#and while there definitely is a core personality and established backstory for the characters

[greyedian]

.

[alittlebitofloveliness]

Johnny Cade and Steve Randle as Foils

Ok so the great thing about the Outsiders is how every character foils every other character in some way, but there is one glaringly obvious foiling is barely ever talked about and it drives me crazy because it’s brilliant. I’m talking of course, about the similarities between Johnny Cade and Steve Randle.

The brilliance of them as characters is that personality wise they’re almost complete opposites. Steve is cocky and self assured and has a bitter, occasionally cruel streak a mile wide. Johnny on the other hand, is unsure, quiet, and deeply kind. These differences are what people seem to focus on the most when discussing these characters, but as characters they’re actually INCREDIBLY similar.

Both of them are the members of the gang with the worst home lives, coming from downright abusive situations- yes, Dallas had a shit dad, but at the time of the book it’s established he’s living by himself at Buck’s, he’s made himself an adult and as such his home life doesn’t foil Johnny’s, not really. Steve on the other hand, still lives at home but gets kicked out every other week, and ends up crashing at the Curtis place or anywhere else he can find. His mother is deliberately never mentioned, leaving the audience to draw their own conclusions, but it’s clear Steve doesn’t have much of a relationship with her. Either she’s a doormat who doesn’t defend him when his dad is hollering or maybe even beating him around, or she isn’t around at all and she left him with his dad. Either way, Steve has an abusive father (EVEN if it isn’t physical it is DEFINITELY psychological and emotional) and a neglectful mother. We have even more backstory for Johnny whose mother is an emotionally abusive ‘selfish slob’ and whose father beats him viciously. Of all the gang, their backstories and home life are the most similar, and their characters have been shaped by it as a result. (The way Steve is sometimes vilified in this fandom for his very real responses to childhood trauma and abuse, while Johnny is universally pitied is a whole other essay so I’ll save if for another day.) 

Ponyboy even says as much early on in the book;

 “Johnny was high-strung anyway, a nervous wreck from getting belted every time he turned around and from hearing his parents fight all the time. Living in those conditions might have turned someone else rebellious and bitter; it was killing Johnny.”

Rebellious and bitter, huh? Sounds like Steve Randle to me. His presence in the book is to show what kids in Johnny’s situation but without Johnny’s kindness turn into. Yes, Dally foils him a bit in this regard too, but I think Steve is a better, more in your face example of it. Their are other pieces in the book too, that highlight Steve and Johnny’s similar upbringing and the effects it has had on them, without directly calling them out as foiling characters, such as the fact they’re the two members of the gang who Pony calls out as examples when he’s talking about starting smoking young (woohoo nicotine as a coping mechanism am I right?);

“Johnny had been smoking since he was nine; Steve started at eleven.”

Here, the linking of their names even in what Pony views as an innocuous thing- smoking isn’t a big deal to him- forces us as readers to think about why they started. Knowing that smoking is used by the greasers as a tool to help them calm down reminds us that at their core these characters aren’t so different, and they likely felt the need for nicotine to deal with horrible experiences Pony never had to. Ponyboy smokes a lot, and he started young too, but whatever his catalyst was, it wasn’t the same as Johnny or Steve’s.

Yet another attribute that links them as characters is their fierce independence. Johnny is young, and the gang is protective of him, but as his core he is incredibly self sufficient because he has to be. He finds himself places to sleep, is forced to provide himself with food, and prior to being jumped was fine walking by himself. Steve works for a living, and much like Johnny, he too has to find himself a place to sleep and food to eat on the nights where he isn’t safe to be at home. Both Steve and Johnny are also incredibly protective in their own ways, especially of their more ‘innocent’ best friends (Soda is less innocent than Pony by a long shot, but he is still used to a modicum of security that Steve isn’t.) Steve gets angry at Ponyboy on Soda’s behalf when he asks about Sandy, even though Pony had no way of knowing what happened. Johnny kills Bob for Pony and looks out for him a whole lot in the church, then later sacrifices himself when he pushes Pony out of the fire. To their buddies, their main ‘safe’ zones, both Steve and Johnny are ride or die.

Finally, an important scene that rounds out my analysis of them as foils, is when Dally dies and Steve breaks down crying. 

“Steve stumbled forward with a sob, but Soda caught him by the shoulders.”

Here we see Steve Randle pushed to his limit- and Steve’s breaking point leads to tears, whereas Johnny’s breaking point pushed him to kill Bob. There’s a subversion of their roles here, where the usually cold, bitter, hateful Steve shows a sensitive side, and quiet little Johnny Cade gets rough and cold. To me, this just shows once again, how they’re very similar characters, with similar trauma, that has simply shaped them differently and made them tough in different ways. Steve, with bravado, craving a fight all the time because he can’t fight the helplessness or the feelings of being stuck; Johnny, resigned to his lot in life and tough because of it, seeking out love when he knows he will never find it where he wants it; but at their cores the both of them are battered, lonely kids who were forced to grow up way too fast. 

[frozen-spaghetti]

Papyrus' Heaven Theory - I Swear It's Not Card Friends

Updated June 4th, 2024. Currently probably the definitive version of Papyrus Knight.

Part 1 - The Flaws with Papyrus Knight

a. "It's out of character"

Well, this is the main flaw that Papyrus' Heaven is made to address. However, this section is to run through the argument, so let's see here:

Papyrus is often seen as a simple, happy, and whimsical guy. And on the surface level, in Undertale at least, he does seem to be.

He also has one core difference when compared to the rest of the main cast: He cannot kill you. Toriel can kill you if you're not careful. Sans can kill you in his battle, though it's hard to reach. Undyne and Asgore have essentially made it their job to do so. Mettaton lives in a killer robot body designed to murder humans, a body created by Dr. Alphys. Flowey is a genocidal maniac who will kill you, only to revive you and do it over and over again.

But Papyrus? The only instances of him being able to kill you were a rare glitch in older versions of Undertale, which appears to now be an impossibility.

Now, someone this nice surely cannot have been an evil Knight in another timeline, right?

Well, let me present you a mini-theory within this theory:

Papyrus' Disremembrance Theory

There is a LOT of evidence that Papyrus is intentionally making himself forget many things, many important things.

Dialogue from the King Papyrus ending as well as the Lost SOUL battle paints a dark picture for Papyrus' backstory. Him saying absolutely nothing during part of the fight is haunting, and could imply that he's unable to remember what he would've said at that point. This is especially relevant as it comes at the same time Sans says "you'll never see 'em again," which is a very likely reference to his time in Deltarune's reality. The King Papyrus ending is quite terrifying too, it alludes to his "usual encouragement" not always working, which seems to imply there are past coping mechanisms of his.

This—coupled with the evidence that he's from the DELTARUNE reality—implies he is deep in denial and has forced himself to forget nearly everything. By the way, if you're not aware of said evidence, check out my post detailing the evidence Sans and Papyrus are from the DELTARUNE universe. It's fairly good, but I did not address the sun argument...so I will now.

A major argument against the Papyrus Deltarune theory is that he doesn't know what the sun is. Clearly, he cannot be from Deltarune's Light World if he does not know what the sun is!

Well, my answer to this is fairly simple. He likely has beaten the Deltarune reality out of his mind so hard that he doesn't remember what the sun is. He has to strain himself to even remember there was grass, after all. He does use the term "sun on my skin" but I believe he isn't fully aware of the connection between "the sun" and a big ball in the sky.

To wrap up Papyrus' Disremembrance theory, I'd like to point out that it nicely contrasts Sans' whole "don't forget" thing. This is even reflected in the Lost SOUL dialogue; Sans is clearly grieving while Papyrus has fully made himself forget.

Now - back to the main point!

Since we have established Papyrus is in denial, and has made himself forget practically everything that occurred in his time in the DELTARUNE reality, we can now treat his Undertale incarnation as a "soft reset" of sorts. Many traits of his shine through, but he is a fairly different person.

For example, I believe one of his core traits is his "I WILL BE THE ONE!" mentality.

If Papyrus really is the Knight, him being obsessed with a goal of causing a world-changing event to happen would add up. The core motivation for both would be to become worshipped and to achieve what he perceives as the greater good.

It would also be consistent with how Asriel—the Angel in Undertale's world—deceived him into doing his bidding. Assuming that the Knight is working for Deltarune's Angel, that could be a recurring theme for Papyrus' story.

Lastly, I will mention how most Papyrus Knight theories mess this up. They often claim he does not know about the Roaring, or that he makes the Dark Fountains just to get some Darkner buddies. And, while that may be on the surface level closer to his Undertale characterization, it does not add up with the in-game evidence. Queen makes it clear that the Knight goes by 'Roaring Knight' and King implies he was ordered to fight the other kings by the Knight. This clearly implies they are devoted to doing the Angel's bidding, regardless of if it's morally wrong.

b. "He's from Undertale, so he can't be the Knight"

I won't spend too long on this one since it is absolutely unchangeable, but I will bring up a counterpoint, one that I explained earlier.

Papyrus is kind of a Deltarune character???

If anyone who first appeared in Undertale counts, it would be the skeletons.

Hell, W.D Gaster in Deltarune is very heavily implied to be the same Gaster who built the CORE in Undertale's reality.

It appears the skeletons are strange, interdimensional beings. Gaster exists everywhere at every possible time, and Sans and Papyrus are known to have hopped realities.

Essentially, this argument is a bit weaker for someone like Papyrus than someone like Undyne who isn't the same character across both games.

I do get it, though. However, I do think there is room to debate he's being treated weirdly compared to nearly everyone else.

This line about Papyrus.

This damn line about Papyrus.

I don't think it proves he's the Knight at all, but Toby Fox is totally conditioning us to wonder where the hell Papyrus is.

And given the way the newsletters have been using Papyrus, it's honestly odd to imagine he won't have some strangely major role in the plot.

I could easily use something like this GIF as "evidence" but it really isn't. I could argue it ties Papyrus to a future Dark World location, I suppose. But really, the main takeaway is that Papyrus is treated extremely weirdly when compared to the rest of the returning Undertale cast.

c. "Nobody knows who he is"

Well, this flaw is near-unfixable. However, it is possible to turn it into a slight strength.

Firstly, though, there are ways for him to be more known to the main cast.

Deltarune has teased a Papyrus hangout in a similar vein to Undertale's date. Not only has Sans directly told you that you'll hang out with him soon, but the Steam page hints that Papyrus is busy—implying he will show up later.

This could easily pay off in a hangout later in the game, which causes the Fun Gang to familiarize with him. Hell, it's possible there's a Dark World adventure with him later on. However, I have a question to pose to you:

Does it really matter?

Well, likely, yes. Though, it is potentially not as much of a flaw as you would think.

Consider, for a moment, who else do we know for sure has created a dark fountain? Kris. And, tell me if this sounds familiar.

"Antisocial person lacking friends, who—in the grand scheme of things—lives under the shadow of their older brother."

Sure, this isn't exactly that unique of a character archetype, but if the two Dark Fountain creators share those traits, it could mean something.

Kris isn't as unknown as Papyrus is, but still— many people do not know them very much. Some don't even know their name; Undyne addresses them as "Asgore's kid" and even the ones who do know their name are not quite familiar with them.

Some More Weird Parallels Between These Siblings

Kris and Papyrus are both compared to Luigi from the Mario series.

Yes, I get it's stupid to bring up Luigi in an essay about Papyrus being the Roaring Knight, but hear me out here.

In debating Papyrus Knight since I wrote the original draft of this essay, I've mostly encountered the response that it's a basic trope and cannot be considered as an intentional parallel.

However, knowing Toby Fox directly acknowledges it and considers both of them to be Luigi-like characters...that makes it far more plausible of a comparison to make. Both of them are younger siblings who, despite their circumstances, wish they were "as good" as their elders, being Asriel and Sans. Just LOOK at Kris' room.

Papyrus and The Fun Gang

Papyrus is absolutely one of, if not the best character to make the Knight in relation to the Fun Gang.

I know that sounds odd. How? The Mayor is a character who they all at least know exists, and a similar thing could be said about Alvin, or even a more out-there candidate such as Alphys.

But...one thing nearly everyone else has in common is that they are figures of authority. Figures not nearly comparable to the teenagers who were pulled into a universe-defining story which puts fate into their hands.

This could apply to Kris (albeit limiting the affected parties for obvious reasons) and arguably Dess, but Papyrus really does work the best from the perspective of an "equal" antagonist.

This becomes especially clear when you consider the main antagonists so far.

A king, a queen, some criminal mastermind guy. To have their creators and ultimate superior be just another sad teenager like the Fun Gang could work as a better story.

Now.

The main issues with Papyrus Knight have been fairly addressed.

They will be hard to correct, but I have gotten them out of the way in order to pave the foundation of my theory. If the Knight is creating these worlds, why? They don't just want little Darkner buddies...if so, why would they order Spade King to overthrow the other kings?

Well, the motivation comes down to one word.

...

Okay. This is a bit funny. When I originally made the theory, I considered Dess was controlling him to create an Angel's Heaven. But now i go against said idea. But I'm too lazy to change the title, so pretend that nothing happened.

Part 2 - Papyrus' Heaven Theory

The General Idea

If you just want the key details of Papyrus' Heaven, here you go.

Papyrus doesn't want the Dark Worlds for friends, for fun, for adventure, or whatever. He is fully convinced that whatever he is doing is working toward a great new future.

In Undertale, we see his "I WILL BE THE ONE!!!" mentality with his ultimate goal of saving monsterkind, by capturing the final human. I believe he felt that very way about being the Knight. That he is ultimately a legendary hero.

This parallels the Fun Gang, who are also a group of inexperienced teenagers lacking friends who have been turned into prophesied heroes of the world.

Papyrus is aware, in some way, that a Roaring exists and believes it's either a necessary evil or the key to the perfect end for the world. He is not going to have a Berdly moment where Ralsei tells him it's bad and he stops.

What he did hurt him so much that he repressed the memories and vowed to be a better person.

Now, let me look at a few of these points in further detail.

"Papyrus doesn't want to make fountains for friends, fun, or adventure. He believes he's bringing a grand future."

Well, I can sense a counterpoint coming.

If he is aware of the Roaring, and believes it could be used to help save the world, why would he not just start the Roaring right then and now?

Well, I feel the easiest way is to connect this to Gaster.

Sans is fairly obviously connected to Gaster, but what many people don't consider is the strange level of meta knowledge he possesses. Not only does he wink at what we can only conclude is the Player, but he fairly accurately knows the release window between chapters of Deltarune. (2 years to describe the window between Chapters 1 and 2, which is correct if you don't round upwards.)

Given he says you'll most likely see Papyrus again when Asriel returns, we can infer this will likely be around when a major story moment occurs. This is probably sometime between Chapter 5 and Chapter 7, however it is most likely during Chapter 5 proper, as that chapter may take place in the Flower King shop for various reasons. These include but aren't limited to the likely placement of the Church in Chapter 4 based on various context clues, the potential for a Flower King area to serve as a pseudo-endgame with Flowey characters and the like, and the May 2024 newsletter giving us some content regarding the Flower King shop a while after Chapter 3's development completed.

There are also many reasons to believe Chapter 5 will end with the Roaring beginning and heavily feature the Knight, such as Chess Theory and the original release schedule.

Regardless though, given that Papyrus is known to have some form of relationship with Gaster, I could see him having some level of fore-knowledge. It'd be interesting if Gaster actually needs the Knight for the Legend to come true, and thus is affiliated with them.

"In Undertale, we see his 'I WILL BE THE ONE!' mentality which may carry over into his attitude as the Knight."

