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tokiro07 · 2 months ago

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Undead Unluck ch.223 thoughts

[Well...That Could Mean Anything...]

(Contents: immediate reactions - cancelation scare/renewed hope; speculation - story progression)

Please Say "Sike"

...I guess I should've seen that coming

If they can skip the three months leading up to the Quests, why not skip the month of the Quests?

Granted, my assumption was that the Master Rules wanted to fight and defeat the Union, that they were willing to interfere with their training but not to actually cheat at the Quests themselves, which seems to have been an accurate assumption to make

The fact that even Soul objected, demanding an explanation and even going so far as to attack Luna in retaliation, explicitly tells us that nobody involved wanted this outcome

The question this begs, though, is if Tozuka wanted this outcome

The overwhelming response to this chapter was definitely an anxious one. Folks were already super nervous because UU's been in the back of the magazine for the last few weeks while also being notably absent from a recent list of profitable manga that Shueisha put out recently, so seeing this chapter explicitly skip a bunch of content that had been built up for the last year or so was troubling to say the least

However! It also didn't take long for the fanbase to reevaluate the purpose of this direction

Hold the Line!

As Luna notes, Andy held off all ten Master Rules for eons. Of course she lost faith in them! Hell, Andy bodied Sick in less than a minute, and what few members of the Union that Language took out came back - it's pretty easy to see how the remaining fights were going to go, both from Luna's perspective and ours

And that's boring

While we all wanted to see the cast fight their natural enemies and learn more about themselves, awakening their souls and developing new ways to use their Rules, the truth is that was going to become formulaic sooner or later. Language's ambush on Nico and Ichico was a great way to keep us on our toes, but unless all of the Master Rules dropped in on the Roundtable Room at once, there wasn't really a good way to keep things fresh without it feeling like they were on a conveyer belt

There's also the fact that Ragnarok needs to be triggered by failure, so much like with the Four Seasons, the Union was either inevitably going to fail at beating one of the Master Rules or beating them was going to trigger Ragnarok anyway - both of which are outcomes to Quests that we've already seen. The Quests getting autoskipped though? That's a fun twist on the established pass option while also raising the stakes and giving both the cast and audience a scare

If UU weren't having such a rough go in the real world, we'd all be seeing this scene as a super cool twist, and I think that's what Tozuka intended it to be, but because we have reason to fear for its future, we can't help but take it as a bad sign

While Sun basically eating the Master Rules and beginning his assault on the Union certainly looks like a sign of the end, though, I think that this is meant to be the Master Rules all storming the Union at once like I suggested

Two Cakes

Many of you likely noticed that the rings that surround Sun have orbs with Roman numerals engraved on them, corresponding to the ranks of the Master Rules. This implies that the Master Rules haven't been absorbed, but rather sealed

If the Master Rules are still alive, they can still be battled, and likely will need to be defeated to weaken Sun. Using what was learned from the battle against Seal, the Union will likely use their souls to enter the orbs, giving us all of the match-ups and character development that we wanted to see while also moving at the breakneck pace that Tozuka seems to be so fond of

I imagine that someone may need to stay outside to hold off Sun while everyone's souls are separated from their bodies (if that's even an issue), so that will likely be Andy and Fuuko's job since they're ostensibly at their peak already and don't need any further development aside from the finale to their stories, though I could also see this being Chikara's big moment, holding off Sun all by himself while everyone else fights

All that said, this doesn't necessarily mean that we'll have the year and a half run that I projected last week; if Tozuka really is being forced to speedrun the story, it's possible that each Master Rule fight will only be one chapter and serve as a capstone for a different character/set of characters' arcs, but even then, it's extremely likely that the intention is to at least last until the next round of new manga, which will coincide with UU's fifth anniversary

Skipping the off weeks for Christmas and New Years, this gives us, at a conservative estimate, 16 more chapters to work with

To-Do List

Considering the number of events that still need to happen, I think 16 chapters could feasibly work if it looks a little something like this:

Establishing the formula - Chikara's capstone

Sick - capstone for Rip/Latla

Time - capstone for Shen/Mui and likely Feng

Justice - awakening of Unjustice/capstone for Julia?

War - capstone for Billy/Tatiana

Luck - likely a moment for Fuuko, though not her capstone

Change - capstone for Gina(+Sean?)

Death - likely a moment for Andy, not his capstone

Soul - group effort?

Sun - group effort, Ruin returns

Sun pt. 2 - capstone for Ruin

Sun pt. 3 - capstone for the Union

Final boss - Luna

The Heart

Luna defeated - capstone for Andy and Fuuko

Epilogue

This definitely would be a bit rushed, and I'd much rather each fight get a lot more time to breathe, but the main point I'm trying to make here is that it isn't impossible to tell a complete and satisfying story with the time remaining so long as the focus is on completing the character arcs of the cast members that have been established to be the most salient this entire time rather than trying to give everyone a slice of the pie

Tozuka's already made it clear that not every cast member is created equal, which is an unfortunate necessity in an ensemble cast that's under the constant threat of axe-ecution by Jump's editorial staff, so if things need to be pared down, this seems like a reasonable way to do it in my opinion, though again this could easily be doubled or even tripled depending on how badly Shueisha wants the series to still be producing content to coincide with the Winter special episode or possible season 2

Don't take this list at face value, though - remember, I'm just a reader, and while I've been right every now and again, I've also been wrong much more often, so my projected timeline is almost certainly off-base. I just hope it's wrong in the right direction!

Hell, my entire premise of needing to fight the Master Rules in the first place might be wrong! Not in the sense that they won't be present in the story anymore, but more in the sense that they won't be antagonists anymore

The Enemy of My Enemy

If you'll recall, the way that Andy escaped from Seal wasn't by taking down all of the Rules that Seal captured - it was by convincing them to fight back. With Luna having betrayed her creations and manipulated her counterpart, it really doesn't take much stretching of the imagination to see how the Master Rules might have a bit of a bone to pick with her

Therefore, instead of having a dedicated battle against each Master Rule, it's equally likely that there'll be a dedicated battle with each of them. This would let each of them show off their powers and personalities while also letting us build up the tension against Sun without simply rehashing the previous Ragnarok

More importantly, though, this would solidify one of the most major themes of the story: union. Every human enemy save for Ruin has become an ally, and we've had plenty of situations where UMAs have gone against God's orders and allied themselves with humanity, so having the most human UMAs do the same would be the perfect way to wrap up that narrative throughline

However, that again is still pretty predictable, almost rote with how the story has progressed so far, so I still expect one more wrinkle to come out of left field, regardless of how many chapters we have left:

The Union will lose

Failstate

The biggest question mark hanging over this entire series, at least for me, is what Sun and Luna's goals are

What is the world supposed to look like after the game ends? If Luna loses the bet and humanity can't reach the Gods, what's meant to happen? Will humanity be wiped out, will the Rules become harsher on them, what?

