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On a Pale Horse (Umamusume/Youjo Senki)

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JKD_666 said:
If he tries that shit with Shirogane, the injuries (and legal action) he'll face will be very much NOT of the comedic variety.
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Honestly I'm not sure that he's even human. He took four simultaneous kicks to the body from four Uma that sent him flying several metres, his insides should be paste, but he just... Gets up and walks it off.
 
Humans in umamusume are more durable than humans IRL because Umas are just born to them at random. It would be a real problem for whoever is reincarnating the horses if they kept accidentally pulping non-Umas. Especially since they're all girls.
 
WrandmWaffles said:
Yeah, that's the set she probably has the best chance at winning a triple crown for. It also helps that those races aren't one time entries compared to the Classic Triple Crown, which spoilers, Shirogane has low odds of winning

And given Shirogane's resilience, she could theoretically run those races year after year until most of her bigger competitors retire.
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I have the odd image of Shiro just being around for multiple generations like some kind of weird ass fixtures.
Like the woman who was the mother and grandmother of multiple emperors and lived til 106 in a time when people lived til like... 50.


WrandmWaffles said:
I imagine if Shirogane had been a real racing mare, when she retired there'd be a lot of interest in pairing her with the Sunday Silence line, such as Fuji Kiseki, to see if they could get a mix of speedy horse and small, durable horse. There'd probably also be hope that her even temperament would balance out the eccentricities that came down the Stay Gold line too.
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Ok but Tachion and Shiro baby would be like a 9mm bullet.
WrandmWaffles said:
Shirogane: "Huh, this is a lot of money for a young adult to make. I wonder how far I can take this? Obviously not a lifelong career, but..."
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She would proceed to run for over 10 racing generations.
uioor1 said:
It really drives home that Shirogane's main motivation is her family, followed by money to help said family. It's the first thing she brings up in conversation about her weekend, not her debut race, it's the first thing on her mind. Furthermore, she spends more time at the start of the chapter reflecting on her time spent with her family & family friends than the race itself. And I have a feeling that the gap between Shirogane and her classmates is only going to continue to grow so long as they don't pick up on or learn that for Shirogane, family is #1, not races.
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Special Week might have the best chance in the class to close the mental gap because she was also raised by a human and has a big family bent.
WrandmWaffles said:
Royal Flush? Dual Monarch?
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Triple Jewel?
Like loose gems off a crown and a Tiara.

WrandmWaffles said:
Because while she's undersized and underspeed for a racehorse, Shirogane is actually quite large and extraordinarily fast for a warhorse.
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Girl goes to visit her family in poland and is the tallest Uma in 100 miles.
WrandmWaffles said:
Neo Universe having daymares around Shirogane and Manhattan Cafe wondering why her friend runs away from Shirogane.
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Neo Universe is gonna have ah bad time.
Doctor: She has PTSD, specifically based on world war two.
Trainer: Fucking WHAT!?
 
I'm surprised no publicist has taken an interest in Shirogane yet. Her story has all the elements of a celebrated hero. Born an Uma to two working-class human parents, Shirogane trained diligently every day despite their limited means. She worked as the delivery girl for her parents' restaurant, becoming well-known for her speed running through the streets. One day, a famous manager noticed her potential and brought her to Tracen, even though her top speed was lower than others. It's a classic underdog story, and I'm amazed Shirogane hasn't leveraged it yet.
 
PolyBBenson said:
Wasn't the war that Tanya fought in more similar to WWI, not WWII?
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Depends on which phase of the war you're talking about. She had at least a year of trench warfare, but then other parts do seem to lean into WW2. We even have a defeated Not!French leader fleeing not!France after his country's occupation.
 
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Liar said:
I'm surprised no publicist has taken an interest in Shirogane yet. Her story has all the elements of a celebrated hero. Born an Uma to two working-class human parents, Shirogane trained diligently every day despite their limited means. She worked as the delivery girl for her parents' restaurant, becoming well-known for her speed running through the streets. One day, a famous manager noticed her potential and brought her to Tracen, even though her top speed was lower than others. It's a classic underdog story, and I'm amazed Shirogane hasn't leveraged it yet.
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She probs will, the immediate aftermath was the latest chapter afterall. Though she's gonna need a few more win for people to start getting hooked.

Who knows, maybe she got lucky and someone noticed her and her goldmine of a background, but that's a long stretch.
 
It is primarily WW1, with large elements of WW2

E.g. some technologies like Pz IVs, Carl Gustav railway guns, the classic WW2 era German transport plane, etc
Ace98 said:
She has to secure a big enough win that the "movie" can end on a good note. We love a underdog story, but a underdog story where the underdog doesn't beat the odds is tragic.
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Well since history has the same beats the mongol conquest happened and if we translate the size of mongol warhorses to umamusume would mean a horde of umamusume range in height of nishino flower to tamano cross ravaged Eurasia mainland.

