(Hoooooooooo boy.)

(I could go on a long, long essay for my feelings in respect to Akamatsu and his works. I’ll try and keep this a little short so I don’t rile myself up too much.)

(Before UQ Holder, I really liked the guy. Negima is my favorite manga for a couple of reasons. The world building is absolutely fantastic and top notch, with the magic system being more deeply developed than almost any other manga/anime out there, with few giving it a run for its money. The characters are also great, Negi being a refreshing take on the usual shounen protag and archetypes that dominate the market now, and, despite the HUGE cast size, a lot of them still get a good amount of development and focus. There’s obviously some people who get more than others and are the main characters, but even most of the small time people get decent development. Hell, there’s also the surprisingly good usage of things like Latin and SANSKRIT in the manga, all seem to be accurate. That’s some impressive dedication. Despite the ending, I blamed the editors more than Akamatsu at the time, given the legal stuff going on at the time and Akamatsu didn’t want to give up his manga, which I supposed, because of how BAD all the other adaptations have been. Negima would’ve gone to hell.)

(And theeeeeeeeeeen UQ Holder happened. I. HATE that manga. It was a tremendous step backwards in overall story telling and utterly ASSASSINATED Evangeline’s character, one of my favorites from Negima. The world building feels half assed and characters get almost no development, save for Touta, Eva, and Kirie. Santa had their arc, which while his development itself seemed good, the events of it were awful. Fucking Zombie Apocalypse. Then…. They kinda just became a prop that sat in the background 90% of the time. There’s also all the deus ex machina and asspulls for powers that make no real sense. The pacing also sucks, I just URG. I’m gonna stop myself before I go on a full blown rant. I can and have ranted on EACH of these points in the past before. I don’t want to do it again and put myself in a bad mood.)

(I don’t even know how to explain it, but it killed a lot of faith in Akamatsu for me. Sometimes authors just have a fluke and make a real good story, or perhaps having editors to reign him in and say “no” helped. The early chapters of Negima, as awful as they were, had some nice character development and building, even if the story and harem hijinks were an eyesore. Maybe it was the fact he lost quite a few assistants from Negima, including his Latin expert. The more I thought about it, the more I also realized he could have ended the Negima manga differently and not just deus ex machina solve everything off screen to avoid the legal troubles. And hell, he’s DOING another manga anyway, so he could’ve solved all the cliff hangers there. Instead, we got the Sleeping Asuna timeline that nobody wanted over finding out what happened between chapter’s 353 and 354.)

@choujinkiisms

//To someone who isn’t Damien, respect is showing that one’s accomplishments mean something.  But to Damien, he often feels that despite his accomplishments being commended for respect, that it often means, to him, kissing his ass just to avoid getting into a fight.

When he often demands respect, it’s technically not respect he wants, except he doesn’t know it yet.

What he’s looking for is validation.

Validation that his accomplishments actually meant something.  To him, it translates as respect, as in earning something by working hard at an objective.  Since he was often told that he would never be a battle strategist when he grew up, he turned that anger into Pokemon training, which then evolved into climbing the ranks of the Indigo League.

Even then, he was met with opposition, with a lot of taunting from some of the gym leaders.  He was often met with skepticism from trainers like Lt. Surge, Sabrina, Erika, and Blaine.  Koga was one of the few gym leaders to try to show Damien that he was indeed skilled, but by the time he reached Koga, he was already hardened enough for any goodwill advice to bounce off of him.

When he defeated the Elite Four, and reigning Indigo League Champion Lance, he reached the top of the mountain.  But even then, he felt that it wouldn’t be enough.  He felt no one would recognize his efforts and would turn their backs on him.

So, before they could, he turned his back on the entire region, exiling himself from Kanto with no intention on coming back.

send me 2 characters and a pose! || accepting