I did want to process my thoughts a bit (outside of my massive chapter by chapter feelings on each route).
Spoiler for Harmony and Wrathful Route Spoilers:
These two routes are very much different sides of the same coin. The one amusing similarity is that Minoru survives everything . That guy manages to dodge the death no matter what side he's on. The big thing though is Kaito vs Aoi. Of course the deaths of Miu and Saki were the triggering events for both of them going off the rails. It's interesting how they both were trying to help each other in the different routes but just couldn't do it. Both could empathize with the pain the other was going through and were filled with regrets on not being able to do something more. They really are the Matt and Sora of this group. Both caring about their friends, but having darkness that could be unleashed.
Now I did actually like Aoi's side a bit more. I feel like it hit really hard seeing Saki go and how depressed Aoi felt. But it was also really intense to see her just snap like that. It wasn't like Kaito snapping with rage. It was more sad to watch. She was back and forth between being upset at people for their selfish actions and at herself. Even getting to the point where she deluded herself into thinking she let Saki go. But Saki and Aoi cared so much about each other but that only led to further tragedy. Then she just went fully dark in trying to make understanding and cooperation happen by any means necessary. She foolishly healed Piedmon, got killed, and dark biomerged with Labramon. Plutomon was definitely scarier than Boltboutamon. I think just knowing that Aoi was in there but yet was completely broken just made it terrifying. But that's not to say that Boltboutamon didn't get his moments. It was shocking seeing what happened to Kaito and the Professor.
It's also just interesting seeing how Kaito surviving was in a route where the main cast basically turned into freedom fighters . They worked in the underground to take on corrupt governments and save kids from internment camps. While in the route that Aoi survived we have them working in a lab, helping kids, and trying to spread positive messages to ease tensions . Certainly they fit better in the routes they ended up in than swapping situations. But kind of funny how that all worked out.
Spoiler for I think its because:
The fear is easier to relate on Aoi side.
In Kaito side, we got quick trip from "Miu is the cutest in the world!" into "We're bullied for years thus having hard time socializing".
Not focused enough compare to Yamato who shown always keep his eyes on Takeru after their parents divorced, while Miu have her own issue with guilt causing the event and dislike to boys, unlike Takeru who always wanted Yamato tagged along with him following Taichi unaware of Yamato dislike to Taichi reckless approach (that became worse after Taichi learned he's symbol of "Courage").
Aoi OTOH simply wanted to help others, got confidence boost from Labramon and she's closer to Saki (compare to Mimi who is closer to Joe).
So when things goes haywire, her screaming "I don't want to die! I don't want to die!" to Labramon really sold it even with awareness Piedmon 100% betray them. Moreover unlike Kaito who started with Dracmon who obviously a dark Digimon (evolved into Myotismon, yeah), Labramon is originally a healer that Plutomon biomerged is like big warning sign of "She is broken and it won't be good".
__________________
Life is simple, that's why it became complicated. -
I did not see Aoi and Labramon's dark fusion evolution coming. Right before that moment I already convinced myself that Aoi is about to die and that Labramon's alternative final forms were in the other endings but nope, Plutomon appeared. Felt sorry for Aoi but I never expected her to be this close to deep end. Also I think using Aoi's voice actress for Plutomon added a lot to Plutomon's creepiness and tragedy to the situation..
As for the epilogue, felt like a prologue to a Digimon version of X-men where the humans with Digimon partners are treated like mutants. What a bad ending, but hey at least professor is alive so he can be the Xavier for the little kids. Harmony ending was a lot more optimistic.
Still surprised how similar wrath and harmony routes are, same story beats, same locations and same events. Definitely preferred Wrathful storyline mainly because of the Plutomon despite Harmony route having the better survivors (sorry Miu but not you Kaito)
I'm already on the next play through going for the true ending, I'm at part 2, right before the dam part, and my affection with Ryo is already at 40 hopefully that's going to be enough to save his sorry arse.
