Buhuhuhu...I Am At This Point To Forgive Rushed Story Lines And Unrealistic Event Of Slbp ES All For

Buhuhuhu...I am at this point to forgive rushed story lines and Unrealistic event of Slbp ES all for the sake of studying Boys' characterization and narrative style. So you can guess why my rates are more generous.

Masa - 1st (9/10) - I love political intrigues...and I kind of understand why Masa was late to decide whether to join Hojo or Toyotomi because even though Date are powerful, siding on a losing clan in a war could still devastate them into nothingness (even great families across history are decimated when they lost a war due to the damage and political backlash...you know...POLITICS...not to mention how victors ruthlessly kill the children, wives, siblings, in-laws, elderly parents and grandparents of their defeated enemies to "cut the grass and weed out roots" to prevent them from becoming powerful enough to dipose them in the future) and that is why Masa wanted info on both sides first and due to their seemingly evenly matched strengths (Hojo being powerful clan for hundreds of years and Toyotomi being the powerful conqueror of the west), he had a difficult time choosing...and letting MC be a hostage to one clan was a HUGE gamble not only for her life... But for his clan.

Saizo - 2nd (8) - I want to smack the head of that elder's son!! But cliffhanger!

Yuki - 3rd (7) - He's sweet.😉😉

Kojuro - 4th (6) - This one could have been my fave, but I could think of many ways to solve the child problem and let him go home....AND KOJURO opt him to stay! Is he trying to use a child for his own ends?? Maybe? But nevertheless, I don't like it.

Mitsuhide - 5th (4) - MC's cooking helpsthe sick get cured, but disease seems to be respiratory in nature. And besides....this one ends in a cliffhanger! I hate cliffhangers!

Nobu - 6th (3) - sigh...why is NOBU unbelievably cruel in here? If he suspects Murashige was betraying him, the ES showed no signs to indicate Araki's deception but his retainer's disgust in the sword mochi thing that comes from Nobu's actions...Why Nobu? Are you bored? Pretending? If so, that is not a good reason to antagonize new allies this much if you want Divine Rule. There are many ways to exert dominance, but this reason isn't enough for me. This is a poorly made motivation/plot tool to make Nobu bad...sorry.

SLBP “The Bride’s Memories, Fleeting as Tears in Rain” Event Review

Props to Voltage for exploring past the traditional happily ever after! This event has been a little surprising to me in several ways - first, I didn’t expect it to ever exist, and second, well…let’s just say there is no correlation between how much I like a character and how good I thought their stories were, lol. My personal ranking, from least to most fave:

In Masamune’s ES, Hideyoshi and the Hojo clan are preparing to go to war against each other. Both of them want the Date clan to help…and both of them want MC as a hostage as well. WTF? The retainers are split, Masamune’s obviously reluctant to do anything, and MC ends up getting chloroformed by Hojo sympathizers at some point, only for M to conveniently save the day at the last second. She convinces M she wants to be a hostage, and the story ends up with MC in a palanquin, on her way to…somewhere.

My tolerance for unrealistic bullshit in SLBP stories is pretty high, but this story was just too damn much, lmao. Masamune clearly has the position of power here as the third party…can’t he just declare that he’ll ally himself to the first clan to rescind their hostage demand?! Hideyoshi and Masamune seemed to get along ok in M’s Act 2…I’m sure the guy could be made to see reason. I did like the beginning scene where Masamune strokes MC’s hair and lets her sleep in, but to be very honest I kind of thought the rest of the story was crap. ^_^

Personal enjoyment: 1/10

In Kojuro’s ES, he and MC decide to take care of a boy from the enemy Ashina clan who’s lost his memories (not sure why they couldn’t have just watched him from a distance, tbh). Except then the whole town becomes convinced that said boy is Kojuro’s “bastard” child from before MC, and gets super mad at him! I’m sure this is exactly how people in ancient Japan would’ve reacted to a powerful man’s extramarital child, lol. In the end, boy regains his memories, the Ashina clan learns about him and declares war with the Date clan over the “hostage” they imprisoned, and that’s that. 😂

I mean… I’m glad the story didn’t end with some bullshit reason to separate K from MC?! Besides that, I’m not really sure what the point of this whole ES was. The plot was pretty boring imho, and Kojuro was absent/distant/not romantic for a large part of it. I’m not sure why MC was so insistent that Kojuro be nice to an enemy child, either. Also I saw that trap coming from a mile away once Kojuro mentioned the Ashina were plotting something, and I can’t say I’m super excited to see how this story plays out.

