#because it shows the progress he's made in surpassing his father

[linkspooky]

My Hero Academia, Chapter 376 Thoughts

Short chapter this week so there is not much to say, besides the obvious question. The heroes strategy with divide and conquer has failed, Hawks does not face Twice directly but rather chooses to go after AFO. Hawks announces to Enji the change in strategy and that he will have to be the one to take care of Toya now. Enji seems to be finally facing Toya, so what will he do with his son, try to battle him, or try to talk him down?

1. Let's all Take Bets

@transhawks and I have a running bet on what exactly Enji is going to do next because our opinion is the exact opposite. I am on the side that Enji is not really in a mental space where the first thing he's going to try to do is talk Toya down. I think the requirement to do that would be Enji finally beginning to view Toya as his own person which I am going to argue below he still has not done yet.

We have seen a peak inside of Enji's head fairly recently, so let's review that scene. The first thing Enji focuses on when he's self reflecting is how taking on the burdens of atonement for his past has made him even weaker than he already is now.

The biggest flaw in his thinking is shown right away with the way his younger self phrases what his problem is. Enji seems to think the source of all of this, the very origin of the decision to abuse his family and use his children for his ambition to surpass All Might is that he was too physically weak. That if he had been strong enough to surpass All Might on his own merit, that somehow, none of this ever would have happened.

I'm actually going to express an unpopular opinion, I don't think the flashback we see of Enji's origin story is unnecessary here I think it adds to his character. Enji feels abandoned by his father at a young age, because his father was too weak to save the girl from the criminal he was fighting against.

His father's flaw was being too weak to play hero, and his attempt at a good deed not only left Enji traumatized by the sight of his father's corpse, but also with no father figure for the rest of his developmental years. He is wearing a UA uniform in this flashback, and it's said in side materials (the light novels) that Enji's insane and toxic obsession with All Might started as early as UA.

If his father's failure was being too weak to defeat a villain, it almost makes sense in a twisted way, that in Enji's own headspace being stronger than villains, and being a competent hero and a provider for his family is him doing his job as a father.

This is as far back as the Pro-Hero Arc, Enji feels a sense of accomplishment from defeating the High End Nomu and surviving the battle, and comes home to find that nobody cares that he did a good job winning the battle. He expected that being a good hero that Shoto could look up to, would somehow fix their relationship so far.

That's actually a good origin for Enji's toxic mentality, and explanation for his behavior, he despises any weakness within himself, and the trouble he has with his atonement arc is that admitting to fault within himself counts as showing that weakness. He would rather be a strong hero than a failure of a father. All good, it's just after this scene Enji doesn't really progress. The way to go would be "Weakness = Okay" because all people are weak. You learn to get healthier by showing emotional vulneraiblity, which is just what Enji was raging about because admitting his mistakes and his atonement makes him vulnerable in a way he doesn't like. However, instead of doing that, he decides to continue "raging against his weakness." Of course, if his weakness is like "I did bad things in the past because I was an emotionally weak person and took it out on others" then yes, he shouldn't see that as a good thing. But like, Enji literally talks about how his weakness is just "not being a superman".

Enji's actions in his mental space don't really indicate the fact that he's moved on either, the thing he does is strangle his teenage self, and considering that Enji projects himself onto his children hard having this relationship with his personal weaknesses isn't the best thing.

He tells Natsuo that he was never trying to neglect them, but like it was a pretty clear and deliberate action on Enji's choice, he even physically seperated Shoto from the rest of his siblings and hired a nanny so he wouldn't have to take care of them. Enji even phrases Toya's death as a "mistake" in his recollection, again not a deliberate choice on his part to neglect him for years.

As I said above, Enji has trouble admitting when he's done something wrong, because that is admitting to a vulernability and he can't show any of those, no siree!

There's just a lot of negative foreshadowing in the way that Enji sees Toya. From the start he always pictures him in his head as Dabi smiling maniacally, not the twelve year old boy he continually let down. There's this scene where Shoto mentions that they have to handle Toya together, even referring to him differently than he usually does (I think he uses otousan rather than oyajii) but Enji only sees Dabi's maniacal face once again and averts his eyes.

He pictures Dabi the same way on the hospital bed, when he's expressing reluctance to face Toya on his hospital bed, he automatically jumps to having to fight him, like there isn't another way this could work out.

As far back as Dabi's reveal itself, Enji's first reaction is that Toya could have been the one to smash away all of the ugliness in his heart. Which indicates a deeper underlying problem.

Once again Enji projects himself onto his children, he puts all of his positive traits onto Shoto, and his negative ones onto Toya, after all Toya was the one born weak, who's body was too weak for his quirk which made the overheating flaw that Enji was trying to avoid even more of a problem for Toya. Enji avoids Toya because Toya himself reminds Enji of all of his worst flaws, and this happens even in early childhood. When Toya continues to train, Enji only sees it as "he got that stubbornness from me." Toya's unwillingness to give up is Enji's. Dabi himself is Enji's mistake. Dealing with Dabi is Enji's duty. Enji has not really walked outside of his own head to understand Toya himself as both a person, and a child, because ultimately it is about him, his duties, his atonement.

When he sees Shoto marching off to the future, Toya isn't really included among those people. Does he think Toya has a future? Does he think Toya has a chance of coming back? Nothing he says has clearly indicated that, all signs point to he still considers Shoto the success, the one with the future, whereas Toya is the failure and Enji's greatest mistake.

As for Toya himself, he may just be baiting Enji into fighting him as a last ditch method of making his father fail. If he can't kill Shoto in front of Enji to ruin everything Enji tried to do, then he can at least make it so Enji's atonement can never truly be complete by killing himself. That is part of Toya's speech during Dabi's dance, he wanted to give Enji the chance to feel like he was doing better as a hero, and a father, before tearing the rug out from under him. Dabi's lines here also remind me heavily of Nine's just before his death.

Dabi's biggest goal of all is to ruin Enji as a hero, so if Enji cannot save his own son he's failed both as a hero and in his atonement considering Dabi says he can't truly complete his dream now it might be a last ditch effort.

My only argument against this is Toya probably doesn't consider himself one of Enji's "precious things" because the whole reason he turned into Dabi in the first place, is that the Todorokis buried him and very little changed about the family like he never existed to begin with.

The language Hawks uses when instructing Enji what he's supposed to do is "Stop" once again rather than save, which is what Shoto said before failing to get through to Toya "just stop already".

So, like I said this can go one of two ways. If Enji follows Hawks plan then he is most likely just going to try to face Toya in a physical fight and "stop" him physically rather than reaching out to him emotionally. Or, Enji goes against Hawks plans and tries some other way of reaching out to Toya, and at that point I believe Transhawks theory is the most likely.

#toya todoroki #enji todoroki #todoroki family #keigo takami #mha 356 #my hero academia 356 #mha 356 spoilers #my hero academia 356 spoilers #mha spoilers #mha meta #my hero academia meta #my hero academia theory #mha 376 spoilers #mha 376 #bnha 376 spoilers #bnha 376 #my hero academia 376 spoilers #boku no hero academia 376 spoilers #bnha meta

[psalmonesermons]

The dimensions of God's love Part 2

The width, length, depth, and height of God's love Ephesians 3:18-19

Picking up from Part 1 in Ephesians 3:18 we see that there is a supernatural order of the dimensions of God’s love.

The Holy Spirit directs our attention as follows.

A. What is Breadth? We have some difficulty in seeing the breadth of God’s love to all men of every race and colour, every age from a foetus in the mother’s womb to a man on his death bed, embracing each one of these. In all time past, back to Adam and forward to Christ’s second advent. This breadth tells the Jewish believers of God’s love for the Gentiles and tells us now of His love for all the various parts of the body of Christ. In my Father’s house there are many mansions. God’s love is so broad it embraces His whole family beyond any man-made barriers. He is not a respecter of rank or position. His love is so broad it includes from the humblest to the most exalted of his people.

B. Length, this invites us to meditate on the eternal nature of God’s love. Christ loved us before we got born again. 1 John 4:19 tells us that we love him, because he first loved us and as his love knows no end, so it has no beginning and is from everlasting to everlasting. Jeremiah 31:3 Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness. I have drawn thee the Lord says this to each one of us. His drawing of us unto himself is the effect of his love. John 13:1 Jesus loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. Romans 8:35-39 Nothing can separate us from God’s love. Are you catching a glimpse of its length?

C. Depth, another way to look at the depth of God’s love is to look back to where we came from, dying and on the way to eternal death. Each one of us can take a minute to meditate on how deep our Father’s love was to raise us up out of the pit of our sinful lives. We were children wrath by nature see Ephesians 2:1-6. Does this not speak to your heart of the Depth of our Father’s love?

D. Height, so far, we have seen the love of God has a boundless breadth, an endless length, a fathomless depth then surely its height is measureless? In trying to comprehend the height we may look to both our present privileges and our future promises as clearly identified in the word of God. 1 Samuel 2:8, Isaiah 56:5 Romans 8:16-17, 1 John 3:1, and Revelation 22:4-5,19 that we might know the love of Christ which passes knowledge by the Holy Spirit that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.

Did Paul get carried away with it here or was the Holy Spirit showing us the summit of the prayer?

Are we not heirs of the Father, joint heirs of Christ?

If we ask for bread, will he give us a stone or a snake instead of a fish?

This is the point; the word of God tells us that God wants us at filled with all His own fullness.

Our hearts and minds must constantly be occupied with the love of Christ to be prepared for the being filled with all his fullness.

Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness as in Matthew 5:6?

The Greek for ‘filled with all the fullness’ suggests a continuous process, a progressive and enlarging experience. As a vessel is filled to the brim the vessel then expands and the process continues thus our hearts will grow and take in more of him on an ongoing basis.

Suggestion: Let us agree not to pray any more weak and feeble prayers!

Pray for yourself and others in this manner.

Prayer Father God we bow our knees to you in the name of Jesus Christ. We ask that you grant us, according to your riches, that we might be strengthened with your mighty power in our inner man. We pray that Christ may be dwelling in our hearts by faith, and that we are becoming rooted and grounded in your divine love. We ask that we may be able to comprehend with all your saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of your love, and to come to truly know your love which surpasses mere human knowledge, that we might be filled with the love of God as you are Lord.

Lord, we know you can do much more above all we can ask or even think because your power is at work in us, and we say.

Amen

#christianity #bible study #bibletruth #blog post #blessings #psalmonesermons #faith #victory #the dimensions of God's love #Ephesians 3 #Ephesians 3:18-19

[mickstart]

everything i know about call of duty is from your blog and i wouldn't have it any other way. i feel like we're strangers sat next to eachother on a busy train and you're explaining character dynamics to me in great detail as i nod attentively, not comphrehending a single word

DSFGJDFSJGHFDSHJGFDSHJGFSDHJGFDS THANK YOU <3 This is how everyone in my life experiences it. I turn to them on a bus and open with "Soap in New MW2 is fundamentally different from Soap in Old MW2. In this one he is fairly carefree and laidback and jokey because the events of the old MW story didn't happen in this one, so he didn't witness his entire team including (he believed at the time) his father figure price dying while he alone survived and brought down the most wanted man in the world with the gun price passed him - showing that he had progressed from The New Kid to actually surpassing his mentor - which lead to him being promoted to captain VERY quickly, blaming himself, and developing an obsession with not losing ANYONE ELSE on his watch, which made him by far the most serious and focused member of the team, and he copied Price constantly bc he felt he wasn't enough and he needed to be Price who was enough, who saved him. He is not the team baby he is the team dad berating ghost for cracking jokes and keeping roach safe."

And the other person is hammering at the bus window trying to smash the glass and escape.

[gavrannoir]

I want to talk for a moment about Bill Maher.

I remember, as a child, my parents being upset when he was pulled off of the air after 9/11. The cancellation of his show was a direct result of a conversation he had with Dinesh D’Souza where Maher said, "we have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, [it's] not cowardly." [check the “9/11 Controversy and Cancellation” section on Politically Incorrect’s Wikipedia page for more info]

My parents loved watching him on ABC because they thought he was honest and cut to the bone of an issue. It’s been over 20 years since his first show was cancelled and my parents have gone from not being able to afford cable to having an HBO subscription and living comfortably in one of the most expensive areas of the US. They now watch Real Time with Bill Maher, which was picked up by HBO in 2003, but my parents didn’t start watching until 2014 at the earliest.

I remember being so excited to watch it with them, because I was too young in the late 1990s and early 2000s to watch his previous show. I remember watching my first episode in the mid 2010s and thinking he had some funny one liners but overall he was mean and made me feel uncomfortable.

My understanding is that my parents and older brother (who lives with them) started watching Real Time regularly in 2020. I’ve been out of the house since 2014 and have not spent significant time in my parents’ home since. I’ve caught bits of Bill Maher’s show during visits and my discomfort just kept growing.

I’m visiting my parents right now and am about halfway through a month long visit. My first night here, my dad and brother started spouting some out-of-pocket opinions that genuinely shocked me to hear from either of them because they were deeply Islamophobic and they denied that the Israeli government and military is perpetrating genocide in Palestine. A few nights later, while getting ready for bed, I heard the opening chords of Real Time’s theme song and pretty soon later heard Bill Maher say almost word for word some of the talking points my brother and father had used.

Bill Maher isn’t a liberal any more let alone a progressive and he needs to stop masquerading as such. He is a racist, a queerphobe, a xenophobe, ableist, and probably other things since I have been fortunate enough not to be subjected to his rhetoric too frequently. Lately he’s been asked in interviews why he’s been speaking against the left so often in addition to the right and he has said that “[i]t’s not me who’s changed; it’s the left, who is now made up of a small contingent who’ve gone mental, and a large contingent who refuse to call them out for it.” I would venture to say he is right in that he is not the one to have changed. He has always been, as I complained to my husband a few weeks ago, someone who thinks cruel is cool. I think that we have societally shifted the left’s Overton Window enough to no longer include him in the definition. At best, these days Maher is a centrist, but really I think he’s a conservative (not an alt-righter).

Fox News talking heads like to recite a quote misattributed to Winston Churchill: ‘If you’re not a liberal when you’re young, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by the time you’re old, you have no brain.’ (The young ones in particular like to grin while reciting this as though they’ve surpassed love and gone straight to brain-in-a-jar status). The logic here, theoretically, is that liberalism is for the bleeding hearts with nothing to lose while conservatism is for those who have spent their lives building up their retirement plans and would be disrupted by a revolution. Really, though, I think it’s simpler than that. If society is always hoping for betterment, every generation is going to try pushing the envelope farther. If you live long enough and you choose not to keep yourself educated, you might become uncomfortable with where we’re sending the letter.

I hope Bill Maher gets more and more uncomfortable, because he doesn’t seem to be interested in learning.

#Bill Maher #Real Time with Bill Maher #Politically INCOrrECT tv show

[danna-kurt]

Biography

The Working Student’s Howl for Success

The woman who carried me in her womb for 9 months is none other than my mother. Diana, goddess of the woods and children. Perhaps this is the reason why she is such a great mother, as she embodies the characteristics of the goddess of children. But my mother’s beauty surpasses even that of the goddess Diana. One would have to wait for the crow to turn black before surpassing the goddess that is my mother, Diana C. Sahagun, who has been journeying through this world for 55 years. My father Kurt B. Sahagun stole my mother’s heart. She has two children, Danna Kurt C. Sahagun and Danne Kurt C. Sahagun. She also has 13 siblings, being the second among them. Before becoming an excellent mother, she was first a wonderful sister.

