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quick sera sketch :)

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john doe is so riptide by grandson coded it's not even funny

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the tragic thing about john doe is that he was doomed from the start.

he was likely born in a low- or mid-tier district: new bostin high's old king, zirian, was the only one john had trouble beating, before he figured out how to amplify abilities, and at the time he beat zirian, zirian was a 3.7. zirian, pre-john, was considered incredibly powerful, nigh unbeatable. in new bostin, someone who was barely an elite was considered incredibly powerful.

god-tiers are already incredibly rare. they're even more rare than high-tiers, and whenever remi, blyke, and isen visit a low-tier district as vigilantes, everyone regards them almost as royalty - unbelievably powerful, unreachable, divinity on earth. they are with dozens, and they’re terrified of a single, non-hostile girl. also, some of the background characters say: “what’s a high-tier doing in branish?” “yeah, they would never come to a place like this.” most low-tiers likely have never even seen a high-tier in the flesh, let alone a god-tier.

add to that that wellston is supposed to be the most powerful school in the province, at least, and before john, there were only two god-tiers in attendance: an 8.0 and a 6.3. and before arlo became king, rei was, and rei was a 5.8. the king of the strongest school in the province was a 5.8.

jane doe was raised in a god-tier family. she knows, presumably, what it means to be a god-tier, when everyone around you is weaker than you, and not by a little bit. but jane has been gone since john was a toddler - and the only person left to raise him was his father. his cripple father, who has lived his whole life being spat on, disregarded, considered less than.

and then you have john. john first discovered his ability in his last year of middle school. unordinary doesn't give us an exact timeframe, but it is mentioned that he first uses his ability towards the end of the school year. if we assume that the education system in unordinary is comparable to the us education system, then that makes john about fourteen years old. it is never mentioned when most kids discover their abilities, but sera mentioned that she got martial arts lessons for a few years when she was a young child, but stopped when her ability came in. assuming sera's development is normal and abilities usually come in at the same age regardless of level, that would place the average age well before ten. another thing: everyone around john seemed to assume he would never get an ability. they considered him a cripple. which either means that late-bloomers are so incredibly rare that it isn't even considered a possibility, or john was so far past the age of ability manifestation that no one thought it was possible.

of course, his dad was also a cripple, and since genetics are a thing in uno, it would make sense for people to assume john would be a cripple even before he passed the manifestation age. (and treat him accordingly)

john got expelled in his second year in high school. when, exactly, doesn't really matter. once again assuming that the uno education system works like the us education system, that would place john at 15-16 years old.

so you have this kid, sixteen years old, who's had his ability for about two years. he spent most of his life being considered the lowest of the low - spat on, disregarded, less than. his dad, his only parental figure, has had those exact same experiences, and the only thing he can tell his child is that that is just the way the world works. it's unfair, but that's life.

but then he gets an ability. and within two years, he is almost twice as strong as the second strongest kid around. none of the adults have ever met someone as strong as him. him, the former cripple, with the cripple father. former lowest of the low, now a god amongst men. the kids, though, his classmates, his peers, they don't really understand his power. how much stronger he is than them. to tell the truth, he doesn't either, not fully. he's never met someone as strong as he is, at sixteen. but his classmates, they just remember when they used to walk all over him. when they would beat him bloody and then complain about getting his disgusting cripple blood on their shoes. and now he dares to stand above them?

they don't like him. of course they don't. cripples aren't able to become gods. they can't comprehend that john did.

and john, obviously, lashes out at his former bullies. he finally has a chance to pay them back, for all the cuts, bruises, broken bones he'd received from them over the years. he's stronger than them, and it's his turn to make them hurt. he goes farther than they did - their abilities are useless against the might of his power - but he doesn't really care. (they never held back, so he doesn't either, and the damage he does is much, much worse. the adults are mad, and he doesn't get why. he's only doing what everyone else does.)

