#multiple arcs

[lowqualityonepiece]

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

OH THE COWARDICE

Probably a smart move on the localization team’s part lmfao but it would have been SO FUNNY if they’d kept it

[kittykatninja321]

My less popular opinion (and what I believe to be implied by the art in Lost Days) is that rather than waking up in a fully grown body Jason didn’t actually complete his puberty until after his Lazarus pit dip while he was on his murder tour. Imagine you’re tied up in a basement in Berlin getting interrogated by a teenager and his voice is cracking the entire time and if you laugh he’s going to shoot you

[lululeighsworld]

this moment becomes 10x funnier once you realize there are two different trains of thought going through their heads

spoilers for this arc under the cut

Sieglinde internal monologue: What do you MEAN the outsiders who happened to stumble upon my village have also witnessed demons and grim reapers?!?

Wolfram internal monologue: The whole werewolf thing is an elaborate lie, what do you MEAN there's outsiders here claiming that demons and grim reapers also exist?!?

[starwarjotta]

Cody surrounded by family and the people he loves, because that is what he deserves

[honey-bird10]

just two business partners doing business partner things as per usual

[lesbiansforeddiediaz]

Okay also sorry. Eddie has been gone for one episode and his sexuality has been brought up twice. And now we are getting an Eddie episode. Sure whatever I'm not even thinking about it

[queenofthursday6599-blog]

You know I keep seeing people mention that they headcanon that Damian drops out of vigilantism as an adult to become a doctor, and in every post I see about it, just about everyone can't help but to cheekily toss out the phrase "like his grandfather- no the other one" as if Ra's Al Ghul doesn't have more than one canonical origin story as the historical equivalent of a doctor.

Like in the origin story I know best for him, Ra's first wife died because a king demanded he cure/heal his dying son, and Ra's attempted to heal the prince using the Lazarus Pit he was studying, and the prince went crazy and murdered Ra's wife and then locked Ra's in a cell with her body for days after blaming Ra's for the murder.

There are comic runs where Ra's is specifically stated to have discovered germ theory hundreds of years before it was theorized in the real world, like the man was The doctor before he was radicalized.

Damian growing up to quit vigilantism to become a doctor is interesting not because it makes him more similar to Thomas Wayne, it's interesting because it would put his character arc as going in the exact opposite direction to Ra's Al Ghul's arc.

Ra's Al Ghul was a healer, who wanted to help people, who was then radicalized into thinking violence is okay as long as it's against bad people, then radicalized further into thinking a majority of people were bad/stupid (when he got really into environmentalism in general, and started to think human's and their pollution was the greatest threat to earth), then developed a god complex believing he has the right to decide who lives or dies (full blown league of assassins, influencing the world order stuff) and also had the right/responsibility to live forever to ensure he could dole out said judgement.

A good if flawed man, wanting to help people, becomes radicalized and eventually becomes convinced he's a god and has the right to act like a god.

While Damian's is the exact opposite. He's born and raised with the idea that because of his blood he has a right to judge who should live or die, based upon his personal morals. Then he finds out his bloodline doesn't give him the right to decide that sort of thing. So Damian ending his arc by way of fully walking away from violence to become a doctor, Hippocratic oath of Do No Harm and all, would be fitting.

A child raised to think he was a god, is brought down to reality, and grows to learn he's just a man, and has no right to make the judgment that someone lives or dies.

That's the interesting part about the possibility of Damian deciding to stop being a vigilante and instead become a doctor. Especially because he's originally raised to be an assassin.

[hahahafangirl]

In praise of good martial forms

One thing I alluded to earlier is that Suo has really, really good martial forms. As someone who dabbled with martial arts at various stages of my life, these details jump out. Of course, any martial artist worth their salt must have good forms, unconventional style or not (as Suo described the forms he learned as a "jumble of mixed martial arts"). Wind Breaker is one of the best choreographed manga I have seen, so these details are very much worth analyzing :P

Table of contents:

Martial arts start with good forms

Suo v. Oobiki: Is Discipline Rigidity or Fluidity?

