Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2018-06-09 05:07 pm
rionaleonhart) wrote2018-06-09 05:07 pm
Entry tags:
Tonight Is For Our Ghosts.
Mike Shinoda's latest song, 'Ghosts', is catchy and fun to listen to and, moreover, has the greatest music video I've seen in my life. I love it. Having done a few music video paintings, I'm tempted to attempt one for this, but, er, I'm not sure it's in my painting comfort zone.
I've picked up my Danganronpa V3 replay again! I'm in Chapter Five, but this entry has spoilers up to the end.
Replaying Danganronpa V3 has thrown into sharp relief how my opinion of some of the characters changed during my first playthrough. In group scenes, I talk to my favourites first, to avoid the risk I'll accidentally progress the plot before I get to talk to the characters I like most. I'm very aware now of how that talking order has changed.
The characters who changed the most in my estimation were probably Shuichi (bored by him at first, hated it when he became the protagonist, but he was my favourite character by the end), Tsumugi (I liked her immediately and now have no interest in her) and Tenko (my least favourite character to begin with, and now I like her reasonably well). I've remained solidly fond of Kaito, though.
Kirumi didn't make much of an impression on me in my first playthrough, but in this one I did her free time events, and they're pretty cute. She's so bad at spending time with someone as a friend; she's compelled to look after them!
Miu's free time events are also delightful, if alarming. I love Shuichi going 'Did Miu... just confess her love to me?' and worrying about what to say to her when he next sees her, and when he does next see her she goes 'ahahaha, why the long face?' and he goes '...oh, I guess I was the only one worried about it.'
I remember thinking, on my first playthrough of Danganronpa V3, that Kaede had a strangely muted reaction to finding Rantaro's body. Her quiet 'Oh, Rantaro...' makes sense to me now. She's not surprised that someone's dead; she's disappointed in Rantaro, because she thinks he's the mastermind.
Kaede isn't thinking that they need to find the culprit in the first investigation. She's always thinking they need to find the mastermind. At this point in my first playthrough, I suspected her of being the murderer (in an unfortunate case of spoiler warnings themselves becoming spoilery, I saw someone warning of REALLY MAJOR spoilers for chapter one and went 'hmm, so something REALLY MAJOR happens in that chapter,' and then pieced it together with someone else saying they were unhappy with spoilery news regarding Kaede), but I didn't think she knew she was the murderer. Replaying it with that knowledge, though, everything she says and thinks makes complete sense. It's extremely well done.
I love Kaito's reaction to Rantaro's death. 'That dumbass! How dare he go and get himself killed? Who the hell did it? I'll friggin' punch you into orbit!' Kaito cares VERY AGGRESSIVELY about everyone.
Chapter Four is still really upsetting. I think Kokichi's an interesting character, and a fun one (I'll always love the fact that he took the important measure of writing all those witty and brilliant posthumous lines for himself while slowly dying), and I don't think he's as malicious as he makes himself out to be, but I'll never be part of the 'Kokichi did nothing wrong' camp, because what he did to Gonta was absolutely horrendous. If he saw Miu's murder attempt coming from before he'd even gone into the virtual world, there were probably ways to avert it that weren't 'manipulate someone else into murdering her and getting executed for it'. And he evidently wasn't sincere in his 'let's put everyone else out of their misery' suggestion, given that he flat-out named Gonta as the culprit at the trial.
His constant insults to Miu sort of got to me on this playthrough, too. Which is a little silly, because Miu is constantly insulting everyone! Maybe Kokichi's insults feel harsher because they're specifically targeting a small handful of people, whereas Miu will just insult everyone and everything in range. Or, you know, maybe Kokichi's insults feel harsher in the knowledge that he'll eventually be responsible for Miu's death.
(Kokichi screaming at Gonta in the fourth trial really got to me as well. You've done enough to this poor boy already, Kokichi! You drove him into despair and forced him to commit murder for you, and he's going to end up getting executed because of it; you don't have to yell at him on top of that!)
