There's a ton of different lists and names for the sets, but the one being used in this fic is just from Wiki. Charity is the inverse of Greed on this, and Kindness the inverse of Envy. (C is pretty good at caring for others and helping them out! When she's not distracted by feeling sad and resentful, of course.)
No, charity goes with greed. Envy/Invidia goes with love/humanity/kindness (as in, wanting the best for another; humanitas). But naming wise it's easier to swing Charleton->Charity, and charity still mostly corresponds with the meaning of Humanitas, and Lupin's name is...obviously Lupin, rather than anything related to her possible eventual virtue. So It's Free Real Estate.
No, charity goes with greed. Envy/Invidia goes with love/humanity/kindness (as in, wanting the best for another; humanitas). But naming wise it's easier to swing Charleton->Charity, and charity still mostly corresponds with the meaning of Humanitas, and Lupin's name is...obviously Lupin, rather than anything related to her possible eventual virtue. So It's Free Real Estate.
...yes? And Charity is a possible virtue name for a C who presents female, along the lines of Inessa/Ida/Temperance. The Saint title would be Caritas to keep it simple for the viewers or Humanitas to keep it accurate.
do we know the MC's last name, by the by? I've forgotten even if we do
That's the presumed metatextual joke: envy of (magical|girl|magical girl) transformations is probably a trans thing? So by making the main character Invidia, something something this represents the readers' envy.
This story is one of the best I've read in a while. However I seem to have run out of story to read. Does anyone have any recommendations for similar things to read in between updates?
Scribblehub has a trove of transgender transformation stories with some amount of worldbuilding. It doesn't censor things by default, so I recommend going to advanced search, putting in transgender in the tags, then sorting tags for what you want to see and what you don't. A chunk of them seems to be in the same verse, with a VR MMO with AIs cracking eggs and fighting for sapient rights, but I don't know how many are sfw. There's PrincessFelicie, a trans writer that has a lot of wholesome transformation stuff.
I remember reading once that pride was considered the deadliest of the sins because it's incompatible with recognizing that you might need redemption, so it would be thematic for Superbia to be the only one who stays in beast mode.
That, and I think that Beasts turning into their respective Saint is more that that particular sin-virtue axis is relevant to them. Someone else could fill either the Superbia or Humility spots.
If work from the assumption that Lupin, Michael, Noir and such come from the same world, then maybe the difference is that they come from different nations on that world, if it even is divided between nations or some other kinds of areas. Maybe things used to be like Lupin described but have changed since then, we have no timeline for these events and for all we know, Lupin could be centuries old in Earth years. Maybe Michael is more openminded about things than is standard for their kind, maybe Lupin was born/raised in a very zealous cult/culture, maybe Lupin has been manipulated, been shown only the worst parts of society to make her a Beast, or maybe ey simply had bad parents. Or multiple other possible reasons, we simply don't know.
Or they're nephilim or some other class of creature. Or they're from a land that has warped knowledge of the divine, but knows enough to cause magical trouble. Bayonetta had those special places with occult stuff, like the fanatically religious city-state of Vigrid or the welcoming coastal town of Noatun. Little idea what was going on in DMC4, but it seems some weird cult was messing with occult stuff.
Which is interesting, because Avaricia clearly thinks she's fighting for people to do what they really want. And she has latched on to one of the few people who
Lupin: I'm fighting so that kids won't be forced into virtue-shaped boxes that don't fit them!
Lupin's uncle: I will literally mind-control this high schooler into publicly humiliating themselves because they're taking too long to fit into the sin-shaped box I have assigned them.
The levels of denial ey are in. Granted, mind control incense, but still deep in it.
The next chapter title implies the reveal of Beast C. However! We could also get a new Beast, but adding another would likely bloat the story. The focus seems to be C and their existing relationships, specially Inessa and Lupin. Inessa herself, while trying to be respectful of C's autonomy and comfort, engaged in that whole fight ignoring their input on their life.
I wonder if that fight will affect dream C? She could be upset at the idea of having her opinions ignored, but then again she generally disagrees with awake C and is all in for forcing people's sins out.
Yeah...sometimes when I can't find the words to express what I'm thinking, I'll bounce to another part of the post, intending to return once I've flushed other stuff through my mind and can hopefully figure out what to say. And sometimes I forget to do that last bit. And finding the right words to express what I was thinking there, with the right nuance built in, was tricky! I wish I'd remembered to do it.
And she has latched on to one of the few people who might actually benefit from being shoved out of a semi-comfortable equilibrium, so I can see why she think she's helping, but there's a balance that needs to be struck here—one closer to jokes about dressing C in a pretty skirt than villainy with a side of magic HRT.