Foundational Grounded-ness: Defense as Offense

Circularity; Yin and Yang

Suo on the Offensive: no_fist.megamind?

I will first go over the basics — how the choreography demonstrates Suo's solid skills, which segue into Suo v. Oobiki's debate about "discipline" (spoiler: Suo wins because he has better forms, i.e. better discipline), then moving on to make more observations about his styles— particularly the circularity and how the narrative is restraining Suo from using his fist to attack.

Martial arts start with good forms

As an introduction, I will note that Suo always sits and stands very properly, with his back straight and his posture supported by his hands behind his back.

Notice also that while Sakura casually leans back against his chair, slumping backward, and Nirei "cowers" -- leaning forward -- Suo sits straight-backed like the epitome of a polite young man :3c

This is another fun contrast between Suo and most other delinquents in the story— in an environment emphasizing rebellion, freedom, and a bit of teenage arrogance mixed in, sparking all sorts of wild and flamboyant self-expressions (dyed hair, undercut, piercings, etc.), Suo alone stands with a very traditional, conservative, and almost a prudent sensibility, in both his clothings and behaviors. Had he not don his Furin jacket, would anyone believe that this gentleman is a delinquent?

That is to say, Suo's trainings are baked into his bones, to the way he holds and moves himself, most likely to even his speech. Good forms from the beginning to end. Suo likely has practiced martial arts for a good while.

The thing that makes me notice how good his form is is from his fist placement in the Kanuma fight:

First, note that Suo's right fist is in the ready position by his hip, ready to hit. It's small, but surprisingly easy to forget when you are starting out. It's somewhat about being ready to punch at anytime (even though we never see Suo actually punching anyone), but more about the discipline of always being ready for your next move.

Similarly, the fist is there during the Oobiki fight. Note that Suo was able to surprise Oobiki and get a hit in because the ready-to-go fist exists as a camouflage, distracting the opponent from his other arm (out of frame— out of Oobiki's visual field). Having the fist there is an excellent basic form, and it allows Suo multiple options of attack.

Let's transition to legwork. One of the most important thing in martial arts is stances. Generally, the deeper your stance is, the lower your center of gravity, hence the more stability you have. This is, of course, at the cost of mobility, which is achievable with narrower, higher stances. An exercise at the advanced (masters') level of karate is to stand in kiba-dachi, the basic horse stance (first thing you'll ever learn) continuously for an hour or more. That's how strong your legs have to be. And practice staying in proper stances is how you hone it. Having a strong, solid stance is essential for balance and power,

Notice the solid, deep (low) stance— and how much power is behind it as Suo very gently seize Kanuma's fist and flips him. We can see the difference in speed (and thus input power) by the blur in both frames.

Again and again, Suo does a lot of "flipping people over" like this (I'm sure there is a proper term for it, in what I assume is Aikido, but that's a martial discipline I haven't flirted with lol). I will labor the point of Suo's moves being primarily circular later, but just to demonstrate the power behind his seemingly-effortless moves:

Note the stance— and the engaged legs muscles

Same here— the deep stance provides a tremendous amount of power required to fling a grown man and knock out two more people. Note again the difference in speed/input momentum (top right panel).

Doing mixed martial arts doesn't means that every move is a hodge-podge of everything. Suo's starting stance is a very basic/common starting form in kungfu:

As a side note, visually this starting form is very representative of Suo as a character/fighter :P He doesn't start (seemingly) looking for a fight; his stance is neutral, relaxed; one hand is inviting the opponent into his space. However, when we look closer, his feet are position such that he is ready to lunge forward (front-facing leg) and a fist is hidden behind his back, also ready to pounce.

It is a basic stance because it is good, and great when done right. If there is one (1) single thing you get from all the ramblings I do, let it be that Suo has very good basics. From his resting stance, fist placement, low stances, to kick— everything is solid.