Which isn't to say anything's wrong with loving Kokichi, because I'm not a member of the 'YOU CAN'T LIKE THAT FICTIONAL CHARACTER; IT'S MORALLY WRONG' brigade either. Komaeda's one of my absolute favourite Danganronpa characters, and he's also guilty of manipulating people into committing murder, for much less sympathetic reasons than self-defence.
I'm so glad the 'life on Earth has been destroyed' plot point turned out to be fake. The ending of Danganronpa V3 is extremely divisive, but I sort of loved it; it's something different, it slightly lightened a plot that had become far too bleak for my tastes (while still having emotional weight for the characters), and, to be honest, it's hilarious. Also, I seem to have accidentally ended up playing three games about human extinction simultaneously, so I'm glad in at least one of them the extinction isn't real.
Okay, I just saw this Danganronpa V3 fanart-based fanvid, and it's one of the coolest fanvids I've ever seen. (Spoilers for the whole game, and also some messed-up imagery, because, well, it's Danganronpa.)
We're so close to E3! Are we going to get a Kingdom Hearts 3 release date at last? What a surreal thought.
Dontnod is doing a game called Twin Mirror which looks like it's going to contain playable psychological breakdowns, and I do love those, but it's about a traumatised adult. Booooo. I'm only here for traumatised teenagers, Dontnod! You served me so well with Life Is Strange!
I've picked up my Danganronpa V3 replay again! I'm in Chapter Five, but this entry has spoilers up to the end.
Replaying Danganronpa V3 has thrown into sharp relief how my opinion of some of the characters changed during my first playthrough. In group scenes, I talk to my favourites first, to avoid the risk I'll accidentally progress the plot before I get to talk to the characters I like most. I'm very aware now of how that talking order has changed.
The characters who changed the most in my estimation were probably Shuichi (bored by him at first, hated it when he became the protagonist, but he was my favourite character by the end), Tsumugi (I liked her immediately and now have no interest in her) and Tenko (my least favourite character to begin with, and now I like her reasonably well). I've remained solidly fond of Kaito, though.
Kirumi didn't make much of an impression on me in my first playthrough, but in this one I did her free time events, and they're pretty cute. She's so bad at spending time with someone as a friend; she's compelled to look after them!
Miu's free time events are also delightful, if alarming. I love Shuichi going 'Did Miu... just confess her love to me?' and worrying about what to say to her when he next sees her, and when he does next see her she goes 'ahahaha, why the long face?' and he goes '...oh, I guess I was the only one worried about it.'
I remember thinking, on my first playthrough of Danganronpa V3, that Kaede had a strangely muted reaction to finding Rantaro's body. Her quiet 'Oh, Rantaro...' makes sense to me now. She's not surprised that someone's dead; she's disappointed in Rantaro, because she thinks he's the mastermind.
Kaede isn't thinking that they need to find the culprit in the first investigation. She's always thinking they need to find the mastermind. At this point in my first playthrough, I suspected her of being the murderer (in an unfortunate case of spoiler warnings themselves becoming spoilery, I saw someone warning of REALLY MAJOR spoilers for chapter one and went 'hmm, so something REALLY MAJOR happens in that chapter,' and then pieced it together with someone else saying they were unhappy with spoilery news regarding Kaede), but I didn't think she knew she was the murderer. Replaying it with that knowledge, though, everything she says and thinks makes complete sense. It's extremely well done.
I love Kaito's reaction to Rantaro's death. 'That dumbass! How dare he go and get himself killed? Who the hell did it? I'll friggin' punch you into orbit!' Kaito cares VERY AGGRESSIVELY about everyone.
Chapter Four is still really upsetting. I think Kokichi's an interesting character, and a fun one (I'll always love the fact that he took the important measure of writing all those witty and brilliant posthumous lines for himself while slowly dying), and I don't think he's as malicious as he makes himself out to be, but I'll never be part of the 'Kokichi did nothing wrong' camp, because what he did to Gonta was absolutely horrendous. If he saw Miu's murder attempt coming from before he'd even gone into the virtual world, there were probably ways to avert it that weren't 'manipulate someone else into murdering her and getting executed for it'. And he evidently wasn't sincere in his 'let's put everyone else out of their misery' suggestion, given that he flat-out named Gonta as the culprit at the trial.
