“Oh, hey. Don’t worry about it.” His accent was vaguely midwestern, but Tim couldn’t place it. “I kinda just suddenly stopped in front of you, anyway. I should apologize.”
“Well, I wasn’t looking, either. So, I guess it’s both of our faults.” Tim laughed, a little nervously. He stuck out a hand. “Tim. Tim Drake.”
There was a brief glint of familiarity in the name, and Tim was used to it. But instead of asking invasive, personal questions, the stranger took Tim’s hand with a grin and shook it back. “Danny Fenton. Nice to meet you, Tim.”
“You, too.” Tim replied, mirroring the smile back. “First year?”
“Yeah. You?”
“No. It’s my second year.” Tim explained, before glancing down at his schedule. “I guess you wouldn’t know where the, uh…” He squinted at the name again, trailing off as the letters blurred together from his poor vision.
“Haeckel?” Danny suggested, looking down at his schedule. “Yeah, I know where that lecture hall is. I’m actually heading there right now for my environmental studies class. Is that where you’re heading, too?”
Haeckel, Tim thought, putting the blurry shapes as those letters to his memory. “Yeah, sure. That’d be great, actually.”
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i suddenly had an idea for a new dp x dc crossover fic, here's a piece of it!
🦇
“So much for movie night.” Tucker complains.
Sam groans, stretching her legs as Danny gets up, and transforms. The rings come easily to him now, unlike they had just a little more than two years ago. Their ghost-hunting tech had merely been discarded to the side after their patrol before they settled for the movie night.
“You guys can stay here.” Danny says, pushing himself into the air. “I told Skulker and Technus to pass along the message to the other usuals, but maybe somebody else didn’t get the memo.” The Box Ghost surely hadn’t; but, then again, the Box Ghost doesn’t usually get any news from the Ghost Zone. Or maybe he does, and he doesn’t care. Either way, the cardboard-loving menace was stuck in thermosland right now, and Danny wasn’t going to let him out until after they found out if Amelia would survive INVASION OF THE KILLER TEACHERS III: SCHOOL’S OUT or if she would become another zombie student.
“You sure?”
“Yeah. I’ll make it quick.” Danny allows himself to turn invisible and intangible, and slingshots himself through the roof of Sam’s house and into the sky. The clouds that had been moving in during their patrol clouded Amity Park in a dreary autumn rain. Leaves that had begun to turn were blown off the trees by the wind, and a distant rumble of thunder echoes in the distance.
Once upon a time, the storm would’ve terrified Danny. It would bring too many bad memories, of electricity burning through his skin, killing him and bringing him to life at the same time. But now, as a flash of lightning hit the sky, he can’t deny the surge of energy and delight in his core.
Stupid electric core.
“Ah! Sir Phantom!”
It isn’t one of his usual rogues for once. Instead, it’s a familiar face, and an ally. He calms down a bit at the sight of Lady Dorothea. He’s still a little annoyed that his movie night is being interrupted, but at least it’s by another friend.
Plus, he’s sure Lady Dorothea, who’s working hard at modernizing her kingdom, probably wouldn’t understand what a movie night was, anyway.
“Hey, Dorothea!” Danny drops his shoulders. He keeps himself intangible, feeling the rain fall through him. Lady Dorothea is intangible as well. “Is everything okay? Does your brother need to get his ass kicked into next week again?”
“No, not quite.” Lady Dorothea sighs. “I do need your assistance, but it is not for kicking any asses this time. Something… else has happened.”
“Something else?”
Lady Dorothea nods. “Yes. A few cycles ago, a newly-formed ghost stumbled into the castle gardens. My head gardener, Montagu, had found him stumbling through the hedges, and our healers were able to stabilize him before he could have faded, but then…” She bites her thumbnail nervously. A roar of thunder echoes around them. “… Sir Phantom, I believe he may be a halfa.”
Danny blinks at her. “Sorry, what? Did you say there’s another halfa?”
“Yes, I did— Sir Phantom, as far as my kingdom has come with modernization, I do not believe we have the capabilities of assisting a halfa, let alone one so young. I, no, we need your help, as soon as you are able to.”
A new halfa. Danny’s brain feels like it’s melting and spinning at the same time. He’d never encountered this before. Was that what Danny had felt? The new Halfa, forming? Or, well, maybe transforming for the first time, or something. He felt like pop-rocks were bursting under his skin, and he could feel a few stray sparks shoot off from his hands.
a little thing about the madrigal family and their gifts
something i really find fascinating about encanto is the different gifts each madrigal sibling receives and how it correlates to this greater idea of "protection" or "defense".
as in defense/protection against outside intruders.
like, look at the triplets. julieta, pepa, and bruno.
julieta is able to heal with the food she makes, which can help her family and her community recover from injuries from attackers faster. pepa can control the weather with her emotions-- weather that could be used to wash away or slow down any intruders. bruno literally can predict the future.
and then the grandkids, too!
