i guess other people aren't THAT bad." she's still selfish and standoffish and generally terrible, and i love that for her. i also had to buy a blu-ray copy because i wore out my DVD copy from watching it literally hundreds of times.

(the lolita girl is even more terrible in the book, for which i love her even more. it's so refreshing to see a girl protag just be unashamedly unconcerned with anything but her own happiness--which in her case is to collect beautiful clothes, never get a job, and live a sweet and dreamy life alone.)

--

Edit:

actually, a THIRD movie i adore but never get to recommend to people:

abraham lincoln vs. zombies. it's a mockbuster released around the time the vampire lincoln one was released, and it features an actor playing the absolute shit out of honest abe like he's in an oscar bait docu-drama. unironically the best abe lincoln portrayal i have ever seen, and he's mowing down confederate zombies left and right while having a complex emotional arc involving an old lover and just generally being awesome.

the effects are mostly practical, and while it's super low-budget, they do a phenomenal job with what they have. the movie simultaneously doesn't take itself seriously at all and also manages to deliver some heavy dramatic scenes that don't feel out of place despite the absolute insanity of the premise. i have yet to buy a hard copy of this one, but i really need to get on that.

[raccooninthedaytime]

please DO give us a list about why we should watch Die Hard

OK COOL YES WILL DO!

This movie changed the fact of action movies forever!! Ask anyone who knows anything about film history— it was groundbreaking. It basically set the formula for action films for DECADES to come

It was the first action movie to have the entirety of the conflict/plot take place in one area/building (so its basically a movie-length bottle episode which is SPECTACULAR)

John McClane is FUNNY. Like not overdone quippy action star funny. His dialogue is so damn genuine and actually hilarious

Speaking of: if I remember correctly, because of time crunches the script for this movie was written more or less as they shot?? Which is insane for a blockbuster and even more insane because of HOW good it is.

And he’s not a passive protag either!! Things don’t happen to him in this movie, HE happens! It’s SO refreshing to see an action movie where the protagonist actively chooses to move the plot along.

Be ready to have an emotional attachment to like, every character. It’s kind of insane how well written they are (Except maybe ellis. He sucks)

More than that, it’s a Masterclass in acting from Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman. Like really fucking good. Oscar worthy

Hans gruber is such a fucking good villain. Not only does he have really relatable motives compared to the world domination of, say, bond villains, he’s just got SUCH an interesting was of improvising when he needs to. Watch the movie, but my FAVORITE SCENE EVER is the one where he puts on an American accent. You’ll know it and you’ll LOVE it when you see it

Any explosions filmed from the outside of the building (+ helicopter scenes!!) were filmed with SCALE MODELS!!! And you can BARELY TELL but its SO COOL AND REALLY GOOD

It’s so damn well paced. Like it’s legitimately so exciting to watch and it never feels too slow or too overcomplicated

The emotional arc of the story is SO important?? And really well done? Like it’s not all about the explosions and stunts its about FAMILY

Its on my list of hyper masculine movies that are actually really good and well made if you’re not watching them with a cishet man

Its also on my list of hyper masculine movies that are actually gay romcoms if you squint (i mean this scene they’re fully flirting like zero subtext it’s embarrassing)

And my favorite little bit of trivia:

Bruce willis, before becoming the action star we know and love, was in this really soapy romcom tv show called Moonlighting. he was cast in Die Hard the execs were so worried that he wouldn’t be able to pull it off because he had this image of being a romantic lead. To put it in perspective it’s like if noah centineo was cast in a big blockbuster action flick next year. It’s insane and shows JUST how dang talented Bruce is.

Go watch die hard this Christmas. Or whenever. It doesn’t matter just watch it

[madillhethen]

KnK ep 5 part 1

Paradox Paradigm (what a cool title) also since this episode is long I’m gonna separate this in two posts.

Remember we found Sakura’s progenitor in ep 3? Well, here’s Shirou’s: Tomoe Enjou.

Orange hair who sees no value in his self, loses an arm, sacrifices himself for someone else, that one fight with the guy who had similar color scheme with Archer 😂.

Enjou was a sad character. I like him though, was interesting to watch this crazily confusing episode unfold. The episode actually introduced him as the protag here rather than Shiki but Shiki being our heroine saves him early on. The fact he just goes and confesses he’s a killer from the get-go but his reaction does not scream killer and maybe that’s why Shiki is unfazed (I mean she knows about murderers as according to her, she is one).

We get to see their friendship unfold as he stays at her place. Poor guy only got fed Häagen-Dazs, I’m gonna say this is the food ‘murderers’ eat from here on out. If you’re not eating Häagen-Dazs, can you even say you’re a ‘murderer’?

Some wacky stuff of time seems to be going on. But the first half of the movie I’m more invested to see where Enjou and Shiki’s friendship goes and how he plays a part and who actually murdered who since his mom looked like she killed him but then he says he killed his parents yet we saw them alive when the police came.

Something about seeing Shiki express so many emotions in this movie was refreshing. It made me happy to see her laugh at Enjou, talking to him about dating and complimenting him while she was swinging her feet. Ahhh, and then her stabbing her pillow because she’s upset on Mikiya for leaving for so long! I loved this.

I guess the friendship was more Enjou falling in love with her, and he so outwardly confesses to her but we all know Shiki is in love with Mikiya. It’s so blatantly obvious, poor Enjou didn’t stand a chance. And when she asks him to die for her, Enjou gets all happy and confirms it, his sense of worth is really low and that’s pretty sad. But I love the foil between this scene with the one we got introduced with her nearly killing Mikiya when in high school.

