#(and unless we get a sitch where they do specials with new characters)

[sage-nebula]

If you could rewrite Pokemon Sun/Moon with things like better character development and more depth to the Aether Foundation, how would you do it? :D

I mean, these games were such a ridiculous disappointment (especially with regards to the Aether Foundation) that we could be here all day, but …

Let’s get started.

General:

Let the Island Challenge actually be a fucking challenge. I love the concept behind it, and how similar it sounded to the Orange Islands in the anime, and I love the idea of having that instead of the standard Gym challenge, particularly since it allowed Alola to be run under a religious oligarchy rather than the typical League system (even if Kukui staged a political revolution, but more on that in a second). However, the actual Island Challenge itself was pathetic. There was hardly any exploration, the challenges themselves were like teeny-tiny minigames … and considering how interesting or challenging they could have been, it made the entire thing feel boring, particularly since the “totem battle” at the end is basically just a Gym Leader battle, albeit against “wild” pokémon. It’s a cool concept that Game Freak didn’t bother to flesh out at all.So instead, I’d want the Island Challenges to actually be detailed and fleshed out. Give us temples or caves to fully explore. Give us actually challenging puzzles to complete. Make it a blend between Pokémon and The Legend of Zelda. And don’t just have us do a totem battle for every single one, or at least—perhaps there’s a way to pacify the totem pokémon without battling. Maybe you can battle, but you can also find alternative solutions with your team, thereby strengthening the message of unity between person and pokémon and also giving players various different ways to complete their Island Challenge—a way to make it unique to each person. At the very least, don’t just have us go through pretty much empty locations (like Kiawe’s mountain—there was practically nothing there, just a boring hike to the top and then a ridiculously easy “game” before the totem battle) until we hit the end goal. Give us more lore, exploration, and challenge instead of wasting a perfectly good concept.

GIVE. US. BACK. THE. BIKE. Or at the very least do away with the fugly outfit and godawful Ride music. And for that matter, let us use our own pokémon for the Ride feature. I should not have to call upon a charizard when I have a charizard in my party. That’s asinine. 

Similarly, MAKE ALOLA BIGGER, and make it so that we can surf between the islands. Alola feels tiny. Having a tiny region isn’t necessarily new—some of the other regions aren’t that big, tbh—but it feels very compact because you just insta-travel between the islands, rather than being able to surf the distance as you could in, say, Hoenn. Additionally, some of the islands are mini, sometimes only having one city or town. I get that Alola is based on the State of Hawaii, but there were certain design choices that limited exploration that make it seem infinitely smaller, which is a disappointment. Make Alola bigger, or at the very least let it breathe.

Stop having everyone fawn over and worship the player character. It felt so unnatural and got to the point where I wanted to punt all of the other characters into the ocean. The player character—or player, I guess—does not need to be worshiped and have their shoes licked for being “OMGOSH SO AMAZING BEST TRAINER EVAR!!1!!!1!!” by the other characters. I hate that. Let the other characters be incredible, too. Let them recognize their own strengths and talents. Shine some light on them, rather than on this rando child who spontaneously moved to this region and yet is somehow the savior they were all waiting for. I just … hated that, so much. It felt like even more fawning and salivating over how awesome the player is than usual, and it really rubbed me the wrong way.