edit:
Spoiler for truthful route thoughts up till late part 6:
A bit frustrated that 90% of the conversation is still identical to the original but with Ryo sometimes interjecting his thoughts, ah well luckily the skip mode stops when there's a piece of dialogue you haven't read yet so that's mighty convenient. Still there are some new moments I like such as Ryo helping Aoi cook, Ryo finding out who the real Kunemon is because he was the only one he could understand and of course the real highlight of them all: punching Shuuji in the face. The last one was particularly satisfying,
Sadly enough I have to agree with Flareknight the story doesn't really work in part 6 all the anger and doubt just because of some black mist around Lopman is just silly. Either change the story for part 6 or have Lopman still dark evolve at the end of part 5 but Shuuji surviving and realising his mistake. I also thought having Lopmon evolution and Metal Greymon evolution in a single fight was a bit of an overkill. Still happy for Lopman she no longer sad and depressed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FlareKnight
Spoiler for Story Thoughts:
Spoiler for Part 5 (Truthful):
Spoiler for Taking Wrath, Harmony, and Moral endings into consideration here:
I didn't get a regular mega for Kaito in the other routes since I just didn't get that affection high enough. Now maybe that's a given and I didn't make mistakes.
Spoiler for answer:
Oh no you made mistakes, I got his mega in the wrathful route. I did notice affection gain for Kaito, Aoi and Saki in the true ending route is very low compared to the others.
I honestly didn't realize there was an actual character limit for these individual posts. Guess I'll continue my story thoughts down here even if it isn't super pretty.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FlareKnight
Will just keep my thoughts on the game below. And will be doubly safe to spoiler tag them into each chapter/part. So, shouldn't be at risk of spoiling anyone.
Spoiler for Story Thoughts:
Spoiler for Part 11 (Truthful):
Pretty standard part really. Garurumon rejoined the team. Just an extended version of what we already got in the moral route. I do like Garurumon overall and get the frustrations. Part of me wonders if all the different versions of Haru leaving Gabumon is due to writing inconsistency or just shaky memories. The Master basically pulling an Aoi/Kaito is kind of funny. Makes it really fitting that those digimon beat him before the main cast have to stop them. Friends stopping friends that go dark seems to be a consistent pattern here. I can sympathize with the guy and get him being pissed at his clan throwing him into that world. But at least he had "friends" though really they were just his followers. So not really a shock that they couldn't talk him out of what he was doing. The guy absolutely went off the rails and needed to be stopped. And with what he's done to innocents like Miyuki, I can't feel sorry for him. Guy needs to be brought down.
Spoiler for Part 12 (Truthful):
So we got the last sovereign on their side. Honestly I could empathize with this one the most. He was justifiably pissed off. They went through a lot with their partners and evolved basically into digimon deities. Then they went through a grueling struggle against the Master and Haruchika. Finally at the end of all that what is his reward? Getting to hang out in a hidden shrine sealing the Master away for centuries. How fun! He and his friends did nothing wrong, but they are as punished as their enemy through the sealing process. All because they couldn't put down their berserk friend and end it.
At least the ghost thing did add a bit of fun to this final part of the arc. Honestly this kind of thing is part of the appeal for Digimon Survive. There's unknowns everywhere, characters are afraid, and they have to keep exploring to figure things out. Reminds me of the first part with Dokugumon.
Spoiler for Part 13 (Truthful):
First of all...of course the villain feeling bad about his atrocities isn't atonement enough! You think the dozens if not hundreds of kids he's kidnapped and murdered in that world would say "well it's fine since you feel bad about it"!? Honestly I think Haruchika's sister is an idiot. There's a time displacement between the worlds. She literally could snuck there to see her brother, stayed for several days and no one would have noticed! How many people died because she couldn't think of something that obvious? And then there's her secondary excuse of being old to go to him later in life. How old is Haru? The man is in his sixties and still managed to go on this adventure. Instead she decided to leave her brother's fate to her descendants...and informed no one about it!? She just figured things would work out alright? Maybe she didn't know about the time displacement. But even if she didn't...that would still presume her brother didn't just die over there and move on. Either she didn't care or didn't think. Forget Miyuki's presumption of them going to the life. Both those characters should be taking a trip straight to hell!
In that sense, Truthful may be my least favourite route . The ending is just a bit messy. I don't actually know what the state of the world even is in this ending. The main cast and their digimon return to the real world. And they said there was some chaos but "for some reason" things worked out ok. And yet you have kids at the end that still consider digimon and the adventures of the main cast to be rumours. So which is it? Did things get chaotic with digimon showing up all over the place or have they mostly stayed out of sight? Ignoring me being picky for a minute though, the ending just seems to idealistic. The Truthful ending just kind of takes the merging concept and just...kind of ignores the problems in them. I could see both those endings playing out. But I can't see the truthful ending actually working at all. Just because there is basically a digimon god overseeing the gate shouldn't mean things go off without any issue. Maybe that's the key for the ending. That guy is hanging around the gate and nothing dangerous passes through without his say so?
