#i really thought it was a translation error lololol

[starbiology]

turns out this means Incredibly Different things depending on the area bcz describing someone as decadent where I am would ONLY have an incredibly unhinged horny meaning like you want to lick/taste their skin because they look so good.

But in other places it just means a rich asshole

so i read all of the old tgcf translation twice before the official one was announced and so finally just got to reading book 3 of the official one. And all of that is to lead up to this description of qi rong in it that i needed to share bcz DECADENT???LOL???

[animegoil-vnc]

Yingdu Episode 1 Reactions

Ah the animation is so beautiful already. While I am not looking forward to another S2 action-oriented season, it's true they really upped their action animation and it's crazy seeing it applied to a basketball scene like in S1.

Lol at LG's face when he's shooting the ball.

Omg I can't believe Vein appears already in the first minute. What a flashy old-fashioned gun, feels like a Western type thing.

LOL he has to whip off his cape, truly a diva, c'mon XD

Oh bb girl what did you think a chair was going to do in the face of a gun. Still, I commend your courage, more than I'd do in that situation.

NOT TIME TO GET SENTIMENTAL AT THE PHOTO LG

OMG NO NO NO SO CXS *DID* SaVE LG "like you once did for me" NOOOO

Omg we've really got the death scene already

WAIT IS THAT CXS WITH GOLD EYES? Is he coming from the future already? fuck, yes he is, so he chose to die *again* for LG (or... or wait if he's alive in the future, it must mean he failed to save LG the first time and came back to make sure he could - so he DID go back to save LG once!!!)

OMG THE POWER TRASNFER, shown visually by the ball metaphor NOOOOO T_______T

Oh shit I didn't realize LG got shot too.

Have we not seen that image before? Of the birds in the sunset?

Oh damn, so the shakespeare sonnet book that LX has been holding this whole time is *Lu Guang's*???

and he stored that photo in there? Hmmm guess we'll find out if that's in preparation (aka this isn't the first round) or it was just a sentimental thing.

Wow LG realized very quickly that he now has CXS's power.

OMG HAHAHAHHAAHHAA GOT HIT IN THE FACE Sorry that shouldn't have been so funny, great way to change the mood quickly

YES TOUCH HANDS ALREADY MEANINGFULLY LIKE YOU'RE IN A FIC T_T

Huh, I thought they met in high school??? They're in Uni here already? Is this a translation error or school system difference? Their ages and school levels have never lined up :/

Omg so cute - CXS smiling at LG's text (even though it was just a freaking OK emoji smh) as a cute song plays.

Hmmm LG's eyes aren't gold anymore, is that just because it'd be annoying to show them as gold then entire time and it'd interfere with future time travel indicators?

Coser presumably is cosplayer? Crunchyroll fix your subtitles

CXS's teasing voice towards Lu Guang is THE BEST <3 <3 <3

UM WHAT

LU GUANG IS THE COSPLAYER????

LU GUANG LIKES ANIME???

CXS SAID LG IS A BEAUTIFUL BOY??

DID LG GET INTO THE CLUB FOR PLOT PURPOSES? omg he so did

Aaaaw so the guanguang nickname didn't come from CXS :(

Lu Guang in the outfit <3 <3 <3 <3

Qiao Ling also looks so cute in her outfit and trying to beat CXS

DEFENDER OF JUSTICE QL!!!

Lol at how freaked out she looks about the mixup

Am I the only one who thinks the "heroine" looks like WWX from MDZS?

Seriously LG, you're like "this time travel series is something I could related to" ? Little loose lipped there, hm?

Aw, CXS saying silly stuff but thinking about his parents in his mind :(

LG you're too foreshadowy already

Huh...? Divination? Hmmmm.........

YES, TOUCH HIS MOUTH lololol

Feels hard to switch gears and focus on someone else when the tension is so high of what's going on with our boys, but it's nice to see the tone changing a bit more to what we liked of S1.

Q-QL... did you really just... throw that book?

Oh wow, so that's how they started the idea of "looking for lost things as a side gig" and the "ritual"/magic that QL thought they did for it? Though if she was present the first time LG did divination, I'm surprised she didn't ask to be involved later.

I really love how off-hands CXS has always been with LG. For someone who can be so good at pestering, he really lets LG have his space and doesn't push with personal things.

Surprised LG admitted he'd made that up? He's acting super suspicious in some ways.

Mmm yes, CXS, definitely can't leave him alone <3

Ah this is so fun to see how LG coming into the studio and becoming partners happened and the side gig <3

First Bridon mention!

Ah this sounds super sus.

Lol QL thought so too.

omg this is the funniest way for LG's powers to be coming up

So guess you can have multiple powers at once if he can be traveling back in time and using his photo-reading

Lol at CXS vibrating with impatience

I literally yelled "CAN YOU LOOK AT THE--" and then they crashed

OH NO CXS, this is the start of your sentimentalism and fake acting??

LG I can't believe you would keep doing this business with CXS after he's already defied your rules and acted impulsively from the beginning and then KEPT going?

Oh noooo this keeps getting sus, CXS where the heck are you going? And has she not noticed the earbud he has?

Damn we're already in a hostage situation.

Man, they're already playing Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi's relationship and CXS already freaked out at them threatening LG <3

Welp, first episode, first female side character death

Huh, LG is really honest with CXS, and without much prompting. Is this his natural state of being, or is this selective honesty for the sake of his plan?

HMMM?? CXS said LG's eyes reminded him of his parents? ELABORATE

OMG LU GUANG OFFERED TO STAY - HE OFFERED!!!!

Apologies? Oh no... LG totally knows what CXS is referring to with this parents... that's the apology isn't it?

HAND CLAP ABOUT TO HAPPEN??

Lol partners for life, wow CXS your mind went straight to marriage? Lol at LG correcting that immediately

AAAW CXS LOOK SO HAPPY TO HAVE A PARTNER <3 <3 <3 <3

Well that was a lot of fun! Good balance of sentimental and action and foreshadowing - some things didn't quite make sense yet but I'm sure they will, and the pacing is a lot better than S2 so far - let's hope it stays that way!

