MachInTheMachine

ik nobody's talking about these songs anymore but I've been thinkin about this ship ever since ERB came out so... I call this "Confessions of a Rotten Ego Renegade Boy" because it's dumb and it fits them

Me: So that's why you have to live as an outcast in the basements of the opera house?

"come again?"

"i learn more from thinking machine. human gender preference. attraction to same gender, means word 'gay.' all eridian same gender." rocky stands straight up. "rocky come out to grace now. all rocky plural gay, statement."

"...wow, that's... rock, i'm not sure it makes much sense to apply human ideas of sexual orientation to a monogendered species."

a long and judgmental pause. then:

Hello!! I'm glad you liked the question I sent your way!

As for my Shenmue hot takes >:D :

1.) Ren would be the best love interest for Ryo ❤️ this is mostly because their dynamic is the most interesting in the whole game, like I'm always happy to see to see them on screen together! Ren shows how much he cares all through hi actions and I love seeing that side of him, like a scary gang leader because so silly when he's with Ryo (um long story short I love them and I could yap for hours about them XD)

2.) this isn't really related to the game but more to the fandom, but in my opinion the fandom would be so much bigger and popular low-key if we had more people outwardly talking about ships or just making AUs or OCs which will lead people to make more art or write more for it! If the fandom was more like this then I feel like more people would be exposed to shenmue and become interested in it! But that's all my pov 😂

As for theories...I don't really have any 😭 not anything cool at least, the closest thing I'd have to a theory is that Ren is somehow tied to Ryo's prophecy or fate, literally only because he pointed out the Big Dipper while on the roof with Ryo XD and there's symbolism of the Big Dipper through out the lore so that's about it XD

OH! and how I got into shenmue...well I've always seen the game around! The very first in depth explanation I got about the was from Super Eyepatch Wolf video about how S3 ruined his life XD and it's actually a really good video and it brought up a ton of good points (even though I've actually never played a shenmue game...I just don't have a console or pc 😅) but that's how I learned about it! And how I REALLY got into it was watching Brutal Moose's playthrough of the 3 games! God they were so good and after that I was hooked! And when I had a hard time looking for fanart or fics I decided to start making my own! And here we are! (⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)

Thank you so much for the ask! I had so much fun talking about this to someone! I'm so happy to see this fandom still alive and kicking, the game is so amazing and it definitely deserves its loving fan base!

2.) I agree! We've always been a pretty small fandom(at least from my memory as someone who started stalking the tag around 2020) but we used to be a lot more active, and I really miss it. Ik I shouldn't mourn deactivated accounts, but two of the really big shenmue accounts deactivated and I really miss seeing their theories and fics on my dash🥲I would love to see people's shenmue aus and ocs, and I'm SO down to see more content for my fav ships. I feel like people think Shenmue is one of those games everyone talks about but doesn't play/engage with, so showing them that there's a really good story and interesting characters would hopefully spark interest where the accolades sadly haven't.

Man that would be so cool! I really feel like they're made out to be fated somewhat in the way Ryo and Shenhua are, like the framing of them at the end of Shenmue 3 and some of the retroactive decisions in the anime really give a like "making your own fate" kind of feel. Like maybe the role Ren's taken on was open but now Ren's taken it, you know?

That's so real! SuperEyepatchWolf is how I found out about Shenmue as well(it cracks me up that he also ships renryo)😁 when it went on sale I figured id give it a try and well, here I am🥳 I'll have to check out that playthrough, any excuse to see Ren is a good one😤💪

Thank you so much for responding! It was really interesting seeing what your thoughts are on the game and on the fandom🥺🫶and I feel the same way, seeing all the people who care about this game makes me so happy, and I really treasure everyone in the fandom, past, present, and hopefully many more in the future!

What's up Jack?