ZEN MEME
Because WHY NOT I've been playing for the first time in weeks, I should love things.
Nicholas D. Wolfwood
It's hard to even remember why I started loving Wolfwood in the firs place. It was so long ago now, what the hell. I tend to get pinged by tragic characters and Wolfwood's fate in the Trigun anime just hit that all over. Even though I... missed that episode the first time and was horribly confused. But Wolfwood! You're never quite sure where he stands in canon until very late in the day. And what's great about it is that he does have REASONS for doing some horrible shit, and in some ways his reasons ARE more logical than Vash's. Vash's logic exists on this HIGHER PLANE OF REALITY whereas Wolfwood is just very, very human. And it takes him ages but Wolfwood does eventually understand that he was wrong. And he then tries to make up for it (in retarded gunfight ways) and very nearly comes out of it alive. I remember saying in the chan, back when counsellor apps were open for the very first time (THOUUUUSANDS OF YEARS AGO) that someone should app Wolfwood. Not thinking it'd be me. Luckily these days I know not to kid myself about these things.
Playing Wolfwood went great for a couple of months and then it started to slide because I wasn't sure how to handle him over such a long period without Vash around. But! This was around the time that I suddenly discovered scans for the Trigun manga. NOW, THE TRIGUN MANGA IS INFURIATING. I AM WELL AWARE. I've been told so many times that people tried to pick it up and just couldn't get through it. It has a lot of problems and Nightow is a dirty dirty whore who can't draw properly sometimes. But I started to catch up on the scans, and around the volume 8 mark, Wolfwood starts to get a tonne of backstory and development. Anyone who's read it will know that volumes 9 and 10 are IT for Wolfwood. I cannot even DESCRIBE how fucking awesome those volumes are. I thought the anime was sad in how Wolfwood's story came to an end. THAT WAS NOTHING COMPARED TO THE MANGA. A-and when I read it, my love just catapulted up so much. I went through the process of flipping his characterisation from anime to manga, and it was the best decision ever, because the manga gives me a lot more to work with in terms of his background and motivations. He's ultimately a very different person in the manga, but still Wolfwood.
I've played him for almost three years now, and he is like part of my being. I've mentioned in other places lately that he's not quite the primary he used to be. Because suddenly I've been racking up the characters and giving them the time they deserve, so Wolfwood's slipped a bit. I also suffer burnout with him, after having him so long. But I always come back to him because playing him is second nature to me. I don't think I've ever misstepped in a catastrophic way. A-and I like. Sometimes in those RP love memes I get people I've never met, from other games, telling me they love my Wolfwood. AND IT'S SO AWESOME ;;. Just about the only thing I can't do that's part of Wolfwood's characterisation is his particular way of talking, which involves more slang and contractions than I can write. I hate that kind of thing. But I don't think he's suffered too much from it, it's my own shortcoming. And um. Yeah. Heart heart heart.
Chrno
Oh Chrno. I read Chrno Crusade on a whim and didn't even really pay attention to Chrno until volume 6, because Rosette was amazing and I focused on her. But when I got to Chrno's backstory in 6, that was like a kick in the teeth, because THERE'S THAT TRAGIC PING AGAIN. And racing through the final two volumes, it's just so terrific. Moriyama does GREAT plotting and everything comes together explosively. A-and the ending it made me cry. I knew I had to have him after that. Being caught in a dup batch was scary and unexpected, but I learnt a lot from it about how to approach apps (hint: not the way I'd been doing it). I think I got 1,000 comments in my first week playing him, which for ME is fucking amazing. I loved playing him because he's so nice and considerate, but he has these horrible moments where he can flip his shit and go insane. The fact that he OVERCOMES THIS in canon is also wonderful. He can learn! It takes him ages to wake up to himself and I love being able to play that part of him.
Chrno is not a character I've had trouble playing, but it took me a while to get into his voice, and I'm never entirely certain I've got it down pat. I've also gone through a big shake-up in confidence since our Rosette dropped. Because Chrno is never apart from her for this long in canon, and I'm ... never sure if I'm misstepping in my play of him during this! I still love him but he's become more difficult to bring out, if only because I have the idea that he's pulled in on himself. This is a guy who locks himself in a tomb for fifty years out of grief. And then locks himself in his mind (which looks like a tomb) again later. So yes, he has terrible issues and I think he's struggling with them a bit more than usual. I cycle back and forth on dropping him but since getting him out a little more and meeting new people, I've realised that I can love him just as much as a secondary character. And that's cool with me.