To truly understand the weight of the threat, of what the Union is trying to prevent, we need to be shown at least a glimpse of it, so even if Time or Soul or the Heart or whoever will immediately undo the damage, the Union needs to see what they're fighting for

Bonus points if that's the moment that reforms Ruin - that he sees how much worse everything is with humanity's loss, how ruined the world will be, and he decides then and there that he needs to ensure it remains unruined

Again, though, Tozuka has always proven to be a few steps ahead of me, so even if I have the basic ideas, the final product surely won't look much of anything like what I'm suggesting, and will surely be better than anything I can imagine

Looking Forward

In a perfect world, Tozuka would be able to take as much time as he wants to flesh out every single character and backstory and battle to his heart's content, but that's just wishful thinking. The undeniable truth is that Tozuka is working in the most cutthroat company in an already cutthroat industry, so naturally not everything can or will go to plan

However, even under those conditions, Tozuka has managed to tell a consistently engaging and beautiful story that has served as an inspiration to many of us for the past nearly five years. As I've said a thousand times now, we need to have faith that Tozuka is going to continue to do his best to deliver a story that we'll love, even if we don't agree with every choice he makes for it

He certainly doesn't want us to read each chapter filled with fear and trepidation; he wants us to read them with joy and wonder, like we always have! Whether Tozuka decided that this was the best time to end it or Jump forced it on him, whether UU will last for four more months or four more years, the single most important thing that we can do is enjoy what Tozuka has to offer. That's all he's ever wanted from us, and it's what this series has taught me to do

So come on, you do it too:

Until next time, let's enjoy life!

#undead unluck #fouryearsandananime #4y1a reviews

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olivia-anderson-fanfic · 5 months ago

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Twst with a very little twist

Part 3 - Leona’s chapter / If at first you don’t succeed

Summary: Local baby appears in a coffin in a different world with no identification or way home. Prevents several mental breakdowns accidentally. More at 11.

(Masterlist)

Leona stared at the kid Crowley was trying to hand off to him. He kept his arms firmly crossed over his chest to block this from happening, but this was not deterring the man from trying.

“Kingscholar,” Crowley said, his smile strained at the edges. “It would not be fair to leave all of the responsibility to Heartslabyul alone!”

Trey Clover smiled nervously over the Headmaster’s shoulder. “We wouldn’t mind.”

“He said they wouldn’t mind,” Leona said, lifting a hand briefly to gesture for Crowley to turn around and leave.

The Headmaster, though, saw this as an opportunity. He shoved the baby into the crook of his elbow, forcing his arm to close around it, and Leona was forced to either grab hold or let the kid fall.

Leona, regrettably, chose not to let the kid die… actually, perhaps chose is not the correct word to use. It was a force of habit more than anything – he was a Magift player, of course he was going to make sure the projectile that was practically tossed at him didn’t hit the ground. He’d lose possession of the ball!

By the time his brain had caught up to his body, Crowley had taken flight. Literally. Shooting hundreds of feet up in the air because he knew that it was the only way Leona wouldn’t be able to catch him and give the child back.

Leona had half a mind to try throwing the child at the man but, frankly, he didn’t trust Crowley to save them, and attempted child murder should always be avoided. Especially when there are several witnesses around, at least one of which is apparently attached to said child.

Speaking of…

Leona glowered at Trey Clover. “What are you looking at?”

Trey’s eyes widened and he took time to send one last wave to Curly before turning around and booking it out of their dorm.

Absently, Leona noted that the boy was surprisingly fast despite his somewhat bulky frame. He could be a threat in the upcoming Magift games.

Leona should take him out.

Unfortunately, Trey was in his third year. Third-years are expected to be very well versed in flight and wind magic (Leona should know, seeing as this wasn’t exactly his first time being a third-year). Which meant making him fall down the stairs was not exactly an option. Beyond that, though, he wasn’t exactly a ‘careless’ person, meaning staging a different kind of accident would be even more difficult.

He heard the guy baked, and Leona wanted to do something with that, but he only did it in the safety of his dorm, meaning it would be hard to get Ruggie in there without being noticed…

So… it would be hard to take him down directly. Maybe if he was distracted by something else?

He glanced down at Curly, who was waving after Trey long after he had disappeared from view.

If the guy was that attached to the kid after barely a month and a half, so much so that he would come into another dorm so he could bargain with Crowley up to the very last second, then how attached was he to that childhood friend of his? If Riddle Rosehearts were to, say, take a little fall, would he try to help?

Maybe, if Leona was lucky, the both of them would accidentally work against each other while trying to catch themselves and each other, and he would take two powerful players out of the game at once.

The kid, apparently, finally realized that Trey was gone and not coming back. They slumped over his arms.

Wow. Zero years old and the kid was already done with life. Leona had never related to a child more.

Maybe Cheka had been a fluke. People always talk about kids being the best, most fulfilling part of a person’s life, or whatever the hell. Maybe this was what they were talking about. Solidarity, with a small little someone who practically never leaves your side for fear of starving to death. Was this what character development feels like? A new understanding?

Curly peered up at him through their messy fringe.

And then they reached up, towards the top of Leona’s hair.

Nope. Absolutely not. No no no. Gross. Character development canceled. He flattened his ears back before they could touch them.

The kid did not seem particularly happy about this.

Good. At least Leona wasn’t alone in his misery.

Though he would prefer not to be miserable at all. He handed the kid off to Ruggie. “You deal with it.”

“Oh hell no, I don’t want to take care of it either –!”

“I’ll pay you to babysit.”

Ruggie looked down at the baby for a moment, seeing them in a new light, dollar signs practically shining in his eyes. “How much?”

“Three thousand madols a day.”

“Don’t be stingy.”

Leona scoffed. “Don’t be greedy, more like.”

They were silent for a moment. Ruggie’s face lit up in a strange kind of smile, one that was more than a baring of teeth than anything else.

Ruggie pushed the child into Leona’s chest once again. Leona was starting to get deja vu. Curly did not seem particularly happy about getting passed around like a hot potato.

At least Ruggie seemed to be having a good time. One of them had to be.

“Oh, woe is me. The Headmaster so graciously handed the child over to you, it would be wrong for me, someone who is not even Vice Housewarden, to have such a task delegated to me. I could never go against direct orders from the person who runs the prestigious institution at which I reside.”

Leona gritted his teeth.

“Stingy,” the kid parroted.

“Exactly right, he’s so stingy, isn’t he?” Ruggie said.

Curly nodded firmly.

They don’t even know what that word means!

They grabbed a braid in his hair and pulled. Oh, for the love of –.

“Five thousand madols,” he gave in.

Ruggie smirked. “Pleasure doing business with you.”

And, with that, he turned the kid in his arms.