the adults have no idea how to handle him. he's out of control. but they've never seen an ability this powerful before, except on tv, or in stories. high-rankers are supposed to keep order. (but no one listens to john. why would they? he's just a cripple, the lowest of the low, who managed to cheat the system.) his dad, kind-hearted william doe the cripple, has no idea how to help him. he can't relate to his problems at all. (is there even a problem? who wouldn't want to be powerful? for william, for adrian, for claire, it'd be a dream come true. it used to be, for john.) there is no one around who even vaguely knows what it's like to be a god-tier, or even a high-tier, or even just a high-ranker in general, except for zirian, who's barely a high-ranker at all, and who hates john for dethroning him. there is no one who understands him.

so then you have john. sixteen years old. god-tier. angry at the world, and the world is angry at him. how was he ever supposed to win?

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can i just talk about unordinary and feminism for a sec?

many fantasy works attempt to position themselves as feminist; they show female characters who can fight better than the guys, who are rough around the edges and not like other girls. they often have a male character who is misogynistic, and who gets his ass handed to him by the female character. uno takes another direction: it does not even address sexism at all, in any way, shape or form, and that makes it much more feminist than these kind of works. (that is not to say that there are no other fantasy works that are highly and effectively feminist, of course; this is simply a generalization based on a frequent observation.)

the world of uno is so unique because even now, over three hundred episodes later, we have yet to see a character be in any way sexist. john calls a few girls a bitch, but he seems to use it only as the female version of 'fucker' or 'asshole'. never does he look down on girls simply for being girls. (he looks down on them for existing as a participating member of their society, though.)

on top of that, the way in which the female characters are written is really really great. many authors struggle with writing characters of the opposite gender, but uru-chan clearly does not suffer from that ailment. she writes her female characters like she writes her male characters: that is to say, diverse and different, with distinct personalities, and more or less feminine or masculine without it taking away from the depth of their personalities. their gender is simply another aspect of their character, that does not take away but instead adds to it. at no point are characters stereotyped, and any lack of character depth is due to them not having enough screentime. (the notable exception to this is, of course, zeke.) sera likes shopping and boba and pig-themed games. remi is kind and wears a bow in her hair and her naivety is unique to her and no other female character. elaine had a crush on arlo but got over it after he treated her badly one time too often. cecile is scheming and cunning and she plays the game of the hierarchy well. there are female characters with traditionally 'bad' feminine traits, whose flaws are discussed not in the context of them being women but them being people with unique and distinctive experiences. remi, for example, is naive not because she's a girl but because of the way she was raised, the people she's interacted with, and the experiences she's had. her brother was just as much of an idealist and also believed in the good of the people around him, until he saw proof of the opposite. and furthermore, women never put down other women for being 'too feminine' or anything like that.

moreover, uno does not attempt to position women as either better or worse than men. girls fight just like guys; the male characters have no problem fighting a girl just because she is a girl, and they don't hesitate to hurt them the way they would hurt a guy. to be honest, i really struggled with this when i first started reading uno: i felt as if it was morally wrong for john and arlo to fight girls like that. i have since come to the realization that that view is inherently misogynistic, as i did not have such problems with them fighting guys. uno really portrays women in the most feminist way possible: as truly, fully equal to men, with no caveats, no exceptions, no special treatment.

the casualness with which uno depicts men and women being completely equal in society is quite possibly the most feminist thing it could've done, as a webcomic about superpowered teenagers fighting against terrorists and the evil government.

