#realistically she wouldn’t have changed as much as she did in canon between the manga and game

[exiordinary]

So in my post about Wanderer Collei parallels I think I mentioned that I have a Collei redesign that aligns more with how I imagined she’d be as a playable character back when I first read the manga. I made this around four-ish months ago, and I swear I’m gonna make so much about my little sgrungle.

I made a shit ton of notes too so here’s all of those notes!!

-electro vision

-main weapon is spear, bow in burst kinda like how Raiden’s becomes a sword in her burst

-bad temper, often found doing breathing exercises to calm down

-told the traveler to keep her updated on how things go when they get to Shneznaya

-eleazar scales!! I was so sad when she didn’t have those

-cobra motif in attacks, in reference to her sealed archon power

-scars here n there, most of them are covered by clothing

-still in therapy

-closer with Cyno than Tighnari

-NOT in fact a forest ranger !! Part of the adventurer’s guild :D

-has an unusual obsession with being able to protect herself

-typically leaves conversations when archons are brought up

-would prob be besties with Wanderer (im gonna make so many doodles of them)

-visits Mondstadt for every major holiday

-Knights of Favonius emblem on leg ribbon thing

-been learning to sew and knit, been struggling due to muscle stiffness from eleazar

-night terrors (much less frequent as of late !!)

-very slow metabolism, but it’s been speeding up a bit since Tighnari’s been helping find solutions

[elonaackerman]

In a few hour's the spoiler leaks are going to be released for the final chapter of Attack on titan manga and the official translation on April 9th so before all that happens what are you're thoughts and predictions between the character's and the end of the storyline?

https://ww7.readsnk.com/chapter/shingeki-no-kyojin-spoilers-raw-chapter-139/.

Hello Kian ! I see several of your questions about the ending and I must say I was lost myself with everything happening. However, I think I elaborated a good theory now !

Theory number 1: Eren is alive

This is the theory I acknowledge the most. Many people say that Eren not dying would be too strange after he already survived so much times to his expected deaths, but I don’t think so. Isayama loves to take some clichés and to twist them:

Here is a brief list:

- The MC not dying in the first episodes

- The power of will and friendship (which is shown to be useless in the Trost arc)

- The guy protecting the girl (Mikasa is Eren’s bodyguard, not the contrary)

- The main trio sticking together until the end

- The MC being « special »/being the « chosen one » (Eren is an usurpator)

Something very used in films/books is to use the absence of body as a way to cancel the absolute truth of a death. By showing us a body, Isayama can fool us by transgressing this common rule of « body=dead ».

Also Eren’s death in chapter 138 was just serving Mikasa’s development arc climax. It didn’t solve any matter of their world.

You know I feel like Eren was very relaxed when he saw Mikasa approaching to kill him. He probably already knew what she was going to do and even closed his eyes when she did it (you can see it since on the last panel, Eren has his eyes closed). I feel like if Eren acted this way, it’s because he transferred his consciousness to his body (all this time his head was controlling the titan so he may have regenerated a head on his body). It would explain why this concept was introduced to us with Reiner in season 3 and then never used again.

Plus, Grisha said everything would go along to Eren’s plan, but if Eren didn’t succeed, the Rumbling is stopped and hell awaits eldians: they will be killed after what happened, considered too dangerous, more than they already were. And even if the titan power is removed, there will still be a large part of hate and of revenge in the Rumbling survivors’ hearts. I don’t believe the « Code Geass theory » which says that Eren did the rumbling so the world could see Eldians defending it, and stand united with Mahrs against him (in the role of the bad guy), especially since some Eldians sided with Eren and that he exposed them in Revelio or even in Paradise with his devoted Yeagerists. It’s not realistic at all and it doesn’t fit nor Eren’s character, nor SNK spirit.

Eren had defined goals: « exterminate them all », and that’s what he did, he doesn’t seem to want to stop the rumbling on this panel:

Isayama said he didn’t like characters who weren’t true to their goals, that let the story change their plans and motivations too easily. He wouldn’t give to his MC the traits of a writing he despise.

Another reason why I believe the guy is alive is because his POV was hidden all this time. What’s the point of not giving to us Eren’s perspective while his final battle, when it would have been more powerful, if you did not have a big secret/plot twist generator to hide ? I think Eren and Ymir, who smiles like a creep in 138, manipulated everyone: the way Armin came with all the titan shifters in 137 with the help of Ymir was already really suspicious. Kruger, for example, had no reason to stand against Eren.

Chapter 137 was Armin, 138 was Mikasa so we will surely get Eren perspective for 139. And it will be weird if we have it while the guy is dead. Of course we’ll see what happened in chapter 130 between Eren and Historia (I can’t wait for their POVs) and Historia’s baby. The final panel makes me even more sure that Eren is still alive otherwise who on earth would say « You are free » to a new born child ? Eren x Freedom is canon.

• The Attack Titan

We know the path is a place out of time. It’s in this place that titans are sculpted by Ymir, and that’s why I think it makes sense for Eren to be the first owner of that titan: the attack titan is the only one who ascends in the past instead of descending in the future. If physically it seems to be passed down following the classical timeline, all of it is actually playing in the paths. The Attack Titan was only possessed by rebels, directly influenced by Eren’s mindset. It disappeared at a time, and it was also a part of Ymir’s titan: it’s her rebellious part designed to « attack » the world 2000 years later. I think Isayama might add depth again to the title of the story in 139.

• Major deaths

I can’t help but think: why did Eren let Mikasa cut his head and even indicated his location with titan marks ? I think that it’s possible he wants his last friends to fly away from the battle, thinking they have won when they didn’t, so that he can restart the Rumbling without killing them. The survivors would be Levi, Mikasa, Armin and probably Annie. I think Reiner will die to let Gaby eat him, so that Falco and Gaby, representing the future, can be saved.

It makes sense for Reiner to sacrifice himself for his little cousin: he lived for the ones he loved even if he didn’t wish to live himself, and since Gaby represents the new generation, hope, and that she was the potential inheritor of the Armored Titan, I am convinced she is the one who will eat him.

After that the most probable thing is that Levi and Mikasa, who grew incredibly closer, will live together, same for Annie and Armin. Eren will achieve the Rumbling then go back to Historia and we will have that Akatsuki no Requiem ending.

However, a darker possibility is that everyone except Falco and Gaby might die. I am in denial 😄✌🏻

But, I ask myself how Eren will make titans disappear. I think he might have plotted something with Ymir, after all isn’t she free from King Fritz now ? Or maybe Falco will eradicate the worm (bird vs worm is kinda obvious). However I do not think the people transformed into titans will turn back to normal, it’s not Isayama’s style to « bring back » dead characters, it would make Jean’s and Connie’s deaths less tragic. I think that only shifters will loose their ability and the 13 years thing.

Theory 2: if Eren is dead

• Ymir’s manipulation

I don’t wanna believe it but what if all of this was Ymir’s plan ? If he IS dead, it’s Ymir who is the mastermind and manipulated him so that the parasite would die and that she could get out off the paths. « I took the world’s freedom to gain mine » what if it’s YMIR TALKING in 133 ? She could even had sent the dream to Mikasa in 138 so that she would know WHERE Eren was and kill him, all of this after Ymir took revenge on the world. Remember, the titan who protected Zeke came from earth, and Ymir entered in contact with « the source of all organic life », which means she could be the one behind the birds we keep seeing, including the one on Mikasa dream. She could be smiling because her plan WORKED.

Also remember in the paths where Eren was talking to the Alliance ? He was in his kid Eren form, like Ymir, we didn’t see his eyes, showing his slavery and a strange alike-look. Ymir was standing right next to him, in the exact same position, mirroring him as if he was a sort of reflection/puppet of hers. Everybody thought the contrary until now, that Ymir followed Eren. While she was here, Eren was saying that the only way to end all of this was to take his life: what if Ymir made him say that ?

It makes even more sense when Ymir helped Armin with summoning shifters and that they also had their mouths don’t moving.

• Eldian Society ?

The only way to resolve  everything if Eren is dead is to create an Eldian empire domination with the rest of the world being weak and wiped out. Everybody would live on Paradise and would be teached about the cycle of hate and the heroes who stopped the Rumbling as new Helos, giving us an explanation of that picture in the opening (it could also be Eren’s society as well meant to not repeat the same mistakes as well)

I hope you liked it ! Let’s not suffer too much during the waiting and organize cottagecore RM and EH weddings with the beach Aruannie one instead of crying 💁🏻‍♀️

[fumiko-matsubara]

AssClass Rewrite: How Kaho should’ve been portrayed instead

I’m just transferring what I’ve proposed in the discord server to here for easy access UwU.

I hate how Matsui oversimplified Kaho’s character until she’s literally being portrayed as Maehara’s overly unsophisticated bitch ex-girlfriend and left her like that, implying that it’s okay for fans to put her under the same level of being horrible as Seo.

Haha how about NO?

With all the red flags that are just plain obvious throughout Kaho and Seo’s interaction in the chapter, Matsui had the chance to write her as the unfortunate girlfriend of the school’s rudest student. But noooo, he just went “it’s too complicated so let’s just end it like that” and it’s pissing me off smh

So, here’s my take on her character UwU:

Kaho is like the BIGGEST SIMP for all the Ikemen in school, and she will go out her way to get close to them, even asking them out (Zaina and I headcanoned that she’s from the Tennis club, but only because Isogai was also a member and she didn’t think that the club is separated by gender lmao). She’s basically Ikemen crazy, a pursuer, and does all the chasing.

If that’s the case then, how did she ended up dating Seo, of all people, with his ugly rude shitty ass self being the opposite of what the traditional Ikemen is?

Let me add a defining personality trait of hers then: Kaho is very un-confrontational.

Because of this certain trait of hers, she couldn’t say “No” when Seo asked her out, especially since the guy has a really good reputation at school as a virtuoso and for his “exceptional” (yeah right) English skills, that his family is said to be stinking rich, and that his outrageous personality in general makes everyone in school uncomfortable.

As Zaina, who is @dreaming-of-assclass​, have pointed out in her tea spill post about Seo, there is an obvious power imbalance between the two, that it’s beyond uncomfortable to think about what could’ve happened to Kaho had she rejected him when he asked her out, broken up with him when she had enough, or especially had she got caught cheating on him behind his back. Paired that with my take of Kaho being un-confrontational, she’s literally trapped and it’s heartbreaking.

