Completely self indulgent post but here's one of the post-canon scenarios I have in my head for G Gundam.
Maybe skip this post if you don't like dark themes. Not all of what I've outlined is dark (most of it isn't), but I do cross the line past what appears in the show in regards to DG cells and abduction.
The shuffles all get roped into restoration projects on Earth between the 13th and 14th gundam fights, partially to have something to do alongside their training, partially out of inspiration by the common points of the Kasshus' and Master Asia's goals, and partially because netting their countries some decent publicity is likely to earn them favors during the Gundam Fight's off-years.
Sai is contacted by Kyral about an effort to clear out the infamous buildup of trash and cadavers on Everest; he wants Sai to leverage Neo China's help as something of a reparation kind of deal and Sai goes sure why not.
Sai recruits Argo because Bolt Gundam is built to withstand the cold, and he thinks Argo and Nastasha could help reverse engineer that quality to enable the use of their Gundams as both heavy work equipment and protection from the harsh environmental conditions that normally prevent this kind of operation.
George gets involved because someone he knows has a distant relative who died on the mountain a century ago, and they wanted him to check in with the forensics team on the project. This detail is important because eventually it becomes clear that there is a mystery to solve (that I myself haven't figured out all the details of yet but broadly know the setup and conclusion); DG-infected people are disappearing and not being investigated due to stigma. Our heroes are naturally going to be pissed about this, and will need an "in" with the field if they want to do anything about it.
First massively self-indulgent element: The forensics/body identification team inexplicably includes the real-world author Kathy Reichs, who somehow exists in this universe, and there's a little side bit about her having written a Bones book right before the 12th fight that featured a cooked cadaver found inside a gundam after entry into the Earth's atmosphere. There are a lot of weird coincidences in the book that parallel the DG incident, which creeps everyone out, but the similarities are merely born of the writer threading the needle of being believable and interesting in a way that became very true to life.
What does become relevant is when the Shuffles eventually meet up, she's able to explain the implications of a bunch of weird shit the fighters discovered (also Marie Louise read her book, and one of the in-universe liberties Reichs took writing about the gundams' black boxes that she explains in the afterword leads to ML realizing something important; that Neo Germany does not have its gundam's remains.)
While the Everest project is happening, Domon, Chibodee, and Allenby all want to continue their training somewhere on Earth, and receive a proposal from (an OC of mine who is) a historic preservationist (and an acquaintance of Allenby's): she has acquired the grounds of an abandoned castle in Europe* after submitting a plan to restore it, and needs to hire people to help with the labor.
*the castle is probably somewhere in Germany because I also want this pitch to have drama over Schwarz (pre-13th fight), Schwarz (Kyoji), and Schwarz (the next guy who was supposed to inherit the mask when the older ninja retired). Also Germany is fucking pretty.
In exchange for the help of the three gundam fighters, they and Rain get paid, plus room and board anywhere on the grounds, plus full access to the grounds and miles of sparsely-inhabited countryside for training purposes, and the privacy and ability to practice with their gundams that comes with being in the middle of fucking nowhere. Rain sets herself up to work a clinic in the next town over as well as practicing pro re nata wilderness medicine (I'm convinced every medic supporting the gundam fight would need to be able to do this.)
The group involved in the Castle project sticks around for a time, makes some good progress, and engage in occasional Shenanigans that come up when you put a bunch of weirdos in a Situation.
They aren't in town a lot save for Rain, but when they are they eventually start to pick up on gossip and news about the Mysterious Disappearances correlated with DG cell infection (as well as details that turn out to be important later). Eventually Rain brings this to Domon and Chibodees' attention and they decide that, yeah, this is tied to the DG, this is their problem, they should convene with the rest of the Shuffle Alliance about it.
Also of course Schwarz is involved because I'm the one writing this; the culprits' DG-tissue harvesting operation relies on having him captured and helpless, using cells from his body to "update" other victims' DG infections to a less aggressive strain. One thing I haven't decided is whether I want a reinstantiated Wong to head this shit, or make up my own morally bankrupt opportunistic asshole looking to twist the DG to their own benefits. I also need to decide where on the planet the center of all this insanity is, and it needs to be a place that isn't going to have any unfortunate implications (because that's a genuine risk with dark story elements)
... That's about as much as I have that is thought-out enough for me to explain. I return to thinking about this scenario a lot because it puts most of the characters way out of their element (and has a bunch of details that appeal to me specifically), and it kind of evolved into an incomplete plot outline that I don't currently have any plans to flesh out.
I think it's an interesting enough direction to go, because it follows through with a lot of the themes present in G, but takes advantage of the genre shift to avoid DBZ-crazy power scaling and adjusts the conflict more to a matter of where the main characters' prowess is most effective (Both in and out of the gundams. I'm assuming there are a ton of guys similar to Michelo's gang that just need fighting interspersed with everything else I described. In fact, kicking Some Group of Douchebags out of their protection racket is probably how team Castle even gets ahold of evidence related to missing persons.)
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PART 20
of the dfk 2023 audiobook translation
@cnka
Narrator (audiobook):
Robert puts another piece of wood on the trunk and swings the axe.
Bökh: „And you never wanted to get in touch?"
The Nichtraucher picks up a piece of wood.
Silence.
Nichtraucher: „Why should I? We didn’t see each other for the past ten years either.“
He rips the piece of wood apart with his bare hands. While holding eye contact with Justus.
Silence.
Justus lowers his head.
Jo: „Uh.. weren’t you-"
Martina, quietly: „Jo, leave it. Lets go.“
Martina, louder: „We need to go! We still have something to do.“
The kids leave. Jo and Martina are holding hands as they walk away.