[rhubarbed-triangle]

Mayor Jay's (or Prefieto Jota's) Translated Tweets (as of Aug 6th)

(I know that twitter has an automatic translator, but it doesn't really work with the weird italicized text he writes with)

Here's his twitter profile pic and bio, which reads "17th elected mayor of the city of Valigma - Business School Grad '21, PhD in HR". The one person he follows is the Arkanis twitter account.

"From what I know from my studies about hiring new people, is that it's basically about giving them the best work attire. lololol"

He's a business major. What did we expect?

"Learning to use this tool, pardon me for the eventual errors. I continue to learn, but not with a machine lolollol."

A reasonable tweet for a political figure to make. Nothing weird here.

5:55pm (I just thought the time was weirdly specific) - He posts a snippet of a handwritten letter. "Dear, son. How are things for you? Yesterday, we went to your aunt's birthday, she misses you. You don't know what those guys did, yet. El..."

"Tomorrow, I will separate some immigration documents."

Gearing up for the player announcements

"I need specialists…"

"Wow, a lot of new people. Could they work 50 hours a week in the factory?"

"I hate to have to resolve problems involving the island. It's not even my jurisdiction."

And then he retweets the first player announcement of Meiaum, Bagi, Gabepeixe, Guaxinim, and Maethe, and also posts his police report from Jorge.

"I want more specialists for this week… Already, I have some names, lol."

"I want more! MORE PEOPLE!"

"The strangle of math caused the group to hug the famous swimmer with long arms, but they discovered that he was from the Asian continent." He then retweets the second player announcement of Choke, Matt, Felps, Pac, and Coreano. (I really have no context for that one, any thoughts?)

And then Pac goes live (Aug 6th) to talk about the project and the player announcement. "Just because you were confirmed [to be in Arkanis], are you stalking me, Pac?"

"Just because you have confirmed, are you stalking me, Pac?"

"I am in a meeting now, I can't attend. Leave your message with my secretary (in English)." (I think this one was to make sure that people could now translate the tweets with twitter's auto translator bc he stops talking in the cursive script)

"I bought things for my specialists, tomorrow I will show you in detail. Good night. Yes, good night thgin doog [good night backwards]"

"I'll tell you something that I didn't tell you before bed: all of the specialists that we call have something important to them. But, firstly, we like people that make us feel good to be around."

And then he posts a picture of a partially-lit minecraft cave with the masks with bright-red eyes glowing in the dark. Definitely not ominous at all...

[prairiedust]

The Folktales of Supernatural

Here is the third and probably last post in my trilogy of the folkloristics, folklore, and folktales of Supernatural. You do not have to read the first and second posts necessarily, but it is a series, so…

Anyways, in Unhuman Nature, Ross-Leming and Buckner gave us a thumbnail of season three’s main arc-- Dean’s imminent hell deal-- in Jack’s perfectest day evaar. However, Dean got to do for Jack what no one was able to do for him when he was living under the shadow of his own death. Instead of taking a joy ride, going fishing (or to the beach, come ON show,) or fine okay spending some time with a girl with daddy issues (come ON buckleming,) Dean took care of business and showed Sam how to take care of the car. When Sam was also undergoing the Trials, they were again racing against the clock. Cas, too, was under the shadow of the Leviathan infestation, and there was very little carpe in the few diems he had left until the creatures destroyed him. There was always the understanding in Unhuman Nature that TFW would be doing everything possible to save Jack, but while Sam and Cas were best tasked with trying to find a cure, Dean knew that what would be the right thing for Jack was not being in the bunker dwelling on his imminent demise, and living is a particularly Dean thing.

It was a wonderful way of retelling this particular series legend, and using that series “motif” in a new way (anyone want to tackle a Supernatural Motif Index LOLOLOL) to do the “what happens when a story is retold” theme.

So, to tie up this trilogy of close readings, I want to talk a little about how the European version of Sleeping Beauty is a good way to understand what else is going on thematically with the trifecta of recursion-retelling-mirroring that’s been going on.

There are very few citations here as the evolution of Sleeping Beauty is more or less accepted as general knowledge now-- the concept is explored in Folk and Fairy Tales 2nd edition, edited by Martin Hallett and Barbara Karasek. It’s also on Wikipedia, if you’re into that.

CW for discussion of the non-est con to ever non-con and other unsettling themes that are nonetheless perfectly ordinary in folklore.

Sleeping Beauty was once considered to be perhaps one of the most wholesome of the Grimms’ fairy tales, but (in pop culture at least) the shine is starting to wear off. I was playing the Ellen edition of Outburst with some people I didn’t even know about a month ago and one of the “clues” was “Sleeping Beauty” and as soon as the guesser put that card up on her forehead, a guy shouts out, “That story is about sexual assault, fight me!”

Which makes this particular “folk tale” a neat way to show how folklore, or storytelling and retelling, is such a good frame for season 14.

I mentioned in the first post of this series that Sleeping Beauty is a great example of the intercycling of folklore and literature-- oral tales can become literary works, and vice versa, and they can comment on one another in surprising ways.

Let’s start with one of the most recent iterations of the Sleeping Beauty story and a move from one kind of text to another-- Disney’s 1959 animated movie, “Sleeping Beauty.” I know a lot of readers on here will know it-- and we’ll work our way down to the centuries-old bones of this tale.

