(no subject)
....so about Naruto
Mentioned that last week was fired, didn't I? That was the week during which (among other things that I won't blog about because there were so many of them, online and off, happening to everyone I know, and I do not have the spoons) I learned from tumblr, with no warning whatever, that Gai had just opened the Eighth Gate.
For those just coming in, Maito Gai was my first big-game rp character; I played an AU version of him at Sortinghat for two years. His dedication and positivity have also been important to me personally; I took a copy of Vol. 10 with me to my black belt test. In canon, he's a jounin (a high-ranking ninja who teaches a team of three younger ninjas), with a particularly special connection to one of his students, who emulates him in every possible way. Gai is loud, brash, positive to the point of annoying everyone around him with relentless, sometimes reckless overconfidence, forgetful of things he doesn't care about, and ferociously devoted to his village, team, and comrades. Often seen by the fandom (at least before the last Kisame fight) as laughable because of his many eccentricities, he is nonetheless a highly competent ninja, canonically near-equal to (and respected by) his more dour friend/rival Kakashi, and he gets serious fast when faced with a serious situation.
The Eight Gates are a Chekhov's-gun jutsu (technique) which showed up as early as Vol. 10 (the series is now on Vol. 60-something), comprised of a series of "releases" which unlock more and more of the body's physical power, until the final one briefly makes the user nearly unstoppable for, hopefully, just enough time to defeat a deadly foe -- and then kills him. Over the course of the series, Gai and his protoge Lee unlocked various gates as the stakes escalated, so reaching the final Gate was pretty much a narrative inevitability, but.
I haven't read Naruto in probably over a year, Last week, spoilers unexpectedly started appearing on tumblr. Gai had opened the Eighth Gate, releasing all his physical power in a final set of attacks, to defend his students, friends, and village against a supervillain. (His eyebrows are now on fire, and did I mention the art in these two or three chapters is gorgeous? It's kind of awesome and also horrible and awful and I WANTED THE OPPOSITE OF THIS.)
I'm still not caught up, but I read that chapter. And this week's, in which the fight escalates even further, and we see the toll it's taking on Gai -- and how Lee, grieving already but refusing to shame the surrogate father who's in the process of dying for him, opens the Sixth Gate to provide backup.
Like the last time or two that Gai was in a fight and it looked bad, I'm not ready for this.
Don't know if I ever would have been, tbh.
(Also, after Neji's death in the previous battle, it is unforgivable that Tenten, who already lost a teammate and is probably now about to lose her sensei, isn't present at this time. KISHI WHAT ARE YOU DOING THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THIS.)
Originally posted on Dreamwidth. There are
comments there so far.
Mentioned that last week was fired, didn't I? That was the week during which (among other things that I won't blog about because there were so many of them, online and off, happening to everyone I know, and I do not have the spoons) I learned from tumblr, with no warning whatever, that Gai had just opened the Eighth Gate.
For those just coming in, Maito Gai was my first big-game rp character; I played an AU version of him at Sortinghat for two years. His dedication and positivity have also been important to me personally; I took a copy of Vol. 10 with me to my black belt test. In canon, he's a jounin (a high-ranking ninja who teaches a team of three younger ninjas), with a particularly special connection to one of his students, who emulates him in every possible way. Gai is loud, brash, positive to the point of annoying everyone around him with relentless, sometimes reckless overconfidence, forgetful of things he doesn't care about, and ferociously devoted to his village, team, and comrades. Often seen by the fandom (at least before the last Kisame fight) as laughable because of his many eccentricities, he is nonetheless a highly competent ninja, canonically near-equal to (and respected by) his more dour friend/rival Kakashi, and he gets serious fast when faced with a serious situation.
The Eight Gates are a Chekhov's-gun jutsu (technique) which showed up as early as Vol. 10 (the series is now on Vol. 60-something), comprised of a series of "releases" which unlock more and more of the body's physical power, until the final one briefly makes the user nearly unstoppable for, hopefully, just enough time to defeat a deadly foe -- and then kills him. Over the course of the series, Gai and his protoge Lee unlocked various gates as the stakes escalated, so reaching the final Gate was pretty much a narrative inevitability, but.
I haven't read Naruto in probably over a year, Last week, spoilers unexpectedly started appearing on tumblr. Gai had opened the Eighth Gate, releasing all his physical power in a final set of attacks, to defend his students, friends, and village against a supervillain. (His eyebrows are now on fire, and did I mention the art in these two or three chapters is gorgeous? It's kind of awesome and also horrible and awful and I WANTED THE OPPOSITE OF THIS.)
I'm still not caught up, but I read that chapter. And this week's, in which the fight escalates even further, and we see the toll it's taking on Gai -- and how Lee, grieving already but refusing to shame the surrogate father who's in the process of dying for him, opens the Sixth Gate to provide backup.
Like the last time or two that Gai was in a fight and it looked bad, I'm not ready for this.
Don't know if I ever would have been, tbh.
(Also, after Neji's death in the previous battle, it is unforgivable that Tenten, who already lost a teammate and is probably now about to lose her sensei, isn't present at this time. KISHI WHAT ARE YOU DOING THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THIS.)
Originally posted on Dreamwidth. There are
comments there so far.