#it was just so. disappointing for me personally from a character consistency standpoint

[helianthologies]

ok ive decided im actually not gonna rewatch any fantasy high stuff or finish the seven bc it feels like homework and i dont wanna. im just gonna wait for junior year and hopefully that will reignite my interest in d20 and THEN when its done i will re/watch all that other stuff IF I FEEL LIKE IT

[ooooo-mcyt]

Yknow what? I'd actually go so far as to say that, as much as ive seen it complained about, it's actually pretty hard to "UwU" or "Woobify" Grian within the context of yhs.

I mean. It's possible if you go really extreme with it, but it's hard.

Grian at his core is actually a primarily decent person most of the timeand is a primarily innocent party in most things. One who goes through a Lot.

If you really think about it Grian's moral compass isn't too far off normal basic human morality. He's often anxious and hesitant when faced with any involvement in criminal activity, he's frequently dismayed and offput by suggestions of violence (the less deserved the more dismay is expressed as well), he's disappointed and frustrated at seeing the people around him do fucked up things, he's almost always polite with a good head on his shoulders when faced with a kind or reasonable person. Even well into ts, long after first coming back to Japan, Grian is still incredibly uneasy and fidgety with the suggestion that he take part in violence, I mean, remember that time he, Taurtis, and Sam were tasked with killing Geode and Grian not only initially tried to refuse outright but then checked in shakily with the other two multiple times just to confirm if they were really going to kill someone. Grian's typically the character most likely in the entire series to be incredibly put off by and very hesitant about doing bad things (especially to people he's not one million percent certain deserve it).

And while one could argue that we can't really praise his moral compass for being hesitant about involving himself in crime/wrongdoing when he often ends up participating anyways. Actions speak louder than words and all. However I disagree. The fact that Grian vocally does not wish to be involved in this kind of thing and has proven to behave on the more reasonable and polite side when acting independently in relation to likewise level headed people....is Very important. In fact, in actual legal cases, oftentimes a factor in trying individuals is the question of whether they would commit the crime in question indepently or under normal circumstances. This is the basis for necessity, duress, and insanity pleas, amoung other's. People who would not act the way they did in a certain scenario under normal circumstances are often liable to be judged favourably in their actions. In fact, speaking of duress pleas, Grian's got a pretty solid one for a lot of his actions. The times Sam or Yuki held a knife to his throat or the times police threatened to kill him if he doesn't comply with orders or any alike incidents. In cases where duress isn't applicable to Grian's behaviour there are oftentimes incidents in which an outright case for violence in self defense can be made. In fact, most of Grian's circumstances leave him very viable to be judged sympathetically on a legal standpoint. The fact that he was a minor, the fact that he had no apparent history of violence or crime, the fact that he was in a severely abusive relationship with a criminal and entering said relationship marked the start of any sort of criminal behaviour from Grian, any criminal behaviour from Grian always being in a group setting never lead by himself, the fact that he always clearly and openly protests when pulled into these group settings, the duress and self defense pleas that are applicable to pretty much all incidents in which he does engage. Which are also all factors that can and should be accounted for on. a moral basis as well, obviously. And like, Grian has a reputation for being arrogant, cynical, and rude or whatever, but he's really not. He very rightfully calls out other people's horrible bullshit and makes snappy remarks towards his abuser but that's the opposite of a problem and Grian's proven himself more than capable of reasonable civility towards reasonable people. Grian just isn't the selfish arrogant disrespectful criminal that he's sometimes implied to be and in fact he's largely innocent- or absolvable, if you'd rather- in most of the things levied against him. Grian's not a literal saint giving to the needy and taking care of orphans in his spare time but he's a decent guy overall???

And hey, speaking of that super abusive relationship Grian landed in. Let's not forget the impact of that situation. Sam was undoubtedly abusive towards Grian. He threatened Grian's life various times, he basically told Grian he was nothing compared to Taurtis, he shoved plastic down Grian's throat and laughed when he choked, he got Grian locked up in solitary confinement through complete lies just because he thought it'd be entertaining I guess, he forced Grian to kiss an abnormally large amount of people against his will (some of these instances sam recorded despite being asked not to), he himself tried to make out with Grian without consent while Grian was sleeping in his own private room, he forcefully dressed Grian up in feminine cosplay meant to be ~attractive~ complete with fake breasts, he lied to Grian about the gender identity of someone Grian dated as a joke (his words) and lightly mocked Grian afterwards, he locked Grian in a basement for three days straight and it's unclear whether or not he was planning to let him out anytime soon, he dragged Grian into a closet with school staff despite Grian's very vocal distress and discomfort then scolded Grian for considering reported it when this staff member made uncomfortable comments on the outfit Sam had forced Grian into, Sam offered to give Grian to another guy who made a similar uncomfortable comment later on as part of some trade, he consistently dragged Grian against his will into criminal activity whether by threatening him, tricking him into participating, or just altogether falsely implicatng him, amoung Many other things. And every step of the way Sam did his best to completely gaslight Grian. He used every gaslighting technique in the book. Telling blatant lies (for example, "i would never stab taurtis", "you are taurtis", "grian's crazy and he stabbed taurtis"), he denies doing shit to Grian that Grian knows damn well he did ("i would never stab taurtis"). He hard projected his bs onto Grian (from blaming grian for 'making' sam do awful shit sam did to claiming grian actually fullstop did the awful shit sam did). He was just constantly trying to turn people against Grian (convincing yuki and taurtis to back him up in calling grian a bad manipulative friend and insisting he needed to apologize for 'making' sam horrifically abuse him. arriving in the police station and instantly without hesitation telling them grian was crazy and dangerous and pinning his own crimes on grian. having taurtis back him up and help scold grian for getting mad about being locked in the basement for days). Telling Grian he's crazy (taurtis incident again, solitary confinement incident, the time sam kissed grian without his consent while he slept and grian got mad). Telling everyone else that Grian's a manipulative liar (taurtis incident again, solitary confinement incident again). Yknow. Gaslighting. Sam was just so unbelievably abusive. In like. Every possible way. Which adds a LOT of trauma to Grian. That on top of his parents abandoning him as a little kid too because we couldn't leave it at severe abuse.

Grian's not a bad person. And he's certainly a very sympathetic person. Which is why it would be hard to woobify yhs Grian. It would be hard to make a very sympathetic very sad character egregiously sympathetic and sad. His whole arc is getting abandoned by his parents, going to visit his friends, and getting violently abused and forced into a multitude of disturbing activities against his will for an extended period of time.

One could argue that sure Grian isn't a bad person and sure Grian's got a pretty sad life, but certainly a lot of people are guilty of making Grian more helpless and scared and generally 'pathetic' than he is in canon.

To which I reply...not really?

Grian already doesn't have half the fight response people ascribe to him throughout the series. That was a whole other post but honestly Grian's response to traumatic situations is very frequently to cave to them and he's got a much stronger submissive streak than people often admit. I mean, Grian was asked to dress up as his best friend who just got stabbed "to make things less awkward and make me feel better" and he did it within ten seconds of being asked without the others even needing to threaten him at all. Grian does express quite a bit of despair, fear, and submissive tendency in canon when faced with dangerous or traumatic situations. And while it's possible to go a bit too far with that if you consistently leave out the token fight entirely, I see people swing way too far un the opposite direction way too often. There's a reason Grian never actually killed Sam in canon. There's a reason Grian never made a serious attempt to get him arrested for his crimes. There's a reason Grian never just left. When Sam found Grian after he ran out of the gym during the Taurtis incident? Grian didn't lunge for Sam. There was no serious altercation between the two. Grian scrambled back and tearfully babbled platitudes while shoving plastic down his own throat on command. And even beyond that, a lot of the interpretations accused of making Grian too helpless/scared/'pathetic' are works that involve Grian processing trauma years after the fact. Which. Even if Grian was the most aggressive on edge fighter in the history of trauma responses during the traumatic events? People don't process their trauma after the fact the same way they instinctively respond in the moment. Even if Grian never shed a tear throughout any of the traumatic ordeals he experienced, it would be far from unrealistic behaviour for him to still process after the fact by panicking and sobbing his eyes out regularly. Which, again, Grian wasn't even all that fight oriented while it was happening so panic and tears isn't even super far removed from his actual in the moment responses let alone processing after-responses. It's just. It's really hard to "UwU" Grian tbh. He's a decent person, he went through hell (his own words actually), and he was never even really very effectively aggressive when he did. And while it's possible to dip too far into that territory, far more often I see things swung egregiously far in the other direction.

[sepublic]

Marcy Wu’s Height(?)

So! As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to try and calculate the other characters’ measurements using Hop Pop as a frame of reference! However, while the circumference of a frog skull is beyond my ability to analyze and compare, I do have this!

Using a ruler in real life and everything, I compared the length of one cm on Marcy’s measuring tape, and applied it to the rest of Marcy in shot- Specifically her head! From there I was able to calculate the height of Marcy’s head in real life, and after comparing her head’s height to a full character model, my final measurement for Marcy Wu’s real-life, in-universe height is... Drumroll please...!

108 centimeters!

...For reference, that is equivalent to 3.5 feet, and the average height of a 13-year-old girl is 5.15 feet, or 157 cm! Marcy is roughly two-thirds of the regular height, but then so are Anne and Sasha because they’re also about as tall as her, which...

Unless every human in Amphibia is extremely short, I...

Yeah.

Honestly, I went into this with the full possibility that the measurements would be bogus. Like proportions can be weird in cartoons, but total height? Generally consistent to real life, hence why that mattered more to me than Marcy’s head size compared to a real life one.

And, I expected this! I had a feeling the animators wouldn’t have gone through the painstaking effort of making sure each centimeter tick is drawn to scale! Not because I look down on the animators, but simply because- That’s just a lot of unnecessary work and painstaking attention to detail, for something that has no bearing whatsoever!

I had a good feeling that Hop Pop’s measurements were just a random number thrown in that sounded fairly sensible for the sake of the moment, but obviously the writers never intended for that to be taken in stone, in reference to the others!

Because who would? Size is more important from a relative standpoint, and personally I’ve never been one for exact measurements, nor have I fussed over them myself in both the media I consume and create. A general relativity is all I want and need.

Of course, I tried the measurements anyway for fun, because... Yeah! I like doing weird and pointless stuff like this! I once tried to calculate the dating system of the Boiling Isles after Lost in Language, you know, and that also turned out to be a bust, because who would waste time fleshing out this fictional standard of measurement over the show itself?

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but when you only have so much budget, time, and energy, priorities are a concern! So I’m not surprised but I’m not disappointed either. I think I had fun and I enjoyed applying myself, it was a neat thought experiment, and I believe Brian David Gilbert explained why this sort of hobby can be so deep and intimate and meaningful, actually!

I don’t regret it one bit, and I’m still willing to try stuff like this out! Maybe it’ll coincidentally work out or not, who knows? It’s a means of expression and engaging with one’s love for the source material, and I think that’s what matters first and foremost.

[pynkhues]

HeyI really wanna thank you for introducing me to Succession through your post! I binge watched the complete show within a few days and can't wait for season 3. The only thing that kinda bothers me, is the fact that the fandom consists of so many men. Maybe I'm spoiled by the nuanced discourse within the good girls fandom, but the complete disregard and empathy for the suffering of the female characters is completely baffling. I love all characters of the show because they are all terrible, but the amount of people who excuse kendalls long long list of shitty behaviour but demonize shiv for hers is mind boggling and very off-putting. It's honestly fan opinions like that, which make spite-rooting for all female characters even though I don't think they are good people.

Sorry for ranting but reading all these double standards makes my blood boil😂

Hey! You're welcome, anon! I'm so thrilled you liked it, and I am insanely hyped for s3 too. The teaser's aleady killed me in the best way, haha.

And oooof, that's really disappointing. I haven't really ventured too deeply into the Succession fandom, but I can't say that it surprises me that people would prioritise the male characters (there are certainly a lot of them!) nor can I say I'm surprised the women aren't granted the same empathy or interest.

I actually saw a comment on something a while ago that was derogatory about Marcia and probably had a similar response to you, haha, particularly as I think Marcia is one of the most interesting characters on the show and I'm obsessed with both the mystery of her personally, and her relationship with Logan. I love that they both come from these dark, shrouded backgrounds, and that while we don't know Marcia well, we know she's ambitious, protective, ruthless and shrewd, and, I believe, really loves him, just like I think he loves her too. The tangle of that, and of her not forgiving him for the Rhea situation, is brutal and I am desperately excited for the fallout.

But yeah, god, I don't think there's a woman on this show I'm not into from a character standpoint? From Marcia to Shiv to Gerri, to Rhea, Tabitha, Naomi, Rava, Willa, Caroline, Nan, gosh, the list! is! endless! There are so many incredible, awful, complicated, miserable, fucked up women in this, and I love the way they just really realise these women, flaws, warts and all. I'm not rooting for any of them, because I'm not rooting for any character on this show, haha, but to ignore or not sink into them as players feels like you're cutting yourself from a huge section of what makes this show so great. It couldn't be me, haha.

[nicolinocolino]

Hey. Just an honest question. Is there a specific reason people don’t love season 3 of SkamIT as much as the rest? Was it a writing issue? An acting one? Lack of Besse? The whole Edo’s brother thing? I’m just curious. Not trying to start anything. This show is like beautiful regardless but I was intrigued. 😅

Hey! I think this is a really fair question. But I’d like to preface with the fact that I think her season is definitely enjoyed by many! Lots of Incantava edits have tons of notes, I remember some good meta being written while the season was airing, and people still (I think) write fics about them!

There are two main reasons why, in my opinion:

I think a lot of it stems back to the original SKAM, where Noora and William’s relationship was seen as toxic by a good portion of the fandom. So there’s some stigma attached to it — a lot of fans who had seen the OG went in skeptical. While the writing is certainly at fault here, I also think maybe a different actor for William could have helped this. And I think that SKAM Italia proved this to be the case — it made small writing choices for the better and Edo is a much smilier and kinder William. Incantava, to me, is a far more enjoyable version of Noora and William.

I think t*mvision also soured the season. We were all really disappointed as a fandom when suddenly the show was put behind a paywall and they didn’t even care about posting stuff on time. Clips were early, late, socials and texts were posted out of time... it was a mess and it was frustrating.

And there are a few personal reasons why that are simply my opinion, and that maybe some people can relate to:

I was disappointed by the really harsh character change in Ele between season 1 and season 3. Most of the other characters have been fairly consistent, so this took me off guard. I get that we are in her POV, and that she might not be the sarcastic and sassy tough girl we saw on the outside, but there’s something to be said when that completely disappears. To me, they made her into a bit of a shell :/ I also felt like she barely talked during her own season?

I wish a bit more weight, care, and thought went into the SA storyline. Not that I need to see her suffering all season, but I felt like by the end it was overshadowed by the romance.

Personally... I just don’t think Benni is the strongest actor :/ compared to Ludovica and Federico before her... idk. The season just didn’t feel as strong from an acting standpoint. I felt like a lot of the scenes between her and Edo, Giancarlo was kind of carrying them both.

But I did enjoy her season, and I know others did too! There were some beautiful scenes — I loved the sleepover clip (when she put on Edo’s jacket! Finally some Eleonora sass) and I thought the scene with her and Edo in the car, where she opens up about her family and past, was handled with a lot of care and was really touching.

[coolgreatwebsite]

Cool Games I Finished In 2020 (In No Real Order)

Oh, hey! Right! I have a website! I’m like a week late on writing this, but what’s a week on top of an entire year of not writing, right? 2020 was... well, we all know what 2020 was. For me personally, it was simultaneously the best and worst year of my life. The worst in both ways you can probably assume and ways you definitely can’t (neither of which I’ll be getting into), and the best in ways I absolutely never would have guessed. That uncertain job I mentioned last year got very suddenly much more certain, at a much bigger company, for a much larger amount of money. That allowed me to get my own place, making my weird living situation much less weird. Still haven’t gotten the majority of my belongings off of the east coast, but if the entire world wasn’t currently fucked up by a global pandemic I’d have sorted all that out too. What I’m saying is that, for the third year in a row, my life has been a complete whirlwind that has left me very little time to get comfortable with any aspect of it. But I did manage to play more video games than I did last year! Which is perfect, because it’s once again time for another one of these. Here’s a bunch of cool games I experienced for the first time in 2020.

Astro’s Playroom (PlayStation 5, 2020)

My one word description of Astro's Playroom is "delightful". It's just an absolute goddamn delight. A total surprise too! Included with every PlayStation 5, Astro's Playroom is, in my opinion, one of the best pack-in games of all time.

First off, it's an incredible tech demo for the PS5's new DualSense controller. It was easy to brush off Sony's talk about the controller's haptic feedback and triggers as some Nintendo-style HD Rumble bullshit, but it really is incredibly cool once you get your hands on it. The game is obviously more than a tech demo though, or else it wouldn't be on here. It also just so happens to be an extremely solid and fun platformer on top of that. Astro controls exceptionally well and the levels are all well-designed and fun, even the gimmick vehicle ones designed to show off different features of the controller. It also has an oddly compelling speedrun mode, made all the more compelling by the PS5 notifying you when your friends beat your times and the ability to load into it within two seconds from anywhere on the console. But the biggest thing for me and, call me a mark, because I am, is that the game is an honestly incredible love letter to PlayStation history.

For the first time ever, Sony has pulled off a nostalgia piece without it ending up as embarrassing garbage in the vein of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. There's a Nintendo-like joyful reverence for all things PlayStation oozing out of every single corner of this game. There are so many nods and references and gags for literally every PlayStation thing of note throughout the the last 25 years, and then on top of that there's a whole heap more for the things that AREN'T of note that only hyperdorks like me would get! A sly reference to the ill-fated boomerang controller? Yep. A goof on the fat PS3's Spider-Man font? You betcha. A trophy you can earn by repeatedly punching a Sony Interactive Entertainment sign until it breaks and reveals the Sony Computer Entertainment sign it was slapped on top of? Yeah buddy. It's deep cuts all the way down, even up until the final boss which had me grinning like a total dipshit the entire time. The game is endlessly, effortlessly charming.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch, 2020)

Animal Crossing: New Horizons was the perfect game at the perfect time. That doesn't mean it's a perfect game, I actually have some issues with it, but it could not have released at a better time than when it did. It came out at the very very beginning of everyone going into lockdown due to the pandemic, and it was the biggest game in the world for a couple of months as a result. I played like 300 hours and that pales in comparison to the amount of time many others put into it.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the most different Animal Crossing game there's ever been, and I'm of two minds on it. Like, I loved the game, I played a ton of it, but it's lacking so much of the stuff that made me love Animal Crossing in the first place. The series has been slowly trending in this direction for a bit now, but it's not really a game that happens around you anymore. It's all about total player control. You select where everything goes, you customize every detail of everything to your liking, hell, you can even terraform the landmass to be exactly what you want. Your neighbors take a backseat in focus and end up as little more than decorations with limited dialogue and next to no quests associated with them. Series staples like Gyroids are missing in action. Facilities and services that have been around since Wild World aren't implemented. It's similar to past Animal Crossing games in a lot of ways, but on the whole it feels like a different thing.

But like I said, two minds. New Horizons strays from what I truly want from an Animal Crossing game, but I can't deny that the game as it is is a hell of a lot of fun. There's SO much you can do and SO many options, it's super addictive. Plus it implemented my long-requested feature of letting you effortlessly send mail to friends online! Too bad the actual online play is as cumbersome as ever.

In conclusion, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a land of contrasts. I'm kidding. It's good, but definitely missing something in a way where I can understand some people being disappointed in it. I had a ton of fun though, and I'm probably going to get back into it later in 2021.

