(Untitled)

[cheeky_eyes]

Alright, so it's not Boxing Day anymore. ^^; Ah well, here is the last of the gift fics for now. (Speaky, I will have one for you but that is still in the works. Sorry.)

Title: Just The Way You Are
Author: cheeky_eyes
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Juudai, Johan,
Warnings: None
Word Count: 1925
Summery: He knew Juudai well, even if he had only known him

Comments

[cheeky_eyes]

Ack. I was replying to this a while ago. But I got, distracted. >.> Sorry about replying so late!

Why thanks for checking them out. ^^ The other two aren't so loved but I'm glad you enjoyed this one! I am also rather fond of slice-of-life and little moments that could slot into cannon. (Well given that is pretty much all I write... >.>) Exploring cannon and the characters is always fun and they are things I enjoy reading myself.

If you look at them closely, besides the initial similarities they are very different people. (In fact, when I first watched GX I didn't think they were similar at all.) So in turn their friendship is rather interesting and them just being them is pretty shippy itself in cannon, which is good because I didn't want to force the situation.

Manjoume is an interesting character. He does care about the Ojama's really, even if they annoy the crap out of him at times. I was also sure that Johan would view this relationship as odd (if fact if I recall correctly he does. Making this sometime after ep 111)
Somehow in my headcannon I've given Johan a vastly older sister. I know quite a few people give him a little one (and I do like that theory) but Johan was too fluent to not have had some kind of influence beside school.

Also, is there a particular part of GX you would like your sick fic set in. Like season 1 or 3 or something as Shou is different in each and if you have a particular year in mind that would be a great starting point. (I have a vague outline that can be adapted to any year but if you have a favourite...)

Anyway, thanks for reading and for the feedback! ^^

[speaky_bean]

It's okay, that happens to me too. I'm on break from school right now, so it's really easy for me to get distracted by things with my family and other non-Internet things. I'm very bad with the Internet during this time of year. I do try to keep up with people to some degree, though! I was actually planning to read your other stories as well, and I do intend to...once I manage to wake up before 1 PM, and thus have some time to myself. XD;

Slice of life is my favorite genre. Convoluted plot stuff is very impressive, but this is a series where we get enough of that in canon. I like to see the details of their everyday lives, the little things that make them who they are.

Hm. I feel the opposite about Judai and Johan. I actually thought that Johan was very similar to Judai to the point where his character was somewhat redundant...which is a big part of why I didn't really like him. That and the fact that some of his attitudes and behavior frankly, scared me. But, I enjoy hearing other people's interpretations of characters. I do think Judai and Johan's relationship in canon is quite interesting, for sure, and at certain points in the series I think it's one of the more plausible ships involving Judai. Can I ask what differences you saw between Judai and Johan? I can see some differences myself...mostly that Johan seems to value duel spirits more than humans, whereas Judai seems to value humans more, or sometimes value them both equally. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this matter!

Oh yeah, I definitely think Manjoume cares about the Ojamas. It's just not necessarily apparent to the casual observer. I don't remember what, if anything, Johan says about it in canon, but I definitely think he'd have mixed feelings on the subject until he fully understood it! Also, the idea of Johan learning Japanese from a relative makes perfect sense...though they'd have to be quite dedicated for it to work out. XD;

Hmm, good question! I really don't know. It could be really interesting in any of the four seasons, though Season 4 might be iffy. I guess just choose whichever one best fits your outline. Shou varies significantly throughout the seasons, yes, but I think at core he's the same basic person--he just shows his more serious side in Season 3 because he's put under so much stress. I really appreciate that you want to do this. ♥ I thought you'd forgotten. Thank you so much. I really look forward to reading i!

[cheeky_eyes]

Ah shiny things, why must you be so shiny and distracting? Yeah I’m on holidays too but these are my summer ones and I’ve been working quite a bit. Which is good as I need money for uni but doesn’t leave much time for other things.
And it’s cool. I just found it odd that the one I had the most trouble with was the one that people liked. And your 50 sentences were fantastic! I’ll review them once I get back from work (which I have to leave for soon.)

Slice of life is an awesome but sadly under appreciated genre.

Manjoume and his love for the Ojama's is complex to say the least. And in episode 111 Johan asks after seeing him use XYZ Dragon cannon 'doesn't Manjoume see spirits too?' And when Juudai says yes, the Ojama Trio Johan wonders if he uses them and thinks that Juudai is wrong. To inderstand Manjoume's relationsip with the Ojama's you have to understand Manjoume and since Johan doesn't know him that well at that point he is certainly confused.
And I think that they would have been. Johan values family quite highly so if he has any human family they would be close.

Well if it doesn't matter I'll probably go Season three as I'm most familiar with it. Or season 1. ... You sure you don't have a favourite. Yes he is the same fundamentally but he acts differently in each season.
And no, I haven't forgotten. I’m just, rather slow. ^^; It will be done though!

