Shoutouts to Sagiri Sakurai

I really, really liked Super Robot Wars T. I thought that they did a stellar job bringing the series together into a cohesive shared universe with a lot of little moments I loved. Spike and the Bebob crew popping up every few stages to go "Why are we doing this again? Oh yeah, we're broke." Amuro's visible discomfort at Bright describing him, Char, and Haman as having a triangular relationship. Or the overarching themes with the insidious evil of economic exploitation while it's constantly denied or reframed as a good thing.

But possibly the biggest thing that solidified my love was that I chose Sagiri for my first playthrough. And not just the let's go lesbians with her being a clueless lady magnet, but for her being... relatable.

Early on they establish that she looks professional but is a slob in her home life, obsessed with the prospect of a bonus check, and gorges herself at buffets or if someone else is paying. And then you get to her emotional moment and she lets her guard down and it's all because... she doesn't have much else.

This isn't where she thought her life would be, she never expected to be a test pilot at all let alone trying to save humanity. When she looks at her friends that got married and are planning families she feels like she's gone wrong somewhere to be so behind in having a life. She was constantly thinking about quitting before getting roped into trying to save the earth but kept giving it her all to squeeze as much out of the company as she could for doing this to her.

Essentially for that entire scene I was nodding and going "Same. Yeah. Same. Mood. I feel that. Same." before advancing to the next text box.

Her weaknesses make her feel eminently real and relatable to me and I am so glad I chose her on my first playthrough.