SLBP Nobunaga route through chapter 5
Dec. 17th, 2019 09:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waterscrollSo far I'm mostly getting myself through this route by enjoying the moments with Mitsuhide and reminding myself that MC gets to live happily ever after with him in a different route. Because so far Nobunaga is kind of a horror.
Not going to summarize the route, but one comment:
What the FUCK is this Hades/Persephone nonsense, her pledging herself to the Lord of Hell in exchange for one piece of candy.
First of all, why is there a Hades/Persephone reference in a Japanese historical dating sim?
Second...why did she go along with it? It feels very under-explained in the moment. She'd just been though something which gave her reason not to trust him. It feels like the scene was missing a line. Something like, "She thought to herself, she is already trapped in his service and will not be permitted to leave, she might as well take whatever sweetness and hope for healing is offered." Or, "She knew it was a seduction, but in that moment she couldn't help but be compelled by this strange and fascinating man." As it is, she just looks silly.
ETA: I do have strong feelings about Hades/Persephone imagery in general. Which are: I am in favor, but only when they are both actual deities, since if they're not it always feels to me like it's sort of missing the point. (The dubcon in the myth makes sense when it is about seasons, life and death and such inevitabilities. I generally DO NOT CONSENT to winter happening, and yet here it is.) But, as established in Mitsuhide's act 2, Nobunaga thinks he's a god. Is MC going to become a goddess? Are they Lord and Lady of Hell? Of generative destruction? Is this game going to live up to the over-the-top WTF symbolism that it just threw at me, or is Nobunaga just a creepy arrogant dude?
And then he says she's been trying to seduce him and has wanted him all along, and I'm not sure what to think. Because yes, she/I did want him, I guess, from the beginning of the route, because I voluntarily chose this route. But in-game she isn't acting like she wants him. But I know she does, or will, because I know what route I'm on. I really do not want to admit that he's right here, but I sort of have to.
I'm just gonna remind myself, I'm just here for the history. And if I hate this route I can replay Mitsuhide's when I'm done to make myself feel better.
ETA: And this is such mood whiplash coming right after Nobunaga's Caged in Desire ES, in which it is completely 10,000% clear that she wants him and is just nervous and inexperienced, and by the time he pressures her for sex she has said explicitly and in words that yes she wants it very much, she's just too nervous to say so in the moment. It's quite sweet actually, he's being all domineering but only in order to give her what she has said she wants. He also shows a lot of care and affection for her. That's not at all how things are going down in the MS and it is disconcerting me.
Not going to summarize the route, but one comment:
What the FUCK is this Hades/Persephone nonsense, her pledging herself to the Lord of Hell in exchange for one piece of candy.
First of all, why is there a Hades/Persephone reference in a Japanese historical dating sim?
Second...why did she go along with it? It feels very under-explained in the moment. She'd just been though something which gave her reason not to trust him. It feels like the scene was missing a line. Something like, "She thought to herself, she is already trapped in his service and will not be permitted to leave, she might as well take whatever sweetness and hope for healing is offered." Or, "She knew it was a seduction, but in that moment she couldn't help but be compelled by this strange and fascinating man." As it is, she just looks silly.
ETA: I do have strong feelings about Hades/Persephone imagery in general. Which are: I am in favor, but only when they are both actual deities, since if they're not it always feels to me like it's sort of missing the point. (The dubcon in the myth makes sense when it is about seasons, life and death and such inevitabilities. I generally DO NOT CONSENT to winter happening, and yet here it is.) But, as established in Mitsuhide's act 2, Nobunaga thinks he's a god. Is MC going to become a goddess? Are they Lord and Lady of Hell? Of generative destruction? Is this game going to live up to the over-the-top WTF symbolism that it just threw at me, or is Nobunaga just a creepy arrogant dude?
And then he says she's been trying to seduce him and has wanted him all along, and I'm not sure what to think. Because yes, she/I did want him, I guess, from the beginning of the route, because I voluntarily chose this route. But in-game she isn't acting like she wants him. But I know she does, or will, because I know what route I'm on. I really do not want to admit that he's right here, but I sort of have to.
I'm just gonna remind myself, I'm just here for the history. And if I hate this route I can replay Mitsuhide's when I'm done to make myself feel better.
