A Balrog of Morgoth
No library today, the librarians have gone away TO ISENGARD. Of course they couldn't be arsed to put a notification on the library's homepage because that would make them look as if they actually cared about their clientel. So instead of doing something useful I decided to do something even more useful: Organise my fandom-related notes (mostly WK, you wouldn't have guessed, Warcraft lore, Eden and a bit of Bleach). I also have quite specific opinions on most of my fandoms, some of them not supported by anything other than my brain.
I don't know whether they're unpopular or not, I've been out of the loop for, er, some years. They've been pretty unpopular back in the day when a good part of fen went out of their way to prove that Schuldig is/was a hooker and that everybody is/was abusing Nagi anyway.
Disclaimer: Not saying that these opinions can't/shouldn't be worked around or are in any way true. I do work around them frequently but would love to read some more fics that follow some of these lines. I'm also an eternal Schwarz apologist. Not concerning their deeds or attitude towards humanity, but on this whole "world destruction" thing.
#1 Schuldig is a lousy Telepath. He's definitely a skilled/trained assassin, but in terms of raw power and 'killing people with his brain'? Not rly. He can't even mindfuck an untrained, naive teenage girl into killing Aya. I think he can manipulate the hardware (and thus create these short "I'm here … or maybe not," illusions, manipulation via suggestion over a long period of time (that sect, can't really remember which episode that was), but pull off a "You want to go home and rethink your life" jedi thing? No wai. Berger rocks.
#2 Aya is not Weiß' leader. Aya is way too stoic and apathetic at the beginning of Kapitel to lead anything, let alone his own life. He starts to micromanage (telling Yohji that he's losing it) and to keep people in line by the end of Kapitel. I also think that one of Weiß' main problems is that they don't get their pecking order (insert a whole lot of TL;DR here) sorted out until way into the series - as opposed to Schwarz, who got past that stage a while ago. A little. I also think that he doesn't have the experience and training to coordinate or plan missions and doesn't have a clue about politics. Or maybe he has a clue but doesn't act on it. Omi or Yohji are much more likely to take over at some point and Omi even does so in Glühen.
#3 Ken is not stupid or clumsy. Sure, he's not intelligent in the sense of intellectual, but that's not exactly a requirement for an assassin. He survived for quite a while using friggin' claws. This tells us two things, namely that he's good enough for Kritiker not to dispose of him and that he's clever enough to use a close combat weapon efficiently. He also needs damn excellent reflexes, a lot of muscle memory and stamina to pull that through.
#4 Farfarello has some powerz. I think of him more as a Ki Adept than a random person with enhanced self-healing abilities. For one, there are his reflexes and combat speed. Two, there's that immunity to pain. Three, there's self-regeneration. Doesn't sound like a random collections of sympthoms to me, but rather like a condition that was deliberately induced. Besides, it just wouldn't make sense for a team of psychics to take along a non-psychic. *fanon fanon la la la*
#5 Schwarz is generally better adjusted than Weiß. By 'better adjusted' I don't mean 'functioning members of our society' but 'figuring out our group dynamics, goals and get on with it'. Weiß really could've imploded at any time because everybody is just so damn instable. Sure, Schwarz are instable, too - clinically - but constant in terms of their roles within the group. ("'Where's Farfarello?' 'Oh, killing priests, torching churches, the usual thing. Why are you asking, you know anyway?' 'Get up, we need to collect him.' 'It's only been two hour--- alright.'")
#6 There is a demon in town. Here's where my apologetic streak kicks in. See, Schwarz really didn't want to destroy the world, but were all possessed by a demon. Really. Honestly. Because it just doesn't make sense. . Or it was just an act. I don't think that they would suddenly become all mellow and start careers as environmental activists, but I certainly think that they'd lay off the world destruction thing. Can't work with this. Grng.
#7 Farfarello can articulate himself. He does so frequently. He's also not a blithering idiot whose scope of perception only reaches as far as "hurt God ga ga ga". Heck, mostly he seems as if he's playing along just for fun.
#8 Go ahead and rape Nagi, I dare you. Newsflash: Nagi went A-bomb when Farfarello killed his crush. He'd go supernova if he was raped by somebody he trusted. And that doesn't answer how you would rape a boy who has enough control over his powers to type without his hands, and enough power to blow up a mansion and a good part of the adjacent forest. Conditioned into being Crawfords personal bedslave? Uh-huh. Not saying that Crawford wouldn't be twisted enough to do that, just saying that he isn't stupid enough.
