SLBP Kyoichiro (to chapter 7)
Apr. 5th, 2020 07:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waterscrollI am enjoying the Kyoichiro route very much but so far it's more MC/Hideyoshi than MC/Kyoichiro. I have zero problem with this since one reason I was interested in this route was to see Hideyoshi with someone who can call him on his bullshit. But I think I will be somewhat disappointed when in a few chapters (or however long it takes) MC kisses Kyoichiro instead of one or both of them slamming Hideyoshi against a wall and calling him a shameless reprobate while kissing *him*.
Ninja!MC, as we left her in the prologue, is looking for some security and safety for her clan, since Nobunaga is a non-reliable and possibly murderous employer and the Iga clan is out to get them. It seems like the four other routes are about her finding another patron for her clan, but the common route with Kyoichiro and Hotaru gives her two possibilities for leading her clan to safety without a patron. The Hotaru route would let her ally with Hotaru to work against Iga or forge a new kind of alliance with them. But my MC chose to work with Kyoichiro, as she explained to Kaede, in order to learn to be a merchant and free agent like he is. That way her clan could sell their medicines without being subject to any particular lord.
It speaks to this MC's ambition and initiative that this sounds like a good plan to her and that she can sell Kaede on it. This is an MC who knows what she wants and believes in her own abilities, more than any other MC in this game. She's very smart and not inclined to take things at face value and her 'good' dialogue choices are often about her thinking one step ahead and manipulating the situation. Also (as we see in the event story) likes sex and has no problem with initiating it. Doesn't this sound like an MC who would be great for Hideyoshi? Fortunately, Hideyoshi seems to think so too. He visits her shop and she gives him a healing salve for his leg, which works extremely well, and after that he praises her work to Nobunaga and says he'd like to 'court' her. He takes her out to lunch and visits her for dinner and praises her cooking. I am shipping it hard.
Meanwhile MC is living with Kyoichiro and learning from him how to be a merchant. Their relationship is purely professional, he respects her competence and treats her as a trainee. In the first crossroads she follows him as he highly competently robs from the rich and gives to the poor, and she's clearly impressed with him. Heck, I am too. But I am not sold on their romantic relationship. Most of their interactions are about business or about him insulting her cooking.
In the recent event story it seemed like what the writers are going for in the relationship is: they are both highly competent people who relate as equals and love each other but respect each other's autonomy. I like this in concept and I thought it was reasonably hot in the event story's smutty epilogue. Maybe the love is slow-developing? Because I am not seeing any hints of it in the main route. But I am seeing friendship and mutual respect, and maybe that's not a bad place to start.
In other fannishness, I am continuing to watch Guardian and just finished episode 5. I wouldn't say I'm enjoying it as much as sucked into a maelstrom of feelings by the intensity of emotion. But that's good, right? And probably the reaction the writers were going for. I wish I could say more thinky things about it, because I'd like to be able to discuss it, but I am not there yet.
Ninja!MC, as we left her in the prologue, is looking for some security and safety for her clan, since Nobunaga is a non-reliable and possibly murderous employer and the Iga clan is out to get them. It seems like the four other routes are about her finding another patron for her clan, but the common route with Kyoichiro and Hotaru gives her two possibilities for leading her clan to safety without a patron. The Hotaru route would let her ally with Hotaru to work against Iga or forge a new kind of alliance with them. But my MC chose to work with Kyoichiro, as she explained to Kaede, in order to learn to be a merchant and free agent like he is. That way her clan could sell their medicines without being subject to any particular lord.
It speaks to this MC's ambition and initiative that this sounds like a good plan to her and that she can sell Kaede on it. This is an MC who knows what she wants and believes in her own abilities, more than any other MC in this game. She's very smart and not inclined to take things at face value and her 'good' dialogue choices are often about her thinking one step ahead and manipulating the situation. Also (as we see in the event story) likes sex and has no problem with initiating it. Doesn't this sound like an MC who would be great for Hideyoshi? Fortunately, Hideyoshi seems to think so too. He visits her shop and she gives him a healing salve for his leg, which works extremely well, and after that he praises her work to Nobunaga and says he'd like to 'court' her. He takes her out to lunch and visits her for dinner and praises her cooking. I am shipping it hard.
Meanwhile MC is living with Kyoichiro and learning from him how to be a merchant. Their relationship is purely professional, he respects her competence and treats her as a trainee. In the first crossroads she follows him as he highly competently robs from the rich and gives to the poor, and she's clearly impressed with him. Heck, I am too. But I am not sold on their romantic relationship. Most of their interactions are about business or about him insulting her cooking.
