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Barou’s next

If Nagi got kicked off of Blue Lock because he focused too much on Isagi

Barou is in the same position almost where since the second selection he has been almost relying on Isagi to be great so he can feed off him and hasn’t changed much

The only slight difference is that Barou has also viewed Rin similarly and that Barou had an interest in Soccer before blue lock unlike Nagi

So it makes him less likely to end up exactly like Nagi did

So while the chances Barou feeling satisfied and will completely stop is lower, I do feel its there as the moment he feels he beat Isagi might be in a similar spot to Nagi where it could be bad for him

And depending on the context I can see that being the case for Barou where he gets satisfied at the wrong time

There's also a side aspect of for the Japan team on how many strikers do they really need?

Most have transitioned to other positions but the series is focused on the striker position meaning the next biggest striker elimination will have to be Barou Shido or Rin

As others like Chigiri and Bachira can be wingers or midfielders (Bachira) or backs (Chigiri)

But of the main striker four Barou and Shido are the two where its harder to see them in other positions and it sticking

As Isagi has always had CAM comparisons and Rin is so skilled he can be a winger or midfielder if he ever made that switch

I can also see a world where Rin is next as his rivalry with Sae can also lead to a similar thing but I feel they will keep Rin for a long time even if he switches positions by the end

I don’t think Nagi’s gone forever as of chapter 303, but if he is then yeah eliminations are about to be rough for fans

Edit:

Forgot to mention that Barou is also susceptible to the opposite problem Nagi had

If Nagi suffered for having no Ego

Barou could suffered from having too much Ego

As in his ego is too much a hindrance to the team and gets locked off for that

I think there’s been some hints of that such as in the NEL Barou under Snuffy tactics got high offers but when he went rogue and made the team his own he didn’t get the same increase of offers

Which can hint that while talented and can score his style of play isn’t as desirable by clubs so his ego can be getting in the way of him being a player the team can surround

(I know Ubers mostly got behind him but from the manager and fan perspective could be a different reaction)

Every story needs a villain but doesn’t mean that we want the villain on our side

[turboacek-blog]

Nagi comeback?

Spoilers for manga

Basically, I think it comes down to whether the author considered Nagi the deuteragonist or just a fan favorite that naturally got more focus

The main example people are using is Kira as it appeared he was about to be the deuteragonist/rival character but he’s eliminated immediately to show that it’s believable and feasible that a character like Nagi can be eliminated

The series was marketed and initially started as soccer x battle royal similar to Hunger Games, squid games, etc where we would be eliminating characters until we were left with one

And while the numbers have dwindled from 300 to 275 to 125 to 35 to now 23

The characters we’ve spent time with have remained safe as it’s not like Bachira or Chigiri or Barou are eliminated

The closest was Kunigami who was eliminated in the second selection but even he the biggest character we lost came back

So now in the NEL, the big characters were losing besides Nagi are Tokimitsu, Igaguri, the remaining u-20 players not named Aiku Sendou or Fukaku and Wanima

One character who was also known to not have a real ego, one character considered the worst player and always been scrapping by, defenders in a series where most defenders are jokes, and the one other 1st selection person who had to move on due to rules but never was focused or expanded on

So while recognizable and somewhat notable characters, they were not the main characters so they were expendable as we can be like oh I remember him or It's sad he's gone without being the same as someone like Nagi Kunigami, etc they're more comparable to the rest of Team Z being eliminated off screen

Which brings up the question, is Nagi expendable?

So there’s the idea skillset-wise as a pure striker do we need him over a Shido Barou etc… ?

But also like Reo said there’s only some plays Nagi can pull off and that can be irreplaceable

I do think Nagi is the deuteragonist so he’s coming back

He feels very much role-wise like Vegeta in DBZ a Reiner in Attack on Titan, knuckles in Sonic, etc

Where he’s the first “final boss” / villain that becomes a main ally after that making him the second most important or second strongest character

There is always a chance he's the type where he was the boss character turned ally but as the series goes on that former first boss gets replaced by another former boss character turned ally

Like even in dragon ball characters like Yamcha Tien and Piccolo were the former antagonist turned allies but they got replaced by the next before it becoming Vegeta semi permanently

So in Blue Lock, it's possible that Nagi was effectively replaced by Rin as while Rin is clearly important as he's the main character's current rival he also hasn't fully been turned into an ally like characters like Nagi Barou and others have

As even you can say Kaiser supplanted Rin currently

So is Nagi just someone that eventually got replaced and due to the story it took till the NEL for him to be knocked out (since he was an ally second selection, Nagi couldn't be knocked out until now as 3rd selection was just starting the lineup selection and the exhibition game was more of a phase 1 conclusion)

I think it's the for me where he's the deuteragonist that is going to make a comeback and not just a character that got written off/power crept

As if that was the case characters like Barou and Rin are next as the series is going to end with Isagi as sole striker meaning those characters have to be eliminated or converted to midfielders (like Kunigami and Chigiri) to survive

Also, there's the aspect that like a lot of people thought that Nagi’s hyper-fixation on beating Isagi was weird

Like yes you scored one goal and outplayed him once but beating Isagi when he later outplayed you and won the game

I think something that I think was working well for Nagi was his curiosity Ego

It got him through the last match 1st selection carried him up until he lost Isagi in the 2nd selection shown in episode Nagi he's still curious about others' egos

I think as shown in the NEL Nagi might just need to go back to his original Ego and be curious about soccer again but this time without it being linked to Isagi or Reo

Chapter 300 update

Was writing this the day before the leaks so figured to just add this since leaks came out

Nagi has a fire in his eye at the end thanks to Isagi which I think further shows that either Isagi is Nagi’a fire so even if it is another short-term goal Nagi will come back because of Isagi

Or that his friend and rival saying to not quit will have him do just that not quit and find something to get him back into soccer

Edit 5/6/25 read chapter 301

So I wrote all of that before chapter 300

And now seeing the top 23 getting by celebrated in a parade and the chapter still showing Nagi at the end

Reinforces that I think Nagi’s coming back

I think it continues the parallels of Nagi and Isagi where we see Isagi at his arguably peak and Nagi at his lowest

If they were truly done with Nagi I don't think they would have shown him again as we could just move on from him, especially after chapter 300

It seems more like it is a setup that Nagi is missing something and still wants that fire back

Even if it's just to tease the episode Nagi spin-off manga

Also as I think about it, spin-off mangas in my experience have a more complete ending (if not canceled)

So either episode Nagi finishes with the exhibition match showing Nagi and Reo doing well and Blue Lock winning

Or it has to go past the NEL as that would be considered a sad ending to the manga if it ends with Nagi being eliminated and separated from his bf

[turboacek-blog]

The Patil Twins: Harry and Ron’s actual perfect pairs

(Perfect used loosely)

So I can’t find this video but a while ago a YouTuber was making a point on how on paper Parvati was actually a good match for Harry

She’s pretty which is partly why he found Ginny and Cho attractive, aligned enough with his ideals due to being Gryffindor, and did join Dumbledore's army even when the twins could have been mad at them

And I think they even brought up Harry could have brought Parvati to the Slughorn party instead of Luna if he wanted a more serious date plus the side plot point of making it up to her and could have probably been a better social partner for the networking than Luna

And on the Ron-Padma side, it has the cursed child timeline where in the alternate future Rin marries Padma which I’m guessing has to be a Yule ball date goes right kind of what if (haven’t read the book or watched the play or whatever it is)

But also on paper for Ron since he was also attracted to Fleur and Lavender, is also someone who values physical beauty, and Padma like her twin is regarded as pretty, plus seen with Hermione Ron does value intelligence and Padma being a Ravenclaw does/can fit (we don’t follow her enough to know her true intelligence level) plus she was also a prefect which means something

Plus there are other things that depend on person to person such as the whole marrying your high school sweetheart thing, Harry liking Ginny is weird/wrong, the idea that Hermione and Ron wouldn’t work as even the author said they would need counseling/therapy, the idea that Harry went on one actual date before being with Ginny forever, and Ron seeing Lavender for a bit before being with Hermione and so on

The twins have certain qualities for a match for the best friends as on paper they check a lot of boxes and if they both marry them Harry and Ron would be brothers like in canon but now through the Patil as

The only real issue with the twins was just simply a lack the history and closeness as they didn’t spend enough time with them to truly get their personalities and to truly see if they could mesh

Harry and Ron had a lot of time with Ginny and Hermione especially

But the idea that they could have been decent high school girlfriend material was there as while the Yule ball might have just been oh Harry and his best friend need a date and there are twins available sounds ideal versus it being actual characters Harry and/or Ron had an interest in and would have pursued

And I’ve said it in the other HP post I do like Hinny and Ronmione (and even Harmione)

But in the viewpoint where they don’t just marry the girls they were closest to due to proximity, I like the idea of the twins being their partners

Plus in the potential rewrite/fanfiction/AU, I can see a scenario where the boys weren’t moody teenagers at the ball and actually had fun with their dates which could have led to their first girlfriends

As Hermione has something going on with Krum even Ginny starts to see Michael C because of the ball, so it’s not out of the realm for one if not both of the boys to be dating someone around now

And if the ball disaster still happens Harry has the DA and Slughorn stuff to consider Parvati and Ron have DA and the prefect connection to consider Padma

If only one could be with the boys, I think I like Ron with Padma as an option more than Parvati with Harry

Mostly due to Ron not having as many serious potential ships as he has Hermione and Lavender whereas Harry has Ginny Cho Luna Hermione etc

(You can say any pairing could happen but those seem more consensus, says the person that likes the idea of RonxLuna)

So if not Hermione and Lavender is dead (she likely isn't dead in the book but movie she's dead) then why not Padma?

