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lolia21 · 1 year ago

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Wei Wuxian, Feminism and Autonomy

The title sounds way fancier than this is going to be. So sorry for that. But this is a thought I've had for a while not and i just got double-triggered. So I'm listening to this MDZS podcast that i really like while reading mdzs fan fiction. The podcast is "Podcasts are Forbidden in the Cloud Recesses" and the fan fiction is one of those cast watching the show ones. Which is one of my favorite genres for this specific media. So I'm having a good time. But then the podcasters make the same point the fan fic does as I'm reading it and it just really pissed me off? Thats the preface for this whole long-ass rant.

So Wei Wuxian in my opinion Wei Wuxian has all the worst parts of being a heroine grafted onto his character and no one seems to care. Like I know the fandom feminizes him a lot because the author does and its part of his character. But I'm talking about like how he is written and how we are supposed to engage with him as readers.

Ok so, i don't understand people who don't understand why Wei Ying doesn't know Wanji likes him. That's it that's the whole premise. Because here's the thing it is very common in media for girls to have to tolerate shitty men and look past their flaws to love them. Its commonly expected for female characters to either fix the guy or learn to look past his flaws or change themselves in some way. Its also really common in media for the problems of dating and protective sex and dealing with sex appeal to fall on teenage girls. They are the ones who should flirt less, they should dress more modestly, and they should date less to be more appealing. And I see this same mindset with Wei Ying in the Fandom and in the novel.

Lan Xichen and Nice guys

This idea came to me one day when I was rewatching the untamed and I got to the Gauyin temple scene. The one where Xichen goes on this long-ass speech about all the things Wanji has done for Wei Ying. I'm watching this scene and I think "is this how it goes in the book? Because if so this is really fucked up." I hadn't read the book in a while so I hopped online (this is before the official novelization) and re-read the last like thirty-ish chapters for fun. And it's actually worse in the book. The entire speech is how Wanji has sacrificed so much for Wei Ying and how he hasn't been grateful and hasn't noticed his brothers feelings. How long Wanji has pined for him and how he's too selfish to notice. And its just a really gross speech to me. Because it implies that Wanji is owed Wei Yings affection because he has done these things. That Wei Ying is a bad person for not noticing Wanjis feelings and returning them. But here's the thing, Wei Ying doesn't need to return shit. Like he should be thankful for Wanjis help, that's fine. Be he is not obligated to fall in love with him cause of it. And frankly, most of the kind things Wanji did either happened out of Wei Wuxians view or after he had died. And I realized that Xichen doesn't really care about Wei Ying? Like he see's him not as a person but as a thing that will make his brother happy. He only encourages their friendship because to makes Wanji happy He doesn't take Wei Yings feelings into account at all. The moment that friendship comes with heartache for Wanji Xichen stops supporting it and caring about Wei Ying. He calls Wei Ying Wanjis biggest mistake just cause he doesn't seem to like Wanji back despite how nice he's been. To Xichen them getting together is something that has to happen and if it doesn't its because Wei Ying is the problem for not liking him faster or as much. Which brings me to:

Wanjis Trauma is not Wei Wuxians Problem

I was inspired to actually get this down because of that double hit. So here's what happened I'm listening to the podcast and they just started talking about how sad and repressed Wanji is. How he hasn't learned to express himself or learn about sex and how sad that is. That WEi Ying is being the loud annoying little brat he always is. And Wanji, baby boy just can handle it. So he lashes out and is super rude and dismissive. But ohhh he's just so horny its not his fault! And at the same time in the fan fiction, they get to the scene where Wei Wuxian flirts for some free loquats and Wanji gets jealous and looks away. In the Fan fic they have older wei wuxian apologize for flirting because she should have known better? That pisses me off. Enough to make a long a tumblr rant. So much of the fandom assumes the responsibility of putting work into the relationship on Wei Wuxian. Of course, he should feel bad about flirting in front of Wanji. He's his future husband. Even though at this point Wanji as been nothing but cold, distant, authoritative and dismissive. Wei Ying has zero reason to believe he is jealous and even if he did;t that's not his problem! The idea that Wei Ying needs to learn to be less of a flirt fort eh sake of Wanji feeling comfortable is bullshit. Wei ying doesn't owe him a damn thing. Its just so common for people and the author to rush to defend Wanji was being repressed and unable to express himself. While Wei Ying is called selfish and thoughtless for not being willing to sympathize and make concessions for him. I understand that Wanji changes after the time skip. He realises that Wei Ying isn't obligated to like him or act a certain way. But at the same time he still doesn't full give Wei Ying full autonomy in their relationship in my opinion. Because he doesn't confess first. He's so afraid of rejection or Wei Wuxian liking him out of obligation that he decides to help him but not confess. He decides that if Wei Wuxian falls for him it should be by choice (I'm assuming, its actually really unclear to me). But first of all that doesn't happen! Xichen gives that stupid nice guy speech. and second, that's still fucked up. If he actually respected Wei Ying he would be upfront and tell him and deal with the fallout after that. Instead, he just helps wei ying out and while burying his feel feelings and hopes that is enough. How could Wei Ying not feel shitty after hearing that? I don't know. I just think it's reasonable for Wei Ying to be hesitant to like Wanji based on how he's been treated. It's true that both of them have issues with communication but those issues started with Wanji. He's the one who showed that he's so blindly rigged in his ways and refused to admit out loud how he felt to start with.

