#theyre so much better than the manga and anime it kinda makes me sad how much asagiris creativity got watered down

[rayvven]

I think i actually do understand bsd alot better now that my obsession has calmed down alot and im like, actually reading the light novels

[tumblunni]

First chapter of almost every shonen manga ever

Some incredibly ordinary guy: I am menaced by generic villain!

Generic villain: haw haw haw! I am probably black, arabic, ambiguously queer or some other minority but i'm definately fat!

Mysterious the protagonist: I appear!

Everyone ever: gosh he is so cool and great

Protagonist: watch how i defy social norms (with regards to politeness and not with regards to the stereotype the villain represents)

Ordinary dude: I am frustrated by your irreverent behaviour and somehow meant to seem unreasonable for this!

Protagonist: i will probably waste all your money on food, embarass you at your workplace, and if you are a woman possibly grope you on the way out!

Everyone else: wow he is So Cool

Ordinary dude: time to exposit my Sad Backstory

Protagonist: even though you have been working to fight this guy for possibly 15 years and i have no personal interest in your plight and quite possibly went "eww so boring i sleep", i am somehow the only person truly qualified to resolve your backstory

The narrative: possibly has a note about how he is So Super Perfect because he Just Helps People Even If He Doesnt Have A Reason, even though he just ignored the reason and acted like a rude asshole for 28 pages

Protagonist: I was empathetic all along! And somehow more than people who actually act like it!

Stereotype man: haw haw haw i sure do like menacing people for literally no reason and probably i'm also in a gang!

Predictable moment: he kills his own men to prove how evil he is

Alternatively: look i have captured Ordinary Dude and proved how wrong they were for thinking they could resolve their own backstory ok now i put a gun to their head and its supposed to prove how you are indeed not an ass despite acting like an ass cos you...dont want to let a guy die i guess??

Possible addendum: haw haw do some sort of degrading non badass thing because i am blackmailing u with kill the damsel

Everyone: oh gasp this is so terrible and worse than actual murder because how dare he make badass man not be badass!!

Protagonist: ha i was actually never in any danger of losing and now i reveal my Big Power

Big power: *instantly kills [secondary midboss of main villain] with no effort*

Protagonist: please ignore how this means i could have solved the problem 18 hours ago and the author only dragged it out for a chance to show off

Some guy in the crowd: gasp he's really [INSERT COOL NICKNAME] and is famous in [ALL PLACE] for [THING]

Some other guy: he has a bounty of [NUMBER]!

A third: Somehow we never noticed this wanted poster we all seem to own until it was thematically important!

The first guy: let me exposit his entire backstory in five seconds!

The backstory: my female figure or dad figure died and i am searching for the legendary thingus and/or To Prove I Am More Cool And Perfect Than Everyone Else

Meanwhile: dramatic shot of Ordinary Dude (probably still under Stereotype's foot) staring deeply at Protagonist with Emotion I Guess

Crowd: wow we should have realized he was cool and perfect!

Ordinary dude: i was foolish to doubt he was cool and perfect!

Stereotype villain: i also instantly believe this and am reduced to a blubbering mess!

Ordinary dude: truly his suffering is worse than everyone else! Ignoring the fact that im living the same backstory literally now! Boy it sure is conveinient that it made him step up and become amazing so he can resolve my plot without me getting the same thing!

Protagonist: *chops off bad guy's head in some cool two page spread*

Protagonist: its great how this is more climactic than the person actually affected by the thing getting any resolution

Overhead shot: we are later now i suppose!

Crowd: we sure are far away from the camera! It is vaguely implied we are thanking you!

Protagonist: Now Is The Time I Must Go For No Reason

Ordinary dude: *runs out like theyre trying to stop a wedding*

The same panel every time: wide shot of them panting out of breath

Dramatic zoom in on face yelling: STOP I HAVE PREDICTABLE PLOT INFORMATION TO TELL YOU

Ordinary dude: wow u like saved my life and such and i appreciate u stealing my entire story and proving i only existed as a vessel to prove you were kinda neat

Ordinary dude: btw i was completely wrong and shameful for thinking you were not the second coming of actual anime christ

Protagonist: hmm yes i agree but like in a non egotistical way somehow

Ordinary dude: IF IM A GIRL I HAVE A LOVE CONFESSION

Protagonist: why are you yelling

Ordinary dude: BECAUSE YOURE WALKING AWAY

Protagonist: WHY DOES NOBODY AKNOWLEDGE HOW MUCH OF AN ASSHOLE I AM

The writer: dude's gotta have Every Woman love him but be all Cool And Detatched, yknow?

