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absolutebl · 2 months

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This Week in BL - I'm Late, I know

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

Feb 2024 Wk 2

Ongoing Series - Thai

The Sign (Sat YT) ep 12fin - we waiting 2 weeks I guess? Bah.

Pit Babe (Fri iQIYI) ep 13fin - I wasn't impressed by the last ep at all. Trash watch happened here.

My final thoughts:

Based on alittlebixth's omegaverse novel #พิษเบ๊บ’ set in the world of car racing omegaverse. Thailand brought us the world's first omegaverse BL but then failed to lean into the courage of its a/b/o convictions by not emphasizing the difference between our world & theirs, adding & subtracting characters & allegiances + a weak ending. With earnest performances, enthusiastic sex scenes, a fantastic side couple, and some delightful scenery chewing - the actors tried… poor things. It's just the story failed both them and their parent genre. Frankly? I just wanted it to be more outrageous and trashy, since I never expected it to be good. Instead, it was just… meh. 7/10

(Imma remind all the newbies that this is not unprecedented from me with hugely popular BL.)

Cooking Crush (Sun YT) ep 10 of 12 - I like it but there’s a high % of this show that doesn’t interest me. Anything to do with the side couple, or the friend group, or the cooking competition drives me into a comatose state of UGH. That means that in this episode, I paid attention to about 5 minutes worth.

For Him (Thurs iQIYI) ep 11 of 12 - I'm ready for this to be done. I think they were trying to be this year's Big Dragon, but they just aren't good enough. I really didn’t need a third couple.

City of Stars (Fri iQIYI) ep 2 of 12 - I'm warming up to FueangKrom a bit. It’s cute. I am finding the pacing interesting. That pacing might be bad, but right now it’s simply different.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Love For Love's Sake (Korea Weds iQIYI) 5-6 of 8 - I still love this show a lot, but this 2 ep installment felt a little disjointed. I’m not sure if that’s the narrative structure or the subs. The captions are shockingly bad for a KBL and I don’t have enough Korean to make up for their clear failings.

Although I Love You and You AKA Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yaro ka (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 5 of 10 - Oh the return of the manic pixie dream ex. This is all very high school drama for purportedly grown-up adults. But them both being jealous and then kissing was sweet.

AntiReset (Taiwan Fri Viki/Gaga) ep 3 of 10 - They remain adorable and the sunshine robot is very sweet. But it is a little slow.

Perfect Propose (Japan Fri Gaga) ep 3 of 6 - I prefer the episodes when we get more of them onscreen together. But this was fine.

Happy Ending (Korea Tues YT) 3fin - The ending disappointed me (are you surprised?). What can I say, not Strongberry's best as far as I’m concerned. High school besties that many could be sweethearts. I don’t like an ending that’s left up in the air. 6/10

It's Done but...

What Did You Eat Yesterday Season 2 AKA Kinou Nani Tabeta? Season 2 (Japan Gaga) 10 eps - will binge when I have any spare time. 2024 is crazy busy for me so far.

The Servant and the Young Master - from Vietnam, it's on YouTube. I will give it a try when I have a window of time.

Began Beginning (Myanmar YouTube) - A Burmese BL? @heretherebedork vouched for it, so I will give it a watch.

It's Airing But...

[NO INTERNATIONAL] Cherry Magic (Sat YouTube) ep 3 of 12 - yeah Japan put the smack down on our boys. Sadness. You can use a VPN if you like. Read all about it here.

Ossans Love Season 2 (Japan Gaga) - 5 years later, will anything have changed? This is Japan so… probubly not. I won't be watching this. I disliked Season one and actively hated the follow ups. No thank you.

Playboyy (Thurs Gaga) 14 eps - Dear Playboyy, it's not you, it’s me… I hate you. You’re about as deep (and as palatable) as a shot glass of cum. While I'm sure you’re someone’s kink, you're my weakest link. Goodbye. I DNFed this at ep 5. Frankly I'm impressed with myself for getting that far.