In the recent event story it seemed like what the writers are going for in the relationship is: they are both highly competent people who relate as equals and love each other but respect each other's autonomy. I like this in concept and I thought it was reasonably hot in the event story's smutty epilogue. Maybe the love is slow-developing? Because I am not seeing any hints of it in the main route. But I am seeing friendship and mutual respect, and maybe that's not a bad place to start.
In other fannishness, I am continuing to watch Guardian and just finished episode 5. I wouldn't say I'm enjoying it as much as sucked into a maelstrom of feelings by the intensity of emotion. But that's good, right? And probably the reaction the writers were going for. I wish I could say more thinky things about it, because I'd like to be able to discuss it, but I am not there yet.
no subject
Date: 2020-04-05 03:51 pm (UTC)I really enjoyed Kyoichiro and the MC in the event story and in the prologue. And yes to This is an MC who knows what she wants and believes in her own abilities, more than any other MC in this game. , she is wonderful. <3
He takes her out to lunch and visits her for dinner and praises her cooking. I am shipping it hard.
I am a little suspicious, I'm sure he has ulterior motives! But yes, I am shipping this had now too. He would 100% be down for saving her ninja clan
and using them. And in the prologue, she wants a liege lord she can negotiate with more than one she can trust.Hotaru's event story is a little short on romance too (though that may also be because, Hotaru), and also focuses a lot on giving a look at one of the lords (Kenshin in this case). And I've heard that Sakuya's route doesn't really have a lot of romance until the end, either. I wonder if very-slow-burn with a lot of focus on the lords is just how the shadow routes go.
I wouldn't say I'm enjoying it as much as sucked into a maelstrom of feelings by the intensity of emotion.
...that's a good description of how Guardian goes for me too. I'm glad it's working as a show for you!
The sid-guardian comm seems to have meta and character discussion, based on skimming; I've been trying to avoid reading the posts so I can avoid spoiling myself too much.
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Date: 2020-04-05 04:32 pm (UTC)I'm sure he does! I'm not totally sure what they are, but the ES had him using Goemon for his own purposes so I'm guessing something like that. But she has ulterior motives too: she wants to set herself and her clan up as merchants, selling to him but not belonging to him, and also using him to figure out what the fuck is up with Nobunaga and what he's planning for her clan. I'm sure MC/Kyoichiro will be...fine...but I'm really wishing this were an alternate Hideyoshi route and the end game is them showing each other all their ulterior motives and him realizing he's been matched. I can see Hideyoshi being all hearts in eyes, oh wow a woman as manipulative and ambitious as I am, I am in love...
The sid-guardian comm seems to have meta and character discussion
I went over and looked at it. It's a very active community with a lot of older fans I recognize from Due South what was it, fifteen years ago. Okay, so I guess it is a show that one can get thinky about, and on dreamwidth too. Nice.
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Date: 2020-04-05 04:54 pm (UTC)Poked at the comm again and I see folks making Chinese learning tools for this show. o.o Definitely nice.
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Date: 2020-04-05 07:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-05 08:20 pm (UTC)I feel like Guardian pushes the envelope for a Chinese show (especially with m/m! basically on screen despite censorship!) but there's something that feels...very conventional about it at the same time, in the kind of stories that it's choosing to tell. With the first episode where the granddaughter might have killed her grandmother, I was O.o at first...but then the result turned out to be grandparents sacrificing themselves for their grandchildren and grandchildren giving up things for their grandparents and taking blame on themselves. And it felt like the show had pulled right to the brink of something subversive and dark and very much not filial piety/traditional family values and then pulled back into something comfortable. (And then there's the interesting way the show uses those more conventional relationships to anchor and comment on Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, but that's another story.)
With SLBP, that uncertainty means that I'm never quite sure how I'm supposed to feel about the writers. Because if the writers didn't expect me to have a bit of :/ with my love then it gets more unfun (especially with Hotaru's route, right now).
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Date: 2020-04-05 11:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-06 01:40 pm (UTC)But it can feel a little wrongfooting when things that are horrifying are presented as fanservice. I like it a lot, but it doesn't feel emotionally safe in the way I was thinking about, because I can't rely on contextual clues to tell me what kind of story I'm going to get, or if I'm reading the story the way it was intended.
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Date: 2020-04-07 12:28 pm (UTC)Yeah, it can be uncomfortable sometimes.
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Date: 2020-04-05 11:12 pm (UTC)And yeah this sounds like a more enjoyable Hideoyoshi romance than the actual Hideoyoshi route.
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Date: 2020-04-13 02:23 am (UTC)Yeah, Hideyoshi needs a romance arc that is better than the one he got.