Literally everyone: we do not know. No human acts like this.

Ordinary dude: if i am a young male i probably go with him as a sidekick and continue to fail constantly at ever being tough and be rescued for many issues into the future!

Some sort of relative of his: *drops dead now to justify a continuing motivation*

Protagonist: why not just have me not erase his first motivation with my bigass sword?

Ordinary dude: hey at least its better than when im a girl and you just say no to taking me with you for no remotely explained reason

Ordinary dude girl version: AND THEN I STAYED HERE FOREVER PINING FOR HIM AND HIS NAME WENT DOWN IN HISTORY AS THE [completer of previously established plot thread]

Protagonist: [catch phrase]

[booksandchainmail]

nanoha vivid liveblog: episode 8

TOURNAMENT RC TOURNAMENT ARC TOURNAMENT ARC

oh the castle from the op

and looks like it’s the saint church, makes sense

… this was probably already established, I just forgot

must be awkward fighting clone jesus in a tournament when youre a nun

this is a really good point, and also raises questions about vivio’s friends all training together

some sort of invisibility?

Oh no wait she was the speedster right? So too fast to be seen

Also, cool device design

OH FUCK YEAH I LOVE TONFA

Okay, paying attention during the tournament section of the op this time, and it looks like harry punching with fire, 

victoria with a polearm and lightning,

unknown glasses girl with chain circles, chantez with her tonfa (do they spin?), 

shrine maiden with a katana, 

miura gets a longer segment, 

and then sieglinde still hooded

That is the least trustworthy thing you could possibly say

called it

I feel like attacking before your opponent is armed is cheating

Then again, vivio was in a fighting stance and ready to go, so maybe its legit

Also, on a closer look I think chantez’s weapons could also be wielded like swords (edit from later: no kidding she can, her style was listed as dual swords)

Huh, have we ever seen a non-transforming power up before?

naruto run

eye glint! magic is happening her folks

i will never get over how happy vivio looks all the time when she’s fighting

dramatic much?

wait what

(also i promise this looks genuinely worrying when its not a screencap paused on a goofy mouth) 

oh okay it was a vision? Killer intent or whatever?

Do not tempt fate like that chantez

like i said, maybe don’t fight clone jesus in church when you are a literal nun

d’awww

it’s the tie club

awww, they have a family gesture thing

KITTIES

...okay, those particular kitties are kinda doofy looking around the faces

agito has good clothes

AWWWWWWWW

HOW DARE YOU NOT LIKE THE CAT

LOOKIT HIM

thank you for giving this child one soft cute thing, even if it also a weapon

BABY KITTIES

well fuck now im sad

oh gods

so they just actually are nerds

okay then

that’s a really good name that i had completely forgotten from the manga and am now suddenly flashing back to

this is very fair, and a major disadvantage of being an unarmed fighter. normally that gets mitigated by speed i guess, but no one in this show seems to have trouble swinging giant weapons around, so that might not actually give an advantage

So golem practice for corona, and maybe some basic review just in case her golem goes down? Though at the level she’ll be competing at, basic skills probably won’t help

More martial arts for rio I guess. It might be better for to be training with her family since she uses their style?

And vivio either needs a weapon, which I kinda doubt based on the shape of this anime, or techniques to counter weapons and range

With who? I guess it could be chantez, but that seems implausible for the whole “going to be competing against each other thing”

Presumably the tsab group is too busy with work, and hayate has her own candidate, so maybe another number?

Oh so it was another competitor, and a new character. Bit of a conflict of interest there, but im glad nove has made friends

And holy hells is she experienced

actually, I took a look at the wiki, and nove is technically 17 (barring clone weirdness). Which means she’s younger than this girl, and could totally be participating in this tournament. Honestly, if your teenager’s tournament has coaches who could compete in the age bracket they’re coaching it’s probably a sign you should narrow the brackets. 