She lived in poverty. Her father is a family driver, while her mother is a housewife. My mother helps my grandmother take care of her siblings. There are judgmental people who talk about my mother as if she got married early. These noises are like a rooster crowing. She ignored this and focused on her responsibilities as the eldest sibling.

She was only 5 years old when she started selling suman, puto, kutsinta, and other delicacies. She used her earnings to buy essentials like rice and sardines. She also worked in a fish sauce factory and sold seashells to help with her family’s income. Despite her father’s alcoholism hindering their progress, my mother persevered. Just like how one persevered a fire. She even enrolled herself in school at the age of 7 because her mother couldn’t accompany her due to her siblings needing care.

Diana Sahagun’s life has been like a rollercoaster ride with lots of ups and downs. She grew up in Navotas, where she helped her mom take care of her many siblings. When her family moved to Malabon, things got tough because she couldn’t make money like before.

But she didn’t give up. She got a job at a factory, working long hours after school. But the night opposed becoming Morning. My grandfather wanted my mom to stop her from going to school. He believed that women would just get married anyway, that was his reasoning. She was determined to help her family and keep going to school. However, due to financial problems, she stopped from studying to send her siblings in schooling. It is saddening that her efforts were not appreciated, and the siblings she supported did not finish their studies. But a year later, she returned to being a working student and put herself through private school. Her hard work paid off when she graduated from high school and even got a scholarship for college.

One day, just before the deadline, she found out about a scholarship opportunity. Even though it was tough to get to the exam, she made it and aced it, getting the highest score possible! Her score is even higher than reaching the outer space!

With support from her boss, my mother balanced work and college, showing that determination can overcome any obstacle. Her story teaches us that no matter how hard life gets, with courage and persistence, we can achieve our dreams.

She’s a working student, facing many barriers to fulfill her dreams. But she’s stronger, and she conquered the problems. Wolves have strong resilience and loyalty to their team. They bravely defend their territory and unity of their group against any danger. My mother is a wolf for protecting her family even when she herself is struggling. Like a brave wolf facing challenges, but with a gentle heart.

My mother finished her college degree as a Mathematics teacher. Now, she’s a skilled real estate agent with excellent communication skills and is true to her words. She completed her education without seeking marriage. However, fate intervened and said that the the man of her dreams was my father, Kurt B. Sahagun. She also had children who are good and hardworking. She is the breadwinner of the family. While working from home, she is diligent in household chores and caring for her children. She achieved her educational dreams, and her love for her family prevails above all. This clearly means that my mother’s love is like an endless river.

My mother’s howl, makes the world change and develop. Now, I howl for the same. I howl to continue the great example of my mother. I will follow her path and go the distance. I’ll surpass my limits and can make the mountains move. This motivation started from the working student’s howl for success

[magpiejay1234]

So Episode 98.

Yuya defeats Tyrant Red Dragon Archfiend with the combined power of his monsters, thus defeating Jack.

During the Duel, all of Yuya's previous match-ups, 227, Shinji, Crow show up to cheer on him, alongside the entirety of city. Gallagher, while captured, is also cheering on Yuya.

Jaeger makes a cameo in his mayor outfit, confirming he is indeed the mayor in ARC-V as well. This was already teased in Dennis vs. Gongenzaka, since Dennis was collecting money with Jaeger's face on it. Since Executive Council still exists, he was just a figurehead during all the events, but Executive Council will disband itself, making him the properly elected leader of Neo Domino City once more.

Tenpei also makes a cameo as one of the Tops kids, with presumably his parents.

After defeat at Yuya's hand, Jack finally smiles. As Chojiro notes, he just needed someone that could match him.

So a little bit of 5D's lore here, Jack and Yusei never fully made amends because Jack, due to his ego, never managed to view things quite Yusei's way, and Yusei, due to his own ego, never fully bothered with Jack seeing things his way. Yuya does, however, which finally allows a version of Jack to fully get the importance of people's bonds, and collective strength of the supposedly weak.

Second reason is Yuya's clever use of Smile World, effectively finding a way to unify his father's strategy with his own, surpassing Jack's desire, and reestablishing his own desire to follow in his father's path, but in his own way.

Executive Council's self-abolition is somewhat pragmatically justified, considering the new Duel King, Yuya, won't be in Neo Domino City for long, so they can't use him as a means of preserving the status quo. With Security Bureau now in shambles, they have no choice but try democracy.

The happy moment is interrupted with Sora's message, with Yuya thinking Sora is dead a Roget self-destructs his own tower. Yuzu is recaptured by Roget, who is using her to reapproach Academia. Sora, and Tsukikage are badly injured, so Reiji intervenes to save Yuzu.

Yuzu, and Reiji trash Roget, but he is far too gone to care.

Roget vs. Reiji duel starts. The Japanese name of Ancient Gear Howitzer is Ancient Gear Devil, likely as a reference to Liquid Snake's "devil weapon" speech.

I wonder if Yuya's final entrance to Roget's tower is inspired by one of the original ideas for Evangelion's ending, which had Shinji invading SEELE's headquarters.

Despite what the opening Kirifuda implies, Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon is not used in the second Jack Duel, instead the finish is done with Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, again, as a homage to final Jack vs. Yusei duel.

As MangaKamen noted in his video, at this point, Yuya peaked in terms of character progression, rest of the series will be his negative character arc, so he becomes Z-ARC, and the epilogue, and post-canon won't recover his character, yet.

Yuya's victory over Jack will also set up his future victories against the legacy rivals, Edo, and Kaito, though victory against Kaito will happen in the epilogue.

The end of Jack vs. Yuya duel is also very, very 80s animé, right down to the Chairman's talk about trusting the younger generation (this will likely never be the standard sentiment again in any future syndicated TV series, Western, or Eastern). For a moment, you could feel the economic optimism Japan's bubble economy, before the reality of the real estate crash hits in. This is probably also what the Western Animation fans think about early 2000s vs. late 2000s.

Don't worry, everything about this show will decline very, very fast. So enjoy it while it lasts.

#ygo arc-v meta mini

[less-than-three-3]

god of PEAK

[𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐘 𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐃 𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐓 𝐁𝐔𝐙𝐙𝐄𝐑]

PEAK of war?   [𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐘 𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐃 𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐓 𝐁𝐔𝐙𝐙𝐄𝐑]

god of war (twenty eight-pea-   [𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐘 𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐃 𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐓 𝐁𝐔𝐙𝐙𝐄𝐑]

this was funnier in my head anyways I beat god of war (2018) in like a week this shit sucked me in and did not let me go I was enthralled. I totally get the GOTY and GOAT claims. Is it my favorite of all time? ....I’ll think about it more and more. But the fact that it has me entirely rethinking my entire top 5 is super telling. 

tldr buy and play this fucking game. I might get a playstation just for ragnarok (and I guess hfw, and spider-man 2, and bloodborne). it’s THAT good. it’s so good I didn’t mind using epic games launcher for it!! Full braindump below, spoiler warning.

Alright where do I even start with this? This is a perfect game, it dragged me in and left me begging for more. I find that those two are one and the same to me, the last time I was so plugged into a game was Fallen Order, and before that was Triangle Strategy in recent memory. It’s so hard to find a game that genuinely feels flawless. Yet, even compared to those, I felt that GoW surpassed even what I previously considered to be “perfect” in many aspects. This might just be recency bias, but I have no qualms at least putting it up there in my top few games.

The biggest example of that is definitely the character writing. I previously wrote about how much I loved the characters in games like Spider-Man and Fallen Order, but Kratos and Atreus, despite being so much more godly than Peter or Cal, had arcs that just felt so human. And it not only affects their like internal monologue, or the plot progression, but the entire character performance and their interactions. For Atreus it might feel a little on the nose, and if there’s anything anyone has to complain about, I would probably bet it’d be angsty Atreus being a little... much. But he’s a kid for gods’ sake! It felt uncomfortably accurate. But Atreus is basically learning about the world and literally world-changing information and I felt like his growth was very clear. He shows growing maturity, explicitly and implicitly. 

But the person really growing is Kratos, alongside his son. Clearly regret-ridden, grief-stricken, and figuring out how to save his son from his own (and, apparently, most gods’) fate, he tackles the world’s hardest problems of how to be a dad. He’s essentially a traumatized war vet with a son asking every question in the book and glorifying war, with a good ol’ heaping serving of generational trauma and cycle of abuse. He is, at all times, diametrically opposed with Freya, who is protective of those she cares about to a fault. At the beginning he feels callous, cold, unloving. But by the end you realize that he isn’t a monster, he’s legitimately trying to love and protect his son, and though he needs a good amount of guidance and... some extenuating circumstances, he has a great point, and it’s just really hard to properly strike the balance. I still wouldn’t call him a great father but you understand the issue he faces and the mistakes he’s made and that, in the end, he does not know. On the other hand, Freya, who remains so adamantly protective of her child despite everything, can’t see the harm she’s done and will continue to perpetuate in being overprotective... literally. What is this, some kind of direct allegory?

And despite all this, their arcs aren’t just closed and sealed shut. They’re still growing as people, and you can feel that their learning as people aren’t done. Not just because Ragnarok approaches, but because there is just still a lot left unsaid. But at the same time, it felt complete? Despite the fact that the climax did not boil to the same kind of gutting, brutal decisions like in Spider-Man (those still fucking hurt), or an epic finale like in Fallen Order, the characters’ journey felt complete, but I wanted more. It just felt like the end of Act 1, not the end of the story. Cory Barlog you clever bastard.

Also, obligated to say, Christopher Judge and Sunny Suljic absolutely killed it. They deserve all the praise in the world.

Combat and gameplay was phenomenal. For the record I played on the more challenging mode (Give me a challenge?). I was kind of worried it’d sorta be a mashfest but no it was genuinely pretty awesome. Every hit and move felt super impactful, every option is viable, there is a lot of direction for building your playstyle but it’s not overwhelming. The Valkyries were fucking awesome bosses and I wish there was more of that, but I get why that kind of boss isn’t a required boss in this kind of game. After Yakuza and Spider-Man which had good enough combat but nothing to write home about, I started thinking that maybe I am genuinely just Platinum-pilled when it comes to combat but no, other studios can absolutely get to that level too (Platinum remains on top though). The only tiny tiny gripes I have about the overall gameplay is just that I wish I would zoom faster lol like climbing and running could definitely have been *faster* but I am like brainrotted or something it’s not a particularly serious complaint it was fine.

And before I forget, I know people have complained about the music being like “generic epic” music or whatever but like idk out of every game I think fucking Kratos deserves the epic ass music alright? (I may have said this exact thing about spider-man... lol) The vocal performances are incredible, and while yes the instrumentation isn’t exactly breaking new boundaries like in some of my favorite soundtracks, it’s still damn good at setting placement, tension, and delivering high energy. It’s one of those dilemmas where it’s like it’s not really trying new things but what it delivers it executes and places very well. Not a goated OST by any means, but I think deserving of high praise for sure. Let’s see what it was up against in 2018.....

oh. octopath traveler. yeah now that’s a soundtrack. didn’t win though because the game awards panel is full of HACKS

Anyways before I just ramble about how incredible the octopath soundtrack is I’ll end this off by just reiterating that this game is absolutely a must play for anyone, whether or not you’re interested. You must play this. It is required reading. There is a reason it is regarded as one of the gold standards of the current gaming industry. Absolutely phenomenal game. I can’t wait to eventually play Ragnarok.

#god of war 2018

[neverthedark]

i know i’ve talked about this before, but luke adores kids and there’s not a single universe where he isn’t a dad or uncle ( even if he’s just a dad or uncle figure to someone )

#☀ ▫╰ 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙤𝙣𝙨 / the future is to be lived‚ not prearranged. #i don't give a damn what canon may say #luke having kids of his own is a good thing #because it shows the progress he's made in surpassing his father #they're the missing pieces of his heart to make him feel complete because he's not lu.ke skywa.lker without family around #but there's something healing in having to look after children #there's a selfless love there in taking care of them; overseeing their growth; teaching them all you know #and i think he really needs that to stabilize himself and work through his own issues #he wants to be better for his children and he wants them to strive to be better than him #and help them work towards a better galaxy

[crellanstein]

Prodigious

I find it odd how the fandom focuses so much on Aang’s childhood being ruined when he learned he was the Avatar at 12, but there’s very little talk about how discovering she was the Avatar as a toddler affected Korra’s life and how she was raised.

But we’ll circle back to that...

Because this is a good starting point to talk about one of the most prevalent themes in the story, which the mainstream discussion of tends to only focus on a few characters -- That is the Child Prodigy. 

We’ll start with the two most obvious. The ones we always talk about.

Azula.

The clearest example of your typical child prodigy (if there is anything typical about a prodigy). Azula showed early mastery of very advanced Fire-Bending techniques, and is the only Fire-Bender to use blue flames, which was intended to make her stand out amongst the other villains but is also indicative that her Fire-Bending is more pure and powerful (blue flame is produced when burning pure O2 or fuel without contaminant at a very high temperature). 

All this lead to her being praised and favored by Ozai as a child, but as double-edged swords go, this also meant she had a lot of pressure on her shoulders to never fail, and she rarely did. Her ego matched her talent, and let’s be honest she was the baddest bitch the show had ever seen. Conquering Ba Sing Se, defeating the Avatar in combat, and dropping some of the most devastating lines of dialogue in villain history; she was a force nobody wanted to reckon with. 

And that become a problem for one asshole in particular...

Being jealous of his own child is just one item on a laundry list of reasons why this guy is the worst father in the history of fathers. Azula had begun to outshine him with her victories, and Ozai’s maniacal ego couldn’t handle that, so he left her behind to babysit the Fire Nation while he went out to burn/conquer the world, which also was her idea.

And while this wasn’t the only thing that aided in her demise, it certainly was the final straw which sent her spiraling down into this...

In the end Azula is a sad example of how certain unfair expectations are placed upon talented children, and the more they succeed, the more these expectations grow and weigh on the them until they either disappoint those looking down on them or surpass and embarrass their elders.

It is a lose-lose situation which inevitably destroys them.

There is a similar example of the child prodigy, but his story goes a little different.

Aang.

Even as a twelve/thirteen year-old boy Aang by far has the most impressive stats among any character in the Avatar universe.

Basically mastering 3 of the 4 Elements in less than a year, after mastering Air by the time he is twelve (not to mention inventing his own Air-bending move, the Air scooter). 

Aang is an example of a child prodigy who had too much thrust onto him at too young an age because of the talent he showed; because of this he panicked and ran away, and the world was worse off for it. 

Aang/Sokka/Katara’s story is all about how in times of War, responsibilities normally handled by adults are pushed onto kids who then have to grow up very fast in order to deal with it all.

The message is clear. War robs the young of their childhoods. 

Now, let’s talk about a different kind of child prodigy.

The Unacknowledged. 

Yes, of course I’m talking about Toph, the greatest Earth-Bender to ever live.

Because of her blindness, Toph’s family tried to keep her sheltered and safe by hiding her from the world. Refusing to believe she could ever be more than helpless. Anyone who has seen the show knows that is far from the truth.

But because her potential went unseen, there were some negative effects to her personality. Initially, she resented her parents, and rebelled; which established a certain level of independence, a bad attitude, and a hot-headed streak. Over time spent with the Gaang these behaviors subsided because she finally had friends and they accepted her for who she was. By the end of the series she was fully willing to accept aid from them when she needed it, like holding on to Sokka’s arm in environment where her bending couldn’t help her “see”. 