Side Bits

I completely forget the scene where Xichen tells his family back story to Wei Wuxian until just now. Thats so fucked up and manipulative coming from him. It's just meant to make Wei Wuxian feel bad for leaving Wanji and explain some of his behavior. No one pulls Wanji aside and explains that Wei ying spent years on the streets and then in a toxic household where the matriarch openly hated him. So he has low self-esteem and genuinely thinks his life is worth less than others. No one was like hey he's bubbly and loud because there's no other option for him. Like in the book the only people that advocate for Wey Ying are the Wens and Sometimes Yanli.

After Fenmiin and Madam Yu die they and the land Jiang Cheng gets so mad and sad he starts to choke Wei Wuxian to death. He stops and starts crying but that's so messed up. Like Wei Wuxian also closed a second pair of parentel figures just now but his body I still used as a means for a man to let out his sadness. Like he's still just a vessel for someone else's emotions. I think this actually happens a lot with Jiang Cheng. He has a habit of blowing up at Wei Ying in a way that is implied to be deserved or not that bad. But just doesn't feel great to me based on everything else I've written about.

Wei Wuxian is only able to clear his name and live a semi decent life because he gets with Wanji. Wei Wuxian success is not based off his talent or smarts alone, it is mostly based don't he fact that Wanij is willing to vouch for him and help hide him. Like I know part of it is Huasiang helping him but he would not have gotten far without Wanji helping him. Not only that but Xichen is only willing to help them even a little in their research because of his brother. And that's just a little annoying to me.

By the end of the story Wei Wuxian has no financial autonomy. Which isn't a big deal because this is ancient Chinese vampire times so as the "wife" he wouldn't have much anyway. But still not great.

Meng Yao and Wei Wuxians mothers and meng yao and Wei Wuxian are talked about in similar terms that are interesting. So both of them are "tainted" by specifically who their mothers are. Men Yao because his mother was a sex worker and Wei ying because his mother was known to be a highly wanted and playful woman. People both assume they are going to be exactly like heir parents and treat them as such. Which affects how they actually interact with people. MEng Yao knows he can't appear greedy or even like he's ambitious because he knows that as a son of a sex worker, everyone will think he's naturally greedy and manipulative. And he is those things. But they made him this way. he had to no choice but to be a sneaky asshole because the moment he showed any ambition it was either immediately squashed because of his status or people were like I know it. He is sued by his father in the same way his mother was. Wei Wuxian on there other hand has three people in his life who treat him a certain way because of his mother. Fengmain lets him get away with a lot and is openly affectionate to seemingly make of for his relationship with his parents. He doesn't spoil Wei Wuxian as much as he doesn't really expect anything of him? He just wants to see Wei Wuxian happy doing whatever he wants. He assumes Wei Wuxian is a wild and free spirit because his mother was and thats not fully true. On the other hand, Madam yu and Qiren treat Wuxian almost like a temptress. He's just a reflection of his moms wild, playful and seduction personality to them. They both think he's someone they have to actively control and suppress lest he get all the attention and make people behave inappropriately. Its that same notion I wrote about way earlier. How girls have to be the ones to control themselves and their appearances so as to not tempt the men folk with their ankles.

In Conclusion

Fuck the Patriarchy, Learn Necromancy.

#mdzs fandom #mdsz #wangxian #wei wuxian #feminism?#gender roles #rant post #I'm not editing this. It's embarrassing enough I'm writing this much about mdzs.#Still listening to the podcast tho

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lolia21 · 10 months ago

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I guess this is just what I do on this website now...

Ok lets Go!

