#his character is fun so far and i will support him no matter his involvement in murder <333< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[jessicatredes]

RAHUL KOHLI as SUNIL RANJA

death and other details; episode 1 & 2

[ramblings-of-a-chaotic-neutral]

Hello everyone! I've got to say, I'm very pleased that this au won the latest poll! Gwaine's one of my favorite characters, but I don't give him enough love in my writing. So, I decided to really let his character shine in this au alongside some other characters who I feel like didn't get enough attention in the show. Enjoy! :D

Also, I saw that Merlin was trending again today, so I decided to jump in while that was happening lol! I love that this fandom will just wake up on a random day and decide to take over tumblr!

This au is set in the years between season 4 and season 5 (but Lancelot is still alive because I say so), and the story starts with Gwaine's getting a little worried about his friend. Merlin's getting more and more stressed as the weeks go by, and he doesn't smile very often anymore despite Gwaine's best efforts, which usually involve roping Merlin into whatever mischief he's stirred up recently for a little bit of fun.

Gwaine feels pretty guilty about Merlin's worsening mental state, because Gwaine is thriving for the first time in his life, finding a community and purpose among the knights of Camelot. And he owes it all, everything he now has, to Merlin, who is suffering under a burden that no one can seem to help him with.

So, Gwaine tries all that he can to cheer up his friend and pull him out of whatever terrible place his mind is stuck in, but no matter what Gwaine does, he can't seem to lighten Merlin's mood any. Sure, Merlin will plaster on a smile for Gwaine's sake and tell him that nothing's wrong, but Gwaine can see the dullness in Merlin's eyes, he saw it every time his saw his reflection for years before Merlin barreled into his life and showed him that there was more to life than taverns and wandering.

Before he knew it, a year had passed, and Gwaine hadn't made any progress in pulling Merlin out of his darkening mental state. Gwaine felt so frustrated and useless whenever he saw Merlin's smile the drop the second he thought that no one was watching. This was his chance to finally repay Merlin for turning his life around for the better, for giving him a home, a family, a purpose, but nothing he did was helping!

But Gwaine couldn't give up on helping Merlin. There must be a way to help him, to support him through whatever was burdening him, some way to bring that bright spark back to his eyes. Gwaine just had to find out how.

From the on, Gwaine kept an even closer eye on Merlin, determined to figure out what was weighing down his friend and how to ease his burdens. It was because Gwaine was watching Merlin so closely that he noticed them.

Gwaine will give them credit, whoever they were, they were good at stealth, far beyond anyone Gwaine had met before. The cloaked figure was almost always out of sight, right in the corners of his vision. At first, he thought that this nearly imperceivable figure was after him, but it didn't take him long to figure out that the mysterious figure was following Merlin.

As soon as Gwaine realized this, all of the alarm bells in his mind went off. Was this an assassin sent to kill Merlin? A spy trying to infiltrate Camelot? A bandit planning to abduct Merlin for ransom?

Or, Gwaine realized, this might be connected to Merlin's worsening moods. This mysterious figure was clearly well trained, but they had been following Merlin for over a week and still hadn't attacked, so they probably weren't an assassin or bandit. Was Merlin being threatened by this figure into doing their bidding?!

Finally, after tailing Merlin's stalker for weeks, Gwaine manages to get some answers after following Merlin on a late-night rendezvous outside of the castle. When Gwaine had spotted Merlin sneaking away under the cover of night, Gwaine of course had to follow him! Merlin could be in danger!

Gwaine followed Merlin as the other man made his way into the woods with a surprising amount of stealth. After a long hike through the woods, Merlin arrived at his destination, which, to Gwaine's shock, looked strikingly like a druid camp. There were painted tents, campfires, and even magical symbols carved into the tree, and all signs pointed to sorcerers living there.

Gwaine's anxiety skyrocketed at the sight. Why would Merlin risk coming to this secret druid camp, which Arthur definitely did not know about? Was Merlin being threatened and followed by sorcerers?!

Gwaine crept around the outskirts of the camp, sticking to the darkness. He saw Merlin approach a rather intimidating bald man, who, if the way the others in the camp made way for him as he walked, was the leader of this group of sorcerers.

Gwaine kept his hand firmly wrapped around the hilt of his sword, ready to draw it and run to the defense of his friend at a moment's notice. As he kept watching though, he strangely couldn't see any sign of a threat towards Merlin. While Gwaine couldn't hear much of their conversation, the intimidating leader guy acted almost friendly towards Merlin, and Merlin was relaxed, not showing any signs of fear at all.

As Merlin and his maybe-friend began making their way out of the camp, Gwaine could finally hear some of what they were saying.

"Thank you again, Alator. I'm not sure what I would've done without your help!"

"It is no burden to me or my men, I assure you. It is an honor to assist a man as great as you, Emrys. Morgana's forces are a threat to us all and an affront to all that is good in this world. We will fight at your side as always and ensure that Morgana's spies never infiltrate Camelot again."

Alright, there was... a lot for Gwaine to unpack there.

First of all, the scary bald man's name was apparently Alator, so that was good to know. He claimed to be allied with Merlin against Morgana, which gave Gwaine some relief.

However, as Gwaine's mind put the pieces together, he wanted to scream with frustration. Merlin was consorting with dangerous sorcerers behind Arthur's back in order to protect Camelot! It was a move so selfless yet foolish that only Merlin could pull it off.

Still, these sorcerers didn't seem hostile towards Merlin at all, so Gwaine could work with that. He just needed a little bit more information on them, some way to confirm that they really were on Merlin's side on not double crossing his friend.

So, Gwaine crept closer into the camp, trying to see what they were up to now that Merlin was gone. He didn't see anything incriminating just yet, but that didn't mean that they were free of any nefarious plans.

Gwaine inched closer and closer into the camp, his eyes trained on the men who were probably sorcerers going about their evening chores in the camp. Gwaine so focused on his targets, in fact, that he didn't register that there was someone behind him until he felt blow to the back of his head and fell unconscious.

As Gwaine woke up, his first thought was that the pounding in his head was just a hangover, which was not by any means an unusual occurrence for Gwaine. That idea was quickly disproven as, when Gwaine tried to raise his hands to his head to try and alleviate his massive headache, he realized that his hands were bound. Once again, this wasn't necessarily an unusual situation for Gwaine, but it did cause him to freeze up with alarm as he remembered where he was and what he was doing before everything went black.

When Gwaine was finally able to peel his eyes open, he was greeted with the sight of several angry-looking men, including their intimidating leader whom Merlin had spoken to. What was his name... ah yes, Alator!

Putting on his friendliest and most innocent smile, Gwaine immediately tried to talk his way out of the situation. It had worked for him in similar situations, so why not give it a shot?

"Well, hello there gentlemen! I was just here looking for my buddy Merlin, have you seen him? Lanky fellow, dark hair, always wearing a neckerchief? A great guy, really, you'd know if you had met him!"

Gwaine scrutinized each of his captors' reactions to Merlin's name. Maybe this way he could find out what their intentions with Merlin. However, all of their expressions remained stubbornly neutral, except for Alator, who simply blinked at the mention of Merlin.

After an awkwardly long silence, Gwaine again tried to get some sort of reaction out of these mysterious men.

"I could have sworn I saw him heading this way, and I got worried about him, ya know? What kind of friend would I be if I let him wander around the forest at night all by himself! He's the kindest person I know, but he can somehow find himself in trouble at any time."

Again, much to Gwaine's rising frustration, Alator simply blinked. After another awkward pause, Alator finally responded.

"You are a knight of Camelot, correct? And you hold Emrys is high regard?"

Gwaine frowned at the seemingly random questions, but he figured it couldn't hurt to keep the conversation rolling, especially if it can get him some answers. Admitting to being a knight of Camelot in front of a bunch of potentially dangerous sorcerer might not be the best move, but they were willingly working with King Arthur's personal manservant, so these guys must not have that much of an issue with Camelot, right?

"Why yes, I am a knight of Camelot! Sir Gwaine, at your service! Based on your question, I assume that Emrys is some nickname you have for Merlin?"

In response to his question, Alator merely gave a single, solemn nod. Man, this group really needed to work on their communication skills.

"In that case, I do hold Emrys in very high regard! In fact, I'd say he's the best person I've ever met!"

Finally, that comment got a reaction out of them! As soon as Gwaine told them about how much he values Merlin, the men in front of him started nodding and murmuring amongst themselves. Gwaine hoped that they were happy about having a common friend and not plotting ways to kill him.

After reaching some consensus, the men all turned towards Gwaine simultaneously, which sent a shiver down Gwaine's back. What were they planning?

Alator then waved his hand, and his eyes flashed gold, confirming Gwaine's suspicions that he was dealing with sorcerers. Gwaine flinched back and braced himself for whatever spell had just been sent his way...

Only to feel the chains binding him fall to the ground, leaving him free and unharmed. Gwaine glanced down to check that he was, in fact, still in one piece before staring at Alator in shock.

"I can sense the honesty in your heart as you speak Emrys's praises. Know that any friend of Emrys is a friend to us. We apologize for our previous behavior, as we did not know that you were also an ally of Emrys. Please, join us for a cup of tea so we can discuss this further."

Gwaine, reeling from his host's sudden change in attitude, let them maneuver him outside and give him a seat at their campfire, with Alator and his men sitting with him around the fire.

Gwaine looked around at his hosts, who sat silently around the fire, not even talking amongst themselves. The silence made Gwaine's nerves stand on end, so he decided to fill that silence himself. He might as well get to know his gracious hosts and fellow friends of Merlin, right?

"So, who are you guys? How did you meet Merlin? Hey, maybe we can compare stories of him! Let me tell you, I've got some crazy stories to share about adventures he's dragged me on!"

The men sitting around him shared a silent look at each other before Alator answered.

"We are the Catha, masters of combat and one of the last surviving sects of priests of the Old Religion. I am Alator, the leader of the Catha. I first met Emrys when I betrayed Morgana to follow a better, more peaceful path. Emrys showed us that Morgana's hatred lies opposed to the will of the gods, and we chose to place our loyalty in him instead. What stories do you have concerning Emrys?"

Gwaine nodded, feeling a strange sort of relatability to these intimidating magic-wielding warrior priests. They, like him, were on a path of meaningless destruction and found a better life by meeting Merlin.

"Ah, I can remember meeting Merlin like it was yesterday! There I was, drowning my sorrows in a tavern, when in walks a skinny looking guy and his pompous friend! They got into trouble pretty quickly, and I couldn't miss out on all that fun! I jumped into the tavern brawl to help them, but I got pretty banged up in the process. But, it turned out that it was my lucky day, because wouldn't you know it, I had accidentally saved the life of the prince of Camelot himself!

I didn't think much of prince Arthur at the time, but his manservant sure made a great impression! He brought me back to Camelot on his own horse, took me to the royal physician, gave up his own bed to me for the night so I could recover, and then covered for me after I got drunk off my ass in the tavern, again.

But then some jackasses posing as knights tried to hurt Merlin, and I stepped in to defend him and wound up getting banished by Uther, but then Arthur welcomed me back and even made me a knight when he became prince regent! And I've been lucky enough to have Merlin at my side ever since!"

Gwaine watched as many of the men's eyes widened at his story, unsure of what exactly they were so shocked by.

"You mean to say that you stood up to Uther Pendragon, the mad butcher king, for Emrys's sake? And came back to his side as soon as you could despite the threat of death hanging over your head?"

"Well, I did manage to see Merlin on one other occasion while I was banished, but he sought me out for that one. Apparently Arthur was having some trouble on his big quest to the Perilous Lands, so Merlin called me in as backup."

The Catha started whispering amongst themselves at that, with even Alator leaning forward in interest.

"Emrys specifically sought out your skills on such a monumental quest? You understand the significance of such an honor?"

Gwaine nodded, his expression shifting from a wistful one to a much more serious one.

"Of course I understand. Merlin's such an amazing person, and it shocks me every time that he thinks I'm someone worth relying on. Still, that only motivates me to not let him down. He saw something in me that no one else did, not even me, and he found a way to bring it to the surface. He changed my life, gave me a purpose, and I will never underestimate how much he's done for me."

This time, all of the Catha were nodding their heads in approval of Gwaine's appreciation for Merlin.

"You truly do see the significance of Emrys, Sir Gwaine. I can see your loyalty towards him clearly. For that, I would like to make you an offer.

Emrys's enemies are our enemies, and there are many of them. Morgana's forces grow stronger by the day, and we can only do so much with how few of us are left. Emrys himself faces many dangers, and we cannot always protect him as much as we'd like, seeing as how we cannot enter the city of Camelot. You, however, are at Emrys's side every day.

In working towards our shared goals, will you work alongside us to protect Emrys and keep Morgana's forces at bay? We can provide you with training that will put you far ahead of any of your peers and weapons that shall make you a formidable opponent to even the most powerful sorcerers. Will you accept our offer?"

"Ah, I see now. It was you lot who have been following Merlin around recently! Well, that certainly gives me quite a bit of relief, knowing that he isn't being followed around by someone who'd want to hurt him. I'd be happy to join in on your mission to protect Merlin!"

The Catha started murmuring approvingly amongst themselves at Gwaine's acceptance, until Alator spoke again.

"That is wonderful. It is an honor to be able to work alongside a warrior held in such high esteem by Emrys himself."

As Gwaine shook Alator's hand, accepting his offer, he got the feeling that this was the start of an amazing alliance.

And it sure was. Over the next months, Gwaine trained alongside the warrior priests whenever he could, becoming accustomed to their stoic natures and silent demeanors. They taught him fighting styles that he had never even heard of before and gave him information on people who were trying to hurt Merlin, allowing him to keep an eye on and eliminate threats to his friend before they had the chance to strike.

The Catha figured out pretty early on that Gwaine was rubbish at learning anything about magic itself, but when they placed enchanted weapons in his hands, he could wield them effortlessly and adapt his combat style to whatever the effects of the enchantment were. He even got a sword that could burst into flames!

As Gwaine's abilities to wield stronger enchanted weapons improved, the Catha started letting him fight the powerful sorcerers that Morgana sent into Camelot. Soon enough, he was equipped with indestructible armor armor that could repel spells and curses, weapons with some of the most formidable enchantments that the Catha could muster, and even a growing reputation throughout the land!

Luckily, the helmet that the Catha provided him with obscured his identity, so no reports of a rogue and enchantment-wielding Sir Gwaine made their way back to Arthur, as funny as that would be. Still, reports of the "indominable magic knight" that had defeated some of Morgana's most powerful sorcerers made their way across the land, even into Camelot's court. Some council members wished to capture the unknown knight and kill him before he became a threat, while others saw an opportunity to make a powerful ally against Morgana, and Arthur was constantly on the fence between those two arguments while Gwaine sat at the round table, quietly smug.

Meanwhile, Merlin, checking in with the Catha: What's this I hear about a warrior using powerful magic weapons to fight Morganas men?

Alator: Don't worry, Emrys. He's one of ours, fighting against Morgana in your name. He's one of your most devout followers in fact.

Merlin, not wanting to meet another Emrys fanboy who looks at him like he's a god: Uh, just tell him to keep up the good work and to let me know if he needs anything.

Soon after reports of the magic knight made their way to a very conflicted court of Camelot, Morgana sought out the magic knight, ready to either kill him for being such a nuisance or make an ally out of him. After all, surely a knight wielding such powerful magic would never be on the side of Camelot?

However, when Morgana managed to trap the magical knight and surround him with an army of a hundred sorcerers, the knight managed to defeat her and her entire army before escaping. He rained down fire and lightning upon them, the very elements fighting alongside him, as he cut down her army and left her defeated and humiliated.

Of course, reports of Morgana's defeat travelled to Camelot, where the court was even more incensed over the topic of the magical knight. He was capable of beating Morgana, surely he would be a great ally and could ensure Camelot's protection! But he was also now a magic-wielding threat even more powerful than Morgana! Sure he was now the foremost threat to Camelot!

In the end, Arthur and some of his most trusted knights decided to go on a quest to seek out this magical knight. Gwaine wasn't particularly worried, because how could they possibly find him if he was already travelling with them?

During the journey though, they receive word of a magical beast terrorizing nearby villages. The knights all try to fight the beast, but to little success, and it even managed to injure Merlin's leg before escaping!

Merlin's injury turned out to be not life-threatening, but he couldn't stand on his leg for very long. Unbeknownst to anyone else, Merlin entrusted Lancelot with slaying the beast after his injury, enchanting Lancelot's sword so that it could kill a creature of magic and his chainmail so that he wouldn't be hurt by its claws.

