#WITHOUT needing the motivation of potentially 'losing' her crush to another guy. but rather just because she WANTED to grow & change.

[my-current-obsession]

Dunno if it's a hot take, but I think the "platonic" path for Chihiro (as in making the "wrong" choices early on so she doesn't even confess, not just rejecting her when she does) was actually WAY better than her romantic rank 9.

Instead of getting insanely jealous of the thought of Mitsuru and MC spending time together (for the sake of HELPING HER), she's actually totally fine with that and begins to leave before stopping because she's upset AT HERSELF for continuing to rely on others. Her motivation to confront the teacher is entirely about taking action herself rather than it being centered on a desperate attempt to fix things quickly to keep the guy she likes away from another girl.

The way she celebrates with MC on the rooftop afterwards is really cute too. She acknowledges her growth in being able to confront an adult male by herself while also recognizing she still has a ways to go and this is kind of just the beginning. It's just really good character development and very wholesome, how her FRIENDSHIP with MC helped her become more confident and capable. Meanwhile her romance has that character "development" tied entirely to her being very jealous/possessive. She was only able to confront the teacher because she was terrified to let MC be alone with Mitsuru. That's not really growth, and it's certainly not a healthy foundation for romance.

[crystalelemental]

Since @patchun brought up Hugh as a rival, here’s my personal take on each rival character in Pokemon, because I’m bored.

Blue - I actually do like the guy, and I think that overall he’s a solid rival.  Story-wise, he’s one of the few that is always one step ahead of you, and clears the entire league before you.  His team is solid, and he makes adjustments based on the starter Pokemon he picks.  I also think he’s just kinda fun.  He’ll make excuses about why he lost (”I picked the wrong Pokemon!”) and gives you shit as someone he considered less than him, but there’s still some level at which he’s like “Oh hey, you’re improving!”  He’s a solid rival character.

Silver - I kinda feel like Silver isn’t really your rival, he’s just someone that shows up a lot that you have to deal with.  Like it’s never entirely established that the two of you are competing, he just wants to kick your ass for funsies in all his earlier encounters, and only comes to respect you at all at the end of his entire quest.  Which is cool!  I actually like Silver a lot, I think he’s got a ton going on and is a pretty unique change from Blue.  Blue was super invested in the League and being the best, while Silver’s also about being the best, but seems to have little interest in the League itself.  His motives are outside of the League, and frankly outside of your own.  He grows into the role of rival to the player more as a result of Lance’s comments to him and his own soul-searching.  I think that’s great.

Brendan/May - And then there’s these two.  I’m not entirely sure what the plan was behind these two.  I’ve heard they shifted off of the antagonistic rivals because bullying was a problem, and that’s why every rival since has been your friend rather than an opponent, but these two aren’t even that really.  They barely exist.  As characters, they rarely show up and don’t really do a whole lot at any point, and as a rival trainer, they’re so bad they never fully evolve their starter.  Brendan and May are, to me at least, the worst rivals in the series.  If it was because they thought early rivals were too mean and toned it down, they did so without accounting for any alternative traits to make them interesting, but at least they started getting it right soon after.

Barry - I actually really like Barry.  Initially, he was a bit annoying with the whole “I’m fining you!” gimmick, and being supremely absent-minded half the time, but he grows on you a lot.  Kinda like Blue, Barry spends most of the game ahead of you, and is a pretty competent trainer.  But instead of being aggressive in his rivalry, he is your friend and acknowledges how good you are.  He never seems to even acknowledge his defeat to any extreme degree, he’s just having fun and doing his own journey while using you as a point of comparison, while still taking this really seriously, in part because his father is a renowned trainer that he wants to live up to.  Which is solid.  Also I gotta admit, the situation with the lake guardians was really cute, how Rowan recognizes him and gives him the tougher mission, how into it he gets, and then how hurt he is that he wasn’t able to protect Uxie.  Barry just a sweet kid and a solid rival.

Cheren - Cheren is much like Barry, in that his focus is on battling at its core.  Contrary to Barry though, Cheren is actively irritated that he can’t seem to beat you.  He keeps pace with you, but I don’t think actually gets ahead of you at any point in the story.  If anything, he’s interesting because he’s someone driven by the same journey to be a great trainer that you are, but is coming face to face with the realization that he’s not making the same gains, and may not be able to achieve that initial dream.  He has to adapt, and ultimately settles into the Gym Leader role, and is a bit of a mentor in BW2, which is really cool.  That’s really what makes the BW rivals so good, is that instead of just being another super good trainer who’s ahead of you all the time, they explore the idea of someone who wants to be the best but isn’t, and how he handles that.  I like it a lot.

Bianca - Best rival, fight me.  What makes Bianca interesting is that she’s kinda like Brendan and May, in that she’s not...really here to be a spectacular trainer.  She is but she isn’t.  She starts out on her journey to become a trainer, but isn’t super motivated by competition like Cheren.  In fact, Bianca doesn’t really know what she wants to do at all.  What makes her interesting is that change from being just another trainer to battle, to finding her own path in life that doesn’t involve the competition.  It’s not what she wants to do, and I always really liked that.  She eventually settles on being a professor’s assistant, and I think it’s great seeing her settle into a role that makes her happy.  The series has always posited this idea that people exist with Pokemon in different ways, but this is honestly the first time we really get a rival who comes to engage with Pokemon and battling in a different way from the usual.

Hugh - I don’t like Hugh.  I get the attempt with him, and appreciate it.  A lot of Gen 5 centers around Team Plasma, and in this case, Hugh is a character who was directly impacted by their actions when they stole his sister’s Purrloin.  He was a child and couldn’t do anything, so he’s grown up resentful of Team Plasma and determined to become strong enough to protect his sister and those he cares about.  He’s along on your journey to improve, but never once does he seem all that invested in the League itself.  He’s more invested in taking down Team Plasma and getting his sister’s Purrloin back, and all of that should come together into a really cool rival for this generation’s thematic narrative.  His problem is really just that he talks.  “You’re about to feel my rage!”  Hugh, please.  You’re embarrassing me in front of Zinzolin.  I can’t say I hate Hugh, but I feel like he’s a character who just missed the mark they were aiming for, largely by being more of an edgy nuisance than an interesting character study.

Serena/Calem - I am only talking about these two because fuck the XY friend group.  Honestly, they’re...pretty forgettable.  Like I honestly can’t remember any significant personality traits from them at all.  They’re like Brendan and May, only slightly better because they keep at it even if they’re constantly behind you.  I think by biggest problem is how they never feel like they amount to much thematically.  A big focus in XY is meant to be on scarcity.  Mega Bracelts are rare, and not everyone can own one or utilize mega evolution.  You battle them to get one, which by default means they don’t.  And that sets up some interesting ideas, right?  Like, how does that impact things?  When there’s legitimate scarcity and not everyone can make use of this, are you willing to crush the dream of your childhood friend to make your own come true?  Well actually it doesn’t matter because it’s never really brought up.  The great tragedy of XY was lost potential, and the rival’s a big source of that.

Hau - Hau is...a mixed bag for me.  On the one hand, SuMo.  On the other, USUM.  In SuMo, I like Hau a lot.  He feels a lot like Barry, if Barry didn’t give a shit about competition.  Hau is very laid back as a rival, and challenges you while attempting to keep pace, but ultimately exists to have fun and enjoy his journey.  This is the trait that makes him and Gladion such fun counterparts.  But then USUM rolls around, and makes up this whole subplot about how he’s not actually trying and that this is a betrayal of his Pokemon?  And then it leads to this whole crisis where suddenly he’s super invested in competition and being the best, and ends up as your Champion battle?  And it just doesn’t feel as interesting.  If anything it feels like USUM’s eternal Gen 1 dick sucking coming back to reference your rival as the champion, rather than actually focusing on the character’s development.

Gladion - Okay, I really like Gladion.  He’s a bit more like Silver than anything else, in that I don’t think he ever like...expresses wanting to be your rival?  He just shows up and challenges you because fuck you in particular.  But through interactions, and your eventual assistance with stopping his mother and breaking down those emotional walls, Gladion grows into someone who still wants to be a great trainer, but is no longer driven by the need to be the best to protect his sister and stop his mother.  Rather, he just learns to enjoy competition for its own sake.  And I really like that!  I feel like he’s Silver, but refined to be a more interesting character.

Hop - Okay stop me if you’ve heard this one.  Hop’s a rival who’s invested in the competition, and is largely driven by living up to a family member’s legacy.  He’s generally friendly, but expresses intense dissatisfaction with his performance because he can’t beat you or Bede.  He’s been competitive, but ultimately very laid back until a sudden realization that he needs to try harder and is suddenly super driven to become the best.  His post-game arc is entirely about finding out that maybe he doesn’t want to be a trainer all that much, and finding his own calling, which is a professor’s assistant.  That’s Barry, Cheren, Hau, and Bianca, in that order.  I do not love Hop.  I don’t hate him.  There are definitely worse rivals with less going on.  But Hop feels like an amalgamation of previous rivals rather than his own being.  He goes from laid-back but invested in your rivalry, to super serious and determined to be the best, and ending on maybe not even wanting to be a trainer that much.  It’s a weird shift in his journey that I don’t think meshes as well.  He takes the parts of these previous rivals that made them interesting, but it turns out slapping them all together makes a character that’s less than the sum of its parts.  However, I will give points for one thing I actually love about Hop: when he keeps losing, he completely changes up his team.  That’s something no rival has done.  Minor adjustments, like Blue dropping Raticate, have happened, but we’ve never seen a complete shuffle in who they lead with or what the team composition is.  So I do think there’s merit to Hop, even if he’s not my favorite.  It could be worse.  It could be...

