Me: Persona 4 is my fav. It has my fav cast, my fav setting, my fav plot/story, and my fav elements! I love P4! Also me: *replays P3P/FES yet again*

My love, is mine all mine - Max Verstappen x Norris! Reader x Charles Leclerc Part 1

Plot: Norris' Twin sister is also a driver in the 2021 line up and is in her rookie era. Not only do the commentators struggle to now talk about the pair in the race, but they also struggle to talk about talent. What happens when two drivers find her eye-catching.

A/N: A lot of back story explaining the 2021 season so far!

Credit to countingstars-17 for the GIF

"So when we talk about the Norris twins, obviously due to Y/N being female it has pushed her career back further than her brothers, where she is debuting into McLaren alongside her brother we will be able to see a real test of talent"

"Yes i think it will be really interesting to see them both in the same team competing against one another while still driving for that same team. They have very similar driving styles and I can imagine them helping one another out when it comes to pole positions and keeping both of them within the top ten for points" Jenso replies to Nico.

This was from an interview at the start of the 2021 season, just before your first race in Bahrain. When Zac Brown reached out to you, you were more than happy to take up the offer. Being able to not only race alongside your brother once again but by being his team mate as well had you so excited for the season.

Bahrain went really well, Lando being in his 3rd year of Formula 1 and within the same team now felt comfortable in his car, and it had the pace this year and he came P4, you had some difficulties where you weren't fully used to the difference in the F1 car, compared too your old F2 but still managed to wrangle 6 points for the team in P7.

Imola came after a larger break where you and Lando got to travel home for a few weeks before and check on everything in the MTC before travelling to Italy. Lando got a podium in P3 and like the interview had said, he kept enough of a time gap to help you defend of the two Ferrari's behind you. You came P4. To say that Charles wasn't happy with this, as you knocked him down a place was an understatement.

Portugal was the week after and you travelled straight there, sightseeing with your brother, Daniel, Carlos and Charles. You would often leave them in bars and clubs and find yourself in cafe's and museums. Portugal wasn't as good as a race as you could have hoped, but even with car issues you still managed to get points in P9, while your brother came P5.

After this race, where you went straight to Spain, you started to get home sick. Only having your brother by your side as your parents and other siblings couldn't come out for the last few races due to their own busy schedules. Spain was an incredible race for you making you feel better for the next week ahead. You came P4 managing to overtake Charles on the last lap, which again heavily annoyed him, and very nearly catching up to the Mercedes in P3 while you left your brother in the dust in P8.

There was another break after this race, you and Lando both went home you saw Max and his girlfriend who you'd missed dearly and your family, then Charles had invited you and Lando to come spend some time on his yacht in Monaco with his younger brother who you knew of from the F2 garage when he'd been invited to come watch.

You had been nervous for the race in Monaco, it was a difficult track and so far, you hadn't been in a position where you hadnt gained the team points. However Monaco was clearly not your race, from the mixture of your nerves and car issues you came P12, while you brother stood on the podium, in P3.

The next week in Azerbaijan went so much better, with Max, and both Mercedes not having pace, you'd managed some effortless overtakes and insanely quick pit stops. You'd had a second pit stop and was on fresher tires that your brother so you were behind him, you were flying and going much quicker than him but your engineer didn't want you to go for the overtake.

You did anyway against their advice, pushing until you were behind Charles Leclerc's Ferrari, you went for a cheap move that you knew was safe but would have him fuming in interviews afterwards until you were up alongside Pierre Gasly, you were P4 and he was P3, driving alongside him you couldn't tell who went over the checked flag until you heard from your radio engineer that this was your first podium win.

You cried... of course you did. But this was the start of a rocky patch for you and Lando, he was fuming at you the minute you got out of your car. You were asked not to go for the overtake but you did anyway. He was yelling in your face angrily, taking away the beaming smile.

Lando hadn't realized you'd got your first podium, he was just angry that you'd bumped him down a place. You looked upset on your podium, a sad smile as you raised you trophy, stood up there with Sergio and Sebastian. They'd both given you a hug trying to cheer you up having seen on the TV what happened with you and Lando.

"Well done on your win Y/N" a voice startled you as you turned to your side seeing Max Verstappen stood there congratulating you.

"Thank you. I'm sorry about the DNF, France will be better next weekend for you I'm sure" you smile, a light blush held on his face.

"I'm also sorry about how your brother reacted. I've been in this sport for 6 years now and as a word of advise sometimes you have to go against what your team ask of you, you gained more points for the team today than you would have if you did stay put behind your brother. So take it as not only as a win for you but a win for McLaren as well" he smiles before pulling you into a comforting hug. His words had really hit you, nobody had said that to you today, but then again Seb and Checo probably didn't here the opposing radios yet as they'd been on the podium with you.

"Thank you, i really needed to here that Max" you smile genuinely.

"Hey, that overtake was so risky!" a voice shouts over, and thundering footsteps stand behind you.

"Huh?" you'd asked looking over your shoulder, Max's gaze following yours.

"Charles, leave her alone!" Max says with pointed eyes at the Ferrari golden boy coming close to you.

"No, she needs to stop doing overtakes like that at the last minute. They are dangerous and have no thought behind them, you even put your own brother at risk today because she can't listen to her own team" he yells his exaggerated hand gestures going everywhere.

"Her overtakes today was phenomenal. She just got her first podium, her brother has already spoiled that don't make it worse by being a prick" Max says, but Charles is fuming and too far gone that the stuff coming out his mouth is there from pure anger.

"She shouldn't have even had that win today! It's not fair, she shouldn't even have that seat!" he exclaims, Max gasps and you look down.

"Charles!" he exclaims, but before you can hear anything else you are out the door running towards the McLaren motorhome. You packed up your stuff saying quick apologies to the engineers who would take anything you left behind. You didn't have a car here so you walked from the track to the hotel, a few people spotted you but thankfully didn't interrupt seeing the tears streaking down your face. They must have seen both Charles and Lando yelling at you today.

You booked a flight to London for that night, you had your bags packed and sent to the airport before you had Seb offer to drive you to the airport.

"Thank you Seb, I really appreciate it" you smile, looking down at your phone. It rung with Lando's icon popping up. You pressed decline and put your phone on do not disturb.

"It's okay. I saw the videos of Lando and Charles with you surfacing. I'm sorry" he admits, rubbing your shoulder, as you turned to look away from him so he couldn't see the tears coming down your face.

In no time you were at the airport, you'd thanked Seb who promised he'd see you in France and asked you to let him know when you were safe and home.

You sat in the airport alone, your covid mask on, but you knew people still recognized you as you went through security and waited for the plane where they would take pictures of you. Some even came up asking for pictures or signing their merch, but where it was so late there wasn't too many that it alarmed you or security.

When you landed in the UK, your dad was right there pulling you into a hug, cussing his son out saying how he should have been there to celebrate the win. You cried to him, telling him about how shit you felt after what Lando and Charles had said.

"Lets go home" he says rubbing your shoulders.

As you both walk into the house, you can overhear you mum and younger sister on the phone to someone.

"No mum, I just want to know if she's home safe" you hear your twin's voice across the phone.

"Look hunny, your dad's gone to the airport but I don't know if he's got her yet. She's upset though Lando" you hear your mum reply.

"I know, and I know its my fault, i didn't realize she got the team more points because she overtook Charles and Pierre. I didn't get to apologize because she left right after the race"

"Because you were?" his mother pushes and he groans.

"Mum"

"No Lando where were you"

"At the club"

"Yes you were at the club, celebrating while your sister was packing her bags in her hotel room crying her eyes out because she gets her first win in F1, and her brother cant even congratulate her and watch her podium with the rest of their team? She'll see you in France but for now she needs some time alone" you mother rants at him.

"Arghhh that boy Flo, can you believe him. When i next see him, i swear to god!" she exclaims and you and your dad finally make yourself known.

"Hey guys!" you try to smile, but it doesn't reach across your face like they are used to. Flo immediately runs up to you pulling you into a hug. You started to cry into her again, before Cisca, your mother and father all join in the hug.

"Come, we'll order your fave tonight as a treat okay?" your mum guides as she sits you down at the table.

Taglist:

@littlesatanicassholebitch @hockey-racing-fubol @laura-naruto-fan1998 @22yuki @simxican @sinofwriting @lewisroscoelove @cmleitora @stupidandunnecessary @clayra-g @daemyratwst @honey-belden @moonypixel @lauralarsen @vader-is-hot @ironcowboycopnickel @itsjustkhaos @the-untamed-soul @beebo86 @happylittlereader @ziejustme @lou-larcher5 @thewulf @purplephantomwolf @chasing-liberosis @chillyleclerc @chanthereader @annoyingmoonballoon @summissss @evieepepi08 @havaneseoger08 @celesteblack08 @gulphulp @fandom1ruined2me @celebstories @starfusionsworld @jspitwall @sierruhh @georgeparisole @dakotatankbig @youcannotcancelquidditch @zzonsbeek @tallbrownhairsarcastic @mellowarcadefun @ourteenagetragedy @otako5811 @countingstacksandpanicattacks @peachiicherries @formulas-bitch @cherry-piee @hopexcroc @mirrorball-6 @spilled-coffee-cup @mehrmonga @bigsimperika @blueberry64857959 @eiraethh @lilypadlover

Do you ever think about how Chie (and Yukiko iirc?) have both previously called Yosuke a disappointment, meaning they were, albeit in part, one of the reasons for his low self esteem

Obviously they didn't do it on purpose, since Yosuke always tries to act like those words don't phase him, always acting like he's very confident

But I wonder, if he were to ever open up to them and start showing his more sensitive side in general, how would the girls react? Like would they feel a bit guilty or something?

Many thoughts... many very, very disorganized thoughts......

Oooooh yeah I do indeed think about this, and apart from Chie and Yukiko, Teddie has also described Yosuke as a "prince of disappointment"/"everyone's favourite disappointment"

Yosuke, of course, also being the one that calls himself a disappointment the most.

So this is just my perspective based on my life experience, but I think that to some extent, it very much reflects the kind of humour that was very pervasive around that time. As a millennial it's pretty typical for friends to rib into each other as banter (see also Yosuke to Kanji) and to employ self-deprecation as a joke, and it's kind of a mark of friendship -- you really only do that to people that you're very close friends with, because it's about in-group jokes (e.g. Chie can call Yosuke a disappointment, but that random classmate can't) and a reflection of just how well you know a person.

It's kind of complicated to talk about because I'm not saying that it was necessarily good, since it can be quite insensitive if you're not conscious of someone's personal issues. And some people definitely don't enjoy that sort of humour, because it's also highly, highly contextual and easy to misread. Some bullies also use that as a justification for why they're saying mean things, which is especially unpleasant in the workplace LOL. I feel like as I've gotten older this has become less common? Or maybe I'm just not as comfortable with the friends I've made in adulthood to want to readily rip into them? But then again I have maybe three friends I'm willing to banter like this with and we've been close friends for about a decade, which I think kind of drives home the point I'm making about how this is the kind of joke you only make with people that you've been through a lot with, which the IT are. I think it's humour that's meaningful in the narrative context because it's a signpost that indicates their shared experience in the TV world was no trivial thing, just like how Yosuke calling Yu "aibou" reflects the same sentiment.

But, as you said, because of how Yosuke puts on an act of confidence, I don't think most people pick up on it other than Yu, because Chie, Yukiko and Teddie probably just think it's part of the bit that Yosuke is doing (Yosuke also refuses to show his weaknesses to anyone other than Yu, but that's probably another conversation). One of the weaker spots of P4/G (and P5), I feel, is that it isn't as revealing about the interpersonal relationships between characters outside of the protag character. Which I don't really expect, but it was really nice to see in P3. So all we have to go on is the spin offs, and I think if we compare Chie and Yukiko's distanced friendliness with Yosuke in the Magician manga vs their expression of reliance and dependence on Yosuke in P4AU, for example, we can see that developed dynamic.

Would they feel guilty? Probably, but they're also teenagers who are still figuring out interpersonal interactions and personal boundaries (and this goes for Yosuke as well), and I think this friction is sometimes just part and parcel of growing up. I do think that if Chie and Yukiko realise that Yosuke does have a sore spot about it they'd change the way they speak with him because they genuinely care about him, especially as they mature into adulthood.

Going a little off tangent now and this is just my headcanon, but I also wonder if Yosuke initiated that sort of humour with Chie and Yukiko shortly after their rescue to help them relax. Yosuke likes to use humour to diffuse tension (which doesn't always work) but it's not hard to imagine him sensing awkwardness from the two of them (they really weren't close friends at all prior to the TV world), so he makes himself the butt of a joke to get them to laugh, and when they latch on to it he's actually kind of happy because it means he's done something useful. (ngl ever since I saw Tamami's clown motif stage in p4d I have not stopped thinking about her parallels with Yosuke)

Why the Persona 3 FES vs Portable Debate Makes Me Want to Fly Into the Sun Pt. 3

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Da da da daaa!

Part 3 of this lovely emotional rant is here, for anyone who wants to spend their time reading these. With the last two posts, I have mostly tried to be informative or just complain a bit about why this debate makes me want to fly into the sun, but for this post it’s going to go a little different. Perhaps a bit more subjective than the others.

In this post, I’m going to go over everyone's favorite clusterfuck...a definitive version of Persona 3.

Now, as we established in the previous post, we know that the argument of FES vs Portable is essentially pointless because everyone’s opinion on either game is subjective. However, I have neglected to bring up this topic that puts a huge ass nail into this dusty old coffin: the fact that there is objectively no definitive version of Persona 3.

Everyone can argue all day and night about which version of P3 is better, but no one can deny that either version are “definitive.” By definitive, I mean that the game has the most content that is offered, like Persona 4 Golden or Persona 5 Royal. The reason none of the P3 games are definitive is because base P3 lacks stuff from FES and Portable, FES lacks stuff fro Portable, and Portable lacks things from FES. It’s a gamble of whether you want to experience cutscenes, an overworld, and The Answer, or a whole new route with the FeMC and the brand new option of dating male party members and saving...you know who.

One might be able to say FES is definitive because it has The Answer, which I believe is considered canon according to the Arena games. Another could say Portable is the definitive version because it came out after FES, added the FeMC (who is technically canon as per the second Persona Q game), and removes The Answer (which a lot of people said The Answer messed with the core theme of P3). However, the definition of definitive in this case, and with all of the other games, is that the game offers the most content. Arguably, FES and Portable provide the same amount of content, just in different ways. This is why this whole conversation of which one is better, or which to play first, spawned in the first place.

The reason I am bringing this up in this post, about why this whole discussion physically pains me, is because having a real, definitive version of the game could finally put this discussion to rest. At least, it somewhat would. People would probably still argue that FES is the best for some reason.

Now, the argument becomes...well, what does a definitive version of Persona 3 look like?

I have seen quite a bit about this topic, and people seem to really miss some common sense points. For example, they get caught up in whether it would be considered a remake or a remaster. I know some use those terms interchangeably, but the “official” definition for each is that a remake is a game that is made from scratch, while a remaster is made by updating the existing assets and engine. For example, the upcoming Nocturne HD release is a remaster. Personally I find it difficult to neatly fit the typical persona definitive editions, like Golden and Royal, into either of these categories. It may just be me not fully grasping the differences between the two, but I believe they would fit into more of the “remaster” category. It is true that there are new assets and content being added to the game, but it’s so minor that I’m not sure it could be considered a remake. On the other hand, because new content is added it couldn’t just be defined as a remaster because typically the effects and such aren’t even changed that much. It’s just gameplay and story content that is tweaked.

When people get so caught up in what it would be considered, logic seems to...go out the window? For example, in a debate between a P3 remaster or remake, a person made a comment that if a remake was to happen then people would demand that all of the social links be available to anyone. Now, that just isn’t possible for a variety of reasons. There’s no way we could ever mix and match social links to get a preferred grouping. Another issue with this is that if just a remaster was made, then one of the two games would be left out.

This is why I don’t really think about whether a definitive edition is a remaster or remake, because using such strict labels make it harder to judge what could, or should, be in one. This is why I’m just referring to this process as making a definitive edition. That being said, I would consider a definitive P3 game to be more of a remake (not that it really matters) because my ideas would essentially combine FES and Portable, in a way?

So here we go, into my idea of what a definitive version of Persona 3 would look like. (Warning: This will contain spoilers for all of the P3 story and *gasp* may be a bit biased toward Portable because I like it more)

1. Presentation

In simple terms, I would want the game to essentially be Portable...but with updated graphics, cutscenes from FES, and an overworld. It’s easier to use Portable as a base because it’s already closer to the format of P4 and P5, so then adding in the good parts of FES with the cutscenes and overworld are par for the course. As far as graphics go, I would like the models and environment to look more like P3D (aka whatever engine they used for Persona 5?) because damn did the characters get a glow up.

2. Gameplay

Along with the format of Portable, I would also want the gameplay of Portable to be in this definitive version. That means no jealousy system, no fatigue until after you leave tartarus, the vision quest, and the other changes I mentioned in the first post. Sorry FES fans, but yes...I would still want the option of controllable party members. However, a new change that should be added is backup members earning exp. I don’t think baton passes or anything should be added, we don’t want a clone of P5, and the combo attacks in P3P kind of fill this role anyway. The idea of having social links give certain perks with ranks, like how confidants work in P5, is interesting but I don’t think it would be necessary. I would also say that the soundtrack should be exclusive for each side, like how it is in Portable, and that there should be an option to choose which skills are inherited.

3. Social Links

The stance I would take with social links would essentially be how Portable did it, but with a slight tweak. No matter how much it would be cool to date Rio or Saori as the Male MC, or vice versa with Kaz or Keisuke and FeMC, I don’t think any mixing of the two sides would really be feasible. However, I would love to see cameos of those characters in the opposing routes. For example, you see Yuko and Kaz in the female route, but in the male route you could see Saori and Rio at school. That being said, and this is probably one of the biggest issues, I would want the male protag to be able to have social links with the entire party, men included. This brings up the issue of what social links you would cut out because you can’t have two social links be the exact same arcana. Unless they want to add more arcanas to the game, which would probably not go over well either, the best option is probably to prioritize the male party members and then have who would usually be in their place just show up sometimes. For example, Kenji would show up in the social link with Junpei instead of the magician social link just being about one or the other.