Trials of Mana (Nintendo Switch, 2019)

Late in 2019, with the physical release of Collection of Mana for the Switch, I decided I was going to play through each game on it for the first time and finally find out what this whole Mana thing was about. I went into Final Fantasy Adventure (the first game in the Mana series, because every RPG had to be Final Fantasy back then) with zero expectations and found a totally serviceable little Zelda-like with light RPG elements. I enjoyed my time with it. I went into Secret of Mana with the expectation of it being a beloved classic and found the worst game I beat that year, hands down. That game fucking sucks. I get why it made an impression on people at the time, but it's just so so SO awful to play. Needless to say I was pretty disappointed. Honestly, I would have been disappointed even if I hadn't heard it was one of "the best games" for so long. It would have been a disappointing follow-up to Final Fantasy Adventure, a game that in and of itself isn't anything incredible. Secret of Mana is just that rotten.

I braced myself for more disappointment when (after a much needed vacation from the series) I started up Trials of Mana. This game had a reputation too, as a long-lost classic that never made it stateside. One of the best games on the Super Nintendo, criminally never released for western audiences! Like Secret of Mana before it, I'd heard nothing but effusive praise. Unlike Secret of Mana, however, I was very pleased to find out that Trials of Mana mostly lives up to the hype. From a gameplay standpoint, Trials is an improvement on Secret in almost every single way. It's not perfect. The menus are still kinda clunky, animations for things like magic and items are still frequently disruptive. But the main thing is it actually plays like a sensible video game designed by humans with brains. Attacking is responsive! Hitboxes aren't complete nonsense! You don't constantly get stunlocked to death! There are more answers to combat than casting the same spell for five straight minutes to kill your enemies before they get a chance to move! It's great!

On top of being an enjoyable video game to actually play, the presentation is top notch. Secret of Mana could be a pretty game with decent music in some spots, but Trials is consistently gorgeous and the soundtrack is across the board great instead of randomly having songs that sound like clown vomit. And while Trials of Mana doesn't have the deepest story in the world, it manages to avoid being completely paper-thin like Secret. The story actually kind of has a reason for being a bit straightforward, and the reason is that it has a really cool system where you pick your three playable characters from a pool of six. Each character has their own goals and storyline, some of which line up with other potential party members, some of which don't, and you'll even run into the characters you didn't choose as NPCs along the way. This and the relatively brisk pace of the game make it highly replayable.

I'm really glad that Trials of Mana made it over here in an official capacity, even if it was like 25 years late. It's as good as I expected Secret of Mana to be and singlehandedly saved my interest in seeing any more of the series. I'm aware the quality of what came after is very spotty, but I'll get to the rest eventually!

Final Fantasy VII Remake (PlayStation 4, 2020)

They (almost) did it. They (basically) pulled it off. They remade (a chunk of) Final Fantasy VII and (for the most part) didn't fuck it up. Ok, funny parentheticals aside, Final Fantasy VII Remake is astoundingly good coming off of over two decades of just absolutely dreadful post-FF7 sequels, side games, and movies.

Final Fantasy VII has been historically misremembered as this kind of miserable, angsty, brooding thing, both by fans and by the company that made it. FF7-branded media after FF7 itself is a minefield of changed personalities, embarrassing original characters, and monumentally lame stories. Final Fantasy VII Remake is the first post-FF7 anything that actually remembers the characters, setting, and plot of Final Fantasy VII and what made them memorable and special to people in the first place. Which isn't to say it's a slavish recreation! There's a ton of changes and additions, and I actually like almost all of them! Except for some really big stuff I'll touch on in a bit!

The combat in Final Fantasy VII Remake is great. I was super skeptical about it when the game was first announced, but they actually managed to make the blend of real-time action and turn-based RPG menuing fun and engaging. The characters all play super differently from each other too, which is a huge and welcome difference from the original game. The Materia system fits like a glove in this revamped combat system as well. The remixed music is good as hell, and the visuals are beautiful (outside of a couple of very specific spots that I'm kinda of surprised they haven't fixed in a patch yet). It's a well-executed package all around.

But alas, as always, there are negatives. For starters, this is only part one of the overall Final Fantasy VII Remake project. It goes up to the party leaving Midgar which, as you may or may not recall, is the first six hours of the original game. They compensated for this by fleshing the hell out of the Midgar section the game, ballooning the overall playtime to total of about 30-ish hours. The game feeling padded is a common complaint but for what it's worth, I didn't really feel it until the unnecessarily long final dungeon, There's also the previously mentioned and funny parenthetical'd changes and additions I don't like.

This is big time spoilers for this game so if you don't want that jump ahead to the next game on the list. The Whispers suck ass. Final Fantasy VII Remake should have been brave enough to be different without having to constantly derail everything in the most ham-fisted and intrusive way possible. You can have Jessie twist her ankle without making a spooky plot ghost trip her. I don't want to fight the physical manifestation of the game everyone thought they were getting as an end boss. If you're not doing a straight remake, that's fine, but have the fucking guts to stand by your artistic decisions without feeling the need to invent the lamest deus ex machina I've ever fucking seen. The last couple of hours of this game are 100% about the Whispers and are awful for it. It's a true testament to the strength of the rest of Final Fantasy VII Remake that this aspect didn't completely sour me on it. I can only hope that they stay dead and gone for good in the games yet to come and the remake can be different while standing on its own two feet.

I truly cannot wait for the next entry in the Final Fantasy VII Remake project. I'm excited for Final Fantasy VII in a way I haven't been since the late 90s. I have a bit of trepidation that they could royally screw it up. I mean, they already got kinda close, as I said in my last paragraph. But they got so much right in this entry that, for the first time in decades, I'm willing to believe in Square Enix when it comes to Final Fantasy VII.

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim (PlayStation 4, 2020)

My one word description of 13 Sentinels is "fucking crazy". I realize that's two words, but shut up. A bizarre hybrid of visual novel, adventure game, and strategy RPG, 13 Sentinels not only makes that work, but makes it work incredibly well. 

The story is fucking bonkers. It's told entirely non-linearly and is purposefully dense and confusing, but it does an amazing job of hooking you with a cast of likable characters and some impressively well-paced twists, made all the more impressive by the fact that you can tackle the story in basically whatever order you want. I'll say it again for those in the back, the story is Fucking Bonkers. Wherever you think it's going, it's not going. Where it is going is PLACES. Seriously, if you want a wild goddamn ride, this is the game for you. The presentation is also stunning. It's a drop dead gorgeous game with a really nice soundtrack. Easily Vanillaware's best looking game, which is saying something seeing as looking good is Vanillaware's whole deal.

If I had to levy one criticism against the game, it's that the strategy RPG portion is just kind of ok. It's enjoyable enough, it doesn't get in the way and there's not too much of it, but once it starts introducing armored versions of previous enemy types it's kind of done doing anything different. It is really good at getting people to out themselves as having no idea what tower defense is as a genre though!

Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition (Nintendo Switch, 2018)

I haven't really historically been a "Musou Guy". Not to say I've actively disliked them, they're just not something I've seeked out very often or played very much of. Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition kinda turned me into a "Musou Guy" a little bit? It's good, surprisingly-less-mindless-than-you'd-think fun.

I actually super don't care about the Zelda branding. I think all the fanservice stuff is meh at best. What I do care about is that there's a ton of character variety and a metric shitload of content. There's so many different characters and weapons for those characters that all play differently from one another and SOOOOOO many levels to play. Like the story mode is, again, kinda meh, the real meat of the game is the Adventure mode and there's a ton of it. It's 8 different world maps, each based off a different Zelda game, with each square of the map containing a little mini-scenario with unique objectives and rewards. There has to be at least 1000 scenarios between all the maps. There's so much. And that's not even getting into some of the other side stuff like the challenge modes and the fairy raising. It's a crazy amount of game in this game.

And again, it's not as mindless as it'd seem. It's not really a game ABOUT destroying 5000 guys, it's an area control and resource management game where the 5000 guys are one of those resources. Knowing who to send where and when to fight who is way more important than pressing the XXX YYY XXX YYY on the more than one million troops.

I'd say that if you're even cursorily potentially maybe interested in a musou game, this is the one to try. And if you like it, it could literally be your forever game. A sequel came out recently too, and I'm looking forward to trying that out soon.

Phantasy Star Online 2 (Xbox One, 2020)

Phantasy Star Online 2 finally came stateside in the year 2020, eight years after its initial Japanese release and initial American cancellation. It's no Phantasy Star Online 1, but it is a really fun game in its own right provided you can find the willpower to break through its clunkiness and eight years of confusing poorly tutorialized free-to-play MMO cruft.

The main thing going for PSO2, and this is a major improvement from PSO1, is that the act of engaging in its combat is fun. The combat is just feels really really good. There's a bunch of different weapon types and classes, and once you find the ones that really click with you you're in for a good time, whether you're izuna dropping dudes with wire claws or literally doing air juggles and rainstorm from Devil May Cry with the dual machine guns.

The other stuff around that combat is weird. I generally like it, but it's weird. The story mode is one of the most bizarrely presented things I've ever seen. It apparently used to be something you'd seek out in the levels themselves, but presently it's just a list of scenes you pick from a menu and watch with next to no context until it makes you fight a boss sometimes. There's some weird moments in there that MIGHT have been cool if it were presented in literally any other way?

The systems and presentation are also way more... I dunno, pinball? Pachislot? In very stark contrast to how chill original Phantasy Star Online was, everything in PSO2 is designed in a way to maximize that flashy light bing bing wahoo you got ~*~RARE DROP CHANCE UP~*~  feeling. Which isn't to say I don't like flashy light bing bing wahoo, but it's a weird different thing.

Was it worth the wait? Yeah, sure! For me! This is another one that I played like 300 hours of! I haven't even seen half of it, I fell off right before Episode 4 released because it coincided with my move! I'm gonna go back and see all that shit! PSO2's fun! A different flavor of fun than the original, sure, but fun all the same. Another one that I'm glad finally made it over here.

Riichi Mahjong (A Table, 1924)

Holy shit I fucking did it I finally learned how to play Mahjong and it rules.

It started when I picked up Clubhouse Games for the Switch. I saw that it had Riichi Mahjong and something in my brain snapped. For whatever reason, I decided that this was the time I was going to rip the band-aid off and figure this shit out. It wasn't too dissimilar to the first time I decided to try eggs, but that's a different and much stupider story for a different time. I did the tutorial in Clubhouse Games, looked up some more basics and advice because the tutorial wasn't super amazing, and I kept playing while being aided by the game's nice helper features like the button that pulls up recommended hands. I kept playing and... sorta got it. I learned the basic rules, but none of the strategy. And then I stopped playing for a few months.

In that few months, for whatever reason, a decent amount of people I know had their brains snap the same way? Like a more-than-two amount of people I'm either friends with or following online also decided to learn Mahjong. I decided to get back on the horse and downloaded Mahjong Soul and I don't know whether it was perseverance or the power of anime babes, but this time I got it. I still refer to a sheet with all the hands and whether they work open or closed, and I'm by no means a master player, but I actually honest to god understand what I'm doing and it's an incredible feeling.

Mahjong has such a huge amount of what I like to call "Get That Ass" energy. It is the energy you feel when you get someone's ass. In Mahjong you are either constantly getting someone's ass or getting your ass gotten. Someone puts down the wrong tile and you fucking GET THEIR ASS DUDE! They're got!! They're a fucking idiot that put down the wrong thing and now you have their points!!! Or you draw what you need yourself and you're a brain genius all according to plan and everyone gives you points because you're so wise!!!! It's great!!!!!

Mahjong has long been one of those games where I'd say "I'll learn this someday" and never reeeeally actually try to learn, and I'm so glad I finally took the effort to because it's good as hell. And, truth be told, it wasn't THAT hard to learn? Like you can get to the point where I was where I didn't know the strategy fairly easily in my opinion, and once you do that It's just a matter of continuing to play to understand the rest. I highly recommended that you also go out and learn it if you similarly revel in getting that ass, it's so satisfying once you do.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon (PlayStation 4, 2020)

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio took a big gamble with Yakuza: Like a Dragon. After seven games (more if you take spinoffs and remakes into consideration) they decided to focus on a new main character and, even more unexpectedly, they decided to change things up by turning the series into a turn-based JRPG. Their gamble paid off in spades. This is easily in my top 3 favorite Yakuza games.

The JRPG gameplay is surprisingly solid. There's definite room for improvement, but they nailed a bunch of it right out of the gate. Some mechanics are a little janky and I wish the job system was more fleshed out or just worked more like Final Fantasy V's, but they nailed one of the most important things and made the battles brisk and fun. It's a great foundation, especially for a team that's never attempted anything like this, and it's way more fun than the combat's been in any of the previous Dragon Engine games. I can't wait to see them iterate on it.

Everything else is top fuckin' notch. The music is great, the side content is fully fleshed out in a way it hasn't been since before they switched to the Dragon Engine, and I love the characters and story so much. Yakuza has a new main character in Ichiban Kasuga, and he's my son and I love him. Kiryu was great, and I love him too, but he was a bit of a passive protagonist. Stuff happened around him and he mostly just stoically reacted to it. Ichi is a much more active lead and it's great. He's a big lovable dope, and his tendency to keep an upbeat attitude and eagerness to leap into action is such a breath of fresh air. And it's not only Ichiban, since this is an RPG you have a whole party of characters and they're all great! Having them with you at all times bantering with each other and reacting to things is another great change of narrative pace, too. 

Yakuza: Like a Dragon just straight up rules. As someone who has historically not been too much of a fan of the Dragon Engine games, it's simultaneously a refreshing new take on the series and a fantastic return to form. I can't wait for what comes next. Wherever Ichiban goes, I go.

Moon: Remix RPG Adventure (Nintendo Switch, 2020)

After 23 years of Japanese PS1 exclusivity, Moon: Remix RPG Adventure finally got an English release this year for Nintendo Switch. I'm glad it did, because Moon isn't just the very definition of A Sebmal Game. It's the Sebmal Game missing link. In addition to being just a great video game, it helped me make a mental throughline for a bunch of games I love and a large part of my taste in video games.

To keep a long story short (seriously, I have a much much longer version of this saved in my drafts that I'll maybe finish someday), Moon turned out to be not the JRPG I assumed it was, given the title and basic story pitch, but a secret prequel to a game I love named Chulip. Moon's developer, Love-de-Lic, was formed by a handful of ex-Squaresoft employees, many of which worked on an extremely formative game I love named Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. Love-de-Lic broke up in the year 2000 and its staff went on to form a bunch of different studios that ended up making a BUNCH of different games I love like Chibi-Robo, Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, Dandy Dungeon, and the aforementioned Chulip. These games, when you make the connection and line them up, all have a very distinct weirdness in common that makes perfect sense once you've realized many of the same people worked on them. Figuring this all out felt like snapping a piece of my brain back in place, and it was really crazy to come to understand exactly how much this studio that formed and disbanded decades before I'd even heard of them had impacted my tastes and, hell, my life.

So what is Moon, for those who don't innately understand what I mean by "a secret prequel to Chulip"? Moon is an adventure game where you explore a world with a day/night cycle, learn about that world's inhabitants, and eventually solve their problems. Think of it kind of like The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, but if the sidequests were the entirety of the focus with no Groundhog Day time reset mechanic and none of the Zelda stuff like combat and dungeons. You play as a young boy who, after a late night JRPG binge session, is sucked into the world of the game he was just playing. Everything is off from the way it was portrayed while the boy was playing the game, though. The hero he had previously controlled is actually a silent menace, raiding peoples' houses for treasure and slaughtering every innocent animal that crosses his path in an endless quest for EXP. The townspeople seem more concerned with problems in their day-to-day lives than the supposed world threatening crisis outlined in the game's intro. It's up to you as the boy to investigate this world's mysteries, help the townsfolk, mend the damage the hero has done, and eventually restore love to a loveless world.

Speaking of love, I fucking loved Moon. I loved the story, I loved the characters, I loved the music, I loved the way it looks (even though the Switch port is a little crusty in that basic emulator-y kinda way), I loved how constantly bizarre and surprising and funny it was. Like I said earlier, it's the very definition of a game made for me. It was essentially the progenitor of a long line of games made for me, and of games potentially made for me but I don't know yet because I haven't played them due to not understanding Japanese (UFO: A Day in the Life translation next please? Anyone from Onion Games reading this??). For as similar as Moon and Chulip are in their systems and pacing, I think I might actually like Moon better despite it coming earlier? It's not as full force maximum impact absurd as Chulip is, but it is a lot more playable and less obtuse once you get a grip on the time limit mechanic. You don't need a full strategy guide included in the instruction manual for Moon, and you don't need to exchange business cards with every single character to get information vital to finishing the game either.

I truly cannot recommend Moon enough if your taste in games ventures anywhere off the beaten path. Maybe this is a little conceited of me, but I assume if you're reading this article, let alone this far down into it, you relate to my video game opinions at least a little bit? You should play Moon. Everyone reading this sentence should play Moon. Moon: Remix RPG Adventure is my game of the year for the year 2020.

These games were also cool, I just had less to say about them:

Death Stranding (PlayStation 4, 2019): Death Stranding, much like Metal Gear Solid V, was a game I enjoyed for the gameplay and not much else. The story, characters, and writing were a huge disappointment for me, but man if I didn't enjoy lugging those boxes around and setting up my hellish cross-continental goon summer camp lookin' zipline network. Mr. Driller Drill Land (Nintendo Switch, 2020): I am a known Mr. Driller Enjoyer, and I enjoyed this Mr. Driller. Originally released for the Gamecube, Mr. Driller Drill Land is another long-time Japanese exclusive that finally came stateside this year and it's packed with new and novel twists on the Mr. Driller format. It looks super sharp, the music's great (also the credits music is the most impossibly out of place and extra as hell shit in the world and it's hilarious), and it's just a good ass time. The main campaign is pretty damn short, but if you're a post-game content kinda guy it has that and it's all super hard. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 (PlayStation 4, 2020): They finally made another good new Tony Hawk game, and all it took was perfectly remaking two of the best old Tony Hawk games! Plays exactly like you remember it with the added benefit of the best mechanics from up to THUG1, looks great, packed full of content, even has most of the music alongside some mostly crappy new stuff. It's the full package as is, but I do hope they end up adding THPS3 to it eventually. Mad Rat Dead (Nintendo Switch, 2020): Mad Rat Dead was a pleasant surprise that I only picked up because I saw a couple of people on my Twitter timeline constantly talking about it. A fun and inventive platformer where all your actions need to be on beat with the music. The gameplay feels great (aside from some not so great performance issues on Switch), the soundtrack is fun, and it's got a real good style to it. Demon's Souls (PlayStation 5, 2020): I love Demon's Souls and this is Demon's Souls. It plays exactly the same with some minor quality of life changes. I don't agree with many of the artistic changes, but there's no denying it looks incredible on a technical level. If you want to play Demon's Souls again or for the first time, this is a perfectly valid and fun way to do so. Groove Coaster: Wai Wai Party!!!! (Nintendo Switch, 2019): Groove Coaster is one of my favorite rhythm games, and they finally made an acceptable at-home version with Wai Wai Party. It's not a perfect replication of the arcade game control-wise, I have some issues with the song choices, and the pricing is frankly fucking ridiculous if you're not a Groove Coaster maniac like I am, but the same ultra satisfying gameplay is all there. You can even play it vertically in handheld mode! Flip Griiiiiiiip!

And we're done! Phew! Honestly didn't realize I played that many good games until I typed all this out. Thanks as always for reading this far. I'm gonna try and get back to regularly posting Breviews this year at the very least. Honestly don't know if I'll get anything else up on here, but we'll see. Here's to hoping 2021 is a little bit less of a nightmare!