Enjou confirms with a smile that he’d die for Shiki. Mikiya in fear confesses that he didn’t want to die. I think this contrast is wonderful. We always think of appeasing the ones we love and turning a blind eye but it’s always more powerful to remain who you are while retaining the ones we love. It kind of reminds me of how Shirou tells Sakura he would admonish her if she did something bad. I like these types of relationships.

Look at young Touko, so pretty and oh look, Willy Wonka and Progenitor Kirei are her classmates.

Jokes aside, Souren Araya is the main antagonist which surprised me he gets full on screen time in this episode considering we on episode 5 and there’s still plenty to go through. Anyways I’ll cover these three in part 2.

Enjou turns out not to be the real one. He’s a doll created by Souren. For how human like they are, makes me wonder about the body Shirou gets in the Heaven’s Feel movie. Enjou sacrifices himself for Shiki despite knowing it was hopeless, that Mikiya was the one she loved, and that was so heroic. Denying the existence he was made for, choosing to believe that regardless of what Souren tells him this was all his choice and in turn Shiki puts an end to Souren thanks to Enjou.

The ending of this film was so sad. It was a nice wrap up considering there was so much happening in this movie.

There’s something I just really loved of this sendoff.

The way they both walk different directions to their own doors but still turn around to see each other off. This friendship was so sad and beautiful. I’m glad Shiki made a friend even if he was ‘fake’.

[justagirlsearchingforamuse]

I wanted to talk about how often people in the Detroit Become Human fandom often look at human-android relationships and feel that they can bring a lot more meaning to the story and I can kind of agree with that but in my eyes it depends upon what the plotline or relationship is trying to show and tell. For example, the reason why Carl and Markus’s relationship works well is because you can see it in a positive light but you can also see how Carl in a way contributed to the slavery of androids. Their relationship in a way is very complex whilst also having this simplicity to it, but no matter it still doesn’t change the fact that Carl was his master and owner and that he contributed to the slavery of his people. Yeah he may not have beat him or berated him but he contributed to it regardless. But I hear a lot of people say that Alice should’ve been human and it could’ve added weight to their relationship if Alice for example needed food and shelter which she does need it, she needs shelter, she needs to be cared for, she in a way is like a real child. But in a way they are disappointed that Alice isn’t real, that she can’t actually eat, grow old, and that kind of thing and I understand where they are coming from but her entire plot and storyline was about the love they shared for each other. Yes, an android caring for a human child could’ve been an interesting idea and could’ve added weight but Kara still needs to make sure that Alice has shelter, that she doesn’t die, and the same things you would do to a regular child. I personally feel that fandom waters down the slavery and the pain, the humiliation the androids feel from humans and the way they treat them as simply machines and in a way they see Alice being a human as possibly being better simply because it would add weight to her actions. When what mattered was that Kara was protecting Alice, that Alice protected Kara, and that their relationship already had a lot of weight to it, that regardless of whether Alice was an android or not their relationship is strong. It’s important and shows a great mother-daughter relationship, in a way it tells me that they value humans more than they value the androids and instead of acknowledging Kara and Alice as having their own unique mother-daughter relationship where they aren’t like anyone else but themselves. The reason why Connor and Hank’s relationship works so well is because of the way it was set up, Hank’s already past relationships with androids, and how he already wants androids to change his opinion on them. Connor and Hank are shown to have a seemingly hostile relationship but they genuinely grow to care for one another and learn more about each other, everything is set up perfectly from them being partners to his son Cole. Everything was set up in a refreshing way and their relationship has weight whether their relationship is friendly or hostile throughout the entire game same with Kara and Alice. That their relationships have weight on each other no matter how the story is going and even if you abandon Alice and be rather cold towards her their relationship still has that weight to it, that they revolve around each other and that Kara couldn’t forget Alice even if she wanted to. We see them become better beings and people because of each other and most of the relationships are what keeps you interested and in a way I find that when people say so and so should’ve been human they undermine the relationship as it is. They undermine their relationship and the bond that Alice shares with Kara and in my opinion have the same mindset or a similar mindset as to people who value having children that come from their own bodies rather than a child who they can bond with even if they aren’t biologically theirs. But another relationship I want to also talk about is North and Markus’s which I love greatly and believe it’s highly underrated which I understand if it feels forced but the thing about their relationship is that they work pretty well for each other. I can’t ever see North dating a human because of the trauma she has for them and don’t come for me it’s similar if not the same as a poc not wanting to date a white person because of the fear or trauma they have they will deal with racially motivated problems. North is apart of Markus’s story and impacts the story in her own way though not major, if you took her out of the story it would be somewhat different and North’s trauma towards humans is watered down. She was a literal sex slave and I feel she could never be that interested in humans or would have a lot of trauma involving humans especially men, Markus is perfect for her. Not to mention, North is an amazing character who despite how much hatred she has for humans is loyal and respectful towards any choice that Markus goes with despite personally going for more violence she’s fine with peace. But they care for each other just as normal humans would, I feel her relationship would change greatly with Markus and Jericho if she was human and I feel the same could be said for any of these android-android relationships. Another reason why I feel a lot of people don’t like North is because she is biased against humans, because she has that hatred towards humans that they can’t do anything with such as ship her with a human character. That she speaks the truth about the relationships that humans have with androids. They see them as merchandise, as just another machine that should always obey them no matter how much trauma, pain, or suffering they cause them.  My problem with the fandom is how they seemingly water down the android slavery and the oppression that they receive and in a way will always favor the human characters much more than the androids. The humans are interesting and you can have your own interest in them but it’s the fact that people are way more interested in Hank, Gavin, Perkins, and the human characters who are side characters than the oppressed protagonists. My problem is also that you will seemingly romanticize these relationships, these interspecies relationships which are fine if you ship them but when you turn them into just tools for you to ship them with androids it becomes weird. Gavin for example despite being a huge asshole who goes out of his way to hurt the androids, he goes out of his way to humiliate Connor and has attempted to murder him multiple times but this man has more work than Markus, Kara, and the main protags. The fact the fandom focuses and praises the humans who have been oppressing or have been apart of enslaving androids and rarely ever give attention to the androids except when they fetishize them. Not to mention, I hate when people say that the androids aren’t as interesting as the humans or that the humans should’ve played a bigger part when the whole game is about equality and rather oppression and the racism that we experience for those who are simply different than us. The humans play a part in it and yes there should’ve been more sympathetic humans but it’s the fact that these humans are literally the reason for the androids becoming deviant and literally not being their slaves anymore. Kara would’ve never became deviant if Todd was a decent dad and wasn’t addicted to drugs, Markus would’ve never opened the human’s eyes to the oppression they do to androids if Leo hadn’t been beating on him and Carl tells him not to defend himself. You can like the human characters I can’t stop you but stop watering down the androids oppression in favor of your human characters who won’t get beat for supposedly being just made of metal.

