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sarahjtv · 3 years

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BNHA Chapter 309 Spoiler Thoughts: Izuku and Inko Midoriya, and Some More Things Along The Way

The chapter leaks are here again! Thanks to all the people on Twitter and here on Tumblr for providing us with scans and translations. This chapter helps explain some things that a lot of us were wondering about. Sadly, there’s still no Bakugo, or Shoto, or any other UA kids really; they’re only in flashbacks. But, we do get to see what All Might and the Top 3 Heroes (Endeavor, Hawks, and Best Jeanist) are up to, so that’s something. Anyway, remember to take what I say with a grain of salt until the official translations come out on Sunday:

The chapter starts a few minutes after Deku beat Muscular. He’s flying through the air taking an unconscious Muscular tied up in his Black Whip. The other Ketsubusu Academy students from the Lisence Exam see him too. Thankfully the stubborn civilians from 2 chapters ago are willing to help Yo Shindo recover in exchange for not listening moving to the school shelters. Also, Shindo’s barely conscious, but he does actually remember Deku. He’s just not the same Deku as before. Not much for me to say here except that I wonder if Shindo’s going to help spread the word about Deku’s actions. Not just to his classmates, but I wonder if the words’ going to get out to the news and UA. Actually, word might not even get that far since Shindo was only one of the few people in that exam that really even interacted with Deku...

Deku hands Muscular over to the police for them to take care off. He also makes sure to cover himself up in Smokescreen to hide his identity. So, Deku really is working in the shadows here. It is best that the public doesn’t know what Deku is doing so that the LoV don’t track him down. My man’s really going down the Batman route. Oh, I also have to admire Deku’s smartphone here kept in this steel case. I was going to say it’s a burner phone, but burner phones break easily for a reason and this one clearly doesn’t. Maybe it’s a special one that can’t be tracked down.

And we finally get to see All Might again! He is actively working with Deku instead of just not knowing where his protege is. He’s wearing casual clothes (jacket, jeans, sunglasses, the works) when he meets up with Deku in an alleyway. I’m honestly glad that All Might is still supervising Deku. I mean, Deku on his own would’ve been badass, but when you’re going up against people like AFO and Shigaraki, you’re going to need some help. Especially when laying low. Even with supervision, I still think Deku counts as a vigilante b/c I don’t think his license works if he’s not at UA. I will believe this unless proven otherwise.

It’s explained that the “wrapping” on Deku’s arms are actually gauntlets called “Mid-Gauntlets”, which are what are helping hold Deku’s arms together. And they are VERY similar to the gauntlets that Melissa Shield from Two Heroes gave Deku. Deku even says that All Might ordered them from the USA before travel restrictions were put in place. I know that it’s only implied, but there’s no doubt in my mind that Deku’s new gauntlets were made by Melissa. Even if you want to doubt it, at this point, Two Heroes (and by extension Heroes Rising and probably the upcoming 3rd movie, World Heroes Mission) are canon. Honestly, I’m cool with it. I liked Melissa and I’m glad her presence is still around (she was even in a Team-Up Mission chapter with Hatsume). I do wonder if we’re ever going to see her in the main story. It would be nice to see Melissa again.

The gauntlets are test samples and are used to enhance endurance. All Might says that they can’t withstand 100% of OFA yet. Which means that Deku actually beat Muscular with less than 100% unlike their first fight where Deku had to use over 100% just to knock him out. So, does this mean that, say, Deku’s current 45% is stronger than his 100+% back in the Forest Camp? Or maybe it was just the combo of moves and strategy rather then Deku just punching his way through things.

Small detail, but All Might’s phone goes off with that “I AM HERE” ringtone we heard before and Deku comments that this particular one is from All Might’s Silver Age TV Special! It’s such a small thing, but I love that Deku still has that All Might fanboy in him despite everything 💚! Somethings truly never change.

And back to the Top 3: Endeavor, Hawks, and Best Jeanist! Endeavor and Best Jeanist are teaming up to kick a villain’s ass while Hawks is talking to All Might on the phone. It looks like Hawks got a few costume changes particularly his visor/glasses which look more boxy than they did before if that makes sense. Oh, and they’re also helping All Might work with Deku. Makes sense since all three vowed to help take down Dabi earlier and Shigaraki and AFO definitely extend from that.

Deku’s Danger Sense is going off, so he’s probably going to check out any danger he can find in case it’s the LoV. I do wonder if that harms Deku still. It was said that it felt like a stabbing in his head and it must’ve been bad enough for the 4th OFA Holder to live in the forest away from society. Man, I really hope our boy is ok (I know he’s not really, let me have this).

But yeah, Hawks (still wingless, but with a nice little undercut btw😳) explains that Deku's afraid of dragging other people in his battles like All Might. Hawks also goes on to say that it’s best to take the initiative in taking down AFO and Shigaraki rather than waiting for them to appear all powered up. He also wants All Might to keep supporting him despite the difficult position he’s in (remember that All Might’s technically Qurikless again and can’t really fight on his own). It makes sense for them to go after the Villains again while they can. If Deku fought Shigaraki while Shigaraki was at full strength, Deku would lose easily. Even at 75%, Shigaraki was able to kill and injure A LOT of people, and Deku was lucky to even make it out there alive. They need to find Shigaraki SOON!

Flashback to Central Hospital before Deku jumped UA ship! Recover Girl and Central Hospital’s high-tech were responsible for many of the patience recovering quickly and being discarged. Deku was just there a little longer than the others. So, we can assume that all our UA kids and some notable heroes made it out alive after being treated. Still don’t know what happened to some people like Tamaki and Fat Gum tho 😭.

All Might and Deku’s mom, Inko (thank god she’s ok), are by Deku’s bedside as his casts are taken off. Deku’s doctor (who looks like Super Mario/Luigi; the whole Super Mario crew must run this damn place. Where’s Bowser and Princess Peach) explains that despite his former warnings about his ligaments, Deku’s limbs are still functioning because he’s not the same as he was before. So, before, Deku’s injuries were like his limbs were exploding from the inside, but this time those “explosions” were able to escape his body. Also his Black Whip cast helped keep Deku’s arm in tact so that he wouldn’t pulverize himself. His ligimates are still degrading too, so Deku still has to be careful. I think he might have a few more small scars too, but that could just be shadows or muscle lining from Horikoshi’s pen-work.

Ok, honestly, I’m not sure how this logically works... I’m no medical professional, but I assume this means that Deku’s built his body up so much that it’s naturally able to withstand more damage than before and that’s why he’s more durable. But, I don’t know how Deku was able to let the “explosions” escape this time. I get the reverse; I get how he got injured before, but I don’t get this. Was it the Black Whip brace he made for himself? I honestly don’t really understand this. Maybe the official translations will clear this up. Or Horikoshi will in a Tweet or Volume Extra.

And Inko is finally informed of OFA thank the gods! She was in the top of my list of “People who should really, really know OFA and what’s going on with Deku because I swear...”. She’s clearly shaken up as anyone would be, but I’m glad she at least knows what’s going on with her son. Yes, she’s still worried, but at least she can stop guessing why all this is happening.

Deku announces the reason why he won’t go back to UA and it’s basically that Shigaraki can sense where Deku is and he doesn’t want to see anyone else close to him get hurt and/or die. So, basically what I thought would be the reason. Absolutely no surprise there. But, going after Shigaraki and AFO first was originally Deku’s idea, so that’s something new. Kid’s bold.

And this broke my heart 💔! Inko insists that Deku stay with her to stay safe, but Deku knows what he has to do. So, he thanks his mom, thanks her for making him happy, and tells her that he’ll be ok and that he’ll come back home with a somber smile on his face. We see a flashback to Little Deku and Inko too when they were happier. Bro, I don’t even know what to say. I am in tears just writing this 😭 I’ll just post these two panels so y’all can cry with me. I will never recover from this. I’m fucking devastated. You better come home, Deku:

*sniffs* All Might remembers what he said to Inko. He remembers how he said that he will protect Deku with his life. All Might encourages Deku to go and he says that he’ll go with him with tears in his eyes. He asks the Top 3 to help with this mission (finding Dabi) as their own mission coincides with Deku’s (finding Shigaraki and AFO). I’m so glad all these adults are staying by Deku’s side throughout this. It’s good to know that Deku still has support, though I wish it were from some of his friends too. Maybe one day.

Deku goes to see Grand Torino in his hospital room to talk to him about OFA. He mentions his friend and 7th Holder Nana Shimura. Torino thinks he was responsible for killing Shigaraki (he really wasn’t let's be real). He also tells Deku that Deku shouldn’t be so persistent in saving Shigaraki as killing can sometimes lead to salvation. Ok, few things:

1. I am surprised Grand Tarino is still alive. I mean, we don’t know what happened to him after this talk, but at least he got to hear from Deku again. It’s kind of nice to know that Tarino willingly passed down his cape to Deku too instead of Deku just taking it after his death. Also, I’ve been watching some of Jujutsu Kaisen like everyone else has and this give me some Yuji & his grandfather vibes to it. Knowing what happens there and that JJK’s magaka is good friends with Horikoshi, I have a sinking feeling I know what happened after this talk...

2. Deku looks so much older here. Like, it’s not that cute, innocent baby face we knew at the beginning. I don’t even know what it is exactly (maybe the eyes), but he just looks more mature here. Also, his uniform some buttons down looks really good on him, I’m sorry but I need to mention that too 💚.

3. “Killing is a means towards salvation”. Oh, boy... I mean, I get it. Some people just can’t be saved or captured in hopes of rehabilitation/redemption. Sometimes killing people is necessary to save others. But, Deku is not a killer. He will try to save Shigaraki no matter what. That was established again last chapter. He tried to save Muscular for god’s sake. But, I am curious if Gran Tarino’s words are going to hold any weight in the final fight. Like, will Deku have to kill Shigaraki? What will that do to Deku as a person? I’m really curious if Horikoshi is going to make Deku do this.

And finally, there’s a page showing off the Top 3, Deku, and All Might team up with the resolve to beat the LoV. I am really interested to see where this goes. Deku is working with the big Pro Heroes instead of his classmates/friends. This hasn’t really happened before. I also wonder if Shoto and Bakugo know what Deku’s doing then. Because Shoto’s going to help Endeavor and his family find Dabi. Endeavor’s activley helping Deku. Also, Endeavor and Best Jeanist are both Bakugo’s mentors. All Might too actually. Look, maybe I’m making excuses to see my Origin Trio together again, but I do have to wonder if Shoto and Bakugo are involved somehow.

Welp, that’s it. This chapter was a rollercoaster! I was excited, I was confused, I was worried, I cried my eyes out at one point because THOSE TWO PANELS I CANNOT 💔😭! I’m honestly just waiting for Horokishi to drop some major time-skip on us at some point. I don’t want him to, but I won’t be entirely surprised if he does. The end of this chapter is a good place to end if Horikoshi wants to segway into something else like, oh IDK, THE UA KIDS LET ME SEE THEM AGAIN HORIKOSHI PLS I’M BEGGING 💸

Me @ Horikoshi almost every week:

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pepsi-beat · 3 years

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chapter 1. the prey

pairing: Din Djarin x fem!Reader

series title: The Way

word count: 2,8K

warnings: angst maybe?, The Mandalorian s2 finale spoilers, canon typical violence, blood and injuries, 3rd person pov, Din Djarin pov, lack of “Y/N”, reader is called “Girl”, amnesia, reader's species is unknown, a little ooc Din Djarin

summary: Greef Karga assured him it was an easy job. Find a woman. Get her to the husband she ran away from. And that's it. But... not exactly.

a/n: Hello there! I’m pretty new when it comes to writing and publishing here. I hope you like what I have for you. I write it so I could get away from my uni responsibilities. I don’t know if I can finish this, but I really liked idea. So we will see.

Chapter 1

THE PREY

Naboo. A sparsely populated planet located in the Mid Rim in the Chommell sector of the Naboo system. Occupied the third position in the system, provides a standard gravity and breathable atmosphere. It had three moons.

Naboo was known for its natural and cultural values. The inhabitants were famous for their beautiful, perfectly refined products that made an impression throughout the galaxy. People did well here, the place has always seemed completely cut off from the rest of the Galaxy. Slow, free, peaceful.

Din wasn’t used to chasing his victims in places like Naboo. Usually he had to wade through the Outer Rim Territories. Through inhospitable and harsh planets, where survival required quite a bit of cunning or a deep pocket stuffed with credits.

He landed a Dragonfly on a meadow covered with lush green grass and colorful flowers. He turned off the engines, put the computer to it hibernate mode, then he turned with a soft sigh to the co-pilot's seat. His heart tightened with fear as he found it empty. But before he could jump up from his seat and start searching, he painfully remembered that it didn't make sense. His throat tightened with regret, and he walked briskly through the cockpit and then through the hull to the stern, where he made his way out.

Two months have passed since the events on the Imperial cruiser. Two extremely long and surprisingly lonely months.

As the Jedi departed, taking Grogu with him, Din had to deal with the issue of the Darksaber. Bo-Katan refused to take it and Din refused to keep it. Finally, they decided to duel. Bo-Katan chose a time and place – some deserted rocky planet. Din knew that if he had given up the fight, the Mandalorian woman would have been offended and wouldn’t have taken that damned saber. On the other hand, he was reluctant to fight the woman, but he quickly realized that all his fears were baseless.

Bo-Katan was highly trained warrior, so the fight was levelised. It took a long time, but in the end the woman fairly won, becoming the new ruler of Mandalore. Before they finally departed, she asked him one more time to join her.

Din refused, but promised that if she needed his help, he would come back. Then Boba Fett left him and Cara on Nevarro, where the marshal kept her word. She called for New Republic, who took Moff Gideon and Din received his prize. Credits. Lots of credits. Suddenly, he became so rich that he could easilly to buy a ship, weapons, and substitute the equipment he had lost with the Razor Crest. And he still has some left.

The Dragonfly was a good ship. Pre-Empire, but was still newer than Razor Crest. After many modifications and modernizations, it could easily compete with newer models. Unlike the Crest, it was much more slender and more agile. The Dragonfly was oblong with a tiny but comfortable kitchenette, refresher, workshop, small armory, several bunks, couches, and a lot of space. The Dragonfly had so much space that Din was uncomfortable. However, he bought this ship, because of all the trouble Cara had gone to find it.

Then, he went back to work as a bounty hunter. He felt that he had to fill the void in his heart with something and returning to hunting seemed to be the best solution in his situation.

Of course, Din visited his tribe's old hideout, but found only useless equipment. The Armorer had left Nevarro some time ago and Din had no idea where she might have gone. So he promised to himself, he would find another Mandalorian’s hideout, but it was easier said than done. Especially after the long time he spent on the run with Grogu.

Din put the beskar spear in its place and returned to the hull. He reached for the control panel, the durasteel door swung open and the platform touched the ground.

Naboo was… different. Brighter, happier, more vivid than any other planet he had ever seen. The colors were more intense, the sun was warmer, the wind was kinder and gentler and the animals were fearless as if they never met a human before and never been hurt by their hands. Naboo was so different that he wanted to take off his helmet and take a deep breath. Get some fresh air, not the air he was breathing through the filters.

Din checked the tracker, the last coordinates of his target and compared it with his current position.

It didn't take long. An hour, maybe two. During this time, he managed to find the X-Wing with which his target had undoubtedly arrived. It was good news. The bad news was that there was another ship in the meadow besides the X-Wing. Din didn't recognize it, but he knew who it belongs anyway. To another bounty hunter. And that was bad news.

He analyzed the footprints. Those belonging to the target were a bit older, unlike those belonging to the bounty hunter.

Blaster shots. Female screams. Din's body reacted instinctively. In one quick move he pulled the blaster from his belt, then ran where the sounds were coming from. The direction coincided with the footprints.

He ran between the trees. The shots stopped, but the closer he got, the better he could hear the conversation. He distinguished between the frightened woman speaking in the basic and the squawk of a Rodian. Finally Din ran into a small clearing. He froze with a blaster aimed at the Rodian when the bounty hunter spotted him and shouted in Rodese.

"Calm down" said Din. ”I'm in the Guild.”

Suca Chodasso, the target by which Din had ventured as far as Naboo, knelt weeping among flowers. She was holding another woman's body in her arms, pressing her face against the hollow of her own neck. The target threaded herfingers into the deceased's disheveled hair. After each sentence she spoke, her mouth touched the top of the girl’s head.

The Rodian said something in Rodese again, but this time he was addressing Suca Chodasso. But he was so nervous that Din found it hard to understand him.

"I have nothing! I didn't steal anything! " Suca called back. Her voice was trembling and her hands were shaking.

It was uncomfortable situation. He tracked down his target, used a lot of fuel to reach Naboo and yet he wasn't the first. There were such situations, but he was still upset that someone else had received the puck.

As the Rodian addressed him urgently, Din sighed so softly that the vocoder couldn’t register it. He nodded, but his eyes went to the crying Suca. She must have felt his gaze as she tore her eyes away from her companion's face and turned her head toward him. Her eyes seemed to be begging him to do something, but Din's hands were tied.

