There’s a quality that certain books/movies/TV shows have that leads me to say, “Yeah, I can see people making fanfiction of that.” It’s something to do, I think, with how tight the story is, how much feels open-ended or like it could be elaborated on.
Something like Breaking Bad, for example, has low squiggability (that’s what I’m calling this quality). It’s tightly written, the characters are consistent, there’s little left to interpolate or extrapolate. Obviously, people DO write fanfic of Breaking Bad, but it still has a low squiggability score. Whereas something like Supernatural has a high squiggability score. Fantasy and science fiction often have high squiggability scores. This suggests squiggability could also be related to worldbuilding and potential for people to borrow a premise or setting.
And sometimes you’ll read or watch something and you’ll say, “Ah, low squiggability,” and then you’ll open tumblr and find out that everyone else seem to think its squiggability was very high indeed.
starry horizon reminded me. kaoruko stella interactions would have been so peak can you IMAGINE how big a soft spot kaoruko would have for that kid. she’s already so swayed by random kids in the halloween event because of her own strict upbringing. can you imagine what stella would unlock in her. and i feel like stella would be really amazed by kaoruko’s connection with japanese culture and think she’s the coolest person on earth which would feed into kaoruko’s ego so bad. meanwhile shiro and futaba are hanging out and shiro is becoming more convinced by the minute that she should buy a motorcycle.
You have a nice ship list. I thought you'd add polymeikan, especially because you've talked about it before, but I understand the feeling of not wanting rui and tamao to be romantically involved. I have mixed feelings towards them but ultimatley I love them in the context of polymeikan, as well as being adults. And I do wonder, is it really possible for someone to be another persons salvation and go separate ways?
Tamaichifumi truly is a matching set. They're so good. Your response made me look up the tag on here and sadly there is next to nothing. As I'm typing this I'm reminded to check twitter so I'll do that afterwards.
Goes without saying that I love akimichi a lot too, one of the main highlights of relive/arcana arcadia for me. Where does one even begin with those two. they've got it all. they're also both trans
Hikaren is amazing and I'm tired of people acting like they aren't. I know some new fans think mayakuro needs to be the main ones but they don't understand. Even when I watched revue for the first time, I didn't understand the mayakuro hype. Karen and hikari I am so sorry people keep doing this to you guys. I'm curious, what are your thoughts on mahikaren? Most people are passive on it but y'know.
OK lets get into the meat: your pairings outside of canon. michimei Is cute, I've never thought about them in detail before but I will. In general when it comes to the edels I stick with akimichi and yachimei. Edelbowl can be ok sometimes but because shiori is... shiori I won't always like it. <- this is not shiori hate at all this is me talking about her role and how she's framed within the story.
I swear I saw that headcanon about ichie and koharu somewhere before. I didn't know it was you, though. I can't remember if it was on here or if it was on twitter. I like it though its fun.
yachikaren is a cuteee idea. I think karen is a very shippable character due to being our protagonist plus other factors, but she's outshined by other very shippable characters in revue (Claudine, Yachiyo, Fumi etc).
I am intrigued by hikatama please go into more detail about them. and thank you for the edit including kaotama. Kaotama is one of those gifts that keep on giving within the fanbase it never gets old seeing the memes and jokes its like a loony tunes cartoon.
I didn't go through every ship you mentioned but I do love them all I promise
hmm i do still like polymeikan, and there are pretty interesting bonds between the second years and first years (ichiyuyu, tamayuyu, fumirui all have very interesting stuff to dig into). i think maybe my focus has diverged more into the separate pairs, but they're a really good group and all five of them work really well together. i'm not that opposed to tamarui muuuuuch later on after they've gotten stuff sorted out but i'd like to see what they become separately first. regarding whether or not you can really drift apart from your savior, i'm not sure! i kind of imagine it'd be like karen and hikari, where they hold a special place in each other's hearts and are clearly still part of each other's lives, but are walking their own paths for now.
haha don't get me wrong i do love mayakuro. their revue in the movie is simply amazing, and i really love how they keep pushing each other to new heights. regarding mahikaren/rgb, i think they're a great trio of friends; the way they care about each other and their general dynamic is really heartwarming and funny to me. but i don't really see it romantically? i don't think it's fair to any of those three to stick mahiru on. karehika are kind of obsessed with each other, and mahiru deserves more than being tacked onto them as a consolation prize. also if i ended up dating every person i'd ever had a crush on that would have ended badly. i want mahiru to frolick in greener pastures.
