#tournament fodder

[fuck-you-upmusicbracket]

Side Character (Cloud Fodder)

I'm just the side character in your main plotline/Always pay the check and pick up your hotline/You were nicer to me/When you barely knew me/But you won't wake up to that til I'm gone

"I correlate it strongly to c!jack manifold and his feelings of abandonment and being pushed aside constantly. he is such a side character that he literally died of screen. I project onto him so much I just want him to be loved but he never is."

St Bernard (Lincoln)

I said "Make me love myself, so that I might love you"/Don't make me a liar, 'cause I swear to God/When I said it, I thought it was true/Saint Calvin told me not to worry about you/But he's got his own things to deal with/There's really just one thing that we have in common:/Neither of us will be missed

"The beat drop before the last chorus gives me SHIVERS. also it is a blorbo song it makes me think about shiv roy and how she wants to be loved like a dog just for the purpose of receiving affection without any ulterior motive,,,, she wants someone to CARE"

Side Character submitted by @figurativelystupid

St Bernard submitted by @lesbiankarolinanovotney

[wanderingquill]

First guy is Gaz all prime and proper, ready for his first jousting tournament in the Capital. Second is Price whose won countless tournaments in the Capital and is gushing over Simon who dressed to the nines and making him smile like a old fool in love.

@devil-in-hiding

[serpentface]

Brakul participating in the khaitwrestling tournament in the city of Wardin’s annual games. He is grappling with his beloathed rival, a Titen youth with a cooler beard named Gijo Sihgawe.

Brakul is using a technique where he attempts to gain a solid hold of his opponent's body and will then spur his khait into a run, using the animal’s momentum to drag the opponent off his mount. This can be a risky endeavor (as one attempting this maneuver might be wrenched off their OWN khait if their foe has a stronger grip) but is considered rather impressive and crowd pleasing when performed successfully. 

Khait wrestling is a sport that was brought to broader Imperial Wardi culture via the Hill Tribes, and is very popular in the west and south of the region. The Wardi brand of khait wrestling is similar in basic form and structure to its progenitor traditions, but has developed into its own unique variant. The goal of the sport is to force the other rider to dismount (via pulling or shoving them off) and to lead both khait out of the ring.

Wardi khait wrestling is performed in a wide, circular ring. Combatants begin with their khait standing parallel, and attempt to shove or pull opponents off of their mount. Fighting halts if the riders step out of the ring, and both must reposition themselves at the center before the match can resume.

Combatants are only permitted to fight via grappling. Punches, kicks, intentional twisting of extremities, attacks with the spur, jabs at the eyes, intentional trampling, etc are prohibited (and called by referees. Their calls can be incredibly controversial). Notably, the pulling of hair is generally Not outright prohibited, so longhaired riders usually wear their hair tight to the scalp or under a cap, and many devoted wrestlers keep their heads shaved. 

A match ends when one combatant has forced their opponent to the ground AND successfully leads their khait out of the ring while remaining mounted. If a dismounted rider manages to regain control of their khait before it is led away, the match continues. Bouts between equally matched opponents can be very lengthy. Official competitions held in annual games tend to have time limits, at which point the match is scored by referees based on a point system (usually tallying number of falls and scoring points per certain types of grapples).

Khait wrestling requires strong, calm, well trained and exceptionally even-tempered khait that can remain unpanicked as their riders fight atop them. Most are mares or geldings, though occasional intact bulls with particularly gentle temperaments make appearances. Hornless or blunt-horned khait are preferred (some local games only accept hornless) as even the most placid khait's horns can become dangerous to their wrestling riders. A khait that intentionally injures another rider or khait (through biting or kicking) will be banned from official events, and often become fodder for sacrifice (khait are rare as animal sacrifices, and also considered among the best for the same reason- their high value).

Saddles are made especially for this sport, and are designed specifically to Not provide significant security to the rider (they are flat and lack stirrups), making riders entirely reliant on strength and balance. Riders wear loose trousers (quite uncommon in the region, where robes or skirts are generally worn), belted at the waist to avoid being yanked off during a bout. They wear high laced riding boots with small spurs.

This and other mounted events are usually accessible only to wealthy athletes (or athletes with wealthy sponsors), as there is a significant cost barrier to khait ownership to begin with in the cities, and animals suitable for this sport are particularly expensive. These matches are functionally a showcase of wealth and power for their participants. Though riders must wear simple clothing and are provided basic saddles, their mounts may be lavishly groomed and ornamented. The costuming shown here is actually on the less ostentatious end of the spectrum for a typical city tournament.

Additional notes:

Brakul's khait here is one of his favorites (he has twelve), a huge, shaggy mare named Emense, a Wardi word that translates close to 'beloved'.

Brakul has participated in nine of Wardin's annual games, and placed first in khait wrestling three times. He enjoys modest local fame for this and has used most of his winnings to buy more khait and khait accessories.

Goji is a relative newcomer and won first in the last two annual tournaments. This drawing depicts moments before his second win, where Brakul does, in fact, fail at his awesome maneuver and get wrenched off his khait.

Goji rides an intact bull, a relative rarity. He is an exceptionally placid and gentle creature, named 'Moose' after a strange and exotic beast from the north.