Put so much more focus on Kukui’s honest-to-Arceus political revolution. Kukui overturned the religious oligarchy that had governed Alola for ages and turned it into a League system because … well, because he felt like it, I guess, and yet this not only goes smoothly, but basically no attention is called for it whatsoever. Now, I know that Nintendo did this because they still wanted to give the player a chance to be the Champion and have an actual throne to sit on while the rest of the characters at the game salivate at their feet (sigh), but that doesn’t change the fact that this should have been met with a lot of resistance and upheaval and should have been a very solid B Plot (if they weren’t going to make it the actual plot), particularly since the end result was an eleven-year-old child who had just moved there and knew nothing of the history or populace suddenly being placed in charge. Like, you would think Hala would take serious issue with Kukui being an upstart and calling for a revolution, but no, he was fine with it because … just because. We don’t know, because Hala didn’t get to actually do much in the main story despite being hyped up as an important character. But as far as we know, everyone was perfectly fine with Kukui’s massive political revolution, and the ramifications this would have on Alola (both domestically and internationally in fields like general politics, finance, et cetera) were completely ignored.So let’s explore that at least a bit. Even if Kukui is still ultimately successful, perhaps show him meeting resistance from people like Hala, and gaining support from people like Nanu (since Nanu doesn’t want to be a Kahuna anymore lol), and people like Olivia being torn. Show the effect this has on the kids, where perhaps Hau ends up coming into conflict with Hala because Hala is against Kukui’s revolution, while Hau thinks it could be interesting and fun, and so they encounter some family strife there as Hau tries to find his own way in contrast to what his grandfather wants for him. Show this coming up again and again, and explore Kukui’s motivations for it more deeply. Why does he want a revolution so bad? Is it really that he wants Alola to have a stronger presence internationally? Does he have personal stakes in that? Will Alola have a stronger presence internationally if they switch to a League system? And so on and so forth. And since he’s the one leading the revolution, make him the Champion, versus the eleven-year-old who literally just moved here and knows fuck all about Alola. Honestly, please give Kukui some semblance of intelligence and let his revolution actually be treated with some degree of gravitas, as it should be. (Alternatively, if Game Freak is incapable of doing this, remove this subplot and let Alolan government stand. We don’t need to be the Champion. It’s not that big of a deal after six bloody generations of letting us do just that.)

On that note, Professor Burnet needs to play a bigger role in the Aether plot. While Kukui is spearheading his revolution, Burnet is studying wormholes and Ultra Space and, as such, should have played a bigger role in the main plot, going up against Lusamine (or at least assisting the kids in doing so) in the process. That she was all but ignored in favor of Kukui, whose research and ultimate goals had absolutely nothing to do with the Aether Foundation, was a huge mistake and (imo) just one of the MANY ways in which Gen VII treated its female characters horribly.So let her be more involved. Actually show her relationship with Lillie, rather than just telling us about it in a couple lines of dialogue. Let her continuously run experiments on the wormholes and dig deeper into what the Aether Foundation is doing. Show her her science contrasts with that of Lusamine’s, in addition to how her parenting contrasts with that of Lusamine’s. Let her show up at various times throughout the plot, including when Aether Paradise is stormed, because this is her field of expertise and, as such, she is damn knowledgeable about it. Let Burnet be the one to point Lillie and the others to the pedestals where they can get the flutes, and let her be the one to direct them when it comes time to play. Basically, actually utilize this wonderful character that was created, instead of ignoring her because she’s not the “main professor” (or more accurately, because she’s female, because apparently this series can’t give us a female professor without upstaging her with either her father (Cedric Juniper) or her husband (Kukui), regardless of how little sense that upstaging makes).

Make the RotomDex optional. This speaks for itself. The RotomDex was obnoxious, and is quite possibly one of the worst companion characters I’ve ever seen in a video game (far worse than Navi, for instance). I hate it. 

Don’t make Team Skull bad guys at all. The idea of having them appear to be criminals (or at the worst being punks) but actually having some heroic moments near the end was one that was kicked around a lot, and was also one that was shamefully wasted by making them cardboard caricatures of villains instead. Instead, it’d be much better if they were instead representative of the terrible CPS system / justice system in Alola (at one point a cop NPC mentions there being no crime despite crime being everywhere, showing how useless the police in Alola are), which could potentially be fuel for why people like Kukui and Nanu want a revolution, thus tying into that B Plot. It would also drive home a message about appearances being deceiving to have Team Skull actually be decent people despite being forced to sometimes steal food because they have none, whereas the Aether Foundation looks pristine but clearly isn’t. It’d certainly be more meaningful than the “they’re comic relief but also still Bad Guys™” message we were given instead.On that note, LET PLUMERIA PLAY AN ACTUAL ROLE, GOD DAMN IT, particularly with regards to Guzma teaming up with Lusamine (if he still acts as her grunt), and Plumeria being the one to confront him over it. If Plumeria is the aneki of Team Skull, let her act like it, and let us see her acting like it. I would have her stepping up and taking charge, the one truly in charge of Team Skull (and even Guzma tbh) because she has her shit together. I would also expand and build upon her relationship with Gladion, with whom she actually does have a good relationship with, so that he, too, had some support outside of Null / Silvally. But more on that in a second.