Papyrus is strongly devoted to his goals in Undertale. Sometimes, painfully so. He is very, very committed to making sure Frisk is captured. Even after they become friends with him, he continues to aid Undyne in capturing him.

And yes, he is very aware of what he's doing.

Papyrus very much knows the consequences his actions have, and does not cease even despite the fact he is friends with the person who is going to be murdered; their blood would be on his hands. Yet he is unrelenting.

I imagine this is a personality the Knight could have.

To endanger children by placing Dark Worlds in a school and a library, and to continue creating these Dark Fountains even after having learned of the Roaring (if he didn't already know of it) is something I cannot see many characters doing. Of course, that can be addressed with others, but Papyrus in particular is very stubborn, or to put it another way, determined.

Regardless of whether a Knight Papyrus would want recognition or love, I believe he absolutely considers himself to be a hero. Perhaps he is misguided. And, if the Delta Warriors are also misguided, then it'd be a double misguide. Two opposing sides, and yet both manage to be wrong in a sense.

Does Papyrus Want Recognition Again?

Speaking of, though, it is entirely likely that Papyrus wants to be hailed for his work as the Roaring Knight.

Perchance Sans is being truthful when he says Papyrus wants friends, and Papyrus takes that in an unhealthy direction using Dark Worlds.

While Kris used the Dark Worlds to make new friends with Lancer, Ralsei, and Susie, as well as improving their bond with Noelle and Berdly, the Knight has been shown to have manipulated the chapter bosses in order to worship them. Maybe not directly, but they absolutely have displayed behaviour that implies that the Knight feels like a god to them.

It is presumable that Papyrus may also want to gain praise from other Lighters in this manner as well, but he certainly has taken the role of a 'god' to some Darkners.

"Papyrus is aware of the Roaring and considers it necessary to fulfill his grand goal."

Given Queen calls the Knight the Roaring Knight, this is a pretty clear-cut case.

As I mentioned in the last section, Papyrus absolutely does know his actions have consequences, and it's very hard to change their mind. In Undertale, thankfully, most of his actions were benevolent. But in this case, he is really acting in a dangerous manner which is bound to hurt many people.

"What he did hurt him so much that he repressed the memories, and vowed to change and improve as a person."

I already covered this earlier, during the Papyrus' Disremembrance segment.

However, I do want to expand a little more on a specific argument against it here.

I've seen Papyrus' ignorance at what a human looks like being used as a point against him being from the Deltarune world, or a point against him having met Kris.

Now, if Papyrus' Disremembrance theory is correct, that explains that argument away.

Next, I'll cover more tangible evidence for the theory.

Part 3 - Some Potential Evidence I Guess

Susie Is QC Lmao

When talking about the Roaring Knight and the Dark Fountains, Susie says this:

"The Roaring Knight…

(...)

Since they started showing up,

Everything’s gotten a lot more interesting, hasn’t it…?"

This is odd. It's very, very similar in wording to the way QC describes Sans and Papyrus being new in town. She says the following:

"There’s two of ‘em…

Brothers, I think.

They just showed up one day and…

… asserted themselves.

The town has gotten a lot more interesting since then."

The focus on the Fountains being new and the very similar choice in wording leads me, and others, to believe this may be an intentional parallel. Of course, there are other Knights who could be 'new' like the Vessel, but Papyrus fits the best by far, because of the fact the original statement was about him and Sans.

Papyrus and Dreams

Papyrus is weirdly frequently connected to dreams.

If you take even a casual glance at Deltarune, it's pretty clear dreams are significant to this game.

"This robot was the embodiment of a lightner’s dreams."

“The edge of shadow, where reality and dream meet.”

In the Undertale 5th anniversary alarm clock winter dialogue, Papyrus talks about how he let Sans sleep despite wanting him to help to clean up after the holiday party, and adds that this dream was his gift to him.

"SO I LET HIM SLEEP.

HE BETTER NOT EXPECT ME TO CLEAN UP BY MYSELF NEXT TIME! THAT GOOD DREAM WAS MY PRESENT TO HIM! NYEHEHEHEHEH!!!"

In Papyrus’s room, upon inspecting his bed, he talks about his dream of driving down a highway:

THAT’S MY BED! 

(…) 

OF COURSE, THAT’S JUST A DREAM. 

SO INSTEAD I CRUISE WHILE I SNOOZE.

Papyrus and the IcePalace Maze

Now, I'm including this one more for the hell of it rather than because it's really evidence. But, regardless, here it is.

On the Spamton Sweepstakes website, clicking on the black door of the blue and white d_a_m_n_y_o_u_t_e_n_n_a page leads us to Noelle’s blog.  https://deltarune.com/icepalace_glaceir/. In her blog entry, she talks about the cross shaped maze in the ice area from the game Dragon Blazers. If the player wasn’t accompanied by a specific character to guide them, they got lost and became stuck forever.

In the Undertale 5th anniversary alarm clock winter dialogue, Sans describes how Papyrus threw a holiday party for everyone and made a maze out of snow and ice, in which Asgore got lost:

"this winter, papyrus threw a holiday party for everyone. 

[...] oh yeah, he even made a, uh, a “welcoming puzzle” for the party.

a giant labyrinth made of ice, snow, and musical ornament, 

you, uh, had to get through it to get to the front door.

think asgore got lost in there for a while.

undyne had to go save him."

Mettaton refers to it as a "mind maze" which is extremely interesting if it truly is referencing a Dark World.

To be clear, though, my claim is that it is a parallel to Papyrus' previous actions, not that they really created a Dark World here. That would be silly.

The True Meaning of the Word Font

There is a very compelling case that the word 'font' means 'Dark fountain.'

Papyrus (as well as Sans and Gaster) use the more common modern definition of 'font' which is essentially just a computer typeface.

However, the more traditional definitions oddly line up with a description of a Dark Fountain.

Don't put too much stock in this one. It's mostly a fun coincidence!

"A receptacle in a church for the water used in baptism."

This one should be fairly obvious.

Darkness is compared to water a lot. Down to the word 'fountain' being used at all. The filename for the background in the intro is "IMAGE_DEPTH" and the sound effect when Kris and Susie fall into a Dark World is called "ocean."

The 'baptism' part is especially interesting though.

A 'holy fountain.' Not only does King describe fountains as Holy, but so does the soundtrack. The theme of the Dark Fountains is called THE HOLY. Given it is in all caps and fairly reasonably connected to Gaster, it's interesting that a skeleton who uses a strange font himself would describe them this way...

"A reservoir for oil in an oil lamp."

Not much to say on this, other than the fact oil is VERY dark. A very dark liquid such as Darkness may be comparable with oil.

"A source of a desirable quality or commodity, a fount."

Now this really just describes the Dark World.

Not only does the Dark World act as a form of 'Dream World,' but it actively amplifies the skills and powers of those who enter.

Monsters are able to use magic, or at least harness it more powerfully than normal.

Given the way Dark Worlds work, you could very much consider them to fit this definition of font.

Papyrus' Heaven - Conclusion

This is my first long-form theory, and I hope you liked it. Please point out errors or holes, and I'll go back and edit them!

Updated June 4, 2024 to reflect changes in my, and other people's, visions for how it should go.

[praxieserver]

🎹 💀🍎 for Azi 👁👁

AZI! For reference, this is Azi, full name Aziraphale Page (soon to be Aziraphale Page-Pearce). Basically I gave danwil an ambiguously gendered bird child. They use any pronouns so go crazy!

Now to the questions!

🎹 - Do they have any hobbies?

Wilson has probably played the violin for them, and they've probably asked him to teach them, so they probably play violin. Actually between the 2 of them, Azi used to be the only one that played the violin, but I also liked the image of Wilson playing the violin, so now there's 2 motherfuckers who woefully play the violin when they wanna angst.

Unironically probably enjoys reading. Not like as book connoisseur, but like. Just reading. For fun. She'll sit on and armchair and read the newspaper like an old man and go "Ah yes. Peak entertainment."

She does the usual Hogwarts shenanigans such as duelling, going into the forbidden forest, making a club to ship your teachers with, the works!

Lastly, he probably also cooks fairly well due to Daniel's influence.

This is all prone to change aince Azi isn't as well established of a character compared to Wilson yet, but thats what I have on them at the moment! :]

💀 - Does your OC have any phobias?

Again, core character aspect I haven't thought through that well yet. However.

She probably has a very strong dislike of the feeling of not being in control/having no agency. (Like father like son amirite guys kekeke—)

Basically intheir Traumatic Backstory™, they're robbed of their personal agency, denied of their humanity, played as a puppet. So after escaping that, she'll definitely place a huge importance in being in control. Thus they'd probably have a really deep-rooted hate of the prospect of being pulled along a string/being caged/being used. This sort of manifest in an interesting matter since they end up coming off as manipulative themselves. As a little kid it's more them bossing around their 'minions' so they can make their favorite teacher slash canon but it probably gets a little more concerning with age. Nothing that bad though. Probably.

I phrase it more as something she hates rather than something she fears, but I feel like she just hates it more than she fears it. It's something she's willing and ready to face, even if scary.

So, for something she fears more than she hates: Showing vulnerability to someone she trusts, but getting that vulnerability taken advantage of.

🍎 - What is the OC's relationship w/ their parents like?

Very close and very good! Because Daniel as a single father who is also a good father is super sexy.

Ok but in all seriousness, they love Daniel lots. They're extremely grateful for him since he's the one to save them from their abusive situation, so she's uber protective of him and wants to return the favor of Daniel taking her in and caring for her. In the "Hey! Only I'm allowed to talk shit about my Dad!" kinda way. She thinks Daniel's a bit overbearing (and to be fair, he is) but she'd sooner peck your eyes out for so much as breathing at him funny than hating him for it.

They have that Parent Trying to be Strict and In Control vs Silly Shithead Asshole Kid kind of dynamic going on basically.

With """""Uncle Wilson"""""" who is definitely not having a decade long will-they-won't-they dance with Daniel that Azi definitely doesn't see at all, they're a menace as a pair. A pain in Daniel's ass. And face. They've drawn on his face countless time while he's asleep. They're also a pain to house, having nearly burned his kicthen down multiple times.

Wilson is more or less the fun """""uncle""""" to them and she lets her get away with things Daniel doesn't. He's basically a second father to her and a part of the family. And in fact she will get him into the family by making him marry her dad. Modern problems require modern solutions.

[jimintomystery]

Foodfight! (ugh)

I voted for Dex Dogtective in a poll the other day and it reminded me that I never actually watched that shitty Foodfight! movie from 2012. So I did. This was not a good idea.

There isn't a whole lot to say about Foodfight! that hasn't already been said. The project was in development hell for so long that it defaulted on its debt, and investors took over to at least get something out the door. The most obvious issue is the bad animation, though that speaks for itself.

But here's the thing: This movie could've had Pixar-quality animation and it'd still be hot garbage. "What if mascots for popular products lived in your local store?" is a middling idea at best, and the story mishandles it every step of the way.

It would be easy to say this movie needed a lot of popular corporate mascots to really work, and the best they could do was Charlie the Tuna and the Vlasic stork. But I remember thinking the first Toy Story wouldn't work without heavy hitters like Barbie and Lego, and yet they got along fine with just Mr. Potato Head and Etch-a-Sketch. Similarly, Wreck-It Ralph succeeded with a cast of skillful pastiches of familiar video game characters, and mere cameos by the big names. In theory Foodfight! could make up a cereal mascot that reminds you of Tony the Tiger while leaving room for changes to fit the plot. But in execution we get...Dex Dogtective.

Dex is the mascot for Cinnamon Sleuth cereal, and also a detective, and also a dog, and also he dresses like Indiana Jones, and also he likes raisins, and also he runs a nightclub like Rick Blaine in Casablanca. So he has like six different gimmicks, and the cereal mascot part is easily the least important. The only reason you'd even suspect Dex is a character from a box of cereal is because he's in a movie about brand mascots. Indeed, none of the characters created for this movie look like they were designed to sell anything, least of all groceries.

The strongest concept in the movie (which isn't saying much) is that the brands are facing an invasion by the evil Brand X. This makes sense, seeing as Brand X is by definition generic, with no iconic mascot except the pejorative and mysterious implications of that term. Listen, I know this sounds dumb, but you could do something with this. In a world of where brands come to life in the form of their mascots, who or what emerges from a brand without a mascot? How would such a being differ from the likes of, say, Count Chocula? Such a character might reject some fundamental principle that the good guys hold dear.

At this juncture, a sharper "secret lives of things that aren't alive" movie could make some insightful point that ties the story together. Something about how the world needs brand mascots, I suppose. But nobody actually needs brand mascots, for pete's sake, except for the people who came up with this movie. So there's no core idea for Brand X to oppose--the good guys' world exists just to exist, so the bad guys exist just to destroy it. With that baseline laziness established, Brand X paradoxically has lots of mascots, all of whom look like Nazis for some reason.

Well, okay, technically Brand X's leader, Lady X, looks less like a Nazi and more like the Baroness from Cobra. But it figures that she doesn't quite fit in with the rest, since she created Brand X! Yeah, so at the end it's revealed she was a mascot for a poorly-marketed brand of prunes, and when she was discontinued she went to Brazil (???) for plastic surgery (???) to make her all hot. Then she somehow amassed the resources in the real world to create Brand X, complete with a human-sized android (!!!) so she could pass herself off as a real person and sell her wares to stores.

Dex is astonished by this backstory, since the mascots are like three inches tall and can't even leave the store. Lady X explains the plot hole by saying "Humans! When you look like this you can get them to do anything. Size only counts for men."

"Size only counts for men."

"Size only counts for men."

(She's talking about fucking.)

(fucking)

(-ucking -ucking -king)

Anyway, I need a nap now. Please don't watch this movie.

[alkalinefrog]

Just had the chance to read Lights of Avalon while writing my own HiJack fic, and its so apparent how much you GET Jack as a character. It's amazing to see the life you breathe not only into this different incarnation of Jack, but the Guardians and side characters like Jack's family. As someone who is more new to the HiJack fandom (Only been writing it for a year now) how do you get the characters this fleshed out and believable? I always struggle trying to balance out elements like that without it dragging to much. What is your technique for this writing wise?

Well, technically I've only been here for a year too--I think we're coming up on the anniversary of when I read OTNWAS and got trapped here, wow, time sure flies LMAO

This is my first ever ask for writing advice, dude I'm so stoked! I'll do my best to give you a clear answer, but sorry in advance if it's a little jumbled, I'm still fairly new to fic writing and this is only my second one asldfjlasdjf

For Jack specifically, I owe a large part of my understanding of him to talking about him with @jjackfrost! I feel like I had a good grasp on his general vibes from rotg, but talking with Robin and how he approached writing Jack in OTNWAS really helped flesh him out in my mind!

EDIT: I finished typing everything out and this answer is long af, I'm so sorry LMAO. TL;DR:

Focus on who Jack is as a person, and demonstrate who other people are through how exactly they interact--and more importantly, react--to him in his POV

9 times out of 10 people won't info dump their tragic backstories to each other, so give info about them in their actions as you move the plot forward. Come up with situations that can best showcase who they are as people. Show don't tell!

How much you learn about each character will all depend on who your POV character is (Jack) and what his relationship to them is like (the closer they are, the more heart to hearts he'll be inclined to share)

Details under the cut!

EDIT 2: ALSO THANK YOU SO MUCH, I'm so glad you like my characterization of everyone!! That's super high praise!!

