7'Scarlet: Secret Ending
Mar. 7th, 2021 09:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrMasterlist
I misunderstood the spoiler I saw about this route but it was still roughly what I expected, which is to say QUITE SQUICKY.
To the extent that I reached a certain point and went HMM NOPE I AM DONE.
It's almost all exposition, explaining a lot of extra mystery stuff, but there is also a romance and it is...yeah. QUITE SOMETHING. I kinda shipped it! But also nnng, squick city.
The answers it gives to the remaining mysteries weren't super satisfying. Overall I think the True Route makes a better place to stop, or before that with Yuzuki if you like your endings 100% happy and don't mind some loose ends.
I'll put the content notes under the cut because it's a big spoiler.
*******
Content notes: Sibling incest, age gap. They're not biologically related, and meet when one is is 8 and the other is an adult. There are a LOT of scenes of the two of them at those ages which...idk if it's MEANT to be romantic but it's sure A THING THAT HAPPENS.
I saw someone describe it as child grooming, and like...I don't think he intended it as wife husbandry, but that's still how it basically played out.
********
I'm going into this mostly blind and I REALLY hope I don't regret it /o\
EDIT: I somehow totally misread the name of the love interest for this route. It is not Kagura. He very vaguely resembles Kagura but is a totally different guy. Which does answer the "how could Kagura ever be a love interest?" question. He's not!
So! The first thing we see is the inside of a barred cell.
Ensupulcher woman: Hey, I have your meal. Tch, so stubborn, it's been a year already. Just tell us who you really are.
OH. OH WOW.
So...Kagura isn't the brother? The brother has been a prisoner this whole time? WHAT IS GOING ON.
The woman and a male ensupulcher grumble about how the supernatural club meeting and rock concert mean it'll be harder to keep an eye out for revenants.
Woman: Wait, I recognise one of these hotel guest names...it's her! You know, there was a big fuss a while ago, she's a whatchamacallit...an albino! She went missing here years ago, and they never found her.
Man: We have to tell the boss, let's go!
Prisoner: ...no...you can't come here ;_;
As she's preparing for the summer festival, Ichiko feels like she can hear her brother's voice.
Kagura asks if she'll model for him D: She says no thank you, but he badgers her to come with him to the river, until Yuki 'helpfully' says it would work better to take photos in the hotel garden with him and Toa helping. Later Yuki tells Ichiko he could tell Kagura wanted to get her alone. I was a little annoyed he didn't help her actively set her boundaries but that was probably the most effective way a polite woman and teenage service staff-member could stand up to a guy like Kagura.
Yuki hands Ichiko a letter he found with her name on it. Her brother's handwriting directs her to come to the shrine, and trust noone.
She lies to get away from Hino, feeling a bit weird about it. She's nearly killed by Catface but is rescued by...her brother, Hanate!
So, the route is about her brother, but is it platonic or incest??
They share a VERY INTENSE hug, she cries about how empty her life has been without him and it's all QUITE SHIPPY.
She asks him to explain everything, and he reminds himself she's not a child any more. But he isn't sure she'll still accept him once she knows the truth.
So! BACKSTORY TIME. This is mostly just Hanate narrating against sepia backgrounds.
Hanate turns out to be a SEVERAL HUNDRED YEAR OLD REVENANT.
He was cursed to become a revenant by "the one he hates most", then gained immortality by murdering what he calls an "ambrosia" and the Ensupulchers call an "albino": a human with such a pure spirit and abundance of life force that they seem to glow. Killing one makes a revenant immortal.
I think what's going on is they're using the English word 'albino' as a reference to the ambrosias having a faint red glow to eyes, and it's different to the Japanese word they'd use for actual albinos. The game does not think real albinos have brown hair and are tasty to zombies, good good.
Hanate's been hanging around the village, bored, watching the revenants appear every year and being amused by all the murders they commit. Ok then, Hanate.