Toph’s story is a foil to Azula’s, both showed immense talent and badassery, but while recognition of Azula lead to ever-mounting pressure for her to succeed; the lack of recognition for Toph created a need for her to be acknowledged and set an undercurrent of frustration which leads to her acting out in the ways she does.

The lesson to take from Toph’s story is not to shelter your kid from the world out of fear for their safety, and to be open to recognizing their talents, not shun them.

Next are two more Unacknowledged.

Katara and Sokka.       

Their story, and the reason behind their circumstances, is one of the more complicated and nuanced ones in the series, so here we’ll focus on how it fits into the subject of discussion.

Because of the War, Katara was robbed not only of her mother but also of any Southern Masters to train her, and any role models Sokka could have looked up to left with his father to fight. Because of this Katara’s potential and Sokka’s genius went unacknowledged not due to neglect but rather due to circumstance. (Yes, I think Sokka is a genius, how many 15 yr olds do you know that can plan an invasion, design submarines, and spit poetry off the cuff?).

This is a further example of how War robs kids of necessary childhood experiences, and these two robberies had particular effects on both Katara and Sokka’s character developments.

Sokka had the responsibility of protecting his home put upon him at a young age. The men of his tribe leaving prevented him from completing his rite of manhood until the Gaang ran into Bato of the Water Tribe, and early on Sokka was constantly trying to prove himself as a man and a leader. Sokka is one of the smarter characters of the series, but he rarely got credit for it until the third season. Not to mention that because he wasn’t a bender he often seemed less useful than the others. The circumstances of war made his talent go unnoticed and because of that he often was unsure of himself and overcompensated to prove something.

Speaking of talent going unnoticed.

Katara is definitely one of the more talented benders of the series. After training herself for years with little progress, she essentially mastered Water-Bending in a few weeks under Master Pakku. While her anger towards the Fire-Nation mostly centers around the loss of her mother, it can’t be ignored that the delay in her training was a direct result of the Fire-Nations’ actions.  Toph’s anger and frustration vented itself as rebellion. However, the same frustration and anger is within Katara, but because she wasn’t as natural a bender as Toph she sought to learn and be respected, and when that was denied to her is when that anger bubbled to the surface in some terrifying ways. 

While Toph’s talent went unnoticed because of her families neglect, Katara and Sokka’s wasn’t acknowledged because there was nobody to acknowledge it. Because of that both brother and sister wanted to prove themselves to the world.

And then there is Zuko.

I know what you’re thinking. Zuko wasn’t a prodigy, his Fire-Bending skill didn’t catch up with Azula’s until the finale and he never mastered Lightning-Bending, but this section is about the Unacknowledged.

Zuko had many other talents besides Fire-Bending, he was a master swordsmen, and was able to successfully break into every secure facility he attempted in the show (which was almost every secure facility the show featured).  Unfortunately, these talents were never recognized, because the only thing the royal family cared about was bending ability (It’s possible the reason he learned the sword was because he lacked skill in Fire-Bending). 

As per usual with Zuko, this part of his tale is quite sad. Many can relate to being outshined by a sibling, and when it becomes all too clear that one cannot match another’s talent it’s quite understandable to focus on what they do excel at, but even then there is no promise of recognition for their own talent. Zuko was even mocked by his father during the solar eclipse when Ozai tried baiting him into attacking with his swords. 

This lack of recognition is one of many sad aspects of Zuko’s early life, but it is a definitive example of one of the hardest unacknowledged prodigy’s cross to bear. The Outshone prodigy, one whose talents are never noticed because a bigger and brighter star stands in the way of such recognition, and arguably the most frustrating type mentioned here. Toph/Sokka/Katara all came from situations were there was no recognition being given to them or anyone, but Zuko had to bear watching massive amounts of praise be piled on to his sister while he and his accomplishments went by the way side.

Ozai summed up the situation best.

“Azula was born lucky, Zuko was lucky to be born”

Alright now where have I been going with all this?

So, far we’ve covered a lot of wrong ways to treat a child, whether they show talent or not, and how the circumstances of war can also take many things from children.

But what happened to Korra?

(Before we get into to this I should state that I like Korra, and the purpose of this is not to bash her as a character or her arc, but rather to give a little of my insight into it.)

It’s well established that Aang was told of his heritage too young, and that was a detriment on his development into an adult, but what would have happened if he realized his powers himself not long after he could walk? We’ll never know, but we do get to see the effects it had on Korra. 

When she revealed herself as the Avatar, Korra set her entire life in a new direction, and because Aang tasked the White Lotus with finding and training her that direction was out of her control. There are two key differences between Korras’ and other Avatars’ lives.

1. She grew up in isolation on a White Lotus compound.

Every Avatar before Korra we know of spent a portion of their early lives traveling the world in order to master the elements; along this journey they not only learned how to bend the other 3 elements, buy also many things about the 3 other nations and the world they are tasked to protect as a whole. By confining Korra in safety and bringing the masters to her the White Lotus deprived Korra of this opportunity to learn and grow and understand the world and the people within in. It also deprived her of learning modern bending styles until she reached Republic City.

While this might have kept Korra safe from the Red Lotus, it grew within her a naiveté about how the world worked, and because of this when she actually did venture out into the world she was terribly unprepared for it.

2.  She was trained and mastered 3 of the elements by the time she was 16.

Most Avatars don’t know they have this power until they reach 16 and then they spend several years learning to control it. Korra’s natural talent in the bending lead to her training being expedited not by necessity like Aang’s, but due to her talent and eagerness. Korra excelled at the physical part of being the Avatar and because of this by the time she reached maturity she had become over-confident in her abilities and true to what her Fire-Bending master said in Ep.1 she lacked restraint.

I’m not saying her bending isn’t great, but rather because it is so great it’s her go-to solution to anything, and she enjoys that so she uses it with enthusiastic gusto and not a lot of thinking before striking.

This overconfidence coupled with her naiveté of the world is what lead to many of her rash decisions and actions, most of which had negative consequences, and I believe are the reason behind some fan are dissatisfied with her. Aang had been almost the complete opposite, even by the age of twelve he was an experienced world traveler and an incredibly humble guy. 

Some may have been dissatisfied by these character decisions, but they served a purpose, they are only the beginning of her arc. The internal challenge Korra must overcome through 4 seasons is to humble herself before the world, and learn from it. This was finally achieved in the 4th season when the metal poisoning in her body forces her to face others in the world as equals, only then had she completed her journey.

And why did it all go this way?

Because she is a very unique child prodigy, what she demonstrates in the first episode of LOK would be akin to a toddler playing the violin or hitting a three-pointer; she could bend 3 elements close to just after learning to walk. That is the kind of prodigious talent rarely seen because it is mostly impossible. How does a rational person handle a child like that? 

It’s a tough question, and something this essay has been circling around the whole time. Each example here is the wrong way to handle talented and different children, but what is the right way?

As always look to Iroh.

Who treated his surrogate son Zuko with both respect and compassion. 

Unlike Toph’s parents, Iroh worried over Zuko’s well being, but also allowed him to be independent, make his own decisions, and take his own risks.

Unlike the Nomad Leaders, he didn’t want Zuko weighed down by his position in the world and the responsibility that came with, and always encouraged him relax and take advantage of the moment.

Unlike Ozai, Iroh would always be there to support Zuko in his victories and his failures. Iroh shows him the right path but does not force him down it.

And even after Zuko betrayed and abandoned him.

Iroh was never angry with him, and embraced him upon his return.

He wanted Zuko to grow and be a better man. Even if Zuko wasn’t a prodigy like his sister. 

And that is the answer here. The way to raise a prodigy is the same way anyone should raise any child. Love, Support, a Guiding Hand rather than a Forceful Shove, Recognition of What Makes Them Unique, and Forgiveness When They Falter. The problem comes along when you start treating children differently because you see them as different or special. All children are different, all children are special.

Kids are kids, and they all deserve a proper childhood.  

#lok #legend of korra #atla #Avatar The Last Airbender #korra #avatar korra #avatar aang #aang #toph #atla toph #katara #sokka #azula #the gaang #zuko #firelord zuko #poor zuko #atlazuko #fire lord ozai #phoenix king ozai #ozai #blue spirit #prodigy #white lotus #red lotus #waterbending #firebending #earthbending #airbending #appa

[delicioussshame]

More, they said. We need more, they said. Well, have more. I don’t think anyone wanted this exactly, but that’s what you’re getting.

Tianlang-Jun might not have been a good father to his only son until now, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t worried about him.

He likes to think he would have made for a decent paternal figure. Not a great dad, but good enough. He’s self-aware enough to know that he could never have been one of those people who, once they see their firstborn’s face, feel their whole world change. Tianlang-Jun had loved only once, and no one would ever surpass that.

Luo Binghe is the only thing of Su Xiyan that remains, and for that alone Tianlang-Jun wants to do right by him, now that he knows he exists.

Since he is their son, he will also make for a perfect heir to his empire, but that’s secondary. Heavens know Su Xiyan had wanted nothing to do with being a high-society wife, hating the idea enough to disappear in the ether with the competency Tianlang-Jun knew and loved about her, making it impossible for him to find her until many, many years had passed and the child he didn’t know existed was almost a man, desperate to make his way into the world.

It was his duty as his father to facilitate this.

He is pretty sure Luo Binghe hates him, which he really can’t blame him for. What did Tianlang-Jun ever do for him before today? But Luo Binghe still accepted his financial backing, the nice apartment he bought for him and the connections Tianlang-Jun offered him, so there exists a concrete link between them.

How can his son run like his dear Xiyan did, when everything he owns has been provided by Tianlang-Jun?

He suspects that won’t last. Luo Binghe is smart, as much as his mother was. He’s probably opening secret accounts and building his own, independent fortune.

Good for him.

But he’s still young, his son, and unused to the ruthlessness of the world they now share. Tianlang-Jun had tried to prepare him as much as he could, and frankly, he thought Luo Binghe more than up to the task, but apparently, he was wrong, since he was entrapped by a most unpleasant man, from what he has heard.

This honestly surprised him. Tianlang-Jun is a loyal man. Su Xiyan wasn’t the type to fool around either. How come Luo Binghe let a ruffian seduce him and take him to bed?

Really, as his father, Tianlang-Jun must verify by himself whether there was any truth in the concerned whispers that had reached his ears.

This would be much easier if Luo Binghe would take his calls.

Since he won’t, he will have to deal with his father’s inopportune visit.

“What are you doing here,” says his dear son, looking very annoyed, as expected.

“Can’t I come visit my only son?”

Luo Binghe very visibly stops himself from saying no and closing the door in his face, probably only because he’s still reliant on his money. “Warn me before you show up.”

Tianlang-Jun wouldn’t cut him off, but Luo Binghe doesn’t trust him not to. That’s a work in progress. “I tried, but none of my calls were answered.”

“Write.”

Children. “I want to hear your voice from time to time. Is that so much to ask for?”

“Look, now’s not a good time.”

Tianlang-Jun blinks, and looks at his feet, where a pair of shoes too small to be his son’s is resting.

A glance over Luo Binghe’s shoulders reveals two tea cups and a plate of snacks on a coffee table, and what appears to be a hastily discarded book.

Tianlang-Jun feels himself smile. If it were just a friend, Luo Binghe wouldn’t have bothered to hide him away. Since he apparently likes men, and wouldn’t drink tea and read books with that reprehensible booty call of his, he has a proper date here.

Good for him. While Tianlang-Jun would have wanted the opportunity of being a grandfather, since he’s never been a proper father, he’s not enough of a hypocrite to demand of his son that he marries well and provides an heir and a spare.

As long as he gets the happiness Tianlang-Jun never quite grasped, he will have his father’s full support. “Far from me to interrupt your date. Can I at least meet him before I go?”

“No! Go away now!”

Tianlang-Jun resists Luo Binghe’s attempts to forcefully push him out. Embarrassing his son by confronting his significant other is his right and privilege as his progenitor. He won’t let such a good opportunity pass him by. “Just a second. I really want to know what your type is, because I’ve heard the most dreadful rumors. Soothe your father’s fears, now would you.”

Luo Binghe starts to sound a bit desperate. “I don’t have to share this with you! Leave us alone!”

A voice makes itself known from behind a nearby door. “Binghe, that’s enough, isn’t it? It will be easier if your father is aware.”

“But Shizun!”

Shizun? The young man escaping the room just now is Shizun? “And you are?”

Tianlang-Jun recognises the façade of a man trying his best to look perfectly in control of himself, and not like he’s facing the father of the younger man he’s dating. “My name is Shen Yuan.”

So that’s Shen Yuan.

Tianlang-Jun is perplexed. He doesn’t look anywhere near as fearsome as rumours made him out to be. Plus, Tianlang-Jun isn’t interrupting a lust-fuelled hookup, but a wholesome tea date.

Something doesn’t add up. “So you’re Shen Yuan. You’re not what I expected. You don’t seem to be in the process of debauching my son, to begin with.”

“You! Shut up!”

Oh dear, he angered his son.

Shen Yuan, for himself, is thoroughly embarrassed. “Whatever you might have heard, pay it no mind. It’s not true, I guarantee you.”

“Of course it isn’t! Shizun is the nicest, kindest, best person I have ever met!”

Shen Yuan turns toward Binghe. “What did we say about calling me Shizun in public?”

…Maybe that’s more than Tianlang-Jun wanted to know about his son’s sex life.

“Shizun is Shizun. I don’t understand why he’s shy. He has nothing to be embarrassed about.”

“Can you please just explain to your father the situation before I die of mortification? Please?”

Tianlang-Jun watches in fascination as Luo Binghe’s anger melts like ice on a summer day under Shen Yuan’s supplications. “Whatever Shen Yuan wants.” He turns toward Tianlang-Jun with evident exasperation. Obviously, he feels like every second he’s not talking to his shizun is wasted time. “Shen Yuan has been my friend for years. We met online. We’re dating now, but for reasons we’re pretending we hate each other. Deal with it.”

Tianlang-Jun hears the facepalm in Shen Yuan’s voice. “Binghe, you can do better than this.”

Luo Binghe pouts. “I don’t want to. He knows enough, he can leave us alone now.”

Tianlang-Jun had no idea his son could pout, or be this petulant.

This visit turned out to be quite fascinating.

Too bad it’ll have to be cut short. While he would love to hear all about the current situation, he was honest in his desire for his son to be happy. Since things aren’t what they seemed, Tianlang-Jun can wait.

Or he can manufacture a better occasion. Namely, a private dinner with his son-in-law, with an invitation sent to his family house, maybe. How could he refuse then? His parents wouldn’t let him. Tianlang-Jun could then grill him in peace about his intentions toward his one and only son.

Then again, maybe not. It might get complicated, depending on their awareness of the situation.

To his private address, then. He suspects it won’t be hard to find.

Anyway. “It wasn’t my intention to intrude, so I will take my leave. Please, enjoy your date.”

Shen Yuan blushes bright red.

What a cutie.

Luo Binghe appears to think so too, if the besotted look on his face can be believed.

Ah, young love. Such a beautiful thing.

Tianlang-Jun can only wish them a more successful romance than his.

#The Scum Villain Self Serving System #Scum Villain #BingQiu #the AU where SY and LBH are both online friends and fellow socialites

[lynzine]

Intimidating

Azula would never show how intimidated she was by her brother. He was pathetic. He bended so late that they thought he wasn’t a bender at all. He was dumb and had trouble remembering their lessons. And to top it off, he got scared of everything.

