Latest Posts by echo-oaks - Page 5

When I say that "no one cares about/likes Astarion," you need to pay attention to storytelling and character development. It's part of Astarion's entire arc and EXTREMELY hard to miss.

He tells you several times that no one cares about him throughout the game, and because of his arc, he is right. He even has a rant about it after his siblings try to kidnap him in Act 3. No one is like Tav. No one gives a damn. Tav is the only one who remains at his side, going above and beyond for him, and is the only one making a change in his life. It could be why he's such a ride-or-die for them, no matter their decisions. This means that none of the other companions are all that interested in doing that for him. They are just there because Tav is there, not for him. Astarion only got as far as he did because Tav is the only one who cares. Without Tav, Astarion will die in a ditch, or worse.

Hell, the WHOLE REASON he's the way he is is because no one cares for him. He's spicy in the same way a feral cat is and will only warm up to people who actively make an effort to help him or he feels safe around. He doesn't like seeing Tav helping others because he didn't get help when he needed it. He hates hero types because of this. If someone cared about what happened to him, he most likely wouldn't be in the situation he's in now. Even if you like someone, you don't want bad things to happen to them. You can try to make an argument that the companions do care about him, but it's nowhere near enough for Astarion to take notice.

I would say not to hinge on gameplay to prove this, considering a lot of it is mechanics and how your companions will side with Tav no matter what they do minus a few situations, but there are hints of it here and there. No one gets angry if something happens to him or leaves to "go help him". It's "he was bound to be trouble," "he was useful, oh well," or "We have bigger things to worry about." Even then, there may be a "he will be missed" comment thrown in but nothing else. I'm not even sure if there's dialogue from the companions from his Act 3 kidnapping because even Astarion himself doesn't comment when you save him.

Warming up to him is not the same as caring about him. It just makes one more tolerable to be around and the only reason he's around them is they have a common goal. Gale was blunt about that after being told to blow up due to Mystra if you don't romance him (though that may have been softened due to one of the patches). These are just a random gaggle of people thrown together for a single purpose and if you don't make an effort to help them, they stay that way.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE seeing art of everyone in the camp chasing after Astarion to try to protect him from the sun, but it only reminds me that no one moved a muscle to go see if he was okay and just commented on it instead.

[durgestarion] kissing the murder puppy 🐶

Let’s goooooooo

Literally one of the most designs ever in danganronpa. To me

ahaha hi guys I might’ve done more spto saiibo au screenshot redraws

(REGULAR SAIIBO SLOP WILL RETURN I JUST COULDNT HELP IT RAUHGHH THESE R SO FUN)

I explained some things abt this AU over on instagram if anyone’s truly interested!! typing it out again does not sound appealing right now LMAOOO

Baby, It’s cold outside…

I was heavily inspired by the Fallout 4 mod, Frost. I went ham on the lines, but chose to go super simple with colors.

I am a(n):

⚪ Male

⚪ Female

🔘 Writer

Looking for

⚪ Boyfriend

⚪ Girlfriend

🔘 An incredibly specific word that I can't remember

The lack of Hanahaki fics for Fallout 4 is KILLING me

returning 2 my roots <3

say what you will about danganronpa, at the very least the characters are fun to try to stylize.

thought i'd give a shot at it even though i dont really plan on doing anything more with these

interested in commissioning me? check out my pinned post!

I love how we say "PROTECT THIS CHARACTER AT ALL COSTS" and then we go and hurt them like they have never been hurt before

we should hype up bottom surgery more i think. both twitter transphobes and chronically online trans people really like to be disgusted at phalloplasty, vaginoplasty, ext. and i really think we should treat them as cool and sexy and neutral like top surgery scars or whatever

Mondo being buff 'n aggro but also being a big, flustered mess will never fail to amuse me

reblog if you’ve read fanfictions that are more professional, better written than some actual novels. I’m trying to see something

fanfic end of the year asks

since it’s december, i thought i’d make a little end of the year ask meme for fanfic writers and readers! reblog and ask away

favorite fic you wrote this year

least favorite fic you wrote this year

favorite line/scene you wrote this year

total number of words you wrote this year

most popular fic this year

least popular fic this year

longest completed fic you wrote this year

shortest completed fic you wrote this year

longest wip of the year

shortest wip of the year

fandom you enjoyed writing for the most this year

favorite character to write about this year

favorite writing song/artist/album of this year

a fic you didn’t expect to write

something you learned this year

fic(s) you completed this year

fics you’ll continue next year

current number of wips

any new fics to start next year

number of comments you haven’t read

most memorable comment/review

events you participated in this year

fics you wanted to write but didn’t

favorite fic you read this year

a fic you read this year you would recommend everyone read

number of favorites/bookmarks you made this year

favorite fanfic author of the year

longest fic you read this year

shortest fic you read this year

favorite fandom to read fic from this year

*feel free to specify fandoms or a fic depending on the question.

um so... the danganronpa brainrot is back and it's specifically soudam rn XD ITS ALSO GUNDHAMS BIRTHDAY TODAY!! totally a coincidence I happened to be drawing him!!!