The ending isn't even as much fun with Agumon getting a new evolution to bring the fight to an end. They just keep hammering away at the boss with their usual forms and that's that. And honestly Truthful felt like more of a grind than the other paths. I know it's a NG+ route so tougher fights make sense. But while other routes let you get to the main boss quickly, this one made you fight long grueling battles at each and every floor with a small roster of fighters on your side. It just felt like that route was trying to drag things out too much.
It wasn't bad. I enjoyed what they did with Shuuji and Ryo. Lopmon got to be cute and awesome. Kunemon was cool as well. So it was nice seeing those two getting to flip the page and develop into good guys. So that was nice. But if we're talking about how I'd rate the routes...Truthful might be the worst one. I don't feel like we needed to know what made the villain tick or try to redeem him. I think he deserved his fates in the other routes more than this one. It's still not a bad route and it had positives to it. But I think it's probably the least impactful route on me compared to the others. No real deaths and got shaky at times while trying to still use dialogue from situations where Ryo and Shuuji died and pretend that the characters would be shaken up in situations where they survived. It's just one of the less steady routes in the game while still having some good moments. Still glad I played through this route too and completed the journey.
Spoiler for Thoughts on Final Evolutions through all the routes.:
Spoiler for Agumon:
It's Agumon. Obviously love the character and how they handled him here. I can appreciate them really going out there and giving him a variety of evolutions. I'm sure this was a huge win for fans of Tyrannomon. While I definitely went for the Greymon line first, I can respect people going in the other directions. It's just nice to have that familiar and classic evolutionary line. Greymon, MetalGreymon, WarGreymon, Omnimon, etc. They all felt impactful at the point in the story that they appeared. Had a great time charging in there with my favourite Digimon and just wrecking enemies. Agumon was just a solid presence in the story. He never quite dominated it, but was always valuable. In terms of gameplay he was powerful, but that might just be because I loaded Agumon up with stat boosting items!
I will say it was interesting getting to fight with Machinedramon as one of the Mega options. It definitely fit for the kind of route that they were going down in that part of the story.
Fanglongmon was a good final evolution to pick up. He's definitely a total powerhouse. In terms of stats he definitely outclasses the evolutions a step behind like WarGreymon. Although I still really like WarGreymon so there is that. A good reward for beating the Truthful ending.
Spoiler for Labramon:
Labramon might have one of my favourite evolution routes in the game. Most of her evolutions are pretty cool and they fit the theme of Aoi's arc nicely. Her first couple of evolutions are mostly about just power, strength, and the idea of being strong in the face of deadly opposition. It shows both the strength in Aoi and how dark she could go. In that sense Plutomon is the real main mega of Labramon's overall line. It fits where things were heading before the different routes and is just really cool looking. Of course Plutomon having Aoi's voice and being so off the rails probably helped make it such a compelling evolution. A reflection of where Aoi could end up if going down a darker road like that. And will always remember it for such a memorable moment. A battered and broken pair in Aoi and Labramon just reaching out for each other at the very end. Then leading to a dark evolution...
Anubismon is nice and definitely fits for Aoi having eased up on the darkness. A funny thing to say I guess since most of Anubismon's attacks are darkness based. But the point remains. It shows who Aoi is in terms of non-wrathful routes. A girl who has faced herself, risen above her doubts, and wants to both be strong but just in her actions. She has the most mobility of any evolution in this form so that's still really useful. Not my favourite of her evolutions, but it fits the arc for Aoi and reflects her heart nicely.
Baihumon is cool. It fits having this beast type soverign line up for Labramon's inherited mega form. Less impactful since she's just kind of given that evolution. But it still works and is a powerhouse on the map. Ironically it is the least mobile so definitely need someone boosting her movement speed just to keep her from being left behind.
