Mischif.net, Since 1997

Please respect my boundaries and assume that I am Not mad.

if we assume that Train Murder Mysteries applies solely to train passengers or employees then a 300% increase would range from "still zero" to "30 people per year"

I know Gosho changed a lot of characters’ personalities over the years and it’s always been some sort of downgrade, BUT there’s something interesting about trying to recontextualize it as growth/trauma.

Ran is a prime example of this. We all bemoan that she lost her badass streak, that she’s become someone who’s too nice, but if we view it through the lenses of going through the stages of being apart from someone she was pretty codependent with, generally growing up as a teen, and the reality of her murder filled life, it’s suddenly not so much of a downgrade in my opinion.

A lot of her early badass moments were motivated by anger and irrationality. They were cool as fuck, but also at times, irresponsible. For example, leaping out of the Agency’s 2nd story window and ruining a stranger’s car because she jumped to conclusions about the man being connected to Akemi’s “death.” The way she let jealousy overtake her when that girl claimed to be Shinichi’s girlfriend…she was incredibly overzealous back then.

That’s not to say she wasn’t the same kind girl as she is now. Instead, we can view this as a girl struggling to be apart from someone she’s ALWAYS been with, ever since her ability to create lasting memories began, a.k.a. the age of 4. Not only is this the boy she has a crush on, but the one who defended her from bullies, the one she faced down a man with a knife (fuck Toichi for that btw) at the age of 6 with, the boy who always came back after leaving for his “job” unlike her mother, and someone she believed she didn’t need to worry about because he could take care of himself unlike her father.

ShinRan were so codependent on one another & Shinichi still is because he spends his days literally sleeping in the room next to her. But Ran? For her, Shinichi is no longer there. It’s no longer him running after a case & then coming back the next morning to tell her how it went. It’s Shinichi going radio silent for days, weeks at a time. Shinichi who loves to brag & show off to Ran refusing to tell her a single thing about what he’s doing. At first, she reacted with anger, leading to her impulsive actions at the start of the story. She lost her balance.

There’s also the factor that Ran’s personal experience with crime was not as frequent as it is now. She was never told about her attempted kidnapping at age 4, which the drugging, I personally suspect, still affects her to this day. Yusaku said that the drugging caused her to get lost, which is a consistent character trait of hers at 16. She made herself forget about Eri becoming a hostage & Kogoro shooting her. She forgot about the case in New York, not just from her fever, but what I suspect is the guilt that her good actions lead to bad things. In the end she didn’t regret it, as she went on to save serial killer that was trying to kill her but that doesn’t mean she didn’t have an irrational feeling of guilt like Shinichi did towards Akemi and Seiji’s deaths.

Oops I got side tracked from my main point. What I’m trying to say is that Ran has a habit of locking away memories of crimes that personally affected her and of being kept out of the loop by the people she trusts the most. Now, those crimes are happening all the time, and she’s no longer someone who watches Shinichi solve mysteries, but the one who watches Conan & by extension everyone else to make sure they don’t get in danger. She does this because she thinks it’s the right thing to do, to keep kids away from crime scenes. However because Conan needs to solve these things, she can’t look away.

Plus, she’s at the stage where she CAN’T lock away the memories of her music teacher choosing to get poisoned by her childhood friend, CAN’T forget having to point to a DIFFERENT teacher who killed coworkers for the sake of a little girl. She has to stick by her dad as he finds out his friend killed his other friend because she was sexually blackmailing him, a police officer. She had to watch her dad’s other friend weep as he finds out his fiancé killed herself because she found out they were twins. She had to watch her father get arrested because a woman set him up for murder, drugging him to make it seem like he was cheating on his wife as well. That’s just canon, we’re not even bringing up the Movie 22 arrest.

Ran had to race against the clock to stop her mom from getting raped! She’s watched Sonoko & Kazuha nearly get murdered for simply being at the wrong place at the wrong time! She’s watched Heiji shot for Shinichi’s principles while Kazuha cried in despair. How many times has Conan gotten kidnapped? Gotten injured and shot? Conan, who Ran took in due to her kindness but is basically family, who’s so much like Shinichi…what girl wouldn’t change? The girl who got into her teacher’s trunk due to a hunch, dodging bullets & using her body as cover to save a suicidal Ai; how could she stay the same prone to violent anger, jump to conclusions, punch any problem that comes her way type of girl?

There’s nothing WRONG with that version of Ran. There’s a reason most people wish she stayed that way. She was much more flawed, and people like flawed characters. The current Ran liked to talk things out, doesn’t argue with Shinichi, and prefers to remain silent. This treatment is reminiscent of how she treats her parents, especially her mother. She’s been let down by the one person she thought never would, so she’s trying to stay strong by hoping that it will turn out the way she wants. She forcefully puts her parents together & similarly demanded to have some kind of lifeline to Shinichi so she would KNOW he wouldn’t leave her. That he would come back. The easiest way for her to stay calm is by having a relationship with him.

