#and subtle

[alexiethymia]

Yor Briar, Yor, and Yor-san

I was reading an excellent post about the nuance in the original japanese and now I thought I’d take a crack at what this means for Loid (although other people have already made an excellent analysis on this).

Loid has only called her Yor Briar in the beginning and when he was suspecting her of playing him. But Fiona’s insistence on her full name, Yor Briar, and her notice of Loid’s seemingly stubborn refusal to use it seems to me that Loid had always previously referred to assets by their full name. It could also be pragmatic in that he knows Fiona wants the ‘role’ of his wife hence her stubborn insistence of using Yor’s maiden name, so he uses Yor-san to counter Fiona’s way of delegitimizing Yor’s role. But I don’t think Loid can sense the real reason for Fiona’s insistence, so while in his view Fiona may be acting unprofessionally, generally speaking, I think Loid would be the one acting unprofessionally in constantly using ‘Yor-san’ to refer to his ‘wife’ to his WISE colleagues especially if he didn’t use to do that before (which yeah it’s hard to imagine him addressing his other marks that way).

Although the audience knows that Fiona is acting far from being professional, with Loid’s limited knowledge of her feelings, wouldn’t she actually have a point in referring to Yor as YOR BRIAR in a working setting? Because isn’t that all she was supposed to be? An asset or a tool? And yet Loid seems annoyed by that and insists on humanizing her by calling her, Yor-san.

Now someone might say, that’s nothing to make a big deal about. It would have been a big deal had he referred to her as ‘just’ Yor without the honorific. Because using someone’s name without honorifics is supposed to connote a deeper sort of intimacy. But that’s the thing. It would have been a forced intimacy for show. ‘Yor’ is his mode of address when he’s putting on a show of being a loving husband, complete with that <fake> Loid Forger voice. Yor is what he calls her around her colleagues or his colleagues (Nightfall undercover as Fiona at the hospital) to present how they’re a completely ordinary, close and loving family. In a way, it’s a subtle cue to Yor as well that they’re in ‘family’ mode now or ‘husband-and-wife’ mode. Yor denotes her as being a mask.

Which is actually why Yor-san is perfect. If Yor Briar is her as an asset, Yor is her as a mask, then Yor-san is her as a partner. He’s used women to get to his goal before. The only thing different now is Anya and the fact that on some level he is also working together with Yor. Had he actually succeeded in his first honeytrap attempt with Yor when he thought she had fallen in love with him, I imagine that he might have started treating Yor the same way he did his other assets before. But thank goodness it didn’t succeed, and in my view, he ended up falling into the trap instead.

Yor-san is perfect because it parallels the way Yor calls him. It’s perfect because it conveys the perfect level of intimacy. They’re not actually a lovey-dovey couple as ‘Yor’ would imply, but unfortunately for Nightfall, she’s also not just ‘YOR BRIAR’ another tool to him. It’s perfect because it conveys respect which Loid has a healthy amount of for Yor. If he can help it, he doesn’t like using her. And Nightfall is right to be worried that this comfortable mode of address of Loid’s is bleeding over to Twilight as if to blur the two. Loid is supposed to be an entirely different person or character so what does it mean that Twilight also calls his wife the same way Loid does? ‘Yor-san’ and ‘Loid-san’ are partners in a lot of ways. Yor-san is whom he can let down his guard down around, and someone this perfectionist spy can ask help from and rely on.

So what about Yuri Briar? He doesn’t know the true nature of Yor and Loid’s arrangement. Shouldn’t he be calling her Yor in front of him to keep up the ruse? Again, I think part of it is pragmatic. He doesn’t want to further aggravate the siscon. But especially in light of Chapter 86 and Volume 10’s inner cover, I think (at least unconsciously) it’s because Yuri is family. I notice that Twilight hasn’t even kept up the Loid persona as much in front of Yuri anymore (which tbf can’t blame him cause how do you even react to Yuri) but it’s not as if Yuri is someone to be underestimated. Some way or the other, even if he doesn’t fully realize it, I think Twilight is starting to treat Yuri like how Yor treats him or at the very least he can’t treat him like any other enemy or bystander because he’s someone important to Yor. Which again as CH 86 would show, Fiona has already noticed, and Twilight himself is angry at himself about. I don’t think Twilight has realized any sort of feelings for Yor yet, but I guess to Fiona, his mode of address for her is and has always been telling.

It’s actually interesting to think that perhaps it’s when he’s calling her ‘Yor-san’ that he’s most like himself - like Loid, Twilight and the boy before there was Twilight all at once - with her.

