#another ramble

*Brotherhood* is seen within the musketeers, the camaraderie of the boys helping each other when they didn’t have to, and even when Stebbins did what he did near his last moments. The idea of brotherhood supports masculinity, and even with it being a competition, it feels more like a military draft, so brotherhood in some way was bound to happen. Because of the context, emasculation of the boys was inevitable the moment they were invited to the Walk. That was the ideal image the Major wanted. This is the same energy you see within modern day fraternities or sports teams.

Now take these very same environments and make two of the group members queer for each other. How would the others react? I’ll wait.

Jk but in all seriousness, the queerness immediately slices the idea of masculinity in half. Gay men are immediately feminized in masculine environments, so the very concept of Pete and Ray being queer undercuts what the Walk pushes for. Queerness has no place in a hypermasculine environment, so framing it as “brotherhood” is the safest way for it to exist without giving it an actual name. It’s also a very easy way for the two of them to engage with each other without even fully understanding the nature of the feelings. In my opinion, it isn’t until the very last moments the two have together that it is recognized as love that expands past platonic and into something more.

Nothing to see here, just a TS2 window succesfully converted..😁

ya know, this moment?

yeah, cause up to that point, kratos had been so worried, so concerned, terrified even because of that prophecy that he would die and leave atreus alone, and without protection. sure, he doesn't believe in prophecy and believes in changing one's own fate, but that had planted the seed of fear in his mind. the thing is, though, he wasn't even worried that he was going to die. he wasn't afraid of death. no, he was afraid of leaving atreus on his own. he didn't care about his own death, he only cared about how his son would live without him.

so for him, seeing that, after atreus had hunted and held his own with freya, that was such a huge lift off of his shoulders. sure, he is still anxious, still terrified that atreus won't survive on his own, but what parent isn't?

P3-4 were still willing to use shapes to give characters some variety, like how Junpei is overall quite lanky, Mitsuru is sharp everywhere, Fuuka was round and quite simple but still tilted to one side. Those things MATTER, and I missed them so much in P3R. I wasn’t a huge fan of its style honestly, yes it was more visually complete but the characters felt like .. rubber ??? I don’t know how to word it. Just so polished.

Recently JRPGs have been really leaning towards the very anime very cookie cutter genshin-style polished art styles, which is like really sad to me personally because P3-4’s character visuals genuinely did try to make them at least a bit diverse facially, maybe not necessarily through CLEAR inclusion of different features, but definitely through the angles and silhouettes they used for portraits. I think the thin lineart and sort of faded art styles definitely gave them more liberty.

I see this the most with P4’s cast tbh. Kanji DID have pretty clear hooded / downturned eyes, and his smile portrait gave him an almost childish softness to remind you this guy is 16 and also a lovely person. Yosuke doesn’t necessarily or clearly HAVE those, but the angle of his portrait makes me imagine him with a fairly long face and sorta full lips (I know this is a play with the shadow in his art but still !), and those things have him a near feminine softness in some situations OR alludes to his very acute intelligence in others. Yukiko has a heart shaped face and a button nose and for all their efforts to make her a traditionally beautiful Japanese girl, she still came out as one of the most unique vivid portraits to me. Chie had really round, big eyes and a tiny chin and I loved the inclusion of a BIT of muscle on her. Rise’s smile was SO COOL to me because of how you can tell her smile is almost practiced, but it’s become so habitual to her that it’s now just her smile, still a perfect parallel to her character.

Dojima and Nanako are so subtle but THEY LOOK RELATED I don’t know how to explain it. The way Nanako’s eyebrows look in her neutral portrait make it seem like she’s deadpanning just like Dojima, and Dojima himself has this softness that comes from the side angle of his portrait and reminds me of Nanako when she’s like waiting for something. Their faces also soften the exact same way. Maybe it’s also their mannerisms affecting my perception but I can just so vividly imagine these characters as real people and give them real features and expressions. Like sometimes I feel a bit intimidated by kids because their main mode is deadpan and I don’t know if this is a reaction or just a neutral state, and Nanako reminded me exactly of that.