Khait wrestling among the Hill Tribes has dozens of local variants, but commonalities that distinguish these from the adopted Wardi tradition is that the goal is specifically to knock off the other rider AND mount their khait AND THEN lead both from the ring, and that it's done with actual saddles.

[xxtc-96xx]

I saw your take on the Masters 8 Tournament and disagree with it. I didn’t believe what I read when you said that you were glad that Alain was Leon’s fodder; I hated Leon when he beat Alain 3-1 and took away Ash’s chance to change the fact that he never beat him.

you disagree that I'm glad that Alain was canon fodder, alright XD

Everyone is allowed to their own opinions, you have yours and I have mine. I don't like Alain, I never liked him and it felt good to see Leon clap him and someone in the Master's 8 had to be canon fodder to him for plot reasons

[mothwingwritings]

Idk if you’re into omega verse but omg I just thought of it being applied to Yujiro and poor omega reader goddamn 😭 (I think I may have gone a little bit too far on this one ngl, also I’m half asleep so sorry for any issues..)

Nasty nasty Alpha Yujiro who takes advantage of poor little you. Who would have thought he’d ever encounter such a rare beauty? Omegas were practically extinct in the baki universe, the world full of hardened alphas made no room for the sweet soft omegas. And yet here you were against all odds.

From the moment he met you, he’d made the promise that he would never spread his seed through out the world.

Nay, he was going to hammer in his children into your fertile womb as you cried out in overstimulation. You would carry all of his offspring for the rest of your life. That was a promise.

While many of his past devoted lovers would have been flattered by his devotion, you were anything but.

Sure Yujiro would disappear on some days but no longer than a week.

But on the days he were in your house. It’d be a constant running away and fighting off the lustful touches of Yujiro.

The dreadful “Honey~ I’m home!~” had you cringing so hard as thick muscular arms surrounded your waist.

Having to take showers with the Ogre that always ended with you pressed up against the glass mirror as Yujiro crowded you against it.

Having your favorite clothes torn to shreds as he tried to make “love to you”.

Waking up in the middle of the night to see the humongous man deep in your guts as he ruthlessly pounded into you.

And when you went in heat…oh boy.

You’re horny 24/7 and you won’t fight back at all? Just lil ol you whimpering about how much it hurts and that you need something inside? You’d let the older man kiss you and cling onto him needily. His poor little omega!

Yeah, Yujiro loves your heats.

This man keeps a track record of when your heats are around the corner. It doesn’t matter if he’s in another country or across the globe the globe away from you. If he sees you have started your heat, he’s running like a madman with the nastiest smirk that has people running away screaming. They all thought he was out to murder someone (ya ur lil meow meow)

Out of spite you decide to hook up with some random beta when your heat starts up. Which immediately back fires when Yujiro has said man tied up as he watches you get plowed down by your real alpha.

“My little omega, have I neglected you so much that you seeked out some limp dick beta to satisfy you? I guess I’ll have to you more attention to keep you satisfied, huh?”

You know Yujiro is going to show you off. I mean, who wouldn’t?

He’s pulling up to the tournaments with you sitting on his shoulder clad in a thin bikini. Your looking away from the many lustful looks directed at you, all while Yujiro basks in the jealous looks he receives.

They all look so angry at him, but yet…too intimidated to muster the courage to say anything to him. Yes this was a fine idea.

He’s got you wearing a pretty diamond collar with the letters “Property of Ogre.”

Every time you both return from such fights, it didn’t matter if he came back angry or happy both were valid reasons to fuck you in the entrance your home. After that he would ravage you on any surface in the house.

He was going to get so many babies out of you.

Me reading this ask loool

You must have read my mind anon, I was just musing the other day on how I want to some day take a stab at writing an ABO fic and the Bakiverse would be perfect fodder for it. 😌

But God... Yujiro would be the worst fucking Alpha. That man could track you down from miles away, knowing where you are at all times should he need you. And he has such intricate knowledge on basically every aspect of you and your life that it goes beyond concerning, it's downright invasive. It takes no time at all for him to claim fuck you, giving you no time to really sus him out or get to know him before you've become irrevocably his. He's now your bonded partner, and you are not at all thrilled with that.

When yujiro comes to claim you he attacks you with such a bestial, feral intensity that you are afraid one day your body won't be able to take the abuse he inflicts on it, giving you serious concerns over whether you will survive the mating process. You got lucky the first time, but what about in the future? How many pups does he plan to pump inside of you? The thought keeps you up at night. You don't even want to parent his offspring, let alone be demoted to his breeding stock to be fucked full again and again and again. You would have chosen ANY alpha other than Yujiro, but now this was your lot in life-forced to not only be his mate, but bear his children, creating new versions of this monster to roam the planet. Would they grow up to be like their father, or would you have any hope of raising them to be decent, loving people?

Also, I feel like your body will just constantly be marked up everywhere. His mating bites don't stop at the scent glands, and you usually end up looking like you just left a 12 round boxing match on the losing side instead of a mating session with your alpha. :(

And when you are in heat its the absolute fucking worst. Lusting after Yurjiro, your entire body aching for him to desecrate and destroy you, your insides burning white hot for his touch. Only your alpha can cure you of this all consuming sickness that plagues you, and you turn into a whiny blubbery mess when Yujiro is around, pleading and begging for him to claim you. It's absolutely dreadful how much you yearn for such a barbaric man, and each and every time you are disgusted with how easily you give in to him. You just roll over and become his docile little fuck mate, turned into a wanton, lusting mess from just catching his scent alone. You loath him as much as you need him, and words cannot describe the amount of hate you hold in your heart for the man that turned you into this pathetic shell of who you once were.

