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whorrorgrl · 2 years ago

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What I Watched In January

First off... since my last post, I've gained a lot of new followers. Thank you all for even following my account, reading my reviews, and interacting with them. It's nice to know I'm living out my journalistic dreams and I appreciate it. Thank you.

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Ever since making this blog, I’ve been more conscious in watching shows and movies, especially when I’m a horror fanatic and haven’t even watched majority of the classics. So I made it a resolution. Throughout the year of 2023, I'll be watching majority of the horror classics that I've yet to see. I'll begin by making a "wrap up" As much as I love analyzing movies on here, not all of them can have their own individual post, and sometimes there’s not much to analyze from it. So, I’ll be making a wrap up every month of all I’ve watched; from shows, movies, books, etc. They'll mostly all be horror. Some might not be but I just wanted to post my thoughts on them.

1. The Barbarian (2022)

A young woman discovers that a rental home she booked is already occupied by a stranger. Against her better judgment, she decides to spend the night but soon discovers there’s a lot more to fear than just an unexpected house guest.

Hm.

People raved about this one. I couldn’t escape the Tiktoks, the tweets, or Youtubers that posted their reviews, outright spoilers, or suggestive memes that gave me an idea of what the movie's "twist" would be. I tried my best not to run into them, I really did. But I knew there would be a seven foot tall inbred character residing in the basement. What was a surprise was the strategic casting of Bill Skarsgard. I assumed the woman was his deformed mother and that he lured people in for whatever sinister reason, but I was surprised when the very creature bashed his head in. Would my experience have been slightly better had I not known? Maybe. Do I think it makes a difference? Not really.

I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. Truthfully, I wouldn’t rewatch it. I assumed it would be a gem that would bring a fresh take on horror. The way people went on about it, I expected more. We're used to the run of the mill movies that are kind of the same and all merge together, so I assumed this one would bring something new. Like a Jordan Peele-esque surprise. I just...I don't know.

The random story about Frank in the 80′s felt pointless. Granted, it explained why the creature exists but not much else. Why the creature was obsessed with motherhood is also a mystery. What the fuck was in that bottle? That was the true horror. The tunnels were also unnecessary. They run for miles beneath the shantytown and I don't think its existence was used to its greatest extent. The random sexual assault case with Justin Long's character AJ was just..there. I'm not quite sure of the connection and if it serves more than a tool to throw into the plot since everyone else is doing it in their movies. If there is a connection to them all, the pay off sucked. The homeless man who is just there to create some exposition for the protagonist...yeah. I just don’t really know what to make of it. I wanted to like it, I really did, but 5/10.

2. Death Note

High school student Light Yagami's life changes when he discovers a supernatural notebook that gives him the opportunity to play god.

I've tried for years to finish this anime and read all the mangas. It's a very information-dense manga and the anime is not that much different. I'm proud I finally was able to fully watch it and have no regrets. As a budding socialist, I find the parallels of disorderly power and what it does to those who possess it so overt in this show. When you have seemingly unlimited control over some sector of society, it inevitably becomes corrupt when gone unregulated. It doesn't matter how pure and righteous it began in the beginning, if gone unchecked, it can completely consume the holder's morals and have them act in ways that they probably wouldn't have had they not come into this power. It's human nature to indulge, and it's also human nature for that unmanageable indulgence to run rampant if gone unchecked.

You watch, almost like an unwilling participant, as Light expertly maneuvers through the accusations of being Kira by L, a lone detective with unorthodox deductive practices. It's funny because L does live up to the reputation the show establishes as one of the best detectives when he immediately suspects Light of being Kira. But the two are one in the same and keep each other on their toes so much that L isn't 100% sure if Light is Kira or not. What shocked me and I wasn't expecting was Light actually dying by the hands of Ren, a Shinogami of Misa, who then in turn dies for using her notebook to save a human. I honestly feel that if L hadn't died, Light would've never been revealed to be Kira. They were just too alike, besting each other at every turn. It was like a race that would be endless. N, the predecessor of L, was able to catch Light by the short and curlys and finally take him down along with a team of his own people.

Is Light an inherently bad person? I believe he's simply human (derogatory) with enough power than he knew what to do with. This is why democracy, a team of peers (like, say, a court) is required in carrying out such kinds of power. This is why Tyler Perry's one man team in his writer's room is contributing to the deterioration of the black community.

Majority of us would probably do the very same thing he did if given the power to control who dies and who lives - we just wouldn't admit it. We see it when we externalize that power into dieties and gods who seem to be the only ones justifiable in the mortal judgment of man. We see it in systems supportive of death row. We see it in every day capitalist societies that find ways to justify the bottom dwellers of their hierarchies. If handed a Shinogami notebook, we would probably see ourselves as a modern messenger that, too, have similar powers to part seas and walk on water and bring an entire world to its knees in the name of altruism. Light believes he is some earthbound god that the god (capitalized) bestowed the right to pass judgement on his fellow man. We see as he then murders innocent people who get in his way, refusing to compare himself to Misa's reckless murders of similar innocents. He feels he is righteous in turning his district, and soon all of Japan, into this dictatorship where not only could you be murdered for something as heinous as assault, but, when the boredom of order arose, could be dead for simply cheating on a test.

Light, just like his cop father, has an undying sense of justice. He's previously helped the police force on cases and have proven to have amazing deductive skills. We see this uncorrupted sense of justice when he temporarily relinquishes power of the death note, therefore losing his memory, and witness his interactions with the Task Force in catching Kira. With his memory, he was completely fine with using Misa's obsession with him to his benefit. Without his memory, the thought of it seemed immoral. With his memory, he justified the senseless killing of those he feels vindicated to judge. Without it, he believes no man is capable of such a power. To believe is to not know, whereas to know is to be sure. You are completely different in your beliefs, which are usually guesses, faith; knowledge could change that. No matter how smart of a boy he thinks he is, he's between the ages of 17-23 during the show's runtime. Very young. Very idiotic.

I knew he died in the end because of Death Parade's (2015) Yagami cameo, but the ending, despite it all, was very sad. Whether this evil laid dormant in him and would've been triggered by any portion of power, meeting Ryuk was the worst thing to happen to someone like Light. Not everyone can be a Guevara and Castro. 10/10.

3. The Invitation (2022)

After the death of her mother and having no other known relatives, Evie takes a DNA test and discovers a long-lost cousin she never knew she had. She is later invited to her newfound family's lavish wedding in the English country-side where she gets more than she bargained for.

I have an entire post dedicated to this movie, so I'm not gonna go too hard into how I feel on this movie because I don't want to be redundant. Overall, this was what I expected, even in the end. The 'lore of vampires did turn me off in this universe, but it was overall beautiful and could've done well with a lot more cinematic shots focused on the manor and its land. Just England in general. But, if you care, my review on the movie will go into deeper analysis and will be posted whenever. No hard dates. Link will be HERE when posted.

4. Vinland Saga (2019)

After the death of his father Thors, Thorfinn pursues a journey with his father's killer, skilled pirate Askeladd, in order to one day take revenge and end his life in a honorable dual.

I did not know this one was ongoing. I've had it in my list for years, however began it just as season two released with two episodes. As far as season one and season two all the way to episode 2 goes, I adored this show.

I knew it would be good. It's highly talked about but I never 100% knew what it was about, which I found helpful because it was an entire trip from start to finish.

I always criticize American shows like The Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars for having characters overstay their purpose at the expense of the plot. I watched, almost like I was sat front bench at a funeral, as PLL brought back a villain that would've gone down in history as one of the best, only to turn her into a mopey, sappy shell. Despite the fact that Klaus is an exceptional example of a character overstaying and actually benefitting the storyline (even earning his own spinoff), it completely changed the trajectory of the show's following series had the original plot been honored and the team had vanquished the seemingly unbeatable icon. Word on the street is, he was supposed to die right before the ritual when he was at his weakest. Because of this not coming to pass, prior plans were abandoned and TVD suffered in quality. They followed the trend of bigger being badder, abandoned established rules of their universe, and made mockery of the developments of their characters. The last two seasons of TVD were painful to get through. Actually, I wouldn't know. I stopped halfway through the second to last season and gave up.

Vinland Saga, much like majority of Japanese animes I've watched, are not afraid of hurting your feelings. If you love a character, say goodbye to them. It's a bloodbath, an amazing (from my own knowledge) depiction of the time period of vikings, the politics between the Danes, the English, the Welch, etc. I don't know much about white people drama that far back, nor have I ever had much interest, so this is a sneaky way of me blabbing about the religious politics in the 1000 AD period. I'll just leave out the part where my source is Makoto Yukimura.

Thorfinn is so blinded by the pursuit of rectifying his father's unfair death that it's created this narrow vision, blocking out all else that matters and simply focusing on Askeladd. Askeladd is one of the best fighters in the show, which is impossible for a baby like Thorfinn to challenge and actually win. So he stayed with the pirates that watched his father die, shadow behind a man that gave the orders to that death. He no longer thinks of his mother nor his sister, nor his people in Iceland. It doesn't matter. What matters is vengeance.

This, of course, is not what his father would've wanted if he were alive to advise it. Thorfinn even has a dream where his father, in the meadows of the land of Vinland, tells him this. But Thorfinn wants to be the one that ends Askeladd's life, so he does Askeladd's biddings and follows him wherever he and his group of bandits go for the better part of a decade. They've murdered countless people and destroyed many lands. We watch Thorfinn, once a sweet little boy, turn into a vicious murderer.

When Askeladd died by Canute of all people and Thorfinn holds him in his arms, willing the old man to stay alive so Thorfinn can be the one to finish him off, we watch as another father figure in his life dies in front of him. No matter how much resentment he had for Askeladd, somewhere in him he grew to care for the very man that killed his father.

I see a similarity between Askeladd and Thorfinn that I hope is not me reaching and actually purposeful. Askeladd is the bastard son of Olaf, a Norse warrior, his mother one of Olaf's many slaves. Upon the sick murder of his mother by Olaf, he is taken in and raised with his other half siblings. When Thors is murdered by Askeladd's signal, Thorfinn, for all intensive purposes, is an orphan...just like Askeladd was the moment his mother was slain before his eyes. Both boys watched their parents die and later worked closely with the murderer, father figures, until the window of opportunity for revenge opened. Where the boys differ is that Askeladd played the long game. He feigned love, he feigned compassion, he feigned dedication and loyalty to his father and his half siblings. He never got swept away in the emotions of being in close proximity with his royal family and was able to not only carry out the final blow in murdering his father but framed one of his half-brothers. He, from what we see, holds no remorse or regret for betraying his new family because they are the embodiment of his mother's death. He didn't challenge him to a dual or care for honor. He slayed Olaf in his sleep. Thorfinn values equality in this context. However, if given the opportunity, even on fair grounds, would Thorfinn have done the same? I believe he might've hesitated giving the final blow if he had somehow had the upper hand to Askeladd. If not, he would've killed Askeladd but it would've been Thors all over again. Askeladd is a vicious murderer, and no matter how savage Thorfinn is portrayed he is not that soulless. I don't believe he has what it take to slay his "father."

In season two, the two episodes I watched, Thorfinn is now a slave to a landowner, Leif feverishly looking for him, and has seemed to lose all the fight he had. He had no motivation, no purpose, no drive. He's going through the motions. Could this be from the loss of Askeladd, a father, or Askeladd, a missed vengeance? I don't know. But it's obvious it has to do with either or. I'm fascinated to know what will come of King (?) Canute and how he ties into the story, or our new protagonist, Einar.

9/10

5. Circle (2015)

Fifty strangers facing execution have to pick one person among them to live.

This is a rewatch.

If there is a post-apocalytic society that ever wanted to get an idea on how society now was ran, this is one of the shows I would play. The Platform (2019), Hunger Games (2012), Parasite (2019), The Hunt (2020) and a few other would be queued. It's simply just another work on how society is and who we view as important.

We have black, white, latino, Asian participants, etc. We also have people with U.S. citizenship, people without, people serving country, whether military or police force. We have old, young, and all in between. Lesbian, straight, pregnant, man, woman, the likes. They've all been abducted, chipped, and placed in a circle on a platform that will kill them if they move off of it. They have two minutes to decide who dies by popular vote. The entire movie is just seeing the changing dynamic as everyone argues on who deserves to get killed. Some volunteer, some are voted out, and others are murdered off if the vote takes too long or by others who want to better understand the function of the game. We see discrimination on pregnant women, a lesbian woman, an amputee, people within certain age ranges, and even someone potentially being a porn star. Opinions also influence the dynamic. A cop is murdered off for being racist towards another black participant, a Latino man is murdered off for beating on his girlfriend, a Hispanic man is almost murdered off for not speaking English, another is killed because he wants another participant in remission for cancer to die because it "might come back." We even see an atheist get killed off for offending a room full of majorly Christians. It's a lot, but you get the idea.

The overseeing aliens are doing an experiment to better understand humans and what they value the most - this is the assumption by Eric, a seemingly altruistic man. At the end of the show, when Eric, a character we least expected to pull a fast one on us, ends up murdering both a pregnant woman and a little girl (then murdering the fetus). He is deemed the final winner of the circle and wakes up outside of the ship. When he joins a group of onlookers (those who "won" their circle), it is mostly children and pregnant women.

The conversations reflect today's current climate perfectly. Police brutality and the profiling of minorities and black people we can see when The Cop argues about "all black people being the same." We even get a hint of this before with the kind of language he uses when arguing with the heavily tattooed Latino man, commenting that his cousin being murdered by cops is one less criminal on the street. The first people expected to go were elders because "they're on their way out." It shows us how agism makes people believe that the life of the elders don't matter compared to anyone else's. "Rich Guy" thinks it's a good idea to kill off "The Hispanic Man" because he doesn't speak English, therefore can't contribute to the conversation, yet had no qualms for "Silent Man" that outlived him without even voting or opening his mouth. There are probably ten more handfuls of things that I'm missing, but those were the most common ones.

I want to be a teacher and play this movie for my class. I'd have them do some essay on it to analyze the many moving pieces in the movie. It's great and I'm glad I took the time to rewatch it again.

10/10

6. Devil (2010)

Five strangers in an elevator ride encounter something unordinary when their elevator gets stuck. As strange things begin to happen, the strangers are now faced with the revelation of their secrets and transgression being the reason they're fated to die. One of them is the devil, and he's come to collect.

So this movie is Catholic as (ha!) Hell. I was confused in the end as to why confessing their deepest sins would have the Devil back off, but I'm not familiar with Catholicism so I better understood it after realizing the entire purpose of a confessional. It's very wild. To think you could murder a mother and son and still enter the gates of heaven so long as the confession hits air. Does it need to oxidize in order to meet god?

This is another rewatch, but I never knew M. Night Shaymalan was behind this. It makes sense given the twist, his signature plot device. I like plots where things are pre-destined and unavoidable. Everyone in that elevator was meant to be there; everyone watching is meant to witness it. Ramirez is meant to be the exposition for Det. Bowden, and in turn us, to understand why everything is happening. Bowden, who lost his wife and son to a drunk driver who only left an "I'm Sorry" note at the scene of the crime, is connected to the Mechanic, who holds the memory of being the drunk driver to murder a mother and son. The rest of the characters in the elevator are guilty of other Abrahamic sins they refuse to admit to, or, really, don't get a chance to before they die since they didn't stay alive enough to know the rules of the stake at hand. It's funny that a building full of lawyers is the place that the devil decides will be the site of retribution.

Loved it as much as I did the first time. 8/10.

7. Smile (2022)

After witnesses a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can't explain. As an overwhelming terror begins taking over her life, Rose must confront her troubling past in order to survive and escape her horrifying new reality.

This one's the same as Barbarian. They hyped it up so much to the point that I got excited to watch it...only to not like it so much.

It reminds me of Truth or Dare (2018) and It Follows (2014). It has the visuals of ToD with the reminiscent plot line of IF. All I can really say is the plot is very familiar to 2000's movies like Drag me to Hell (2009) and The Ring (2002). I did a review on Countdown (2019) that was also similar. Something horrific happens to the main character, it follows her with a limited time to live, she investigates (there's always a survivor or some witch with all the answers) ,then tries to defeat it...unsuccessfully. Whatever trick or remedy always fails.

I saw an analysis on the movie briefly that painted it out to be as deep as I honestly don't think it is. The movie clearly speaks on mental health and how this entity feeds on trauma and (if void of it) creates it, in order to gain access to you. I just don't think it touches on anything new or mainstreams a new layer on understanding trauma. It just gives me the energy of, "I've watched this movie before." I feel like this and the movies I described are so interchangeable, It Follows and The Ring actually being the superior. I just get tired of the story layout. I expect it from 2000's movies and most of the time the reason we like them is because they were the first introduction to this type of plot, but in 2023? Really? 4/10. I think I'm being harsh but that car scene with her sister alone is questionable.

8. The Midnight Meat Train (2008)

When struggling photographer Leon Kaufman, played by Bradley Cooper, meets the owner of a prominent art gallery, he sees a chance for the success that has, so far, eluded him. Determined to show the dark side of humanity for his debut showing, Leon crosses paths with Mahogany a serial killer who preys on late-night subway commuters. His fascination with Mahogany pulls him, and his lover, deep into an evil abyss.

Another rewatch!

I really should be watching new works, but I'm in an area that's not my home and it seems comforting watching movies and shows that I did back home, so...

Anyway, I love this movie. I forgot how good it is. I came across a critic on sex scenes in movies and that they're unnecessary towards the plot, but it's not entirely true. The Midnight Meat Train is always an example that comes to mind. Could they have interpreted their message any other way? Yeah. But that's all plot devices. Random, but I just wanted to push that out there.

Leon wants to find the ugly of society for his photographic work,. In a city like New York, that's cake. What always psyched me out was that he could take pictures of every day people in the city and just...sell them in a museum. No release form, no anything. There's always something so pervasive about photographers like this. I don't think the way this ending of the movie turned out is an even punishment for it. But I feel less concerned. That's what you get for being nosy.

This movie is supernatural, which gets a plus for me. Mahogany has been around for a while (Bella: "How long have you been 17?"). He takes the last train every day, murdering everyone left on it when the train takes an unscheduled turn down the bowels of the city to feed the creatures that reside below it. This is carried out by the conductor and detective Hadley at the police station who deter any reports. Why they keep the bus schedules from so long ago is a mystery to me. It seems like they're begging to be caught.

What scene I loved was when we, already witnessesing Mahogany's strength, see him almost lose to a man who managed to land a few punches. He's getting weaker, dying. Just before, Leon had proposed to his wife and in their celebration of the moment, they have sex. Leon is rough and more forceful. From the looks on Susan's face, this isn't their usual way. We're literally seeing Leon gain strength, strength he'll need to become Mahogany's predecessor. He doesn't know of his influence nor is he aware, but Susan never brings it up.

The 'lore is in this movie is amazing. Through exposition from the conductor after Leon wins his fight with Mahogany, killing him, we learn that the creatures that Mahogany kills thousands of people for for hundreds of years have lived beneath the city way before the subway was created. Mahogany was the butcher, and his job was to feed them every night to keep them from coming up and attacking the subway riders. The creation of the subway meant digging into the layers of the earth, opening up access from the creature's world to the human's. Having killed Mahogany, Leon will take his place. The conductor makes it seem as if Leon murdering Mahogany gave him the job, but he was definitely picked the second Mahogany showed weakness (maybe lack of motivation). Leon's tongue is ripped out by the conductor who then eats it. We see another clip of Leon on a train, the new butcher.

Such a good 'lore.

Apparently this movie wasn't marketed properly and was kind of thrown out there. It's always the amazing movies that get the worst marketing ever. If you've read my previous reviews, you know how I feel about Suckerpunch (2011) and Jennifer's Body (2009). 9/10

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Furthermore.....

There were all my reviews for the month of January. I'll be sure to upload my review on The Invitation ASAP to connect this this one. But if you have any suggestions for February that are horror, thriller, suspense, or all in one, do let me know and I'll check them out!