Right off the bat, we get a really great (and subverted!) example of that “rule of three” 2/1 pattern I already talked about. The king and queen invite three “good fairies” to their daughter’s christening. They are even called “good fairies” by the herald as they enter on a sunbeam, so you already know there’s gonna be a bad one. The first fairy, Flora, gives Princess Aurora the gift of beauty. The next, Fauna, blesses the baby with the gift of song. Before fairy #3-- Merryweather-- can bestow her gift, Maleficent arrives, totally pissed that she hadn’t been invited but cool as a frozen cucumber, casually lies about her reason for showing up and then curses Aurora to prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die on the evening of her 16th birthday. Merryweather uses her turn to alter Maleficent’s curse, as she does not have the power to nullify it: Aurora will fall into a deep sleep that only “true love’s kiss” can awaken her from. In hopes of protecting her from the curse in any way shape or form, King Stephan orders every spinning wheel in the kingdom to be burned, but the fairies say that this will not be enough so they sequester her in the woods under the alias Briar Rose, and they all live as peasants, eschewing magic and raising her in almost total isolation so that Maleficent can not find her to work the curse. Neat. Briar Rose gets into mischief anyway, gads about the forest singing like a klaxon, meets a prince named Phillip who is having Adventures in the Woods, falls In Love™ with him despite some now-creepy hand-grabbing. Later the fairies tell her not to worry about mysterious forest dudes and traumatize her by telling her that her entire life has been a lie, and then inexplicably send her home to the palace for her 16th birthday celebration despite the fact that the whole reason for hiding out was to keep Maleficent from being able to find her. Maleficent discovers that Aurora is at the palace, games the anti-spindle situation by luring Aurora up to a tower to a magical spinning wheel; Aurora pricks her finger on the spindle, and Bob’s your uncle. The good fairies put everyone in the castle into a deep sleep (so that while they are waiting for some weirdo to fall in True Love with a sleeping teenager, eugh, the people she knows (aka JUST MET) will sleep with her so that they won’t be upset by the complete failure of their plans) the fairies realize that Prince Phillip, the guy that Aurora has been betrothed to since she popped out of the womb, is one and the same as Mysterious Forest Dude that she fell in love with, and they send him to Aurora’s castle. Maleficent imprisons him, the fairies help him escape, he tears through a thorn bush that Maleficent creates as an impediment, kills the witch, and wakes Aurora with a chaste kiss. It’s fine, they met once, it was only a kiss (IT WAS ONLY A KISS), and this was 1959. So, that’s the Disney text in a nutshell. Folklorist Kay Stone says in her book Some Day Your Witch Will Come that while Disney had been called “a ‘Master of Fantasy’ in fact Disney removed most of the powerful fantasy of the Marchen and replaced it with false magic.” While her criticism of the Disnified Grimms tales is explicitly feminist, the criticism stands as Disney’s product is far divorced from the folk “originals.”

Most people are familiar with the Grimms’ written version of “Sleeping Beauty,” or “Little Briar Rose,” as they titled it when they published it in their first collection. This is the version that Disney partly modeled their story after. I won’t retell it, I’ll just discuss differences between the two versions, so please go read D. L. Ashliman’s translation here. It’s short. And. It turns out that the German “folk tale” that the Grimms brothers harvested is more than likely based on a story that was published by Charles Perrault in France which re-entered the Germanic oral tradition at some point. In this version, there are thirteen “wise women” (as opposed to fairies) in Briar Rose’s estimable father’s kingdom, but he only has twelve golden plates for them at the celebration of her birth, so he only actually invites twelve wise women (which is a hilarious commentary on what the lower classes thought of the nobility, am I right? Heaven forbid you don’t have enough fancy plates, quelle horreur or rather wie schrecklich or whatever the German equivalent would be.) Again, after eleven blessings, the evil crone who was disrespected barges in and curses the princess to prick her finger on a spindle (not the spindle of a spinning wheel, though) and die at fifteen; The next-eldest of the wise women modifies the curse and dad has all the spindles destroyed. Fifteen was apparently too young for a sexual awakening in 1959 but it was fine in 1812. Also, there were no shenanigans in the woods-- Briar Rose grows up a princess. She finds an old woman illicitly spinning in the castle one day and wants to try it, pricks herself with the spindle (the German version never specifies where) and her sleep is so profound that the entire castle falls asleep with her. A massive thorn hedge grows up because neglect, and eventually conceals the castle, and all that is left of the kingdom is a legend. Many other princes met agonizing deaths in that thorn hedge trying to get to Briar Rose but one day Her ACTUAL Prince shows up. The thorns turn to blossoms, he sails right through, kisses the girl, and as she wakes up so does the whole castle. The tale is over with an “and they lived happily ever after” ending.

Charles Perrault, the Frenchman who wrote the version of “La belle au bois dormant” or “The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods” that the Grimms’ informant possibly retold a hundred years later, has seven good fairies invited to the shindig, because everyone assumes that fairy number eight is dead or too ill to travel or senile or whatever. Here you can see that this isn’t an error made because a king was afraid of committing a faux pas and not from being afraid of the “bad” fairy, but because no one bothered to check on the old woman and find out what the reality was. You know what they say about what happens when you assume. So this time a young fairy steps forward and changes the curse, and instead of violently burning all the spinning wheels and spindles, the king merely outlaws their use. When the princess is sixteen or seventeen, (French nobles apparently had a little more childhood than German peasants,) she finds an old woman spinning in a tower who has remarkably never heard of the spinning ban. She hands over the spindle and the princess pricks her hand, and faints dead away. The king puts her on a bed of gold and I’m gonna quote Ashliman for this next part: “When the accident happened to the princess, the good fairy who had saved her life by condemning her to sleep a hundred years was in the kingdom of Mataquin, twelve thousand leagues away. She was instantly warned of it... [and] set off at once, and within an hour her chariot of fire, drawn by dragons, was seen approaching.” She puts everyone in the castle to sleep and this time the thorn hedge is actually a privacy fence that sprouts up under the good fairy’s magic. A hundred years later, some prince is having Adventures in the Woods when he sees the tops of the castle towers from a distance. One of his retinue tells him there’s a pretty girl inside, so he goes to check it out. Bruh, the brambles part for him magically, but allow only him, out of all of his party, to enter. He doesn’t awaken this princess with a kiss, but by the mere act of falling down beside her and being so genuinely and enormously in love with her that she wakes up on her own. Ol’ Charlie’s story is not over by half, though. They talk for hours, Perrault has a lot about eating and getting dressed and then they nap together a little, and finally get married. The prince’s mother is an ogre, however, and wants to eat her grandkids, Dawn and Day. Where does this come from? Why is it in here? What the actual heck? And it gets crazier from there. The prince becomes king and rides forth to wage war in a distant land, and the queen actually tells her steward that she wants to eat the little girl for her dinner. He tricks her by hiding Dawn and serving the queen a lamb instead. Next day, she wants to eat the little boy. He tricks her again by serving her a baby goat. Then, she wants to eat her daughter-in-law and they serve the evil queen venison. Then one day she hears the voices of her erstwhile entrees in the castle, discovers that she had been tricked, and prepares a cauldron full of venomous reptiles to throw the three innocents into to their deaths. The prince-turned-king shows up just in time and his mother is so beside herself with rage that she actually throws herself into the vat instead. So, yeah, weird stuff. Stuff that the Germans left out, or forgot, or decided that there was no “moral” that they wanted anything to do with. Was Perrault out of his damn mind?

