Disclaimer: this is mostly about LU Four, not FSA Link
But ok, im going to say it: I am tired of people treating Four as nothing more than a vehicle for the Colors. Don't get me wrong, I love them and think they're such an interesting way to explore someone's identity, but like. ...It's really not utilized for that effectively, imo. I find a lot of writing for the colors to be mostly based on (the manga's) Character Tropes. Which is… fine! Until the colors become flat, exaggerated caricatures, and Four becomes a muddied mess of Tropes in trenchcoat rather than a fully fleshed out character.
I've seen people say they don't know how to write Four or how to characterize him, and I think this comes from trying to build an identify around Four using the colors, when it should really be the other way around: Start with Four, and then break it down into each color's unique traits.
Technically, LU Four actually takes very little inspiration from the Manga (Jojo's own words), but the FSA Manga is accepted as a semi-canon way to characterize the colors. So, for the sake of analyzing how people write LU Four as a Whole Fandom, I will be referencing the manga here.
Let's start with Vio: "The Smart One." I often see people write him to be like your typical nerdy guy. He likes reading, is maybe a bit cold, is very intellectual. But… Vio isn't just smart, he's Four's smarts. Rather than make him a textbook that's knowledgeable about everything, it should be narrowed down to "what is FOUR knowledgeable about?" What specific areas does Four have strong technical skills in? What topics interest Four, and conversely, bore him to death? Not to mention, just because he's logical doesn't mean he's suddenly the smartest person in the room. He should be as smart as Four, not greater than. He should represent Four's intellect, not a generic intellect.
Red: Rather than be emotional to everything, what, specifically, pulls at Four's heartstrings? What moves him to tears, what sorts of things/people does he cherish? Rather than make him react with tears to every major injury, fight, or injustice, his emotions should have nuance. Maybe Four has so much experience in burns/forge-related injuries that there's more empathy/understanding, rather than emotional upset there. Maybe Red is particularly squeamish around blood, or needles, but can handle broken bones ok. I don't know, make it specific. Make it specific to Four.
Blue: Rather than be pissed all the time, what specific things makes Four angry? We see him yell at Wild for his weapons. What else pissses him off? What causes him to swing his sword first and ask questions later? What drives his impulses? An aspect to Blue that feels less explored is that he's also a representation of Four's confidence. So… what things is Four proud of? …What parts of himself is he ashamed of? Something Four (and therefore Blue) would never dare/utter as a weakness. A great way to emphasize certain traits is to also consider what is opposite and in opposition, after all.
And I've left Green for last, because his personality is a bit harder to sum up in one word and gets a bit lost in translation. In the FSA Manga, when all colors are being described, in Japanese they use the word "nekketsukan" (熱血漢). It's a specific character archetype in JP with no easy direct tl to english, but if i had to translate it, i might use words like "Hot-blooded and passionate." Not Aggressive, (what the Fan TL uses, feels a bit too strong and has a bit of a negative connotation), and not exactly the Viz Translation either (They use "focused and motivated" which… works but is missing the "FIRE" part that is associated with nekketsu characters.) For example, I would say Sidon is considered a nekketsu archetype. Theyre people who are passionate and bold in their sense of justice.
So for Four, I've always seen Green as a representation of Four's Heroism. Then, what makes him pick up a sword? What drives his sense of justice, and what/who does he fight for? What is it that he wants to protect? The answers to all of that should drive Green forward.
I've asked many rhetorical questions here and im not asking them with the idea that there is one, singular answer for it. I think its a bit of a playground, and im really interested to see what answers other people might come up with. And i'd like to apologize if this sounds like too strong of a rant, I don't want to make it sound like im demanding people write him a certain way or that others are wrong for writing him different. People can characterize him as they wish.
