#unordinary’s thoughts

[unordinarywarlord]

I just saw a picture of a post about currency in fantasy worlds and I just had a funny idea. Switch liquid measurements with how we value money. Gallons are dollars. Quarters are still quarts sure. But pints are dimes and the nickel doesn’t exist. But a penny is just a liter. Because now in the fantasy world we shall measure liquids by what container you’re using and how much it weighs according to the weight of the liter coins :)

[unordinarywarlord]

I think when I came up with it, Unordinary was part of the title of a webtoons I was reading and I decided I related to that word because it was nicer than calling myself weird and then Warlord came from a username from a website I used to be on, I will not be disclosing that username, it’s not dead to me, but it was a very cringy phase of life, and well I put them together and was surprised no one else was using this as a username, so now I just vibe on the internet with this username :)

USERNAME LORE GIVE IT TO ME NOW YOU ALL

[burstbub]

He looks and dressed just like he did when he was a child God shoot me now

[unordinary-diary]

I’ve been thinking about Seraphina, and how cool it is storywise, to have such an immensely powerful character, and take everything from her. But then I revised that thought— her ability wasn’t everything to her. Her freedom was everything to her.

Seraphina then trades in her freedom to get her ability back.

[sunlitbreezq]

What I Think UnO Characters Handwriting Looks Like

John:

Sera:

Arlo:

Remi:

Blyke:

Isen:

[unordinarywarlord]

I kind of want to send this to a friend to see if she’ll use it as a reaction reference … imma send it tomorrow

New meme, guys!  strange feeling meme! so many ideas, you guys gave me a many ideas. But I was already making this meme, and I finally finished it. If I had more time, I would try to reflect other ideas. Use free and take it!

[ro-rogue]

can i just talk about unordinary and feminism for a sec?

many fantasy works attempt to position themselves as feminist; they show female characters who can fight better than the guys, who are rough around the edges and not like other girls. they often have a male character who is misogynistic, and who gets his ass handed to him by the female character. uno takes another direction: it does not even address sexism at all, in any way, shape or form, and that makes it much more feminist than these kind of works. (that is not to say that there are no other fantasy works that are highly and effectively feminist, of course; this is simply a generalization based on a frequent observation.)

the world of uno is so unique because even now, over three hundred episodes later, we have yet to see a character be in any way sexist. john calls a few girls a bitch, but he seems to use it only as the female version of 'fucker' or 'asshole'. never does he look down on girls simply for being girls. (he looks down on them for existing as a participating member of their society, though.)

on top of that, the way in which the female characters are written is really really great. many authors struggle with writing characters of the opposite gender, but uru-chan clearly does not suffer from that ailment. she writes her female characters like she writes her male characters: that is to say, diverse and different, with distinct personalities, and more or less feminine or masculine without it taking away from the depth of their personalities. their gender is simply another aspect of their character, that does not take away but instead adds to it. at no point are characters stereotyped, and any lack of character depth is due to them not having enough screentime. (the notable exception to this is, of course, zeke.) sera likes shopping and boba and pig-themed games. remi is kind and wears a bow in her hair and her naivety is unique to her and no other female character. elaine had a crush on arlo but got over it after he treated her badly one time too often. cecile is scheming and cunning and she plays the game of the hierarchy well. there are female characters with traditionally 'bad' feminine traits, whose flaws are discussed not in the context of them being women but them being people with unique and distinctive experiences. remi, for example, is naive not because she's a girl but because of the way she was raised, the people she's interacted with, and the experiences she's had. her brother was just as much of an idealist and also believed in the good of the people around him, until he saw proof of the opposite. and furthermore, women never put down other women for being 'too feminine' or anything like that.

moreover, uno does not attempt to position women as either better or worse than men. girls fight just like guys; the male characters have no problem fighting a girl just because she is a girl, and they don't hesitate to hurt them the way they would hurt a guy. to be honest, i really struggled with this when i first started reading uno: i felt as if it was morally wrong for john and arlo to fight girls like that. i have since come to the realization that that view is inherently misogynistic, as i did not have such problems with them fighting guys. uno really portrays women in the most feminist way possible: as truly, fully equal to men, with no caveats, no exceptions, no special treatment.

the casualness with which uno depicts men and women being completely equal in society is quite possibly the most feminist thing it could've done, as a webcomic about superpowered teenagers fighting against terrorists and the evil government.

[echo-stimmingrose]

Do you ever think the gods just randomly remember that they're immortal and literally can't die.

For example.