That said, I’m guessing nove doesn’t compete because this is a civilian tournament, and even four years on I doubt she sees herself as a civiliain

So… do you have any strengths?

... they used to belong to jesus, so if anyone you’re fighting is religious it’ll throw them off?

Okay, I thought nove was just going to go for some sagebrecht power thing, given the eyes association, but using the cradle would probably disqualify vivio

~magical girl show technically~

called it!

didn’t call it!

Yeah, nanoha probably has access to a hell of a lot of training materials, plus footage of high power fights

oh, for chris? didn’t think of that

... the fact that he’s looking for this on his own raises disturbing questions about how sentient devices are

this reminds me a lot of bnha where baby izuku watches all might, except its just a tiny plushie

BUSTER HEAD

THE BEST NAME

Oh that’s gonna be hard for rio

Though they both have similar personalities I think? And maybe both use flames? So could be a fun matchup

So that’s sword girl against vivio? And her weakness is weapons, and that girl has a long sword…

Honestly kinda surprised it doesn’t look like einhart and vivio will fight each other

Maybe they’re saving that for past the qualifiers? But honestly with the power levels we’ve been shown, idk if vivio could make it realistically, and idk how much this show will push protagonist plot powers

OH 

So we do have two of our protag group in direct competition, but not a pairing that’s thematic

Huh

And no mention of who else is in that group. Probably at least one other important character? Victoria or sieglinde would have belkan relevance to einhart

theyre also so sweet and kind about violence

good team name!

Every group competing at once is probably the only practical way to get through this many people, but it must be annoying if two good/personal matches are on at once

this year’s contestants are noticeably more anime than the girls in the video from earlier

also, are there any guys in this thing? there’s no mention of it not being co-ed, so i guess were just running on nanoha rules of very few guys existing

His voice is so deep

There are at least 367 contestants in this thing? Even with six matches at once, that’s at least 60 rounds, and those things could run for a while

Oh she’s tiny and excitable, it’s like vivio’s mirror

HOW MANY CONTESTANTS ARE THERE?!!

also they can’t use devices this round, which makes things fairer I guess. Probably non-device weapons are allowed, otherwise this would bias towards hand-to-hand fighters, but this levels the playing field in terms of money and equipment

Someone weve never seen before, who’s disparaging towards our protagonist… yeah she’s going down

she is so nervous

in utter contrast to literally all of teachers being battle hardened knights

so she’s kicking focused? a good contrast to all the punch girls

also, im a big fan of miura’s opponent

MAGICAL GIRL LYRICAL NANOHA: where tiny girls beat up teenagers

Oh so that’s the personally important matchup they’re going for

also i guess it isn’t one ring per group

[tumblunni]

What do you guys think about the names Dustin and Darcy for my protagonists in Let's Go?

Cos i really wanted to play the co op mode thing by myself, just so i can pretend this role in the plot is filled by two siblings and have a bit of fun roleplaying that. But i dunno yet how the co-op works and whether you'd be able to customize the avatar of the second player or if its just the default trainer? Or can you only play co-op if you have two separate games? Im planning to buy the other version anyway once i get more money, so it could be fun to play my first version with sibling one and then the second playthru is sibling two's turn to shine!

Oh and the whole reason i wanted to do this is cos i wanna try out the customization features to make some ocs now that there's no competitive online stuff unless you pay a subscription fee (LOL NO THANKS). Like..i always felt like i HAD to make my character me in xy/sumo/usum, otherwise its like lying online? But of course i cant actually make me because theres no nonbinary option or even remotely ambiguous outfits for either gender. And you cant have wild hair colours while i dye my hair 24/7 irl lol. Its silly cos like 95% of the gym leaders and other characters ingame have anime hair colours yet the player has to be normal? So yeah i cpuldnt really enjoy making this innacurate defanged version of myself yet i didnt feel like i was allowed to just make up a new character either. Closest i could do was give myself white hair like my old trainersona when i was 12, lol. I mean i guess thats my 'real hair colour' underneath the dye right now, if you think about it that way?

