KHR 30 Days Character Meme - Day 5
Day 5 - Best personality feature.
Whoops, I guess I jumped the gun yesterday, huh? Well, to be honest, I’m having a tough time distinguishing between “mental feature” and “personality feature”; both questions to me read as “best aspect of his character that isn’t physical.” I guess you could interpret the first as intellectual as opposed to emotional, maybe…?
Well, all right, since I don’t want to be here all night pondering it, let’s go with that. So since I answered Day 5’s question already, I’ll take another stab at “best mental feature” today. Gokudera is a very intelligent character (for all that you wouldn’t know it most of the time just by watching him spaz out all over the place), but I’d say the thing that impresses me most when it comes to intellect is his ability to track about a billion variables at once. Like, if you think about his fighting style, the number of calculations he’s got to be doing constantly is just kind of staggering. Let’s take the rocket bombs as an example!
KHR 30 Days Character Meme - Day 4
Day 4 - Best mental feature.
He has no off switch. Gokudera’s emotions are like a broken water tap that’s always running full blast, AND THERE ARE NO PLUMBERS. ALL THE PLUMBERS ARE DEAD. Basically what I’m trying to say is he’s a crazy guy who just has ALL THE FEELINGS and practically no control over any of them. If I ever met someone like this in real life I’m pretty sure they would drive me nuts, but slap this personality trait on a fictional teenage boy and I am ALL OVER THAT SHIT.
KHR 30 Days Character Meme - Day 1
So I’m just about wrapping up the most chaotic fucking week ever, and during said week, there were several points where I just said to myself, “Self, if you ever make it through this stupid week, you need to set aside some time to sit back and do something that makes you happy.”
“That’s all well and good, but what does make me happy?” I replied (to myself). Then I actually thought about it for two seconds and was all like, “OH YEAH, RAMBLING ABOUT KHR CHARACTERS.”
So yeah, that’s the story of how I am finally going to try out this meme and spend the next month TALKING ABOUT GOKUDERA, oh my gosh I am so excited.
Day 1 - Introduce the character.
the best thing about one piece is that things like this can happen and while it is undeniably titillating for the viewers (Oda is a humungous pervert), the only thing Usopp says is “wow, Nami, you’ve really grown!”
later she squashes his face again with sideboob while they’re in a confined space and he doesn’t care.
in One Piece, there are no canon romances, because EVERYONE IS IN LOVE WITH ADVENTURE. Word of God. They have their personal quests and a giant family that helps them get there. No bullshit romantic tension whatsoever.
It has the most refreshing character interactions I have ever run across in my entire life.
Reblogging because YEEEES. There’s a lot I love about One Piece, but this might be the thing I love most of all. All the characters have great dynamics with one another, but no one is canonly in love with anyone else. Which is not to say there’s no romance or nothing to ship—it’s just the opposite. The fact that there’s no canon romance and everything is nakamaship means that no relationship gets special treatment over any other.
How to explain this… what I mean is that Nami and Usopp have a great character dynamic, and so do Nami and Sanji, and Nami and Robin, and Nami and Luffy, and all of these relationships are great, and each one is different, and no one character dynamic gets preferred treatment by the mangaka. Because there are no canon ships, Oda doesn’t push any one relationship to the forefront and emphasize it as being more interesting or important than the rest. Instead, you can name pretty much any two characters (or at least, you can do this with any of the nine Straw Hats), and I guarantee those two characters have a special bond or dynamic that makes their interactions great and funny and moving and interesting.
For a gen-lover, it’s basically paradise.
anon this is just the greatest question ever, I don’t even. And I want you to know that I have been pondering it all day! And it has been a great deal of fun. (Also if you’re the same anon that asked me to do a post about the KHR ladies last week, I didn’t forget! I just haven’t had the right combo of time+motivation to do it, but I’ll try to get to it this weekend at the latest.)
First off, what I would actually do is be like, “!?!?!?” and freak out over the phone and then maybe have a little party or something.
But when I calmed down afterward, the first thing I would do is go back and—with my foreknowledge that KHR would eventually evolve from a gag manga into an actual shounen shounen manga—give Haru and Kyoko each a trait or two that could be used down the line to help transform them into fighter types. Like, I’d make Haru really into archery or something, and maybe Kyoko practices some judo or aikido in her spare time. SOMETHING LIKE THAT. I would do this not because I think they’re weak characters as they currently are, but so that when the manga eventually turns into a fighting series, they could still be an active part of it.
The thing is, I think Amano wrote herself into a corner with Haru and Kyoko when the series shifted genres. They were characters designed to be part of a gag manga cast, but in a fighting manga they’re out of place because plot-wise, there are only so many ways to keep them involved without just blatantly shoving them in just to be there (which did happen during the Future Arc with less than satisfactory results). And by the time the switch happened it was too late to suddenly retcon them into fighters without making it really awkward and forced. So what Amano ended up doing instead was introducing a new female character (Chrome) to be the girl fighter instead. Better than nothing, but it does make you think about the what-ifs.
Another thing I would do is give the girls more dynamic interaction with the other cast members (like for example, give Haru a rivalry with Gokudera similar to his (semi-imagined/one-sided) rivalry with Yamamoto, and play around more with Kyoko’s relationship with her brother—not in an ewww way you guys, geez, but just exploring their bond more, how Ryohei’s overprotective of her and doesn’t always understand her but she loves him anyway, stuff like that). Give them some more conflict and interesting stuff to focus on, and more room for development. When Chrome came along I’d do the same, but specifically I’d try to play her off with some of the other cast members to see who else she works well with, so she’d have someone besides just Mukuro (who doesn’t get quite as much screen time since he’s not quite a main character) and Tsuna to have regular interactions with.
I thiiiink that in order to have them keep pace with the guys when it comes to screen time and development, I’d want to make either Haru or Kyoko (OR BOTH) guardians in addition to Chrome. Which raises some questions, including, “BUT WHO WOULD YOU KICK OUT, MAKESTE.” AND IT’S HARD, BECAUSE I LOVE THEM ALL. But realistically, Lambo’s had the least to do of any of the current guardians, so he’d be the easiest to swap out. After all, his being a guardian isn’t essential to his character development—it’s his being raised by Tsuna as part of his family (guardian or not) that counts most for him in the end. Anyway, so I’d have Haru take his place. Then I guess for Kyoko, it would make the most sense to swap her out with her brother as the Sun Guardian… only I adore Ryohei, and you know what, if Mukuro and Chrome can sort of share Mist Guardian roles, why couldn’t Kyoko and Ryohei do the same with the Sun Guardianship? Or idk, I could add an eighth ring (MOON FLAME!!). Eight’s not… too bad a number…?