He turned on his heel as there was a soft moan. Din stopped and looked over his shoulder. The girl he had considered to be dead before, moved slightly. She slowly raised one of her limp hands and touched her temples with her fingers. Suca Chodasso looked at her in horror. She leaned in slightly, possibly saying something in her companion's ear, but Din's attention was absorbed by the Radian's next words.

"Leave her! She has nothing to do with it! " Suca sobbed. She bent over the girl, covering her with her body as the Rodian was about to shoot.

Din's blaster smoked slightly as the Rodian's body fell onto the grass. The Mandalorian turned to the huddled women, but he already knew he was late.

Due to Suca's position, when she shielded her companion, the laser pierced the top of her head, passed through her neck and spine. Her body lay pitifully with a smoky, nasty wound that made even Din grimace.

Quick, shallow breaths, which the Mandalorian recognized as signs of an impending panic attack, brought him back. He walked over to Suca Chodasso's body and pushed her unceremoniously aside.

"Easy now," he said. "Take it easy, girl."

The girl didn't even look at him. Her wide eyes stared at the sky. She was gasping for air through her mouth in gusts like someone who was choking. Her face and chest were stained with red blood stains.

Din frowned at the large gash on the girl's temple and the bullet hole on her arm. Right above the heart. The blood that flowed from the wounds was very thick, silver and pearly.

"You’re safe now."

The girl stopped breathing. She froze in an unnatural stillness that worried Din, but as soon as his hand touched her shoulder, she moved again. The girl closed her mouth and eyes and began to breathe calmly. Very calmly. Way too slow.

"Girl?"

"Who are you?"

She looked at him… weirdly. Din couldn't tell what it was, but something was clearly wrong with her. She had pretty eyes, but at the same time they were cold, as if they belonged to a dead man.

The Mandalorian stepped back a bit. He helped the girl get to a sitting position, but he didn't say a word as she looked around. Din flexed all his muscles in preparation for what was to come. He expected screams, crying, and accusations. He had expected the girl to panic, attack him, but she… was calm.

She looked at the dead Suca Chodasso for a long time. She touched her face, then ran her fingers over her own temple as if looking for something there. But she found nothing. Even her wound was on the other side of her face.

"Girl?"

She looked reluctantly at Din. The bounty hunter held out three fingers.

"How many fingers do you see?"

"Three."

He repeated the test two more times and the girl answered well each time.

"What's your name?"

Girl opened her mouth, but said nothing. Only then did panic spread across her face.

She looked at something over Din's shoulder, but before the Mandalorian could say anything, he was thrown to the ground. He heard the sound of a blaster laser hitting a durasteel, so he rolled over, picked up his gun and aimed it. He aimed blindly at first, but as another shot bounced off his chestplate, he knew where to shoot. After a moment, he heard a heavy body fall to the ground, so he rose to his feet.

The girl groaned in pain or surprise. Din looked at her and saw her hand tighten on her arm, more of this weird thick silver blood leaking from between her fingers.

"Wait here," he said. Before the girl could reply, Din was already on his way to the shooting direction.

It was another bounty hunter. Din found the tracker in his pocket. Useless because the target was already dead. But still. The tracker.

The Mandalorian frowned. It was also suspicious. Greef Karga assured him it was an easy job. Find a woman. Get her to the husband she ran away from. And that's it. Even the prize offered for her screamed an easy going.

Din wasn’t interested in why Suca Chodasso was escaping at all, and he never thought about it. Only looking at his target holding this girl in her arms made begin to wonder if it was some kind of scandalous romance. He was willing to believe it.

If it werent for the Rodian's allegations or for the third bounty hunter. Another puck. Another tracker.

He had seen it once before. When he had pledged to track down Grog some time ago and then had bounty hunters on his tail. When he got involved in the affairs of the Jedi and the Empire. He was done. He didn't want to play it again, so a part of him was even glad that the target was no longer alive.

He trow the tracker away, then returned to the girl. She sat curled up where he had left her. Her face in her hands. She sobbed, shook. Hearing his footsteps, she sobbed a little softer, as if she was holding back. Then she wiped the tears with her hands, but that only smeared her silver blood over her skin. She watched as Din knelt beside her and reached a hand to her injured arm.

She must have been hit when she threw Din to the ground. She saved him even though she didn't have to.

"You're hurt…”

"I don't know who I am," she whispered at the same moment. There were even more tears in her eyes. Wide with fear. "I-I don't know. I don’t know. Who am I? My mind is blank.”

She gasped like a wounded animal and hid her face in her hands again. Din could only watch her silently and wonder.

Was she lying to protect herself? Did she know something about the Rodian's allegations, even though Suca Chodasso had clearly stated in her last words that it had nothing to do with her? So why was she protecting him from the shot, then? Wouldn't it have been better for her if Din had died?

Or maybe she really didn't remember? She had been hurt in the head, but it was just a scratch. Not life threatening and certainly not the cause of memory loss. On the other hand, Din knew that people fell ill. He was aware that some of the weak psyche displace more painful events from their memories. But…

He could only watch, bewildered, until he painfully realized the gravity of the situation he was in.

If there were three trackers, there could be more. More bounty hunters might be on the way.

He sighed heavily. He reached for the cape and touched with it the wound on the girl’s head. She jumped back and Din held his hands out in front of him as a sign of peace.

"You're hurt. I want to wipe your blood and see if it's serious.”

But the girl wouldn't let him. She grabbed his hands and squeezed tight. Din wouldn't expect such strength from her.

"Tell me ... W-Who am I? Who is she? Why is she d-dead? Who are you? A-Are you okay? Does anything hurt you? You were shot! Stars! Why were you being shot at?”

Din blinked quickly. He knew his face showed shock and disbelief, which was why he was so grateful for the helmet he had to wear.

"They didn't shoot at me," he said finally, when the girl's insistent gaze became unbearable. "You were.”

"M-Me?” She whispered, her voice breaking.

She released Din's hands and began to back away until she found Suca Chodasso's body. She started to breathe spasmodically, but Din didn't have time for that. He got up. He glanced at Suca Chodasso, thought for a moment what he should do and then walked toward his ship.

"Wait!" The panicked girl exclaimed. "Don’t leave me! Please!”

"I'm done with babysitting.”

"Please!”

Something in her voice made Din suddenly believe her. He stopped. Turned slowly until he came face her. She seemed lost, scared… As if she really didn't know what was going on.

Maybe she was just a victim? Maybe she was an ordinary inhabitant of Naboo and Suca Chodasso met her by chance? Maybe she asked for help and this poor girl agreed to help, not knowing what she write on? Maybe she really didn't know who she was? She was shocked. Suddenly she found herself in the middle of a shootout between three bounty hunters. Din could believe it was too much for her.

He made a decision.

He walked over to the girl and held out his hand. She stared at him with terrified eyes, but didn't hesitate. Din helped her up from the grass, then walked over to Suca Chodasso's body, which he slung over his shoulder. Then he began to head towards the ship again.

"Why… Why are you taking her?” The girl asked with panic in her voice.

Din suppressed a sigh.

"She's wanted. Alive or dead, you will receive a reward for her head.”

"Me?”

This time Din sighed loudly. He wasn't happy with the fact that he had to explain himself.

"I don't know what you remember about what happened. But I didn't get her. The bounty hunter who tracked her down is dead. You probably know her, so you will get money as compensation.”

It was cruel. Din knew this, but he had no idea what else to do. So far, this seemed to be the best solution.

He really couldn't take the money for Suca Chodasso. It wouldn't be fair, so he might as well give it to the girl who was definitely the first to deal with the target. And if she ever remembers that she knew her… well. Din hoped to be very far away from the girl then.

The girl fell silent. She really didn't make any sounds. She moved noiselessly, causing Din to keep checking to see if she was following him. But she was there. She walked, wrapping her arms around herself, staring at the toes of her shoes. She was dirty, beaten, wounded. She looked pathetic.

And to think that he should have learned long time ago to not take seemingly easy jobs. They are the most problematic ones.

#din djarin x female reader #din djarin x reader #din djarin x you #din djarin imagine #mando x reader #mando x you #mando x fem!reader #din djarin x fem!reader #reader insert #star wars x reader #the mandalorian x reader #star wars imagine #the mandalorian imagine #female reader #x reader

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littleeyesofpallas · 4 years

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There's a Bleach rant ive been trying (and failing) to sort out in a nice orderly succinct post for a while now about how thru a mix of my usual rundown of the Arrancar Arc set up, my (also) usual metatextual reading, and then also slipping into some headacanon-y territory, I've convinced myself that the real endgame on the Arrancar Arc should've been a confrontation between the Visored as "surprise" villains and the Vastlord Arrancar as surprise good guys.

In part key to this being my already kind of established theory on this blog that the Fullbringers were basically a rehash of a dropped Visored plot that we never got to see fleshed out in the Arrancar Arc. I'm pretty certain the Visored's goal (if they'd ever even gotten around to being given one...) would have been to obtain the Hougyoku to become human again(again this kind of banking on my other established theories including that the Visored weren't actually shinigami but human substitute shinigami like Ichigo) as their hollows were a curse. But then as a twist they'd really be out to further push their hybrid power as neither Shinigami nor Hollow. Meaning they’d have been a ragtag group of 3rd party humans without rank, whom Ichigo turns to for guidance when the Shinigami and Urahara can’t help him, who appear initially hostile, end up friendly and kind of goofy, but ultimately were training Ichigo for their own benefit and not out of benevolence.

But then, opposite this, the Arrancar were clearly positioned to be an inversion of the Visored, not just in the basic outline of their powers but in their implicit alignment as well. Notably, the shinigami were already of questionable morality after the Soul Society Arc and it seemed like Kubo had every intention of following up on that.

Now, there’s a lot more to all of this than that... but that’s kind of where I keep tripping myself up in tangents, so let’s just kind of move along for now...

If we figure that the Visored were positioned to be villains masquerading as allies, and posit from there that the Arrancar might not all be as villainous as they seem we find that any potential evidence of this being set up hinges on the elusive nature of the Vastlord. We know they're human sized and stronger than a captain as hollows, that they are very few in number, and that Aizen is actively seeking them out in order to complete/perfect the Espada, and that he is quick to discard and replace weak Espada. (ala Grimmjow/Luppi and the Privaron.)

The first and only real Vastlord we see is Wonderweiss, as we catch a single glimpse of him as a Hollow, but bound in bandages, just before he’s turned into an Arrancar by Aizen; the only time we actually see this process; He is clearly humanoid in shape and size in this scene, and given the context above all being freshly exposited at that point in the story, it’s a pretty clear inference. This would mean that Wonderweiss is positioned to be one of Aizen’s new, perfect Espada ranks, soon to replace one of the existing ones. (although this is never followed through on.)

Of note, Wonderweiss shows up in the diversion party covering up Orihime’s abduction alongside other Espada, and takes Urahara offguard, strongly suggesting that he is in the very least stronger than Yammy, who struggled to keep up with Urahara previously. Other than just a nebulously high power level, Wonderweiss stands out by his vacant/dimwitter and/or child-like demeanor. Of note: Tousen refers to him as “Pure” although even he doesn’t seem to know what exactly that means.

But you know who else has a nebulous power level, ominously foreshadowed (before not being followed up on for a long time) and a generally innocent and child-like demeanor? Nel.

When Nel is first introduced she actually drops a bit of info about how the Numeros are the ranked Arrancar of Aizen’s army, and how she isn’t one of them, implying that there are just other arrancar living out in Hueco Mundo. Additionally there are a few peculiarities about her and her companions: For one her mask is not clearly broken nor actually missing much of itself at all, which seems to imply her mask wasn’t removed properly (something Kubo does happen to follow up on, but I’ll get to that later...) and although their brief discussion with Ichigo does identify all three of them as Arrancar, Dondochakka and Pesche don’t actually look like Arrancar at all. Although it can be argued that Pesche’s mask is broken and hidden under the fabric bolted over one eye, Dondochakka’s mask appears fully intact, and he doesn’t even have a hollow hole...

So here’s another bit of where I get tripped up by my own meta headcanon... Kubo seems to have a general habit of taking old ideas and reusing them, sometimes it’s character types or dynamics, sometimes its powers and themes, sometimes it’s certain panels or scenes. And I feel like he does this most often when the first time he tried, he didn’t quite get everything he wanted out of it.

I also believe that Kubo’s very traceable plans for the Arrancar Arc that he set up early on, were effectively ditched by around the time the Grimmjow fight happened. And broadly speaking, I realize that that is a less substantiated theory than some of what I peddle. And I can go into a lot of the kind of orbital evidence that I think suggests it, but it still only goes so far, and doesn’t amount anything irrefutably concrete, so I’m going to also fight the urge to go on that particular rant...

NOW, with that in mind, I think Nel’s dynamic with Nnoitra was originally part of something that Kubo was effectively at risk of losing when he shifted gears to wrap up the Hueco Mundo rescue mission faster. And in his usual style, I think he quickly retooled key moments of that dynamic into what we wound up with in order to quickly shoehorn it into what remained of the Hueco Mundo phase of the arc while he still had the chance: Nnoitra taunting Ichigo for not knowing “what” Nel is; his inferiority complex; and a number of small scenes and exchanges, including the one where Nel waxes philosophical on what it means to have gone from Human to Hollow to Arrancar. I believe that this accounts for a number of issues I see with Nel’s whole reveal and fight and backstory with Nnoitra not really fitting into the general flow of the story or the timeline we’d been given prior. (which is, you guessed it, another rant I’m not getting into here!)

A few additional weird notes that I don’t even know how to rectify personally...

in the Unmasked character book Ulquiorra gets his little flashback origin story, which I don’t really know if I’d place in the realm of building on Kubo’s final continuity for the arc, as something he salvaged from old ideas, or something he honestly just did more or less outside of continuity as bonus content just because it’s what he was vibing that week... But it suggests Ulquiorra wasn’t actually made by Aizen but was a naturally occurring Arrancar who removed his own mask. And in the bounds of this particular building theory that actually puts him in a category similar to Nel, as a Vastlord who got his masked removed by means other the the Hougyoku. And I don’t think I need to remind you about his whole character arc with Orihime and his fixation with finding out what Heart is and how he die a more sympathetic figure than most of the Arrancar.

Starrk’s awkward death flashback where he also appears to have not actually been made by the Hougyoku at all, but is in fact a naturally occurring Arrancar. And his similar disposition to Ulquiorra, where they both seem possessed by a sense of longing for surprisingly human connections(and understanding of Heart, and companionship) and is actually rather adverse to fighting if he can help it.

And finally (I promise this is all going somewhere...) Zommari’s extremely peculiar death in which he berated Byakuya and shinigami for having arrogantly and self-righteously appointed themselves protectors of humans and executioners of Hollows, something he suggests is against a kind of natural order or sense of justice. He dies praising Aizen, implicitly as someone who appears to have promised him and the other Arrancar an alternative to this system. As a tiny tack on, Aisslinger also dies with similar praise for Aizen, saying that Hollows are born from fear and only someone fearless like Aizen has the right to lead the Arrancar.

SO... Now that we’ve collected these kind of disparate bits of data I’m not even gonna waste your time with trying to suss out the difference between the inferred continuity, the meta-textual intent, or speculation(because that’s where I get lost in these drafts) I’m just gonna launch right into fullblown headcanon...

...in a part 2 post.... because otherwise this’ll be twice and long and nobody wants that...

#bleach #meta #rant #ramble

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cienie-isengardu · 4 years

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Supernovas Trio: Zoro-Luffy-Law and Zoro-Luffy-Kid

Because I’m overthinking OP again, here come some thoughts how manga visually presented Zoro, Luffy & Law during fight in Dressrosa in contrast to Zoro, Luffy & Kid shared moments in Wano. By visual presentation I mean all the frames where the three appeared at the same time, what was the positioning of the characters and especially who occupied the central part of Trio.

In Dressrosa arc, there was a moment when the three Supernovas - Luffy, Zoro and Law - were separated from the rest of Straw Hats. It was the first time Zoro had a longer interaction (screentime) with Law since Punk Hazard. About Roronoa and Trafalgar relationship I’m gonna talk one day in separate post, but for now let’s look at source:

Starting with OP #746, this chapter was more like set up for the rest of their journey together. And of course, because of Luffy, Law had the misfortune to be completely defenseless and dependent on the madness of fellow Supernovas. On the panels where we could see all of three of them at the same time, Zoro was always placed close to Luffy, who made the central figure of the Supernovas Trio:

The next chapter, 747 put straight away the three Supernovas in middle of enemy group and Zoro even needed to save Luffy and Law trapped by Donflamingo’s men. Here, place of Zoro has changed, and now it is (defenseless) Law in middle of group instead of Luffy.

what makes sense, since Luffy is carrying Law on the shoulder, so his one hand is constantly busy by keeping Trafalgar in place. Thus, he can’t fight at full capacity, so Zoro, if not alone to keep Law safe, for sure is guarding his captain’s less protected side.

Yet once they get away from Donflamingo’s officers, Luffy again is presented as a central figure of Supernova trios:

only for the Trio to run into Marine Admiral Issho

Like I said earlier, when Luffy and Zoro kept Law between themselves, A) the defenseless Trafalgar is safest in the middle and B) Luffy’s weak point is guarded by trusted first mate. Yet once the Trio run away from enemy’s loyal fighters, they fall back into previous (visual) dynamic, all centered around Luffy.

