Wow, I never realised until last week that I had this post saved up in the drafts folder in Windows Live Writer. As it was saved there, it was never obvious when I was on my WP dashboard. May as well take the opportunity right now to post it up, and also try and remember why I never posted it…

PS: I haven’t touched the content of the post at all from what was in the draft. All that was added were the images.

Just before I start, let me take the chance to say that this has got nothing to do with the Kaiser Chiefs’ song at all. Rather, it’s a Ruby of a different kind. Think more “imaginative”, more… Oh, screw trying to come up with clues, it’s the Ruby from the Pokémon Adventures manga. See here. Go brush up on your knowledge before delving deeper

On my first read-through of the entire series, Ruby was the first character that really stood out to me. He’s the first character in the series whom I really liked. It’s probably also why the Fourth Chapter (also known and the Ruby/Sapphire arc) is my favourite out of the six chapters so far, although that may change when volumes 27 onwards come out in English and Ruby and Sapphire make an appearance in the Sixth Chapter

The second time I read through that story arc was over the last two long weekend, where I had time to head home. I brought along the books with me to get a chance to read over them again during time I had to myself that wasn’t otherwise used taking advantage of Magnet’s digital TV
Believe me, whether you have 17 or 70+ channels, at some point, there will be absolutely NOTHING on.

The entire manga series seems to put an emphasis on a lot more details of all of the characters. Such as their birthdays, ages and, which I find quite odd, their blood types. Not as if there has really been many scenes in which blood has been involved (the only one that springs to mind is the Ruby vs. Salamence scene in which he obtained the scar on his forehead), which makes it rather a peculiar thing to mention. More to the point, it is these fine details which have made me realise that Ruby is actually quite similar to myself, which is probably why I “connect” with the character so well.

Alright, so there are only two things about us that are similar. Both of us were born on July 2nd, and our eyes are myopic, hence why we both wear glasses (although one of us not as much as they should!). Yes, when one detail matches, you’d probably say “coincidence”, yet two traits makes for more of a “WTF – they seem to have copied me”.

Maybe it’s also the evolution of the character that intrigued me as well. At first, you can see that he is just a self-centred little kid (alright, I will admit that it is sort of like what I used to be) focusing solely on outer appearance and masking inner strength. However, once you hit the end of volume 20 onwards, were the outfit change and the dive to the Cave of Origin takes place, his character drastically changes. From this point, he no longer looks nor acts like an 11-year old kid addicted to Pokémon Contests. You could say, he rivals Red at this point

Oh yea, speaking of the outfit change, that is one point that does make no sense to me. Yes, I know that characters change appearance over time, but why the sudden change before going down to the Cave of Origin? And how did he do it so quickly, given he changed looks in the time it took him to get from Slateport Hospital to Sapphire and Walo? Well, there are some things that remain unanswered. But you could answer me this: What is with the shorts on top of his trousers? One of the two would have made more sense. Probably the shorts on their own, since they seem to match the rest of his outfit. Then again, it wasn’t Hidenori Kusaka’s (author of the manga) idea for his appearance, rather whoever was in charge of character design for Pokémon Emerald, which was “drafted” into the manga.

So, you can probably tell that I really like the character. Probably a little too much for my own good. But hey, I guess that’s part of my obsessive nature.

Reading over this is actually making me think about the quality of the crap I used to write just one year ago. I guess it was the fact that I finally found a proper blogging community as to why my writing style and attitude changed. Whether it was for the best – well we’ll soon find out.