And that list of weaknesses was what made him so terrifying. Because despite all of that he was right on her heels.

With every firebending form he mastered he closed the gap between them. Azula could feel Father measuring the shortening distance and trained harder to maintain it, to lengthen it if she could.

Zuko didn’t pick up information quickly so he forwent sleep, drilling himself on every subject. Azula had to read ahead and study harder so he wouldn’t pass her without her realizing.

Zuzu got scared, but he pushed past it and did things that gave her pause to prove that he wasn’t.

Zuko never gave up; and, no matter how hopeless the task, he always, always eventually succeeded.

(If it weren’t impossible she’d think he’d made himself firebend by sheer force of will. But he couldn’t have. It wasn’t possible. Not even for him… But he’d been trying so hard- NO. Impossible.)

His banishment was a relief. She no longer had to race to stay ahead of him.

(Sometimes she woke from nightmares of his return. That he’d surpassed her while he was away. Somewhere she couldn’t measure his progress.)

He was never coming back. It was impossible, no one could find the Avatar.

Then the Avatar returned with Zuko right on his trail. And Azula remembered the lesson she once knew better than any other.

Zuko didn’t have to be lucky to achieve the impossible.

Deleted line:

If Zuko hadn’t used up all his luck being born, she’d be the one chasing him.

And that was terrifying.

#Azula & Zuko #Zuko is unlucky #but achieves the impossible #Azula has to keep racing towards perfection because the imperfect Zuko is gaining on her. #Unhealthy sibling competition #Ozai messed up this potentially wholesome dynamic #Zuko pushes Azula to be better #In an unhealthy way. #fanfiction #Azula #Zuko #Ficlet #This is not my favorite version of Azula but it popped into my head and I went with it.

[mikaze-discord]

OG Heavens: Love letters

For these Heavens posts, I had reached out to a few people who just never ended up responding. With projects like these, please at least hear them out, you don't have to do it because I know its a huge project but at least tell them you won't be doing it instead of ghosting them. But apart from that little road block, this project was really fun!!

Please enjoy under the cut!!!!

EIICHI OTORI

From @milkmateartist:

I have always leaned towards megane characters and Eiichi is no exception. However, it's not often you see idols wearing glasses, and that is something I appreciate about Eiichi's design. His color palette also intrigues me since I love deep shades of blue. His royal blue jacket is very attractive, and the way he pops the collar also makes me go "kya!".  His voice is also very sexy as well and is pleasing to the ear uwu. I love how egoistic he is too. Being incredibly ambitious he has been able to reach amazing heights that surpass other idols. The one thing that seems to make him unique though is that he really gets zealous and overly passionate when it comes to the power of music, so much that it makes him physically tremble. You could get high off that shit literally. His entire being is centered around being an idol, and all the components of him go above and beyond the requirements. It's not just a job for him or something that simply makes an earning or brings satisfaction. It's pretty much everything to him. For that reason he has made it to the top. There is also the component where he's lonely and isolated emotionally that interests me. Despite being a beloved idol, he clearly didn't get the love he needed growing up. Even though he had Eiji I feel as though his nature was more to protect Eiji and shield him from whatever terrors would arise. I admire his ability to come through all of that and pay attention to the things he really cared about. Eiichi can be himself, his strange, sexy self, but also he acknowledges the lonesome darkness within too. I think that component makes him incredibly powerful.

Extra Details:

While appearing to be a bad guy in the anime (at least), Eiichi seemed to be that typical bad boy idol that would steal away Haruka from the main group. The time when he approached Haruka and took her by the chin is a perfect example. How dare this new guy just think he can have his way with our protagonist!  To be honest I liked that aspect about him a bit. While I can't remember my first impression of Eiichi aside from not knowing how to feel about that, he slowly grew on me. He had the appearance of just another selfish idol, demonstrated by swiping the mic away from the announcer at one of his concerts and immediately declaring their foreseen victory. So far that looked rather bland to me, and I was still cheering for STARISH. They really made him out to look like some bad guy who would not play fair and do whatever he could to take the throne (and the girl).  It's not surprising his glasses shine adds to his 'freaky antagonist' vibe that the show seemed to try to give off, but however for me I love the glasses beam, thus having the opposite effect.

And then there is the Next Door episode. Now here's where we got to see more of Eiichi aside from when the HEAVENS Dragon demolished the entire stadium. Aside from kya-ing over the EiichiOtoya content (especially where he goes behind otoya and covers his eyes), I got to see more of him here. It surprised me that someone so cocky and confident was actually the same depressed, lonely person that Otoya was. But it was also evident to me as well that he did care about the effect it had on Otoya as well after he sort-of-well mind broke him. I like how he is ambitious but also still caring, as compared to an antagonist that would stop at nothing to achieve their goal regardless of how much pain they cause.

I also enjoy Eiichi because I feel like I can roleplay him well. Usually for me, roleplay has to achieve some kind of goal since I tend to be business oriented. I think to some degree I'm able to practice being a eboy idol through Eiichi, as I do enjoy charming the fans. It also helps that I can naturally play characters with an inflated ego who enjoy charming people.

From @/egoisticCEO on twt:

July 2019. When Eiichi was first introduced to me via his voice, I hated him from the very beginning. His singing, his appearance, his personality – everything about him made me despise him. It’s funny looking back and seeing how quickly my attitude changed towards him, realising I’d been biased against him because of a friend. Finding more about him, hate turned to interest. It seemed like his life hadn’t been the best. Maybe that was why he acted in such a way? Interest turned to liking him more. Maybe I’d misunderstood him. I’d made the mistake of taking him at surface level.

December 2019. Like was slowly turning to love. More and more, I found myself looking at him instead of my current favourites. I found myself wanting him to actually be a part of Egoistic. Once I started devouring HEAVENS Radio and unveiling his true character, it was shocking how quickly I fell. He truly acted like a father to everyone in his band. Giving them what he never received. Everything was for them to thrive.

2020. With how much I was at home, it only made sense I grew more obsessed. I found Life with Thanks’ translation. “We’re irreplaceable to him,” he tells us, and that made me certain that his heart wasn’t as evil as some people liked to believe. He’s a caretaker, someone who wants everyone to feel like they matter. Even at his own expense. Instead of selfish, he’s selfless.

I related to him more than I have to any character – it was comforting. Seeing someone have no choice but to put on a brave face, even when his confidence was at an all time low. 2020 got a lot harder for me, but when I recovered, Eiichi was like a home to go back to. Time and time again, I’d have to break away, but I’d always be invited back in by that stupid smirk and overexaggerated ego and the warmest heart you could ever find. Every scene I watched with him would make me smile. I’d tease him to myself. I still do.

2021. That brings us to now. I can’t see my love for this one of a kind man dying any time soon. I don’t want it to, either. Just looking at him makes me happy! He’s the type of character with so many facets to his personality that you can keep digging and never reach the end. So, in conclusion, I hope I never stop finding new things out about this wonderful idiot. More than anything, he deserves all the love he gives to others, and I’d love to provide it tenfold.

KIRA SUMERAGI

From Anon: 

Many have their reasons to love their favorite characters. As for me, why Kira Sumeragi is my favorite character is because there are several things about him that I can relate myself to and there are a few qualities he has that I like about him. If many do not know about Kira that much, they’d look at who he is. He may look intimidating at first and may not talk much, when in actuality, Kira is a considerate, dependable, and mindful guy. Mainly, he is the type of guy that lets his actions do the explaining. He is a hard worker, as an idol, he looks after his bandmates, HEAVENS, like family. It’s like what Eiichi said in HEAVENS Radio about Kira, “he is HEAVENS’ pride!” Although he may not say much, Kira is very observant of his surroundings and never hesitates in his decisions. The members of HEAVENS understand and acknowledge Kira, knowing that he means well.

You can even tell in his solo music! Although there are only two solo songs for Kira, if you read the lyrics carefully, Kira’s thoughts and feelings are shown. Kira always knew that if he cannot explain his feelings through words, then he’ll let his songs and his actions do it for him for you to see.  Although the anime doesn’t show much of Kira, the only way to get to know him more is through HEAVENS Radio, also drama CDs like Paradise Lost, and other media like LINE Messenger Japan. There’s still much that I’d want to know about him, but as a start, these things are what makes Kira my favorite character for HEAVENS.

From Anon: 

Aside from my huge bias towards OnoD the first thing that drew my attention to Kira was his design. Dark haired anime boys with bright eyes have such a vibe and I loved how mysterious he was set up to be in season 2. But the thing that really hooked me a lot was the found family that Heavens became over the progression of the anime.

Particularly since people in the fandom have a bunch of funky headcanons about Kira being the mom friend in the group, which is incredibly wholesome. Kira’s very quiet and reserved but clearly holds a deep caring for his group members and does what he can when needed which is one of the reasons why he became so loveable for me.

NAGI MIKADO

From @/_PXRFECTIONIST on twt: 

If I managed to stan Nagi, so will you.

Greetings. I present to you, once more, a story of how I came to love a character that I wished I threw hands with.

So.

Nagi Mikado.

The possible only utapri character that Shinomiya oshis despise. Thanks to what happened in the anime.

Truth be told, I too was one of them. Until I came to love Both Shinomiya and Nagi. Reason?

Research.

Ya see, it is universally agreed upon that the way Nagi was pushing and pulling at Shinomiya's trauma and DID was… Not okay. So I said "yeah okay what an obnoxious kid i dont think ill ever like him lol" especially since I never come to really warm up to people younger than me.

Boy was I wrong.

My heart really sways easily when I go deep into characters, and why they act the way they are. And also because I chose to roleplay as him, but let's not. Speak of that.

(its actually the main reason i like him in the first place who am i fooling)

Nagi is… Indeed obnoxious, and really has bad manners that are covered up by his cute looks and fame, especially since he's one of the original HEAVENS members, but once you get to really know him.. It makes sense why he's being such a brat. And that is sort of endearing. And knowing how his group is like family to him too, it becomes harder and harder to completely dislike him.

….

He really is a boss man.

He knows what he wants, and how to get it. He knows how to get people to like him without handing over the tiniest sliver of his weaknesses. He acts in his own way that shapes his personality to suit him, yet still manages to be caring and helpful, even if it's hard to see tenderness and good will through his aggression.

Reading his solo lyrics, listening to the drama CDs, even thinking of headcanons due to lack of lore, it all slowly comes together like a lovely parfait to suddenly make you realize..

'Wow…'

'I really do like that rat.

#utapri #utanoprincesama #uta no prince sama #eiichi otori #otori eiichi #Kira Sumeragi #Sumeragi Kira #Nagi Mikado #Mikado Nagi

[dwellordream]

“Doubtless many reigns have begun amidst an atmosphere of jubilant expectation; but this beginning had an especial lustre. For the new king, accession to the throne brought deliverance from a long, probably oppressive subjection to a stern father and grandmother, and released him into the bright, cloudless warmth of gaiety, freedom and power. He stood now on the brink of manhood, suddenly clad with the full panoply of kingship. He ascended a throne which his father had made remarkably secure, he inherited a fortune which probably no English king had ever been bequeathed, he came to a kingdom which was the best governed and most obedient in Christendom. Shortly before his death, his father had granted a general pardon to his people. The new king confirmed this - in ampler form. 

His father left him a body of accomplished ministers, most of whom would continue to serve him. But those two men, Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley, who had served Henry VII's money-gathering and law-enforcement so assiduously, and whose 'unreasonable and extort doing noble men grudged, mean men kicked, poor men lamented, preachers openly at Paul's Cross and other places exclaimed, rebuked and detested' - these would be cast aside. Within a few hours of his accession Henry had been so roused to wrath by tales of their wrong-doing that, even as he came to the Tower amidst the trumpets and rejoicing on that 23 April, the second day of his reign, they were seized and brought thither as prisoners, where they languished until their execution sixteen months later. 

'Heaven and earth rejoices; everything is full of milk and honey and nectar. Avarice has fled the country. Our king is not after gold, or gems, or precious metals, but virtue, glory, immortality.' So wrote Lord Mountjoy to Erasmus in a celebrated, and, as it proved, somewhat inaccurate, outburst of enthusiasm. There had come to the throne the very perfection of Christian kingship - gracious, gifted and enlightened - and with his coming, it seemed, bleak days must give way to bounteous prosperity. The new king quickly married; and, after all, he married Catherine. He himself said that he did so in obedience to his father's dying wish, but it may well be that his story of Henry VII's deathbed change of heart was invented shortly afterwards to placate the Habsburgs whose daughter, Eleanor, had just been jilted. 

Fuensalida believed that it was the young king himself who brought about the change of plan, and this may be the truth. Five days after Henry VII died, the ambassador was still convinced that Catherine's cause was lost and quoted two members of the Council to the effect that the dying king had assured his son that he was free to marry whomsoever he chose. Then the situation changed radically. Fuensalida was suddenly called before the Council and, to his astonishment, not only assured of the king's fervent goodwill towards the princess, but told by the bishop of Durham, Thomas Ruthal, who had at that moment emerged from a meeting with Henry in a nearby room, that such matters as Catherine's dowry were trifles and that the king looked to him to settle quickly all the details concerning the marriage; whereupon he withdrew in some bewilderment and set about recovering the possessions of the princess which he had already begun to transfer to Bruges.' 

Six weeks later, on 11 June, the marriage between Henry and Catherine was solemnized in the Franciscan church at Greenwich. A little while before there had been some talk of a possible scruple about his marrying his dead brother's widow, and many years later Bishop Fox recalled that the archbishop of Canterbury, William Warham, had disapproved of the union, apparently because he doubted the sufficiency or validity of the now six year-old bull of dispensation - though on what ground he did so we are not told. Warham's qualms were to be of consequence nearly two decades hence when the lawfulness of this marriage became a matter of impassioned debate; but for the moment any doubts there may have been were brushed aside as a proud king undid the protest he had made at his father's command three years before and finally (and freely) ratified his union with a princess who, though five years his senior, was probably still beautiful and certainly of a quality of mind and life which few queens have seriously rivalled. 

At least outwardly, her husband was, and had been since childhood, immensely striking. Ten years before, Erasmus had strolled over to Eltham in the company of Thomas More to meet the royal children and been much impressed by the grace and poise of the eight year-old Duke Henry. By the time he came to the throne he had burgeoned into a full-blooded seventeen year-old, upon whom Nature had showered apparently every gift. 'His majesty', wrote a dazzled Venetian shortly after the new reign began, 'is the handsomest potentate I ever set eyes on.' He was tall and splendidly built, with glowing auburn hair 'combed short and straight in the French fashion' and a pink round face so delicately cut 'that it would become a pretty woman'.' 

He was 'extremely handsome. Nature could not have done more for him,' one said a few years later, in 1519. 'He is much handsomer than any sovereign in Christendom; a great deal handsomer than the king of France, very fair and his whole frame admirably proportioned.' His was a superlative body. He was a capital horseman who could stay in the saddle for hour after hour and tire out eight or ten horses; he exulted in hawking, wrestling and dancing; he excelled at tennis, 'at which game it is the prettiest thing in the world to see him play, his fair skin glowing through a shirt of the finest texture'. He could throw a twelve-foot spear many yards, withstand all-comers in mock combat with heavy, two-handed swords, draw the bow with greater strength than any man in England. 