One Piece, Law, and Femininity

Preface: Three warnings and a Request

Warning!!!

Let's get this out the way. I do ship Law and Luffy. That doesn’t matter to this particular theory/analysis but it's better to be upfront about one's personal biases. I don't think it's canon nor do I think it ever will be. But if anyone wants to use this for their own ship theories, have at it.

This writing “theory” I have doesn’t apply to children because they kind of inherently fall into a third category. Their age tends to naturally make them more vulnerable and in need of assistance. When it comes to gendered writing children tend to get a pass. There are many reasons why but that's not what this is about.

Sanji is a newer and only other expectation to this “theory”. More on that at the end.

Request: If you don't think Yamato is a dude, this is not for you. The whole point of talking about feminism in this regard is to talk about how femininity is performed and perceived. Gender is a social construct and how we construct it is important to the feminine conversation. If you cant accept and understand that... read a few essays and come back later. Seriously I am talking about roles, behavior and presentations of gender here. Also I want to support my son (he’s older than me but, still).

Part 1: Oda Writes the Backstories of Female Characters the Same Way he Draws Them.

A lot of people push back on the idea that Oda only knows how to draw the same female character by pointing at characters like Big Mom or Dandan. So I would like to change the phrasing. Oda only knows how to draw attractive women characters one way. When they're old hags, he's got options. But if they’re even supposed to be mildly attractive then he’s got one option in a variety of colors and accessories. He writes their backstories in roughly the same way. They have a lot of big differences. I can honestly say most important people in one piece have unique and interesting back stories and goals. But the skeleton of almost all the women are the same. I only say almost because One Piece has a stupid amount of characters and there is a 10% chance that some minor character from some obscure island in East Blue somehow flew under my radar. But this rule does apply to all the main women characters. Let's talk about it.

1a. Oda Loves Taking Away Women's Autonomy.

Seriously Oda cannot resist putting women in positions where they are either slaves, or working in a group that they are opposed to, or living under constant threat of imprisonment, or some combination of those. Nami was enslaved at a young age by Arlong, Robin had to join CP9 because she needed protection from the world government and then almost got imprisoned by enies lobby. Vivi joined Cp9 to save her country. Hiyori spent years living with and presumably fxcking a man she hated hoping that one day someone else would be strong enough to defeat Kaido to get revenge. There are countless cases of women, specifically women, being sold to Celestial Dragons for the sole purpose of sexual slavery. Like shows up so fxcking often. Aces mom had to hold her child in her stomach for an extra 15 months to him from the marines and probably died because of it. If Oda is writing an important woman character who is relatively young you better believe she spent years of her life not being in control of it. And if she's older, she either a mom of some kind or was a badass and settled down because some man in her life died, or both.

1b. Women Need to be Saved in Order to Achieve their Goals and Men Need to be Supported.

This is gonna be a little hard to explain but it all comes down to how problems are solved, who solves them and why. Kinda. I think the best way to explain it would be to give an example. Lets look at the first two members of the Strawhat Crew. Zoro’s goal is to be the strongest swordsman. Simple enough. He tries to fight Mihawk the moment they meet, he loses and swears to grow stronger and defeat him. Nami has two goals, or more accurately she needs to accomplish one goal in order to achieve her true goal. Nami needs to get out from under Arlongs control in order to achieve her goal of mapping the whole world. She also wants her family to be able to live in peace and not be broke. Unless she accomplishes that first goal, she cannot accomplish the other two. She needs to be saved in order to continue her story. Because she’s unable to save herself. Which is reasonable. She's just a person and Arlong is a super strong fish demon man. So Luffy saves her. He punches her problem away real good and she is now finally free to do what she wants. If you know anything about Laws character I'm sure you can see where this is going . Robin is the same, Luffy punches away the people that want to control her real good and declares that he will fight the entire world to let her have the chance to live freely.

I brought this up with my dad and he brought up a great point. Marineford. He said well Luffy lost pretty bad in the paramount war and needed to be saved by many people. Even costing him Ace. But, I would like to point out that the people who did that, Akainu and Blackbeard are still roaming free. Luffy needed to be saved in the moment but he’s still going to be the one to resolve the issue. Like Luffy, Zoro, Franky, Jinbei, and Brook have all needed saving at some point during a fight. But they always get to square up and finish the ones that are important to them. And their goals don't require them to be saved before trying to achieve them. The point comes down to who's allowed to deal with the finishing blow to their main goals/ problems. Luffy isn’t going to punch Mihawk for Zoror, or make Ussops dad respect him, or whatever the fuck Jinbei wants. But he did fight Arlong for Nami, Cp9 for Robin and Doffy for Law.