Ran isn’t the same anymore not only because Gosho’s terrible at keeping consistent characterization, but also because as she’s becoming a more emotionally mature teenager, the person she’s codependent with seems to have chosen his “job” over her and has left her alone, dropping in without notice every once in a while, never asking how her life is going (because unbeknownst to her he already knows everything) and refuses to tell her anything about the stuff he would have boasted in the past, making the divide between them deeper.

That lack of trust is exacerbated when she recovers memories that confirm her codependent friend has kept valuable information from her before (the New York case) and she also remembers her father shooting her mother, which led to the situation that caused her family to break apart. Movie 2 may not be completely canon, but the backstory is, and I choose to believe Ran recovered those memories in a similar fashion, albeit in a less flashy sort of case. Imagine finding out you cannot trust your own memory, wouldn’t that leave a shift in you?

Your father gains national recognition, and you gain a family member and meet all sorts of new friends, but the danger everyone is put in goes through the roof. People you looked up to and trusted are now murderers. You escape death through sheer luck & your presence does not keep others from getting into trouble. Your boyfriend who refuses to tell you anything, tells you that he’ll come back to you even if it kills him, and suddenly you’re reminded of all the times you’ve yelled and screamed at him to come back, to keep his promise. You don’t want to be left alone.

You watch as people kill each other over petty misunderstandings and asshole interactions. One small action made in anger or irrationality can lead to the destruction of everything you know. So you become more patient. You stop using your strength to threaten, you let go of your pride so people won’t get offended.

In 2021, Swarovski (the company that makes the very sparkly crystals you see in certain jewelry, on figure-skaters' twinkliest outfits, on red carpet dresses), decided they didn't want the grubby fingers of small-time jewelers, clothing designers and costumers and crafters on their shiny beads and rhinestones anymore. They decided to limit their sales to "luxury" and couture creators, not girls who sell stuff on Etsy. The tenor of their press release on the subject was snide and insulting. Resellers (like your favorite bead shop) would no longer be allowed to carry their product; the average Jane on the street would not be able to purchase them. You could only get them if you had an authorized business agreement that bound you to very strict brand behavior. And those of us who still had good stock of the crystals would no longer be "permitted" to use the brand's name in our listings for sale.

Every bead shop and craft supply place and many, many small clothing makers--wedding shops, prom and dancing dress suppliers, the sort of salt of the Earth mom and pop time machines of shops that are the backbone of the field--scrambled to find something that could replace them. The last of the stock dwindled quickly, all of us grabbing what we could get while there was any chance of it, and then it was gone and we no longer had any access.

I was Big Pissed about it at the time. It was just so goddamn stuck-up, when wholesalers and indie jewelers had made them so much money, when some people I knew--when *I!*--had been brand-loyal for decades. But with no recourse, everyone pivoted fairly quickly, most of us to Preciosa Crystals. Those are Czech, quite sparkly, and considerably less expensive than Swarovski. The faceting method they use is different, but not worse; any differences are hardly noticeable when you're seeing them as a hundred pinpoints of light.

Well, out of nowhere, Swarovski just dropped this: https://www.harmanbeads.com/swarovski-brand-policy-update

"Effective June 1, 2026, Swarovski updated the distribution and brand usage policies introduced in 2021. Businesses may now purchase Swarovski Crystals without signing a Brand Control Agreement, and Authorized Distribution Partners may once again sell Swarovski Crystals to resellers, including bead stores and online retailers. Businesses may also use the Swarovski brand name when following Swarovski’s Proper Use Guidelines. Designers, manufacturers, artists, brands, retailers, and resellers are now eligible to purchase Swarovski Crystals through authorized distribution channels."

They want us back. A lot of the companies who could have kept a brand relationship with them also have swapped to Preciosa, over the last half-decade, in solidarity with indie creators and out of a sour awareness that it could be them, next. And it doesn't hurt that Preciosa was able to expand their line quite a bit now that everyone who wanted sparkle had no choice but to go to them.

And I'm not seeing nearly anyone who intends to return. The feeling is, "Y'all told us to fuck off! Off we fucked! And now, that's what you can do, too!" I'm seeing a lot of "How many of us did you stab in the back?" comments from the people whose money they're hoping to attract.

I got inspired by that one special PnF episode lol

and as he dies the red dye seeps out of his hair and the protagonist best friend is like GOD DAMN IT DUDE WHY DIDN’T YOU WARN ME YOU WERE A WHITE HAIRED ANIME BOY THIS WHOLE TIME I COULD HAVE PREPARED FOR THIS