WELL AS IT TURNS OUT, Perrault was actually retelling a Neapolitan folk tale that had been collected long before by a fellow named Giambattista Basile. He called the story “Sun, Moon, and Talia.” There is some evidence that it predates Basile, but most folklorists start there because the problem with oral tradition is that it’s rarely written down (ba-dump-tsss.) So we can definitively pick up the European version of Sleeping Beauty in Naples, Italy, in the early seventeenth century, when this mid-level clerk and author writes down a whole bunch of “nursery tales” and then dies. One of the stories he writes down is called “Sun, Moon, and Talia.” And I didn’t want to talk about it much before, except that I think understanding that Perrault seriously sanitized Basile’s story is the perfect illustration of “what happens when a story is retold.” In Basile’s story, to which I’m linking an okay version here with a content warning for rape and for the fact that they linked that painting “Nightmare” to the story, http://www.mftd.org/index.php?action=story&act=select&id=3364, Talia the princess is not cursed, but her father’s scholars tell her fortune and say to the king that she would “incur great danger from a splinter of flax.” He forbade flax (from which linen is made) from entering the castle. So in this version, it is the material, not necessarily the method of transforming it, that imperils the princess. Yes this is a giant metaphor for sexual intercourse and/or loss of innocence. Nonetheless, she comes across a woman who is spinning flax into thread, wants to try it, and gets a splinter under her nail. She falls down dead. The king is heartbroken, shutters the castle, and leaves her propped up on a throne. Some time later, another king comes across the castle, explores it, sees the dead Talia who seems to be weathering her death remarkably well, and has his way with her. I can only imagine what ran through Perrault’s head when he came across this. “Sacre bleu!!! Non, non ma petite chere, this will not do. A true king would never!” or something like that. ANYWAY, Basile’s story is still the frame on which Perrault based his literary fairy tale, for Talia gives birth to twins, a boy and a girl, Moon and Sun, one of which sucks the splinter out of her finger, and she awakens. The king finds her but keeps her a secret. The king’s wife (he has a wife!) sends for them, and then to get revenge on her husband she orders the children cooked and served to him one day, but again there is a switcheroo and the cook uses lambs instead, and later it all comes out and Talia marries the king and Basile’s moral (vastly different than that of Perrault) is “Those whom fortune favors find good luck even in their sleep.” I don’t know if that was written in “sarcasm gothic” or not.

The bones of all of the stories are the same, but in each iteration something has changed which makes a huge impact on the overall themes of each telling. First, Perrault drops the rape of Talia, and slides the villain role over to the prince’s mother and makes the rape-king a virtuous prince to erase the royal philandering and necrophilia, and there is no kiss at all. The Germans bring the kiss back, weirdly enough, to somehow reach back through Perrault’s chivalrication to the sexual component of Briar Rose’s awakening-- it might be the imagery of the spindle, which in some cases is a big rod typically dropped between a spinner’s knees to make the yarn or thread, or it could be the completely bonkers idea that just kneeling beside her bed would not be enough to break the kiss (but then again, why wouldn’t a test of virtue be enough? Indeed, in the Disney version, the three fairies arm Phillip with “the shield of virtue.”) In Basile’s version, Talia dead, not sleeping, and in the Disney version there is the totally weird seclusion until young adulthood (that weirdly enough hearkens to the Irish legend of Deirdre, a woman who was betrothed to the king of Ulster and was sequestered to both preserve her innocence and thwart a dire prophecy but who still managed to run off with another guy and cause an epic war) and they rename the princess Aurora, which is Latin for Dawn, which is the name of her daughter in the French version. It’s all very intermangled.

Did other stories with similarities come from a single stalk, an ur-story like the Great Hunt may have? D. L. Ashliman in Folk and Fairy Tales: A Handbook tells us that Grimm and other folklorists believe that these SB stories are the vestiges of myths (132) such as the story of Brunhilde, who was put to sleep with an enchanted thorn for reaping a warrior favored by Odin. Or does this particular metaphor just crop up in cultures everywhere through synchronicity? In the Japanese folktale The Matsuyama Mirror, a young girl is given a mirror by her father, who tells her that whenever she is sad she can look in the mirror and see her mother, and eventually the mirror’s symbolism thwarts her evil stepmother, much as in the story of Snow White. Is there an even older story that connects these two?

I chose these four versions of Sleeping Beauty because for one thing this story was mentioned in the text of The Scar, they are clearly family, and the American/European versions are the most familiar to me (and I assume at least the American audience of Supernatural) so it easy to demonstrate this “digging down” to get to the seed of a story-- in this case the sterilization of the Sleeping Beauty story is an excellent metaphor for a powerful trauma weathering and being repressed-- or healed-- over time. Many scholars have noted the sexual symbolism of the spindle, which if you’ve never seen one is a rod of varying lengths with a round weight at the bottom, and in hand-spinning, typically a spinner hangs the spidle between their legs and it can pump up and down as it spins. Even the later versions of the story that feature spinning wheels have a spindle on them, and it is an unmistakably phallic component of the rig, coupled with the pistoning action of the spinner’s foot on the treadle to spin the flywheel. So hm. However, not all spindles are sharp enough to possibly prick a hand or a finger, and in the original “Talia” it is the flax splinter that inserts itself into her flesh. At any rate, it’s a metaphor for sexual penetration retold for an audience that has increasingly moved further and further away from being able to see (or is unwilling to acknowledge) sexual subtext.

Jack’s perfect day was bittersweet, but was also unmistakably idyllic and idealized, almost Disnified, although the magic was still unmistakably powerful. The scene by the river, where Jack explicitly invokes the memory of John, should also illuminate scenes from the series’ past, such as Dean’s dream sequence where he was fishing off of a dock, or where rogue angel Daniel was fishing when he was found by Castiel and Hannah. Fishing is a motif, if you will; it’s been featured in the show before. Jack’s eventual death is one of the show’s tale types. Dean, Sam, and Cas have all been through it-- as Cas says in The Spear, it’s “something of a rite of passage.” But we’re being told this story again from a point of view that was almost tragically abbreviated the first time-- when John trades his soul for Dean’s in In My Time of Dying, we got very little of what it means for a parent to sacrifice themselves for a child. Likewise, the other times that TFW faced their dooms, they had (albeit under duress) volunteered themselves. Jack was an innocent. Dying is perhaps the ultimate loss of innocence-- it certainly was for Talia. So by stripping away the halcyon glow of the river scene, we get to the bones of where the “under threat of impending death” tale type originated in the series.