Hera: "why the fuck am I eating so healthy? I don't need to." *Vanishes bland salad*

Hermes: "I'm bored but there's nothing to do! I'm gonna go jump off a mountain."

Artemis: *realization after Apollo pisses her off* "I can shoot my brother in the eyes as many times as I please"

Hermes: "I've always wanted to pet a wild tiger."

Ares: "I'm gonna go punch Zeus, what's he gonna do? Kill me?"

Hermes: "if I inhale enough helium could I float?"

Apollo: "I don't need therapy! I literally can't die!"

Everyone else: "Apollo no...."

[coldinfluencerbeliever]

So, I reread the beginning of UnOrdinary (up to where John reveals himself but not much beyond that), and the thing that stuck out to me was relationships within the hierarchy.

It's explicitly stated that people within the different classes/groups tend to befriend/socialize only with their group for obvious reasons, or "knowing their place".

John is a half and half latebloomer. He can't be in one group without remembering the people in the other, he wouldn't fit in to any of the social hierarchies. Not the high tier, not the mid tier, not even the low tier or cripples. Thus he tries to ignore it, focusing on developing his personality apart from any of the existing classes.

It's kind of a classic set-up, the most powerful person having an alter-ego or trying to act "normal" in order to connect with people on their level rather than always looming over them. John added his past regret and trauma to the mix, but manages to conceal it (in the beginning at least). He just wanted friendship, friendship defined by personality and traits instead of proficiency in beating the snot out of people.

John didn't hate the bullies, or Arlo, or the violence, not really. What makes him hate everyone isn't their power or even their bullying ways, it's the fact that the hierarchy forces people to only associate with people on their level (and turns them into monsters around anyone weaker). If he had been honest with himself his real hatred was for that hierarchy, the system that (in his mind) enabled everything else.

Even if he had been open about his power level or tried to fit in with the mid-tiers, the outcome would have likely still been the same. People would be judging him purely on his power level (and not on him himself), the very thing he wanted to avoid. Arlo would still be breathing down his neck for not "knowing his place", his "equals" within the hierarchy would be gossiping about him and even mouthing off at him to his face. There's a scene early on with Cecilia lecturing Remy about fraternizing with Blyke and Isen, insinuating that the lower tiers don't actually respect her because she refuses to "stay in her lane" (they don't say it to her face of course). Heck, Arlo later points out that Cecile was talking smack to the person who defeated her and "took her title". It's almost like your power level wasn't the real thing everyone respected, it was the pecking order your power level placed you in. (On a side note John rightfully gets flack for not trying to make things better, but could things really be made better until everyone's hierarchy-shackled mindsets were broken free? Maybe John's rampage was what Headmaster Vaughn had been looking for all along.)

Mid-tier John befriending high-tier Seraphina would still have brought down Arlo's wrath and made him a pariah who got constantly targeted, and high-tier John would have still been lonely and ostracized by everyone else for not knowing his place, at least when they weren't kissing up to him for favors (which would have ignited his wrath and given him the poor reputation he got later on).

All of this also meant he couldn't really live up to UnOrdinary the book because it still divided people up into groups, into a "hierarchy" such as it was. His dad wanted to guide him into the "guardian" or "protector" role, but he just wanted to relate to people based on their personalities/talents instead of their power level. The actual cripples and low-tiers would have been far too obsequious and needy for his tolerance, the mid-tiers too obsessed with maintaining their paltry footholds in the monkey-pile. He ends up relating best to the high-tiers like Sera, but only because they have enough security in their position to actually consider what he was offering.

Sera ended up being the only one who responded, the only one who comes to share his desire. The story of how they became friends almost feels normal, like two high-school students in a normal kid's story. It's a rather genius way to introduce the setting, showing how difficult (and ultimately impossible) just being a normal highschool student with "normal" friends would be rather than trying to simply explain it.

In the end though everyone else wanted him to fall in line and be defined by his power. Arlo goes on and on about John not being a "proper" cripple (and then gets all indignant when John stops being crippled but still won't dance to his tune.) In the end they all get their wish, and unfortunately most of them had earned it.

[crazydaymycrazyway]

If John and Arlo were a couple.

At Arlo's house:

Holden: Why do you look so down, Arlo?

Arlo: (sigh) John's mad at me

Holden: What happened?

Arlo: How should I know?

Holden: He wouldn't be angry for no reason, right?

Arlo: (irritated and worried) We were both in the bar, a little drunk. All I did was tell him he's one of the most beautiful people I've ever met. He then glared at me and left without a word. I even messaged him what's wrong, but he just left me on read.