i have sooooo many thoughts on michimei somewhere on this blog. tanabata event will forever be legendary to me, as will michiru trying to make mei fan worse for seemingly nothing other than his own personal enrichment. shiori i don't really see with any of them, i feel like she has other things to figure out. i'm not sure if this is exactly what you're talking about, but she is kind of framed as the baby of the group, which for me is not conducive to shipping lol. i like her dynamic with tamao but that's not really in a romantic sense either, i just like how tamao is able to provoke her and bring out her more selfish/irritable sides. which tamao seems to be good at (kaoruko).
i don't really want hikatama to be in a romantic relationship, i just find them amusing. really big fan of whatever this card quote was:
Tomoe-san praised my hair, and suddenly…I couldn't even utter a 'thank you'.
it's a really fun look into the types of people hikari would be into if she were not in a decades long situationship with karen. but i also like how she seems to feel pretty at ease with and even likes tamao in a way that takes her much longer with most other people. the hansel and gretel stories are very good. also this parallel that i only noticed recently i LOVEEEEE duty and atonement as self destruction <3
i like that tamao canonically has a very easy time getting people interested in her (excluding the obvious ones like rui and kaoruko, there's mahiru, hikari, shiori (who HATED her at the time), and i would argue ichie) but because her friends are all much better for each other than she is for any of them she's going to be alone forever. sad!
school work: 4GB
miscellaneous other documents: 520MB
the revue starlight stageplays (not even counting the anime or movie or reader's theater streams. just the stageplays): 101GB
someone help me budget my storage my computer is dying
you have to keep these things bc my computer storage couldn’t handle everything and i had to get rid of a lot of it onto a hard drive but then i lost the hard drive !!!!
i really like that tamao simultaneously knows that ichie, yuyuko, and rui would do anything for her but also thinks she has no worth to them (or at least rui) if she’s not the excellent rmk performance dept student. very realistic
revue starlight ship chart except it’s focused on who’s been implied to want to murder another person. shoutout to when nana wanted to kill the five year old
ALL OF ARCANA ARCADIA’S MAIN STORY + INTERMISSIONS INSERTED WHERE APPROPRIATE
THIS WAS VERY MUCH A LABOR OF LOVE. BUT IF EVEN ONE MORE PERSON READS ARCANA ARCADIA FOR THE FIRST TIME BECAUSE OF THIS VIDEO THEN MY WORK HERE IS DONE
Timestamps are in the pinned comments
Thank you all so much for your patience, and have fun everyone
Every single piece of dialogue and voice acting is intact but I did trim a bit of empty footage, exact details under the cut
- Trimmed title sequences (and the person playing turning on auto) unless it cut off voice lines or dialogue. Which it did in most cases in the main story so you’ll really only see cuts on the intermissions.
- Cut down some unusually long pauses between dialogue progression in the scenes without music (It makes things sound weird in the scenes with it. Which is most of them unfortunately)
- Cut out the repeated lines from any parts that begin with the ending lines of the part prior since they aren’t really necessary for context when watching everything back to back
I definitely missed a couple instances of all of the above but I am NOT going back to edit this again lmao
Tomori (Bug/Rock): This one was the most straightforward and what got me thinking about this post in the first place. Tomori collects rocks and is enamored by/identifies with pill bugs. She is Bug/Rock.
Anon (Fairy/Normal): There's no way this pink, femme creature wouldn't be Fairy-type. She'd be part of the overrepresented demographic when it comes to people who click Fairy type on "what's your favorite Pokemon type?" polls, too. However, she'd probably be much less insistent about being marked as Normal type! Since middle school (and, perhaps, earlier), Anon has always wanted to both fit in with and stand out amongst her peers simultaneously. She wants to be exceptional enough to be noticed, but not weird enough to be a pariah. She's not so much of a trendsetter as a trend-follower, and often seeks to fit into existing societal patterns while being the best at doing whatever she does. This juxtaposition earns her a solid spot as a Fairy/Normal type, as opposed to the more fantastical implications of a pure Fairy type.
Taki (Dark/Fighting): Dark type fits her color scheme and her piercing glare, simple enough. Fighting type has the primary domain of "martial artists," sure, and one could conflate this with Taki's eagerness to butt heads with people, though she's not exactly shown doing karate moves or anything. Rather, this assignment is more closely tied to the Fighting type's sub-domains of anger (Primeape, Poliwrath, Bewear) and heroism (Swords of Justice, Chesnaught). She's not one to hide when she's ticked off, which is somewhat related to her being fiercely defensive of those that she values (cough cough Tomori). The type combination matching the Pancham line is just a happy coincidence.