Versus for Harry he has more potential alt picks as people to this day think he probably should have gotten with Luna or Hermione

As for Hermione… well she has a lot of ships lol, could continue the twin thing and pair her with Fred, the whole golden trio with the silver trio so could pair her with Neville (or Ginny or Luna), they’re a lot of Draco/Dramione fans, or just pair her with a random muggle, or keep her single

I think for the whole they all become family angle have her with Fred (or Ginny) as she’ll be a Weasley, the rewrite/fanfiction/AU you can redeem Draco, in a world where she just can’t be with Ron or Harry I like Neville for her or even bring back Krum

Edit found the video:

Didn’t feel like correcting what I said above but I did find it so here’s the video…

So yeah more of an If not Ginny who could/should Harry be with

With Harry not being with Ginny and Hermione due to bro code (one being Ron’s sister, one Ron liked Hermione early and bro code said Harry shouldn’t date either)

Cho due to what canonically happened

Draco as Draco’s not good…

Luna is great maybe not the best complimentary partner long term but still nice

Parvati was unabashed and unafraid of authority since her first year flying lesson which based on Ginny Harry would like, and keeps those values through the end since DA and the battle of Hogwarts

The opportunity is Slughorn due to Ron and Lavender being embarrassing for their best friends with just a small change to have one show interest again which could lead to another date

There’s also the supercarlinbrothers where I think in two of their what ifs they entertained Ron going with Parvati since Harry was with Cho (what if Harry asked Cho first) or in Slytherin (if Harry was in Slytherin)

It’s mostly just the general last Gryffindor girl left for him to ask and only reason Harry went with her was because he asked but if Ron asked it would be flipped

[turboacek-blog]

Kunigami the defender Japan needs

So in the recent PXG game Kunigami was tasked to stop Shido and he did that really well

Position wise he was labeled as a defensive midfielder (DM) as a result

Which had me and others thinking of the possibility of him not being a forward on the Japan team

Fit

So this team will just naturally lack defenders as outside of Aiku it seems the former u-20 defenders aren’t making the cut

Meaning there’s room for people to be on the back line

Kunigami probably has the best physical specs all around as while he’s not as tall as Aryu for example I think the overall strength speed and physicality is only really matched close by Aiku and Raichi (assuming he makes the cut)

Kunigami as stated by Isagi has a restrictive type of ego meaning he works best when he has clear instructions and that might align with a defender more than striker at least for this team

Not even just in the NEL but back in the 3v3 his role was to stop Barou and he did that extremely well for the most part.

Skill

This is where I think you either have to stretch the logic or simply accept outside of Aiku no one is a natural defender

As in even though Aryu has the body for it, Niko the mind and Karasu skill set is almost made for DM these are not the most defensive players before getting into their roles more

So physically Kunigami can do what Aryu Karasu and Aiku can do

Kunigami has the leg power for clearances, the physicality to oppose others similar to Nio meaning it’s the specific skill that are the question mark

He doesn’t have the mind or eyes of Niko or Karasu so he would likely need to play with someone with that mind to instruct him

Story

So there’s the aspect that as a forward/striker it sadly seems he just can’t get over Isagi and Rin let alone characters like Barou Nagi and Shido which questions his role as if he can’t be an attacker where would he go

I think something that would make sense for him is that if Kunigami and his superhero ego shifted from scoring goals to saving/stopping goals

Being a superhero isn’t always beating the villain but saving/protecting people is the superhero analogy

It was also already shown with how fans cheered Aiku for clearing the ball or stoping a play that can be applied to Kunigami

For example if a game is 0-0 the hero of that game can be the defender who stopped a crucial breakaway or a star player and that stop led to a scoring opportunity that could be Kunigami

Plus it makes a way for the egoist 4 to be on the field together without making all of them forwards as Isagi will likely be striker Chigiri on the wing somewhere and bachira also on the wing if not in the midfield somewhere leaving a lot of the defense related positions open to be there and Kunigami can be there now

And I also like the idea of Kunigami denying the Noa ego and uses those skills and body to do almost the opposite and instead of getting his original ego he changes or remixes it similar to Aiku and Niko

Formation and Position

So this is where I think most peoples issue is with Kunigami being a defender

As yes skill wise he can do well as a forward

And some positions like Karasu being a DM and Aiku a CB seem locked

Leaving only three-ish positions left and people don’t think he fits two of them those being the left and right backs

As those are more suited for players like Chigiri Bachira Otoya Kurona etc

Leaving the other CB next to Aiku

It’s mostly been between Niko and Aryu for who people consider to be there

Aryu has the physical specs and has higher bid over Niko while Niko has metavision and midfield capabilities

Which leads to a lot thinking of who would be better next to Aiku? A better physical player or a better mental player with a lot seeing Niko being too small that they pick Aryu

So for me it’s a question of are Aryu’s longer limbs and height that much more important that Niko’s eyes and Kunigami’s physical dominance?

To me no, Aryu is a bit overrated

I get having a taller defender but I can’t justify having him over Niko being a smarter defender or Kunigami being better physically and can still jump high and etc

The actual formation will be interesting as I think a lot are either going with the formation from the U-20 game or more traditional soccer formations

I think it’ll be another unique formation, something that will make use of all the top strikers in the rankings as it will seem weird that if characters like Barou and/or Shido don’t start just because there’s only 1-2 spots for forwards which would end up being Isagi and Rin so there needs to be a formation that can include those top players in the lineup back blue lock is not balanced as it’s still a bunch of former strikers

I don’t have an ideal formation, as I’m writing this the rankings haven’t been released yet so don’t know if who’s cut

Edit 3/16/25 Isagi and Rin are tied for first and Rep got an assist so he’s likely safe

But I think u can see a reverse of the u-20 formation where they’d had 1 DM and 2CB and this time I can see 2 DM and 1 CB (still have right and left back) and Kunigami can be the other DM with Karasu

The original u-20 Japan team has something similar as they also had two DM granted one got subbed off for Shido

Not my most organized post but oh well just wanted to say I want him in the starting lineup some how

[turboacek-blog]

HP: Soulmate or Partner

Written 2/15/25

The general idea is that for Hermione: Harry is her soulmate while Ron is her partner/lover/husband

Which creates the ship war/debate of Harmione/Harmony (HarryxHermione) and Ronmione (RonxHermione)

The crux of it is who should Hermione (and in general a person) be with between the two

I think the best summary (if soulmate vs lover isn’t enough) I can probably make for them is this:

Harry is more of her partner/ride or die, they align on a lot of things and support each other through everything, etc He is her best friend

Where Ron is her balance, opposites attract, they’re two halves of a whole, etc he is the man she fell in love with

They do have their negatives/what makes them not perfect (granted no one could truly be perfect)

Harry is more withdrawn emotionally so it has led to him and Hermione having difficulty in those areas together

Ron and she argue a ton, I think (at least in the movies would have to fact-check me on the books) no one has made Hermione cry more than Ron

So funnily enough one she can’t talk to when things are emotionally high/low and one she gets in fights with when things are emotionally high/low almost exact opposites

The debate has many aspects to it that I can’t go into

You can go from the literal book to see what makes more sense or what is actually presented

You can go from the meta-perspective as the author herself has said she should have changed the pairings

You can just put your personal feelings and thoughts on them such as if you think Ron&Hermione are toxic or Harry&Hermione are sibling coded

I can’t go into it all, I tried and I see both sides

Edit: 2/24/25

So initially had the whole post going over the dynamics of Ron&Hermione and Harry&Hermione. With some Harry&Ginny