Gwaine, meanwhile, was furious with the creature and, that night, summoned his enchanted armor and weapons to go slay the beast and maybe give its head to Merlin as an apology for being unable to stop it from hurting him. Or maybe he would just treat Merlin to a night at the tavern when they got back.

So, Lancelot and Gwaine both tracked down the beast that knight. When they both arrived at the beast's lair with visibly enchanted weapons, they take each other by surprise. Lancelot is on guard, unsure if he wants to trust the now-infamous magic knight, but Gwaine just laughs and removes his helmet, and Lancelot is shocked.

Lancelot and Gwaine seeing each other with enchanted gear: spiderman pointing meme

Gwaine asks Lancelot where he got that enchanted sword, but Lancelot is tight-lipped about it, just saying he got it because he needed to protect Merlin. Gwaine chuckled and said that he understood.

After they finish slaying the beast together, Lancelot asks Gwaine if Merlin knows that he's the magic knight. Gwaine shrugs and says that he suspects that Merlin doesn't know, but wouldn't mind it if Merlin did know.

Lancelot, as soon as they get back to Camelot: So, did you know that Gwaine is actually the magic knight?

Merlin, spitting out his tea and having flashbacks to his conversation with Alator: HE'S WHAT NOW?!

Things get cleared up between Lancelot, Merlin, and Gwaine pretty quickly from there. Gwaine takes the magic reveal very well, excited at the prospect of going on magical adventures with Merlin and glad that his friend can actually defend himself, because he's rubbish with any type of weapon.

From there though, a sort of friendly competition sprung up between Gwaine and Lancelot, as both of them consider themself to be Merlin's best friend. Soon enough, there's two magical knights running around foiling Morgana's plans, and Arthur's ready to tear his hair out over it.

From there, more knights figure out about Merlin's magic and, if they're accepting of it, they also train with the Catha and receive enchanted weapons. It almost becomes its own secret society within the knights, all united with the sole purpose of protecting Merlin. They eventually have Elyan, Percival, and number one Emrys fanboy Mordred join their ranks.

Arthur eventually finds out approximately where the magical knights are hidden (their meeting spot when they need to meet outside of Camelot), and he sends Leon in disguise to infiltrate them, not knowing that they are knights from Camelot. Being the knights of the round table, they of course recognize Leon immediately and give him the full story, and Leon joins them and just tells Arthur that he "couldn't find the magical knights."

Gwaine laughs his ass off at every round table meeting where Arthur becomes more and more frustrated at not being able to catch the magical knights, and out of the corner of his eye, he can see Merlin having a good laugh over it too.

And I'll cut it off there for now! I had lots of fun writing this, I feel like I should write about Gwaine more often!

Let me know if you would like me to write a continuation for this au!

And, as always, thank you for reading through my ramblings! :D

[charlie-pippin-faraday]

i've reached the investigation portion of danganronpa v3 chapter 2, which is the last point to which i had watched youtube content and thus everything beyond will be new to me. my chapter 2 commentary thus far:

kaito really just decided that he and shuichi were going to be best friends and shuichi didn't have any choice in the matter lol

nobody needed to tell me that kaito was the one incessantly ringing my doorbell, i knew it was him lol

i have been referring to tenko, himiko, and angie as "the girlies" and i am 100% confident that every single one of them is going to die before this game is over

lmao shuichi asking himiko "how have you survived this long?" same bro i also wonder this about her

kaito threatening to slug kokichi and then kokichi literally bolting out of the room is the realest thing that has happened in this game so far

i've made a habit of clicking on ALL the characters every free time to see if they have any fun dialogue before i choose who i actually spend free time with. on i think the first free time slot in chapter 2 i went to kokichi who said something about being scared that kaito had caught up to him because he was afraid he was gonna slug him (or something along those lines), and then when i talked to kaito he immediately said "you seen kokichi around anywhere?" implying he had indeed been looking for him to deliver said slugging. made me laugh my fucking ASS off

by sheer dumb luck, i had gotten the parasol from the monomono machine in chapter 1, so i was able to talk to tenko before doing the flashback light scene in the gym and unknowingly unlock what i later found out was one of the secret scenes (and let me tell you i was delighted by this development and that it happened naturally). and thus i was able to witness ~the girlies and keebo at the pool~. subsequently, i have SO many questions lol. tenko kind of implied that she kind of wanted just to hang with himiko, and angie was probably there because himiko invited her and tenko can't say no to himiko, but why did tenko invite keebo? lmao tenko you're such a hot mess

during the free time session i was planning on hanging with kaito first, but then i spoke to keebo and he asked so vulnerably "shuichi if you have free time would you like to spend it with me? there's something i want to ask you" and i changed my plans SO fast i would die for you keebo

"maybe someone like miu would appreciate his mechanics" shuichi you're not trying to play matchmaker are you?

lmao there was a stark difference in shuichi's reactions to that day's free time events with keebo and with kaito, both of which involved them talking about their skills/stuff they'd learned. about keebo, shuichi said "okay...he's weird and i don't understand him." about kaito, shuichi said "wow, kaito's incredible!" these were incredibly similar interactions. lol okay tell me how you really feel shuichi. you can't tell me he doesn't have at least a little bit of a crush on kaito

hm a "gyoza in the shape of a face - a dumpling that's modeled after someone you swear you've seen somewhere before." hm gee i wonder who that could be. (definitely doesn't look like makoto naegi or anything. haunting the narrative much?)

the fact that korekiyo was definitely in the top half of most reasonable people i spoke to in this chapter is a sign that the world has been flipped upside down

every one of these games has had one weird, obsessive, one-sided, and likely ill-fated romance, and i knew this time it would be tenko's weird thing for himiko. i can't believe i'm saying this but i feel a little bad for tenko. a little, at least. i get the feeling i won't be feeling bad for her in the future. for whatever reason, i get the sinking feeling that in a future chapter this obsession with himiko and her jealousy over himiko spending time with angie is going to end with tenko snapping and someone ending up dead

actually why is everyone obsessed with himiko? tenko claims to care for her and wants to support her and believe in her magic, and she definitely wants to get in her pants, and angie also wants to be friends with her and has successfully brainwashed her to her atua cult and convinced her to put on a dangerous magic show. and like, why? himiko is not that cool, she's lame and pathetic. she eats termites on accident, can barely go to the bathroom by herself, and is super fucking lazy and uncooperative. i get that she's afraid/sad and is susceptible to brainwashing (she's not the only one here easily manipulated *cough cough* gonta), that part's understandable and i'll give her a pass, but like what is she bringing to the table? i don't get why all the girlies are obsessed with her. i'm with shuichi on the "how did you survive this long?" train of thought. i'm torn between "tenko you deserve better" and "all 3 of you toxic girlies fucking deserve each other"

definitely my favorite event thus far has been miu and da boyz clowning on kaito in the casino. true teenage bonding experience. (and i mean da boyz literally, all the boys who were alive were present except gonta and keebo, who is only debatably a boy.)

"i guess you can't underestimate luck" you did it, you boiled down the entire character of makoto naegi to one sentence

but fr tho every time someone utters the word "luck," "hope," or "despair" in danganronpa games i feel myself suddenly at FULL attention, like those words aren't there by accident, there's always hidden meaning there. and i am once again wondering at the lore/secret behind this particular game, i still don't know what it is

immediately after this casino event is when i finally spent free time with miu. it was the first time i'd approached her as shuichi and she didn't threaten me. and she was even in the casino when i approached her! where we'd already spent time together clowning on kaito! so it was perfect timing

speaking of miu, she needs to get laid SO bad. maybe she'd chill out. like she acts like she's had a bunch of sex but given how much she talks about it there's no fucking way she's gotten laid, she's absolutely projecting her insecurities. someone nail this girl please it's what she needs and tbh it's what we all need. side note: kiyo telling her to stfu in the casino was fucking hilarious lol

question do the friendship fragments not carry over from kaede to shuichi? i had updated report cards from hanging with gonta, keebo, and maki as kaede, but they're not there anymore. do i not get to keep the friendship fragments that i earned from them?

another question, was i just not allowed to hang out with maki in chapter 2? every time i approached her during free time she fucking threatened me. did i the player do something to lock her out or is that simply not allowed?

bro tenko is gonna fucking lose her mind. i approached her in i think the last free time and she was just muttering himiko's name over and over again, big yikes. and then "my saliva makes injuries heal faster can i spit on you" girl what???

i think tenko needs to move on, perhaps to one of the other girls. miu, perhaps? if they could fuck i think this would solve some problems for both of them

in the bug room, kokichi said something about a "mean" difficulty and not being a coward in the killing game and i felt so called out lol, because i have all the trial action set to be as easy as possible lmaooo

keebo my beloved saved the day in the bug room and got the first major non-verbal victory in the keebo vs. kokichi war. i'm proud of him, but this will definitely not be the last of it

i do wonder what "snafu" kokichi was referring to when he was running around that caused him to be late returning to the bug room. they never addressed that, and i hope they get to it during the trial

bro did kokichi get rabies or something???? right before the magic show, gonta said kokichi wasn't there because in the bug room his mouth bubbled and then he passed out lmaooooooooooo

what were kaito and maki up to this entire time? making out? aside from ryoma, they were the only ones who were absent from both the bug room and the magic show. miu and kirumi weren't in the bug room, and kokichi wasn't at the magic show and left the bug room for a portion of time, but those two were nowhere to be seen for any portion of both events. i need some answers

noooo don't use keebo as a battering ram!!! that's so rude!!! kokichi definitely won that particular battle in the keebo vs. kokichi war, and we are nowhere near over. i want to see where this rivalry goes, 'cause tbh i think it's secretly the most tense one here

bro i hate himiko uuuuuugggghhhhh. "we need you to tell us how your trick worked so we can figure out how the culprit killed ryoma." "i can't tell you, i did it with my magic and that's the only answer you're getting" god shut the fuck up you're annoying and unhelpful and you never listen and you're actively getting in the way i want one of these dudes to punch you

i have some HEAVY suspicions about who i think is the culprit. and tbh i've held these suspicions since before i even played the game, back when i just watched some youtube content up to this murder. i don't know what will happen from this point forward, but if i'm right about who i think did it, i am gonna be SO stoked about it

[zootopiathingz]

If you really think about it, the ship where Alastor would be involved in that would most likely be canon so far would be Charlastor.

I mean, he despises Lucifer and sees Vox as not worth his time, so he's not gonna be throwing himself all over them anytime soon. Nearly everyone he interacts with besides the three women he's friends with, he's either indifferent, respectable or hostile to, but towards Charlie? This man has allowed her to touch him without permission, stated multiple times that he has faith in her beliefs and even handed her his source of power. Twice.

I'm aware he's doing all this with some underlying motive, but you can't deny he won't do all this for just anyone. I really can't imagine him all comfortably curled up in Angel's bed or getting handsy with Lucifer (He wipes his hands after touching him, man really doesn't like him at all). I support all ships with Alastor but if we're looking at this at a canon perspective, Alastor interacts with Charlie the most and will continue to interact with her as the show goes on, it's more possible to happen in a sense with Alastor.

Plus with all the romantic cues the show has (Unintentionally?) given so far, with the part where both Charlie and Alastor are laying on the heart shaped pillow but Charlie falls off the bed while Alastor remains on top off it, it seems that there could be a very small possibility that there might be an unrequited crush on Alastor's part.

Yeah, it's a stretch, but hey, he didn't have to lay in that bed. He could have stayed standing, looming over Charlie to show that he might be helping her but he still sees himself as above her and in control of the situation. But! Someone still animated him on that bed! They still animated him on that heart shaped pillow right beside Charlie! They didn't have to, but they still did and my minds still reeling after that fact.

No because you’re absolutely correct here.

Out of any of the characters in the series for Alastor to end up with, if he were to have a romantic subplot of any kind, it would be Charlie. They have the most potential together as a pairing and there have been so many little hints and visual cues that I’m honestly shocked that a romance plot isn’t where their relationship is going.

I genuinely cannot see Alastor ever engaging in anything romantic or physical with Vox or Lucifer in any way. And whenever I say that people like to excuse me of hating gay ships (which I clearly don’t. I am queer, and I love seeing queer ships that actually make sense and have good chemistry, and not just because they’re gay). It’s because he canonly hates men and is much kinder towards women—except for Vaggie lol. Yes, ship Alastor with whoever you want. It’s not my place to tell you if your ship is bad or not. I honestly don’t care because it’s your opinion and as long as you’re having fun with it, that’s all that matters!

But like anon is saying here, if we’re looking at it from a canon viewpoint, let’s think about it. Again, Alastor clearly doesn’t like men and can’t even be bothered to shake Lucifer’s hand without being disgusted. There have been three women who could be potential love interests. First is Mimzy, which I can see there may have been some flirtation here and there in the past, or even an unrequited crush on her part. But with her basically using him to get her out of trouble all the time, I can’t see them going beyond their on-and-off friendship. Then there’s Rosie, who he’s obviously very comfortable around and lets her touch and grab him as she pleases—which he wouldn’t let slide with any male characters in the show. And the Radiorose ship is cute I admit, but to me they’re a pair of gossip buddies who would maybe pretend to be in a relationship if needed, but otherwise their feelings don’t go any further than platonic.

And so that leaves us with Charlie. When I first watched the pilot I absolutely assumed they were going to have some kind of slow burn, not only because the idea of the princess of Hell and this feared Radio Demon falling for each other is so intriguing, but generally just the way they acted with each other. In like a span of eight minutes they were happily dancing together, with Alastor calling her one of a kind, tossing her around and making improvements to her dream hotel.

You can imagine how surprised I was when I found out they weren’t canon and weren’t going to be in the actual show. Like, I was legit going “🤨🤨🤨” and this was before I was even in the fandom lmao

And thank you so much for mentioning that scene in her bedroom because…

What is this. What do you mean the mfs making this show drew out this scene, carefully looked at every detail for the final product, and went “yup👍” if there wasn’t supposed to be something more going on here???

Like seriously if you’ve never watched this episode and you saw these two frames, what exactly would you assume is going on here? Be honest with me

But ya know, charlastor “isn’t canon” (so they say🙄) so the animators here were def trolling us lol

[percheduphere]

something I've been wondering about is how others will react to Loki's new power/position. I constantly joke about it, but it could be a serious question. So, how do you think people like the Avengers would react to this? I used to think they would just continue to be untrustworthy towards him but like...How would they feel realizing one of their former enemies could (maybe?) erase them from existence but chooses not to. Scared? Or just confused?

Ooo... I LOVE this question! Thank you for asking it! Let's go through some characters one by one, starting with my favorite:

MOBIUS - I imagine he would be very proud and impressed with Loki, but a part of him would also feel insecure about his place in Loki's life. His primary motivations were to provide Loki with a second chance, an environment in which he could thrive, and friendship and support. In terms of plot, Mobius has served his purpose. He might feel Loki no longer needs him but would hide this feeling with self-deprecating humor about being a "washed up analyst". I think he would be in awe of Loki's power, genuinely delighted by it, but also feel personally obsolete by comparison. Once he sees that Loki is lonely, however, I think Mobius would be happy to serve a new purpose in keeping Loki company at the end of time. That is, if Loki confirms he wants him there.

SYLVIE - She will absolutely make a snarky comment about Loki's new clothes. It will be the first thing she says to him with a perfectly expressionless face: "Nice pyjamas", "Cool slippers", "Do your giant horns get tangled up in all those branches?" In front of others, she would treat him no differently than she's always had because omnipotent, omniscient power doesn't impress her. Unless she's enchanting, Sylvie isn't the touchy-feely type either. I think she would make an effort to thank Loki in private, though. Between the two of them, Loki is the one more likely to initiate a hug, and she would hug back awkwardly.

THOR - Poor Thor. He's been jerked around by multiple fake deaths. The first one was unintentional on Loki's part; he didn't intend to survive falling from the bifrost. The second one was intentional, and left Thor feeling betrayed yet again. The third was final. On first sight, he will likely accuse Loki of being a pretender. To avoid this, Mobius is the best person to provide an explanation before formal introductions. Failing that, I anticipate yelling, ugly crying, then hugging, followed by ALSO making fun of Loki's new clothes. I think Thor will be very proud of his brother, stunned (but pleased) that Loki can lift Mjolnir. That on its own should be enough proof for the other Avengers.

HAWKEYE - Hell no. Not having it. Will call bullshit on Yggdrasil even though it's true. Of the remaining Avengers, he has the most to be angry about when it comes to Loki. He'd be terrified of Loki's new powers (cursing about it every step of the way) and would accordingly arm himself to the teeth. Doesn't matter how much Loki proves himself trustworthy and apologizes. Being mind controlled by him was a traumatic experience. Even when working as allies, he'll park himself as far away as possible from Loki and make snide remarks about "free will".

