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6leafypot9 · 11 months

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Hero & Villain Pair Ideas 3

*I'm back with part 3!!! I haven't been able to write or finish my wips as much as I want to because I'm about to graduate, so I'm posting this for now.*

Grumpy!Villain x Retired!Hero x Civilian

Hero and Civilian are finally able to move in together! They have a new house, a new dog, and a new neighbor! They bump into Villain in the middle of screaming at his henchmen over the phone. They have no idea who Villain is and fall in love, nobody knows if Villain has the same feelings though.

Sidekick x Right Hand

Just two bros sharing a smoothie, holding hands, and watching their boss fight each other. Definitely no homo.

Supervillain x Chef!Henchman

Henchman only exists for one reason, and that's to serve Supervillain all the sweets they could ever want. Supervillain also exists for one reason, and that's to marry Hennchman. What? What do you mean he skipped a few stages?

Vigilante x Retired!Vigilante

Vigilante is a hardcore fan of Retired, and ever since they stopped their hero work, Vigilante wanted to live up to Retired's name. Vigilante is unaware that he's roommates with the said ex-vigilante. Retired is just trying to make sure his dumbass friend doesn't get himself killed.

Retired!Villain x Retired!Hero

Basically, the two of them got tired of their game and decided to live a cottagecore life with each other. Bonus points if their old sidekicks (who are now the new Hero and Villain) find them in the middle of a romantic picnic.

Corrupt!Hero x Anti-Hero x Villain

They heores are partners, Corrupt does suspicious things like using money from donations and lying about how fights happen. They think Anti has no clue, but in reality, Anti-Hero is on Villain's lap and they're both gushing about Corrupt.

Chaotic!Villain x Scientist x Monster!Villain

Somebody help the poor scientist, they just wanted to experiment on people, not get bothered by two terrifying beings! Tell Chaotic to get off their lap and tell Monster, that no, leaving a decapitated head on their doorstep is not romantic.

SuperVillain x Stoner!Civilian

SuperVillain lands in an alley badly wounded, sees Civilian and threatens them. Civilian, who is high as kite, gives 0 shits and offers SuperVillain some weed.

Superhero x Flirty!Secretary

Somebody tell these two to lock the door, nobody wants to see them doing the dirty on the meeting room's table.

Barista!Civilian x Monster!Villain

Lord have mercy on the poor soul that decides to try and rob the cafe, or kidnap the barista, because heaven knows Monster is gonna have their entrails hanging as decoration.

Scientist x Stoner!Civilian

Scientist uses Civilian to test their drugs. Civilian is A-OK with this because the scientist is cute and the trip is good.

Monster!Hero x Vigilante

The hero society is corrupt and treats Hero like they're an animal. Experimentation, bad living conditions and hardly any pay. Vigilante notices and decides to basically bribe Hero with food into living with them instead. They reveal the hero society's wrongdoings too.

Retired!Hero x SuperHero

Retired quits (gets fired) being a hero and is struggling with money. SuperHero who has been pining for them since they first joined the hero society, is happy to be sugar daddy. Retired is too tsundere though, so a lot of bonding has to be done.

Himbo!Civilian x Hero

Hero finds Civilian facedown in their dumpster, Civilian who is awake and very much out of it, calls Hero pretty and passes out. Hero gets blushy and decides that they will be responsible for this idiot from now on.

Himbo!Villain x Henchman x RightHand

Villain is stupid as rocks and RightHand is the one usually making the plans (they still add what Villain wants though cause they're whipped.) Henchman has no idea and idolizes Villain. It's a comical relationship where RightHand might need some more headache medicine.

*There you go, I am working as fast as I can on my ao3 fics I swear-*

Parts: 1 , 2 , [here]

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parkitaco · 1 year

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ok people. i really don't want to have to be saying this but i am once again being struck by the lack of etiquette in the byler fandom and just in current fandom in general so i just. have to say something ok

first off i'm gonna say that fandoms come from a place of love and i know everyone most people have good intentions and love their fic authors but the etiquette around fics and art and all that lovely stuff is,, how shall we put it,, literally nonexistent.

listen. i love writing fic. i love that people like reading my fics that's insane hello?? i love getting comments and kudos and getting messages from ppl who are excited about my future projects it's great!!!