“You and I are going to be best friends,” he told the kid.

Curly reached up and, this time, succeeded in grabbing an ear. Ruggie, to his credit, only barely flinched, before tipping his head forward to allow the kid full access.

The kid beamed. “Fluffy!”

And, so, a vaguely exasperated Ruggie resigned himself to being pet.

Unfortunately, this did not mean Leona was completely free from the responsibility of taking care of a child. If he wanted to take out the competition before the Magift Tournament, he would need Ruggie to use his Unique Magic, since it would make it seem more like an accident to passersby, and carrying around a toddler was not good for stealth.

He grimaced as he watched the kid wander around his room. He had tried to make Curly lay down for a nap, but it seemed Curly had recently decided that naps were government propaganda to make you less productive, because they kicked and screamed until he eventually let them back up.

He had hoped that would be the end of it, but alas. It seemed that Curly’s crusade against naptime extended to other people, too. The moment Leona laid his head down to sleep, he was woken up again by his tail getting stepped on.

He snatched up a giggling Curly. Did they think his bared teeth were a joke?!

Leona took a long, deep breath to steady himself. And then another. A third one for good measure. He looked at Curly for even longer, trying to get across just how unamused he was.

Curly, being a toddler, did not seem to care, wriggling in his grip.

“Fine,” he gritted out. “What do you want to do?”

Curly beamed.

You know, despite having spent… longer at Night Raven College than the average student, Leona couldn’t say he had been to Sam’s shop that many times. It was just as strange as he remembered it. Classic groceries contrasting with the many occult items. The almost overpowering smell of disinfectant, likely to cover up something, but he was fine not knowing exactly what. Shadows that seemed too whole, almost seeming to move when he wasn’t looking directly at them.

Let’s just say that Leona didn’t send Ruggie on all of his grocery runs solely due to his laziness.

It was mostly laziness, don’t get him wrong!

But there was also a healthy level of wariness, too.

Curly, of course, did not seem to have a single self-preserving bone in their body. They waddled through the door with the kind of determination that only a toddler in search of candy can have.

Sam grinned at the pair of them from behind the counter. “Ah, littlest imp, you’re back!”

Curly spun around on their heel to wave at the man, immediately distracted from their mission. “Hi, Mr. Sam!”

Leona watched, mildly amused, as the kid made their way over. They smiled widely at the few shopping students they passed, who all smiled back, with varying levels of sincerity.

Curly really did like everyone.

It was, frankly, as if they didn’t have a favorite person at all.

Leona crossed his arms over his chest. Frankly, he thought it was weird. And dangerous — even Cheka tended to stick with his family members, since he was smart enough to know that strangers might be assassins in disguise.

And, even assuming the kid didn’t have to deal with assassins, had their parents never taught them stranger danger? What if they got kidnapped?

… wait, was Leona technically harboring a kidnapped child?

He grimaced at the thought. And then decided that he was simply no longer going to think about it.

He made his way over to the only part of the store that was ‘new’ — a kids’ section. Fully equipped. There had always been kids' items, for the sake of people who become teen parents, but usually those things were kept in the back of the store, and would be brought out only upon demand.

Not anymore, though, for whatever reason.

Maybe, with all of the shopping trips Ruggie had been forced to take Curly on, Sam had realized that having the items out for the kid to see would ultimately get him more money.

“— it’s soft, too! Here, touch!” Sam said, kneeling down to present Curly with a fuzzy onesie.

Curly reached a pudgy hand out and gasped at the apparent softness.

“We’re here for candy,” Leona said, seeing as both the kid and Sam seemed to have forgotten.

Curly looked up at him, wide-eyed, the onesie still hugged to his chest like a teddy bear. “I wannit.”

“You —?” Leona groaned. It wasn’t worth it to argue. “Fine, sure, whatever. Go grab some candy, too, so we can go.”

It was not that easy. For, you see, every time Leona would look away, even to check his phone, Sam would present Curly with a new item, and Curly would beg for it. Leona wasn’t sure where he was pulling them all from. All he knew was that his hatred for Sam’s shop was only growing by the minute.

And there was a lot of minutes.

They left the store a half hour later. Leona glowered at Sam over his shoulder, the straps of his many grocery bags digging into his hands.

Sam simply smiled, lifting a hand in a wave. “Thanks for the business! Come again soon!”

Ruggie laughed at him for a solid three minutes when he came back to find Curly in a bear onesie, a stuffed mermaid toy hugged to his chest, passed out on Leona’s rug for some reason even though there was a perfectly good bed a meter away.

“Didn’t know you had a soft spot,” Ruggie teased.

“I’m docking your pay.”

Ruggie spluttered.

“Wait, hold on, Leona, learn to take a joke —!”

Leona didn’t have enough curse words for what was going on. And he spoke several languages!

He was woken from his nap to a lot more shouting than he would personally prefer, someone shaking his shoulder persistently. He scowled, flipping over in bed to try and get away from the evil that plagued him, and pressing his face into his pillow, half-hoping he could somehow suffocate himself this way.

The hand was back, and it was back with a vengeance.

Leona was pushed to the floor.

For a moment, he thought about falling asleep in a heap on his rug (Curly might have been right, it really wasn’t all that uncomfortable), out of sheer spite.

But then he opened his eyes.

Mostly because Ruggie said, “Hey, Curly, could you help me wake him up?” and Leona really didn’t want to find out how the kid would interpret that.

Ruggie looked mildly disappointed that he didn’t get to watch Curly kick him, but panic was quick to swallow even that.

“Heartslabyul is picking around.”

Leona narrowed his eyes. “Did you leave anything behind?”

“No!” Ruggie said, surprisingly confident about this despite his concern. “I don’t know why they’re here!”

Leona mulled this over. So, Heartslabyul was here… they shouldn’t know that they were behind the mysterious injuries around campus. And, even if they had known, Leona doubted they would care all that much…

“Any chance they’re looking for Curly?”

Curly lit up.

“Someone told me they were looking for Jack Howl.”

Leona wracked his brain for a second. “That one freshman?”

Ruggie shrugged, nodding.

Okay, fine, Leona was curious. He pushed himself to his feet. “Alright, let’s go see what they want.”

Ruggie picked up Curly. “I’m guessing you wanna see them all, too?”

Curly nodded, beaming.

“Good, ‘cause I wasn’t gonna leave you in this room alone,” Ruggie chirped, pinching Curly’s nose, smiling when they giggled and batted at his hands.

And he said Leona had a soft spot?

They found the Heartslabyul group while they were talking to Jack. And two other people that were on Savanaclaw’s Magift team, Louie and Ronno, who were clearly trying to get the Heartslabyul kids to flee.

Jack just seemed annoyed that Heartslabyul wasn’t letting him leave the conversation, to be honest.

“What’s going on here?” Leona sighed.

