#ok the last Lum isn't there

[ikemengoessbrrrrr]

Ataru's favorit hobby is staring at Lum when she isn't looking

[yumedoca]

What do you think about the slapstick in Urusei Yatsura? Most especifically, Lum electrocuting Ataru. I don't take it too seriously generally but sometimes it troubles me.

Hai there, hope you're doing great!!

The slapstick makes most of UY's comedy and I like the comedy so yeah, I like the slapstick.

As for Lum's electrocution specifically? Let's just say, if I've said it once, I've said it a million times: Slapstick does not equal abuse, and yes, this applies to Lum as well. Slapstick isn't supposed to be serious since a) it's done for comedic effect and b) the victim is shown to be completely fine with no injuries whatsoever (and if there is, they'll recover in one or few shots) and acts like the pain just lasted for one second. I won't explain that in even more detail cuz yeah, like I said, slapstick isn't abuse. Lum's electrocution at full force is stated to be just somewhat a bit higher in terms of pain than Shinobu's desk throw or Sakura's slap. And if it makes you feel better about this, did you know Lum actually holds back while electrocuting Ataru?

Ok, so at first, Lum would electrocute Ataru if she's made or if she just wants to show her love but as soon as she learns that electrocution can actually kill humans, she stops showing her love with it. At first I thought RT just forgot that aspect, but much later in the series, in 'Catch the heart', she uses her electricity on Ataru at full force to show her love under the influence of the love candy (those affected don't really think logically btw). Also, In that one chapter where has Tobimaro has a sunflower on his head, Lum says that she'll give Ataru a million volts which shows that the power of her electricity can be controlled, and in the bubble gum chapter, when Ten burns (fake) Ataru and it goes blank, Lum says Ten went too far, again showing that Oni can control how much power they use. And since Lum said that, she probably makes sure she doesn't use too much volts on him just in case. And as time goes on, she sometimes adopts other methods to punish him, the most obvious being her various sized gag hammers.. And of course, her methods also acts as punishment for his various sexual harassment.

Yeah, so rest assured anon, Lum isn't murdering Ataru or anything. He seems to be fine after she's done with her divine retribution (to the point he may even go for round two) and at the end of the day, it's not all that serious and it's all in stupid fun.

[gaydryad]

like ok listen. LISTEN. im going to word brainstorm visuals bc I'm pretty sure the pen for my ipad is dead + I haven't drawn in months.

(1) karyn w/ the turtle miraculous -- she's a late aughts nerd, so she's probably used to those rubber bracelets with cheesy logos or whatever on them, you know the ones, and I think this would be fun inspiration for the miraculous's hiding form. wayzz hangs out in one of her interior jacket pockets, and in fact the oversize pilot jacket that she gains in arc 1 is probably pretty pivotal to how she would look in "superhero" form -- the worn leather takes on a turtle shell patterning, the fur stiffens and rounds out, and her shirt underneath merges to form the more distinct underbelly accent. notably, her jacket would likely stay more flexible/removable -- similar to chat noir's belt tail -- rather than merging in with her main "outfit." as for color palette, she already looks great in greens, and the jacket/undershirt would probably provide a good dark/light green contrast option, or perhaps more of a high-sat+low-lum / low-sat+high-lum distinction. as for bottoms -- I think she would keep the general profile of her sneakers, and even potentially the lighter-color soles, but perhaps with some accent color flaring around the ankles/heel to evoke the sense of movement.

(1.5) karyn's and wayzz's personalities would clash SO MUCH. it'd be hilarious. just thought I'd tack that on here.

(2) diana w/ the ladybug miraculous -- I think she'd kind of have a joan of arc look! her "battle" attire already involves a set of armor, and I like the thought of some of that bleeding into the look she has when transformed! likewise, I think the context of her eventual transformation would really matter. she isn't in the action until very late in the novel, and I think depending on who and what gives that last push would pick between two options: one that would probably adjust her armor with minimal change, and another which would probably radically change, and end up with a sort of Antibug-esque look, lots of black, if you know you can probably guess. at the same time -- I think there's a chance that she might use the ladybug miraculous early! in secret hehe! and I like to think that for that, she would change radically -- basically completely reinvent how she looks, more akin to Mayura's (relative) appearance. how precisely that'd look, I'm not sure yet though.

