#currently drawing fanfic scenes like they are from a manga

[neominthe]

From the fanfic Naruto: Alternate Ending by SartShishiro on AO3

[randomyuu]

the way it follows you home, the stories i never told

My guy Vox once again graced us with lovely Goyuu fanfics, and the way it follows you home, the stories i never told, made me go FERAL.

Time travel? Two Gojou Satorus? Double affection for our sunshine Yuuji? Yuuji sandwich? What feels like possible continuation of (you'll whisper, serpent tongue) what you fear you have become???

FUCK.

I need to stop indulging my imagination too much. I should’ve been content with writing long-ass comments but noooooo, my brain goes “you gotta draw it”. DAMMIT VOX, YOU AND YOUR DELICIOUS WRITINGS HHHHHH

So… usually I should’ve picked a favourite scene that is within my drawing capability, but I just… love all three chapters??? So I made a questionable time investment? I can’t stop??? Help???

This is probably the most ambitious fanart project I’ve ever done so far. Fair enough, considering I might combust if I keep these welled-up emotions inside from reading Vox’s Goyuu fics. Fuck.

Fic info:

Title: the way it follows you home, the stories i never told

Author: @voxofthevoid

Pairing: YuuGoGo. Future!Yuuji, Future!Gojou, Teen!Gojou

(idk why I laugh writing YuuGoGo. I’m beyond help)

Currently, it is 3 chapters out of 8. And it’s gonna be NSFW chapter 4 onwards, so don’t forget to read the tags first, folks!

The drawings are under Read More, because I have lots of thoughts surrounding each chapter and drawings. It’ll be hella long if I didn’t hide it here. It was a mess down there. A combination of hours before, during, and after I read said fic. I’d say good luck finding the art among the sea of jumbled words but… you’ll find them easily. Don’t worry about it haha

SPOILERS FOR ALL 3 CHAPTERS! I highly recommend reading those first before diving into these drawings!

Also for the comics, read from right to left please!

From here on, I will be referring to the Future!Gojou as Gojou and the teenage one as Satoru.

Overall, drawing all these is fun! Really fun! This project pushed me quite hard, forcing me to test my limit (because I rarely draw this much back to back). Since this is a combination of drawings and comics, the coloring style will not be consistent. In a way, I want to try some brushes I never get to use, as well as try out my new graphic tablet. Drawing these got me giggling because I was finally able to let loose during line art. It's much easier to do so, and sometimes I just get to reread the fic and giggle to myself for the nth time.

CHAPTER 1:

Whooo. Whooooooooo—

Ok, ok, the premise is just that good. It intrigued me, fascinated me, and I just… oomph. I cannot refuse a Time Travel Yuuji Sandwich. Sign me up.

Honestly, there are two scenes that are just… a bit too clear in my mind when reading this chapter. That would be the one I drew above, and the other is when Yaga called Gojou to come outside of the class. I love, loooove how Vox wrote Satoru’s POV. And when Yuuji fucking giggles?

I lost it.

Can you imagine, drawing Yuuji grins, with shiny stuff, maybe some sunlight, just purely happy and indulging Gojou?

Help me, for I am drowning in my love and adoration for Yuuji.

Page 2 is an experiment on using harsh black as shading (kind of?). I really enjoyed colouring Yuuji, and drawing those buffalo skulls! I wish I can grasp the concept of contrast a bit better tho :v

CHAPTER 2:

This is probably the only chapter where I picture still images instead of comic panels. A bit like those cool chapter covers in mangas. The one I really, really want to draw is the scene with Satoru on the table. Can’t pass the opportunity to highlight Satoru being a brat, albeit a really cool brat.

Cool idea drawing always proves to be a challenge, because of course my artistic skill just so happens to be below the requirement. Thank you, Sketchfab, for the chair and desk’s perspective otherwise I’m screwed lmao

The second scene that I want to draw the most is this:

Gojou is one step away from climbing Yuuji. Also, I have a bit of a problem picturing a man pouting that makes him look crazy instead, so please have Gojou pouting adorably instead. Because, as Yuuji said (with love), Gojou is (also) a brat.

This is possibly my favorite art in this project, after Yuuji's in Chapter 1 page 2. It's clean because I don't have to draw background, and I was having a fun time drawing Yuuji. And Gojou's squishy cheek as well.

Oh, actually, there is a “manga” scene in this chapter. It’s when Yuuji said, “I love Satoru.”

I just—

AAAAAHHHHH YUUJIIIIIII YOU AND VOX ARE GONNA BE THE DEATH OF ME. That secure relationship between Yuuji and Gojou? Satoru’s description of how Yuuji’s smile could blot out the sun??? Not me screaming 💀 I also see bits of hints of possible co-dependency, though I could be reading those wrong, but either way I’m good. Secure and possessive relationships are fun to consume hhhhhh

But yeah. There are too many wholesome Yuuji smiles in this fic, and I… I am not confident enough to draw genuine happiness. It’s too much for me ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿

For this chapter, another reason why I chose these two scenes is just because I want to try and draw cover-worthy pictures of Yuuji and Satoru, and Yuuji and Gojou (cough)

CHAPTER 3:

We start the chapter with Nanamin. Ah, Nanamin. I forgot what his teen self looked like and was surprised to see his design again lmao

I want to draw Yuuji and Nanami scene because… I just want to, I guess. I have never drawn him before (Yaga as well) so that's an interesting challenge. I got two ideas on how I want to draw it. One is a bit painting-esque, and the other one is like another chapter cover. In the end, I chose the cover one because I want to emphasise the difference between teen!Nanami and the Nanami from Yuuji’s original timeline, and how the watch feels like a connection between the same (yet not) person. It’s a bittersweet feeling? In a way?

I’m not really good at explaining my intention ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿

I love Yuuji’s answer to Nanami's question.

AND FINALLY.

A Yuuji SandwichTM scene.

And oh B O I do I love it. Have I told you I like every chapter? I probably have. But this one? Satoru’s curiosity, Yuuji’s on-brand self-deprecation, and Gojou come strolling down to show more of Yuuji to his mini-self. I want to draw this whole scene, from Gojou finding them, feeding Yuuji snacks, bitch-slapping Satoru into the backroom, to Yuuji growling. Them trying to hide a boner from Yuuji’s growl got me cackling so hard I LOVE IT 😭

I love it all. Please love Yuuji in my stead, Satoru and Satonyan :3

Oh! Also! 40-finger Yuuji sounds really, really cool! I’ll be happy with whatever Vox will give us in future chapters, but 40-finger Yuuji… possible scene with this timeline’s Sukuna… my god. The action! The drama! The bloodshed! One can only hope.

However, as much as I love that whole scene, it’s still too much for me :”) I’m still not yet confident in delivering the humour and action. Also my already-long drawing plan had my brain groaning in protest so I can’t push my luck :'D

When Gojou said "He looks sweet, but he's a bit of a beast", I kept picturing Yuuji staring innocently, but there was an edge to his look. As if the moment Satoru looks away, he will pounce. But in the end I just stick with innocent-looking Yuuji because I accidentally drew his eyes that way and I want to keep it in lol

Since Satoru points out how soft and cuddly Yuuji is, I also want to draw soft Yuuji :v

And the last one… is the last scene. For some reason, I read that both Gojou and Satoru share Yuuji’s lap and was having a frustrating yet fun time figuring out how it’s… physically possible, without having their butts on the ground because they both are not small at all. As I lined the art, I reread it again and… perhaps I read it wrong? Satoru is beside Yuuji, and not on his lap? So yeah, this one might be the least accurate, but hey, at least you can view it as a crack drawing or something :v

AAAANNNDDD I HAVE EXCEEDED TODAY’S BRAIN CAPACITY OF FORMING WORDS

Have I told you I love this fic?

…I probably have.

Have an amazing week (❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ*

[sakuplumeria]

Moriarty the Patriot / Yuukoku no Moriarty Ask Game

Choose a number and put it in my ask box! I’ll answer the question. Feel free to reblog if you want to answer questions too :)

1) Your favorite character from the series

2) Team Moriarty or Team Sherlock

3) Who is the most underrated character?

4) Which character do you think should appear more often?

5) Do you have a character that you liked but currently not anymore?

6) Do you have a character you dislike at first but grew on you along with the development of the series?

7) If you ship characters, which is your favorite pairing?

8) Most ruthless character

9) Sexiest character

10) Make me choose [character] or [character]

11) Which character is still a mystery to you?

12) Do you agree with the Moriarty plan if you lived in that era?

13) What is your favorite arc?

14) What is your favorite quote or scene?

15) What is your favorite episode?

16) What is your favorite song or soundtrack (from the anime or musicals)?

17) Do you prefer manga, anime, or musicals?

18) Do you prefer subs or dubs?

19) Which is the funniest moment in the series?

20) Which is the scariest moment in the series?

21) YNM produces another OVA. Which story do you want to see getting animated?

22) Do you enjoy writing/drawing/creating fan works for the fandom?

23) When you read YNM fanfics or see fanarts, what genre do you enjoy the most?

24) An alternate universe you’d like to see

25) Your favorite headcanon of YNM

26) If [character] turns into an animal, what animal do you think she/he will be?

27) If the characters are stranded on an uninhabited island alone, who do you think will survive the longest?

28) Which character is best at the art of disguise?

29) Which character do you think is the most like yourself?

30) Which character do you think is the least like yourself?

31) If you HAD to choose one character to die (for real), who would it be?

32) Your favorite character has magical powers! What powers do they have?

33) Your favorite character creates a Tumblr account. What do they like to post?

34) What's an emoji, an emoticon and/or any symbol that reminds you of your favorite character or you think she/he would use a lot?

35) You're in the team! Who do you think you'll get along with the most?

36) What other anime/manga do you like?

37) Do you read ACD’s Sherlock Holmes?

38) Do you read or watch any other adaptations of Sherlock Holmes?

39) Which adaptation of Sherlock Holmes is your favorite so far?

[pain-in-the-butler]

you said you've been a kuro fan since 2009, I have to know what got you into the series and what has made you stay with it for so long?

what about the fandom did you enjoy back in the old days?

Ahahaha, oh wow, these questions feel loaded. Thank you for asking them, though, I haven't fully considered them before...

I'll start with the second question, because it's easier to answer. What did I enjoy about the fandom in the old days? I didn't enjoy the fandom in the old days! Not on the whole, at least. I was just on the outskirts of it, more observer than participant. I wrote fanfiction, but most people didn't read it because it wasn't romantic. The memes weren't funny, the shipping wars were insane, and SebaCiel was completely unavoidable. The current fandom is way better than the old one! (I'm sure there were cool people around back then too, but I didn't go looking for them because I didn't think they existed.)

