#is not known for you know. being normal. he has a moral code!!! but. yknow. shrugs. might not be objective!

[intertexts]

tell me more about dakota cole gon hunter hunter I literally know. nothing abt that anime give me ur propaganda. ramble 2 me forever and ever I wanna KNOW

I HOPE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE IN FOR!!!!!!

god. okay. hunter x hunter is a shonen manga by yoshihiro togashi that's been in serialization since '98 & has had two separate anime adaptions. i'm gonna be talking abt the '11 adaption, since that's the one ive been watching! (sidenote: started hxh because of the podcast media club plus which is easily one of my favorite podcasts everrr incredibly good analysis has really affected the way i think about media analysis & criticism extremely fucking fun awesome dynamics btwn folks who are 1) very well known for having extremely good media opinions & 2) great friends who have been friends for a long time & just a delight to listen to. its a great time regardless of whether u r watching the show or not highly recommend if u ever need a new work or commute podcast etc) also disclaimer that i'm only on episode 62 of the show. so.

anyway. the hxh plot:

i will not get into the plot much because it's not as important for the dakota gon isms. but its this. ^!!

so hxh is, overall, a homage to and deconstruction of its genre tropes. togashi very much loves and enjoys a ton of the tropes he's playing with and very obviously delights in subverting just as many of them. it balances these wildly disparate tones of classic, bright candy colored shonen magical worlds and powers and big fights with genuine, seriously-considered violence, cruelty, sinister power structures and all the other heavy consequences of splashy ultraviolence. [RINGS THE PD BELL!!!] the whiplash is ridiculous sometimes-- the ease with which the show cuts from the last survivor of a genocide (kind, reasonable, soft-spoken) turning to self-destructive revenge that is quite literally destroying him from the inside out, taking an immense toll on him and his relationships with the people he loves, becoming a murderer in cold blood (& of course we spend time with the man he murders beforehand, and he's fucking awful, but also human, and has friends and shit, & it's very clear that this is something dreadful and not just a cool fight)-- to like, the two twelve-year-old main characters concocting a fucking ridiculous scheme to corner the antiques market so they get a billion dollars to buy a viddy game & one of the twelve year olds faces turns into a little >:3 kitty face whenever hes doing something sneaky & there's some cartoon ass shopkeeper scamming them, is wild. and neither of them are the "correct tone," right? the whole thing is a balance between the modes & takes them both seriously & at their own value. [RINGS THE PD BELL] so like. literally since a couple episodes into prime defenders ive been like oh, yeah, this tracks, i'm not bothered by the constant juxtaposition of stupid ass bits with genuinely serious moments, this is obviously influenced by hxh. which, like, i still can't say if that was intentional or not. but hxh is one of The manga of all time & was & still is incredibly influential (sasuke of sasuke fame is a knockoff of a hxh character btw), so i have no doubt that it was an ingredient in the mix somehow!

anyway. gon, who is literally dakota, is the protag! hes the little boy who set off to find out whats so great about cigarettes :) he is a kid who was raised by his aunt who he has a complicated relationship with after his mother was killed and his father disappeared, and he grew up in the woods and is very very strong and fast and good at fighting because he grew up in the woods!! fucking feral little creature boy who fights with a fishing rod and talks to animals and has an incredible sense of smell. gon does some shit, leaves the island, makes some friends, gets groomed by a creepy fucking pedophile which he thinks is fine, gets brutally tortured for a very very uncomfortably long time, which he thinks is fine, becomes a hunter (which is great he has awesome lines of credit now!) it's still unclear what a hunter is or does, but they have lots of power and can do pretty much whatever they want. anyway, he wants to be the best and the strongest and he loves fighting for fun, for the sake of fighting and being good at what he does!!!! and he also wants to find his dad. and definitely doesn't have any unresolved issues from the fact that his mom is dead its fine he doesn't even want to know anything about her its chill and also his dad's so cool so whatever he was doing was for sure more important than him so it doesn't matter that he abandoned him! the crux of gon as a character is that he is very silly and often kind and very much a kid, and he does not fucking care what happens to himself. he is fine with getting the shit beaten out of him by people twice his age he is cheerfully oblivious to and makes excuses for almost every single adult taking advantage of him or being just awful to him, when it's very obvious in the narrative that it is bad and not good, he's self-destructively reckless and impulsive and fixated on what he thinks is good and right and also on becoming the best and strongest even if he burns out fast and he loves his friends so so so much. and simultaneously also he's a sillygoofy kid who does dumb shit with his best friend ever (gay) n worries about his pals n stuff. its okay if he burns himself out and gets himself hospitalized for months its okay if people hurt him and take advantage of him and get off on the idea of killing him but its NOT ok if his friends even THINK about taking a risk like that >:(( head in hands. anyway. yeah. fun silly adventures strange beasts and foreign lands and wild cartoon shenanigans and very explicit horror and gore!! with often brutal and terrible consequences that leave you feeling kind of sick!!! where have i heard that before!!!!!!!!!!