7 Days Before Valentine (Weds WeTV) 12 eps - Gave me Luminous Solution vibes. It finished, is it worth it?

Dead Friend Forever (Thai Sat iQIYI) 12 eps - finished, horror, supposed to be very philosophical, I think I'll give it a go.

Time the series (Tue Gaga/YT) 10 eps - dropped it at ep 4.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Starting Up

2/16 My Strawberry Film (Japan Gaga) - not quite sure how much BL this one is, because... Japan, but we shall see.

2/17 A Secretly Love (Thai WeTV) - Khonprot, a third-year head hazer of the engineering faculty, has a secret crush on Pluem, a tsundere fourth-year head hazer. Over the years, he's seen Pluem cycle through many girlfriends. Recently, after a public breakup, however, Khonprot thinks maybe a boy has a chance. Unless this is really good I probably won't I hate the WeTV interface...

Still Coming in Feb

2/24 Unknown (Taiwan Youku) 12 eps - Older brother tough guy criminal breadwinner looks after his sister and defacto adopted little brother. Little bother falls in love with him and is sent away after a stolen kiss. But when he comes back…

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

We gotta talk about LFLS this week. Look at Korea go!

Talking about a dead fish kiss, how meta! This will end up on one of my best of the year moments. I could not have been more gobsmacked.

Also something rarely directly addressed, particularly for same-sex firsts.

And then, a claiming trope, a personal favorite of mine.

Thank you Korea!

I just love them. (Pit Babe)

(Last week)

#pit babe the series #pit babe review #alanjeff #cooking crush #thai bl #love for love's sake #kbl #korean bl #Perfect Propose #Although I Love You and You #Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yaro ka #japanese bl #AntiReset #Taiwanese bl #cherry magic thailand

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captainofthetidesbreath · 11 months

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Theorizing about Colin's secret and what his entire deal is really feels like threading a needle sometimes because a theory needs to hit or address a lot of points at once. Looking at what we know, as of the end of episode three:

The FDA blackmailed him with a banner of Lucas Fontina, who led a failed coup that is "a deep shadow that lingers at the edge of [his] hard-buried origins." This last bit suggests the coup created the circumstances that shaped the person Colin is now, if not directly affected Colin himself. He recognizes the banner and what secret it points to immediately and without question. (Matt: "This you do recognize as the banner of Fontina. Not since the failed coup of Lucas Fontina many decades ago has this banner been seen, a dark spot on the history of the isles, and a deep shadow that lingers at the edge of your hard-buried origins." — Ep. 1, 1:49:14)

It is a secret with complexity, at least in Colin's view. (Zac: "I assume Colin hasn't told you the complexity of his secret." — Ep. 2, 0:51:33)

Colin believes that some in the Islands want to know who and where he is. Furthermore, he is running from the Islands and is seeking protection. Also worth noting that it seems that his lack of allegiance to the Islands is related. (Zac: "I don't think Colin has any real allegiance or loyalty to the Dairy Islands 'cause that was kind of what he was running from when he joined forces with Deli. So I think he's just gonna stick with Deli and try his best to just sort of latch onto this ship and see where it goes while protecting him as best he can and seeing the power of the Meat Lands and hoping that gives him some protection." — Ep. 2, 00:12:02; Colin: "But I think some people want to find out who I am or where I am." / Deli: "And people from the Dairy Islands or?" / Colin: "Yeah." — Ep. 2, 00:52:19)

Colin believes that merely knowing this secret complicates his relationship with Deli. It is possible (likely?) that this is true of Colin's relationship with any given person who learns it. (Colin: "I think it might make our relationship simpler if I don't [divulge it]." — Ep. 2, 00:52:12)

Speaking on this secret, Colin thinks he did not "even really" do anything and denies it is related having killed someone. (Deli: "Is it someone you killed?" / Colin: "No, I don't think I even really did anything." — Ep. 2, 0:52:12)

It is a secret that has caused Colin to develop a paranoid fear that someone knows it. (Zac: "I think he's not used to anyone thinking about him and so it came as a great shock that someone, his sort of paranoid fear that someone would know the secret about him was actually true." — Ep. 2, 00:11:49)

#Colin Provolone #The Ravening War #Dimension 20 #trw meta #trw things

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muldyfi · 1 year

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I don’t often do this, I am very team ‘Yay TV is the best and I’m either going to enjoy it or I’m not going to watch it...’ but I need to rant a little bit about the Mandalorian season finale.

