#saint seiya in real life is NOT a good idea

[mayuris-basement-dweller]

4, 12, 13, 23 and 27 about writer questions if you are still answering 👀

Yes yes I am still answering!

You can find the ask HERE

Alright.

4. A story idea you haven't written yet

Hmmm. I am thinking a lot about this... But as much as I love Kenmayu, I still haven't written these two firmly together yet.

And ideas. I have too many of those!

And yes! My Saint Seiya crossover!

12. A trope you are really into right now

As usual A/B/O dynamics. But considering I am writing a Knight AU, Fantasy and medieval things. But I guess a trope... Hm. Enemies to lovers, hehe.

13. A fandom you're thinking about writing for

To be honest I only think about writing for Bleach. And DBZ sometimes.

23. Pick three keywords that describe your writing

Er... "Dramatic" is all I can think about. I could also say it's chaotic and a bit irregular but it ends up being all the same. Ah, "Romantic" is good too.

27. Your favorite part of the writing process

The rush of a new idea! When you think of something brilliant and everything seems possible, unhindered by rules or canon or real life troubles!

And then you are stricken by the Horrors ™

[white-eden]

Park Haneul can topple nations if she so desired and she doesn’t even know it. She’s too sweet to consider it. She’s really out here living her best life with her husband and their army of shadow children lol

She’s honestly living my cottagecore dream if she starts growing plants and stuff in the shadow world! Sure, her cottage is a castle and the wildlife (wait does that mean technically life like birds and deer could survive in Jinwoo’s shadow world now that she’s there to making it all Green™️) are the undead but she’s got it.

ALSO! Haneul doesn’t just have a green thumb for plants, she’s got one for people. She’s helping Jinwoo grow just like she helps her plants. A little nudge here and there and some water and love go a long way. No wonder he’s feral over his wife

She could but Haneul is the type to see if there's a way to fix things like a normal human should do... "talking, being honest, find a common ground so everyone is satisfied and there's no need to shed blood," she's not like her hubby who with a single glare or the sharpness of his daggers would keep anyone in check.

That's one of the reasons why Haneul only have her credential as hunter, but doesn't use it. Yes, monsters are scary and the portals caused too much damage, and I quote fixes her glasses, "humans are more scary than any S-rank monster."

And you'll going to read it and if everything goes well... see it too.

Since is the shadow realm and probably never ever received a single ray of sun, it's going to be hard for anything to grow until one of the shadows during a sparring notice a little flower growing.

But no one saw it important and though it was one of those idk poisonous plants (idk think of any plant that can grow in the underworld but only there from any game/show... )

Then weeks later they see a butterfly, but not one of.... ***** *** that's a real butterfly.

And slowly life starts to grow and adapt in that world, it's going to take time for the miasma who the only ones who aren't affected are anyone who have the Shadow Monarch's blessing or someone in the same range of power, they still get affected but only in a small scale.

This is just an example for what I think

If someone like Antares who doesn't have the blessing (like an invitation) to step whenever he wants into the shadow realm, the only thing he would notice is the smell. The change of temperature (idk how is the shadow realm, is there a map? i need to reread the LN and SLR too but agh...)

From the very beginning I kind of image the shadow realm like in the Divine Comedy, with sections for everything and i wanted to add places for souls to be judged (idk its from the Divine Comedy but Saint Seiya gave me ideas) and I find could to put Beru, Igris and Bellion as the three judges.

Geez... I started rambling a lot... and even shared too much... but anyways you see this big ass place all gloomy, dark, with some souls here and there, and then poof... flowers blooming slowly.

Another thing to add is that I have some designs in mind for some animals that later changed to adapt.

While with Jinwoo she encourage him. Yeah, he's weak and thinks hes not good looking and many times he doubts if it's ok for him to be with Haneul or if she should be with someone else. There can be sometimes when he would put some space between them and she respect them UNTIL she have enough. She let him sort things out by himself but when she sees that Jinwoo can do it, them it's time for them to talk heart to heart. Haneul hates the smell of korean food for certain reasons I'll share later. But she can endure all that if it means cooking something for Jinwoo when he feels down, or for Jinah.

To listen their stories about their mom and what she or their dad use to cook and you know what? She would learn how to cook it because she knows how important is for them. And yes, she fails many times but when she manage to grasp it, it made Jinah almost tear up because for the first time she felt like her mom and dad were there with them.

That's what Jinwoo see, that's how he grows and changes for good.

[istadris]

Stancest, Ikki and Shun, Obiwan/Anakin

...Mamour swore to not have sent me this, so Anon, either you're part of my close circle, either you've been around for much longer than most of my current followers, either you're very good at digging through my blog. I'm very curious but also slightly wary of which option is the real one.

But okay, let's go :

Stancest : Man, Gravity Falls feels so long ago... and you know, it's kinda funny that of all of the ships in this show, I got stuck on the two old twin brothers, because 1)I wasn't keen on shipping the kid characters 2)you give me such ridiculous devotion and conflict, and I'm gonna milk the shit out of it. And the finale sort of validated my feelings back then? They went sailing together. I miss those days and the cool artists who make really cool fanworks of them. I don't miss the stupid drama surrounding it though.

Ikki and Shun : Oh, my beloved boys. My first true ship back when I was a troubled teenager going through the entire Saint Seiya anime. My beautiful sons, with your devotion towards each other striking a strange chord in me that has never stopped singing ever since. I loved your tragic backstory, I love the emotion in each of your scenes, I love your very aesthetic, both of you feel pleasing to look at for reasons I can't explain (well, I can but it would take hours and ain't nobody got time for that). My hellspawns, I call you : a double joke, as you're both little Hellions for your foes, especially when someone hurts your brother, but you're also pawns of the Hells' cruel game, and yet you broke free of that fate. I've moved past a lot of things since my adolescence, but the ideas of fics I had for you are still here, and maybe one day I'll write them down, but god I love you, my incestuous little yaoi ship from a 80s classic anime.

Obiwan/Anakin : I'm usually living my life as one does, and then once in a while I'm struck (usually because of @crvdematter ) by FEELINGS because "You were the chosen one!! You were my brother! I loved you!! " still hits as hard as it did back when I would rent the Star Wars III DVD from the local Blockbuster and watch it on repeat.

Also, Hoebiwan Slutnobi and his feral prude boyfriend Anakin never fails to amuse me.

*

Send me a ship and I’ll give you my (brutally) honest opinion on it

[elencelebrindal]

Question if all of Saint Seiya took place on Real Life? What would be the consequences of the heroes and Villians? And how the public would respond to them?

Buckle up, this is a long answer. I wrote this with a terrible neck pain and slight headache though, so I apologize for eventual mistakes (grammar, form, whatever) I made. 

Right off the bat, I can tell you: the public would not be pleased with it. Realistically speaking, who would ever want people capable of flicking their finger and cause a nuclear-like explosion living next door? Let’s see this in perspective. The most (physically) powerful bomb ever recorded, the Tsar Bomba, was so strong it was able to reach a distance up to 900 km (obviously that distance only partially broke some glass or windows, not really destroyed anything). And this is among the most powerful man-made artifacts. A Saint could easily surpass that level of power. There’s Saints that have a cosmo so strong it could easily destroy a star. A star.  Put three of them together, now. They are capable of unleashing as much power as the Big Bang. Imagine what would happen to the entire freaking universe (or something along those lines) if that technique goes wrong.  Imagine what a Saint could do if they suddenly go crazy and want to destroy humanity, or the entire planet. They could easily do that. 

And now, count how many of these warriors are out there. Count how many of them could pull off a mass-destruction strike with ease. 

Take into consideration all the natural disasters that happen when deities get angry. Take into consideration all the Holy Wars against Hades, and the absolute destruction the planet endures every time there’s a battle between these warriors.  And if you don’t want to look at the more “physical” state of things, take a look at how the Saints train. Those are children that are thrown onto the battlefield to learn how to live just so they can die in battle once they’re older. Think about all the whiplash something like this could cause if the public gets to know it. Gets to know their training places or their training regimes. 

Not only that, to an outsider eye the society of these warriors could appear as incredibly violent and oppressive. If they don’t know what’s going on, why those rules are there and why they need to be applied like that, people will be angry about it. Maybe a small amount of people, but there’s still going to be problems surfacing here and there.  Let’s not forget: killing is normal for them. Saints, Marina, Specters, there’s not a single one of this armies that thinks killing is inherently wrong. Bloodshed is so normal for them that no one outside their society can understand what the hell is going on in their minds. Sure, there’s the odd one every now and then (Shun is a perfect example), but it’s not like they’re saying “I’m against it, so I’m not doing it”. They’re still doing it, but with much more resentment.  And, this is probably one of the most itchy spots of the system, talking about how the Saints tackle the fact they have women in their lines there is going to be so much anger.  I can already hear the protests against the mandatory masks (ironic as of now, I know) for women. There’s not enough understanding to be able to avoid that kind of problems.  Sure, you might say “but it’s always been like that, so the public should’t react so badly”, but here’s the thing: people don’t care about history and traditions if they don’t understand it. And yeah, the entire mask ordeal might or might not seem right, but civilians are not going to get the reasoning behind it. It’s the same thing that happens in real life, with people assuming left and right, people straight up offending or not caring, and just a few good human beings taking their time to learn. 

In a perfect imaginary world, where Saint Seiya exists with all its fair share of heroes and villains, everything would go like in the anime. People just excited to watch them fight, not really caring about the consequences.  In a real world, however, this is never going to happen. 

On a more complex level, think about all the politic stuff that’s going to happen. You want Athena being the head of your independent land? Sure, but there’s a ton of responsibilities coming with that. And if Athena happens to also be the head of a very influential and large company, things get even more difficult to manage.  Just try to imagine the unending chaos Poseidon must have caused when he took control of Julian’s body and left everything to go underwater. Imagine the sheer terror people feel every time there’s a flood, or an earthquake, or an explosion, because they never know if that’s natural or not.  Imagine how traumatic is for someone who lives right next to the place where these warriors fight continuous battles, all the shockwaves coming to their door.  Because yes, there’s going to be actual consequences to those battles. Animation is fun because there’s no need to show what a Galaxian Explosion would actually do to the Gemini Saint’s surroundings, but real life? Yeah, that’s a detonation of pure physical and cosmic power, there’s no way people are not experiencing it even kilometres away.  And that’s probably the lamest example I could find. 

Think about some villain choosing to destroy a city. How many people would die, there? How many people would be forced to watch, helpless, as they hope for someone to come and save them? And when that help comes, what’s going to do if not destroy everything even more?  Damage is damage, whether it’s a hero or a villain causing it. Lives are going to be ended and/or ruined in those fights. And those fights happen again and again, because the story always repeats itself.  Shiryu’s horrified reaction at Deathmask’s carelessness would be the reaction of every single person that witnesses or hears about the sheer amount of destruction and loss that would be recorded at the end.  Emotional and physical scarring don’t go away easily. 

