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thorntonkrell-blog-blog · 5 months ago

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Okkaayyy. This might seem a little teachery but it's just my brain whispering to me and asking questions that typify the kinds of questions that probably interest other people some of whom become English teachers and happen to share both the Questions and answers" to the brain whispers with other people known as "students" and the whole shebang fits somehow into the puzzle of language arts.

Ya feel me?

Let's start with the usual procedure for creating a fake epiphany which means we're gonna start with a setting

Lynn and I were at a restaurant with (you pick em) almost any of my friends and or relatives when the subject of teevee enters the conversation which usually leads to movies and acting or as they used to say....

ACTING

When reaching that stage of the conversation my brain whispers questions and answers come back to me which I try to share but usually end up stammering, stuttering and Ya knowing as I try to get my point across particularly when trying to differentiate between artistic interpretations

Vocabulary is part of the problem because as my Latin teacher used to make us say every day, you can't speak the language if you don't know the words so the more words we know the better we can delineate our differentiations and contribute more than the usual "she was great" or "she sucked". When we more descriptive words it's nice if the other folks know the meaning of the words as well...that's why sometimes we go back to start with defintion in pursuit of commone reference which in itself can be frustrating and annoying.

I can eliminate the stammers and hiccups and "ya knows" and try to get to the essence of the answer to the brain questions in a declarative sense that doesn't resemble either the brain questions as they were delivered or the spoken word that I stutter through.

This is where writing comes in handy.

Are you ready for some writin'?

It's gonna seem expressionistic because nobody actually speaks like what follows but some folks are so good at preparing extended sound bites for telepromptery that what seem to be lectures are delivered with humanity not robotery and appear more naturalistic then they are which means it doesn't sound so much like somebody reading somebody else's words as it does somebody spontaneously speaking from her heart and soul.

Here we go....

Teleprompter light blinks green....

Acting is a multifaceted art form that encompasses various styles and techniques, each offering a unique approach to portraying human experiences. Naturalism, expressionism, and improvisation are three distinct approaches that provide different lenses through which actors can explore and present characters. This essay delves into these styles, comparing their methods, exploring common pitfalls, and offering examples of actors whose performances illustrate these concepts. Additionally, we will examine how Shakespeare’s works intersect with these acting styles and highlight how actors like Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro excel in both naturalistic and expressionistic performances.

Naturalism in Acting

Naturalistic acting aims to create performances that reflect real life with authenticity and subtlety. The primary objective is to make the audience believe that they are witnessing genuine events, as if the actors are living their characters' experiences in real-time. Naturalism involves a deep understanding of the character's inner world and presenting it in a way that feels organic and believable. Method acting falls into this category as does underplaying.

Characteristics of Naturalistic Acting:

Internalization: Actors immerse themselves in their characters’ psychological and emotional states, ensuring that their performances reflect the characters' true feelings and motivations.

Authentic Dialogue: The dialogue should flow naturally, mirroring how real people communicate, without overtly dramatic or contrived expressions.

Subtle Behavior: Actions and gestures are understated and aligned with the character's personality and situation, avoiding exaggerated or melodramatic behaviors.

Examples of Naturalistic Performances:

Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront (1954): Brando’s portrayal of Terry Malloy is a quintessential example of naturalistic acting. His performance is characterized by its subtlety and authenticity. Brando’s ability to convey Terry’s internal struggles and moral dilemmas through nuanced expressions and understated dialogue exemplifies naturalism. His method of internalizing the character’s conflicts makes the performance feel genuine and relatable.

Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver (1976): De Niro’s portrayal of Travis Bickle is another notable example of naturalistic acting. De Niro delves deeply into Bickle’s psychological state, presenting a performance that feels raw and unfiltered. His use of subtle gestures and internalized emotions creates a character that is both complex and believable, reflecting the essence of naturalistic performance. Even in the midst of madness and hysteria, Travis seems calm.

Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine (2013): Blanchett’s performance as Jasmine Francis demonstrates naturalism through her intricate portrayal of a woman grappling with personal and financial crises. Her ability to convey Jasmine’s emotional turmoil with authenticity and subtlety underscores the naturalistic approach, allowing the audience to connect deeply with the character’s struggles.

Expressionism in Acting

Expressionism, in contrast, focuses on portraying emotional and psychological experiences through stylized and often exaggerated means. This approach emphasizes the internal states of characters, using symbolic language and heightened emotions to reveal their inner worlds.

Characteristics of Expressionistic Acting:

Exaggeration and Symbolism: Performances may include heightened emotions and symbolic actions to reflect the characters’ psychological states.

Focus on Internal Conflict: Expressionistic acting centers on characters’ internal struggles and existential issues, often employing stylized elements to convey emotional depth.

Artistic Interpretation: The use of artistic techniques and abstract representations highlights the emotional truths of the characters.

Examples of Expressionistic Performances:

Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951): In contrast to his naturalistic role in On the Waterfront, Brando’s performance as Stanley Kowalski is a striking example of expressionism. His portrayal includes intense physicality and emotional extremes, capturing the raw and often chaotic psychological landscape of his character. Brando’s use of heightened emotional states and symbolic gestures reflects the expressionistic nature of the role.

Joaquin Phoenix in Joker (2019): Phoenix’s portrayal of Arthur Fleck in Joker exemplifies expressionism through its focus on the character’s psychological breakdown and emotional extremes. Phoenix’s performance is marked by exaggerated emotions and symbolic actions, effectively conveying the intense internal conflict and existential despair of his character. The stylized elements of the film further enhance the expressionistic quality of his portrayal.

Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind (1939): Leigh’s performance as Scarlett O’Hara includes expressionistic elements, particularly in her portrayal of emotional extremes and internal conflicts. Her use of exaggerated gestures and intense emotional reactions highlights the dramatic and symbolic aspects of the character’s psychological state.

Step away from the podium

That's good for now.

Spray and pray rarely sticks so let's backoff and buzz awhile before we get back, jack.

And play it cool boy, real cool that is if you intend to be naturalistic in your meditation of such differentiations of artistic interpretations.

Or something like that.

We'll be back

In the meantime here's some of the brain whisper questions that should be confronted in your reading and subsequent intellectual chilling.

How do we navigate the challenge of articulating complex ideas in social settings? Why is it difficult?

What are the key differences between naturalism and expressionism in acting?

How does the process of writing differ from spontaneous speech in expressing ideas?

How do actors balance the demands of naturalism and expressionism in their performances?

How can vocabulary and precise language enhance our ability to communicate artistic ideas? Confronting these brain whispers will help guide our exploration of acting styles, the writing process, and the challenges of communication, offering readers a rich blend of personal reflection common reference and analytical insight.

Improvisation in Acting

Improvisation introduces a different dimension to acting, characterized by spontaneity and creativity. Unlike naturalism and expressionism, which often adhere to established styles and techniques, improvisation involves creating dialogue and actions on the spot. This approach can enhance both naturalistic and expressionistic performances, adding a layer of authenticity and dynamic interaction.

Characteristics of Improvisational Acting:

Spontaneity: Actors create dialogue and actions in real-time, responding to their fellow performers and the evolving situation.

Creativity and Flexibility: Improvisation allows actors to explore new facets of their characters and scenes, leading to unexpected and dynamic moments.

Real-time Interaction: The ability to adapt and respond to the immediate context fosters a sense of authenticity and engagement in performances.

Examples of Improvisational Performances:

Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting (1997): Williams’ role as Dr. Sean Maguire showcases his improvisational skills, particularly in the famous bench scene with Matt Damon. Williams’ spontaneous dialogue and real-time interactions contribute to a genuine and emotionally resonant performance. His ability to adapt and respond to the moment enhances the naturalistic quality of the scene.

Bill Murray in Groundhog Day (1993): Murray’s performance as Phil Connors demonstrates improvisation through his quick-witted and spontaneous responses to the repetitive nature of the character’s situation. His improvisational approach adds a layer of humor and authenticity to the performance, capturing the essence of Phil’s evolving emotional state.

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in Parks and Recreation (2009-2015): Both Fey and Poehler showcase their improvisational talents in their roles as Liz Lemon and Leslie Knope, respectively. Their ability to think on their feet and deliver spontaneous, humorous dialogue enhances the naturalistic and comedic aspects of their characters, contributing to the show’s dynamic and engaging performances.

Common Pitfalls and Tic Tricks

In striving for naturalism, some actors rely on superficial techniques, known as tic tricks, that can detract from the authenticity of their performances. These pitfalls include:

Overusing Repetitive Gestures: Excessive fidgeting or manipulation of props can appear contrived rather than genuine.

Frequent Swearing: While strong language can reflect intensity, overuse may seem like a shortcut to convey rawness without real emotional depth.

Exaggerated Emotional Reactions: Overacting or amplifying emotional responses can undermine the character’s true emotional journey.

Clichéd Behaviors: Mimicking stereotypical behaviors or speech patterns may feel inauthentic and reduce character complexity.

To avoid these pitfalls, actors should focus on deep character development and subtlety. Genuine naturalism and effective improvisation come from a thorough understanding of the character and the situation, leading to nuanced and organic interactions rather than relying on superficial techniques.

Shakespeare’s Influence

Shakespeare’s works represent a rich intersection of naturalism and expressionism. His plays feature poetic and symbolic language—hallmarks of expressionism—while also presenting complex, psychologically nuanced characters suited for naturalistic interpretations.

Naturalistic Aspects in Shakespeare:

Character Depth: Shakespeare’s characters, such as Hamlet, are multi-dimensional and exhibit a range of emotions and psychological complexity, allowing for naturalistic portrayals.

Realistic Dialogue: Despite its poetic nature, Shakespeare’s dialogue often reflects genuine human concerns and interactions.

Expressionistic Aspects in Shakespeare:

Symbolic Language: Shakespeare’s use of metaphor and imagery often leans towards expressionism, exploring existential themes and psychological states.

Emotional Extremes: The portrayal of intense emotional and psychological experiences aligns with expressionistic techniques.

Examples of Shakespearean Performances:

Laurence Olivier in Hamlet (1948): Olivier’s portrayal of Hamlet demonstrates a blend of naturalism and expressionism. His performance captures the psychological complexity of Hamlet’s character while also employing stylistic elements to emphasize the emotional extremes of the role.

Ian McKellen in Richard III (1995): McKellen’s performance as Richard III showcases expressionistic techniques through his use of heightened emotions and symbolic gestures. His portrayal brings out the psychological depth of the character while also incorporating naturalistic elements to ground the performance.

Judi Dench in Macbeth (1979): Dench’s portrayal of Lady Macbeth combines naturalistic depth with expressionistic intensity. Her performance captures the psychological and emotional turmoil of the character, using both subtlety and heightened expression to convey Lady Macbeth’s internal conflict.

Brando and De Niro: Masters of Versatility

Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro are exemplary actors known for their remarkable versatility, seamlessly transitioning between naturalistic and expressionistic performances.

Marlon Brando:

Naturalistic Performance: In On the Waterfront (1954), Brando’s portrayal of Terry Malloy is a masterclass in naturalism. His performance is marked by its authenticity and subtlety, capturing Terry’s internal struggles with a nuanced approach. Brando’s ability to convey complex emotions.

Of course nobody ever gave tongue to the resposnibilities and demands of ACTING better than did Shaksepeare in Hamlet.

"Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue."

"Give it an understanding, but no more."

"For any thing so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is to hold, as 't 'were, the mirror up to nature."

"In the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness."

"Suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature."

"Use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness."

Let’s apply this advice to sections of the essay to refine and enhance the writing:

Characteristics of Naturalistic Acting:

Internalization: Actors immerse themselves in their characters’ psychological and emotional states, ensuring that their performances reflect the characters' true feelings and motivations. (Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.)

Authentic Dialogue: The dialogue should flow naturally, mirroring how real people communicate, without overtly dramatic or contrived expressions. (Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue.)

Subtle Behavior: Actions and gestures are understated and aligned with the character's personality and situation, avoiding exaggerated or melodramatic behaviors. (Give it an understanding, but no more.)

Examples of Naturalistic Performances:

Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver (1976): De Niro’s portrayal of Travis Bickle is another notable example of naturalistic acting. De Niro delves deeply into Bickle’s psychological state, presenting a performance that feels raw and unfiltered. His use of subtle gestures and internalized emotions creates a character that is both complex and believable, reflecting the essence of naturalistic performance. (In the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness.)

Expressionism in Acting

Characteristics of Expressionistic Acting:

Exaggeration and Symbolism: Performances may include heightened emotions and symbolic actions to reflect the characters’ psychological states. (For any thing so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is to hold, as 't 'were, the mirror up to nature.)

Focus on Internal Conflict: Expressionistic acting centers on characters’ internal struggles and existential issues, often employing stylized elements to convey emotional depth. (Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.)

Artistic Interpretation: The use of artistic techniques and abstract representations highlights the emotional truths of the characters. (Give it an understanding, but no more.)

Examples of Expressionistic Performances:

Characteristics of Improvisational Acting:

Spontaneity: Actors create dialogue and actions in real-time, responding to their fellow performers and the evolving situation. (Give it an understanding, but no more.)

