It's me, Rain (@rainfallontheground) , and I'm branching off my blog to do little bouts of creative writing and shitposting. And, maybe OC content?
I don't usually share my own work and ideas pertaining to the English language and English literature that often, so uh, have fun just reading I guess? When I'm not shitposting.
This is probably not going to see as much use as my main blog, it's just there so that I don't clutter my main blog with writing when that one is primarily for drawing.
Hopefully you like what you see!
More stuff like things I'm working on/want to do below cut.
Stuff I'm working on:
SERIOUS WRITING
A few books (maybe, too ambitious?) about my magic system that I made.
A short story compendium?
Fanfics? Not sure what to fanfic about tho.
READING
Every Sinner's works and what they're based on
Wonderlab, Distortion Detective, Leviathan
Maybe some of the 'classics'? Great Gatsby, Jane Eyre, Dune, stuff like that.
Should I do tags?
#a thing of bleach - shitposting
#an idea most ingenious - for writing ideas?
#hold up, his writing is this fire? - my serious writing
#the mountain - my writing that I'm proud of. The mountain, as in, peak?
#Ars Cognitionis - The Known Art. Basically the working title/epithet for the magic system.
Titan Groves, an excerpt from Ars Cognitionis, the magic novel/system I'm writing that I first thought of like 2-3 years ago and just now writing about seriously.
Also, I believe what Makoto/Minato/Sakuya and Kotone did would be the equivalente of sealing the Carmen (considering that Nyx is the Mother of the Shadows and Carmen is the Mother of the Abnormalities) inside their body and then procceeding to enter in a coma and shortly die after 3 months but still being the Great Seal with their soul
Wow. Hey I don't want to get sealed. . . That seems like not fun. . . Don't make me meet them please. . .
DISCLAIMER MEGA YAP BELOW IT'S WAYYYYY TOO LONG and very spoilery please read I spent like an hour writing this
please give me your thoughts on this
I honestly love both Makoto (I still quite like Minato as one of his names but Sakuya Shiomi doesn't get enough mainline/stream use for me to reasonably call him that) and Kotone (I like Kotone over Minako) as protagonists for P3, and quite feel that Kotone is the stronger character of the two, even with how much I love Makoto
To get more into their characters, I want to talk about the main themes(?) of Persona 3.
Persona 3 in essence is about mortality and how someone would choose to live in the face of inevitable death. It's a very, very dark theme for the first Persona game to break away from the Shin Megami Tensei feel.
Memento Mori — Remember that you will die.
The overall atmosphere and tone of the game really complements this. From the very blue UI (and I LOVE what P3 Reload does with the water UI elements and feeling of drowning and falling down), to the characterisation, to the events, metaphors, and just amount of things that I can't explain how much they add.
For metaphors, I believe the strongest and most prominent metaphor is of Christianity. Well, what I believe is a metaphor for Christ. Despite myself not being Christian, I love the metaphor.
This Joker fan here has told you about Joker's Ultimate persona, I want to talk to you about Makoto's and Kotone's Ultimate persona is—
Messiah
—and with that name I'm pretty sure you get just how prominent that metaphor is.
Makoto and Kotone are a metaphor for a messiah. Christ, as one most are familiar with. They both die for the betterment of the world.
Messiah is a fusion of two Personas. Orpheus, the very first persona Makoto awakens, and his personal persona. Orpheus is an ancient Greek figure tied to death, grief, and whose story included descending into the underworld to return the love of his life to the land of the living. It's also tied to their characters a lot. The Orpheus who went down into the Underworld is not the Orpheus who wouldn't look back. It kinda shows just how much they are willing to do when they gain that will, that REASON to live (bear with me for a minute I'll get to that.)
The other persona is Thanatos. Thanatos, the ancient Greek personification of nonviolent death (violent death is for his sisters). Another Persona Makoto awakens during the first time he evokes his Persona (Orpheus transformed into Thanatos). Persona 3 is a game that DOES NOT portray death to be a malicious, violent monster to be conquered, despite how much pain it brings. It positions death as an inevitable, natural conclusion to life.