Things are a bit different because this version of him never lost his memories and stayed human after falling through the ice, so I focused on who he is at his core--his centre, if you will hehehe--and what kind of person he was to begin with that would make the moon choose him. He's a really specific balance of mischievous but never malicious, immature but still responsible, and very very brave and compassionate and protective and HUHHHHHH my son 😭😭😭 His strength is in how he focuses on finding joy even in the darkest times, you know? And he's very self-sacrificing in order to bring that same joy for others.

When fleshing out the other characters in the story, for me it was important to remember that Jack is the POV character, so any info we learn about others has to come from their relationship with him and what he observes in them.

For example, his heart to heart with Bunny is way more guarded than the ones he has with his mother and Emily since they're still strangers to each other at that point. Neither of them are going to info dump about their tragic backstories to the other LMAO, especially since Bunny's not a wears-their-heart-on-their-sleeve character, but that's exactly why I thought that he'd be the best choice out of the three to have the initial real talk with Jack. He'd be the least likely to pry, which would let Jack relax a bit about dropping his guard.

In their conversation, I needed to give enough info to 1) get to understand Bunny's motivations a bit more, since he definitely sticks out next to Tooth and Sandy as a bard, 2) establish trust between him and Jack that can develop into a believable friendship later, and 3) give Jack more of a reason to think that joining the Guardians is actually an emotionally healthy idea too.

So then I thought about what exactly they'd share with each other, since conversations are always about listening instead of talking. Bunny doesn't divulge into the details of his past, but you get a sense that he's been through a lot given what he does share, and that he's already had his own character arc. Jack learns that Bunny is also deeply protective of his family, and that's something he can relate to. Jack's questions in turn show how lost he is, and that prompts Bunny to give only the relevant info that he thinks would help Jack.

But then for all that to happen, they needed to have another moment of bonding before it felt believable that they'd open this conversation in the first place, hence them being forced to team up in the snowball fight lol. Plus it wouldn't be a RotG fic without one good snowball fight LMAO. Pacing-wise, it also just so happened that I needed another more light-hearted scene to brighten the mood before things went to shit again since chapter 2 was so angst-heavy, and I needed to bring the Guardians back in to give Jack the option to leave, and you see how things are falling into place now lol

Writing the Guardians is suuuuuuper fun because they all have such fun and distinct personalities from each other! I get to be a bit less grounded when it comes to them too, since they bring a lot of comedic relief and are more whimsical in nature from the movie.

For Jack's family, it was easier to flesh them out through how much Jack cares about them, and how much he pays attention to what qualities in Emily and his mother that he loves most. In turn, you get to see how much they love him too.

Obviously you spend the most time with him and Emily, so I wanted to make their dynamic as siblings really cute (I drew a lot of inspo from my own relationship with my younger brother, which helped me relate to Jack more too). You see how much she takes after him with the tree climbing and how she follows his lead in all the mischief he pulls. She's self-sacrificing in her own way, with the scene where she pretends not to be interested in the pink dress when Jack catches her looking at it, and more importantly later when she tries to stop him from leaving and finally shows how much the accident and the guilt from it has been affecting her too.

Pacing-wise, they needed to spend the most time together in order to make Jack's sacrifice for her more impactful, and how much it hurts him to leave her, so I came up with a bunch of ideas for things to best showcase the different layers of their relationship--1) clowning the bards and each other for the humour, 2) stargazing for the intimacy, 3) snowball fight for the mischief, 4) their goodbye for the FEELS, plus that whole montage about winter before Jack saves her.

You only get one real scene with his mother, and I wanted to give her more character than just "mom," so I gave her an injured little boy to help take care of so you can see how warm she is as a person when she calms him down, in contrast to how Jack can reassure the kid in his own way by entertaining him and making him laugh. Then she gets some banter with Jack so you see her sense of humour. You get a hint of where Jack and Emily get their playfulness when she mentions that she's better at climbing trees to tease him lol.

Exposition-wise, Jack already knows that she's the town doctor, so instead of having him like, turn to the camera to say it lol, the scene with her stitching up the boy's cut demonstrates that. I gave Jack and Emily tasks that showed other aspects of her role without having to explain it, ie: shopping for supplies at the apothecary for her, and delivering medication orders she made for people in town. Idk if it was too subtle, but another reason I had Jack mention that they're short on cash was meant to show that she's not in the medical field for profit (SIDE-EYES AMERICA), so she's very selfless as well.

Aaaaaaaand that's about it so far without talking about what's going to happen next in the story. I hope that was helpful!

[twilightguardian]

Well well. Looks like Lil is still up to her incoherent screaming. Let's take a look, shall we?

I gotta wonder what she means by 'absolutely nothing'. Like by definition 'absolutely nothing' would mean that there has been nothing going on. At all. The equivalent of sitting at a desk, not even twiddling your pencil between your fingers because twiddling would be something.

Episode 2 continues on from episode 1 with what Ruby bought at the festival, revealing them to be friendship bracelets for WBY, establishing how happy she is that not only her team, but her friends are back.

Qrow is still drunk, and unlike in the show, it's becoming actually debilitating for those around him, with Jaune and Ruby having to carry him to the station.

Blake says goodbye to her parents, Sun and Ilia just like in canon. (But I guess since Lilith thinks that's absolutely nothing, we can count that as nothing of worth to canon, either.)

There's also brief mention about the White Fang going to help Vale's recovery.

First episode we saw Roman and Neo pickpocketing people at the festival, and that got paid off when they got into first class on the train.

Mercury and Emerald have a discussion about Cinder and their differing views on her and parenthood.

Cardin and Russell replace Dee and Dudley both as characters we care about and filling in some exposition about the status in Vale.

Brief comedic scene where Yang tells Neptune the truth about 'Jane', because why keep friends in the dark about such things.

That's 8 'nothings' that have happened in the episode. So if you want to break it down into the most important things, we can say establishing RWBY as rekindling their bond, Cardin and Russel's cameo, Emercury's discussion and Qrow's drunkenness as being the core elements.

Ooof. You've never actually read fanfiction, have you, Lilith? You should join the Tundra discord server and join us for bad fanfiction night. Because all this tells me is that you don't know what incompetence is.

Actually, I have no idea if you even read. That's not an insult, that's just a general statement of fact. I've never seen any mention of books on your blogs, and I don't know you as a person.

Why would Cardin's return make you want to watch Fixing RWBY unless you had the expectation that Cardin, who you think only abuses women for some reason, would abuse a woman. Is abusing women something you like to see? People generally avoid things they don't like, you know. That's pretty dang weird.

Emphasizing again that Cardin isn't an abuser of women, specifically. He was a general bully in canon and a rather toothless one at that. He more went after Jaune in canon. Raymond gave him some teeth and his ass was still humbled for it. Now he knows better. When was the last time we've seen Cardin 'abuse' a woman?

Casually insulting all fanfic writers while trying to shit on one guy you have a hateboner for. Nice. You know there's not a single thing you said here that also can't also apply to your average fanfic author. Authors that may like a male character for whatever reason and may want to focus on that male character. Fanfic authors in general create derivative works that aren't 'their own' and many take from each other based on common fanfic tropes, themes and scenarios. The point of Fixing RWBY is to keep as close to the original as possible while also not being afraid to cut unnecessary fat and rearrange things. There isn't a single thing done to Fixing RWBY that one could say impacts the story in any substantially detrimental way. Oscar not being around doesn't matter because Ozpin still has a host. Expanding Menagerie's arc still resulted in Blake meeting up with everyone at the school.

lol

And she wonders why I have no faith in her ability to write when she doesn't seem to understand the concept of foreshadowing and Chekhov's Gun. No, he didn't do the Apathy Arc in V4. It was establishing when the backstory that Maria read in that book took place.

Also prove that the Apathy Arc is going to be 'all about Roman Torchwick' because you're just pulling that out of your ass with no basis other than you want it to be that way. You know, criticism comes after something you disagree with happens, not before.

I don't mind if you think that the first two episodes are slow. That's perfectly fine as valid criticism as not everyone is going to feel the same. Doesn't make it bad, it just means that's your preference. But that doesn't mean you get to pull shit out of your ass like you're fucking Jillian Epperly.

I don't understand this criticism. Are you saying that because Adam has a bike that Yang doesn't have her bike? Or that Yang owning a bike gets diminished because Adam has one because only one person is allowed to own a bike at a time?

Hey @iamafanofcartoons, hello, we haven't formally met yet. I've actually been very interested in talking to you at some point, and I'm sure this might wreck that a bit. But permit me to ask you what this even means lol

When has Raymond ever said that CardinxVelvet is going to for sure be canon in FRWBY? Because like... there's a difference between shipping a ship and then making that ship canon in the story you're working on. And really, obsession? How is Raymond obsessed with men who harass women? Because so far the one who talks the most about Shiloh is you.

And I wouldn't even say that either Shiloh or Shay D. 'harassed' Yang. The dude was drunk and tried to flirt. She wasn't interested and while touching her could have been assault, she was the one that touched him first to hit him instead of moving out of the way and verbally telling him off. Harassment actually deals with continued intimidation and threats. Yang was never threatened by Shay/Shiloh in either version. Yang was not a victim of harassment. So I would appreciate it if you would not infantilize Yang by saying such an innocuous altercation was harassment as it really makes out real harassment out to be not that bad if that's the comparison.

Yeah. I can't wait to see him prove you wrong because you're saying this with no proof.

[roydeezed]

Weekly Shonen Jump Manga Round-Up(2023-03-26)

It’s the weekly manga review once again! I’m going to be talking about any thoughts I’ve had on manga that were released this sunday. The ones which I care about and have extensive thoughts on will get their own sections while the others will be packaged into one paragraph at the end. Click the ‘Keep reading’ to take a look!

Tokyo Demon Bride Story(Chapter 28)

Again, the impending feeling of cancellation looms over the series as the stakes are racheted through the roof with a once in several centuries evil threat rising and attacking our heroes while a wistful narration weaves through. I think until it ends, Tokyo Demon Bride Story will get its own paragraphs, as it's a useful vehicle to talk about how Shonen Jump cancels its stories. I understand it’s a business but it feels as if over the years, the editorial has gotten out of touch with the fact that it sometimes takes time to develop and find the core of the story, especially in a magazine like Shonen Jump. In the past, they let stories like Shaman King and Katekyo Hitman Reborn! meander for around 30 and 60 chapters respectively. Doing so not only allowed the story to develop it’s characters and dynamics but also establish a rhythm to normal life that felt absolutely earth shattering when it was disturbed. With how often I talk about Reborn! and Shaman King, I should really go back and talk about them. But to get back to the point, letting the story find it’s core paid off, as Shaman King utilized it’s easy going early chapters to find a balance between the zen and buddhist nature of it’s story and the need for shounen action, whereas Reborn! did the same with slice of life comedy and action. Tokyo Demon Bride Story has a strong core of slice of life moments that, if focused on, could lead to interesting story dynamics in the future, but it feels all a little too late to talk about. I personally think that the ideal balance of slice of life story and drama amongst shounen battle necessities was achieved in Lucifer and The Biscuit Hammer, as we found out about our characters lives while they waited for the next attack. Comparable stories also include Neon Genesis Evangelion and the Persona games. With the downtime between threats forcing the characters to commit to and live life to their fullest, we get a lot of beautiful moments. I hope future manga get a chance to flourish, Shonen Jump has to realize this isn’t a sustainable strategy.

Ginka and Gluna(Chapter 27)

This manga definitely benefits from being binged, though this week's chapter packed a punch regardless. The story had been moving at a rather breakneck pace before this, but finally we slowed down, only to get hit with a gut punch. We miss out on a lot of memories in between, but we see Ginka’s tragic backstory, and see the mistakes he’s made as well as the mistakes he thinks he’s made. We also find out he has a deeper relationship with Magaraka than was previously assumed. Ginka’s always been aloof and I feel like it’s always been somewhat of a false front as there’s moments where he genuinely struggles. He’s supposed to be the Overpowered protagonist stereotypes like other contemporaries such as Saitama, Sakamoto and Mashle, but in truth he’s a lot more vulnerable. He’s looking for a way to restore his body and he’s not as strong as he once was. And even though his mantra when teaching Gluna was that there’s nothing a wizard can’t do, he doesn’t believe and it’s quite evident at times. So it’s even more devastating that, in a burst of confidence, he challenged a foe they couldn’t defeat and his pupil had to suffer the consequences. It explains the crushing negativity he’s experiencing and it’s totally warranted. I also love how this manga dips into absolute horror and despair quite often, as with the circumstances surrounding Ginka’s childhood and his sister. It’s a sign of confident storytelling that this manga can dip between Gluna’s optimism and wonder at the world and the absolute crushing reality of their circumstances. I really like how they’ve established Magaraka as the bad guy, he’s been sprinkled throughout and I could see him slinking away and building power like Ganndorf. We haven’t had much face time with him, but he’s already despicable in a really unique way that still makes you root for his defeat. Though I do want to see Gluna’s memories restored as I love the characters, but it might be more interesting to continue the journey without doing so. 

Fabricant 100(Chapter 15)

I’ve been somewhat hesitant to label Fabricant 100 as ‘good’. There have been flashes of brilliance but I wasn’t sure if those were coincidences or not. But with this chapter a lot of these moments really come together to prove how intentional all of it was. With the second major and emotional story about the Fabricant’s we see a clear pattern develop. Underneath it’s disguise of a shounen series, Fabricant 100 seems to be concerned with questions of life and humanity and has set about examining them in quite profound ways. We have these beings who seem to feel no remorse but they understand all of the elements to it. So we have to ask the question ‘what separates understanding and feeling?’ and suddenly we’re thrown into a discussion on empathy. And these few moments after the Fabricant dies where we see them express what appears to be regret and sorrow, is that real? Is the manga saying death is what makes them human or is it that they never had the chance to grow and would’ve learned if given enough time? It’s somewhat of a cosmic horror that these powerful beings are compelled to act in such an unnatural way. We, as the readers, want so badly for them to be able to break these bonds but the manga sticks to its guns regarding those rules, rendering the atmosphere discordant and horrific in a hard to describe way. I could care less about the shounen elements but I am fully invested in its story now, and eager to see how Fabricant 100’s quest for answers about herself lead to further enlightenment. I love her character so I can only hope for some sort of emotional development.

Cipher Academy(Chapter 17)

Each week, I look forward to Cipher Academy more and more. After the incredibly dense murder mystery game we get a little breathing room where we learn about our cast of characters. But before we talk about that, I just wanna gush about the art. I love the character designs in this manga so much and I absolutely adore the way Toshusai’s group always poses. It’s so ridiculous and endearing and while it’s taken a while for my perception of her as the villain to fade away, these things help to show how dorky she really is. One thing I am a little unclear on is the stakes of Cipher Academy. Obviously the decorum of this world is it’s own thing, with characters being exaggerated caricatures the norm, but is there an actual possibility of the students dying? The world of Cipher Academy takes an investment as even though it’s set in our world and references it quite heavily, a lot of the behaviors and modes of conduct betray more of an isekai plot setting. I haven’t had the pleasure of reading or watching the authors other work so I can’t say for sure if this is his style but I really like how unique it is. Okay, now let’s get back to this chapter. We see Iroha excited that he doesn’t have to solve ciphers but soon after see him not only begging for them but examining everything in the context of a puzzle. This place has done some major damage to my boy. We also see a lot more of his classmates acknowledging him and more of a sense of community develop, even before the bonding exercise. And it’s this exercise, which Yosaimura suggests, that catapults her to the frontrunner in the class private race. I don’t know how many of Iroha’s other classmate’s share his goal of peace but Yosaimura seems to be a kindred spirit. Here’s also where I acknowledge that I don’t see why Iroha needs to become the class private other than his desire to treat everything seriously or gather more allies. Yosaimura seems to like the perfect candidate for the private role as not only was she able to suggest an acceptable activity, showing clear understanding of the task and her peers, but she was also able to weave in her own desires and gain admiration from her peers as well. Alls that to say that I’m a fan. The dynamics established so far are really interesting as well. The main players right now are Iroha as our hero and Kogoe as the somewhat villain. Ensa is the first of what appears to be Iroha’s subordinates and Toshusai is his rival. It’s with Yosaimura’s introduction into the story that we see what Anon’s role is going to be. Where Toshusai is his rival, Yosaimura and Anon are much more capable than Iroha, representing a sort of paragon of good and evil respectively to strive towards. As we appreciate the warmness of camaraderie amongst our cast, Yosaimura drops the proverbial bomb, in which she reveals her goal was to show how people in war don’t get to enjoy what they just had, shedding so much light on her character all in one instant. She also is able to almost single handedly alter the mood of the entire class, once again painting her as the obvious choice. And that’s why I think that she won’t be able to win the nomination and if the stakes are really death then she might even die. But it does provide Iroha a good example to strive towards. At the end of the chapter we see Anon conspiring with Kogoe and we see them once again propped up as villains. 