I work in TV, I know stuff goes wrong. And a lot about this season of Mando felt like production issues. Obviously they didn’t have Pedro much (if at all?) and obviously Katee Sackhoff was contracted to appear in every episode which made for some weird story choices in the first two episodes (going from Nevarro to Kalevala to Tatooine to Mandalore instead of Nevarro, Tatooine, Kalevala, Mandalore which makes a lot more sense). And also rumours of stuff being cut from the finale (which it really did feel like happened).

But there were so many story things in this season that weren’t paid off.

1. The Mythosaur. I’m not saying I needed anyone to ride the Mythosaur or use it in battle or whatever, but to start with Bo-Katan saw it in the Mines of Mandalore and then got it on her shoulder pauldron and then NEVER MENTIONED IT TO DIN. That is such a weird story choice that I thought it was going to be a point of conflict between the characters but it just...wasn’t mentioned. Like if she was meant to have told him offscreen why didn’t she just tell him in Ep 3 when he woke up after she rescued him? And then to have all these random monsters attacking everyone all season EXCEPT the Mythosaur is....also very weird.

I actually didn’t want anyone to kill it or hurt it but it would have been nice for Bo-Katan or Din or the Armorer to have a moment being like ‘The Mythosaur is one of us, it’s part of Mandalore and we should respect it.’ Perhaps let the Mythosaur help them defeat their enemy. Basically a reason for it’s existence. Because right now the *only* reason it needed to exist is so the Armorer could be all ‘Bo-Katan saw the Mythosaur so she can lead our people.’ Which was also echoed in ‘Bo-Katan has the Darksaber so she can lead our people.’ Like we get it. She can lead the people.

But the Mythosaur just felt like it wasn’t paid off at all.

2. DinBo. I’m not talking about it as a shipper (I am one, don’t worry, but I didn’t expect anything to actually happen this season. No one in Star Wars gets together unless they’re dying). But why on Earth (or Mandalore) would you build this relationship so well all season, to the point of Din pledging his allegiance to her and then having Bo be all ‘Mandalorians are stronger together’ and then he leaves. What?

This was one of the best built relationships I have seen on TV in a long time. The way that they went from completely not understanding each other to strongly respecting and trusting each other. Where she became Grogu’s other parent. It’s so nice to see a healthy relationship like that. But then it had no pay off.

There needed to be a scene where she thanked him for everything. Where he told her he was leaving. Where Grogu and Bo got to say goodbye because she’s basically is mother now. Anything. Even just a ‘If you ever need me, you know where to find me’ moment. At the very least a scene of them waving at each other. Lizzo and Grogu got a better goodbye than Bo and Grogu did. This genuinely makes me (and I believe everyone else) angry.

3. The Darksaber. Okay so I’m not even going to be upset about the fact that apparently Gideon can crush a Darksaber with his hands when I couldn’t even bend the handle of my plastic one if I tried. But to me the idea of destroying the Darksaber is to prove to Bo-Katan that she can rule Mandalore without it.

It’s not the Darksaber that made her a good leader, but instead the lessons she learnt about uniting her people and trusting and relying on those around her, things she’s never been very good at. There needed to be a moment where she had a meltdown of some sort along the lines of ‘It’s gone, how am I meant to rule now?’ And Din (or the Armorer or Axe and Koska or all the above) tells her that her strength to lead comes from within and isn’t about the Darksaber at all. If this isn’t used to show character growth within Bo-Katan then what is even the point of destroying it?

Honestly this is the thing that annoyed me the most.

4. The Covert and the Armorer. All season I haven’t really been able to tell where they were going with her character or Din’s attitude towards the Covert. But in the pledging to Bo-Katan scene, when Din mentions he was told lies about the other Mandalorians I felt like that was him realising that maybe the Armorer wasn’t so all knowing, that maybe there was another way and that Bo-Katan represented that way to him.