I kind of started dipping my toes in the fandom water in 2012 in the midst of the Campania arc. But even then, by 2014 I felt a little meh from all the cricket and I varied in my interest during Green Witch, so I really didn't participate much until around 2017. The Blue Cult stuff had me bored, but then when things started ramping up towards the twin reveal, I was back in the game. Or rather, in the game for the first time. The explosion of actual good memes had me hook, line, and sinker.

Now for your first question. My initial exposure to Kuroshitsuji was season 1 of the anime. It had wrapped in Japan less than a year ago, and my sister told me that she sort of liked it after seeing the first few episodes at our high school's anime club. She gave me a brief rundown of the premise and I guess the seventeen-year-old me was interested because I went to anime club for the first and last time next week. It was the episode with the corset scene and I was appalled. I was also appalled by my peers, because the teacher hadn't shown up that day to moderate, so a lot of kids were making out and drawing on each others' bodies with sharpies, and the few people watching the episode were wolf-whistling and clapping. It was a lot for a dweeby little goodie-two-shoes to take in.

But for some reason I persevered and watched the rest of the series on my own time. The first episode also appalled me. I think the whole show did. I don't really know why I watched it, other than perhaps a fascination with historical anime, but I definitely found Sebastian and Ciel worthy of parody, because a few months later, I was writing fanfiction about them. In high school, I wrote solely humor fanfics, and they were always about Sebastian and Ciel trying to make each other's lives worse through japes and antics.

Then in early college, I started reading the manga when I caught wind of Sebastian being "dead" and thought that sounded like an interesting development. I gave the earlier chapters a try and shocker, it was so much better than the anime (though I skipped the curry arc for some reason, only read it for the first time like a year ago). Then I got to the Circus arc scene where Sebastian has to help Ciel with his eyepatch strings and I felt the epiphany grow. Dadbastian is love, Dadbastian is life, etc. It was hard not to feel like a one-man army at the time, but a handful of others enjoyed the concept too.

And then the Campania arc happened and I was absolutely gobsmacked by how good it was. I will never forget what it was like to be there for the badass Lizzie reveal. That day, anime and manga fansites and subgroups across the net were all united in Lizzie love. It was so real 🥹😭

Moments like that kept me going, as well as a hope for small Dadbastian-esque moments and the promise of more Victorian flair. Over time, I've only gained more appreciation for the side characters and the themes, and I love the current fandom to pieces, so even though the story is slow, I'm more invested than ever.

I'm sorry that was such a damn essay, thank you for your interest in my little Kuro journey! 😊 I hope you are enjoying fandom life too!

[isabellehemlock]

TAG GAME WEDNESDAY: FANDOM EDITION

Thank you so much for tagging me @energievie this is epic! I'll go ahead and tag (but of course no pressure implied) @nalyra-dreaming @thelioncourts @the-heart-of-leo @selling-my-soul-for-tony-stark @dracosollicitus @almostcanon @maddielle @magslensherr @therowdybee @beepbeepsan @boutiquetraveltravelboutique

Your Name: Katharina ~ the German version of Katherine, from the Greek καθαρός (katharos). Feel free to message me if you want fun Bible facts around the term appearing in the Beatitudes 😊

Your Age: 37

Your First Fandom(s): Rose of Versailles & Sailor Moon

Your Current Fandoms: like 90% IWTV, but also OFMD, ST, TOG, and a smidge of Good Omens, The Witcher, and Shadow & Bone

How did you first get into fandom? As a kiddo watching anime dubs on TV and then buying Mangas, too ✨️

How long have you been engaging with fandom spaces? I came out of a decade long lurkdom in August of 2020 and haven't looked back since 😎

How often do you read fanfics? Not as often as I'd like 🫠

Top three characters from your current fandom(s)? Oh! Um - Louis, Lestat, Armand, Eddie, Stede, Aziraphale

Have you ever written a fic for a fandom? If so, shout it out! Check out my pinned post for a breakdown by fandom category list/links 😎 On average I write anywhere from 20k-40k a month 😳

Have you ever drawn fanart for a fandom? See above reply 😘 At this rate I draw on average one piece a week, and am loving it ❤️

Share a personal headcanon that you feel very strongly about: this is 1000% projecting but I myself am a queer (aspec) religious (Catholic) person and seeing rep for it in media feels lovely 🥹👉🏻👈🏻 If there's only crumbs of that potential, I will gather it up and try to make a feast out of it. Some of my fave works have been ones dedicated to interfaith dialogue because I used to (before chronic health issues worsened) be involved in that sort of thing and quite enjoyed it ~ I love seeing how others navigate those two core parts of an identity together, and adore exploring it further through the creative process ✨️

You’re trying to convince a friend to get into your current fandom(s) with you. What episode, clip, or scene are you showing them?

For IWTV, oh gosh there's so many! But maybe the "Of course OF COURSE of courseeee" moment lol. But also just some of the humorous moments of Claudia baying like a sheep, and the coffin being thrown out behind Lestat, and Lestat’s train performance muwhahaha.

For OFMD, Oluwande's "Coming Nana" lol, and THE KISS, and bathtub scene!!

For Stranger Things, all of Will's and Eddie's scenes

For Good Omens, all the Aziraphale being adorable moments 💖

For TOG, Nicky and Joe and Andy being a bad ass!!

For The Witcher, all the Ciri, and Calanthe moments

For Shadow & Bone, Nina and Matthias (but Jesper and Wylan are super cute, too!)

And finally, what does fandom mean to you? Oh gosh, here come the rambles - alright, so, being chronically ill, homebound a chunk of the year (and so many appointments it would make your head spin), and being NDcoded, having pocket friends I can find throughout fandom spaces has significantly changed and improved my extroverted depleted tanks from the last like decade. For me, fandom is creativity, exploring my own personhood through that process, and connecting with people I might not have ever found any other way - and if I'm lucky enough, I find some fellow weirdo besties to just be weird with in between errands and apps. I'm grateful for my pocket friends, and that fandom helped me find them 🫂❤️

[linkspooky]

Thank you for answering my question. Especially since the topic is very… dark.

I’m glad to know that my observation were true though. It was nice to know that my analysis skills haven’t completely disappeared, Heh.

But I am interested to know whether or not if this aspect of Mai’s victimhood will be revealed to Nobara and Maki. Since I do feel like an aspect of healing is allowing others to help you through the trauma. If so, would you mind sharing a bit on how both Nobara and Maki discovered this? And once they do. How would this change their views on Mai?

I’m assuming that Maki will probably put two and two together after that one comment that the Curse Naoya made. Unless you decide to rewrite that fight scene, which is fine.

Speaking of which. Does Momo knows about this aspect of Mai in your AU of the fanfic? Since you did mention how in the manga Momo put emphasize on how much Mai suffered as a women in the Zenin can be read as a subtext. Which has me wondering if either Mai had told Momo about it at some point, or if Momo herself figured it out herself in your AU. I’m also assuming Miwa doesn’t know since in Werewolf, it was mentioned how Mai doesn’t believe Miwa and her are close.

It’s fine, all I can do when talking about dark subject matter is answer to the best of my ability without stepping on anyone’s toes. Since you’re still curous I’ll answer more. 

WARNING CSA DISCUSSION UNDER THE CUT. 

It would be when Mai was comfortable revealing it on her terms, ut yes at some point I plan on developing the communication between Nobara and Mai better  to the point where they can have an open and honest conversation, without Nobara making any judgements, just playing the role of listener. 

Nobara’s entire character motivation revolves around the small town she grew up in, the way they all judged her friend Saori without even getting to know her. 

However, she repeats the same rash judgement of Mai. She judges that Maki is the bad one, and Mai is the good one despite, them growing up the same household. She rebuffs Momo when she tries to explain to her that the Jujutsu world is more complicated than Nobara thinks she is, especially for women. 

Nobara’s views are incredibly self-centered in the end. Even if her current brashness and loudness is formed in response to the judgemental town people, if her dedicationt to being herself and her own individualism, is because she doesn’t want to get swept up in the same kind of group bullying, she ends up reflecting a lot of the same attitudes of the town people around her unconsciously. She too, is judgemental. She too, isn’t willing to give people a chance. 

Nobara’s self confidence, in her worst moments, veers into self righteousness. “Does that mean we have to forgive the unfortunate no matter the circumstances?” IDK Bro, is Mai asking to be forgiven in the first place? Nobara’s response to Momo trying to explain the misogyny that Mai faces in the Zenin household, is actually a pretty common response to misogyny, even from other women. “Well, she should have been stronger.” “Well, she should have handled it better.” There’s this constant expectations for victims to be better than the circumstances that created them, even when they are currently in pain. 

When tragedy challenges your world view, you question your goals and beliefs. To make sense of injustice, we may draw one of three global conclusions. (1) People will get the justice they deserve. (2) There is no justice. (3) Justice happens, but it needs our help. The first belief give sus peace. The just-world phenomenon, that psychologist Melvin Lernrer said comforts us because most of us, even the worst of us, consider ourselves to be basically good and worthy of fair treatment. Our need to believe the world is just, however, can lead us to make unjust decisions. The crueler the fate, the more harsly we blame its victim. 

“The girl was asking for trouble with a bullhorn.” or “He must have something to deserve that.” The people who most need our compassions can get our cruelest criticisms. 

That’s what we call Victim Blaming. The idea that victimhood  isn’t just misforunte, that someone who becomes a victim, must have done something to deserve it. Nobara’s speech reeks of victim blaming, because from her perspective Maki is a hard worker and someone who deserves her respect and sympathy, and she does not have to feel sorry for Mai, because she does not personally approve of her, because Mai is lazy, and not hard working. Nobara essentially believes in a fair world, one where she can overcome misogyny just by being stronger than it. 

So like, the theme of the fic itself, Nobara is placed in another small village, making another unfair victim all deciding to collectively bully someone just like they did Saori, and Nobara doesn’t notice, because it’s actually pretty easy to become a part of the silent majority. The moment Nobara divided Maki and Mai between good victim and bad victim she was unconsciously repeating the paradigm. 

So, all of this to say Nobara is a pretty hard person to confide in. Though, admittedly when Yuji talked about his regret for killing Choso’s younger brothers she did keep his secrets. Basically Nobara in general, does show a lot more empathy and consderation towards her friends. 

The folly of Nobara’s pretty rash judgement of Mai, is that they are actually pretty similiar. Nobara is Mai, and Mai is Nobara. Nobara is so fixated on strength, but Mai is someone Nobara would not have to be strong around, because Mai is just a normal girl, and that is something a lot of Jujutsu Sorcerers are lacking, a normal life, nromal friends, normal connections instead of the endless drugery that is Jujutsu Life. 