BUCKY - Has had no real interactions with Loki, but would likely have heard stories from Steve and Sam. Having had a dark history himself, I think he'll be more open to welcoming Loki and giving him a chance. He may even present himself as an example (although others will say "brainwashing" is different). Chryo-freezing and everything he's been through with Hyrda and Thanos has likely blunted his ability to feel surprise in the face of raw power. Overtime, I think he'll come to like Loki, especially if Loki offers him the opportunity to talk to Steve again.

SAM - Was not involved in 2012, but Sam has a great sense of humor. I think he'll be shocked and cautious, but willing to give Loki a chance with the right precautions in place. I don't think he'd be mean about it, just practical. I think he'll find the Yggdrasil quite beautiful and poetic, and articulate it as such, then note that with kind of power, Loki could have easily destroyed them all by now but didn't.

FURY - Pissed as hell about these turn of events. He'll complain that all this goddamn fucking nonsense is bad for his heart. He'll side with Clint and enforce maximum security, which is useless against Loki's powers, but Loki would play along until people stop freaking out.

BRUCE - 2012 Bruce would Hulk-out. Post-Endgame Bruce knows Loki fought on their side and did what he could to protect Thor and buy both of them time before dying. Bruce's personal experience fighting his own demons will provide him with additional empathy. As for Loki's powers, he would be absolutely giddy for the opportunity to study it. Once he makes friends with Loki via Thor, Loki will be his favorite test subject and Loki will humor him for Thor's sake and his own curiosity.

DR. STRANGE - While he won't blink at time powers, he would highly doubt a universe with a good Loki exists. He's the most able to test Loki's abilities and can verify if Loki is indeed using his powers for good. Doesn't mean he'll ever trust him, though.

[quirkwizard]

Keystone-Ranking My Hero's Academia's Arcs

To All my Friends and Followers, I am proud again to announce another double milestone. Not only have I reached over 10,000 total posts on this blog, but I have reach over 3,000 followers. Who would have guessed this little blog I made for fun would have made it this far? Because I am frankly flabbergasted that this blog has made it this point. I thank all of you for your support and truly wish that I can make this blog something worthy of your dedication. For this momentous milestone, I once again decided to do a massive project. This time, it will be ranking all the arcs of My Hero Academia.

So before I begin, let's cover some ground rules:

-What I will be considering an arc, as well as where it starts and ends, will be defined by the Wikia, making for a total of twenty one arcs.

-This will mainly be focusing on the manga. While I will mention the anime here and there, it will not play any major role in how I rank these arcs.

-This ranking will be relative to the rest of the series. So if I put an arc lower on the list, I'm not saying it's the worst manga as a medium has to offer, just not up to the standards of the series.

-This will be a series of pros and cons covering each of the series with some notes. This will involve a lot of generalizations and summarizations of points, as well as maybe skipping out on what I don't have much to say, but is the easiest way to get my thoughts across.

-This will be looking at the arcs without the context of later ones. I will review the arcs on their own and will only consider what has happened before in the story when that arc came out. That means that certain events will not "ruin" arcs retroactively, but can be held against the arc they happen in.

-The Final War Arc will not be covered here. Not only because that arc is not completed at the time or writing, but is far longer then any other arc in the story and has so much to cover with it, feeling like there are several arcs going on all at once. Even if it was done, I would still cover it on it's own.

Without further ado: the ranking of My Hero Academia's Arcs.

Stars and Stripes Arc: (0/10)

-This entire arc is built around Cathleen, a one note character that doesn't have any interesting traits or arc. She was never established before, even when she should matter to characters like All For One and is suddenly the most important hero currently active.

-My worst fears are confirmed that Tomura is nothing more than a meat puppet for All For One. All his unique traits and character is under lock and key for this entire arc, leaving us with a very bland villain that I have no interest in reading.

-The whole fight is a forgone conclusion. Tomura can't lose because he's the main antagonist who is next to unkillable and he can't get "New Order" because then he would be way too powerful to beat, robbing the arc of any tension it tries to have.

-The fight itself is not interesting, which is a problem when most of this is a fight. It's Tomura getting ragdolled over and over again while Stars and Stripes keeps using her Quirk in a lot of empty spectacle. No real cleaver plans, just slapping each other back and forth.

-All these factors together rob any emotional investment a reader may have had in the story. So in spite of it only being seven chapters long, it feels like a total slog to get through, simply waiting for canonical filler arc to be done with so we can move on.

-"New Order" is a slap in the face to the entire power system. It's such a vaguely defined ability with what it can actually apply with its rules. It felt more like Tomura was fighting a wizard from a whole other series, adding on to the various frustrations in this fight.

-The main consequences could have been replaced with a single chapter. Just have Tomura writhing in a cave over his body rejecting "All For One" and have Nezu analyze and pick up information on him from the footage of the PLF War. It would have been so simple.

-The actual consequences of this arc are minimal at best. You could honestly skip this arc and not really miss much in the grand story of the series. Again, making it feel like a filler arc. It makes this whole outing seem wholly pointless in the broader narrative.

=I've said my peace on this arc many times over. I struggle to think of anything good about it. It was a chore to read the first time and it took so much willpower to not turn this into another giant rant. I honestly hope I never have to go through or think about this arc again.

Tartarus Escapees Arc: (1/10)

+I like the idea of this arc. Having Izuku regress into his self-destructive tendencies and isolating himself is a really good way to go with his low point. And this is well conveyed in the art, both in and out of costume, which I just want to is really solid this arc.

+Uraraka's speech was certainly a highlight. It's a great moment in her own arc about understanding and wanting to truly save people and gives her the relevance she has so desperately needed. Ending it with the narration of everyone being a hero was a good bit.

+I liked a lot of the bits with Stain, especially his talk with Toshinori. Having Stain, the man who misunderstands All Might the most, gives him the peep talk he needs to get out of his funk.

-The reaval of "Fa Jin" was such a massive miss for me. Not only does it not add anything to Izuku's arsenal outside of hitting even harder, it undermines one of the most interesting fights the series has had thus far by overpowering his enemy rather than outthinking them.

-There is little lasting consequences for some of the characters. Endeavor is an abuser that made a serial killer and Hawks killed a villain in front of everyone. They both say they're getting work done and everyone kind of moves on from it without issue.

-The concept of Izuku cutting off everyone around him, while interesting, wasn't anywhere near fleshed out enough. It's only a single chapter of him on his own before he's saved by the rest of Class 1-A. Kind of makes the arc's name feel like a misnomer.

-Bakugou's apology feels rather hollow given the actual phrasing and the lack of any kind of real response for Izuku. This extends to All Might, but to a lesser degree. These two are the most responsible for Izuku self-destructive mentality and it is quickly brushed to the side.

=Another arc that I've talked about before, but none of the good parts of. I think it's well above something like the Stars and Stripes up, but it's lack of real payoff for so much that was set up really shoots this all the way to the bottom of the list.

Quirk Apprehension Test Arc: (1/10)

+Aizawa has a solid character introduction and effectively sets him up. What seems to be a lazy bum actually hides one of the most strict and dedicated heroes in the entire series. A seemingly rough, pragmatic disciplinarian with a secretly good heart underneath.

+Having Izuku need to work under Aizawa was such a good move for his first day. He really learns just how much of a problem his power is going to be and how much personal responsibility a hero has. It's a good splash of cold water to Izuku's relentless optimism.

+This is the arc where we get Izuku taking on the name Deku. Not only is the moment around it cute and gives us his official nickname, but I like how it starts the trend of Izuku redefining his life, taking the mocking nickname, and making it the name of a real hero.

-The arc is strictly business, for lack of a better phrase. We don't get much expansion on the characters we know about or understanding of the other characters or their powers in spite of the fact that this test would have been the perfect place to introduce them to us.

-All it really has going for it is the one moment of Izuku throwing the softball with his finger. The ultimate, emotional climax is a character flinging a ball really far. I know that sounds like I'm being facetious, but there isn't a lot else happening in the arc worth talking about.

-We do get the early main trio of Izuku, Iida, and Uraraka interacting, but there isn't enough to go off of to get a real sense of their dynamic and characters outside of the basic traits we already established. Maybe how they view each other as people, but that’s about it.

-While the threat of expulsions is threatening for the characters, it's pretty empty from a meta perspective. We know that if Izuku was expelled, the series would be over. The reveal of the test being a ploy does give Aizawa some character, but makes it feel a little pointless.

-In the end, I'm not entirely sure what the point of the arc was. At least, enough to make it its own standalone story. Sure, Izuku develops the finger flicks, but that could have been shuffled to one of the other two arcs after this one and it would be fine.

=An arc that's ultimately a victim of its length. If it was tied into the arc proceed or succeeding it, it would have been fine. On its own, it doesn't really offer much value. I still think it has its points, but not enough to reach past this lull in the series.

Remedial Course Arc: (2/10)

+The interaction between All Might and Endeavor was great. Yeah, a lot of people forget that happened this arc. Endeavor is uncertainty of what to do and turning to his rival is good in it's own right and works as a good springboard for Enji's arc going forward.

+The other character work was fine as well. Bakugou learning to be less of jerk to people as he learns to deal with a younger version of himself is nice. The Shoto, and to a lesser extent Inasa, stuff wasn't as prevalent, but I think it's a good steppingstone in his character.

+I like the one-off chapter with Aoyama and how he connects himself to Izuku and how much their Quirks can cause issues. Giving a minor character like this a one-off chapter like this is a good way to flesh out these characters without taking up too much time.

-Speaking of important stuff, this arc introduces the Quirk Singularity. For what turns out to be such an important idea, I don't think it does the best job building the groundwork. Like there wasn't enough set up to it before or in this arc for it to make sense.

-This arc is very much removed from the rest of the story. I wouldn't mind that but doesn't really give us much in its place. Outside of the few bits I mentioned before with Bakugou and Endeavor, it doesn't feel like it adds much else to the world or story.

-A lot of this arc is more comedic. If the comedy doesn't work with you, it's going to wear down on you fast. Outside of one or two bits, I found myself stone faced at a lot of the gags. Which is really odd because I do think Hori can do comedy, but it's not done well here.

-These two issues create this odd back and forth with the arc. The interesting moments are either small or side pieces while the actual meat of the story feels superfluous. So it can be frustrating to read through this when all the good feels so buried under everything.

-Which I think leads to the biggest sin of the arc: it's so forgettable. Out of all the arcs I went over, it's the least I remember about, not even long after rereading it. Despite having some pretty important moments, I just mentally gloss over it.

=This arc gets a lot of hate, and I get it. It does feel like a pretty low stakes arc where a lot of aspects can grate on people. I can't muster much bile for it, and I still think that there are some redeemable moments here, but certainly earning a spot this low on the list.

Joint Training Arc: (2/10)

+I really liked a lot of the new Quirks on display. I think a lot were pretty neat, or at least unique enough to be intriguing. Plus seeing some of the Quirks interact across both classes makes for some fun moments and dynamics between the various characters in play.

+I do like some of the minor pieces of character we do get. Tokoyami's flashback about controlling Dark shadow, Shoto using both halves of his power, a beat in Momo gaining confidence again, and Monoma's backstory reveal are all solid parts of this arc.

+Round 3 is a major highlight of this arc. A tense battle where it feels like each character is giving it their all with sheer power or clever planning. It feels like such a big battle that is constantly changing, ultimately ending in a surprising, but satisfying payoff of a draw.

-This arc is too long for its own good. Over twenty-four chapters of characters engaging in a consequence free training exercise where the plot isn't really developing outside of a handful of moments. It really wears down on you fast, especially week to week.

-As for these fights, I think a lot of them are pretty mediocre. Whether it be because of the low stakes, the lack of real emotional moments, or simply how the Quirks are used, I found it difficult to really invest in the fights. That is a big issue when most of the arc is fighting.

-Outside of Monoma and Juzo, there is very little in the way of meaningful development for Class 1-B in this arc. And if there was any point in developing these characters, this would be the time. It feels wasted, making the characters feel more like vessels for the powers.

-I really don't like the Round 4 fight. What comes across as Bakugou's big development rights hollow. Not only is the other side kneecapped to make Bakugou look better, but it doesn't really feel like Bakugou learned how to actually work with other people on this.

-To this day, I still have mixed feelings on the "Black Whip" reveal. I don't mind the concept of Izuku with multiple Quirks, but it wasn't built up enough to make this a worthwhile pay off. It seems more like Hori did this in because he ran out of ideas for what to do with Izuku.

=While I certainly don't think this is the worst arc, I can wholly understand why people are so frustrated with this arc as it was happening. There's very little in the way of plot or characters, so it ends up feeling like it drags out too long for its own good.

Provisional License Exam: (3/10)

+I like a lot of the world building in this arc. This whole rescue operation part of the test really shows just how important the non-fighting parts of hero work are, like how you act around civilians, which helpfully sets up how things are headed post All-Might.

+I liked Inasa. His design is great, his power is cool, and he has such a fun personality that you can't help but want to see him. His role is interesting as well, having Shoto's worry about being like his father externalized in someone who sees him only as Endeavor's son.

+I enjoy a lot of the development with the class. Things like the Super Moves, the dorms, and the bits spread throughout the arc does a lot to flesh them out. Obviously, the biggest bit is with Izuku and Bakugo, their battle showing how much them and their dynamic changed.

-The arc is not paced that well. This section is twenty-three chapters long, but it feels so much longer with how everything drags on and not a lot of interesting stuff is happening in them until the very end of the story, whether that be with the fights or the characters.

-The fights aren’t that amazing. It’s not that interesting to see 1-A fight a bunch of jobbers. And when they do fight more prevalent characters, I don’t feel engaged with it. A lot of the action are resolutions to the fights aren’t clever or have a lot the emotional impact they usually do.

-The new characters aren't that well developed, even as far as one-off characters go. Aside from Inasa, there's barely anything to go off of for them. It feels less like an expanded cast from all these schools and more like bloat that Hori didn't know what to do with.

-As much as I like Inasa, I think his whole thing with Shoto is kind of dumb. Like Inasa somehow carries this undying grudge against Shoto and his father because both of them look angry at him. And the resolution ends up being rushed in spite of the focus it gets.

-While I do praise Izuku vs Bakugou, I recognize that it's focused way too much on Bakugou. This feels like it should be doing something for both of them, but a lot of the attention in and out of story is on Bakugou, making it feel incomplete and diminishing Izuku's role.

=For all the buildup of these characters becoming heroes, them pulling it off seems… underwhelming. Which honestly feels like a good way to describe a lot of this arc. A lot of potential for something big and impactful that just didn't stick the landing.

UA Traitor Arc: (3/10)

+The traitor reveal was handled so well. The reveal and backstory were great and I think adds a lot to Aoyama's character. He wasn't an evil pawn, but a terrified kid who was forced into a deal outside his control, now horrified over the safety of himself and his family.

+The villains had some good moments. A lot of it is set up for next arc, but Toga and Spinner especially had the most interesting bits here, with Toga expressing her complicated past and feelings while Spinner is pushed into a role he never wanted for his friend.

+I enjoy the bit with Izuku and Urakara near the end of the arc. It honestly refreshing see these two connecting with each other again and what they talk about is solid stuff, trying to come to terms with their own conflicts feelings about wanting to save the villains.

-In spite of my liking of the reveal, it's far too late. Aoyama's actions as the traitor haven't been a factor pretty much since Kamino onward. So when this reveal comes, it doesn't have the emotional weight it feels like it needs, especially for such a minor character.

-There's very little fall out for Aoyama being the traitor. Besides how it's entirely beneficial for the heroes, no one else really reacts to it and there isn't any fallout. Not even Bakugou, the students most affected by it. It makes 1-A feel like a hive mind rather than their own people.

-In fact, a lot of this arc relies on the reader still being invested in the arc, Aoyama as a character, and there being this powerful bond between whole of the class. There's a lot riding on the emotional core which hasn't been set up as well throughout the rest of the story.

-There are some residual frustrations from the Dark Hero Arc. In spite of all the major moves the last arc did, there is barely any follow up on most or anything with the characters taking a break. We're skipping all that for more training and getting right to the next plot point.

-The villain stuff was good but did suffer from some clunkiness. I didn't really feel like it told us anything new and what it did add felt confusing at points. Did you know that Tomura and Spinner were best friends? I didn't know Tomura liked the guy.