Spoiler for Lopmon:
A pretty stable and solid path for Lopmon. I'll definitely say Wendigomon left the most impact for...various reasons . None of them are necessarily my favourites in terms of evolutions, but they work. I think Lopmon specifically remains a really central character. Poor little guy went through a lot and most times died without ever getting a true evolution. Even if darkness was his most impactful moment, it definitely cemented him as a character I'll continue liking in this cast.
Spoiler for Kunemon:
He's been an interesting guy through this. Even though through most of my playtime he was either dead or couldn't be understood . Kunemon had a tough time right out of the gate with Ryo being so fearful, but he hung in there and helped him as much as he could. Even though he couldn't save him in the main routes. Little guy did his best and I respect that . His evolutions have been solid. I liked the personality in Jewelbeemon and BanchoStingmon is pretty awesome too. It shows the potential this guy always had if he could rise above his fear and the loss he suffered long before this story even happened. Kunemon definitely made me rethink some of the bug type Digimon more. I'm not a big fan of them in general, but he showed how cool they can be.
Spoiler for Floramon:
I think Floramon reflects my appreciation for using digimon that haven't been all that heroic in various animated series. The first evolution being Vegimon of all digimon. Not sure how Saki felt about her partner throwing around...stuff at their enemies. Honestly by the time she evolved into Blossomon I'm sure she was losing her mind . I'm pretty sure she was literally pleading for a cute evolution at that point.
The highlight was Ceresmon Medium. Saki was really in a bad spot there and that evolution literally saved her life. I'm not sure if it actually cured her or just eased what symptoms that were troubling her. I do think it's a nice idea though that she managed to gain a partner that literally helped her survive. Plus it did give her the evolution that she wanted . All good on that front. I do like that all of her evolutions beside Ebonwumon look like villains though. I kind of lean towards Ceresmon being the better mega for her. Better offensive stats and that main attack poisons enemies which can be really useful against tanky ones. Though Ebonwumon is probably a good mega for enemies that hit really hard since it is insanely tanky.
Spoiler for Dracmon:
I kind of like Dracmon. Kaito isn't necessarily my favourite (although I don't hate the character). But Dracmon really stepped up nicely. For a guy with evolutions like Myotismon he really is a good dude. At times can argue he's way too loyal and puts up with too much. The sacrifices he made when Kaito went dark is impressive even if I wish he'd draw the line somewhere. But his evolutions are pretty good. I feel like Sangloupmon kind of is missing out since Kaito had him when we met up with them and he's not quite as dynamic as the others. But no question that the evolutions fit Kaito. Beelzemon is definitely a great character and I'm glad to have him as a party digimon. A good contrast to Boltboutamon. Both have their niches. With Boltboutamon being more of a special attacker and Beelzemon the physical type. I suppose you can say Boltboutamon is a bit better since his passive is really good, has greater movement, and his natural attacking skill is special and that's his strength. But both are good fits.
Spoiler for Syakomon:
Syakomon is probably in my top 3 for favourite Digimon of this game. A really entertaining partner that suited Miu well. She knew how to support her when needed and help reveal the truth about Miu's feelings even when she wasn't eager to be honest. Honestly just a really enjoyable personality and I usually had a smile when Syakomon was on screen. I just respected how Syakomon wouldn't just follow to Miu's drum and would sometimes act in ways she wasn't asked to when it was in Miu's best interest.
The evolutions were pretty nice overall. Shellmon isn't a digimon I ever expected as a main character's partner, but that was a nice move. And of course it fit considering the kind of creature Syakomon is in the first place. I did appreciate going a bit different with Mermaimon. Staying with the sea theme, but definitely changing it up. She wasn't a digimon I used a lot since it didn't feel like the firepower was there. But I still liked the character so I tended to fit her into teams where I could.
The original evolution of MarineAngemon was pretty cute. A different move going from a digimon that could speak to one that couldn't. But there was no question this was a cute mega to give to a young girl. And actually pretty handy with that good range on her main attack and a decent passive. Azulongmon is definitely a major upgrade though in terms of pure firepower. Just pure stats improvement overall and should be helpful in the final parts of the game. Not sure which sovereign digimon I expected her to end up with, but I wouldn't say this was it. A cool lightning dragon is great to have though.
