redbrunja | The Boy Looks Good In Black & White

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The Boy Looks Good In Black & White

Okay, so for Sai's birthday, I meant to post fic.

Only I came home so wiped I went to bed at 9, mom hijacked the computer to watch The Incredible Hulk, and then I woke up an hour and a half later to watch the end with her and regained the computer right when lj decided to go screwy on me.

So, Sai, you get fic.... later today.

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On that subject, I need to relearn how to write fluff, because I've forgotten and it's sad.

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I'm debating whether or not I have too many Sakura/Kakashi icons uploaded.

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I walked into one of my classes today to find Annoying Girl informing the teacher about fanfiction porn being called "lemons" and homosexual relationships being called "slash." I find this horrifying on so very many different levels.

Now, I'm not saying profs shouldn't KNOW about fanfiction, but I don't think you should ever TELL them about it. It's like Fight Club. If you don't know about it already, you shouldn't.

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Bleach is annoying me. Right now I'm so pissed that Ichigo can apparent pwn everyone and his brother with little to no effort and that Renji is such a fucking moron. Protip: if you have to get defeated before you go 'save Rukia' than you lose any points you might have had by saying that. Don't be so fracking indecisive.
The chibi vice captains were adorable, though.

Also, is there any scene where Orihime gets to pwn coming up anytime soon?

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First rule of fandom: don’t talk about fandom.

Ahh, Bleach. The mangaka has exactly two ways to write battles: the character utterly pwns, or is utterly pwned. Both in a spectacularly formulaic manner. But count yourself lucky. At least at the point you’re at the story is still moving forward at a fairly good clip, and the power levels haven’t started to suffer from escalation dissonance. It won’t last.

You remember that time Orihime discovered her powers, saved Tatsuki (sp?), and killed that Hollow? Yeah. That was all the pwning she gets for the entire manga.

First rule of fandom: don’t talk about fandom.

Word.

You remember that time Orihime discovered her powers, saved Tatsuki (sp?), and killed that Hollow? Yeah. That was all the pwning she gets for the entire manga.

Thank you so much for telling me that. Now, I can get to where Quincy gets his defining moment of awesome and flee Bleach like a house on fire without guilt.

Damn, when Kishimoto is doing better at letting his main female be awesome than you are, that is MASSIVE FAIL.

I think I've found out why I'm so much more forgiving of Kishimoto than you. I was into Bleach long before I was into Naruto, and for me, Sakura's character development and pwnage as compared to Orihime's is like comparing a rock to a calculator. Whereas you're on some sort of high-speed DSL supercomputer standard, and look at the calculator with distaste.

To be honest, Bleach is making me less pissed off at Naruto. Because while I think Bleach has MORE women who are awesome numbers wise, Kishimoto actually spends a little time on the women he DOES have, even if it's still completely unbalanced in regards to how much he gives the men.

I'd suggest giving it a bit more time, if that's the problem. That improves dramatically by the end of the arc.

We'll see how it goes.

I will say this: it is one awesome defining moment of awesome. Quincy-boy is pretty much the only reason I stuck with the manga for so long.

To be fair, which is something I find difficult with Bleach, Rukia does get to do some stuff later on. Just not a lot. And unlike Kishimoto who at least seems to have gotten marginally better about his female characters over time, this mangaka seems to just get worst. I could actually buy Rukia when she didn't have any powers but still contributed, but when she actually has powers and does LESS than in the beginning, it's pretty sad.

Yeah, him and Orihime is why I'm sticking around, and if Orihime is just going to get sidelined.....

Orihime's not really supposed to be an Action Girl, though, which is why Sakura grated on me badly while Orihime did not. There are plenty of badass ladies within Bleach and they do get their due - despite what

solace_adrift says, when Rukia gets her powers back she actually does go around kicking rather a lot of ass. And then there's Matsumoto, Soi Fon, someone who you've already met, have probably been spoiled on but I won't state specifically for fear of ruining it...etc. Although I do wish her offensive ability had worked more than once, the basic reason why Orihime doesn't kick ass all over the place is that, at heart, she doesn't want to hurt anybody.