Give Hau actual depth. The most we get out of him is that he has an inferiority complex, is a bit of a stepford smiler, and dislikes how much of a bully Gladion is to him (and thus dislikes Gladion—and yes, he did dislike him, complete with an D8 reaction whenever Gladion showed up, and their “reconciliation” was rushed af, so I don’t count it).  That’s not really enough, and Hau deserved better. If Kukui’s revolution B Plot was given more focus, inserting that conflict between Hala and Hau mentioned before could spur Hau to really find himself and his own motivations other than what was expected of him + his “having fun” excuse. He could also have his relationship with Lillie explored more, particularly since they were friends before the player character showed up and stole everything, meaning that he should have been more prominent as a support figure for her rather than being shoved to the side so that the player could do it instead (again, rather inexplicably). And as a final idea, perhaps he could be manipulated by Lusamine (whom he seemed to like in the games) into working for her, possibly even for Lillie’s sake (potentially) because he wants to help Lillie reconcile with her mother, + believes Lusamine is doing the right thing, + is potentially even trying to escape the brewing conflict between Kukui and Hala and figures that since the Aether Foundation is removed from it, joining up with them is a safe way to go. He doesn’t know that Lusamine is evil af, of course, and so he (rather like Alan in the anime) is completely manipulated into thinking he’s doing good—but that could spur his development along even more and make him a much more prominent and important character, which would be awesome considering the fact that he was another under-utilized character who, again, deserved better. There’s no reason why he can’t be involved in the plot from multiple angles so that he can exist as more than a simple rival, and I think that would be a good way do it.

Aether Foundation + Aether Twins:

LET. THE AETHER. FOUNDATION. BE. SCIENTIFIC. And I don’t mean general zoological science, but I mean, very specifically, that I want them to be drenched in alchemy and science of that nature. It doesn’t have to be historical, realistic alchemy; in fact, making it strictly realistic would be boring, which is the reason why stories such as Fullmetal Alchemist go the “magical alchemy” route. Nonetheless, I want that. I want the basis of the Aether Foundation to be scientific and alchemical. I want the reason for their existence to be based in the alchemy plot that makes up the A Plot, because these games have been heading toward alchemy for several generations now and it would have made so much sense to have that payoff be here. I want to see experiments, I want to see talk of theories and hypotheses, I want tests, I want—I want the Aether Foundation to resemble Aperture Science Laboratories in a lot of ways, basically.

On that note, the “conservation” needs to be a farce. None of this “well, most of them were good, but it’s just the neurotoxins that made them bad!” bullshit. The conservation needs to be nothing more than a facade in order to gain them funding from the government + good press. Additionally, the pokémon that they “save” could be used in experiments (such as the chimera creation experiments that created the likes of Type: Null) behind the scenes. Essentially, just as Team Skull should have been good with bad publicity, the Aether Foundation needs to be bad with good publicity. LET THEM BE EVIL, particularly since I love the visual contrast between how pure and clean they look, but how corrupt and vile they are beneath the surface. Love that so much.And note, too, that it isn’t necessarily that every single grunt knows the full scope of Lusamine’s plans and is on board with them. Perhaps some of them are in it for personal gain, perhaps some of them are in it because they’re interested in studying science, perhaps they put up with parts that creep them out because they feel the benefits outweigh the cons, et cetera. Not every unnamed Aether employee needs to be evil, they can all have their own motivations for going along with the plan + might only know bits and pieces, but by and large the Aether Foundation should have been our large villainous organization for this game, rather than the half-assed nonsense we were given. And on top of being villainous and corrupt, they should have also been massively scientific, in terms of actually carrying out experiments that we see and using conservation as an excuse / way to get test subjects. Don’t make them charitable; make them corrupt. Go big or go home.

LET WICKE ALSO BE EVIL. My god, Wicke had all the personality of a wet piece of cardboard, and it’s bullshit that she was relegated to just being a motherly piece of cardboard while Faba actually got to be the villain he always wanted to be. Wicke, as I characterize her, would know pretty much everything of what Lusamine is up to, and would be in support of it both because it aligns with her personal beliefs and because she loves and is deeply devoted to Lusamine (what type of love that is would be up for interpretation by the player, but in any case, Lusamine doesn’t return it, she just takes advantage). Wicke wouldn’t truly care for the twins, but would instead be the type to guilt trip them for not also being loyal to Lusamine + hurting Wicke in the process by running away and whatnot. She has that simpering, faux honey approach, similar to Umbridge. She’s allowed to be competent, strong, and every bit a member of the villain triad as Faba and Lusamine.