Spoiler for Falcomon:
I like the personality of Falcomon overall. He's a responsible and does his best with a bit of a flaky partner. His evolutions aren't necessarily my favourite though. Diatrymon isn't bad. Although it keeps the 'bird on the ground' thing going for it. Not bad and pretty mobile. My favourite of his might be Crowmon. It has good range of attack and just good range. The double move skill with his ability to fly lets him cover a lot of map. Especially if you pile on and use Minoru's talking skill to boost mobility even further. In that sense Varodurumon is a bit of a letdown. Even ignoring me not loving the voice there, he just doesn't feel like an upgrade. He does have one extra movement step, but loses the double move passive so he actually feels less mobile. And attack just isn't ever Falcomon's strength so he just hits like a wet noodle most of the time without the ability to hit multiple targets like Crowmon.
Zhuqiaomon at least feels a bit more impactful. Still don't have the double move, but has much higher stat totals than Varodurumon. Special attack is almost doubling from Crowmon so it definitely feels like something is going on there. Plus a giant fire bird can be pretty fun to have on the map.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blaat
Finished Wrathful ending:
Spoiler:
I did not see Aoi and Labramon's dark fusion evolution coming. Right before that moment I already convinced myself that Aoi is about to die and that Labramon's alternative final forms were in the other endings but nope, Plutomon appeared. Felt sorry for Aoi but I never expected her to be this close to deep end. Also I think using Aoi's voice actress for Plutomon added a lot to Plutomon's creepiness and tragedy to the situation..
As for the epilogue, felt like a prologue to a Digimon version of X-men where the humans with Digimon partners are treated like mutants. What a bad ending, but hey at least professor is alive so he can be the Xavier for the little kids. Harmony ending was a lot more optimistic.
Still surprised how similar wrath and harmony routes are, same story beats, same locations and same events. Definitely preferred Wrathful storyline mainly because of the Plutomon despite Harmony route having the better survivors (sorry Miu but not you Kaito)
Spoiler for Wrathful Route:
Yeah, that really surprised me too. I knew something bad would happen, but I just figured Aoi would die. Instead they took it way further than I thought they would. Having Aoi's voice still being used really did help sell it. Plus Plutomon was just really intimidating because of how far gone Aoi was at that point. She was coherent, but absolutely nuts and willing to kill anyone that 'misbehaved.'
Was fun to have a bit of an X-Men ending there . Good point that they even have their own Professor .
Quote:
I'm already on the next play through going for the true ending, I'm at part 2, right before the dam part, and my affection with Ryo is already at 40 hopefully that's going to be enough to save his sorry arse.
edit:
Spoiler for truthful route thoughts up till late part 6:
A bit frustrated that 90% of the conversation is still identical to the original but with Ryo sometimes interjecting his thoughts, ah well luckily the skip mode stops when there's a piece of dialogue you haven't read yet so that's mighty convenient. Still there are some new moments I like such as Ryo helping Aoi cook, Ryo finding out who the real Kunemon is because he was the only one he could understand and of course the real highlight of them all: punching Shuuji in the face. The last one was particularly satisfying,
Sadly enough I have to agree with Flareknight the story doesn't really work in part 6 all the anger and doubt just because of some black mist around Lopman is just silly. Either change the story for part 6 or have Lopman still dark evolve at the end of part 5 but Shuuji surviving and realising his mistake. I also thought having Lopmon evolution and Metal Greymon evolution in a single fight was a bit of an overkill. Still happy for Lopman she no longer sad and depressed.
Spoiler for truthful route thoughts up till late part 6:
I definitely share your feelings there. Skip was making things a lot easier. Sort of get them not wanting to completely remake the game's story from part 3 onward, but I do wish they found a better way to handle things. Just letting Lopmon dark digivolve, but stop him would have been fine. Then you don't need to give him a second champion evolution right there and can finish that portion of the fight as Wendigomon after calming him down. At least having him nearly kill Shuuji would have allowed the reactions to be a bit more justified. Not as justified since there's no evening the impact of seeing Shuuji literally get eaten alive, but close enough that I could have worked with it.
At least it's worth seeing Lopmon all peppy and posing with a smile on.
Quote:
Spoiler for answer:
Oh no you made mistakes, I got his mega in the wrathful route. I did notice affection gain for Kaito, Aoi and Saki in the true ending route is very low compared to the others.