Rukia gets three battles: one she wins, one she is pwned, and one she clearly lost but was able to pull a move because of the immense stupidly of her opponent (though, to be fair, everyone else won or lost their battles by roughly the same razor thin margin in that arc).

My problem isn't so much with how she does in battle, but plot relevance, which since the soul society arc she has had none. At all. To me, she simply came off as far more competent and useful without her powers.

And I'm not really sure Sakura was ever meant to be an action girl. The basics of her character is pretty much as tame as Orihime's, and for the first half of the manga or so she doesn't do anything terribly actiony.

And the one where she's pwned, Ichigo doesn't do much better. (I could point out how the narrow victory represents much more of a personal victory etc but I won't go into that).

If she's been less plot relevant, it's because there are now a lot more cast members to fill the role of 'person who knows wtf is going on'. Before that pretty much fell exclusively to her. But I wouldn't say that she's become less important of a character.

And I'm not really sure Sakura was ever meant to be an action girl. The basics of her character is pretty much as tame as Orihime's, and for the first half of the manga or so she doesn't do anything terribly actiony.

I beg to differ. If she doesn't seem to do anything terribly actiony, that was because she was portrayed as cripplingly incompetent right from her first appearance. However, she was in the same, combat-related course as Sasuke and Naruto, paire dup with them as part of the theoretical action trio, and again and again she tries to get in on the action but is denied by Kishimoto's love for the Y chromosome.

The first rule of fanfiction is, you do not talk about fanfiction. I love you so much right now, it isn't even funny.

Renji...is a consistently not-very-intelligent character. I mean, like, it's actually part of his characterization, which makes it a little okay to me (as opposed to when "smart" characters do the stupidest things ever YES SASUKE, I AM GLARING AT YOU). But once he gets on track, which just happened here, he becomes one of the best characters ever in Bleach. :D

Ha. Ha ha. Orihime getting to pwn. Ha ha ha.

SAIIIII~ DO WANT FIC~ Also, that icon is gorgeous.

Ha. Ha ha. Orihime getting to pwn. Ha ha ha

*sad face*

Yeah, I kinda wanted to ship Renji/Rukia, and I just... can't, when he's just standing around doing nothing while she's about to get killed, and then you have that epic moment of sympatico where Rukia and Ichigo are thinking the same thing in regards to each other.

I need to actually read/watch Fight Club so that I can finally understand all the references I make. ^_^

Isn't that Sai icon pretty?

It is. So pretty.

You do have a point--Bleach does have a great amount of badass ladies. But...the ones that ARE badass already WERE badass when we met them. It wasn't a question of development at all, as opposed to Sakura (SAKURAAAAAA) who goes from very little badassery to VERY MUCH badassery. Realistically. And then Orihime had so many opportunities to get badass and did not. The only girl who wasn't a Soul Reaper who had great Awesome Feminine Badassery Potential was Tatsuki, and she...practically got written out of the manga. D:

I used to love Bleach more than breath, but it kind of dropped a bit in my mental favor after reading/watching Naruto. (If you go to my "bleach" journal tag, you will find much of last year devoted to hardcore Bleach fanning.)

8O You haven't read it yet? DO EEET. (Read the book first, then watch the movie.)

You can never have too many Sakura/Kakashi icons! And I totally agree with the first rule of fandom being that you don't talk about fandom. That would have been such a weird conversation to walk in on. X.x

I agree about the Kakashi/Sakura icons, although sometimes I worry I get to mono-fandom or too mono-pairing.

And I totally agree with the first rule of fandom being that you don't talk about fandom. That would have been such a weird conversation to walk in on.

It wasn't weird so much as disrespectful and boundry crossing.

Actually, Orihime does get more badass moments. There's a few that stick out in my mind but I'm not sure how far along in the manga you are and I don't want to spoil :D

Haha, yeah. Renji's consistently dumb, but that's kind of a tragic flaw in a way. It does give a lot to his character after a certain arc...I'm trying really hard not to spoil here haha, if you couldn't tell :P

Oh, and SAI FIC YES PLZ <3333

We'll see what I can do.

After reading shizune_senpai/j-pop's SaiSaku recently, I'm am dying for yours to continue the yumminess! :)

Thank you for not spoiling, although I have a feeling that I'm not going to be too particular about spoilers (just don't care enough).