OH GOD PIKACHU CAN HAVE A LITTLE TUXEDO AND BOWLER HAT HOLY FUCK IM SORRY TO INTERRUPT THIS BUT I WAS WATCHING THE IGN REVIEW AND THEY SHOWED PIKA BOWLER HAT PLEASE GO GOOGLE THAT VIDEO JUST FOR THAT 1 SECOND OF NEW FOOTAGE OF MY BEAUTIFUL CLASSY BOYE

okay where was i

Yeah! I think sibling trainers could be a good and unique way to handle a rival! Like having them be your sibling already establishes that rivalry. But it can be a soft and nice rivalry! I wanna go with that fun version rather than the full on angry exaggerated sibling rivalries you often see in kids media. Like i know that some people legit dont get on with their siblings and some people can even have a very gary esque full on rivalry thats sorta 'love to hate' or like..tsundere pretending you hate them. But personally i never had experience with that, i can never relate to those 'tfw u hate ur sibling and theyre always an asshole but lolll u love them anyway' posts. I only got to live with my little sister for a little while due to the catastrophe of abusive parenthood that was my childhood, and i lost contact with her forever when she was very young so i doubt she'd even remember me. *sigh* But like i don't think i only love her so much because i miss her! People say newborns and toddlers are the most bratty so like you'd think if i was gonna ever find her 'annoying' i would have done it back then. I was always just mega proud of her and whenever she'd be 'bratty' i'd be cheering her on and trying to protect her from mom. And when she'd try and pull pranks on me or practise play-fighting or whatever i was just like 'lol thats legit funny' and taking play-falls so she felt better about herself. Like we didnt have much power in that household so i felt like encouraging her pretending to be a wrestler would help her feel like she had some sort of control in some part of her life i guess? And just i wished i was allowed to roughhouse and run around and be all 'unladylike' and just enjoy BEING A KID when i was a kid, yknow? I always had legit fun being with her and legit enjoyed it and was legit proud and legit never annoyed. I just dont understand 'yeah she's annoying but i love her anyway'. I was only ever her rival as a play-rival to help encourage her to like.. Enjoy the things she enjoyed. Feel like someone else cared. I only ever acted like 'ha ha baby stuff yeah sure i hate hanging out with my sister" cos i thought i was SUPPOSED TO. I always felt so guilty doing it and so dissappointed cos id rather hang out with her than be a boring stereotypical teen tbh. I dunno, maybe this isnt typical for siblings and its just a sign of how badly we were raised? I was just real fuckin lonely and absolutely loved having a family member who loved me for the first time since my grandma died. Same reason i always used to act all 'i am too cool i totally am not soft for my lil sister' around my lil sister's dad. I really wanted him to love me too! I used to say swear words at him cos i thougjt he would thibk i was Cool And Adult?? I have soooo many cringe moments from that phase of my childhood. Man it hurts to think that i never actually did get to become that positive influence that protected my sister from my mum and let her know she was loved. Cos i was sent to live with my dad when she was like 5ish? And never saw her again and now im too scared to try and reach out to her again because 1: she probably doesnt even remember me, 2: theres a chance she believes my mum saying i was some horrible asshole who abandoned the family, 3: even bigger chance that contacting her could mean my mum finding me again and big fuckin risk of further abuse. Plus the awkwardness of introducing my trans self when she'd remember me as her sister and all. Sigh! All i can do is hope that her cool dad eventually got custody of her, and that he didnt turn out to be a secret bastard like when i met my own dad. He seemed good, but then again i was just a lil kid and my dad seemed good at first. Sighhhhhh...

SO UMM YEAH WOW I MADE MYSELF SAD

Anyway the point is that whenever i write siblings i'd rather write 100% unapologetic super loving love cos its wish fullfillment for me. This is also why in/cest shipping is a massive beserk button for me, good wholesome family relationships are REAL FUCKIN IMPORTANT and how DARE you corrupt that shit! Some people would fuckin KILL to have that wholesome family!!