In July 1513, while at Calais on his first campaign, he practised archery with the archers of his guard and 'cleft the mark in the middle and surpassed them all, as he surpasses them in stature and personal graces'. Above all, he delighted in prowess in the ring and at the barrier, the sovereign sport of princes. Through the summer of 1508 the prince of Wales, still only just seventeen, had hurled his keen, tireless body into the fury of the tournament and excelled all his opponents, and his accession to the throne would inaugurate a festival of apparently endless jousting and tilting, at which the king ever carried away the prizes. 

When Erasmus first met him on that day in 1499 - standing with his sisters Margaret and Mary and his infant brother Edmund, soon to die - he 'sent me a little note, while we were at dinner, to challenge something from my pen'; whereupon Erasmus, unable to perform extempore, spent three anxious days composing an ode entitled 'A Description of Britain, King Henry VII and the King's Children' and a eulogy of Skelton (who had doubtless been the true author of the boy's message), to which he added some odds and ends scraped together from the bottom of his trunk to form a literary nosegay worthy of the young duke.' 

Seven years later Erasmus wrote to Henry and received so accomplished a reply that he was convinced that someone else had had a large hand in its composition. But Lord Mountjoy, his patient patron, showed him a number of letters from the prince to various people in which there were so many signs of corrections and additions that Erasmus was forced to abandon his scepticism. Presumably Skelton and Hone pushed Henry's pen to paper, for in later life Henry was never an industrious letter-writer - except during those months twenty years or so later when romantic passion got the better of sluggishness and drew from him some rather heavy sighings for his absent beloved, Anne Boleyn. But Henry was undoubtedly a precocious, nimble-minded pupil. 

He knew Latin and French and some Italian. He is said to have acquired some Spanish, and about 1519 had a sufficient (if passing) interest in Greek to receive instruction in this fashionable language from Richard Croke, a minor English humanist who had hitherto been at Paris, Louvain, Cologne and Leipzig, and was now to teach at Cambridge. His grasp of theology may have been less assured than he supposed, but it was remarkable for a king; he showed himself an apt student of mathematics; and it was his custom to take Thomas More 'into his private room, and there some time in matters of astronomy, geometry, divinity and such other faculties, and some time in his worldly affairs, to sit and confer with him, and other whiles would he in the night have him up into the leads [i.e. the roof] there to consider with him the diversities, courses, motions and operations of the stars and planets'. 

Above all he was a gifted, enthusiastic musician. He had music wherever he went, on progress, on campaign. He scoured England for singing boys and men for the chapels royal, and even stole talent from Wolsey's choir, of which he was evidently jealous. Sacred music in the Renaissance style - the work of Benedict de Opitiis and Richard Sampson, later bishop of Chichester - was introduced into the royal chapel in 1516 and sung by a choir judged by an Italian visitor to be 'more divine than human'; and between 1518 and 1528 the king acquired a collection of French and Netherlandish music. Henry had many foreign musicians at court, like the violist Ambrose Lupo, the lutenist Philip van Wilder from the Netherlands, as well as trumpeters, flautists and two Italian organists, de Opitiis and the famous Dionisio Memo, organist of St Mark's, Venice, who was lured to England in 1516 and would sometimes perform for four hours at a stretch before the king and court. 

There were twenty-six lutes in Henry's collection of instruments, together with trumpets, viols, rebecs, sackbuts, fifes and drums, harpsichords and organs. The king himself played the lute well; he could manage the organ and was skilled on the virginals (which perhaps John Heywood, his virginalist, taught him). He had a strong, sure voice, could sight-read easily, and delighted to sing with a courtier like Sir Peter Carew 'certain songs they called "freeman's songs", as "By the banks as I lay" and "As I walked the wood so wild" '. His court was a generous patron to composers, headed by the great Dr Fairfax, if not Henry himself - for the king wrote at least two five-part Masses, a motet, a large number of instrumental pieces, part songs and rounds. 'Pastime with good company', 'Helas, madam' and perhaps 'Gentle prince' are his work; so too the motet 'O Lord, the maker of all thing' - no mean achievement for a monarch. 

Henry has traditional.ly been seen, alongside James IV of Scotland or the colourful, versatile Emperor Maximilian I, as the archetype of resplendent Renaissance monarchy; and the praise which Erasmus and other humanists heaped upon the zeal for learning and the arts of this king who had been so generously endowed in mind and body seemed to justify this picture of him. But, though Erasmus could speak stern words about monarchy and wealth, he was a shameless flatterer of kings and the wealthy, and we should treat his outpourings with caution. If anything, Henry was the last of the troubadours and the heir of Burgundian chivalry: a youth wholly absorbed in dance and song, courtly love and knight-errantry. 

He was to grow into a rumbustious, noisy, unbuttoned, prodigal man - the 'bluff king Hal' of legend - exulting in his magnificent physique, boisterous animal exercise, orgies of gambling and eating, lavish clothes. 'His fingers were one mass of jewelled rings and around his neck he wore a gold collar from which hung a diamond as big as a walnut', wrote the Venetian ambassador, Giustinian, of him. He loved to dress up and his wardrobe, ablaze with jewels of all description and cloth of gold, rich silks, sarcenets, satins and highly-coloured feathers, constantly astounded beholders. He was a man who lived with huge, extroverted ebullience, at least in the earlier part of his life, revelling in spectacular living, throwing away money amidst his courtiers on cards, tennis and dicing, dazzling his kingdom. 

Many readers will have their chosen picture of him - Henry, cock-sure and truculent, astride one of Holbein's canvases; Henry, dressed in dazzling richness and with a huge gold whistle, crusted with jewels, hanging from a gold chain, dining with his queen aboard Henry Grace a Dieu on the occasion of its launching; Henry walking up and down More's garden at Chelsea for an hour with his arm round More's neck;' Henry showing the Venetian ambassador his fine calf and demanding to know whether it was not a finer one than the French king boasted; Henry, at Hunsdon, over twenty years later, holding his precious son Edward in his arms and bringing him proudly to a window 'to the sight and great comfort of all the people'.

He was a formidable, captivating man who wore regality with splendid conviction. But easily and unpredictably his great charm could turn into anger and shouting. When (as was alleged) he hit Thomas Cromwell round the head and swore at him, or addressed a lord chancellor (Wriothesley) as 'my pig',' his mood may have been amiable enough, but More knew that the master who put his arm lovingly round his neck would have his head if it 'could win him a castle in France'. He was highly-strung and unstable; hypochondriac and possessed of a strong streak of cruelty. Possibly he had an Oedipus complex: and possibly from this derived a desire for, yet horror of, incest, which may have shaped some of his sexual life.”

- J.J. Scarisbrick, “The New King.” in Henry VIII

#henry viii of england #tudor #history #j.j. scarisbrick #jj just had to throw that freudian psych in there

[linkspooky]

Hello! Do you think that one day, Deku's flaws will have consequences? You pointed out that Shigaraki always face consequences for them, so in your opinion, do you think the manga could lead to something more equal on this? I know he is the Hero and all, but wouldn't it undermind the whole thing if in the end he just ignores the society's problems by just pushing heroism as the miracle solution?

Good question, anon. Let’s take a more serious look at Deku’s flaws. Deku so far has two main flaws. 

Self-Harming - Deku has consistently valued himself less than others. His way of saving others almost always includes breaking his own body, and when you consider how low Deku’s self esteem is and how he was constantly told he would never be good enough to be a hero growing up this pattern of behavior borders on self-harming. 

Hero Worship - Deku doesn’t question anything about hero society, which makes him incredibly naive and unaware of what’s going on in the world around him. Deku hasn’t done anything yet to seperate himself from being just another All Might Wannabe. Deku wants to save people, but doesn’t really even know what saving people means. 

Deku doesn’t care if he gets hurt, and Deku doesn’t sympathize with villains, even ones who have sympathetic reasons for their actions, and this has led to Deku running off without thinking to try to fight Shigaraki to the death. 

1. Self Harm

So one possible interpretation of Deku’s habits of breaking his body when trying to save people is that he’s internalized the idea that without a quirk, he can’t become a hero. Everything that other people including bullies like Bakugo told him when he was younger, that he’s worthless because he was born quirkless, that he can’t become a hero, over and over again is still inside of him. 

Even what All Might tells him at first is a repettition of this idea. Deku can only be a hero if he’s strong. What’s most important to becoming a hero is strength, and having a strong quirk. Even though All Might eventually opens up the path for Deku being a hero, he only lets him after he proves his strength. Deku has to reach a certain power threshold before he’s even allowed to be at the starting lines. 

Every single character in class UA is hardworking, but Deku is especially characterized as being OBSESSED with training, and also being the one who pushes himself to such extremes that his body is constantly on the verge of breaking. 

Deku as a character is constantly told how worthless he is, because he wasn’t born with a quirk, because he’s borrowing someone else’s power, because he didn’t deserve to succeed All Might. Deku’s response to this has always been to try to prove his worth by pushing himself. 

Deku’s very unhealthy idea of what a hero is, also resembles what All Might told him in the first chapter. That heroes have to risk their lives in incredibly risky ways like this in order to walk the walk. Deku has always worshipped All Might’s way of always sacrificing himself without realizing what absolute havoc All Might wreaked on ihs body. 

Deku’s habit of breaking himself has shown to have had some consequences so far. It made his mom cry. He was warned that he would do permanent damage to his left arm if he ever suffered a serious break like that again and would even eventually lose it. There’s also All Might’s early forced retirement which happened because he kept on going when everyone told him to stop, which is a possible future for Deku if he doesn’t seriously change his ways. However, there is no lasting consequence yet. 

Another thing that’s important about Deku’s character is that he wants to be a hero so badly, and yet doesn’t really seem to know what kind of hero he wants to be. 

Deku so far has imitated All Might in a very empty way, without ever thinking that the heroes he loves so much might be flawed, or really understanding how many mistakes All Might made. His hero worship blinds him to the hero’s flaws, and when he’s confronted with All Might’s mistakes he’s often completely blindsided.

All Might keeps secrets from him pretty regularly, and Deku just doesn’t question him because he’s just so busy in his hero worship. Due to that a lot of Deku’s progression as a character has stagnated. Even his idea of what a hero is, is extremely vague at best. 

Deku says he wants to be the greatest hero who saves everyone. Much like Mirio who wanted to be a hero who saved a million people. However, what does that mean? How is Deku going to surpass All Might. He hasn’t really thought about these things yet, or what kind of hero he’s going to be. 

Because Deku can’t see the flaws in the hero system he can’t really be better than the previous generation of heroes. 

2. Self Destruction

Deku has a critical lack of self awareness. His goal is to save everyone, but he doesn’t really think of what that means. Aren’t villains in need of saving too? This relates back to the Dabi quote. 

Who is it that really needs saving? 

Villains need to be stopped, but what creates those villains? 

Deku’s sympathies always lie with the pro-heroes but he’s so wrapped up in hero worship he doesn’t really think about their actions. Remember, Deku’s last big fight against this was against Chisaki a child abuser to protect Eri, an abused child. 

Eri doesn’t just resemble Shigaraki. Eri is Shigaraki. They’re both children who were kidnapped by crimelords when they were young, told that they were monsters because of their quirks, and then experimented on. Shigaraki can’t consent to being experimented on because he was kidnapped since he was five and groomed all along with the intent that one day he would have this surgery performed on him so he could inherit AFO. 

Ujiko commits horrible grievous experimentation on Shigaraki, and then says he’s doing this all for Shigaraki’s sake, that he’s given him everything. He’s supposed to sound like an abusive parent here. 

So this time rather than fighting to save Eri, Deku is fighting against Eri’s foil, but all grown up, with about zero self awareness. What allowed Deku to win in the fight against Chisaki was his ability to see the good in Eri, and fight against Chisaki’s insistence that she was a monster because she was born with a dangerous quirk. He humanized Eri.

But, his response to Shigaraki is consistent dehumanization. Deku fought against Chisaki’s dehumanization of Eri, but is on the side of people who say things like this about Shigaraki. 

It’s once again this blind loyalty and inability to question what we see is an extremely flawed system. Who is it in this situation that really needs saving? Endeavor? Gran Torino? 

Gran Torino is partially at fault for the creation of Shigaraki, because if he had stopped Nana Shimura from abandoning her son, or even checked up on Koutarou and Tenko just once this entire situation could have been avoided. 

It all goes back to Dabi’s question. Who is the one who needs saving here?

The biggest victims of the hero system, the ones most in need of saving are the villains, but Deku can’t see that, so he can’t really do anything to help them right now. 

And yes. Deku should save Shigaraki. That’s the point of their foiling. They’re both Jungian Shadows of each other. 

In Jungian psychology, the shadow, (also known as id, shadow aspect, or shadow archetype) is either an unconscious aspect of the personality that the conscious ego does not identify in itself; or the entirety of the unconscious, i.e., everything of which a person is not fully conscious. In short, the shadow is the unknown side.

Shigaraki is Deku’s foil and opposite, but they’re also like... the exact same dude. 

The fact that Shigaraki started in the same place as Deku, that what he really needed was for someone to tell him that he could be a hero too, isn’t just there to be sad and tragic. It means that deep down, Shigaraki still wants someone to tell him he can be a hero, to show him another path other than being a villain, the same way All Might once told Deku he could be a hero. 

The shadow is a part of yourself.  The shadow is who you are deep down inside. That’s why a shadow can’t be killed.  It’s the same thing as self destruction. 

A shadow has to be reconciled. Part of self improvement is just learning to accept and look at the worst parts of yourselves in order to move on from them. You don’t get better by denying or remaining ignorant of the problem. Deku has consistently refused to even acknowledge Shigaraki. 

Deku has said I can never understand you, we’re nothing alike, and yet we as the audience know they’re like the exact same guy. There’s no point in setting up such a parallel unless it’s going to be paid off in some way.

Deku’s not trying to accept his shadow though, he’s fighting with everything he has to destroy his shadow, and that shouldn’t work. 

Metaphorically.

It’s like Deku is trying to destroy himself. Which as I’ve said above Deku has a tendency to be self destructive. Star Wars doesn’t end with Luke killing Darth Vader, it ends with Luke reconciling with Anakin his father. 

Deku is warned several times in the last chapter not to charge straight ahead at Shigaraki, not to fight him on his own. We even see Bakugo in the flashback talk about how Deku doesn’t consider himself in the equation, or think about protecting himself at all which is why he destroys his own body so much.

So, if even Bakugo is like Deku you’re going to get yourself killed, and every adult around him is yelling at Deku to run away because he might get himself killed, and Deku himself thinks.  I don’t care what happens to me I’m going to destroy Shigaraki no matter what. Then, there should be a conseqeunce here.

 Because this. This is self destruction. Deku’s trying to kill the guy that is... literally just him. 

In other words if everybody if yelling Deku don’t do the thing. And then Deku just, does the thing anyway. There should be a consequence!  Deku’s goal isn’t to destroy Shigaraki, or to kill him to put a stop to him, it’s reconciliation with his jungian shadow. It should be to become the hero who saves everyone, by telling Shigaraki the words he wanted to hear for a long time that he can be a hero too. FInally passing on the words All Might gave him to someone else, and making up for the previous generation’s mistakes with Shigaraki. 

So, not only is Deku attempting to do the wrong thing. He’s also fighting in the wrong way (by hurting himself again). 

Which means, Deku probably shouldn’t win this fight. A good consequence would be Deku losing here, even with the last minute power up, and breaking his entire body trying to defeat Shigaraki. 

Characters are most interesting when they fail, and Deku should fail here. 