This brings us to the "debate" between Suo and Oobiki about what "discipline" means.

Discipline: Rigidity or Fluidity?

Suo v. Oobiki is, ultimately, a fight about their philosophy regarding "discipline". (In this manner, we can say that Suo participated in at least one conversation, lol. But more on this later in Crisis of Contact or The Failure of Language (coming soon. at some point.) perhaps.) Firstly, Oobiki brought up discipline with the context of punishment for bad behaviors:

Which suggests that a (rigid) social code was violated here— which is that Suo, the underclassmen, had insulted his superior (in age and school-year). Discipline, here, is a violent mean to "bend" someone back to the appropriate behavior; or, perhaps, discipline means the rigid code of appropriate behaviors itself. Regardless, we get the sense here that "discipline" is rigid, meant to be followed to the letter, and even somewhat hierarchical: the elder enforces discipline onto the younger, not the other way around.

Ironically, this rigidity and hierarchy of discipline is what Oobiki forsook in the first place when he gave up competitive gymnastics:

Rigid routine, rigid rules;

The hierarchy of ranking and rigid scoring system;

And yet, old habits die hard. The brutality of competition and gymnastics is engrained into Oobiki's conception of discipline, and what it means to be, yourself, disciplined, or to discipline somebody else: beating the same stringent routines and rules until submission.

Afterwards, Suo relays a very different view — another definition altogether — of the word:

(Yeehaw! The first visual of Suo's master--- the same narrative role as Akari, yet so much further away...)

Discipline here is not a rigid code of rules or behavior, but rather the transmission of knowledge. This may be due to localization (can somebody please supply me with the Japanese version), but notice that Oobiki uses "discipline" as a noun, while Suo uses it as a verb. One is a thing that you have; the other is an action you impart upon someone else. Already, we see the rigidity of an object without care for whom it affects, versus an action that involves two people at the minimum (the teacher and the student) and widens the possibility of what could be taught. Martial arts is a discipline; so is calligraphy, for example, or tea ceremony, or life philosophy, or math, or science, or literature, etc.

Discipline, to Suo (relayed to him by his Master, by the quote) is a living, mobile thing, means to share knowledge without forcing it upon somebody. You can try to train or teach someone; it doesn't mean they will learn it that exact way, or they may modify your teachings to their needs. Suo is already innovating upon the discipline passed down to him by teaching Nirei to protect himself and fight back at once

It's a living thing in the same sense that humanity is a living thing, as culture and knowledge get passed down and modified generations by generations. It's quite generative, to employ a pun here. It's more philosophical and metaphysical than the concrete, object-like "discipline" that Oobiki wants to impart, or force upon, others.

How do these two views of "discipline" duke it out? By fighting, of course! And, I will argue that Suo wins because he has the better discipline, narratively speaking. Of course, it's nearly impossible for two definitions of the word to duke it out— this is why we have stories and narratives :D The key observation I want to make is that Suo has the more solid and proper forms.

I noted earlier that Suo was able to get a hit into Oobiki with his elbow because of his good ready stance with the fist. The more demonstrative example, I think, is in this sequence here, which immediately follows the aforementioned example:

Oobiki begins with a gymnastic-inspired cartwheel, using one leg to attack and hook Suo's arm down. Note that the force is concentrated on Suo's wrist. With his momentum, Oobiki's arms push upward to complete the cartwheel, and, theoretically, slam Suo's body down by his wrist (a very tiny fraction of Suo's body mass— which is proportional momentum). That's cool and all, but I think Oobiki makes a grave mistake next…

... of attacking with his other leg instead of landing. He expects Suo's whole body to go down with his wrist (which, again, very small fraction of body mass— Suo is a lot stronger physically than Oobiki expected). If that is the case, then Oobiki gets the point. However, I think, giving yourself zero point of contact on the ground — your form and stance not being grounded at all — is a risky gamble. You risk standing on nothing and having no foundation beneath to push you on. While you are falling mid-air, your opponent easily get a grasp on you, and, supplying some (seemingly) minimal amount of force, turns gravity against you. Again, no foundation, nothing solid to land on.

