Ramble meme!

[petronia]

To distract me from the new chapters of Bleach and Viewfinder I just dled but can't read--

Name me a character or pairing and I will ramble on about him/her/it/them. (Although if it's someone/something I've never given any thought, I will probably just say "I've never given that any thought." XD) The other one I've seen going around is "Ask any of my characters a question and I will answer", which is also OK for today's purpose! ♥

EDIT -- meme closed. I've still got a couple left I shall answer shortly. XD

Comments

[lazulisong.livejournal.com]

What do you think of Doumeki? In general or in regard to Donuts, it's up to you.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I think Doumeki has awesome self-control. XD I mean, the only way the interaction in this series could possibly make sense is if you assume he finds it funny/cute to watch Watanuki spazz, except he never laughs. Not even in private. He doesn't even smile!

I've never been fond of CLAMP's "it's the MAGIC that makes it so I am inexplicably attracted to/repulsed by this person" trope (also seen extensively in CCS), though. I mean, this makes it less handwave-y than yr average shoujo romance how?

"Why does A like B? Why is B riled up by A? Why is C astonishingly clueless about D?"
"It's the MAGIC that causes it all."
"Oh, is that's what the kids are calling it these days?"

...Anyway, Donuts is too cute. In that WHUT ARE YOU TEN YEARS OLD DO I NEED TO DRAW A DIAGRAM WITH CRAYONS sort of way.

[miyukis-4.livejournal.com]

Ban/Ginji from Getbackers ^__^

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Ahahahahaha~ XD

I was reading GetBackers 33 on the metro this morning. I keep wanting to translate Ayamine's chapter afterword gag panels, because he's sort of reached the point of "Look, the volume serialisation is in the THIRTIES, does anyone really care at this point if I stop pretending this is not total fluffy gay". Like--

Ginji: [...] But every time I lose myself, I am saved by the WARMTH of BAN-CHAN'S ARMS.
Makubex: By which you mean he BEATS you OVER THE HEAD.
Ginji: Yes, but it's a backward expression of LUV.
Makubex: ...But from my point of view it...... no. Just no.

All the way up to the umpteenth Ban vs. Raitei fight in volume 32 he was trailing his afterwords off with dark mutterings of "not enough OTP". XD;;

[marej.livejournal.com]

Winston! is that cheating? if it is, then Asami!

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Winston? Are you serious? XD

Winston is short on inches and ethics but long on intelligence and cynicism. He's not just book smart - far from it - but the part of him (say 5% of overall mental resources) that's smart enough to know when to keep his mouth shut is often overmatched by the other 95% that simply doesn't work well with stupid, and as far as he's concerned violence and illegal activities are basically stupid in the long run, so... he's kind of bitter. XD He was probably beaten up a lot at school and entertained hopes that that sort of thing would stop once he was like a Nobel-track researcher and his tormentors were garbage truck drivers or something, and now etc.

He sort of likes where he's at, though. I think he's at the point of fuzzily realising it about himself, and Feilong's already seized that about him in their interview - he'll get his PhD and probably a proper day job but he won't cut ties with the Baishe, not so much because he can't give up the money but because he can't give up the freedom of having his own lab and unlimited funds for equipment and no paperwork and ability to do whatever research he wants without having to worry about grant applications let alone ethics committees. So Feilong will give him that much, because he's worth the money.

As for Asami... er, something I haven't said before? I said to Chrissie once that I don't really conceive of Asami x Feilong and Asami x Takaba as being contradictory because there's obviously no overlap in Asami's head. What attracts him about them is different. Asami doesn't talk about how he feels and you can't parse his glaring, but if you look at his actions Feilong reels him in with vulnerability and Takaba reels him in with defiance. And both are respectively totally clueless re the dynamic.

And Chrissie said yes obviously, Asami just likes what is hard to get. XD

(ZOMG I am sneak-reading the new VF and I cannot stop laughing.

Feilong: *raps Takaba over the head* You're doing it all wrong! You're very bad at this.
Takaba: Well EXCUSE ME but you don't seem very enthusiastic so how am I supposed to be enthusiastic either!

