#aspoonofsugar

[hamliet]

Hey I’ve been thinking about Jungian archetypes. If Adam is Blake’s shadow how do you feel about Blake killing him? Her story doesn’t linger on the trauma of his death for her and there is positive development that comes of it for her relationship with Yang. Not that she should feel bad about it, but shouldn’t killing her Shadow have negative repercussions or at least more introspection?

Hey!

So, I think there are a few aspects at play here, but the short version is that saying Adam is Blake's shadow is too simplistic to be entirely accurate. Blake's shadow semblance has multiple layers. For just a few of them:

She is herself a shadow of society (the faunus). The dark side of humanity is how they treat the faunus as not human, and the point is that they must integrate with people. Blake helps this happen through her role in the story.

Adam is only part of Blake's shadow. The White Fang as a whole is more accurately called Blake's shadow, but the White Fang is divided into different people. Ilia is another major component of her shadow.

To quote @aspoonofsugar's excellent meta here:

The shadow, also known as the inner beast, is everything a person refuses about themselves and pushes into the subconscious. It can be flaws, but also hidden potential and energy. Either way, it must be accepted and integrated back into the self because if repressed it will grow more violent and dangerous.

Blake does do this with the White Fang as a whole, and on a personal level, with Ilia. Ilia represents the parts of Blake she doesn't initially embrace, including her own queerness, her violence, her desire for revenge, and her resentment of having to hide who she truly is. But Blake reconciles with Ilia, and it's only through this reconciliation that Blake's own family is saved--because Blake's parents love their daughter, both her dark and light sides.

Blake's name itself means "black," which is why her shadow is the White Fang. But, Blake also means also "light." She is both shadow and light, and Ilia's surname Amitola means rainbow, a refraction of that light.

Adam, on the other hand... well. Blake did try to reconcile with him. She doesn't hunt him down, determined to deny that part of herself. In fact she begs him to leave her alone and to turn away from his determination to kill her so many times. She's not trying to kill him until he essentially forces her hand, and then she falls to the ground and sobs over what's happened.

It's a rejection of Adam's abuse and control, yes, but at the same time it's an acceptance that Blake can be violent, that sometimes fighting is even necessary if an enemy gives you no choice. It's an acceptance that she cannot change everything, she can't even save every person she loves. But, that doesn't mean to stop trying, or that any of that time was wasted.

To quote another meta by @aspoonofsugar about Shadow, her semblance:

After all, isn’t it what her ability is about? To leave behind parts of herself, so that she can survive despite it all. Sure, sacrificing fragments of who you are is damaging if you are conditioned to always do it. However, it is also a mechanism that helps you stay whole despite being shattered.

Yes, Blake lost a part of herself in Adam, and I think the story acknowledges this. But she wasn't aiming to destroy or deny her dark side, and has reconciled with it in other ways.

[pilot-boi]

That shipping analysis post has got me like 👀

I know right

Props to @aspoonofsugar and @misstrashchan cause it was REALLY good, an excellent read

[your-mums-nuts]

Emerald and Mercury make me so soft cause like, Mercury sees himself as a machine, he has metal legs and no semblance, which adds a layer of nuance to his character because semblances are often referred to as a manifestation of one’s soul. It’s established kind of that he sees himself as a vessel for violence and he reacts to his evil coworkers with soldier-like tolerance. Except for emerald. Mercury teases her, questions her,checks on her (subtly, let’s remember this is Mercury we’re talking about) he lets her talk to him, he fights her on cinder. With Emerald, he reacts like you would with someone you care about. It’s very special too because he’s known her just as long as he’s known Cinder, but he doesn’t care for Cinder at all. It’s Emerald and only Emerald that he has this soft spot for.

This is so important to because Emerald is a very emotional character, her arc depending entirely on Cinder for the first few seasons shows how much care she will put into a relationship no matter what. It’s clear that she craves love and affection even though it isn’t reciprocated, at all, but Emerald still tries and tries until she can’t keep the illusion anymore. ( @aspoonofsugar has a great analysis on this everyone should check out). Mercury cares about her more than anything and he doesn’t get a thing out of it (so does Emerald and I’ll get into that a seperate time) That is something neither have truly realised yet but both need to. For Mercury it would be a way for him to recognise he’s not some unfeeling thing and actually cares very deeply for another person (Emerald). And for Emerald to have someone who loves her with nothing being expected in return, without it being a trick or a bribe, would be so good for her own self worth.