Of course, Zoro knows very well his captain and how great powerhouse he is, so he does not need really fret over the situation. But at the same time, both Luffy and Zoro are this kind of men that take seriously their commitment to allies and whatever Law want it or not, Luffy already decided to consider him as a friend than just a fellow pirate.

I guess, despite the danger, Luffy and Zoro are just confident in their own skills, while the poor Law can only trust that his allies will not kill him in the process.

In chapter 748, Supernovas Trio, thanks to Luffy’s lack of common sense (a.k.a. lauging at high voice of Pica), pissed Pica for good and after being blow away by enemy’s attack, met Colosseum Fighters (saved by the god Ussop).

For most of time, Luffy is presented in between Zoro and Law... but the more characters show up, in the latest two scenes once again Law is put in the middle. Maybe it wasn’t planned by author, but frankly, Oda is a master of little details. So, Supernovas did not know at first if these people are their allies and though all of Colosseum Fighters had the same goal - to beat Donflamingo - no one came here with teamwork in mind. Zoro, as the one enough tactful, actually suggested compromise: Colosseum Fighters backing up Supernovas in fight against common enemy but it was quickly rejected.

Luffy wanted to defeat ‘Mingo all alone, the Fighters didn’t care what Luffy wanted and in all fairness, this argument could quickly get out of control and turn into a fight no one really needed. So, maybe Zoro instinctively prepared himself to repel a possible attack as evidenced by:

Zoro up until the last frame, (after meeting with Cavendish) kept sword sheathed but now has one in hand what in itself is a sign something wrong is going on

Luffy carried Law on his right shoulder, and since he does the same in the two last presented examples, it means Zoro switched his place to keep Law in the middle.

There is another thing to think about. The 748 chapter ends with Supernovas Trio riding a bull surrounded by allies. The same as in previous panels, Law is put in the middle, between Luffy on front clearing path and Zoro protecting them from behind.

Since Law was still in seastone chains, which means defenseless /useless in fight, this combinations put him again in the safest place while let Zoro and Luffy fight without worry. And Law is going to stay as such through the next chapter.

Which chapter 749 the battle has finally begun for good - Luffy faced Pica for a while until leaving the fight to Zoro. In all fairness, there is little to none good frames focusing on Supernovas Trio.

Chapters 746-748 weren’t overall a long interaction, and even characters did not talk that much to each other (Trafalgar, like, maybe once adressed Zoro, while Roronoa did not talk to him at all?) Yet from the visual composition of frames showing the three Supernovas together, we may draw some conclusions. Like,

the group started as centered around Luffy who was the link between two introverts that did know little each other and did not have any real interaction up to this point,

but the dynamic switched once they faced bigger danger

then Law was wordlessly put in the safest point and backed from both side by powerful allies (mainly because Zoro switched position?)

an allies who not even once have complained or commented on his uselessness nor did anything that would show lack of respect for Law.

That in itself is very different than from the “teamwork” of pre-TS three Supernovas captain, in which Eustass Kid bragged how he is gonna charitably save their useless asses, even though Luffy and Law back then were perectly in shape to save themselves. Law was pissed off a few times by the way Luffy handled him, but there was no real quarrel between Zoro, Law and Luffy (not like between Three Captains when everyone tried to prove their superity)

The next time when we see Zoro, Luffy and Law in the same frames happened after beating down Donflamingo, when all heroes were resting in hidding.

the day after that

and around the party between Straw Hats and their new (sworn) allies made by bunch of different people.

and when they sailed to Zou.

Luffy may started as central figure for this Supernovas Trio, but during and after battle of Derrossa, Straw Hat is no longer needed for such role because Zoro and Law get along quite well and keep close to each other on their own will (and to be fair, Law interact with other Straw Hats on regular basis). What is even more visible once Straw Hats-Hearts pirate alliance get to Zou. The point is: Law is okay between his crazy allies and there is no need to compete with other Supernovas around him. Luffy may stress him out with all his craziness, randomess and shenanigans, but the two captains can and will trust each other, same with Zoro (except for, like following a plan because Luffy and Zoro are lost cause in that regard). But at the same time, Luffy doesn’t need to be around Law anymore, doesn’t need be the bridge between his own crew and another captain from the Worst Generation.

Law is the first Supernova to interact with Straw Hats for so long (that is like 4th arc in the row and 3rd for this Supernova Trio to actually interact with each other) and his position with main heroes is pretty much secured and settled down.

Now, let’s talk about another Supernovas Trio Quartet: Zoro, Luffy and Eustass Kid and Killer. Up to making the alliance of Straw Hats - Hearts - Kid’s Pirates, both Luffy and Zoro had a chance to meet their counterparts. The captains met in prison where instead of working together, competed to prove the other who is better and along the way, Luffy kinda helped save Kid and Killer in dire situation. Or more like: Kid and Killer were saved because ninja Raizo thought they were friends of Straw Hats. Zoro on other hand did not have any clue that Kamazo the Manslayer was in fact Killer and both men seriously injured each other in fight over O-Toko.

So far there was only one chapter (981) presenting Zoro, Luffy and Kid & Killer at the same time in the same frames. So, let’s look closery at the source material:

We have so far only four panels solely focused at this Supernovas Trio (with addition of Killer, the sanest person of the four). The biggest difference between those panels and previously analyzed? ZORO IS THE CENTRAL FIGURE IN ALL THE FOUR PANELS.

This makes me smile like crazy maniac because though it is so atypical (Luffy, the main hero not being in the spotlight?!) it makes absolute sense - up until now, Kid and Luffy at the sight of each other ARGUED NON STOP and apparently physically can't stand side by side and NOT compete. I mean, just look at these dumbass put together in the same prison:

or even in 981 chapter, during fight after both blowed up their covers on whim/reckless decision to hit enemy in the face

when Luffy is the one that actually started the whole ruckus yet keep blaming KId for “causing a scene” (above) or “you’d make a huge mess” (in previous example).

Okay, these two CAN WORK TOGETHER when the situation calls for such teamwork, but once it’s over, they are at each other throats without second thought. Which is why Zoro being put in the middle between two chaotic dumbass captains is so awesome and different from Zoro-Luffy-Law team work.

Because Luffy was a bridge that connected Zoro and Law when previously they had little to no interaction (what makes sense, since both are introverts and prefer keep their distance and they aren’t people who trust easily) while now Zoro is, well, kind of a wall to keep these two hotheads from fighting and arguing all the time. In a way, Zoro (and Kliller) is there to balance the situation, what may be seen on the first jointed frame:

Luffy accusing Kid for making a huge mess (ignoring his own part in the created ruckus)

Zoro (who sliced in half a tower because he heard Luffy is already fighting only adding to the mess), despite being Luffy’s first mate, stays objective enough to point out Luffy’s fault

and Kid, instead of fighting with Luffy over what he said, actually is calling Zoro on his own deeds (what Roronoa ignored?)

while poor Killer just stands and watchs these ridiculous guys silently.

Despite the first meeting together when Luffy, Zoro and Kid argued a bit, the next panels actually show how similar dumbass chaotic people they are (and how Killer is the sanest person compared to them). In 3 of 4 scenes, Kid, Zoro and Luffy actually get along quite well; even though they do not speak to each other (but listen to Killer’s advice), the visual composition does not show any discomfort between them. They stand arm to arm, with like zero personal space between them and it works okay. What is different from the first time of Zoro-Luffy-Law teamwork, when there was always some visible space between Zoro and Law. Of course, the realities of combat in Dressrosa and Wano vary from one to another and so far it’s hard to predict how their relationship will develop, but for sure it will not be exactly the copy of Zoro-Luffy-Law dynamic.

What is even more interesting, as much as Luffy and Law alone are okay to work together, once there is Kid in sight, their teamwork goes straight to hell and the three of Supernovas captains WILL ARGUE TO NO END and COMPETE WITH EACH OTHER like some crazy maniac.

And because of that, the presence of Zoro (and Killer) may help to balance the dynamic between allied pirates of the Worst Generation. Because really, compared to Kid, Luffy and Law in close range of each other, Zoro and Killer are the cool-headed guys no matter what.

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watayaaratamblr · 3 years

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Chihayafuru chapter 226 [long] impressions:

This is more of "everything that went through my mind while reading every page of the chapter"

naturally, gonna be super ..like SUPER long.

1) Shinobu in her fine Kimono was happy or proud? What are the flowers around her? Who knows, we only know that anything they might symbolize is already clear on her face and pose. She played a very strong opponent, she had “special” fun and she won. Only one remaining win and she will preserve her title for the 4th year in a row. Chihaya on the other hand was lost… She did everything she could “come up with” but she still couldn’t win any of the two matches… maybe “come up with something new” was her mistake? Could it be that it’s impossible to defeat the queen in her world, should Chihaya bring her out instead, Chihaya probably didn’t even thought of this because she is completely lost, she worked very hard and her hard work paid off somehow but it is not enough Chihaya seems unable to have any fun; it’s all about needing to win for some reason, why the passionate Chihaya feels so far away?

2) Arata is shook! He is no longer seeing the Meijin in front of him, he is rather calling Chihaya’s name! On the Meijin board we can see 4 poems, (one was shown clearer behind Hiro who was confused with Arata’s sudden distraction; Sudo also noticed and wondered + the 4 poems seem all on Suo’s side?)

30/Ariake no: the poet expresses his hate for dawns after he had to part from his lover at a dawn with a moon that looked so cold and indifferent. 76/Watanohara-ko: This is the second “Arata” poem (as it starts with the word WATA). The poet describes white waves rolling onward which can be mistaken for the white clouds up in the heavens. 20/ Wabi nureba: a consuming passion poem in which the poet tells the woman he loves that he is willing to sacrifice everything to continue their relationship and that he will go meet her despite the heavy price he knows he will have to pay. 74/ Ukari keru: The poet is in distress because the lady he loves is cold to him and his prayers to be happy with her were futile.

The choice of these poems might be clarified when the cards are read but (because Suo seems shadowed somehow and the focus is on Arata), we can still think that they are about Arata’s feelings and what he wants to do about Chihaya’s state now and how she will treat him after her loss .. She already turned her head away from him after her 1st loss, she avoided him, and now she lost again and Arata who is in love with her is really worried.

3) Arata assesses the situation, Chihaya has 2 losses which will put a great pressure on her for the next games and give Shinobu the chance to be more relaxed. The image of Chihaya’s back when she rushed out with her hand on her face as if she was crying was so strong for Arata, the background intensifies what he felt, he was really worried and repeating her name while sweating (dunno if this was intentional, but he wasn’t sweating before he noticed Chihaya (on ch225)) On the other hand, Suo was still completely focused.

4) 78/Awaji shima: was read and Arata was late. Suo took it

This poem tells about the sleepless nights of a guard at some gate caused by the cries of the plover birds crossing the place known as an exile (the plover is also used to symbolize winter) so this poem might invoke the feelings of loneliness and nostalgia.

65/Urami wabi: was the next one and Arata was also late, the difference is now only 1 card. Sudo was cheering for Suo and wandering if a luck of the draw will be the fate of this game. Arata was taken aback!

The poet of Urami wabi is a lady who is separated from her husband so she felt resentment to him, she cried and her sleeves were always wet but what concerned her more was her reputation tainted because of her failed relationship.

These two poems didn’t appear on the board (because only the upper part was showing) but 78 was on Arata’s side & 65 was on Suo’s. The fact that 78 was the poem read to pull Arata out of his thoughts and keep him focused on his match makes me see it as the plover birds keeping the guard from going to sleep. It can also hint at the distraction itself, if sleep is what we do at night but the plovers prevent it, then Arata should focus on his game but his worry for Chihaya also prevents it, so his feelings or Chihaya’s state is the plovers. As for 65, I can’t think of many possible reasons but it might be the “reputation” part, maybe it’s a hint at Arata’s “name” as the “grandchild of eternal meijin Wataya Hajime” that everyone was eager to see through him which might soon be challenged.

5) Murao & Kuriyama wondered what happened to Arata after he achieved such good result till now. Suo had his eyes glued to the Tatami, his aunt was there, he knew but he didn’t try to look. Arata’s club-mates explained that this was a sign of Suo’s strength: he would use the least of your mistakes like losing your focus for even a sec. Riza specifically was very nervous. Arata started to revise what was read and what wasn’t. he kept good track of all read and unread cards, including the dead cards (Taichi was always praised when he did this but now that Arata is doing it, it feels normal and so like him, I believe we all know that Arata is stronger, Taichi showed us the process to arrive there but Arata was the first to arrive there, he definitely passed by most what Taichi experienced.). With this review, Arata knows what he can use his cross sweep on: Wabi & Wata-ko. Ariake is the 3rd remaining card on Tatami (besides the two above & the thress are drawn earlier on the board) but there are also 3 A cards not read yet (dead cards) which are 58/Arima+ 39/Asaji+ 64/Asaborake-u, Arata expects that Suo will wait to make sure of the 3rd syllable. Arata was worried & his grandpa’s ghost came to support him like Taichi and Harada’s ghost too, Hajime analyzed Suo before and he noticed that he wasn’t good with the cards on the outer edge of his own formation, this is something Hajime noticed back when he was alive and sane, was it like 5 years ago? So is Suo’s condition worse than back then?

6) Hajime’s teachings calmed Arata a bit, he is ready to fight again (he moves so handsomely), those where only words told to him by his mentor, but he is also a real deal, his body is ready, his hands are used to attack, he practiced enough to be able to go under his opponent’s hand to take a card, luckily an ‘A’ card on Suo’s side was read, Arata attacked and he practiced enough to be able to protect that card until the kimariji is decided (also Suo didn’t practice enough to know how to break that defense, it was a card on the edge of his playing field too, but there are only 3 cards left, so he could commit it to his memory as Arata said before on ch 223, the most important thing is memorization, having a card in your sight Then committing it to your memory, you’ll be able to see it even with closed eyes and Arata played like that before when he couldn’t find his glasses)

7) 30/Ariake is the one read, Arata put his hand on it when he made sure and Suo couldn’t find a way to it. Among the 4 poems initially shown on the board, this one was read. Who does it refer to? (if it does). Who is the unpitying moon? who parted with what? who feels longing for what? I can’t really think of an answer and I can’t even tell if there is an answer to begin with. But, it might have something to do with the idea of “committing the card to memory after sight” because when this principle was explained on 223, this card was among the ones shown around Arata & Suo. Arata’s family members where happy contrary to Suo’s family members.. These two panels made me think that in these matches between these two, the families of the players are as involved as the players themselves. (And Akira looks more surprised than happy, maybe he still doesn’t realize how his own words back at the hotel are true: “Arata, you are strong”.) The commentator confirmed the greatness of Arata’s move and there was a suspicious man behind him LOL (why was this man drawn there?)

8) Arata’s cover seems to be a high level one too, this is all Arata’s Karuta because he is the one using his body for it. Suo now seems in danger like Chihaya. Kuriyama & Murao are overjoyed and Arata went out with rather an indifferent face? there are no signs of relief or happiness, he looks rather lost in thoughts.. I was thinking that Suo acknowledged Arata’s strength (that beat him), but for some reason and contrary to Harada sensei, it’s not only “I don’t want to play anyone who is not strong”, he seems like he doesn’t even want to play this strong Arata, even when Kyoko tan who gives him enough motivation to play, he still couldn’t bring himself to use enough strength to defeat Arata…it’s like he is disappointed, he wants something else from him that Arata isn’t showing him… Anyway, Arata now doesn’t even look tired or invested in his win in any way.

9) Now he looks surprised, is it because he can’t see Chihaya anywhere? the half black & half white background was used before and in my case, it represents “Confusion”. In addition to the blush, Arata makes a completely unrelated face with the one he made after he won, it’s like the moment he came outside, he became someone else, or better, he was someone else but the moment he came out, he became himself again (can we then take the blush as an “Arata is himself” sign & its disappearance as a “Hajime mode” sign? XD) The SFX isn’t BAM right? because who is still taking cards? According to Google, it’s rather (バツ/ turn suddenly); And seeing Kana searching for her confirmed that she was nowhere around so he went to look for her right away, even before he reports his win and gives back the cards. (he looked like an old man in the 3rd panel lol) and in the 4th, he looked very concerned for Chihaya suddenly sweating and turning around in a hurry. Kana’s way of searching was by shouting loudly everywhere, while Arata’s reflects more of his personality and I like it, he won’t do random things, he goes to the places where she might be, calmly & silently.. I really love this. So he asks around, the bathroom was a good place to look in but she wasn’t there (and he was so amusing being all shy but asking anyway) These few panels tell me more about Arata’s character; he really is used to take matters into his hands. He didn’t go to ask Kana when was the last time Chihaya was seen and where etc. he didn’t approach those who were already searching for her, he went to do it himself. I already said that, but I guess, his parents & his family conditions made him this way. he couldn’t get support, he was rather the one asked to help so he learnt not to ask for help and to take care of things himself instead. The outside was the last place to look in, is it because Arata was more intuitive that he could find her before Kana who was already searching before he even finished his match? Who knows, but I certainly see Arata as a reliable guy, he always was and he is also now. And there she was, Chihaya was crouching on the cold snow…

10) Arata stuttered like usual before he gets Chihaya’s name out; A whole page just to tell us Arata found Chihaya crying desperately in the snow and her bare feet were red from cold. No special backgrounds, no hinting no indirect messages, it’s all snow and white and they were the only ones there. Arata put his hand on her back casually then lowered his head to see her face (imagining this in slow motion is so warm) and then noticed her freezing toes..