that being said, when i receive messages asking when things will be out/comments on wip wednesday snippets asking if the fic is out yet/messages asking me to tag them when the fic is published, regardless of how good the intentions are it comes off as very demanding and doesn't make me feel good as a writer who is doing this Voluntarily and For Free.

fanfic writers do this for fun!! we are not machines, we are people with our own lives outside of fandom and those lives have to take priority most if not all of the time. this means that yes!! sometimes fics take a while to write!! sometimes chaptered fics take a while to update!! and guess what?? that is totally ok. fanfic writers taking their time is not a bad thing. it means they care and are taking their time to create quality content. it means that they are spending time tending to their real personal lives, which is a normal and healthy thing to do.

there are plenty of posts about why demanding faster updates is bad, and i think that's pretty common knowledge, but i want to talk specifically about these very enthusiastic comments/messages/etc because i don't think anyone means harm but the thing is that fic authors simply do not owe you anything. we don't owe it to you to let you know when a fic will be out, we don't owe it to you to tag you when it is, and we definitely don't owe it to you to provide information that you can easily find out for yourself. as a writer i'm already putting insane amounts of pressure on myself and receiving it from other people, even if that's not the intention, is just not a good feeling.

especially because much of this information is readily available to you!! while you may not be able to find out when a fic will be out (which is probably because the fic author doesn't know either), you are entirely capable of checking the timestamp on a post to see how old it was, then using a little thing called Critical Thinking Skills to determine whether it's likely the fic has been posted or not. if so then great!! most authors have their ao3 accounts linked somewhere on their blog page so YOU (yes, you!!) can go look for the fic on ao3!! if you don't find it, ao3 has a super cool feature where you can subscribe to an author, so you'll get an email notification whenever they post!! and while you're there, if you're truly desperate for something to read, you can always go through the fics they've already posted, and if you've read everything there already and/or they haven't posted anything yet, check their bookmarks and see if there's anything there you like!! and as a last resort, there's always the trusty old search bar on ao3, which you are capable of filtering to every last preference!! the byler fandom is huge and there are tons of fics out there so undoubtedly something will fit your taste.

i know that can feel daunting, and i know it's disappointing when a fic hasn't been posted or updated yet, but the good news is that if you're seeing a snippet it means the author is working on it!! a little patience never hurt anyone, and taking those steps to determine for yourself what's going on with the fic rather than bugging an author who is just trying to go about their life and work on content during whatever free time they have just proves that you care. the simple fact of the matter is that fic authors don't do this for attention, they do it for fun, and therefore we can't cater everything to you or answer questions that you should find the answers to yourself. it's not our responsibility to keep track of people who want to be tagged when a fic is published or want to know when it will be out, because all our energy is going into creating the content you so desperately want!! i'm just begging everyone to be a little bit independent. asking an author for this information just shows you don't care enough to find it for yourself and this sort of laziness is part of why fandoms die.

tldr: fic authors are not machines designed to please you, use some critical thinking once in a while, and please for the love of GOD just go touch grass. breathe some clean air. you'll feel better i promise

#:)))#am not trying to be mean i'm just so fuckign tired #byler fandom #st

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chershare · 18 days

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People really don't give a shit anymore, huh

This new app thing that takes Ao3 works without consent? It's basically another AI scraping BS thing and that is so disheartening.

Why should I have to opt out of this? Why should I have to take extra steps to stop someone from potentially stealing my shit, when it's not even an app that we - the writers - asked for? Why do I have to give you access to my personal email to make sure you don't use my things, sans consent, in your app I'm never going to use? That people who respect the efforts of fic writers won't use?

Why must I tell you no, explicitly, or you think that means yes? Rather than it be automatically opted out and you have to opt in?

Consent is sexy, guys. What are we doing here? Why have we forgotten that?

Why is this something you - the general you - think is okay?

If it were like, a text to speech add-on thing for Ao3 that I could opt into that would be different. Another box to click because it was added to the website. Why not make something that can be integrated into the site itself that does tts?

I'm not trying to pile on work to the Ao3 team, they are amazing and I salute them, but if there was something as a part of the site that you could use as a registered user to have tts involved I'd totally partake. Why make it something entirely outside of our scope that we only learn about via word of mouth like this?

If I wanted my shit used by a third party that doesn't care about me and my efforts, I'd put them on a third party site.

Just as I was considering unlocking my fics, too. Nope, locked Forever. Goodbye Guest Comments and Kudos.