His constant insults to Miu sort of got to me on this playthrough, too. Which is a little silly, because Miu is constantly insulting everyone! Maybe Kokichi's insults feel harsher because they're specifically targeting a small handful of people, whereas Miu will just insult everyone and everything in range. Or, you know, maybe Kokichi's insults feel harsher in the knowledge that he'll eventually be responsible for Miu's death.
(Kokichi screaming at Gonta in the fourth trial really got to me as well. You've done enough to this poor boy already, Kokichi! You drove him into despair and forced him to commit murder for you, and he's going to end up getting executed because of it; you don't have to yell at him on top of that!)
Which isn't to say anything's wrong with loving Kokichi, because I'm not a member of the 'YOU CAN'T LIKE THAT FICTIONAL CHARACTER; IT'S MORALLY WRONG' brigade either. Komaeda's one of my absolute favourite Danganronpa characters, and he's also guilty of manipulating people into committing murder, for much less sympathetic reasons than self-defence.
I'm so glad the 'life on Earth has been destroyed' plot point turned out to be fake. The ending of Danganronpa V3 is extremely divisive, but I sort of loved it; it's something different, it slightly lightened a plot that had become far too bleak for my tastes (while still having emotional weight for the characters), and, to be honest, it's hilarious. Also, I seem to have accidentally ended up playing three games about human extinction simultaneously, so I'm glad in at least one of them the extinction isn't real.
Okay, I just saw this Danganronpa V3 fanart-based fanvid, and it's one of the coolest fanvids I've ever seen. (Spoilers for the whole game, and also some messed-up imagery, because, well, it's Danganronpa.)
We're so close to E3! Are we going to get a Kingdom Hearts 3 release date at last? What a surreal thought.
Dontnod is doing a game called Twin Mirror which looks like it's going to contain playable psychological breakdowns, and I do love those, but it's about a traumatised adult. Booooo. I'm only here for traumatised teenagers, Dontnod! You served me so well with Life Is Strange!
no subject
...If you know how to get screencaps, I could attempt to paint it? Or at least draw it?
I like adults having psychological breakdowns! ...um, fictional adults having psychological breakdowns, I should probably specify. But then again, I don’t play video games.
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I'd love to see your reproduction, if you do attempt to paint/draw it! If you have a keyboard with a 'Prt Scrn' or 'Prt Sc' button - anything that could be a plausible abbreviation of 'Print Screen'; you'll usually find it around the upper right area, maybe just to the right of the F12 key - that button will copy a screenshot to your clipboard, which you can then paste into any image editing program.
I suppose Carlos is an adult, and I've just spent a month writing non-stop about him having psychological breakdowns, so my tastes don't... I was going to say 'my tastes don't exclusively run to teenagers'. That sounds terrible. But you know what I mean.
no subject
Yes! You wrote Carlos having many breakdowns! And I feel like we need to just have a thing that automatically adds "In a work of fiction" to everything we're typing in this conversation.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2018-06-10 01:24 pm (UTC)(link)(I'll always love the fact that he took the important measure of writing all those witty and brilliant posthumous lines for himself while slowly dying)
I don’t know if it’s intentional, but there a few moments where there are some really odd “Kokichi” lines in that trial, and people make comments like “What century are you from again?” I like to assume that those moments are when Kaito is trying to ad lib Kokichi, but since he finds the guy utterly incomphrensible, it’s just way off the mark, then he’s like –sigh “Back to the script…”
I don’t think Kokichi did nothing wrong (I don’t think any character does nothing wrong), but I do find him very interesting. One thing I like is that with the lie theme with him, it’s really hard to get a read on what’s really going on with him; it’s very interpretable. Does he always intend to sacrifice Gonta, or does he get so frustrated that Shuichi’s playing him at his lie game and will be believed over him? He obviously picks up the plan at some point to pretend to be the mastermind (possibly initially for causing chaos reasons, but I think he genuinely doesn’t like the game so overperforms how much he does like it) and eventually makes the decision to reveal what he knows in an attempt at halting the game. He makes the decision to sacrifice Gonta for that, to channel people’s hate and give a common enemy, then takes away their reason to kill. But does he always intend to do that when he starts the plan, or no? I think there was an element of self-defense in there, but it’s very much second to progressing his own agenda. He feels he can’t trust anybody, therefore he goes about a solution in his usual inexplicable ways.