[c-is-for-circinate]

I'd love to hear more of your thoughts about why P5R didn't quite land for you. I had the same reaction to it, but I've never quite been able to properly articulate why the last section fell so flat.

God okay so I've tried several times to answer this, and it seems like the answer is 'I still have way too many feelings, personally, to say this in anything less than thirty pages and fifteen hours of work', because Persona 5 the original is a game I loved a lot and care about a great deal. And most of the reasons I disliked Royal feel, in my head, like a list of ways it broke some of the things I liked best about P5--which means explaining them feels like I need to explain everything I loved about the original game, which is a book in itself, complete with referents to P3, P4, Jungian psychology, the Joseph Campbell mytharc, and fuck all even knows what. And that is too much.

But today I realized that I could instead describe it from an angle of, Persona 5 Strikers succeeds really well at doing the thing I think Royal was trying to do but failed at. And that I think I can talk about in a reasonable amount of wordspace, hopefully, behind this cut because I have at least one friend who hasn't played Royal yet.

Note for reblogs/comments: I HAVE NOT FINISHED STRIKERS YET. I got through the jail that pretended to be the final jail and have not yet gone into the obviously inevitable 'ohshit wait, you mean there's something more than simple human machinations behind all of this?' dungeon. (I got stuck on a really frustrating side quest, put the game down, and then dived into Hades to avoid throwing the Switch across the room for a while--and anyone around this blog lately knows how THAT'S been going.) Please no spoilers past Okinawa!

So, one of the many, many things I really appreciated about Persona 5 was its straightforward and unashamed attitude towards abusers and their acts of violence. Because, while yes P5 is a story about the use of power and control to make others suffer, it fundamentally isn't about those abusers themselves. It's about their victims, those that survive their crimes. And this shows up repeatedly over the course of the game.

We do not give a shit why Kamoshida wanted to beat and rape his students. We really don't. Kamoshida does not deserve our attention one moment longer than it takes to make him stop. Because, ultimately, that's the goal of P5, start to end. We don't know for sure if what we're doing is fair, if it's justice, if it's questionable. What we know is that people are being hurt, badly, actively, right now this second. What we know is that victims are suffering. What we know is that we, personally, us-the-protag and us the Phantom Thieves at large, are in danger. And in those circumstances, we don't care about the abuser's side any more. We don't. We don't have the space or time or capacity to care, because that is not the point.

The point is to help the weak. To save the people who need saving, right here and now. To give others the courage to stand up on their own behalf. We're not even out to change society, not really--that's a byproduct. We are reactions. We are triage. We are important.

There's something so empowering and validating about that as a theme, y'know? In a media landscape so full of "sympathetic villains", the idea that, you know, maybe sometimes you don't have to break yourself to show compassion that might possibly heal the bad guy--that sometimes you can just make the bad guy stop hurting people--feels both refreshing and satisfying. I really appreciate it as a message! I liked it a lot!

And yes, there's nuance to that theme, and the game is not without compassion. We save Futaba, because 'make the bad guy stop hurting people', in that case, means 'make this person stop hurting herself'. We give Sae a path forwards, help her fix her own heart. Yet it's worth pointing out that in both of those cases, while we were very glad to do those things, to save those people, we also went into both of those palaces for extremely practical reasons to begin with. We needed Futaba's help. We needed Sae's help. The fact that we chose to talk Sae into a change of heart rather than simply stealing her treasure, while ultimately a very good thing for her, was absolutely a practical choice predicated on the need for her palace to still exist to save our life. And yes, we wanted to save her, for Makoto's sake--yes, we wanted desperately to save Futaba. But Sae and Futaba let themselves be helped, too, and that doesn't change the overarching themes of the story itself.