But no matter how you wish to write him, I think in general, considering Four first -> then breaking him down, allows each color to have a much more in-depth personality. Let Vio do something dumb sometimes. Let Red react with apathy. Let Blue drop into something cold and detached. Let Green falter. Four is human. By extension, so are they. That means they're full of contradictions…
And that's LU Four's greatest strength to me. Because the setting isn't exactly like FSA, where they're split the Entire Time. He's whole, he's chosen to stay as Four, shouldn't there be something intentional about that? I don't read him as four people stuck in one body, I read him as One Person with many complicated parts that can be (literally) dissected and divided. The parts are smaller than the whole, and therefore are prone to faltering. But Four manages to take the Best of them to be Himself. He's more than the sum of their parts.
…and again, i understand a lot of this is my own personal opinion. Either way, I just hope this long essay can maybe inspire someone to consider Four in a new light. Oh and everyone should play Minish Cap. Its a very beautiful game okay listen to me its extremely easy to emulate too, think of Tiny Four starting his First Adventure okay it can lend so much more context/ideas to Four's (and by extension, the Colors') characterization. Also its just a good game. Please thats my final message lets all play Minish Cap thank you for reading
Spoilers for Chapters 4 and 5 of Kotone Shiomi: Ace Attorney!
more fanart because yes, THIS FIC IS TOO GOOD!!!!!!
PLEASE READ KOTONE SHIOMI: ACE ATTORNEY BY @ez-cookie PLSPLS PLS THE WRITING IS SO GOOD IT REALLY FEELS LIKE AN ACTUAL AA STORY IT'S THE BEST GO READ KOTONE BEING A GIRLFAILURE!!!!!!!!
Sketch/info dump of my P5 OC because I've drawn her a bit and wanna share.
More art + ramblings under cut. Be warned, it's long. But the TL:DR is her name is Witch and she's the new informant type that replaces Ohya.
Text in 1st image:
"CIRCE!"
"Careful what you wish for!"
Text in 2nd image:
"Those idiots..." "HEY JOKER, LEADER OF THE PHANTOM THIEVES!"
"Are you really going to just sit there and take it?"
"Any rumors today?"
Text in 3rd image:
"your info."
"Is it a mask? Is it a shadow cast by the hat? Who knows!"
"I hear you deal in information. Tell me, what do you know of the Phantom Thieves?"
---
Ok so Witch, as I've been calling them in my head because that's their codename and I don't have an actual name for them yet (recommendations appreciated) is partially a replacement for Ohya. Not for the Devil arcana nevessarily, but for the 'reporter' trope.
Witch is the president of the newspaper club, though you wouldn't know it from how her clubmates talk about her. She's a bit of a loner- not bad with people or anything, just generally unwilling to get to know anyone on a deeper level out of her own personal choice. Witch doesn't trust people, she thinks everyone has an ulterior motive and won't actually say what they mean. This is why she's part of the newspaper club, dedicated to uncovering the hidden meanings and the context behind what people say.
It's part of her work trying to peel back the layers that leads her to follow Ren, Ryuji, and Ann and consequently get stuck in the Metaverse for the first time. I'm torn between whether this is in Mementos or in Madarame's palace, but either way she manages to escape the Thieves' notice and starts to explore the Metaverse on her own. She hears the mad ramblings of the Shadow Self, and finally she sees that "this is it! This is the truth I've been digging for!" She writes down everything, both disgusted and somewhat vindicated to know that people truly are as two-faced as she believes- nay, knows them to be. But as she's distracted a shadow corners her, backs her against the wall and she can't find a way out, she's going to die here.
Cue awakening, pictured in the 2nd sketch page. Her persona is Circe, the witch who turned men into pigs because she believed that was their true form. Witch narrowly escapes, now knowing the Phantom Thieves' true identity and how they operate- partially. She doesn't know how they 'change hearts' yet. After some deliberating, Witch decides she's going to keep that little tidbit a secret. The Phantom Thieves expose people for who they truly are deep down, and she can respect that. The other information though? The things shadows say in the metaverse- Witch could uncover so much. She could know everything, about everyone! All she'd have to do was find their shadow and listen.