[unrealcities]

Beckham missed out on the tournament but soon he found his own way into the headlines. Victoria Adams was the most glamorous member of the world’s biggest pop group. In 1997, she went to a charity game at Old Trafford. “Love at first sight does exist,” she wrote for British Vogue years later. “While the other football players stand at the bar drinking with their mates, you will see David standing aside with his family.” The country’s newest power couple was born. Two years later, they married. Gary was the best man, looking distinctly uncomfortable in his gaudy all-white suit. But he pushed through it, because the two men had a friendship that went far beyond the football field. “I roomed with David Beckham and when I had my house in Bolton. David would stay when Victoria was away,” Neville told The Guardian in 2014. “He’d make food for me all the time. Stir-fries with noodles and vegetables and pasta dishes with sauces – a lot of pasta.” For everybody except United fans, their friendship made excellent fodder. To us, Neville was always the willing supplicant; the man who waited patiently for his friend to realise that he, not Victoria, was the love of his life. There was a reason he was always the target for abuse, though. Whether he was crashing into José Antonio Reyes or firing crosses into the box, United’s right-back always found a way to hurt his biggest rivals. His intent was clear in the tunnel before games. Whilst others smiled and chatted, he would stare dead ahead, ready to charge into war. For the next 90 minutes there was nothing in the world but his club and the result.

[bl-bracket]

Anyways I was going to make a post about the process of picking bracket topics and whatnot and was trying to come up with some examples of types of topics that would or wouldn't work and for whatever reason I thought of the concept of a "best murderer bracket" and I can't stop thinking about it lmao

it's just like such a funny concept? the idea of fictional murderers battling it out, especially ones from bls (which like I don't think is most people who are not super familiar with the genre as having a lot of characters who have killed people) is just funny in like an absurd way. like abstracting yourself from tumblr and tournament blogs, the idea of telling someone else that there's a tournament going for fictional murderers from east asian mlm tv shows, a genre that for several years was primarily shows about high school and uni students.

anyways that devolved into thinking about it more seriously, and then deciding a more practical way of doing it would to make some kind of directory of bl murderers. which would then lead to a lot of interesting statistical analysis, like characters with highest on screen kill counts, which countries have the highest proportion of fictional killers, etc. you can then make a separate category for characters with implied kills that aren't explicitly shown on screen or vague. and you could track how the number increases over time, which I assume exponentially goes up as more bls are exploring darker and more serious genres.

anyways back to the country stats, I started thinking about what the breakdown would look like so here's my guess based on zero research and just my general knowledge of shows

China. While having very few bls (censored or otherwise), they have a very unfair advantage and that is genre conventions. The 3 biggest Chinese bls I can think of are: The Untamed, Word of Honor, and Guardian. With The Untamed and Word of Honor, the conventions of xianxia and wuxia genres means that there are a lot of characters and almost all of them have killed before (usually nameless canon fodder but still). And then with Guardian, it's a supernatural detective mystery show with murder plots in it and a lot of characters, which again leads to a pretty high kill count. So even only counting these 3 shows, China will probably have the most killers in bl, or at the very least most kills done.

Thailand. It's a numbers game on this one. There's just so many Thai bls and an increasing number of like detective or mafia ones. A show like Kinnporsche has a lot of killers and deaths. Then there's other shows that include a few murderers (but less than Kinnporsche) like The Sign, Manner of Death, 4 Minutes, 3 Will Be Free, Never Let Me Go (Palm did shoot a couple guys dead elt's nto forget), Dead Friend Forever, etc. However the numbers also hurt Thailand in terms of proportions, since there's a lot more Thai bls that don't have murder, so it actually might be 3rd.

Japan. You're not getting much murder from your Cherry Magics and Old Fashion Cupcakes, which is what a significant portion of bl fan's primary exposure to Japanese bl is, but let's not forget that there's a lot of dark Japanese bls where murder is definitely on the table. Now I don't actually have a good gauge of what the numbers on this is, cause I haven't really delved that deep into this corner of the bl market, so I can't make a good estimation but I bet there's more than I'm aware of.

Taiwan. They've got a couple of mafia shows like HIStory 3: Trapped and Kiseki: Dear to Me, both of which have some implied and explicit murder (though less then you would expect if we're honest). That'll give them a few kills and they also have a relatively smaller pool of shows to pull from, meaning percentage wise it's a bit higher.

South Korea. Ok I am far from an expert of bls from South Korea, but unless there's like obscure short films I'm not aware of, the only drama I can think of from here with kills is Long Time No See? or I guess The Director Who Buys Me Dinner has like 1.5 murders? anyways Korea also has a not insignificant amount of bls to their name so proportionally it will be quite low.