Then later he basically kidnaps Kaito. On the surface, that’s because Kaito’s the one who does want to fight against him and causes the most danger. But what is he actually planning to do with him? He can’t keep him there forever. Was he planning the crazy murder plot anyway but it got pushed forward with the situation with Maki (which also provided incentive to Kaito)? Did he intend to use the fact that Kaito was dying to incentivise him initially? (Rarr, I’m the mastermind, but you can effectively kill me without consequence since you’re nearly dead anyway, and it’ll save all your friends!). Who knows?
(Kokichi’s voice acting is consistently excellent, too. The screaming at Gonta is one of the first times the emotion sounds real, too – “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, WE HAD A SIMPLE PLAN, EVEN YOU CAN DO THAT”. Poor Gonta, though. :( )
The Kokichi and Komaeda comparison is interesting because depending on which way you look at it, Komaeda’s version may be considered worse. Kokichi targets the most vulnerable member of the group, but he does get him to consent to committing murder (albeit through manipulation of the facts). Gonta knows what’s he’s agreed to do, even if we don’t see so much of that because trial!Gonta has forgotten about it because of something that was outside of Kokichi’s careful control. On the other hand, Komaeda manufactures a situation which puts his own life at risk and puts the others in a situation where they need to put that fire out. This then makes somebody commit murder while completely unaware that they’ve done so, with no intentions, and no motive, and it’s only because of their own conscience that everybody doesn’t end up dead. Sure, Komaeda isn’t actually intending to kill the murderer – just everyone else – but they’re completely unaware of the situation in contrast to Gonta.
Not judging – I like both Kokichi and Komaeda a lot - but when you analyse it there’s really not a whole lot between them in regards to the chapter 5 gambits.
Re: the ending. A lot of people seem to take the ending of DRV3 as it having took place in virtual reality, and then all of the people will end up waking up. When I played it and we got to the twist, I read it as far more horrifying: as a literal brainwashing that was making people actually murder people in the real world, no VR involved. Just… it’s so many years in the future, our version of reality TV is now literally killing people on TV for the sake of narrative, and that people signing up for the show knew the risks of that. Now –that- would be some nightmare fuel.
Coming back to Kokichi: that guy is so difficult to write, given it’s so hard to get a handle on his thoughts. I found a whole 2 interesting fics about him. One was a time loop (I love time travel!), where every time he dies in the game he wakes up back at the beginning of DRV3 (it’s where he gets all the information for his board of what’s going on). And my ultimate favourite, an AU of sorts where DR1 did exist. It’s a sequel to that and Kokichi, last surviving member of DICE, has been arrested for being a Remnant of Despair (because he’s admitted to it, obviously) even though he barely knows what that is. And because Kokichi will never back down from any lie, he just keeps getting into more and more trouble. Meanwhile, Shuichi’s trying to find him innocent of the whole being a Remnant of Despair thing, but Kokichi doesn’t want to know and is too busy trying to manipulate everybody else around him so he can escape because he’s constantly looking to run while burying himself in more lies.
-timydamonkey
no subject
as a literal brainwashing that was making people actually murder people in the real world, no VR involved. Just… it’s so many years in the future, our version of reality TV is now literally killing people on TV for the sake of narrative, and that people signing up for the show knew the risks of that.
I've seen a lot of different interpretations of the ending, but this is how I read it as well. I don't know if the people signing up knew they would have their memories and personalities rewritten, because they say some things that suggest they expect themselves to be participating (I think former-Shuichi says he's been thinking about some possible murders he could commit), but I do think the events and the deaths were real.
Coming back to Kokichi: that guy is so difficult to write, given it’s so hard to get a handle on his thoughts.