Anyway lol thats why i'd like a Wholesome Rivalry for these sibling ocs! Like they challenge each other to contests along the way just for fun, and they react all 'wow my sis is the BEST' when you beat them, so hard feelings at all. And you dont JUST do rival stuff but also sometimes just hang out and have fun cos you missed each other. And if anyone threatens your sibling then THAT is the only time you see the Serious Sibling Power! Rival moments: ha ha lol bet ya cant beat me ooo im a scary villain LOL I CANT KEEP A STRAIGHT FACE HAHA! Giovanni punches your brother: *stony cold death glare from hell as tricksy prank sis turns into an unstoppable vengeance engine* Oh, but also the only other time they'd be serious is in their final battle together! Like most of the 'rivalry' is just competing to make the adventure fun and to help each other get stronger. But if sis/bro ever actually legit said they really want to fight to find out who's the best, and its like..important to help their self confidence, then i think bro/sis would respect that and go all out. Taking a fall and letting them win would be the most disrespectful thing of all! Oh, but i do think there would be one kind of battle like that during the story? Like in one of the more low stakes faux-rival fights the sibling actually does try and let you win, and the challenge is to try and lose against all odds. High stakes super failure battle!!! Imagine the evil team in the background like 'wtf' as these two run the most aggressively slow race of all time! XD

Oh and i kinda thought about different personalities for the two of them based on who you pick? Like i did like that aspect about brendan/may in RSE compared to other 'unpicked option becomes rival' characters in later games that didnt even have one personality let alone two. It just sucks that the personalities they decided to give them were 'female rival is super self concious and thinks youre better than her because youre a boy' and 'male rival is super ego and thinks he's better than you because he's a boy'. Boooo!

So instead of that the personalities i was thinking for these two would be less sexist lol. Male sibling Dustin is basically Wally so far? I need to develop him a bit more to make him a bit distinct, i mean its not like every single shy dude is identical. I'm thinking maybe mix him with all the wasted potential in Brendan? Like in the game they slightly hint at him having the ONE non stereotypical trait of liking cute teddy bears, and that made me think about how much better his whole plot would have been if it actually criticized his sexism and said that he only behaves that way cos he's overcompensating for being bullied for being 'feminine', yknow? And then in the manga they actually DO write him as super feminine, and even as a contest star who loves fashion and dressing up his pokemon! But then GAHHH they present it as some sort of fuckin 'character flaw', like he's shown to be selfish and superficial because of it. And the backstory is that him and the female protagonist used to be 'normal' until a traumatic event. Brendan was a Natural Fighting Prodigy until he saved his female friend from a wild pokemon and was so traumatized that he never wanted to fight again, while she wanted to learn to fight so she'd never need to be protected again. But this is not only presented as Wrong Ways To Be Gender but also like.. Fighting their natural instinct which still comes through?? Like male protag hasnt fought in YEARS yet whenever he's forced to fight he's just magically better at it than female protag who's been practising all these years to become his equal. Ha ha silly girl you can never achieve that! All you get is this patronizing 'well if you just tryyyyy girly things im sure you'll like it' plot and then you get rescued by him in the end because OF COURSE you do. Sigh! I cant believe they made me hate that pairing even more than the games did! So yeah i dont really wanna write Dustin as a jerkass who's secretly got synpathetic motives of internalized homophobia/sexism, cos i feel thats a plot very specific to my perceptuons of Brendan and id basically just have to make Dustin a clone of him and he wouldnt be able to shine on his own merits. Instead i'm just thinking of writing him as a 100% sensitive soul, and he still faces predjudice for not being that bigoted idea of an 'ideal man' but really the fact he doesnt bow down to their demands proves that he's the bravest person here.

