#villain nerds are even cooler

[frankenbuggee]

Testing Devious with sharing an expression with his younger self (though his older self isn’t really that expressive out and about).

[moonyasnow]

Dancing in the Dark.

PROMPT : Dancing in the dark with him

CHARACTER(S) : Idia

TYPE : short fic (~1.3k words)

CONTENT: nerd references ahoy, Reader implied to be shorter than 180cm, Apparently the Phantom Bride event takes place after Book 6 in this one

After such a close brush with death, even knowing you'd made it in time and he was safe, you still felt anxious not being able to see Idia in the dining-hall turned Wedding venue as the band started up a song meant for dance.

With the newlyweds twirling happily in the air behind you, you ventured out into the dark halls of NRC to find him...

Idia had never breathed a bigger sigh of relief in his life…he'd just been saved from a 100% certain one-hit-kill spell, with barely seconds to spare. Talk about clutch.

The bride got her groom and her happily ever after, sure, yay, whatever— he was just glad it wasn't him. At least this groom wouldn't be on the literal chopping block. He'd already done that 500 years earlier, after all.

…But Idia was still stuck in those fancy duds. Even if the other guys said he looked cool or whatevs he just couldn't see it.

He wandered out of the party as quick as he could, untying his hair to let it flow free and cloak him once more. In every mirror he passed all he saw was fire, sharp teeth, and glowing yellow eyes— accentuated by deep eyebags too. He wasn't generic-looking enough to be an NPC, but not cool enough to be the MC either. Was he the villain, then? He stopped to gaze at the pool-like surface of a mirror in the dark hallway. Sounded cooler than NPC, at least… But he doubted he was that cool. He was probs the throwaway 2nd villain in some tactical JRPG— not remembered as fondly as the introductory first boss, not as interesting as the 3d or those that followed. For every second that passed his scowl deepened in the mirror to match his thoughts.

'Healthy, lustrous skin, lidded eyes, a charming smile…'

LOLOLOLOL Eliza was INSANE if she thought ANY of that applied to him.

The smile he'd forced his face into looked all kinds of wrong in his eyes.

He sighed. Then he heard footsteps and his pulse sped up to what he knew Ortho would call 'very unhealthy levels for only having someone walk past him'.

Standing in the dark corner on the hallway with his hair acting like a glow-in-the-dark lamp, he, and his mortified expression, weren't that hard to spot. He didn't need to be able to see your face to know you were probably smiling. 'Because I look like the free clothing option in those normie cash-grab phone ""VNs""' he thought. But he knew from experience that wasn't the case when it came to you. You were even weirder than him, fwee-hee-hee… Ah, and now he was remembering how you'd stared at him the first time you heard his laugh, how he was expecting you to make fun of him but you just called his laugh 'nice'… And now his hair had started turning pink.

Great. /s

“I wondered where you went.” He was never gonna admit the sound of your voice made his heart race a little. There was a reason he always asked Ortho to leave the two of you alone when you hung out. If you really did find out he thinks he could just die on the spot.

"Away from the party, DUH." He rolled his eyes. You laughed at that. "Ha-ha, go ahead; laugh at my misery."

"No, no, it's just…it's so very like you."

"Uh…yyyup. Shut-in's gonna shut-in." He rubbed at his arm awkwardly. Yet even in the dark you recognized the small smile adorning his face.

You loved that expression of his…you could simply stare at it for hours. Yet you knew if you were to ever tell him that, he might stop talking to you for a week out of sheer inability to handle it. So for as much as you would love to compliment him— felt the urge tugging at you at every second you were with him— you refrained.

"You…you're beautiful…"

…Except for now, apparently. You quickly slapped your hand over your mouth. "I-I'm sorry!" The look on his face was like a cat sadly watching you take away its food bowl. "Not that I didn't mean it! I did!" There came another flare at the tips of his hair, coloring a deeper shade of pink. "I just…I know compliments can be difficult for you, and I—"

"N—np…" his flushed face begged to differ.

Silence filled the space between you. He thought it was awkward as all hell. You found it comforting, using it to work up the courage to ask him what you'd set out to.

"They're dancing right now, in the wedding hall. And I was wondering if…"

"No thanks— I do NOT want some rando to know how sweaty my hands are. I'd just step on their toes anyway."

"Oh, that's..." your face fell in disappointment.

[ Idia.exe is loading... ]

...

WAIT WAIT WAIT THAT'S NOT WHAT YOU MEANT HOLD ON ABORT, ABORT—

"I—" he could feel himself choking, words refusing to unclog from his throat. Here you were, his crush, his #1 Oshi if you will, and you wanted to dance. With HIM. EVEN AFTER HE MENTIONED HIS SWEATY PALMS (Sevens whyyyyyy did he do that)

"…If you don't want to I—"

He suddenly regretted he'd never clicked on those random dance videos he sometimes got recommended. And not taking Ortho's advice of playing one of those dancing games 'for his health'.

"I-I'd just suck at it— I'd moodkill. Big time."

"I don't mind. I'm not a very good dancer either…I've actually never done it before. So if anything, we'd both suck.” you said, cheeks flushed a gentle red he could just barely make out in the darkness.

He considered pretending he didn't see it for a moment; couldn't let himself get his hopes up.

This was probably just some prank, and the second he said 'sure' a laugh-track was gonna start playing and someone was gonna pop out and laugh and put an arm around his shoulder and gesture to some hidden camera somewhere—

"Idia?"

He'd been so stuck in his thoughts he hadn't even noticed you trying to talk to him. And now you'd gotten closer to him. WAY TOO CLOSE—

"EEP!"

All those things Eliza had said: "Bright, shimmering hair! Lips so arresting that you just have to kiss them!"

They'd be much more fitting applied to you, and not him. If it wasn't for the whole '180cm' requirement thing, he can't imagine you NOT being the one picked. It should've been you. Not because he wanted you gone or anything, obvs! You were just…out of this world kinda beautiful.

Out of his league, too.

Obvs.

That of course someone else was gonna come steal you away eventually, so why even hope? Why even try—

"It will always be a zero-percent chance as long as you believe it impossible and refuse to act."

Those words tore at the flesh of his chest like a word knife in that high-school murder trial game franchise he liked. Why were they showing up in his head now, like some kind of cutscene? This was sounding like that part in the 3d act where the hero's been demoralized and remembers the words of their fallen mentor to give them enough motivation to go in and K.O. the BBEG.

"S-so…" you said, nervously looking up at him through your lashes. "Do you want to dance with me?" your voice sounded so shaky, devoid of your usual confidence. You sounded almost scared. Kinda like him. (was this what he always looked like through other people's eyes?)

Maybe... Maybe it was ok to listen to that advice. Just this once. Just a tiny bit.

"S-sure..."

Awkwardly, he held his hand out. And you smiled.

He didn't think he was LI material, probably never would. But maybe, rather than cursing his luck at being an NPC in whatever Otome that had you as the MC, he'd celebrate his luck at being able to dance with you like this in spite of it.

He had you in his arms, and he could barely believe it was real, waiting for it to be revealed as just a dream-sequence. But somehow it was real. His palms were sweaty and his expression twisted in panic as he tried not to step on your toes and he probably looked like the worst 'suitor' ever.

But you were smiling, still holding his sweaty hand, and that blush was somehow still on your cheeks.

If this was just the preview of what his route, or life, rather, might look like were he to break free from the 'non-romancable NPC' category…

He better get to re-coding the game.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EDIT: just so everyone who reads this is aware, I do in fact take writing requests!

I'm testing out a new format This isn't exactly a 'headcanon' as much as it's literally just a short-fic

Publishing this as a bit of an experiment If people like it, maybe that'll finally convince my perfectionist brain that not every single thing I write has to be perfect according to my own, almost impossible-to-reach standards I set for my own writing

My friend told me the skull I used for Idia's partition gives "14 year old edgy COD kid vibes" It's perfect.

Also damn writing Idia is so fun. Including all his references is SO FUN. I get to pretend to be an extremely terminally online reddit gaming subreddit guy who hasn't touched grass or spoken to a real person in years, who bases his beliefs of how real life works off of anime. He is SO CRINGE (affectionate) and I LOVE HIM FOR IT.

[moon-swag-tourney]

The Final Match

Propaganda below!

Usagi Tsukino / Sailor Moon

In the name of the moon she'll punish you 

SHE IS THE ONE! SAILOR MOON! 

Fights for love and justice, the quintessential magical girl

IN THE NAME OF THE MOON, SHE WILL PUNISH YOU!

She is the Moon Princess. "In the name of the moon, I'll punish you!"

She's Sailor MOON. Of the moon, in the sky.

I love her

she is simply iconique …. the pretty guardian who fights for love and justice … princess of the moon deeply in love with humanity … also id be kinda mad if some kind of magical girl didnt win this tournament

Possibly the most iconic moon themed character in existence 

Moon Knight

Moon Knight is an underrated character who's been around since the mid-70's, but has only recently gotten the more attention he deserves since the Disney+ adaptation. However, I am a firm comics supremacy believer and can attest he is even cooler in the comics. The current run (Moon Knight 2021) is the best he's been written in quite some time for example, as it's friendly to veteran fans and new fans alike!

Moon Knight is not your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man; he will fuck you up if you deserve it, and benefits from the fact that many villains are terrified of him.

Moon Knight is canonically Jewish, and though he is non-practising, it plays a major part in his story and identity.

It's also worth noting that Moon Knight has DID, with three identities: Marc Spector (host), Steven Grant, and Jake Lockley.

He's such an interesting and compelling character. The comics have spawned countless hilarious memes (I know you're here Dracula you big nerd wheres my money; random bullshit go; etc). The show was amazing, and Oscar Isaac acted his ass off

They are so cool; they're both canonically Jewish and have DID

One of the most unique superheroes out there due to being plural. Really cool, too.

I love him, your honor. I'd like to say more but the truth is I only watched the show and I will leave the propaganda to comics fans.

[demonslayedher]

Shall we talk ☆Pillar Filler???☆

(As well as the rest of the episode?)

Keeping it behind a cut because it's not yet available for everybody and a lot of people will appreciate being surprised (I know I did)!

First, how about that new OP??

I love how it sets this arc up for being a pause in the constant life or death struggle (for the Pillars anyway, hahaha), and pricks at how the Pillars always feel they are struggling to compensate for their weaknesses, and the inky hatred that fills their hearts which Oyakata-sama knows they've channeled into defeating Kibutsuji Muzan at all costs. I also had a passing thought the other day about how so many Japanese legends of demon slaying require the hero to call upon a non-human higher power, or use something like a poison or alcohol to weaken a demon before they stand a chance of defeating it. In the end, the medicine that Tamayo and Shinobu develop does serve this crucial role (and the sun fulfills the role of a higher non-human power), but it's otherwise ironic that instead of temporarily weakening a demon to their own level, the usual course of action is to use Breath to temporarily increase their power to that of a demon.

Attaining a mark sure increases the role that "temporary" already played in their lives, and it's really no question that they would choose to pursue that option, even knowing the result.

(Also, CHUNTAROOOOO)

So anyway, onto that filler!!

I loved it.