#Anonymous #deku #izuku midoriya #shigaraki tomura #tomura shigaraki #tenko shimura #mha meta #my hero academia meta #my hero academia theory #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #metasks

[epicofevil]

Character Popularity Poll

Epic of Evil page 40-62

After the conclusion of the “Daughter of Evil” novels and the announcement of this fanbook, we opened up a character popularity poll! It was held on Twitter between June 16th and June 30th, and we received a ton of votes. Here we’ll tell you the order, as well as share some of the red hot comments they got!

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1st place with 89 votes

Allen Avadonia (Prince Alexiel)

(Kagamine Len)

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Profile

Age: 14 at death (485-500)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia

Race: Orthodox Lucifenian

Religion: Levin, Levia sect

Relatives: Father; Arth I (deceased), Mother; Anne (deceased), Sister; Riliane, Adoptive Father; Leonhart (deceased), Adoptive Sister; Germaine

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He’s a servant who works in the Lucifenian royal palace, but in truth he is Riliane’s twin brother, Prince Alexiel. During the revolution he is executed in Riliane’s stead.

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-Due to an event that occurred when he was young, Allen as a prince was publicly declared dead. He works as a servant surrounded by his friends.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 02 Kagamine Len of “Kagamine Rin/Len” published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

“The Servant of Evil” is the reason I got sucked into AkunoP-sama’s music in the first place.

Allen-kun is the best!

I was really moved by Allen’s kindness at prioritizing Riliane over himself. I think there are probably some people who don’t think he’s kind because he betrayed so many people, but I think “doing it all for the person you want to protect” is itself a different sort of kindness.

Obviously it’s Allen. His words and deeds made me cry my eyes out.

I love how brave he is, and that he was willing to do anything for Riliane’s sake.

He really struck me with how he protected Riliane to the end. I was also about the same age as Allen when I first bought the book, so I was kinda taken in by him being such a naïve young man.

He’s really cool looking!!!

His level of kindness that he devoted himself to his sole blood relative Riliane and ultimately took her place is really amazing…!

He was alright with becoming evil if it was for Riliane’s sake. He did all that for his sister; for Riliane he used his sword to kill people, he can ride a horse, he protected his sister—he’s just really cool!!

What an amazing loyalty he has…Allen supports his sister and the rest!! He’s so awesome, I wanna be like him!!

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Artist’s Comments

AkunoP: I rather expected him to be the most popular.

Ichika: Wow, he really was well received.

AkunoP: Unfortunately, he died in the first book, so I wasn’t really able to delve into his character much from the third book onward.

--Rin probably had also moved on from Allen at that point.

AkunoP: I figured things might get pretty dark if I had too many developments that reflected back on the past. I also thought it might not fit with the feel of the third book onwards. However, there’s no way that Rin forgot about Allen, ever. She’s just hesitant to let it show on the outside. And it wouldn’t be all that good for her to show it to anyone, given her position. She’d get found out, lol

--That’s for sure (haha). How about you, Ichika-san?

Ichika: I think he’s sort of like, the most wholehearted character of the main cast. Like coming to help even after he’d already died.

AkunoP: In a certain way, in the latter half he turns into more of a super character than Elluka, lol

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2nd place with 35 votes

Clarith

(Yowane Haku)

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Profile

Age: 21--26 (born 479)

Nationality: Elphegort--Kingdom of Lucifenia

Race: Netsuma

Religion: Levin Held sect

Relatives: Father (died when she was young), Mother (died in 499)

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She was discriminated against by Elphe people for being a descendant of the Netsuma clan with white hair and red eyes. She had a negative personality, but that changed when she met Michaela.

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--Though she was quite negative, she was able to become a bit more positive through her relationships with Michaela and Rin.

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*This character was based on “Yowane Haku”, a derivative of the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 01 Hatsune Miku published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

It’s partially because I really like Haku ane-san, but there’s also her earnest devotion to Michaela, her strength for forgiving Riliane despite having every reason to hate her…I’m not Michaela, but you’re the most wonderful person, for me! Especially how cheerful you were after the revolution in “Praefacio of Blue”, Clarith-san!

I want her to be happy

I like seeing her working so hard.

She feels like the only true “everyman”. So I feel like she’s also the character who “grew” the most. Her meeting with Rin at the monastery on the shore was so sad, I was really touched. I think that Riliane was able to reform as Rin because she had Clarith there for her.

Clarith is so precious, being so negative but also caring for her friends!

I wanna try the brioche that Clarith makes!!

I like everything about her!

I admire her for being so strong.

She’s so dedicated and adorable///

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Artist’s Comments

AkunoP: I think she’s the character who grew up the most through the whole series.

Ichika: She grew the most as a person.

AkunoP: I wanted a character who could see the revolution and the events around it from the perspective of the average person. That was how I came up with Clarith. Actually, she’s a character I came up with even earlier than Elluka, around the same time as the early four. So I’ve gotten pretty attached to her.

Ichika: It feels really good to see her progression from a passive personality to someone who takes action for herself. Also, her catchphrase of “I’m sorry for being alive” is way too easy to use. I found myself blurting it out once while I was working.

AkunoP: That was originally inspired by Daizai. So that might be a bit dangerous as a catchphrase, lol

Ichika: I make sure I only say it when I’m alone in my room, so it’s alright, haha.

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3rd place with 32 votes

Riliane Lucifen d’Autriche (Rin)

(Kagamine Rin)

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Profile

Age: 14--19 (Born 485)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia

Race: Orthodox Lucifenian

Religion: Levin Levia Sect--Held sect

Relatives: Father; Arth I (deceased), Mother; Anne (deceased), Brother; Alexiel (Allen) (deceased)

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The princess of Lucifenia. For her outrageous policies she is reviled as the “Daughter of Evil”. After the revolution she lives at a monastery, hiding her true identity.

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--Having survived the revolution, she started a new life in a monastery as “Rin”.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 02 Kagamine Rin of “Kagamine Rin/Len” published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

I really love that scene where she accepts whatever Clarith is going to do to her after Clarith learned the truth, because it shows how much Riliane has grown up over the story.

I want her to live and be strong.

In this story with so many feelings intersecting, she is such a cool and strong fantasy girl who fought without being swept away!

I earnestly love her. Just lots of love. From the heart.

She really is kind! And she has a sense of responsibility! And she’s so so cute!! And she was so cute as a small child too, I love her to bits! She did get possessed by a demon and all, but she’s really a good kid!!

I want her to be happy…

I think she’s a character that I’ve come to like as I’ve read through the “of Evil” series. I want to support Riliane with all my might, surpassing so much grief to grow up like that. I mean, what I’m trying to say is that Riliane is really cute.

She’s the yellow flower of evil in full bloom!

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Artist’s Comments

AkunoP: I was really unsure of her role in this. I think the people who listened to the original song were largely split into two points of view. That she was just bad from the core, or that it was the fault of outside influences... In the end, she wound up how she is now.

Ichika: I think Riliane’s another character whose personality and general air changed completely between the former and latter halves of the story. There is the change in environment from princess to nun, but I think myself that Allen is the biggest influence.

--Riliane is one of the characters who grew up in a big way.

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4th place with 29 votes

Elluka Clockworker

(Megurine Luka)

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Profile

Age: Secret♥

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia--Stateless

Race: Leviantan

Religion: Levin Levia Sect

Relatives: NO DATE

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A sorceress with a mysterious air about her, and one of the Three Heroes of Lucifenia. Under request of the great land god Held, she is on a journey to search for the “Vessels of Deadly Sin”.

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--Are her farsighted values, unwavering strength, and the humanity that she sometimes displays the secret key to her popularity?

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 03 “Megurine Luka” published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

She’s so strong and smart, and a beauty on top of that! She might seem irreverent but she pulls through when it counts, and always winds up helping people. I also think it’s adorable how bad she is at being straightforward with what she wants to say. She’s surrounded by so much mystery and I’m just caught up in it! I like her and I can’t help but be curious about her!!

She’s strong, she’s so strong, so strong. And that scene where she fought with Abyss was so cool!

She’s mysterious, and when all is said and done she’ll help you out, so I really like her.

Whether she’s making any S-like scowls or looking like a beauty, I love it all!

She’s got this feeling that she’ll pull through when push comes to shove, which makes her really cool.

I’m really enchanted with how, as irreverent as she is, she gets on task and focused in situations where she needs to toughen up and get focused.

She’s a really amazing woman, with a lot of depth. I kinda like how playful she is.

I love how Elluka’s so suspicious.

She acts happy go lucky, but her past that you can glean from the Leviantan Catastrophe and Recollective Music Box is way too sad.

I love heeeer!

That mysterious feel she’s got really kills me! Though I guess I like how free-spirited she is, lol. I really wanna learn more about Elluka’s circumstances!

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Artist’s Comments

--She finally showed up on the cover this time!!

Ichika: Seriously…!

AkunoP: That’s just ‘cause she’s a character that never showed up in the original song. You could say it was inevitable in a sense that she couldn’t come out before this point, lol, but I think the inverse of that is that it’s because she didn’t show up before that she’s been so easy to work with. She’s such a mature character that through the whole series she’s had a sort of feel to her that she’s always got some leeway.

Ichika: Elluka’s been such a steady character this whole series. She’s been alive for such a long span of time that she’s gotta be very well-put together mentally. I like characters like that, so I had a lot of fun drawing her.

--There are a lot of opinions up there that they like how she always comes around to helping people, aren’t there.

AkunoP: Well, she is a bit on in years…Er, nevermind.

Ichika: She does seem very helpful.

AkunoP: She’s got a lot of things on the inside that I haven’t written about yet, probably owing to being a character with a lot of leeway, but in her case I do think that she’ll have a lot of opportunities to show up elsewhere, so…That’s in production, lol

--We’ll wait for the Deadly Sins Series with baited breath! Looking forward to it!

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5th place with 26 votes

Kyle Marlon

(KAITO)

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Profile

Age: 26(claims to be 22)--31 (born 474)

Nationality: Marlon

Race: Marlon

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Father; Previous king of Marlon (deceased), Mother; Empress Dowager Prim, Sister; Ney (different fathers), half-brother; Arkatoir (different mothers), countless other siblings of different mothers (all dead)

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The young ruler of Marlon. He’s very vexed at being a puppet of his mother, Empress Dowager Prim. He has a very straight-laced personality with a strong sense of justice.

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--Though his status is as a king, he often stands on the front lines and goes out in disguise.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID Character “KAITO” published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

His bravery when it comes to Michaela is just too cute!

That he was able to overcome the temptations of a demon a second time, despite knowing a demon’s power and having been reliant on them before, and went out to fight with his own power was just so awesome…!

He may be a troublemaker(?) who inadvertently glosses over his age, but Kyle-niisama really pulled through when it came down to it, and I love him for it!

I feel like he’s the character that gets messed with the most, but I really like him a lot (haha).

My vote goes to the young king who experienced love and hatred, came vast to face with his weakness, and in the end majorly grew up.

He’s so pitiful it’s adorable~ And I think he’s a relatively tasty character!!

I wanna shout it out! I frikkin’ love him!

No matter how he’s wavered, no matter how he’s tempted by demons, in the end he stood on his own two feet. I just love him for that!!

I really like his personality. His conversations with Germaine were really funny!

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Artist’s Comments

AkunoP: I’ll say this now that it’s all over, but in the end I did end up liking this character. Only, I didn’t actually want to write him as being that cool.

Ichika: He participated in the revolution, he fell in love, he transformed into a demon…Now that I think on it, he’s a busy guy.

AkunoP: I feel like he’s the character that single-handedly undertakes the idea of “human weakness”. I mean, I don’t think he’s that cool if you look at just his actions, lol.

--The comments calling him “precious” and “incompetent” really stood out.

AkunoP: That’s cause he’s not a hero at all.

Ichika: Looking at him overall I guess he is pretty incompetent...lol

--There was also a comment calling him the “hunky sad king”(haha).

Ichika: lololol

AkunoP: I think that’s perfect lol

--You can’t even get him to follow-up(haha)

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6th place with 25 votes

Gumillia

(Megpoid)

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Profile

Age: 1028--1033 (appears 16--24 on the outside)

Nationality: Elphegort--Kingdom of Lucifenia--Stateless

Race: spirit--Elphe

Religion: Levin Levia sect (publicly)

Relatives: Held (lord), Michaela (same race)

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A sorceress who was a spirit incarnated into a human. She searches for the “Vessels of Deadly Sin” alongside Elluka as her apprentice. She has a very level and calm personality, but she also has a side that’s very caring about her friends.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Artist Vocal character “Megpoid” published by Internet Co., Ltd.

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Fan Comments

I really love the way she talks. And I don’t think I’m the only one who got excited at her wearing glasses in Praeludium. Her and Elluka make a really good duo. I’m really looking forward to seeing their actions in the Pere Noel period in the novels to come. I’m guessing she’s the one who made that handgun.

She’s so cool and awesome! Her glasses really suit her!

She’s very blunt but I really like how that contrasts with how caring she is for her friends.

Her clumsy broken speech is just so incredibly cute!! And she’s so strong!!

I’m just…really interested in Elluka and Gumillia’s journey after this!

The fact that she put on glasses…And I’m very intrigued as to this “important person” that she decided to stay human for!

I wish she could have stayed with Michaela forever.

Obviously it’s Gumillia!

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7th place with 19 votes

Germaine Avadonia

(MEIKO)

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Profile

Age: 20--25 (Born: 480)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia (erased)

Race: Beelzenian

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Adoptive Father; Leonhart (deceased), Adoptive Brother; Allen (deceased)

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The adoptive daughter of one of the Three Heroes of Lucifenia, Leonhart, as well as Allen’s adoptive older sister. She is the “red-armored swordswoman” who garners acclaim as the leader of the Resistance.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID Character “MEIKO” published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

She’s really stylish. I admire her.

I think it’s so cool that she’s such a gallant woman. I wanted to become someone like her too!!

Those words she said when she came face to face with Rin in the last novel and realized it was Riliane just left me speechless. I really like Germaine’s weak and strong points.

I really love her big-sisterly disposition and compassion. I want her to be happy (。・ω・。)

A woman swordswoman is so cool! She’s so amazing! I feel like she’s the hottest person in all of Daughter of Evil lol. Her line “Just what in the world is evil” in Yellow is my favorite line in all four novels. I want to read how she wound up in Beelzenia after the Revolution.

That line she says during the work about how fast her wounds heal unexpectedly won me over all at once.♪

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8th place with 17 votes

Ney Marlon(Phatipe)

(Akita Neru)

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Profile

Age: 18--23 (age at death) (482--505)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia—Marlon

Race: Marlon

Religion: Levin Behemo sect

Relatives: Mother; Empress Dowager Prim, Older Brother; Kyle, Several other siblings of a different mother, Adoptive mother; Mariam

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Mariam’s adoptive daughter, who takes up a position as head of Marlon’s Special Maneuvers Task Force. From a very young age she was raised by IR as the subject of magical experimentation.

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*This character was based on “Akita Neru”, a derivative of the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 01 Hatsune Miku published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

Through the work I thought she was a villain the whole time, but after reading Praefacio of Blue I realized that she was actually just a very sad girl. I wish she could have been happy.

The sad end of her life, continuing to be led around by the nose by Prim and a demon, was just tearjerking.

I love her rampaging in the duel scene in Praefacio.

I would be in utter bliss if Ney stabbed me.

I won’t forgive the people who used Ney like that. She’s just too sad. Even though really she was a good kid…

Her crazed expressions, her outfit, I just love everything about her.