And then I'm thinking maybe the female sibling Darcy is the older one and is a bit "gary ish"? Like eitjer way you still have a friendly and loving siblingness, but she's a bit more of a sass who is tsundere about admitting she loves her bro. But i dont think she's the cold or grumpy sort of tsundere, more like a trickstery tomboy? Bombastic loki jock sis! She can only be a bit abrasive with her bro cos she wants to teach him to be tough even when she's not there to protect him. But sometimes she can mess it up and make him feel like he has to change his personality in order to be tough, rather than letting him know she supports him in being "unmasculine" and just wants to help him find the confidence to stand up to people who bully him for it. Like she feels like she is 'weaker' than him in the sense that she worries too much about what people will think if she expresses her real emotions, yknow? Like theyre both suffering from toxic masculinity! He's suffering from the standard form where men who are too 'soft' are beaten down into that mould. Ans she's suffering from the problem where 'masculine' girls feel like they have to be '100% masculine' in order to be allowed to be themselves at all. Like back when i was a kid and before i came out as trans i always used to try and pretend to like sports ans like..cliche macho shit where you Cant Admit You Care About Your Friends and also i wasnt allowed to like ANY feminine things at all. I had to either follow the stereotype of femininity entirely or follow the opposite stereotype, i wasnt allowed to just reject stereotypes and like what i actually like. So yeah me realizing i wasnt really a girl has led to me embracing more 'girly' things than back when i thought i was one! So i think Darcy would have a similar arc but like..the cis equivelant? Just finds people who arent such judgmental pricks and stops having to conform to either of those stereotypes in order to keep fake friends who dont really give a shit about her. She can have a plot about both forced feminine and masculine stereotypes being equally limiting, rather than that shitty 'being masculine is a prison uwu every woman will be happier embracing her love of makeup' shit. That dominant narrative just made me feel like i was somehow wrong about myself whenever i didnt like 100% Of Sports All The Time, i must be somehow girly if i liked even ONE girly thing yet i needed hundreds of proofs if i wanted to be masculine. And like i wasnt just allowed to be neither! I wasnt allowed to like parts of both! I wasnt allowed to BE GODDAMN TRANS!!! So yeah i dunno if i'd go whole hog and make this character a trans man or a nonbinary person tho? I think she's just actually a cis girl who happens to be sporty and brash and likes a lot of 'masculine' fashion and hobbies. And she's just been made to feel self concious about it, as if she cant possibly REALLY be that unless she likes Every Single Boy Thing and wins at Every Single Challenge. Does anyone else remember that shit too? The girls have to win Every sports game against the boys in order to be 'one of the boys' but if you lose even one of them it somehow proves that you're inferior. Even though the boys lost 50 billion games to you and that doesnt prove theyre inferior! Like man she has sooooo many 'gary rivals' in her school life, thats why she loves going on this adventure with a kind brother rival who actually respects her! So her resolution would just be her staying the same but being more confident about it and saying fuk u to those fake friends. Same as her brother's plot, just they both face different specifics to the way this sexism affects them, yknow?

Oh but yeah when i did finally learn about LGBT stuff and realize i was trans it was Big Amazing cos even in the rare stories about Its Okay To Be Yourself it still left me feeling weirdly empty when the girl decides that yes she does wanna be a girl in the end. So i get that these plots might come off as queerbaiting if i write them badly? I need to make sure to make it clear that these characters 100% want to be seen as this gender and its just other people being fuckfaces and trying to define what their gender has to mean. I think maybe i'll try and mitigate this potential misunderstanding by adding different sorts of lgbt content. And, well, also cos i just want lgbt content in all of my stories because i am lgbt, of course! I'm 100% sure that Darcy is gay, and i think also maybe possibly Dustin is trans? Like, his plot is about being mocked for being a 'feminine' boy, but its also even more personal for him because he's a trans boy and he feels like he needs to change his personality in order to pass/he isnt really real because his personality doesnt fit the stereotypical image of a man. Like if you'd looked at the two of them back when they were identical twins, you probably would have expected Darcy to end up being trans if you were the sort of person who believes those basic ass stereotypes about 'boys who play with barbies and girls who play with trucks'. Or i mean maybe its the other way around and Darcy is a trans girl who still has a 'masculine' personality according to stereotypes? Or even both of them are trans and both face being told that they arent real because they dont fit the perfect stereotype of a trans person according to cis perceptions? Or maybe i'm overcomplicating things with all of this and it'd just muddy the message i guess. I might just keep it to them both being cis but also both of them like girls. And i can always apply my trans and other LGBT headcanons to other characters along their adventure.

Anyway LOL im rambling too much!

[tumblunni]

Man the manga makes it look so fun to be a Nobody!

