#if you want to rewatch

[movielosophy]

Mysterious Lotus Casebook | interview...wait..more like interrogation

[stromblessed]

Mizu, femininity, and fallen sparrows

In my last post about Mizu and Akemi, I feel like I came across as overly critical of Mizu given that Mizu is a woman who - in her own words - has to live as a man in order to go down the path of revenge.

If she is ever discovered to be female by the wrong person, she will not only be unable to complete her quest, but there's a good chance that she'll be arrested or killed.

So it makes complete sense for Mizu to distance herself as much as possible from any behavior that she feels like would make someone question her sex.

I felt so indignant toward Mizu on my first couple watchthroughs for this moment. Why couldn't Mizu bribe the woman and her child's way into the city too? If Mizu is presenting as a man, couldn't she claim to be the woman's escort?

However, this moment makes things pretty clear. Mizu knows all too well the plight of women in her society. She knows it so well that she cannot risk ever finding herself back in their position again. She helps in what little way she can - without drawing attention to herself.

Mizu is not a hero and she is not one to make of herself a martyr - she will not set herself on fire to keep others warm. There's room to argue that Mizu shouldn't prioritize her quest over people's lives, but given the collateral damage Mizu can live with in almost every episode of season 1, Mizu is simply not operating under that kind of morality at this point. ("You don't know what I've done to reach you," Mizu tells Fowler.)

And while I still feel like Mizu has an obvious and established blind spot when it comes to Akemi because of their differences in station, such that Mizu's judgment of Akemi and actions in episode 5 are the result of prejudice rather than the result of Mizu's caution, I also want to establish that Mizu is just as caged as Akemi is, despite her technically having more freedom while living as a man.

Mizu can hide her mixed race identity some of the time, and she can hide her sex almost all of the time, but being able to operate outside of her society's strict rules for women does not mean she cannot see their plight.

It does not mean she doesn't hurt for them.

Back to Mizu and collateral damage, remember that sparrow?

While Mizu is breaking into Boss Hamata's manse, she gets startled by a bird and kills it on reflex. She then cradles it in her hands - much more tenderly than we've seen Mizu treat almost anything up to this point in the season:

She then puts it in its nest, with its unhatched eggs. Almost like she's trying to make the death look natural. Or like an accident.

You see where I'm going with this.

When Mizu kills Kinuyo, Mizu lingers in the moment, holding the body tenderly:

And btw a lot of stuff about this show hit me hard, but this remains the biggest gut punch of them all for me, Mizu holding that poor girl's body close, GOD

When Mizu arranges the "scene of the crime," Kinuyo's body is delicate, birdlike. And Mizu is so shaken afterward that she gets sloppy. She's horrified at this kill to the point that she can't bring herself to take another innocent life - the boy who rats her out.

MIZU'S ONE MOMENT OF SOFTNESS AND MERCY, COMING ON THE HEELS OF HER NEEDING TO KILL A GIRL TO SPARE HER THE WORST FATE THAT THIS RIGID SOCIETY HAS TO OFFER WOMEN, AND TO SPARE A BROTHEL FULL OF INNOCENT WOMEN WHO ARE THE CASTOFFS OF SOCIETY, NEARLY RESULTS IN ALL OF THEIR DEATHS

No wonder Mizu is as stoic and cold as she is.

And no wonder Mizu has no patience for Akemi whatsoever right before the terrible reveal and the fight breaks out:

Speaking of Akemi - guess who else is compared to a bird!

The plumage is more colorful, a bit flashier. But a bird is a bird.

And, uh

Yeah.

I like to think that Mizu killing the sparrow is not only foreshadowing for what she must do to Kinuyo, but is also a representation of the choice she makes on Akemi's behalf. She decides to cage the bird because she believes the bird is "better off." Better off caged than... dead.

But because Mizu doesn't know Akemi or her situation, she of course doesn't realize that the bird is fated to die if it is caged and sent back home.

Mizu is clearly not happy, or pleased, or satisfied by allowing Akemi to be dragged back to her father:

But softness and mercy haven't gotten Mizu anywhere good, recently.

There is so much tragedy layered into Mizu's character, and it includes the things she has to witness and the choices she makes - or believes she has to make - involving women, when she herself can skirt around a lot of what her society throws at women. Although, I do believe that it comes at the cost of a part of Mizu's soul.

After all, I'm gonna be haunted for the rest of this show by Mizu's very first prayer in episode 1:

"LET" her die. Because as Ringo points out, she doesn't "know how" to die.