But I honestly see both (all three?) sides of it, Harmione probably my fav of the three if it wasn’t obvious above, I do like Ronmione a lot and I really do like Hinny

I do think a better written/handled Ginny could truly be the ideal partner for Harry and a better handled Ronmione to lean away from some of their more toxic aspects I might like it more as well

I do think that since she didn't write Harry and Hermione to be obviously romantic they avoided the pitfalls the romance writing had imo and instead had such a strong friendship to the point fans consider them soulmates

I'm completely for platonic male/female friendships, in this situation I do think that they are just a better match so to speak and the male/female friendship could have just been Ron&Hermione if we have to have one

Plus I've always been a sucker for the best friends-to-lovers trope in nearly everything that has a cast and a romantic plot/subplot so that's probably my bias

I already regret posting this as Harry Potter isn't my wheelhouse lol

Edit: 2/25/25

Also side note the whole bonded for life part is one of the most absurd moments I think for a pair that didn’t end up together lol

[turboacek-blog]

Blue Lock’s Kuroko: Hiori Yo

So simply I'm saying the blue lock character of Hiori Yo is very similar to Kuroko Tetsuya from Kuroko no Basuke/Kuroko’s Basketball

It is probably more accurate to say Hiori is a mixture of Kuroko and Akashi from Knb

Hiori Yo is a character that excels in passing but doesn't stand out much, has a calmer demeanor, former teammate to one of the top players (Karasu), and his current dream in the manga is to make the main character (Isagi) the number 1 striker and be his shadow

A lot of this is similar to Kuroko who also excels in passing, doesn't stand out, calm demeanor, former teammate to the generation of miracles, and wanted to be the shadow to Kagami’s light

Let alone the light blue hair lol

The key differences are the backstory and exactly how they play

His backstory is way more like Akashi with the perfection need and such like how he currently is called a sadist which also reminds me of Akashi before the end of the series

And since it is soccer/futbol and not basketball there are obvious differences in how you can translate those skillsets

But Kuroko was considered below average with him having this near-broken ability with his misdirection passing therefore couldn't have the ball with him a lot

Whereas Hiori while not top 10 is one of the better soccer players as he did make it to the 3rd selection was a bench player that played in the U-20 match and is currently starting in the NEL as he has excellent passing, and above average in other stuff, he just doesn't have that kicking/attacking ability the main characters has since its a series about strikers/forwards and Hiori has been used more as a midfielder and defender

[turboacek-blog]

Dragon Ball Daima: Are we getting Miss Buu?!

Basically Arinsu and Marba are creating a new Majin and was revealed Marba created Buu not Bibidi meaning it’s possible it will resemble Buu

This pot is a light blue which can mean whatever will be created will be that color

And Miss Buu is a really close color to that shade of Buu

Miss Buu is a weird character in the lore

Basically from what i understand she’s a character made basically for the mmorpg dragon ball online as a means to explain why Majin was a race to select when the player created a character

As Miss Buu was made from Buu when Buu got curious about love

Since then other lore or changes had been had with Buu and the Majins

Like in Xenoverse Buu just makes children from just eating a lot of food

In some ways Android 21 from Dragon Ball Fighterz she fills the role of a female Buu

So I think in those ways this probably isn’t going to be Miss Buu literally but I think like other things Toriyama took from his old post Manga ending ideas this is something that could be reworked

Edit 10/30/24

So I did not look at any reviews or YouTube videos to tweets or etc

So if anyone also thought of this then I guess it’s just a coincidence as I don’t think it’s that original of a thought

Also so apparently the image everyone took as Miss Buu was just a character in the dragon ball online game named Titima but most of what I said still applies just means they’re flexible on the color and such

[turboacek-blog]

Hot Take: Trunks hair should be blue?

Long story short Toriyama (rest in peace) has always been inconsistent with Trunks and Bulma’s hair color, many people seen and we learned this when DBS future trunks had blue hair like Bulma but kid Trunks was still purple

There have been various theories on this outside of Toriyama just being inconsistent such as hair maturing similar to blondes becoming brunette, to the anime production having trouble with purple hair so they changed it to blue for Bulma but they figured it out by the time Future trunks arrived, and so on

My opinion

My true opinion is that Trunk’s hair (both present and Future) should match Bulma’s hair

I get that the purple hair Trunks is more iconic and recognizable and some think cooler but it also never made sense he had purple while Bulma had blue and Vegeta the Saiyan black

So basically it comes down to which should be Bulma’s hair color the blue or purple?

Even in the manga's first two chapters, her hair was blue then it changed to purple for basically the rest of the series (which is why Trunk’s hair is purple as they just matched the manga)

Whereas in the anime Bulma’s hair was blue the whole time creating the hair confusion

And honestly the thing not many people bring up are the shades of the blue and purple

The lavender purple Trunks usually has in the anime and most games is a nice shade of purple at least on him

But the darker shades while still good it’s not what people think of so there's a perfect shade of purple for Trunks

Whereas the blue has had the most variations in shades throughout the years/series

Like I think in my opinion the anime DBS shade of blue on Bulma and Trunks is not the best shade of blue

(even here ^ it's slight but I like Bulla’s/Bra’s shade better here)

Let alone the initial confusion on whether he had super Saiyan blue since it matched that shade

I think almost any other shade of blue works better than the DBS shade of blue Bulma and Trunks has

This artist had a good drawing showing all the different shades Trunks and Bulma one or the other has had and while it’s not the perfect thing to reference I hope it shows what I mean

Which reinforced that I think if it was any other shade of blue I would like it more

I prefer Bulma with Blue hair (but maybe that's nostalgia in itself), so I think Trunks in turn should have that blue hair to match his mother

There's also a color coordination thing where the clothes future trunks wore in Super and what teen/present trunks wore during Super Hero made me like it better on present trunks as it went together better at least to my eyes

So I think if we don’t have that nostalgia for future Trunks in Z having purple hair I don’t think anyone would be up in arms when they changed his hair outside of general confusion or it being changed

Plus I think Bulma makes more sense with Blue hair and Trunks should match that

Coming from someone whose favorite color is purple :)

Obviously very opinion based as I truly do get those that think it should be purple

Like even from the original manga Bulma and Trunks should have purple despite the anime popularizing Bulma’s blue which in turn overwrote the manga in a sense that even Toriyama when designing that family later on in Super planned for both to be blue-haired and it was just the anime again doing something different by keeping kid Trunks hair purple despite Toriyama designing him to have blue

So it could literally go either way

[turboacek-blog]

Trying to make Agents of Shield work in the MCU now

So they said they want to reintroduce Quake in the MCU

And iirc they said they’re going to make Agents of Shield Canon as previously like most shows wasn’t canon before

But due to events happening at the end of season 5, it’s going to be weird how they try to fit the show now

Summary Agents of Shield is a show that mostly followed S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents were running parallel to the MCU movies from post-Avengers 1

At the end of season 5, it was supposed to be parallel to Infinity War but due to how secretive Disney was being with the Thanos Snap and the five-year-jump the show was forced to be original which created some weirdness

So the general consensus is that Season 5 is the end of canon to MCU and seasons 6&7 is a different timeline due to things like time travel being in those seasons

So to make Agents of Shield work it’s either going to have to be a lot of retconning of those last couple of seasons

Or seasons 1-4 are canon but now there’s a hypothetical season 5 that makes sense with Infinity War knowledge mainly the snap that we have never seen

And like at the end of the show, most characters are still doing agent work now while others retire and Daisy/Quake is one still working so it’s feasible she’s a potential hero/character/agent as she’s inhuman

(Which might get changed into mutant like how they did Ms. Marvel )

So I don’t know if they're going to go into the whole Coulson explanation and the whole history that Shield is still active especially with them shifting to Sword in the recent phases

But I think introducing Quake is relatively simple especially if it’s the actress Chloe Bennett for the general audience that has that kind of recognizability

Most wouldn’t have watched the show so she can give a quick explanation she’s an agent or former agent of Shield trained under Coulson and most will accept it that alone

As for the nitty gritty for those who watched the show and are very particular over the continuity and timelines and such

I think the simplest explanations are…

Time Travel

Basically, while the lack of reaction to the snap happening is weird and weird how no one from the main cast was snapped (there’s theories why they weren't)

The MCU time travel rules of going to a different branch in the timeline make seasons 5-7 make sense as they just weren’t there for some of the snap and when they come back at the end of season 7 they’re back in the MCU

There was a cut line about them being in the quantum realm to jump through time, which protected them from Thanos in a sense similar to Ant-Man

The Multiverse

I know some are tired of it or think the multiverse stuff isn’t working but it’s probably the simplest explanation without completely overwriting the show