I wouldn't really call it unaddressed, frankly. Of the 2.5 villains in the story, Superbia doesn't go out and do fieldwork enough for C to be aware he exists at the beginning of the story and Invidia and Avaritia both consider at least one Saint a dear friend. And beyond that, "we should kill the guys who keep winning when we fight" is something of a "bell the cat" situation.
I can't guess much about the creators, but for fans...here, have a mirror.
Yeah, it's not the same story, the fandom wouldn't line up perfectly, but there's still substantial overlap between the audience for a magical girl anime whose heroine team is a lesbian, a trans girl, and the token straight, and the audience for a trans magical girl side character...web novel?
Scribblehub has a trove of transgender transformation stories with some amount of worldbuilding. [...] A chunk of them seems to be in the same verse, with a VR MMO with AIs cracking eggs and fighting for sapient rights.
...it seems cruel to say something like that and not even recommend one to start with.
Or they're nephilim or some other class of creature. Or they're from a land that has warped knowledge of the divine, but knows enough to cause magical trouble.
It's entirely possible that Noir, Lupin, or even Michael come from some complicated place or species we haven't heard of. However:
It's narratively unlikely that something too irrelevant to merit significant "screentime" yet theoretically fundamental to several characters' existence would be some big new thing we haven't heard of yet.
Even disregarding that aspect, speculating on the basis of such plot twists seems unproductive. At that point, you're basically writing a new story.
The next chapter title implies the reveal of Beast C. However! We could also get a new Beast. Ira could be interesting, get someone who maybe hates what they became but think they can only be a Beast, could be interesting alternate angle.
Not impossible, but next episode's name suggests that the new Beast is someone the viewers know. "The Beast's Name is..." only makes sense as an episode title if the Beast's name is significant. I mean, I guess "The Beast's Name is Ira Wolverine!" could be kinda dramatic, but it doesn't make sense to cut off that last part if Ira Wolverine isn't, like, Ida's nerdy boyfriend who has never been in the same room as C.
Also...the full title is "Episode 21: Curtains for Charlie!? The Beast's Name is..." People watching the hypothetical anime which focuses on the magical girl and not Inessa's weird childhood friend might speculate that this means the mysterious nighttime Beast is going to murder Charlie, but in this context... "Curtains for Charlie" makes it sound like episode 21 is the last time anyone (except his dad) will call him that.
Hi, I… have never had to write something like this before but can I request that the content markers on this are maybe clarified and expanded upon? I read this story under the impression that it would probably improve and have some form of track where the main character would improve and become better but that really doesn't seem to be the case and I've been in a bit of a panic attack all night as it pushed a lot of my personal issues.
I'm going to hide this story for my own personal health so if you want to respond to this please Dm me.
Hmm, The Trouble with Horns is the top one, along with Lieforged Gale. Twisted Destiny I haven't read yet but is in the top stories. All mature, but onlye the former two have warnings for spicy stuff. Giant Robot Reincarnation isn't in the VRMMO verse, and only included trans plot in the latest chapters, but still seems like a cool with a lesbian robot, and eventually transhumanism. And cute crab aliens. But it hasn't updated in a while. Princess Fox is a comedy of an egg getting involved with wholesome supervillains and making stupid decisions for a crush.
Just showing all the possibilities. The general assumption is that they're fully supernatural and might be angels, but there's a lot of ways of explaining their situation. But we don't even have confirmation that they're originally non-human/partially human instead of just changed by the Abyssal Forest. The person I was replying too had already said there is too much unknown, so we have a lot of possibilities.
We could use Michael's need for a doll body to exclude the possibility they're angels, but we don't know much about that situation either.
It's narratively unlikely that something too irrelevant to merit significant "screentime" yet theoretically fundamental to several characters' existence would be some big new thing we haven't heard of yet.
Yeah, this is Episode 20, so we're most of the way through the season, too. Like, it's almost certain that the last act plot twist is C becoming Invidia.
Yeah, this is Episode 20, so we're most of the way through the season, too. Like, it's almost certain that the last act plot twist is C becoming Invidia.
We could be most of the way through the season of the "anime" but considering it's a magical girl show it's possible we're just less than half way through it. While most modern anime that go over 12 episodes do tend to end at roughly 24 episodes, most magical girl shows of a similar type to the one presented, such as PreCure, get around 50 episodes for a season. This fits with the fact that there's still a couple sins and virtues we haven't seen represented yet, and presumably the "series" would have them all featured, and probably in the magical girl team by the end. So at least the way I see it, C's reveal as the mystery villain would probably be the mid season plot-twist.
This is probably a good time to introduce the concept of a "cour" to today's ten thousand. Or since a "cour" is a very specific term that not many people bother with...today's five hundred, maybe?
