User blog:Njalm2/The Kidou Commander is Chosen!

So, the time has come for me to choose the next Commander of the Kidō Corps, and the only two serious candidates thus far from my perspective would be Madara Kawahiru and Fumio Enomoto. Although there's been other candidates, none others among them have been found to measure up to these two titans of the spirit arts. This is a pretty difficult decision for me to make, because I've found that in my roleplays with them, where I've observed how each of them utilizes Kidō, and they're roughly equal, even if Sei and Saris have different strengths.

Saris is an exceptionally capable writer, who is quite resourceful and unorthodox, his weakness is largely that he seems over reliant on predetermined spells in order to get an edge. Fumio therefore has different spells for different situations, and that's where he gets his utility and power from. When I read how he cast spells freeform, the result was adequate but a bit restrained, I wonder how Saris might perform if he was forced to rely largely on the same spell several times in a fight, because a big part about using Kidō is to use it innovatively. In this way, one might fight an entire battle utilizing only a single Kido Spell.

Sei by contrast, is a lot better at seeing the possibilities in things, and imagining different ways to utilize it in a roleplay. He's also naturally more prone to detail than Saris, who describes himself as rather succinct with descriptions. This is a huge advantage in the field of Kidō, which is probably more detail-intensive than any other discipline of the Zankensoki. However, Sei has his weaknesses too, and they're the opposite of those Saris has, Rather than think largely for himself and expand his own knowledge, Sei seems to be content with imitating what he's seen me do in other roleplays, as flattering as this is, it's not exactly ideal for a Kido Corps Commander.

At any rate, since this is actually a pretty hard decision, I'll be going through several categories, namely Power, Skill, Detail, Innovation and finally Originality. In each Category I'll decide upon a winner, and each win nets one or the other one point. Once I've gone through all categories, I'll come with my own thoughts and offer points for more specific stuff. Sounds good? Sounds good, on we go!

Power: This one is pretty easy, it's about which one has the greatest power overall. Now, while Fumio's spells are certainly powerful, their grandest feats require significantly more than those of Kamui -- who Sei claims can destroy Soul Society with Hyoga Seiran alone, within a few seconds. While I'm rather skeptical about that claim, it cannot be denied that Kamui is much MUCH more powerful than Fumio. In fact, his level of power is only dwarfed by Hiroya. Next to Kamui, Kazuya wouldn't even compare. The winner of the first contest is Kamui, hands down.

Skill: This section is a lot trickier, when it comes to skill it's a lot about how you manage to create the illusion of prowess. How you describe it matters, but the formatting matters too, if it's all cluttered up and hidden in walls of text it doesn't show too easily, on the contrary, being too brief is a common issue when describing masters. It's generally good for them to reach something of a middle-ground, and while Kamui's feats are by and large much more impressive, thanks largely due to his great power, Fumio strikes me as someone who is more scholarly and well-read. He's your archetypal wizard, who's pored over books and grimoires in order to access the latent powers of magic, therefore, I believe him to possess more skill than Kamui relative to his age. Kamui is after all older than Yamamoto. For this reason, I award this contest to Fumio.

Detail: This is something I go on and on about, there's two kinds of detail, there's the excessive wankery that uses tons and tons of words to say essentially nothing. Or alternatively, saying the same thing over and over and OVER again. The second type is descriptions that are detailed and flavorful, and also say important things about the character, this is the kind of detail you want. Magic is extremely flamboyant, and how you describe spells in roleplays have a profound impact on their power in the eyes of your roleplaying partner. If you make a spell so visual that they can picture it clearly, they'll not only get a better grasp on it's appearance and effects, but they'll be more willing to let it hit them. Strange how that works. Now, when it comes to Sei and Saris, their writing style is quite different, Sei relies on massive walls of text to make his character come off as skillful, and while this almost always is the case -- much of it is just comparison after comparison, which either says nothing, or more commonly, says the same thing in excess. Saris never has this problem, but he has a habit of not going into as detail as he probably should, or writing out the barebones of a skill and forgetting the rest. Although this is something he's improved with. Even so, Saris has better control and flow of his details than Sei has, or me for that matter. Because of this, Saris is awarded an additional win.

Innovation: Just behind Detail is Innovation, the way I view Innovation is the ability to make something great out of something simple or otherwise nondescript. The most basic example would be using a low-level technique or spell to accomplish something extraordinary. Most of my own masters of Kidō rely heavily on my own innovation, which enables them to fight an entire battle armed only with a single spell in most circumstances. During my roleplay with Saris I noticed how he worked after his own private Spellbook, he never used spells more than once, and always used a different spell to handle a different situation. The primary reason I introduce signature spells to my character is to force myself to innovate, Saris has set his character up in such a way that for most scenarios, he won't have to innovate. Sei at least makes the conscious attempt, for that, I give Kamui another point.

Originality: When it comes to originality, Kamui has a problem, and that problem is that to an observant reader, he appears to be in large part inspired by Hiroya, to the extent that Kamui has got his own version of pretty much everything Hiroya has. Throughout my roleplays, Hiroya has made several feats and claims, such as the aforementioned claim that he can destroy a world through a Haien spell cast with the full incantation (in exchange for his own life, however). There's also the mention of him being able to subjugate and dominate the Zanpakutō Spirits of others, another talent that Hiroya exhibited during his fight against Seireitou and Raian a while back. There's numerous occurrences like this, although Kamui is by no means a clone, the similarities are quite overwhelming, and it's for this reason that Saris wins out here too. Bringing the score neatly in Fumio's favor.

Although this would make Fumio the winner, there's still a secondary matter that remains. Namely my comments. First off, this isn't set in stone, if Saris doesn't want Fumio to be Commander after all, perhaps due to him thinking it difficult to be an acting Captain of two divisions at once, or for any other reason, he can easily pass it onto Kamui without repercussions. While there's differences in their story potential, I felt like that was a reason best not discussed, since one can make story potential where there at first was none.

With that, I formally declare Fumio Enomoto the new Commander of the Kido Corps, congratulations Saris, but don't forget to improve!