From there, Witch begins her journey into becoming a sort of information dealer. She's pretty loose in terms of morals, after all, no one is innocent in this world, and rapidly begins to become something of an underground legend in Tokyo. The witch, who can reveal anyone for the pig they are. She keeps a loose eye on the phantom thieves, and Ren comes to her occasionally for tips on the goings on around school. Beyond that, they mostly interact through rumors. Occasionally mementos shadows will mention The Witch that lingers around, always listening, a distinct figure from the Black Mask.
Witch herself learns about the Black Mask pretty quickly in her metaverse escapades, it's not like he's ever needed to truly hide from Shadows. Her and Akechi interact little, he knows of her and her information dealings and has an inkling that she's the same person as the one in the Metaverse, but doesn't see her as a threat and occasionally goes to bargain for info. Witch doesn't care too much about Akechi one way or another, she appreciates the role detectives play but still sees him as just another two-faced liar like everyone else. She won't give him anything useful on the thieves, she doesn't want them caught, but she'll treat him like any other client should he come around.
Eventually Witch and the Phantom Thieves meet in Mementos. Sometime in the middle of Okumura's palace, I think. Witch has gone on a couple tailing adventures and knows who most of them are except for Futaba/Oracle and Haru/Noir because she wasn't here last time. The thieves are wary of Witch, who greets them all curtly by codename. They ask who she is and what she's doing here, and she introduces herself as.. Witch will do. Futaba goes "hold on, like, THAT Witch? The info broker?" Witch neither confirms nor denies, and Ann connects her to the lurking witch that shadows keep talking about. Obviously, they're one in the same. Witch congratulates them sarcastically for that incredible revelation, she's so glad she was interrupted for that totally-not-obvious fact. Anyway, as for what she's doing here.. she's investigating for a client. And if they're worried about her telling people who they are or what they do, they shouldn't be. She hasn't ratted them out so far and she's not planning to do so now. Ren, finding Witch oddly familiar, decides to offer her a seat in the monabus so they can drive her to whoever she's investigating. It's not worth chancing the reaper. Witch declines, says if there's nothing else she'll be on her way, and actually starts walking away. Ren, being a little bit of a little shit, decides to drive veeeeery slowly behind Witch until she gets fed up and goes "FINE!" The Phantom Thieves don't know how to feel about this.
Witch isn't a party member, she won't follow orders and instead acts rarely on her own to cast spells with Circe. Still, Ren learns that she's not a particularly combat-oriented Persona User. Circe's skills are all one stage below the Thieves', though she is able to use a wide variety of those weaker elemental attacks. Every time she acts, Witch prioritizes afflicting an ailment of some sort and then, if she can't flee, doing technical damage to win. Her persona has a very boosted chance of ailments overall, and it makes a decent amount of sense how she survived against shadows much more powerful than her.
The party eventually arrives at Witch's destination, and decide to watch as she goes in and just starts... Talking to the shadow, a notepad and a pen in hand, she listens to everything the shadow has to say, occasionally steering the conversation towards whatever might be the most valuable as potential blackmail. She's very careful not to directly anger the shadow, pretending to be sympathetic and agree with all their horrible points until she's finally got enough and puts the notepad away. Raising an eyebrow at the thieves, she asks if they're one of the targets too or if they can go. It isn't, so they can.
Noir asks what's going to happen with the info she got, and Witch tells her she's going to ask a couple more shadows about this guy, see what she can dig up in real life to back up what she heard here, and hand this off to her client. "Yes but, what will the client do with it?" Witch shrugs. "Blackmail, probably. Every so often it's an undercover cop/PI, or a rich person wanting to know if someone's trustworthy. I couldn't tell you for sure, I don't ask questions." Again, the thieves don't know how to feel about this.
Before parting ways, Joker decides to ask how Witch might feel as a Phantom Thief. He can convince the team if need be. Witch rejects immediately. Not only does she want nothing to do with the Phantom Thieves, they don't even know who she is! Absolutely not, she's not joining. Ren, of course, takes this as a challenge and tracks down Witch in real life. It's not hard, they're in the same school and Ren has interacted with her pretty often. Witch doesn't find it all that impressive, and still declines to join the Thieves, but you finally start her confidant at least! I'm not gonna get into that because it's not currently necessary and because it's also not entirely fleshed out.