Maybe it was just me being hopeful that he’d change his mind about his religion and take his helmet off so I could see Pedro’s pretty face more often, but if that line wasn’t about him learning that he’d been lied to his whole life I’m not sure why it existed. Honestly this point is probably more about personal taste but I still find it weird.

5. Coruscant. Why the hell did we spend 38 minutes in Coruscant? Why did we have to listen to Imperial officers chatting about Thrawn? Is this all set up for Ahsoka? Because in a season where most of the episodes were shorter than they should be what we really could have used was more time with our main characters having quiet character moments, understanding their wants and needs...which leads me to...

6. Din. Honestly this has never bugged me prior to this season, but suddenly I got really annoyed at him wearing his helmet because I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. If we’re not going to see his face, we need to have scenes where he expresses his feelings to someone in words. Otherwise we have a lead character who shows no emotions about anything and doesn’t have an opinion on anything. The most emotion we saw him have all season was when he showed his hatred of battle droids.

I’m sure the reason Bo-Katan ended up being the focus of the season was a lot to do with the fact her helmet was off a lot of the time and we could actually see her emotions. For us to feel like Din is the lead we need to understand what he’s feeling.

The appeal of the Mandalorian to me has always been that it’s simple, straightforward and fun. It’s about the love between a Mandalorian bounty hunter and his adopted son (yay!). And there was a lot of that great stuff in the finale. But it felt twenty minutes too short.

Jon Favreau needs a TV writers’ room. It is literally the job of a writers’ room to be like ‘What if we did this in this more interesting way?’ instead of just one man’s fan fiction. A group of people are always going to come up with something more interesting than one person, it’s why writers’ rooms exist.

Twitter and Tumblr were all very good at coming up with fantastic season finale plots - mind flaying Din, him being tortured and his helmet removed, Thrawn showing up, the Armorer being evil, Axe being a traitor, Bo-Katan dying and Grogu having to bring her back with the Force. All of these things that could have added a heightened emotion and stakes in the finale.

I’m not saying that creators should listen to the internet, this rarely makes for good television, but I am saying Jon Favreau as a solo writer has run his course on this story. He’s not a TV writer either and it was really obvious this season where Dave Filoni seemed less involved because he was focusing on Ahsoka.

Anyway I love this show and I will absolutely look forward to and watch any future seasons, but I was left super disappointed after the finale, despite really loving a lot of it, because it just felt too easy and too emotionally disconnected.

#the mandalorian #din djarin #dinbo #din djarin x bo-katan kryze #bo-katan kryze #grogu #chapter 24 #rant #mando

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glamaphonic · 28 days

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michonne with beale's sword in the promo still and me nodding knowingly bcs the moment okafor said "swear on the sword" in ep 1, i knew it was going to be about michonne

for the obvious reasons that

a) she is ofc the character indelibly associated with swords and

b) rick would never swear allegiance to anything but her

#talmbout #richonne #the ones who live #twd towl spoilers #the ones who live spoilers

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mhsdatgo · 2 months

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Coming from a Team Green stan, people using the term "bastards" to refer to Luke, Jace and Joff as if that was an excuse to hate them makes me fucking snort. Yes we know they're bastards, so what. It's what they've heard and been told all their life. If that is enough reason for you to think they deserve shit thrown on them then Imma need you to take off your Westerosi lord "they're born of lesser flesh" whore's best friend heart shaped sunglasses real quick and see them as actual characters because you sound no less blood purity obsessed than TB thinking that "Hightower blood" is enough reason to hate anything regarding Alicent's children.

To think that they aren't deserving of lands and titles is perfectly fine when you look at it from Westerosi people's point of view, but that's no reason to hate them at all? (This also applies to some TB stans who storm the posts of maybe a guy who's chilling reading a book and make it their LIFE MISSION to protect them like they're their mama anytime someone barely mentions it.)

