#HNK Aechmea

[eyelessfog]

Frankenstein's Monster

[princessinyellow]

I support men's wrongs and women's wrongs.

[asherenjoysart]

[scarecrowsoup]

Mama there’s a girl behind you 😅

[proshipping-polls]

Do you ship it?

Reasons: Enemies - Manipulation - Abuse

Consider reblogging for a larger sample size!

Propaganda under the cut!

Propaganda:

"Cairngorm is actually given a good deal of freedom compared to their old life and does become happier. Aechmea did snap them out of an unreasonable dedication to their sibling’s last will and does push Cairngorm to consider their own desires before others’. While Cairngorm is initially clueless about what marriage entails, their marriage of 10220 years (ended when the world ended basically) has plenty of time for Cairngorm to figure things out and not in an isolated environment, and Aechmea actually explains his schemes to them. Aechmea had actually planned to just leave them alone in a mansion on a faraway moon shortly after the marriage, clearly stating that the marriage was a farce for his plans, only for Cairngorm to insist on staying with him and to follow him into nothingness."

Bonus:

"Everyone focuses on the grooming aspect but the genocide is also there lol. And oh yeah they’re immortal."

[whitewingsh]

Dear Hnk writers (or writers in general)

I want sm I want sm you can make. I need it, I crave it.

I beg you please, please! Never craved fanfic or even small scenario, one shot or sm like that in my life.

I'm desperate. Please I need more of it. I'm begging.

If you're willing to write something, anything like that please tag me or message me (even tho I'll be searching for it and I'll probably find your post that you'll write if you will, just please use tags if you able)

[tama1313]

(HNK spoilers!) Trying to explain why nobody likes Aechmea...

Disclaimer: Everytime I criticize something, I already expect someone to comes after me, telling "You shouldn't consume medias you clearly don't like!!" I DO love HNK! I love the characters, the plot, the meaning behind! If I didn't like it, I wouldn't be here, wasting my precious time at writing this.

After this premise, let's start!

(I apologize in advantages for this wall of words, but I need to say something...)

So, it's pretty obvious that at least the 95% of the active fandom doesn't like Aechmea and hoped for a punshment for his actions (that never happened)

Yet at least a big part of that group likes/enjoy the meaning and the plot of HNK, so it's also pretty obvious that the main problem is not in the storywriting, but into Aechmea and the Lunarians'.

One of the main themes of this manga is the criticism about the myth of being immortal, and tbh that's one of the things I like the most about hnk: the fact that we have plenty of representations throught the characters how being immortal is often only tiredsome and doesn't give any actual advantage, is something really interesting and often overlooked in any other medias (as far as I know).

I know a similar topic can be hard to discuss, expecially due to the many different cultures around the world, but there's nothing wrong to test/uses overlooked topics for your story! It can make it original and feeling "fresh" unlike many other more famous medias. Same goes with having morally grey characters (90% of character in hnk)!

However, to make everything works together fine, an hard work is needed otherwise most of the pubblic won't enjoy the final product (or at least, they'll feel dissatisfied).

And this is exactly what happened to the Lunarians character concept:

In just a few words, what we know about them is that they are the remains of human souls, that overtime got tired of this and all they want is simply stopping to exist (here's the whole thing about the praying machine, becoming nothing, etc...).

As said before, hnk criticize very much this topic, hence it's easy to understand Aechmeas's reasons... but only rationally

Rationally, any of us has understood what the author wanted to tell us about the lunarians, yet none of us like them as characters...

This is due the fact that the character of Aechmea lacks of simpathy: during the course of the story, besides a few pages where he tells the lunarians' past, there aren't any other events to make us, the pubblic, feeling simpathetic toward him and rooting for his action.

The lunarian are meant to be "misunderstood villains"?? You as the author must work on this so us the pubblic can feel it emotionally

This may seems meaningless but it's actually very important in the storytelling, even if said character doesn't represent the morals!

The main reason why people consumes medias nowadays is to find something to relate to (which can be characters, situatuions, backstories, etc...) otherwise medias such as cinemas, comics, mangas, etc... wouldn't be so popular

The only exceptions to this are the unmorally villains (the ones that commits so many disgusting actions that no one on earth could like them. Examples: Ozai from ATLA, The Emperor from Star Wars, Niragi from Alice in Borderland, etc...), but to this case, again, there should have happened more events that make us like Aechmea and Co.