First, the nitpicking just to get it out of the way: why did a demon need to bother tying up a victim???? Whhhhy? Like, at least they didn't pull a Speedy with some contrived "this demon just toys with victims and leaves them injured instead of killing them" routine that makes for a happy low-stakes Piller Filler episode while showing utter disregard for what demons are and why the Corp risks themselves to stop them. (That said, I always love seeing other Corp members fulfill their own Corp duties with no relation whatsoever to Tanjiro, who is just one piece of a much, much larger whole.)

But rather than write what would ultimately be stupid dialogue with an insignificant filler demon, it's nice that Ufotable did not bother developing the Castle Demon. The totally undeveloped baddies are easy to cast off as Blood Technique (but maybe they could have looked a little cooler if, like, they were vaguely wearing samurai armor or something instead of just being in skin suits? Whatever, not important.) I appreciate that Ufotable did not bother to answer these questions of "why is the victim tied up" because the point of this scene was very obviously not about her or the demon. (I like to think Iguro cut the ropes and then told her to get to safety but just, like, left her there on the top roof).

So as for what this scene WAS for... hot dang, did it accomplish that!!!

The purpose was to make Sanemi and Iguro look cool, and it sure as hell did that. WHAT GOOD CHANBARA, those show-offy sword-play moves against a mob of nameless villains were just so deliciously well choreographed, and the people who can appreciate that were also likely to really appreciate the use of a castle as a purely fun battle setting. Ufotable was probably like, "Our biggest fans are nerds for KnY's touches of traditional Japanese folklore and culture, and for swords and swordplay, so you know what else will probably get them riled up? Yeah, let's give them a castle fortress."

And then everyone cheered, like, "Yes, yes, the fangirls like demonslayedher on Tumblr will never know what hit them."

But then some brilliant person spoke up and said, "You guys, I have the perfect finishing blow."

And everyone said, "What? How could we possibly top this scene that not only purely makes Sanemi & Iguro look cool, but also serves their characters and the plot nicely by showing how the Pillers don't feel they can rely on the other Corp members, and that even though they speak sharply to them they show concern for them by their actions? You know, especially slyly since anime-only fans will get to appreciate a new side of characters whom they haven't gotten to bond with much yet for only having seen their mean sides mostly and none of their battle coolness, and also slyly because the hardcore manga fans know that these two are buddies?"

And then the brilliant person says, "Let's give them that fortress."

The brilliant person was then crowned Ruler of Ufotableland and the fans lived happily ever after.

Speaking of Pillar Filler, I also want to point out how nice that opening exposition between Shinobu and Kanao was. First, what a nice way of incorporating Kanao into a nice episode that gives us a nice little dose of everyone in the Corp cast, even by adding that little scene of Amane and Ubuyashiki too. I loved the little touches that develop the Butterfly Mansion, like the fact that on the path there, they have a stone sign that says "Butterfly Mansion" and a line of carved Jizo statues (to protect travelers and (deceased) children) with little butterflies. And that moment of Nezuko frowning as the sunlight goes behind a cloud? Wonderful. And Shinobu essential saying to Kanao, "I trust you with defending everyone here in the now VERY LIKELY EVENT OF KIBUTSUJI MUZAN ATTACKING while I have to go off to a Pillar Meeting now that you're back"? I looooove iiiiiiiiit. That also says a lot about the trust other Pillars have in Shinobu to entrust her with Nezuko instead of putting any pressure on her to take part in Pillar Training, as clearly they don’t know about Tamayo, and it's really anyone's guess if they know about the poison or not (though the light novel implies Himejima might have an inkling but doesn't know). Being Pillars, though, I doubt any of them would tell her she's wrong for being prepared to take down a demon in any possible way.

I love, love, love, love the treatment of all the straight-from-the-manga scenes, like "Welcome home, Inosuke" (except for the added 'did you miss me, Aoi-chan' because canonically Aoi is the one kind of girl who is not his type), Tamayo speaking with Oyakata-sama's bird, Mitsuri's "explanation" of the mark, and every single Pillar interaction. I love the amount of respect they show to Himejima (and how Ufotable slightly expanded on this), and I am so excited for the extra Himejima content this season. In the new marketing materials released on the same day as the episode/movie, they make stark use of one of the kanji characters in his name ("cry out"), which is a very nice touch. And the use of BGM!!! Especially the touches of Giyuu's and Mitsuri's themes during the meeting!

*happy sigh*

It is nice to be a fandom citizen of Ufotableland.

[heavymachinebun]

Understanding Puss in Boot: The Last Wish through its villains (but mostly just Jack Horner)

By @terminatorbuns, with special thanks to my wife @da-manta-ray

We don't talk enough about the villains of Puss in Boots, the Last Wish. I mean we do, I just want to talk about it MORE.

It's been a while since this movie was released and I'm glad to see all the discussion and discourse around all the ways that this movie has excelled in all technical and writing aspects. I love discourse and analysis and I've been dying to share some of my own thoughts about this movie since release. There's so much to talk about, but for now let's talk a little bit about the very impressive way this movie handles villains.

To be clear, I use "villain" to mean antagonist, people who oppose the main characters. In this movie, the villains are Goldilocks (plus bears), Death, and Jack Horner respectively. I'm not particular about semantics, villain is a cooler word to say, and they all commit crimes anyways, so whatever. Having said that, Puss in Boots has one of the most impressive uses of villains I've ever seen in a movie, delivering three extremely compelling villains in a two hour window when many longer films struggle to even deliver a single good villain. Not only that, but each villain in Puss in Boots represents a completely different villain archetype, each with a different role to play in the story, and each one executed to perfection for their respective roles. I think everyone who has watched the movie has come away with a favorite villain, and so the intention of this essay is to explore in depth the archetypes that each villain represents, their implementation, and the significance of each fairy tale chosen (yeah, it's important). As an analysis nerd, maybe I can bring to your attention some things about your favorite villain that you had not considered, maybe give you something to think about the next time you get into a friendly debate about who is the best Puss in Boots villain.

Because it's JACK HORNER. HOLY SHIT is it Jack Horner. This is THE Jack Horner essay, I need people to understand how big brained the execution on this narrative behemoth is, this is the ONLY reason this essay exists. Jack Horner is on an entirely different level of writing to the other two, LET ME SELL YOU ON THIS. The team at DreamWorks poured liquid narrative gold into this titan of a villain and this essay does not stop until I fully explain how much narrative genius is on display here, they have worked TOO hard for their work to go unappreciated. You can actually just skip to the Jack Horner section that's where the hot, hot analysis is. We have to talk about 18th century political discourse, galaxy brained narrative framing devices, and Jack's significance to the core themes of the Shrek franchise. I have lost sleep researching Jack Horner, this rabbit hole is DEEP. I'll talk about each villain in depth, but we stan Jack Horner in this house.

1. Goldilocks, the sympathetic villain

Goldilocks and her supporting bear family is the sympathetic villain archetype, villains who oppose the hero's goals but who otherwise have understandable, likable motivations that make an audience want to see them win. The strength of this style of villain is to serve as secondary protagonists: when the audience likes a villain, the audience wants to see them complete an emotional journey just as much as the main hero characters. Sympathetic villains are exceptionally strong when they are working towards the same goals as the heroes, because their motivations are inherently relatable. It's the same motivation that the good guys have, after all.

Goldilocks is one of the more well known fairy tale properties of the three villains and that lends itself well to her villain archetype. The fact that audiences are already familiar with the Goldilocks story, combined with the fact that she gets the most screen time of the three villains, gives the audience a lot of context and backstory to understand Goldilocks as a character, and relate to her more easily. Her supporting bear family is written to be lovably goofy and it's easy to get attached to this lovable family. They fulfill the sympathetic villain archetype by being as lovable as they are.

The recontextualization of the original Goldilocks fairy tale as a found family story is also a very clever choice. The repeated line "too big, too small, just right" is used in the original fairy tale to describe Goldilocks trying beds until she finds one that fits her, but is cleverly reframed in this movie as a metaphor for Goldilocks trying to find a FAMILY that fits her. The bear family that adopted her is "just right" as a permanent family for Goldilocks, yet she must struggle with different ideas of family before she is able to settle on her "just right".

The Goldilocks subplot easily parallels the journey of Puss, Kitty, and Perrito. Goldilocks and our main heroes are all in conflict over the wishing star, but ultimately both parties end up discovering that their needs are met by embracing their respective found families, no wish required. Puss, Kitty, and Perrito all suffer from loneliness and require each other's company to be truly happy, just like Goldilocks needs the company of the bears to be happy. And so, Goldilocks ends the movie not as enemies to Puss' party, but as allies, sitting next to Puss' party, celebrating their similar victories together. A classic and clean execution of a sympathetic villain.

2. Death, the symbolic villain

Death is an example of a symbolic villain, which is a villain designed specifically to symbolically challenge specific traits or beliefs held by the protagonists. Symbolic villains may have personal motivations but their primary narrative significance is the effect they have on the hero, and their job is to highlight the fears and anxieties of the hero and to force the hero to face their fears. To this end, symbolic villains can often have little or no personal motivations, at which point they are also known as force-of-nature villains, villains that function more as a threatening force than as a person with needs and wants. Force of nature villains don't even have to be people, a tornado can fill the role of a force of nature antagonist.

Death is a very obvious choice for this role, one of Puss' primary anxieties is his fear of death, and there's no better symbolic villain to challenge this than "Death, straight up". He qualifies as a force of nature villain in a very direct way by being a literal embodiment of a concept, threatening and unavoidable. The choice of depicting Death as an incarnation of the big bad wolf also has some significance. He doesn't have any narrative ties to the original incarnation of the big bad wolf (or the wolf from Shrek), but the big bad wolf is a well understood cultural shorthand for "fairy tale bad guy". Indeed, that's what Death represents for this movie, he plays the role of a fairy tale bad guy, and his depiction as the big bad wolf hides his true identity until later into the story.

It should be noted that the personal motivations of a symbolic villain barely matters, and that's very true of Death. He has minimal screen time to explain his motivations, because it's not particularly important. More interestingly, what little we know about his motivations are not particularly likable or relatable. Many have made the mistake of understanding Death as a neutral, noble party just doing his job as death, but that's not true of this movie. It's NOT Death's job to kill Puss in Boots, his job is to take Puss' life when Puss dies of normal causes. Death isn't supposed to stab people personally with a knife, he just wanted to kill Puss for fun. It's fine because Death isn't meant to be sympathetic, Death is a dick in this movie, straight up.

Since symbolic villains have everything to do with the hero, they are most effective when they force the hero into action. Death's presence forces Puss into retirement, then it forces him on the journey to find the wishing star, and shows up along the way to pressure him further. He forces Puss into a very sincerely depicted panic attack scene, and that's what symbolic villains do, they push our heroes to reveal things about themselves, their needs and wants and anxieties, so our heroes can then confront those things. The visual execution on his threatening presence also must be commended, since everyone knows how dangerous DreamWorks made him look. I have no notes, he's just cool as fuck.

3. Jack Horner is the unsympathetic villain

Alright we're starting to wade into the Jack Horner waters here, but we'll start with the baby surface level analysis of Jack's villain archetype. Jack is the unsympathetic villain, a particularly monstrous one, who no one likes because he's a dick. His motivations are surprisingly fleshed out more than that of Death since Jack at least explains his backstory, but his motivations are trash because he's trash. The heroes barely interact with him and his motivations add very little to the journey of the heroes. Unsympathetic villains are often like this because their role in the story is to simply be unlikeable, to be such a shitty person that their eventual failure delights the audience with a sense of catharsis. That in and of itself has its own kind of narrative strength, entertainment is still the ultimate goal of any piece of media, after all.