Meanwhile at Seraphina's house

John: (even more drunk) He's asking what's wrong. WHAT'S WRONG?! WHY DOESN'T HE ASK THE OTHER 'BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE' HE'S BEEN SEEING?!

Sera: (holding in her laughter while recording everything for blackmailing John later)

[simplog]

has the entire fandom all just collectively agreed that arlo is a good cook

[unordinarywarlord]

I for some reason was pissed today when i checked my schedule and I was off tomorrow, tuesday. Then I heard a coworker wish someone a Happy Fourth, but I didn’t hear fourth then I had to ask “wait, is it July!? Is today the third!?” I was born and raised in this country, but forgot about July fourth, I feel proud of myself somehow

[oplishin]

headcanons centering main cast’s passive abilities

I just think having your power constantly manifest itself in some way would be pretty impactful on your life actually

If Remi goes into a room with a lot of complex electrical stuff going on (a computer lab maybe) she’ll start getting a headache from how overstimulating it is. She functions as a portable phone charger which Blyke and Isen take full advantage of. She can identify any circuitry problem by just. feeling how the electricity is flowing through the device

Seraphina always knows exactly what time it is down to the millisecond. John always asks her what time it is just to annoy her. 

arlo tried to get more piercings once, but it didn’t work because his passive defense stopped it from happening. Any sort of invasive medical procedure does Not work on him. This includes IVs and needles in general (he hasn’t gotten vaccinated in 2 years). honestly i have a million headcanons centering arlo’s passive and his theoretical medical trauma

John uses his aura detection to sneak up on people and jumpscare them. by people i do mean arlo. 

isen’s (not a high tier but i had the idea and wanted to put it here) eyes are based on tracking movement, so he has a really hard time with focusing on things that are stationary. what im saying is that his ability gave him both adhd and dyslexia. he has hair trigger reflexes that let him crush Blyke at video games which pisses Blyke off to no end.

[shirine0]

havent posted this here yet ??

[burstbub]

The impact they have on each other makes me spiral into insanity

[unordinary-diary]

Blyke and John: Parallel Characters

I’ve written multiple entries about this,

[x] [x] [x]

But I’m back to make a comprehensive analysis about the glaring similarities between these two. I’ll try not to repeat myself here.

‼️SPOILER WARNING for the whole series‼️ but this mostly focuses on the story before John’s suspension.

Firstly, this scene:

ch. 121

This conversation takes place near the beginning of the Joker arc. It’s after John targets Zeke, after he targets Juni, and the day before he goes after Seraphina’s kidnappers. The timing is important.

“If someone hit your best friend, would you let it slide?”

That question is supposed to remind us what John does to people who hurt Seraphina: hunting them down and sending them to the hospital. Blyke shooting a destructive beam really close to John was an example of a trait they share: they both blow up violently when people mistreat their friends.

John’s downward spiral carries strong themes of hypocrisy. He’s angry at the world, he’s angry at himself, and as a coping mechanism, he chooses to believe that everyone else is as bad as he is. That means that most of the traits he hates others for are the same things he hates about himself. In this scene, Blyke is unintentionally calling out this hypocrisy: “What I did is no different from what you do”.

But Blyke’s just trying to connect with John here, he has no idea what John’s been doing. And John, of course, doesn’t give a shit about what Blyke has to say. This line was here for the audience to notice.

They’re both so similar, but their similarity immediately causes tension between them because, well, John was on the wrong end of Blyke’s protectiveness.

I really love the way this was written— there are so many flashbacks to this scene, but they remember it differently. John remembers the part that hurt him— he’d describe it as “the time that jackass shot a beam at me”. Blyke remembers the part that hurt him, or rather, hurt Remi: “the time that jackass hit Remi for no reason”.

Blyke and John are both hotheaded characters with strong ideals. They’re similar enough that Seraphina points it out:

(ch. 80)

As Blyke grows as a character, he becomes more like John: sticking up for low tiers and speaking out against the injustice in the world. But while Blyke is doing that more, John is going in the opposite direction, until they are fully opposed to each other.

Speaking of Blyke’s character arc, it took me a few rereads to actually understand what part of him changed. His kindness, selflessness, bravery— all of those things were there from the start. Blyke’s character arc was about becoming more aware of his surroundings, and how his carelessness can harm others. Blyke was never malicious, but after X-Rei and integrating more with the school, he becomes aware of people suffering around him and how he unintentionally contributes to it. He becomes less reckless, privy to the flaws in the system he grew up not questioning, and uses his power more responsibly. He even comes up with a more controlled way to wield his ability. The part of Blyke that changes is his maturity.

