SoA: What to do with a character of redemption.
A couple of things to note before we begin. Yousuke in canon gets a rather HUGE roll as the story of Wedding Peach. Without his presence, it was entirely possible that Wedding Peach would NOT have won her final battle with Reine Devilla.
Yousuke is important. Very important. And here's why:
Potamos loves him. Plain and simple. Black and white. She loves him--the ground he walks on/floats above. The food he eats, the words he uses to hurt her feelings with. She is very much head over heels in love with Yousuke--just about as much as Momoko herself is. She'd do quite a bit for him, and not just out of selfish gain, which is her call and trademark.
Potamos is also a demon, through and through. Before Reine Devilla's time, this meant something other than focusing on the destruction of love on a whole. But Potamos isn't before Reine Devilla's time, so she has been reared with some very peculiar ideas in her head concerning love. The mantra is a dead giveaway to just what she was taught:
If you meet someone who loves another, then you must kill them.
If you meet someone in love, then you must kill them.
And if you meet two who are about to marry, you must kill them both.
Hate love, curse love. So long as love exist, those with hateful hearts can never recover....
Now, given that we now know Yousuke's importance to the plot, Potamos' true feelings toward him, and what she's been raised to think, how do we plug this into what's been occurring and what is going to occur at camp since he's gone?
… We don't. At least, not recklessly.
To explain, Potamos is now, character-wise, in a position where there is less and less of her canon to rely on. She is supposed to DIE and be PURIFIED for Yousuke (manga and anime, respectively). He's the one that teaches her what sacrifice means. But he's not here to do that. And there are some other things people should be aware of, as well.
For those who followed her fight thread, Potamos hinted at Yousuke going to die stupidly and alone. That's because his opponent is Uragano--his father. Yousuke as Viento is admittedly powerful, but nowhere NEAR powerful enough to defeat Uragano. And he left without finding out about/utilizing camper resources to find something that could possibly give him an edge (training, trinkets, etc). She has no logical explanation for him leaving--he just did. And this pisses her off. Outwardly, because he didn't take her with him. Inwardly, because she doesn't want him to die. The thought makes her physically sick (in more ways than one--remember that the Love Wave STILL does ill things to Akumazoku).
She'd take consolation in the fact that he left Peach behind, but…that's a huge insult, too. Here's this woman whom Potamos has been snubbed for over the better of four months. Her baubles could help Viento with an edge. He could sacrifice her and be perfectly fine for however long it would take for him to bide his time in overthrowing Uragano and Reine Devilla. But…he leaves Momoko behind. Not Logical. And insulting--is she just as worthless in his eyes as the Angel? Potamos doesn't know--she can't get an answer.
And so she's back to that guaranteed thought that Viento just went off to die like an idiot--apparently for no logical reason.
The easiest thing for Potamos to do right now is blame camp. And work DESPERATELY to save Viento. Anything the camp and its resources has to offer, she wants, and wants it ASAP. After that, the camp has no further use to her--everyone and everything in it can die, as far as she's concerned.
And this is where the logic ends. Her initial reaction was FURY. She was going to raise the camp to the ground, if necessary. This is where the timely interruption by Ranma and Ami came in true handy--there would have been a host of open gates to Hell/Demon realms in a short space of time, and it would have likely been the equivalent of Minus Wave Weekend all over again. And then she would have looted the bodies once she came back to herself.
The next thing she's going to have to deal with is her sadness. That initial sorté is no longer an option, at least immediately (in sad news, the one who would have had the easiest time stopping her is also no longer in camp. We miss you, Sanzo). But of course, Potamos doesn't get sad--she gets even. She has go be hand-to-hand, picking the campers apart through any means necessary in order to get home. The lake and the temples underneath, alters, cabins--whatever turns up goods and/or services, she wants.
She also has to begin to learn and accept that not only is she truly in love with Viento, but that he will never accept her the way she wants him to. She will never be Momoko.
The trick of this is, for me and everyone else, that's a lot of white-space between "FURY' and "acceptance." Momoko has the advantage of people that truly love and care for her--lots of friends that would do a lot for her. Potamos has Chizuru in her corner, Yuusuke, perhaps Usagi. Most of the rest of camp is either unaware of her, or grossly aware that she is out to shit on their parade. Not that she isn't used to dealing with tough all on her own, but people often do not leave emo well enough alone at CFUD. It's going to be a very bumpy ride for everyone that pokes her, particularly since there are only three people in the camp that she thinks are not expendable (Itachi, Naruto, and Yuusuke).
So this is my "please bear with me through this transitional phase" plea. She's not always going to be pissy or angry, and Potamos will definitely not be emo where people can easily see. But. She will be excessively sensitive and easy to set off. Understand that I would and will do EVERYTHING I CAN to warn y'all in advance if something is about to go sour/violent, but I foresee that occurring more than it has before. Particularly with Viento as her new hot button.