[tumblingxelian]

RWBY Is: Deeper Than you Think (Yang Xiao Long Edition)

Hello again! Today we welcome my new editor, the amazing @bardock1991 We are also discussing Yang Xiao Long and how much more there is to her character than first meets the eye. 

Reference Material: https://www.tumblr.com/hadesisqueer/6... https://www.tumblr.com/aspoonofsugar/... https://sir-adamus.tumblr.com/post/70... 

 If you are looking to hire an editor check out, DxBardock's Twitter & Tumblr: https://twitter.com/DxBardock?t=ilF03... https://www.tumblr.com/bardock1991 

 My Patreon and Ko-Fi can be found here, every little bit helps! https://www.patreon.com/ShakeTailStudios https://ko-fi.com/shakytailstudos

[pastel-junkyard]

A Tentative Analysis of Nina Fortner and her Greater Meaning, featuring Wolfgang Grimmer.

Before I begin I would like to credit tumblr user @aspoonofsugar for their insights into the twins and Nina's character progression. Their posts form the foundation of my understanding.

The twins:

https://www.tumblr.com/aspoonofsugar/646197554080628736/what-are-your-thoughts-about-johan-and-nina

Nina's arc:

https://www.tumblr.com/aspoonofsugar/184734050997/hello-could-you-share-your-thoughts-about-chapter

Thank you also to @good-wine-and-cheese for making sure what I'm about to say makes sense to someone other than me, apologies it took so long to post!

For a while now, I've been trying to parse out a coherent explanation as to what I think Nina represents in the narrative, what her symbolic purpose as an individual character is. The following is my attempt.

I interpret Nina as representing the ideal trauma survivor - more specifically, how the conflicting and restricting expectations for survivors do little for them and are really for the benefit of outsiders.

Victim/Survivor Archetypes.

From my personal observation, survivors of trauma are given several, often contradictory messages on how they should process their experiences. I have summarised them as categories below.

Asymptomatic, convenient and productive. They may not even consider what happened as traumatic, but rather "normal". In the event that their trauma is sufficiently valid in societal eyes, they are "resilient" and cheery, not discussing their troubles as they either follow the above philosophy or have conveniently gotten over it. Trauma done by the system does not exist unless one person/entity can be pointed to as the bad apple.

Passive, quiet things to be nurtured and advocated for. They display enough sadness and fear to elicit sympathy, but not enough to become burdensome. Under no circumstances should they struggle with complex and unpalatable emotions such as paranoia or rage. They forgive the perpetrator not out of their own decision, but to revert to state 1.

Justice-seekers against a singularly monstrous and irredeemable person. They will use legal means but are justified in going above the law to exact punitive justice. At no point are they to question the wider structures that allowed the events to occur or shaped the toxic worldview of the perpetrator. It ends with them and once it's done they go back to being productive for the system -- either an ordinary citizen or a prisoner in the event that they broke the law in a way that can't be brushed away.

The Unideal. Survivors that are entirely unpalatable in terms of symptoms and/or have inflicted suffering as a result of their trauma.  Those who point to the systems that caused this at the same time as they point to the perpetrator. These people are carted off to institutions or die.

1 is the most ideal, with each descending point being an acquiescence - if you must be traumatised, this is how; if you must pursue justice, this is how.

When it comes to the idea of forgiveness, I have picked up on similar contradictions.

To me, it is often weaponised as a tool to make survivors manageable and not make a fuss about those who have enabled the events to take place. The exception to this rule is if the perpetrator is someone deemed convenient to condemn -- an enemy nation, a perpetrator who fits societal ideas of what a perpetrator of trauma is.

The reason I mention this as well as victim archetypes is because forgiveness is a key feature of Nina's development and a key theme in Monster as a whole.