=So I feel like I'm one of the few people that actually like how Aoyama was handed, which elevates the arc above a lot of the later parts, but I still think it's mire by the same issues of this part of the story. It had its moments, but that's all it really had to offer.

Final Exam Arc: (4/10)

+I think the idea of the arc is pretty strong. Not only do we get to see more of the teachers in action, but it’s a cool watching the students go up against the worst opponents possible, with each one needing to overcome some kind of weakness in order to nab the win.

+The fight with Deku, Bakugou and All Might was good. It's their low point, with the two literally and metaphorically trying to overcome All Might, and only able to do so by learning from each other, effectively pushing the both of them forward in their own development together.

+The Momo, Shoto, and Aizawa fight was pretty good. While not as well established in the manga, I do like the confidence issues between the two and how it ties into their leadership abilities. Again, it's a good example of the two learning and growing from each other.

+The ending scene at the mall was well handled. It's such a great one eighty from the tone and really raises the tension. Then there's the set up with Izuku and Tomura's clashing ideals, ending with Tomura truly realizing his goal. All around good stuff.

-The structure of this arc is a mess. All the fights are happening simultaneously and there is constant cutting back and forth between them. This means that all the fights struggle to build up any momentum before quickly cutting away at the most jarring of times.

-On that note, the fights aren't that impressive barring the two I mentioned before. They don't really have anything to offer in either story or spectacle. It's a bunch of pretty basic fights where we are given focus to some of the blandest characters in the series. -While this arc is built around the students going against their worst opponents, there isn't a lot of interesting growth or dynamics. Of all the side characters, we got Mineta and Koda, who aren't that engaging to read about, nor are they developed in engaging ways.

-In spite of the greater focus on character and having tangible threat of loss, this still suffers from a lot of school arcs suffer from. An educational setting like this doesn't have much tension to it. All we really have are the fights, which aren't that good.

=Yeah, this is quite the rough patch between a lot of stellar arcs. I hoped that it was merely a victim of placement, and it had its good points, but that arc is such a mess that it's hard to get much out of it. Not the worst, but not one that I am eager to revisit.

MLA Arc: (4/10)

+The MLA is an interesting concept. A political cult wanting to give power back by letting people use their Quirks without oversight. There's a lot of interesting perspectives for that topic, both in and out of the MLA, for why people may or may not want this to happen.

+Tomura is easily the MVP of the arc. His speech to Garaki was good, but his backstory with the highlight. Seeing the sheer lengths that the world, his family, and All For One poisoned Tenko into this being of pure hatred was equal parts engaging and tragic.

+Toga's backstory was good as well. While I have my issues with how nebulous Quirk Therapy is, that ultimately doesn't detract from it. It sets up the ideas of love and it's the expression and repression that prevail in her character and their importance going forward.

+I like Re-Destro in this arc. He parallels Tomura as a rage-fueled heir to a criminal legend, but contrasts it by being someone who is totally in control of his feelings and power, as well as being successful as running the empire that was left behind by Destro.

-This arc introduces Awakenings. I have never liked this concept, even when it is first revealed. It felt more like a lazy way to give characters power ups when it was convenient. This was especially the case with Toga, even if it fits with her whole love theme.

-The MLA Executives aren't interesting villains. They're one note obstacles to the LOV. I get not every character will get focus, but you think the heads of this massive group of would be given some depth, especially with a basis of the MLA has so many angles to cover.

-The barely functional LOV somehow beating and taking over the biggest group of villains in the country is such a massive leap in threat and scale. For them to survive the fight, let alone totally dominate, feels like Hori needed to hand them the win for the story.

-Following that, this is where a lot of the rushed pacing. It seems as though that the story and characters are trying to rush the story as fast as possible to get it to the point where it needs to be rather than taking its time to make sure all of the steps are set up beforehand.

=I know this arc is a fandom darling, but I really don't care for a majority of it. For me, it's few strong moments to hold up this ultimately weak arc. Especially since it's where a lot of the flaws of the later half of My Hero Academia came to the forefront for me.

Battle Trial Arc: (5/10)

+The arc does a good job of establishing the weight of heroics in the world. While Aizawa laid the foundation, showing how the students failed in the trial in their own ways shows just how much pressure that goes into hero work. The recap of all the flaws and mishandling of the training exercise is really neat.

+This does a great job of showing off Izuku's value as a fighter and as a character. In spite of having the strongest Quirk around, his brain is his most valuable weapon, able to plan around somehow who vastly outclasses him. His vocal declaration of Deku being the name of the hero is such a simple yet powerful moment for him.

+In fact, that fight itself is super neat. Izuku has a limited ace in the hole, but Bakugou has a massive advantage in skill and a psychological edge. Meanwhile Uraraka has to deal with the villainous Iida. It makes for a fun dynamic in the fight on how everyone plays off each other in personality and powers.

+All the character establishment is well handled, something hard for any series. We get a solid mix up of the dynamic between Izuku and Bakugou, good understanding of Iida and Uraraka while having foundational moments for Shoto and Momo. Plus, Ojiro and Hagakure had a cute little moment in there as well.

-None of that is extended to any of the other characters. Again, with all of these characters together, it would have been a really good chance to establish more about them as an ensemble cast. Even if it was only in minor ways like the previous examples it would have helped a lot going forward and made them feel less like cut outs.

-By extension, we only got the one fight out of the arc. Look, I'm not asking Hori to make five extra chapters here. All I'm saying is that I think that it would have been a good chance to get a better showing of the characters’ abilities and personalities by having them fight and bounce off each other before moving forward.

-Look, I know I keep harping on the art, but its flaws become a lot more apparent when trying to do action scenes. It can make certain motions seem a lot more awkward than cool. Again, this may just be hindsight, but it was pretty distracting coming back to read this seeing how much the art hindered the experience.

-The structure of this arc is so bizarre in how it's laid out. The actual order of the panels seems like things are happening oddly or even out of order. Seriously, go back and read the lead up to Izuku confronting Bakugou at the end. It's janky as all get out. This is not helped by the pretty sloppy artwork with the characters.

=The first real fight of the series and it goes off with a bang. I do think this fight is a highlight of the early series, delivering powerful emotional moments and unique dynamic, both in combat and character. Though the series is still green and the early flaws of the series being the most prevalent here really holds it back.

PLF War Arc: (5/10)

+Izuku has some of his strongest character work here. Push to the brink, he regresses back to that totally destructive mindset and constant doubt of his early series version. And having the arc resolve with him having empathy for Tomura after everything he did is just great. No issue with how he was handled this time around.

In fact, I think a lot of the character stuff is pretty strong. Bakugou gets a nice moment by saving Izuku, Enji has to go through some of the harshest development when faced with Tomura and Dabi, and Uraraka is confronted with the most moral complexities of villains. And hey, the arc actually got me to like Miruko.

+The rest of the villains were solid as well. I really like the stuff with Hawks and Double. It works as a nice microcosm of a lot of the conflicts about heroes and the world's inability to understand villains and their issues. Toga's growth and confrontation Uraraka over understanding hero’s savings villains is all around good.

+The Dabi reveal was amazing. What was such a predictable plot point was turned into this amazing reveal, doing a total one eighty and Dabi's character for me. You take this melancholy loser and make it so he dances and reveals in all the suffering he is causing Endeavor. It's great to see it pay off in such a bombastic and impactful way.

-This arc continues the unfortunate trend of Tomura's power creep. His already insane level of power has skyrocketed without any sort of in between. And Tomura getting possesed is one of the dumbest things to happen in the story, robbing Tomura of all his character and agency in favor of someone else stealing his spotlight.

-Not everything is great on the heroes' side. Midnight's death is one a terribly handled aspect of the story, made even worse by Gran Torino somehow surviving and is the only notably causality on the hero's side. And while I get it's supposed to be Kirishima's moment, having Mina set up and undermine like that feels mean spirited.

-Some of the villains in this were let down. All of the relevant MLA members get off screened. I get they aren't the most important, but you think there could be someone more. Then there are the High Ends. You introduce a squad as dangerous as Hood, have them be an issue with one hero, and then kill them all. What was even the point?

-Aside from the Dabi reveal, all the other ones fall flat. Mr. Compress' backstory is here and gone. Oboro is a literal who that requires supplementary material to know who he even is. Mirio comes back with little fanfare and contributes next to nothing in his fight. And Best Jeanist's return raises so many questions, and not in a good way.

=I get this arc is super popular, but for me, it's one of extreme highs and extreme lows. When it's good, it's really good, but when it's bad, it's pretty awful. It's like for every positive, there's an equal negative in the same field. I ultimately believe that the good outweighs the bad, but not enough to make me rank it any higher.

USJ Arc (6/10)

+This arc goes zero to one hundred real quick and it's great. We go from low stakes practice to everything going wrong. The villains are attacking, the adults are out of commission, and All Might is nowhere around. It does a really good job of making this tension situation with real danger, making the pays off that more powerful.

+This is where we get more from the UA characters, doing a surprisingly good job of characterizing a lot of them in spite of having such a short time span, giving a lot of their characters their own moment to show off. Same with the teachers, with us getting more layers to the teachers, like Aizawa genuine care of the students.

+This is where a lot of Izuku's major character traits come about, really show off how much of natural leader he is and just he proficient he is in planning. What's more is the self-image and self-destructive issues come to light, such as giving up the president spot and when he tries to save All Might, adding a lot more to his own character.

+All Might is handled really well in this arc. Not only does it give us a deeper glimpse into his character, but just how he's handled thematically. It goes a good job of showing All Might's power with how he and how hopeless things are without him yet gives us a reminder that power is fading and is one a time limit.

+This may just be hindsight, but I like Tomura for this arc. He's the big bad but is almost constantly undermined and humiliated at every other turn, both physically and ideologically. It's a subversion that's hilarious in the moment but does set him up well for further development and helps parallel him with Izuku's own growth.

-Again, a lot of the early series flaws are present here. It legitimately feels like there are panels missing from the pages or that the panels are really awkwardly structured, such as a having a big moment in a tiny panel or panels not flowing well from one to another. It can make it a very jarring read and takes a lot from the experience.

-Man, for being the climatic fight of the arc, the actual battle with the Nomu and All Might feels super underwhelming. It may just be that the anime spoiled me, but it lacks a lot of impact a fight like this needs, the art doesn't convey the action, and is over pretty quickly. It makes the ending feel pretty flaccid, especially for the first big arc.

-While the main players of the villains’ side are cool, it does feel like a lot of minions leave some to be desired. Seriously, outside of Izuku's group, it doesn't feel like any of the students are under real threat from the horde of minions. It can make it seem like a lot of initial villains were pretty empty outside of the three heavy hitters.

=A big arc that finally expands the world and threats outside the school. Which it does a pretty fine job of. It's not exactly the same high of the anime, but it isn't too bad either. I think it works best when you see it as the punctuation to set up for the greater story. Now that it's done, we can start moving on to the real meat.

Endeavor Agency Arc: (6/10)

+I like the opening chapter about interviews. Besides the fact that most of the gags land and how I've really wanted to see the kids learn stuff like this, I really like the world building behind Super Moves. That they aren't just aces in the hole for a hero, they are a means of brand recognition that help solidify a hero's image.

+The Christmas part was just plain cute. I'm all for the characters doing non-plot stuff like this and I like a lot of the gags with it. All the different gifts people get, the background gag of Mina trying to dress Bakugou, and Eri getting all the holidays mixed up. It's a fun little break that doesn't mess up the plot or pacing too much.

+The family drama was well handled. I think it's interesting how Hori handled the family dynamics of the Todorokis. He gave each of the members their own perspective on a complicated situation, but doesn't invalidate any of them, nor does he try to quickly redeem Enji or say that any one of the family members needs to accept him.

+In fact, Enji is great this arc. Besides the small ways he is humanized on a more personal level and the natural dynamics he has with the characters, it does a great job by trying to separate the ideas of atonement and forgiveness in the arc and what the two really mean, something I believe is key to understanding Endeavor's story.

+The pacing of the arc is near perfect. Everything gets the attention it needs in the time it needs and nothing feels like wasted time or out of place. It goes a great job of setting up the next arc with Hawks' spying and Tomura's growth without detracting from the current plot.

-For an arc called the Endeavor Agency, there isn't a lot of time spent at the agency. The trio isn't learning about being heroes or having their characters really bounce off each other, whether it with their Quirks or overall personalities, skipping right to the end of it. It feels like a lot more could have been done with these three together.

-There are some worrying trends that come with this arc. Like how instead of getting anything with the agency, everything was frustratingly skipped over in a time jump. Then Izuku learns how to use "Black Whip" way too fast, mastering this wild power in a week. It contributes a lot to the rushed feelings of the later arcs.

-Ending is super lame. His design is middling, his power isn't that great, and his whole motivation is just worse Stain. I wouldn't harp on him as much if he were a bit villain, but Hori could have done more with him considering his importance to this arc. Heck, Starchild was more interesting and he's barely in this story.

=An arc that is often lost and forgotten by being sandwiched between two larger, series defining arcs. Which is a real shame because I think it offers quite a bit with all the drama doing on with the Todorokis and the levity of the early chapters. All around a pretty solid arc and does a lot to set up the next big arc well.

Entrance Exam Arc: (7/10)

+If I was rating solely on chapters, Chapter 1 would get a perfect ten. It does such a good job of setting up the world, the characters, the themes, the tone, and the conflicts in the amount of time it has. It's such an amazing foundation for everything going forward. It's honestly impressive all the leg work it does this early on.

+The exam is set up really well. Having there be Hero Points and the Level Zero robots was a smart way for Izuku to have his cake and eat it. He still gets to have his moment of heroic sacrifice, but it was that noble spirit was what got him that spot in the first place. Him finally getting in is such as powerful emotional moment as well.

+The whole reveal of "One For All" is such a good endpoint and hook for the series going forward. Izuku may have been gifted the greatest power in the world, but now has to deal with some of the most dangerous drawbacks in the whole series to limit it, still keeping the stakes giving him plenty of room to develop his power.

+The arc does emotional moments really well. All Might telling Izuku he can be a hero, Izuku triumphantly standing on top of the trash pile, to him rushing to the forefront to save Uraraka. Again, in spite such a limited amount of panel time, it makes each moment feel so much bigger and more impactful then it has any right to be.

+On that note, it does a great job of endearing and connecting you to characters. Izuku's position as an underdog is immediately sympathetic, as is All Might's unenviable role as the top hero. Which I think is a real achievement given how early we're into the manga and how hard it can be to establish characters in the beginning.

-As for the rest of it, most of it's just Izuku training and doing the exam. That's it. It's not terrible and it really goes to show Izuku's dedication to being a hero, but it's not something to really write home about. This could simply be that the first chapter was that good, but it's not as exciting going forward.

-Some of the early art is kind of rough. This could just be because I'm more used to the cleaner style of the later chapters, but it comes across as rather jagged for a lot of the characters. This doesn't feel like a intentional style choice, more of a series finding its footing and with the art style and designs needing refinement.

-This extends to the major players of this arc. Again, benefit of hindsight, but it they seem more like exaggerated versions of themselves. All Might comes across as a lot more callous, and even with the worst version of himself, Bakugou telling Izuku to jump off a roof seems really out of character for him.

=Ah, back in the days that My Hero Academia was the little manga that could. First impressions are equal parts important and difficult, so it really is an accomplishment that the arc is as well put together as it is. It all works as a great foundation for the story. With such a strong start, it's no surprise that it got pick up for more chapters.

Pro Hero Arc: (7/10)

+While the last few arcs did some leg work, the Pro Hero Arc did a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to Enji's character. It takes this one note antagonist and actually makes him the underdog hero while still acknowledging all the bad stuff he did. It's honestly impressive how well this was pulled off given its starting point.

+The fight of Hood was great. Not only does it involve two of the most visually interesting and versatile fighters we've had thus far, giving a lot of ways to mix up the fight, but it manages to pull out some really strong emotional moments. This mixed with the pitch perfect pacing, and stellar art makes for an enjoyable experience.

+Hawks is such an enjoyable addition to the cast. Not only does he have an amazing design and power, but he’s also such a fun personality to hang around with. What seems like a total slacker, goofball is one of the most perceptive and skill heroes around. You're just interested in seeing what he does and how he bounces off Enji.

+And then it all gets flipped upside down by the end of the arc. Hawks was a kid raised to be a hero and is now going to infiltrate the League. Not only does this raise a lot of intrigue for the upcoming story, but it feels like such a massive upset from what we've seen of Hawks and the hero world as whole to have this happen.