And Mai could have, oviously, someone who sympathizes with her. She could have someone she is comfortable enough around to reveal the things she has been hiding, something that drives herself loathing and irrtational behaving. Just like Nobara could learn to be way less judgemental to Mai, Mai could also learn not to hate herself from Nobara, because Nobara is nothing if self love and self esteem. Nobara is also someone who can go “Hey, you shouldn’t thnik about yourself that way, that’s dumb.” In her usual blunt fashion. 

So for the conversation to happen, Nobara would have to let go of her attitude that only her close personal friends are worthy of her consideration and empathy “because there are only a limited amount of seats in her life” and instead learn to see things in a more complciated light. 

I think Mai and Nobara are naturally drawn with each other, but Nobara’s hostility and Mai’s defensiveness prevents them from communciating in any real way, so they both bitch and swipe at each other instead. If Mai were to tell her anything personal, they would both have to develop their communication skills, Nobara has to learn to have symapthy for Mai even though she’s not a classic victim crying for help, and Mai would have to stop trying to self sabotage and make everyone hate her, because being left alone by everyone around her is easier than being vulernable. And that is the point development wise I want to get both of them too. As for Maki. 

Mai in the comic itself, implies that there is a lot that she never told Maki about, and that the channels of communication between the two of them have been closed for a long time. 

At the same time there are scenes in the fic itself that indicate Maki might have known something had happened to Mai, she does snap and kill a man in the Hei UNit, and Mai refers to this as “protecting her” which is why she feels like she has to help Maki hide the body together. 

Maki also, after reevalutating her reasons for fighting against the Zenin clan, reflects that if she’s not strong enough and can’t make the Zenin Clan a safe place for Mai yet, which means Maki was either priotizing Mai over herself or that she knew Mai was suffering. 

Though, her surprise then anger when figting Naoya when Naoya hints he might have done something to Mai, does seem to catch her off guard implying she didn’t know, so it’s like... ambiguous. 

I think in general Maki has always assumed the role of a violent protector for Mai, the few times she did catch Mai being bullied for other people, but Mai doesn’t want Maki to get violent or to get hurt for her sake, or to bring down punishment on both of them, so she probably at some point stopped telling Maki anything to try to unburden her sister in her own way because Mai isn’t capable of being strong the way Maki is. 

If you’re asking me for future plans though, ummm in my rewrite of the Zenin Clan masscare, Mai survives, but the twist is Maki doesn’t even know that Mai survives because she sees her corpse right before her revival via plot conveneince. So, the vision Maki sees of Mai telling her to kill everything, is a hallucination in her own head goading herself to do it brought upon the despair. They wouldn’t reunite until the very end of the story itself. 

As for Momo, I won’t give any specifics but I think the important part about Momo and Mai’s relationship is that having been cut off from Maki, I think Mai tells Momo allt he things she wants to tell Maki. I don’t think she thinks Momo is her big sister, moreso she suffers for being alone, because It’s really difficult for her to talk to Maki and whenever she tries to she feels a mix of guilt for being the weaker one and her perception that she only ever holds her sister back / her sister can’t be stronger as long as she’s alive, and also resentment for the fact that Maki left her in the first place. 

Momo kind of acts like a surrogate big sister, she defends Mai when people like Nobara are insulting her, she’s incredibly understanding of her circumstances and is someone Mai has obviously complained too before, she kind of does the things one might expect a normal big sister would do when Mai’s relationship with Maki is anything but normal. And for Mai who craves that normalcy you see why it would be easier to confide in her. 

[angstintensifer]

Tag Game - Fandom edition

thank you for the tag @celestemagnoliathewriter

Your name: Dee

First Fandom: I think my first fandom I officially joined was the MCU. As a fan who watched the movies and got merch, read fanfics and cried over the characters.

Current fandom: Hp next gen.

How did you first get into fandom? A wanda/vision smut fic on ff.net.

How long have you been engaging in fandom space? Since like 2016 or 2017? I'm fully sure but it has been years.

How often do you read fanfic: When I'm really interested in something, I would read it anytime I can, usually at night before i go to bed.

Top three characters from your current fandom? It's currently hp next gen, but if i went with just hp, it would be Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks & Ron Weasley, but in next generation, it's definitely, Teddy Lupin, Victoire Weasley and Dominique Weasley.

Have you ever written a fic for a fandom and if you so. shout it out! I have wrote so many fics, most of them for Fruits basket the anime/manga, and I am currently still working on some one shots for it and three hp next gen fics!

Have you ever drawn fan art for a fandom? Yes, I once sketched Tonks from hbp, after lupin broke her heart lol. And I did draw Romione at Bill and Fleurs wedding. All were in old school book copies.

Share a personal head canon that you feel strongly about? Tonks felt great guilt for Sirius's death and that played part in her depression in hbp.

You're trying to convince a friend to get into your current fandom(s) with you, what episode, clip, or scene are you showing them? A very potter musical lol

And finally, what does fandom mean to you? The sharing of special interests and characters and finding other perspectives within the love of fav characters, with friendships obvi.

Tagging @sophia-ravencrest @riza-rin-rose @wolfheartsstuff

[alaska386]

F!Bsd anime watcher in the bsd world…

Brief information for the F!bsd anime watcher(I’ll name her Victoria cuz I say so):

-Name: Victoria [last name I’ll just type ‘XXX’ in the introduction time(s)]

-Gender: Female, Pronouns: She/Her

-Age: 14 years old (idk how to write thoughts, behaviour, moods, goals that are ‘mature’ like adults’ ones cuz idk what they think so I set her as a teenager for myself to write this thing easier)

-Ability: Yall are gonna vote on if she’s gonna have an ability from nowhere

-Sexuality: Bisexual

-Nationality: Chinese(I don’t wanna accidentally write some racist stuff if I say American or British or whatsoever)

-Languages she knows/understands/speaks: Chinese/Mandarin/Putonghua(Don’t worry I won’t make her speak Chinese in the story-), fluent English

-Likes: Music(Classical, Relaxing ones are her preferences), Anime and Mangas(not patient enough to read a full series without skipping some chapters, just like me fr), desserts and snacks, nature sceneries, rainy days(the louder the rain the better), knives, comfy clothes

-Dislikes: Dogs, pain, school, homework, studying, bitter pills, loud people and noises

-Hobbies: drawing on a paper and in a drawing app, singing, family stuff, *being read like an open book*

-Appearance: dark brown hair and eyes, around Kenji’s height

-Main bsd kins: Dazai, Ryunosuke, Kyouka, Sigma(always in the middle of some arguments and shits)

-Personality: Has social anxiety, rather quiet, sometimes can’t express herself fluently but tries to and tries to hide the things she thinks she should. Thinks quite negatively, does not fully show it as well, gets nervous easily but doesn’t show it often as well(which Ranpo, Dazai and some other smart/manipulative characters can definitely realise/see through)

Extra: she trusts fate

Btw her character settings some are actually based off mine cuz I figure that it’ll be easier to write this if I imagine her as myself and I’ve imagined myself in the bsd word many times.

Fanfic starts now.

Victoria, who’s a student in a religious school, was sitting on her seat in her classroom during a break before another class started. She was just staring, playing and snapping her fingers while ignoring how loud the classroom was due to how loud her classmates were shouting, yelling and talking to each other. Then, Victoria found herself sitting on a bench instead of the chair in her classroom, she looked up and saw that she was in an unknown but familiar place, she blinked and looked at her surroundings. It looked like the world of an anime she’s currently loving, Bungou stray dogs.

Victoria pov

This… If I’m correct it’s one of the scenes in bsd. Am I in a dream? No. People in their dreams cannot understand the term of dreams.(personal experience has never experienced understanding what a dream is in a dream)

I swear to god if someone(like Fyodor, Nikolai, some stalker) was watching me since I got teleported here— Oh shit. I need to fucking act normally, like how a normal person would act like… When… uh- they suddenly appeared in a place they didn’t know? I’m gonna make that as my case right now because I’m thinking for too long… Okay but if someone’s been watching me(Gurl, your anxiety is so-) it’s not like it’s gonna do anything anymore but, I still need to understand the situation… but to in exchange of their observations to my acts…

I’m thinking too slow! Too slow… ..Am I just fucking excited to be here? In the anime? Ok quit it, I need to understand my situation right now as quick as possible.

The moment I hesitated to move and started to think for minutes already caused some issues and effects, definitely, who knows where did Dostoevsky the rat king put his cameras and spies in? So… I can just act like myself, right? Who knows what’ll happen just because of my thoughts…

Whatever, the best place to go to right now is the ada, the agency. I can’t get distracted by my thoughts now, it’s not like Ranpo’s not gonna read my thoughts and expressions immediately later on. So it’s practically useless thinking further, I need to know how I got here, is this world some sort of au and what I should do, was it an ability(is bsd true) and what timeline is it right now.

I just hope I won’t walk into someone like Elise and Mori, Q, Nikolai disguises as a police(low possibility), Ryunosuke which is because it’ll definitely go wrong due to how I suck I’m at communicating, so on…

No one’s pov

Victoria checks if there’s anything in her pocket which there isn’t and stands up from the bench and starts walking around while looking around. As she continues walking with a blank face(she puts that on as much as she can while calming herself down), she keeps thinking about her situation and what she should do to be the safest for herself.

Victoria pov

Since I do not have a phone so I don’t have a translation, going to the ada cafe and find Lucy to help with my communication will be my best option right now I think.. If she’s working in there right now. But Ranpo’ll definitely understand most of the things like my actions and thoughts, guess I’ll go find him no matter how much I don’t want to.(She doesn’t like being read but she knows Ranpo’s not that kind of person that tells everyone what he found out, so, it’s still fine? She’ll be in danger if she doesn’t do anything after-all.)

Ah…! The agency building… what luck and fate is this…

No one’s pov(extra information if you don’t understand why she’s not acting as if she’s scared or shocked, she sucks at acting and she knows that police can’t help her anything, lack of communication is also one of her problems right now, as much as she doesn’t like getting herself into chaos and troubles, the only option for her was, the ada. She still hopes that Ranpo’s not gonna find out everything about her though.)

Victoria looks up at the agency building then walks in it, (sry just pretend her somehow got to the agency door), she knocks on the agency’s door.