On that note, let Faba be more of an actual scientist. Let’s see what contributions he has made to the Aether Foundation other than his ego. Maybe he was the one who made the chimeras. If so, great! Let’s see that. Let’s see why Lusamine bothers to keep him around. Let’s see more of a conflict between him and Wicke that isn’t so much that he puts her down and she cowers, but more that she looks down on the fact that he’s here mostly for his own self-interest (+ interest in science + Lusamine lets him do what he wants) and less because of loyalty to Lusamine, whereas he thinks that her loyalty to Lusamine (/ her reasons for that loyalty) are pathetic and that the only thing that matters is, well, science. Like, he’s loyal to Lusamine, but he’s loyal because she’s giving him the opportunity to do / get what he wants, rather than because of personal feelings for her. He thinks he’s using Lusamine. He’s not aware that the situation is actually the other way around. Let’s see that, let’s explore it, and let’s explore how his hubris is in direct contradiction to the principles behind the Philosopher’s Stone and, more importantly, the lion that devours the sun, according to alchemical writings from our own world, long in the past.

LET THE TWINS HAVE AN ACTUAL RELATIONSHIP. My god, one of the things that bothered me the most was the fact that Lillie and Gladion barely interacted, on top of how under-utilized Gladion was and how Lillie seemed, in so many places, to exist only as a way to further boost up the player and make them feel special rather than getting to explore her story for her own sake. (Right down to giving Nebby to the player, ugh.) To begin with, I want to know more about their past at Aether Paradise. What happened the night Gladion left? Why did he leave without Lillie? I’d like to think there was a fight or disagreement there—that Lillie wanted to stay because she was insistent that perhaps they could change Lusamine’s mind, or that combating her plan would be easier from Aether Paradise, or (far more likely) that it was their duty to stay, that they were family and thus it was wrong to leave. Gladion disagreed, and so he left, leaving Lillie behind when she refused to come with him. This creates tension between them in the main plot, because Gladion resents Lillie for seemingly choosing their mother over him, whereas Lillie resents Gladion for leaving as he did, even though she herself leaves later in order to save Nebby.But over the course of the game, they encounter each other again and again, and slowly their relationship mends. Gladion appreciates that Lillie is now willing to rebel against their mother, while Lillie learns to admit that her brother had good reasons when he left two years prior (even if his method of leaving still chafes with her), and she respects how he has managed to survive on his own (well, with Null). They meet again and again, come to understandings, and ultimately reform the bond of best friendship they had prior to Gladion’s departure in order to stand against their mother TOGETHER in the climax. (So if there are two flutes to be played, the player is standing off to the side watching while the twins play the flutes in restored harmony.) On top of all of this, I would want to modify Lillie’s personality so that she’s more than just the demure, shy, moe girl who worships the player. Gladion shows the C-PTSD he has from years of child abuse by being harsh, closed-off, and cold. While Lillie doesn’t have to be exactly like him and while everyone is different, I feel that Lillie just being ~omg shy~ as a result of her abuse is not only playing into the Good Victim / Bad Victim dichotomy (with Gladion being the Bad Victim), but was also done just to make her someone the player would want to protect at the expense of making her a well-rounded character with a believable personality. So I would want to modify Lillie so that she’s also stand-offish and cold in various ways; where she, like Gladion, feels that she has a unique view of the situation because of her background, where she’s incredibly studious and smart even if she doesn’t battle, where she’s unwilling to open up to others without the others putting in serious effort (such as Hau potentially, pre-game), where she “defrosts” just as much as Gladion does, because girls can be cold and hard as well and she should be no exception, regardless of how feminine she is. Lastly, both of the kids should have been adopted by Kukui and Burnet at the end of the game. I won’t budge on this.