+The out of battle stuff was nice as well. Besides Izuku getting his first fan in Kota, the fall out of the Todoroki's was well handled. In spite of his attempts at redemption, Enji's still hurt people and they aren't going to forgive him. It would have been so easy for quick forgiveness, but this makes Enji and Shoto's story all the stronger.

+The flash backs we got at the end with Izuku were pretty cool. It's interesting to see All For One in his younger years and how his empire camp to be. In the frightening world of Quirks with desperate people, his power to give and take power made him a king. It's a unique way to put him in power while still fitting within the world building.

-The other pro heroes have… neat designs. Look, for an arc that's supposed to be about the top heroes of Japan, there is shockingly little shown outside of Hawks and Endeavor. While they are the main characters, you couldn't have thrown a bone to the other characters? Maybe even revealed their Quirks or show off their personalities?

-Hood isn't that amazing of a villain. He's certainly a physical threat, but the fact that he's an intelligent Nomu doesn't really factor much into his character. He wants to fight, but that doesn't really give us much to work from. It feels like Enji is fighting some reflection or contrast and just something he needs to set on fire.

=Yeah, this was surprisingly good. The fact that Hori was able to turn around Enji’s to this degree is really impressive, but I do think that there is a lot more going on with the arc. It’s a good break from the main cast to flesh out the world and develops a lot of interesting ideas and plot points with the introduction of Hawks.

Culture Festival Arc: (8/10)

+Gentle and La Brava are great. They're so wonderful and different from everyone else. Their status as total jokes, both in and out of the series, betrays the fact that both are competent in their own ways and have a lot of care for one another. They're good set up for the later humanization of the villains of the series.

+I like the fight between Gentle and Izuku. Gentle's power is so cool to see in action and leads to an interesting fight dynamic. He isn't stronger than Izuku, but he's so tricky to deal with that it gives him an edge. It feels less like a brawl and more of the two trying to outfox each other, making it more distinct from other fights.

+This works as a good breather and much needed break from the more dower tone for the last few arcs, making for a comforting read. On that note, this is hands down the funniest arc in the whole series. Gentle and La Brava alone would qualify this arc for it, but a lot of the students have some good gags sprinkled throughout.

+I like a lot of the character bits we get. Not only does this arc actually develop Jiro and Eri, but it ties well into some of the general themes of the series. With how everyone is battered after the raid. It shows the kind of pressure that heroes go through and the importance of other kinds of heroics like Jiro's music.

+Not only does the arc establish the point of heroes saving people without fighting in Eri and Jiro's storyline, but the humanization of villains I mentioned before. La Brava and Gentle are both sad victims of circumstance who found strength outside the system in each other. It's affectively a microcosm of the major villains of the story.

-As much as I like this arc, I can admit it goes through kind of a whiplash plot and tone wise. Going from the Shie Hassaikai Arc to this is still pretty jarring to have everything stop and be light on both. I still like it, but I sometimes get the feeling of looking at my watch and wondering when things will be moving forward.

-There really should have been more exploration of the students. If you're going to do a plot light arc based around the school, it would have been a great time to see more of the students. If not from Class 1-B, who are major focuses of the next arc, then at least some of the lesser seen students could have had something going on.

=Probably one of my more controversial picks. I know this arc gets dogged on a lot by the fans, but I think that is wholly underserved. I thought it had a lot of value, even beyond its lighthearted story. And hey, I'm fine with taking breaks from the plot if I believe what's happening is worthwhile, and I certainly think it's worthwhile.

Sports Festival Arc: (8/10)

+In spite the low stakes of sport events, the arc manages to keep the tension up and mix things up with all the strategy and powers at play. Sure, running an obstacle course or doing a cavalry race isn't that cool on paper, but actively fighting against a horde of another students all with their own powers keeps it interesting.

+This arc really shows off some of Izuku's finest qualities. It was interesting seeing Izuku try and plan his way around the events given his huge disadvantages and amazingly shows off his character. Everything from his planning abilities, his skill in leading other people, and his genuine desire to save other people.

+Shoto was certainly the dark horse of the arc. While set up to be important early on, I don't think anyone could have predicted just how well his character and back story was done. That backstory really starts to delve into the darker themes of the story with his father, one of the top heroes, being an abuser that used his kids as tools.

+Of course, the Shoto vs Izuku fight is amazing. There is no contesting this. This is one of Izuku's most defining moments, effectively throwing away at chance at winning just to save Shoto. It ends in an emotional climax of Shoto regaining his power and Izuku losing, making for an subversion that makes sense and is satisfying. +The other side character work is done well, giving us more layers to them. Like hints of Iida's more vengeful side, Uraraka having this frightening amount of drive, and Bakugou showing some real respect to other people. It helps to subvert and expand on the characters, all while delving into more of their motivations and goals.

+This character work extends into more world building, especially with the new side characters. Shinso do a lot to build up the unfair the world can be in regard to Quirks while Mei introduces other aspects of the school and heroism as a whole. And this is all while they're both still fun characters to read about in their own ways.

-As for what happens in the rest of arc… it's pretty good. If you remove the highlight moments, most of the arc doesn't stand out as much in terms of what actually happens in it. I don't think it's bad by any means, but it's not something as amazing or exciting as the few highs of this arc and tends to skew a lot of people's perspectives.

-This extends to the other fights as well. Outside of the one standout I mentioned before, there isn't anything that spectacular to me brings up some frustrations like how Izuku was saved from Shinso by a Deus Ex Machina. Heck, the impetus of Momo's whole character arc is relegated to a single cartoonish panel summarizing the fight.

=I know this is a fandom darling and I feel a lot of that comes from the anime adaptation. To me, when looking at the manga, it's an arc of some extreme highs, but was above average to good with the rest of it. Certainly not my favorite but still a good arc.

Forest Training Camp Arc: (9/10)

+As someone who really likes to explore the mechanics of Quirks and hero work, I enjoy the various ways these Quirks can be trained and evolved and what kind of roles and pressures they would have to handle. Sure, cooking isn't something we really think about with heroes, but it makes sense to know that for disaster work.

+It's really satisfying to see Tomura use all the lessons he's used thus far, putting aside his short-sighted schemes in favor of a more thought out goal with a plan to turn the narrative against the heroes and capturing Bakugou. That mix with the inherent threats of the villains makes the League seem like a serious contender.

+A lot of the villains are pretty good. They don't have a lot of depth right now, but they don't really need to for the purposes they serve. They are all established enough in their own ways that they are interesting to see and makes you want to know more about them, leaving things open for use to learn more about them later.

+I like a lot of the minor stuff we got with the students. A lot of the pre battle antics are good at fleshing them out, but they really start to shine in the second half of the arc. Whether it be as active players in the arc, like Tokoyami and Shoji, or setting up for their own stories, like with Uraraka and Aoyama, it's all good stuff to read.

+Izuku vs Muscular fight is great. There's some real tension with Kota being threatened, we see Izuku being more emotionally and physically broken than any other point in the series. Only for him to overcome it with one of the most emotional panels in the series. The Million Percent Smash being such a perfect punctuation with the whole battle.

+I appreciate the arc ending on such a dower note. In spite everyone's efforts, the villains won. They kidnaped Bakugou, a huge portion of the students are in critical condition, and there is a potential mole within the walls of UA. It works as an affective low point for the next arc to build off of for the story.

+And in spite of the dark tone, the arc still manages to be really funny, like all the small interactions between characters, like Shoto subtlety throwing shade at Bakugou. And I standby that Izuku suddenly getting punched in the nuts is still one of the funniest moments in the entire series. I will die on this hill.

+This arc hits a perfect balance of pacing. The first half of the story is full of fun antics and lighter moments between the characters while the latter half is full of highly emotional action with a new gallery of rogues. And when it hits the ground, it hits hard and fast, never letting up on the fights and intrigue with the characters.

=While not as groundbreaking as some of the higher ups, I still hold this arc in a special place. Everything from the characters, to the fights, to the emotional beats are all handled so well that I often consider it the best of arc of the series. Even if you twist my arm, the only fault it has is that I simply like the other arcs more than it.

Stain Arc: (9/10)

+The art style drastically improves this arc. While I certainly saw a leap in quality once we got to the Sports Festival, the manga really starts to hit its stride once we reach Stain. The characters have more detail to them, the backgrounds pop a lot more, and the paneling is handled a lot better, making for a stronger experience.

+I like a lot of stuff with hero names and internships. Agian, it's a quick and easy way to help us understand and endear ourselves to the character while still developing the bigger ones, such as Iida's uncertainty as a hero after his brother’s injury or Bakugou trying to learn more about the social nuances of being a hero.

+The Full Cowl was such a good idea. The bone breaking was a neat gimmick to start with, but ultimately unsustainable concept. This offers a good side grade that still fits within the power. It gives Izuku far less power but grants him more control and a way to measure his progress throughout the series.

+Tomura and Izuku get some much-needed development. This arc sees them both growing beyond their world view when faced with an outside force, with Stain acting as their reality check. It sets up how the two will grow opposites throughout the series and further reinforcing the two parallels of our two main leads.

+Shoto and Iida get some time to break out of their original shells. While it's nice to see Shoto being far less cold to people, Iida going on a revenge quest is such a drastic yet believable turn for him. Having his righteous vengeance turn on its head and how such a thing would only sully the family name is all great stuff to read.

+Stain is such a great villain. He commands every single scene he's in and always remains a real threat in spite of his lackluster ability. Though the real meat is how much he's able to challenge the world and characters we see. The man has an iron clad code, one that makes he ready to lift up or deconstruct anyone he comes across.

+The fight with Stain is great. Stain is outgunned and outnumbered, but never outmatched, having much greater skill and what amounts to a one hit KO. That mixed with the closed off arena gives him a massive advantage. It's such a uniquely balanced fight and leads to a lot of interesting back and forth, yet still makes Stain a real threat.

+It feels like there were some real consequences to this arc. Stain wasn't some one-off villain, he changed everything, inspiring more villains and building up for the next big arc. Then there are hints to All For One, the who harmed All Might, being behind everything. It builds up a lot of intrigue for the rest of the story.

=Yeah, there is a good reason everyone talks about this arc. While Stain is the standout figure of this part, I do think it does a disservice to the rest of the arc to only bring up him. It's able to balance so much so well with how each of the characters grow and all meet up in fight. So yeah, it's well worth all the hype it gets.

Hideout Raid Arc: (10/10)

+This handles a lot of the aftermath of Forest Camp Arc well. All the students emotionally handling things and the teachers dealing with the fallout being well done. Giving Izuku a very real threat of damage to his body if he keeps pushing himself too far, set up some real stakes for his training and any future battles he has.

+I like a lot of minor moments between the students. Things like the debate at the beginning of whether or not to save Bakugou helps flesh out the class a lot. Then the bit of Momo and Iida keeping their friends from rushing in are good moments for them while still establishing just how big of a threat All For One is.

+And this is the arc where I think Bakugou clicked for me. We got hints of his depth before, but this is where it comes together. It gives us such an interesting peek into his headspace, like the view we got of his home life and getting his perspective on the concept of heroism and how it ties into winning for him.

+All For One's reveal was handled so well. The shadowy man we've heard so much about comes out with a devastating attack, destroying any opposition and horrifying the nearby students. It's nothing truly groundbreaking, but It's all presented so well that it elevates so much in the eyes of the reader as an impossible threat.

+The All For One vs All Might fight is one of the highest, if not the highest peaks in the series. What else could I possibly say? The beats are simple, but the execution is nigh perfect. The back and forth of the two, the reveal of Small Might, the second wind of power, All Might learning from Izuku, and the United States of Smash. All amazing.

+And while many people remember the main fight, I think the aftermath is just as good. The conflict between Izuku, Inko, and Toshinori is so natural and gripping, with Inko wanting to protect Izuku in spite of his dreams and this in turn hardening's Toshinori to the resolve of his new mission of training Izuku.

+Said aftermath sets up some many interesting and exciting plot points. The fall out of All For One's capture, All Might needing to deal with his life after being a hero, Izuku having to bear the weight of "One For All", Bakugou feeling guilt over All Might losing his spot, and the still immature Tomura now being out on his own.

+The tone is really well handled here. It gets pretty grim, but it doesn't get so dark that it takes you out of the experience and hits all the hopeful moments just right. And again, the comedy is oddly strong here. All Might opening his big entrance with a pizza delivery line and the rescue gang trying clothes on in a thrift store.

=Now, I don't need to tell you why this is good. What you may be asking is why it's not at the top. While I do think that All Might vs All For One is amazing and a good chunk of the arc, but there's still the rest of it. Again, it's some good stuff that gets overshadow a lot, but it's another case of something so amazing elevating the rest of the arc.

Shie Hassaikai Arc: (10/10)

+Not only is this arc unique from all the other arcs thus far, giving us our first real look at the hero world, the arc is great technically as well. It's always keeping up my interest and doesn't drag on at any point. The art is really good, especially with the character designs. Everything is as long as it needs to be, and nothing feels awkward.

+I really like how Izuku is handled here. He has been defined by his self-image issues but tackling that as All Might's successor is interesting. It does everything in its power to make you question if he was worthy, yet is always showing you his merits, namely his relentless will to help people no matter the threat may be.

+Sir Nighteye and Mirio are both good characters as well. They do work to contrast's Izuku own feelings and his role but are still enjoyable characters in their own right. Mirio as a hard-working hero with a good heart and Sir Nighteye as a fatalistic naysayer are both great in their own ways.

+In fact, a lot of the side characters are good in it. Kirishima gets a lot of good development, Tamaki is fun to read as the shy dork he is, Rock Lock presents a unique perspective on hero students, and Fat Gum is Fat Gum. Even with the more minor characters, they stand out enough to be interesting in spite of their lack of panel time.

+To me, this is the arc where Tomura really hits his stride as a villain. Without any proper support, he grows into the leader needs to be the League. Not only does this lead to some of his best moments and sets up his story but adds some much needed layers to the burgeoning villain, showing some real care for his teammates.

+Overhaul is such a great villain. Not only is he a massive threat in power, resources, and overall abilities, he acts as a good foil not only to Izuku, but to Tomura as well while still being his own character. His plan and goal are so unique for the setting, yet offer a frightening endgame, effectively controlling the supply and demand of Quirks.

+By extension, I think this does a lot to characterize the rest of the villains. Obviously, Twice and Toga get the bulk of it, building them up as people beyond their gimmicks, but the rest of the League gets their own moments to shine. This extends to the yakuza minions, who I think are my favorite ensemble of villains in the series.

+This arc ends on such a great note. Sir Nighteye's death crushes the heroes' side in spite the reconciliation. Meanwhile, Tomura gets out like champ, getting revenge on Overhaul and leaving with a dangerous weapon in his hands. It's a good way to start the slow shift of the dynamic between heroes and villains going forward.

=So while this doesn't think this hits the same highs as the Hideout Raid, I think it does accomplish more with its scope. It has a lot more to juggle in comparison to the Hideout Raid and pulls it off with flying colors. It obviously doesn't hit the same peaks, but holds as consistently level of quality, making me prefer it.

[bxtonpxss]

SHIPPING INFO. answer the following for your muse(s) so people know how shipping works on your blog.

what’s your OTP for your muse(s)?

Neya & Thor are the only two applicable options here when it comes to things outside platonic/familial relationships. Opacho is 5 and Jack is also just a baby, but she's like best frienemies with Faolan. I know when you hear OTP its usually referring to romance but I'm super big on platonic relationships being OTPs!

That being said Neya x chemistry, she's not overly complex but Neya is a kind-hearted and deeply supportive type of character who despite often being in situations where she's in way over her head, is willing to persevere and overcome whatever obstacle that may be, especially when it involves people she cares about! If our characters build a relationship through our writing then I will never say no to it! This also applies to Thor! They have a good relationship built through us writing together and/or chatting about stuff via messages I'll never say no.

what are you willing to RP when it comes to shipping?

Pretty much anything, except you know the obvious and universal no no's.

how large does the age gap have to be to make it uncomfortable?

Hoo boy ok. So, Neya, for her era (and the author even states this in the manga) at 16 she's considered an adult. On that alone I'd do 2 years younger and 4 years older cause I'm just trying to think of how it'd be from her time period. Now, this ONLY applies specifically for [main verse || itsuwaribito] when she's in her canon universe or some other feudal-era settings. I understand she's still 16 and other people don't vibe with that, I don't force anything on people (at least not intentionally, if you ever feel like I write something that makes you uncomfortable please tell me!) and romance is never my first or main priority, I like crushes/gradual friends to dating/lovers etc when writing anyway. This also obvi needs to be discussed first cause duh. Also, I'm fine with like 'x character looks 16/17 but is actually 100+ years old' (I’m an Inuyasha girly uwu, so we love a good demon/immortal s/o pairing).