This whole season so far has been the most clever way possible to do a “retrospective.” It’s not a sign that a show is tired, but that it has reached a point of self-reflection that very very few shows ever get to.

I have to wonder if this way of painting season 14’s arc through a constellation of motifs-- through callbacks as hysterical as the Scooby lunchbox full of pressurized gas in Mint Condition to returning characters as poignant as Lilly Sunder’s appearance in Byzantium, to thematic parallels to past seasons-- is going to continue into the second half of the season. We will know quickly, as the stakes have been raised after Dean’s repossession, whether Dabb and his writers continue to use the motif index of the show, or if this retrospective period is over and we’ll be covering new thematic ground. I will say, this theme has been tied up pretty neatly with the mid-season finale, that while Castiel essentially stepped into the Jack’s Fractured Fairy Tale much the same way that the way the good fairy modifies the evil fairy’s curse in Sleeping Beauty, that choice could shift everything in his mythos over to “beat the devil” which is another favorite SPN story, Tale Type 210a or whatever (and is irl ATU 330: The Smith Outwits the Devil and hopefully would be 330C which is the kind of “Devil Went Down to Georgia” classic American and African-American story.) (Imagine the SPN Tale Type Index starting with “1-199 - Origin Stories - 1a Burning Wife, 1b Burning Girlfriend, 1c House Burns Down, 2 Demon Blood Fed to Infant” and etcetera… anyways.) And we know that Cas and Sam are going into Dean’s headspace to get him, so there’s the rescuing forces storming the sleeping castle trope (remember the “sleeping” patron in Rocky’s Bar?) getting resolved potentially. But I do believe that this focused close reading brings to light a “healing trauma” theme that the history of Sleeping Beauty makes explicit. It is not the only reading of the show to do that, but again, if I could describe Dabb’s era with one phrase it would be “There’s no such thing as too much meta.”

See y’all Thursday night!

[seinafukufuku]

Handshake Report - July | Fukuoka Seina

@mi_ha_ac

み：ハンドメイドで（ふくおと）お揃いの浴衣とか作って欲しい Fan: Do you want to handmake a matching yukata (for Fukuo) せ：難しいのですよ(´・ω・`) 手が短いしずんぐりむっくりだから・・・ Seichan: It’ll be hard, yeah (´・ω・`) because his arms are short and he’s short and stout and plump み：そこを何とかするのが『腕』の見せ所じゃないか( ・`д・´) Fan: But if you do this somehow, isn’t this a chance to show your [skill] ( ・`д・´) せ：そこまではまだ無理(￣▽￣;) Seichan: To go that far is still impossible (￣▽￣;) み：いずれやってね～(*´꒳`*) Fan: Do it one day, okay~ (*´꒳`*)

み：この浴衣よく見るとラメも入っているんだね Fan: On a closer look, this yukata uses gold thread, doesn’t it せ：そうなの(ФωФ) Seichan: That’s right (ФωФ) み：帯と髪飾りのカラーコーディネートも良い感じ♪ Fan: The colour coordination of the obi and the hair decorations gives a good feeling ♪ せ：福岡さんちゃんとそういうの考えてますから( ￣▽￣)ﾄﾞﾔｧ Seichan: Because Fukuoka-san considered it properly ( ￣▽￣)smug み：似合っているよ( ￣▽￣)b Fan: It’s suits you, yeah ( ￣▽￣)b Seichan：(ФωФ)b

み：俺もピザおじさん見習ってせいちゃんダイエット始めようかなぁ？ Fan: I wonder, should I also follow Pizza Ojii-san’s example and start the Seichan diet? せ：オススメです( ・`д・´) Seichan: It’s recommended ( ・`д・´) み：体重どんどん増える Fan: My weight’s been steadily increasing せ：朝ちゃんと！昼もしっかりで夜は軽めが良いよ！ Seichan: Do it properly in the morning! And then steadily at lunch too, and it’d be good to have a light dinner! み：夜勤があるから食事に朝昼晩の概念が無いのよ(^_^;) Fan: I work the night shift so the general concept of breakfast lunch and dinner is impossible, you know (^_^;) せ：(´・ω・`)ｻﾖﾃﾞｽｶ Seichan: (´・ω・`)ᴵᶠ ᵗʰᵃᵗ’ˢ ʰᵒʷ ᶦᵗ ᶦˢ

せ：じゃあ普段は何を食べてますか？ Seichan: Thenn what do you eat normally? み：主にらーめん( ￣▽￣) Fan: Mainly ramen ( ￣▽￣) せ：(´・ω・`)ｿﾚﾃﾞｽﾈ Seichan: (´・ω・`) ᴸᶦᵏᵉ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ʰᵘʰ せ：じゃあそのらーめんを減らしておにぎりに変えましょう Seichan: Thennn, eat less of the ramen and change it to riceballs み：それは辛い(;_;) まぁとにかく今後時々報告するわ！ Fan: That’s harsh (;_;) Ahh, anyway from now on, I’ll report to you once in a while! せ：あとはらーめんの前にサラダを食べるように！ Seichan: After this, before eating ramen, I want you to eat salad!