Akechi (and to some extent Okumura) would not let himself be helped. Akechi's another interesting nuance to this theme, because of all our villains, we do learn the most about what drove him to the cruelties and crimes he's committed. He's at that intersection of victim and villain, and we want to help him, as a victim--but we also know that stopping him as a villain is more important. We'd like to save him from himself if we could, because we save people from their sources of trauma, it's what we do. We regret being unable to do so. But in the end, what matters to the story is not that Akechi refused to be saved--it's that Shido and Yaldabaoth need to be stopped, for the sakes of everyone else they're hurting now and may continue to hurt in the future.

The thing is, there's space and maybe even a need for a corollary discussion of those places where victim and villain intersect. It's an interesting, pertinent, and related topic. Strikers made an entire video game about it, a really good video game. It's centered in the idea that, yes, these people need to be stopped, and we will make stopping them our priority--but they're not going after us, and that gives us some space to sympathize. Even for Konoe, who specifically targets the Phantom Thieves--compare him to Shido, who actively destroyed the lives of both Joker and Futaba, who ordered Haru's father's death, who's the entire reason the team is still dealing with the trauma of Akechi's everything. Of course the game can be sympathetic to Konoe where it can't with Shido. There's enough distance to do that.

But right--Strikers is a separate game. It's a separate conversation. It's, "last time, we talked about that, so now let's take it one step further." And that's good writing. (It's something Persona has done before, too, also really well! Persona 3 is about terrible, occasionally-suicidal depression and grief. P4 is about how you can still be hurting and need some help and therapy even if things seem ok. Related ideas, but separate conversations that need to be separate in order to be respectful and do justice to either one. P5, as a follow-up to P4, is a conversation about how, ok, changing yourself is great and all, but sometimes the problem is other people so how do you deal with that? Again, still related! Still pertinent! Still alluded to in P4, with Adachi's whole thing--but it wasn't the time or place to base a quarter of the game around it.)

So one of Royal's biggest issues, to me, is that it tries to tack on this whole new angle for discussion onto a game that was originally about something else.

Adding Maruki's palace--adding it at the end, which by narrative laws suggests that it's the true point that everything else should be building up to--suddenly adds in about a hundred new dimensions at once. It wants us to engage with "what in this abuser/manipulator's life led him to act this way?" for basically the first time all game (we'll get to Akechi later). It wants us to engage with, "if the manipulator has a really good reason or good intentions, does that mean we should forgive them?" It requires us to reflect on, "what is the difference between control and cruelty?" It asks, "okay, but if people could be controlled into being happy, would that be okay?" (Which, based on the game so far, is actually a wild out-there hypothetical! Literally not a single thing we've seen in the game suggests that could ever happen. Even the people who think being controlled is safer and easier are miserable under it. Control that's able to lead to actual happiness is completely out of left field in the context of everything we've encountered all game so far.)

That's too much! We don't have time to unpack all that! We only have an eighth of the game left! Not to mention we are also being asked to bring back questions we put to bed much earlier in the game about the morality of our own actions, in a wholely unsatisfying way. Maruki attempts to justify his mass brainwashing because "it's the same as what you're doing", and we know it isn't, but the game didn't need Maruki calling it out in order for us to get that. We already faced that question when we started changing hearts, and again several times throughout the game, and again when we found our targets in Yaldabaoth's cells. The fact that we change hearts does not mean we think "changing hearts is fine and kind and should be done to everyone, actually." Changing hearts has been firmly established in this game as an act of violence, acceptable only because it prevents further systemic violence against innocents that we must prevent. The moral question has never once been about whether it's ok to change the hearts of the innocent, only about how far it's ethical to go against individuals who are actively hurting other people. Saying "you punched that guy to keep him from shooting a child, so punching people is good and I will save the world by punching everyone!" is confusing! and weird! and not actually at all helpful to the question of, how much violence is it acceptable to use to protect others! So presenting the question that way just falls really flat.

(And right, I love Strikers, because Strikers has time to unpack all that. Strikers can give us a main bad guy who wants to control the whole world for everybody's own good, because Strikers has earned that thematic climax. It has given us sympathetic bad guys who started out wanting to control the world to protect themselves and ended up going too far. It's given us Mariko Hyodo, who wanted to control the world to protect other people and went too far. It's given us a long-running thread about police, the desire to serve, and the abuse of power that can lead to. And since we are actively trying to care for the people whose hearts we're changing in Strikers, we can open the door to questions about using changes-of-heart and that level of control to make other people happy. We can even get a satisfying conclusion out of that discussion, because we have space to characterize the difference--Konoe thinks that changing peoples' hearts means confining them, but the Phantom Thieves think it means setting them free. We have seen enough sympathetic villains that we as an audience have had the space to figure out how we feel about that, and to understand the game's perspective of "stop them AND save them, if we can possibly do both." And that message STILL rests firmly on Persona 5's message of "it is Good to do what you have to do to stop an abuser so long as you don't catch innocent people in your crossfire.")

It's worth noting that the general problem of 'asking way too many new questions and then not answering them' also applies to how Royal treats its characters, too. P5 did have unanswered questions left at the end! The biggest one, and we all knew this, was Akechi, and what actually happened to him, and how we should feel about him, and how he felt about us. That was ripe for exploring in our bonus semester, and to Royal's credit they did in fact try to bring it up, but by god did they fuck up doing it.

