Been replaying these games again and omg they're still so peak.
Already did both the good and evil routes for the first game. I also did all the side-missions because I never did them as a kid for some reason.
Great game but holy shit is it janky.
Also I genuinely hate whoever put like 12 counter-surveillance side missions in the game. Climbing around a building for 5 minutes looking for surveillance devices is the worst most boring shit.
"Find my devices, electric chud" had no reason to be a recurring side mission type and I pray to God they aren't in the second game.
Been replaying these games again and omg they're still so peak.
Already did both the good and evil routes for the first game. I also did all the side-missions because I never did them as a kid for some reason.
Great game but holy shit is it janky.
Also I genuinely hate whoever put like 12 counter-surveillance side missions in the game. Climbing around a building for 5 minutes looking for surveillance devices is the worst most boring shit.
"Find my devices, electric chud" had no reason to be a recurring side mission type and I pray to God they aren't in the second game.
Been replaying these games again and omg they're still so peak.
Already did both the good and evil routes for the first game. I also did all the side-missions because I never did them as a kid for some reason.
Great game but holy shit is it janky.
Also I genuinely hate whoever put like 12 counter-surveillance side missions in the game. Climbing around a building for 5 minutes looking for surveillance devices is the worst most boring shit.
"Find my devices, electric chud" had no reason to be a recurring side mission type and I pray to God they aren't in the second game.
I certainly can't speak for everyone, but I think the feeling of disgust invoked from Kriselle is the appeal. At least it is to me, anyway.
I'll focus on the weird route, given that it's the one I find interesting. Plus, several people have already presented Kriselle from a more wholesome, friends reconnecting kind of lens, so I think there's novelty in highlighting the other side of their dynamic.
The Kriselle dynamic, to me, is one of two estranged friends secretly hoping to rekindle their bond, only to end up watching helplessly as those hopes are twisted into strings of red, forever binding them together in a cruel mockery of love.
In the span of only a few days, they're reduced to little more than puppets on a stage, dancing to the tune of an omnipotent, eldritch force neither can hope to understand or escape.
Neither one wants to be with the other like this, but what other choice do they have? They can't isolate themselves from each other, not like they've done with their loved ones...
...because they're the only connection they have left. The only connection they can afford to have. The SOUL is their shared burden, and they can't risk it ensnaring or endangering anyone else.
So, left with no one to confide in but themselves, they cling to each other, the resulting co-dependency acting as the closest substitute for love either will ever again experience.
They try desperately to convince themselves that this was what they wanted all along, current experiences and innocent memories slowly melting into a rose-tinted blur. With time, their shared cognitive dissonance begins to fade alongside their sanity, with both developing a morbid sense of nostalgia for it all.
And yet, they can never truly forget the freedom that was taken from them. Even as they remain trapped in a miserable pantomime of their former friendship, acting out fantasies of control as if either of them ever had control, they can never truly forget.
Over time, Sayaka Miki's feelings for Mami Tomoe tend to grow beyond mere friendship. Farther beyond that of a protege and her mentor, even.
Her admiration twists into something more akin to an obsession, one bordering on religious devotion. She doesn't view her mentor as a person with flaws like any other, instead heralding her as an unreachable set of ideals every Magical Girl should strive to meet.
And every failure in living up to Mami's gilded legacy cuts her deeper than any knife, plunging deeper still with each perceived offense. Her mistakes, no matter how small, are an affront to everything her mentor stood for.
It feeds her self-hatred like nothing else, sending her spiraling deeper and deeper with each and every impure thought.
After all, Mami never regretted her wish, right? Mami never considered letting Familiars eat people just to get more Grief Seeds. Mami never regretted saving someone. Mami never snapped at her best friend. Mami never had selfish thoughts. Mami never–
Sayaka's sense of self rots further with each passing day. Her attempts at being an "ally of justice" begin to feel more and more like mere mockery, desecration of a role that came so naturally to her beloved mentor.