[wolf-mask]

Why Borderlands 3 is Disappointing

Borderlands 3 is a fun game mechanically. I’ve spent almost 6 plus DAYS worth of hours playing the game. I finished every side quest and every collectible. The only thing I haven’t done is collect all the echo logs, but I’ve listened to all of them. The only complaint I have with the game is the story. I’ve ranted to my friend about this and, like they said, 

“it feels like great writers set up a world and cast with a ton of potential and plans laid out, and then halfway through a different team of writers took over and there was 0 communication between the two groups.” 

There was so much potential for Borderlands 3 to be good, but instead it came out “Meh.” and that seems to be what everyone thinks. After watching multiple reviews, there are 4 points of BL3’s story that people pick out as detrimental to the story.

If I’ve forgotten anything, or something sticks out to you that can be explained away by canon, please let me know.

More under the read more

1. The Calypso Twins

I have 2 complaints about the Calypso twins: their unexplained motivations and the writers’ choice of focus.

This is my own personal complaint, but why do the Calypso’s have these motivations? Sure, I get it. Tyreen wants to open the Great Vault because she thinks its her birthright as the daughter of the first vault hunter. But why become a God? I understand the whole wanting to be the most famous person thing but she could’ve just opened the vault to do that, look at Lilith and the other Vault Hunters. So why become a God? How did she come to that conclusion? Why build up an army? Why cause galaxy wide pandemonium when you could just become a Vault Hunter like the current and past playable characters? She even says herself they came to Pandora to be Vault Hunters! So why start a CULT? None of that is really answered by the game. Instead we’re given surface level villains with a surface level backstory. We never find out how their mother died.

The main complaint I’ve seen in these reviews is the story’s focus on the villains. Tyreen is never given screen time. We never learn more about her nor does she undergo any kind of character growth to become a good villain, yet she becomes the Final Boss. Instead, Troy gets most of the character development. Troy is the main focus out of the two villains, he gets the character growth after taking Maya’s powers. Troy is the more compelling villain out of the twins. He starts from the bottom, forced to rely on his sister to live but she sees him as nothing more than a parasite. He’s constantly forced into the background, be a follower, kept under his sister’s heel as she gets what she wants.

After taking Maya’s powers, however, he figures out he doesn’t have to depend on Tyreen. He starts crawling away from Tyreen’s shadow to stand by himself. The cultists start to worship him just as much as Tyreen, he starts hijacking the echo calls, he starts disagreeing with Tyreen’s leadership. The scene in Jakobs mansion makes it seem like Troy is scheming on his own. All of this focus, compounded with Tyreen’s comments during Troy’s boss fight, hints that TROY will become the Final Boss. But instead of having a compelling villain who’s crawled out from under his sister’s shadow, we kill Troy and we’re left with the less interesting villain. If they HAD to go with Tyreen as the main villain, they should’ve given her character growth to make her more compelling. You’d think she’d show some sort of growth after having her brother killed and killing her father, but nothing ever from that. She just stays a one dimensional character throughout the main plot.

2. Maya’s Death

Maya’s death was severely mishandled in Borderlands 3. In the context of the story, Maya had to die eventually, but that doesn’t mean her death couldn’t have been pushed back though. 

Compare Maya’s death in Borderlands 3 to Roland’s death in Borderlands 2. In BL2, Roland’s death had more impact because we spent more time with him (Over half the game to be exact, 11 out of 20 story missions), he spent most of the game guiding the player, and we got to see him interact with other characters as well as see how his death affected other characters.

With Maya we spend less than a fourth of the game with her (4 out of 23 missions. She should’ve been introduced earlier and killed off later), we barely interact with her and we don’t see her interact with any other characters aside from Ava and Lilith. One of the things I loved about BL2 was being able to see the old Vault Hunters interact with each other in Sanctuary. When Maya dies, her funeral is played off as a joke, Lilith is blamed by Ava, and that’s as far as acknowledgement goes. No one besides Ava ever acknowledges Maya’s death. It’s as if her death is totally ignored.

Did Maya have to die though? Yes, but not immediately. When Tyreen drained Lilith, Lilith didn’t die. But when Troy drained Maya, why did she die? She didn’t have to at that moment. Throughout the story, Maya’s powers are an important plot point. Her powers are what allow Troy to experience some independence for the first time in his life. When Troy drained Maya he could’ve just stolen her powers and left her alive. This would have left her the potential for character growth. 

So why did Maya have to die? Because Ava had to become a Siren eventually. I don’t mind Ava, I think she’s fine as a character, but if her purpose was to show how Siren powers are transferred, we already have Tannis for that. They practically shove in Ava to replace Maya as soon as she dies. It’s like taking a child’s favorite toy and shoving a new one in their arms, expecting them to like the new toy immediately. They should’ve let Ava become a Siren later down the line instead. 

3. Ava’s Characterization

As I previously said, I don’t mind Ava. I think she’s an alright character as she is right now. Most people don’t think that though, and I can see why. Ava is directly responsible for Maya’s death. She disobeyed Maya’s directions and came to the Promethea Vault on her own. Due to her disobeying orders, Maya is forced to put Ava’s well being above hers. Ava further escalated the situation, leading to Maya needing to save her. This ends in Maya’s death. 

Instead of taking responsibility for her actions, Ava blames Lilith for Maya’s death and claims that they need to rush in without thinking. And later on she’s praised as being right for the same thought process! When Lilith goes to sacrifice herself, she basically tells Ava she’s right. Not only that, she gives leadership of the Crimson Raiders over to a 13 year old child with no experience who got her mentor killed. At no point is she forced to face the consequences of her actions, she never goes through a character arc. Ava has the potential to be a likable character but her characterization was so botched that most people hate her now. They player should’ve been allowed to slowly learn more about Ava and watch her grow before taking over Maya’s role. Hopefully the DLC that focuses on her will do her better.

4. Ignoring the Player

The BIGGEST sin of BL3 is how it treats the player character. The achievements of the player are constantly undercut and we are consistently ignored by the narrative. 

The whole game made me feel like I was the side character to the Sirens. All the other Borderlands games have focused on the Player as the main character. In BL1 the Vault Hunters killed the Destroyer, in BL2 the six vault hunters defeated the Warrior and defeated Handsome Jack, in TPS those six beat the Sentinel and helped Jack rise to power. In BL3, it feels like none of our achievements matter. As soon as we accomplish one thing, something bigger happens and that needs to be focused on. You got to Tannis after that pain in the ass fight with the Agonizer? Welp looks like Tannis is a Siren and you practically did that shit for nothing! We defeated Tyreen the Destroyer? Welp looks like Elpis is going to crash into Pandora and now Lilith has to go stop that. The only times I really felt like I was making an impact was when I wasn’t doing missions for the Sirens. 

At the end of the game Ava is more acknowledged than the player and given command of an entire army. This should’ve gone to the player! The character who’s busted their ass off to bring the Raiders back from the brink of disbandment, who’s done all the heavy lifting! Hell, before going down to Promethea Lilith asks YOU to take over field operations while she’s powerless. 

But what ticks me off the most is how the narrative ignores the player. Unlike the cut scenes in other Borderlands games, you are ignored. Nearly all of the cut scenes are in third person and you are NOWHERE to be seen. Maya being killed by Troy, Tyreen absorbing Troy and trying to crush the other Sirens, Tyreen killing Typhon, and Lilith’s sacrifice. We’re NEVER seen in those cut scenes. Compare this to the cut scenes in previous games, which are almost always in 1st person and if they aren’t, the 3rd person view is used when the cut scene isn’t important. In BL3, almost all the cut scenes are in 3rd person. The only time the player is acknowledged is when Troy phaselocks the player in the Jakobs Mansion, which makes this issue all the more frustrating.

Conclusion

Borderlands 3 is a graveyard of missed potential. The story could have been so much better than it came out as. I love the game from a gameplay standpoint, it’s so fun to play, but the main story is a drag to get through at this point. I don’t think it’s worth re-playing at this point and I’m going to wait for DLC to come out before playing more of it. Again, if I missed anything or you think something could be can be explained by Canon, please let me know! I have other little nitpicks I might talk about later but for now these are the main things that I think are wrong with the main story of Borderlands 3.

If you’re interested, these videos helped me in pinpointing what felt so wrong about BL3. They’re good videos to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-ws6VRYEDw&t=431s (Tina vs Ava)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO2qmhaRmcc (Main problem with BL3)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lL0fAxjZnc (Wasting Maya)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibOPCU2adkE (Why Borderlands 3 is Disappointing)

[arkus-rhapsode]

MHA 280 Discussion: Did Kirishima Steal Mina’s Spotlight?

So, as you can all tell from this title, chapter 280 of My Hero Academia has debuted and has had some “mixed” feedback. Most of it revolving around the instance of Mina seemingly being set up as the person who was going to deliver the final dosage of anesthetic to Gigantomachia, but was instead saved by Kirishima, who actually finished the beast off.

Now as I said, this moment has been mixed, many people like it and see it as a great character opportunity for Kirishima as he finally comes full circle from the first time he froze up meeting Gigantomachia. While others see this as Horikoshi taking a potentially cool female character finally get a spotlight moment but then undermined.

Personally had to sit on this for awhile and think about how I felt about this. Mainly because I thought that this was good, but not sure how to feel about Mina being literally pushed aside. However after sometime I sorta found myself more okay with this.

Now if you want my most raw opinion, I do believe the idea of it at least being Mina’s vial used to put Giganto to sleep by Kirishima was the best possible way to handle this situation Hori wanted to tell. As it doesn’t totally erase Mina as a contributor. However upon revisiting chapter 280 and chapter 279, I believe I came up with a conclusion to my feelings on this moment.

But before I elaborate, I’d like to revisit the end of chapter 279, which built these expectations of Mina getting the big damn spotlight.

If you look at chapter 279′s ending page, it does set up Mina as being important and will likely be the to carry us into the next chapter. However, there is no defining text that indicates that she is the central hope. Mt Lady’s dialogue could apply to any able-bodied UA student at the time. As well as the structure of the page pushes Mina into the bottom.

This is not some big one full page character portrait of the one who will be central hope, but rather Mina is placed in the last panel at the bottom of the page with little narration caption that makes it seem as if she is the most important. In fact, with the way the chapter just seems to end right there, it makes it appear that Mina is more of a convenience.

Now regardless of this, there is no denying that this created an expectation by the audience to see Mina do something. Especially since the honor of a color page was devoted to Mina. Similarly, the last character centric color cover page we got was Miruko the same chapter she was the one to end on shattering Shigaraki’s tube.

And Horikoshi does follow through on this with Mina seemingly focused om as the one so close to doing throwing the vial into Gigantomachia’s mouth.

Even bothering to hone in on Mina’s own internal struggles while thinking of Midnight and then shedding her armor. Only for her to realize who Gigantomachia is and then fold because of previous trauma from the first time the met.

Now we must remember what this means for both Kirishima and Mina. As the two were both present of meeting Gigantomachia as young teens and it left an impression on both. However, if we recall the Kirishima’s flashback, it was Mina who took the initiative to protect people from Gigantomachia while Kirishima couldn’t muster himself to intervene.

But now, its the reverse, Mina is the one unable to follow through while Kirishima is the one to do this.

Now, before I cover what this means for Mina, I want to say that this is good character writing. And essentially rounds out Kirishima’s arc. The villain who was the sole root of him seconded guessing his decision to become a hero is now the person who he is standing up to.

It once again is an example of Horikoshi giving a character, no matter how minor a moment. But the root cause of the discourse on this chapter is the fact this was not a moment for Mina. Regardless if Kirishima was well written, does that make it bad writing when it comes to Mina?

Well as I observed, I think there was an expectation built by the audience, but not one that would seem like they were cheated out of the moment. I do believe we saw a “bait and switch.” People expected it to be Mina only to misdirect you and have it be Kirishima, however, outside of the color page, I can’t really say there was spotlight put on Mina beyond her conveniently being the closest person. And I think that’s where a lot of my issues come with, because I read this week to week.

Now as previously stated, chapter 279 just kind ends. And as I read that last week I was like, “that’s it?” Like it almost seemed a rather odd place to cut it off at. There was no big end cap to this chapter. It almost had felt like that chapters 279 and 280 were actually suppose to be one big chapter. but had a pause put inbetween them.

And when read the two chapters together, they actually flowed much better. Treating it as one big chapter. with the focus going from the group of young heroes to Mina. Which actually is pretty clever as Mina is the one who gives the last bit of interpersonal connection with Momo when she tells her about looking forward to ending this.

And while this definitely made me like Kirishima saving Mina in 280 more, What I mainly drew from this was Mina never really had a spotlight to steal. As melodramatic as that might sound. If this whole excursion between chapter 279 and 280 was anything, it was one big relay race. With the baton passing off to other characters as they all worked to put down Gigantomachia. Everyone contributed, it was just Kirishima who pushed it across the finish line.

Now lets face it, most tend to equate the victory with the one who did finally throw it in rather than the group effort. And from a storytelling perspective, it had to be either Kirishima or Mina, their the only kid characters who would have an emotional victory putting down Gigantomachia. If it was someone like Kaminari, it be cool he stopped the deadly force, but he doesn’t know Gigantomachia. He doesn’t he a personal stake beyond, “big bad villain that I’m obligated to stop.” Which would not be as powerful.

Especially seeing as Gigantomachia as a villain is just this massive force that you can’t just take a couple of characters to fight against him, Hori used everyone in UA. The final “punch” was just delivered by someone who would benefit from a character background standpoint to do some.

But its controversy also lies in the disproportionate amount of times it seems the female heroes don’t get to be superheroic while a bunch of the guys get super cool character driven victories. The biggest example I can think of is during the Yakuza arc where Nejire is the only big 3 to not get a character introspection of what has pushed them to be at the top of UA while most of the female cast fights a character away from most the underground action.

And as I had brought up in a previous post, characters like Momo who are consistently hyped only for them to lose to either prove the enemy stronger or the fact that they’re not ready yet.

Now those are legitimate gripes I can understand why readers would have with chapter 280, but where I disagree with that is, this was not really a singular person’s win. Afterall, this strategy of trapping Giganto was Momo’s idea. Does she get all the credit? Well, no. But she contributed, she mattered. And that is something we got from Mina, as it was still her vial used to put Giganto to sleep.

There wasn’t a “oh look, she was built up only to fail and now a man must do the work.” No there was clearly an effort put forward, just like everyone else. But then you have the fact Mina froze up, now this leaves me interested in where would go from there. As I brought up, Kirishima has essentially gone full circle, that means we could likely see him phased out more in favor of other characters. And the fact that Mina froze has opened up a new possibility to explore.

In my Momo post, I brought up how they’ve now redefined Momo more as a strategist and leader. He strength doesn’t come from her physical prowess on the battlefield like Bakugou, but rather her skill in support. This is an interesting concept that tries to show off a character’ value isn’t just by how many big bads they’ve punched out. Though I completely understand the need to see more female heroes as action girls rather than simply support.

In conclusion, I do not believe that Kirishima stole any spotlight from Mina. As there wasn’t really a spotlight to begin with. However, expectations were generated from the end of 279 and unfortunately the way a week to week format is structured allowed those expectations to grow. Which resulted in 280 having this underlying sense of disappointment for those who had expectations. However, taking both chapters together as a whole, there’s a lot stronger story here, and makes me hope we get that when we get an anime adaptation of this. It would be tough, but talented directors know what to do with multiple chapters worth of material.

This also leaves me optimistic for the future as Mina’s fumble has made something to be explored as well as the potential conclusion to one of the most beloved characters in the series. I guess all we can do is wait and see.

[syds-shelves]

✨To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before✨

(aka ...I liked the movie better)

I feel like everyone knows the plot of this already but if you don’t: In To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han, Lara Jean has written a love letter to every boy she’s fallen in love with as a way to move on. She saves them all in a hatbox under her bed, but one day the letters get sent. Dun dun dun.

My thoughts: You know, I really didn't expect to be filled with so much rage upon finishing this book, but here we are.

I was originally going to give this closer to 3.75/4 stars because, while I didn't love this book or find it as swoon-worthy as it's been made out to be, it was overall enjoyable and a fun, light read. I actually liked Lara Jean more than I expected to because I've heard a lot of people say she's annoying in the books (maybe that becomes more apparent in the rest of the series... we shall see). But by the end of the book, she was one of the few characters I still liked and I feel strangely attached to her.

I also appreciated the depiction of the sisters' relationship — it was clear that Margot and Kitty mean the world to Lara Jean and the moments when she would talk about defending her sisters or putting them before anything made me want to go "YEAH!" (I much preferred the Kitty/Lara Jean relationship to the Margot/Lara Jean relationship and I shall explain why in a moment.)

Also, I liked Chris. She seemed to be pretty much the only person who was consistently on Lara Jean's side and actually cared about what she was thinking and feeling.

So that's what I liked. On to my rage.

We'll work in ascending order from least-rage to most-rage.

Josh. I had bad vibes about him from the beginning, and those vibes were just confirmed the more I read. The way Lara Jean described him, he seemed like such a perfect dream boy and so obviously Margot and Lara Jean were both so in love with him. But the more he opened his mouth... mmm... no. The moment that Lara jean starts "dating" Peter, the only things Josh says to her is that Peter isn't good enough for him and why is she with him and he's just going to hurt her and this isn't like her blah blah blah. I can understand that the first time it happens, but when Lara Jean says to him, "I like him, he's not what you think, can you please trust me on this," and he CONTINUES to repeat the same things every single time they talk to each other is just so INFURIATING. He claims to know her so well, yet he can't even trust her to be in charge of her own love life or her own happiness. (And really that's just because he's pissed that Lara Jean liked him and didn't tell him (?) even though he's supposedly in love with her sister so why should that matter to him and why in the WORLD would he kiss Lara Jean and really the more I think about it the more I don't like him.) Josh's character gives me strong "nice guys finish last" vibes, what with him being the nerdy one and Peter being the popular jock. It's not so explicit that I'm actively hating him for that reason, but I get that energy from him with the way he speaks to Lara Jean. 3/10 not a fan.

Then we have Peter and Lara Jean's relationship. Ahem. I wasn't a big fan of their chemistry towards the beginning of their fake relationship, but I admit that they grew on me as the book went on. I was even actively rooting for them for a while, and I liked that Peter was opening up more to Lara Jean and not being as much of a stereotypical popular jock boy. And then the freaking HOT TUB happened. That just filled me with RAGE. From the way Genevieve called Lara Jean a slut for one (1) false sex rumor to the way she told EVERY SINGLE PERSON on the bus that Lara Jean and Peter had sex to the way that Peter (who, at that point, openly liked Lara Jean and wanted to date her for real) barely even tried to deny the rumors. I'm seething just thinking about it. I do appreciate how the double standards when it comes to sex were addressed, if only briefly.

From a romance standpoint, separate from the hot tub incident, the one in this book really isn't even that good. I mean, they fake-date for about 2/3 of the book, are actually together for about 15 pages, and spend the rest of the book broken up. The actual romance in this book really just doesn't match its bright pink exterior.