Creativity and Flexibility: Improvisation allows actors to explore new facets of their characters and scenes, leading to unexpected and dynamic moments. (Use all gently.)

Real-time Interaction: The ability to adapt and respond to the immediate context fosters a sense of authenticity and engagement in performances. (In the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness.)

Examples of Improvisational Performances:

Common Pitfalls and Tic Tricks

In striving for naturalism, some actors rely on superficial techniques, known as tic tricks, that can detract from the authenticity of their performances. These pitfalls include:

Overusing Repetitive Gestures: Excessive fidgeting or manipulation of props can appear contrived rather than genuine. (For any thing so overdone is from the purpose of playing.)

Frequent Swearing: While strong

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ciaossu-imagines · 6 months ago

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Finally responding to your messages. Sorry that they’re so late, just wasn’t able to gather the energy until now. Yes to you loving wikis because I do as well. Like it’s amazing that those people can always nicely summarise the chapters or episodes of the series since summaries are something I’ll always struggle with and they’re really handy when it comes down to needing a bit of info for my stories as well. And that makes sense. Thanks for saying that 😊 Yeah. Like it makes no sense and it will forever wonder why they decided to make that arc since yeah, like I said, the other ones are pretty decent. There is one mini-arc though, before The Key of The Starry Heavens arc, that I also didn’t rewatch because it’s for me just a bit too weird but yeah, the characters that appeared in that arc appear in the Starry Heavens one as well so if you also don’t want to watch those episodes, I definitely recommend reading those summaries so you’ve got all the context. But it is nice to hear that you’ve found some good fan fics that do succeed at doing it 😊 No problem 😄 Yeah. I have all these ideas of how many messages it might be and it’ll be nice to see which idea’s the closest 😅 I see. I don’t blame you. And that does sound so horrible and indeed out of character since all of their actions always just seem so real so it wouldn’t make sense. I’m currently at chapter 230 and nothing to do with what you said has happened so if it is true, it’ll probably also be quite late into the story with no good / long build up. But yeah, I’m seriously hoping that it isn’t because I don’t want that for Jyugo or any of the other characters involved (as in, for their characterisation).

I’m also going to answer your other admin chatter message here if that’s okay so they’re nicely together and I don’t have to send too separate ones. And of course it’s alright that it’s super-late since yeah, this message is really late and I never mind waiting. I see, that does suck. Though here’s to praising wiki editor yet again since every Haikyuu!! episodes has a manga-anime differences section that’s definitely useful. I really do hope that one of your websites / apps does get it because it’s really something that I’d love for you to read at some point. It’s still a bit more than a hundred chapters and slightly over 400 if you want to read from the beginning but yeah, I hope that one day you’ll get the chance the read it because the arc after nationals is so good when it comes down to Hinata, but also nationals is so great when it comes down to Bokuto. Also I’ll forever love what he said before the match because it’s so funny in the way that he just confused everyone around and was so proud with what he said 😭 Can I send those images to you? He’s just adorable. But yeah well, after the Battle at the Garbage Dump of course and yeah, there’s another match besides Fukurōdani’s one that’s also really important so I’ll forever hope that you can read it for yourself one day. And yeah, I think you’ve been writing them pretty in character since I could always imagine the characters you wrote about in those scenarios.

Please, don’t feel at all bad for taking your time to reply! I’m the queen of super-late replies, as you well know and I fully accept that not only do people have lives outside of tumblr, but people can just have low energy, both mentally and physically, and just not feel up to responding right away and that is perfectly okay 😊 I really do think it’s really amazing how dedicated fans put in so, so much work into creating these wikis, doing the formatting, finding and making sure the information is correct and everything else that goes into creating a wiki. Which makes it a real shame when bots go in and destroy what used to be good wikis (*cough* KHR *cough*). I suck at summaries myself, but only because I bloat when writing. I couldn’t keep a summary short and concise, I know myself well enough to admit that. Of course! And yeah, most of the filler arcs in shows make no sense to me. I know it’s commonly done as a way to avoid catching up completely to a manga or to extend seasons of what they want to be big-name, super popular series, but in most cases, the filler arcs are generic, badly done, and nonsensical. That’s great to know, so thank you for giving me the heads up. If I get around to watching the Fairy Tail anime all the way through after reading it, I’ll try the mini-arc and if I don’t like it, I will probably just read the summaries. Honestly, there’s so much really amazing fanfic out there. I don’t think it’s really talked about or appreciated as much as it should be – that we have thousands and thousands of these amazing stories that fans have created for us, of so many different types and styles and genres, and it’s so incredibly easy, as of current day, to find a fic that scratches whatever itch you have. I have so much appreciation for the big name fandom writers, for the small little fandom writers who create these little hidden gems, for really all fanfic writers. I am proud to say I am finally caught up and have replied to everyone, including you. Now it’s just getting down to the task of clearing the inbox and building that queue that I need to get done and, as of writing this, that’s what I’m working hard on, when I’m not at my job! I’m really glad to hear that, as of the point you are at, nothing like that has happened. It makes me much less scared when it comes to doing the reread. Currently reading Iruma and One Piece now, then moving on to Saiyuki after I finish these last 50 chapters of Iruma (I read fast, thankfully), but Nanbaka is the next one after that.

I have no trouble at all with you grouping the messages together! It makes complete sense to me, honestly. And thank you for saying that, though I assure you that your message was not what I would consider late at all! I am with you in that hope, though like I said, once I finish all the series I can get for free, I might have to bit the bullet and pay the like, $10 a month for a month or two and use Shonen Jump’s manga reader to read Haikyuu!! and Demon Slayer both. It just sucks because, again, it limits me to only 100 chapters a day and if I’m seriously sitting down to read, I can easily do that and more. Of course you can send me those images and geek out about the scene! I like it when anyone does that with shared fandoms 😊 Thank you so much for saying that! That really means a lot to me and makes me very happy! I always worry and just want to do all these amazing characters justice!

#admin chatter

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alexversenaberrie · 9 months ago

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@jennadknowsbest-blog

I must say he was a challenge, somehow making arts with lady characters is much easier :)

This is Mirta’s brother Alexi:

Name: Alexi Paz Djarin-Kryze

Gender: Male

Pronouns: He/Him

Year of Birth: 12 ABY

Place of Birth: Mandalore

Parents: Din Djarin and Bo-Katan Kryze

Siblings: Grogu(adopted), Mirta, and Isabeth

House: Kryze

Clan: Mudhorn

Titles: Prince of Mandalore, Duke of Concordia

Appearance:

•5’11

•Light olive skin (Caucasian X Latino)

•Athletic

•Short face

•Shaven

•Straight, short, brown hair.

•Green eyes

•Visible freckles on both sides of his face.

Notable Skills:

•Combat: Like the rest of his family, Alexi is well-rounded in various combat styles. He’s been well trained in the use of Westar blasters and quarterstaffs.

•Athleticism: Due to constant training under his father, Din Djarin, Alexi is very athletic like the rest of his family clan.

•Intelligence: Above-average intelligence, excelled well at both the newly reestablished Royal Academy as a youth and in training with his clan.

•Weapons Expert: Alexi is extremely talented in the field of weaponry. He can build various types of weapons for different variations of combat. They include blasters, pistols, explosives, and sabers.

•Piloting Expert: Due to constant training under his mother, Bo-Katan Kryze, Alexi is an expert pilot skilled in the helming of both The Gauntlet and the N1 Starfighter.

•Diplomacy Skills: Alexi is a strong advocate for Mandalore’s ability to maintain its independence but form alliances with any New Republic-based planets that are open to provide support through trade, education, and peace-keeping treaties.

•Force Sensitive: Yes, like his brother, Grogu. Has the ability to heal most fatal wounds and illnesses and can communicate with the dead through the force.

Additional Information:

•Youngest of triplets to sisters Mirta and Isabeth.

•Has trained with Cal Kestis to learn how to use, control and appreciate his force sensitive abilities. Yet, he has no intentions of ever joining any type of Jedi Order.

•Can wield the Dark Saber like his sister but chooses not to possess it.

•Has created dozens of weapons for the Resistance when Mandalore joined forces with them on their mission to stop the First Order.

•Has forged most of his family clan’s weapons.

•Has a tight-knit relationship with his family clan.

Strengths:

•He’s a great diplomat who can help Mandalore forge alliances with leaders from different planets.

•He’s open minded when it comes to other cultures across the Galaxy.

•Can always seek guidance from the dead, via, the force, to help him solve problems that he might struggle with.

•Just like his brother, Alexi’s force-healing abilities can always come in handy when someone is sick or injured anytime and anywhere.

•He’s extremely compassionate like his father.

•He’s incredible when it comes to his knowledge and skills with weaponry.

•His piloting skills have proven to be a great asset in both combative and diplomatic situations.

Weaknesses:

•Extremely emotional

•Quick tempered

•While he’s a great pilot, he does lack skills in engineering ships.

•He’s so compassionate that sometimes, people take too much advantage of him for it.

•Absent minded at times partially because he’s often buried in his work with weaponry.

•Has a reputation for instigating public fights with senators who doubt Mandalore’s ability to be an independent sovereign.

Armor:

•Helmet: Similar to his father’s in terms of its design, it features a decal that almost resembles his mother’s headband. On top of it is the “Kryze” signature that can be seen at its center.

•Chest and Neck Pieces: Alexi has an identical chest piece that his father has but features an armored neckpiece that once belonged to his maternal grandfather, Duke Adonai Kryze. The decal on the chest piece is his mother’s Nite Owl signet.

•Groin: None

•Pauldrons: Similar to his father’s but features two different signets. The left features his mother’s Mythosaur signet and the right, his father’s Mudhorn signet.

•Guantlets: Similar to Axe Woves’ but with the ability to fire blasts of energy at targeted figures to stun them and deactivate droids. They also enable him to use grabbel lines when a situation calls for it.

•Hand Armor: Similar to Tristan Wren’s.

•Thigh/Hip Plates: Forged by his sister, Mirta, his hip plates are similar to that of a fallen Wren Mandalorian warrior from the Imperial Era.

Knee Armor: Forged by his sister, Alexi’s knee armor set almost resembles his father’s but with a few modifications that would enable him to shot a flamethrower out of them in midair.

•Shin Guards: None, but he does have calf gaiters where his shin guards used to be before he lost them in an accident.

•Foot Armor: Similar to his mother’s old foot armor from the end of the Republic Era.

•Jet pack: Similar to his mother’s.

Armor Color Scheme:

•African Gray

•Beskar Silver

•Gray Blue

Soft Parts:

•Similar to his father’s.

Belt:

Similar to Axe Woves’.

Weapons in Possession:

•1 Westar Blaster

•His own lightsaber he forged with his brother.

•A few explosions he created himself.

#submission

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toukatan · 3 years ago

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You read every gojohime fic???? That's amazing!!! What are your favourites?

hello anonie! i guess i can say i’ve read at least a good 80% of all the fics, at least. probably. most likely because the fic tag at the start of the year was tiny and now the community’s grown so much there’s almost 600 of them. that’s insane to me. like hello?

i have a lotta fics that come to mind, that i should honestly make a master post on because i love them all. so here are a few many that came to mind immediately as i typed this up.

gojohime fic recommendations!

multichapter

limitations by ohmytheon

“Parenthood chooses you," her mother used to tell her, but Utahime never understood that saying more than the moment she realized she was pregnant with Gojo Satoru's child. They were never meant to be something serious - never meant to be more than they were - and yet they both suddenly find themselves in a world that doesn't care about their desires - and that brings them closer in a way that no one else can understand. It won't be easy and it won't be kind to either of them, but it appears as if the universe has other plans for them

no one is what they were before by ohmytheon

The world broke when Gojo Satoru turned on jujutsu society. It's not the hopeful place it was before, but Utahime has never been one to give up. Until she's placed in a dangerous position directly in his path, and she finds herself trapped in a web that doesn't seem intent on ever letting her go.

and touch me like you never by ohmytheon

In public, Gojo is a special grade bastard, especially to Utahime, and has been all their lives. He knows exactly what insults to throw and what buttons to push to drive her up a wall. In private, however, he's got quite a few other things to tell and show her, which only makes things more confusing. It would be easier if she could avoid him entirely, but for some reason, he won't let her go entirely.

gravity by aerfei

This is Utahime, fierce and indomitable, and this is Satoru, who despite holding the world’s regard, still craves something that Utahime has had all her life. Coming together is sometimes an act of desperation, and sometimes a deliberate choice. Or: An Iori Utahime character study, through the lens of her relationship with Gojo Satoru, starting from the beginning and ending at the Goodwill Event arc. Manga spoilers and (at least 95%) canon-compliant through (at least) chapter 135.