We can also go a little bit the psychological route, here.  Would you actively trust to live on the same planet as someone who’s able to raise a single finger and kill you? No weapons needed. Would you actively feel safe knowing there’s people around you that can move at the speed of light, able to literally rip you to shreds with ease or just do anything they want because nothing can stop them? What do you have? Only the reassurance that all those people are good and fight for humanity.  Nothing else.  You just have to believe those insanely strong warriors are not going to kill you just because they can. That they are not going to take advantage of their abilities.  People don’t work like that. 

I, myself, don’t work like that.  If I knew that in this moment, on this planet, there’s someone out there capable of pointing their finger at me and kill me, I would not simply trust them to be good.  Moreover, there’s history of good guys betraying to become bad guys.  An amazing warranty, I’d say. 

The consequences of these heroes and villains existing in real life would be absolutely catastrophic.  No one wants to live in constant fear of some deity getting bored and deciding to start a war. No one wants to live knowing disaster is always around the corner. Humanity already fears itself, there’s no need to make it worse. 

Would you trust a Saint that’s able to freeze you in a block of eternal ice, or another one that’s capable of raising his hand and using it like a sword? Would you trust someone that could send you to another dimension? Someone able to shatter the ground with a simple punch? No one’s going to fully feel safe around people having so much power. Laws and prohibitions? Those are nothing to a person that could kill you by snapping their fingers.  The governments of the entire world trying to keep them in check would be nothing but a fly under a giant electrified fly-swatter. Said governments would also be trying to reason literal gods. Can you imagine sitting down at a table and being presented with a god? A god you have to convince to keep their warriors under control? To be at peace with the rest of the world? Yeah, me neither. 

In short, at least in my opinion, realistic fiction is the closest thing you can have without causing mayhem.

[madmachaca]

On Pisces Aphrodite:

Originally I was just going to make a post saying that, much like Deathmask, I consider the way Aphrodite is portrayed in Saintia Sho is the best (Chimaki Kuori really did a great job with the golds), but then I remembered I wanted to make a post dedicated to the most beautiful saint in Athena's army...so here we are now

One of the biggest problems with Aphrodite is not the character himself, but how he is one of those character whose interpretation and general characteristics about his personality recognizable among fans, are mostly fan made. And it bothers me a little because, though I don't mind comedic takes and memes on a show or a character (actually you may have realize I don't like taking things seriously now and then), there will be a momemt when we wouldn't remember who the character really is.

(I should mention that I mostly blame the Abel movie for solidifying the idea of an overly vain Aphrodite. I don't particularly like how he is pictured there...but that didn't stopped from making a meme...because it was funny)

So who is Aphrodite then?

Let's begin with his personality.

He is a very calmed person. In contrast to Deathmask, who he is normally associated with, he doesn't have aggressive outbursts of laughter or yelling. Not that he can't lose is temper or anything like that, but he seems to be among the calmest saint among the 12. He also doesn't wear his emotions on his sleeve as visible as some of his companions. But this doesn't mean he holds back his opinion or that he cannot be cruel. This may be an stretch but he did told Shun that Seiya was going to die right before reminding him he was supposed to be looking for revenge (whatever it was done in a mocking way or not is up to debate)

This could be with the intention of shaking his opponent core and ability to focus. Though he would be able to stop Shun if he had tried to run and help Seiya, it would be easier to defeat an oponent who is emotionally invested (in theory, look at tbe battle between Deathmask and Shiryu to see how emotion can turn a fight around).

Aphrodite is proud and considers himself above other in terms of power and hability, but this isn't a feature exclusive to him. All gold saints KNOW they are on a different league, and Aphrodite is not someone who is constantly pointing it out... that would be Shaka...for example.

The way Aphrodite does patronize Shun is by calling him "child" or "naive" (which he arguably is). Not by being particularly self absorbed.

Now let's talk about his philosophy.

Aphrodite believes that the strong carry justice. He thinks that if someone is strong and powerful enough to vanquish their enemies, then they would be strong enough to look after others

His perception of the world is not black and white. He understands that in order to accomplish peace and prosperity, sacrifices need to be made. Justice may sometimes seem as cruelty in the eyes of those who don't know how complicated the world could be. He didn't became a traitor because he was evil, he saw how small and fragile Athena was and eventually realized she wouldn't be enough. We may understand this better if we consider that even by the time Saga's rebellion happened the santuary was already getting ready for the holy war, they didn't know if it would come the very next day, or 13 years later, but they had to be ready anyway.

It was maybe there where Aphrodite realized that a baby couldn't do much, and after Aioros and Athena supossed death happened, he convinced himself it was for the best.

Saori's more passive take and overly kind attitude may would clash with him and his views of justice, but he would had follow her anyway. After all he has been shown being very respectful to authority.

Fighting style

By the way he fights,we can tell he falls more into the "silent assassin" type.

His attacks are discrete, fast, lethal, and elegant. As far as I know, roses were (goddess) Aphrodite's flower, and the pisces constellation is directed tied to her for it tells the story of when she and Eros transformed into fish. Given the origin of his constellation, and the deity he's tied to, it makes sense beauty would be found not only on his face, but on his fights as well.

Saga even acknowledged him as lethal.

Yes, he doesn't like losing (but who does, really?)

During his fight with Shun we see Aphrodite go from calmed and even patient, to confused and surprised.

When he had the higher ground, he even advice Shun let things be

It seems like he acknowledged Shun lack of experience in real war, it can also be that he didn't consider him a dangerous enemy, after all, he was just a mere bronze saint. The panel above shows Aphrodite trying to spare Shun from further suffering. Little he knew Shun's cosmo is unexplainable strong

Later, he got desperate. He used an attack he never needed before, but it was too late. Shun's strength along with Athena's blessing, signed Aphrodite demise

(Before going to the next point, I have to say that in the manga version of Hades saga, he didn't beg for his life like he did in the anime. He just watched in silence until the very last moment, when he asked Radamanthis to stop)

His views on beauty

Honestly, I don't know what he thinks about his own looks... he never speaks about it.

So, please repeat after me:

APHRODITE DOES NOT PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION TO HIS OWN LOOKS

Whenever his looks are brought up is by someone else. He doesn't really seems to pay much attention to them. The only instance I can remember he addressing the issue was not in the manga or anime but in the awakening game which so far had kept them all in character

"Since I first arrived here, everyone praised my beauty, but they never acknowledged my strength".

So, it's the Saintia Sho take really that good?

I humbly think it is perfect

[straykidsnerd255]

I don’t know if you do parent head canon but I would ask for saint Seiya gold saint(classic + lost canvas) like how would they treat their children[ it’s okay if you don’t want to do them all]

Hello! I will gladly do them all! I am sorry this came out so freakin late! This is going to be a long one. I for sure do and I will do all of them because they need the love. 

Classic-

Ares Mu- He would be more of a strict but loving father. He would understand when you wanted to go hang out with your friends but also reminds you that you have a test you need to study for if you want to become a proper saint of Athena one day. You inherit the Ares cloth after your father. He would be so proud of you and show you off so the world and can see that you became the next ares saint.

Taurus Aldeberan- He honestly would be a father that made you laugh no matter what you did. Oh, you ditched practice to hang out with your friends? Don’t worry. I did the same thing too. Would 10/10 fight anyone that said you would never become a saint. Graduating and having the Taurus cloth become your cloth. He would be the most ecstatic parent there ever was. He would be screaming out, “THAT’S MY DAUGHTER!! THAT’S MY BABY GIRL”

Gemini Saga- You have your uncle Kannon’s personality and mischievous nature. Saga wouldn’t be too pleased but, you are his daughter and he loves you more than life itself. People have come to him and told him that you would never become a saint. He would just stare them down with a pissed off look. You would prove everyone wrong when you became the next Gemini saint. Saga and his brother would be so happy and impressed with you.

Cancer DeathMask- this man would give you his armor for you to try on. People would make fun of you everytime you two would go outside so he could teach you how to use your power while wearing the gold armor. He would most likely let you burn them alive. He would be so proud of you for becoming the next Cancer gold saint. He would be the one parent that throws a massive party for you becoming the gold saint.

Leo Aioloa-He would honest to goodness fight anyone that said you couldn’t become the next Gold Saint Leo. He would be pissed when they said that girls couldn’t be gold saints. You're his daughter and he was planning to train you to become the next Gold Saint Leo. He loved the idea of his old daughter becoming a great warrior to Athena. The day when the gold armor of Leo would choose the next saint was the greatest day of his life. When the armor opened and appeared on you, he couldn’t help but run over to you and wrap you in a hug with his brother. “I am so proud of my baby girl. You did it!” He said kissing your forehead. “Thanks dad.” 

Virgo Shaka- This man. ThIS man!! He would down right scare anyone if he found out that they were dissing on his daughter. He would at first, calmly tell them that you were to become the next Virgo saint, but they just laughed saying that girls couldn’t become saints. Next thing they knew, your father, and everyone at Sanctuary would be standing over them with furious looks. They would apologies and run away. Shaka had been caring for you since the minute his wife died while giving birth to you. He opened his eyes to watch you receive the Virgo cloth and shed a small tear as you smiled brightly.

Libra Dohko- He was the only one that could joke around with you. He was your father after all. He always wanted to see a bright smile on your face. Even if that meant he had to let you grow up. He would stand proud with the rest of the Gold Saints as Athena presented the Libra cloth to you. You excitedly reached your hand out towards the cloth. She smiled when it broke apart and was found on her body in the blink of an eye. Dohko was over by hugging you and laughing loudly as the cloth chose you.

Scorpio Milo- He would be very similar to Dohko. He would joke around with you and be the only one that could joke around. You knew that he was waiting to see who the Scorpio cloth would choose. He was proud and ecstatic when the cloth appeared on your body. He could help but jump around screaming and cheering and laughing when the cloth chose you. Athena smiled and knighted you the Scorpio knight in place of your father Milo.

Sagittarius Aiolos- This man. He would be the most humble. He would train you day in and day out. Helping you master the ways of the Gold Saints. He would teach you how to use a bow and arrow as that is the special weapon the Sagittarius saint uses in battle. Would be the most loving parents and would cherish the last moments of training the most. He would be waiting with the other saints as the Sagittarius cloth was awarded to you.

Capricorn Shura- He would be silent unless provoked. You were the only person, other than the Gold Saints and Athena that ever heard his voice. He would be very intimidating to the other contestants for the Capricorn Cloth. When you were declared the victor, he would sit there and smile. You were told that you could wear the cloth to show it off. When you did just that, you were happy when the armor was fit to your body.

Aquarius Camus- Like Shura, he didn’t really show any emotion. He would silently judge and watch you as you trained. He would point out the small things that you missed and would show you the correct way of doing that said thing. The day came when the pope chose the person to succeed the Gold Saint Aquarius and Camus was practically praying that you were the person to win his cloth. When the pope announced your name and read off the Aquarius Cloth Camus was brought to tears. You, his baby daughter, was going to follow in his footsteps.