Witch Watch(Chapter 102)

We haven’t met another weirdo in such a long time that I just have to talk about this chapter. I love Fran so much already. A Frankenstein based shut in is such a good addition to the cast. Her method of rejecting people is also hilarious. And I don’t know about her, but Rui and Miharu’s exchange sounded suggestive the whole time through. At first I thought he was talking like that because he knew Fran was listening but it’s even funnier knowing it’s just the way he talks normally. It’s a 100% consistent with his trickster identity. I also love Fran’s character design so much, it was easy enough to tell that she was based off of Frankenstien but her seeking to make robots instead of flesh monsters is a nice change as it helps keep it PG. One thing that’s really neat about Witch Watch is that if characters are a part of a certain character’s world, they only interact with character’s outside of their social circles organically. It’s built up quite a living and breathing world through that. 

Akane-Banashi(Chapter 55)

These two new characters that we’ve been introduced to, Tama and Kaichi, are really interesting. It seems like it’s a running trend with the great character introductions this week. I wasn’t sure what I found interesting about them until I realized that a point was made about their newness to the scene. These two characters create an interesting dynamic because they seem to be the first few characters that Akane doesn’t need to learn things from but are still her peers. And besides the dynamic, they’re interesting characters in and of themselves. Kaichi devoting himself to Rakugo later in life and his wistful way of talking coupled with the sly info drop of him being a salesman paints an interesting character to pair with his expository older brother type personality. Tama is definitely the more interesting characters as he lacks confidence but is still somehow able to hold his own enough to apprentice under who seems to be as formidable as Ikken. The exposition this round also helps to prop up Akane as the prodigy she is, and gives her some much earned credit. And one last thing I want to mention, I love Akane's signature look, as shown in the panel above, of having her arm before her in a sort of defensive stance. It calls back to Bruce Lee thumbing his nose before a fight while also being a distinctive character pose. It shows her defensive nature but also that she's ready to attack at any moment.

Undead Unluck(Chapter 152)

I love this chapter so much. Using Billy’s initial trait of untrustworthiness and not having faith in others to turn around and have his power become acknowledging and trusting others is such a beautiful way to tell his story through technical plot elements that I can’t get over it. And not only does this manga pull that off magnificently, it also weaves it through his backstory while justifying his viewpoint before having Fuuko shatter that viewpoint. It’s hard to be eloquent and in depth about something as intelligently and empathetically done as this. The story has immense love for it’s character’s and treats them with respect. And once again, having Billy’s power represent his change from wanting to shoulder all the burdens himself to trusting others in such a way is genius. Also the fact that Fuuk achieved such a feat, changing a man’s entire worldview in one moment in such a believable way is such a testament to the writing as well as Fuuko as a character. She’s grown so much since we first saw her and I love how the above displayed page shows off her intensity and empathy.

The Ichinose Family's Deadly Sins(Chapter 18)

And so the other shoe drops. While everyone else has tried to go on living after the accident, the past 17 chapters have been inside Tsubasa’s head as he dreams during his coma of four years. We watch as his mom mourns her son and feels guilty about the dreams she’s been having. She goes to the roof to probably kill herself only to find Tsubasa’s dad there as well, about to jump off. The chapter ends as they both come to the conclusion that they’re having the same dream. Taizan5 finally hits us with the sobering reality in this chapter and it’s absolutely tragic. But through whatever dream magic this is happening, they’ve been given a literal second chance. I’m curious to know if Tsubasa’s other family member’s survived. This development in the story tee's up for one last permanent change. Though it won’t change the past, this revelation is the Ichinose Family’s one last chance to make it right. It’s honestly a brilliant way to portray the themes of growth and change. This manga did it’s best to put forth the message that it’s never too late to change the way you live going forward, but doing it through the plot device of repeating time loops felt off and kind of hollow. But now, with the reveal that everything is permanent? It presents the perfect opportunity to fully cement those themes.

THE LEFTOVERS

Today’s release date also coincided with another release of Naruto: Sasuke’s Story-The Uchiha and the Heavenly Stardust(Chapter 8.2) where Sasuke continues his battle against the dinosaurs alongside his pet raptor. Yup, Sasuke has a pet raptor in this. There’s a reason why I don’t talk about this much. It was nice to see a side character that had been teased to have deeper motivations finally take the limelight with Meico finally solidifying her desire to beat Roboco in this week's chapter of Me & Roboco(Chapter 130). Ichigoki’s Under Control!!(Chapter 16) also seems to be in its final arc as they’re setting about to restore Misao to her normal height. Going on a Dragon Ball style hunt, they end up in a heavily stereotyped American prison and help to reform it. I don’t know if it was funny but it was definitely interesting… Tragedy strikes in Jiangshi X(Chapter 10) as our main character’s father gets stabbed while trying to help him escape. I’d always wondered about the colour in the titles but now it pays off with red blood on the last page. It was a well emphasized and earned moment. We get to see the new additions to the cast in an adorable chapter of Mission: Yozakura Family(Chapter 171). For the first time in a while, I didn’t have many complaints, this was quite a fun chapter. I really like the character’s the kids and it’s fun seeing Taiyo and Mustumi as parents. Mashle: Magic and Muscles(Chapter 149) once again uses Mash’s superhuman strength as it’s one and only punchline as he strikes a deal to come back to life. The art’s good though. This week’s chapter of The Elusive Samurai(Chapter 103) begins in a bizarrely dreamlike sequence before hurtling back towards battle again. In Blue Box(Chapter 94) we get a bittersweet story that contrasts Hina And Taiki with Natsu and Yumeko. It’s nice to see Yumeko develop and I find her to be a really engaging character but it’s always a rough chapter when Hina’s sadness is brought to the forefront. Here’s hoping for some happiness in her future, the manga needs to stop doing her dirty. In Sakamoto Days(Chapter 112) we get some insight on Sakamoto’s choice to have a family. We also get a rare look under Sakomoto’s stoicism through the sweet moment he has with Konomi. We get a little development for Mina and also learn about how we got to the current circumstances of the battle in My Hero Academia(Chapter 383). In Black Clover(Chapter 355) we get the start of the battle.

[gildedbarbarian]

I agree with so much of this! I'll put my commentary under the cut too just for the sake of not clogging up anyone's dash or spoiling anything!

Spoilers up to chapter 146 below the cut!

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who feels torn between the dichotomy of how final this feels and also the sheer amount of story left to tell. I haven't really seen anyone else talk about how final some of this (namely, the sheer length of the arc paired with the feeling of "let's get all of our allies together to fight off this very personal affront to our state of being" of it all). It feels to me like Sakura has very rapidly begun to see and understand things that I frankly expected to take longer within the story itself, and I think that adds to the finality (in feeling) of this whole arc.

That said though... we are missing a lot. I would say Suo and Sakura's backstories are the biggest nuggets of information I feel we're lacking as of this moment in the story, and I simply don't see how either of those could be addressed in a satisfying matter within the confines of the remainder of this arc (which I think, likely, we're heading towards the tail end of?). Honestly, it feels like with the exception of Umemiya, Hiragi, Tsubaki, and Kaji, we have a very surface view of who a lot of the cast is at their core. (This is also excluding anyone that the Bofurin cast has fought. Fights being conversations has opened a lot of doors to understanding antagonists.) This isn't a bad thing, necessarily, as we've only had 146 chapters so far to engage with these characters (of which there are many) and some of them (Sakura and Suo in particular) seem to keep things very close to the chest. It just feels like if things were to end here, we'd have more unanswered questions than answered ones. I would be genuinely shocked if there wasn't some sort of context provided to Sakura's current living situation before the story wraps up, I just can't even begin to wrap my mind around where it goes from here.

Kiryu is also of massive interest to me personally, and additionally I'd like to know more about Sugishita and how he got attached to Umemiya as he is now. I don't necessarily think that either of those backstories are integral to the progression of the narrative, but I do think that they'd both help flesh out our understanding of the world they both (and all) live in, similar to how Tsubaki's in particular did.

I very specifically looked for Kotoha while reading Umemiya's childhood chapters (and holy shit, what chapters they were). While there was one child in the background that I think could pass as Kotoha were it addressed more, I do agree that there's a general lack of her presence there. We effectively know nothing about her at this stage outside of the minimal details provided in early chapters, and that seems odd to me with how integral she was to the beginning of this story really... lifting off? She provides a sort of grounding and context that the Bofurin members are simply incapable of as they're wrapped up in all of the wild shenanigans of the plot, and to leave her so fully skeletal as she is right now feels like a strange choice. So I guess to amend my previous statement, if there's three backstories I expect that we'll get a fuller context for by the actual end of the story, it's Sakura, Suo, and Kotoha.

Sakura's goal for himself was to reach the top (which is, by his original definition, not possible with Umemiya there). The goal established for us by Kotoha's narration in the anime (a slightly different spin, sure, but not strictly irrelevant imo) was that this is how Sakura ultimately becomes the town's hero. Neither of these things have been accomplished yet, though it does feel a bit like we're closer to the anime-only goal than the goal Sakura explicitly stated for himself. I'm honestly not sure how relevant the difference between these two things is, if there is any at all, but it is something I've been pondering for a few days now.

The "opening act" title card felt significant for a number of reasons and I can't quite personally make heads or tails of what the intention was. Simply because it falls on chapter 100, there's part of me that wonders whether or not it was a sort of denotation of milestone within the story. But given that we've seen nothing else like it before or since, I'm not sure I quite buy into it. Alternatively, though, I do agree that the choice of "opening act" is quite significant here. To have this arc considered the opening act (with no subsequent bookend to be seen) leads me to think that there's a lot more incoming for this story and that, just as you said, the first 85-90 chapters were a prologue of sorts. We were learning the ropes, exploring the world, finding an understanding the main players. If anything, this is the call to action in a hero's story. What's coming next is... somehow much, much bigger than this.

Admittedly, it's difficult for me to fathom how subsequent arcs could up the anty on what we're seeing now. In terms of relying on/rounding up allies and reflecting on the concepts laid out for the protagonists by the narrative, this arc feels similar to the Thousand Year Blood War arc of Bleach (on a smaller scale, of course). While I do agree that Sakura doesn't feel fully cemented in himself yet, like he's got a long way to go towards truly believing and understanding that his friends, his senpai, his found family will not waver or fault him for his weight in this journey, the way in which both Endo and Takiishi are directly and personally connected to Bofurin as a whole is hard for me to shake. That said, and to your wording at the very top of your message, this feels like an ending. That doesn't necessarily mean the ending.

Between reading your post and responding with my own, I think I've talked myself into believing that we're moving towards a much broader-scale story and threat than the first hundred or so chapters of the story (or even 146, if we're being honest) indicated. This, combined with the plethora of unanswered questions and hints at characters that we've barely even seen yet (Bofurin kid who "saved" Umemiya, anyone?), and the fact that Sakura doesn't seem to have fully grasped what he's being taught about himself definitely paints a picture of more arcs to come. And honestly, there's a massive chance that we just don't really have the context for where things could go from here. If chapter 100 was just the start of the opening act, then who knows how much narrative there is left to tell.

Thank you so much for your response to my original post, it was an absolute delight to read! Apologies if you didn't make it this far in mine, I didn't realize how much I had to say until I started typing it all out.

Also! If you did a full analysis of Suo, I would definitely read it. Just saying.

so I'm reading the Wind Breaker (Satoru Nii) manga... and uh... I'm in the 120's for chapters and this feels.... like a final fight kinda? Do we know if we're already gearing up for the end?

[musclesandhammering]

Every Single Issue I Have With S*lki (It’s Not Just The Selfcest)

Here goes. I threatened to post this a few days ago and never did, but I just saw a s*lki stan Twitter account claim that Loki caring about Sylvie more than the whole multiverse was a Good And Romantic thing and it pushed me over the fucking edge, so now you all have to read this. I’ve divided it into categories cause there’s just THAT much.

OOC Bullshit

• First and foremost, no amount of mental gymnastics you do will ever make me believe that this specific Loki- the one that just invaded New York, that just came off a year of Thanos Torture, that just got done being influenced by the sceptre, that was literally in the middle of a crisis already, and then on top of that went through all the trauma of Ep 1- would even be worried about a romantic relationship. That would be the furthest thing from his mind. Go back and watch how he acted in Avengers- you think that guy would abandon his previous mission to become a snivelling simp for a girl he’d just met 3 days prior? Yeah, there’s no universe in which that makes sense.

• “It’s very in character for Loki to fall in love with himself lololol-“ NO, it’s literally not. Out of all the characters in the mcu, I don’t think I can think of anyone that genuinely hates themselves more than Loki. He even referred to all his other male variants as “monsters” and said meeting them was “a nightmare” in this series. He’s got so much self-loathing, plus the fact that he genuinely thinks himself to be an evil backstabbing scourge- so there’s no evidence at all suggesting that he would ever develop a fondness for, or even be inclined to trust, another version of himself, after only knowing them for 3 days.

• Building on that, the whole concept of Loki falling in love with a version of himself just feeds into the annoying ass misconception that he’s a narcissist. No matter which way you stack it, he’s not. If you’re referring to NPD, he doesn’t fit the criteria, and if you’re saying “narcissist” just as a slang term meaning “selfish and arrogant”, that still doesn’t accurately describe him. But when creators like Waldron and Herron do things like having him fall in love with himself, it makes it so much easier for casual viewers to think that he is.

Shitty LGBT Rep

• It’s kinda sus that Loki’s are allegedly genderfluid and yet the only female-presenting variant we see (and apparently the only female-presenting variant there is, cause the male Loki’s all seemed unfamiliar with the concept) is treated as some kind of mind-bogglingly special paradox. Also very sus that, out of all the Loki variants, the one our Loki falls in love with just so happens to be the only female one. What a coincidence.

• The fact that the creators of the show went around bragging about Loki’s bisexuality and Marvel purposefully (lbr) allowed stories about Loki possibly having a male love interest to circulate, specifically enticing queer viewers to watch the show (you know, the definition of queerbaiting), and then instead of having a male love interest (Loki was the first queer main character, so it was the perfect opportunity) they gave us *gestures to this dumpster fire* this… it’s just a middle finger to LGBT fans. The fact that they would rather have this relationship with all its myriad of problems than have a gay relationship is just……. Very telling.