Instantly, everyone went tense.

The three Heartslabyul students in attendance softened, though, when they saw Curly. Ruggie set the squirming kid down, and they immediately ran over to hug that one annoying freshman with red hair.

Said freshman smirked at his two dorm mates. And then knelt down to hug Curly back. “Hey, kid, they treating you well here?”

Curly nodded, his eyes gleaming. “They give me lotsa candy!”

“Jeez, they’ve already assimilated,” Cater said mournfully, pulling at one of the bear ears on Curly’s onesie.

Leona blinked. He’d noticed that Curly had had a favorite outfit, but he’d never really put any thought to it. The outfit was just as soft as Sam had advertised it, surely there wasn’t much more to it. But, now, he wondered if they wore it because they felt out of place in a dorm where almost everyone was a yajugen.

“Of course they like it better here,” Ronno said. “This is the best dorm, y’know.”

Cater made a disbelieving clicking sound with his teeth.

Ronna narrowed his eyes, taking a step forward, as if preparing to fight Cater. Leona almost didn’t want to stop him, just because it would be a pain, but it wouldn’t do to have one of his Magift team members getting disqualified…

The blue-haired freshman stepped in for him, though:

“Guys. Trey’s hurt. This isn’t the time to be messing around.”

(When Curly hugged his leg, though, he immediately uncrossed his arms to put his hand atop their head, his serious expression softening.)

“Yeah, yeah, okay,” Cater said, waving off the boy’s seriousness with a wide grin. He turned to Leona. “There’s been a string of ‘accidents’ involving Magift players, so we came here to warn you guys about it. Not that I think you’ll have much difficulty with it, Leona.”

Leona fought not to let anything show on his face. “What?”

“Since you’re so intimidating!” Cater said. For a second, his eyes narrowed at Leona, and then they continued on the crinkle in a smile that was so fake Leona’s skin crawled. “So, we’re mostly just here to tell Ruggie and Jack here to look out.”

Ruggie’s lips twitched in that way it always did right before he laughed. Leona sent him a severe look out of the corner of his eyes.

Jack scowled. “You couldn’t have done this during school? Or track club, Deuce?”

The blue-haired one, Deuce, flushed red. “It seemed more convenient to do it here, so we could tell both you and Ruggie at the same time.”

“Besides, it’s hard to investigate dorms without stepping inside them,” the redheaded one added, flippantly, though there was something sly in the way he smiled. “So… here we are!”

“Are you accusing us of something?” Louie asked.

“Yeah, I am, actually,” said the redhead.

“Ace,” snapped Deuce. He was ignored.

“You’re super suspicious.”

“On what grounds?”

“You are acting a little hostile,” Cater said, smiling.

“I’ll show you hostile —,” snapped Ronno, stepping forward once again, only to be stopped by a hand on his chest.

“No. You’re going to get disqualified if you fight them. Instead, how about we all play a little game of Magift together?” Leona smiled, all teeth. “No holds barred.”

Ruggie walked over to Jack, Curly held out in front of him.

“Heyyyy, Jack, take care of Curly for me while we teach these trespassers right and wrong, yeah?”

Jack looked like he was going to disagree.

But then his arms jerked forward to meet Ruggie’s, his hands closing around them.

Ruggie dispelled his signature spell, smirking and saluting Jack. “Thanks, man!”

Jack was left standing there, a squirming child in his outstretched hands, his eyes wide.

Curly was looking at Jack, clearly just as surprised.

But about something else entirely: “Woooooah, you’re big!”

Leona snorted as he walked away, towards the middle of the field, summoning a Magift disk so they could start their little ‘game’.

They managed to get through a little over a game and a half before Jack came back over. Curly was attempting to climb him like a jungle gym, but he was clearly trying to pretend it wasn’t happening.

(His tail was wagging, though, which was definitely giving him away a little.)

“Are you guys done picking on these amateurs?” Jack asked, coldly. The effect was dampened by the child who had noticed his tail and was now trying to grab it.

“Not really!” said Louie.

The three Heartslabyul students, who had been damn near on the ground, immediately attempted to ‘look natural’. Ace went from being flopped on his back to lounging in the sun. Deuce, who had been on crawling on his hands and knees, found his way into a more casual sitting position. Cater stood straighter, arms crossed to hide the way his chest heaved with every breath.

Note to self, Leona thought, bemused, being scared of looking like a wimp in front of a child is a good source of adrenaline.

“What you’re doing is disgusting, and I don’t want to see it,” said Jack.

“Awww, gonna be their knight in shining armor?” Ruggie teased.

Jack scoffed. “Hardly. But if you continue with this, I will have to try to stop you.”

Leona groaned, the amusement bleeding out of him as if it had never been there at all. “You’re ruining our fun.”

“Good!” said Ace, spitefully.

Leona rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Let’s go, everyone.”

Ruggie made his way over to Jack, stepping on Ace’s stomach along the way, to take Curly back from him. “Thanks for your help! Come by my room anytime if you wanna take care of him again!”

Jack rolled his eyes. His tail was wagging, though.

Leona raised an eyebrow. “If you have someone else do the work for you, I have no reason to pay you, Ruggie.”

“Nevermind everything I just said, Jack!”

The freshman’s ears drooped just slightly.

“Running with a kid in your arms is hard,” complained Ruggie, mostly to himself. He flopped into Leona’s bed, lifting Curly above him. “You’re heavy, y’know, I should cut back on your sweets.”

Curly gasped in absolute horror. “No!”

“Ahhhh, you’ve convinced me, I guess,” Ruggie said, smiling. “It’s Leona’s money, anyways.”

“I’m going to dock your pay again,” Leona warned as he stepped out of the bathroom..

Ruggie immediately jumped off of the bed, his eyes wide. He turned to look at Leona. A nervous smile made its way across his face. “A-ah… Leona… didn’t… know you were home yet!”

For a yajugen, Ruggie really was unobservant. He barely ever used his enhanced senses. They were, clearly, wasted on him.

He probably had no idea that Jack was currently lingering outside of their door.

Leona tapped his foot on the floor. “So? Are you going to tell me what you had to run away from?”

“The Heartslabyul kids totally suspect us,” said Ruggie.

Leona crossed his arms over his chest. “Do they have any proof?”

“Nah. They noticed my UM yesterday, when I made Jack grab Curly here, but that’s not really proof — just circumstantial evidence.”

“Then continue on as normal, just be more careful,” Leona waved off his concerns. “Speaking of… Jack, get in here.”

For a few seconds, it was silent. And then Jack, slowly, opened the door, making his way inside.

“I… wanted to see Curly, again.”

Liar, thought Leona. “You wouldn’t admit that if it were true.”

“What’re you actually doing here? Need someone to sing you a lullaby to get you to sleep?” Ruggie said, grinning. “I’ve gotten pretty good at that recently.”

