❶ Reply to this post, and I will pick six of your icons.
➋ Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
➌ Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
➍ This will create a never-ending cycle of icon glee.

Chosen for me byivy_chan:


 

Hee, I made this one! Helena Bertinelli was born into a prominent mafia family. At the age of eight, her parents were murdered before her eyes in their own home*. When she's twenty-one and set to gain her family's inheritance, she learns more about the murder and becomes the Huntress to seek revenge upon the killer as well as the ones who ordered their death. In the comics, she's shown to be a bit more violent than your usual costumed hero. She once took up the Batgirl mantle when Batman disappeared from Gotham for a time, but gave it up when she wouldn't follow his exact orders. For a time she was actually exiled from Gotham when Batman thought she was getting out of control. She leaves with Richard Dragon and The Question and during this time achieves a better balance with herself. When she does return to Gotham though, she's torn between the new ethical version of herself and the one of vengeance that still hears the call of "blood cries for blood".

JLU follows this origin pretty well in my opinion, while keeping her character true to form as well. She's actually one of my favorite characters in the series, and it only helps that when she's around, The Question (one of my other faves) usually pops in too. Their relationship is awesomesauce as they kick equal amounts of ass and have actual chemistry together, whereas some of the other pairings in the series take forever to get moving or have a lot of friction to them.


 

Nico Robin from One Piece pretty much has the saddest back story you can get. She was born on an island of scholars (Ohara), to archaeologist Nico Olvia, who left to sea to study the True History when she was two. Left with family to care for her, they made it very clear that se was not wanted by both physical and verbal abuse. Most of the other people on the island feared her for her Devil Fruit ability (she can replicate any part of her body onto any surface that she can see). The only people who accepted her were the scholars at the Tree of Knowledge, where she spent a lot of her time. At only eight, she aced the archaeology exam and expressed interest in learning the True History like her mother, but was reproved for this. She ran crying to the beach and encountered a giant named Saul. The two became friends, but upon learning he was on Ohara, Saul warned her that the Marines were coming to destroy the island. At this time Nico Olvia returned, heaving escaped from Marine custody, to warn the scholars of this same thing. The Marines were after the Poneglyphs that were kept in the tree, and they intended to kill everyone to make sure no one learned the True History. The scholars refused to leave though, wishing to protect the tree. Robin returns to the tree to warn them as well, but this is when the attack begins. Olvia (who is gravely wounded) later recognizes her daughter when she hears her name, but then the Poneglyphs are found and all of the scholars are sentenced to death by a Buster Call. The Marines leave as the bombardment begins, and Robin is reunited for her mother for a short time. Saul shows up, having come when he saw the battleships, and Olvia urges him to save her daughter (despite Robin's protests). While he attempts to get her off the island, Olvia and the other scholars throw as many books as they can into the water so that others may find them until the tree begins to burn down. In the meantime, Saul takes on a Marine Admiral with a DF ability over ice while Robin attempts to hide away on a ship, though she has no success. The admiral begins to encase Saul's body in ice, and before he is completely frozen he tells Robin to take his raft (which he'd been building on the beach). She runs to the raft and sails away, weeping as Ohara burns to the ground. She's the only known survivor. 

On the run from the Marines, the Government gives her a bounty of $79 million, spreading the lie that she sank six battleships to cover up the truth. Robin spends the next twenty years of her life on the run, spedning it with various people. All either tried to kill her or turn her in. When she was twenty-four, she was accepted into the Baroque Works organization because she could read Poneglyphs (few can) and is the vice-president for four years. Uninterested in Baroque Works' goals, she attempts to help Luffy and his crew from time to time discreetly. In the end she attempts to betray the leader of the organization and is stabbed and left for dead, only to be saved by Luffy. When the battle is over and the Strawhats prepare to leave, she stows away on their ship, telling Luffy that as he chose to save her when she had resigned herself to die, he has to let her join them. Luffy has no qualms with this. 