Lastly, if I were in charge of writing the ladiest in KHR, in all honesty what I’d really do is just… write them the same way I write the guys. Which is to say that I’d try to pinpoint all their awesome little character quirks and idiosyncrasies and do them justice, and also try to find what makes them tick and play around with it, and toss them into situations where Bad Things Are Happening just to see what they do to handle it. I would also try not to fall into the trap of trying to make them too perfect (it seems to me that this happens all the time—a lot of writers seem to have a difficult time finding that balance when writing female characters, possibly because they’re overly concerned with how the character will be perceived, as opposed to just relaxing and just letting the character be who they are and writing what makes sense for them and then letting the audience make whatever judgments they will)—I don’t want to overlook their flaws, because it’s the contrast between their flaws and their strengths that makes a character interesting to me. The male characters in KHR aren’t perfect (HELLO THERE GOKUDERA, DARLING, ILU), and that’s why I love them. With the girls I’d want it to be the same. Chrome is fierce, but she’s also just now learning to be truly independent. Haru is smart and hardworking but she’s also daydreamy and over-excitable and also tends to bottle up some of her negative feelings and then they come back and hurt her later on. Kyoko is extremely kind but tends to be oblivious to things. Adelheid is just kind of all-around badass but she’s also incredibly stern and stubborn. Bianchi actually is perfect, but I just said characters shouldn’t be perfect so that’s simultaneously a flaw as well. Etc. etc.
Anyway, it’s getting late and I have to get up early on my day off because a Fourth of July parade is marching down my street, so I’ll end it here. Thanks again for the kickass question, anon, and I hope my answer wasn’t too unsatisfying, lol.
Oh.
Korra was going to kill herself.
That’s what the slow motion shot of the tear falling off the cliff meant.
If she’s the avatar and she can’t bend she might as well die so there can be a new avatar.
Or else the world would be without an Avatar and there’d be another hundred year war.
So by deciding that suicide was a good idea she had given up all worldly attachments (including Mako) which was what Aang had to do unlock the Avatar State as well in season 3.
This is exactly how I saw it. It wasn’t that Korra thought she was completely useless as a person without her bending, but that the entire world would suffer without a fully realized Avatar, meaning one that is a master and controller of all bending elements, not just one.
Korra’s entire life had been about being the Avatar and being there to protect the world and those she loved, and that had all been taken away from her. As the other Air Nomad Avatar had told Aang, and Avatar’s duty is to the world. Perhaps it is part of an Avatar to change their self worth and base it upon how fit they are to serve the world, which is probably how Korra was viewing the situation. Whatever it is, Korra showed immense strength, albeit in a very sad way, at even considering giving up everything to give others a chance for peace. She believed that the only way to keep peace and balance in the world - and therefore, the only way to protect those she cared about - was to pave the way for a new, fully realized Avatar. And she was willing to give up everything for the sake of the world.
And despite what many others have said, I believe Korra got her bending back on her own by giving up earthly attachments and doing what she thought she could never do - reaching the spirit world and calling upon the legacies of those that were inside of her to help. If Korra had been a weaker person, none of that would have happened. Korra stood proud and strong at the end of the finale through her own strength, which also consisted of accepting that sometimes she may need to accept the strength of others to get to where she needs to be.
Now, I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure the show doesn’t really portray Korra giving up her worldly attachments? Her despair comes from that the fact that she think she’s useless without her bending - IIRC, she says as much to Tenzin when Amon scared the shit out of her, something like, “What good am I if I don’t have my bending?”. I, personally, didn’t interpret this as her thinking of her Avatar duty, but of her own self-worth. Yes, Korra was raised to be the Avatar and I’m sure duty was drilled into her, but it didn’t come off as her worrying about her duty to the world, it came off as I, as a person, am useless without my bending, I cannot live without my bending. Korra still has her spiritual side to act as a bridge between the spirit world and physical world, and despite being blocked from three elements, she is still the Avatar and capable of mediation. But Korra has never really excelled in negotiation, as her default tended to be toward the physical, and she didn’t change much in that regard over the course of the show.
I don’t know if I thought the finale was cheap so much as rushed. Korra getting her bending back is fine, but it, IMO, happened way to quickly and without any self discovery on Korra’s part. She’s contemplating suicide, Aang shows up and goes, “you’re at your lowest point, you’re open to change!”, except how has she changed? I didn’t see her reach out to the spirit world in that scene at all. All of her self worth is still tied to her bending, or being the Avatar. Aang was the Avatar as well, but that’s not all he considered himself. Korra seems to think that being the Avatar is all she is, and the finale kind of supports that mentality. It’s been said before, but it would have been much more poignant if Korra had had to learn to accept herself through her lack of bending through a journey of discovery in season 2.
I think that is what disappointed me, ultimately. I didn’t feel like Korra had nearly the amount of growth that she should have considering the direness of the situation. It just felt like a lot of wasted potential.
Just my opinion though! I love the Legend of Korra: I just happen to critique the things I love. A lot. #englishmajorproblems
Well, I’m by no means certain of this so correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the entire first season already written and in production before the series was officially renewed for a season 2? So the first season had to be written in such a way that it could have functioned as a stand-alone miniseries if need be, meaning that everything needed to be wrapped up by the end. So they couldn’t leave Korra without her bending (well, I mean, they could have, but it would have been difficult as hell to get away with it in a Nickelodeon show).
As for Korra’s character development, to be honest, my initial interpretation was kind of in between yours and spacezombies’s. What I saw it as was that Korra was going to kill herself so that the Avatar cycle would kick in and a new Avatar would be born. But then she realizes she can’t go through with it. And as a result, she is finally forced to accept the fact that this is it, her bending is gone (newly discovered airbending aside), and with it the only real identity and purpose she’s ever known.
