#OP you are just very talented at drawing injuries i think

[lexosaurus]

Omg, I wrote that fic! It's Everything Was White. Thanks Abriel for sending this to me!

This is SO FREAKING GOOD HOLY SHIT! Jesus christtt I am UNWELL you are such a fantastic artist holyyyy crapppp

a little danny dump! the spine one is inspired from a fanfic but I haven't managed to find it again, since I don't remember the name...

[booksandchainmail]

nanoha vivid liveblog: episode 9

We left off in the opening rounds of the competition, with Vivio and Miura slated to fight each other at some point. 

The other belkan girls!

I think I remember them being friends

Soft music and slow-mo here, as we get our first look at sieglinde’s eyes

... which are entirely ordinary

huh, i was kinda expecting more heterochromia

… RIGHT SHE HAD A DUMB NICKNAME 

THEY BOTH DID

look I know youre overdramatic teenagers but I promise you giving yourselves nicknames about how good you are at fighting doesn’t actually make you seem good at fighting

also, i like to imagine that victoria’s been trying to get people to call her victor for most of her life, and sieglinde is the only one who will. victoria gave her her own nickname in thanks, and sieglinde was so happy about having a friend to give her a nickname that she didn’t care about the theme

have you considered losing the waist long twintails?

awwwww

weirdly wholesome considering the subject matter

who’s this boss? Presumably one of the other competitors we’ve seen, and I’m guessing harry as the only one who runs a thing (as well as one of the only returning successful contestants)

please tell me she didn’t pick that nickname/title herself

theyre cute together

and sieglinde pulls her hood back on as soon as more people arrive

i guess i shouldn’t be surprised that the ojou and the delinquent dont get along

at least it looks like it runs both ways

i really do like this dynamic of harry and victoria constantly trying to fight, and meanwhile sieglinde’s just there in the background trying to calm down her friends

oh hey the last unintroduced girl from the op! presumably she’s a returning fighter considering she seems pretty familiar with the others

… I can’t tell if “violator restraints rule master” is one skill, two skills, her job, or her personality

would they be wrong?

let the fangirling commence!

oh gods shes trying to hide behind that popcorn

it is very much not working

i feel like this scene should be one of those draw the squad memes

also, these four are great together, more scenes with them please

I do like how in the returning champions we’re presented with three people who all hate each other, and then one person who they all like. it’s a good setup for comedy and shipping

awwww, even while being shy, she’s still nice to einhart

come to think of it, i wonder if she also has memories of belka, and if so does she recognize einhart

sdjklaghklfaghlj

those chains were completely ineffective i guess

i like to think that harry and victoria didnt break out immediately because they didnt want to hurt els’ feelings

gods

els is extremely indignant and harry is just having a good tiem

okay that’s cool, they edited the OP now that we’ve seen sieglinde with her hood down

how do these two know each other? I mean I’ll believe it, but I’m curious now.

so what were the fights we saw last episode? 

I guess prelims for the qualifiers? Which explains how some people are seeded already

this tournament sure has a sense of the dramatic

she is actually a rule master school president

and brought her council with her i guess

OH THIS IS THE PERFECT MATCHUP

I mean, I would take harry fighting just about anyone, but this is an excellent clash of anime character archetypes

The fact that there is canonically Japanese immigration to midchilda is one of the weirdest things about this setting to me. I mean, Nanoha and Hayate just moving to another planet with magic and magitek and spaceships is weird enough, but Subaru’s family immigrated generations back. How the fuck did that go? Can you imagine being a random Japanese peasant circa the 1700s and then suddenly you’re on a different world that has magic and also computers.

oh gods

she looks so happy and i love her but her nickname is so stupid

and thats saying a lot considering the competition

extremely on brand

… that is the most “go ahead please” face I have ever seen

and theeeeres the competition making an abrupt return

i mean, she could still totally call you that even if you win

“tension”

i dont know if she planned it in advance, but letting harry see and underestimate her power beforehand was pretty smart

A ranged attack?

OR NOT I GUESS

she just... blew up her own arm

That’s kinda clever. And also really metal.

WHAT THE LITERAL FUCK HARRY

Thank you for the reasonable reaction

the kind of attack name you expect from a girl called buster head

Well that was fast

Oh okay they have a set time to get back in the ring. makes sense considering how easy it is for a lot of them to send people flying

nove suddenly has competition as the best punchy redhead in this show

shes so good

…you entered a martial arts competition without looking up the injury rules

I’M STARTING TO AGREE WITH ALL THE NUNS WHO DIDN’T THINK YOU WERE MATURE ENOUGH TO ENTER

i cant decide if this is smart and practical or really creepy

that is some powerful simulation

Idk if it’s just saving on fight animation, but while their powers are cool, the actual fighting technique doesn’t seem equal to what we’ve seen from vivio and einhart

gods

please get hurt less

where did that bandaid come from?!