This is, also, the last significant movement in their choreography before the winner is decided. This ending is signified by Oobiki saying, "I can't read you at all..." before the narrative naturally descend to the conclusion of their fight with Suo as the winner. Oobiki's "encore" is merely the last desperate swipe in a conversation already closed.

Foundational Grounded-ness; Defense as Offense

Another observation: throughout the Oobiki fight, most of Suo's stances are low, deep stances, which emphasizes stability and grounded-ness. We see these in the previous examples— in the one immediately above, Suo's stance is so "deep" that he is kneeling on the ground: very stable (which also necessitates no small amount of core strength, mind you) in contrast to Oobiki's ungrounded-ness.

Here, Suo starts from a neutral, high stance, then steps out and down to move his opponent down along with his own center of gravity

Next, a very impressive (holy crap I can't properly express how fucking insane of a move that is) swing: from a low (kicking) stance, which provides the normal force necessary to push, and over

To a solid, whole foot (HEEL FIRST! THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT-- note the angle where the heel is closer to the ground) and a forceful slam down.

While Suo adeptly utilizes high, middle, and low stances, I want to point out that in this fight, all of his move begins from a low stance. Narratively, Suo is focusing on stability, grounded-ness (purpose-wise, Furin's job is to hold their ground, too), and defense — which is his specialty. Suo rarely initialize attacks as offense; here, he relies on the same grounded-ness of his defensive practice as offense. You have heard "the best defense is offense" before, now, welcome to "the best offense is defense" :P.

Combing through the manga, I am struck with how solid Suo's stances are, which I'm sure I have more than adequately emphasized by now. He is agile, mobile, and responsive, yes, but he agilely steps into a sturdy defensive stance in every fight, as demonstrated above in the Kiryuu introductory fight as well as in Roppo Ichiza.

I think this does say something about Suo as a character; just as Sakura's agility, adaptability, creativity, and ferocity says about his, or Tsugeura's high-spirited, principled (even if seemingly odd) virtues being supported by his muscular sturdiness— emphasize the simplicity of pure force, or, Sugishita's long-armed, forceful, but single-trajectory attacks says about his single-minded determination. It doesn't have to be anything too deep lest we step too close into Backstory Speculations territory (though I would not blame us for that, seeing that that is the #1 mystery right now, lol). But, to me, there seems to be an interesting contrast between Suo's image as a lighthearted, blithe, socially-adaptable child and his principled and grounded stances, which are primarily employed to protect or defend someone else.

(Suo's return to the group post-Oobiki is blithe and lightfooted. At this moment, his return is more to a social effect, reconnecting with the rest of the class before the fight resume. Note that, in contrast to his earlier heel-first landing, toe-first landing is used for very light landing— a spirit of windless calm, as I love to say these days. His first impact is this lightness — relieving Nirei from his post, signifying a victory, like a balm upon the toiling soldiers.)

There is, still, a hidden sternness and practicality underneath such a light and humorous character. We caught glimpses of it: Suo who, on the first day of class, "fact-and-logic"'ed Sakura and Sugishita into resolving their conflicts:

Suo who represents the foundational philosophy of fighting as a group to Sakura:

Suo is also teaching Nirei the foundation of fighting, etc. etc.

These roles fit perfectly into his motif as a "teacher" in the narrative, conveniently also as the narrative mouthpiece: I discussed in another analysis Suo's role as the one delivering "conclusive remarks" — the final deliverer of message to Sakura's journey. Just like his conception of discipline as "passing down teachings" — passing down something fundamental, grounding, upon which new innovations can be made — Suo provides the elementary, foundational "bricks" to the story, upon which Nirei, Sakura, the audience, and whomever else he will teach next, can build up their unique substances. It all starts with a good basics— that’s the thing that struck me with Suo’s fighting styles: it’s graceful and simple, based on strong and solid foundational skills.

