#bardic ranting

[bardicbird]

the sex scenes in house of leaves so far are actually not as bad and cringy as i expected them to be; i like that its an integral part of johnny’s character actually , and the prose we get from those sections is important to establishing his personality and then his whole descent into madness thing. it feels well done and not distasteful really at all.

except for that part where johnny compares a girl’s boobs to two pacmans. what was that. johnny can you hear me what the fuck was that. what does that mean

[bardicbird]

I think some people are perhaps missing the point of flowery. yes, he’s supposed to be obnoxious. he represents asgore’s struggle with letting go of the past and toxic positivity/refusal for realism. he’s a counterpoint to kris and ralsei. deltarune has consistently stuck with themes of nostalgia as both something understandably precious and a hindrance to progress & relationships. he’s also an ironic take on the sexyman archetype that you’re meant to find off-putting.

additionally, I feel like ppl keep forgetting how deltarune is presented as a game whenever we wait for a new chapter. the jokes and gags have gotten sillier but that’s been a steady progression throughout the chapters, especially the jump from 2 to 3&4. same with the difficulty. deltarune is a story game but it is also, at its core, a fun spin on bullet hell mechanics.

this chapter, as Toby has literally stated, is meant as a reprieve from the darkness and urgency we had in chapter 4, before the main plot picks up again. if you go into new chapters only expecting theory confirmation and oooo scary gaster-esque moments, you’re sorely missing the importance (and the fun) of exploring more of the main cast. It’s an episodic story—they’re not gonna give you everything you wish for in one chapter.

anyways . I’m about done w the chapter (I think?) and I really liked it. integration of new mechanics is genuinely impressive from a game design standpoint. I loved all the character moments we got, and I appreciated the lesbianism. I wasn’t blown out of the water but I was pleasantly surprised, and expectations are always pretty high w/ deltarune.

[bardicbird]

also while i’m rambling about rgu. i’ve seen a mix of opinions on the nature of shiori’s feelings towards juri and i would like to share that my *personal* opinion is that she was being truthful when she said she resented juri and was jealous of her and thus wanted to hurt her. i also think that, while it’s unlikely shiori is in love with juri the same way juri is in love with her, she still felt/feels some sort of attraction to her that made shiori uncomfortable and spiteful. the fact that she’s tried to get with every guy that was into juri is… telling: it reads as both a way to feel more powerful than her and to get as close to being with juri as she can without having to admit her attraction. the whole “that wasn’t my sword you were polishing” thing from ruka with juri’s locker right near where the sword fell (?) seems like a metaphor for shiori trying to obsess over the boys in juri’s life always just leading back to the fact that… in the end… she’s literally just obsessing over juri.

anyways. big fan of whatever the fuck they’ve got going on. i don’t think the “homophobic person is actually gay” trope is automatically annoying if it’s done well, especially since the episodes with shiori were more about juri’s character development than anything else.

[bardicbird]

no actually i want to talk about how fucked it is yet how much it makes sense that you can ‘save’ cuno from his situation but not cunoesse. because the way you get through to cuno is by emphasizing how scary cunoesse is to him; by separating them.

and, yeah, part of it is because cunoesse is more verbally aggressive and harder to get through to. but i really think a significant part of it as well is the difference in how harry is able to empathize with cuno and cunoesse respectively—and thus how we as players tend to end up empathizing with them.

harry can see himself in cuno. and even though the future he can give him with the rcm isnt exactly… ideal in any way, it’s still giving him a chance. the way harry sees cunoesse, on the other hand, is from a more distant lens. he can acknowledge that she needs professional help, but he doesn’t want to engage with her. she’s the scary little girl who’s killed people and lashes out. harry’s type of Cop empathy doesn’t give him the skill set to understand and sympathize with her. and it’s just. so tragic and realistic. idk.

[bardicbird]

ralsei’s definitely a plant, right? or something similar to plants where they’re alive but ‘take on new consciousness in the dark’? it would explain why they seem to know so much about the goings on of the light world, can sense when things are ‘wrong’ like flowery. and speaking of flowery, it would make more sense why they seem to have known each other before ch5’s events. if plants almost have a ‘roots’-like network… hm…

[bardicbird]

personal opinion but thinking about it now. i do also think the Nanami Cow Episode is both like. intentionally silly goofy weird and maybe not as suuuuper deep as some people make it out to be, but there are *some* things i think we can genuinely take from the episode. maybe less as a general statement about patriarchy as a whole and more about the characters (namely, nanami/anthy) and how *they* react to the patriarchal overtones of the setting. does that make sense?

like, i don’t think nanami’s fear over becoming a cow that then gets butchered for meat and eaten by her brother is a statement about how all women feel in society, but instead is very specific to her relationship with touga. she’s afraid that he doesn’t see her as someone special to him, that she won’t always have his affection. if she somehow does something to mess things up (embarrass him, fade into the background, etc) then she becomes inhuman and unimportant—or alternatively, something to be mocked. if she can’t establish herself in a forever Little Sister role, then she becomes yet another woman for touga to consume and forget about. also, she’s like 13 and wants to look cool in something *designer* (status symbol) but unfortunately she’s not very smart lmao.

anthy, as the person who causes the whole cowbell shenanigan, is using her influence over ohtori (and nanami specifically) to assert power in a setting where she is frequently denied agency. she intentionally sets up humiliating scenarios for nanami, probably for equal parts entertainment and resentment. she *cannot* fuck with the men in her life that have hurt her the most and so she goes for the easier target: a girl who reinforces the oppression *anthy* has to go through by slapping her, by trying to publically humiliate her at the dance. both nanami and anthy are girls who objectively get treated like shit by the people they devote themselves to, so a fun little reprieve for them is to hate each other as narrative foils.

that being said i have no fucking clue what’s up with the nanami cow scene in the movie.

[bardicbird]

i will always stand by the fact that the best quote from disco elysium is:

“Centrism isn't change -- not even incremental change. It is *control*. Over yourself and the world. Exercise it. Look up at the sky, at the dark shapes of Coalition airships hanging there. Ask yourself: is there something sinister in moralism? And then answer: no. God is in his heaven. Everything is normal on Earth."

[bardicbird]

i’m So thinking about 999 ace attorney au. Aoi as our jaded prosecutor fixated on justice, working with Akane who definitely has some spirit medium shit going on (or is a spirit? who knows). Light as the defense with Clover as his weirdgirl assistant who is honestly better than him at lawyering sometimes. Seven Gumshoe-esque detective. Ace has quintessential ace attorney villain breakdown sprites. Lotus as a hard-to-crack witness. Junpei is also there I guess. He probably gets accused of murder. It’s so perfect