Now to Nina (and a bit of Grimmer).

In her evolving reactions to the circumstances, Nina unconsciously moves from one societal ideal to another and chafes under the confines of each one.

She appears to begin the story in archetype 1, with no memory of her trauma and a fully functional life as an undergraduate student and pizza deliverer.

However, as noted by her counselor Dr Gietel in Chapter 8/Episode 5, her cheery demeanour has an artificiality to it. Before the e-mail from Johan, she doesn't give herself too much time to think alone, an unconscious effort to protect herself. After the costume party picture and mysterious e-mail makes a tear in her ordinary life, it's telling that she minimises other people's involvement in her problems. (As much as Clara and Beate pushed the admirer meet-up against her wishes, they do show genuine concern. Same with Peter. These people could help, but Nina doesn't think to let them in.)

Throughout the rest of the series she is unmoored from the perfection of this first archetype, drifting between 2 and 3 as she gathers information and occasionally gets overwhelmed by her uprooted trauma.

True to her implied belief in a black and white worldview, she puts herself morally in number 3 but is frightened at the emotional side of this archetype - the rage flashes, the flashbacks, the depth of impact the trauma has had on her.

Nina's fear of herself is a direct result of the lack of space in conventional victim/survivor narratives for people that struggle with violent tendencies - they are more often than not seen as dangerous and an example of abused people inevitably becoming abusers.

It also leaves little room for people who have for whatever reason done harm - they can't really be a victim if they've done bad things, even unintentionally, because the status of victim is associated with moral uprightness and purity.

Her guilt and near suicide in Episode 67 comes from the fact that she believes she inflicted (her) trauma onto Johan, thereby not being morally pure in the way archetype 2 demands of her. Her flashes of rage peppered throughout the story solidifies the idea in her head that the same destruction is woven into the both of them by some ineffable fundamental.

This gives her an interesting parallel to Grimmer, who, despite his kindness and humanitarian goals, would be put into the 4th archetype of the unideal survivor.

His DID would already put him at a disadvantage due to its stigma, made only more intense by Steiner's combat ability and lack of restraint for those he considers a threat (the sheer desperation and danger required to make deadly force a default for someone is conveniently ignored).

Grimmer's readiness to dig deep in order to seek accountability makes him begin with Nina's end philosophy - he is after more than personal revenge, he wants revelation, he wants institutional protection for children and justice for survivors.

As good-wine-and-cheese pointed out, both Nina and Grimmer also try in vain to protect a perpetrator in order for them to testify.

https://www.tumblr.com/good-wine-and-cheese/186572524185/in-a-fairly-low-key-way-nina-and-grimmer-have-this

Dr Tenma is able to save her by truly listening and reminding her of her worth even after hearing the whole story. In fact, had she not run away to once again solve things herself, he likely would have emphasised this care after coming back from Mannheim in Episode 8. (They both think they're the exceptions to needing care in a way because of their guilt and self-shouldered burden.)

Once this is done and she gets her final memories back, she is able to see every person involved as who they are and no longer limits herself or others into the archetypes. She forgives the unideal parts of herself in the process of forgiving the "unideal" Johan, and implies a dedication to continue having this holistic and restorative view of the world in her epilogue.

In Summary.

Nina Fortner is a complex character with parallels with both Tenma and Johan that are thoroughly explored. As an individual character, I believe she may be designed to explore the multiple archetypes put upon survivors of trauma, as well as how they serve no benefit for the survivor themselves.

This may give her an additional mirror in Grimmer, a survivor that is morally upright yet fits into the most stigmatized archetype of all. Together, the two of them explore the same topic from different sides in a way that informs other characters.