Pisces Aphrodite- Sparkle. That’s all he wants you to do. With your cosmos, he has no doubt that you will get his cloth. When he’s in the middle of training you, a group of kids walk by laughing and saying that you would never get the Pisces cloth, Aphrodite sends a wave of flowers and roses around them. He tells them that if they ever say that again, he won’t hesitate to give them a nightmare for the rest of their life. You ended up gaining the Pisces Cloth.

Lost Canvas-

Ares Shion- There is nothing more that he wants then to see you carry on his legacy. He has trained you and has given you so much knowledge. He was a good father, but he sometimes got carried away when it came to training. You never complained as you wanted to succeed your father as well. The day when you became the new Ares Gold Saint was the best day for both you and your dad.

Taurus Rasgado- Much like Aldeberan, he would be cheering and chanting and screaming your name when you were listed as the new Taurus saint. He would stand up clapping loudly and cheering your name making you become embarrassed, but nonetheless happy. You wore his cloth like he did. You wear it with pride and dignity. The helmet sat on your head and the sun shone off it like a mirror. You smiled brightly and threw your fist in the air.

Gemini Defteros- You loved your father. There was no doubting that. He even promised to train you to inherit the cloth of Gemini. “Your foot is a little off. Make sure it points towards your enemy or to the side of your enemy.” Everything that he taught you, you took to heart and practiced non stop. He would watch you practice everyday to make sure the footing and punches were right. “Congrats. You are the new Gemini Gold Saint, Y/n.” The pope said as the cloth found its way onto her. Defteros couldn’t have been any happier then he was then.

Cancer Manigoldo- Jokes everywhere. He would be training you and when things got too serious, he would crack a joke and cause both of you to collapse in a fit of laughter. When it was time for the world to choose the next Cancer saint, he would be by your side holding your hand and waiting for your name to be said. He wanted his daughter to be the next Cancer saint. He wanted to pass down that power to you.

Leo Regulus-  He has a heart of gold. It was already proven that you were going to be the next Leo Saint and everyone knew this. He was such a pure man and it transferred to you when you were born. Athena and the pope knew just from looking at you that you would be the next Gold Saint Leo. When the day came to announce the new saints, your name was called for the leo cloth. Regulus had never screamed as loud as he did in his life.

Virgo Asmita- He was a schedule oriented man. He had you on a training schedule and you always followed that. When the day of the trials began, he hugged you and pressed a kiss to your forehead. “Do your best. Do everything that we trained during those ten months. Show them who you are the daughter of.” He said. He opened his eyes to get a good look at his daughter before grinning. “You got this honey.” He said. A grin crossed his face when your name was called for the Virgo cloth.

Libra Dohko-He was the only one that could joke around with you. He was your father after all. He always wanted to see a bright smile on your face. Even if that meant he had to let you grow up. He would stand proud with the rest of the Gold Saints as Athena presented the Libra cloth to you. You excitedly reached your hand out towards the cloth. She smiled when it broke apart and was found on her body in the blink of an eye. Dohko was over by hugging you and laughing loudly as the cloth chose you.

Scorpio Kardia- He. Would. Hurt. Everyone. He is very protective over you and he loves you to pieces. She is his baby. She was the only person that he  had left and he was bound to keep her by him. He trained her and taught her everything he knew. This was the only real time the other saints ever saw him. When the day finally came to see who would take over the Scorpio Gold Saint cloth and house. When her name was said, he was practically screaming happily.

Sagittarius Sisyphus- You were trying on his armor when he walked in. “Y/n. What are you doing?” He asked. You had always believed that you would be like your dad when you got older and had a lot of training. “I just wanted to try on your armor dad.” you said. The day came when you were announced as the new Sagittarius saint. A bright smile covered her face when the armor was fitted to her figure. Sisyphus was a ball of sunshine when his daughter became the next Sagittarius saint. 

Capricorn El Cid- He was proud. He was honestly proud. He had a daughter that he was training to be the next Capricorn saint and all that El Cid could do was hope that you would be the one chosen to be the next saint. He stood at the front of his house and a smile covered his face when he saw you master everything that he had taught you. When the day came, El Cid wasn’t able to calm down. Athena walked towards Y/n and gave her a bright smile. “You are the next Capricorn Gold Saint.” She said. El Cid couldn’t help but scream and cheer for his daughter.

Aquarius Degel- This man is all about teaching you the proper way of training and things. You had wanted to make your dad happy by becoming the next Aquarius Gold Saint. You trained and trained all day and every day. When the day came to announce the next gold saints to be announced, you waited anxiously when Athena got to Aquarius. “The new Aquarius saint will be, Y/n, Daughter of Aquarius Degel.” Athena said smiling at her. You couldn’t help but sit excitedly. Degel was watching and smiled softly when his daughter was called to be the new Aquarius saint.

Pisces Albafica-  He was a silent man to begin with. You however were loud, outgoing and super kind. Albafica never admitted to it, but he loved it when you would go and annoy all the other saints. Granted, Manigold and Regulus were always on the same page with you. You three would annoy anyone you could find. When you were announced as the next Pisces saint, you couldn’t help but tell your dad everything. He was honestly the proudest dad that he was ever.

Hope you enjoyed this! It took so long to figure everything out!

#Saint Seiya  #Lost Canvas  #Original  #Requested

[softdadcarlos]

Break Time

Masterlist

Fandom: Resident Evil/Biohazard

Pairing: Jill/Carlos

AU: Family Life

Summary: Carlos can’t stand 90′s era English dubs.

Requested by anonymous. I took the opening paragraph from Union and put it in this one because I felt like it meant more sense with when this takes place.

It was a little strange at first, being basically strangers who formed an instant connection, especially when it's expected to date for a couple of years before moving in together. But extraordinary circumstances lead to extraordinary outcomes. In this case that meant Carlos quitting from Umbrella with a lot of hush money shoved his way, buying a house off the grid in Florida for him and Jill to live in. The real estate agency was rather confused how a 21-year-old had so much money but didn’t ask questions. So after moving from his old cramped studio apartment, Carlos was content with this setup.

There were times where Carlos found himself missing Jill despite living under the same roof as her. Once they had moved, Jill had quickly set up an office in which to track down and locate her former teammates - people of which Carlos had heard many stories of, the most horrifying of which being the Arklay Mansion incident. And once she had found them and established contact, she’d thrown herself into getting justice for Raccoon City.

At first, Carlos didn’t mind. It was something she felt like she needed to do and he wasn’t going to deny her that. In fact, he used the time that she was busy to rent anime from a nearby Blockbuster. And man did it make him long for the versions available in his home country. The censoring in the English dubs was awful. Why was Zoisite a woman? He was a gay man when he watched it in Spanish. But as bad as it was, it’d make do until he could get his hands on the good stuff.

However, he could only watch so much bad anime dubs by himself before he longed to have someone pick it apart with him. He would check in on Jill often with homemade sandwiches for her to eat or a coffee when she asked. Her supercop mode was one of the things that he admired about her, it was just a shame she didn’t know how to pace herself or give herself a break. And it was only after spotting Saint Seiya during his most recent blockbuster trip that he came up with a brilliant idea.

It was three in the afternoon and Jill had been locked away in her office since ten in the morning. Working for five hours straight without a break wasn’t healthy for anyone. So with as much gusto as possible and a goofy smile plastered on his face, Carlos threw open the door.

“Supercop! I have a mission for you?”

Jill looked up from the document on her desk, unfazed, and raised a single perfect brow, “And what would that be mophead?”

“Your mission, should you chose to accept it, is to watch terrible English anime with me and see which one of us lasts longest,” he said, pointing to himself with his thumb.

She looked from the document and back to Carlos with a smirk, “Want to make that a bet?”

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Jill didn’t find Saint Seiya interesting to say the least. From what she could gather from Carlos’ little annoyed outbursts, the English version was censored and was watered down as to be made ‘child-friendly’.

“I don’t think I can stand much more English anime. I need to get my hands on Spanish. Ah! But then you wouldn’t be able to watch it!” Carlos threw his hands up in the air before covering his face in frustration.

“It’s okay.”

Jill pulled his hands from his face, holding them in her own.

“No it’s not,” he pouted, “I want to share what enjoy with you… either you’re going to have to learn Spanish or I’m going to have to learn Japanese.”

“Why not both? Might come in handy if we both know. It might take you longer to learn Japanese though since it has a completely different alphabet.”

Jill could see the spark in his eye at the suggestion as he began to smile, “I hope you’re a quick learner because I want to get my hands on the good stuff as soon as I can!”

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A/N: This is super short I’m sorry. But I don’t have a lot of time on my hands with the amount of uni work I have to do. I really felt like writing though so I snuck this in.

I love hearing from you guys! Please tell me what parts you liked!

Requests are closed right now.  I'm also on twitter @mxbelmounte.

[hello-robin-goodfellow]

Soft Tag Game.

Nobody indicated me. So i’m doing it aniway.

RULES:

*Write 11 facts about you

*Answer the questions of who indicated the TAG to you

*Indicate 05 or more Tumblr friends (blogs) to answer the TAG

*Make 11 questions to who you indicate.

PART 01 - THE 11 FACTS ABOUT ME:

01. My favorite activity is sleeping.

02. Sometimes i like to look at my horoscope to see what gets right and what gets wrong about my personality. I’m a Taurus.

03. About animals: I have a huge phobia of frogs. And i once raised a brown stick insect as a pet, because i watched Pixar’s A Bug’s Life a lot.

04. My favorite colors are: silver, black, blue, green, lilac purple, violet and orange.

05. I enjoy listen to classical music, and i love to watch/watching ópera and ballet. One of my first fanfics was a (terribly writen) two chapter sequel story to Giácomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. My favorite ópera is Giuseppe Verdi’s Il Trovatore. My favorite ballet is Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.

06. I sometimes dream/wish to have a Youtube channel to post AMVs and review books, movies and TV shows.

07. I started writing because i once haved the dream of become a screen writer for telenovelas (the latin equivalent os soap operas).

08. I understand portuguese (my native language), spanish and english.

09. My favorite genres of fiction are: comedy, horror, musicals, fantasy (fairy tales) and sci fi.

10. My dream crossover is between Doug and The Simpsons.

11. My first geek passion as a kid were dinosaurs and greek mithology.

PART 02 - ANSWERING 21 QUESTIONS

01. The book that transformed your life?

 I think it was probably Voltaire’s Candide. This book is a tragicomic story about a ragtag bunch of misfits who were raised as rich priviliged people that believed that everything was alright in the world, and have their visions shaked when they lose everything, so they must get united and adapt to their new reality to get into a happy ending. The message i take of that story is: “Yes, the world is shitty. Out there are lots of people who will exploit and hurt you. So learn to count with your friends, be kind to one another, and keep living and moving on”.

02. The movie that changed your way of seeing the world?

 Walt Disney’s Fantasia. This experiment to give visuals to  classical music trough classical music formed my believe that we must keep blurring the lines between popular and erudite arts, and all art should be acessible to al people.

03. The music that makes part of the soundtrack of your life?

I tend to say that Mägo de Oz’s ‘Danza del Fuego’ is the song that would be the opening of a series about my life.