11) As Arata noticed Chihaya’s feet, he held her up on his shoulder, no blushing, no shyness, no hesitation, no clumsiness, his familiar self was buried and Chihaya is what matters now! Arata is strong! He is 177cm and weighs 65kgs while Chihaya is 167 and weighs 54kgs, not much difference right? And this wasn’t the 1st time he carries her, He did before when she fainted in her 1st nationals, he carried her bridal style, now it’s an OTS carry (yep, read about this on TV tropes and they gave it an abbreviation lol “Over The Shoulder carry”) Chihaya was surprised but her focus soon was turned to the box of cards that Arata dropped while carrying her, She started to apologize, she certainly sees the cards as living humans now, Arata wasn’t as concerned, she was 1st for him and everything will come after. When the box fell, 4 poems were revealed:

6/kasassagi no: The misty bridge between distant lovers that will bring them together for sure. 51/Kaku to dani: This is about a fierce love that the poet feels burning inside him but doesn’t know how to express it to the woman he loves. 26/Ogurayama: The poet tries to invite an emperor to visit a certain pretty place that his father visited before and he wished his son would come to see it too. He uses the maple leaves to express the felt desire & longing to see the emperor-son. And half shown, 72/Oto ni kiku: it’s about the known waves of "Takashi beach" that the poet doesn’t want to approach not to wet her sleeve, but it’s actually about her not trusting the invitation she got from a man and fearing a love affair that will end in tears, this poem can be used to express avoiding something not to get hurt by it…

Again, none can say for sure why exactly these poems but I strongly believe that they are a hint. And for me, they are saying something about the relationship between Chihaya & Arata (they are a love story!!).

Looking back on the history of poem 6, we can expect that Suetsugu is going back to the idea of "there is a distance between Chihaya & Arata which is like the distance of the two legendary lovers Orihime & Hikoboshi" but this time, Arata is the one who is preoccupied with this distance more... Kaku to dani: needless to say, this is about Arata’s feelings for Chihaya, they are burning again because Chihaya needs something to cheer her up so he needs to convey them somehow. Ogurayama: I believe this is about the maple leaves carrying Arata’s feelings. Even if he doesn’t try to show it or be vocal about it, even though he used his phone only 3 times to send something to Chihaya (was only a msg through Taichi, then a message to her & Taichi and finally a call-what a progress lol), but he longs for her and wants her to be happy like how the emperor would have felt if he came to see those pretty crimson maple leaves. He wants his feelings to make Chihaya happy somehow. And the half-shown Oto ni kiku is about fear of love and tears. This is about Chihaya who isn’t allowing herself to be involved with love yet! there is something she feels lacking which is necessary before she lets herself love and I believe it’s the thing making her turn her head away from Arata ..

Then Chihaya realized, then looked at Arata’s head, he won his much! he now has 2 wins and one more win and he will achieve the dream he shared with her, the kinda promise: “this weekend, let’s make our 1st dream the reality”

12) Then Chihaya cried, helplessly. She congratulated Arata through her tears but she was rather miserable… It’s so hard to be happy for him right? this is not a win which will be enough to get by either him OR her, whichever happens should be good if they are friends right? but no, this is about her!! I have a feeling that if Chihaya won & Arata not, she wouldn’t be very sad for him.. There is something telling me that Chihaya is only scared of being left behind by Arata, as long as he doesn’t, she will be fine, but if he does, she will feel devastated. this is such a strong word, but I mean it.

13) And she voiced a bit of her concern, she was afraid she can never win, even though she lost only by 3 cards, personally, I’ll think that from 7 cards to 3, I can make it in the next game, but Chihaya seems to think that the strongest she can be is the way she was in this second game, then she can only get close to Shinobu that much, not to lose with more than 3 cards. Arata was surprised; maybe he never thought she could lose hope? or maybe he is confused how she can say so when he believes that she can win against Shinobu.. And ofc, before he says anything Kana & Tamaru finally found Chihaya. Kana is as wary of Arata as ever, the n°1 Taichiha shipper. But apparently, she didn’t see Arata bringing Chihaya from outside, she saw only when he put her down and that looked “too close” for her and “hurry up, let’s go to your waiting room, it’s like she is saving her from Arata.. While our gentleman was putting Chihaya down so carefully while looking at her feet whether they are fine or not.

14) Kana is indeed a typical Taichiha shipper, I have seen it a lot, no matter what Arata does, he is always a target for hate or at least disdain. Approaching Chihaya is a big no for them let alone take caring of her. I tried to laugh at this panel, I thought that sensei really is referring to those fans, she might have wanted it to be a comical moment but it’s not. What I saw is that, again, Kana is putting Taichi & herself before Chihaya & it sucks. Arata didn’t even notice her though, thankfully, all he could see was Chihaya, the painful face she was making & her tears (The background of confusion as I call it).. Arata suddenly took us for another rare moment inside his stubbornly concealed heart, the clumsy guy who seems shallow & insensitive to lot of readers.. Chihaya’s weight alone made him look so deep into her and see so much…She is unfamiliar to him, he didn’t get to learn earlier about her everything, but in every second he is given, we saw him pay a lot of attention and see her with more than his eyes. Chihaya’s tears meant that she worked so hard and that didn’t pay off, she wouldn’t have cried this much otherwise. And he can already learn that much about her by just imagining what he wasn’t there to witness, she worked so so hard. Looking at his hands (Chihaya was there lol), he looked so deep in thought, but he remembered the cards he left on the snow..

15) He rushed to bring them but his thoughts were full of Chihaya and how to cheer for her, Arata acknowledged her strength, she is an amazing strong player who can really defeat Shinobu (he seems to believe he can also defeat Suo).but he is not good at communicating his feelings & thoughts, he is clumsy & he knows it..so will he hide his clumsiness to look cool like Taichi does most of the time? No, that wasn’t what Arata thinking, he was rather wondering about a way to make her know what might save her.. He took the cards getting now wet from the snow, he took 77/SE while he was wondering.. “Se” is about the separated ones who will certainly meet again.. it’s like Arata feels a boulder blocking his thoughts and feelings from reaching her and he wants to find a way to bypass it & reach her. “Se” has always been a special card for Arata and it is because of Chihaya..

16) It was the 1st card Chihaya took from him and he already got it back from her in their match but for Arata, SE is more than that. It’s the card that started Chihaya’s journey in Karuta. and Arata is confident that he is the only one who knows, and he is confident that the level she showed in her match with him is the highest she reached, or the highest anyone can reach, or at least, if she is defeated by Shinobu in 2 matches today and was already defeated by her in ch169 then it’s a level she didn’t go to again after her match with him and she still can do it. Arata’s head was really full of Chihaya, he is so focused on her that he totally forgot he too is where he worked to be for so many years, longer and maybe even harder than Chihaya herself (for almost 12 years, more than half of his life, no it’s 2 thirds of his life!!!), so the Murao twins came to remind him of what he forgot since the match ended, of the Meijin title & his grandpa. Only one other win to be were Hajime Wataya seems to have wanted Arata to be (or at least that’s what Arata thought)

17) Yep, Hajime is telling him to focus, to forget about Chihaya & concentrate on him & his goal. “Se” was shown again with the words “the mejin title”, is that the boulder separating the stream of the river?

18) Arata placed Se back on top of the cards in the box next to another card:

18/Su mi no e no: This poem is about hiding from people’s gaze when going to meet the lover, trying to avoid exposure even in dreams.. Doesn’t it suit the moment perfectly? when the twins came to remind Arata of the Meijin title and his status, he hid “SE” (representing also his feelings for Chihaya) in the box, it’s like how the poet who is an aristocrat from the great Fujiwara family (Fujiwara men are known to choose their wives in the family) is afraid of being exposed.

Arata closed the box, it’s also like “Se” keeps him the real Arata (he said that he lacked love to be himself, so maybe Se is his love poem to Chihaya, his love saves him regardless of whether she reciprocates it or not contrary to Taichi, his love always hurt him, like a curse) The Karuta officials are the happiest for Arata’s win it seems, he pleased them, he revived Wataya Hajime for them again, they are blessed, for them, it’s all about them & Hajime it seems, Arata isn’t really seen for who he is… Arata remembered when that man told him that because Arata’s Karuta is exactly like Hajime’s, he was able to see Wataya sensei again. Back then Arata cried, he said that he really loves Karuta.. Could it now turn into a curse? because it’s too much? Because he is losing himself? because he is not seen? Why was Arata happy back then? and is the reason weaker than any probable desire now to be seen for who he is?

19) Suo was upset! His dear aunt that he didn’t meet for 8 years suddenly came all the way from Kyushu to see him, but he wasn’t happy..He lost two games but he doesn’t seem worried about that... Yukiko was kind and looks like the sweets are a family thing? Sudo is confused (he is amusing when he is like that) & Suo’s cousin is more impressed because Suo had lot of female friends lol Suo was nervous, he wanted to ask how and why they were suddenly there but he stuttered and According to Yukiko chan’s answer, we learn that Suo developed the habit of soft talking after he quit Kyushu.

20) After 8 years of separation, she wanted to touch the boy she loved so much and cared immensely for, maybe it’s because she can’t see him well too, but she failed to reach his face, she couldn’t see well, and Suo felt so hurt, but like anyone else with pride, his reaction was based on his suffering not on hers. And instead of being hurt herself, she rather was worried about him, why would he be cruel to her unless he too is suffering from her same illness.

21) The whole conversation in this page feels weird. Suo raised his voice from frustration and these relatives didn’t try to listen to him before. The cousin rather teased him about his loss as if it’s nothing, (he highlighted the fact that Arata is a youngster too) And Yukiko’s answer was soething I didn’t expect! She doesn’t seem to care much about the Meijin thing, she rather looked hopeful (notice the sudden blush), she thought that if Suo is no longer Meijin then he can go back home. What was even more surprising is that Suo looked agitated but his answer wasn’t what I expected, he asn’t worried that his title doesn’t see precious that his relatives would want him to keep, he was rather worried that what they are offering is impossible because he grew up to become a stranger and going back to his home is impossible.

22) Seems that Suo would consider his home any place Yukiko owns, but he knew that she didn’t own the house she told him to go back to. (isn’t this a reason to work harder in univ then get a job and buy a house to bring Yukiko to live with him instead?) The cousin got angry because things like these aren’t considered in a warm loving family where elderly are respected and considered owners before what papers say.. Suo didn’t seem to want to listen, and he left hurriedly causing his condition to beclearer to his aunt as he bumped with many things in his way out. (BACKGROUND of confusion in the last panel)

23) Still, Suo couldn’t leave before knowing why they suddenly came. and the description was so easy to tell him who, Suo realized it right away, the boy with big eyes who would wish for Suo’s family to come watch him (because he is incredible & wants his family to know that? or bc he pities him?) The boy with big eyes was “Mashima kun” they called him this many times, now they didn’t mention the name, I wonder how Sudou would have felt if he knew? would he realize that Taichi really got the closest to Suo, somewhere he couldn’t go?

24) Chitose left, Chihaya’s mom knew but didn’t understand why, Kana, tsukuba & Nishida stayed out of the room while Chihaya, Tamaru, Namida, Sumire & the last boy from Mizusawa that went to Shiranami were all inside, Kana told the mom it’s better to stay out and those inside were all experiencing the reason lol Ah no, Namida was doing great, he is such positive and hard working boy, he is not wasting his time by being afraid or nervous, he is taking notes instead! Chihaya is the most nervous because she is the reason Harada sensei is furious. Harada never taught Chihaya to send back a card because the opponent will place it again in its original place that they remember well (and we know that Chihaya sent it to provoke Shinobu -see ch222), provocative Karuta based on the knowledge of what Shinobu hates and the cards she won’t place next to each other was Watarai’s teaching.

25) Yep, Shiranami’s way is to target the opponent’s memorization as much as possible, Shiranai members are scared of Harada but can’t deny that he is right, he is a great teacher, has a good experience in Karuta and in teaching, maybe them being present here to hear & learn is the biggest proof. Chihaya also didn’t lift her head, she knew he was totally right, she can’t think that losing was because she was unlucky in front of the strongest queen, it’s because of those small mistakes she allowed herself to make.

26) Harada’s words kept hitting hard for Chihaya. Maybe he didn’t say that she was wrong, she learnt a new way in 2 months but she already had a strong way that she could fortify in these 2 months too.. Chihaya focused on Shinobu’s cards and neglected her own? isn’t this beneficial for an offensive Karuta player? I don’t get it well But Harada didn’t understand much of Chihaya’s new method either and he was honest & fair, he acknowledged what Chihaya still achieved: she got a strong reaction from Shinobu. Did Shinobu’s smile mean that she wasn’t indifferent with Chihaya? that she enjoyed the “strong” opponent? Harada told Chihaya that Shinobu seems to have enjoyed her match with her like she enjoyed her match with Arata which means that Chihaya played at Arata’s level back then and that is an achievement!

27) He smiled to her to make her feel better, because she really did great by learning new strong weapons in 2 months.. And now it’s time for the 3rd game. at this point, we don’t really know if Chihaya was better? if she calmed down? While Arata seems to be still in his grandpa mode, (he looks really like an old man here, calm and silent, he wasn’t like in the 1st break And he was completely the opposite of his father who was so energetic and very satisfied with Yuu’s gift, a design with the word “TOP” inspiring more will to do one’s best to reach the top! Akira seems quite fond of Yuu (I am too), she was admitted to her school of choice & he is happy for her, the Watayas talk so familiarly about her like she is really a close relative except Arata…

28) Akira is really hard to deal with, he does whatever he wants and he is very fond of Yuu. Asking for Arata’s phone to call her & thank her, Arata rejected any try to involve him in this mess (he didn’t even react when Akira said that he will make up a lie and say that Arata was touched because of her gift, Yuu would have probably known it’s a lie because Arata wouldn’t react like that… But it’s IC if he does for Chihaya right?), he was trying his best to focus, he didn’t show any enthusiasm about Yuu; Her, his father, the food or anything of the sort couldn’t break his grandpa mode. And finally, Taichi’s message was discovered, Arata didn’t want to read anything before his game but knowing it’s about Taichi, would that be still the case?

29) Arata stopped! getting a message from Taichi who didn’t come to watch made him really stop, Taichi is really special to Arata. And turning back he found Chihaya there too, she heard what Akira said & her face showed surprise!.

30) Chihaya seemed lost in her desperation, she didn’t say a word she just turned quickly wishing to find something for her too from Taichi, she needed him, when Taichi was around he could somehow find a way to make things better and she needs it now because she is not fine, Harada’s words didn’t seem to heal her fully, she sighed when she didn’t find anything.. Arata was confused (the BACKGROUND), and when Chihaya saw him she blushed & turned her head away in embarrassment, Arata lifted her suddenly earlier and she didn’t have time to do this back then. Why? if it was because Taichi now then what about the 1st time? It wasn’t because of Taichi, it was because she looked weak in front of Arata. Chihaya has always worked hard to reach him, to become someone who can meet his passion, to be worth sitting across him in Karuta.. but she kept losing where he kept winning, he was always ahead and she could never arrive there. Chihaya was embarrassed of her weak self who showed more weakness and dependence of Taichi’s help, it’s like she can’t go anywhere without his support… Arata knew that wasn’t true. Akira asked again if Arata wanted to look at Taichi’s message and Chihaya passed him just now without a word (and Kana still looked at him sideway lol) …so many distractions, Hajime Wataya’s voice was calling him again to focus, just a bit more & he’ll be the Meijin, that’s all he was about after all right?

31) NOT RIGHT!!! That wasn’t all Arata was about, not for those who care to look at him properly! Arata wasn’t worried about being ditched, or about what Taichi’s message might contain, he rather remembered when Chihaya showed him her special bond with Taichi that day when she crushed him.. This was good reason to feel jealous or upset but that’s not who Arata was… He took Chihaya’s hand and disobeyed his grandpa’s words!

32) Arata’s face looks desperate trying to reach Chihaya to make her see the truth he believes about her, she can defeat Shinobu & he means it, he knows her strength too and he could compare, he knows when Chihaya was the strongest and how Taichi is the last piece in what Chihaya fought for and became the strongest… The blush on Arata’s face says how much he wanted to make it through to her, how many times does Arata show emotions? the calm and collected guy, what does it mean when he shows such face? “You shouldn’t go play with Shinobu chan in her arena” Harada sensei pointed out Chihaya’s mistakes but he didn’t show her a way to follow, it’s like he no longer has an advice for her, he gave her everything he got and when she strayed from his path he reminded her, but that’s all, And Arata’s advice was something else, like a Karuta expert, he knew what to tell Chihaya, even though he didn’t watch her matches or maybe he did? because he didn’t seem in a pinch in his own vs Suo, maybe he got time to look sometimes…

33) Arata really had what to say, and Chihaya listened because what she heard was useful. She wanted o go where the lonely Shinobu is but she couldn’t face everything in that world and she came out leaving a still lonely Shinobu inside, Arata tells her to bring Shinobu outside instead, to show her the wonderful things outside that can give Chihaya the same strength as Shinobu, something she might want to come out to get? Chihaya saw an illusion for the calm Queen, the plant in the frame was always used for Shinobu too and it seems (and I’m not sure) that Suetsugu uses it for Shinobu who is Shinobu and not the Queen.