[almacambiondaughterofsaleos]

thoughts on these posts https://www.tumblr.com/aspoonofsugar/742246863661613056/hi-do-you-think-alastor-and-lucifer-are-foils?source=share

and this one https://www.tumblr.com/aspoonofsugar/745508921093095424/could-you-analyse-insane-the-alastor-song-by?source=share

so and so

[megashadowdragon]

Chrollo is Silva's son?! Discussing the Theory that Chrollo has Multiple Personalities! @hamliet @aspoonofsugar

youtube comment

Chrollo is the Sensui of the hxh have showcase similar view point

Chrollo shares similarities with Shinobu Sensui, a villain from Yoshihiro Togashi's other well-known series, YuYu Hakusho: both are the leaders of their gang; both are the smartest and most polite of their gang; both have religious references. Sensui is known as the Dark Angel, Chrollo has a cross on his forehead, an inverted cross on his coat, and a last name very close to Lucifer; and in the manga and the 2011 anime adaptation, a young Chrollo is seen playing with a videotape, possibly a reference to the Chapter Black tape stolen by Sensui.

[waywardtravelerfart]

YYYYYAAAAAAAASSSSSSS!!!!

I would also super love it if we had enough understandings of magical systems to figure out how to break it down scientifically. Just a Complete Application of Heterodyne’s Law:

@hamliet @aspoonofsugar

Elements of real science I'd love to see in more fictional magic systems

Categories are defined by people, not by nature, and way looser around the edges than everyone thinks. "We like to divide spell-casting into rituals, runic magic, instantaneous spells, and curses or blessings, but the 'curse or blessing' category has more to do with how long a spell LASTS than how it's SET, and the line between ritual and inscribed runes gets really blurry in places..."

Models of 'how this works' that get taught to little kids which are fully debunked later as 'over-simplified and actually totally inaccurate, but a good way to learn, this is better', only to be replaced two years of study after that because, 'actually that was also a lie for the sake of learning, learn this one instead'. "Yes, we teach kids that planes stack in layers and sometimes holes form between them, and I know last year we covered the Humperdink Theory Of Planar Interweaving where those so-called holes are areas of enmeshment with the fibers of multiple planes at once, but today we're finally going to talk about the Planar Mosaic Model."

Frenzies of curiosity each time something unexpected happens, as wizards try to figure out, if this is a divergence from the pattern they THOUGHT they knew, then what is the bigger pattern? IE, "We've seen the Power of Friendship be insufficient to slaying this balrog for years! Why were these particular adventurers finally able to do it now?"

Basically, magic not as an objective force of the universe, but a hodgepodge thing humans made up to try and talk about and interface with the truth of the actual universe.

"Yes, we've been studying the lore and secrets of the universe for a thousand years. Things still just happen sometimes! That's why it's magic!"

[hamliet]

I have a question you said in a review the eyes in the characters of oshi no ko when I read about it design wise I am intersted in the eyes of Akane, Kana and Mem-cho mean something about there role and character in the story I was wondering if you can elabortate on it.

Okay, so! To start with this topic, though, we actually have to talk about Ai first and foremost.

Hoshino Ai breaks down into several meanings. For one thing, it breaks into “hoshi no eye,” which literally means “starry eye” in Japanese. Ai’s eyes notably have stars in them, and Aqua and Ruby have one starry eye each.

Of course, this breaks into several meanings itself. "Starry eyed" is an English idiom for an idealistic, childlike view of the world. If we break the "star eye" idea down further, "star" references Ai being a "star," an idiom for a famous person.

"Hoshino" also contains a homonym for the Japanese verb "hoshi" (欲しい), which means "to want." This also indicates a huge part of Ai's character. The kanji used to write Hoshino means "star" and "indigo"--indigo is the color that you get when you combine aqua and ruby, by the way.

Plus, Ai is written in katakana (アイ), not kanji as would be typical for a name. Katakana is the Japanese script for loan words, which reinforces the literal translation of “eye.” But, it's also a homonym for the Japanese word for love (愛), which is pronounced like "eye." In turn, the story explores love as a major theme--for example, Ai’s final thoughts are about her finally understanding love.

So, from Ai, we see that eyes and particularly starry eyes matter.

In the OP, we see a progression of five eyes--Aqua, Ruby, Kana, Akane, and Mem-Cho.

Hikaru, Aqua, and Ruby

Aqua and Ruby share one starry eye that goes black when they are in a bad mental state (Hikaru's eyes are also starry eyes that have turned black, again reinforcing that he never had a childhood).