Rick O'Connell
...fuck me, am I still playing Rick? How did that happen. Rick is one of very, very few characters who I've wanted to app since the beginning of the game. The difference here is that I actually mustered the courage to do it. Somehow. And my god I love Rick, he is everything RIGHT about Hollywood action adventure films. There's a reason he was on this list with the likes of Indiana Jones and Korben Dallas, you guys. He just has this wonderful dry delivery of lines that I've always loved in a character. And he would rather NOT fight the undead. HE WANTS TO RUN THE FUCK AWAY, BECAUSE THAT IS THE SMART THING TO DO-- HEY STOP MESSING WITH MY WOMAN. Just yes. The Mummy films are not great; they are pretty much the poor cousin of Indy. But they're fun, sometimes downright hilarious, and if you can get past the terrible CGI they are a good night in.
Playing Rick, on the other hand, is sometimes an exercise in pain. I cannot really thread with him, because I feel like I need to be in control of the topic. So I post with him more than thread, since that way I feel like I can play him on my own terms. And when I'm in the mood and I play him well, I feel super pleased with myself. Because I am doing a good job! Honestly I think the only reason I've been able to keep him so long is everyone telling me how much they love him. IT REALLY HELPS YOU GUYS, THANK YOU. Because I am woefully underconfident in my snark abilities, so hearing that I'm not doing terribly makes me feel better. And that one fandomsecret about how I play a good Rick was like askldjfklda ♥. S-so cool.
Motosuwa Hideki
I like Hideki well enough! I don't think I love him like my other characters though. I only managed to finish Chobits last year, having missed the last two volumes for years before that. So I reread them after finding the last two and was like, man, I forgot how damn funny and sweet this manga is. And Hideki is adorably failget. I decided to app him because WHY THE HELL NOT I think he's awesome and hilarious, and I didn't have a true flaily spazz character. And he's a hell of a lot of fun to play, he just takes energy that I don't always have. The best part of Hideki, I think, is that he genuinely IS a nice guy. He just. Swears a lot and freaks out in between. It's a great mix and thank you CLAMP for making me a character who isn't full of angst. And one who gets a happy ending, to boot.
Sohryu Asuka Langley
Okay so Evangelion was my first big anime love. It was just so DIFFERENT to things like... uh... Pokemon that I was enthralled. Even when it started to go batshit in the end and it was like HAHA WOW WHAT IS GOING ON it was still amazing. Because it made you think! My favourite character back then (I think I was 14-15?) was Rei, followed by Kaworu. I don't know if I thought about Asuka much; probably I thought she was a bit of a bitch. Which she is, so it's a valid opinion to have. I didn't really, honestly start to like Asuka until End of Evangelion. Which is funny, because End is one of the most traumatic movies you will ever see in your life. But as the director's commentary says, Asuka is a character who you never expect to feel so bad for in the end. And indeed, the way she goes out is AWFUL. But before that, in that brief gap between being comatose and dead, she is so blindingly amazing that I don't know how you can't love her. She's the last to figure out what the Evas really are, but when she DOES figure it out, she is literally the best fucking pilot ever for about five minutes.
Asuka is-- she's not an easily lovable character. Because yes, she is really horrible to Shinji and Rei, and completely terrifying, and messed up in the head. But there are reasons for it, and they're pretty awful ones. What I like about Asuka is just how ALIVE she seems to be. She's a real force in the anime, and before she starts breaking down she stands out as so much more confident and full of energy than Shinji and Rei. And if you look past her bitchy moments she is really not as bad as fandom can make her out to be. This is treated a lot better in the manga, where I think she's toned down to be not quite as big a superbitch. I draw on the manga a lot for her interactions with people, admittedly. And Asuka wasn't even my first choice for apping. Originally I wanted Kaworu, but Zuko beat me to it. So I apped Asuka instead, and I am GLAD I DID because she is very much my type of character. She is so easy to play and just. Hilarious. I love her for her faults AND her over the top attitude. Thank you, End of Evangelion, for giving me another tragic badass.
Takebe Youhei
SPEAKING OF. I started World Embryo because it's by Moriyama. The thing with Moriyama is that every single one of his characters is amazing. I end up wanting to play practically all of them. I was thinking of apping Riku, Rena OR Youhei when I first picked it up, that's how cool they are. But then I got to volume 2 where [Youhei gets his head cut off] and I went AHHHHHHHHHHHASLDKFJ MUST HAVE. Youhei is just immensely awesome. He's characterised as that guy everyone can't help but like, and hey, I like him. Add into this the bloody awesome jinki powers and I was sold. It helped that I had everything I needed to app with by the end of volume 2, because World Embryo has a hilariously sad fate in terms of translations online (thanks for nothing, Tokyopop). So I then topped Ronan into apping Rena and it was all good. I haven't really settled into Youhei's voice yet, partly because of bad timing with uni and partly because it's... a pretty generic voice. I'm not so used to those. He is, at core, a very ordinary guy who just happens to fight extraordinary things. But I've enjoyed playing him so far BECAUSE of this mix of normal/abnormal. He's one I'm least likely to drop because I love him.