The Philippines. Out of all the countries on this list, I am least familiar with the bls from here, but from what I've gathered during my routine mdl searches, basically all of them seem to be murder-free (unless of course there's some shocking plot twists in them)

anyways I'll probably never do this project just cause it would require a lot of time and collaborative effort and I've got a lot irl going on right now (hence why the submission period for most whipped is so long lol) and also have some other projects I'm already planning on doing so I don't really have time to do it. but I wanted to tell y'all about my thoughts on the matter.

also sorry if this is the weirdest thing I've ever posted. kinda had a major stress breakdown today but then resolved it relatively quickly cause I realized I could just reschedule the life altering appointment that was causing the breakdown lmao so I'm in a strange frame of mind lol

[physalian]

On Tournament Arcs (I want more of these in lit)

The “tournament arc” is a staple of shonen anime. I’d find it very hard to believe anyone on here hasn’t at least seen gifs of it so here’s a quick breakdown: Your core cast of characters + extras and new adversaries are all thrown together in a tournament competing for anything from the low stakes of cash or bragging rights to who lives and who dies by the hand of the nefarious god throwing the tournament.

These are extremely popular for a few reasons:

They’re fodder for a ton of episodes without a whole lot of complicated story—the story is baked into the different rounds of combat

There’s a chance for a lot of different intense character interaction that might not normally happen pitting two random names against each other

They can sometimes artificially raise the stakes—in isolation, winning the Round of 16 in a series about saving the world doesn’t mean anything, but winning any one game might give the heroes the chance to stay alive just one more day

I just rewatched the first tournament arc of My Hero Academia a few days ago (the first sports festival) and man, I do miss when this show was good.

So! While tournament arcs aren’t exclusive to shows with super powers or magical abilities like Naruto—they’re baked into a sports anime—today’s essay is all about the efficiency and shake-ups that MHA pulled off, since its pacing is something you could realistically cram into a written novel, and, well, I like this one.

Disclaimer: This show is incredibly manipulative, in a good way (at least in earlier seasons it was in a good way). Elements are way more dramatic than they should be due to the music, the animation, and the pacing, but you’re having fun right along with the characters at the edge of your seat. The excitement isn’t manufactured, you’re hyped right along with the people in the stands. This isn’t very translatable to page, unfortunately.

Second disclaimer: I DNFed this show midway through an episode in season 5 and never went back. It got so bad I literally turned it off in both disgust and sheer boredom. I am not an MHA superfan.

—

Pacing:

For a shonen anime, this first tournament arc is brutally efficient. Take a show like Naruto or DBZ, shows known for their filler, and their tournament arcs for any given season will last 50 episodes or more. MHA’s is 11 episodes, 12 if you want to include the setup in episode 1. In that time, there’s three unique stages of combat and an entire three-tiered 1v1 tournament within the tournament.

Some fights last two episodes, some last about 30 seconds, but none are too drawn out, or too rushed, based on who’s fighting and what their powers are.

Example: Todoroki kind of has “instakill” powers (or at least he does in this arc, he forgets about it 6 episodes later) and if he’s up against anyone who doesn’t have the specific kind of powers that can counteract his, the fight’s decided pretty much instantly, like when he’s up against quasi-Spiderman Sero, and manifests a whole glacier from teenage angst. When he is up against somebody who he can’t freeze immediately, well, that’s where the drama comes from. This is his arc, after all.

Character fodder:

Not only that, but it’s not 11 straight episodes of 1v1. The first leg of combat is an obstacle race, the second is a “cavalry battle” with teams, and the last, the majority, is 1v1. These different challenges require the core characters to think different ways, and as the number of competitors thin dramatically, different side characters get the chance to shine at different points in the arc as more and more are disqualified.

But the way that this arc is written leaves even some core characters in the protagonist class on the outs pretty quickly, even those who make it to the final round, usually due to bad matchups. Characters who had excelled either in power, physical ability, or intelligence just aren’t suited to face whoever they’re up against and it shocks them as much as it does the audience. Even when it forces them to get creative—and that is one thing I loved about this show in its early years, how smart some characters had to be with their niche powers to compete with the natural born powerhouses.

A surprising standout fight was Bakugo vs Uraraka, where nearly every single person in the stands, including the teachers, all professional heroes, were like “dude you can’t hit a girl, you can explode shit with your hands, she’s only got anti gravity” and Bakugo did not give a single fuck about what’s in Uraraka’s pants. It shows that he’s smart, and that he’s a dick, but he has a shit ton of respect for other people’s power and determination when they have as much as he does. Only one other character, their personal teacher, Aizawa, notices: To go easy on her would be a far greater insult than to treat her like an equal challenger.

She lost, in a heartbreaking defeat, but she absolutely made him work for it. It did so much for his character, this whole arc did, but more on that later.

Audience expectations:

But the big reason this arc worked so well was how it subverted expectations. Midoriya is (or used to be) the show’s protagonist. In this arc, he’s got two real main adversaries in his way to gold: Bakugo, a kid with extremely impressive raw talent that he’s honed with a dangerous perfectionist streak, and Todoroki, who wants to win by half-assing it to piss off his abusive hero dad. Both of these two are far more competent with their powers while Midoriya still has the training wheels on his.

Usually, in these types of shows, if the hero doesn’t win, he comes in a very close second in the big dramatic final showdown. It’s part of his arc to be not quite ready yet. But usually, he wins, and the character he’d beaten to a pulp learns some humility and joins the hero squad in the next arc out of respect to their better.

MHA doesn’t do that. Midoriya never faces Bakugo in the 1v1 and he faces Todoroki in the semis, not the finals, and he loses.