count every single leaf in autumn by florieneofthesea

“I told my family we’re dating.” Utahime’s hand hovers over the door. “What?!” (or: Gojo tells his family that he's dating Utahime to get them off his back, so of course they invite her to the dreaded family dinner™)

favourite colour by otherthingsonhold

At 28, Satoru Gojo's responsibilities only start to multiply. With his clan looking to him to lead the family, and the balance of the universe in his hands, Gojo isn't thinking of much else. But when his mother brings something to his attention, the only thing Gojo can do is follow through. But how is Utahime Iori part of all of this?

gojo catoru by ashittywriter

Utahime is tasked to catsit a suspiciously large Persian dollface cat with pristine white hair, the most boop-able nose, and to top it off the cutest cerulean eyes. Too bad the cat also happens to be her idiotic colleague Gojo Satoru.

at the tail-end of spring by florieneofthesea

Utahime doesn't expect to remember her ex's number off by heart but it comes in handy when she's a little less than sober outside a club in a city she's not familiar with and her battery on three percent. She just wishes things turned out differently for them. (Or, post-break up exploration where outer forces refuse to let them have their happy ending.)

a second chance by onewordmore

In another world, it wasn't Geto who sneered down at humanity, regarding them to be worthless monkeys that deserved to die. In another world, it wasn't Geto who openly defied the Jujutsu Council and brought down terror and fear to all. In another world, it wasn't just Amanai Riko who died that day, amidst the cheers and delighted cries of the insane. And Utahime was going to learn, first hand, the consequences of her own death.

from you to me by onewordmore

A drabble series regarding Gojo and Utahime. From fluff to smut to angst to love. This is going to have it all.

oneshots

oceansize by aerfei

The marriage is arranged by their families, small clans both, with all their hopes and traditions laid gently upon the shoulders of their only heirs -- and yet, this distance is impassable.

under the cover of darkness by ohmytheon

It takes a little alcohol, early morning hours, and a game of truth or dare for Gojo and Utahime to admit some difficult truths to each other.

risk/reward by ohmytheon

No punishment had ever been more effective in making Gojo do his actual job than receiving praise from his secretary - or more grueling than when Utahime withheld it.

like a good roommate by ohmytheon

Utahime has a problem: her bed wasn't delivered to the new apartment. Her ridiculous roommate, Gojo, has a solution - but he's kind of panicking on the inside.

aware of us by halspur

“We did alright, didn’t we?” Gojo put his phone down after taking several dozen photos of Tsumiki walking across the stage, his eyes soft. “I mean, we were just kids, too.”

love song by halspur

“Because you’re weak.” Gojo said, muffled into the thin skin of her throat. “I can’t leave you alone.”

tear you apart by halspur

“I don’t want to be mean to you,” Utahime’s cheek was pressed into his spine, her voice muffled. “I like you.”

cuddles are for clean boyfriends by just_trying_my_best_everyday

Utahime finds Gojo Satoru sitting right behind the door, blindfold hanging on his neck, completely soaked in blood and petting her cat with both hands. And he stinks.

honey by florieneofthesea

Gojo Satoru experiences love a decade before he fully realises it.

roots by florieneofthesea

At the start of winter, Utahime starts to cough up blood. She thinks maybe its just the lingering damage from her last mission, but the coughing persists and it starts to scratch her throat, and itch at her lungs and when she finally makes the trip to Tokyo to ask Shoko for her help, she doesn't even get the first word out. Shoko welcomes her at the entrance to Tokyo Metropolitan Technical School and Utahime hacks up a single, pale blue petal, smattered with blood. She stares down at the flora on the ground and wonders if she's been cursed. Utahime looks up, and Shoko's eyes are wide.

to have and to hold by ashittywriter

“M’sorry," Gojo said his voice slurring at the end. "But please go away, I have a girlfriend." Utahime blinked in confusion. What the fuck?

souvenir by PrettyKittyLuvsU

“Aha!” Gojo tugged something out of his pocket, his long fingers curled around it as he held his hand behind his back. His other hand waved before him, a cheeky grin splitting his lips. “Ora, ora! Hold out your hand.” Utahime stared flatly. “Ora, ora!” Gojo persisted, continuing to wave his hand as he grinned. “Hold out your hand already!” Utahime scowled at the hand swaying infront of her face. She had half a mind to slap the man instead, but her students were closely watching. Even Gojo’s students, the second years mainly—for Sukuna’s vessel was apologizing profusely as the brown haired girl continued kicking him while the quiet one made no effort to stop her— looked in fascination at whatever ridiculous souvenir Gojo wanted to hand her. Utahime slowly lifted her arm, already planning on throwing the thing back in Gojo’s annoying face. Gojo gets Utahime a very special kind of souvenir. Set during the start of the Goodwill arc.

dayum this exposes me huh? i do be reading a lot but what can i say i love to see it. all these fics are amazing, to the writers y’all are doing fantastically like my goodness you be really putting ya girl in a loop with some of these fics with your plot-lines and doing it flawlessly. can’t thank them enough for them, their hard work and time!

be sure to show the writers some love and support with comments, bookmarks and fight that dayum kudos button when it smiles at you because lemme leave more—

i think they’d really really appreciate it when they hear the bing and be sure to check out all of their stories including the ones in the pairing tag! happy readings 😙✨

#there’s so much more. i gotta make a master post but yeah send your love to the writers #they’re amazing and deserve all the love and support #🤍💫✨#gojohime #fic rec #anon #asks #replies #nitatalks

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mlwritingprompts · 3 years ago

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Submitted prompt: In which Marinette's Miraculous-Tracking Yoyo could have saved the day.

A series of plots made thanks for a scene in the earlier episodes of the show, where Marinette uses her yoyo to track Adrien's whereabouts when he was Chat Noir in Copycat.

It sure would have come in handy when...

(Warnings for temporary character death: Gabriel and Felix)

----

1: Not waiting for the Bee-Queen. (Style Queen divergence)

As Marinette felt secure that no one is watching her and was sure her parents won't notice her, she quickly transformed and leapt out of the house, her goal clear:

To get back the Bee miraculous she had ended up losing during the fight with Style Queen.

Opening her yoyo, she activated the tracking function in it, and targeted the Bee miraculous' whereabouts.

This function can't work on Hawkmoth's miraculouses because he might try to track her back, but she felt secure in this attempt.

The map showed her the Bee miraculous' icon, telling her that it had not fallen into the hands of Hawkmoth and his allies, and she moved towards it.

It barely took her a minute to find herself in front of Chloe's home, groaning as she felt the trouble it might come from this, but she still pushed and entered.

She got the miraculous in the end, even if Chloe made a fuss about it.

Too bad Marinette was not in the mood to be patient with her.

Marinette successfully got the miraculous, and if Chloe kept complaining about it for days, well, it was Chloe's problem, not hers.

----

2: Catching the Traitor.

After Marinette detrasformed and retransformed back, she opened her yoyo, still reeling at the betrayal of who she believed was Adrien.

She felt her heart sink as she couldn't find out any of the miraculouses, as tears started coming from her face.

In desperation, she quickly opened the tracking function of her yoyo, hoping it might not be too late.

That maybe the miraculouses were "technically" still not in the villain's hands.

Multiple icons appeared on her yoyo, as she breathed in sheer relief, and without wasting any more time, rapidly leaped as fast as she could towards the miraculouses, and in less than a minute, she finds herself jumping in the air right above the Agreste mansion.

Too desperate and emotionally hurt, and maybe still affected by the Risk akuma, she didn't think of anything before she slammed into the roof using her body, shattering it and going down...

And finding herself in front of an untransformed Gabriel and Felix who had just now detransformed from the sight of things.

She didn't hesitate, deciding to deal with the consequences later, and attacked.

Her yoyo, sharp and fast, killed Gabriel in a second, along with Felix, their faces showing shock and horror.

Taking a moment to breathe and ignoring the red and the bodies around her, she rapidly took away Gabriel's miraculouses, along with the ones on his desk, and from Felix's body, before casting the Cure.

And when Gabriel and Felix came back, they only could see a furious Ladybug who was glaring at them.

"So, before I deal with you both,"

She spoke with unrestrained rage, clearly barely holding herself.

"Is there any reason for why you thought terrorism was a great idea,"

Gabriel paled.

"and betraying me and the heroes, was a great idea?"

Felix now paled.

As they both looked at the wrathful superhero before them, they know that she was not kidding.

----

Ah, the tracking function; something that would have helped Marinette quite a few times. But it sure is treated as nonexistent, except that one time Marinette used it to save Adr-

Oh...

Because it was Adrien who was in trouble back then, that they literally made this function to save him.

But Marinette can't use this to actually help herself, right?/s

She is only allowed to use something if it can help Adrien, right?/s

What a great show, am I right?/s

#Miraculous Ladybug #ML writing prompts #ml writers salt #Show!Miraculous #Show!Marinette #Show!Adrien

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fanfic-cave · 4 years ago

Text

Injured Pt 1.

Rating: SFW/PG-13

Word Count: 1.6k

Pairing: Subtle hint to Hunter x Fem Jedi!OC

Warnings: Shootout/skirmish, swearing, I might hurt your favorite TBB character dont kill me yet

Summary: You commissioned the bad batch to take you to Dantooine for your own personal mission in search of a Jedi temple. How will this ex-Jedi war veteran trying to hide from the Empire help the rogue clones when they inevitable get caught up in the fight? And who will get hurt?

Authors note: I had this fun idea of writing an action piece with TBB, and I've had some more fun ideas with a Jedi OC getting caught up in their shenanigans. My first draft was kinda long winded, so i'm making this a 2 parter. If this gets well received enough to make me feel more confident in my writing (like 20-30 likes or smthing) ill post part 2 :)

ALSO im a big KOTOR fan so there's the tiniest tiniest hint to that ("jedi temple" and "Bol") with being on Dantooine.

Okay now for real, enjoy!

edit: thanks for the notes! link to pt 2 here

Your speeder zoomed by quickly, passing some local Bol ranchers. Dantooine was full of them, and farms too. The rural planet was actually quite peaceful, that was, until the empire arrived. Now that they were governing over citizens, they began cracking down and enforcing strict trade and farming laws. You interacted with some of the locals, and despite the clone wars being over they didn’t seem to have much love for the new Empire.

The Bad Batch had come to make a supply run, trade for food and fuel on the very small landing station, and also to escort you to Dantooine per your request (you had paid them too). Instead of paying with credits for their supplies, they had to do some “manual labor”, helping the local farmers. Based on how quiet they had been on your comm link, you thought they had been quite busy. You had your own objective here though, one you had just completed. Now you needed to leave.

You got closer to the station, and saw a high count of imperial troopers. You swore under your breath, and suddenly you felt like the items in your pack weighed more, or would suddenly burst into flames. Kyber crystals don’t catch fire, you told yourself. I think.

You pressed your comms and began to speak “I’m en route to the ship, and we’ve got imperials at the station, I hope you’re ready to take off.”

Silence.

“Kriff!” You said aloud. You slowed the speeder to a stop. The strange group of rogue clones were known for finding trouble. You had really hoped they wouldn’t find any while traveling with you.

��Tech, Echo, Hunter? Does anybody copy?”

You heard explosions in the distance.

Kriffing idiots! You shook your head in frustration and put a hand around your vibroblade holstered at your hip. It didn’t take the force to know they were behind this.

“You’re about to have some more company” you heard Hunter over the comms, blaster fire in the background.

“What the hell did you do??”

“Get to the ship, we need to make a fast exit, with or without you.”

More profanities went through your head. You engaged the speeder, faster than you were going earlier. You could hear blaster fire. You had been making a beeline to the ship, prepared to avoid the troopers, but something tugged at your mind.

They’re in trouble. You were a very intuitive person, partially because of your training as a Jedi, and also because that was just in your nature. You thought for a moment, contemplating what action to take.

Trust your gut.

You swerved and headed straight for the fighting. You slipped your mask on, and pulled up your hood. You saw some troopers marching towards the fighting, blasters in hand. They hadn’t noticed you were heading straight for them.

Glad I came to save your asses. You thought. Well, you needed them to pilot, so you were saving your ass too. One trooper turned, and pointed at you. The others started to notice too.

You set the speeder to continue forward without needing your foot on the accelerator, and balanced your feet on the seat. It kept accelerating in speed, heading straight to the center of the 10 or so troopers. Just before their blasters fired, you leaped off the bike gracefully, launching yourself high in the air. The speeder crashed into one trooper, and spun into another 3.

You landed with no problem, and prepared for action. You dodged several blaster shots, and pulled out your vibroblade. You dashed toward a trooper to the left, and cleanly sliced at a weak point in the armor. He clutched his side, and fell to the ground. One came behind you, grabbing your elbow. You shoved your elbow into his face, and heard a crack. He staggered back, and you ducked to avoid another blaster shot, getting a quick slash into the trooper you had just elbowed with a flick of your wrist.

You jumped and did a backflip, effectively avoiding another wave of blaster fire. On your way down, you stabbed another trooper in the side, and grabbed him, using him as a human shield to block more oncoming shots. You sheathed the sword, grabbed his hand holding the blaster, and shot towards an oncoming trooper. He fell down, and you fired at the remaining two who charged, and they were quickly out of the fight. You released the trooper you used as a meat shield. The entire group was now down and injured, not able to fight.