Curly nodded his agreement.

“… why are you two doing all of this?” Jack asked.

Leona sighed. “Ruggie, go put the kid in the bath so I can explain everything.”

Ruggie gave a mocking salute. He went out of his way to shoulder check Jack on the way to the bathroom.

Leona waited until the door to the bathroom was shut before turning back to Jack. If he knew anything about kids, it was that they could not keep a secret for the life of them.

“We went up against Diasomnia in round one of the tournament two years running. We were eliminated both times. We’ve got a wall full of championship trophies, but Malleus Draconia ran circles around us like we were still in diapers. In front of the whole world. I looked like an incompetent moron. And now the pro league recruiters pass right by Savanaclaw.”

“That just means we’re not good enough!”

Leona shrugged. “I agree. That’s why we’ve gotta even the playing field.”

“This is wrong!”

“And?” said Leona. “It’s my job to look after this dorm, so I’m going to make dang su — damn sure — we succeed. This is our last chance to go up against Draconia, to restore our reputation! And you’re going to throw it away over, what, morals?”

Jack hesitated. “I can’t let you get away with this.”

Leona smiled. “And what will you do? You have no proof.”

Jack reached into his back pocket, smirking. Only for his expression to drop. He started patting himself down, even looking at the floor for a second.

Ruggie chose that moment to poke his head out of the bathroom, grinning widely. He tossed Jack his phone, any footage he may have gotten deleted.

And then he gave Leona a slightly wary look. “Er… I don’t have anything for Curly to wear tonight. I wasn’t able to get to the laundry, what with Heartslabyul chasing me everywhere.”

Leona sighed. “Just give them one of your shirts. You’re pretty scrawny, it should be fine.”

Ruggie looked mildly offended, but was quick to disappear in search of his stuff.

“I… will stop you,” Jack said, firmly.

Leona snorted. “You can go ahead and try.”

Ruggie came back, his jersey slung over his shoulder. He sent Jack a smile and mocking little wave before disappearing into the bathroom again. Not even a minute later, Curly came out with Ruggie.

The jersey was way too big on them. Hanging off of both of their shoulders. The short sleeves nearly falling over their hands.

Leona punched a pillow. He was cool and suave and hated children he hated them he hated them so damn much.

At least he wasn’t the only one having a hard time. Ruggie was using the hand that Curly wasn’t holding to hide his face, mumbling curses under his breath. Jack looked perfectly fine, but his tail would have knocked over anyone who came within two meters of him.

The next morning, they had Magift practice, because damn if having a kid to take care of was going to stop them all from winning. This was an unfair disadvantage. Maybe Crowley simply hated them.

(Ignore all of the unfair disadvantages they had created for the other teams.)

But that begged the question of what to do with the kid while they practiced. It was early, on a Saturday, there was no way any of their dorm mates would be awake — and, even if they were awake, it was doubtful that they would agree to take care of Curly.

So, what to do…

Leona sighed and helped Curly onto his broom, getting on behind them, their head under his chin and his hands over theirs. Whatever. He could play Magift in his sleep, and the small handicap could help him get better at playing.

Curly gasped as they lifted off of the ground. They swung their legs back and forth, as if trying to run through the air, trying to help them go faster.

And, if any of his teammates dared to point out that Leona had wrapped his tail around the kid to ensure that they wouldn’t fall, then he would go extra hard on them during practice that day.

In the end, their plan didn’t work out. Heartslabyul had beaten them, Jack had helped them, and Savanaclaw was disqualified for the year.

Leona groaned, his face in his hands, sinking to his knees.

Diasomnia would win, and Malleus Draconia would be inducted into the hall of fame. Their chance at redeeming themselves was gone. All because of a rat in wolf’s clothing and a bunch of people who were mad at them because he went after their dorm’s Dad (or whatever the hell).

A small hand touched his shoulder.

He sighed, deeply, and removed his hands from his face. “What do you want?”

Curly looked at him for a long moment, before smiling. “A hug! I wanna hug!”

Leona barely got time to blink before Curly was crashing into his chest. Tiny arms wrapped around him — or… tried to, they barely even managed to get all of the way around his chest.

He blinked down at the mess of curls beneath his chin.

“I think you’re the coolest, Mr. Leona!”

It was a kid. And an overly friendly one at that. Their standards were probably very low. This meant nothing.

But.

They were clearly trying to comfort him. It was a clumsy attempt, but…

Slowly, he returned the hug, hiding his face in their curls.

For a few minutes. Curly, a typically squirmy kid, didn’t move an inch. Just… stayed there, allowing Leona a moment of reprieve.

Finally, though, he detached from them. Looking at his defeated team.

He cleared his throat. “The inter school Magift Tournament will be happening, and we can — and will — redeem ourselves then.”

For a moment, his teammates looked at him in disbelief.

And then they all jumped to their feet, grinning, already reaching for their brooms and magic pens.

Jack stood off to the side. Awkwardly.

He was a traitor.

“If you want to play, you can.” He grinned, sharply. “But I can’t guarantee your safety, if our teammates want some revenge.”

Jack met his grin, inch by inch.

“Don’t hold back!”

Leona smirked. He had not intentions of doing so.

And, as he got on his broom, holding his hand out for Curly…

He wondered if kids were, really, all that bad.

Nevermind. Kids are the worst.

Leona watched Cheka and Curly talk animatedly, their hands waving wildly as they spoke. Cheka had come to check on him when his team hadn’t shown up, and now he had two mini menaces to watch.

And Ruggie was laughing at him.

“Unca Unca Unca!” Cheka said, tugging on his arm. “Can Curly come visit for the holidays?”

Leona pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing deeply. What did he do to deserve this? Besides the sabotage, of course.

Curly and Cheka looked up at him with eyes that seemed to shine with stars.

“I wanna play with both of you!” Curly said.

And Leona could only give a small shrug. “If the Headmaster allows it, they can come.”

#leona kingscholar #ruggie bucchi #jack howl #twisted wonderland #savanaclaw #they’re somehow more stunted than heartslabyul #congrats kings #oh sorry leona i know you’re self conscious about that -

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taldigi · 7 months ago

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Do you think you could have liked Adrien more if his assholish moments were on purpose?

On- hold up. Are you saying his shitty behavior is outside of his own control? Like all those times he leans in for a kiss on a girl who clearly doesn't like it or all those times he throws a tantrum and threatens to disown plagg cuz the girl he likes doesn't like him back? Or that time he was so angry because ladybug didn't get him when he wanted that he destroyed a ton of property.

Listen here's my flash rewrite of Adrian.

See he's like 14 right? And his mom is very dead. This is incredibly traumatizing, since no Doctor could ever figure out what was slowly killing her. After she finally disappears out of her sick bed, he resolves himself to become a doctor and find out what actually killed her.

