I've had enough in a narrative sense, but I do want to see where she goes (does that make sense?), because as obnoxious or interesting she may be, with how she's been portrayed lately, she ultimately comes off as one-dimensional, and I don't think Sel's ego will stand having one of the main antagonists be a cookie-cutter character.
This. I do think she's batshit insane and evil, but I'm struggling to really pin down her purpose at this point. I get she's supposed to be playing into the whole yandere villain trope, but what is the narrative end goal for her character? I'm still not quite sure where she fits into the whole grand scheme of the world as a whole yet, so I can't properly write her off and label her unredeemable. As of right now, her apparent motive of "Oh I just want all of Sensei's attention and love" and "I had a fucked up childhood" seems a bit flimsy and I'm kinda hoping there's more to it than that...
Like could her Gods be whispering to her in a similar manner to Sekai and exacerbating her mania? Is there something she knows about the whole time-loop phenomenon and breaking of the world that makes her think this is the only/best option? She can remain unredeemable and still have circumstances that make it understandable how she got to this point
I've never liked Ami. My favorite spots of her are: When Sensei asked her to shut the fuck up and Ayane slapping the Hell out of her after the scavenger hunt. Ever since she started using Maya as a "toy", I wished she was the one killed. This update makes me want that more. I want Maya to tie Ami up and kill her. Just a shame that Ami seems too important to the story for that to happen.
Akira needs to start remembering what happens before and during the resets to realize how evil Ami is. I mean, he remembered this one for whatever reason, but he forgot Ami giving him Maya's head.
So far, I'm enjoying my Red Path save more than my Green Path one. Ami wants her uncle/dad, but he said no. Serves the crazy bitch right to watch the man she wants get with her friends and not her.
I think Selebus always planned to kill Maya 2 so he didn't bother developing her plot that much and used her as a plot device to show off Evil Ami. Still not convinced that this Ami is the Ami from chap 1-3. Cause Sensei was obviously in love with Maya earlier and besides making passive aggressive comments, she didn't do anything.
I still stand by my theory that Maya got lost in the first happy event and the her that we see after was just on autopilot until the roof happened.
About Ami, no idea, the most I think about it is that the original Ami go lost just before the second reset puzzle. Going full imagination, I can think that maybe Maya managed to "tame" or just tone down Ami and took steps so she wouldn't reach that point during and after each reset. But with Maya getting lost, the one remaining was only acting out of instinct without the knowledge of why outside of it being bad.
Also, Selebus is out of his mind if he thinks he can talk about Maya Prime and New Maya as if they were the same character in the reader's eyes, they're clearly not. People absolutely adore Maya Prime to this day. If people never got to love New Maya that's way more of a writer's issue than anything else.
The way I see it, the fact that New Maya isn't a compelling character is entirely necessary and probably her primary purpose in the story. She shows how Maya Prime's depth and positive qualities only exist because she had millions of years to grow. In contrast, New Maya is a woefully incomplete person - single-minded in her desires, incurious about the world around her and hesitant to change, easily controlled by domineering personalities, and incapable of real connection with people other than the predator who groomed her. If that reminds you of a certain pathetic protagonist, I think that's completely intended. A big theme here is that victims of child abuse are also victims of arrested development, one of the factors which perpetuate the cycle. New Maya never had a real childhood, much less a chance to grow into the aloof but confident girlboss that Maya Prime was.
This isn't to completely excuse the writing. I find New Maya really interesting as a concept, but her one-note, static personality doesn't lend itself to interesting reading for an entire chapter, which adds to the pacing problems. I think Selebus could have accomplished what he needed to with her character in a shorter period or at least gave her less screen time. I suspect the main motivation was sidelining Maya Prime, and then he was left needing to fill in the blanks. And yeah, his "surprise" at the idea that people don't like her as much as Maya Prime is silly. I have a lot of sympathy for her, but Maya Prime had more than that in her favor.
I obviously don't like this version of Ami or the other psychopath version we see in the other reality we ended up in, but I can quite easily imagine versions that I do like. My emotional reactions to fiction don't tend to last long after the initial experience, though, so it is extremely easy for me to accept redemption or a new version of the character.
"I think Akira actually does remember Maya’s head, but he unconsciously blocks it out, just like he did with Nodoka’s death. Something in his mind prevents him from seeing Ami for what she really is — extremely psychopathic. At first, I thought Akira simply didn’t remember things related to the supernatural, but now I believe he does remember almost everything. The difference is that he chooses to keep those memories locked away, the same way he repressed his childhood memories. There are several moments that show that Akira remembers supernatural things, even when we thought he didn't, I hope he shows more of this kind of thing in the next updates.
My first thought was young Sekai and someone else. But it could also be the world itself and she who waits, or whoever. Knowing Selebus though, it most likely isn't anything, I wouldn't lose sleep over it.