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It's canon that the reason dazai survived many of his attempt was because Mori was keeping him alive which sounds like a full-time job

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i need more irrelevant details about the darren-dating-leilah-and-sera-living-with-them situation, because, while the whole wanted terrorrists thing is ofc very sad and stressful for them, it is also absolutely hilarious. like, imagine you just found out that your ex-school nurse, a grumpy, eternally tired man who you honestly thought would die single, is dating your (canonically) hot kind older sister, who you hadn't seen in years because she ran away from your abusive parents. also, she and him both sorta work for a terrorrist organization now. the same organization that stole your ability. your sister actively helped to develop the drug that disabled you. her solution to the problem of your ability loss is to also join the terrorrist organization. the terrorrists backstab you and disable your best friend. you decide to betray the organization, but then you're declared a wanted terrorrist by the government so you hide in your sister's apartment. that she shares with your ex-school nurse. before he quit, you spent more time around this man than around any of your actual teachers. then the government busts your future brother-in-law's door down and you have to go on the run. with your sister and her boyfriend.

do leilah and darren do a lot of couple-y things? does sera see them kiss and immediately wishes for the sweet release of death or at least some fresh air, only to realise she is stuck inside with these two for the foreseeable future? is it like the covid lockdown but worse?? at least covid never shot you on sight if you ever left the house on a grocery run.

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Thinking about Beast Dazai who stabbed himself in the leg to prove to Chuuya that he wouldn't leave him to die during the dragon's head conflict.

Thinking about how in the canon timeline Chuuya already trusted Dazai enough to use to Corruption without even asking if he'll stay by his side during the same conflict.

Wondering what events shaped them so differently that Dazai's "lets give up and die together" had to come with physical proof that he wouldn't run for Chuuya to trust him. And just how shocked Chuuya was that he did it.

Main timeline Dazai and Chuuya know each other so well they can execute whole plans with little to no words or planning. Reading each other, interpreting motives, trusting the other to simply understand and leaping.

Wondering if Beast Dazai struggled to keep all those secrets from Chuuya. If deep down, Chuuya knew there was something Dazai was always keeping from him, but he could never figure out what.

They could never truly trust each other the way main time line soukoku could.

Do you think that ate away at Dazai? So much of his world had to change to save a man he never got to know. Cursed by the memories of different version of himself to see all he could of had.

But then, him and Chuuya didn't have to change. In fact he was staying with the mafia, he could have more memories with Chuuya that other self ever could and they'd be his own memories, not ones imposed on him.

Except it didn't work out like that. Because Dazai couldn't be honest and Chuuya knew it.

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Arlo Unordinary makes me so insane. He’s introduced as one of the strongest characters and then gets his ass beat for the entire rest of the series. He’s the King of Wellston but then he spends the entirety of season 2 being dragged around by characters who are like “hey you’re technically still the 3rd strongest character, please do something” He follows a rigid moral code but it’s a very stupid one. He’s 5 inches taller than everyone in the cast. He works a desk job at an internship for the evil government. His unbreakable barrier gets broken so many times and everytime it happens he coughs up blood like a sick victorian orphan. we have never seen his parents but we have seen his evil government aunt so many times. he has stupid hair. he is also 17

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blorbo bleebus 👍

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Aldera Experiences

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what i love most about the character development in uno is the ways in which the characters stayed the same. remi has taken off her rose-colored glasses but she's still unendingly kind. blyke will fight any injustice he sees but he's still impulsive and a little reckless. isen has become so much braver but he's still practical and doesn't have a hero complex. arlo is finally (finally) willing to fight the institution and even in that he needs to appear perfectly level-headed and in control. john is at last doing something heroic - by fighting people, of course - and he still completely disregards his own wellbeing and his limits. seraphina is fully rebelling against everything her parents stand for and support, but now she cannot afford to make mistakes. she needs to train her ability back to its old level and perhaps even above it, she (and leilah and darren) needs to know as much as possible in order to stay ahead of the authorities and spectre, and she has no time for frivolous things like friendship.

all of this is to illustrate that well-written character development involves keeping some key traits at least somewhat intact, and adapting other existing traits into similar ones that best fit the new environment. time and trauma change people, of course, but in a lot of ways people will remain similar to who they once were, and writing your characters this way often makes for more dynamic and emotionally devastating character development. the 'what have you become?' moment often is a lot more impactful if there are still traces of who they once were present, and positive character development is often a lot more believable if the character doesn't completely change personalities.

