#appeal rather

[hauntingofhouses]

Very interesting to me that a certain subset of the BES fandom's favourite iterations of Mizu and Akemi are seemingly rooted in the facades they have projected towards the world, and are not accurate representations of their true selves.

And I see this is especially the case with Mizu, where fanon likes to paint her as this dominant, hyper-masculine, smirking Cool GuyTM who's going to give you her strap. And this idea of Mizu is often based on the image of her wearing her glasses, and optionally, with her cloak and big, wide-brimmed kasa.

And what's interesting about this, to me, is that fanon is seemingly falling for her deliberate disguise. Because the glasses (with the optional combination of cloak and hat) represent Mizu's suppression of her true self. She is playing a role.

Take this scene of Mizu in the brothel in Episode 4 for example. Here, not only is Mizu wearing her glasses to symbolise the mask she is wearing, but she is purposely acting like some suave and cocky gentleman, intimidating, calm, in control. Her voice is even deeper than usual, like what we hear in her first scene while facing off with Hachiman the Flesh-Trader in Episode 1.

This act that Mizu puts on is an embodiment of masculine showboating, which is highly effective against weak and insecure men like Hachi, but also against women like those who tried to seduce her at the Shindo House.

And that brings me to how Mizu's mask is actually a direct parallel to Akemi's mask in this very same scene.

Here, Akemi is also putting up an act, playing up her naivety and demure girlishness, using her high-pitched lilted voice, complimenting Mizu and trying to make small talk, all so she can seduce and lure Mizu in to drink the drugged cup of sake.

So what I find so interesting and funny about this scene, characters within it, and the subsequent fandom interpretations of both, is that everyone seems to literally be falling for the mask that Mizu and Akemi are putting up to conceal their identities, guard themselves from the world, and get what they want.

It's also a little frustrating because the fanon seems to twist what actually makes Mizu and Akemi's dynamic so interesting by flattening it completely. Because both here and throughout the story, Mizu and Akemi's entire relationship and treatment of each other is solely built off of masks, assumptions, and misconceptions.

Akemi believes Mizu is a selfish, cocky male samurai who destroyed her ex-fiance's career and life, and who abandoned her to let her get dragged away by her father's guards and forcibly married off to a man she didn't know. on the other hand, Mizu believes Akemi is bratty, naive princess who constantly needs saving and who can't make her own decisions.

These misconceptions are even evident in the framing of their first impressions of each other, both of which unfold in these slow-motion POV shots.

Mizu's first impression of Akemi is that of a beautiful, untouchable princess in a cage. Swirling string music in the background.

Akemi's first impression of Mizu is of a mysterious, stoic "demon" samurai who stole her fiance's scarf. Tense music and the sound of ocean waves in the background.

And then, going back to that scene of them together in Episode 4, both Mizu and Akemi continue to fool each other and hold these assumptions of each other, and they both feed into it, as both are purposely acting within the suppressive roles society binds them to in order to achieve their goals within the means they are allowed (Akemi playing the part of a subservient woman; Mizu playing the part of a dominant man).

But then, for once in both their lives, neither of their usual tactics work.

Akemi is trying to use flattery and seduction on Mizu, but Mizu sees right through it, knowing that Akemi is just trying to manipulate and harm her. Rather than give in to Akemi's tactics, Mizu plays with Akemi's emotions by alluding to Taigen's death, before pinning her down, and then when she starts crying, Mizu just rolls her eyes and tells her to shut up.

On the opposite end, when Mizu tries to use brute force and intimidation, Akemi also sees right through it, not falling for it, and instead says this:

"Under your mask, you're not the killer you pretend to be."

Nonetheless, despite the fact that they see a little bit through each other's masks, they both still hold their presumptions of each other until the very end of the season, with Akemi seeing Mizu as an obnoxious samurai swooping in to save the day, and Mizu seeing Akemi as a damsel in distress.

And what I find a bit irksome is that the fandom also resorts to flattening them to these tropes as well.

Because Mizu is not some cool, smooth-talking samurai with a big dick sword as Akemi (and the fandom) might believe. All of that is the facade she puts up and nothing more. In reality, Mizu is an angry, confused and lonely child, and a masterful artist, who is struggling against her own self-hatred. Master Eiji, her father figure who knows her best, knows this.

And Akemi, on the other hand, is not some girly, sweet, vain and spoiled princess as Mizu might believe. Instead she has never cared for frivolous things like fashion, love or looks, instead favouring poetry and strategy games instead, and has always only cared about her own independence. Seki, her father figure who knows her best, knows this.

But neither is she some authoritative dominatrix, though this is part of her new persona that she is trying to project to get what she wants. Because while Akemi is willful, outspoken, intelligent and authoritative, she can still be naive! She is still often unsure and needs to have her hand held through things, as she is still learning and growing into her full potential. Her new parental/guardian figure, Madame Kaji, knows this as well.

So with all that being said, now that we know that Mizu and Akemi are essentially wearing masks and putting up fronts throughout the show, what would a representation of Mizu's and Akemi's true selves actually look like? Easy. It's in their hair.

This shot on the left is the only time we see Mizu with her hair completely down. In this scene, she's being berated by Mama, and her guard is completely down, she has no weapon, and is no longer wearing any mask, as this is after she showed Mikio "all of herself" and tried to take off the mask of a subservient housewife. Thus, here, she is sad, vulnerable, and feeling small (emphasised further by the framing of the scene). This is a perfect encapsulation of what Mizu is on the inside, underneath all the layers of revenge-obsession and the walls she's put around herself.