Another important theme that follows strictly the main plot is the "unability to leave the past behind to try something new" therefore the Lunarians are also meant to be somehow the final solution to get free the gems from their phisical/"flawed bodies", but there wasn't anything that I could actually like about this:

the gems that should have represented the theme of "breaking free" better (Dia, Cairn, etc...) instead of getting better as characters, their development only got worse at the point to ending up being hated by most of the pubblic (Dia only joined the massacre of the other gems not even to help Phos, but only to have some emotional revenge over Bort. Cairn got only selfish, bragging and uncaring toward everyone, after they got "freed" from "Ghost's control". You can't tell me these are good things)

The only "escaped gem" that shows some likability throught their action is Benitoite (who should be only a boring secondary character) by trying to save the gem that they despise (an that in my opinion has a far stronger/deeper meaning that anything else having to do with the other gems, beside Padpa and Yellow development, ofc!) and this is very ironic, knowing that they had little screentime than the others.

The whole things about all the gems that didn't joined as lunarian at first now wants to become like them, sounds very iffy to me too (much like they were "forced/manipulated" by the others. You know, the "since everybody do this, I'm doing it too" trope, which is really contrasting with the theme that this story wants to show)

Lunarians are meant to be human, but ironically the "actual villains" (Kongo and Euclase) show to be much more humans than them (the unability/pain to not let go the past is a very human feeling and even if they are in the wrong, we are still able to like them at least a bit), which is something that lack in Aechmea's character:

On top of this, he is also full of contraddictions: he grinds all the gems he caught, but later he is seen even being actracted by them, at the point of keeping Ghost's arm and flirting with Phos and Cairn. He is shown to welcome the Admirabilis when they are in desperate need, but later he does agree with Phos to kidnap and uses them to collect all the gems shard (I'm not too sure about this point, because I don't remember very much that part, so feel free to correct me). And I'm pretty sure there are other topics/ about this.

In general, he should have been the "desperate anti-hero", the only certain thing about him is his manipulatoy behaviour and his obsession with the final goal (interrupted sometimes only by he and Cairn's cringey flirting), and this is not enough to deserve to be eradicated from the reality with anyone else.

The ending is acceptable, but Aechmea's fate is not. No matter how strong I try to accept it rationally: it doesn't feels right!

The Phos's character development is a different kind of this: the meaning of "you tried to satisfy everyone, you ended up being alone" and "you are perfect as you are, no need to fit with everyone" is not only true, but allows the pubblic to simphatyze with our protagonist very much. Phos is simpathetic! And it's very easy to see ourself in them: from us, people phisically/mentally disable that have this internal pain of not feeling accepted by the others, to simply people that are "different" and wants to be recognized as valid ("different" meaning anything that doesn't hurt anyone. Don't get me wrong).

Therefore I still love HNK ending despise everything and Phos has officially become one of my favourite protagonists ever!

Perhaps, the only right thing that could have been done with Aechmean, would have been that, while all the others become nothing, he being locked forever in a human body made out of flesh, bone and blood, able to decompose but unable to die (much like Rock's fate from Warriors Cats)

(Maybe this is a bit too sadistic, but for sure I would have liked it more)

Ok, I'm done! Once again, sorry for this wall of words and if you disagree with me or have other thoughts, let me know through reblog or comment

[shimamom]

hnk memes in chronological order

[asherenjoysbeingtransparent]

Aechmea, Cairngorm

[mieowkoid09]

Do what you will with this parallel

I can now tell why Phos was so jealous of Welegato and Aechmea's relationship. Adamant couldnt even tell Phos that he was worried about them

[badlydrawnhouseki]

Put him infront of the god[s]

im not caught up on hnk so i dont know if there were suddenly gods introduced or sometbing im sorry

[princessinyellow]

As a trans woman, I've obviously had many trans woman friends. Many of them have told me about how people suddenly disliked them after transitioning, and obviously I'm aware of the big groomer scare whipped up by far right bigots. I could never really relate to those issues on a personal level though, until I read Houseki No Kuni and saw how the fandom reacts to Cairngorm.