One may find various reasons to like or dislike them. You may dislike Luke for slicing Aemond's eye and never feeling a shred of remorse about it, you may like Luke because you think he did what he thought was best in order to protect his brother (although they could've escaped to their mom the moment he was blinded by dirt, but at least they spared themselves a scolding for being up and about at 3 AM going for someone's throat with a real dagger).

You may dislike Jace because he picked after his mother's "who cares what others think we rule lmao" ass line. You may like Jace because when he said that, he was trying to uplift his little brother who was growing self-conscious about the way other lords and ladies were staring at him. It's understandable. They aren't 2D characters everyone must either love or hate.

If you really want someone to blame for how things turned out, why don't you blame Rhaenyra for thrusting them into failure and sending her 13 year old out knowing the Greens would've sought allegiances as well? I don't know, at least send someone who would've been able to outrun Aemond, idk. You call yourself Queen, girl. Choose someone else, that ain't my job. Why don't you blame Daemon for wanting to send kids as envoys when they've got no experience whatsoever and their dragons are literally just babies?

Remember they were never part of a war until their mother pushed them in. They weren't "thieves" for "stealing" Driftmark. Luke didn't even WANT Driftmark. They just wanted to beef with their uncles in peace for the love of God. That they grew up spoiled brats is another story, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.

Personally I don't love or hate Jace or Luke. We've been given wayyy too little scenes for them to look anything else other than Aemond's and Aegon's punching bags, respectively. Except for Jace who got me cheering and screaming for him when he was literally THE ONLY ONE WHO STOOD UP FOR RHAENYRA IN EP.10 but yeah, that was the end of it.

Find new reasons to like and dislike characters. Anything that doesn't involve sounding like an aryan race supporter, thank you.

#hotd #team green #anti rhaenyra targaryen #anti daemon targaryen #jacaerys velaryon #jacaerys strong #jace strong #lucerys velaryon #lucerys strong #luke strong #joffrey velaryon #joffrey strong #joff strong #you'll never catch me not slipping something anti Daemon in my posts #ever

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sarah-yyy · 7 months

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What are your top 5 dramas that you've watched this year? I'm trying to get back into watching them.

HMMM this year?? let's see:

meet yourself - if you're in need of a light, v therapeutic watch, this is the show for you, stars li xian and liu yifei (who are both so so so pretty)

destined - let's just work off the premise that everything bai jingting is in is excellent and go from there. arranged marriage period cdrama, a little like new life begins but nlb is a lot lighter.

till the end of the moon - do......i even talk about this, or can i assume y'all know how unhinged i am over tantai jin already

mysterious lotus casebook - jianghu period cdrama, excellent characters, super fun time

west out of yumen - ni ni + bai yu + desert adventure thriller?? literally what is there not to like. i just finished this last night!!

uhhh shout out also to the blood of youth (would enjoy if you enjoyed mlc), here we meet again (cute romcom i just binged over the weekend), the road to ordinary (this post reminded me i never finished the show because i got too busy, so it's back on my watchlist, the eps i did watch were excellent!), the pledge of allegiance (casefic period cdrama, dragged at times but was overall v interesting), a league of nobleman (also casefic period cdrama; meh about song weilong but everyone else in this was excellent).

wanted to like but never got into, but might be a me problem rather than a problem with the show: road home, under the microscope

i've done rec posts for some of them before, so i've just link those, otherwise i've linked the mdl page so y'all can read about the show before starting!

#asks #Anonymous #tv rec #OH i just defaulted to cdrama but uhhhh i did enjoy the devil judge and also see you in my 19th life as well!!#a lot of the kdramas i watched this year were from my list of shows i wanted to watch last year #i don't think i've watched many new ones but always taking recs if anyone has any!!

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swiftletinthecloud · 1 year

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This along with the fact that 90% of the things that come out of Li Wu’s mouth is a lie pretty much describes him.

#liveblogging #my screenshots #li wu #shu tang #cdrama #pledge of allegiance (2023)#pledge of allegiance #shadow of mountain and river #ep 18

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mayadoesfandomstuff · 1 year

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The Persona Series and the Generational Experience

Besides thinking about the ages of the protagonists recently, I had been greatly intrigued in the way that each persona game reflects the generation that would have come to the age that the main characters would have been as well as the social climate and environment that would have been present at the time.