From here Witch just keeps getting approached by the thieves for one reason or another and at first she still really doesn't want anything to do with them. She's not a 'team' person. She definitely doesn't do trust. Yeah, she writes favorably about them in the school newspaper but that doesn't mean she wants to be a part of their little band. Interacting with them though, learning about their experiences and telling them about hers, she finds that she doesn't particularly mind their company. Occasionally, you'll find Witch in Mementos and have the option to have her tag along in your party, with increasing frequency as she grows closer to the thieves.
Of course, Witch doesn't believe that the thieves are responsible for Okumura's death and continues to support them, no matter what. It's not like she had anything to lose from doing so, she's just the newspaper club girl. She tags along a little during the school festival, but isn't a part of Akechi's blackmail. They'll meet in Mementos once, Witch will tell Akechi they're occasional allies of convenience. She doesn't take part in their 'phantom thievery.' Akechi blithely asks if they know each other in real life like the rest of the team, and Witch just smirks and goes "wouldn't you like to know, Mr. Detective."
After Ren's reported death she makes her way to LeBlanc and strongarms her way into seeing Ren's alive. Witch thought- God, Witch doesn't know what she thought, she just knew it was way too likely for the cops to have killed him or something and she couldn't stand that. She doesn't want him to die. The thieves ask for info on Masayoshi Shido, even offer to pay (her rates are expenssssiveee) but this one's on the house. Witch has heard a lot about Shido in her info-gathering, none of it good. He's a captain, running a tight ship throughout the underworld. The Thieves ask one more time if Witch wants to join them, and Witch shakes her head no for the last time. She's got to focus on damage control in the real world. Find the people involved in the conspiracy, so when the thieves finally take Shido down she can spread the word about every single person that even breathed near the guy. Consider it her one and only act of charity. (I consider this her 'big moment' in the game, she's always meant to be something other than the PTs.)
The thieves defeat Shido and true to her word, Witch releases everything. It's a lot, even for her, and yet no one cares. Finally, FINALLY, Witch joins the team for the trip into Mementos to steal the public's treasure. It's late game and honestly I have doubts about how useful she'd be, but I don't care about gameplay viability I just wanna blabber on about my cool OC. She's pretty shocked to hear a lot of the stuff from the thieves about how they operate- she's never entered a palace after a calling card, security level's too high, so she's never seen a treasure. Honestly, she just kind of thought they beat the Shadow up and told them what they're doing is wrong. Which is... Not entirely false. Besides this she doesn't actually have a big exciting moment in mind for anything like the confrontation with Yaldabaoth, outside of the general thief moments everyone has.
Witch does participate in third sem! Outside of Joker and Akechi, she's the first to realize something's up and break out. Her 'wish' is something that I'll probably figure out when I get to her confidant. I have ideas, though. Anyway, Witch once again becomes a member of the thieves and really hates Maruki, almost as much as Akechi. Akechi? She can tolerate, she appreciates his honesty at least. Better to be honest about your depravity than hide it behind the guise of selflessness like Maruki is doing. Really, she and Akechi parallel each other a lot in the third sem. Maybe, by the end, they could even be friends.
Post-game Witch closes down her info business, cashing in a lot of favors and using Futaba's help to abandon all ties to what she did before. She has a group of friends now, and is absolutely LOADED alongside Ren and Haru. Things are finally looking up.
(During strikers and tactica she mysteriously vanishes because my only experience with either game is Cookie's Daredevil, You've Hit the Wall fic.)
Sketch/info dump of my P5 OC because I've drawn her a bit and wanna share.
More art + ramblings under cut. Be warned, it's long. But the TL:DR is her name is Witch and she's the new informant type that replaces Ohya.
Text in 1st image:
"CIRCE!"
"Careful what you wish for!"
Text in 2nd image:
"Those idiots..." "HEY JOKER, LEADER OF THE PHANTOM THIEVES!"
"Are you really going to just sit there and take it?"
"Any rumors today?"