The big fight of the tournament is Midoriya vs Todoroki. I used to hear it compared to Rock Lee vs Gaara (which I actually have seen despite not liking Naruto) and it’s… not, if only because it’s missing about 300 episodes of buildup and drama between these two.

But the fight isn’t just a fistfight. Midoriya wants to win, yes, but he’s a hero, first, and he wants to save his friend in the true shonen way of punching friendship into his enemies. Their fight plus the buildup takes two episodes, littered with Todoroki’s PTSD flashbacks (to a gorgeous score) that basically boils down to:

Todoroki: Wah I hate my powers, fuck my dad, I’m gonna half-ass this out of spite and my raw power is enough to win

Midoriya: Fuck you dude, if you want to beat me, you have to give it your all, and it’s not his powers. You may have inherited them, but it’s your power.

Well, Midoriya gets what he asked for, and Todoroki does not at all hold back.

And that’s the semifinal.

With Midoriya out, there’s still the rest of the semis and the final round. This does not happen.

So why did it happen? Because our hero isn’t ready yet. He’s so new with his powers, so inexperienced in combat, that so far he’s skated by on his smarts and his sheer raw ability the few times he’s able to let it out like releasing a pressure valve, seriously injuring himself in the process. Against kids who’ve been training their whole lives, being smart only got him so far.

It was the perfect path for his character, one we’ve only known for maybe 30 episodes in total at this point in the show. If he won or even just barely lost, that would have left so much less room for growth in later tournaments. He’s hella OP, but he’s not at all a Mary Sue, and his greatest strength—his heart—is what cost him the win. In the end, he lost the medal, but he won a friend.

And then the final round comes.

Bakugo vs Todoroki, the two most well-rounded kids in the class (in their whole grade level probably), after Bakugo opens the entire tournament with “I pledge that I’m going to win”.

Thing is, with Bakugo, he’s an asshole, but he’s an asshole who continuously puts his money where his mouth is. He’s never blowing smoke. If he says he’s going to do something, by god, he will do it.

So the final round comes and Bakugo tells Todoroki that he wants to win fair and square, that Todoroki'd better not hold back, he’d better give it his all, because going easy on Bakugo would be giving him the win, and he ain’t no charity case.

That… does not happen. One does not overcome a lifetime of childhood trauma by the Power of Friendship and one speech in this show. Todoroki botches it, gets his ass handed to him, and Bakugo wins the tournament, and he is pissed.

Character Arcs:

I already talked about Midoriya above and won’t repeat myself, but like I said above, tournament arcs are a fantastic way to do many things at once, which is crucial to pacing. It won’t feel stale, no matter how long or repetitive it is, so long as the characters are still developing within that repetition. This was about showing off their powers, yes, but the pressure to perform and get their names out their in a highly saturated, cynical heroism market of capitalism is a lot for 15 year old kids.

Some are out there to make money, being a hero to their families. Some are out there to be the best. Some are out there to be the friendly neighborhood super kid. Since all but one character must lose, everybody but Bakugo failed in some way, big or small, to make the impact they wanted on tournament day. And Bakugo, though he won, feels like he still failed because he won basically by default.

Since it’s set so early in the show, one would think that it would be a fantastic foundation for where all the core characters see themselves and where they go from here. If you’re writing this into a novel and you don’t have a million characters that don’t matter, it’s a brutally efficient way to establish the major players in high-octane fashion.

I’mma gush about Bakugo for a second now: He and Todoroki are two sides of the same coin in this arc. Both are plagued by expectations because of their powers, and both suffer because of it. Todoroki’s been beaten like a dog by his dad to hone his fire and ice powers to one day usurp the number one hero.

Bakugo, though, Bakugo is “the gifted kid” who suddenly entered a world where the gap between him and everyone inferior to him is a lot smaller. He has incredible power, which has always gotten him high expectations and little margin for fucking up and looking weak—cause if you’ve got the ability to make explosions with your hands, you have to be the best all day every day. There is no falling off the wagon, there are no sick days, there is no flab or fat or cheat days.

All of this is an undercurrent in this arc. He has such high expectations for himself, such high expectations thrown on him by hero society, such critical views of his attitude and his powers—he was literally called a villain when he fought Uraraka and didn’t treat her like a “frail” little girl—that when he wins because Todoroki throws the fight, it’s the biggest insult anyone could do to him.

Nobody else cares, but Bakugo cares. In his desperate quest to always be the best or else, winning by default doesn’t prove anything to him. He doesn’t want the medal, he doesn’t want this victory by his name, he doesn’t want anything except a rematch that truly challenges him. And mad respect to this kid for it.

—

Some things to consider for your tournament arc should you choose to write one

Every character should have their own separate goals and reasons for winning, beyond simply “winning”. Why do they want to win, or what will happen to them, internally or externally, if they lose?

Would it be better for your hero to win right now, or lose so they have room to grow? Who else loses and how? Are they disqualified, do they cheat, is it a devastating defeat or a photo finish?

What do these people do to themselves in their desperation to win? Do they hurt themselves, go past their physical limit? Do they bully themselves and pick their faults apart? Are they completely different people when they’re under this kind of pressure? Who’s overconfident? Who’s exactly as competent as they say they are?