If Asami saw this he would have PAIN in his SOUL (assuming for purposes of rhetoric that he had a soul to begin with).)

[wildelamassu.livejournal.com]

Fai, from Tsubasa RC

[petronia.livejournal.com]

OH, FAI. I'D REALLY LIKE TO KNOW WHERE CLAMP ARE GOING WITH THIS.

I like how the big joke is that they're a simulacrum of a white-picket-fence nuclear family (mom, dad, son, daughter, pet) and Fai is the mom, presumably because he bakes. I like what inebriates they are all the time. I like how Fai pretends to be a lightweight until he and Kurogane get in a moment away from the kids, and then they are like NOW WE OLD SOLDIERS DRINK FOR REAL. Gay and tragic in the old (deprecated?) sense.

I like that Fai is healing, even though we still don't know from what. I know it won't last. >_> *downloads more chapters*

I don't have a Fai icon! Just this Yasha/Ashura one pere_chan made for me.

[corneredangel.livejournal.com]

This is where, much to my embarassment, I realize how little *I*'ve kept up with what's out there. Tsubasa was the last series I *furiously* downloaded; there are a bunch more on the computer (...and *vast amounts* at the Best Buy down the block), but of course then I come home after work, grab my two bottles of beer, and then suddenly it's eleven already and I'm *still* not sure where the last five hours went...although, oh, *so* much stumbling through flamewars on the various Russian military history forums x_X;;;

You aren't following Gunbuster 2, are you?

...and if not, then, Kino's Journey, no?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Alas no to either! And I'm not exactly on the ball with respect to the latest season either. XD Tsubasa is all right if that's what you want.

[bell]

Uh, Yuusuke/Yuuta! (though I'm also curious why you have an Ashuura/Yasha icon.)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Which... do you mean Shuusuke/Yuuta? XDDD

[serendip.livejournal.com]

Eriol? XD

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Eriol's not really a strong character presence in my head, but then no one from CCS is, I think. I liked the series more for its ensemble nature, the atmosphere of the whole set-up. But I find I am just more likely to write for TRC - I'm sorry. I don't think it's because I'm a hopeless shounen fan, but I can't attribute it to anything else. XD

I was never really a part of the fandom per se so I never had incentive to think about it too hard, but when you get down to it I think there's a lot about CCS I don't understand at all (by which I mean it didn't go the way I wanted/expected, exactly - but what did I want?). Clow doing what he did, then Eriol. I think maybe the reason I can sort of stand up and be counted as an Eriol/Tomoyo shipper is just that it's easier to grasp. XD

I found he's not actually very hard to write, as long as one can keep up the pretense there is a plot happening somewhere in the unmentioned sidelines. XD

[dipping_sauce]

Motoko from Ghost in the Shell.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Motoko is one of my favorite characters of all time, though I probably wouldn't be able to divorce her from Sec9/GitS itself - and her characterisation differs as the canon differs. helvetius was saying that she might prefer manga!Motoko as she's more human there, funnier, more fallible and approachable. Whereas SAC!Motoko is the one I find most interesting in a fannish sense, I think? Probably due to the nature of the AU storyline itself. In the canon-canon she becomes a goddess, essentially (it doesn't seem to change her personality any, but the point is you have no way of telling). I like seeing her act as a soldier, an operative, a professional. I like how the Sec9s are so cool about everything without ever being blasé (because then you are underestimating your surroundings) or cynical (because that implies you had romantic tendencies at some point), and Motoko is of course the Platonic ideal of what it means to be in Sec9. XD There's a sort of pleasure just in watching someone be what they were obviously born to be.

I like seeing her and Batou be... comrades in arms. I'm a sucker for that kind of thing.

