#owl talks

My favorite character is Jingo Raichi, ever since I looked at him in that book my brother got (third one, the one with Chigiri on the cover), and I highly doubt I'll ever stop having him as my absolute favorite. I just have a thing for characters that get really pissed easily and make sure to knock some common sense into others, aka Raichi. Plus, I've come to discover he managed to defend the best player in the world and has huge ass stamina to stay on the field the whole game (probably without break even, maybe), meaning he's one of the best out there, even though he's easily overlooked and underrated. Needless to say, I love this angry shark boy lol. I don't even think we know anything about his backstory. Lowkey believing he has an actual normal life with nothing tragic in it, just a guy that loves soccer. Speaking of, I love how when you meet him, he's super in the striker mindset, wanting to score no matter what, even stating that he hates playing defense, but he grows to be one of the best defenders out there. Ngl, that's some wild growth over there.

As for my OTP, not surprised it doesn't involve Raichi at all. I tend to like a character and rarely ever really get into any ships with them lol (does depend on the fandom tho). Anyway, my OTP is tabieita, aka Karasu x Otoya. For starters, ever since I set my eyes on them, I loved them. Karasu with his purple hair and crow motif immediately got me falling in love, and Otoya with his ninja stitch and white and green hair really got me interested in them. Then finding out how well they work together, how deadly they are together, perfect. The thing is, I'm a firm believer that what they have is a friends with benefits situationship. Maybe it eventually evolves beyond that, but I'm a firm believer they are or were fwb at some point at least. At the very least, one scene I can't get out of my head is imagining Otoya having trouble sleeping when they're a team together with Chigiri and share a room (at least, that's how I'm understanding that team part works), so Karasu joins him and is like "I can tell you can't sleep because you need some physical contact to calm down, so just accept this cuddle session"; I'm a firm believer of Otoya needing company to properly fall asleep (one of the reasons why I'd say he's such a womanizer and doesn't really wants to settle down, though I believe what he values more in a relationship is the thrill of the chase instead of the actual relationship). But anyway, that, just Karasu is very analytical, he can read people well, so he'd be able to notice stuff like that (plus weren't they already in a team even before that second part? So he'd be even more aware). I'm not even surprised that my OTP is with such underrated and overlooked characters, rare are the times where that isn't the case lol.

Another ship I like is tabiori, Karasu x Hiori, especially now that I discovered they have some history together, namely that Hiori stalked Karasu and he didn't report him (or at least, I've heard that somewhere, but watching videos telling Hiori's backstory don't bring up this, only that they did meet before Blue Lock and Karasu told him to do something he liked instead of living for others' expectations, so now I don't know how true that whole stalking thing is...), which honestly mad respect, because that's a wild way to meet. Plus, Karasu defended Hiori when I think it was Isagi was complaining about Hiori's speed, like yeeeesssss, protective boyfriend Karasu (especially since we know Karasu, unlike Otoya, actually values his romantic relationships and even still remembers his first crush. I lowkey love that duality of them). Plus, even personality wise, I think they match well, but admittedly I'm not entirely sure of their whole character, so I can't be 100%. They sure look to work well together though, from what I've seen.

This to say that my absolutely top pairing is Hiori x Karasu x Otoya, where Karasu and Hiori have mostly a romantic relationship and Karasu and Otoya have mostly a sexual relationship. Doesn't mean each relationship is reduced to be just romantic or sexual, but that's how I'm envisioning it. A ninja, a crow and a snowflake, what a team (and artistic inspiration). Lowkey curious how well of a team the three of them would be, since they have synergy with each other (if anything, Otoya and Hiori don't have that much synergy, but they probably still function well together, especially with Karasu thrown in the mix). Is it niche? Probably, but what else is new lol.

Honorable mentions to kainess and nagireo, which while more famous ships, I love them too, both because of the characters and because of the codependency aspect of them. I have a really hard time seeing any of these characters with anyone else considering they need each other to survive (everyone is free to ship whoever they want, of course).

The very basis comes from toxic femininity. Dictating what makes a woman a woman, dictating what is and isn't feminine, lynching any woman that don't fit those very thin (literal and figurative) criteria and often being racist because the standard is white or pale-skinned, able bodied, small-nosed, able to birth, cis women.

Shout out to the two playlists that got me through it. Highly recommend for studying to if this is ur sort of music