Raana (Normal/Electric): Normal is simple enough. She's literally just a cat. Pokemon that are literally just a cat (Meowth line, Skitty line, Glameow line) are overwhelmingly Normal-type. The Electric type here represents, well... her electric guitar. Of course she's hardly the only one to use plugged-in instruments amongst this cast, but Raana often utilizes her instrument as a projection of her own voice in lieu of actual words more than anyone else. For a lot of episodes, we didn't actually hear her say much, just shred. In this sense, the electric guitar could be considered an extension of herself moreso than any other member of the cast. Additionally, the instantaneous nature of electricity could symbolize her rather impulsive nature.
Soyo (Psychic/Ghost): Here, Psychic type doesn't represent doing telekinesis or anything like that, but the expression of a certain level of mental control - not just of oneself, but of others. I'm sure Soyo's reputation precedes her in this particular respect. Soyo also marks the beginning of a series of ex-members of Crychic being Ghost-type: they are haunted by their shared past, and those memories still live on after "death" to torment them and shape their actions. (Tomori and Taki notably do not have Ghost-typing, but in those cases, I opted to have different themes override that subtyping, as they feel more prominent and distinctive for their individual characters.) Also get owned by 4x weakness to Mutsumi and Sakiko's STAB lol.
Sakiko (Ice/Ghost): Ice type matches her color scheme and the "cold, but fragile" exterior that Sakiko puts up post-Crychic as Oblivionis. Putting a brave face and marching forward saves her from having to confront her glaring, persisting vulnerabilities. Ghost type for similar reasons as Soyo, though one could also argue her role as the mastermind of Ave Mujica also makes her give off quite a ghastly demeanor as well.
Mutsumi (Bug/Ghost): Bug type not only is a good match for her color scheme, but this typing also matches an interpretation of Mutsumi as a "fly on the wall" - she's often present during the aftershocks of Crychic's breakup, oftentimes serving as an observer rather than an actor during particularly heated interactions. Bug also gives her some parallels to Tomori - they're both soft-spoken, misunderstood little critters. Ghost type for similar reasons as Soyo and Sakiko, but also... ghost that haunts the narrative, or something. There's also a good case for Grass here instead of Bug (cucumber...)
Umiri (Dark/Dragon): Dark-type matches her color scheme and places her soundly as Taki's counterpart (piercing gaze et cetera). Dark type might be called Evil type in Japanese, but as is the case for many Pokemon, this association is mostly superficial and can be likened to characters that play more of a "heel" archetype (Incineroar being the most direct manifestation of this). As for Dragon type... I mean, look at her. She just looks like a Dragon-type trainer. I could also justify this with something like "her participation in many bands gives her a mythical, untouchable demeanor, like a dragon," but I really mostly went off vibes for this one.
Uika (Ground/Psychic): This one's perhaps the most tentative typing, as I still feel like I'm waiting for a lot of Intense Uika Lore (tm) in the Ave Mujica anime. I chose Ground to somewhat match her color scheme, as well as represent how she might be considered one of the most "grounded" of Ave Mujica (though this is admittedly slightly a stretch of the Ground type's themes). She was able to meet Tomori at the observatory unfettered by baggage of the disbandment of Crychic, and though she has joined Ave Mujica and donned the mask of Doloris, she still has one foot on the ground as a member of sumimi. She might fit in more easily amongst Ground-type trainers rather than Ground-type Pokemon. As a Psychic type, however, she puts the typing on its head in contrast to Soyo. Rather than concerning matters of the mind, Uika is more tied to matters of the heart, akin to Pokemon like Mesprit and Meloetta (the songstress Pokemon!).
Nyamu (Fairy/Poison): Fairy type makes her somewhat of a counterpart to Anon, being an annoying femme clout-chasing TikTok-dancing little influencer (slash lighthearted). Poison-type matches her color scheme, but the reason I give this role is moreso that it represents her role as Amoris - the concept of love as not an innocent pursuit, but an ailment that seeps into your blood and finds its way to your heart. This theming is partially inspired by Pokemon like Salazzle, but also Shakespearean works like A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo & Juliet, and Macbeth where love potions are conflated with poisons in need of anti-dote, struggles of the heart are maladies to be cured, and, sometimes, precursors to poisons in a more traditional sense.
