(Rebellion + Second Scenario + KG Spoilers) Fixing the Route that has an interesting premise

Yes, I know the title is lackluster, I'm running out of ideas for my fixing route posts. Now, unlike the three other routes I've covered, Rebellion is not bad in the slightest (although I'm of the opinion that SB is not as bad as BoB and Conspiracy). It is good on paper and it has lots of good moments. It's just that it could be better and it's rushed in places. So, like with the others, I'm gonna propose some fixes and explain why for each of them. It's prolly gonna be somewhat shorter BoB and Conspiracy since there's not as many fixes that I'd have to make.

For starters, Rebellion has an interesting idea where you team up with the futurans, who you've been fighting up until this point. This opens up a lot of potential avenues for worldbuilding, understanding more about what V'ehxness was like before the war started, etc. I get that other routes explore this more in-depth and the Rebellion is not about the exploration of Futurum, but it still leaves a lot to be desired.

Part of this stems from the route branching off late in the game. I think that it is a symptom of the issues with the way that the flow chart was structured. In order for Rebellion to really be an outstanding route, they'd have to re-adjust the way it's structured entirely. But, we are only doing band-aid fixes, which means we are keeping the route branching as it is (as much as I really wanna change it). We can still find ways to mitigate this, however. For example, we can remove the timeskips entirely since I feel that they are unnecessary. Also, let's introduce Kamyuhn sooner. And maybe make the branching path happen sooner. That way, we can develop her and the rebellion more.

Anything I'd change is Eito's development. When the group decide to abandon humanity, Eito reveals that he disabled the bombs ahead of time. This proved effective when Sirei attempted to kill everyone. The following day, Eito turns completely turns 180 since "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". Takumi questions his sincerity, to which Eito gives him the detonator to his bomb in case he ends up betraying the group one day. The day after, the group just accepts him. Let's compare this to how Second Scenario handles his change of heart.

When Takumi decides to keep fighting for humanity, we see Eito sorta trying to re-integrate to the group. This due to the fact that the truth about the SDU's origins and the SDU continuing to fight for humanity anyways forced him to re-evaluate his entire worldview. This culminates in deciding to gouge his eyes out in order to make his cognitive disorder more manageable and make it easier for him to connect with the team. When Takumi let's him rejoin, several students were still wary of him, so Takumi had Gaku throwing a party for the tensions between Eito and the rest of the SDU to ease. You can prolly see what I'm getting at here.

Eito's development wasn't just a light switch that he could turn on. Eito had to confront the hatred of humanity that he held for nearly his entire "life". He had to question his entire philosophy and come to the painful realization that his "righteous eyes" was the result of him being a glitch. He had to put in the work to make his cognitive disorder less painful and prove that he's trustworthy. And even then, the distrust towards him wasn't fully fixed. Meanwhile, the most we get here is Takumi briefly being wary of him for a bit and some dissenters for a single day.

Now I understand why the can't just rehash that whole arc here. For one thing, the plot of Rebellion is working with Kamyuhn's rebel camp and compared to Second Scenario, there isn't enough time to explore Eito's character and working with this plot. Also, it would undermine Eito's development in Second Scenario by having that arc reused completely. Finally, I think that Eito's easier reintegration back to the team makes sense to some extent. Since the group did turn against humanity, Eito didn't have to change his mindset as much.

But he still would have to put in a lot of effort to truly move forward with the group. So I suggest a middle ground here. Have it so that Eito does still need to put in the work to manage his cognitive disorder and regain the SDU's trust in him. Maybe have a few SDU glaring at him suspiciously. But also play it in the background so that it doesn't overshadow the main plot of the route.

Next biggest change I'd make is Kamyuhn and the rebel camp. I'll start by keeping the things the same. I like her introduction very much, where she introduces herself to the SDU and explains the history of Futurum, the war between futurum and humanity, and how V'exhness became the way she is. It establishes some good worldbuilding. Also, her speech about severing hate was powerful and extremely fitting to the themes of the game. Also, the connection she forms with Nozomi is pretty sweet and based on the KG route, you can tell that Oyama put in that part. But some of these could definitely be improved.

For one thing, introduce us to the rest of her rebel camp. I get that Kamyuhn is a mediator and the leader of the rebellion, so it makes sense that she'd be the only one that talks to the SDU, but still. But, more importantly, as great as the speech is, I wish we could've seen Kamyuhn actually process her feelings here, along with the rest of the SDU. Kamyuhn not only had to grow up quickly to lead in a warzone between colonialists and a dictator, but her mother was also killed by the very people that she's forming an alliance with. I get that war can force a child to mature quickly, but Kamyuhn is still ultimately a child. Although KG Kamyuhn's portrayal has her acting like a more realistic intelligent and wise child, I'm not even gonna compare her to her Rebellion counterpart since Kamyuhn doesn't have enough appearances in the game to fully establish her baseline personality.

Maybe one scene where she ends up breaking down over her mother's death can do wonders. Maybe show us her conflicting feelings between her mother's death and her having to work with the SDU as the leader. Have her express those feelings in real time rather than in retrospect. Then the SDU can connect with her since, in a way, they also lost their whole families. I think that can help with this portrayal. And speaking of which, have Nozomi and Kamyuhn's sisterhood grow more organically. It does feel a little tacked on here compared to the KG route (as much as the relationship between Nozomi and Kamyuhn feels somewhat exaggerated there). Perhaps both girls can connect over losing their mothers. One scene of that would make their connection feel more natural.

Here's the final big change, and that is the endings. Following the final battle, V'ehxness blows herself up, which results in both Nozomi and Kamyuhn getting impaled. Takumi is forced to choose between saving Nozomi or Kamyuhn by having one of them absorb the other's cryptoglobin. If we choose to save Nozomi, then switch over to her POV. A few years later, the war still goes on due to the death of the rebel leader. Despite this, Nozomi hasn't lost hope that the war will end and built a school to teach students peace. If we choose Kamyuhn instead, a timeskip of 15 years will happen, when the treaty to end the war is signed. However, Takumi still hasn't moved on from Nozomi's death.

Now, I'm not happy about the ending choices here. For one thing, the choice itself was forced to begin with, especially since in the other routes, Takumi kills V'ehxness at the end of the battles. Additionally, the way these endings are portrayed feel nearly black and white. It seems to imply that only Kamyuhn has the ability to end the war when that's not necessarily true. Wars are often messier than this. They take time to completely fix the damage, and they are kind of a never-ending cycle. Even having people that know the politics behinds wars inside out and have enough diplomatic skills to resolve things peacefully might not be enough to end things completely.

Now, I'd probably rework how the ending choices here are presented entirely, but again, these are bandaid fixes rather than full rewrite. So I'd nix the choices altogether and stick to My War as the main ending of this route. Why? Well 1. Takumi time-travelled because of Nozomi in the first place. It's only fitting that he'd pick to save her. And 2. Just because Kamyuhn is dead doesn't mean that the war can't end. At this point of the ending, the war is still going. But that might change in the future. Am I saying Seeds of Hope is bad? No, of course not. I just think that My War would probably be a more fitting ending that Seeds of Hope. It retains a bittersweet message that while things are tough now, it's not hopeless.

Now these are my fixes for the route. There are some other minor things I'd change and it's still limited by its place in the flowchart. But I think these might execute the overall premise of the route better. As always, let me know what you think about these changes:)