It'd be very funny if those were WIRES and Pareidolia in their true forms
Selebus is a bad programmer and fucked up some of the events from 0.51, that would not even show as missing if you missed them. He created a hotfix for that, and because we take lore very seriously and do not have nearly enough gods, he created a "god of continuity" to rant about how he should never given players choices beyond the Ami one.
I remember seeing the the red haired girl in the request gallery somewhere when I was looking for the Grow Old. Then Die characters. I don't remember if she had any tags tying to her a specific game though.
This is a hard question. I don't have all the context for what Ami is exactly, nor do I think I would write an Ami character ever. So it's hard. But I'll do my best:
As for how the actual game was written, I think that there really isn't anything else she can do. She killed Maya and gifted Akira her head. In a way, her arc is done. If Akira doesn't react to this, there really isn't anything else that can wake him up. So yeah, Ami (the current Ami) has to be done regardless. I can't see returning to the status quo because it would cheapen the experience too much.
As far as this current version of Ami? Oh yeah, totally sick of her. Or I guess it's more accurate to say I'm sick of no one even attempting to challenge her. Touka called her out. Once. At Dorm Wars. So that's something, maybe? I suppose it's wishful thinking that Akira will finally wise up a bit and say, 'hey, maybe something isn't quite right with Ami here', yet I still hope it will happen anyway.
At the same time, I fully acknowledge that you kinda need an antagonist of some sort to keep things interesting for the readers, since it gives us all someone we can unanimously rally against while at the same time trying to piece together their motivations. (See: Nodoka, Tsubasa, Otoha.)
The reason I still hold hope for Ami in the long term, though, is because of her appearance in "Lamb Legs":
Current Ami? Boooo...
Ami in General? I will huff as much copium as I need to until I'm proven wrong beyond a shadow of a doubt.
I think we're all just caught up in recency bias (completely understandable, don't get me wrong) and that there's more than meets the eye. Something we just don't know quite yet.
I suppose it's wishful thinking that Akira will finally wise up a bit and say, 'hey, maybe something isn't quite right with Ami here', yet I still hope it will happen anyway.
Current Ami? Boooo...
Ami in General? I will huff as much copium as I need to until I'm proven wrong beyond a shadow of a doubt.
I think we're all just caught up in recency bias (completely understandable, don't get me wrong) and that there's more than meets the eye. Something we just don't know quite yet.
Ok, bear with me here, but is anyone else a fan of The X-Files?
When I first watched the show the main plotline was sick and every reveal was a huge "oh shit" moment. Then the show went on for a billion seasons and, honestly, theres only so many reveals you can possibly reveal before it just turns into weird alien slop. Whenever I rewatch The X-Files now I skip the main plotline episodes and just focus on the monster of the week stories.
Maybe things would be different if I played LIL all the way through instead of month to month updates, but I don't think I've given a shit about any sort of 'main' event since chapter 3. I feel like I'm way more invested in the character's individual stories and growths than whatever consequences the resets (probably won't actually) incur.
I swear to god I roll my eyes everytime we get put into another void, or honestly even most times Ami or Maya even come up on screen.
Which brings me to another point, which is not talked about enough in this god forsaken forum, Ami fucking sucks. Nodoka gets a lot of shit, and I get it, but Ami doesn't get enough imo.
I do wonder how Akira will react to this, assuming he keeps those memories and is eventually reunited with that little demon. It really sucks Selly wants to cuck us again by skipping one more month for the next update.
I do wonder how Akira will react to this, assuming he keeps those memories and is eventually reunited with that little demon. It really sucks Selly wants to cuck us again by skipping one more month for the next update.
Maybe things would be different if I played LIL all the way through instead of month to month updates, but I don't think I've given a shit about any sort of 'main' event since chapter 3. I feel like I'm way more invested in the character's individual stories and growths than whatever consequences the resets (probably won't actually) incur.
I swear to god I roll my eyes everytime we get put into another void, or honestly even most times Ami or Maya even come up on screen.
As someone who started more recently I'd tend to agree. I started around the release of 0.47 and I pretty much didn't put it down until I was done - having had the benefit of consuming most of what we currently have at once and then switching to the monthly wait it definitely feels like the former is the best way to experience it.
I think LiL (and probably most similar works, if there are any) is in kind of an awkward spot in that sense because yeah, it's technically a serial release, but that's obviously by necessity as opposed to desire and it shows. The format works well with certain throughlines like Maya's chapter 3 reset and Sekai's original reveal but I think all the supernatural/divine stuff is probably trickier to work around with how convoluted and spread out it is. It's much harder to explore that aspect episodically in a substantial way and the ambiguity in it is an essential part of why those other more character-driven throughlines were executed so well in the first place.
I kinda knew it was gonna be an issue going in, too - I typically avoid proper visual novels that aren't fully complete for exactly this reason. I told myself not long after I started that I'd play it and then just forget about it for a year or two and binge it from the start again but it turns out I love the game and I really don't have an ounce of willpower lol
(and also yes I am a fan of the X-Files and I do the exact same thing lol)