Text in 3rd image:
"your info."
"Is it a mask? Is it a shadow cast by the hat? Who knows!"
"I hear you deal in information. Tell me, what do you know of the Phantom Thieves?"
---
Ok so Witch, as I've been calling them in my head because that's their codename and I don't have an actual name for them yet (recommendations appreciated) is partially a replacement for Ohya. Not for the Devil arcana nevessarily, but for the 'reporter' trope.
Witch is the president of the newspaper club, though you wouldn't know it from how her clubmates talk about her. She's a bit of a loner- not bad with people or anything, just generally unwilling to get to know anyone on a deeper level out of her own personal choice. Witch doesn't trust people, she thinks everyone has an ulterior motive and won't actually say what they mean. This is why she's part of the newspaper club, dedicated to uncovering the hidden meanings and the context behind what people say.
It's part of her work trying to peel back the layers that leads her to follow Ren, Ryuji, and Ann and consequently get stuck in the Metaverse for the first time. I'm torn between whether this is in Mementos or in Madarame's palace, but either way she manages to escape the Thieves' notice and starts to explore the Metaverse on her own. She hears the mad ramblings of the Shadow Self, and finally she sees that "this is it! This is the truth I've been digging for!" She writes down everything, both disgusted and somewhat vindicated to know that people truly are as two-faced as she believes- nay, knows them to be. But as she's distracted a shadow corners her, backs her against the wall and she can't find a way out, she's going to die here.
Cue awakening, pictured in the 2nd sketch page. Her persona is Circe, the witch who turned men into pigs because she believed that was their true form. Witch narrowly escapes, now knowing the Phantom Thieves' true identity and how they operate- partially. She doesn't know how they 'change hearts' yet. After some deliberating, Witch decides she's going to keep that little tidbit a secret. The Phantom Thieves expose people for who they truly are deep down, and she can respect that. The other information though? The things shadows say in the metaverse- Witch could uncover so much. She could know everything, about everyone! All she'd have to do was find their shadow and listen.
From there, Witch begins her journey into becoming a sort of information dealer. She's pretty loose in terms of morals, after all, no one is innocent in this world, and rapidly begins to become something of an underground legend in Tokyo. The witch, who can reveal anyone for the pig they are. She keeps a loose eye on the phantom thieves, and Ren comes to her occasionally for tips on the goings on around school. Beyond that, they mostly interact through rumors. Occasionally mementos shadows will mention The Witch that lingers around, always listening, a distinct figure from the Black Mask.
Witch herself learns about the Black Mask pretty quickly in her metaverse escapades, it's not like he's ever needed to truly hide from Shadows. Her and Akechi interact little, he knows of her and her information dealings and has an inkling that she's the same person as the one in the Metaverse, but doesn't see her as a threat and occasionally goes to bargain for info. Witch doesn't care too much about Akechi one way or another, she appreciates the role detectives play but still sees him as just another two-faced liar like everyone else. She won't give him anything useful on the thieves, she doesn't want them caught, but she'll treat him like any other client should he come around.
Eventually Witch and the Phantom Thieves meet in Mementos. Sometime in the middle of Okumura's palace, I think. Witch has gone on a couple tailing adventures and knows who most of them are except for Futaba/Oracle and Haru/Noir because she wasn't here last time. The thieves are wary of Witch, who greets them all curtly by codename. They ask who she is and what she's doing here, and she introduces herself as.. Witch will do. Futaba goes "hold on, like, THAT Witch? The info broker?" Witch neither confirms nor denies, and Ann connects her to the lurking witch that shadows keep talking about. Obviously, they're one in the same. Witch congratulates them sarcastically for that incredible revelation, she's so glad she was interrupted for that totally-not-obvious fact. Anyway, as for what she's doing here.. she's investigating for a client. And if they're worried about her telling people who they are or what they do, they shouldn't be. She hasn't ratted them out so far and she's not planning to do so now. Ren, finding Witch oddly familiar, decides to offer her a seat in the monabus so they can drive her to whoever she's investigating. It's not worth chancing the reaper. Witch declines, says if there's nothing else she'll be on her way, and actually starts walking away. Ren, being a little bit of a little shit, decides to drive veeeeery slowly behind Witch until she gets fed up and goes "FINE!" The Phantom Thieves don't know how to feel about this.