34) Chihaya found Arata’s words interesting, that was some good technical support but she had to think more to find her arena Though, Arata wouldn’t let her, he gives her now the emotional support, he knew Chihaya needed Taichi (not the person, but at least sensing his presence in what he left) so he decided to give her that, anything she needs, he wouldn’t be jealous or needy or immature, he put her 1st and I admire the way he loves even more!

35) Everyone saw what Arata wanted to show, it wasn’t a secret or personal message to Chihaya, and Taichi is the captain of Mizusawa, he pushed that team, and Arata brought it to push it again. Arata persisted bc he knew very well how much Chihaya values Taichi & her team, he didn’t need to be there for 3 years to know, he is very attentive and intuitive too and looks at Chihaya really properly!.

36/37) Arata’s words were moving to all Mizusawa members, they all blushed emotionally, and Chihaya cried, maybe because she missed this or maybe because she somehow betrayed it by forgetting it and not working for her team like she said she would before…(this chapter looks so direct, no BACKGROUNDs, no shoujo effects)

38) Arata held Chihaya’s hand so gently (I wonder why sensei drew this panel, it’s totally unnecessary for anything other than highlighting Arata’s love (romantic love because I can’t imagine him do this to Yuu if she ever goes through something like this)) He mentions his loss to her as something big which is a compliment to Chihaya & an acknowledgement of her strength & level. He says it with no embarrassment because her win was well deserved (I want to see Taichi make a confession like this to Arata). And Mizusawa captain was strong because she played for her team, she used all she had for them… so Chihaya again, only has to play her own Karuta, this is the opposite of what Chihaya told Arata in his match against Harada, she told him to play like someone else.. Amusing!

39) In Shinobu’s waiting room, Shinobu was acting like a child, so carefree; she only has 1 remaining win to keep her title after all. She also seems so close with Kokoro chan now (Kokoro called her Shinobu without “chan” or anything, it implies so much familiarity right?) also Shinobu is a bad example it seems lol. Though Kokoro mentions something that might be a hint to Shinobu’s next loss (a 3rd game is tiresome). And then when Shinobu was about to get up, something was off, she felt something but she didn’t see what it was? Kokoro asked but she didn’t answer? Chihaya was shown right after that still having her tears while Arata kept explaining what he wanted to say, like he himself does, he gave her an image he knows will push her to win, she had to think that she is playing in a team tournament, her team is losing, they have two losses and 0 wins, now the remaining 3 members should all win at all costs and Chihaya will play the role of the three players, it’s like when they played in the finals of last year’s high school team tournament vs Fujisaki where both Tsukuba & Tsukue kun lost and Chihaya, Taichi & Nishida felt the responsibility to win each their game, Taichi was the one who voiced this desire 1st (ch81). (That was the game Chihaya felt upset because Arata told her that he didn’t care for teams and now, he is showing her the opposite of what she feared back then, he treasures "teams" & knows exactly how important one is for any member.)

40) And Arata impersonated Taichi for Chihaya! He should have felt jealous, he already experienced that feeling and wanted to be the one Chihaya sees, but now & for her sake, he accepted Taichi and even revived him in her memory to get as much strength from that as she needs. He wasn't there but he must have known Taichi would say that for Chihaya so he reminded her of it for her sake instead of being selfish & feeling miserable or jealous (reminds me of when Chihaya hid in the closet after she lost, the way Taichi brought up Arata’s name all miserable & helpless, he couldn’t forget about himself for a bit for Chihaya contrary to Arata even though he didn’t have anything to be confident about, Chihaya was closer to Taichi, she cared for him so much, she showed him this care in front of his eyes, he had every reason to feel threatened but he didn’t, Chihaya mattered more than that to him …)

#Chihayafuru #arata wataya #wataya arata #ayase chihaya #wataya hajime #Harada Hideo #chapter_impressions

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thevalleyisjolly · 4 years

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What the Taste Buds Had Left: A Crown of Candy PVP Scenario

[THIS POST IS ALL SPOILERS FOR A CROWN OF CANDY’S SEASON FINALE]

Like many fans, I was relieved that the last episode of A Crown of Candy did not end in PVP. Like many fans, I was also a little excited to see how a PVP would have played out. Now, obviously we can’t reliably predict any outcomes. There’s always roleplay and player agency, to say nothing of dice rolls, so even the most likely outcome is never guaranteed. However, we can look at the circumstances of each character going into a theoretical PVP, and potentially how that might affect their performance.

First, a huge thanks to Kyber Bonsai, Tillie the Paladin, and gluegunshots, who put together the transcripts for Episodes 16 and 17 on the D20 wiki! The transcripts were my main resource in gathering data, and saved me a lot more time and effort than if I had to go through the episodes, pausing every five seconds. Thank you for your invaluable work in making D20 more accessible! Thank you also to the D20 wiki editors! Most of the stats and information about magical items came from the character pages on the wiki, so thank you for your hard work! Thank you to Samir Barrett (@sketchmasterskillz), whose amazing official art for ACOC is included below. And a quick shoutout to the folks at CritRoleStats, whose pre-combat “What Do The Mighty Nein Have Left” posts inspired my own efforts here.

Data Collection

The data reflects the current HP and remaining abilities of each character at the point when Saccharina and Ruby make their decisions. Data collection began with the first spell slot used in Episode 16 (a 2nd level Pass Without a Trace from Liam before the battle started), and ended with Calroy’s death. I focused on HP and limited-use abilities such as spell slots and magical items.

For the sake of brevity, I have chosen not to include in this post every single class feature that each character has, and have instead highlighted limited-use abilities. Unless otherwise stated, assume the character has access to their regular class and sub-class features. Most of the class features that I’ve omitted can be found in the standard 5th edition Player’s Handbook, and the D&D 5e wiki contains the information for additional subclasses. I’ve also assumed that apart from magical items and Lou’s Great Weapon Master feat, no homebrew edits have been made.

For magical items, I’ve elected not to describe every single magical ability, except those with particular homebrew features (e.g. Payment Day, Swirlwarden). All magical weapons are +1 weapons (except Payment Day, which is +2).

While I was able to determine max HP for most of the characters going into the final battle, I was not able to determine Saccharina’s, as she did not take any damage in the fight, nor in the episode after she levelled up. At Level 9, her HP max was 58. She has an unknown Constitution modifier. If Emily followed the Player’s Handbook when building Saccharina, Constitution would be her second highest score as a sorcerer. Whether or not Constitution is her second highest ability score, I think it’s safe to assume that Saccharina would not have a negative modifier, giving us a range from +0 to +4 (I’m assuming she does not have a Constitution of 20).

Given those factors, we can estimate her Level 10 HP to be between 59 and 68. She already had her two levels of cleric when we met her, so every level up since then has been sorcerer levels. Sorcerers have a d6 hit die, so the lowest increase she could potentially have is +1 (1 + 0 CON mod) and the highest increase is +10 (6 + 4 CON mod). Since she has healing spells, her exact HP doesn’t matter too much unless it comes to very high damage from a single attack (à la Lapin and Keradin), which it could, but that’s impossible to predict. Suffice to say that for the purposes of this scenario, Saccharina has full health.

And now, on to the fun stuff!

Saccharina - Storm Sorcerer 8, Tempest Cleric 2

[ID: The official art for Saccharina Frostwhip by Samir Barrett @sketchmasterskillz. Saccharina has green skin and a neapolitan mohawk. She wears a silver tiara, a blue-green outfit dotted with dark spots and a light brown front panel, a white cloak, chocolate pauldrons with cherries on the shoulders, and waffle shinguards. She holds a spoon-shaped staff in one hand which crackles with lightning energy, and her other hand outstretched to the side also crackles with lightning energy. She stands with a confident posture, and is looking to the side with hooded eyes and a smile.]

HP: Full (between 59-68 HP) AC: 20 Remaining Spell Slots: 1st level (4), 2nd level (2), 3rd level (1), 4th level (3) Sorcery Points: 5/8 Luck Points: 2/3

Feats: War Caster, Lucky

Magical Items Winterscoop Staff: 0 remaining charges; resistance to cold damage Freezerburn: Magical sword

Cinnamon HP: 65/178 Breath Weapon: Unknown

Cinnamon was one of Saccharina’s greatest assets in the battle. Thanks to the enemy soldiers targeting Cinnamon with their attacks, Saccharina ends the battle with full health and most of her resources. While both her 5th level spells are gone and the Winterscoop Staff is out of charges, she still has a good number of higher level spells, as well as access to healing spells. There is the caveat that depending on how long it took between the end of the battle and the start of the PVP, the Haste spell she cast on Cinnamon in Round 4 of the battle may wear off (the battle ended during Round 11). If it wears off before PVP starts, Cinnamon can still attack on her turn. If it wears off during a round of PVP, he is stunned for a round, which could prove decisive.

In a PVP, Cinnamon could once again be her greatest asset, provided he is not stunned. While it isn’t clear whether or not his breath weapon recharged after its last use in the battle, he’s still a large enough threat with his HP and melee attacks that an attacker would most likely focus on downing him first. Lou revealed in the Adventuring Party’s for Episodes 16 and 17 that he’d been tracking Cinnamon’s HP and that in the case of PVP, he’d eliminate Cinnamon first to try and deescalate the situation. Given that Amethar is one of the characters who could drop Saccharina to 0 in one turn (depending on her HP), this may give Saccharina the round advantage she needs to bring down Amethar first.

Lou was absolutely correct in identifying Saccharina as his biggest immediate threat (other than Cinnamon, of course). With a 4th level Lightning Bolt and a Channel Divinity to deal maximum damage, Saccharina could easily drop Amethar at his current HP to 0 with one attack if he fails his save. In fact, despite having the lowest max HP of the party, Saccharina is easily one of the most dangerous PCs, thanks to Emily’s excellent build. With a 20 AC, a spell save DC of 17, and her levels in cleric, it would take a massive single attack to pose an immediate serious threat to her. However…

Ruby - Arcane Trickster Rogue 9, Shadow Magic Sorcerer 1

[ID: The official art for Ruby Rocks by Samir Barrett @sketchmasterskillz. Ruby has pink skin and red locks of hair tied back into a high tail. She wears a jewelled red tiara, an all-red outfit with puffed sleeves, and curved toe black shoes. She is standing partially crouched, with her hands before her in fists, and looking to the side with a focused expression.]

HP: 55/78 AC: 17 Remaining Spell Slots: 1st level (4), 2nd level (3)

Feats: Squat Nimbleness, Magic Initiate

Magical Items Sour Scratch: Grasping Arrow (once/long rest), Acid Arrow (once/long rest) Flickerish: Shield (once/day), 1d6 Superiority Die (Disarming Attack) Locket of the Sweetest Heart: Advantage on death saving throws if other locket is within 5’ Water-steel Dagger: Imposes three conditions requiring saving throws - extra damage, poisoned condition, prevents target from speaking

Ruby has been very strategic throughout the battle, saving her spells and limited abilities for a potential PVP at the end. The battle has taken out a chunk of her health, only about a third, but enough to put her in danger if she takes an attack from Cinnamon or Saccharina. As a rogue, she does have Evasion and Uncanny Dodge, which could allow her to mitigate some of the damage from such an attack, although she would still be brought down low and could potentially go down at the next attack.

Of the six PCs, Ruby is one of the best placed when it comes to her resources and abilities. She has all her spell slots, and full access to all her class abilities. In particular, as a first level Shadow Magic sorcerer, Ruby has the feature Strength of the Grave. If damage from a non-critical and non-radiant hit reduces her to 0, she can make a Charisma saving throw (DC = 5 + damage taken) to instead drop to 1 HP. Paired with the Locket of the Sweetest Heart (if Liam is nearby and on her side), this provides her with a little more wiggle room if she drops to 0.

Rogues in general are very versatile. Most of their class features are not limited use, and can be used in a variety of situations. For a partial caster, she doesn’t have very many damage-dealing spells, but her hefty weapon arsenal compensates for that, with Sour Scratch, Flickerish, and the Water-steel Dagger all having considerable abilities and also meeting the requirements for a Sneak Attack weapon. As we saw with Ciabatta, 5d6 Sneak Attack paired with the Water Steel Dagger is a deadly combination. Ruby also has Yak, who can grant her advantage on an attack or check. She may not be as openly formidable as Amethar, but she is just as dangerous in many ways.

Amethar - Storm Herald Barbarian 5, Battle Master 5

[ID: The official art for Amethar Rocks by Samir Barrett @sketchmasterskillz. Amethar has pink skin and a green beard. He wears a jewelled crown of purple and gold, an elaborate outfit of striped red and purple, a purple suit of armour and boots, a furred purple cloak, gold vambraces, and various jewels decorate the ensemble. He holds Payment Day, a gold-coloured sword with an enormous blade, in his hand, and has a strong stance with a serious expression on his face.]

HP: 48/116 AC: 17 Rages: 2 Superiority Dice: 2

Feats: Great Weapon Master (modified - roll +2d6 damage instead of flat +10)

Magical Items Payment Day: Extra damage die against creature who hit you in the previous round; if you roll a Natural 20 against a creature who has killed a member of your family, they must make a constitution saving throw (DC 16) or be killed

Amethar has been in the thick of battle, getting the kills on Grissini and Calroy, which is reflected in his HP (under half of his total). However, he has not used his Second Wind yet, which could give him the boost he needs to withstand a round of attacks from Saccharina and Cinnamon. While he’s already used up his Action Surge, he still has two attacks per round, and if anyone kills Ruby, Payment Day’s special ability could come through once again.

By design, high level barbarians are really difficult to kill, and Amethar’s levels in fighter make him even more scarily efficient in dealing damage. Rage halves any bludgeoning, slashing, or piercing damage, which effectively makes Saccharina and Cinnamon the only ones who can consistently deal full damage to him, since Liam has used up almost all his magical attacks. Unless Saccharina or Cinnamon deal significant damage in the early rounds of combat, Amethar is unlikely to go down until the end.

Having said that, Amethar is such an obvious threat that from a purely mechanical perspective, it makes sense for all the other characters to focus on him (à la Critical Role’s Battle Royales where nearly all the players focused on Grog). Ruby can be very deadly in her own right, but she’s not going to present the same immediate danger as someone who doesn’t take full damage from an attack. If Amethar tanks and absorbs attacks from other PCs, this could give Ruby leeway to either get her own attacks in or to make an escape.

Theo - Eldritch Knight Fighter 10

[ID: The official art for Sir Theobald Gumbar by Samir Barrett @sketchmasterskillz. Theo is a red gummy bear with big white moustache. He wears an entire suit of golden plate armour and a golden helmet, with a purple sash and a red cloak. He holds a purple lollipop shield in one hand, and a sword shaped like an orange popsicle in the other. He stands at attention, with a focused expression on his face.]

HP: 116/140 AC: 21 Remaining Spell Slots: 1st level (2), 2nd level (2)

Feats: Heavy Armor Master, Tough, Alert

Magical Items Battlepop: Compelled Duel (once/day) Swirlwarden: Use reaction to move up to 30’ and take attack meant for ally

Yeah, you read right. Theo’s HP max is 140, with an AC of 21 (I had to calculate this three times because I couldn’t believe it). His current HP is equal to Amethar’s total max HP. Theo may not be a barbarian, but he’s not going down any time soon. He’s also been fairly conservative with his abilities, leaving him with the majority of his spell slots, as well as his Action Surge. He also has a good list of cantrips, notably Blade Ward (resistance against bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage until the end of his next turn) and Green Flame Blade (1d8 + spellcasting ability modifier fire damage to target w/in 5 feet). And of course, he has Princess to give him Help on attacks and checks (Find Familiar is so, so useful).

As Murph remarked in the finale, Theo doesn’t do what the other characters do, which is deal lots of damage. As Brennan subsequently remarked, Theo doesn’t do that because what Theo does do is not get hit by attacks. One of Theo’s potential roles in this hypothetical PVP scenario is to tank in the action economy. Like Amethar, he’s a big threat because he’s difficult to down. Thanks to the feature War Magic, he can cast cantrips as an action and make a weapon attack as a bonus action, so if he casts Blade Ward on himself each turn, he essentially becomes a foil to Amethar. If Amethar and Ruby focused their attacks on trying to down Theo, this could allow his allies the breathing space they need to heal or make their own attacks.

