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I'm not going to go on another long, rambling diatribe, despite the points part of me wishes to make, because I feel like firstly, we are just... Very fundamentally different in our viewpoints on this. I've come to understand your position more, and while I disagree with parts, that's more simply just because of how I view the game, the writing, and other such personal things. I will concede and thank you for finally bringing that bit of dialogue I missed from the interaction to my attention, and say while I'm disappointed they didn't take the writing in the direction I had been making a point out of, I agree with you that it does stick to the dialogue gameplay they've set for Renegade and Paragon and make sense in that regard. Secondly, I apologize sincerely if I came off like I was annoyed, or upset. As our responses continued, I read your comments as being more... Rude? Or condescending - which is entirely my fault if that wasn't your intended tone! - and adjusted mine in response. You really chose your profile pic well with Erin, I got mixed vibes from her when she first appeared as well xD. I'm somewhere on the spectrum, and I've definitely been known to have problems with tone, especially when it comes to things I'm so passionate about, so I really do apologize for coming off as annoyed or mean!!! I just... Really like Aelita's character, and this game in general SKGHSDHFSDF-- Thirdly, slightly unrelated, I'm happy I could bring that Aelita therapy portion to your attention as well! It does a lot to help her character in little bursts, before the Devs -- maybe -- explore her more in upcoming chapters. I could comment further, but I'm trying to keep this short, and not incite further miscommunication tone-wise, especially since I have... Already done that. Either way, I think you're probably right that these should be our last responses, and again I'm sorry if I potentially made this character discussion unfun for you -- I also completely sidetracked this post from its original subject of Melia, n considering your thoughts on Chapter 12, I think that's kinda ironic ngl, but yeah, I'm sorry for that too AHDGKJSDFHSD-- Uh... It was still sort of nice talking with someone who cares as much about the writing of the game, the characters, and other stuff as I do, even if we had such different opinions on certain things...!! I hope you have fun talking more with others in the future :) /gen