Witch isn't a party member, she won't follow orders and instead acts rarely on her own to cast spells with Circe. Still, Ren learns that she's not a particularly combat-oriented Persona User. Circe's skills are all one stage below the Thieves', though she is able to use a wide variety of those weaker elemental attacks. Every time she acts, Witch prioritizes afflicting an ailment of some sort and then, if she can't flee, doing technical damage to win. Her persona has a very boosted chance of ailments overall, and it makes a decent amount of sense how she survived against shadows much more powerful than her.
The party eventually arrives at Witch's destination, and decide to watch as she goes in and just starts... Talking to the shadow, a notepad and a pen in hand, she listens to everything the shadow has to say, occasionally steering the conversation towards whatever might be the most valuable as potential blackmail. She's very careful not to directly anger the shadow, pretending to be sympathetic and agree with all their horrible points until she's finally got enough and puts the notepad away. Raising an eyebrow at the thieves, she asks if they're one of the targets too or if they can go. It isn't, so they can.
Noir asks what's going to happen with the info she got, and Witch tells her she's going to ask a couple more shadows about this guy, see what she can dig up in real life to back up what she heard here, and hand this off to her client. "Yes but, what will the client do with it?" Witch shrugs. "Blackmail, probably. Every so often it's an undercover cop/PI, or a rich person wanting to know if someone's trustworthy. I couldn't tell you for sure, I don't ask questions." Again, the thieves don't know how to feel about this.
Before parting ways, Joker decides to ask how Witch might feel as a Phantom Thief. He can convince the team if need be. Witch rejects immediately. Not only does she want nothing to do with the Phantom Thieves, they don't even know who she is! Absolutely not, she's not joining. Ren, of course, takes this as a challenge and tracks down Witch in real life. It's not hard, they're in the same school and Ren has interacted with her pretty often. Witch doesn't find it all that impressive, and still declines to join the Thieves, but you finally start her confidant at least! I'm not gonna get into that because it's not currently necessary and because it's also not entirely fleshed out.
From here Witch just keeps getting approached by the thieves for one reason or another and at first she still really doesn't want anything to do with them. She's not a 'team' person. She definitely doesn't do trust. Yeah, she writes favorably about them in the school newspaper but that doesn't mean she wants to be a part of their little band. Interacting with them though, learning about their experiences and telling them about hers, she finds that she doesn't particularly mind their company. Occasionally, you'll find Witch in Mementos and have the option to have her tag along in your party, with increasing frequency as she grows closer to the thieves.
Of course, Witch doesn't believe that the thieves are responsible for Okumura's death and continues to support them, no matter what. It's not like she had anything to lose from doing so, she's just the newspaper club girl. She tags along a little during the school festival, but isn't a part of Akechi's blackmail. They'll meet in Mementos once, Witch will tell Akechi they're occasional allies of convenience. She doesn't take part in their 'phantom thievery.' Akechi blithely asks if they know each other in real life like the rest of the team, and Witch just smirks and goes "wouldn't you like to know, Mr. Detective."
After Ren's reported death she makes her way to LeBlanc and strongarms her way into seeing Ren's alive. Witch thought- God, Witch doesn't know what she thought, she just knew it was way too likely for the cops to have killed him or something and she couldn't stand that. She doesn't want him to die. The thieves ask for info on Masayoshi Shido, even offer to pay (her rates are expenssssiveee) but this one's on the house. Witch has heard a lot about Shido in her info-gathering, none of it good. He's a captain, running a tight ship throughout the underworld. The Thieves ask one more time if Witch wants to join them, and Witch shakes her head no for the last time. She's got to focus on damage control in the real world. Find the people involved in the conspiracy, so when the thieves finally take Shido down she can spread the word about every single person that even breathed near the guy. Consider it her one and only act of charity. (I consider this her 'big moment' in the game, she's always meant to be something other than the PTs.)
