#lncbdaf

i have Opinions on this, many of which i still can't quite articulate? like. "in the trope everything is a performance, while the attention and care phoenix is genuine." "she's had more of a childhood from 8 years old onwards than before 8 years old." "zak abandoned her, had used her to be able to abandon her, without telling her." "phoenix has felt more like a father than zak had ever been." Among Other Things. i have a lot of thoughts on trucy in general tbh.

one of the aspect of it can p much be summed up with this thread liz @/enemies2lawyers wrote on twitter! here it is (read it i love this thread a lot):

i think she's less afraid of zak and more afraid of what his presence Implies? because despite zak's disappearance ruining phoenix's career and bringing so much instability to trucy and phoenix's lives, she's experienced a lot more Genuine Familial Love with phoenix than with zak.

yeah that's basically it! in my head he used the letter (which he was gonna personally give to trucy if she followed him) and the whole 'i will defeat you' thing as his guise (which aren't lies, just not the whole truth). the game doesn't mention (iirc) why phoenix takes the necklace from him after the game, but i wouldn't be surprised if they were betting on things other than money. wouldn't be surprised if zak's revolved around trucy.

i noticed during phoenix and zak's conversation in the borscht bowl club was Very Vague on zak's part. he doesn't outright say things as they are (a prominent example would be phoenix asking if he's leaving without seeing trucy and zak replies w smth like, "it'd be better if i didn't." which isn't a lie at all.)

thank you! with the trucy shadi comic i very much lean towards 'death of the author', so feel free to pick whichever part you like and leave the rest.

in my mind she's crying about a Lot of things, kind of a mixture of herself + her childhood + the fact that things turned out this way. not to mention she's keeping up a performance throughout the whole thing (what shadi got right, which messes her up a bit because this man hasn't seen her in 7 years but can see through her still), so she's shattering after holding herself together. i don't think she cries much throughout 7yg (unless you count the crocodile tears) so this is sort of a long time coming.