Circularity; Yin and Yang

By now, it's clear that Suo's fighting motif is primarily circular: he twists and flips his opponents both parallel to and perpendicular to the plane of his body

@darkersolstice and I briefly discussed this point earlier, here, where they insightfully compare Suo to the eye of a hurricane. Inspired by this, I remarked that the philosophical basis of Suo's style is something to the effect of "A steadfast heart amidst the ever-turbulent circumstances" (In Vietnamese, "Tâm bất biến giữa dòng đời vạn biến"). As the calm in the eye of the storm — the central, unmoving axis of rotation — Suo controls himself and the vortex of life such that they all pass by him. He sees and acknowledges the turbulence; but he remains unperturbed and untouched by them.

There is a nuance between what I argue here versus what I argued by Suo's evasiveness, in that it is not the fighting style that is the evasive one, but Suo is. The evasiveness — the "letting life flows by" physical philosophy — is just one of the many possible motivator for his evasion. The bulk of Suo's dodging, I think now, is social rather than physical; the physical aspect just further enforces the motif. (Or, I may argue, the physical aspect may hints towards a deeper motivation for the habitual deflection, without it being the main culprit of the evading act.)

Coming back to the circularity itself; the perfect circle has been symbolically important, throughout many culture, as a symbol of perfection and completeness. The Aristotelian view of the universe was that of a series of enclosing sphere, because circles — and spheres — are perfect. In Chinese philosophy, the same ideal is reflected in yin and yang

There is light in darkness, darkness in light, as circular force and motion rotate in the universe. This is the total encapsulation of everything. Suo's circular form, where he controls the sum total of his force and the opponent's momentum to his advantage, symbolize this philosophical totality. By Suo's association with a heavily Chinese motif, this could be the intended basis of his form.

Suo on the Offensive? no_fist.megamind?

Another thing that is apparent is that Suo has yet to (actually) attack with his fist; both time, against Kanuma or KEEL, he was thwarted from doing so:

Both time, Suo going for the punch was considered an excessive use of force— explicitly so in the KEEL's case, where it was considered the wrong and overly-aggressive choice. There, it also marked a break from his serene and mature characterization.

Suo does attack— but it is always with his legs, palms, or elbow (in the Oobiki fight).

Never the fist. Why?

I, to be honest, still have to ponder more what this means in relation to the rest of his defensive, circular (yin-yang), and deflective (utilizing the opponent's momentum) fighting style. An oath of non-violence, perhaps?— an oath to respond to your environment, to defend as the need arise, to seek not violence but repel it? These are compelling statements. Why kicks and push, but not fist? Perhaps there is an "excuse" of repelling and deflecting in kicking away, pushing away that does not exist in punch in, punch at, punch through. With its various prepositions, punching is rarely away, but always offensive, violating, stepping inside in a sense. Suo's discipline seems to be that of pacifism or at least, minimal violence. Violence cannot touch him, and he cannot exude violence with the discipline he was taught— handed down to? constrained in?

There are still so many interesting thoughts to extrapolate on, so many narrative trajectories wide open for Suo (and his backstory) to take— but that shall be the story for another day.

[kaymarie-bell]

proper British gentleman with a strict mom and a need to follow rules that secretly longs to be in a band

Riddle Rosehearts 🤝 Edward Midford

[bixels]

Be honest, what are your thoughts on appledash? Do you hate it or its more of not a big deal

Not a big deal to me. I like it, I see all the appeals, I just personally like Rarijack more.

[lowqualityonepiece]

franky nation rise up

[galactic-hyperhearse]

also it bewilders me how people just make a new wizard and play through the entire game? yall haven’t been playing on the same wizard since you were 8??? you guys have BEAT wizard101???!