Her crush on Maehara is definitely genuine, from what we’ve seen in the chapter of how happy they are together and the fact that Maehara is very popular with girls in school pre Class E and is considered as an Ikemen, brushing aside his “fast-dating” trait.

Background  and background:

When Kaho and Seo first started dating, she briefly stopped her pursuing habits, but then suddenly went back to it after seeing more of how shitty Seo really is in general (As previously mentioned, she couldn’t just call the relationship off, considering Seo’s reputation in school and how much power he has in the relationship along with how un-confrontational Kaho is). So, I’m gonna assume here for a bit. Kaho “unofficially” broke up with him, by keeping a distance from him until they, hopefully that is, drifted apart that they’re no longer together without the need of an actual declaration of breaking up or something.

So by that logic, to Kaho, it’s now okay to go after other guys since she already “unofficially broken up” with Seo. Then we have Maehara: handsome, athletic, fun, good personality, and very popular among junior high school girls in Kunugigaoka town. Despite his fast-dating playboy trait, he’s considered by many as an Ikemen. Kaho loves Ikemen, especially the very good-looking ones. So after him she goes lmao. Of course, with your girl being both a simp and a pursuer, she’s the one who asked him out. And Maehara, being your everyday fast-dating playboy, of course, said yes.

Now we have the retaliation chapter:

Kaho and Maehara might have been dating for a few weeks at this point, considering that Maehara knows of her daily schedule and how she commutes to school. They’re chill with each other and just happy together. All good.

Then Seo showed up.

With all the points I’ve stated earlier about their power imbalance, with Kaho being un-confrontational, she’s beyond panicking at this point for getting caught. (Let’s be real, Maehara kind of made things worse by pointing out the sudden change in her schedule as of lately. Important point: I’ll address this too shortly).

Cue the big mistake she had made that day: using Maehara as a scapegoat just so that she wouldn’t have to deal with facing Seo’s wrath, especially with how horrible his temper was. Yes, it’s wrong for her to do that, but you can’t exactly hate her for it since poor girl is beyond scared, that she had to do it.

To quote what Zaina and I have discussed months ago, about the café scene:

Fumiko – “I’ve also noticed something in the retaliation chapter. It’s only Seo who actually insults disguised Kayano and Nagisa. Kaho was more like, reprimanding them angrily rather than explicitly insulting them. And when they were talking about what happened with Maehara, it was Seo who was carrying the whole. Kaho was more of “I know right?!” rather than expressing her thoughts.”

Zaina – “EXACTLY!! It’s so clear that he’s the way ruder one!!! And she’s just going along with things to please him.”

Fumiko – “She even looked scared when Seo asked her if she had previously brought other people with her to the café. If 3E were that empathetic enough, surely the recon team would realize the way Kaho was just trying to go along with Seo’s rudeness to please him.”

Zaina – “I feel like in canon, none of 3-E was thinking very straight, or open-minded like they usually do. Because of Maehara’s humiliation and the direct insults towards them, it felt personal and they didn’t want to see it any other way. This was unfortunately exemplified by Koro’s encouragement. He really wasn’t a good role model at all for supporting this. Because you’re right: how did none of the recon team, or anyone notice how the two interacted?? How scared and stressed Kaho looked?? Especially Nagisa, who specializes in reading people and is sitting right across them??”

The last point made a lot of sense. We should really make Nagisa notice Kaho’s obvious cry for help, and even Kayano too for how obvious Kaho was faking it to Seo.

So now, we have the whole revenge thing:

Zaina – “You know, the revenge that 3E got on Seo and Kaho was super harsh. But it’s even more messed up when you remember that Koro encouraged and helped planned it.”

Fumiko – “I don’t like how they managed to get away with that with little to no witnesses. The lasy who asked the three to cut the branches should’ve noticed that large branches fell on two kids in front of her.”

Zaina – “The problem with AssClass is that they never acknowledge the consequences of their actions ever, which makes it hard to be realistic sometimes.”

Fumiko – “Another thing I don’t like about the retaliation chapter was that Kaho and Seo thought it was just a very unlucky day for them. No one else knew that 3E did all that shit. They literally got away with it with 0 consequences.”

So here’s how I think 3E should face the consequences of their actions in this chapter, which involves adding the scene of where Seo shoved Kaho just to get inside the restroom from the farther convenience store, it may have not been explicitly shown in the manga, but it was implied.

Until we get to Nagisa and Kayano noticing the huge red flags in the café, to 3E initially, both Kaho and Seo are equally in the wrong and deserve the same punishment. All the canon process in the revenge can still remain here, if y’all fine with that. After noticing the red flags and witnessing Seo shoving Kaho out of the way, wouldn’t it be best if they started to reflect on their actions from that moment? Like “did we go too far? Is she really that bad as we all initially thought? Was this even the right thing to do in the first place?”

It’s also a good chance for them to reflect on the fact that Koro encouraged all of this and is one of the most involved in planning, considering the fact that he is still a teacher, and he literally encouraged them to humiliate two kids in public. At the same time, even Koro might reflect on what he teaches them.

Also, Zaina pointed out that Maeheara literally did not learn anything from this in the end and just went back to his fast-dating habits like the whole thing never happened in the first place.

So let me addressed what I’ve mentioned earlier, then.

Maehara and Kaho dated for quite a while if he already knew about her daily routine, and it’s showing that they really do like each other and enjoy each other’s company. No bad blood whatsoever. So after finding out that Kaho is dating him behind Seo’s back, also known as the rudest student in school with such a horrible temper, don’t you guys think it was a very bad dick move of him to expose Kaho, the very girl who he was just having a great time with, just like that while it’s beyond obvious at how scared she was of Seo and is trying to save herself from getting in big trouble? Couldn’t he just have helped her with making her excuses more believable so that both of them could get out of trouble?? He’s good at talking, so he can definitely make it work. So why did he choose the option where either him or Kaho could the brunt of it, when it obvious that he’s gonna take it considering he’s from Class E?

We’re also definitely gonna make him learn something out of this in the end smh.

 And that’s the end of my long ass essay UwU

[masterhandss]

WATCH ME RAMBLE ABOUT THE HAMEHURA SPINOFF

My Next Life as a Villainess! All Routes Lead to Doom! have officially taken over my headspace, and I really want a platform to talk about it. I’ve read the manga and novels over and over again, and I’m so happy to seeing the reactions of everyone to each anime episodes.

Though surprisingly, other than obviously the original novel, what actually piqued my interest in the series is actually the spinoff manga for hamehura, “I Reincarnated into an Otome Game as a Villainess With Only Destruction Flags... In a Dire Situation!? Verge of Destruction Arc”. Yes, it has a spinoff.

(This might be considered spoilers for the spinoff and anime, be warned!) I just want to ramble about it and give my critiques, opinions and expectations. My words might not make sense if you haven’t read the spinoff, but I think having a general gist of the events of the original anime/novel/manga is enough to read through my vents and rambles. also there’s screenshots here so there’s that. 

It’s basically the same plot as the anime, but if Katarina regained her memories of her past life during the events of Fortune Lover, within the school year, instead of when she was 8 years old like the original novel.

I don’t even really know if I’m in the right place to comment on it, considering it only has like 6 chapters (with the 7th one still being a month away) anyways and has a lot of time to expand and grow it’s concept, but gosh darn it, I want to talk about it!

I really really love the premise of the spinoff, and i think it’s much more compelling than the original novel. The novel wins by being more wholesome and heartfelt, but with the spinoff, we get to see Katarina play this “game” in hard mode” where she doesn’t have the connections that she would’ve had if she remembered sooner. There’s a sense of urgency in the plot that you don’t really have in the novel because she had already won everyone over before the game even begins. Both premises are charming, but this one really lifts up the concept of the title.

While I’d love to say that i’m excited to see this alternate version of the plot and find out how Katarina would solve herself out of her destruction, sadly the spinoff still follows the original material very religiously, preventing the spinoff as really coming out into its own (again, I could be wrong, there’s only 6 chapters so far after all but from what we have so far, it’s practically identical to the manga/novel). 

I think one of the greatest strengths of the spinoff is that it would take it’s time in the Magic School because Katarina only has one year to put the odds in her favor, instead of years, so it means we wont speed through her school life like the novel/anime/manga did. 

This is why my favorite part of the spinoff is Sienna, Katarina’s main underling when she was still the villainess of Fortune Lover. I love her because her existence provides a reason for the writer of the spinoff to find ways to insert her into the original plot, or to write new ones altogether in order to include what I imagine to be Katarina’s new best friend in this timeline.

Sienna’s existing can also be a sign of a possible future conflict regarding Katarina’s behavior post-accident. In the original novel/manga, it was okay for the snobby and spoiler Katarina to suddenly become dense and gluttonous, because she was 8 years old, and thus in the eyes of the adults, still had a lot of time to grow and develop her character. It’s still weird of course but it can be written off as such. With the event happening during the events of Fortune Lover, characters such as Maria and Geordo are obviously confused but her change of heart. Personally, I’d love to see her underlings and other students call her out on her behavior (especially since we are about to see the dynamic of Keith and Katarina in this timeline) because of how abrupt and sudden this change was. The spinoff tries to run away from this problem by writing off Mary and Alan as “not knowing much about Katarina other than rumors” but I doubt it, considering how much they would probably encounter each other in social gatherings and such. For them to not have an independent impression of her seems lazy to me to be honest, because not having an opinion on her means that she can act in any way that she wants and it can be considered as her being normal to them.

Because of how faithful this spinoff is to the original material, the banter that characters would have about Katarina feels undeserved, such as Geordo being possessive of Katarina during her interactions with Alan, despite not being interested in her until now. Bare in mind that at this point, Geordo had already met Maria (who piqued his interest during their first encounter, according to Katarina in the original novel) and only just gained interest in her fiance because of her out-of-nowhere change in personality. the banter between the twin princes doesn’t feel right when you factor in that he doesn’t care about Katarina enough (yet) to find his brother as a threat. To be honest, I wouldn’t even have this problem if the spinoff wasn’t so loyal.

This also opens up the question of how she will gain rapport with the characters in Fortune Lover. The spinoff pulled off Mary and Katarina’s friendship through their similar interests in gardening, but without the mistake of taking Alan’s in game dialogue, Mary has no reason to be attached to Katarina at all, and is definitely in love with Alan.

