Hey, everybody! Antoni, here, with another fan fiction recommendation. As promised, it’s another Powerpuff Girls fanfic involving Brick, Butch, Blossom, and Buttercup called Cheater Cheater Heartbreaker! written by kuku88 and published back on August 28, 2013. It’s rated T. It’s in English. It’s romance/drama, and the main couples are Butch/Buttercup and Brick/Blossom. There are hints Brick/Buttercup and Butch/Blossom, but it’s mostly platonic. Other characters involved are Boomer, Bubbles, Brute from the Powerpunk Girls, Bunny from the episode Twisted Sister who is thankfully revived in the fanfic, and Dexter and Mandark from Dexter’s Laboratory. There are also some original characters to be found in the forms of the other Rowdyruffs, Bandit, Blaster, Braker, and the other Powerpuffs, Banana, and Bliss, the latter one not being the one from the PPG 2016 reboot. Even more so the characters in this story are teenagers, roughly 16 to 18 years old so there will be some curse words like the F- and S-words, the former being slightly more dominant. Now, we are venturing into the less fluffy direction from Aqua Bailarina 15’s Sugar Song to A Bitter, Yet Sweet Step and head to something a bit more melodramatic. Before I begin talking about the fanfic’s melodrama aspect, I would like to mention that I’m sure in the previous fanfic it would have been also cool to see Brick, Butch, Blossom, and Buttercup form their own J-Rock, Alternative, or Rock band that would give the likes of ABBA and even the A-Teens a run for their money. With that little detail out of the way, let’s get on to what I thought about this fanfic. And for those who asked, this is what I meant by this story being melodramatic, almost akin to a teen soap opera, but not as far-fetched nor over-the-top. The story starts off as Buttercup scolds Butch, whom she has dated for three months and counting, and wants to call off their relationship, as he made out with her evil counterpart, Brute from the Powerpunk Girls, during her, her sisters’, and Brute’s birthday party. In Butch’s defense, he states that he was horribly drunk, as he though Brute was Buttercup and he was in under so much pressure with Buttercup’s expectations for him to be the best boyfriend. Buttercup not wanting to hear Butch’s excuses storms off to her home, where Blossom, Bubbles, Bunny, Bliss, and Banana try to comfort her. Because of the breakup’s impact, Buttercup then ends up crying in her bedroom, until Blossom’s boyfriend, Brick, arrives. As Blossom’s boyfriend and Buttercup’s closest friend, he also comforts her and even stated that he tried to stop Butch’s excessive drinking, but he was unfortunately stubborn. Buttercup grows feelings for Brick, as he is deemed Blossom’s perfect boyfriend. Thus, she uses him to break his relationship with Blossom and get back at Butch. However, Brick is befuddled by how she is reacting, and he proceeds to go to Blossom, as they have a study session. He reassures Buttercup that he, her sisters, and the rest of his brothers are there for her and he knows that Butch does need help in rekindling his relationship with her. Meanwhile, Butch is still awfully guilt-ridden about the incident and starts to suspect that Brick is getting much closer to Buttercup than any friend should. Whilst Blossom is doubting Brick’s fidelity towards her, as he starts to become Buttercup’s tutor in physics, and she cannot stand the thought of her boyfriend cheating on her with her own sister. I’m not going to spoil the rest of the story, but how it builds up shows that there is almost a love square going on between Brick, Blossom, Butch, and Buttercup, more appropriately of how even though Butch and Buttercup broke up, she then ends up having her eyes on Brick, even though he is faithfully dating Blossom. Of course, there is also a fair amount of bickering and suspicions going on between the four main protagonists due to misunderstandings, and the pattern seems to build. At least I will give the climax and the ending some kudos for alleviating the ongoing melodrama and resolving the story with a happily ever after, especially for our main stars Butch and Buttercup as well as Brick and Blossom. There were also some instances where flashbacks were used and they were done in the right moments. The character that really takes the cake here in this fanfic is Buttercup. Her impulsive nature is kept nicely intact as well as her tsundere edge, and I have to give kuku88 credit for keeping her characterization as it is. However, Buttercup in this fanfic also has the tendency to be manipulative, especially when it came to that break-up she had with Butch, as she tries to get her hands on Brick. Sure, it is not common for her to think about being lovey-dovey, but she always knew in her heart that Butch is not only her equal in terms of being counterparts but also someone she admires and adores so much because he is handsome, strong, and independent in his own way. In Butch’s case, I really like his characterization here. He is usually written by other fanfic authors as violent, a pervert, or even a psycho, but I love the route kuku88 was able to take him. What we have is a misunderstood and flawed male protagonist whose actions are rash and ill-timed but he still has enough loyalty, humanity, and compassion to make things right with Buttercup. Even more so, Butch has this charm which makes him all the more appealing as a character that I actually enjoy his presence. With Brick, it should be no doubt that I love the platonic sensible older brother and impulsive younger sister relationship he has with Buttercup. Given that he is her closest friend in this story, he does his best to support Buttercup and completely understands the situation she and Butch are in. Because of his act of kindness to…
Butch