1c. Girls got to College to Get More Knowledge, Boys Go to Jupiter to Get More Stupider

The women of One Piece are objectively smarter than the men. Emotionally and Intellectually. Women in One Piece are normally more patient, less stubborn and willing to retreat when they have to. They also don’t get as love sick as the men. I mean Boa lets her feelings for Luffy get her into insane shit, but that's the joke. Like One Piece women aren’t really known for having someone's looks affect them. There's a reason there is a most Beautiful Woman in the world with no male counterpart. Like Smoker is Zaddy and no one cares. Most of the guy characters who are overly sneaky and plotting are villains or assholes. That's not to say there aren’t smart men characters, Franky is a genius at his craft. But being smart and careful isn’t part of his character or reflected in his behavior.

Part II: Trafalgar D. Water Law, The Saddest Little Uwu

I haven't loved Law since the first time I saw him. I have loved him since punk hazard though which is pretty fxcking long. His strong Emo vibes and general refusal to go along with any of Luffy’s bits seemingly for the sole sake of keeping up an image that not one present cared about really endured him to me. I’m pretty trad goth and he reminds me of those emo kids that refused to wear pink or be nice just because they thought it wasn’t hard core enough. Then as the show goes on he develops into one of those healthy goths who know that being an outsider is about showing vulnerability, kindness and maybe dressing in a lil pastel. I really like Law and his weird role in the story so far. Ok, my I love Law rants are done let's get to what we need to get to.

Law before One Piece:

Trafalgar D. Waterlaw was born in Fleavance. He lived a pretty happy normal life, a doctor father, nurse mother and cute baby sister. Until he was about 7 or 8? Around that time the town of fleavance started experiencing some unknown illness. I will say in our real world it is pretty similar to what silicosis actually does to you. Minus the Vitiligo and some other symptoms. In the world of One Piece its called amber lead poisoning and its almost completely fatal if not properly treated Which is hard to do on its own. But it's even harder in Law's case since the neighboring towns and probably the world government didn't really know what amber lead poisoning was or how it spread either. So they said fxck it, burn it down, kill everyone and call it a day. Problem solved!

So yeah, Law's family is dead, he escaped Flevance by hiding among corpses, and now he is slowly and painfully dying.

Then it gets worse, it gets so much worse before it gets better. He pulls a Tim Drake and forces his way into the DonQuixote Family by threatening to kill himself and everyone else with a bomb. Because seeing everyone you know and love die painfully and then have the government cover that up will do that to you. Doffy sees a lot of himself in Law and decides, “yeah, this’ll do”.

Doffys’ nicer but objectively less cool younger brother Corazon also sees a lot of Doffy in Law and decides to immediately put a stop to that shit. He slowly and secretly teaches Law how to enjoy at least some aspects of life. Shows him the first and true affection he’s been shown since his entire village died. It ‘s great. And then, TLDR, Corazon decides to betray Doffy, gets caught, stuff the Ope- Ope Fruit down Law's Throat so he can cure himself and then get shot to Death after saying I love you to Law for what is seemingly the first and last time. Also Sengokou was there.

We don’t really have a clear idea what Law did after this but we do know a few things.

He became a pirate with the sole purpose of taking down Doflamingo

He seems to have chosen a submarine as a pirate ship in order to better hide from Doflamingo and also make it harder to attack him. Because Doffy is a devil fruit user. Even though Law is also a devil fruit user and this puts him in extreme danger. Especially since...

He made a crew of people who are seemingly doctors 1st, friends 2nd and fighter 6th. Like none of Laws crew members appear to be even mildly good at fighting. I’m pretty sure Chopper could take most of them.

He names his crew the Heart Pirates after Cora. Which implies that Spanish, just like real world Spanish, is canon in One Piece. And that also reminds me that Law is talking like a nun in his flashback. Is Law catholic? Or was he raised catholic? Either way it adds to the uwu and the trauma of it all. If you know, you know.

He started working with Caesar Clown, a man he fxcking hates. In order to get closer to Doflamingos secrety secrets.

Pre-time Skip Law

I’m skipping when we see him in Sabaody because all we learn is that he's edgy and has a bear. When we see him again after Marineford it's actually kind of interesting because we learn he’s also first and foremost a doctor before being a pirate. He saves Luffys life because that's what doctors do and Luffy doesn’t seem like a bad dude.

Now the good shit.