[dbssh]

🖊!

im going to use this as a convinient excuse to talk about the better-than-overwatch superheroes ive been buzzing about for the past five hours. im on mobile and cant do readmores so. buckle the fuck up!

so the general idea of it is that theres this group called the Citizens of Mankind Protection Agency (CMPA) that starts out as this disaster relief agency mostly focusing on upholding peace and prosperity through a group of allied human nations through the solar system(called the Earthling Pact/Unified Earthling Pact)

BUT after about 100 years of corruption and war (with different groups of robotic and alien lifeforms) the CMPA has basically lost any trust or respect from the general public, essentially being a privatized corporate police/military force.

after a PR disaster or two in which the CMPA fails to do its job of, yknow, protecting people, it decides it needs a new 'public face'

this leads to the development of the Compatriot program! its a campy, showy, gimmicky styled team of superhero types thats meant to operate as underdog style heroes that the public will root for and enjoy and trust

this team is led by the bushy-tailed rookie, Hilda Beckham (codenamed: Operative). Though inexperienced, Operative was chosen for her quick mind and general positive, friendly air. She's scrappy and good at using her environment to solve problems, and is a confident leader. Young as she is, she genuinely believes she can use Compatriot to make the world a better place and to heal the corruption in CMPA. (her playstyle would probably be a dps player similar to s76 and tracer, a quick-moving midtoclose range damage dealer. plain, no real superpowers, though she has more advanced melee things than others(sprint, dodging, tuck and roll kinda things. maybe a stun blast)

she goes on a recruitment mission, seeking out retired/defected/former CMPA members as well as new and gifted young people to make up her team.

her first catch is a young person named Angelo Brady, codenamed Bubble! their power is basically what it says on the tin, they can create bubble-like surfaces to use as protective sheilds(for themselves teammates, and fixed points/objects) as well as platforms to jump around on, giving them higher manuverability and a bit of technique. They'd probably be a more defense-oriented character, with a long range primary(maybe a zarya sort of splash damage), as well as a short-range secondary, and more focus on moving around and sheilding than melee fighting. their ultimate would maybe be something kind of hammond-ey? a spread of bubble bombs thrown around a certain point? or maybe sticky traps? who knows. not me

their design would be very pop-ey, bold colours and shapes taking inspiration from murals, street art, and pop art. very young, maybe around 16?

second she grabs up Arthur Braveheart, codenamed as King Arthur. A former CMPA member that was discharged during the wartime, citing that his "code of honor" interfered with his ability to follow orders. he's kind of grouchy and very jaded but follows a strict code of morals for how he fights and conducts himself.

hes a knight-themed tank hero that has a very sword-and-sheild playstyle, with high health and additional armor. He fights melee, with no long range capabilities. His primary weapon is a bigass sword that like can light on fire and stuff. Has some sheilding capability, but only for himself. Secondary attack is a sheild bash. His ultimate gives him a horse that moves at 2.5x his normal speed and doubles his weapon damage, as well as knocking you prone if he "charges" you with the horse (ult. lasts 10-15 seconds. the horses name is Excalibur.)

third she goes after Revenant, a nameless and elusive former CMPA member that really only exists in rumors, for the most part, serving as a sort of vigilante type in the desert areas of america and mexico. Revenant was a victim of brutal genetic experiments by CMPA, in attempts to make the perfect soldier. she can go into a werewolf-style rage transformation thingy, and was believed to have been killed in battle, shot with an enourmous energy blast clean through her stomach, only to get back up and keep fighting. she's virtually unkillable.

shes heavily melee-focused, a lot of physical attack abilities combined with shotguns(primary weapon). one of her secondary abilities is called "undying", which allows her to regain up health as she deals damage for 10-15 seconds. her ultimate is a winston-style damage dealer where she increases 1.5x in speed and deals 2.5x damage for 15 seconds, as well as instantly being brought up to 60% health if she was below.

she turns down Operative's offer, saying she'd rather die than do anything for the CMPA.

she travels with a young woman known as Vaquero,a mexican girl with a cowboy aesthetic and a knack for sharpshooting. She's a windowmaker sniper-type, using a lasso-thingy to hook her to points and pull her towards them. She has a smoke bomb+shadow-sneak ability that essentially turns her invisible and gives a 1.5x speed boost for twenty seconds, and can "take cover", drinking a thingy that regains up to 50 health. her ultimate allows her to jump to the nearest visible group of two or more enemies and high-noon them, slowing time aim-focusing up to three headshots.

Vaquero & Revenant have a really cute mother-daughter style relationship even though Rev is a very stoic, tall dark & brooding type. her only weakness and care in the world is Vaquero, and she'd follow her to the ends of the earth.

V & R are classified as rogue, unalined characters, but their primary goal is to take down CMPA and the compatriot program (Revenant would also like violent revenge on the doctor who tortured her)

SPEAKING OF! the good doctor is a woman named Ilyana Glasse, a morally ambigious medical doctor interested in cybernetic & genetic enhancment engineering. shes very much just Moira two bc im in love w moira.... but a bit more sadistic and just fucking weird to be around.

Glasse actually seeks out Operative, as a high-ranking scientist in CMPA she very much wants to be involved in this team of experimental, incredibly talented soldiers.

THERE ARE PROBABLY A LOT MORE I JUST HAVENT THOUGHT ABOUT YET. I WANNA GET IN SOME ROBOTS AND SOME MARTIANS AND SOME SPACE-DWELLING HUMANS TOO BUT AHHH THATS A LOT OF STUFF

NEways i just. love superheroes and i love the *concept* of ovw so much the execution just. suuuucks.