For the verse where she's stuck in the future, [verse || under a rock] she is by modern-day laws legally underage. I'd go for 2 at most maybe 3 years older, 1 year younger. For the sub-main verse set at the end of the series with her running her village [verse || nanushi] she's canonically an adult there so I can deal with 10 years older or whatever and when it comes to the monsters/demons/immortal characters, so long as both parties are consenting adults it's cool!

Thor's a talking rodent. He's adult age and would be considered a young adult by human standards I suppose. So as long as the other creature is adult-aged it wouldn't matter to him. I can't put too much thought into this one, trying to make the math make sense is gonna hurt my brain, but obviously NO child-age creatures.

are you selective when shipping?

Can't really say, like excluding Coschu x Surgechu, which happened gradually through jubilantsparks and I's constant gushing about our chus via DMs I've never really shipped seriously with anyone else before so I can't really give an honest opinion about it *kanye shrug*

how far do steamy moments have to go before they’re considered NSFW?

When they start undressing and getting real handsy, but none of that will ever be happening here so no need to worry!

Who are other muses you ship your muse with?

For Thor, specifically in his Lt. Surge Raichu verse (affectionately shortened to Surgechu) I shipped him with jubilantsparks' Fem!Pikachu OC Elysia who had a Cosplay Pikachu verse (affectionately shortened to Coschu). Coschu x Surgechu was fun and I miss them :') Also, Thor and Elysia in general were my favorite platonic OTP that could have easily become romantic cause they loved and cared for each other so much as best friends who could have just as easily become something more if they wanted to </3

NeRiya with Jade's Iriya . We've had many discussions about this enemies-to-friends/maybe more slow burn/redemption arc for Iriya. I cherish it deeply and Iriya deserved better than what he got in canon ; n ;

does one have to ask to ship with you?

Hmm, not really? I have a very chill and go-with-the-flow type of mindset when it comes to building relationships and shipping in general. The more our characters interact, get to know each other and the closer they become the better! If there's ever a certain aspect of their relationship you wanna discuss with me privately or plot, then just shoot me a message!

Also, I never assume anything so if you're invested off the rip in wanting to pursue the ship beyond them being friends then once again just message me. I'm here to have fun and write with folks, so go for it I will most likely never say no lmao. Crushes on Neya or Thor are also 100% ok, even if it's one-sided I have no problems with it, you don't even gotta ask me for that.

how often do you like to ship?

I've only had two (2) actual ships during my entire time here on this site. I have a bad case of anxiety brain when it actually comes to shipping and I never wanna assume or push anyone into doing anything so it's rare I ever approach. I'll just sit and vibe and settle with my time in the friendzone while making up scenarios in my head like the dork I am.

are you multiship?

Ok, after getting some answers on what multishipping is from an RP standpoint, I want to say yes I am. I'd have no issues with having multiple ship partners. Every character interaction is like in their own separate universes so like I can't understand limiting myself as a single ship. This is subject to change but like I said, I barely have any shipping experience.

are you ship obsessed or ship more-or-less?

More-or-less! As stated above I don't really ask or approach first for ships soooo if it happens it happens. I'm down for shipping off of chemistry through a gradually built relationship!

what is your favorite ship in your current fandom?

ooh chile I'm in a bunch of fandoms lol so I'll just go with the fandoms for my muses specifically. For Pkmn it'll always be ShinHika/Paul x Dawn/ Ikarishipping. Pokeani can pry that dynamic from my cold dead hands.

I like all the potential pairings within Utsuho's group, but that'd be too much to list. Gin x Kin, Neya x Uzume, Neya x Hikae, Hikae x Iwashi.

For SK I was a sucker for Hao x Tamao back in the day. It still could've been cute if Takei didn't turn Tamao into Anna 2.0. I find her whole personality shift weird.

finally, how does one ship with you?

Just write with me! I don't care how many asks or threads we end up having. I cannot reiterate how much I adore relationship building in writing. We write enough threads together and our characters grow to like each other or something I'm 100% down to clown! Also, If you don't suffer from perpetual cold feet like me, just shoot me an IM and let's talk about it! Easy peasy, promise I don't bite!

Nabbed from: @gamenu initially, but I've been seeing other moots do it too! Tagging: @sillymuses, @lostusagis, @museguided, @despairforme, + anyone who sees this!

[incorrecttowerofgodquotes]

Gundam: Witch From Mercury Season 2 Episode 1 Review

- The show immediately jumps back into the status quo, almost as if Plant Quetta was just a nightmare. However we can see all our characters reacting to the situation no matter what kind of facade they put up. Suletta is starting to doubt her actions, Nika is haunted by the fact her friends almost died, Shaddiq is already making plans to frame Jeturk, and Miorine is stuck watching over her father. There’s a nice dissonance between the Spacians having fun while our main characters have now experienced true terror, never being able to recover.

- The dueling committee has changed up due to the attack. Now that Shaddiq is getting more involved in his father’s business, Sabina and Renee are ready to take up the helm. Felsi is now the acting substitute since Guel’s MIA and Lauda became the new head of Jeturk Co. Fianlly, Secilia and Rouji are the same as ever (and Secilia adorably protects her boy from Renee’s advances)

- El5n is absolutely fabulous and I love every second he’s on screen. He’s serving cunt every single minute and everyone thinks it’s weird, but no one has directly called him out yet. Still, judging by the OP, there’s a lot more than meets the eye when it comes to our James Charles-wannabe. The writers also took time to link him to Norea, so perhaps there’ll be a relationship developing between those two in the coming future. People in forums have already stated that he’s the most terrifying character due to his manipulative personality and lack of clear goals, but I’m rooting for him. Nobody who becomes a replacement head to ride a death bot and seduce a tanuki has a happy backstory.

- Due to Jeturk suits being used in the attack, the companies are now starting to scapegoat them in order to gain more power. This is causing an immense amount of stress for poor Lauda, who’s lost both his brother and father. I guess taking L’s is hereditary. I’m absolutely expecting him to snap and try to murder everyone. And honestly, as long as he’s planning to murder Shaddiq, I’ll support him.

- Norea and Sophie both transferred into school but they’re so bad at hiding themselves that they caught in the span of less than an episode. Interestingly, Sophie isn’t the one who rushes things, but instead Norea. Sophie seems more interested in just playing around, eventually getting her work done but for now just enjoying the situation. Meanwhile, Norea is wholly devoted to the cause. She threatens Nika with death twice and has no problem attempting to murder Suletta the moment she thinks it’s appropriate.

- Sophie’s dolls are especially interesting. She has four of them, two are her parents and two are her little sisters, and all of them are worn as hell. However, despite saying she loves them, she replaces one with a stolen Halo almost immediately. Sophie probably has no idea of what a family really is, she’s just acting out the motions of it. She replaces her stuffed animal when she finds a “better” one, not realizing that true families don’t replace. There’s also something interesting going on with her calling Suletta “Big Sis.” If Suletta is a clone of Eri then that technically makes them sisters, and now Sophie, another Gundam pilot, is adding herself to that family dynamic. Maybe all Gundam pilots are linked, not by blood, but by situation.

- Prospera once again is manipulating the hell outta everyone. She says to Suletta that she didn’t do anything wrong when her daughter starts having doubts, but with Miorine she states that she believes Suletta went too far. She’s just telling both of them what they want to hear, and guiding each of them to her own desired goal. Also Suletta literally said her mom was a magician so the “Prospera is brainwashing Suletta” theory is also getting a lot of ground

- Quiet Zero is apparently a plan to end war throughout the galaxy, and I can already tell you, that the name makes it clear that it won’t be through some peaceful method. It’s either a weapon designed to destroy whole planets or it’s some Evangelion hive mind shit where everyone in the world will be linked through the GUND system. And if it’s the latter, that would make the connection between Gundam pilots we see even more important. Soon, everyone will be family

- Nika is stuck between a Gundam foot and hard place. Poor girl just wants to build up connections between Earthians and Spacians but the organization that sent her turned out to be a terrorist organization. She doesn’t want her friends to be put in danger, but she’s scared to come out and ruin her friendship. Her tendency to isolate herself is what got her almost squished, it was only Suletta looking out for her that saved her. I hope she can be honest with her friends in the future and achieve her goal of peace. One that isn’t organized from mass murder/brainwashing

- My boy Guel didn’t show up in the episode. He’s busy entering his depressive spiral. However from the OP, it looks like he’s on Earth. Give me vigilante Guel

- Finally, let’s talk about that gorgeous ending. The amount of symbolism in that minute and thirty seconds is off the wall. Watching Miorine’s ghost constantly pass through her, showing that the two want to be together but can’t connect. Then, Aerial fucking stabs her in the heart, awakening something, and suddenly Suletta is dancing, controlling the GUND bits in her possession. There’s multiple Suletta’s dancing, maybe hinting the clone theory. She also loses her headband, the one her mom gave her, showing that she’s gained her own autonomy. Finally, her and Miorine are in formal dresses, holding hands, probably at Miorine’s birthday. Suletta looks more mature, she’s shed her childhood innocence.

In short, I’m so fucking hyped to be back. My sons and daughters are really going through it and I hope they all get out with minor mental trauma. Except for you Shaddiq, you Sha-dick

[girls-are-weird]

Wilmon 44 & 45

44. What do they love about each other the most?

i think wille loves how simon understands him, or at least is open to understanding him, to the point that he's pretty much the only person around whom he can be himself, without simon judging him or expecting him to be "better" than he is (simon thinks he's more than good enough as he is). he loves simon's voice and musical talent, of course, and how he gives all of himself to help the people he loves, even to his own detriment. he loves how confident simon is, and how he doesn't take shit from anyone.

simon loves how earnest wille is. he loves that wille is the only person who will take care of him when he's running himself ragged trying to take care of everyone else. he loves how supportive wille is, whether over a choir solo or his political views. he loves that wille trusts his opinion even on situations outside his expertise, and trusts him to make his own decisions. he loves that he's the first person wille comes to for advice and comfort, even on matters unrelated to him, even though given his position in the social hierarchy, he doesn't need to involve simon at all-- but he still wants to.

("everything." that's the real answer to this question.)

45. How do they comfort each other when they are helpless to do anything about the situation?

so. let me get my nerd glasses on for a second. 8)

the concept of "love languages" is a very romantic notion but not really scientific at all. people are too complex and their personalities too plastic to reduce them to one or two ways of showing affection, and the research on this is pretty much inconclusive.

that said, fictional characters, especially ones with such limited canon as wille and simon have, are a bit easier to fit into a simple classification, and it can be fun to play with it. so i 10000% subscribe to the idea that wille's go-to (but not only!) form of showing affection is physical touch, and i think for simon it's an even combination of acts of service and words of affirmation. but they also have come to know the other, or at least the other's personality if not their life details, very well in the few months since they met in canon. so i think they have also come to know how to adapt to the other's needs regarding those love languages.

so basically, simon knows to give wille a hug or a caress when he needs support, on top of reassuring him with words. and wille knows to ask what simon needs, how he can help, and to show his support with actions on top of just offering physical comfort. it really is rather remarkable how we can already see this even in just the twelve episodes we've had in canon so far. and while the love languages might not be truly testable, reproducible, or falsifiable, it's fun to make such observations about fictional characters, in a "jane goodall studying chimpanzees in the wild" kind of way. ;)

(sorry this got so long. ask me about astrology next-- we'll be here for hours.)

50 OTP questions game | send me a question!

[fruit-salad-ship]

For your consideration, Venom AU. Whose the host, who's the symbiote, and who's along for the wild ride?

Woah woah woah, that’s a wild concept! I gotta write it out mix and match style and decide after!

So host plum, an office manager working in a facility that gained a sample of alien life, testing it to find out what it is, ie. A symbiote. Her boyfriend grey is a loving doting supportive man who champions her brains, and always has time to help her through things. Their life is good…until she is exposed to the aliens sample and the thing gets in her system. Enter symbiote peach. A reddish/pink one, mean spirited and quite difficult to handle in the best circumstances. Plums life is thrown into chaos, she hides it from grey and tries to figure out what’s happening, suddenly taking with this creature that’s in her??? She freaks out. We’re talking a break down level situation. It makes her more volatile, tired and hungry all the time, she can’t seem to get hurt, and the most fun, she’s driven to unusually horny moods thanks to this weird alien, who’s taken a liking for the human customs involved in that. Grey tries to help but doesn’t get it, his girlfriends characters changed so much and he just wants her to talk to him, he really would help given the chance.

Same same but greys the engineer paid to build the vessels that contain these alien life forms, gets exposed, peach is as she was with plum, she makes life difficult no matter what, always a little horny alien monster tho, dunno what they’d fight, or who? But grey would be quicker to adjust to her, and perhaps even use the new power that comes with this creature to do good, try and reign her in a bit and control this thing. Has a better chance than plum.

Symbiote peach has the opportunity to be too much rage and anger for either hosts, and would push someone to violence on occasion.

If greys the symbiote, a biologist would easily come close to him, a contact point where peach finds herself the host. She’s got no connections, this thing in her is calmer, but more in control. She’s not at all the one running the show, takes a long time to find ways to wrangle grey, he’s more subtle, more devious than the other two would be. He’d be a blackish-greenish one, loves to pet animals, that’s a weird human thing he didn’t expect to enjoy. Very fond of his host, tough little creature. Plums the scientist tasked to find out where the symbiote went, and finds peach in a state, connecting the dots. Instead of turning her in and potentially getting her killed, kind of falls for the dope, and so the duo run from the company they once worked for and try to tame this monster they’ve got stowed away. Peach is a peak candidate for hero work, something plum would suggest at some point, seeing as this woman has new found powers thanks to grey. The grey-peach partnership is by far the most forgiving and balanced one. He likes his new human host, and she likes him after they come to a more functional agreement. Plum gets hunted down by the company for failing to bring them back to the lab and peach loses her shit.

This would be the same if grey was in plum as the host, he is the most easy to get along with and reasonable of the trio in all circumstances. She however wouldn’t handle the change in her life so well, a creature of habit and those habits are dead and gone now. Peach however wouldn’t be tasked to find the missing alien, and instead would haphazardly stumble into their life through sheer luck. She’d find plum very odd, which admittedly is true, she’d also be drawn to that because she runs at red flags like an idiot. Ride or die.

A plum symbiote would be super sneaky and intelligent, blackish blue and very tricky. I don’t think grey would notice she’s there right away until suddenly life falls apart around him all at once, like pulling the bottom can out of a pyramid display of soup. He’d be convinced he’s going crazy. His biologist girlfriend can see symptoms and starts testing him Peach takes zero shit and quickly figures out he’s a host to something she’s never seen before. The aggression between the symbiote and peach makes greys life so very difficult, they constantly argue and disagree. He just wants a simple life and now his funny body-mate is ruining his life and relationship.

This becomes more volatile if plums the alien and peach is the host. The sheer chaos that’d bring would top the rest…

I gotta say I like the first one. Peach symbiote, stuck in plums body, grey being the unfortunate ride or die partner. Honestly though they all have merit and thank you for bringing this to my attention, I have to draw some things now.