Marnie - A literal nothing.  She does announce that you are her rival, so I guess I have to talk about her.  She’s nothing.  Like, I kinda have to give more points to her than Brandan/May solely because she does at least try, but she never really has anything going for her.  Her brother is more compelling than she is, being a gym leader in charge of an area that is really struggling, and trying to showcase that Dynamaxing isn’t required to be a good trainer.  Marnie...has none of that.  At all.  She just has the freedom to be a challenger for the Champion title, and the town is insistent on her winning to prove...something.  I honestly do not understand the plan.  It wouldn’t change that their territory has no ability to Dynamax, and unlike Piers, Marnie has no qualms about using Dynamax to win.  She has no real convictions, and if memory serves only battles you twice.  And she’s not exactly that good either time.  I never once felt like Marnie mattered.  People just liked her design and decided she was great, but she...she doesn’t do anything.

Bede - I’m hesitant to count Bede, but you battle him more often than you battle Marnie, and he does eventually consider you an obstacle to overcome so I’ll count him.  Honestly, don’t like him that much, but he’s better than nothing.  Bede’s interesting in that he’s kind of a rival that’s ahead of you?  At least implicitly.  I don’t think we get hard confirmation that he’s beaten any of the challenges before you, but a lot of his battles involve him being in a location before you got there.  I do kinda like his arc, in that he’s a bit of an inverted Cheren?  In the sense that his ultimate endpoint is as a Gym Leader, but not because he’s looking at things in terms of adjusting his goal due to always losing, but adjusting his goal because it turns out that’s just really what he wants to do.  At first he hates it, and his final challenge to you is a means of saying he’ll quit forever if he can’t win, but ultimately he settles into an appreciation for being a Gym Leader, and I really like that.  While I dislike him more on a personal level, I will say I think he’s a better rival than Hop.  Has more going on for himself, anyway.

[missjosie27]

Year 2 Part 6- Bill Weasley

Hey, guys! Sorry about the late chapter. Being in self quarantine has actually caused a degree of 'apathy' so to speak and it's tough trying not to let that infest your creativity.

But in any case I am back with a new installment and I'd like to say a few words beforehand.

For the first three years of this series, Slytherin isn't going to look good. But there's a reason for that (not the least of which includes shipping my MC with Merula xD) and it will reveal itself in good time. To all my Slytherin readers, portraying your house as the 'bad guy' is not my endgame. Not even close.

Anyway on the with the story!

The party following the triumphant victory over Slytherin could only be described as pandemonium. In one fell swoop the Gryffindors had opened up a huge lead in the standings and were already being favored to win the entirety of the Quidditch season. Hufflepuff was no serious obstacle and only the Ravenclaws stood as the last major threat to their title chances. It was also the first time in three years the lions had beaten the snakes in a major match such as this and dancing on their misery tasted almost as sweet as the butterbeer.

David and company could hardly keep track of anything during the celebration, but they didn’t care. He had never seen such a spectacle and though listening to Quidditch was always a popular pastime, to actually witness it in person in addition to crushing your biggest rival went far beyond expectations. Though he didn’t say it openly, he privately imagined Merula and the rest of the Slytherins sulking in their cold, black dungeon.

Let them. It’s no less than they deserve

He made his way through the crowd in search of Charlie, seeing as he was the hero of the day (seekers usually were) and also a roommate in need of basic congratulations. Along the way he passed Adolphus Blishwick and Henry McLaggen who were engaged in a chugging contest of sorts though the substance did not look like butterbeer. In addition, he encountered the fearless chaser herself, Skye Parkin.

“Great game, Skye!” he yelled out to her.

Looking around, she spotted her admirer and gave a cool thumbs up before resuming conversation with a crowd of Gryffindor boys and girls who sought her attention.

She’s going to be the talk of the whole school for a week after this. Let her have the moment.

Resuming his search, it didn’t take long to spot Charlie. The second eldest Weasley brother was being hoisted up in the air by several older Gryffindors, broom still in hand, chanting his name repeatedly.

“CHARLIE! CHARLIE! CHARLIE!”

“Come on, mates! I’m going to get bloody sick!” he laughed, clutching his stomach.

David could only watch in amusement as the crowd finally let him down onto his feet, breathing heavily from the day’s excitement.

“Butterbeer for the rookie of the day?” he offered.

“Ha, no thanks, Dave. If I have another one of those things, I think I might actually vomit.”

“Mate, you didn’t just win today. You crushed Slytherin into the dirt. No one will let you buy another drink again.”

Charlie laughed good naturedly.

“Wasn’t just me, Dave. Team effort won the day. In case you haven’t noticed, we have a pretty good chaser over there,” he said, indicating Skye.

“She’s as confident as they come,” David observed. “Didn’t seem to know who I was, though or anyone else besides her Quidditch mates.”

“She has to be,” Charlie shrugged. “With the family she hails from nothing less than winning is acceptable. As for the second part, don’t take it personally, she keeps to her own crowd. Likes the attention but not really a people’s person if you catch my drift.”

A glance back and David saw Skye flick the blue colored braid back almost as if it were an act of God himself. Several of her ogling fans ate it up, whilst the Parkin girl gave a small smirk but no audible reply.

“Yeah, you don’t say.”

The second born Weasley chuckled before turning serious for a split second.

“Listen,” he said in a low voice which was just audible above the noise of the ongoing party. “I heard about what happened on Halloween.”

David’s eyebrows became sharp.

“What did you hear?”

“Relax, Dave,” Charlie reassured him. “No one told me anything, just rumors. But from what I gathered you and Rowan are still searching for that cursed vault? The one with the cursed ice that’s been entrapping people.”

“And if I were to say ‘yes’?”

“Mate, it’s not exactly a well-kept secret. There was no sign of you or Rowan at the feast. Many people around here still remember when your brother was chasing the vaults, they expect the same from you.”

Memories and headlines flooded David’s brain, ones he did not want to think about at the moment.

‘Aw, but Jacob why won’t you tell me?’

The older boy shuffled a vast assortment of papers into his drawer, his appearance slightly disheveled.

‘Pip, what I’m working on is top secret and cannot be revealed to anyone. You have to trust me on that.’

‘But-’

‘You’ll understand someday when you’re older.’

“I’m not my brother,” David responded quietly. He did not want to discuss the matter further as he pushed the guilt ridden feelings into the darkest recesses of his mind.

“I know you’re not, that’s why I want to help. Or make a suggestion rather,” Charlie responded, no malice or ulterior motive in his hazel eyes. It was then that David realized he may have spoken too harshly.

“Fire away,” he said, the light, jovial tone returning. “Better be good or I’ll have those blokes lift you up and down in the air again.”

“If you want some assistance in your search, talk to my brother.”

That gave David some pause.

“Bill? Why would he want anything to do with this?”

“Are you kidding? He’s almost as obsessed with breaking curses as I am with dragons…well maybe not quite that obsessed but it’s a goal of his and make no mistake,” Charlie explained.

“You’re sure? I can’t exactly go around telling everyone what I’m doing, lest I get expelled,” David spoke candidly.

“He’d never rat on you, that’s one thing I am certain of. I’ve known him my whole life. He’s caught me doing loads of things I shouldn’t have, and he’s always had my back. Believe me, there’s no one better.”

“Well I’ll consider it. Thanks, Charlie.”

���Anytime.”

The new star Gryffindor seeker was led back over to the center of the party leaving David to ponder in the middle of the celebration. He did not want to risk trying to bust down that door again at least not without help. Two second years weren’t strong enough but adding Bill to the team might prove to be the deciding factor.

He would have to ask Rowan what he thought of the idea.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“Are you kidding? That’s a great idea!” Rowan exclaimed at lunch the following Monday. “Why didn’t I think of it?”

“A good question considering you talk about him more than you do about your tree farm.”

Rowan lightly swiped at him with his book (and missed) before continuing.

“In all seriousness, think of the possibilities. He’s older, he knows more spells than we do, not to mention he has an interest in what we’re doing according to Charlie. What’s there to lose?”

In truth, not much. But that didn’t mean it was a sure thing.

“I plan on asking him today,” David shrugged. “Just don’t get your hopes up, okay?”

“Why not? He likes you, already. He taught you a few spells last year.”

The twelve year old Gryffindor took a massive bite of shepherd’s pie.

“Dat was ifferent,” he said before swallowing. “Merula was terrorizing the entire first year class. This is ten times as risky.”

“Since when has that ever stopped, you?”

“It never does, and it never will,” David proclaimed. “That also doesn’t mean I go looking for trouble. It just happens to find me most of the time.”

“Well we could save a lot of trouble if we could get him on board. I can read an entire book about potential curses in this school but if we don’t have the know how or power, then this ice could spread even further by year’s end.”

Rowan was never short on logic and he couldn’t fault him this particular time either. The worst Bill could do was say ‘no’ and that would be the end of it. As if to confirm his own intentions, Charlie suddenly came up behind him.

“Hey, David. Bill is waiting for you at the training grounds. Says he has an hour before his next class if you want to talk.”

“Wait, he’s already waiting for me?”