That brings me to talk about the final boss of the game, Nyx. She is not a violent invader. She is the mother of Thanatos and the literal personification of the inevitable end. Leading up to the apocalypse (The Fall), people across the city succumb to "Apathy Syndrome," becoming completely unresponsive, hollow shells (basically having their psyche eaten by Shadows). A nonviolent, quiet fading away as they fall into a coma. Nyx is only coming because humanity’s collective subconscious wants her to. People are so exhausted by grief, stress, and existence that they unconsciously crave a peaceful, painless non-existence. It basically the ultimate expression of the "death drive" from Freud's Thanatos. ("Excuse me, have you got a moment? My name is Dr. Sigmund Freud." /ref)
The fusion of those two Persona, Orpheus and Thanatos, create Messiah. Orpheus, represents humanity's love, grief, humanity's desire to not let go, humanity's drive and Thanatos, representing death's inevitability and mercy. Messiah, is the acceptance of both. Life and Death are not opposites, they don't win against one another.
This is why the ending is so powerful to me. Makoto/Kotone don't defeat death. Why would they do that? Death is an inevitability, a natural part of lie. What they oppose is humanity's desire for death. That grasping, feeling of tiredness that claws itself into your brain, the one that makes you think how easy it would be to just... turn off. Of how just one single action can bring about an eternity of bliss, or at least, relaxation.
That need of oblivion is what Persona 3 and S.E.E.S. truly apposes. Makoto and Kotone create the Great Seal (the door) through their bonds, their feelings, their drive to live. The answer to death is not immortality, it’s connection, purpose, and choosing to live despite knowing the end comes anyway.
And that brings me to why I love Makoto and Kotone, both for very different reasons. They're both portrayed as having depression, though they display it in very different ways. Both of their parents died at a very young age (context)
Makoto's depression is apathetic. Cold. "I don't care." Quiet detachment. He is someone with a very subdued demeanour, there is exhaustion in his animations and expressions, and feels like someone emotionally distant from life.
Through S.E.E.S. (the group of Shadow Fighters masquerading as a school club) and his Social Links (friends), he slowly gains reasons to care about life since the accident. So when he sacrifices himself at the end, it feels like someone who finally learned to live choosing to give that life meaning through others. He discovers warmth before the end, and that's what makes his sacrifice so... meaningful.
"That's how, for the first time… I think I was able to start living." - Makoto.
Kotone by contrast is someone who shields herself from her feelings by smiling. She is bubbly, effervescently so, and seems quite cheery on the outside. She feels distinctly more actively life-affirming. Even with the same core story, her presentation changes the emotional texture entirely. Kotone hides her depression from others so that she isn't a burden. Isn't something for anybody to worry about. Deep inside, she is hurting, and she tries not to show it to anyone if she can help it. She is a people pleaser, (It's what I headcanon her to be anyway) and goes out of her way to solve other people's problems and make them happy.
She's someone who's very self-destructive. She doesn't care what happens to herself, whether that be rumours, stalkers, or social situations, she doesn't care about her physical safety or her reputation. Like the time when they all almost died on the monorail during the first or second first Full Moon, she doesn't outwardly show her feelings and is actually quite chipper when Yukari talks to her.
Emotionally Compensating. Terrified of failing people.
I think that's the reason she is less energetic with Pharos. She doesn't have to hide her feelings from him.
"But, doesn't that seem like a strange thing to wish for?" — Pharos, about The Fall i.e. dying (iirc)
"I can see why some might." - THE FIRST DIALOGUE OPTION GIVEN (said by Kotone)
Kotone is painful in a way that my goat Makoto isn't.
Because she is the kind of person who looks the happiest in the room while quietly destroying herself underneath it all.
