When I was a kid, I was involved in this summer program where we explored the nature around us. Hikes through virgin forests, taking water samples to investigate the ecosystems, cataloguing indigenous plants, fossil hunting. It was the best summer of my childhood. And through it all, there was one overarching theme: leave things better than when you found them.
Not just "don't litter", but to actively improve things. See a trail marker that is overgrown? Take care of it. See trash? Pick it up. It doesn't need to be a big effort; just... Take action where you can. I never forgot that lesson, but I applied it narrowly; the context in which it was taught to me.
I was a sad angry kid who grew into an even sadder but much less angry adult. But somewhere in my early adulthood, I realized just how good that advice is for every aspect of your life, but especially interpersonal relationships.
So I live by that code. I do everything in my power to leave people better than when I found them. The thing is, I don't mean that on the scale of a relationship's entire history -- I mean it on a day-by-day, moment-by-moment basis.
You're going to fuck up. You're going to hurt the people you care about. You're going to disappoint them; some, past the point of reconciliation. And sometimes there's just nothing at all you can do. But if you spend your days trying to do and be better, trying to help where you can, trying to give them opportunities to grow -- that's how you leave them better than when you found them.
You won't succeed every day. But a relationship is the sum of its parts, and it's my sincerest hope that when people look back on their interactions with me, they see that growth, that intentional effort, that... care.
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"2/2 is about telling joker and the viewer to let go of akechi" "haha maruki is just like us fix it fic writers trying to make akechi live" idk maybe i'd believe you if there wasn't a teaser abt him being alive in the true ending. literally atlus themselves wrote a fix it where akechi is alive at the end and its called persona 5 royal
this took a millennia to make cause i kept getting distracted and gathering screenshots to back my points up was incredibly time consuming
but it has been done. anon from how many days ago i hope you are happy
A little of Pure Sydney's flaws
There will be two parts to this cause on god this is long. On this part I will be exploring flaws that tend to be a bit more visible with pure Sydney
This is in no way a complete analysis, I definitely have missed many more of Sydney's flaws, and because Tumblr is a bitch and a half, I regrettably cannot jam as many screenshots from the game/its codes as much as I would like. But I hope this post could act as a good point of reference regardless for any fans of Sydney, or people looking to explore more of their character out there!
Continuing under the cut.
So.
What’s the deal with Sydney? What’s wrong with them, what are their flaws and what make the relationship between them and the PC so toxic?
Well ain’t there just so much to unpack.
In short, Sydney at their core is a spineless, directionless, malleable individual that important influences in their life can easily shape, be it their family, the Temple, or the PC.
Sydney, as they are today, was raised with beliefs upheld by the temple. Something they are deeply religious, devoted and grateful for. However, as we all know, some of those values can be extremely morally questionable.
Speaking of deeply devoted let’s start with Pure Sydney, shall we?
Victim blaming tendencies
One of the ideals Sydney was raised with is their extremely victim-blaming mindset. Which I have shown here
2. Lust and internal conflict
Something else that fascinates me greatly is that regardless of their state, Sydney is always tempted by the PC. PC’s existence and presence alone are pushing Sydney towards the pit of sinful desires no matter if they are Pure or Corrupted.
The first thing that comes to mind is when accepting their confession results in a decrease of Sydney’s Purity stat:
The notion of accepting Sydney’s affections is seen as an encouragement for them to fall towards sin.
Being in a relationship with PC means they are constantly fighting their own urges and desires. Being taught their entire life that these feelings are wrong, Sydney suffers from tremendous guilt. Even when promised and permitted by the Temple, Sydney still finds physical intimacy with the PC sinful:
These just go to show how deeply buried Sydney is in the Temple’s teachings, unable to stray from it. Which is a perfect segue into their next flaw
3. Attachment to the Temple and blind faith.
Even from the latest confessional scene added, Sydney clearly cares about PC’s wellbeing and displays great concern for them, almost breaking out of the ideals they were raised with just to defend their beloved. But they are not quite there yet. They still seek out for the Temple when they are faced with these doubts. They think that they are doing something wrong for prioritizing the PC’s best interest over the Temple’s teachings.
Sydney is INCAPABLE of detaching themselves from the Temple. The Temple is just such a big part of Sydney’s character that no matter what, they will side with the Temple before they think about the PC when forced to make that choice.
And in a way, Sydney’s blind faith is encouraged by the Player for choosing to keep them Pure. The PC is essentially acting as another shelter, shielding, “protecting” them. The PC never expressed that they wanted a change of mindset from Sydney, so Sydney never had a change in mindset.
And if you played the new confessional event, you would know that you as the player never had the option to either. This might have been intentional. But I will expand on that later.
More showings of Sydney’s blind faith can be found in littler events while praying with Sydney in the Temple, where they would turn a blind eye to fellow followers being punished:
A bit more about their attachment to the Temple I have also mentioned here.
4. Superiority/Saviour complex
Another aspect of Sydney that people talk about, but I don’t think quite enough, is how aggressive they can get, specifically towards those they deem as sinners. This is a trait shared among both states of Sydney.
For example, the beach date:
And several more.
Though, pure Sydney might be a tad worse at this. As they seem to find themselves more righteous than sinners:
If they are the one taking confessions, pure Sydney is often more judgemental compared to the more empathetic corrupt Sydney:
When PC as a member of the Temple is caught masturbating by Sydney, they take matters into their own hands:
They also display a bit of a saviour complex from their opinions about the PC at low Purity:
5. Dumb teenager
Just a small thing, but I feel like most people just brush over the fact that pure Sydney practically proposes to PC at high enough lust.