I mean i’d be okay if the spinoff writes off their relationship as just friends, but then again that ruins the charm that the original novel had (which is that Katarina catches love interests like she does with pokemon) which can be both a good thing and a bad thing (I don’t mind if they don’t have the harem, but maybe that makes it too far from the source material idk)

This is why I don’t want the spinoff to be religiously loyal to the source material! Keith’s introduction makes me nervous because there is absolutely no way that the spinoff can follow the original method of winning him over without making it look ridiculous, so obviously his route will have to be written from scratch. It’s not the rewrite that makes me nervous, it’s how similar it’d be from the original novel. The same would have to happen with Sophia (who has probably lived in fear and isolation without a real friend FOR YEARS), Nicol (who is intertwined with his sister), and Alan (depending on how far Maria is into the plot). From what i’ve seen from the spinoff so far, Katarina can still realistic gain the character’s of Fortune Lover as her allies, but they won’t be (or atleast might not be) as attached to her as they do in the original novel (like Mary and Sophia maybe)

My only biased exception to this is her and her maid Anne, because it’s pretty endearing to know that even the spoiled version of Katarina is still attached to Anne, so as long as they are together, she doesn’t really mind the difference. 

I would really love it if Katarina could gain allies outside of the established cast, to emphasize how different her situation is now that her circumstances are different due to the time of when her memories return. I just don’t want the spinoff to suddenly make the characters interested in Katarina, even though she’s lived her life until now as a spoiled and selfish noble.

This brings me to another concern of mine: Maria, the protagonist of Fortune Lover. So far, Katarina has already won over her friendship and has forgiven her and Sienna for their actions against her after seeing their efforts to fend off other harassers. My problem isn’t really how quickly she got won over or anything (despite this already solving her problem of being accused of orchestrating her bullying that could cause her end just before the final graduation event of the game), it’s more of what she represents.

You see, what made all the characters of Fortune Lover so attached to Katarina is that she lacks the outlook of a noble, being someone who lived as a normal school girl before being reincarnated. She is a very empathetic person who is able to sooth the worries of the characters but literally not seeing it at all (examples being Alan with his rivalry with his twin, and Mary & Sophia with their appearance). She alleviates the pain and worries of others by being what they need. In the original novel of My Next Life as a Villainess!, the readers/viewers already know that her villainess fate is already thwarted because she had already accomplished what Maria was supposed to do during the events of Fortune Lover (befriend Sophia = gain Nicol’s affections / interest Geordo = gain his affection / differentiate Alan & Geordo = gain Alan’s affections / be a first real source of comfort and company = gain Keith’s affections etc.)

I can’t really speculate on much of the plot of the game, but luckily the anime dvd box comes with the actual Fortune Lover game routes of the 4 boys so I might be able to comment on this better in the future. 

Maria is basically the same as Katarina (or Bakarina, if its less confusing); both characters are outsiders to the world of nobles and royalty, and it’s through their own personal outlook that they help and befriend the characters of the game. The spinoff would probably stick the two by the hip now that they’re friends in order to solve this problem, but it’s basically a race between the two of which of them can apply their personal quirks in getting the characters to ally with them. Again I can’t really speculate bc I don’t know the actual routes of the boys, but yeah. 

For example, Geordo has met the heroine while she was trying to climb a tree with a skirt, which he has never seen before, while her also being the pretty light-magic user commoner, and this definitely made her interesting to him (Note: this is an event that occurs canonically within the events of the game, Fortune Lover, but is not presented as something that had occurred in the manga). 

Now we have Katarina acting out of character and eating tons of sweets, while trying to salvage the dress of her peer after she spilled a drink on it, and this character change made her interesting to him as well. Katarina, considering her actual personality as time progresses in the story, is definitely much more interesting than Maria’s (I say that with biases of course) so Geordo would most likely find her to be the more unpredictable and interesting out of the two, but it looks like the only way (or what seems to already be the chosen way??) of writing the spinoff out of this mess is to make it appear like the Maria event didn’t or hasn’t happened yet, because while the original novel does state that Geordo would have fallen for Maria if he wasn’t already inlove with Katarina before they entered the Magic School, Geordo has yet to address his relationship with Maria. (yeah I get it there’s only 6 chapters yet jhgsdgfjsdg BUT STILL IT’S A LOT TO THINK ABOUT)

I don’t know what kind of dynamic Maria and Katarina would have in the spinoff, especially since you need to factor in Sienna, but in the original novel, Maria was pretty submissive to Katarina and would mostly just follow her lead. Maybe with this new friendship, Maria might not actively approach the main love interests (unless it’s by accident, since they don’t have to always save her from bullying Katarina and Sienna already try to solve that themselves) which gives time for Katarina to win them over with the quirky personality. At least, this is what I hope the spinoff goes for lol. (side note, it’s actually interesting to see what it’s like when Geordo literally only uses Katarina as a shield from other women, so when the shift from tool to romance occurs, i think it’ll be pretty nice to see)

To be honest I don’t even know what I’m rambling about, I’m sure I’ll love the spinoff regardless of what direction it takes lol. I’m just nervous because I really really love this concept an I want it to be different from the source material because it literally has the potential to be its own story (idk if this spinoff is even official at all, like I think it has the permission of Yamaguchi Satoru, but idk if its licensed)

Before I end this long ramble, I just want to note that i actual like the art style of the spinoff (illustrated by nishi) more than the original artist nami. I feel like this more simple artstyle captures the shift between Villainess Katarina and Bakarina more smoothly, while the original illustrations kinda makes it looked forced (mostly the manga tbh, the novel covers and art is fine). With nishi’s art, you can easily grasp that these two personalities are both Katarina. 

Anyways that’s it, my hands hurt lol. Might edit this in the future. 

[komakitigerdrop]

Apparently I didn't express myself accurately. As you said indeed, certain scenes don't mean anything, so my question is, what scenes would actually mean something? (I'm being hypothetical, not trying to say existing scenes mean anything.) Or are you going to keep believing in YxF even after something big happened between MxF/TxF/YC/AxF? I'm the kind who buys whatever couple the author sells, but I'm curious about shippers loyal to one specific couple.

Ahh, thank you for sending another ask. I was not pleased with my previous answer either - I was pressed for time and didn’t articulate my ideas very well.

I think that the best way to answer your ask is to break it down into a few different parts, if you don’t mind. I will hide it under a cut so that I don’t clutter people’s dashboards.

1. About Shipping

I am not the kind that buys whatever couple the author sells, just because I am not naturally invested in most fictional couples (regardless of media type - I guess I am either too cynical, or just overly realistic). I read other mangas and in most of them, either only one couple draws my attention, or none. I find most of the tropes used in yaoi either dumb, childish or both. That is all to say that I hardly ever find myself emotionally invested in a fictional couple, but when I do… I do.

2. About Finder specifically

This part will merge with the next, “scenes that matter”. The reason why I can’t bring myself to find Mikhail and Fei a believable/interesting couple is because their relationship is not organic. By organic, I mean: something that was construed over time, something that followed a trail, that was built upon events that primarily existed to advance other parts of the story. Finder started in 2002. Fei Long and Mikhail were introduced in 2007. For twelve years, FxM interactions were limited and emotionless. Even their sex scene in Volume 9 was a transaction. Nothing was built to suggest any kind of emotional connection between these two individuals, nothing was said, on the page, about either of them being remotely interested in starting a romance.

Bear with me here.

Reason being, Fei Long was a character created to gravitate around Asami. The crux of his existence in the manga was always the relationship with this one man, the feelings for this one man. No one else. Not Mikhail, not Tao, not Yoh. Flash forward to 2018, and YA gives us that iconic scene in which Fei Long ships Akihito and Asami to a desert island, and I think that this is the gamechanger. Now Fei Long is in a position to move on.

Coincidentally, we readers are given back Yoh and a sex scene with Mikhail in the same damn chapter.

Two suitors with feelings for him.

On one hand, Yoh, whose feelings he admitted to Fei Long in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Of course he was not reciprocated. Then, there was Finder no Rakuin, in which their affection was mutual. Had its plot not been written by Yamane Ayano herself, dialogues reviewed and all,  I would happily cast it aside as “non-canon”. But it was, so I won’t. If one accepts Finder no Souen as canon to explain Kuroda and Asami, then one needs to accept Finder no Rakuin as canon to explain the feelings Fei Long and Yoh have for each other. I won’t label those feelings because in all honesty, I wouldn’t know how to. Fei Long’s heart was not within reach, and yet Yoh still managed to touch it. There is a connection between those two men based on trust, on forgiving, and yes - on physical pleasure. It delivers in all fronts.

You ask, what would be necessary to convince me that Mikhail is the real deal? I’d say, I would need to see him deliver in those three fronts. I’m sorry, but a night of sex in exchange for a favor, and a moment of compassion after a session of torture won’t cut it for me. Mikhail going to see Yuri, as I mentioned before, was due to concern and a sense of duty - but in all honesty, he is not the first and won’t be the last to put his ass on the line for Fei Long. Akihito did it. Asami did it. Yoh did it. Do they all get a ticket to Fei’s heart? If they do, then what is the point?

It was the need to save Asami that ultimately brought Fei Long and Mikhail together. It was not mutual attraction, interest, or compatibility of values/goals/personalities. What happens when Asami is safe and sound? Has Mikhail made that much of an impression that his presence in Fei Long’s life will be justified long after their current shenagigans get sorted out?

Again: maybe yes. Maybe YA will find a way to make Mikhail relevant, maybe the road she chooses is a passionate romance. But will that convince me that she is “picking Mikhail over Yoh”? No. Because these two relationships do not compare. Mikhail is an open flame, Yoh is a slow burning amber. It’s just who they are, it’s what they have to offer. Their purposes and benefits as “love interests” are very, very different. And yes, I will even say that Fei Long might have a thing with Mikhail, but is Mikhail going for the marathon or just a sprint? As I said, things change. A moment of tenderness does not equal a love affair; a love affair does not equal a lifelong commitment. YA, smart woman she is, will probably leave both doors open until the very end, because with Fei Long, she can do whatever she wants with his love life. She can give us all or nothing, then have Tao reach age of 21 and join the race as well.

And I bet she will have a load of fun playing with our emotions.

(She does it so well, tho!)

Part 3: About scenes that matter

I will talk about the scenes that don’t matter: the ones that could easily be removed from the manga without any harm to the characters’ development or to the plot. My favorite example: the infamous Sakazakigate. I might come here later to post an apology but it does look like sensei completely abandoned that idea (she had Sakazaki record a video of the whole thing and never used it. Why? What was the point of it?)

