BNHA Rewatch: Episode 52 “Create those Ultimate Moves”
mysterylover123
aka the One with Deku’s legs.
Goodbye Odd Future, Hello Make my Story! At first I hated this one for not being Odd Future, but it’s grown on me. It’s a real jam.
We start with a little Life in the Dorms montage. I so badly want to live in the UA dorms.
Ultimate Moves! Hype! Prepare the hype-up train as we jump into this new arc.
Aw Iida’s Recipro is an Ultimate Move already! Nicely done, Iida. Way to uphold your family name.
I don’t think they’ve ever used this location again since this arc. There’s a lot of stuff this arc hypes up a bunch that doesn’t really impact anything later in the series.
Mina Ashido’s acid Kamehameha! I like the move she comes up with eventually more, but I still enjoyed this one very much. I want her to use both.
“I had nothing better to do!” I feel ya All Might.
Nice to see Kacchan smiling again. Ooh and Ochako notices.
“Stop copying me” Imitation is the Sincerest form of Tragedy, Deku! Read it, learn it, love it.
Iidaraka side by side yay!!! Talking about ultimate moves. Just being cute and all. Nothing special to see here.
Huh boy. Here we go.
On the one hand, Mei Hatsume! I love her! I’m happy she’s back.
On the other hand…this is just…kinda dumb.
Oh and the Uraraka’s Annoying Crush Counter is back and we’re up to 10!
“You used me as a billboard” Iida never forgets or forgives, Mei.
DEKU IS ADORABLE.
Geez Hatsume bad touch! (Uraraka’s annoying crush counter: 11. Also extra annoying because Deku is clearly uncomfortable, and Uraraka is just…getting pettily jealous of him. He’s clearly not happy here. Stand up for him, girl).
DEKU OW THAT LOOKS ROUGH
Iida too oh no
Nice going, Hatsume. “walk with your arms” Yup. Exactly right.
Hastume, I’m just realizing, is an awful lot like a certain someone. You know, stubborn, a little self-absorbed, a touch arrogant…someone loud and who also inspired one of Deku’s ultimate moves…name rhymes with flotsky…
MY GOD THE REVELATION IS AT HAND
Look out Uraraka
Deku’s mom made him that suit Mineta. And it looks good now, shut up.
Tokoyami is not capable of not being cool.
AP shot is neat, but nowhere near as cool as Howitzer Impact. Sorry, Kacchan. You already maxed yourself out for awesomeness there.
And lo, the mighty hero, the legend All Might, at last defeated, not by a grand super villain, but by a stray falling rock set in motion by an overly enthusiastic teenager, who proceeds to blame himself for ending the Symbol of Peace…wow, that sentence started out funny and turned sad real fast.
HE’S GOT LEGS AND HE KNOWS HOW TO USE EM
No longer imitating All Might, Deku strides forward on those truly magnificent legs to become his own true hero, unencumbered by the need to be just like All Might.
Episode 54, Ultimate Moves, is a fun time. It’s nice to get back to training at UA, always is. The episode has an exciting start, a rather slow middle and an exciting ending, and is mostly low-key setup all around. The end is certainly memorable, as we get Deku Mk 3 and Shoot Style, and the epiphany about not imitation All Might is a highlight in Deku’s progression throughout the series. Otherwise, though, it does make for a somewhat bland episode, after the intensity of what came before.
BKDK CORNER:
There was Katsuki, idly training, happily restarting his life as a hero to be, when suddenly he accidentally broke a rock that fell and nearly killed All Might. Out from nowhere swoops Deku, his forever rival, better and secret crush, to save the day, in a flash of light, completely changed and once more getting ahead of him. What’s a raging hero to be to do? (tune in next time)
And now, Beta! I mentioned how I had an idea for Beta to tag with Niko yesterday, but I couldn't think of anything for it. See, the problems were twofold - What would the move do, and how does Niko fit into this move? I originally had it be a group buff in which Beta's ultimate form gets mirrored across the rest of the party granting them the same stats, but I couldn't figure out how to go about that without Niko seeming sketchy (he’s supposed to be a guardian that is good, but stealing someone else’s form? Not good.) and I didn't want to just trivialise Beta's ultimate form by giving it away to everyone else. So how did I fix this? By changing my perspective.
See, as you might have noticed in my tag teams, I've been using my characters ultimates to enhance their partner's ults with additional effects (or outright changing them but keeping similar effects). This comes through in the descriptions as well, where I focus most of the action around my guest character. When I planned for this move... it didn't work because I just couldn't think of a way to describe Niko's ultimate affecting Beta's ultimate. They both wanted the same thing - to protect people - but one involved changing his own form and the other involved mirroring his own form. However, when I flipped the script and thought "How would Beta's ultimate affect Niko's ultimate?" I came upon another neater idea which also went somewhat with my first plan. Though it did mean taking focus off describing Beta’s transformation and putting it onto Niko.
Usual disclaimer: I apologise for I will be taking a couple liberties with Beta and his power for dramatic purposes. Also RPG location logic, RPG attack timing logic. Now, Read More, let's begin!
Beta starts to glow. He starts levitating, light dancing across his body as he began to transform into his Transcended form. Niko looks to the rest of their party, who all give him a resolute nod. He nods also, before looking up at the winged wolf.
"You have sacrificed so much to help us..." Niko calls to Beta, his shield glowing as magic dances across its surface. With a mighty swing, the turtle throws his shield into the air towards Beta. The shield flies over the wolf's head, stopping suddenly in front of him. Beta looks into the shield's reflective surface, initially seeing himself nearing the end of his transformation sequence. The light that radiated from him seemed to be drawn into the shield, and it seemed as if it were copying his image. Suddenly, the picture in the mirror changes to that of his allies - with Niko in front of them holding his staff upright and aloft in both his hands.