“I put in a good word for you,” Charlie said with a sly grin. “I think you’ll find he’ll be very interested in what you have to say.”

Rowan gave him a look as if to shout ‘what are you waiting for?’ before returning to his grilled cheese sandwich.

“Suppose now is as good a time as any,” he muttered getting up from the table. “Make sure Charlie doesn’t steal my pie, Rowan.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” the red head called back, digging his fork into the pie and shoving it into his mouth.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The route to the training grounds was simple enough, one simply had to traverse two stories and past the dungeons to reach the outside door that led to the cold, autumn outdoors. David was hardly giving much attention to his surroundings as he adjusted his hat and scarf, very eager to see what Bill had to say.

Suddenly, he stopped in the middle of the dungeon corridor, instincts going haywire. Though this part of Hogwarts was always dark and gloomy, he couldn’t shake the feeling he was being watched.

“Hello?” he called out into the empty nothingness.

His natural reflexes kicked in as he just barely ducked a sickly-looking purple jet of light that created sparks on the stone walls.

“Goddamn it, what the hell?!”

Out of the shadows stepped a pale, black haired girl, one eye shrouded by the perpetual greasy mass of mop that never seemed to move. David immediately recognized her as Ismelda Murk, the same girl who had given him that creepy smile the previous week.

“So, you are going to see that blood traitor, Bill Weasley,” she said in a quiet, but deadly tone. “No doubt to discuss the cursed vaults.”

Her wand was trained on him, but David did not reach for his. At least, not yet. Any sudden movement would likely trigger another curse being sent his way.

“And how did you know that?” he stalled.

Ismelda rolled her visible eye.

“Please, your voice is loud enough. It’s not hard to overhear you.”

She took a step forward wand still pointed directly at his chest.

“But it makes no difference. You Gryffindors are all the same- cocky, arrogant, always hogging the spotlight for yourself.”

“Hey, Izzy, if this is about kicking your ass in Quidditch don’t take it out on me. I’m sure there’s a small, defenseless animal somewhere around here you can torture.”

Another jet of purple light barely missed his head.

“I didn’t have to miss,” Ismelda spoke with quiet fury. “Now here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to tell me everything you know about the vaults and I won’t have to hurt you…much.”

At this point, David had had enough. It was already irritating to constantly deal with one crazy Slytherin girl, two went beyond his patience.

“Yeah, okay let me tell you what’s actually going to happen. I’m going to hex you and I’m going to walk out that door.”

Without another second’s hesitation he whipped out his wand and fired the same spell Merula had used on him last year.

‘ Petrificus Totalus! ’

He caught her square in the chest, sending her toppling over like a four by four to the ground. However, she managed to fire off one more curse before it did, and this time he wasn’t quick enough to avoid it.

“GAH!” he winced as he felt his shoulder catch part of the blast. Still, he didn’t waste any more time waiting for Ismelda to regain use of her limbs and ran as fast he could out into the nippy, November air.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

So fast did he run that he barely noticed that after a minute or so, Bill Weasley was right in front of him. When he finally did, the older boy was already looking down on him with an eyebrow raised.

“Whoa, there David Grant. You look out of breath. What happened?”

Still panting from his recent escapade, it took a moment for the 12 year old Gryffindor to form sentences.

“Slytherin girl attacked me. Threatened me over the vaults. Managed to get away though.”

Bill leaned and took a glance at David’s shoulder.

“Not completely. Let me take a look at that wound.”

David saw for the first time the extent of the damage Ismelda had wrought. The top of his robes were cut open to reveal a nasty looking purple and black bruise which had the look of something that had festered for days.

“Ew,” he remarked dryly.

“Let me see if this helps,” Bill said as he pointed his wand at the injury. “ Episkey. ”

Much of the swelling went down and the size was reduced though there remained a remnant of the blackish/blue color in the center.

“Madam Pomfrey probably could have gotten rid of that in an instant. But I’m pretty rubbish when it comes to medicine, that’s the only healing spell I know.”

“It’s fine,” David shrugged. “No lasting damage. What was that curse anyway?”

“Only seen it a few times but it’s a nasty one, especially if a powerful dark wizard uses it. Bone bruise curse. Can cause severe internal bleeding in the hands of a real psycho. Sometimes kids at Hogwarts will use them in duels, but it’s generally taboo.”

“That explains a lot,” he muttered.

“It sounds like you were waylaid on your way down here,” Bill surmised. “Who was it?”

“Ismelda Murk. She’s my year. Makes Merula Snyde look like a flower girl by comparison.”

“I’ve heard of her,” Bill said darkly. “She apparently attacked Charlie on the train this year simply for bumping into her by accident. You were there for that if I recall correctly.”

“Indeed, I was.”

“Well in any case this might be the perfect opening into what you really came down here for. Charlie told me you needed some help with these cursed vaults.”

David nodded in the affirmative.

“I do. Rowan and I actually found the entrance, but there was some sort of enchantment on it. I don’t think we can break it, just the two of us. Charlie said you might be interested.”

“Interested? Hell, David I wish you had come to me sooner. I’m in.”

David didn’t know what to expect, but the fact that Bill accepted his request so readily was a tad surprising.

“Huh, well that didn’t take much persuasion.”

“You didn’t need to,” Bill said seriously. “This ice is becoming more and more dangerous by the week and doesn’t appear to be dissipating any time soon. If we can get through that door you spoke of earlier there’s a strong chance we can break this curse.”

His face broke into a reluctant smile.

“I’d also be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit excited too. This is my first curse breaking adventure and I’m honored to be a part of it.”

“The honor is all mine,” David grinned. “Seriously, I can’t thank you enough.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” the eldest Weasley warned. “It’s going to take a lot of preparation and even a little pain to break into a cursed vault. We’ll need to do a lot of research and spellwork if this is going to be successful. It’ll also give us the opportunity to learn a few more jinxes for dueling, especially considering you were just attacked.”

“Rowan will eagerly take care of the research. He’ll also be pretty happy to know you’re in on this little quest of ours.”

“Somehow that doesn’t surprise me,” Bill laughed. “Come on, let’s get started.”

And so they did. For the next few weeks, the trio met once a week to either study in the library or go to the training grounds to learn new spells and practice them on the wooden target dummies. This became steadily more difficult as time went on as the weather became colder the first snowfall hit but it was still good practice and it also provided an opportunity for Rowan to progress in his own dueling prowess, which steadily improved over time. Now and then they were also joined by Penny and Ben, who were eager to help in any way they could. For Penny that meant assistance in brewing certain potions that they would need in a tight spot- fire breathing and pepperup potions came to mind. For Ben, it meant assistance in some of the research and moral support…and the occasional training session.

“Remind me why I have to learn the fire making spell again?” he asked one cold December morning between the crunch of white powder on the ground.

The snow was also a good outlet to begin practicing a spell that would be quite useful in keeping warm and potentially knocking down the giant snowflake that fired concentrated freezing spells at those who tried to enter its domain (Bill did a double take when he was told that story). Incendio would create large blasts of red and blue fire, though it was still somewhat difficult to control, especially for second years, and so Bill supervised their progress.

“A freezing day in December is almost as bad as the sensation you’ll feel inside the vault,” David told him as he shifted his scarf to reveal his pink, rosy nose, clearly whipped by the slight wind. “What better way to practice?”

“No offense, David, but I’m not sure I’m the right person to go inside the vault with you,” Ben said glumly.

“We will cross that bridge when we get to it,” Bill interjected. “For now, being prepared to break the protective enchantments is the best way to go. We’ll need a full arsenal to do so.”

Penny beamed underneath her hat, coat, and mittens.

“I’m just glad we’re finally learning something that could be considered proper defense. This year’s Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is complete rubbish.”

“Yeah, well I’d be lying if that also didn’t factor into it,” the red head muttered. “I also figured the fire making spell would be a top priority based off what Dave and Rowan told me about this vault.”

“Speaking of curse breaking, I actually brought you something,” David said, remembering suddenly his gift. “I bought this through mail order a week ago.”

He stuck his mittens into the bag and presented it to his friend.

“ Patricia Rakepick: A Guide to Cursebreaking,” Bill read aloud his eyes lighting up. “Wow, David this is amazing. You didn’t have to get me this. Madam Rakepick is one of the best in the world.”

“Good practice for when you become a cursebreaker yourself,” he replied with a wink. “Not to mention it’ll be good for all of us when we enter the vault. Rakepick has been around the globe and back again. Seen and done it all.”

“We’ll pour through it once we get back inside. In the meantime, let me see your fire one more time.”

David point his wand in the air.

“ Incendio! ”

A large stream of flames issued forth, crackling the air before ceasing altogether.

“You really have a talent for this stuff, don’t you?” Bill chuckled. “Took me a lot longer to learn that spell. Penny, you next.”

The blonde obliged, sending a lesser but still decent amount of flames into the frigid December day.

“Not bad. You need a little bit more power but otherwise you’re coming along fine,” Bill encouraged.

“I know,” Penny said a bit sheepishly. “I’m just afraid I’ll burn one of you guys.”

“You can burn me any time you want. Feels like my ass is about to freeze off,” David quipped.

“Well we certainly wouldn’t want that,” Bill responded dryly but with a cheeky grin. “One more from Ben and then we’ll grab some hot cocoa.”

Shaking heavily from the cold, Ben nevertheless loudly proclaimed the incantation.

“ I-Incendio !”