In Lou’s strategy that he discussed in the final Adventuring Party, he placed Theo as the last on Amethar’s kill order. While his order of kills is heartbreaking from a roleplaying perspective, it’s a very astute calculation. Given his build, Theo is likely to be one of the last characters left standing, if not the last. Even if he consistently uses Swirlwarden to tank damage for his allies, his considerable HP makes him unlikely to drop anytime soon, short of some really impressive damage rolls. Amethar could try and team up on Theo with Ruby to bring him down to more manageable health, but that would leave them open to other attacks. Murph really went a 110% in making Theo a bodyguard, and honestly, good for him, it’s what he deserves.

Liam - Gloomstalker Ranger 6, Assassin Rogue 4

[ID: The official art for Liam Wilhelmina by Samir Barrett @sketchmasterskillz. Liam has pink skin, a red nose, rosy cheeks, and short dark red hair. He wears pink overalls, a red and white striped shirt, red boots and gloves, and a red and white hat. He carries a large pack containing a bed roll and a lantern, and has a quiver of arrows and a book attached to his belt. He is mid stride, looking down at his feet with a neutral expression. A small pig with peppermint stripe markings trots beside him, wearing a purple collar with the letter “P” and looking up at Liam with a happy expression.]

HP: 77/90 AC: 16 Remaining Spell Slots: None

Feats: Crossbow Expert, Sharpshooter

Magical Items Crossbow: Bursting Arrow (once/day - used), Ice Knife (once/day) Locket of the Sweetest Heart: Advantage on death saving throws if other locket is within 5’ Seed of Change: ???

First, props to Ally for their roleplaying! Most of the characters going into the battle anticipated a possible PVP at the end and saved their resources, but in-game, no one told Liam the full —or even half— story. This means Liam did not have any reason to hold back during the final battle, which is exactly how Ally played him. Liam used up all of his spell slots during the battle, as well as the Bursting Arrow feature on his crossbow, leaving him with his crossbow’s Ice Knife feature as his sole magical attack.

However, Liam is still a force to be reckoned with. He still has two attacks each turn, and he’s absolutely deadly in the first turn of combat, where Dread Ambusher gives him a bonus to initiative roles, and Assassinate gives him advantage against any creatures who haven’t taken a turn in combat yet, with any hit on a surprised creature being a critical hit. Dread Ambusher also gives him a bonus 10 feet of movement in his first round, and an extra attack with a bonus 1d8 damage if it lands. He also has 2d6 Sneak Attack, which paired with his other features, means that Peppermint Batman’s still got a few tricks up his sleeve.

From a roleplay perspective, Liam is the biggest unknown here. While he told Theo that he would protect Saccharina, that was without knowing the full story, and without being in the circumstances of an actual PVP battle. Ally’s WiFi cut out during the Adventuring Party when the cast discussed what they would have done in a PVP, which means we don’t know for certain who Liam would have sided with. If he defends Saccharina, that increases her numbers advantage. If he sticks with Ruby and Amethar, this potentially tilts the combat in their favour with another big damage dealer. He’s in a good place with his HP, which means he’s unlikely to go down soon, but he’s also got the lowest AC in the party. Who knows what might happen?

(Let’s be honest, Ally rolls a narrative nat 20 that results in something unbelievable, unpredictable, and world-altering happening. They are too powerful, and cannot and should not be stopped)

Cumulous - Long Death Monk 10

[ID: The official art for Cumulous Rocks by Samir Barrett @sketchmasterskillz. Cumulous has blue skin and poofy light pink hair. He wears a pink outfit similar to a sleeveless gi with pants, a purple belt, and purple arm and leg wraps. He holds a white staff in his hand. Swirls of pink cloud come off of him. He is mid action pose, with his legs in a mid-dash position and one of his hands brought forwards in a fist. He looks to the side with a focused, stern expression on his face.]

HP: 85/85 + 6 temp HP AC: 18 Remaining Ki Points: 4/10

Feats: Mage Slayer

Magical Items Fluffwind: Whirlwind Stance; triples long jump; Gaseous Form (once/day)

While not the absolute juggernaut that Theo is, Cumulous is best placed of all the characters in regards to HP, with full health and 6 temp HP remaining from killing a Meatlander. Although monks in general are not going to see the same staggering amounts of damage as other classes, and are more of a support martial class, Long Death monks excel in the kind of combat we saw in the finale - lots of lower-level enemies that are fairly easy to kill and gain temp HP from. With a good AC, Cumulous can take a few attacks before being in trouble.

Unlike other martial classes, monks don’t often get the dramatic killing blow. While they have a lot of attacks, each attack doesn’t deal that much damage by itself. Monks consistently erode away at an opponent’s health, or stun them so that their allies can get their hits in. Cumulous burned through a fair number of ki points during the battle, leaving him with a little under half his total, so he’ll have to be strategic about how and when he uses his ki. Most of the other characters have a good Constitution and decent ACs, so it may be in his best interest to save his ki for mobility.

Cumulous has two big assets in a PVP battle, which are his mobility and the many hogwild (and unlimited) features that monks have. With Unarmored Movement and Step of the Wind, he can move up to 150 feet in a turn, which includes across liquids and on vertical surfaces. He has Slow Fall, allowing him to negate up to 50 points of falling damage, and he’s immune to poison and disease (which may come in useful against the Water-steel Dagger). Thanks to being on Team Saccharina, he doesn’t have to worry about area of effect spells targeted at him. If all else fails, he can book the fuck out of there to a safe distance and use Gaseous Form to escape from there.

Conclusions

As I said at the beginning, there is no real way to predict the outcome of a PVP. Besides raw mechanics, there’s roleplay, player agency, and of course, the dice. Even looking at how each character is placed doesn’t necessarily translate to performance. Mechanically, Ruby has the most resources left available, but that doesn’t mean she’d be able to overcome a worse case scenario of four PC attackers and a dragon. Cumulous and Theo are doing the best in terms of HP, but would have difficulty downing another PC by themselves. Amethar and Saccharina both have the potential to deal massive damage, but sorcerers are called “glass cannons” for a reason, and even with Rage, Amethar is sitting at a low HP. Liam is an unknown quantity who could tip the scales in favour of one side or the other, but he has used up most of his devastating “war guy” abilities.

With the multitude of different factors (e.g. initiative order, possible crits, sheer buckwild shenanigans), it could realistically be either side left standing. Team Saccharina has the advantage of numbers and several very hard to kill PCs, Team Ruby has the advantage of big damage dealers (not to mention rogues and barbarians are A Challenge to deal with on their own, never mind together). As part of a team, each character has a better chance of survival and “winning,” with other characters being able to balance out their teammates’ weaker areas. #teamworkmakesthedreamwork All this, of course, without including the possibility of NPCs being convinced to join the fight.

But if there’s one thing we’ve seen in A Crown of Candy, it’s that there doesn’t have to be just two choices, either or. There’s a third possibility, not between the two but something more, of change. The fact that this is just a thought exercise bears that out. Many thanks to the Dimension 20 cast and crew for an amazing season!

#dimension 20 #a crown of candy #long post #acoc spoilers #disclaimer: i am not a professional dm and master combat analyst

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courage-a-word-of-justice · 6 years

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Angolmois 8 - 10 | BnHA 59 - 60 | Cells at Work! 9 - 10 | Planet With 9 - 10 | Phantom in the Twilight 9 - 10

Angolmois 8

“Hey! Kuchii and the Toibarai are fighting!” – Geesh, this sounds like a schoolyard fight! And yet, it’s because we’re here that I’m just going to sit on the sidelines and yell, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” instead.

Even after the sparring match, Kuchii is still holding his bulrush, LOL.

Uh, dude? Even in 1274, breaking into a fishing house and suddenly molesting a woman (or whatever you call whatever he was doing to the woman) is not cool, y’know?

Teruhi hadn’t appeared for half an episode until now…which just shows how minor she really is in the scheme of things, sadly enough…

How is sulfur used as medicine…?

BnHA 59

“He can do things an orca can do even on land.” – At least there’s something to distinguish him from Asui. Asui’s frogginess makes her best in the water, after all.

I love how Mera emphasised “I can sleep soon!” as being his top priority.

“A hot wind prison of flame and wind…” – That sounds kind of redundant, y’know?

Cells at Work! 9

“You’re not cut out to be a T Cell.”

Hmm…this really says something about the Japanese education system, don’tcha think?

The deception of the cell panels reminds me of Who’s That Pokémon? segments…like the top of a Jigglypuff or something. By the way, a pickling stone is a tsukemono ishi.

Planet With 9

I wonder, why do Benika and Yosuke have each other on first name basis? Is it kind of like “I’m not calling you ‘Hitsujitani’ because that’s what I know your brother as”? Or is it actually because they are close?

It’s a sheep! But it’s also a huge cotton ball! But-oh whatever. I can’t make up my mind on this, can I?

*the sealing begins*…then of course they have to show the Statue of Liberty, the sphinx etc. to show the breadth of the world and the sealing device…*sigh* Visual shorthand…

Oh, I just realised it went from giga -> tera. Hahaha, it increased in size so it...oh. Sorry. Dumb joke.

Phantom 9

“What a pain in rear!” (sic) – For some reason, I find that typo so funny, I’m leaving it as it is!

For some reason, Haysin using an iPad to communicate with his behind-the-scenes boy is kinda novel. And funny.

Choose a 3rd option – jump out the window, even when you’re still on the mend. What a glorious show…*smirking, but trying to hide it*

I just realised Ton’s red hair is the same as Luke’s red stripe. Not that Luke’s gotten more than just the stripe, though…

They’re only dealing with Magic Mirror at this point in the story??? Wuh???

Seriously, what is Wayne, if he’s not a ghost?

Where’d Shinyao’s glasses go???

The one thing more blasphemous than having reincarnation thrown into the mix when it’s already really messy with supernatural beasties and tech (not that I minded either) is…that Chris made Shinyao cry!!! Boi, you gotta pay for that!

Angolmois 9

I think I’ve gotten used to the filter over time…LOL.

Seriously, is Kuchii also good at shooting arrows??? Wuh???

Hehehe…Nagamine’s so hot. I’ve completely fallen for him after watching for a while, although the only real reason for it is his looks. He hasn’t done too much in the show, even though he seems entirely capable (dangit, Jinzaburou).

Still shots are a curse upon action shows, but unfortunately…here we go again…

I still don’t remember any generals’ names aside from Uriyan Edei, the rotund one…that’s a bit of a problem, isn’t it?

Have you noticed their objective always tends to be “land, treasure and women”, often in that order? History’s an annoying thing from a feminist perspective, eh?

This horseriding scene reminds me of the reveal of the Dosanko Shiraishi rode…the one in Golden Kamuy, that is. Not Angolmois’s Shiraishi, haha.

I only just realised Shiraishi said “head on a stick” because he’s holding a naginata, LOL. But it’s one of those naginatas made for men…

BnHA 60

There isn’t much suspense around Deku getting his licence, but Bakugo was actually a bit of a nebulous one. It’s a shame Mineta passed though…

What sort of Quirk would Yusa Kaito have, though???

I find it interesting that the word used for “you” in the ep title is the rough “temee”, as opposed to another alternative.

Why does this hero exam remind me so much of driving exams??? “Responsibility towards society” and all that…

“…proof that I’ve matured and it makes me so happy.” – That’s why I’m saying it reminds me of a driving test! Graah!

Tartarus.

Iida and his huge snot bubble, LOL.

For some reason, Deku’s shirt says shi-tsu (sheets) rather than shatsu (shirt). During a tense confontation, no less…

To have the status quo of your world changed so suddenly…and then have to hide the ripples it makes, and then have to hide the origin of it, is hard. That’s part of One Wish They Never Wanted, and I’m seeing it here, loud and clear. Of course, that story’s a lot happier than this one (BnHA), so the fates of those involved won’t be the same in the end…

Cells at Work! 10

Wow, we’re so close to the end…

All those shots of the heart come from the circulation episode…geez, talk about recycling…

Platelets! 10/10!

When that guy in the hazmat suit showed up, I imagined Spanish guitars. Like Tuxedo Mask in the 90s Sailor Moon…

So many platelets! 100/10!

Even more platelets! 1000/10!

If the monocyte doesn’t finish this huge Staphylococcus Aureus off…then this show wouldn’t be Cells at Work, y’know? As much as I’d like the show to surprise me, it’s better to know the cells are working as they should be rather than having something abnormal for the sake of surprise (even though I’d prefer the latter on most occasions).

Recycling at its best…or maybe worst? Hard to tell with this show.

Planet With 10

This horn(?) track – the one as Souya and co give final stares to the Excellency and Shiraishi - sounds really nice.

I just noticed Ginko and Shiraishi are very formal when they quote Sensei and the Excellency’s words. Makes sense considering their titles…

Did you notice it looks as if the spaceships are crying?

Oh my gosh…I guess I knew it had to happen..but there goes anyone who shipped Shiraishi with Souya.

Azurabarakura seems to be the word for “dragon” in one of their languages…

Phantom 10

Was that door even slammed in Luke’s face??? It was so poorly animated…

Stop talking about saving Shinyao and just save her already!!!

As much as I get these guys care for Ton, this possessiveness seems a lil’ yandere-ish. It’s mixed signals from a feminist perspective. Also, they did all this stuff a few episodes ago, we don’t need it again.

Why is Shinyao in a black dress anyway? Probably because of Sailor Moon’s Black Lady, right?

So, as Karandi guessed, it’s Shinyao vs. Ton…

Vlad sleeping while waiting for the kettle…for some reason, that’s real amusing to see. Probably because it’s a still.

Even though there are clearly lip flaps at times, they didn’t even put voices on a few scenes…That’s disappointing, show. Real disappointing.

Seriously? Shouldn’t someone call the cops for vandalism?

Lord of Gluttony? Is that Wayne’s alter ego? Why does the Lord act so much like Black from Kekkai Sensen anyway…?

“I’m the genius engineer…” But seriously, his name really is Backup??? Wuh???

Oh my gosh, chibi Wayne’s actions are so adorbs!

The next episode’s name roughly means “The Final Battle is in the Dark”. It’s not a complete sentence, so I can see why the subbers chose what they did, but still…

Angolmois 10

Oh dear, this ain’t gonna end well for Shiraishi…

I wonder if the Princess has a spiritual role on the island as well as her ceremonial one…?

My gosh, Teruhi does a better scary face than Chizuru (ReLIFE), I swear!

Was that dude Hokusai around during 1274…? Talking of waves reminded me of him.

I feel like Nagamine has his own agenda at this point in time…hmm, sketchy. Why do I always fall for the evil ones these days? (SPOILERS!) First zaShunina(Kado), then Chrom and Narek (DamexPri) and now Nagamine…(Spoilers over.)

Oh great. Is this MORE Mongols??? Find out…after the ED.

I just realised, but Kuchii has the scar on his chin from his fight with Shiraishi in the ED.

…Oh dear. I guessed it without even watching ahead. This show’s probably become too predictable. Oh well, I still have Nagamine to hang around for.

#simulcast commentary #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #Angolmois #angolmois genkou kassenki #phantom in the twilight #cells at work #hataraku saibou #planet with #chesarka watches bnha #Chesarka watch PitW #Chesarka watches Hataraku Saibou #Chesarka watches Angolmois #Chesarka watches Planet With

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nutritionsnfitness · 3 years

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#Best CBD Gummies on Amazon

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kierthehecc · 3 years

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There’s three of them??