#smile #the invitation #circle #barbarian #death note #vinland saga #devil #the midnight meat train #horror movies #whorrorgrlreviews #reviews #movie #January #2023

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ohnominamino · 3 years ago

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An Essay on Love in Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time is a movie about love in all its forms. From the love of family, friends, and neighbors, to the compassion we feel for people we have never met. The movie reminds us that love is something we continuously gain, lose, and choose, again and again. Which love is greatest? In my opinion, the answer to that question is left up to interpretation. In this essay, I will give my own personal interpretation on certain character interactions and what I believe we are meant to take away from their Rebuild portrayals.

The character I will start with is one I’ve noticed the most outrage over from people who haven’t seen the movie and read out-of-context spoilers: Kaworu Nagisa.

Kaworu is a beloved character among many Evangelion fans, especially those who are members of the LGBT+ community. He is a canonical love interest of Shinji Ikari and I want to reassure people that this final movie does not change that fact. However, it does not make the couple blatantly endgame either. This skirting around the couple might make some fans upset, and while their feelings are completely valid, I do not think they fully understand the difficulties faced by LGBT+ people in Japan, nor do they understand the way that romance is typically conveyed in Japanese storytelling. (I recommend watching “Is ‘Yuri On Ice’ Good Gay Representation?” by James Somerton for more about storytelling nuances.)

What have we been shown about Shinji and Kaworu’s love? The good news is, anything you read into the original TV series and End of Evangelion is completely true for the Rebuilds— because Kaworu is the same Kaworu. This movie proves Evangelion is a single universe set on repeat, and that Kaworu and Shinji meet each other every loop, and in each, Kaworu is trying to make Shinji happy. Within the final movie, Shinji becomes aware of the loops and chooses to break the cycle and free Kaworu from his pain.

What does the relationship between Shinji and Kaworu teach us? I believe the purpose of their love is to show the audience that first, in the words of Kaji, “love has no gender.” Second, I believe Kaworu’s love in particular is a warning about basing your own happiness solely upon another person. There are parallels drawn between Gendo/Yui and Kaworu/Shinji. Gendo could not exist without Yui, and so he was willing to destroy the world to be reunited with her. For Kaworu, it was not the destruction of humanity, but the destruction of himself that defined his tragedy. What’s important within the final movie, in my opinion, is that Shinji does not reject Kaworu’s love. With the insight he’s gained from remembering past loops, he sees Kaworu’s love and appreciates him, but he also sees his suffering and wants to ease it. He helps Kaworu into a new world where he can seek his own happiness and find balance in his life (something his father did not have).

While Kaworu and Shinji are not seen as an explicit couple at the end of the movie, it’s significant to note that, when he sets Kaworu free, Shinji holds out his hand to Kaworu as a promise to stay together. Over the course of the movie, Shinji comes to accept his connection to others through accepting touch (in the form of hand holding and hugs from Rei, Misato, and Gendo); however, Kaworu is the only character in the movie who Shinji initiates physical contact with and that speaks to how much Kaworu means to him. This simple gesture, in my opinion, keeps the door open for Kaworu and Shinji to be a couple one day, after Kaworu has found more balance in his life.

If I were to write an entire essay about Kaworu, it would be titled, “Out of the Coffin: How the Resurrection of Kaworu Nagisa Buries the Tragic Lovers Trope” because this movie truly does just that.

Another potential love interest for Shinji for many years was Asuka; however, unlike with Kaworu, the nature of this relationship is not left up to interpretation by the end of the movie. Before her big final battle, Asuka tells Shinji, “I think I loved you back then” (regarding their time in middle school) and Shinji, during Instrumentality, tells Asuka, “Thank you for saying you loved me. I loved you too.” It is past tense.

What does this relationship teach us? It’s a beautiful way of showing that we can love people, and grow and learn, and let go when we no longer fit each other. Letting go is an integral part of life. Whereas other Instrumentality scenes involve touch, Asuka’s, mirroring the ending of End of Evangelion, has a distinct lack of touch. Shinji sits with his arms around his knees and Asuka turns her body away from him. He gives her his thanks and he sends her off to find her peace. Asuka and Shinji teach us that it’s okay to grow out of relationships. You can appreciate what they were to you at the time they happened and move on.

What about Rei? To be honest with you, this movie is less about Rei’s relationship with Shinji, and more about her relationship with the world. Rei teaches movie viewers about the simple pleasures of living. While Shinji is in mourning for the first quarter of the movie, Rei (as “Sokkuri”) is learning about crop growing and community, the wonder of babies and kittens, the joy of the bath after a long day of fruitful work, and the power of words and picture books. At the end of her life, she only regrets not having more time to spend with the people she loves. In Instrumentality, Shinji accepts her hand when it is offered to him, which I hope signifies he is ready to see life as she had come to during the final movie.

Rei teaches us that we can love living and to not take our limited time for granted.

Next, we move on to parent figures: Gendo and Misato. I think they both represent people ill suited to the role, who do the best they can despite it. Gendo, as mentioned for Kaworu above, is a warning about defining yourself by your relationship to another person (Ikari, afterall, is Yui’s name). He is also a lesson in how people mourn and how they can lash out. Misato, like Gendo, felt herself a poor parent, and while mourning the loss of Kaji, she gave up her child to be raised by other people, but, unlike Gendo, went forward to put all her energy into protecting humanity. Both of them reach out to hug Shinji within the movie and he accepts them where they are.

While I wouldn’t say the movie shows that Shinji forgives Gendo, it does show his making an effort to understand and make peace with what others have done. For Misato, it is fair to say we can still hope for a better future, even when it feels like everything is crumbling around us. Her self-sacrificing love for her son and the whole of humanity is what enables Shinji to then save the people he loves (via the spear of Gaius).

In the movie, we are also shown friendship. Touji, Hikari, and Kensuke are important members of their community who maintain open communication with those around them and respect others’ boundaries. They are patient and kind and represent the importance of being present. They teach us to meet people where they are and support them how we can, whether it’s giving them a warm meal or giving them space when they need it.

There are many more characters that could be talked about, but today I am going to end on Mari. Mari’s love is physical. She enjoys being in people’s personal bubbles. She cuddles Asuka and helps trim her hair, she gets into Gendo’s space at college, and at the end of the movie, she reaches out her hand to Shinji to help him stand up from his seat. Upon first glance, some viewers might take Mari and Shinji’s final scene to be romantic, but the reality of it is this: We do not, and cannot, know what kind of love she is meant to represent in his life.

We do not know Mari’s relationship with Shinji because they hardly interact in the movie. She clearly cares about him, but in my opinion, it comes from a place of duty and compassion— Mari was friends with Gendo and Yui. She has been there since he was born. (If we take the manga to be canon, then Mari even had romantic feelings towards his mother. Her hairstyle and glasses are from Yui. At the end of the movie, Mari has changed her hairstyle, which to me implies she has moved on, and “getting” with Shinji would be a thematic break.)

Additionally, their conversation, while flirty, is very much one that implies they haven’t seen each other for a while. Mari is someone who is very physically affectionate. With everyone. If someone ignores that and focuses on the fact she gets into Shinji’s space and claims that’s romantic, they better acknowledge it’s possibly romantic with Asuka, who we see far more intimacy with. When Mari flirts, Shinji flirts back and her initial reaction is surprise, “Wow, you’ve learned to talk back!” Her purpose is clear. She is there to remove the DSS choker from his neck.

Personally, I love that Mari is the one to close the movie, for the exact reason that we do not know her relationship with Shinji. For Mari to have an assigned role would be to say, “This kind of love is most important,” when the entire movie was spent showing us each love is of equal importance in the balance and building of our lives. (It’s wonderful to see those types of love embodied across the platform from Shinji at the end of the movie: Rei and Kaworu, who, just like in End of Evangelion, could signify the ability to connect with others and be loved.)

If you view Mari as a romantic love interest, then I think it speaks to the value that you as an individual give to romance rather than what the characters themselves are feeling. To me, Mari, the character who was created to “destroy Eva,” is a symbol of all love. When Shinji takes her offered hand and then pulls her to run into the new world, it’s a symbol of balance. The give and take of any kind of relationship.

We are the product of every relationship we have ever had, from our parents to the people we once loved, from our friendships to any other person we want to stay connected to. Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time is a story about these relationships. It is a story about love.

#rebuild of evangelion #kaworu nagisa #shinji ikari #asuka shikinami #mari makinami #rei ayanami #misato katsuragi #gendo ikari #thrice upon a time #kawoshin #essay #movie review #shinkawo

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alexiethymia · 3 years ago

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Jeanne Theories (but more like questions)

A dump for all my questions and theories about Jeanne. In the manga, the third chapter is named after her (Chapter 1 is Vanitas, while Chapter 2 is Noe). Arguably, you could say she’s the third most important character. Among all of the main characters, her past seems to be the one we know least about. This actually ties to my questions relating to vampires and their ages.

I am a bit confused about how aging works with vampires and how that reflects physically. We have Noe and Dominique who are chronologically the same age as Vanitas. Assuming nothing goes wrong, human Vanitas would die of old age (except we know that isn’t the case), while Noe and Dominique would look physically the same how many years later. Jeanne’s age wasn’t intentionally revealed because I think it ties in with the plot, but we know she’s centuries older than the main cast. She’s been with Ruthven since before the betrayal, and grew up with Chloe. This is where it gets confusing for me. Chloe became a vampire at four, but physically stopped aging at eleven years old. Jean Jaques was also a hidden vampire changed by Babel but he ended up growing and looking older than Chloe (at least physically). Same with Jeanne. She and Chloe met when Jeanne was younger than her, but Jeanne grew up to look like a young woman. I’m curious as to the difference as to why it was only Chloe who stopped growing physically at around eleven years old, although she’s older than Ruthven.

Jeanne’s link to Luna of the Blue Moon

I don’t think the line above is a throw-away line. Jeanne was of Ruthven’s time, and we find out that Luna had also seen her, specifically during the time of the Great War. She left that big of an impact on Luna that they would retell the story to Vanitas (and I presume Mikhail too), which had that much of impact on him as well.

They removed this context from the anime which makes it as if Vanitas heard of Jeanne through stories, except we know from the manga that it was more personal since he heard it from Luna.

Why exactly did Luna have admiration towards Jeanne? Was it because she was slaughtering Vampires of the Red Moon? But contrary to the rumors, recent chapters would show us that Luna didn’t seem to be a vengeful entity or hold ill-will toward Vampires of the Red Moon.

Luna was also probably the reason why Vanitas felt an initial connection with Jeanne. Like with his hourglass earring, the name, the book, the gloves, etc., despite their complicated past, Vanitas seems to be (consciously or unconsciously) maintaining a link with Luna.

Jeanne’s Slumber (possible connections with Sleeping Beauty)

Why was it necessary for Jeanne to sleep all this time? And why did she have to wake up now, at this exact moment in time? What exact thing does Ruthven need to use her for, and for what purpose? Because let’s admit it, Lord Ruthven is shady af.

It’s also ironic how Jeanne reads Sleeping Beauty and places Vanitas in the princess’ position, when she has more in common with the fairytale. Having to sleep for a hundred years, her mark is that of a rose with thorns evoking the imagery of ‘Briar Rose’ and the spindle, while her epithet ‘Hellfire Witch’ evokes imagery of the evil fairy who could turn into a dragon and breathe fire (admittedly I may be focusing on the Disney version too much).

We know she’s named after Jeanne d’Arc, a martyr who was burnt at the stake (please, please, let this not be foreshadowing of how she dies) hence the connection to her epithet ‘Hellfire Witch’, but even disregarding how vampires (and perhaps humans as well?) have true names, Vanitas says she was ‘bestowed’ a saintly name. We know she was adopted, and we don’t know the circumstances of her birth which are shrouded in mystery, but could Ruthven have been the one to grant the name ‘Jeanne’ to her?

If not for the fact that we already had Florifel and Eglantine in the first chapter, I would have thought Jeanne’s true name and malnomen if she gets one later would be connected to the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty.

Jeanne’s Malady

The vampires in Vanitas no Carte are different from the stereotypical portrayals of vampires, except for one - Jeanne. Jeanne has that uncontrollable desire to drink blood, and yet as of now, doesn’t appear to be a curse bearer. Based on her patchy memories, we can infer it was Ruthven who made her like this, is the one to supply her with her sketchy medicine, all the while forcing her to swear not to talk about it.

Is she in the same predicament as Loki, Luca’s older brother, forced to have the symptoms of a curse bearer and yet being prevented from being cured, by Ruthven? For what greater purpose? Why is it necessary for Loki to be a curse bearer? And more intriguing than that, why is he consenting to it? It all relates to the Queen somehow, something which no one is privy to except the Oriflamme Family.

Sleeping Lions

Who could Marquis Machina be referring to? Everyone in the Oriflamme family, and by extension Jeanne, have connections with the imagery of lions and fire (they seem to have an elemental affinity like how Luca displayed, except that Ruthven’s is black fire, which makes me wonder what color Loki’s flames would be if ever). Jeanne can’t seem to manipulate the World Formula like Ruthven and Veronica though. The flames come out of her gauntlet, Carpe Diem.

In relation to that, I think Misha’s patron is Marquis Machina. In the same way, Marquis Machina built Carpe Diem for Jeanne, I think he built Misha’s hand and dog for him. I mean Marquis Machina doesn’t seem to be working with Ruthven and Charlatan. His pieces seem to be the kin of the Blue Moon (Vanitas and Misha), the dhams, and the De Sade family. It could also be that the De Sade have their own agenda and are just using Marquis Machina or it’s just a mutual beneficial arrangement. If so, an eventually power struggle is bound to break out, possibly between the De Sade and the Oriflamme families, and poor Jeanne will be caught in the middle. Where then does the Shapeless One play into this? Perhaps a third faction? A silent observer? A loyalist to the queen? There’s still too little information to theorize.

Who could the Sleeping Lion Marquis Machina wants to see wake up be?

Jeanne, Faustina, Luna, and Naenia

It could just be a stylistic thing, but the long flowing light colored hair seem to be common among all of them.

In relation to Pandora Hearts and its themes of will and what measure is a person, what if the Jeanne that we know now is just a consciousness inhabiting a body (kind of like Oz and Jack), specifically the queen’s body to be exact. It would certainly be foreshadowing to when she says ‘promise to kill me when I’m no longer myself anymore’.

Alternatively, the current Jeanne we know may just be a vessel or a golem to house the Queen whose body has deteriorated. It certainly would explain why she was treated as a doll even in her earliest memories. ‘Jeanne’ isn’t supposed to exist.

Although it’s a long shot, since Ruthven has connections with Charlatan, and by extension Dr. Moreau, could ‘No. 70′ have been Jeanne? Again like I said, it’s a long shot. I think it’s likelier that No. 70 is a character we haven’t been introduced to yet.

Jeanne’s Parents

This is a Mochizuki work. Of course, there’s got to be something to it. Why exactly did they side with the humans so suddenly in the war? What horrible thing did the vampires do to have over a thousand of their kind turn against them? And yet the way it reads, rather than betray Ruthven, I think Jeanne’s parents along with all of the vampires who were slaughtered were sacrificial pawns. Maybe I’m just really biased against Ruthven, but I think he was the one to lead the rebellion of his students, and like Chloe, although he presents himself to be an ally of the current Vampire Monarchy, perhaps he’s just biding his time to get revenge for his students. In working with Charlatan, it’s vampires who he’s harming.

What greater purpose could he have in wanting to assassinate his own nephew or ally himself with a known vampire extermination unit of the Chasseurs (Gano and his ilk) or in killing so many vampires by having their true names corrupted?

Face to face with Noe, we see in their meeting that Noe says the exact same words Ruthven told Chloe when he was younger. Noe reminds Ruthven of his students, while Ruthven reminds Noe of his teacher. I’m not really sure where I’m going with this, but it seems like the Ruthven of now scorns his past self’s moderate and progressive ideals of vampires and humans living in harmony. He speaks of our side, your side, and Noe having to choose one or the other. And yet all of his collective actions at this point have served not to protect but rather harm vampire kind, which puts him in direct opposition to Vanitas who wants to save vampires.

In relation to Jeanne, there will be a boiling point. She’s loyal to Luca and she’s loyal to Ruthven. She’s incredibly fond of Dominique. As of now, she also loves Vanitas. And yet down the line, inevitably Luca and Ruthven will be on opposing sides, so I am curious to see how the betrayals and conflicting loyalties will play out.

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yaboylevi · 4 years ago

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Shingeki no Kyojin's Ending Interview (May 2021)

Translation commissioned by @goldsword07, DO NOT REPOST in full, always include credits and a link to this post if you use or share any parts of it.

Question: Congratulations on completing Shingeki no Kyojin’s serialization! How do you feel now that you have finished writing the final chapter?

Isayama: There’s still some work left to do when it comes to putting together the final manga volume*, so I don’t actually know how a “life without deadlines" feels like yet (laughs), but by publishing the final chapter, I feel like I can finally breathe again. However, there are still several things that need to be done.

(*Translator’s note: usually, putting together a volume includes: fixing drawing mistakes, sometimes even redrawing certain scenes if the author wasn’t satisfied with how they looked/their composition, fixing text (both wording or simply changing the Japanese characters used), drawing omake/extra pages, like the High School Caste fake previews, which usually take up 2 pages, and so on. So, of the 8 extra pages he mentions below, probably only 6 at max will be used to add new original story content.)

Q: What?! What else is there to be done?

Isayama: At first, the draft for the last page of the chapter was neatly divided into 5 panels, but I was feeling quite indecisive about it. At the time, that last page was a scene of 3 people running towards a tree on a hill. After having a meeting about that with Bakku-san and my other editors, I decided on a last-minute change, and I turned it into the one that is now published in Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. The limit for each printed chapter in Bessatsu Magazine was 51 pages, but since up to 8 extra pages can be added in manga volumes, I want to finish up everything that I couldn’t draw in the printed magazine and add it in the final manga volume.

Q: As for the serialization, which spanned 11 years and a half, have there been any changes about the way you think about mangas?

Isayama: Up until recently, I had drawn as if sexism wasn’t a thing, but when drawing the Marleyan military, which was comparatively more modern, if I had added, with no explanation whatsoever, female soldiers like I did for Paradis Island, it could’ve given the impression that Marley was quite a developed nation. It would’ve felt out of place. That’s why, as long as I was drawing a story set in an era of the past, I couldn’t draw female characters as part of the top brass of the military, because it would’ve meant acting as if there was no actual history of gender discrimination at the time.

It might be a story set in a fictitious world, but if you don’t connect it in some ways to the real world, it could end up becoming a story people cannot relate to.

Q: The unraveling of events that led to the final chapter has been quite shocking. Especially when it comes to Eren…

Isayama: I have been frenetically checking any and all reactions to that. There are as many honest opinions as there are people, and they’re all correct. With how I portrayed that part, it’s not so strange that it was interpreted as if Armin accepted the massacre. My portrayal was lacking. Armin didn’t approve of the despicable measures taken by Eren, but he ended up benefiting from the mass slaughter, regardless of his intentions. Armin, who couldn’t possibly understand Eren, faced their last farewell with a firm “Thank you for becoming a mass murderer for us”, essentially conveying how he himself was also an accomplice. He wanted to feel closer to Eren, even if just a little. I realized the final stage in particular had too difficult themes, and my portrayal was inadequate. I deeply regret that I wasn’t able to fully express them in the manga proper.

I’ve been drawing this manga for 11 years and a half, and when I completed the manuscript I truly believed that “everyone will be happy with this”. I was conceited. I apologize to those who have supported me until the end but have felt let down by the ending.

Q: During these 11 years and a half of serialization, have there been any memorable events?

Isayama: I’m happy that I could deepen the relationship with my assistants, as “manga friends”. When the serialization started, everyone was in their twenties, but now some of them are married and have even become parents, and we have become close family friends.