Bro talk 🚀🏍️✨

(My piece for the @luminaryzine!)

awful news:

i am a danganronpa consumer. fucking hate it, would love if it would stop consuming my thoughts

anyway why do i never see fanart with the both of them

Googly-eyed Stubby Squid | Nautilus Live + their commentary

He laughed.

Ahem-

Danganronpa

↑ Sort by height

Still can’t get over how beautiful Astarion is. Like goddamn

The Chapter 4 Essay Part 1: Kokichi Ouma

A metapost on my thoughts on Kokichi’s overall motivations and Gonta’s actions during ch4. Split into two parts. You can find the Gonta half here: (LINK)

I think the way Kokichi acts when he’s telling the truth says something crucial about his personality. When he’s telling the genuine truth, his expression becomes carefully neutral.

(post trial, chapter 1)

To me, it feels like he’s trying very hard to keep this face of neutrality. Normally, he’s able to expertly express any emotion that he wants to. In these moments, its almost like the emotion he’s feeling is so overpowering that he’s trying to repress it in order to maintain control over the face he presents to everyone else, but isn’t quite able to do so.

Kokichi is very careful about keeping people from seeing the parts of himself that he doesn’t choose to show. His villain persona and constant lying is part of this- He wants to keep people away from him. During the events of the killing game, he uses the distance that he creates in many ways. Part of it was that not having many close alliances allowed him to go off and do whatever he wanted during daily life. This let him explore the school and investigate the truth of the killing game without interruption or much attention. Lying also gave him distance between the game and himself. Pretending that the killing game was fun might’ve been his way to cope with everything that was happening. I think Kokichi is really damn good at separating himself from his emotions, lying to himself to do what he thinks needs to be done. This line from Chapter 1 is pretty telling…

(post trial, chapter 1)

This was also something he says himself to Kaito in the exisal hanger during chapter 5.

(post trial, chapter 5)

I’m inclined to believe everything that Kokichi says to Kaito in the exisal hanger. As Kiibo says when Kaito questions it, “I think his dying words may have been the honest truth.” Knowing he was about the die, and that he absolutely needed Kaito’s help to get his plan to break the killing game to work- to achieve his genuine, true goal- I don’t see any reason for him to lie.

This emotional distance extends past just the killing game. I think it's a key part of how he interacts with others around him.

Kokichi is an ultimate leader. I think he uses his talent throughout the game in an attempt to “lead” everyone from the shadows. He wanted to stop the killing game and escape with as many people as possible. However, his methods are very ends-justify-the-means. I believe that he did genuinely care about everyone at the ultimate academy, but in the detached way a distant king might care about his subjects. On the other hand, if he had to use or sacrifice a few as pawns for the greater good, that is what had to be done. It’s not like it didn’t emotionally affect him, but I think he was deliberately trying to keep his distance so that it would not impact him as much, and so that he could continue trying to tear the killing game apart with as many tools in his arsenal as possible.

(post trial, chapter 5)

With this core motivation in mind, this brings us to Chapter 4.

In my opinion, the Killing Game Busters was never a plan that was meant to succeed. From an in-game perspective, the idea that he was originally going to follow this mercy kill plan doesn’t make sense to me. Firstly, Kokichi already had suspicions that they were being watched as early as chapter 3.

(post trial, chapter 3)

…and he later confirms that he was fully convinced of this fact when Monokuma agreed to reuse the chapter 4 motive in the virtual world.

(post trial, chapter 5)

He knew that this killing game was for somebody else’s entertainment. I’ll go a bit into the secret of the outside world in a moment, but considering this, I don’t think he ever fully believed in it. Choosing to mercy kill everyone, in the name of a “truth” that was incompatible with what he had discovered… just doesn’t make sense to me.