The implication of both Ruby and Aqua having one starry eye each and switching between looking more like their mother's eyes and their father's eyes is to emphasize their internal conflict. They both bear the legacy of their parents, and have their own legacies in their past lives and a blank slate, a chance for a new start (the unstarred eye). What they do with this life and which legacy they want to focus on (Ai's love and life, or Hikaru's focus on trauma and repeating a cycle of violence) is their choice.

If we take the saying "the eyes are the window to the sopul," then we also see that as much as Ruby and Aqua are Sarina and Gorou, they are also Ruby and Aqua, children of Ai and Hikaru. That's why I actually am not so sure about the common fan presumption that Crow Girl saying the children had no souls meant they were supposed to be stillborn. They aren't Sarina and Gorou any more so than they are Ruby and Aqua.

Now let's finally move onto your characters.

Kana

Kana’s eyes resemble galaxies.

What this means isn't entirely clear, but instead of a single star, she has hundreds in her eyes. This presumably indicates her potential as a human being, and her way of reminding both Aqua and Ruby (in her better moments, anyways) that they are part of a huge world and a huge cosmos, and don't have to focus on just one aspect of life--namely, revenge on Hikaru for Aqua and revenge for the doctor for Ruby. Other people around them also contain their own light.

Akane and Mem-Cho

Akane’s look like an evening sky.

Mem-Cho’s resemble daytime, complete with light reflections forming clouds as shown below:

Again, I'm not entirely sure what this means per se, but I would guess it emphasizes, thematically, the reality of life. People live, and they die. Day comes, and then night.

Death (something repeatedly associated with Akane--no I don't think she's going to die) is a part of life. I would guess Akane will help Aqua and Ruby accept this part of themselves somehow, as written by @aspoonofsugar here.

Mem-Cho, on the other hand, shines brightly, illuminating their need to grow in some ways and offering wise advice. She's not as complex a character at the moment, but her role so far seems congruent with this idea.

[greenteaandtattoos]

RWBY + JNR + Oscar for the character Bingo :D Either all together or divided into different posts!

Team RWBY (sorry if it's messy)

My favorites are clearly visible and I feel like I'm doing Weiss and Blake dirty, but I can say that I love all of their character arcs. I just find Ruby and Yang's current and potential character arcs so much more compelling, especially with their foundation.

JNR

I didn't really like Nora before her Atlas arc, but now I LOVE her. And Jaune's arc is iconic and I love it and who he has become, but otherwise don't think about him very often. And now I really am doing Ren dirty, but I just don't think about this man very often.

Oscar (do you really need to ask?)

Oscar Pine is one of the greatest additions to this show and I don't care what anyone else says. His character arc and potential arcs and his development in regards to who he is and what the merge will be are just *chef's kiss*

[hunterxhell]

Your series of asks about people watching HxH with their families are the best thing ever and are very good for the mood. Thank you and a thanks to your anons (or others contributing off-anon) as well! Have a good week!

IT’S SO SWEET!!!!!!! it makes me so happy!!!!!! thank you for the kind message

[misstrashchan]

No no I love this actually, because Ruby and Neo do desperately need to be honest with each and communicate their feelings to the other (not in a romantic sense but more in a literal bridging the Gap and coming to understand each other sense). Neo is mute and struggles to find her own voice, and Ruby has trouble opening up about her own emotions and trauma. So both struggle with communication in some way, and there is a lack of understanding. Ruby doesn't understand *why* Neo has it out for her, she has no idea what Neo wants.

Ruby: Whatever you wanted… I hope it was worth it. (08x14)

She doesn't know Neo is angry and grieving for Roman, someone she cared for a great deal, and blames Ruby for his death. Neo does not know the true circumstances of Roman's death like Ruby (he was killed by a Grimm admist the chaos while fighting Ruby).