He can do mild mindcontrol to change people's memories of him, so cycled through identities over the years, and is very good at being charming and likeable. Right now he's passing as a delivery guy for the Tsuchinoko delivery company Hino loves. He realised eventually that he's connected to the corpse flowers/violacias: if they are damaged, so is he, and vice versa. So he protected them.
Twelve years ago, the revenant he was following approached a little girl in the shrine. And Hanate realised in quick succession that (a) the little girl, Ichiko, was an ambrosia (b) he felt an intense, undeniable need to protect her. He is friendly and gives her advice on avoiding dangerous strangers, and the dynamic would be cute if I wasn't going "Is this meant to be romantic? D:"
Teen Kagura is a creepy bully who picks on Toa, and Hanate recognises him as dangerous. Teen Yuzuki rescues Ichiko from him, aw. But does not become obsessed with her because he's 16 and that would be creepy, game.
Hanate realises Ichiko's presence is causing more revenants to appear, like it's her destiny to be killed by one.
It turns out Ichiko is not staying with her uncle and aunt, which is probably a translation issue, since Japanese kids use those terms for any quasi-parental figures. Instead she's staying with... Hino's family! Because he's from the village too! Sure.
Kagura pushes Ichiko into the river so she nearly drowns, and Hinate gives her CPR.
Is this meant to be sexy, game D:
Like it wasn't written as sexy per se. But it was also...ehh.../o\
To keep her safe, Hanate changes Ichiko and her parent's memories so they remember him as her brother. He also changes the memories over time so it doesn't seem strange that he's not ageing (he looks about 20). And he wipes all of Ichiko's memories of her childhood before meeting him, especially anything to do with the village. Including her memories with Hino.
Living with Ichiko is the first time Hanate has ever felt joy.
"As Ichiko enters middle school and her body starts to mature, my feelings for her grow beyond those of a brother"
HOO BOY
So he didn't want to have sex with her until she was THIRTEEN! TOTALLY NOT CREEPY /o\
And then a year ago he had a feeling the violacias were in danger. He went back to the village and everyone had forgotten him: memories around him fade quickly without him there to reinforce them.
He got sloppy and the Ensupulchers captured him.
Back to the present day.
Ichiko is 100% accepting, saying he's still her brother, and all she wants is to be with him. He always made her happy, and he said she made him happy, and that's all that matters. There is a lot of VERY SHIPPY CUDDLING, face touching etc. He's all "I'm an undead unaging monster, you are too pure..." and... look, I know this is all very problematic, and it will plausibly get too squicky for me later, but for now I can't pretend not to be kinda into it.
Hanate: We'll have to run off and start a new life together to escape the revenants now that they know your name. I suppose you'll miss your friends and family.
Ichiko: Mmm...
Hanate: I understand, but even if you hate me, I must...
Ichiko: I'll miss them, but all that matters is that I'm with you <3
Hanate says the revenant curse was created by Iwanagahime. The game pops up with a little info note that, when I expand it, says "Iwanagahime: Her".
Thanks, game.
The myth is that Iwanagahime cursed the one who betrayed her, the snake Ninigi, giving humans short lifespans. All Hanate knows is that she is the reason for the violacias, and why human life is so painful.
Hanate: Ichiko, we're being tossed about in the palm of her hand. She enjoys seeing us in pain.
*suddenly shipping Hanata/Iwanagahime* Hey, in for a problematic penny...
Ha his voice is familiar so I looked him up and didn't recognise any of it, but he's the Japanese VA for Jiang Cheng in the Untamed dub trailer.
WELP. I took a break and when I went to get back to it my brain went NOPE. TOO MUCH INCEST. STOP NOW.
So I managed to ship it for like...a few lines there! When they were both adults but not actually in danger of kissing or anything yet.
I found a nicely detailed plot summary.
So! Based on that, the short version:
They are attacked by Kagura, and Hanate realises Ichiko will never be free while the violacias remain, creating more revenants. He asks her to set them on fire, but she can't bring herself to. Hino shows up and lights them on fire for her.