If shit like this keeps popping up with such frequency... the esama purge of the old days is starting to look mighty enticing. The lack of appreciation for the writing and art that has been shared, without profit to the creators, is really coming to a head. Like, you know we don't have to do this right? We don't have to share the things we make with you?

It's not a right, it's a privilege.

That's not even bringing into light the disrespect it shows for podficcers, which I am not, of course. But the effort and time these people put into recording fic so that people can listen to it? That's hard shit guys. People have podded my own works sometimes - I have a blanket permission for podfic/translations in my profile as long as it's through Ao3 and appropriately linked - and it always feels so awe inspiring that someone liked my fic enough to decide to put in the effort to pod it.

Podficcers are a different breed, and they are so cool you guys. Also terrifying, but like. Super cool.

I don't want to disappear my works. I like sharing my writing, I like seeing kudos in my inbox, I like discussing my stuff with people in my discord server or in the comments section when I have the spoons. I like the increasingly rare but desperately appreciated comments in my inbox that come in.

I just updated something and now I'm worried about how this will effect my future desire to do so, my anxiety hitting the roof. Should I keep posting? Should I just say "fuck it" and yank everything now so I know it might not be stolen in the future because the internet is a fucking cesspit of thievery and entitlement now?

Probably got kind of ranty, but like, come on guys. Why? Why do people think this is okay?

I'm sure more will come to light later, but for now I just wanted to get this off my chest.

#fanfic #writing #fanfiction #cher shares #this really just makes me so tired guys #my writing #ao3 #ao3 writer #ao3 fanfic

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strangergrove · 4 years

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× VOL 002 × 05.02.2020 ×

TUMBLR | @pretty-bratty AO3 | prettybratty

× Baby Can You See Through the Tears ×

SERIES: Baby Can You See Through the Tears

CHAPTERS: 11/?

WORD COUNT: 60,811

There are a few things that Billy knows about Steve Harrington. Not a single one of them explains Harrington's weird as fuck behavior lately.

(or, when Steve acts out, it's apparently up to Billy to fix it, even if he doesn't know it himself yet).

Pretty-bratty weaves a beautifully cathartic story of desperation and release, of loneliness and compassion, of found family, of love. The story unfolds from Billy's POV, which allows us to see first-hand the struggles he experiences as he tries to improve himself and become someone Steve can not only trust and feel protected by, but someone he can count on to give him the structure and discipline he's been desperately lacking his entire life. Billy struggles with his feelings for Steve, with voicing them. At the same time, Steve struggles with learning to trust and obey and let someone actually take care of him for once, because even though that's all he craves, it's been ingrained into him that it's not okay to want that, to need that.

The story and characters are wonderful, but the writing itself is beautiful too. There are moments, lines, that just strike you and you have to reread them. There are pokets of stardust woven into the fabric of the story and it's such a delight every time you come across one. The whole fic is a delight. I look forward to every single update of this story.

× This aesthetic piece ×

FICLET

A short and stunning piece about the way the world seems to glow at every edge when you're madly in love with someone the way Billy is with Steve.

The writing here is just so beautiful and sensory. Reading it feels like looking through old Polaroids and reminiscing about those golden moments you had forgotten about. There's something in the way the words are woven together that feels good, sounds good in my head. It's sweet and fizzy and you want to envelop yourself in the feel of it. It feels like it could be a scene from an incredibly heart warming movie.

× This piece ×

FICLET

This piece is about lingering pain, about the way things haunt us, about how sometimes it's just best to show you're hurting.

I love the way Steve's life presses at the edges of this story. We know the things he's been through, we know about his absentee parents, but most of the people in his life don't. You can feel the way this pulls at Steve, how everything in his life is constantly weighing on him. The way we're told that Steve has a particular phrase set on repeat in his head, but we're not privy to this phrase immediately is a great tool, because the suspense of what has been grinding through Steve's head parallels beautifully with the pressure building beneath his skin. We get that release at the same time as Steve.

TUMBLR | @greyspilot AO3 | greyspilot

× objects in the mirror are closer than they appear ×

WORD COUNT: 2,334

CHAPTERS: 1/1

Steve wasn’t scared of much anymore, but as he tip-toed through the woods, dead silent aside from the crunch of leaves beneath his feet, he couldn’t seem to help the chill that crept up his spine.

