So Was Anyone Going To Tell Me About These Parallels Or Was I Just Supposed To FIND OUT ALL ON MY OWN?????

So was anyone going to tell me about these parallels or was I just supposed to fIND OUT ALL ON MY OWN?????

Can I just say Sumire is goddamn fascinating to me and it’s a shame because I feel like what a lot of what is implied about her gets sort of softened to make her a likeable waifu?. Like, Sumire’s wish is not to bring back Kasumi, her wish is to be her dead sister. Her self-loathing is so bad it becomes selfish because rather than a world of both Sumire and Kasumi, she hates herself so much that she’d rather assume Kasumi’s personality and talent. That’s so selfish! And interesting! And for the record I’m not saying Sumire is a bad person or anything, just a very damaged one and I wanna know more!

Like, the pain of just being Sumire is so intense for her that rather reverse the traumatic incident of her sister dying once Maruki starts bringing people back from the dead (remember, when she thinks she’s Kasumi she believes Sumire died in front of her! A sister still died! She’s just handling it better because she believed Kasumi would handle it better-) she would rather just not suffer. And also this isn’t Kasumi lived while Sumire died (though I don’t think Maruki would have helped her with that one). This is Sumire gets everything Kasumi did, her talent her confidence her beauty her name, while the real Kasumi stays dead under Sumire’s name.

Sumire’s ideal world is where her sister is still dead but it is ideal because she is the perfect sister. That’s, that’s fucked up! I wanna know more!

Makoto's finally done guys! Now all that's left is Ann, Ryuji, and Yusuke! Made her look more punk/biker-like and incorporated stuff from Shadow Sae! The original idea was a short boyish cut ("lesbian cut") but it wasn't working out so I went with a ponytail instead since it is often associated with tomboy characters (Makoto was an attempt but failed imo). It actually looks better tbh.

...Also, I am NOT editing her Sprite again. The weird angle is just so damn hard to work around so no more!

Haru

Futaba

Hi! Just found your blog and to spread my weirdness...

I just accidentally made an op Odin! :D

Have a good day/night!!

Oh? Odd but ok! You have a good day/night too!

So I just realized something... What if after Maruki fused, Adam/Azathoth put him in a dreamlike state during the fight... In particular, a perfect reality of his own where he regains what he lost all those years ago while he "sleeps."

Adam getting destroyed basically wakes him back up to that harsh reality and just everything sinking in at once leads to the fist fight phase. All of his pent-up emotions, trauma, and guilt come out of the woodworks until he's done and gives up.

The underlying tragedy being that he will never have a "happy ending" no matter how hard he tried and even his diary entries indicate that he struggled before and after encountering Azathoth. Like Sumi, he lived in a fairytale in his reality and only fell deeper and deeper into his own despair and madness. So Adam giving him a form of "cruel mercy" by knocking him out and giving him an ideal wish of his own while he is unconscious would be just be horrible and sad. Especially when it would have led to the deaths of a group that actually wanted to help him and not have him keep running away anymore. I feel that moment he vented was also him snapping. He has nothing left to lose so why not just let it all out before... Well you know the rest.

Inspired by the concept art where his Palace attire was originally a tuxedo like he's dressed for a wedding which he never got with Rumi. That would have hurt a lot though, ngl since that was one of many losses for him before breaking.

@chococoffee Ok I had to respond to your tags because holy fuck these are REALLY good and make so much more sense!

One thing I will add is that another thing that Strikers mentions is that regardless of what you went through (horrible or otherwise) it's not an excuse for you to take your anger and trauma out on other people, especially those that had nothing to do with said trauma. However, there is still a chance that you can change and start over. Whether you do so or not is your choice.

You know, I've often seen takes (mostly anti) that basically say that Maruki should have been punished for his actions... Mostly of the severe/horrific kind that even involves Joker letting him fall to his death (which is SEVERELY OOC btw). Though to be perfectly honest... He actually does when you think about it, it's just more subtle. As he said during his breakdown, he gave up everything for his dream and he's not exactly wrong. He's lost his perfect reality, his research/his life's work, he doesn't get back with Rumi as one would expect, he fully quits his job as a counselor/therapist, he's lost everything except for maybe Shibusawa and the PTs themselves. The biggest thing is though, is that he starts to let go of those losses and uses them to start over. He even uses his job as taxi driver to help Joker get away from the police and seems more than happy to do so. Also, remember his final interaction with Joker which best sums up one of Royal's main messages:

So yeah, I feel like he already faced punishment for what he did. But as per the message there, he uses it to improve and heal and potentially atone. That's at least my takeaway here.

Plus remember how Ichinose tried to turn herself in at the end of Strikers only to be rejected because no one believed her about the supernatural occurrences (her case was odd though because Zenkichi was exposed to it too so he could've vouched for her story there, then again he would probably be dismissed too but it's hard to say) so jail time wouldn't work if Maruki even remotely tried (which I wouldn't be surprised if he did but who knows).