Kylo Ren x Reader // One Shot ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kylo Ren has a big crush on (Y/N), but they don't particularly like him like that. But, after two odd guys interact with them, their mind changes. (Yes, there's gonna be Matt and Randy) ________________________________________________________________ The Supreme Leader made his way down a corridor, his shoulder length hair moving as if there was a bit of wind. He had to find them. Who was this 'them'? (Y/N). A higher ranking technician in the First Order. The leader of said First Order had seem them a couple of times. And he was trying his hardest to make them fall for him. "..." Silence filled each and every corridor that Kylo walked down. "You." He said to a stormtrooper, who was messing around. "Where do I find (L/N)?" Technicians are known by last name, since they really don't have an official title. "Uh.. I believe they're somewhere near the 3rd training room, sir." The stormtrooper saluted. "..." The male started that way without another word. (Y/N) was currently fixing something that Kylo Ren himself destroyed, in an effort to keep the room that they were in, a mass control room, from being unusable. The Leader entered the room they were fixing, and cleared his throat. With the mask, the noise was elevated. ".. oh." The person stopped what they were doing, and looked up. Quickly, they went into a salute position. "Hello, Supreme Leader. Am I needed elsewhere?" They asked the man who was standing before them. "No. I need to ask you a question." A hiss came from the helmet. After an hour of pleading and prying, Kylo Ren could not get any further with making (Y/N) fall in love with him. Because they had blocked him out. Not with the Force, no. With pretending he didn't exist. He let out a exasperated sigh, and yelled 'fine'. After the Leader exited the room, (Y/N) began to question why this man thought them of all people seemed attractive. They pondered this as they worked, almost finished. Which, was good. That meant the room could be used again. A new day arrived. (Y/N) sat at their desk, and then heard commotion outside of their slightly larger cubicle. "What's going on-" They went to where the hullabaloo was happening. There was a person they had never seen before talking with one of the technicians. "Who are you?" They asked the person. "I'm Matt. I'm a new Radar Technician." The man wore aviator style glasses, and had blonde hair that looked oddly like a wig. ".. uh.. okay-" (Y/N) was very suspicious of this new guy. They weren't informed that there was going to be a new person. "... How about you accompany Marsha to fix the control panel in block 7-" The person said, reading it from a holoscreen. "Okay.." Marsha, a technician that (Y/N) knew was good at her job, left. But, Matt didn't follow. "Hey-.." He got the attention of the higher ranked technician. "Have you seen Kylo Ren with his shirt off? I heard he has a eight-pack-" Odd comment from Matt. "..uh.. okay then-" This was making (Y/N) uncomfortable. "Yeah.. and I heard that he's also super good at fighting-" The person walked away from the blonde, and he sighed. Another day. Matt was gone. Odd. "Hey Marsha.. do you know when my drink is going to be here?" (Y/N) wanted a drink, so they ordered one. A intern was supposed to bring it to them. "I think I remember the system saying something like 2 more minutes.." The lower ranked technician looked at a screen, and saw 2:05 on it. 2 minutes, 5 seconds. "Yeah, about 2 minutes." "Okay, thanks." While they waited, (Y/N) looked at some of the data for the ship's infrastructure. Technicians had to look at it sometimes. Then, the door slid open. "I have a blue milk with Jogan Fruit pieces for .. (Y/N)?" The voice hesitated. The person stood up, and went by the door. A man stood there. Reminiscent of the man who was there before. 'Randy' , said the name tag. "Yeah, that's me." The drink was taken. "The straws are over there-" He motioned to the other holder, that had some straws. "Thanks-" They went back to their desk. "Wait!" Called the male. "Yes?" The person looked over at the 'Randy' fellow. "Did you know that Kylo Ren has brought you up a couple times when he talks about the best technician in the ship?" This made (Y/N) stop thinking about anything else. He said that? "Really?" They asked the guy, confused as all hell. "Yeah.. He's pretty cool, huh?" ".. I .. I guess.." And with that, Randy left. Another guy. No Randy or Matt. (Y/N) looked over at their cup. It had the First Order insignia on it. ".. I wonder why the Supreme Leader mentioned me at all.. Am I really that important to him?" They muttered to themself as they held the cup, looking at the symbol closer. "Maybe I could .. go on a date with a guy. Maybe he isn't so bad." The person shrugged. Then, the door to the room for technicians slammed open. The Supreme Leader stood there. "(L/N)!" He went over to their cubicle. "..." The male sent a glare at the other technicians, well not really a glare, but looked at them. The mask didn't really help. But, all of the other technicians left the room. Since they were gone, the mask was taken off. "Why won't you go on a date with me?" He tried to seem menacing, yet gentle. Dunno how you're supposed to do that. ".. I thought that you weren't that great of a guy.. and just wanted a fling or something.. but after some intern guy said something about how you mentioned me in something.. I was surprised you even thought about me-" (Y/N) looked up at the male. ".. So if you still want me to go-" The Leader cut them off by pulling them into a hug. Huh. "Yes, I would very much so like to go on a date with you-" The faintest of smiles rested on Kylo's face. After sitting still for a bit, (Y/N) finally hugged him back. They saw past his rough exterior to see how kind he actually was. ".. you're not too bad, Kylo Ren. Not too bad at all."

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armeniaitn · 4 years

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Armenia 3rd President Sargsyan: Did we win or lose in April 2016 war?

New Post has been published on https://armenia.in-the.news/politics/armenia-3rd-president-sargsyan-did-we-win-or-lose-in-april-2016-war-52790-19-08-2020/

Armenia 3rd President Sargsyan: Did we win or lose in April 2016 war?

YEREVAN. – At the beginning of his press conference Wednesday, Armenia’s third President Serzh Sargsyan read his introductory remarks that were made at his meeting with the National Assembly inquiry committee which investigates the circumstances of the hostilities in April 2016. These remarks are as follows:

Before answering the questions of interest to you, I would like to address the panel with a brief introductory speech. Also, I suggest attaching it to today’s meeting’s minutes.

First of all, I will explain why I decided to accept your invitation, come and answer any question that might be asked in here, although many of my supporters, members of the political team urged me to avail myself of my right to reject the invitation on the grounds that the Commission seemed to have been set up for political considerations, and its members had repeatedly expressed biased and incorrect opinions about the April events.

But I decided to come over, even if their concerns were relevant, since I wanted to look straight in your eyes trying to understand whether there is anyone to question the victory of the Armenian side in the Four-Day April War. Is there anyone who can professionally substantiate that Azerbaijan is on the winning side while it has lost most of its elite units? Can anyone tell me that the Armenian side which stopped a large-scale offensive with numerous examples of unspeakable courage suffered a defeat? Can anyone provide evidence of a war ever waged in the history of mankind where only soldiers fought and won without commanders?

The question may arise as to why I have so far failed to speak out about the April War and downplay the speculations on this topic. To be honest, at first there was no need for it, and then there was no expediency. That is why I proposed to hold a commission hearing with my participation at the end of the state of emergency, so that after the hearings I could have the opportunity to address the issue in the presence of media outlets and disclose all relevant information.

Let me now address some issues that have unfortunately become the subject of speculation.

Before arguing about whether we won or lost by repelling the April aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan, one ought to have a clear idea of what victory is, and what defeat is in a war.

It is obvious that wars are not an end in themselves, they always pursue political goals. War is the “continuation of politics” in other ways. It is a victory for the defending side when it succeeds in aborting the aggressor’s plans with minimal losses. No warfare can be deemed successful for the attacking side if it does not achieve at least part of its political goals.

Before answering the question of whether we won or lost the April War, let me briefly touch on whether we could prevent or avoid the war. Now I can confidently state that it was impossible.

Why? Because Azerbaijan was not ready to accept any compromise acceptable to us: I am convinced that they are not prepared to acknowledge the right of the citizens of Nagorno-Karabakh to determine the status of their country by free will. Thus, there was only one way to avoid war: unilateral concessions, which, of course, was not even discussed as it was unacceptable for us.

As I said, victory comes when one’s political goals are materialized through war. What political goals were pursued by Azerbaijan? Those goals have been formulated in the findings of both domestic and foreign expert studies, in the comprehensive analyses carried out by competent authorities, as well as in the decisions and statements made by the leaders of foreign states, including the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

They pursued an ultimate goal of achieving a U-turn in the negotiations. They wanted to prove that the conflict might have a military solution as the negotiations were not in their favor. [Azerbaijan President] Ilham Aliyev demonstrated it best in 2016 during the October, 2007 cabinet meeting of the Government of Azerbaijan, when he acknowledged that behind closed doors the international community had been urging him to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence.

Second, Azerbaijan was striving to give to oblivion the fact that Artsakh was a party to the conflict as vividly evidenced by the tripartite ceasefire arrangement signed as early as in 1994.

Third, it was extremely important for Azerbaijan to root out the loser’s complex in the minds of its own people and in the army by representing themselves as winners. Instead, they were trying to get the winner’s psychology of our troops changed into the psychology of a loser. I can cite other goals as well, but let us stop on what was said.

Now let us see whether they achieved their goals or not?

First, the failures on the battlefield did not allow Azerbaijan to confront the Armenian side and the international community with “fait accompli” and force us to negotiate their own agenda. In the meantime, there was a breakthrough in the negotiations concerning the agenda that we had been insisting on ever since 2013 with a view to setting up an international mechanism for investigating ceasefire violations.

After the April War, Aliyev had to agree with this reality in Vienna and then in St. Petersburg. By the way, this was a key component in the legacy left by the former Armenian authorities. I will explain it in more detail, if necessary.

Thus, as a result of the April aggression, Azerbaijan suffered huge losses not only in military terms, but also in the diplomatic arena. It came to prove that Azerbaijan was unable to solve the problem through the use of force.

Second, having failed on the battlefield, Azerbaijan was forced to be back to the table of negotiations together with Russia. We were expected to agree to Azerbaijan’s proposal for signing a new ceasefire agreement. But we refused, insisting that the 1994 agreement was still standing as it was signed for an indefinite term. That is, we refused to sign a new ceasefire document, which in fact would push Artsakh out of the peace process as an equal party to the conflict. Later on, we received a clear-cut position on the part of the Co-Chairs, with the official statement spread in the OSCE, which reaffirmed the deadline-free nature of the tripartite ceasefire agreement of 1994.

Third, as I said, Aliyev wanted to raise the fighting spirit of his own people and army through war in order to create some myth of “victory.” They had even mobilized special groups to quickly publicize the expected success. But it did not work out thanks to our soldiers’ bravery.

Going a little further, I should say that I deeply regret to see that some forces have been serving this very goal inside our country over the past few years.

For four years now, myths and absolute lies have been fomented about our soldiers’ being left without food and fighting with shovels. To make things worse, some used to claim that our armored vehicles were filled with water instead of diesel fuel. This is just a shame, even from the point of view of achieving political goals.

After all, was the April War a victory or a defeat for the Armenian side? I have never questioned it, since I am convinced that this is our victory, the victory of all of us.

Did our military-political leadership work effectively? Despite some minor shortcomings, almost all military, political, state and civilian parties did their best during the hostilities. As for the shortfalls and lessons, there is the Top Secret Report drafted by the Armenian Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of the Armed Forces that I suppose is available for commission members’ reference.

Was it possible to reject the armistice and try to restore our initial positions? I think so. But it was very likely that we would have dozens of new victims, new mourning parents, new orphans, and new widows.

Could we reject the ceasefire in order to punish Azerbaijan by expanding the security zone with new territories? Without ruling out the possibility of success, I would say that it would be an adventure fraught with unpredictable consequences, up to the outbreak of a full-scale war, as a consequence of thousands, maybe tens of thousands of victims, destroyed towns and villages.

In view of the above and taking note of the opinions of the Minister of Defense, the Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces, the President of Artsakh and the Commanders of the Defense Army, and in my capacity of Commander-in-Chief, I decided to accept the proposal of ceasefire.

This perhaps a little long introductory speech was meant to foster a substantive discussion of issues arising from the Commission’s goals and mandate. I am prepared to answer your questions for the good of our state and people.

You yourself understand that the Four-Day War is a small part of the millennial history of the Armenian people who are fighting for their dignity, freedom and survival. Please remember that regretfully the war is not yet over.

Read original article here.

#Armenia #Artsakh #Karabakh #Yerevan #Politics

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southcoastfires · 4 years

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It’s not over till it’s over

Friends who live nearby who have a house with a small apartment underneath that they rent out as an airbnb place. They’ve had a woman staying with them for a few days. She lived in a rental property up Burra creek, which is an area to the west of Moruya. This area has been under threat or actively burning for a couple of weeks and in some areas, a month. She evacuated for the NYE fires to the campsite at North Head, next to the airport. North Head campground is a campground but also an unofficial semi homeless camp. That makes it sound bad I guess, but it isn’t, it’s just a place for people who’re travellers on a more long term basis I think.

Unlike other local campsites, North Head allows dogs. This woman has one dog. She has been living in the camp for one month, in a tent, in the heat and wind and smoke. She can’t leave the camp to go into town without packing up everything, including her solar panel, because of theft. Her sister called a week ago (end of Jan) and organised for her to stay for a few days in our friends’ place airbnb. She said she was ‘so grateful’ as she had nowhere to go, and she’d just learned that she’d lost her house and everything in it, almost one month after she evacuated.

The idea of camping in a place, for a month waiting to hear if your house has burned down seemed like a particularly strange type of torture. She said she has possibly found a place to rent in Rosedale and she’s happy about that because it’s been burned all around the house, so she feels safe. Rosedale is completely blackened landscape. It’s hard for me to imagine living amongst ashes but many people actually feel relieved - it’s a comfort to be surrounded by something that won’t burn.

People are so, so over it.

I talked to a guy on the beach. He said that this friend, who lives in the Deua valley and is in the Valley RFS, is totally fed up with talking about it and dealing with it. When they go for a surf they have an agreed limit on ‘fire talk’. Most people are getting to the same point - for the first few weeks you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing stories, and sometimes I would watch people visibly flinch as they listened to others’ telling their tales. People are only sharing them with each other. There’s nothing to say, no-one can make it any better. It’s like pouring a cup of water into a pond - everyone is at saturation point.

There’s an exhaustion and also a sense of anger how the fire are being seen from the outside.

Because of the nature of the news cycle people from outside the area are really genuinely thinking that the crisis is over. We’ve all heard about the ‘new normal’ and that’s been cycled around in the media, but that hasn’t sunk in. People can’t even conceptualise being on fire for a couple of weeks, let alone the permanency of climate change taking place over years.

For instance, the Moruya Country Show was scheduled to take place in mid January like it always is, a huge festival of cakes and vegetables all wilting away inside a 45c tin shed. It’s great. The show committee cancelled the show, as it takes place at the show grounds, which was still being used as an evacuation centre in early January. However, they decided to run a ‘community day’ on the day that the show was meant to take place, on about the 3rd weekend in January. As it was, the community day took place just before a fire day, and so everyone was either organising, moving animals, packing things or evacuating. And the showground, where the community day was held, was still being used as an evacuation centre.

Another example; The ABC’s Q & A show organised to film an episode in Bega, and advertised to get local people to join them on the panel. There was the clear idea that it was all over - I couldn’t imagine anyone having the energy to go on TV and make content for them. It’s all too exhausting for people. I think the media are used to talking to people in the immediate aftermath of a disaster when people have. alot of adrenaline still pumping around, and there are things to do and jobs to get done - the recovery. But the people in the Bega valley especially couldn’t get on with a ‘recovery’ of any kind because there were and are so many active fires in the area that they can’t actually get anything done. For some people they go back and camp on their burned out properties, but they’re experiencing road closures and a lack of power and comms and everything else, because the resst of the region is still on fire. After a month of living like this, these people are exhausted, everyone is exhausted, and it feels quite exploitative to have these shiny bums turn up and ask stupid questions about the impact and recovery when there can’t be any of either yet.

This was made perfectly clear when the ABC’s Q & A show had to cancel their planned filming in Bega because there were three major fires burning close to Bega. They were worried about losing power, comms and even traveling the crew back to Sydney. The show was filmed in Queanbeyan.

At work, at the beginning of February, I start receiving emails from our head office based in Sydney that begin with, ‘Hi everyone on the south coast, I hope you’re all recovering well from the fires!’. The email arrived while I checked my phone while we’re spending another two days evacuated. The email included a long list of jobs to be done, all of which required days in the office, which means taking the kid into work because school is cancelled.

I marvelled at the lack of awareness but then remembered that the media cycle has moved on, and now everyone is talking about #sportsrort and the coronavirus, so those of us with friends who’re losing their homes, this weekend, should remind ourselves that the fires actually finished exactly one calendar week after media first turned up.

I sat down and tried to compose a thoughtful email explaining how hurtful their sing song ‘hope the recovery is going well’ email was, when we’re all still very much freaking out about the fires on our doorstep. Every draft sounded churlish. I realised I’d spent 45 minutes trying to write a kind, thoughtful email asking people in their air-conditioned offices to please be a little understanding of the situation of those who’re still living in tents with their dogs, coughing awake every morning covered in mosquito bites. And I realised, after I’d finished, that it would be received poorly anyway. No-one likes whingers.

It made me think about the people on the north coast, the fires that burned through communities in November and December. How much did I know about those people? Those communities? How much attention did I pay to them? I looked at the pictures, like everyone else, and I registered that there were homes, and in some cases, entire settlements lost. I googled ‘Wytaliba’ and marvelled at the remoteness of the community, completely surrounded by bush. That looks just like here, I thought.

There’s also so much time wasted in the ‘gravitas talk’ where people burble out all the platitudes about how dreadful it all has been on the radio, over and over, as if they have any idea. Today I heard the presenter on ABC South East say that the state government was due to go back today, but they were asking for a week’s prologue because of the fires. And apparently Andrew Constance had put forward a condolence motion, so they could all sit around in their air conditioned debating chamber and hang their heads and offer their beautifully composed condolences, while everyone else on the south coast wonders if they should send their kids to school in this smoke (AQI; Moruya; UNHEALTHY!). The eulogising of an event that hasn’t actually finished yet is insulting. This is the definition of impotent political theatre.

It’s like the sheer amount of stuff that was sent down to the area following the fires - donations of clothes for people who’ve lost their houses. Where are these people meant to put these clothes? People were sending desperate messages through facebook - ‘There are no babies in Nerrigundah! Please stop sending thousands of nappies!’ It also occurred to me that the swimming pool in Moruya could have given free vouchers for showers, alongside vouchers for the laundromat. Volunteers could have strung up washing lines in the park beside the river. There are many more useful things that could have been done that didn’t involve people sending their oldest pairs of polyester track-pants. One woman I know worked on the distribution centre, and spent her entire day explaining that people who were fighting fires needed cotton or wool clothing, not nylon footy shirts.

What people need, if anything, are packets of new underpants, toothbrushes, bottled water, loo paper and soap - the same stuff that Australian charities routinely sends other impoverished countries dealing with unnatural disasters. I noticed how many people, including myself, cut their hair. I had hair down to my waist and after spending five minutes hosing dead leaves off a roof on the 4th of January, put it in a rough pony tail and got my daughter to cut it off to ear length. Many other local women did the same - long hair is not conducive to a lack of showers, heat, smoke and breathing masks.