The amount of fire that issued from his wand was so vast that David actually had to grab Penny and duck to avoid minor injury. Even Bill took a step back, a look of shock plastered on his face.

“Well that’s one way to do it,” he offered in his gentlest tone. “Maybe say it a little less loudly next time.”

David began laughing as he picked himself up from the frost bitten ground, putting an arm around his friend.

“That could have melted the entire door down. And you say you’re not worthy of going into the vault,” he ribbed him.

Ben only offered a weak grin.

“Heh.”

The rest of the month continued like this, with spell learning sessions occurring inside rather than the increasingly frigid outdoors of Scotland. As they continued to meet together outside of class, at lunch, and in the library the group also took extra pains to ensure the Slytherins were not following or attempting to sabotage them. After the embarrassing loss to their rival, Merula and her ilk were becoming more vocal again and more than a few times, David caught her messing with his potions again. She constantly whispered about how she was closing in on key information on the vaults to distract him, which he did his best to ignore. Merula loved to exaggerate her own achievements so it wasn’t particularly concerning. Nevertheless, he made a point to keep an eye on her and her prime lacky, Ismelda Murk.

As December wore on and the holidays grew closer, David grew more anxious to revisit the vault, especially with all the planning and preparation they were doing. Bill, however, aired on the side of caution. He too was eager to visit the first cursed vault but opined it would be more prudent to wait until after they returned from Christmas break. It gave them all time to practice their spellwork and would throw off the scent of anyone on their trail, namely Filch, who was always scouring the 13th corridor at night with Mrs. Norris. In the end, the group largely concurred with such thinking.

It wasn’t until the last day before the holidays that the pressure to enter the vault ramped up a notch. The three boys were on their way back from their final class of the day, a potions extravaganza that featured pre-Christmas goodwill from the Gryffindors and Slytherins tossing acid pops into each other’s cauldrons, until they noticed a crowd stood outside the 9th corridor. Though no one was panicking as of yet the murmuring became louder as David, Rowan, and Ben approached.

“What’s going on?” David asked aloud. “It’s not supposed to be this busy. Not until the train leaves Hogsmeade station anyway.”

“No idea,” Rowan shrugged.

“Can we find out what this is later?” Ben said nervously. “Ismelda threw an acid pop in my cauldron and I think some of it burned through my robes.”

But curiosity overrode the other two Gryffindor boys as they slowly weaved their way through the crowd and towards the front.

“You guys! It happened again!” Tonks said to them. But there was no need to expound further. Reaching the front, they witnessed a fourth year Ravenclaw covered nearly head to toe in the cursed ice, face dangerously blue, eyes barely open. It was quite a revelation and also quite disturbing. No student, not even Ben had been entrapped so thoroughly. The only part of his body that remained free was his head and neck, everything else remained submerged.

It didn’t take long for the whispering to turn to proclamations.

“The ice won’t stop until it gets us all!” a random girl shouted.

Thankfully, any mass hysteria was quelled by the sudden arrival of Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, and Snape.

“Students, remain calm!” the deputy Headmistress shouted over the low hum of gossip. “Please be on your way to prepare for the train. Those who are staying at Hogwarts over Christmas break, return to your dormitories until further notice. Prefects, see that everyone is accounted for.”

“You heard her!” Snape barked. “Away with you!”

The intimidating leer of Severus Snape was more than enough to disperse the crowd, but not before David overheard the professors commenting on the situation.

“The ice has never spread this far before,” Flitwick said with a note of anxiety in his voice. “Should we not alert the Headmaster to return?”

“Dumbledore has enough on his plate,” Snape replied. “He will not come back to Hogwarts until after Christmas. We can handle things until then. If the ice is getting stronger, we should not allow that information to spread beyond these walls.”

“I will letter Albus. But for now, let us focus on unfreezing Mr. Isaacs. Madam Pomfrey will need to attend to him for quite a while,” Professor McGonagall spoke, taking out her wand.

David, Rowan, and Ben looked at each other as Tonks and the Hufflepuffs headed towards the kitchen. All of a sudden, containing the ice was looking more and more impossible. If all of Hogwarts was threatened to be consumed by it, they had less time than originally thought.

“Happy Christmas, everyone,” David said ironically as they approached the Fat Lady to pack.

Though most holidays were spent opening presents, eating pie, and retelling school stories, this was once incident he planned to keep away from the ears of his mother and father, knowing both of them would panic if they found out he was attempting to break into the vaults himself.

Rubbing the back of his neck, David couldn’t help but wish for a quick end to December.

There was much more work to be done, yet.

[keyofjetwolf]

Jet Wolf Summarizes Act 43, pt2

The manga and I kind of hate each other. This is unfortunate, but still, I’m determined to come out of this with something. Rather than spend energy on a liveblog that’s increasingly negative, I’m reading each manga act (mostly) silently, and then writing up summaries at the end. I won’t pull my punches. There’s going to be criticism and snark about the manga, either wholesale or in details. If that isn’t a thing you feel like reading, please skip this post!

[READ PART ONE HERE]

So for exactly no reason whatsoever, Rei, Ami, and Mako are wistfully lamenting the absence of the Outer Senshi and the many, many, many times they provided succor to their adoring young counterparts. 

Minako says, wondering how much of that vodka she’s gone through. As it turns out, Minako’s hiding a deeper secret. For reasons unknown, she’s lost the ability to transform.

Later, she confesses this to Artemis -- and Luna, and Tiny Kitten who happen to be the room. Minako would, naturally, be completely blasé about sharing deeply upsetting and personal information with them, so this makes perfect sense. Artemis gives Minako a pep talk, beginning with his confidence that Minako has the power inside of her and she can totally do this, and finishing with one of my favourite panels so far.

If you were following my posts earlier today, you know where this is going. We hurtle toward it, unable to alter the course of our destiny, ineffective passengers strapped in our seats and riding the bullet train to hell. It comes.

IT COMES

But I’m going to skip this for a moment. Before I loose my shit entirely, I want to talk about what COULD have been good about this issue. It brings up such an interesting idea, and I would have dearly loved for the manga to have done absolutely any of the work necessary to set this up (see also, This Summary Part One), or follow it through.

What’s blocking Minako from being able to transform isn’t (I’m assuming, this is sort of a two-parter) anything the Dead Moon are doing, it isn’t some fiendish enemy plot. It’s Minako’s own feelings of inadequacy because her friends and teammates won’t shut the fuck up about how awesome and inspiring the Outers are. And, by implication, how unnecessary SHE is.

I have no confidence whatsoever that the manga is going to follow through on this, BUT. I love so much this as a problem Minako has to overcome. She’s finally maybe coming to terms with her own fame and notoriety fading before Usagi, she’s enjoying the benefits of being part of a team rather than going solo. Only there’s this hole in Minako that she’s always trying to fill with the attention and adoration of others. It’s why she wants to be famous, why she wants to be a pop idol or an actress. And in her “real” job, it’s her girls that fill that need. The way they turn to her for confidence and strength, for support and strategy.

Except the fucking Outers are doing all that now, AND THEY AREN’T EVEN HERE.

Minako feels she’s losing the respect of Rei, Ami, and Mako, and it fucks her up so badly that she can’t even transform any more. As you can tell just from these few paragraphs, this idea is SO INTERESTING to me. What it says about Minako, what it says about her feelings for the others. That she gets so immediately obsessed about being special in SOMETHING that she falls right into a blatantly obvious Dark Moon trap. IT’S LITERALLY PRINTED ON THE BUSINESS CARD.

I’ll get back to the actual summary here in a second, as the concept begins to fall apart as the issue wears on. Minako makes increasing stupid and bad decisions, which are by far more of a threat to her credibility as leader than Ami imagining she and Pluto had a conversation once. But the IDEA is so interesting and solid, and as with all the most frustrating things, it’s the unrealized potential in it that gets to me most. Takeuchi CAN come up with really interesting character-driven ideas, she just doesn’t give a fuck most of the time, and nobody in editorial seems to have either the power or the will to hold her feet to the fire to see it through.

OR TO STOP HER FROM MAKING REALLY GOD AWFUL DECISIONS LIKE TURNING ARTEMIS INTO A GODDAMN PERVERT FOR NO FUCKING REASON. Don’t worry, we’ll get there, friends. Oh, we will get there.

So having had enough of listening to the others sucking some quality Outer Senshi dick, Minako runs off. It should be HER dick, dammit, HER DICK. As she’s running and crying, she gets spotted by a talent scout, who invites her to an idol audition. Attention soothes the savage beast, and Minako returns to her friends with a business card and a hair flip. “Minako, this blatantly says ‘Auditions by EvilCo, Death Guaranteed’,” Rei points out. “WHAT’S THAT THEY LOVE ME YOU’RE RIGHT REI NO MORE DICK FOR YOU BYEEEE.”

As soon as she’s out of there though, Minako curses herself for not noticing (IT IS LITERALLY HALF OF THE WORDS ON THE BUSINESS CARD MINAKO), but then decides to turn this into an opportunity to bust the Dead Moon Circus herself and prove she’s a great leader.

BY NOT LEADING ANYONE I’LL NOTE BUT OKAY MINA THAT’S HOW THAT WORKS SURE

When she gets there, though, there are so many people that she isn’t sure she’ll be able to save them all herself. She considers putting out a call for the others, but there’s a problem.

ALONE THEN YES GOOD VERY LEADERLY.