isabela's control of plants and luisa's strength stand out as the most outwardly powerful. isabela can summon cacti or trees to harm any intruders, and luisa's brute strength can overwhelm anyone who tries to get after her.
dolores and camilo are a little more subtle in theirs, but they're still pretty good for a defense. dolores, similar to how bruno could predict them coming before they arrive, can hear any intruders approaching before they get there, so she can provide early warning to her family and community. camilo is a shapeshifter, he can shapeshift into other, stronger people, or even into the intruders to become a spy amongst them.
mirabel, obviously, doesn't have a gift. she's more representative of a change against the idea of the gifts being used mostly for defensive purposes. perhaps casita realizes that they're strong enough to protect themselves now, or maybe abuelita unconsciously asked for her children to get these specific gifts to protect her family and then felt like there was enough following camilo. either way, mirabel is the shift away from it.
antonio's gift of animal communication can still be used for this "warfare" or defense. he can tell his animal posse to attack people for him, or they can even become spies for him, overhearing secrets and plans from their attackers and reporting back to him, but his gift feels like the first one meant to be just for himself.
granted, we do not get the backstories of the other madrigal children that deep-- how they were as little kids. maybe julieta always loved to cook, and isabela loved flowers and plants, and camilo was always playing pranks, and their personalities subtly manifested their gifts in them.
but i still think it's really interesting how the gifts of the madrigal family can be used to defend and protect their family and community from outside attackers. after all, that's the reason that abuelita first left her home-- they were attacked by outsiders. it makes sense that the gifts could reflect a response to that fear.
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i had no idea that the manga was over until it popped up on my fyp on tiktok and i got spoiled for it and i have a few thoughts
losing one for all
i don't particularly care about izuku losing OFA? i mean, don't get me wrong, it's a cool quirk, but i've always wanted to see what izuku could have done without a quirk!
i think having the powerless character be the MC in a shounen manga would have been a really cool thing to explore! like, he's not anything unique. he's completely ordinary (beside the green hair). how would he adapt, how would he rise to the challenges around him? what sort of tech would he need to invest in, build for himself, so he can keep up with his peers?
i think that would've been cooler than OFA. kinda cool to see that bakugou ended up helping to design a suit for izuku to be a hero without a quirk. i'm kinda surprised that it isn't something izuku immediately jumped into after he lost OFA, but we all need a break from our passions, i guess
2. losing contact with 1-A
as upsetting as it is that izuku ended up losing contact with class 1-a after graduation, it's understandable. all his friends are pro-heroes now, but he's back in the shadows because of his Quirkless status. they're busy with their own lives, and he's busy with his.
it's sad, but it's just a fact of life. i haven't kept up contact with any of my high school friends since i graduated. i'm sure i'll end up seeing them again, of course-- if my school ever does class reunions, maybe we'll meet again there!-- and friendships for me don't immediately dissolve when we stop talking. i still see my hs friends as my friends!
3. teacher izuku
VERY ICONIC I LOVE IT IZUKU BEING A TEACHER AT UA WHILE NOT QUITE HIS DREAM STILL GETS HIM CLOSE TO THE HERO SOCIETY HE LOVED AND ADMIRED SO MUCH AS A KID AND HE GETS TO BE AIZAWA'S CO-WORKER. hilarious.
it's even funnier that he doesn't look a day over 16/17 in the final chapter. like aizawa looks like this gruff old man and here's the baby-faced savior of the world who looks like he should be one of his students. hilarious.
overall, i do think that BNHA missed some cool points in storytelling that would have been interesting/fun to explore in a shounen manga, but it's not that Bad of an ending as compared to........ other....... things
also btw i stopped watching/reading after the arc with Eri so i have no idea what happens in-between that and the ending
Arin is going through the ringer in season two. Which, I’m not complaining about—I love angst and seeing characters go through pain, because that’s how they grow to become stronger. You can’t make an omlette without breaking a few eggs, and whatnot.
But Arin is a passenger on the struggle bus and it gets a bit painful to watch, at some points.
It’s clear that, by the end of season one, he feels like he’s fallen behind Sora and Wyldfyre’s training; after all, he’s still the only one without an elemental power, and he’s only been able to successfully do his object Spinjitzu a few times, and all of those times were when someone he cared about was in danger. So when Season 2A starts up, and Arin struggles multiple times with just defeating the Bad Guys by himself, it’s obvious that the writers of Ninjago Dragons Rising are setting up something for him.
I’d talked about it in my previous analysis, but I do enjoy how Arin and Sora are pretty interesting as character foils. People have talked about how the dragon imagery with Sora conflicts with the growing Oni imagery given to Arin and how dragons and oni don’t mix; to be honest, I’ve never seen the last seasons of Ninjago, so I’m only picking up that lore from other posts, but I think that it’s interesting how Arin and Sora are developing together in opposite directions.
Sora is, obviously; getting stronger. She’s reached her True Potential, after all. While she doesn’t learn Spinjitzu in Season 2A, it’s obvious that she’s going to have it down by the second half of the season, maybe whipping it out in the finale just like her TP in the S1 finale. She’s also become a bit stronger, and a bit more optimistic. She’s developed Elemental Mech for the other Ninja, and her control over her tech powers have only grown since we’ve last seen these characters.