This isn't what his father wants from him, as he wants him to inherit the family Business, aka the fashion company Gabriel. But as long as he is staying out of trouble and off the streets of Paris and is continuing to do his modeling for said business then Gabriel grits his teeth through this silly delusion that he has.

So he keeps him very busy doing things that he wants him to do. He wants him to learn a couple languages so he can do business internationally after all children are better at learning languages than adults are. Sure there's Chinese, but there's also English and Hindi and Even a little Spanish. He's got to stay fit and look good for the modeling career so he's got a sport to do. It's not the one Adrian would have chose, but it gets him away from the house for a bit and actually lets him talk to other kids, so he likes it enough.

However very occasionally on the way home from said practice he uses his puppy eyes to sneak off to the library and pick up a couple books that he stays up late reading. He's a little rebellious like that. It's a little thrilling, and each new book puts him a little closer to pre-med.

His father can't control him forever after all, he's only got four more years until he's a legal adult, and maybe by then his dad will respect him a little more. If he does everything right, if he does everything to make him happy, you know maybe. And there's no harm in being prepared.

Suddenly his father becomes incredibly distant. It's not like he wasn't before, but it's even more so now. He doesn't even see him at dinner sometimes. It's just him and the nanny... And as much as he likes him, he's not one for enticing conversation. See, Adrian is quite a social butterfly and he enjoys talking to people but he never is allowed to do so.

Flash forward, he finds his first little buddy in plagg, who finds his pleasant and sociable demeanor quite charming and hopes to corrupt him one day. So he encourages him to do something he's always wanted to do... Get out of the house. And so he does. Little escape. A little vacation. No one would notice because He didn't have anything to do and nobody needed his attention so... What's the harm in... You know, taking a bit of a walk right? Dang who does he bump into? Oh man maybe Marinette? Nino? School starts next week and they're excited to see him since they think he is a new kid, and old boy what an idea. How fun would school be? Being able to actually learn and talk to people? So now he has a new wish in his heart. And it's all thanks to his little kitty buddy.

He would ultimately be the same. Being very pleasant and nice. But instead of being oblivious, he's just destructed. He's got his nose in a book or he is failing to traverse a social situation because he's not very well socialized. In fact a lot of people don't really like Adrian that much. They think he's a little weird. It takes several seasons for people to start liking him. But Marinette knows better because she met him earlier and he she has bothered to get to know him. In fact they consider themselves friends. And I hate the stupid unable to talk to her crush joke because it destroys both characters and their development.

His dream to be a doctor would be a driving force for him throughout the series. The more he learns about magic The closer he gets to discovering the mystery of what happened to his mother. He eventually comes to the questioning realization that no amount of doctorly training or medical knowledge would have saved his mother and so he spirals into a depression.

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keepsmagnetoaway · 10 months ago

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X-Men 29 (Feb 1967)

Roy Thomas/Werner Roth

It's those oh-so-uncanny X-Men again! (Incidentally, the comic these posts are about is often known as Uncanny X-Men: it gets renamed as such at some point, but in these issues it's just called X-Men and I'm sticking with that.) Here they are...having some fun. I really like this as an opener to an issue, even if Jean should put some trousers on.

It's also funny: Bobby totally can't skate when not in ice form, it turns out.

Of course, it can't last. Scott ruins the fun by going off to mope and angsts so hard he shoots an eye-beam into a mountain, causing a rockfall in the subterranean lair of a low-rent Avengers villain, the Super-Adaptoid, who - unbeknownst to all - was living in a cave round the corner from the X-Men. He is annoyed and comes to kill them all. That is literally the plot of this issue. The Super-Adaptoid is sitting in a way that will make tumblr horny, though.

The Super-Adaptoid absorbs the superpowers of others: this sets him up neatly for a showdown with Mimic, who is still hanging around being kind of a dick to everyone. Xavier kicks him off the team and does some capital F Foreshadowing...

...but Mimic runs into the Super-Adaptoid on the way out and they have a silly fight which somehow ends in them cancelling out each other's powers and fully de-powering each other, because adapting negates mimicry and vice versa, or something.

This is all fine - it's quite interesting to give Mimic a foil and some character developmen, although the pay-off is that he appears to be leaving the team after all of two issues, what with now being de-powered - but again, literally, the plot of this issue is that Scott accidentally disturbed a random supervillain's snow cave so he came to kick their ass like a cranky grandpa.

#x men comics #uncanny xmen #xmen #an xmen a day #the mimic #super adaptoid

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yakuzabrainrotlive · 3 months ago

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I think it's time. I'm ready. Well... kinda. Yakuza 4 starting in like an hour or two! Just gonna clean a little bit and have a snack first. Thoughts and predictions under the Read more!

Now... expectations and/or preconceptions. I, uhhh, really don't have any? Usually there's at least some mentions of aspects of other games in playthroughs of previous games. For example: on a video of a challenge run of Yakuza 0 where every enemy had 10x amount of health, I kept seeing comments like "the smallest yakuza 3 health bar" and "they put Yakuza 3 in yakuza 0" etc. That kind of stuff. I usually tend to avoid comment sections, but sometimes temptation wins 😭

I haven't seen anything like the above about Yakuza 4. In fact, I have seen NOTHING about the game anywhere. I'm going in 100% blind.

Now, what do I think/hope might happen, based on my experience with 0-3?

-Maybe we start in Okinawa since that's where 3 ended? I hope we do, I wanna see the kids!!

-I feel like we have "re-arrived" in Kamurocho at the early parts of every game besides 0. Even in Kiwami 1, we make a return like that after Kiryu's 10-year stint in the joint. So we will probably be going back there again, after starting somewhere else. I'd be surprised if we start in Kamurocho.

-A small time skip. At least a year, maybe 5 max. time seems to always move on between games. I'm gonna guess... 2 years.

-Majima will be there. He's everywhere, after all. I hope he gets a bigger role than in 3, but I'm not gonna get my hopes up. Same with Daigo, to be honest.

-Hoping for more lore on Kiryu's childhood/adolescence. I feel like we still know relatively little about his time in Sunflower and even less about his teen years before he joined the Yakuza.

-Absolutely NO clue at all about who we'll fight and why. The triad guys are dead now so they probably won't return at least?

-Even though I feel like Joji will be in the Side-Characters-We-No-Longer-Need Void™, maybe we'll see him? 👉🏻👈🏻

-MY KING NISHIDA BETTER BE IN THE GAME or the game will get a 0/10 from me (/j but only slightly)

-I hope Haruka gets some developmen, maybe in terms of her thinking about her future. We got a little bit of that in Kiwami 2 and I want more.