Hanate and Ichiko kiss, and then he and Kagura dissolve in flames.
Later, Ichiko has forgotten Hanate even exists and is going back to college with Hino. But she still has the purple flower Sosuke gave her so a little bit of Hanate is still with her.
THE END
Something this person realised that I didn't: that whole memory Hino has of failing to save Ichiko from a serial killer, and vowing to be a better protector? A PLANTED MEMORY. DESIGNED TO MAKE HIM PROTECT ICHIKO IN HANATE'S STEAD IF A REVENANT EVER SHOWED UP. Poor little Hino :(
Also the Tsuchinoko truck was Hanate keeping an eye on things, cos he was kind of a snake god? And there is...no reason the Ensupulchers couldn't have burned the flowers before now. Let's say they tried but Hanate needed to want to die or it wouldn't work.
I think a short, secret, underwritten incest route as the ending to an otherwise fairly fluffy and incest-free game was an unfortunate choice, since it's a nasty shock for all the people with incest squicks and too hidden to bring in people who like incest. But all the reviews/summaries I saws were so baffled and disapproving about incest being in an otome at all. It's a common kink!
(Also they all seem super into Hino, when his route was nice but ehhh not 100% my jam. But that's just a taste thing)
Looks like I was totally wrong about there being a secret heir, or there being any secrets about Yuki.
Anyway. I much prefer the True Route as an end to the game. I don't care about Hanate! He's an amoral asshole I never met before! I care about literally every other character more than him. Luckily it turned out there was an extra epilogue to Toa's Happy Ending I hadn't seen, where he sends a bittersweet letter saying goodbye, and that made a nicer note to end on.
Overall I liked the game, but Ichiko had WAY too much of a protagonist halo making people like her without actually knowing her (Sosuke and Yuzuki quasi-excepted). Which really undermines the emotional connection you need for a good romance route. I did enjoy trying to untangle the mystery, it was all a bit silly in the end but enjoyable in the moment.
I misunderstood the spoiler I saw about this route but it was still roughly what I expected, which is to say QUITE SQUICKY.
To the extent that I reached a certain point and went HMM NOPE I AM DONE.
It's almost all exposition, explaining a lot of extra mystery stuff, but there is also a romance and it is...yeah. QUITE SOMETHING. I kinda shipped it! But also nnng, squick city.
The answers it gives to the remaining mysteries weren't super satisfying. Overall I think the True Route makes a better place to stop, or before that with Yuzuki if you like your endings 100% happy and don't mind some loose ends.
I'll put the content notes under the cut because it's a big spoiler.
*******
Content notes: Sibling incest, age gap. They're not biologically related, and meet when one is is 8 and the other is an adult. There are a LOT of scenes of the two of them at those ages which...idk if it's MEANT to be romantic but it's sure A THING THAT HAPPENS.
I saw someone describe it as child grooming, and like...I don't think he intended it as wife husbandry, but that's still how it basically played out.
********
I'm going into this mostly blind and I REALLY hope I don't regret it /o\
EDIT: I somehow totally misread the name of the love interest for this route. It is not Kagura. He very vaguely resembles Kagura but is a totally different guy. Which does answer the "how could Kagura ever be a love interest?" question. He's not!
So! The first thing we see is the inside of a barred cell.
Ensupulcher woman: Hey, I have your meal. Tch, so stubborn, it's been a year already. Just tell us who you really are.
OH. OH WOW.
So...Kagura isn't the brother? The brother has been a prisoner this whole time? WHAT IS GOING ON.
The woman and a male ensupulcher grumble about how the supernatural club meeting and rock concert mean it'll be harder to keep an eye out for revenants.
Woman: Wait, I recognise one of these hotel guest names...it's her! You know, there was a big fuss a while ago, she's a whatchamacallit...an albino! She went missing here years ago, and they never found her.
Man: We have to tell the boss, let's go!