SAC touches on her past and in general tries to make it seem less like she sprang fully-formed from Jove's skull, but there's still a lot about Motoko that's presented as mere incidental information, even if it's fascinating from a characterisation POV. I mean, she has girlfriends. Who seem to be totally normal girls, with whom she hangs out and chats and has drinks on terrasses in a totally normal fashion. And then there's the fact that she's half-naked all the time. Which, yeah, fanservice, but at the same time no one remarks on it and she doesn't play up her sex appeal unless it's a sting operation. You know she has issues about her body but they're along the lines of IT NOT REALLY BEING HER BODY IN THE USUAL SENSE, she can switch it any time she likes that being the whole plot... It's ironic because she's not at all feminine, or wouldn't be, but her femininity is immensely important to her because gender is one more marker of her participation in the human race, and she needs to hold onto as many of those as she can.

She's a lot older than she looks, too. Ten years? More?

Charmian told me that if she liked a series as much as I seemed to like GitS:SAC she would not be able to shut up about it on LJ, regardless of whether anyone else was interested. XD

[amamiyarin.livejournal.com]

Takumi from NANA. XD

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I used to hate Takumi but I don't anymore. I think because it's become obvious that he wants the traditional Japanese o-tousan o-kaasan white-picket-fence thing as badly as Nana does, though he's considerably more cynical about his ability to maintain it without sabotaging himself or otherwise fucking up - and I do think he sabotages himself to various degrees. Other than that he tends to pooh-pooh emotion in favour of total career-orientedness, but then so do I. XD

Nana K.'s a romantic, you know? She wanted to have the perfect wedding and the perfect family with the man of her dreams, The One Made For Her. Takumi never believed in that. He always thought "a nice girl" was the best he could do in that respect, except (in his view) he's not quite enough of a bastard to actively look for a nice girl to burden with his sorry self for the rest of her life, until circumstances preempted the choice.

It's one of the ways in which this series is heartbreaking. Charmian and I talked about Nana K. "settling" for Takumi, and then we were like, "By shoujo manga standards she's not settling! She's marrying her favorite rock star!" But rock stars are people too, neither monsters nor knights in shining armour, and sometimes you can love someone just enough while knowing very well they're not The One For You. (And being The One guarantees nothing - look at Ren and Nana O.)

[incandescens]

Toshiki (from GetBackers)!

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Toshiki! (Who has just woken up, along with The Other Two. --I think Juubei can see again because he's not keeping his eyes closed, but no one's gotten around to noticing yet. We are off for the Beltline! Farewell, Fuuga! Keep the coffeepot warm, we probably won't see you again for a very long time (however long it takes before we have to deal with Yohan Hisself). *weep*)

Er, you have no idea how glad I am I held off on that Toshiki-centric fic now there is a Saizou to contend with in the flashback. XD But at least the constantly shifting target keeps me interested in actually writing the thing, as every time I return to it we're essentially talking a different story.

I think/hope Toshiki's settled the question of his importance to Kazuki in his own mind - it's hard to tell, the serialisation is a mess of fighting - but we're at the point where the story is being "rewound" in order to settle issues in the past. So it's gone past Toshiki's defection, past the Fuuga era - it's taken for granted now that they are Fuuga, like they were in the past - back to the stuff that happened during Kazuki's childhood that set off the rest. I think once everything's wound up it might get interesting (from a fanfictional speculation perspective that is), because Kazuki's never given his full attention to his people before. XD

*checks Ayamine's blog*

OMG how is volume 34 out now?!? ...And he mistakenly deleted all his entries previous to December 31. *headdesks* Whadda dork.

[lihsa.livejournal.com]

Keigo and Mizuiro from Bleach!

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Keigo. Mizuiro. ASANO TADANOBU.

One of the things I appreciate about Bleach/KT is that he will cut into his copious spare time in order to write things like the Mizuiro side story, purely for the sake of being able to tell the story - you can tell how vivid the universe is in his head, how much more he knows about the characters than he's able to cram into the serialisation. I really like the Mizuiro side story. I've never read a shounen battle manga that contained an interlude anything like it. (And it has what seem vaguely like David Bowie lyrics, but aren't.)