~tempting faaaate~

SHES BITING THROUGH CHAIN?!!!

Oh no wait shes pulling on it with her teeth

That’s… more reasonable, I guess?

Still fucking badass

this is gonna be brutal

yup.

also, anime nosebleed

awwww

i love harry’s emotionally supportive girl gang

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT YOU HURT YOURSELF

this idiot

For some mysterious totally not screen-time related reason

That said, I do like them establishing that vivio&co are unusually talented even by this competition’s standards. I’d have a hard time buying that there are that many fighters on their caliber in the tournament

because as is well known the inter-middle tournament involves fighting buses

she’s just from a completely different samurai anime than everyone else

magic infused or something?

...no

Oh fuck. 

Okay, scary sword girl vs. the wolkenritter’s student

…and whichever of them wins, vivio still has to fight

I feel like I have a lot in common with this announcer man

Is this like a general shyness thing, or an actual issue, or something minor that you’ve made into an actual issue…?

come to think of it, she mentioned leaving the tournament a year ago before she could fight victoria. did she also skip out on fighting mica? or was something in her fight with mica why she left

also, kudos to micaiah for having a sensible nickname

call and...

... response

the purpose of having a gang is to force your friends to be supportive of each other

How many times do you think vita’s gotten mistaken for a contestant? Actually, how many times do you think she’s got asked if she’s old enough to compete?

aww

in nanoha terms, i’m pretty sure this counts as a love confession

Oh yeah, vivio&co have a personal connection to both contestants. That’s gotta be awkward

Also, does everyone bring an entourage to this tournament?

Actually, considering zafira and vita are there, it looks like you get a couple helpers (which I think is a thing in actual fighing tournaments), and presumably most people have a coach or friend or parent, we just happen to have seen a bunch of fighters with minions

~tempting faaaate~

Okay, I get the whole “magic doesnt cause actual injuries, we just simulate them” but like micaiah isn’t using magic. That’s a real sword.

Well that’s a hell of a lot of damage from one attack. I don’t think Miura can afford to be hit again at all. 

I mean, I don’t know about her but I’m definitely thinking that

haven’t mentioned this before, but miura’s outfit with the heavy shinguards is really cool and well-suited to her fighting style

pot meet kettle

miura backstory! and yeah, this makes a lot of sense. she’s very cheerful, but the way she’s nervous all the time and latches onto team nakajima so quickly makes her seem pretty isolated form her peers

and here we can see a demonstration of why carrying swords of different lengths is useful. Miura’s within the reach of Mica’s longer sword, so she switches to the shorter one to drive her back

fancy kick coming up!

Sword draw? Since she doesn’t seem to have one, I’m guessing it’s a kick that uses similar principles. Now the question is, is Miura’s secret weapon a technique that happens to be similar in principle to Mica’s fighting style, or is it a copying technique?

1) this is a very pretty shot

2) it would be really funny if instead of powering up her own sword draw, mica just ran over there and stabbed miura before she can power up the breaker

Didn’t seem to do a whole lot of damage for a special move

Oh ok, she can keep kicking like that for a while

Disadvantage of using a weapon: it can be broken

its pretty interesting that the show sets up various rematches and rivalries and thematic fights that can’t all happen by the design of the tournament. it makes the fights a lot more suspenseful when there would be plot and character reasons for either side to win

...remember what i said about how wanting to fight people in nanoha is basically a love confession?

[junker-town]

The Giants might be the worst team in baseball, but they’ll never rebuild

Aging teams in the middle of disappointing seasons tend to hold fire sales in July. The Giants won’t be one of those teams.

By almost any objective measure, the San Francisco Giants are a Very Bad Baseball Team. It’s a formal title, capitalization required. They have the worst adjusted OPS in the National League, and they have the worst adjusted ERA in the NL, too. They can’t score runs, and they can’t prevent them, which isn’t a combination that usually leads to a World Series run. They have the worst run differential in baseball, and they were just swept by the Cincinnati Reds, who outscored them 31-5 in three games.

Since winning in extra innings against the Royals on April 18, the Giants have been outscored 107 to 44. They’ve allowed double-digit run totals in five different games this year, which is as many as they allowed in 2014 or 2015. They’ve hit 19 home runs in 32 games, which ties them with players named Aaron on the Yankees.

Oh, and their best pitcher fell off a dirt bike and separated his shoulder. It’s a shame, because he still has as many home runs as the Giants’ cleanup hitter.

I can keep going.

But the point is that the Giants are a Very Bad Baseball Team. This took most of us by surprise, mostly because the statistical projections had them as a very normal baseball team. They had issues that they didn’t address in the offseason. They had some concerns with their starting pitching, bullpen, lineup, and bench, which means there was a chance it could all go wrong at the same time, but they weren’t supposed to be this bad. Even when the Giants collapsed historically in the second half last year, they still outscored their opponents, so their second-half struggles shouldn’t have been a huge red flag.