Prisoner: ...no...you can't come here ;_;
As she's preparing for the summer festival, Ichiko feels like she can hear her brother's voice.
Kagura asks if she'll model for him D: She says no thank you, but he badgers her to come with him to the river, until Yuki 'helpfully' says it would work better to take photos in the hotel garden with him and Toa helping. Later Yuki tells Ichiko he could tell Kagura wanted to get her alone. I was a little annoyed he didn't help her actively set her boundaries but that was probably the most effective way a polite woman and teenage service staff-member could stand up to a guy like Kagura.
Yuki hands Ichiko a letter he found with her name on it. Her brother's handwriting directs her to come to the shrine, and trust noone.
She lies to get away from Hino, feeling a bit weird about it. She's nearly killed by Catface but is rescued by...her brother, Hanate!
So, the route is about her brother, but is it platonic or incest??
They share a VERY INTENSE hug, she cries about how empty her life has been without him and it's all QUITE SHIPPY.
She asks him to explain everything, and he reminds himself she's not a child any more. But he isn't sure she'll still accept him once she knows the truth.
So! BACKSTORY TIME. This is mostly just Hanate narrating against sepia backgrounds.
Hanate turns out to be a SEVERAL HUNDRED YEAR OLD REVENANT.
He was cursed to become a revenant by "the one he hates most", then gained immortality by murdering what he calls an "ambrosia" and the Ensupulchers call an "albino": a human with such a pure spirit and abundance of life force that they seem to glow. Killing one makes a revenant immortal.
I think what's going on is they're using the English word 'albino' as a reference to the ambrosias having a faint red glow to eyes, and it's different to the Japanese word they'd use for actual albinos. The game does not think real albinos have brown hair and are tasty to zombies, good good.
Hanate's been hanging around the village, bored, watching the revenants appear every year and being amused by all the murders they commit. Ok then, Hanate.
He can do mild mindcontrol to change people's memories of him, so cycled through identities over the years, and is very good at being charming and likeable. Right now he's passing as a delivery guy for the Tsuchinoko delivery company Hino loves. He realised eventually that he's connected to the corpse flowers/violacias: if they are damaged, so is he, and vice versa. So he protected them.
Twelve years ago, the revenant he was following approached a little girl in the shrine. And Hanate realised in quick succession that (a) the little girl, Ichiko, was an ambrosia (b) he felt an intense, undeniable need to protect her. He is friendly and gives her advice on avoiding dangerous strangers, and the dynamic would be cute if I wasn't going "Is this meant to be romantic? D:"
Teen Kagura is a creepy bully who picks on Toa, and Hanate recognises him as dangerous. Teen Yuzuki rescues Ichiko from him, aw. But does not become obsessed with her because he's 16 and that would be creepy, game.
Hanate realises Ichiko's presence is causing more revenants to appear, like it's her destiny to be killed by one.
It turns out Ichiko is not staying with her uncle and aunt, which is probably a translation issue, since Japanese kids use those terms for any quasi-parental figures. Instead she's staying with... Hino's family! Because he's from the village too! Sure.
Kagura pushes Ichiko into the river so she nearly drowns, and Hinate gives her CPR.
Is this meant to be sexy, game D:
Like it wasn't written as sexy per se. But it was also...ehh.../o\
To keep her safe, Hanate changes Ichiko and her parent's memories so they remember him as her brother. He also changes the memories over time so it doesn't seem strange that he's not ageing (he looks about 20). And he wipes all of Ichiko's memories of her childhood before meeting him, especially anything to do with the village. Including her memories with Hino.
Living with Ichiko is the first time Hanate has ever felt joy.
"As Ichiko enters middle school and her body starts to mature, my feelings for her grow beyond those of a brother"
HOO BOY
So he didn't want to have sex with her until she was THIRTEEN! TOTALLY NOT CREEPY /o\
And then a year ago he had a feeling the violacias were in danger. He went back to the village and everyone had forgotten him: memories around him fade quickly without him there to reinforce them.