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Dude, I am in love with your content (I don't care how little there is, I love it) and I like how you've challenged my perspective on a few scenes in UnO. ♥

But also i desperately need you to customize your blog and get yourself a header/profile picture because the first time I saw you, I thought you were a tumblr sex bot. You might be new, but it's best for interacting with folks to get a profile picture at least so that people don't accidentally think you're a bot. I hope I didn't come off as rude 😅

gaaahh tysm i'm so happy you liked my posts! i don't have a lot of free time so i can't post a lot, but i'm glad you liked what i did post!

thank you for your advice! i've customized my pfp. i didn't realize people might mistake me for a bot... if there are other tumblr faux pas i'm making please lmk!

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i have very mixed feelings about the new bostin confrontation that got john expelled.

it is portrayed as the worst of john's actions in new bostin, his lowest, most violent moment. and while that last part is not untrue, i feel like the confrontation is a lot more complicated than just john going insane.

by that point, john had already been king for a little while, and he was absolutely terrible at it. (i've written before on why i think that is, and even his objectively horrible actions here were not excusable but understandable.) claire decided he needed to be stopped, and she gathered a bunch of their schoolmates to confront him, as her vision had shown. then, instead of trying to talk it out, zirian (one of the people she had gathered, for some reason) immediately attacked john, and everything devolved from there.

now, a few things stick out to me here:

first of all, claire took zirian with her to confront john. the question is: why? john and zirian had already fought on multiple occassions, and last time they fought, john had beaten zirian. did claire think seeing someone john defeated in a fair fight would make him realize he was a horrible person? did she think that if people saw zirian, they too would be willing to confront john? but wouldn't those people then think they were going to beat john up? did she not realize that if people believed her lie enough to follow her, they would be prepared to act on it too? i really struggle with her thought process here.

next, zirian thought that they could beat john if they all worked together. this supports my theory that the kids in new bostin had absolutely no idea how powerful a god-tier was. the wellston kids would never try to gang up like that on pre-ability loss seraphina - they knew she was too strong.

however, they did gang up on john at least sixteen-to-one (in episode 185, the shot with the most classmates shows sixteen people). when claire was telling the story to seraphina, she made it sound like it was completely unreasonable that john assumed that a group of people who all hated him, at least some of whom he had fought before, including the former king, would want to attack and overthrow him. "he refused to listen" is true, and something john has struggled with a lot both before and after the ambush, but to be honest, in his shoes, i also wouldn't have believed claire.

moreover, he is criticized for going too far in beating them up, but imo that mostly applies to claire and adrion, who weren't actually attacking him. the other fifteen kids were very clearly willing to hurt him just as much as he ended up hurting them. besides, they were attacking him fifteen-to-one, with claire standing to the side - what was john supposed to do? hold back?

the answer, of course, is yes: he should've. it was absolutely not right for him to go that far. but we must understand that john was sixteen, stressed, hurt, and facing people who were likely his former bullies, in the sense that everyone used to bully him.

(plus claire, who gathered everyone there, and how was he supposed to know that she didn't mean for it to turn out like that? and plus adrion, who called the authorities on him, which was objectively a good decision, but it can be hard to see it that way when you're the one who the cops are being called on)

in addition to that, if seraphina or even arlo had been ganged up on like that, no one would be surprised if they, too, fucked up their opponents. (remember that turf war back in episode 17/18/something? where arlo clearly wasn't just going to stop hurting rein, not until seraphina physically stopped him?) john was out of control and very much Not Okay, but his handling of the ambush actually seems to be quite typical for a god-tier.

so to conclude, the new bostin ambush/confrontation was more complex than simply john going crazy, and while both he and claire definitely think that he is the only one at fault there and he acted completely irrationally, that isn't actually the case, and uno readers should be aware that we are viewing the story from the perspectives of biased and thus unreliable narrators.