Not to mention, from a narrative standpoint, I think the idea that he was completely for this mercy kill plan, decided to throw out the plan mid-trial, and then start an entirely different plan to end the killing game in chapter 5, isn’t very compelling. It weakens Kokichi’s overall character by making his motivation less cohesive and making him seem less organized over all, which I think is one of his strengths as a character. A Kokichi that is this fickle with what he’s trying to do would not have been able to write the script for chapter 5.

I think he always had different goals in mind with the Killing Game Busters. The first was something that is made very clear in chapter 5, but started here in chapter 4: He wanted to stop the killing to give himself room to break the game while minimizing deaths. The second was to further villainize himself, for all the reasons I talked about above, and some more I will get into in a little bit.

Seeing the secret of the outside world was undoubtably disturbing, regardless of whether he believed it or not; there is a noticeable shift in how Kokichi acts before and after he swipes that card key. Combined with discovering that Miu, someone he’d been working with closely, was planning on murdering him, I believe that seeing the destruction of the outside world pushed him towards more drastic measures than what he had been doing in previous chapters. He decided that in order for his plan in chapter 5 to work (which he had almost certainly already been planning at this point, considering how elaborate it was), he needed to make everyone question if pursuing the truth was the right thing to do at all.

After Miu’s body discovery, nobody was really worried about losing this class trial. Everyone had seen how Shuichi had guided them all to the truth and caught the blackened three times in a row, despite the unique difficulties in each case. They had full confidence in his abilities.

(investigation, chapter 4)

Shuichi is also not really doubting his abilities as a detective anymore. One of Shuichi’s core internal conflicts is his fear of the consequences of revealing the truth. Up to this point, it seems like he’s been moving past it. Especially after catching Korekiyo “Actual Serial Killer” Shinguji, who had no regrets or grey motivation for his killings. Shuichi’s morale, and subsequently everyone else’s, was at an all time high. (Of course, he was starting to feel a lot of pressure to solve these cases and save everyone on his own… but that’s another issue. ily Shuichi)

If Kokichi could take the wind out of Shuichi’s sails, really destroy the confidence he had built up so far, he could set up his impossible trial in chapter 5 to be more likely to work as intended. Everyone will be less motivated to try and figure out what happened if they are uncertain that finding the truth would actually result in anything good.

And I do believe he was trying to knock Shuichi off balance specifically. Damaging his confidence is one thing, but he was also deliberately trying to drive a wedge between him and Kaito. He antagonizes Kaito all chapter 4 investigation, including making up a nickname for Shuichi (“Shumai”) that directly riffs off Kaito’s closeness with Maki. He insists into the trial that he and Shuichi are partners now.

(class trial, chapter 4)

(Sidenote: Kokichi’s behaviour during trial 4 is genuinely really interesting to me. On top of the direct digs like this, he says a lot more subtle things to get under Kaito’s skin during trial 4 that I think are super neat to pay attention to.)

Theoretically, pushing Kaito away from Shuichi, combined with the powerlessness he’ll feel in the wake of the truth of both trial 4 and the outside world, could make him easier to convince to join Kokichi’s “side”. He even directly asks Shuichi to team up with him before leaving the virtual world:

(daily life, Chapter 4)

This leads me to believe that Shuichi was originally the one that Kokichi intended to use to build his impossible trial. I mean, if Shuichi was the one in the exisal hanger and presumed dead instead of Kaito, the chances of everyone else solving that mystery drops Significantly. Everyone else, aside from maybe Kiibo, was 100% convinced that Kokichi was the mastermind at that point. No one except Shuichi would’ve tried to dig as deep as he did, for better or for worse. I think this idea is supported by the note that Kokichi wrote next to Shuichi’s face on the whiteboard in his room (“trustworthy?”). He was clearly considering Shuichi as a person for one reason or another, and I believe this is it.

By condemning Gonta, who everyone else perceived as a kind soul who would never hurt anybody, someone who was struggling to understand what the virtual world even was with his amnesia, would be perceived by the others as kicking someone when they were down. Gonta has an absolutely miserable time through the accusations and wholly blames himself for how things turned out in the end. That, and Gonta’s actions were even well-intentioned. The secret of the outside world was apparently so horrible, Gonta thought it would be kinder to mercy kill everyone rather than force them to face it. This result would make everyone question if the truth was really as undoubtably good as they had come to think so far; Not only did Gonta suffer because they had to find the truth, but seeking the secret of the outside world would apparently also only lead to suffering. This would make them hesitate during Kokichi’s impossible trial.