In contrast, the only time we Akemi with her hair fully down, she is completely alone in the bath, and this scene takes place after being scorned by her father and left weeping at his feet. But despite all that, Akemi is headstrong, determined, taking the reigns of her life as she makes the choice to run away, but even that choice is reflective of her youthful naivety. She even gets scolded by Seki shortly after this in the next scene, because though she wants to be independent, she still hasn't completely learned to be. Not yet. Regardless, her decisiveness and moment of self-empowerment is emphasised by the framing of the scene, where her face takes up the majority of the shot, and she stares seriously into the middle distance.

To conclude, I wish popular fanon would stop mischaracterising these two, and flattening them into tropes and stereotypes (ie. masculine badass swordsman Mizu and feminine alluring queen but also girly swooning damsel Akemi), all of which just seems... reductive. It also irks me when Akemi is merely upheld as a love interest and romantic device for Mizu and nothing more, when she is literally Mizu's narrative foil (takes far more narrative precedence over romantic interest) and the deuteragonist of this show. She is her own person. That is literally the theme of her entire character and arc.

[blanketorghost]

Honestly im baffled by the fact that epel x deuce is such a rare ship when the entire plot of book 5 is 'Deuce drags his friends into a talent show because he has a crush on the cute pomefiore guy'

[im-surviving-off-of-tea11]

new solution for love triangles and multiperson friend group alike: polyamory

[loganslowdown4]

Once again thinking about this—

God THE POSES

The poses are so👏good👏

Just that little tiny detail for being sanders sides adjacent but not sides enough to detract from the whole of this video

hhhhhhhh

the simplicity! but there’s so MUCH in there! it’s saying SO MUCH! aaaaaa

[the-voldsoy]

it would be SO fun if at the next season finale when whichever characters are still alive are fighting the next Big Bad, Sam pops back through the portal at Hilltop Road (after months of silence and being assumed dead) and casually deals with it. And then the next season is just about whatever Sam and the Archivist were up to in the other dimension.

[shalom-iamcominghome]

People findinging out that antisemitism does, in fact, victimize people

[wonder-worker]

I've been thinking about the tragedy of Elizabeth Woodville living to see the end of her family name.

I don't mean her family with her husband, which lived on through her daughter and grandson. I mean her own.

Her sisters died, one by one, many of them after 1485. When Elizabeth died, only Katherine was left, and she would die before the turn of the century as well.

All her brothers died, too. Lewis died in childhood. John was executed. Anthony was murdered. Lionel died suddenly in the peak of Richard's reign, unable to see his niece become queen. Edward perished at war. Richard died in grieving peace. For all the violence and judgement the family endured, it was "an accident of biology" that ended their line: none of the brothers left heirs, and the Woodville name was extinguished. We know the family was aware of this. We know they mourned it, too:

“Buy a bell to be a tenor at Grafton to the bells now there, for a remembrance of the last of my blood.”

Elizabeth lived through the deposition and death of her young sons, and lived to see the end of her own family name. It must have been such a haunting loss, on both sides.

[scrimblobimblowhump]

Biggest whump pet peeve (in film): when there’s a scene where whumpee is held captive or something and the restraints are SO blatantly fake. Like stop lying, we all know the “rope” is ridiculously thin and loose and you can tear out of it with one move 😭😭 or when the gag is a strip of cloth so thin their lips touch over it - istg if you don’t stop faking the forced ahh muffled noises, we all know you can talk perfectly fine 💀

[bmpmp3]

not used to this kind of mascot

[daily-hanamura]

[ducktracy]

How much Daffy and Porky merch do you own?

more than the average person

[engagemythrusters]

I like Shaak-Ti’s design more than I ever liked Ahsoka’s :( I liked the huge blocks of markings. It’s more alien than something that just looks like some graphic avant garde makeup. The design on Ahsoka just feels too purposeful to be natural. Like if you look at tabby cats, the designs do glob together or get muddled, and those that don’t usually are so closely spaced and much more fluid. And they’re certainly not perfect.

Idk I just. Wish Ahsoka got to look more strange rather than just prettied-up.

[softichill]

You put sans jevil and spamton in a room who makes it out alive?

PS: spamton does get [[Power Of Neo]]

(My own reasoning in the tags)

[shadystranger]

the switch from worry for sam to appealing.. oh he knows how to fuck him up so perfectly tailored for him

[vaguely-concerned]

the fact that anyone other than john thinks the trillionaires are in any way relevant to what is going on between the house and non-house cultures in the current day of the locked tomb universe baffles me so utterly. fuck trillionaires? I mean fr fr, no argument here. if the cost wasn't *checks notes* the entirety of the rest of humanity, giving them what was coming to them before they left would have been understandable if ultimately pointless.

however. and I cannot stress this enough. these are not the trillionaires. these are descendants living in the year of our Jod (kindly prince of death etc.) ten thousand. ten THOUSAND YEARS??? hello????? can anyone hear me????? do you fathom how many generations that is???????? I feel like some of these people think trillionairism is an immutable genetically inherited trait that makes it morally cool to murder someone indefinitely and that is WILD to me! what the FUCK is your expiration date on the sins of the father? I hope your ancestors didn't hoard resources during the last glacial period because I'm sorry to say that make it free game to hunt you for sport and use your bones to make furniture

(MERCYMORN and AUGUSTINE managed to pass this insight check!!!! two of the worst people who have ever lived and who helped build this system, and THEY understood it was monstrous and that it had to stop! come on if the dios apate crew managed to pass this morality 101 class there's absolutely no excuse for anyone else)

[wri0thesley]

tbh one of the things that always jars me in otome games is when i remember the mc has like a Canon Appearance and i see them in a cg im like. oh. maybe this character wouldnt like me actually bc i am Way Bigger Than This Bitch