• While him being with a woman obviously doesn’t refute his bisexuality, the fact that they showed/talked about him being interested in 3 different women (flight attendant, Sylvie, Sif) and never even hinted at him being attracted to a man, definitely makes it seem like they were trying to cover up his bisexuality to smooth things over with the more homophobic viewers. You know? It’s like “I know you’re pissed that we sorta confirmed Loki as bi, so we promise we’ll never mention it again! Or even hint at it! As a matter of fact, we’ll give him lots of female lovies and make him seem as straight as possible! That’ll take your mind off of that horrible crumb of queer rep, right? Please please please keep giving us your money!!!”

• Aside from all the other issues, at its core, the biggest reason why I think I’m so irritated with s*lki is that it took one of the most interesting, complex, and diverse characters in cinema atm and squished him into a tired ass unnecessary heteronormative subplot…. Like literally every. single. other. protagonist. ever. Loki is such a unique character, and it’s so so so incredibly disappointing that they stuck him into that same boring cookie cutter romance that happens to every other character in every other movie I’ve ever seen. It’s a disservice, and it’s honestly just not compelling or entertaining at all.

Thematic Issues Galore

• His arc didn’t need a romance. With anyone. It was unnecessary and it didn’t make sense plot-wise. In fact, one of the reasons he was my fav prior to this was because he was the only big-name mcu character whose story wasn’t muddied-up by a romance that didn’t need to be there. So much for that.

• He wasn’t emotionally ready for a romantic relationship with anyone. Hell, just a genuine friendship would’ve been pushing it for him at this point. He was in such a bad state that any relationship he got into would’ve been toxic and unhealthy for both him and the other person, and it doesn’t make sense why the writers would want to put him in one when there were so many cons and essentially no pros (other than “Uwu aren’t they cute together”).

• Sylvie’s character in general was unnecessary and Loki’s character was robbed just by her being there. The whole show became about her post-Ep 2. They spent most of the time giving her backstory, building her up, telling us how awesome she is, trying to convince us to like her, etc when what they really needed to be doing was building Loki up- cause I gotta say, if I had to describe TVA!Loki in a few words, they would be Flat, Boring, and Weak.

• The romance overtakes the plot. They spend time portraying their supposed connection that could’ve been spent adding depth and complexity to literally any of the characters. They make the big Nexus Event them giving each other googly eyes on Lamentis when it could’ve been so many other way more profound things that speak to the fundamental nature of Loki’s. They have the climax of the finale be “oh no she betrayed him to kill He Who Remains” when it could’ve been something way more compelling (Loki having a moral crisis over whether or not to kill HWR, Loki contemplating the state of the multiverse and weighing the pros and cons of freedom vs order, Loki looking into some What If situations and getting emotional about what could’ve been regarding his family, Loki realising the gravity of HWR’s offer and finally coming to terms with how important he is to the universal cycle, etc etc). The entire plot suffered in favour of a romance that half of us didn’t even want.

• It essentially reduced all of Loki’s potential character growth down to “He did it for his crush.” He seemed to at least have some motivations of his own in Ep 1-2 (feeble as they were) but after Sylvie showed up in Ep 3, literally every action he took was just him being a simp for her. Why did he lie in the interrogation? To try to protect Sylvie. Why did he fight the minutemen and Timekeepers? To survive kinda, but mostly cause it was important to Sylvie. Why did he get pruned? Cause he got distracted trying to confess his crush to Sylvie. Why did he try to get out of The Void? Cause he thought Sylvie needed him. Why did he stay in The Void? Cause Sylvie was staying. Why did he try to enchant Alioth? Cause Sylvie told him to. Why did the multiverse get cracked open, leading to an infinite number of Kangs waging war on all of existence? Cause Loki didn’t wanna hurt Sylvie in their fight at the Citadel and then get distracted by her kissing him. It’s uninteresting and honestly pretty embarrassing.

• Throughout their “relationship arc” the writers do their absolute damndest to convince us that we should like Sylvie more than Loki. And you know what? It’s the most hypocritical shit I’ve ever seen. They preach and preach about how Sylvie’s life has been so difficult/we should feel bad for her/she had it so bad/poor poor sylvie/she had it SO much worse than pampered prince Loki…. But then they never even touch on any of Loki’s trauma of hardships (the ones that have been ignored for literally 3 movies now). They frame Sylvie as a good person and a Freedom Fighter after she spent literal decades/centuries mass-murdering brainwashed TVA agents and showing exactly zero remorse for it….. but then they make it their mission to constantly remind us that Loki is a terrible person and constantly put him in situations where he’s forced to acknowledge his wrongdoings/show remorse/admit to how “evil” he is for being a mass murderer for like 2 years. They show him on-screen having a wider range of powers than her, and perpetuate his whole shtick of being a “master manipulator” or whatever….. But then they make Sylvie “the brawn” more competent, intelligent, and physically capable than him. Tell me how it’s a good thing for a ship to be so narratively biased toward one character.

Missed Opportunities

• If they absolutely had to have a romance subplot, then they could’ve paired Loki with one of the characters that have already been established OR one of the characters that were a big part of the whole TVA storyline anyway. It would’ve been so interesting if they’d revealed that Loki had a history with some of the players from previous films (Sif and Fandral both come to mind). It also would’ve been really interesting if they’d given Loki a love interest that actually had some allegiance to the TVA as a whole (Mobius maybe, but not necessarily. It also could’ve been Renslayer or B-15). Hell, imo it would’ve been cool if they’d followed through with that “See you again someday” line that he said to the flight attendant in Ep 1. ALL of these characters have way more chemistry with him than Sylvie, and they were also already relevant to the plot without wasting half the show to give background info on them.

• If they absolutely had to have a hetero-presenting love story involving an enchantress-type figure, then there’s a whole Enchantress (Amora) that was actually Loki’s love interest in the comics. Plus, fans have been screaming for Amora to appear in the mcu for years. Plus, Tom literally pitched an Amora/Loki storyline way back in 2012-13. Also, Lorelei (another enchantress) is also one of Loki’s love interests in the comics, and she already exists in the mcu (she was on Agents of SHIELD). There were several different established characters for them to choose from. Creating a whole knew amalgamation of a character and going with the “she’s a Loki variant” storyline was just completely unnecessary and made no sense.

• They completely robbed us of a Chaos Twins dynamic. Had they handled Sylvie better and not forced her and Loki to smooch, the two of them could’ve had a really really complex and interesting sibling relationship. Loki could’ve stepped into Thor’s shoes and sort of used that new role to gain some self importance, and Sylvie could’ve finally had somebody to look out for her/teach her magic/be there for her. It would’ve been very aesthetically pleasing, the vibes would’ve been out of this world, it would’ve been way more profound than this bs, and frankly it would’ve been much more entertaining to watch.

• Loki’s relationship (read: obsession) with Sylvie completely overshadows all Loki’s other relationships in the show. Loki and Mobius were literally the focal point of the series in Ep 1-2, but after Sylvie showed up in Ep 3, they barely had any interactions with each other, and Mobius pretty much faded to the background entirely. Loki had the beginnings of a pretty interesting antagonistic relationship with Renslayer (with her wanting him pruned, then arguing with Mobius that he couldn’t be trusted), but after Sylvie showed up the dynamic shifted to focus on the history between her and Ravonna. Loki and B-15 started off very badly and openly disliked each other throughout Ep 1-2, and then in the end of Ep 2, Loki showed a little bit of concern for her when she was possessed, hinting that they might be inching toward a reconciliation- especially considering how obvious it was that Loki was gonna uncover the TVA’s sins eventually. There was so much potential for him to be the one to give her her memories back and convince her to change sides, but no, of course that honor went to Sylvie. In fact, after Sylvie showed up, Loki and B-15 never even spoke to each other again.

Various S*lki Fails

• If they were trying to convince us that this affection was mutual, they completely failed. There’s nothing I’ve seen that even hints at Sylvie feeling the same way about Loki that he does about her. At most, I’d say she has a slight endearment to him. She finds him likeable and she’s grudgingly fond of him, but she definitely isn’t in love with the guy. Maybe she thinks he’s cute and hopes that he gets out of this mess alright, but her mission obviously comes before him- whereas, it’s been confirmed multiple times that Loki cares about her above anything else. She doesn’t trust him, she looks at him like he’s an incompetent fool half the time, she shows little to no reaction during most of his confession moments, and she kissed him as a means to distract him so that she could get him out of her way. Look, all I’m saying is, when you get into a relationship where one of you is way more invested than the other, it never ends well.

• This goes without saying for a lot of us, but the selfcest is just straight up odd and cringey. If you’re cool with that sort of thing, fine! People can ship what they want! But don’t pretend it’s not at least a little bit uncomfortable. Yes, I know they’re not technically siblings so it’s not technically incest, and they’re also not technically the exact same person, but they’re similar enough that it makes things weird. And yes I know selfcest can’t happen in real life, so there’s no way to judge it morally, but neither can most of the other stuff that happens in these shows/movies (the Snap, Loki destroying jotunheim, superhero with powers being held accountable, mind control) and yet we still find ways to judge their morality, because they all mirror real-world events. (The snap= genocide; Loki destroying Jotunheim= bombing other countries; superhero accountability= weapons accountability; mind control= grooming and coercion). And lbr the closest real-world mirror to two versions of the same person (who may or may not share DNA, family, backgrounds, physical and emotion characteristics) being romantically involved with one another is incest. And you can be ok with that if you want- that’s your prerogative- but don’t get pissy just cause a lot of us are squicked out by it.

• The whole mirror metaphor (learning self love via each other) thing just fell completely flat. First of all, having Loki learn to love himself by looking at someone who mirrors him did not, in any way shape or form, require them to be romantically involved. But they were. Of course. Secondly, the creators have contradicted themselves so many times on whether Loki and Sylvie are the same or not, that it doesn’t even really register to the viewer that the mirroring thing was what they were going for. Finally, Loki and Sylvie are shown to have so little in common- and to have only the most bare minimum of similarities personality-wise- that it doesn’t even make sense that Loki would “learn to love himself through loving her”. Like? They’re nothing alike. So how would he make the connection that he himself is actually pretty cool, based on her alone? There’s virtually nothing in her that reflects him.

• I know the objective of the entire show was to convince us of how awesome and unique Sylvie is, but honestly her relationship with Loki just did the opposite. A hallmark of a Mary Sue is having her constantly upstage the male lead, and then having him instantly fall madly in love with her anyway. And that’s.. exactly what happened here. Everything they’re doing to try to force her character to be more stan-able is really just forcing her to look more like their self-insert OC. Which is exactly what she is. It would’ve been so much more satisfying if she didn’t have to try so hard to look cool, if they didn’t have to try so hard to make her backstory tear-inducing, if they didn’t have to turn our protagonist into a snivelling simp just to prove how incredible she supposedly is. Very much #GirlBoss energy and we all know how performative and cheap that is.

• The entire thing was too rushed, there was too little build-up, and it was nowhere near believable. As stated above, it’s ridiculously unlikely that Loki would canonically even be interested in Sylvie, and this show did nothing to explain why he was. He just suddenly was. There was nothing they showed us as viewers that would justify a guy as closed-off and preoccupied as Loki falling head-over-heels for a girl he just met. Their was no explanation, no big revelation, no reasoning, it just… kinda happened. And I’m also severely skeptical of any love story that has the characters go in this deep after only 3 45-minute episodes of exposition.

I’m sure there’s other stuff, so if anyone thinks of anything, let me know and I’ll be more than happy to add it. Tagging @janetsnakehole02 @raifenlf @natures-marvel and @brightredsunset800 for expressing interest. This is all your faults.

[ramblingguy54]

Echoes of the Past may honestly be my favorite episode so far in Season 2′s current run. While never hating King’s character, he wasn’t someone I loved much either. He had some very nice charming episodes with Luz in exploring their adorable dynamic, while deconstructing his attention seeking nature, but this character never clicked with me as a favorite. That honor went to characters like Amity Blight & Lilith Clawthorne in Season 1. Echoes of the Past though does a simply great job in getting me to genuinely care about King’s whole existence, by finally exploring his mysterious backstory of where he came from and addressing the title bestowed to him as “King Of Demons”. We get to see the consequences of Eda & Luz playing into King’s fantasies of being a supposed demonic ruler because they didn’t want to hurt his self-esteem. They cared too much for the little guy to say this was all an act to comfort his sense of worth. This recent episode, unless it gets topped by an even better story centered around him later, is easily the best in exploring what makes King who he is, overall.

When I saw him break down panicking, becoming emotionally distraught, and so very confused I felt every bit of his pain. That’s what I wanted in Season 1 was giving me a much bigger reason to care about King besides just “funny yet cute sidekick” character. King isn’t another comedic insert to fill in some kind of status quo for silly shenanigans. He’s a very real individual with an unknown point of origins who, despite the good intentions of others, was lied to about everything. This picture above is easily my favorite shot encapsulating King’s sadness. He doesn’t know what to feel, think, or believe in anymore upon Eda telling him the real events of how she came across him as a baby. I simply love the melancholy atmosphere in this wide shot from Luz’s point of view. She isn’t viewing him as an adorable friend needing protection, but someone Luz did dirty in playing into his fantasies of believing himself to be a ruler that backfired.

Echoes of the Past builds upon what Season 1 already did right in establishing how much Luz cares for King, like an older sister to their younger brother basically kind of dynamic. Their interaction on that log by the moonlight felt so downright organic in showing Luz’s compassion toward King with a lovely line, “You are somebody and I love that somebody very much.”, to comfort his sudden existential crisis. The fact there’s no music playing here, letting the voice acting speak for itself, really added to the whole moment of reconciliation between these two. King valued everyone’s perception of his whole personality and implied background, so to be told it’s all a white lie was deeply crushing. King can tolerate being teased, which is why he thought they were joking at first, whereas realizing this was the full truth made him re-contextualize everything. Was he being lied to outta some kind of pity? Did Luz ever believe him at all? Did anyone respect or love him enough to want bring themselves to clarify anything? Those thoughts were definitely running through his mind for sure.

What makes this all work as well it does is Luz’s bond with King being a central core of the entire episode. We get a very sweet backstory behind how Eda found King years ago and was also the one to give him the title he cherished sure, but it all circles back to Luz being the MVP to help ground him back to reality. If it wasn’t for Luz, then King would’ve been defiantly hiding from his issues. Not to say he wouldn’t have listened to Eda’s pleas for forgiveness, rather it could have been harder to accomplish without Luz there to help comfort him. King really cares about Eda of course, however there’s a special connection he’s formed with Luz where he seriously values about what she has to say. Literally one of the gags in Season 2′s first episode, Separate Tides, is King clinging to Luz’s leg shouting about how he never wants her to leave. Luz made him feel on top of the world when they hung around together in doing whatever kind of activity they’d partake in. Whether it’s writing a book together or hanging around at a carnival, King cherished every second he spent with Luz on their adventures.

Echoes of the Past perfectly captured this endearing dynamic beautifully.

[hopeswriting]

I meant to do a post about my thoughts on the Daily Life Arc now that I finished rereading it, but I can't seem to find the time and it's been a while now, and if I keep it up I'll forget what my thoughts are to begin with lol, so here's the long story short:

I know it's a long arc, as in it starts being boring and more or less unbearable past some point, because the "gag of the chapter" format only takes you so far, and not actually very far if Amano's humor doesn't work on you much, if at all. I don't think it's an arc you can reread right away/soon either, lest you feel that one flaw even faster.

And I felt it too, starting with the fourty-something chapters I felt like it was dragging on too much, though to be fair that probably had to do too with the fact I knew things much more interesting were coming after that.

Still, all that said, like, it's an enjoyable arc. Amano's humor happens to work on me, and she does it really well, and I liked reading the arc. There are some chapters where you're really asking yourself why they were written for lol, but even then you read it for the characters, and it somehow keeps you going.