He got sloppy and the Ensupulchers captured him.
Back to the present day.
Ichiko is 100% accepting, saying he's still her brother, and all she wants is to be with him. He always made her happy, and he said she made him happy, and that's all that matters. There is a lot of VERY SHIPPY CUDDLING, face touching etc. He's all "I'm an undead unaging monster, you are too pure..." and... look, I know this is all very problematic, and it will plausibly get too squicky for me later, but for now I can't pretend not to be kinda into it.
Hanate: We'll have to run off and start a new life together to escape the revenants now that they know your name. I suppose you'll miss your friends and family.
Ichiko: Mmm...
Hanate: I understand, but even if you hate me, I must...
Ichiko: I'll miss them, but all that matters is that I'm with you <3
Hanate says the revenant curse was created by Iwanagahime. The game pops up with a little info note that, when I expand it, says "Iwanagahime: Her".
Thanks, game.
The myth is that Iwanagahime cursed the one who betrayed her, the snake Ninigi, giving humans short lifespans. All Hanate knows is that she is the reason for the violacias, and why human life is so painful.
Hanate: Ichiko, we're being tossed about in the palm of her hand. She enjoys seeing us in pain.
*suddenly shipping Hanata/Iwanagahime* Hey, in for a problematic penny...
Ha his voice is familiar so I looked him up and didn't recognise any of it, but he's the Japanese VA for Jiang Cheng in the Untamed dub trailer.
WELP. I took a break and when I went to get back to it my brain went NOPE. TOO MUCH INCEST. STOP NOW.
So I managed to ship it for like...a few lines there! When they were both adults but not actually in danger of kissing or anything yet.
I found a nicely detailed plot summary.
So! Based on that, the short version:
They are attacked by Kagura, and Hanate realises Ichiko will never be free while the violacias remain, creating more revenants. He asks her to set them on fire, but she can't bring herself to. Hino shows up and lights them on fire for her.
Hanate and Ichiko kiss, and then he and Kagura dissolve in flames.
Later, Ichiko has forgotten Hanate even exists and is going back to college with Hino. But she still has the purple flower Sosuke gave her so a little bit of Hanate is still with her.
THE END
Something this person realised that I didn't: that whole memory Hino has of failing to save Ichiko from a serial killer, and vowing to be a better protector? A PLANTED MEMORY. DESIGNED TO MAKE HIM PROTECT ICHIKO IN HANATE'S STEAD IF A REVENANT EVER SHOWED UP. Poor little Hino :(
Also the Tsuchinoko truck was Hanate keeping an eye on things, cos he was kind of a snake god? And there is...no reason the Ensupulchers couldn't have burned the flowers before now. Let's say they tried but Hanate needed to want to die or it wouldn't work.
I think a short, secret, underwritten incest route as the ending to an otherwise fairly fluffy and incest-free game was an unfortunate choice, since it's a nasty shock for all the people with incest squicks and too hidden to bring in people who like incest. But all the reviews/summaries I saws were so baffled and disapproving about incest being in an otome at all. It's a common kink!
(Also they all seem super into Hino, when his route was nice but ehhh not 100% my jam. But that's just a taste thing)
Looks like I was totally wrong about there being a secret heir, or there being any secrets about Yuki.
Anyway. I much prefer the True Route as an end to the game. I don't care about Hanate! He's an amoral asshole I never met before! I care about literally every other character more than him. Luckily it turned out there was an extra epilogue to Toa's Happy Ending I hadn't seen, where he sends a bittersweet letter saying goodbye, and that made a nicer note to end on.
Overall I liked the game, but Ichiko had WAY too much of a protagonist halo making people like her without actually knowing her (Sosuke and Yuzuki quasi-excepted). Which really undermines the emotional connection you need for a good romance route. I did enjoy trying to untangle the mystery, it was all a bit silly in the end but enjoyable in the moment.