Bökh: „Yeah… Thank you, kids.“
Jo, whispering as they walk away: "What was that just now?!"
Robert picks up the chopped wood and walks back to his wagon. Justus looks after him.
Narrator (audiobook):
If the two friends will find back together? Matze isn’t so sure of that.
Matze, sarcastically: „Well, that was a great success!“
Jo: „Yeah, so much for friendship between Internals and Externs.“
Narrator (audiobook):
At least Robert granted Herr Bökh access to his wagon. He looks around lost in thought more or less, while Robert washes the dishes.
Dishes clatter. There is silence otherwise.
Justus stares wistfully at Robert while he washes the dishes.
Justus takes his eyes off Robert and starts looking around while Robert continues to ignore him.
Bökh: „I thought you were living in London.“
Nichtraucher: (silence)
Bökh: „It's nice here.“
Nichtraucher: (silence)
Justus starts walking around.
Bökh: „I told the kids about our friendship.“
Nichtraucher: „As a cautionary tale?“
Bökh: (chuckles/scoffs) „No. Of course not.“
Narrator (audiobook):
Bökh spots the poster of „the Bandits“, the same one hanging in his apartment.
Bökh: „The 'Wild Dog' that we always played in is still there.“
Nichtraucher: (silence)
Bökh: „Should we meet there sometime? For a beer?“
Robert looks up.
He lets out a small huff, almost like an incredulous laugh or a scoff.
He dries his hands on a towel and folds it.
Nichtraucher: (silence)
Nichtraucher: „I don’t know what we would have to say to each other.“
Bökh: „Hm. Well. A lot of time has passed.“
Narrator (audiobook):
Robert sits down at the table and lights himself a cigarette.
Justus turns as well and starts looking around again.
Nichtraucher: „Why didn’t you come to Marie’s funeral back then?“
Nichtraucher: „You didn’t even get in touch.“
[„You didn't even get in touch“ -> parallels to „And you never wanted to get in touch?“]
Justus is silent. He starts fiddling with his jacket and pulls it off his shoulder. He lets out a deep, shaky sigh and is silent for another few moments.
Bökh: „…I don’t know, you met her and… and suddenly you were gone.“
[Parallels to „suddenly your closest loved ones are gone“]
Bökh: „As if everything -our friendship, the band- as if that had all just been a dream.“
Justus turns around and looks at Robert.
Bökh: „Wir zwei. Wir hatten doch Pläne.“
Bökh: „That really hurt me.“
Nichtraucher: „It hurt you.“
Silence. Just the music.
Bökh: „Yes. Very much back then.“
The Nichtraucher lets out a soft incredulous laugh again, almost like a scoff.
Nichtraucher: „I see.“
Long silence. Justus stares out the window. Finally, he turns and walks to the door.
Bökh: „You know where to find me.“
Justus leaves the wagon. Robert nods to himself silently.
Narrator (audiobook):
And with these words, Herr Bökh leaves his friend’s train wagon. If the two will ever see each other again?
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arata is super interesting because at first he has shifts in disposition that feel almost inconsistent—he can be super sweet and earnest, cold and withdrawn, fiery and competitive, lots of juxtaposed traits etc etc—but all these facets of his personality simply stem from the traumas and experiences he’s been through 1) before the start of chihayafuru and 2) during the story.
in his first appearance, arata is already established as shy and guarded around new people, which is only reinforced by being bullied by his classmates at his new school. not only has he internalized that karuta is the one thing he is good at in life, and it’s the only thing where his dream (and NEED) is to be the best—but besides the obvious connection to his grandfather’s expectations, a subset of this is that his grandfather tells him that he can make friends playing karuta. unfortunately, as soon as arata moves he’s bullied for literally everything, and excelling at karuta only further alienates him from his peers.
this pattern continues throughout his adolescence, even after he’s made a life long connection with chihaya and taichi: karuta alienating him from others when it was supposed to bring him friendship and connection. along with the trauma of watching his grandpa die (+ arguably blaming himself for his death) and the following grief, it’s honestly not surprising that arata becomes isolated, emotionally closed-off, and at times cold or insensitive. those experiences would harden anyone, especially a sixteen-year-old. he was treated like an outcast as a child, lost touch with his friends due to distance, and struggled to find community within his passion that’s often incredibly lonely. all of these factors make arata emotionally guarded. he’s quick and impulsive to lash out because he doesn’t feel safe and comfortable until he trusts people.
even though arata is so kind at heart and really earnest with people he knows well (i.e. chihaya and taichi), just like many characters his experiences and subsequent insecurities/fears haven’t left him unaffected—and i love that we see that thread of his development come up so early on.
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since you've become one of my go-to succession blogs you get my Episode Reviews and the 4x04 review is that I would like to make Sarah Snook pay my therapy bill like godDAMN GIVE HER AN EMMY ALREADY
oh my god i know she gave us so much in honeymoon states, the range is unbelievable. pregnancy reveal, the obits, I'D LIKE TO HAVE MET DAD, face journey on the matsson (well, oskar) phonecall, STAIRWELL CONVERSATION, UNDERLINED OR CROSSED-OUT (i'm so happy that line was given to her, that she was the one potentially planting that idea in kendall's head. maybe he'd noticed too who knows but having her say it... chefs kiss, genius, they did that for me), telling stewy to shut the fuck up, tripping down the stairs, learning once again that she's always going to be left out..... god i hope she got to fuck karolina in a cupboard or something at some point.
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