Anyways, "cour" is a unit of broadcasting schedule that lasts about three months, composed of (usually) 10 to 14 episodes. Anime these days are usually broadcast in integer-cour seasons; one-cour seasons are the most common, but two-cour seasons of 20-25 episodes aren't uncommon. "Cour" is a handy unit for categorizing anime or anime seasons by length.
Aside from being a handy tool for discussing anime broadcasting schedules, cours often align with how an anime is paced. Obviously, anime with one-cour seasons have seasonal climaxes at the end of that cour, but two-cour seasons often have a midseason sub-climax of some kind. I'm unfortunately less familiar with longrunning magical girl series, so I'll make my point with My Hero Academia's anime seasons:
Season 1: One-cour season
Season 2: First cour covers the Sports Festival Arc, second cour covers the Stain and Final Exam arcs.
Season 3: First cour covers the Forest Training and Hideout Raid arcs, second cour covers the Provisional Hero License Exam Arc. (An unfortunate case where the season's first climax is more climactic than its second.)
Season 4: First cour covers the Shie Hassaikai Arc, second covers a few shorter arcs. (Well, the Shie Hassaikai arc covers slightly more than a cour, but it fits the pattern.)
Season 5: First cour covers the Joint Training Arc, second covers the Meta Liberation and Endeavor Agency Arcs.
Season 6: First cour and a half covers the Paranormal Liberation Arc, second covers the Dark Hero Arc.
It's not perfect, but it's a pattern—a pattern that repeats across anime which don't have 138 episodes and counting to demonstrate that it is a consistent pattern.
Do magical girl series follow this pattern? I glanced at the TV Tropes page for Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure (notable for the Monopoly Mermaid Monday AMV). As a four-cour (46-episode) anime, we might expect the sub-climaxes to hit around episodes 11, 23, 35, and 46. TV Tropes lists its "wham episodes" as episodes 10, 29, 36, and 43 (which is presumably the first episode of the finale). Arcs of 10, 19, 7, and 10 episodes aren't the Platonic ideal of "one climax per cour," particularly with the second presumed arc, but it comes about as close as My Hero Academia's seasons.
(If I've misinterpreted the narrative structure of Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure, please let me know. I'm reasonably confident that it follows some approximation of a cour-ish narrative structure, though, because it's made by the same people that make other, non-magical-girl anime, who are used to pacing out cour-long arcs.)
Anyways.
Assuming that Shadell numbered the episodes with cours in mind, I'd guess that episode 12 (aka chapter 1) took place shortly after the first cour's big climax, with the second coming in a couple of episodes (chapters). That just fits how anime pace themselves.
And it fits with Shadell's narrative needs. If she decides to end A Little Vice with C embracing her gender and joining the Saints, it makes sense that she would be confronted with being the mirror Inessa and grappling with that over the course of the last few chapters. And if Shadell wants to show the aftermath..well, there's a lot of ground to cover, she'd probably want to have C's acceptance peak alongside a "main-plot" climax, that maps onto the cour-arc structure pretty well.
The only Pretty Cure series I'm qualified to comment on is Heartcatch and it fits the pattern rather well. There are peaks around Episodes 10-12, 20-25, 32-34, and 45-49.
Assuming that Shadell numbered the episodes with cours in mind, I'd guess that episode 12 (aka chapter 1) took place shortly after the first cour's big climax, with the second coming in a couple of episodes (chapters). That just fits how anime pace themselves.
And it fits with Shadell's narrative needs. If she decides to end A Little Vice with C embracing her gender and joining the Saints, it makes sense that she would be confronted with being the mirror Inessa and grappling with that over the course of the last few chapters. And if Shadell wants to show the aftermath..well, there's a lot of ground to cover, she'd probably want to have C's acceptance peak alongside a "main-plot" climax, that maps onto the cour-arc structure pretty well.
From that perspective, the first big climax would have probably been something along the lines of The Defeat Of Gula Shark/Temperance joining the team.
Defeating one of the big generals is, after all, a moment likely to be a big deal in the narrative, especially when we have a strict number given the sin theming.
Defeating one of the big generals is, after all, a moment likely to be a big deal in the narrative, especially when we have a strict number given the sin theming.
Now I'm envisioning what happens if yhe show us too successful and popular so they don't take it off the air, despite the logical plot being done so they do the SG1 thing and keep inventing new and yet somehow the same bad guys for the heroes to fight.
Now I'm envisioning what happens if yhe show us too successful and popular so they don't take it off the air, despite the logical plot being done so they do the SG1 thing and keep inventing new and yet somehow the same bad guys for the heroes to fight.
I'm not exactly super familiar with the inner workings of the process, but anime (and manga) clearly have different tendencies.