み：最近ボイトレ頑張ってるよね～ Fan: Recently, you’ve been doing your best at voice training, haven’t you~ せ：そうなの！結構通ってるよ( ・`д・´) Seichan: Yeah that’s right! It’s (my voice) been carrying well yeah ( ・`д・´) み：意図的に（歌い方の）クセ抜いてる？ Fan: Have you been purposely drawing out your (singing) quirks? せ：いや～？別に? Seichan: Noo~? Not really? み：なんていうかこう・・・凄くストレートな発声を心がけているというか Fan: How do I say... Like you pay attention that your vocalization is very straight せ：基本的なところからしっかり教わってるの～(ФωФ) Seichan: It’s something I was properly taught from the basics~ (ФωФ)

@higehigeofuku

前のみなぱまさんの会話に便乗 Taking advantage of Minapama-san’s conversation before me ひ「ふくお、法被とねじり鉢巻なんてどうよ？」 Fan: For Fukuo, how about a festival (happi) coat and a twisted headband? せ「おっ？良いね、だけど生地が無いなぁ」 Seichan: Oh? That’d be nice, huh, but I don’t have the fabric ひ「子供用でもデカイか」 Fan: The children ones would also be BIG せ「いっそ、それを切り貼りして縫い直しすればok！」 Seichan: Actually, if I cut it up and resew in that case it should be OK! ひ「をっ！楽しみにしてるよ」 Fan: Oh! I’ll be looking forward to it

せ「どーでしょうっムズいかなぁ？」 Seichan: Would it be hard, I wonderrr?

ひ「アシスタントMC決まった？」 Fan: Have you decided on the assistant MC? せ「決まった！」 Seichan: it’s been decided! ひ「あおきー公演のMCメンバーとか？」 Fan: Is it one of the Aoki- Stage MC members? せ「ふふふ、誰でしょう～？」 Seichan: Ufufufu, who is it I wonder~? ひ「(田口)愛���ちゃんとか？」 Fan: How about (Taguchi) Manaka? せ「をっ！良い線いってますね～」 Seichan: Woh! You’re on the right track, yeah~ せ「何なら話した事無いかも！」 Seichan: We might not have anything to talk about! ひ「大丈夫？(笑)」 Fan: Is it okay? (Laughs) せ「大丈夫(ﾄﾞｬｧ)」 Seichan: It’s okay (smug)

ひ「ランクインコンサート、当たりました」 Fan: I’ve lucked out for the rank-in Concert せ「おー！」 Seichan: Oh! ひ「しかし、仕事でーす」 Fan: But, I have wo-ork せ「えー、どーすんの？」 Seichan: Ehh, then what are you going to do? ひ「仕事終わりにダッシュで向かいます」 Fan: When work ends, I’m going to dash ahead せ「19時だよ」 Seichan: It’s at 7 yo ひ「お出迎えが18時半だよね」 Fan: The greeting session is at 6:30PM, isn’t it せ「そう！」 Seichan: It is! ひ「汗だくで行くけど引かないでね」 Fan: Even though I’ll work up a sweat getting there, I won’t draw (attention), huh (?) せ「判った！(笑)」 Seichan: I understand! (Laughs)

ひ「あおきー公演、前半で顔真っ赤になってたね、暑かった？」 In the Aoki- stage, in the first half, your face got pretty flushed, were you warm? せ「私、いつも赤くなるんだよね」 Seichan: For me, I always somehow get red, you know ひ「制服ビキニもバッチリ観れたし」 Fan: I also properly watched Seifuku Bikini せ「いぇ～い」 Seichan: Ya-y ひ「やっぱ公演のせいちゃんはより一層可愛いですな」 Fan: As I though, the Seichan on stage is much much cuter せ「ふふふ(笑)」 Seichan: Fufufu (laughs)

ひ「確認です明日の服装は、これぞ夏のせいちゃんと風の噂で聞きました」 Fan: Please confirm this rumour I heard on the wind, tomorrow’s outfit will be, a summery Seichan せ「グアム(の時の服)です」 Seichan: It’ll be (an outfit from) Guam ひ「サングラスは？」 Fan: Sunglasses? せ「持ってきません！」 Seichan: I’m not bringing! ひ「髪型は」 Fan: And the hairstyle? せ「麦わら帽子です。これは初出し情報だぞ」 Seichan: A strawhat. This is news that’s being released for the first time ひ「SNSで拡散しますね」 Fan: I’ll spread it on SNS, ok せ「をっ！釣れちゃうかな？(笑)」 Seichan: Woh! Will it entice people, I wonder? (Laughs)

せ「実は私もbotさん見て情報もらってんだよね～(笑)」 Seichan: Actually, I also look at bot-san to receive news, you know~ (laughs) ひ「botさんにも夏のせいちゃん、麦わら帽子って載ったから、せいちゃんが気紛れで麦わら帽子を被って無かったら、俺終わってた(笑)」 Fan: Even bot-san thought summertime Seichan, you’ll wear a straw hat, but Seichan is fickle and didn’t wear it so I’m finished (Laughs) せ「被ってますよ～、麦わら帽子♪」 Seichan: I’ll wear it, yeah~ the straw hat ��

ひ「(湯本)亜美ちゃんのハンドメイドってせいちゃん発信じゃないよね」 Fan: (Yumoto) Ami-chan’s didn’t give Seichan her handmade thing, huh せ「違う、あの人勝手にやってる(笑)」 Seichan: It’s not like that, that person does as she wants (laughs) ひ「けど、結構作ってるみたいだから、今年の誕生日プレゼントでおねだりすれば？」 Fan: But, it seems nicely made so, are you going to pester her for one for this year’s birthday present? せ「何時も作ってるんだから、頂戴よ～って？(笑)」 Seichan: You’re (I’m?) always making them so, please~ like that? (Laughs) ひ「そうそう(笑)」 Fan: Yeah, yeah (Laughs)

@0payu0 SKEのオーデ受けてたなんて初耳だよ Fan: Why’ve we only just heard that you were accepted for the SKE audition huh せいちゃん：私たまに言ってたよ〜！雑誌でも言ってた！カットされただけ🤢 Seichan: I’ve said it sometimes~! I’ve even mentioned it in magazines! It’s only that it’s been cut 🤢

姉と2人で？ Fan: Both you and your sister? せ：そう。5期。まだ資料持ってるよ！書類審査受かって…辞退したの Seichan: Yeah. 5th gen. I still have the documents! Official audition acceptance documents... that I rejected

【大悲報】 【Tragic News】 今夏、せいちゃんのｾｸｽｨ水着見れず This summer, we won’t be seeing Seichan’s sᴇxɪ swimsuit

せいちゃん「私あんまりプール好きじゃないんだよね><」<br>Seichan: I don’t really like pools, you know ><<br>パリピな感じが？ Fan: Is it because of the club-goer feelings 「うん…」 Seichan: Yeah...