ETA: And this is such mood whiplash coming right after Nobunaga's Caged in Desire ES, in which it is completely 10,000% clear that she wants him and is just nervous and inexperienced, and by the time he pressures her for sex she has said explicitly and in words that yes she wants it very much, she's just too nervous to say so in the moment. It's quite sweet actually, he's being all domineering but only in order to give her what she has said she wants. He also shows a lot of care and affection for her. That's not at all how things are going down in the MS and it is disconcerting me.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-20 11:03 pm (UTC)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=716y6YT9V2w&list=PLVJcGj7WYFZnLZ7IfYLXSeZ8QmjX_RMzc is the specific ep, which covers it all.
I think a lot of what convinced me that Mitsuhide was responsible for the kimonos was the earlier conversation between them, when he shows up at her room to bow and convince her to stay.
MC: "Lord Mitsuhide, please, get up."
Mitsuhide: "It's my job to convey Lord Nobunaga's orders and ensure their acceptance. I can't leave so easily."
I can't stand to see someone like Lord Mitsuhide pressing his forehead to the floor of a Samurai House.
MC: "I know...I know, so please get up."
And I just figured everything else was a continuation of that.
Some snippets from the actual conversations:
MC: "Lord Mitsuhide...there was a kimono delivered to my room yesterday. Is it from...:
Mitsuhide: "Oh, yes...beautiful, isn't it!" [with the half-smile face!]
Lord Mitsuhide says, as if it were hardly anything at all.
MC: "I don't need something that luxurious. What would I even do with it?"
Mitsuhide: "What do you mean?" [frowny face]
Then, after they discuss whether she should stay in disguise:
MC: "B-but...even if I reveal myself as a woman, I don't have to do it in something like that, do I? I'm here to work, so..."
Lord Mitsuhide looks at me. For a split second, he looks...wounded.
Mitsuhide: "Well...you're not wrong about that..."
Also, I totally forgot the scene where Nobunaga makes Mitsuhide bow to MC. :(
I totally forgot how much I shipped MC/Mitsuhide during this episode.
After she swears to serve Nobunaga:
The first thing Lord Nobunaga does the next morning is question Mitsuhide on what persuaded MC to join him.
Mitsuhide: "It was not me, Milord. It appears that Hideyoshi and Katsuie managed it in secret."
Nobunaga: "Did they now. So focused, and yet so reckless. It's not as if I needed them to..."
Lord Nobunaga trails off, his eyes lighting up with a sudden realization.
Nobunaga: "So...that's it... of course."
Nobunaga: "If a frontal assault falls...then we just have to attack from within."
"Just like Katsuie and Hideyoshi did with MC."
This wasn't as strongly kompeito related as I thought.
But whether Nobunaga sent the kompeito and assumed it didn't make a difference or sent Mitsuhide to do his seducing for him... I think we can conclude Nobunaga is sulky and childish and terrible at feelings. And I think, deep down, he's convinced that he is unlikeable or even undeserving of being liked -- either he has to have Mitsuhide do his seduction for him, or else he assumes his own gestures matter less than two people talking to MC. I think that might play into the way he seems to almost court unlikeability, through his bravado and his ruthlessness, too.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-22 12:34 pm (UTC)(Is Nobunaga's act 2 going to make me hate Mitsuhide? Please don't, route, my heart can't handle that.)
There's nothing like this in Mitsuhide's route btw, they just love each other and while there are challenges in making it work there's no love triangle or anything like that.
Meanwhile I'm just going to feed Mitsuhide my onigiri, put a minifigure of him in my castle and furnish it with items from his route plus one of those battle item posters saying he's the best, and then put on my Lady Akechi kimono. Then I'm going to go cry.
Then I think I'm going to do the Divine ending, since Hero Person put up the Noble ending.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-22 01:10 pm (UTC)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q97Lq0awsME&list=PLVJcGj7WYFZnLZ7IfYLXSeZ8QmjX_RMzc&index=17&t=0s
...there's lots of good stuff in it, but at about 19:30 in his POV he thinks to himself that he sent the kimonos, when she comes to him wearing them.
(I get really pissy at the game when it does this, putting essential information into one ending or the other so you have to do them both.)
Okay, now going to play the Divine ending. Will have more to say soon.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-22 02:25 pm (UTC)Gonna stop burning chapter tickets and start act 2 tomorrow.