04. Define longing?

A word that sound better as the portuguese ‘saudade’.

05. If you got back in time, wich scene would you visit of your life?

I would go back to 2008, and say to my 10 year old self how to give some improvements to its writing. 

06. The place where your heart is.

The beaches. 

07. The travel of your life.

To the brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. 

08. An author that you have metted recently, and whose works you want to continue to read.

Probably Umberto Eco. I reded two books of him, and i got curious to know more of his work.

09. Coffee or tea?

Tea. Specially of mint. 

10. Who's your Doctor (if you don't watch Doctor Who, who's your favorite character from a TV series)? 

Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee), from seasons Seven to Eight, and Eight Doctor (Paul Mcgann), from the 1996 TV Movie.

11. If you could just throw everything away and live your dream, what would you do?

No idea, really. 

12. If you could choose to be a character from a book, TV series or movie, who you would be?

Probably the Doctor. He is a self regenariting (shape shifter) imortal alien who can travel to anywhere in time and space. How not to choose to be it?

13. What makes you don't like a story?

If everything is grimm dark and the characters are boring, i don’t have any will to continue reading or watching it. 

14. Do you like romance in stories? Why?

If i feel that the couple is health together and have good chemistry, even if is not the focus of the main plot, i find that it can be a nice way to humanize characters, showing how its lifes are outside of the intense action. 

15. Wich book did you hated having read?

Sons of Lilith: The Awakening by Elaine Velasco has a character who is a vampire that doesn’t want to give away killing humans to drink their blood, but them says he is in favour of life while massacring the people in a clandestine abortion clinic (which, i have to remember, can save several teenage girls victims of sexual abuse from dying of a risk pregnancy). I tought ‘What’? and ended up really hating this book because of that character.

16. Wich movie did you hated having watched?

 A brazilian movie Wolf at the Door. All the characters were assholes, and i left the movie felling really miserable.

17. Do you like anime/manga? Any favorite?

I love it. My favorite mangas are probably Legend of Kamui (Sanpei Shirato), Árion (Yoshikazu Yasuhiko) and Evil Crusher Maya (Masami Kurumada). My favorite animes are Saint Seiya, Tenkuu Senki Shurato, The Rose of Versailles and Ashita no Joe.

18. Who is the best villain you saw in a story?

Probably Claude Frollo, from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Before the recent fever of catholic priests involved on sex abuse scandals apearing on the TV news, Victor Hugo was already denouncing it with that creep.

19. If you could do an interview with any person, alive or dead, from our world, who would you choose and why?

Mary Shelley (british writer), Frida Kahlo (mexican painter) and Violeta Parra (chilean folclorist and musician). I consider them to be very complex people and fascinating artistic role models.

20. If you could meet and and befriend a writer, who would be?

My lady, Mary Shelley. 

21. Cats or dogs?

Cats. They kill rats for you and are more independent.

22. If you could choose any time period or society to live, wich it would be?

A utopic future with vaccins for every desease ever.

PART 03 - NOW I TAG YOU TO ANSWER MY 11 QUESTIONS:

I TAG: @anne-white-star @theimpossiblescheme @theroguefeminist @thedyingtimelady @deise-tb @graf-edel-weiss @princesssarisa @amalthea9

01. Did you haved a imaginary friend as a kid?

02. Describe your aesthetics.

03. Wich was your biggest fear as a child?

04. Wich is your favorite season: Summer, Autumn, Winter or Spring?

05. Kodomomuke, Shonen, Shoujo, Seinen or Josei?

06. Wich artist that you admired lefted you down when you learned how it/he/she was as a real life person?

07. Wich foreign language would you like to learn?

08. Do you watch tokusatsu? Any favorite?

09. Do you prefer dubbed or subtitled movies and TV shows?

10. Wich is you guilty pleasure movie?

11. Wich fictional character was your inspirational childhood heroe?

[newroyaloceans]

hyoga headcanons maybe?

AAAAAAA first of all I just have to mention that Hyoga is my favorite bronze saint haha...I really, really love him!I spent a bit of my morning pondering over him (lol like I don’t already do that)  and well there are some ideas I did come up but for me it’s more “what would he do in so and so situation” example: Would Hyoga skip class? or perhaps “what if he wasn’t a saint?”  I can’t say I have set headcanons but I’ll share a few that I become fond of:

v  When it comes to music, I can imagine Hyoga being a silent metalhead haha probably more into power metal but also one who can build a liking for any style of music if it hits the right vibes. Probably has a love for video game soundtracks as well. 

v  I also tend to think he’s a curious type of person, if we think about it the bronze saints really only have the mentality of 8th-9th graders and who knows what kind of education they were provided during their days in the Foundation or out training in remote places. So naturally I feel like Hyoga would the type of person who’s willing to learn and is open about learning. He probably just wants to help people with more than just his fist. 

v  Oh! Here’s a cute one! Hyoga enjoys singing whether its to himself, among friends or to a significant other. Once he becomes comfortable around a group of friends/person you can imagine him to be open about it and probably sings some cheesy songs lol

v  I’ve always seen Hyoga more than just a stoic ice prince lol deep inside he’s a huge idiot and wants nothing more than to one day enjoy that childlike side of himself.

v  Probably has a really hard time figuring out his feelings and runs from his emotions. He’s the type of person who would need a lot of time to himself before he can get close to others in a mutual level. It’ll take a while to build trust but once that’s obtained, you’ll be sure to see the best sides of him!

v  Like me he’s probably somebody who constantly craves freedom and conversations above surface level topics. I’m a Leo but our signs are very compatible, and I can say for a fact that Leos and Aquarius share this invisible bond of understanding that doesn’t even need to be said. Of course, outside the signs, I feel like Hyoga just need time to get used to some new and holding him back will either make him or sad or want to prove himself.

v  Oh, I also feel like Hyoga would be into ice sculptures, he probably isn’t the best but knows that practice makes perfect (or at least it’ll get you somewhat there). I’ve also seen some ice-skating HC before and those are so neat!! If he’s a good at balancing then I’m more than sure he’ll get the hang of it!

v  Driving. He is good at it. Whether it be a car, truck, motorbike. He is just naturally good at driving.

v  I don’t know too much about Russian culture, but I feel like he’d have a much closer affinity with than Japanese culture even if he did live in Japan for a few years. Mainly for the fact that his mother is Russian, and he spent quite a chunk of his life mourning over her. I’ve always imagined his features to be more Russian like but with hits of Asian accents. (also, I obviously know who his real farther is BUT I REALLY DISLIKE THAT CANON so to me he doesn’t worry who the heck his father is. It’s cool if you seem all as (half) brothers but I for one prefer them all as friends)

v  Even Though Saint Seiya Assassin G isn’t “canon” it still provides a lot closure to what the bronze saints futures may be like and I absolutely love it! The manga really took me for a spin when it came to their occupational jobs haha but like at the same time I probably should’ve seen it coming lol. Anyways, I love Hyoga in that manga so much!! He’s the adult I pictured he would be and he’s such a responsible guy and yuhfhrfnaelaaaaaaaaa out of context spoilers he takes on a huge responsibility like a pro and I’m so proud of him :’)))))

Anyways I don’t want to drag this on because I can talk about Hyoga all day :’))) so I’m gonna leave off with a doodle and thanks for sending in an ask anon! I appreciate it!

[starberry-cupcake]

Mob Psycho 100 and the new layers of shonen anime

I recently finished watching both seasons of Mob Psycho and I felt I had to write something about what it meant to me as a viewer to be introduced to this anime, because it’s been a while since I’ve been as pleasantly surprised as I was. I think this one deserves some positive observations, so here we go. 

I’ve watched anime and read manga for most of my life. 

I grew up around stuff like Captain Tsubasa, Sailor Moon, Saint Seiya, Dragon Ball, and evolved as a viewer as genres and products did around me. 

I re-discovered what sports manga and anime could be when I first encountered Slam Dunk. I re-discovered what shonen manga and anime could be with stories like Fullmetal Alchemist. I re-discovered what shojo manga could be with mangakas like Rumiko Takahashi, Yukiru Sugisaki and CLAMP, and later Bisco Hatori. I re-discovered what josei manga could offer with Ai Yazawa. And so on. 

I saw genres grow and develop, exceed their limits and question themselves. You had shojos with male protagonists, lgbt content in josei manga (and I mean actual content, not fanservice), shojo manga about sports, magical girls AND magical boys fighting alongside one another, archetypes deconstructing, seinen with philosophical debates, fantasy and mechas at the same time...

However, even though good content was never completely gone, the last decade or so was marked by a very big increase on niche exploitation.

Others have explained it better than I can but, basically, we saw an explosion of anime with certain types and genres which are absolutely clones of one another and respond to the same niche interests in order to sell merchandise and be produced quickly and easily. 

And, worse than that, there are others which disguise themselves as “revolutionary” and “different” yet are the same exact thing with maybe a bit more quality on one aspect or another, but ultimately follow the same patterns and generate the same kind of mindset on their viewership and the same expectations. 

Like I said, it isn’t that stuff with more complex content didn’t exist anymore, but it had a harder time to sustain itself out there when the market was asking for faster and bigger profit and anime and manga which don’t follow a formula are difficult to sell. So it’s harder to pitch new ideas when studios want to make a quick yen and when a lot of the fanbase outside national limits doesn’t pay for content. 

I had kind of given up a bit. I watched stuff I already knew, new seasons of this or that, sometimes I explored different things, some of which were pleasant, some of which were fantastic, but the ones I enjoyed the most tended to really differ from the genres I was used to. 

This year, my sister ( @strawberrydaydreams ) recommended me Mob Psycho 100. She knew I liked One Punch Man well enough and thought I’d like this one better. 

She was right. 

Mob Psycho does something different with the genre than what I had seen before. It doesn’t quite deconstruct archetypes and tropes, it doesn’t quite subvert them. 

What I feel Mob Psycho does is re-contextualize them for an audience who isn’t content anymore with the blandness of genres past. 

It doesn’t quite deconstruct masculinity in shonen, it enhances it. It adds more layers to it than the mere idea of power and competition that has been installed in it for ages. 

The idea of power is accompanied by notions of emotion, vulnerability, guilt, love, kindness, respect, fear, responsibility, courage. There’s this idea that power means nothing in a vacuum if you aren’t human enough to be able to live without it. 

And it isn’t just that Mob is such a vulnerable and likable kid, it’s also his surroundings. 

He has a teacher who has 0% power but 100% common sense. Reigen is a lot of things, but he’s mostly the voice of reason, a reason that exceeds the believability of the genre and contextualizes it in the real world. 

I don’t remember when was the last time I heard an adult character in an anime saying something like “I don’t care how powerful he is, he’s a child, this is too much for him to handle”. The first time I heard him say that I remembered all those small shonen protagonists being beaten up by grown ass adults and normalized by the plot because hey, power = physical power in shonen. 