I honestly feel torn between all of this. On the one hand, Minako is CLEARLY not reacting rationally, and that not only makes sense given where she’s at right now, but it’s pretty consistent with Minako’s character to lash out in extreme ways that have absolutely no bearing on good decision making. On the other, I don’t trust Takeuchi’s ability as a writer whatsoever. So is Minako doing this because it’s in-character, or because Takeuchi’s just not thinking it the fuck through? HOW MUCH DO I WANT TO ARGUE THIS SHIT I GUESS IS WHAT I’M ASKING MYSELF.

And the answer is “It’s 7:30 and you’ve been on this one issue since noon”. Yes, good, well argued, Me.

So Minako keeps flying solo through this entire fucked up audition that includes a group of children trapped up on a trapeze platform. YES REALLY

Minako will abandon them for a little bit later, by the way. Since noon, since noon. Right. Moving on.

Everyone at the competition begins to go evil and shit’s not looking good for Minako. She’s about to be crushed by boulders (yes, boulders, I’ve looked five times and I can’t figure out where they come from, just go with it) when Mako shows up out of nowhere, hops between them and Minako, and blasts them into a thousand pieces, because Makoto Kino is all that is good in the world.

ALL. THAT IS GOOD. IN THE WORLD.

Seriously, Mako simultaneously loving Minako enough to be nearly CRUSHED TO DEATH BY BOULDERS to save her, and so pissed off that the first words out of her mouth after are “SHUT THE FUCK UP” is some goddamn A+ Makoto Kinoing. As frustrated and furious as I am at this issue, I give it up for this moment.

The others are pissed because Minako went to fight the bad guys without them, and I just have to say again I would so love if this were an ongoing THING with Minako, that they’ve had honest to god “YOU CANNOT KEEP DOING THIS TO US” talks about it and shit. And you KNOW Minako would lose her shit if any of them did it to her? Imagine her FURIOUS that Rei risked herself by storming off and going it alone, and then Rei calling her right the fuck back on her hypocrisy. How fucking delicious would that be, jesus wept, I want it so much.

ANYWAY WE DON’T HAVE THAT WE HAVE THAT WE HAVE THIS. Under pressure now, Minako tries again to transform, but can’t. Completely unable to face her friends, she runs off again. She pulls herself together though and tries to save the kids. SURPRISE THEY’RE NOT KIDS. Minako’s fallen right into the Quartet’s trap now. They brainwash her to take the ginzuishou from the others, but before she can try, Artemis appeals to her sense of innate goodness and reason.

But the Quartet spring yet another trap! Minako is plummeting to her doom! Artemis saves her again, disregarding all known laws of physics.

And with boulders raining down on Artemis now, that’s where the issue ends.

OKAY SO LET’S TALK ABOUT THE PERVY CAT IN THE ROOM AND HOW FUCKING ENRAGED I AM BY WHAT IT’S DONE

There are SO MANY levels on which I’m so fucking upset and furious about this Artemis thing, including:

Takeuchi’s repeated genuinely distressing thing about animal/human romance

The idea that any meaningful non-familial male/female relationship must inevitably have that element of sexual attraction

EDIT: @docholligay REMINDED ME ABOUT THE CONSTANT CHIBI-USA AND MAMORU SHIT AND I HAD TO SCRATCH THE NON-FAMILIAL PART WHY WERE WE BORN TO SUFFER

Artemis not just violating Minako’s privacy and trust, but sneaking around as he does it, meaning HE HIMSELF knows it’s wrong, he just doesn’t care

The introduction of this as a thing he’s both willing and capable of, forcing the question of how many times he’s done it in the past

The soiling of their friendship and partnership, which is one of my favourites in the entire franchise fuck you so hard Takeuchi

Some extra creepy issues centered around how Artemis is Minako’s MENTOR for fuck’s sake

How it ruins EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS ENDING

I love the idea of Artemis saving Minako. I love that he’s in this with her, looking out for her, believing in her even when she believes in herself so little she can’t even transform. I wish I could just adore everything about this.

BUT I CAN’T

I can’t, because for NO FUCKING REASON I COULD EVER FATHOM, we’ve now introduced lust into their relationship. We now know, incontrovertibly, that some part of Artemis views Minako as sexually desirable. It colours his motives entirely, however much I wish they fucking didn’t. And because it came out of nowhere IN THIS VERY ISSUE, FOR NO APPARENT REASON, it makes it even MORE dubious that there isn’t some part of Artemis trying so hard to save Minako because he’s “in love” with her.

WHY IS THIS EVEN A THING I HAVE TO FUCKING QUESTION NOW WHY WAS IT SO BLOODY NECESSARY TO PUT THIS IDEA OF ALL IDEAS OUT INTO THE WILD

This has utterly fucked Artemis and Minako’s relationship in the manga for me. I can’t unsee this, I can’t wipe it away. THESE HANDS ARE TAINTED. I may have to go try and flush my brain with some Artemis and Minako hijinks from the anime, to try and prevent rot from setting in there, too.

And I’m so ... ANGRY that this is where I am. And why? What payoff could there possibly be? How myopic was Takeuchi that she didn’t see a problem with that? Or that she thought it was what, sweet? Romantic? NOT LITERALLY SKEEVY AS FUCK AND RUINING SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL

That this is a thing I’m having to deal with, though, it’s such a microcosm of the manga for me. It came from nowhere, it wasn’t thought out, it was probably decided on a whim, and it fucking sucks.

I’M SO SO SORRY ARTEMIS

[linksense]

@yourblueangel - continued from here. 

Whether or not she had tears in her eyes was of no concern to him, as he rested a hand on his desk as he sat by her on his computer chair. As she continued to cry, he gave her the light of day, but didn’t say much beyond occasional comforting words along the lines of “it’s okay” and “he’s not worth the time.” 

Honestly? All of it was damage control. While the Yusaku of the past would have still reacted rather the same way -- kind of hard not to when a model of all things was crying to you about her tiny little unrequited feelings after hardly talking to you since you weren’t at all anything high class -- as it stood right now, in truth, it was only so he could get his way. 

Blue Angel was the most important asset SOL Technologies had, and Yusaku needed her to give him the access codes to their data bank. A boy not liking her was the absolute least of his concerns. If she found that to be bad, then how about having him be killed in a freak accident, as the entire world moved on as if he never existed, including the company responsible? 

Yeah. One guy not liking a supermodel who had many a potential suitor was nothing compared to him losing the girl he had admired for quite come time. He may have not realized his true feelings for her until after she was gone, but... it still hurt. Realizing it didn’t mean he didn’t feel it. The depression afterwards was concerning, even to his partners in his secret hacking efforts. 

... Yusaku was sure he would never get Kusanagi’s words out of his head once he finally came back after two weeks of silence -- 

“You loved her. Didn’t you?”

Yusaku would probably feel the sting of the truth and the sorrow of the regret for years to come, as he ended up finally realizing, that yes. He loved her. He loved her, and now, she was gone. 

“I’m sorry. I suppose crying over a boy not liking you back is a bit of a small-world problem.”

Gee. You think? As much as that was how Yusaku felt with the model’s struggles in comparison to his own, that wouldn’t at all get him what he wanted. He was in it for the long game, aiming for the access codes to every ounce of information within the company she worked for. He had a feeling she wouldn’t give it up that easy... but so far, it had been smooth sailing. Either Blue Angel was sympathetic to his plight... or was incredibly stupid. 

Well, judging by how he decided to risk trusting her with the truth of his plan, after she had figured out his more hidden motives, that he wanted to find the truth of the situation -- what really happened when that TV killed Aoi that day during SOL Technologies’ latest public event, he was truthfully going with the former. So, while his words were him playing her like a puppet, at the very least, he could say that he meant it. His heart had grown black against everything he had faced and realized in the wake of his crush’s death, but he wasn’t cruel. ... Yet, anyway.

“Perhaps. It’s fine. Cry as much as you need.” 

Yet, Blue Angel’s response to his statement wasn’t one he expected. He didn’t expect sympathy, causing his brows to furrow, only for his eyes to widen as she held up a tiny piece of paper, saying they were the access codes. He took it as calmly as he could manage, though his heart that was covered in the flames of his revenge wanted to yank it out of her perfectly manicured hands instantly as soon as she said what they were. Green eyes looked up from the tiny slip of paper, into faded light blue eyes that held... pain within them. A plea of some sort... it... caused him to hesitate. He felt like it was a message meant for him... but what was she meaning to say? 

Whatever it was, it meant nothing compared to finding out what really happened to Aoi Zaizen.

“That’s why you wanted this information, right? To get revenge for your friend…? The one… The one who died?”

Yusaku delicately fiddled with the tiny piece of paper as if dropping it or tearing it slightly would be the end of everything. To some degree, it would be. 

“Yeah.” He said, simply, eyes once again on the paper as he raised up a hand closer to his face. His brows were furrowed in thought. He couldn’t believe that trying to support the supermodel in her ordinary, every day problems and just talking to her actually got him the information he needed. Being open and honest with her, while being unwise, worked wonders as well. Granted, he didn’t have a choice as somehow Blue Angel turned out to be rather perceptive rather than a ditz... so with what she knew, and apparently didn’t report to SOL Technologies personally... could he trust her with the rest of it...? 

... She knew too much now. She had to follow as long as she wanted to. 

Without another word, Yusaku turned to his computer, tapping a shortcut he programmed in with two keys, causing it to boot up. The computer let out a bright sound, notifying him that it had begun it’s reboot process, and the process only took a solid moment before he shifted the mouse over to a program, opened it, and hit the green call button on the profile listed as “Kusanagi.” 