In terms of Fei Long and Mikhail: I might be wrong about this one as well, but I think we never got confirmation that is was Mikhail who got the temple set on fire in exchange for Sudou’s info about the goods. Which is a shame, because this demonic deal could easily contribute to his hero journey if it was revealed that Mikhail himself sent Sakazaki to warn Akihito about the fire (hence double-crossing Sudou. Or triple-crossing - who knows at this point!)

I could backtrack and find more scenes that existed for apparently no reason but this is too long already. My point is: scenes that don’t matter are those that promise great waves and in the end, fall short. Time will tell how much of the current arc will have an impact in the future - do the scenes between Fei Long and Asami when they are saving each other’s lives really mean this new phase of their relationship or were they there just for the action? Does Fei Long’s moment of tenderness with Mikhail indicate that the doors are open for romance? If yes, will we see that romance now, later, two years from now?

All in all… the scenes that matter the most are those that change characters and the story in some kind of irrevocable way. I think certain scenes in Finder no Souen did that to Asami, same can be said to Fei Long in Finder no Rakuin. And those scenes cannot be invalidated by any other future scenes, because they happened, the people involved in them changed, the mark was made.

I will continue to celebrate Yoh and Fei Long simply because their past and everything they went through, their trust, their synergy, all of that deserves to be celebrated. If Fei Long ends up with Tao, then be it. With Mikhail, okay. If he ends up alone, okay too. There is more than one type of relationship between two people and that’s what I’m here for.

[sambart93]

Fullmetal Alchemist Live Action Movie [Rant]

I finished FMA:B anime like LAST week so I am super sensitive and still on the FMA love boat train thing. And tbh I never had ANY intention of ever watching this movie, but after hearing my friend describe his experience with the movie (he's a NON-FMA-fan and knows absolultey nothing about it) and just not having a good time with it; I had to see it and see for myself just what was wrong with it. And boy-oh-boy, please leave if you were hoping I'd be pleasantly surprised.

It has the bear basics of the character background and the bear basics of the world etc. which is just enough that non-anime/manga fans can just about understand BUT so much is left out. It misses and skips so much of the characters, of the development, of the world. There's just enough missing that also, non-FMA-people will get completely lost and somewhat disengaged with the story too. They really don't establish the childhood-friendness with Winry, Al and Ed, it's super briefed over. The hints about Hommunculus and the reason why they're searching for the Philosopher's Stone is, again, very heavily glossed over compared to the anime. I understand it's only 133 minute film BUT you definitely could've cut some other parts (especially parts that aren't in the anime/manga) in order to flesh out the details and the important parts. Especially in terms of emotional impact.

In the movie version Tucker is protrayed pitiful rather than a bit-shit crazy evil man. So when his dark side comes out, it just looks like a sad, pitiful man and there's no real satisfaction from him being beaten by Ed.

Yamada's emotional performance just doesn't land. The scene about the chimera, you couldn't see much anger or the switch between being happy-to realising what's happened-to getting super fucking angry, and his voice isn't strong enough to portray both his anger and his pain. It just didn't have any emotional impact.

A BIG positive is the setting and the location and such. It's perfect and so nice!

I really hate how heavily CGI'd Al's armour and Ed's arm and leg are. I don't understand why they didn't just build very realistic looking armour, have black clothes underneath so a stuntman/body-actor could wear it as Al and Yamada could've just pwore the armour. I feel like they were actual props BUT you can tell they've put CGI OVER it and it just looked stupid. Japan is well-known for tokusatsu costumes and you could've easily gone 100% realistic with Al's armour and it would've looked GOOD.

They do change the story somewhat but not enough to not be faithful to the original material.

While I do love Atomu, since watching the anime (last week) and actually becoming a fan of FMA, I totally understand and I am now in agreement with my friend that they should've just had the original voice actor for Al in the movie rather than Atomu BUT I do understand in the END GAME why Atomu is needed.

Winry can eff off. I've never liked the actress who plays her and she's in this MORE than she is in the anime. I don't even like the character in the anime so the fact they extended her part somewhat in this just annoyed me.

I don't like Hawkeye's actress or look either. It's clearly a wig. Why couldn't the actress just grow and dye her own hair? It'd look better. But any, recast her please.

Casting I AM happy about: Hughes!!! They picked the perfect actor for him! Even without seeing him in costume, I could tell he was a good choice. BUT, and it's a big 'but', the entire casting in general is too old. They've casted everyone 10-20years older than the actual characters ages. And I totally understand WHY. You need these big names in order to get a big budget, in order to get a lot of funding - I KNOW why Yamada was casted; more for the money rather than for him actually suiting the role <<< lets all admit this okay. I get it. We all get how the movie industry works. Especially with this movie being filmed via Warner Brothers, it was definitely more about 'hire the big actors so we get more money to play with' rather than hiring better, more accurate, faithfully-aged actors. So for the most part I am not annoyed with who was casted because this is the business. It happens. Don't get me wrong, Yamada did alright and he does have the voice which is just nice to listen to. When he's explaining or speaking fast, Yamada sounds REALLY damn good. But I can just think of a few other actors who would've suited, looked and acted the role better (COUGH COUGH UEDA KEISUKE FOR STARTERS!). And like, I LOVE KANATA HONGO but NOT as Envy. No no no no no no no not a good choice. Appearance wise; yes he fits Envy; his looks bratty, his skinny and he's somewhat short but the way he plays Envy and his voice; just no. You'd have better look getting a young actress to play Envy. Yes, I did just say actress. Especially because Envy is supposed to be GENDERFLUID!

BUT in general, I do not like MOST of this casting. I can think of a billion other people who would've been better in the role of Ed (no offence Yamada), I can think of so many more people who would've been perfect for Mustang (he is my baby, they ruined him in the movie; wrong casting completely). BUT then my friend said 'but would they haven't wanted to do this movie?' to which I straight away said 'good point, they wouldn't have accepted the role' and in fact they probably weren't even offered the role because; as I keep saying BIG NAMES = MORE MORE.

Ooooohhhh they RUINED Hughes' death! They CHANGED who the hell killed him!! AGAIN how are they going to fix and work around this in the future movie(s)?!

OMG that is HILARIOUS!!! SO the scene right AFTER Hughes' death we get Atomu-ception! We have Atomu playing a soldier arresting Ed while he stands next to Al who he bloody voices AND the soldier himself have BLONDE hair and just omg... what the fuck?! WHY and HOW did you think that was a good idea Warner?! That's gunna fuck people up for the ending for those who DON'T know Atomu

OH! NOT ENOUGH SMALL JOKES! And to be honest, I don't even think Yamada is that short! I don't think we get enough shots with him standing next to or near other people in a wide shot and stuff for us to go 'OH HE SMOL!'.

ALSO; WHERE THE EFF IS SCAR?!?!!?! WHERE IS SCAR?!?!?!!? He's SO important in the story and you didn't bother to introduce him in the first movie?! His first few fights with Ed are AMAZING! WHY is he not here?! WHY is he not in the movie?!

OMMGGG my friend was right about how BAD CGI and stuff is for Gluttony's real mouth. And his WADDLING! OMG his WADDLING was so funny.

They focused WAY to much on making Mustang and Hawkeye a THING. In the anime, they stay VERY professional for the most part. We understand they have romantic feels for each other but in public 99% of the time (and even in private!) they stay completely professional and 'we have police of this country'-type stance.

WAIT WHAT??!?!?! MUSTANG BURNING ROSS IN FRONT OF EVERYONE?!?! WHAT THE FUCK?! HOW THEY GOING TO EXPLAIN THAT AWAY?!?! WAAAAHHHHH THE ACTUAL?! .... WAIT WHAT?! THEY RUINED THE ENTIRE ENVY PLOT IN THE FIRST MOVIE?!

And I got SO confused when Al started having a go at Ed for 'I'm not real am I' and I'm like 'bitch this part of the story doesn't happen for AGES!!! What the hell?!' Also Lab 5 was just trash in this movie. AND Al goes off only about an hour into the film; we BARELY know these characters. There was no emotional impact at all. Just nothing. We haven't spent enough time getting to know these characters for this scene to work and make people cry at this point.

WAIT WHAT?! TUCKER IS STILL ALIVE AND HAS KIDNAPPED AL AND WINRY?! WTH is this plot line?!?!?!

Okay, kudos to Yamada for his scream acting when the Transmutation circle and the way to create Philosopher Stones are revealed. That was REALLY good.

WAIT WHAT?!?!? They revealed the ENTIRE soul army already?!?!?!!? That's not until like the LAST ten episodes of the anime! WTF.... Ohhh and the CGI for them is NOT good....

I am SO confused.... Mustang took the philosopher's stone out of Lust but that's not how you kill her!! You have to actually DESTROY the stone. If it's not destroyed by FMA RULES she's supposed to be able to reconstruct herself! WTF?! Why are they ignore this very important logic and basic rule?!

Whhhhyyyyyy did Ed use the stone?!?!? WHAT THE ACTUAL?!?! NOOOOO Ed you wtf?!?! That's not even canon!!!! WAAAAAAH?!?!

I wonder who they hired for Al's body... cos that DEFO isn't Atomu! << Again, how is this going to work if voice Al already looked this different to body Al?!

To be honest, FMA is too loved and too long for it to be a series of movies. If FMA was to get Live-Actioned it should've, right from the start, been a stage series. That's the only way they would've fit everything in and done justice to the story, and been able to do projection mapping and be able to go great action scenes using stunts and stunt equipment, and also in general, better and younger actors for the roles.

[halfcape]

Finished up S1 of Tokyo Ghoul – (spoilers for a lot of the series)

I’m not a ~lore stan, but there are already way too many world-building and really just basic storytelling issues I’ve seen so far that’s messing with my interest in this series. Maybe some of this stuff is better explained in the manga, but I’ve checked the wiki, and it seems to be pretty faithful.

- there’s a lot of suspension of disbelief when it comes to just accepting how Kaneki was turned into an artificial ghoul. This wouldn’t bother me so much if it wasn’t a plot point, but it is. Why does transplanting some ghoul organs (which ones?) into a human body change … the nature of the entire human body? How was he able to survive that if the organs are apparently so different? You don’t need to be a med or nursing student to understand that the organ systems all work together. Yes, I know that it’s fiction and there’s some stuff you need to just accept to get through the story, but this is asking too much, especially when the author makes a point to lean into “real life science” explanations for fantasy/sci-fi elements.