They’re here now, though, and you’ve watched enough baseball to know what this means. The old team has fallen into a ditch, and they’ll need young players to pull them out. Every single minor-league affiliate of the Giants is in last place — it’s impossible to not have respect for that kind of dedication — and their farm system is regularly ranked in the bottom-third in baseball. This is a team that looks like they’re in the middle of a classic rebuilding situation. You’ve seen it before. Good team gets old. Good team gets bad. Bad team holds a fire sale in the hopes that they’ll be good again.

My job here, then, is to tell a national audience that there’s no way this will happen. While the Giants might trade their pending free agents, they’re going to ride this hell-toboggan right to the bottom of the slope. And when they’re at the bottom, they still probably won’t rebuild. This is an anomalous franchise, and they won’t play by your contending/rebuilding rules.

First, tally up all of the players all of the veteran players on this Very Bad Baseball Team that other teams might want.

Buster Posey (owed $85 million through 2021, full no-trade clause)

Brandon Crawford (owed $61 million through 2021, full no-trade clause)

Brandon Belt (owed $68.8 million through 2021, can block trades to 10 teams)

Hunter Pence (owed $18.5 million next year, full no-trade clause)

Johnny Cueto (owed $92.3 million through 2021, but can opt out after this season)

Mark Melancon (owed $53 million through 2020, full no-trade clause)

There are other players who could become desirable with a hot month or two, like Jeff Samardzija, Matt Moore, and Eduardo Nuñez, but no one who’s likely to bring back a top-100 prospect. You can see the problem with most of the players up there: Most of them are making slightly below market rates, but there aren’t any super bargains up there. While it would be a fun thought exercise to put Brandon Belt in Yankee Stadium, it’s harder to imagine the Yankees giving up their best prospects for him.

And, more importantly, let’s run those names through the English-to-Giants translator:

Smiley Commercial Man

Dreamy Fan Favorite

Familiar Face Your Kid Just Loves

Bobblehead Joe, Great Dude, Very Popular, Everyone Say Hi To Bobblehead Joe

Happy Fun Pitcher Guy

Most Recent Evidence Of The Team Trying

This is a franchise that is claiming a sellout streak of more than 500 games. And while they didn’t really have a completely full ballpark for all of those games, they’re certainly drawing extremely well, and here’s what they can sell to their fans, even in a season like this: Come cheer Buster Posey. Come watch Brandon Crawford. Come watch the entirely homegrown infield that you’ve grown incredibly fond of.

Right now, that sales pitch still works. They can sell that to their fans. They absolutely cannot sell, “Remember those guys? We miss them. Now buy tickets to watch random minor leaguers.” Fans are fickle, and they won’t put up with losing for long, but the Giants are in a special place. They’ve had so much success over the last decade with these players, they still hold the attention of the ticket-buying masses.

And if you want evidence that they’ll think like this, consider the 2013 season, when the Giants had troubles baseballing and limped into the trade deadline well under .500. They were expected to trade Hunter Pence, Javier Lopez, and Tim Lincecum, all pending free agents, and reload for 2014. Instead they re-signed all three. The chance to keep their players together was worth more to them than whatever prospects were dangled in front of them.

If you think that Cueto is a goner because he’s a potential free agent, remember the story of Pence. They loved him in the clubhouse and on the field so much, they preferred to offer him millions and millions instead of exchange him for prospects. I’d put better odds on an extension for Cueto than a swap for prospects. The Giants will trade Eduardo Nuñez for an A-ball reliever you’ve never heard of, and that’s going to be the story of their deadline.

While it would seem that the twist to this story is that the Giants didn’t rebuild in 2013 and won the World Series in 2014, which makes it seem obvious that the no-rebuild this strategy has worked in the past, there’s a huge, crucial difference. Buster Posey wasn’t 30 years old in 2013. Neither was Brandon Crawford. Belt was just a youngster. Madison Bumgarner wasn’t working through a scary shoulder injury. If the Giants are going to try reloading before rebuilding — and I guarantee you they will — the front office will be sculptors working with drier clay and shabbier tools. There’s still enough talent left in the core that was projected by both FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus (and dumb pundits like me) to reach the postseason, but their window is much closer to closing right now than it’s ever been.

Even if it would be a great strategic idea for the Giants to start over and rebuild like other Very Bad Baseball Teams, they’re not going to do it. They have something to sell to their large crowds, and they’re very comfortable selling it. That means the Giants are pretty far from rock bottom. They can sink a lot lower, a lot faster, but it’s almost impossible to see how it’s going to happen quickly enough for them to give up on the whole enterprise.

It’s just not what the Giants do, and they’re not going to start now.