Reading the manga for the first time, I started to feel like I was reading my own story. Like Ichikawa had written my life, and yes that includes realizing that I was trans thanks to a creepy partner. And Ichikawa gave me a happily ever after! The character most like me gets everything I could ever want! (My ex wasn't even rich, popular, smart, or pretty)

Then I looked for what other fans think, and they fucking HATE it! They despise the happiness she gets, to the point of trying to avoid or deny it by making up grooming conspiracies and acting like she's the absolute worst character ever written. They wish she never transitioned, never got to be her true self. People will bring her up out of nowhere just to complain that she even exists.

On a certain level, I do get it. The moment is meant to be jarring. The story of HNK is that of Phos always almost finding what they wanted, then losing it at just the last minute. Their partner meets this skeezy guy they've been trying to deal with, then suddenly changes everything about herself to date him and starts being way more mean and yes, even a bit selfish.

Rather than accept and try to process this intentionally sudden shift, it seems most of the fandom has just gone hard into denial. It's like... Did you people even read the same manga as me? Do you not see how much happier she is living more feminine? Not perfectly happy, she's VERY often horrified, annoyed, and frustrated by things Aechmea says/does. But she's also happy a large portion of the time. UNLIKE with Phos, where she was almost always blatantly miserable. She was suicidal! Again, as a trans woman that's a VERY familiar feeling!!!

The negative reactions she gives Aechmea are actually very strong evidence against him completely manipulating every aspect of her personality btw. She shows NO hesitation in telling him off, insulting him, and doing things he doesn't want. Not exactly the hallmarks of someone whose entire identity and personality is the product of grooming or abuse, are they?

The fact that he kept her old arm and built her a super-shielded safehouse proves that he really loved her. Their entire relationship was not a ploy to pit her against Phos. Keeping the arm was a purely sentimental act that provides NO value in manipulation, and if anything risked pushing her away from how creepy it was.

Similarly, the eye replacements weren't mind control, because if you wanna start making assumptions like that then we can go all day just making up stuff that just straight up didn't happen in the story. Maybe the moon is made of cheese at that point.

Anyways Sensei Kongo LITERALLY groomed the gems but I don't see anyone denying the evident personalities of the others.

[ofstly]

A selection of sketches

[killything]

Fan art I drew of aechmea dying in a glue trap

[mikenogen]

So what was Land of The Lustrous trying to say about Humanity?

Land of The Lustrous was one hell of ride. I just caught up with the manga few days ago and I could say this is probably one of the greatest manga I've read. Ichikawa truly created a masterpiece.

This might be what I considered a perfect manga, there's so many great thing about the story, the character, the theme, and philosophy surrounding it.

But, I still can't put this in my top 10 manga. There's just things that still bugs me and confuse me about the story. That is:

What is the point of this all?

This is probably my biggest criticism of the story. In these last few chapters, humans were painted awfully. And what makes it worse is that the reason why Phos had to suffer was because he is becoming human, more precisely developing human emotions: wanting to change and seeking truth.

As the the story goes, Phos developed an urge to change his situation (stop the gem from being kidnapped by the Lunarians) and finally seeking truth. We all know that the other gems doesn't care about Kongo/Adamant's connection with the Lunarians. Phos is the only gem that wants to know the truth.

There's nothing wrong in wanting to change and seeking the truth. He just want the gems to stop suffering (at least in the beginning). But in the end he has to suffer from his curiosity. He has to suffer all the consequences while the gems he tried to protect lived and "died" peacefully.

Even Aechmea who manipulated Phos to the point of no return, who IMO displayed the worse of humanity, doesn't suffer any consequences. The only thing we got from him in the end is that he felt bad and sorry for Phos.

It kinda sucks that if you think about it, Phos wouldn't have to suffer and any of this wouldn't happen if he just did the encyclopedia job like he was told to.

In the end I'm really confuse of what message Ichikawa wants to send. Is it that Human is evil so they need to disappear? Is she trying to tell us that nothing matters so why even try to change anything? Is it wrong to find answers?

Is it wrong to be human?

I've stuck in my mind for a couple of days and it just won't go away. I just can't comprehend this, or maybe I just can't accept the message. Maybe because my ideals crashes with what Ishikawa believe or what this manga trying to tell.

Maybe, I need to reread some of the chapters. Maybe I missed something important that would eventually answer all of this question. Or probably I just need to wait a little until this story finally ended so I it finally answer my question.

Overall, I just want to get this out of my head. Still, I'm very grateful for Ichikawa Sensei for telling this story. May you enjoy your Suika game in peace.

side note: WHERE THE HELL IS SEASON 2