Keep in mind, Korra’s known she’s the Avatar for pretty much her whole life. On top of that, she was a prodigy from a very young age, and on top of that, she’s basically following right on the heels of the greatest Avatar of all time. All of this means she’s been under intense pressure her entire life—from others, but even moreso from herself—to be strong and perfect and to live up to this ideal of the Avatar, the wise and powerful spiritual leader of the world, the one who keeps balance. Throughout the entire first season we saw how much these expectations were burdening her when it came to the things she was ‘supposed’ to be able to do but couldn’t, i.e. airbending and connecting to the spirit world. She grew up with this fixed concept of what a perfect Avatar is supposed to be, and the idea of failing to live up to this ideal is literally her worst fear.
So when Amon takes her bending, he’s cutting her off from the only path she’s ever known to follow. It leaves her with only two options—either she kills herself, and kickstarts the Avatar cycle into gear again, or she accepts that in order to live from now on, she will have to find a new path. By choosing not to die, she opened herself up to that new possibility for the first time in her life. She was choosing to start over again not as the Avatar, but as Korra, even though she was terrified and even though she had absolutely no idea what that meant or where that journey would take her. She was choosing to take her first step toward the unknown, and it was very much a moment of letting go. And in that instant, she is finally able to open herself up to the spirit world for the first time.
For a person as strong and proud as Korra, to be able to let go of her whole identity and start from scratch, to make the decision not to give up, even at her weakest moment, to be willing to take a deep breath and go on even not knowing when or if she’d ever rediscover her purpose again—that was her letting go of her worldly attachments. She was relinquishing her own extraordinarily driven sense of purpose and was prepared to move on with her life and let the world guide her where it would. It wasn’t that she made a sudden magical character turnaround in that one instant—it was that she finally took that first step toward rediscovering herself. Basically exactly what Aang said—she became open to change for the very first time.
As for where she goes from here, well, that’s where the second season comes into play, I think. Because bending or no bending, that journey of self-discovery you mentioned is one that Korra is going to embark upon regardless, and I very much look forward to seeing it. I just don’t think this moment was meant to be about that. I saw it as Korra facing all the fears and doubts she’s had about herself throughout this first season, and taking the first step toward finally acknowledging and overcoming them.
(Source: the-humans-from-wall-e)
KHR 388: The Gritty Feels Essay
TSUNA AND REBORN’S RELATIONSHIP, I WILL NEVER STOP TYPING WOOOOOOORDS
Okay. Okay, so it’s safe to say this is about as hopeless a situation as Tsuna has ever faced, if only because Reborn, the one person he’s always relied on to have faith in him even in his own worst moments of doubt, basically told him to his face that this is a fight they can’t win, and that he, Reborn, is giving up, and he wants Tsuna to give up on him too. Tsuna is being asked to sit back and watch his mentor pull an Obi-Wan and just surrender to fate.
And of course he can’t accept that. Tsuna has never been the kind of person who can accept an outcome like that; he’s the one who always succeeds despite the overbearing odds and finds a way out where everyone survives, even in situations where it’s totally improbably and frankly illogical as well. Situations like that are where Tsuna thrives, in fact. It’s when things are the most hopeless that he really shines and gets his act together, REJECTS YOUR REALITY, and REPLACES IT WITH HIS OWN.
Only in every other situation prior to this, he had Reborn backing him up. He has literally been in situations where he was about to die or even seemed like he was dead already, and everyone else was like D8 but Reborn was just standing there all, “JUST WAIT.” As all of the characters surrounding the two have frequently pointed out over the last couple dozen chapters (because Amano really goes the extra mile to make sure the audience Gets It), this whole time, Reborn has been the one pushing Tsuna and teaching him how to pick himself back up when he gets knocked down, and saying exactly the right motivating things from the sidelines so that Tsuna will have the breakthroughs he needs in order to fight on and win.
And now what Reborn is saying to him is, there’s no use fighting anymore. We can’t win this, and you need to accept that and let me do what I have to do because you can’t win this and I don’t want you to die. And how the fuck is he supposed to accept that?
“It’s weird when you say I can’t win!”
Reborn has always had faith in Tsuna. Until now. But he also just admitted he has a blind spot when it comes to his own mortality.
Of course the guy who was expecting to die like this from the start can’t see any hope of things turning out otherwise. And you can’t blame him, really. Reborn is universally acknowledged as the strongest Arcobaleno, the strongest of the strongest. And Checkerface is the man that cursed him, the man that took him down. How can he expect even someone with potential as wildly explosive and unpredictable as Tsuna’s to be able to defeat him, let alone do so in a way that will allow Reborn and the other Arcobaleno to survive, and without dooming a whole new generation to suffer the same fate that they did? And if Reborn believes he’s doomed no matter what, what’s the point in letting Tsuna get himself killed for nothing?
But my guess is we’re finally about to find out just how effective Reborn’s training of Tsuna has really been. Because like I said, this is Sawada fucking Tsunayoshi, and he always, always, always finds a way. And if this time Reborn is telling him to give up, that it’s no good? Well then I think it’s about time for us to have our first ever instance of Tsuna turning right the fuck back around to tell his tutor that he’s wrong.
And who exactly said anything about dying, Reborn? Where’s it written that just because you said so, this is really an enemy that Tsuna can’t defeat? Every single time Tsuna’s come up against an enemy he wasn’t strong enough to beat, he just took a deep breath and powered the fuck up, because THIS IS FUCKING SHOUNEN. And when their loved ones’ lives are on the line, that’s what shounens do.
Didn’t you know, Reborn? When I say ‘loved ones’… you kinda fall into that category. At some point while you were busy teaching him stuff and kicking his ass a little and being a good pseudo father-figure, TSUNA ADOPTED YOU. WHEN YOU WEREN’T LOOKING. CONGRATS.
Now please sit back and shut up and watch as the boy you raised to do the impossible does just that.
how I feel about them
I don’t really have any DEEP FEELS for Colonnello, he’s just fly. The spunkiest of the Arcobaleno (can I use ‘spunky’ as an adjective without sounding like a complete tool? …CAN I USE ‘FLY’?? Too late, there goes all my street cred). Maybe because he’s not really an Arcobaleno Arcobaleno, he’s not quite so caught up in his super-cool image like the rest of them seem to be; he doesn’t often take that vaguely lofty and condescending tone when he talks to people like a lot of the Arcos do. He’s willing to chill with the common folk without being all holier-than-thou. Like, he’s the Arcobaleno I’d most like to have a beer with, if I actually liked beer and if Colonnello wasn’t, you know, a toddler. Whatever, you get my point.