I know this seems weird, but it does kind of avoid shafting one or the other. If it was too hard to fit the two together (such as Chihiro and Ken both being Justice), perhaps a few more school scenes could be added where the MC interacts with the school friends that are not seen as much (Kenji, Chihiro, etc.) However, and this might piss off 1% of people but whatever, but the moon arcana with Nozomi (Gourmet king dude) could just be completely taken over by Shinji. Nozomi is a meme, but he is not needed in any way. Also, I would prioritize Yuko in the male route over Koromaru since, although he is a very good boy, he is still a dog. Also, please get rid of the option that you’re forced to romance every girl in the male route, and personally I would say keep in the fact that you cannot date Junpei. In a headcanon sort of way, I totally dig the idea of the MC being able to help Junpei through his rough time after Chidori dies (if she dies?) and feelings grow from there, but from a story perspective I think it’s integral to his character that he friendzones the player if they try.

So TLDR; who the social link is about would mainly stay true to the original route (male route with Kaz, etc. and female route with Rio, etc.), however in the male route the party members would take priority (so Akihiko would take the star arcana place and Mamoru (track guy) would just be featured in the link sometimes), and in both routes Shinji would take Nozomi’s place as the moon. Important note that besides including the other character, the main substance of the social link shouldn’t be changed; aka they should not change the format of the social links to operate more like P5 social links where the MC is just solving all of their problems.

(Sidenote: This is imply my idea on how to include party members into the social links for the male route, however if they just decided to keep the social links the exact same as Portable with no male party member social links with the male route then I’d be fine with that too. It wouldn’t really take away from the game as a whole for me, personally.)

4. Romance Options

Riding off of the social link talk...and I know this is like the least likely option of happening, but please make some gay options Atlus? If we can romance every single girl in the male route, why not just add the romance option for the men too? Yes yes there’s the whole argument about the issue of “making everyone bi” (thanks for erasing sexuality that care more about connections rather than gender?), but I say look no further than how Dragon Age 2 did it. Every romanceable option in that game can be romanced be either the male or female main character (barring a DLC character who is only romanceable by females), and it works just fine. Turns out, no one really gives a shit if it’s “realistic” enough (aka only having one or no bi/gay people apparently?) because it’s a video game and people want to romance whoever they want...because it’s a video game. Even if you really, really don’t like this approach there is also the option of going the Dragon Age Inquisition route, where characters are able to be romanced by certain genders and not by others (race also plays a role in this in the game, since there are elves and other fantasy races and such, but this is not applicable to Persona obviously). This is simply a hypothetical example, but how this would work is that like Fuuka can only be romanced by the Male MC, Akihiko and Yukari could be romanced by either MC, and Mitsuru could only be romanced by the FeMC. Obviously social links specific to a run would be a romanceable option to the MC in their route (as in Yuko would only be romanceable by Male MC because she’s only in her run, and social links like Saori could be a romance for FeMC because she’s specific to her route). I have a gut feeling this would cause an even bigger uproar with the fandom, so having any romance option (barring route specific social links for the route they’re not in) be available for either male or female MC is the best option in my opinion.

Take out Ken’s romance option altogether though. I know some of the language is different, so it doesn’t say you “spend a long night together” or whatever, but that doesn’t really make it any better. I do think it’s fine if Ken has a crush on the MC, and maybe has a whole Kenji thing of thinking they are together cause he’s 10 and kids can be like that, but the MC wouldn’t actually act on this and the player could be given the choice to actively dissuade Ken. The only good thing that came out of Ken’s romance option was the fact that him and Akihiko can argue in Tartarus if you romance them both, and I don’t want to lose that hilarious dialogue.

5. Tartarus

Tartarus...uh...to be honest I’m not really sure what to do with this beast. It’s boring and tedious in the first place, probably by design for symbolism in the game, but I’m not sure how to make it interesting without copying the dungeon/palace format. Perhaps the blocks could be restructured to act more like a big puzzle that needs to be solved, like certain sections of palaces in P5, but also have bosses and shadows thrown in. For example, perhaps one block could be more reminiscent of hide-and-seek stealth tactics while another is formatted like a series of arena-esque gladiator fights. Also probably lower the number of floors you need to climb? It gets a bit ridiculous when you realize there are 264 floors of Tartarus and 99% of them are the same but just with more funky music and slightly different decorations. This job is suited for someone with actual video game making experience though, and not me.

6. Awakenings and Pacing

Let’s talk about some quick fixes to awakenings and pacing of the game. Now, since this is a definitive version and not a true remake, I wouldn’t want them to rewrite the entire story or something. Most of the party member’s original awakenings happen off screen, which can be kind of lackluster. The MC’s and Fuuka’s are the only two we really see, and those moments were really cool in my opinion. Obviously we wouldn’t see Mitsuru’s, Akihiko’s, or Shinji’s original awakenings, but that is fine. Yukari and Junpei also fall into this boat because Yukari awakens before the MC gets to the dorm, and it would be hard to show Junpei’s awakening while also having his whole “reveal” moment when he comes to the dorm to live there. I don’t know if it’s ever mentioned when Ken awakens to his persona, but making a scene to show both his and Koromaru’s would be helpful instead of just saying Ken has the potential and he’s joining, and hearing about Koromaru awakening but not actually seeing it. As for the pacing, I’m mainly talking about the summer time where you can’t hang out with a good number of social links. I would just change this so that you can hang out with school social links during this time more readily, like if they’re just hanging out somewhere in town if they’re not at school. Like I said, this isn’t a remake (and I’m not a video game designer) so I didn’t want to get into how to fix the overall pacing of the story, which can be pretty slow until October or so. My one suggestion is maybe adding in a few extra scenes with Strega before October so it’s not like we run into them a couple times and suddenly they’re a major villain.

7. Shinjiro

(Spoilers for after October) I know certain people will definitely not like this point, but I think the option to save Shinji should remain in the game (and Chidori too). I’ll go into this in another post, but my main reason for keeping this in is because some people really do like this option, so it would be kind of unfair just to get rid of it because other people don’t like it. However, I would suggest a change to his social link so that there is the option to save him or not while also being able to complete the social link. Perhaps after rank 10 would be when you could give him the pocket watch, so that people could get the rank 10 and not be forced to save him. 

8. Extra Content

(Spoilers for the ending of Persona 3 and The Answer) Each definitive version has extra content in the “third semester” (because Persona 4 and 5 both essentially end after December), but in Persona 3 the natural game ends in January. I am not sure if they would try to add another whole months or so on, but because The Answer already exists, but I assume they wouldn’t add extra content in February or something for the MC. For The Answer, I would keep this in the game as sort of the “extra content” but add a FeMC version of this. Obviously it would be largely the same, except with the FeMC and perhaps the male party members could get more of a focus since the female party members get a larger focus in the male route (ie. Yukari breaking down with the keys. Maybe Junpei or Akihiko could take on this role as the people who don’t want to let go). Also, as a possible new addition to The Answer, Shinji could be a part of it if he is saved during the main game. In the NG+ run of Portable FeMC route, if you romance Shinji he comes to the rooftop for that final scene, so in a way it could be possible for him to recover by the time The Answer happens in March.

Now, if Atlus decided to add a more typical “extra content” thing, I hope they wouldn’t try to cram The Answer in on top of that unless they were able to do it cohesively. It might be a lot to have the whole ending of the game in January, come up with a reason to have extra content in February (presumably with the MC still alive, but also combat would need to be a part so then the issue arises of Tartarus coming back or something?), and then have the answer take place right after near the end of March.

Well that’s the end of that I think. This will also be the last post in this little “series” because I pretty much went over everything about this debate that makes me want to fly into the sun. I know the things I talked about in these posts will probably never stop, but I really hope that if a definitive version comes out at least the discussion will change to saying what is good or bad about each game rather than FES supremacy or whatever. That being said, above all I really hope this debate doesn’t discourage new fans from Persona 3 or the series in general, because that would probably be the worst outcome from all of this. It’s a great game, and it’s a shame that the game itself is kind of held back by being split into two (I’m not counting base Persona 3) different forms.

Centennial Charmed AU where Cole decides that things started to go downhill with him and Phoebe after Prue died, so he rewrites reality to save her, and Paige orbs into a new reality where Prue never died and has to choose between stopping Cole or saving her sister

okay for the record i so incredibly vibe with this ask and i think it would have been a great way for paige to meet prue, as it isn’t the typical like summoning prue from the great beyond to meet paige option, because that’s all fluff and this has Stakes.

i think in this au if we assume all hell breaks loose like continues in canon phoebe should remain trapped in the underworld with cole like the source demanded, and cole kept her down there rather than return her to her sisters. now, Obviously, this is not a recipe for love, but i think cole has enough tricks to just sorta brainwash phoebe into sorta just like an evil husk (like the opposite of what leo pulled with piper in the beginning of season six) with the full intent to leach in the real phoebe bit by bit but the process is definitely going slower than expected bc uhh phoebe’s not too keen on being evil. in this au i would definitely pin prue as the one to go cold hearted assasssin here, completely ready to raze the underworld to get her sister back. in turn i think piper would be ever more manic and fearful that she was in the earlier seasons. i don’t think she and leo would be divorced because again if you’re trying to convince me they’re soulmates don’t have them divorced in every alternate timeline???? but, that being said, i don’t think she would be pregnant bc i think she would have a crippling fear of starting a family bc with her mom dead phoebe gone and prue off the deep end off the deep end it’s clear that all family does is leave you. p3 is very much up and running because all piper does is drown herself in her work as that is the only part of her life she seems to have any control over. she doesn’t use magic anymore, in fact she’s bound her powers, but it doesn’t matter bc prue does enough killing for the both of them. (also paige doesn’t lose orbing in the new reality bc that her innate ability??? she does lose telekinetic orbing)

so paige sneezes herself into a new reality without realizing it, all she realizes is piper isn’t in the back room anymore. but she figures hey you know maybe that was a major sneeze and maybe i was out for a minute or two and piper just went back to darryl’s party. so she pops out of the backroom and there’s no immediate difference and she sees piper at the bar so she heads on over like “haha wow how long was i gone for also where’s darryl wasn’t he just sitting over there?” and piper’s looking at her like she’s talking to me like she knows me but i do not recognize her at all but as i am bartending i’m just gonna place nice and is like “oh sorry no i don’t know where he went” and paige is like “huh that’s weird did you change” and now she’s like actually registering what piper looks like and is like “OOOOHMYGOD WHY AREN”T YOU PREGNANT ANYMORE???????????” and piper’s like “look. you’ve obviously got me confused with someone else so-” and paige is just like “you don’t recognize me At All?” and piper’s like “sorry no?????” so now paige is thinking she’s in some alternate reality or plane or mirror dimension and if there’s anyone who can clue her into where it’s a psychic so paige is looking around like “do you know where phoebe is?” and piper stops dead in her tracks and she’s like “i don’t know if you heard but phoebe doesn’t live here anymore now i’d really appreciate it if you’d leave and paige is like okay well that’s bad and you know offering an apology and leaves p3.

but uhh she still can orb and she can still orb to her sisters so she orbs to phoebe and finds herself in the underworld???? what’s she doing here??????? and she’s like “hey phoebe how ya doin i’m in a bit of a sticky situation here was hopin you could help me out also why are we in the underworld rn?” and phoebe just glares at paige and paige is like “okay cliffnotes version patty and sam’s affair yeah that’s me i’m the baby i’m your long longs sister my name’s paige-” and at the word sister phoebe just like snaps and dives at paige so you know paige orbs out of the way like “phoebe!!!!” and phoebe just dives at her again and now paige is starting to get a lil weirded out because phoebe’s black belt barbie yet all she’s going is just sorta lunging claws out?????? something off. way off. and paige is so caught off guard that phoebe actually manages to pin paige to the ground and paige is like !!!!! hope this works!!! and claps her hands around phoebe’s temples. and phoebe flinches, eyes closed, lost in a vision. she comes to and looks at paige, but there’s nothing in her eyes. paige is like “phoebe. it’s me.” but phoebe just gets up and walks away, emotionless. and paige is like Okay This Is BAD. and when things get bad, you go to the book.

the only issue is paige is leafing through the book and she has no idea what she’s looking for. there isn’t really a page for “oh you’re stuck in an alternate timeline where everything Sucks Balls? here’s a quick and easy spell to get you out!” so paige is just flipping. enchantment spell so she can see past this enchantment? truth spell so she can find the true world?? and she’s like “hello could use some help here!!!!” and then finds herself promptly being thrown into a wall. she looks over to see a woman approaching, and barely registers “prue?” before a bookcase falls on her.

paige wakes up in a crystal cage, with prue sitting across from her holding charged crystal shards. paige immediately recognizes whats up and is all like “woah woah woah please don’t electrocute me i promise i can explain everything!!!!” and prue’s like “okay. why don’t you start by how you got in the attic and what you were doing with the book?” and paige is like “!!!! evil can’t touch the book! evil can’t touch the book and i was touching the book so please don’t electrocute me!” and prue glares at paige and slowly sets down the crystals bc she does sorta have a point but prue’s not convinced. and paige clearly relaxes a little and prue asks again what exactly she is doing here. so paige takes a deep breath and is like “i’m your sister” and prue scowls and telekinetically launches a crystal shard at the cage, frying it. good thing paige has great reflexes. she orbs out of the cage before she can be shocked. so now prue is like. What. The Actual. Fuck. but lucky for her paige is already rambling. “my name’s paige matthews and i was born august 7th, 1977! my parents are patty halliwell and sam wilder! and you never met me because i was given up for adoption!”

now here’s the thing. when patty was pregnant, piper was three or four and phoebe was like two. they Really did not know what was up. but prue was like 7. i don’t remember a lot from age four, but i can easily pull up age seven. and prue now knows patty was pregnant. the timeline fits. she’s just not convinced that the carrot top in front of her is her sister. (she could orb though, so that was a strong piece of evidence for) so she lets paige talk a little more

and paige is like “okay. i think i managed to sneeze myself into some weird alternate universe because um. This Is Not How Things Are. and if i had to guess whose to blame here: it’s cole.” and prue’s like “wow. he’s still a bag of shit in your timeline?” and paige is like “yeah!!!! an obsessive, unvanquishable bag of shit!!!” and prue’s like “well, bright side? he’s not unvanquishable here.”

let’s rock n roll buckaroo!!! well piper is Very surprised to find the girl she kicked out of the bar now brewing a potion in her kitchen, and uhh if we’re being honest Absolutely Pissed Off. because so far this girl has 1) brought up the idea of her being pregnant, an insult to a woman who is too terrified to start a family 2) brought up her kidnapped quasi evil sister not five minutes later to rub salt in that wound and 3) is now actively practicing magic in her home, something piper tries to avoid at all costs. so whatever’s happening right now, Piper Will Not Have It. except prue is chasing her down and refusing to let her leave because that girl is their sister??? and they’re going to vanquish cole?????????? yeah. no. absolutely not. and prue’s got a freshly brewed batch of potion to unbind powers that she’s trying to shove down piper’s throat but she’s really lost it if she thinks piper will ever practice magic again. and now they’re having a shouting match and piper’s trying to leave but prue is forcing the door shut and paige is in the kitchen like this is super awkward and i feel like i shouldn’t be hearing this but at the same time i feel like i should intervene but also i feel like its not my place but also they’re about to rip each others head off so i should probably do something so she goes over to the foyer like “piper. i know you don’t know me but i know you. you are the strongest person i know and the strongest witch i know. you have taught me so much, and i know you’re going to teach my new baby niece a lot too. i don’t think you should unbind your powers if you don’t want to. but if you think you can’t handle them, i promise you you can.” and there’s a moment of silence before piper’s like “strongest witch, huh?” and paige nods and laughs lightly and piper looks and prue with the potion and is like “i need some time to think about it.” and prue’s like >:(!!!!!! but paige is like “no, just let her sort through things. she’ll figure things out on her own time.” and prue’s playfully like “are you always giving me advice in your world?” and paige is like haha p̸̭͕͇͂͑̇͊̇́̽̀͘ä̵͍̪͔́̓̊͊̒͛͌̚ỉ̸̲̬͖̓͛͌͒̅̉̈̇͐͑̐ņ̷͍͖̯̠̞̾̎̂ but doesn’t like really say anything about it.

and piper’s over on the couch in the sitting room just like nervously wringing her hands and prue goes over and just sits next to her quietly with her arm wrapped around her. she leaves the potion in the foyer. you can tell by how rigid they are that they don’t do this often, they’re just emulating the ghosts of their past because they’ve almost forgotten how to be sisters. paige wanders over to the couch and perches on the arm rest because she doesn’t want to insert herself into something that she isn’t really a part of but piper reaches out and takes paige’s hand in comfort. and the chandelier starts shaking.

piper looks and prue and then looks at paige and is like “is that what i think it was?” and paige is like “the power of three” and piper just sighs quietly and stands. she looks to a flower vase and throws her hands at it, blasting it to pieces. she turns to her sisters. “let’s go kill cole”

so piper starts working on the broth for the upper level demon vanquishing potion while prue and paige sit in the living room devising a way to get close enough to cole to get a slice. prue’s talking about how he’s cloaked himself from scrying but he’s never too far from phoebe, and they’ve never really been able to summon phoebe before but now they’ve got the power of three on their side so they can probably bring her to the manor, with cole soon to follow. it’s also safe to say that cole doesn’t even know piper has her powers back, so he won’t be anticipating the good ol’ freeze-n-slice. then paige can orb downstairs, add the flesh, and bring back up the potion and boom no more belthazor but uhh paige wasn’t listening. “what if there was a way to not vanquish him?” “not vanquish cole i thought the whole point was to vanquish cole and get you back to your world?” and paige is like “yeah it was but uhhhh you’re not... in my world. you died... in 2001. shax killed you. i never actually got to meet you until now.” and prue’s like “Oh.” and paige is like “yeah.” and prue sorta just sits quietly for a minute before speaking again. “did they ever tell you about andy?” and paige is like “yeah, he was your boyfriend, right? he died?” and prue’s like “he died right there. he sacrificed himself for us. because he understood that it was his destiny to go and it was ours to continue forward. i never really understood that, i guess” and she trails off staring at the piece of carpet where andy’s body had been so many years before. the words are unspoken, but paige hears them: until now. “but what if it doesn’t have to be like that? what if we could find a way to change things, to keep you alive. i mean, i’m just meeting you now, but... i don’t...” “everything happens for a reason. if there’s one thing i’ve learned to be true, it’s that. paige, it was my time to go. to bring you into their lives to save the charmed ones. this,” prue gestures to the world around her. “this isn’t how things are supposed to be, i’ve felt it for a long time. you can save phoebe, you can save piper.” “but why can’t i save you, too?” and prue just sorta rests her hand on paige’s face and is like “i’m glad i at least got to meet you” and piper from the kitchen is like “potions ready! all we need is some belthazor flesh!” and prue stands up and offers paige her hand. paige takes it and stands and prue whispers to her sister “let’s go save the world.”

so they go up to the attic and summon phoebe with cole soon to follow and cole’s like “paige??? are you fucking with me rn???? die bitch?????” and prue’s like “You Do Not Talk To My Sister Like That” and throws him into a wall. piper freezes him and takes a slice and phoebe’s sorta just reeling in the corner like paige?? and paige takes the flesh from piper and orbs into the kitchen to finish up the potion and puts it in a little vial and goes back up in the attic and cole’s just broken out of piper’s freeze and paige is like “i do hate long goodbyes” but oh! phoebe tackles her and grabs the potion and everybody’s like phoebe!!!!!! but cole’s just laughing like “it doesn’t matter. no matter where we are, we’re meant to be together. it’s undeniable.” and phoebe’s blinking like she just woke up from a bad dream and is looking at cole, at first with a blank stare, but then confusion, and then absolute loathing. “i don’t think so.”

and cole starts screaming as the world starts spinning and with a final triumphant Bang! paige is yeeted back into the attic, back into her attic. and piper and phoebe run up like “paige??? what happened what was that???” and paige is like “that was... cole. we just vanquished cole.” and piper’s like “we???” and paige is like “yeah, i’ll explain everything, it’s been uhh it’s been a long day.” and piper and phoebe pull her into a hug and phoebe’s like “we’re just glad you’re back” and paige is like “lmao yeah i could say the say about you.” “what?” “nevermind.” and then piper looks up suddenly like “did you feel that?” and paige is like “feel what?” and phoebe looks at the her and smiles, tears pricking at the back of her eyes: “prue.”