Hope you guys like it! I enjoyed writing this :))

Once again I’ve not had much writing fanfics experience so it might not be in your expectations. Also I need a name for this fanfic!!! Thank you for reading all the way till here!(Victoria’s not quite a normal person but who’s normal if they watch bsd lol)

[crookes-library]

Tag Game: fandom edition

Thanks for the tag @ulfrsmal 💙💙

your name: for tumblr...crookes

your first fandom(s): Naruto I think was the first one I really sought out on the internet because no-one at school read it

your current fandom(s): I'm not totally active or contributing in a lot lately because my energy is being sucked up by sucky stuff! but I like to think I'm still in the last kingdom fandom and I always love the untamed and beyond evil and I'm a lil newbie to the locked tomb fandom I guess

how did you first get into fandom: I dunno really, I was the weird kid at school and spent my time on the family computer trying to find people into the same stuff as me? lol, a lot of forums initially, especially when I started reading manga

how long have you been engaging with fandom space?: 17-18yrs maybe?

how often do you read fanfics?: honestly like not for a good while, like over a year cause stuff but I read a couple griddlehark fics recently that I loved! And I'm always a champion of fanfic in general

top 3 characters from your current fandom(s): from the ones I named uhtred, wei wuxian and gideon nav are forever faves

have you ever written a fic for fandom? if so, shout it out!: for sure, started on ff.net when I was a teenager lol, you can find me as crookes on ao3 now

have you ever drawn fanart for a fandom?: y'know for someone who took AS level art and had an ongoing feud with the art teacher cause she was super like my mum (and the math teacher who liked me told me the art teacher bitched about me in the staff room for being stubborn) I cannot draw for my fucking life so no

share a personal headcanon that you feel very strongly about: honestly like high-fiving you ulfrsmal about trans headcanons because like my biggest like close to my heart headcanon about tlk is that Aethelflaed was genderqueer, there's a small line in one of the books and I can't even remember which now, that says she kept the binder of the Saint that inspired her geese flag as a religious relic and the story does v much set up Aethelflaed as like the more ideal heir of Alfred as the stronger, better strategist and its all v mcr you should've raised a babygirl I should have been a better son pressure to be more like a male heir who could inherit the crown and general gender confusion, I could literally write a whole tumblr essay on it but!

you're trying to convince a friend to get into your current fandom(s) with you. what episode, clip, or scene are you showing them?: oof for my most recent fandom the classic pool scene for griddlehark in the 1st book 'I've lived my whole wretched life at your mercy, yours alone, and god knows I deserve to die at your hand. You are my only friend. I am undone without you.' ... like what can I say, I'm a sucker for complicated devotion

and finally, what does fandom mean to you?: friendship, kinship, a place to belong, sure there's some people who are fuckin awful or exhausting but you get to choose who makes up your fandom experience so chat to who you vibe with and block who deals you psychic damage , its a big old soup, swim for the tasty bits ✌️

[an-artthief]

daily dispatch #8: a mini comic

Just to kinda steer away from The Cloak Maker (writing today was more of a struggle, because everything I wrote seemed wrong), thought I'd show some of the process of a short comic I'm working on.

This scene from Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Vol 2 (I'm currently reading the manga for the first time) had me thinking about soulmates. I'd read a soulmate fanfic around the same time too, which had me thinking about all those stories about soulmates and the different ways to discover them (i.e., no colour until you meet your soulmate, the red string of fate, being able to feel what your soulmate is feeling, writing on skin, etc).

I did a messy sketch of Her. I'd also started rewatching Cardcaptors on Netflix, hence the staff in her hand. (These characters don't have names so I've just been calling them Him and Her.)

I couldn't seem to get Him down at all though. Everything I was comfortable drawing and used to drawing didn't seem right. But I figured I'd just storyboard the comic and play around with Him until I found something I liked.

I managed to do some messy sketches for what I want the comic to look like. I'm horrible at drawing environments and characters doing things other than looking pretty, so this was an interesting challenge. And as you can tell, basically stick people at this stage.

I've started doing more refined sketches and have decided what I think I want Him to look like. I want to paint it traditionally since I feel a lot more confident doing that, so I'll need to lightbox these onto some watercolour paper eventually. I have dreams of doing a graphic novel and a children's book that way, so this is also a good test for the process.

Kinda in the mindset of "I'm never going to feel good enough to do it, so might as well do it anyway. Otherwise it'll never get done." So far, so good.

[demonslayedher]

How do you stay productive and up to your work/studies.. does your workflow drain your mental energy …asking for a friend🥲

Me, when I first saw this Ask, while ignoring at least ten real life tasks:

Me, knowing that I am enabled and driven to be an obsessive monster mostly due to my current situation in life and my personal recipe of brain soup:

Me, deciding I need to be a good senpai and just stick with practical advice:

I SHALL ENDEAVOR TO KEEP THIS TO THE POINT!! IT’S PROBABLY GOING TO GET LONG ANYWAY!! WE SHALL COVER MAKING FANDOM CONTENT! STUDYING, ESPECIALLY FOREIGN LANGUAGE! AND ADULTING, BECAUSE I HAVE TO EAT!!!!

OKAY SO!!! I AM KIND OF OBSESSED WITH KIMETSU NO YAIBA!!! I own up to this fact. I allow myself to run with it. Ultimately, FANDOM SHOULD BE FUN. Keeping it fun keeps my mental energy for it up. Don’t pressure yourself into anything, and have boundaries to keep yourself in the realm of what’s fun for you. That’s how I remain a happy monster living under a rock.

And I produce so, so, so, so, so, so much under this homey rock. PRACTICE!! I have! So! Much! Practice!! This means I go faster with generating ideas, doing research, and typing. Also, I broke the weeb scale a long time ago. Not only does a lot of my content pull from stuff I have been involved in since a pretty young age (specifically writing, drawing, and Japanese culture), but I have written so much meta by now that you can mention any scene in the manga and I can probably locate it from my collection in about ten seconds. PLANNING!! I never start writing until I see where I’m going!! I will develop something for minutes or years, but I have to generally see the whole picture before I start, even if there are things I will tinker with along the way. If my situation allows it I have been known to alter all my plans for the sake of writing like a monster for days due to a flash of inspiration, but when this isn’t doable, I pour that energy into writing outlines, which can help keep me focused for months, if that is what the draft calls for.

I STAY OBSESSED WITH ONE PROJECT AT A TIME Multiple WIPs? Cannot relate. When I say "WIP" I usually mean "the draft is done but I'm still stewing on edits." My current project at any given time demands that I finish it. Must not sleep or eat or—what do you mean I have to go to work? Arrrrrggghhhh---

Okay yes, but what if you don’t have ideas that possess you? What if you’re stuck? What if it’s, like, not fandom stuff, but homework?

BRAINSTORM!!!!! Brainstorming is a discipline you get better at. When you need to hurry and generate ideas, write down everything, whether in web format or list format or whatever suits you, as fast as you can, for a dedicated period of time. It doesn’t need to be super long, but aim for a little longer than comfortable; you’ll get to the brilliant ideas after pushing through the first layers of bland and overtly bizarre ideas. Brainstorming is a non-judgement zone, you write down E V E R Y idea, no matter how ridiculous. I also get hit with a lot of ideas in everyday life; sometimes it’s solutions to a place I may be stuck, but often it’s reconsidering how I’ve written something in the first draft or something that’s missing, and and I make a very quick note of it to go back to later. When I post fanfic on a schedule, I usually keep my thoughts relatively focused on the upcoming chapter to really let it stew, and I might come back to it several times between the updates. A lot of my ideas come when I'm doing mundane tasks like sweeping or showering. EDIT: If you're here specifically for writing advice, I have another brainstorming method I use especially when working out plot holes and how to get from Point A to Point B: ORATING TO MYSELF on selfie mode and seeing where my babbling takes me. It's a good thing my file sizes are too big to upload to Tumblr, nobody needs to watch me talking to myself while brushing my teeth, but some major takeaway: --identifying goals, plot constraints, character motivations --if tossing out an idea right away, identifying why (i.e., OOC) --approaching from many angles --skipping over parts that I need to figure out later --if I like a solution, asking myself what needs to happen to enable that solution --allowing some extreme ideas, which I might use in a lesser extent --jumping into character POV to walk myself through a problem the way the character would approach the problem --coming back to it in several videos as I continue digesting the problem Okay, okay, that’s great if you just want advice for writing tons of fanfic or Asks responses.

But what if you’re studying for a big Nerd Test? Or like, an actual school test you have to pass for class? Or studying a foreign language, or needing to memorize a speech? First, when studying a daunting amount of material, especially when a lot of it is trivial, prioritize between ACTIVE and PASSIVE knowledge. Passive knowledge means you’re familiar enough with something that you can choose it from multiple choice answers because you’re reminded of it, or you can listen and understand a word or phrase without actually being able to use it yourself. Passive knowledge is much easier to attain in huge amounts. Active knowledge is what you must produce yourself, and it’s going to require REPETITION and FOCUS and LOTS OF USE. The challenge is getting lots of info without wearing yourself out, thereby killing your motivation! Carving 15 minutes out of most days will familiarize you with something better than cramming for 4 hours and then not touching it again for a whole week. Even studying in 1-2 minutes spurts as many times as you can throughout the day will help build familiarity. For example, when I was at beginner and intermediate foreign language levels, I usually carried 25~50 flashcards with me to review at any open moment. Basically, any time you feel the urge to kill time looking at your phone, like waiting in a line or for a bus, you should make yourself go through the flashcards. DON’T JUST LOOK!! Use your other senses!! You want to learn kanji? You can't just look at those suckers, you really do have to write them, a lot, I’m sorry. If you’re using flashcards (for ANY topic, not just foreign language), write them with your finger on your thigh. USE KINESTHETICS AND TACTILE SENSES!! Writing things over and over, walking around as you read, chewing gum, keeping yourself more active instead of letting your mind wander as you just look at stuff. USE YOUR EARS TOO!!!! Read stuff aloud to yourself, record yourself, and play it back to yourself on repeat as you do other stuff. Get your brain super familiar with those patterns you want to memorize. Speaking of listening and active use, a lot of beginner language programs will be helpful to some extent, but only if used with dedication: active listening and speaking back, on a regular basis, and very repetitively. And for those of you who want to study Japanese? I am totally serious when I say to be the most annoying person in the room watching anime by mimicking everything as closely as you can, even if you have no idea what you’re saying. Voice actors are great models for parsing through grammar instead of muddling it together, and this gets your brain more familiar with patterns, so as you learn new words in book study (because for serious vocab acquisition, you WILL need textbooks), you’ll have a more intuitive understanding of how to actively use those words. Again, you must ACTIVELY engage with what you want in active recall, just passively watching anime doesn’t count, you silly otaku!!!!