[an-inspired-eternity]

For your Unit Shuffle AU, could we get a brief overview of the units' "main stories"? Like, how they formed and what they want to do and how they got into their Sekais for the first time?

ok so i have. a confession to make. i don't have as much for everyone in equal amounts of detail (spring circuit i am especially lacking)

i can give what i do have but bear in mind that some of this is me figuring stuff out on the spot.

if you have ideas i'm definitely open to working with people to develop what i do have or what have you

BUT. that being said. what i do have

going to put this under the cut bc no matter how much i have per group this is going to be long

i did already talk about juvenile/glory in another ask, so i'll start with sweet syndrome

now.. i have a lot less for the formation of sweet syndrome as stated, but i do have some ideas! that being that in this au, mafuyu's mom is a lot more of a.. pageant mom? the kid pageant to idol pipeline if you will. and it's not so much that mafuyu dislikes being an idol as she dislikes the fact that her mother is SO controlling about what she does and her image.

that is also why i gave mafuyu her short hair lim, inspired by a different idol mafuyu au i saw, i thought the idea of mafuyu cutting her hair in an act of defiance would be a fun idea, but also added in the idea of shizuku cutting her own hair as well :) shizumafu matching haircuts.

emu is kinda like minori in regards to all this, and hona gets involved because she sees her practicing and is like ....can i join. emu and mafuyu's relationship is similar to canon at the start, but because they're in the same group here emu gets to offer her more support.

spring circuit is probably the most. i'm gonna have to actively change these characters' circumstances for the group forming to make sense. shiho is probably the most likely in canon to have ended up in a vbs like group on her own, though.

haruka presumably got into it on her own and found it didn't stress her out as much as being an idol did? maybe haruka and shiho found out about each other either from both going to miya or seeing each other's performance (or the latter happened and then they realized later they both go to the same school and befriended each other because of their similar tastes both in live performance and their canon thing with plushies)

and then nene and kohane.. i guess it's probably like how kohane got involvd with vbs in canon? just with haruka and shiho? nene likely still has her doubts about singing in front of people again like she does in canon, but kohane being a total newbie makes her want to try harder to do it again because she atleast has experience and kohane doesn't yet.

echo-show isn't far off from actual wxs circumstancially minus the different members, tsukasa still wants to be an actor, it's just that this time he has toya with him (who didn't get into street music, but ended up following tsukasa into his dream because he figured theater was something different that would piss off his dad) and toya ends up finding his place and enjoying theater more than he thought he would :]

emu doesn't work at wonder stage because she became a idol, but her family stills runs pxl so she meets tsukasa through this and basically helps him and the rest of his group get settled in!

my thought with kanade is that, assuming it's the same hospital, there's a window of time that kanadad and saki would both be in the hospital, so it's theoretically not impossible that tsukasa and kanade met at some point and realizing their similar circumstances tsukasa ends up kinda adopting her like a stray cat GFDHJGFHJJ

(so help her god if and when tsukasa finds out that kanade is living in the r/malelivingspace bedroom he is bringing her home with him and he is not taking no for an answer)

minori is the one i'm.. least sure about how she joined? i guess maybe because she's friends and classmates with pxl superfan kohane that maybe she ends up seeing a show while the group is just kasa toya and kanade and ends up being so impressed that she stays behind to talk to them and ends up getting scooped into the group

ALSO while i do think echo-show still has tsukasa's sekai, there is definitely something to consider with the fact that this time around tsukasa's in a group with one of his siblings who would recognize the plushies and have Thoughts about tsukasa Not recognizing them 👁

house of outcasts. my darlings. my favorite group. the one i have the most for. buckle up gamers we got a lot to say

SO! house of outcasts starts with rui and mizuki, who stayed in closer contact after rui's junior high graduation as mizuki never really met/got involved with n25. rui has his little solo shows, and he ends up meeting up with mizuki to show them his latest idea, and mizuki is very impressed and tells him basically listen if i recorded this for you i could probably edit it into something so fucking good. do you want me to do that? i could do that. and that ends up being how this internet group forms, starting with just rui and his robots and mizuki recording and editing (plus also probably costume making since it's just already canon that mizuki designed his show outfit) behind the scenes.

but rui ends up one day asking mizuki hey you know i wouldn't be opposed to you wanting to perform alongside me- i'd understand if you didn't want to do it, but the offer is there. and mizuki is hesitant but gives it a try, and ends up having more fun than they thought they would, so the group goes from one performer and some robots to two.

that's when their sekai first appears :) and unlike the rest of the groups minus e-s i actually have in mind what their sekai looks like. an open school rooftop space (you can guess what it's pulling from.. aha), plenty of room to practice and try out stuff for their shows, but also more cozy quieter spots to just sit and relax and look at the view- which is a fantastical colorful world (think the aesthetic of what the environment of rui's fragment sekai looks like, but a bit more toned down in the brightness department)

miku and len are their main/starting vocaloids. miku is a older, sister type figure, who is welcoming and kind to rui and mizuki, making an active effort to show that there's nothing wrong with who they are. len pulls a lot from.. rui's child self, before he lost his hope, down to the fact len says "people are people and i am me!" like kid rui picked up from his mom. it hurts rui initially, to be so heavily reminded of his younger self, but any coldness he feels towards len because of that quickly wears off, not wanting to treat len the same way others treated him, and acts a lot like an older brother to len, something mizuki finds very sweet.

an is picked up next, mizuki offers to invite an into the group, given an didn't have anything to do at the moment, and an joins, but while rui in this au is a lot more closed off at school than canon rui is (significantly less explosions and drones) he's more open when it comes to stuff involving hoc, so an kinda has to get used to that and it.. takes her a bit to.. fully get into it. it doesn't show in what they create, but behind the scenes an struggles to find her whimsy in it and get used to this kind of performance (however she does get more comfortable after a while).

saki ends up getting picked up via encountering one of them (maybe mizuki? they could both have been shopping at the mall and bumped into each other) and saki gets excited and tells mizuki she watches their performances and thinks their shows are so cool and that they remind her of the shows her brother would do for her when they were younger, but that hoc just seemed even more up her alley, and mizuki ends up asking if she wants to meet the rest of the group to see about joining and of course saki eagerly accepts and ends up joining the group.

[monsterkissed]

You said you liked to share BNGN trivia, so you got any tidbits?

some assorted trivialities (spoilers for a fanfic up to the latest chapter):

the fic was originally envisioned (and partly written) as a series of drabbles! if i had kept that going, it would currently be 5,376 drabbles long.

tiramisu was written into the outline entirely as bait/tribute to my partners, who are big siamese fans. she is now the most popular oc i have ever made for anything. i considered writing an origin story fic for her back when there was a jjba oc zine in the works, but it fell thru and now it only lives in my head. it involves multiple murders : )

bngn is not phf-compliant bc i did not want to read it. to make up for this i promise to find other horrible things for fugo to go through instead <3

probably not news to anyone by this point but here is some explicit confirmation: the first prologue that opens the fic is not about doppio

there are so many cases of foreshadowing in the form of jokes or joke-adjacent statements at this point that i cannot actually remember them all. if you see me make a silly comment in this fic there is at least a 20% chance it's actually a very sneaky mean comment hiding behind the linear progression of time

when i first drafted the outline act 3 was much much shorter and had a few drastic differences. one of these was that polnareff (or at least one of him) would have survived to support the gang much as he does in the original VA, but i could not think of anything fun for him to do that didn't detract from everything else, or at least nothing more fun than the inexplicable spectacle of two dead polnareffs after all of the build-up towards him. rip, rip.

speaking of fun: i wanted to have every major character get at least one really cool moment, regardless of how central they were to the story. i didn't want anyone to feel like you could cut them out completely and it wouldn't matter, i wanted to keep that ensemble feel of VA and give everyone room to affect the story in important ways, even if the fic still obviously has its focusses. of the ones i've published so far, i think i like mista's intervention in the Trish & Dop vs Fugo fight best out of those moments because i just had so much fun writing and visualising it and he felt like a natural fit to provoke fugo's own position in the story as a person fixated on the objective facts (which he was canonically Not Wrong about, in terms of sticking with bruno being a dubious plan for anyone fond of staying alive) to face off against someone who operates more on vibes and rolling the dice.

way back in the depths of drabble-draft the flashbacks were going to occur chronologically, followed by the present day stuff. but as i became aware that this was growing into something i realised that this would be stitching two pretty drastically different fics together back to back, and decided instead to use the current format. in theory this was purely going to allow me to show doppio's relationship with diavolo alongside his absence from him, so we can see simultaneously why he values and misses him so much and what he's becoming without him. in practice it led to a bunch of smaller changes that built up into, among other things, the premise of the entire canon divergence. technically, all of the flashbacks in act 1 and 2 "take place" during ch. 30. there is an implication to this that so far nobody has commented on ;)

i spent an amount of time researching macdonalds in italy that i will never ever get back

speaking of researching things that don't matter to anyone but me: everywhere a major scene happens is based on a specific spot i hand-picked on google maps. i roamed a lot of italian countryside via satellite trying to find the Exact kind of big, ugly, concrete-floored farm i had in mind for the first secco fight

technically this fic (or at least the extended universe around it) has sorbet and gelato VA-style origin stories to go with their fanstands (which i had a lot of fun with, workshopping around ideas for things that would make for excellent and suitably juicy assassination tools but vulnerable in a stand vs stand battle). much like tiramisu, so does my second stand-using oc brodo (who also cameos in 'I Think We're Alone Now', because skulking around trying not to be noticed is his speciality) the third, katarina, is only mostly goncharov-inspired, and Heart of Glass was originally going to be one of the chapter titles for this fic. another song with a very similar title still will be!

i had no intention of narancia being as big a presence in the fic as he was, but the longer i wrote the more i realised that he's just too fun to put in a room with doppio. the scene where he accepts the truth made me feel genuinely like a bit of a horrible person because i'd enjoyed building up their friendship so much and it was one of those chapters where i knew Exactly what the character would want to do and exactly why it would be the thing that would hurt them the most.

when i was hammering out the outline for what would become this fic an artist i had been following released a song that i put on in the background while i wrote, and then stopped writing and went back to listen to it properly twelve or thirteen times because it was eerily vibing perfectly with some of the themes i had been kicking around in my head trying to make something out of. it put a few seeds in my head in the way that some things serendipitously do, so much so that i almost named the whole fic after it. in the end, i decided to affix it to just one chapter where i felt it would best set the tone for the imminent descent to come. that chapter would be chapter thirty-eight.

[henrike-does-writing-sometimes]

🌈🎮❤️😊 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 for the darling divine boys if you don’t mind!

I do not mind at all I love these darlings <3<3<3

🌈 RAINBOW — what is your oc's sexual orientation/gender identity ? what pronouns do they use ?

Rei - He/Him, Aroace

Andie - They/Them, Queer

Timothy - He/Him, Demisexual

Nico - He/Him, Questioning

Mike - He/Him, Bisexual

I’m unsure of their gender identities, but I do know they’re all comfortable being referred to as a boy

🎮 VIDEO GAME CONTROLLER — what are three of your oc's favorite hobbies ?

Rei - Playing videogames, reading comic books, and collecting figurines

Andie - Cheerleading/Gymnastics, singing, and photography

Timothy - Reading, ballet, and witchcraft

Nico - Baking, gardening/herbology, and skateboarding

Mike - Drawing, media analysis, and archery

❤️ RED HEART — what are three of your oc's positive traits ?

Rei - Quick thinker, sentimental, and clever

Andie - Supportive, enthusiastic, and a great listener

Timothy - Loving, attentive, and witty

Nico - Helpful, comforting, and generous

Mike - Patient, reliable, and compassionate

😊 SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES — what are your oc's career/general life desires ? what do they want to get the most out of life ?

Rei is a bit too young to have any sort of life goal set. Truth be told, he has issues with figuring these things out, like at all. Which is anxiety-inducing, but he’s also only 15 so he’ll have time to figure it out. Although, I do think he has thoughts about getting into filmmaking, since he does write from time to time.

Andie’s current major goal in life is to compete in the quad-world Championships. Which is like the Olympics (which they also wish to compete in) but bigger, since it involves all four worlds of Earth, Tsym, Effedonia, and Malcedom. Other than that, not much besides having fun. 

Timothy is kinda in the same boat as Rei, minus the anxiety. He’s just kinda going with the flow, minding his own business (but also not at all lol). Though I could totally see him becoming a professor in mythology, anthropology, or even psychology or something similar. 

Nico I feel would be content if he just has a place for himself. That’s it. So long as he can just be in peace, he’ll be fine. Obviously he’d love to have someplace to grow his plants, but more than that he’s not asking for. Though I love the idea of him running his own bakery where he grows the ingredients himself. 

Mike’s goal is to become a full-time artist. Whether that means being a freelance illustrator, hired concept artist, or even animator, doesn’t really matter. So long as he can work with something artistic and be able to live comfortably from it, he’ll be happy. 

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 FAMILY WITH MOTHER, FATHER, SON AND DAUGHTER — how many people are in your oc's immediate family ? how many people are in your oc's extended family ? do they have aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc ? who in their family are they closest with ? are they close with their birth family, or do they have a found family ?

Biological family is actually something I haven’t thought about when it comes to this wip. With the slight exception of Nico whose family is not, umm, that good. Basically, bio family so far hasn’t really been important to the story (aside from Nico) so I haven’t given time to figure that whole thing out.

Really, what’s most important family-wise is the found family of the boys !

I don’t think I’ve talked about it in depth so I’ll do it here. Something that is very important to me when I write is the relationship between the male characters. Obviously f/f and m/f relationships are important too, but specifically m/m friendships are important.

Growing up I really liked what ‘sisterhood’ represented; unbreakable bonds of friendship, trust, love, emotional vulnerability, loyalty, all that good stuff. But as a closeted enby I couldn’t comfortably identify with it, and I felt that the way ‘brotherhood’ was presented to me was missing that connection. Which, honestly isn’t too surprising given how media (and general society too) hates it when boys are emotionally vulnerable and/or affectionate with each other. So basically, I want to create a type of ‘brotherhood’ that encompasses the same idéas as ‘sisterhood’ but is more easy for guys like me to identify. 

This is actually the reason why the majority of my main characters are boys, or else transmasc lmao

[sayakxmi]

[Magi rewatch] Episode 7: His Name Is Sinbad [Part 3]

Is that your man, half of the Magi fandom?

A small change, in the manga Sinbad was more "consider several options & pick one", here he's just "this is how I see it & I'm gonna stick to it".

Also, gdi, I love these backgrounds.

Aladdin's doubting if they're doing the right thing far more than in the manga. Like, I think in the manga he just... didn't. He was kinda more interested in getting it done & finding Alibaba.

And, tbh, that kinda makes sense? He crossed the desert, he's kinda used to bandits being dangerous and all that.

No, fr, he sounds like he doesn't want to do it, but will do anything to see Alibaba again.

I love him.

Also, I've really said my 3 fav characters were Alibaba, Ja'far & Kouen, and now I'm like I'VE ABANDONED MY BOY. There is another. Sphintus my beloved. Get ready, bc I will spam him in Magnostadt Arc so hard.

"Sinbad might look suspicious" LMAO

The way he quickly moves to hide behind him. 10/10

Really love the music in this entire scene.

This one sounds a bit like the slowed down Enfin Apparu.

In the manga Sinbad just tells them to take what they need, just not to kill anybody. Here he's more encouraging. Not to kill, but, like, in general. The manga was more like giving permission, and here he's telling them "you should take action if you believe what they're doing to be unfair". Which, y'know, is kinda stupid when I think about it. Anime!Sinbad is fucking lucky, because this action could have lead to a political mess, like, bro could've just said that their king sucks & they should fight him. Not a good move, Anime King Sinbad!

Like, I know Sinbad will end up involving himself in internal affairs of Balbadd, but the anime makes it look pretty bad because of this scene. Supporting an existing rebellion is one thing, but encouraging to rebel is a different one.

Also, here Morgiana & Aladdin are searching for Ja'far, cuz they think Sinbad might've been attacked. In the manga it's Morgiana who hears something & informs Aladdin.

There's another thing about Morgiana & her being sidelined in the future - she's rarely singled out, especially later on. But the anime does that already. On the one hand, it's cool to see Morgiana & Aladdin be a team, but on the other, Morgiana oftentimes is viewed as a part of a group, by Alibaba specifically. If he ever thinks about her in the first place. Aladdin and Morgiana. Hakyruu and Morgiana. It's hardly ever just Morgiana.

I've told you! No Aladdin seeing Alibaba, just Morgiana noticing something wrong & informing him, then taking him away from the danger.

Beautiful.

Looks fun.

Ok, this is something I like. The manga basically infodumps about these swords, but here, it comes up in an actual conversation. "Your red fogblade of illusion horrifying as always, Zainab. / Shut up, and use your yellow fogblade of corrosion, Hassan."

Stunning.

Skillz.

Valse Hot playing as they appear.

Morgiana wrecking shit. Neat.

Ok, it's sth I don't think I've commented on the manga read, but Cassim going ??? it's a girl?? Is a mix of "kind of funny", and a nice characterization moment. Both in the anime & manga he looks surprised and kind of guilty. He might be an asshole, but he wouldn't hit a girl. Makes sense, given his backstory.

Also, I'm pretty sure Morgiana's Mariam's age if she, you know, were alive.

Also, that Alibaba with his stupid haor & one eye visible. As if there were any doubts who he was. Well, I get WHY, but in the manga he actually hid his face properly.

Ah, here Cassim just keeps going, in the manga it's Zainab who basically tells him "doesn't matter, she's the enemy!"

Also, another thing I haven't commented on in the manga - Cassim very early shows that he is the real leader. He's the one to take command in this mess, while Alibaba just stands back & watches.

Determination monolog. His priority is Alibaba, he needs to find him, and he needs to deal with these guys to do this.

(insert Saya's short scream here)

Staring.

Realization.

I love how quiet it gets, btw.

