Hi hi Ira!!! it's dizzy lol You finally got an alterspring and honestly it's a little hard to read through most of your threads sometimes (I do try I promise) but reading your longer answers here feels sooo refreshing. Like finally free from that stupid twt word limit. I wanted to ask about your thoughts on middle school ruinene, or even just Rui's first year in middle school, and whether you think it'll ever actually get addressed properly. I know you’ve talked about it a bit before, and I've tried forming my own opinions based on previous wxs events, kinda connecting the dots and seeing where the story could go… but at this point I feel like every time I think I've got a direction, the events just completely surprise me!!! there's like no clean linear progression anymore. After Nene6, I had a bit of hope that it might tie into the Arcland offer somehow, but then your last ask mentioned that it might've been retconned??? (Rui5) and now I genuinely don't even know what direction they're taking with it anymore. I was SO convinced Asahi would be addressed in Rui6 too… and then just. nothing 😭 Lately though, I've been thinking about something else, WxS themselves have talked about wanting to perform a production of their own, right? Rui6 Chapter 1 if I am correct.
Tsukasa and all his experience with leading roles
Nene with her growth + Morinomiya Revue
Emu not just performing but also developing her business/management side with the park
and even Rui recently stepping more into acting himself (well at least in rui6) It kinda feels like they're slowly being set up to combine all of that into something bigger, like a fully self-produced show where they’re not just performers, but creators too. And if they do go down that route… I wonder if that could be a natural way to reintroduce unresolved stuff like Asahi? Like maybe through connections at PXL or the industry side of things, instead of forcing it directly into a character-focused event like Rui6. It feels like the kind of plotline that would need a bigger stage (literally) to actually land properly. At the same time though… I'm trying not to theory too hard anymore because I've genuinely learned my lesson. Twice. 💀 Every time I think "oh yeah this is definitely where it's going" they just flip everything. So now I'm kinda just sitting here like… I see the potential threads, but I don't trust them anymore LMAO. What do you think? Do you feel like they're building toward something like a full WxS production, or am I just connecting things that won't actually matter again ehuehehee 😭
Hello, and honestly I have no idea what they will do, as even for this event it was mainly teaser + logo invoking things that are loaded for Rui symbolism wise that I took any shots at trying to guess anything concrete about it, as otherwise I generally tend to try to focus on larger storybeats, rather than trying to guess exactly how and when they will tackle something, since that really does end up being a bit of a fool's errand before long.
So, as far as it goes, my honest answer is I have no idea what they will do with Asahi, in terms of when they will get back to it, given they did spend near five years to get back to things like Nene's MS trauma over the failed performance, and even current event had multiple things it connects back to solely on how many times WxS being involved in movie making has came up already.
(Going minimum as far back as PiMH, where gang hears Rakunosuke helped with a movie to Mr. Riley, as Emu also is being set to be involved with a movie more directly some day, like how Rui and Nene have been so far in their respective events)
So my very lame answer is ultimately "they will get back to it when they do", and the "retcon" in question was people apparently saying Rui thinking to himself he turned Asahi's offer down as a retcon, since my response was me trying to explain why I don't view that to be the case, especially right now.
(Rui already had his answer since OHE set to be "no" even if Asahi does ask him after all, and post his bloomfes and WL2, he has no reason to consider it an uresolved issue on his end, while it's still hilariously like "did you even TELL him about this", while for Asahi I did explain my logic in said response that I don't think they could have really engaged Asahi's character meaningfully without there being some questioning and change in his mindset, while what he promised did make sense with where his head was in CC, so it really depends to how they handle this for if I'd really call it a retcon than simply characters not being static/their world widening for them in a way it becomes kind of moot)
But yeah, WxS currently are at their "we are trying to make a name for ourselves as an independent troupe, now that we have been learning and making connections around the field, especially since we just had an entire mini arc on what quality of acting and directing is expected at big shot places we want to be commissioned from as we continue together as a troupe" arc seemingly, and something to do with Phennyland is ultimately a matter of when than if, especially when Emu expressed interest in holding a workshop there sometime more than once now. I just don't know if I'd say Phennyland as immediate pit stop with current direction, at least not without anything more pointing towards that.
My thoughts on MS Ruinene honestly mainly is that I'm side eyeing the kami play and monster play for how relevant Nene feeling like she said something horrible to someone dear to her/shooting a Rui stand-in is, as I don't get the vibe they had a fight still, but there is something loaded there that I'm not going to throw mud to the wall over whether if it is just her own sense of guilt is speaking given the way MS Rui is positioned so insistently as a specter that haunts her, but besides that I'm more curious about if Rui's completely omitted first year of high school ever will be relevant.
Which, admittedly, isn't necessarily only about his relationship to Nene, even if presumably him starting to look for chances to bring Nene back to stage must have happened somewhere between what Nene references in Dazzling as him apparently having tried to comfort her after hearing about what happened at some point in MS last year for him and him switching to Kamiyama around the start of his second year as a high schooler main story, for best I can try to pinpoint that.
I do think, ultimately, after all that setup since basically game existed, it would be odd to me if they really just say they wrapped MS up through symbolically Nene getting to 'right the wrong' of being able to play a role where she called help for/stood up for someone dear to her that she would otherwise lose, and Rui by being there when she was presumably going to have potentially a repeat incident due to her trauma and fear over what happened in MS play when it was all riding on her and how that ended up for everyone else, as it really did feel to me more like beginning of things starting to be addressed than entire thing wrapped up, but I don't have actual future vision to be able to say what writers will do besides that.
TL;DR I think Ruinene (especially them at least talking at some point/acknowledging MS between them in some form, with potential CC connection if/when it happens) is still a loaded gun they will get back to, short of something unexpected happening, and for Asahi I generally just have what I was floating in previous reply that I'm expecting he played a hand in their happy end and so it will be viceversa with helping him reconnect with people dear to him/'find his own path', ditto I think a Phennyland pit stop eventually is inevitable, if only just for "Emu intends to come back to there before heading for the world, mentioned multiple times explicitly as her current overarching plans", I just don't know when and how each of those points will be tackled, so we'll see I guess.
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