#i'm not gonna tag the phantom villains because they're not really here

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super 075

Yeah, okay.

So in this episode, Goku is bored.  This is a running theme in Episodes 68-96, where the Zamasu Saga is over but the Tournament of Power has not begun.  Normally they just skip the downtime and move on to the next arc, but Dragon Ball Super is built different, and just devoted a fourth of its episodes to dull filler episodes.  This one’s okay, but I still don’t understand why we needed so many episodes about Goku being bored.

Anyway, Chi-Chi wants Goku to train.  Yeah, you read that correctly.  Goku’s so bored that Chi-Chi is worried about him being understimulated.  The problem is that no one’s available to train with him.  Whis is busy, Vegeta is busy, etc.  So she calls in Gohan, who says he’s retired, but he’ll give it a shot.  Wait, he’s training with Piccolo, though.  Gohan still proposes Goten training with Goku instead, but Chi-Chi wants him to study, so that’s no go.

For some reason, Gohan feels the need to turn into Great Saiyaman for this, like he needs to be in a particular “mode” depending on what he’s doing.  Goku doesn’t get it, but he’s not going to question it.  Wait, is this why Gohan keeps saying he’s retired from fighting?  Like he’s training with Piccolo and he was just in a fight in the last episode, but maybe he’s compartmentalized his life to the point where he refuses to acknowledge one role while playing another. 

Like, I don’t want to make too much of this.  It’s not like Gohan’s having some sort of psychological crisis here.  It’s just that I think he feels that he shouldn’t fight while he’s wearing his “scholar” outfit, but he doesn’t want to switch to his “training with Piccolo” persona because Piccolo’s not here, and I’m starting to get the impression that he’s been keeping that a secret from everyone.  Like, this seems to be how Gohan operates now. 

Anyway, this seems to go well until their sparring wrecks the farm, so Goku has to come up with something else.  Goten suggests Krillin, and that’s a good idea.  Krillin is always a good idea, really.

Of course, Krillin is in the middle of shootout while doing his job as a cop.  I like how the other cops have to dress like actual cops while Krillin wears his lime green and purple uniform. 

During a heroic moment, Krillin saves a cop from gunfire but get shot in the arm for his trouble.  Luckily, Goku shows up and bends all the bad guys’ guns, George Reeves style. 

At first, Krillin isn’t eager to train with Goku, since he’s retired from fighting, and unlike Gohan, he’s sticking to that decision. Goku points out that he helped out against Golden Frieza, but that was only because the fate of the world was at stake.  Then 18 kind of shames him into going along with Goku’s plan, and Marron says she wants a “strong daddy”.  Kind of laying it on thick, aren’t we?  Well, it works, anyway.

To be fair to 18, Krillin kind of needed a kick in the pants.  As he says to Goku, he shouldn’t have gotten hit with that bullet at all, and he needs to get back into shape if he’s going to pull those kinds of heroics on the job.  This isn’t like when Yamcha became a pro ball player and could coast on his skills through the entire season.  Krillin’s job involves apprehending dangerous criminals who want to kill him. He can’t “retire” from martial arts and then use martial arts to execute his duties.  Eventually, they decide the best thing to do is seek training from Master Roshi, and just go completely old school with this. 

Roshi isn’t sure he can do much for either of them, but he gives it a shot.  First up, he has Krillin spar with Goku while Goku wears a weighted turtle costume.  I’m not going to ask where Roshi got this or why he has it in his house.  He’s not trying to watch teenagers poop, so I’ll deal with this.

And their match seems to go okay, but Krillin isn’t getting much out of it.  His problem is more mental than anything else.  As Roshi puts it, Krillin is frustrated with himself for falling behind, and the harder he tries, the more frustrated he becomes.

The next morning, Roshi assigns Goku and Krillin to go on a fetchquest for... whatever plant this is.  Make your own weed joke here. 

It’s a race, and he promises the winner a rare girly mag from his collection.  Goku and Krillin aren’t interested, since they’re both married to hot milfs in their area.  Also, why does the “rarity” matter?  They’ve been making naked ladies for a long, long time.  I mean, if you’re a collector like Roshi, I’m sure there’s certain models and photographers he prefers, but how would anyone else appreciate that?

You know, the art direction on this episode is pretty incredible.  This is a goofy scene but the backgrounds look like something out of the Lion King or what have  you. 