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-- some small spoilers up ahead for mha -- it is so interesting to me that uno often gets compared to mha by people who haven't read uno. because when you actually think about it, they really are eerily similar, despite many uno fans denying it.

at first glance: in uno, the main theme is "the government is evil and should be stopped at all costs". in mha, it's "well yeah the government isn't exactly good, but the villains are definitely worse".

and then you dig deeper.

in uno, the authorities are criticized because they do absolutely horrible things to people in the name of keeping the peace. they've lost the plot, gone too far, and what is, in theory, a very logical system (the royals) has devolved into systemic oppression. (i've read a really good commentary on here that explained why the royals are actually kinda necessary in a school like wellston, but i can't find it now, so if you've found it, pls lmk.) violence is constantly criticized. when john went joker, it wasn't glorified, like it would've been in so much of contemporary media. resistance and revolution are definitely advocated for, but violence never is.

(slight spoiler ?) the recent manga chapters of mha reveal a theme that has been pretty central for a while now: criticism of authority figures and their abuse of power. the lov is humanized, their actions are explained, they are clearly their own heroes. it's people like overhaul, like afo, who are really evil: people in positions of power who hurt those below them.

not to mention (SPOILER) hawks losing his wings. i didn't like it when i first read it, but looking back, it was the only possible ending for him. keigo had been used his entire life by the (evil) government because of his quirk, and now he's finally free. they don't have a use for him anymore. him losing his wings, ironically, set him free. (know of another character being used by an evil government because of their power?)

in uno, violence is very clearly posed as a bad thing and people in positions of power hurt those below them. in mha, violence and its glorification (hero society) is frequently criticized and the real villains are those in positions of power who hurt those below them.

also: in mha, lady nagant was a (one of presumably multiple) assassin for the government, cleaning up those who the authorities felt disrupted the current order too much. sounds familiar?

and then you have the protagonists. izuku and john both grew up powerless and then suddenly got one of the strongest powers in their society just before starting highschool, though at first, they weren't very good at using it. they both seem capable of using multiple powers, but technically it's just one really op power. i would like to claim that they both kept a really important secret about that power from their close friends for a while, but izuku told katsuki that he had a borrowed power literally weeks after he'd gotten it, so. props to john though.

there is another fun similarity between them, though. both are introduced as pretty non-violent people (rip pre-joker john, your miserable existence is missed dearly), and both go absolutely feral when their best friend ("best friend") gets hurt.

(it's also fun to mention that both izuku and john are Going Through It in the current arc.)

now, of course, a fundamental differnce between john and izuku is that izuku is fundamentally a good person who cares for people, and john,,, doesn't. it's not that he doesn't care about anyone; he just doesn't care all that much about people he doesn't really know. izuku wants to save everyone. john wants his loved ones to not be hurt. that doesn't mean he wants others to be hurt, but it will take more for him to want to save someone than just seeing them suffering. interestingly enough, it's pre-joker john who was the biggest advocate for cripple equality, while izuku has never been shown to do anything similar for the quirkless. also, izuku never went middle-school-katsuki when he finally got a handle on ofa.

but in the end, these visual-medium stories are remarkably similar and comparing them actually yields significant insights into both of these stories. comparisons should therefore not be avoided, but instead encouraged and expanded upon.

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the tragic thing about john doe is that he was doomed from the start.

he was likely born in a low- or mid-tier district: new bostin high's old king, zirian, was the only one john had trouble beating, before he figured out how to amplify abilities, and at the time he beat zirian, zirian was a 3.7. zirian, pre-john, was considered incredibly powerful, nigh unbeatable. in new bostin, someone who was barely an elite was considered incredibly powerful.

god-tiers are already incredibly rare. they're even more rare than high-tiers, and whenever remi, blyke, and isen visit a low-tier district as vigilantes, everyone regards them almost as royalty - unbelievably powerful, unreachable, divinity on earth. they are with dozens, and they’re terrified of a single, non-hostile girl. also, some of the background characters say: “what’s a high-tier doing in branish?” “yeah, they would never come to a place like this.” most low-tiers likely have never even seen a high-tier in the flesh, let alone a god-tier.

