#especially in the Tesla Flashback chapters

[lost-technology]

Dammit, Rem.

I find that some of the best characters in fiction - or at least the ones I like the most, make me go "Dammit!" sometimes. I like Rem a lot. She's my favorite character in Trigun besides Vash. She doesn't get a whole lot of screentime being, well, dead, and is "that character that appears in flashbacks and backstory and sometimes dreams" - but in the time she does appear, she's vital to just... the entire plot. Some people (especially the people who've only seen the '98 anime) blame her for Vash wrecking his life and wrecking his body in his push to try to save even the bad guys. "No one has the right to take the life of another" was spoken in a particular context there (trying to keep Rowan from further murder) and Rem wasn't given enough time to convey all of the frailties and imperfections of human existence. Vash seems to, by nature, have a straight and narrow lockstep mind while little Knives was displaying some budding psychopathy, both requiring more time, therapy and help than she or any one person is able to give. In the manga and Stampede, I feel like it is better communicated that Vash's pacifist philosophy comes less from any direct words that Rem said on the matter and more just from the fact that she sacrificed herself to save the fleet. She didn't give "a rule" to follow, instead, it's more... "I lost her because she saved everybody else so I need to protect them in her name / stead." The manga does have the wonderful, stark, violent exchange where she prevents Vash from doing suicide and talks about having a "blank ticket," which is much more of a literary "show" rather than the "tell" of the '98 manga. That said... I love her immensely, but I do have some "dammit, Rem!" moments. Namely, the thing she carried guilt to the grave over: Failure to save Tesla. Now, we don't know how involved with the Tesla experiments she was. Different fanfic writers take different tracks because it's not detailed. She outright says (manga) that she and Conrad objected to the experiments. However, there is still a sense that she forwent what most people would do to save a HUMAN child in the same circumstance, simply because Tesla was a different species and scientifically important. Rem talks of powerlessness, so I believe she was overruled and that she really couldn't do anything that wouldn't just get her chucked in a freezer. We are still left with the uncomfortable feeling of "Could she have done better?" I wonder if her point of guilt was "She discovered Tesla and woke the crew because it was a big WTF event" and she thought she could trust them to do observational work rather than get vivisection-happy. We don't know if she was solo when Tesla happened or if the crew was all awake, but maybe merely "notification" was the big mistake. Or maybe she *was* more involved, at first. We just don't know. All we know is that, at least after a point, she objected and was overruled. I think she did her best, but there's also a bit of "Dammit!"

[problemswithbooks]

It’s so obvious hori only has no problem with killing off non lov villains, if it’s hero or lov they all got ridiculous amounts of plot armor. stain getting killed off by afo is exactly what I expected, how else can hori show that afo is not just a punching bag for every damn hero of every level? look! afo can actually kill someone super easy!

sorry, just can’t find this exciting

Yeah, I totally agree.

As I said in my previous post I always expected Stain to die (or just be forgotten about/thrown back jail). I was never someone who thought my fav would have a happy ending. In most media I consume my favorite character is usually a low level villain that gets killed, so I'm more then used to it. Him dying isn't my issue--it's how lazy and little story impact it had.

Some of my other favorite characters that have died have been Greed, and Kimblee from FMA, Nnoitra and Tesla from Bleach and Han'nya from Rurouni Kenshin.

All of these had deaths that either matter plot wise or were given emotional impact. None of these characters are particularly big players when it comes to screen time, especially Han'nya and Tesla who were essentially side-kicks. Yet, their deaths are given a decent focus and/or effect the plot/themes of the work.

Hori did try--I will give him that. He did have Stain think something somewhat sentimental and sort of pray, but it's just not really enough. All might wanted to save him, sure, but after he gets killed, All Might is then the main focus and his death is pretty much dropped. It doesn't effect All Might and why should it when Stain wasn't really given much personality besides 'crazy guy' even right before he died.

And I saw that someone said in my last post, I was jumping the gun and Stain could be alive--which, yeah, I guess Hori could pull another Gran Torino and hand-wave him back from what clearly looked like his upper body being turned into mush, but why would he?

The reason I think Stain is super dead is because he's so unimportant. Hori has given him zero story value. Even him helping the Heroes with Info was rendered pointless because Star reset the clock for them. Nor has he done anything to expand his character past 'insane murder man'. Heck, I'd argue he actually had more nuance when he first showed up then he did in his last chapter, that continued to paint him as an All Might obsessed weirdo (which isn't me saying he shouldn't hold AM up as an ideal, but maybe not have him remember his scent and sniff rocks--he could have just watched and seen which blood was AfO's).

There's very little reason to bring him back in, especially since he has no Quirk and would be super injured. The only reason to have him pop back up alive is to save All Might again and get a slightly better death scene. But then the one we just watched is rendered even worse because it was a waste of time.

And I guess Hori could just say he survived at the very end, but again what would be the point? To go back to jail? I don't see anyone but the main LoV getting off scot-free, so this would only make the situation look worse, since Stain actually tried to the Heroes (twice) and gets prison time, meanwhile the LoV who were helping AfO up until the very last minute get nothing. It would be equally weird to have him just pop up at the end and get a panel saying he was also rehabilitated when Hori never painted him as anything but a crazy killer. Like it'd need a bit more of an explanation, then i think Hori wants to spend time on.

IDK, I just think he could have given Stain's death a bit more oomph--mainly by giving a little flashback to his childhood. It would have helped with the theme of villains having been kids once, while also showcasing how much AM mattered to him.

But I guess we'll see how things go. Maybe Hori will surprise us and have Stain do something in the vestige world because AfO stole his Quirk. I doubt it but who the hell knows, Hori is unpredictable.

[tiny--spock]

I am writing up these writing asks for @dear--myclosestfriend! Thank you!!

3: What is your least favorite part of writing?

The writer's block. Lol, I'd have to say writing things that I don't have a lot of knowledge of. Like, a place that I did not know much about (such as the scenes that 'high school me' wrote that took place on the college campus), or characters that I foolishly haven't fleshed out well enough yet.

23: Single or multi POV, and why?

I like multiple POV's, because it lets me pick the character's brains and develop them more. Also, such as with Lost the characters will seperate a little and have their own adventures and stuff that I really can't tell from the point of view of just one character.

25: Linear or non-linear, and why?

With the exception of the extremely occasional flashback, I prefer linear. Plots that kind of jump back and forth with times and places every chapter are confusing for me to even read, unless it's clear enough to where I know what's happening. And if I ever tried to write that... I hope ya'll can make sense out of it because I can't.

30: Favorite line you've ever written.

The very last bit of Tesla's dialogue in The Scrap Pile has to be my favorite! The whole chapter was different from everything else I've done, and the ending gives me residual chills every time I read over it. Tesla's final words were sort of a homage to his legacy, open to interpretation, but cryptic no matter what way he may have meant it especially given the context of that stage of his life. Then there was the fact that he was talking to his pigeon.