Since Tumblr wanted to nerf this post from tags: I’m reposting it with the icky words all separated and stuff. :)

sorry for being mad and starting discourse on Sasori’s birthday but holy shit the Sasori liker side of this fandom is making me fucking insane. As a preface, I’m a huge advocate for letting people have fun and crack shipping. I’m also not a hardcore anti- I find myself thinking a lot of times anymore that antis have a tendency to take things too far and over police without leaving any room for interpretation, unfairly generalizing and often times seeing things too black and white and failing to realize nuance in some situations. That being said, I also think that shipping things that are outright and inarguably p3///dophi/lic, abu////sive and preda////tory is bad and should be condemned.

The issue I’m noticing is fucking rampant among the Sasori side of this fandom is y’all are doing anything and everything to avoid having ships for him that aren’t inarguably pe//doph/ilic and pr3d///atory. It’s like y’all will ship him with fucking ANYONE except people where the relationship would be at least to a degree okay.

You want to ship him with a woman? Cool, I think he’s a woman liker bisexual too. But why do y’all flock to the ship between him and a 15 year old girl who he addresses explicitly as a child instead of, I don’t know, Konan? Who is arguably even calls beautiful and worthy of being preserved as art? And is his own age? Something similar applies to the very specific subset of sasodei shippers who portray Deidara as young as possible and Sasori being attracted to Deidara while Deidara is as young as possible beyond what’s realistic for canon- you could easily portray Sasori being attracted to adult Deidara and you choose to make content s3//xualizing a very very young Deidara with him... why? If not for thinking p3//doph//ilia is cute and sexy? This is coming from an avid sasodei shipper.

And people who want him to be a pretty “smol boy” with a big hunky boyfriend- first of all, I encourage you to examine this, because a lot of the content I see for this is perpetuating harmful f3ti/sh1zed, yaoi-adjacent stereotypes and stereotypes based on appearance such as him being short or and “pretty”, and those are things that are harmful and perpetuating that has negative effects for real life communities, particularly LGBT men. Not only that, but a worrying majority of people in this category seem to want to s3/xualize him while making him look as young as possible. Which is concerning for reasons I hope I don’t have to explain. However, if you’re set in this- why do you jump to shipping him with someone he only knew as a child save for the instance of killing him? Why can’t we ship him with Kakuzu or something? Or just have your own headcanons about him and Deidara? And sure, arguments can be made about how Kakuzu and Deidara are also bad to ship with him, but those ships are where I tend to think that there’s more nuance and it’s not necessarily bad to ship even if I understand why someone would personally be uncomfortable.

And for both of these- making OCs is an option. I get he doesn’t interact with a lot of people in canon, but OC x Canon ships aren’t harmful and in my opinion, there’s a lot of unfair bias against them for absolutely no good reason. Make OCs to ship with him. That’s what I did. Or get creative with canon characters to ship with him- nothing wrong with shipping him with someone he has no interaction with but could have a potentially good dynamic with.

It’s literally like you guys will ship him with anyone else to avoid having, for lack of a more civil term, non-freak ships for him. I’m not sure what it is about Sasori specifically that attracts this extreme on both sides, I guess he just has a lot of traits that make him bait for both extremes or something, but this is getting so worrying and I know a lot of people who agree but are too afraid to say it because some of y’all will be so vicious about it. I’m trying to keep this as civil as possible. It’s getting to the point I’m coming across Naruto fans who are instantly weary of people who have Sasori as a favorite because a lot of us either romanticize and s//3xualize these really horrible things, perpetuate harmful stereotypes, or are straight up mean and elitist for no reason.

Alright, that’s my Sasori birthday rant. No, I’m not going to turn anon options on for my ask box- if you want to argue about this, do it with your name attached to it if you really stand by what you have to say about it. If you aren’t going to be civil, have the balls to do it with your own name. I doubt this is even going to reach a lot of people in opposition to this though granted I’m pretty sure I have a good majority of the people this is targeted at blocked, but still. This has been bugging me for a while and it’s been bugging a lot of the people I’m friends with for a while and I feel like someone needs to say something about it.

EDIT: adding on to this instead of making a new post so I don’t clog the Sasori tag with discourse, and because it’s related. You guys... know you don’t have to make Sasori as young as possible, right? You don’t have to portray him as physically 15. He can realistically be 18-19 physically, and he can be up into his mid to late twenties physically- his timeline is heavily up to interpretation granted how painfully inconsistent and contradictory Kishimoto was with writing it. Portraying him as a 15 year old in l3/wd situations is you choosing to portray him as a 15 year old in l3/wd situations when you do not have to. That’s weird and gross to go out of your way to headcanon him at the youngest possible physical age for him and then portray him in n///5//fw situations. If you subscribe to the timeline of him being physically 25 and portray him in those situations- knock yourself out, make him have his d1/ck out and in shit all you want, but if you subscribe to him being 15 physically and do that shit.... please fucking stop it.

Training Montage

Ao3 (recommended)

Description: Anakin was the Chosen One and therefore the best padawan anyone could ask for, especially Master Obi-Wan. He was so good, in fact, that he had plenty of time for shenanigans or, as he privately referred to them, Shenanakins. Force, he was clever. Several snippets from the training of Anakin Skywalker. Author’s Note: Fanfiction, in 2020? It's more likely than you think. I'm working on several Star Wars projects right now, and here's one that is far less structured with far less need for in depth planning. Original Upload Date: 2020-08-27 Fandom: Star Wars Prequels (post TPM, pre AotC) Characters: Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, various side characters Rating: Gen (or T for language) Warnings: Swearing, Canon-typical Violence Word Count: 6490

Chapter 1 of ??

Chapter 1: Moles? In My Mine? It's More Likely Than You Think.

At the age of five, Anakin resolved to never be the kind of moody teenager spacers complained about. At the age of twelve, he decided that not only was that naive of him, but that he would get a head start and be moody right that second.

This change of heart was mostly due to Obi-Wan, who was refusing to take any missions offworld with him even though Anakin got his own lightsaber a whole three weeks ago and was therefore completely qualified.

“Having a lightsaber doesn’t help diplomacy, Padawan,” said Obi-Wan, completely missing the point.

“So don’t choose diplomatic missions! I bet there are hundreds of pirates hanging around… I don’t know, Batuu.”

“Batuu has smugglers, not pirates, Anakin–”

“– And?! We can arrest smugglers–”

“– And anyway, it would be irresponsible of me to take a padawan as young as yourself into a confrontation like that.”

“I’m not nine anymore! I’m not some dumb initiate, I can handle pirates.” If he was the first in his classes to fight pirates, he’d be able to hold it over them for ages. Even Iepa would have to respect him, smug son of a–

“I was still an initiate when I was your age.”

“Well I’m sorry you sucked, but that doesn’t mean I can’t go on missions.”

By this point, Master Obi-Wan had his head in his hands, almost hiding the beard he was trying to grow in order to look more authoritative. Anakin didn’t think he’d respect him any more with a beard than without, but it did make him look less like a clueless teenager so maybe he could fool the senior padawans.

“Look, if I took you offworld, not only could you get hurt or cause a diplomatic incident, but Master Windu would be on my back about it.”

Anakin muttered, “I could take him.”

“What was that?”

“I said you wouldn’t be able to shake him.” Anakin believed both statements emphatically. Sure, Mace Windu was the Master of the Order and invented an entire lightsaber form, but Anakin was the Chosen One, which basically made him the best. That being said, if Master Windu put his mind to it, he could be annoyingly stubborn in his pursuit of wrong-doers.

“My point exactly, and if he decided I was irresponsible – which I would be – we’d both be Temple-bound for months.”

“Oh, so you get to leave and I don’t?”

“Yes, but I’m sure you noticed I haven’t left because I’ve been too busy looking after you.”

“And what an amazing job you’ve been doing.”

“Watch your tone, young one.”

“Tell me, Master, do you remember any of my allergies?”

“Allergies?” Obi-Wan stopped for a second, with a look of genuine concern and guilt working its way over his face as he failed to recall information that Anakin had never given him.

“Yeah, I’m allergic to you and your banthashit!”

“Language, Padawan!” There was something resembling anger in Obi-Wan’s glare, but to acknowledge that would be sacrilege and also a suggestion that Anakin cared, which he didn’t. To prove this, he stormed into his room and used the Force to slam the pneumatic door as pneumatic doors rarely do.

Force, Obi-Wan could be insufferable sometimes.

...

After an hour of staring at the ceiling, Anakin came to the decision that the only real resolution to this conflict was running away and being a Jedi without Obi-Wan to bring him down. 

Fortunately, he had spent the last two years building his very own ship and had already put it through an entire test run without anything breaking. Between his technical expertise and thorough testing, the ship was probably the best in the entire Temple hangar.

First though, putting his stealth skills through their paces in order to get there. One doesn’t survive nine years of slavery without knowing how to move silently. The swoosh of the door may have been a bad start, but his slow navigation of the common room more than made up for it. Sure, Obi-Wan was in his own room, probably, like, crying over getting owned so hard, but if Anakin had made even the slightest mistake, he would have come running and demanded a ridiculous amount of meditation on respecting others. The stakes could not have been higher.

He crept out of their rooms and into the corridor, shushing the mouse droid that seemed to regard him judgmentally despite its lack of eyes. From there, it was a simple matter of carrying himself with unquestionable confidence along a convoluted path to the hangar. He passed a few senior padawans with dead eyes and piles of holopads in their arms without raising suspicion. Man, was he good at this.

The hangar was probably the best place in the Temple. Warm Temple stone met flame retarding durasteel in a way that shouldn’t have worked as well as it did. Several decade-old speeders lined up against one wall next to a small fleet of cargo ships and fighters. All of them were horrendously out of date and well worn in the way that a lot of the Temple’s technology was. When Anakin asked why the Jedi insisted on having such terrible tech, Obi-Wan had said something vague about budget and not being materialistic. It was unconvincing at best and Anakin had really shown the whole Order up with his latest project.

After his no-doubt legendary podracer was left on Tatooine, Anakin had taken all of six months to set his sights on building a starfighter that could take him to every system in the galaxy. Obi-Wan, relieved to find a hobby that would promote focus, had pulled some strings and Anakin had aimed akk-dog eyes at the Temple mechanics that he had been tailing for months until they let him at the skeleton of an old Delta-7. Aethersprites never came with their own hyperspace engines, but he could work with that. Annoyingly, the sublight engines in the hangar were nothing like the ones on a podracer so he had to spend a humiliating few weeks with an old mechanic to get them installed and working. On the positive side, there was an astromech droid fitted directly into the ship that could give him diagnostics and occasionally a mechanically-themed joke. The jokes were hit-or-miss but the droid was good.

Two years of sterling work had made the Delta the best ship in the Temple, and it could far outpace any of the speeders in Coruscant’s skylanes. Now, as he made his way ever-so-innocently towards it, he couldn’t help but admire the way the smooth paint looked among the chipped facades of the rest.

R4-P3 chirped a greeting as he hopped in and prepped the starter engines.

“Hi, P3, fancy going on a trip?”

“THERE WERE TWENTY-SEVEN TRAFFIC CODE VIOLATIONS DURING THE PREVIOUS FLIGHT.”

“Me too, buddy. See if you can find one of those hyperspace rings lying around here.” Ignition was smooth. Vertical repulsors engaged. Landing gear retracted. So far, his plan was flawless. A blip appeared on his screen, indicating the nearest hyperspace ring. Latching onto the ring was not something he had ever practiced before, so he assumed the strange rattling noise was normal.

As he ascended, chatter buzzed into the comm system.

“What’s that P3?”

The chatter cleared into actual sentences as P3 adjusted the frequency.

“-ing is not fitted properly. Repeat, Aethersprite Delta-7 please identify yourself-” Anakin flicked it off. Trust traffic control to kill his flow.

“PLEASE KEEP TO DESIGNATED SKYLANES,” bleated P3, taking up the burden instead. Anakin dodged a passing CorSec speeder.

“Will do,” he lied, “While I find one, you wanna do the hyperspace calculations?”

“DESTINATION?”

“Uh…” He hadn’t thought that far. Tatooine was probably weeks away, Naboo had way too much water just lying about– Where else had he been? Oh, that’s right: nowhere, because Obi-Wan didn’t care about him. “Batuu?” He could probably beat up a few smugglers in the name of justice before the Jedi caught wind of it. Talk about selfless heroism.

He hit the upper flight levels and powered through into the mesosphere. Considering the thin air at this altitude, there was a lot of turbulence. The shaking was beginning to make his arm buzz and it became a disproportionate effort to keep the control-stick level.

“LIGHTSPEED CALCULATIONS COMPLETE,” announced P3.

“Great, just in time,” replied Anakin, flicking some switches, at least three of which were relevant, “I’ll just make the jump now.”

As he pulled the jump ignition, P3 began screaming and the rattling grew louder. The pinprick stars became needle-thin lines became the whirl of blue and white he hadn’t seen since the last journey from Naboo. On that trip, the pilots hadn’t let him in the cockpit during the initial jump, so this would probably have been way better if not for the awful clatter of the hyperdrive and the eventual tear of engines sputtering out of commission. Maybe that was why he had never seen anyone make jumps in-atmosphere. Or perhaps the issue was related to the ring’s latching mechanism. Really, it was anyone’s guess.

P3’s wails had become spluttering, staticky sobs, which was honestly a poor display in a droid with no fear subprogram. The ring flew off the Aethersprite, plunging it back into normal space with a roar.

“Well that sucked,” Anakin said indignantly. His flying had been flawless, too!

P3, between choked bleeps, lit up the speedometer – the hyperspace ring was no longer pushing them beyond the light limit but neither had any reverse-thrusters been engaged, leaving them at a healthy constant speed of only-just-slower-than-light, which was probably fine – and the scanner – there was a planet about thirty light-seconds in front of them, which was probably less fine at their current speed.

“Okay, so it still sucks,” Anakin amended.

He slammed on the brakes and almost blacked out as G-force slammed on him in return. Rude. His old pod-racer never had this issue. He tried easing their deceleration more slowly, which involved less blacking out but also made slowing to pedestrian speeds before hitting the planet somewhat less feasible.

No matter; Anakin was an expert pilot and even more skilled at having incredible luck. This would be easy.

Within twenty seconds, they hit nature’s drag chute: the atmosphere. P3 tried to draw Anakin’s attention to their steep angle and high speed as if these weren’t things that Anakin already knew. They did seem more relevant when the entire ship’s hull flew alight, however, so he attempted to shallow out their descent. 

The control-stick was uncooperative and everything began to shake as he tugged it as far back as he could. How was he supposed to pilot if the ship refused to do what he wanted it to do? 

After five long seconds, the heat died and they plunged into a cloud bank. Everything past the tips of the Aethersprite’s wings was obscured by a white thicker than Obi-Wan’s skull, which was impressive if disorienting. He felt the control-stick hit full lock and a few of the many warning indicators seemed appeased.

Another five seconds, and P3 stopped screaming about their speed and started screaming about their altitude. The clouds remained steadfast.

“I’ve made an executive decision,” declared Anakin, “As captain of this ship, I say we attempt what we in the industry call a ‘terrain-assisted braking maneuver’.”

P3 did not respond particularly coherently, which Anakin chose to interpret as a vote of confidence. It did wonders for his self-esteem.

In a blink, the clouds vanished and a deep green forest appeared. P3 squeaked. Anakin grimaced. His hand was losing all sensation from gripping the control-stick so tightly, still in full lock, but their downwards momentum still overpowered the thrusters even as the Delta’s nose finally rose above the horizon. He gunned the accelerator away from the surface and his body felt heavier than the ship itself.

The ship jolted as it made contact with the treetops. Anakin switched to reverse-thrusters as the nose once again pitched downwards. Slugshot snaps crackled around them as trees snapped against the ship. He scrunched his eyes closed and braced.

Soil and splinters erupted as they collided with the ground. Anakin lurched painfully into his safety straps. P3’s voice cut off. The grinding of earth against hull slowed them to a stop and Anakin fell back against his seat.

Smoldering wiring filled the cockpit with an awful acidic smell so he tugged his straps off and pushed his way out after only a second of shaky breathing. Anakin was nothing if not practical.

“Do you think it’s gonna blow up?” he asked P3 from a safe distance. P3 seemed not to appreciate the thought but ran cursory diagnostics anyway.

As he waited, Anakin looked behind the ship and saw the gaping furrow they had left in the ground. Further away, a clumsy cut ran through the trees and a couple of wisps of smoke trailed lazily into the milk-blue sky.

All in all, an impeccable landing. The forest had looked well dull before anyway, and now it had a sick scar. You’re welcome, forest.