#yakuza thoughts #yakuza 4 #yakuza

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madame-fear · 11 months ago

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was looking back at your old fics, and the first ever hotd one you did, you said, "HOTD requests are not open!" and now you're a mainly HOTD blog. that's what I call character developmen - 💜

Oh my god you’re right, I totally forgot I initially didn’t take HOTD requests! 😱 This brought me back so many good memories when I was just getting started with my HOTD phase, thank you for reminding me honey! 🥺💗

It’a funny how things can change in one year, huh? I used to be reluctanct on posting HOTD fics, and now I can’t shut up about it! I’m very grateful I did join the fandom, I met so many lovely people and pretty little nonnies. 🤭��♥️

#favourites #💜 anon #┆ ⤿ 💌 come chat with amira .ᐟ ୭ #lovely anons <3 #ask box messages #ask box #ask box open #✧.* amiraverse

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quoteablebooks · 2 years ago

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Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal Romance

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Trigger Warning:

Summary:

Schuyler Van Alen is running out of time. The Dark Prince of Hell is storming the Gates of Paradise, intent on winning the heavenly throne for good. This time he has his greatest angels by his side, Abbadon and Azrael—Jack and Mimi Force, as they are known in the Coven. Or so he thinks. Even as Lucifer assigns Jack and Mimi the tasks of killing their true loves, the Force twins secretly vow to defeat the Dark Prince once and for all. But how far will Mimi and Jack go to conceal their real loyalties? Meanwhile, former vampire Bliss Llewellyn has joined forces with Lawson, the greatest wolf of the underworld, to free his people from their imprisonment in Hell. As they struggle against impossible odds, an ancient message, woven into the very fabric of time, reveals just how much depends on the success of their mission. Lucifer seeks the key to the Gate of Promise, and when Schuyler is taken captive and delivered straight to Hell, she must make an unthinkable choice—the same one the archangel Michael was forced to make during the Crisis in Rome. Will Schuyler find the strength to do what he could not? The epic, heartbreaking Blue Bloods series comes to a close with this final novel about staggering courage, unbearable sacrifice, and the immortality of true love.

*Opinions*

Guys, I’ve done it! I have completed this series and ended my long and arduous journey with this series that started all the way back in 2012. I would love to tell you that it was all worth it and that in the end, this series came together to a satisfying conclusion, but I would be lying. The conclusion of this series was much like the rest of it, set up a lot of promise and stakes and delivered on almost none of them. We were promised a coming war in which the numbers were not in the favor of our heroes and there is race to find a way to keep Lucifer from ascending to Heaven. What we actually got, a lot of useless side quests from Schuyler, Bliss and the wolves having no idea what they are doing in the most annoying way possible, and Mimi once again being the only character doing anything useful. I truly feel like Mimi is the character that de la Cruz wanted to tell a story about, but the rest of them were needed for the plot to continue forward.

Schuyler is going to go down as one of the most useless heroines I have ever read about. If she is not complaining that her and Jack are no longer together, which was about every other paragraph, she was thinking she should do something to protect the gates but then just sitting around and drinking champagne. The whole fucking side quest to California to find her human grandmother and half-sister was completely eye-roll worthy. Truly it served no purpose other than giving Oliver a love interest, that was a replacement Schyluer, and literally no other reason. Her whole arc in this novel was waiting until her last act of sacrifice, which in the end meant nothing. Honestly, I am getting annoyed again as I am writing this review. The fact that I never have to read about her again is the most joy I am getting out of this series honestly.

Bliss spent the whole novel running around with some stupidly manufactured tension that was never mentioned in the numerous short stories about the pack. I like Bliss as a character and she had a lot more agency in this novel, but there was also just a lot of loss time in Rome to wait until the last possible moment to get the wolves into the battle. I would have liked it to be spent with getting to know the pack and Lawson more, but character development was not something this series excelled at, asides from Mimi and possibly Kingsley.

Mimi, the Angel of Death, my beloved. She went from being your prototypical mean girl in the first novel to be the actual hero of this series. While I could not stand her in the first novel, she is the only character that had any sort of character arc and development throughout the series. A character that was defined by shallowness and selfishness at the beginning of her journey makes sacrifices again and again throughout the series that leads to their eventual victory. I also believed her love and devotion to Kingsley, mostly because we saw their relationship develop on the page, unlike Schuyler and Jack. Mimi also did more to thwart Lucifer’s plan than Jack did because Jack was only interested in Schuyler. I’m glad that she got her happy ending in a way that is very realistic, unlike Jack and Schyluer.

Can you tell how much I hate Jack and Schyluer?

Aside from all the side quests and the lack of sense of urgency, aside from Kingsley and Mimi, the glaring issue in this story is the fact that God exists and grants boons apparently. If he can bring people back fro death and stop them from dying, did it really matter if Lucifer found the gate? Couldn’t God just kill him? Also, there are apparently still angels in heavens, so why couldn’t they protect the heavenly throne? I mean, I guess if I cared about these characters, I would have said that the point is that the fallen angels would all be dead, but I didn’t care about any of them so that really wasn’t a stake for me. I did enjoy the irony that the deus ex machina was actually God.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the review, the most annoying thing is that the story and the stakes that de la Cruz set up throughout the series were interesting and could have been so gripping, but the execution was just lacking. I can appreciate that this series is of the time it was published, however that doesn’t excuse all the problems I have with it, especially the character work. It is just so frustrating because de la Cruz did such a great job with Mimi and Kingsley, and a lesser extent Oliver, but fell so flat with Schyluer and Jack who are supposed to be the main characters and romance of the series. I might give another series from de la Cruz a chance, because it is obvious that she can make very compelling characters, but I will not touch anything else in the Blue Blood world again.

Overall, the ending to this series is a 2.5 star book, mostly because of Mimi, that is rounded down to a 2. I am glad to see the end of this series and to finally get it off my TBR.

#The Gates of Paradise #blue bloods series #Melissa de la Cruz #book review #booklr

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famderfries · 2 years ago

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Thinking about how Snotlout has this grand facade that no one really believes that hes cutthroat and suave and cool and manly because thats what his father says he should be, but he will see one (1) dragon that he likes and immediately melt and cry and show hes literally anything BUT his father

#And he always goes back into it too :(#GOD i WISH theyd let him commit to being himself in the third movie :(#like if theyd given him solid developmen and than killed him off it wouldve given hiccup all of the motive to send the dragons away #Snotlout is one of those characters that isnt allowed to change for reasons you csn totally empathise with and I love him so much #Snotlout is GENUINELY a complex character and the movies do him kinda dirty tbh #Like you have this fuckin. swagged out bully who thinks hes so cool and so strong and all that. and he deprives his dragon of sleep-#and attention and youre thinking 'God This guy sucks.' AND THEN YOU MEET HIS DAD AND YOURE LIKE OH. NEVERMIND #and honestly? peak character introduction #Having Spitelout himself be such an absolute asshole who only believes in muscle and strength and masculinity is so interesting #And the whole group hates him!!! and they put up with Snotlout partly because his dad SUCKS.#AND AND AND. SNOTLOUT IS ACTUALLY SUPER COOL. HES ACTUALLY HAD SO MANY COOL MOMENTS BUT ONLY WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING #AND THATS BECAUSE AROUND EVERYONE ELSE HE FEELS THIS PRESSURE TO BE WHAT HIS DAD EXPECTS BUT AS SOON AS HES ON HIS OWN HES SOOO COOL #like hes genuinely so likeable and soft and caring but Spitelout is such an abusive piece of shit that he doesnt like him for it #this is surface level analysis treated as if its profound but you get the point #heres your monthly snotlout rant #apollo says stuff #snotlout #snotlout jorgenson #snotlout httyd #httyd #how to train your dragon #rtte #riders of berk #defenders of berk #rob/dob #apollo rants abt httyd

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thecarnivorousmuffinmeta · 2 years ago

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Are edward and walter white similar?