Mizuiro is sort of like Shin out of Nana, especially if you equate Ichigo with punk rock. XD In the fanbook it says he and Keigo are BFF and equals in Keigo's mind but "in truth the relationship is more like master-servant". Keigo is just such a spazz he doesn't notice when he's being led around. XD

I've desultorily tried to write a 20 Facts about Mizuiro in my head, but I'm not going to get up to twenty. There is a bit that goes like this: "Mizuiro imagines what the people he knows will be like, will be doing, in ten or twenty years. He thinks Ichigo will be a doctor like his father. His sisters will be nurses. Ishida Uryuu will be a fashion designer. Arisawa will go all the way to the Olympics - they'll watch her on TV - and then she'll retire and open a dojo. Inoue will be famous too, but he doesn't know how yet. Maybe she'll invent something. Maybe she'll become famous just for being Inoue. He imagines Inoue Orihime-themed hairclips, toasters, carry-all bags, alarm clocks.

"Chad will own a restaurant or a bar here, in Karakura, maybe just around the corner. They will always meet each other there if they're in town; if they stay.

"He pictures Keigo as a normal salaryman - exactly the same except in a suit and tie, not even any older - blissfully unaware of how unusual that really is in the grand scheme of things, a normal salaryman. He'll be in the corporate line himself, he thinks. They won't drift too far from each other. Maybe sales; he's good at convincing people.

"He wonders if Inoue will ever need a marketing director.

"All this is blown out of the water halfway through his first year of high school, and once again he finds he's not sorry."

[tokkitsu.livejournal.com]

Uh... Hiyoshi from PoT? 8D

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Hiyoshi is one of those I've never really thought about! Mostly - oh gawd, I'm sorry but - as well as being an aspect of Japanese history "gekokujou" is also a kink genre in BL manga, and that completely undercuts my ability to take Hiyoshi's tirades seriously. HAHAHAHA. I mean, it's Atobe of all people too. HYAKUNEN HAYAI.

[tsutanai.livejournal.com]

Ginko.

And then, for bonus stage, whether or not Mushishi doujinshi focused on pairings make sense. XD (We've debated the platonic form of the inevitable Mushishi doujinshi here, and come up with some really disturbing hypotheses. XDXD)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Ginko! I would actually say hold, I'm not far enough in the series to have a real opinion. XD; (I haven't been watching anything.) I like his phlegmatic professionalism, the kind you see in piano tuners - any very specialised, narrow but deep trade where you go door to door, one job to the next. I don't know if he has "angst", I don't know his personal history. The series unravels at such a leisurely pace that I don't feel I know him - yet - and I'm pretty much okay with that.

The idea of Mushishi dj makes me scratch my head, but I'm not actually very dj-oriented despite appearances, so. XD

[arisuesei.livejournal.com]

Ban - Der Kaiser and Wan Pore - Der Kaiser. :D

[harajukufuuri.livejournal.com]

I totally second this, especially if you happen to be up-to-date with Shonen Jump?

I've seen the two chapters about three chapters before the current ones, and they are all very promising for the next 30 or so to come.

A question of my own: where you think Ban/Gin or Gin/Ban is going to go. who's gonna dieee?

[saturnoolaa.livejournal.com]

Tatsuki.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I honestly think KT made a strategic error in storytelling back in - volume 4 was it? - when he didn't make Tatsuki one of the people "awakened" by Ichigo's spiritual energy early on. He probably figured that given relationship dynamics, it had to be either Orihime or Tatsuki, and he made it Orihime because the reversal of roles makes it more interesting (Orihime has been protected by Tatsuki for years; she was previously saved by Ichigo, now she wants to be on the saving end). But then he moved the storyline lock stock and barrel to Soul Society for fifteen volumes, leaving Tatsuki behind when by emotional rights Tatsuki had the strongest claim to be of the rescue party, stronger than Ishida or Orihime or even possibly Chad - as Ichigo's oldest friend, as Orihime's best friend, as someone who by nature is a damned kickass fighter. And now he doesn't have time to deal with the fallout on her side. =_=+ Even Keigo gets more play in the current storyline.