I think I don’t need to stress just how insane it is to propose to someone you haven’t known for long. Just to what? Have sex? Loser behaviour.
I can't wait to explore their flaws when corrupted :3
When kept pure, Sydney has so many interesting flaws that make them incredibly humane and a little irritating, but that's the charm of their character! They are deeply troubled and blinded by their own devotion that they are ignorant, a bit arrogant and even self destructive. It's what makes Sydney... Sydney and I wouldn't have them any other way.
ever since someone mentioned how iconic honey lemon from bh6 i haven't?? been able?? to get it out of my head??
for people who don't know, there's a series for bh6 (titled big hero six the series woop woop!!) and one of the episodes was centric around honey lemon also being a girl in!! the arts!! she attends the san fransokyo art institute (sfai) and had her art w the gang hung up in the visual arts gallery
the san fransokyo institute of technology and the san fransokyo art institute ARE rival schools, but honey lemon just still. loves exploring both fields and her friends are crazy supportive of her (in the end the rival thing is also just for funsies and it's honestly such a fun episode) i just think it is SO COOL that FOR ONE !! she's a woman in stem who wears feminine clothing + heels despite already being tall + HAS INCREDIBLE FASHION SENSE + is a genuinely good person and is TWO !! also heavily involved in the arts LIKE BRO IDK ABOUT YOU but i think it's a really good message for kids (but honestly everyone) to know that they don't have to pick one specific route to follow + can pursue what they love
finished reading menelaiad! i am now a changed man. It's confusing at times but it's really good. LIKE ACTUALLY REALLY GOOD. no regrets reading it as a menelaus enjoyer
guys go read menelaiad, read it here (thank you tumblr user @/menelaiad you are my idol frfr)
some screenshots i enjoyed below 🔽
the amount of times ""why"" was asked and answered hurts so bad. oh menelaus..... 🥲🥲🥲
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so you know my fic Prodigal of Lazarus? I'm investing a lot more into it.
There's a sequel being plotted called Prodigies of Gomorrah where it's Jason & Danny-centric at the beginning, starting from the events where chapter 3 of PoL leaves off, and it'll go along the plot from Danny and Jason's povs rather than batfam and damian's all the way until beyond the end of PoL where Under the Red Hood's events (but is turned canon-divergent) happen.
i decided to separate that plot and arc because i can't keep extending the fic, this was originally supposed to be just 5 chapters WHAT HAPPENED TO MY 5 CHAPTERS.
And there's even another fic in the works where i focus on the fluff of PoL's universe because I had a lot of scenes retconned for the sake of not dragging the fic (dude there are like 8-13k words per chapter). Progeny of Sacrifices is gonna be my fluff outlet despite how un-fluffy the title sounds.
i also decided to separate this plot from the first fic because THE WORD COUNT IS TOO LONG i dont want the fic to be so DRAGGING but also i wanted to get the chapters over it so i can read it for myself
And you know what I'm gonna call this series? Paradigm of a Family.
So I saw a post and I'm kicking myself for not saving it but it was talking about how some of the hiveswap trolls revealed in the friendsim turned out to be better than we were led to believe. Which, yeah, but remember what Doc Scratch said about lies of omission?
"Lies of omission do not exist. The concept is a very human one. It is the product of your story writing again. You have written a story about the truth, making emotional demands of it, and in particular, those in possession of it."
So let's take Chixie, for example, because I'm not sure there is a better example of this. We're told that she has a self-titled debut album and "self-promotion sickness" and that she blocks all non-praise. What this brought to mind was a vapid, self-interested character who held no concern for others or their negative opinions. The real Chixie could not be farther from the truth.
But still, important to note none of these descriptions were actually wrong. She does have a debut album out, she has to constantly promote herself because lowbloods have to work twice as hard for half as much, and the blocking all non-praise? She calls the player character her "one non-creepy fan" and says she doesn't have a lot of followers on social media. Any "non-praise" she's getting is probably sexual harassment, maybe with some death threats and suicide-baiting, as Zebruh refered to her music as "subversive."
Her entire route is dedicated to showing how these things impact her day-to-day life and how she deals with them, especially all that non-praise she gets from Zebruh alone. It's really telling that her good endings have her either stand up for herself and worry about being executed for it or drinking herself to sleep. She does have the Sign of the Transient, after all.
Whoever said writing poetry was easier than writing a short story or even a novel has never really tried their hand at it.
I wrote four poems last week and now, I’m stuck in the revision phase of one of them. It’s not like narration, where you just say what you’re going to say and then make sure all the verbs match. Poetry requires you to choose every single word, every image, every relationship so that you can depict an idea with the fewest words possible, in the way they best reinforce each other.
With prose, you can gloss over those difficult, indescribably moments because every single that happens has to move the story forward. If it’s particularly necessary and difficult, you can write your way through it, because you have the space to make it work. Not with poetry. It’s less creation than curation. It’s the careful selection of bricks that, placed just so, becomes a pyramid of carefully balanced objects that implies something entirely different from the shape it presents. It only takes a word to make the structure fall down.
But when it works, it just flow. It’s like May Sarton says;
Like a shooting star,
As the soul,
Unencumbered,
Alive, ageless,
Meets the pristine moment;
Poetry again.
I’ll struggle, but when it comes together, there’s nothing like it.