As the call began to ring, a tiny little black-and-purple creature popped up on his screen. 

“Hello, hello, Yusaku~!” The figure beamed without a mouth and golden eyes that shined despite being closed. “Oohh?! Blue Angel?! What are you doing here?!” 

“She’s with us.” 

“HUH?!” 

To the being on his computer screen, Yusaku lifted up the paper he had at his side between two of his fingers with a flick. 

“She gave me the codes.” 

“No wayyy!! You’re kidding!! You and your lack of stealth actually got her to work with us?!” Despite the insult at his information gathering skills, Yusaku didn’t at all respond, and the creature went ahead and jumped over to the side of the screen that was easiest to see from where Blue Angel was standing. He still beamed with closed eyes, and his voice came through crystal clear through the monitor, as if he was already there. 

“Welcome to the Lets Find What SOL Tech Did to Aoi team, Blue Angel! Nice to see ya, and sure happy to be workin’ with a pretty girl like you after dealin’ with a mope like him!!” 

And apparently, that was the last straw, as Yusaku went from waiting for Kusanagi to answer the call as it continued to ring, shot a glance down at his assistant within his computer, and finished things with only two words. 

“Be quiet.”

[eyedelater]

notes on vigilantes (hero academia illegals) after reading all available chapters

the most striking feature of this spinoff is that every chapter is like an introductory chapter. the first one i read was #7 (like a month ago) and i was sure that that was the first time we were meeting koichi. that's just how it felt. then i started at the beginning and chapter 1 was an introduction to the concept of vigilantes in a world of heroes and an introduction to our three main characters. then chapters 2 through 6 were Also introductions to the concept of vigilantes and our three main characters. they kept getting nameplates on their first appearance in each chapter! chapter 4 opens with present mic being like "JUST WHAT IS A VIGILANTE?!" bitch you think i don't know what a vigilante is by now??? don't be so accommodating of new readers every single chapter! it’s so redundant!

popty ping's whole character design is so male gaze it hurts. she hits every point on the list i made of characteristics shared by too many horikoshi female characters: mask is only an eye mask (so you know she's pretty), form-fitting and unnecessarily revealing costume, no physical abnormalities, generic attractive face shape, long hair, average height, generic attractive body type, no prominent muscles or anything. the only thing that makes her appearance distinctive or memorable in any way is the way they draw the texture of her hair in those weird puffy chunks, which i kinda like. her "alter ego = glasses and no makeup and her hair is down" thing is the most cliche bullshit possible. she's a walking panty-shot who makes it a point to show her ass to everyone because... she wants to? it makes her feel good about herself? surely not just because the artist wanted to draw a girl's ass as often as possible, oh no, think about what SHE wants, she's a strong independent female character who totally wasn't created solely as a koichi love interest and audience eye candy and the occasional damsel in distress. she loves to objectify HERSELF, there’s nothing wrong with that! (there is.) her backstory about being saved by koichi is cute but dumb as shit tbh. and she's not even part of the vigilante team (as seen in chapter 7 where koichi is like "we're knuckleduster and the crawler!" and she's like "i'm not with them!") because she has no actual vigilantism-related motivations except to be vaguely interested in koichi for the aforementioned dumb reasons and to show her ass to everyone. she keeps getting these large panels of her face when she suddenly blushes, as though it’s a moment that holds any emotional weight whatsoever, rather than being a super predictable way to show that she has a crush on (who could have guessed?!) the protagonist. i'm not saying she's not a likable character... i'm saying she's a poorly-executed object of pure, unapologetic self-indulgence by the author and artist. almost nothing about her is justifiable.

hachisuka's character design is, by contrast, a bit better. at least she's not, you know, pop☆step. she's not a purely sexual object (though they do treat her very creepily at times). she has something gross about her (beehive eye), which is somewhat cleverly incorporated into her character design (though i don’t see why she wears an eyepatch sometimes but not always). she has short hair and a sneaky face; she's at least one (1) step away from purely generic horikoshi-style girl. but she, too, has problems with motivations. namely, she doesn't seem to have any? like, okay, working with whoever is studying the effects of "trigger" is apparently her part-time job. so she's doing their bidding, if in a slightly chaotic way. but Why is she doing their bidding? is she getting paid? if she's just doing it for the money, why is it worth it to her? does she need money that desperately? she doesn't seem to care about other people in the slightest. why not??? did something happen to her? we don't even really have any hints as to what's driving her, do we? like, with another mysterious villain, shigaraki tomura, his motivations weren't clear early on, but we had hints, like how his childishness and quickness to panic implied that he was only a puppet posing as the mastermind, and how he had his little tirade about hating heroes because violence is bad, which made it clear that he's against the system more than any one individual, implying that the system has failed him in some way. but hachisuka doesn't have any such hints, does she? as far as we know, she's not against anything, nor is she for anything. what does she want? if anything, it seems like she just wants to fuck shit up for no reason, and that makes her less interesting as an antagonist, not more. also her name (quinn hachisuka -> quinn = queen, hachi = bee -> queen bee) is pretty silly. also, how does she load up her bees with trigger without herself getting triggered...? i want to learn more about the mechanics of her quirk. oh shit, what if her hidden eye hive is one big hexagonal cell, that would be sick

koichi is a cute and charming bugboy. about as interesting as a deku, i.e. "not especially," but i really like his quirk and his face. he's somewhat generic in terms of design, but protags have to be generic to some degree, so i'll accept it. his whole "quirk forces him to be active scurrying around the feet of the citizenry, which creeps them out a little" thing is a good schtick, a good place to work from. his motivations are simple but clear: he likes to help people. his personality is simple but clear: well-meaning, slightly oblivious, easygoing and forgiving, easily roped into things, unsure as to how to go about what he wants to do, but eager to do what he can. he’s weak, scrawny, and emotionally a bit of a pushover, so he’s not perfect, which is good. i suppose his main flaw would be that he isn't really facing any active conflicts in his life, other than what knuckleduster has roped him into. and he's going to college, but what's his major??? 

also, this takes place several years before the start of heroaca, going by ingenium's quip that tenya can't even turn corners yet, so the tenya in that little flashback is probably less than 10 years old, and if i were to go with my gut, i'd say that tenya is around 8 years old, meaning this takes place around 8 years before deku's story begins, meaning that the iida tensei who appears in chapter 7 of vigilantes is approximately 22, MEANING... that he is a perfectly appropriate age to ship with haimawari koichi. score

i was surprised and intrigued to see proto-stain appear as a character in recent chapters... and a noséd stain, at that. (he even says so himself!) his costume is p rad. when it first became clear that this guy is probably stain, my reaction was "could this be... recycling?" as in, how convenient, we get to reuse an antagonist from the main canon, and it doesn't count as reusing because it's technically in the past. but i guess this is actually a little more than just recycling, so i'm fine with it. it's interesting how he has just as few qualms about killing as he does in regular heroaca, yet his character seems more... mature? self-assured? confident? healthy...? than stain. but that makes sense, because the stain who appears in heroaca is much more... eroded. by that point, he's spent years and years stewing in his own disillusionment, losing sight of anything but his ideology, losing faith in nearly everyone... and i wonder if there was one incident in particular that set him irrevocably on that hopeless path, an incident that occurs between now (vigilante time) and then (heroaca time) that results in the loss of the nose off his god damn face. (p.s. that moment when he was like "THE RED OF LIFE~ THE BLACK OF DEATH~" wow what an akaguro chizome thing to say, nameless stranger whose quirk and tongue happen to be 100% identical to stain’s. i can’t believe the heroaca wiki page on stendhal doesn’t acknowledge that he’s definitely stain) (and that dolphin cap he puts on omfg and he keeps his ponytail up, he totally puts his ponytail through the hole in the baseball cap like holy shit)

this porcupine fucker... (his name is souga, apparently...) they tried to treat his character as redeemed without actually giving him a redemption. as soon as he's reintroduced as a potential ally, he gets all pissy when they remind him (not accuse him baselessly, but REMIND HIM of what he ACTUALLY DID) about how he and his buddies threatened to literally rape and kill popty ping, like, THE LAST TIME THEY MET. and this fucker doesn't think of APOLOGIZING or making it clear in any way that he's REFORMED or promising to NEVER DO IT AGAIN; he just skips ahead to getting frustrated that they don't forgive him immediately. NOW WHY IN THE FUCK WOULD THEY FORGIVE HIM IMMEDIATELY? who would??? and then we get a humanizing moment at the hospital with lizard boy and flame boulder and then we're suddenly pitting him against stendhal, and he gets that page where we see how he feels like everyone is always laughing at him in a condescending way and it's like, we've actually seen two of the situations on that page (koichi and popty ping) and they weren't smiling condescendingly at all! you're seeing shit that isn’t there, so that’s your problem, not theirs!!! but that's supposed to make us understand this guy enough to root for him in this fight? all we've learned about him is that he expects forgiveness he hasn't asked for and he perceives ridicule and condescension where there is none! those are Not redeeming character traits in the slightest!!! in fact, they’re very worrying and abusive character traits! now, to be perfectly clear, i'm not saying that stain is right in trying to kill this guy. obviously stain feeling he has the right to be judge, jury, and executioner is at least as flawed as souga's perspective. so it's good that koichi is trying to save him. but that doesn't mean souga is anywhere near redeemed or even likable. don't be so careless in turning antagonists into allies!!! you can't just put the same character in a different slot and expect it to stick!!!