Q: Was the manga becoming an anime a memorable moment, too?

Isayama: The anime adaptation can certainly be considered another part of Shingeki no Kyojin. Lots of people got to know this story through watching the anime. Personally, it was refreshing for me too, as I could experience the story anew. In addition to that, the characters were taken out of my hands - in a good way - by the directors and voice actors, they began moving as independent “existences”. It was a first and interesting experience.

Q: Do you have a favorite scene?

Isayama: As far as drawings go, the scene I like the most is the one in chapter 104, “Victors”, when the Jaw Titan claws at the Attack Titan. Besides the fact that I feel like I can’t draw anything better than that, there also haven’t been that many action scenes with titans after chapter 104.

Q: Well then, what about your best chapter?

Isayama: One of them is chapter 71, “Bystander”. I feel like that chapter exceeded my abilities at the time. I like the way it doesn’t feel like “Shingeki no Kyojin”, as the spotlight was on the life of a single character who isn’t involved with the original story.

Q: Chapter 69, “Friends”, also depicts some characters’ personal life.

Isayama: I like that chapter, too! At the time of drawing its draft, I flattered myself with words such as “Uh? Aren’t I so mature?!”. Normally, I would draw the main story’s continuation, but in chapters 69 and 71’s case, it felt like I was drawing stories that were complete on their own.

Q: With the start of the Marley arc in chapter 91, “The other side of the ocean”, both titans and modern times’ weapons made an appearance in battle.

Isayama: That battle scene was the time I had the most fun while drawing mangas, I was in a state of total concentration and full energy.

Q: How has Shingeki no Kyojin been for you?

Isayama: It’s as if youth has come a bit late, a third of my life has been packed into this work. …Of course, there have been hard times, too, but it’s been a chapter of my life that normally you wouldn’t be able to experience and even now I struggle to think it was real. Although I’ve been spoiled by my readers, I had planned to draw all the while accepting even harsh opinions.

Q: Finally, a message to the readers, please!

Isayama: Through Shingeki no Kyojin, I could connect with an unfathomable number of people. I’ve been happy to share this time of my life with my readers, which is something that, if I had had a normal life, I would have never experienced.

Also, now that the serialization is over, I have been freed, so I want to stroll around a small city with a can of One Cup sake in one hand. That’s what I would call freedom.

#shingeki no kyojin #isayama hajime #armin arlert #eren yeager #snk official #snk translations #vivitranslates #snk spoilers

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0-racle-0-f-hylia · 3 years ago

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Who did the Hero of Time end up with?

In every Zelda game I could always find some reason, convenient or otherwise, for Zelink to be present- every game except one.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, 1998. Unlike games previous to it, it had several female love interests for Link. Saria, Ruto, Nabooru, Malon, and of course Zelda herself.

I never really considered the first three mentioned to be a good match for Link though.

Saria is a perpetual 10 year old

Ruto forced a 10 year old Link into an engagement with her (he didn’t even know what that was) and had him carry her around in her shoulders like he was her servant. (Not to mention if they did have any kids they’d be Zora, not Hylian)

Nabooru is at LEAST 7 years older than Link. I mean, she was an adult when they met and he was a little kid. (Also it is hinted at in game that she is Malon’s MOTHER)(think about that)

And then there was Malon. Initially, I didn’t think much of Malon to begin with. I mean, to me she was just the npc that gave you a horse, but whatever. I didn’t like her as a love interest for Link because I didn’t think she was good enough for him. I really HATE shallow-female-love-interest-characters that do nothing to support plot/Link and are only there to look pretty.

And a never gave Malon a second thought because it seemed to me that during the game, Link had a stronger connection to Zelda than he did Malon.

Zelda gave him the Ocarina of Time, an essential tool for his quest

Guided him after his seven year sleep as Sheik and taught him the teleportation songs

Helped him in the final battle against Ganon

Had a heartfelt goodbye as she sent him back to relive his childhood

To me, there are two legitimate reasons why people ship Malink. One being that, in the manga, Malon had a crush on Link and dreamed he was the “Prince” she was waiting for. Two, in Twilight Princess, Link, a descendant of the Hero of Time, lives in a ranch. So people naturally assume that since Malon herself is also a rancher, the Hero of aTime married Malon and hence all his descendants are ranchers.

Now, since the Manga isn’t canon, the first reason is void, but the second? It does seem pretty solid doesn’t it?

And for the longest time, I couldn’t find any reason to deny that, even if it made me want to pull my hair out because I couldn’t find anything to prove it was wrong.

Every Zelda theorist I knew, claimed that Malink was canon and I COULDN’T DISPUTE IT.

But after looking through both OOT, TP, and every trusted Zelda resource that I know-

I’ve come to the conclusion- that it is far more likely the Hero of time married Zelda not Malon.

I do find it believable that Malon or Talon founded Ordon village as it is the closest thing TP has to LonLon ranch, sharing many similarities in culture. And it is logical to think that Malon’s descendants would live in Ordon village.

So, in conclusion, the Hero of Twilight, descendant of the Hero of Time, is related to Malon because he lives in the ranch-centered village of Ordon!

Yes, it’s the perfect theory! No flaws in it whatsoever.

. . . except for one thing- TP Link- is not an Ordonian.

It’s a tiny detail most people seem to miss. In Twilight Princess, alongside all the other races of Hyrule, there are two kinds of humanoids:

Hyruleans: the non-magic people of Hyrule with round ears.

Hylians: with long ears, gifted with the ability to “hear the gods” and possess magical ability, as said in the Hyrule Historia.

Link is from the latter category, as he has long, pointed ears. And while it is possible one of his parents or grandparents was Ordonian, there is no way to prove this as he looks the same as any other Hylian. Meaning, it is likely that Link had no relation to the Ordonians by blood.

There are no other Hylians in Ordon besides Link, which leads me to conclude that Link’s parents were from castle town, the only other place in TP where Hylians reside.

In the beginning of the game, Rusl does say that Link has never been to Hyrule. But that merely implies that Link has ever been outside the village in his memory or since Rusl has known him.

Meaning his parents may have lived there when he was a baby. Or he was found/given to the Ordonians after his parents death or disappearance. Similar to how the Hero of Time was raised as Kokiri because his Hylian mother brought him to Kokiri forest and died soon after.

Epona is another factor that needs to be accounted for. It could be argued that as TP Link has a horse named Epona, this ties him to Malon, as the original Epona came from LonLon ranch. But it is a null point as the Hero of Time owned Epona even if he didn’t marry Malon and therefore his descendants, wether or not they are related to Malon, could have a horse that is related to, or named after Epona.

Now I’ve stated a couple reasons why I think Link didn’t marry Malon, but I haven’t given any reasons why the Hero of Time would marry Zelda. But I’m getting to that :)

One of the reasons why I believe the Hero of Time married Zelda is due to his appearance on TP, specifically, the Hero’s Shade.

Besides his ghostly, skeletal figure, the most intriguing thing about him is his armor. Comparing his elaborate armor to the much simpler armor of the guards or soldiers (not knights, as some people think) in Ocarina of Time, makes me believe he is much higher ranked , probably an esteemed Knight or something similar.

Which makes sense, considering he was the one who warned the king of Ganondorf’s treachery and possesses amazing swordsmanship skills. It is also hinted at in Hyrule Historia, that Link’s father was a knight as well, making Knighthood, Link’s inheritance.

Another detail I find interesting is, though faded, you can tell that the Hero’s Shade’s armor was once gold with red detailing. The armor’s color scheme, red and gold, is typically used by kings of Hyrule.

As seen in Wind Waker and the Minish cap. King Gustaf, King Daltus, and King Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule all wear red and gold.

Another peculiar detail about the Hero’s Shade’s armor is the shape of the breastplate resembling that of an owl’s head. Owls are associated with wisdom. In OOT, Zelda holds the triforce of WISDOM.

In TP, you can buy an item called magic armor in castletown. It’s design is reminiscent of Zelda’s appearance in the game. Including the design of the crown pauldrons and tassel. This makes me assume it once belonged to a prince of Hyrule. This is further backed up by its red and gold color scheme, colors associated with the king of Hyrule.

The most obvious connection between Hylian royalty and the Hero of time is concerning the magic armor. Specifically, the long, red cap included in the outfit. Compared to the rest of the armor Link gets in the game, the magic armor just doesn’t seem to fit.

The hero’s clothes have a green cap because it’s what the previous hero wore, Kokiri styled.

The Zora armor has a blue cap because it is made to resemble the Zora’s long head fin.

But the magic armor? Something made for royalty? In all the other games, no other Hylian royalty is depicted with a long cap, so where could this style have come from?

Well, if the Hero of Time married into the royal family, perhaps his unique style would have carried over into the traditional Hylian royalty get-up, as he become a prince. Creating an outfit that includes the royal colors, crown, tassel and the Hero of Time’s long cap.

On a side note, may I remind everyone that in Majorca’s Mask, when the Skull Kid was attempting to bring down the moon the first time, Link flashed back to his last moment with Zelda?

Sure he could have just been remembering the song of time and yes, the fact that he has Epona means he did go back to LonLon ranch to see Malon.

But one, he probably just went to LonLon to get his horse to travel with

And two, he didn’t flash back to his last moment with Malon, did he?

And three, the fact that he rembered how Zelda reminisced about their time together and he didn’t just recall the song of time just go’s to show how strongly he felt about their relationship.

#zelda #twilight princess #ocarina of time #zelda theory #zelink

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carriagelamp · 3 years ago

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Weirdly enough, I often find myself reading less in the summer, since I have more time than I do during the rest of the year to do other things. Also artfight has been eating up more than a bit of my free time! But here’s a collection a graphic novels I sat around on the hammock reading, and some novels I finished up...

(Everyone go read All Systems Red, holy crow guys)

A Whale of the Wild

The “sequel” to A Wolf Called Wander, though it doesn’t actually connect to the previous novel except in the stylistic/thematic sense. A Whale of the Wild is very much a standalone novel. And a pretty decent one! Personally, I think I liked Wolf more, but this one was a pleasant, informative read, with just the right amount of crushing dread sprinkled in. It’s about a young orca called Vega who is learning to become a new wayfinder for her pod but who still has a lot to learn, especially in an ocean that is becoming increasingly hostile to orcas and the other sealife that live alongside humans. When a devastating earthquake hits, Vega and her little brother find themselves separated from their family, lost in a now horrifyingly unfamiliar environment, and fighting starvation as the salmon that sustain them become more and more unreliable. It’s a desperate fight for survival as they search for food and their missing family. This book is written for a middle grade level, and does a really good job of putting the current environmental crisis into an animal’s perspective while giving the readers something to hope for.

The Adventure Zone: The Crystal Kingdom

Every July I eagerly anticipate the next Adventure Zone graphic novel. This one is for their fourth arc, The Crystal Kingdom, in which Magnus, Taako, and Merle respond to a SOS from a floating laboratory that is gradually being consumed by crystals and which threatens the entire world should it fall into the ocean. Carey Pietsch’s art continues to be absolutely fantastic, so beautifully and hilariously expressive, and this one delivers some great Merle moments, lots of Carey Fangbattle, and, of course, Kravtiz. Kravitz, my beloved…

Anyway, I obviously always recommend these. If you’ve never gotten into The Adventure Zone, I totally recommend either trying these graphic novels — or even better, just go listen to the podcast because it really is both hilarious and creates a shockingly good and heart-wrenching story by the end.

All Systems Red

I’ve seen The Murderbot Diaries on my dash occasionally, and it always looked interesting, but a friend’s recommendation finally compelled me to read the first novella of the series. And holy shit y’all. Absolutely the best book I’ve read this month, it’s amazing. Mind-blowingly good. Also, if you’re like me and want a good audiobook, it’s a nice three-hour listen, very chill!

Anyway, All Systems Red is about a Security Unit, an artificially created being that’s part-organic part-mechanical and all-company-owned-and-controlled. However, self-named “Murderbot” has managed to hack into the system that suppresses its own will, and is now coasting along, doing the least amount of work its job requires not to be noticed, while preferring to spend all its time watching the hours and hours of soap operas it has downloaded into its brain. And it’s a tolerable if somewhat dull life, until the science team that it's currently rented to is attacked and the whole mission goes pear-shaped. Suddenly Murderbot has to scramble to keep its humans alive… while its humans scramble with the realization that their “SecUnit” isn’t actually a mindless robot like they had all believed...

This story is both gripping and hilariously funny. Murderbot has such a unique voice and perspective and it’s an absolute pleasure to follow its story. I reallly need to read the next book...

Asterix and the Banquet

A classic. I was startled when I realized I hadn’t actually read this Asterix story… but hell I’m not gonna complain, it lets me read one of the originals for the first time again! In this Asterix volume, the Indomitable Gauls and the Romans end up arranging a bet — the Romans intend to keep them under siege, trapped in their village, while Asterix is confident that he can easily evade them… and will prove it by going on a tour around all of Gaul, collecting iconic foods from each region in order to return and put on a fine banquet. So we get a fantastic adventure in which Asterix and Obelix run all over the country, pursued the whole way, while making cheerful stops at the various eateries along the way. Also the first book Dogmatix shows up in! All around, a wonderful read, fun like all the best Asterix comics are.

Beauty Pop v4

A less impressive graphic novel. The first Beauty Pop is one of my guilty pleasure manga because… it really is pretty stupid but in the best possible ways. I mean, the whole thing is framed around hairstyling battles, like a shojo sports manga without the sports. It’s bonkers. Unfortunately, the series does not really manage to hold up, and it really begins to feel repetitive and dragging as it continues… as a lot of series like this do. *shrug* Unsurprising but still kinda disappointing I suppose. The building three-way romantic tension is mildly interesting if for no other reason than the main character Does Not Notice and Does Not Care about any of it, which is amusing and refreshing.

FRNCK v5

Now this series only gets better and better as it goes. This is the first book of the second arc, and somehow the danger just seems to be ramping up and up and up. The cavefamily have lost their home… as well as Léonard and Gargouille. Heartbroken, shocked, and angry, Franck is the one who ends up shouldering the blame for their presumed deaths as the others mourn. Things only get worse when Franck finds himself separated from the family, and in the territory of another tribe, this one hostile and cannibalistic...

Haikyuu v5

I continue to read this series because it continues to be charming… though it is beginning to feel, maybe, just a little repetitive. Kind of an inevitability with sports manga. But so far it continues to be good enough to overcome that. I’m not sure what I can say about this series that I haven’t already, so I’ll simply say it continues to be one of the most impressive sports manga I’ve read, and the author does a fantastic job of creating engaging characters, fleshed out teams, and really compelling relationships. I do genuinely adore all the main members of Crows, along with a number of characters from the rival teams as well. And of course it has some kickass volleyball scenes that are just drawn so dramatically they can’t help but take your breath away a little.

M*A*S*H Goes To Maine

Meh. The original book of the series was actually quite good in my opinion. This one… considerably less so. The first part I enjoyed more, since it was about Hawkeye, Trapper, Duke, and Oliver Jones trying to set up the FinestKind Clinic and Fishmarket in Crabapple Cove (which… is just the best premise I could have ever asked for). However, the book spends most of its time describing the quirky lives and times of other people living in the area and I… just… don’t care. It was funny at times but… I just don’t care. I wanted to hear more about the main cast. Also I found this book felt more racist and misogynistic than the first which also put me off :/ Wouldn’t bother if I were you. Go read the first book instead, or better yet just watch the TV show which is an obvious banger.

My Heart’s in the Highlands

I have had this on my “currently reading” list for so long but I’m officially giving up. It’s a really good book in theory but my god I can’t get over the pacing.

It’s about Lady Jane, a woman studying medicine in Edinburgh in 1888, and who suddenly finds herself back in the Highlands in the 13th century. Lost and confused, Jane is now at the mercy Clan Donald’s hospitality while she tries to adjust to this new world and hunts for her broken time machine. Fortunately, this hospitality include a burgeoning friendship with a red-haired warrior woman, Ainslie nic Dòmhnaill, who opens Jane’s eyes to the way the world could be.

Listen. It drives me nuts. This book should be completely up my alley, it has everything I like — IT HAS ALL OF ITS HISTORICAL FOOTNOTES CITED AT THE BACK, LITTLE EXTRA DETAILS ABOUT EVERY CHAPTER. THAT’S MY SHIT RIGHT THERE. DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I LIKE BEING ABLE TO GO OVER HISTORICAL DETAILS?? AND WELL RESEARCHED FOOTNOTES?? And yet it doesn’t. Fucking. Work for me. It has a kickass Scottish warrior lady as a love interest! It has a badass lady doctor! It has fish-out-of-water culture shock! But it also has a completely meandering plot, no sense of building tension, and a romance that just happens out of nowhere and feels completely unearned and uninteresting.

I would genuinely just rather read Outlander again, which I know has its own host of problems, but at least Outlander felt exciting and interesting and tense and funny. The romance built in fits and starts, it was complicated, and kept me interested. That book had me hooked (and has me hooked every time I reread it) whereas this book I’ve been sadly picking at for months like its a plate of overcooked spinach. This felt like an attempt at a queer, historically accurate knockoff which I would normally be super into but which just could not stick the landing.

Moomin on the Riviera

My first time actually reading anything from the Moomin canon. I have zero idea how to feel about it! It certainly is as feral as I’ve heard described! Overall, I think I enjoyed it but it sure made me feel strange emotions I didn’t know existed. I’m not even going to try to describe it. Read it if you want a batshit insane anti-capitalist comic.

Surviving the City

This was good in some areas, less good in others. It had a very interesting indigenous perspective on life in the modern city, the foster system, and The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women issue, which I’ve never seen handled in a book before. Something about the pacing did not completely click with me and I found myself getting easily distracted, but it’s definitely worth the read just to experience it and look at the issues it deals with through the characters’ (and author’s) eyes. It did give me a lot to think about and wrestle with, which is sometimes the best thing a book can give you.

Torchwood: Pack Animals

A really fun read, more so than I had ever expected! If you like Torchwood and want more stories about the team before everything goes to shit, this is perfect for that. It includes the entire cast, an interest mystery to be unravelled, lots of slavering monsters, Rhys being really wonderful and sweet (which I didn’t know I wanted until I read this book), and all the humour I expect from Torchwood. I had to send a lot of quotes to my long-suffering girlfriend who a) does not watch this show but b) needs to tolerate it because I find it too funny to keep to myself. It was good enough to make me go out another book of the series since this was the only one my library carried.

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kaizokuou-ni-naru · 5 years ago

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Some Reasons I Love One Piece

So I set up a poll to ask what I should do for my 4000 follower milestone, and something like 85% of the responses to my poll said you wanted me to do a compilation of stuff I love about One Piece! So hell yeah, get ready for me to talk about pirates for way too long (a sentence that could also serve as an accurate blog description).

Before that though, lemme just say- thank you all! Seriously! When I started this blog I figured I’d be extremely lucky to end up with like a thousand followers, and now I have four times that and it just keeps growing, which just constantly baffles and amazes me. I adore every one of you, and you’re providing me something fun and productive to do in quarantine, and I love you for that.

Anyways! Let’s talk good shit.

Let’s start with Luffy. The whole story starts with him, after all.

I love Luffy, just as a character. He’s one of my favorite protagonists in anything, ever, when ordinarily protagonist characters don’t really appeal to me all that much. I genuinely think he might be my favorite character in One Piece now that I sit down and really think about it. I love how unconventional of a main character he is- he actively shuns the idea of being a hero and is in fact the most chaotic neutral motherfucker on the planet, and yet he’s so friendly and loyal and fun that you straight up can’t not love him both in-universe and out.