@SEINA_CHUKI M「今日浴衣意外だったな」 Fan: I was surprised today (‘s outfit) was a yukata せ「え？そう！？」 Seichan: Eh? Is that so!? M「うん。8月の個別が浴衣の日あったから」 Fan: Yeah. Cos August has it’s own yukata day せ「あーフライング浴衣です！8月見れない方も居るかなぁと思って。優しさ優しさ」 Seichan: Ah, it’s a yukata early start! I thought since there’d be people who wouldn’t be able to come in August. So kind so kind M「お、そうゆう事ね(笑)」 Fan: Oh, so it is laik dis huh (laughs)

@happiness48hills

せ）（私の連れのミニ🦊を見て）この子鼻無くない？

Seichan: (After seeing my accompanying mini 🦊) This child doesn’t have a nose? ふ）あー！ホンマや（黒い鼻がない）初期不良返品交換！ Fan: Ahh! Actually (the black nose isn’t there) it’s an early failure returned goods せ）（笑） Seichan: (Laughs)

せ）福岡聖菜を宣伝して来た？ Seichan: Is it from Fukuoka Seina’s advertisement? ふ）（関係者談）したらせいちゃん効果は本当かもしれんと！関連商品が突然売れ出したらしく… Fan: (From talking to the staff) it might really be Seichan’s effect! The related products were suddenly selling

@kubo_kimi く「けもみみレシピさ、俺の友達小倉唯ファンで話したら驚いてた」 Fan: You know, about Kemomimi Recipe, I was really surprised, my friend who’s a fan of Ogura Yui was talking about it せ「すごい声優さんだよね、あたしのキャラメインの3番目なんだよ」 Seichan: They’re wonderful seiyuus huh, why is my character in the main TOP 3 く「すっげえwwwラジオ決まって声優でしょ、みんなうわぁぁぁなってるわ」 Fan: Whoaaa lololol Your radio show was decided, and you’re a seiyuu, everyone’s like Uwaaaaa せ「自分で今、こんなんになるなんて考えられなかったよ」 Seichan: How I am right now, I never would have thought I could get here

@lottan110 せ:ねぇねぇ今度ヨーコさんに浴衣着てもらってよ！浴衣祭り来る？ Seichan: Hey hey this time I got Youko-san to wear a yukata yo! Are you coming for the yukata festival? ア:う、うん日曜日はいくけど…（戸惑い） Fan: Y-Yeah, I’m coming on Sunday but... (bewildered) せ:じゃあその時！ふたりで甚平と浴衣で！ Seichan: Then at that time! Both of us will be jinbei (male summer clothes) and yukata! ア:はい、前向きに…（戸惑い） Fan: Yes, I’ll be looking forward... (bewildered) せ：絶対ね！ Seichan: Definitely, ok!

ペースを狂わせてくるせいちゃん、かわいいじゃあねえか(≧∀≦) Seichan who derailed my pace, isn’t she cutee (≧∀≦)

@seina_f801

み｢ねぇ今からじゃんけんして勝ったらふくおお持ち帰りしていい？｣ Fan: Hey, if I win a Janken with you right now can I have one night with Fukuo? せ｢だめです（真顔）｣ Seichan: That’s no good (serious face) み｢ですよね、まぁとりあえずじゃんけんしよう｣ Fan: It isn’t, huh, welp let’s just janken for now せ｢いいよ、よーーし｣ Seichan: Okay, yo —sh

せーの ✊✌✋ Ready, set, ✊✌✋

👮‍♀️｢あ、じゃんけんはちょっと、、｣ 👮‍♀️: Ah, Janken is a bit...

み、せ｢☹️☹️｣ Fan, Seichan: ☹️☹️

Thanks for reading Seichan’s handshake report! As always, I’m not a Japanese speaker at all, I’m kind of fumbling my way through so the translation will definitely have errors! Please feel free to message me if you see any ( ；∀；)

[mysmess-seol-blog]

Jumin Route Day 6 - Korean vs. English Comparison

Hi there♡

Thanks for the kind words in regards to my previous blog! You make a really good point, I should really consider doing that later when I have the time...now I feel very cautious when I post because I didn’t think it would actually just vanish without warning. Thanks for the advice!

Also, I love that you gave me the specific chatroom that you would like a comparison and analysis for~ it really saves me time ^^ I would be happy to go through this with you!

I am going to assume you are meaning the conversation where they make fun of Jumin for his 감수성 폭발 (to put it simply, expressing his feelings like some sort of “explosion”--not exactly sure how to directly translate it). engrish tho

Also, this chatroom has a 707 being a troll in Korean moment that wasn’t translated in the English version so please check it out if interested ^^

I will definitely do a Korean to English comparison with this chat room for you~

If you have not gone through Jumin’s route or at least up to day 6, then I will give you a little spoiler warning ^^

Please note that although this is an analysis, there may be opinions that may differ or be consistent with mine! While I can give some sort of Korean background, for debatable topics, I do not represent all of the Korean minds for respective topics. Also, please excuse any errors or let me know if clarifications are needed, for English is not my first language! Thank you and enjoy!

Alright, so to begin, I will tell you that I was a little irked by this chatroom. I blame it completely on my bias for Jumin because if you guys haven’t noticed already he is my favorite RFA member (＃￣ω￣). I always want to protect him omfg.

Putting my irrational thoughts aside, thinking more rationally, I do find it a little upsetting to be pretty much teasing or making fun of someone who doesn’t really know how to express his emotions. Although, at first glance, I honestly didn’t think too much of it because of the humor standard I grew up with, personally.

I grew up with mean kids.

Sorry Zen, 707 I still love you.

This chat as we all know starts out with a little dialogue of sorts. It’s pretty similar but I’ll post it up anyways because that is where this all began.

Zen: The owner of the face that God had made a mistake on, (so weird literally translated lolol) Zen had come into the messenger to take a break after script reading. English translation: Zen, the most perfect looking human in this world, has come here to take a break after hours of script reading.

707: There, Zen had found an old diary. English translation: And there, he found an old diary.

Zen: The initials HJM were incised on it as opens it. English translation: Finding the initials JMH on the cover, he opens it.