What are the best matchups, not for spectacle, but for character development? In the written medium, character work absolutely comes before how pretty it might look one day on the silver screen, and that’s what will hold audience attention long after the arc is over and done with. That’s what will have people coming back to reread over and over again.

Remember: The tournament is never just about the combat, it’s about the combatants.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Dear God, the only way I'd touch a Hunger Games ML AU would be if they didn't die and it was all like. An akuma power or something.

Like, an akuma forces them to fight each other all out, but not to the death. Hitting lethal contact points "eliminates" you and expels you from the arena in a way that makes you helpless to assist.

But at that rate, it's not really a hunger games AU it's just a mind-control battle royale/mini anime tournament arc.

But I would be interested to see where we slotted who it we were yeeting the blorbos into a Hunger Games AU. My only initial thoughts is that the Senti-Kids are all Career tributes, Bustier is Effie Trinket, Nathalie, Audrey, and Andre are all gamemakers, and Hawkmoth is president Snow. Uh. Fu can be president coin, I guess. Or maybe that can be Su-Han.

See yeah my three options are

1.) An Akuma forces the Heroes to Battle Royale but no one is actually dead just deleted

2.) Roll with the actual AU, but the ML cast are only relevant characters. Like have say Mari and Adrien as Katniss and Peeta but instead of the Miracuclass being other tributes make it that they're random cannon fodder/unimportant background characters

3.) A very unrealistic scenario where everyone lives

also I mean this not 'it wouldn't work if we killed off the main cast' and more "I'm to soft to brutally murder all my blorbos' way

Re: Who is who:

I kinda debated on some of that as if we went with the Miracuclass all being Tributes, then they had to be from the Districts and not the Capitol which meant that we /can't/ have Snow = Gabe or the other shitty parents as Gamemakers

Originally I was going to have this be one of the 'Gabe and Hawkmoth are separate characters' aus but Season 6 gave us Emile GDV who would make an excellent candidate for Snow. Colt can be Seneca.

It also wouldn't be an exact 1-1 as I couldn't imagine Marinette and Adrien being in the same district plus other surrounding factors like Adrien and Chloé being childhood friends so they have to be in the same district but then Mari /def/ can't also be because only one boy and one girl and tbh the rest of the Tributes only had so much personality that it's easy to just shotgun blast the rest of the cast at random

[koalatysleep]

Yusuke to Kuwabara in Rando fight, Toguro fight:

I would kill for you, I would die just to avenge you.

Kuwabara to Yusuke in Toguro fight, Sensui fight:

I would die just to jolt you out of your grief-induced self-punishment so you can win & live, I would burn down the whole world and die just to avenge you.

Both during Yukina rescue mission:

I would decimate a whole bunch of fodder demons in a rampage of subtextual romantic angst if I think you're in love with someone else 🤣🤣🤣

Not even kidding🤣, Kuwabara actually was heartbroken in this mission because he mistakenly thought Yusuke was in love with Keiko after Yusuke gave his life to save the girls in Suzaku fight, which is why Kuwa was straight out on a rampage and literally sliced the fodder demons to bits (Kuwa, you're scary when your heart is broken):

And Yusuke who was romantically pursuing Kuwabara since The Chocolate Shake Date post-Rando fight was trying his hardest not to feel jealous & unwanted/unloved (his childhood emotional wounds were triggered by Kuwa retreating from love with him 😭), while nobly letting Kuwabara have his supposed springtime of love with Yukina by not telling Kuwa Yukina is Hiei's sister (yup, this was actually Yusuke being noble 🥹, he wouldn't get in the way of what he thought was Kuwa really falling in love), which is why Yusuke also literally decimated the fodder demons (coz Kuwa's his moral compass and if Kuwa's doing it...):

What can I say, this was their version of working through their feelings😅. In their defense, they were also repulsed by these fodder demons imprisoning one of their own kind (Yukina) until they found out humans are just as bad as demons and thus they are in no place to judge, thus they both regret how heavy-handed they were, which is why they made it a point to avoid taking life wherever they could in the rest of canon (Yusuke could have killed a lot of demons who deserved it in Dark Tournament, but he didn't).

But ya know, all bets are off if they think the other is dead. 🥹😭🤣

This Yukina rescue mission was also our heroes' "last gamble" (this is the double meaning of one of the manga chapter title in this arc) to try to showcase their strengths to each other in the desperate hope that the other will choose them, instead of their supposed female love interests 😭 which is also why they went all out.

Ironically, they each weren't romantically interested in their supposed female love interests, it's all a romantic tragic-comedy of errors and misunderstandings 😭😅

For the good of the world, raise your hands if you think Yusuke and Kuwa should get married 🤣🤣 ✋️✋️🤚🤚🖐🖐🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️

[iamnmbr3]

Since you’re on the character asks and your thoughts are enjoyable to read maybe pick one of the non-Harry try-wizard tournament champions? I like them pretty evenly so your thoughts on any of them would be cool to hear, so pick your favourite/whoever you have most to say about/roll a dice to decide at your discretion?

What a lovely ask! You're so kind. I'm going to go with Fleur Delacour.

How I feel about this character

The way she showed her devotion to Bill at the end of book 6? Absolutely iconic. Best written intentionally romantic moment in the whole series. Hands down. No contest. The way she handled that dragon? Immaculate. The judges were just mean and veelaphobic and also JKR is super weird about her female characters.