There's a side story about Tatsuki and Ichigo in one of the fanbooks, actually (the manga one IIRC), that I hadn't seen before. I like KT's side stories, they have the character-delving feel of gen doujinshi... Tatsuki comes and finds Ichigo on the riverbank, on the anniversary of his mother's death, and sort of sits around and keeps him company for a bit. She remembers how in fifth grade he started calling her "Tatsuki" instead of "Tatsuki-chan" (not so much more familiar as more 'manly' and 'equal'), and she acted like she was pissed off even though that wasn't exactly how she felt. The same thing when he started on his growth spurt and overtook her in height, and yet again when he first defeated her sparring and refused to rematch ever. XD She thinks it's probably closest to loneliness; like there are things conspiring to put a distance between her and Ichigo and change the way they relate to each other, inevitably, over time.

"But," she thinks, "I'm not interested in what this feeling implies." Then she kicks Ichigo and drags off to the arcades, because she can still kick his ass at video games. XD

[one-if-by-land.livejournal.com]

Takumi, from Initial D, go! (also, er, Ryousuke/Takumi + Keisuke, pls?)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I actually was considering Takumi earlier on in the week! Mostly thinking I was getting too old for the IniD boys too. :///

Takumi and his dad actually remind me of the men in my own family - my father and grandfather. XD The phlegmatism, the ability to be scarily good at things without ever making it into a big deal, the unflappability. How they are totally laid back but if you push beyond a certain point they turn into WALLS. The way they look vague but think hard and after the decision is made there's this boundless well of focus. I guess I've always felt like I knew Takumi, to some extent.

Ryousuke is a brittler sort of genius, actually. He's more like an A++++ personality overachiever who is just good at everything he does, which is his downfall in a way because he has to choose, and he's willing and capable of shouldering these responsibilities and so forth. The old Asian Heir Expectations conundrum I don't need to describe, because you know the hamster wheel as intimately as I do XD (and why you cannot just be like "screw it all, I'll do what I want" - don't you hate people who say you should?). I suppose we should all be grateful he didn't find a Death Note and go on a rampage.

I think Ryousuke's somewhat jealous of Takumi and Keisuke. Takumi because there are no expectations on him other than to become a great driver (and even that is never stated in such a way that he realises it), and Keisuke because Keisuke is perfectly capable of not giving a fuck what anybody thinks. Baldly stated they are dumber and more impulsive and thus will live more fulfilled lives, probably. xD And it translates to their driving, and is an innate character thing - Ryousuke's aware he has a limit, if only because he cannot actually turn his forebrain off and let his muscles do the work, but Takumi doesn't think in terms of limits and five-year plan Bs, so it's the same as not having a limit really. And Takumi is younger and has more years ahead of him blah de blah. Ryousuke's attracted to what he doesn't have, like anybody else.

Except Ryousuke has his pride, too. I think he could admit all this to Takumi as long as he's perfectly certain Takumi will have no idea what he's talking about. xD

Ryousuke really walks a tightrope in the series. He doesn't have to be it himself, all he wants to do is prove his point, and if it turns out he has to graft Takumi's elbow to his toes or something he might do it for the sake of vindicating his theory (or what else is he a med student for). And Takumi and Keisuke basically give him carte blanche. Ryousuke gives them orders and manipulates and plays mind games on them on like a daily basis. They take it because they trust him that much, period: Ryousuke is the brains of the operation. He literally restricts information so that they're all *_* and don't realise he's fallible. It's like being the general of an army, the soldiers fight better when they think God is leading them.

But only Ryousuke knows how fallible Ryousuke actually is - how much percentages and guesswork and calculated risktaking, how many mistakes - and who knows if at this point they're already better drivers than Ryousuke is in practice? I think in his heart of hearts he doesn't consider himself a very good person. ^^;

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

Alas I can't make you talk about GyouTai again, can I. ... Whassisname the wizard and whassisname the prince in Crimson Spell? XD

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Ahaha rilly? XD

I have this theory: Crimson Spell is actually a multi-player RPG (possibly MMORPG though more likely a tabletop campaign). Hallwil is played by a very out and very proud fifteen-year-old boy. Val is played by his best friend and perfect enemy, who is a girl, a gaming newbie, and likes fantasy but not BL (yet). They have frequent near-fistfights over the fact that his overbuffed wizard keeps molesting her self-insert prince. The storyteller/DM is a boy, a bit stereotypically smart nerd otaku and technician worldbuilder who is sarcastic with the shenanigans of his players when he can be bothered not to ignore the happenings, but he has to put up with them because he can't find anyone else to play with, and they have to put up with him because he owns all the books and equipment. Ruruka is played by his younger sister, who likes cute things and is into BL. She probably blackmailed him into letting her into the game.