[linkman447]

Change of plans

Cinder: how are our plans for the dance

Emerald: they should be ready, we got everything planned for you to enter the cct to plant the virus

Mercury: while me and em keep an eye out on the dance floor

Cinder: perfect now to-

Scroll ringing

Cinder: oh who dares to- oh it is our queen, yes my queen

Salem: cinder I was reviewing your photos you sent to me and I’m curious who this is *shows her a photo of team jnpr*

Cinder: my queen that is Pyrrha nikos

Salem: no no cinder my dear not her but him *points to jaune*

Cinder: I believe… hmm I think his name is jaune arc?

Emerald: yeah he’s just some weakling who somehow got lucky enough to be the leader of the invincible girls team

Salem: hmmm so he did it and a leader

Cinder: my queen?

Salem: change of plans cinder you must drop all of your plans and bring me this boy

Cinder: but my-

Salem: DO NOT QUESTION ME

Cinder: yes my queen

Hangs up

Mercury: oh boy all those months of planning just to kidnap a blond dork

Emerald: hey it’ll be easy and then we can get back on track

Cinder happy at this thought: indeed now we must take him to vale to meet our queen

One simply done kidnapping later

Jaune: where am I why is everything dark

A Bag is removed from his head

Jaune: who there…

Salem: jaune my dear

Jaune: sally

Salem: oh you do remember me

Jaune: where have you been sally moms been pissed you were supposed to-

Salem: yes yes I’m well aware of junipers wrath but I’m here now to make good on our promise

Jaune: but I-i got school I’m a huntsman now

Salem: I know and I’m so proud you fallowed your dreams but it doesn’t mean we can’t marry

Jaune: I guess so but why did you kidnap me

Salem: let’s just say me and ozpin don’t get along

Jaune: ah yes immortal body swapping wizard

Salem: oh my dear boy I knew there was a reason I agreed to your mothers deal

Jaune: but now wha-

Crash

Pyrrha: who took my baby daddy

Salem: jaune you have impregnated an other woman

Jaune: what no… I never did it with Pyrrha

Salem: why, why did you pause

Jaune: you remember saphron right

Salem: oh yes her and terra had… a… baby. Oh my brothers you fathered your own nephew

Jaune: yeah they asked

Salem: welp time to make up for lost time and chances. Cinder leave us

Cinder: but

Salem: either get out or get naked

Cinder:… *starts to undress*

Emerald forces Mercury out and locks the door as suddenly a magical barrier formed in front of said door. Then she too undresses

Pyrrha: I’m in

Later

Salem: oh my I haven’t felt this good in centuries

Cinder completely lost in ecstasy same as emerald who face is still buried in her mistress’s crotch

Pyrrha is cuddling up to jaune with a content smile on her face

Jaune: I-i can’t feel my legs

Boom

Jaune and Salem shoot up

Yang: jaune me and Blake came to save you

Blake: who the fuck took my man

Salem: sooo this is what your mother meant about the arc charm

Many more days of sex and people barging in later

Ozpin: … I-i can’t even

Jaune: hey if it’s any consolation I’m not too sure how this happened either

Salem: look at it this why you pathetic excuse of a man, the war is over and you’ll have and army of arcs to protect humanity

Yang: sill confused about this but what can I say I got a good man and *rubs her tummy* a way to show I’m not my… birth giver

Ozpin: as much as I am happy that this is the outcome and a little disappointed that you didn’t give me more silver eyed warriors

Yang: you leave my darling little sister alone

Ozpin: yes yes I know, but your appearance Salem it looks

Salem: oh yes, you see my husbands semblance healed my tainted soul as well as fucked to evil out of me

Ozpin: ok then

[aashidoodles]

Domestic shiguang yingdu edition: Part 9

(Except at least one of them had to get a hangover after that bender they went on with Felix. And don't get me started on the missed opportunity to have some goofs happen with the beds being shoved together)

Oh and if you're seeing this part but haven't read the previous parts, here's a link to the masterpost

[swan2swan]

Brooklynn actually trying to push Soyona to do the Right Thing, step by step, and failing, but not persisting and just putting her down at the end...it's important to me.