The characters of the game would have grown up in a completely different age and environment from the previous generation, being Gen X in a world dominated by the post-war Baby Boomers, which causes them to struggle with what is expected of them and what they want to be. If not this, the characters are already labeled as outcasts due to their own individuality or personal histories they can't change. Yukino as a former delinquent and sapphic woman comes to mind and Reiji being a bastard and a delinquent himself too.

NOTE FROM OP AS OF 04/08/2024:

I feel like this wasn't the best worded post and I would rather rewrite a lot of this. I wrote this when I was fresh off of a serious personal event that led me to think a lot about Persona 1 considering I related heavily with Maki's experiences during the game. It sounds unrelated but uh, let's just say that's also the reason why the wording and research here is rather flimsy since I wasn't really in the most lucid or stable condition at the time. I don't think this post is that bad but I think some points aren't the best either and would rather not this post circulate but I don't really want to private it or to turn off reblogs so I'm just putting this note at the beginning. I'm going to try to read up more stuff and then I'll make a post about each game some other time. Sorry for the random note here but yeah. Feel free to read and still reblog the post though even if I don't really think it's my best worded one as of now.

Original Post:

Persona 1 (1996), besides being a game about how society leaves behind the disabled (Maki hating the world due to her inability to participate as a regular person in society due to her poor health), is primarily a story about the dangers of corporatization which was extremely relevant in Japan during the 90s especially coming from the economic boom of the 80s. The culture of this extreme progress also calls into question the traditional ideas of collectivism and how it could negatively affect the individual which is the core of the entirety of the Persona franchise.

This is more apparent in Persona 2 (IS: 1999; EP: 2000) which deals with a lot of discourse about rumors and propaganda and the early effects of the early internet on the community. There's also a sense of dread for the coming new age as such a possible reflection of the fears of things such as Y2K. An interesting thing to note about Persona 2 are the villains, mainly a serial killer and a terrorist bomber, which shows the communal fear of these events on a society-wide level as this calls back to how Japan just dealt with their own serial killer in the form of the infamous Otaku Killer in 1989 and the fresh from memory terrorist bombing of doomsday cult Aum Shrinrikyo in 1995.

The Persona 2 characters would have grown up in a similar environment as the Persona 1 characters as they are both within Generation X. Knowing my parents who had come from this generation as well, they had told me that there was a constant fear of the apocalypse. It was the height of the cold war when they were growing up and although we weren't directly affected by it, the sheer proximity of our country to large powers like China and our allegiance to their enemy America has created a constant panic. Japan falls in a similar position as a US Ally and a Chinese and Russian enemy that's extremely closely situated to them, so I could imagine that this sort of fear influenced the writing of the games as the writers most certainly had experienced this as well.

It's no wonder then that despite the characters coming from a post-cold war Japan, that these fears may continue in for them and everyone around them so rumors as ridiculous as Hitler literally coming back to attack Japan spread regardless of how realistic it could be.

Skip forward several years, and Atlus decides to brush off the dust of their shelved spin-off series and come back with Persona 3 (2006). The characters are now literally a completely new generation, a generation left behind by their elders and exposed to the harsh reality of the world at such an intensely young age - the millennials.

I know that a lot of people may see this as a stupid point to bring up, but I assure to you that as a non-American, that the war on terror still gripped and sensationalized my own country to such a degree that it did cause a level of apathy among the populace. I'm not sure if this is true of Japan as well, but I feel like tragic world events and the increased visibility of these stories due to the rise of the 24-hour news cycle certainly is a universal experience. It is not surprising that the members of S.E.E.S. needs to fight back against this desolation and desperation on a day-to-day basis when everyone is literally affected by this universal apathy.

An interesting thing to note about Persona 3 is how almost all the characters are either orphans, become orphans during the narrative, or have a complicated relationship with estranged family. I feel like this reflects the way that millennials may feel that they had been abandoned by their elders and now they're forced to navigate the world with little to no guidance or even possibly corrupted guidance from adults like Ikutski.