I really marvel at how they captured the uncanny nature of the enemy Nobodies?? Cos seriously the whole point of them is that they look humanoid but move in really inhuman ways. And each individual enemy type has its own unique mannerisms for this, but in general its like..slugs? I'm pretty sure its slugs?? They stretch and squish and wiggle around and its like pretty much EXACTLY how medicinal leeches move, but thats a very underrated animal so its probably more likely it was slugs or worms. Like 'hey lets exaggerate slugs' but BELIEVE IT OR NOT THAT FATEFUL WIGGLIER SLUG DOES TRULY EXIST. And i love their cutie patoot lil faces. And the world needs to appreciate them more!

...ok im getting offtopic but you get the gist of what i mean. The basic Dusk enemies are vaguely humanoid things with their arms and legs tapering off into sticklike points, and they either wiggle them around like leech heads or hold their arms behind them naruto run style and use their entire body as a leech! Like its more likely that they pick up stuff by wrapping around it like a snake, rather than just using hands?? And also they can fly and stick to ceilings and just generally have loads of fun?? And look really pretty?? And some of the other more complex nobodies look even cooler doing their weird wiggle flying. Like the Assassin type have these weird big metal petal shapes on their arms that flutter like feathers and make them look like winged snakes crossed with.. Kites...? Kites made of kimonos? Being worn by a man with no face..?

SERIOUSLY WHO DESIGNED THESE FUNKY THINGS THEYRE SO UNIQUELY GENIUS

And aaa the Days manga has a REALLY good panel showing a big swarm of them in flight and it just looks SO MAGICAL AND SPOOKY! this is the exact kind of Aesthetically Nutso Ghost Monster Person i wish i could be! The manga is so cool at iimplying the same sense of inhuman motion by drawing them like motion tweens? Like theyre warped into wildly different body shapes in every panel and its just SO CREEPY and SO BADASS and SOMETIMES KINDA MAJESTIC AND ENDEARING EVEN! And this big flight scene has EVERY SINGLE INDIVIDUAL ONE drawn with its own different pose and mannerisms and like man every one of these weird squiggle flights looks like a world of fun to do!! God i love when superpowers actually look FUN, yo! It fuckin sucks that theyre just low level enemies and not ever playable. The only Nobodies that are playable or even get a big amount of screentime in cutscenes are the ones that ACTUALLY look humanoid and also move humanoid and BOOOO have zero traits of the monster theyre supposed to be. Like man just give me a whole game playing a lil bebby Nobody flying around! They remind me of the wanderers in Journey, they'd be so well suited to a chilled out exploration game like that.

And AAAAAA i get so sad thinking about how they're like bebbys!!! Noooo! Why do we not have more sympathy for them?? Like the particular way they write their 'bumbling weak enemy' scenes just comes off more like..well..sad thoughts about what happens when you lose your heart. Cos i mean the series really doesnt dwell much on the implications of the fact every single one of them used to be human! And whenever they're not being given orders by the higher ups in the organization, theyre just shown wiggling around flying in circles for fun, like a shoal of fish. They're so inhuman now, aside from vague resembelance in their appearances. They'd be seen as the cute wpodland critters in a disney princess musical number if they werent designated as monsters! Like they're not just 'dumb', they friggin dont remember how to talk anymore. And in their most memorable scene they dont understand the order "find this person" and can be easily tricked by photos of him. "Yes boss here is roxas he's a little more flatter than usual but here he is!" And they just keep gathering hundreds of the same person and never once cotton on to anything being wrong. Its so cute and also scary?? Cos seriously they are such eldritch monstrosities of fragmented soul that they move on to STEALING THE WORD PHOTOGRAPH. Just plucking it right out of the language! Failing so hard that you warp the laws of reality! I feel sorry for the poor lil guys, you definately cant say they didnt try as hard as possible!