Even stuff like Twilight make an effort to explain the vampire transformation process (magical sparkly hard skin, etc) but goes the ‘less is more’ route. This ~magical transformation is stupid, but it’s at least consistent in a stupid story. Personal preference, maybe, but I’d much rather read a ‘magic did that’ explanation instead of ‘mad scientist guy switched the organs out of magical monsters chick like a jigsaw puzzle which explains how a human got magical monster powers’. Though when I skipped ahead to see how everything ended (I don’t have hours to burn into cross-checking the manga for adaption accuracy), considering that Kaneki and the blue-haired Creator’s Pet end up basically having an anime-Renesmee babu by the end of this series (even though there is a scene at the beginning explicitly saying that this really should not be possible), maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. I’ve read that the author’s also a lit major (……..), so maybe he’s secretly Into Twilight and other dumb popular crap? Who knows.

- there doesn’t seem to be much of a practical difference in-universe between half-ghouls and full-ghouls, which unfortunately ruins a lot of the dramatic weight for Kaneki’s story. The only major differences are that Kaneki has the one red eye, still smells like a human, regenerates really fast, and … that’s it. He still stuck with the Food Problem, and no “in-between” way to avoid participating in the morally bad thing that would make him a monster. Tbf, I don’t watch too much monster fantasy stuff, but with characters that are “half-species” like Keith from Voltron (he is a badly written character, but yeah) and Marvel’s Blade, there’s something that’s different enough for the characters to “blend in” with both worlds without having to be a complete monster (why bother writing the character as half if they’re the same as the full monsters). With Blade, he had the strengths of being a vampire and could go outside, but the disadvantage of blood thirst, which he’s able to manage with a serum. Keith is technically Galra, but can pass for human, which is relevant to the plot since the Galra are the antagonists and he won’t be persecuted because he doesn’t look like them. Kaneki is just a ghoul with one red eye and a human smell. (I had some ideas of how the series might work better if Kaneki had that in-between, but honestly this series isn’t good enough for me to do the work of the author, so I’m not posting them).

- The ghouls are not sympathetic as the “oppressed monster” trope. You instantly lose your humanity points when you’re Eating People, whether or not your “bIoLoGy” requires that. Kaneki is the exception, but that’s only because he used to be human, and his body was forcibly “changed” into a monster. His story is tragic because the writer at least seems to understand that eating people is pretty fucking irredeemable and it’s near-impossible to write around this. (Unless you’re a vore fan, but I don’t think they’re the target demographic for this series.) The people at Anteiku have made the best of a bad situation by cannibalizing dead bodies, for example, but Kaneki’s revulsion to even that means it’s still terrible.

- The whole 'don’t tell humans you’re a ghoul’ meme that generic angry blue chick rages about isn’t really that impactful when everyone in the universe already knows ghouls exist. And her bff is human.

- The in-universe reaction to the existence of the ghouls isn’t realistic. Yes, there is a special police branch to deal with them, but this is an inadequate response to literal cannibalistic monsters living in a human society. I thought there’d be something like the government system keeping track of ghouls rather than just letting them wander around and ~hoping that … they don’t eat too many people every few months? That they don’t completely overpower humans, since they canonically can do that? … Why are ghouls allowed to roam around, anyway?

- There are too many characters, and most of them are forgettable or underdeveloped. Characters like Nishiki are not given enough time to be redeemed for doing shitty things, so I can’t get invested in them. No, I don’t care about your sad backstory when you’re introduced kicking the the protag’s best friend into the wall for shock value.

- That said, Blue Anger is easily the worst in the main cast. Watching scenes with her is almost as painful as watching LOK’s Mako not being held accountable for pretty much anything. Nishiki may be underdeveloped, and other characters like Tsukiyama just make me tired (and he’s not good queer rep, but I’m not going to talk about that right now), but at least Nishiki gets knocked around a few times so it doesn’t feel like he’s completely getting away with being a dick. Bleugh gets to treat the cast like garbage, kick and beat up Kaneki repeatedly, murder humans in broad daylight, doesn’t suffer significantly for making bad choices (like uhh murder), and we’re still expected to like her because she has a generic cute anime girl design.

- there’s also a lot of sexist and other gross gender-related themes in this, but that’s for another post, maybe.

also, the usual “don’t @ me about the following”:

- “you're being too critical, it’s not a character study”. yes it is

- “Not Everything Is ATLA” yes, isn’t it sad that a children’s show has better character development than a "seinen” series.

- “the author had health problems while he was writing it” yup, and that’s valid. Just like the criticisms of the series.

- “why are you even watching this if you have so many problems with it?” I haven’t watched anything this Edgy in awhile and it’s horror.

- “I like this series, which means you’re attacking me personally by criticizing it.’ sIgh

[eloarei]

As copy-pasted from that one BNHA ask meme: ALL my answers, since @oldseablues suggested I do that.  Under a cut because it’s long.

BNHA Ask Meme™ Reblog this if you want your followers to send you one of these:

~ B A S I C S ~

1: What part of the anime/manga piqued your interest? Like, what did I see that made me want to watch it? TBH I don't know! I guess it was All Might lol. I just saw that a bunch of people on my dashboard were talking about it and about him and I was like "Okay, I'll watch it." (A few people IRL had reccommended it to me before but I was like 'eh'.)

2: Did you think Midoriya would be a good protagonist in the first few chapters/episodes? Answered before. I think the gist of it was that I thought he was gonna be fine, I just didn't know if the story was gonna be any good.

3: How do you think Midoriya’s conflict with Bakugou will end? Honestly I think it'll turn out fine. I mean, I think that they'll repair their friendship (if you can even call it that). I think Izuku has to stop focusing on Bakugou and Bakugo has to start respecting Izuku. I think it'll happen just fine as they grow into themselves. I would be surprised if they didn't repair their relationship, just based on common shounen tropes.

4: What was your first reaction to Bakugou’s treatment towards Midoriya? First reaction? Hmm, let me see if I can remember. I guess I didn't think about it much because I wasn't sure he was going to be an important character. But when I realized he was... I guess I was just surprised that Izuku put up with it all that time. Of course it could be because of his lack of confidence, but I guess I see it more as him having faith in Kacchan actually being worth maintaining a friendship with, despite the bullying? He's too sweet for his own good ^^;;

5: What do you think of All-Might as a hero? Pfft, well he's great, obviously! Isn't that like... the one thing you're supposed to know when you start the series? "The sky is blue. All Might is great." He's a good guy. He does what he can and he does it well.

6: Do you think that Midoriya deserved to get OFA? Of course. He's clever and determined and passionate and kind. Who else would have been that appropriate?

7: Aside from Midoriya, which character in the series do you think has had the most character development? I'm gonna SKIP this one, since I'm still only a lowly Season 2 graduate. I haven't seen enough change in any of the characters to say.

8: Favorite unpopular character? Honestly? Mineta. I know everyone hates him, but I like him for the same reasons. Yes, he's dumb and sleazy, but I think he acts as a sort of balance, and it's good to have a character that occupies peoples' soft-hatred but isn't a villain. Not every 'good guy' is unproblematic, and I think he has the greatest capacity for growth because he's starting so low on the likeability chart. XD

9: Favorite overall character? I mean, that's an easy tie between Izuku and All Might. Obviously. If I had to pick someone else though... Tsuyu. She's precious. Or Ochaco. She's also precious. Or Iida, who is (surprise) also damn precious.

10: Do you have any OC’s? Describe them! If you don’t, create one on the spot. Create one? Yeesh. Uh. Okay, I'll port some original OCs over. Addisson: chivalrous lesbian hero, dresses like a knight. She conjures 'light-weapony' (or other items; made of light/air/whatever, they function as intended until she lets go of them. Only for melee weapons though, not projectiles unfortunately.)

~ S H I P S ~

Pink: What are your main/favorite ships? As surprises nobody: Dekumight, for sure. But side ships? Erasermic, and anything involving Ochaco. (Roughly in order: Ocha/Iida, Ocha/Bakugo, Ocha/anyone else. Oh! Never seen it before, but how about Ochaco/Gunhead?!)

Blue: Do you have any NOTPs? By principal, no. I don't do NOTPs. But if you're asking which ships I just don't really like or don't really get, the winner would have to be TodoDeku. It's very popular? but it just doesn't pique my interest at all.

Yellow: Favorite fanfiction about your OTP? Ooh man, it's only on chapter 2 ATM but @thenightisdarkandfullofbooty’s "Fettered" is really really great so far! Other than that, I don't generally recc explicit fics, but Motte-Gwappo and Jabor pretty well cornered the market with good E-rated oneshots.

Green: Any preferred rarepairs? Ahah yeah, I main a rarepair. And from what I understand, pretty much everything that doesn't include Todoroki or Bakugou is a rarepair, so... uh huh.

Purple: Do you have any works centered around your OTP? HELL YEAH. Anyone who's reading this probably knows. I've got 11 posted Dekumight fics so far, and *counts* 4? WIPs? and... uh... roughly 30+ more ideas? *sweats*

Orange: Fluff or Angst? Good lord I love both, but if you're gonna angst me, PLEASE give me a happy ending.

Red: What do you like the most about your favorite ship? Aaaaaaahhh gosh. Everything. *sighs dreamily* Did you see me the other day, comparing them to freaking Christian worship music? Gawd. They have SUCH a great dynamic, and it's one that has a lot of potential for shifting in various ways too. I guess what I really love most about them is how genuinely devoted to each other they are. Shipped or not, they really love each other! It's so wonderful. =]

Turqoise: What do you hate about your favorite ship? Alright now this is silly question. Why have an OTP if you don't just adore every fiber of their being? In the case of Dekumight, despite what I think a lot of other people would think, I don't even hate the things that make it a controversial pairing. I don't hate that Izuku is underage, and that there's a fairly massive age gap between them, and that there's a 'power imbalance' between them, because that all adds to their dynamic. It makes them very interesting. I don't wish that Izuku was older. I mean, I've written that fic, and I think they're still interesting together, but honestly, the fact that they at least met when Izuku was young is pretty important to their dynamic and-- *goes on forever and ever* ADDENDUM: One thing I do hate is that the majority of the fandom can't (or isn't interested in even trying to) see how goshdarn much sense the ship makes.