That might have left a certain weariness to short umas outside Japan.
 
Deglito said:
Well since history has the same beats the mongol conquest happened and if we translate the size of mongol warhorses to umamusume would mean a horde of umamusume range in height of nishino flower to tamano cross ravaged Eurasia mainland.

That might have left a certain weariness to short umas outside Japan.
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Eh, given Shirogane is apparently a little taller than most umas of her family, there isn't any lingering weariness towards short umas, if there ever was.
 
Deglito said:
Well since history has the same beats the mongol conquest happened and if we translate the size of mongol warhorses to umamusume would mean a horde of umamusume range in height of nishino flower to tamano cross ravaged Eurasia mainland.

That might have left a certain weariness to short umas outside Japan.
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Just from female humans and local umas. In this history, the mongol-umapyoi's were probably legendary... and just as genetically significant.
 
It just clicked today for me one of the big reasons I really like this story. A concept I've always been fascinated with is a story or fic where the main character chooses to reject the plot or 'refuse the call', instead doing their own thing. Now naturally in a regular piece of fiction this falls apart near-instantly because there has to be something happening, but fanfiction has the ability to tread closer to that line, although it too rarely ever fully explorers that idea because again, it would be a short piece bc "person who refuses to do anything" isn't exactly the most engaging story. But the idea has still fascinated me nonetheless, especially since the few fics that even approach the subject tend to just give a nod towards the idea and then abandon it wholesale, or worse, continuously insist that the MC wants to avoid getting involved or something while always having them get involved with little to no resistance or actively doing the exact opposite of what they keep telling the readers they want to do.

This fic, this wonderful fic, is finally scratching that itch after years and years of it nesting in the back of my head. Now, Shirogane isn't intentionally avoiding the 'plot' or anything, and she is nominally going along with the flow of Umamusume and sports stories, but internally she's completely shut it down. Making friends & rivals on the field? It's a job and they're competitors, she won't be hostile but she's more or less disinterested. Aiming to win? It would be nice, but so long as she can take home money and continue qualifying for races she'll be happy. Racing is her dream? No, it's just an opportunity to make decent money that came up, she doesn't really care much about it. The racing money isn't even a huge deal either, she's not some money-obsessed antagonist like in some shows, no, she'd be perfectly happy making money somewhere else, or hell even just working her family's restaurant, this is just an opportunity she's making use of. Shirogane cares about her family, and that's what she's completely oriented around, being completely content with her life otherwise.

In other words, just by being herself, she essentially 'rejects' the premise and plot of a normal Umamusume or sports manga series, all while still providing a compelling narrative with how she explores the world with her unique viewpoint and how this world divinely-designed for racing and sports-manga stuff reacts to her sheer indifference to its existence.

TLDR: This story is pulling off something I've wanted to see done for years now, I'm really happy with how it's working, and I can't wait to see more of it, even if it does change or drift away from this as it develops and Shirogane reacts & grows
 
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wait, is cousin alt-universe salary-man? (1) unclear same school (2) similar speech patterns (3) going into management... and they like instantly clicked. My bet is less 'love-interest' and more 'he's literal v1 in Ume-Land and 18'
 
Westcoast-Quilin said:
Historically speaking the mongolian soldiers had something like 5-20 horses each man. Translating that to umas it would be a terrifying number of superhuman horses girls fighting.
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So in umamusume-verse, each and every single Mongolian soldier was a Shogun-level harem protagonist? It's no wonder the Mongols conquered half the world.
 
Question because I'm not super familiar with the horse/uma racing rules and regulations. Is it possible that Shirogane and Steady Distance will end up in the same race at some point? I think it'd be interesting to see Shiro get to race someone she actually considers a friend. She wouldn't hold back, and I can't imagine Steady Distance would either, but they have a bond that I think a lot of the other umas and characters would be surprised to see through their banter and their interactions before & after the race. Also maybe it would be a race that Shiro would actually have some actual fun in, given she seemed to get some enjoyment out of running with Steady Distance, even if the job would come first in her mind, as usual
 
uioor1 said:
Question because I'm not super familiar with the horse/uma racing rules and regulations. Is it possible that Shirogane and Steady Distance will end up in the same race at some point? I think it'd be interesting to see Shiro get to race someone she actually considers a friend. She wouldn't hold back, and I can't imagine Steady Distance would either, but they have a bond that I think a lot of the other umas and characters would be surprised to see through their banter and their interactions before & after the race. Also maybe it would be a race that Shiro would actually have some actual fun in, given she seemed to get some enjoyment out of running with Steady Distance, even if the job would come first in her mind, as usual
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I mean they both can meet at one of the Triple Crown or Triple Tiara race , just need the meet the quota to have a slot but it might be harder to Steady Distance cause she is training and race at the local circuit while Shirogane is study and train at Tracen which is still consider to be the cream of the crop, at national level everything is different higher level ,even the student canteen is stronger the chef too.
 