Sigh, alright then man, think whatever you want. As I said, I was simply trying to share my thoughts, which could maybe expand your mind on the subject, since they are similar thoughts the majority of the player base has about what they think happened during Aelita's journey, and are just as valid as your own opinions on the twist. In regards to the "Too Speedy" dialogue, you saying "It would be annoying in fact if an option that was meant to express concern about Aelita cost you friendship points from a gameplay perspective." Is just... If a person is trying to avoid emotions they feel, sometimes they will be upset or annoyed by someone trying to push them into confronting it, or being worried about the subject in general, which is the point I was trying to make about Aelita's character, through simple analysis of what we know of her. I could be entirely wrong since I don't remember Aelita's follow-up dialogue, but that's the thing, we could BOTH be wrong about the MC or Dev's intentions with the dialogue. Which is what I've been trying to say. As I've said multiple times, I concede that it sucks that we don't see that journey she has, and we're left to just assume things -- but you seem to particularly hate that fact about the game, which is fine, you can hate it, but most of the people who play the game ENGAGE in HCing and assumptions to fill in spots we haven't seen yet. The Devs even encourage it while exploring other characters and emotions, which is what I've been trying to say, once again. Before they come out with new chapters and Aelita gets the chance to expand on her character, we are left to assume things. That is how MOST fandoms for games work. Heck! Even Homestuck did that. During their large hiatus, hundreds and thousands of fans made headcanons and assumptions about what would happen with the characters, based on the writing of the webcomic. It's a thing! It's encouraged! And accepted by the majority, since most assumptions are based off of logical writing decisions the creators have previously made. You make it hard to talk with you about such things, if you dismiss it to go purely by the writing of the game, and assume that since it's not IN the game (potentially just not yet, that is a possibility), it is purely bad writing since you refuse to engage in the common assumptions the fandom makes while we wait for the Devs to give us more content -- since the game is unfinished. The reason I even said it would be too bulky and awkward to include Aelita memory dumping right now, is because most of Taelia and Vivian's memories cannot be all that important to the part of the game we're in currently, neither can the emotions she had during the journey. It's more likely she'd bring it up in a moment of weakness, when or if she ever breaks down that "strong front" all the raiding characters are putting on, and maybe admits she didn't bring up the things that made her uncomfortable to learn, or her conflicting feelings. That is, of course, if you're willing to engage in some reasonable speculation based on the way the devs write. Not to mention "Generally you can tell when there's some sort of subtext, but Aelita's dialogue never suggests any subtext of "Um I'm still fucked up by this", especially when she actually interacts with the Royers." This is at least partially false, because Aelita, in a group dialogue in the Nightmare Realms, right before Huey's Nightmare Realm specifically, pretends to be at a therapist appointment and admits that she still has identity issues to a Therapist, that's represented by HER. The dialogue goes as follows "Yeah, and I was just feeling kinda weird about it, you know, doc? I'm my own person, but sometimes I feel like I'm just... Not?" Therapist Aelita: "Yes, and how does that make you feel, Aelita?" Aelita: "Not too good... I wonder if I love Sheridan because it's my home, or if it's because Taelia loved it. Are my emotions truly mine, or were they built off Taelia's memories? Sometimes I get really mad at Vivian for putting me through all of this. But I have to remember that was not her intention... And as a result, I've met so many cool people in my life. It's all so very confusing... What do you have to say about that doc?" And then the doctor glitches out, and the group investigation ends. ALL of this hints at a LARGER subtext of Aelita most DEFINITELY still being messed up, but dealing with such things INTERNALLY, or putting up a front when around her closest friends -- as sort of... Metaphorically hinted at through the therapist being herself, and nobody else speaking to Aelita, and her not speaking to anyone except herself and the therapist. (Which yeah, could also be for comedic effect, but if we actually engage with this interaction seriously...) The simple character analysis you can make based off of this one bit of dialogue you can miss -- which, btw, doesn't lessen its validity towards Aelita's issues, there's so much optional dialogue in this game that still affects the characters -- alone implies SO much about Aelita's character, and the potential feelings she has buried, but doesn't want to, or hasn't had the CHANCE to talk about yet. Because Aelita came back to us right as we had to rescue our friends from a near-death experience, then the only chance she had to talk about the memories she received was when she was sharing important things about the lore of the world in front of everyone. All of that then spurs us onto a quest to retrieve important items, and we still have no time to talk to her before we get launched into the whole thing with the Puppetmaster and the nightmare realms. I didn't know where to put this in, but Chapter 12 still gets to be Aelita-centric too, and honestly, even though the Doomed Timeline part takes away a big chunk of Aelita-focused time and gives it to Melia + the Interceptor, it shows us why Aelita and her past lives are SO important to the story. Without Vivian's sacrifice, we wouldn't have the future, and we wouldn't have Aelita, and by the end, we get the grand finish to that Arc with Rift-Aelita severing the connection - whether literally or metaphorically - between her, and Vivian/Taelia, before going off on a journey to discover herself. It comes back full circle to be about her once again. The game has to do a big balancing act with letting each of their many characters have development and expansion, and honestly? They've done a pretty damn good part overall, by making even small moments ((Aelita's therapy moment in the Nightmare Realms)) have big meaning for the characters. All the character arcs have to be intertwined somehow, or there'd be stretches of the game solely devoted to nothing but one character, so yes, even though Melia's moment took away time from Aelita, it still came back around to be about her! And this was in a part of the game, where we had like... Almost 10 characters we had to focus on/learn about. And that trend continued through Vague Clarity and .KF. You can hate twist as much as you want, but the things I've been trying to share with you, through character analysis and logical assumptions, based off what the community agrees on and the devs have encouraged, are also incredibly valid, and are likely the exact reasons why most people LIKE the twist, and Aelita as a character. THAT is what I have been trying to share with you so you could consider there was more to the writing of Aelita than it seemed. Not to mention, what I'm about to say may be an assumption, but based on what you said about the Renegade route, then who's to say the Devs won't give us more Aelita content there? You could, at the very least, give them that benefit of the doubt and engage with the game in a fun, creative manner by putting out the things you think might've happened to Aelita during that journey, instead of simply putting down the game because it's not been explored, yet.