P3 decided that nothing was about to explode, but that the ship was fully inoperational, even if Anakin just wanted to take it on a spin to the nearest mountain range. He acquiesced that the assessment seemed about right, but also loudly proclaimed that P3 was a killjoy and a coward. P3 didn’t seem to care. Anakin kicked a clod of earth in defiance.

The ground was covered in small, stiff leaves from the pointy-looking trees around them. They were waxy little spits that more resembled star stripes than anything useful for photosynthesis.  As he knelt to pick some up, he realised that the entire forest smelt like them – a fresh, emerald sort of smell. They were pretty incredible, for leaves; Anakin had certainly never seen anything like them. He shoved some in a belt pouch.

Now that he was looking at the ground, he noticed wooden, grenade-like things peppered amongst the leaf litter. This forest kept on getting more and more curious. Unfortunately, none of them would fit in his pouches. Jedi really needed some good pockets that could fit any important scientific discoveries in them. It was a severe oversight, in Anakin’s humble opinion.

Something rustled abruptly, snapping Anakin out of his Jedi-like contemplations, seed-pod still in hand. He scanned the surrounding thickets. Plants, plants, leaves, plants, thorny plants…

Claws!

A blur of red flew at his face and he stumbled backwards, tripping over a bush. Batting the wild beast away from his face, he felt himself fall further than anticipated through the undergrowth into empty air. For a suspended moment, all he could see was blue sky and grey rockface. Then his back collided with something that promptly gave way and let him fall onto solid stone.

Perfect.

...

Obi-Wan Kenobi was walking at an unpanicked pace through the halls of the Jedi Temple and casually inspecting child-sized nooks and crannies in a manner completely befitting of a master who knew exactly where his padawan was. He had been doing this for half an hour and wasn’t shaking in the slightest.

He was just doing a routine inspection of the gap between a bronzium statue and a wall when Master Windu walked past, stopped, watched Obi-Wan innocently test the screws on a ventilation covering, and said, “Knight Kenobi.”

Obi-Wan sprang upright. “Master Windu.”

“Have you lost your padawan?” Was he really that obvious? No, that couldn’t be it; Master Windu was just unusually perceptive. Perhaps shatter-points were giving him away – nowhere was it written that they didn’t highlight underperforming masters. Even so, it was probably wise not to confirm anything. The last thing Obi-Wan needed was a council member judging his guardianship skills.

“Oh no, not at all. I know exactly where he is.”

Master Windu’s expression was as flat as Anakin’s heart rate would be once this was over. Shatter-points were dirty snitches.

“Thank you for your concern, Master,” added Obi-Wan, respectfully.

Master Windu looked at him dead in the eye for a solid five seconds. Obi-Wan had seen him level a similar look at Qui-Gon several times in the past, and found it unnerving to now be the target. However, Qui-Gon’s experiences taught him that it was best to ride these looks out like a bad spice trip, i.e. with as little motion as possible. How either of them knew what a bad spice trip felt like was irrelevant.

The five seconds were up, only having been slightly uncomfortably stretched, and Master Windu blinked.

“Well,” he said, dryly, “Good luck with your endeavours, Knight Kenobi, whatever they may be.” With one spare glance to the ventilation covering, he continued down the corridor.

Obi-Wan was not naive enough to think himself completely free of suspicion but he was hopeful that nothing would come of it until he could thrust Anakin by the shoulders into Master Windu’s personal space and say ‘See? I have him right here!’ in a serene and Jedi-like manner as if he had nothing to prove. Of course, he would like to prove his capabilities anyway. Just as soon as Anakin was present…

He closed his eyes and fumbled for the Master-Padawan bond that connected him to Anakin. It wasn’t usually strong enough to get much other than vague impressions from, but now it seemed to be stretched thinner than usual, only telling him that Anakin was alive. That was a relief to know, to an extent, but also concerning since there was so little to point him in the right direction. He poked the bond and felt nothing.

Why had he taken on a padawan? Padawans get into fights and then run off and make you worry and then the Council finds out and then you have to try and justify it all and – 

Obi-Wan sighed. Running a hand over his beard, he peered down the hallway that Master Windu had taken. Empty. He could probably make it to the comms centre without any more councilmembers calling him out.

Probably. He was hopeful.

...

“Hilari? Is that you?” 

Anakin looked up from what appeared to be a now-dismantled porch tarp and saw an old man opening the door to its attached house, carved into rock. A tooka was watching him from behind the man’s legs. It meowed indignantly.

“I’ve told you, the awning isn’t designed for tookas.”

“Myaeeh,” complained Hilari.

Anakin, frazzled from both of his unplanned descents and shocked out of his irritation, opened his mouth to apologise because yes, Obi-Wan he is capable of apologising when a middle-aged twi’lek woman materialised.

“Wohrin, what– Oh! Who’s your young friend?”

“You’ve met Hilari before, Mahj–”

“No, the young man covered in your porch. Blond?” 

The man, Wohrin, gave Mahj’s left lek an exasperated look. His eyes were pale the same way Blind Man Mikah’s had been in the bookmaker’s in Mos Espa.

“Mahj,” he said slowly, “I don’t know what colour your hair is, let alone that of whoever it is you’re referring to.”

Mahj shook her head. “I don’t have hair, Wohrin.”

“What?!”

Another twi’lek, who could have been anywhere between fifteen and thirty years old by Anakin’s poor judgement, appeared in order to chip in:

“Yeah, she lost all of her hair when the sky turned red!”

Anakin squinted at the sky… no, it was definitely still blue. Wohrin looked equally confused, which was somewhat reassuring. Somewhat.

“Keht!” snapped Mahj, “Stop lying to people! And no, Wohrin, you know I’m twi’lek; of course I don’t have hair.”

“Twi’leks don’t… Why am I only just learning this? Was no one going to tell me–”

“I’m sorry, sir.” Anakin effectively drew the growing crowd’s attention back to himself. That felt better. Wohrin blinked, only now registering that the crash hadn’t been his tooka after all. “I was in the woods and something jumped out at me and I fell through your… thing.”

“Oh, well,” huffed Wohrin, “Easily done I suppose.”

Anakin clambered to his feet and hopped away from the mess, feeling only slightly guilty.

“Hey what’s with the weird rat-tail, kid?” came a voice from the crowd.

Anakin fixed the human who had asked with a patronising look. He found such looks were incredibly effective when used by children – especially those younglings he was stuck in aurebesh lessons with three years ago. Kriffing infuriating.

“It’s not a rat-tail, it’s a braid. And it shows that I’m a padawan.”

“A what-a-wan?”

“Oh, I know what they are,” chimed another bystander, “One of them beat up my cousin on Alsakan. They’re like really small Jedi.”

“You mean an apprentice?”

“Yeah, only I don’t think they do carving work.”

“Not all apprentices learn stonemasonry, genius.”

Another crowd member interrupted: “Hey, cadaban, have you come to help with the beast?”

That triggered a fervour in the onlookers, all snapping their attention back to him with loud expectation.

“... The what?” Anakin wasn’t sure he liked the way this conversation was going.

“The beast!” exclaimed the crowd.

“It’s massive–”

“–Taller than me–”

“–Big claws–”

“–In the quarry–”

“–The mine–”

“–Tentacles–”

“–Blue–”

“–Hang on, I thought it was red–”

“–It’s invisible–!”

“–No, it’s not, it’s–”

“–Firebreathing!”

“Hey, hey, hey,” shouted Anakin over the clamour, “Has anyone here actually seen it?” Everyone turned to a tall ovissian, who flinched. “What does it look like?”

“Uh, I didn’t see much of it, just– um, mostly heard crashes and saw– saw rocks falling from the ceiling in the mines. But when I caught a glimpse, it sort of looked all–” He made a vague and thoroughly unhelpful gesture which may have indicated size. Or maybe temperament. “–Y’know?”

Anakin definitely did not know, but he wasn’t about to admit that to the congregation. “Yeah, yeah, of course,” he said instead. The ovissian sighed with relief. “And what exactly do you need me to do about it?”

One exasperated person shouted from the back. “Kill it of course!” 

“Or at least move it out of the mines,” offered Mahj.

“Yeah, we need the mines or our economy will go to chisk!”

“The entire economy?” Anakin couldn’t imagine mines being quite that important when there was a massive forest right… Huh, it was higher up than he remembered. Right up a stone cliff, the one Wohrin’s home was carved out of.

“The entire economy! We’re a mining town, stone-masons and blacksmiths. Why else would build our houses in a quarry?”

This was the first Anakin had heard of ‘quarries’. Really, the whole trip so far had been quite the broadening of his horizons. He didn’t know why Obi-Wan didn’t take him off-world sooner, he was always promoting this kind of thing. Peculiar. 

That being said, this whole beast business was not what he had been anticipating and the idea of facing an invisible, firebreathing, tentacled monster on his own was suddenly way more terrifying than the plan of facing a horde of smugglers had been. What if it was like the krayt dragons of Tatooine, wild with impersonal ferocity and an appetite for small humans? That would be an incredibly anticlimactic end for the Chosen One; he was fully anticipating his death to be in a great ball of flame, Obi-Wan watching heartbroken as his awesome and flawless apprentice fulfils his destiny. That would be cool. Dying alone in a mine in the middle of nowhere would not be.

“Um… You know, beasts aren’t really my department. And… I don’t have my beast-removal equipment with me right now.” Airtight excuse. Foolproof.

“You’re just scared!” exclaimed someone who nobody asked.

“He’s not even a proper Jedi yet,” added someone else, “There’s no way he could take that thing on by himself, I bet he doesn’t even have a laser-sword!”

“Now, hold on–” All thoughts of avoiding the beast flew out of the metaphorical window. “I never said I wouldn’t do it! I have my lightsaber right here:”

The crowd stepped back as it ignited in his hand. Yeah, that’s right, he wasn’t some dumb initiate and this was his chance to prove it.

...

The comms centre had several private rooms for important calls and conferences. It also had better hardware than the commlinks Jedi took into the field.

Obi-Wan had plugged his own commlink into a rarely-used port in the console and tried to call Anakin. As he had expected, there was no answer. With the right tinkering of the console’s receiver, however, the target signal had been traced to a sparsely populated planet barely a minute up the Corellian Run. Kaidestal.

He fought the urge to slam his head against the console. If there was a licence for padawan ownership, his would be revoked any time now. Truly, he was having a fantastic day.

He wondered how Anakin had even got offplanet and then wondered why he was wondering. At this point, it was suffice to say, ‘Shit’s fucked’ and move on.

After a few moments of meditative breathing, he straightened up, unplugged his commlink, and whisked out of the comms centre. Knowing Anakin, there was little time before something disproportionately drastic happened. Force, what did he do to end up in this position?

Master Plo Koon was easy enough to locate, happening to be beside the bronzium statue Obi-Wan had been inspecting earlier. He watched as Obi-Wan covered the awkwardly long stretch of corridor in order to get within civil conversation range.

“Master Koon, I am taking a short trip to Kaidestal. I shall be back by nightfall.” He gave no reasons, the man of mystery that he was, and Plo didn’t seem to mind. Plo was one of the gentlest councilmembers and therefore the best one to inform of unannounced, unauthorised trips to obscure planets. Perhaps that was exploitative of him. Perhaps his padawan shouldn’t run away.

(Plo was one of the first to hear Mace’s gossip regarding Skywalker’s potential disappearance and therefore knew damn well what Obi-Wan was doing. Plo was not, however, a snitch. Besides, he liked Kenobi – the man had an excellent taste in drinks.)

Master Koon nodded slowly, “That seems reasonable. I’ve heard they do good stone carvings there.”

“Quite,” said Obi-Wan, impatiently – no, Jedi weren’t impatient. He was merely preoccupied.

“There’s a G8 light freighter in the hangar that you can use.” Plo shifted as if to move, but it was really more of an invitation to leave.

“Thank you, Master Koon.” Not at all in the headspace to overstay his welcome, Obi-Wan began to head towards the hangar.

“I hope you find what you’re looking for, young one!” Plo called after him.

“Me too,” muttered Obi-Wan under his breath. He wasn’t that young; he was twenty-eight. He was, however, too young to be dealing with feral padawans that made him feel twice his age. Why did he ever pick up Anakin, anyway?

...

The mouth of the mine was carved into the wall at the bottom of the quarry. It was darker than a Tatooinian night and he was being pushed into it by a gaggle of villagers who didn’t seem to notice his apprehension. While this was ideal for the maintenance of his reputation, it also made things move far more quickly than he had wanted.

No matter. He was a Jedi and Jedi faced terrifying monsters head on.

“This beast is gonna wish he never saw me,” he said, bravely, “Coward. Absolute… kriffin’…  clown.”

“What are you doing?”

“Old Jedi trick, it’s called psychological warfare. That beast is no match for Anakin kriffing Skywalker.”

“Is the swearing necessary for psychological warfare?” asked one of the group. “It’s just I brought my daughter along…”

A roar emanated from the mine ahead, echoing terribly. The tall ovissian, now wearing his head miner’s helmet, was shaking more than the nine-year-old behind him. She was delighted by the mine monster and had spent much of the walk loudly exclaiming that she wanted it to eat the entire goddamn quarry. No one else appeared to share her enthusiasm.

“Well,” said the head miner, sounding awfully authoritative, “I think you’ll be able to find your way from here. We need to go. For… health and safety reasons. Yeah, this crowd, in this passageway? Major fire hazard. Need to clear it. I’ll take care of that, you take care of–” Another roar erupted, punctuated by a thud and the sound of rocks falling. “– That.”

Anakin was unimpressed. “Ugh, do you have to have such an aversion to being cool?” He turned to see the group’s response but found the passageway empty. He rolled his eyes. Teenagehood would suit him well, he decided.

Slowly, he took his new lightsaber off his belt. It kind of sucked that his excellent craftsmanship was impossible to see in the gloom. Alone, in the dark, with no eyes on him, he could admit that quite a few things were looking decidedly uncool right now, but Force if he didn’t want to prove Obi-Wan wrong.

He tracked the sporadic tremors to their source, which was conveniently down the single, unbranching passageway in this section of mine. Still, it required a great amount of skill and a lesser man would have walked into five support beams, which was way more than Anakin’s three. He was a credit to the Jedi Order, really, even if they couldn’t see it.

Speaking of, the mine had grown far darker the further he walked until he couldn’t see his own hand in front of his face. The Force was being unhelpful, merely suggesting ‘forward’, which was a no-brainer. His issue was all of the obstacles involved with ‘forwards’. If only he had packed a light.

Hang on.

Oh, Anakin Skywalker was a genius. Lateral thinking and creative problem-solving had always been his strong point, as currently being demonstrated.

His lightsaber ignited with a kzhhh. Its electric-blue glow lit his maniacal grin in harsh clarity. It also revealed the glinting eyes of something big. The grin dropped from his face as he took five steps backwards.

The passageway had opened into a small cavern without him noticing and the beast barely fit into it. Colours were difficult to make out in eerie saber-light, but its fur appeared as black as the mines, matte with dust. Large tentacles stretched out from its nose, blindly groping the walls and ceiling of the cavern as if trying to judge the environment. Massive, shovelling paws held claws almost as long as Anakin was tall. In short, it resembled a mole.

This meant that, theoretically, Anakin was at an advantage since he was decidedly not blind and had only been known to resemble a mole some of the time.

The beast was also more clumsy than Anakin, knocking support beams left and right. Luckily, none had completely shattered but, judging by their splintering fractures, it was only a matter of time. Time limits were very dramatic; this would be a worthy first mission.

Anakin waved his lightsaber in the vague direction of the mole. It was unbothered. He frowned, put out, and then poked one of its claws. Suddenly, the beast was very bothered. Its nose went from snuffling around to being thrust in Anakin’s face. Apparently it had his scent. Obi-Wan would have blamed it on Anakin’s infrequent use of the shower. Anakin would have responded that he grew up in the desert and then accused him of not caring about wasting water on trivial matters. This would put a glint of annoyance in Obi-Wan’s eyes and Anakin would count it as a victory.

The mole exploited his distraction, dishonourable as it was, yanking him off the ground with a thick face-tentacle and shaking him irritably. He tried hitting the disgustingly writhing mass with the hilt of his lightsaber – ineffective. Then he slashed it with the blade and got catapulted into a wall. His vision failed and the back of his head killed, but he was quickly grabbed by the ankle and dragged across the floor. Massive, sharp claws came swinging at him. This was not good.

Quick, what would Obi-Wan do?

“Hey, you suck!” he shouted, voice wobbling as he dove out of the way of another slash, “No one likes you! You should just stop and go away!”

The mole monster may also have been deaf since it only continued its previous level of violence despite the scathing insults. He dodged a claw, jumping into a swinging tentacle which smashed him into a support beam. Splinters pierced his robes, digging into his right arm as it collided with the beam. His lightsaber flew from his hand and he fell to the ground, spinning to narrowly avoid landing on the hurt arm. All light in the cavern vanished as his saber-blade extinguished.

All of a sudden, the lightsaber argument from that morning felt like a moot point. A lot of things were looking very moot now, in the dark. 

He could hear the shuffle of tentacles searching the floor and the scratching of claws against stone. The mole was snuffling loudly around for him. His arm hurt.

Fighting the urge to curl up by the wall, he slowly climbed to his feet and looked the monster dead where he thought its eye could be. Warm air huffed in his face, blowing his braid back. Everything was still for a moment and then a tentacle whipped around his knees and flipped him upside down into the air. He definitely did not yelp.

The sound of a lightsaber igniting came from the tunnel, then pounding footsteps and then Obi-Wan ran in, illuminating the cavern walls around him. Something intangible yanked Anakin out of the mole’s grasp and into Obi-Wan’s arms. 

Anakin struggled to escape the strong left arm that wrapped across his torso, efficiently immobilising him. “Hey, I had it under control, you know.” He gave up, reaching his good hand out and calling his lightsaber back to it. “Still do, actually.”

“Sure,” replied Obi-Wan, not letting go even as a tentacle lunged at him. He jumped backwards, slashing the support beam that Anakin had dented. They dove into the tunnel as the cavern rumbled. The mole roared back. There was a terrible creaking of splintering wood and then the cavern ceiling fell in. Dust and rock made the air thick.

Quiet.

Anakin looked up at Obi-Wan from where he was pressed against his chest and saw a strangled sort of sorrow.

“Poor thing,” croaked Obi-Wan. Then he looked at Anakin with a clenched jaw. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of those. I could have studied it.”