And then there's Margot. The crown jewel of my rage. For the vast majority of this book, Margot is detached and uninvested in Lara Jean's life, who she claims is the person she trusts most in the world. A lot of that may be due to being busy in college, sure. (Except she made time to email their Dad and Kitty much more than Lara Jean so she's not really off the hook for me.) But at the climax of the book, when Lara Jean, Peter, and Josh are in the kitchen at the Christmas Party and Margot overhears that Peter and Lara Jean supposedly had sex and that Josh kissed Lara Jean, who does she believe? Her sister? No, of course not! Why in the world would she trust her sister, the one she trusts most in the world? No, instead, she refuses to speak to Lara Jean and goes and tells their Dad that Lara Jean had sex, which is not only hypocritical of her, but spiteful and cruel and not at all what a good sister (especially the oldest sister) should do. Margot's character in particular makes me so angry because if I ever did anything to my sister like what she did to Lara Jean, I don't think I'd ever forgive myself. And it broke my heart a little to read because the entire book, Lara Jean looks up to Margot so much and has such incredible trust in her and is ready to defend her at any moment, and Margot goes and treats her like that. And then they fight and their conflict is resolved in like 2 pages. Ugh.

Also, I'm not particularly ragey about this, but the ending felt so rushed and cut short. The fight between all of them at the Christmas party (which, to me, feels like the big conflict) didn't happen until the last 20-30 pages of the book. And from there, the Margot/Lara Jean conflict resolved in half a second and there's barely any closure between Lara Jean and Peter. I just felt so jolted when I finished this book, especially considering the extreme rage I had experienced in only the last quarter or so.

Now, does not liking some of the characters mean I should automatically rate this lower? No, I don't think so. But my issue with this book is that these characters were not presented as unlikeable characters. Josh was the boy next door that Lara Jean was secretly in love with. Peter was the boy she eventually wanted to be with. Margot was her older sister, the one she was closer to than anyone. But they all did such screwed-up, sucky things, and for all of it to be essentially swept under the rug in the conclusion is really toxic and makes me feel gross.

Overall, quite disappointing but I find it amusing how much rage this book brought out of me.

My rating: 3/5⭐️

[gilmesc1]

Do you have any thoughts on fictional portrayals of DID, like danganronpa, spl!t, and others?

Yes, I usually would take time to do research but lucky for you I already did XD

I looked into Danganronpa a while ago since we have 1 or 2 system mates from it, and in that case, prepare yourselves for a hot mess of my opinion and facts I got from a google fest.

So, to start out, I guess I might share spoilers?? So you hath been warned. Additionally I’m not going to sit here and rephrase the entire story so, honestly why am I even explaining this. Anon at least knows what’s going on XDD

So Danganronpa is a psychological mystery anime that focuses heavily on the themes of hope and despair, where in most versions of the story characters are forced into a killing game where they have to kill each other. Bet you couldn’t have figured that one out on your own XD

One thing I like about it is that the characters overall are written fairly well. Many of them are complex multi layered gems of writing with good development and story arcs. One thing that I found interesting is the semi accurate portrayals of mental illness and how it impacts the characters in this insane situation.

So, let’s break into that. I focused on the portrayals of NPD and DID specifically, and I could go back and look into others, but we’ll focus on those for this post. And just going to throw this out now, I think it’s interesting and also kind of a bold move to tackle those kinds of things in an anime.

So let’s look at the DID portrayal. The character’s name is Toko Fukawa, and she is a fucking wreck. Confirmed emotional abuse gives a lot into her character, and we see her as this timid, deflective, honestly broken shell. Later in the series we are introduced to her alternate personality, I know, exciting.

However it’s a literal serial killer. So like. Yeah.

I don’t love that part. I mean, out of all of the portrayals for this alter, you had to go with serial killer? And not only that, but a really famous, generally acknowledged as insane serial killer. Thaaaanks writer.

To recap what a lot of tumblr says, this kind of portrayal is dangerous because the majority of DID portrayals are of crazy violent stereotypes. It was quite honestly disappointing, and I wish that the writers hadn’t used this as their big reveal.

But hey, neutral standing here, let’s look at why he did do that from a different perspective. Since the theme of the game/anime is killing, it does make sense plot wise to have a serial killer. Additionally, it’s a clever way to get said serial killer into the game in the first place. Plot wise and with a few things I’ll mention in a second, it does make sense in a twisted way.

But let’s get the bad out of the way first. One thing I really don’t love is her appearance. It’s like someone took the original character design of fukawa, took some drugs, and then drew a nightmare creature. Seriously, there’s crazy eyes, hair flying everywhere, and this freaky inhuman tongue that the alter has out no matter what she’s doing. Like whaaaaaat the fuck.

Firstly this spreads misinformation that we can change appearance at will. Like don’t get me wrong, I wish I could, but the best I got is changing clothes if I have the time. Also the tongue I really hate because it gives the impression of the alter being this inhuman monster. Also again with the impression that we can morph stuff when we switch. I mean, if I had that, I’d be having a lot more fun in my day to day life than I do now.

Do what you will with that information.

Additionally we do see Fukawa’s tongue, and it’s not a weird demogorgon kind of thing, so, yeah, the tongue thing is weird.

Finally her name. It’s Genocider Syo/Jack/Jill. Not a normal name, no the only name we have for her is her serial killer name which I feel serves to continue to show her as this inhuman thing where we all go, Oh god oh fuck time to be afraaaaid.

But hey, let’s look at what they did right.

The backstory of how genocider came to be is really accurate to how it works. Fukawa has a history of abuse at a young age, and genocider eventually comes into the picture to protect her.

Let me explain: So this is a theory on my part (Check out Weeby Newz’s youtube video, that’s where I got this) but Fukawa was revealed to have suffered massive emotional abuse at the hands of a boy who she had romantic interest in. Since he was moving away, she decided to confess her love to him in a letter before this happened. Turns out the boy pinned the letter in her classroom so everyone would make fun of her. Dick move.

I think genocider formed after this specific event, firstly because this is a huge defining experience for Fukawa. Additionally, the way genocider acts serves to prove this. Her target victims are boys, and her first victim was the boy who hurt Fukawa. I mean yeah, killing was waaaay extreme, but bear with me on this next part:

I’d say that genocider is a protector. A lot of her initial actions were to protect Fukawa from getting hurt in the same way, and protectors do have a history of going to the extreme to protect their hosts and systems. Even though she seems like a persecutor, I don’t think any of her actions have been directed at herself and Fukawa, they actually seem to have a decent relationship, and to end this theory that is completely non canon and just me pretending I’m smart, I’d call her a protector.

Next, looking at the relationship they have. Genocider at one point tells the protagonist that they have a “non disclosure policy” when they switch when the other is in the middle of something. (like murder??) And I personally really liked this, as it was a kind of realistic DID humor in my eyes. Take it or leave it, that’s my opinion.

And that’s really all I have on that behalf. Genocider really isn’t shown as a “normal person” often, which I guess is the point but also leaves me with nothing to evaluate. (Side note, this is only V1 of the series and I’m aware she changes but dear god go easy on me)

Finally, here are a few things that I find a little weird tbh.

At first glance when they switch, it’s a touch accurate, if over dramatic. Losing consciousness and coming to as a different alter is possible so I do like that, however they also have her constantly switching when sneezing, which is a little out there.

I mean, I think I’ve done that before, but for it to be a consistent theme, idk. Maybe overdramatized again.

Secondly, there is a voice change, which is accurate, but it really just serves to fit the crazy image, so I’m conflicted on that.

So that is really all I can say on that specifically, to end things I’m going to talk about one other character Fukawa has interactions with, Togami. (He has a first name but I can’t spell/remember it.)

So I gravitated towards him while watching the series because he reminds me of me, hence me saying that he seems to be a dead ringer for npd. Let me explain.

He’s very cold and distant from others and obviously feels superior, additionally he is willing to fight tooth and nail to consistently be on top and win in any situation, leading to him doing some fucked up things.

But like I feel for him. It’s like watching me XD

His past was a very competitive cuthroat environment, where he was taught that losing is worse than death. Additionally he was almost groomed to be this untouchable figure so it’s no surprise that he believes that. I might make a second post about him because there’s a lot more I can say, but I’m going to double back to Fukawa now.

So Fukawa gains a very unhealthy obsession with Togami, despite him wanting literally nothing to do with her. He’s verbally abusive to her and does go out of his way to attack her, but she thinks it’s a sign of love. Poor Fukawa.

This also kind of fits with NPD, because we can have some pretty gravitating personalities. I think the attraction has a lot to do with Fukawa’s mental state, but I just found it interesting that the emotional abuse victim gravitates to Togami of all people.

So I brought him up for that above thought I had, and also to compare this last point. So Fukawa was confirmed to have DID, like it was specifically stated. To my knowledge it was never stated that Togami has NPD, but I strongly assume that he does. (key word assume, I could be wrong.)

So I found it interesting that Togami has this very accurate portrayal of NPD without ever confirming that he has NPD, while Fukawa is specifically confirmed to have DID while having a semi accurate portrayal. I think the writer really wanted to include mental illness in his story line and I doubt he intended anything to be intentionally harmful.

Writing mental illness into a story is very very very tricky, and it’s practically impossible to satisfy everyone, but the fact that he did do it is in my opinion, very bold.

He made good and less good choices, but overall he did make very compelling characters. Genocider admittedly fits better in this plotline as a crazy killer than she would as a realistic alter, but this is fiction.

So final statements: Toko Fukawa is not a bad character. I like a lot about her and overall I think she is very well written. Genocider is very less developed and more of a surprise plot twist than a character, which is unrealistic. The writer made some very awkward choices from a realistic standpoint despite it fitting well with his story.

So overall, she really isn’t a good portrayal of DID. You can enjoy her character like I did, but the main takeaway here is to not take her as a realistic portrayal. I know it seems obvious but this is the kind of thing that forms unhealthy ideas in viewers.

I’m not hating on Danganronpa or Toko, I actually really loved both. I’ve tried to stop ranting about fictional works that I hate. I used to be a loose fucking canon but I realized that I had been bashing a few autistic friend’s special interests, so now I try to be hyper aware that a fictional work might mean everything to someone even if I personally disliked it.

But that isn’t the case here because again I loved Danganronpa XD

So friends, that about does it for me. I liked doing this kind of analysis so if you want me to do more, send them my way XD

My next post will probably be the syscourse analysis if I can get that done before I get an easier topic. So thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, thank you for the ask anon.

And I’m now out of words. You all should be happy. XD

[bbq-hawks-wings]

Ok, you know what? Enough moping. The ED is out and it echoed the clear message that we’ve all been talking about for years regarding Hawks’ connection to the Todoroki’s, but the connection I have yet to see ANY really concrete talk about is the old “Top 3″ paralleled to the new “Top 3″.

I’m talking about Midoriya, Deku, and Todoroki being transformed and renewed parallels to their respective predecessors in All Might, Endeavor, and Hawks. Shouto’s parallel with Hawks is almost never talked about in this very specific context, that I’ve been able to find.

Important note: the old 3 were all FAILURES. 

All Might made peace on the surface, but never penetrated the heart  (no pun intended) of the matter when it came to realizing true peace - it was always a power struggle in the end where might makes right.

Endeavor hasn’t grasped until recently what it means to be “The #1 Hero” and that a selfish perspective is fundamentally opposed to heroism in the first place and does not account for his weaknesses - leaving him vulnerable where he falls short and hamstringing his own improvement process.

Hawks as a naturally gifted prodigy has been so obsessed with freeing himself from the control and expectations of his groomers that he never embraced his individuality and principles to come into and fully realize his natural inclination and potential to help others in the special way only he can because of his suffering and experiences.

All Might has already fallen as a hero, Endeavor is close behind, and the buildup for Hawks’ fall is agonizing. None of these heroes made the cut in the end, and none of them have been or will be able to bring about a future that will render AFO’s influence impotent. It’s a battle of ideals, and the previous generation (and even the new one) hasn’t really realized that; but the new one has at least internalized it:

Midoriya is not a perfect hero by a long shot, but he’s a hero that inspires others to be their best. By knowing he isn’t anywhere near good enough to save everyone but determined to do what he can for those right in front of him, he’s a reflection of the average person’s “deku - I can’t do anything” and inspiring them to “dekiru - I can do something right here and now, however little it may be.” Every single person Midoriya has inspired experienced their inciting major character development as a result - Ochako, Bakugo, Todoroki, Aoyama, etc., and they’ve gone on to inspire others in kind. The buck doesn’t stop at Midoriya - the torch is no longer physically passing, but spiritually as well which is where it matters most.

Bakugo has recognized that being “better” does not mean being “stronger.” He no longer sees the others as competition or dead weight, but teammates. He recognizes that allowing others to make up for his weaknesses makes him stronger than he can be on his own. He pushes himself to his absolute best at every point that he can, but where he falls short, even if he complains along the way, he recognizes that even the #1 needs help once in a while and subliminally communicates that no person should be expected to stand on their own and that confidence should never be placed in one single person or group.

Todoroki has recognized that as awful as his abuse has been and that he has every right to feel hurt, betrayed, and angry at his abuser those traits do not have to define him or confine him. He has chosen to take those experiences he had no control over to pull what he can use to build himself and others up. He won’t be limited by the shortcomings of others and will be the best HE can be by continuously improving and holding steadfastly to his own principles. He recognizes the complex, morally ambiguous (or really, even just plain evil with “good results”), nature of his developmental environment, but has determined that he does not have to be in turn.

There’s a lot of “main protagonist” favoritism in the series that’s kind of just mandatory from a marketing standpoint; but the fact that it’s managed to focus on these secondary and background characters with as clear facets of this argument that “there is no perfect system to make lasting peace where everyone feels at ease - we just individually have to do what we can do when we can and pick up the pieces where we fall short” is incredible to me. We make jokes about HeroAca being “spot the main character on level 100,″ but again, that’s the point! Everyone is the main character of their own story. Nobody gets to be an NPC or crowd filler - not even “Can’t Ya See-kun.”

The moral ambiguity is there on PURPOSE. It’s not meant to be black and white, and there’s not supposed to be an easy answer for it all. Someone will always get the short end of the stick for whatever reason - from bad intentions, shirked responsibility, or even just bad luck - so it’s an individual choice what to do with the bad hand dealt out. It’s oversimplified with even an overly optimistic viewpoint, but as an adult looking around the world on fire (literally, even) that optimism is important because I can’t do the little good I can do for others’ sake if I feel like it won’t amount to anything. When I can squash down unnecessary negativity and elevate good where I can, it has a ripple effect. That’s the point. There will always be battles to be fought, but we can do more with every little bit that we can cumulatively instead of expecting and counting on some theoretical savior bigger than ourselves to do it for us, and when we can consistently count on others to do the right thing and help when we’re helpless - that does more to bring about a sense of security and unity than being disappointed in an institution and calling for its restructure when we inevitably fall through the cracks. We clearly have to build and maintain them the best we can, but just as stated before, we can’t wholly put our faith in it.

Or at least such is my interpretation.

I feel better. Ramble over.

[professorspork]

Frozen 2: first impressions

Hello friends! As you know, Frozen was a HUGE part of my fandom life ~back in the day.~ So of course I saw the sequel opening night and of course I have thoughts after ruminating on it for 24 hours. I’m sure there will be many things I forget or don’t cover--after all, I’ve only seen it the once. And I make no guarantees that my thoughts are coherent or consistent. (If I contradict myself, I contradict myself-- I am large, I contain multitudes.) I’m also sure my opinions will evolve upon rewatch. Lord knows they did last time.

Is that enough disclaimer yet? OKAY. Some of my thoughts are negative! Some are positive! It’s a grab bag! Here we go!

Spoilers under the cut, pals.

IN SHORT: As an expansion on the world and the characters I adore, I pretty much loved it! As an extension of uh Big Capitalism and what it means in terms of real world ramifications... I have questions/comments/concerns!

IN LONG: I think I’ll start with what didn’t work for me and work my way around to fangirling at the end.

the meh

I feel like... part of it is that Disney has just gotten worse and power-grabbier in way more blatant ways in the last few years, and part of it is that I’m ever-more cognizant of these things. And the fine line they want to walk of “We can tell stories about progressive concepts! Princesses are woke now, actually!” without taking a single financial risk when it comes to alienating foreign markets, homophobes abroad or Nazis domestically is just a fundamentally untenable position to be in. You don’t get to retcon Elsa and Anna as being somehow less white than they clearly are and then try to tell a story about reparations in which no one actually gets reparations. You don’t get to get points for that. It’s in some ways admirable to want to try, but all you do when you’re coming at it from the position of being Disney when you tell this story is show the cracks in it.

I can see how, on a purely storytelling level, having Papa King Arendelle Agnarr be of Arendelle and Iduna be of the Northuldra and having their daughters be the bridge between the two communities is a really tempting, tidy, tie-a-bow-on-it narrative. And I also see how creating the backstory of the war and the mist neatly explains the absence of indigenous faces in the first film. But like... come on. Introducing an indigenous group like the Northuldra and then declaring that Elsa and Anna are a part of it is insulting. There’s no other way to say it. It just feels gross. I’m glad that Disney consulted with the Sámi on the movie, and I acknowledge that both real-life Sámi folks and the onscreen Northuldra come in a broad variety of skin tones and phenotypes. But even with the most generous possible reading of the choice-- that it’s well-intentioned, albeit misguided-- falls flat for me. It feels like Disney trying to have their cake and eat it too. And I don’t really see any way around that. It just... gives me tremendous pause, and it’s so core to so many of the things the movie chooses to be that it’s really disquieting and disappointing.

But then again, Disney being racist isn’t exactly news, and there’s still plenty of flaws to tackle even when we put this (massive) issue aside.

This movie is... weirdly allergic to stakes? It’s not like I wanted Elsa to stay dead, or that I expected Olaf to (more on that in a minute). But Anna’s decision to go full Thor Ragnarok and, as @theseerasures​ jokingly put it to me last night, “throw the first brick at Stonewall” and destroy Arendelle felt right. It felt appropriate to the story they were telling, and it would have had the film put its money where its mouth is re: how atoning for the sins of our forebears requires massive systemic change. So having Elsa charge to the rescue on her water-type Rapidash extremely queer steed daemon Gay Horse and save the city felt cheap. (Also, side note: is Arendelle really just... that one seaside port town and nothing else? Are there only like fifty people in Arendelle?) The citizens had already been taken to safety. The society would live on; they’d all get to rebuild. What was the point of saving the castle, just for saving the castle’s sake? To what end? I don’t see how that’s more inspiring or reassuring or worth it than watching the sisters lead their people from the ground up and starting anew. I don’t understand what they thought was worth protecting, when, again, all of the people were safe. Stories need stakes in order to have meaning! HTTYD has impact because Hiccup loses his leg in his attempt to save his dragon and his people. You know? You don’t get to just... keep everything the way it is and call that restorative justice, and the film clearly wants us to. And I don’t understand why. The only reason that makes any sense at all to me is that they thought it would scare little kids, but like. THIS COMPANY HAS PORTRAYED WAY MORE TRAUMATIZING THINGS THAN THAT. MANY TIMES.

Point in fact: Olaf’s death! Genuinely disturbing! Sad! For the most part I really liked the way it was handled, but it also felt very. Y’know. “Mister Stark, I don’t feel so good.” This is perhaps my most uncharitable nitpick, so I’ll keep it brief, but having Olaf drift away Snap-style just felt like an extremely synergistic, Disney+ nod at Infinity War instead of an organic decision. Which maybe isn’t fair, because it makes more sense for Olaf to become a flurry than for the Snap to make people dust! But nevertheless, the weird wink-and-a-nudge feeling of it totally pulled me out of what should have been an extremely poignant moment. Elsa’s revelation during “Show Yourself” felt similar--like. Not to take away from your moment, Elsa, but the call isn’t out there at all, it’s inside me was already covered by this larger canon, and in a more elegant and eloquent manner.