You dropped the blaster and started to run towards the main fight, but then you halted as a thought occurred to you. You crouched down to a fallen command trooper and took his comm links. This might come in handy. You continued forward, shoving the unit in your pack. You resumed your dash towards the source of the previous explosions. You first saw Crosshair, providing cover fire while taking cover himself behind a transport.

“The cavalry’s here” you said on your com link. Next you saw Tech, using two blaster pistols. He was close to Wrecker, who was throwing barrels at a group of troopers. You think they were filled with grain. Hunter and Echo were circling the troopers, trying to get a good flank while Wrecker was effectively distracting them. Hunter spotted you and spoke through comms “What are you doing? Get to the ship!”

You ignored him, and pulled out the blade again. You managed to ambush some troopers and sliced through them easily, taking down 3 in less than a minute. “You should thank me, I just took care of the reinforcements heading this way.”

You saw a knife hit the chest of a storm trooper you were just about to stab through the shoulder. Hunter emerged from behind you and retrieved his knife from the now fallen trooper. Show off, you thought.

“Why didn’t you go to the ship?” Hunter demanded.

“I had a feeling you guys could use the help.” You replied.

He looked at you for a moment after you said this, and with his helmet on you couldn’t get a read on what he was thinking. You thought he might be shocked at what you said. You noticed a trooper approaching you two, lining up a shot on Hunter. You quickly grabbed a stray blaster from a fallen trooper and shot him down. Hunter was quick too; within a second of your shot, he shot another trooper not too far away. He looked back to you, and gave a quick nod in thanks.

“What did you guys do to attract the Empire?” You asked suspiciously.

“Well to put it simply, we severely disabled a facility belonging to the Empire as a form of payment. They appear to be quite agitated with us.” Tech replied through comms.

You ducked to avoid another blaster shot, Echo returned the shot and the trooper fell. “Gee, you think so?” You spoke sarcastically.

“We need to retreat and get back to the ship.” Echo spoke, taking cover a few feet away.

“Where’s Omega?” You interjected. You looked around for her, still not seeing her. “Back on the ship, the mission was too dangerous for her to come.” Hunter replied.

You sighed as blaster shots continued to go off in the background. “What's the plan?” You heard Crosshair speak through comms. He sounded annoyed, but he almost always sounded annoyed to you, amongst other things.

Hunter thought for a moment, and then he addressed the group. “Alright, Crosshair, you’ll provide cover fire while we retreat. We’ll need some more noise too-”

“I’ve got something that can help with that.” You interrupted. “Give me some cover.” You raised up the blaster you had grabbed, then ran over to Tech, firing shots as you went. Hunter and Echo emerged from their cover to fire at the troopers nearby you. Once you arrived you ducked down behind cover and threw the stolen comm link to Tech.

He caught it with both hands. “An imperial com unit?” Tech looked at it curiously, then shifted his eyes to you. “I thought you might be able to use it. Think you can cause some mayhem with it?” You asked curiously. Tech inspected it for a quick moment. “Oh yes, this should work.”

“Alright. Wrecker, Sera, keep the troopers off Tech. Echo and I will try to keep them on us. When Tech gives the signal, we move.” Everyone got their weapons ready, Echo nodded. “No problem!” Wrecker said enthusiastically and gave a thumbs. You also nodded as confirmation that you were ready.

Echo started firing at troopers, Hunter pulled out his knife and began alternating between slashing through troopers and shooting with his blaster. Wrecker was closer to you and actually picked up a trooper and threw him. You provided some cover fire and stayed close to Tech. He was fiddling with the unit.

“How much longer?” You asked after a minute passed. “Almost…” Tech said. You felt a sudden sense of urgency, and lifted your head up, searching around. “Somethings not right-”

Hunter leapt out of cover and ran over to Wrecker, who was laughing and enthusiastically throwing some heavy boxes at the troopers. “Wrecker, get down!”

You heard shots fire, and they were different. Wherever it made contact, there was a small explosion. This was some heavy fire power. The blasts made a sweeping arc. It fired towards Crosshair, who had to roll out of the way. You and Tech ducked as a shot came your way. You were knocked back a few feet from the closeness of the explosion. You lifted your head up and saw Echo was okay, and then you looked for Wrecker and Hunter.

Wrecker managed to avoid getting hit, he was to the right lying on the ground behind cover. Hunter wasn’t as lucky though. It looked like he took some blaster fire, and fell to the ground on his back. He was holding his side, and you saw blood on his hands.

#tbb #the bad batch #star wars #tcw #the clone wars #Echo #Hunter #Crosshair #Wrecker #Tech #Empire #Dantooine #Action #Fanfic #hunter x reader #bad batch x reader #Jedi #Ex Jedi

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galaxy98 · 3 years ago

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With the recent confirmation that we'll get to see more of Yunan and Olivia in season 3, I thought it would be nice to give a little rundown of a certain idea I had for a story prior to the trailer. Will I ever go through it, maybe not. For one thing, I have so many ideas that I want to do on AO3 so some things may have to be sacrificed. Not only that, but despite the episodes having a limited runtime, thus having less depth, it's likely going to turn out better than what I put out. That and it would be less convoluted. So here's a bullet list of the idea:

The working title for the fanfic is called Lady and the Newt. I wanted to go with Lady and the Merc or Lady and the General, though the former didn't made sense since Yunan is not a Mercenary. Also since it's a Disney show, I thought it would be funny to make the title a tongue-and-cheek reference to Lady and the Tramp.

The best way to describe this story is 2 lesbians on the run. There's also a butch and her daughter but we're not there yet.

Obviously, this would take place after True Colors, but based on the clips I've seen, it would've been drastically different.

For starters, it would begin with Olivia and Yunan trying to find a way to escape Newtopia. While Yunan is more concerned about finding a way out, Olivia didn't want to leave Marcy behind. At the same time, Yunan is also reluctant, albeit in denial, of wanting to go back there since she felt betrayed by both Andrias and Marcy, despite the latter being a child who was just being manipulated.

However, Olivia feels like she's complacent in letting this all happened, so she wanted to back there for the sake of ridding herself of that guilt. In other words, the both are still shooken up about the whole revelation.

They would eventually escape, but it will be a hollow victory.

This would be the first time we get to see Yunan without her armor. She took most of it off when trying to save an unconscious Olivia from drowning. By the time they set up camp, she will chuck her medals into the river in anger. She does keep the claws since they might come in handy, but other than that, she's completely vulnerable.

The fanfic would explore on the aspect about the expectations and pressure that Newtopia places on its society and how Yunan and Olivia were both affected by this mentality. Yunan ran away from home when she was in her teens because of her strained relationship with her family (Something that I will get into later on) and how due to being found by Andrias was she able to show off her skills that would work her way up to the ranks and then eventually the youngest general in the army, Scourge of the Sand Wars, Defeater of Ragnar the Wretched, yada yada yada. However, you would see why her family relationship was dysfunctional due to the infighting with her sister and mother who just happened to be a famous artisan (hint hint). Prior to becoming general, she felt like she had nothing to show for and that being a part of the court made her felt like she was special. But the problem is that she feels like she's nothing without the rank. So while Yunan constantly introduces herself because it's effective, it's also because that's all she has.

Olivia, on the other hand, didn't want to be a part of the court. The only reason she has that title in the first place was because her family already had connections to Andrias's so she was basically forced into the role. Royalty never particularly interest her but because she was so ingrained into the role, she ended up living a very isolated life. It's why she has a very stoic demeanor. Only when there's nothing else to do does she masks off the whole facade after keeping appearances for a whole day. During the night after they escape, she would lament about where it all went wrong.

There would be a retcon where Olivia originally planned on running away from Newtopia and she wanted Yunan to come with her. But with the combination of Yunan's commitment to the general rank, taking care of Marcy Wu, and then the events that soon follow, it never came to be. Olivia wondered if going through with that decision would've only make things worse.

There would be flashback chapters where we get to see the dynamics between the newts and the 13 year old girl. Any one of them involving Yunan would be an explanation as to why she initially felt betrayed by Marcy's actions. It's only later on in the story did she reconcile with those feelings.

Most of the story consist of them trying to get far away from Newtopia as possible, all while the fear of Marcy's fate lingers. In tale of dramatic irony, they assume that she may have escaped along with the others. But once they found refuge at Wartwood, they notice that Sasha was the only that's still here. That's when they figured the out news. Again, dramatic irony.

So that thing I mention about how there's also a butch and her daughter in this story, well here's what I mean. Priscilla and Pearl are the additional characters in this journey. The reason for their inclusion is because I had a particular subplot in mind. I loved the headcanon of Priscilla being Yunan's older sister because the potential dynamic makes so much sense. During their childhood, they were both competing for their mother's love, despite the fact that she didn't want them to fight. So due to jealously and the strained sibling relationship, it prompted Yunan to run away.

On an unrelated note, you can check out my poem fanfic on AO3 called O' Sister Of Mine. It explores the dynamic between Priscilla and Yunan as siblings.

The entire subplot would be about Yunan and Priscilla trying to repair their sibling relationship after years of fighting and not seeing each other. When her and Olivia cross paths with the two of them, Priscilla initially rejected their offer of going together. Because of Yunan and Olivia's status, she was worried that it was not only going to put a target on her back, but also her daughter's, which is the last thing she wants. But since they can't stay in one spot, they have no choice but to go together.

I think by looking at the pattern of where this story is going, the entire lesson is about not taking things for granted and being the change you want to be. The three girls may be the main focus of the show, but this fanfic explores on the side characters who were affected by the events.

Well there you have it. This is mostly just a rough draft of ideas but it does get the main gist across. Like I said before, this likely isn't going to see the light of day, especially when Matt Braly's crew is going to come up with something better than I can. This is one of those big AO3 projects that I'll have to keep on the shelf, at least temporarily when I don't have a lot on my plate right now.

But if you want to express any interest in me doing this in the future, feel free to reblog or leave a comment in the notes.

#amphibia #general yunnan #lady olivia #fandom discussion #writing

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x0401x · 4 years ago

Text

Jeweler Richard Fanbook Short Story #14

Feel free to message me about possible corrections, and please consider supporting the creators by purchasing digital copies of the official releases: Novel || Manga || Fanbook. In case anyone is feeling generous: Ko-fi | PayPal. ( ╹◡╹)っ’･*

← Previous || Index || Next →

Santa Invasion

“What’s this?”

“Ice cream.”

“Well, I can tell that much just by looking, but...”

“To be precise, it is an ice cream cake.”

A gigantic ladybug was sitting on the low table. Its vivid red and dark brown-like black shades were definitely berries and chocolate. The back was decorated with flowers like marguerite. It was adorable. And huge. It was a hemispherical cake that looked like a basket ball cut in half, the name of a store from Dogenzaka printed on its box. It was 7PM. The last customer had left, I was done with the cleaning and all we had left to do was closing the store. It was still the second week of December, so the mayhem of making provisions for winter presents was a few ways ahead, but the number of clients was increasing little by little.

Just what on earth would this beautiful jeweler come up in such times?

Due to a habit of his from whenever he had something that was hard to say aloud and thus failed to speak up, Mr. Richard Ranashinghe de Vulpian had a serious crease forming just slightly between his brows. It made me feel at ease. This guy didn’t make a face like this when he was burdened with something that was actually difficult to say. He would speak more bland and expressionlessly instead.

“This is a little souvenir.”

“Are you going to a customer’s place after this?”

Richard’s reply was a gentle “no” in English.

He’d been often speaking a mix of Japanese and English lately. When English-speaking customers came by, he would switch completely to English as if for practical assessment, so I was desperate just to keep up with listening to them. I was grateful for having him as my English conversation teacher.

“A certain good-for-nothing who works with finances is currently in Japan, so...”

“Ah, Jeffrey-san, is it? He seemed so busy last time... Sorry, forget what I just said.”

“No need. That is a correct interpretation, so it is nothing to apologize about.”

Despite saying this, Richard’s facial expression did not seem even remotely satisfied as he swiftly took an indigo envelope out of his pocket. It had no seal, so it must have been handed over to him. The content was a pop-out card, and under a paper-craft cake colored with gold leaves and uneven printing, it was written in very tasteful Japanese: “I’m going to hold a party at the hotel, so come over. I’ll be waiting.” The date of the party was today and the place was the room of a luxury hotel in Tokyo. A home party? No, a hotel party.

The title was “Richard’s birthday party”. The plate of the pop-up cake didn’t say “Merry Christmas”. It said “Happy Birthday”.

Christmas Eve on the 24th was this beautiful shopkeeper’s birthday.

As I returned the card to him, a crease once again formed between Richard’s brows as he said with an unsparingly decisive tone, “How very embarrassing.”

“Doesn’t seem so much like it from your face.”

“Because I practiced making it. But this is extremely embarrassing. I think it is not something that warrants going through the trouble of arranging a plane ticket.”

“I wonder if anyone else will be going.”

“It seems Chieko will attend. I received an e-mail yesterday saying, ‘I am going to show up as a surprise so please take care of me’.”