He's reminiscent of classic Disney villains such as Jafar and Scar in a number of ways: he's petty and power hungry despite having minimal backstory reasons to be so, and his depiction is not conventionally attractive (although those are some BROAD shoulders). He's also partially queer-coded in the same way as the classic Disney villains through his very unconventional masculinity: he's temperamentally flamboyant, and he's even got the pink hair to boot. Queer coding in villains is a complicated discussion I'm not qualified to discuss in depth, but it can be surprisingly enjoyable to see joyful unconventional masculinity on screen even if the context is an evil villain. We want to see him scheme, and we want to see him fail; The audience just wants to see him do stuff because he's so fun.

Jack embodies the unsympathetic villain well in his simplicity, all his actions are motivated by petty greed and he approaches every situation with uncomplicated evil. I would ask you, is this really all there is to this incarnation of Jack Horner though? YUP, turns out that's it. However, like the other two villains, Jack Horner is inspired by an existing cultural text that influences the development of his narrative. I have explained the motivations behind the other two, I will do the same for Jack.

THIS is where the fun starts.

4. Welcome to 18th century political discourse

Jack Horner's original text is the least well known property out of the three villain origins. "Little Jack Horner" is an 18th century nursery rhyme that's short enough to be read word for word in the film, and short enough to be included in this essay:

Little Jack Horner

Sat in the corner,

Eating his Christmas pie;

He put in his thumb,

And pulled out a plum,

And said, "What a good boy am I!"

That's the whole thing, some kid eats a plum out of a pie. However, even in its early days the Jack Horner rhyme became (somehow) associated with the themes of greed and opportunism. Let's try to follow the logic: we have some kid, CLEARLY financially privileged enough to receive a pie for Christmas, decides to steal a plum out of the center of the pie, ruining it with his dirty kid fingers before anyone could cut the pie to share, then he has the gall to declare "what a good boy am I"! THIS FUCKER. The pie is the wealth of the common man, or something, and the plum is, like, the fruits of their labor, and this BOURGEOIS child is reveling in his destruction of the economy with his hunger for profit (and plums).

It sounds stupid because it IS stupid, but the association stuck and found use in a surprising amount of historical literature and political writings. I can just rattle off examples from the Wikipedia article: English poet Samuel Bishop uses Jack Horner as a critique of the Civil service bureaucracy, the satirical novel Melincourt (1817) has 5 people sing a song describing how they misuse their trades to fleece the public that compares themselves to Jack Horner, etc, etc, there's like 6 more examples. Also fun is the fact that educators in the 1800's have made attempts to sanitize the Jack Horner rhyme by adding verses that describe Jack Horner totally sharing his pie afterwards because it's the good ethical thing for little boys to do. Jack Horner shows up in war propaganda, it's absolutely wild.

This is the historical context behind the little Jack Horner rhyme, the reason why Jack Horner represents capitalistic greed and cruelty in the movie. I had to look this stuff up after the movie, who even knows about this stuff, but the writers have seriously done their homework to find a nursery rhyme with a historyc this interesting, and it's fascinating to see how they worked to recontextualize this rhyme into a movie villain for Puss in Boots. I say this, because the next layer of Jack Horner's narrative construction is even more interesting.

5. Jack the Anti-Pinocchio

Drew like a dark, fucked up version of Pinocchio, haha. Just a glimpse into my dark reality. A full stare into my twisted perspective would make most go simply insane, lmao.

Jack Horner's screen time is punctuated with references to the story of Pinocchio, who I'm sure we are all familiar with. Jack's intro flashback features Pinocchio and he spends a lot of time with "ethical bug", the very shameless clone of Pinocchio's cricket. On one hand, this is a very clever way to contextualize Jack Horner using a better known media property, but on the other hand, the choice of Pinocchio is very deliberate because Jack Horner is used in this movie specifically as a dark, villainous reflection of Pinocchio. 2022 is truly the year of Pinocchio for bringing us three Pinocchio movies and ending the year on the Anti-Pinnochio: Jack Horner.

Pinocchio is the story of a little puppet boy, naive to the ways of the world, learning how to be a "good boy" through trials and tribulations. He fails to listen to his father and his companion cricket sometimes but he ultimately learns a sense of morality and kindness. Compare and contrast this to the use of "good boy" in the Jack Horner rhyme, where Jack ruins a pie then ironically declares himself a good boy. This is where the parallels start: Jack Horner at multiple points calls himself a "good boy", but he has done nothing good to earn such a title. Everytime he says "good boy" it is not only a reference to his own rhyme, but as an ironic allusion to the story of Pinocchio as well.

Consider the appearance of Pinocchio early on in Jack's introduction scene, where Jack is upstaged by Pinocchio's magic puppet show and becomes jealously possessive of magic. The significance of that scene comes from the fact that Pinocchio's magic body is NOT a net positive advantage for Pinocchio: as a puppet Pinocchio struggles to fit in with human children, but the only advantage to his magic body is his ability to entertain crowds for stage shows, if he offers his only asset up for commercial exploitation. Not only that, but Pinocchio's magic forces his nose to grow when he lies, so it's as much a liability as it is an asset. Jack is jealous of a socially underprivileged child for the ONLY advantage Pinocchio has, planting the seeds of Jack's characterization mere moments after his introduction.

Jack's journey with off brand cricket completes his characterization. We see him abuse his men against the advice of cricket, but we also see that he perfectly understands cricket's advice, he just has no interest in being good. Contrast this with Pinocchio, who also fails to heed cricket's advice, but only because he is naive and fails to understand the nuances of the advice. We also learn how he was overwhelmingly privileged in life but still wishes for magic, the only privilege he's ever been denied, and his intention to hoard it from everyone else. Jack is written with the intention of filling the role of the monstrous, unsympathetic villain, and so it was a very deliberate and intelligent decision to frame him as the moral antithesis of a "good boy", the moral antithesis of Pinocchio. What morality Pinocchio has to learn, Jack disregards completely and declares himself a "good boy" anyways. Each of the three villains in this movie is designed around their respective archetypes, but Jack Horner takes his design prompt and fucking SOARS.

6. The Shrek Cinematic Universe

Let's take a brief detour through the history of the Shrek franchise.

In 1994, Jeffrey Katsenberg was ousted from a chairman role from Walt Disney and went on to co found DreamWorks Studios. The original Shrek movie started development the year after in 1995, as a very loose adaptation of a now very obscure children's picture book of the same name. It is often said that Shrek was written as a cynical parody of the fairy tale films of Disney as a form of revenge from Katsenberg. Disney films at the time were known for being family friendly and moralistically pure and full of beautiful, wholesome heroes on noble quests, and Shrek sought to subvert those expectations deliberately. At release Shrek had become an amalgamation of various fairy tale stories, featuring many parodies of Disney properties such as Pinocchio and Snow White. The humor was crass and irreverent to contrast with the properties of Disney, with a story focused on the uglier, dirtier ogre Shrek learning to become an unconventional hero to a fairytale kingdom.

It turns out the market was indeed craving the kind of off beat fairy tale that Shrek had become, as an alternative to Disney's clean, beautiful properties. Shrek's celebration of unconventional beauty and its clever parodies of classic fairy tales both struck a chord with audiences, and the Shrek franchise has been a DreamWorks classic ever since. The two Puss in boots movies are spin-offs of the Shrek franchise. Both Puss in Boots movies differ from Shrek in the way that they use fairy tales: the fairy tales are still different from their original contexts, but they are much closer to their original meanings rather than fully comedic comedies. The first Puss in Boots was a moderate success while the second Puss in Boots is critically acclaimed and seems to be on track to revive the entire Shrek franchise.

I want to highlight the strategy Puss in Boots: The Last Wish has found for handling its fairy tale properties, and how it contributed to this film's current success. Puss in Boots has figured out the storytelling potential of becoming a sort of cross over film for multiple fairy tale stories, recontextualized for a modern audience, but with more faithfulness and sincerity to the original text than the Shrek franchise before it. It's reminiscent of the very popular Marvel Cinematic Universe, but for even older public domain stories. In a way this is still within the spirit of Shrek, it still makes use of an ensemble cast of reimagined public domain fairy tale stories to construct a new, modern narrative. It even has some parallels to the original Disney properties that led to the creation of Shrek, as Disney also built its brand off the adaptation of the same public domain fairy tales that make guest appearances in Shrek.

This style of storytelling has the unique power of reviving older, forgotten media properties into fresh new narratives, made even more complex by blending multiple stories into a single movie and forcing them to develop new meaning through interacting with one another. This approach does an incredible job of capturing the essence of Shrek: Shrek himself is a lesser known property elevated to the status of a cultural icon through his interactions with an exciting ensemble cast of comedic fairy tale imaginings, and the Shrek franchise is responsible for bringing attention and meaning to even more fairy tales and nursery rhymes, some well known, some not. Might I remind you, Puss in Boots himself was not amongst the most popular fairy tales such as Pinocchio and Cinderella, the properties that were themselves brought to fame by being associated with the Disney brand. Shrek is often praised for its celebration of unconventional beauty, and while this is true for its celebration of literal unconventional beauty features, it's also a celebration of the revival of the unconventional, forgotten stories of the past that have the potential for new life.

I say to you that Jack Horner is the perfect encapsulation of this, the spirit of the Shrek franchise. This excruciatingly simple 6 line nursery rhyme, kept alive throughout centuries through artists extracting a comical amount of political meaning from it, now revived once more by the talented team at DreamWorks. Jack Horner had the least well known origins of the three villains, many people didn't even know the nursery rhyme going into the theater, but the amount of care put into his narrative construction is a monumental testament to the power of narrative reinvention. All this, at a time when the Shrek franchise itself was in decline and required its own reinvention to survive. This, when Puss in Boots 2 required bold new changes after the lukewarm reception to the first Puss in Boots. A daunting task, but if a property as obscure as Jack Horner can be revitalized with such vigor, then so can the Shrek franchise.

I'm tearing up about Jack Horner why the fuck is this happening.