If you're on the run, blowing up an organisation that tampers with demons in the process, you need some people you can trust - not in the 'I'll pour out my heart to you'-way but in a very much more basic 'See, not fucking you over' kind of way. Then there's that thing with conditioning, since it also consists of a 'breaking of spirit' component. If the person eventually breaks down and doesn't/can't use his/her powers anymore, then that wouldn't be a very efficient way to handle your resources. If he is conditioned and eventually broke free - heh. I'll be over there on the other side of the solar system, watching. Besides, Nagi defies Crawford over a crush, now that would be some really great conditioning going on there.
#9 Aya-chan's awakening doesn't really change anything. I don't think Aya did get better at the end of the series, because now he has to deal with his guilt and maybe cope with his parents' death. If anything, Aya-chan waking up made him even worse, because the situation got more complicated. Aya-chan is awake and he can't be the brother he wants to be (or he thinks has to be), he can't tell her what he's doing, Kritiker still has the same amount of power over him, if not more ("Hey, your sister's awake. Bet she could go back to sleep again just as fast."), she's been exposed to a demon and has is virtually on her own.
#10 Manx and Birman are not nice girls. Bitch, please. They're Kritiker agents and they certainly didn't get into that position because of their looks - they have steel and a pink VW beetle, smarts, wear high heels and know how to use them. I'm not sure whether they genuinely care about Weiß or whether 'niceness' is just the more convenient way to deal with them. I certainly think that Manx snapped after Persias death, or at least cut any remaining emotional ties she may/may not have had.
#11 Bonus: Now totally unsopported. Crawford has quite some power over Schwarz, but not quite as much as he'd like. Schwarz trusts Crawford, not romantically, more in a "You need us as long as we live"-way. Counter-dependence. Acutal, unsupported trust is a luxury none of them would indulge in (at least I couldn't see it with quite a bit of development). This doesn't mean that they can't like or hate each other, but they wouldn't base trust on personal like/dislike. They need to develop a system where, when one of them gets into a situation where he could fuck the others over, he just wouldn't. Because they would be off worse without Schwarz. Of course everybody is holding something over the others' heads. The real fun starts when something happens that severs that basis.
Predictions of the future (It just gives you a feeling of safety if somebody tells you not to walk through that door or you'll be shot in three weeks. Or: "You want to run without me? Sure, but just don't take that crossing and don't talk to anyone with blue hair."), or manpower (to paraphrase o11: Without the rest of Schwarz, it would all just be in Crawford's head) - they need each other and that makes them safe. And dangerous. And that's also the reason why Crawford never ever is allowed to be wrong and why I'm allergic to 'I didn't see that one coming'-fics that use this twist without damn goood reasons. What use would you have for a Seer that can be wrong? It would just a more elaborate form of guessing, but that topic is a whole other cup of TL;DR.
Still not accepted at fanfic100_de. D: Need a decent english grammar book. And more coffee.
I don't know whether they're unpopular or not, I've been out of the loop for, er, some years. They've been pretty unpopular back in the day when a good part of fen went out of their way to prove that Schuldig is/was a hooker and that everybody is/was abusing Nagi anyway.
Disclaimer: Not saying that these opinions can't/shouldn't be worked around or are in any way true. I do work around them frequently but would love to read some more fics that follow some of these lines. I'm also an eternal Schwarz apologist. Not concerning their deeds or attitude towards humanity, but on this whole "world destruction" thing.
#1 Schuldig is a lousy Telepath. He's definitely a skilled/trained assassin, but in terms of raw power and 'killing people with his brain'? Not rly. He can't even mindfuck an untrained, naive teenage girl into killing Aya. I think he can manipulate the hardware (and thus create these short "I'm here … or maybe not," illusions, manipulation via suggestion over a long period of time (that sect, can't really remember which episode that was), but pull off a "You want to go home and rethink your life" jedi thing? No wai. Berger rocks.
#2 Aya is not Weiß' leader. Aya is way too stoic and apathetic at the beginning of Kapitel to lead anything, let alone his own life. He starts to micromanage (telling Yohji that he's losing it) and to keep people in line by the end of Kapitel. I also think that one of Weiß' main problems is that they don't get their pecking order (insert a whole lot of TL;DR here) sorted out until way into the series - as opposed to Schwarz, who got past that stage a while ago. A little. I also think that he doesn't have the experience and training to coordinate or plan missions and doesn't have a clue about politics. Or maybe he has a clue but doesn't act on it. Omi or Yohji are much more likely to take over at some point and Omi even does so in Glühen.
#3 Ken is not stupid or clumsy. Sure, he's not intelligent in the sense of intellectual, but that's not exactly a requirement for an assassin. He survived for quite a while using friggin' claws. This tells us two things, namely that he's good enough for Kritiker not to dispose of him and that he's clever enough to use a close combat weapon efficiently. He also needs damn excellent reflexes, a lot of muscle memory and stamina to pull that through.