Spoiler:
I'm not surprised. While I don't dislike Kaito, I do tend not to focus on him during conversation sections. So sadly he was just throwing around Myotismon most of the time since I didn't actually get him a normal mega. Hopefully will rectify that in the truthful path. May be tough, but at least he's got one mega going into it so I'm not weakened by using him.
Edit: Oh boy that was close. I just managed to squeak Kaito across the finish line before the true ending wrapped up. The gain really was slow, but I managed it .
Lots of disappointment in this route for me. Haruchika is pretty much Aoi in Wrathful and Kaito in Harmony route, emotional turmoil caused a dark evolution and a desire to destroy the world, except I cared about Aoi and Kaito and I didn't about Haruchika.
I was also disappointed that Omegamon didn't appear, I thought he would appear when Miyuki opened the portal and Agumon suddenly got a buff out of it but it was just a we're getting stronger lets beat the final boss cutscene.
The limitations on the number of digimon you can bring in battle was another issue I had, just let me play with all the partner Digimons in a single battle. I spend all the time levelling up Lopmon, Kunemon, Renamon and Gabumon for nothing.
But the most disappointing thing overall was the epilogue, what were they thinking with that one? Just let me see how the cast are doing damn it.
I want to experience the Moral route ending but I'm done with the game now, in hindsight if I wish I went for Morale -> Wrathful or Harmony -> Truthful route instead of Harmony -> Wrathful -> Truthful route considering how similar the Harmony and Wrathful routes are, experiencing one should be enough. Still I had a lot of fun, loved the story in the first playthrough and definitely one of the better Digimon stories out there.
Lots of disappointment in this route for me. Haruchika is pretty much Aoi in Wrathful and Kaito in Harmony route, emotional turmoil caused a dark evolution and a desire to destroy the world, except I cared about Aoi and Kaito and I didn't about Haruchika.
I was also disappointed that Omegamon didn't appear, I thought he would appear when Miyuki opened the portal and Agumon suddenly got a buff out of it but it was just a we're getting stronger lets beat the final boss cutscene.
The limitations on the number of digimon you can bring in battle was another issue I had, just let me play with all the partner Digimons in a single battle. I spend all the time levelling up Lopmon, Kunemon, Renamon and Gabumon for nothing.
But the most disappointing thing overall was the epilogue, what were they thinking with that one? Just let me see how the cast are doing damn it.
I want to experience the Moral route ending but I'm done with the game now, in hindsight if I wish I went for Morale -> Wrathful or Harmony -> Truthful route instead of Harmony -> Wrathful -> Truthful route considering how similar the Harmony and Wrathful routes are, experiencing one should be enough. Still I had a lot of fun, loved the story in the first playthrough and definitely one of the better Digimon stories out there.
Spoiler for Truthful Ending:
Honestly, I can relate. The only things I can appreciate from the Truthful route was at least seeing the kind of people Ryo and Shuuji could develop into if they lived long enough. But overall I think it was the weakest route. Haruchika isn't all that engaging of a villain and was better when just left as the Master and that being that. He was a less engaging villain than the ones from Harmony and Wrathful. And yeah a big reason was the connection to the main characters going off the rails in it. Also since Truthful is the idealistic route where nothing bad actually happens it doesn't quite maintain the tension.
Honestly I also felt pretty done after the Truthful route. In my case it was after beating the other 3 so that might have been it. But I also think Truthful is kind of draining since it is really long as has a few issues.
I do hope you come back to it later to go through the Moral route. Honestly think it's either the best or second best in the game. It manages what it sets out to do a lot better.
Definitely a good journey overall. I'm glad they went out to make this kind of Digimon game and story. There's a variety of stories that can be told so they might as well have fun with that.
2022-08-22, 09:05
. That guy manages to dodge the death no matter what side he's on. The big thing though is Kaito vs Aoi. Of course the deaths of Miu and Saki were the triggering events for both of them going off the rails. It's interesting how they both were trying to help each other in the different routes but just couldn't do it. Both could empathize with the pain the other was going through and were filled with regrets on not being able to do something more. They really are the Matt and Sora of this group. Both caring about their friends, but having darkness that could be unleashed.
. They worked in the underground to take on corrupt governments and save kids from internment camps. While in the route that Aoi survived we have them working in a lab, helping kids, and trying to spread positive messages to ease tensions 
. Certainly they fit better in the routes they ended up in than swapping situations. But kind of funny how that all worked out.