She'll never live up to Mami's memory as she is now: a grotesque, shambling corpse wearing the concept of justice like a false skin hanging from her decaying form.
If Mami were still here, she'd be disappointed.
Disgusted.
Horrified, even.
And she'd have every right to be.
If the two were somehow reunited, Sayaka wouldn't want her to feel any differently. She isn't comfortable with being loved, least of all by the girl she reveres so deeply. Any act of kindness towards her would only be a placation, like a Goddess lowering herself to the level of a sinner.
And the last thing she wants is to pollute Mami with her revolting affection, dragging her down like an anchor of impurity and selfishness.
Better to worship her from afar as one would a deity, else she risk eroding the one pillar she can still cling to. The one constant in a shifting sea of despair.
And, in that way, Sayaka Miki and Homura Akemi aren't so different.
The Dynamic Between Rohan Kishibe and Koichi Hirose, and Why I Find It Interesting:
- Featuring Slight Spoilers for Diamond is Unbreakable -
Koichi Hirose starts out as a kid who's unsure of both himself and the world around him. He isn't very brave, or particularly outspoken, mainly choosing to keep to himself no matter the injustices he witnesses. He can't really stick up for himself, after all, so how would he do so for others?
It's only through meeting Josuke, Okuyasu, and the others that he truly breaks out of his shell and grows into someone strong. Someone willing to stand up for himself and others. These changes allow him to embrace those around him, becoming a kind, social boy who has a friend in everyone.
This, more and more, cements him as a direct opposite to a man who was once his idol and hero: Rohan Kishibe.
He's been reading Rohan's manga since he was in middle school, revering the man as some sort of unreachable brilliance given human form. It's only through meeting him in person, as well as their subsequent interactions, that his view on the guy sours. More and more, as the story progresses, he realizes something:
Rohan Kishibe, the man he once held in such high regard, is little more than a pathetic, lonely, misanthropic loser. He's incredibly rude, quick to agitate, and doesn't really view people as anything more than experiences to use for his manga. If that, even.
He grows as a character slightly throughout DIU, but not in any meaningful capacity. He mainly learns to get over himself just enough to help catch Yoshikage Kira. Even still, he does so under the guise of just wanting to read the killer's memories, whether or not that's truly his motivation by the end.
And yet, despite learning first hand how awful his hero truly is, as well as almost losing his life, autonomy, and memories to him, Koichi just can't bring himself to give up on Rohan. They see each other as friends, even in spite of everything that's happened between them.
It's not that Koichi is some sort of savior, hoping to fix a man he once revered and restore the image he had of him in his head. He has other commitments in his life now, and friends who aren't nearly as toxic. Putting up with or even redeeming his former idol isn't his responsibility, nor do I think he sees it that way.
Personally, I think it's because he realizes that Rohan is who he could've become had he not met Josuke and the others. It was through them that he developed his Stand, Echos, and went through his coming-of-age-style character arc. Had he not been lucky enough to experience that, he likely would've ended up a lonely recluse just like Rohan: a man resentful of the world who only interacts with it to fulfill his own interests.
It's hard to believe, given how noble and pure-hearted Koichi is often portrayed, but isolation has a way of corrupting even the nicest people. That sounds super corny, I know, but it's still true.
After all, it's highly unlikely that Rohan started out as we see him now. We don't get to hear a lot about his childhood, but it stands to reason that he was once a bright-eyed, fledgling artist excited to share his creativity with the world. We can only wonder what he could've gone through that twisted him into the bitter man he is today. Reimi's murder likely contributed, sure, but there had to have been more.
No matter the reason, though, Rohan fell into a trap so many people find themselves in. Isolated from his peers, likely thanks to his obvious eccentricities, his humanity began to wither, left unused and unseen. It's a trap Koichi would've fallen in as well had his new friends, as well as fate itself, not guided him away.
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