I also love the Strawhats just in general, both as a group and individually. Found family is one of my all-time favorite story tropes, and they do it better than like, the vast majority of stories out there. They’re all so completely unique from each other and play off each other so well and they really do feel like a family. I love how often Oda just shows them fucking around and hanging out. (One of my only gripes with post-timeskip is how much time they spend split apart.) I think it says a lot about them that I struggled so much when someone asked me to rank the Strawhats a few months back and had to rearrange the list like four times. I just!! Love them all!!

One of my favorite things about One Piece is that it’s the story of Luffy’s rise, and that it occurs in a world that’s so solidly scaled and well-developed that all progress he makes actually feels tangible and impactful. Some of my favorite moments in One Piece are the ones where we can see how far he and the crew have come and see other people’s reactions. His reappearance at Sabaody after the timeskip is my favorite scene in the manga, full stop. His entrance at Marineford and all of the Decks of the World cover stories delight me for the same reason.

Speaking of the worldbuilding, god it’s so good? I think one of the greatest potential strengths of a long manga is that its just got so much time to establish and build on so much information, and sometimes that leads to mangaka kind of tying themselves in knots with too much lore and explanation, but Oda just fucking nails it.

I recently read a conversation during Zou where the Strawhats are talking to Inuarashi, Nekomamushi and the Wano folks about all their mutual acquaintances on the Roger Pirates- Brook asks about Crocus, Franky mentions Tom, etc- and I had a moment where I realized how in pretty much any other series all those connections might seem contrived, but in One Piece it works so well. So much time has been dedicated to establishing all these facts and characters and connections over years and hundreds of chapters that when they do come together, it just feels so satisfying.

Like, at Twin Cape Crocus mentions he was a ship’s doctor and then mentions Roger as the Strawhats leave, at Thriller Bark we find out he’s Brook’s friend, at Sabaody in conversation with Rayleigh we find out for sure which ship he was a doctor on and that he joined them to look for Brook’s crew- and it all just falls together so nicely. One Piece is maybe the strongest series I’ve ever read in terms of how it establishes its characters and concepts and how they all fit into the world and cross over and connect with each other. The world of One Piece is huge, but it also feels so alive and interconnected, and that’s just wonderful.

I love how hopeful One Piece is. I was talking to a friend a couple months ago who doesn’t watch it, and she kind of dismissed it as ‘a show where nobody dies.’ Which- setting aside the fact that that’s just not fucking true- my first response to that was, “So?” I think it’s nice that we can all know for pretty much certain that the Strawhats will achieve their dreams in the end. There’ll be a happy ending, and Luffy’s going to be Pirate King, we’ve known that from the start. The fun is in seeing how they get there.

Aside from a few specific cases, I also really like how Oda does his character writing just in general. The female characters in One Piece generally get a bad rap, largely from people who haven’t watched the show and judge it on the (admittedly exaggerated) artstyle, but fuck if I haven’t seen such a widely varied and developed and flawed female cast writing-wise since- I don’t even know. Oda does a really good job of giving his characters, both male and female, unique and memorable personalities, which is super fucking impressive considering just how many there are. Similarly, I’m impressed by how new characters are introduced without getting repetitive or annoying, and very often those characters are really fantastic. I could talk about all the different One Piece characters I love and why, but we would legitimately be here all day.

I also love how unlike a lot of long-running series like this, characters don’t just go away when their time in the spotlight is done. In just about any other series, characters like Buggy and Coby and Crocodile would just be gone and never to be heard from again after they’ve served their purpose. Instead you have the stupid clown villain from the second arc becoming a fucking shichibukai several hundred chapters later, and it makes sense in the context of the story! The whole concept of the cover stories works really well towards this aspect of One Piece, letting us see what all these other characters are up to without taking attention off the main story. This fits in with the interconnectedness I mentioned earlier, too.

And I like how (and I know there are people who will argue this, I have had them in my inbox, but I do not care) One Piece has stayed so strong for so long. I’ve mentioned before that both of my favorite big arcs are pre-timeskip- Alabasta, for the civil war storyline and great supporting cast and villains, and W7/Enies Lobby, for the epic emotional highs and lowers + ANOTHER great supporting cast. But like, I’ve been enjoying the more recent arcs just as much! Honestly, now that I’ve finished Dressrosa, I think it definitely ranks up there among my favorites as well, for how chaotic and fun and high-stakes the whole thing felt when I was binging through it. I’m only a few chapters into Whole Cake Island so far but it seems very promising, and I’m really excited to get to Wano from what I’ve seen of it.

I haven’t even really touched on the art yet, either. I know the artstyle turns some people off of the series, for how kind of cartoony it is sometimes and how different it is from most other series, but honestly I just love it. I wasn’t sure about it at the start but it grew on me very fast. Hell, I have a whole tag (which I should use more) dedicated just to appreciation of pretty panels.

And the action scenes in One Piece are so fun and expressive and creative and almost always at least a little silly just by the nature of Luffy’s powers. I don’t think I’ve ever been bored during a One Piece fight. And the splash pages are frequently just breathtaking. I’m a writing person, not an art person, so I’m bad at putting this kind of thing into words nearly as well, but- yeah. One Piece Art Good. (My friend Narramin also has a really, really good series of posts about how great the visual storytelling in OP is starting here that I highly recommend, if you’re interested.)

Finally, I think my favorite thing about One Piece is that it’s all one story, start to end. I kind of touched on this above with the worldbuilding thing, but you can see what a ridiculous degree of thought and planning Oda has put into his story, and how well everything comes together. It’s the main aspect that got me to give One Piece a try in the first place- I heard how good and thought-out the long term storytelling is, and I just eat that shit up. I don’t think I’ve ever had the level of trust in a creator to handle and end their story satisfyingly that I have in Oda. It’s a good feeling.

#took me so long to write this post that im now like #a third of the way to 5k #which is ridiculous #feel free to ask me to elaborate on any of this!!#i write better meta when i have a single topic to focus on fjdsh #which is one of the reasons this took so long #so yeah ask box open!!#jonny talks #one piece #not japanese #long post #opmeta

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butterflymar · 4 years ago

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DAY 2: FAVORITE BL DRAMA

I have quite a few... I can’t choose just one so bare with me lol

Life Senjou No Bokura

Synopsis According to MyDramaList: One day after school, the serious Ito and the child-like Nishi meet by chance, as each endeavors to remain walking on the sidewalk`s white line. As time goes by, Ito recognizes he is drawn to Nishi in a way that is new to him. Nishi, for his part, is frustrated that they only get to meet on the sidewalk. Ito decides to act upon his feelings and kisses a surprised Nishi, who agrees they need to walk side by side for a change. The sparks between them are undeniable as their relationship blossoms in high school, survives the college years, and matures into adulthood. A deeply moving work that bears witness to loving partners, whose unchanging feelings must co-exist within a world of changing realities.

My Personal Thoughts: I already wrote a review for this so I am going to re-share some of those thoughts here. This is one that I have watched countless times already. They went by the manga for mostly all of the episodes and I appreciated seeing that. They gave more context for certain details that may have been lost while reading the manga and translated it to screen. I think they depicted the age gaps well too. For 4 episodes only, I feel that they did a great job including the most important aspects. Actually now that I think of it, I would have loved to see more of them in their early 20s depicted on screen because that was like one of there honeymoon phases and I’m a hopeless romantic lol but that’s just a personal preference not complaining. Also, the show stopped at age 40 and they could have gone on throughout there entire lives but I understand why they chose not too. The manga is great as well!!! I think that the main actors depicted beautiful true love very well. They had amazing chemistry. Japanese BL’s have that special spark about them that I love. I also loved that it showed there relationship from high school till there later years. I don’t see that a lot with BL’s. They usually just stick to one time period. The aspect about them being connected by a line in relation to there love was a nice touch as well. I am glad that it has a happy ending as well. This is a pretty quick one to watch and a great one at that!!! If you haven’t watched it yet, I would highly recommend it!!!

I Told Sunset About You

Synopsis According to MyDramaList: Teh and Oh-aew were best friends until a boyhood line of reasoning turned them into rivals. Years later as they're preparing for university admissions, both pursuing interests in the field of Communication Arts, the two meet in a Chinese language class. Their reunion awakens complicated and unstable feelings.

My Personal Thoughts: Same as above, I already wrote a review for this so I am going to re-share some of those thoughts here. This is DEFINITELY one of my top BL shows of the year 2020. This is such a beautiful masterpiece of a show!!! I remember when the preview trailer first came out… I was already hooked!!! I was on the lookout for it and it did not disappoint me one bit when it finally started. I looked forward to seeing it every week. It made me feel all of the emotions. I was up here sitting in my room crying over everything. I don’t think any other BL has made me this emotional before in my life. The two lead actors really DELIVERED!!! I could feel every single stare, every single body movement, and every single touch. You could cut the TENSION with a knife!!! No one couldn’t tell me that there wasn’t a magnetic true love between these two. I know this sounds cliche but it's like they were destined to be together from when they were childhood friends. Also, I would love to see them in future projects!!! The cinematography in this show is TOP FREAKIN NOTCH!!! Every single scene is just so beautifully shot. The cinematography alone makes me want to cry lol I saw somewhere that someone said the filming of the show reminded them of an indie film and I totally agree!!! The writing and directing on this show was impeccable to me!!! No cringy dialogue and every single line served its purpose well. This is movie grade writing. I also wanted to quickly just say that I loved the attention and callback to details throughout like with the tutoring book that Teh made for Oh-aew that was left empty by the end of episode 4, the flower that was supposed to be colored the same as Tan’s garment but Teh colored it red because he was thinking of Oh-aew, the rubbing of Oh-aew’s back when he sniffles, the references to Teh’s favorite actor, and the use of Chinese phrases to get meaning across. I could go on and on but wow I just loved how they really connected all of the details throughout. I can’t wait for Season 2!!!

Theory of Love

Synopsis According to MyDramaList: Third is a filmology major and a member of the Savage Team along with his best friends Two, Bone, and Khai, but he has a secret. Third has been secretly in love with Khai for years. For three years, he has kept his secret love in his heart, silently supporting and loving Khai while knowing there is absolutely no future between them since Khai is as straight as a streetlight pole and also an absolute player. To make matters worse, Khai has a "no dating friends" policy. How long can Third love Khai silently while watching Khai bring a different girl home every night? Third has tried to see Khai as just a friend. But has failed time and time again. Because as easy as it is to fall in love, to stop is just as hard. Maybe even harder. That is until Third learns a secret that breaks his heart completely. But when Third decides to stop, Khai decides to start.

My Personal Thoughts: As sad as this show can make me feel at times, I love rewatching it. I still to this day think that it is one of the most well written BL’s that I have seen. Everything flows nicely and everything connects. Your not left wondering how you got from point A to point B. I thought the show had great character development especially when it came to Khai’s character towards the end of series. I know a lot of people had mixed feelings about his character due to how careless and dare I say stupid he acted at times but if he can make the audience hate him that much as a character... I would say he is doing something right!!! Gun’s acting never fails to amaze me!!! He really is one of the best actors I have seen. I know he had to be drained from all of that crying that he did throughout the show though lol It just goes to show that when you truly love someone you can’t just stop what you are feeling inside that easily no matter how the other person feels about you or treats you. As the old saying goes, love is blind. I also loved the friend group as well and Two and Bones side stories with the teacher and crush from school. They added to the shows greatness and didn’t take away from it. The friendship dynamics throughout the show was I feel something that really kept me engaged. The cast acted well together. There was no awkwardness or hesitation. I feel everyone bought there best for this drama. They incorporated the movie references so cleverly and I love how the title of each episode was the title of a real romance film. Just the overall theme of film was very intriguing to me. This drama left me filled with heartache and a rollercoaster of emotions but the ending is worth it!!!

HIStory3: Make Our Days Count

Synopsis According to MyDramaList: At first glance, high schoolers Xiang Hao Ting and Yu Xi Gu appear to be polar opposites: While Xiang Hao Ting is an outgoing, hot-headed extravert and some-time bully, Yu Xi Gu prefers to keep a low profile and focus on his schoolwork. They seem bound for totally different futures – the bookish Yu Xi Gu looks destined for academic success, while life is just a long popularity contest for Xiang Hao Ting. But a quirk of fate – and a crucial intervention by a female schoolmate – results in the two young men’s paths crossing. But there is more to both young men than first meets the eye. Xiang Hao Ting was not always this way. He started out as a perfect student until he discovered the joys of going off the rails. And Yu Xi Gu has a reason for being so aloof and studious: His parents died in a traffic accident while he was younger, and he is being fostered by his aunt. As such, he works hard to get good grades in an effort to win a scholarship and ease the financial burden on his relatives. Yu Xi Gu also works part-time at a convenience store, where his manager Liu Zhi Gang has developed a crush on a man he has met at the gym. Back at school, meanwhile, Yu Xi Gu and Xiang Hao Ting find themselves drawn together, and passions ignite. The former notices that he has the unique ability to bring Yu Xi Gu out of his shell – and becomes intent on melting his cold-as-ice exterior. What will happen when their two worlds collide? And can love be the catalyst that helps bring these two unlikely students together – as their high school days draw to a close?

My Personal Thoughts: I will stand by this notion for all of my days but this show is one of the best shows I have seen PERIOD!!! Not even best BL shows I have seen but just in general. It highkey saddens me that it is rated at an 8.1 right now on MyDramaList due to how it ended when other than that... it’s a top notch show. This was one that I watched as it was airing and I would get excited to see it every week. My clown self should have known by the title “Make Our Days Count” that some mess was about to occur but I didn’t pick up on it. Now, I just disregard the last episode (WE DON’T KNOW HER!!!). You can just tell that they had a great budget for this series. The production was on point. It had great cinematography, great storylines, and it felt realistic too. The main couples acting was OFF THE CHARTS AMAZING. I loved the whole opposites attract thing going on. Although the show was set in high school... it almost didn’t feel like it nor did it have those typical clichés going on. I liked how it dealt with topic of LGBTQ+ acceptance as well. I wasn’t so sure about the side couples relationship at first but I grew to love them as time went on. One last thing I wanted to point out was that even though I am always looking for a happy ending... I learned from this show that not everyone can get a happy ending. That’s not how life works sadly. In real life, there have been a lot of people who were truly in love and lost there partners tragically. Although it may be hard to accept the outcome, it is something that happens in real life. This is a drama that you appreciate even more as time goes on. It truly is a gem of a series!!!

TharnType

Synopsis According to MyDramaList: Type Thiwat is a handsome freshman with a passion for football and spicy food. Although he’s a friendly boy, he hates gay people because, in his childhood, he was molested by a man. His life turns upside down when the new academic year of college brings along a charismatic roommate, Tharn Kirigun. Tharn is a gorgeous, compassionate music major, who is also openly gay. When Type learns this, he is determined to make Tharn leave the dorm, as he won't live with a gay person. Tharn is equally determined not to give into Type's homophobic tantrums. With a gay guy and a homophobic guy that have to share a small space together for the rest of the year — what can possibly be the outcome of their story? Hatred? Or maybe love?

My Personal Thoughts: *Goes to hide in a corner* I know this drama is problematic and controversial as hell but it’s like a train wreck that you can’t turn away from. What truly carries the show I feel is the chemistry between MewGulf. I don’t think I would have enjoyed the series as much if other actors were cast in those roles. They just exude confidence, passion, love, and lust. In terms of the storyline, I found it to be a chaotic occurrence of situations where I just had to know what was going to go on next. Everything that occurred had me intrigued for the next episode and so on and so forth. I loved Type’s character development. One quick thing I want to touch on was I know there were a lot of problematic things that happened which I will touch on at a later date but one thing I wish people were more understanding of was Type’s outbursts, thoughts, and feelings in certain situations. He was a victim of sexual assault so I felt the way he handled certain things was in response to what he had gone through as child and I think some viewers kind of missed that and were almost too harsh on him. Everyone processes and deals with trauma differently. This show went through so many twists and turns and I honestly lived for it especially the shocker towards the end of the series. I didn’t see that one coming at all!!! Despite all of its flaws, this show still holds a special place in my heart.

Honorable Mention:

Cherry Magic: As of today, this show has 4 episodes left and I think I am just going to come out and say that THIS IS MY FAVORITE BL OF THE YEAR!!! It’s a beautiful Japanese BL and I rewatch the old episodes while I wait for new ones to come out alot. It’s such a fluffy, heartwarming, and precious Bl series!!! I love it to pieces!!!

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chibivesicle · 4 years ago

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Golden Kamuy chapters 269-270. The cliff notes meta edition.

This will be a less detailed meta as I’ve just been spread too thin recently and the current events of the manga have been underwhelming to me, making it harder to engage with the content.

Having an online presence has been a double-edged sword for me and as we mark 1 year of pandemic life, it is hard for me to invest as much time in it since I have to do so many more things online for work. Sitting down to write meta isn’t as fun and relaxing as it once was when you have 7 zoom meetings over the course of several days. Add on the fact that I have not left the county were I live since February 2020 nor I have a seen any of my family or friends . . . yeah writing meta isn’t a much of a priority. As an aside, I think more people need to be stating that being ‘productive’ and ‘leveling up’ during these times is either unrealistic and even more damaging by creating completely unrealistic expectations of how we should respond to things.

[steps off of soapbox]

Chapter 269, quickly shows us how the chaos that Tsurumi unleashed on the divided Ainu resulted in a tragedy and Wilk is the only one who managed to survive the massacre.

Tsurumi is able to sort out that there were eight Ainu, and that Wilk staged his own death by working quickly to conceal the identity of the dead partially by removing the eyes.

Kikuta is the first one to find the man who dies soon after discovery and Tsurumi seems to be in awe of Wilk’s escape plan.

KIkuta also shows he’s a more empathetic individual worried about how they contributed to the death of Ariko’s father. Did Tsurumi push Kikuta away after the war since he knew Kikuta would feel bad about doing the ‘things’ needed to be done for the gold?

It further highlights that Usami and Kikuta were never on the same page. I do like how the following page shows both Kikuta and Ariko continuing to tie the narrative that Kikuta feels a connection with the younger man. Shiraishi and Sugimoto spot Ariko, calling him Ariko Ipopte, which is an interesting choice to use a hybrid name for him. Kikuta uses his full Japanese name, while these men use a mix.

The final panel showing a reflective looking Kikuta walking alone in the rain really emotional connects with the grief surrounding all of this unnecessary death. Tsurumi sought to be a leader of men by giving them love and being the stand in father for them. I think that Kikuta is the character who is the natural and honest father figure - we know he has a deep relationship with Ariko and we also know he has some sort of connection to Sugimoto.

Tsurumi continues his ‘discussion’ of events with Asirpa and Sofia. Tsurumi has such a complicated relationship with Wilk. He’s both in awe of the man’s determination to survive but at the same time he wanted him destroyed at such a great cost.

Tsurumi really lays on the guilt to Asirpa that Wilk did everything to protect her - under the assumption that she’d be unfairly treated if her father had killed all of those men. Perhaps that is the case, perhaps not. It seems contradictory to his own actions where he gave Ogin and the Lighting Bandit’s child to Huci to care for it. He has this weird approach to the impact of the ‘sins of the parents’ on the child . . .

Tsurumi doggedly pursues Wilk and they immediately recognize each other and he flees onto the lake with his canoe. By shooting at Wilk, he forces him to capsize the canoe and items sink down into the lake. Honestly, I’m not sure what Tsurumi was hoping to achieve by this - make him swim so that he could capture him more easily. We don’t know how skilled Tsurumi is with a rifle and I’d be more concerned about killing Wilk and loosing the information. It seems reckless in my opinion since the ultimate outcome was Wilk appealing to Inudou thus achieving protection from the 7th.

I think Tsurumi was fueled and blinded by his emotions which only made things more complicated and drew the hunt for the gold out even longer (to the present time).

The rest of the chapter explains how Kiro felt. First, the grief at the loss of Wilk, trying to move on my having a family, but ultimately coming back to realize that Wilk was still alive after the war. Really, Wilk underestimated Kiro’s intelligence since he figured out that Kimuspu was the seventh man, not Wilk. As a Kiro fan, I of course favor him, but he really showed he’s a good leader and actually willing to take risks. What is most important is that having a family only lead him to want to fight for them - even more.