I also really love that all the other Arcobaleno are all like, “I’M THE STRONGEST HITMAN” or “I’M THE GREATEST SHAMAN WHO EVER LIVED” or “I’M SO SMART I ONCE THOUGHT A MAN TO DEATH” or “I’M FUCKING IMMORTAL”, and Colonnello is just like, “I HAVE REALLY REALLY BIG GUNS.” Fuck yeah. If the Arcobaleno were countries, Colonnello would be AMERICA. FOR BETTER OR WORSE, BRO.
favourite scene
Amano did all of the Arcobaleno curse-lifting scenes in this arc really, really well, and Colonnello’s was certainly no exception. Everyone’s just fighting away and wondering if and when Mukuro is ever going to quit being a little bitch and use his damn trump card already, and all of a sudden we cut to this INCREDIBLY HANDSOME MAN just casually lying on his stomach holding a rifle the size of something REALLY, REALLY BIG. Like, SOMETHING WAY BIGGER THAN YOU EVER THOUGHT RIFLES WOULD USUALLY BE. ASSUMING YOU, LIKE ME, DO NOT REALLY KNOW ALL THAT MUCH ABOUT RIFLES, AND YOU’RE JUST KIND OF GUESSING, BUT TO YOU THIS SEEMS PRETTY DAMN BIG. IS IT EVEN A RIFLE? WELL IT’S SOME KIND OF GUN ANYWAY, AND IT’S SERIOUSLY FUCKING HUGE.
And he’s just looking through the scope, and he’s smiling, because yeah he can totally shoot all these motherfuckers to shit at any time, it’s no big.
You know, I really wish he’d been part of the original Arcobaleno group, because I like to imagine him going on missions with the others. He’d be the Jeremy Renner of the group. Pretty damn awesome.
otp for them (romantic or otherwise)
Well, Lal, of course. ARE THERE EVEN OTHER COLONNELLO SHIPS. Anyway, come on, they are adorable. Colonnello clearly adores Lal and he is endearingly straightforward about it, and when someone as awesome as Colonnello is so sincerely over the moon for you, of course it’s eventually going to start to crack even the super tough shell of someone as tsundere as Lal Mirch. HE HAS MADE HER BLUSH SEVERAL TIMES AND I MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE SQUEED EACH TIME. And I try not to make a habit of squeeing, though okay, I don’t really try that hard. Anyway, they made me do it on multiple occasions, so fsdflkasdjk, whatever.
my endgame of choice
I would like him and Lal to be decursified and run off together and be Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
my response to fandom’s attitude towards them
It never ceases to amuse me how he seems to be universally beloved but at least 70% of fandom is still spelling his name wrong. This is not a burn on fandom or anything because I used to do the same thing. But I just think it’s hilarious.
No worries, doin’ it right as far as I can see. :)
how I feel about them
Squalo is HILARIOUS. Possibly the single most entertaining character in KHR. Like, every single thing he says or does is awesome in some way or other, it’s ridiculous, actually. Quick, go back and look up his last ten appearances in the manga! Except don’t, really, because that’s just crazy. But if you did look them up, I think you’ll find that they are all awesome. I think the last time we saw him he was swiping a new battle watch so that he could stay in on the watch battlin’ action. The time before that, he was tackling Xanxus to the ground to stop him from smashing his own watch in an epic fit of stupidity. The time before that, I forget, but most likely he was fighting someone or getting his ass kicked or screaming at Xanxus or one of the other Varia, or just screaming in general, HE LIKES TO SCREAM.
The fact that Squalo is probably the sanest of the Varia (Mammon aside) is really saying something and is yet another hilarious thing in the tapestry of hilariousness that is Squalo’s life. He actually is a good leader—he does about as good of a job leading the Varia as anyone could, and somehow manages to keep them more or less on track most of the time, which, how does he do that anyway. He is also a good violencementor to Yamamoto and a hilarious angry shouting rivalfriend to Dino, and one of the many people who seem to have taken it upon themselves to be a part of Sawada Tsunayoshi’s upbringing by way of shouting at him all the time too. For all of his crazy murdering and shouting and swording things up all the time, Squalo is actually not a bad guy, really? I mean, he kind of is. But for the mafia, not really? Or at least I love him so I don’t give a shit, shut up.
favourite scene
Courtesy of chapter 255. Squalo rides a flying shark. Greatest moment in the history of time.
No, but in all seriousness, my favorite Squalo scene is…
…IT REALLY IS ACTUALLY THAT SCENE. HE FLIES A FUCKING SHARK. Seriously, this is the scene for me that defines Squalo. He’s the guy that rode a flying shark in the middle of a battle. Like it was a normal thing. True, characters in KHR routinely do ridiculously awesome and insane things like it was nothing, but none of them ever rode a FUCKING FLYING SHARK, JESUS CHRIST.
otp for them (romantic or otherwise)
I don’t ship Squalo romantically with anyone because have you ever stopped for a second to just think about Squalo having sex with someone, and then laughed so hard you cried? I mean, I’m not saying he wouldn’t be good at it or that it wouldn’t be hot, there’s just also a very good chance that it would also be the funniest fucking thing that ever happened, so like hell if I could ever take it seriously.
So let’s go with platonic, in which case it is Yamamoto Takeshi. Squalo is like the absolute last person you’d ever picture being a good mentor, but Yamamoto is admittedly a few candles short of a birthday cake (it’s KHR, CRAZY IS THE NAME OF THE GAME), so it’s really a perfect fit. I love how they get each other simply because they both fight with swords. But on a more serious level, Squalo understands the inner assassin lurking inside of Yamamoto better than anyone (with the possible exception of Reborn), and I love how enthralled he is by Yamamoto’s potential. I mean, who the fuck films a hundred battles and burns them to a DVD collection and sends them one by one to someone as a way of trying to sucker them into taking up the sword again? SQUALO DOES. SQUALO IS THE PERSON WHO DOES THAT. And idk how it worked out with TYL!Yama, but TYE!Yama at the very least was FASCINATED by that shit. Squalo is like his crack dealer if swordfighting was crack. And no matter how many times Yamamoto tries to get clean, Squalo will always be there to lure him back in because NO, YOUNG MAN, WE ARE MAKING AN ASSASSIN OUT OF YOU NO MATTER WHAT, AND THAT’S FINAAAAAAAAAAAL.