LET LUSAMINE BE THE VILLAINOUS SCIENTIST QUEEN SHE WAS ALWAYS MEANT TO BE. Lusamine’s canonical role / personality is perhaps one of the biggest letdowns the Pokémon franchise has ever bestowed upon me and I’m never going to be over it. Whether she’s actually an Ultra Beast herself or not (and I’m still disappointed that the Ultra Beasts didn’t get to be shapeshifters), she still should have been the mastermind behind everything, the one in control, and the one perfectly aware of everything she was doing, as well as the one wanting to do it because of her own grand plans, rather than just being ~*~manipulated by neurotoxins~*~ and ~*~in need of redemption~*~. So to that end?Lusamine is the actual founder of the Aether Foundation, versus it being founded by her father or grandfather or whatever that NPC said, because I’m sick of this series having women simply inherit positions from male relatives or else be overshadowed by them. Lusamine founded the Aether Foundation as a scientific organization to promote her own ambitions and goals while using pokémon conservation as a convenient cover (as well as a means to get government funding if need-be). She’s the president and founder both, and everyone respects her for it.To that end, Lusamine is blindingly intelligent. Not only does she have a wealth of scientific knowledge across various fields (alchemy is obviously her forte, but she’s also incredibly knowledgeable about chemistry, physics / astrophysics, and various other fields), but she’s also quite knowledgeable in terms of history, various fields of mathematics, and other areas of study. She is very much a Ravenclaw in that she loves learning and studying, but also views the universe in terms of the ultimate question True or Not. She is very interested in the (or at least a, but in her mind she is always right, so the) universal Truth, and seeks to not only claim knowledge of the Truth for herself, but also to grasp it in her hand show the rest of the world / universe that she has it. Right or Wrong doesn’t matter to Lusamine, because both of those things are subjective. True or Not is what matters, more than anything else. She is very, very Ravenclaw. So Lusamine is the Big Bad. I have actual motivations and goals for her in my AU fic, To Devour the Sun, and I won’t get into those here—but if Game Freak didn’t want to make her actually an Ultra Beast, they would change anyway. Instead, we could say that perhaps Lusamine was furthering her alchemical ventures in an effort to grasp the Universal Truth™, much as alchemists of the past were always searching for that very same thing (in a fashion), usually by means of the Philosopher’s Stone. In the context of Pokémon, Lusamine could not only be searching to harness the power of Solgaleo (or Lunala ig, but Solgaleo makes far more sense) for this endeavor, but could also be trying to rip open the Gates between Worlds in order to obtain the Truth (much like Father in FMA:B!). This could potentially put the entire world at risk, particularly since Lusamine wouldn’t exactly care who or what needs to be sacrificed in order to make her dreams reality. To that end, no, she doesn’t care about her children; in her mind, they would be additional pawns that could be used in order to accomplish her goals, and if they disobey then they are cruelly punished—but otherwise, she doesn’t (and has never) care(d) about being a family with them. Mohn isn’t really important, either; he has no bearings on Lusamine’s motivations or desires. If anything, he doesn’t even need to be in the game, at least not as the twins’ father. It’s not like he adds to the plot, and it wouldn’t be the first time kids didn’t have present fathers in this series. (Additionally, if the Johto Rival’s mother is never identified, I don’t see why the twins’ father needs to be.)So yes, Lusamine is frighteningly intelligent, calculating, savvy (she doesn’t take gambles or risks if they can be avoided, generally—once she has everything in place, she won’t risk it for a lesser payoff than she’s planning for), extremely manipulative, and ruthless … with a spiteful or sadistic sense of humor at times (in terms of causing emotional pain, rather like GLaDOS). She uses whatever and whoever she needs to in order to achieve her ends, and while I’m aware that sounds Slytherin, remember, Lusamine does not have precious / important people, does not care about those close to her, and is concerned with the question of True or Not, which is all very not Slytherin and also very Ravenclaw. (And yes, while her actual goals are different in To Devour the Sun, this is the characterization I’m using there, too. She, like Sycamore, is a Ravenclaw. She just also happens to be a very terrible person on top of it. She foils him, in other words, in a variety of ways, on top of having some surface resemblance to Lysandre.)Let her be the true, unapologetic villain she deserved to be. Let her be in command the way she was supposed to be. Lusamine was done a massive injustice in canon and I’ll never be over it. (Oh, and as a final note? She either dies or goes to prison in the end. No exceptions.)