The fact it's brought up that Neo identifies with Alyx as a character strongly in the book Roman Holiday, makes it possible she is acting out the role of Alyx here in the opening, but is also turning into Ruby, fitting as a Looking Glass for Ruby's internal world as pointed out by @aspoonofsugar in this post here. Ruby and the others have been trying to follow Alyx's story, but they don't really understand who she was as a person, and everyone has conflicting opinions of her. Neo is treating the Ever After like a make believe world free of consequence, like how Jaune described Alyx, and is petty and cruel. But, she is also lonely and feels lost, both because she is in a strange world but also because of the loss of someone dear to her, lashing out in her grief.

It is possible that in being honest with each other and coming to better understand Neo, Ruby will also be able to better understand Alyx in all her contradictions and acknowledging her as a person too, neither hero or monster, neither good or bad or black or white, but simply human, and empathize with both. And in perhaps relating to Neo's grief by opening up about her own, will be able to reach her and bridge the distance, and come to better understand herself as a result, and to be kinder to herself too.

Okay so… it turns out the opening actually put Ruby on the same ‘bridge of admitting feelings to your partner’ that Blake and Yang wound up on.

Opposite Alyx…

…and HERSELF.

Who also might be Neo in disguise.

…I’m thinking this might get a bit… awkward…

[megashadowdragon]

Illumi is already dead! Only the Japanese know the foreshadowing of Illumi's death.[HunterxHunter]

@hamliet

@aspoonofsugar

[hamliet]

With this new chapter and the Morena cover art my interest where she goes in plot and narrative has grown along with my sympathy about her situation.

She is very much neglected from the moment of her birth, told to never show up in society and act as if she herself was never born as if she is not part of the royal family (even if she is a bastard child).

And yet the entire condition for participation in the succession war has nothing to do with being a biological child of the king. She could have just participated in it and prove herself but she's not allowed to either be part of the family or prove herself because of bullshit rules! (not that I wished her or anyone to be a part of a death game just to prove a point or to become part of crazy royal family, but you get my point i guess)

For a while I've been convinced Nasubi will probably die, now I just wish that if he does Morena gets to kill him or something. There's no logical reason for subjecting Morena or any of the other mafia bosses to their life conditions other than keeping up appearances.

Morena is one of my favorite characters, and @aspoonofsugar has several fabulous metas on her: one, two. Morena has suffered a lot in life and ties into the themes of the outcasts that run through this arc.

[angstandhappiness]

FASCINATING

Yang's Design

This is just an appreciation post of our Golden Girl's design that stems from this longer meta I wrote on her. As a result, some concepts and ideas are taken and repeated from there.

GOLDILOCKS AND THE 3 BEARS IN 1 CHARACTER

Yang's design manages to take a lot of symbolism from her fairy tale and to represent it through clever aesthetic choices.

The simpler one to notice is the dychotomy between Goldilocks and the Bears:

Yang's most recognizable feature is her long blond hair (Goldilocks)

Yang usually wears brown outfits (The Bears and especially the Baby Bear)

She is both Goldilocks and the Baby Bear, so her looks reference both characters. At the same time, though, there are other elements of her story that find their way into Yang's appearance. I am talking about the too hot, too cold and just right. Let's consider these concept arts:

As you can see, they are not that much different from the final product. However, they are fun to read as explorations of the concept of hot/cold/just right. How? Through the use of colors, of course:

red > hot

blue > cold

purple > (red + blue) > just right

You notice how in these drafts there is a blue/green, which is absent from Yang's final design? I think it was inspired by the idea of too cold.

After all, Yang is meant to be unbalanced and asymmetrical:

Scathing eyes ask that we be symmetrical, one sided and easily processed. Yet every misshapen spark's unseen beauty is greater than its would be judgement.

Which means she is not a perfect mix of hot and cold. She is more on the hot side, rather than the cold. So, her color scheme is full of warm colors (yellow and orange mostly). Still, a little bit of ice blue/green is either in her bandana or her scarf to show there is some cold in her.

Another interesting detail in these concept arts is that she wears white and black, aka Weiss and Blake's colors. To be specific, she has a lot of white in the initial drafts and her bandana is black. It is probably something done to show that the girls are all intertwined, in a way. However, the white is toned down in the final design and the bandana becomes purple. Similarly, the cold/green is gone. Why so?

