The parallel between Sokka and Tenzin as their fathers' sons.
Sokka, left at 13 as his father and all the other men head off to war. Hakoda tells him "being a man is knowing where he's needed the most" and he needs to protect his sister, his home.
Tenzin is the second airbender. He is also half water tribe, he's a man. When Aang dies, he will be the last airbender. He understands what he needs to do.
Untold amount of pressure and responsibility have been thrust upon them by their fathers. Though, I believe it is not all intentional, but the unfortunate circumstance of being the fathers of sons who take responsibility incredibly seriously.
In Sokka's case, "protect your sister" is a vague instruction. It was meant to give him purpose, to help him feel okay about being left behind, He is too young for war, his father does not want to bring his child to slaughter. But Sokka will die with purpose. He will train the children of his tribe so they will be protected, he will face a fire nation ship until his last breath. He cannot go to war, but Hakoda did not see that war was all around them. In trying to give Sokka purpose, Hakoda put their world on his shoulders.
We do not get to see Aang be a father (in the TV shows), but we know he had hopes for the future. All his children were air nomads, and the air acolytes brought his culture back, but Tenzin could bend. This part of their culture is one ONLY they share. I do not think Aang would hide this, he is joyous that he gets to share his culture. When he feels respected, he always is, he taught the air acolytes after all. Off handedly, he could say, "I'm hopeful for a future where there are lots more air benders," and that, which feels mostly innocuous to him, is the nail in the coffin of Tenzin's fate. He is Avatar Aang's son, and the future of the air benders. It would not matter that Aang meant a future in generations. Tenzin sees the responsibility and it's his. He is his father's only air bending child, he knows what he needs to do.
Being a parent is not understanding the way the things you say harm your children. Even those things that feel innocuous in the moment can be life altering. Especially the more the child respects the parent. Purpose and Hope for those with a broader perspective, can be death sentences to a life that could have been when expressed to those who idolize the former.
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Ride 769: Danchiku's “escape”
Pag 1
1: Sohoku's number 5 jumped ahead! And he kept attacking!!
2: Number 4, Kaburagi, caught up to Doubashi who has been left behind!!
4: This is bad!! Pedal!!
Let's raise our pace!!
Pag 2
2: I won't let you get away, Chicken!!
Pag 3
2: No.... they're so fast!!
It's no use anymore, senpai!!
3: Get away Danchikuu!!
Pag 4
1: Yeah, Issa!!
Pag 5
1: 4km left until the sprint line!!
2: Don't underestimate him, San-na*!!
(*NdT.: Kaburagi is calling him that because when earlier he called him “Doubashi” with no honorifics, Doubashi corrected him saying “it's san, na” the 'na' is just and ending particle, but I decided to leave it in the nickname Kabu is using now)
3: Danchiku is strong!!
He's the kind of guy who once he makes a decision, he sticks to it!!
4: Buah!!
I'm not underestimating him
5: With that attack earlier I got that his “running” is no chicken!!
6: Haha, I told you from the start!! I told you “that's not true”!!
Pag 6
1: But “mentality” is another story!!
3: “Running” and “mentality”are different things, but two sides of the same coin!!
4: I'm chasing him like this!! I'm getting closer!!
That's the reality!! The situation!!
I'll swallow him
5: And even if I don't do anything, he'll make a mistake!!
6: Tch, this guy hit a nerve
7: Look
8: My pressure
Pag 7
1: Is rising!!
3: What's this
From behind me
4: It's the feeling of something dark and hug approaching!!
This is that guy's....!!
Seriously!?
Pag 8
1: But!!
Gaa
2: But I also came here fully prepared!!
ruaaagh
3: “Take care of that idiot”
4: Bamboo
6: Hop Shot!!
Pag 9
1: I'll leave him behind!!
2: Switch to a
3: higher gear!!
6: Dammit, instead of switching to a higher gear I switched to a lower!?
Such a stupid mistake!! In a moment like this!!
I'll switch to a higher gear now!!
8: Stupid mistake...? That's not it
Pag 10
1: Is my body reacting to Doubashi's pressure!?
Pag 11
1: Dammit!!
Don't turn around
2: San-na is going to move to pin Nagoya down, you go with him
This is the chance that
And then keep going like that!!
3: Issa managed to get for me!!
4: Don't turn around
He's getting closer, I can feel it on my skin!!
5: If I turn around his pressure will swallow me!!
Gaaagh
6: Dammit... so this is the Inter High?
Pag 12
1: This is Hakone Academy's Doubashi Masakiyo!!
2: Chicken.... your pedaling got all messy
Pag 13
1: He's coming closer!!
2: I'm gonna get swallowed!!
4: It's over
After all you really are a chicken
Pag 15
2: A white pressure... Issa!!