Akechi's probable death in the boiler room was absolutely the biggest dangling mystery of the game. It was an off-screen apparent death of a key antagonist, so all of the narrative rules we know suggested that he might still be alive and would probably come back if the story went on for long enough. So when Royal brings him back on Christmas Eve, hey, great! Question answered. Except that the situation is immediately too good to be true, and immediately leads to another mystery, which leads to a flat suspicion that something must be wrong. We spend several hours of gameplay getting sly hints that, oooh, maybe he's not really alive after all, before it's finally confirmed by Maruki: yup, he really died, if we end the illusion we'll kill him too. Okay, at least we know now. Akechi is alive right now and he's going to be dead if we do this, and that doesn't make a ton of sense because every other undead person disappeared when the person who wished for them realized they were fake but at this point we'll take it. So we take down Maruki, and okay, Akechi really is dead! Probably! We're fairly sure! Aside from our lingering doubts!

And then we catch a glimpse of maybe-probably-could be him through the train window, and I just want to throw something, because come on.

Look, it is just a fact of storytelling: the more times you make an audience ask 'wait, is this character dead or aren't they?', the less they will care, until three or four reversals later you will be hard pressed to find anybody who gives a shit. Royal does this like four different times, and every iteration comes with even less certainty than the last. By the end, we somehow know even less than we did when we started! Did Akechi survive the boiler room to begin with and Maruki just didn't know? Or was Maruki lying to try and manipulate us further? Or was he actually dead and then his strength of will when Maruki's reality dissolved was enough to let him survive after all? Is that even actually him out the train window?

Where is he going! What is he doing! How did any of this happen! What is going on! We all had these questions about Akechi at the end of the original P5, and the kicker is that Royal pretends like it's going to answer them only to go LOL JK NO. It's frustrating and it's dissatisfying and it annoys me.

The one Akechi question that Royal doesn't even bother to ask, though, let alone leave ambiguous, is how does the protagonist feel about him? The entire emotional weight of the third semester rests on the protagonist caring about Akechi, Sumire, and Maruki. Maruki's the person we're supposed to sympathize with even as we try to stop him. Sumire's the person we're trying to save from herself. And Akechi is our bait--is, we are told, the one thing our protagonist wished for enough to actualize it in this world himself. Akechi's the final lure to accept Maruki's deal. Akechi's survival is meant to be tempting.

For firm Akechi fans, this probably worked out fine--the game wanted to insist that the protagonist cared for Akechi the same way the player did. For those of us who're a little more ambivalent, though (or for the many and valid people who hated him), this is a super sour note. Look, one of the Persona series' strengths is the way it lets players choose to put their time and emotional investment into an array of different characters, so the main story still has weight even if there's a couple you don't care about that much. It has always done this. The one exception, from P3 all the way through P4 to here and now, is Nanako Dojima, and by god she earned that distinction. I have never met a person who played Persona 4 who didn't love Nanako. Nanako is a neglected six-year-old child who is brave and strong enough to take care of herself and all of the housework but who still tries not to cry when her dad abandons her again and lights up like the sun when we spare her even the tiniest bit of time and attention. It is impossible not to care for Nanako. Goro Akechi is not Nanako.

And yet third semester Royal doesn't make sense if your protagonist doesn't feel linked to Akechi. The one question, out of all the brand new questions Royal throws out there, that it decides to answer all by itself--and it's how you as a player and your protagonist ought to feel about an extremely complex and controversial character. What the fuck, Royal. What the fuck.

In conclusion, I'll leave you with this. I played the original Persona 5 in March and April of 2017, as an American, a few months after the 2016 election and into the term of our then president. It felt painfully timely. A quick calendar google early on indicated that the game's 20XX was almost certainly 2016, and the closer our plot got to the in-game November leadup to an election destined to be dominated by a foul and charming man full of corruption and buoyed up by his own cult of personality, the more I wanted to laugh/cry. It felt timely. It felt important. It felt right.

I went through Royal (in LP form on youtube, not having a platform to play it on) in summer of 2020, with a hook full of face masks by my front door and protests about racial tension and local policing that occasionally turned into not-quite-riots close enough to hear at night if I opened the windows of my apartment. The parts of the game that I remembered felt as prescient and meaningful as ever, if not even more so. The new parts felt baffling. Every single evil in the game felt utterly, painfully real, from the opening moments of police brutality to the idea of a country led by a guy who probably would use his secret illegitimate teenage son as a magical assassin if the opportunity presented itself and he thought he could get away with it. Yaldabaoth as the cumulative despair of an entire population who just wanted somebody to take over and make things be okay--yes, yes, god, in summer of 2020? With streets full of people refusing to wear masks and streets full of people desperate for change? Of course. Of course that holy grail of safety should be enticing. Of course it should be terrifying.

And then Maruki. Maruki, who was just so far outside the scope of anything I could relate to the rest of the game or my own life. Because every single other villain in the rest of Persona is real. From the petty pandering principal to the human-trafficking mob boss. The corrupt politicians and the manmade god of cultural desire for stability. And this game was trying to tell me that the very biggest threat of all of them, the thing that was worse than the collective force of all society agreeing to let this happen because succumbing was easier than fighting back--that the very biggest threat of all was that the world could be taken over by some random nobody's misguided attempts to help?

No. Fuck no. I don't buy it. Because god, yes, I have seen the pain and damage done on a tiny and personal and very real level by the tight-fisted control of someone trying to help, it never looked like this. Not some ascended god of a bad therapist. All the threats to the world, and that's the one I'm supposed to take seriously? This one man is more of a threat than the fundamental human willingness to be controlled?