Technology is also an increased concern in this game, following the trends of the previous two. The progress of technology could lead to incredible and even helpful things such as the creation of Aigis as a fully-realized individual from an AI program or the creation of the evoker as a means to harness the ability of the persona which, in the lore of the franchise, needs to come more naturally but could now be summoned on command regardless of it all. No longer would the person with potential need to wait as long for their abilities to show, all they need is this macabre device in order to access it.

That's the thing though isn't it? This technology comes with a price and comes with disturbing progress as well. Aigis was created to kill shadows and the AI was just created to make her more effective. She was forced to destroy what were essentially her sisters in order to make her the perfect killing machine without any consideration about the possibility of her own humanity despite the fact that they programmed her to be as human as possible.

The evoker came about from years of research from the joint efforts of the Nanjo Conglomerate and the Kirijo group. The research involved in which abused children and destroyed the lives of those who opposed the research just to get where they want to go. There was no care for ethics nor humane treatment which resulted in these children to turn to crime in order to live as a consequence of the unethical research that harmed them.

The concerns of technology and the ethics of playing god were already prevalent before but the turn of the new century put it as a discussion front and center. Stories of cloned sheep or strange chimeras from experimentation had increased discourse of whether or not science had gone too far during this time. Vividly, I remember being s teenager in the 2010s reading these old articles and old Wikipedia entries about these oddities.

As Persona 3 discussed the increased societal apathy for the world, the struggles of the millennial generation navigating it by themselves, and the dangers of research that forego ethics, Persona 4 (2008) focuses on the world's obsession of media, the struggles of a small town in the center of fame, and how collectivism forces the individual to hide themselves to be accepted even moreso than the other three entries of the franchise.

Persona 3 focuses on the early to mid millennial experience in a pre-recession society, Persona 4 focused on the late millennial experience in a media-hungry, recession-era society. These characters would have grown up around the late 90s to the mid 2000s where things such as gossip and paparazzi culture was all the rage. People started to care more about their media presence and how they present themselves not only to the local community but the world.

Gone were the days where rumors only reached a handful of the informed gossipers and internet forum users, and here comes the rise of television! Found in every well-to-do middle-class home! The world is judgmental, unfeeling, and only cares about the hottest new headline and our Investigation Team needs to learn how to be true to who they are in a society that doesn't want them to be.

The setting of the story in a rural town in the brink of urbanization is such a relatable one as I also come from a similar background. The fears of the loss of the cultural and individual identity of the small town is a real one that I had the displeasure of experiencing recently. Progress is good, but it's destroying local businesses. Progress is good, but it's making everyone less personal. Progress is good, but it's making people lose who they are.

It's also not at all just a Japanese pandering situation for the themes of the game be centered on traditional Japanese culture such as the characters' personas being Japanese figures from history, literature, and religion, the main villain and basis of the grander narrative themes also coming from old Shinto mythologies, and the emphasis of tradition with the story even starting out in an old traditional Japanese inn.

Mass media is destroying culture and it's up to the younger generation to navigate these two worlds of preserving who you are and accepting the progress. As a child, I found some level of annoyance that the previous generation before me who acted as my teachers and seniors, both at school, at home, and on the internet, was too forceful on things such as local tradition to the point that some of them even shame people who aren't on the same page as them. In a way, this is them trying to deal with the grander pressures of what society is demanding of them and it's something that I myself grew to understand as I got older.

When I got older, I realized how these complicated systems had genuinely ruined too many lives and destroyed individuality and culture which I know for a fact is a definite almost universal experience for the next generation, Generation Z (colloquially now known as the Zoomers). A common experience for this generation is the shattering of wonderland and the intense exposure to horrible reality at such a young age which leads to such a desensitization that it's worrying.

Most often than not, this generation is told that they are responsible for the horrible state world around them, that they should be the ones to fix the problems of society, that they should do this themselves lest they want to die. This leads to a lot of youth activism and protests with people as young as 11 or 12 being so active in politics that it continues to permeate to this day. Think of those 16-year-olds in this website back at like 2015-2016 that rallied behind the discourse. This is that generation, and it's a universal experience among the group, not just in America, but globally.