When I was a kid, I thought nothing of tiny Gohan being beaten up to death by grown ass men, but when I was a little older and saw Gon being almost killed in HunterxHunter, I was in pain. Every time in shonen someone pointed out that a character “is just a kid” it was taken as a joke, implying something along the lines of “that person doesn’t understand that this kid is super powerful”. 

The fact that a character was a kid had no relation, in the context of the show, to the idea that they were strong enough to fight and, most often than not, that physical strength was enough to put the weight of the world, universe or multiverse on those tiny shoulders. 

The suspension of disbelief is part of the genre, especially with anime and manga where everything tends to be exaggerated and taken to an extreme. Still, shonen is a genre aimed at a young audience, and in a tradition of decades upon decades of the normalization of this, and the subsequent separation of power from anything emotional or mental, where physical strength is the only requirement for a story to allow someone to be chosen, it sends a conflicting message on what power, and subsequently in this genre the idea of masculinity, can entail. 

And even though other shonen have de-constructed masculinity and the genre itself, they completely let go of the archetypes of a regular shonen story to do it, which is another process entirely, a valid and amazing one, but another one. 

Mob Psycho introduces common sense in an archetypal shonen. It’s built on the premise that power and physical force aren’t romanticized, setting archetypes and storylines that are typical of the genre on a setting that emulates how the world actually works and how social interactions are a part of human nature, as is empathy. 

It doesn’t retort to isolation and suffering, to pain and torture, to make the protagonist strong, he is already strong physically, what he needs to become a better person, to grow up, is the constantly growing support system and voices of reason helping him through it. 

And, most importantly, it isn’t anymore about how a protagonist is forgiving because he’s just “a good goofy character archetype”, here he is forgiving because it’s fair in the context of human empathy and interaction. 

And it isn’t just about Reigen as a mentor (a faulty, complex and far from perfect mentor, but who is, after all, a good person). 

There’s the bodybuilding team, these super ripped guys who look too old to go to school (and one ex gang member) all training together and taking Mob under their wing, with this idea of masculinity being completely extended from “we have muscles and physical strength” to “we don’t use it against people unless they’re abusing others who can’t protect themselves”. 

And there is family, friends, an entire growing circle of people who attach themselves to this universe because they learn from this kid and his journey. 

I have to admit that though Ritsu’s path was something I wasn’t sure of at the start, it made for such a complex dynamic of the older and younger brother rivalry archetype. It took this idea that is present in so many shonen anime and manga of the younger brother’s conflicts with the shadow of the oldest to an entirely different level of complexity and discussion, of guilt, fear, doubt, conversation and reconciliation. 

And, through all this, Mob recognizes, at every step of the way, that his absolute incredible power is not everything. That he is, first and foremost, a person. That he can always improve in something. 

He doesn’t see his powers as an advantage, but he also doesn’t completely reject them. He fights for control, yes, but he doesn’t let go of who he is. He has to learn to reconcile different parts of his life, because everything is part of him all the same. 

Added to all this there are fascinating characters and great designs, stories within stories and a lot of lore and interesting things that keep adding themselves to it all. 

In and of itself it’s an interesting and smart story. But what surprised me is the level of re-contextualization of genre archetypes into a more realistic plain of what the world needs. 

A shonen anime, which traditionally represents the young cis male demographic, which follows the same patterns and archetypes of power, rivals, fights, abilities, leveling up; but adds to that layers which build up on that with empathy, kindness and common sense, it’s a pretty refreshing thing to see.

[andperseo]

Saint Seiya Netflix Edition - Knights of the Zodiac

I watched again the first set of episodes:

-Kudos for the opening sequence/song. Lolz for Seiya's voice (in spanish) is flat as fuck.

-Seiya in his star-printed pijamas is some manga fidelity shit.

-Viral Seiya is such a weird idea but ok I guess is his “the internet is coming for you” moment. It's interesting how this version erased some gray areas to have the good-bad perfectly defined. For me, this divide is sooo American.

-Tatsumi always has your back. Saints vs helicopters, like a memory from the old fillers.

-Marin is on point. Shaina is on point (even with her glam make up). Casual Aiolia is on point.

-I choose to believe that secret tournament is in Mexico.

-I missed uptight Shiryu, now with new hair style. I missed cool-yet-broken Hyoga, now with new oufit.

-Wait, Saori, you are on a secret fight club in a dungeon in the middle of the mexican desert, that gown is  way too much.       �� 

-I missed lovely Shun, the change was controversial (and even when I don’t completely agree with their reasons i think that the endless complains are pointless) but the result is not bad, i love her. Wtf with the script, Dokho, don't mess with people.

-Seiya vs Shiryu is iconic in saint Seiya, almost a sample of future battles (full of blood and completely homoerotic for some). Here they don't have the time, a similar problem to the cgi movie, the story is packed to fit in a couple of hours and everything feels rushed. 

-Btw Hyoga's voice is ok, it doesnt crash with the other ones like Seiya's. Anyway, wtf Hyoga, challenging a tank??? It's ok, in your past life you had that weird situation in the ice pyramid.           

-Infinite love for Ikki and Shun childhood memories.

-Bitchy Hyoga is the best Hyoga, you beautiful blond mess.

-Ok, the story has flaws and it's rushed but i'm 100% here for some bronze saint teamwork (just... Be patient with Hyoga).

-I have to admit i deeply love those bronze saints. With that on mind, that battle against an army felt a little bit off but ok I have tolerated worse things for Saint Seiya.

-I missed edgelord Ikki so much, he looks really good! Wow they did an interesting job with Shun's character and how she handles the Ikki situation.

- Wait, did Ikki had a nose job? I liked the general idea about the black Saints as the leftovers or an option for the discarded ones (the particular details like they design not so much).

-OMG i missed Mu, he looks good (althought he sounded not-like-the-mu-i-know). Ok they kept the creepy "esmeralda looks exactly like Shun"...           

-  Shaka was imposing, i wasn't expecting that scene, i mean it's another manga fidelity bit. Well, Seiya is right "bitch, cut the bullshit, you are not the only one who suffered".             

-Lol ikki, stop being a jerk with your sister.

-It's good to see that Misty is still a diva.

- And that's all. It's not perfect (I don’t thing it’s even good) but i liked enough things to wait for more episodes, because i'm happy to watch the bronze saints back in the game.

-My real question is if all this shit makes any sense to someone who hasn't watched saint Seiya before, and comes to find this rushed at times incoherent small set of episodes.   

TL; DR It’s not that good, it’s not the worst, it tried to be a people pleaser (so it didn’t take big risks).  It’s rushed and it didn’t have a lot of time to develop things (like the important battles...). On the other hand, I was happy to have the bronze saints back.    

[nahret]

It Takes Two

I’ll be honest: I have not been looking forward to Dui’s story, which is why I let it lie for so long. On the surface, there is obviously nothing wrong with Dui, quite the contrary. He is by far the kindest god of the entire bunch, a quiet person who genuinely cares about his friends and the MC. But I’m not new to the Japanese approach to mythology, and there is one thing that is simply a given: the Gemini sign will always have the evil twin and/or split personality problem. Always.

My favourite anime show, Saint Seiya, managed to combine both concepts: Saga, gold saint of Gemini, did not only have a dark side within himself, but also an actual evil twin brother, Kanon. Now, in Saint Seiya, Saga was (and is) my most beloved gold saint, and in terms of favourite character, second only to Phoenix Ikki. But what I’m looking for in an action show is radically different from what I’m looking for in a romance story, and a split personality is pretty high on my List of Nope.

  Saga’s split personality

Saga and Kanon

In everybody else’s route, Dui is depicted as a soft-spoken, friendly god who has everybody’s best interest at heart. As sweet as he is, I expect his evil twin to be all-out evil. And while I know that a story needs an antagonist, and that a fair amount of drama is to be expected, I really prefer enemies that are not, you know, oneself.

Okay. I’m sure everything will come up roses in the end. Let’s have a look.

Synopsis

This time, the choice makes sense: when the MC falls off that roof, she calls upon the kindest of the gods she has encountered, Dui. He catches her and teleports her to the mansion. He is nice to her, and concerned for her well-being. When the other gods arrive, he tells them not to scare the MC.

Alone in his room, however, he suddenly hugs the MC, much to her surprise. He is gentle and playful, and he smells amazing… And the MC’s heart is just about leaping out of her chest. But surely, he doesn’t mean anything by it? He is an exceedingly kind god; when there is a disturbance in her apartment complex, he offers to stay in her room to watch over her while she sleeps. Without the ulterior motives Ichthys or Teo would certainly have in this particular situation.

Things proceed as usual. Since the MC needs to be present for Dui to do his job in the Department of Punishments, she helps him cast his punishments by the reflecting pool. When he hands her a piece of paper, she cuts her finger on it. The tiniest bit of blood is visible – and here we meet Shadow Dui.

Look at this innocence.

Shadow Dui is, of course, the Evil Twin. His existence was hinted at by the other gods, especially Scorpio and Ichthys. Shadow Dui takes a dim view of the MC and her “meddling” in Dui’s life. In no time flat, he decides to find a definitive solution for this problem and attempts to drown her in the pool. Just as the MC is about to hit the water, though, Shadow Dui falls to the ground, unconscious. This is when Scorpio and Ichthys show up, who take Dui up to his room, and explain the situation to the MC. Apparently, something severe happened with Dui, and his shadow personality was created. Clearly, it must have something to do with the great sin that got Dui exiled to earth in the first place…

Of course, once he comes to his senses, normal Dui urges the MC to stay away from him, as it’s far too dangerous for her to risk triggering the shadow self. Naturally, the MC, already in love with Dui, refuses. She intends to make him whole again, instead. The next time Shadow Dui appears, the MC is actually sensing that she is making a kind of headway: Shadow Dui exists to protect normal Dui, whom he considers a weakling. He will go to any lengths to keep normal Dui safe. In the meantime, however, he will help Dui with his work, replacing the soft punishments the latter had devised with, basically, horror and mayhem. Yet again, it takes Scorpio’s and Ichthys’ intervention to stop Shadow Dui before he kills the MC. Scorpio tells her to stay away from Dui in the future, but she can obviously not give up on him.

Epilogue

Ugh, mom, I don’t wanna, do I have to? Well. I guess I already bought the epilogue (for all the stories, for the sake of consistency), so I might as well read it. But if the main story is anything to go by, I won’t have much fun with it.

Quite typically, we’re at this juncture where the MC and the god of choice are together, but haven’t had sex yet. Partheno is the notable exception to this rule, and his purpose was nefarious. Things being as they are here, Dui and the MC have not done the deed, but the other gods don’t know that. Teo’s and Ikky’s wild speculations and inquiries on what it’s like between a human and a god make our MC blush furiously, of course. Ichthys’ assertion that Dui can tie cherry stems into knots with his tongue are not helpful. Oh, not normal knots; heart-shaped knots. Our besotted couple ends up fleeing the scene.