Sorry, but no. Not for me. Not in this game. Not in this real-life cyberpunk dystopian apocalypse.

[jippy-kandi]

Digimon Adventure: 2020 – Episode 52: Dance Of The Heavens, Phoenixmon (Review)

Thoughts on the fifty-second episode of the Digimon Adventure reboot series.

So . . . this episode was a major disappointment. XD;

Sora and Taichi fell from the sky and were saved by Junkmon and co. . . . but, realistically, shouldn’t Piyomon just evolve and save them all? orz

The “safety first!” gag got real old, real fast. And they look silly doing that head shake thing. XD; Also, is this series trying to convince kids to work??? It was being pushed so much it really came off like propaganda. XD;

Anyway, Junkmon and his people live on an island with an active volcano, so they have to work to build walls to protect themselves from lava . . . filler plot is filler plot. And maybe would’ve worked better towards the beginning of the series . . . but not at the end. And not for a Mega evolution episode. Sigh.

Piyomon gets hurt while saving Sora from debris . . . and the ensuing drama just felt so forced.

I like how the episode’s motto is “safety first!” - and yet it shows Sora running while carrying steel bars . . . yeah, she’s putting safety first alright! :P

Piyomon wants to help Sora out with work. Sora insists she can do it all by herself, because Piyomon is injured. This is obviously inspired by Sora’s OG drama . . . but an empty version of it. The plot was 100% fabricated and made me get tri. Chapter 4 vibes - where the drama between Sora and Piyomon was also forced. I don’t know why Toei can’t organically build up drama for these two . . .

Piyomon: “I hate you Sora!” Same, Piyomon, same. XD; OK, I don’t - but I also don’t really care about reboot Sora that much. And it pains me, because she was my second favourite character from the OG. But if reboot Sora didn’t have Sora’s name . . . I really would just write her character off completely. T_T

When the large volcano eruption begins, Sora still wants to build up the walls, and Junkmon has to explain to her that it’s just to buy time for everyone to run . . . I facepalmed so hard. Just how daft is reboot Sora? lmao. XD; (OK, OK, she’s eleven . . . but still!? Maybe I’m just getting old and the generation gap is too wide for me to understand the intelligence level of kids. XD;)

It has to be said: Sora is strong AF, lmao. I’m still amazed at the sheer strength of this girl. She should get into wrestling or some form of professional contact sports. XD;

Piyomon and Sora abruptly forgive each other for their forced drama and trust each other, blah blah . . . and it’s still so fabricated, but at least both Sora and Piyomon get to show actual emotion in the series for once, I suppose? This is just about the only positive in the entire episode. XD;

Oh, and of course, Phoenixmon happening!!! I like her design so I’m glad the reboot gave us her Mega evolution. But the reason for it . . . is because Sora and Piyomon “trust” and love each other (did they not before???) and needed to protect other Digimon from . . . an active volcano . . . instead of an evil Digimon. Hmmm. Hmmmmm.

Well, Phoenixmon’s Mega evolution sequence has nothing on Taichi and Yamato’s . . . which is to be expected of preferential treatment Toei. But still - let’s riot! XD;

At first I thought it was lame that Phoenixmon happened just because of an active volcano . . . but, I guess, it’s fine? XD; It was something different and refreshing from usual . . . so points for creativity? And Phoenixmon did look majestic . . . for a bird. :D I like her a lot!

Junkmon conveniently wants to visit the hot springs - and Taichi decides to tag along. LMAO. This series, I swear. There was NO POINT for Taichi to be in this episode - other than to convince kids to watch it because he’s the main protag. I feel sorry for the new generation of Digimon viewers who have actually been suckered into liking such a bland protag. ;_;

Overall, I was really disappointed in this episode. Maybe it’s because Sora is one of my absolute favourites in the OG, and to see Toei give her nothing but fabricated drama (a la tri.) makes me roll my eyes so hard. This was at least just as bad as Yamato’s Mega evolution episode to me . . . orz (How will the others stack up?)

Sora’s episode 40 is going to remain her best episode in the reboot. And that’s sad. :c Why is Toei closing out the series with filler Mega episodes? (COVID.) I’m genuinely appalled at where this series went. It started with such potential! :c

Next week: NO JOU MEGA EVOLUTION? :o

I guess even Toei has to pad out the filler Mega episodes with regular filler episodes . . . lol. orz

[junikshanasar]

The Character of Gon pt. 1

I’m still figuring this tumblr thing out, so these first few posts are random.

So I really love HunterxHunter (who doesn’t lol), but a while back when the author started spewing out those horrid text-filled chapters then went on hiatus, I dropped it as well. Recently I began rereading it so I could discuss it with my friends reading it for the first time, and wow! 

I forgot how much fun it was (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:��ﾟ✧

The story is refreshing, the characters are all fun and lovable, and the artstyle is sick. But though I could talk about how much fun the manga is, that’s not what this post is about. I tend to have discussions with my friend on discord regarding manga or books or webtoons we both read, and she likes my insight no matter how flawed or shallow it might be. So I thought, why not post that insight here?

This post is about Gon as a character, and by extension his relationships with the people around him. I’ll bring up Killua a lot, as Gon’s closest friend, and also because he’s my absolute favourite character.

