#self-taught martial artist

[deadheaddaisy]

Gods, she is freaking amazing.

staffs & swords | source, source, source

[r1verlotusf1ower]

Art from back when I was like 14/15 and could draw everything separate, but not together—

Eg. hands look good by themselves, random faces can be found plastered all over my notebooks, and you’ll see a few scattered clothes here and there, but piece them all together?? It’s like three puzzles mixed and I’m building with just a vague memory of what the outcome is supposed to look like.

When I was younger I also had a tendency to rush things

Heh

[tobiasdrake]

Here we go. It's time to talk about my personal fave. As I said before, this is my Main. In Dragon Ball fighting games, this is the character I seek out to play whenever the roster allows. Also arguably the character who's been done the most dirty by just about every form of Dragon Ball, manga included.

The vanguard of a brand new status quo and a brand new direction for what Dragon Ball would even be, washed away by the tides of a status quo resetting to zero.

We're here to talk about the champion of Satan City who carries the spirit of Dragon Ball in her heart: Videl.

(And that is one cookie to @jcogginsa who guessed it.)

Videl was a kid with a chip on her shoulder. I mean. How could you not be? Her father was the legendary world martial arts champion who famously defeated Cell seven years ago.

Don't pay attention to that. He just tripped for a moment. Once he got his second wind, he came right back and showed Cell what for! It was due entirely to Mr. Satan and nobody else that the Earth was spared from the apocalyptic horror that is Cell.

Look, he even said so himself.

Are you gonna call that man a liar? The man who defeated Cell!? I think we can trust Satan's word over yours.

This is the shadow that Videl grew up under. Raised in what had previously been called Orange City, but was renamed Satan City in honor of the world's greatest hero.

Or "Hercule City/Herculopolis" in the versions that edit out Satan's name.

As his daughter, Videl has a perspective on Satan that neither the world nor the audience gets to see: He's a womanizing playboy who cashes in on his world-savior fame for booty.

He also forbids his teenage daughter from dating by putting up the stipulation that any boy interested in her has to be stronger than him, the world champion - A stipulation naturally designed to weed out any possible suitors through intimidation. Wanna date Videl? FISTFIGHT THE MAN WHO DEFEATED CELL.

Oh, but he doesn't teach her a goddamn thing; At least, not anymore, as she does suggest there was once a time when he was her mentor. She's forced to study martial arts entirely on her own because her dad is utterly disinterested in her development in the art.

This is an angle on Satan we never get to see onscreen. Apparently he's pretty shitty about women. You know, I can believe that.

Videl, when we meet her, is trapped in an unenviable position as a martial artist. She hates what the fame of being a legend has done to her dad and wants to knock him down a peg, but she has no foundation to develop her abilities from. The one man who's supposed to be teaching her isn't doing it, and she's been passively discouraged from pursuing more esoteric martial arts because the world champion said that stuff's all fake.

Videl makes for a fascinating foil to Gohan, because they're both children living in the shadows of legendary fathers.

Gohan is expected to be Goku's successor, but wants to live a peaceful life of academia. Meanwhile, Videl is being denied the ability to become Mr. Satan's successor, but craves the opportunity to prove herself.

Nonetheless, both of these kids are prodigies. Videl has a wealth of potential. She doesn't even realize that, despite these limitations, she surpassed her father long ago. Despite being a self-taught teenager with zero comprehension of ki cultivation, Videl hones her skills and developers her art the only way that's available to her: By punching it out with armed robbers in the region.

Backpack Town isn't even her city! She's a one-woman SWAT team for the tri-state area.

As ambitious and driven as she is, Videl is also clever. The anime extrapolates the adventures of the Great Saiyaman into a several-episode arc as Gohan deftly avoids detection by Videl over and over again, but this has the knock-on effect of depriving Videl of one of her best moments.

Because she pegs him instantly. She was already suspicious of Gohan being the mysterious "Golden Warrior", when he tried to use his Super Saiyan form to disguise himself as a superhero.

Which also showed that she was open-minded about the other people who fought Cell. Satan says they were doing a bunch of tricks, but Videl's willing to consider the possibility that there exist people who can turn blond on command.

And then Gohan did this shit.

Because he was raised in the woods by the devil and Goku. Despite trying to keep a low profile, he has absolutely no idea what the baseline for ordinary human ability is.

So. Y'know.

That's pretty fucking suspicious.

Which brings us to Gohan's second outing as Great Saiyaman, and his first meeting with Videl under his new identity. Whereupon she, uh....

Plays him like a fucking sap. It's a great moment that doesn't get its due if it takes several episodes and misadventures for her to reach this point. Videl is exceptionally skilled in the field of paying attention to that time Gohan jumped thirty feet in the air and naturally drawing conclusions from it.

And also his voice and posture and other dead giveaways. Gohan sucks at secret identities.

He's just. So obviously Gohan. There's no way anyone would be fooled by this.

But she's not only adequate at seeing things with her eyes; She's also a legitimately brilliant martial artist in her own right. Due to her upbringing, she's had zero experience with ki cultivation for obvious reasons.

And yet she's talented enough and smart enough to pick up the basics of Bukujutsu in one day.

Oh, don't mind her; That's just Videl making a mockery of Tsuru-senryu by effortlessly devouring their signature technique. This is Goku's first Kamehameha all over again.

She may have started small but Videl learns fucking fast. She has all of the drive and the ambition that Gohan lacks. She wants to be part of this world, she has a ravenous hunger for self-improvement, she's clever and observant, and she picks up concepts insanely quickly.

Videl is fucking primed to be a key player in Dragon Ball's next generation.

...

So now we need to talk about what happened to Videl.

Videl has one major fight in the entire series: Her 25th Tenkaichi Budokai bout against Spopovich.

Which she absolutely dominates. She's stronger, better, and faster than Spopovich. Even the experienced martial artists agree that she's infinity times better than him in every way.

But there's something wrong with Spopovich. He's a decent martial artist, far from the top; He'd competed in the 24th Tenkaichi Budokai and made it through the qualifiers, but was eliminated in the first round. So, y'know, he had no chance in hell against Videl; She's already surpassed Mr. Satan, who won the 24th legitimately.

Uh, by virtue of none of the Kame-senryu or their rivals attending. Mr. Satan is top dog of the same weight class as Pamput from the 22nd.

But, despite being outclassed in every category, Spopovich is also a dead man walking.

He's similar to the Androids in a sense. Spopovich has no ki signature at all, nor does he get worn down by the damage he's taking. This is Vegeta vs. 18 and Piccolo vs. 17 all over again; He isn't feeling the pain from the hits she's landing on him, and so he's able to outlast.

But Spopovich isn't an Android. He's more like a zombie?

At one point, Videl cuts loose and breaks his goddamn neck. Because he's pushing her hard enough that she realizes she needs to go harder, but his body can't take harder. He isn't a match for her. He just. Isn't going down despite not being a match for her.

He can't take this level of force. But he and his ominously vacant absence of ki can put his head right back where it was and continue the fight, no problem. That's honestly scarier than if he'd regenerated.

Also despite not even having the barebones ki signature of a normal person, Spopovich can perform Bukujutsu and fire ki attacks.

Which a fighter of his meager ability shouldn't even be capable of.

All of this adds up to an unwinnable fight for Videl and the setup to... Something. This match has been criticized pretty heavily in the fandom because it gets pretty gruesome and doesn't have a payoff.

We've seen fights go fucking bad for our heroes before. Piccolo once broke all of Goku's arms and legs as well as shooting a hole in his chest, right here in this same arena.

But it's typically building to something. When our heroes get trashed, it's the lead-up to a reversal down the road. Maybe in the same fight. Maybe in a later one. And we seem to be heading in that direction?

After Spopovich and Yamu leave the tournament, we get VIdel a Senzu and she's right as rain.

Spopovich and Yamu steal energy from Gohan and fly off to Babidi's Ship so they can awaken Majin Buu. Kaioshin recruits the various protags to make that not be a thing that happens. And then. Something switches in the narrative flow of this arc.

You can feel it happen.

As our heroes prepare to pursue Spopovich and Yamu, Videl volunteers to join in as well. She's had her eyes opened to a whole new world or possibilities and is hungry to develop her abilities.

And. Then. One chapter later. It's suddenly decided that Videl will not be a part of this storyline after all, and she basically leaves the plot forever.

WHOOPS! Never mind! Didn't want this character here after all. Go home, Videl.

While her adversary Spopovich is unceremoniously unwritten from being a thing that exists.

Babidi just. Kills him. For no reason. Even though his job isn't done yet. Babidi's like, "Oh good, you collected a fraction of the energy we need; That's fine, you can be fired. I don't need anyone to finish the job."

We're just. We're not telling that story anymore. We already threw Videl in the trash; we don't need her nemesis. We're doing a different thing.

Also, because we still have too many characters in this scene, Dabra erases Krillin and PIccolo with magic spit that never comes up again or is meaningful in any way.

You'd think this would be, like, setting up something? Like. Having witnessed it ahead of time, Gohan's able to figure out something about the way Dabra's spit works. So when he fights Dabra in a climactic battle, he can turn this around.

Like when Goku was able to counter Tenshinhan's Taiyoken/Solar Flare in the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai, because he'd seen it before and understood how it works. That's usually what Dragon Ball does with this sort of advance notice of opponent abilities.

But. No. The most this ever comes up again is that it momentarily costs Gohan one of his gloves. It's just here to winnow down the cast because Toriyama brought too many characters to this scene.

You can feel the burnout taking hold. As janky as the Android arc was, the Buu arc's level of jank is through the roof.

And that became it for Videl. Denied any sort of payoff for her one fight and instead relegated to background character, Videl never got a chance to live up to the intriguing potential she was introduced with. She was the face of a new direction for Dragon Ball, a direction that ended up strangled in its crib as the series reverted to old ideas and old formulae - strangling her along with it.

Videl is a character I look at and can't help but wonder what could have been. What could have been if Gohan got to keep his focus, and Videl got to remain a key player in a story about him? What could have been if we got to see Videl developing her skills at the same fever-pace that she learned Bukujutsu with? What could have been if she got that rematch with Spopovich she seemed to have been promised by the narrative, and then got to stay involved throughout the Buu arc?

But I guess we'll never know.

[destiny-in-the-universe]

Pines Headcanons [Happy Birthday, Grunkles]

I cannot believe I just now got reminded of this- holy shit. Unfortunately, I'm not an artist so have these headcanons instead about Stan and Ford

Stanley ‘Lee’ Pines

He’s bisexual. This is not up for debate (/lh). It just made sense for him 

Stanley is ambidextrous. He can write and utilize both his left and right hands. This was something he self-taught himself in after the portal accident 

On the power of ‘I said so’, Stan does have some level of book smarts but instead of math or science- it’s creative writing. He’s got the talent for it; however, he rarely - if ever - shares these stories with anyone

Stan has some form of neurodivergency. Young Stan definitely gives the impression of ADHD but also I feel he’s got dyslexia- don’t ask me why. This is canon now

He does have scars from the time he spent on the run and doing his sales. I’m not sure what they are exactly, but just know he has them 

Stan knows martial arts. Other than boxing, I feel he would’ve taught himself in other forms of fighting- like the ones done on the streets and it’s a weird mix of martial arts and free-style fighting

He can be a bit of a poet, but for the most part- Stan prefers show-and-tell as his love language. He will present his partner with gifts, and makes sure they understand he’s there for them 

He’s kind of protective over his partners, and definitely has gotten into fights in an attempt to protect their honor. It’s ill-placed sometimes but he’s not about to let some bozo mess with them

Stan always sought his father’s approval. He attempted multiple times to perfect his studying skills before the science fair accident, but apparently Old Pa Pines didn’t seem to notice and the rest, well, it was already history

He fantasized of being a pirate when he was a kid. This is where the whole thing of going on a seafaring adventure with Ford came from! Unfortunately due to canon events, this soured out but he held onto a photograph he and Ford took in front of the beach as a memoir

He’s very much not a big fan of vegetables

Stanford ‘Ford’ Pines

He’s arospec and ace!

Ford absolutely loves puzzles. Why? It just weirdly fitting for his character

He definitely has C-PTSD following the events of Weirdmaggedon

Autistic Ford? Autistic Ford. There is no way he doesn’t have it- I said what I said

Before he got involved in the strange and paranormal, one of Ford’s main interests was actually crystals and rocks! It felt weirdly fitting for his character, and here we are

Ford is more of a cat person. At one point, he rescued a cat-adjacent creature from an auction and named her ‘Nova’. Of course, it’s far from a cat but well, we’ll get to that later

He would be into LARP if it exists in the Gravity Falls canon. Like, that man is a nerd and already enjoys the show’s version of Dungeons and Dragons, there’s just no way he wouldn’t participate in LARP

He does have scars from his time in other dimensions for thirty years. He’s very secretive about them and doesn’t let anyone see- not even Stanley

Ford deals with the aftermath of a burnt-out gifted kid- like, he was the prodigal son and got all the right honors, scores, all of it but as he got older- the more he struggled, the more he felt like something was missing. As the golden child, he was brought up with the notion he would be important but then got smacked in the face when he realized none of it truly mattered

He had a lot of issues adjusting to his new life in Gravity Falls, Oregon after he was brought back from the portal. Ford’s triggered fight-or-flight response would kick in with unexpected situations- like, he’s definitely pulled a blaster/space gun

He likes hot chocolate

Ford enjoys cuddle piles, let’s be honest here. Once he gets more comfortable, he begins making nests with the rest of the Pines family

He’s protective of his family!

I’ll try and come up with new headcanons soon, but since I took too long releasing this- given I got sick unfortunately, I decided to post a smaller version 

[utilitycaster]

So you're playing a D&D class

(had these thoughts while thinking about CR character builds, but relevant to D&D in general).

Here's just a brief list of three questions per class that are intended to be helpful if you're playing that class and are working on fleshing out that aspect of your character. Note that I'm only covering officially published classes for 5e. If you're a blood hunter I am just going to assume you know what you're about, and if you're a mystic then you are beyond help or hope. Also, obviously, there's way more to a character than their class! But understanding why the character is that class is pretty crucial to overall character build.

Artificer:

Did the magic come first or did the tinkering come first?

Did you apprentice or were you self-taught?

What do you dream of creating - or if you don't, what outside goal drives your creations?

Barbarian:

Is rage a cultural or family trait, or is this unique to you?

What do you feel like when you rage?

What do you feel your purpose is, outside of combat? Do you have one or are you not sure? (note - feel free to ask this about other martially focused classes, but barbarians skew especially hard towards combat skills above all others)

Bard:

What led you to be able to tap into the echoes of creation (not guaranteed for all artists!)

What is your medium, and how did you come to it/learn it?

You have a ton of skills - how did you acquire them?

Cleric:

What is your relationship with the deity/entity/concept that grants you your powers?

Since many sources have multiple domains, why this domain specifically?

What does your worship look like?

Druid:

Is your relationship to nature cultural, or personal?

What drew you to your circle?

How do you feel about wildshape? Is it a tool available to you, or an enjoyable experience?

Fighter:

Who trained you or how did you pick up your skills?

What led you to focus on fighting? Is there something you wished to attack or to protect?

Fighter is REALLY modular/subclass dependent, so dig into your subclass; if you're a champion, the 'what is your purpose outside combat' from Barbarian may apply, but if you're say, an eldritch knight or rune knight, you may have had two teachers and should dig into that.

Monk:

Who trained you?

What does Ki feel like for you?

Not a question, but: with the caveat that I know very little about martial arts, I do think that having a concept of the martial art style your monk uses is a huge help in bringing the character to life.

Paladin:

What drew you to this oath?

What continues to motivate you?

You're in a very versatile role; which part speaks to you the most- do you see yourself more as a protector? a healer? is the versatility itself what matters?

Ranger:

How did you learn your nature skills?

What is your relationship to your magic?

Why are your favored terrain and enemy what they are?

Rogue:

How did you learn to pick locks?

Did your thievery/stealth come as a necessity for survival, or was it a choice?

As with bard - what specifically led you to develop the skills you have?

Sorcerer:

When did your powers first manifest? If it was not when you were very young, what were you doing beforehand?

Are you interested in where your powers came from? How far would you go to learn about them? Or do you already know?

What would you do if your powers disappeared?

Warlock:

What led you to make the pact - even if it was accidental or a trick?

How do you feel about your patron generally?

Because warlock is truly very modular - that is, extremely reliant on the boon and evocations for flavor, analyze the choice of evocations and boon. If you picked agonizing blast, why specifically did your warlock want to make eldritch blast stronger? What drew your character to the blade vs. chain vs. tome?

Wizard:

What role do wizards play in your society?

How were you trained?

What do you most desire to learn or achieve?

[anne-bsd-bibliophile]

Yan Wushi and Shen Qiao Comparison

The author of Thousand Autumns, Meng Xi Shi, wrote in the Foreword, "The two leads have extreme personalities that are diametric opposites: one finds joy in helping people, while the other resolutely believes that human nature is evil. But because both are them are incredibly strong, they cannot convince each other. And so when they meet, they’re destined to clash in a blaze of intense sparks." While I reread the series, I collected a few of my favorite quotes that described Yan Wushi and Shen Qiao's personalities and world views so I could compare them side by side. It is amazing how two characters who are polar opposites can complement each other so well.

Shen Qiao: “When it comes to worth, every heart weighs it differently. Grudges have a source, and debts a debtor, but involving innocent people should never be commended. When you don’t save the people you could have, when you don’t take action when you could have, a shadow lodges in your heart forever. Whether other people know about it—whether they’ll feel grateful—that’s their business.”

Yan Wushi: As always, whenever Yan Wushi opened his mouth, sarcastic comments streamed out. Hearing them was enough to make any listener grit their teeth. But with the way he stood upon the cliff face, hands clasped behind his back and robes dancing, the assembled spectators simply had to look up to him as well. His achievements and martial arts, his incredible strength—many understood that they’d never reach such heights. It was human nature to admire those of great strength, and if anyone claimed they felt no trace of admiration for the egotistical Huanyue Sect Leader—who had the power to warrant such an ego—they’d be lying.

Shen Qiao: Even when he’d fallen into the mire, when he was smeared with dust and grime and was at anyone’s mercy, still he struggled back to his feet and walked onward, step by step. His comrades’ betrayal, his kindness being repaid with enmity—it was as if he’d taken none of it to heart.

Yan Wushi: But Yan Wushi was the kind of man who reserved even his egotism and conceit for those on his level. The mediocre remainder weren’t worth his attention, so he couldn’t care less what they said or thought.

Shen Qiao: “During our time in this world, everyone has to make their own choices. Some will choose to preserve their lives at all costs, and some will choose to give up their lives for their reputation or to demonstrate their innocence. In all cases, there is nothing to criticize. Only during the darkest hour will one’s true self emerge.

Yan Wushi: This Huanyue Sect Leader’s character was just as the rumors painted him: mercurial and unpredictable. Even after they’d spent so much time together, Shen Qiao still dared not say that he completely understood him.

Shen Qiao: “There are many people in this world. Some of them good, some of them bad. But even more can’t be categorized as simply ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ Their thoughts may be different from yours, and the paths they choose may also be different... You mustn’t reject others just because they’re different from you. As a person, you have to be like an ocean that embraces the hundred rivers: tolerant and broad-minded. The same holds true as a martial artist. The narrow-minded are limited in what they can achieve. Even if they reach the summit, they won’t be able to stand there for long.”

Yan Wushi: In Yan Wushi’s eyes, the incompetent would never be worthy of his attention. Counting decades into the past, there’d been one exception in Shen Qiao, but there was only one Shen Qiao. No one else deserved any extra concern from him, even if they were his disciples. He’d already taught his disciples his skills; if they needed his protection in everything, why bother wandering the jianghu? They might as well bash open their heads and die.

Shen Qiao: He was happy to treat others with kindness, and he didn’t care how much he gained or lost in exchange. But when other people returned him a similar kindness, to the point that they were willing to die for him, it was far harder for him than simply receiving nothing in the first place.

Yan Wushi: Shen Qiao shook his head. “He’s not cruelhearted—he never had a heart in the first place. He treats everyone in the world with the same callousness, and he’ll never be particularly gentle toward anyone...”

Shen Qiao: In this world there are many, many situations where giving someone something doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll receive anything in return. When you choose to give, you must remember this, or else the only one hurt will be you.”

Yan Wushi: In Shen Qiao's opinion, Yan Wushi had no reason to bring trouble down on himself like this. But ultimately, Yan Wushi was Yan Wushi. If he moved according to other people’s expectations, he wouldn’t be Yan Wushi anymore.

Shen Qiao: “From the great Dao springs forth many thousand paths,” said Shen Qiao. “Some are fast, some slow, but none are better than any other.”

Yan Wushi: He adored Shen Qiao to a ridiculous degree, but this kind of adoration was usually expressed through teasing and bullying.

And what they think of each other by the end of the series:

Just as Shen Qiao was thinking this, he heard Yan Wushi say, “A-Qiao, do you know?” “Mm?” Shen Qiao returned to himself. “In the past, I classified all humans into two categories.” “Mm,” said Shen Qiao. He knew this. “They were either your opponents or insects.” Opponents were those who could stand on equal footing with him. Insects were the ones not worth his attention. In the past, Shen Qiao had been an insect in his eyes. “But now,” Yan Wushi said leisurely, “I’ve changed my way of thinking. A-Qiao, you’re different from most people in the world. You have compassion for all mankind carved into your bones, to the point that you’re willing to give yourself up for others without asking for anything in return. In the past, I thought you were the same as everyone else: you might start out good and innocent, but the world is fickle, and in the end it’d teach you to change as well. But you went completely beyond my expectations. Human affairs are like a stream, yet you are a rock. No matter how the stream flows, you will never shift.” Shen Qiao gave a brief laugh. “It’s rare to hear Sect Leader Yan praise me. How remarkable! This humble Daoist is greatly honored.” “Do you still hold a grudge against me in your heart?” Shen Qiao shook his head. “No, it’s the exact opposite. I admire you greatly. There aren’t many people in this world who can live so willfully, but Sect Leader Yan is one of them. Before I left the mountain, the only world and jianghu I knew was the tiny little space that my late master had told me about. I’d never seen it with my own eyes. If not for Yan Wushi’s instruction, I wouldn’t be alive listening to you say these things now.”

[city-of-ladies]

Edith Garrud - The suffragette that knew martial arts

The first British female teacher of jujutsu, Edith Garrud (1872-1971) taught the suffragettes to protect themselves.

A passion for martial arts 

Edith Margaret Williams was born in Bath in 1872 and started her career as a physical instructor for girls. She shared this passion for physical culture with her husband, William Garrud, a wrestling and boxing instructor.

They came in contact with Edward Barton-Wright who had spent three years in Japan, and studied judo and jujutsu. He elaborated his self-defense techniques known as “bartitsu” and opened his club in London in 1899.

The Bartitsu Club was notably opened to women. Edith was thus able to train alongside her husband. By 1908, Edith and William became jujutsu instructors themselves with William in charge of the men’s class and Edith teaching the women and children. 

Jujutsu specializes in speed, precision and the use of soft, flowing movements to deal with aggression rather than using just brute strength. The couple showcased their skills through demonstrations. In one of them, Edith defeated a male aggressor played by her husband. The sight of this 4ft-11inch (150cm) woman effortlessly throwing a much taller man greatly impressed the audience. 

In 1907, Edith starred in a short film Jujutsu down the footpads in which an innocent lady overpowers two ruffians. 

Vote for women

Edith took an interest in the cause of women’s suffrage. In 1909, she was invited by the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) to give a demonstration in the presence of Emeline Pankhurst and other leading figures of the movement. As William was ill, Edith demonstrated alone and invited members of the audience to test her skills. This included subjecting a skeptical police officer to a powerful shoulder throw. 

In 1910, Edith also wrote a series of essays, advocating for the growing community of female martial artists and how self-defense could free women by giving them the means to protect themselves:

“You constantly read in the papers reports of dastardly attacks on helpless women by thieves and ruffians. A woman who knows jujutsu, even though she may not be physically strong, even though she may not have even an umbrella or parasol, is not helpless. I know many women personally who have tried the tricks I shall explain to you and come out on top. They have brought great burly cowards nearly twice their size to their feet and made them howl for mercy.”

The bodyguards

The suffragettes faced dangerous and violent situations. This was especially the case on Friday 18th November 1910. 300 WSPU members marched on the House of Parliament and faced police officers armed with batons. Women were subjected to six hours of beatings and arrests and there were widespread reports of sexual abuses.

Emeline Pankhurst thus asked Edith to train a group of women that would be known within the WSPU as the Bodyguard. Led by Gertrude Harding, they acted as agitators, disruptors and decoys. 

Edith trained them in hand-to-hand combat and the use of homemade concealed weapons such as wooden India clubs and the fashioning of cardboard body armor. The suffragettes took advantage of their opponent's surprise and exploited their weaknesses.

They for instance struck directly at a police officer’s helmet to knock it from his head. Policemen were held accountable for the loss of uniform items and had to pay for their replacement. They cut the suspenders so that the policeman had to hold back his pants, blinded the police with a charge of umbrellas etc.

When told by a policeman that she was making an “obstruction” during a demonstration near the House of Commons, Edith pretended to drop her handkerchief, threw the policeman over her shoulder and disappeared into the crowd. 

In prison, suffragettes went on hunger strikes and were subjected to force-feeding. The “Cat and Mouse Act” of 1913 allowed hunger-striking prisoners to be released and then re-incarcerated as soon as they had recovered their health. The Bodyguard thus protected and hid those women.

Edith for instance hid militant suffragettes in her dojo, telling the police not to disturb her lessons and leave her property. 

A quiet retirement

Edith’s contributions to the suffragist movement ended with the beginning of the First World War. Little is known of her life afterward. 

She and her husband would run the Golden Square dojo until their retirement in 1925 and retired to a quieter life. William passed away in 1960. In an interview in 1965, Edith said that her recipe for a long, happy and healthy life was: 

“Self-discipline. Of course, I had to be extremely disciplined to succeed at jujutsu and hold my own with men […] but it is the mind which really has control, not only of your muscles and your limbs and how you use them, but also your thoughts, your whole attitude to life and other people.”

She died in 1971. A plaque on the building that had been her home can be seen today: “Edith Garrud 1872–1971. The suffragette who knew jiu-jitsu lived here”.

Further reading

Dorlin Elsa, Se défendre : une philosophie de la violence  

Godfrey Emelyne, Femininity, Crime and Self-Defence in Victorian Literature and Society: From Dagger-Fans to Suffragettes

Kelly Simon, "Edith Garrud: The jujutsuffragette". In McMurray, Robert; Pullen, Allison (eds.), Power, Politics and Exclusion in Organization and Management

Ruz Camila, Parkinson Justin, ““'Suffrajitsu': How the suffragettes fought back using martial arts”

[moltengoldveins]

hm yes emduo and bedrock bros and the eggs in Space. Phil is one of the last surviving members of a fragile but technically immortal species of elytrians that is now only whispered about in fairy tales. He’s a private investigator and enforcer (space pirate and muscle) for his beloved wife’s galaxy-wide uhhh….. Independent illegal group of people dedicated to protecting order and monitoring corruption? Gang of space pirates who steal from rich people? League of assassins but with morals? Unclear what the Syndicate Is Exactly but it sure do Be. He’s the pilot for the SBI Boreas, a light cruiser with a frankly Absurd munitions outfit. (Tubbo’s his mechanic) 

Techno is a member of the only recognized sentient deathworlder species, an odd mix of orc, elf, and pig features, and is by all accounts a living legend, or a living nightmare. He’s solidly twice the size of most other species, capable of surviving injuries what most would deem a death sentence, and a highly trained warrior to boot. Now, by all human accounts the texts of his people are pretty self-explanatory, (the Art of War is 89% Common Sense by volume) but in a galaxy of peaceful races on peaceful planets, it’s complex and brutal enough to be nigh-incomprehensible. He’s on a Lot of watchlists, but he’s also the like… platonic third partner in Phil and Madam Kristin, The Lady Of Death TM’s marriage??? So not a lot can be Done about him. 

Tommy is a younger avian teen (distant relation to the elytrians, definitely Not Immortal) who Techno found breaking into the Boreas and decided to keep (Phil took one look and his Dad Instincts kicked in) and his life is going swimmingly until he gets Yoinked for leverage against his dads and mum. The organization who gets him runs a blood sport colosseum, and while in transit his cage was stuck next to this weird hairless thing?? Chained with like Heavy Duty restraints. Tommy doesn’t have a ton of time to bond with this Strange Thing before the hostage negotiations happen, but they do manage to exchange names and Tommy decides with his classic impulsive passion that This Thing And He Are Brothers For Life Now. then the negotiations immediately go south, there’s a bit of a standoff, and Techno ends up trading himself for Tommy, which is what the organization wanted in the first place. They run a Reeeeally expensive exotic show for super Rich Jerks in an undisclosed location and Techno is their latest attraction. They’re also painfully cocky, and will be dying with extreme prejudice the moment Mumza gets her claws in them. 

So Techno gets Got and shoved in a high-security cell once they reach the colosseum, along with, surprise! This strange hairless creature with four limbs. It’s Chayanne, who is A Very Human Teenager who Did Not Want To Be Abducted By Aliens, Thank You. They’re both deathworlders, which Techno Does Not Realize until they get assigned to the same team a few weeks into the battles and watches Chay rip a bug man’s limbs off (Chay is Not having a good day. His dad (Missa) taught him self defense and was a martial artist, a butcher, and a rather morbid man, so some Relevant Knowledge and some general chillness around death is to be expected, but Not a chillness around KILLING PEOPLE FOR SPORT) Techno thinks this must be a fully grown adult whatever-it-is all the way until Chay breaks down crying and sounds Just Like a shoat (baby pig) and Techno feels the Dad Instinct rising again. 

Meanwhile, Halfway Across The Galaxy: the government has been developing space flight, but are really only at the borders of our solar system when they catch some aliens in the act of Yoinking another kid, this time from an orphanage (Tallula) they don’t manage to save her, but Holy Crap ALIENS???? Missa, who saw a bit of his son’s abduction but not enough to know exactly what happened, sees the news broadcast, puts two and two together and gets plot advancement. He starts pulling strings, asking about old connections in the space force (Cosmonaut Fit Emsi, godfather to Chayanne and Missa’s college best friend, may or may not be involved in the Turning Of Blind Eyes) and manages to get access to a hanger bay with a captured alien ship in it a few months after the incident in what might be the coolest heist sequence ever not-actually-written. (It’s very cool in my head, think Oceans 11 but the majority of the qsmp cast, trust me I swear.) He launches himself right into space and proceeds to systematically work his way through spaceport after waystation after colony planet in search of The Aliens Who Steal Human Kids (Specifically My Son) 

Techno is at this point playing the long game. He knows Kristin and Phil aren’t about to leave him hanging, and that they have enough firepower to burn this place to the ground, but he’s not sure when that’s gonna happen or how he’s gonna get Chay out. Meanwhile, Chay has No Idea what this strange Exceedingly Chill Pig Man has going on, but as far as he’s concerned, this is his life now. Forever. And making allies is important. They start trading languages and Techno starts teaching Chay katas (modified for the drastically different joint structure) in their free “big open space enrichment time.” (Side note: what aliens consider almost horrific cruel and unusual punishment is at worst severely unpleasant for humans. They just can’t take psychologically what humans can, so they kinda Have to treat their slaves better than we would. Doesn’t mean it’s good treatment, but it does mean Chay and Techno are both doing significantly better than they could be.)

Finally, Phil and Kristen rock up to the party incognito, dressed to the nines and attending a Big Event To Show Off Our New Deathworlders. They see Techno in the ring and have to Play It Cool, but he seems to be doing ok actually, so that’s good. Eventually the Head Honcho Man gets into a discussion with Phil right by the viewing window, so Phil has to pretend he’s fine when he sees a door open in the arena and A @:&;!ING HUMAN STEP OUT AND SQUARE OFF WITH HIS BEST FRIEND. (Shockingly, being immortal tends to inform you of such things like Secret Deathworlds and their Scary Inhabitants) Kristin is of course Immediately On The Move, but it turns out to be not necessary: Chay just kinda strolls up to Techno and gives him a side hug (bLEASE, you want me to fight my Roommate? Get out) and while Phil is laughing to himself, the Head Honcho gets maaaaad. He pulls it around though, announcing that he “already knew the two monsters had bonded the way only such vicious creatures could, and will be giving them a challenge only they could hope to face!!” And releases, like, four of the heccin Dune sand worms into the arena. Techno and Chay proceed to fight like demons while Phil and his squad take out the party and Kristen and her squad sweep the lower levels of the colosseum in an effort to keep More Worms out of the arena. Slavers die horribly. The end. 

Meanwhile, halfway across the galaxy: Missa returns!! Now with Even More Rage! His ship has broken down and because he ain’t got no Space Green Card, he’s got to get it repaired at a place that’ll take anyone. Enter Tubbo Underscore, Syndicate Member and Tinkerer Extraordinaire. Tubbo takes one look at this guy and goes “yeah that’s not a normal guy there’s something Wrong here” and through a series of pointed questions (and aggressive preening by Benson, a rather horrifying eldritch duck-dog thing the size of a small horse) Missa eventually explains why he’s in space. Tubbo, having just recently repaired Philza H Minecraft’s ship on its way to wipe out a gladiator ring, puts two and two together to make more plot, explains his Theory, and decides to accompany Missa, getting them into the next Syndicate raid on this organization. They, along with an undercover agent by the code name of Boo (It’s a word in Old Enderian that means ‘Eldritch’ or ‘Unknowable.’ Missa has to choke to keep from laughing) storm a freighter and rescue a bunch of valuable slaves and also!! Sunny and Tallulah! They have different first languages, Sunny was treated Significantly Cushier by the slavers than Lulah bc she was younger and viewed a bit more like a pet than a fighter, and they haven’t really spoken to one another before the rescue, so their rough start happens at this point. Cue Missa and Tubbo # Struggling to keep these two feral children from each others throats while they keep searching (‘Chay was literally never this bloodthirsty, the heck???’ -Missa, holding two backpack leashes apart while the girls are trying to strangle each other) 

Meanwhile on the Boreas: CHAY AND TOMMY REUNION POG???? Techno formally adopts Chay according to his culture (think Mandalorian, but to the left) and Chay has enough language to understand, but not enough to inquire about, yknow, whether Going Back To Earth is an option. As far as the Boreas crew know, it isn’t: Earth is a no-fly zone and Chay’s been out here for nearly a year and a half. They have no idea how they’d begin to get him home. 

Then finally, on a Syndicate-owned spaceport in the middle of nowhere, Missa finds the Boreas and sees his kid across a crowded bazaar. They hug, it’s super dramatic, very tearful, (Phil and Kristen are already planning his room on the ship: if they’re gonna coparent, they’re gonna do it Right) and after a bit of waffling, both Chay and Missa decide it’s for the best if they spend some time in space before heading back to earth, what with the whole “definitely stole a star fighter and wanted by the government, the entire world knows about aliens now” bit. There is fluff. There is cultural sharing. There is hair braiding. It’s amazing. 

Then comes my literal favorite space au trope Ever: a few days into the new and improved Boreas gang’s voyage, their ship is boarded by (shock, horror) a group of Human Pirates and the crew is Immediately captured. Turns out: it’s kinda hard to keep the existence of an entire galactic community from Everyone on Earth, and these are guys who, similar to Missa, yoinked a spaceship from their military and went rogue. (I’m putting Quackity here, cause I love charismatic villain Quackity and I think it works) they pirates are very VERY “humans are gonna expand to cover the universe” “might makes right” “come, join us, and together we can rule the galaxy” about it when they realiz Missa and Chay are aboard, and the Boreas crew honestly expects Missa and Chay to join them. They’re human! They speak the same language! They value the same things! Obviously they’re gonna take that way out, we wouldn’t even blame them! (Techno feels pretty betrayed but Phil/Kristen/Tommy just look resigned) Missa and Chay play along, pretend to hate their ‘alien captors,’ and arm themselves “to help them secure the ship.”

What follows is a rather emotionally charged but Very Very Cool sequence in which Missa and Chayanne use the skills they gained in their unfortunate struggles across the galaxy to Clean House, clearing their home the ship room by room until they’ve got a pile of bloodied and unconscious or dead humans and a very very shocked new family. There might be a bit more plot after this as the family settles, perhaps a sequel made of short stories, but this is generally the end.

The epilogue is five years later, when Fit Emsi, head of the new Intergalactic Human Intergalactic Relations Organization and Expansion Section (HIROES) has his monthly checkup call with Missa and Chay, who’re having a blast with Techno and Phil and Tommy traveling the universe. Fit calls them in to consult in cultural stuff during the negotiations with, yknow, the Actual Galactic Government, the one that views the Syndicate as a crime organization, but it’s pretty well known at this point that Mumza is In Charge Of Things on the Downlow, and Fit’s still Chay’s godfather for heavens sake: there’s simply nothing the government can Do about it. Tubbo has adopted Sunny and Chay took one look at Talulah and decided “Thats My Little Sister.” Phil apparently has had a crisis recently related to some kind of ancient evil ex long thought dead, but is on the road to recovery. Everyone lives happily ever after, the end. 

[harlequin-eldritchkin]

HAMMER HARLEEN AND THE FISTS OF CLOWNING (FREE FACIAL RECONSTRUCTION)

I have been looking for what martial arts Harley Quinn may have learned as she is seen going toe-to-toe with the likes of Catwoman, Nightwing, Batgirl, Lord Death Man, and Batman, to name a few. All that comes up is her backround in gymnastics and learning from the Bat Family, and her aggression and fearless approach of being a wild card. She is a scrapper, but Batman and Nightwing are too skilled to be beaten by a simple scrapper. So, what is her fighting secret?

Source: Pinterest. If you know the artist, please let me know and I will credit their work.

What I am about to present is not canon, and I do my best to stick to canon because this is about Harley Quinn and how she is presented in popular culture and not my fantasies, but martial arts was my first love ♡. I have spent over 30 years training and studying various forms of martial arts from books to learning under local masters, so I have more than a basic understanding of the Fist.

Source: Harley's hammer from a keychain I bought.

First, we all know she had a backround in gymnastics and was a criminal psychologist that worked in Gotham, where crime is the rule and not the exception. With that, before she was the Maiden of Mischief, she was just Dr. Harleen Quinzel, so it would be logical that she took self defense classes. She also grew up in New York and is Jewish, so Krav Maga, an Israeli self-defense art inspired by Israeli military hand-to-hand combat, would make the most sense. Krav Maga is also one of the more popular and efficacious self defense systems in the United States.

Krav Maga uses open hand strikes, clinches, knees, elbows, weapons disarms, and evasion tactics. They also teach eye gouging, throat and groin strikes, as well as grappling defense. Being a military art, it is based on survival and not for sport or beauty like prize fighting or traditional martial arts.

Source: Harley VS. Apokolips

Although she was a gymnast, gymnastics does not teach fighting, but there are martial arts that combine gymnastics and fighting, the most famous being Wushu and Shaolin Kung Fu. There is an ancient kung fu method called Yi Jin Jing, or Muscle Tendon Change Classic, which is influenced by Yoga and combines a mix of flexibility and strength exercises.

Shaolin Kung Fu combines acrobatics, gymnastics, iron body, animal forms, weapons forms, meditation, and Traditional Chinese Medicine. I wouldn't go as far as saying she trained in China, but New York has a large martial arts community and its own Shaolin Temple, so it is a possibility.

Source: Google. Young Sifu Shi Yan Ming training in Shaolin Temple. He runs the New York branch of Shaolin.

Another style that involves acrobatics and kung fu, which is one of my favorite styles, is Drunken Boxing.

It isn't a single style. It is taught to intermediate to advanced students once they have mastered the basics of their style. It has a mix of tumbling, jumping, spinning, flipping, and deceptive tactics and techniques based on the movements of a drunkard.

Sources: Jackie Chan, Drunken Master 2, Gordon Liu, Shaolin Drunken Monk.

Finally, we have her weapons. Her most notable being her bat and (oversized) mallot.

Source: Harley Quinn Animated Series

The Irish have a stick fighting style called "bataireacht" which uses a shillelagh, a hard wood (blackthorn) stick with a natural nob as a handle that is good for hooking and smashing, such as smashing a skull.

Source: irelandjournal.typepad.com

Of course, swinging a bat at someone is a very effective way to end almost any fight.

Source: Harley Screws Up the DCU

[whimsylueur]

question- do you have a sp oc/self insert??

Up until I received this ask, no lol

But since I have been asked, I actually wanna make one. :)

I guess this counts as an ethnicity reveal too haha. Otherwise, he’s based (mostly) on my beloved bf.

Edit: this name felt right, I liked the word Tetany though so it remains incorporated.

Maruwehi = to inspire respect or dread, Te Tini = the many (taken from a saying “te tini me te mano” meaning the many and the thousands, referring obviously to his spiders), the pronunciation is identical to ‘tetany’ which is a condition similar to seizures that is the first condition of Maru’s spiders’ venom.

Maruwehi (pronounced ma [“mu” in mud] ru [“do” w/ rolled r] we [“whe” in where] hi [he as in he/him]) is a pretty cheeky guy with a big heart, he’s family oriented and would be homesick quite often while attending Corrival. Even so, he loves Ireland and took up good work as a gamekeeper, teaching mortals and sorcerers alike to hunt, soon after graduating.

He talks with plenty of slang and while he isn’t the most eloquent speaker he isn’t intimidated by (some) big words. Despite being a Child of the Spider, his appearance is charming and demeanour approachable. His name isn’t that frightening either. His father “Tūiri” is a different story, considered extremely dangerous by the NZ sanctuary and constantly maintains his gigantic spider form. Maru respects his father greatly and promises to take his discipline but isn’t keen to be apart of the temple.

He crosses paths with Arbiters Valkyrie Cain and Skulduggery Pleasant when some mages go missing in the hunting grounds Maru frequents, he assists in surveying the area and identifying some suspects after the mages turn up deceased. He can appreciate the detectives’ deadpan humour and simultaneous diligence when solving a case.

Abilities- Spider creation and control, they look similar to katipō (a species native to NZ) and have potent venom that is easily fatal. He doesn’t use them to hunt but he uses them to track and spy. He can’t quite achieve his entire spider form but he wants to before his surge takes place. His second favourite discipline is Elemental magic. Weaponry and combat, obviously being trained at Corrival made him a competent fighter, he has a great knowledge of guns too, preferring his reliable Henry rifle (modified for range) for work. Sigils have been incorporated into his puhoro (tattoo extending from his waist to his thighs) by his older brother, a Signum Linguist and tattoo artist, that simply allows Maru to be tracked by his family.

Hobbies- Muay Thai he enjoys above all martial arts taught back home and at Corrival, likes to compete when he’s got some time. Maru has played rugby since he could manage to run in a straight line and joined a club in Ireland, playing with his mortal and mage mates. Growing up, if he wasn’t at the temple he was in the bush hunting with his cousins and siblings on horseback, it’s no coincidence that it became his life’s work.

[greatwyrmgold]

Worm × Ranma½ Crossover Idea

Blame @heyitschartic for putting this idea in my mind.

Why?

Brian Laborn/Grue has a bit of a complex around his masculinity. He wants to be an Ideal Man—stoic, reliable, strong, decisive. A provider, a protector, a patriarch. His first trigger event was caused (in part) by a perceived failure to live up to that ideal, his second trigger event by another perceived failure, one which was even more emasculating because he and his loved ones were victimized by a preteen girl.

He's not a stereotypical toxic-masculinity-jock type, but he definitely has a complex around his masculinity. So let's force him into a girl's body to make him either confront his problems or self-destruct trying!

How?

This is a point where Chartic's post falls short. She skips straight from "Grue in the Spring of the Drowned Girl?" to sitcom shenanigans. Luckily, it's not a hard question to answer: Mr. Laborn.

We don't know much about Brian and Aisha's unnamed father; we don't even have a name. I think basically all we know can be found in chapter 4.4:

He was a boxer "when he was in the service," and taught Brian when he was "little."

He's not a great dad. Cold, unable to bond with his son except through training, unable to bond with his daughter at all.

He's willing to give Brian (the seventeen-year-old) custody of his sister. Is this because Mr. Laborn is aware of his shortcomings as a parent, or because he doesn't want to deal with Aisha? We have no way to know.

So, this tells us two things about Mr. Laborn. He likes boxing, and he's an insensitive parent. That's kinda close to Genma Saotome's character traits of liking martial arts and being an irresponsible parent. So we can probably have Mr. Laborn play a sufficiently Genma-like role without completely overwriting his character traits!

Hold on, this is annoying. Mr. Laborn needs a first name. Since he's taking Genma's role, and "Genma" is one kana off from "Ranma" (they even both spell their "nma" with the 馬 kanji), I reckon Mr. Laborn's first name should also be quite similar to his son's.

Orion? Brennan? Adrian? Byron? No, that one's taken. I think I'll go with Ryan for now, but I'm open to alternatives.

Anyways, let's say that Ryan wants to improve his and Brian's martial abilities, and drags him to China because Asia has the best martial artists. Let's say this happens during Brian's stint as a solo villain, which gives him reason to resent this decision (beyond the obvious). So they end up going to Jusenkyo because Ryan heard a rumor that it was a great training spot.

What? (happens next)

Skipping ahead a few steps: I think it would be fun if Ryan Laborn decides to use his curse to fake being a parahuman and tries to work as a vigilante/mercenary. Which means he needs to fall into a spring corresponding to some kind of large animal, ideally one capable of boxing. Or which is at least not obviously incapable of boxing.

That pretty much limits us to gorillas, bears, or red kangaroos. I don't like any of these options; the kangaroo is too small, a bear feels too similar to Genma, and giving a black guy the power to turn into a gorilla feels...fraught.

I guess "bear" is the obvious choice, but it feels too much like an actual superpower. A werebear who decides to fight crime in a superhero city just sounds like the pitch for a superhero story; someone who turns into a yak or horse or something and does the same feels more comedic, even though yaks and horses are very big and would be reasonably effective at street-level cape-fighting. (But they can't box.)

Regardless, we'll probably end up with an animal that isn't native to China, but I've already thought of a joke to explain that. Something like...

(splash) "Oh no! He fell in the Spring of the Drowned Girl! There's a very tragic legend about a young woman who drowned herself in that very spring 1,500 years ago!" (splash) "Oh no! He fell in the Spring of the Drowned Polar Bear! There's a tragic legend about a polar bear who escaped from the zoo and drowned in that very spring in 1987!"

Anyways, once Ryan Laborn gets his "power" and moves back to Brockton Bay, he coerces Brian to help him out. That way Brian has a "fun" multidirectional identity problem, where he can't let his dad know he's Grue or let the Undersiders know about his vigilante identity (when the Undersiders become a thing). This latter is easier than it seems at first, since Ryan has Brian use his girl-form to assist his vigilante/mercenary/cape stuff.

Who? (else do you have thoughts about)

Aisha: Despite her dad and brother's best efforts, she learns about their situation pretty quickly and blackmails them for it. (Ranma is so lucky to be an only child.)

Lisa: She also figures out Brian's secret and blackmails him, though much less maliciously. She also helps hide said secret from the other Undersiders.

Rachel: Meets girl!Brian, assumes she's the sister Brian always talks about. Brian struggles to maintain this deception.

Alec: There are a few options. He could hit on girl!Brian because he thinks she's hot, or he could secretly figure out Brian's secret and hit on girl!Brian because he knows it would annoy Brian in a way he can't retaliate for, or he could find girl!Brian terrifying and act politely and respectful to her (which annoys Brian because he doesn't treat Brian!Brian like that)...

Lung: Possibly the only named character in Brockton Bay who has canonically been to China, which makes him a pretty good candidate for a bonus Jusenkyo curse. He's a fun choice because his pyrokinesis lets him turn any cold water that douses him into hot water, giving him much more control over his form than most accursed people.

I want people to not realize Lung's cursed transformation is different from his transformation power, so some kind of large reptile would be a good choice. Perhaps a Chinese alligator?

Shadow Stalker: Obviously Grue's cape rival needs to have a positive relationship with his other cape identity. Attempted vigilante team-up? Ordinary friendship? More-than-friendship? It should definitely start with the vigilante thing. The big questions are how far to push it past that and whether Sophia wants to ditch the new girl's dad. (Probably.)

Taylor: In case it's not obvious, this fic would start before the Undersiders were formed. Early 2010, when Shadow Stalker was still a vigilante, Grue was a solo villain, Coil was an up-and-comer, and Taylor was a freshman without superpowers.

That said, it would be very Ranma½ for Brian to run into a bunch of romantically-compatible-ish girls as he runs around doing stuff, so I'd like to include Taylor somehow.

Ideally Taylor (pre-trigger) runs into girl!Brian and they become friends, with Brian successfully hiding all of his secret identities from her. And then months later she does trigger and become a cape and stuff, and by an astounding coincidence she discovers that her friend's boysona and one of her bullies have a superpower rivalry.

Ligeia: This makes even less timeline sense than including Skitter, Hive-Queen of Brockton Bay. However, her superpower is water, which activates Jusenkyo curses. I will bend time and space to include Super Water Lady in at least one fight scene with Grue.

Tendo family: After Ryan Laborn comes back home from China, he needs a place where he can adapt his boxing techniques to whatever animal body his curse sticks him with—somewhere private but not suspicious, run by someone he can trust, ideally with an opponent who can put up some resistance when fighting a large animal.

Or at least that's the excuse I'll use for including Ranma½'s most underrated character, since I can't imagine Mr. Laborn being the kind of guy to get his son engaged to girls without his consent.

Shampoo: You could probably just replace Ranma with Brian. Same personality, same relationship, more or less the same backstory. (I don't see Brian fighting some random stranger so he could eat the prize meal unless he was really hungry, but that kind of detail isn't hard to alter.)

Shampoo isn't interested in the cape politics of Brockton Bay, but she's strong enough to kick through walls, so the capes can't exactly ignore her. This means she could add some fun chaos to the grim cape side of the story. One week Lung could convince her to work with him, promising to help her hunt down this fighter she's getting revenge on; maybe next week she gets pissed at Lung acting like she's his flunky and bails.

Perhaps Sophia recruits Shampoo to the vigilante team she wants to set up, not realizing that Shampoo wants to get revenge on the other girl Sophia was planning to recruit. That's a pretty good way to make hilarity (and also violence) ensue!

I'm torn about how to bring in Shampoo's traditional marriage tradition. Who's the unlucky guy? Civilian!Brian? Grue the supervillain? Maybe Alec the supervillain, who gets blamed for the Undersiders' collective defeat of Shampoo?

Ryoga: I've considered ways for him to meet Brian in China and follow him to America, but there's no way he could reach Brockton Bay without getting lost. If he did get there, I'd want him to discover Brian's supervillain identity somehow. He, Brian, and Alec would all annoy each other so much.

Ranma "Half" Saotome: It would be kinda odd to have two teenaged guys who fell into the Spring of the Drowned Girl after their dad dragged them to China for martial arts training, wouldn't it? This fic has Brian kinda subsume basically all of Ranma's narrative importance, especially if we give him Ranma's relationship with Shampoo and Akane.

That said, just casually mentioning that he and Genma are a pair of martial artist burglars somewhere in the background could be fun.

Other Ranma½ Characters: I'd love to work some more in, and maybe if I write this fic an opportunity will present itself. They're good at keeping the tone light, with the caveat that most of them would not set foot in the same social circles as Brockton Bay's villains, even if they lived in Brockton Bay.

Random Thoughts

I bet I could think of some fun ways for Jusenkyo curses to interact with powers.

By default, they should overlap without interacting. Lung's parahuman ability lets him turn into a giant dragon-man and then an eldritch dragon when he fights. But if he's splashed with water and turns into a gator first, his paragator ability lets him turn into a giant dragon-gator and then an eldritch dragon when he fights. The only difference is whether Lung's para-transformations starts from a primate base or an archosaur base.

Brian's parahuman ability also predates his curse. However, while Lung's feelings about his transformation are mild irritation at worst, Brian has intense feelings about his translation; I can see his coping mechanisms for that twisting his powers a bit. Perhaps his attempts to create a separate girl!Brian persona (and do separate cape-work from his Grue!Brian persona) could result in his darkness power getting contorted to fit the new persona.

On one hand, that would deprive me of a chance to consider how Brian could use his one set of powers to pretend to be two different parahumans. On the other hand, if Brian's discomfort with sometimes being a girl make his powers change when he's a girl, coming to accept that new part of him could result in him being able to use both sets of powers regardless of his current form. And that seems kinda neat!

Ah, but what if someone had a trigger event after getting cursed? They might get a power that interacts with their transformation or reflects their relationship to it! Unfortunately, I have no idea what cursed characters might become parahumans, or the circumstances under which they'd do so.

[tobiasdrake]

What are your thoughts on Tenshinhan's change of morality? Most, if not all, of Dragon Ball's antagonists swap sides because there's a greater problem to deal with. But Ten goes from Heel to Face DURING his fight with Goku. Although Crane Hermit interfering with said match probably sped up the process.

An important thing to keep in mind is that, at this point in time, Tenshinhan hadn't really done much.

I'm not going to say he hadn't done anything wrong because. Y'know.

That wasn't exactly a firm handshake.

He also had Chiaotzu rig the drawing of lots.

That's it. That is his complete list of crimes. Unnecessary brutality during a match and rigging the tournament roster.

For comparison, Yamcha.

For the most part, Tenshinhan's wickedness is a vibe. He's a pissy kung fu brat, the same age as Bulma. He swaggers around drunk on his own self-importance and says mean things.

The sinister elements aren't in what he has done or is doing, but what he intends to do in the future. He's going to be an assassin. He's going to follow in Taopaipai's footsteps. He's going to kill Goku to avenge his fallen master.

But these are just the future ambitions of a teenage boy who hasn't had to cross those lines yet. He is not - yet - a killer.

Ten is similar to Zuko from Avatar in that he's not really a bad guy. He's trying to be a bad guy. He's a kid raised under a toxic belief system who hasn't had a chance to be exposed to other ideas, but who might find those ideas more closely aligned to his own beliefs if he had a chance to sit down and listen to them.

Someone who's been instructed that the sky is green, suddenly taking a walk in the park for the first time. Ten thinks his goal is to be a killer, but that's not actually why he's here.

This wasn't supposed to be about assassination and subterfuge. The mission statement from the start was to be a really good martial artist, humiliate the rival school, and win the title. That's it. That's what this was supposed to be about.

That is the only thing he was supposed to be doing here.

The mission didn't change until midway through Krillin and Chiaotzu's fight, when he happened to overhear that Goku was the guy who killed Taopaipai.

This was just a sports movie up until this point, and that's precisely the attitude Ten carries. He's the Cobra Kai kid from that original Karate Kid movie. All of his shitty attitude is the boastful swagger of a show-off trash-talking the competition.

He really just wants somebody to validate what a very good punchy boy he is. And he thinks he needs to become an assassin to do that because that's what he's been taught.

He's a show-off looking for validation.

There is no pragmatic reason for him to do this. Upon finding out that Jackie Chun is the Muten-Roshi, Tenshinhan throws a Kamehameha just to do it. Just so he can be seen doing it, so he can rub it in the Muten-Roshi's face that he can do it.

To prove to his rival what a great martial artist he is.

After they find out that Goku killed Taopaipai, Tsuru-sennin stops caring about the tournament. He just wants blood, ordering Chiaotzu to kill Krillin in the ring. But Tenshinhan? He watches Goku's match with Panput...

...and he's intrigued. Seeing what Goku's capable of gets his blood boiling with the spirit of competition.

He doesn't want to kill Goku. He wants to defeat Goku. Those are different things. They just don't seem different because he hasn't arrived at a point where he would have to make a choice between one or the other. Where he would have to decide whether to be a martial artist or an assassin. At this point in time, those roads are the same.

At this point in time, he still has the option to do both.

To kill Goku and be the assassin he's aiming for, and to defeat Goku fairly and properly as a true martial artist. He can walk both of those roads. For a time.

But the fork is coming, and it arrives at the moment when Tsuru-sennin violates the sanctity of his match.

Now he has to make a choice. Is he a killer who does whatever it takes to slay his opponent? Is he truly this guy?

Is that all his art will ever amount to? Is this who he is as a fighter?

Does he want to kill or does he want to win? And could he live with himself as a martial artist if this was how the greatest match of his life up to this point ended?

These aren't things he's supposed to care about, but they are things he cares about. It's important to note that he doesn't reject Tsuru-sennin. He's still trying to find a middle road, imploring his master to understand his feelings.

He's still trying to find a middle ground. A way he doesn't have to sacrifice his tutelage in order to be the man he wants to be. He has one foot out the door, but there are ways Tsuru-sennin could have played this that would have resulted in Ten and Chiaotzu going home with him to learn more bad ideology.

It's Tsuru-sennin who shoves him the rest of the way by escalating to immediate rejection and violence.

This is the Point of No Return. Can't really go home after this. Ten wasn't trying to make this a complete fracturing of his entire relationship with Tsuru-senryu; Literally all he was asking for was to be allowed to fight his rival fairly. But that's what it became because abusers are like that.

The full meaning of what he's just given up isn't lost on him, either.

After this, he doesn't really have a choice but to forge his own path and find a new way forward for himself and Chiaotzu. He literally cannot go back.

Some bridges can't be unburned. And sometimes that's for the best.

[vintagegeekculture]

On January 9, 1995, William Shatner guest-starred on “Monday Night Raw,” where he feuded with Memphis’s Jerry “The King” Lawler, in order to promote “TekWar.” Shatner, a self taught martial artist with a distinctive style (as any original Star Trek fan can attest) performed a monkey flip on the King. 

[reigning-orion]

I made a cryptid coffeehouse oc!

They go by Nef and use They/he pronouns! Nef is a changeling. They're super into kickboxing/martial arts and love to change up their look from time to time. He's currently a makeup artist. He can make anyone look/feel like a completely different person with just a few cosmetics! They like to post short videos teaching people how to do different makeup looks. He didn't have anyone to teach him about makeup when he was young and is self taught so they know exactly what not to do lol.

I thought they would get along really well with mordag for no good reason I just think mordag is adorable. They would 100% throw kurou over their shoulder when he's being annoying or something lol

Here's a lil pic of Nef with Kurou and Mordag. I thought it would be cute as a poloroid since kurou likes to hang up pictures of his friends in his room.

I thought it would be fitting for the mc to be a creature that's known to be able to change its shape to look like anyone. The way they look here is based off how changelings look in d&d. Might make a character sheet for them later.

Mordag and Kurou are owned by @nyewclear

Play their visual novel its literally so good!