Reposted for Horrorscopes round 1.

This story is the kind of horror that you can feel but you can't see. It creeps on you, slowly, latching onto you with invisible hooks. I got chills twice while reading this. The suspense, the anticipation crawls through the story in just the right way, and the pacing is spot on. We feel the dread building, the sense of wrongness growing more intense with every line. We know. We know something is wrong, off, and we can't do anything about it.

The use of single sentence paragraphs in key areas of the story drives it in such a way you can feel everything beginning to spiral out of control. One of my favourite tools used in this wonderful piece is the mirroring of the beginning at the end. You see these lines in a different way, in a haunting way. It's a lovely dip into Harringrove horror.

× i'm falling again (but this time it's in love with you) ×

WORD COUNT: 3,453

CHAPTERS: 1/1

All he knew was that one moment he was out at the quarry, beer in hand and Billy by his side and the next he was wondering if Billy’s eyes had always been that blue, if his skin had always been that warm, if Steve had always wanted to kiss him.

He hadn’t even really had time to process it before he fucked it all up.

There is a special kind of ache resonating through the entirety of this piece. It's in the way both boys are hurting so keenly. It's in the way neither of them are able to find the words to mend themselves, to mend each other. It's in the beautiful, delicate golden thread of hope woven between them, a thread that has since snapped. You can feel the ache, right there between the beautifully sculpted sentences.

The story drops you right in, forcing you to find your bearings as Steve is finding his. Everything feels certain and yet uncertain at the same time. You're left to suss out what went wrong, what's happening now, why everything feels hopeless, like it's too late to fix things.

× for him. ×

WORD COUNT: 840

CHAPTERS: 1/1

words aren’t something he’s good at (especially those words; he was never taught to say them), but steve needs to hear it, so billy would learn to say it. for him.

This piece is short and sweet, but there are a lot of things that aren't explicitly said, things we see in the thoughts and actions of our sweet boys. Steve's insecurities are so grounded in everything we know about him, in things we may not actively consider. Steve's entire life, he's always occupied a position that has led, in some form or another, to emotional dissatisfaction. So who could blame him for assuming the same of Billy? And Billy's entire life, well, when your mother tells you she loves you before abandoning you, how can you put much stock in those kinds of words? This beautiful piece explores the way these two types of thinking can clash, how they affect not only the person they belong to, but the person closest to them.

TUMBLR | @saltstuck AO3 | saltstuck

× cravings ×

WORD COUNT: 1,585

CHAPTERS: 1/1

“I bet you can’t go a week without smoking,” she’d said.

“Bet you a month of rides to the arcade that you lose,” she’d said.

and Billy, like a fucking idiot, had scoffed, said, “A month of zero rides when I win or no deal.”

Yeah, real smart, Hargrove. Real smart.

Hasn’t even been a full day and he’s ready to throw in the fucking towel. Fuck this bet, fuck his pride, and fuck Maxine.

God, he wants a fucking cigarette.

This piece has a very nostalgic feel to it, like coming home after a summer away. Billy and Steve are so in-character it's like watching a deleted scene, one that we should have gotten, one that we deserve, that the boys deserved. Billy's on edge, a ticking time bomb waiting to go off, and you feel it. You feel the itch beneath his skin, the little twitches, the craving.

The shift from one craving to another is exquisite. It feels natural and right and pulls the reader right along, to exactly where they want to go, to where that fix is.

× magnets ×

WORD COUNT: 939

CHAPTERS: 1/1

Steve knew it when he struck. He knew it by the crack of laughter bursting in the echo, when his lip split bloody under Billy’s fist, when porcelain shattered on bone and tile. Bathed in Billy’s brutality, he knew.

They were the same.

The calculation and manipulation in this story is subtle, it's its own artform. You can feel it slithering through the text, guiding an unwitting Billy along. There's a fantastic play here between caring and wanting to help, wanting to fix things, and wanting to fix the right things, or perhaps they're actually the wrong things, and put things back in places maybe they didn't go before, but places they fit so well.

× strangers in the city ×

WORD COUNT: 1,734

CHAPTERS: 1/1

Billy misses his Camaro, yeah, but the perpetually exhausted pretty boy he gets to stare at every day on the bus makes up for it.

AKA Steve needs his coffee and Billy can't keep his eyes off of him.