Kiro sees the flaw in Wilk’s plan of Hokkaido as an independent unit as a place for various native peoples, while ignoring all of the logistical issues that Kiro already pointed out to him previously. The Far Eastern Federation has the flaw that it is connected by land to Russia, but would me much harder to lay siege to. But Hokkaido as an island could easily be cut off - and with not much industry within itself, you still can’t do a whole lot with all of those raw materials if you can get industrial technologies from elsewhere. If it were blockaded they’d be screwed. Sure, you wouldn’t starve, but you wouldn’t be able to advance quickly. All that gold and nowhere to spend it.

Thus, Kiro believed he was acting in regard to their original goals and had no choice but to remove Wilk from the equation. As Wilk had become the very wolf that he had observed as a child and played with its pelt. That is some next level foreshadowing by Noda, if I do say so.

In the end, Kiro remained much more committed to their fight as partisans than Wilk did. You have to give it to him, he stuck to his original plans and he died believing he did the right thing. Now, looking back at how upset Sofia was when she first saw Kiro, we know why she slapped him in the first place. I’ll take it to mean that she was upset by Kiro’s actions but at the same time understood what he did. But then Sofia let it go, as she would soon go on to also speak fondly of Wilk and his desire to be like the wolves. Therefore, I don’t think Sofia was completely angry with Kiro, instead she knew the decision that was made and perhaps, she too, would have understood that there were divided in their goals once they moved on with their lives.

The next chapter starts off with the bottle mobile boys and Ariko on horseback as they determine what to do next. Sugimoto is amazingly still not rushing in like a maniac which is out of character for him. Are you okay Sugimoto? Or have your encounters with Kikuta and Boutarou begun to have an impact on you without being aware of it?

The settle on letting Ariko go ahead, even though he doesn’t answer their question. I’d say he doesn’t have a clue what side he is on. He likely cares about Kikuta. But he wants to see Asirpa succeed since he feels ashamed by his own approach towards life in Hokkaido as an Ainu.

Off he goes alone to figure out how to rescue Asirpa. Really, a terrible idea since sure he’s a tough guy, but we don’t know what his fighting skills are like in the first place. . . . At least he isn’t a hothead, so sending him in alone will be less of a disaster than Sugimoto.

The action returns to Tsurumi trying to turn up the heat on Asirpa. She asks him about Kiro’s fingerprints at the crime scene - a lie that Tsurumi fed to Inkarmat to get her to help him. He writes it off as him doing a good thing for her - she closed a chapter of her life - then again - he doesn’t know that Koito let Tanigaki and Inkarmat escape. The next several pages are a slow psychological technique that builds up to Tsurumi reveling that the bullet that killed Fina and Olga had been from Wilk’s pistol. Dum da duuum!

So, according to Tsurumi it is Wilk’s fault all those Ainu died. That he should have never left Russia for Japan. That even his time in Russia resulted in Fina and Olga’s deaths. Everything is Wilk’s fault!

This page ends with how Tsukishima let go of the woman he had loved and his memory of her - yet Tsurumi kept the bullet and the finger bones of his family! We can see that Tsukishima is barely holding it together, so upset by this knowledge!

As a master manipulator of people, Tsurumi thanks Sofia for what she has contributed to the story - he can help her feel better by telling her that she did not kill his wife and child. . . . on no, he only uses it as a way to add even more pressure on Asirpa!

To Tsurumi, Asirpa is no child, she is the direct tie to all of his anger and pain and his twisted soul.

I mean, he kept Wilk’s skinned face and he’s using it to get her to break! What is more interesting is after the initial shock, Sofia quickly regains her calm while Asirpa - well she’s clearly buying into Tsurumi’s explanation of things.

She is thinking about how her father ‘turned’ Tsurumi into the person he is before her . . . . I’d be willing to say that Wilk influenced Tsurumi - as much as Tsurumi influenced Wilk. Yet, Tsurumi as a human being is responsible for his decisions and he alone can respond to them in a constructive or destructive way. It is clear Tsurumi went for the latter.

Sofia’s calm in this pressure situation is clear as she asks him if it was for revenge. She’s a smart woman and has lived long enough to see these types of things through.

Tsukishima is ready to kill Tsurumi - it would make him a hypocritical leader - having him let go of his own earthly attachments only to serve a man bent on revenge. Koito is listening closely as well, unsure of how he’s going to respond.

Tsurumi makes it clear he could have killed Asirpa any number of times. I think this is another case of Tsurumi playing a verbal slight of hand. He’s asked if he’s doing this out of revenge, and his answer is - I haven’t killed her yet. Gee, based on how messed up you are Tsurumi, we both know that there is more than one way to take revenge. Killing someone in retribution is one way to take revenge or the worse way - make their life a living hell. It is clear that Tsurumi is going for the second one to break Asirpa.

There is a dramatic two page spread as he explains that he is doing this for Japan - and the implied increasing militaristic activities of the late Meiji government to expand their domain.

If feels - like a performance to me as a reader. The pages are remarkably light in tone giving it an optimistic and feeling of purity. Yet, Tsurumi is a broken and corrupt man . . . cruel in his intentions. He only says this as a way to combat anyone who were to contradict him . . . .

It is too perfect - too convenient - too good for Koito and Tsukishima to believe in my own opinion. As both of the men seem relived to have heard these very words as a type of closing statement.

Tsukishima looks relived that Tsurumi is continuing on the behalf of all of their fallen comrades and families. Again, this sounds too perfect like Tsurumi’s speech isn’t for Asirpa nor Sofia, it is for Koito and Tsukishima who are eavesdropping. Since Tsurumi is a next level planner/manipulator he likely came up with this well rehearsed speech to placate all issues around his inability to move on from his family’s death. It makes him look mature and that he’d moved on from his more basic human needs.

Koito looks like he’s trying really hard to believe Tsurumi and how Tsurumi’s words would comfort Tsukishima. But is that how you really feel Koito? That face looks - so - fake. Like Koito is overdoing it again and is actually unsure how to react. So, he he looks elated, Tsukishima will feel better - or something.

What I really want to know is why they are just there hiding and watching Tsurumi? If they are wanting to think independently and beyond Tsurumi why do it while hiding? It seems no matter what either man may think, they are still under Tsurumi’s thumb as far as how they react to his behavior and the current events.

And I’m gonna have to hold things here while I find a way to read the more recent chapters with non-shady software to decompress the files since I’ve been using Mangadex the entire time I’ve been reading GK (in addition to the english versions of previous chapters).

#golden kamuy #golden kamuy meta #asirpa #tsukishima hajime #koito otonoshin #kiroranke #tsurumi tokushirou #sofia #wilk #sugimoto saichi #Shiraishi Yoshitake #warrant officer kikuta #ariko rikimatsu

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anakinthetrashking · 5 years ago

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BnHA One-Shot Fic Recs (pt1)

Making some fic-rec posts has been on my to-do list for a while and I’m finally doing it, yay! Currently I have 6 word doc pages full of just BnHA recs. So I’m splitting them up by length and completion, so first up is (part one of) one-shots! Let’s go!!!

Lets start with some classic Izuku and DadMight!

Pictures, Posters and Tender Beauty by ProPinkist (tumblr: @dazais-guardian-angel ) Rating: G Category: Gen ~4,400 words Summary: Izuku has virtually every All Might-themed item out there, and prides himself on all of it, as Toshinori is well aware. However, somehow, the boy still decided that there was something vital missing. This is fluffy and very cute. No one truly appreciates All Might as much as Izuku does, but 1A comes close. All Might deserves all the love, and this fic truly provides!!!

Dear Mr. All Might by QuizzicalCrow (tumblr: @quizzicalcrow ) Rating: G Category: Gen ~5,000 words Summary: As the #1 hero for decades, All Might has collected a lot of fan mail over the years. Toshinori tracks down a series of letters that only now, years later, does he appreciate for their significance. I always love the thought of All Might looking through his fan mail, even if he can’t get to all of it. This was a wonderful glimpse into that AND it was made to be so, so personal and sweet. Go have some heart-healing fluff.

Growing Pains by LordofLies (tumblr: @theangelofchildren ) Rating: G Category: Gen ~5,900 words Summary: Izuku finds himself changed by his encounter with the Hero Killer, but changes of a more physical kind are in store for him as he begins to truly accept One for All as his own. Once, he would have been thrilled to look more like All Might, but now those connections are as much a source of anxiety as they are of pride.Or, Izuku wakes up one morning and sees the world through different eyes. Izuku having anxiety and Toshi being there to help him through it and calm him down? Sign me UP. Its also a pretty cool take on how One for All is able to change things about it’s holder. Could this happen in cannon? Who knows.... Regardless, it was a great read!

I’ll Carry You Home by Renesvetta Rating: G Category: Gen ~2,700 words Summary: While training with All Might, it wasn’t uncommon for Izuku to be so exhausted at the end of the day that he unwittingly fell asleep without regard for where he was. It consequently became part of All Might’s routine to help his young protégé home. During that time, Izuku may have let loose more than one sleepy confession towards his mentor. Yes, it is as adorable as it sounds. Its tagged with “self indulgent Dad Might fluff” which is both accurate and appreciated. In other words: Superb you funky little writer!

Simple Gifts by QuizzicalCrow Rating: G Category: Gen ~6,700 words Summary: One year ago, Izuku received the greatest gift he could ever imagine. Now he’s determined to return the favor for the one responsible for it all with a gift of his own. First off, I love the idea of Izuku and Toshi quietly celebrating the anniversary of passing on OfA from All Might to Izuku. Even just taking the day to hang out with each other. It’s a really precious idea. But there’s not just fluff! Izuku finds himself in a fight, again. (cool villain quirk, too!) I love all of the small details that are in this fic (and in Crow’s other works, too!) anyway its exciting AND very heartwarming, so go read it!!!

Affectionate by Sevi007 (tumblr: @sevi007 ) Rating: G Category: Gen ~2,600 words Summary: Toshinori starts to show affection very easily around his students. The reactions he gets for that are not quite the ones he had anticipated - well, not all of them, at least. Toshi is LOVED, APPRECIATED, and 1A feels like HOME. how many times can i say “cute” and “heartwarming” on this post?? bc these are some amazing writers, whom I adore, and their writing makes my heart WARM. AND. FUZZY. i mean, even just the first few paragraphs of this one just, really sets the scene of what i like to believe the 1A dorm is (on a good day, lol). its a really nice read, so go treat yo’ self by reading it.

paint me in trust by dinomight Rating: G Category: Gen ~6,400 words Summary: The first mark Izuku gets is a slight brush of green across his temple. It’s the soft touch of a mother holding her son for the first time. Inko has one to match, the same shade of green staining the tips of her fingers. Hers is more noticeable; Izuku’s tends to blend into his hairline. He loves it anyways. He has to. It’s the only soulmate mark he has. (Or: how Izuku goes from just green to a rainbow, UA-style.) Ok, so this fic sort of plays off the idea of soulmates, and does not fit in with soulmates in the usual form of the trope. First off its completely platonic. Its categorized as Gen and sticks to that. Also it doesn’t seem to be as obligatory and permanent as you would think it would be. It seems to be more of the universe telling you who has the possibility of being important in your life. I really really loved this, it was so adorable and gives you that sweet, sweet Izuku angst, before healing your heart with the power of friendship and found family!!!

The Die Has Been Cast by ChiwiTheKiwi (tumblr: @chiwithekiwi ) Rating: G Category: Gen ~5,400 words Summary: “There’s something about that kid you aren’t telling me, isn’t there?”When no answer meets him, Shouta tries again.“You know something about Midoriya’s quirk that you haven’t shared with me. Is that right?”(Or: A canon "What If" surrounding the latest manga events and focusing on Aizawa finally making a connection.) First off, this fic has spoilers for the manga, so dont read unless you’re past chp212! I loooooooove OfA reveal fics, especially when it’s Aizawa that finds out. He deserves to know!!! its kind of important!!!! This fic chooses a great moment to work off of, and does a great job with Aizawa’s character. I really enjoyed it and couldn’t keep myself from going back and reading it just now LOL

These last two are actually two-shots, but it makes it an even 10! also Izuku and dadmight, so we can continue the theme here...

Some Unspoken Thing by LittleKy Rating: G Category: Gen ~7,900 words (2chps) Green, Toshinori has always thought, is the color of life anew.(Or: It's time for Yagi Toshinori to finally accept that he has a son, now, in all but blood. It's time for Midoriya Hisashi to accept that as well.) YES ALL MIGHT! ADMIT THAT IZUKU IS YOUR SON! great portrayal of the characters and really hits the nail on the head for DadMight. and Izuku in this story is just the smallest green floof that you wish to give a hug. NEVER MIND ALL MIGHT, YOU TOOK TOO LONG SO IZUKU IS MY SON NOW AND IM NOT GIVING HIM BACK ( no but seriously i want to hug this fic its so cute TTuTT )

LAST BUT NOT LEAST! I See You by BirdAntlers (tumblr: @aarymk )

Rating: G Category: Gen ~15,400 words (2chps) Midoriya Izuku is a quirkless child, blind from birth. Yagi Toshinori is the most powerful man in the world, loved by millions. They could not be more different, and yet their loneliness is the same. (From a pair of AU posts on Tumblr that got way out of hand; I wanted to put it here because it turned into more of a fic than a "what-if." Basically a vessel for me to vomit as much Dadmight as I can.) Hey, you! Yeah! You! Do you want to cry? Do you want to start sobbing in a public space?? Do you just want to be destroyed with words and be left there kneeling at the feet of a writer who has torn out your heart and stomped on it before they gently wipe the tears from your face? Yeah?? y oU Wan NA D IE??? READ THIS AND GET REKT. you’ll thank me later

(under the cut is just me rambling, i kept all the important stuff up here, ur welcome)

Now that the actual recs are over I can rant here- look i really tried to slim my recs down, but i have almost 300 bnha fics bookmarked,some of them are “to read” or theyre in progress, etc but i managed to get this list sorta slimmed down? a little?(to only 58!!!) but as i was gathering this post together it felt like i dont have very many Dadmight recs on that list??? but i havent rechecked all the other fics i was just going through the oneshots. i... kinda read a lot more fics with AIzawa in it instead. it be that way. DadMight content is SO GOOD. but my fav is aizawa im sorryyyyy anyway i have another SEVENteeN oneshots to put in rec posts and that does NOT include the mulitchapter and friikin series and stuff... and like i said this is aaaaaaallllllllllllllll BnHA. batfam fic posts will come after, and then star wars, and then maybe star trek? we’ll see. i have a very specific taste in ST fics and that is Tarsus IV whump. which. i have not read in a while. when they say “that trope came from ST” for sooooooo many tropes, you WISH other fandoms had tarsus as a trope, holy crap it is TOP TIER angst fodder. if you love to write/read whump, angst, and h/c i would HIGHLY recommend that you take a bit of time and explore the content and stories there. heck maybe i will make a ficrec post for just tarsus angst. ok.

my INTENTION is to edit these posts later with little links to the other fic rec lists so that itll be easier to find. but., its me, so itll either happen in painful detail or not at all

asdjkdgh its 2:30am and i need to sleep and not be rambling incoherently again I WILL SAVE THIS AS A DRAFT.

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life-rewritten · 4 years ago

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SPOOKY SEASON! An ode to Mo Dao Zu Shi: one of the best BL story created!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!! One last Halloween post and it's about one of my favourite pieces of media in the world of BL, romance, and supernatural stories. Roll your eyes because once again I'm talking about Mo Dao Zu Shi (The grandmaster of demonic cultivation) I mean already with the demons, and cultivation is already hinting why this is Halloween themed, and trust me MDZ has much more than that: from zombies to ghosts, to magical instruments and weapons, and we love our fantasy cultivation sects and clans. Anyhoo, I am here to write a fun post another verdict/review on each of the adaptations available so far for MDZ, yeh you heard me I've listened, read and watched all versions of this masterpiece, and I'm here to tell you to go and do the same for Halloween. Also in case, you haven't heard MTX (the author of MDZ) has another show on its way TODAY! And that's the magnificent, the excellent and incredible Heaven's Official Blessing after marathoning MDZ do that too.

As always with my verdicts: we have ratings: From 1 to 5 (1 being least excited to watch, 5 being most,) how excited am I to delve into these again?

Country: China Genre: Danmei, Supernatural, Action, Fantasy, Romance, Comedy, BL, Horror,

1.The Book

We begin with the one that started it all. The reason for my devotion and love for this world, for Wei Wuxian and Lan Wang Ji. My heart hasn't stopped loving this book experience. And at first, it wasn't easy to understand all the logic and terms needed to know for this world of cultivation and sects and clans, and magical skills. But once I got the hang of it (maybe after reading it three times I wonder how I had time to do this by the way), this is a book that I keep on returning to, crying to, and just breaking down into a mess too. This book is the most original source for the love story of Wangxian and to be honest its a masterpiece. Now onto the pros and cons, I guess about this adaptation.

Pro:

First, I would say that this is the most non censored version of MDZ, meaning China couldn't mute the romance or delete scenes because it's the original written story. The romance between Wangxian stands out and makes your heart go through a lot of emotions, from frustration at Wei Wuxian not realising how he feels for Wang Ji, to pain because of Wang Ji's perceived unrequited feelings for so long, to happiness when they're just together, to confusion at some drunk scenes and then to all-out shock as the story reveals its self to the villains, the background of Weiying's death and more.

The introduction to all these characters, all of them have a role in the story, all of them are important to keep an eye on, and they all grow and develop throughout the story as we find out more about their circumstances and their own perspective on Wei Wuxian.

Cons but not actual cons

The book is longggggg. The first time I read it I wondered when we would finally get a resolution or hint that Wei Wuxian finally understands what he's been feeling for sooo long, but it took forever and to be honest even though this is a con to me, it also is a positive for those who love slowwwww burns, and slow reveal to the background and development of Wangxians feelings for each other. There are many missions although essential to the world-building and the actual plot/mystery that at first seem so useless and not needed, but they are there for a purpose, and they do help us find out more clues about what's been going on and why Wei Wuxian was brought back from the dead.

The book is the most non censored version of MDZ, and so there are many questionable moments/questions about Non-consent that occur during moments when Wangxian are drunk. Honestly, these scenes are so weird to me, because they hold so much truth and revelations to Wangji's feelings for Weiying. After all, he's drunk and the most authentic version of himself. There are so many moments (like stealing chickens or showing him the bunnies) that make you just want to cry at his love Weiying and the pain he had to endure when he thought he was never coming back. Still, at the same time, there are many moments where you're like oh wow that escalated, and you feel just a tad discomfort at the idea of the non-con. But like I said these scenes are required for these two to really like give into what they've both been trying to push away or ignore, and it's nice to see how Weiying reacts to his feelings becoming uncontrollable and more prominent.

There are some moments in the book where things seem vague or unexplained (which the other sources did their own thing with), some characters who are mentioned but not really given enough detail, some plot details where it's not fully understood. However, I do think that because the book is already so long, the most critical information needed was there and the reveal of the mysteries were all done well. I think though that it's better to see how it materialises visually hence the other media adaptations.

Ratings: 4/5 -It's not easy to pick up the book and read, but I have so much fun returning to it and laughing along with Wei Wuxian's thoughts and ideas about Wang Ji.

2.The Manhua

I was so shook when I found out MDZ has a manhua. Mostly because China wouldn't really make it easy for the book adaptation to be honestly portrayed visually. But the manga shocked me, it is censored, but the writers and the artists are all so obsessed with this book and this couple that despite having to remove or edit some scenes, they draw some additional scenes and post it online so that international fans can still get to see these moments visually. That is incredible, and I'm so grateful that we have a team of people who respect and love the piece as much as the fans do.