“Is that even a surprise? Well, okay.”

Chieko-san was Richard and Jeffrey’s private tutor in the past and I was acquainted with her to some degree. I wondered if Homura-san, who had married her daughter, was also coming. No, not happening. He was a customer of Etranger, so Richard would probably feel abashed if he did so.

“If it goes on like this, the people lying in wait in that room will just gang up into an assembly to celebrate me.”

“What even is ‘ganging up to celebrate’?”

“They are ganging up on me. I likely will not be able to say anything other than ‘thank you very much’. I need reinforcements. If you would like, could you come with me?”

“Me too? That okay?”

“Of course. The party starts at 8PM probably because it coincides with Etranger’s closing hours. That British safe-like man is not narrow-minded enough to leave you out.”

It was written there that the party would begin at 8PM. We had 30 minutes. There was no spare time to make a pudding. What to do? What should I do?

Richard was apparently unable to let my groaning an “ngh, ngh” while deep in thought go unnoticed. “If it is impossible for you, just say so right away. I know that you are at the final stage of studying for your exams.”

“That doesn’t matter. Why didn’t you tell me a bit earlier about this? If I knew, I could’ve made preparations for it... Aah, is that why?”

“It is. I recall saying that you should refrain from being overly distracted.”

“I don’t think a ‘celebration’ is ‘overly distracting’, though.”

“Anything is fine, so please answer. Will you come or not?”

He didn’t have to go as far as asking me something like that.

I bowed in a way that wouldn’t cause any hairs to fall onto the ice cream ladybug. “I shall humbly accompany you.”

“Very well.”

“Sorry, but before that, I gotta go to the toilet for a bit.”

I hastily rushed to Etranger’s restroom and unlocked my phone in a flash. I then tapped on the e-mail app. Of course, the destination could only be one person.

“Help. I’m sorry but I just got informed about the birthday party, so I have no present.”

Jeffrey-san.

The contents of the message were not at all on a level that someone should send to the person they owed their life to, but he would understand.

The reply came in a matter of seconds. As expected, he worked fast.

“Good evening. I have everything, so there’s no problem if you come empty-handed. There will be champagne, canapés, chicken pie and cake, and I plan to have chocolate fondue coming up at the end.”

There was a proud smiley emoji at the end of the text. It seemed this was going to be a big deal.

Richard would probably have work tomorrow, and he wasn’t the type to get wasted or stuff his face with sweets in the middle of the night. It seemed I also wouldn’t have to worry about dinner. It made me feel sorry. This was the same old pattern. This course of eating and seeing good stuff amidst the confusion of the moment made my stomach hurt when I thought better about it.

“Don’t you know anything that Richard wanted?”

The response came after a moment, “My bad, but nothing comes to mind. How about you give him what you want most?”

What I wanted most. I could only think of refill shampoo and new socks. I’d be ashamed of giving things like that to Richard. After all, this was a mixture of birthday and Christmas party—

Just as I was thinking this, a genius inspiration sprouted in my head. It wasn’t the best solution. Not at all. But I felt it could work. This was too obvious, but if only I had the necessary materials for it, I could do it immediately.

Making up my mind, I came out of the restroom, apologized for making Richard wait, and as we rode to the designated address on the jaguar, I had him stop the car in front of a mass retailer for a moment. I told him I wanted to buy refill shampoo for my home. Richard was exasperated, but didn’t have any suspicions in particular.

We arrived at the hotel, got into the elevator, and on the way to the party venue, I made sure to walk a bit behind Richard. Staying out of his sight was essential.

When he opened the door to the suite, sure enough, Jeffrey-san and Chieko-san were waiting inside. Giving off a relaxed atmosphere, a room-service feast even bigger than what I had imagined from the phone call was waiting on the table for the main guest.

“Happy birthday, Richard. Chieko’s here too. Surprised?”

“Of course. Very surprised. Extremely.”

“Hmm, by the looks of it, I guess there was some information leak. Well, that’s okay! Where’s Nakata-kun?”

“What do you mean ‘where’? He’s right here. Seigi... Seigi?”

My eyes locked with Richard’s. I had locked them with Jeffrey-san’s before that. I was grateful that he had done me the favor of not laughing.

I politely shook my head at my boss, who was making a flabbergasted face. “My name is Santa.”

What I had bought at the mass retailer was a handy Santa makeover set. The three-piece set consisted of a hat, a put-on beard and a Santa costume, but I hadn’t had time to change into the costume, so it was folded up in my bag. I intended to borrow the suite’s bathroom to put on the costume. If I at least had my face ready, I could somehow make it work.

Richard was dumbfounded. It was the obvious reaction. But I wanted him to forgive me for this. After all, it was December and today was a party day.

“I’m Santa Claus! I came from the North Pole. Please take care of me for today!” After introducing myself, I thought that maybe this wasn’t an exemplary self-introduction for Santa, but it was already too late.

Jeffrey-san, who completely livened up the mood whenever he got excited, went along with the joke, saying, “Wah, Santa-san, thank you for coming from such a faraway place!”

I was grateful for that one. And that was how I got away with playing the role of a worldwide mascot-like old man character from the Arctic for the day. The ice cream cake brought by the star of the party was a success, and we had a toast with both champagne and royal milk tea. Chieko-san was wearing a kimono, the remade peridot brooch on her chest.

It had already been more than half a year since then, but to my body, it felt like even longer ago.

My location had moved from Japan to Sri Lanka, as one would expect, and I was busy fully enjoying a spring in which white temple flowers were blooming in Kandy, my new home. But for some reason, Santa was here. A beautiful blond, blue-eyed man slipped in and out of sight, but his outward appearance was that of Santa Claus. It was the kind of Santa costume that you could buy at the costume section of any mass retailer. One of the sad things about unmatched beauty was the fact nobody could actually claim that his natural beauty was ruined by the look. The brilliance of his blue eyes, which looked like they could suck you in, was the same as ever.

“I am Santa Claus. I came from the North Pole.”

“But now’s a hot time of the year.”

“Santa Claus is a symbol of summer in the Southern Hemisphere. I do not think it is particularly strange.”

“T-That might be true. Well, then... what’re you doing?”

“Santa does what Santa does. The tradition of Santa Claus, much like the language of jewels, has a wide variety of legends to it depending on the region, but either way, the role of a saint who grants blessings to little children, women and those in need is a guise commonly demanded in society. And for you, here it is.” Saying this, “Santa” offered me a plastic, loose stone display case that I was all too familiar with. There was a red stone stuck between the cushion and transparent lid. “Can you identify this gemstone?”

“Tourmaline, I guess. Red tourmaline.”

“Good for you. Did you know that it has one more name?”

“Rubellite.”

“Perfect. Large, pinkish-red tourmalines are called by that name, and it is a stone of which huge carved crystals have been loved as works of art, such as the amulet of Empress Dowager Cixi and the Romanov royal treasure, the ‘Strawberry Pendant’.”

As I peeked at the stone inside the case, humming that it was pretty, the beautiful jeweler cleared his throat and started over.

“Just as people’s feelings dwell within beautiful stones, this one is filled with the feeling of celebrating the start of your new life, from your family back in Japan, your friends and your superior at work, with whom you have a relationship other than the aforementioned and that neither of us knows how to define. Santa is wholly thankful for being in the position to bestow you with such a gift. I forgot to say it, but happy birthday. Nakata Seigi-san. I sincerely pray, all the way from my home in the Arctic, that this year will be a fruitful one for you.”

“Thank you. Seriously, thank you for always, Richa...”

“Santa. I am a passing Santa.”

“Then let’s go with that. By the way, if you’re Santa, where are the reindeers?”

When asked this, the man in disguise answered with a cool gaze that the reindeers were using stealth technology nowadays so that they wouldn’t be found by radars, hence they couldn’t be seen. He had it down to the details.

“It’s been about ten years since the last time Santa-san came around. I’ll take good care of this. Santa-san, you take care of your body too. I’ll ask my boss next time I see him about the person who gave you this stone.”

“You should. Well, then.” With a bow, Santa left for a car parked in the courtyard. I probably wasn’t supposed to see him off. I’d feel bad for the stealth reindeers.

The red stone stayed in my hand.

I had told a white lie. It hadn’t been ten years since Santa had last showed up. This was the first time ever since I was born. In my home, there was always someone playing the role of “Santa”, such as Hiromi, Grandma and Nakata-san, so they never tried to tell me nice lies. Nakata-san probably just followed Hiromi’s way of doing things, though. The fact I thought up something like that last December, when Jeffrey asked me what I “wanted most”, might not have been unrelated to this. At any rate, to me, not even once was there any supernatural existence who would leave toys by my bedside if I were a good kid. Until this day.

After a while of standing by the garden, where it was always summer, and listening closely to the cries of birds with my eyes closed, I unlocked my phone. The Wi-Fi range of the house seemed good, and so I could send e-mails immediately. The contents were simple. The destination was my boss, Richard.

“Santa came to my place. But he left so quick that I couldn’t make him tea.”

The reply soon came: “Are you half-asleep?”

If he really thought that I was half-asleep, then maybe I should delay the reply for a few more minutes, I thought, but I didn’t write anything further. The house’s cleaning was half-assed and I had to check the security. I also wanted to know as many of my neighbors as could.

Together with the feeling that I had suddenly been given something I had forgotten, and that I didn’t even know I had forgotten, I put rubellite in the jewelry safe and stepped out into the Sri Lankan provincial city. I had nothing to fear and no hesitation. The ill feeling that I’d be living here alone had disappeared. After all, Santa had come by. Far from elementary school, I was now an adult who had already graduated from university, and it currently wasn’t December but May, where the only anniversary I could think of was my own birthday, yet Santa had come by. Such an impossible thing had happened.

So I could do my best, I thought.

And so, I could be getting ahead of myself, but I began thinking about my plans for this December. Would there be a second chance for Santa to appear? If not, I wanted to make one. I decided to fuss over the outfit a little more and prepare proper gifts this time. Then I’d tell him stories about jewels and try to make him laugh a lot. That, too, was Santa’s duty.

#housekishou richard shi no nazo kantei #housekishou richard #jeweler richard #the case files of jeweler richard #nakata seigi #richard ranashinha de vulpian #richard ranashinghe de vulpian #richard #jr short story collection #jeffrey claremont #novel #tsujimura nanako #yukihiro utako #my translation

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theowlhouseheadcanons · 4 years ago

Note

So what are the Beta's personalities? I don't think there is a guide. All I know is Luz is a Bustard, Amity is pure bred bitch and Willow is S M U G.

Okay, I have two options: do you want the detailed, serious answer or the over-simplified, stupidish answer? Choose wisely.

Painfully detailed:

All we “canonically” know about them, apart from the designs, is their heavier approach to darker, maybe punk/goth vibes - a lead to all the content the fandom produced so far, creating all kinds of creative views about their characters.

If we take a look to Dana´s unrelated artworks, it's a mix of grim bizarrice with mundane and/or wholesome character remarks that makes the odd creations seem… relatable and emphatic, or at least curious enough to make you crook your neck in contemplation. There is also this faint feeling of madness and gloom (with different variations depending on the piece), but they all seem consistent within the big picture.

Overall, they appeal for complexity, and this is where I think the Betas stand - with deep roots on dark humor too. So, after making this boastful analysis of Dana´s art that nobody asked for, let's get to them.

Amity:

As her canon version, she's a character with layers (and masks, depending on the company she might be bearing at the time).

At first impression, she might seems cold and uninterested, with sarcasm being her favorite tool in conversation; Amity makes the effort to keep most people around her at distance to avoid creating unnecessary attachments, so she´ll come off as rude and selfish - but if you hang around enough or prove you have some guts and values, she might take a liking; And once you become friends, you´ll never meet someone more loyal;

She doesn't mind breaking rules – especially her mother's rules – for the sake of entertainment and for helping her friends. She's a fan of pranks and deception, but do not mistake her impetus for recklessness: Amity plays clever to guarantee he reputation remains intact for the right people (leaving the ones who knows her true ways crawling under their skin (enemies) or smirking at her (friends));

She's not one who easily share personal information, reserving her deeper feelings and worries to a scarce number of people;

She won't back down from discussions, and if she feels like something or someone is crossing any lines of her (surprisingly existing) "moral code" she won't leave it alone until she gives a final word on it (besides, she loves the taste of victory, and hate when the ones she cares get hurt in any sense); She fights with words that hit exactly on people's weak spots, but if she's irritated enough she might put her destructive magic to some use (as a threat);

In school, her notes are good (although she can easily make them better if she just puts in the effort) and if the teachers don't insist on pushing some expected behavior towards her, and instead work with her “flexible learning process”, she won't bother. Actually, if she takes interest in the class, she´ll deepen discussions with interesting topics and good criticism, making teachers raise their eyebrows on her competence. But, if for some reason the schoolmaster gets on a tight spot with Amity, she´ll make sure every minute of their class feels a bit closer to hell :)

(One might imagine how polemic Beta Amity must be among the faculty)

When she's not idly hanging with Boscha and the girls, she can be spotted sauntering alone in the corridors, wearing the portrait of Boredom on her face that keeps most people at distance. The only individual that doesn´t appear to be affected by her subtle threatening aurea is Willow: as anything odd and potentially entertaining, Willow conquered Amity´s attention enough to mold a friendship with her. They work pretty well together, with Willow´s centred personality balancing off Amity's fiery behavior. Hanging out with Willow feels both relaxing and exciting, as she never knows what new “job” her friend might be up to - and she's always down to tag along on her quests;

Willow:

Willow is an intriguing kid – and I'm not talking about her dubious choice of fashion or her ability to keep a poker face to everything and everyone while absorbing more details and information than anyone in the room – everyone that knows her agrees with that definition. And everyone knows her; Why? Well...