HoxShorelight said:
I mean they both can meet at one of the Triple Crown or Triple Tiara race , just need the meet the quota to have a slot but it might be harder to Steady Distance cause she is training and race at the local circuit while Shirogane is study and train at Tracen which is still consider to be the cream of the crop, at national level everything is different higher level ,even the student canteen is stronger the chef too.
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For the Crown/Tiara races, it's impossible as Steady started earlier and is already a Senior racer with at least one graded race win by this point. To clarify, the Japanese Classic Crown/Tiara races can only be ran by athletes in their Classic year (in irl this would be a horse's 3-year old season).

They can meet if Shirogane participates in one of the exchange races, usually dirt, in her Classic year onwards.
 
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Stracio said:
For the Crown/Tiara races, it's impossible as Steady started earlier and is already a Senior racer with at least one graded race win by this point. To clarify, the Japanese Classic Crown/Tiara races can only be ran by athletes in their Classic year (in irl this would be a horse's 3-year old season).

They can meet if Shirogane participates in one of the exchange races, usually dirt, in her Classic year onwards.
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Thank you for the information , hmm the more you know , oh well i guess Steady Distance just have to cheer for Shirogane at the race track then or through the TV screen
 
uioor1 said:
It just clicked today for me one of the big reasons I really like this story. A concept I've always been fascinated with is a story or fic where the main character chooses to reject the plot or 'refuse the call', instead doing their own thing. Now naturally in a regular piece of fiction this falls apart near-instantly because there has to be something happening, but fanfiction has the ability to tread closer to that line, although it too rarely ever fully explorers that idea because again, it would be a short piece bc "person who refuses to do anything" isn't exactly the most engaging story. But the idea has still fascinated me nonetheless, especially since the few fics that even approach the subject tend to just give a nod towards the idea and then abandon it wholesale, or worse, continuously insist that the MC wants to avoid getting involved or something while always having them get involved with little to no resistance or actively doing the exact opposite of what they keep telling the readers they want to do.

This fic, this wonderful fic, is finally scratching that itch after years and years of it nesting in the back of my head. Now, Shirogane isn't intentionally avoiding the 'plot' or anything, and she is nominally going along with the flow of Umamusume and sports stories, but internally she's completely shut it down. Making friends & rivals on the field? It's a job and they're competitors, she won't be hostile but she's more or less disinterested. Aiming to win? It would be nice, but so long as she can take home money and continue qualifying for races she'll be happy. Racing is her dream? No, it's just an opportunity to make decent money that came up, she doesn't really care much about it. The racing money isn't even a huge deal either, she's not some money-obsessed antagonist like in some shows, no, she'd be perfectly happy making money somewhere else, or hell even just working her family's restaurant, this is just an opportunity she's making use of. Shirogane cares about her family, and that's what she's completely oriented around, being completely content with her life otherwise.

In other words, just by being herself, she essentially 'rejects' the premise and plot of a normal Umamusume or sports manga series, all while still providing a compelling narrative with how she explores the world with her unique viewpoint and how this world divinely-designed for racing and sports-manga stuff reacts to her sheer indifference to its existence.

TLDR: This story is pulling off something I've wanted to see done for years now, I'm really happy with how it's working, and I can't wait to see more of it, even if it does change or drift away from this as it develops and Shirogane reacts & grows
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Thank you for describing exactly how many of us feel about this story.

Many of us have surely watched numerous sports series and/or movies, so we're very familiar with the general archetype of a protagonist in such works: passionate, talented, hardworking, and above all, with a deep love for their respective sport.

That's why it's so refreshing to see a protagonist like Shirogane. The author didn't fall into the trap of creating a Usain Bolt-type character—that is, a lazy but absurdly talented protagonist who, with minimal effort, effortlessly surpasses their rivals, all of whom take their sport much more seriously.

But Shirogane is much more interesting because, while she is objectively talented, she's nowhere near a prodigy on par with veterans with years of experience. Every time she wins, it doesn't feel like the author is simply handing her victories, because we've seen how seriously she takes her training. She never mocks or belittles her rivals, and she's incredibly humble about her own abilities.

It's fascinating to see how Shirogane's... well, Shirogane's very being affects other characters so much. She shatters Tracen's echo chamber of sportsmanship and youthful passion by simply treating Uma races with the same professionalism as a real job, while practically every other girl talks about dreams and glory. She's almost like an adult reminding children not to play too rough or someone will get hurt.

I wouldn't be surprised if, throughout the story, several Uma begin to feel almost personally offended by Shirogane's professional detachment. If a dispassionate, dreamless Uma who only races for money consistently gets better results than you, what are you supposed to do? Dream even harder?
 
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