He really is! It was fun to write his dialogue in Close Your Eyes (my 'Shuichi gets addicted to the love hotel' fic), but I don't think I'd ever be able to write something from his perspective.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2018-06-10 09:36 pm (UTC)(link)Yes, I'm glad to see somebody else reading it that way. Kind of reads as a commentary on reality TV in that scenario: "You could die, but hey, you're gonna die being famous and well known! Isn't that way better than a life being overlooked?!" Brr. Also, people seem to read it as the mastermind being an actual member of the crew who infiltrated the group. But, again, I read it as that just being yet another role assigned by the mind wipe division. Gotta make someone your mastermind, that's as much a role as anybody else's!
I sort of want to try writing him but it's so hard to work out what to write!
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I see Kingdom Hearts release date came out! Now DON'T DELAY AGAIN, SQUARE. Having not played some of the random side games though, I'm going to be so confused. :D
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"Traumatised" people seems to make up most of my fictional intake. xD Must be something wrong with me! My favourite book series is Warchild; the series may as well be called "HERE IS HOW WAR AND TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES TRAUMATISE YOU AND INFLUENCE YOUR LIFE (written beautifully)". Seriously, Karin writes things in this absolutely gorgeous way. One of the few authors whose stuff I can effortlessly quote: “The children turned like desperate flowers to the sun.” “My own image bled through, superimposed blur against the black, a ghost with hollow eyes and a hand pressed to its own transparency.” “The words came, eventually, like the dragging footsteps of something bleeding.” “A jagged scratch marred the floor, as if someone long ago had raked his fingernails into it. As if he’d clawed with nails as hard as diamonds.”
Then I decided to look at my Steam game library and see exactly how much of it fell into traumatised people categories... let's see (I'll include trailers if you're interested in any, unless it's something I know you've played):
Assassin's Creed: ...Well, if you focus on Desmond's experiences, that's pretty traumatising.
The Cat Lady: Story about a depressed lady who tries to kill herself but instead finds herself having to fight for her life. It's... very unique (and does some really interesting stuff with colour). Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx6j2I8v2Z0
Danganronpa1/2: I don’t think this needs any explanation.
Overclocked: A History of Violence: Well, it’s a game where you spend a bunch of time investigating psychiatric patients who all seem to have become hideously traumatised for unexplained reasons. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed4Aa8Entdk
Root Double: There’s a helluva lot of trauma in this one. It’s in the backstory of certain characters… Route After is a helluva lot of trauma, Route Before starts okay but then plunges into the trauma conga line, then Route Current/Double are both traumatising in entirely different ways. Also, a bunch of the traumatised people in this one are teenagers! Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdwKxuogBbk
Shardlight: Dying slowly, in a post-apocalyptic world, where your only chance to survive is playing along with some very dangerous people. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CyEusvEpjw
...So a fair few, haha!
-timydamonkey
no subject
Sorry if this is strange or sudden, I just wanted to drop a line. Hope this comment finds you well.
I talked with you on here after Chester died under the LJ name redsilverchains. I just wanted to thank you so much for the convos - they helped me to find closure.
I ended up going to a Chester tribute at your suggestion - and it was perfect. It was so amazing, sitting and singing and crying with other impassioned fans who loved the same man who changed so many - it was so good to hear their stories.
At some point, I had a mini-panic attack (mental illness is a bitch) because the event ran out of Chester souvenirs - I was like "what will I remember him by? what will I remember this by?" And then this guy saw how sad I was and very kindly gave me his own souvenir. I refused, but he insisted It was the ultimate gesture of kindness one fan to another fan, and I think Chester would have been proud.
I still haven't seen Mike's work about Chester, but I think I will be ready to soon. And listening to an LP song now has the power to bring me joy instead of pain. So that's where I am.
Sorry I kind of disappeared - stuff hasn't been all that good in my personal life, but I am soldiering (heh!) on.
Anyway - thank you again, from the bottom of my heart.
no subject
I'm glad it sounds like you're doing better now, at least on this front; I'm doing a lot better myself. I'm sorry that your personal life has been difficult, though. I hope things improve.
Thank you so much for coming back and leaving this message! If I could help at all, that means a lot. I think our conversations were good for me as well.