It was almost enough to make Anakin apologise.

...

Obi-Wan dragged his padawan by his collar until they reached the mine’s entrance. The villagers who had pointed him inside were crowded around and erupted into cheers as soon as they stepped into the light.

One elbowed the head miner playfully. “Told you he was the madawan’s Jedi.”

“Shut up,” said the ovissian, who then raised his voice above the chattering. “Thank you, Master Jedi, for your assistance. Uh, what exactly is the status of the, uh…”

“It’s dead,” Obi-Wan replied, bluntly, “And I’m afraid you may also need to reinforce the tunnel’s structural integrity. I apologise on behalf of my padawan –”

“Hey!”

“Of course, he will also apologise himself.”

Their eyes met in a match of wills. Anakin sighed, just loud enough for Obi-Wan to hear, and acquiesced.

“My sincere apologies,” he muttered, bowing shallowly. Obi-Wan had definitely taught him better manners than this; the child was just showing him up. Ungrateful womp-rat.

Fortunately, the villagers weren’t versed in bows and didn’t seem invested in apologies. Most were preoccupied by the mine and the new lack of angry mole. Small blessings, perhaps.

...

After manhandling the still-hot wreck of Anakin’s Aethersprite into the freighter Obi-Wan had brought and flying the brief trip back to the Temple, Obi-Wan was reaching the end of his patience. He left the ships with the hangar’s mechanics and dragged Anakin away from any chance of helping them. Their trip to the Halls of Healing were brief – the healers were efficient in removing the splinters and wrapping Anakin’s arm in bacta-soaked bandages. He only complained about half as much as he usually did.

They marched double-time to their rooms and Obi-Wan locked the door behind him; he could not cope with Anakin sneaking out at night.

“Master?” The voice was small. Obi-Wan tried not to let his ire show in his look. Perhaps if Anakin was squinting it would work. He was not. Instead he was holding out a hand full of pine needles and another with several small pinecones. “While I was on that planet, I found these for you to study. I’ve never seen them before; they could be revolutionary.”

Obi-Wan sighed, not having the heart to tell him that pine trees were fairly common throughout the galaxy. Anakin dropped his revolutionary finds into his hands, having to scrape off some of the pine needles that stuck.

“Thank you, Padawan. That was very thoughtful of you.”

“There were some bigger ones of these,” he added, pointing to the pinecones, “but I couldn’t fit them in my belt and some of the wildlife tried to fight me for them.”

“A squirrel?”

“I dunno, I didn’t see it very well. It was kinda fast. Reminded me of you, a bit.”

“How so?”

“Red,” said Anakin, nodding to Obi-Wan’s head, “And it didn’t like me picking up things off the floor.”

Obi-Wan huffed. “As long as you weren’t trying to eat pinecones.”

“Is that what they’re called?”

“Yes. Although I suppose I’d have to… study them. To make sure.”

Anakin’s face lit up. “Wizard.”

Obi-Wan’s annoyance was almost forgotten. Not quite. He was still a responsible Jedi master, no matter what the Council speculated.

There was a knock on the door. Obi-Wan looked at Anakin, who grimaced back. He opened it with very little hesitation.

“Knight Kenobi.” Speak of a Sith…

“Master Windu,” said Obi-Wan, far more brightly than he was feeling.

“Have you located your padawan?”

“Of course; he’s right here, Master.” He pulled Anakin out from behind his legs. Anakin attempted a winning smile, but nerves appeared to crumple it slightly. He had always been intimidated by Master Windu – first impressions were a force to be reckoned with. “I knew exactly where he was.” It was technically true, if you were selective about your timeframe.

Master Windu gave Anakin one of his signature piercing gazes, the kind that seems to expose one’s every weakness and warn against them. Anakin seemed to get the message. Hopefully he would keep it for at least a week before he inevitably threw it out.

“If that’s the case, I won’t need to launch a search party. Good night, Kenobi.”

“May the Force be with you, Master Windu.”

After Master Windu had left and Anakin had gone to bed still shaken from the encounter, Obi-Wan contemplated ditching the Temple and his wayward padawan for Bail Organa’s whiskey collection. Alderaan always made the best whiskey…

...

Art by me, @dib-leo-pard​

now if its possible, shinji for the ask thing?

FAVORITE THING ABOUT THEM: He wears a beanie on his official outfit and for around 4 years of my life, I also always wore a beanie on my head at all times cuz I couldnt control my hair. So ya know, relatable.

Seriously, though: He’s probably the best Persona 3 character, who carries a whole lot of the theme on his personal arc, like the fact you’re gonna die and how you live your life, matters. Also ,the way he is a victim of circumstances, but doesnt ever complain about that, and just accepted his terrible destiny… in a way, there’s a lot of dignity on how he carries himself, you know?

LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT THEM: If you want to. Like, if you really want to, or just doesnt think much about it, you could easily define his character by “tsundere” traits. I obviously hate this characterization and want nothing to do with it, but  judging by how some people characterize him and Aki, you would not be guilty of thinking like that. Weirdly enough, in PQ thats pretty much his thing.

FAVORITE LINE: He has some of the best and most significant ones. “Live” for Ken, but “ “Adios, asshole.”and “Still alive? … Good” when he comes to help.

BROTP: Shinjiro and Hamuko is Good Stuff, good quality content. Shinjiro and Fuuka is also flawless. Shinjiro and Junpei learning how to deal with each other has a lot of potential. Shinjiro and Yukari/Mitsuru growing to care about each other, same.

But Mitsuru and Shinjiro is, ultimately, the real thing. Shoulda’ve been canon brotp if you ask me.

OTP: Shinijro/Akihiko was the Air I breathed for around 3 years of my life.

notp: Shinji/Hamu mostly because… of the fandom’s characterization of it, rather than for the actual ship.. Shinji/Fuuka cuz is mostly a bro thing to me.

random headcanon: His dad left him and thats why he end up on the orphanage. This left him with a lot of issues around his self-worth. He used to pick fights against other kids and didnt want to make friends with anyone cuz he was convinced his dad would come back to pick him up.

He took in a bunch of part time jobs while living on the street, so he knows a buch of restaurants around town, and other places that could accept him to at least wipe the floor.

unpopular opinion: I have come across with two characterizations of Shinjiro that usually go like “UwU Shinjiro secret baby, likes cooking and fluffy things” and “Shinjiro is an asshole who cant put two sentences together without cursing” and I’m pretty sure both of those are an exaggeration.The real guy lies in the middle. I especially dont agree with the first one, though.

According to his dialogue during battles, he’s pretty much on his natural, by fighting out Shadows, cursing them out and is generally rude, too. Dude, he fights shadows with an Axe, with traffic signs! Some of his first lines on his social link are laughing of  a wound he has on his mouth that he forgot he had, and it was due to Aki punching him, which he takes lightly. He hangs out on that suspicious corner of the town on which all the other delinquents seem afraid of him.He literally fights them all without difficulty, on the movie.You dont get to be a person like that, without being comfortable with the idea of wrecking the next idiot that crosses your way or talks about crossing your way, and to become that, you need a lifetime of fighting others, and being good at it. You also need to be smart and knowing your way around town, like bars, clubs and underground meeting places. It struck to me how Shinjiro refers to the owner of the Club Escapade as his friend. That implies knowing the towns underground and nasty places and not only knowing of it, but knowing about it intimately. Thats pretty much where he lives.

That being said, none of this cancels out the fact Shinjiro likes cooking, seems to be an nurturer of  others by nature, and gets along well with animals. It kinda goes with it, actually. He seems to be a mysanthrope so he likes animals best, has no wish to grow closer to others cuz he already accepted his death, so of course he’s not out there cooking for everybody he meets, and being affectionate and cordial. Its not as much about him being shy, despite the fact he`s awkward, its about him having no wish to get out of his way to connectwith others, since his one everlasting connection is alreay giving him such a pain in the ass, anyway. I’m not saying that Shinjiro enjoys being a tough looking guy with a bad reputation, but its not just some kind of appearance he’s trying to keep up as if it was a farce, it does seems part of his personality.

People who try to cancel out Shinjiro’s tough-semi-aggressive tendencies and behavior because of his more soft side, rub me out the wrong way cuz like… you do know people can be well rounded on their interests and facets, right? You do know tough guys are capable of tenderness, in fact, most people are, right? Like,one thing doesnt cancel the other and we dont really know who Shinjiro would be if he wasnt on his “guess I’ll die” state of mind, anyway so, a characterization that tries to make him soft and uwu and tsundere rubs me the wrong way, since you’re deliberately trying not to think on a heavy part of his characterization so you can have a softer shinji, which makes him kind of an archetype of a character, easy to describe on two sentences, just like Mitsuru, Aigis and Akihiko. Both, the fandom and also PQII seem to sin on this.I also believe that on the Persona 3 original game, he wasnt supposed to be interpreted as your typical good looking guy, - taking a look at his first sketches; because of that, I try not to think of Shinjiro as your generally attractive dude. Of course, Shinjiro has a way cleaner design on P3DMN, which I dont mind, so its not something I would fight for, or anything.

song i associate with them: Los campesinos Avocado Baby:“I had a friend who / had made a flag day /blood on their hands from / shards of a heartbreak I have known friends who crack from love’s weight blossom in ribcage, until their backs break Oh it won’t get better, that doesn’t mean it’s gonna get any worse. You’re final draft'a life-long love letter, signed to the man who will be driving your hearse.”  favorite picture of them: I dont even know, but a good 90% of the Shinjiaki pictures I’ve seen probably made my heart beat faster, when I was really into them as my p3 ship.Can I toot my own horn and say this one? Its mine, from here.

Ragna in the other BBTAG worlds

I asked a while ago for ideas as to where Ragna could end up post-CF as his “retirement” world, I’ve gotten like 3 suggestions; Bleach (mainly to pair him with Kukaku Shiba, but given everything else happening in that world he’ll have no chill there), Animal Crossing, and Mario Galaxy (on the Comet Observatory with Rosalina and the Lumas)

but today, I want to take a look at how he’d fare living in the worlds presented to us in BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle. Just for the hell of it:

Long post bellow

Persona: if Ragna were to end up living in the Persona world thing might be difficult at first, he grew up in the middle of nowhere and the woods and lived in a post-apocalyptic dystopian future, so there will be a bit of a culture shock. But if Akihiko can run around shirtless then this world will be fine with someone like Ragna. I think he might end up working with the Shadow Operatives, hey he was raised to fight so may as well put his supernatural power and fighting ability to use against the Shadows right? I mean the Kirijo group managed to make an identity for Aigis when she attended Gekkoukan High in P3, so they could make Ragna have an identity. Since the dude has Son Goku levels of education I ‘d find it funny if Mitsuru put his ass through some kind of education program or something. I mean it is never too late to get an education and I’m sure there are many real-life examples of people who couldn’t go to school for some reason or another. Also, I’ve said this before, Ragna might give of serious “Shinjiro” vibes to the Shadow Operatives, so they might be able to navigate his personality a bit better. Mitsuru can be the cool-headed one w/o being a bitch like Rachel, Akihiko would make a good sparring partner, he’ll treat Aigis and Labrys right since he treats the Murakumos like people, Yukari is pretty normal compared to most of them and can also get annoyed by their antics so Ragna might like her (he enjoys the company of average/normal people since they aren’t too zany for his tastes), Ken is pretty mature for his age, but Junpei might get on his nerves. But also, if Ragna enters around P4 Arena time, then if he stays there a few years he could be present for the Persona 5 story, and THAT would be a fun setting to play in with Ragna.

Under Night In-Birth: it being a modern world won’t be too much of an issue, like with Persona there’ll be some culture shock but lots of the people there are also kind of weirdoes. If he ends up with the main good guys (Hyde, Linne, Waldstein, and Vatista) we can just add another guy bumming around Hyde’s house.  Helping train Hyde, spar with Wald, cook for Linne (give her actual good food and she’ll be worshiping you I bet), and Vatista May remind him of Lambda so he’d be chill around her. But another idea could be him being a mercenary like Gordeau, like maybe the two becoming friendly rivals or something (I just liked how chill he was with Ragna in BBTAG’s story oka, sue me). Also, I could totally see Hilda trying to recruit Ragna into Amnesia because she hears about him being the SS-Class criminal trying to take down the keepers of the order of his world, much like how she is trying to do to Licht Kreis, she tries to get a little flirty with him, but Ragna declines b/c 1. When he was taking on the N.O.L. he was doing it for revenge, Hilda is just doing it for shits and giggles (10 points to whoever gets that reference), 2. Ragna can totally sense danger coming to from this chick, and 3. the dude is at least smart enough not to stick his dick in crazy. He and Merkava would have an interesting conversation, Merkava being a beast with a man within, and Ragna being a man with a beast within.

RWBY: Okay this might depend on where in the timeline he’s put (Pre-Volume 3 like in BBTAG, or Pre-Volume 6 like what I’ve been thinking of), but let’s stick with the Beacon arc-like in BBTAG. The current state of the world is: Cinder and her team are in disguise as Haven students, Roman is arrested, everyone thinks the threat is gone and that the Breach was the big plan, but the Ozluminati know better and are just trying to keep the peace. Ragna is a very aggressive person and easily angered, not a good thing when dealing with Grimm, which are attracted to negative emotions. Also, may I remind you that the Grimm have no souls, and thus are immune to Ragna's Soul Eater power drive which is partially what has allowed him to be such a dangerous threat in his world. In fact, his power is WAY more suitable for fighting people, considering the Huntsmen and Huntresses powers come from their Aura which comes from their soul. Like, he just grabs them and watches that Aura meter just drop FAST. Also, I’m not sure if he’d even be able to gain Aura and a Semblance himself with the Azure Grimoire also fucking his soul up. Ironwood might just say to kill/imprison this guy before he becomes a threat while Ozpin might try and be a bit more diplomatic if he at least hears about his nicer exploits (maybe from Ruby). And no, I do not know how his Soul Eater power could be used on the Maiden Powers or Ozpin’s reincarnating soul. MAYBE it could be used to kill Salem by consuming HER immortal soul instead of just physically killing her, but I do not know if it could be used to rip the Maiden Powers out of their hosts. He and Qrow might talk about their shitty lives but when Qrow offers him a drink Ragna declines b.c Ragna’s Azure Grimoire healing factor also works on toxins (seen in the Variable Heart manga where he shrugs of Shiori’s poison), also I think Ragna views Alchohol as a bitch’s way of dealing with problems. A fight between him and Raven would be interesting also, like them giving each other lectures about family: Ragna giving Raven shit for abandoning Yang (who I assume he might bond with), while Raven says that he has no right to talk about family considering the state of HIS.

There’s probably a lot more that could happen but I can’t think of anything else atm.

I’ll be skipping Arcana Heart since A. I barely know jack fuck about that series (the second game isn't even localized), B. the main powerset in that game seems to only go to girls, which leads to C. there are NO male characters, not even side NPCs, so Ragna would stick out WAY too much.

Senran Kagura: Much like Arcana Heart I don’t know much but I looked through character descriptions and some basic plot summaries here and there (mostly from TVTropes so please forgive me if I fuck something up, which I will) , so I at least get the BASIC gist of things going on. The only place I could think of Ragna going is him looking after or palling around with the Homura Crimson Squad. He isn’t one to join some big organization (the Good Ninja side won’t accept him after his MASSIVE body count in his world, and the Hebijo guys are way too intense), and depending on the timeline he could either help protect the Crimson Squad from the Hebijo team out to kill them for deserting, or he also likes to be independent and train/fight his own way. He could help Homura train for her next fight with her rival Asuka (plus she’ll be a fan of his meat cooking). He might try to get Yomi to add some more variety to her food instead of bean sprouts (cue fight). Hikage might freak him out since she looks like almost a female Hazama/Terumi, but she also struggles with socializing and likes to cook for her friends so after the initial awkwardness they might get along. Mirai hates being ignored so this might cause some annoyance to Ragna, but she’s also a bully victim. I could see him being annoyed by her but then later sees her getting picked on and his big-brother instinct kicks in and he helps, then they gain a sort of understanding. Haruka is the real beast here, the dominatrix sadist scientist who wants to make people her dolls, so Ragna might need to step up a bit to keep her under control (like I said I only know the bare minimum, she might not actually be that bad post-character development but I don’t know). Finally, just for the sake of it, I’m not too sure where on the power scale Ragna would fall in the SK universe. The most powerful person there is Sayuri/Jasmine, with I think Rin and Daidōji both sharing the second strongest spot. I’ll say Ragna is around Daidōji and Rin’s level because Sayuri/Jasmine would most likely be like Jubei level. Also because the power scaling in Blazblue is absurd so comparing the Shinobi (of whom only a few have unique powers) to the Blazblue cast (who have magical weapons and reality-fucking powers) is kind of unfair, plus it gives Ragna a sort of cap so he won’t be too unstoppable in this world. Finally, not too keen on shipping. I’ve been using the “half your age plus seven” rule of dating so to not make things weird, Ragna is 22 in my HC and the minimum age is 18 (lots of people say once your over 18 you can date whoever you want that’s older, but........no), but while a few girls in SK are 18 they are still in high school (the birthdays and ages don’t match up with their school years, and that angers me) so.....no, he just has a big brother instinct for the Crimson Squad.

I’ll also skip Akatsuki Blitzkampf b/c A. Like Arcana Heart above I barely know the story, and B. What little I have seen of the story isn’t.......much. Story Isn’t exactly a big factor in this series.

Lemme know what you guys think Ragna would get up to in these other worlds. I might add to this if another series is added to BBTAG.

"At least with Persona, I can expect the world to keep going and expanding (either it's main continuity or the larger continuities in general)" I mean, you say that, but then P5 and its spinoffs happened and there sure weren't a buncha posts about how they conflict with/retcon various lore and story details no siree (tho that could also be the unhealthy side of hyperfixation, that does pop up)

I mean......I didn't specify that the expanding was always good and consistent. TT0TT Just that they at least put in the effort to keep building on it a little bit at a time. So I at least have a steady and manageable stream to work off of.

I feel like it's more of an issue of "this is a big franchise. They'll make goofs, have changes in creatives and writing teams. Sometimes they'll be conflicting info, sometimes it's retcons (replacement/override types and "additive" types)"

How angry I get might be more of the unhealthy side of the hyperfixation I gotta deal with. TT0TT But I'm aware goofs are gonna happen.