-gasp- IT'S HIM!

[toksinblack]

I usually don’t share my thought on much of anything on the internet, but seeing how negative people, especially on Twitter are about Dream smp ending really rubbed me the wrong way. 

I want to preface this by saying that this is all coming from my subjective experience and taste. You have complete right to disagree with me, I would love to have a conversation.

It feels like no matter what the ccs would have done, people would have been unsatisfied, because it seems like people had huge expectations for a silly minecraft roleplay server. I feel like if we look back at the lore streams themselves, they were never serious with maybe the exeption of exile and even then exile had plenty of goofing around, which people forget in favour of dramatic scenes. The fandom ourselves being angsty and hyperfocusing on those scenes does not help either.

Like with a lot of things the problem is that people take everything too seriously, at least regarding the ending, not the abuse portrayal (I have no experience with it, so I can't speak on it). I’ve consumed a lot of media in my life and spent a lot of time dwelling on how things could have been better. And don’t get me wrong, being able to critique is a usefull skill that helps us learn on other writer’s mistakes. But also being able to enjoy things not for what they could have been but for what they are made my life so much better.

It’s kinda funny how people say that the ending was rushed and dragged out simultaneously. Was it rushed? Personally, I don’t think so. Were lore streams far and few between? Yes. But also I don’t wish for them to have streamed everyday, like during quarantine. Again, personally, I have a full-time job, personal life and other interests and hobbys, so I wouldn’t be able to keep up.

I understand, that people probably wanted something grandiose, that involved every person on the server. But I have the feeling that it was simply not possible. I understand people being upset that Techno’s house is gone. I am too. But even if it was around, we almost never would've see it in lore. I'm content with going back to older vods and seeing both the house and Techno preserved in that small window in time. Unchanged. Forever.

What I don't understand is people on Twitter posting shit like "abuse apoligism??!!" And oh boy I'm gonna bite someone's fingers off. No, not it's not. People have already said this but I'll repeat for thr people in the back. Sympathy =/= forgiveness. Different people will have different interpretations of Tommy's last words. I saw the sorry as "I'm sorry things had to be this way" when he realized him and Dream ultimately wanted the same thing. It's this bitter realization that if things went differently they could have had happy lives. Or it could be "Sorry I have to kill you, I didn't want to kill anybody in the first place". It can be different things and forgiveness is not one of them. You think a guy who, just a few days prior, scolded c!Dream apologists will have his character forgive his abuser? Guys, please, have more faith in him than that, jeez.

I don't know which one it is: viewer's either a) inability to engage with media critically and taking everything on a surface level or b) willingness to engage with media and ccs in worst faith baffles me, either way.

There are also sentiments floating around that fans' time and energy, that they put into supporting the story over the past 2,5 years, was somehow 'wasted' by an unsatisfactory ending. Sure you can dislike it, but it shouldn't and does not take away from the fun and enjoyment we collectively had in that time period. It's not about the destination, it's about the journey.

Regarding the nukes, it's great that they used an already established pieces of lore, instead of pulling something out of their asses or going with a Deus Ex Machina. Admittedly, I haven't kept up with Tubbo lore, from what I've seen the nukes got stolen and they dropped the storyline, so to bring them back in an impactful way creates nice continuity.

I also understand from what I've seem that people wanted a good ending. That after all that suffering the characters deserved a nice happy live. I've got nothing to say on that, I enjoy angst. It has a right to exist.

And I understand the ccs wanting to flip over a new leaf, instead of letting everyone live and continuing with their characters. Yes, people have emotional attachments to these characters, but if they stayed in the same world they would've had to navigate through 2 years of lore and relationships that have accumulated and viewers would have been not happy if they got that lore wrong. So starting over allows them to have new storylines, new relationships without having to trip over preexisting convoluted mess that is dsmp lore. Everything has to end. Let's let go.

On that note, what upsets me is that a lot of lore streams are fucking lost media now. I loove how Wilbur made his lore videos, they're bite sized and easy to follow. I was trying to pick out important exile streams recently and god damn it's impossible. There will be them joking around, one important line and then another hour of not really important stuff, I swear.

In conclusion: let's enjoy thing for what they are and engage with media in good faith please. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

[brainbuffering]

12 Days of Manga (2022)

Day 2: Top 3 Shojo of the Year

1) My Love Mix-Up by Aruko and Wataru Hinakure from Shojo Beat (T: Jan Cash L: Inori Fukuda Trant E: Nancy Thistlethwaite)

[ID: English Cover for Vol 3 of My Love Mix-Up! The main characters all stare down at the viewer from above. Aoki and Hashimoto are at the front, grinning broadly, Ida and Akkun at the back. Ida has his usual stoic expression, whilst Akkun throws up a peace sign]

“Aoki has a crush on Hashimoto, the girl in the seat next to him in class. But he despairs when he borrows her eraser and sees she's written the name of another boy-- Ida --on it. To make matters more confusing, Ida sees Aoki holding that very eraser and thinks Aoki has a crush on him!

Aoki has a crush on Ida, a boy in his class. Hashimoto's eraser, which caused so much confusion among friends when Aoki borrowed it, is also at fault for making him flunk a quiz! Aoki, Akkun, and Hashimoto meet up at Ida's for a study session where Aoki and Ida talk about what they are to each other-if they can figure it out?!” 

I keep saying how I’m tired of High School Romance, and then I go and put My Love Mix-Up as my Shojo of the year. A series that is perhaps the most High School of High School Romances. I was drawn to the series through a combination of a £10 Waterstones Voucher, and the notion of a proper, actual love triangle that wasn’t just one girl trying to pick between her childhood best friend and an edgy bad boy(TM).

The confusion over the eraser* was an interesting plot device, and it’s been so much fun to see Aoki discover his bisexuality with the help and support of his friends. It would be really great to see them actually use the word “Bisexual” or even just “Gay” but I suppose I can’t have everything. At this point in time, just seeing a Queer Love Story in the pages of a mainstream magazine like Bessatsu Margaret is a joy! It helps place queer love as equal to heterosexual love, allowing teens to see themselves and their stories beyond specalist publications. 

Whilst it was lovely to see how accepting their friends are of their relationship and not have them deal with any homphobic bullying, I think the strongest story so far has been that of Aoki and his Cram School Tutor. So far he had not had to face up against any sort of homophobia, but now he’s had someone he respects become suddenly prejudiced towards him due to his relationship with Ida: something that should have no actual baring on his education, or his relationship with his tutor! Whilst said tutor is called out for his prejudice rather explicitly, I do like that ther were no slurs or out right bullying involved, just a series of assumptions and a change in behaviour that hurt Aoki’s feelings in a meaningful way. It didn’t paint the tutor as an evil villain, but rather someone who had made some mistakes and needed to re-evaulate their position on life, which he does!

This is an important lesson for readers of all sexualtites. Queer readers learn that they don’t have to put up with this kind of behaviour, and that they are justified in their discomfort and anger; meanwhile Straight readers learn what is and isn’t appropriate behaviour. Prejudice is of course something that is ingrained in all of us, and isn’t something that can easily be changed over night. However it is something that needs to be changed! It’s something we should all address within ourselves, and work on so as to make sure we don’t hurt those around us. Because confronting those harmful beliefs is the responsibility of the individual, not that of the oppressed.

The art work isn’t perhaps the greatest as Aruko admits to taking their time to adapt to digital, but it has definetly improved as the series has progressed and is helped imensely by Hinekure’s story telling. I was a little concerned that the series might start to drag on after a while, but hearing that it has ended at nine volumes makes me more confident that this’ll become a classic we’ll still be recomending in years to come.

I hope that these silly kids will get a happy high school ending.

* I’m British, but I’m aware of how Americans work and “confusion over a rubber” would make for a very different kind of story. Please do not write your crush’s name on a condom....

2) Kageki Shojo!! by Kumiko Saiki from SevenSeas (T: Katrina Leonoudakis L: Aila Nagamine E: Shannon Fay)

[ID: English Cover of Vol 5 of Kageki Shojo!! Ai and Sarasa dance ballroom style wearing pink/yellow versions of their school uniforms. Sarasa has a black 1770s European style millitary jacket with gold brocade thrown over her shoulders. The background is bright green with confetti, balloons and stars.]

“The ongoing tale that began with the omnibus release of Kageki Shojo!! The Curtain Rises. Follow the drama on and off the stage with the girls at the Kouka School of Musical and Theatrical Arts--and don't miss the anime adaptation!

Ever since she was a little girl, Sarasa has wanted to play the role of Oscar as part of the Kouka Acting Troupe, an all-female acting troupe similar to the Takarazuka Revue. But before she can do that, she has to attend two years at the Kouka School of Musical and Theatrical Arts. As Sarasa practices singing, dancing, and acting, she grows closer to the other girls in her year, including her roommate, the stoic former J-idol, Ai. Though Sarasa is great at making friends, her outspoken nature and grand ambitions earn her lots of enemies as well. Can Sarasa keep her upbeat attitude and achieve her dream of stardom?”

I originallay picked up this series because I follow the translator on twitter and enjoy her threads on translation theory so was curious to see what a series translted by her would be like. And I haven’t looked back since! 

The artwork is lovely, the stories are heartfelt and true to life. It doesn’t shy away from big topics like eating disorders, PTSD, and anxiety. The girls are all wonderful, but not always nice which is excellent to see! Even bitches like Hijiri are fleshed out and given reasons for you to love them.

Whilst the relationship between Sarasa and Ai leans more towards the classic “open to interpretation” side of things, on the whole the series is very queer inclusive. The very concept of it plays with gender so much, that it even started out as Seinen (manga for men) before transfering over to Shojo (manga for girls)! It says a lot about the series and how the inherent gendering of genres is outdated given how the first volume from its seinen days discussed bulemia in the entertainment industry, whilst the first volume of the shojo days talked about the long lasting pyschological damage the american fire bombing in WW2 did to innocent japanese citizens. Never has a turn page made me cry more than that one....

But High School Shojo is just fluff and nonsense, right? 

As a former theatre kid, it’s also been lots of fun to learn more about the different traditons of Japanese Theatre, with paticular regards to comparing all-female casting and all-male casting. Which is becoming a tragically more relevant discussion given what is happening in the united states at the moment with regards to drag performances. Seriously, who’s going to tell them that the original Juliet was played by a teenage boy? Or do those TERFs simply not care one way or the other about child welfare, and just want to force their backwards beliefs onto everyone else? But I digress.

Within the series there’s an interesting discussion had about the freedom of actors to play the roles they want, and what things might stop them. Some girls dream of playing the beautiful feminime leads but find that biology has made them too tall and broad, others want to play the macho hero but are considered too short and busty. Then there’s other physical limitations to be taken into account. Andou-sensei achieved his dream of playing the Phantom of the Opera, but had his carer then come to an abrupt end because of a sudden injury that lead to a permanent disability. He’s therefore had to find a new way to express himself and share his love for threate, something that took time for him to accept. This felt paticualrly relateable to me, as I’ve also had to adapt to needing to use a walking stick just to walk 20m, where as before I was running up and down a field hockey pitch on the regular!

Then there’s Sarasa who had to give up her dream of performing in Kabuki due to her assigned gender, but whose new goal in life is to play Lady Oscar from Rose of Versailles: a character that is widely considered to be Non-Binary/X-Gendered by today’s standards!

This series teaches us that Gender is a performance, and Sarasa Watanabe is the Top Star.

3) A Sign of Affection by suu Morishita from Kodansha (T: Christine Dasiell L: Carl Vanstiphout and Lys Blakeslee E: Ben Applegate and William Flanagan)

{ID: English Cover of A Sign of Affection Vol 5 by suu Morishita. Itsumi wears a yellow short sleeved paisley button up shirt and gently holds Yuki’s hand. Yuki is laying back on a white sofa, one arm crooked as she looks at the viewer. She’s wearing a matching yellow dress with large puff sleeves and a white hearing aid. They are framed in a circle by red, white and blue poppies.] 

“Yuki is a typical college student in all ways but one: She's hard of hearing. A chance encounter on a train leads to a serious crush...but will he give her a chance? A sweet and relatable manga romance from the creator of Shortcake Cake! Even with a hearing aid, the voices of others are an indistinct blur for Yuki. But she's never let that get in the way of a life arranged around her friends, social media, and cute fashion. She's browsing her phone on train when a tourist asks her for directions, and she's ready to panic...but the handsome Itsuomi steps in to help. It turns out her new crush is a friend of a friend, and Yuki's world starts to widen. But even though Itsuomi-kun can speak three languages, sign language isn't one of them. Can Yuki communicate her budding feelings? From the acclaimed author of Shortcake Cake, the hit shojo series with more than a million copies in print, this new work is sure to please fans of romantic stories like A Silent Voice, Kimi ni Todoke, and Love in Focus!”

The way this series uses lettering to enhance story telling makes me want to run around in circles and scream across the mountains like a cowboy. At some point I am absolutely going to be write a whole post about just the lettering, but for now, just trust me when I say it’s amazing. Heck, the reason I wait for the physical releases rather than reading the Simulpub is so that I can get the higher quality lettering experience!

In terms of the rest of the series though, it’s beautifully illustrated throughout and I love how everyone has such excellent fashion choices! I’m also reading Shortcake cake at the moment, and seeing the development in Morishita’s art and styling decisions really shows how well they understand the art of making comics! Nobody is doing it like them.

I’m always interested in stories featuring disabled protagonists where they’re not given magical cures or solutions to their problems, and seeing such a wonderful romance blossom between Yuki and Itsuomi has been delighful. It’s a series that really focusses on the importance of communication between couples, and how it’s okay to make mistakes but never assumptions.

Whilst I would agree with criticsim that Yuki is perhaps too isolated from the rest of the d/Deaf Community for someone who attended a Deaf School, I will say that she doesn’t feel that different to any other shojo protagonist as a result. She’s a “fish out of water” who, despite being wonderful and kind and inteligent, only seems to have two friends. Whilst that trope is overdone in a lot of Shojo, here it feels earned due to her disability! Or at least based upon some of my personal experiences as a teenager with epilepsy.

As the series has gone on, we have seen her reach out to the rest of the community, and I hope that we continue to see more of that. I find it very reassuring that Morishita credit their sign language consultant/collaborator, Yuki Miyazaki, in every single volume of the manga and promote her personal work on their twitter.

In terms of shojo, I think it’s also just really nice to read about university students rather than high schoolers. Not only does it mean that they’re closer to my age (Okay, Yuki is 19 and I’m 28 but ... still) but it also means they’re able to explore the world a little more, quite literally in Itsuomi’s case. Vol 6 is not yet out in English, but I gather from looking at some of the simulpub previews that their relationship is going to be developing into the more adult sector, both physically and in practicality, which makes me so happy to see! Not just because I myself am a disabled adult who has recently moved out of their parents’ place and look forward to some potentially relateable content, but because it’s so good to just see any disabled protagonist be allowed to be an adult and go through regular adult things!

Whilst I cannot speak for d/Deaf folks, i know from my experience with epilepsy that it can be incredibily isolating no matter how well meaning your ablebodied friends are, and moving from a place where your needs are always met to somewhere new is both frustrating, scary and -- to some extent -- reasuring as you learn what you can and cannot surive. That’s the journey Yuki is on right now, and I would like for the series to perhaps dive more into that element but equally seeing her relationship with Itsoumi develop is so delightfully romantic in a flower petals, stained glass window, Alan Menken Soundtrack kind of a way. It also feels like such a breath of fresh air for a disabled character to be allowed to be seen as desirable without it becoming fetishcistic. 

I don’t think this series is some sort of big revolution in the manga world. I don’t think people will be writing essays about it in the same way they do with Ed’s prosphetics in Full Metal Alchemist, or Clint Barton’s Hearing Loss in the Aja/Fraction/Hollingsworth run. But it’s still an important series that I think people need to pick up, if only for the master class in lettering.

SERIOUSLY.

IT’S SO GOOD

YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!!!!

THEY USE DIFFERENT SHADES AND TONES AND POSITIONINGS TO DETERMINE WHAT SHE CAN AND CANNOT UNDERSTAND.

YOU GET SUCH A CLEAR IDEA ABOUT WHAT HER LIFE IS LIKE AND THE MISCOMUNICATION TROPE IS SO WELL EARNED HERE. 

[ID: A old white man in a black cowboy hat and suit is superimposed over a desert mountain scape. He is screaming passionately,]

(End Note: Some of my enjoyment from this series also comes from the fact that Itsuomi used to live in Germany the same as me and so speaks in German sometimes, and since I can read German, I get to feel smug and knowledgeable.)