She did a lot of horrible things, but Ney was also a victim of the vessels of deadly sin…Also, I absolutely loved Ney wearing Lady Conchita’s dress!

Her crazy face is the best!!!

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9th place with 11 votes

Gast Venom

(Camui Gackpo)

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Profile

Age: 39 at death (461—500)

Nationality: Stateless

Race: Asmodean

Religion: NO DATE

Relatives: Little sister; Sarah (deceased)

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A skilled swordsman who bears the moniker, “Demon of Asmodean”. He is searching for one of the “Vessels of Deadly Sin”, the “Venom Sword”.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Artist Vocal character “Gackpoid” published by Internet Co., Ltd.

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Fan Comments

I’m really intrigued by his past. I want to learn more about him, and at the same time I’m hoping we get more info on his excessive sister complex.

You really gotta hurry up with his past mysteries surrounding his sister, Sarah…!! I really like samurai, so I adored the scene where he was fighting with a Japanese sword.

I think he’s really pretty lol. And I liked his how he let Allen hire him because he sympathized with him. During the work I wanted to learn more about the past they alluded to.

It’s too bad he’s only in one book. I wanted to see him do more.

I’m really curious about his sister!

He didn’t show up much but he was really cool!

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10th place with 10 votes

Gallerian Marlon

(KAITO)

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Profile

Nationality: USE

Race: Marlon

Relatives: Wife, daughter

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Kyle Marlon’s descendant. He’s the head judge of the Dark Star Courthouse of the international alliance of USE, founded between the four countries of Marlon, Levianta, Elphegort, and Lucifenia in the year 898. He treasured his daughter, but she passes away in an incident.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID Character “KAITO” published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

I love the greedy juuudge!! Also the fact that he has a kid. I bet he’s a good cook too. I’m really looking forward to the novel for greed in the new series.

He’s so cool! He’s such a kind father, worrying over his daughter! If you want help, show me the money!!!

I really love the corrupt, miserly judge! The fact that he’s a father who’s caring for his daughter that we learned at the end of Praefacio…Makes me wonder if he’s actually a good guy.

I like Gallerian-san.

First of all, I’m just crazy about the middle-aged, fatherly Galle-sama. I can’t help but be enraptured with him as he persists in pushing his own will even until the very end! I hope he can achieve his utopia!

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11th place with 9 votes (tied)

Yukina Freezis

(Kaai Yuki)

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Profile

Age: 9—14 (Born: 491)

Nationality: Marlon

Race: Marlon

Religion: Levin Held sect

Relatives: Father; Keel, Mother; Mikina, Little Brother; Shaw, Younger Sister; Aile

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The eldest daughter of the Freezis household. She is an exceedingly popular novelist who made her debut as an author at nine years old. She has created a great many popular works, and her name lives on in posterity.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Vocaloid student “Kaai Yuki” published by AH-Software Co. Ltd.

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Fan Comments

I like how she’s just brimming with curiosity. And that scene where she reunited with Clarith was great.

I love how strong-willed she is!!!

Actually, I was always watching over Yukina’s adventures with my heart racing, like I was her big sis or mother lol

She’s so cute!! I was so excited when I saw that Gallerian-san was reading the books that Yukina-chan wrote in the distant future!!

She’s really grown up… I really wanna read that “Crow” fairytale that got brought up in Praeludium.

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11th place with 9 votes (tied)

Chartette Langley

(Kasane Teto)

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Profile

Age: 26-31 (Born: 474)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia (erased)

Race: NO DATA

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Father, mother

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The head of the Langley unit in the Beelzenian Empire. She is the bearer of extraordinary strength, wielding an enormous sword. She was originally a maid that served in the Lucifenian palace.

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*This character is based on “Kasane Teto”.

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Fan Comments

She has a very lively and simple personality. I think she’d be a fun person to hang out with.

She’s a power fighter who wields a longsword, and I really like her straightforwardness.

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I read all four books just because I wanted to read about her gallant figure in it.

She’s one of the few characters in Daughter of Evil to live for the moment rather than being stuck in the past, and it’s really incredible how she’s more about taking action than dwelling on things!

I really love this dummy. Her appearance is adorable but it’s too bad she isn’t at all in how she talks lol

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13th place with 8 votes

Michaela

(Hatsune Miku)

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Profile

Age: 1028—1033 (as a human she dies at 16)

Nationality: Elphegort

Race: Elphe

Religion: Levin Held sect (publicly)

Relatives: Held (lord), Gumillia (same race)

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She was originally a spirit, but she became known as a “diva” when she was reborn into a human. After ending her life as a person, she continued to watch over the world as Held’s successor.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 01 “Hatsune Miku” published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

I want it so she can be happy with Clarith (>_<)

I was really moved by her kindness *

She was so precious, and she was so kind helping out Clarith

I really like her duet with Clarith. I was a little surprised at her being yuri (?)in Wiegenlied, but I think their feelings towards each other, mutually surpassing a friendship, are awesome. I hope she does her best as the new Held god.

I knew she was going to die. I knew it, but, but…I really wish she could have been happy.

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14th place with 7 votes

Riliane (Lily) Mouchet

(Lily)

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Profile

Age: 25 (Born: 480)

Nationality: Marlon (formerly Kingdom of Lucifenia)

Race: Lucifenian

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Father; Gaston (deceased)

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The original commander of Retasan fortress, with a strong-minded personality. She hates the name Riliane, and so goes by “Lily”.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Artist Vocal character “Lily” published by Internet Co., Ltd.

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Fan Comments

Gosh I love her ♪(　´０´)ノ

I love her strong-willed personality. The whole time I was reading the book I thought, she’s so cool.

I really love that awesome atmosphere she’s got!

I’m sure I’m not the only one that went all, “It’s Lily!!”. I just love this handsome tomboy general, she’s so awesome. I think it’s her remarks that made it so that Germaine was able to move on ahead. I also love her partnership with Yukina-chan. They’ve got such a great height difference, lol

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15th place with 6 votes (tied)

Keel Freezis

(Hiyama Kiyoteru)

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Profile

Age: 27--32 (Born: 473)

Nationality: Marlon

Race: Marlon

Religion: Levin Held sect

Relatives: Wife; Mikina, Children; Yukina (eldest daughter) Shaw (eldest son) Aile (youngest daughter)

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A merchant who serves as the head of the merchant trade association. He’s also friends with Marlon’s king Kyle. He’s a doting father, and so when it comes to his children he’s relentless.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Vocaloid teacher “Hiyama Kiyoteru” published by AH-Software Co. Ltd.

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Fan Comments

Love his being a sappy parent and his affection for Yukina. And I’m also intrigued by his conversations with Kyle.

That doting father is just the best!!

The disconnect between his harsh, bad-friend tone towards Kyle and his unending devotion to his daughter is so lovable.

That doting father Keel is adorable lol That scene where he gets furious at Kyle for hugging Yukina was just the best lolol

Him being a loving father is amusing, but his face as a merchant and his friendship (mean friendship?) with King Kyle is also just right on point.

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15th place with 6 votes (tied)

Ayn

(--)

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Profile

Nationality: Elphegort

Race: Elphe

Relatives: Father (deceased), Mother (deceased)

Notes: A boy from Yatski village. Had an unrequited love for Clarith. After Clarith and Michaela fled to Aceid, he enlisted in the Elphegort military. During the Green Hunting he ran to the forest to help save Michaela and Clarith after they were cornered, but he was murdered by the Lucifenian army chasing after them.

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Fan Comments

‘Cause he helped guide Clarith and Michaela until the end. But it was so sad that he couldn’t tell Clarith how he felt about her. I hadn’t been expecting him to write that scene with Yukina and the rest praying before his grave in the third book, so I was really happy for that.

Because even though it was Clarith he really wanted to protect, he protected Michaela, and was so kind.

I wish he could have been happy with Clarith!

He was the hottest guy in the whole work. I wish he could have done more.

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17th place with 5 votes

Leonhart Avadonia

(LEON)

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Profile

Age:  38 at death(462—500)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia

Race: NO DATE

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Adoptive children; Germaine, Allen (deceased)

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Allen and Germaine’s adoptive father. He’s one of the Three Heroes, and works as the head of the guard for the Lucifenian royalty. Like Germaine, he likes to drink.

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*This character was independently made based on VOCALOID “LEON” published by ZERO-G.

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Fan Comments

I cried when he died.

His interminably direct personality is so cool.

Those kids have him as a dad, or else this dad has them for kids. They’re a family, even if they’re not related by blood.

I love the older guys ha ha I love him so much, I was so disappointed at how quickly he died in Cloture.

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18th place with 3 votes

Anne Lucifen d’Autriche

(SWEET ANN)

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Profile

Age: Died at 42 (457—499)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia

Race: NO DATE

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Husband; Arth I, Daughter; Riliane, Son; Alexiel

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The former queen of the Kingdom of Lucifenia who possessed both strictness and grace, and also Riliane and Allen’s birth mother. She was friends with Empress Dowager Prim of Marlon.

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*This character was independently made based on the VOCALOID 2 “SWEET ANN” published by PowerFX.

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Fan Comments

She didn’t get much screentime, lolol but I think she’s great with her dependability and grace.

I would have liked to see a record of her child-rearing work when Riliane and Alexiel were still little ankle biters. Maybe she was an unexpectedly scary mom (and conversely maybe King Arth spoiled them).

I think she was a fantastic queen. I tear up when I think about how the twins’ fates would have changed if she’d still been alive…Also, I’d be really happy if we could see her again in something set in the past.

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19th place with 2 votes (tied)

Mariam Phatipe

(MIRIAM)

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Profile

Age: Died at 32 (468—500)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia

Race: Asmodeanian

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Adoptive child; Ney

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A very skilled secret agent, and one of the Three Heroes. Also a former associate of Gast’s. Her duel with Chartette during the revolution was talked about as the “Battle of the Heavenly Yard”.

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*This character was independently made based on VOCALOID “MIRIAM” published by ZERO-G.

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19th place with 2 votes (tied)

Aile Freezis

(Tsukuyomi Ai)

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Profile

Age: 10 (Born: 495)

Nationality: Marlon

Religion: Levin Held sect

Relatives: Father; Keel, Mother; Mikina, Big Sister; Yukina, Big Brother; Shaw

 .

The second daughter of the Freezis family. She takes after her mother in appearance and personality, and so has inherited her mature standing. She’s had a weak constitution ever since she was young, and for a time Mikina would be constantly tending to her.

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*This character was based on the VOICEROID character “Tsukuyomi Ai” published by AH-Software Co. Ltd.

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19th place with 2 votes (tied)

Prim Marlon

(PRIMA)

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Profile

Age: 48 at death (457—505)

Nationality: Marlon

Race: Lucifenian

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Husband; Previous King Marlon (deceased), Son; Kyle, Daughter; Ney (deceased), Younger brother; Presi (deceased)

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The Empress Dowager of Marlon, and Kyle and Ney’s birth mother. She’s a Lucifenian noble, born from the Rogzé family.

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*This character was independently made based on VOCALOID02 “PRIMA” published by ZERO-G.

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19th place with 2 votes (tied)

Arkatoir Marlon

(?)

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Profile

Nationality: Marlon

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Race: Marlon

Relatives: Father; Previous King Marlon, Mother, Half-brother: Kyle, countless other half-siblings (all dead)

 .

 .

19th place with 2 votes (tied)

Banica Conchita

(MEIKO)

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Profile

Age: 29 at death (296—325)

Nationality: Beelzenian Empire

Race: Beelzenian

Relatives: Father; Muzuri, Mother

 .

The figure who serves as the model for the fairytale “Vampiress Vanika”. She earned great distinction improving on Beelzenia’s food culture.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID Character “MEIKO” published by Crypton Future Media.

 .

 .

19th place with 2 votes (tied)

Ma

(--)

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Profile

Age: NO DATE

Nationality: NO DATE

Race: Jakokuan

Religion: NO DATE

Relatives: NO DATE

 .

 .

19th place with 2 votes (tied)

The Demon of Gluttony

(MEIKO)

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Profile

Race: Demon of Deadly Sin (takes on the appearance of Banica)

Vessel: Glass of Conchita

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The demon that dwells in the “Vessel of Deadly Sin, Glass of Conchita”. She is trying to become the “Master of the Graveyard”.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID Character “MEIKO” published by Crypton Future Media.

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26th place with 1 vote (tied)

Abyss IR

(?)

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Profile

Age: NO DATE

Nationality: Marlon--Stateless

Race: NO DATE

Religion: NO DATE

Relatives: NO DATE

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A sorceress secretly working in the shadow of history. She’s the one who taught Prim about the “Vessels of Deadly Sin”, and always carries around a red cat. What is her true identity--?

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26th place with 1 vote (tied)

Shaw Freezis

(Tsukuyomi Shouta)

 .

Profile

Age: 12 (Born: 493)

Nationality: Marlon

Race: Marlon

Religion: Levin Held sect

Relatives: Father; Keel, Mother; Mikina, Big Sister; Yukina, Little sister; Aile

 .

The eldest son of the Freezis family, and Yukina’s younger brother. He’s cheeky, but he’s also a young boy who puts his family first. He’s studying know-how on modern commerce as Keel’s heir.

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*This character was based on the VOICEROID character “Tsukuyomi Shouta” published by AH-Software Co. Ltd.

 .

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26th place with 1 vote (tied)

Mikina Freezis

(miki)

 .

Profile

Age: 32 (Born: 473)

Nationality: Marlon

Race: Marlon

Religion: Levin Held sect

Relatives: Husband; Keel, Children; Yukina (eldest daughter), Shaw (eldest son), Aile (second daughter)

 .

Keel’s wife, and mother of three. She has a very good eye for people, but when it comes to her children she turns into a bit of a worrywart.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID2 Artist Engine01 character “SF-A2 codename miki” published by AH-Software Co. Ltd.

 .

 .

26th place with 1 vote (tied)

Eve Moonlit

(Hatsune Miku)

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Profile

Age: NO DATE (~014)

Nationality: Elphegort

Race: Elphe

Relatives: Husband, children (stillbirth), two adoptive children

 .

The “Original Sinner” who was the impetus for the creation of the “Seven Deadly Sins” and the “Vessels of Deadly Sin”.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 01 “Hatsune Miku” published by Crypton Future Media.

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26th place with 1 vote (tied)

Sateriasis Venomania

(Camui Gackpo)

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Profile

Age: NO DATE (~137)

Nationality: Beelzenian Empire

Race: Asmodean

Relatives: NO DATE

 .

The duke of Asmodean in the Beelzenian Empire. He used a “Vessel of Deadly Sin” to cause the “Venomania Incident”.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Artist Vocal character “Gackpoid” published by Internet Co., Ltd.

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26th place with 1 vote (tied)

Trauben fruit

(--)

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Profile

Producing area: Entire Evillious region

Classification: Flowering vine

Traits: The fruit grows in bunches, and can be made into things like wine.

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We counted 366 votes in all!

Thank you for all the poll responses!!

directory

[heinzpilsnergonewild]

Vegeta’s Character Analysis Looooooooooong Read

Oh my, what can I say? I just really love to write long essays in a language that isn’t even native to me, lol.

Well, nobody’s perfect, I guess. ... Were you expecting a Cell joke here? I may not be perfect, but that doesn't mean I have to be that predictable.

Ahem, anyway.

This isn't exactly a psychological analysis of the character - more like, hmm, a storytelling analysis. Or something in between, really.