Of course, I’d still love it if the Aether fam were Ultra Beasts as well (and that Ultra Beasts could have human forms), but if Game Freak didn’t want to go that route in canon, then the above is fine as well.

This is all I’ve got for right now. Completely rewriting the plot would take more time (and would likely largely ignore the player, but tbh that’s probably for the best, because the fact that Lillie’s most important was relationship was with the player instead of her brother will never cease to make me salty af), but these are the base ideas I have that would have made me more happy than the disappointing, flat mess we were given. Here’s hoping USUM can improve things, but unless the plot is radically changed, I highly doubt it will.

#chidorinnnnn #honestly it makes me legitimately angry how disappointing these games ended up being #we could have had it all #and instead we got . . . this #what an incredible disappointment #and unlike the Kalos saga it doesn't seem like the anime will be improving on it #(I mean the Kalos anime had its issues) #(but it also had TSME + Flare arc which were 👌👌👌) #(things are still early for Alola so MAYBE it will improve over time) #(but right now it feels very unappealing) #(and unless we get a sitch where they do specials with new characters) #(i don't see that changing so) #(we'll see :/ but so far Gen VII has failed me in every way) #(i'm so ready for Gen VIII to come cleanse this palate)

[gofancyninjaworld]

Some manga predictions

Been told my predictin’ game’s getting a little weak lately.  Truth be told, there’s been so many jinks in the manga that I’ve been quite happy seeing what the heck happens next in the story, but can’t take that lying down.

Btw, I haven’t forgotten my random list of predictions for the next chapter of the webcomic!  Be fun to see which ones pan out.:)

So, let’s have some more story predictions. Serious enough this time for me to stick by. I’ll take a told ya so if I’m wrong. :)

Short Hits!

Well that settles it!

Metal Bat’s going to get his rematch. We can finally stop wondering what would happen if he brought his bat down squarely on Garou’s head.

Then he’ll collect his slice of Humble Pie, same as everyone else is getting.  It’s fresh, it’s hot, it sticks in your throat but you can’t cough it up. 

Speaking of humble pie, I predict that Golden Sperm gets to hand out free slices to just about everyone still standing. No need to have Amai Mask telling us that this is a difficult foe even for their combined efforts, show us!  And that Garou shows up to save them all... for himself.

No, I don’t dare make any predictions for Genos other than he gets to have a whole Humble Pie. There’s just too many opportunities for catastrophe, from the shining Angel of Annihilation perched on top of the impromptu Mount Doom to the varied nasties crawling out of the rubble.  Speaking of varied nasties, onto prediction two!

One Last Land Mine

One thing that sticks with me was Gyoro-Gyoro/Psykos noting that some monsters undergo unexpected rapid growth and act as jokers in the pack.   We’ve said hello and goodbye to two of them: Rhino Wrestler and his buddy, Phoenixman (now was that a joker or what?).

It’d hardly be fair if none of the cadre (fair? Nothing fair about it -- I mean insufficiently entertaining for us) turned out to be land mines.   I am predicting that Bang fighting Fuhrer Ugly is going to give us some truly sickening transformation and not go down so quickly.  Bang will win, of course, but it should be an extra extra fight first.

Phew, that was Close!

This one is as much prayer as it’s prediction.  I’m predicting that the transport convoy sent for Waganma juuuust escapes the carnage wrought by Tatsumaki pulling up the Subterranean city.   On one level it has to as several of them are transporting wounded heroes, and heroes never die, but there’s no guarantee for all of them.  Why do I care?  Keep reading!

Long-Range Hits!

Saving the Hero Association

The Hero Association is on the rocks in the webcomic.  Between public criticism, internal dissension, donors deserting, and the Neo Heroes leaching talent, political goodwill, and money from them faster than they can comprehend, they really don’t know where to turn right now.

Seriously, the Hero Association can’t afford to fall, unless the story is going to turn into a tragedy where mankind ends up scattered into a few small enclaves, Attack on Titan style only it’s not a lie about what lies beyond the walls. 