Which--tbh, the music overall was a bit of a letdown (though “Into the Unknown” slaps and a boyband of five joshes “Lost in the Woods” was perhaps the best sequence in the whole movie). I respect that they clearly wanted to give everyone a solo this time around in a deliberate way, but the songs felt perfunctory for the most part--describing moments instead of advancing them. This film was such a departure from how Disney normally makes sequels (mostly in a good way, actually) and I couldn’t help but wonder what it would have looked like to make a version of this movie where no one sang at all. It didn’t feel cohesive.

And, though it would kill me to get rid of “Lost in the Woods” because it’s perfect... I kinda wish Anna and Kristoff had gotten engaged at the end of act 1, as I think they pretty clearly did in the first draft of this script. Their relationship drama felt like a hat on top of a hat, and they could still have addressed their codependency/insecurities while being engaged. Leaving the proposal for the end just made it an anticlimax after everyone’s been brought back from the literal dead. And it maybe would have left them with more options than having Kristoff just vanish from the narrative for the entire back half of the second act.

Also Honeymaren should have had at least two more scenes. I can’t justify this on a narrative level; the movie didn’t actually need more of her. But like. If you’re going to go out of your way to keep Elsa carefully single, and even give KRISTOFF a new boyfriend, I feel like the least you can do is let us get to know the obvious throw-us-a-bone offering a little bit better. Like. Literally. the actual least you can do.

anyway. all of that said.

the yay!

I can’t tell you how gratifying it was to me, personally to open with a flashback of the girls that demonstrates as clear as day that Elsa is an ace lesbian and Anna is bi and polyamorous. Thank you, snow action figures.

And like. Overall the way the movie tackled the sisters and their relationship was pure *chef’s kiss.* (And I think for me, the strength in this particular bullet point probably outweighs all of my complaints and concerns from above, in the end. At least from an “I still derive enjoyment from this flawed thing” standpoint, though perhaps not from an “I’d recommend this to anyone without caveats” standpoint.) THEY LOVE EACH OTHER SO MUCH. THEY WERE SO THEMSELVES. I do think part of the fear of any sequel where there’s been a significant amount of time since the last one and you were so emotionally invested in it the first go-around is like... what if everyone feels OOC? What if what I saw wasn’t what was really in them after all? What if they feel like strangers? What if they let me down? And there was none of that, even for a second, with this movie. Their parallel journeys were character-appropriate and impactful. Elsa finally gets the freedom she’s always been looking for. Anna finally gets the responsibility she’s always been ready for. Anna, the caretaker, is positioned to take care of everyone. Elsa, the lesbian, runs away to the forest to hang out with beautiful powerful women. Elsa, the force of nature, is finally allowed to commune with it. The scene at their parents’ ship truly anchors the whole movie in the best possible way. And also, like... this movie showed how fucking weird Elsa is, and I feel so vindicated. SHE’S SUCH A DORK. I can’t believe I never realized that Elsa would totally choose Charmander as her starter, and the way she talked to the fire salamander was literally the most charming thing I have ever seen. “They’re staring at us, aren’t they?” GOSH. [IMDb says the salamander’s name is Bruni, and I’m very sad they never spoke it aloud.] [Someone do a rotoscope of the Tangled short where Pascal and Max almost ruin Rapunzel and Eugene’s wedding by losing the rings but it’s Bruni and Sven at Kristoff and Anna’s wedding, thank]

Anyway. All of that goes double for Olaf, because I really wasn’t sure they could pull off the miracle of him not being annoying twice. And they did! Olaf’s grappling with his burgeoning maturity was adorable and profound in equal measure, and his plot reenactments were sublime. And when he realized to Anna for the first time that he was feeling angry, that he was capable of feeling angry... what a tremendous moment. (Actually, I’ll extend what I said about the boat scene to include the Earth Giants river sequence in total, because. Again. Wow.)

And I have to say... as much as I am given real pause by their execution of the concept, “you just do the next right thing” is such beautiful (*cough* Jewish *cough*) praxis. I love that. In the broader Disney Revival canon of Tiana’s work ethic and Rapunzel’s abuse narrative and how Wreck-It Ralph talked about PTSD and all of the myriad things the first Frozen did, I might love “the next right thing” most of all. What a simple, powerful, evocative message. It’s so lovely. A perfect gem.

Also worth acknowledging that the animation was straight-up stunning. Which I expected, generally, but the water droplets in the ship? The way Elsa just loses it sobbing when she sees her mother’s face in the ice? The tender, shattered way Anna pulls Olaf in closer to her as he fades? W.O.W. And, y’know, while I stand by what I said above about stakes, I will say that the moment we first see that Elsa is experiencing cold, that Elsa is freezing? Genuinely--and please forgive the pun--genuinely chilling.

I love Gail the Gale. I love Mattias and Yelana and Ryder and Honeymaren. But mostly I just... loved the dialogue and these characters and that I got to spend a little more time with them. And I’m sure I’ll do so at least two more times before it leaves theaters.

... apparently this is over 2k words now so that seems as good a place to leave it as any. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[astarlightmonbebe]

10 Kdramas I Recommend part 2

Hey~I’m back again with a part 2! I finish kdramas so slowly, so this took me a while to get to. Sorry if I ramble.

Here is part 1.

1. Life

Year of Release: July-September, 2018

Cast:

Lee Dongwook as Ye Jinwoo

Cho Seungwoo as Cha Seunghyo

Won Jina as Lee Noeul

Lee Kyuhyung as Ye Sunwoo

Yoo Jaemyung as Joo Kyungmoon

Synopsis: Ye Jinwoo is a doctor at Sangkook University. One night, the hospital director dies. Though his death is ruled as a heart attack, Jinwoo believes otherwise. Koo Seunghyo becomes the new director of the hospital, despite being a businessman. He sees the hospital as something to profit from, and decides to forcefully transfer three departments, including the emergency medical center, where Jinwoo works. Jinwoo and the other staff members protest this and start to scheme to have their new director removed.

Thoughts: I went into this for Lee Dongwook and Won Jina only, and only thought it sounded vaguely interesting. I’m not much for hospital dramas and politics, but this drama really ended up piquing my interest! Not only were the actors amazing, but it shaped up a really good story. It showed the bad and good characteristics of everyone, even the so called protagonist and antagonist. I did find it frustrating at times, but only to the point that I felt that I had to watch more to make sure everything got resolved right. From a writer’s standpoint, the ending of this was wonderfully crafted, though watchers might have found themselves deeply sighing. 

Rating: 8/10

2. Healer

Year of Release: December, 2014-February, 2015

Cast:

Ji Changwook as Seo Junghoo

Park Minyoung as Chae Youngshin

Yoo Jitae as Kim Moonho

Synopsis: Kim Moonho is a famous reporter who enlists the service of a mysterious night errand boy, Healer, to find and protect Chae Youngshin, a junior reporter who he believes is connected to a decades old mystery surrounding five friends. The three become intricately connected as they navigate their shared past, the mysterious incident, and current day politics as people in positions of power try to cover that incident up for good.

Thoughts: I LOVED THIS DRAMA! I watched it in around three weeks (it’s a 20 episode drama), and loved every single minute of it. It was the fastest I have ever watched a kdrama. I thought about starting it many times, but always pushed it off because the summary never sounded interesting. Yet after watching a trailer and deciding to see how it was for Ji Changwook, I was instantly tossed head over heels. This drama is thrilling. Secret identities, reporters, mysteries, romance (!!! y’all there’s this one cute scene that really makes me squeal), trauma, pain, and everything in between. You will seriously not regret watching this. 

Rating: 10/10! 

3. Come and Hug Me

Year of Release: May-July, 2018

Cast:

Jang Kiyong as Chae Dojin/Yoon Namoo

Jin Kijoo as Han Jaeyi/Gil Nakwon

Heo Junho as Yoon Heejae

Kim Kyungnam as Yoon Hyunmoo

Yoon Jonghoon as Gil Moowon

Synopsis: Namoo and Nakwon were each other’s first love in high school, until Namoo’s psychopathic father, Yoon Heejae, murdered Nakwon’s parents. Twelve years later, the two meet again--with Namoo as a police detective who goes by Chae Dojin, and Nakwon taking after her late mother as an actress by the name of Han Jaeyi. She suffers from severe PTSD. Together, the two of them navigate their rough past and try to move forward and heal, even as the past threatens to return to their present.

Thoughts: I can’t begin to stress how much I like this drama. It is a drama with a darker theme, but I really liked how they focused on Nakwon’s PTSD and a) how people reacted to the rumors of her mental trauma, b) how they didn’t end up pushing that it made her weak, but rather showed how she grew through it. Every single actor in this was fantastic, especially the child actors! I was really glad to be introduced to Jang Kiyong and Jin Kijoo! They looked so great together :). If you’re a fan of healing dramas with a touch of serial killer, you should definitely check this one out. It checks all the romance boxes, but also all the fun, crime filled ones too.

Rating: 9/10 

4. Descendants of the Sun

Year of Release: February-April, 2016

Cast:

Song Joonki as Yoo Shijin

Song Hyeko as Kang Moyeon

Jin Goo as Seo Daeyoung

Kim Jiwon as Yoon Myeongjoo

Synopsis: Shijin is a captain of the special forces, and Moyeon is a doctor. They meet at the hospital, and decide to date. Unfortunately, it does not work out, as they realize that Shijin as someone who takes lives and Moyeon as someone who tries to save them are not a good pair. The two part ways, but it seems like fate is looking out for them, because eight months later they meet again when Moyeon is assigned to go to Uruk with a medical team, where Shijin is stationed. 

Thoughts: DOTS is a drama classic, and a must watch. I went into watching it expecting to to be very different than it was, but I was not disappointed in the slightest bit. It delves into a lot of topics on morality and making decisions in the midst of a life and death situation. The Song-Song couple’s chemistry was off the charts (and they got married in real life, too!), plus the second lead couple was awesome too! Each character brought something unique to the show. DOTS made my heart leap and feel all sorts of things--especially when Onew (he played a doctor) was crying his eyes out, like dude, I wanted to bawl. This is a classic you cannot pass up.

Rating: 10/10

5. Romance is a Bonus Book

Year of Release: January-March, 2019

Cast:

Lee Jongsuk as Cha Eunho

Lee Nayoung as Kang Dani

Jung Eugene as Song Haerin

Wi Hajoon as Ji Seojun

Synopsis: Cha Eunho is a popular writer and editor who works at a popular publishing company. He is close friends with Kang Dani. With a twist of fate, Dani--who used to be a popular copywriter but has recently fallen upon hard times--manages to get a job at Eunho’s publishing company by lying on her resume. 

Thoughts: Any drama with Lee Jongsuk is going to be good (well...most dramas), and this drama was the perfect mix of funny, romance, and a dash of mystery. Dani’s character was very relatable. She’s awkward, kind, old timey, and genuine. I loved getting introduced to Wi Hajoon as an actor through this drama. He and Jung Eugene were great second leads/supporting actors. The rest of the cast are each very unique in their own way, and lots of kudos to the writers for showing us little slices of how they live and their own problems without making the storyline messy. 

Rating: 8/10

6. My Strange Hero

Year of Release: December, 2018-February, 2019

Cast:

Yoo Seungho as Kang Boksu

Jo Boah as Son Soojung

Kwak Dongyeon as Oh Seho

Synopsis: When Kang Boksu was in high school, he was falsely accused of school violence by his friend (Oh Seho) and his girlfriend (Son Soojeong). Years later, as an adult, Boksu has the opportunity to return to school and graduate. He takes up the offer with the idea of getting revenge, as Soojeong has just become a teacher there, and Seho is the new director as he battles to take control of the school from his mother, the chairman. However, things don’t go as Boksu plans, and he soons find himself tangled up in a major school corruption. 

Thoughts: Okay!!!! I usually get tired of hearing the same old corruption spiel since apparently kdramas love to point out the problems with Korea’s school systems (while nothing changes), and while Chairman Oh definitely made me want to slap her straight across her dumb face, it wasn’t enough to make me completely stop watching. First off, I love all three main actors (or I did as soon as I saw them in here). Yoo Seungho is always enjoyable to watch, and Boksu and Soojeong were sweet and fluffy and balanced each other out perfectly in the relationship. I also fell for Oh Seho! I know a lot of people found him a terrible person...and yeah, he was definitely a prime example of like an anti-villain, but he also had a great redemption arc and I just...wanted to give him the hugest hug.

Rating: 8.5/10

7. Cheese in the Trap

Year of Release: January-March, 2016

Cast:

Park Haejin as Yoo Jung

Kim Goeun as Hong Seol

Seo Kangjoon as Baek Inho

Synopsis: Hong Seol is a hard working college student and Yoo Jung is her good looking, smart, and rich sunbae. Over the course of college, Seol and Jung eventually start a delicate relationship despite other obstacles in their path. However, a friend from Jung’s path, Inho, returns and also starts to fall for Seol.

Thoughts: This drama...I actually only watched it for Seo Kangjoon and he’s the only reason I finished it. This has the biggest second lead syndrome you will ever find. Personally, he’s the only reason this is making it to my recommendation list (that and the fact that I’m horrible at finishing dramas). On the other hand...let’s just say that I hated Park Haejin for so long because I could not get over how much I disliked his character in this drama. It was an interesting character, but I couldn’t stand how manipulative he was. CITT is based on a webtoon, so maybe that’s why it’s so crazy, but it took me so long to finish this. It took me a year because I stopped watching it so many times. This show seriously drove me crazy. There are only a couple things that get me genuinely riled up when I have to talk about them, and this show is one of those things. I don’t know, some people really liked it, but while there were good characters and some nice parts, in the long run it was just really not that good.

Rating: 6/10

8. Bad Guys

Year of Release: October-December, 2014

Cast:

Kim Sangjoong as Oh Gutak

Ma Dongseok as Park Woongcheol

Park Haejin as Lee Jungmoon

Jo Donghyuk as Jung Taesoo

Gang Yewon as Yoo Miyoung

Synopsis: In order to combat the rise in violent crimes, the Police Detective tasks Detective Oh Gutak with putting together a group of criminals to take care of the problem. Gutak, who is currently suspended for excessive violence, puts together a team consisting of gangster Park Woongcheol, hitman Jung Taesoo, serial killer Lee Jungmoon, and Police Inspector Yoo Miyoung. Together, the team tackle the rising crime rate and dangerous criminals.

Thoughts: This show was only 11 episodes, maybe why I was able to watch it so fast. It’s violent and dark--the perfect fit for the crime/mystery genre. I also like to call this Park Haejin’s redemption drama, because after this you know who I liked x.x. There were also a lot of plot twists that made me need to watch the next episode immediately. There’s a sequel to the show with a new cast but the same premise, but I’ll warn you that that show has definitely more violence and blood and death and stuff (I’m still watching it; I’m kind of stalled out right now since a certain episode made me lose faith in that entire show, ahem episode 8). 

Rating: 8/10

9. Kill It

Year of Release: March-April, 2019

Cast:

Jang Kiyong as Kim Soohyun

Nana as Do Hyeonjin

Roh Jeongeui as Kang Seulgi

Kim Jaewon as Philip

Synopsis: Kim Soohyun is an elite assassin who is searching for clues to the past he cannot remember. Do Hyeonjin is the adopted daughter of an important congressman who is a new Police Detective. She is still searching for the killer of her boyfriend, even though nine years have passed. Soohyun and Hyeonjin start to cross paths, finding a connection from their past that leads to a growing relationship.

Thoughts: Sounds like every au ever, right? Jokes, it’s my favorite au of all time and I freaked out when I found out Jang Kiyong was going to the lead. It sounds cliche, but I swear it’s very good. I love the fact that there’s not really a romantic relationship between the two, like it’s not supposed to be romantic, but rather focuses on the platonic, friendship between them. It’s a dark, twisting drama, another one showing how deep corruption runs in the government (that’s always a theme because you know, it’s a thing), and the ending freaking killed me but you know :((. 

Rating: 9.5/10

10. He Is Psychometric

Year of Release: March-April, 2019

Cast:

Park Jinyoung as Lee Ahn

Shin Yeeun as Yoon Jaein

Kim Kwon as Kang Seongmo

Kim Dasom as Eun Jisoo

Synopsis: Lee Ahn has a special ability, psychometry. When he makes skin to skin contact with someone, he sees their darkest memories and secrets. He dreams of becoming the first Police Psychometrist. Yoon Jaein has been running her whole life, ever since her father was charged with the arson of Yeonsung Apartments, where Ahn’s parents died. The two first meet in high school, but their connection is cut short, only for them to reunite two years later and start to solve the mystery behind the fire and the other crimes that connect to it, along with Ahn’s non-biological brother, Prosecutor Kang Seungmo, and Police Detective Eun Jisoo.

Thoughts: OKAY, let me take a deep breath before I get into this one. He Is Psychometric is one of the best dramas I have ever watched. It’s right up there on my top five, I reckon. I didn’t drop this or anything; I watched it from the moment it started airing to the time it didn’t. Fair warning that if you expected happiness, this is not the drama to go for. It’s so twisty and has so many turns, like everytime something was uncovered there was still more threads to follow and it was insane but amazing. Especially for me, being a huge psychology fan, I loved digging into these characters and how unique they each were. The relationships, bromance and romance alike, were so intricate in this drama. I went through a million feelings and emotions in the span of a minute. This drama is also one that you can’t see coming. You can theorize (and believe me, I theorized the heck out of that thing) and guess, but it manages to blindside you almost every time. This show will break your heart and how you think of the world and humans and for that, you have to at least give it a try. 

Rating: 100/10

[onebizarrekai]

excuse my musing

I’m probably a hundred years too late, but I have thoughts.

Major spoilers for The World Ends With You ahead if you care:

From a writing standpoint, Joshua’s character arc was sort of… odd, because the game led you to expect that he was the bad guy, and then turned you on your head and made you feel bad, only to reaffirm that he was actually the bad guy.

… Which sucks, because it was enough of a twist that time they made you believe he wasn’t a terrible person. Like, yes, something felt off about that, and therefore something still felt like it was coming. It was sort of predictable.

I kind of wish that he’d gotten a proper redemption, in the very least, or that he had been the character I was hoping that he’d be. Like, a normal kid with way too much curiosity for his own good. A kid who grew up “seeing dead people” and seeing the chaos that all the players were going through and deciding he wanted to take over Shibuya and become the next Composer because there was so much unnecessary suffering–even if that meant taking any extreme necessary. Wanting a partner that he knew he could trust in the Reaper’s Game, and therefore forcing Neku into it.

Unfortunately, his character arc is that he’s a depressed demigod with no real friends who grew so apathetic towards life that he decided to gamble millions of lives because they were “too corrupted for him” and then do whatever means necessary to win his stupid game.

If Joshua had been a normal kid–a term which I use liberally to mean just a slightly unique human and NOT a demigod–that would have presented him as a more relatable and less… well, inhuman character. A character who didn’t just use Neku as a means to win a game where he intended to cause mass destruction as a self-absorbed person with way too much power, but rather a character who used Neku to A) satisfy his curiosity and pull himself into a position of power, which at least would have made him a more human villain, or B) help people by fixing the messed up UG system and the Reaper’s Game.

Honestly, I’m just disappointed that he didn’t end up being a terrible person because he was human, but because he wasn’t human. Like, it brushes off the fact that human beings have the capacity to be that awful while preaching for the entire game that human beings are that awful. For example, all of the citizens of Shibuya–the entire game between the Composer and the Conductor is based around how shitty the people of Shibuya are and whether they are or aren’t worth saving. The ending of TWEWY implies that when Neku refused to shoot Joshua in spite of everything he’s done to him, it finally got through to Joshua and inspired him to fix the city into its ideal state rather than destroy it.

