#waypoint

austin: this is also weirdly how i felt about--i also played the ace attorney apollo justice collection, and i was like, i think these games just came out too early. i didn't play them at the time. people are way more into like, bullying young men now than they were when the game first came out.

patrick: plus it's a visual novel, like, the medium--

austin: but specifically, patrick, apollo justice is a little dweeb. and the page has turned on little dweebs! people love a little bullyable dweeb now. we're post-9S, you know what i mean? we love a little shithead who gets stuff wrong, and there's a bunch of big people around him going, "aw, c'mon buddy, pick yourself up, try again." OR, "get on the fucking ground, grovel, you little pig." and that's apollo justice.

patrick: wait, i missed this. did we pivot to this?

renata: kristoph shows up six seconds into that game and calls apollo justice gay, then just like, walks away.

austin: it's wild! you're gonna eat that up.

renata: and he's like, "i know it's your first court case. you're gay, bro. have fun in there."

austin: "have fun. good luck!" it's great. anyway,

patrick: but not like, as a pejorative?

ren: no, it's not explicitly "you're gay," but he goes "ah, you're a little raspy"-- he does the puppy monologue that sephiroth does to cloud in the FF7R trailer.

rob: is this a corrective for years of stories where shitty little dweebs are valorized? or is this like, exorcising an ur-kink that is deep within our psyche?

austin: it's the latter. it's the latter, and i think america wasn't ready yet for this.

patrick: we're more honest about ourselves?