3: Danchiku, since it's you, you can do it!!
I'm sure of it, so run without hesitation
4: After all you're
Pag 16
1: Team SS..... Special Strong!!
Higaruaaagh!!
Pag 17
1: I'll take it, Issa!!
2: Higaruaagh!!
Dammit, what happened, he came back to life!!
3: What did you do, Orange
4: I raised it too
Pag 18
1: My pressure, to tell him “if it's you, you can do it”!!
2: I am “team SS”!!
3: I can do it!!
Garuaagh!!
4: Hahaha, if you don't hurry he'll get away, San-na!!
That's called Panda Shout!! That acceleration is terrific!!
5: Talking like that is your strategy to get me to use up my legs, Orange!!
Hahaha of course, you've finally noticed!!
Pag 19
2: I've noticed from the start, though
Is-is that so!?
Well, can't be helped. My plan to defeat him by using pressure alone was a failure
This time I'll use my legs
3: I'll show you my running that I've tempered thoroughly this past year!!
4: The sprint is now down to us three
As expected, there's no one who can catch up to us from there!!
Pag 20
1: In that group behind us!!
2: Pedal more
Let's catch up to them before they get out of sight!!
Gallop!!
Mokkosu!!
4: From behind us, another.... two people!?
Are catching up!?
5: It's two guys from the selected team!!
Pag 21
1: I'm so glad, we caught up with the lead!!
We were pulled by Doubashi-san but we got tore off a little later
You worked hard, you two!
Yeah, somehow!!
2: The leader of our team, Sugimoto-san, negotiated with Doubashi-san fro us
3: Our number has increased so we still have a chance!!
We'll chase Sohoku and Hakogaku that are ahead
Yeah!!
And we'll fight for the green number bib!!
4: Alright, senpai, I'll pull
“Two people” who caught up?
No
5: There's one more person!!
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So fucking glad to see someone talk about SSS Class revival hunter 😭 I lived it so much and I feel like no one ever mentions it against more popular titles like ORV or even The Lout of the counts family, so I'm so glad to come here and see your amazing takes :>
Thank you for the ask which lets me talk about SSSCRH (the version I read was titled 'Suicide Hunter', which tbh I like more - no beating around the bush).
It's hard to draw an accurate comparison since I'm going off just the webtoon for SSSCRH, while I'm going off both the webtoon and the webnovel for ORV. And I love ORV, ORV is my media blorbo right now, it hydraulic presses my brain, I am writing ORV fanfic - it's, like, funner to enjoy. But SSSRH is just better. In the vast majority of ways it is is better. It's better than the holy trinity by a wide margin. TW talk of suicide obviously.
I can't believe I'm saying this but you need a basic understanding of Buddhism in order to understand SSSCRH. It's not about Gongja's suicides - he doesn't suicide from depression or lack of self-esteem. SSSCRH is about suffering in the Buddhist sense - dukkha. I don't want to make this an essay, so I might reblog this with more information, but extremely shortly:
The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism is the truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering, the truth of the end of suffering, and the truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering. You've heard that Buddhists say 'life is suffering'. To put it one way that doesn't require defining a lot of words: the cause of suffering is experiencing the world as we percieve it instead of how it truly is. Suffering isn't just being miserable and in pain, and life isn't suffering because life sucks and global warming exists and people voted for Trump. Life is suffering because we can experience beautiful and joyful moments in this world, but we do not exist in the moment of that happiness or place our ego/'self' between us and that happiness. Living in that moment, accepting the moment as it is unconditionally, is freedom from suffering. The Buddha tries to free people from suffering through teaching Buddhism.
"What does this have to do with the webnovel and manwha about a guy murdering himself thousands of times" it has everything to do with it. Because SSSCRH is about suffering, and it is about using suffering as a tool in order to experience a world unfiltered by ego and break down the artificial boundaries between human beings. Suffering in SSSCRH is not a bad thing. Gongja has the unique capability to (reincarnate.) experience a person's suffering in unity with them, which dissolves the delusion of separation between people and puts us in touch with the reality of oneness.
The Murim arc was fucking insane because Gongja pulls a Big Bodhisattva Move and walks through the suffering of the world in order to achieve full understanding of the human experience. He takes all of the suffering of the world into himself and is liberated. You can tell it's Buddhist because death was not presented as a bad thing - death was an aspect of a happy ending for the Heavenly Demon lady, because she was finishing her life according to her own joy, and because her teachings were passed on she did not truly die.
But the purpose of embracing suffering is to discover the ability to fully embrace life, and that's where Heavenly Demon's teachings were incomplete - as the ghost dude said, Gongja hasn't even experienced his own full life and the infinite capability for his own happiness. You can only feel the depths of sadness when you've felt the depths of happiness. Sadness deserves its place in the world and it can strengthen you, but so does happiness.