And maybe you’ve got a friend who is fluent in your target language, and you both say to each other, “we should speak in that language in daily life”? Aw, that’s cute. And you never will, because it’s easier to use the language you already communicate with each other better in. Instead, set aside a SPECIFIC TIME, or even a specific place, where ONLY the target language is allowed, as a STRICT RULE. The amount of time will depend on your skill level and how exasperated you’ll find yourself trying to communicate. And your friend must be a jerk and follow the rules. Whenever I am in these situations in giving people English practice and they fall back into whatever language we usually use together, I make sure to blatantly lie, “What? What? Sorry, I don’t understand!” to force the person practicing into finding a way to say what they want to communicate.

Yes, that’s well and good, with practice you too can create massive works of fandom material and speak foreign languages. You can pursue your dream career as a demon slaying swordsman or make actual functional cosplay or cook things other people will actually want to eat! But hear me when I say, NO MATTER WHAT your dream or your hobby or your project is, THERE WILL BE DRUDGERY. There will be parts you just DO NOT WANT to do. MAYBE YOU DON’T REALLY WANT TO DO THE WORK TODAY. You WILL want to give up on what you’re trying to accomplish. Sometimes it’s good to take a break.

Sometimes it’s good to sleep. Sometimes, stepping away from it is the only way to get unstuck, or recover from burnout, or reassess why you want to accomplish this in the first place, or if you even still want to.

But, every time you step away, you run the risk of never coming back.

It takes practice to get through the drudgery. You get better and better at it, I promise. It’ll feel less and less daunting the more you get over these scary and frustrating and very unexciting moments, and it’s because you make your way through the parts that suck that you can really bask in your accomplishments later.

You really do just have to FORCE yourself to do it sometimes. And… dang it… SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO FORCE YOURSELF TO DO REAL LIFE PRODUCTIVE TASKS AND GO TO WORK.

NO, NO, NO, I DON’T WANT TO, WAAAAAH, NOOOOO!!!!!

As you can see, I allow myself a certain amount of leeway to be immature about stuff.

Sometimes that’s all it takes to get over myself and focus, however begrudgingly. I do set rewards for myself, and time frame goals. I also had to set a lot of rules for myself while studying for the Nerd Test in what fandom tasks I would and would not do, based on how much they’d distract or refresh me. When I have a lot to do, I PRIORITIZE MY TASKS, so I can be okay with not getting everything done. I also make LISTS!!! So many lists. And I have a strong preference for writing things on paper even if I'm confident I won't forget, even if it's a task I'm looking forward to on a different day, just because it fools me into feeling like I have more control over my life. I own the fact that I am obsessed and allow myself to be MOTIVATED by that. This whole Kimetsu Kitchen tag? It’s precisely because I was upset with myself for eating so much convenience food (and because I was sad that’s hard to win a ticket to the Ufotable Café in Osaka and I’ve missed out on a bunch of the fun looking collab cafes elsewhere). These cooking experiments have forced me to do a bit more planning, but that does makes me feel a smidge more control over my life, so that’s been nice too, even if I have failures. But like, yeah, my work does determine a lot of how my daily life goes, and it feels very chaotic. It can be difficult schedule-wise, but I stay committed to hobbies that I’ve been practicing for years, even if I am generally in a state of drudgery with them. But this is all I must hold myself to. I live alone, very far from the people I most wish I could see.

This works wonders for how productive I am, as I have so few interruptions. I’m a vicious introvert anyway and usually want to talk to no one when I get off work, where my social battery gets run pretty dry (but as far as mental energy is concerned, I probably have a lot of pent-up energy to write up or draw KnY thoughts that have hit me throughout the day). It’s not a stretch to say Kimetsu no Yaiba is the source of most of my day-to-day joy, and I’m grateful to experience having a mainstream obsession for once in my life; it’s like everywhere I go I don’t have to look far and I’ll find Tanjiro smiling back at me from a candy wrapper or something. But if you have distracting friends, family obligations, and attention-seeking pets that prevent you from living out the creative ideas that possess you, I’ve been there, and as someone with monster tendencies for following my whims I sympathize, but please don’t fault yourself for that. You’ve got really good reasons.

[stillness-in-green]

No, Re-Destro Is Not Destro’s Literal Son

and

Yes, I Will Die On This Hill

I have a number of small, persistent quibbles with some of the widespread misapprehensions I see included in BNHA fanfic, quoted as fact in meta posts, even cited on the wiki. Quirk cancellation restraints, what the 20% quirklessness data point means in practice, when Kurogiri comes into existence relative to the time of the Shimura Family Massacre, things like that. My biggest one, though, is as the title suggests: the idea that Yotsubashi Rikiya is Yotsubashi Chikara’s son.

I don’t entirely know where this confusion comes from. As far as I can tell, the early scanlations didn’t get it wrong—one rendered the line in Chapter 218 about Destro having a child he didn’t know about as being children, plural, but otherwise, they were all accurate enough. It seems people just assumed that the child mentioned in 218 must be Re-Destro, who was, after all, right there on the panel. Even though the scanlations never said it, even though the official translation never said it, even though ample evidence in the manga disproves it, the idea still got around that Rikiya is Chikara’s son.

I have and will maintain that this is obviously wrong if you stop to think about it for even a moment, but unfortunately, most people don’t. The error can be found on less well-tended parts of the fandom wiki[1]; it’s in tumblr meta posts about the villains; it’s in fanfic.

And now, god help me, it is on the official anime website, too.

“Stillness-in-green, maybe you should consider that you might just be wro—”

I will face BONES and walk backwards into hell.

But if you want, you can come with me, and I’ll explain on the way. Hit the jump.

Dialogue + Narration

There are two places where the relationship between Chikara and Rikiya is explicitly addressed—the lead-in to the dinner scene in Chapter 218 and the fight between Clone!Shigaraki and RD in Chapter 232. If you include the Ultra Analysis databook, the number goes up to four: once each in Re-Destro and Destro Classic’s character blurbs.

Let’s take a look at each of those places, shall we?

The relevant Japanese text here is in the first narration box: 子ども, kodomo.

Kodomo is not gendered. It literally just means child. The key kanji is 子, ko. Like most kanji, it has a lot of potential readings, and you can add other kanji to it to modify it. Add 息 and you get musuko, son. Pronounce 子 as shi instead of ko, and you get a term that is frequently, though not exclusively, used to refer to boys. Add 女 to that reading and you get joshi, woman/girl. 子 is in a lot of words, many of them gendered! Used for kodomo as Hori does here, though, it does nothing to indicate a gender one way or the other.

Also too, it does nothing to indicate that Rikiya is the child in question; it simply states that there was such a child, somewhere in the world. Now, the natural assumption for anyone who knows how the graphic novel medium works and who understands basic literary analysis would be that the significant character we just met is, in fact, the child in question—except that everything else we learn about Destro and the original Meta Liberation Army here makes it entirely impossible.

I’ll do a full breakdown on why that is in the next section. In the meantime, here’s the next reference:

Here, we’re looking at the phrase the Viz translation renders as, “His blood runs through these veins.” The literal Japanese there is, Desutoro no matsuei chi o tsugu mono! In a literal translation, chi o tsugu mono means, “one who inherits the blood,” or, more loosely, “blood successor.” It’s matsuei—末裔—that’s the key word here.

Japanese has several words to express the concept of “descendant.” Matsuei is one word; the data book uses shison. So what’s the difference? Well, I’ll talk about shison in a moment, but I had an inkling of it just from looking at the kanji in matsuei—“end” and “descendant” respectively, leaving me with an impression of something like a final descendant or the terminus of the bloodline. Further research confirmed it: shison can refer to any lineal blood tie, but matsuei refers to a bloodline’s final inheritor, the person at the end of a long line of many, or even countless, generations. It’s the difference between being able to point to a grandparent and the kind of painstaking genealogical research that lets you[2] point to a famous royal from eight hundred years ago—matsuei is a word that very much assumes the existence of those countless generations.

So not only does Rikiya’s line there not imply that he’s Chikara’s son, but his specific word choice also tells us that he cannot be Chikara’s son. That’s, uh. Pretty conclusive, I would say.

Lastly, though, there’s also the data book. This is, perhaps, the actual closest you’re going to get to a manga equivalent of those character blurbs on the anime website, at least until such time as Hori deigns to give the MLA types character profile pages. (I live ever in hope.)

There are two relevant bits of text, one in Re-Destro’s entry, and the other in Destro Classic’s. The first describes how Re-Destro organizes the MLA as Desutoro no chi o tsugu mono: the same phrase he uses for himself in the manga, minus the matsuei. @codenamesazanka (the one who told me about the databook references among other citations, bless) rendered it as “Destro’s blood successor”; I have also seen it given as “the successor of Destro’s bloodline.” Note again, the lack of reference to a father/son bond.

Chikara’s entry uses that other descendant word I mentioned before, 子孫, shison. Notice that the term uses that ko kanji from kodomo before? As it does in joshi, 子 here reads shi. The other kanji, 孫, means grandchild. Thus, literally, grandchild-child—or, in the vernacular, simply descendant.

And then we have the anime website.

So, for comparison’s sake, the anime website uses 息子—the same combination of kanji that I said earlier gives you musuko, son. Heck, it even uses 父, chichi, for Destro—father. It’s as explicit as it’s possible to be, and I just don’t know why or how the anime website could fuck that up so bad when absolutely nothing in the manga describes the two Yotsubashis that way, and, indeed, one specific word choice actually rules out the possibility.

So, that’s all the manga says directly. It’s not the only evidence there is, though. In fact, the next piece makes it even more clear how colossally and impossibly wrong a father/son connection for Destro and his modern successor is.

Timeline

The long and short of this section is, “Since Harima Oji was Sako Atsuhiro’s great-great-grandfather, there is no possible way that Destro—who pre-dated Harima—can be Re-Destro’s father.” If you read that sentence and nodded your complete understanding and agreement, feel free to skip ahead to the last section. If you’d like the full explanation it takes to reach that sentence’s conclusion, though, read on.

So, aside from the word matsuei, the timeline is the most telling piece of evidence to my eye. I address it secondly rather than firstly because it’s less direct than the explicit narration; it relies on drawing conclusions based on things we’ve been told elsewhere rather than on the immediately relevant text. Oh, Mr. Compress’s relationship to Harima is explicit enough, but on what am I basing my claim that Destro predates him?

Regarding that, there’s no explicit year relative to My Hero Academia’s current events given for when Destro and the original Meta Liberation Army were active; the same is true for Harima Oji’s escapades. However, we are given some broad-strokes information, relative not to current events, but rather to the history of heroism as a legal institution in Japan.