They decide to take a day trip to a cherry orchard together – cherries are Dui’s favourite food – where the MC realises that she really has two boyfriends, in a way. While Dui and Shadow Dui now get along and can apparently communicate with each other, they do not share the same memories. After repeatedly confusing the two, the MC walks away to clear her head and promptly gets lost in the orchard. After the mini-crisis is resolved, there is the usual hemming and hawing about being naked together, because of course she wants it, but cannot bring herself to admit it. It’s tedious. At least Shadow Dui talks the straight talk. There’s sure more chemistry here than in the main story.

The Chemistry

Dui is everything we’re looking for in a person: sweet, considerate, thoughtful, polite, not to mention quite handsome, as they all are. How is one not to fall in love with him? One very positive aspect is that the confession comes early on, and from his part. There is much emphasis on his purity and innocence, and it’s actually lovely. What follows, though, is the MC being far too lenient with Shadow Dui’s behaviour, especially once she concludes that he must be “misunderstood” because he’s only trying to protect Dui. Which means that she starts taking crazy-stupid risks in order to save them both, of course.

My man Scorpio is in control of the situation.

Everything is kind of predictable: she falls in love with him, because he’s really easy to love. He falls in love with her, because the story demands it. Shadow Dui is evil, but is he really? Must he not be redeemable somehow? Scorpio is being Scorpio, Ichthys is being Ichthys, and they’re both really good at it. At chapter 10, I was wondering when Zyglavis was gonna drop by. And the King. Then Zyglavis makes an appearance. And the King.

And yet, there’s no… I don’t know. No palpable, chemistry, if you will. It’s all telling, no showing. In other stories, there was a rawness of emotion about the characters, that I feel is completely missing here – except where Shadow Dui shows up. And that’s just not enough.

The Love Meter

I suspected as much: I couldn’t get out of the Forbidden zone. Really, I’m not surprised. Sometimes, characters just aren’t for me. But sometimes I chose the answer that I really thought would push the needle back into Blessed, only to have it go deeper into Forbidden. I guess I should have been more accepting of Shadow Dui, but I have trouble getting into people who are repeatedly trying to murder me with their bare hands.

Bottom Line

I’ll be honest: it took me eternities to finish this story. Not only was I not really engaged, I also find this trope a bit more problematic for me personally than a lot of others. That’s because we see a lot of that in real life: women who stay with abusive men for the times when they are treated nicely, or to save the men in question, or both. Now, I know, here it is not within Dui’s control when Shadow Dui appears. I know. It’s just not a trope I enjoy. Also, Scorpio blaming the victim is not my favourite thing, even if it is in keeping with his personality. Apart from the above, I just have to admit I didn’t really feel it, if you know what I mean. Yes, Dui is super nice, and loyal to a fault. (No, really. You have no idea.) But there is not enough friction there that is not Shadow Dui. Look, I’m gonna say it: this was boring. Not out-of-my-mind boring, but just not interesting. Pity.

Star-Crossed Myth: Dui It Takes Two I'll be honest: I have not been looking forward to Dui's story, which is why I let it lie for so long.

[ladyloveandjustice]

Animazement 2019

It was pretty fun! I did a lot more than I normally do thanks to Bethany’s enthusiasm (her first con!), so I should always go to cons with her I guess haha. She drags me out of my introverted comfort zone.

I was kind of an anxious mess throughout in some ways though, need to really deal with my problem of fixating and obsessing over dumb things and learn how to live in the moment and have fun like my friend does but idk. therapy. someday.

BUT ANYWAY,  we did a lot the first day! I saw a rakugo performance, heck yeah! I’ve seen it in video games, seen it in anime, AND NOW REAL LIFE. The guy, Someta Hayashiya, was pretty fun!

I went to a Kotono panel and autograph after that, then that night, tried out a Sailor Moon panel . It was not super fascinating and I was anxious about not having a wide toothed comb for my wig so I left early and got them. Then I went to a Class 1A “After Dark” panel, basically My Hero Academia cosplayers making a lot of raunchy jokes and having fun. Events: Kirishima proposed to Bakugo, Deku won a pressing contest against Bakugo and also swore for the first time in his life (”I WON FUCK YEAH”), cosplayer wrapped each other in TP, shenanigans.

Anyway, then we went to the thing where we watched weird clips and answered questions about them to win prizes (stuff in the vein of the He Man “what’s goin on” vid). If you answered wrong u had to do stuff like take a shot of hot sauce.

Next day! I got into my cosplay (complete with in-a-very-sorry-tangled-state wig) for the morning! And went to a maid cafe with Bethany!

It was really cute, they did a dance and everything.

I left early for the concert with Jennifer Cihi, though, which was also a lot of fun. She was very passionate about being there, gave some background about how Dic approached her (they specifically told her to sing “very young and very white” which uh. bout what I’d expect from Dic tbh). She had no idea Sailor Moon had gotten so big until a friend approached her years later, then got into going to the cons and stuff. She chose a bunch of Sailor Moon cosplayers to come on stage and dance with her, which included me because my friend pointed me out. I bought my Luna and glowstick from the Super Live, but had to drop them when we were asked to hold hands. She hugged us all but then got caught on my wig, which nearly claimed many lives the short time I wore it.

Anyway, after that was another Kotono panel, which I was surprised wasn’t as full as the concert one. But it was still lively and you can read more about it here. Her selfie with us from her twitter!

I’m the civilian Usagi with the Luna.

 Then we went to the Fight Like a Girl: The Importance and Impact of the Magical Girl genre panel! It was pretty thorough, talking about the different perspectives surrounding magical girls and gender. She cited Akiko Shimada! It also talked common tropes regarding lady heroes magical girls subvert, talked about women in refrigerators and asked if anyone knew who Stephanie Brown was, at which point I yelled “I created a wiki!”. It was wild to see Steph bought up in a magical girl panel, I thought I was the only person who would ever cite her when talking about magical girls but APPARENTLY NOT.

But my favorite panel was definitely the La Soldier panel, about the Sailor Moon musicals. It was super informative- a lot of behind the scenes stuff about the early musicals and mentioning their connection to Saint Seiya of all things- told me a lot of things I didn’t know, and the guy who ran it was great! He even griped about the scandal with Mercury being replaced for the most recent SuperS musical cuz fanboys whined about her having done gravure shots (”sexism KILLS”) and was really cute talking about his crush on one of the guys who played Tuxedo Mask. AND gave PGSM a shoutout.

Unfortunately, there were two assholes throughout the panel who were talking loudly and laughing (Bethany said they were mocking the guy and the way he spoke, and they’re lucky my hearing’s so bad and I was so focused on tuning them out so I could hear the guy cuz if I’d known that I’d’ve gone off on them MUCH harsher and sooner). I turned and glared a bunch and said “hush” quietly bc I was afraid of disrupting the panel further, but it didn’t do anything, finally a Sailor Venus cosplayer told them loudly to stop and I joined in and then security kicked them out. Ugh. What losers. Why were they even there.

We couldn’t really get in late night panels bc it was so packed, so I (very badly) played a board game with Bethany and another guy at the tabletop gaming section (I was so tired I was even worse at following board game directions than usual, but fortunately they were both very patient. Then we went to a panel dedicated to ridic fanservice clips, but it was crowded and I couldn’t see subs and tbh already seen enough of all that for a lifetime, so I left a bit early.

And that was basically it! I did some kareoke on the last day and also got my GOODS:  a CUTE ART of all the Ace Attorney girls (Maya, Pearl, Kay, Athena, Fran, Ema, Iris, Susato- still gotta play Great Ace Attorney to meet those last two but I’M SURE I’LL LOVE EM), an adorable fanmade Athena keychain, an OFFICAL Makoto Kino in her school uniform keychain, a small Natsume art, some cute kitty arts, some smaller, nicer plushies of Venus and Mercury so they can hang with my other small plushies (unlike the huge in-hindsight-bootleg ones I already had) annnd some stickers for the laptop I’ll have to get to replace this one- Sailor Moon, Alphys/Undyne, Frisk w/ Flowey in a flowerpot, and Garnet). I’ll maybe post pics later.

Cosplay wise, there was SO MUCH My Hero Academia and Persona 5. Art was also dominated by those two, plus Mob Psycho. (I did see SOME MP cosplay, a mob and a reigen, but i guess the characters don’t stand out enough to be super popular for that?) 

Anyway it was a good con, glad I went to one for the first time in a while. Maybe next time I go to a con I’ll have my anxiety straightened out and have an even better time.

[elencelebrindal]

So, could the Saints get married and have a family? or were they forever attached to Athena and their duties?

I don’t think this matter was ever officially settled, but if I’m wrong please let me know. There’s all the stuff with Shiryu and Shunrei, but honestly I don’t know if them being a family (+ a son!) actually explains if the all the Saint could get married. 

Now, I do have a headcanon for this. However, since my headcanon originated from my need to have the Saint being able to marry, I will answer this with something that I hope makes a bit more sense. 

I think it depends on their rank. For a Bronze or a Silver Saint would probably be easier to have a family or a stable relationship. Sure, they have to fight for Athena and have their duties, but realistically they are not too important when it comes to their rank. Bronze Saints especially, since they are the lowest rank.  Silver Saints get deployed more frequently, so it’s probably difficult for them to keep a family. If they marry another Saint it might be better, but if they marry someone that’s not a Saint... can you imagine the sheer amount of anxiety the partner of a Saint will get dumped on their shoulders? These are supernatural warriors with the ability to shatter boulders with their hands, and they fight even more supernatural people. The stress of seeing your loved one going out on a mission and having absolutely no idea if they will come back alive is real.  Having a family in these conditions is not ideal, although not impossible.  Bronze Saints have it a bit better, because they’re not subjected to the same amount of danger and/or trust (take a look at the secondary Bronze Saints, those are characters that are actually treated like their rank).  Their duties are less... how can I say this, intrusive. Sure, they swore their loyalty to Athena, but Athena doesn’t need them as much as she needs Silver Saints. This is easy to understand, again, if we look at the secondary Bronze Saints. They rarely do stuff, and mostly have generic duties. Obviously the five main characters don’t count, because the series just treats them as higher ranking Saints from the get go (when it comes to duties and such). 

Gold Saints are an entirely different story.  A Gold Saint, although powerful, faces dangers that are basically unfathomable for the normal human being. It’s terrifyingly easy for them to die in battle, even if they are the best warriors Athena has in her army. This happens also because, once they’re out on the battlefield, they take their role absolutely seriously, and will do anything and everything to stop who they need to stop. As Aiolia said, in Soul of Gold, dying id the greatest honor for a Saint. The Golds take this to heart.  If they cannot win, they will die trying. They’re not going to give up on something just because they cannot have the upper hand, they will keep fighting until the end. Sure there’s exceptions, this is normal, but overall Gold Saints will be Gold Saints.  They will win 99 battles, and willingly die at the 100th if so needs to happen.  Aside from this, which will bring a whole amount of mind-shattering stress to a partner and basically mark the life of eventual children, Gold Saints have to follow Athena as dutifully as possible. They don’t need to stay in their temples, but if a call come to them, they have to drop everything and answer. And who knows how much time they’d have to spend at the Sanctuary or away in a mission.  Bronze and Silver Saints have less difficult missions to deal with, when it comes to this. Gold Saints, logically, have the most dangerous and tricky ones. Generally speaking, all their troubles are multiplied tenfold compared to lower ranks.  Now, if the partner of a Gold Saint is another Gold Saint, a whole lot of this issues can go away easily. If the partner is a Silver or a Bronze, it’s maybe a bit less issues, but it can work.  If the partner is not a Saint, I genuinely don’t think a relationship could happen. Also because... well, who would want a Gold Saint, a powerful and godly warriors, to marry a common person? Certainly, the Sanctuary would not look at something like this with beautiful, understanding eyes. I’m pretty sure the Gold Saint would have to abandon their position as a Saint to marry a common person, just to avoid the social backlash. We know some Saints are not open-minded (look at Shaina not wanting Seiya to get the Pegasus Cloth because he’s not Greek), so it wouldn’t be surprising. 

Now, all of this secondary reasons aside, there would probably be also major reasons for the Saints being unable to marry or have a family.  While my (if we can call it this) essay up until now tackled the more “personal” reasons of why Saints could get married, but it would cause problems, now let me say why I think they are probably not supposed to get married (at least what I think is realistic given the setting). 

Right off the bat, not because Athena is supposed to be a virgin goddess or all that bullshit. The concept of virginity was different, back then, and I already explained this in another post. I will try to link it here as soon as I have time to find it. Right now, I only have time to write this answer. 

I think they would not be able to marry because of some law of the Sanctuary. A law that forbids/discourages relationships and the likes because the Saint would be taken away from his duties, both physically and psychologically.  A Saint has to focus everything on training, fighting and getting better. They’re not normal military people, they are warriors with the power of an entire universe at their fingertips. Literally.  A distraction could not only be fatal to them, but dangerous for their companions and dangerous to Athena. A partner could be swept away by some villain, and since Saints have a strong sense of justice (most of the time), they will end up risking their lives to save an innocent. Such a situation could even lead to an information leak. Even worse, is a Saint even allowed to use their powers to save that person? Doesn’t that count as using their power for themselves? Since they’re not intervening following an order of Athena, or to protect Athena, they’re acting fr themselves, and Saints are not supposed to do that. It’s basically a loophole, but a negative one. 

Saints being married to other Saints might mitigate the problem, but at the same time it could make it worse. What if one of them dies in the battle? The other one will suffer the loss, and their mourning could affect how they fight or follow their duties. The other one could recklessly charge at whoever killed their partner, and die because of it instead of acting with a clear mind. 

Relationships are, in short, too complicated and too unpredictable. Every single person is different, and when those differences mingle with supernatural abilities the risk is too high. 

In short, it’s not unrealistic for Saints to marry or have a family (there’s canon information backing this up), but from a logical point of view it’s extremely dangerous for everyone involved, and it would probably either be discouraged or outright forbidden. 

Anyway, I’ve probably been spitting out nonsense, as always. 

Sorry for taking a while to answer, have a good... whatever, I don’t know what time is it now. Have a good one!

[aqualianbird]

So, I am having a relatively stressful episode at work, I have enough alcohol in my blood to make me feel chatty, and there isn’t nearly as much Saint Seiya talk on my dash as I’d need so here it goes :

Let’s talk about ... well, Seiya

It’s dificult for me to comprehend exactly how many fans of Pegasus Seiya there are around. Often it seems like he is the most hated and the most loved character in the fandom simultaneously. No, seriously, I don’t think even characters that were designed to be hated like Tatsumi or Kasa got as much (and for the latter even Shun said the dude was going way too far)

For my part I plead guilty to the first one; my sympathy for the Pegasus knight only lasted a dozen of episodes. I often joked to my sister how the reason I never watched the anime a second time (despite a habbit of feeding on re-runs of favourite shows instead of new ones) was entirely because I couldn’t stand the idea of watching so many frames of Seiya again.

Nevertheless, I always made it a point never to completely exclude completely him for any headcanoning or writing I made around the universe, especially if it touched Athena and the 5 main bronzes - few are the sound reasons to exclude him from the universe that was nammed after him.

I never say much or write much about him because, despite my irritation with the character, I never wanted to reduce him to being The Clown, or make him the bottom of all sorts of jokes.I may be wierd but even if he is a fictional character I wasn’t going to treat him unfairly ... In general we could say I could never picture him in a way that would make him more appealing to my eyes, as a writer or a fan.

So here in this saturday midnight let me first speak ill of Seiya, and then speak way less ill of him (and if you survive to the end you will find out it really is related to my work, that’s what got me thinking)

The many facettes of Pegasus Seiya and how they made me grow as a writer

(Since this is getting long I figured it needed a title)

If I want to speak ill of Seiya first it is because I am a big fan of riddles. In general I just like to understand the logical connections between everything (you have no idea how satisfied I was the day I found out the anime colours of the gold saints’ hair were chosen to contrast with the overwhelming yellows of their armours. Really it’s just like watching those videos were everything fits perfectly into everything). And I think I did figure out why the “Seiya hate”.

Furthermore, with the exemple of Seiya I started understanding many advice given to beginers about character-building and protagonists. I also hope this first part will illustrate how I always tried to “see the good” in Seiya.

I always thought he was a admirable character - in theory. I believe this is a shared feeling, nobody would dare say Seiya is a poor character absolutely useless to the dynamics of the series.  

(Ok I’m idealising a little. but the least one could say is that the content he generates is usually quite neutral)

Everything he does is heoric : he never gives up, he leads, he defeats enemies 300x bigger than himself, he helps those in need ... Seiya is really good, almost perfect in everyway except for his mischievious side, and worthy of all the praise he gets within the universe - in theory.

But oh god how annoying he was in practice

I wonder how many people reading this have never rolled their eyes during one of those typical “Seiya comes to save the day” moments.

So why ? Why is he annoying so many people ? Or, at least, why is he not inspiring as much as other characters of this series do ? I think I found the solution to that riddle (and I know it to be true for at least me and my sibilings)

Personally, I can easily name the moments Seiya irritated me the most. Disrigarding this one scene in a filler where Seiya makes a sexsit comment, it was in the scenes where he appeared at the last moment to save the day and everybody was cheerfully calling him name. Or how he was always the only one to be able to defeat the “big bosses”. All these scenes irritated me in how they were written to make him look as the big hero and protagonist of the show.

Which, you know. He actually is.

The story relates his steps - check

Does heroic stuff : self-sacrifice, never gives up even if the situations look desperate - check

Is indispensable to the plot : he defeats the big bosses, so yes - check

So why ?

Tying to put more words on this, the following sentence formed into my mind : “It is faked protagonism”.

With hindsight I am affraid Seiya’s character suffered a lot from the fillers of the anime in the same way Saori’s roles in fillers left the wrong impression of “damselle in distress” and Shun as “the crybaby always needing his brother to save him”. The fillers repeated ad nauseum the same formula : “enemy attacks - the bronzes go to fight them - Seiya gets hit on the head a lot - Let’s make him hit on the head three times more to show it has nothing to do with the last enemy they fought - He still miraculously avoids head trauma and defeats everyone and is the only one getting carried in triumph”. As a result, his heroic trait was completely banalizing and we were left us thinking “Does he ever do anything new ?”

Talking to my sibilings and seeing the trends on Tumblr the past years, I believe this feeling has been refrazed a lot as “We want to see x characters instead of Seiya”.

This is the point in this analysis where the wannabe writer in me starts putting her two cents. How come even minor characters seem to be more appealing than Seiya ?

I always did get what kind of traits Kuru wanted to give him. In theory. But in practice, they never seem to manage getting past the screen. Leaving out the glamour the Gold Saints’ name offer, if we compare Seiya to the other Bronzes, even taking only manga canon events one could say he suddenly appears quite pale as a character.

For instance, in the course of the series, Shyiru begins undergoing major character developpment from day one; he who had great pride looses his battle against Seiya.

In the later arcs, he sacrifices his eyesight to save his friends in this beautiful scene, which ensues in another character developpment moment where he learns to fight blind, goes to the big 12 temples battle blind. He is the first to kill a Gold Saint -actually he is the only one to have killed 2 gold saints in this battle- and we are very often reminded he is sacrificing a happy life with Shunrei everytime he goes on mission to save the world.

In a similar way, it is easy to be reminded how Ikki is battling his past everyday, how Hyoga is struggling to build a future everyday, and we could all appreciate Shun’s amazing strength in for instance the battle against Pisces or the beautiful scene of his sacrifice in Hades

Next to this, Seiya just seems to be “beaten around”, an idiot who tags along without bringing much into the group aprat from yelling “Saorii-saaaaaan” untill the osts dry up causing him to rise up and defeat the big boss on the cue of pegasus fantasy. And yet, he still receives all the glory in the narative and is at the center of attention.

The general impression me and my sibilings got was “He is the protagonist just because the series is named after him.” The naration and the fillers seem to have built a house of cards around his punch, which is definitively what irritated me and my sibilings and I am theoretising most of the fandom as well.

Now in his defence, his comedic trait and good contact with people does not have much room in end-of-the-world battles against gods that only address to humans talking down to them, and as mentioned the fillers did not do him any favours. The plot of his lost sister is quite forgotten after the first arc, and unlike other characters it does not seems like he picks up any other defining traits during the course of the series. (Personally, the ultimate strie that just made me loose all patience is the shipping with Saori that Toei has going on)

Which is where I realised : this is probably what everybody means when talking of “insuficient of character developpment”

We often see the words “character develeppment” in critiques or writing tips. Everybody stresses how important for your story it is. But it is only recently, paired with the exemple of Seiya that I have truly realised what this means.

I read somewhere that “If your protagonist becomes perfect, if he is not longer evolving, then he stops being a protagonist”. I think with Seiya I could sense the results of keeping a protagonist that is not longer evolving in the story.

One could also argue he is not sacrificing as much as the others. Like sure, he is ready to sacrifice his life every time, but it also never seems that his life is in any real danger - he only ever ends up in the hospital after the big guy is defeated. He never seems to suffer any consquences of his injuries during the battles - has the narative ever implied he could not throw his punches as well as usual because of his injuries ? He mostly attacks, falls down, can’t move for a few minutes and then gets up again. It is more a narrative of “If you don’t succeed, try harder and harder untill you do”.

Which helped me put in practice another writing advice : do not let your main characters excape the consequences of their actions.

It does not mean everything has to be realistic (of course they can loose way more blood that humanly possible and still survive because it visually increases the dramatic effect). I come to realise it means that if you give too much free passes, the stakes will not feel as high, and your plots will bear much less tension than they potentially could.

Going back to Seiya as much as his actions are heroic in theory, they do not feel heroic to most people watching it probably because his "never giving up and keep punching” attitude does not have consequences. They have as much effect as him getting out the trash : it sure is unpleasant, it smells baad, the trash starts leaking, it’s disgusting, you hears noises inside the trash disposal and nobody wants to know what would thrive in this smelly and juicy environement, but in the end it will be over in a second. You just throw away the bag, maybe you got a bit of trash juice on your shoes but it will easily be washed away by water.