I absolutely adore this story. I've read it a few times since it was first posted and I smile ever time I reread it. The tone of the story is very much Billy, with its matter-of-factness and spunky attitude. It has the feel of Billy telling someone the story of how he met the love of his life.

One of the things I love most about this story is how natural and real it feels. We crush on people and it usually doesn't go the way we want, even for someone like Billy Hargrove. Things can get messy or weird, and it's no different for these boys. I love getting the opportunity to watch them try to work things out when things don't go according to plan.

QUESTIONS? VISIT THE FAQ

FIND ALL VOLUMES HERE

#billy hargrove #harringrove #steve harrington #billy x steve #stranger things #steve x billy #harringrove fic #Creator Spotlight

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drshojo · 4 years

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The World, My Childhood And My Hero Academia: Vigilantes

Hello friends!

Its Dr. Shojo coming at you with a post that will be divided into three parts!

Part One: The world as we know it!

The world has changed a lot since we last connected. For starters, TOILET BOUND HANAKO KUN HAS NOT ONLY A PHYSICAL RELEASE BUT A GORGEOUS ANIME! And not only that, but MY NEXT LIFE AS A VILLAINESS: ALL ROUTES LEAD TO DOOM! IS GETTING AN ANIME AS WELL! The last time I wrote about Katerina there wasn’t even an official English translation of that long-ass light-novel-title. And now?

A WHOLE ANIME. A BISEXUAL HAREM AWAITS! I am JAZZED!

Do you think it’s my fault? No matter, I’ll take all the credit. All the manga I talk about are getting anime adaptations. I’LL DO MY DUTY AND TALK ABOUT SOME MORE!

But first. Let us address the Covid-19 shaped elephant in the room

I deeply regret that it took a whole-ass pandemic to get me back to writing. In my defense, I bought an iPad and started drawing like 900 kokichi oumas. I was really busy with that. And then I started reading fanfiction. Then that got me thinking about how fanfiction such an interesting look into how people interpret fandom, use it for wish fulfillment and escapism, and good god is everyone OK cause that bulimia fan fic was super detailed....and I am officially on a tangent. Off track. Ahem.

We are all staying inside a whole lot more which means y’all probably need some reading material and Dr. Shojo has your back! Go read “Horimiya”! It’s amazing! Ahhhh, my work here is done! I'm serious, if you’re here for a Shojo rec, that’s it! There's also like 8 million more Otome Isekais to check out now. It’s like they’re multiplying like rabbits..............

As a Doctor, I must advise you to stay inside and read some manga and practice social distancing. Embrace your inner hikikomori.

Allright? All good? Okay now one final disclaimer:

This post is going to be talking about something a little different than usual and I want to start by giving you some context about who Dr. Shojo is in real life.

Part Two: Dr. Shojo Exposed

You see, when I was little I was obsessed with Japanese media. This doesn't surprise you at all I can tell. Probably because I walk around calling myself Dr. Shojo and shout about manga that you should read.

Anyways, the reason why I was obsessed wasn’t because of the big eyes or the spikey hair or the interesting new culture. It was because it tended to have more character development and overarching plotlines than the media I was used to in Canada. Dexter’s Lab, Magic School Bus, pretty much everything I saw on TV was episodic in nature, so imagine how much my mind was blown when I saw Naruto and Card Captor Sakura, heck, even Pokémon had the Indigo Plateau! Here were kids that were learning more and more each day and got to see enemies become friends and vice versa. They lived and grew older just like me. Except they were cooler than me. And had more interesting lives than me. I gotta tell you, I was so sad when I was 12 and Kero didn’t tell me I had latent magical powers. But there was magic in my life and it was the magic of a complex narrative story. And not only that, it had a sense of movement and had cool costumes. I was hooked immediately.

Also, fun fact, at that age I happened to be a complete and utter tomboy! I loved pretending to fight my friends in the playground and was really worried that puberty would ruin my life because being a girl sounded so CUMBERSOME.

Which leads me up to my confession. Before I became Dr. Shojo, I was in fact......Dr. Shonen.

Bleach? Naruto? One Piece? I've read every single chapter there is.

Hundreds of hours of watching fight sequences. Another fun fact, I only got into shojo because my aunt bought me volume 7 and 8 of Fruits Basket thinking “all mangas like the same right? Kids love comics?” It’s a tribute to how episodic western media was back then that she thought buying volume SEVEN and EIGHT was a REASONABLE PLACE TO START READING.

