do you have a soundtrack from ffxiv that you would say describes alyx? or one for rhodry? also i hope you're having a lovely evening! 😊❤
Hey friend, what an awesome question. I have ever-expanding playlists for both of them but picking songs from the FFXIV OST is a great idea. I’m going to try really hard to limit myself so here are 5 songs each
Alyx:“Thunder Rolls”“Protagonist’s Theme”“From the Heavens” (Omega)“Black and White” “Song of Salt and Suffering”
Rhodry:“Whisper of the Land” “Tricksome”“A Curious Breed of Botherment”“Poison Ivy”“Wicked Winds Whisper”
i think that you're right lu -- i agree with you on the girl groups. for me, i feel oppressed by the overwhelmingly girly scene in kpop. very few of the idols represent what i want to become: a mature (or maturing) woman who has more than just one side to show. seeing only girly concepts makes me feel uncomfortable; doesn't mean i hate them, but such a homogenous concept among girl groups is unfortunate. in real life women are all so different -- i wish that kpop showed that, too.
yeah exactly :/ there’s nothing wrong w/ acting cutesy... but when 99% of the girl groups are like that to appeal to men who fetishize schoolgirls, i get uncomfortable as well.
cries softly im going to see monsta x this coming sunday pray for me (my dad dropped tickets on me without warning and i don't know how to cope im in shock)
Sorry for answering this late! But omg have fun! They’re such amazing performers you’ll definitely have the time of your life! (Also hyungwon is going to be at the remaining stops now that he’s recovered pls cheer for him for me)
hey! i noticed that you have a distinct aversion to iba haha (no judgement here! like or dislike whoever you want!); recently i saw masayume85 say that, because of the poor translation from japanese, iba's character has been seriously downgraded. i'm just curious if you dislike him because of the way the translation makes him come off, or if it's just total aversion to his whole concept. you can answer this privately if you want! i just really enjoy hearing your point of view on this stuff!
Hey! Since I strongly suspect other people will ask me the same thing, I’ll go ahead and answer this publicly.
Honestly, my dislike of Iba as a character is nothing to my dislike of his route and position in the plot. I don’t like his personality very much, but a.) that’s probably where the localization comes into play, and b.) everyone has their individual preferences for character types, so I can deal with that difference in temperament just fine. What I can’t deal with is how contrived his entire plot feels, and I seriously doubt that’s an entirely localization-exclusive issue.
Essentially, I think his involvement in the plot feels… unnatural, to say the least. To me, the idea that Chizuru should completely space out someone who was apparently that important to her is frankly unbelievable. Friendship stays with you. Even if you don’t remember every single detail, you really do remember their existence, especially if it means so much to you in the moment. Hell, I remember a few elementary-school classmates whose names I’ve forgotten just because they told me one nice thing on a bad day. Chizuru’s established childhood memory issues are a result of trauma, not the passage of time. There’s no logical reason she should have forgotten Iba, especially since she remembers clearly and fondly over the course of his route. Like, really? They really want me to believe she didn’t hold onto those memories as tightly as she could throughout a childhood like hers? Ooooookay.
(Come to think of it, is it ever explained why exactly Iba decides Chizuru isn’t a monster, even though every other kid turns on her??? Was she only ever close enough to Iba for him to make that decision??? And if that’s the case, then WHY THE FUCK DID SHE COMPLETELY FORGET ABOUT THE ONLY PERSON WHO STILL TREATED HER LIKE A HUMAN AFTER FINDING OUT ABOUT HER HEALING???)
…And that’s not even getting into the bullshit they decided to pull with Iba being the one she promised to keep her wounds hidden. Like, it’s just so much more realistic for her father to tell her to keep her demon healing secret than some random acquaintance, especially if she’s already earned a reputation to the point of being bullied. I thought her whole aversion-to-injury-and-therefore-blades thing was so people never found out and that was why she also lives an isolated life and doesn’t have too many friends and is a total daddy’s girl??? Yet another retcon that makes No Sense in comparison to the original.
Another thing they never let you forget, which bothered me almost as much: Everyone Likes Iba. It’s just… lazy writing, let alone the translating. Instead of relying on present characterization and personality to drive his relationships with the individual members of the Shinsengumi and creating an engaging and dynamic story centered around that, they rely entirely on the past, just like with Chizuru. It’s a major case of telling without showing. Like “Oh, it’s okay, he knows them already!” without any actual development in the present/future whatsoever. And don’t even get me started on how weird it is that even the most standoffish and spiky of the captains flock to Iba during his first appearance.