Her version of Persona 3 feels less like someone learning to live and more like someone desperately trying to make life beautiful for everyone around her before she disappears. She smiles wider, talks brighter, acts more energetic, but because of that, moments where the mask slips hit infinitely harder. The exhaustion underneath becomes more visible specifically because she tries so hard to conceal it.
So, in the end,
Makoto and Kotone arrive at the same answer through entirely different emotional journeys.
Memento Mori — You will die, so live sincerely.
Oh oh and before I forget I love Reload's UI. THEY FINALLY LEANED INTO THE WATER MOTIFS WOOOOOOOO it works so well, especially with how Makoto is almost always upside down or looks like he fell in water or THE BUBBLES ON CRIT I LOVE THAT SHIT
Oh oh and before I go to sleep I must say that their depression is very apparent.
[TW: Suicide]
This is an evoker. It is how the cast of Persona 3 awaken their Persona. In 4, they crush Tarot Cards to symbolize pushing against fate, and Persona 5 they rip of their masks to show their true forms.
By constrast, Persona 3 does it by killing themselves.
They shoot themselves in the head.
To symbolize accepting death.
During the first Full Moon, shadows attack the S.E.E.S. dorm. Things happen, and both Yukari and Makoto run to the rooftop. Then, they get ambushed.
Things happen again, and Yukari tries to use her evoker.
She points it to her head, and ultimately fails to shoot herself.
Now, the two protags don't know what the Evoker does. All they know is that she tried to shoot herself with it.
And Makoto/Kotone, when given the chance, grabs the evoker... and immediately shoots themselves.
And then they awaken their persona.
I am thou, thou art I and all that jazz.
The evokers pack a PUNCH by the way. I don't think they hurt but DAMN
look at that arch
I think it's pretty obvious that they want to kill themselves considering how easily they both shot themselves with their evokers.
Also, I believe what Makoto/Minato/Sakuya and Kotone did would be the equivalente of sealing the Carmen (considering that Nyx is the Mother of the Shadows and Carmen is the Mother of the Abnormalities) inside their body and then procceeding to enter in a coma and shortly die after 3 months but still being the Great Seal with their soul
Wow. Hey I don't want to get sealed. . . That seems like not fun. . . Don't make me meet them please. . .
DISCLAIMER MEGA YAP BELOW IT'S WAYYYYY TOO LONG and very spoilery please read I spent like an hour writing this
please give me your thoughts on this
I honestly love both Makoto (I still quite like Minato as one of his names but Sakuya Shiomi doesn't get enough mainline/stream use for me to reasonably call him that) and Kotone (I like Kotone over Minako) as protagonists for P3, and quite feel that Kotone is the stronger character of the two, even with how much I love Makoto
To get more into their characters, I want to talk about the main themes(?) of Persona 3.
Persona 3 in essence is about mortality and how someone would choose to live in the face of inevitable death. It's a very, very dark theme for the first Persona game to break away from the Shin Megami Tensei feel.
Memento Mori — Remember that you will die.
The overall atmosphere and tone of the game really complements this. From the very blue UI (and I LOVE what P3 Reload does with the water UI elements and feeling of drowning and falling down), to the characterisation, to the events, metaphors, and just amount of things that I can't explain how much they add.
For metaphors, I believe the strongest and most prominent metaphor is of Christianity. Well, what I believe is a metaphor for Christ. Despite myself not being Christian, I love the metaphor.
This Joker fan here has told you about Joker's Ultimate persona, I want to talk to you about Makoto's and Kotone's Ultimate persona is—
Messiah
—and with that name I'm pretty sure you get just how prominent that metaphor is.
Makoto and Kotone are a metaphor for a messiah. Christ, as one most are familiar with. They both die for the betterment of the world.