(3) death w/ the black cat miraculous -- Look. I can sit here and say the result would, in essence, be Death but in a leather outfit. you can put cat ears on this man and I can't legally stop you. under certain circumstances we must. but I will say this -- I think he would probably have a few core distinctions from how a lot of the cat miraculous holders we see present: one, I think he would not strictly get the green eyes, though maybe they'd still become slitted for funsies. two, I think he would probably opt for certain accents to be silver where they've been either green on marinette or just black on adrien. three, I think his scythe and chat's baton would probably merge weirdly, and mean that either it would be Uncannily Sharp (cursed) or that it became something else, like claws. personally I think how it'd work out would depend on his mental state upon transforming. anyway. the long and the short of it is: I think the black cat miraculous would more simply augment how he already is, rather than giving him a makeover, and it wouldn't surprise me if it's innocuous enough that he could potentially be "claws on" basically whenever there's the slightest chance of conflict.

(3.5) and, for the record, I think he and plagg would be very bad together, so it's probably for the best.

(4) delta w/ the rabbit miraculous -- she has a battle attire, but it's fairly generic, so I think there'd be a lot of options for creativity! in canon, she wears a lot of black (job) and blue (personal), and I think it would be fun if she drew out more black notes in her outfit, with the white becoming more of a silver (in reflection of her political position!). in particular, I think probably the blue chest and shoulder portion on Bunnyx's outfit would become black, and the white "gloves" becoming silver. maybe the effect is that blue becomes the accent? sure. since she wears lots of skirts, I think the lower torso and thighs would become one, maybe a darker blue, with flair out the back, and then with the white boots remaining -- not sure though. on a more certain note: her hair goes into two braids woven with silver and blue ribbon to represent the ears. that I think I'm certain on.

(5) life w/ the peacock miraculous -- glamour babey. life already has a very dark complexion so I don't think she would become Blue, but I do think she might go for the eye color change, with a middle ground being that she would probably keep her golden eyeliner in place of Duusu's black (it just wouldn't be visible.) wings, iconic as they are. as for outfit, I imagine that Life would go full peacock train in terms of dress, probably tracing the eyes with more vibrant tones and giving the body of the dress more shimmer. she doesn't have to leave her house and fight in this outfit, so she can go all out here. I'm talking layers of fabric. Her heels only visible in the front, the golden heels kept (even if the main boot color probably changes to Duusu's purple) for the contrast. her curls seeming to form eyes, the golden curls interspersed with her locks forming semi-circles. the bodice of her dress might take more closely after peafowl themselves, and be golden-hued and brilliant blues; whatever suits best.

(5.5) unlike death I don't think Life would stay transformed nearly as often, if she even bothers keeping the miraculous on except when necessary. she & duusu have a very functional relationship.

(6) triste w/ the butterfly miraculous -- okay, I have to say upfront that I think triste's relationship with nooroo would probably be strained and he'd probably only use the miraculous out of frustration and would reject its utility most of the rest of the time; I think that where in the show Gabriel doubles down on using the Butterfly Miraculous even after Nooroo becomes very visibly upset, Triste has a few more morals and would see it essentially only necessary when using magic himself fails to be enough -- essentially, when just trying to talk doesn't work, and what do you know, he has a great backup in the form of Magical Emotional Manipulation! uh oh!

(6.5) anyway on to his outfit. I think in order to fit, the pin would manifest as something that he could attach to his cloak, close to its normal fastening, and his transformed outfit would more closely resemble his normal one, with a few notable changes. the silhouette of his cloak would change to mirror wings, the color would become more of a dark indigo instead of black, the steel toes of his boots would likely disappear and instead his boots would become a more clean dark purple, and there'd be a few palette changes. I think the symbol of the corona would stay black on his jacket, because that's a nationalistic thing, but his coat might otherwise become purple-hued and lighter. I also think it would probably close up to the neck (not how he normally wears it partially unzipped) and as a result look more "stiff," somewhat reflective of his own discomforts with using the Miraculous. I think he would take a mask but not the bald cap. maybe his braid gets a cute butterfly-resemblant ribbon tying it together, but his hair is definitely here to stay. crown's gotta have something to keep it in place. at the same time, I think he might be one of the few who would actually go for a mask! again, shame coming into play here. I'll have to contemplate.

(7) zeta w/ the fox miraculous -- I think the chances of her using the miraculous power, unless forced, are basically zero, and I think that'd be true regardless of which she had. as a result, I think her outfit would be pretty basic; probably the design would be that her qipao would become shorter-sleeved and orange, and she'd have black sleeves/gloves underneath. I think an important detail would be that if she had palm or sole accents, they would be gold. similarly, the orange on her flute would be closer to gold in hue, and if she were to have a mask (I think she might -- I don't think she would like being associated with using the Fox, which I think she would only do if requested by Triste, and in canon she likes to at least slightly hide her support of him) it might also have gold in place of the orange. no further thoughts here, except that I think the white accenting that appears on Rena Rouge's outfit down the front would be replaced by the neck trim on Zeta's outfit being white (which it already is).