Kind of like another bird in this show:

[itsdefinitely]

TUMBLR LEGWND ITSDEIFNITLEY ALSO DRAWS SANDERS SIDES?!?!???

i dabble

[w0lfwren]

what clown are you guys talking about it 2017 was a coming of age comedy

(another one)

[lotus-pear]

god i love skk sm i wish gay ppl were real :(

[blueberryflavoredfeelings]

does the bbc even understand how much money they’d make if the made a Disney Enchanted 2007 style Merlin sequel where Merlin has been alive, moving from place to place, magicking himself young and aging then moving and magicking himself younger and aging then moving and suddenly Arthur pops out of a lake, completely unaware of current events and is walking around demanding his manservant, claiming to be King Arthur Pendragon and he either

a. Gets on the news somehow and Merlin, doing whatever he’s doing now, sees and drops everything because WHAT IS ARTHUR DOING HERE AND ALIVE

b. Meets Merlin who has been working as a detective somewhere -because that’s basically what he did anyway-solving things and helping people, the family business, and Arthur is dragged in, handcuffed, and plopped in an interrogation room or the drunk tank with the cop who found him saying like This wacko thinks he’s some medieval king, go deal with him, and Merlin scoffs and walks in, promptly dropping his files and spilling his coffee when he sees a disheveled and petulant Arthur, who goes Merlin, finally, get me out of here already, will you and Merlin starts crying lmaooo

or c. Meets Merlin who has been working at an ER because, again, he was physician adjacent, and someone drags a wet Arthur in, like Found this, it looks like he might hypothermiate deal with him, and Merlin sees him, drops his files, spills his coffee, and starts crying hahaha

because I’m thinking that’d be fun and probably everyone on tumblr and everyone who knows someone on tumblr would go bonkers over it

[poisonedfate]

start of scene:

end of scene:

bbc merlin - 03x08 The Eye of the Phoenix

one of my favourite parts about this whole thing is that never not once does arthur actually tell merlin to leave. he just repeats how he's "doing important things" and makes faces.

[cockworkangels]

truly a moment in tv history. like they are directly addressing the audience with these questions while the spn tptb are in real life bullying the show's fans over these exact questions

[altruistic-meme]

im sitting here wondering how the ADA would react to skks dynamic in canon. cus like..... I don't think ANYONE from the ADA has ever actually seen Dazai and Chuuya in the same room. and the way Dazai talks to and teases Chuuya is SO DIFFERENT than how he behaves with the people at the ADA that I feel like they'd get fucking whiplash from it.

[controlaltdelete-my-existence]

I know light is a fake ass bitch but he’s so much stronger than me bc if I had ryuk cackling in my ear while I’m trying to pull off the most flawless bold faced lie of my life I would have broken so fast. arrested on the spot

[sonofatoasterwaffle]

SO INTERESTING to me the way that Eddie and Shannon’s first on screen conversation is phrased.

“What did you need that I didn’t give you?”

“I needed you to have my back.”

A scant 6 episodes after he and Buck promise to do EXACTLY THAT for each other and then continue to do so no questions asked for 7 years.

Am I supposed to think that word choice is a coincidence?!

[thesorrowoflizards]

↳ You never know when the good you do may come back around.

[frankiebirds]

literally why does he know this

[revvethasmythh]

things we know about the silken squall:

they have a drama club! dorian was in it!

rulers willing to put their children under a zone of truth spell if they were suspected of lying

a nomadic society, historically traveling worldwide, but in dorian and cyrus' lifetime they have never left marquet

rulers who left the city for years of wandering in their youths, but then pretended this never happened/wasn't the norm in order to keep their sons cloistered within the city

all air genasi are welcome! non-air genasi are also welcome--under strict guard

they have no formal monarchy, but a monarchy is nevertheless the closest to what their system of governance is. dorian frames his parents' role as giving advice to any who ask, imparting wisdom to the community, but the position is both an elevated and hereditary one. should his parents die, dorian would be expected to take over this position regardless of how much or little wisdom he had to impart to his people

due to the cloistered nature of dorian's upbringing, he had no friends before leaving and meeting the crown keepers. this implies some interesting distance between the quasi-royal family and, well. anyone else who could have been dorian's friend growing up

dorian and cyrus' formal dress included laurel headpieces denoting their status as quasi-princes

at some earlier time in dorian's life, he attended a court dance (not even a ball) where an uninvited guest showed up. to quote dorian, they were "killed immediately" due to walking into an environment where sensitive information between politicians may have been discussed

things we do NOT know about the silken squall:

what the fuck is up with all that

[elaena]

You ever think back on what could've been?