#4 Farfarello has some powerz. I think of him more as a Ki Adept than a random person with enhanced self-healing abilities. For one, there are his reflexes and combat speed. Two, there's that immunity to pain. Three, there's self-regeneration. Doesn't sound like a random collections of sympthoms to me, but rather like a condition that was deliberately induced. Besides, it just wouldn't make sense for a team of psychics to take along a non-psychic. *fanon fanon la la la*
#5 Schwarz is generally better adjusted than Weiß. By 'better adjusted' I don't mean 'functioning members of our society' but 'figuring out our group dynamics, goals and get on with it'. Weiß really could've imploded at any time because everybody is just so damn instable. Sure, Schwarz are instable, too - clinically - but constant in terms of their roles within the group. ("'Where's Farfarello?' 'Oh, killing priests, torching churches, the usual thing. Why are you asking, you know anyway?' 'Get up, we need to collect him.' 'It's only been two hour--- alright.'")
#6 There is a demon in town. Here's where my apologetic streak kicks in. See, Schwarz really didn't want to destroy the world, but were all possessed by a demon. Really. Honestly. Because it just doesn't make sense. . Or it was just an act. I don't think that they would suddenly become all mellow and start careers as environmental activists, but I certainly think that they'd lay off the world destruction thing. Can't work with this. Grng.
#7 Farfarello can articulate himself. He does so frequently. He's also not a blithering idiot whose scope of perception only reaches as far as "hurt God ga ga ga". Heck, mostly he seems as if he's playing along just for fun.
#8 Go ahead and rape Nagi, I dare you. Newsflash: Nagi went A-bomb when Farfarello killed his crush. He'd go supernova if he was raped by somebody he trusted. And that doesn't answer how you would rape a boy who has enough control over his powers to type without his hands, and enough power to blow up a mansion and a good part of the adjacent forest. Conditioned into being Crawfords personal bedslave? Uh-huh. Not saying that Crawford wouldn't be twisted enough to do that, just saying that he isn't stupid enough.
If you're on the run, blowing up an organisation that tampers with demons in the process, you need some people you can trust - not in the 'I'll pour out my heart to you'-way but in a very much more basic 'See, not fucking you over' kind of way. Then there's that thing with conditioning, since it also consists of a 'breaking of spirit' component. If the person eventually breaks down and doesn't/can't use his/her powers anymore, then that wouldn't be a very efficient way to handle your resources. If he is conditioned and eventually broke free - heh. I'll be over there on the other side of the solar system, watching. Besides, Nagi defies Crawford over a crush, now that would be some really great conditioning going on there.
#9 Aya-chan's awakening doesn't really change anything. I don't think Aya did get better at the end of the series, because now he has to deal with his guilt and maybe cope with his parents' death. If anything, Aya-chan waking up made him even worse, because the situation got more complicated. Aya-chan is awake and he can't be the brother he wants to be (or he thinks has to be), he can't tell her what he's doing, Kritiker still has the same amount of power over him, if not more ("Hey, your sister's awake. Bet she could go back to sleep again just as fast."), she's been exposed to a demon and has is virtually on her own.
#10 Manx and Birman are not nice girls. Bitch, please. They're Kritiker agents and they certainly didn't get into that position because of their looks - they have steel and a pink VW beetle, smarts, wear high heels and know how to use them. I'm not sure whether they genuinely care about Weiß or whether 'niceness' is just the more convenient way to deal with them. I certainly think that Manx snapped after Persias death, or at least cut any remaining emotional ties she may/may not have had.
#11 Bonus: Now totally unsopported. Crawford has quite some power over Schwarz, but not quite as much as he'd like. Schwarz trusts Crawford, not romantically, more in a "You need us as long as we live"-way. Counter-dependence. Acutal, unsupported trust is a luxury none of them would indulge in (at least I couldn't see it with quite a bit of development). This doesn't mean that they can't like or hate each other, but they wouldn't base trust on personal like/dislike. They need to develop a system where, when one of them gets into a situation where he could fuck the others over, he just wouldn't. Because they would be off worse without Schwarz. Of course everybody is holding something over the others' heads. The real fun starts when something happens that severs that basis.
Predictions of the future (It just gives you a feeling of safety if somebody tells you not to walk through that door or you'll be shot in three weeks. Or: "You want to run without me? Sure, but just don't take that crossing and don't talk to anyone with blue hair."), or manpower (to paraphrase o11: Without the rest of Schwarz, it would all just be in Crawford's head) - they need each other and that makes them safe. And dangerous. And that's also the reason why Crawford never ever is allowed to be wrong and why I'm allergic to 'I didn't see that one coming'-fics that use this twist without damn goood reasons. What use would you have for a Seer that can be wrong? It would just a more elaborate form of guessing, but that topic is a whole other cup of TL;DR.
Still not accepted at fanfic100_de. D: Need a decent english grammar book. And more coffee.