And like, even though I think Amano could have seen the fact the comedy was going to turn repetitive and thus boring at some point, and try to diversify it or something, it's just how comedy/humor/gags works? Some jokes land and some doesn't, but for me at least a lot more of them worked than not.

The DLA is a good enough arc is what I'm saying.

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On than note and on the contrary, of course it's fine if you think it's a bad arc, to each their opinion, but personally I really don't agree it's an unnecessary one.

I'm saying this because apparently it's not uncommon to advice new fans to skip the arc and directly start with the Kokuyo one? (Or so I learned on TV Tropes anyway, this might or might not be still relevent/accurate.)

Now don't get me wrong, the DLA does fail to hook the readers to the story for the reasons stated above, I agree with that, but it literally introduces the main character? And all the other characters, and gets us to know them, and establishes the dynamics between them and why they're the way they are, and, though only in a more or less superficial manner (and more than less) by design of the arc's purpose (not being deep in any way lol), it still gives us an insight into the characters and why they're the way they are. A glimpse into the core of their personality, the "stakes" of their characters, the flaws they have to overcome.

And all that in the context of their daily life, so if you skip it to go directly to the arc that challenges them, you can't appreciate fully how they rise to the challenge, how it shows their growth or reasserts their core values. You can't know how much or what it means, for example, off the top of my head, to have Yamamoto sacrifice his arm to beat Ken, when only a year ago he tried to kill himself over his broken arm. Or Hibari losing against Mukuro, thus telling us how much of a real threat he was. Or Tsuna screaming at Lancia for having hurt his friends, anger on his face, clearly despite himself, that Dame-Tsuna.

All these just wouldn't hit you the same, and it'd be such a shame? I mean I guess the ones who start with the Kokuyo arc go back to read the DLA, or you could compromise like the anime did by splitting the DLA between more serious arcs, but like I said I personally don't find the DLA that bad, so I still wouldn't advice it lol.

Even if, I suppose, it'd mean they might give up on the manga somewhere through the DLA, but like? Some mangas just don't speak to you, and that's fine, and it'd be a little of a shame from my POV as a KHR fan, but still, no big deal.

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I'm still very impressed with how smoothly Amano went from a gag manga to a shonen one, and how she made it so the DLA still fits with the rest. I mean the sudden change in tone/stakes/etc is jarring, sure, but it's all based on stuff she introduced in the DLA, which she presumably came up with with no intention to ever make it something deeper/more meaningful.

It's easy to believe the foreshadowing, and generally speaking the worldbuilding was planned all along, which, again, probably not, and like? Super impressive.

(Though once more don't get me wrong, there are inconsistencies/plot holes in Amano's plotlines and worldbuilding, but not, like, at their seams, if I can say it like that? It's more often in the details, and it's fairly easy to fill in the blanks ourselves.)

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Finally it was a lot of fun to rediscover the characters in a new light, and a bit of a disbelieving surprise tbh.

For context before I started my reread of the manga, all this time I was going with the time I read/watched it years ago plus the times I skimmed it, but mostly by all the fanon I was consuming. And it's not to say fanon is wrong per se, but it latched on one to three character's traits, or slapped an easy character archetype on them easy to "relate" to within, and apparently never looked back lol. And also often dialed up those traits (good or bad) in a very noticeable manner.

What I'm saying is, fanon is, in fact, wrong sometimes zldnslsz, and the characters are much more nuanced even in the DLA! (Which still leaves us at a more or less superficial level, because, you know lol, but still!)

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To name the ones that stood out to me the most:

Nana isn't abused by Iemitsu, nor is she unhappy in her marriage despite Iemitsu being an absent husband (which is not relevent in the context of the DLA, but still, you can tell). She isn't an abusive mother to Tsuna either, and she is literally never an airhead. She literally just isn't, she actually does react very normally to the crazy Reborn brings with him, but much like Yamamoto as long as no one gets hurt (or walks it off), she just brushes it off.

And she has friends she goes listen to piano recitals with, and tries to save on money by eating rests, and gets in two-way arguments with Tsuna, and raises his allowance if he gets better grades to push him to work harder, and all around is just your average mom that really didn't read as just The Mom, if you know what I mean.

She has her flaws, definitely, she's not a great mom, namely is apparently used to call Tsuna Dame-Tsuna, but she's not just that.

She takes care of him, worries over him, and seems to be the only one who hasn't given up on him yet when the story starts. She supports him (though sometimes in a tactless to hurtful way), praises him when he does well, and trusts him to watch over the kids.

She's not that bad is what I'm saying, and 100% redeemable (that is, if you think she needs to be redeemed to begin with, which I actually do think she does, calling Tsuna Dame of all things is just a really shitty thing to do.)

(Though it's interesting to note that she doesn't do it again after what happened with Kyoko iirc, even if she might very well still talk to him in a belittling way at times. I just wish Amano would have commit fully to acknowledge it and resolve it, what with already having made it Kyoko's Dying Will Regret.)

(Edit: I had forgotten but she literally forgets his birthday while preparing someone else's birthday, so I take back that she is 100% redeemable because it's being too nice. But my point still stands.)

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Haru is literally such a fun character, it makes me even more sad now to know what Amano did with her (nothing ansknslq 😭😂).

She's unhinged, has zero impulse control, does not reflect on the consequences of her lack of impulse control as Tsuna points it out, is ready and willing to throw hands at any given moment and is unapologetic of it, and is the one Amano actually calls an airhead.

The only problem she had with the mafia is that she thought Tsuna was forcing it on Reborn, and when she confirmed it was all true she literally didn't even blink at it, and immediately called herself the future Decimo's wife djosdkkd.

On that note she is literally mafia right from her first appearance, is more or less involved in almost all the mafia shenanigans, was right there with Tsuna & Co when they went to destroy the Tomaso's headquarters.

And like?? Amano could just have left it at that if she wasn't going to do anything else/more with it. Haru had so much potential, and not only Amano did nothing with it, she actually watered her down and took away all her distinct character's traits 😭.

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Hibari is so much more feral and playful than his fanon cool, overpowered, quiet badass counterpart. Which I love too, don't get me wrong, but these two sides of him don't have to be exclusive!

He talks and smiles and jokes often, and shows off and casually insults you, and licks the blood away from his lips after having beaten bloody other middle schoolers who dared to defy him (I know this happens in the Kokuyo arc, but it illustrates my point the best).

Not much more to add than that, we should just acknowledge that and put it in our works more often.

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Gokudera is a compelling character from the get go, and as far as the DLA goes, he's the most compelling character second to Tsuna. He's the only one to actually have flashbacks and a backstory. And what stood out to me the most that I don't see often in fanon, is that he's really a good friend.

Yes he has a short fuse and snaps easily and is easy to anger, but he's not always angry. And is seen having and being capable of positive exchanges outside of Tsuna (I'm thinking Yamamoto namely, who's made with Ryohei to be the one he gets angry with the most).

And yes he holds Tsuna on a pedestal and sees him through heavily tinted pink glasses, but even through that he's earnestly a good friend. And tries his best, and is hardworking and overachieving, so much so he messes up without meaning to, but he only ever has honest, straight-forward good intentions behind it all (well, maybe not always lol).

I love him a lot more now is what I'm saying.

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And Tsuna. I'm not sure I'll be able to articulate my thoughts properly, but like... he's just your average teenager. Which of course is his whole thing, and I'm saying it in a very not judgy way whatsoever, but he's often made to be at least a little more than that, namely about his bullying.

Like, it's kind of dramatised in fics? And I'm not going to elaborate on that more because it might come out wrong and I don't want that, but it's just, like��canonically he is just bullied, simple as that. Like many other teenagers are.

And it's all in a "chill" way (for unfortunate lack of a better word, I don't mean to trivialize bullying at all, it's wrong and unfair and never deserved or okay, just so we're clear), and by the time the story starts Tsuna is used to it and has given up fighting against it, and actually finds refuge and a twisted comfort in embracing his Dame-Tsuna's monicker, because at least he's not gonna hit rock bottom deeper than that if he does.

And I'm not actually going anywhere with this, it's just? It hit me how differently canon and fanon portray his bullying.

Back on the note of him being a (below) average teenager, Tsuna is not an uwu pure cinnamon roll too good for this world.

He's literally so quick to judge and criticise, whether in his head or out loud when he knows more the person (namely Haru lol, poor girl), it was actually a bit of a shock tbh lol. He snaps easily, and is lazy, does not want to try even one bit, and is happy to run away from his responsibilities whenever he can.

And not only I'm not saying that in a judgy way this time either, but I'm actually saying it in a good way. He really felt like your average middle schooler, and it was so refreshing to see. That, plus the fact the narrative never holds it against him, let alone punishes him for it even if he's made to grow out of these traits, and it's literally part of his character arc, is kind of unique for the shonen genre (maybe, I'm not exactly a specialist of shonen mangas lol).

And I can see why you'd want to change it in fics, but personally I think it really makes his character's arc even more meaningful.

[oumakokichi]

Welcome back!!! I’m not sure if you’re taking any requests regarding analyses/meta, but if you’re looking for any ideas/when you have the time, do you mind doing a character analysis on Shuichi Saihara? I understand that he’s the main character but there is a lack of analyses about him. Although there are few, most explore his role as a protagonist/relationships with the others rather than digging deep into his character/personality. I just feel like there is more to him.

Hi anon, thank you so much! I’d be happy to write a character analysis for Saihara. I’m pretty sure I wrote some pieces specifically about his character back in the day, but those are all pretty old by now, and there’s definitely so much to talk about with his character.

Obviously discussing Saihara in-depth will cover spoilers for the entire game, so be careful when reading!

It’s interesting that you bring up the fact that Saihara tends to lack more character analyses, because I feel like this is kind of the result of a few different factors. First of all, there’s the fact that he was never originally advertised as the game’s protagonist. I know that the bait-and-switch with Kaede left many people conflicted; even years later, I see a lot of people saying that while they like Saihara a lot, they would’ve preferred for Kaede to live, or that they still don’t know quite how to feel about his role as a protagonist as a result.

Combine that with the fact that Saihara is simply so different in his role in the game than either Naegi or Hinata were, and I think this leaves a lot of people either uninterested in analyzing him as an individual character or unclear of where to start. Ndrv3’s themes as a whole are such a drastic departure from the Hope’s Peak arc of the first two games that Saihara himself sometimes tends to get overlooked, despite the fact that I firmly believe no one would have worked better as the protagonist of the game precisely because of these very different themes.

This itself is an interesting proposal, because at the same time, I also believe that ndrv3’s cast had the biggest potential for every single character to be the “protagonist” of their own narrative. Not only is this just straight-up alluded to with the reveal that Kiibo was actually the audience proxy, and therefore the “protagonist” through which most of the audience were experiencing the killing game in chapter 6, but we even get brief playable moments with both Maki and Himiko, further driving home the narrative that these characters all had the potential to be the main character. You could even argue that the abundance of ahoges in the ndrv3 cast is a tongue-in-cheek joke about how many people must have had “protagonist syndrome” when auditioning for the show.

But having a cast full of potential main characters still doesn’t negate the fact that Saihara was simply the best choice possible for the protagonist of ndrv3 specifically. I don’t believe we would’ve had nearly the same experience without viewing most of the events through the lens of his inner narration and character growth, and that his specific role in the story as the detective was the perfect way to encapsulate the game’s themes of truth and lies.

Let’s begin by discussing Saihara’s actual personality: he’s timid, riddled with anxiety, and incredibly prone to doubting himself and his own abilities. These traits are at the core of his arc of character development throughout the story, as he constantly struggles with his own feelings of inadequacy and lack of self-worth despite being the most vital contributor to everyone’s survival in the class trials.

Even before he’s revealed to be the true protagonist of the game, these traits are incredibly easy to see from an outside lens. By playing as Kaede, however briefly, we nonetheless get a good look at what Saihara is like even in chapter 1; his lack of self-esteem and debilitating issues with anxiety and doubt are, if anything, even more noticeable when put into such stark contrast with Kaede’s optimism, self-confidence, and attempts to bolster the group into working together and believing in one another.

In fact, it’s through Kaede that we first get a glimpse of Saihara’s backstory, and slowly come to understand that his timidity and anxiety are largely shaped by his past trauma. Saihara feels personally responsible for ruining a man’s life after accidentally uncovering the truth of the man’s crimes, then later learning that he was attempting to get revenge on the person who murdered his entire family. The knowledge that he not only ruined this man’s attempts at revenge, but that this person actively hates him with a passion, has left Saihara emotionally scarred and deeply afraid of even maintaining eye contact with others.

As simple as this little bit of backstory is, I really love it in all of its presentation, because even in chapter 1, it begins to paint a much clearer picture of what Saihara is like. His inability to say no to people and attempts to please everyone begin to make a lot more sense knowing that he is incredibly afraid of being hated or blamed by other people. His reluctance to come into his own as a detective or acknowledge his obvious talent makes perfect sense knowing that he can never fully “bring justice” to a number of crimes, and that his job is by definition one that sometimes makes other people miserable by shedding a light on the truth—even when, sometimes, it might be better to leave the truth covered up.

This established backstory also immediately sets Saihara apart from previous protagonists like Naegi and Hinata, by first shaping him into a separate character who we get to know in chapter 1, and only later re-introducing him as the actual protagonist of the game. This isn’t to say that Naegi and Hinata don’t have established character flaws, or that we don���t know anything about their life prior to the killing game. But these two are very clearly set up to be more of the “everyman” protagonist than Saihara ever was: characters who the reader can insert themselves into by some degree, and whose primary traits tend to revolve around feeling “average” or “mundane” in a way that your typical reader will usually relate to much more quickly.

This makes sense for the Hope’s Peak arc shared by both dr1 and sdr2. These games in particular are centered around the narrative of a “talent-driven society” where only the most talented, elite in their field are rewarded with entry into the “best school in the country”—a narrative that is no doubt supposed to be commentary on Japan’s extremely competitive academic system and society in real life.

With Naegi, we see perhaps the best example of a truly average, normal person thrust into a group of these whacky elites. We trust Naegi almost instantly as a protagonist, specifically because his lack of any particular superpower-like talent makes him more relatable to the reader. And his contributions to the trials and eventual friendships with the other students are meaningful precisely because they prove that you don’t need these incredible talents or make outstanding contributions to society in order to be a fundamentally good person who helps others and forges real, genuine bonds with people.

Hinata’s narrative takes this idea of averageness among “the elite” and takes it a step further in terms of narrative complexity: not only does Hinata lack any sort of talent or trait that would make him stand out, but specifically because of this, he desperately craves a talent of his own. Hinata is incredibly easy for readers to relate to as someone who, in a competitive society where talent is everything, feels useless and meaningless without an elite-level talent of his own. This struggle with identity and self-worth in a talent-driven society is something that most readers will also have experienced on some level, and so makes Hinata instantly relatable and likable for most people.

Which takes us back to Saihara—again, I want to stress how different the setup for his backstory and even his personality are from our previous two protagonists. Saihara isn’t meant to be a self-insert for the reader, or instantly identified with the same way Naegi and Hinata were.

Even other bits and pieces of his backstory and home life, which we learn from his FTEs with Kaede in chapter 1, as well as portions of their salmon mode together, show how incredibly eccentric Saihara is compared to the other two. Saihara doesn’t come from what one might call a “typical home life.” He’s estranged from his wealthy, celebrity parents, and lives with his uncle, who is also a detective. His FTEs reveal that he’s spent his time wrestling alligators and, to put it nicely, being a huge weirdo for most of his life. He’s not our “everyman protagonist” by any means; he’s yet another whacky Danganronpa character who happened to be thrust into the protagonist spotlight through his role as a detective.