Basically AoS world is its own earth/universe still, but a parallel story did happen up to season 5 in the MCU but instead of what happened in the show the snap happened and you go from there

As at that point the potential is endless as you can still have some elements of season 5, 6, & 7 but the show does diverge with the Thanos effect instead of where they went

Incursion

Or you do the yet to happen incursion idea from Doctor Strange 2 where two earths collide and combine, this is how people think the Fox X-Men will join but this can work with any non MCU marvel world such as Fantastic Four, older marvel movies like the first Hulk’s and Spider-Man and marvel shows that weren’t original in the sacred timeline which can be AoS among others

What if

Just going to go off a ramble to see if I could make something up

So they elude to Thanos a lot and even say his name so honestly a lot of season 5 can stay but that climax scene of Quake vs Gravitron is fine but the snap happens and half the character gets snapped away

Who gets snapped is literally up in the air, I think since a character like Fitz was going to die anyway and Coulson also slowly dying can mean only a couple get snapped like Elena and Mack along with some of the notable side recurring agents and you never get characters like Deke since that storyline I imagine is gone

This way I imagine we get a “season” of some characters dealing with the snap and characters like Jemma still go for the frozen Fitz like in the show, May and Coulson live out his last days, and so on…

Now the details of how they handle the five years is its own story but the general idea is that Daisy needs to stay alive through this

Maybe kinda like Endgame we just jump five years and have a scene that shows Daisy and May fighting some of Thanos’s army and when everything is fixed and snapped back have a scene with Fury about still needing Shield etc which allows storylines like Mack being the next head, Jemma finds Fitz, Daisy is now the character she needs to be when they reintroduce her and etc

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note: I had an old draft I think I deleted right after I finished binging AoS as I figured no one would care back then since even shows like Daredevil weren't being canonized

So I had probably had better recollection and thoughts and theories then sadly so sorry if this isn’t the most thought out

Does make me want to rewatch the show now that

[turboacek-blog]

Was it a trap?

Pod Meets World had a debate on whether Topanga trapped Cory with the whole Lauren situation

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Danielle and Will are on the side that it wasn’t a trap and Ryder is on the side it was a trap

They asked viewers to send voice memos and such but I just wanted to write my own thoughts here plus I’m very late/behind on the podcast lol

Summary: Cory and Topanga are boyfriend and girlfriend senior year in high school and while the continuity is messy we are going with the story they’ve been together since they were little babies (like 4 years old), on a school trip Cory ends up falling for another girl and talked to her a lot and bonded to the point she kissed him

Before leaving the girl Lauren wrote Cory a letter and the letter made its way to Topanga's hands, that’s how she finds out about what we call cheating causing a rift between Cory and Topanga

Lauren comes to visit Cory so many miles away just to speak to him at the same time Cory is going to try and reconcile with Topanga with assistance from his best friend Shawn

Topanga says if Cory needs to be 100% sure about his feelings he should talk to Lauren which Cory does

After hanging out with Lauren Cory becomes 100% sure about Topanga but Topanga still breaks up with him on the principle he has to test and go see if he likes the other girl more than her

So people think Topanga trapped Cory as she says to go so he went and she’s breaking up with her for listening to her

A lot of other details that matter but that’s the core of it

So was it a trap?

Yes and no

I think the show presents and shows it’s a trap, Shawn even flat out says it. And everything after makes it sound more and more like a trap on Topanga’s part

But I also don’t think what Topanga said was that vague to be seen as manipulation or a “trap”. It wasn’t explicitly clear but I don’t think she was being so cryptic that I don’t think it’s hard to register she wanted him to leave with her instead of spending time with Lauren

My answer is it really is a perspective thing as I think you can trap someone without meaning to so Topanga didn’t think it was a trap while Cory (and Shawn) did due to each side's available knowledge

It’s similar to the we were on a break debate from Friends with the confusion around the word break, Ross thought breakup and Rachel thought pause then it was later clarified that even if it was a breakup sleeping with someone right after a breakup is still bad

So Topanga asking if Cory wants to talk to Lauren is in Topanga’s mind seeing if he’s choosing her or Lauren, while Cory reads it as okay I get a moment to sort things out and then decide

If Topanga understood that Cory wasn’t thinking that was the moment to decide she might of worded it better, just like if Cory knew that was the moment to decide he would of probably answered differently as well

Additional and random thoughts

The situation is already in a bad situation as everyone agrees Cory was in a cheating or cheating-like situation (depending on what you think constitutes as cheating for you)

So the situation alone has the grounds for a break up there alone

Let alone their prior history in the show such as other moments when girls came onto Cory

The trap debate is around the wording Topanga uses as people think if it was worded better Cory would not have talked to Lauren if he better understood what Topanga meant, which was evident by the end of the episode where Cory was upset

Since she wasn’t being explicitly clear it can feel misleading or vague or manipulation and if she was clear they wouldn’t have broken up

My stance is I feel they would of broken up either way

Even if Cory was 100% sure at that moment Topanga was already hurt enough from everything that they probably would have broken up regardless

Now it would have made their eventual getting back together easier to swallow if he hadn’t gone on that ‘date’ with Lauren

But I don’t think Cory leaves with Topanga then everything is fixed and perfectly fine

Cory leaves with Topanga and then they’re still going to talk like they initially planned and then Cory being Cory isn’t going to say the correct things to put Topanga at ease especially since in this scenario he wasn’t able to properly sort out his feelings for Lauren so Topanga would not have been satisfied or even hurt by Cory’s answers and still broken up with him

The Lauren aspect is tricky…

I do think there’s a version where Lauren never shows up so Cory doesn’t get conflicted as it really was bad timing

Whether he felt that way deep down or not, he was ready to get back with Topanga and the moment he does so Lauren appears throwing him off before he could even recover Topanga shows up

If Lauren showed up idk 5 minutes before or after, it would make a lot of things different as it could mean Cory gets a chance to talk to either of them before the other arrives, maybe he succeeded in getting Lauren out before Topanga arrived, there are a lot of possibilities if Lauren didn’t arrive precisely when she does

I agree with Will from the podcast in the standpoint that Lauren is essentially a villain in this whole arc

She flirts with a boy that she knows has a girlfriend, she kisses that same boy, gives him a love letter, and when that boy doesn’t write her back she travels a really long way to see that boy again

If it was framed a different way Lauren would be looked at as evil, crazy, or desperate but the show presents more as somewhat romantic in the lens of ‘wow she travels so far just to see him’ again versus a girl obsessing over a guy she knew for like 3 days who has a girlfriend

Cory…

So it’s been pretty accepted that Cory in the show isn’t the best person

Part of it is that as the main character, he’s put in these ridiculous situations and due to having to learn lessons and such messes up and doesn’t always do the right thing

But the other part is that we see a lot of the characters conform to his reality in a sense

Cory is an awkward teen/young adult who has moments where he acts like he knows what’s going on and either is proven wrong so he can learn the lesson or he acts like he knows what he’s doing and the world conforms around him not learning a lesson

The podcast brings up the universe a lot as the way the characters talk about Love does make it seem like a soulmate destiny sort of thing vs just two people who really like each other have history and compatibility and etc

To the point where other characters like Shawn Topanga and others also think the same thing

So the things is Cory in this scenario has the weird blend of reality of yes it’s possible to actually like someone that’s not the person you knew since you were 4 years old but also in the world where Cory and Topanga love each other to the point they are that old married couple at 16 years old and after this would be engaged shortly after would also never entertain someone else

This is a storyline that would have made more sense earlier on like season 3 but it being at this specific point is what makes it messy

I don’t want to defend Cory here but I also feel this is just his personality good or bad as this similar thing has happened before like the Topanga sick episode, and on one side yes he should grow out of this but on the other, it just seems a part of who he is

Topanga

So Danielle’s main point is that the writers threw Topanga’s character under the bus since they couldn’t make Cory too much of the bad guy to the audience and viewers so they changed it so it was more like a trap even if the way it was said didn’t imply that

The beauty and tragedy with Topanga is she truly does love Cory and probably understands him more than even Shawn as she’s been one of the only characters that has been able to see his true intentions even in his mistakes

On one hand, I can see how making the usually articulate smart character in Topanga not be as articulate and more emotional as character assassination

On the other, I can see a character like Topanga who has just as much if not more fed into the whole that she and Cory are destined to be together, be that emotional and shaken up to break up with Cory but still remain friendly and eventually get back together and ask him to marry her

Like Cory is the focal character and for a good chunk of the show Topanga is a recurring character and is barely even in some episodes so we see his viewpoint on love and much more