In sum, she's really a nice girl. She was just raised to kill you if you smiled and hugged her. .___.
Yousuke is important. Very important. And here's why:
Potamos loves him. Plain and simple. Black and white. She loves him--the ground he walks on/floats above. The food he eats, the words he uses to hurt her feelings with. She is very much head over heels in love with Yousuke--just about as much as Momoko herself is. She'd do quite a bit for him, and not just out of selfish gain, which is her call and trademark.
Potamos is also a demon, through and through. Before Reine Devilla's time, this meant something other than focusing on the destruction of love on a whole. But Potamos isn't before Reine Devilla's time, so she has been reared with some very peculiar ideas in her head concerning love. The mantra is a dead giveaway to just what she was taught:
If you meet someone who loves another, then you must kill them.
If you meet someone in love, then you must kill them.
And if you meet two who are about to marry, you must kill them both.
Hate love, curse love. So long as love exist, those with hateful hearts can never recover....
Now, given that we now know Yousuke's importance to the plot, Potamos' true feelings toward him, and what she's been raised to think, how do we plug this into what's been occurring and what is going to occur at camp since he's gone?
… We don't. At least, not recklessly.
To explain, Potamos is now, character-wise, in a position where there is less and less of her canon to rely on. She is supposed to DIE and be PURIFIED for Yousuke (manga and anime, respectively). He's the one that teaches her what sacrifice means. But he's not here to do that. And there are some other things people should be aware of, as well.
For those who followed her fight thread, Potamos hinted at Yousuke going to die stupidly and alone. That's because his opponent is Uragano--his father. Yousuke as Viento is admittedly powerful, but nowhere NEAR powerful enough to defeat Uragano. And he left without finding out about/utilizing camper resources to find something that could possibly give him an edge (training, trinkets, etc). She has no logical explanation for him leaving--he just did. And this pisses her off. Outwardly, because he didn't take her with him. Inwardly, because she doesn't want him to die. The thought makes her physically sick (in more ways than one--remember that the Love Wave STILL does ill things to Akumazoku).
She'd take consolation in the fact that he left Peach behind, but…that's a huge insult, too. Here's this woman whom Potamos has been snubbed for over the better of four months. Her baubles could help Viento with an edge. He could sacrifice her and be perfectly fine for however long it would take for him to bide his time in overthrowing Uragano and Reine Devilla. But…he leaves Momoko behind. Not Logical. And insulting--is she just as worthless in his eyes as the Angel? Potamos doesn't know--she can't get an answer.
And so she's back to that guaranteed thought that Viento just went off to die like an idiot--apparently for no logical reason.
The easiest thing for Potamos to do right now is blame camp. And work DESPERATELY to save Viento. Anything the camp and its resources has to offer, she wants, and wants it ASAP. After that, the camp has no further use to her--everyone and everything in it can die, as far as she's concerned.
And this is where the logic ends. Her initial reaction was FURY. She was going to raise the camp to the ground, if necessary. This is where the timely interruption by Ranma and Ami came in true handy--there would have been a host of open gates to Hell/Demon realms in a short space of time, and it would have likely been the equivalent of Minus Wave Weekend all over again. And then she would have looted the bodies once she came back to herself.
The next thing she's going to have to deal with is her sadness. That initial sorté is no longer an option, at least immediately (in sad news, the one who would have had the easiest time stopping her is also no longer in camp. We miss you, Sanzo). But of course, Potamos doesn't get sad--she gets even. She has go be hand-to-hand, picking the campers apart through any means necessary in order to get home. The lake and the temples underneath, alters, cabins--whatever turns up goods and/or services, she wants.
She also has to begin to learn and accept that not only is she truly in love with Viento, but that he will never accept her the way she wants him to. She will never be Momoko.
The trick of this is, for me and everyone else, that's a lot of white-space between "FURY' and "acceptance." Momoko has the advantage of people that truly love and care for her--lots of friends that would do a lot for her. Potamos has Chizuru in her corner, Yuusuke, perhaps Usagi. Most of the rest of camp is either unaware of her, or grossly aware that she is out to shit on their parade. Not that she isn't used to dealing with tough all on her own, but people often do not leave emo well enough alone at CFUD. It's going to be a very bumpy ride for everyone that pokes her, particularly since there are only three people in the camp that she thinks are not expendable (Itachi, Naruto, and Yuusuke).
So this is my "please bear with me through this transitional phase" plea. She's not always going to be pissy or angry, and Potamos will definitely not be emo where people can easily see. But. She will be excessively sensitive and easy to set off. Understand that I would and will do EVERYTHING I CAN to warn y'all in advance if something is about to go sour/violent, but I foresee that occurring more than it has before. Particularly with Viento as her new hot button.
In sum, she's really a nice girl. She was just raised to kill you if you smiled and hugged her. .___.