#mizu!

[jinkx-monsoon-season]

I love her. I studied the way of your school deeply, and found that it was trash. Roast their fancy-ass school, girl

And she does! With demonstration,

examples,

and broken bones

[wondipity]

Anyway, moots? 😻🎀

omg yesyesyesyesyes 😍

[nowakityphoon]

Aun no entendía el funcionamiento de la academia, pero estaba seguro de que haber ingresado al círculo principal de esta era un gran paso para un huérfano, por lo que estaba muy dedicado a emprender esta aventura.

Ultimamente no tenía tiempo para nada más que pensar en como lidiaría su hambre estando tan lejos de los humanos, emparejar sus intereses y su condición como un híbrido no era una tarea fácil.

Los cabellos del incubo jugueteaban con la brisa siempre presente en la academia, mismos que eran re-colocados por las manos anchas del otro, que disponían a las hebras negras en su lugar. A pesar de tener los ojos escarlata fijados frente a su marcha, tenía mucho en la cabeza, como para prestar atención a la anatomía que torpemente, se acercaba a él sin decoro. Antes de entender que pasaba, se encontraba en el piso, casi sobre una delgada criatura, de no ser por su brazo, dispuesto por reflejo, detrás de la espalda ajena.

-- Lo siento mucho, Te encuentras bien?-- admitió, antes de recoger las cosas de la pelinegra.

@grccve

[shoukohime]

babygirl the way you forsake your happiness on your relentless quest to vengeance, your complicated relationship with gender and the way you're covered in blood have bewitched me body and soul

[shiwden]

- I’m not the child you once knew.

- No. That child would see you and run.

[lauraisconfused]

[eerna]

my love for this show is stronger than tumblr's insistence to flag this post

[phantom-shell]

Mizu, in every single episode, without fail:

[captainamateur-artistt]

𝐆𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐡𝐨𝐥e.

—

Direct reference to that one famous photo of Anne Hathaway, Audra McDonald & Raul Esparza in “Twelfth Night”.

[proxysart]

Had to draw the trio

[ash-and-starlight]

humble contribution

[patrickstargang]

[wondipity]

Whenever I hear Jungwon i go 😭😻🌼🫧💗🥹🥺✨💞

thats me whenever u !! 😻

[gold-talisman]

i know she was actually nice to them but this wouldn't leave my head until i made it

[phantasymistart]

uh oh guys new favourite character time

[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: