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popwasabi · 5 years ago

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Lockdown Lookback: Catching up on the past months’ Pop Culture

Aaaaannnd we’re back!

It’s amazing what a little pandemic can do to shake you out of your creative cobwebs but if we’re all going to die, I want to make sure all my pop cultural hot takes are up to date at least.

Many of us are already on lockdown and many major movies including “007,” “Black Widow” and ummm I guess “Mulan” are all getting pushed to the backburner as no one is leaving their God damn homes unless they’re told to!

(Didn’t realize the thing I wish I had more of in the apocalypse would be sweatpants...)

But there’s still plenty to talk about from the previous months and other hot topics I have been meaning to write about but just hadn’t found the time or energy for. Life has been hard I think for just about all of us these days thanks in no small part to this pandemic. For me personally, I’ve had two different vacations canceled because of the virus and currently working understaffed at my job which is considered essential. Not to mention my therapist is on call only at this time and both my martial arts schools have been suspended, so I can neither talk nor punch my feelings out of my system.

So, I might be just a LITTLE on edge at the moment.

(My internal monologue for most of these past few weeks, more broadly years...)

Anyways, I digress, you come here because you like to read my highly unprofessional takes on pop culture and genuinely to those who have cheered me on from the beginning thanks, you guys are my prime motivators. But anyways let’s talk about all the shit I was supposed to write about these last two and a half months.

“Birds of Prey” was a hot, but needed, mess

Earlier last month I got to see the sort of sequel to the much-maligned “Suicide Squad” in “Birds of Prey and the…waaaay too long of a title for me write here.” I had cautious optimism for it because it looked strange and off the beaten path of most comic book movies and seemed to promise at the very least a fun time at the theater but it’s still also a DCEU movie so the floor was pretty low on its possible quality as well.

In the end, the movie is kind of bit of everything; the best and worst parts of the DCEU.

In terms of the good, it’s definitely outside the box, a sort of fem Deadpool first person story as told frenetically by Harley herself. Margot Robbie is, of course, still quite great at this role and you can tell she’s having a blast as this character. The humor is mostly good and visually the bright colors and cinematography pops on each screen and on that front there isn’t much to complain about.

But as a DCEU movie it does suffer from some narrative imbalance partially due to it’s psycho storyteller but mostly, and more than likely, due to corporate editing that probably axed an entire dance number that I was honestly looking forward to from the trailers.

(Seriously, I actually wanted to see the full unedited version of whatever hell this ended up being.)

It’s definitely in the “could’ve been better” camp of comic book movies but you know what? I’m still glad it exists. You know why? Because comic book movies dominate our blockbuster culture right now and if the genre wants to survive, at least artistically, it needs some outside the box films like this. I HATED “Joker” but I appreciate that it opened the door for stranger, more unique takes on a genre that is getting increasingly more stale. This movie falls into that unique category too.

(Also, to all the faux-intellectuals and alt-right nerds making a culture war out of “Sonic” vs “Birds of Prey” *kindly* reevaluate your lives please...)

We’re at the point now where comic book movies should be getting weirder, not more formulaic, and that means swinging for the fences even if a couple don’t quite make it out of the ballpark. If it takes a few not so stellar takes on the genre for Hollywood to greenlight a truly fantastic one I’m all for it.

In any case “Birds of Prey” doesn’t quite end nor continue the DCEU’s recent hot streak but it is enjoyable enough to where I would be more than open to a sequel. It’s worth a watch.

The Mandalorian and The Witcher: Two shows about violent mercenaries and fatherhood

Both these shows are old news at this point, but I did want to talk a little about both for a bit if you would have me.

First, “The Mandalorian” which was Disney+’s flagship production to begin its streaming chapter late last year is definitely a more than welcome addition to the galaxy far, far away. It’s pretty easy to feel fairly jaded about Star Wars these days given how flat the new trilogy ended but for what it’s worth “The Mandalorian” was a good mix of nostalgia bait and something new and interesting for fans to chew on. Its production value is obviously top-notch, no doubt because of all the Disney money pumped into it, it’s well-acted and thrilling and fun from start to finish. It plays heavily on the genres that influenced the series, primarily westerns and old samurai flicks, and fans of those will certainly enjoy the homages to them all.

The series was something of a coming out party for Deborah Chow who directed two of the season 1’s best episodes. Her steady hand, eye for details and tributes to Asian cinema throughout really gave the series an extra kick at times and showed how Star Wars can evolve still. Chow is set to helm the upcoming “Kenobi” series and one can only hope that she *really* leans into the samurai genre for that show.

(Hopefully, there are some “Yojimbo” vibes in there somewhere...)

The Mandalorian’s best and worst parts though are its semi episodic nature making each episode easy to digest as a one-off but also lacking some narrative tension between each. It plays kind of like a Saturday Morning cartoon to both its benefit and detriment with bite-size easy to digest plots and dialogue for the viewers but not offering a ton of depth beyond that.

The Mandalorian himself is also kind of a Gary Stu. His armor is basically impenetrable and far and away the best killer onscreen typically, making more than a few action scenes lack real stakes and tension. Baby Yoda certainly helps at times to make him more vulnerable and puts him in precarious positions plenty of times but outside a few moments (mainly episode 2 and to a lesser extend the final episode) he’s just a little too overpowered to be a more interesting character.

But this show and frankly the Star Wars series as a whole is meant for kids, no matter what the neckbeards try to tell you (violence =/= adult), and that’s not necessarily a bad thing either. Plenty of kids productions can be both great and even sophisticated and while I wouldn’t say “The Mandalorian” is either of those it’s a good and fun kids show for the fans.

(And yes I’m aware that the books, some comics, and games have touched on more adult stuff, you weirdos. But how would you describe the overall tone and presumptive audience of the movies and TV series as a whole, guys??)

As far as “The Witcher” goes it also has a bit of an episodic style to it as well with an overarching, albeit, convoluted story that runs parallel to it. The first 3-4ish episodes can be classified as a quasi “Game of Thrones” clone leaning perhaps a little too heavily into the tropes of that series. Once the series finally starts leaning into its real identity, a dry-witted hack and slash fantasy, the series is much more consistent both tonally and narratively.

Henry Cavil is solid as Geralt of Rivia and the supporting cast of Joey Batey as Jaskier, Freya Allen as Ciri and even more so Anya Chalotra as Yennefer are all great in their respective roles delivering some great moments throughout the season.

(And lest you forget this earworm...)

“The Witcher’s” early season struggles keep it from being as tonally or narratively consistent as “The Mandalorian” but where the monster slayer beats the bounty hunter is that it has overall more compelling drama and has more to say, leaning much more heavily into the thematic greys of the plot. There are tons of problems with “The Witcher” on a story-telling level but you can definitely say it cares more about adding some depth in between the more pulpy aspects of the story which is something you can’t say as much for in “The Mandalorian.”

Of course, I’m partially overselling “The Witcher” a bit here, it’s not anywhere near “Game of Thrones” best (yet at least), and on the flipside one could argue that “The Mandalorian’s” more subtle sense of story-telling does its themes better. But when it comes down to these two shows you get somewhat similar story-telling ideas, mostly involving both characters and their smaller counterparts, in two very different genres with equally diverging conclusions to their respective seasons.

(🎵 Toss an “Oof” to your Witcher...🎵)

All in all, they’re both good and worth a watch and I think they deserve a chance to evolve and hopefully showcase more of what they have to offer moving forward.

“Parasite” wins Best Picture! Many people have some hot takes, including the president...

Last month one of my favorite films of 2019 “Parasite” won Best Picture at the Oscars. It’s a movie that is becoming increasingly relevant as elites and celebrities alike are getting front of the line testing despite being asymptomatic in the middle of pandemic and think they can assuage our concerns and dread by poorly singing “Imagine” together within the comfort of their McMansions.

It’s about as a good time as any to revisit this movie, I mean where else are you going to go during this timeline, and at a later date I’ll write something more extensive about it eventually (hopefully) but first here’s a helpful video on one particular thing that came out after director Bong Joon Ho took home the night’s top honors:

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“Cats” is still a fever dream of madness

Back in late December, I watched “Cats” for science, as I had AMC A-List and a friend crazy enough to join me. I figured it would be bonkers and unlike anything I had seen before in the worst way but even then, I don’t think I was truly prepared for what I ended up seeing that fateful night.

I remember quite vividly going to the bar inside the theater and ordering a stiff drink beforehand to numb the pain and the bartender asking “So what are y’all watching tonight?” and beginning to laugh manically like an insane asylum patient at the innocuousness of the question. Walking into the theater was like that feeling you get before getting on a particularly scary-looking rollercoaster at Six Flags but instead of the pre-ride jitters eventually subsiding to the eventual fun and joy of the ride, only a deep sense of existential dread built up and sustained itself through what felt like six hours of the most baffling thing put to screen in front of my eyes ever.

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(The music that played in my head as I exited the theater...)

Have any of you watched the Stanley Kubrick movie “Eyes Wide Shut” before? You know the scene when Tom Cruise is walking around in his mask observing the strange occult sex orgy going on around him at the mansion? That’s kind of what “Cats” felt like except way more terrifying, somehow MORE sexual, and definitely crazier.

(Is...this some type of...intepretative dance to summon an eldritch horror??)

There’s a voyeuristic terror that comes from sitting in that theater room as you watch bipedal humanoid looking felines dance to confusing songs about “Jelicle” cats (whatever the fuck that means) and all other manner of things that should NOT take human form throughout it’s near-endless runtime. A lot was made about Rebel Wilson and the disgusting roach people she consumes but NO ONE warned me about the frankly HORRIFYING mice children in the same scene!

(I am not perusing the internet to find that image again for y’all. I have enough nightmares each night...)

The saddest thing about the whole movie is everyone, save for Ian Mckellen who seemed to be acting as if a gun was pointing at him offscreen and Judi Dench who looked 100 percent like a geriatric in her digi fur, was giving the movie their fullest effort in what can only be described as a Titanic-sized level of hubris by all parties involved. This movie really needed a “Chaostician” involved in evaluating the production for studio heads and shareholders because there were definitely NOT enough people on this project wondering whether or not this film SHOULD exist...

(Dr. Ian Malcolm coming to Universal Pictures to access the film.)

What has “Cats” wrought upon this world? The universe has been clearly out of balance since this movie came out and while I’m not saying it’s director Tom Hooper’s fault, I’m not saying it isn’t either.

“Cats” is one of those things, much like The Matrix that cannot be simply described but must be seen to believe. It’s one of the worst things I have ever seen onscreen but with the right group of people and a few stiff drinks it’s certainly an experience you won’t forget. Consider it for your next Google Hangout during this apocalypse.

Anyways, that about wraps up my thoughts on the last few months. Going to try to be more consistent going forward especially given how much more time I have now to write, for better and worse. But more importantly, just want to say stay safe y’all. It’s going to be a process to get through this and while things are more likely to get worse before they get better there will be a day when this all ends and some normalcy may yet return to our life but in order for us to get there we need to remain vigilant.

So stay at home, wash your hands, and if you want to watch movies just order it online for now and we’ll just wait until aaaallll this blows over…hopefully.

Don’t panic...

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nagichi-boop · 5 years ago

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hi!!! can i get a matchup pls??? • im 170cm, very pale, i have a few freckles on my face and i have this mole below my left eye (other ppl look good w it why does mine look like dirt??? 😖), i lean more on the thick side but unfortunately not that thick 😔🤘, my hair is always up on a ponytail!! bc its rlly hot in my country, i only let my hair down at home. oh!! and my hair is shoulder length 🍰

im really quiet at first but when you get close to me i can get rlly loud. not all the time tho, talking too much exhausts me :d i appear as a very boyish person to others so i hide the fact that i like stuff like sanrio, pokemon, star butterfly vs. the forces of evil- ok i gotta stop. i like sending my friends weird memes at 3am. the reaction they give in the morning feeds my soul 👌 🍰

im a multimedia arts student!! i love editing photos and videos so thats what i do a lot on my free time. i write and draw too! but im not confident in it yet. im considered tall in my country so a lot of professors recommend me to be a student athlete, but i h a t e sweating.. i like watching people play tho! (but i almost never cheer even if its my brother or a friend im shy ok iM SORRY) this was hella long :000 i apologize bsbsjsb and thank you in advance!!! ❤ 🍰

Hey! Thank you for your request! I'm sorry it took so long for me to get to. Hope you like it anyways!

I'd ship you with...

Kuroo Tetsurou!

• I'm gonna assume you are in the class same as Kuroo for this, hope that's okay.

• He was walking with Yaku having another debate about their preferences for girls when he suddenly pointed at you and said "like her!", which caused you to freeze. Kuroo also froze as he realised what he did. He then ran up to you to apologise and explained that he was arguing about preferences and he was saying that you looked attractive. He then awkwardly blushed and jogged off, apologising as he went back to Yaku and the team.

• Honestly you were really shocked about the situation. Like...what just happened? This boy suddenly just came up to you, said you were attractive then left.

• You then saw him and Kenma the next day and he stopped and stared at you for a moment, before going over to you looking slightly flustered. He then said in a slightly nervous voice, "Uhm, I'm sorry about what happened yesterday, but the truth is I have kind of noticed you for a while. You look really pretty and I kind of wanted to talk to you. I noticed as well that you tend to doodle in class and when I glanced over, I thought you drawings were super cute...a-anyways, we don't have volleyball practice after school today, so did you want to go to a café with me later? My treat."

• Kenma quietly judged Kuroo because of how creepy he was being but also because he knew exactly what he was doing.

• You agreed without thinking since the whole situation caught you off guard, and he happily thanked you and walked off, saying he'd come find you after school. Then after he left, you realised what you'd done.

• You waited for him outside the school and he finally caught up with you, but Kenma was also with him. He then took the two of you to a cat café because of course he did and Kenma, who read the mood and realised he was third wheeling, left the two of you alone to talk while he went to play with the cats.

• It was a bit uncomfortable at first, but after Kuroo settled down a little, he became super easy to talk to and was really good at keeping the conversation going, which helped you to relax as well. Before you knew it, the two of you started sharing memes and cackling at them together. You could feel Kenma's judgement from across the room.

• Kuroo asked if he could have your number and you agreed. You sent him a 3am meme hoping he wouldn't get mad, and the next morning he sent you a bunch of messages about how he was wheezing and he couldn't breathe because of how funny the memes were, so you decided to add him to your target list of sending memes. Eventually, Kuroo started to participate as well, sending you memes as well as people on his team. Some found it funny, but others Yaku and Kenma got mad at Kuroo, which only motivated him to do it more. He also started to occasionally send some to your friends as well.

• You were afraid to be more open with Kuroo because you didn't want him to think badly of you because of the less "boyish" things you liked. One day, though, he caught you looking at pictures of Sanrio plushies on your phone, which made you panic. But he just smiled and said, "I like those too," which was really shocking. You assumed he was just trying to be nice, but then he pulled out his keys, which had a Kuromi keychain attached.

• (Apparently, he and Kenma found out about the Sanrio characters when they went to an arcade as kids and they bought each other keychains. Kenma bought Kuromi for Kuroo and Kuroo bought Gudetama for Kenma. Kenma's keychain was attached to the case for his Animal Crossing Switch. He told you to keep this a secret since he knew Kenma would get embarrassed, but it eventually came up in conversation at one point and Kenma showed his keychain.)

• As you and Kuroo got closer, so did you and Kenma. He was really good at noticing when something was off and he'd listen to your concerns. You also realised that you had a lot of common interests and you felt comfortable sharing your hobbies with him and Kuroo. When Kuroo saw the two of you talking comfortably about Pokémon one time, he had a really sincere smile on his face because he was amazed at how well the two of you got along and how you glew when you talked passionately about your hobbies. He fell in love with you a little more.

• You realised one day that you weren't exactly sure what your relationship with Kuroo was. You were friends of course and you'd spend a lot of time together, but you wanted more, you were just afraid to say since you didn't want to ruin what you had. Kenma noticed you seemed to be deep in thought and you told your feelings to him, to which convinced you to confess to Kuroo, saying it would make him happy.

• You nervously said to Kuroo that you'd like to date, and he just kind of froze and then said in a cracked voice "s-sure!" He then apologised for the strange response and then confessed that he'd had feelings for you for a long time, he just didn't know how to tell you. He then kissed your hand and thanked you for confessing, then he ran off to get ready for practice.

• Kuroo seemed to be a little bit more on edge with you now you were dating. When you confronted him about it, he said he wasn't sure how comfortable you were with displays of affection and the reason he was on edge was because he wasn't sure whether he was okay to hold your hand, hug you, kiss you, etc. You let him know what your terms were and he relaxed a little knowing what his boundaries were.

• You were glad Kuroo was taller than you because you loved being able to bury yourself in his chest or shoulder whenever he hugged you. And despite his tough-looking exterior, he really loves cuddling and he's super good at it and showing his affection in soft ways.

• Kuroo really loves watching you draw and edit. He either quietly watches you do it or he sits off to the side and let's you get on with it, maybe looking at you every now and then and smiling at how pretty you look. Either way, he is fine with quietly hanging around when you work and he does his best not to disturb you, but also likes to encourage you to take breaks and cuddles you when you do so you can recharge.

• The first time you let your hair down in front of Kuroo he just...stopped? You got confused because you didn't know why he reacted like that, but he had to turn his head away and cover his face because of how much he was blushing. Even if you don't think highly of yourself, to him you are the most stunning, attractive person ever, both in terms of how you look and your personality.

• Kuroo really appreciate you supporting him during matches, even if you don't go crazy cheering for him. Just knowing you're there is enough for him to feel grateful.

• The club members love you as well. Not only are you Kuroo's weakness which they sometimes like to exploit for entertainment, you also get along with everyone super well. They were so shocked when they saw Kenma talking to you so naturally. They started inviting you out whenever they'd go out as a team since you were practically a part of it now.

• Kuroo is super good at showing how much he loves you, even just through little things. You also make him super happy just by being you. Arguing with Yaku that day was the best thing to ever happen to him.

I was gonna pair you with Yaku but I felt like I was only doing that since I've already done Kuroo as a matchup before, but honestly I think Kuroo is a super good match. Hope you enjoyed this!

Sorry this is so long btw, I am in Kenma and Kuroo loving hours, so this was fun to write! To be honest, I could have written more if I wanted to, but I didn't wanna drag this out too much.

#haikyuu!!#haikyuu matchups #haikyuu x reader #kuroo testuro #kuroo x reader #nagichi matchups

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thestupidhelmet · 5 years ago

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in your opinion what is the best, or your favorite, episode in each season?

I’m glad you phrased your question the way you did. My favorite episode might not necessarily be what I think is the best. I’ll try to give both if they don’t match.

Also, I don’t consider season 8 canon, so I’ll be skipping that one.

Season 1

Favorite: "Prom Night” (1x19).

Reasoning: Hyde’s characterization gets an overhaul. Now that his role as Eric’s villainous, selfish foil is ended, he becomes someone who sacrifices his own comfort, and even safety, to protect and help the vulnerable -- even if it’s someone he doesn’t personally like. He gains complexity and is shown to have a personal code of honor, a one-eighty from his depiction in the previous episodes. This character change/development is reconfirmed and deepened in “The Good Son” (1x25).

“Prom Night” also has the one Jackie/Kelso scene that actually moves me emotionally: their slow dance to “Freebird” while everyone else leaves the Prom. In that moment, I actually believe their relationship could evolve from the obvious love they have for each other. But Kelso ruins that potential by cheating on Jackie again the very next episode.

Eric and Donna’s storyline in the episode is both funny and touching. Plus, Fez gets his moment to shine in front of his whole class while dancing with Gloria Gaynor.

Best: “The Pill” (1x17).

Reasoning: Donna and Jackie both take control of their bodies in this episode. The 1970s aren’t just window dressing (as they become during later seasons), but the episode’s story is still relevant today. Donna and Jackie’s friendship deepens -- and is directly stated as a friendship. Eric dislike of Jackie and loyalty to Kelso are thrust aside; instead, he’s protective of Jackie and wants Kelso to act responsibly.

Jackie breaks up with Kelso, having a moment of clarity, and chooses herself first (sadly, it doesn’t last).

Season 2

Favorite/Best: “Cat Fight Club” (2x25)

Reasoning: I consider this season to be the best in terms of writing, characterization, humor, and consistency, so this choice is the best of the best.

This episode gives us the core or key to Hyde’s character. (Notice a theme here? *lol*). But the storyline shows Jackie beginning to integrate well with the group without Kelso -- and that the group’s loyalty to Kelso isn’t blinding or all-encompassing (at least here). It reveals Kelso’s cruelty and hypocrisy, depicts Jackie’s vulnerability and inexperience dealing with such cruelty, and Hyde teaching her how to protect herself. By doing so, he makes himself vulnerable to her by revealing his own self-protection techniques. This pays off (i.e. Jackie uses her knowledge of Hyde to reveal his true feelings) in “Jackie Bags Hyde” (3x08).

We also see in this episode Donna supporting Jackie and putting herself at risk during the scrap with Laurie. Eric expresses his approval and admiration for Jackie, too; as does Hyde, albeit differently. Jackie truly kicks ass in “Cat Fight Club,” literally and figuratively.

Season 3

Favorite: “Jackie Bags Hyde” (3x08)

Reasoning: Despite that the episode ends with Jackie not feeling any emotional connection with Hyde during their kiss, the rest gives us plenty of great development of Jackie and Hyde -- as individuals and as a pair. I’ve written plenty of metas about this episode, so won’t rehash the analysis here.

The Veteran’s Day BBQ war between Red and Bob is entertaining, as well, and gives us deeper characterization for Red, Bob, Eric and Donna. Red puts his pride aside to boost Bob’s, which desperately needs it. Red, like Hyde, can and will put his own needs and comfort aside to help someone who needs it.

Best: “Red Sees Red” (3x02)

Reasoning: The storyline of Red trying to keep his kids, including Hyde, from smoking pot and the conclusion where Kitty takes back the house is really well-written. It’s full of humor, character development, and depicts the dynamic among different pairings and groupings of characters.

Season 4

Favorite: “Donna’s Story” (4x08)

Reasoning: This was a tough decision for me. Many episodes of season 4 have elements I enjoy, like Red and Hyde’s scene in “Hyde’s Birthday” (4x23), but I chose “Donna’s Story” because it’s the one that gives me the most laughs. Donna’s and Eric’s stories are both ridiculous and over-the-top, but they represent each character’s POV accurately.

Best: “It’s a Wonderful Life” (4x01)

Reasoning: The episode is a fascinating, and frightening, AU of That ‘70s Show (far more interesting than the AU that is season 8). Eric’s pain at losing Donna is palpable, but his choice to keep it so that he can keep his memories of their love, too, is incredibly moving.

Season 5

Favorite: “Black Dog” (5x09)

Reasoning: Even though Hyde’s character is retconned to having no ability to provide verbal comfort (“Red’s Birthday” [2x10] and “Kelso’s Serenade” are just two examples where Hyde is shown to give verbal comfort skillfully), he never gives up trying to cheer Jackie up. He confides in Mrs. Forman listens to Eric and Donna’s advice, and ultimately sacrifices something that gives him pleasure (i.e. his beard) so that Jackie knows she’s loved and that he’ll do what he can to put her first.

Best: “Going to California” (5x01)

Reasoning: It’s another episode that’s good from start to finish. The plot and humor arise from character. Although I wish Eric and Donna had actually dealt with what broke them up, it’s a problem that’s bigger than this episode; it should’ve been dealt with during the first three or four episodes of the season. Eric and Donna do have a lovely reunion in “Going to California,” however, and -- of course -- the reveal of Jackie and Hyde’s relationship is a wonderful culmination of four years of development.

Season 6

Favorite/Best: “Magic Bus” (6x03)

Reasoning: Eric/Donna, Jackie/Hyde, and Red/Kitty all get great storylines in this episode. Season 6 tends to force characters to serve plot and punchline instead of letting plot and punchline. This episode, though, is a prime example of how the most satisfying stories and humor arise organically from the characters’ personalities and feelings, their conflicts, and their choices.

Season 7

Favorite: “Oh, Baby (We Got a Good Thing Goin��) (7x18)

Reasoning: Season 7 is the beginning of the end. The choices made here led to season 8, and “Oh, Baby (We Got a Good Thing Goin’) is the last truly happy episode for Jackie and Hyde. We get significant scenes of them together as a couple, and we see that they truly enjoy spending time with each other, how well they know each other, and how well they fit together.

Their harmony is meant to stand in contrast to and reveal Red and Kitty’s disharmony at the car show, mainly for humor, but we get a preciously rare look at what Jackie and Hyde’s relationship is like without conflict and drama.

Best: “Beast of Burden” (7x04)

Reasoning: Plot and humor arise organically from the characters. Hyde is conflict over his loyalty to Red vs. his desire to build a relationship with W.B. Red ultimately makes the choice for him, showing his selfless love for Hyde. Jackie, too, expresses her unconditional love for Hyde (”If [working with grease] makes you happy, than I’m happy”).

Fez’s subplot isn’t great, but most episodes of season 7 are uneven.

#That 70s Show #That '70s Show #Jackie x Hyde #Red x Kitty #Eric x Donna #Ask #Anon #My Meta #My Essay #Meta #Essay

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nagdabbit · 5 years ago

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A HANDY DANDY GUIDE TO WRASSLIN

For the lovely, the wonderful, the incomparable @gideongrace , may I present: Daggs’ Guide to the Wild Ass World of Professional Wrestling! (and it’s goin’ behind a cut because It Got LONG!)

So, here is the things. Wrestling is STUPID. And great? And fun as hell! And the most carny sport to ever exist. But, also SUPER inside baseball a lot of the time just because it’s got such a long goddamn history that it can seem daunting to get into. Like I’ve only been back into it the last four or so years, so there’s a lot of history that I’ve missed! There’s also a whole lot of gate keeping, just like comics or video games. There’s also the bitter truth that a lot of people in the industry are absolute shitheels that should have been fired long ago (and I’ll only be vague about a lot of that). So, yeah. A WHOLE LOT.

First things first: HISTORY. There’s just so much. But, conveniently? You don’t need it. It can be fun if you end up really like wrestling, but contrary to what a bunch of middle-aged, racist, misogynist and WILDLY homophobic, White American Men will tell you, you don’t actually need it to enjoy yourself. If you DO want history, might I suggest the How2Wrestling podcast! It is a cheerful, lovely show hosted by two goddamn delightful humans, Kefin and Jo (who are also just wonderful people to interact with in general)! There is also the Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling by Aubrey Sitterson and Chris Moreno, which is a great read! Wrestlesplania is another good show for history of the sport and the wrestlers! They’re definitely, uh, hornier, but v fun!

Secondly: On the subject of inside baseball, wrestling jargon is a whole thing. The ONLY part of wrestling history that is 100% important: it is a carny sport. Like, some side-show, vaudeville ass shit, yo. And it has never evolved from that, so there are a whole lot of terms used that are very specific to like... early 1900′s carnival culture. Here is a wikipedia article, but there’s also a wonderful How2Wrestling episode about it all! I’ll try not to use much!

Thirdly: We can’t talk about wrestling podcasts without mentioning Colt Cabana’s The Art of Wrestling. A lot of the archives are behind a paywall now, but the show is great. If you DO get into wrestling and start to find wrestlers you enjoy, I highly highly suggest checking to see if they’ve done an episode. Colt is a goddamn delight of a human, deserving of support and a great interviewer on top of it. Even if you just bookmark eps you’d wanna listen to and then start a free trial to marathon them all. (See also: the Colt Cabana & CM Punk lawsuit(s), in which Colt got royally fucked over.)

Fourthly: Nobodies Watching Wrestling. Drag Queens watching wrestling. That’s all you need to know. Even out of context, they’re goddamn delightful humans. Might I recommend this episode with EFFY, because I sometimes just watch it when I’m having a bad day.

Fifthly: Tights & Fights is a great weekly wrestling pod, and is how I keep up on a lot of things that I might not be watching. PLUS, diverse group of (wonderful) hosts: Hal Lublin, Daniel Radford, Lindsey Kelk, Open Mike Eagle, and producer Julien Burrell. They’re just great. And horny, at times, but in a charming and respectful way.

Now... The boring part. I’m just gonna get some of the popular company introductions out of the way, and then the fun part of So Many Match Suggestions at the bottom. But, business first! (The Big difference between Larger Companies and Independent Companies is that the big guys have a contracted roster of people who sometimes can work with other companies [unless they’re the WWE, who have exclusive contracts and still call their employees Independent Contractors so they don’t have to offer health insurance or a union], and indie guys contract people usually show-by-show. ALSO, there is intergender wrestling [men vs women, which does bother a lot of people. I do side with support of it, but I do totally get how it can be hard to watch] in indie shows, whereas there is NOT in 90% of the big companies.)

(And, honestly, if you wanna skip this part, you can, but if I don’t do it first, I’ll forget..)

AN OVERVIEW OF THE BIG PLAYERS

WWE - Here’s the thing. The WWE kinda... is a terrible capitalist bastard of a company, run by a morally bankrupt, egomaniacal, shitstain, roid-rage cryptkeeper of a man. And, if you want my personal opinion, RAW and Smackdown are both (currently) TERRIBLE shows, despite having some truly phenomenal talent. BUT, but. NXT (and NXT UK) is probably the best, like, weekly wrestling show (on TV, at least, but we’ll get there). The talent is INCREDIBLE, the storylines are less bad bananas, and they’ve adopted a LOT of the best indie talent lately (because they want to directly compete with AEW, but that’s a whole other thing). WWE programming is also the easiest to get a hold of because they are the longest running and basically Disney, so there are some full matches on YouTube, and Raw and NXT are available on Hulu. They are also releasing a lot of free stuff on the WWE Network that you can watch without signing up for a paid account, but there is a lot of stuff behind a pay wall.

Cons: Real Talk, run by a bunch of terrible people. Responsible for covering up a lot of truly reprehensible crimes for which no one was held accountable, despite being well documented. A blatant disregard for the (physical and mental) safety and/or financial security of a lot of their roster--specifically the people you don’t see on TV. (If you want some history, you can look through the past tweets of the New York 64 Tournament, but a lot of it turned my stomach, so I would not suggest, but it’s there if you have the same morbid curiosity that I did)

Pros: The company might be run by terrible people, but their roster is good. A lot of my top wrestlers do work for the WWE, sure, but they do hire a lot of decent humans that I sometimes feel bad about not supporting. Also, it is the dream of a lot of people to join WWE simply because of the prestige, the massive audience, and job security. I might hate Vince but I can’t begrudge any wrestler currently working for them.

NXT Pros: On the subject of rosters, NXT is LIT. But they have also stolen some of the best indie wrestlers recently: Mercedes Martinez and Jake Atlas, two of my All Time Favs. Both of whom deserve the world, because being openly gay in the wrestling industry is the pits.

All Elite Wrestling - AEW is a very new company, and they are my favourite of the big promotions. They are a company run by wrestlers, rather than a millionaire with a writing staff. I like the wrestling style(s) better, I was a huge fan of a lot of their roster before they hit TV last October, and I like not giving the McMahons money. The storylines are better, if only because they don’t have a writer’s room dictating scripts and such, and the characters are more fun (for me at least).

Easiest ways to watch for free: Their YouTube channel! There you can find a lot of highlights, behind the scenes, AEW Dark (the “dark” matches, or the non-televised matches from TV tapings), PPV pre-shows and a lot of stupid stuff.

Cons: A bit of an issue offering equal match time to the women’s roster the way they SAID they would at the start. A bit more violent of a style as a lot of the wrestlers came up death match style wrestling, or are from Japan/wrestled in Japan and typically wrestle “strong style” (wrestling style with less theatrics and known for Real Real Strikes that Hurt A Lot), which some people can find off-putting. Also, they hired Jake Hager, who is a real piece of shit.

Pros: Have a wonderfully diverse roster. Orange Cassidy. Sonny Kiss. Good storytelling. Jake The Snake Roberts doing Hella Promos. The Dark Order, who we affectionately refer to as the Spooky Perverts. Chris Jericho yelling at a Drone, and Matt Hardy being a wizard. A bunch of wrestlers who are married to other wrestlers who work for WWE, and good jokes are made.

BUT THE BIGGEST PRO-AEW THING I CAN PROVIDE: NYLA FUCKING ROSE. They didn’t make her the first women’s champion like they should have, but they put her in the first championship match on the FIRST episode of the weekly show, Dynamite, and she is now the CURRENT women’s champion. I don’t wanna make a big deal, only it is a BIG DEAL, because Nyla Fucking Rose is the first openly transgender wrestler signed to a major promotion, and if you think I didn’t fucking CRY LIKE A CHILD when she won, you’re wrong. So, yeah, a NATIONALLY TELEVISED WRESTLING PROGRAM’S CURRENT WOMEN’S CHAMPION IS A TRANSGENDER, FIRST NATIONS WOMAN. NYLA. FUCKING. ROSE.

As of right now, AEW seems to be done filming, which is both Very Smart and also heartbreaking, but you can find all the ways to watch over here on their site if it looks like fun!

WOW Women of Wrestling - Have you seen GLOW? This is a show created by the IRL creator of GLOW (the promotion the show is based on, not the show)! And it is? Incredible? The characters are fun and portrayed as superheroes, the stories are CAMP af, and the wrestling is GOOD. They’re a non-traditional show, which is fun. Their roster is made up of wrestlers playing different wrestlers. Wrestling is a bunch of super talented people playing characters while doing acrobatics. WOW gives us people playing characters, playing other characters, while also doing acrobatics.

Cons: All male announce team? On an all women’s show? Excuse? And also: Tessa Blanchard who is, it turns out, a great big racist. Also a little harder to get full episodes it seems.

Pros: Literally everything else.

Ring of Honor - For awhile ROH was handily competing with WWE. And then they weren’t. And then they got better. And then they got worse. And now, currently, they are a company that I hate supporting.

Cons: Run by assholes who don’t care about worker safety, and don’t put anything into the women’s division.

Pros: Sometimes they partner with New Japan Pro Wrestling. They’ve recently released a lot of goooood old matches including some Kevin Steen (currently WWE’s Kevin Owens) vs El Generico (definitely, 100% not at all, no way, no how, of course NOT WWE’s Sami Zayn [he is, this is another inside baseball joke that I’m just obligated to make every time I mention El Generico]) matches which are BRUTAL. Oh, and Dalton Castle:

Impact! - It’s back! I don’t watch it, but they DO have Rich Swann, so they can’t be bad. There is an entire history to Impact that is BANANAS. Like AEW, a bit more rough and tumble, scrappy death match folks, and I like a lot of the roster, like Taya Valkyrie, Jessika Havok and Sami Callihan. Not a bad show, but the full show weekly doesn’t hold my attention.

Cons: Tessa Blanchard, mostly. She is an incredible wrestler, her matches are good, but.

Pros: Pretty easy to watch, actually? I believe they’re still on Twitch, and they have an entire channel on Pluto TV.

New Japan Pro Wrestling - NJPW is GREAT. Definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. The shows are long, and strong style just... hurts. Like, a lot of wincing on my end. But the wrestling. Oh, lordy, the wrestling is incredible. But it is brutal. Strong Style wrestling is much different than the typical American style that you see in WWE, and a lot more grounded than high flying lucha styles. (Though a lot of wrestlers do travel to Mexico and train in lucha style wrestling (which I am the least familiar with), so currently there is a lot of the very high flying flippty dos and the absolutely brutal strikes that you see in strong style wrestling.)

Cons: Show/match length is typically long and there is A Lot to See. The only way I know to watch full shows is through their streaming service.

Pros: Just the whole thing, really. They release a free match on YouTube every Monday. Also, Toru Yano, the best wrestler in the world.

Indie Promotions that I know less about because I can afford only so many streaming services

Firstly, here is a Wiki list of wrestling streaming services. I’m gonna name a couple below, but the wiki page has a handy list of costs of the bigger ones because capitalism knows how to get you. (Personally, I only use IWTV at the moment. They’re a good company run by good people, and a lot of indie promotions would have died out without partnering with/support from them)

Beyond Wrestling - Beyond is My Favourite Promotion To Watch, Bar None. Their weekly show (when in season), Uncharted Territory, is fantastic. Diverse talent, diverse styles. They do have a lot of death matches, which can suck to watch if you aren’t into that sort of thing. I am, it turns out, into that sort of thing. But listening to interviews with a lot of death match wrestlers, specifically Jimmy Havoc, can help understand the w h y of it all! Available on IWTV.

Chikara - Chikara is So Fun! They are a (mostly) family friendly promotion and training school. Their shows are filled with young/newbie wrestlers as they learn the tricks. Run by Mike Quackenbush, who is a delightful person, BRILLIANT wrestler/trainer, and someone who is willing to take the safety of his people into account. He’s good people, who trains good people, and supports good people, and gives them a safe, open place to learn. It’s also very fun! A lot of comedy matches. Watch on: CHIKARAtopia or some of their archive is on IWTV.

EVE - An all-women promotion, providing a safe working and training environment for women and girls. They have put their foot in it on occasion, but they seem to still be good people. (I would recommend the Tights & Fights episode with founders Emily and Dann Read for a little backstory on the company, but not needed.) Ways to watch.

RIPTIDE - YO, RIPTIDE IS DOING THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SHIT. Cinematic wrestling, and it is great. The matches are good, the promos are good, the people are good. But the way they film it oh my god holy shit. When everything is a little less hectic, they are people I am definitely gonna support as much as I can. Watch here.

A Matter of Pride - Here’s the thing. They have put on some very good, inclusive shows. However, some serious allegations have come out about Rick Cataldo, who is involved with the company, and I think it’s important to mention. They have done a lot of good in the world of prowrestling and they put on good shows and they have given a platform to people who might otherwise have been pushed aside, however bad things have still happened there. Watchable on YouTube.

OTHER NOTABLE INDIE COMPANIES

GCW (IWTV, Fite TV & Smartmark) * Black Label Pro (IWTV) * Prime Time Pro Wrestling (IWTV) * Uncanny Attractions * RISE (IWTV) * Bar Wrestling * PWG * Stardom * Bizarro Lucha (IWTV) * OTT

There is also NWA Power that is a good show on YouTube, however, they immediately hired (and now fired for being racist) Jim Cornette who is... just an absolute jackass. But I do feel I should mention them.

Is that over? Yes? Well..

NOW THE FUN PART. THIS IS MY MOMENT. THIS IS THE ONLY PART THAT REALLY MATTERS.

So. The thing is. Wrestling is A Lot. SO, I’m gonna give you as wide a variety as I can! I’ll point out some fun people, some fun gimmicks and HOPEFULLY won’t completely turn you off! If you enjoy any of these, then the dumb stuff up above is useful!

First! The most important wrestling match of All Time. Invisible Man vs Invisible Stan. This is everything you need to know about the beats of good wrestling, but also why wrestling is fun. There are two people in this match: Referee Bryce Remsburg and the audience. And that’s it. This is literally just a referee (but it’s Bryce, so the referee) miming a wrestling match, and an audience buying into the kayfabe wholeheartedly. (Inside baseball: Bad Boy Vision - “Bad Boy” Joey Janela’s [another wrestler] sunglasses)

One of my favourite matches in recent memory, AND one of the best matches sort of just in general! David Starr vs Jordan Devlin at OTT. Quintessential wrestling, fantastic storytelling, and one of the best promo packages I’ve ever seen. BONUS: David Starr is a GREAT human fighting day and night to unionize the wrestling industry. He’s the Bernie Sanders of professional wrestling.

I thought about putting an actual death match on the list, but the closest I will get is this Nick Gage vs Josh Briggs fans bring the weapons match. I chose this match because my very best friend does not like this style of wrestling at all, but he did enjoy this match. It’s a lot, obviously. But it’s not as bad as it could be, but there’s also no shame if it isn’t your thing. Hell, I don’t even know why it’s my thing! I don’t even like bloody horror movies! I will say that Nick Fuckin’ Gage is one of the most prolific death match guys still working today, and also one of the nicest, kindest, most beloved guys there is and I would die to protect him. MDK!

Okay, this is the single most beautiful match to exist. Cara Noir vs PAC (fka WWE’s Neville). This isn’t wrestling, this is art. Great story, no commentary, gorgeous camerawork. Bonus: Cara Noir has the most fantastic and well rounded gimmick (character) in the business. Have you seen Black Swan? That’s it. That’s his character. And it’s great. Nailed. It.

Oh, did you know David Arquette is a wrestler? HE IS! Here’s he and RJ City.

On the subject of WWE and NXT, this Halftime Heat match of Aleister Black, Ricochet & Velveteen Dream vs Johnny Gargano, Adam Cole & Tommaso Ciampa. These are six of the best wrestlers work, and definitely TOPS in the WWE system. SEE ALSO: Black & Dream put on a HELL of a program together at NXT, but it’s been boiled down to this highlight vid that gives me feelings. Gargano vs Andrade Cien Almas is one of THE BEST matches of all time and here is a shitty highlight reel, but it’s still good. Adam Cole is 1) incredible and 2) the prettiest possum in the Denny’s dumpster, have a Cole vs Finn Balor highlight reel. God, I wish it were easier to find WWE stuff on YouTube.. All these matches should be on Hulu, tho.

NEXT! Kris Statlander vs Davienne for Beyond. Kris Statlander is A Legend, despite being real new to the business. Currently wrestling for AEW, former stuntwoman and, most importantly, she’s an alien.

FREE FOR ALL TIME. Solo Darling vs Penelope Ford vs Veda Scott vs Ashley Vox. They didn’t have to go that hard, but they did.

SPEAKING OF. Kylie Rae, Penelope Ford, Kimber Lee & Skylar vs. Shotzi Blackheart, Harlow &Twisted Sisterz. I just? I love? All of them?

And not to mention Kris Statlander vs Priscilla Kelly. I mean, I mean. I cannot sing the praises of both of these women enough.

Okay, so I am really only passingly familiar with a lot of Japanese wrestling. Mostly got into it last summer, actually. I get it, I love it, but I’m not as well versed in the people involved. Two badasses I do know? Meiko Satomura vs Kana (WWE’s Asuka). Fucking legends, both of them. Hard hitters, too, jesus.

If you do get into NXT at all, Keith Lee and Donovan Dijak put on one fuck of a program together, but the story started long before they ever entered the WWE! Please enjoy this absolute hoss fight from a couple years back.

NOW, some intergender matches! If you think they aren’t your thing, feel free to skip!

A fun match of (current IRL romantic partners) Keith Lee vs Mia Yim from before either of them debuted at NXT. I believe they weren’t dating at this point, so the next part will really hit, cuz it’s romantic as shit... This was not the booked ending. Keith Lee didn’t kick out on purpose. (Which, I mean, is literally all wrestling endings, but.) Mia was booked to lose (at least they told her that), and he purposefully took the L and went out on his back, to surprise her and give her a MASSIVE push.

Leyla Hirsch vs David Starr. I just. I goddamn love Leyla Hirsch. A very young wrestler, very new to the industry and I just love her so much?

Two great, intense matches of Joey Janela, the patron saint of bad decisions. Versus Kris Statlander (I can’t get enough of her) and versus Jordynne Grace.

Orange Cassidy and Penelope Ford vs Shockwave and Veda Scott. Shockwave is a robot and Orange Cassidy is Paul Rudd in Wet Hot American Summer. I can give no other explanation.

COMEDY TIME, YO. Comedy wrestling is The Best. There’s a name, Orange Cassidy. Yeah, he’s very funny, and also the most divisive person in wrestling rn. He’s Paul Rudd. He knows he’s a wrestler. He’s lazy. And there’s one match that we need to get out of the way first...

Orange Cassidy vs David Starr. The thing is. Orange Cassidy can fucking wrestle. His gimmick might be that he doesn’t want to, but he can. And It. Is. Great.

Now we can get on with the funnies.

Orange Cassidy vs Colt Cabana. Not story needed. Just two dudes at a food festival. Oh, yeah, there’s also a Swamp Monster. We love Swampy.

Colt Cabana vs Toru Yano. It’s just. So. FUN.

You might know the name Joey Ryan as The Dick Flip Wrestler, or The King of Dong Style. His dick has magical powers, it’s a thing. Here’s he and Orange Cassidy.

Johnny Cockstrong is the opposite of Joey Ryan. Literally. Here’s him also vs Orange Cassidy.

Did you want to see a Dick Test of Strength between them? Well, it happened.

Back to RIPTIDE for (another intergender, kinda) Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate & Trent Seven vs Joey Ryan, Candice LeRae (the World’s Cutest Tag Team) & Colt Cabana.

Kinda almost but not really comedy but very funny and also full of good wrasslin’, here is EFFY vs Orange Cassidy. Pirated, technically, and in real low quality, but I Love It. EFFY is Daddy.

Now, you’ll notice not a lot of women in the comedy section. Real talk, women still tend to get treated as a joke by the wrestling industry at large, so they don’t get the luxury of being as funny as they want. But one woman out there doing the lord’s work is Session Moth Martina. Legend. Love her. Admittedly, another intergender match, but it makes me happy. Martina & Orange Cassidy vs Joey Janela & Penelope Ford (Janelope).

One of my All Time Favourite Matches to date, EFFY and Danhausen (Gaytanic Panic) vs Chris Dickinson and Pinkie Sanchez (Team Pazuzu). Yes, this is a Halloween show. Yes, the Ref IS dressed as Chris Dickinson. There are teeth, Jesus resurrects someone, Danhausen is in fishnets and Effy is in face paint. It’s great. Love that Danhausen.

And there we have it! A whole lot of information and a bunch of matches and some stuff. It’s real dumb, and sometimes the industry is dark, but there’s a lot of hella good people doing dumb things. I hope this was helpful?? And Fun! (But my feeling won’t be hurt if it wasn’t fun, I promise!)

I leave you with this, RJ City making coffee in his underwear with Danhausen. Completely out of context. Because I love it.

#for #gideongrace #please enjoy <3

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danganronpedits-archived · 4 years ago

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Hello! I wanted a kin match if possible, preferably danganronpa! I’m an INFP-T (sometimes I get INFJ-T) and I’m probably either a 5w6 or 6w7. I fake my personality and lie to make people happy when I’m around them. I’m super anxious, self-conscious, and self-deprecating. I have many hobbies but feel completely talentless. I fake being bubbly and optimistic around people and I act cold and analytical when I’m trying to protect myself. I cry and daydream a lot, and I always feel like a burden. -🍈

yes, you can definitely get a kin matchup...! it’ll be placed under the cut, in case i start going off on a tangent again... i want your matchup to be as accurate as possible, so there’ll only be two major characters that i’ll assign you,, since you’re not asking for more than one source,,

um, but i do want to say that i hope you can feel better about yourself soon,, i’m sure that you have talent and that things will get better for you! you seem really lovely from this ask,, and i understand feeling stuck in your own head at times,,, but i promise you’re not nearly as much of a burden as you may think...

-mod tsu (mikan shift)

first off, from danganronpa another episode: ultra despair girls, i match you with...

kotoko utsugi!

unfortunately, kotoko doesn’t have free time events for me to refer to. however, like you, i think that even though she has extroverted tendencies, kotoko... has more of an introvert vibe to me, if that makes sense. she doesn’t really seem to get energised by other people the way extroverts do, although she does seem to generally like people. i think you could relate to this- it’s okay to take some time to wind down, haha... um, your enneagram types. i think that for 6w7s, both of you enjoy being around other people, fear losing your support systems(other people), strongly value reliability/trust in relationships, have a tendency to doubt themselves/others, and are naturally social and spirited. for 5w6s, both of you are hard-working and analytical solvers of problems, tend to pick up skills or knowledge that can be useful, remain calm in times of crisis(typically), have difficulty taking action when not inspired, and can be private or defensive. those are just some similarities.. and i think that the two of you share a lot of general traits. i don’t know you personally, but maybe you relate to her eccentricities- like how she’ll get into strange tangents(for example, in a conversation that’s too long, she starts going on and comparing it to how giraffe necks or elephant noses are too long). maybe not exactly something like that, but maybe you can relate to being a little odd in some areas !! i love that mango. and like, i don’t want to say “maybe you’re ~quirky~ because you use the ~melon emoji~” but at the same time... maybe you’re quirky because you use the melon emoji ? you’re gonna have to fill me in. ah or don’t !!! you don’t have to !!,, sdjf plus, i think that kotoko does fake her personality. in the art book, it’s implied that kotoko’s cutesy, cheerful personality is all a front. in fact, it’s specifically said by kotoko that without that character she plays, she would become miserable. she could also be joking here, or at least playing off her feelings as a joke, which relates to that self deprecating comment you said. she is definitely a liar, though... her ingame relationship with monaca is based off of her acting ability, at least until the end of it.

i think that kotoko is very anxious. specifically around adults- she has a strong distrust of them due to her... upbringing, and a lot of her jokes are very dramatic( “Sorry for the intrusion, tank you veddy much! Phew, I reached waaay back for that reference! I had to deal with baby boomers all the time, so my gags are kinda dated.”). um, with the implication of her theatrics being a persona, it can also be implied that her jokes are also part of that mask... um, plus, i think that her general vibe doesn’t make her come off as self conscious per say. but you may be able to relate to that too... since while i don’t want to call either of you dishonest, the “bubbly” and “optimistic” demeanor you both give off is a facade, as you said. while her happy facade isn’t directly for other people, she does find value(to an extent) in cheering up monaca, and does care about the other warriors of hope. plus, a big part of why she wants to be strong is to surpass her upbringing, in my eyes. it’s kind of clear with her trauma that there’s something lurking under the surface, though- you may not have the same story as her, but there’s a similar concept there. while kotoko doesn’t have many hobbies... honestly, you’d be a bit pressed to find a danganronpa character who does. however, i think that aside from acting, she also has enjoyment in the fashion department, as well as enjoying things she deems “adorbs”. she collects said objects, and is like... a connoisseur of cute. a cutenoisseur, if you will. she may feel talentless to an extent, however, as she doesn’t seem to enjoy talking about her previous stage life despite claiming to adore it. it could be that the acting reminds her of the upbringing she lived through, but. lastly, i think that kotoko fakes being cheerful, polite, and bubbly around other people. though i’ve already talked about that haha,, she does get very cold, borderline rough, when she’s paranoid or upset. she mans a robot from god-knows-where to take down what she sees as threats, and does have an entire setup of lies that she presents to monaca in order to keep herself safe. she does also cry very often, and we don’t exactly know about her daydreaming, but she doesn’t seem to have the highest attention span- as i touched upon with her off-topic rambles.

second off, from danganronpa V3, i match you with...

angie yonaga!

please hear me out on this one... despite angie’s extroverted tendencies, i think that she is an introvert to an extent. for starters, she’s the ultimate artist, a very introverted activity. for the rest of your mbti type, um... while i won’t go over the P/J since that’s not really set in stone... in the N(intuitive) and F(feeling) aspects, i think that angie can shine. while angie is a very logical person, i think that this is mostly because of how in tune she is with her feelings regarding her religion. um... her intuition is very much to trust in what she believes her god can do for everyone.. sorry, i got a bit off topic there. in the enneagram types, i think there’s also some overlap between both of them that fits into angie as well. um, first off, 6w7 types fear losing their support system(which for you can be other people. i think angie’s is her religion, but you may be able to relate to her in this way, using “support system” as a concept, instead of religion vs relationships specifically.), devote themselves to specific causes, enjoy being around others, and care deeply for other people(see the student council, and her classmates in general). plus, the 5w6 types also tend to make logical decisions, feel stressed out by emotional vulnerability, can struggle to believe in or understand others, and prefer to do deeper thinking alone. while they have a bit of contrast in both of their descriptions, all of the listed traits apply to angie, and i assume that at least a few of them apply to you as well. though, your “probably” kind of makes me feel like you got more unrelated types on the enneagram test, haha... maybe you got a 3, or something? my point is, both types “combine” to make angie. the two of you, i think, lie about your personalities. some people even point out how angie’s constant smiling is eerie, but i don’t think she’s that happy all the time. this comic made by ministarfruit pretty much sums up how i see angie... not to be a stan or anything ajfsdjf,,,, she does lie to an extent though, and is chipper and eccentric for the sake of people around her. she’s essentially everyone’s “hope” in the face of the k/lling school semester- or at least, she tries to be.

um... despite us not really being able to see into her possibility of self loathing, shuichi(in her free time events) finds it likely that she becomes lonely very easily. she has a sickle ready to... well, stab into her window in case she feels sad- and in her free time events she seems very ready to do so. even if it is dismissed as a joke- which, that “joking” part i think you can relate to, actually. plus, the fact that she finds it hard to budge from her own views could possibly,, be a defense mechanism for insecurity... i don’t want to assume, but !! um, also, it’s strongly implied that she struggles to differentiate her god’s intentions from her own. even though religion can be part of someone’s self, yes, i think that this could show that she has issues with her identity. at least, the identity she has that’s “her own”. like, beyond how her god demands her to be. without her religion, she might struggle to have an identity of her own. once again... we don’t really know a lot about her past, but issues with the self can... definitely cause(or be caused by) anxiety, like you mentioned experiencing. also, identity issues can be caused by factors of one’s upbringing, or stressful events... so while she’s not very self deprecating, i think angie could have lower self esteem. whether that’s from her upbringing or something else. despite her pride in her religion, which might make you disagree, she doesn’t seem to be very proud of her own achievements(such as being the ultimate artist), as she says that that’s all her god’s work. maybe you could relate to that; people complimenting you and you finding it hard to accept for one reason or another. i’m proud of your achievements, anon... um. but i think that this relates to your next point, saying that you have several hobbies yet feeling talentless. while “art” technically is one hobby, art is definitely an umbrella term. sculpting and drawing are very different medias, and angie is very talented in both, but both of you share the belief that it’s not really... a talent that you possess. there,, might always be a reason that you come up with for someone else being able to do it too, you know? eh, but that could be me just guessing... oh, and something i forgot to mention- in trials, angie also becomes colder or more analytical when she’s trying to protect herself/classmates. she doesn’t hesitate to incriminate others if she thinks they’re suspicious.

in the minor matchups category,, you also remind me somewhat strongly of masaru daimon, and kokichi ouma, as well as somewhat of toko fukawa. oh, and you lightly remind me of misaki asano, himiko yumeno, and ruruka ando...

i hope this was helpful anon !!! i had a bit of trouble deciding on someone for you,,, so if there’s anything i got wrong please let me know- i’m happy to modify something in here for you !! i’m not super confident in this one haha,, so if you disagree i completely understand, go ahead and tell me ,,,,

#kin matchup #danganronpa kin #dr kin #icon by xc4tb0yk0m4ed4-kinhelpx #religion tw #ask #request finished #anon

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mysterylover123 · 6 years ago

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My thoughts on Izu/Ocha: Meta

cue frustrated shipper screams

by mysterylover123

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

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

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

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

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

Without further ado:

Entrance Exam Arc:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

EG:

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

Quirk Apprehension Test Arc:

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

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

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

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

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

Battle Trial Arc:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Uraraka’s POV:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Class Rep mini-arc:

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

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

USJ Arc

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

Sports Festival Arc

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hero Killer Arc:

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

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

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

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

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

Final Exams:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Training Camp Arc:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hideout Raid Arc:

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

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

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

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

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

License Exam Arc:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Internship, Culture Fest, Pro Hero arcs:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Joint Training Arc: So Close Yet So Far

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Final Review:

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

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

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

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

#my hero academia #IzuOcha #meta #izuocha meta #midoriya izuku #uraraka ochako #midoriya x uraraka #ochako x izuku #relationships #ship #relationship meta

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justanotherdumpingground · 6 years ago

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Chapter Reviews: March 12-16, 2019 + ATV's Comeback

High School Story: Class Act Chapter 5:

Did I just support Rory's campaign after supporting the twin's? That I did. I laughed at the options to hold the dance off at the parking lot and pick a heartbreaking ballad. That would be an interesting choice.

I'm starting to dislike the twin for disrupting Rory's campaign. Not once did Rory disrupt the twin's bake sale, and the fact that the twin had the gall to not wait shows their foul play. I debated a bit to supoort the twin or Rory, and ended up going with the latter. Not to mention that the twin's support for more sports falls flat because there's more emphasis on it than cheer and band. Back in the first trilogy, Book 1 focuses on getting a new quarterback after Brian transfered to Heart, and Book 2 has Ashley Faris diverting funding from cheer and band to the basketball team as part of her embezzlement scheme with her brother.

Skye's birthday party is sweet, though I don't want mine held at a graveyard. The irony is that there's a cemetery in the same street I live in. Anyway, what's more important is that Skye's happy. She deserves true happiness, away from her horrible family.

Right now, I'm just curious to see how the trip with friends turns out. I wonder whether there will be more election-related drama, even though I dread it.

The Heist: Monaco Chapter 15:

Yes! I succeeded in getting Sonia to my side. For a moment, I thought she'll stay loyal to Ansel. And that premium scene with her is hot. It's like I finally stole her heart after she stole mine. So glad I picked her as my main love interest because she's the one I find most compelling. Even better was when she distracted Ansel and helped me escape.

Glad to see my training with Jones and Ulrich's gloves paid off. They were worth the diamonds because I got to see my MC being badass and making good use of important tools for the heist. I even stole a necklace that looks like Zenobia's along with the diamond. And the scene where I called Carlisle out for his exploitation of customers was much needed to blow off steam towards him.

The premium escape scene was really badass as well. Seeing Rye and Eris escape in style was cool, and having Fabien drive the main trio to safety was a relaxing calm before the storm. Now all I gotta do was punch Ansel in the face. It's now or never.

Desire & Decorum Chapter 12:

The corgi's back! I missed him! Just kidding. That's just another corgi with the same model as the one in TRR. Nevertheless, I miss the TRR corgi, and it's nice to see some Welsh because it's not a widely spoken language. Too bad I didn't watch the street performers, but after seeing how many of them have recycled models from TC&TF, I cry a little bit inside.

Anyway, it was fun being deceptively polite to Duke Richards and snarky at the same time. Makes me feel good about playing this series. Oh, and Felicity's back even though she's meh.

If there's one thing this book should do regarding the conspirators led by Duke Richards, it's to do justice to the showdown against them. It better not be like The Junior, where Nathan monologues and gets easily exposed, and the clues don't give any special advantages besides putting Beau and/or Kassidy in jail. Seeing that it closely involves the MC being married to Duke Richards, I say have that duke killed in the end.

America's Most Eligible Chapter 9:

Honestly, Piper's still the same smug snake like before. Even when her new show is doing well, I still don't trust her.

After seeing Eden wanting to confess her feelings to Kiana, I say why not? At that time, I thought she could get eliminated, so last chance, perhaps? Even after I've been proven wrong, I still don't regret my decision. It was sweet to see Eden mustering her courage.

Man, Bianca gets done dirty in All Stars, brought back only to have just one premium scene and she gets eliminated this chapter or earlier. I seriously wonder whether or not Pixelberry disregards the potential she brings just because she's female, and PB just wants to cater to its "target audience" despite their illogical demands. Anyway, she deserves better than this.

I really should be careful of Ivy not honoring our deal, especially since I have a negative relationship with her. Nevertheless, Slater gets eliminated, leaving me with one less tough competitor to deal with. The funny thing is that he's still friends with me. Let's see if he and Ivy wind up being interchangeable because of their pragmatism.

The Elementalists Chapter 1:

The opening scene with the girl Goeffe tried to protect and Discount Dorian Pavus got me thinking that the new book's plot will focus on the nine masters of each attunement. From the fight between them and his assumption that the other masters are weak for not realizing their potential, it seems that the nine elements rests on some sort of delicate balance, and the villain wants to use his powers to the hightst potential possible.

Anyway, back to Penderghast. I'm so glad Atlas and Aster have enrolled. I can't wait to see more of them, especially since Aster was severely sidelined in Book 1. I was shocked and amused to see that Greygarden Waithe looks like Yusuf Konevi with blue hair, blue skin, and yellow eyes. Boy, Pixelberry sure loves recycling character models. On another note, I hope I get to see more of the dynamics between the different races of the setting, especially since Aster mentioned the Wand Wars being a sour point in relations between humans and wood nymphs. It's too good of an opportunity for Pixelberry to pass.

I'm thinking of renaming the friend group from Five Stars to something else, probably The Week, with each member for each day of the week. As for the tour around Penderghast, I encouraged Atlas and Aster to focus on their studies. They're in a place of learning, so they should make the most of their enthusiasm for learning. I know Aster's the kind of person who wants to learn more, so that's a plus.

I like the element symbols on the choices. It makes me easier to choose which kind of spell depending on the situation at hand. Especially when it comes to the environment. It's helpful.

So we can get impression points with Discount Dorian Pavus, eh? Well, He's probably lying when he said that he knew MC and Atlas's parents, but I also think it means impression points will have more impact than before. I hope this new villain has a complex characterization and is very effective at his actions. So far, he has a colorful personality, which is better than Raife Highmore, who is bland and forgettable.

Ride or Die Chapter 9:

Why does it sound like Mona traded one undesireable situation (jail time, which shouldn't be bad for her) for another (ending up with the Mercy Park Crew)? It doesn't help that she has no problems continuing her life of crime. And why destroy a functioning car even if it's old? I swear, she doesn't have much of a personality besides being a criminal who doesn't regret her actions, but then again, I pick her out of "pity" and not because of her personality.

Because I sided with Darius, he visited my MC as well as calling her in the previous chapter. As part of me roleplaying (or trying to) her as an informant dedicated to justice, I told him to just trust me, since the Brotherhood is implied to be the antagonists, and he better stay away from being collateral damage.

Colt and Kaneko, you idiots! I get that the Brotherhood is E.V.I.L., but recruiting Salazar despite how much of a snake he is? Hooray for MPC logic! Another reason to throw them under the bus, though it's part of my plan all along anyway.

Open Heart Chapter 5:

I enjoy the friend group of this series, but I also worry that this competition for the diagnostics team position will jeopardize their friendship. As for Aurora, I told the group that she's not as bad as people say. Despite her aloof personality, disregard of small talk, and an unacceptable remark, there's more to her than meets the eye. She resents being associated with her aunt, is actually good with patients like Annie, and makes no attempt to ruin oter people's performances. It's extremely naïve to assume she shouldn't be a complex character, given her understandable annoyance of being seen as Harper's niece and hidden depths with Annie.

Hello, familiar faces. I kinda laughed at Senator Lucius, Kyle Garza, and Percy Mendoza's faces at the baseball match. Pity I didn't buy the premium outfit, but thr baseball manager's so darn relatable on his lack of familiarity with medical terms.

So, Rafael is a love interest? Not surprised because of his popularity among the fanbase. Didn't pick the premium option to fly with him, so I watched on YouTube, and it was okay. I get to know a bit about him and that he looks up to his uncle, which is nice. Not to mention that the sunset view is beautiful.

More thoughts on Across the Void's return:

As I've said earlier, I'm not excited for it to return. I'm wary of Pax and Eos for being nuisances, the love interests lacking sufficient development for me to care for them, and the Vanguard vs Jura conflict lacking enough focus to the point that I don't know enough of them to care. Maybe Pixelberry will fix this issue by focusing more on the gray vs gray conflict they've set up. After all, this story is supposed to be an adventure that allows us to experience various areas of the conflict.

#choices stories you play #choices high school story: class act #choices hssca #choices desire & decorum #choices d&d #choices the heist: monaco #choices th:m #choices america's most eligible #choices ame #choices open heart #choices oh #choices the elementalists #choices te #choices ride-or-die #choices rod #choices across the void #choices atv #chapter reviews

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smartcookie727 · 7 years ago

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Tell us more about your ships and why do you ship those... both my hero academia and ft cus I'm looking for more ships to fill my life

Sure thing! Let’s start with FTcause bnha has soooo many characters and is a hodgepodge of ships.

Fairy Tail:

Gajevy -My true OTP. They are the halves that make each other whole. Both are greatcharacters on their own but together they make each other better. Levy isanalytical and shy with the intellect and work ethic beyond anyone else. Gajeelknows how to get the job done; he is fiercely protective and very in touch withhis emotions. He doesn’t care what others think of his attitude, and to him actionsmean more than words. Both could be classified as people who like to work aloneyet they both have small teams (Shadow gear and pantherlily / dragonslayers).Levy is the planning to Gajeel’s punch and Gajeel is the confidence behind Levy’swords. I love their dynamic so much. They have gone through pain, recovery,trust, friendship, and love. There is so much to explore with both of theircharacters and life in general. The flirty banter is strong with these two.They fall into the “world melts away” relationship. They sometimes don’trealize how obviously in love they are because neither is good at hidingemotions, and both are direct, passionate people with their feelings. Levy andGajeel push each other just enough to foster growth without crossing the lineof fighting all the time. In a word they are balanced. I can’t see them withothers because they make for the most supportive, balanced pair long term.

Nalu - Whata dynamic and friendship! These two have a great connection and trust in eachother. They are playful but caring with corny innuendos sprinkled in. They makesense. They have moved from friends to partners who have saved each othersasses enough times for them to think…why do I run headfirst into danger foryou. I find them interesting since they have a different dynamic than my otherdragonslayer/bookworm duo. There are threads of similarity but they have adifferent core bond. They are a couple that shows that love can grow andchange, relationships develop at different speeds and love doesn’t have to be asudden burst where you just know.

Jerza -Being a leader is a lonely job. These two are really interesting to me. Theyare the stoic captains that put everyone before themselves. Erza cares deeplyabout her guild and puts the weight of everyone’s happiness above her own. Shemade what she believes to be a selfish decision long ago that defined her andhas been trying to make up for it since. Jellal is similar. He made terriblechoices he is unwilling to forgive. Neither believes they deserve the love andaffection they desire. There is a constant inner turmoil is fun to play with.Head vs heart. I believe these two are each others’ home. No one understandsthe pressure they feel like the other can. When they can be together the wallscome down and both can enjoy the simple things they normally give up. Together,neither has to be the person people will turn to for help or guidance, they canjust be themselves. Let your hair down Erza, you deserve love andrelaxation.

Bixanna -Mischief making matchmakers! I love these two. They both are the cutewisecrackers of their respective groups. Bickslow has this gruff edge, keepcalm and kick ass side, and totally dorky jokes. He’s not afraid to get sillyand gives zero fucks. Lisanna is the total support he needs to be himself.Wanna be silly and go play pranks? Lis can keep up. Wanna go fight monsters?Lis can keep up and look cute doing it. Wanna chill on the couch and thinkabout how strong of a bond your team has? Lis does too. They work well in thesense of balance too. Lisanna tends to be the person that is quietly friendswith everyone but is close with a select few. Bickslow brings her out of hershell. She’s had a strange distance since returning to the guild and primarilyhangs with fam…I think that those years people thought she was dead made herreturn bittersweet. They tried to move on as best they could and she got leftbehind. When she gets back it’s hard to find her place. Her old dynamics havechanged…the bond is still there but things aren’t the same. Theirrelationship isn’t built in the past or defined by her return. They are peoplewho found each other unexpectedly…one of those relationships that suddenlyhappened when neither was looking for it. I think I’d categorize them ashope and future. Both have had dark times that may haunt them occasionally, butthey give each other a clean slate and zero judgment.

Merelow -My official crack babies. I was randomly thinking one day and this ship fellinto my lap! Bickslow: badass jokester. Meredy: badass bubblegum girl. Put emtogether and magic. These two are ready to try anything and everything. Theybring out the adventurous spontaneity in each other. Both have been on thewrong side of the fight and have moved forward. They have a core team thatmeans the world to them and are supremely loyal to each other. These two aresimilar to the bixanna dynamic with more of a wanderer side thrown in. They’vehad their breakdowns and have forgiven themselves and grown. They both give somuch love and cheer to their friends. I also love how compatible their magicis. Soul control and soul link. These two aren’t afraid to fight and cry andlove and sing. Neither tries to hide anything from the other. They are socomfortable together and they truly understand each other. They make everyeffort so that the other will smile, and I just love them.

Sildarts -OK. so. @gsut and @sanguine-fairy got me on this ship. Grumpy kickass dudes withgrumpy kids. They’ve been through many hardships in life and have loved andcried and have so much more life behind them than most of my other ships. They havea deeper connection by their love for their kids and their strain to have alife of their own. These two experienced individuals kinda trip over themselveslike teens as they explore a new side of themselves in this relationship. Noone knows how it’s supposed to go. Silver has many of the qualities I admire in Gray and kindareigns in Gildarts’ craziness. Gildarts gives him balance. He throws stoicSilver and all caution to the wind and make them both laugh and fill the piecesof their hearts that have been empty. Also these men know how to brood and beangry and glum…they have held in their emotions so much that both understandthe subtle cues when the other is upset…though it doesn’t always stop somepretty intense fights. They are passionate guys that hold each other up whenlife tries to punch them in the gut.

Lyredy - Two sweet, sensitive cuties. These two are harmony. Lyon is hella romantic and is always doing things both large and smallto show how much he cares for her. Meredy can see through the bravado he putson to the core person he is. She helps Lyon not to take himself too seriouslyand he always makes her laugh and smile. Meredy has insecurities about her pastand Lyon understands this himself. He will be as over the top as her can or asdown to earth as he needs to make her feel better. Both talk big about love butfind themselves remarkably shy when it actually happens. They are a mix ofadventure and shyness and pull each other along to find new things to love.They are a softer romance and I adore them.

Gruvia - Pushing through barriers these two truly stumbledinto romance. She could see his walls from the start and has felt the pain ofbuilding them herself, but Gray showed her such kindness that she truly felt achange. Gray and Juvia are elements that shape each other, pushing each otherto grow without necessarily trying. They became friends who feel a strong senseof responsibility to each other. Time turned friendship to love and I enjoy theway they play with the intensity of their romance. At times they are soft andsweet and others they are hot and heavy. She gives him a place to be candidwith his emotions and he reigns in her dramatic side. At their cores they carefor each other deeply and rely on their mutual support more than they realize.They will always drift back to each other, even when things tough.

Miraxus/Laxana/Canajane/Fraxus - idk why but I love them ALL. Miraxus is so cute andfun. They both have a calm and wild side. They are the heads of theirrespective groups and take things very seriously. When they’re together theycan let their hair down. Laxus sees through the smile she always wears down tothe fragile person she can be. Laxus is so stoic and Mira can always tell whathe’s thinking. They are more reserved as a couple and just enjoy each other’scompany. Laxana is fun and flirty. They rile each other up and don’t let thefun stop. They can laugh at anything and take great fun in jokes and quips witheach other. Always exploring and having an adventure with these two! Canajane.Talk about flirty cuteness and innuendos. They truly care about each other andCana is always pushing Mira to try new things. Mira keeps Cana grounded andwill always support and carry her. Fraxus. Mutual love and support. They aren’tfond of pda but the love can always be seen in their eyes. These two trulyhave each other’s back and always understand what each other needs.

Anyone else…I enjoy mymultishipping (aside from gajevy) so if there’s another couple that I canreally understand I’ll probably enjoy them: Chendy, LaLu, GrayLu, Alzack/Bisca,Stinerva, Minerza, Freed/Rufus, ships with Juvia, peeps from Mermaid Heel, etc.The only problem I have is if I can’t understand the relationshipdynamic…then things just fizzle in my mind.

Hahahaha now onto BNHA! OK I’mkinda tired from FT so I’ll keep these explanations less elaborate

BNHA:

Todomomo - insecure strong kids that lift each other up andbelieve in each other. Momo is such an interesting character and I love her.

Kacchako - fight like a girl. He respects her and she respectshim. They push each other to be better and I just love a cinnamon roll with agrumpy boy

Iihatsu - who better for a machine inventing girl than the guywith the engine built right in? she’s not afraid of anything and helps iida letloose. He’s always there to try her new inventions and she always makes himsmile.

Fuyusei, Bakumomo, Bakushima - love them all and they totally make sense

KiriMina, Jiro/Kaminari - such cute kids

Momo/Iida, Ochako/Iida,Ochako/Deku, Hakagure/Ojiro - cute potential and they have moments that make me smile

#cookie answers #anon #gajevy #nalu #jerza #bixanna #merelow #sildarts #lyredy #gruvia #ahhhh so many ships #there's probably more tbh #but here yall go #my lovely ships #for real todomomo kaccako and iihatsu tho

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analysis-by-vaylon · 7 years ago

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Animation reviews, criteria for analysis, and the scope of this blog.

Hello, there. I’ve recently been browsing Netflix for animated features and series to watch, and I thought I would share some brief thoughts about these with you; however, it’s not my intention to turn this blog into a review blog -- I’d rather stick to lengthy analysis. I’m simply using these reviews as a starting point to discuss some things that have been on my mind lately.

I want to accomplish multiple things with this post: I’ll talk about some of the animation I’ve seen recently, discuss why I’m not going to post longer analyses for these, and then go into some detail about what sort of things you can (and can’t) expect me to talk about when I discuss animation.

Reviews for Recently-Watched Animation

Only one of these is recent; I basically just browse Netflix, look for something with an interesting premise, and watch it. It’s not a very complex process.

April and the Extraordinary World. 2015. Origin: France. I found its premise silly. The dialogue is uninspired at best and its characters unsympathetic. Many critics praised its animation, but because I don’t like steampunk, I found the scenery and designs to be dull. Not recommended.

The Little Prince. 2015. Origin: France. I’ve never read the book, but I sense that this film does it justice, as it effortlessly weaves imaginative fantasy-adventure together with a story about the pressures of adulthood. There’s a great deal of mystery and symbolism in it that was, for me, a breath of fresh air. Recommended.

My Life as a Zucchini. 2016. Origin: France. This is a stop-motion animation whose characters have a wonderful amount of life and vibrancy in their designs and dialogue. Despite being on the shorter side (at a mere 65 minutes!), this film still manages to pack a whole lot into its charmingly-told love story. Recommended.

A.I.C.O. -Incarnation-. 2018. Origin: Japan. 12 episodes. I wanted to like this -- I really did -- but despite its intriguing premise and the promise of pure science fiction themes, I ultimately found this anime to be lackluster in its storytelling, concepts, and designs. It seems to focus more on action than on execution. The dialogue is especially bad -- rife with what I call “anime-isms”. Not recommended.

In This Corner of the World. 2016. Origin: Japan. This film takes us back to World War II-era Japan with faithfully-reconstructed depictions of both Hiroshima and Kure. The scenery is gorgeous, and the characters’ victories and struggles are as palpable as the looming horror which ultimately waits for Hiroshima. Despite the cheerful face the characters bravely put on, the film reminds us that no one escapes unscathed from war. Recommended.

Remember: just because I enjoy something and you don’t -- or vice-versa -- does not mean that one of us is wrong and one of us is right. There is such a thing as personal taste; April and the Extraordinary World, for instance, was widely acclaimed by critics, but I personally dislike it.

Criteria for Analysis

When it comes to writing analysis, I am mostly interested in longer works that have complex overarching themes, intriguing concepts, or an engaging use of language. I don’t intend to write about anything that I wouldn’t recommend to others for their own enjoyment. Films are nice -- and some of them do indeed offer enough complexity to warrant bringing them under the critical eye -- but I have found that the series format is most suited for allotting time for the development of themes, symbols, and so on. I believe in the power of structured meaning; by this, I don’t mean that the work needs to follows a formulaic structure, but rather the work creates, through association and recurrence, an idiomatic framework of meaning.

An example of what I mean can be found in The Lord of the Rings in the symbolism of the One Ring. Historically, in fiction and everyday metaphor, rings were used as symbols of love, commitment, power, wealth, and greed. In The Lord of the Rings, however, the One Ring -- though it certainly carries this ancient symbolism with it -- takes on additional symbolism through its association with actions or feelings: compulsion, for instance, in being compelled to wear and desire it; hardship, in that the Ring is a heavy psychological burden for all who bear it; treachery, in that the Ring seeks to return to its true master and always threatens to escape or betray those who wear it; and malice, in that the Ring represents Sauron’s power-hungry desire for dominion over all beings and for the ability to cruelly inflict suffering upon them. It’s thanks to the widespread appreciation of The Lord of the Rings that these meanings have entered into the wider consciousness of symbolism associated with rings -- though, of course, love and commitment remain today the central ones.

Obviously, the longer a series is, the more it can add to its personal grammar of meaning: take, for instance, Star vs. the Forces of Evil and the Blood Moon, a recurring symbol -- throughout all three seasons -- of love and destiny. Each additional appearance of the symbol offers a chance to further enrich its meaning.

By borrowing cultural symbols and constructing personal ones, writers can elevate their work, tapping into powerful ideas much greater than themselves; presenting those ideas in an intelligible way can hopefully lead the reader to some sort of epiphany or greater awareness. This is as true of animation as it is of literary fiction, which brings me to my next point.

The Scope of This Blog

I started this blog in order to bring the same critical approaches used for writing about literature to animation. You won’t hear me often discussing frame rate, color grading, or other technical elements of visual design -- despite animation being primarily a visual medium. To people who work in the animation industry, that may seem odd, but I’m simply not trained in film, animation, or art theory, and anything that I know about those subjects (which is not much) is from reading about them in my own personal time. I just don’t consider myself qualified to comment on the finer technical points of visual media.

My academic training is in English literature and critical theory, and I’m more interested in ideas and their conveyance than in visual impact, as you may have gathered from the previous sections. Elaborate animation can be impressive, yes, but my personal opinion is that visual achievement is a hollow victory if it lacks complex meaningfulness. The example that always comes to mind for me is the Nichijou anime: yes, some of the animation in the series is, without a doubt, exemplary in terms of technical effort and stylistic experimentation, but without any intellectual complexity to support the series, it simply feels pointless -- even downright mean-spirited. Perhaps an animator would find the series interesting, but it’s not what I’m looking for.

Part of that, too, is due to my own limitations. I am visually impaired, so I tend to de-emphasize visuals and give primacy to written and spoken language. I simply can’t see well enough to make critical judgments on the visual aspects of animation. Hence, you will often hear me speak instead of narrative, dialogue, characterization, and so on -- elements of literary fiction as applied to animated storytelling.

I’ve often thought about whether or not I should even be running a blog like this; it is entirely possible I don’t belong in discussions about animation. I think animators who believe in the supremacy of board-driven animation (like John Kricfalusi, for instance) would agree with that: animation, they might say, is the realm of artists and not writers -- and especially not writers who have no background in art whatsoever. They would have a point. Animation is, as I said earlier, primarily a visual medium, whether that involves ink, paint, clay, cardboard cutouts, or computer-generated drawings. What right do I have to intrude into the world of color and movement? And my answer is none. I have no right. I am a trespasser.

And I am comfortable being one. I expect no one to listen to me; I would still be saying the things I have said even if no one were. Perhaps it is foolish to think so, but I believe that animation can have the same things in it that literature does: that it can be both intellectually complex and fun, that it say something about the human condition, that it can challenge its audience. I don’t want people to lose sight of what is important about storytelling -- no matter what format it comes in.

#analysis #critical theory #animation

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knightofbalance-13 · 7 years ago

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Media Comparison: Legend Of Korra Vs. RWBY

So between a show with all the budget in the world, an already existing world and mythos, some of the best writers of our generation with some of the bets animators and artists while being based off a fucking legend of western animation and some anime-inspired show with the budget of a high school theater show made by a bunch of people I hadn’t even heard of before hand: You’d think the choice would be obvious right?

*sigh* Yeah, I wish it were that simple.

Yeah, if the introduction wasn’t obvious enough, I’m a fan of RWBY but NOT a fan of the Legend of Korra. Despite all of Korra’s advantages from budget to time to exposure to name recognition: I just found myself at best mildly entertained by it while at the same time, I really enjoy this web series my friend just happen to recommend to me with NO knowledge of it beforehand. So why is it that I enjoy one over the other despite logic saying otherwise?

Well, I’m here to explain that.

First off, the fact that I knew nothing about RWBY before hand may have actually helped the show in comparison. My only expectation for RWBY was a mildly amusing web show since at the time, I had only watched Abridged series on the web and this was before TFS really started getting good so my expectations were pretty level at the time. Meanwhile, I went into Korra with pretty high expectations for the show because it had the “Avatar” title on it and I had seen the previous series. So obscurity kind of helped RWBY there.

Even then, there are a LOT of problems that plague Korra that either are lesser in, solved in or just didn’t exist in RWBY. One of the biggest aspects is just the basic writing. In Korra, you have the Tomboy Savivor Jerk With A Heart of Gold, the generic everyman meant to ground the protagonist, the comedy relief younger brother and the pretty supporter. Basically, we have your average tropes as protagonists with next to nothing done to make them stand out. Even the character development for the group is by the book. Korra learns to not rush into shit and...actually that’s it for Korra. There is an “arc” in Seaosn 4 about letting people help her but that aspect is quickly dropped and never mention or referenced or used again. And Asami (the pretty supporter) just learns how to fight.

Contrast this in RWBY where a young idealist is forced to learn that her way of looking at the world is too childish and naïve to ne effective. However, instead of developing into a cynic like normal, she just adjusts her world view to accommodate reality while keeping the core values of her belief. Or that the freedom fighter, instead of being seen as absolutely right, is forced to come to terms that her cause isn’t black and white and that her comrades aren’t justified in all their actions. Or that the weak, audience surrogate actually has a REASON to be weak and to not know what is going on, actively tries to fix that and still suffers for it.

Then we have the world of both shows. Somehow, Korra managed to have one the simplest but most effective worlds given to it on a silver platter...and completely fuck it up. The world goes from being similar to an ancient Asia-like world to somehow being 1920′s America-esque in only 100 years. Like...I do not even understand HOW that can happen. Asian culture is already heavily different from Western culture, ESPECIALLY America due to taking place on two sides of the planet with VERY different values and such. I cannot for the life of me see how one can develop into the other. And this is excluding the fact that the entire setting did a 1000 year leap in technology in a tenth of the time.

Meanwhile in RWBY, the world is bare bones but it DOES make sense. Dust is highly valued due to being the main power source of the world, they value positivity and self expression due to facing off against a rather identical and uniform enemy that feeds on negativity with powers that rely on their personalities without falling into stupid bullshit like suppressing all emotion (in fact, the world TRIED doing that once and showed why that is a terrible idea.) The four kingdoms have some central values shared but have many differences due to the differences in each region such as the hostile Vacuo being welcoming of anyone who can survive there or Atlas being cold and calculating due to the necessity in the past to quickly adapt or die.

Then we have the characters themselves. I’ll keep this brief by focusing on the main characters of each, starting with LoK and Korra herself. Korra is...a complete and total jackass. And NOT in the intentional way were she gets called out and is forced to change. She DOES get called out...issue is that Korra almost NEVER learns her lesson because she either forgets about her actions latter on or the person who called her out is the one being punished. Korra defies her teacher’s instructions and later he’s forced to bend to her will because the narrative says Korra is right. Which is just a recipe for pissing the audience off. She’s also arrogant, full of herself, stubborn as hell, childish, immature and just a pain to watch. Even when she loses her arrogance and immaturity, she’s still reckless as hell and she still barely has a personality beyond being combat happy and short tempered. So at best, Korra is just your average Shounen protagonist with nothing new or unique of her own.

Meanwhile the main character of RWBY, Ruby Rose, stands out pretty well on her own. She’s energetic, optimistic, hopeful and yet shy and inexperienced. However each of these aspects actually has something to do with Ruby herself with an explanation and get explored quite a bit. She’s all these things because she’s young and comes to bite her in the ass quite a few times. Her energy causes her to rush into battle without thinking, her optimism was originally a near blindness to the world around her, her hopefulness is taken advantage of a few times and her shyness and inexperience originally gave her trouble trying to talk and relate to others. Ruby also has quite a but more to her as she is a natural leader and knows how to use her teammates’ abilities to their fullest, she’s adaptable as she accepts the world isn’t inherently good but still chooses to be optimistic and she has a hard time dealing with grief and rage, bottling them up until they start to leak out. Combine this with her earnest attempts at being a hero as well as some cute shy tendencies and you have a very loveable main character.

And then we have the romance. Korra was an absolute TERROR when it came to romance. The first romance in the show was a fucking love square which all started because the main heroine refused to understand the concept of “boyfriend”. Numerous relationships throughout the series are either badly done (Asami and Mako) or rather disturbing (from what it sounded like: Tenzen’s wife broke him and his then girlfriend Suyin up) or downright abusive (Bolin and Eska, Suyin’s reaction to the break up and Mako and Korra were just horrid.) There are only TWO passable relationships and that’s mainly because they barely get any focus. Also Korra and Asami but that was last minute and means nothing.

RWBY had a similar love triangle going on but unlike Korra, this was actually handled well. Jaune drops his affections for Weiss and helps her out, Pyrrha helps Jaune out and Jaune cheers Pyrrha up. It’s also one of the few shows to have a rather heartwrenching love story between Jaune and Pyrrha that ends up majorly affecting the show and helped make both characters stand out more in the fandom.

And,,,Listen, I can go on and on about the different ways I think RWBY is better than Korra but at the end of the day, Korra was a mess of somewhat interesting idea bungled up by messy execution and amateur mistakes along with some political issues seeping into the writing: RWBY also started out this way but the show DRASTICALLY improved and grew from these mistakes, learning how to avoid them and grow beyond them instead of stumbling back and forth between getting better or worse. All inall: LoK was either aggravating to watch or just dull while RWBY has been fun and I’ve grown to have a deep respect for the show.

#rwby #legend of korra #media comparisons

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thenichibro · 8 years ago

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Winter 2017 Anime First Impressions

The first season we’re really feeling the effects of more anime simulcast services. Yellow subs, torrents not being under the CR/Funi umbrella - dark times. Due to the fact I can only DDL at college, I am choosing not to watch LWA or Onihei because I wouldn’t be able to keep up with them. I’m definitely going back to LWA after the season’s over though. Regardless, this season has the usual ups and downs, but initially I’m seeing a lot of ups - Maidragon is fantastic, Demi-chan and Urara are cute as hell, and Scum’s Wish is almost emotionally draining to watch, it’s so enthralling. Here’s what I’m watching, with MAL links: Fuuka (MAL) Starting off, we have an ecchi almost-harem manga that I didn't like. Great. Fuuka has the original plot elements of a shut-in guy that popular on the internet, who also has a super-popular girl as his childhood friend and soon gets to know another cute girl. Also his three sisters never wear clothes. Cool. Fuuka wasn't really that shit until the truck-to-the-face level plot twist that occurred in the manga, which I hope they will reach in the anime just for the reactions to how bullshit it is. Other than that, Fuuka is a less-than-stellar sort of harem about a whiny, bland main character. Fuuka even falls on the MC twice in the first episode for good measure. Oh, I guess also the plot involves playing music, but that's basically just a way for more random good things to happen to an unlikable character. OP and ED are nothing special, either. If anything, Diomedia's art style is usually good. Otherwise, avoid. Masamune-kun no Revenge (MAL) A story of a fat kid who got ripped and now wants to get revenge on his former crush. It's something new, for sure. The completely worthless perfect-in-everything trope is now supplied by both the female AND male leads. What a show. At the very least, Masamune-kun tempers the trope by giving both mains embarrassing reasons to keep up airs. The girls we've met aren't half bad, and I for one support a peppy class rep rather than the standard strict, megane type. The princess-complex is so tiring every time it happens, so lets hope that the show moves more toward Makabe/Aki in their real selves rather than putting on airs. Masamune-kun's plot actually strikes me as similar to Last Game, if anyone's read that manga. While I doubt this show will carry far enough into the future to deal with marriage, the story of a guy trying to ruin/outdo a girl and falling for her is definitely there. I have no strong feelings one way or another about this show, at least not yet. That will probably depend on how much princess Aki vs. normal Aki we see. Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-bu (MAL) I thought Long Riders was last season? Anyway, here we have a slice of life about a girl in a biking club. Relaxing enough premise, for sure. First impressions are that this show takes it pretty slow, judging from the fact that it takes 14 minutes before the main characters get to school at all. That is not a complaint, just an observation. Another is how different the landscape art is from the character art. The show opens with some amazing nature stills, while the character art is, for lack of a better term, "old." As in, it almost has the feel of an earlier 2000s show. I did wonder how much into biking the show would get, like Long Riders did, and the end of episode 1 answered that for me. The last two minutes or so are a live action segment where two of the seiyuu learn about getting into biking by talking to a guy running a bike shop. While the super serious stuff is what kind of made Long Riders fall flat for me, maybe it won't be as serious. We’ll see. Nyanko Days (MAL) I guess since I can't get my Teekyuu fix, I'll have to find a different two-minute show. Nyanko Days is about Tomoko, a girl who has three personified cats. For a two-minute show, that's about how far episode 1 got. She was depressed about being lonely, but cheers up upon arriving home to her three cats, Maa, Shii, and Rou. For a show this short the animation is surprisingly clean, and the 30sec ED was suitably full of "nya" and various words combined with it. It's cute, and it's two minutes long, so why not? Seiren (MAL) I came into this show knowing little more than it was a school romantic comedy, and overall I think it benefited my first impressions. The show focuses on three main girls and their relations with the male MC, and dedicates a few episodes to each of them out of the 12-episode cour. I'm immediately wary of this, only because it gives me flashbacks (read: PTSD) to Photokano, where they focused on a different girl each few episodes and then reset time the next section. I do enjoy the lack of the transfer student trope, at least for the MC. The first moments successfully give you the sense that there is already a school community, something I prefer over having to sort out relationships individually following a transfer. Overall, the MC is pretty standard and the current girl has a tiring personality. As long as this show stays far from resembling trash like Photokano, I think this show will be defined by the personality of the current girl, whether you like that or not. Chaos;Child (MAL) Because we needed more of the Chaos;Head storyline. I don't remember much about Chaos;Head, other than the incredibly shit voice of the main character and the incredibly shit everything else. I watched the first episode in a 1-hour combination with "Episode 0," which is a recap of Head. If you get the HorribleSubs release, that's what the file will be. Anyway, Child itself takes place six years after Head, in which the main character of that show causes some event or something. The recap doesn't help at all. Child follows a school's newspaper club investigating murders similar in strangeness to those during Head. Initially, Takuru seems like a person interested in the depravity and bizaare level of the murders, but that personality gets completely dropped when he tries investigating the newest murder - he completely loses all cool after seeing a body. While that otherwise may be a fairly normal reaction, it goes at odds with the Takuru that had looked at pictures of previous murders and called them "juicy" and interesting. He also regains the first personality after the event is over. Just seems way too abrupt. I will say Itou Kanako returns as she does for everything semi-colon related, and her voice is as good as ever in the OP/ED. I'm thankful for the lack of the otaku protag, but otherwise this seems just as nonsensical as Chaos;Head but with better art. Not looking forward to more. One Room (MAL) The second short show of the season, from famed artist Kantoku. That's the only reason I'm watching this, anyway. This show makes the initially strange choice of being shot in POV, with a voiceless male protagonist. The first episode sees him meet his new high-school girl neighbor, then grow close enough to her that she asks him to help her study. The show is billed as series of shorts focusing on three girls, so I would expect something like four episodes for each one. The most noticeable part of the show is the art, and damn does it look good. Closeups of the girl, fluttering cherry petals, everything is beautiful as a still and smooth when in motion. The POV part is less of a problem for me as I see it as similar to a visual novel, and with the girls being cute and the art being great, this will be an enjoyable watch each week. Kemono Friends (MAL) An all-CG mobile-game show, and a full 24 minutes at that. Why am I watching this? One of the things that stood out immediately was the grating sound of the first two characters's voices. Kemono Friends involves Japari Park, in which anthropomorphized animal girls live and have to deal with aliens called Ceruleans. While the show is clearly projecting a light-hearted tone, it was strange to hear heavy techno during a battle with a big Cerulean. This show looks like no more than a walk around the different areas to see different animal girls. I'd be satisfied with that if it wasn’t just so boring. The OP is suitably bouncy, but even if this show doesn’t get serious, 24 minutes of bad animation is a serious slog. Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon (MAL) Ah Kyoani, the true saviors of anime. Kyoto Animation's production budget meets the artstyle and writing of Danna ga Nani's creator. I'm on board. A working adult who drunkenly invites a dragon-girl to be her maid. A unique premise, to be sure. Right off the bat, the contrast between the Tohru's unfazed optimism and Kobayashi being done with her shit all the time made me laugh my ass off. The sequence with Tohru getting more scared of humans when Kobayashi and Takiya are drunk was also top-tier. Art-wise the show looks great, animation is smooth, and Tohru is cute as hell. Always a plus. In addition, I think Kobayashi is a grounded character with a few weird tastes, which is somewhat more relatable than a totally “normal” person, if I'm being honest. Regarding the OP/ED, I will do anything for more fhana, and Maidragon's OP does not disappoint. No ED in episode 1. Overall, I was surprised at how much I liked a show with such an ostensibly strange premise, but I am wholeheartedly excited for the next episode. Kuzu no Honkai (MAL) I was immediately drawn in by the brutally emotional premise of Kuzu no Honkai, or Scum's Wish. Two students dating, only using the other as a physical replacement for an impossible emotional love. Wow. I was almost shocked when the episode ended, because I had been enthralled the entire time. Even through the intimate scenes, there was a heavy air, one punctuated by wells of emotion that kept me breathless. Something has to be said for the sound design too - the crescendos of music match Hana's emotional ups and downs to a T. Flawless. Likewise, the art throughout, especially with the black watercolors clouding white paper, the choices of camera angles during the intimate scene - it brings out the regretful and simultaneously indulgent feelings that the scene evokes. The fact that sexual encounters in anime are almost always moments for comedy rather than real emotion just makes Kuzu no Honkai's scenes more unique. Just the very idea of feelings so strong that two lonely people would come together to physically try to stave them off is both depressing and greatly intriguing at the same time. Even the general atmosphere of episode 1 enriched the painful introspective Hana was going through, culminating in the titular wish. With the courage to take a darker look at high-school romance, I want to see more. Watch this show. Demi-chan wa Kataritai (MAL) I didn't think I had a thing for something as specific as "blonde vampires," but there you go. Man, does this show make me feel good. A world where racism towards demi-humans has calmed down to the point where it's a normal part of life. No serious, overbearing issues, just a fun, light-hearted look at the concept of a demi-human living a modern life. I think I find the epitome of that in Takahashi, who doesn't really want much more than to just know more about demi-humans - he has a genuine desire to get to know the subtleties of their lives. Soft-spoken and laid back, he is the perfect foil for the quirky, bubbly Hikari, the aforementioned blonde vampire. Funny exchanges with a few heartwarming moments combine to form one hell of a great first episode. The ED fits the relatively calm tone perfectly, but I'm partial to the OP by TrySail after they caught my eye doing Classroom Crisis' OP. Give it a listen. While there are some noticeably harem-esque undertones, if this show stays relatively away from Monster Musume ecchi and carves its own niche, I will enjoy it to the fullest. Urara Meirochou (MAL) [To get this out of the way first, FUCK Anime Network - who the hell thinks yellow subs, and hardsubs at that, still look fine? At least with the CR/Funi deal I would think we would have some consistency for once, damn.] I saved this for last because it looked like the most healing show this season. That, and midriffs. I'm a sucker for the traditional Japanese style (Mushishi, Katanagatari, Uchouten Kazoku), and Meirochou's art and architecture do not disappoint. Thus far, this is a heartwarming tale of four girls working to find themselves through their style of fortune-telling. The four girls are quite cute, even if Nono's voice is pitched just a bit too high. Also, midriffs. I hope that stays. I also like Chiya's wild-person-new-to-society personality, and I think it meshes interestingly with three other girls that, while adjusted to society outside of Meirochou, are otherwise just as new. Overall, this is a show that takes an interesting setting and premise and aims to tell a story through four cute girls. What's not to love?

#fuuka #masamune-kun no revenge #minami kamakura koukou joshi jitensha-bu #nyanko days #seiren #chaos;child #one room #kemono friends #kobayashi-san chi no maid dragon #kuzu no honkai #demi-chan wa kataritai #urara meirochou #winter 2017 anime #my anime reviews

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