707: The diary is filled with the writings of a sensitive boy/boy full of emotions. (literally translated to sensitive boy). English translation: And he finds the diary of a boy full of emotions.

Zen: Due to the tears of the boy. English translation: The words were all blurry.

707: The words were all blurry. English translation: due to the tears he shed.

Zen: It was touching. English translation: same as above.

707: ㅋ (k) English translation: lol

Zen: ㅋㅋ (kk) English translation: lolol

707: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ (kkkkkkkkk) English translation: lolololololol

MC: Stop teasing him...; Jumin is having a really hard time... English translation: same as above

707: But still kkkkkk English translation: But still lololol

707: Jumin hyung English translation: Jumin got.

Okay, let’s stop there for a second. So I want to point out a little something before actually going on with explanations of any sort, and that is the ㅋㅋㅋ above.

It is the Korean equivalent to lol. There is also the ㅎㅎㅎ which is kinda like hehehe. Although I am not really sure what to say for that because I personally use ㅎㅎㅎ when I am mad LOL.

Anyways, yeah, that’s just a little tidbit for those that are interested in learning Korean ^^

On to the actual topic. Even though I was a little like, “nooo stop that’s not cool, Zen, 707...” can I just say that I am actually used to this kind of commentary in general? It is a lot less so the case for me, but when I see how my younger brother talk to his friend or “teases” them, this is absolutely nothing, and they are supposed to be best friends.

Like, Jumin and V material.

So mean when he’s drunk, I can’t.

Why is the drinking age 19 here? Who said it’s a good idea.

This kind of humor is...more than saying extremely common, it is seemed acceptable at times because like many, I am so used to getting teased and laughed at lolol. But not really in the sense that it is seen as ill-mannered or bad. It is just a way to have laughs? IDK I AM HAVING TROUBLE EXPLAINING IN ENGLISH THESE DAYS ASDFGHJKL The kind of 비웃는 놀리는 (laughing and teasing) humor.

I want to point out that I don’t really know much or am familiar with social networking styles in any other cultures other than Korea so I may not be the right person to ask when comparing other standards of humor, but in a sense, this could actually be pretty hilarious. This is pretty much the only majority English community that I am a part of, and so sometimes I am very unfamiliar with certain things.

Caught guilty for being mean to friends.

Lol, all jokes aside, while this kind of joking is acceptable, I feel like it’s a bit upsetting if there was someone like Jumin in the real world to get teased for expressing his emotions, something he doesn’t really do.

I’ll elaborate more on this around the end.

Alright, here’s another screenshot I want to show you guys because it is an example of trolling 707 that is not translated in the English version. Like I promised before the cut.

Zen: Why is Jumin, that jerk doing things that is hard to get used to? English translation: Why’s he being so weird like that?

Zen: It makes him less like a jerk;; English translation: Feels less like a jerk now;;

707: ㅇㅇ (yup yup) English translation: Ya

☆☆ 707: 신시얼리 (Sincerely romanized in Korean) ☆☆ English translation: Let’s be serious here.

☆☆ Zen: ...what? ☆☆ English translation: ...you? Serious?

☆☆ 707: sincerely ☆☆ English translation: Yeah, serious.

☆☆ MC: The first s is supposed to be capital. (OR, the other option is, let’s use Korean ^^) ☆☆ English translation: Yes, let’s be serious. (OR, the other option is, there’s something wrong with you too? ^^)

☆☆ 707: Whoaaaa! ☆☆ English translation: Yes!

☆☆ 707: I forgot! ☆☆ English translation: We should!

☆☆ 707: Sincerely. ☆☆ English translation: Okay.

☆☆ 707: There, better? lol ☆☆ English translation: Zen?

☆☆ Zen: Use Korean. ☆☆ English translation: Just act like you normally would.

707: Okay... English translation: Okie...

I laughed at this conversation despite Jumin’s situation because it was actually really funny. 707 is my inner spirit animal.

It is a shame that it isn’t in the English version though ㅜㅜ but if I think about it, it would be really hard to translate....

Well, that was just a little subject changer for laughs. On to the real topic.

I was stupid and I didn’t get the English versions for this part of the chat, but I do remember that they did not use the term, 주민 로봇설 in the translation version, which mean’s, Jumin’s Robot Theory/Rumor.

Zen and 707 are just going on about how they really thought that Jumin was like a robot.

Come on, Jumin is human too ><;;;

And as the anon said, the call you get as soon as this chat is over, it is just pretty much a sum up of this chat, except purely Zen. As much as I love Zen, sometimes I don’t really like that he says certain things about Jumin in this kind of close minded case? Not that I blame Zen though because he also was brought up in a rough past, but still.

My love for Jumin tho.

Of course, Jumin is also human, and him being a robot is just not possible even in this fiction world, and that is definitely unsettling for me. Especially since everyone has their moments, and with Jumin not being familiar with that kind of emotional expression, it is just natural.

Especially when there are so many scandals and whatnot coming out to the press about C&R and his father.

So all in all, I at first didn’t think much of the jokes that 707 and Zen made because of the kind of humor standard that I personally grew up with and listen through my life. All cultures are different you know? Not saying that Korean humor is derogatory or anything like that! It is just different. But when I think about it from a more broader point of view, I can see that there is actually some sort of unsettling feeling you can have because through Jumin’s route we can see how he was brought up and his inability to express his emotions.

That is, until MC comes along and helps him out ^^

To the anon that sent me this request, I wonder in what sense it makes you upset or cringe? Is it similar to my thoughts in the sense that even with Jumin acting human like everyone, Zen and 707 making these kinds of jokes? I would love to know if you have the chance.

To wrap up my thoughts, I will just say it really simply, if you see like my KakaoTalk or something to my friends, I am so mean. And they are supposed to be my friends lolol. But of course, at the same time, none of my friends are like Jumin, who have been brought up in that kind of hostile environment and has trouble expressing themselves.

That altogether I was worked up with. I would be like a nagging mother in that conversation the whole time like, “Zen, 707 stoooop ヾ(`ヘ´)ﾉﾞ”

I might have put a little a lot of Jumin bias in this post, but even if it wasn’t Jumin, this is not cools ><;;;

I hope you were able to get a bit of my perspective! If you have any other requests please send them in~^^

- 류설♡