#alma rambles

[sheldrawingboard]

been playing the new tomodachi life a little bit too much lately

[alma-ren]

Something about TLT that interests me is how tazmuir consistently obscures information by limiting her narrator’s perspective. All three books have featured an unreliable narrator in some way.

Gideon is pure of heart but dumb of ass. A lot of the events of GtN fly over her head because she’s too focused on hot girls, cool swords, and Harrow. Some other stuff flies over her head due to ignorance of necromancy and House politics (because she spent her whole life focused on hot girls, cool swords, and Harrow).

Harrow is paranoid schizophrenic and doesn’t trust her own perspective to begin with. Also, she is recently lobotomized. A lot of HtN is obscured either because Harrow hid the relevant information from herself, or because her mental state is unstable enough that her own senses become unreliable.

Nona is six months old. Though she is very alert and intelligent in many ways, including ways that surpass other characters in the story, her perspective and priorities are limited by the fact that she is six months old. She lacks experience, lacks information, lacks understanding; not to mention that the Entire World is fresh and new to her. She has much cooler things to worry about, like dogs and school pals.

I don’t know what I am getting at; I suppose I just find this pattern neat. If nothing else, it’s worth examining as a narrative tool. Here are three ingenious ways to use narrators to withhold information, building investment without giving the audience too many cards all at once.

[haus-mom]

AUGHF 🥺 THANK YOU FOR YOUR COMMENTS IN THE TAGS MEME. I GOT A BIT EMO OVER THEM you're so sweet, I'm glad you're enjoying my clowning in the tags!!

Also Chibita can bite the Pope for all I care, he has a permit. (The permit is a napkin where I scribbled "Chibita can do whatever he wants — Mar Maraierba")

YEAH OF COURSE!!!! siempre estoy ahí para apoyar a mis compas hispanos 😎💪specially since, as i said, you're super funny and kind!!!

also the reason why i lost it at the chibita-yuuichi accidental comparison because chibita is just. unhinged. he bites people. he commits tax evasion but it's okay, we forgive him, he has a permit!!!

yuuichi on the other hand is a child who killed an entire town minus a few other kids, and planned on killing them too but decided to basically have them fight for their life at a death (? game because why not you know? (his reasoning verbatim) and when the protag was like "oh wow you went through a super fucked up thing but you know what. i can help you. all you need to do is literally just do better and keep living." and he went "haha don't feel like it. i'm killing you instead <3"

he's also the funniest, he would rather explode than take anything seriously and talk about his feelings, he would rather explode SO HARD he split into two different people. he's canonically gay and his first actual appereance has to be seen to be believed. that sassy latin song plays whenever he shows up no matter how serious the situation is. his catchphrase is "vamos cantar!" because he saw it on tv. he got asked why he was doing all those murder and bad stuffs and he replied by quoting an ad. he's literally a fucked up baby. but he's my fucked up baby

[insener]

@shimomcdragon​ wanted me to post it so here it is. A quick little dialogue between our Onceler OCs.

[sheldrawingboard]

top 10 things you can do in the new tomodachi life

bring fictional husband (and fankid) to your country

[sheldrawingboard]

[haus-mom]

8, 9, 16 :)

UNAAAAAAAAAAAA THANK YOU SM <33333

8. Common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

Gonna get my ass kicked for this, but Mizuki is not confirmed nonbinary and their arc is actually very far from being about that. "But they use they/them pronouns!" In the English translation, sure, but I feel like the translators have gotten themselves in some sort of loop they can't come out of. I understand that their gender is officially "?" but others referring to Mizuki with they/them doesn't make sense, since they're fem presenting.

It's so incosistent too! Kanade uses she/her for Mizuki to herself ONCE and then resumes using they/them

I think I've mentioned this a few times, but I would've done it very differently. N25 is not aware of Mizuki's genderfuckery, and they're fem presenting, so it's likely they'd use she/her. Same with people who are vaguely acquaintanced with them, like Tsukasa, Shizuku or Emu. Akito is aware of the rumours, but him not telling Ena means he couldn't care less, so it's likely he'd use she/her too.

What about An and Rui, who are aware of Mizuki's identity? That's the complicated part, since they'd give away Mizuki's gender. I guess I'd do my best to avoid using gendered pronouns? It'd be kinda hard, but at least it'd MAKE SENSE. If they're talking about Mizuki to other characters, they'd probs use she/her too regardless.

I haven't really read the new JP event, but they probably don't clear anything up when it comes to Mizuki's gender. I was hoping Mizuki's sister would say something like "oh mizuki's my sister/whatever" but in the summary I've read, as sweet as it seems, we're still kept in the dark. Oh well.

"But that'd be misgendering!" YES! THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DON'T TELL PEOPLE ABOUT YOUR GENDER! PEOPLE TEND TO ASSUME! Plus, if Mizuki's not a trans girl not saying pronouns = gender, that's not what i'm going for here or nonbinary, and they're just an otokonoko (unlikely, but they can still pussy out, even though they had Mizuki singing villain, but whateeeeeeever), wouldn't they/them be misgendering them too?

It's frustrating, like, if you hc Mizuki as nb that's fine, but can people please stop going for the throats of those who use she/her for them? Not that hard, I promise!

9. Worst part of canon

Canon seems to be hellbent on having some duos as default, with little to no deviations. Leo/Need does this the least, but sometimes they do fall into Ichika+Saki/Honami+Shiho territory.