I also love how Yamamoto both finds him incredibly funny and takes him utterly seriously at the same time. Only Yamamoto, man. Only Yamamoto.
my endgame of choice
One day this guy will grow up to be Pai Mei from Kill Bill Vol. 2. CANON.
my response to fandom’s attitude towards them
No real complaints? I do sometimes wish it was easier to find Squalo stuff that wasn’t also Varia centric. Out of everyone in the Varia, Squalo’s the one who branches out the most; his two most interesting relationships (IMO) are with people who have little to nothing to do with the Varia—Yamamoto, as mentioned, and Dino also. Varia antics are all well and good, but if I actually am craving the meatier, semi-serious side of Squalo (which has been known to happen once in a blue moon), those are the two relationships I look for. Still, all in all, he’s much loved by the fandom and as I said, I can’t really complain.
how I feel about them
…MIXED FEELINGS. On the one hand, Giotto is clearly a nice guy who had good intentions, at least at the start. But then the Inheritance Arc happened and THAT was just. Messy. :/
The thing is, his decision to just step aside and let Daemon Spade do his thing and corrupt the Vongola family and undo all his hard work is baffling and extremely frustrating to me. He basically just gave up. There’s a reason he’s not the main character in this story, and this is it—if it had been Tsuna in his place, none of that would have ever happened. He would have never gone along with Cozart’s reasoning of “oh if we try to take down Daemon Spade it will involve a lot of sacrifice so you know what, it’s just better for us to sit this one out and hope our descendants will eventually take care of it.” Oh my God.
What really bugs me about it is the fact that everyone in the series puts Giotto on a pedestal despite all of this. It’s another one of those Iemitsu-ish things, where the characters see the world’s worst dad abusing his son and nod in approval because deep down Iemitsu clearly cares about his son and wants the best for him! THIS IS JUST HIS WAY OF SHOWING AFFECTION. With Giotto, they see this guy and his buddy Cozart conspiring to let an evil man ruin the lives of countless other people including their direct descendants, and they just shrug it off because hey, it all worked out in the end somehow. Sure, Enma’s family died and Tsuna got all his bones broken and other people were impaled and came this close to being paralyzed but GIOTTO HAD GOOD INTENTIONS, HE’S SUCH A GREAT GUY, FUCK.
Sometimes I’m just tempted to pretend the whole thing never happened. XD
favourite scene
The flashback where he meets Cozart for the first time and they bond over the fact that they were both trying to stealthily leave money for Paolo, and start chuckling about what fine human beings they are, and they shake hands and it is so, so gay.
otp for them (romantic or otherwise)
It’s an OT3—him, Cozart, and G. And it is without a doubt the sexiest pairing in KHR, despite it leading to the suffering of countless people as whined about in the paragraphs above. I DID SAY MY FEELINGS WERE MIXED. Conflicted! Because on the one hand they are terrible, but on the other hand, so very, very sexy.
G makes it better, I think. Adding him to the mix hopefully brings an element of sanity to this pair of well-meaning Jesuses. Like, okay, tone it down you two. Really.
my endgame of choice
Well he already had one, didn’t he? Poor fellow is very much dead. All he does nowadays is pop up on occasion to cheer Tsuna on and encourage him in any and all wiping-out-the-Vongola endeavors he chooses to pursue. That is one thing I still do like about Giotto—that he was cool with Tsuna just being like, “FUCK IT” to history of the Vongola. Possibly because it was similar to the way Giotto went and said “FUCK IT” to the future of the Vongola. …Okay, it’s coming off like I really do hate him, lol. Sorry about that. Ahh… I lost track of where I was going, so I’ll just say that I hope Tsuna makes him proud by following his own path.
my response to fandom’s attitude towards them
Fandom focuses on his sexy too much and forgets that he was also kind of a dick! It’s understandable I guess, since a lot of the fandom either didn’t read or didn’t pay much attention to/lost interest in the Inheritance Arc, especially toward the end (which is probably justified). But I’d like to see more acknowledgement of that fact. And also more fic about him and G and Cozart—the only good one I’ve come across is metisket’s The Balance of Devotion (which is excellent, but that just means it leaves me craving more :P).
8D
how I feel about them
FAVORIIIIITE. I really don’t know how this happened, tbh. When Asami first showed up in the series, I was like, WHO THE FUCK IS THAT RANDOM CHARACTER WHO HIT MAKO WITH A MOPED AND NOW THEY’RE GOING OUT. And I really thought she would just end up being like a one-shot character, kind of like the girl Zuko went on a date with in season 2 of A:TLA. So I thought that naturally fandom would HATE her and I thought to myself, “that’s not fair, she seems like a nice character” so I decided right then and there to like her and to keep my fingers crossed that she wouldn’t turn out to be just a plot device to get Korra and Mako together, or turn out to be secretly evil or some shit like that.
And then it was like. She showed up the next episode and she was still super nice and not at all bitchy, and I was like, YES, YOU GO GIRL. YOU SHOW THOSE TROPES WHO’S BOSS. And I started liking her more and more and then all of a sudden SURPRISE SHE’S ALSO A BADASS. And I was like, SIGN ME UUUUUUUUP. Knows kung fu, can drive a car like Batman AND use the others’ bending skills to her advantage while behind the wheel, and last but not least… well, actually, let me just skip to the favorite scene section here…
favourite scene
Okay, so yeah, it’s the scene where her dad is like “JOIN ME” and first she is sad and then she is just like “I love you dad” and KOs him. fdaslkdfj. Number one, she was smart enough to TAKE THE TASER GLOVE FROM HIM BEFORE TURNING HIM DOWN. Which fucking delights me to no end, OH MY GOD I LOVE IT WHEN CHARACTERS ARE SMART. And number two, she makes the right decision even though she loves her father, because in spite of her love for him she recognizes the fact that he is batshit insane, and while it makes her sad, she’s not about to just go join him because JESUS CHRIST HE’S NUTS, HE IS CLEARLY EVIL. And she does it exactly the right way! She doesn’t shift into emo mode the second this revelation happens, she doesn’t bear any illogical resentment toward Korra for ruining her life by accidentally exposing her father’s evil ways (once it’s confirmed that he is in fact evil), she makes up with the Avatar Gang, and when Korra invites her to come stay on Airbender Island, SHE SAYS YES because it fucking makes sense. In a series that is constantly delighting me because of the sensible and non-frustrating decisions its characters make, Asami is my favorite because she is the most sensible of them all. <3 And also she’s Batman.