Now you might also say, Hey! Dr Shojo! Cardcaptors was a shojo! And you are right! but back then the anime was marketed to boys over here in the west and they actualy like, edited out episodes that they thought wouldn't interest boys?! Second fun fact, Once when I was in Grade 3 I was told I was not allowed to join a club under the stairs cause I was a girl and it was BOYS ONLY. The point of the club? To talk about how great Cardcaptors was! I Kid you not!

So anyways, your pall Dr. Shojo loves Shonen manga to this day!

The only reason I made this Dr. Shojo blog specifically about shojo is because, being a tomboy with no female friends, reading shojo manga was the first time I really thought about what it meant to be a girl and fall in love. And y i k e s. Shojo manga, like most media, fails miserably most of the time in displaying real world relationships. Or at least, it doesn't prepare you for how disappointing everything can be. When I had my first kiss, I was thinking about how it didn’t feel at all like how I felt reading Zen and Shirayukis kiss in Akagame No Shirayuki Hime. Those were formative years, and shojo was one of the only places I saw romance being talked about for younger audiences. I liked reading romances where no one had any sexual experiences and were figuring out what love meant to them. But let’s shelve this topic for now.

The point is that gender roles are dumb and if you have an open mind there's a world of stories out there for you. Take this time inside to read something you wouldn’t normally. Critically think about the ways that the worlds you see in stories and how you experience the world differ. What are the messages a story is trying to tell you? And why do you like the stories you do? Reflect on how the stories you tell yourself color your view of the world. Even mindless entertainment leaves an impression on us. Anyways.

Whilst you're doing that, I'm going to absolutely lose my hecking mind over the Shonen Jump series MY HERO ACADEMIA: Vigilantes!

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Part Three: I downloaded the one month free trial of the Shonen Jump app and made you read all that, so I can tell you that today Dr. Shojo is going to rant about a spin-off of a shonen manga

THAT’S RIGHT, OF COURSE I READ HERO ACA AND YES I DID PICK UP THE SPIN OFF SERIES. SHONEN JUMP LETS YOU READ ALL THE NEW CHAPTERS FOR FREE ON THEIR APP. KIDS, IF YOU LIKE SHONEN AND YOU’RE PIRATING ON A SCANLATION SITE STILL GET OUT BECAUSE YOU DON’T NEED TO SEE THOSE WEIRD PLASTIC SURGERY AND DENTISTRY ADDS ANY MORE.

SHONEN IS HERE AND ITS LEGAL AND ITS FREE FOR YOU. GET OFF MANGA FOX OR MANGA ROCK OR WHATEVER THE KIDS ARE USING THESE DAYS.

OK, so by this point in the article you have learned two very important things about me: 1) I love Shonen manga and 2) I read a lot of fanfiction.

Specifically, I read an absolutely biblical amount of My Hero Academia fan fiction and let me tell you, A solid chunk of it is vigilante/ Deadpool / criminal with a heart of gold themed.

So when I saw Hero Aca had a spin off, and it was about vigilantes, I was NOT SURPRISED IN THE SLIGHTEST. Ao3 sure is powerful.

Now, if you will permit me a tangent in a post full of tangents—HOLY CRAP, THERE ARE TOO MANY VIGILANTE AUS. I CAN'T KEEP TRACK OF EM. IT’S THE ISEKAI PROBLEM ALL OVER AGAIN. I GET AN EMAIL A FIC HAS UPDATED AND I’M LIKE IS THIS THE FIC WHERE DEKU HAS AN ABUSIVE MOM OR THE ONE WHERE HE HAS SPLIT PERSONALITY DISORDER OR THE ONE WHERE HE’S VIGILANTES WITH HITOSHI. OH WAIT, nvm, it’s the one where deku has a healing quirk.

OH WAIT WHICH OF THE 6 DEKU WITH HEALING QUIRK VIGILATE AU FICS IS THIS ONE?! ARGH WHY DIDN’T I WRITE A DESCRIPTION IN THE BOOKMARK FOR THIS!

My gripes aside, there's a reason why there's such an abundance of vigilante story telling—

Deadpool made like an absolute buttload of money and people love sass and memes.

