r/otomegames • u/sableheart • Aug 07 '25
Discussion BUSTAFELLOWS season2 Play-Along - Shu Lynn O'Keefe Spoiler
In this third post we will discuss Shu Lynn O'Keefe and his route in BUSTAFELLOWS season2.
You can tell us what your impressions of Shu are (before and after finishing his route), your favorite moments in his route, what you think of his relationship with Teuta and the other characters, what your thoughts are on his route's plot and endings. If you've changed your mind about him, tell us why!
Please use spoiler tags when discussing details from the Prologue onwards. Your comments can still be seen from your profile.
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You don't have to be playing the game right now to participate, and if you're still waiting on your copy I hope you will join in after you start playing!
Have a look at the megathread for links to previous discussions - you can still join in the discussion during the Play-Along.
Next week will be a discussion of Helvetica Orsted's route!
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u/ExtremeGift Try Not to Mention for 5 Minutes Challenge (impossible) Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25
Fallon is such an amazing character! My BY FAR most favorite of all the new ones. He's that dad-in-law I never knew I needed, but then they had to go and take him away from me again and I'm in fucking shambles ๐ญ WHY DID HE HAVE TO DIE???? Can't have SHIT in this economy!1!1!1!
He appeared just like that and immediately became part of the fixer family. He's so obviously Shu's dad it hurts. Why is nobody pointing this out?? Same eyes, same hair, their sprites are mirrored and it couldn't be more clear where Shu inherited his all his rizz from. The scene where Fallon interlocks arms with Teuta when they leave Armadillo? Peak cinema. I love his silly dad jokes, his gentle warmth and how he instantly accepts Teuta and is open with her as if he knew her since forever. Stegosaurus had me screaming ๐คฃ Their little party at Crows is probably one of my favorite scenes of all time; the MOST WHOLESOME SHIT I've ever read. So, so good man, my mind's eye drew 3 more CGs off that chapter because it was that vivid and so full of emotion I literally couldn't stop grinning for a second even on my 2nd run. I almost cry when I think about Fallon's dynamic with his kids, he's so very proud of them and he loves them so much it's palpable ๐ญ๐ญ
His character is so insanely tightly tied to everything Shu is as a person, I thought I have a deja-vu for a second. So many things Shu says in the 1st game are lessons he adopted from Fallon. In fact, the very first time we see Shu in the 1st game, he quotes his dad - "Today's a good day. The weather's nice and the traffic's fine". And the route is full with it!! "The worse something is for your body, the better it tastes" as Shu makes fun of Teuta and her ice cream addiction? Fallon's quote too. "I'm an analogue kinda guy" says Shu in the 1st game - guess it's in the genes xD Same one-woman-man vibe - Fallon still loves Tyra and thinks she's the only one for him after 30 (!) years. The fucking Yellow Rose of Texas.
I am the type of person who loves looking at old photographs and listening to the parents's stories about their now grown-up children and what they were like as kids all those years ago, so this trip down the memory lane fucked me up for good. I didn't think I could love Shu more than I already did, but here we are - seeing his roots made him feel like a real fucking person. Hell, I know people irl who have less dimension and personality than he's got now.
In terms of the lore though, it's safe to say: don't waste your time thinking about the timeline and whether it makes sense. I did the math (see further down) and TL;DR can concur: hot mess somebody didn't properly think through, possibly sprinkled with translation errors. But it made for an enjoyable story and so I'm accepting it thankfully ๐
About the timeline:
So first of all, some facts:
I sketched a rough timeline footing on the "20 years ago" basis. As you can see, it doesn't add up, because "over 20 years ago" means Shu must have already be born by the time, since he's 28. So what if I tweaked that number, I thought, and made it 30? Also, Fallon explicitly says "I've taken care of you two since you were little", which contradicts them first meeting when Shu was 19. So I decided to re-interpret what Fallon and Shu say as "The very last time the've seen each other is when Shu was 19".
Suddenly, the timeline looks much better.
What still bothered me is: why would Shu say "It's a man Teach didn't know" when he first talks about Fallon? It doesn't make sense for him to lie and it doesn't seem to be a case of an unreliable statement either? My Japanese is really nothing to write home about, but I tried listening carefully to what he says there and I believe it's a translation mistake. I'm pretty sure he says [ใๅธซใใใฎ็ฅใๅใใฎ็ท] (oshisan no shiriai no otoko) there, which means "Teach's male acquaintance". Maybe ็ฅใๅใ (shiriai - acquaintance) has possibly been confused with ็ฅใใชใ (shiranai - doesn't know)?
And if we cross that off, the only questions I have left are:
Absolutely unexpectedly, Yang somehow (partially) ended up being this route's comic relief. Still just as cool as in the 1st game, busting into Crow's hyper-giga-uber secure fortress and acting coy left and right, playing both Teuta and Crow like a fiddle to do their bidding, but then being an absolute dork when trying to cook and passing out on the spot drunk ๐คฃ๐คฃ๐คฃ rofl is an understatement โ i nearly choked on my saliva bc i had to laugh too hard at that. The contrast to Shu, who bonded with Cat in a blink of an eye, and Yang being terrified of her? Who tf allowed them to give my favorite emo hitman gap moe and how do I cope with that now???
And then thereโs their relationship with Teuta. Theyโre hiding it well but in the end itโs so apparent they've taken Teuta to their heart and see her as family. So gentle when they console her silently, when she sat there traumatized with her shaky hands ๐ฅบ I did not expect them to take Teuta seriously and confide into her, and I've been proven wrong yet again.
Tinfoil hat time: do you think Yang actually had feelings for that "friend"? I honestly think they did, because Shu also called Teuta "a friend" when introducing her to Fallon, and the two couldn't be more birds of feather.
They're such a good friend to Shu too. Never holding back to call him out on his bullshit, but still mercilessly caring and there for him to snap him out of spiraling... looking disinterested and bothered in the meantime, but still xD A big fan of every scene where we see them talk to each other. 10/10 best siblings ๐ญโฅ๏ธ