Okay, look. Masked isn't going to pretend ZZZ's storytelling is groundbreaking.
But same as it's always been?
If you question what story we're reading, then Masked would also like to question what story you're reading.
Sarah wasn't an amazing villain, but she had an overarching story.
She made plans and followed through with them.
The story was interconnected with each of her little schemes, as Phaethon tried to put the pieces together.
- Pretend to be a secretary and use Perlman/Vision as a puppet
- Acquire land, and by extension a Sacrifice
- Silence Perlman
- Silence Perlman 2, and use Bringer to silence Section 6
- Acquire Miyabi's power for use in a new Sacrifice serum
I will start with this because this is all post hoc justification.
Much of what you list out is not properly set up or laid out within the confines of the chapters.
1. and 3 are properly set up within the aspect of the chapters they exist within. It's very clearly signposted within chapter 1 and chapter 3 that is what Sarah is doing.
2 and 4 Has no basis within the chapters proper. There is no indication or allusion that Sarah is tied to the Sacrifice plot until her and Bringer directly talk about it in chapter 4. The story has to flagrantly spell out their involvement in other chapters because that information doesn't actually exist in those chapters at all.
5. Is just completely incorrect. The acquiring of Miyabi's powers are not related to the Sacrifice Serum. It is in fact an extension of the Bringer plot to remove Section 6, but I'm not surprised you got that mixed up because the narrative is so shoddy in really saying what the villains are doing.
In most of Season 2, the villains had plans, but didn't really follow through.
Phaethon is mostly just trying to clean up after the villains, and the plot just kind of spins it wheels as we wait for the finale.
This statement is functionally no different from Season 1. All Phaethon does in that is follow up on what the villains are doing ahead of them as well.
I also inherently disagree that the plot just spins its wheels as we await the finale.
EVERY single chapter of Season 2 builds onto the next one.
2.0 begins with a plot by the exaltists to frame Porcelumex and experiment on the miners. This plot is foiled and forces the city to turn its eyes to waifei and send inspectors and military respresentatives into Waifei.
Which "conveniently" (Cause it was the plan) allows the Exaltist released Ethereal to expose that Porcelumex was doing major human experiments AND that the exaltists were producing so many Sacrifices that the Military had too take over in 2.1.
Then 2.2 reveals that the machinations that placed Porcelumex, the Exaltists and the military in these positions were all the plan of Isolde to ensure her revenge on the leads of Porcelumex and the General of the military.
It's at this point where Sarah, the second in command, can ascend and begin her plans that she believes are much better than Isoldes, but can't act on because, she's not the one in charge.
2.3 and 2.4 shows us exactly what Sarah's plans are both by using Yidhari and the Miasma relay in order to force the Creator to Descend
And then 2.5 is a culmination of interacting with the creator, getting further explanation of what's actually behind the exaltists and getting a look at the persistent capitalist interests of TOPS, which is embodied throughout Season 2.
Season 1's interconnectivity doesn't hold a candle.
Make a copy of Yixuan's memories for evil purposes - and then what? The copy dies with absolutely zero consequences.
Use it to expose what Porcelumex is doing in Waifei, leading to the city being placed under Martial Law by the military.
Make a town of Lotus Eaters based around Yidhari, which also doesn't really tie into anything. Sarah used Yidhari and moved on.
It's almost like the Drowned Ideals were a completely unexpected side effect of the actual goal and not a plan in itself.
The situation basically exists so that the protagonists aren't basically left with nothing to speak of and no way of moving forward.
How is that any different than the belabog machines conveniently hearing the prototype which leads us to the sacrifice.
It's just a situation that tangentially seems unrelated but ultimately helps us progress forward.
Merge with The Creator - oh wait it's a fake, just a Messenger of The Creator.
Clearly did not pay attention to what was stated. That is not a fake, it is the creator. What is actually is, is just a proxy of its power. That doesn't mean what we interacted with isn't the creator. It just means it's an avatar so the problem isn't completely resolved in one go.
And now Sarah's gone, so the buildup just kind of led to nothing.
She's still within the Gestalt that is the creator. And her memories clearly tie into the mystery of the First Generation of Void Hunters considering her past relates to her being abandoned by one of them.
Now, regarding Miyabi
She's a known constant in the ZZZ world.
She's built up as a powerful warrior and an important guardian of the city.
We only get small bits throughout the season, but we learn
She's not afraid to go against the will of her superiors, or confront massive threats.
She doesn't care about status, and skips a ceremony to recruit Section 6
She's close with Section 6, and they're generally like a small family.
All of this particular information comes from external promotional videos one week ahead of her patch, none of it is actually in the game proper.
She's childhood friends with Zhu Yuan.
She has a personal vendetta against the instigators of Hollow Zero
Okay, we learn that YSG is Ye Shiyuan's sister in 2.0, that's not particularly amazing characterization.
Her personal vendetta plays basically zero role in the active narrative of the chapter she's the focus of. Her role in that plot wouldn't change even slightly if that detail didn't exist.
That's also ignoring that she has no substantive rapport with either Sarah or Bringer for that factor to matter.
She can lose control of Tailless due to her emotions
This is basically the exact same as YSG. But worse written and resolved.
Ye Shunguang only has a few chapters to establish her identity, and no one really talks about her as a person.
Yeah, almost as if the narrative intent is about how YSG's status as the Qingming Sword's wielder has led to people dehumanizing her and disregarding her own wants.
Crazy, like it's plot intention or something!
It's mostly just Ye Shiyuan muttering about how he has to save her until her introduction.
I'm sorry, you wanna use the promo material to bolster miyabi's character... but want to ignore the promotional material that very clearly tells us in no uncertain terms what the Qingming Sword does and why it's a problem? (Oh and by the way, the actual story does that too. Unlike with miyabi's promo material. Yixuan actually does talk about why the Qingming Sword is very bad in the actual game itself.) Novel CONCEPT
Miyabi "shrugs off" her Sword's crazy devil deal by making a deal with it.
There's no feelings involved.
Are we reading the same story?
I say she shrugs it off because the actual narrative build up for the moment is tepid. It's nebulous as to the impact and there's been no substantive or tangible follow up as to what it means. Also ignoring that the "deal with the devil" is basically Miyabi just going "I'm going to do what I want and you're going to agree."