Also kudos to her for being the only character when Harry got picked as a Champion in book 4 to be like 'no this is ridiculous he's too young.' Yeah she was a little harsh about it maybe. But wow. One of the only responsible adults in the whole series. Child me was like 'omg she's so mean' but now I'm like 'you go girl.' She should've been there to roast all of Dumbledore's questionable decisions. Can you imagine. Dumbledore: Don't worry. I have a plan. Fleur: Eez eet child endangerment again?

I genuinely enjoy her as a character and also find the way her identity as a part human who is fetishized to some extent and viewed as Other but not demonized in the way werewolves or half giants or half trolls are in her world to be fascinating fodder for a lot of interesting character work.

Also, I always have a soft spot for characters who I feel the narrative is actively telling me to dislike. I prefer stories that let the reader come to their own conclusions. As soon as I feel the story is too forcefully and artificially shoving down my throat "you must like this character" or "you must dislike this other character,” especially when it's not justified by what we actually see in the text, then I kind of want to do the opposite. So if you think my girl Fleur did something rude no she didn't or if she did that was her emotional support rude comment and she deserved to go off.

For real though. She put up with so much hate from Molly and the whole Weasley family for literally no reason. She deserved to be a little snarky. Ginny is so mean to her for literally no reason and the narrative wants us to laugh along and cheer on this immature, unkind highschool meangirl behavior as though it's some epic #girlboss moment when it's just mean. And Fleur's parents meanwhile are absolutely lovely (probably because Fleur covered for her in-laws and didn't tell her parents how she had been treated lest her full Veela grandmother show up and start throwing fireballs at them all).

You go Fleur. You never did anything wrong in your life. Ever.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I love her with Bill. I think Bill and Fleur are by far the best handled canon romance in the series. (Well, best handled intentionally canon romance - we all know JKR wrote a 7 book drarry epic but that was an accident lolol). They are so sweet together and so devoted to each other - despite any obstacles (including unsupportive family members). And they really compliment each other so well and just yeah. It's so sweet.

On a semi-crack level I do also like the idea of Fleur/Luna though because they both can be very blunt and directly state difficult truths in a way that can make others uncomfortable or seem rude. They do this in very different ways and also have very different outlooks but I think it makes them interestingly complimentary. And they'd both be confident and self assured enough to handle each other and not take offense. I feel like Fleur and Luna flirting would be so hilariously direct and entertaining. (Though it'd probably have to be postwar as. I think Fleur would be likely to scoff at Crumple-Horned Snorkacks).

I can also totally picture a Bill/Fleur/Luna poly relationship. I feel like it'd end up being improbably chill and functional somehow despite the big personalities. The three would probably be off living their best lives and eating metaphorical popcorn while all the other characters spent years having epic relationship drama.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

I want to see her and Charlie hanging out so badly. After seeing her take on that dragon Charlie was probably pulling all kinds of shenanigans to get her together with one of his siblings because he doesn't want to get married but also oh merlin he needs this woman to be part of his family. Give me the Charlie and Fleur epic friendship and dragon taming duo.

My unpopular opinion about this character

I don't think Bill was attracted to her because he likes "glamour." I think he saw her as the brave, loving, and intelligent person that she is.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I wish other characters had apologized to her and stopped mocking her and treating her horribly.

[fuck-you-upmusicbracket]

Side Character (Cloud Fodder)

I'm just the side character in your main plotline/Always pay the check and pick up your hotline/You were nicer to me/When you barely knew me/But you won't wake up to that til I'm gone

"I correlate it strongly to c!jack manifold and his feelings of abandonment and being pushed aside constantly. he is such a side character that he literally died of screen. I project onto him so much I just want him to be loved but he never is."

North to Alaska (Johnny Horton)

Where the river is windin', big nuggets they're findin'/North to Alaska, go north, the rush is on

"It’s a story song and I love those, but also depending on how I’m listening the “go north the rush is on” part”sounds more like “go north to Russia's home” and it gets me every time because the us bought Alaska from Russia and for a while we thought it was useless but nope! It’s not!"

Side Character submitted by @figurativelystupid

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #3263: Dedenne-GX (Unbroken Bonds)

Dedenne-GX was a very notable supporting Pokemon. It only did its job once, and only when being placed in play from the hand during your turn, but it let you draw through your deck much more quickly. This was a huge deal for all sorts of decks, especially early in the game, to the point where it's not even worth pretending this wasn't going to be good. It was, and this was probably no surprise to anyone.

160 HP was actually a little low for a Basic Pokemon-GX, though not so much so that it was entirely easy to KO. It was, however, low enough that you'd see moments where this was the path to taking the last two Prizes, especially once Boss's Orders was released. A Fighting Weakness could have been a lot worse. The occasional Fighting-type did show up at the end of the SUM-On format, but the type wasn't too impressive again until just before Dedenne-GX rotated out with things like Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX. The Metal Resistance sounded nice against Zacian decks, but Zacian V was just too strong to care about just a 20 damage reduction. The Retreat Cost was just 1 here, so it was hard to try to use this as stall fodder.