Pros:

With any graphic novel/manga the art of MDZ is fantastic to see, the characters are brought to life with colour and also the inclusion of chibi drawings to make a moment incredibly cute or funny. Weiying is very naughty, so a chibi drawing of him makes us see him like how he's acting a child. I enjoy the manhua of MDZ so much, and I love how they drew each of the characters and the world.

Cons but not really cons:

I think, however, there are better visual sources for MDZ available that is more detailed in terms of characters and includes more information about the world-building. The plot also has to be condensed as well because you can't draw everything from the book. The manhua is also still in the works so, its a very slow upload and it will take years for it to be completed. But this is understandable, and I can't wait to read the full completed copy. If you hate reading and can't stand words, I think the manhua version is for you!

Ratings: 3.5/5 -It’s the waiting that lowered the ratings for me and the fact that I prefer other sources but I’m so grateful for the manhua.

3.The Show

The one that brought international fans like swarms to this story. Untamed shocked all of us in the BL community as the first time we heard about it, sure it was nice to see that Yibo was cast as Wang Ji, but even then his acting wasn't that profound or praised so we didn't care, and Zhan also seemed like an interesting choice for out Weiying. I think there were an outrage and confusion when we heard this was going to be censored and a bromance. It felt like it made no sense because there's no way really to edit the relationship and love of Wangxian, so people went into the show resentful and worried. But after 20 episodes, the anger, worry and upset were erased. Untamed is a masterpiece, and it blows my mind how censored it is but still not really censored? It deletes the questionable moments in the book but adds the essential parts even where we get to see Wang Ji's feelings (Though obviously not mentioned as feelings but respect). We get to watch Weiying realise how much he cherishes whatever he has with Wang Ji and how much he misunderstood the latter, and how much Wang Ji cared for him. The show as Netflix says is not about just friends. Still, it emphasises the connection between these two using subtext clues and symbolisms, and visual metaphors to make sure the audience knows that these two are soulmates and are meant for each other. Here are the other pros and cons of the show:

Pros:

The acting is incredible, like so good and I can't think of two people who were more suited for Wangxian, Yibo shocked me as Wang Ji because although I knew him (because of Kpop), I didn't really think he would pull of stoic but still vulnerable Wang Ji. He was good at showing the emotions of love and longing that has been connected with Wang Ji. Zhan was an excellent Wuxian, he made me smile, he made laugh, he made me so happy because of his mischievous aura, but he also played serious and emotional and resentful Wuxian well as well. I keep crying every time I see the death scene in the show because it's just so done well.The directors and producers who didn't care about hiding the relationship between these two, they still wanted to be respectful to the writer and the source, and they still wanted to show as much as possible that these two loved each other. For that, I'm so grateful and they did a brilliant job with what they could. The character arcs and development and depth; Its the way they took the other characters from the book and fleshed them out giving each of them more depth, more understanding, more dimensionality and more story connecting to our plot, and it broke my heart how much I loved everyone in this show. The actors all performed so well, and some gave me goosebumps at how well they portrayed their characters (Xue Yang!!) like stunning and just a great cast.The storyline was also written in an innovative way, the flashbacks were first shown to the audience, how Wangxian became Wangxian and so the audience felt every single hurt and pain that Wang Ji was feeling. We understood why he acted the way he did. The flashbacks also provided plot structure to the mystery and the actual plot of the show, it left clues, and we watched the villains become villains (secretly), we saw how some characters grew. Each of the arcs in the book was told in a way that it flowed together and made sense. Due to this way of structuring the plot the show became so much more profound in the way it messed with our emotions, every death mattered, and every character had their own story and importance to the audience.

Cons:

The censorship. I've praised how they overcame it, but it's still there, the ending of the show was done this way because of censorship and to be honest I still think everyone should read the book because there are moments where the romance of Wangxian is fun and memorable to see (the confession scene whilst it was done okay in the show because of censorship it doesn't hold as much oomph as it did in the book. Mainly because the events that happened before it was already so filled with angst and drama and the results of the confession Wangxian clinging onto each other despite being in danger is a must-see, the censorship is annoying because it shouldn't be there, it's something that whilst it did help with some stuff, it still feels like an insult to the piece, and it still doesn't sit well with me that China censors their BL. So its a con.

Ratings 5/5 I think I could spend so much time breaking down why Untamed is a masterpiece BL show, but all I can say is despite 50 episodes (longgg) it is worth the time and effort and if you watch BL, go see it.

4.The Audio

The audio for the MDZ is like my favourite thing in the world. I love Chinese audiobook dramas; it's an incredible experience to listen to. With MDZ, this is what the show would be if it wasn't censored. The actors for the audio drama are amazing, and I love them so much. The audio drama is three seasons with some extra scenes and it's incredible if you don't want to read the book, then just watch and listen to the audio drama because its the same story but its brought to life by the acting and storytelling. Also though there are some scenes removed, I think the audio drama is the next uncensored gem of MDZ that shows Wangxian's romance the best way possible. I squeal, and I laugh, and again I cry at every single moment; their first kiss, the inn scene, the confession (i spend time pausing it just to cry at how good it is) and more. I just love it, and I prefer it to reading the book. Other pros and cons:

Pros:

The story is structured and told properly, follows all the arcs and events in the book and brings them life by voice acting, and the music is incredible. It's nice to listen to and hear Weiying's thoughts and to also listen to an audible version of the book. The audio drama has all the pros from the book as well.

Cons:

Nothing much to say about the cons. It is not easy to attain the audio drama in English subs, its hard to download and store it, but once you overcome that it's great. I think the audio drama is the most difficult to obtain.

Ratings: My favourite adaptation 5/5

5.The Donghua

Lastly, we have the Donghua or the anime version of MDZ. What can I say about this, its brilliant, masterpiece, it's gorgeous. If you think the art for the manhua is good, the donghua takes it to a different level. The visuals are stunning, the animation is breath-taking, and the story is again following Untamed ways of censoring the story but making sure it doesn't remove the romantic connotations and symbolism to Wangxian. The donghua also follows Untameds way of starting with flashbacks to explain what happened to Weiying before it started. I have nothing else to say about how great this is. It's the same thing I've been saying about all these adaptations. The donghua though is the best visual masterpiece for MDZ, in my opinion.

Pros;

Packed full with symbolism and clues to the plot, it's detailed so well for the storyline and its an excellent way to tell this story. The music and ost for the donghua are also beautiful and gets me emotional each time I hear it.

Cons:

Censorship. That's it, that's what it always is. For me, I think the donghua is the most censored version of MDZ? Or maybe I just feel that way despite the subtext clues; I do feel irritated at the censorship in the donghua. Let's pray Heaven's official blessing overcomes that.

Ratings: 3.8/5 - I love it so much because of the visuals but apart from that I prefer other sources for MDZ. Still the best donghua that exists.

So here you have in an in-depth and messy conversation about one of my favourite media pieces to existing right now in BL. I think I will never stop singing praises at MXT for creating this story and I think there's nothing else I rather do than just spend times when I need a distraction watching, listening or reading this story again and again. What about you all. What do you feel about MDZ? What pros and cons do you have for each adaptation? Which is your favourite. And have you been able to get any rest when we know that Heaven's official blessing is out TODAY!! Let me know your thoughts. Happy Halloween, Enjoy it.

#mo dao zu shi #the untamed #mdzs #wrpup #FVete #october #halloween #wei ying #wei wuxain #lan wangji #mdzs donghua #wwx #lwj #chen qing ling #cql #bl series #danmei

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kth1 · 4 years ago

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Crosscurrents [Hoseok x Reader] Part 3

Crosscurrents - Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Genre: The Little Mermaid AU | Fantasy AU | Series Pairing: Mermaid!Hoseok x Princess!Reader Featuring: BTS Princes Warnings: Angst, fluff, rated G, sorry no smut, mentions of pain, eventual character death, it’s just a fantasy story. pining, angsty? W/C: 6.2k Summary: Hoseok is a carefree middle child among seven princes, each running one of the seven seas. With a curious nature to study the world above, he makes several routine visits to the surface, once even saving an alluring princess who he grows very smitten by. With a strong determination to meet his lovely princess, Hoseok makes a risky deal with the ocean’s enchantress to become human. Author’s Note: Sorry for the wait, but I am still very happy about this story. Now finals and my semester is over - I can continue updating. Thank you all who support me. Portions of the fic is unedited. 🐚🧜‍♂️

Credits: Story includes strong elements from Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Little Mermaid’; Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’; and Michiko Yokote’s manga ‘Mermaid Melody’.

☀ CROSSCURRENT MASTERLIST ☀

Hoseok felt foolish pulling that stunt in front of everyone. He felt like he tainted a good day with doing something so stupid. Once the party returned home, Hoseok straightaway moved his body along the perimeter of the palace. Finding the marble staircase that descended down to the beach where the ocean laid.

He knew the initial contact of the ocean will help him much faster. Stepping down into the first crested wave that touched his feet, he almost felt the immense pleasure of vibrating liberation. The water quivered his knees to bend, landing into a kneeling position into the shallow bay. As long as he was in the water, he was better.

“Aqua?” A bittersweet voice yelled out. “Aqua, where did you go?”

There was no reason to try to grab the princess’s attention, for he cannot yell back. So, he sat still, basking in the waves that drew up to his waist and sank back into the sea.

“Hey… what’s the matter?” The princess’s voice was soft as she stood behind Hoseok. She was confused how come the man was drenching his clothes in the tide. Why was he sitting down in the sand…

Hoseok hung his head, hair falling around his profile. There was no way he can explain everything he wants to talk about. There wasn’t any gestures or sign language that could come up with the answers for Y/n either.

A pair of feet showed up within Hoseok’s peripheral, they mushed into the wet sand. With surprise Hoseok looked up to see Y/n staring down at him curiously. Her wide shining eyes connected back with his.

“You must enjoy the water a lot.” She sighs, lifting the skirt of her dress a bit higher just in time for the tide to rise up around her ankles. “I like it too.”

There was a bubbling of excitement forming within Hoseok’s stomach. Relatively it would be the feeling of butterflies fluttering around, feeling lighter. He watched her gaze focus out towards the sea that stretched far and wide.

“In all the times I have visited other kingdoms, my mind never has changed about these waters. They are my favorite. Nothing could compare.” The princess’s face remained firm, her voice spoke earnestly.

Hoseok couldn’t help the corners of his lips from upturning, he felt the immense emotions of satisfaction. These were his waters. This was his sea. And she loved it the most.

When Hoseok stared off into the distance, he noticed something treading below the water. A ripple of waves lingered over to the side, a green figure popping its head out – Kiko!?

Erratically Hoseok thrusted himself forward into the waves, causing a splash and frantic waving of arms. He wasn’t sure why Kiko was levitated herself above water, so easily to be seen. And completely uncommon for a seahorse to be found this close to the shore. Hoseok’s poor attempt to shoo away his buddy failed completely, instead she swiftly made her way to him. Uttering out apologies and apologies.

Only Hoseok, who is still somewhat part-fish, can understand Kiko clear as day. But the princess didn’t, her ears weren’t trained or spelled with gifted hearing for creatures of the underwater realms.

The princess gawked down at the leafy creature now swiveling itself around Hoseok in patterns, but to her it looked like the creature was trying to play with him. “Is that a sea horse?! It’s so pretty!” She bit her lip, almost attempted to step further into the water but refused to get her dress wet.

Hoseok’s alarmed face met hers, shyly nodded to her as he couldn’t explain anything. Just toying around the leaves of Kiko’s fins.

As the princess stared in wonder, pressing her curiosity further, Hoseok can all but listen to the pleading expressions of regret from Kiko. He gave her a dirty glance, a look of ‘what the clams are you talking about?’

“Sir, I’m so so so sorry!” Kiko winced, rustling herself up against his body. “He came looking for you, you guys were supposed to discuss trades! When you weren’t there. And he – he put two and two together! I swear!” The poor sea dragon panted, “I had nothing else to cover you up with I had to tell him! I am so sorry!”

There was a hint of skepticism from Hoseok, puzzlement knitted on his forehead. He didn’t fully understand his scaly friend’s panic-stricken concerns, what she was talking about. Not until a crustacean coated in white and purple scurried itself next to the princess’s feet. Getting awfully close.

Hoseok jumped again, this time actually splashing the princess meanwhile cupping the crab that was mere inches away from the princess. He knew who this was, who he belonged to. Hoseok mentally sighed to himself, pulling the crab up to his face and criticizing him with his eyes.

“Put me down!” it whined, threatening with a pinch of his claw.

“What a cute little crab!” The princess cooed, now bending down to take a closer look. She ignored her dress, partially because Hoseok already messed it up, and submerged the bottom of her skirt into the water as she stepped closer. “I haven’t seen one before with these colors!”

Hoseok gingerly put on an innocent smile as he stared back at the princess. He hid his worried look when he glanced around the ocean, looking for him.

Namjoon was here.

Once the princess had enough of her clothes soaking up the salty water, she receded back into the palace. Of course, she had urged Hoseok to join her in her return, but he properly declined. Hopefully she understood that he will come back when he was ready.

Now, about 50 feet out away from the marble steps to the palace, Hoseok stepped further and further away by the directions of the white crab, Surf.

“I can’t believe how selfish you are, such a difficult prince you are.” Surf complained, “Further.”

Hoseok walked towards a headland that obtained a natural arch, drifting farther away from the palace. Once he made his way under the bridge, he was met with a cold icy stare. Eyes piercing straight through Hoseok’s from just above the water, silver hair slicked back against his scalp.

The sun was low, dimming the surrounding areas slowly. Surf jumped off Hoseok into the water, scurrying himself over to Namjoon who remained still. Eerily still.

There was an unspeakable battle between the two brothers – only the sound of the environment filling up the void between them. Namjoon rose, gesturing Hoseok to sit down with a pointed chin. Bottom lip jutted out, and a swift cock of his eyebrow that told Hoseok instantly that he was in for a harsh scolding.

He obeyed, plopping himself on a rock that sat in the water. Kiko swam freely around his feet.

“What have you done? No – never mind that. I know what you did. I know you can’t speak.” Namjoon points accusingly, drifting his body closer to Hoseok. “And you have these things? What has gotten into you?” His fingers tapped onto Hoseok’s knees, face in disgust. The purple-to-silver tailed man sneered down at Hoseok who hung his head.

Namjoon’s inner rage was holding him hostage, he wanted to lash out on his younger brother. Reprimand him into oblivion. With clutched fists he retained himself, as much as possible while wearing a sour scowl.

Hoseok wanted to explain, he wanted to be able to voice his opinions and thoughts. Even apologize for doing something so reckless because that’s what Namjoon would like to hear – but he couldn’t find the regret in him. Instead, Hoseok looked back at his brother with sadness. Not sad that he was being yelled at – sad that he wasn’t ever understood.

“When father finds out – I can’t even imagine.” Namjoon pinches his fingers between the bridge of his nose, clenching his teeth together. He was furious, upset, disappointed all the same time. The slap of his tail whacking the water was his signal of agitation – causing a startled Hoseok to lean back.

Hoseok sat frozen, watching the merman of the Antarctic chill over the surrounding areas with his icy personality. After Namjoon recollected his thoughts, pushing his emotions down the drain, he stared back at Hoseok. “We can’t settle this now, can we? You like that woman.”

Namjoon murmured under his breath, trying to understand the infatuation Hoseok gained for the world above. It just didn’t make any sense to him – maybe because near his realm, there wasn’t many environments like this. But Namjoon adored his environment, his clean unpolluted waters, crystal clear ocean to swim freely around. Beautiful deep blues in the cracks and corners of his realm, and the complimented purples of his region.

Hoseok ran his hand behind his neck, shy to admit to his brother that what he was stating was correct. There was something about this women that called to Hoseok, something he yearned for and wanted – no – had to get to know her better.

Namjoon placed his hand on Hoseok’s shoulder, leaning towards him as if his next words were to be secret. Whispering he spoke, “We can’t lose you – I… I can’t lose you Hoseok.” The casual uninviting front that Namjoon’s eyes originally generate now showed distress, he was scared.

There was a weight, a heavy weight, weighing down on Hoseok’s chest. It tightened, as if he couldn’t breathe the fresh ocean air anymore. The impact of his brother’s words hitting him – he never understood the importance he had towards his family. Better yet, he didn’t understand how his careless behavior was affecting his brothers.

It was then that Hoseok remembered the deal he made, what actually needed to be done. For him to remain human, he needed to be with the princess. If he didn’t, he will return back to a merman, tail and all – but he had to surrender over his kingdom… Nobody knows of this deal, besides the sea witch and him as there was no way for him to explain it.

“I’ll have to figure something out. We – we have to figure something out. I’m going to gather the others; I don’t want father knowing of this.” Namjoon’s thoughts came rushing in waves, murmuring out loud to himself. “We’ll maintain your kingdom. Leaving your palace unattended with no explanation doesn’t help the folk who live there.”

Hoseok tried to hold Namjoon from leaving so suddenly, had to figure out something to tell him, anything to tell him. But it was too late. The reflective moonlight shimmer of Namjoon’s tail flipped away, diving deeper into the depts where he could no longer see him.

He needed to figure out how to break the news.

Over the course of a few days, Hoseok and Y/n bonded. He assisted around the castle, partially for learning measures and also for making up his share of the King’s and Queen’s generosity. There was a day he had spent alongside the King, listening to his lengthy lectures about history and the kingdom back in his day. Thankfully for the King, Hoseok had no choice but to be a great listener.

Another lovely day where the princess and aqua prince studied the garden, planting fresh greens and tiny bulbs of plants, messing around in the dirt, and rearranging the agriculture. Sipping tea quietly along a tuneful record. Days they scoped the beach together to gather shells and miscellaneous ocean trinkets. And lending a helping hand in the selection of the princess’s custom-made dresses. He always favored the fancy blues, tying the beautiful color with rich gold jewelry.

Their stares lingered on another from time to time. Longer than normal, but nothing was mentioned besides the appreciative bashful smiles in return. Hoseok remained a true gentleman, assisting the princess with whatever activity she desired to participate in. Board games, drawing and painting, even more carriage rides out to the town. The subtle glow between them grew brighter, and at times Hoseok had to cease his actions when it came to accidentally brushing up against the princess’s skin.

He’s been learning many new things, so much so that it was hard for him to retain everything. Certain trinkets he had back in his personal study now had proper names addressed to them, the fork, the spoon, a globe, and so on. His favorite time of the day were when they met up outside, routine now, to dip their feet in the cooling ocean waters. Each passing second he grew more and more in love with her.

During these days, which soon turned to weeks, Hoseok would meet up with his brothers at night when he snuck back outside for once last dip. One by one another brother and their pet added to the group, greeting, scolding, and slowly trying to figure out what was going on with this huge dilemma. Nagging, bickering, consulting and more. Seeing his brothers is bittersweet, and he was realizing it would be hard to live without them.

Some days, Hoseok would purposely be forced out of the princess’s company for lengthy periods of time. As suitors from kingdoms came to visit, spend time with the young beauty. It was her duty, her parent’s orders as well. Meanwhile Hoseok would sneak his way through the inners of the palace whenever he had the chance, he grew to know the layout pretty well by now. Sometimes even leaving little painted notes in the rooms he’d know the princess would be occupying, making her think of him when she was being bothered by another royal.

Oh, he wishes to be in their shoes. He is a royal no doubt, but of a different world. His princess doesn’t know this, nor does any other human. If he had his way, he’d be able to swoon Y/n the moment he could show her his world. Teach her the ways of the water, indulge her in his plants and beautiful riches no humans could even imagine of.

As time continued to tick, admirers continued to show up and Hoseok found better ways to communicate. He would gather paper, paints, brushes, and sketch himself figures. Painting out a storyboard filled with images of what Hoseok needed to tell his brothers. Sadly, there wasn’t any script for mer-folk. Nothing was read, nothing had symbols that represent words and sounds. They just had music.