In short, Saihara is not what most people would expect from a protagonist in any story, let alone a DR game. He’s certainly not the “everyman,” between his established backstory and somewhat eccentric home life. And he doesn’t have the usual set of traits most people would expect from a protagonist, either. Unlike Naegi and Kaede, who are by and large optimistic, cooperative, and somewhat confident in themselves, or Hinata, who is assertive and forward-thinking, Saihara is… extremely pessimistic, anxious, and lacks any confidence in himself whatsoever.

And yet, in spite of all this, I think many people can and do relate to Saihara. I know I certainly do. Having a character who explicitly struggles with issues like anxiety and depression, not only as the result of the killing game itself (which would understandably fuck anyone’s mental health up irreparably), but even before entering the game, is something I absolutely love about ndrv3. Saihara is hardly the only character to struggle with these issues within the DR franchise, or hell, even just within ndrv3 itself, but it’s hard to ignore how textually canon his depression is when he spends multiple scenes in chapter 5 lying in bed and thinking, “there’s no reason to live, there’s no reason to live” over and over again.

Saihara’s specific set of character traits may set him apart from the “average” reader, but for people who struggle themselves with mental health and self-worth, I think his character hits close to home in a very different way. Over and over again, throughout the narrative, Saihara is called “weak”—by the people around him and even by himself. This “weakness” is a fundamental part of his character that simply wasn’t there with Naegi or Hinata; while the two of them were certainly considered “average” in one way or another, they were never described as “weak” or “lacking what it takes to survive” the way Saihara consistently is.

And it’s true, on some level, that Saihara is what most people might consider “weak.” At the very least, he’s dependent: quick to latch on to anyone who shows him even the slightest sign of affirmation or support, reluctant to admit to his own talent or take credit for his own accomplishments, and unsure of whether he can actually meet other people’s expectations without some kind of helping hand or support.

We see him immediately grow attached first to Kaede, then later to Momota, constantly seeking out a larger, more charismatic personality to hide behind. He’s so unsure of himself that he would rather let other people who he sees as “more likable” or “more crucial” to the group get all the attention and the spotlight; we see this lampshaded somewhat in chapter 4, when everyone nonetheless begins to single him out as the main reason they’re still alive, and he’s clearly baffled and uncertain as to how to reply to the praise and recognition.

Even what little we see of his pregame self from his audition video fits within this framework. Despite a lot of fan portrayals of pregame Saihara (often called “Inchara” or “Kagehara” in a lot of Japanese fanworks) as someone undeniably “evil” or “irredeemable” for actively wanting to participate in a killing game… in the end, all we really know about him is that he is desperate to die. He talks about wanting to kill people, yes, but the emphasis is placed on how much thought and effort he put into his own execution. Even before entering the killing game at all, we can clearly see that Saihara went in with the specific intention of dying.

He wants to play a detective if at all possible, but it’s clear that he’s desperate, nearly feverish, at the idea of “being a part of the world of Danganronpa” at all, in any capacity. This obsession itself feels like a form of unhealthy attachment, and is a clear sign that he (and most of the participants, if we’re reading between the lines) is so damaged and downright suicidal that he views getting 15 minutes of fame on his favorite TV show as the absolute best way to go out. In a word, he’s still “weak,” long before becoming the fictional character version of “Shuuichi Saihara,” and it’s this weakness that Tsumugi herself says she wanted to encapsulate in the show, by making him “weaker than anyone else.”

It’s this “weakness” that I honestly love best about Saihara’s entire character. Because while a large part of his character arc is certainly about becoming stronger and more confident in himself, it’s also a fact that his “weakness” never explicitly goes away. His depression isn’t just magically cured by the end of the story, and he doesn’t wake up one day deciding that his struggle with suicidal thoughts or feelings of worthlessness are over. If anything, chapter 6 ends with a huge subversion of this “magically cured” trope in most fiction, by having Saihara embrace his own weakness as something that actually helps him arrive at a third option when presented with the seemingly black-or-white choice of “hope vs. despair.”

Saihara is, as he admits himself, “weak.” He’s unable to choose the forward-facing optimism that “hope” represents in the killing game—moreso if that “hope” only contributes to the cycle of the killing game itself, enticing people into wanting to see more and more of it. But he doesn’t pick “despair” either, exactly. His inability to choose between this forced dilemma is specifically because he realizes how sick and cruel it really is, and empathizes all the more deeply with the suffering he and his classmates went through. It’s this “weakness” of his that allows him to really put into words how much pain they all went through, and how their pain matters, regardless of whether they’re fictional or not.

It’s an incredible moment in the game, and probably the point at which he became my favorite protagonist in the DR franchise, as well as one of my favorite characters in the series overall. Saihara’s character arc, unlike Naegi and Hinata, was never about “moving forward” or “choosing hope.” He says himself that he’s not the kind of person who can simply make a choice like that. Rather, his arc is about toeing the grey line between “truth” and “lies.”

As we mentioned earlier, Saihara is a detective. In any mystery novel, a detective’s role is to seek out the truth and expose it, no matter how tragic or upsetting the outcome might be. So it’s interesting, then, that by the end of the game, Saihara ultimately comes to understand and even value the concept of “lies.” For someone who knows exactly how painful the truth can be, and who is unable to simply live life optimistically in spite of that truth, the recognition of “gentle lies” told for the sake of helping someone cope, of finding meaning in an otherwise meaningless or cruel life, is incredibly important.

Unlike the Hope’s Peak arc, which sort of placed “hope vs. despair” as some very black-or-white battle with a clear winner (even when some aspects of the series, like dr3, also sort of suggest the idea that it’s an ongoing cycle that keeps repeating itself), there is no real battle or winner between the concept of “truth and lies.” In the end, both are equally important. Saihara both embraces his role as a detective and acknowledges the power that the truth has on people, while simultaneously acknowledging that lies (and therefore fiction) also has power and can be used to influence people and even inspire the world.

This character development is just absolutely fantastic to see, after watching Saihara struggle with so much pain and grief over the course of the game. Seeing a character actually acknowledge the importance of “lies” and “fiction” precisely because of how important of a motivator it can be to depressed, broken people is incredibly satisfying, and not something we often get in most stories. The fact that Saihara is so undeniably “weak,” that he isn’t the type of character you would usually expect to live to the end given how suicidal and deeply traumatized he is, makes his survival at the very end all the more of an uplifting message.

You don’t need to be “cured” to find a reason to live. You don’t have to magically wake up with the most positive, forward-facing outlook in life. You can be “weak” and depressed and hurting inside, and in the end, you still deserve to live, and have the opportunity to find meaning in your own life, whether it’s through truth or fiction.

This has gotten pretty long by now, but I hope I could make it clear exactly why I love Saihara so much. I understand people’s dissatisfaction with the protagonist-swap, and while I perfectly understand that he isn’t for everyone, he’s still a fantastically written character in my opinion, with a wonderful and meaningful arc of development that really resonated with me, as someone who also has struggled with similar mental health issues. I think the decision to do something extremely different from Naegi and Hinata was an excellent decision, and while I still love both of them as characters in their own right, Saihara is just so compelling both as an individual character and the protagonist of ndrv3.

Thank you for the question anon, and thank you to those of you who read to the end! I hope I could offer a decent character analysis!

[kyu-bri]

PMMM Medieval AU

Ok I've been Checked Out of the Meduka Meguca fandom recently but last night during a 11hr post-work week sleep I dreamed up a balls to the wall insanely intricate AU, because my subconcious is ever more creative than my waking self.

A TLDR role list and under the cut I will ramble and speculate in detail:

SAYAKA: An ex squire Knight trainee whose new mission is to overthrow the fucking monarchy after its corrupt rule led to the deaths of her friends. Now seducing an established Knight woman to help her on the inside while she recruits peasants for her rebellion.

MAMI: A rich snobbish merchant, rolling in wealth from inheriting both her dead parents businesses. She too is looking to overthrow the monarchy but is at odds with Sayakas faction because her plan is to become ruler herself.

KYOKO: a thief with brooding backstory. Mami recruits her to do her dirty work behind the scenes to keep her social standing clean.

MADOKA: A young training Goddess of Hope who fell from the moon. She has come to enthusiastically stop all the warring drama and devious plotting. She is in way over her head.

HOMURA: when Madoka fell she brought with her only a magical talisman that would bring one corpse to life to be her right hand. While looking for a noble muscular soldier Madoka tripped and dropped it into an open grave resurrecting a sickly peasant girl. Homura now worships Madoka and they are best friends who are in way over their heads.

Now me screaming trying to decipher my own subconscious:

GOD this AU is so ME. Sayaka going feral and living her best life kicking ass and a catty mean girl Mami countering her specifically. Kyoko poised to compliment, counter and even them out. Oh and MadoHomu are Cute and In Love. If that isnt the core of all of my AUs-

Sayaka was absolutely nuts in this though. My brain didn't spare Kyosuke or Hitomi so much as a cameo but so they're free to be the only reasonable cause for this. Im thinking Kyosuke was ailing as per usual and all that canon drama was the Same but Medieval.

So I'm thinking Sayakas all set to cope with Hitomi financing some lifesaving Medieval leech centric surgery or something before the Evil King whose color scheme is White And Maroon decides to execute Hitomis family for something petty. Hitomi is tragically killed right before Sayaka. Leaving Kyosuke to go shortly after and Sayaka to swear off the monarchy and all traditional law. Withdrawing from her training to be a knight to Be Gay And Do Crime.

Mamis role is both hilarious and perfect. In the dream she didn't do much besides bribe Kyoko and Anime Princess Laugh, but then Madoka was lore dumping (because yes, I DREAMED Madoka explaining LORE to Homura for the audiences (my) benefit.) And she said that Mami was possessed by a Demon of Greed. I'm thinking we could also say a desperate grieving Mami made some sort of deal with it asking for the ability to manage her parents legacy and it's resulted in her becoming the Onceler instead.

Madoka also mentions Kyoko has been scared away from her God bc of humans' actions. Ie she was the holy dutiful priests daughter and then Shit Hit The Fan but Medieval Flavored. The dream legit shows her God was Jesus so I'm declaring the dude God of Redemption, which is a very Kyoko Thing to boot.

While my brain didn't give me any KyoSaya Content tm they're in the perfect position for their epic Rivalry Turned Eternal Companions. Kyoko would be who Mami sends to fuck w Sayaka. Sayaka having probably trying to recruit Mami to her cause before realizing Mamis The Fucking Onceler and inspiring her to create a Rival Gang Of King Hating Rebels.

I'm picturing Sayakas plan fucking up in just the way Kyoko once mocked her that it would and all of Sayakas fight leaving her. As epic as her role is seducing the enemy to benefit her is very Unlike Her, so while the dream poised her as a power couple with the random blond knight lady I'm saying nnnno. And that the arrangement is fitfully miserable and dangerous. Sayaka used to be a loyal hopeless romantic and the Evil that's been committed against her and and those she loves has forced her to harden herself into someone else to be able to fight it.

But while Sayakas in Inevitable Peril and lamenting all of her mistakes and tragedy Kyokos there, fully able to escape but instead of course is like "no fuck that fuck this take my hand dreams come true lets give this nightmare a happily ever after." And its gay.

This would probably pit them both against Mami now but knowing me it would absolutely solve it with gay. And probably a bit of exorcism from Madoka. I theorized briefly if Mami would be a singular tragic death bc she cant be freed bc i liked the idea of tiny baby trumpet blower Nagisa slitting the Evil rich ladies throat and that being the only way to free her from the demon was cool but unless I can give Madoka a second resurrection clause then i would just exorcise her with Homosexuality and Friendship and a bit of Fairy Dust.

Meanwhile with Madoka and Homura they were just off still being cute and oblivious in the dream. I think the dream wanted her to be The One True God but she then shows all the personality traits of Naïve Angel In Training, so bc of the mythology already surrounding her I'm saying thinks a society where Literal Concepts Are Still Being Born and Madoka is the first inkling of Hope that Homosexuality and Friendship can fight Medieval Capitalism on its own.

She's just this bright white and pink pastel glowing entity skipping through a dark dreary forest graveyard looking for soldiers graves to ressurect somebody noble and powerful, gathering twigs in her long Repuntzel hair, when she trips and drops her talisman on a homeless orphan who died of the plague or some shit.

Bonus points to the idea that Madokas supposed to be able to reuse it but bc Homura died of sickness she just dies again right away and Madoka doesn't wanna be mean.

So Homura worships this glowing self positioned manic pixie dream girl bc shes definitely never felt hopeful in her life and so this glowing pastel goddess and drab zombie girl begin a road trip to where the actual plot of the story is happening. Because the moon dropped Madoka like inconveniently far away ig.

And so is the skeleton of a fabulous AU that I will probably not develop further but might make art for because my subconscious brain Also has AMAZING cinematography like when Madoka comes out of her moon all her hair flows out first so from earth it looks like a long pink gunshot through the moon which I suppose all the other characters would see and thus foreshadow their inevitable downfall to the powers of Homosexuality and Friendship and HOPE.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[yaboylevi]

[Fugou Keiji Balance:UNLIMITED]

Interview with Miyano Mamoru and Oonuki Yuusuke - Newtype (2020/5/10)

Translator: yaboylevi Follow my fkbu only blog if you'd like :) ※ do not reupload in its entirety. credits with link to this post attached if parts of it are reposted.

Q: Only 2 episodes of Fugou Keiji Balance:UNLIMITED were broadcasted but can you tell us your impression of the characters that you two play? First of all, the billionaire son of a distinguished family, Kambe Daisuke, who was assigned to the Modern Crime Prevention Headquarters. What’s your opinion of him?

MIYANO: Daisuke, who is voiced by Oonuki-san, is the type of character that constantly makes you change your opinion of him. If you look at him through Kato’s eyes, at the beginning he was someone you couldn't like. But Daisuke was transferred to his same division and Kato ended up having to teach him the ropes. Daisuke, in his own way, is facing cases earnestly, but it seems like Kato still hasn’t understood this. There are still lots of things that weren’t revealed about Daisuke, so I’m curious about that.

OONUKI: Daisuke knows nothing of the real world, he’s a bit clueless, or more like, he has always lived in a world of wealth, so he just does things in his own way. His air of arrogance and wealth was quite hard to portray in the beginning. But thanks to being alongside Kato, he will learn various things, so from now on, he will grow as a person. I’m looking forward to that.

Q: So, what about the hot-blooded detective Kato Haru, who was once part of the First Division, and is now working at the Modern Crime Prevention Division?

MIYANO: Kato has strong beliefs. He is a person who holds his ideals of justice very dear. He used to be the ace of the First Division but fell down all the way to the Modern Crime Headquarters. Because of that, he’s frustrated at the fact that he can’t do the things he wants to do. He’s a character who’s got a certain realism as part of the middle management (T/N: middle management people are not part of the top managers, they are their subordinates, but they are in charge of the actual workplace and have their own subordinates they are responsible for).

OONUKI: To someone like Daisuke who knows nothing of the everyday life of a normal person, Kato is someone who will make him grow more aware. I’m curious about how their relationship will evolve.

Q: As recording proceeds, what kind of opinion have you gained of this series?

MIYANO: Even if I’m the one saying this… our duo is pretty good, right?! (laughs) It feels really good! Daisuke and Kato’s personalities are opposites, but when we perform together, it feels just right.

OONUKI: Thank you. As for me, I really like the music in this series, it’s reaaaally cool! Music starts with such perfect timing that you unintentionally go “Wooh!”.

MIYANO: I totally get it!