Post Time Skip Law

My booooyyy! Love of my life, my sad lil uwu. Law is introduced as one of the coolest, coldest, scariest Warlords. He will literally rip your fxckin heart out. Evanescence playing in the background and all. Luffy immediately undermines thats by not thinking he’s any of those things and tying chopper to his head. But we got a whole episode and a half of thinking he was actually too cool for school. Like we all thought he Shanks when he’s actually just Mihawk. Like his cool but also pretty easy to bully if he likes you even a lil and will let you get away with a lot. It’s just hard to get him to like you, at first. So we get through punk hazard, see what a glass canon Law is and move to Dressrosa.

In between those two points we also see how sad Law is and how similar he is to both Robin and Nami in behavior. He was Robins darks sense of humor (from the trauma) and general introvertedness (trauma!?) with Namis greed (did i mention trauma). Which makes sense for the back story we learn about.

Dressrosa: The Holy Grail of Uwu Law

Law, Luffy and Doflamingo in Dressrosa is what happens when you put Nami and Robins backstory in a blender with crack cocaine and Katya (the drag queen). It’s just this sad tired uwu man,that came to commit murder suicide, trying and failing to accomplish that goal. Only to be figuratively and literally dragged along by a lunatic that barely knows him. Like Law went to Dresrosa not hoping he would die but assuming he would and not really caring. He didn't have an exit strategy because he didn’t think he was exiting. His plan was to use Luffy as a shield, Ceasar as bait and then murder suicide himself and Domflamingo out of existence. He was so desolate by the time his second fight with him ended. He had no hope, his plans had failed and he even dragged a bunch of innocent people into the crossfire. He would die, the people of Dressrosa would die, the Strawhats would suffer and maybe die and all for Laws’ fruitless revenge. Then Luffy stopped that foot. And Law decided to stay. And Luffy beat up Doffy. And Law was free. For the first time in over ten years Law was free.

Wano: Then He Stayed

Because he didn’t plan to make it this far. I laughed out loud when Law said they were enemies after Wano ended. Motherfxcker who? Law you don’t want to be pirate king. You barely want to be a pirate! Frankly at this point I think the only thing keeping Law from a non-deadly early retirement is Luffy, his bounty, and pride. And he can get rid (ignore) of two of those things (you won’t guess which!). Law fought and almost died in Wano to fulfill the deal he made with Luffy. Even though Luffy would not have begrudged him on reneging on that deal. Law told him it was made in bad faith and he had fxck all to gain from fighting Kaido. But he did it, he believed in Luffy and Luffy punched the problem away like always.

And this ends the story of the Saddest Uwu Boi, Trafalgar D. WaterLaw.

Part III: You Have to See What I’m Getting At.

Law’ backstory and character development is just that of any main woman character. Sad thing happened when he was a kid, putting him on the radar/ partially in debt to a bad man. He spent most of his life running from this bad man by working for/ with people he hated. He met Luffy. He tried to fight the bad man and system but didn’t have the strength of heart and/ or body to defeat him. Luffy punched the bad man real good and told Law he was pretty without makeup, he didn’t need it. Law was finally able to move freely as a person and decided to support Luffy in his immediate goals (and probably his long term ones too. Let's be honest he has nothing else to do) even though that puts him and his crew in even more danger. But now he knew, Luffy would punch that danger just as good as the previous bad man.

Honestly I don't know what this means or what purpose this knowledge serves. Like, this doesn’t change my opinion that lulaw will never be canon. This doesn’t change how I view Law as a character. This doesn’t change how I view Oda as a writer. This only serves the purpose of excising these thoughts from my head and putting them permanently on a website filled with people who will call me horrible things for even admitting I ship Luffy with anyone. So that's something I guess.

About Sanji:

Sanji is going through a weird, unexpected but good character transformation right now. His writing is becoming more Law/Robin-esque. Which is weird and unexpected but very good. I have thoughts on that but its for a different post. I don't think it undermines my point though because this shift is relatively recent, only happening in the Whole Cake island arc and not fully forming until near the end of Wano. This either means a shift in how Oda choses to write male characters or a shift in how he views Sanjis’ role in the narrative. Only time will tell.

*This unrelated but I’ m realizing Law shows just as much tiddy as Robin and Nami too.*

#trafalgar law #one piece #monkey d. luffy #vinsmoke sanji #feminism?#lulaw?#this isn't about shipping but i do talk about it so #long post #Oda and his women (that includes Law and maybe Sanji?)#just girly thoughts #just some thoughts #literary analysis?

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