(class trial, chapter 4)

As I said before, Kokichi’s second goal for trial 4 was villainizing himself even further. He says that this was a goal himself to Kaito in chapter 5.

(post trial, chapter 5)

Part of this villainization was just adding to the persona he had already created for himself and that I already talked about his motivations for before. The other part was what he says here. He specifically wanted everyone to think that he was the mastermind. This gave him leverage in two main ways. First, making himself appear to be the mastermind with an actual mastermind as hands off as Tsumugi genuinely gave him power over everyone else. He used this in chapter 5 to put a pause to the killings and give himself more room to enact his plan to break the killing game from the inside.

(daily life, chapter 5)

Although he then says “You guys can commit suicide together or kill each other… / Or, you can change your mind and stay here! You’re welcome to do that too!”, having experienced the secret of the outside world already, I think he’s pretty confident in what they will be feeling in this moment. No one is going to kill each other, and he knows that. He wants them to take that second option for the time being while he sets up his plot.

Making himself appear like the mastermind also benefited his impossible trial plan directly. Everyone would be much more likely to vote for someone they were convinced was the mastermind rather than one of their friends. No one would suspect that it was really him that was the victim.

“Using Gonta and making him into a murderer” was a significant part of how he villainized himself, but the way he treated Gonta during this whole experience was also a major factor. Starting as early as just after Miu was killed, he begins to be really aggressively mean to Gonta. He just straight up bullies him throughout the second half of the trial.

(daily life, chapter 4)

(class trial, chapter 4)

And then, after all this, he acts remorseful and sides himself with Gonta at the very end. It isn't genuine emotion like he felt before Kaede's execution, shown by his neutral expression. To me, this uncharacteristically open expression of grief feels like it was just set up to exacerbate the impact of his cruelty after Gonta’s execution. At this point, everybody’s little faith in Kokichi has been shaken significantly. With the shock of the trial, maybe you Could start to believe they were on the same side, as a team. Then, at the reveal of the extent of Kokichi’s manipulation, that is all ripped painfully away again.

(post trial, chapter 4)

(post trial, chapter 4)

Even if these parts of trial 4 make my stomach turn, I don’t want to imply that Kokichi is completely cold-hearted and unfeeling. Actually, I think there were multiple moments in chapter 4 that show him struggling to regulate his emotions and keep face around everyone else while he enacted this plan.

1: I don’t think Kokichi initially planned to make the reveal that Gonta was the killer as dramatic (or frankly, a bit traumatic) as it ended up being. He had been carrying himself a certain way during the first half of the trial, and I think Shuichi lying to his face in front of everyone about Kokichi’s own alibi dramatically changed his attitude. I mean, Shuichi lied (as he had done almost every trial and gotten 0 flack for) and Tsumugi even called him out on it, but everyone believed him over Kokichi anyways. So when Kokichi lies, it’s completely inexcusable, even though he’s been working tirelessly on his own trying to save everyone?* But when SHUICHI lies, and gets caught in it, people go along with him? They don’t doubt their trust in him for even a second? This double standard infuriated him. It’s at this point that he completely shifts in energy. If Shuichi, no, everyone, is going to disrespect him like this, he was going to make them suffer for it.

(class trial, chapter 4)

2: Kokichi only goes full villain after Kaito says “Kokichi, If you really cared for Gonta, explain yourself to everyone” in the post trial. I think that even though he was always going to paint himself as the villain, he was legitimately affected by the things that had just happened (Gonta’s death, Miu’s attempted murder, the secret of the outside world, even if he knew it wasn’t real) and what he’d just done. Even if he was trying hard not to be. The sudden shift he has from not saying anything to cackling about how little he cared about Gonta feels to me like he was kicking himself back into gear after trying to process some genuinely difficult emotions. 3: After Kokichi punches Kaito down, and everyone completely ignores him in favour of helping Kaito up, Shuichi says these iconic words to Kokichi: “Kaito always has us by his side, see? But no one wants to be around you. / You’re alone, Kokichi. And you always will be.” Kokichi responds like this:

(Post-trial, chapter 4)

There’s something about the way he cuts himself off, pauses, and then his mask falls. I think Shuichi’s words got to him more than he wanted them to. Honestly, Kokichi’s attitude towards cooperation, keeping everyone at arm’s length, and insisting (to himself) that he (as a leader) must fix the killing game completely on his own just seems so lonely to me. Even if he is intentionally trying to alienate himself and get everyone to hate him, being so viscerally cut into like this must have hurt. Especially from someone he was trying to work to get onto his side. It’s no wonder he quickly left after this moment.