OONUKI: Also the character design chosen by Sasaki-san is so cool. In the story, there is also a mystery that will be unveiled a bit at a time. The direction of Director Itou-san is also very stylish and exciting. And amongst it, there are parts that make you laugh, too. The balance is really nice, every recording session is fun!

MIYANO: At the end of every episode there is a receipt showing how much Daisuke’s investigations cost, and that’s exactly the type of entertainment the directing is going for.

Q: Miyano-san, Oonuki-san, the cast gathered in your group of voice actors is also quite amazing. Is there someone who left a strong impression on you when you were recording together?

MIYANO: Every character has a very strong individuality, so they all have a great presence, but I never thought in my life as a voice actor that I’d have the chance to record alongside Kamiya Akira-san (T/N: Cho-san’s voice actor, also Conan's Kogoro's VA and City Hunter's Saeba Ryou). I was so happy it felt like a dream. The weight and dignity of each of Kamiya-san’s words are just that great.

OONUKI:  I also wanted to talk about Kamiya-san. There are certain lines he said that are so very impressive they just remain with you. I was deeply moved by their power, the core of his voice.

MIYANO: He’s a very modest person and it was a precious experience to be able to be in the same workspace and witness the wonderful form of such a role model. Also, Shioya Kozo-san, who voices the chief, was also great. He made the chief sound kind but you also feel like he’s someone who is a lot wiser than everyone else (laughs). You will worry if this guy is okay, but at the same time, it feels like there is something hidden in his past… Even Cho-san, who at first glance sounds like an empathetic detective, the way he’s voiced by Kamiya makes it sounds like there is more to him after all. Each character has their own backstory, there is still a lot that hasn’t been revealed yet.

Q: I’m also curious about the AI butler that Daisuke has.

OONUKI: Through HEUSC, a terminal in the form of an earring, Daisuke can give out orders. Of course, payment of billions of yen, but speaking of technology, I’ve heard it’s also able to make gadgets a reality. I’m looking forward to all sorts of cutting edge gadgets that will appear from now on.

Q: At last, what are you two looking forward to, in regards to future developments?

MIYANO: I want to see more cooperation. This story is centered around Kato and Daisuke’s work partnership, but the scenes where they cooperate are still very few. I’m excited about future developments from now on.

OONUKI: When it comes to Daisuke, it seems like there is "something" concerning the Kambe family, so I’m looking forward to finding out what this mystery is.

MIYANO: (Once that secret comes to light) I want to see the moment in which the calm and collected Daisuke is shaken.

OONUKI: Oh, he will definitely get upset. (laughs)

MIYANO: So yeah, I am looking forward to recording for the second half of this season (T/N: he doesn't mean a second season or a second part, it's just that they still haven't dubbed half of the episodes).

Fun Fact: The old man yelling at Daisuke in EP1 is a cameo: he’s supposed to be Tsutsui-san (the author of The Millionaire Detective novel).

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Translation of the front page (sooo much pandering, read till the end ahah)

One is unheard of, while the other is hot-blooded, one is an unconventional man and the other has a one-track mind, one is eccentric and the other is driven by common sense.

The brains who use freely infinite assets, and the brawn whose shoe soles grew thin because of constantly running around. Different in everything, the two detectives met on the crime scene. The two of them chase criminals in different ways. Where one of them gathers testimonies by bribery, the other is persistently on the lookout and gains information through his own efforts. A brand-new button-down shirt and a worn-out layered one.

One is the cool and collected Kambe Daisuke, who dashes forward with the classic car he just purchased. The other is the emphatic and hot-blooded Kato Haru, who rushes up to it with all of his strength.

The two butt heads, and have different opinions, each with their own way of dealing with things, they finally reach the truth. Their way of living, their acquired way of thinking, their chosen way of doing things, they’re different up until now.

But because they are so different, they fit together well.

The two of them, who may look too far-removed and yet they could be so close*, can face any case. When they establish an emotional bond and take each other’s hand, the door to the hidden truth will open quietly for sure.

*It’s an expression impossible to translate. It is used for a relationship between a man and woman who may seem too different to get along but they unexpectedly end up happy and married. lol

[dr-nero-is-god]

i felt the urge to riff on the hive streams for a little bit since discussion came up on the hive discord, namely, holding issue with the idea that the alpha stream is inconsistent in that it is about leadership when otto is the only leader, and that it’s also possible that the alphas are just kids with specialized skills, and not actually bonded by any particular unifying element.

and, in response, @vulpix-sinistre brought up a quote from the abridged hive fanfic, that goes something like: “there are four streams: main characters, stereotypical bullies, ?, and nerds.”

and i disagree with the first two ideas, but almost completely agree with the abridged fic quote. that is pretty much how the streams work, and it is IMPORTANT that that is how the streams work. 

in the end, you may conclude that the streams system still doesn’t make sense. you won’t be like “well clearly dr. nero was just logically dividing the labor of his students to reflect a specialized training program” because it’s more complicated on that. i  hate to do this to y’all, but a lot of everything streams-related requires an out-of-book explanation to get where you’re going, but i can promise that i will at least try to go

first, let’s think about why h.i.v.e. would have streams at all

on the one hand, it’s inescapable to consider that one primary reason that hive has streams is because harry potter had houses, and for the same reason that percy jackson had cabins, the 39 clues had branches, hunger games had sections (or counties, idk), divergent had factions, and so on and so on. the rise of fandom spaces on the internet was concurrent with a big ya/mg boom in the post-2005 world (after twilight was published), and within those fandom spaces it became important to identify with an aspect of the fantasy world as part of your personality. that became a very marketable thing for a while, and so separating children into streams would, to a publisher, seem like a pretty solid storytelling choice.

however! the alpha stream is not the same as gryffindor house. on the one hand, it seems easy to make an alpha/gryffindor and henchman/slytherin parallel, because one group is good (relatively) and one is bad (or at least antagonistic). but it doesn’t work because while slytherin has a reputation for constituents of poor moral character (which has been largely revised in fanon), being a henchman is where you go, according to the books, if you are unintelligent and burly. it’s not a really sexy stream, is what i’m trying to say. and though there are undoubtedly some readers who would look at the henchman stream and see themselves, i think the majority of readers would likely find the henchman stream a completely undesirable stream to be in. 

and, given how little importance the role of streams have after the first book, i will go out on a limb and say that mark walden knows that the henchman stream is unsexy. we aren’t interested in the hopes and dreams and motivations of the henchman stream; as we learn in book two, the ideal henchman is weak-minded and easily led—so what dreams would they even have? this leads me to conclude that while mark walden might have sold h.i.v.e. on the “there are personality-based groups in the school!” idea, he had something completely else in mind when he started writing and that, I think, is actually far more interesting.

but really, why would h.i.v.e. have streams at all

a few things about mark walden: 1) he studied english lit in school, 2) he has a background as a video game producers, and 3) he likes james bond. i know the first two things because i have read his bio and i know the third thing because i have read his books in conjunction with seeing all the james bond films. so we will call 1-3 facts. 

if you are wondering what a lit degree, video game production, and the james bond franchise all have in common, then let me connect those dots: all three of those things depend heavily on the study and understanding of repetitive structure in storytelling as an interpreter and creator of meaning. each one of these fields requires an understanding of how stories and words work to create meaning in order to be successful. 

and, to quote mr. walden here directly (sourced from this here link):

“So, I was playing with this cat one day and it got me thinking that those old-school Bond villains always just seemed to appear out of thin air with very little back story and that got me thinking about how they became world- conquering megalomaniacs in the first place.  It was only a short mental walk from there to HIVE.”

so, imagine you’re a writer trying to tell a story about a school for villains like those in james bond—you’ve studied storycraft and you have a lot of experience in a job finding believable and compelling obstacles for people to interact with in video games. you have noticed patterns. and you need to make those patterns work for you.

enter: streams

i have watched all the james bond movies (all of ‘em) (i mean it) (just not the unreleased one yet lol) and you know what? 

there’s probably just about four kinds of villains in those movies.

henchmen include the likes of jaws, oddjob, and tee hee. often physically disabled in a cinematically interesting way, these guys are the muscles and the machines in every bond film. they are the ones who tail bond as he takes long train rides and who try to personally throw him into shark tanks. they are the hands and feet of their evil masters and they don’t have a lot of emotional depth or backstory. 

politicians/financiers abound in the james bond franchise because he is a government employee who often hangs out with other government employees (he has no friends). these people are like colonel rosa klebb, georgi koskov, prince kamal khan. there are a lot more, as a matter of fact, because the whole point of james bond is that they are in the cold war and even people without titles have political and financial motivations for screwing around with stuff. these types of villains depend on being well and truly embedded in an existing infrastructure or hierarchy, somebody who worked their way up from being a foot soldier or clerk into a powerful leadership position that gives them a lot of state-sanctioned trust and authority.

technicians and inventors include folks like henry gupta and boris grishenko, who use technology as their primary weapon. they are often inventors or innovators and are really good at making high-tech stuff. however, i think this stream is also a direct result of the character Q, someone who is actually on James Bond’s team and who runs an entire department of people who test sometimes outlandish gadgets for Bond to use in the field. (but we love the gadgets. they are fun.) in other words, Bond arguably has a technical stream at his disposal in MI6, which means the idea isn’t necessarily evil, but, likewise, our James Bond School also needs Qs. it’s the rules. if you are familiar with Q from James Bond at all then you understand

and that leaves us with alphas... the “supervillains.” these are the famous ones. dr. no. mr. big. scaramanga. le chiffre. blofeld. max zorin. emilio largo. goldfinger. these are the ones with the master plan, the dreams to recreate the world as they see it, the passion to see their desires to fulfillment and the resources to make them happen. they are rich. they are fancy. they are larger than life. is it weird that karl stromberg tries to incite a nuclear war between Britain and the USSR so that a lot of people can die so that he can colonize the ocean? yes. but by god, it’s fancy and dramatic, and that’s what counts. 

are there other kinds of villains? oh, definitely. lots more. but you have to understand, that those kinds of villains generally don’t appear in Bond. sometimes! but it’s not a staple. for example, not many people in the bond films are motivated by revenge because each movie is kind of designed to function as a one-shot. villains don’t come back and so there is no revenge. the villain who gets the most notable reprise, jaws, actually ends up finding his true love in space. 

compare: every movie is going to have henchmen. every movie has government stooges making morally questionable decisions. (almost) every movie has Q, or some gadget stuff going on. and every movie has a big bad that has to be better than the last. 

so that explains why the streams are what they are. 

it was a jumping-off point for mark walden to figure out what this universe might look like and how different character types need to function. consider that while the core four are all alphas and are kind of insulated as a group, the teachers all kind of roughly align with one of these groups. colonel francisco, raven, and chief lewis are henchmen types, doing on-the-ground work to get stuff done. ms. tennenbaum and the contessa are political af, they are all about the corruption and infiltrating institutional power. ms. gonzales, ms. leon, and professor pike all have technical skills that help keep an organization moving forward. and over them all is the singular alpha, dr. nero, who is coordinating and monitoring it all for his own evil plan: to run a high school.

honestly, dr. nero’s hive idea operates just like a james bond villain plot! it works, or it does when pitching the idea. the problem is that the books continued after the pitch did, and with worldbuilding came some complications. namely, the fact that the megastructure of james bond villainy does not replicate well into a small friend group on which the narration focuses. so let’s return to the question presented at the beginning:

how can alphas really be alphas when not everyone on the field trip can be a mastermind?

i’m gonna give this to you in two ways. one, the way i personally interpret it as an in-universe explanation, given the background premises we have already established. and the other, why the stream system kind of ruins the structure it sets out to create.

so, for me, the alphas can be alphas because there is more to villainy than being a mastermind and there is more to being a mastermind than being in charge. as i think about it, this novelization is actually the backstory for every one of the students, who will go on to do great and scary things. they will manage big projects and come up with interesting ways to terrorize the British government, because that is what James Bond villains do (and James Bond does canonically exist in their universe). much like your actual teenage years, this is not the main event.

as students, the core four need to learn to do a little bit of everything. you gotta learn some lock-picking, that’s essential. everyone has to be able to climb a rock wall. it’s the rules. and everyone needs to be able to do some programming. that’s just the way school is. though everyone has a different personality and a different way of looking at the world, their education has to cover the basics because the fact of the matter is, none of them are villains yet. will they become one? that remains to be seen. but they are being given the tools to become the greatest villains if that is something they choose. 

the main problem that remains when holding this attitude is that the specialized skills of otto and his friends might be better suited to other streams, in which case, what is an alpha anyways?

here’s the facts: if everyone were assigned to a stream by talent, then there wouldn’t be an alpha stream.

franz? political/financial stream. 

nigel? laura? otto? technical stream.

shelby? wing? henchman stream. 

you can debate me on the specifics of those assignments, but the point is this: all the other streams are based on hard skills. franz can manage a ledger and that is a financial skill. laura can build a computer from scratch and that is a technical skill. wing can do martial arts, and each martial art is a physical skill that can be taught and performed in a measurable level of proficiency. 

the idea of being a “mastermind” is a much softer skill—which is to say, there’s no one recipe that will make it work. my manager at work has coached me by saying that leadership is often about having a “style,” and working at it that way. leadership requires interpersonal flexibility, being able to stay organized and to make important decisions rapidly, it is about being able to prioritize and delegate. and it’s very much open to interpretation, every day, all the time. 

let me tell you something else about james bond: there is a lot of classism, racism, and sexism embedded into every aspect of those films, but that goes for double when it comes to the villains in the show. to vastly oversimplify that very concept, it shows up in the bond films like this: henchmen are working class folks, the villainous equivalent of “the help,” and the supervillains are (usually) rich and glamorous and powerful. henchmen are uneducated (read as: stupid) and ugly and poor. no one cares if they die. (there’s more complexities, as always, but this essay isn’t actually about james bond so we’ll fast forward through My Opinions to the end)

the problem with replicating james bond in your villain school universe is that some of the biases of the james bond universe get replicated in there, too. poor and uneducated folks get turned into disposable henchmen whose lives are irrelevant. people who are educated and talented get fast-tracked to a more glamorous and interesting stream that will catapult them to the top of the ladder as soon as they graduate. if you look at the dialect with which block and tackle are written, they are clearly meant to be seen as a different social class than otto, despite the fact that otto is coming from basically nothing. and we understand that when otto graduates, he will be able to do basically anything that he wants to at all.

so, if you’re asking why wing has a role in the alpha stream when he doesn’t seem as leader-y as otto, there’s a simple answer: because dr. nero believes that wing can be more.

the climax of book one is dr. nero explicitly telling otto, wing, laura, and shelby that they are in his school because he believes in them and he wants to see them grow. they are given an elite status other students do not have despite the fact that they have just literally tried to escape. as we see in the case of duncan cavendish, the main way to get on that highway to a guaranteed career is to convince him that you’ve “got it.” for those who are not believed in, there is no way to make up for the special grooming. you’re stuck with the stream you’re placed in, doomed (perhaps) to be a second-in-command at best.

is all this intentional? probably not. but it is implicit in the structure of the story and, alas, that’s the way it is.

all i can think to say in conclusion is that while the stream system tends to replicate some of the unfair and classist realities present in other media and the world we live in, i think part of the reason we read h.i.v.e. is because the alpha stream is so appealing. imagine! you are competent and you have a desirable, specialized skill as well as a proficiency in many general skills and you are certain you are going to do good things—and all because someone believes in you. to receive someone else’s support and confidence can be life-changing. the magic of h.i.v.e. is that yes—lives are changed and ordinary, boring people were elevated to the level of supervillains. we are only left to wonder, are they the only people who deserved that honor?