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theinsanecrayonbox · 3 months ago

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FOP: A New Wish e16?, 18-22

well would you lookit that, new episodes. thanks internet for telling me...since i don't watch cable live...but man, we are starting the wonky releasing aren't we? e17 was e16, but now e16 is 2 episodes after e17?? the more things change, the more they stay the same eh? lol

Episode 16: Lost and Founder's Day

yeah like i said, wonky episode ordering. i know they sometimes air out of production order, but this? this is also a full 22 min episode?? nice. i guess that's why it's so out of order...wouldn't have that problem if you didn't split 22 min eps into 11 min ones, just saying...

huh, and description is saying that Dale is the new Crocker...yeah, i can easily see that...it's the plot of s2 of the Santa Clauses

so story time proper now

oh right the Dimmadome hat, because Doug founded the town, du how'd i forget that.

aww Dev is still glasses-less. but lol smart watch that can't tell time, classic

pfffft the mentioning of Poof and Cosmo's slip of the tongue, that's great. nice that they acknowledge that Cosmo had him. but wait, did they just admit that they left him alone for 10,000 years while on vacation? it hasn't been 10,000 years...but still, you left your son at boarding school this entire time??? guys

oh hey recurring wish characters, just chilling in the wild, not drawing any attention for weirdness...why'd Mark have to hide in the past again

pfft Dimm n' Out Burgers

Doug got gold in 1953...the original series was like mid 90s...???

oh Hazel's gonna wish for others, now we're pulling Live Action plots...but also Wishmas...but also standard, and was that the standard kid hurray that FNaF uses??

dawww Dev :( i mean i know we knew the statute wasn't gonna be good, but poor Dev. and wow laying on the Poof referencing heavy; if i hadn't been spoiled that he's returning it wouldn't be a surprise because that is not foreshadowing, that's a neon sign

and hat montage...ok...at least it's not a musical number i guess...and it is a nice commercial break spot, because *double length episode*

heh snarky Dev. but also daww protecting Hazel

and dawww 3rd act breakup?? Dev hunny

but now we have terminator founders' day statues. this is getting crazy again, and i love it

ha! callback to the "oh great the wand not working noise". also callback to Cosmo was right

pfft "Dill Pickle Dimmadome". just a dumb joke, or Rugrats shoutout, you decide!

huh just now realizing that the non-Roman Dimmadome was French, very obviously a French trapper, so...are the Dimmadomes also Canadian?

dawwww Hazel be nice to Dev! he did save you

HEY! Poof is back! yes, yes, he's Peri now; very grown up, not a questionable foreign slur, i know. and he's Dev's fairy????? ok i did not see that how he came back; i expected him in an episode or two. but how interesting that the spoiled rich kid who's parents don't love him gets the purple fairy...again...

well, i guess i can see why this was produced as e16, but aired after e18 since that's sort of a big plot point

Episode 18: Work Her Magic

so chronologically this should be before Lost and Founder's Day...lets see is that matters. because this series does have some ongoing continuity to it...

synopsis has the standard plot of kid thinks parent is overworking so wants to spend time with them. doesn't sound like Add-a-Dad, so that's good

adult Hazel design? huh

heh the puppet replacement is back...and having an existential crisis??? O.o this show man...i love it

hey design for Antony

interesting montage

wait what was the name of the building??? E-Lidder+Acey Publishing. oh, ok, it went by so fast i thought it was E-Leddy, as in similar to Mr Turner's boss at the pencil pushed factory office thing. idt there's a connection, carry on

there's no Un-Wish Island for Hazel, but instead a cosmic void...filled with neon glitter...Mad Muse Mythos??? O.o

ah well, the ending was good enough. this was a low magic, personal growth episode, which is always grade a good. but you know...i feel like there could be a wish uprising in the future, just like Un-Wish Island...oh and no, idt this being aired out of order in comparison to Lost and Founders Day matters at all

Episode 19: Crock to the Future

so many pun titles, i am loving it. but Crocker is back??? did he get demoted to janitor after his affair with Vicky (heh yes i will never forget the worst part of Odder, and neither will any of you so it will never happen again)(also this is NOT the Odder timeline so i know there's no correlation...other than the cosmic multiverse deciding to punish him for eth actions in an alternate reality lol). but...since the internet spoiled that there's an adult AJ, this is sort of a missed opportunity to have it be adult Kevin...not that i want Kev to be a carbon copy of Crocker, but still. would help narrow the timeline more (gimme adult Chloe! gimme proof there's no Sparky!!), seeing as Poof is grown and present, so we know it's not a Channel Chasers timeline...

anywhos, actual episode!