otp for them (romantic or otherwise)
Korra/Asami. Asami and Mako are sweet, but also kiiiiind of blah together? I don’t mind the fact that they’re all lovey dovey because they are teenagers in love and that’s what teenagers in love do! But it’s not exactly the most dynamic relationship of all time, and it’s not doing much for their character development. Whereas the relationship between Korra and Asami delights me and consistently interests me because 1) they are both badass ladies, 2) they started out not really sure where they stood with each other due to the relationship quadrangle mess they all had going on, but then they moved past that and realized they should be friends anyway because they are both badass ladies, and 3) the fact that Asami is a non-bender and Korra is THE bender adds a nice twist to the mix and it’s something that I’d actually like to see explored just a little bit more. Asami is the only non-bender Korra has ever had any extended interaction with, unless you count Pema, and possibly Korra’s own parents (…are they benders? I have no idea). Anyway. So my point is it’s an interesting relationship and there’s lots of potential for more development down the line. Also, did I mention this, they are both badass ladies and it is easily the sexiest Korra pairing out there so SUCK IT ALL YOU OTHER PAIRINGS. SORRY.
my endgame of choice
I would like to see Asami as kind of a Tony Stark figure, using the riches inherited from her father’s empire to fight crime and be generally awesome and fighting for the good of the people. STEAMPUNK IRON MAN. Or Iron Girl, I guess, really.
my response to fandom’s attitude towards them
I kind of hide from the Korra fandom at large aside from the good folks on my dash. If there are shipwars and character wank and other drama-y things happening out there, I want to have no part of it. So I don’t really know what the general fandom attitude toward Asami is, but basically if fandom dislikes her then they are SO VERY, VERY WRONG, and if they like her then they’re DOING IT RIGHT, THUMBS UP. But the people I know seem to like her at least, so that is good. :)b
GUH I’M SORRY BUT I REALLY CANNOT MANAGE TWO TONIGHT, I WILL BE HERE FOREVER AND NEVER SLEEP AGAIN. I’M SORRY. :(
So I’ll go with Bolin because I have never rambled about him before. SHOULD BE INTERESTING.
how I feel about them
SOKKA REINCARNATED, ONLY HE IS SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT. Bolin is fucking awesome. Let’s see, some of the many things I love about Bolin… well, I love the fact that the writers deliberately made him the flirty playboy guy despite Mako being the pretty boy character. (NOT THAT BOLIN IS IN ANYWAY UNATTRACTIVE, QUITE THE OPPOSITE.) I love the fact that he is super nice and upfront and genuine and has no ulterior motives and loves his brother and has a crush on Korra because she is awesome, and likes Asami because she is also super nice and she’s his brother’s girlfriend, and basically Bolin is just the nicest guy in the world. THE WORLD DOES NOT EVEN DESERVE A GUY LIKE BOLIN, except it totally does. We need more guys like Bolin.
favourite scene
I have two! First is the scene where Korra and Mako are being retarded in the middle of a match, so Bolin steps up and saves them all from being eliminated by basically putting on a one-man earthbending show of awesome. I don’t think he’s gotten a chance to be such a badass before or since. And my other favorite scene is when he first meets Korra and she’s breaking it to him that she’s the Avatar and he just DOESN’T GET IT AT ALL, because the, “Mmm. Mmhmm. I’m very confused right now,” is still hands-down the best-delivered line in the series. It is fucking brilliant.
otp for them (romantic or otherwise)
I ship Kolin a fair bit, but tbh not quite as much as Koko and especially Korra/Asami which I won’t attempt to namesmoosh because I have no fucking clue what the proper one is and I’ll sound like an idiot. The thing is, Korra and Bolin’s friendship is probably my favorite relationship in the series, I just don’t really ship it romantically. I just get more of a BFF vibe from them. Ironically, I probably shipped them more BEFORE the episode where they started dating, because it was the dating montage that really got me shipping them as besties forever and ever. I am probably doing it wrong, but there it is.
So this actually means that I don’t have a romantic OTP for him at the moment, but that’s all right. If he’s anything like his past life Sokka, he’ll have like seven girlfriends before this thing ends, so there’s time yet.
my endgame of choice
Dunno about endgame, but I am secretly keeping my fingers crossed that we get one or two moments of serious badass for Bolin before the series ends. (And I’m sure Bryke will deliver, since Sokka got his share of awesomeness and character development too. Sorry for the constant Sokka comparisons, btw. I’m not doing it on purpose but it’s hard to avoid since I do use the first series as a reference whenever I start speculating about where the new series is going to go.) Especially since Bolin sometimes gives me a bit of a Yamamoto vibe, so it would be AWESOME if he had a moment or two where he suddenly went all natural born assassin on a dude. >_>
my response to fandom’s attitude towards them
Fandom fucking loves Bolin, I once again have nothing to complain about in this regard. GOOD JOB FANDOM, YOU’RE DOING IT RIGHT. /thumbs up
Lol, it’s all good. o/ Gokudera then, here we go!