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connecticut-seo-adwords · 6 years

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Do Links Still Matter for SEO in 2017?

By Eric Enge

In today's post, I'll show you information from three different dates over the past year that highlight why links remain an effective ranking aspect. I'll also go over in detail why Google still utilizes them, and why they are most likely to remain a powerful ranking element for some time to come.In July of 2016, we published our very first research study on Links as a Ranking Factor. Today's post updates that information with a fresh analysis of links as a ranking element, to see if there is any indication of a decline in their importance. In fact, we have actually analyzed the power of links as a ranking factor on three different dates, as follows:

May 2016

August 2016

May 2017

The Results

Let's dig right in and look at the results throughout all 3 data sets that we pulled:

Note that the same 6,000 inquiries were used in all three data sets, and we see that the value stays steady and strong throughout the time period. Some motion backward and forward is natural. We used 6,000 inquiries since that is what we made with the initial study on this subject. With the Research Study 2 and Research study 3 information sets, we likewise pulled data samples for 16,000 questions. Here are the connection scores for those two information sets of 16K inquiries:

When again, both information sets reveal strong outcomes. Note: See the methodology area listed below for a description of exactly what a "Quadratic Mean Spearman Correlation Score" worth actually means.In the first study, we likewise took a view where we aggregated the normalized link counts (see the approach area listed below for an explanation of exactly what that is) by ranking position. The function of this technique was to help change for that the significance and quality of the content are such considerable ranking elements, and to assist us even more examine how links might matter. Here is exactly what we saw:

In this data, there is some obvious erosion, but the story is rather various if

you look at the outcomes for the 2 16K inquiry sets: For this information set, we see a lift in between Research study 2 and Study 3, which remains in contrast to the 6K information set. As an outcome, my belief is that this is simply normal movement of the rankings from a range of factors.Why Aren't the Non-Aggregated Connection Worths Higher?There are 2 significant factors, as follows:1. Importance and Material Quality huge Elements:

In its most basic form, if a web page is not appropriate to an inquiry, it shouldn't rank. That is, obviously, obvious, however the discussion is far more nuanced than that. To show, let's say we have actually got 10 pieces of content that are pertinent sufficient to be considered for ranking for a question. Let's further state that they have"importance ratings "(RS) like this: This appears like it might be a quite great ranking algo on the surface area. We

're ranking the most relevant material on top. You'll see too that I set my significance ratings in a truly narrow variety, which makes sense. If you're not pertinent, you should not rank.The problem is that it's pretty easy to make pieces of content look highly appropriate just by packing the best words in it, and the most relevant material might in reality be offering very poor info to users. So let's include a new score called quality rating(QS )(not the Adwords version of this term, but an actual natural assessment of a page's quality instead), and let's see how that affects our algorithm: This seems an enhancement, and it most likely is. The issue here is that, similar to determining significance

, measuring quality is a difficult thing to do. Let's add one more element to the mix, that of a Link Score(LS), and utilize that to let the "market at big "provide us an indicator on exactly what material is the finest on this subject. Here is exactly what that looks like: You see how the rankings moved around in between the three scenarios? Pretty substantially. In this mock-up

of the Google algorithm, it's quite clear that links are EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. Need to know the Spearman rating for links as a ranking consider the third scenario revealed? It's 0.28. While this is a significant simplification of the Google algorithm, but even based upon this, you can see why extremely high Spearman scores are tough to achieve.2. Other Algorithms Come Into Play: Examples of the kind of algorithms I'm speaking about consist of: Local search engine result Image results Video results Inquiry Deserves Diversity outcomes These might affect 15 percent of our outcomes. Let's envision that it changes just one of them, and one high scoring result is replaced with a single item(result number

3). In our example, I have actually changed the

3rd result with something that was available in from another algorithm, such as Question Deserves Diversity. Know exactly what this does to the Spearman score for links as a ranking factor for this result? It

drops to 0.03. Ouch!Hopefully, this will provide you some instinct regarding why a score in the 0.3 range is a sign that links are an extremely material consider ranking.Google's Progress in Battling Link Spam Those who state that links are on the decrease as a ranking element often point to the

efforts by spammers to utilize illegitimate practices to get links and earn rankings that their websites don't deserve. This certainly was a substantial issue for Google in the 2002 to 2013 time

range. The tide in this fight began to turn in 2012. What took place initially during that year was that a wave of manual charges began to get evaluated by Google. On their own, these already sent a shockwave through the SEO industry. The next major step was the release of the first version of Penguin on April 24, 2012. This was a huge action forward for Google.As the next few years unfolded, Google invested greatly in a mix of methods to use new versions of Penguin and manual charges to fine-tune their technique to handling people that use invalid approaches to acquiring links. This culminated with the release of Penguin 4.0 on September 23, 2016. With the release of Penguin 4.0, Google's self-confidence in their technique to links had actually ended up being so high that the Penguin algorithm was no longer penalizing sites for acquiring bad links. Since Penguin 4.0, the algorithm simply recognizes those links and ignores them(triggers them to have no ranking value ). This shift from punishing sites with bad links to just discounting those links shows Google's self-confidence that Penguin is discovering a large percentage of the bad links that it's created to find.Of course, they still use manual charges to resolve kinds of

invalid link-building practices that individuals use that Penguin is not targeted at addressing.How much progress has Google in fact made? I still remember the Black Hat/ White Hat panel I rested on in December of 2008 at SES Chicago.

With me were Dave Naylor, Todd Friesen and Doug Heil. A couple of the panel members argued that buying links at the start of campaigning for a website was a requirement, and it was careless for an SEO pro to not do so.How a decade changes things! It has actually been several years given that any SEO in any location has actually argued that buying links represents a smart practice. In truth, you cannot discover anybody making public suggestions about techniques for obtaining links that break Google's Webmaster standards. The whole market for doing those kind of things has been driven underground.Driven underground is not the like

"gone,"however it does reveal that Google's ability to discover and spot issues has actually become quite effective.One last point, and it's a crucial one. Ask yourself, why does Google have the Penguin algorithm, and why do they evaluate manual link penalties?"The answer is easy: Due to the fact that links ARE a major ranking aspect, and plans to get links that do not fit their standards are things that they want to proactively address.Why Are Links a Belongings Signal?Why is Google still utilizing links? Why do not they just change to user engagement signals and social networks signals? I won't

establish the whole reason that these signals are problematic here, but will share one point about each: User Engagement Signals: Google most likely finds some method to use these signals in one circumstance or another, but there are restrictions to what they can do. Here is exactly what the head of their maker learning group, Jeff Dean, stated about them:"An example of a messier support knowing problem is perhaps

attempting to utilize it in exactly what search engine result ought to I show. There's a much wider set of search engine result I can display in response to various questions, and the benefit signal is a little noisy. If a user takes a look at a search results page and likes it or doesn't like it, that's not that apparent."However now, let's get to the core of the concern: Why are links such a great signal? It comes down to 3 major points: Implementing links needs a product financial investment to be made by you. You must own a site and you need to make the effort to carry out the link on a web page. This might not be a big financial investment, however it's considerably more effort than it is to execute a link in a social media post.When you execute a link, you are making a public recommendation recognizing your brand with the web page that you're connecting to. In addition, it's fixed. It sits

there in an enduring manner. On the other hand, with a link in a social media post, it's gone from individuals's feeds quickly

, sometimes only in minutes.Now, here is the huge one: When you implement a link on a page on your site, individuals may click on it and leave your site.Think about that last one for a few seconds more. A( non-advertisement) link on your site is a sign by you (as the publisher of the page with the links )that you think the link has

adequate value to your visitors, and will do enough to boost your relationship with those visitors, that you want to have people leave your site.That's exactly what makes links an exceptionally important signal.Basic Methodology After seeking advice from a couple of specialists on the very best technique ( Paul Berger and Per Enge), I carried out a calculation of the Spearman Correlation on the results for all the questions in our study, then took the Quadratic Mean of those ratings. The reason for doing this is that it leverages the square of the connection variables (where the connection value is R, the quadratic mean utilizes R squared ). It's actually the R squared value that has some meaning in data. If R is 0.8

, then R squared is 0.64, and you can state about that 64 percent of the variability in Y is described by

X. As Paul Berger explained it to me, there is no significant sentence including the correlation variable R, however R squared provides you something meaningful to state about the associated relationship.Here is a visual on how this estimation procedure works: In addition to the various estimation approach, I also utilized a mix of different inquiry types. We evaluated commercial head terms, business long tail terms and likewise informational queries. Two-thirds of our queries were informative in nature.Additional Approaches I believe that both the Mean of the Specific Connections and Quadratic Mean techniques are legitimate, however one of the limitations with these methods is that other aspects can control the ranking algorithm, and make it tough to see the strength of the signal.For that reason, I picked to take some other approaches to the analysis. The first of these was to measure the links in a more aggregated way. To do this, we normalized the amount of links for each outcome. Exactly what I suggest by this is that we took the link counts for each ranking position for a provided question, then divided it by the biggest number of

links for that given query.As an outcome, the largest link score for each inquiry would weigh"1". The factor for doing this is to prevent a few questions that have some outcomes with huge varieties of links from having extreme influence on the resulting calculations.Then we took

the overall of the links for all the search engine result by each ranking position. The equations for this appearance more like this: The value of this is that it ravels the effect of the unfavorable connections in a different method. Think of it as smoothing out the effect of other ranking elements, as shown above(significance score, content rating, and the impact of other algos). This is the calculation that is revealed in the "Aggregate Link Correlation by Ranking Position "data above.I also looked at this one more way. In this view, I continued to utilize the stabilized overalls of the links, but organized them in ranking groups of 10. I.e., I summed the stabilized link overalls for the leading 10, did the exact same for ranking positions 11 to 20, 21 to 30, and so forth. I then determined the connections to see how they looked in terms of what it would take to rank in each 10 position block.Those calculations looked more like this: This provides us a bit more granular technique than just aggregating all the ranking positions into the SERP positions, but still smooths out a few of the limitations of the Mean of Individual Connections technique. That is exactly what is displayed in the"Aggregate Link Connection in Blocks of 10 "information above.Cementing the Point with Case Research Studies We do a great deal of high-end content marketing projects with our customers, a lot of which are Fortune 500 companies. Here is a sampling of the outcomes across many of our clients: The sample results revealed here have been duplicated numerous times by us. Nevertheless, we do not find that links can save bad quality content, or cause low relevance material to rank. All of our efforts focus on getting recognition from, or content published on, really high authority sites.Doing this well requires a focus on how you execute your marketing and PR to get in front of the audiences that matter to your business the most. This will naturally drive

high value links back to your website, and assist you earn rankings that you are worthy of.

Source

https://www.stonetemple.com/link-as-a-ranking-factor/

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crookedlydeliciouswinner-blog · 6 years

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Modern technology.

Clare, the partner of my hubby's best friend is fairly a good friend of mine and also we work together establishing and also running advertising sales backwards and forwards the nation for a couple of well recognized youngsters's garments firms. The high quality of partnership matters for a great deal, according to the survey: 83% of those who explained their connection as very good or excellent reported sensation good concerning themselves while just 62% of those who described their partnership as average, bad or really poor reported the same degree of individual health and wellbeing. Concept Proficiency Alerts clear up hard concepts, informed by data from Mistaken belief Alert inquiries in PrepU for Brunner & Suddarth's Book of Medical-Surgical Nursing, 12e. In 1909, when some of the world's greatest scientists merged in Cambridge to commemorate Darwin's centennial, 92-year-old Hooker stood high among them, admiring the friend he had actually outlasted by virtually 20 years and also assisted for greater than 5. Alcohol abuse and also substance abuse can be different underlying sources of delayed ejaculation, so resolving these troubles may help. Thus, day-to-day actions may catch everyone's experiences, but regular steps may capture everyone's most personally pertinent or prominent experiences, which could differ for each and every connection companion. In some cases it's emotional like it is when you remain in a relationship that misbehaves for you. However, after a brief intro to Meesha in the first phase, guide returns to Employer also known as Malcolm Clark. Alluring Her Buddy is the tale of friends in love with each other, however neither understands the other loves them. In these cases, the friends most likely split on excellent terms, and restoring the connection merely means reaching out to re-establish call. His resistance to modern technology was a running motif (and a method of maintaining some personal privacy in a really public life) till he ultimately hopped on e-mail, in 2010, explaining himself proudly as a new computer geek". There he was familiar with regular Royal prince Harry as well as his friend Man Pelly, that drew Jack to run the stylish Mahiki nightclub where Jack functioned 12 hr days. So, I suggest that in a circumstances such as this one, it is smart to expand your very own inner network, over interact about essential choices that have to be made, and also overlook your manager when you have wide support to move on. While you still have your view, believe tough and also lengthy regarding what you want in a connection and send out that power out right into deep space. More Info of the one in charges was walking by (his name was Morrie) as well as he discharged this tasty cackle of a laugh, enjoying the fact that this other was caught forever. Even better, offer to throw one because you like your good friend and also this is a huge deal. While it's true that every partnership needs a particular quantity of compromise, do without the important things that we really need just doesn't work. Humane Society International becomes part of The Hair Free Partnership which held discussions with Hugo Boss concerning its fur policy. She doesn't want to be ruled under her daddy's thumb and also busts her evaluate day in and day out attempting to make her mark. Subscribe for 4 problems of the poetry collection, starting with The one in charge or the next publication, for $40. It is necessary you don't set up unnecessary boundaries that stop you from being viewed as friendly (ideally, a friend). Whatever Gave You That Suggestion!" The piece, which Benjamin composed in collaboration with his pal Wolf Zucker, provided a strikingly lucid however semi-satirical take on the everlasting question of ways to ask for a raise-- or, rather, the best ways to request anything when there is a power vibrant included in between provider and also receiver. It offers trainees' a fantastic start to just what makes a good friend as well as just what makes a not so good friend. In this situation, you program on your own to see and hear your manager but not really see or hear them" Your manager could be chewing out you, but you purposely let it move as if you did not listen to anything. Scott sees just how much this pleases Rachel and also makes a decision perhaps he needs to have an online good friend as well. Except for the check out to Hooligans, I would certainly had a good time the day before, and the individuals weren't pathing in and out of the kitchen area, complaining concerning me being low on whole-wheat bread or hot water (Claude) or providing me flowery pleasantries when all I wished to do read (Dermot). When it concerns songs, other individuals's opinions, or Annabel's inner monologue, Owen's advice continues to be the same: don't judge ... just pay attention. When taking on responsibility for a panel of individuals, doctors could be claimed to join a relationship in theory that does not yet exist actually. This 3rd city succeeds the initial city, Chicago the stretching industrial center, whose historical arc ranged from the Civil War up to the Great Clinical depression, as well as the 2nd city (not to be perplexed with A. J. Liebling's picture of a backwards, Potemkin town metropolitan area fated to a second-class emulation of the country's municipal facility, Manhattan), the Rust Belt exemplar of the period from approximately 1950 to 1990. When it pertains to your partnership, setting attainable objectives with a tone of partnership can aid enrich each various other's lives as well as sustain the bond in between you and your companion. By contrast, an additional buddy had a really various experience growing up. A New York City policeman, her papa had never ever avoided effort. While making Satisfaction & Bias in 2005, Good friend began dating Keira Knightley, that movie's lead. Throughout your trip you will fight managers you rolled up in the enchanting Make-A-Boss generator. With 26,075 released works, that suggests Picasso averaged 1 brand-new piece of artwork everyday of his life from age 20 until his death at age 91. He created something new, daily, for 71 years. You have actually simply been designated the head of a brand-new Animation studio and also have actually been offered 10 (currently 50) years to earn it one of the most effective studio around. The peculiar actions only becomes worse as Gretchen starts being nasty to everyone at institution and in your home, manipulating them to harmful and also harmful routines as well as driving a wedge between Abby and also all her pals. And also in a world where food has become a hot product, Yanou absolutely has good friends in the best places. The desk impended in front of a remarkable floor-to-ceiling view over a dazzling wet stretch of the City of London, not that he had actually ever been observed appreciating it. The functioning concept was that he just suched as understanding that it was commonly wanted by others, that this delighted him greater than the sight itself. This little lady took the realities a good friend shared with her as well as played for the remainder of the mid-day with my little woman. The cast are enjoyable as well as they offer some unexpected efficiencies, as usual the highlight is Lance Henriksen as well as he is what makes the movie what it is. This is a creative scary outing that delivers a fun hour and also a half seeing experience. And also appropriately so. With just a pitiful 6 (7 after Walmsley's promotion) female employers in the FTSE 100, there is clearly still a humiliating amount of job to be done to shatter the glass ceiling stopping most ladies reaching the top tiers of company. Following time you have an individually session with your boss (or your peers,) request for responses on your scalability abilities." You 'd be surprise just how it can minimize the quantity of pressure on your shoulder. These techniques represent movement toward an egalitarian relationship where the clinician knows and mindful with his or her use of power.

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