 I’ve been hoping that the convoy gets away because when the manga gets to this point, they’re going to need Sekingar. They need Sekingar’s insights on two levels.  The immediate one is to understand the nature of the threat they’re facing.  Sekingar may be inclined to give heroes the benefit of the doubt, but he’s not a gullible fool either: 

If he’s alive, then he’s going to have no trouble at all figuring out that someone is awful keen to usurp the Hero Association, as well as Metal Knight’s automated tech and telling Sitch about it, who is no fool himself.   It will be their first chance to understand what kind of enemy they’re facing.

Second, they’re going to need someone on the Executive Board who actually understands what hero work is like. Even if they see off the threat the Neo Hero threat off, they’re going to need to be able to sort through the varying suggestions of what needs to be done and actually get those changes implemented.

Since so far Sekingar continues to be a manga-only character (since chapter 20!), I have no idea where their insights might come from in the webcomic.  Of course... Sekingar might not make it back in which case they’re no better off in the manga either.

So When You Said Countless, Did You Mean More Than Six?

Here’s something I’m going to stick my neck right out to predict: I’m predicting that we’re going to find out that Genos hasn’t been a cyborg for all that long, rather than four years the way we tend to think.   I present to you four pieces of circumstantial evidence.

First, how has he been getting away with roaming the planet and burning bits of it out of existence?  I’m not the only one to have wondered how it is that Genos never got stopped for carrying weapons -- was it somehow legal?  Turns out, it’s as illegal as hell -- no wonder the Hero Association was on his trail. He’s not even subtle. At its worst, a demon cyborg special sees absolutely everything, even rock, destroyed by extreme heat for kilometres.  [Becoming a hero has really clipped his claws.] For him to have avoided being intercepted by them for weeks? Sure. It’s a big place and he’s very mobile. But evading the Hero Association for years? No chance.

Second, when he said he was inexperienced, he wasn’t joking. Learning to not take his eyes off a monster is such Fighting 101 stuff it’s painful.  Conversely, Saitama may have no technique to speak of, but his awareness of where a hit may be coming from has been absolutely top-notch, something Suiryu notes with admiration.

Third, body count. As of chapter 80, Genos was only on Body Four.  We know what happened to the rest -- the third body got crushed by Gouketsu, the second body got melted by the Deep Sea King and the first one got cut up by Mosquito Girl. I can totally believe that if he’s being Drive Knight cautious, actually doing research on his targets before he strikes, bodies will last a lot longer than we’ve been seeing him go through them but four years of use?  Hmm!!!  I doubt that.

Fourth, becoming a cyborg is a process, not an event.  Thanks to the webcomic, we’ve got an appreciation that body modification is not easy (or safe or sane past a certain point) and it takes months to be functional.  So, some non-negligible fraction of the last four years of his life has been spent Not Dying and Learning to Walk Again. 

Adding it all together, I’m expecting it to turn out that he’s really quite new at all this.  That said, Genos never said he’d been searching for all four years. We just assumed.

#OPM #manga #story predictions #webcomic spoilers #Garou #Metal Bat #Sekingar #Bang #Genos #I'm keen to start seeing some plotlines start marrying up #I'm totally on board for some more cruel twists with the final showdown #and the HA's troubles from a mysterious foe #need to get less mysterious and fast

[immcterial-blog]

( harry styles. twenty-three. cis male. he/him. ) ❛ avriel sinclair, a capricorn from new york, new york, moved into holloway one month ago. they are a ballroom dancer that lives in apartment 1e and their neighbors don’t particularly mind them. some say they can be -Machiavellian and -disarming but others say they’re +opportunistic and +debonair. anyways, one thing is for sure: you hear death of a bachelor by panic at the disco, it’s avi blasting it. ( penned by celia, 24, cst. )

this gif... perfectly describes avi -- i don’t even have to write this intro just look at that gif and you’ll know what a (well dressed) piece of shit he is!!! but i suppose for the sake of matching my past intros i should actually.... try.