People have a desire for a story in which they see themselves. Or, how they think of themselves.They like a story about someone who maybe came from nothing. Someone who has less money, maybe someone who is unlucky and had some bad breaks. Someone who never learned they had magic, never got their Hogwarts letter, never saw Kero, someone who never got that God-level quirk from All Might. And if your on Ao3 They want someone who also has seen a lot of memes and kind of wants taco bell and is also questioning their sexuality a bit?

Enter our new hero VIGILANTE DEKU.

But the cannon can't do this, cause hey, Deku is the chosen one. Albeit, chosen by All Might, He’s got his own thing to do. But how can we still cash in on a vigilante story?

And thus enter our New-New hero KOICHI HAIMAWARI—code name Nice Guy and then later The Crawler. True to his relatable roots. He’s just a dude in an hoodie who can go about as fast as a bike.

First off, I love Koichi. He wants to be a hero and fight crime, but most of the time he has to run away because at the end of the day he's just a dude.

He’s cute but not wildly good-looking, A bit of a nerd but not like an extreme okaku. He’s got a part time job and hates violence.

And this is where Koichi really shines—in every day stuff. He helps out wherever he can. Often, that just means listening to people complain and maybe helping his friends out with whatever they’re going through. He’s the kind of guy who smiles, not because he's especially brave, but because he just takes things one at a time and doesn't sweat the past. I think it’s really telling that he missed getting into hero high-school because he skipped the entrance exam to help someone. He’s the kind of person who lets us experience the superpower of human decency and empathy. And you know what? That’s something the world need desperately.

This theme of human decency is really the driving force of Vigilantes—it’s a manga about how the laws are there for a reason but sometimes they unfairly impact the poor and vulnerable. It's about how a lot of criminals are just people who fell into bad social circles or on bad times. People have the capacity for cruelty and violence but that’s never all they are.

Now, speaking of crime, the entirety of Hero Aca falls into some murky water when it comes to its evil doers. Much of the fandom has a huuuuuge problem with how much the franchise is willing to sweep under the rug in the name of redeeming their baddies. RE: people getting mad about forgiving Endeavor’s child abuse, or Bakugo’s suicide baiting. Or Mineta’s blatant sexual harassment.

But this theme is in Vigilantes even more than it ever was in the main series. To start off with, there’s this guy who tries to rape Pop Step early on, and the later he later winds up befriending everybody. It becomes a running gag that each new villain winds up befriending the other villain guys and then they all open a cat café together.

Using jobs as a way to lift people out of lives of crime is great and all but in the story there is no nuance or consequences for past wrong and well.....it feels very weird. It's like Vigilantes plays at having an opinion about moral ambiguity and the complexity of human existence and then just.......lets everyone get along because who has time to get into all that. Make of that what you will but it sits weird for me personally.

Anyway, let's move on and talk about POP STEP our main girl!

I love pop stars and I love vigilantes and a guerrilla performer is defiantly a character I could get behind. And I think they do a good job with Pop. She is actually kind of shy, but has this secret edgy persona she puts on when she performs. She is every girl on tumbler in the early 2000s. I also looooove that they make her not that great a singer. SHE’S GOT PASSION AND CHARISMA and maybe not born talent but like why should that stop you! Talent can be earned through practice and this is a great lesson to show people.

Unfortunately, Pop is also a great example of everything wrong with romance in Shonen.

It’s established early on that Pop loves Koichi because she is the girl he rescued all those years ago and yada yada yikes we’ve heard this one before. Many times before.

Sure, it's fine that they’ve met before, but gosh am I sick of damsels in distress. It's like she can't love him just because she respects what a great guy he is in her life and in the community at large, no no, she just needs to be rescued on top of that. And LOLOLOL isn't it funny he never noticed she was a girl because she was a child with short hair?! Once he realizes she has boobs now they will for sure fall in love! That’s how love works!

She's just with him all the time—nothing romantic ever happens she just gets a little tsundere.

I am never ever going to believe Koichi likes Pop because he spends like sooooo much time with her and they never have like, a moment. The first time he considers her is when Makoto is like, ‘hey I would love to get together with you, but have you thought about if you are crushing on Pop’. (Also this entire plot point is suspect—she's arbitrarily falling for Koichi cause he.......is the protagonist?)

Say what you will about shojo, they give you the emotional conversations, the moments where you think.....ahhh I can see why she is falling for him. They give you context! Shonen likes to just say HERE’S A GIRL YOUR AGE. YOU CAN DATE LATER WHEN THE ADVENTURE IS DONE.