"Now, allow us to return the favour!" Niko finishes with a shout, slamming his staff into the ground. An intense light bursts from the shield, taking the form of Beta. The light pierces the real Beta before splitting into multiple smaller beams that also take his shape. The beams pierce each of his allies in the chest, causing them all to glow as they all seemingly gained wings, before fading away, leaving everyone unharmed...
Beta enters his ultimate form, and remains in it for the rest of the battle. His offensive, speed and defensive stats are raised to the maximum levels, and his allies stats are raised by half those amounts. Beta is immune to status ailments and his attacks deal light damage. For the current and next few turns, all enemies are forced to fight Beta. After that effect wears off, Beta becomes more likely to be targeted by enemy attacks. All damage Beta takes is halved, with the remaining half of the damage spread evenly across his allies. (The damage dealt to his allies is affected by their defenses). Visually, Beta's ultimate form remains the same as usual - he gains a pair of glowing wings, his eyes glow yellow and his fists glow white. Most of the visual change is with his allies, who now don illusionary wings similar to his own to signify their link. When Beta takes damage, the light that pierced through him and his allies reappears to signify his allies also taking damage,
So I gave Niko a shield for two reasons: because he's a tank (so he needed one), and because it gave me a source of some of his moves - including Solidarity. I made this ultimate to mirror the offensive ultimate that I gave Beta with Whimsy - where that one is based around being aggressive and alone, this one is based around being allies and them guarding one another (willingly). I've edited PROJECT: Dystopia to remove the added defense boost I gave him to reflect this. Oh, and, I was going on his winged form in this gif and his light form from this piece of art for my description of his Transcendent form appearance, hence why I've been making so many angel links. That's why I asked if I was missing something... I hope I wasn't mistaken in that assumption. Oh and that's my nickname for your Ultimate Form - Transcendent Beta~
Ok, starting off with Meteo! Before we begin, I wanted to talk about the problem I said I had - with Niko's move Avalanche. When I started planning this tag-team, Avalanche seemed off compared to the rest of Niko's barrier and wall tank kit. However, nothing else I could think of (that actually interested me) seem to fit him. So why did I feel off? Well, on reflection it was actually due to the combination itself. As I made these, I assumed that Crescent Inferno was an extremely strong Fire Magic attack which is awesome and stuff - but how do I mix extremely strong fire magic with extremely strong water/ice magic? I mean, I can't just explain it away as an additional enchantment like I did with Light/Dark. The way I handled it feels like a cop-out but oh well. Oh and naming the attack was the most difficult part. -.-
Usual disclaimer: I apologise for I will be taking a couple liberties with Meteo and his power for dramatic purposes. Also RPG location logic, RPG attack timing logic. Now, Read More, let's begin!
The ground starts to shake and crumble as Meteo steps forward. His markings glowed yellow, as did his eyes. The dragon calls his Inferno Sword to his hand, the blade bursting into life as it burned with intense heat raising the temperature around the dragon dramatically.
"Unstoppable destructive force, granted to me by my markings!" Meteo shouts, holding his sword out to his right, channeling intense amounts of fire energy into it. Niko steps forward beside him, his shield and staff glowing a dazzing blue. The air around the turtle drops in temperature rapidly, and storm clouds start to gather over the battlefield.
"Immovable obstructive force, bound to me by my oath!" Niko shouts, holding his staff out to his left, channeling intense amounts of water energy into it. The sword and staff crossed one another, causing the two different energies to react to each other. The effects are instantaneous. The ground around the two mages starts to shatter as both energies grew unstable - but they remain steadfast as they shout in unison:
"Through opposing power - we unite!" (Niko)
"Through this conflict - we bring justice!" (Meteo)
The duo swung their weapons downward with a united cry of "BEGONE!" releasing the unstable energy into the earth below the enemy party. The energy explodes, and from the ground erupts a vicious vortex of fire that freezes and numbs and a second vortex of ice that burns and scorches, that trap the enemy party and ravage at their bodies.
Dichromatic Storm deals devastating amounts of Elementless piercing magic damage (damage is not reduced by the target's magic defence) to all enemies, leaving them slowed and burned (inflicting fire damage over time). Visually, the two vortices form together as one giant vortex. The fire vortex and the ice vortex rotate in different directions. Don't ask how that works we're in an RPG.
(Yep, elementless damage - I dropped both types. I decided to go with a fused attack, with two different forms of destructive magic, to create another destructive spell. I almost didn’t give it any side effects but then I thought... I said it froze and burned, it’s going to have to do both.I decided to run with the RPG style supermove trope, with two big wizards hamming it up. I even took a bit of inspiration from the fusion chants in Arc-V with the script!
Also, using Crescent Inferno made me realise I am really bad at spelling the word crescent like holy heck. Also Also Niko wields his staff in his left hand, and he now has a shield for reasons. Also Also Also, I'm no good with describing height so just imagine Meteo and Niko are about the same height because big and bulk are best <3)
Ok here we go, two non-corruption tag ults for Meteo and Beta coming your way! You'll notice there is a lot more dialogue in these, and that cause I decided that I might as well start using more because be honest, all RPG attacks have like 200 lines of dialogue in them and I can't just write it off as "Whimsy sings X" this time. Although I have to admit they're starting to read more like anime scene descriptions than game attack descriptions. Oh well
NGL tho as I was writing Niko's dialogue I did get a little flustered because I kept imagining the actual Nikolai saying them -w-
I'll be splitting them into two posts, and I also have a bit of commentary into my thought processes with both if you're into that sort of thing.
Ok I promise I won’t corrupt everyone’s characters in this tag team ulti thing, so reminder to myself to make a second ulti tag team for Meteo and Beta, probably with Niko so I don’t get tempted again.