Not to mention, if he’s the heir to his own family’s dojo, then he might have had contact with other dojos, but I doubt he’d spend significant amounts of time training at other dojos, like he’s implied to have done. It’s true that I’m hardly the expert on that particular subject, but my main issue is that having him be That Character From Everyone’s Pasts just feels so sloppy. I mean, what are the odds, really??? I’d have been much more interested in him personally if he was either Chizuru’s friend or a guy who used to drop by Shiei Hall. One or the other would be at least comparatively fine (I’d still have problems), but having both connections is just insanely unrealistic and oh-so-badly-executed.
Finally, the plot of his route in general is so clichéd and ridiculous I can’t even take it seriously. They just… shoehorn Iba into everything. Not to mention, the whole Demon Arms thing totally came out of left field since they’re not even mentioned on any other route ever. I don’t know, all the plot points together are just… a train wreck. So I’m going to leave you with a series of screenshots from @chibitorra, because she sums up my thoughts throughout the route better than I ever could:
…yeah. Iba’s was… not up to my usual standards for a Hakuōki route. But thanks for asking!!
oh god you rec'd glass diamonds it's one of my favs... i think ive read that fic 8393529 times bless you for reminding me :')
mine too! and yeah i’ve read it too many time to count honestly lol. i rec’d it for that person bc i think it’s a nice starter fic for people that’re apprehensive about reading m/m. it has great character development, while having smut that isn’t too explicit, since they aren’t really used to it yet. now i gotta go read it again DAMMIT I LOVE THIS FIC TOO MUCH ;;;;;
lu i have to tell you every time i see "bang pd" on my dash i stop scrolling and think "ah yes. there she is. lu has risen for today." my dash isn't complete without you! 💚💚
o m f g
OUT OF EVERYTHING TO BE KNOWN FOR, THIS IS ALL THAT MATTERS! THANK YOU BB
(1) i saw your review about kyoto winds and the overall writing being a serious step down from the original--which is something i can definitely agree with. i saw bits of it through a playthrough (i don't have a console to play it on and can't afford one for now), but damn, i was genuinely shocked by the difference. i was ESPECIALLY put off by the writing though because, and this could just be me, it seemed to really do an injustice to chizuru's character. i have always LOVED chizuru, she
(2) proves that you don’t have to be a sword swinging badass to be a real hero; but to me, this writing seemed to make her…less. in some scenes i saw she appeared almost petulant about certain things, and perhaps it was necessary for new route choices, buy i was terribly annoyed with the writers and how they handled her inner dialogue and her actual dialogue. i felt she deserved better! i sent this to you because i felt that you might be able to shine a little more light on this discussion. i
(3) really respect your analyses of characters and writing, and i’ve always seen you as a staunch chizuru fan; i was curious if you saw these changes as well when you played! thanks for everything you contribute to the fandom. i love seeing you on my dash, whether it’s your reviews or ToTs or just little personal notes 💛
Wow, first of all, thank you so much for all the kind words!! And secondly, this is interesting to hear because I actually didn’t take a huge amount of issue with Chizuru’s portrayal. I had more problems with a.) the translation in general; b.) the demons’ characterization; and c.) fucking Iba’s route. Chizuru didn’t even read on my scale of ‘Things Wrong with KW’, but that’s not to say you’re wrong at all—more that I personally had bigger problems—so in all honesty, I haven’t thought about it that much.
That said, even though I don’t remember any specific examples myself, you’re definitely right about the translation, and I think I can see exactly where things went wrong. See, I’ve always divided Chizuru by route, roughly into Active Chizurus (Saito, Heisuke, Harada, Nagakura, Yamazaki, Souma) and Passive Chizurus (Hijikata, Okita, Sanan, Iba, Sakamoto, Kazama). Because her personality varies route-to-route, different elements of her personality are highlighted along each route and branch.
The problem is that because Chizuru’s personality is able to develop in so many directions, many of her character traits walk very fine lines, and the translation is too clumsy to convey those lines effectively. For instance, it’s extremely easy for her innocence to come across as naivety, or her stubbornness to read as petulance. Basically, I doubt that KW has changed Chizuru in essentials, but I don’t think the translation is precise enough to deal well with subtler personality traits. It’s probably better in the original, but of course only those of us who can understand Japanese and compare the two know for absolute sure…
Anyway, thanks for mentioning this to me! Even if I don’t have any solid answers, this was totally interesting to think about!!