Hoseok lost track of days and the time, not realizing how long he has gone without his underwater realm. How long his brothers have been vacating theirs as well. It was unhealthy, they had responsibilities, yet they decided to stay as close as possible to help their brother.

Jungkook, bless his young ethos, even offered to contact the sea witch herself – to reverse the spell. But all of the others insisted that wasn’t the wisest of choices.

“Who’d know what that conniving being would do to one of us if we went there!” Spoke Jimin with an unsettling aura. The disappearance of his pearl still remained unnoticed by the others – to Hoseok’s surprise. Jimin did decorate his waist with many accessories already, a flashy distraction from the missing stone.

“But she knows what’s going on! She could help!” retorted Jungkook.

As the bickering continued, the orange tail spoke up with a stern tone. “Enough you two. It’s almost sundown. We should be heading up.” He brushed pass the others, leading the pack.

Yoongi was unsettled, disgruntled – completely upset when he heard the news of Hoseok. Firstly, he was the last of them to know. With Seokjin and Namjoon figuring out that Yoongi would be the hardest to tell, as he resembled a lot of qualities their father composed of.

He puffed up large like a lionfish, his coal black eyes scanned his surrounding brothers with a reproachful glare. The group waited for the venomous lash out, a poison quill drilling into each and every one of them – metaphorically speaking. What came next was unexpected.

Yoongi met the eyes of his worried brothers, seeking for affirmation that what they said was true, that Hoseok left them for the upper world. It shattered him, his sharp eyes turned bleak, body hunched over and supported his weight with his hand on the nearest wall. He couldn’t breathe the water around him, he felt his body shaking – and each brother watched their fiery brother completely break down in front of them all. Tears cannot be formed or shed underwater – mermaids and merman simple do not cry. But they can resound vocally, physically – in which that’s what Yoongi did.

The six of the princes swam up together, meeting at their usual isolated location where Hoseok met them every single night. Kiko sought comfort with the youngest, connecting herself by his side at all times until she was able to see Hoseok. Each of the mermen found purchase on miscellaneous fixtures, Jimin and Jungkook daringly lay in the shallow waters. Over time, they grew slightly more comfortable being above the water.

They chattered among another in hushed tones, Seokjin and Yoongi always keeping their eyes on the outskirts of the area just in case they see a potential threat approaching. On schedule Hoseok peers his head around the corner of the headland arch cautiously – checking to see if everyone was there and didn’t want to startle them.

Hoseok stepped through, feet sinking into the sands beneath him as he carried a lantern in one hand and a variety of utensils in his other arm. He greeted with his wide boisterous smile, nodding, and waving to his fellow brothers.

“What do you have there?” Jungkook’s large eyes stared at Hoseok with interest as he dragged his body further up the shore. The light within the lantern flickered, incased in glass so the wind didn’t snuff out the flame. It emitted enough light, enough warmth for the night and what Hoseok had planned.

Hoseok remained a bit up the sand, not wanting to get his belongings wet from the water as he diligently set himself up a place to plop down.

“That’s fire, Jungkook-ah.” Yoongi spoke up, he’s also gazing at the small flare in the odd mechanism. “It’s a small one.”

Hoseok flipped his notebook over, carding through pages until he found the one that illustrated the beginning of his story. He spent the times away from the princess to paint photos into his book, trying to decipher his story. None of the other princes knew what Hoseok needed to do to come back to them or to stay up on land – until now.

His storyboard idea was working, with some confusion on pictures and their meanings along the way. Hoseok gestured positive and negative praises giving his brothers a sure tell sign of the direction their guesses were headed.

“Marriage?!” Shouted Seokjin, staring at a photo Hoseok held up of a sketched male in blue holding hands with a woman – which was deemed as the princess with a tiara on top of her head. The picture represented unison, conjoining together. He didn’t know how marriage up on land was like, what was required and traditional. But in their world, a marriage showed coddling, a decorative garland looping around the two beings – tails intertwined.

“Wait –“ Namjoon interrupted, bemused by Seokjin’s assertive claim. “Hoseok? You have to marry her?”

Hoseok slowly nodded with hesitation. He stood up fast, shaking his hands in the air erratically once he saw the first reaction of Jimin’s face turning into a jaw dropping frown. Hoseok pointed to the picture, and then to his legs – and repeat. He needed to get this point across, he needed to show them to keep his legs need needed to marry this woman.

They seem to get it, even commenting on the fact that if that is the case then Hoseok still wouldn’t have a voice. And his feet would be a massive burden having to handle the sharp pain for the rest of his life. Why would he do all this, his desire for this woman must have been so grave.

“Why would you go through with that?” Questioned the deep green merman. His stare looked blank, almost drifting away from Hoseok and speaking into the abyss. “Do you really think you could live like that? Honestly?” His fingers fiddled with the pearl on his earring as Taehyung pondered his next words. “We can’t keep visiting you like this if you continue, we have our kingdoms to control and protect. We have lives as well. You’re tearing yourself away from us, and who knows what hell will break loose once Father…”

“Taehyung.” Yoongi’s voice bit, snapping Taehyung out of his complex trance. He blinked, looking around until he noticed Hoseok standing still, eyes shifting away from everyone. Taehyung’s words hurt, but they were true. The severity of this situation wrenched a split between everyone.

Jimin sighed loudly, only he could feel the most sympathy towards Hoseok because he shared a similar secret with him. But not quite as serious. He bit his lip before spilling the words that were on the tip of his tongue, “Don’t we want Hoseok to be happy?”

Silence.

Jimin turned with a flushed face, “I know we all have feelings about this. Many are negative, but we’re here for him – aren’t we? He’s our brother. We love him. We want to support him, and by no means will he be removed from our family.” His atypical bubbly self was depleted, no light tone to his voice as he sneered his words towards Taehyung.

The two stared at another, provoking and edging each other on to dare say the next thing. Even Hoseok could feel the static tension of the water between the two without actually touching the surface.

“Cut it out!” Namjoon demanded, slapping his tail in annoyance. “Don’t argue this, stop the accusatory assumptions and pointing fingers. We need to work together.”

They’re all hurt. They are all torn. As much as they wish the safety and security of their aqua prince coming back to them, they wished him happiness – whether he found it up here or down below.

The brief commotion was halted when a splash of water combusted from the center of their mer-circle. A large rock chucked into the water to gain attention – it was Hoseok. His nostrils flared, brows weaved together tight, and eyes glowered with pain. They looked shiny and wet. Tiny streams leaking from the brims of his eyes.

The salty liquid dripped off his face, but he remained unphased. Aggressively grabbing hold of his notebook, he flickered through the pages until he came to his design resembling him coming back to the sea. He flashed it to them – it consisted of the princess being wed to another. As Hoseok looks up from the ocean with his blue tail intact.

He angrily stepped knee deep into the ocean, getting closer to his mer-brothers. Jungkook and Jimin, who were closest, leaned closer towards him and latched their arms around each of Hoseok’s legs. The three dancers, a special bond along another. They missed him, they love him, they looked up to him.

“You’re saying that if she marries someone else, you’ll be turned back into a mermaid?” Yoongi and Namjoon inspected, scanning over the artwork. “Assuming you’ll have your tail and voice back?”

Hoseok gave a closed-lipped smile, fury still present. He felt his emotions overwhelm him, watching his brothers one by one have some sort of sign of relief on their faces. It upset him, though it shouldn’t. Because they don’t know what’s yet to come…

The gears in Seokjin’s, Namjoon’s and Yoongi’s heads were working fast. All instantly hoping for this result, to get their aqua brother back safe and sound. Don’t let him marry her. He belongs to the sea.

Before Seokjin’s mouth fully opened to speak, Hoseok was quick to point his finger at him – cutting off his chance. He held his finger up in a ‘hold on, just wait’ with a defeated look in his eyes.

He flipped the page. Showing a creative piece of blues and yellows, a structure under the water. It looks vaguely close to Hoseok’s palace, and with a nod and a point to his personal pearl, he confirmed it was.

Then, with a quick motion, Hoseok ripped the page clean from the notebook. Crumbling it up in his fist as his eyes glistened with pain. The page underneath showed a blackened creature with tentacles and a sinister eerie smile. He shoved the notebook towards each of them, emphasizing the importance of the sheet. Holding the crumpled piece of paper up in the air, he tossed it as far out into the sea as possible.

“Huh?” they all simultaneously voiced.

They were confused, of course. What does it mean? What was Hoseok saying? Goodbye? The palace is gone? The witch?

But Yoongi knew exactly what it was. Ciphering the artwork and charades like an expert in cryptograms. His face drew pale, eyes wide in shock. It clicked straight away, and his eyes met Hoseok’s.

“It means if he comes back to us, he must surrender his kingdom to the sea witch.”

Hoseok was sitting himself at his vanity in his guest quarters, staring into the mirror at his reflection. He noted how the wave of his hair seem to have dulled down slightly, probably from lack of the saltwater teasing it up. He stared back into his almond brown eyes, the deep blue twisting within his iris’. There was something unnerving today, he can sense it.

His brothers all have assured him that his realm is perfectly undamaged, clean as a whistle. Even though his servants and staff all have noticed his prolonged disappearance. They excused him, claiming that Hoseok was accompanying the Mer-King for family business. Though that excuse is fading fast the longer he’s been away. Surprisingly there hasn’t been any mandatory obligations for a festival, no reason for the King to show his presence among the several regions.

It was midafternoon when Hoseok relieved himself from daily events. Isolating himself back in his reserved guest quarters. He didn’t feel well, there was something persistent in the back of his mind that told him there was something off.

A small piece of paper folded over off to the side of his mirror caught his attention, drawing his mind out of his clouded aura. He placed it here for good keeping, knowing where to find it when he needed it. And he found himself looking at this piece of paper more often than he can admit.

Unfolded, it showed a painting of a sun with shades of yellow in the center. Small lines of black in angles representing a flock of birds flying. And strokes of blues in wave-like formations below it. The princess painted this small piece, giving it to Hoseok as a kind gesture but it meant so much to him. She was sweet, delicate, attentive, and kind. A curious being – just like himself.

He sighed with his shoulders, adoring the token of gratitude. He’ll never forget it as it was special to him.

Until a riled commotion fumed from outside – perking Hoseok’s ears up. It sounded far within the palace, undistinctive. His feet followed the voices down the hallway into the opening of the staircase, from here he can look down into the foyer from above. The ruckus is coming from the vestibule, hearing several voices arguing as they walked into the room. The princess is along the group, chattering away with pleas.

“Please!” She protested; her voice was laced with full distraught.

Gretta was holding her back by her shoulders, the princess arguing towards her mother who walked swiftly away. “Please mother!”

“There’s no more excuses, my child. You must grow up.” The queen departed coldly.

Princess Y/n stood there with her maid, her shoulders shaking heavily. Hoseok managed to stay out of view, looking between the railing posts to see what was going on. He couldn’t quite understand what the uproar was about, but he knew it left the princess disturbed, enough to make her shed tears.

Later in the day, Hoseok found himself in the garden terrace, pacing back and forth along the grass with bare feet. It felt better to not confine his toes in those snug boots anyways. He hasn’t seen the princess after the event earlier and he was growing concerned. He wanted to know why she was upset, what happened.

Hoseok perched himself against a marble stone statue, nothing marvelous compared to the one he has laying in his gardens back at home. His intentions told him something was wrong; he couldn’t ignore it. It had to deal with the princess – but what happened?

“Aqua?” A sweet innocent voice called to him.

Hoseok’s eyes fluttered over the princess, she was wearing a cream-colored day dress that flowed just below her kneecaps. His soft smile welcomed her to approach him. She looked effortlessly breathless, and he couldn’t bear to think how her face was just twisted with sadness only a few hours ago.

He held out his hand towards her, beckoning her to reach for him. Y/n gladly accepted walking towards Hoseok with her hand in his. It was warm – hand soft, and thankfully she was too preoccupied maintaining contact with his stunning eyes that she did not notice the glow radiating between the contact of their skin.

She leaned against the statue along with him; as much as he would love to intertwine their fingers together, regretfully Hoseok dropped her hand once she was comfortably next to him.

There was silence as they gazed up at the surrounding sky, watching the clouds slowly drift. It was peaceful and calming. The breeze swayed leaves and blades of grass, petals of the flowers dancing with the wind.

Princess Y/n heaved a deep breath, an obvious sign that she has something burdening her. There was clearly a difficult situation she was managing internally, but her walls were diminishing the longer she stood with the man she grew well acquainted with over a short period of time.

Hoseok looked down to her with eyes that spoke ‘speak to me’. He was concerned, she doesn’t know he heard the incident earlier and dreadfully he couldn’t talk to her, only listen.

“Aqua…” She sighs again. “I’m not sure if you could understand. Coming from a royal family has its perks and benefits, but it really isn’t all that amazing.” Her eyes wondered around the garden, the one Hoseok had helped maintain and make look wonderful.

“It’s quite unfair most times. You don’t choose things; you run on the law. And rarely ever do you agree with the stuff you’re forced to deal with. Royalty is a movement, there’s always demand after demand. And most of the time, you don’t get what your heart wants.” She verified with choked words, her voice faltering ever so slightly. “Earlier today, I was told that I must marry a prince from a faraway kingdom. One my parents found appropriate, not bothering to ask me for my own say.”

Her words cut through Hoseok like a blade, it wasn’t intentional – she doesn’t know his side of the story. His fists balled up on his sides though he maintained his composure for the sake of his beloved. They’re both hurting inside now – for separate reasons.

Y/n eyes glossed over with a watery shine. “I know it is my duty. I know it will help the kingdom and my family. But I – I won’t be happy. I can’t feel my heart with it. And I’ve ran out of time I’m afraid.”

It takes everything in Hoseok to push back his anxieties, no longer able to look down at the beautiful princess he stared straight ahead. It’s selfish of him to worry about going back to his realm, his family, and knowing his kingdom has to be handled over to the sea witch on a silver platter. It’s inconsiderate to worry about himself while the princess is nearly weeping besides him.

Hoseok swallowed back whatever bit of pride he had, to focus on the one he learned to love. Taking his thumb to swipe away the tears that caught on her rosy cheeks. It felt so natural and serene how such tiny of an action felt to him.

Bashful, she profusely apologized for her sobbing, laughing at how ridiculous she might have made herself look. “Please, I’m so sorry. I know I mustn’t cry.” Hoseok responds with a reassuring look, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. The pull on his heart strings forcing him to look at her until she relaxes.

“I need to tell you something – please don’t think I’m crazy.” She avoided eye contact with him, afraid to catch herself getting lost into his tangled brown eyes. “I had a goal, a hope. A while back, we were celebrating my birthday among a beautiful ship just outside these waters. My parents found it very fitting since I’ve expressed my interests of the ocean one too many times.” She laughed. “It was a great celebratory event; I was having fun! But unfortunately, an oncoming storm approached out of nowhere forcing the vessel to be wrecked during the process.” She started to express her story through body movements, the swing of her arms.

“I was very lucky to have not drowned. I honestly don’t know how I am here today. But they found me washed up on the beach, a bit of a ways down the shore. My birthday gown all tattered and soaked from the previous night.” She paused her rant, contemplating the next thing she was about to say. “I know… deep down I know somebody saved me from the shipwreck. But when my guards and Toby found me, there was no one in sight.”

Her eyes looked back at Hoseok’s who seemed unreadable, almost intense. And she interpreted his look as guilt flooded her senses, she thought she was sounding absurd. “I know this sounds comical, and you can laugh or mock me all you need, but I swear when I woke up, I saw a man over me! I couldn’t see or recognize him because the sun was blaring into my vision! He was all a blur, but I know – I know he was real! I can still hear his voice ringing through my ears.” The princess could recollect how vividly that voice impressed upon her memory.

Hoseok’s eyebrows shot up as high as they could, almost kissing his hairline when the princess claimed these notions. She knows, she knows he helped her! Wait – no… she doesn’t. She has no clue. But she remembers his voice. Hoseok’s voice. He wanted to gesture to her frantically, lose his balance over the fact that he was the one who saved her from that terrible storm. But something stopped him.

Princess Y/n’s voice trailed on, “… and now I ran out of time to find him. To thank whoever it was who had saved me. I tried visiting that area many times after the wreck because now there’s something so sentimental about it. I know nobody will believe me. And now I have to marry in the next few days.”

That’s when Hoseok felt the pit of his stomach churn, that’s what prevented him from hopelessly trying to tell the princess it was him all along. The realization of Y/n being forced to wed by obligation, not her choice what-so-ever. There’s nothing he can do, and even if she did figure it out – then what?

She had thanked him in subtle ways. She took him in, treated him kindly. Fed him, bathed him, gave him a warm place to stay and the clothes on his back. Indirectly the princess thanked him all along, and he thanks her for so much more. Teaching him about the land, the intriguing structures of humankind. Hoseok gained a friendship with the one human he was interested in; he can tell through the shiny glow that radiates between them. She is good, he trusts her with everything.

Without hesitation, Hoseok grab hold the princess’s hand within his. His other briskly reaches for his lonely pearl, slipping the earring out of his lobe and placing it inside her up-facing palm. Her breath hitched; her eyes wide at the sight before her. Y/n’s hand gleamed around his, and his unique decorative pearl glimmered inside her palm. The luminesce vanished the moment Hoseok withdrew, leaving her to stare down at the aqua pearl. “What was – “

Hoseok placed his hands on each side of the princess’s warming face. This was the only way he knew how to properly thank her, and he knew she would keep his precious bead safe from any harm. Her eyes sparkled back into his, whether she understands the circumstance or not, she couldn’t help but stare in awe. He leaned in pressing her fondly in his arms, placing a sweet innocent kiss atop the crown of her head, then bowed gracefully.

“That light?” She whispered, eyes dropping back to her hand. “Where does it come from?”

He met her at eye level with a soft smile, placing his finger over his lips. Shh.

#bangtanarmynet #bangtanhq #ficwithluv #btsbookclub #armysource #magicshopnet #crosscurrents #crosscurrents part 3 #hoseok x reader #mermaid au #bts fanfic #mermaid hoseok #jung hoseok #jhope #hobi #bts #series #hoseok

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devintrinidad · 4 years ago

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So Uhm, CAW anon here. I haven’t been into Hetalia for years. But I feel like talking about a few things I noticed back in fandom a lot that I didn’t see at all in the canon manga/anime (though Hetalia itself is just a fanfic of history. I’m only focusing on character and relationships present in the canon series).

Ok a lot has probably changed since the last couple of years in fandom. But back then I saw a lot of depictions of the FACE group: England and Canada not having much of a relationship. France and Canda being the closest while France and America aren’t close at all. America and Canada having a strained if not dysfunctional brotherly bond. Canada having no backbone and being a sad sack all the time or just being a pure angel with no flaws. America being too childish.

I’m going to try to remember all the canon bits to back me up. But I’m mostly curious if there’s anything off and your (most likely much more up to date and informed) thoughts.

Canada and England have a pretty good relationship from what I’ve seen. We’ve sen plenty of material of England being present in colony Canada’s life. He used to cook for him too (poor Canada) and Canada spent almost about the same amount of time with him as America did. Later on Canada chose Enlgand over America when the colonies revolted. He didn’t want to pick a side but in the end he did. He fought against American troops. Was there when England was heartbroken over the fighting. He even acted as a strategist, using his knowledge as America’s twin brother to use America’s weaknesses against him (sending surrender papers inside a basket of food. America was so hungry it took George Washington telling him to resist to not take the bait). Later on when America and Canada were trying to mend their relationship. Canada would get so nervous and have England talk for him all the time instead (which only confused America). England did it without any fuss despite any issues he and America might still have. Overall Canada recalls having a good childhood and England was a part of that. The two might not be as close as America and England are, but they have their own history and bond both are very comfortable and happy with each other.

