Sage of Kaze

And one of my favorite things was world-building and conceptualizing stuff with my bestie. Like, that bouncing ideas off someone else is great and then just going into these spiels about this absolute heinous thing you considered? Decades of it.

So, when Kentaro Miura died in the middle of Berserk, there was a memorial comic his best friend did and I did tear up a bit. And, while there are tons of reasons I didn't want the series to end, the fact that Kentaro Miura and Kouji Mori spent decades doing that very thing was so warming. I know for many, it ended with Miura's death...in a very harmonious spot, but thinking that they talked about the story so much that Mori was like, 'don't worry, bro, I got this' feels special.

Now, all that said, recently, apparently Mori said the next arc is 'MUCH DARKER' than the Eclipse Arc and I--

I wrote a young woman who had the option of three potential beaus. Unfortunately, pretty much fifteen years later, I recognize I didn't balance the bias well at all. There was one character that was clearly my favorite. I didn't personally view him as flawless, I thought I did pretty well with him being a regular person, but I did have complaints that he was too perfect whilst having others excited about that.

You try as a writer to ignore the criticism. I often express that 'hey, this is how I thought of it, it may just not be FOR you', but, in all honesty, I remember thinking "why?". Why don't you like this guy? I like him, I'm writing him as likable. What makes him NOT likable?

Either way? I set up for the "unthinkable": I was going to put the chosen beau in my reader's hands. That's right: I wrote three separate endings based on the three dudes. I did it REGARDLESS of who won in the vote. The only "winning" aspect was the victor was canon. I thought it was going to be fine...it was but, definitely saw interests shift? I had to write a couple author's notes to be like hey...be cool.

I, as the author, did not get it. As a reader? I still did not get it. If I'm reading a romance and my bias wasn't being observed, I just simply left. Done. Wipe my hands of it. Toodles. I'm not coming for the author, that's THEIR story. I might criticize it on my own time, but, if that's how they saw the story going, while I didn't enjoy it, so be it. That's life.

Until...I read a certain webcomic. I've read it for pretty much a decade and a half now. I'm not naming names because I still respect the order of an author's autonomy. That is their story to tell and it's so fulfilling that the creator enjoys their creation. And, let it be known, you can absolutely create something you hate and it'll be a masterpiece. However, it shows when you love that piece.

That being said? I gotta give this one credit for giving me insight, as I now completely understand those readers from 2011: I absolutely despise the author's obvious bias. And I'm just venting off my main.

HOWEVER...in my social media Reels, as I didn't really watch the anime (manga first), they showed Vegeta's brother, Tarble. And in my infinite wisdom, I was like, so, what food is a 'Tarble'?? (FYI, if you don't know, most DBZ characters are named after food, if not undergarments).

Well, as I like to have answers to my questions, I Google it and he's the only thing to pop up, so, have to dally into the DBZ lore.

The line kept saying something like 'believed to be the romanization of the Japanese word for 'table'" or whatever. And I'm like 'wtf, why is furniture suddenly a name category?'. Having to reread the blurb several times, I gasped in literal shock and horror, closing the page promptly and vowing to never return which is why the lines are summations.

Vegeta. Table. VEGETA-TABLE.

HOWEVER? Upton is NOT A NEW CHARACTER and they have ridden this one plothole through the Earth’s crust and come out on the other side too many times. If she would LITERALLY just do a pretty standard protocol of telling SOMEONE where she is when working (HER AND KIM-- Women would NOT DO THIS, ESPECIALLY AFTER ALL THEY’VE GONE THROUGH PRIOR?), none of this would occur??

“Yea, going to meet Jay’s CI--I’ll be in South Lawndale. I’ll wear a tracker”.