(8) Universe -- I don't have a real placement here but objectively I think Them taking hold of both the ladybug and cat miraculouses and merging them to become the holder of the Miraculous of Reality is funny. Gimmi is such a funny character and I think Universe would call them up just to chat. as a joke. for fun

(9) oscar -- undercover is the word. I fully think he got the mouse miraculous for like a temporary thing and then just Never Gave It Back and delta has been covering for him ever since, with the bonus that he's even more certainly used the mouse miraculous to sneak into zeta's house and snatch the fox miraculous to use (with intense anxiety throughout). moreover, I think his transformation would probably involve the least noticeable changes, and he might actively choose to take off his jacket + shoes before transforming so it's possible to put them back on while transformed.

now that I was writing out in the tags of that other post I really am tempted to make some designs for that au... it would be fun...

[ccborrega]

OK, here goes.

The thing is, Lum leaves for like- what a day or two? And he immediately assumes 'Shit. This is it. She's gone. She's never coming back. I'll never see her again.' and it's like he's to some degree always had it in the back of his mind that she's going to eventually leave him.

To be fair, in both the manga and the anime they'd just had an argument regarding how much he wished she'd just leave (The anime is, as it's usually the case, a little bit worse because there he ruined a party the troopers threw for her with his attitude.) and Ten isn't in the house either, but there's really not a real reason one should jump to the conclusion that she's left for good, unless you're Ataru Moroboshi and failure and misfortune are things that follow you and you've mentalized yourself for the idea that anything good that happens to you is not going to last.

So, working back from this, you get: if she's gonna leave eventually, what's even the point of getting attached, right? Better to keep the options open, better to not actually feel anything for her.

Except he DOES.

There's a moment in the anime episode I absolutely love because it conveys so much without a word. As he finds the doll and is starting to entertain the thought that it's over, he looks at the stars from his room and it's like the vastness of space occurs to him for the first time. How unlikely it was that they even MET in the first place when she comes from out there. And now, has she gone back there? Has she really gone back to her planet? Which one of those thousands upon thousands of stars is hers? How would he be able to even find her again if he tried, in such a big universe? Could it be that he really is never going to see her again? Was she just a shooting star, never meant to stay in his life for more than an instant before soaring away? He just calls her name twice, softly, but it's almost like he's realized she's not going to be able to hear him anymore even if he calls louder. And confronted with a thought that's terrifying to him, he falls in denial. He makes up elaborate scenarios in his mind so that it's not Lum left because she was sick of him, but something bigger keeps her.

(Which. My brother in Christ. You're terrified of the possibility that she might just be done with you while also very much self-sabotaging yourself to get there sooner.)

He's just... utterly miserable. When other girls leave, sure, he's bummed, but he's quick to jump to the next infatuation as soon as he's able. Here, he doesn't even flirt with other girls, he's that miserable. There's even a moment in the anime where he and Shinobu meet and you would think they're gonna retake where they left off when Lum arrived, right? But actually, Shinobu is just genuinely worried about him because she's known him since they were kids and can see he's hurting. There's no judgment, no reproaches, she just asks him 'Is there anything I can do for you?' because, shit, this must be KILLING him. Followed by the actual musical number, Kokoro Bosoi Na- and I could rant for a while about how this song seems to represent Ataru's thoughts on how Lum sees him rather than Lum's actual thoughts, but this is long enough as it is, MOVING ON.

Finally, he spends the second night of her absence holding the doll to him crying his eyes out and cursing out Lum for leaving him because how dare she worm her way under his skin when he tries SO HARD to not set his heart on anything in order to avoid it getting broken when he inevitably fails at getting it, and then just leave him? The series very rarely does emotional moments that aren't played for laughs, specially regarding Ataru, I actually think this is the very FIRST moment where we see him genuinely care for something deeply (It's either this or the caterpillar, but I'm not sure about the order.)

And of course, it turns out she was just out doing something and the plan always was to just come back to him when she was done, but there's a moment right before he sees her again where he's just walking to school, looking like he cried himself to sleep and carrying her doll close to his heart, sighing. His attitude is all 'She's really not coming back. This is life now. I'll never see her again.'

And I KNOW that him seeing her again and immediately putting up a front like he's annoyed by it is just- Takahashi tsundere boy for ya. But it's also him trying to protect himself again. 'See, she's here. Take your distance, otherwise when she does actually leave for good, it'll kill you.', (And it really ALMOST does when she does in the final arc, boy was just ready to kill himself trying to prove he loved her without uttering the phrase because he knows his words are worth near to nothing by now.)

Ataru is just desperate to not be hurt and as it often happens in these cases, he in turn ends up bringing the hurt upon himself for it. And it's, you know, comedic, but also amazingly deep when you dig a bit.

And I'll leave it here because brain is brrr. I'm sure I'm missing a lot of points I wanted to make too but what's a girl to do.