Orihime isn't really meant to pwn, unfortunately, but there is this ONE MOMENT in the manga that is totally awesome which I will not spoil you for. I forget if it's been animated or not, but I totally cackled with glee.

You mean the........ *doesn't want to spoil D< *

With Emocar?

YES. THAT. I APPROVED OF THAT. :D

I, TOO, APPROVED OF IT :D :D :D

When does it happen? Because after Quincy's moment of awesome, I'm not sure how long I'm going to stick around the manga.

If it's the moment I'm thinking of, not for a very long while I'm afraid D:

*sad face*

... Why would you talk about it? I would never, ever mention my fanfiction when I talk about my writing: it's such a faux-pas. Yeesh.

No such thing as too much Kakashi/Sakura, I think.

I have yet to get into Bleach. The chapter count daunts me these days. It was one thing for me to start Naruto one summer but another to start a 300+ chapter count manga while I'm in school.

I wouldn't either.

And Bleach... is marginally better than Naruto, but not by enough to make the 300+ chapters worth it, imho.

I don't see a problem with informing a professor or anyone else about fanfic and fandom. It's hardly secret, you can easily find it with a few button clicks on the internet, and I don't see the point in assigning it some sort of mystique. I've told a professor what it was in my Creative Writing class, where someone wrote a fanfic as an assignment and the prof. was struggling to find a word to describe it. (He called it metafic. I kind of like that word.)

I've spoken to friends about fanfic and fandom when they weren't previously involved in it, mainly because that's a part of my life and as my friends I think I should be able to talk to them about the stories I write or about shipping wars when I feel ranty. I don't see how it's disrespectful to inform people about fanfiction, or who it is I'm disrespecting by doing so. Fandom isn't a private club or a secret society. I can see not making money on your endeavors or sending your work to the actors or makers of the stuff you fanfic for, but just informing people about its existence is harmless enough.

It would be disrespectful if you purposefully bring it up to use it as a joke or insult it. It would be disrespectful if you pulled stuff off the net and used it with the sole intention of mocking it. But simply informing another person that fanfiction exists as another form/genre of writing, or bringing it up in a conversation about something relevant? I don't see the problem in that.

Rationally, you might be right. However, emotionally I felt like there were HUGE boundries being crossed and that fandom is something you shoudl kind of find on your own, and not have a student (who I already have issues with) pimping it out to a literature proff who I do not think will understand it.

I just... it skeeves me.

Remind me to talk to you about the Renji thing when you finish the Soul Society arc. As others have pointed out, he is pretty dumb (but written that way, as opposed to "we're told he's smart but he's really an idiot") but there's also something else going on there, regarding what he originally thinks is up, that most people seem to miss. "Most people" including me my first time through.

I wonder, though, if everyone telling you that Bleach is better than Naruto is affecting your enjoyment, though. I mean, you know my stance on that (but then, I think everything is better than Naruto) but I think that anytime (universal) you go into something with a mental comparison already in place, you expect the new thing to prove itself and subconsciously apply higher standards to it.

Will do.

Here's the thing about Bleach: I honestly can't argue that Bleach is a better manga. Frankly, I think Bleach is slightly better quality-wise, but I also think that that's not saying much. The thing about Naruto is that it gets me emotionally. It makes me furious, it makes me happy, and it has characters that I really connect and get attached to. That's all very subjective stuff that does really relate to how "good" something is.

but I think that anytime (universal) you go into something with a mental comparison already in place.

Agreed. And I have been burned so many times by people overhyping stuff to me, or even telling him that the problems I had with other manga/anime is nonexistent with this one when it totally isn't.

I can't like something where the creator obviously doesn't like the characters I do, and I honestly believe that Kishimoto is bitter about having to actually have a cast beyond Naruto and Sasuke.

I think Kishimoto is bitter about having to write anything that doesn't resolve around Sasuke, frankly. ^_^

Yeah. There's too much out there where the writers like and care about at least some of the things I like and care about to bother with something obsessed with the two least appealing things in the work.

I guess I'll just never understand sticking with something that only ever abuses the things you like. Most of the Naruto fans I know don't even seem to like it, which confuses me.

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