Lavender: Does your ship get a lot of hate? If so, why? Hahahaha yes. I don't pay a lot of attention to the fandom at large, but I'm fairly certain it's the most hated ship in the fandom? And it's the only ship I've ever gotten hate over! (Wonderful. Wish I'd get more. It'd be a good outlet for my blabbering haha) I understand /why/ it gets hate though. It's underage. It's frequently read as a father-son relationship. Oh, and it interferes with other popular ships, of course.

Grey: Realistically speaking, will your ship ever become canon? I guess there's a remote chance. Like, top of Mt. Everest remote. haha wouldn't that just fuck with people. Naw, look, I'm fully accepting of the fact that there are at least 5 other drastically-more-likely options, which are, in approximate order of likeliness: 1. Izuku/Ochaco, 2. Izuku/nobody, 3.Izuku/another girl, 4.Izuku/Bakugou, 5.Izuku/another guy. I give Dekumight a .01% chance haha and I think that's a liberal estimate. XD; BUT! I would be more than happy for there to be at least a throwaway line somewhere about Izuku having (or having had) a crush on All Might at some point, and I give that a very generous 5% chance of happening haha.

~ T H E O R I E S ~

Pop: Do you think the “Dabi and Shouto are brothers” theory is true? Don't know who the hell Dabi is.

Indie: Opinions on the Traitor Kaminari theory? Never heard it. Sounds implausible.

Punk: Opinions on the Traitor Kirishima theory? Never heard it. Don't like it.

Rock: What do you think of the “The doctor from Midoriya’s childhood is affiliated with the League Of Villains” theory? (in reference to this post) I mean... sure?? I didn't read the post, but I have no strong opinions on theories.

Jazz: What do you think will happen now that Eri has been saved? Honestly, I only know Eri through fanfic, so I'm gonna say, "No clue, my dude."

~ S T U D E N T S ~

11: Dekusquad or Bakusquad? Porque no los dos? But Dekusquad.

12: Most underrated student? Hagakure. That's the invisible girl, right? That's quite a power!

13: Dadmight or Dadzawa? Porque no los dos? But my ship dictates I vote Dadzawa. Honestly though, they could both BE dads; there's no one way to be a dad. All Might makes me think a little more of an uncle. Aizawa strikes me as more dad-like from my own experience, but they're both supportive in their different ways. I know, let's be contrarian and say "DadMic" =P HE'S the one that reminds me of several of my allo-dads.

14: Whose quirk do you think is the most unique? I think I said Tokoyami when I answered this before. I can't think of a better answer right now, so let's just go with that again.

15: Aside from Midoriya, who do you think has the most potential to be #1 Hero? I guess Todoroki.

16: Should Mineta be replaced by Shinsou in the hero class? Porque no los dos? If you get rid of Mineta, there's gotta be someone else for everyone to hate. Just shove another desk in there and have them both. Make them share, I dunno.

17: Favorite student(s) outside of Class 1-A? Hatsume Mei!

18: Any HCs for the entirety of Class 1-A? Headcanons for the whole class? Is that a thing? I guess I HC that they all genuinely love Izuku and are encouraged by his attitude. =]

19: Do you remember their seating arrangement by heart? lol heck no. I think I have an idea of where a few of the characters sit? But honestly, I blasted through the series once and haven't looked back on it yet, so I haven't had time for memorization.

20: Which of the students do you think has the most potential to become a villain? Gosh. Any of them could. I mean, being a villain instead of a hero is so based on circumstance. If things go wrong, any of them could go that way.

~  V I L L A I N S ~

Techno: Favorite villain? Stain. Not interested in any of the others just yet.

Classical: Eight Precepts of Death or League of Villains? what.

Metal: Which villain’s quirk would you want for yourself? I don't?

Soul: Shigaraki or Chisaki? Who?

Alternative: Most obnoxious villain? Shigaraki.

~  M I S C ~

Apple: Favorite popular HC? I haven't the slightest clue what's popular, but I'll reiterate my own personal headcanon: Izuku has or has had a huge pre-teen crush on All Might.

Strawberry: Who is your favorite pro-hero? Uh... Hmm.... Predictable answer: All Might. Less predictable answer: Best Jeanist, because his fucking outfit drives me nuts and I hate it so much I like it.

Banana: Which of the pro-heroes’ quirks fascinates you the most? Eh. I dunno. I guess I'm not really 'fascinated' by anyone's abilities. ^^; I just like them as whole characters.

Cherry: Should Endeavor die like right now Nah. He's important, even if we hate him. In fact, that might be part of why he's important. You can't love every 'protagonist'.

Pear: What was your reaction to Todoroki’s backstory? I... didn't have a strong reaction. I'm not a huge fan of Todoroki to begin with. I mean, I felt bad for him, of course, but I guess I wasn't surprised or anything, so it was like, "oh. huh. poor kid." I'm more interested in what happens next.

Kiwi: Should the BNHA girls get more spotlight/recognition? Of course! They're all great.

Pineapple: What do you like the most about BNHA, as a whole? Well, I guess what I like is the characters! That pretty usual, for any story I get involved in. But of course I love superheroes, so there's that! But I do also like the feeling of the whole story, how it's inspirational but also with a looming bleakness, you know?

Watermelon: Dub or Sub? Sub sub sub all the way. Gotta watch it in its original form, whatever that is. I LOVE their original Japanese voices. I accidentally heard a tiny snippet of it in English and I regret it haha.

Coconut: How do you think Hokiroshi is doing, in terms of the plot? Well I'm not caught up so it's a bit hard for me to say, but I think it's going well so far. I'm still interested.

Blueberry: What makes BNHA unique from all the other shonen animes/mangas out there? I'm not sure. I think it's in the small details. I mean, I'm not sure it really IS unique from other anime, any more than they're all unique from each other. TBH I feel like it actually take quite a few elements from other popular series and puts them together in an effective way.

...and that's the end!

[detrevniwrit]

re: kacchako is bad (responses)

oh my god I'm going to answer all of these in one post because it’s been a freaking long day and i have no desire to answer each individual permutation of the same sentiments over and over again

read more this time bc it didn’t seem clear enough last time by the bolded ‘kacchako is bad title’ that you can scroll past if you’re sensitive to criticism because this is a criticism of kacchako.

Concern:

Don’t tag it in the ship tag if it’s hate! Just blacklist it if it bothers you so much. People can ship it if they want, don’t be mean/an asshole! :(

Answer:

I can't believe I'm getting "let people ship what they want don't spread hate it's never worth it" msgs in this year of our lord 2017. Don't moralize down to me about spreading hate and quit acting as if I went into people’s inboxes to harass and specifically be mean to them. I used the tag, yes, but I did it to bring kacchako fans’ attention to legitimate concerns I have about the ship’s consequences, and I made my opinion very explicit in the bolded title of the post so people can scroll past if they’re sensitive. I thought it was worth the risk to my sanity to make sure that people who aren't as sensitive to criticism won’t just ignore that there are important issues with kacchako because it’s easier, or because they just don’t know/never thought about it. (I’m now partially feeling it wasn’t worth it, but determined to stand by my points)

Concern:

I think kacchako is fine and I don’t defend abuse! I just imagine them in a place where Bakugou is grown up and not abusive anymore and Ochako doesn’t take that shit!

Answer: 

It has occurred to me that it’s rarely anyone’s intention to support abuse, which is why I bothered to write the original post at all. To reiterate my argument so I don’t get confused ‘kacchako is not abusive’s in my inbox, I’m not saying that kacchako is inherently abusive. I’m saying that as Izuku’s friend, Ochako wouldn’t be motivated to date Bakugou specifically because he bullies Izuku and has abusive tendencies towards her friend, and because she’s someone who cares about Izuku’s wellbeing she wouldn’t be interested in someone who continues to unapologetically treat Izuku like that. 

There is no ‘she secretly likes Bakugou’ right now, or vice versa. She just wants to catch up to Izuku. And Bakugou does not respect her more than he sees her as a threat.

To the reimagining future Bakugou part: again, I doubt anyone has the intention to erase Izuku’s experience as a victim of Bakugou’s bullying. I’m saying that no one writes Bakugou changing from a bully into a better person respectfully or realistically. Most interpret Bakugou’s one interaction with Ochako (in which he considers her a legitimate threat to beat) as an indicator of Bakugou beginning to change because of Ochako, even if after this interaction he’s still only interested in winning and dominating over others and if people are potentially in his way. 

Let me give you a definition of domestic abuse (my bolding):

"domestic abuse occurs whenever one person in an intimate relationship or marriage tries to dominate and control the other person. Domestic violence and abuse are used for one purpose and one purpose only: to gain and maintain total control over you. An abuser doesn’t ‘play fair.’ Abusers use fear, guilt, shame, and intimidation to wear you down and keep you under his or her thumb. Your abuser may also threaten you, hurt you, or hurt those around you.”

All kacchako shippers imagine a future Bakugou as someone who automatically deserves forgiveness for not being an asshole anymore, most likely due to Ochako keeping him in line, and not a single one has been able to describe, in informed detail, about how hard it is to change abusive behavior. 

“In discussing why abusers abuse, it’s clear that a lot of the causal factors behind these behaviors are learned attitudes and feelings of entitlement and privilege — which can be extremely difficult to truly change. [...] While we hope abusive partners will change, it’s not always realistic to expect that they can and will. Focus on changes you can control to improve your own life, because you deserved to feel loved, happy and safe.”

Signs of progress of changing abusive behavior include (some bolded for what I think kacchako shippers particularly don’t take into account often when characterizing future Bakugou):

Admitting fully to what they have done

Stopping excuses and blaming

Making amends

Accepting responsibility and recognizing that abuse is a choice

Identifying patterns of controlling behavior they use

Identifying the attitudes that drive their abuse

Accepting that overcoming abusiveness is a decades-long process — not declaring themselves “cured”

Not demanding credit for improvements they’ve made

Not treating improvements as vouchers to be spent on occasional acts of abuse (ex. “I haven’t done anything like this in a long time, so it’s not a big deal)

Developing respectful, kind, supportive behaviors

Carrying their weight and sharing power

Changing how they respond to their partner’s (or former partner’s) anger and grievances

Changing how they act in heated conflicts

Accepting the consequences of their actions (including not feeling sorry for themselves about the consequences, and not blaming their partner or children for them)

Making Bakugou an adult does not change that you need to write him checking his abusive behavior.