[booksareboring-blog]

One Piece: East Blue Saga

One Piece: East Blue Saga by Eiichiro Oda (尾田 栄一郎) Okay so this one is really going to reveal the big nerd side of me. I started reading One Piece shortly after the live action Netflix series came out. My social media was suddenly flooded with live action, anime, and manga references that I did not understand but which hooked me in and made me want to find out what was going on. I also tossed up if I would write this review, admittedly I thought it might be better to restrict this blog to the reading I do that might make me look cooler. But what’s the point? It’s a blog about books, I am already clearly not a jock, and screw what you think, so what if I started reading One Piece? I chose to break up my reviews into each Saga as apposed to each chapter release or volume release, as this makes the most sense to me for convenience and also having complete arcs to review. The East Blue Saga is an introduction to the world and the various characters you are about to embark on a long journey with throughout the Manga. It builds the world and it’s sense of character well through short arcs introducing each new member of the Straw Hat crew The first story arc you of the series sets up the main character Monkey D. Luffy and why he sets out to be a pirate. It also introduces Luffy’s first crew member Roronoa Zoro, who at first joins reluctantly but reveals himself to be a immensely loyal friend. This introductory arc show Luffy’s great sense of duty and commitment to what he believes is good, even in the face of an opposing authority. This also introduces the power system within the universe. Devil Fruit, when eaten, grant the consumer a unique power that only they hold, at the cost of their ability to swim. The next story arc takes the two friends to a new island where a new crew member is introduced. Nami, a headstrong woman who is, for the time being, interested only in what benefits her as an individual, and has no interest in joining a team. This arc also introduces an enjoyable villain that sets up the interesting devil fruit vs devil fruit fights to come, and also a taste of the weird and wacky characters this world is full of. This arc also introduces the readers to a heart wrenching story from a side character. Something I know will continue throughout the manga. The following arc takes the now three member strong crew to a new island that introduces them to coward and serial liar Usopp. This story gives a great sense of the themes around overcoming great odds. It was overall a slower arc for me than the previous arcs but was fun nonetheless. This arc also introduces them finally, to their ship, the Going Merry. The next arc introduces the fifth crew member, the Straw Hats cook, a cool and stoic man with a penchant for becoming a blubbering fool around pretty women. This arc also comes with an emotional storyline, and introduces the reader to the massive threats to come when the crew finally enters the Grand Line. The next arc is the one that really hooked me into the series. It is heart breaking and emotional. The five main characters are put to their greatest test as a crew. The individual personalities and drives of each crew member puts them in a situation in which they must each overcome an internal obstacle and work together as a cohesive unit to overcome their enemy. The themes of oppression and control, standing up for what you believe in, and standing up for the people you care about are put on beautiful display laying clear what the rest of the series will embody. The final arc is short and mostly serves to finish off the saga and set up the next one, the crew are headed to the Grandline. This saga hooked me into the series. It is as fun and as exciting as I expected it to be, but what really kept my attention was the emotion it wasn’t afraid to play with and the themes it was willing to touch. This saga was still clearly just an introduction to the world and it has left me eager for what is to come. Happy reading folks. Don’t think too hard about the book you’re on right now, just enjoy it.

[newtstesco]

How chaotic do you think the villains from smg3s plan to destroy smg4 because he felt like would be when they all hang out

i fucking LOVE this episode to little bits and pieces, so lemme go over how i interpret each character (since they don’t show up like ever i can just lie and make shit up abt them and no one can tell me i’m wrong)

bowser- OBVIOUSLY the dad friend, tho idk if he counts since he does get kicked out of the group towards the end, but generally if he suggests they should do something that isn’t super evil everyone’s usually down for it.

smg3- literally the only one that wants to do super evil shit, acts like he’s in charge so everyone just lets him be in charge, i won’t go into too much detail since he’s literally still around and mostly the reason why everyone still watches the channel. but anyways he’s a pathetic loser, cringefail guy

xboxfan996- such a silly little guy, literally does not care if they succeed in killing smg4, just happy to hang out with people

x- idk why but i headcannon him as russian do not argue with me in this anyways he spends the whole video trying to not posses people since that’s his main form of being evil so he’s just kinda super uncomfortable being out in the open and shit

the visitor/ silent guy- so literally in the original video he’s from (sm64 bloopers: the visitor) hes completely mute for most of the video so i’m just taking that as like, he’s absolutely mute the whole time and no one knows sign language so everyone thinks he’s weird, even though he’s probably one of the smartest people in the group

crazy chinese dude- he’s not very evil so he’s just there to be weird tbh, very confused since he’s technically not a villain, he just yelled at smg4 once for showing up at his house

john geyham- smug shithead i love him, greasy game show host. is constantly beefing with smg3 since he feels like he ripped off his color palette and that he should be in charge

robot clone- so like after he blew up, i realized that his graphic was hall 9000’s little red eye thingy, and that hall 9000 appears in another video as a villain, and hall 9000 shows up in the crystal when smg3 uses it to bring all the villains back, but he’s not in this video? so personal head cannon, i think robot clone and hall 9000 ended up in the same scrap heap and sort of reached a symbiosis that hall can hang out in robot clone’s brain, and robot clone has the processing power now to still function

bot- weird gay nerd, thinks he’s smarter and way cooler than everyone else, he is pretty smart since most of these people are pretty dumb but he’s still mostly like a weird middle schooler

crazy toilet dude- pretty amicable when you’re not mean to his toilets, he’s just some dude who likes toilets and is participating because he thinks everyone there is a loser who needs guidance

tђє ๓๏ภรtєг/pepsi- literally he couldn’t fit in most the places to be evil, so i’m assuming he just left and blew up some toads during the video or some shit, maybe terrorized glowshire or the whoop whoop kingdom

anyways they all live in bloopersville in a big house and commit evil atrocities (inconveniencing the community and being loud in public places)

[theprofessionalpromptmaker]

Hi ! I love your blog. I've seen you do zodiac based prompts, and me as a zodiac nerd love them. Do is it okay to ask for more. Any zodiac is fine

(I am working through the backlog at the moment, so for anyone curious: REQUESTS ARE STILL CLOSED. But these are my requests from years ago, that I am finally answering now that life is marginally less bad.

Note: These prompts all ended up taking place in the same setting, which goes more into natal chart zodiacs, which I personally love as a zodiac nerd. Hope you enjoy that angle as well!

So, the setting:

A school where people’s zodiacs give them powers - but not just their sun signs, but also their various planetary alignments and house placements. For example, a first house Aquarius sun would have a different power than a seventh house Aquarius sun. How a power is expressed depends on moon sign, strength of a power depends on rising sign, etc. The closer someone’s natal chart line-ups are, the more powerful but also the easier a power is to control, but having completely opposite signs in certain placements also causes powers to be strong, but also to be more volatile.

The prompts:

Person A’s big 3 are all the same sign, making the power associated with that sign more potent. Their magic has always come easy to them and learning was a breeze. But Person B is their school rival, and has opposing signs in their big 3 and has worked very hard to learn to manage their extreme but challenging power. Person B has just as much control currently, but looks down on Person A for having powers that came so easily to them.

Person A has all the most notorious zodiac signs within their chart, and most people avoid them due to it, since their powers tend to reflect the negative stereotypes about their zodiacs. Person B is a triple of one of the infamous zodiacs, and while they have great control over their powers, everyone always assumes they’ll become a villain in the future. The two end up becoming close and Person B decides to help Person A’s image with the idea of them playing the bad guy and Person A getting to step in as the hero (ex: Person B bullying someone and Person A intervening to protect the victim) but Person A refuses, since they don’t want Person B’s reputation to get worse for the sake of their own.

Person A has all matching placements for their big 3 and all within the 12th house, making them fawned over as akin to a god magic level wise - but Person A hates their triple 3 zodiac’s associated powers, and is always envious of the powers of those around them, even if their classmates powers are weaker, they think their powers are so much cooler. Person B finds Person A ungrateful, and is always butting heads with them, and then they get paired up for a group project.

Person A has all matching placements for their big 3 and all within the 12th house, making their powers god-level strength and control. The only problem is, all their powers are support-type powers, and everyone in their school is vying to get them to join their teams, but Person A knows they’ll never get the spotlight for any of the feats and they’ll be forever sidelined as just the helper. Until they meet Person B+, a collection of ‘outcasts’ who all have first house sun signs and opposing signs, so their powers are volatile and dangerous and they are generally ignored and mistreated by the rest of the school. So Person A decides to join their group, since they can share the spotlight with people whose powers might not even function without Person A’s help.

Person A is someone who has all opposing signs, but their sun sign is in the 12th house, and they barely even made it into the school due to the professors and headmaster worrying that they’re powers might be too great and destroy the school if they prove unable to control them. But Person A’s older sibling, Person B, has all the same sign, in the 12th house, as their big 3 and was a praised and prized upperclassman at the school. So their parents and Person B end up pulling strings and Person B threatens to drop out if Person A isn’t accepted, so the school relents. But Person A hates the fact that all their professors keep comparing them to their master of magic control older sibling, and their emotions only make their powers more volatile.

[geeksinhats]

Time for a rant that no one asked for

ok so today Sony announced that there next Spider-man related film is a movie about El Muerto staring Bad Bunny

Now I’m pretty sure most of you when you heard this news where like this

Now as someone who actually knows who this is because I read the comic he’s in, and being Hispanic myself I was like this

Yeah I’m not at all excited by this at all, if anything I feel insulted, this is Sony’s big Spider-man related announcement, a one off villain who only appeared in two issues of Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man, (literary all the images there using for the promotion come from those two issues) yes a side comic not even the main Amazing Spider-man comic, this is suppose to get us excited to see more of these Sony marvel movies, really.

And what makes this worse to me is that Sony is playing this up as a big diversity win, “The First Hispanic lead Superhero movie” and being Mexican myself I feel insulted, I can guarantee that no Hispanic nerds where asking for this, no one was asking for an El Muerto movie, and to think that this good enough to get that win is insulting, like we will just take anything

You know why Black fans love characters like, Black Panther, Luke Cage, and Storm, it’s not just because there black, it’s because there black and are cool, and so they can see themselves being cool as well, just being visible is not enough, we also need to be seen as cool, and appealing, and trust me El Muerto is not cool at all.

On top of all of this, Sony scraping past the bottom of the Spider-man barrel to find there Hispanic lead superhero movie is unnecessary, seeing as there are plenty of Hispanic/Latino Spider-man characters to pick from who are not only much more recognizable, but are simply much cooler than El Muerto

You have Miguel O’Hara AKA Spider-man 2099

You have Anya Corazon AKA Spider-girl/ Araña

You have Anton Miguel Rodriquez AKA Tarantula

Sony has all these amazing Hispanic characters at there disposal and they just choose not to use any of them, and instead choose the most obscure of obscure characters, if Morbious couldn’t get people in the theater, then what makes them think this will?

[secretsofdbz]

Self-Pronouns in Z

Yo, so, imma gonna nerd out linguistically a little, I hope you'll forgive me.

Now I don't claim to be an expert about Japanese expression, but I know a thing or two about grammar-used-as-conveyor-of-character and while Z is nothing special when it comes to using them, it's worth having a look.

So I'd like to talk about two things: how characters say "I" and how they address others with (or without) honorifics (you know, -san, -kun, etc). Today's part one.

How they say I

Ok if you're here, you probably already know watashi, atashi, ore, boku, etc, and I'm sure you can wiki them if the info is a little old. In most Shonen manga, the "casual", informal speech is favored (it's simply cooler ^^), and z isn't the exception. I'll ignore Super for now, because I've not properly dug into it, so "Adult Gohan" in Super, idk yet.

Most male characters in DB/DBZ use "ore" (which is informal, "with a stronger sense of masculinity"), and most of them go on a first name basis straight up (also because many characters don't have a last name). Some characters adapt depending on who they speak to (Krilin, mostly, uses the formal "watashi" when talking to Roshi).

- Goku who uses the country-side Ora (but he goes Ore in the fusions and when he's serious-SSJ, which explains Gohan's shocked face during the Namek saga). Chichi also uses Ora (which is the BIG CLUE for her identity).