[speaky_bean]

Ahh, lucky! I'm in job-hunt mode now, but I haven't had much luck finding anything. What sort of job do you do? Do you enjoy it?

Maybe the fact that it gave you trouble meant that you took more time with it and were more careful about it? I don't know, I've yet to read the others so I can't compare, but sometimes when things are hard to write they end up being better just because you had to take more time with them. Sometimes, though, there's the opposite effect. Why was this difficult for you, do you know? And thanks, I'm so glad you liked my 50 sentences. I can't wait to hear your thoughts!

Johan does value family highly, I guess I was just creeped out by his definition of family. I would understand if it was "my Gem beasts are like family!" but it seemed like he was saying they literally were his family...and so much reliance on something like that implies, to me, a poor relationship with his real family. One does need to take into account GX's general failure to discuss anyone's families, but I don't know, I just see Johan as someone who values duel spirits far more than he does human beings...kind of like an extreme animal rights activist who feels that animals are more important than humans. That was just my first impression of him, and it's one that stuck as time went on. I can't see him as having a close relationship with his family, whoever they might be. But, he could certainly still have learned from them!

I wish I could say. I like all of them for different reasons, but I feel like it would be a very different story depending on which one you choose, and if you already have a general outline it makes more sense to match that outline to the season. *nods* Once again, thank you so much. I'm really looking forward to this. ♥

[cheeky_eyes]

My main job is delivering pizza's a couple of times a week which is pretty cool and as I have a really decent sense of direction it works really well. It's fun and I must be one of the only girls doing it. ^^ My other one is once a week at a childrens play centre where I do coffees and parties and stuff and I enjoy doing that too. Beats service at Macca's that's for sure. (I did that before I started year 12 so while I haven't done it for a few years it still wasn't exactly fun).

That is true. The ones you have to think about probably do turn out better as it takes more effort to write and shape. It did help that once I figured out where it was going to go it became a lot easier to write so it would have the opposite effect if I had had to force myself to write but lukily I didn't have too.
And now that I have my own laptop at last, (after years of asking and begging and needing one I had enough money to get one. That and work keeps calling me in with a minutes notice) I'll reply shortly.

His definition of family extends as far as poeple who consider their friends family. His bond witht he Gem Beasts also deepen that feeling as they pretty much choose each other. And that is probably very true now that I think about it. Or it at least implies that he has none. Since we just don't know anything it is hard to say for sure though. And it may not have been a close relative, it could have been an aunt or a cousin that is true.
Huh. He does certainly care for Duel Spirits a lot but he does prove to care for humans too. And his life goal is to be 'the bridge between humans and Duel Spirits' and I think that is so both parties can understand and accept each other, not just for the benifit of one group or the other.

Awesome. It shall be a surpirse then. It won't up this weekend (I have a Rover event on in an hour or so) but sometime during the week certainly.

[cheeky_eyes]

And my previous response was too long, so here are my thoughts on how Juudai and Johan differ.

You're not alone with that, it is a common view that Johan is an expy of Juudai but somehow I just didn't see it the first couple of times I watched it. I still don't actually, although I can see the similarities they share but they are mostly to do in their attitudes about duelling. That is almost it too. But then again I did watch GX in a rather weird order so that may have something to do with it.

Johan is more level headed then Juudai, who can be rather impulsive at times. Johan would always step back and question the situation and wait while Juudai just rushed into things. Episode 108 (and I think this is one of the ones that scared you in his motives) while Juudai just blindly challenged O'Brien to a duel Johan waited and while Shou was tied up and the rope breaking I think Johan realised there was very little he could do and so waited until there was something he could do.

I also believe that Johan would be more studious and a bit smarter then Juudai. He is the top student at North and that has to mean something. He is also at least bilingual and to be that fluent in Japanese he would have had to have worked at it. Juudai, well he frequently skips class so he doesn’t take it that seriously. They also react to things differently, as when Jim was talking about the electromagnetic waves in episode 110 and Juudai was pretty much smiling and nodding Johan calls him out on it and his face seems to say ‘now why would you do that you idiot?’

Johan also was able to take command of all of the students in the Sand World while Juudai focused more on his friends and duelling. So Johan is more of a leader then Juudai who is too carefree at first to be an effective leader and after the Dark World Juudai distances himself from everyone so he doesn’t exactly prove himself a great leader. (He did have a reason for it yes, but he did go from one extreme to the other before finding middle ground.) Juudai also proved himself to be quite selfish at times, or at least he didn’t think of others that much. His dismissal of Shou in episode 108 for example. Johan on the other hand is quite selfless as he sacrifices himself for Juudai and all the student left behind at Duel Academy and does so a couple of times.