Also, I am probably the only Youhei RPer on the internet. And that's cool too.
Nicholas D. Wolfwood
It's hard to even remember why I started loving Wolfwood in the firs place. It was so long ago now, what the hell. I tend to get pinged by tragic characters and Wolfwood's fate in the Trigun anime just hit that all over. Even though I... missed that episode the first time and was horribly confused. But Wolfwood! You're never quite sure where he stands in canon until very late in the day. And what's great about it is that he does have REASONS for doing some horrible shit, and in some ways his reasons ARE more logical than Vash's. Vash's logic exists on this HIGHER PLANE OF REALITY whereas Wolfwood is just very, very human. And it takes him ages but Wolfwood does eventually understand that he was wrong. And he then tries to make up for it (in retarded gunfight ways) and very nearly comes out of it alive. I remember saying in the chan, back when counsellor apps were open for the very first time (THOUUUUSANDS OF YEARS AGO) that someone should app Wolfwood. Not thinking it'd be me. Luckily these days I know not to kid myself about these things.
Playing Wolfwood went great for a couple of months and then it started to slide because I wasn't sure how to handle him over such a long period without Vash around. But! This was around the time that I suddenly discovered scans for the Trigun manga. NOW, THE TRIGUN MANGA IS INFURIATING. I AM WELL AWARE. I've been told so many times that people tried to pick it up and just couldn't get through it. It has a lot of problems and Nightow is a dirty dirty whore who can't draw properly sometimes. But I started to catch up on the scans, and around the volume 8 mark, Wolfwood starts to get a tonne of backstory and development. Anyone who's read it will know that volumes 9 and 10 are IT for Wolfwood. I cannot even DESCRIBE how fucking awesome those volumes are. I thought the anime was sad in how Wolfwood's story came to an end. THAT WAS NOTHING COMPARED TO THE MANGA. A-and when I read it, my love just catapulted up so much. I went through the process of flipping his characterisation from anime to manga, and it was the best decision ever, because the manga gives me a lot more to work with in terms of his background and motivations. He's ultimately a very different person in the manga, but still Wolfwood.
I've played him for almost three years now, and he is like part of my being. I've mentioned in other places lately that he's not quite the primary he used to be. Because suddenly I've been racking up the characters and giving them the time they deserve, so Wolfwood's slipped a bit. I also suffer burnout with him, after having him so long. But I always come back to him because playing him is second nature to me. I don't think I've ever misstepped in a catastrophic way. A-and I like. Sometimes in those RP love memes I get people I've never met, from other games, telling me they love my Wolfwood. AND IT'S SO AWESOME ;;. Just about the only thing I can't do that's part of Wolfwood's characterisation is his particular way of talking, which involves more slang and contractions than I can write. I hate that kind of thing. But I don't think he's suffered too much from it, it's my own shortcoming. And um. Yeah. Heart heart heart.
Chrno
Oh Chrno. I read Chrno Crusade on a whim and didn't even really pay attention to Chrno until volume 6, because Rosette was amazing and I focused on her. But when I got to Chrno's backstory in 6, that was like a kick in the teeth, because THERE'S THAT TRAGIC PING AGAIN. And racing through the final two volumes, it's just so terrific. Moriyama does GREAT plotting and everything comes together explosively. A-and the ending it made me cry. I knew I had to have him after that. Being caught in a dup batch was scary and unexpected, but I learnt a lot from it about how to approach apps (hint: not the way I'd been doing it). I think I got 1,000 comments in my first week playing him, which for ME is fucking amazing. I loved playing him because he's so nice and considerate, but he has these horrible moments where he can flip his shit and go insane. The fact that he OVERCOMES THIS in canon is also wonderful. He can learn! It takes him ages to wake up to himself and I love being able to play that part of him.
Chrno is not a character I've had trouble playing, but it took me a while to get into his voice, and I'm never entirely certain I've got it down pat. I've also gone through a big shake-up in confidence since our Rosette dropped. Because Chrno is never apart from her for this long in canon, and I'm ... never sure if I'm misstepping in my play of him during this! I still love him but he's become more difficult to bring out, if only because I have the idea that he's pulled in on himself. This is a guy who locks himself in a tomb for fifty years out of grief. And then locks himself in his mind (which looks like a tomb) again later. So yes, he has terrible issues and I think he's struggling with them a bit more than usual. I cycle back and forth on dropping him but since getting him out a little more and meeting new people, I've realised that I can love him just as much as a secondary character. And that's cool with me.