Hm, I guess to start, a lot of people comment that Gon’s character is a critique of common shounen tropes at the time, and while I can definitely see how certain aspects of his character are both good and bad, and common across other shounen main characters, I don’t know jackshit about Dragon Ball and I watched Naruto back in like 6th grade. So.

That being said, I feel a lot of people take Gon’s personality at face value. He has a lot of the traits of your typical shounen protag, i.e. brave, kind, determined, brash, ‘selfless’ etc.

I myself did the same while reading for the first time, but now that I’m a couple years older and rereading, I can see that Gon is actually quite a selfish person. Let me be clear first that I don’t hate Gon, quite the opposite! I think he’s a fun character. I don’t think his character is bad either, this is just how I view him.

Now, to elaborate (please excuse the upcoming ramble, and note there will be SPOILERS):

Being selfish doesn’t make Gon a bad person! It’s just a part of who he is. But you can see this selfishness actively affecting the people and situations around him. The thing is, Gon gets away with this, when normally this would push the people around you away (and after the Chimera Ant Arc, he does end up pushing Killua away).

Gon follows his own code of morals, you see. What makes a person good or bad? Ain’t that the big question. You see, Gon condemns the Spiders (the Phantom Troupe) for killing innocents without remorse. However, does anyone remember that quite literal lady killer from the Greed Island arc?

This man here, Binolt, the guy who like, eats women. He’s captured and used as a fighting partner for Gon and Killua during Biscuit’s training. After the training is over? Gon thanks him.

He thanks the guy, even though he’s murdered plenty of innocent people too. Why? Because the guy benefitted him (i.e. helped him get stronger through their fights)? One point to contrast this though is that it’s implied that through fighting (?) Gon help Mr. I-eat-22-year-old-women see his wrongs and feel remorse, which is something he fails to instill in the Spiders. 

However this kind of forgiving is honestly according to his own moral code. You can see this later in a comment Zepile makes, about how Gon doesn’t see ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, he just has unbridled curiosity. This is after he explains different forgery methods con men use during the auctions in Yorknew:

He states that Gon is “walking a fine line”, and calls Gon a monster (though literally everyone has called these two kiddos monsters at least once, so that last point is somewhat moot).

He takes after his father, in that sense. Not only with how Ging leaves Gon (which we later find out is because Aunt Mito forced him to, but like we all lowkey know he would’ve left Gon somewhere regardless), but also how they both act according to their own whims. The difference is that Ging is fully aware of and explicit about his selfishness, even using it, as seen in his plan during the Hunter Association Chairman elections. 

On the other hand, while Gon has stated a few times that he is selfish, he doesn’t really fully comprehend what that means, both for himself and the people around him. See, the people around him accept him as he is because like 90% of the time it goes right, and/or he ends up helping people out.

In part 2 I’ll go over an example of this selfishness. Let me know your thoughts so far!

[akiiyamashun]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

fill out & repost ♥

My muse is:  canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless

Is your character popular in the fandom?  YES / NO

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  YES / NO (I mean, he’s often called ‘pretty boy’ or ‘handsome’ and is implied to be attractive in-game)

Is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO

Are they underrated?  YES / NO

Were they relevant to the main story?  YES / NO

Were they relevant to the main character?  YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG.

Are they widely known in their world?  YES / NO.

How’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL.

How strictly do you follow canon?

I try to incorporate all canon bits into my writing, but mostly weave these parts together with a lot of my own headcanons and interpretations of the things that I think could lead Akiyama to ultimately be who he is and act the way he does. He’s a very interesting and unique character - the one civilian who’s constantly dragged into Yakuza business and who lives in this very much gray zone in terms of morality but who is one of the good guys at his core.

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutual.

Akiyama’s charisma is off the charts - it’s impossible not to like him! I try my best to bring his sense of humor and how smooth he is to the writing, because to me that’s one of his trademarks - a lot of charm, very skilled conversationalist and overall likeable person who entrances others quite easily. It makes a lot of sense that during his chapters in Y4 you can enlist others as your ‘allies’, because he just makes connections that fast.

His adaptability to life - he doesn’t shy away from the period of homelessness and how it ultimately freed him? He goes as far as thanking the man who framed and destroyed his (once) brilliant career for this. Akiyama becomes someone so comfortable in his own skin and so genuine - he’s one extremely resilient person even if sometimes it looks like blind luck (it’s not - his strength is less tangible and physical).

He has plot reasons to be mostly anywhere and do everything - I mean, he ended up babysitting idols, waltzing right into evil lairs of badass yakuza to accuse them of crimes and using his own fortune to bait others. He’s a super unpredictable but devoted individual who will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of things or protect the town he loves while being a civilian - so he’s not bound by the Tojo hierarchy at all. Nothing is really out of character for this man. Not even dance battles.

Brains over brawn for once - Akiyama can fight (and does so with style!), but that is not his preferred way of solving problems. By nature he’s diplomatic and very intelligent, and he will try to to avoid unnecessary fights if possible - but if all comes down to kicking the bastards where it hurts, he’ll do it. I think his approach to things in a franchise built on Kiryu punching his way through problems is super refreshing - and adds a lot of variety. :)

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?).  

Akiyama being seen as the ‘humorous’ character or someone just ‘lazy’ and incapable of doing his job correctly. I have a LOT of feelings here - and I disagree with this overall idea that Akiyama is a ‘joke’ - but I can see him being considered some sort of walking meme and leading people to believe he’s just not worth their time to build an interesting plot (despite the fact he’s the protagonist of 3 games and a supporting character in at least other 2).