[aeruthien]

What makes Ryuzo such a tragic character, is that while he does try so hard to save his men, he just trades one tyrant with another. He doesn't want to join Shimura because he and his men will be send out to die (a totally real fear, as we see during the attack on Fort Shimura) and he doesn't trust Jin to go against Shimura (another fair assessment, because Jin is very much gung-ho about rescuing Shimura in Act I), but then Khotun does exactly that: send out Ryuzo to kill Jin die while Khotun flees.

Ryuzo can't make a good choice here, and I think Jin realizes that in the end. Sadly, by then it is too late, and they have both done things to each other that can not be repaired. If their final confrontation had happened AFTER Jin had renounced his Uncle and fully accepted his place as the Ghost, there might have been a reconciliation, but sadly that isn't the case. In fact, I think it was Ryuzo's death that pushed Jin over the edge, especially combined with Shimura asking him to give up Yuna.

[bylrndgm]

bored girl from 2x01 (again)

You know, I was minding my own business, finding shots to make an angsty edit to and... I landed on 2x01.

Two months ago I posted this post. The girl was playing in class with that fortune-teller origami with written on top "red" and "blue".

I said it represented fate and the correlation between El and Mike.

But it wasn't until today that I noticed her again.

Here she is, with her beautiful smirk, knowing things we don't.

This is the scene she's looking at:

So far, pretty normal. Right, here is where things get unhinged.

Pay attention to the following gif:

Someone who's a native speaker has to tell me what she is saying, by reading her labial... to me seems "what..."

She leans onto her friend's shoulder, as to whisper something in her ear. Typical gossiping behavior to me.

HOWEVER. She puts up her index finger and points to something, and then moves it to her left (to the outside).

She firstly points to Will

By moving her finger to the left she's point to who's standing on Will's left - from her pov (aka Mike)

Not saying she might have an important role or whatever. It's like as she's suggesting us that Will and Mike look like a couple, she's telling us look at them.

[gothamitee]

What will you be tonight? That’s the question

[martyrbat]

hate when a batman artist isn't committed to bruce's lame bat schtick... give that man a bat insignia on the bottom of his boots rn

[hinamie]

10 years later

[creativepromptsforwriting]

subtle acts of love

giving them food without them asking for it

randomly bringing them flowers

holding a door open for them

pulling out their chair for them

guiding them with a gentle hand on the small of their back

making them lunch to take to work with them

fixing their clothes or hair

giving them a massage

talking casually about a shared future

showing them their appreciation for them

waiting at home to say hello when they come in

paying complete attention to them

giving them a casual, but thoughtful compliment

writing them a love letter and hiding it for them to find

showing them something that reminded them of their partner

humming a song to calm them down

giving them a quick kiss whenever they pass each other at home

casual grabbing their hand and swinging it back and forth

remembering something they told them

[godslittlesadge]

THE MENTAL HEALTH BROTHERS

[not-psychotic]

[random-kido]

Another quick collection

[novelconcepts]

I Saw the TV Glow is such a uniquely, devastatingly queer story. Two queer kids trapped in suburbia. Both of them sensing something isn’t quite right with their lives. Both of them knowing that wrongness could kill them. One of them getting out, trying on new names, new places, new ways of being. Trying to claw her way to fully understanding herself, trying to grasp the true reality of her existence. Succeeding. Going back to help the other, to try so desperately to rescue an old friend, to show the path forward. Being called crazy. Because, to someone who hasn’t gotten out, even trying seems crazy. Feels crazy. Looks, on the surface, like dying.

And to have that other queer kid be so terrified of the internal revolution that is accepting himself that he inadvertently stays buried. Stays in a situation that will suffocate him. Choke the life out of him. Choke the joy out of him. Have him so terrified of possibly being crazy that he, instead, lives with a repression so extreme, it quite literally is killing him. And still, still, he apologizes for it. Apologizes over and over and over, to people who don’t see him. Who never have. Who never will. Because it’s better than being crazy. Because it’s safer than digging his way out. Killing the image everyone sees to rise again as something free and true and authentic. My god. My god, this movie. It shattered me.

[doughkazoo]

Von Karma household

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

not to keep beating this dead horse (jk when do i ever shut up) but i do think him and laios yelling at and beating the shit out of each other was like a gateway drug for shuro. he broke the seal on saying words out loud with his human mouth now he can say other crazy things like "thanks for following me cross-country to go dungeon diving for me i appreciate you doing that"

[mxmarsbars]

he’s trying to help (the treat is soup)

[mentallyadinonugget]

“undercity’s gonna eat you alive”

🤭

[flonflonflon]

Siblings!!!!

(semi cleaned up some sketches I had lying around)