The problem is, though… we were never given any reason to side with Joshua’s ideas in the slightest, and to believe that the people should have any reason to change at all. All of the ordinary human characters in this game have been shown to be very normal and there’s nothing about them that gives you any reason to believe that they’re in need of some mass change. There are no characters… like Joshua.

He is the peak of exactly what they needed to describe humans as self-centered and corrupted, but they made him the ultimate power that gets to more-or-less Thanos snap all the people in the city into oblivion if he wants to. If he had been a human who was twisted and did a whole lot of really bad stuff, that may have been better than him being the higher power who is… still twisted. Not twisted enough to still destroy Shibuya in spite of Neku’s actions, but still twisted enough to gamble lives for his own entertainment.

What I’m trying to say is that, aside from Joshua being a demigod and not a human being almost detrimental to the story from this viewpoint, is that they could have set him up to fill a completely different character role and it might have worked better–if not better, at least in a way that functions more consistently. Maybe not for the overall story, but for his character arc. He could have been a kid who was willing to do anything to get what he wanted, but still had enough heart to change: that proof that those ‘awful humans’ can change. Someone whom Neku doubted at first, only to start reconsidering as he tries to figure out what’s going on in Joshua’s head.

Joshua goes on forward after that moment where he saves Neku’s life. He doesn’t get erased because his Imagination is too strong (that’s how it works, right?). He kills Minamimoto later as normal as he persists in his goal of defeating the Composer and becoming the new one. And it’s a bad plan. Joshua is not a very good person and he’s not fit to be the Composer. You either fulfill your original goal of defeating the Composer regardless and Joshua slithers his way into the position afterwards (or Joshua miraculously does it on his own because he’s a Special Child™). Neku has to go and stop him and talk some sense into him, but it’s too late, because he’s already ruining everything. He thanks Neku for all of his help and asks him to be his Conductor, because he trusts him and he’s attached to him. Neku is like “FAM” and you have a very tender final boss on your hands as you try to get through to him.

To be real, this is what I thought might happen while I was playing the game, but it wasn’t.

I don’t hate Joshua’s existing character arc. He grows a little as a person, people get their happy ending, and maybe you’ll be left feeling sorry for him. It just felt… imbalanced. You can’t take a situation and plot twist it, only to un-plot twist it again later and go back to what you originally led players to believe. I mean, you can do that, but it doesn’t exactly provide satisfying results. It doesn’t have the same effect as a plot twist and just kinda inflicts some level of disappointment. Especially because, before this point, we were led to believe that Joshua had insane motivations and took them very seriously and was clearly dragging Neku into them against his will for unknown reasons, to just going to “he was an apathetic demigod playing a game” and… also taking that very seriously. Like, he wanted to destroy Shibuya (and himself, apparently) so badly that he did all this. He wasn’t doing it because he wanted to gain anything, like the second week led us to believe–no, he was doing it because he wanted to lose everything, and that’s honestly, just… really depressing and seems uncharacteristic for the kind of personality the game taught us that Joshua has, especially because he didn’t get at least something of a happy ending along with everyone else. His arc felt incomplete to me. I know that TWEWY might get a sequel, but I feel like this is all stuff that would be important to resolve in the first game.

edit: it has come to my knowledge that twewy successfully led me to believe pretty much exactly what it wanted me to

[mysterylover123]

My thoughts on Izu/Ocha: Meta

cue frustrated shipper screams

by mysterylover123

At the end of the day, irrespective of any shipping wars, I just want HeroAca to have a good ending. Many manga/anime/franchises have been utterly destroyed by a bad ending, while others are elevated by a great one. And a very consistent element in Bad Endings is poor handling of romantic subplots. Exhibits include: How I Met Your Mother, Naruto, Bleach. Horikoshi has listed both Marvel and Shonen Jump as his major influences, and BNHA is published in the latter. Both companies have a history of terrible Romantic Subplot decisions: Selling Spider-Man’s marriage to Mephisto, the IchiHime vs IchiRuki debate, the awkward Staron and Brutasha subplots in the MCU, and the fiery pit of controversy that is the Naruto ending pairs - all of it ultimately harming the narrative’s integrity and preventing audiences from enjoying the story. While a badly handled romance subplot doesn’t have to tank the ending of an action series, it’s still a thin line to walk.  

On the surface, BNHA’s main pairing of Izuku Midoriya/Ochaco Uraraka, or Izu/Ocha as it’s called, seems to avoid the obvious problems. There’s no More Important Girl in Deku’s life, there’s no coding on his rivalries, and no melodramatic love triangle to annoy people. In fact, I can even say that Izuku and Ochaco’s dynamic is pretty fascinating. But not yet as an endgame pairing. My feelings on Izu/Ocha are complicated. I simultaneously ship it and don’t. I ship it because I enjoy them both as characters, I think they’re good friends, and they seem to like each other; I don’t ship it because the execution so far has been rather awkward, the romance lopsided on Uraraka’s side, and the nature of their relationship struggling to get to the levels of intimacy I’d expect from an endgame pairing. I’m afraid, in short, that Horikoshi will do what other Shonen manga have done: have a supporting female character become defined by her love for the Lead, have the lead spend the whole series ignoring them to obsess over their rivals and villains, and throw the two together at the last minute without properly developing their romance, leaving both fans of the pairing (because of the lack of onscreen development) and non-fans (because of the weak storytelling) alike disappointed and frustrated. 

There are several options for what could happen besides that terrifying prospect. Izu/Ocha could spend lots of time developing their romance, correcting the problems I’ve spotted and outlined in this meta - I’ll mention a few areas where I think they could change these problems as I go along - and become a great Official Couple, like some of the success stories in Shonen romance writing (Ed/Win, Vegeta/Bulma…erm, that’s all I can think of). Alternatively, they could grow away from their crushes on each other and set them aside, ending as friends instead of lovers, possibly with no Official Couples (One Piece, and in the west, Gravity Falls, do something like this). That could work too. They could both end up with other people. They could end up having a tragic falling out and become enemies. At this point, anything’s possible. But what I do know is that they need to change something about their dynamic, and change it fast, or else the story is going to go barreling into the problems of it’s predecessors - the flaws in Shonen manga the series is so well known for avoiding, like pacing issues or Power Scaling. And I don’t want that.

I wrote this meta mostly to contextualize/analyze the Izu/Ocha dynamic for myself. I find their relationship interesting, and most meta on Izu/Ocha barely scratch the surface of their relationship, only going so far as to say either “I don’t like it” or “I like it, and you all are stupid for not liking it”. My feelings on Izu/Ocha are complicated, and I wanted to do a meta on them. Both their relationship, and as two of my fave characters in BNHA. What I want from a storytelling, meta-narrative perspective is a good story. What I want from a character loving POV is for my faves to be happy. If the series shows me they’ll make each other happy, I’m good. It’s just that so far, their relationship doesn’t seem to work that way.

So I’ll go through each arc of the series, and try and detail their interactions from both Deku’s POV and Uraraka’s. I’ll highlight the moments I like and find shippy, and the things they need to work on as a couple. Hopefully this’ll be an enjoyable read (it ended up really, really long), and I’m sorry if Izu/Ocha fans reading it get mad at me - I have nothing against it as a ship, I just want more from the relationship in canon.

Without further ado:

Entrance Exam Arc:

Deku’s POV: Deku’s first impression of Uraraka is great. She’s a cute, kind girl who stops him from tripping over his feet. 

He does, however, think of her as “a girl” (“I just talked to a girl!”), which is a pattern with how he often reacts to her - as “a girl”, rather than “Uraraka”, later on down the line. When Deku shows attraction to Ochaco, it’s to her as an exemplar of the female, rather than as a person. 

Compare Deku’s attraction to her uniform and costume, or responses to talking to ‘a girl’, to say, Naruto saying he likes Sakura’s “large charming forehead” or Darcy in Pride and Prejudice thinking of Elizabeth’s “fine dark eyes”. Big difference in terms of how romantic the attraction comes across. 

Iida stops Deku from talking to Uraraka before the test, saying he’ll just distract her. Take a shot every time someone frames Ochaco’s potential interest in Deku as being a ‘distraction’ that she has to do without.

Deku notices Uraraka pinned under rubble and jumps to save her. He compares this mentally to doing the same for Bakugo in the previous arc, from the sludge villain. But there’s no All Might here to save Deku, and when he jumps he breaks three limbs. His decision gets him into UA, but he thinks he failed. For weeks, Deku feels miserable about this, wallowing in despair because he threw away his chance to get into UA. He gets the news from All Might, and learns that Uraraka went to offer up some of her points for him. Now this is sweet, but let’s look at what we know of Deku’s character now and talk about why I don’t think he appreciates this all that much, and why it wouldn’t have been good for their relationship if that was what got him into UA.

Deku doesn’t believe in himself. He has huge issues with personal security and confidence because of his past. He wants to be there for other people, to be “able to smile, while doing something good for them”. Deku wanted to get into UA on his own merit. So had Uraraka actually been the one to get him in, out of gratitude, it really would have done a number on Deku’s self-esteem. It would have told him that he wasn’t good enough to get in on his own, that someone else had to sabotage themselves to bail him out because of his mistakes. Fortunately, that’s not what happened - he got in because Rescue Points - but from an Izu/Ocha standpoint, it doesn’t seem calculated to cause Deku to fall in love with Uraraka. He doesn’t want someone to take pity on him and sabotage themselves so he can do well. 

That’s why he doesn’t seem all that moved by Uraraka’s gesture here - we could have had many close-ups and reaction bubbles of him thinking about how wonderful she was for doing this, how generous and kind of her it was, but nope, nothing like that happens. Deku is only ecstatic once he learns that he made it in on his own merit. As he should be, of course, but ultimately this first encounter doesn’t do a lot to set up Izu/Ocha.

Ochaco’s POV. Ochaco is a nice girl who saves people in trouble. She’s also very, very insecure. I’ll get into that more later, but despite Uraraka’s cheerful exterior, she’s even more insecure than Deku is. She saves him when they first meet, then walks off after talking at him for a few minutes. 

He doesn’t respond to her at all out loud and she quickly moves on. This is a small microcasm of their entire  dynamic: Ochaco often talks at Deku rather than with Deku, and he rarely talks to her about anything. We’ll get more into that later.

Ochaco gets saved by Deku during the exam, saves him in return, and later on offers him her points. When she brings him up to Mic, she calls him “plain looking” and “didn’t stand out at all”. Lovely first impression. Of course, it’s not impossible for a romance subplot to start with the love interest not finding the hero attractive. The aforementioned Pride and Prejudice, for instance, starts with Darcy calling Eliza “tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me.” But within two chapters he’s gushing about her “fine eyes”. 

200+  chapters later, and Ochaco still hasn’t said a word about finding Deku more attractive now. Now, she could, hopefully some day, realize that she no longer finds him plain, and that she’s grown to find him attractive. Say something about those big green eyes or his fearless smile. Something personal, like he has yet to say about her, to express that she finds him appealing. But nothing yet.

Uraraka giving Deku her points, from her POV, is I think motivated just as much by pride as it is by gratitude. She got into that scenario because she was pinned down, and she probably feels like it was her fault. It would be kind of creepy, actually, if she was willing to throw her own chances under the bus for someone she just met because she liked him or was in love with him - Misa Amane levels of love-at-first-sight co-dependency. Uraraka doing this because of her own pride seems more fitting to me, more in line with the character we get to know later on. 

EG:

She feels she messed up, and took someone else down with her, and as such has to make things better. Thankfully, Deku pulled through on his own. This is one of many sweet scenes where Uraraka offers Deku a great deal of love and support. But sadly, it’s a very lopsided bond in that regard. Outside of this moment, Deku never does anything crazy to protect Uraraka again, and rarely shows her the same kind of support. Not because he doesn’t want to, per se, but because she won’t let him (if you want the full details on that imbalance, skip to the Sports Fest arc section).

Quirk Apprehension Test Arc:

Uraraka’s POV: We continue the pattern of Uraraka’s crush on Deku being something she’s told to drop here, with Aizawa telling her if she’s “just here to make friends” she can go home (take a shot). 

She’s happy to see Deku and supportive of him when he does OK, worried for him when he’s hurt, and in general a good friend. At this point in the series, we’re not privy to her inner thoughts, so there’s not as much to say about her feelings here. The only thing of note is the other general pattern of their relationship, wherein Uraraka gets to be supportive of and worried for Deku, but not him for her. Her revising of the name Deku is more important from his POV.

Deku’s POV: Deku shows continuing attraction to Uraraka here, thinking that she “looks good in her uniform” and blushing around her. However, he quickly moves on to overcoming the Quirk App Test and doesn’t think about her much throughout the rest of the arc. 

She comes up to him later and calls him ‘Deku’, like Bakugo did, and reframes the nickname as a positive thing. The setup seems clear: Ochaco is to be the friend to Deku that Bakugo never was, the kind and supportive ally he lacked back in middle school. This scene makes me smile.

Which would be fine if that’s what they went with, but…

Battle Trial Arc:

This arc starts out so well for Izu/Ocha, then goes down hill fast.

Deku on Ochaco here: Deku thinks she looks good in her uniform, blushing around her, and expressing a desire to impress her when they’re put on the same team. 

They’re up against Bakugo, and he’s nervous. When Ochaco asks, he starts talking about how Greatamazingawesomesuperspecialwhatever Bakugo is and how he wants to beat him. 

He then apologizes to Ochaco for getting her caught up in his problems, indicating that he doesn’t see her as being part of them. Even though Ochaco proclaims them to be a team, he doesn’t do much strategizing with her ahead of time. He gets very caught up in his match with Bakugo, and doesn’t bother working with her until Bakugo has him cornered and nearly drops him with the MegaBlast. Then, he calls her and comes up with a plan - but imagine if he’d actually worked together with Ochaco to beat Bakugo.

 If he’d guessed, as he says, that Bakugo was planning to “come at him first”, then why not get Uraraka to grab Bakugo while he’s distracted and zero G him out of the building?

Because Deku wants to beat Bakugo to prove himself, plain and simple. He’s known Bakugo longer, so it’s only natural he’s more interested in beating him than working with Uraraka. But this could have gone so much better for him if he took the time to work with Ochaco instead - if they’d tag-teamed Kacchan, Deku might not have had to break his arm. 

He does salvage this a little by taking the new version of his name Uraraka came up with. But then Deku spends the rest of the arc ignoring her instead of working with her. 

There’s even an oddly placed panel sequence where she blows off a flirtatious Kaminari to worry about Deku, and he then blows her off to go chase after Bakugo and clear up their misunderstanding. It’s probably just a coincidence, but it’s still a weird parallel.

And speaking of this scene, let’s talk about a bigger concern with Izu/Ocha (from Deku’s angle) that I have. Deku has a secret identity. He has a past as a quirkless kid, a history of insecurity, and a secret chosen one destiny that burdens him greatly. He needs his future partner to be someone he can talk to about all this. If I were him, and I had to choose among the kids at UA who I’d tell my troublesome secret ID to, who I’d want to confide in, I’d probably say 1. Uraraka, 2. Iida, 3. Shoto, 4. Literally every single other character Deku is friends with and finally, bottom of the list, Bakugo. Yet Deku chooses to tell Bakugo his secret identity, not Uraraka or anyone nicer who would be presumably more trustworthy. Now, in hindsight (SPOILERS IF YOU’RE NOT CAUGHT UP YET), Deku doing this has paid off. Bakugo knows his secret and he’s kept it. He’s been a supportive friend to him since then, especially post JTA, everything a good secret keeper should be. But Deku - and especially the audience - didn’t know that at the time. (SPOILERS DONE).

And Deku can’t be with Uraraka if she doesn’t know his secret identity. That’s one of the Laws of Superhero Romance Comics. Spider-Man could never be with Gwen or Black  Cat, for instance, because they hated his alter ego. He married MJ because she liked both. And Horikoshi is a big fan of Spidey, so he must know this. Deku has to tell Uraraka about OFA if he’s going to be with her. But he hasn’t, and he hasn’t shown any inclination to. 

The setup is there for him to tell others; Todoroki asked about his powers, Tsuyu compared him to All Might. They could figure it out, they could tell Deku they know, or he could tell them, like he tried to tell Kota his personal stories, to make them feel better. There’s a mechanism in place for him to tell either one of them. But not Uraraka. She’s never asked about it, he’s got no interest in telling her. And as long as she doesn’t know the Secret, she can’t be with Deku. This isn’t, BTW, me making a manifesto for any of those ships over Izuocha. I don’t think for a second that any of those pairings will happen in the series. Only that if Deku is to be with Uraraka, he has to find a reason to tell her about OFA, or their relationship will be all kinds of messed up.

Also, FYI, Tsu, Todoroki, Bakugo, and even Iida have looked at and noticed enough about Deku to guess at least this, the most fundamentally important thing to know about Deku: That he’s close to All Might and his powers are similar. But not Ochaco. Does she honestly know anything important about Deku? Like how he grew up quirkless for so long, how All Might inspired his dream, how he wants to live up to the expectations of others and save people with a smile? No, not yet. He’s never told her anything personal, outside of this one little anecdote in this arc about wanting to beat Bakugo.

Uraraka’s POV:

Uraraka is happy to be working with Deku, but initially not all that excited about winning the fight. She just wants to relax, and is surprised to see how stressed he is.

 Then Deku talks about how he wants to beat Bakugo, and she becomes more proactive. Nonetheless, she still basically just follows his lead this arc. 

She takes no initiative on her own: She doesn’t go to grab Bakugo when he’s attacking Deku, she stands around giggling on the phone while trying to sneak up on Iida, and Momo criticizes her for it. 

She thinks to herself about Deku wanting to win when Iida outfoxes her. She doesn’t seem like she wants to win the Trial for her own sake, just Deku’s. And this is a problem for Uraraka. (take a shot)

Momo criticizes everyone but Iida in this match, and all three characters who messed up did so because they were too fixated on someone else. Deku on beating Bakugo. Bakugo on beating Deku. Uraraka on impressing Deku. Iida, for instance, also admires Midoriya - but he’s able to concentrate on the match and fight Uraraka anyway. That’s why he’s MVP, as Momo and All Might put it.

So we set up Uraraka’s over-fixation on Deku as being a problem she has to overcome, a flaw - like Bakugo’s obsession with beating Deku, Iida’s obsession with killing Stain, Todoroki’s obsession with hurting his father, or Momo’s feelings of inadequacy next to Shoto, it’s framed like a flaw she has to overcome to do better. Of the dynamics here, only Deku’s admiration of/determination to beat Bakugo is not framed as a flaw per se, since he still has it to this day and seems to benefit from it. I’ll elaborate on why I think that is later on in the essay - it has to do with the “Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Tragedy” theme - but overall, this doesn’t paint a good picture of Ochaco’s feelings for Midoriya. They’re framed as something she has to put away in order to do well. (take a shot)

Class Rep mini-arc:

This is another score for Izu/Ocha. Ochaco voted for Deku as class Rep. She never tells him about it, though. I’m not sure why. Iida told him. Todoroki tells Momo later on that he voted for her. Ochaco could be gearing up for telling Deku herself, dramatically, later on, but what would that prove? 

Deku already knows she admires him, he turned down the class rep role later anyway. This isn’t like Momo and Shoto, where Momo stayed Deputy Rep and never heard a compliment from Todoroki before he told her he voted for her. In that case, the Class Rep thing showed Momo Shoto believed in her, helping her get her confidence back. But Deku already knows Ochaco believes in him. Iida telling him also helped him out - it showed him he had friends who believed in him. Ochaco’s given reason for keeping her vote to herself is Bakugo’s little temper tantrum about it. But Bakugo wasn’t at the table when Iida told Deku the truth, so why couldn’t she have told Deku then? I really don’t get why she keeps her vote to herself; I don’t see how this will do anything for Deku later on down the line, or for Uraraka. It shows she’s supportive of him and admires him, but we already knew that. I’m just not sure how to parlay this into future developments with them.