Taking the same problem from a different angle offers the opportunity to look into giving traits to your character :

We can all agree that “never give up and keep punching” was intended to be Seiya’s main trait of character. It seems, however, it did not result to be as memorable or as inspiring as planned. Which reminded me of this other piece of advice :

“If you give your character a trait you consider his most defining characteristic, but never challenge it at any point, this trait is going to have as much effect as a mole on their cheek” - it is now loud and clear to me.

With the exemple of Seiya, I would add variety in the challenges is important, because repetition decreses tension, and less tention also means less investment in one’s story (or the story involving one particular character).

And if repeated to much, it becomes annoyance towards one’s character.

Calling myself out - Time to work on liking Seiya

Now this has gotten so much longer and personal than I ever expected, but after speaking so bad of Seiya I really do not want to leave out the part where I speak good of him. Especially when it involves my favourite kind of riddles with Saint Seiya characters : fill the gaps.

As mentioned before, it was always quite clear what traits Kurumada wanted to give the Pegasus Saint. Let’s start with the most obvious ones:

Mischievious side, implying as well that :

Has a sense of humour

Quite good with people or at least with kids

Rebel/independent side (flashback of Saori ridding Jabu, the begining of the anime)

Never gives up

Is a good leader / is capable of bringing people toghether / of rallying people to his cause

The last ones on the list are quite easy to forget about him, because of the “lack of challenge” discussed earlier (nobody would have ever forgotten about his leader skills if let’s say he had prevented Hyoga from turing over completely to Poseidon to stay with Isaak). In that spirit, I recently came across an idea that would make those two traits more “challenging” and give a more human dimention to his character.

Now the fact he was since always a bit of a rebel has an influence on his leader capacities, as being an independent mind he stands out and will not depend much external factors to go in a direction. But this alone does not make such an unchallenged leader as Seiya.

Now this is where my current employment helped this reflexion :  I work customer service, more precisely a position involving processing and solving issues.

The very first advice I was given during training was “Always sound confident. Even if you understand jack about what the customer is talking about, just sound confident. Make believe that you know your shit even if you are just about to google a crash course on the subject. Because if they even think for a second that you don’t know they will eat you“.

And let me tell you how accurate this advice is. I became the favourite of this Italian lady who always had problems with her printer because I read to her in a very confident voice an article I was reading on the spot after punching out her question in google.

It is not easy, and it really pumps your adrenaline, but it is true : if you sound confident people are going to follow your lead and believe in what you say. Even if you yourself have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

Now today, I was thinking how this could be the secret behind “The Miracle of Seiya”; maybe this is why Seiya is very good at being a leader, and even more, why he is very good at being a leader in the apocalypse fighter army of Athena.

He reassures everybody and gives them hope by making them believe he has 100% confidence in a given situation and that everything is under control, much like I became a printer and Wifi expert in the eyes of that Italian lady even though I actually dread those motherfuckers.

That would totally explain this bit at the Cancer temple too, this scene we all make a little fun of, where is is all “Don’t say that Shiryu ! We must think that we have still 9 hours to save Saori !” and moments later he seems to be ignoring his own advice saying “that’s not a lot” (Could be also something lost in translation tho)

And with this sort of influence on other people, he finally becomes a crucial character to the story, as he becomes the glue to the team without which it is possible the other bronzes would not have been as solid of a team, maybe even disbanding as the challenges they faced seemed often hopeless.

And with that I think I am ready to write something involving Seiya someday ...

[blazc-ignitixn]

Rules

1. This blog is:

Semi-Selective: Everyone is welcome to follow, however I might be a bit choosy about follows back (it's not you, I promise, just me being careful). I'd rather RP with mutuals (easier for me to keep track of replies, nothing more), though IM and Inbox are open for anyone, so feel free to drop by.

Multiship: I’m shipping trash and open to any sort of relationship, from platonic to romantic. I'm biased towards Touya x Hawks and Touya x Tomura, but I'm up to give any ship a try as long as there isn't a too big age gap (no more than 5-6 years) and the younger half of the ship is at least 18-20 (16 and no older than 17 in the Hero Student Verse) , so ask away (no, seriously, I work better knowing if you want to ship in advance, shipping with chemistry is all good but don't be afraid to ask me to ship straight away, I love planning a ship). Respect Touya's sexuality (homosexual) and in the off-chance I say no to a ship, DO NOT try and force it; I can guarantee I won't do the same. Pre-established (platonic) relationships are okay too (meaning Touya met them as a student or sidekick and is already familiar with them as a pro hero), if there's a good base to it, though it'll depend on the muse (Touya isn't exactly the social/trustful type). Absoutely no shipping Touya with any of the UA students and people who are minors in canon.

Multiverse: Interactions with different muses are to be considered to take place in a different verse unless discussed between muns. Same goes for shipping, so there will be no cheating involved (it’s a big no-no for me and makes me really uncomfortable, so don’t even ask).

Multimuse-Friendly: If you have a multimuse blog, feel free to interact with me, just make sure to specify which one of your muses you want to use, especially if we've just started interacting.

Sideblog-Friendly: I'm perfectly alright RPing with sideblogs; you can reblog my promo (tag This Is Our Call [Self Promo]) so I know where to find you, just please send me a message / IM from your main blog if I follow you so I know it's you.

OC-Friendly: Pretty self-explanatory, if your muse is an OC and you want to interact, you’ll be more than welcome. No Mary Sues or Gary Stus though, please (I had a bad experience in this regard). Also, I'd rather if you had a decent bio page so I know as much as I can about your OC, and I'm perfectly fine if your OC is related to a canon character.

AU-Friendly: Your muse is an AU/Canon Divergent version of a canon muse? Fine by me, as long as you have a bio page where you explain said AU/canon divergence so I have an idea about what's different from canon.

Crossover-Friendly: Your muse belongs to a different fandom? That’s perfectly fine! Though be forewarned that I might not follow back quickly (or at all) if it's a fandom I'm not familiar with unless we've been friends for a while (like, from before I joined the BNHA fandom), you have a BNHA AU or I see potential for interactions. It's mostly to keep my dash clean and for my own comfort, nothing against you, so please don't feel bad.  For fandoms I’m familiar with, see rule #20.

Duplicate-Friendly: If your muse is another Dabi, you're more than welcome to interact, I love multiverse mayhem! Time travel, alternate dimension, twin verse, anything goes.

NSFW-Friendly: Both mun and muse are 21+ and open to roleply smut, though it’ll only happen with muses that are at least in their twenties (Touya is 25 in the main verse and I won't RP smut in verses where he's 17 or younger), in which case it’ll be tagged accordingly as Too Hot To Handle [NSFW] and put under ‘read more’ if necessary. I will only RP smut if the other mun is 18+ and comfortable with it as well.

2. I accept interactions with underage muns, but the relationship between our muses will remain strictly platonic. I don't feel confortable writing romantic ships with underage muns due to past experience. Platonic ships are more than welcome though. Thank you for your understanding and patience.

3. No godmodding (controlling my muse yourself) and no metagaming (using knowledge of someone’s muse that a character has no way of knowing).

4. If you don't follow me back when I follow you but are still willing to RP, send me an ask or IM or tag me in a random starter to break the ice. I usually don't approach blogs I follow if they don't follow back for fear of bothering.

5. I’m open to RP via IM and Discord as well, so if we’re mutuals, feel free to ask for my Discord-ID (though I might be selective with giving it).

6. I don’t care about reply length, just write whatever you feel like. I’m perfectly okay with one-liners, para, multi-para and drabble-length replies, whichever floats your boat, as long as you give me something to work with for my own reply.

7. Don’t reblog OOC posts, Rules, Headcanons or threads you’re not taking part to. Seriously, it’s annoying as hell so. Please. Don’t. Do. It! 

8. Feel free to tag me in dash games (no seriously, I love those so the more the merrier) and, if we're mutuals, random starters as well.

9. Triggers might be present (Touya's backstory does include child abuse and domestic violence and he's prone to having panic attacks), but will be tagged accordingly as TW: Trigger (ex. TW: Blood), even if mentioned (in which case it'll be tagged as TW: Trigger Mention), just to be safe. If you want me to tag a specific trigger, just let me know. I don't have any triggers myself, but please tag cheating (in a relationship), animal abuse, torture, rape/non-con and eye-related gore, as they're topics which make me uncomfortable.

10. I’m more than happy to turn asks into threads, as long as we're mutuals. I don't mind either reblogging said ask or starting on a different post, whichever you prefer.

11. Since this blog is based on the 'Dabi is a Todoroki / Touya Todoroki' theory, which includes details of latest manga chapters, spoilers will be present, though they'll be tagged accordingly as Darkest Fire [Spoilers]. In general, I'll tag spoilers from the Internship Arc onward (let me know if you want me to tag earlier spoilers too).

12. I don’t really like to RP angst. Hurt/comfort is okay, though, and my go-to type of thread. Other things I prefer avoiding are dub/non-con, gore, and torture.

13. No hounding / pressuring for replies / answers. I won’t do the same with my RP partners and ask the same courtesy from them. If I haven’t replied in a while, you’re welcome to ask me (gently) via IM. Chances are I’m busy with real life (I’m an university student on my last year), my phone doesn’t work or I need more time to come up with a proper reply.

14. Please keep drama, discourse and anon hate away from me. I’m here to have fun and relax, so don't try and get me involved in stuff like this (it's lowkey triggering for me so please respect it). Much appreciated.

15. Don't be rude. I’m a very kind, considerate individual, I always do my best not to disrespect other people and I hate it when people disrespect me. I’ll gladly accept critiques as long as there’s a good, well-explained reason behind them, but gratuitous rudeness is a big no-no.

16. I don't accept M!A (Magic Anons) so don't send them in unless I request it by writing a post or reblogging a meme (which will happen rarely, if ever). M.A. sent without prompting will be deleted on sight. 

17. I won't take part in or join affiliated RP groups. Last time I did it wasn't a pleasant experience so I'd rather steer away from it for the time being. My activity might be spotty due to IRL stuff so I don't wanna feel pressured to be active at all time. I might make exceptions, but rarely so.

18. No need to send in passwords, I know it can make some people anxious. I myself have no problem sending them in if requested, and in any case I always make sure to read the rules before following/interacting, so I assume you did the same. 

19. For PSAs, look for the Let It Burn [PSA] tag.

20. Regarding crossovers, here’s some of the series I’m into and know very/decently well:

Persona Series

Ace Attorney

Yuri!!! On Ice

Fairy Tail

Pokémon games

Harry Potter

Artemis Fowl

Marvel Cinematic Universe

X-Men Movie 

Danganronpa

Ouran High School Host Club

Villainous / Villanos

Saint Seiya (Classic Series, Lost Canvas, Hades, Soul of Gold)

Time Hollow

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

Fruits Basket

Mystery Skulls Animated