Personal enjoyment: 2/10

Nobunaga spends most of his ES humiliating his new retainer Murashige. From forcing Murashige to eat mochi directly off his sword (not an innuendo!!) to insulting his young son’s drawing of him to giving a military leadership position to Hideyoshi when Murashige made the most strategic sense, one really starts to wonder how Oda “no people skills” Nobunaga was ever able to get that close to Divine Rule in the first place, lol. In any case, to nobody’s surprise Murashige ends up betraying Nobunaga at a crucial moment, and Nobunaga ends up divorcing MC (this again?! 😂) after a night of astounding sex.

Things I did like about this route: Nobunaga secretly being nice to the son when he thinks nobody’s watching. That sex scene. Nobunaga getting pissed with Murashige claiming his young wife is the most beautiful woman in world (of course, lmao). Things I didn’t love so much: Nobunaga’s total lack of communication regarding why he does the shit he does! I bet we’re going to find out during the sequel that Nobunaga knew all along that Murashige was suspicious. ^_^

Personal enjoyment: 6/10

After saving the road to a neighboring province from kidnappers and murderers, Yukimura truly proves himself to be the hero we all know he is in his ES! There isn’t too much plot beyond that, but this story is full of cute/hilarious moments instead, such as the poor idiot freaking out when he learns that MC’s gravely injured herself after several rounds of telephone, lmao (spoiler: she just cut herself, a little, while cooking). There’s also a bit of drama/angst when the neighboring province tries to poach Y for a few months to handle some problem I don’t remember and he’s reluctant to leave MC, but he eventually does leave, only to quash said problem… and have a cliff fall on him. !!

This story was definitely super light on the plot, lol. But no plot is better than a bad plot, imho! I did really like the little slice of life moments we got between MC and Yukimura, such as his adorable reaction to MC figuring out how to carve a turnip chrysanthemum ^_^ These two dorks are so in love and impressed with each other. I thought it was super sweet!! Best quote: “I cannot put anything or anyone else before you, even in my thoughts.”

Personal enjoyment: 7/10

Mitsuhide’s ES is a cute little treat. Here, the poor guy’s been obviously overworking himself, to the point of not having time to accept MC’s care/food (!). And in the meanwhile, people in town have been collapsing for mysterious reasons! After M himself also passes out, he realizes the townsfolk have been suffering from malnutrition after switching from farming to fishing. While MC teaches them how to cook veggies with the fish (lol), he saves the day by establishing a vegetable/fish trading route, and everyone lives happily ever after! …Except not, because MC finds the guy coughing BLOOD. Uh oh.

I thought the plot was a little silly (do the townsfolk really need some uppity city girl teaching them how to cook vegetables?! lmao), but it was nonetheless a lovely, self-contained, and interesting read! The real star of this story was definitely Mitsuhide himself, who apart from being an overworked sweetheart for the whole ES, also busted out the single best line of dialogue in this event: “When I eat your food…that’s how I know I am home.” Awww 😍 I’m really hoping we learn his illness isn’t terminal in the sequel!

Personal enjoyment: 8/10

Saizo’s story is one of the more adventure-filled ones! Here, the ninja’s been sent alongside Yukimura on a diplomatic mission to one of their more remote territories/villages. Unfortunately, the son of the village elder holds a grudge against Saizo due to murder (understandable). Said son also kidnaps MC and tries to rape her (less understandable!), but of course, Saizo saves the day. MC talks S down from killing the guy, but the ungrateful bastard claims Saizo’s attacked him and has him arrested…! Yikes.

This story was delightfully dramatic, and I really enjoyed it. Not to mention, Saizo was sweeter than I’ve ever seen him before! From buying MC a cord she was eyeing to resting in her lap to talking in the onsen with her to acknowledging that MC’s made him less murderous, this guy showed that he definitely is capable of doing the romance thing when he wants to. Not to mention, his saving MC scene was super badass (The ravens have come…and so has he)!! I’m quite curious to see what’ll happen in the sequel!

Personal enjoyment: 9/10

I may not have loved every story in this latest event (cough Date clan), but every CG looks so good, like wow! My favorite is definitely Nobunaga’s ;)

Anyway, what did you think of this event?? ^_^