We know that there was a widespread, lengthy period of chaos following the rise of quirks—called meta-abilities in those early years. At some point, however, people began to search for a way for meta-humans to live in peace with non-metas. The compromise that was reached was the foundation of professional heroism in Japan—while the use of meta-abilities would be legal in private settings, it was only by becoming licensed by the state as “heroes” that people could use their quirks in public.[3]

The legislation curtailing the use of meta-abilities—and the appropriation of a dead woman’s language to popularize a law establishing exactly the opposite of what she used that language to call for—is what catalyzed the rise of the original MLA. Thus, we can position Destro as being alive and active around the same time that heroism as a legal institution was being formed. Since we further know that he committed suicide in prison, we can assume that his child was conceived at some point prior to his capture. Ergo, Destro’s child, were they alive today, would be as old as Japanese professional heroism itself.

Next, consider Harima Oji, the Peerless Thief, a criminal who targeted the riches of “sham heroes.” We’re specifically told that he was active in the days in which the current system was settling into place—e.g. he only became active once the Hero System was established enough to have produced corrupt heroes. We’re told he preached reformation—he wasn’t just some pre-existing criminal who saw a shiny new target in heroes; he had specific grievances which he wanted addressed by the system, and which the system was not addressing.

The earliest Harima could possibly be active, then, is concurrent with Destro—Harima fighting against the corrupt people who had found their way into the new heroic institution, and Destro fighting against using the institution of heroism to oppress non-heroes. What I think is more likely, though, is that Harima came after Destro—Harima needed to have had time to realize what kinds of fakes had been drawn to this shiny new career path, maybe even to spend some time trying to change things the legal way.

I don’t suspect they were separated by very long—I would imagine Destro was easily within Harima’s living memory, and might well have influenced why he chose the path of protest that he did—but I do think they were separate.

Moving forward, then, Mr. Compress is four generations distant from his famous ancestor. Thus, even if you assume that Harima is of the same generation as Chikara, that’s what you’re looking at for Chikara’s child: someone who, were they alive today, would be old enough to be the great-grandparent of a thirty-two-year-old man.

Re-Destro’s probably a few years older than Mr. C, sure,[4] but that man doesn’t have Ujiko’s slow-aging quirk. Unless you want to start pulling theories about cryogenic stasis the story for some reason never saw fit to mention out of thin air, Re-Destro is in no way old enough to fit the bill.

This is backed up by one other piece of the timeline as well, and one more place we can look at language:

The small child at the center of the image is Rikiya, so young that he’s in schoolboy shorts for a meeting otherwise so formal that he’s been made to wear a tie. He’s, what, six to nine here, tops? And the adults speaking to him say that they’ve been in hiding for generations—代々, daidai, the kanji for generation followed by a kanji that just means, “See that kanji written right before me? Yeah, just read that one again.”

The original MLA was active for only a handful of years, and, per Chapter 218, they didn’t dissolve until Destro was captured. Thus, we can assume they have been in hiding since then, but not before then. With that in mind, this is another line that renders a father/son relationship impossible.

Remember, Chikara already had a child in the world circa his capture. If Rikiya were Chikara’s son, then Destro’s capture and his army’s subsequent dissolution could not have happened any farther back than nine months plus however old Rikiya was in this exact moment of his youth. Rikiya, who we see here as a child of less than ten.

Ten years in hiding doesn’t make one generation; it damn sure doesn’t make multiple ones.

Now, you could make theories about cryogenic statis that would explain this ludicrous discrepancy, sure. You could also theorize about e.g. artificial insemination,[5] or time stop quirks, or any number of other possibilities in the vast panoply the HeroAca world offers. The point is, though, that you don’t need to. There was, in the manga, no discrepancy that needed to be explained. It is only fanon misinterpretation and a glaring disinterest in the series’ villains from official sources that have presented this issue.

I’m praying that it’s all just a misunderstanding on the part of whoever maintains the website, and that the anime itself will render the relevant bits of dialogue correctly. Given the extreme cuts and alterations that My Villain Academia has been subjected to thus far, though, I’m sure you can appreciate my being concerned.

…So that’s the meat of it. The idea that Rikiya is Chikara’s son is wrong simply on the basis of what’s said in the text, and it’s doubly wrong on the basis of the timeline. There is, though, one other thing I think points towards Re-Destro being exactly the descendant he says he is, not a son playing down the connection out of humility or something. This one is a lot more headcanon-y, though, so I saved it for last.

MLA Social Dynamics

It’s quite simple. We have, in the MLA, a group of people that venerates Destro’s bloodline to an obviously unhealthy degree, putting up portraits of him wherever they can get away with it, tagging his successor with a “Re-” as if to invoke reincarnation or miraculous return, entirely willing to throw their lives away for what they think was his cause, and others’ lives if those others say anything too scathing about the words Destro wrote, quite as if they treat Destro’s memoir as some sort of holy writ.

They venerate Destro that much, and you’re trying to tell me that they wouldn’t just call a spade a spade and acknowledge RD as the son of their great leader? Come on.

Since long before I turned up the matsuei factoid in researching this piece, since long before Mr. Compress gave us such a helpful generational comparison, I’ve held the opinion that, given a group that holds their leaders in such high esteem, with such particular regard for bloodline, the only reason Rikiya does just call himself a descendant, rather than citing the specific term for what he is, is that the specific term is distant enough that it actually does sound more impressive to just say “descendant,” rather than something like, “great-great-great-grandson.” That kind of thing just begs the question, “What took you guys so long?” or, “You and how many other people, buddy?”

Mr. Compress may have the panache to carry off a line like that, but Rikiya’s a different story. If he had something so amazing up his sleeve as, “I am the son of the great Destro,” I have to think he’d just say it proudly, not fall back on the impressionistic vaguery of something like chi o tsugu mono. Even if I had no other evidence to work with, I’d think the same—all the evidence you need is right there in the character writing of who Rikiya and the MLA are and how they talk about the man whose dreams Re-Destro was raised to carry.

A closing note: I will allow that Rikiya is being overdramatic when he uses matsuei and its connotation of countless generations. There are a few other things we can use to trace the history of heroism—Ujiko’s age, and the 18-years-or-less periods that One For All was held by its pre-All Might bearers—and running those numbers leads me to believe that it is, in fact, entirely possible to count the number of generations between Rikiya and Chikara, and the number, while higher than one, is probably not all that high. Certainly matsuei is being more dramatic about it than is entirely warranted, hence the poetic flourish of the official translation’s, “His blood runs through these veins!” The theatricality only makes me fonder of him, however.

------------------------

FOOTNOTES

[1] It was changed and reverted on Re-Destro’s page at least twice before it finally stuck in January of this year. Chikara’s page took until July to be corrected, and it’s still wrong on various other subpages.

[2] Or your kids, if you have those. Only the last generation in the bloodline is the matsuei, but that’s a moving goalpost as long as the bloodline is still propagating.

[3] This summary of events combines what we know from both My Hero Academia proper and the Vigilantes spin-off, which I recommend to anyone who’s at all interested in finer-grained worldbuilding on Hero Society Japan than the main series makes time for.

[4] I personally headcanon him as 42.

[5] To which point I would refer back to the word kodomo, and note that that word choice indicates that Destro had a child in the world. Not a sperm sample kept in a freezer somewhere, waiting for the right would-be mother: an actual child. Some quick research on my part says that the farthest that term stretches is in using it to refer to yet-unborn children, fetuses still in the womb. Seeing as Japan doesn’t even allow inmates conjugal visits in real life, much less in a setting where villains are so dehumanized that Tartarus is an acceptable punishment for them, the line about Destro “having a child out in the world” takes us right back to a date of conception no later than Destro’s final night of freedom.

[choicesficwriterscreations]

450 Followers: Meet The Writer

Hello there! We’re back with another Meet The Writer Q&A and it’s our pleasure to introduce a fellow Brazilian fanfic author for our ninth interview:

Blog: @julia-highstorms​ Name (or petname): Julia/Ju Birthday: July 9 Nationality: Brazilian 🇧🇷 Current residency: I'm one of the 12 million people living in São Paulo, Brazil Languages you speak: Brazilian Portuguese, English and a bit of Japanese Masterlist: Julia’s choices fanfiction masterlist

1. Is there a meaning behind your url name? Yes! For those who have been following me for a while, they already know that I used to change my URL according to the Choices character I was stanning at the time but it was a PAIN to fix all my fanfics links 😩 so I decided to finally create an unique URL that I wouldn't get tired of. So I mixed my two surnames together and it (basically) means Highstorms. I loved it 😌

2. When did you start playing Choices? What's the first book you played? 2017 I believe. TRR book 1 was about to debut. YEAH. It was the Freshman Book 1.

3. When did you decide to join Choices fandom? December 21 2017. ILITW was in its last chapters and I was obsessed with it. I wanted to talk about it with other people, but I didn't know anyone who also played Choices. So I found the fandom on Tumblr and decided to join. I miss all my friends I made back then and we all went nuts with ILITW finale together 😩 Good times

4. Go back to your archive and tell us what was your first post on your Choices blog was about. My first post was about how I loved ILITW and how everyone was fucked up sjddndossok also a lot of reblogs about MAKE NOAH AN LI 🗣️

5. How long have you been writing fanfiction? I started writing fanfictions in my senior year of high school, although I attempted to write my own stories when I was younger, around 12-13.

6. Share the first fanfic you wrote with us. Do you still like it or would you change anything about it? My first fanfic ever is about The Maine, it was my favorite band back then slfjdfodj but my first Choices fanfic is If Jane Was Here (ILITW told by Noah) Chapter 1. I AM SO PROUD OF IT. Of course, there are some things I would change. Like adding even more angst. Having finished writing it way sooner. But I'm super proud of it overall. My first (and so far only) Choices long series I've ever finished. Wow.

7. What are your favorite Choices books to write about? Definitely Open Heart just because of Bryce Lahela and Rei (my MC). OPH has become a mess, but I love Bryce too much. I loved the It Lives anthology too and enjoyed writing about. And I'm hyped for my upcoming Blades AU series!

8. What is your specialty as a fanfic writer? Oooh I guess it is rewriting certain scenes or events of the books or thinking about AUs. Since ILITW I have enjoyed doing this. Writing on another character's point of view of the events that have happened (the whole If Jane Was Here series, that is ILITW told by Noah's POV). Or adding some depth to a certain scene (did something like this with Julia, my ILB MC, and Tom's relationship. And with Rei and Bryce's). Or even rewriting the story to fit better with my MC's personality (Rei, OPH MC).