This is what I think drove Kokichi in chapter 4. He’s a leader who wants to “lead” his classmates into safety, but he isn’t afraid to use underhanded, cruel tactics if he thinks it will get him ahead in the game for the greater good. He viscerally represses his emotions in order to keep himself going and keep everyone else away from him. He tried to destroy Shuichi’s confidence and drive a wedge between him and Kaito to get him on his side for his plan. He used and made Gonta into a murderer to villainize himself and discourage everyone else from seeking the truth.

Whenever I imagine Kokichi on his own, out of the spotlight of the Audience or the eyes of his castmates, he’s never as expressive as he is in the open. I think in reality, Kokichi is a pretty depressed and lonely person. His clownish personality isn’t entirely a facade, and outside of a killing game scenario, I think he would act pretty similarly to how he does in game. But I do think that he uses it as a mask for his true emotions. While I feel like the “evil villain” persona is a genuine part of Kokichi’s personality, outside of the killing game he probably doesn’t act on it as deeply as he does in-game. I also think Kokichi struggles with letting people become close to him, even without anything on the line. The killing game just caused him to lean into these aspects of his personality hard, and in potentially the worst ways.

*I feel like here it’s important to mention that personally, I still think the collateral damage he caused in his attempts to stop the killing game matters. A lot. I don’t think he should be excused for the things he did, even if he had good intentions. This makes him a really interesting, morally grey character, and I like that about him.

struggling. to write characters. personality wrong.

there's an inherent cruelty to being a mastermind.

okay, echo, state the obvious. but there's a special line to draw between just being an evil character, and being the overlord of a killing game. and i find it fascinating. like, mastermind aus? they destroy me. i love the idea of taking a character and slapping the inherent cruelty of mastermind-ing their respective killing game. especially if it's a character who canonically despises the killing game or is a symbol of hope for other characters (mastermind shuichi/kaito/taka my beloveds). and these characters have canonical personalities, right? we never get to see a mastermind just... acting like their normal self when they reveal themself to be the mastermind.

it's such an underrated idea.

like, yeah, that person is kind. and they like flowers, and they like the color green. hot chocolate is their favorite drink because it reminds them of warm memories with their loved ones. they were the one to pick you off the ground and care for you when you got hurt. this person, so well rounded, so kind. and then... then they're the mastermind.

they're the mastermind. but they're still so sweet. they're cruel. they enjoy watching your friends suffer. but they're still smiling at you, never changing, and they've revealed this huge part of themself that. is still them. because they don't break out into some evil version of themself. they're still them. but not.

they're the mastermind. they are cruel. but they are still kind. and that is the shit that kills me.

yeah, having the villain hiding among you become evil is good. but not having them change at all. is like, almost better. because they never lied to you. they're still the person you know. but they wanted to hurt you. they wanted to wring you out and leave you to die but would never lift a finger because they would never. and you know they would never. you trust them because they would never hurt anyone, and they don't, and that hurts more.

mastermind aus hit so much more when the personality doesn't change.

like... kaito would still be the hopebringer, inspiring the others because that's who he is, but the embedded cruelty of knowing these people will die because of what he's set up. and he's just as cheerful when he's revealed.

and it hurts almost more to know that they aren't much different. they aren't evil, they aren't spitting in your face or calling you a fool. they're still them. and what are you? a fool? stubborn? are you in denial? what does this mean for you?

anyway its like midnight and this just me spitting out an idea. bye!

they're being "bow"-friends haha heehee get it

i’ve been talking to professional taka enjoyers for the past couple of days, and one thing we’ve concluded is that taka actually wouldn’t know what to do if he came across someone crying and/or having a panic attack.

maybe he would have an idea of what to do, but it’s not the right idea. he would make things so much worse.

dude saw makoto bummed after losing sayaka and responded by saying “at least you don’t have a corpse rotting in your bathroom anymore” (paraphrasing)

if he saw that you were sad, he would say the most out of pocket shit to you in a happy tone and then look at you like this:

only hope he has at making you feel better is the chance that whatever he says is enough to shock you out of your current state and leave you confused instead of sad.

love you king.

Redraw of this because i fucking love drawing people standing in a line

WILLPOWER UNION BELIEVERS WHERE ARE YOU?!

[RESOUNDING SILENCE]