The thieves defeat Shido and true to her word, Witch releases everything. It's a lot, even for her, and yet no one cares. Finally, FINALLY, Witch joins the team for the trip into Mementos to steal the public's treasure. It's late game and honestly I have doubts about how useful she'd be, but I don't care about gameplay viability I just wanna blabber on about my cool OC. She's pretty shocked to hear a lot of the stuff from the thieves about how they operate- she's never entered a palace after a calling card, security level's too high, so she's never seen a treasure. Honestly, she just kind of thought they beat the Shadow up and told them what they're doing is wrong. Which is... Not entirely false. Besides this she doesn't actually have a big exciting moment in mind for anything like the confrontation with Yaldabaoth, outside of the general thief moments everyone has.
Witch does participate in third sem! Outside of Joker and Akechi, she's the first to realize something's up and break out. Her 'wish' is something that I'll probably figure out when I get to her confidant. I have ideas, though. Anyway, Witch once again becomes a member of the thieves and really hates Maruki, almost as much as Akechi. Akechi? She can tolerate, she appreciates his honesty at least. Better to be honest about your depravity than hide it behind the guise of selflessness like Maruki is doing. Really, she and Akechi parallel each other a lot in the third sem. Maybe, by the end, they could even be friends.
Post-game Witch closes down her info business, cashing in a lot of favors and using Futaba's help to abandon all ties to what she did before. She has a group of friends now, and is absolutely LOADED alongside Ren and Haru. Things are finally looking up.
(During strikers and tactica she mysteriously vanishes because my only experience with either game is Cookie's Daredevil, You've Hit the Wall fic.)
Y'know sometimes I think saying "this could've been completely avoided had characters just communicated 🙄" screwed with writing. Yeah, the conflict could've been avoided, but then what are you left with? Characters with perfect communication at all times, never allowed to have interpersonal conflicts or for their relationships to grow and change? Everyone knowing all the secrets, all the time, with no sense of dramatic irony? Constant clarification instead of story progression?
Sometimes, characters need to not know things, to believe lies, to mishear what someone else said because that's what makes a story interesting. There's an actual conflict, there. Something to be resolved that will hopefully mean growth and change along the way. No one comes out the womb knowing the intricacies of communication, it's something people struggle with until the day they die, and seeing someone grow past that is a genuinely interesting character arc that I want to see. Show me the piss-poor conversation skills! Let me see the friends get torn apart by a misunderstanding, so they can reunite stronger than ever! Let the person trying not to be so mean fuck up again and again because it doesn't come naturally to them so they can fix their mistakes and show they're trying regardless!
It's hard to write, believe me I know, but it's so worth it when written well. It speaks to the insecurities in each character, to what they're willing to believe and what they think is a lie, and that's a powerful piece of characterization. And most stories are about their characters, in the end.
Spoilers for Chapter 4 of Kotone Shiomi: Ace Attorney!!!
I'm not even done reading through the newest chapter yet, I read this scene and dropped everything so I could draw it, IT WAS SO FUNNY I HAD TO XDDDDDDDDDD
Please read @ez-cookie's fic Kotone Shiomi: Ace Attorney on AO3 NOW!!!!!!!!!! IT IS SO GOOD!!!!!!!!! And also check out the lovely designs for the squad made by @azuries, they're so so amazing too!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok, mother of GOD that's a lot of responses and I am but one man with Excel. I'll update these ASAP but also some rules:
A Pokemon only counts for itself, not its evolution line.
A Pokemon with multiple forms (like Zygarde) will only be counted for the specified form. A Pokemon with multiple appearances (like Spinda, Vivillon, Sylvally, etc.) count for all their appearances.
I'm literally doing this as a testament to my own depression that not everyone is lovable, so add that to the weight of this post's meaning.
I need people to ramble about their OCs at me please. That means you, yes, you, reading this post right now. Tell me about your OCs. And also maybe any relevant info about the media they stem from in case it's not one of my fandoms.