9. What aspect of your writing do you most enjoy to see praised? When people say they like my MC's, Rei (OPH MC) and Luxia (Blades MC). Before, whenever I played Choices, I didn't care much about the MCs because they're all generic (which makes sense because we're the ones playing it). They're always the happy go lucky friend that tries to fix everyone's problems and every LI is in love with them. Boooooring. Rei was my first MC that I created a whole non-canon personality to her, and that's why she's my baby 🥺 and when people commented that they felt represented by Rei, that she felt more realistic than PB's usual MC, well, that was my peak as a writer lol so they're basically OC's, with their own personalities and temperaments.

10. Do you participate in any writing events or challenges throughout the year? If so, what do you like about them? I do, but I wish I could participate more often! The prompts are what I like the most, because they give me ideas that I'd have never thought to write about before.

11. Are there any writers (published authors and/or fanfic writers) who influenced your writing? Meg Cabot was my favorite author growing up and I read some of Sophie Kinsella’s books too, so probably my love for adding a bit of comedy, silly little things in my fanfics came from them. I love Jane Austen too. And last but not least, my flair for angst definitely came from reading Fruits Basket, my favorite manga ever. There’s so much angst in Furuba dodksdishd Takaya Natsuki-sensei really enjoys it. I recommend reading her other manga series, Twinkle Stars, too.

12. What element of writing do you struggle with most? Actually writing lmao. You know, taking the plot out of my mind and typing it down on Google Docs. Writing is hard, takes too much time and I'm lazy 😩 I wish I could just transfer my ideas to a document and it's done. No need to write, no need to revise, etc. I love the final product, but I hate the process.

13. Do you have any abandoned WIPs? What made you abandon them? A BUNCH OAJDSKDKD 🤦 Either because my inspiration to write it has faded or because I don't want to spend my whole time writing.

14. You’re applying for the fanfic writer of the year award. What five fanfics do you put in your portfolio? Oooooh great question! I must put:

If Jane Was Here - Alternative ending (ILITW): this is the only finale I accept sorrynotsorry

Too Little Too Late - Jax x MC (Bloodbound): I wanted to feel hurt. People cried. I loved it sclkdsdjsops

The Loudest One - Bryce x F!MC (Open Heart): I wrote this one for CFWC Kinktober! And honestly, this is the best smut scene I have written. I’m quite proud about it.

Satisfied - Jax x Lily (Bloodbound): it was fun writing for my crack ship! My babies. And the first smut scene I have ever written. I’m glad it was with these two. I still can’t get over the fact that either one of them dies in BB’s finale. I cannot accept skfjdpd

Lullaby - Tyril x Elf!F!MC (Blades): don’t get me wrong, I love Tyril and his goth lordling mysterious elf boy personality and the first time he and MC made out was HOT but… I missed a bit of clousure before, you know? It felt a bit sudden to me, so I wrote a couple of fanfics showing their growing interest and attraction towards one another. This one is a light cute one and I really like it.

15. Do you create original content aside from fanfiction (original stories, art, etc)?  I sometimes draw some fanarts in which you can see by searching for #occasional drawings on my Tumblr.

Do you want to contribute with questions/ideas for the next Meet The Writer Q&A? Send us a message.

Thanks for reading! Reblog to share your appreciation for @julia-highstorms​ ❤️

[mrmissmrsrandom]

Fic writer interview meme

tagged by @demoiselledefortune, thank you for including me!

My answers are below

How many works do you have on AO3?

69 (nice).

What’s your total AO3 word count?

553,656 words, but I do have several longish collaborations that inflate the wordcount. 

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Currently looks to be at 12, not including other tags for the same series (FE and MDZS have different general tags for some things). Majority of my works have been across the Fire Emblem series at this point. 

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

A. Serrated, an MDZS Canon Divergence AU written in part with @mwritesink. It is also the longest fic I have on Ao3 thus far!

B. Return to Childhood Redux, an alternative sequel/spin on one of the Scum Villain Self-Saving System extras that was written for a Bingqiu holiday art and fic exchange. (Note: the rest of the translation at that time was unfinished, so not fully happy with certain characterizations in it, but... popular is popular lolol).

C. The Lion in Winter, a “30 years later” FE15 fic that I still need to finish (and I will!! I will!!! I’m super grateful to everyone who has stuck with it/returned to it thus far!!). It features slowburn Alm/Lukas as sad middle age men. 

D. Tassels and Bells, a Serrated sequel/”extras” chapter fic in part with @mwritesink. No set update schedule like the first fic, just more if we’re in the mood to write. 

E. Unlike the stream, you are not in view. A (currently) pre-slash Liujiu fic co-written with @dornishsphinx for Liujiu Week 2020, where Liu Qingge is a sharkboy and they meet as kids. My love of monster designs and sharks shines here.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try my best to respond! Thankfully a majority of the comments I’ve gotten are positive, and its always satisfying to get ones where “I never thought of this idea/ship/etc. but I love it now bc of you.” 

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Garotte, an FE4 bad end fic. But the angst is also mixed in with horror. 

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

Hoooooo. Well, Love Like Ghosts is shaping up to be the craziest based on what me and @dornishsphinx planned for it, since it uses all three of MXTX’s current novels in one form or another. Some fun ideas: Meng Shi becomes an aspect of Guanyin in the heavenly realm, Qin Wanyue from Scum Villain and Xue Yang from MDZS end up together-- and those are the least crazy things about it. 

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yep! And it was so weird, because... they commented on it after reading nearly 200k worth of content? If you didn’t like it buddy, I think you should have quit while you were ahead.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I don’t know how to respond to the “different kind” question of this lolol... but yep! I’ve written smut. I think my main issue is trying to draw out sex scenes/foreplay when I write it on my own. 

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yep! I had at least one that I know of, but that was waaaayyy back on ff.net days. I found it, told my friends about it, then they dogpiled the fic with comments about it being stolen, and then it was deleted soon after. It... looking back on it, it was probably too intense, especially for the fic in question.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, but it is more “had a request, but haven’t seen the result/the one who asked decided not to continue beyond the first chapter.”

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! Several times now at this point, and it has been a lovely experience each time. :D

What’s your all time favorite ship?

To write, it looks like right now its setting up to be Arthur/Hawk from FE4... which honestly shows how much of a crackship/rarepair/multiship writer I am haha. I love so, soooooo many ships and love to write for so many ships as well though. 

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I would like to say never say never, but I’m not sure how to proceed at parts on my Wen Ning/Lan Xichen “everyone else is dead but we’re still here” postcanon fic. 

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Lengthy descriptions of space/character features unless I’m super invested with in the phrase of “I have to make this character the most sexually desirable person in the grocery store.” You feel?

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I am not comfortable enough in the other languages I know to do that. :D

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Pokemon Special. It was that manga that drove me to write fanfic in the first place.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

On my own, despite some pacing issues and it not being one of my most popular, its Sunbeams Shade Black Wings for the MXTX Big Bang. It just feels... really close to my heart, and one of the fics I wrote through tears at points because I was so invested in writing the story. 

I’m not going to tag anyone, but feel free to do it if you like!

[zarathelonewolf]

Currently drawing a scene from my BNHA Canon Rewrite. I'm not sure how to call it yet, maybe "Resolve", but... I really dunno.

The scene... I'm actually not sure when to locate the scene, because it really depends on the way I would want to write the fanfic. I could write a separate fic that speaks about Whisper Punch's story, but if I do, there wouldn't be much I would actually know how to write for the moment. I really don't know.

It's about Midoriya, an OC of mine and Eri meeting Shigaraki 10 years after the true defeat of AFO while they were jogging. Midoriya is very surprised to see that the Reintegration program that the new HPSC worked out for many of the Villains ended sooner than expected for Shigaraki: he doesn't seem to want to speak with them, but after some silence he asks them to follow him so that he can explain better. It's one of the ways I'll use, at the end or the beginning of the fic (depending on whether it will be a prologue or and epilogue), to explain how the Villains were helped in finding a new place in society, a better life too, and how exactly they were redeemed in the eyes of the law.

I'm... very embarrassed at how the sketch turned out, Shigaraki is the only one that came out well except for, maybe, Midoriya and Eri. Maybe I'll just have to exclude my OC from the image. She is not Whisper Punch, mind you.

Dislaimer: All the characters depicted, save for the one that is entirely covered in grey, are Kohei Horikoshi's property, and I in no way claim them. My inspiration comes from his Manga Boku No Hero Academia. I'm just drawing non profit fanart, here, and using it to visualize a scene from a non-profit fanfic written by me and based on the same manga. Some of the plot points and this scene come from my imagination, which in turn owes the inspiration from Horikoshi's world. The rest is all his.

See ya and let me know what you think. Also, I'm no professional artist, so I bet the poses WILL be fonky!

Shigaraki is being monitored even now, Midoriya... Let's just say he isn't exactly a Pro Hero anymore, Eri wants to become one, and my OC... Let's just act as if she didn't exist, k? (plz she looks like a gremlin with that pose, pfft-)...

EDIT: THIS SCENE DOESN'T HAPPEN 10 YEARS AFTER AFO'S DEFEAT, IT HAPPENS ALMOST 20 YEARS AFTER IT! SORRY!

[nosybookworm]

Ninja Academy vs Hero School Rant

Naruto was my jam back in the day. I stayed up late to watch the new episodes, bought the dvd box sets and manga volumes, collected toys and cards just to stare at adoringly, even pretended to be sick so that I could stay home and watch a Naruto marathon. Point is, I LOVED Naruto.

I was invested in the characters. My heart ached for every single character that gave me a backstory. I ugly cried on more than ten occasions.

The action and moral dilemmas sucked me in and spit me out, made me the person I am today thinking critically about the stuff I love because wow that universe is in no way safe or sane for the people living in it lol.

The villains absolutely TERRIFIED me DESPITE STILL WANTING TO SEE MORE OF THEM, Orochimaru alone had me sleeping with the lights on and ripping the arms off his action figure just to be safe.

When I started watching My Hero Academia those old happy feelings started slapping me in the face drawing me in. MHA hits a lot of the same points that Naruto had and I didn’t really notice until the end of season 3 because those points weren’t as in-your-face or emotionally impactful as it was in Naruto I guess. Not to say it didn’t have an impact! Just that it rolled off me a lot easier which might just be a me problem.

I Mean:

The main character getting bullied/excluded because of something he can’t control. 

Underdog character then meeting or making an emotional connection with a mentor figure truly feeling “acceptance” for maybe the first time and taking that all important first step toward their life long dream. 

A teacher willing to sacrifice himself to protect the students. 

A school training teens to protect/serve. 

Rivalry that may or may not be actual friendship.

Students fighting against each other to “rank up” by showing how capable they are to their superiors.

Enemies invading to terrorize the kids and escaping to terrorize another day.

Traumatic family backstories that child will now attempt to seek justice through own power.