So they fly to this weird island, and they meet Fortuneteller Baba there, because she’s got some role to play in this.  Actually, I think she’s just supposed to use her crystal ball so Roshi can monitor the boys’ progress, but I don’t understand why she has to be on this island when she’s just going to head back to Roshi’s place.  Anyway, according to Baba, this island is like a liminal space between Earth and the Otherworld.  Aren’t there like... three more of those in this show?  Goku and Krillin have both died five times put together, so I think they might be a liminal space between Earth and the Otherworld. 

Now everything looks like Sleeping Beauty or something.  You know, with all the thorns?

Then they find themselves surrounded by all their old foes.  Well, in particular, all the ones who beat the shit out of Krillin.  Which is most of them, sure, but we’re not seeing guys like Mercenary Tao or Android 19, because Krillin didn’t fight those guys.

Also, Tambourine is here, which is a big deal to Krillin, since Tambourine killed him.  But I’m posting this shot of Cell instead, because Cell is cooler than Tambourine.  Yeah, he didn’t kill Krillin, but he did kick him really hard, which was pretty awesome.  No offense, Krillin.

[genderfluiddoppio]

Hiiii you should talk about why you love pakunoda a lot, I absolutely did not glom onto her when I was watching through hxh 2011, but I am so excited to be sold on her. Sorry if this is the wrong blog to ask on!

I'm so glad you asked :) I also didn't really click with Pakunoda after watching the 2011 anime. I thought she was neat but that was it. But the 1999 anime (and ova) gave her a bit more time in the spotlight and developed her character A LOT more and once I watched that I was obsessed.

(Honestly I think the 1999 anime is better than the 2011 anime in general but that's a topic for another time)

Any time I go into the Pakunoda tag I get so mad because a lot of people tend to make her one personality trait Being A Woman. And I suppose it's my own damn fault for becoming obsessed w a female character in a shonen anime, especially one that only shows up for one arc (and a flashback in the manga).

Okay I'm gonna start with actual canon evidence (meaning like. literally any scene that has her in the 1999 and 2011 animes and the manga) of her personality/character before I delve into my insane theories/headcanons. Also spoilers for the manga obviously I'll try to keep the most spoilery bits to their own section

So Pakunoda doesn't get a lot of screen time and before the hostage exchange situation, she's pretty passive. She doesn't speak much and in the beginning of the York new arc, she's chilling with chrollo at the hideout. She doesn't get an active part in the story until the blackout happens and she decides to ignore chrollos orders to save him. Before this, the phantom troupe were like. Not generic villains, but they haven't had a chance to truly show their motivations. As far as the audience could tell, they were villains through and through and didn't have any sympathetic qualities. During the hostage exchange plot, we see a sympathetic side to Pakunoda and the rest of the phantom troupe and the troupe becomes more nuanced as characters. Not only do we see the spiders loyalty to chrollo, we see it's not as simple as "aw the villains wanna save their friends too just like the heroes" though that is part of it. It's made clear that some of the troupe considers following chrollos orders true loyalty, while Paku, shizuku, machi, nobunaga, and kortopi think saving chrollo is more important. Pakunoda even admits this would be seen as a "betrayal" because she's ignoring chrollos orders and compromising the safety/integrity of the troupe by valuing his life above all else. She says "consider me betraying the spider for your sake" when she decides to follow Kurapika's demands and go through with the hostage exchange. her loyalty differs from most of the other spiders because she's loyal to chrollo ABOVE her loyalty to the spiders. While I'm sure most of not all the spiders consider him a friend, they value his leadership and his orders above that. 

Also everyone talks about how chrollo and kurapika are parallels and like they're not wrong but kurapika and Pakunoda are just as similar if not more so and melody even points it out (internally) during the negotiation!

Melody says "[Pakunoda] who you despise with everything you have is driven by the same motive as you. She wishes to save her friend, her boss." 

Kurapika doesn't realize this because he's still clinging to the mindset that the troupe is a group of bloodthirsty heartless monsters, when in reality they are complex people with the same motivation as him, especially Pakunoda. The only reason kurapika is able to get Gon and killua back safely is because Pakunoda is just as desperate to get chrollo back safely. 