Arin, on the other hand, is almost getting weaker? Or, perhaps, he’s stagnating in his growth. He hasn’t been able to perform object Spinjitzu since the S1 finale, and is constantly getting beat up by the other bad guys. He gets beat by Cinder. He gets beat by Lord Ras. He’s only able to somewhat defeat what’s-her-name because Riyu is on his side and she’s kinda weaksauce anyway. (I know her name is Jordana; this is meant to be a joke.) He can’t protect Bonzole from being taken by Lord Ras and used.
He is going through the gutter this season, my poor blorbo.
I think Sora “helping” Arin in the final fight by using her elemental power to mimic his object Spinjitzu was nice of her; but it’s going to lead to a fight, I’m sure. The writers seem to be setting Arin up for what looks like some sort of corruption arc.
You know the story. A character is left behind by their “friends”, and is adopted into the bad guy troupe. They commit a few crimes, maybe go a bit too deep into the rabbit hole, but they come to their senses and defect back to the good side, now a bit spicier with a bit more trauma. It’s a fine and fun story to write. It puts characters into uncomfortable positions. The good guys have to reckon with the fact they left one of their own behind, and their own defected to the bad side. The bad guys have to deal with turning this goody-two-shoes into an Actual Villain, which has varying levels of success.
But I don’t think they should do this with Arin.
Would Arin make a terrifying bad guy? He’s a ninja super-fan; he knows all of their weaknesses. He would be absolutely terrifying as a bad guy.
But, I’ll be honest: I don’t think he has it in him.
Now, the writers could do something big to him, and he could defect and join the bad guys, but I don’t think that could be as fun as the other possible arc Arin could go through, that I think would be ten times more interesting;
I think Arin should quit being a ninja.
Not forever. But temporarily.
One of the biggest things in the show is the phrase “ninja never quit”—the ninja are trained to be determined to see things through to the end. To keep fighting for the good of Ninjago, and the newly merged realms. They have hundreds of thousands of people relying on them, they can’t quit in the face of evil.
They say it multiple times. It’s their motto, their theme; they don’t quit, no matter how hard it gets. When Kai gets locked in the cursed hell in-between space (forgot the name of it), he’s not going to quit until he gets back home. When the ninja train to learn the Rising Dragon technique, they don’t quit training, trying to figure it out, even as they run out of time.
But Arin? Well, Arin’s been trying to follow the motto, but it looks like the world has decided to beat the crap out of him constantly no matter what. He keeps getting beat up. He keeps losing to the bad guys the other ninja could beat with little issue.
I think Lord Ras says it the best;
“I stopped you as easily now as the first time we met. I was weak like you, once...”
Arin’s not progressing as a ninja; in fact, he might be degressing, a bit. He gets knocked down a fang when training with the dragons because his Spinjitzu is too raw and uncontrolled. He can’t figure out his object Spinjitzu. He’s going through the motions of being a ninja, but getting beat up at every turn, and everyone has these great Elemental powers, and Arin’s just… Well, he’s just Arin.
Honestly, going through all of that, I’d be thinking about quitting, too. It would just be easier to hang up the towel and call it a day. It’d be a lot less painful. He wouldn’t have to worry about the fate of the world, he could just return to The Crossroads, or maybe he could quit and focus on trying to find his parents.
But I think he should quit. Full-stop. For a few episodes.
It’d be great to explore what would happen to Arin for a few episodes, maybe even though he quits, he can’t stop trying to help people and save them from danger. How even though he doesn’t have an elemental power, he can still do great things. Learn how to be great himself.
It’d also be great to see how the other characters react to Arin’s decision to quit. Stories are built upon the interaction and conflict between characters, which drive character growth and plot. Sora would try to drag him back, obviously; either Arin or one of the older ninja would make it clear that it would be wrong to drag him back to a world he doesn’t want a part in. They’d all be shocked, of course. Maybe hurt, betrayed—ninja never quit, right?
But what if a ninja did quit?
Arin is the most interesting character in the Dragons Rising series. He’s a relatable individual for many old Ninjago fans, and represents that audience, a bit. He’s living the dream of becoming a ninja that many of us could never be. But he also keeps getting beat up by the bad guys, he can’t control his Spinjitzu, or do his special thing, and he doesn’t have an elemental power (yet; I see what you’re doing with the Source Dragon of Motion, writers). He’s the odd one out, the black sheep of the ninja.
If the story keeps beating him down, well, maybe he just needs to quit, in order to find himself again, and build himself back up, either on his own, or with the help of his friends.
Ninja never quit, of course. He’ll find his way back to Team Ninja eventually. But maybe… Maybe ninja need break?
(No, that doesn’t work as well.
Eh, whatever.)
Ninja never quit permanently.
He’s one of the main characters. He’ll get dragged back into the plot whether he likes it or not.