You may not find anything fundamentally new in this text, but I definitely had fun writing it, haha.

It's mostly amateur. I have a useless psychology degree, but not a literature one.

My classic rant about vegebul fics is included, of course.

Summary: proper psychological analysis requires a single continuous personality, which Vegeta simply doesn’t have.

The more I think about Vegeta, the more I come to the conclusion that he is only pretending to be a consistently evolving character.

In fact, he's a bit like 10 different characters in one, which abruptly replace each other (and that's without considering the difference caused by the voice actors’ approach and the changes in his looks). Essentially, Vegeta's a collection of disparate images, arbitrarily lined up by Toriyama and hastily glued together. And the beginning of this line is so far from the end of it that these two extreme images cannot be perceived as belonging to the same person. Well, because human psychology just doesn't work that way.

(Not that Vegeta is unique in this respect – it’s a common feature of characters in long stories that authors compose as they write. Still, his case is quite extreme and interesting as example.)

I mean, take Vegeta in the Saiyan or the Namek arc. He's a complete psychopath. He clearly doesn’t suffer at heart from the unnecessary violence (as, for example, Guts from Berserk). His behavior looks like something natural for him, not an unhealthy defensive reaction. He enjoys it, he smiles happily, killing and torturing weak innocent people. And such a degree of psychopathy is not something that can be healed by a couple of deep personality crises or years of peaceful family life. Vegeta's redemption arc works through strong emotional impact and forgetfulness of the audience, but makes very little sense when viewed in retrospect.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Perhaps the biggest, hmm, splitting of the personality occurred with Vegeta right after the Namek arc. Toriyama had already made a small retcon of the character’s motives before (to include Vegeta in the context of the Freeza army after the Saiyan arc), but it didn't feel that drastic.

You see, until Vegeta was invited to Bulma’s house…..

(Gosh, Toriyama, you could’ve done it more subtly, really. Vegeta killed Yamcha, threatened to kill Bulma, gutted Zarbon in front of her eyes, slaughtered an entire Namekian village... Oh well.)

…Ahem, anyway, right up to Bulma's invitation, Vegeta looked to me like a character who, hmm, has a life of his own? I mean, you have always felt that his motives and behavior were generated by the bizarre social system, not related to the little world of Goku and his friends. Simply put, Vegeta was a natural product of the big space civilization, an organic part of it. His whole personality was formed by it, all his plans, motivation and ambitions were associated with it. And although in the Saiyan arc, he gave the impression of an independent entrepreneurial chief at the head of a small hierarchy, in the Namek arc it was revealed that Vegeta is actually far from independent. He lost his throne and his people, he was in slavery to the tyrant all his life, and wants to take power for himself. So, his social background and the motives caused by it post factum get much more complex. But in short, Vegeta wanted a highest possible position in the hierarchy he knew. In this way, he was… social? His belonging to the Saiyan race was only a small (although important) part of the overall picture. Because the Saiyans were dead, but the Freeza Empire was alive.

But when Toriyama realized Vegeta's popularity and decided to keep him in the story after Namek, it came as a blow to the character's personality. Apparently, the author simply couldn't come up with an elegant way that could keep the character in all its complexity around, and therefore did a very clumsy thing. He roughly cut Vegeta out of his social context and almost forcibly glued him to the main character group like a poorly done appliqué. But although you see rough edges and glue drips, the story moves on rapidly, distracting you with Freeza and Future Trunks, and you don't stop to think about what happened. This is how, almost imperceptibly, Toriyama changed Vegeta's motives (and, consequently, the basis of his personality). Yes, Vegeta's saiyan pride was also significant part of his character previously, but when it became his sole and central motivation after Namek, you feel like a very big and important piece of him has been arbitrarily cut off. This wouldn't have happened if Toriyama had followed the logic of previously established social motives, rather than his desire to make Vegeta a convenient figure. Now, bound hand and foot by the author, the character is forced to behave as the plot requires.

Still, all this can be justified by the fact that Vegeta experienced a deep emotional shock as a result of death, which forced him to rethink his life priorities and wait for Goku (especially in the manga, where he just lived with Bulma for a whole year after Namek, without even trying to use dragonballs) ... And then he waited for the androids (despite the final death of Freeza and his father, which was an excellent chance to try to take over the decapitated empire). Anyway, this rationalization doesn't negate the fact that the character, as a result, has lost a significant part of the fire that he demonstrated in the Namek arc. His new energy, the energy of obsession with surpassing Goku, turns him into a new character – bitter, marginalized and focused on training.

(Ironically, the very splitting that made him a less attractive character in my eyes allowed vegebul to take place. After all, imagining the romantic relationship of the nice Bulma and Vegeta at the height of his villainous ambition is really difficult. That just would be a psychologically implausible story.)

In the Android and Cell arcs, after brief glimpses of the SSJ superiority, Toriyama turned Vegeta into a plot tool, whose personality flaws he could use to spoil the situation favorable for the heroes. As a result, Vegeta continued to be an angry and unhappy character who has lost most of his charisma, but on top of that, he also started to be really annoying. ... Still, also kinda amusing thanks to his truly impressive inability to draw obvious conclusions from the ego bruises he gets.

(If you ask me, the character's biggest contribution to the Cell arc was to ignore the existence of condoms, lol. Although strictly speaking even it was an achievement of Future Vegeta (RIP). But seriously, Vegeta's relationship with Trunks turned out to be one of the few things that I was really interested in about this part of the story.)

And then there was Goku’s death and the 7-year-gap. ... At the end of which Vegeta still didn't look like a happy man who has found his place in the world. Even though he had seven whole years (and a spaceship) to change something. I mean, this is the case when it'd be logical to expect changes in the character, but for some reason they didn't really happen (or they did, but veeery quietly and unstable). I mean, Vegeta trains with Trunks, yes. And he's married to Bulma now, apparently (which we learn only at the end of the arc though). And he hasn’t killed himself yet, which means that he sees some meaning in his existence. Hurray, I guess?.. The problem is that when we first see Vegeta after the timeskip, he keeps walking around with such a sullen expression, as if Goku had died just yesterday. (Remember Vegeta in the Saiyan arc? He smiled quite often. For the wrong reasons, but hey.) Basically, Toriyama tried to sit on two chairs at the same time here - 1) keep Vegeta as recognizable as possible (because he hasn't decided what to do with him yet) and 2) keep him around (which doesn't make sense for the character if he hasn't undergone significant changes during the timeskip). And the result of this hesitant approach is an undesirable effect - it feels as if Vegeta hasn't built a new life for himself all these years, but only waited for Goku to return.

As if the man is unable to evolve without Goku's influence. Until Kakarot does or says something, or is just around, everyone else in Vegeta's life and his own reflection has little or no meaning. Old social ambitions? His wife and child? New insights gained from life on Earth? Pffft. Goku is able to destroy the seven years’ worth progress (no matter how small it may seem) in one day, and at the same time, one fight with him is enough for Vegeta's character development to jump forward explosively. It sounds like a solid ground for shipping, but In fact it’s just a direct consequence of the author's poorly chosen narrative structure.

The thing is, Toriyama tend to avoid romance and slices of life, and shows Vegeta's personality mainly through fights and their consequences. And at the time Goku just turned out to be the only significant character for Vegeta, the fight against whom could be used as an excuse to develop the character in front of the audience. Well, Toriyama couldn't get Vegeta to fight Bulma or himself, you know.

I believe that the plot structure chosen by the author (rapidly changing action events immediately after a long timeskip) is not a very good basis for a redemption arc. For a good redemption, a character had to have screen time during which small changes accumulate gradually, between the big points. And Vegeta simply didn't have it. Besides, the scheme by which Vegeta develops is really messy. Because at first, Toriyama kinda froze his development at the neutral point (thereby partially devaluing the influence of Vegeta's family on him). Then in one moment, the author abruptly reversed even this the-end-of-the-Cell-arc development with Majin Vegeta (this time completely devaluing the family factor, because the betrayal was Vegeta’s conscious decision). God, how I hated the Majin Vegeta idea. And in the next scene, the author made a quick retcon, which gave the family’s influence the status of a ground for Vegeta’s personal growth again for no apparent reason. It's as if a huge bundle of family values was post factum squeezed into the character in defiance of everything that we just saw with our own eyes. This is a complete narrative mess.

But... oddly enough, Vegeta's redemption still manages to work, and work spectacularly. My guess is that it's because by that time the audience is already SO sick of Vegeta, frozen in his bitter anti-heroism, that it desperately wants the author to finally do something new with the miserable guy. Well, at least get him out of his misery. So people are willing to accept it in any possible form.

... And the author chose the form of a powerful emotional catharsis. The explosion was legendary, haha.

I don't even know if this is a good reason to call Toriyama a genius (after all, he found a very clever way out of a difficult situation, in which he found himself thanks to his own bad decisions.)

The only thing I'm sure of is that despite everything I was very sad because of Vegeta's death. I didn't even realize that I had become emotionally attached to this asshole until he made such a spectacular exit, lol. As if something had broken inside of me, and all the analyticity of my mind couldn’t prevent it. I was surprised when I found myself crying really hard - usually my emotions don't reach this level due to fictional stories. (Well, maybe it was due to the fact that my own father was dying of cancer at that time, and the moment just triggered my emotions. ... Oops, it seems a little too personal, doesn't it? Well, at the end of the day, this fact is an integral part of my unique dbz experience. Come to think of it, in dbz, fathers die regularly).

But while this scene greatly affects emotions and forces a new viewer (or reader) to truly reconsider their attitude towards the character for the first time, the absence of a neat gradual movement towards this moment weakens its influence somewhat.

At this point, Vegeta’s character splits once again (perhaps the last time within DBZ). You simply cease to understand who this man really is and who he was before.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, when I look at all the images of Vegeta in general, I come to the conclusion that I like this character the most in the first two arcs and in the end of the last arc. Two directly opposite moral poles.

(Funny enough, because my initial reaction to Vegeta and Nappa was annoyance: "Well hello, the next stereotypical villains who like to chat and laugh maliciously instead of simply killing their victims." (Still, against the background of Freeza, Vegeta turned out to be a much lesser evil in every sense, haha). You see, usually I'm not a person who likes villains. Basically, I only distinguish such characters from others as a result of romance or redemption. It’s only after that I begin to see aesthetics in their villainous charisma as well.)

And now, in retrospective, I believe that at the beginning of the story Vegeta is at the maximum of his vitality and charisma. Especially compared to his ever-crisis moody version (who supposedly lives happily with a loving family). In the Saiyan arc, he's objectively the most powerful character (Freeza didn’t even exist in Toriyama's head at the time). Vegeta is domineering, playful and unpredictable, but most importantly - his self-confidence is fully justified. Oh well, it was good while it lasted. He's really in control. These are, if I may say so, quite exciting qualities in a man, haha. Even if he looks like an evil dwarf in stupid armor and bullies some weaklings. I'd even say his demeanor in the Saiyan arc (especially with the voice of early Horikawa) is suspiciously easy to translate into a sexual context (well, until he loses control and gets hysterical, lol).

The Namek arc, placing Vegeta in a broader context, somewhat spoiled his original image (after all the big words, it turned out that he was running errands for Freeza all this time), but gave him a more interesting background and a strong drive. He had ambitions and a socially significant goal, and he actively and passionately fought for them against a clearly superior enemy. In addition, his inability to defeat Freeza by brute force forced him to use his brains from time to time, and not just pull another power up out of his ass, as is now traditionally done in DragonBall. (Needless to say, I consider high intelligence to be one of the most attractive traits). All this made his position in the plot as interesting as possible. He literally sparkled with energy.

Well, we know what happened next. Brain Death, an eternal chase after Goku, and an off-screen family life on a backwater planet that Vegeta is supposedly happy with. Until he suddenly became a really beautiful character without a proper justification for this (well, at least the explosion was spectacular). Really, I like the general concept of redemption, and yet... the way Toriyama portrays it in the story just doesn't work convincingly enough for me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another point I’d like to cover in this already too long essay ahhh I'm a monster is Vegeta’s personality in fanfiction.

Reproducing (?) Vegeta is a bit like playing with a lego set - his personality and behavior is always the result of a conscious reconstruction, which is based around a specific point on the long contradictory line. Depending on which end of the spectrum the chosen point is, the author is forced to shade facts related to the opposite end, or to give new context to Vegeta's past (or future) actions. It's always noticeable when the author extends the later, sympathetic Vegeta's image to an earlier segment of the story. Apparently, it's possible to kill the person who raised you (with an evil smile on your face) just because the situation was too stressful lol. Likewise, when the authors allow Vegeta to remain a charismatic psychopath, the story wouldn't work without ignoring some parts of the later canon.

(And, of course, there is always a "medium" type of Vegeta - Vegeta from the 3-year-gap, whose personality is almost entirely based on anime fillers. Yay, here comes the promised vegebul rant

Honestly, I'm pretty tired of this "gravity room exploded again woman grrr" type of Vegeta.

Because if you take the manga, we have no idea how Vegeta actually behaved with Bulma and her parents, what his training regimen was, and what he did in his free time besides unprotected sex. People elevate his rudeness and irrational self-torturing to the absolute because of all these filler patterns, but this is just one of the possible versions of the events and the character's behavior during this time (albeit partly canonical). But... there are also alternatives. There are smart Vegeta, curious Vegeta, civilized Vegeta. Honestly - I don't think Bulma would've married him later if there was nothing in his personality that’d make communication with him enjoyable. I mean, she's a rich modern woman, she doesn't need a husband just for convenience and Vegeta is a marginal freeloader anyway. And if we subtract good looks (which people often attribute to Vegeta) from the equation, then the idea that he has no interest in anything other than training and cannot maintain an interesting conversation becomes completely unconvincing. Toriyama clearly didn't attach much importance to the fact of their marriage, and generally avoided romantic scenes as if they were on fire (and, perhaps, did the right thing), but these two just had to be capable of adequate and mutually pleasant personal interaction in order to take this step.

In general, Toriyama's lack of attention to most aspects of the characters' lives other than fighting and training, on the one hand, can be considered a drawback of DBZ, but on the other, it creates a lot of room for fans' imagination. But not everyone uses it. Most authors generally repeat the same tropes over and over again and don't try to look at the three-year-gap from a new angle, although the canon provides all the possibilities for this. Because of this, fics in this genre often seem boring. But in fact, it's not the setting itself that is boring, but only dusty formulas in the heads of the authors.)

Ahem, so where were we?.. Oh yes.

Actually, Vegeta's inconsistency is a very handy character trait for the authors, as it minimizes the chance of accidental OOC. Indeed, it's quite difficult to make someone to behave out of character if he has many different canon versions of himself, lol. On the other hand, this leads to the fact that the character seems to... kinda disintegrate. You never see his whole face, because he simply doesn't have it. As a result, Vegeta turns into a mosaic that must be reassembled each time. And I keep staring at this crazy kaleidoscope like an idiot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, that's... quite a lot of contradictions in my relationship to Vegeta, haha. Still, life without contradictions would be somewhat boring, I guess.

Thanks for your attention I suppose?..... lol, as if someone really got to this point

The End.

P.S. 1: The antisocial version of Vegeta who doesn't understand stupid human rituals and hates crowds, but puts up with it for the sake of his family is my spirit animal, haha. This is just so damn relatable to my autistic personality. Maybe I'm an alien myself.

P.S. 2: Actually, my favorite dbz character is Piccolo. Yep.

#vegeta #it's really long #3260 words kind of long