Johan also knew what he wanted to do in life, and had a general idea of how he was going to do it. He's more focused then Juudai who for a long time just lived life for the fun of it and didn't consider the consequences. That their life goals actually become similar in the end (Johan wants to be a bridge between Spirits and Humans and Juudai is the Herald of Gentle Darkness, so there is some overlap there) but the way they would go about is also different. Johan would be happy in the pros, and has competed in the junior version. While I don't think it is what he solely wants to do I do think he would join the pros while Juudai by season 4 knows that that isn't what he wants.

My first impression was that Johan was more softly spoken then Juudai, and it doesn't take as much to rile him up as it does Juudai. So he is calmer and more level headed then Juudai.

And as you said, Juudai values his friends, duelling and partners, not necessarily in that order while Johan values his family, duelling and his friends pretty much in that order. One of my GX_100 fics is going to explore this (#8 Differences) so I'll probably have a more coherent answer once I've finished that.

[speaky_bean]

This is a really interesting interpretation of Johan! It's definitely not how I saw him at first, but I always love hearing how other people look at characters. They're all really quite malleable, because we don't get a lot of details in the series about who they are, so I think a lot of it is totally up for interpretation. Based on this explanation I can really see why so many people like him--that never really made sense to me, but it really does now. You seem to have a pretty encyclopedic knowledge of GX--I've only seen it once and my memory is pretty fail, so I really wouldn't be able to give as many details as you have, and I'm impressed. I should watch it again at some point, but I want to finish DM first.

I do agree with a lot of points here now that you've brought them up. I do think that Johan is more softspoken than Judai, and that he's more intelligent than Judai is over all. I'm not sure I agree about the selflessness/selfishness thing--we only see Johan for a small amount of time, and we see Judai throughout the whole series. Judai repeatedly helps others throughout the entire series, and only begins to be selfish around when Johan shows up, I think because he becomes obsessed with Johan at the expense of his other friends. Johan does behave selflessly, yes, but we don't get enough chances to see his overall behavior--we do see that with Judai.

Yes, 108 is the episode that scared me the most regarding Johan. I've watched that episode repeatedly to make sure that I was seeing things right, but in that case it looked like Judai was being decisive and active, not impulsive, and Johan was just standing there watching the duel...which made me think his priorities do not include the preservation of human life, which made me think of him as a scary, evil character. I lost that impression somewhat as he did other things that portrayed him as a good person.

Thank you very much for this--it's practically an essay! It's really insightful and interesting. I actually do see them as more differing people, now.

[cheeky_eyes]

Well even the characters in cannon pointed out how similar they are. I didn't see it but that would colour a lot of peoples interpretations of them, especially as we know so little of one of them at that point. I really do like Johan though, and I don't even remember how that happened. I noticed that in the opening credits of season 4 Johan was there and I couldn't wait for him to appear but before that I only had a passing interest in him. It was just one of tose things I guess. ^^ Anyway it was then that I noticed I really liked him. It was a little surprising actually. And yes as with any piece of work everyone brings their own experiences to it and sees things in a different way. I suppose the Gem Beasts help my bias a little. :)
And thanks. *Blushes a little.* I don't know any of the others seasons as well but I have seen season three so many times (or bits of it anyway) that it has kind of stuck. Which is awesome actually. I love watching it again. Especially since they took them off youtube and I've downloaded them once I have the episode it is easy to watch again and again.
Speaking of DM are you reading/going to read the manga? It makes a lot more sense (epcecially Battle City) and all in all is a fantastic manga. I recommend that you do. ^^

Characters are so much fun to play with. We get enough information to define them a bit but when you put them in different situations they can surprise you.

Yes maybe selfish was the wrong choice of word, while he doesn't think of others that much he also doesn't really think of himself either, just 'how much fun can this duel be and can I duel some more?' Season three Juudai is the one I was comapring Johan too the most, especially as I know season three best. But you are right, he does help others a lot and the whole point of season 4 was him avoiding the others so that he wouldn't hurt them anymore but my point was that he is more selfish then Johan, not selfish as a characteristic.

Juudai was being active yes, but his default reponse is 'duel it' so there was still a bit of impulsivness there. True I don't think there was another option but I don't recall Juudai stopping to think about it. I guess that wasn't putting Johan in the best light but as you said he does redeem himself later. In fact the whole reason Juudai duelled the Yubel-possesed-Martin in the first place was so that Rainbow Dragon could be activated and open the portal home, something that wouldn't have happened without Juudai as there was no way Yubel would have just duelled Johan. I, can't remember the point of that but I guess that both of them are good characters who are willing to help out others. They just go about in in slightly different ways.

That's alright, it helped me out too! I'm glad I was able to show you a differnt side of him and a bit of why I love him so much.