USJ Arc

Deku and Ochaco don’t talk to each other at all during this arc. They get separated quickly and don’t reunite. They don’t worry about each others’ safety during the battle. After it’s over Ochaco asks after Deku because he broke his limbs, but during the fight she doesn’t worry about him or look for him. There’s only one moment I find noteworthy for Izu/Ocha during this arc: Deku wondering “What would Kacchan do” before jumping off the boat. This type of remark, like Iida’s “What would by brother or Midoriya do” during the class rep arc, is about a platonic friend (well, rival in this case), not a love interest. So Uraraka’s “what would Deku do” being code for “I like him” doesn’t really add up. I’ll get to that later.

Sports Festival Arc

Deku’s POV: Deku asks Uraraka about her motivation at the beginning of this arc, in Chapter 22. Uraraka admits that it’s for the money, and while Deku mentally thinks that this is admirable, he doesn’t say anything complimentary out loud, or anything other than “it’s surprising”. Contrasted with Iida’s loud, uproarious applause of Ochaco’s motive, this doesn’t come across as all that supportive of his friend, even though he does not, in fact, think the less of her for it. 

On top of that,  Deku at this point in the arc is struggling to get motivated himself. Later on he’ll call Todoroki out for not trying his best, and he’s clearly thinking of people like Uraraka, Shinso, Bakugo and Iida when he does so. But at this point, he does the same thing towards her that he calls Shoto out for.

He doesn’t get inspired by her words, or All Might’s, or anyone’s, until he overhears Bakugo make an offhand comment about ‘aiming for the top’. Then he gets into the  competitive spirit. This kinda creates the impression that Deku is more inspired by his rivals than his love interest. Common issue in Shonen romances, of course; a higher emphasis on the importance of the hero’s main rivalry than his Official Girlfriend.

He’s overjoyed when she joins his team, but not because it’s Uraraka - because it’s anyone.

Deku is the person no one wants to team up with here. He would have teamed up with anyone who asked him. It seems odd, knowing Uraraka’s capabilities and quirk, that he didn’t just go up and ask her himself to join his team (Like he does with Iida, and then Tokoyami). 

(Edit: I’ve recently rereaed this chapter and found I made a mistake: Deku does say he was planning on asking her. I was just reading a weird translation. Sorry for the mistake - good on Deku!)

During the battle, while he mentally thinks that Uraraka is great, he doesn’t say anything out loud to her. He does, however, loudly compliment Hatsume and Tokoyami, in front of her. This hurts Uraraka’s feelings, but I’ll get to that in her section.

Deku gets busy with his rivals for a while until his first match is over. While watching the rest, he mentions to Uraraka that he wrote about her Zero Gravity in his notebook. But he doesn’t say “I think your Zero Gravity is cool too” or anything complimentary, just “I wrote about it” like everyone else’s. 

To Deku’s credit, he seems to realize that he hasn’t been very supportive to Uraraka. The anime cut this from the Manga, but the manga has a scene where Deku notices her leaving, and her pensive expression. This leads to him going to the prep room to offer her his strategy to beat Bakugo. 

I think this is a big deal for Deku, because at the end of the day, this is his entire motivation. Helping people. Being there for others. Deku is a wonderful, supportive friend, used to feeling weak and inadequate and wanting to help others the way they helped him. He needs a partner he can support and compliment, someone he can help, someone who needs saving. 

But Uraraka denies him this. He offers her his help and support, and she rejects him - for her own reasons, but this still leaves Deku feeling lesser. 

“She’s the one supporting me,” he muses before his match with Todoroki. He wanted to be there for her. He wanted to help her break down the wall that is Bakugo - even if she didn’t use his strategy, she could have listened to his knowledge of Bakugo, who he’s known his whole life, to pick up some tips on his weaknesses. 

But she doesn’t. She also refuses to let Deku be there for her when she loses. He can tell that her cheerfulness is just hiding her disappointment. But since she’s refusing to let him in, he can’t be the shoulder for her to cry on. He wanted to. He was willing to be that person for her - to be the friend she can talk to about her issues, to cheer her on when she fought and help her up when she’s feeling down.

But she rejected his support, just like everyone else does. 

Bakugo rejected his helping hand as a kid. Iida rejected working with him earlier that same day, and rejects his support later on with his brother. Todoroki declares he ‘isn’t here to make friends’ and spends most of the sports Fest rejecting Deku’s attempts to help him (“You’re helping your opponent? Now which of us is screwing around”).

 Deku clearly wants to be that friend. He wants to be there for the people in his life and offer his boundless love and emotional support for them. And I think he needs a partner in life who will let him be there for them. If Uraraka is to be that person, she has to let him in. She has to put aside her pride (yes, I think it is pride) and accept Deku supporting her, just as she supported him. She has to open up to him and cry in front of him. The others I mentioned have - Bakugo cried in front of Deku twice, Iida accepted his help during the Hero Killer arc, Todoroki accepts him in the very next episode. Three characters far crustier, prouder and more antagonistic towards Deku have all put aside their pride and let him help them with their issues. It’s Ochaco’s turn.

Speaking of: From Uraraka’s perspective. When Uraraka admits her motivation to Deku and Iida, she’s looking away, scratching her head, and apologizing. She says, in the dub “You two have such admirable motivations. I hope you don’t think less of me now.” Uraraka feels ashamed to admit her motivation to Deku and Iida. 

When the obstacle race ends, she announces “I’m so jealous of you!” to Deku, after he comes in first. And I think she is - jealous of him. 

She teams up with Deku for the  Cavalry Battle, and later admits that she “Might have been relying on (him) to get by”, meaning that she sees Deku as being better than her. 

She gets very jealous of the attentions Deku gives Hatsume - as I noticed before, Deku compliments  everyone but Ochaco. He even found the time to compliment Bakugo in front of her during the Battle Trial arc - but to her face, nothing. And this plays on Uraraka’s insecurities. Deep down, despite her cheerful demeanor, Uraraka isn’t very self-confident (at least, not yet). She doesn’t believe in herself, she doesn’t have faith in herself to succeed. She’s even more insecure than Deku, and often tries too hard to be “just like him” to her own self-detriment. Watching everyone else’s matches, she admits to being ashamed of herself. She realizes she needs to try and succeed on her own, not by relying on Midoriya.  (take a shot)

But at the same time, her goal is still essentially to be “Just like Deku”. What’s the one thing Ochaco knows Deku wants to do, besides be a great hero? Beat Bakugo. No coincidence she was fighting him in this tournament. To be just like Deku, she has to beat his rival, who she’s seen him fight before. Uraraka wants to be good enough, she wants to beat Deku - in a way, her motive and behavior here is not that different from Iida’s, Bakugo’s or Todoroki’s. Deku makes her insecure, so she tries to do better than him. 

She declares herself a rival to him. She refuses his help - seriously, a few pointers on how to beat Bakugo couldn’t hurt, she even thinks about Deku’s earlier moves while fighting him anyway! - and tries to win it all by herself. And although her plan is great, it doesn’t work. 

The minute she thinks “I’ll be just like Deku” is the moment she fails. The moment Bakugo blows up her debris and beats her.

Uraraka is devastated by this. She was crying for so long and so hard that her eyes swelled shut. She could have really used a friend, someone to talk to about her family problems - someone outside of her family drama, a kind and understanding ally like Deku, who can commiserate with her and tell her things’ll be ok. 

But she hides her feelings from Deku and pretends she’s fine. I think she doesn’t want to look weak in front of him - she wants him to think she’s cool, to compliment her like he compliments Hatsume and Bakugo, and she’s deeply insecure about appearing anything other than strong. So she shuts him out and cries on her own, with no supportive friend to help her. If she is to be with him, she needs to be able to let him into her life and her heart. 

She has to cry in front of him, like all three of his other rivals have done despite their immense pride and far less amiable relationships with Deku. Even Tsu has cried in front of Deku and confessed her feelings (to him and the whole Rescue Squad), and she’s not as close to him as Uraraka or Iida. Why doesn’t Uraraka confide in Deku about her feelings? Again, I think the underlying problem is her hero-worship of him. She thinks he’s amazing, she won’t admit to his flaws (she sees him, one ep/chapter later, destroy his body and lose his match helping Todoroki; you’d think she’d cotton on to his lack of utter flawlessness then, but nope), and she’s still essentially insecure about herself. She needs to learn to believe in her own strengths and admit Deku’s weaknesses. Then she’ll be willing to cry in front of him and listen to his ideas.

But until then, she’s just like all of Deku’s other rivals: Too proud and too envious/afraid of him to accept his love or friendship. 

No wonder she was so easily able to spot why Bakugo is insecure about him and guess how he’d feel about being rescued; her complex about Deku is rapidly becoming just as debilitating as his is. 

Difference being, Bakugo had his “Deku vs Kacchan 2” moment ,where he and Deku talk out their feelings and move on, recognizing that Deku isn’t looking down on him and never has been, etc. Ochaco needs that moment too (probably without the big fight scene, though).  

Hero Killer Arc:

From Deku’s perspective, he chooses his hero name based on Ochaco’s advice. This is something we see with other characters too - Eraserhead and Mic, Mirio and Tamaki - who are friends, so it’s all good. It seems to have a nice spin: Ochaco taking Deku’s flaws, the traits Bakugo mocked, and turning them into a positive. Ochaco supporting Deku. Nice. She smiles about it. 

He seems surprised that she took an internship with Gunhead, confused that she’s more into action now (I guess he’ll have to revise his notebook!). 

He talks to her on the phone after the Incident goes down, having texted all his friends for help and worried her. He again (for the last time) get’s excited over her in a sexual/romantic way, and once again it’s “I talked to A GIRL on the phone” instead of “I talked to Uraraka on the phone”. He’s attracted to her as a girl, but not excited about talking to the girl he has a crush on. Following this arc, Deku stops responding to Uraraka romantically, even when CamieRaka loses her clothes. I’ve got a theory about why he stops, I’ll discuss it next arc.

Uraraka, for her part, looks pleased when  Deku takes her name. She interns with Gunhead because of her match with Bakugo, to get stronger, which is good for character development - I like that this isn’t because of Deku, because I don’t want her arc to revolve around him solely.

She calls him, concerned, after the Stain incident, and tells Gunhead that they’re “not like that” when he teases her about it being a boy. This is the first of many people telling Uraraka that she has something going on with Deku, rather than Uraraka figuring it out herself. Uraraka’s denial is not really defensive or Edward Elric Style “She is NOT my girlfriend” levels, so honestly at this point I believe her. Up until this arc, she doesn’t see her feelings for Deku as romantic. She sees him as a friend who she admires and is often jealous of.

Final Exams:

This is where things get weird. So far, Izu/Ocha has been pretty nicely built up - but then the series decided to go for it in a way that I personally find rather strange and confusing.

So first, let’s take this arc from Deku’s POV. The scenes of Izu/Ocha watching the fights are Anime Only, so we’ll skip those. In the Manga they all take place at the same time. After Deku and Kacchan v All Might, Deku goes to watch the other battles, including Uraraka’s. He doesn’t have any onscreen reaction to Ochaco’s fight, even though we get to hear him mentally exclaiming about how awesome Iida is, or Tsuyu is. Ochaco’s his friend too, why can’t he spare a moment to fanboy over her martial arts skills?

 Anyway, later on they’re left alone at the mall, though not by choice. Deku starts making small talk and Uraraka runs away from him, saying “Have to keep the pests away” or something like that. Deku asks “I’m a bug?/“You mean me?”. So from Deku’s POV, Ochaco flat out called him a pest right here. To him, it must have sounded like she was rejecting him, rejecting the idea of hanging out with him one-on-one (which in the Manga they haven’t done before).

 He’s immediately attacked by Shigaraki; when she returns he does his best to prevent her from getting hurt. Nothing really advances, from Deku’s POV, in their dynamic at this point. The only real notable thing is the “I’m a pest” line. Since Deku never reacts romantically to Ochaco after this, I’m assuming that he thinks she’s not interested in him that way. That right here, she shut down the idea of dating him, and he just accepts it.

Of course, it’s Ochaco’s POV that’s important here. As she’s about to get sucked up by 13, she’s thinking “What would Deku do?” 

Now, we’ve heard these lines in a non-romantic context before. Iida wondered what Deku or Tensei would do when he helped disperse the crowd. Deku wondered what Kacchan would do during the USJ arc. He wondered what a “hero” would do when he saved Bakugo from the sludge monster. This sentiment is not exclusive to romance in the show.

 But Aoyama then chooses this moment to ask Ochaco if she ‘likes him’. This is completely out of nowhere. Aoyama is later revealed to have a bit of a friendship-crush on Deku, but why is he asking this of Uraraka, in this situation? It’s not like her girlfriends later on teasing her about liking Deku, it’s a guy she doesn’t know who doesn’t know Deku very well either, all of a sudden asking her if she has feelings for him. I don’t, for the life of me, understand what his purpose was in doing this. How does this help them win? Why is he painted half-in-shadow when he says this? It feels like it happens because we need Ochaco to realize she likes Deku, because the audience needs to be shocked, not because it makes sense for the  characters. Which is so strange, because it’s one of the only times that ever happens in HeroAca. For the most part, the characters always act in ways that make sense, no matter how extreme they are.

Uraraka freaks out, and thinking about liking Deku nearly gets her killed fighting 13 (take a shot). It isn’t until she re-focuses, on something she attained free of Deku’s influence, that she gets to win. Trying too hard to be like Deku, for Uraraka, leads to nothing good. 

Then, at the mall, she runs away from him. She refuses to spend time with him - which seems strange if she’s meant to fall in love with him. If she wants to be with him, why doesn’t she want to, you know, be with him? Well, because she does’t want to be with him. If she did, she could easily ask him out (they are friends, after all), spend time with him, see if there’s something there. But she doesn’t. 

She runs off, almost horrified at the mere thought of having a crush on Deku. Of having a perfectly harmless, cute crush on one of her best friends. That just seems strange to me. Yes, love can be intimidating, but this is so extreme.

Another odd thing about this sequence is that it’s juxtaposed with Shigaraki holding Deku hostage. We flip back and forth between the Big Bad nearly killing the Hero, and the Romantic Subplot.

 Imagine if that scene in Fullmetal Alchemist where Winry realizes she loves Ed was crosscut with scenes of Ed fighting Gluttony or something, and you get the idea. It’s a tonal mishmash. Unless - unless you theorize that the idea of liking Deku is as terrifying to Uraraka as being nearly murdered by Shigaraki is for  Deku. But if that’s the case, I don’t want her to be with him! I don’t want her to be in a relationship that scares her that much. (I also don’t get why it would scare her that much - like, girl, Deku’s a sweetheart, what do you have to be afraid of?). The series could salvage this, but it already kinda tainted their romance in my eyes - and to many readers as well, since it seemed like such an odd way to introduce the love story into the occasion. Instead of a joyous moment of romance, this is what we got.

Training Camp Arc:

There isn’t a lot in this arc between Izu and Ocha. Izuku includes her in his list of classmates he’s worried about, popping up in the anime second after Bakugo (who is immediately in danger because of kidnapping) and along side Todoroki.  

He works with her and Tsu to save Bakugo - or at least try. Other than that, there’s nothing (the scene of them blushing is only in the anime). 

On Ochaco’s side, nothing happens until she fights Toga. Toga starts interrogating her about her crush on Deku, in her Hannibal Lecture style - villain getting into the hero’s head and provoking them with their insecurities. Himiko Toga is Uraraka’s villainous foil - her counterpart, the evil version of her. 

Both do develop a crush on Deku, which is very disturbing if Deku and Ochaco are meant to be a couple, as well as her adoration of Stain. It’s not like Toga is going to marry Stain or whatever; so the comparison of their two brands of love is odd (at least, if Izuocha is meant to be endgame). 

Toga’s words are right on the money: Uraraka admires Deku and wants to be just like him, but to be just like someone you have to do as Toga does - kill and replace. This gets to Uraraka, because it’s true. Her  crush on Deku then, is not being framed as genuine love, but as a similar obsession to Himiko Toga’s - a desire to be just like someone she admires, rather than be together with a good friend she adores. Which is frustrating, because the latter is the kind of relationship I want from Izuocha, not the former. I don’t want Ochaco to get with Deku because she hero-worships him and thinks he’s amazing - I want her to get with him because they’re good friends and she loves him. But that’s not what the series is doing with them, and with the parallels to Toga, it’s starting to really creep me out.

One route they could take with all this foreshadowing, of course, is perhaps one similar to what happened in Gravity Falls, with Dipper and Wendy. In that series, Dipper like Ochaco has an evil villainous counterpart Yandere - Gideon Gleeful. Toga and Gideon both stalk and harass their crush, who clearly says no and means no. Dipper and Ochaco both harbor a crush on someone who’s a close friend, but who seems to be for whatever reason romantically unavailable to them. (Wendy is older, Deku is…I’m not sure why, Ochaco just won’t ask him, it’s frustrating). Dipper eventually reveals his crush on Wendy, who lets him down easy and stays good friends with him. Dipper later uses that understanding of himself, and of Gideon’s obsession, to tell Gideon he can’t make someone like him. This helps Gideon reform. The whole thing is beautifully healthy and positive. 

So if that’s where we’re going with this - an ending where everyone’s just friends, and Ochaco’s crush on Deku is being used to develop her character a bit regardless of romance, then this would make sense. If not then I don’t get it.

Hideout Raid Arc:

There are two interactions between Ochaco and Deku (indirect ones) during the Hideout Raid Arc. One is Kirishima relaying Uraraka’s worries about saving Bakugo, the other is Uraraka getting the Rescue Squad to apologize to Tsuyu. Both of them are really bad warning signs for their future relationship.

The simple reason is: Uraraka thinks Deku and co did the wrong thing, Deku thinks he did the right thing. Deku has never apologized for or expressed any regret for breaking the rules to save Bakugo. Uraraka, however, objected to them doing this. This is very interesting for both of their relationships with Bakugo, and their thoughts on heroism. But let’s talk about why this is a problem for Izuocha. Uraraka didn’t agree with Deku’s decision here. She has her own reasons for it - “Bakugo wouldn’t want to be rescued” -but she doesn’t bring them up in front of Deku. The thing is, Deku was on the fence about going. If Uraraka had brought up her objection, I think Deku might have actually listened to her. It’s the best objection to persuade him, because it takes Bakugo’s needs into consideration. But Uraraka didn’t bring it up to him. She didn’t say anything to Deku. From Uraraka’s POV, that’s a problem for her relationship with him, because it means she doesn’t want to say something that will upset him. She’s never had a serious argument with him, never objected out loud to his choices, even when she disagrees with them, and never had an argument with him where they came to a compromise or understanding about an important issue. Instead, she brings up her objection out of Deku’s hearing, and he hears about it secondhand. Uraraka doesn’t want to upset Deku, even about something important to her.

From Deku’s perspective, even though he knows Uraraka, his love interest, disagrees with what he’s doing, he does it anyway. He doesn’t care. He keeps Uraraka’s objection in mind, but only as it pertains to saving Bakugo. He never thinks about how Uraraka will feel about him going against her wishes, never considers her at all. He does consider his mother’s objections, even Tsuyu’s. But Uraraka’s objection, ultimately, only affects him insofar as it means he thinks of Bakugo’s feelings when saving him. And he never apologizes for doing so. 