Avatar's gone through a lot of this, between the "nick extras" (I thought we all agreed that was bunk? but I saw some people using these more as facts recently?? TT0TT), the comics, Korra, and the new chronicle novels (and lord knows there's a bunch of other supplementary material nowadays too TT0TT)

My issue with P5 (ah, a statement as old as time 8U or is it a dead horse? ...or a broke record? Or all of the above? TT0TT) and it's spinoffs was just.....egregious tbh, that if they are retcons, it felt more akin to gaslighting than retconning TT0TT P5 even having issues within it's own game let alone the others so I'm like????? But hey, P3 has a timeline problem.....it annoys me a lot too, but at least I can be like "Atlus can't math, they mean 1999 not 2000 here, it's the 4 fucking iteration of P3 but they still can't fix it I see but whatever I'LL DO THE HEAVY LIFTING!"

That's a bit more doable, esp since it's one semi-consistent issue (makes me wonder if they meant for the game to take place in 2010 rather than 2009).

But yeah, both franchises have varying issues, esp because of their size. Same thing can be said about Harry Potter (fuck JK), which is famous for shitty retcons. And Naruto, which is famous for additive retcons.

All those are different than like.... say.....Addams' Family and it's spinoffs (and if anyone says different, they are wrong and don't know anything! 8U). Because, despite it also being a long running franchise, if you took a good hard look at each entry.......they all have diff canons. The have a lot of similarities, they share a lot of key canon similarities, but they don't share EVERYTHING. And they certainly don't execute things the same way (just look at the char Wednesday, there was a big shift in her key component as a char around the 90s!). So that's not really retcons or rewrites. It's literally just diff canons. TT0TT (ah I'm getting off topic so I'll just stop there).

TLDR; I only claimed that they got content (not that all the content was good or bad). Long running franchises will just have goofs, how bad they get varies. How annoyed I get varies depending on various factors, but yeah that can be part of the negative side of hyper fixation too sadly TT0TT

Weiss Vs. Mitsuru Death Battle

First off, let me address some points that really irritate me.

‘Persona characters can beat up Gods!’

No, that’s SMT you’re thinking of.

Persona characters aren’t that strong. With Nyx, SEES only ever fought the Avatar (which is never stated how strong it is) and the actual Nyx was only fought by Makoto. In fact, if you take a look at the details of each ‘god’ incident: Makoto sealed Nyx, Izanami’s true form was only ever defeated by Yu and Yabbadoth was only truly defeated by Ren.

Even if we consider them the last two ‘gods’ (we’ll get to that): They aren’t defeated by anyone except the main characters. All of whom are treated by the narrative as being FAR more powerful than their members combined.

Even then, only NYX is an actual god. The others. Izanami and Yabbadoth, are effectively giant Shadows. That’s because Shadows are constructs built by humanity’s collective unconscious and Izanami and Yabbadoth are created from the people trying to ignore the truth and the people warped desires for peace of mind respectively. This is also why they are defeated so easily while Nyx is never defeated: Shadows can be harmed and destroyed by Personas as they are the same kind of creature. Nyx is neither and plays by a completely different set of rules.

Hell, the likes of Izanami and Yabbadoth are really unimpressive when you compare them to the likes of Metatron or Lucifier in SMT. Those guys can legitimately destroy the world like gods while Izanami and Yabbadoth can struggle to effect the world so it kind of tells me Atlus considers them lower in power than Gods (backed up by how Nyx can actually destroy the world.)

Why am I bring this up? Because I know people are gonna point to Erebus as a gotcha and everything I just said about Izanami and Yabbadoth also apply to Erebus (as it’s the collective desire for Death.) And the wild card thing still applies as Aegis gained Makoto’s Wild Card power (and in fact is stronger than Yu.)

‘Erebus is said to crush mountains!’

Said. Never shown. The only possible way for us to quantify this is through using Erebus’ in game stats. And while a STR stat of 80 is strong...Junpei outclass Erebus at Level 99 with 82. So unless anyone has proof that his Persona at least can bust a mountain, I can only assume that the statement was made to be dramatic. Especially considering this statement was said about 4 seconds before Elizabeth one shots this thing.

Not like Weiss is excluded from this bullshit.

‘Aura is infinite!’

That’s stupid and is blatantly untrue.

‘Weiss’ Summon can stop Artemista!’

That’s debatable at best as I don’t know how Aura relates to Personas.

Now let’s actually discuss this battle.

First, I wanna discuss both of their summons. Weiss is able to summon the Armor Gigas, which is a Grimm-possessed suit of armor about three times her size with immense strength (been shown to easily tear apart stone floors with the force of it’s massive broadsword) and durability but is rather klunky and slow. And the Queen Lancer, a giant bee-like Grimm with inherent aerial mobility along with projectiles in the form but it’s not as durable as the Armor Gigas (shown when Hazel punch a Dust blast at it and it dissapated without any shown damage before hand.) And finally the Boartusk...which is pointless. They also take more time to summon than a Persona but

Mitsuru meanwhile has Artemtisa whose rapier doubles as a bladed whip, can use ice attacks as well as being shown to quickly freeze objects around it (as shown in the Persona 4 movies like in the second one where it stabs into the Hierophant shadow and freezes it after being weakened as well as in the third movie where it froze the petals from the Strength Shadow.) In regards to the ice attacks, in Persona 4 Arena she’s shown to be able to create simple constructs from the ice like spears or a mirror. It can also use status effect moves such as Marin Karin and Tentafuroo to disable and cripple the opponent as well as a full power single target healing spell in Diarahan. She can also temporarily boost the power of her next magic attack with Mind Charge by 2.5 times it’‘s normal strength, And finally it has complete ice immunity, meaning ice based attacks do not work on it as well as being immune to non-Shadow enemies.

Issue is that Artemisa is never really shown to be very durable. It’s usually batted away and dissipated with one hit by stronger shadows (albeit in it’s weaker form as Pentelusa) and if we really wanna include gameplay, it has the lowest possible endurance stat in P3. It’s also locked into ice attacks which makes Artemisa’s attacks more predictable, it’s status effect attacks have a base success rate of 25% (if someone can give me the claculations for how the LUCK stat affects the success rate, I’ll adjust with Mitsuru’s 51 LUCK stat). And Artemtisa is weak to fire, which at the very least involves taking 50% more damage. I’ve also never seen Mitsuru and Artemisa act in tandum with each other, with Mitsuru usually treating Artemisa as an extension of herself rather than a separate entity to Mitsuru.

In short: I believe Mitsuru’s Persona is generally better than Weiss’ summon in a direct comparison due to being more powerful and having more skills than the summons but in terms of being used by others, while it is definitively more powerful as well as having a natural immunity to ice, the fact that the summons can act independently of Weiss means Artemisa can be limited in usage.

Now let’s move onto the skills of the combatants.

Weiss’ summons are in fact just an extension of her actual power, a Semblance (ie superpower) known as glyphs which allow her to create platforms in mid air to move around on as well as use as basic shields (she did so in her brief fight against the Boartusk ) Then using a finite resource known as Dust, she can make her glyphs turn dark and effectively change gravity, making the person stick to the top of the glyph. Her glyphs have also been known to add force behind people or objects, such as in Volume 3 Episode 4 where she was quickly launched from glyph to glyph  Weiss also has acess to other forms of Dust, including Ice Dust in which she can create icicles to attack her opponent or walls of ice which have been seen to be able to trap a complex sized scorpion’s stinger within it for a few minutes. She’s also a skilled rapier user as shown through her victory over the Armor Gigas.

Mitsuru has...everything I listed above above with Artemisa, alongside being a skilled rapier user as well (I’d argue better than Weiss but not by much seeing as she’s shown to be effective against lesser Shadows but rarely fighters greater enemies with her own rapier.) Her Persona is her skills aside from her weapon usage.

In terms of skill/versatility, I’d say in a straight rapier fight Weiss would lose but combine that with her glyphs and dust and she’s able to fight on a more even ground with Mitsuru using her Persona as well.

In terms of mobility:

Weiss has access to her glyphs which can be used to leap about in mid air using them as platforms as well as gravity dust allowing for more flexible movement, not to mention how the Queen Lancer is capable of being used as a pseudo ship to move around on.

Mitsuru has...nothing special I can remember. She’s not especially agile nor do her skills give her any extra mobility.

Next we have defensive ability-

They both suck.

Weiss’ track record of losing 1v1 fights is due to her opponents being able to dish out a lot of damage (The WF lieutenant being a buff chainsaw wielding fighter, Flynt’s Trumpet requiring the force of Yang going berserk to break through and Vernal straight up blasting through her ice wall AND Armor Gigas).

And Mitsuru’s Persona dissipates after one good hit while she isn‘t the best at taking hits herself (being disabled from pain by a grazing lazer beam that cut her leg by the Fortune Shadow in the second movie.)

Neither person is good at enduring hits.

Intelligence...

Um, both are consider top of their grade and trained to take control of large corporations. Mitsuru makes more detailed plans but Weiss is able to adjust better...

... I honestly say this is a tie.

Experience.

... This is highly subjective. Neither one began their training at a definitive time, Mitsuru is three years older but by virtue of how tiring the Dark Hour is she can’t fight shadows everyday unlike Weiss with Grimm but Weiss is also younger...

You can see why I have a difficulty making a judgement.

Stamina

Well, Weiss’ best stamina feat is fighting Grimm for an entire day, getting a small amount of sleep before proceeding to fight the White Fang as well as more Grimm...

But Mitsuru’s best feat is her fighting off the hordes of Shadows in the final Persona 3 movie which were more intense and more numerous.

I dunno, I say any difference between the two likely wouldn’t make a difference.

You can understand why I’m a bit nervous about this battle.

The combatants have similar backgrounds, similar feats and similar skills so they’re very matched in a lot of regards and the few things they do have over the other seem to be countered by their own weaknesses (like Mitsuru’s sheer power would beat Weiss down easily if Weiss didn’t have better mobility options and more tools to work with.)

It’s also a reason why I find the reactions around the announcement rather infuriating as when you remove the iffy factors from both sides: the battle doesn’t have a clear winner yet.

All I know is: I hope Weiss loses so Ben and Chad don’t get burned at the stake and so I can shove it DB hater faces about them being biased.

Hey PQ was pretty good!

so I’m having trouble getting into PQ2 because of several factors, so I thought I’d write a half-think piece, half-essay on why I think the first PQ gets more flak than it deserves. So here’s that.

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I genuinely don't understand why, when talking about Persona Q, people are always saying things along the lines of, "The gameplay was good, but the characters were trite and the story wasn't that great." Like, as a fan of the Persona series, I genuinely don't understand that assessment.

Not saying PQ is flawless, oh no. There are PLENTY of things in PQ that I have an axe to grind with (the small door scene with the P4 gang, for one), but the overall story? The characters? They're both fine. Good, even, dare I say. And here's my argument as to why:

The returning Persona series characters (from 3 and 4) in PQ do a good job of representing their games and their own personalities, even if a little more light-hearted than their source material,

AND

The story is genuinely in-line with the rest of the Persona/SMT series, even if it ultimately doesn't matter due to time shenanigans (and I'm okay with that).

These are my two points. Just those two. Because these are the two most contested parts of PQ, as far as I can hear, since we all agree that the gameplay is the real breadwinner here hahaha

Anyway.

First, let's talk about the returning characters, since they seem to be the ones who matter most. The P4 cast are generally less griped about (save Chie and Teddie) and I believe this is largely due to the brighter, more hopeful tone of P4 as a whole. (Aaand, in my opinion, they're done a MUCH BIGGER disservice in the Arena games, but no one ever talks about that so let's not bother with those right now.)

P4 was a game about making friends, the hijinx that come from that, and finding the truth about a string of murders and confronting the worst parts of yourself in a harsher world in the process! And it executes this with the appropriate amount of balance between serious moments and comedic relief. The theme colour for the whole game is bright yellow/gold, a happier and more friendly colour which helps remind you that this game is all in good fun.

(Side note here: I honestly think that P5 really failed in this respect, despite my liking its tone slightly more. I just personally like darker-themed games, but P5 was a little too dark and oppressive right out the gate, with hardly a friendly face, which helps make your gradually growing group of friends much more appreciated but also a harder atmosphere for jokes to really land well. Most of the 'funny' sequences felt very undeserved and really dragged because uh guys we literally just fought a rapist, an abusive father figure, and some other fucked-up shit. Can we please acknowledge that a bit more instead of pretending it never happened by laughing at the expense of Ann's autonomy of her body? Especially when she was a target of said rapist??) But that's its own discussion for later.

Really, the fact that most of the P4 gang get out of this with little criticism shows how accepted their caricatures have become. I guess? At least, except for Teddie and Chie.

Teddie being a wannabe Casanova must've been a huge hit with the Japanese audience, because it's just the hill he's going to die on for the writers. There was more to Teddie than his hitting on the girls in P4, believe it or not! (And there's a whole thing about it being brought on by him mimicking the type of behaviour he saw Yukiko's shadow exhibiting, which has a lot of really interesting undertones, but it makes him more swappable with Junpei, so whatever, I guess.) Meanwhile, Chie's not as meat-crazy, either, but I guess it's a better trait for them to roll with than her (cut in the translation) glossed-over sexism.

Both work fine, however, and aren't really too annoying enough to be that egregious. (Though they both go right up to the line sometimes. Teddie more so, but none of the girls playing along really helps show how gross his actions are. Most of the time.)

No, the real complaints I see directed at the characters being 'too cartoonish' are usually reserved for the P3 gang.

P3 is, really, such a bizarre game to go back to now when compared to its two successors. It's dark and hopeless, like P5, but formulaic and mystery, like P4. It's actually a natural progression when looking at its two/three older siblings (both P2s are bleak. As. Hell!), but, at least to me, it's the odd duck of the bunch, being the first to implement this winning formula of being caught in a time limit of a school year and managing spending time exploring this other world. It adds Social Links and social stats with this new time limit and this idea that the Persona and Shadows you fight don't just happen out on the streets in 'normal' circumstances for everyone to see. It pretty much went from an RPG to a management game with RPG elements.

And its emotional, impactful story, like P5, had a lot of tonal whiplash due to the attempts at comedy!

I feel like a lot of people forget this about P3 (and maybe I think more about it because I haven't actually beaten the whole game yet myself), but the story is actually a goddamn mess of tonal confusion. You got kids shooting themselves in the heads and a Social Link dealing with a classmate's crush on his teacher. You got wacky foreign exchange student and kids taking experimental drugs to suppress their Persona and slowly poisoning themselves to death as a side effect. The protagonist is an orphan who lost his parents in a huge, plot-relevant accident... But he's able to date every single girl at the same time and be the most wish fulfillment charming guy if the player so desires.

P3 being messy isn't a bad thing. P4, P5, and even P2 and PQ are all a little messy in their own rights, too. But because P3 was a lot of fans' first in the series, and PQ is just a spin-off, it gets way more flak for this than I feel it deserves.

(I mean, hey. Both P3 and P4 have those classic anime scenes of the boys walking in on the girls while at a hot springs. All PQ's got is an awkward group date scene and the implication that Yosuke and Kanji kissed each other while getting knocked out.) (They all. Have. Problems.)

And I know a lot of this comes down to personal preference. I'm not saying you're wrong for liking P3 or P4 more than PQ. I'm just saying I feel like PQ is often wrongly accused of being worse and less well-written when, really, they're all pretty much on par with each other. (And someone on the team really doesn't understand how to handle large casts of characters sharing the same space...)

But, personally, from everything I've seen from P3, I don't like the way most of the characters get presented to me in the source material. Junpei is way more insufferable in P3 than in PQ and Yukari is way more uninteresting in P3 than in PQ. Really, PQ helped me appreciate these characters more than P3 itself did. And, yes, they're more funny when they're trying to be, too. Because PQ is set up better for comedy than the 'remember you are mortal' tone of P3.

(Which makes dramatic moments hit all the harder when they happen) HEY check that segue! It's time to talk about the story and the two original characters of the game!

So, second point: people say the story isn't very good. To which I wanna ask... "Did you stop playing before defeating the fourth Boss?" Because it really sounds like, to me, everyone who says that didn't actually finish the game and reach all that juicy character development that happens for both sides around the fourth dungeon, where all the issues they've been building up (like Yukari's issue with Mitsuru for the P3 side and Kanji and Ken's awkwardness in the P4 side) start getting resolved in a satisfying way. And it comes with a reveal for the two characters we've been getting to know, Zen and Rei, as well.

(And, from here on in, there be spoilers. You've been warned.)

The two new characters to this game are Zen and Rei, who were in this place before the P3 or P4 gangs were called to the scene. Zen is quiet and a bit unsettlingly dense, but devoted to Rei, who is bubbly and full of life, but terrified of the dungeons you have to traverse. The two have been in this place for (what's implied to be) a very long time and enlist the help of the P3 and P4 teams in order to find a way out through defeating the bosses of each Labyrinth/dungeon. Simple enough, as it also helps the P3 and P4 team's goal of getting out. With each new dungeon, it feels more and more like something about Zen and Rei aren't quite right, but the length of the dungeon and all the team chats help you put it out of your mind each time. Rei can even get kinda annoying with her loudness and big appetite if you don't find her cute (which: how dare you. But yeah, I get it).

And then, at the end of a fiery festival fourth dungeon, you find yourself in a dark tomb at the bottom level. The boss awaiting you is Rei's shadow (a nice callback to the way P4 works) whom she still doesn't accept after you defeat it.

All the locks are gone and the P3 and P4 teams can return to their worlds if they wanted. Except Rei gets kidnapped after Zen reveals that Rei has been dead all along and it was him who trapped them here. It was he who created this place and even he who called both teams here.

And this was a plot twist that I friggin' loved.

It definitely had more impact on me because Zen and Rei easily became my favourites out of the whole cast, to the point of having them on my team for the whole game, but to find out such a fucked up twist is wild! (Seriously! Go watch the cutscene and tell me it isn't super fucked up!) You can say the P3 and P4 twists were shocking (or P5s I guess), but for my money, this is the best reversal of expectations I'd ever seen in a Persona game. In any game, really!

Zen was, in effect, the villain the whole time. His true identity as Chronos, God of time, makes sense with displacing the teams from their own times and the time here being erased once you reach the end. His own power that he sealed away growing impatient and taking matters into its own hands by drawing the teams to this haven displaced from time also makes perfect sense! And the entire climb through the last dungeon is his redemption arc and it makes for a super emotionally investing final dungeon all the way. (Which is great, because I hate every single one of the enemies that appear in this god-forsaken place.) (Even P4 and P5 can't really boast that, I felt very little investment through Izanami's dungeon and Baldabaoth's distortion.)