But Topanga is arguably worse than him as she’s the one who stays with him after that first kiss scandal when younger, she’s the one who moves away from her parents so she can stay with him, she’s the one who claims she’s afraid to be alone with him because she doesn’t think she can contain herself sexually, she’s the one that eventually asks him back and she’s the one that proposes

Topanga is arguably more in love with Cory than Cory is with her (the whole Cory x Shawn thing lol)

So I think in the lens of this character who loves this other character more, then yes I can see logic going out the window in this tense situation

While Topanga’s character has changed over the show at a certain point her romantic subplot with Cory has been pretty consistent I feel

I know a lot of people would never even entertain Cory again but I also think Topanga views Cory differently than us

~~~~~~~

Final thoughts

It’s interesting when first watching the episode the trap question didn’t even appear in my mind lol

But as I think about it and listened to the debate about it the whole thing is so manufactured and unbelievable their break up here doesn’t even fully register as a breakup, especially with future knowledge

This is like those hypothetical questions that you get in trouble with but for the characters, it actually happened

Like what would you do if you start to bond with a new person to the point of catching some feelings and that person kisses you?

Then you’re literally forced to pick between the two when you’re feelings are at their most confused

I think there’s the simple/ideal answer of staying with your existing partner

Then a more realistic answer of trying to sort out your feelings better and need time and so on

This brings up a lot of other questions like were they ever truly in love if there was doubt, she kissed him so is it the same as he kissed her or is there a difference, would it really matter if he told her immediately about the kiss?

Etc etc

Edit 11/21:24: completely forgot about the Starry Night episode lol

Which basically reframed again the whole talk all night and kiss thing by flipping it on Topanga with the boy Ricky

And I guess my final somewhat updated thoughts about CoryxTopanga are…

The show whether due to different writers or it’s general inconsistency with the lore (like one writer knew about the Lauren thing but didn’t know all the details when writing the get back together episode) wants the take away to be about the surface level issue of talking all night and she kissed him being while not great is ultimately harmless in the name of love, I guess kinda similar to how some think a person should never dance with anyone other than their partner and when they do it can be seen bad but maybe not permanent breakup worthy

And I think the writers or maybe even the viewers at the time didn’t equate what Cory did to cheating/infidelity as they keep not framing it that way

And I think it really does get down to the whole how are we looking at “love” as they are like 17 here so it’s part of they’re so young let them date other people and what they feel isn’t actual love or shouldn’t be taking it as seriously like they’re 30+ married and etc

And the podcast episode about how if this were a married couple with kids and together for 15+ years then yeah maybe the whole starting to like someone else might not be an automatic divorce due to the circumstances but it being in high school should mean you should be over that person and move on and etc

And I know the podcast is very critical on the whole destiny viewpoint on love and think and feel that’s not what love is and think it’s actual detrimental to especially the kids that watched it growing up

But I guess to me a lot of kid/teen shows that had an actual romantic subplot also did this so it’s not a Boy Meets World thing, maybe some lines are way more explicit in BMW than other shows like literally saying the universe wants them together but I don’t think it did any real harm than other shows

Plus maybe hot take but I’d rather people take from Cory & Topanga journey on “true” love than plenty of other shows takes on romance as at least Cory and Topanga check almost all the boxes you would want in a couple

And I think there’s a general conversation to be had about cheating as some people think it’s the worse thing you can ever do and some think it’s forgivable and I don’t know what that percentage is in the world but in the podcast they all are mostly on the same page so it would be interesting to hear someone that has the viewpoint of what Cory did was forgivable be heard in a conversation as I feel that’s what they writers were feeling at the time at least

[turboacek-blog]

Ilia should be the Summer Maiden

So when I made my Adam post a thought crossed my mind…

Each of the Maidens at this time has a connection to the main girls

Fall Maiden: Cinder and Ruby have that hate relationship right now and seem to be the big bad outside of Salem

Winter Maiden: Winter and Weiss are sisters

Spring Maiden: Raven and Yang mother and daughter

Meaning the only one missing a relationship with a maiden is Blake and the only maiden left is the Summer Maiden

When thinking of characters that could work to be the Summer Maiden, Ilia fits I think the best

Ilia is working with the White Fang around the world and would likely be on the way to Vacuo with everyone else after Ruby’s message

If it has to be someone Blake has a relationship with the only young woman that fits is her mother (then you’re questioning what counts as young) and Ilia.

Any other character like Coco, Velvet, Nora and so on wouldn’t have that relationship with Blake

While I acknowledge that they can always write it so this completely new character can become extremely close to Blake similar to a Penny with Ruby or a character like Velvet can also be expanded upon maybe adding flashback scenes from their Beacon days

Plus unsure of how book characters will be implemented if at all

I just think of the characters we know now, Ilia fits the best if someone it should be someone close to the main girls which in this case is Blake

Oh and to be clear, someone obviously has to be the Maiden before Ilia (or whoever) I’m just referring to a winter Maiden situation where we see it get passed to someone

[turboacek-blog]

RWBY: Could Adam Taurus be redeemed?

First/Disclaimer: just want to say I’m not trying to excuse abuse or manipulation or any of the creepy awful things Adam has done I just think Adam is even more than Jaune could have been that 5th main (male) character that the show kinda keeps feeling it needs to have between Jaune, Oscar, and others as Adam has been an important figure and existed since the black trailer which makes him the third/fourth oldest character in the series

So Adam Taurus who was introduced as early as the Black Trailer was a character that many fans didn't like how he turned out by the end

In summary, he went from this mysterious powerful but low-empathy former partner of one of the main four girls (Blake) to some crazy ex-boyfriend who died in a sense to wrap up the racism plotline they had trouble writing and to ignite the ship between Blake and Yang

A lot of stuff missing but that's a summary

Many people have said Adam couldn't have been redeemed some even claiming that the redemption Adam could have gotten was given to a different character in Ilia as their background was similar but the difference being Ilia wasn't the person during Volumes 1-3 that had those actions tied to their name and was simply who they focused on to have that redemption in volumes 4-5

But I think one thing people forget or don't think matters is that-

Adam was forced to do many of his actions in Volumes 1 - 3 because of Cinder

For those that don't recall in Volume 3, we get a flashback that explains how Cinder recruited Emerald and Mercury along with them stealing part of the Fall Maiden’s power from Amber

But something that gets overlooked is that Cinder first came to Adam trying to get the White Fang's help which takes place prior to Volume 1 as we see Blake is with them still and Adam refuses then Cinder comes back later with the Maiden power and essentially forces Adam and the White Fang to join her

This means all the actions the White Fang have done from Volume 1 through 3 are because they're essentially hostages or slaves to Cinder and her faction

There are probably things I’m not recalling or thinking of

As you can say Adam seems ok with the actions and decisions in Volume 3 and while sure maybe that’s fair or maybe reaching, I would just also say Volume 4 and onward Adam is very different from the Black trailer through Volume 3 in that it doesn’t affect my thoughts too much on the idea of redemption

But even so, there are several things that are held against Adam in terms of writing a redemption for him

He stabbed Blake making the whole former lover/partner aspect hard to lean on for redemption, and he disarmed Yang so hard to see someone like that switch to the same side as Yang

And his reactions and decisions in Volume 4 and on,

Adam gets power crazy and now instead of getting approached and being forced and somewhat manipulated he now wants the power the bad guys have and is willingly teaming up with Hazel making his gray actions more black/white

This leads to him killing Sienna Khan and forcing the White Fang to do things that make them look worse and him going from a neutral/third party or antihero to another unredeemable villain

And then finally stalking Blake to the point where he's trying to kill her and it takes Blake and Yang to finally end him

So how would I redeem him?

So leaving Volumes 1-3 alone as he has to do the bad stuff to be redeemed in the first place

Blake and Adam have to interact in Volumes 4-6

This can just mean replacing Ilia with Adam in Menagerie or reworking Blake’s and Adam’s whole storyline to include having them interact more

I think Blake and Adam are two sides of the same coin

Both faced racism and it radicalized them to join the white fang to fight for Faunus rights

But whether because of their different backstories or Blake had that eye-opening experience and Adam didn’t they ultimately got on opposite sides

Blake was so against their actions she ran away and didn’t speak up for Faunus to the same degree as Adam

Adam was so into their actions he went even further and vocalized his wants even louder and bolder

And… the issue isn’t with Adam here it’s Blake