Specifically, given the usual patterns one sees, the most likely things I'd expect to see if it's overly successful (ignoring the part where the anime is not actually a real thing, of course) is either;
Sequel series starring a new set of heroes and villains, with either the same saints and abyssal beasts framework but new faces slotted in to each, or else broadly similar but non-identical themes.
Suddenly, our heroes are having to deal with new, frankly wildly unrelated threats, eg alien invasion or whatever, since after all they did go through all the sin based baddies.
Like, I've seen a whole lot of both, not so much very many anime or manga that keep throwing Suspiciously Functionally Identical Threats at our heroes.
From that perspective, the first big climax would have probably been something along the lines of The Defeat Of Gula Shark/Temperance joining the team.
Defeating one of the big generals is, after all, a moment likely to be a big deal in the narrative, especially when we have a strict number given the sin theming.
The way Lupin seems to be placed on the "main" story (presumably the first big antagonist, being family with the big bad) make me thing any redemption arcs for her would be placed rather late into the season.
This is probably a good time to introduce the concept of a "cour" to today's ten thousand. Or since a "cour" is a very specific term that not many people bother with...today's five hundred, maybe?
Anyways, "cour" is a unit of broadcasting schedule that lasts about three months, composed of (usually) 10 to 14 episodes. Anime these days are usually broadcast in integer-cour seasons; one-cour seasons are the most common, but two-cour seasons of 20-25 episodes aren't uncommon. "Cour" is a handy unit for categorizing anime or anime seasons by length.
Aside from being a handy tool for discussing anime broadcasting schedules, cours often align with how an anime is paced. Obviously, anime with one-cour seasons have seasonal climaxes at the end of that cour, but two-cour seasons often have a midseason sub-climax of some kind. I'm unfortunately less familiar with longrunning magical girl series, so I'll make my point with My Hero Academia's anime seasons:
Season 1: One-cour season
Season 2: First cour covers the Sports Festival Arc, second cour covers the Stain and Final Exam arcs.
Season 3: First cour covers the Forest Training and Hideout Raid arcs, second cour covers the Provisional Hero License Exam Arc. (An unfortunate case where the season's first climax is more climactic than its second.)
Season 4: First cour covers the Shie Hassaikai Arc, second covers a few shorter arcs. (Well, the Shie Hassaikai arc covers slightly more than a cour, but it fits the pattern.)
Season 5: First cour covers the Joint Training Arc, second covers the Meta Liberation and Endeavor Agency Arcs.
Season 6: First cour and a half covers the Paranormal Liberation Arc, second covers the Dark Hero Arc.
It's not perfect, but it's a pattern—a pattern that repeats across anime which don't have 138 episodes and counting to demonstrate that it is a consistent pattern.
Do magical girl series follow this pattern? I glanced at the TV Tropes page for Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure (notable for the Monopoly Mermaid Monday AMV). As a four-cour (46-episode) anime, we might expect the sub-climaxes to hit around episodes 11, 23, 35, and 46. TV Tropes lists its "wham episodes" as episodes 10, 29, 36, and 43 (which is presumably the first episode of the finale). Arcs of 10, 19, 7, and 10 episodes aren't the Platonic ideal of "one climax per cour," particularly with the second presumed arc, but it comes about as close as My Hero Academia's seasons.
(If I've misinterpreted the narrative structure of Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure, please let me know. I'm reasonably confident that it follows some approximation of a cour-ish narrative structure, though, because it's made by the same people that make other, non-magical-girl anime, who are used to pacing out cour-long arcs.)
Anyways.
Assuming that Shadell numbered the episodes with cours in mind, I'd guess that episode 12 (aka chapter 1) took place shortly after the first cour's big climax, with the second coming in a couple of episodes (chapters). That just fits how anime pace themselves.
And it fits with Shadell's narrative needs. If she decides to end A Little Vice with C embracing her gender and joining the Saints, it makes sense that she would be confronted with being the mirror Inessa and grappling with that over the course of the last few chapters. And if Shadell wants to show the aftermath..well, there's a lot of ground to cover, she'd probably want to have C's acceptance peak alongside a "main-plot" climax, that maps onto the cour-arc structure pretty well.
I won't say much plot wise, but this is a solid summary of the relevant pacing, and the goal was to map onto the second of four presumed cours yeah, with the second half being a bit thematically distinct from the first.
That said, chapters are happening to fill the right story beats, so it's possible that "season 1" (cours 1-2 with a new ending or opening for season 2) could end up stretching awkwardly.
The only Pretty Cure series I'm qualified to comment on is Heartcatch and it fits the pattern rather well. There are peaks around Episodes 10-12, 20-25, 32-34, and 45-49.
Incidentally I have been watching Heartcatch specifically while writing this and if you want a magical girl show with (unintended but wow are they there) trans themes, Heartcatch is it.
