When it comes to Noriko and Maya, it really does just seem to come down to Maya's jealousy and obsessiveness. Even if she's trying to justify it. (Although, I have wondered if Maya thought that Noriko was the wizard he truly wanted, but held himself back due to "love" and fear. Him seeing Tsukasa as wizard Noriko is...interesting. I don't think Maya would have liked being called "Noriko" when they were messing around, or at all.)
I was pretty sure i'd made this observation in the past and wanted to bring it up again but being reluctant to repeat myself i was keen to wait for someone else to get close to it to justify my rementioning it, but you did me one better and just stated it outright . It did stand out to me how their roles seemed reversed, just something about it was... off.
I'm honestly of a mind to say that whenever any given character is speaking about another character's past or motives, to assume the speaker is unreliable. Bias and agendas are abundant here, and just because a character says something (even when well-intentioned) doesn't mean they actually know what they're talking about. Especially where the memory of children is involved.
I'm honestly of a mind to say that whenever any given character is speaking about another character's past or motives, to assume the speaker is unreliable. Bias and agendas are abundant here, and just because a character says something (even when well-intentioned) doesn't mean they actually know what they're talking about. Especially where the memory of children is involved.
I agree to an extent, but there is a danger in this sort of story where so much is already unreliable to make your reader view things people straight up reveal as unreliable as well. One might end up falling into a sort of solipsism of meaning where you can only trust what you see, but since Akira isn't realiable either then there's no meaning to be found anywhere.
I'd go with assuming people having an agenda and biases to what they say, rather than straight up lying (unless it's hinted that they are). For instance, I don't think Noriko lied once about what she said about the past/Maya. Whereas I know for sure Maya lied a lot, and might have hid even more information.
There is a final piece to this in that they're not real people. Selebus chose to tell his story through unreliable means, but on the same token, all characters are mediums to one single narrator which is himself - so all of them know what they're talking about when he wishes them to know what they're talking about - in order to convey to the reader another fragment of the lore when it's appropriate. I personally haven't found much misinformation that was conveyed through characters about other characters that I recall (not ones that weren't apparent they're just guesses from the start at least).
I'm honestly of a mind to say that whenever any given character is speaking about another character's past or motives, to assume the speaker is unreliable. Bias and agendas are abundant here, and just because a character says something (even when well-intentioned) doesn't mean they actually know what they're talking about. Especially where the memory of children is involved.
The way I see it is that whenever any given character or narrator is speaking about anyone's past or motives, including their own, it's inherently unreliable by itself.
Context is what matters most, especially in a fictional setting where memories, perceptions, personalities, and time are all seemingly altered as a part of the story, and certain characters are known for lying, hiding things, or simply being wrong, anyway.
Everything seems unreliable, so the main focus should be on what seems the least unreliable.
For now, Himawari is in the suspicious camp for me, and after the Chapter 3 'All For You' Main Event, so is everyone "dressed in blue". Looking at you, Nao-chan:
So much for DeSkel's most awaited route Ami kills everyone including the gods, Akira is then left unimpeded to walk into the control room with a big reset red button "you know what, I think I'm going to give everyone their perfect life after my daughter killed them in such a horrible fashion..." - cue in purity routes with a happy song.
Also, what the heck, this is horrifying. Someone already wrote DeSkel's dark route for him, as if I needed Selebus to get even more pretentious, there's even french quotes in the cover. Although I'd change it to comment te dire que enough is enough [...] I'm seriously shaken from the screenshots.
>nothing I'm doing is actually bad because there are no consequences
Well that's certainly one way to think about it lmfao. That said, it's a pretty common trope. If you've played Steins;Gate, I think there's one route where Okabe gets trapped in a time loop w/ Suzuha and then starts killing all his friends and running them over with trucks or something lmfao. Think something kinda similar is gonna happen here, maybe less killing and more SA.
>nothing I'm doing is actually bad because there are no consequences
Well that's certainly one way to think about it lmfao. That said, it's a pretty common trope. If you've played Steins;Gate, I think there's one route where Okabe gets trapped in a time loop w/ Suzuha and then starts killing all his friends and running them over with trucks or something lmfao. Think something kinda similar is gonna happen here, maybe less killing and more SA.
Yes and no. He experiences their deaths so many times he contemplates (not actually trying to do it) raping Suzuha, and that's when she manages to figure out something is wrong with him and convinces him to give up and go to the past with her. They live their lives happily from then onwards as a couple, presumably to their death.
Last time I played was long ago though, but it was a very strong point in this route that Suzuha saves Okabe from the edge of becoming unhinged, so he wasn't there yet.
In Steins;Gate 0 he's put through a similar loop, and yet achieves very different results from becoming unhinged in a bad way. Instead emerging as a mad scientist that can do the impossible again.
GOOD. The dude has advertised this stage of the game too much that this route for me gradually loses all its allure. Make your story dark by actually getting to it instead of constantly meta-broadcasting "it's gonna be baaaad in a few years" all the time for christ's sake.
Because at this point I have doubts on whether he could make this phase as twisted as all his commercials have been alluding to. If I finally get to the alleged dark phase and realize that it is massively overhyped, I am gonna play this game with my monitor off for some extra darkness.
1. random question that doesn't have to do with anything: wasn't Chika just working at the maid cafe now? was she working two-jobs and I forgot about it?
Cause even though Akira doesn't say to Chinami that she got called to the mall, he doesn't specify that she got called to the cafe either.
2. also, I was rewatching "first contact" and "all for you" today, and I thought that maybe USER4 is inside NAO, rather than possibly being her. It would fit that it chose to hide inside a template (in this case template 9, as it didn't have its form ready). Because it says that something emerged half unconscious before its time and chose to hide inside somewhere/someone.
This thing that hid somewhere will eventually rally to itself every aspect of the previous gods, like birds and spiders, and bring the end to everything. This is especially interesting because it means that if we have a character with USER4 inside them, then it doesn't really matter if they're close to either spiders, birds or whatever in terms of determining which god they ascribe to, because its dominion would be everything supernatural in the first place. Also, it may be interesting that it keeps repeating that there are four, and yet when it asks about who is lying it only names three people.
The hole in the wall refers to the hole that was caused by the accident involving Sekai crashing into a wall instead of another car. Well, by crashing into Kaori's car (supposedly), Sekaori was born by injecting her with Sekai limbs. So if instead the car crashed into a wall, Sekaori would just be Sekai parts that emerged from the wall. And in comes Nao-chan, a variation of Sekaori that shouldn't exist? Akira feels that he'd become her prey, and Kaori could be relating to Nao because they both have Sekai parts inside of them. She teases him about it too.
Regardless, maybe we should focus more on "who has the incomplete and unconscious form of USER4 inside them as of right now", rather than who is USER4. Given that it chooses to hide during "All for you", and the next event has Ami asking Akira for a favor that is cut from the game by the gods with the message "there is only one god, whoever tells you otherwise is lying"... it would point out it being inside Ami.
I also checked visiting Chikas dorm and wow does she look crazy there. Her eyes look a little wider so does her smile..well can't say we didn't all basically expect this
1. random question that doesn't have to do with anything: wasn't Chika just working at the maid cafe now? was she working two-jobs and I forgot about it?
Cause even though Akira doesn't say to Chinami that she got called to the mall, he doesn't specify that she got called to the cafe either.
But I suspect this is mostly likely handwaved away as a disconnect between the actual conversation and Akira's perception in the moment, because even in the state we see Chika in the previous scene, the things Akira is saying are STRANGE and would be commented upon.
. It did stand out to me how their roles seemed reversed, just something about it was... off.