AND SERIOUSLY THATS ALSO A COMMON TRAIT IN THE MANGA

I'm just so happy that they gave a bit more sympathy to the low level enemies because seriously WHO GIVES SUCH A GOOD DESIGN TO A LOW LEVEL ENEMY AND THEN BARELY EVER USES THEM FOR ANY SCENES

They actually give some sorts of pseudo dialogue to them?? Like during the kh2 prologue they show roxas being able to psychically perceive their thoughts while theyre trying to kidnap him. And its just so sympathetic and sad in retrospect?? They did a great job amplifying everything about this sequence because they made the Nobodies look so much scarier, made Roxas's life with his friends look even more heartwarming, and made it all super tense so you overlook all these little hints and just cheer for roxas in defeating these guys. But they left so many things that actually foreshadow that Roxas is a Nobody too, so reading this a second time is so sadddddd. I almost wish this was the first time i experienced the story, i think it does basically everything better than the original game version. Like seriously THAT ONE LINE OF WHAT THE WEAK ENEMIES ARE THINKING! "We've found you, my leige". THEY WERE JUST TRYING TO SAVE THEIR BOSS AND DIDNT KNOW WHY HE DIDNT RECOGNISE THEM. AND THEN HE ATTACKS THEM AND THEY DONT KNOW WHY!! aaa theyre just BABIES god theyre just ghost demon thingies that are like the larval stage compared to the main character versions. They dont remember who they were as humans, they just know they love their boss!! and he's apparantly been kidnapped by scary humans!! THEY WERE TRYING SO HARD TO SAVE HIM!! they got so damn close to taking over the town and they were swarming everywhere searching for him and Axel was trying so hard too and Diz just kept interrupting him before he cpuld explain or lying to roxas to manipulate them against each other! And axel even brought cake and icecream with him!! He was just trying to rescue his lil bro!!! Auuuugh seriously it was such a good twist that the Scary Monster Dudes were objectively in the right throughout this entire intro, and they just wanted to save Roxas's goddamn life. And he didnt even get to remember his peaceful days as a family with his fellow monster boyos until like five seconds before dying :(

Did anyone else just.. Not want to play kingdom hearts 2 after the prologue?

Like i couldnt stand the mood whiplash of going back to happy go lucky disney worlds with sora and having no more deep sad intriguing plot points for like ten hours of gameplay. And i could never take Organization 13 seriously as villains when the entire damn prologue was them being SUPER FUCKING SYMPATHETIC and the 'good guy' trying to murder a child in order to bring sora back. Like why am i supposed to be happy that he succeeded when i know sora himself would say no if he was told what sacrifice had to happen to bring him back? I would have been way more interested in this sequel having me play as roxas and try and take on the legacy of sora as the next hero and try and find a way to bring sora back without anyone having to die. Like the whole story could be people being all 'blah blah youre worthless youre not human your only purpose is to die for the sacrifice' and we explore all different sorts of 'heroes' doing horrible acts and justifying it to themselves because some people are just 'born evil' and its okay to do whatever you want to them. And Roxas is always struggling with almost believing that shit about himself, but in the end he does succeed to find a happy ending for everyone without a need for 'sacrifices'. And he learns to have self confidence and form his own identity and have more friendship scenes with Axel and co and also redeem all the other Nobodies please and also hug the tiny enemy childrens ones. I just did not feel much for the plot of kh2 at all except for the Nobodies!! Its just not sympathetic to have your 'heroes' arguing that 'oh they dont have hearts theyre not human they dont feel anything so theyre all evil and its all fine'. The game acts like this is true despite giving sympathetic backstories to half of them and the other half all die crying that they want to live!! What the fuck!! Like the only consolation is that they clearly cottoned on to the Org being RIDICULOUSLY POPULAR and later games literally bring all the most fan-loved ones back from the dead and add EVEN MORE sympathetic backstories and also here have a bigger villain who was really responsible and also he lied to them and theyre NOT really empty hearted and incapable of love. THEY ARE CONSTANTLY SHOWN HAVING THAT, EVEN THE WEAK LIL ENEMY DUDES HAVE ALL THAT LOYALTY TO ROXAS AAAAGH THEY DIED IN DROVES TRYING IN VAIN TO SAVE HIMMMMM

And god theyre so cute and so well designed and so sad and im sorry but AGGHHHH

I Forgot I Had So Many Emotions For The Emotionless Bebs :(

...also i really wish i cpuld get this pic of thos one panel to upload cos it looks real cool. I didnt think anything could make me love them more!!! Theyte just innocent weird snake bird worm person mannequin origami things. They just want to flutter around like messed up butterflies! And adorably poke at things they're curious about, and hold brooms awkwardly with their squiggle hands! The manga shows them doing lil chores around the house!! I LOVE THEMMMMMMM