In a game like pokemon, especially a pokemon fangame with limited model expressions, and already so much packed into it with all the characters, story twists, and lore to explore, I have to say, the devs are very encouraging to a healthy amount of assumption, especially in situations like this where sticking in a million flashbacks of Aelita's whole journey out of nowhere right now would be bulky and uncomfortable, which is likely why they only stuck to one flashback to Sheridan. I, personally, will choose to believe what I've specified has to be at least partially what the devs had in mind - especially since the dialogue option "Too speedy" loses you friendship points, and would make sense if Aelita is t r y i n g to avoid addressing things. Just because you chose not to read into it, doesn't mean the implication the statement brings up isn't there. Of course, you could read it as the MC being snarky and implying they wish Aelita had stayed down longer, and if I could go back and read Aelita's follow-up dialogue in response to the MC, perhaps I would know more, but knowing the way our Devs write, I'd say it's like... a good 75% chance that it's the MC being concerned, and Aelita dodging the implied tone. In regards to Taelias Memories, I will admit, I did not remember the FULL extent of what Aelita said in that scenario, but I have to say... We are both making blind assumptions here based on whether or not the Devs would actually choose to give Aelita the memories of the people she considers her "parents" boning. ((Also yadda yadda her and Taelia technically aren't connected anymore, it's like viewing your friends or parents memories, not your own, she would feel no connection to BEING Taelia etc etc)) It's why I, once again, think to fill this gap in writing, they should someday make another side-game like WLL to explore Aelita's journey, the memories she actually receives, and how she processes her emotions. In the current state, we're making positive and negative assumptions based on her vague statement and what the Devs might've done in a part of a game we can't explore. I don't deny, not getting to fully explore the potential emotional arc Aelita got to go on without us DOES suck from a writing standpoint! However, with all the lore exploring, world saving, and friend bonding we had to do at the time Aelita returned, I'm not surprised we haven't gotten more of an exploration of her journey IN Rejuvenation -- and of course that could change! There's so much to write and explore, and even though .KF could have been a good place to explore Aelita's memories, since we were essentially killing time, we were doing a LOT of plot important stuff with Melia instead. ((That being said, if anything of Aelita's journey gets explored at all, it's probably never gonna be explored in a renegade route XDD)) They have packed SO much into this game, there are certain things that they h a v e to leave to assumption -- if only for now, to explore l a t e r. For example, we only have a few diary entries from when Melia was in the storm chasers, before it skips to like... Years later, and we never get to see those memories of her time there! That is never explored, and we're returned with a new Melia, who, while yes, does TELL us vaguely about the time and how she changed from her journey, we never get to see it first hand, and the exact things that caused her to change. We are left to only assume, and Melia now has a somewhat different personality and priorities. Plus, she's come to terms with certain things that she hadn't before, and developed new thought patterns. She was gone for LITERALLY 2-3 years I think?? We can make a billion assumptions about her time there, and the things she went through to become the person she became, just as we can assume Aelita probably had a healing journey regaining the memory of her "past lives," and came to terms with so much about herself. She was either strong enough to