Her irreducible dedication and unbiased expertise in the bizarre and all sorts of knowledge makes her a handy option for those who need to get some job done and they don't know who else to call. Her almost obsessive curiosity for everything keeps her constantly busy with some experiment, project or investigation;

She displays the minimum respect to people around her and seems genuinely unbothered by social dramas and average teen stuff; Interacting with Willow might feel awkward or incredibly interesting as she has the habit of infodumping and calling attention to random details in the environment (and you'll never know what's going on her mind); ~Her humor is a little morbid too~

She's the kind of person you can hang out alot but if you put some thought on it you'll get shocked how little you know about them – Willow doesn't have a problem with sharing, but she'll only do when requested;

And besides, she rather have the company of plants and herself (a fact she more show than tell), because neither of them will delay her plans or interrupt them with spontaneous cases of *looks down on notes* needing help; (but don't worry, if she's your friend, she will help)

Willow will defy rules only if she knows there won't be bad consequences for her and her "partners in crime" – and she might not share that part with them sometimes so they won't get comfortable enough to mess up;

Luz:

The main common thing between Beta and Canon Luz is their contagious energy and righteous mind: they're always ready to have a good time while being able to help someone; The main difference, I guess, is that Beta Luz has a more flexible moral on methods she might use to do "good";

She never skips the calls for adventure, even the ones that presents potential dangers (which she generally doesn't take note until it's too late) making her a magnet for trouble;

Her friends are so used to her shenanigans that Luz doesn't need more than a look to have them sighing "what have you done this time?"

She's a sporty girl, but also a lover of video games and anime and trying new stuff – which once again, might be a call for danger;

She's friendly but can't help her passive aggressive humor, which can gets sharp depending on her mood; Aggression and offences are a last case resource, unless we're talking about bad guys; She might be down to break rules if it is necessary for doing good, but overall she rather leave law undisturbed; She doesn't mind taking "alternative" ways to achieve her goals, but she draws a line on cheating – and that buys her some heated discussions with Amity;

Luz swears she tries to not get involved in people's business but she never thinks twice before calling people out when they're being unnecessarily bad or rude. Actually, she has the habit of acting before thinking – the main pillar of her troublemaker reputation;

With all that, one might think she's reckless and slow in catching things up – which is not a lie, but that doesn't mean she can't be responsible: she always keep her promises and is committed to following deadlines and conditions – and I'm not sure if this is the place to add, but she's pretty good with children! For Amity's amusement

In sum (simple version):

#that was fun #what do you guys think?#the owl house #the owl house headcanons #toh #amity blight #the owl house luz #luz noceda #the owl house amity #the owl house willow #toh asks #toh luz #toh amity #toh willow #beta amity #beta luz #beta willow

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commentaryvorg · 3 years ago

Text

Digimon Savers Commentary Episode 5 - Break into the Digital World! Drimogemon’s Trap!

In this episode, both Tohma and Masaru separately enter the Digital World to resolve unfinished business with the Digimon they failed to stop last episode. While there, they meet up in a perilous situation and end up bonding, learning to respect each other and work together at last.

Since this episode follows on directly from the events of the last one, we start with a recap of last episode. This is a rare thing for now as most of these early episodes are self-contained events, but it’ll soon become very regular once we get into the series’ overarching plot.

There’s nothing particularly interesting about the recaps; the narration is done by a non-character narrator, and they sometimes tend to show far more clips than necessary to remind people of the relevant things that happened. I often just skip them, though since for the purposes of this commentary I’ll be obligated to watch every single part of an episode to comment on the full experience, I will probably end up moaning about how unnecessarily long they eventually shift into being.

Narrator: “To fulfil his duty, Tohma went to the Digital World to chase down Drimogemon.”

It’s interesting that the narration frames it this way, since disobeying very strict orders isn’t exactly what one would usually consider fulfilling a duty to the organisation that gave him those orders. And yet, this also is to do with Tohma’s very strong sense of duty and need to complete every job perfectly.

Anyway, as we get back into events happening in the present, please appreciate this Very Done Yoshino Face as she realises that Tohma’s gone and endangered himself by going to the Digital World alone and she’s going to get in trouble for it.

As it happens, Masaru and Agumon have got the exact same idea into their heads of disobeying orders and sneaking into the Digital World to finish things with Drimogemon. While Tohma was legitimately very good at the stealth aspect of this plan, Masaru and Agumon’s idea of stealth is, uh… not so great.

Masaru: “Successful infiltration!”

Agumon: “We’re so smooth, Aniki!”

Yep. The smoothest.

Yoshino: “What are you doing.”

Naturally, Yoshino has very much noticed them. The subs put a question mark here, but I’m using my judgement to not include it, because her voice is so deadpan and I love her.

Masaru: “Tohma did a Digital Dive? Damn it, he got away before us!”

Yoshino: “Before?”

Agumon: “Nothing, he’s just talking to himself.”

Yoshino does seem to be genuinely rather wrapped up in trying to deal with the Tohma situation and bring him back, because she doesn’t appear to pick up on the obvious implication of Masaru’s slip-up here (and the obvious only reason they’d be sneaking in in the middle of the night like this in the first place).

Yoshino: “Doing a Dive when the equipment hasn’t even been tested on humans…”

Huh, interesting. I guess this particular version of the Digital Gate equipment that DATS has is newer, then, which tracks.

Yoshino manages to detect the signal from Tohma’s Digivice, but before she can use that to bring him back, the signal is lost.

Masaru: “Really. Well isn’t that a pity.”

Masaru sounds so incredibly (not) concerned here. Though I’m sure this isn’t him genuinely not even caring if Tohma dies; he just assumes Tohma can handle himself and doesn’t see this as his problem at all.

Yoshino: “Listen to me! It’s dangerous!”

Masaru: “That doesn’t matter! I’m just going there to settle my fight!”

Yoshino: “Who cares about your fight? You’re just going to make things worse!”

I mean, it seems like Tohma cares about this fight just as much as Masaru does, actually, if in a somewhat different way. We have two stubborn idiots refusing to let this go here, not just one.

Masaru wanders into the Dive chamber, and, naturally, doesn’t have a clue how to start it up. Yoshino seems quite willing to leave and not help him with this, until he and Agumon start the appropriately Masaru approach of hitting the machine to try and get it to work. (We saw how successful that approach was last episode.)

Masaru: “You think I’ll just sit back while that guy gets all the action?”

Obviously, Masaru is not exactly thinking this through here; he just wants to somehow get to finish his fight before Tohma can do it for him, damn it!

Since Masaru and Agumon are clearly not about to be sensible and stop trying to break the equipment, Yoshino has no choice but to give in.

Lalamon: “Yoshino, are you sure about this?”

Yoshino: “Letting him have his way is better than a broken machine and Tohma stuck over there…”

It really is only because Tohma went first that Masaru is able to get his way here. A broken machine that can be fixed later would be better than Masaru throwing himself into the unknown, but a broken machine while Tohma is stuck over there is not okay at all.

Yoshino: “Listen! I’m sending you the co-ordinates where we lost Tohma. Make sure to bring him back, okay?”

Masaru: “Whatever, just do it!”

Yoshino is making the best of this she can and at least using Masaru as a way to try and ensure Tohma is safe. Masaru acts like he doesn’t care – but note he also isn’t explicitly saying he definitely won’t try to help Tohma and will leave him to fend for himself no matter what.

Yoshino: “I can’t help you when you get to the other side.”

Masaru: “Like I even need it.”

Yoshino: “Oh, really.”

Obviously. Masaru is a tough independent fighter who can definitely throw himself into a completely different world without a clue what he’s doing and manage just fine. Being a liiittle cocky there, Masaru. (Exactly as much as Tohma was when he sent himself over knowing he’d have no backup.) And I love how Yoshino isn’t buying it for a second.

Yoshino: “Return to where you first entered by 0500. That’s where I’ll bring you both back.”

Apparently they need to be in a specific location in order for the Dive equipment to work in reverse (since there isn’t a big handy machine with a chamber in it on the Digital World side). Yoshino was briefly attempting to pull Tohma back earlier before she lost his signal, so I guess that was when he was still within the range of the reverse-transport?

Masaru: “Bah, it’s like having a curfew.”

Haha. Something Masaru is probably quite used to, since he is only fourteen and his mother must worry about what he gets up to a lot. He did mention having to sneak out of the house to come to DATS last episode, which I surmised was not because DATS was a secret to Sayuri but rather just because it was late.

Masaru looks at his Digivice, which has a clock feature telling us it’s 0:33 right now. Yoshino apparently expects him to navigate a completely unfamiliar world, find Tohma (and also defeat the Drimogemon because she knows he’s going to want to do that even if she’d rather he didn’t bother), and get back to where he arrived, within four and a half hours. That seems a little bit tight – why couldn’t she just let him have as long as he needs and just wait to pull him and Tohma back whenever they appear back in range?

The reason, I imagine, is that she’s really hoping she can get this all wrapped up before the morning shift at DATS starts and Satsuma finds out what’s been going on here. I don’t blame her.

Agumon: “Aniki, I’m kinda nervous…”

Masaru: “Don’t get scared now, idiot.”

I like how Masaru is admonishing Agumon for getting scared not as if he’s being a coward or anything like that, but just as if he’s being an idiot. Obviously if they let themselves get scared and hesitate, that might get in the way of them winning their fight! It’s like Masaru is thinking of “getting scared” less in terms of the initial emotion that you can’t help feeling, but in terms of whether you choose to let it control you, or you just push it aside and press on anyway. Anyone who wouldn’t want to do the latter is an idiot, right?

Agumon: “You sure this is okay?”

Masaru: “You think I know?”

As the countdown to transfer gets close to zero and the energy starts swirling around them, I love the tiny little hint that Masaru is actually just as nervous about this as Agumon is – he has no idea if this is gonna be okay or not either! – and is just very stubbornly refusing to show it.

As we briefly see here, moving from one world to another involves travelling through a trippy computery in-between void. Future trips to and from the Digital World in the series will (usually, with one notable exception) skip over this part, but we can assume that it’s a thing that happens every time.

The opening also contains a shot of the characters going through this void between worlds. Yoshino doesn’t head to the Digital World herself in this episode, of course, but she will in time.

Masaru: “This is the Digital World? Cool… The sky and the ground are upside-down!”

I like how Masaru is totally willing to buy that the Digital World really is this weird.

Agumon: “Aniki… You’re the one who’s upside-down.”

Masaru: “I knew that.”

…Rather than the much more likely option that he’s just a huge ridiculous dork.

(The subs say “I knew that” like Masaru’s trying to save face, but the word he says in Japanese could also translate as “Oh, I see,” as if he isn’t even trying to hide how he genuinely thought the Digital World was upside-down for a second. That doofus.)

Agumon: “It’s my first time seeing it, too.”

Masaru: “But you’re a Digimon, aren’t you?”

Agumon: “Yeah, but I’ve been in DATS all my life.”

Yep, just like he said in the first episode about not remembering anything but being in DATS. Seems like, unlike the rampaging Digimon they deal with, Agumon came to the human world while he was not exactly “alive”, as such.

They wander through the Digital World for a while, marvelling at some of its weirdness. Circuit board patterns in the sky! Pixelated rivers! All sorts of Digimon walking and bouncing and flying around!

Masaru: “We’re looking for that mole thing. If we keep walking, we should come across a clue or something.”

Man, Masaru, you sure thought this through and planned things out real good.

Agumon: “What about Tohma?”

[cut to the DATS control room]

Yoshino: “‘Leave him, he’ll figure something out on his own.’ …If he said that, what’ll we do?”

Lalamon: “You’re overthinking it.”

[cut back to the Digital World]

Masaru: “Leave him, he’ll figure something out on his own.”

Oh dear. Yoshino has already got Masaru pretty figured out and knew full well he wasn’t likely to take looking for Tohma that seriously. Though, to be fair, it is pretty reasonable to assume that Tohma can figure something out on his own. Masaru wouldn’t admit this just yet, but this is him having faith in Tohma’s capabilities! If Masaru had reason to believe that Tohma was definitely in life-threatening danger he couldn’t get out of by himself, I’m sure he wouldn’t be so nonchalant about this.