I suppose the other important characters that begin to appear are also players, although some are obviously NPCs. XD I haven't made up backstories for them though.

Other than this sidewise approach to the subject... I think it's funny that VF has become Yamane's flagship series when it's an anomaly in so many ways. Pretty much everything else of hers is a variation on hetare/puppydog seme x genki/brash uke - she draws these beautiful smouldering-eyed Apollonian semes and they are all complete DORKS in personality. Hallwil is a perfect example. He can be cool - sometimes - but even when he is cool it's in a I-am-actually-fifteen-years-old sort of way. Val cleaves even closer to her uke template.

[marici.livejournal.com]

I just finished the scene in your icon today. Worse: I skimmed ahead last night, saw the embrace, and thought "Whew! It's going to be ok." *is dead* So, ramble about Faye, please. I'd ask him a question, but I assume if I asked what he's running from, we'd end up talking about fish.

[marici.livejournal.com]

And since I'm third to ask (icon's fault), let me further specify: Fai and Kurogane seem unwilling to let S&S out of their sight when they find them again. In particular, Fai who isn't much of a toucher, makes a big deal out of keeping them together when they transit with a giant hug. Comments, speculation?

[helvetius.livejournal.com]

I can't remember if you have ever commented on this pairing (my memory is losing me), but Padfoot and Moony!

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I've probably talked about them from time to time, back in the day. XD Recently someone on the flist (I think it was in one of worldserpent's comment threads) was talking about how she found it weird that the S/R shippers convinced everyone in the fandom that they were canon

**PAUSE FOR SEVERAL HOURS OF PENNY ARCADE (no, I don't know either)**

to the extent that shippers for other Sirius or Remus pairings found it necessary to introduce apologetics as if they were actually breaking up a canon romance. XD And I thought, yeah! That is actually true, how bizarre! Book 5 allowed you to assume they were canon without happening to do anything you'd have to handwave away, and for fandom apparently the allowance was enough. XD More to the point S/R was what made me include HP in my list of slashable works which previous to book 3 it would not have remotely touched. In practice I've read a lot more H/D but that's because I think fanon!Draco and Harry tends to be an improvement on the original whereas the same cannot necessarily be said of fanon!Remus or Sirius. And out of the myriad possibilities of the Worldwide Internets re the pairing what I like best is Marauders-era Japanese fanart, so.

I don't really do S/R now, because I just don't do HP anymore. And I don't have anything to say about the pairing in and of itself that hasn't been reiterated in a million fics and essays, so you get meta. ^^; But there is affection.

[mitethe.livejournal.com]

Atobe/Ryouma Takumi/Keisuke/Ryousuke (ok, not exactly a pairing, but! XD;)

[subaru-san.livejournal.com]

How about Asami? ^_^

Cynthia

[nettlecoats.livejournal.com]

Totally random lurker! delurking just. Because. Um. I have been meaning to gush to you about Maidens for years now, and have repeatedly failed - every time I go back to reread it my brain melts, which is no excuse, but. If you would possibly deign to talk about Hotohori, or Nuriko/Hotohori, or Hotohori's mother, or really anything even tangentially related to Hotohori, I would keel over dead from happiness (...like a schmoo!).

[nettlecoats.livejournal.com]

Feel free to ignore of course, i.e. dear lord what the hell was I thinking posting a week after the fact. Possibly I was delirious from a prolonged bout of career anxiety. Was that ETA there before? If so I apologize for being horribly rude. This is me running away to read Diana Wynne Jones and be neurotic.