Just when they might get together, Pop suddenly turns evilllllll. The evilllll beeeees made her eeeevilllll (and more sexy).

*Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh*

Because why on earth would they get together if Koichi didn’t get to rescue Pop one more time?

I’m tired. These troupes are tired. I’m sure you are too. HOWEVER! If your still with me, Let’s move into why I'm really writing this post. Let’s get to the part that got me screaming to my friends, who by the way, don’t even care bout Hero Aca….but listened anyways. May you all find nakama like these my friends.

Anyways,

HOLY FUCK ERASERHEAD’S ENTIRE BACK STORY IS IN THIS AROUND CHAPTER 60 AND IT IS WONDERFUL AND ABSOLUTLY HEARTBREAKING AND IS ONE OF THE BEST CHARACTER BACKSTORIES I HAVE EVER SEEN AND IS THE REASON WHY THIS SERIES IS A MUST-READ FOR MAIN SERIES FANS.

AND BY ALMIGHT.

WHY. IS. IT HERE.

I present to you my late night text messages to my friends

ALSO, AIZAWAS TEACHER IS PRINCE?!?!?!

AHEM, so as you can see, I kinda lost my shit.

And now, I would like to formally defend my claim that DESPITE HOW AMAZING IT WAS, ERASERHEAD’S BACKSTORY HAD NO BUISSNESS BEING IN THE VIGILANTES SPIN-OFF MANGA.

Eraserhead, aka Aizawa Shouta, is a side character who is working with the police on some crime stuff. He is not a main cast member in this spin off. He’s a guest character that fans of the main series will be like OH COOL. GRUMPY CAT MAN LIKES CATS ON HIS OFF HOURS TOO. LOVE THAT FOR HIM.

So, my imagine my absolute surprise when Aizawa runs into Koichi and the following happens:

It starts to rain, so, like in any good manga, this means some great FORCED BONDING TIME

Except no. It doesn't because rather than start talking, Aizawa JUST STARTS REMEMBERING—ABSOLUTLY SILENTLY TO HIS OWN PRIVETE SELF—HIS ENTIRE TRAGIC BACKSTORY.

AND THIS GOES ON FOR CHAPTERS.

THIS GOES ON LONGER THEN ARC ONE IT FEELS LIKE.

I LOVE IT, BUT KOICHI IS ABOUT TO JOIN ATSUSHI NAKAJIMA IN THE DUBIOUS CATEGORY OF “PROTAGONISTS THE SERIES FORGOT ABOUT IN LIEU OF COOLER SIDE CHARACTERS”.

AND LO IT HAS NO BEARING ON THE REST OF THE PLOT, CHARACTERS, OR STORY

What the ever-loving-just WHY?

WHY?

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?

SURE, IT’S A COOL TIE-IN.

YES, OF COURSE I LOVED IT. I SHIP ERASER MIC, I DREW THIS FOR HECK’S SAKE:

AND YET I AM ANGRY.

I AM ANGRY BECAUSE MY FRIDAY WAS RUINED BECAUSE VIGILATES SUCKER PUNCHED ME WITH AN AMAZING STORY THAT REALLY WASN’T PLOT RELEVANT AND PROBABLY SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN THERE.

IS THIS WHY THEY TOOK LIKE NEXT-TO-NO CARE WITH POPS ARC?!?

I mean its ongoing, so it’s too early to say but—

In conclusion—

Excuse me one more,

AIZAWA WAS TAUGHT BY PRINCE!?!??!?!?!?!? PURPLE RAIN PRINCE!?!??!?!?!? WHAT!??!?!?!

It’s so ABSURD that I HAD TO WRITE SOMETHING ABOUT IT. I HAD TO WRITE PARAGRAPHS TO JUSTIFY YELLING ABOUT THIS ONE THING. WHAT THE ABSOLUTE—

Ahem,

Anyways, I hope you liked this weird rant/personal-story/random-diatribe in three parts.

If you’re reading this, thank you, stay safe, and I’ll be back with more shojo manga next time.

Ciao!

Dr. Shojo

(aka Dr. Shonen)

#my hero academia vigilantes #koichi haimawari #pop step #my hero academia #erasermic #Cardcaptors #Shojo manga #Shonen Manga #Dr Shojo #read Horimiya

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