They probably (or at least it is fun to think so) chose to focus on the just right aka the purple (red + blue). In this way they have managed to convey all the previous ideas in a more concise way:

Yang is unbalanced, so she wears a lot of warm colors and a single cold color aka purple, which symbolizes her pursue of the just right

Purple replaces black as Blake's color, which adds to the idea Blake is Yang's just right

At the same time, isn't it interesting Yang's eyes are purple/violet in all the preparatory drafts? As people noticed, they are a mix of Raven and Tai's eyes, which makes Yang the just right of their hot and cold relationship.

Still, when Yang uses Burn her eyes become red...

HOT, HOTTER, THE HOTTEST

You're standing too close to a flame that's burning Hotter than the sun in the middle of July Sending out your army, but you still can't win Listen up, silly boy, 'cause I'm gonna tell you why I burn! Can't hold me now And you're not stopping me I burn! Swing all you want Like a fever I will take you down

Burn is nothing, but a metaphorical representation of the too hot of Yang's fairy tale. The moment she uses it, she fires up and her eyes go from the just right (purple) to the red (hot).

This reading makes sense in the context of Yang being built on the idea of "hot" and all its different meanings: she is hot in the sense of beautiful, she is hot in the sense of hot-blooded and she is the too hot in the sense of asymmetrical.

These concepts emerge also from Ember Celica:

They look like jewels, so hot

They turn into gauntlets, so even hotter

Yang loses one when she loses her arm, so they become asymmetrical > the hottest aka too hot

In general, Yang's hot design also plays homage to her name of Sunny Little Dragon and makes her look like a burning candle:

Burning the candle at both ends.

Which leads us to the next point of this analysis. Puns, sayings and words in general are fucking important for Yang's character.

PUNS PUNS PUNS!

Ren: It's okay to be afraid, you know. You don't always have to hide it with a joke.

Yang is the pun-girl par excellence, so it is not really a surprise that jokes and wordplay are so important in her story. This is true for her design, as well. Some examples:

She loses a hand because she is in need of a hand > she must learn to accept her own vulnerability and fragility

Her emblem is a burning heart she wears on her chest because she wears her heart on her sleeve. This means superficially she openly shows her anger and on a deeper level that she must make herself vulnerable

She is linked to the sun, so she is the only one of her teammates to wear sunglasses

He hair catches fire because she has a hair-trigger temper and is especially triggered by people touching her hair

Her eyes turn red when angry because she literally sees red

So, there are really a lot of ideas and jokes intertwined in Yang. Still, there is still another one, which is a fave:

Reign supreme? In your dreams You'll never make me bow Kick my ass? I'm world-class And Super Saiyan now

YANG, THE SHONEN PROTAGONIST

Yang's looks and powers make her similar to a Dragonball's Super Sayan, like she herself sings to us. This is so for 2 reasons:

sayans grow stronger when angry, just like Yang's semblance is partly activated by her fury

sayans grow stronger when they get hurt and then cured, which is the idea behind Burn in a nutshell

Ruby: Don't worry! With each hit she gets stronger, and she uses that energy to fight back! That's what makes her special.

Moreover, Yang looks very similar to a super sayan whenever she uses Burn with the only difference that Super Sayans' eyes turn blue, while hers become red.

The reason of these similarities is that Yang is meant to deconstruct and reconstruct the idea behind these kinds of characters. After all, an important part of her development is this:

Taiyang: But you gotta keep your emotions in check. Keep a level head, and think before you act. Your Semblance is a great fallback, but you can't let yourself rely on it. It won't always save you.

She must learn to cool down and to control her anger. In this way she can fight more effectively and with more precise strikes. Maybe this is why in Mistral she seems to leave her shonen/comic book inspiration behind and gains some westerns undertones:

In Vale, she is introduced as a powerful shonen/comic fighter, a mix among Goku, Human Torch and Ghost Rider:

Human Torch can't mess with me Johnny Blaze: Suspect B

In Mistral Bumblebee turns into her loyal horse and she becomes a cow-girl who fighs bandits in inns. Classic western imagery.