move past her feelings with Keta, or is still putting up a front that just hasn't broken down yet -- especially since in the nightmare realms, Aelita brings up how she still has identity issues, so she could still not be letting on as much as she actually feels! But again! Assumptions! A positive one, and not a negative one. Melia's Genesis Syndrome gets addressed so closely because she's basically a deuteragonist to the story, Saki is addressed because the thing with the Blakeorys was SO huge, what was revealed about the Nightmare Realm and Axis High was SO important, she couldn't be ignored - AND she was the next gym leader we had to fight. For Erin, it was simply her time to shine in the moment, just as Aelita shared with us a memory of her trip in the transport to Eclysia, because that was her small moment to share a memory with us! Each character gets their time, and sometimes, when they're SO important, they have to be dealt with immediately, even when someone like Aelita is there with a whole story she's dying to share more than likely -- or maybe she doesn't want to share it, who knows, again, assuming things here xD. The game hasn't had the time to address Aelita yet, but I don't doubt that she'll have her moment in the sun to share more of what she learned and knows with us, especially with that thing that happened with the Admin in a sidequest from .KF. Aelita is an important character, she's just not... And I'm sorry to say this... So important as to stop the big story with Melia, or Crescent, to share with us what she's learned quite yet. She told us the dramatic information at the League Administration, but I'm sure when there's another quiet, friendly moment between the MC and her, things such as those memories, or her feelings about them, may or may not be discussed. About Keta, this is purely a matter of differing opinions and assumptions again -- I'm starting to think we're just very different when it comes to this game and Keta + Aelita's whole thing XDD. To be fair though, Aelita did mention in a past version, as you said, that her dad was an asshole, and it seems like the Eldest HAD stepped up to raise Aelita QUITE a bit, especially while Keta was in his emotionless era. So, Aelita definitely wasn't too happy with her "father," because he didn't seem to b e very close with her, while on the other hand, the Eldest was -- for more than a few reasons xD. Keta, however, died. And not only did he DIE, he DIED sacrificing himself for Aelita and the MC, fighting a battle against a Mewtwo he DEFINITELY wasn't going to kill. Aelita seems like the character who, for the most part, chooses introspection and quiet self-healing, over sharing that journey with her friends. So, yeah, she was definitely ((I'm assuming)) conflicted on how to feel about Keta for a while, especially since she got tortured for being his "daughter", but after a long road of healing, curse-breaking, memory exploring, and self-exploration, she likely, found it in her heart to forgive him in some way ((assisted by the grief of his sacrifice for her)), and moved on without talking it out with us. OR, she chose to ignore it and muffle it down, and maybe it'll all come back. ORRR.... Literally nothing at all, and Aelita is just a flat character, and the devs flopped while writing her. Which I, personally, don't assume is the case, not with how much love the Devs put into everything. I don't intend to change your mind with this btw, I just... Really don't think the twist is as bad as you think it is, yk...? Especially because you c o u l d assume things that would put Aelita in a better light, before the devs maybe end up exploring it themselves! Especially when they seem to make sense narratively! If you don't want to, that's completely fair!! Fans can have SUPPPPPER differing opinions about stuff like this all the time, I just hoped a different perspective could maybe shine a light on things you didn't realize :)