add to that that wellston is supposed to be the most powerful school in the province, at least, and before john, there were only two god-tiers in attendance: an 8.0 and a 6.3. and before arlo became king, rei was, and rei was a 5.8. the king of the strongest school in the province was a 5.8.

jane doe was raised in a god-tier family. she knows, presumably, what it means to be a god-tier, when everyone around you is weaker than you, and not by a little bit. but jane has been gone since john was a toddler - and the only person left to raise him was his father. his cripple father, who has lived his whole life being spat on, disregarded, considered less than.

and then you have john. john first discovered his ability in his last year of middle school. unordinary doesn't give us an exact timeframe, but it is mentioned that he first uses his ability towards the end of the school year. if we assume that the education system in unordinary is comparable to the us education system, then that makes john about fourteen years old. it is never mentioned when most kids discover their abilities, but sera mentioned that she got martial arts lessons for a few years when she was a young child, but stopped when her ability came in. assuming sera's development is normal and abilities usually come in at the same age regardless of level, that would place the average age well before ten. another thing: everyone around john seemed to assume he would never get an ability. they considered him a cripple. which either means that late-bloomers are so incredibly rare that it isn't even considered a possibility, or john was so far past the age of ability manifestation that no one thought it was possible.

of course, his dad was also a cripple, and since genetics are a thing in uno, it would make sense for people to assume john would be a cripple even before he passed the manifestation age. (and treat him accordingly)

john got expelled in his second year in high school. when, exactly, doesn't really matter. once again assuming that the uno education system works like the us education system, that would place john at 15-16 years old.

so you have this kid, sixteen years old, who's had his ability for about two years. he spent most of his life being considered the lowest of the low - spat on, disregarded, less than. his dad, his only parental figure, has had those exact same experiences, and the only thing he can tell his child is that that is just the way the world works. it's unfair, but that's life.

but then he gets an ability. and within two years, he is almost twice as strong as the second strongest kid around. none of the adults have ever met someone as strong as him. him, the former cripple, with the cripple father. former lowest of the low, now a god amongst men. the kids, though, his classmates, his peers, they don't really understand his power. how much stronger he is than them. to tell the truth, he doesn't either, not fully. he's never met someone as strong as he is, at sixteen. but his classmates, they just remember when they used to walk all over him. when they would beat him bloody and then complain about getting his disgusting cripple blood on their shoes. and now he dares to stand above them?

they don't like him. of course they don't. cripples aren't able to become gods. they can't comprehend that john did.

and john, obviously, lashes out at his former bullies. he finally has a chance to pay them back, for all the cuts, bruises, broken bones he'd received from them over the years. he's stronger than them, and it's his turn to make them hurt. he goes farther than they did - their abilities are useless against the might of his power - but he doesn't really care. (they never held back, so he doesn't either, and the damage he does is much, much worse. the adults are mad, and he doesn't get why. he's only doing what everyone else does.)

the adults have no idea how to handle him. he's out of control. but they've never seen an ability this powerful before, except on tv, or in stories. high-rankers are supposed to keep order. (but no one listens to john. why would they? he's just a cripple, the lowest of the low, who managed to cheat the system.) his dad, kind-hearted william doe the cripple, has no idea how to help him. he can't relate to his problems at all. (is there even a problem? who wouldn't want to be powerful? for william, for adrian, for claire, it'd be a dream come true. it used to be, for john.) there is no one around who even vaguely knows what it's like to be a god-tier, or even a high-tier, or even just a high-ranker in general, except for zirian, who's barely a high-ranker at all, and who hates john for dethroning him. there is no one who understands him.

so then you have john. sixteen years old. god-tier. angry at the world, and the world is angry at him. how was he ever supposed to win?