As Masaru and Agumon explore more Digital World weirdness – more stuff in the sky! Digital plants! A crystalline colosseum-looking thing that’s actually a Chekhov’s Gun for this episode! – a particular piece of BGM is playing that evokes a sense of grand exploration and discovery, as you’d expect for this moment. This piece happens to be called Savers’ “Main Theme”, which was a little surprising to me when I saw its name on the soundtrack. You’d expect this series’ main theme to be something more actiony, in fitting with all the focus on fighting and the way Masaru is. But maybe a more discovery-like piece is actually quite appropriate for what the overall themes of this story are.

Agumon: “But it feels kinda nostalgic.”

An interesting comment from Agumon here. Though he doesn’t consciously remember anything about the Digital World because he was born in DATS, it seems like he has a subconscious sense of familiarity with it. As we’ve seen every time DATS defeats a Digimon, they don’t die and are simply turned into eggs and “reborn” – so maybe this is a sign of Agumon’s previous life, in which he did live in the Digital World, still vaguely there with him even though the conscious memories of it are lost.

As fun as showing off Digital World weirdness is, we soon get to the point as Drimogemon happens to pop out of a cliff face nearby. Which, yes, is kind of arbitrarily convenient. But I will take this any day over them wandering aimlessly having unnecessary filler adventures for episodes on end before getting to the actual point that the story is here for.

It also may make some reasonable amount of sense, actually. Masaru was sent to where Tohma was last seen, and it’s likely that Tohma deliberately sent himself somewhere near where he could detect Drimogemon. Tohma sending himself over here with absolutely no idea where to find a single Digimon among an entire world would have been incredibly stupid, after all, and I don’t think he could have justified that to himself even with his determination to fix his mistake. Given that, it’s not so unreasonable that Masaru would have run into Drimogemon at some point, since it was going to be somewhere near to where he arrived.

Also, while the other Digimon they’ve seen were just kind of wandering around naturally, the Drimogemon straight up crashed out of a cliffside. It’s still rampaging, exactly as they were worried about last episode, and therefore it’s even more likely that Masaru would have noticed it sooner or later with all the commotion it’s making.

Drimogemon tunnels into the ground, so naturally Masaru heads straight after it – and back at DATS, Yoshino loses his Digivice signal just like she lost Tohma’s. So apparently these signals can be picked up through the boundary between worlds, but not if someone is in another world and also underground. Uhhh, okay then.

This also means that presumably the reason she lost Tohma’s signal is because he went underground while trying to track Drimogemon, not because he was necessarily in any severe danger.

Lalamon: “This may be the worst…”

I’m amused by Lalamon borrowing Yoshino’s catchphrase, but hedging her bets on it a little bit. Maybe it’s not actually the worst! Maybe.

Satsuma: “What are you doing?”

Yoshino: “Searching for an idiot! Geez, why me?”

Yoshino is so focused on frustratedly searching for Masaru’s signal that she doesn’t even register that Satsuma and Kudamon have shown up at first, which is probably the exact thing she was really hoping wasn’t going to happen until Masaru and Tohma were back. Nope, turns out this definitely is the worst.

Back in the Digital World, Masaru’s tried-and-true strategy of tracking Drimogemon down by simply following it through its own tunnel has led them into a huge underground cavern.

Masaru: “Doesn’t matter where this is! Let’s go, Agumon!”

As before, Masaru doesn’t care about the location so long as he gets to fight! Or, perhaps, he’s trying to tell himself the location doesn’t matter, because on some level he’s realising that Drimogemon is very much in its element and has the advantage here. Which it does, as Masaru and Agumon quickly learn they’re not very good at Whack-a-giant-Digimole.

Bear in mind that Drimogemon is not saying a word, just like it hasn’t since it grew bigger last episode. It’s still in that mindless rampaging state, and so it seems to have no issue with straight-up collapsing the ground underneath Masaru and Agumon. That would be going a bit far if this were a Digimon that was still properly in control of itself.

Agumon: “Aniki!”

Masaru: “Idiot, don’t get scared over something like this!”

Masaru is still trying to set an example for his follower and insist that there’s no point in getting scared, even though being in an underground cave-in is in fact a pretty legitimate reason to be scared right now.

They both fall into a pretty deep-looking chasm but manage to somehow land reasonably unhurt, because shounen anime. Agumon’s awkward legs-in-the-air pose he landed in is pretty cute.

It turns out that Tohma and Gaomon are down here too. Seems like Drimogemon took the same approach when it was faced with them.

Masaru: “What’s this? Does that mean the same thing happened to you?” [he and Agumon burst out laughing] “I see, you’re just like us!”

I really like Masaru’s reaction here. He’s not trying to be mean-spirited; if you listen to the tone of his laughter, there’s nothing malicious or mocking about it. It’s just such a huge relief for him to finally be seeing proof that Tohma’s human. He can fail sometimes and mess up in ways as equally ridiculous and undignified as Masaru. He’s not actually some kind of infuriatingly perfect walking supercomputer who can never do wrong like Masaru’s kind of been resentfully seeing him as. He’s just a person.

The relief of that realisation comes out as laughter not because Masaru’s really trying to mock Tohma for failing, but just because of the elation of finally being able to see Tohma as an equal. “You’re just like us”, indeed.

Tohma’s response is also great. He’s not getting frustrated and snapping back at Masaru like he often would in the previous episode, because he must be able to tell that Masaru isn’t actually trying to insult him here. He’s just embarrassed to be unable to deny the fact that he really is more of a fallible human person than he would have ideally liked Masaru to see him as.

Gaomon, meanwhile, the good dog that he is, has been carefully excavating rocks and found a potential way out. As Tohma heads towards it, he stumbles, because his leg was injured from the fall.

Masaru: “Hey, you’re hurt!”

Tohma: [grimacing] “This barely counts as an injury.”

Tohma clearly doesn’t want to give Masaru even more reason to think he’s human and fallible and might need help or something. But Masaru doesn’t care about Tohma’s stubbornness and immediately moves to put himself under Tohma’s arm to support him.

Masaru: “Here.”

Tohma: “Stop that. I don’t need you to help—”

Masaru: “When you’re a man… When you’re a man, there are some things you just have to *do* despite yourself.”

I love Masaru so much. This is the first time we’re getting to see that his manliness thing is about a whole lot more than just fighting. It’s about honour, and integrity, and simply being a good person. The “despite yourself” is because he still doesn’t really like Tohma just yet and there’s a part of him that stubbornly wants to continue to be irritable and contrary towards him for the hell of it – but since Tohma’s injured and needs help, Masaru’s principles about doing the right thing in this kind of situation are more important to him than anything, so he can put that petty stubbornness aside. And these principles of Masaru’s come from exactly the same place as the reason he always gives it his all in fights!

(All those parts earlier in the episode where I confidently asserted that there’s no way Masaru actually wouldn’t have cared if Tohma had got himself killed, and that if he’d believed Tohma was in genuine danger then he wouldn’t have just left him to his own devices? Yeah, this is why. Masaru is Good.)

Masaru’s manly speech was mostly about himself, but it also works as advice to Tohma in this situation. He could continue to try and be stubborn and prideful and insist he doesn’t need help from anyone, but when there’s someone right here offering to help him – someone who was until recently at his throat, no less – what kind of a dick move would it be to reject that offer? Accepting Masaru’s help is the right thing for Tohma to do as well, despite his own pride. And he does.

Agumon: “You’re making me cry, Aniki!”

Agumon also approves of his aniki’s manly principles, like a good follower should. Aniki is teaching him so much.

Masaru: “Let’s get outta here first. Then we can think about other things.”

Implicit in Masaru’s statement here is “then we can get back to arguing with each other if we want” – but I like how he isn’t even mentioning that here, because right now it isn’t about that. Their lives are in danger, they need to help each other and work together to get out, and so nothing else matters for the time being.

This turns into a brief cute montage of the four of them helping each other make their way through the tunnels, which turn out to be quite the underground labyrinth. A lot of time implicitly passes here, and while I doubt Masaru and Tohma are saying very much to each other, this is no doubt making them bond a bit. They’re finally spending some time seeing each other as a person and an equal, rather than as some kind of infuriating representation of everything opposite to their own approach that brings out all their insecurities.

Meanwhile at DATS, Yoshino is indeed getting fiercely chewed out by Satsuma.

Yoshino: “But that was all I could do…”

It really was, or Masaru would have broken the equipment and left Tohma stranded there! She did the absolute best thing she could under the circumstances! Alas, Yoshino doesn’t seem to quite have it in her to stand up for herself and more clearly express this.

Kudamon: “Instead of berating them, we should find out where they are quickly!”

At least Kudamon has the right idea. And I imagine Satsuma understands this, too – he’s probably only so furious at Yoshino because he’s worried about Tohma and Masaru. He likely would have chewed them out if he could, since this is absolutely far more their fault than Yoshino’s. But they aren’t available for him to yell at, so poor Yoshino got the brunt of it instead.

Masaru: “Hey, why didn’t you evolve Gaomon and break out?”

Back in the Digital World, Masaru asking this suggests he’s been thinking himself about, naturally, the most straightforward way to get out of here – he’d just evolve Agumon to GeoGreymon and smash their way out, if only he could!

But it says a lot that Masaru is then also applying his mindset to Tohma and assuming that he’s probably thought of the same thing, hence asking why he hasn’t done so, since Tohma can evolve his partner more easily. Masaru’s starting to empathise with Tohma and see him as a person!

(I guess technically Masaru might be able to get his Digisoul by turning around and punching Gaomon in the face? But it’s entirely possible that it wouldn’t work against a Digimon that’s not actively trying to fight him. Or, even if it did, that’d be a dick move to suddenly punch someone who’s not ready to fight and defend themselves, so I doubt Masaru would want to do that.)

Tohma demonstrates why he didn’t just evolve Gaomon by asking Gaomon to punch the wall, showing how dangerously unstable these tunnels are. Which is, uh, something he really could have just explained with words rather than taking a risk like that. But then again, Masaru is definitely someone who learns things better through actions rather than words, so maybe this is Tohma beginning to appreciate that!

They reach another fork in the tunnel and disagree on which path they should take. Tohma explains that the path he’s choosing isn’t random; he’s been dropping coins on the ground as they’ve been moving, and the path Masaru picked has a coin in it, indicating that they’ve been that way before.

(This is a 100 yen coin, by the way, which is roughly equal to one US dollar, and Tohma’s apparently been dropping loads of them. Could he not have used, I dunno, just 1 yen coins? Someone has more money than he knows what to do with.)

Masaru: “Hey, you’re pretty smart!”

I like how Masaru remarks on this like it’s the first time he’s noticing this, as if he wasn’t already infuriatingly aware that Tohma’s a straight-up genius. This is Tohma displaying his smarts in a low-key, down-to-earth way that a regular person like Masaru can understand and appreciate is a useful way to go about things, rather than a way that makes him just come across as incomprehensibly, unreachably perfect.

Tohma: “As I said, I’m not like you.”

Tohma’s still taking a little longer to warm up to Masaru and acknowledge that they might actually be similar to each other in a lot of ways, since he insists on stressing this point. Come on, Tohma! Masaru’s already started to admit that maybe you’re more like him than he would have liked you to be a day ago; you should start closing that gap, too!

Masaru makes a face in response to this comment. Apparently he’s agreeing with my sentiment about Tohma being a little too unnecessarily uptight here.

Agumon: “Aniki… When are we gonna get outta here?!”

Masaru: “Don’t worry! Keep up your spirits and we’ll use it to work this out somehow!”

Tohma: “Spirit has nothing to do with it, but we *are* heading up.”

I love the contrast between Masaru’s baseless emotion-driven optimism, and Tohma preferring to base his optimism in actual facts. Both are good ways to be optimistic!

Masaru: “You’re really unbearable.”

Tohma: “You too.”

They say this, but they both sound a lot less vitriolic about it than they did in the previous episodes. They still have huge differences in their approach to things that inherently frustrate each other, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be beginning to respect each other anyway!

Masaru and Tohma reach an opening into a wider cavern, but they’re too high up for it to be safe to drop down into it. They’re about to turn back when Drimogemon shows up in the lower cavern.

Masaru: “He’s out of luck to meet us here! Let’s go, Agumon!”

Yes, out of luck, this is definitely the least advantageous possible position that Drimogemon could be meeting them in. Masaru is still being Masaru and paying no heed to the environment; he sees Drimogemon as being out of luck to meet him at all, because hey, this means they don’t have to go searching for it later!

Tohma points out the incredible disadvantage they’re at, including reminding Masaru that it’s not safe for their partners to evolve in here, and insists they should keep heading for the surface and leave it be for now. But Masaru is having none of it.

Masaru: “Not gonna!”

I absolutely adore his ridiculous grumpy walk towards Tohma. It’s so perfect for getting across his stubborn attitude here. No. Masaru is gonna fight the thing and no amount of logic or safety is gonna stop him.

Masaru: “I’m not gonna run or hide! A man takes his fights head-on!”

Also, running away at a time like this isn’t what a man does, according to him, and it’s already become pretty clear just how important sticking to that principle is to Masaru.

So he pulls Tohma with him to the edge of the tunnel and straight-up leaps down onto Drimogemon’s back, with Agumon and Gaomon frantically jumping after them.