There’s the classic MLK and Malcom X debate but I think something that can make more sense to compare is the X-Men mutant debate of Professor X and Magneto

Whereas Professor X wants to work with the humans to co-exist in peace whereas Magneto wants to be either completely separate from them (hence Genosha) or to be the dominant species and in some cases kill them

Adam is definitely the ‘Magneto’ dominant species side but I don’t think Blake had the opportunity to be the Professor X in the dynamic imo

And I think it’s because they never had a chance to just talk without the Fall of Beacon, the Attack on Haven, and the Volume 6 fight in the way

Plus Blake’s own personal issues she had in Volumes 4-6

If there was a moment that Blake and Adam could talk without the threat of violence or trauma, Blake is someone that could have that debate with Adam similarly that Prof X and Magneto have in their Chess games/debates

Plus I think leaning into the idea that Blake and Adam are a young Charles and Erik but also exes sounds intriguing enough

Basically, Adam needs a foil to bounce off of before it’s too late, the closest is Hazel but also not really

I think you need a character to challenge Adam like Iroh to Zuko Zuko wants to be like his father and Azula but Iroh’s teachings and care are what made the turmoil interesting and redemption believable

Adam didn’t have anyone to even put any good ideas in his head so it’s natural he just kept falling down that path which kinda makes him tragic but also not really since we don’t really get those hints of goodness from him

Even if it’s not Blake at least all the time it can be a character or like Banesaw or Sienna or Ilia to at least plant some different ideas in his head

I don’t know how you would rewrite it as the volume 4&5 timeline is tricky enough to sort out

And while I personally liked the BlakexIlia stuff as of right now Blake’s (and Ilia’s) storyline seems to have the least amount of impact on the greater story of the four girls as Ruby is Ruby, Weiss Schnee family was very involved in volumes 7-8 plus now her sister is a maiden, and Yang while mostly personal growth had her story with Raven who is also a Maiden

The White Fang is currently a nonfactor and maybe it’ll pay off in volumes 10 & on but her storyline seems mostly to get Blake back in the right mindset write off the white fang and tell a redemption story even if it wasn’t Adam

So Adam arguably more important than most characters in the show should probably have been the focus for volumes 4-6 if we’re going to kill him off still

So redeeming him makes sense to me even though in the canon show he probably doesn’t deserve it

Plus I think we missed out on a lot of interactions with a good guy Adam or just more Adam in general like Adam and Weiss with the Schnee brand history, a good Adam creates love triangle stuff (I know people hate love triangles lol), Adam’s reaction to the lore of Maiden’s relics and such, a true fourth the JN_R since they don't really commit to Oscar being it, Adam in the atlas plot, what would Adam and Ruby even say to each other? etc…

[turboacek-blog]

Sparking Zero my custom battle ideas

I don’t have a PS5, Xbox, or gaming PC and I'm probably not going to get this game on Switch but just wanted to share some ideas here before I forget about them whenever I do get my PS5

Inspired by the Gohan saving Trunks in Goku's black arc moment in the opening

Some are what ifs, some just scenarios

Earthlings vs Ginyu Force: to mirror that filler episode where the Ginyu Force were ok King Kai's planet

Raging blast what ifs: there are some what ifs they could almost just rip the dialogue from those like the Bardock meeting grandkids, best duo with tien and chiaotzu, best fusion, etc

Future Trunks buu saga: basically a thing where we see what was essentially the Kakarot DLC

Goku revived on time: in Saiyan Saga Goku was revived on time but the distance to get back was underestimated but if they either planned ahead what would his presence during the first instance with the Saibamen go

Goku & Gohan time chamber first: so canon vegetal and trunks went first but if Goku and Gohan went what would happen when they encountered second form Cell

Uninterrupted Buu Saga tournament: basically if They weren't stopped by Gohan getting his energy drained in the middle how would those brackets go,

Goku vs Mecha Frieza: basically the original timeline where Goku got there since no trunks, could be unique where it is Goku vs Frieza Vegeta vs King Cold, rest vs soldiers

Hercule in original tournament: in a way make it so Hercule was in a original dragon ball tournament with Tien Yamcha Piccolo etc as its a thing where people think he's stronger than everyone back then but is outclassed obviously now

7-year time skip what ifs: Bojack movie obvious, maybe have other character stuff like Krillin vs Tien, Frieza soldier comes to earth and is defeated by Yamcha or somebody

Different universe 6 tournament lineup: canon was Goku vegeta piccolo buu(disqualified) and monaka vs hit cabba frost magetta and botamo, if you want to swap buu and monaka out for almost anyone or since two aren't in the game it'll be 3 v 3 can swap vegeta piccolo out for Gohan and Krillin for example

Cabba vs SSJ 4 Gogeta; got to make the meme real lol, there's probably some settings that make their powers resemble the memes more

If Goku went SSJ3 against Majin Vegeta: start with the battle then you go from there with Buu

Super vs GT matchups: stuff like Jiren vs Omega, Hit vs Baby

Future Gohan comes back instead of Trunks: basically flipping F Gohan with Trunks in the cell saga

What if they found 16 in the future: maybe presence can lead to a different scenario as it can be 3 against 2 now

Tien or Yamcha on Namek with Gohan: basically if Krillin died who would go to Namek and does the character change things

Babidi early: can tie into the 7 time skip one but just if Babidi came earlier like if all the super Saiyan energy in Earth was enough to hatch Buu can teen Gohan Vegeta maybe future trunks maybe Cell defeat Babidi, Dabura, and Buu

Movie vs canon equivalent: Frieza vs Cooler, 13vsAndroids, Turles vs Vegera, Janemba vs Buu, etc

[turboacek-blog]

If Kiba was the main character

Made two recent ish posts where I did Tenten if the main character which was basically just some upgrade ideas for her

And I made/plan to make one where I thought the Inuzuka Clan and Aburame clan should use summons instead of their dogs and insects

So this is the follow up of that

Summon idea

To pull from my other post:

Basically things from Kakashi’s ninja dog summons where being able to talk and use weapons and such would be a nice plus to Kiba having Akamaru as a partner as those pros are added

Werewolf form

I’ve toyed with this idea with fanfiction and such but basically the flip of the man beast transformation where they become the giant two later three headed dog like a Cerberus.

Kiba and Akamaru become a normal (maybe taller and bigger than average human) size man with a lot of the dog/wolf characteristics a la a werewolf (not just transforming into a wolf that I know some adaptations of werewolves do)

Where they have the enhanced strength speed reflexes etc, would likely have the fur and fangs and claws enhanced

And I can see this form having more Justus versatility like unlike the giant one this one could use clones so it’s a numbers vs size

This can have the classic wolf howl be a sound based Justu

Etc etc there’s plenty of things to pull from but I do think in the Naruto world being essentially the super human is a good bonus alone

And it’s an upgrade to existing beast man transformation where Kiba already gets more dog like traits

Burrowing fang

There was an idea of what would each other member of the Konoha 12 nature affinity would be since we learned Naruto’s was wind and Sasuke’s was lightning

And while we don’t know his affinity we saw practically everyone in the war used earth style for that earth wall tactic

Before when trying to think of which element would benefit each person the most, ie people think Tenten should have wind or lightning because of her weapons

For Kiba I chose with earth even before that war move

And earth was mainly because of the digging connection with dogs

So the idea is that Kiba and Akamaru fang over fang can also go underground that way it can not only have a surprise element but also be more powerful with the nature added and versatile as just going underground seems one of the more underrated Justus in Naruto as Naruto and Kakashi have proven its usefulness and Naruto wasn’t even using earth jutsu

Muscle

The weakest and weirdest one but I think out of all the characters outside of Lee and Guy Kiba should be the one I think in the most physical shape

Like he should be built like Shira from the chunin exam filler where he has the muscle and size advantage over someone like Lee

I only bring this up as he’s a Taijutsu specialist and if you don’t have the speed like Lee and Neji or the chakra enhanced strength like a Sakura or Choji or even the most skilled like Sasuke Naruto etc I think you need the muscle to balance it out

This should overall be an increase to other aspects like his tunneling fang hits a little harder

Akamaru

For the other half of the pair ‘Akamaru’ needs some upgrades too

More dogs

Something interesting background lore is that Kiba’s sister Hana Inuzuka has three dogs

And I don’t think we ever see her fight (maybe in filler but whatever) but I think just the idea that having more than one dog at a time can increase the combination possibilities as it’s his version of clones

Red form

It’s implied but make his red form be way more powerful as it seems more Akamaru just gets into battle mode vs it being an upgrade or power boost

Akamaru should be either really feral or fast or strong or something as it just treats it as an equal to Kiba who we already said isn’t the strongest character

Or make it special as Akamaru turning red is already special based on what we know so what if Akamaru red form had special trait like maybe it’s nature is fire so now all it’s attack has a fire element to it resulting in potentially burning the enemy

That’s all for now

Kiba and the Inuzuka clan are hard to think of upgrades for as the dogs while unique in the verse does pigeon hole them into only focusing on the dog techniques established in the beginning

And as Taijutsu specialists it’s weird to say oh they need to be as good as Lee and Neji in Taijutsu when that’s kind of the point for Lee and Neji