Gongja is attention-seeking, envious, and unbelievably petty. When he drills down into his own desires and why he wants the things he wants, you see that he has a very strong sense of justice and right and wrong - he realizes he doesn't want to be famous, he wants to be acknowledged, but on an even deeper level he is desperate for love and to be loved. Everything he does is to experience love, and as such he learns to love others. His love for the Flamey Asshole was purely parasocial and ego-filled, with no concern for who he was as a human. Throughout the manwha, he grows to care for people as they truly are and pierce through any delusions or misleading outward appearances. He has released all attachment to life and death, and as such does not fear death, and as such has taken a step on the road towards becoming a Boddhisatva who frees others from the cycle of samsara, and as a result has learned sick sword techniques and is sooo good at beating people up.
I think the only other thing I want to mention here because otherwise this is an essay: in almost every time loop/regression story, only the final regression matters. In stories with dungeon monsters and NPCs, only the humans matter. The regressor exists in a space where there are no consequences for their actions, so they act terribly and do whatever because none of it matters. In Groundhog Day Bill Murray acts like an asshole because he can. That's not the case here. Everything Gongja does matters. The NPCs are fake, but Gongja never treats them as anything less than real people who deserve life. Once he understands a person's life he never treats them as unimportant. No loop is thrown away and no person or life is disregarded. His choices matter, the way he treats others matters, and Gongja never treats anybody as if they don't matter except for himself.
That was not short. There is a lot more. The female characters are so good and so rich. From a craft perspective it is excellently paced and has a wonderful sense of set-up/payoff and balances tone and maintains a lot of momentum, which is really hard in a time loop story. You have to do a few very specific things to write OP characters well and SSSCRH does it very well. There's more to say from a craft perspective and it's hard to judge accurately from a webtoon but it's good. I was so strangely struck the entire time about how sincere and genuine it was, how it said what it said with no trace of irony of confusion, and I think that's what stuck with me the most.
TL;DR: SSS Class Revival Hunter is good for a lot of very normal reasons, such as excellent pacing and set-up/pay off and characters, but it's also so sincerely and genuinely Buddhist that it blew my tits clean off.
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okay so "tomorrow" got late BUT heres my goofy ass Clay/Creek idea :)
the entire summery is under the cut but in case ur curious dont worry
Branch eventually finds out :D
more info under the cut!
Once the Putt Putts end up getting moved to Trollstopia (i imagine they have their own sectioned off area, they're not exactly "pop trolls" anymore yknow? they got a lil makeshift spot they're turning into a new mini golf course as we speak), Clay was properly hired as Viva's royal advisor. Aka her assistant :)
He loves doing all his usual serious boy work, but its gotten hard doing it by himself now that it's less "trying to keep a small community from burning down" and more "trying to convince all the other genre's theyre not feral as hell". its a lotta work, along with keeping up with Putt Putts and their wants and needs for their new kingdom
So Clay puts out a flier for an assistant position and after weeks of no luck, he gets a hit and hires the guy as soon as he can!
Creek has been living on the outskirts of Pop Village ever since the "Bergen" incident, too afraid of the consequences of his actions to try and rejoin the Pop Trolls. Instead he ends up watching them build a newer area with Trolls he's never even met before.
Creek begins exploring the Putt Putt Range and is happy to be greeted as a full stranger. This spot might be safe. Social, not too far from his "home" (a tucked away cave in the forest), and no one knows what he did. He can start over!
Even better, there's a job offer for Putt Putt Range specifically. Hes not one for hard work, but after living on his own for long enough, hes sick of having to fight for his own food. He'd rather have a paycheck and something MUCH better then whatever crap he finds lying around. Or has to cook. Even worse.
Clay may be desperate but Creek does do good work. Being his assistant is thankfully rather simple. Creek is in charge of smaller, less important file information, along with manning the front and taking requests for the Putt Putts on what should be done to the Range. All in all? It's peaceful. It really does feel like a fresh start, and even better? Clay is...really nice. Patient, understanding, he listens and Creek has been alone so long it's just nice to be heard.
Things could really take a turn for the better.
...and then he learns who Clay's brothers are and all hell breaks loose :)
(its a lot of back and forth, Clay learning new info and having to just sorta grapple with it, being caught in the middle of a family feud situation. He cant STAY with Creek/keep him on staff if he wants to keep Branch happy, but he also doesnt wanna FIRE Creek because he hasnt hurt the Putt Putts. He has no reason to fire him, family business is just that. Family business. Its not for a professional setting.
Clay's caught between a rock and a hard place, and he's gonna have to squeeze himself out before he breaks.)
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