WxS also doesn't do this often, as it's very well balanced, but when it comes to mix events it's... Not that great. Rui+Emu is surprisingly lacking in content as well, I feel like they're in the background, which is a shame because I like them a lot.

MMJ is truly neutral. We have fun interactions all around, but Airi+Haruka is even worse than Rui+Emu. Please they are THE STRONGEST!!!! give them an event together. I'm sure they'd crush it.

N25 sucks so bad, like so, so, so bad. Most of the time it's Kanade+Mafuyu/Mizuki+Ena. I think they're trying to fix it, but since Mafuyu and Kanade are now roommates, it's... Not really working. Last Kanade event barely had Mafuyu on it, and that's something I really don't like about canon? N25 is overreliant on Mafuyu and sometimes it feels like the other member's problems take a backseat because Mafuyu's are more important. And that sucks. Kanade has it the worst of all because even in events where she miraculously gets away (? from her, she's still thinking of saving her. I get Kanade is very goal-driven and is determined to save her, but... Just Mafuyu? Like in Spojoy when Minori tells Kanade she should take time to herself because she's also important and that she'll be there for her, Kanade instantly thinks "Of course... I want to see Mafuyu smile!" and canon portraying this as a good thing and Kanade improving as a person SUCKS. SUCKS SO BAD. Thanks Kaito for telling her to snap out of it. Samsa is one of the greatest comm songs imo but it's about Mafuyu. The whole event was about Mafuyu's story.

I get it, but they've left Kanade's dad's plotline untouched for TWO WHOLE YEARS, it's what i said about the other member's problems taking a backseat. Mizuki I get, running away is their thing and they seem to be doing good by relating to Mafuyu, but... Augh.

VBS is the poster child for duos. They're the only group where the members don't all use their first names. Just look at their card cameos. And their mix events too... Free them please...

Once I saw someone say "VBS isn't just duos, they have dynamics!" and they sure have them! Wish they got moments to develop them besides card stories and area convos!

16. You can't understand why so many people like this thing

Unironically? Akito x Toya. They're the most milquetoast, boring ship imaginable and nothing interesting ever happens with them. Sometimes you need fluffy ships and I get it, but you can get the same dynamic better within the game itself. To me they're that kind of friends who are super close and thought of dating but they're just so close dating just feels out of the question lol

The way they met doesn't make sense. Like, Akito saw Toya singing and went "oh i want this one", even though he was doing street music just to piss his dad off. Then he sees Kohane and goes "i want that hamster OBLITERATED", because she "wasn't taking it seriously", it just doesn't make sense! If it was called out sure, but Akito being a hypocrite is never brought up ever again. Their conflict in the main story was pretty dumb too. And from then on they just. Go with the flow. I love Toya and Akito separately so please let them be apart.

Whoever has talked to me about proseka for more than 5 minutes knows 2 things: I love Tsukasa Tenma and I really, really dislike Kanade x Mafuyu. The fact that they're the most popular ship for one another evades me. Kanade and Mafuyu aren't good for each other AT ALL.

"But Kanade is doing her best to save Mafuyu!" That's exactly the thing! At the beginning of the game, Kanade was constantly trying her best to save Mafuyu, and Mafuyu in exchange worried about Kanade... Because she's trying to save her. Kanade saw Mafuyu as a big wall, something to prove she's capable of saving others with her music.

"They got better! Kanade sees Mafuyu as a friend now!" ... And Mafuyu is still the same. Ena told her that the least she could do is thank her in Carnation Recollection, but did she? No, she but she was nicer... To Emu. Mafuyu, at least up until Ena's second focus, still wants Kanade to keep composing for her sake. I know she's been bending over backwards to please others since forever and N25 is her safe place to rest, but Ena is right. The least she could do is thank her.

"Since they're living together, Mafuyu is taking care of Kanade!" ... Is she really? She just cleans around a bit, but as for eating and having a better sleeping schedule, Mafuyu is just as bad. Does Mafuyu have to take care of Kanade? Not really, it's not her obligation. But Mafuyu never does anything to stop Kanade from indulging into her unhealthy habits, including overworking herself. Some people keep talking about toxic yuri and... There it is! I have no problem if it's being portrayed like that, but most portrayals have it be wholesome and good, and it isn't, not at all.

Like with Akit-ya I can see why people ship them! They're cute! Kan-mafu though... That's another story.

[haus-mom]

1, 10, 15 for the vocaloid asks?

una i hope you know that i cherish and love you <333

1. favorite vocaloid, and favorite song by that vocaloid?

... i don't exactly have a fave vocaloid, the closest would be the spanish trio bc. i'm spanish grhjbgbejr but when it comes to voices, i like ia and gumi the most! though ONE is also pretty cool... there are so many, i just can't choose! so have the song i'm listening to right now, by none of those vocaloids.

10. do you prefer sad and edgy voca songs, or happy and upbeat ones?

you can't go wrong with happy sounding creepy ones or creepy sounding cheery ones! in all seriousness, i can see value in most, but tbh i do indulge in weird as hell vocasongs from time to time

15. favorite vocaloid song that is a cover of a song originally by a real person?

i don't really listen to vocaloid covers, but i've recently discovered this cool artist and they've done a vocacover of another song, so i guess this one?