BACKSTORY !!! 

this is avriel. he’s probably like avriel sinclair the third but his family and him are fighting right now so he wouldn’t want to mention that part and associate himself with the sinclair name.

which, speaking of... the sinclairs are new york natives and the kind of socialite famous that have a ton of money but not much notoriety for anything besides just being rich

he’s got an older half brother (auguste) that his mom had before she married into money and he’s the only one in his family that he’s never had problems with which is amazing for avi.

the thing is though none of his family are bad people. his mom’s a total sweetheart and his father, although really stinking wealthy, is like legit a good person and probably gives tons to charity and stuff. they’re wholesome and married for love which is saying a lot considering the financial sitch

no, the only one causing problems for avriel is... avriel

it’s kind of an ‘idle mind is the devil's playground’ sort of deal

avi has always been bright. like extraordinarily clever. to the point where he’s constantly just bored. he’d play tricks on auguste and on the care providers they had as children. he’d sabotage board meetings of his fathers and make sly jabs at important family members at galas and things. it was never anything outright -- never anything that could be traced back to him unless you knew where to look

auguste, bless him, knew how his little bro worked and also knew that avi needed a hobby or else the kid was going to overturn the whole upper east side before he was even in high school. he tried him at a whole heap of skills and talents but ended up finding a passion for two things: classical piano and ballroom dance. 

some part of it appealed to avi’s natural knack for sophistication. it’s a very classy and pristine past time. there was also an element to learning -- memorizing sequences and step combos and exploring different things with different partners. 

that soothed him for a few years. from like 9 - 13 years old he was a baby learning ballroom dance and he loved it. then puberty hit and a whole slew of new trouble-making ways opened themselves up to him. 

it was somewhere after he got his private tutor to quit because he convinced her she was in love with him and it was compromising her employment that they decided a change of scenery might do him good. 

avi was sent to some pretentious french school in paris and enrolled in a vigorous after school dance programme to try and keep him busy. instead, he managed to find a boyfriend. it was a very passionate and all encompassing relationship with avi focusing all his intensity on this one person. that ended up (unsurprisingly) not being too healthy for poor max.

while it was technically avi’s first real relationship, he had practice with people in general. he was able to smooth talk his way squarely into his beau’s heart, lodging himself there with a permanence he didn’t intend to make a reality.

avi is the type of boyfriend who like makes you feel like the most important person in the whole world when you're with him but then makes you wonder what he's up to when he's away

he acts on impulses and gets bored easily and so schemes and manipulates to keep his own life entertaining. he’ll start spreading lies about himself to upturn all his friendships and relationships, just to see what happens! it’s annoyingly unpredictable. 

anyways, this is already long so we’re shortening but the last few months of his relationship & his time in france he cheated and basically ghosted his poor lil beau maxxie and then slid back to the states at like 19 like nothing happened. 

RECENT & PERSONALITY ( READ THIS IF NOTHING ELSE )

once home, he was on his same old shit and though he did take school a bit more seriously & definitely excelled at his dance (thanks france), that was about the only thing he gained from that whole experience. oh and he started dating around in earnest. never for more than a few months at a time (so max was special that way) and always ending messily. its more fun that way! 

he started entering ballroom expos and circuits. he was known never to have the same partner for more than a season but he still took top tier prizes. all the girls were clamoring to be on the arm of avi sinclair and he was thriving

his penchant for scandal was also thriving. he had pregnancy scares, lascivious relationships with important business heads, caused at least one divorce and there were whisperings that he was going to start taking down his father’s company from the inside, just for the hell of it (it wasn’t true -- avi started that rumor tho)

when the headlines just wouldn’t stop... his parents really didn’t have a choice but send him out on his own, out of the sinclair penthouse. they set him on a strict allowance but he’s facing the threat of being disowned. auguste may be in line to inherit the company but there’s still a lot at stake

so ! that’s how avi has found himself at hoelloway. he’s a rich boy living a budget lifestyle. any winnings his ballroom dance is making him he counts as his spending money and he uses it frivolously and recklessly. 

personality wise, he’s just here for a good time not a long time. he’ll worm his way into your good graces with bad intentions. people wouldn’t be outright distrustful of him. in fact, it’d be the opposite. he’s all ‘classy dressed ballroom boy with a glittering grin’ but we know he’s a SNAKE AND SHOULD BE AVOIDED

he’d like to sign up to join the hoe squad so gimme hookup plots i’ll pay u in harry gifs

also if ur character is close enough to max to hear about his bad ex.... hmu for angst

i’ll get myself some plots pages eventually AND add him to my actual blog but for now.... avi is loosed on the world i’m so sorry

#& intro | avi. #hollowayintro.