Messiah is a fusion of two Personas. Orpheus, the very first persona Makoto awakens, and his personal persona. Orpheus is an ancient Greek figure tied to death, grief, and whose story included descending into the underworld to return the love of his life to the land of the living. It's also tied to their characters a lot. The Orpheus who went down into the Underworld is not the Orpheus who wouldn't look back. It kinda shows just how much they are willing to do when they gain that will, that REASON to live (bear with me for a minute I'll get to that.)
The other persona is Thanatos. Thanatos, the ancient Greek personification of nonviolent death (violent death is for his sisters). Another Persona Makoto awakens during the first time he evokes his Persona (Orpheus transformed into Thanatos). Persona 3 is a game that DOES NOT portray death to be a malicious, violent monster to be conquered, despite how much pain it brings. It positions death as an inevitable, natural conclusion to life.
That brings me to talk about the final boss of the game, Nyx. She is not a violent invader. She is the mother of Thanatos and the literal personification of the inevitable end. Leading up to the apocalypse (The Fall), people across the city succumb to "Apathy Syndrome," becoming completely unresponsive, hollow shells (basically having their psyche eaten by Shadows). A nonviolent, quiet fading away as they fall into a coma. Nyx is only coming because humanity’s collective subconscious wants her to. People are so exhausted by grief, stress, and existence that they unconsciously crave a peaceful, painless non-existence. It basically the ultimate expression of the "death drive" from Freud's Thanatos. ("Excuse me, have you got a moment? My name is Dr. Sigmund Freud." /ref)
The fusion of those two Persona, Orpheus and Thanatos, create Messiah. Orpheus, represents humanity's love, grief, humanity's desire to not let go, humanity's drive and Thanatos, representing death's inevitability and mercy. Messiah, is the acceptance of both. Life and Death are not opposites, they don't win against one another.
This is why the ending is so powerful to me. Makoto/Kotone don't defeat death. Why would they do that? Death is an inevitability, a natural part of lie. What they oppose is humanity's desire for death. That grasping, feeling of tiredness that claws itself into your brain, the one that makes you think how easy it would be to just... turn off. Of how just one single action can bring about an eternity of bliss, or at least, relaxation.
That need of oblivion is what Persona 3 and S.E.E.S. truly apposes. Makoto and Kotone create the Great Seal (the door) through their bonds, their feelings, their drive to live. The answer to death is not immortality, it’s connection, purpose, and choosing to live despite knowing the end comes anyway.
And that brings me to why I love Makoto and Kotone, both for very different reasons. They're both portrayed as having depression, though they display it in very different ways. Both of their parents died at a very young age (context)
Makoto's depression is apathetic. Cold. "I don't care." Quiet detachment. He is someone with a very subdued demeanour, there is exhaustion in his animations and expressions, and feels like someone emotionally distant from life.
Through S.E.E.S. (the group of Shadow Fighters masquerading as a school club) and his Social Links (friends), he slowly gains reasons to care about life since the accident. So when he sacrifices himself at the end, it feels like someone who finally learned to live choosing to give that life meaning through others. He discovers warmth before the end, and that's what makes his sacrifice so... meaningful.
"That's how, for the first time… I think I was able to start living." - Makoto.
Kotone by contrast is someone who shields herself from her feelings by smiling. She is bubbly, effervescently so, and seems quite cheery on the outside. She feels distinctly more actively life-affirming. Even with the same core story, her presentation changes the emotional texture entirely. Kotone hides her depression from others so that she isn't a burden. Isn't something for anybody to worry about. Deep inside, she is hurting, and she tries not to show it to anyone if she can help it. She is a people pleaser, (It's what I headcanon her to be anyway) and goes out of her way to solve other people's problems and make them happy.
She's someone who's very self-destructive. She doesn't care what happens to herself, whether that be rumours, stalkers, or social situations, she doesn't care about her physical safety or her reputation. Like the time when they all almost died on the monorail during the first or second first Full Moon, she doesn't outwardly show her feelings and is actually quite chipper when Yukari talks to her.
Emotionally Compensating. Terrified of failing people.