I have to say, the implications of Aelita discovering she's Taelia are VAST, and I can completely understand if Aelita was traumatized or affected by it, but I do think there are SOME other factors in Aelita's situation that need to be considered to make sense of why everyone acts the way they do. Starting off with Keta, the reason why he adopts Aelita was very likely out of grief, since he was there when Taelia died, and reincarnated into Aelita. I honestly believe -- take this with a grain of salt, since I haven't played WLL -- it had to be part of why he was willing to give up his emotions, and became so cold to Aelita eventually. He lost his actual daughter, and then he lost his wife, and the universe in some cruel twist of fate, gave him his wife as a child -- which granted, is sort of strange, but we can see, as players, that Keta very clearly did NOT have any of those feelings for Aelita that he had for Taelia. Did he maybe have lingering feelings when Aelita was growing up? Probably, as a remnant of his grief. There's no way he COULDN'T see his wife in her, but even when Keta HAD his emotions back, we can see that he considered Aelita his child at most, or simply someone he was responsible for at the very least. Another thing, is that Aelita was very, VERY likely not telling us the full extent of her feelings about discovering she was a reincarnation of her "mom" and Vivian. The MC can even point it out after Aelita wakes up from the Rift Battle, and Cella notes that Aelita made a "speedy recovery", you can take a chance to say "too speedy..." and point out that Aelita is weirdly chipper. I wholeheartedly believe that Aelita's feelings had to be a lot more complicated than she let us know, especially after we just had to fight to break her free -- plus, the curse affected her mood drastically, and after having been tortured at Blacksteeple, plus her "failure" (as she saw it) while getting the Earth Heart from Groudon, her personality had changed SO much, that having a bigger more traumatic fit WOULD make sense, but Aelita WAS usually a really positive person. She's a layered character, who wants to be positive and strong and fight for people, but who can manifest those feelings in a way - especially after the curse business - where she doesn't want people to worry about her, and she can't allow herself to fall and need people to pick up where she failed. Working together as a team is something she loves, but if she's the weak link that shatters, that's an unbearable feeling for her. Anyways -- That's all to say, she more than likely TRULY worked through her feelings about it all while she was on her journey to find the power Vivian left for her. (As an aside, during the Rift battle, Taelia tells Aelita that they share blood and soul, but afterwards, Vivian had apparently confirmed that with the curse broken, they are now no longer the same person? Aelita herself even says she's a new person, so, it's a little confusing all around, but... I bring this up for an important reason.) We are never explicitly shown what Aelita finds at those springs, and the memories she DOES unlock -- which is honestly why I'd petition for another side chapter like WLL where we DO get to see what she does there, so that things are confirmed, and we can SEE Aelita coping and getting through the whole idea that Keta isn't her father, but technically her past life's husband, and she's a reincarnation with no parents -- but... Considering her whole journey is meant to be retrieving the power that Vivian was handing down to her, I... Sort of doubt that Aelita would have been shown a vision of Taelia and Keta conceiving Nora... I don't doubt there were maybe memories where Taelia was pregnant, or Keta was affectionate, but not only does the game address that Aelita is now a separate person from Vivian and Taelia by the end of the rift scene, I doubt the game, or the world of Rejuvenation, would show her a scene like that, even if she WAS going through to retrieve their memories. I assumed it was only the i m p o r t a n t memories, like that weird lady attached to the tree that Aelita knew during a flashback fight with Texen. If she was getting ALL of Taelia and Vivian's memories, there would be a lot of boring days where they just did routine stuff, but the springs were meant to awaken POWER inside of Aelita, not... Show her Taelia meditating 50 different times. Plus, it would just be messed up, in such a way that I don't think the game would do that to her XD. The fact that the game doesn't show us her coping with it does kind of suck, and I can say really does lessen the impact in a sense, but... Speaking back on grief and who Aelita is as a person... I feel like out of any reason she would have had to forgive Keta so quickly, would have to be that he was dead. Some people are very quick to forgive the dead for mistakes they made while alive, and despite the fact that Keta kept the truth from her, he didn't do it out of malice, and for much of her life, he must have been a caring enough father, who had to work through the grief of her dead "mother" while taking care of his new daughter all alone -- except for Cella/The Eldest's help of course. He likely kept it from her because he knew something like the curse might trigger, or that it was just better that Aelita not know while she was so young, and by the time she might've been old enough ((because I think she's around 16-18 in the game...?)) he had thrown away his emotions to keep everyone safe from Team Xen in Sheridan, and he wouldn't let Aelita near him. He was a troubled, complicated man, who made bad decisions trying to do the right thing for the people he loved, and going through Taelia's memories, where Aelita got to see the kind, good part of him -- probably even the part of him that loved Nora -- I can see her slowly finding it in her heart to forgive him, and come back to the MC and the rest of the group feeling okay and still loving Keta as a "father" figure of sorts, because that's what he was to her. PLUS... Even though we go through game dialogue super fast, I don't doubt that in-game Aelita was on that journey for a lot longer than we as players perceived. I have to say, Aelita's twist, while not being one of my personal top favorites ((I loved EVERYTHING in .KF about the world and how machine it is, Melia having Genesis Syndrome, and the whole story of the A-Gang/Interceptor with Crescent)), it was still a REALLY good twist! It expanded upon her character, and left us room to hypothesize and headcanon more about Aelita -- such as the personality analysis I did! The vague implications of "oh my god, Aelita was Taelia, and her and Keta had a KID, but then Keta raised his own wife??" is weird if you look at it like that, but there's a LOT more going on with Aelita's character that I think makes her twist one of the best in the game.