- Uub has a similar speech too (he uses Oira)

- Gohan uses Boku almost all of the time (which is also informal, young man I, but it's slightly more on the younger side and less testosterone (the My in MHA is "Boku")). Future Gohan uses Ore though.

- Goten, Kid Trunks, Teen Future Trunks (+ the one time when he talks to Freeza and Goku when they first meet then he switches to Ore), kid Krilin, Pu'ar, Chaotzu and Dende also use Boku. Gotenks, however, uses Ore.

- Piccolo uses plural-we (Ore-tachi) after fusing with Nail for a short time

- Older characters uses informal, "I'm old" Washi (Enma, Roshi, Korin, King Kai, Dr Briefs, Piccolo Daimao when old..)

- Freeza is the most all over the place one, he changes depending on his mental state, but usually he's watashi or watakushi (more formal!) but he also goes Boku when he's with his "papa" and has a mix between Ore and Boku in his final form.

-C-17 only uses watashi when acting "good Cyborg" with Gero, but then goes Ore.

- Vegeta and Piccolo use the honorific "sama" about themselves when they're pissed (ore-sama). A very "villain" thing to do tbh ^^

- Despite using Ore most of the time, Future Trunks' speech pattern is also more formal than most of the cast, which matches Gohan's general formal attitude (as the "kid" of the gang, he's more formal towards adults, using honorifics and shit, which carries on to Future Gohan's speech, which is how Trunks got it), while the gang in general is more relaxed around each other.

- Blonde Launch uses Ore, which makes her even more badass

- And the regular, formal/neutral Watashi is used by women (Blue Launch, 18, Pan, Panchy, Bulma until she switches to the more informal girly atashi, Videl uses both watashi and atashi) some villains (Pilaf, Tao Pai Pai, younger-Daimao, Cell (with a couple instances of Ore), 19 and 20, Dabura) and other forces of nature (Shenron, Kami, Shin). I can't stress enough that 18 keeps the formal and neutral watashi all of the time.

(oh and Mr Popo doesn't use pronouns, he always uses his own name)

Let me know if you'd like me to continue this with honorifics and other relations!

Part 2 is right here

[andypantsx3]

statistically significant | 1 | bakugou/reader

length: 23,490 words | 7 chapters

summary: You’re the scientist who developed a neural net to model the value of assists. Now that your work is feeding into the hero rankings, pro hero Ground Zero has a bone to pick with your results.

tags: romance, enemies to lovers, sexual tension, reader-insert

warnings: aged up characters, eventual smut, m/f threats of violence, problematic behavior

note: I cannot overemphasize that this interpretation of Bakugou is based on season 1 Bakugou, which means he behaves very questionably at the beginning. Please heed the warnings!

Last year

You had been ferreting snacks out of the Hero Awards when he found you.

In retrospect, the whole idea of attending the Hero Awards had been a bad one from the get go. You’d just been so thrilled by the image of it in your head--getting to see all your favorite pros gathered in one place, dressed to the nines, celebrating their rankings, their wins, their saves, their successes. You’d pictured yourself flitting between heroes, collecting autographs and taking selfies, sitting down at a table with big names like Uravity and Froppy, making fast friends over the complimentary champagne.

But then you’d seen what really went into preparing for and attending an event like this, and the shine had quickly rubbed off.

When your boss at the Commission had extended you the invite, she’d told you that you would be representing the organization, and had advised you to contract a makeup artist and find someone willing to dress you. Her tone had strongly implied that this was more of an order than a suggestion. So you’d done it, but nobody had told you exactly how many hours went into getting your makeup tested, getting fitted and refitted for a dress, and fielding questions on cut, colors, fabrics, and fit.

By the time the Awards rolled around, you’d lost upwards of forty excruciating hours of your life to preparations, and had developed some kind of anxiety-induced Pavlovian response to the modiste’s name on your phone screen, where you immediately wanted to leap into the nearest storage closet and hide. And none of this was even counting the five full hours you spent on the day of the awards getting primped and polished within an inch of your life, then stuffed into some ridiculous scrap of fabric that threatened to fall off of you if you so much as breathed wrong.

By the time the stylists and makeup artist had finished with you, you were starved, cranky, and nursing a small migraine from how enthusiastic the hairdresser had been with you. You’d thought, though, that you would finally be able to enjoy yourself now that the worst was over. All there was left was to attend the ceremony, and get to see all your favorite heroes.

And for an hour or two, the Hero Awards had been just as cool as expected. You lingered on the fringes of the red carpet, gawking as pros like Chargebolt and Pinky swanned their way down the walkway, looking even cooler in real life than they looked on TV. Everyone had clearly gone all out, and they looked unbelievably good, either inhumanly beautiful or inhumanly intimidating. You had been utterly transfixed, as evidenced by the inordinate amount of time you spent accidentally staring at Todoroki Shouto as he gave an interview to the side of the walkway, looking absolutely unreal as he leaned over to speak to the reporter.

When you’d finally managed to snap out of your trance, you’d remembered to cut a beeline for the snack table, and had set about stuffing as many snacks into your dress as you could manage. And that’s where the trouble really started.

The invite to the Awards had come with the option for a very fancy multi-course dinner that you could have chosen. Instead, you’d taken one look at the price and laughed yourself sick, before resolving to sneak a bunch of the free snacks into your dress to keep you occupied during the ceremony. The problem was, the scrap of fabric the modiste had insisted was a dress was so obnoxiously flimsy and could only hold so many snacks.

If your dress had been able to hold a reasonable number of snacks, you wouldn’t have needed to sneak back out to the snack table during the presentation, and he would have never had a chance to catch you on your own. But the dress was lacking snack utility, and so you had gone back out for more.

You kept low in the aisle as you crept out of the darkened theater, keeping a hand over your chest so you didn’t spill out of the thin fabric of your dress, and emerged into the reception hall, where you were almost blinded by the harsh light. You stood for a minute, blinking the spots out of your vision, and touched a hand to your eyes, careful not to smear any of your eyeliner.

And that’s when he struck.

Almost as soon as you raised your hand, a rough hand seized your wrist, wrenching your arm down. A heavy arm went around you quickly, trapping both your arms to your sides, and you barely had time to let out a squeak before a calloused hand clapped over your mouth. Your feet left the floor, and then you were being dragged through a side door into the stairwell.

You twisted wildly, kicking out, trying to catch the wall or the railing to push off of and throw your assailant off balance, but he was strong, and clearly well-versed in combat, as he kept you well away from anything you could use to your advantage. He hauled you out into the stairwell, but instead of heading down the stairs, he moved towards the corner. To your surprise, he tossed you unceremoniously against the wall, letting you go.

You caught yourself on the rough stone and whirled around, only to reel back in shock when you caught sight of your assailant.

Bakugou Katsuki, perhaps better known as pro hero Ground Zero, leaned over you, trapping you against the wall with an arm on either side of you. He, like all the other heroes you’d caught sight of today, looked almost unreal in person, but in stark contrast to all the others, his handsome face was twisted up in unmistakeable fury, blood-red eyes bright with violence and white teeth bared in a silent snarl. Even under the thick fabric of his suit, you could see the hard lines of his body were taught with aggression, and it was all you could do to not shrink back against the cold stone of the wall.

“So,” he snarled, leaning in to put his face close to yours, “you’re the fucking statistics nerd.”

You gaped at him, mouth falling open. Your professional title was data scientist, but statistics nerd was a close enough descriptor that you could tell he knew who you were. Your brows went up, wondering why in the world Ground Zero knew you.

“E-excuse me?” you managed. Your brain rapidly kicked into high gear, running through possible reasons why he would know you, what he could possibly want with you.

Bakugou snarled. “What the fuck is your problem with me?”

You stared at him. Problem with him? Other than the fact that he’d just seized you with no warning and dragged you into a stairwell, you had no problem with him. You’d never even met him--what the hell was he talking about?

“Uh, do you maybe have me confused with someone else?” you asked, trying to shift out from under his arm. Maybe there was another data scientist milling around in the crowds that he’d meant to get his hands on instead.

Bakugou’s red eyes narrowed, and he put a hand to your abdomen to press you firmly back to the wall. “Oh no. You’re not getting out of this, you little brat. Fucking fix it.”

You eyed him warily, checking him for signs of a head injury, wandering over his shock of blonde hair and noting the size of his pupils. Maybe Bakugou had been out on assignment just before the Awards, and hadn’t stopped to get his injuries checked out before coming here. A blow to the head would explain why he was behaving so strangely, and asking for weird stuff.

“Fix what?” you asked, frowning when you couldn’t spot the signs of a concussion on him. His gaze seemed all too focused, all too intent. It was nerve-wracking, actually. You’d heard of his reputation for intensity before, but it was one thing to hear it and another entirely to have all that intensity trained on you.

Bakugou bared his teeth and leaned closer. “Your fucking nerd-ass model. Fix it.”

You froze.

Oh.

Oh no.

Oh, this was about the model. You knew his bone to pick with the model.

The entire reason you’d received an invite to the Hero Awards in the first place was because of your work on the model that calculated the hero rankings. The model had existed for years before you had come along, but this year it was different.

You’d been hired a couple months ago by the Public Safety Hero Commission after you’d contacted them with an idea on how to finally calculate the value of field assists. You’d had a rough prototype of a neural network that you’d trained on video of multi-hero operations, tracking the movements of all the heroes on screen, and had developed an algorithm capable of assigning point values to moves that contributed to but did not directly result in a win or a rescue.

The Commission couldn’t get their hands on your work fast enough, and after only a few months refining your neural net, it was hooked into the rankings model, and it had informed not only the choices for Rescue of the Year and Most Valuable Hero this year, but had entirely changed the hero rankings overall.

And Bakugou’s ranking had been very much affected.

Bakugou Katsuki was a hero very unlike the world had ever seen. Anyone could see from his stats alone that he was incredibly driven, supremely powerful, and almost unmatched by any other hero out there. A few years out from UA, he’d already entered the top ten and had been mere breaths away from the top three -- that is, until your model results had been released.

The thing about Bakugou was that he had a higher percentage of fight wins than any hero in recorded history. He came out on top of almost any situation he entered into, and had one of the highest villain capture stats and the highest villain kill stat as compared to any other hero at this point in their career. The problem was, the new model also now took into account assists, as well as applied slightly heavier weights to rescues, and as good as Bakugou was at winning fights, he was almost equally as terrible at helping others.

So when your model had been worked into the Hero Commission’s official ranking calculations, Bakugou had backslid to sit unhappily at rank number eight.

And apparently, he thought this meant you had a personal grudge.

“Okay, I understand you’re upset, but the results are the results,” you said, watching him carefully. “It’s got nothing to do with you personally.”

His expression darkened thunderously, and the hand on your abdomen grew notably hotter, a scent like gunpowder and burnt sugar rising in the stairwell. “Like hell it doesn’t. Fucking fix it.”

Your brow furrowed. How did regular people think models worked? “There’s no ‘fixing it’, Bakugou. That’s just how math works. If you have a problem with how assists and rescues are weighted then you can take it up with the Commission. I just trained the model with their recommendations, and the results are what they are.”

Bakugou apparently registered none of what you were saying. Rough fingers slid to your jaw, tipping your face up to him. “What is it that you wanted, you damn brat? Did you want to see me humiliated? Or maybe you wanted my attention?” His fingers dug into your jaw. “Well now you have it, you fucking harpy, so show me what you wanted with it.”