I think that's the reason she is less energetic with Pharos. She doesn't have to hide her feelings from him.
"But, doesn't that seem like a strange thing to wish for?" — Pharos, about The Fall i.e. dying (iirc)
"I can see why some might." - THE FIRST DIALOGUE OPTION GIVEN (said by Kotone)
Kotone is painful in a way that my goat Makoto isn't.
Because she is the kind of person who looks the happiest in the room while quietly destroying herself underneath it all.
Her version of Persona 3 feels less like someone learning to live and more like someone desperately trying to make life beautiful for everyone around her before she disappears. She smiles wider, talks brighter, acts more energetic, but because of that, moments where the mask slips hit infinitely harder. The exhaustion underneath becomes more visible specifically because she tries so hard to conceal it.
So, in the end,
Makoto and Kotone arrive at the same answer through entirely different emotional journeys.
Memento Mori — You will die, so live sincerely.
Oh oh and before I forget I love Reload's UI. THEY FINALLY LEANED INTO THE WATER MOTIFS WOOOOOOOO it works so well, especially with how Makoto is almost always upside down or looks like he fell in water or THE BUBBLES ON CRIT I LOVE THAT SHIT
My thoughts and some spoilers for Canto VI below the cut (read if you want to it's just me yapping)
The Dream Ending
Canto VI and Canto VII are just so. . . Peak. I can't even describe how much I love the storytelling and characters that Kim Ji-Hoon and his team have managed to write.
Their characterisation, their dialogue, their dreams, their emotions, the sheer EMOTION of the voice acting. The music, especially Mili's, Pass On, and the battle music are just so enchanting to the ear.
To talk about the voice acting, the differences in how both Sancho and Don Quixote (the sinner) talk is great, the way Papa Quixote says his name everytime he graces us with it, the way both Sancho and Don Quixote scream out during their duel—
"My name is... Quixote!"
"I, Don Quixote, declare upon my honour: this lance shall end that hollow, juvenile dream!"
"And I, Sancho, declare upon my honour: this lance shall end that festering, slothful dream!"
(Why doesn't Tumblr have Sancho Yellow ?)
___
—to the way Sancho just balls her eyes out at Don Quixote's death (it's okay girlie I cried too) it's... just matter of factly, peak.
Still, I wonder why she didn't get revulsed by the mere idea of having a duel with Papa Quixote, or killing him considering that she was revulsed by what the other three kindreds did. Filial Impiety and such. Speaking of them, I'm pretty sure Dulcinea didn't like staking Papa Quixote (considering the fact that she didn't say anything and the narration of her staking Quixote was very straight to the point), and Curiambro very obviously abhorred the idea. Nicolina was the only one who I believed wanted and pitched the idea to the other kindreds.
Now for the music, I honestly love Hero as a song. It is so powerful in a way that Between Two Worlds, Compass, and Through Patches of Violet doesn't come close to.
I will agree that those songs all have great things to like about them, from the way they enhance their Canto and the story, alongside just wonderful composition and singing from Mili and Cassie Wei respectively.
But Hero. Every bit of Hero is steeped in peak, there's just no other way to describe it. From the start 'til the end, the story that it describes is quite frankly just lucid and compelling. From the way some lines could be interpreted from both Sancho's and Papa Quixote's perspective:
"I fall down the horseback with my crippled legs, and then it starts to rain showing me it's all fake."
Even despite the fact that the whole song is entirely from Sancho's perspective, you can still interpret this line as both Sancho and Don Quixote having their own moments of realization.
Quixote, where he was tortured by his own Kindreds. Sancho, when she came back to La Manchaland, 200 years later, and seeing that not only has it been reduced to a human hunting ground, it's also showing her that Don Quixote's own dream failed.
I honestly might make an analysis of Hero like I did for Gone Angels.
There's just so much to love about Limbus Company and the works of Project Moon.
"You mayest call me... Quixote. Or Don Quixote; 'Don' a signifier of my nobility."