Rick O'Connell
...fuck me, am I still playing Rick? How did that happen. Rick is one of very, very few characters who I've wanted to app since the beginning of the game. The difference here is that I actually mustered the courage to do it. Somehow. And my god I love Rick, he is everything RIGHT about Hollywood action adventure films. There's a reason he was on this list with the likes of Indiana Jones and Korben Dallas, you guys. He just has this wonderful dry delivery of lines that I've always loved in a character. And he would rather NOT fight the undead. HE WANTS TO RUN THE FUCK AWAY, BECAUSE THAT IS THE SMART THING TO DO-- HEY STOP MESSING WITH MY WOMAN. Just yes. The Mummy films are not great; they are pretty much the poor cousin of Indy. But they're fun, sometimes downright hilarious, and if you can get past the terrible CGI they are a good night in.
Playing Rick, on the other hand, is sometimes an exercise in pain. I cannot really thread with him, because I feel like I need to be in control of the topic. So I post with him more than thread, since that way I feel like I can play him on my own terms. And when I'm in the mood and I play him well, I feel super pleased with myself. Because I am doing a good job! Honestly I think the only reason I've been able to keep him so long is everyone telling me how much they love him. IT REALLY HELPS YOU GUYS, THANK YOU. Because I am woefully underconfident in my snark abilities, so hearing that I'm not doing terribly makes me feel better. And that one fandomsecret about how I play a good Rick was like askldjfklda ♥. S-so cool.
Motosuwa Hideki
I like Hideki well enough! I don't think I love him like my other characters though. I only managed to finish Chobits last year, having missed the last two volumes for years before that. So I reread them after finding the last two and was like, man, I forgot how damn funny and sweet this manga is. And Hideki is adorably failget. I decided to app him because WHY THE HELL NOT I think he's awesome and hilarious, and I didn't have a true flaily spazz character. And he's a hell of a lot of fun to play, he just takes energy that I don't always have. The best part of Hideki, I think, is that he genuinely IS a nice guy. He just. Swears a lot and freaks out in between. It's a great mix and thank you CLAMP for making me a character who isn't full of angst. And one who gets a happy ending, to boot.
Sohryu Asuka Langley
Okay so Evangelion was my first big anime love. It was just so DIFFERENT to things like... uh... Pokemon that I was enthralled. Even when it started to go batshit in the end and it was like HAHA WOW WHAT IS GOING ON it was still amazing. Because it made you think! My favourite character back then (I think I was 14-15?) was Rei, followed by Kaworu. I don't know if I thought about Asuka much; probably I thought she was a bit of a bitch. Which she is, so it's a valid opinion to have. I didn't really, honestly start to like Asuka until End of Evangelion. Which is funny, because End is one of the most traumatic movies you will ever see in your life. But as the director's commentary says, Asuka is a character who you never expect to feel so bad for in the end. And indeed, the way she goes out is AWFUL. But before that, in that brief gap between being comatose and dead, she is so blindingly amazing that I don't know how you can't love her. She's the last to figure out what the Evas really are, but when she DOES figure it out, she is literally the best fucking pilot ever for about five minutes.
Asuka is-- she's not an easily lovable character. Because yes, she is really horrible to Shinji and Rei, and completely terrifying, and messed up in the head. But there are reasons for it, and they're pretty awful ones. What I like about Asuka is just how ALIVE she seems to be. She's a real force in the anime, and before she starts breaking down she stands out as so much more confident and full of energy than Shinji and Rei. And if you look past her bitchy moments she is really not as bad as fandom can make her out to be. This is treated a lot better in the manga, where I think she's toned down to be not quite as big a superbitch. I draw on the manga a lot for her interactions with people, admittedly. And Asuka wasn't even my first choice for apping. Originally I wanted Kaworu, but Zuko beat me to it. So I apped Asuka instead, and I am GLAD I DID because she is very much my type of character. She is so easy to play and just. Hilarious. I love her for her faults AND her over the top attitude. Thank you, End of Evangelion, for giving me another tragic badass.
Takebe Youhei
SPEAKING OF. I started World Embryo because it's by Moriyama. The thing with Moriyama is that every single one of his characters is amazing. I end up wanting to play practically all of them. I was thinking of apping Riku, Rena OR Youhei when I first picked it up, that's how cool they are. But then I got to volume 2 where [Youhei gets his head cut off] and I went AHHHHHHHHHHHASLDKFJ MUST HAVE. Youhei is just immensely awesome. He's characterised as that guy everyone can't help but like, and hey, I like him. Add into this the bloody awesome jinki powers and I was sold. It helped that I had everything I needed to app with by the end of volume 2, because World Embryo has a hilariously sad fate in terms of translations online (thanks for nothing, Tokyopop). So I then topped Ronan into apping Rena and it was all good. I haven't really settled into Youhei's voice yet, partly because of bad timing with uni and partly because it's... a pretty generic voice. I'm not so used to those. He is, at core, a very ordinary guy who just happens to fight extraordinary things. But I've enjoyed playing him so far BECAUSE of this mix of normal/abnormal. He's one I'm least likely to drop because I love him.
Also, I am probably the only Youhei RPer on the internet. And that's cool too.