knuckleduster is the embodiment of the male gaze on male characters. he's cool, tough, muscular, mysterious, violent, and confident, and that's it. he's about as shallow as pop, but not sexualized, because they're not trying to make him Attractive (it is the male gaze, after all, which carries strong het connotations); they're trying to make him cool and ultra-masculine in a way that men are expected to aspire to be. it's not a good message, and certainly nothing new, but i don't think he's as much of a slap in the face as popty ping. so idk, i don't have any strong feelings about knuckleduster. he's badass and strong and even blander than koichi. we don't know his real name or age yet, do we? yet somehow it doesn't seem like something we urgently need to know. (i want to say "tell me his age so i can figure out whether it's appropriate to ship him with koichi" but a] koichi is 19 and can take care of himself, so i guess even a wide age difference ship wouldn't put me off too much, and b] knuckle is not even really interesting enough to ship tbh.) and note that i'm not equating quirkless with bland. his quirklessness is like, one of the few points of individuality his character has. but even that isn't played in a very interesting way, because it's not like we see him get hurt or put in any especially vulnerable positions as a result. so if they're going to build knuckleduster up from "a single pure, undistilled trope" to "a developed character of some interest" by giving him an intriguing backstory or something... hurry up and do it already, he's been in practically every chapter since chapter 0.

don't even get me started on the portrayal of midnight (the hero) in this comic. if you don't see something wrong with her deciding to be a high school teacher so she can (as she Almost Explicitly Stated) jerk off the high school boys, i'd like to encourage you to think once in a while. and the way she stopped that suicide bomber villain, that wasn't even in character with the already messed-up character of actual canon midnight-- she's supposed to be a dominatrix, but in that suicide bomber scene, she was just seductive and nurturing! isn’t a dominatrix supposed to be hot but neither seductive nor nurturing? she didn't step on him or anything. they couldn’t even get that specific over-sexualized character right without over-sexualizing her in the wrong way. smfh. did horikoshi-sensei really sign off on this?

in conclusion: the primary saving grace of heroaca vigilantes is the fact that iida tensei appears and is wonderful for a whole chapter. i’ll keep reading because it’s interesting in how it relates to the main heroaca canon, not because there’s much of anything that makes it worthwhile in its own right. though i do like koichi.

EDIT: no wonder there’s hardly anything about this on pixiv...

[tatakatte]

Thoughts on The Last Jedi

Overall: I loved it, but I can very much understand why people won’t. It’s a smorgasbord of plots and characters that doesn’t linger long enough with any of them and completely shatters the cadence of the other trilogies. That being said, it gave a hint as to a different message than we’ve previously felt in the Star Wars movies. One that I find refreshing and intriguing if they have the guts to really thoroughly explore it.

The movie can be divided into three sections. We have the Resistance plot, which focuses mostly on Poe Dameron and Leia. Then the Caper plot, which is Finn and newcomer Rose - easily the most extraneous of the plots and a big part of why I think people will not like this film. Lastly is the Jedi/Force plot, the major one that deals with Luke, Rey, and Kylo Ren.

Rebellion Plot:

The plot device used here - the slow chase to inexorable death via depleted fuel - always has the potential to cast a feeling of dread and defeat. There’s nothing they can do to get more fuel, and if they are caught, they will die. This is used effectively, and is devastating. It’s hard to watch the resistance get beaten and beaten and crushed by inevitability. It was also a good device to use, since it was so slow, versus the quick pace of the battle scenes and the Caper plot.

Poe Dameron was the star of this plotline. We get to see him really shine here, under tutelage from Leia, while still being his own infuriating person. He seems a mix of the Han Solo and Leia archetypes. He’s brash and reactive, but he’s also calculating and deeply loyal. I don’t think he can ever be the diplomat Leia is, but he can certainly get close. For all that they didn’t give him in TFA, Oscar Isaac kills it. He’s cocky, but not destructive. Yes, his first instinct is to blow things up, but he learns several times that sometimes he has to find a different way, that he has to rely on other peoples’ knowledge, especially those more experienced than him. I like that he fucked up a few times, because it takes time for people to learn from their mistakes. Don’t even get me started on his relationship with BB-8, which is adorable, nor his constant admiration for Finn, which should make Stormpilot fans happy.

Really, it’s his interactions with Leia that show his true self. He argues with her, but defers to her when necessary. It’s obvious that Leia has sort of replaced Ben with Poe, mothering in the only way she knows how.

I loved that they had Holdo use the lightspeed to shatter a ship. It’s one of those pet theories that you wanna see, but rarely do. The sacrifice was good - a character we could respect, but nothing too devastating.

The two major battles - space battle at the beginning and red-dirt battle at the end - were well done, typical fancy action shit. I absolutely loved the visual of the white salt being shifted to reveal the red dirt. It was gorgeous and seemed more cinematic than usual. The first battle had the first showing of the humor that would be used in the film, and what I very much dislike. It’s the very meta obvious humor, and while it makes people laugh, it starts to feel inappropriate and too easy. I’m not quite sure how to articulate it. I like my humor to be more subtle, and probably why it rubs me the wrong way.

Leia was underused, but I loved that she used her Force powers. The situation was weird, but damnit if I don’t want Leia to use all the Skywalker powerful shit, just like her brother. It’s always bittersweet with Leia, that Han is gone, her son is gone, and now Luke is gone. She’s all that is left, and she endures. I’m so sad about Carrie Fisher passing, It looked as though she was really enjoying this film.

Caper plot:

Finn and mechanic Rose head to a casino planet to find a hacker to get them into the ship that’s tracking the rebel fleet. Yeah, it sounds convoluted because it is. Fortunately, Finn and Rose are so damn adorable and charismatic that I loved it anyway. Rose in particular came with a strong sense of self and devotion to the rebellion.

The film fails poor Finn. He has no character development and gets a lot of action, but it invariably is pointless. John Boyega is so wonderful, I hope the third film utilizes him appropriately.

Benicio del Toro was more tragically underused than Boyega. His hacker character doesn’t even get a name, has a cute humanizing moment, and then sells out Finn and Rose for a hot dog. Like, what was the point of having such a big actor play him. Maybe we’ll see more in Episode IX, but it was so weird having him do nothing in this one.

I’d like to reiterate this idea for Captain Phasma and the tragedy that is not using Gwendoline Christie. She’s awesome, and has shown to be a versatile actor, and we see her for about ten minutes and three lines. She ‘dies’ but I think they might bring her back for Ep. IX. There was no build up, no backstory or explanation. They have to do something.

Jedi/Force plot:

The meat of the movie. It’s the best part of the whole thing.

We see Luke downtrodden and beaten. He’s failed his sister, his friend, and his nephew. He didn’t train Ben properly, and ended up losing him to the Dark Side. And so Luke has made himself a crotchety hermit that won’t train anyone else. But there’s still that guy inside who brought balance to the Force. The Luke that saved his father, that turned down the Dark Side over and over. Mark Hamill does some of the best acting of his life in this film, giving us so much despair and so much hope. I also feel that Hamill’s career as a villainous voice actor influenced his portrayal of Luke, giving him just a hint of darkness that he didn’t feel like the Golden Child of the original trilogy anymore. I think he came to peace in this film, especially when he accepted that the way he was thinking of the Jedi - as these pristine providers of truth and justice and without flaw - wasn’t a way that could be sustained. And really, that whole ideology started with Luke, when he saw that Darth Vader - the baddest bitch of all - could still have light in him.

Rey was delightful. I do think her training was perfunctory and probably will lead to disaster, her vulnerability with what she saw through the Force and how she connects to it makes her a new sort of Jedi. She isn’t the black and white good or bad Jedi from before, which I think is necessary to the survival of the Jedi. A lot of folk have made talk about her being a Gray Jedi, which I think will happen if not in name, because I think it’s the only way the Jedi can proceed. What they’ve been doing obviously hasn’t been working.

Her Force bond scenes with Kylo Ren - Ben Solo - are amazing. Their connection was heartbreaking and soft and tender and naked in its emotions. I can’t even describe how lovely it was. They were like small children sharing secrets, exposing their deepest parts to each other. You see Kylo actually be a person rather than this whiny bitch, and the scene where they touch hands is one of the most sensual things that has ever happened on screen. A lot of people (especially Reylo shippers, hi) see a sexual component to their Force bond visions, but for me, it was just intimate. It was intimate in a way that was difficult to watch at times. It was a raw emotionality that doesn’t often appear in Star Wars films, and I believe never to this degree.  That’s what I believe will resonate the most with people.

That, and the battle scene before Snoke, of course. I wasn’t happy with how quickly and abruptly they killed off Snoke. We didn’t learn a thing about him! But in some ways, I‘m glad he was disposed of so early, so that we can move on from Kylo having a dark manipulative master. And the way they did it was wonderful.

Kylo Ren gets A+ treatment in this movie. You can see the conflict in him, and how determined he is to be the antagonist, and how much he hates and how much he longs for his family. Early on, he has a chance to destroy the ship that Leia’s on, but he feels her. And he doesn’t shoot. He seems like a stunted little boy who was betrayed by everyone he loved and now he’s tearing them apart in the way Snoke taught him. He calls himself a monster, and only people who are in deep pain will do something like that. Monsters never think of themselves as such.