You gaped at him, unable to help the way your mouth hung open like a fish. Did he think you were blackmailing him? With a fucking statistical model? It was a matter of public record that Bakugou was smart--he was purportedly one of the brightest minds that had ever graced the profession of hero, with strategic skill and combat sense that was utterly unparalleled--so then why the hell was he being so dumb about this? Was he really so self-absorbed that he thought this whole thing was about him?

Your temper flared, rising like the slow heat that was building under his hands. “I know this might be news to you,” you said slowly, “but not everything is about you. The model I trained takes in video as its input, and calculates rankings based on recommended weighting criteria that the Hero Commission gave me themselves. There is no place for me to input my own biases or change the results, so if the output is something that you’re ashamed of, then maybe you should do better.”

Bakugou’s eyes brightened, narrowing on you with an intensity that made you want to curl into the wall. “Say that again, you little fuck.”

You held your ground, ignoring the dangerous way the scent of hot smoke sharpened, leaning forward to bare your own teeth. “Maybe you should do better, you self-centered asshole.”

You were close enough that you could see his pupils dilate with the challenge, like a predator catching sight of its prey. An unsettling grin made its way across his mouth. “I am going to make you wish you’d never even seen a calculator, you smug fucking nerd,” he said, leaning into you.

The scent of gunpowder burned in the back of your throat, and the hands on you flared alarmingly hot, before the door to the hall burst open, and a whirlwind of red and yellow tore into the stairwell.

“Heya Blasty,” a voice chirped, echoing on the stairs, “Found ya.”

The shock of golden yellow resolved itself into the lean figure of Kaminari Denki, aka pro hero Chargebolt. He quickly made his way to Bakugou’s side, seizing an elbow.

“I’m busy, fuckstick. Fuck off,” Bakugou growled.

A large hand reached over Bakugou’s other shoulder to pull him off you, a head of gelled red spikes materializing behind his back, and you blinked up at Kirishima Eijirou, also known as Red Riot.

“Sorry about him,” Kirishima smiled down at you warmly, in direct contrast to the way his fingers dug into Bakugou’s shoulder. His teeth looked incredibly sharp in person, but this fact somehow failed to detract from the warmth of his friendly expression. You blinked, stunned that you were being addressed by Red Riot.

“He’s been a little worked up since the results were released, but he’s harmless,” Kirishima explained, grunting a little as he jerked Bakugou away from you. Bakugou snarled and turned to his friend, a small volley of sparks lighting off of his palm.

“I said fuck off,” he growled.

You let out a choked laugh at the idea of Bakugou Katsuki being called harmless. Just this week he’d perfected a technique where he melted clean through concrete, and you’d seen the replay of him liquifying the side of a skyscraper on the news this morning as you’d been getting your makeup done.

“Harmless, right. Definitely felt that way,” you uttered as Kirishima struggled to get a grip on Bakugou.

“I’ll fucking show you harmless,” Bakugou spat, turning back to you, sparks crackling louder in his palm. Kirishima seized his chance quickly, getting a bulky arm around Bakugou’s chest and lifting him straight off the ground. Bakugou snarled and gripped Kirishima’s forearm, letting off an explosion that would have blown anyone else’s arm clean off, but Kirishima just laughed, ignoring that the sleeve of his suit had caught fire, and hauled Bakugou back through the door.

A litany of swears filtered back through the door before it swung shut again.

Kaminari turned to face you, smiling sheepishly. “Sorry about that. We didn’t realize he was gonna come after you like that, though I don’t think he would have actually done anything. He’s pretty much all talk.”

You waved a hand, still stunned that Chargebolt was speaking to you.

“Uh, it’s okay,” you said. “I just...didn’t expect that kind of a reaction.”

Kaminari chuckled. “He’s usually a little more chill these days--I think he’s just pissed he’s losing to Midoriya now.” He paused, looking thoughtful. “I gotta say, though, he was even more worked up than I expected when we got here. What did you say to him?”

You grimaced, thinking back on the tense conversation. “That if he was ashamed of his ranking, he should do better.”

Kaminari choked. “Oh fuck, he must have been pissed,” he managed, before dissolving into peals of laughter. “Do better. No wonder he looked like he was gonna give himself a hernia. Mina’s gonna wet herself when I tell her.”

You shifted uncomfortably. “He thinks I altered the results to get his attention.”

Kaminari’s chuckles tapered off as he set a comforting hand on your shoulder. “Oh, he’s just saying that. He knows he’s shit at assists. He’s just salty he’s actually gotta do something about it if he wants to be number one.”

You thought back to the feeling of that hard body pressing you up against the wall, the disdain that had twisted his handsome face, the burning heat that had built up under his palms. A shiver went down your spine. It had seemed like he was a little more than salty, but if that’s how his friend wanted to put it, then fine.

“Well, thanks for the save anyway,” you said, giving Kaminari a little smile. “I’d definitely give you and Kirishima Rescue of the Year if I was pre-determining my results.”

Kaminari laughed, turning back to the door that Kirishima had dragged Bakugou through. As if on cue, a small boom sent the door swinging open a little. “Speaking of which, I’d better get back to make sure I don’t have to rescue the rescuer.”

He gave you a casual wave, then crossed to the door quickly. He hesitated at the threshold, then peeked back over his shoulder at you.

“By the way,” he said. “You might want to take a look at your dress. I, um, think Bakugou may have gotten a little carried away.”

He disappeared before you could ask what he meant, but a quick glance down clarified soon enough. Right on your abdomen, where Bakugou had pinned you against the wall, lay a scorched cut out, exactly in the shape of one large hand.

Your mouth dropped open in horror.

That fucking dick.

[moon-swag-tourney]

Propaganda below!

Moon Knight

Moon Knight is an underrated character who's been around since the mid-70's, but has only recently gotten the more attention he deserves since the Disney+ adaptation. However, I am a firm comics supremacy believer and can attest he is even cooler in the comics. The current run (Moon Knight 2021) is the best he's been written in quite some time for example, as it's friendly to veteran fans and new fans alike!

Moon Knight is not your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man; he will fuck you up if you deserve it, and benefits from the fact that many villains are terrified of him.

Moon Knight is canonically Jewish, and though he is non-practising, it plays a major part in his story and identity.

It's also worth noting that Moon Knight has DID, with three identities: Marc Spector (host), Steven Grant, and Jake Lockley.

He's such an interesting and compelling character. The comics have spawned countless hilarious memes (I know you're here Dracula you big nerd wheres my money; random bullshit go; etc). The show was amazing, and Oscar Isaac acted his ass off

They are so cool; they're both canonically Jewish and have DID

One of the most unique superheroes out there due to being plural. Really cool, too.

I love him, your honor. I'd like to say more but the truth is I only watched the show and I will leave the propaganda to comics fans.

Umbreon

umbreon is so cool and while i prefer espeon, it's definitely one of my favorites (specifically my third favorite) 

[thanx-idonttry]

Bakugou x Black Singer/Blogger!Reader

They Are Pro Heroes, like Age 25.

This came out longer than expected.

Tags: Fluff. Bakugou being a fanboy.

You weren’t hugely famous, but you were internet famous, and that’s still pretty huge. You were just a Black girl showing your voice, hoping to brighten someone’s day.

And with each video of you upload to your blog, you manage to make over 1 million people smile. And one of those 1 million people was Katsuki Bakugou, A.K.A Dynamite. One half of the #1 Pro Hero of Japan.

A few years after high school, He and Midoriya teamed up and climbed the charts to the #1 spot. As busy as he and Midoriya is, he always finds time to watch each and every one of your videos.

He made a secret page under another name, just to like and reblog your videos. He likes to start his day by clicking one of your singing videos, and blare it through his house as he gets ready for the day. He could be going to work of off for the day, he’ll play one of songs.

The man was hooked as soon as he heard you do a cover to Beyonce’s “1+1″. He was shooketh! He’s used to hearing your original songs, you rarely do covers. But he still loved it. Unable to look away from you as your power house voice blocked out everything around him. He loved hearing you sing or watching your other videos of miscellaneous things because it relates to your culture, which he really isn’t exposed to all the time. So he watches to learn more.

But he really just likes watching you. You look so passionate when you do your blogs, it was so interesting to  him. You were such a foreign masterpiece to him, everything from your thick, curly (or braided) dark hair. Your brown (or Hazel) eyes seemed so bright to him. Your skin tone was so wonderful, it always made you look like you were glowing. And your attitude was nothing to play with. He realized that when you obliterated a racist hater on one of her live videos.

He was crushing, he was crushing hard and didn’t even realize it yet. He’ll put on one your videos to relax him Not long before his friends catch on and realize that he was a fan. The first to find out was Midoriya. (He works with the man sooo...) Catching Bakugou watching your videos. “Oh you Follow Y/N too? I think she’s really talented.” Midoriya says to him.

Katsuki, who was still wrapped up in watching you talk about the injustices against your race, he accidentally let “She’s so fucking wonderful.” Slip out loud, and Midoriya smirked teasingly.

Bakugou stiffened, completely frozen with wide eyes and a red tint hitting his face. “Did I hear right? Kacchan has a crush on Y/N?” He teased. In honesty, he’s happy for Bakugou.

But Bakugou being a proud man, doesn’t want to fully admit it. “SHUT THE HELL UP!! I just think she’s... Cool.” He says while still trying to cover up his flushed face, He didn’t want anyone seeing this.

He was embarrassed, his secret is out. He kept you a secret because it was his way of having you all to himself. Even though he didn’t know you and Vice Versa, he wanted you to be his in a way. So yeah, he was crushing.

“So you already know she’ll be here in a couple of weeks for her blog and to do a few promotions. Why don’t you make some arrangements to meet her?” Midoriya suggests, and it makes Bakugou nervous.

“I don’t know about that, she never really mentioned Heroes in any of her posts... I don’t think she’s interested in Pro Heroes.” Bakugou said with some disappointment in his voice

———

“The Wonder Duo once again saved over 200 civilians who were attending a charity ball that was taken hostage by villains. And—” You didn’t even get the chance to hear the rest of the news report because you started fangirling over Dynamite.

They showed clips from the incident and all you could think was how good he looked taking down those villains. You were such a fan of him, but you thought that people would discriminate you two because of your races. Don’t want to constantly hear “DyNaMiTe DoN’t EvEn LiKe BlAcK GiRls” *Insert Eye Roll*

You kept your love for him a secret, if only your fans knew that he was the reason behind every love song you made. You have merchandise from the hero, your love for him ran deep. So you were looking forward to your trip in a couple of weeks, being in the country as Dynamite gave you goosebumps.

A huge part of you was hoping to run into him while you were there. Get him to sign a few things before finishing his patrol, maybe have a little chat. You squealed at the thought of being in front of your favorite hero, thoughts of possibilities floated into your head, like possibly getting a hug, or like sing for him! You wondered if he was a fan of you.

Then a frown appeared on your face, He’s probably too busy to look at your videos. Sure you had fans, but someone like Dynamite is probably  too preoccupied with cooler shit to watch your videos. I mean, you two are from different worlds. Then the comments from people of your blog saying “PRO HEROES FROM JAPAN DON’T LIKE BLACK PEOPLE”  “DYNAMITE DON’T LIKE BLACK GIRLS” Blah, Blah, Blah.