If any more ideas let me know :)

[turboacek-blog]

NBA 2020s: the USA vs World Era

In nba 2k the past two games they named 2010-14 the Lebron Era and the Steph era being apparently from 2017 to I’m guessing 2019?

There been some talk about the division and timeframe like would it not all be Lebron era for example or why specifically 3-5 years and so on like I would just say 15-19 to make it even with Lebron or just call it Lebron vs Curry era

But I want to discuss the current era of 2020-24 and potentially onwards

I want to call it the USA vs the World Era

Championships

Unlike the past decade the 2020s have had no repeat champions so can’t say a team dominated like Lebron Heat or Superteam Warriors

It’s been a different team each year and not in the 2010 way where every year has either Lebron or Steph in it

Something I noticed is that the main player of each team has been alternating between a U.S. player and a foreign player

2020: Lebron & AD (US)

2021: Giannis (World)

2022: Stephen (US)

2023: Jokic (World)

2024: Tatum & Brown (US)

So it’s been back and forth this decade so far and while we don’t know 2025 and on at this time if an era is 5 years like 2K did then this is a good frame to go off of

Foreign player dominance

Players such as Jokic Giannis and Embiid if you count him as foreign have won the past 5 MVP awards showing to at least a lot they have been the best players in the NBA

Not even counting Luka Doncic, Shai, and even Wemby now

And there has been a talking point about foreign players both positive and negative because of their dominance recently

To the point where the negative can be seen as xenophobic

Which has created a sort of USA players vs foreign player debate

Rivalry’s

While in a sense team rivalry’s are dead in the nba they’re are some player rivalries that make it a point touching on

Doncic vs Booker (Suns vs Mavs)

Doncic vs Kawhi/PG (Mavs vs Clippers)

Lakers vs Nuggets (Lebron vs Jokic) (I know those fans might deny it but they played three times in the playoffs in 5 years two of them in the conference finals and both teams are definitely trying harder against each other than others)

Bucks vs Heat (Heat with Butler has been one of those teams that stop the Giannis Bucks or at least give him trouble and they’re matchups in the post season has been consistent)

All these have a world player against a U.S. player

There’s other rivalries like Celtics vs Heat but these I feel are consistent and fit the theme in the past 5 years

Plus it’s a still a US dominated (in number of players) league so just lower odds for other rivalries with foreign players

Olympics

This isn’t technically the NBA but a big thing that occurred was the Olympics and is a good “finale” for this 5 year era

Not even discussing the “World Champions” / best in the world topic brought up by Noah Lyles

It was questioned if they could win Gold due to how much better a lot of countries have gotten and it was definitely tested in the 2024 Olympics

This while putting a pin in the U.S. vs World debate for Olympics since USA won, does bring up that when Lebron Steph & Durant retire the scales seemingly heavily tip in the worlds favor in some eyes going forward as it took 3 top 15 players ever to squeeze out those wins against the other top teams like Serbia and France

Plus other talking points like Tatum the recent nba champion barely playing, is Anthony Edwards ready to take over, and so on

Misc

Until 2022 the rising star game was USA vs World

There’s been a want for that to return and be applied to the main All Star game

More foreign players coming over to the NBA now more than before including top draft picks

NBA being more global by having games in Africa and other places in the world

If you include 2019 the champions were the Toronto raptors which is the only non US team in the NBA so while not led by a foreign player it is the “foreign” team and continues the back and forth pattern

All these make the aspect that narratively it’s been USA vs World players believable to me

I do think if a team like the Celtics repeat as champions it could skew some points here but overall at just these five years I prefer this than just calling it the Jokic Era because he has three mvps

Written Sep 19 2024

[turboacek-blog]

A small summoning change || Naruto

Written Aug 11 2024

So I have seen some of the recent Naruto filter tiktok trend

For those who haven’t seen it, it’s a filter where. You have to choose a character for 5 and later update to 8 categories to make the best character such as clan body chakra etc and on the updated 8 category one of the categories was summon

Two of the options for summon were Kiba and Shino to represent the dogs and insects even though they aren’t literal summons like toads, snakes, slugs, etc

Then I was thinking more about it and honestly, they should maybe be summons

Summon usage

Basically, in a lot of cases, summons are seen as a kind of way to give the summoner assistance in a battle or mission, etc

From Orochimaru and other snake users using the snakes as extensions of attacks

To Sasuke using his hawk for some aerial advantage

And so on

Our two main uses of ninjas using a nonhuman species to help are the Inuzuka clan's dogs and the Aburame clan's insects

Where the difference is Kiba doesn’t have to summon Akamaru and Shino’s insects live inside him

Kakashi’s hounds

Then I remembered Kakashi summon is ninja hounds and in a lot of aspects they do everything the Inuzuka clan dogs do with their sense of smell and assisting in combat

The main difference is the Inuzuka clan has more clan-hidden jutsu/techniques with their dogs such as Fang over and Fang and the transformations

Where Kakashi’s since they are summons can speak and have a grasp on weapons the Inuzuka dogs haven’t been seen having

So it led me to the idea that-

The Inuzuka clan and Aburame should just be dog and insect summoners

Kiba & Inuzuka clan

Basically, just make them the dog summoners and they summon their dogs to help battle just like they usually do

And make the dog summon contract a clan-exclusive thing hence a clan

The only main difference is that the dogs can now talk

This is more of a take it or leave it but maybe in their genetics they have some inept ability for summoning so that it might not cost as much chakra to summon for example

And/or to keep things like Akamaru always around Kiba make it so their summon has no time limit so Akamaru can be with Kiba 24/7 if he wants

This way you keep all the Inuzuka clan techniques but since they’re summons it wides the possibilities from weapon usage to like the Kiba vs Naruto fight where since Akamaru can talk it would make it harder to differentiate the two when transformed

As for Kakashi

You can maybe add some lore that Kakashi’s mother was an Inuzuka to not only explain his heightened sense of smell but as an honorary Inuzuka (kinda like Boruto and Himawari with the Hyuga clan) it granted him a dog summon contract

Or just change it either or to wolves and clarify there is a difference between dog and a wolf

In a way, an upgrade

Kiba being able to talk with Akamaru I think is a big communication upgrade that can prove that just having Akamaru as an extension of Kiba is more useful as it can be Akamaru instead of Pakkun in the Chunin Exam/Konoha Crush arc

I think whether just because of time or focus or etc but Kiba’s the big upgrade is the three-headed dog while cool because Cerberus is a bit weak compared to the others I think just seeing how well Kakashi used his dogs I think makes it more flexible for combination attacks and combos like holding down an opponent to just giving Akamaru a sword or something

This isn’t the upgrade that would move Kiba from one of the weakest Konoha 12 to one of the strongest but in the aspect of making him feel a bit more unique but also in the same world as the others

As for Shino and the Aburame clan

Similar to the Inuzuka clan make the insect contract clan exclusive maybe have a clan unique where they can make summons last longer or something

Maybe most insects can't talk and that's the balancing or normalizing as hearing a hundred flies can be annoying

The only thing is I think kinda like how with the toads and snakes there are tiers to them like there were tadpoles and little Gamakichi and big Gamabunta

I can see that with insects like he uses the small insects a lot but if he needs to he can summon a bigger insect like a dragonfly that can be his equivalent to a hawk flying him with a giant beetle or a like insect that can ram a wall, etc

I think this also allows Shino and the Aburame clan to summon differently as it’s not that Shino will summon just one little insect at a time he can summon hundreds to thousands of insects at a time

Insect upgrade

Shino’s parasitic insects are mainly for draining chakra

Torune’s were more akin to poisonous

But something I always felt they should/could do is to use insects similar to Gaara’s sand

Where it can be used as a shield or a way to grab and hold things, even punch, and so on

It’s not much different than when characters in other media can control things like sand or metal and use it in that way just this would be bugs

Plus being summons does lessen the death point as they would just go back when too much damage occurs

I think having a Gaara lite is a upgrade for nearly anybody especially Shino

And it allows of Shino wants to use Torune’s insects he could just maybe takes more chakra or time spent or something?

Variety

Such as a butterfly or a bee or cricket or etc

Making him a bit more creative in how he uses insects such as fire flies for a light source

And since it’s a summon allows for more fantastical insect sizes mentioned earlier with giant insects

As Shino can summon a giant praying mantis and have it fight like the Pokemon scyther or something

Or a worm and he can get intel underground.

Ideas are nearly endless

[turboacek-blog]

The Mina Ashido race convo

Never talked about My Hero so I’m a bit out my element tbh…

But basically from what I gathered Mina Ashido has been coded at least by fans as black/blasian (Black and Asian mix)

And in the recent preview of the next episode season 7 episode 18 or ep156 her pink skin is “fading” (overuse of her powers loses her general different appearance pink skin black eyes etc) and we see the more Asian/pale skin tone which “disproves” that she’s black

And some fans aren’t happy from what I’ve seen online