(Tohma grimaces in pain as he lands on its back. Yeah, considering his leg injury, ouch.)

Masaru: “Yo.”

Masaru climbs forward onto Drimogemon’s head and has this delightfully audacious moment.

Then, realising they’re there, Drimogemon goes mad trying to shake them off. When they keep clinging on, it rushes towards the nearest wall trying to tunnel away. Masaru tugs on its fur like reins to redirect it to tunnel where he wants it to – in a more upwards direction, since they soon emerge out on the surface.

(It’s a little questionable how Masaru and co. aren’t just utterly crushed between Drimogemon’s back and the earth as it digs its tunnel, but then again it’s questionable how Drimogemon’s drill even manages to drill out a tunnel big enough for its entire body through what seems like not earth but solid rock in the first place. Shush, it’s anime physics; it’s fine.)

Tohma: (He… Did he plan all of this from the start? But wait…)

And here’s Tohma applying his mindset to Masaru, imagining that Masaru might have planned this! He’s, uh… not precisely correct on that one, but it says a lot that he’s even considering it at all.

Rather than jump off its back and fight it here, Masaru keeps pulling on Drimogemon’s fur to direct its panicked running.

Masaru: “Yahoo! This is just like a rodeo!”

(And he’s having a whale of a time while doing it, too, the huge dork.)

Tohma: “Where are you taking us?”

Masaru: “You’re the one who said to think of a good battleground!”

Look at Masaru actually thinking about this and applying a decent amount of strategy! He’s really not that bad at doing so when someone prompts him to actually consider it; he’s just usually so raring to jump straight in that it doesn’t occur to him to do so.

The “good battleground” in question is the crystalline colosseum Masaru noticed earlier – just the kind of place where Drimogemon won’t be able to dig. Inside the crystal arena, Masaru gives it a nice big punch before leaping off its back, and its evolution time.

…Except, it turns out, it’s also about to be evolution time for Drimogemon. For some reason. It starts twitching and shaking like it’s having some kind of adverse reaction to something, but I cannot come up with any possible reason why it would be doing so. The robbers who may or may not have been (read: they definitely were) responsible for it growing bigger and rampaging in the first place back in the human world are long gone and out of the picture. This does not make any sense to me. Maybe this is just something that happens if a Digimon that’s grown bigger but not evolved is left to rampage unchecked for long enough? I don’t think we see any other instances in the series that would contradict this, but this is definitely me reaching here.

Meanwhile at DATS, Miki and Megumi have also been called in to help search for the two reckless idiots, and they finally manage to relocate their signals – probably because they’re above ground again now. But they also detect Drimogemon evolving, which, for some reason, activates DATS’s alarm. You know, the one that’s supposed to be for Digimon appearing in the human world, because it’s hardly like a Digimon evolving back in the Digital World is usually anything they need to worry about.

Drimogemon finishes evolving, and it’s now… a Digmon. (Dig, without the second “I”; yes, this is very easy to awkwardly misread as just Digimon, I know.) And, uh, Digimon evolution level facts: this shouldn’t be a stronger Digimon.

If Drimogemon, an Adult-level like Gaogamon and GeoGreymon, had evolved upwards like you’d expect into the next proper evolution level, it’d have reached Perfect level. And, as I’ve mentioned with regards to evolution levels, they are each ridiculously exponentially stronger than the last, to the point that even GeoGreymon and Gaogamon working together would not have stood a chance against even a single Perfect-level.

So, well, obviously that couldn’t actually happen here, because Masaru and Tohma need to win this fight. Instead, Drimogemon just evolved sideways into a bonus gimmicky evolution level called Armour level, which, from its appearances in other series, seems to be roughly just as strong as Adult. This is not actually any significantly more of a threat at all.

Tohma: “It’s Digmon. He’s far more powerful and has a higher mobility than Drimogemon.”

I guess we’re meant to assume that Armour levels work somewhat differently in this Digimon universe and are in fact just a little bit stronger than Adult, while not nearly as much so as Perfect? Sure, I guess; the general mechanics of Digimon don’t always work exactly the same in different universes.

(Still, Tohma conspicuously does not mention Digmon’s evolution level and explain the fact that it just evolved more sideways than upwards, because the writers don’t want you to notice how awkward this is.)

This whole thing, nonsensical DATS alarm and all, is a hilariously transparent attempt by the writers to inject more artificial tension into this situation, and, I dunno, to maybe showcase a different Monster of the Week since we’ve been dealing with Drimogemon for two episodes now. It’s very silly. Drimogemon should have just stayed as a Drimogemon and everything would have been fine.

At least this does mean, thanks to Digmon’s apparent higher defences and mobility, we get GeoGreymon not winning the fight in a single attack. (Though my brain looks at Digmon and sees something that’s clearly a Bug/Steel-type and is very bothered by how an obviously Fire-type attack like Mega Flame doesn’t harm it at all. Shush, I was raised on Pokémon; I can’t help but see things this way.) It puts up a decent fight for a while, dodging or withstanding their attacks and hitting back, which at least is a refreshing change from the one-attack victories we’ve seen before – because there’s a narrative point to be made in this fight that wouldn’t work if they won straight away.

…I still think this could have been made to work just fine with Drimogemon turning out to be tougher and have more mobility above ground than they’d been expecting, though. It shouldn’t have needed to evolve sideways for this fight to be a challenge.

So anyway, after a little bit of them not getting anywhere in defeating it, Tohma reminds Masaru of the part last episode where GeoGreymon and Gaogamon’s attacks collided from opposing directions and cancelled each other out.

Tohma: “But what if the opposite happened?”

Masaru: “What’d happen?”

Tohma: “Let’s find out!”

Look at Tohma getting into the Masaru spirit of things! He has an idea, but unlike his usual carefully-calculated strategies, he doesn’t know exactly how this one’s going to play out. And yet he’s going for it anyway!

Tohma: “Isn’t that your style?”

Masaru: “Now you’re getting it!”

Not only that, but Tohma knows this is him pulling something Masaru would pull, and he’s okay with it! And of course Masaru enthusiastically approves.

Believer kicks in here, by the way, not earlier when they were evolving. We’re still hearing it every episode for now, but even then, the music directors know better than to just blindly throw it in the moment an evolution animation happens, regardless of context. They’re deliberately saving it for the actually triumphant moments, like all “evolution” songs should be.

Masaru: “The timing has to be perfect.”

Meanwhile, Masaru is taking a leaf out of Tohma’s book and caring about little strategic details like timing! Look at them both go.

On their command, GeoGreymon and Gaogamon fire their Mega Flame and Spiral Blow attacks together in the same direction at the same time, which turns them into a huge flaming tornado that engulfs Digmon and overwhelms it.

Tohma: “The opposing attacks didn’t clash… they fused! Their combined powers enhanced each other and became amplified to more than before!”

Which, though I don’t know if Tohma himself quite realises this or not, is also a very fitting metaphor for his and Masaru’s methods, just like what happened last episode. If they oppose each other, all they do is get in each other’s way and achieve nothing at all, but if they work together, they can each complement the other’s skills to become something greater than either of them could be on his own!

Masaru: “Who cares about that? All that matters now is… he dies!”

Meanwhile, of course Masaru doesn’t care about figuring out the sciencey logistics of how this is working (and he certainly cares even less about possibly making some kind of metaphor). He just knows that it’s awesome and it means they win.

(The “he dies!” is, uh, rather dark, especially considering it’s only being turned into an egg, but I’m pretty sure that’s a subs thing and that Masaru doesn’t actually directly reference death here. The subbers were probably just going for something that sounds a bit snappier than “he’s defeated”, which I imagine is closer to what Masaru actually literally said.)

As Masaru starts celebrating their win like the adorable excited dork he is, GeoGreymon and Gaogamon give a small smile to each other, and it’s cute.

Tohma, meanwhile, isn’t quite the type to join in with Masaru’s loud celebrations, but he has a smile to himself and is obviously happy about this outcome as well, in his much more subdued way.

We cut to sun…set? Huh, now that I think about it, I guess this part of the Digital World runs on a different timezone to Japan in the human world, because it was daytime the whole time over here while it was night in Japan. Maybe this world even has an entirely different day length.

Masaru, Tohma and their devolved partners are heading back to the recall point – with Masaru still supporting Tohma’s walking, because he is still good and Tohma probably still needs it.

Tohma: “When you jumped down towards Drimogemon… Did you plan right from the start to use him so we could get to the surface?”

Tohma only asks this now even though they’ve been implicitly walking back from the fight for a while. It seems he tried to tell himself that it probably was all planned, but the thought kept nagging at him – was it really, though? This is Masaru, after all – that he eventually just had to ask and confirm it.

Masaru: “Nah, that was just spirit! But the result was great, wasn’t it?!”

Aaaand of course it wasn’t all planned from the start. Of course not. But, hey, there was still deliberate intent and strategy involved as it was happening. It seems Masaru can be pretty good at the whole seat-of-your-pants, make-it-up-as-you-go type of strategising when he needs to be!

Tohma: (I hate to admit it, but I can’t analyse his ability with my intellect.)

And that’s okay, Tohma! This is Tohma acknowledging that Masaru’s approach is nothing like his, but that it still works just as well and is just as valid a way of going about things. He’s opening his mind to more than just his very rigid way of thinking!

Tohma stops in their walking and… offers Masaru a fist-bump. I really like how he’s the one to offer here, after Masaru was the first to offer support to Tohma earlier and Tohma was still being kind of hesitant about fully accepting Masaru as being similar to him. He’s making up for that now and closing the rest of the gap himself, just like he began to do in the battle when he suggested a Masaru-like risky strategy!

Masaru accepts it without question, of course. He probably already felt like they’d grown enough of an unspoken bond from their experiences that it didn’t need to be said, otherwise I imagine he’d have already made this gesture himself sooner. But I like that it didn’t occur to him, so that we could see Tohma be the one to choose to initiate this.

They are friends now and it is good!

Agumon: “Aniki’s got himself another follower!”

That’s, uh, not quite what this is, Agumon. But it’s adorable that Agumon jumps to seeing things that way, because to him his aniki is just The Coolest and he can’t imagine anyone else ever being his equal. So if Aniki’s gained the respect of someone new, that must mean he’s also become an aniki to them, right?

Gaomon: “Master is no follower!”

Meanwhile, maybe Gaomon feels pretty similarly about his master, too. He is, after all, a very good dog.

Safely back at DATS, Masaru and Tohma and their partners have the grace to look appropriately sheepish about this whole thing as Satsuma yells at them. Yoshino is also there and also looks like she’s getting yelled at along with them, which seems unfair to me – she already bore her share of the blame earlier, and it was far less her fault than theirs!

Kudamon: “You were able to make it back this time, but did you think about what would’ve happen if you’d failed? You still know nothing of the Digital World!”

It’s pretty interesting that Kudamon says this to them, considering that he knows far more about the Digital World than anyone else in this room and yet hasn’t ever thought to inform his agents about it in case something like this ever happened.

Satsuma drops his anger and turns his back to them before finally complimenting them on managing to return. Despite his sternness, he does care about his subordinates! I really do think he was only so angry because he was worried about them never making it back. Going there in the first place was monumentally reckless on both their parts, but Masaru and Tohma did at least handle things quite impressively while they were there, and that deserves to be acknowledged.

(Speaking of worried, I imagine Masaru is very much not planning on telling his mother about how he nearly went and got himself stranded in another world, which is definitely for the best. Poor Sayuri would be terrified just thinking about how close that came to happening.)

Overall thoughts

When I first watched Savers, I think there was a part of me that expected the Masaru-Tohma rivalry to drag on unnecessarily long, like for ten episodes or more, and probably become kind of stale and tiresome before it finally got resolved. But no! Savers doesn’t waste any time with this mini-arc. We’ve seen Masaru’s insecurities brought out by Tohma; we’ve seen Tohma’s insecurities brought out by Masaru; now it’s time to shove them into a situation where they can learn to get along, so that the story can move on with them actually working together.

And, really, it was never going to take Masaru and Tohma that long to reach this point. They always had so much in common along with their differences, and they’re both fundamentally decent people despite their tendency to be very stubbornly insistent about their own way of doing things. All it took was putting them in a situation where they can come to see the other as a person and not have their own issues brought out by the other’s very presence, and each one was always going to see that there’s plenty about the other that he can respect.

So I like this episode a lot, because I think it pulls this off really well. There’s a lot more to it than just the basic premise of “put them in danger so they’re forced to work together” – there’s all sorts of little moments I’ve talked about here that show each of them is slowly beginning to see the other as human and come to understand and respect his different way of thinking. The writers really thought about this, and about these characters. Savers’ character writing is great.

And yeah, the Drimogemon evolving into Digmon is pretty silly, but that’s only a small thing. The conclusion of the metaphor started last episode with GeoGreymon and Gaogamon’s attacks is a narratively appropriate way to end the fight, at least.

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[Dub comparison]

#digimon #digimon savers #masaru daimon #tohma h norstein

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