Kylo had moments of his usual short temper, throwing fits, being melodramatic crap. And it will always be hilarious about how the peons of the First Order seem to be completely used to him destroying random shit and they just carry on as usual. But I do feel like we saw the pale underbelly of our villain. He’s not cut-out for it, really. His redemption arc in Ep IX is going to be painful and glorious and it will happen.

The thing I liked most about this film, however, isn’t really any specific scene or character. It’s this idea Kylo Ren has, that he has to kill the past. Obviously, he takes it to a literal sense, but I think the motive behind it is intriguing.

After all, here we are again. Rebels vs empire. Separatists vs the Republic. Resistance vs First Order. Have we learned any lesson? Will this keep happening, over and over. Revolution, new government, oppression, revolution, etc. Nothing really gets better. At the end of the film, the entire Resistance fits inside the Millennium Falcon. Like, 30 people maybe. That’s not nearly enough red shirts to last a whole movie.

But there’s hope. We have Poe Dameron, who is in Leia’s position, but not quite like her. We have Finn, someone who broke out of the stormtrooper faceless mold. We have Rey, someone who rejects the Jedi teachings in a way that doesn’t embrace the Dark Side, but rather recognizes that the two sides will always be there, always need balancing. And we have Kylo Ren, this arrogant, whiny, tantrum-throwing abuse survivor, who’s been gaslighted and groomed for who knows how long. He’s not another villain who’s evil for kicks. What do we do with all these people who don’t fit in the Star Wars hero/villain templates?

The old way of doings things hasn’t worked. It’s made monsters and terrible people and killed countless. It never stops, it never truly gets better. That’s particularly emphasized - perhaps unintentionally - on the casino planet.

Finn and Rose have a sort of rollicking adventure, evading the police and getting into/out of trouble. del Toro’s character rather ham-fistedly states that the weapons dealers give to both the First Order and the Resistance (yeah, ok, what unionized friendly weapon-supplier are they supposed to use??), that there’s problems on both sides. However, I think the more poignant moment is when we see the kids being used as slaves, basically. They are tiny and live in the stables and obviously orphaned or sold to take care of the horse-creatures. Even Rose talks about how the children of her planet were used, destroyed by these money-hungry warmongers. The Empire rose, the Empire fell, the Republic rose, the Republic fell, and these poor people stayed in the same place. They are still downtrodden, impoverished, enslaved, used.

The old way doesn’t work. We have to try something new.

I really hope they embrace this idea in Ep IX. It excited me in a way that a lot of media has failed to do. I would love to see the talent behind Star Wars embrace a complete paradigm shift.

--- an aside. I absolutely adored that Rey’s parents were worthless junkers who sold her for drinking money. Really, truly, I feel like that’s in the spirit of what the filmmakers were trying to say. However, we do get this information from Kylo Ren, who isn’t the most reliable of sources, and may have been manipulated by Snoke (what’s new). I would much rather this be the truth.

But. During all their Force Skype scenes, Rey and Kylo felt very much like children bonding. Their interactions had an air of innocence to them. This was juxtaposed with Luke and Leia having their own Force-provided conversations and insights in a parallel that I’m still not sure was intentional. In fact, when Kylo is telling Rey that she knows who her parents are, that she’s always known, I straight-up thought she would say that Leia and Han are her parents. That her and Kylo are twins (are they the same age??? maybe siblings). It felt like a natural lead up, and I wouldn’t have been surprised. Was this just me? Am I the weirdo now?

Oh well.

[russellthornton]

Eye Fucking: Master the Art and Get Them to Eye Fuck You Back

“The eyes are the windows to the soul,” as the saying goes. But you might not know this phrase, eye fucking. So, what exactly is it?

Indeed, our eyes can tell a lot about who we are and what are intentions will be. After all, the eyes are an important part of the communication process, both verbally and non-verbally.

Besides this, our eyes also play an active role in our romantic exploits. It is common to hear people say that they find attractive eyes a plus for a potential partner, while some would tell how blatant ogling can get you in trouble.

But despite this, relationships all started with “the stare.” It is that moment when you discover that you’re physically attracted to that person. That’s the reason both guys and girls check people out.

But besides passive glances, there is that one kind of stare that people use to communicate romantic and sexual attraction, and that is known as eye fucking. [Read: 13 lusty signs of sexual attraction to keep an eye on]

What is eye fucking?

The phrase eye fucking, as the name implies, is a gaze that you give to certain person in order to imply that you are physically and sexually attracted to them and that you would want to try your chances to make that stare-down version of lovemaking real.

For some people, the intention is as how it sounds, but others would take on a “testing the waters” stance to see if the target of their gaze would take the bait and probably reward the gesture with a conversation.

In other words, it is long distance imaginary sex using only your eyes.

Eye fucking vs. ogling

To quickly differentiate the two, eye fucking is more complicated and has a different intention from ogling a person. Sure, they both are physically and sexually motivated, and some forms of eye fucking will involve ogling, but the main difference is that in eye fucking, you are mostly looking at the other person’s eyes.

Ogling is the proverbial “taking a gander at the goods” where you stare at certain parts of the person’s physique. For women, it’s usually the butt and the boobs, and certain parts of the musculature for men. Ogling doesn’t really care much about the whole person, but rather the goodies that they are sporting.

Eye fucking, on the other hand, focuses on the person as a whole. It is a display of interest. While looks may initially stray on certain “key areas,” most of the time the person is suggestively staring you directly in the eyes. [Read: 10 subtle eye contact flirting moves that always work]

Strategies for eye fucking without being mistaken as a creep

First thing you need to know when eye fucking is that it is tricky. Most people are unaware of this kind of attention and may respond in a way they would to an average creepy person.

So, there is a risk in doing this. However, if you really want to play this game, there are certain ways to pull one off and maybe get lucky in the end. The main tip? Don’t be shy, yet don’t come too strong. [Read: Prolonged eye contact when flirting – what it mean and how to do it]

#1 The initial glance. This is the part where you notice. You notice that he or she is cute, and you don’t want the day to end without getting their number. For this, short glances would suffice.

Take a look at the person either directly from a distance or from the corner of your eye. Then take a look at the surroundings that you share. Are there a lot of people? Or is it just the two of you?

Having a lot of people around gives you a sort of “screen” to make a safe second glance. If you two are alone, however, it may require further courage from you. [Read: How to get your crush to notice you and like you back]

#2 Secure a vantage point. This is the part where you close the distance if you’re far away or to give yourselves some space if you’re too close for comfort. Ideally, it is a table away in front of the person, or anywhere within their line of sight. Get comfortable and prepare yourself.

#3 The second glance. The second glance is the invitation to “get caught” staring at the other person. In the case that both your eyes meet, take the initiative to linger a second longer before you move your eyes away. And if by any chance during your second glance you catch him or her looking at you, boy, it’s your lucky day. [Read: How to look into her eyes without looking like a creep]

#4 Don’t be shy and take the initiative. You see, people also take interest in other people who are interested in them. There is that compulsion to look at the person looking at you. In this small window of a moment, you must gather up courage and take the initiative to make eye contact with the person.

As mentioned, you might lose heart for the fear of being seen as a creep. But then again, what’s the worst thing that can happen other than the person walking away?

#5 The third time is a stare. This time, let’s move away from glances and go full auto with a direct gaze. Remember, you need to direct your gaze in the person’s eyes and eyes alone.

Also, you need to hold that gaze long enough for them to notice you and have a sexy little staring contest until the other person capitulates with a favorable *or unfavorable* reaction. From there, you can do other things.

#6 Smile. As mentioned many times before, a smile is the safest way to disarm another person’s guard and instantly turn you into a possible friend from your previous status as a random stranger.

However, you need to be mindful of the way you smile when eye fucking. A creepy awkward smile will blow all your efforts. The neutral friendly smile is the go-to, but if you can pull off the seductive toothless grin, go for it. [Read: How to read people – 12 secrets to figure anyone out instantly]

#7 Use posture and body language to your advantage. We have talked about how body language can ease social interactions, especially to a potential romantic partner. Smiling is one of them. You can also use other body language to sweeten the deal.

For girls, it usually involves lip-biting and hair flicking, guys on the other hand, can adopt postures that suggest confidence and gentleness.

#8 Mind their reaction. Did the person glance back at you? Did they smile back when you smiled? Minding how the other person reacts will give you clues as to whether you need to keep at your pace or maybe change your strategy.

The best possible reaction you can get is when the other person engages you in mutual eye fucking and you can go on stripping each other’s clothes off with your eyes. Just remember to follow the formula: glance, observe, and follow through. [Read: 15 obvious flirting signs between a guy and a girl]

#9 Reaping the rewards: approaching the person. You cannot keep eye fucking the whole time. At one point, someone would have to take the hint and approach the person to talk. And that person would be you most of the time.

But that also depends on how you want the situation to end. You can get up there and talk to the person, or play mysterious and leave the area without giving off that last seductive glance. Your call.

[Read: 20 signs of attraction in the first conversation you just can’t miss]

While eye fucking sounds a bit intense, is a nonverbal form of communication to convey physical and sexual attraction to a stranger. Despite the risk of getting accused as a creep, there is the exhilaration of getting caught, and the blush and rush of endorphins when the person of your interest reciprocates the stare.

The post Eye Fucking: Master the Art and Get Them to Eye Fuck You Back is the original content of LovePanky - Your Guide to Better Love and Relationships.