Fascinating question, the answer is yes and no.

A Bit on Edward

Edward, I'd say, is a mix of several characters. He's Patrick Bateman, with a dash of GOB from Arrested Development, Buster from Arrested Developmen, and Walter White from Breaking Bad.

However, what I'd say is that Edward and Walt share similar tendencies and similar tragic flaws. However, they have them to different degrees and are ultimately influenced by different traits.

Pride

Edward and Walt are both very prideful people. Edward is a deeply insecure person and is driven, in part, by pride to come back and confront Bella Swan out of terror of being the one who fucks up. Edward feels deeply daunted by Rosalie's perfect record, by Carlisle's. He has this whole nonsense inheritance scheme so that he can contribute some funds to the family like Alice and Carlisle, never mind that this more than anything might get them caught down the line.

Edward is very driven by pride and vicious to those who cast doubt on it (i.e. Bella Swan in the beginning of their relationship where her very blood nearly caused him to lose his shit).

Walter's this but to eleven. Nearly every tragic decision Walter makes, every time he chooses to be worse, is driven by pride.

We learn as early as season 1, very early in before the meth goes anywhere close to taking off, that he had options. He could have gotten help from Hank and Marie, from his mother, and of course Gretchen and Elliott. There was no need to cook meth. But he did because he couldn't stand the thought of being thought of as not being able to provide for his family.

Which, of course, leads to problems when he has to launder the money and throws a fit in that it's being given to him as "donations" from strangers across the US through his son's website.

We also learn that even before the show, Walt could have had a very different life. He walked out on Elliott and Gretchen for what seems, in part, due to Gretchen's money and his chip on the shoulder regarding that and then his refusal to be a part of the company when they had broken up.

We don't know how he ended up a high school teacher with those degrees, but I imagine there was a very similar path of Walter just being too damn proud.

Perfectionism

One of Walt's tragic, defining, features is an inherent need for perfectionism. Everything Walt engages in, he has to be the best. They have to expand to more territory, he has to go straight to a distributor, he has to be a kingpin, he's always pushing even in truly dangerous scenarios where he has no idea what he's doing and this inevitibly leads to disaster.

This quality, I'd say, Edward doesn't have. Edward does tend to obsess on something and fixate. When he decides to stalk Bella he does so thoroughly by hiding in her house, seeing her through the eyes of unwitting friends, following her into town, etc. If he's going to stalk Bella, he's going to do it right.

We also see him come up with various schemes such as the scholarship fund that Bella sees through in two seconds. The stealing of Bella's photographs of him to make it so he never existed.

However, he's just not at the level of Walt.

Were it Walt in Edward's position, he'd demand the murder of the Volturi at the end of New Moon because he knows they might be coming and he can stand for nothing less. He'd infiltrate human gangs undercover in the 1920's so as to better gain a network to find out who exactly he should be picking off. Then murder those who he doesn't need to eat either.

Ego in Terms of Intellect

Both Edward and Walt think they're the smartest people in the room. In Walt's case, he actually is a bright guy, though not as much as he gives himself credit for.

Edward's dumb as bricks but still consistently believes he is by far the most intelligent and is shocked whenever Bella does something to prove that she may, in any way, be able to keep up.

(Edward was stunned out how good Bella was at high school Biology, which... Edward... Jesus...)

Edward doesn't show it too often, as there's no real Jesse around who is quite bright without all the education that Walter respects, but he has a similar way of treating everyone else around him.

They Both Run Their Mouths and Are Very Impulsive

Edward and Walt both have this bad habit of, when backed into a corner, trying to resolve this by yelling at the people who are more than likely going to kill them or are the only means of saving their lives.

Walter confronts Gus relentlessly upon realizing that Gus is going to kill him. He panics for an entire season, desperately trying to get in contact, while alternately losing his shit at everyone around him not limited to Jesse, Mike, Skylar, Hank, etc.

Edward thinks it's a grand idea, upon having broken the law, to yell at the Volturi in their throne room WHILE THEY ARE DEBATING WHETHER HE OR HIS GIRLFRIEND LIVE OR DIE.

Later, Edward breaks a TV in his frustration. Walt does shit like burn his cash, crash cars and make them explode, make other people's cars explode, break into his lawyer's office, etc.

They Want to Be Better People Than They Are

Walt has his moment in early season 3 where Jesse after rehab notes that he's finally accepted what he is, he's the bad guy. Walt has an existential crisis for several episodes where he tries to convince himself that he is not a criminal, that he's really a good guy, and that this life isn't his.

It doesn't last long, but he desperately wants to believe it, to believe that he's different and not like the rest.

Edward, too, wants to believe he's a good man. Edward's slightly more self-aware in that he knows what he is, that he's not a good man, but he very much wants to be one and it haunts him that he might not be.

Violence

One place where they do differ is that I'd say Edward is driven (and terrified by) an inherent desire for violence. He has frequent fantasies of smashing Mike's head in, he calmly plots the murder of an entire classroom of students so he can eat a girl, he plots luring this girl out into the woods to eat her, he very nearly murders the men who followed her in Port Angeles. This is something Edward is aware of and something he despises in himself and constantly fights against.

Walter isn't so much driven by violence but that his pride, his ego, his panicking inevitably leads him to having to commit violence. And as he dons the persona Heisenberg, he likes the idea of how it makes him look. Heisenberg is a kingpin, a man to be taken seriously, someone who "is the danger" in Walt's own words. Heisenberg is the man Walter wants to be. I never got the feeling that it was so much that, deep down, he had an innate need to strangle Crazy Eight and see the light go out of him.

Of course, in the AU where Edward decides to break bad, I could see him having a very similar ego trip on his way to becoming a kingpin.

#twilight #twilight meta #twilight headcanon #twilight renaissance #breaking bad #walter white #anti walter white #edward cullen #anti edward cullen #meta #headcanon #opinion

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