Of course, if you found Zen and Rei to be annoying and pointless, I can see how this would fall flat for you. The fact that they hinged such an emotional climax on these new characters, characters that don't even matter outside of this game!, was such a risky move. Especially when you consider this is just a fanservice game made basically under the promise of seeing the P3 team interact with the P4 team. But, for me, it really paid off.

And whatever complaints you had with the P3 or P4 characters, I feel like the resolutions to those character moments I mentioned earlier get explored even further during the climb through the final dungeon. From the P3 gang coming together to finally communicate with one another to the P4 gang reconfirming their bonds with one another, it's a really investing and emotional journey. I do wish the writing had been this tight and impactful through more of the game, but I believe it's worth it in the end.

Perhaps this moment comes too late in the game, though. I can definitely see others giving up before reaching this point due to the repetitive nature of the dungeons and the tidbits of character development that are meant to build up to this moment that can be too sparsely placed. (But, really, it's the same from P3 to P5, Social Links don't really add much variety when they can be just as repetitive and boring, just saying. Especially when you get caught in waiting to rank up hell, ugh.) For me, however, this really sealed the deal on this game being an incredible experience that I adored from start to finish. 7/10. Final score.

....

....

(7 outta 10?? Not perfect??) Well, it's not perfect. Japan's blatant homophobia and sexism really ruins a lot of scenes for me. I'm super salty especially about how the fake marriage scenes are handled so differently from the girl choices to the boy choices. (But you just argued in its favour for 2000 words!) Listen. ALL the Persona games wouldn't receive perfect scores for me for this aspect alone. There are a lot of other factors as well, but they vary from title to title and PQ in particular is guilty of spending too much time focusing on Teddie and Junpei being girl-crazy. And Marie is in this game more than she really should be. UGH.

But I digress.

In conclusion, this game's story and characters are better than most give it credit for. Hopefully, my argument helped you see why I believe this and why I think claiming that both aspects are just 'bad' is lazy.

The Man Named Lion (P3)

“C’mon, COME ON!!!”

Lev and Vsevolod leaned in closer, cupping their hands over the smoldering paper and pathetic pile of soggy twigs they had taken from the nearby woods. The rain kept coming down and snuffing out any hope of making a fire.

“DEATH TAKE US! WE ONLY HAVE AN HOUR BREAK!! I AM STARVING!! Sevka, cover!!! QUICK!!”

Vsevolod stood up and tried to shield their tiny firepit with his body as Lev leaned down into the mud of the trench they sat in again, chin practically dug in the ground as he blew furiously into the embers. He had used his last match.

Smoke billowed out from the pile and threatened to go out again, and for a short moment, it seemingly had. Until the flames caught hold and began to rise.

“YES!!!!” Lev blurted out, before letting out a series of hoots and cheers.

Vsevolod’s ears fanned out before pulling back. “Can I move now?” He asked, agitated.

“No!! We might lose it!! Stand still, I will cook!!” Lev dove for their rations he had stuffed into a bag and dug through it, pulling out muddy vegetables they’d dug up on the edge of someone’s farm on the way to their destination.

The shorter of the two friends frowned heavily.

This whole experience was NOT what he had signed up for.

He and Lev had both signed up to be in the planes. And they were even designated to do so. However, when it came time to leave to boot camp, they both learned that they would be put on a list as back up. They were not training anyone to fight from the sky, or by sea. They only trained them to fight on the ground.

Several months went by, and as soon as they had completed the mandatory training courses, they had been shipped out towards the front, to the forests of the north.

Many of the trees had already been stripped away years ago to make room for the enormous quarry and mining facility they were to defend, leaving behind a huge field of dirt that had turned to mud during the rainy season. How any of the trenches had been CREATED was still a great mystery to him.

At least it kept invaders away. They wouldn’t dare journey across the no-man’s-land in between. And even if they could, they would be caught by all the tangled up barbed wire and the searchlights.

Nothing turned out like he thought it would have. And he was greatly disappointed. And extremely miserable. But, at least not alone.

Lev dumped the horrendously, unevenly chopped vegetable matter into this pathetic pot he had that he’d brought. It was lightweight and they’d been given one each when they had been issued their initial set of gear. But it sure was flimsy. Still, it got the job done.

“Meat- you still have that sausage that nice cobbler on the forked road gave you, right?” Lev moved away and burrowed into his companion’s backpack. “Oh good…” He brought it over to the pot, crumbling it straight into the concoction. Water was dripping into it from above from a now-soaked Vsevolod, but it was all right. It’d just make it a stew instead.

“Once we put in our time, we NEVER have to come back out here again. This isn’t even anything remotely CLOSE to the films in the museum... Animals!!!” Lev grumbled as he stirred the frying food around. “...Oh my sauce- I forgot!!” Once again he stuck his hand into one of his open and disorganized satchels, pulling out a sticky bottle of sauce. He’d taken it from home when they left for the front. “If this does not put heat back in your bones nothing will!!” In it went. A LOT of it. “Next time, I hope to be inside eating, by the kitchens.”

Vsevolod hissed at him. Their chances of being near the kitchens were horrendously low, as it was stationed miles away from them. The rainy season was a wonderful time to sit INSIDE to eat. But here they were, on their break from watch beneath the hastily constructed wall that covered the top of the trench, trying to make stew while soaking wet in less than an hour.

The grand glory of the Orologian army… What a lie. It made him angry.

“So we must divide this portion in half. Equally. Crumb by crumb.”

Their stomachs growled ravenously, seeing that they themselves had been as empty as those quarry pits they were defending for the past two days.

“You have the bread still right?” Lev asked, looking up every few seconds as if they were performing some illegal act.

“I have a bit left, yes. I wish Miss Lumi had given us more.”

“She gave us a mountain of bread each. That was half my pack weight alone.”

The rain let up thankfully, only after they were done cooking. For the last twenty-five minutes they sat side by side wolfing down their food as fast as they could without making themselves sick.

“I think I used too much sauce…”

Vsevolod said nothing. His mouth was on fire, but Lev was right. It WAS warming him up.

“Do you regret anything yet?” Lev suddenly asked while chewing on a stew-soaked chunk of bread.

“We haven’t even done any fighting yet. All we’ve been doing is sitting around like fools in the rain waiting for something to happen.”

“Well...When it does happen- if it ever does, and we run face first into the Demešuans, what will you do? Say you were alone and you come upon one who is also alone. Who would make the first move?”

Vsevolod rolled his eyes as a few big raindrops plopped down loudly on his helmet. “I would of course. Before they move in to kill me. That is such an easy answer.”

“I suppose so. You are right. It is probably best then to not think so much about it, but I cannot help it. I wonder if they are at like us in any way, back home on that big island city of theirs. Instead I will think upon Miss Lumi and how she is perhaps baking another mountain side’s worth of bread just for us, so that we will not starve out here like the common man.”

“...It would be nice.”

“I fear to think of what else she could possibly have sent to us when the mail decides to arrive. If it ever will.”

A whistle blew in the distance accompanied by shouting. Time to switch shifts again.

“Ayyyee.. here we go…” The two crammed all their dirty cookware into their bags and went running back to their posts on opposite sides of the trench.

Vsevolod sat alone, staring out across the barren landscape before him, partially hidden away in the mist.

There was nothing to look at. No birds to listen to. No sounds other than the rain coming down on them again, harder this time. His coat did little to keep him dry at this point (considering he was still drenched from sheltering their fire earlier,) and a chilly wind made it that much worse.

For a while he sat in relative silence before the piercing cry of a hawk overhead caught his attention.

What a wonderful sight. Its silver and dark feathers were shimmering as it flew overhead, into the cloudy sky. The rain had no effect upon its flight whatsoever.

Again it cried as it was almost out of sight.

Vsevolod sighed longingly, as he could not hope to follow it.

so, amnesia trope....which charmed one would you do it with & how would you do it (if you want, i just like this trope)

hmmm that’s a really good question idk why but my gut really says to go with phoebe. she was first to the craft and the one that really pushed prue & piper to move forward in their destiny, so to have that all be wiped would be interesting to say the least. furthermore, with her psychic powers, i feel like that leaves a lot of room for “echos” like feelings of deja vu or the sense that you should be remembering something but you can’t remember what you’re remembering.

i feel like i would put this line after season 4 / beginning of season 5 in an au where cole doesn’t come back but phoebe is still haunted by his memory. i think her emotional stress and ptsd from that relationship would then cause a block in her powers bc as well all know your powers are tied to your emotions so phoebe might start looking into a way to fix that. personally, i feel like it’s never a good move to have the character move forward with these actions to the extent that they end up damaging themselves bc while i think it is a complex journey it very often comes across as unrelatable and leads to people holding grudges against said character bc it looks like they placed their own well being over the well being of their family and those they swore to protect. so what i would do is have phoebe go through multiple processes trying to cure herself: crystals, meditation, essential oils, talk therapy, etc. but she still has this block. shit really becomes an issue when a power of three spell almost doesn’t work. piper, phoebe, paige, & leo all have to sit down and discuss what’s happening bc phoebe’s troubles seem to only be getting worse and it’s now directly impacting the power of three. they need to find something fast bc it’s getting dangerous and phoebe starts crying bc she’s doing everything she can and she doesn’t know how to move forward so everyones looking at leo like okay whitelighter this has to have happened to some witch before phoebe what do we do and leo’s like well idk there’s one thing we could do but it’s incredibly dangerous and we should really only use it as a last resort and piper’s like well i think we’ve hit that last resort stage and leo’s like it’s a spirit journey and again it’s really dangerous and i’m not sure this rewards outweigh the risk and phoebe’s like leo my problems are more than just my problems now they’re stopping us from saving innocents whatever it is i’ll do it i have to do it. so leo’s like okay alright i guess were doing this

so they hole up phoebe in her room and phoebe calls elise saying she's going on a vacation for her mental health (which elise fully supports) bc they asked leo how much time this’ll take and leo has genuinely no idea bc it’s not a common practice and it really depends on phoebe so piper whips up the potion and paige lines phoebe’s room with protection spells and they offer all their love & support and phoebe goes under

the next couple episodes are split between piper & paige fighting their real world battles and phoebe’s adventures through the spirit world. piper & paige get more and more anxious bc phoebe’s been under for like three weeks and piper & paige are talking to leo like is it supposed to take this long can we pull her out what if she never wakes up and leos like i wish i had the answer to these questions but i deadass do not i don’t know what’s going on in there i don’t know how she’s doing meanwhile i feel like phoebe’s walking through memories changing her actions go through ripple effects walking through alternate universe maybe in an alternate universe she never met cole and prue’s still alive in an alternate universe she had telekinesis in an alternate universe she stay evil and killed her sisters and she keeps living out different scenarios and seeing different sides of herself and she’s exhausted and scared and

she wakes up in the middle of the night bolts upright in her bed lightly coated in sweat. she trods outside her her room and is just like confused so she goes down the hallway and knocks on the door and paige opens it like you’re awake!!! and pulls her into a big hug and phoebe starts squirming and yelling (but not judo flipping paige or anything like the pre amnesia phoebe would be able to) and she’s like who the fuck are you what are you doing in piper’s room!!!!! and the yelling alerts piper and leo and come running out of their room like you’re awake!! and phoebe immediate rushes to piper’s side like What Is Going On Who Are These People Where’s Prue? and piper’s like prue??? and phoebe’s like Yes Our Sister Prue Where Is She and piper’s like phoebe... whats the last thing you remember? and phoebe’s like New York... i came back and she looks at piper with like absolute sorrow in her eyes and is like grams... and piper’s lookin at piper and leo like holy fuckin shit the last thing she remembers is the pilot episode and she’s like phoebe sweetie i need you to sit down and just give me a second and phoebe’s like completely shell shocked so she does and piper’s like the last thing she remembers is coming back from new york; she doesn’t know who you are she doesn’t know who you are, she doesn’t know prue’s dead, i don’t even think she knows she’s a witch and paige is like okay what do we do and piper’s like i don’t know and they’re looking at leo like ?? and leo’s like i don’t know either i mean we have to tell her and by we i do mean piper as she’s the only one phoebe recognizes and piper’s like oh yeah sure hi sweetie you don’t remember this but you’re a witch your sister’s dead i’m married paige over there is our half sister mom had an affair while i’m at it dad’s back in our lives oh and also a couple months ago you were queen of hell! is there anything i’m missing?? and leo’s like just,, talk to her slowly,, treat it very gentle and piper’s like yeah Not My Forte but she goes to phoebe and holds her hands like i don’t know how to tell you this but your last memory is from 1998 and phoebe’s like ,,,, what year is it now? and piper’s like 2002 and phoebe’s lower lip starts trembling and she’s like how did this happen and piper’s like i promise i’ll explain everything but right now i think it’s best that you get some rest. i’ll see you in the morning and she kisses phoebe on the forehead and sends her back to bed and piper paige & leo all head up to the attic to try to draft up some game plan on how to get their phoebe back

so over the next couple of weeks they like try to really gently bring phoebe up to speed the first thing they really have to get out of the way is Phoebe You’re A Witch which is a shock y’know magic being real but phoebe rolls with it about as well as she did in the pilot. the next is prue’s gone, which phoebe has sorta pieced together but was still Not Ready to hear. i think this whole era would also be a really great opportunity to build up paige & phoebe’s relationship bc the show really dropped the ball on that one. i think they would both really lean on each other and grow bc a young phoebe was very much like a young paige and phoebe’s still quasi young phoebe but like paige is like this is advice you gave me a phoebe’s like me?? giving out advice??? and paige is like yeah believe it or not you’re actually an advice columnist i also think phoebe would spend a lot of times flipping through photo albums and reading her old columns and trying to understand who she was / is. i also think she would push piper to open her restaurant after seeing p3 bc she’s be like piper this is amazing but this isn’t your dream. you always wanted to be a chef. and piper admittedly had almost forgotten that she had put that dream on hold but phoebe bringing it back up would really stoke that fire again and make her want to open up her own restaurant.

i think phoebe’s first major relapse would be when she was flipping through the book and found her entry on cole’s human form which has pictures of her and this man and it’s all written in her handwriting and she gets this horrible know it her stomach and then a premonition containing the highlights reel of her and cole’s relationship and she breaks down. and piper paige & leo all find her an absolute mess and she’s like were you going to tell me??? were you going to tell me everything i did????? and she goes through this horrible era of feeling responsible for prue’s death and all the evil cole did and piper and paige really have to help pull her out of that at this point i think we also bring in coop who really helps her start to heal her heart and i think the whole journey to get Back To Phoebe wouldn’t be an easy one but the drama driven by this could very easily take up the space occupied by piper & leo’s relationship drama which i personally have never been too keen on. i think this could be the driving plot of s5 and then s6 could be piper’s pregnancy & wyatt s7 could be be chris and the future plotline which i think phoebe would be a lot more attune to as that could have been one of the realities she lived through on her spirit journey and then s8 would be the final season idk i wouldn’t want to use zankou or the avatars or billie & christy but y’know something good and have it stick the landing like it did in the og

in Persona 5 for me it’s July 11th, meaning I’m exactly 3 months into the game. I’m going to assume I’m getting to about the third way point, both previous games lasted 9-10 months and I’ll assume this one will last until January on the end game Calendar. Here’s my thoughts so far, spoilers inside:

Well I’ve spent a clean 44 hours on the game already so there’s that. I haven’t even been fucking around a lot, I completed Madarame’s Palace in just the 3 required visits and I completely cleaned out Kaneshiro’s Palace in just one discounting Makoto’s joining visit and the re-visit to defeat the boss. I’m really digging the story so far, it feels well paced and everything’s progressing at a reasonable, steady rate but the tension keeps building. It also REALLY breaks tradition, but in ways I’m finding refreshing. I’ve already formed my Judgement Confidant in spite of being only a third(ish?) of the way into the game, and I’ve formed a Confidant relationship with someone I know WILL be a party member even when he’s not a party member yet. Though I don’t trust Akechi as far as I could throw him. I’ll have to play farther into the story to write a real feeling piece about it, I’ll probably do that once I complete the game. Igor’s got me scared though, and I really loved and trusted Igor wholly in the last two games. My social stats are progressing well, I’m at rank 4 on Knowledge, 3 on Guts (promoting to 4 soon I think), 3 on Charm, 2 on Kindness, and 2 on Proficiency (also promoting soon). I knew Knowledge and Guts would be the most important ones going in, they always are so I’ve given them a special priority. So far I love this game, it’s really stellar and it’ll be my game of the year for certain. Everything works really well, my sole complaint at this point is that one time I had a shadow not join me after giving two good answers to its questions during a negotiation and I wasn’t told why not, but whatever it’s fine. The dungeons are getting steadily tougher and I really like the variety in design approaches they take. Kaneshiro’s was incredibly long but could be done all at once if you had enough items and good enough pacing, Madarame’s required more involvement and opting into scripted events since you had to get stuff done in the real world as well, and given it was a tutorial dungeon Kamoshida’s was also good. Honestly the level design in the Palaces has all been really good and I’ve liked each more than the last by quite a bit. I even got unlucky with some Onis getting crits and hitting my whole party with Rampage near the beginning of my run through Kaneshiro’s Palace and I still made it through so I was pretty happy with that. The main plot and characters are very much enjoying that the game, while fairly lighthearted so far, takes itself seriously and handles its themes maturely. They don’t make jokes about serious things and they let things have the weight that they should. The Party Member’s social links going on lockdown if you advance them too fast to wait for another moment in the plot is also a great idea since it means they can build in some of the character’s development from the plot into the social link and vice versa. This, combined with how the social links each focus on them growing as a person from the issue that caused them to be socially outcast and ostracized in the first place gives it a more down to earth feel. The party members have noticeable growths of character and mindset in both components of the game’s writing side by side, and it’s good to see them finally address this issue the series had been having. Rather than being like Persona 4 and making each of them a HUGE LIFE CHANGING EVENT THAT HAS A MASSIVE EFFECT ON THEIR PERSONALITY but then that having no bearing on the plot so the whiplash of maturity is really immersion breaking, this game’s focus on a more personal push towards growth and change. Be it making amends for past mistakes like Ryuji, finding a new source of strength with Ann, or pushing forward and grasping his future in spite of his situation like Yusuke, they all have to deal directly with what caused them to become an outcast in the first place, and feel like strong bits of development that don’t completely change them as people. I personally like and relate to Makoto’s being about being more honest with oneself and living for you, and not for the expectations others have for you. This sense of giving situations the gravitas and seriousness they require extends to side social links as well, of which I’ve liked all the ones I’ve found. One that sticks out to me is Kawakami’s social link. She is your teacher and you happen to hire her through a maid service because Ryuji and Mishima are fucking dumbasses who want to see a hot maid do chores for them and the situation you find yourselves in is naturally a little sexually charged, something which the game does not ignore or distract from. It owns up to the awkwardness of the situation it sets up. As the social link progresses (without Ryuji and Mishima there) it even gives the player the option to try and hit on her in a sexual manner, but she turns you down on the grounds that A) You’re her student B) the age gap is gross and C) specifically sites it would make her no better than Kamoshida, who was your first target as the Phantom Thieves in no small part because he sexually harassed and in one case raped a student. The fact that the game doesn’t just walk the walk of saying ‘oh yeah sexually assaulting minors is bad’ which is obvious to anyone of decent moral standing, but further drives the point home and WON’T make an exception for you because you’re the player is very good and not something many games are willing to do.  The variety of characters you encounter during social links is also nice, from a washed up politician genuinely trying to improve the world after learning from his mistakes, to the owner of a model weapon shop doing illicit business, to just the guy who runs the Phantom Thieves’ Forum they’ve all got a charm to them and feel well written. One that worried me initially was one where you meet a news reporter in a bar and the bar happens to be run by a drag queen. I was worried cause I had heard this content was transphobic, but seemingly that was a misunderstanding from someone playing the japanese version with less than a perfect understanding of the language. Lala Escargot as she goes by, is voiced by a man in both versions and is referred to with ‘-chan’ and female pronouns, however this is proper etiquette for drag queens while playing their stage persona. Further, Lala Escargot is shown to be of good moral standing and isn’t made out to be a joke, two things I was glad to see happen. This game’s schedule also feels good. Like I said, I’m about a third of the way in and I feel like I’ve been able to make comfortable growth with both social stats and social links, and I was worried about that because the game really railroads you a lot in the first two plot arcs, but it’s working out comfortably. Combat feels really good, while spell animations feel a tiny bit less flashy than previous games I’ve still only seen a handful of them, and the combat animations are all still really good. The balance is great, I feel challenged but not overwhelmed, but it is noticeably getting a lot harder with each main palace. Your Teammate’s in combat abilities they gain from social links are definitely nerfed compared to P4 or P3 Portable, but honestly that’s welcome in my opinion. In the previous games they were flat out overpowered and could carry you through the game. As is they feel like nice bonuses that happen just often enough you don’t forget they’re there, but not so often that they take away any feeling of depth or strategy, particularly in P4 where they were extremely ‘Win More’ mechanics. Particularly the ‘Save the main character from death once per battle’ is reduced to a chance, but can happen more than once per battle if you’re lucky, and requires the relationship be at rank 9 instead of rank 5. A hefty but welcomed nerf that doesn’t eliminate any feeling of danger. Oh also! The fact that your non-party member Confidants confer permanent benefits, some in combat, some out of combat is a GREAT incentive to level them up. I know that I’m focusing on Kawakami’s so hard because it frees up so many phases in the game, not having to waste my own time brewing coffee or doing laundry is a huge boon, plus 1 point in knowledge from lecture (assuming I get the answer right) can be exchanged for two lockpicks and two points in proficiency, or a book read and its bonuses which is a great bonus effect. Eventually she even gives you the ability to go out at night after going dungeon crawling which in and of itself is an ENORMOUS benefit. Finally, as for the party members it’s really cool the variety this party has and their variety of motivations. They’re a very fun group whose personalities work together dynamically an in a fun way, I know I still have 3 party members left to get, so we’ll see how they affect things. I’m just loving how much we get to see them all interact, between how many plot events there are and that there’s at least one text chatlog a day with everyone talking together, it gives you a ton of dialogue with them and time to see their party dynamic.  Ryuji’s a good boy. I like him a lot, he reminds me a lot of myself in terms of behavior. His social link has been a little slow, but cute, and his date sequences when you aren’t actively going up ranks are also cool. One big improvement he has over Yosuke in particular is that after being hit on by a couple of gay guys he just expresses distaste for the situation and leaves it at that. He was uncomfortable with it, but he doesn’t hark on it and veer off into being a homophobic shitbag like Yosuke. But Atlas, blease let him be gay in the expansion I know you’re going to make. Let me date the vulgar boy he’s such a cute good boy. Really though his growth as a person is already tangible, he’s gone from feeling like a total outsider with nothing to work for and nothing to lose to being a fairly responsible guy who owns up to his mistakes. He’s still not smart but he’s grown enough that he’s the party member to remind the others to keep it calm and lay low after a major operation, which is a really cool role for him to play. Ann is fucking great, her force of personality and strength as a character is immediate right from the start. I was worried for her, but she’s an explosive character, a lot of facets to her personality and situation are revealed to you quickly and then elaborated on over the course of her social link and when you hang out with her or go on sunday dates together. She’s obviously a kind, strong individual but she questions her own genuinity and strength as a person, and is exploring different ways to broaden her horizons and improve. I was a little worried she’d be a generic spitfire angry girl, but really she’s only super pissed off at injustice and sexual harassment. A big part of her character comes from her staunch hatred and opposition ‘of men who treat women as sexual outlets’ (literally word for word something she says) and it’s a really strong, cool way for her to be. I’m very grateful for the game’s writing for having such a staunch, unmoving stance in opposition of treating women like objects especially in a series like Persona where fans have an extremely gross tendency to do just that. It’s a good lesson and message to put out there. In other cases she’s actually really level headed and willing to admit when she was wrong or when someone’s outplayed her. I like Ann a lot. Yusuke’s a really deep and interesting character who I sadly keep blowing off for Makoto and Ryuji, but I’ll hang out with him more soon. His circumstances are really fucking difficult, first of all he’s an orphan, which sucks. Secondly his adoptive father is abusive, which really sucks. Third off he’s autistic. Seriously, think on his dialogue and tell me I’m wrong. We directly get the line ‘not many people will deal with my eccentricities’ which is as close as Japanese media ever gets to saying ‘yes I’m autistic.’ His dialogue often hints to how people ostracize him for being autistic even though he’s a great guy and I’m sure it’ll come up in his social link in the future. I’m glad the game paints it as a negative thing for society to treat him bad and not that it’s bad he’s autistic, it’d be very easy to slip into that but they haven’t fucked up yet. And finally, he’s fuckin gay dude. Don’t fight me on this one, I know a gay when I see one. He specifically dodges the idea of being attracted to Ann ‘as a member of the opposite sex’ and the way he says it isn’t ‘oh I’m interesting in girls, just not Ann’ it’s much more ‘I’m not interested in girl, and thus not interested in Ann.’ He’s got a lot going against him, but unlike with Kanji nobody acts like it’s weird he isn’t attracted to Ann (though Ryuji will rib the player for saying the same thing) and everybody’s doing their best to be supportive of him. I’m excited to see more of his character and see how he overcomes the ways society is stacked against him. You can even take him on dates and he comments that it looks like you’re lovers. I hope he gets a nice boyfriend. (also atlus please make him a romance option in the expansion as well.) Finally Makoto is the character I’ve most been suspicious of how she fits in. She’s an honor student, lives in a nice house, has a sister in a high paying job, was born into a good family, what’s bad about her life? Well, she’s outcast from the average student because she’s ‘just a robot’ and she has these obscene expectations thrust upon her, yet people still call her useless. She has to constantly wear a face and be who people expect her to be and not who she really is. It’s a more subtle kind of outcasting and she certainly doesn’t face the negatives the other members do like being an orphan or having their best friend hospitalized after a suicide attempt, but she’s got her own set of issues which are playing out alongside these things. The game also doesn’t frame her situation as equally bad, it’s just a very stressful, difficult situation for her and she really needs an outlet and somewhere she can genuinely just be herself. The fact that her rebellion is just having a space to express herself normally in is kind of fucked up, she had a really suffocating life and now she doesn’t and I like that. Her Confidant relationship is also really fun so far, I like Makoto even if she’s not an outcast in as strong or the same kind of way as everyone else. I don’t have a lot to say about Morgana so far. I like him, he’s an enormous step up from Teddie, but I think I’ll only be able to write how I really feel about him once the game is over. All in all I fucking love this game and it’s a huge improvement over all of Atlus’ old products in all the ways I’d hope it would be. I’d still prefer there be a gay romance option in the game, but the fact that you can take guys on dates and that you have a gay party member who isn’t treated as weird for it is great. 10/10, my personal game of the year already.

Review: The iPhone XS Max is what Apple has always promised the iPhone could be

After a summer of fairly accurate rumors, the iPhone XS Max has arrived with much fanfare and a proportional price. It is the ultimate expression of Steve Jobs' original vision for the iPhone without compromise -- assuming that it fits in your budget. Subscribe to AppleInsider on YouTube Improvements inside and out This is an "S" model year, and you'd think that there wouldn't be big changes. On the outside, other than the size of the iPhone XS Max, that looks to be true -- there aren't a lot of big design changes. We've still got a notch and how much of a problem that is, is an exercise for the reader, and there's still an edge-to-edge OLED screen. As with nearly everything, it's what's on the inside that matters. The most obvious upgrade to the iPhone XS Max is the new, beautiful 6.5-inch display. Colors are vibrant, videos look great even if they do either get cropped in or show black bars, and touch sensitivity is as good as ever. We got improved speakers this year, notably with a better represented 3D soundstage. When we played back music and movies, there were times we noticed a difference, and others we didn't. The biggest change to audio is probably to the quality of the speaker audio coming out of the grill positioned in the True Depth Camera. This better speaker audio comes with the ability to finally record stereo audio in videos, which is the bigger deal for us. The numbers and the specs We're getting to the same point in mobile devices that we've been on the computer side of the market for several years now. Just about anything relatively modern will accomplish nearly everything any given user wants to do. Specs aren't everything -- but are worth mentioning. Apple is generally tight-lipped about the numbers in most of its advertising and roll-out events. But, this doesn't mean that they obscure them after the fact, or they can't be measured. The iPhone XS Max has a HDR 6.5-inch Super Retina HD display at 2688 by 1242, at 458 pixels per inch. The display is also HDR, spans the DCI-P3 color range, has a 624 cd/m2 max brightness, and a 1,000,000 to 1 typical contrast ratio. The A12 Bionic is new, and it is paired with not just the flash storage in 64GB, 256GB, or 512GB, but also 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM -- a new high on the iPhone. The TrueDepth camera system, responsible for not just selfies but also for Face ID is a 7MP shooter, with f2.2 aperture. Most photography will be done with the rear-mounted dual-12MP camera system. It is improved somewhat from the iPhone X with a larger sensor leading to better low-light performance even before software assists, a f1.8 aperture for wide-angle, and a f2.4 for telephoto. The optical zoom remains at 2x, with a digital zoom up to 10x Our review unit is a 256GB iPhone XS Max in gold. Handling the iPhone XS Max How the iPhone XS Max feels in our hands is far and away the question we get asked the most. There have been jokes made about how massive the iPhone XS Max actually is. Here's the thing, though -- it's actually a hair smaller than the iPhone Plus models, but a bit more dense. Sure, anyone with a smaller hand might struggle carrying this thing about, but no more so than they might have with the Plus line of phones introduced with the iPhone 6 Plus. The weight of the iPhone XS Max is largely due to the stainless steel frame rather than the aluminum. The glossy stainless sides and glass facing sides have a somewhat slippery finish, so the weight can either give you a little extra feedback to help you hang on to it, or be a problem making it drop from a hand more often, user depending. Throwing a case on can also alleviate the slipperiness, but if you have a tendency to "go naked" and eschew protection, it could possibly be an issue. Fortunately, the iPhone XS Max and iPhone XS have feature parity, including screen quality. There is no obvious feature you get by going with the 6.5-inch iPhone XS Max over the 5.8-inch iPhone XS other than screen area. The only exception to this is Apple claiming a slightly increased battery life which we aren't really seeing in actual use, but with the ubiquity of wireless chargers and MFi battery cases, this isn't much of an issue. Unleashing the photo bug We spend an inordinate amount of time snapping pics with our iPhone. That's why an increase in quality -- any increase in quality -- grabs our attention. If you need just a few words about the camera in the iPhone XS Max it is this -- it is better than the X, but not necessarily enough to warrant a whole upgrade on its own. What is new this year, is the pixel size. On the wide-angle camera, the larger sensor is equipped with a 1.4-micrometer pixel pitch, increased from 1.22-micrometer on the year ago sensor. By increasing pixel depth by nearly 20-percent, it allows the pixel to capture more light, helping with low-light photography. Apple has also coupled the updated eight-core Neural Engine with the A12 Bionic to help master photography. Apple says that this helps with things like facial recognition, facial landmarks, and image segmentation during Portrait Mode photos. We immediately noticed quicker shutter speeds, and no lag when we went to take photos. When we shot in Portrait Mode, it was able to enable the Portrait effect quicker and identify the subject in less time that on our X. We took to the outdoors to get some sample photos and were pretty impressed. The photos look outstanding on their own, but when we compare certain ones to the X, there is both more and less difference. When we max out the digital zoom to 10X, we notice that the iPhone X actually has a bit more detail. The Neural Engine smoothing effects in the iPhone XS appear to be a bit more aggressive in an attempt to make a more pleasing picture. When you are in fact shooting something that is supposed to be a bit more sharp -- like these cliffs or a building -- you don't necessarily want so much smoothing going on. When we talked about specs, we said that these deeper pixels should help low light performance, and that appears to be exactly what has happened. Low light shots do appear a bit brighter, even when not using the flash. Speaking of the flash, that too got an update. The updated True Tone flash should help photos look more natural, but we use the flash so seldom it was hard to really tell. Looking at them externally, you notice it isn't quite as pink on the two lower LEDs, but otherwise it seems quite similar. Not all that glitters is gold There are new colors this year, which will make some people happy, but gold can be a polarizing color. Luckily Apple has kept it subtle as they have in the past. The gold coloring isn't the stereotypical vivid yellow gold, but more of a relaxed hue. It isn't quite copper, nor is it rose gold, but somewhere in between. Apple offsets the glossy stainless steel gold band with a slightly tinted back glass that looks good, even for those of us who aren't usually fans. Connectivity and charging Wi-Fi is present as always, with a 4x4 MIMO antenna. Again this is something that the utility of will depend, based on what networking environment you have. In everyday use, we're seeing better Wi-Fi connectivity, and about 50 percent faster transfers with the better antenna system, versus the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8. The entire iPhone XS family also has support for Gigabit LTE which is of varying use in the United States depending on where you live. Additionally, the iPhone XS is the first iPhone to support T-Mobile's 600MHz "Band 71" LTE which will be of most help to urban users with skyscrapers causing wireless shadows of bad reception. Practically, the Gigabit LTE is impressive from a speed standpoint. In a Washington DC suburb, our iPhone XS Max saw just over double the download speed on AT&T's network in nearly every environment. All in all, just about every user will see a speed increase from the new modem and antenna system in the iPhone XS series. How much of a difference depends on about a thousand different variables. Bluetooth 5.0 remains unchanged from the 2017 crop of iPhones. Users coming from more than a year away will see some benefits, but not loads as Bluetooth 4.2 was pretty solid in its own right. Like Apple took heat for including a 15W charger with the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, it should take the same heat for the 5W charger with the iPhone XS Max. From a cabling perspective, Apple has still refused to ship a USB-C to Lightning cable in the box. While there is some debate at AppleInsider about this topic, I don't think that the iPhone needs to adopt USB-C. The future is wireless, so instead of inconveniencing its whole user base with an intermediary port type on the path to get to that future, Apple should stick to Lightning, but adopt USB-C on the other end. This cable is already sold separately, but no reason it shouldn't be included in the box, especially on a plus-sized phone that could use the faster charging it affords. Eye to today, and the future Apple has done a great job with the iPhone XS Max. It is quite frankly, the best iPhone Apple has ever made. That statement doesn't carry much weight though, as every year Apple introduces to the world the "best iPhone" they've ever made. It is as true this year as it was last year. It still is at its core, an iPhone. If you've been fans of the iPhone in the past, you will certainly love the latest model. It has the most tech ever packed into an iPhone that, seems to be more looking towards the future rather than being perfect just today. From a usability standpoint, all the apps that took advantage of the features of the iPhone X all run here on the iPhone XS Max. They certainly load a bit quicker, but for instance, Fortnite is not necessarily any more playable here than on last year's iPhones, nor will Pages complete your task any better than it did before. The Neural Engine seems like a set-up for something. Sure, it helps take better pictures now, and we believe it also assists in parallelizing calculations across the A12 cores a bit better than previously, but it feels like untapped potential at the moment. Better Siri? Enhanced user security protections? Don't know for sure yet, but it'll be a fun ride. So, which? This is a complicated question. The iPhone XS family is a powerhouse, but so is the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, and the iPhone X. And, frankly, the vast majority of the smartphone using population is probably fine on an older iPhone from a performance standpoint, after the release of iOS 12. Those iPhone 6 users, should they choose to upgrade, will see an amazing increase in every aspect of the iPhone, though. Users of the iPhone X will see less, obviously. Long ago, when the iPhone first launched, Steve Jobs told the world that this one device replaced many others, with a single, pocketable unit. Today, the iPhone still encompasses dozens of stand-alone devices like cameras, audio recorders, iPods, and more -- and it is rapidly becoming the device of choice for many users, with them leaving behind "trucks" like desktop computers and powerful laptops. The iPhone XS Max is an amazing device, packed with loads of technology in very much the same way the original iPhone was. It is a phone without hardware compromise, with an equally uncompromising price. Apple's iPhone XS Max is presently the ultimate expression of a single device to encompass all of your tech needs, without a briefcase full of gadgets. Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars Deals on the iPhone XS Max If you haven't already ordered Apple's iPhone XS Max, wireless carriers are incentivizing the purchase. Want to get your hands on a new device asap? eBay sellers are also shipping units now. AT&T Wireless: Buy one iPhone XS or iPhone XS Max, get a second $700 off when you add a line. Verizon Wireless: Buy one iPhone XS or iPhone XS Max, get a second $700 off when you add a line. Or save $100 with an eligible trade. T-Mobile: Save up to $300 on the iPhone XS Max with an eligible trade. https://goo.gl/APPFM4