Previous underdog character actually having a secret power that no one knows about but a select few and that he has to train to learn how to use, but it makes him a powerhouse that is always surprising the enemy and inspiring his fellows.

Sure all that can be tied to any story when generalized like this, but the way MHA presents them is pretty similar to Naruto.

(Okay, ALL OF THIS is going to be my personal opinion. Things I want to say to get out of my system so that I can move on. It’s long too. So, now that you’ve been warned continue on.)

The more I got into it the stranger it felt because despite hitting those same points I loved they hit in a different way that....well... made me a little uncomfortable to sit through.

Like Aizawa

Very clearly the Kakashi in MHA. He’s sly hardly ever telling his students the truth but has incredibly high expectations of them, has been known to expel students left and right until his most recent batch of kids, is ready and willing to throw himself in harms way for them, and surprisingly competent despite his exhausted persona/personality. However the way these two teachers act get two very different results from me. Naruto got a chance to introduce Kakashi in a way that endeared him to me, the bell test was more than just showcasing the kids current abilities it was introducing Kakashi (the Jounin that is a kind of jack of all trades, the known perv that will publicly read porn, the guy that will happily mess with a bunch of kids to “teach them a lesson” and because its funny, the guy that requires the students under his care to care about each other because caring for his team matters to him more than any mission, that guy). MHA gave the quirk test. Aizawa mostly in the background taking notes and jotting down scores after his speech about expelling whoever comes last. We didn’t get to hear Aizawa’s thoughts until the very end when Izuku surprised him. 

I didn’t really feel any connection toward Aizawa until I stumbled across fanfics that wrote him more involved with the students and I think that’s the problem. Aizawa is dedicated to his student’s education, he believes they will all be amazing heroes one day, but he hardly ever interacts with them. He can be seen watching their training from afar, sleeping in a corner as another teacher takes over for a bit, protecting them from danger or fighting along side them, and proudly declaring that Bakugo would never turn villain but all of that means very little emotionally when I can’t see him making connections with these students to make this standoffish confidence understandable. He comes off as one of those super smart teachers that have undecipherable lessons because he has no idea how to connect with his students enough to explain in way they understand. Similarly, he like jots down that he’s taking note of Bakugo and might need to step in before he goes down the wrong path but then does nothing and confidently tells the press Bakugo would never be a villain.

Kakashi was pretty standoffish too, no denying that, and the little episodes when the kids conspire to try to see him without his mask are the kind of outside interactions that would be weird for a modern teacher-student relationship like in MHA, so I get why Aizawa doesn’t really have that with any of the kids. However, Kakashi saw the path Sasuke was going down and spent time with him and confronted him about it (it did nothing to stop him but he tried). He took time to find a teacher for Naruto. He was present and awake for just about every milestone in there education with him. He told them when he was proud of them not other people. He involved himself in some of their high jinks to measure their growth and as such was able to have confidence in them when they went off on their own.

The Villains

And My Hero Academia villains, namely All For One. 

I felt nothing when he showed up. I was all caught up in All Might and his passing of the torch. The guy without eyes didn’t feel threatening, didn’t feel like the big bad he was suppose to be. The League of Villains really didn’t feel like “serious enemies” either cause I actually really enjoyed them when they were on screen for their dynamics with each other. Similar to how I liked the Akatsuki in their more light-hearted scenes when they where super strong idiots banded together by sheer force of will and explosive personalities that refuse to leave a job half finished. With the League I would be just as entertained (probably more so) if they were in a slice of life anime just being terrible people together.

I get the feeling All For One was supposed to be MHA’s Orochimaru. (And I say this despite knowing Orochimaru’s introduction is probably a lot closer to Stain what with the confrontation and all, but his whole “the world is corrupt, I will cut out the wrong and remake it into the pure world it should have always been” aligned more with Pain especially with his quick turnabout saving Izuku.) 

Orochimaru always felt in control even when he was in hiding or on the run, he felt like he had more up his sleeve which is the only thing I got from All For One when he was imprisoned. Both Orochimaru and All For One showed up out of nowhere, very obviously in a class of their own that the teenage main characters had no hope of beating, and a mysterious backstory that clearly put all the adults in the know on edge. But I just don’t see All For One as a villain. Nothing about him screamed “Run for your lives this man will smile as he tears you apart!” like Orochimaru. Nothing about All For One’s secret Mad Scientist lab gave me creepy vibes that left me on the edge of my seat clutching at the nearest pillow the way the Sound Village that practically worshiped Orochimaru and the many base of operations he had did.

Terrible Parents

The Todoroki family. 

...

Look. The world of Naruto has terrible parenting, but they also live in a dictator/military run nation where kids can be a front-line defense or key players in a war zone so it’s hard to measure how to view these people. Cause a father that beats his kid and yells at him to get stronger has genuine reasons to rightfully freak out when children as young as 8 get sent to ninja academy. Families that have a rare genetic trait like the Hyuga or Uchiha have every right to be tough and stern if they feel that will protect their kids when they know putting them out into the world makes them an easier target for enemies that would rip out their eyes. 

I can judge their actions based on their consequences. Like the Uchiha clan planning a revolt forcing their eldest to massacre them to keep the peace and their youngest to live with a crazy amount of trauma. Like the Hyuga clan branding their branch members to protect family eyes, but forcing them into being lesser than the main branch and all the trauma that forced on Neji’s poor head. The stupid level of expectation set on Hinata’s young shoulders that she couldn’t meet in the way her clan wanted that made her self-confidence practically non existent. The Hokage leaving Naruto mostly alone for his entire childhood in a village that openly hated him. The Kazekage trying to have his lonely three-year-old assassinated multiple times once by his beloved uncle - the only person that was kind and loved him - that scarred him so entirely that he carved “love” into his forehead and rampaged around the village and did casual murder intentionally for years before meeting Naruto. 

All that... I can get behind as abuse. I want those sad kids to be happy. They deserved better and I will happily lose myself in a fix-it fic where they get that.

MHA gives me similar scenarios but without the clear-cut consequences that shows when parenting for that world is abuse. 

Endeavor is not a good husband. He is emotionally abusive to his wife to the point she has a mental break and attacks a child. 

However, in a world of heroes, in a world where high school students are trained to protect and serve and that self sacrifice is a noble heroic trait. How do I compare such a society to my own? They put children in harms way with hero internships yet don’t allow them to defend themselves if they don’t have a hero license, that would be like getting a learners permit but not being allowed to practice driving.

All this to say I have a hard time telling when bad parenting falls into abuse when it comes to MHA. Endeavor is not a good parent, he is an abusive husband, but is he an abusive parent? As a hero training up the next generation of heroes can it be argued that he is pretty okay even if his methods are a little harsh? None of his children fear him from what I’ve seen. Shouto happily tells him his plans to never use his fire and all the reasons why without fearing he might be punished for it. The other kids seem to be pretty okay going on with their lives. Toya being the exception but again I don’t know what happened to him and he’s a follower of Stain so did he have a falling out with heroes or did his father push too hard?

Nighteye & Tsunade

Okay so this is where I get super rant-y. I have feelings on Nighteye and none of them good.

Nighteye being the estranged comrade of All Might the underdog’s teacher, Tsunade being the estranged comrade of Jiraiya Naruto’s teacher.

Tsunade has been hurt deeply. She ran because she felt that was the only way to save herself from more pain. Here comes Jiraiya with his new little tag along demanding she come back home, she gets appropriately angry and tries everything she can to get them to leave her alone. Naruto being the special little underdog that he is immediately gets under her skin reminding her of all the loved ones she lost bringing back all of that old pain back, so she gets even. She beats him down and challenges him to an impossible challenge to show him how small he really is and get out of her own responsibilities. But he wins. He wins, and shows Tsunade how closed off she’s become forcing her to face reality head on and face her fears at last. He changes her whole world view through action.

Nighteye has been hurt deeply. He sees the future for every person he touches and as such sees futures in which people he loves get hurt and sometimes die. He believes there is nothing he or anyone can do to change these visions. All Might is his hero, His friend and mentor, his comrade. His friend gets hurt in a way he can never fully recover from and he sees a vision where his friend dies on the battle field. He then tells All Might who refuses to retire and leaves without a backward glance. They don’t speak until years later when Nighteye picks out a successor for One For All, but Toshi chooses Izuku and never meets Nighteye’s pick.

Izuku, needing an internship not Gran Torino, goes to Sir Nighteye All Might’s old side kick. He gets tested, told he’s not worthy of One For All, and has to work under this man as he tries to get Izuku to see how Mirio is more worthy of All Might’s quirk. Facing off against Overhaul when they are at their most desperate Nighteye uses his quirk to see what will happen and sees the worst possible scenario. They lose. Then Izuku flies in sweeps Eri into his arms and fights Overhaul saving the day. Izuku proved, unknowingly, that the future Nighteye sees is not set in stone with his actions and on his death bed Nighteye acknowledges that without acknowledging it.

Nighteye’s treatment toward Izuku makes me uncomfortable. This is a man in a position of power over this student telling him that he is not enough, will never be enough, and that he is a disappointment.

His glorifying of All Might makes me uncomfortable. He was All Might’s partner and yet he practically had a shrine of the man in his office. He made him more than just a man, built him up as The Symbol of Peace and kept him there (as many of Toshi’s friends seem to do except for Nedzu and Naomasa) despite getting close enough trusted enough to learn about One For All. And despite all that “love” and “devotion” he left Toshinori alone to deal with his new normal of a permanently damaged system alone for years then takes out all that frustration and grief out on his friends chosen successor.

Then when all is said and done and he’s dying and he’s confronted by Toshinori and Izuku what happens? Does he apologize? Explain his actions? Get closure in his final moments?

No. Well, Toshinori got some measure of closure. Izuku got a few words that essentially boiled down to “Good job, your better than I thought.” without talking about the newfound hope Izuku’s action gave him that his visions are only possibilities not absolute. All of his attention then goes to his choice for One For All, Mirio. 

Understandably. 

He’s dying and Mirio was always his main priority as a mentor, and you know who Mirio looks like? All Might. He’s blonde, buff, blue-eyed, cheerfully friendly, and with a happy-go-lucky persona about him. Sir Nighteye taught him to smile. Chose him to be the new wielder of One For All and without telling him anything planned to introduce him to Toshinori to make his choice reality. Doesn’t that sound... I don’t know... uncomfortably close to manipulation? Grooming? To taking this child under his wing and molding him to be pretty close to a new version of All Might?

I don’t know. Maybe if Sir Nighteye had lived this uncomfortable impression I have of him would be lessened as he began to internalize the full extent of possibilities for the future that he never thought possible before and acted more hopeful, more willing to take gambles because his visions were no longer a guarantee of what will happen.