The fact he’s not as strong when compared to other protagonists of the franchise - and this is true; if you put Akiyama side by side with most guys who have been given the spotlight over the years, Akiyama is probably stronger than Tanimura only (or maybe it’s a tie). He doesn’t look like your typical Yakuza protagonist - he doesn’t even punch others when fighting, it’s just kicking! I can see this being something that would rank him ‘lower’ or as someone ‘less interesting’ or ‘less important’ because he’s not hitting others like a derailed freight train such as Saejima or Kiryu.

What inspired you to rp your muse?  

I was smitten with Akiyama after five minutes with him, really. I loved how fresh his interactions with Hana sounded, and the way he talked to people was so open and fun for once (Kiryu is not a great conversationalist, let’s face it). Then his introduction by Kido, where he gets described so mysteriously and yet with these obvious pointers towards the way he fosters other people’s dreams and his unpredictable behavior? An immediate win for me. 

Akiyama is so entertaining - his charm, his lines, his voice (thank you Yamadera Koichi for this AWESOME job), his substories, the fighting style, the dancing battles! Honestly there is nothing about Akiyama that I don’t adore - he’s hard to read, smooth like silk, good guy at his heart, awesome sense of humor, devilish handsome, looks like he knows how to please a woman and leave them craving for more, incredibly smart to the point of being complimented by an actual police detective - hell yeah. What’s not to love?

What keeps your inspiration going?  

Akiyama does it by himself, haha. Honestly, the games and the existing lore have done plenty, and I’ve gone really deep into what I perceive as his motivations/drivers. The second thing in addition to canon sources is the interest/discussions with partners? Really, @sixthxchairman has played a fundamental role here, from giving me a space to run him as a test muse to listening to a lot of incessant yelling about all things Akiyama. Having someone else interested in him makes me want explore all the sides of the muse. :)

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you give your character justice?  YES / NO (I mean, I have PAGES written about Akiyama and everything, I hope this is coherent?).

Do you frequently write headcanons?  YES / NO.

Do you sometimes write drabbles?  YES / NO.  

Do you think a lot about your Muse during the day?  YES / NO.

Are you confident in your portrayal?  YES / NO / More like getting to ‘yes’ with each passing day?

Are you confident in your writing?  YES / NO / Increasingly getting to yes?

Are you a sensitive person?  YES / NO.

Do you accept criticism well about your portrayal?

Yes, to a degree. Akiyama is not my character so of course there are a lot of things I’ve built and developed/fleshed out that may be different from what the creators intended or even other muns would have imagined/explored with him. I will say I do not oppose criticism if it’s rooted in actual canon and happens to be something that heavily contradicts what Akiyama does in such official sources - I do not write him as canon divergent, after all. 

However, a lot about my Akiyama portrayal is my own; there is a heavy influence of my headcanons in relation to his hobbies, likes & dislikes, preferences, tastes, etc. These details are all very fundamental in how I write him and will show up in my replies - his disregard for hierarchy, the way he likes to be underestimated, the way he talks to and acts around people etc. On these aspects of my interpretation, I’d prefer not to get any criticism on simply because there is no right or wrong; I just appreciate that there are different views on what makes Akiyama who he is and I’d rather not be compared.

Do you like questions, which help you explore your character?  

Yes! These are always fun and often directed at stuff I haven’t yet thought about, so I love working on these headcanon asks. :)

If someone disagrees to a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why?

I am willing to listen, sure - especially if it is rooted in canon sources, as indicated above. I don’t care much for someone arguing something like ‘Akiyama cannot play the violin because he’s obviously a trumpet player’ - there is no way either of us will know for sure unless the creators one day say something about it. But other than that, I welcome good discussions and how we may view the same scene differently (for instance, the ending of Y5 when Watase and the other families bowed to Akiyama - I interpreted that scene in a way, other people may be able to see it in another direction).

If someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it?

As long as this doesn’t translate to anon hate (which simply gets blocked), then I have nothing to say about it! I think everyone has the right to disagree with my views and perceptions of Akiyama, I just don’t see the point of lingering around and following me if that is the case. I’m always excited to yell about him and discuss plots/interactions with willing parties - but if my version of Akiyama isn’t someone’s cup of tea, I’m sure there are other takes on him that will work well for these people.

If someone really hates your character, how do you take it?  

I would frankly be surprised because, at least online, Akiyama sounds like he’s a REALLY popular fella with a very good fanbase - and I personally think that Akiyama is a fucking delight and I worship the ground he walks on - but to each their own? Again, I disagree with some of the takes I see on Akiyama where he’s reduced to some sort of failure or joke who’s incapable of doing anything by himself, but as long as the hate for Akiyama does not translate in anon hate/actual fandom war, I have no issue with that.

Are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors?  

YES, ALWAYS. IN FACT, PLEASE DO. I am not a native English speaker and while I do check spelling/meaning of certain words sometimes, there is always a typo or some random word that escapes my review and makes me groan when reviewing my replies later. I will always appreciate anyone helping me correct and grow as a writer. :)

Do you think you are easy going as a mun?

Yes! I have no anxiety in terms of approaching first, offering ideas, etc. In fact, I’m super talkative and I love meeting other muns, so unless you are not into typing lots (because I do it all the time!), I’m pretty positive I’m not intimidating/shy and generally referred to as a friendly mun? I hope my mutuals were not lying about it, haha.