America and Canada. Fans I ran into often focused on America and England’s dynamic history. But the North American brothers have a lot of their own turmoil and strength to them as well. While Canada might,moan about being invisible and such. Canada also remembers having a very fun childhood with America. So much he remembers how sad he was when America grew up much faster then him and couldn’t play with him all the time like he used to. When Canada told America he didn’t want to fight, only to choose England, America felt betrayed. He loved Canada and wanted his twin brother to fight for freedom with him. Their relationship went pretty sour for a long time. But the two did end up trying to be mature later on in life and congratulate each other despite how annoyed they are at how different the other is.

From there we only get brother goodness. They can bug each other a lot. Canada takes for granted everything America has done and gone through, things that have also been good for Canada. While America likes to mess with Canada and act pushy with him. They do like to horse around and spend time together. Despite their differences, they’re probably the closest siblings in the world of nations. They’ve gone through their bitterness and still chose to be close brothers in the end. They like to play sports together. They like to use their appearances to mess with England who can’t tell them apart like France can. They call each other on the phone a lot. They have a joint Search for Santa Claus operations every winter. America respects Canada’s opportunity and ability to easily get along with others. He also takes Canada’s concerns very seriously and offers reasonable and helpful advice such as how to help his citizens get along. Canada’s opinions must mean a lot to him since Canada is the only individual to make America cry in despair when he went into his 3 hour insult rant against him. Despite his complaints about his personality, Canada looks up to America as a big brother who he always goes to for comfort or help. He respects and admires America a lot and trusts him as his closest confidante (after his polar bear. Not that that bear is ever helpful). Overall America and Canada have their downs like every sibling pair has. But they also seem to have a very strong and stable connection where they can act like brothers and best friends. Sometimes I think it’s easier to imagine America is closer to Canada then he is to England.

America and France. Back then these two didn’t get a lot of attention. Which is strange because there’s tons of material of them interacting throughout the centuries. France used to cook for America when England wasn’t around (I bet when Colony America said English food was as good as French food, some thing broke inside France. The reason America started disliking English food is because France made it his mission to salvage some of his tastebuds. Xp). France has been the only FACE member to stay by America’s side without conflict. Both of them obviously had a close bond since France gave America Lady Liberty and you could see teasing and ruffling America’s hair like a big brother. The two hang out a lot. They go to Maid Cafes together. They seem to have lunch together all the time at conferences since France is always looking for America to go eat together. They apparently also have sleepovers a lot and like to compare different genres of movies. Whatever issues their people can have with each other never seems to affect their personal interactions. France is the big brother of love and that’s sometimes a running gag for jokes. But he really seems to be like a normal big brother figure for America. He often worries about America and Russia’s scary relationship and chides England for raising America to be weird. In a deleted strip, France is preventing America from drinking alcohol because he’s too young (being physically 19). It also gets a bit heartwarming when you recall the Joan of arc strips where France meets the reincarnation of Joan and she’s an American. Almost like America is now taking care of Joan and giving her the opportunity to be free and happy in ways she couldn’t before.

Also while it’s not part of their dynamic. It’s always interesting that when the author wanted to show the Nation’s personal relationships with humanity. He always chose America and France. The supposed happy go lucky airheads who often gain a affectionate yet somber (to even downright tragic) experience from it.

Overall America and France have a nice quiet and stable relationship. You could say while England raised America as a colony. France was among the mentors to America on how to be his own Nation.

I think that’s it. Again my memory might be foggy but that’s what I can recall. =P

~~~

WAIT A MINUTE YOU’RE ALSO A HETALIAN??? AND YOU NEVER TOLD ME???

Okay, I’m going to prioritize this ask/submission thing first because wow, you’re a Hetalian and Hetalia has a special place in my heart. First of all, I’m kind of flattered that you think that I’m up to date for this, hahaha. I’ll have to tell you, while I do know a lot about American history, I’m actually more of a fan of the Itabros, hehehe.

A few tumblr people that I know specialize in Hetalia and have already posted FACE dynamics a lot in the blogs are, but not limited to: @historihet @stirringwinds and @ellawritesficssometimes. I’m not sure if Ella is still active, but there’s a lot of content that you can browse through if I’m not thorough. Also, again, the list of tumblrs that have been associated with FACE are definitely more than I can imagine, those are the three that I follow and know off the top of my head.

To @historihet @stirringwinds @ellawritesficssometimes, I love your interpretations and love for history! If I say anything inaccurate or something you don’t find to your liking, please inform me! I don’t want to spread misinformation and I’m just so excited to talk about Hetalia to my dear Anon Friend :D

If you’re reading this, I hope that you all have a wonderful day! And keep up the great work with your own analyses/fanart/fanfiction/etc. You guys rock and keep the fandom alive. :D

Anywhoozles, what you said here is fairly accurate. FACE definitely has its up and downs. Assuming that you haven’t been active in the fandom since... let’s say 2012-2014ish era, you might have noticed that the common bonds are Canada and France (platonic), France and England (rivalry/lovers/enemies), and the most concerning relationship America and England (brothers/rivals/lovers???). What you said in your analysis really applies within the sense of what is considered to be manga/anime canon, not necessarily historical canon.

In historical canon (if you want to go down that route), FACE is one dysfunctional mess if you want to consider it as one family unit. Every one of them at one point has been at each other’s throat at one point (whether it be at war or just snubbing the other because of politics).

We have:

1. The Revolutionary War (England vs America)

2. War of 1812 (Canada/England vs America, with special emphasis in 1814 because Canada burned down America’s White House if I remember correctly)

3. The XYZ Affair (I’m pretty sure it was a snub in diplomacy??? which actually started a war???)

4. The fact that American promised to help France in their own revolution, but Washington said no because we’re still a new country and all that jazz (...I know this because of Hamilton IF YOU’RE ALSO A HAMILFAN I WILL CRY)

5. And like the entire history of France/England is just its own thing

As you can probably tell, FACE... I think was just a term for the fans to make this makeshift family dynamic that is cute in some respects if this was like a human au, but definitely a cluster of effs if you imagine them as eldritch abominations that were brought to life because of human imagination.

Like, the dynamics can go in so many directions if you want to choose one aspect of history over another.

In @stirringwinds, they often write/draw about America as this Prodigal son who happens to be like the Crown Prince succeeding his once proud father. (America turning into a superpower after the World Wars and the English Empire just kinda dismantling itself because of everything.... OF COURSE THAT’S AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION, PLEASE DON’T KILL ME FOR INACCURACY!

Whereas for another tumblr, @historihet they portray the USUK relationship as more of a ship. Like, the whole brother relationship that is skewed in the anime/dubs/subs (this is due to the fact that some fans take the whole older brother thing too literally because in Japan, you call your elders/peers that happen to be older than you via polite endearments) is more of a... I’m not gonna say paternal, but it was more of a mentor thing? I’m not sure, I haven’t interacted with them much, but I’m pretty sure they ship it. Plus, their art is so amazing and they’re obviously a fan of history because wow, their head canons and their art is so beautiful and detailed.

As for the whole France and Canada relationship, I think this can be further elaborated via @ellawritesficssometimes. I remember reading that France and Canada, while having a similar relationship to England and America, it wasn’t that close or as heartwarming as many fans make it out to be. If you follow Canadian history, I’m pretty sure Canada was under French rule for a sort time before becoming part of the English Empire. Like, Canada was part of the Empire for a longer time than under France. This means that France wasn’t always there, England was. You can further read between the lines about the English/Canadian relationships, especially if you consider the fact that America fought an entire revolution to get away from England because of neglect on England’s part and on Canada’s part.... all he had to do was ask.

Soooooo....

Overall, I’m glad that you told me that you were part of the Hetalia fandom. It’s nice to see that the fandom is still alive and kicking, hahah. That reminds me, I’ve got to finish my series concerning Italia Veneziano, oops. Just wondering, but why did you want to talk about this? Not that I mind, it just seems out of the blue...

Thanks for the analysis and your chat! I hope that you have a wonderful day! :D

Please don’t tell me you want a FACE fic, hahahah. XD

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sage-nebula · 4 years ago

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For whatever reason, I started thinking about what I would want to see from a Yu-Gi-Oh! sequel on my drive home from work today. (Note: I’m specifically talking about a sequel to the original manga; the various anime adaptations, sequels, movies, et cetera will have no bearing on this whatsoever. No hate to anyone who likes them, they’re just not my jam. I’m just invested in the manga and the manga only.) Obviously I’d want a female protagonist, particularly since I think it’s pretty ridiculous that we still haven’t received one in the various anime sequels in all these years, but that train of thought led me to think about what that protagonist’s name would be, and from there what her character would be like and what her story would be, and well, these are the thoughts I have so far, though be warned they’re not the most fleshed out in the world.

— As a sequel series, I’d like this series to take place at a specific point of time in the future from when the original story ends—say, ten years. So by this point, the original cast of teenagers are all in their mid-twenties, Mai is in her thirties, so on and so forth. Should they make any on-page appearances, their designs would be updated accordingly, i.e., no one is going to be stuck in a time loop of looking exactly as they did in the previous story.

—— On that note, everyone who died in the original manga is still dead for this story. RIP, Pegasus J. Crawford. —— Also, since the original series ended ~1997 in-universe, I’d imagine that this series would take place in 2007 as a result.

— So, our protagonist. I imagine she should be a teenager, just like our previous protagonist, and we can make her the same age as he was, 15. Her name would be Kusakabe Yuuna, with the kanji for her given name containing the kanji for “play” as Yuugi’s did, as well as the kanji for “bird cage” for some spoiler related symbolism. (I looked this up in a kanji dictionary, it checks out even if I’m too lazy to copy-paste the kanji here, just trust me.)

—— Since Yuuna is 15, that means she would have been 5 when the original series started, aww. —— Also, yes, I’m aware that the . . . Zexal? . . . protagonist’s name was Yuuma, which is close, but it’s still not the same name, so let me live. (Unless the kanji match, but I don’t think they should, but also I’m too lazy to check, so this is where we’re at now.)

— Along with having a name that contains “Yuu” in some form or another, YGO protagonists must also have ostentatious hair. For Yuuna, I’ve decided that her hair is something that actually plays into her backstory and therefore shapes her personality. When she was a child, Yuuna was in an accident with her parents (car accident or train accident, something along those lines). Her parents died (since having present parents is also a no-no for most shounen protagonists, not just YGO ones), but Yuuna was left heavily scarred. She has burn scarring all down the right side of her face, as well as along that side of her scalp which prevents her hair from growing in on that side, at least to any real degree. (Like she might have some stubble there but that’s it.) The stress her body underwent as a result of the accident also drained pretty much all pigment from her hair, so while her roots might still be black (or like a really dark grey), her hair looks white when grown out. So it looks like she’s rocking a half-shave with the hair on her left-side going down to her chin, but it’s not intentional. That’s just how her hair has been ever since the accident.

— When her parents died she was taken in by her aunt and uncle. Her aunt home-schooled her through the rest of elementary and all through middle school, because she felt that the scarring was unsightly and would lead to Yuuna being bullied by her classmates and perhaps even her teachers (which isn’t necessarily wrong; bullying is a real problem). Because her aunt impressed upon her that no one would want to see her scarring / would treat her badly if they did (and because Yuuna herself did receive a lot of staring and whispers whenever she went out without some sort of hood to pull up over her head), Yuuna never ventured out to try to make friends. Instead, she stayed inside almost all the time, entertaining herself with a myriad of games (though she had no one to play with), cartoons, comics, and the radio. (Here’s where a past-series cameo can come in: Yuuna loves games, so she likes to listen to Jounouchi’s radio show since he talks about games a lot, and given that his style of broadcasting is so relaxed and friendly she often likes to pretend he’s talking directly to her, even when she knows he’s not.)

— The problem is, Yuuna’s aunt and uncle had an unhappy marriage. There was never any outright abuse, but due to having to take on the burden of running the household, working part-time, and homeschooling Yuuna due to her husband’s apathy, Yuuna’s aunt was unhappy in the home and was essentially counting down the days until she could leave. You see, school is only compulsory in Japan through middle school. High school is optional. So once Yuuna graduated from middle (home) schooling, Yuuna’s aunt packed her bags and left, leaving Yuuna behind with her uncle. And again, there was never any outright abuse . . . but when he wasn’t at his own job, Yuuna’s uncle usually drank himself to sleep in front of the TV. He never abused Yuuna, but that’s because he was never really aware of her presence enough to abuse her. (Never mind that neglect can be its own form of abuse.) So Yuuna was left without a home school teacher, and thus had to enroll herself in a high school if she wanted to continue her education. Which, she did, but . . .

— Yuuna attended high school for a grand total of one (1) day. The staring, the whispers, the stage-whispered name calling — all of it was too much for someone who wasn’t used to it and whose years of insecurities built up by everything her aunt told her could and would happen whenever anyone saw her magnified everything and made it ten times worse. She ducked out before the day was even through and decided she was never going back.

— Of course, games have to be brought back into this at some point, and also there needs to be a plot, so . . . on her way home from school (hood up over her head, probably crying a little) Yuuna sees a little pouch in front of her on the sidewalk. She picks it up and looks inside to find dice — specifically the kind of dice that you use in tabletop games. Yuuna enjoys tabletop games just as much as she enjoys all other types of games, so she shakes the dice out into her palm to examine them . . . and they start glowing as soon as they touch her skin.

— If no one approached her then, Yuuna would figure they were cool trick dice and just take them home with her, no biggie. But at that moment another teenage girl around her age runs up to her, and while Yuuna’s first instinct is to clam up and back away, she doesn’t get much of a chance to do so before the girl is telling her those dice are hers and—oh. They’re glowing? They don’t normally do that . . .

— Long story short, the dice are magic, but they only light up like that when held by someone who has the capability to use the magic within them. So far, no one has been able to get that particular set to light up until now. Yuuna, of course, is skeptical, but the other girl — who tells Yuuna that her name is Kujou — urges Yuuna to follow her to people who can explain everything. Yuuna doesn’t really want to, she’s very much not used to interacting with people, but Kujou isn’t reacting negatively to what she can see under Yuuna’s hood, and Yuuna doesn’t have much else to do, and magic dice sound cool . . . so she agrees.

— Even longer story short, there’s an underground organization dedicated to making change via gaming. They’re made of people from all over the city (perhaps even all over Japan, perhaps even farther than that) who believe in the cause, or have a goal they feel that the organization can / will help them reach, or perhaps have no one else who will accept or have them and so they’ve found a sense of belonging with each other. This organization can and does use magic; Kujou hurriedly tells Yuuna that it’s not cheating or anything like that, but rather, there’s true magic in gaming and that when there’s a special connection between a player and the tools they use, they can draw it out to make a difference. It’s like, Kujou goes on, how certain Duel Monsters specialize in certain cards, like how Mutou Yuugi used magicians and Kaiba Seto relied on the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

—— “But this is . . . real magic. It glows.” —— “Well, yeah, but have you ever seen the recordings of the Duel Monsters matches from like, Battle City? That was real magic, too.”

— Kujou brings Yuuna to at least one of the leaders within the organization, who sees that she can activate the magic in the dice and, as a result, does a very good sales pitch to lure her into the organization; tells her about the people they help with the winnings they make from tournaments, how they’re all like one big family, how they’ll care for her and help her reach her goals, etc. And since it’s not like her uncle will even notice if she’s gone anyway, and since both Kujou and this leader person are being so kind to her (and Kujou even says her hair looks cool), and since she would like to, maybe, at some point have enough money to get surgery to change her face . . . Yuuna agrees and moves into the base this organization operates out of.

— Of course, unbeknownst to Yuuna, she has just joined the villains, dun dun dunnnnn. This “organization” is actually more of a crime syndicate or cult; think like the Ghouls from the original manga, with perhaps a dash of yakuza thrown in. (Could there mayhaps be a Hirutani cameo at some point? Knowing me, if I can get away with it, abso-fucking-lutely.) For about the first third of the series Yuuna is put into tournaments where she essentially crushes characters who would otherwise be the heroes or protagonists of a more straightforward shounen series. You know how people have commented that in recent Pokémon games it feels like you’re the asshole rival? That’s essentially Yuuna. She’s sent in to sabotage tabletop tournaments (despite how bad she feels doing so because she’s a big fan of Spirits & Sanctuaries, a TRPG created by one Bakura Ryou), collect the winnings from Duel Monsters tournaments, etc. (Dice games are her specialty, given her magic dice, but she can draw magic out of other game pieces as well.) Though she feels bad about doing things like this, she has a real sense of belonging in the organization, a nice room, people who are kind to her and want to be around her. While at the beginning of the series she was very withdrawn, she starts coming out of her shell more and being genuinely happy. We’d get to see this unfold over the chapters, the juxtaposition between her performances in game tournaments and the like and how she is with the other members of the organization.

— So Yuuna pushes away any doubts she has over what she’s doing in favor of how happy she is with her new family, and even resolves to stop listening to Jounouchi’s radio show when he warns people about their organization and their “crimes” on a broadcast, because they’re not criminals, that’s not true, and she knows about his history and how he came from poverty himself, so who is he to judge? But then at some point Kujou, whom she’s grown very close to during this time (spoiler: Kujou is both her best friend and love interest) comes to her and is like, hey, I’ve been suspicious for a while, so I’ve done some digging and I think this whole thing is evil. :/

—— “That’s ridiculous. How could you say that?” —— “I’ve got the receipts, on tape, right here on my phone. See?” —— “That’s a flip phone. How am I supposed to see anything on that?” —— “This story is set in 2007. Work with me and let me live.”

— Yuuna still doesn’t want to believe it, so she goes to talk to the leader person about it herself, and whoops, overhears him being evil with other higher-up members in the organization. So she goes back to find Kujou and is like, you were right, they are evil, and Kujou is like, I know, I already packed our bags, let’s bounce.

— So Yuuna and Kujou run away together (perhaps bringing a few other trustworthy teens from the organization with them), and then the remaining two-thirds of the story are spent with them fighting against the organization to bring them down, using their own magic (because Yuuna does still have magic and now she knows how to use it . . . kind of . . . mostly . . . she’s trying) to do so.

And that’s all I’ve got for now, but I think it’d be a cool successor to the original manga, with cameos here and there from the adult versions of the original cast. I’m especially quite married to the idea of featuring many games over the course of the story, since YGO was a manga about many games originally, before it became obsessed with Duel Monsters (though a TRPG did play a big role in the last arc and we will forever stan that).

(Oh, and in case you’re wondering: the symbolism in Yuuna’s name is because the two kanji together bring to mind a playful bird in a cage. It’s symbolism because at the start of the series Yuuna is in a metaphorical cage due to all her insecurities and issues and the circumstances of her life, and then even in the organization she’s still caged by them because they’re using her, but her personal journey is breaking free of both cages to release the spirited (playful) person that she is within, becoming more confident and, yes, never getting cosmetic surgery because her personal growth gets her to a place where she owns it and loves herself, scarring and all.

And if you’re wondering why there’s at least a handful of teenagers in this organization, if not more: It’s because they prey on young kids who come from bad homes or have nowhere else to go by offering them a sense of community and belonging, which is something gangs do in real life, and is yet another way the organization is shown to be evil aside from the Board Game Crimes they commit on the daily.

Anyway, stan a YGO manga sequel with wlw protagonists, good night.)

#yugioh #inb4 ''Yuuna sounds like a Mary-Sue'' pls look at every protagonist of every YGO iteration ever #and tell me they're not all equipped with some combo of tragic backstory + unbelievable games talent #being talented with a sad backstory is like a shounen protagonist recipe #not even just within YGO but in general #that doesn't change just bc the protagonist is a girl #so sit down please and thank you #also it didn't come up organically in the summary but yes Yuugi and Jounouchi are married at this point #Anzu's got a successful dance career #everyone's living their dreams and are happy #since we're eliminating DSoD from existence even Kaiba got therapy & his act together & is a good brother to Mokuba #in this universe the miracle did happen

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