Oh my g o d,, I feel so embarrassed to not know this now, that's incredible to realize, it makes traveling SO much easier. You don't even have to press E I think, you just select GDC, and it opens the map to choose what spot to fly to... I just always assumed you couldn't fly there because it's supposed to be in a dome or whatever, this is great to hear XDD

I think your only option would probably be to just revert to an older save file...? And then prompt it from the correct side. If you need instructions on how to go back to an older save, simply ask!! but otherwise, I think that's all you can do.

Ah! That is helpful, thanks man!! But also that's kind of a neat trick actually... I remember I think in v13 you used to be able to take off items from that temporary team you use, during your training arc in Sashila, and that was pretty funny to read about. Anyways, thanks for the tip!!

Okay, so I'm trying to get as many pokemon in the pokedex as you currently can in the game, on a paragon route of course, and upon looking at this guide I found -- which has been completely correct for the most part -- if you go on Route Z, connected of course from Route 2, and then you headbutt a tree, you can get a Klefki, but... I... Literally can't find a single thing TO headbutt...?? On that same train of thought, there are also apparently things I can hit Rock Smash on, but... I haven't found a place to do EITHER of those things on!! For context, I have all the golden tools, I have a pokemon with headbutt not only in my party, but in the first slot, plus, I have every badge and did .Karma Files... And yet, after slamming my face against every tree, bush, metal pipe, building, and strange, rusty machine, I haven't found any way to headbutt anything... The rest of the guide is completely accurate, so I'm HELLA confused on this front... Also, fun fact: on the far right side, next to one of those buildings with no doors, nestled near the trees, there's a single tree spot that you can surf on, and you can actually encounter pokemon in the square too!!

The new aevian forms you guys are making look SUPER duper cool!!!! Makes me repeat that cycle where I wish fan-pokemon were in actual games XDD, but!! Getting to add Comfey and... T h a t f i s h.... Is a really neat little treat Dred >>:DD!!! However... I'm a little new to modding, and... Sorta scared to edit the files...? If anyone has a short and simple explanation for how to maybe add the Aevian files, that would be really helpful!! Just so that I'd go in, knowing what I'm doing n all of course!!! Otherwise, I wish everyone on the Dev Team good luck continuing on this!!!!! also I would love nothing more than to be carried away by a horde of fluffy bats, that sounds heavenly frfr.

Oh thank god, that's good to hear then, I was worried that walking in with her there would mean the WHOLE event would trigger, and maybe some weird glitch would happen where I save Amber in the end or something XDD I think I went in once, and Venam did appear in there, so I got nervous and reset? But hopefully since I've beaten Ryland, she'll just dip when I enter, like she did for you. I guess it's just another lil trigger that the devs need to check out and fix or something, but thanks for the info man!!!

I seriously don't know what's up, but... I'm doing a renegade route, and didn't save Amber obviously, so I expected Venam to disappear after the whole thing on Mt. Valor was done... But she didn't?? So, I told myself I'd come back to it at the end of the chapter... But for every chapter afterwards, anytime I'd check, she'd still be there!! Even when she was turned to STONE, I came back down and her sprite was still idling here, waiting for me to help save Amber or something... Has this happened to anyone else before...?? I'm really itching to get in there at this point, and the fact that she simply... Refuses?? To GO???? Is bugging the hell out of me. If she vanishes from here at the start of .Karma Files that would be helpful to know, so that I at least don't have to keep checking for her to disappear magically someday... Honestly, it's kinda funny... Even when she was turned to stone, this girl STILLLLL wanted me to help save Amber -- who WASN'T even THERE anymore!!! BLEH, anyways XDD

Ah! Okay, thank you!!! I thought that might've been the case... Welp, time to carry on!!

Alright, maybe this is a silly post, but I'm a bit antsy about my first Renegade Route of the game, and want to make sure I get things right, without having to debug anything, and just force the game to work for me. I've heard from other people that eventually, those healing butterflies that read "your soul feels rejuvenated" will eventually stop healing you, and force your hp to 1 across all your team if you've been horrible enough. And... I just want to ask... I've done very few sidequests, only really focused on winning the Madame X battle because I wanted the cooler dialogue, and have super duper low Karma all around, as well as negative relationship points with every single important character... And yet the butterflies are still healing my team properly? Granted, I'm only at Teila Resort, and about to get the second Relic from Amber, but... If anyone knows when about, or h o w you get the butterflies to stop healing you, I'd really like to know, because I've sorta just been waiting on that sign to make sure I'm doing everything properly here for my route.

honestly yeah, it always makes it really clear how close friends they are together, and it's just sweet to get to see them actually care about each other!!

I posted this on my twitter, but considering I'm mildly active on here, I thought I'd post it here as well for funnies! anyways, this is for sure them, some max relationship point cutscene, they're friends somehow in every universe, even if it's a different Melia <<33 it's of course not my finest piece, but if anyone wants to see some cooler stuff I've made on Twitter, my @ is SuperRealDoctor!