Character-wise though. she's also very interesting. Obviously very smart, she enjoys reading. She's pretty much the only member of the Strawhat crew who's reserved, not to mention not overly-dramatic (though macabre XD). She's usually very calm and collected, but can be rather intimidating. Robin has the third highest bounty of the crew.

There's of course more to her story, but this is getting long already. O_o; I swear I was being brief. 

 

Shikamaru is simply made of awesome. This is the guy who starts out as the laziest character in the Naruto series, only to turn out to be an absolute genius and one of the most loyal characters. He'd much rather play games like Shogi, but grows into a capable strategist (sometimes leader) over time. I first fell in love with his character during the few glimpses of the Sasuke Retrieval Arc that I saw on television (such as his speech on how he'd never like Sasuke much, he was still a Konoha ninja and they would get him back). And it's no secret now that the Hidan and Kakuzu arc is my favorite of all time. I am constantly tickled with glee that he manages to get revenge for his Sensei's death in only a few chapters, and that he does it without going emo. And more by strategy than some newly developed ninja power.... though his shadow abilities are pretty awesome anyways. :D

In addition to that, his relationship with other characters is simply made of win. I love the Team 10 dynamic. I love the little friendship with Naruto (though I'd never ship them). I love his interactions with Temari (and I do ship them). His relationship with Asuma is one of my favorites for the mentor category. The way he checks in on Kurenai now that Asuma's gone is also very sweet, and I adore how he's promised to take their child as his apprentice, hoping to be as cool of a mentor as Asuma was to him.


 

Toph! Another awesome character! Blind and a child, she's still the greatest earthbender alive and has proved it more than once (metalbending ftw!). She uses her bending to 'see', and in some ways this form of vision is more aware than the norm. Besides this, her personality rocks. She's the queen of snark in this show, independent, but still fairly young and thus has things to learn.

...Also. She's the freaking Melon Lord. :D God, I love that quote. XD

 

Heheh... no point in explaining Leo. I've done it enough times already, haven't I (feel free to correct me though and I can essay again ^_^) ? Plus, nearly everyone on my flist is a TMNT fan, so it'd kinda be pointless... but yeah. Love Leo and all of his little personality bits. This scene is one of my faves- his face. Icon says it all. XD 

 

Likwise, I shan't explain Bishop too much. Though I do think he is a) the most awesome villain on the show and b) the most threatening to the guys, as he basically represents everything that would be a danger to them. He also has a lot more story to him than most of the villains on the show, along with a villainy purpose other than established evil. After the ninja forces, he's also pretty much the only other character I've seen who can match the TMNT in hand-to-hand combat without reliance on gadgets/other weaponry.


*Huntress' original backstory had her kidnapped and raped by a rival mafia family at the age of six and hides her shame of the incident until she's nineteen. At this age her family is murdered at a wedding before her eyes and she sets out to put an end to the crime families.

And it's Thursday again. Not a hard day at work for the most part, but as it's my Monday it of course has me curling up under my blankets in an attempt to avoid it.

I think I need to do more things with my days off besides sleep though... next week, unless I have the wrong date in mind, I'm meeting up with my mom after my orthodontist appointment, so that should be fun. But I have no idea whatsoever what I can do on the days off following. I just want something more to do than walking to the local Maverick gas station for a gallon of milk and a cheap movie.

...Okay, I enjoyed that. But you know. Something a little more exciting would be nice too.

Also? There is not anywhere near enough love for the Justice League on livejournal. Got reinterested in that show during my days off and found very, very few icons of good quality for it. Was forced to start making some of my own. Can't believe I couldn't even find a good Joker one. >.<

P.S. I lucked out on Monday- for the most part the sidewalks had been cleared by the time I started walking. However, it was like negative two degrees when I had to walk home. I find it very disturbing that one part of the world is in nearly below freezing temperatures while the other is above the hundred mark.