Dedechange was one of the best Abilities in the game. When playing Dedenne-GX from your hand to your Bench during your turn, you could discard your hand and draw 6 cards. This was limited to one Dedechange per turn, so you couldn't just draw through your entire deck with Dedenne and Scoop Up Net plays, which cool on subsequent turns, weren't as amazing as they probably seemed. Still, it was crazy to be able to search out a Pokemon to be able to discard and draw 6, to the point where all sorts of decks included it. It was much harder to be stuck with a bad hand when you had the extra outs to dig a bit more.

Static Shock was a joke. 50 damage for a Lightning and a Colorless Energy was far too weak.

Tingly Return was a GX attack for the same price and did the same damage. It also Paralyzed the opponent's Active Pokemon and had Dedenne-GX, otherwise useless once in play, get shuffled back into the deck. There were some rare applications for this, and it was very funny to finish off a heavily weakened Pokemon with a Tingly Return if you had no use for better GX attacks. It was more of a joke than a real play most of the time unless you were horribly desperate for a Paralysis free turn, but Dedenne-GX was so common and Lightning was such a good type that it was a well-known joke.

Dedenne-GX was only used to discard and draw 6. That's to say that it was used in the majority of top decks, and there were tons of tournaments that you'd see stats like 14 of the top 16 decks using it. If you were a player, you were going to be buying some of these at some point, as most decks were just worse if they didn't have this option to go to. Dedechange was just that strong for the entire time it was legal, and still gets play in Expanded to this day.

[deusvervewrites]

For the ask game; rather than the LOV making their debut at the USJ, they instead attack the first-year Sports Festival for their debut.

The USJ trip goes great! Class 1-A learns a lot about rescue. Or, at least, most of them do. But if nothing goes wrong that means the Sports Festival has its normal security level. That's only 1/5 the Heroes and police, and none of the specific anti-League automated defenses.

Even with the normal security levels, Shigaraki isn't stupid enough to show up with only the one Noumu and some cannon fodder. He also brings along the three Noumu that were canonically at Hosu. He also isn't crazy enough to drop into the center of the stadium where he'd be surrounded. Not with cannon fodder as his forces. Instead he has the jammer Villain infiltrate the festival as a spectator.

In the middle of the tournament, when all the focus is on them, the Noumu are dropped into the stands. There is instant panic. Shigaraki adds to the chaos by using his Quirk to destroy a large part of the stadium.

All Might and Endeavor leap into action, at which point Kurogiri floods the field with the Villain grunts. Endeavor is limited by the crowds, and struggles to use his flames effectively.

In the end, while the League are routed, the damage is far greater than it was from the USJ, especially seeing as this was such a publicized event.

[ninja-confession-go]

I agree with one of the previous anons. A lot of the hardcore cannon ship fans do tend to exaggerate the weight of some things (in some cases non cannon hardcorers also do as well.) Most of us are probably aware of the toxic Jaya shipper stereotype, and I don’t think it’s as accurate anymore.

Most of the community will settle for scraps as the previous anon said. But to say this is mostly something to do with the Jaya fans would be a bit misleading. One the flip side Lost fans have been acting in a semi similar manner although not about something that was faultily written.

Modern Ninjago provides little to no good shipping fodder these days so I both understand clinging onto those scraps but also encourage taking a couple of steps back and looking at it in a more analytical light. Pixane has been relatively static, Jaya has been mismanaged, Lost is underwritten and Kailor is in a bit of a gray zone.

And since it wouldn’t be fair to only critique the cannon ones I’ll list off a couple popular non cannons. Lava has had minimal interaction spare for those shorts, Glacier has had some but nothing that really sticks out much, Bruise hasn’t even interacted spars for a flashback sequence, Opposite has had few interactions that I recall and Samurai again hasn’t interacted at all.

The show is gearing towards the new ninja, and I think it’s about time a lot of us realize that. Of course I’m not saying to abandon your favorites, but maybe understand that not as much emphasis will be put to them and try to treat it accordingly.

Hell, if you want everyone to be devastated by the Jaya fight then make them be devastated! Write! Draw! Create! Make us see your vision!

Also, what parallels were you guys drawing apart from the sea! Nya stuff? I’m pretty certain y’all won’t paralleling it to the JayVCole fight from Tournament of Elements. Though I may be wrong.

.

[ddrqoyote]

everyone just watches baki cause lol imagination lol stupid shit and yeah that's fun sometimes but i unironically love the maximum tournament, it's one of the better anime tournaments. it and the promise of baki fighting yujiro someday was good enough to string me along all the way until that fight happened, way after i should've dropped it lmao

i wish katsumi beat retsu and fought baki in the semifinals instead of them both being used as fodder to show how badass baki is. i mean, a semifinal fight in a 5 round tournament basically got OFFSCREENED cause it was in baki's head. i've never seen that before. katsumi and baki had a genuine rivalry and sometimes the twist ending isn't the best one. but maybe if i read it again it'll be better than i remembered. and other than that i can't think of anything i didn't like.

i love the fact that it's people with real fighting styles representing real cities and places. the fight with chiharu and iron michael where they say they're here for the kids of tokyo and the kids of brooklyn felt so raw. like even if a character's not great i can see someone getting invested in him just cause he's representing THEIR country or THEIR martial art.

the rest of the series is just spinning its wheels for 30 years and early baki takes ages to get good, it's a shame most anime fans probably won't ever see the maximum tournament.