Concern:

But Bakugou has changed at this point in the manga---he and Izuku now have an understanding of trust and respect.

Answer:

Bakugou has only demonstrated one instance that he could be changing. Though change for Bakugou is a good and decidedly difficult feat, one instance does not an abusive pattern break.

Let me direct you to the classic cycle of abuse by psychologist Lenore Walker, with helpful manga caps from Ch. 117-121:

1) Tension building phase 

2) Acute battering phase (in which Izuku absolutely does not want to fight at first until he feels obligated to)

3) Honeymoon phase

“The abuse may be terrible, but the promises and generosity of the honeymoon phase give the victim the false belief that everything will be all right.”

Secondly, to the aforementioned abuse-changing bullets Bakugou has not achieved up to after he’s fought with Izuku Ch. 117-121:

Admitting fully to what they have done

Accepting responsibility and recognizing that abuse is a choice

Accepting that overcoming abusiveness is a decades-long process — not declaring themselves “cured”

Thirdly, to what he is beginning to do

Stopping excuses and blaming

Carrying their weight and sharing power

I concede that Bakugou is making steps towards change because he is a hardheaded egoistic teenager who up to this point hadn’t offered help out of his own volition. But if you’re taking this as a sign that he’s anywhere near lasting and permanent change, even years from now---I almost literally just wrote a foot of text and references as to why that isn’t realistic or respectful towards the realities of abusive behavior. Please realize you are likely oversimplifying his path towards change.

Concern:

Not all kacchako shippers are like that! I know (insert fanworks here) that are respectful, good, etc,

Answer:

Show me. I’m more than willing to take a look and then give you my detailed opinion afterwards, if you’d like.

Concern:

I’m not trying to force a het agenda, I just like the dynamic.

Answer:

I mentioned before that people may not realize their intentions don’t match up with consequences. I just wrote more than 2 hours worth explaining why kacchako doesn’t have a sensical basis for a good relationship and am considering just passing out on the spot right at this moment in sheer exhaustion. I’m just going to post screenshots that actually do have the aforementioned good qualities and ask politely that you consider these respective Ochako and Katsuki ships, instead of kacchako het, which endorses a contrived relationship over not straight ones that actually have a basis of mutual affection in canon:

Fuck, if you really really want to ship Uraraka with a guy Iida and/or Midoriya have plenty of shared affection and solid relationships with her, I trust you don’t need me to screen cap to know that. 

Concern:

If Bakugou is so problematic, wouldn’t any ship with him be problematic (including kiribaku)?

Answer:

Finally a good question. I would say yes and no. Yes, because if you’re a survivor of abuse it’s perfectly valid and understandable not to want to think about Bakugou and his potential romantic partners at all. No, for a variety of reasons, using kiribaku as an example: 

a) Bakugou and Kirishima are established friends with a relatively healthy, mutual relationship. Bakugou has a foul temper but he’s not abusive towards Kirishima, even going out of his way to---admittedly badly---help him study (above caps from the manga and light novel); Kirishima admires Bakugou, finds positive qualities in their friendship, and isn’t cowed, wary, or disgusted by him, like Ochako or Izuku and many others are. tl;dr, there is plenty of solid evidence to back up the mutual affection, respect, and trust between them, something that kacchako and---god forbid---bakudeku lack.

It’s actually good for Bakugou to learn how to develop uncontrolling behaviors through healthy relationships where he doesn't feel the need to dominate over his partner.  He can’t do this with Ochako, with whom he regards as nonexistent at best, and a threat to him as Izuku’s lackey at worst (I discussed this in detail further up). Referring back to the changing abusive behavior list, Bakugou’s relationship with Kirishima demonstrates that Bakugou can learn a) respectful, kind, supportive behaviors and b) carrying weight and sharing power. This doesn’t justify how Bakugou treats others, but it does facilitate a view of how Bakugou would be able to treat others better, which I think is worth exploring.

Concern:

Why do you care so much? People ship bad/problematic stuff all the time lol there’s nothing you can do to stop it. Just let it be or blacklist it or something??

Answer:

I’m maybe foolishly invested in the idea that some people don’t have to be like that when they’re informed and engaged in critical discourse, and well fuck I have time and resources and have already started two godamned things this weekend with fandom out of probably masochistic impulses, so why the fuck not. 

Just because I don’t like something doesn’t mean I’m here to attack people or be unwilling to talk to them about it---rather, I’m more concerned that people are so unwillingly to talk about why the things they like isn’t good?? 

Kacchako is just one instance. I can provide a lot more examples of this kind of behavior in different areas of interest, in detail, with plenty of support and reasons, over private message. Otherwise, I’m not interested in making a detailed -post- of examples of bad kacchakos because honestly, I’ve already spent a lot of my time writing this when I could be discussing more pressing issues. The downsides of hyper focus.

On that note, forgive me if I don’t immediately respond to further replies any time soon after this post. After more than 10 messages that entirely missed the point I’ve exhausted myself thinking people could put aside their first impulses and self-indulgences to maybe formulate better opinions on tumblr.com, rather than sending me vague, misinformed, and/or childishly defensive insults that don’t actually tell me I’m wrong.

[yona-nyan-blog]

Shingeki no kyojin <3

Since there’s not even a week ‘till season two starts I want to share you why I love SNK, how I found it and how it has changed me :)

It’s actually quite rare for me to be a hardcore fan of something but SNK stole my heart around 3,5 years ago ^^

First I’d like to point out some things why I love SNK and why I think it really is the best anime and series overall I’ve ever seen and why I think everyone should watch it and learn from it.

WHY I LOVE SHINGEKI NO KYOJIN

I think most are use to seeing SNK as anime where titans devour humans. Yes that’s the main point at least in the season one but SNK is a lot more than just that.

SNK breaks stereotypes that still exit in our own world; There is a canon lesbian couple in the series (YmirxChrista<3) and at least one gender-neutral character (Hanji <3). Isayama has said that it depends on how readers see Hanji. I’m used to seeing Hanji as a female so I call her -she-. There’s equality between men and women. Also women are not treated as sexual objects (in many animes women play that role but in SNK there’s zero of it). There’s only like one fanservice moment in the series, in one ova when they show Mikasa’s abs but they also show men like that in some official arts ;) 

How realistic SNK is; Yes I know.. titans.. that isn’t realistic at all but there are many other things that are and happen in our own world or have at least happened before like torturing, violence, discrimination (more like discrimination between weak and strong, poor and rich and different beliefs), characters actually die in the series (in some animes they always reborn somehow xD) and human feelings (I think almost every character in the series have cried at least once. Again some animes keep up a strong image for a specific character “I am invincible!”). Overall the cruelty of the series makes it so realistic and if you have read the manga.. it is going to the way where the world is quite similar to ours. 

The characters; I have to say that the characters are very unique and I love almost every character just because they are so different when compared to each other. For example, there’s Levi who loves cleaning and is actually the most caring character in the series but doesn’t show it because he’s been through so much. Then there’s Armin who has a huge character development. First he seems weak but then it turns out that he’s actually one of the bravest. Also I love Annie’s story. She’s seen as a bad person but there’s actually so much under that image they’ve given her. I feel impressed of how different kind of characters Isayama has been able to make and how they all have different stories. 

The plot; The plot is extremely wide and well made. If you’ve been reading the manga.. there’s so many different perspectives and twist that make me feel l have no idea where the series is going but I still love it. It’s so impressing how Isayama is such a good story maker. I would’ve lost my head already XD 

The OST and animation; I’ve been focusing on what SNK keeps inside it, inside the plot but I’ll have to point out these two too because they are just mind blowing. The animation team has done great job. SNK has that power to change the music perfectly at the right moment and that always gives me cold shivers. Also the animation is feast for the eyes. 

I think these are the things I love the most in the series but of course there’s a lot more : 3

HOW I FOUND SHINGEKI NO KYOJIN

When SNK started in April 2013 my brother showed some scenes from the first episodes. Back then I wasn’t interested in it but later on in the summer/autumn I had a boring day and I wanted to watch some anime. I still used Animeultima for watching anime and those who watch anime from there know how the site shows new episodes on the front page. Well SNK was there.. and it was the latest episode back then (I can’t remember at all which one.. somewhere around 14-17. ones). Well I watched the episode and fell in love. For some reason I continued like that.. always watching the latest episode and I think it was like before the final episode that I wanted to finally see the earlier ones because I couldn’t wait for a week to see the last episode. I was so deeply in love. Well.. while watching the earlier ones just imagine how I must have felt -Oh.. I’ve missed so much... Eren turning out to be a titan.. Marco’s death.. etc- XD I was stupid for watching the newest episodes first! I don’t understand why I did so back then.. I had that habit of watching an episode of a series somewhere from the middle to see if there’d even be epic stuff since those things usually happen somewhere in the middle. o-o 

THE EFFECT SHINGEKI NO KYOJIN HAS HAD IN ME

SNK has changed me quite a lot. Without it I wouldn’t have started cosplaying at least not that early. I went to my first cosplay event in September 2013 and after seeing all the amazing SNK cosplayers and having fangirling moments I actually realized how I had grown to be a huge fan of it and wanted to cosplay from it. Well my first cosplay was in March 2014 and it was Mikasa Ackerman : 3 Through cosplay I’ve grown to be a lot more open, confident, talkative and found friends who I can trust and who with I can be myself. So yeah.. SNK has changed me a lot and it still affects my life. All those quotes from SNK are always in my head and I think about them in my everyday life. 