You were worried that your favorite hero wouldn’t want anything to do with you. You grabbed your plushie of Dynamite and held it tight, you did your best to let them thoughts go, but you knew there was only one way to cool your jets, was to blog about it, then make a video afterwards.

You ranted about black love and the appreciation of Black x Japanese interracial love, and that it’s okay to date outside your race. Love is Love and as long as they respect each others cultures and truly love each other. After you logged off, you started getting ready for your trip. You ignored your phone going off, and continued packing.

When you were done, you decided to write a song to help with the left over nerves you got from multiple things. As you sit there in your bonnet, (Favorite color) tank top, (Other Favorite color) shorts, your house shoes booties, typing lyrics into your phone. In your most natural state, you wondered if Dynamite would like you like this. 

You know that you’re beautiful, but the possibility of your future not finding you attractive does bother you. You kept telling yourself to stop thinking  like that and focus on your shit. You don’t need obsessing over petty little shit from people you don’t even know.

_____

Bakugou watched your rant video the moment he woke up. He woke up and grabbed his phone. Once he saw your notification on his phone, he fully woke up and instantly clicked play. Once he didn’t see your bright smile, he knew something was up. 

He laid in his bed, watching you rant about Black love. He heard you mention Pro heroes, and his eyes widened. He knew someone had irritated you, and that irritated him. He knew for sure that he, and a lot of  heroes and civilians here don’t discriminate. He wanted to know who the hell filled your head with this bullshit?! He wanted to make a video, yelling at the extras that think that told you this crap. He wanted to set them straight.

But then people will find out that he’s a fan of you, and if his friends  find out... he’ll never hear the end of it. Kirishima, Kaminari, and Sero will tease him at every given moment. But he wanted to let you know that all of us Heroes in Japan have nothing but love for the black community. 

Mirko, the Hero he was a sidekick to for 5 years, She was black. And she was the most Badass out of all heroes. He didn’t want you feel this way, he wanted to find a way to make you smile. You make him smile every morning, so he should return the favor. He’ll have to figure out while he patrolling today.

Bakugou got his opportunity while patrolling with Midoriya. The town was holding a festival and a lot of people were attending, including 5-6 News reporters. The Mayor had asked them to guard the event, and of course, being heroes, they accepted.

A idiot wannabe Villain with his quirk being animal shapeshifting, turned into a giant, raging Ape. He was bent on destroying the festival and everything that makes people happy. He and Midoriya took him down in like 10 mins, and of course, reporters wanted them to say a few words or interview them. “Dynamite! Deku! Do you have any words to say?” a  reporter asked as she shoved her mic in his face.

“All I wanna say is... I  fucking Love Black People, They are awesome! Awesome, strong, and especially beautiful. Shout to all the Black Girls/Women everywhere.“ Then  he walked off to give the villain to the cops. Midoriya chimed in and said. “I agree with everything he said. Shout out to the Black People! If you feel like your lives don’t matter to anyone, just know and remember that they truly matter to us, and we’re going to do are hardest to make you all feel protected.“ Then he walked off, catching up to Bakugou.

____

“All I wanna say is... I  fucking Love Black People, They are awesome! Awesome, strong, and especially beautiful. Shout to all the Black Girls/Women everywhere.“

“I agree with everything he said. Shout out to the Black People! If you feel like your lives don’t matter to anyone, just know and remember that they truly matter to us, and we’re going to do are hardest to make you all feel protected.“

The video you watched on the plane was weeks old, but it stills get you feeling good. After you saw this video for the first time two weeks ago, you kinda been smug about it. But not in a bad way.

You felt safe Wearing your Dynamite mearch while blogging or singing. You showed a different side of your room, The side where your shrine to Pro Heroes were. Posters, pillows, and Chibi Dolls.

You even Admitted it to your fans that you were a Hero Nerd, and that brought more followers to your page. You felt great that you didn’t have to hide anymore. Little did you know, A certain Hero was following and loving it more. Making sure to leave a like and reblog on your content.

You were excited for this trip and the Concert you were opening for tonight. You also have a Meet & Greet, so you know this will be great for your content. You were also secretly hoping to run into your dream Hero. You know they say “Don’t Meet Your Hero!” But they can eat your ass because you’re making that happen! You’re favorite hero loves Black Women.

You started to wonder... It’s kind of weird how after you made your rant video about Black Love, He said that on the news. A surge  went through your body as your mind wondered to the fact that Dynamite might actually watch your videos! What if he comes to your concert? *Le gasp* What if he shows up at your meet and greet?! Your internal fangirl started coming out. You had tell yourself to calm down before the people on the plane think you’re being killed or something.

You took one selfie to show that you were on the way, posted it, and fell asleep. When you wake up, You’ll be in Japan.

____

Bakugou was changing out of his hero clothing, finally ending a long day at work. He had just got healed and patched up, and not he was prepping to leave when his phone went off. He reached for it and saw that had you had posted a selfie, and now you’re going live as you approach a familiar theatre.

His eyes widened, He knew exactly where that place was. Then Deku came bursting in, phone in his hand showing the same video he was watching. He had such excitement on his face, he honestly startled Bakugou the way Midoriya bursted in.

“KACCHAN! KACCHAN! WE CAN MAKE IT! WE CAN SEE AND MEET HER!“ Midoriya yelled. His eyes were showing that excitement when he meets a cool hero, a smile to match his excitement. “Get dressed quick! we can still make it on time to see her perform.“

“SHHHH! Shut The Fuck Up Before Someone Hears You Deku! and, I know. I’m getting ready.“ Bakugou had a slight blush on his face, and he was trembling. Why the fuck was he trembling?! He’s just going to meet a person that he enjoys. Someone that he watches damn near everyday and plays her music, nothing special right?

His heart was racing, he couldn’t control his feelings inside, but he did his best to not show them externally. He doesn’t want to look like Midoriya right now. But he had to admit it to himself, he was excited as hell.

Both of them put on hoodies and Sunglasses to hide their identity as they went to the concert. Bakugou’s trembling got a little more noticeable because he was in the same building as you. When you came on stage, Bakugou’s breath hitched. You were even more stunning in person, it was like you had a glow around you as you thanked everyone for coming out. 

As you began to sing, what normally happens to Bakugou, happened 10x more. As your voice hits his ears, he tuned out everyone here. He got tunnel vision, and all he could see and here was you. Midoriya looked at his friend and noticed that Bakugou had loving/relaxed smile on his face. His eyes glued on you. And that gave Midoriya an Idea.

When you were done with your performance, Midoriya dragged Bakugou backstage, to your dressing room. The guards weren’t letting them pass until Midoriya revealed who they were, then the doors flew open for them. (Perks of Being the #1 Heroes.) They knocked on the door, and heard your voice, Bakugou tensed up.  

The only thing that separated you and him was a door. Bakugou’s breathing got heavy, all common sense and the words he knew floated out his head. all he thought was “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! SHE’S BEHIND THIS DOOR!!!”

You asked who was it, and Of course, Midoriya was the one to speak first. “Hi, you don’t know us, but My name is Deku, and I’m the #1-“

The door flew opened before Midoriya had the chance to finish. You stood the with your eyes wide and jaw to the floor. In front of you stood Japan’s #1 heroes, you couldn’t believe it. “No fucking way!” was all you could get out. “I just wanted to say that I know you had a meet and greet, but we’re big fans, especially my partner here. We couldn’t wait” Midoriya finished before pushing Bakugou forward towards you. 

Bakugou stumbled but caught himself as he stood directly in front of you. There you stood, in all your glory, looking like a Black Goddess. He felt like  he wasn’t worthy to be in your presence. He had to collect himself, he had to say something to you! Wait a minute, he’s Katsuki fucking Bakugou! Dynamite! The Great Explosion Murder God! He shouldn’t be nervous! He’s got this

He cleared his throat, then you smiled at him. All that nerve he built, fluttered away like butterflies. He grew a love sick smile and looked at you lovingly. “I love you” Slipped out of his mouth. You gasped, then Bakugou realized what he said and nervously tried to correct his mistake. “Your Work! I love your work! I mean I don’t love you- not to sound like I hate you, I-I mean I actually think you’re amazing....ly talented! Oh Fuck! Let me start over! I’m Dynamite, but you already know that, but you can call me Bakugou. And I enjoy your work.”

Remember what they said about meet you heroes? EAT MY ASS FUCKERS! DYNAMITE IS A FAN!!!!

“He’s a huge fan! he watches everything you post!“ Deku chimed in with his teasing voice and smirk, which caused Bakugou to threaten Midoriya to shut up. You stepped aside to let the two pro heroes into your dressing room.

There the three of you talked. But it was mostly you and Bakugou talking. You find out that he’s been following you for a while and vice versa. You and Bakugou hit off so well, he invited you to lunch and you invited him to do a vid with him. 

It was like the more you talk, the more Bakugou grew to like you. He gave you his contact info because he wanted to keep in touch with you. He appreciated everything that you are, and would love to see more of you in person. Even offered to pay for you to come back soon.

The two of you started traveling to see one another, like him traveling to the states and you going to his country. It wasn’t long before you two started dating. You two doing vids together, and him recording you sing.

Lets just say the world couldn’t predict that you and Japan’s biggest Hero would be a huge Power Couple.

[crystalelemental]

Ceruledge is cooler, so glad my wife wanted Violet. I love recovery effects. It’s also a shame the first Psychic type revealed (1) conflicts with Delphox exactly, and (2) is some honorable warrior nerd. You’re a psychic type, bro.

The three paths are about what I expected. Gym battles, villain team, random sidequest. Which means the “three paths” is just…the same thing every game has had since forever but more segmented now. Jury’s still out on whether that’s a positive or not.

They showed off the grass gym a bit, and apparently they did the exact opposite of what I wanted. The leader uses Sudowoodo, but its Tera Type is Grass. I’m glad they use this gimmick for the assumed purposes of coverage moves, but I was hoping for the opposite, where they use a Grass type to change type to cover weaknesses. Too much to ask, I suppose.

Villain team is another in the growing list of not even really villains. I have minimal interest. Titan Pokemon look okay but it doesn’t seem to play like Legends so I’m less interested.

Apparently you can send Pokemon to auto-explore and auto-battle along the way? That’s kinda neat, if you’re not out to catch anything. It may have applications, not fully convinced yet.

[todomitoukei]

Hey wanna ask u something I saw a post in twitter saying that Bakugou is very rude in japanese and they can't really write how rude he is in english cuz english translation isn't rich as the Japanese ANYWAY, since Bakugou is rude is Dabi a rude character too? And who's the most rudest character in BnHA? Man i hope it's Dabi kskdkkkds 😔😂 I just feel it suits him to be rude :')

That’s a great question! Also sort of difficult to explain? There are a lot of nuances to the Japanese languages that don’t exist in English, so be aware: there is some information ahead.

Let me preface this, though, by saying that I normally read My Hero in English. I sometimes read certain parts in Japanese, specifically when I try to figure out what the character said exactly rather than just trusting in the English translation. So I can’t give you a perfect answer as to who the rudest character is since I’m not familiar enough with everyone’s speech patterns. (I think I’ve mostly looked at what Dabi and Shouto have said in Japanese), but I did browse a little more through some Japanese chapters to compare a couple of characters.