My quick thoughts

Mina isn’t black as I think they would of made it clear if she was supposed to be plus you would be surprised the crossover or things adapted by the Japanese from African Americans but there’s nothing wrong with people wanting her to be and it honestly is harmless in the grand scheme and I think saying she’s Blasian is the best compromise as it allows her to still be of a lighter skin tone but gives both sides their wants

My full(ish) thoughts below as I go into more details of how I reached my final thought

Fan Coding

Mina Ashido isn’t the first anime/cartoon character that has been fan coded to be a different race

Two of the most popular examples are Piccolo from Dragon Ball and Knuckles the Echidna from Sonic the Hedgehog as fans have coded them as black

Which gets reinforced when an actor like Idris Elba voices Knuckles in the movies

Anime and cartoons tend to leave the standard character as the “default” pale/less melanated human skin color but everyone else whether other humans to aliens to whatever that series has that can be different from standard human characters has more non-human colors like green skin, red skin, blue skin and in Mina’s case pink skin

So they’re sometimes not whatever the default race is whether White or Asian so fans usually of the other races like to project onto these characters different races (and various identities)

For a character like Knuckles, his quills can be seen as dreadlocks which codes to black hair even if in reality it just quills and can elude to different hairstyles as well

For Mina people took her curly hair as a similar thing to black curly hair and anything different chalked up to her being blasian and the Asian hair genes or how anime draws hair or other reasons

Amongst other things like her breakdancing, people take her being louder as a trait, etc etc

My thoughts…

There’s nothing wrong with projecting race on race ambiguous characters to me at least

People usually just like finding themselves in characters and when a cast either all one race or all non human characters people latch onto things they have in common

Plus it’s been evident that some characters that aren’t explicitly black or Hispanic or Asian or etc are implied or written to be that way and couldn’t be that due to a number of reasons

It’s similar with lgtbq+ where a lot of characters especially from older shows and movies are lgtbq coded but due to the time period they either have to force the girl to have boyfriend or they can be gay but can’t kiss another man and so on

A recent thing I saw (I don't fully buy it but first thing that came to mind) was Ryan and Kelsey from High School Musical franchise were coded to be gay and lesbian respectfully but due it being older Disney they didn’t do that and constantly gave them the opposite gender partners they even got paired with each other in the third movie

Diversity

There’s been a big push for diversity in all forms of media not just anime. And while I know people have issues with how diversity has been done in recent times. It is still a push a lot of people want, as having the default all-straight white cast or whatever raises some flags

So when you see essentially an all-Asian cast then there’s one character whose race is ambiguous because of the pink skin I can see people wanting her to at least be the token black girl in the show they like

Basically when a show or movie is all one race is it bad to want someone of a different race in the cast for diversity and representation?

Especially when that show/movie is enjoyed by people of all races and identities

For example an anime like Naruto the whole main cast is generally the same race

So when we see Cloud Village ninjas like Killer Bee and Ay they’re technically just super tanned or darker skinned Asian like the rest of the world but in a series with no diversity and when a lot of black people watch the anime I think it’s natural to assume that the anime/manga finally gave some representation. Not even including other factors like the hair and rapping and more

We already have that instance with Mirko as she's darker skinned than most characters but I think its confirmed she isn't black or mixed just tan (don't kill me if it isn't confirmed)

And I'm sure you can find some but you don't see the same convoy when the blonde blue/green eyes character is called white

Race swapping in general

You see this in fan art a lot which I think is mostly harmless

But in the world where we now have a black Ariel (little mermaid), black tinker bell, Indian Velma, etc

The conversation has been getting brought up more and more as more previously white characters are being turned into other races

Like is it weird and funny that basically all previous white redhead (ginger) characters are being turned into black characters

Yes

But is it also weird and funny to think that the redhead was their version of diversity back when a lot of these characters back then ‘Hey they’re not brunette or black-haired or even blonde’ and that every character was white (or Asian in anime) so diversity wasn’t truly a thing

Also yes

The race conversation is a lot heavier than I would like to cover in a Tumblr blog post about an anime character lol

But it’s about the idea that how crucial is the character being white and does it change if they were a different race?

Mina Ashido/Pinky character in particular

So if you do some research on the character Mina seems to be more inspired by Gyaru fashion style in Japan

You can read up on it yourself but yes it appears a lot of design elements for Mina are taken from that

And obviously, she has the alien design elements

So if we ignore her outfit and hair and other things like personality

Does break dancing enough to be black coded

Not really like mentioned earlier Japanese people and people around the world have adapted thing slime break dancing into the culture

A woman from Japan just won Gold in the Olympics for breakdancing

But do want to note break dancing did originate from African Americans as far as I can tell

What does it mean it mean to be black? And does race matter in this form of media?

Basically, this is for both sides the side that wants Mina to be black and the side that says why would they make her black and not leave her Japanese

The question I would just ask is does it change anything?

If Horikoshi (creator) announced tomorrow that Mina is black/blasian would it be a big deal?

It will obviously get the fans talking about it for a bit as it is one of those headcanons that would have gotten confirmed

But in the grand scheme it doesn't affect story or personality or anything in the vain, at most it just asks the question of Mina’s heritage

Race erasure

On the flip side of making her black, you are taking away her being Asian

(it's why Blasian I think is the perfect middle ground for this as even Blasian people aren't dark skin so even if she's super light skin she could still be mixed with black)

I think it is important to note that Mina does represent that category of Japanese/Asian girls and taking that away isn't great as it's understated how much people look towards characters as their windows to different things

Even though some might not like or accept it anime is still going to be primarily based on Japan and Japanese elements

So yes even though there are global similarities like going to school with the energetic girl, the emo boy, the kid with family issues etc this is still a school based in Japan (not even like a fictional Japan-like country they explicitly say Japan) a country with a 2% foreign population and .02% of the total being black

Mina Ashido being Japanese makes more statistical sense

And the one black character we have in Rock Lock does give us that .02%

Even if in the grand scheme changing one of the hundreds of Asian characters might not mean much

So tieing in the black coding, race swap & erasure, and diversity elements

Is Mina Ashido Black/Blasian?

I think she’s a character that like Piccolo and other characters will never be actually black as most anime characters are default Asian/Japanese unless stated otherwise

But in the sense that her race and race in my hero in general doesn’t truly affect anything then why can’t she be black to at least the fans

It’s not like they’re trying to say someone like Uraraka or Momo are black they’re just trying to claim the pink skin black eyed dancing extroverted girl with horns is black

Like if there was someone in class 1-a to was a different race it’s between her, Aoyama as white/European, and Hagakure as being invisible means she could have been anything

And if they were to adapt My Hero in almost any other media I don’t see a reason why Mina can’t be at least Blasian whether in drawing style or casting

Black appearing people have appeared in My Hero so it’s not like the author is not including them and Mina isn’t that highly important of a character that I think should even be having people fight back on this tbh

Not that she isn’t a good character she’s one of my faves of the class personally

As of class 1-A alone of the 20 students, she’s like maybe 10th important and that’s kinda pushing it

(To me you go Deku, Bakugo Shoto, Uraraka, Iida, Asui, Kirishima, and Tokoyami for an easy 8 above her but then Aoyama, Denki, Momo, Jiro, Mineta, and Shoji are all fighting for that 9-15 spot and maybe for totality I would put Aoyama over her but then it’s between her Denki and Momo)

And that’s not even including the teacher's upperclassmen, villains, and other heroes like All Might lol

So even if for some reason in the next episode they show Mina having less melanated skin than some fans want I don’t think it should stop the fans from coding her as black

Quick edit 9/16/24

Apparently part of the discourse isn’t that fans were just head canon-ing Mina as black but some people truly 100% thought she was black and was spreading that info as if it was true therefore it spreads and you have a whole sun group truly thinking Mina is black

And in that sense yeah please keep your headcanons as headcanons, there are inferences or filling in blanks for some character or story element and just making things up which the Mina thing mostly is

It also falls into the space of thinking you can do better than the original creator which isn’t great in most cases

So if that’s the main issue then yeah please don’t let your headcanons run too wild they’re fun but not true and you have to remind yourself it’s not canon