In a sense, you can see it like this:

Vale > body - Yang affirms herself as an incredible powerful fighter, but she has to go through a journey of self-discovery to grow even stronger

Mistral > mind - Yang has to become smarter, so that she can see others and herself better

I guess that Vacuo will be heart > the result of cooling down is that she will be able to unlock and solve those feelings she usually represses behind her temper, her anger and her funny facade.

Once this happens, I am sure these new found emotions will power her up once again. She may even reconstruct her Super-Sayan persona: she will grow stronger because of all her feelings and not just anger. By keeping her anger under contro she will learn to truly see her own heart and to really find strength in it.

Who knows? Maybe by that point Burn will evolve and gain some new effect and a new aesthetic representation. What happens to a flame when it burns hotter and hotter? It goes from red to blue, which is also the color symbolic of the too cold in Yang's allusion. A Yang who burns incredibly hot and brilliant and looks at the world with clear eyes at the same time... A true Super Sayan with blue eyes this time...A Goldilocks who is both hot and cold.

CONCLUSION

These are some random thoughts on Yang's design. It is probable much of this may be me over-analyzing, but tbh? It is fun to go at character designs this way and what's sure is that the authors created such a rich and coherent character that you can easily link many details together in one single narrative. That in itself is already amazing.

[subdee]

Last Time on Hunter x Hunter

New HxH chapter is out but it’s been quiet at least among the fans I know... it seems because no one remembers what happened last time.  :P

Probably this would be a good time to go back to the HxH subreddit because I bet the redditors are loving this chapter dedicated to mafia flunkies fighting each other using absurd powers and are digging up their old reference charts and theories and putting them up on the wall like Pepe Silvia as we speak. 

(It’s Zhang Lei, BTW.  Zhang Lei will win the succession war.  And Sakata is the Silent Majorty nen user, working directly for Zhang Lei or possibly for Onior on his behalf.  Although if 8th prince Lazurus won the succession war with the help of the Spiders that would be a pretty good plot twist.  You heard it here first!  )

Ahem.  Anyway here’s your recap of what’s going on in the manga currently... spolers ahead!!!!

(All images from this reference chart, thank you nerds of reddit!) 

There are three mafia groups based on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th tier of the boat:

Hei-ly Group (Tier 3, under 3rd prince Tserreidnich but gone rogue(???))

The Hei-ly group on Tier 3 are going around murdering people with the nen abilities Morena gave them, with a goal of causing chaos and overturning the entire hierarchical system.    @aspoonofsugar wrote a really great essay for hxhladieszine about Morena’s nen ability and goals BTW, which you can read here:

https://at.tumblr.com/aspoonofsugar/morenas-balance/13s1haojribq

Morena’s on the cover of the next HxH volume set to release in November, so the next set of chapters might be all about her attempted revolution! 

Xu-Yu Group (Tier 4, under 4th prince Zhang Lei (the buddha-looking one)  

The Xu-Yu group on Tier 4 are lead by Onior, who we found out previously is Zhang Lei’s real father!!!  They’re the largest mafia group and as such, dedicated to the preservation of the status quo.   Currently they’re teamed up with the Cha-R mafia group to find Hisoka and stop Morena. 

  Cha-R Group (Tier 5, under 8th prince Lazurus (the pot smoking one))

The Cha-R group on Tier 5 are the weakest mafia group, but they’ve made an alliance with the Phantom Troupe (specifically Phinks, Feitan and Nobunaga) in exchange for helping to locate Hisoka, and with the Xu-Yu mafia group to stop Morena.  

***

Anyway as the currently conflict is between the Xu-Yu mafia underboss and some of Morena’s lower-level flunkies, the Spiders don’t make an appearance in this chapter. 

I liked it though, the nen abilities were interesting, there’s a lot of detail in the panel backgrounds showing how crowded it is in the lower decks, and like @hxhhasmysoul​ pointed out it’s kinda funny how the chapter opens with graphic murder and that creepy blood-manipulation ability (and a nod toward the need to recap the plot, EXPLICITLY DENIED) before pivoting to a kitty camera and some pigeon handcuffs.  That’s the kind of absurdity we like to see in our manga.