I'm gonna be a bit salty and a bit cringy here and maybe a bit biased, but fuck it this is my generation after all.

Persona 5 (2016) is the persona game for the disgruntled Gen Z. As the previous persona games were criticisms of society that could be dismissed off as individual-motivational fluff by those that love ignoring the grander themes of the series, Persona 5 is a figurative punch in the face that's hard to ignore.

No longer are we in made up cities and towns, no longer are we just focused on finding our place in the world, we're in Tokyo, Japan, baby! And we're here to tell everyone in the world that the society that you pride yourselves in is a farce that actively oppresses the weirdos, the outcasts, and the miscreants! They've done fucked up and we're not sitting idly by no more! We're not just gonna defy you by being who we are, we're going to actively stop your shit before you continue hurting others!

As pompous and self-important and even stupid as that sounds, those words reflected the battle cry of the generation. Online slacktivism, exposés, cancellations, and borderline illegal activities that basically amount to doxxing and wiretapping are part of the gen z cultural identity whether we like it or not. The generation selects the shitty adult target and doesn't let off until they're gone and had paid for their crimes.

As how shitty these witch hunts could get, there is no denying that deplatforming dangerous individuals had garnered good results on the cases where it doesn't become a shit storm. In a way, the Phantom Thieves are the success stories that the copycats that we know about in-game try to emulate but just end up hurting innocent people.

As it stands, in the retrospect that we have more than half a decade later after the game's initial launch, Persona 5 interestingly also stands as not only a criticism of larger societal issues, but also to those who try to respond to it by force and how they don't help long-term and are simply contributing to society's oppressive systems. It's interesting to note here how the choice of taking Yaldabaoth's offer of keeping the Phantom Thieves a part of the grander influencers of Japanese society is considered a bad ending.

As much as you want to change society, you best be careful to not fall in the same trappings that would make you the villain that you so desperately fought against. Despite your good judgment before, you should not be the arbiter of right and wrong. You should be there to liberate people, not control them.

The games development in itself is interesting in that not only did it take a long time, but it's based on a lot of real-life events that led to the writing team to develop the game in this direction.

The original plan for the game was supposed to be a road trip with the characters possibly even going international. I speculate that it may be a story that would have supposedly tackled globalization and its effects on the individual which is also an equally poignant thing that Gen Z has experienced. This all changed, however, when Japan was rocked by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 which launched the country into a national crisis. The team became more aware about their country's situation and the people within Japan that it made them change the focus back into Japanese-society.

This refocus seemed to have spurred the writing into a more rebellious direction than the previous concepts possibly owed to the rise of social awareness within the country. News stories had never been more front and center than they have with not only the rise of the internet but it's domination in daily life. In fact, Japanese players had pointed out that the first arc of the game, the lustful PE teacher Suguru Kamoshida, may be based on a real life case of Masato Uchishiba, an Olympic medalist judoka that was accused of sexual harassment and rape by the women's team that he coached which broke out into the news the same year this sudden shift of direction happened.

With news after news of this caliber, it's not surprising that the game had such a frustration with how society works and the failings of authority to protect and to serve the people.

With all of these in mind, as much as the series in itself is flawed, it's such a fascinating reflection of the times. Each of these games are, to a degree, timeless in the fact that they tackle constant pervasive issues that affects not only Japanese society but the grander global culture. Though besides this, the context of the time period and the setting gives such a raw view of what the issues most prevalent were at the time and the struggles of the generation that these games were released for.

I know that there is absolutely no indication that Atlus would be releasing Persona 6 in the near future, but I am assured of one thing. Persona 6 is going to be a reflection of the generation that will grow up with the main characters. It would be a criticism and an earnest look at society's ills that are important to the next generation. The series will continue to build up on previous themes and discussions of the previous games as each generation continues to build up on the discourse of the last. This is the intriguing relationship of the Persona series and the generational experience.

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