(Manga spoilers here kinda)

In the phantom troupe backstory, we see that Pakunoda was closer to chrollo than any other member of the phantom troupe. she refers to him as her "little squire/little brother" (depending on which translation you read) and says she likes how kind he is

gonna throw one of my headcanon/theories in here but like. i feel like pakunoda still thinks of chrollo as that sweet kid who everyone had to look out for. i think part of her yearns to just be happy and carefree with her friends again. I didnt mention the ova's extended scene with the cat before now because i feel like thats the scene everyone points to when they say they like pakunoda. but i think it's even deeper than "pakunoda is nice to cats" because in the ova, the cat represents her and the troupe. while she takes the cat back to its colony, she flashes back to her time in meteor city when the troupe was first formed. not only that, but the cat has purple eyes like paku does (in the 1999 anime) and the black cat is positioned on top of the slide like how chrollo is positioned on top of the junk pile. i think thats when pakunoda made her decision to go back to the troupe and share what happened during the exchange, though she knew it would cost her her life.

Tldr; Pakunoda is (almost) singlehandedly carrying the phantom troupe's reputation as well written and nuanced characters and people tend to forget that

ALSO. Very important information.

she has dimples

[far-from-fran]

Violence ask game!! 7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

Ooh, this is a good one!😈

I'm gonna start with the funnier ones, then get to the more serious ones.

I don't currently hate any of these characters. I've pretty much gotten over it, but these are the first ones that came to mind.

Ok, I'm putting this under a cut as a warning to people in these fandoms. I'm going to be bitching and moaning. Probably about your favs. So, read the tags and:

🚨 DON'T LIKE, DON'T READ! 🚨

Anyway…

Danny Phantom

I don't have anything against Danny. I actually really like him. I just got tired of seeing him all over AO3. Almost every time I searched for a fic, even in fandoms that had nothing to do with him, I'd have to filter out a bunch of DP stuff. It got to the point where I was filtering out more DP tags than tags I actually wanted to filter out. It was annoying for a while, but I took a break from AO3, and now I just find it funny.

Dr. Emile Picani (Cartoon Therapy)

This is a general pet peeve sort of thing, but I just don't like how “uwu babyboy” people make him. He's a geeky therapist with a sensitive side, but people act like he's a softboi who's never done anything bad. (He has. I actually have big problems with his debut episode. The second episode is a lot better, imo.)

It's the same issue with Patton from Sanders Sides. They take a grown man and turn him into a tiny, wittle babyboi. It's mad annoying.

Also, I hate Emile in a skirt. I just don't think he'd ever wear one, so I wrinkle my nose whenever people talk about him in one. Honestly, the “fandom is afraid of masculinity” sentiment I've seen here and there is a completely different can of worms. But I'm starting to agree with it. Nothing against men in skirts in general/irl, though. Just to be clear.

But, anyway, fanon Emile is becoming indistinguishable from fanon Patton, and I hate that. Hell, canon Emile is becoming indistinguishable from canon Patton. Like, seriously. Since when has Emile ever had to “earmuff” because someone was cursing? (Mixed feelings about the Remy/Thomas therapy video.) Let Emile be an interesting character, please. And not just “Baby softboi, but he's wearing pink this time™”.

Virgil (Sanders Sides)

My feelings toward Virgil tend to fluctuate. Most of the time, I love him, but sometimes I can't stand him. (Mostly by his own doing.) But, the way the fandom treats him like the second coming of Christ in a purple plaid hoodie is so fucking annoying. Especially with the way people woobify him.

In canon, he started as a big jerk, realized he was a big jerk, and decided to be a little jerk. It's not like he's a little uwu baby who's never done anything wrong. The Halloween ep is even sort of about not woobifying Virgil. (It's more about taking anxiety seriously.) Like. I get it, but it's still really annoying.

Of course, there's the other side of the fandom that treats him like he's the devil. Which can also be annoying, but at least they actually call him out for stuff.

The most annoying thing, however, is how the other sides will be villainized to make Virgil look better. It's nuts. Like, yeah, Janus and Virgil have beef, but neither one of them is evil, so.🙄

Aang (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Speaking of people treating a character like they're the second coming of Christ…!

In all seriousness, I never really had problems with Aang until toxic Kataang shippers started harassing Zutara shippers. They held the ship, and Aang, to such a high stature that I couldn't like either anymore. Especially since zutara shippers were (and still are) accused of being shallow, at best, and… checks notes supporting genocide????? at worst. And, the brunt of that was when I was, like, 12, so.

Obviously, I don't blame all kataang shippers. Most of them are pretty cool. And, zutara shippers can also be toxic. I'm a zutara shipper, and I've seen some of the toxicity firsthand. But, that experience really made fandom shitty for me.

However, I've watched the show recently and remembered that I really like Aang. Despite how much he can annoy me. So, there's always a bright side.

But, yeah. Thanks for the ask, @msnihilist!😊 Sorry if I got a little heated.😅 That wasn't directed at you, lol.