For this post, I am going to mainly compare Bakugou and Dabi.

And before we talk about swearing in Japanese, I don’t remember if this is just a one time occasion or if this happens more often throughout the story, but for example, in chapter 292 when Shouto basically asks Dabi whether he has lost his mind, the official English translation made him say: “Are you freakin’ insane?!” - sorry, but if you’re gonna add a swear word, why this watered-down version? This is a story filled with dark topics, brutal fights, and on-screen killing, and yet you won’t let a teenager say fuck? W h y ?

Anyway, the reason people say it doesn’t translate well is that swear words aren’t a big thing in Japanese. There are a couple of swear words, and we’ll look at those, yet overall those words aren’t swear words by definition, but rather become swear words based on context and tone.

Because the Japanese language is all about different levels of politeness, whether certain words are rude or not depends on the context and whom you are speaking to.

That being said, let’s take a look at the different ways characters can sound rude:

Words

This is a really good post that talks about swearing in Japanese and lists some of the words that can be used similar to swear words.

One of the words featured on that list is 「 てめェ」 (temee). This word gets used by several characters throughout the story, usually to address an opponent. Here’s an example of Dabi using it in chapter 292 whilst referring to Best Jeanist:

If you look this word up in the dictionary you’ll get the following definitions: you (used by young males; vulgar; derogatory)/ you son of a bitch/ you bastard. Technically, this word means you, but the nuance boils down to the speaker looking down on the person they’re talking to.

There is also the word 「死ね」 (shine). This is the imperative form (command form) of 「死ぬ、しぬ」(shinu) - to die. I don’t think I have to explain why it’s considered rude to tell someone to die. Anyway, this one is commonly used by Bakugou (like when he has to throw the ball during class).

Another big swear word is「くそ」(kuso), meaning damn, shit. In My Hero, this is often said as「クソナード」(kuso naado) - “damn nerd” by Bakugou. Another nickname Bakugou uses is the one he has for Shouto,「半分野郎」(hanbun yarou) - “Half bastard”

Speaking of 「野郎」you know who else uses that word? Dabi.

Dabi says:「なんだ空っぽのコスプレ野郎じゃねえか。」(nanda karappo no kosupure yarou janee ka.) 

I think the English translation says something along the lines of “Oh, so you’re not just a hollow cosplayer” But that loses a lot of the nuance.

「なんだ ; nanda 」-> depends on context, but can be translated as “What the hell?”

「空っぽ ; karappo」-> hollow

「の ; no 」-> particle to indicate possession, works like an apostrophe

「スプレ ; kosupure 」-> cosplay

「野郎 ; yarou 」-> bastard

「じゃねえ ; janee 」-> rude form of 「じゃない」 (janai) which is already the casual way to negate the word it proceeds

「か ; ka 」-> question marker

As you can see, this sentence includes several colloquial/rude ways of speaking. The full sentence would be “What the hell? You’re not a hollow bastard cosplayer?” - yarou can also just be translated as “guy” but even then it’s a rougher word, so that’s why bastard emphasizes that better, I think.

So it’s definitely fair to say both Dabi and Bakugou are ruder than other people, mainly shown by the way they address people. 

Bakugou even uses 「野郎」on the hero Slidin’ Go:「語彙力この野郎」(goiryoku kono yarou) “Extend your vocabulary, you bastard”

Also, here’s a panel that features Bakugou saying several rude words at once! Sometimes, he uses a lot. Featured here are the aforementioned 「くそ」(kuso) and 「 てめー」 (temee), as well as 「ばか」* (baka) - “idiot” - *note that in the manga kuso and baka are written in katakana,「クソ、バカ」 respectively, instead of hiragana to emphasize them similar to the function of italics.

Polite Speech

Again, there are different levels of politeness in the Japanese language, and one of the quickest ways to determine the level is by looking at the verb ending. There is a plain form (also known as dictionary form), as well as a polite form. The latter is also known as “masu”-form since you change the ending of the verb into masu.

There are a few instances where Shouto uses the polite form while talking to someone, like here with Rock Lock:「頼みます」(tanomimasu) “to entrust to”

and here, when he is thanking All Might「ありがとうございました」 (arigatou gozaimashita). This is a common phrase, but it’s usually shortened to just arigatou.

Now take Bakugou again, who doesn’t use the polite form when talking to Pro Heroes he has never talked to before and instead calls them bastard. Definitely ruder!

Another instance of a character using polite speech is Dabi throughout his broadcast, like here where he says「生まれました」 (umaremashita) “have been born”

Pronouns

There are also several personal pronouns in Japanese. The standard being「私」(watashi), which is mainly used by women, but can also be used by men, specifically in formal or public spaces to remain more neutral. This pronoun is for example used by All Might. 

The story itself is called 「僕のヒーローアカデミア」(Boku no Hīrō Akademia), boku meaning I and is usually used by boys/young men. Grown men might also use it as a sign of modesty since the word originates from the terms 「下僕」(geboku) meaning manservant, and「公僕」(kouboku) meaning public servant. As the story title hints, this is the pronoun Deku uses to refer to himself.

Another personal pronoun is 「俺」(ore). This one is more commonly used around peers. Because it sounds a little self-asserting, it can be rude when used in formal settings or when speaking to strangers or old people. This is a pronoun used by the majority of the male characters, including Dabi, Shigaraki, Shouto, and Bakugou.

Which language a character uses is part of their characterization, hence a more humble character like Deku uses boku, whereas more dominating/self-confident characters like Dabi, Shouto, or Bakugou use ore.

What’s more, a good way to learn about the different politeness levels is to look at chapter 290, where we switch between Dabi’s broadcast, and Dabi on the battlefield talking to Endeavor and Shouto.

Aside from using the polite form of speaking in his broadcast rather than the casual form, he also uses boku in his broadcast, and ore on the battlefield:

Again, when boku is used by grown men (aka Dabi) it’s a humble way of speaking. Pairing that with him using the polite form of speaking makes him sound especially well-mannered, a huge contrast to his usual rough character.

Sentence Ending Particles

Another way to influence the way what you’re saying sounds is the way you end your sentences. There are several particles you can use (sort of like “right?”, “isn’t it?” etc.). Again, there are certain choices here to make you sound “cooler” or “manlier” - so not explicitly rude, but it just adds to the already existing roughness certain characters use when speaking.

One of these particles is「さ」(sa) which is a casual/rougher form of 「よ」(yo), mainly used by men, and can be added to the end of a sentence for emphasis. Here’s an example of Dabi using sa while speaking to Skeptic in chapter 291.

Also, note that temee gets used again here. As mentioned before, temee can just mean you, but in a derogatory way. The official translation says “Thanks to you and your camera for that prime footage. No reason not to use what we got, right?” - so aside from English not having a derogatory you, the “right?” is at least a good translation for sa.

「ぜ」is another particle like that, but it’s only used in casual conversations or when speaking to someone of lower social status. So when Dabi uses this here -

as he invites Endeavor to dance with him in hell, it’s obviously a rude, mocking way to end the sentence since technically Endeavor is above him in social status (since he is his father and also a Pro Hero).

To sum it up, there are a lot of characters who generally speak rougher and less respectfully than the average character does, but what makes Dabi and Bakugou particularly stand out is the way they address people, often using derogatory words, added with some other ways to sound rougher/ruder no matter whom they are speaking to.

In comparison to Shouto, who has shown to at least sometimes speak in a polite form, Bakugou doesn’t seem to use that form at all. The problem with comparing this to Dabi in order to figure out which of them is the rudest is that we don’t really see Dabi in formal situations. Him being a villain automatically means he doesn’t exactly get into situations, where he would speak to a higher up. Sure, Shigaraki is more-or-less his boss, but they’re more on even grounds than in a formal employee-employer scenario.

The one time he does speak formally is during his broadcast. This shows that he can speak formally when he wants to - but he usually doesn’t. Again, though, as a villain, it’s difficult to compare him to those on the hero side. That is also the reason why some might consider Bakugou to be especially rude since he is on the hero side and with that, expected to speak nicer to people.

While Dabi’s speaking mannerisms match that of a bad guy, Bakugou speaking similar to him despite being a hero-to-be makes him sound more aggressive. Bakugou is basically the expression “don’t judge a book by its cover”.

With that, it would make more sense to compare a character like Dabi to another villain, of course. While characters like Shigaraki overall also speak similar to Dabi, again, it’s more about the words he uses for people, especially when he is close with them.

So I think it’s fair to say that Bakugou and Dabi are, at the very least, some of the rudest-speaking characters in the story. The reason the translations can’t quite capture this is due to certain aspects of Japanese (like the different levels of formality shown through conjugation, certain particles, and certain words) not existing in English. While English also has rougher ways of speaking, there aren’t as many nuances, especially if you want to make characters stand out more in comparison to other characters with similar rough mannerisms.

Anyway, I hope this somewhat answered your question! Like I said, it’s difficult to explain that in one post, especially considering the amount of characters in the story, as well as certain aspects - like Bakugou being on the hero side and Dabi being on the villain side - making it more difficult to sum it up, so hopefully this at least explained a little bit.

[permanent-beta-bag-of-water]

Cyberchase rewatch - S1E1 “Lost My Marbles”

I have no idea if I’ll keep this up, since my hobbies and interests are about as consistent as my mood. Anyway, I wanted to rewatch the show and jot down my inner monologue, now that 20 years have passed. I started watching the show when I was 15, about the time it started airing, because it beat watching soap operas when I got home from school. Anyway, here’s the first episode.

Listening to Christopher Lloyd playing a bad guy over headphones is so good. My ears are happy. Hacker can see into the real world? Creep alert. Even with the firewall restored, Motherboard has the virus, so it should be game over. How does Motherboard know their names? Like a school database or something? Hand wave it away with calling Motherboard a god-being. I forgot that Hacker was the reason the kids got into Cyberspace to begin with. This must be some fancy big city school, because the only school map we had was a paper on the wall yellowed with age. I also forgot how much plot dropped in the first episode. The Sqwak Pads were a lot cooler before smartphones dropped. I hate Inez, ooooh I'm so smart, la-dee-da I love Digit. He keeps crashing into things, fucking up his beak, just good old slap stick humor victim. It's genuinely funny. I wish Inez would count the number of steps it takes to reach the bottom of the ocean. Hacker is the kinda bitch that would pick puce as a favorite color. Also puce is the name for two different colors, which depend on which region you're from. Buzz and Delete with the scissors are genuinely creepy. "Those THINGS" - rude This Hacker slaps hard. Good classy villain, gotta love it. Lay off the cigs Hacker. You'll lose that wonderful laugh of your’s.. The fist out of the rocks - kinda getting T1000 vibes The Wreaker has a fucking hangar bay. The sizing of the Wreaker was never consistent, which really, REALLY bothered me. "Lost my marbles" eheheheh Poor Buzz and Delete, they don't deserve this, they were actually GOOD in this episode I love the island turning inside out. Cool nerd shit. Hacker getting hit by the donut sets the theme for the whole show - he tries to be an asshole, and it comes back to bite him. "Hey kids, is it okay if we keep putting you in danger and let a grown psycho chase you around with weapons and stuff?"