Part of John’s character arc is also about being careful. It’s not as close of a parallel as other things are, but one of the things that John works on during his redemption arc is holding back. Both of them learn self-control throughout the series, and for John, that means acting early before his emotions spiral out of hand.

Adding onto my first point about the two of them wanting to protect their friends— the fact that they can’t do that makes them both angry and desperate. For most of the story, the “block” that prevents John from protecting Seraphina is in his head. It’s his own trauma that holds him back. The block that prevents Blyke from protecting his friends is, guess what? Also John’s trauma! Parallels abound.

Another thing I noticed in Episode 80 is this:

Notice that when Seraphina says “I’d take that over strength any day,” John is looking at the camera. He’s avoiding Sera’s gaze. Seraphina is saying she prefers honesty over strength. John is very strong, and very dishonest, but Seraphina thinks the opposite because John is so dishonest. John appears to be reflecting on this disconnect.

In relation to this analysis, Seraphina is actually pointing out a major difference between Blyke and John. Beyond that, she’s praising Blyke’s traits, (less strong but very open) above John’s traits, (strong as fuck but a liar with his pants on fire). Furthermore, John really cares what Seraphina thinks of him. Knowing that she would think less of him is the main reason why he spent so much time and effort preventing her from catching his lies.

This leads into my main point here: Blyke is the “goody-two-shoes” version of John. Or, more accurately, the person that John wants to be. Blyke has a clean track record and doesn’t really get into trouble. He is respected and left alone by the school without being hated and feared, he de-escalates conflicts without taking things too far, he doesn’t lose control, he’s someone Seraphina thinks highly of, hell, even his grades are better! Blyke represents everything that John wants to be, and the person that he could have been if he’d gone down a different path.

But, crucially, John is also what Blyke wants to be. Well, not wholly, but his ability? His strength? It’s one of the things John hates about himself, but Blyke wants that strength so desperately that he risks his life for it over and over again.

They’re both desperate to be like each other, even when they hate each other the most. Neither of them have any idea how alike they already are.

I don’t know what Season 3 holds in store for us, but I do hope that John realizes that Blyke embodies who he wants to be, because mutual jealousy would be a very interesting dynamic to explore in my opinion. I also hope that it ends up being something they can bond over, by helping each other accomplish their personal goals. (Blyke being another helper in John’s character arc, and John helping Blyke train.)

A side note: John beat up Blyke four separate times. That’s more than any other character, which is interesting because John’s main rival is supposed to be Arlo. For reference, John has beaten Arlo twice, three times if you count the time when Seraphina intervened, and he only beat him unconscious once. But John beat Blyke to the point of passing out all four times, the worst of which being a shot clean through his chest. (shoulder? Unclear. S1 finale).

It’s odd, isn’t it? Out of everyone, Blyke is the one who John physically hurt the most. John’s only grudge against him is an old memory from episode 33, of an event that didn’t actually harm him. John’s grudge against Arlo is much more serious and again— that’s his main rival. So why is it that he’s so much more violent towards Blyke?

The problem here is that I’ve been thinking about these fights as “John picking on Blyke”. And that’s… kind of true? But while Blyke didn’t start any of these fights, they were all consensual in a way. He didn’t seek to fight John, nor was he ever happy about fighting John, but he was always a willing participant.

(138, 153, 206, & 211)

In three out of these four fights, John didn’t even expect to be fighting Blyke going into it. This is significant because while Arlo is John’s main rival, John absolutely fills that role for Blyke. Blyke’s own agency is what leads to most of these events. The reason, narratively speaking, why they fight so much is not for John’s character, but for Blyke.

For John, his reason for fighting Blyke so much is not narrative but moreso symbolic. John is angry at everyone and everything, but ultimately the person he hates the most is himself. It’s only fitting that the character most like him would bear the brunt of his wrath.

As John is having his positive character arc (suspension and post-suspension), he is becoming more like Blyke, and the two of them reach a point where they’re even more similar than they were at the start of the series.

In the Rowden amusement park, John does start to realize how similar they are:

(249)

Additionally, I want to draw your attention to the parallels between this scene:

Blyke and John’s argument in chapter 249

(which the image limit won’t let me add, scroll until you see red hair.)

And this scene:

Argument in ch. 121 (it’s at the beginning)

Two sides of the same coin.

Furthermore, in the S2 finale, Blyke is shown being taken to Keon. There is an implication that by Season 3, Blyke and John will share Keon-related trauma as well. Despite my pessimistic predictions, I do hope that this is a similarity that can bring them together rather than tear them apart.