Later on, when Uraraka gathers everyone together to apologize to Tsu, Deku is the only one of the five who never actually says sorry (going by the anime here, since the manga is ambiguous about who’s speaking). Uraraka’s speech makes it clear that she didn’t agree with their choice and thinks they screwed up, but just wants to forgive them and go back to normal. But Deku doesn’t apologize for what he did. Iida, Kirishima, Momo, Todoroki - all people Uraraka is less intimate with than Deku - all apologize to Tsuyu, as Ochaco asks. But not Deku. Because Deku doesn’t agree with her. He doesn’t think he was wrong.

The question of whether or not to go charging in, even against the rules, to save someone, is a big one hanging over the heads of all these characters. It’s Captain America Civil War style big. Something that could split people apart permanently if they can’t agree about it. And not only do Deku and Ochaco not agree on this issue, they haven’t had any conversation about it with each other. They need to be able to discuss this and find common ground before they become a couple.

License Exam Arc:

This one is obviously important for Izu/Ocha. It ends with Ochaco deciding to ‘put her feelings away’.

So let’s start with this Arc from Deku’s POV on Ochaco: He talks to her casually at the beginning before Hatsume explodes out of the shop, but focuses entirely on  crafting his ultimate move from there on out. 

We don’t see Uraraka inspiring his move, that’s Hatsume and Iida, or his realization that he’s imitating All Might (that’s All Might himself). 

Deku does, however, recognize TogaChaco as not being Ochaco, showing that he knows her well.

 He rescues TogaChaco because she’s a person in danger, thinking about his inability to rescue Bakugo from the villains and his general motivation, not how much he cares for Ochaco. 

He knows Ochaco well enough to tell the difference, but this is Deku we’re talking about - he’s very attentive to details about others. I fully believe he would be able to tell a TogaIida from the real one, or Todoroki, Bakugo, Tsuyu, Hatsume, All Might…the list goes on, but there are very few characters who Deku doesn’t take  detailed notes on or amass details about, and therefore couldn’t recognize the difference. What I’m saying is that Deku would do the same for any friend; he doesn’t distinguish Ochaco here. 

He works with her and Sero to win the day, and spends the rest of the arc focused on his goals, with no thoughts to spare for Ochaco, and no interest in the cute girl pursuing him (Camie) outside of her quirk for studying. It comes across like Deku has put away any interest in romance in the name of pursuing his goals. He doesn’t distinguish Uraraka at all, as anything more than just another one of his friends. 

From Ochaco’s POV, she becomes jealous of Hatsume once more - but fails to notice, for instance, that Hatsume’s behavior is making Deku uncomfortable. She’s jealous of Hatsume for being more confident, driven, and demonstrative than she is, but if she was paying closer attention to Midoriya, she’d probably notice that he’s freaked out by Hatsume feeling him up; there’s no real reason for her to be jealous of Mei in regards to Deku, because Deku isn’t any closer to Mei than he is to her. But Ochaco, here and many other places, doesn’t really take the time to observe and notice Midoriya, outside of a surface level. That’s why she hero-worship’s him so badly.

I’d recommend any HeroAca fan to check out this fascinating fan essay, “Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Tragedey”, (link: https://www.reddit.com/r/BokuNoHeroAcademia/comments/5n21a9/imitation_is_the_sincerest_form_of_tragedy_a_boku/ ) to get a good understanding of what’s going on with Ochaco in relation to Deku, without ship bias getting in the way. It’s an excellent read, touching on many characters and plot points. The key takeaway about Uraraka is that she has a pattern of imitating Deku, and screwing up because of it, without getting that narrative punishment that will act as a kick in the pants to motivate her to stop hero-worshipping him. 

I think that, since we do see Deku imitating Bakugo and Gran Torino’s moves for Full Cowl with no problem, and other smaller instances, the secret is not that you can never admire someone and strive to learn from them - but rather that you can imitate someone, as long as you don’t hero-worship them. Ochaco’s issue, along with Deku’s, Shoto’s, Iida’s, etc, is that she sees the person she wants to be like as perfect and refuses to acknowledge their flaws. Ochaco admires Deku and wants to be like him - even though she’s seen first hand how Deku’s brand of heroism lands him in the hospital more often than not, how Deku can be overly analytical, deeply insecure and makes mistakes like anyone else - but we don’t see her acknowledge this. She thinks Deku’s amazing, perfect, like he admires All Might, Iida Tensei, Shoto his mom, etc. The reason Deku is able to imitate Kacchan and Gran Torino’s moves without being harmed, like every other imitator, is because he thinks Gran Torino is kind of weird, but skilled, and Kacchan is a jerk, but awesome. He can admire their strengths, and acknowledge their flaws. Therefore, he can imitate their moves without striving to be Just Like Them. Uraraka needs to recognize Deku’s flaws, if she wants to imitate his strengths without feeling bad about herself. 

Once again Ochako’s feelings are brought up to her by someone else, and cause her a lot of distress. This time it’s Mina, who acknowledges that she wants to MAKE it be about love.

Just like with Gunhead and Aoyama telling Ochako her feelings for Deku are romantic in nature. Mina admits she’s trying to make a romance happen, rather than just letting one develop on it’s own. Her words cause Uraraka a lot of distress, and Momo and Tsuyu point out that this won’t help her (take a shot).

As she watches Deku from a distance, (the anime adds the Admiring All Might music track to this scene), her feelings for him are paralleled with Midoriya’s admiration of heroes, specifically Iida. Keeping in with the Imitation theme, Ochako’s feelings for Midoriya are once again paralleled with admiration of famous heroes people want to imitate, not romantic love. It’s Mina, Aoyama and Gunhead who are telling Ochako she likes Deku, not Ochako figuring it out for herself. 

Uraraka once again gets jealous of a girl who Deku doesn’t want. Deku gives lots of signs that he’s creeped out by Camie’s attentions - when Kaminari and Mineta ask him about it, he says firmly that he found it creepy. If Uraraka was really paying attention to Deku’s feelings, she’d realize that he’s not interested in Camie. 

 Imagine, for instance, this scene with the genders reversed. Our heroine is getting felt up and creeped on by a male villain. Her fellow superhero boyfriend arrives on the scene; the male villain leaves, speaking ominously about the connection between the two of them. Later on, other girls get jealous about the hot male villain waving at our heroine, and she makes it clear that she’s uncomfortable about it. 

The boyfriend ignores her discomfort and gets jealous and possessive about her being around another man. Doesn’t something seem wrong here? It’s the setup we see from many ‘Nice guy’ narratives, but gender flipped. The guy seems to see the girl like a possession that belongs to him, angry that she’s daring to be touched by another boy, not that another guy is refusing to respect her space. Uraraka’s jealousy is not routed in love for Midoriya, but insecurity about herself. She feels less than, when she sees other girls around him, and doesn’t bother to observe whether she’s actually in danger of losing him to them.

This scene is more than a little weird, since it seems like Camie is setting up her future to prey on the trust between the two to her own advantage. Again, Izuku and Ochako’s bond is being framed in a negative light. 

Uraraka decides, upon seeing Deku psych himself up to win, that she needs to put away her feelings for him. This is part of the pattern in Uraraka’s story. (take a shot) Focusing on Deku leads to her losing. Uraraka says here, that she doesn’t think she can have a relationship with Deku and be a hero. She puts her feelings away, because she feels they don’t help her. Unlike other duos in the series, other romantic parings from other narratives, Uraraka feels that her feelings for Deku don’t benefit her goals. If they’re to be a couple, then, Uraraka needs to feel like she can be a better hero by being with Deku, than by being away from him.

Internship, Culture Fest, Pro Hero arcs:

From the time Ochaco ‘puts her feelings away’, until recently in the JTA, Ochaco’s crush on Deku is not mentioned. The internship arc teams up Tsuyu and Uraraka with Deku and Kiri to save Eri. But instead of letting Deku and Ochaco fight and bond together over this shared experience - we’re given nothing. Deku doesn’t tell her anything about his issues with Mirio and Nighteye. Or even Eri. Ochaco doesn’t talk to Deku, outside of group scenes with exposition, about much of anything. 

The ending of the arc has a good setup for an emotional bonding scene with Izu/Ocha - Ochaco was the one to rescue Nighteye, but he still died, and he’s Izuku’s mentor. We could have had a scene of them bonding over losing this guy, which Ochaco blames herself for and Deku blames himself for. Similar to like, Deku and Bakugo fighting over feeling responsible for All Might’s End, or Iida and Deku bonding over Stain. But, you know, more romantic in nature.

But nope, we get nothing. Ochaco angsts over Nighteye dying, and goes on this emotional journey without Deku’s input. She chooses to confide these feelings in Aizawa and Tsuyu, but not in Midoriya. Deku, at least, has the excuse of being unable to talk about OFA with other people, but Uraraka could have told him about her problems, and he an abbreviated version like he did with Kota about being quirkless. But instead, we get nothing. No bonding between our official couple at all.

The other thing of note in the Internship arc is Toga!Deku. Toga impersonates Deku and decoys Team Ryukyu into the fight. If Toga’s intentions had been harmful, instead of getting revenge on Overhaul, this could have been really bad for the good guys, and for Ochaco in particular. She doesn’t realize that Toga! Deku is not the real Deku, even though Toga does give her a clear ‘tell’ - calling her ‘Uraraka’ and not ‘Uravity’. But unlike Deku, who realized Toga!Chaco wasn’t the real Ochaco, Ochaco can’t tell the difference.

 If I were to read this as deliberate, it seems to be implying that Ochaco can’t tell the difference between her idea or image of Deku, and the real thing. But since they’re supposed to be a couple, it’s just plain weird. It’s a brief moment, but if Toga had been trying to hurt them, Ochaco’s feelings for Deku might have gotten her in trouble - again. (take a shot).  

Then, from the end of the Internship arc to the Joint Training Arc, Deku and Ochaco don’t talk to each other at all. They go to Nighteye’s funeral with the internship kids - and no conversation about their respective issues with him at all. 

They’re in the group hanging with Eri during the Culture Fest - but no one-on-one interaction at all. He hangs with Mirio, she with Tsu and Nejire. No interactions during the Pro-Hero arc. 

At the start of the JTA, one quick reminder that Ochaco is jealous of Mei still, which she punches herself to  get rid of. That’s it.

Joint Training Arc: So Close Yet So Far

Reading this arc, I thought “Finally, we’re finally getting the ball rolling with putting these two together.” It’s such a familiar setup, so common to action romances, straight from the ATLA playbook: The hero’s powers go out of control, the love interest is the only one who can reach them, and with a cute hug they calm the hero down. When Ochaco grabbed on to the out of control Deku, I was expecting something like that in the next chapter: Ochaco saying something like “Come back to me” or “I know you’re in there somewhere” or “I’m with you to the end of the line” or something like that. Ochaco reaching Deku when no one else could, establishing her as his love interest and showcasing their romance.

But that didn’t  happen. Ochaco grabs onto Deku, sure, but then she asks Shinso to snap him out of it. It’s Shinso who grabs Deku’s attention, Shinso who does the ‘important trigger phrase to snap hero out of superpower meltdown mode’ thing. 

Shinso, who has talked to Deku like 3 times before this scene, not Ochaco, his official love interest and close friend. Once snapped out, Deku protects her briefly before they split up and go their separate ways again, to fight on different turfs.

Afterwards, it looked like Deku was blushing at Ochaco holding him, like she was after Mina’s comment. But on closer inspection, I find that nope - he’s not blushing in the panel after this comment, but does go red when Shinso compliments his prowess. And Ochaco doesn’t  get self-conscious about holding him until Mina points it out to her.

 She wasn’t thinking about how much she loves Deku when she held him, she was thinking about her parents and her failure to save Nighteye, and her “Who watches the watchmen” ideas.

So instead of a great big Izuocha ship moment, that finally set the romance in motion, we get…I guess, a Shindeku moment? It’s all very confusing. For Uraraka, this moment does seem to show that she’s now capable of being around Deku in battle, without thinking about him or obsessing. It comes across like Ochaco is trying to put her crush away (Like she said before), like she’s gone on this whole personal journey outside of Deku and changed as a person on her own. We have this recurring idea that Ochaco fights better as a hero without Deku around, or without fixating on him, which isn’t promising for them as a couple. (take a shot) 

Compare with Todoroki and Momo vs Aizawa, for instance, where they work brilliantly, together, to overcome an opponent neither could face alone. Or the insistence on Deku and Kacchan putting away their rivalry and Deku reaching 8% by competing with Bakugo or helping him. Or Ochaco and Tsuyu making a perfect team fighting others. The narrative is angling Uraraka away from Deku, if she wants to be a good hero, not towards him.

Also, once again, her romantic feelings for him are something she’s told she has by someone else, instead of something she figures out on her own - Mina again. 

But earlier this arc, we saw Mina assume that Midnight and All Might were a couple, because they were standing together. Earlier, she said it could be Iida or Deku, because Ochaco hangs around them. I love Ashido, but she’s not the world’s greatest expert on romance, or particularly close to either Uraraka or Deku. So her words, like Aoyama’s, can’t be taken as gospel truth. It really feels like Ochaco is being pushed into feeling romantically for Deku, regardless of her actual feelings towards him, by other people instead of her own heart. I mean, I’m rooting for them, but I want Ochaco to realize she likes Deku because she likes Deku, not because Aoyama and Mina are telling her she does. 

Deku shuts Ochaco out of his personal problems - he won’t confide in anyone but All Might and Bakugo about OFA - and doesn’t explain to her anything about his quirk going out of control. And she doesn’t ask. Even Todoroki asked Deku about his quirk going out of control, as did Aizawa and Bakugo. Todo and Baku are Deku’s rivals, but they both asked about his quirk meltdown. Uraraka didn’t. She’s supposed to be his friend, she’s supposed to be in love with him, so why doesn’t she ask about his problems? 

Same with her personal journey towards becoming a hero who saves people, the Who Watches the Watchmen hero - Deku isn’t privy to this. She only told two people, Aizawa and Tsuyu. Uraraka has also had this whole personal journey, outside of Deku, which she won’t tell him about or confide in him about. And she doesn’t show any inclination to do so. 

Final Review:

The series isn’t over. There’s probably still time to fix all these problems. But the series needs to get started on it right away, because so far we’re just not seeing the elements we need to get Izu/Ocha together.

On Ochaco’s end: We need  her to be attracted to Deku, to let him be as supportive to her as she is to him; to see her crush on him as a motivator to be a better hero instead of detrimental to her success, to stop hero-worshipping him and acknowledge his flaws, to talk to him about her problems and cry with him, let him be there for her; let go of her desire to be just like him, see him romantically on her own unprovoked by other people teasing her, enjoy spending time with him one-on-one, have a fight with him that gets properly resolved, defend him from unwanted attentions from girls instead of getting possessively jealous of him, and show at least some curiosity about his life, his secrets, the real him beyond the Great Hero.

On Deku’s side: He needs to show attraction to Uraraka as Uraraka, not just ‘a girl’; to work together with her as a great team to take down an opponent side by side, to loudly admire her for her skills and capabilities like he does for his other friends and rivals, to tell her about his past with OFA and being quirkless and such, to be inspired by her to do better as a hero, to show the kind of crazy, unconditional concern for her he shows everyone else in his life, to actively seek after a romantic relationship with her, talk to her about his problems, to distinguish her in his life from his other friends.

If all that stuff happens, I’ll be happy. If some of it happens, I’ll be ok, but not thrilled. If they stay in this status quo, they’ll fall apart, because this is not the stuff good romance is made of.

[polandspringz]

The anime adaptation sucked for a number of reasons but the music? Mwah

Oh yeah, I did not like the anime for Kagepro at all, tbh. Right after the show concluded, I made a long post about how I thought the show could have been adapted into a longer, 2 cour season which explored the multiple routes, because I was very disappointed. As a long time Kagepro fan, I was infuriated by how things like Otsukimi Recital (one of my favorite songs) seemed to be crammed into the show at the last minute and to this day I still don’t quite  understand exactly what happened with Momo and Kido combining their powers in that episode, but after talking with a few people in a (now deleted) Kagepro discord server and watching Bread Box on Youtube talk about the series as a whole across multiple video essays, I’ve become more at peace with it.

Read more just for me rambling with no cohesiveness about the series:

Kagerou Project, since the beginning, was a complicated way of story telling. I have never had the patience to sit down and read the light novels completely, but I know what happens in them from people discussing them a lot. But, the songs, as a starter, are honestly the best medium for telling Kagepro’s story, because they cover all the routes. Lost Time Memory? We learn about route 1 and route xx. Outer Science and Summertime Record? Part of what made their plot points some impactful was not only were they the two different endings to the story, the way the MVs were released allowed us to be tricked into thinking Outer Science was the final MV we would get and then only 3-4 days later we got to see all our kids grown up and happy and thriving, and the fandom cried. 

I’ve always been fascinated with series that derive from Vocaloid works, because from a meta narrative standpoint, it’s amazing to see how the creators and the method of storytelling evolved. I’m sort of all over the place right now with my points, but I love Kagepro as a song series because it used its music videos and music to tell a story with crazy things like parallel universe and reseting time and good and bad endings in a way I would normally see in a video game. Jin and Sidu and Wannyanpuu, you can see how not only does the music and the story its telling improve (from the vagueness of Jinzou Enemy with Ene being a Miku rip-off, because we had already gotten several songs from the Vocaloid community about the persona of the artificial voice watching its creator) move on to more diversely animated videos with unique character designs that tell us about how a character sacrifices herself for her family, how two different selves of one person die and survive in different timelines, and how one route has to happen for the good route to exist. 

I agree with you that the anime did well because of the music. But that’s because for those of us who was connected to the music series already, those little easter eggs were the only thing really drawing us in. We were hoping to see our favorite song animated completely, animated and fit into a part of the plot we weren’t exactly sure it aligned with. Right now, I feel like Kagepro the series is a mess with the manga having almost a neutral ending, the novels ending but Jin writing more, the anime being the good end but poorly explained. Like I said, I’d being lying if I found it to not be perhaps the worst and most rushed and chaotic adaption of the series, but like I said, part of Kagepro is the journey, and so for me, just hearing Jin finally leave behind the Vocaloid voice and sing the happy ending for his own project for the first time, of course I’m going to get emotional because I saw my kids happy, it was messy and it was rushed and the studio prioritized another anime project in the studio than MCA, but I still cried because everything at the end was happy. I actually agree with a few people but Shaft is the best studio to do Mekakucity Reload, because Shaft is the best at crazy time stories and does the flat coloring and monochromatic style of Sidu the best. (You wouldn’t want Kagepro to go to A-1 or KyoAni, who gloss up their series with sparkles or in A-1′s case, can have a quality dip later on in the show). I think if Shaft is the studio for Reload, in order to make it successful, they need to be working on only that at the time. They aren’t like Bones who have several studios inside them that are dedicated to a few animes that come out consistently. Shaft needs to completely rethink the pacing of Reload, focus less on the jokes of the show and more on the plot, maybe even rearrange how the story is presented to us (maybe introduce us to the bad end first? Have the terrorist attack happen midway into episode 1 or even then end of it? Show at least one route where Kuroha kills everyone, so Summertime Record is angsty and happy-sad because we understand the timeloops) 

TLDR cause I’m already drained from this: Most anime are made to promote manga sales. Shaft put less care into MCA and was banking on people watching for the songs. We don’t need the songs in the anime. We don’t need music videos. We need the plot, like the manga or the light novels deliver. The song series was a way to convey the plot. Reload needs to convey the plot as an anime, and the studio needs to care and give it a bigger budget. I can live with a crazy broken neck head tilt every five seconds if it means we get all of that in exchange.