Hey, everybody! Antoni, here, with another fan fiction recommendation. Today, I’m taking a look at a Powerpuff Girls fanfic, Sugar Song to A Bitter, Yet Sweet Step! written by Aqua Bailarina 15, published back on November 27, 2015, and updated on March 26, 2016. It’s rated T. It’s in English. It has two chapters, one with the main story or more appropriately one-shot and the other with another author’s note, and the main character pairings are Brick/Blossom and Butch/Buttercup. Other characters involved in the story, though not as prominent, are Boomer, Mitch Mitchelson, Bubbles, and Robin Snyder. This entire story takes place in a middle school setting, so the characters are approximately 13 to 14 years old, as they are in the eighth grade. Let’s get this started shall we? Ah, the Powerpuff Girls. For those of you who watched my look back on ‘Twas the Fight Before Christmas, you will know that ever since I was a lad of seven years old, I was so excited to catch this show on Cartoon Network, considering the fact that it had two pilot shorts on The What a Cartoon Show, which a caught a year ago before the main show premiered in the Philippines, sometime during summer. I am still so happy to call myself a PPG fan to this day, as it is perched alongside my all-time favorite Cartoon Network shows, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Samurai Jack, Adventure Time, Steven Universe, Dexter’s Laboratory, Codename: Kids Next Door, Chowder, The Amazing World of Gumball, and Regular Show. I am really looking forward to reviewing the original Powerpuff Girls because Craig McCracken and his crew made something unique, fun, endearing, absolutely high-octane, and something worth remembering until the end of time. Now in terms of the Powerpuff Girls’ rogues gallery, there is no other group of villains to get as much popularity as The Rowdyruff Boys consisting of Brick the hot-tempered leader, Butch the extremely violent one, and Boomer the dim one. They were initially created by Mojo Jojo with the help of snips of armpit hair, snails, and a dog’s tail from, of course, The Talking Dog. As an ersatz for Chemical X, he flushed the ingredients down a toxic toilet and thus, The Rowdyruff Boys were born. Yes, in their debut episode their personalities were almost similar to each other that they came off as angrier, nastier counterparts to the Powerpuff Girls. However, if you take that characterization aspect aside, they were completely on par with the girls in terms of power, that they almost defeated them. The Rowdyruff Boys do prove themselves to be formidable enemies to the girls and their episode was the second to the last one of the first season. Just when Mojo Jojo and the boys were gloating at their presumed triumph, Miss Bellum gave a pep talk to the girls saying that they can use their feminine charms to defeat the boys. From there, the viewers are then treated to the most famous scene, which has cemented the whole RRB/PPG pairing frenzy, the kissing scene. Blossom kisses Brick, Bubbles kisses Boomer, and Buttercup kisses Butch. With that, the boys exploded. These little bastards were so popular that they were even revived in Season 5 to 6. In their returning episode, The Boys are Back in Town, HIM resurrected them with a cootie shot and the boys’ personalities are not only more defined with Brick’s impulsive, mean-spirited, and hot-tempered nature, but also Butch’s bouts of psychosis, bloodlust, overall insanity, and undying loyalty to Brick as the middle brother, and Boomer’s dim-witted yet infantile nature as the youngest, as there were times that he was used as Brick’s and Butch’s punching bag evidenced in Bubble Boy. Sure, the boys’ personalities during their revival came off as obnoxious, jerkish, and irredeemable, but they were still very entertaining as characters. Heck, in The City of Clipsville, there was one scene where the Powerpuff Girls and Rowdyruff Boys were teenagers and they seemed to have a thing for each other. While that scene was interesting and kind of funny, I felt like they were all robbed of their distinctive personalities, as the girls acted more like clueless valley girls and the boys acted more like laid-back slackers. Speaking of RRB/PPG pairings, my goodness a lot of fan-related pieces are all over the web, mostly due to the whole bad boy/good girl pairings are very much all the rage and there is so much appeal. As for me, I really love this particular pairing. Sure, it’s not canon in the TV show given the fact that the Rowdyruff Boys and the Powerpuff Girls are between 5 to 6 years old. However, if this show continued with the girls and boys as tweens or teens, I’d say they would all go a different route. The boys would be very fed up with both Mojo Jojo and HIM telling them what to do and how to be evil, and they would eventually find their own paths, all the while realizing that maybe they were in the wrong, to begin with. They would develop from being villains to anti-villains to anti-heroes at most heroes at the least. I am really sure that among Brick, Butch, and Boomer, the latter would really turn to the good side and have an amazingly stable relationship with Bubbles. Heck, it would be amazing to see the Rowdyruff Boys team up with the Powerpuff Girls and be a great superhero team to rival that of the Teen Titans, the Justice League, the Suicide Squad, and the Avengers. I indubitably support Boomubbles with a passion, but I also enjoy Blossick and Butchercup, mostly because fanfic writers will tend to make their relationships a little bit more complex in comparison to the sentimental, lovey-dovey vibe of the youngest lovebirds Boomer and Bubbles. The usual case with Brick and Blossom in fanfics would be these two will have a will they or will they not type of relationship, and because they…