how I feel about them
MY BABY, COME HERE YOU PERFECT STUPID HUMAN BEING. Um, so yeah, Gokudera is my favoritest favorite, he’s the character that I adore above all others and obsess about, and love every single thing about him and everything he does. To a pathetic degree, really. He can show up in the manga and be kind of hiding out in a panel with like five other characters, and I’ll be like, “OH MY GOD LOOK AT GOKUDERA IN THAT PANEL. LOOK AT HIS HAIR! FUCK, HIS BANGS ARE SO PERFECT. AND LOOK AT HIS FACE! HAHAHA THAT REACTION IS SO LIKE HIM, OH MY GOD, AND IT ALSO SIGNIFIES NO FEWER THAN SEVEN DIFFERENT AND VITALLY IMPORTANT THINGS ABOUT HIS CURRENT CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, LET ME MUSE ON ALL OF THOSE THINGS FOR A BIT. ALSO HIS FACE IS SO ADORABLE, FUCK.” This is me every time with Gokudera. You may think I’m exaggerating, in which case, please go right on thinking that, as it casts me in a slightly better and less insane light. |D
He’s taken such an incredible journey as a character and I am proud of him in a way that a mother would be proud of her child and which people should really not be proud of fictional characters but I AM ANYWAY! He went from not trusting anyone other than Tsuna, and placing little to no value on his own life and not having any confidence in himself or the world at large, to this budding leader who has learned to rely on the rest of his family and to have much more faith in himself and his own good qualities. It takes a shitload of internal strength to make a breakthrough like that, but he did it. More than any other character in KHR, I think, Gokudera feels things—what I mean by this is that when he gets angry, he gets angry. When he’s scared, he’s terrified (though he usually masks it with more anger). When he’s happy, he’s fucking ecstatic, and when he’s sad, he’s DEVASTATED. Gokudera doesn’t do anything halfway. He cares about things, he cares about way too much, and he puts his all into everything he does. He loves the shit out of his family and he will do anything, ANYTHING, to protect them all. Every single thing Gokudera does basically just makes me sdflaksjf and wonder HOW THE FUCK HE CAN DO IT, because I would be exhausted, caring that much! It nearly broke him down, before he finally found the people who cared about him back. But he made it, and he’s going strong now, and just fkllsdjk this fucking amazing guy. <3
favourite scene
”I wanted to see the fireworks again, so I’ve come back…” GOKUDERA, YOU IDIOT. WHO FUCKING APOLOGIZES FOR NOT DYING? IT’S ONLY YOU, STUPID. This scene breaks my heart on multiple levels, but it’s also a scene filled with hope. On the one hand, this IDIOT CHILD was prepared to get himself killed in a fight if it would mean winning the Storm ring, because he thought that was the most important thing, the most meaningful thing he could do for his boss. It never occurred to him that his boss might not care jack shit about the ring and that his own life was by far more important. That Tsuna cared about his well-being, not just as a subordinate but as a friend, and wanted him to survive so that they could go back to doing friend things together, not as Family but as family. And it’s heartbreaking because he did not understand that, and it’s heartbreaking because of what that lack of understanding implies. But it’s also beautiful at the same time because this is the moment when all of that starts to change. It’s when he does start to understand, even if he still doesn’t get why, yet. And the fact that he makes the decision to live, and he does it not just because it’s what Tsuna wants, but because it’s what he wanted it too, he just didn’t realize until then that there were other people who were okay with that. “Oh you mean I don’t have to get myself blown up? You guys want me back so we can be gay mafias together? Oh, okay. ;_;” He wants to see those fireworks with Tsuna and the others. And now he knows that they want him there too. Which makes this the most triumphant scene of someone collapsing on their face half-dead in history. Seriously. This is hands-down my favorite scene in the series, Academy Award Winner of BEST FEELS, and if you don’t like it then FIGHT ME MOTHERFUCKER.
otp for them (romantic or otherwise)
Yeah despite my endless rambling just now about the decidedly 2759 scene above, my OTP is 8059, as mentioned in the post before this. BECAUSE THAT’S HOW I ROLL. I mean, I ship the mafia brot3, definitely—805927, it is ALL GOOD. But I’ll always have a special place in my heart for Yamamoto/Gokudera because to me, Yamamoto is the character that sees Gokudera the way that Gokudera sees Tsuna. Which is to say that he sees all of Gokudera, the good and the bad, and he doesn’t flinch from any of it and he adores Gokudera all the more for it. Angry!Dera is hilarious, determined!Gokudera is awesome and Yamamoto will tag-team with that in a heartbeat, and happy!Gokudera makes Yamamoto EXTRA SUPER HAPPY, which for Yamamoto basically means that he will have an aura of rainbows and ponies around him. Because Gokudera is my favorite, the pairing I most approve of for him is the one that involves the Nice Boy who cares about him a lot and is also practically perfect in every way. And who is also my other favorite. I mean, it’s not really a mystery or anything why I ship them. XD
my endgame of choice
BEST CONSIGLIERE. FEARED RIGHT HAND. LEADER OF MEN. TSUNDERE BIG BROTHER TO LAMBOS AND I-PINS. HEADCANON SAYS HE DATES YAMAMOTO FOR A LITTLE WHILE AND THEN BREAKS UP WITH HIM AND HAS A THING WITH HARU FOR A LITTLE WHILE, BUT THEN I’M NOT SURE WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THAT, BECAUSE I’M FUCKING INDECISIVE AND I SHIP THE HELL OUT OF 5986 ALSO. MAYBE A THREESOME HAPPENS, OR MAYBE HARU BREAKS UP WITH HIM TO GO BE LESBIANS WITH KYOKO, AND GOKUDERA GETS BACK TOGETHER WITH YAMAMOTO AGAIN. IDK. BUT I JUST WANT HIM TO BE HAPPY AND AWESOME, AND WHATEVER HAPPENS, YOU CAN BE SURE I’LL CAPSLOCK ABOUT IT.
my response to fandom’s attitude towards them
Fandom loves him too! No problems with the fandom. I have met so many other lovely people who also share my problem with having too many Gokudera feels, which is AWESOME because I don’t feel like I am totally alienating any and all poor unwitting people who stumble across my KHR reviews and stay for the lulz and then one day are just suddenly blindsided by paragraphs and paragraphs about Gokudera. (IT HAPPENS, OKAY, SOMETIMES I JUST CAN’T CONTROL IT.) Hopefully at least some of them don’t hate me for it lol.
how I feel about them
LIFE RUINER. 8/ …slash second-favorite character. Huh.
Yamamoto is another one of those characters that I love because he’s such a paradox. You’ve got this one side of him that is all HAPPY SMILEY DERP DERP DERP, I LIKE SUSHI AND BASEBALL AND PRETENDING TO BE IN THE MAFIA, and it is FANTASTIC and lol forever this fucking guy. And then there’s this completely different side of him that is sharp and alert and fucking terrifying and potentially deadly. Yamamoto doesn’t need a HDW mode because he’s already fully capable of transforming into a brilliant assassin at a moment’s notice. It’s this intense side of him that is just lurking just on the edge out of sight at all times.