I fucking love this series <3 <3 <3 

Also I’m so hyped for the season two ;; <3 <3 <3

[kaedekayano]

okay, i decided to disregard/circumvent the stayfocusd time limit just for tonight because fuck it, i don’t have anything to do tonight and i definitely deserve a break. and i like thinking about characters. so i just finished bnha ep 13 (the finale), and here’s my thoughts! finally on the computer yay

for those who know bnha/follow the manga, of course you’re welcome to discuss this stuff with me, but please don’t spoil me on anything or i will cry

i’m still trying to decide the fate of all might. like i said before, he started at the top and he’s got nowhere to go but down. there are a couple routes i think he could take: he lives for a while, then dies tragically but inevitably at the end like korosensei did; he gets abruptly killed off in the middle at a climactic, suspenseful moment, shocking everyone and terrifying them because what will they do without their symbol of peace; he lives, but he has to stop being a full-time superhero and finds another way to live, basically. of course, while i do like analyzing plot for plot twists and all that, i’ve always preferred doing character analysis to everything else, and i’m not that good at predicting plot.

but honestly, sounds like the dude’s gonna die. and if he does, i hope it’s soon, because this was being foreshadowed from episode #1 and i’ve been waiting this entire season, thinking every single episode, “is this the episode he’s going to die?” and he’s not a favorite, but i do like him enough (and am aware enough of how his death will emotionally wreck izuku as well as other characters) that the constant dread is wearing down on me. i am constantly in a state of terrible suspense. (but like i said no spoilers no one is allowed to tell me what happens okay i gotta find out for myself)

kind of a tangent but everything comes back to AC on this blog, so. AC changed the way i think about a lot of things because getting so heavily involved in the canon and fandom, and being exposed to others’ interests, made me far more open-minded than i used to be. for example, i really wasn’t good at shows with large casts (AC and the almost 30 students, BNHA’s students + teachers) before, b/c i didn’t track them very well and am shit at matching names to faces as well as recalling personalities, but hey, obsessing over the entirety of class 3-E for months will change that. also, all my favorites were. usually. karma types, for lack of a better phrasing. i could never relate to cinnamon roll (TM) characters. or characters who weren’t emotional disasters. (boy i had trouble liking nagisa at first.)

regarding what i keep saying about types: the girls, in terms of personalities, aren’t quite my usual thing. the closest person in terms of preference to the characters i typically like are yaoyoruzu and jirou. but honestly who cares because right now i like them all, and they are great and fabulous and uraraka is adorable and i like her a lot. i wanna see her have some character development first, though, and oh god the girls are my aesthetic. momo’s hair and jinou’s general aloof aura + earphones and tsu’s frog quirk and holy shit, pink alien girl? i don’t know her, she hasn’t had much time in the anime yet, but she’s. she’s a girl. who’s pink with alien features. how the fuck is that not the coolest shit ever

as fond of todoroki, as always. i looked up a bit on him on the wikia but i don’t want to spoil myself. but i did pick up enough to solidify my adoration for him. >.< i need to stop but god, i’m really fond of him. fuck. so fond.

izuku’s character continues to develop and it’s really wonderful. i used to live for mentor-student relationships, but then i realised (and AC did not help) that the mentor usually ends up dying, so i’m trying not to get attached to this mentor-student relationship and it’s not fucking working. the conversation he and all might had in the hospital beds at the end. shit, man. don’t get attached don’t get attached don’t get attached

something i really appreciate is that i knew this fandom really adores bakugou (and i say this as someone who literally doesn’t know shit about the bnha fandom), so i assumed he’d be one of those assholes who gets glorified by the narrative because it’s okay if he’s an asshole as long as he’s talented and handsome uwu he’s just being snarky haha how funny!! i mean yes he is an asshole but he isn’t glorified by the narrative, the narrative doesn’t hide at all that, while not totally evil, he’s a complicated character who genuinely can be unlikable and is kinda fucking awful. so that’s a pleasant surprise. i thought the narrative would revolve around him more b/c the fandom’s so fond of him but it doesn’t and i’m really glad, the whole class is really great (and imo the school too, i’ll talk worldbuilding later) and they all deserve focus.

i’m usually incredibly fond of villains, but i also mostly read YA fantasy, where the villains are very often attractive young characters who are snarky, charismatic types who draw the reader in and are way too likable. AC villains weren’t like that for me (although i ended up liking them anyway, just blame my friends lmao). the villains in BNHA so far aren’t quite the attractive young character archetypes either, but i really like them anyway. i wanna know their motivations a lot. what’s the relationship between nomu and shigaraki (i kinda already brotp it)? what led shigaraki and kurogiri to want to kill all might so badly? who made nomu the way he was? if the motive is a personal grudge or a tragic backstory, fuck. i’m weak as fuck for personal grudges and/or tragic backstories in villains, alright? 

also, shigaraki’s hands shit + the way his quirk behaves/is animated is this level of slightly surreal horror — not really over-the-top gory/melodramatically creepy, but definitely disturbing — that’s an aesthetic i’m quite fond of, although only in moderation.

uraraka’s power, while hardly unusual, is imo something that can go really far and has incredible potential. it’s definitely gone amazing places in past characters who have the same power in other fiction. i wanna see her develop it.

and now i’m gonna talk worldbuilding, because while i’m not that great at analyzing it or doing it myself — i’m decent enough to pull together a convincing world for my fiction, but that’s about it, since i’m not great at understanding how the world works, let alone how changes would affect it on a wide scale — superpowers are something i’m quite fond of.

so, there’s this one YA series called the reckoners, by brandon sanderson. he writes a lot of stuff about people with magic, and i love his work, especially the reckoners. i am bringing this up for two things. one, the protagonist is also a guy with no powers who’s unusually obsessed with the intricacies of the superpowered people and their superpowers in a world where superpowers just started randomly appearing and became integrated into society, although he’s obsessed because of a vastly different reason from izuku.

two, the worldbuilding is really good, and the powers are unique. it’s very different from your typical story about superpowers. in my opinion, every kind of basic power — telekinesis, manipulating elements, reading/controlling minds — has been used. i wouldn’t say it’s impossible to come up with new basic powers, but it’s damn near close. but what’s good about superpowers nowadays, what makes them interesting and original, is not the power itself, but its limits. how far can it go? what are the weaknesses? how can it be used?

i’m gonna give an example i’m really fond of — regalia from the reckoners. she’s a character who first appears in the second book. regalia has the ability to manipulate water, which we’ve all seen plenty of times in fiction, right? but it’s not just typical shit like “oh, look at this huge tide destroying a building!” my memory is fuzzy, but one of the things she can do is use the reflections created by water as windows. 

it’s hard to explain, but like, if you look into a puddle (and remember, water can reflect), and she’s paying attention, she can appear and look back at you and talk, like in a mirror. she’s able to communicate with you through it. she can keep an eye on the city she rules over because she flooded the entire place with water, making it a sort of island, and is able to watch everyone through its reflections. now that’s something new, even though water powers have been done to death.

i like how bnha handles the drawbacks of superpowers — it makes a little more unique. i’m not entirely pleased, but:

one post i’ve read on howtofightwrite (an excellent tumblr, writers who write action or anything involving combat should check it out!) is how, realistically, if you have super strength, every time you actually use it to anywhere near its fullest potential, it will fucking shatter your body. which is kinda what’s happening to izuku, i’ll explain in a sec. but like, if you punch someone, your knuckles hurt afterwards. except izuku’s punches are super super strong, so it hurts him way more than the normal person.

so i think that’s good! it’s a nice twist on how super strength usually works! but i’m still a bit displeased, because seriously, super strength is not at all new and it’s implied he’ll learn to control it instead of continuing to just have to deal with this particular drawback. all might learned to control it, which i don’t see how it makes physical sense, but whatever, fuck it, magic is magic. so i don’t think the blowback (looking for a word here?) resulting from his punches are actually because of realistic physical reasons TM that i just theorized, it’s just magic/being unable to control it, which is sad because c’mon, science and magic working together is cooler instead of “he got used to it by getting Good at his powers!”, but oh well. i’m not a doctor, anyway

honestly, i’m kinda disappointed that the most powerful heroes have super strength/superspeed, and that’s the only twist on it, and not even a terribly big one if izuku’s just gonna learn to control it through the power of experience. it’s not unique or new and i’d like to see something a little cleverer, i guess? like, i really like the idea of people adjusting to their powers and any drawbacks through just intelligence and the power of science and technology and wit, instead of practice/improvement upon the ability itself.

anyway, enough about izuku’s power. something else i’d like to see addressed is the emotional impact of izuku being quirkless all his life, and suddenly he has a power and everyone thinks he’s amazing. because it sounds like being quirkless fucked him up a ton. the protag of the reckoners is powerless and makes the best of it, and that’s what i really appreciate about the series — he never ever gets a power, he just figures out how to get through terrible life-or-death situations based on wit and his allies and cleverness and being amazing because you can still do amazing things without being born with those things. while i’m not saying izuku needed to take that route — what is it when he’s thought all his life he’s inferior, worshipped this one guy who turns out to be horribly vulnerable, and suddenly he���s got one of the most powerful quirks out there? (im assuming this gets addressed later though)

something else: how does society restructure itself now that everyone has a quirk? here’s the best thing about the reckoners: the people with the powers are the bad guys. like, not “oh, some people misuse their quirks” but almost everyone does, and what all the superpowered ones do, after they suddenly get their powers, is basically taken over the world. they’ve set up this tyrannical government in the usa where different superpowered people rule the cities and it’s basically a dystopia with superpowers, but the superpowered ones aren’t the rebels, they’re the oppressors. it’s a great twist on the typical superhero narrative. it changes the structure of society a lot. think legend of korra, but worse, more pronounced, a more oppressive regime.

so like, how does the world in bnha change now that 80% of people have a quirk? i really wanna know. UA is a start, but there’s got to be more to it than “there are schools trained to teach heroes, quirkless people feel bad about themselves, and heroes fight villains. and the villains don’t like the heroes because of that.” give! me! more! you don’t have to write me an encyclopedia of information (dear matsui, thank you for building your characters so much shit like the rollbook info exists, but not everyone does that) but what else is there? there has to be more than that.

some of the superpowers are interesting, yeah, but none of them stick out so much. i’ve read too much stuff about superpowers to be easily impressed, but really, “school of heroes” has been done a lot and while i like bnha a lot so far, they’re gonna have to go above and beyond what they’re currently doing to really impress me. rn i’m really curious what they’re gonna do with mineta ‘cause his power seems so fucking useless but he’s clearly there for a reason (how’d he pass the entrance exam?). the other powers don’t stick out much to me. stuff like tsu’s frog quirk or todoroki’s half-hot, half-cold shit (instead of just one) are just unconventional enough for me to raise an eyebrow, but not much more.

anyway. hoping they expand on that. but the worldbuilding isn’t horrendous or anything, i’m really enjoying all the powers and the worldbuilding’s good enough, just could be taken a lot farther. like, the potential is wow. god, i already love the characters so much, though

oh, also. not interested into getting into bnha fandom or the manga as of right now, and this blog is staying AC, but talking about it is still fun (i like discussing things!) and i’m gonna watch s2 when it comes out.