And it doesn’t change him when he goes into that mode; he’s still Yamamoto. Even when he’s fighting for his life and to protect his friends, he hits the bad guys with the blunt edge of his sword, and wants to make friends with them afterward, because HE’S SUCH A NICE FUCKING GUY. He works hard and he plays hard! That’s just who he is. It’s not even REALLY a paradox, it’s just that he’s good at EVERYTHING he does, so when he’s nice he is just THE NICEST EVER, and when he’s being a bamf he is the BAMFIEST, and when he’s subtly hitting on Gokudera it’s instantly my OTP, because Yamamoto just scores an A+ at life. That son of a bitch.
favourite scene
It’s the scene in his fight with Squalo where he realizes what kind of style Shigure Souen is, and subsequently invents his own finishing move to defeat Squalo. There are several things about this that just kldjflaksj me. One is the fact that he has such absolute faith in his dad. He loves his pop and his pop is awesome, and his dad handed him down this really awesome sword style and he was really trying not to let him down and for a moment he was worried but then he figured it out! The second thing I love is the fact that he doesn’t give up, because he is shounen, bitches. The SHOUNENEST, because once again, this is Yamamoto, and if he’s going to be shounen then you’d better believe he will be THE BEST FUCKING SHOUNEN THAT EVER SHOUNENED. And the last thing I love is how throughout the whole thing, he never stops smiling, and he has just this simple and humble confidence in himself. Like, “Well, here goes nothing.” When he stands up and gets into a baseball stance and Squalo mocks him for it, he pretty much just shrugs and explains that he’s not really good at anything other than baseball (you lying bitch). And then he just goes for it, cuz you never know until you try. Guh.
otp for them (romantic or otherwise)
8059. Romantic and otherwise. I will freely ship Yamamoto with pretty much everyone because he is the RDJ of the KHR-verse, but Gokudera is my other favorite character so naturally I have a bias. There was also some suspicious possible confessing of feelings going on in the future arc… but aside from that, I just really like the way they interact. How they’ll be bickering one minute (or rather, Gokudera will be trying to bicker and Yamamoto will just be cracking up and trying to wind him up so he bitches even more because Gokudera is the funniest ever), and the next some shit will go down and then suddenly they are just the most badass tag team ever. They’re one of those pairs that seem to be able to read each other’s minds during a fight, resulting in attack strategies that leave me grinning endlessly like the idiot fangirl I am, because it implies not only an extensive understanding of each other’s strengths and weaknesses, but also a trust in the other person that they will have your back and not let you down. Yamamoto was also the one who taught all this to Gokudera, he’s the one who finally jesused the notion of “Hey guy let’s work together!” into him, and that isn’t forgotten either. Basically they are just badass together, and there are also lots of feels and history between the two of them when they’re being badasses, and I’ll shut up now because this is getting incoherent.
my endgame of choice
While I fully recognize that Yamamoto is a fantastic and well-rounded character as he is now, this won’t stop me from keeping my fingers crossed that Amano will give him even more character development later down the line. In particular I am curious about his mom, and also ngl, I mentioned in a previous meme that I have a pet theory/headcanon that Reborn might secretly be his dad, so lol yeah. Basically, tell us more about this remarkable godmode kid and just where he came from exactly! And if not, at least give us some more angst down the line because there is no angst on this earth like Yamamoto angst and I am always, always in need of more. :/
my response to fandom’s attitude towards them
Fandom has the exact right attitude to him, which is to say that he is acknowledged as the hopelessly perfect life-ruiner that he is. And as long as fandom continues to provide more sexy perfect life-ruining Yamamotos in fic and in art, all is right with the world.
YAY. :D SHIFT TO RAMBLE MODE, ENGAGE THRUSTERS.
how I feel about them
LOVE/CUDDLES/WANT TO RUFFLE HAIR. As a member of the esteemed sexy Vongola trio (the other two were also asked right away lol, so I’ll be doing them next. I LOVE YOU GUYS), he is one of my three favorite characters and very much adored. What I love and find fascinating about Tsuna is the contrast between the ordinary Tsuna who just wants to hang out with his friends and stay at home playing video games, and the badass, leader-y Tsuna who kicks ass and takes names. I fucking love the way Amano’s developed him, and how nowadays he’s got a little more confidence and is more take-charge even when he’s not in HDW mode, but only under the right circumstances. If it’s just your everyday run-of-the-mill Namimori bully he is still pure chickenshit and will get his ass kicked in five seconds, but if it’s an all-powerful villain and said villain has threatened his family? GAME ON HOLMES. Ugh I feel like I’m doing a shitty job of explaining my feelings about him tonight but I gotta stop or I’ll never have time to get to any other characters for this meme. :/
favourite scene
Still the scene where he says he’d rather destroy the Vongola (and doom himself and his friends and the entire future in the process) than inherit the bloody history of the Vongola. It sums up everything I love about him in one quick line—his stubbornness and defiance, his refusal to be corrupted, and the fact that he is paradoxically strongest at his weakest moments.
otp for them (romantic or otherwise)
Romantically I have to go with Enma (MY PRIDE IS YOU~~), but platonically, there’s no one I’d rather see him on screen with than Reborn. The way those two just click and get each other makes me giddy to watch. Reborn adores him and is crazy proud of him even if he’d never actually say it (and if he ever does it’ll be accompanied by a roundhouse kick to the head or something), and Tsuna trusts him absolutely and knows he can rely on him, and Reborn is the one that makes him feel like he can rely on himself too. It’s beautiful.
my endgame of choice
WHAT DOES THIS MEAAAAAN uh. Idk. I want him to grow old with his family and have lots of POSSIBLY ADOPTED babies? Or maybe he can marry Kyoko and Enma and it’ll just be an awesome threesome like that. HUH. In all honesty, KHR is one of those series where I don’t really think much about what’s going to happen far down the road? I am really invested in the here and now and them all being dumb middle schoolers being mafias and fighting bad guys and solving mysteries about magical babies. I don’t want to think about the endgame… because ‘end’ is too explicitly implied in that.
my response to fandom’s attitude towards them
For the most part fandom is cool, but I do wish Tsuna wasn’t so often viewed/portrayed as just the fandom bicycle. I’d like to see more fandom stuff about him that focused on HIM and his awesomeness rather than just ships ships ships. And I also would like more appreciation of his badassness during those moments where he is being just him, and not in HDW mode. Because there are quite a few such moments, and all of them awesome.