AJ!!! Anthony James Junior is AJ's full name??? and he's into Paranormal Science/ uh...that doesn't really track, but AJ!?

but also, claiming that the experts said a ghost containment unit was impossible...so this is not the same universe as DP, since that is confirmed as possible. i know it wasn't really a connected universe before, but confirmation that they are separate is nice...though i say that and watch as Jack and Maddie end up in a background shot coming up lol

wow their paranormal detector works

AJ!! "remember him from the original series?" lol but yeah this has got to be 20 years in the future minimum...

hey there's Mark and his ship on that mural!

IT'S CROCKER!!!!!! and he looks so OLD! zomr i love it, he looks so much like Dolores and Albert. and he still has the FaIrYgOdPaReNtS!!

huh we acknowledge that Crocker was their godkid, nice

Wanda, why would you think Crocker covering eth building in a net is impossible? he afforded to do that back on a teacher's salary, he can certainly do that on a janitor's

Timmy name drop!

so Crocker does this every year...AJ knows his old teacher works for him. neat!

well this was actually a very fun cameo episode! i highly approve!! shame Kev didn't show up to pick Crocker up at the end, and it'd mimic how Denzel was with Dolores, but better since Kev isn't fairy crazy...i liked Kev lol

Episode 20: Battle of the Dimmsonian

description says Dev and Hazel magic battle. so...it's Remy Rides Again

oooo Dev's the wishy-washy wisher, that's neat. it goes to show that even he doesn't know what eh wants or needs

waitwiatwait "remember episode 13 when i was horse and you were a cowboy hat" e13 of NW was Stany Danky and was there cowboy wear in that? e13 of the original series was Christmas Everyday and...no i think it was only Maria that was a cowboy there. hm.....

oh are they going to follow the "fairy godparents can't out other fairy godkids" rule??

Brindle Folk people lived in Dimmadelphia before settlement huh? ad they have a lot of antlers...and a spirit named Viozalia...and that looks like a portal....otter-deer fae nice (i see what you meant saying i had a lot to work with in these new episodes lol)

hey that looks like a ghost portal...fae spirit...yeah that tracks...heh called her a demi-god wow. wrath of the underworld? what is this show?? i love it!!

hehe Viozalia tricking Dev into giving her the staff; classic fae.

"what to do if your kid tries to start the ghost apocalypse" that is actually a thing that they though could happen/has happened before?? also ghost apocalypse, and child possession, this is amazing

the family reveal was fun lol

dawww Dev not knowing how friendships work

hehe Ghostbusters references all around

that was actually a really good episode. very enjoyable, plot progressive, character progressive, very spoopy. A+ team

Episode 21: Patty Possum's Party Playground

is that a FNaF reference??? and did they forget that they already have Mikey Mozzarella's?? and description says Hazel wishes eth animatronics to life...it is FNaF holy crap!!!

Patty Possum looks like a female Mikey Mozzarella...

and if Winn watched her show in daycare, it's at least a 5 year old franchise

man i love Ski-Ball

Patty invited the children onto the stage to be her new posse...she's gonna try to keep them isn't she...

ah another instance of Cosmo and Wanda being idiots and loosing their wands the most stupid way because if they didn't there'd be no plot

haha yup there it is, she's keeping those children. time to survive until 6 am kids

wait what was the tunnel graffiti?? Miss you Mom...with 25 tick marks and a skeleton, oh...i thought it was something cooler. carry on

ok i am so into this musical number. the background music is actually going good this ep

dawww lesson of the week time; friends are friends even when they are apart

oh no the possum is stealing not-Timmy to stuff him into a suit to be the new turtle or something! lol

ok, so this was fun. didn't go as dark as the other spoopy episodes, but it was still fun, and filled with fodder.

Episode 22: A Date to Remember

this one's description sounds like a Lovestruck light...but hey more returning characters!

oh actually it seems like it's got some Apartnership mixed in too actually...huh...neat

hey, Cosmo's referencing their first date from "Floating with You" from School's Out: The Musical. you guys did your homework a bunch

wait she made that wish...oh geeze Hazel Marty McFlyed herself...oh wait no, not time traveling, but basically yeah

heehee 2d versions of stuff that happened, love it

what happened to Cupid?? O.o this character is like, 100% different than the original. are we saying that Cupid isn't a person but an office/title now? so this isn't the same Cupid?? redoing Father Time was since since he wasn't a highly established character, but Cupid was, and since we had April Fool reffs it's not like you guys never saw OG Cupid

all the sports jokes are going over my head. i don't sport ball.

but you know, the message that love isn't just a point game, and that Angela still had free will to choose despite the game saying otherwise, that's great.

so other than the confusing character...it was ok

Episode 23: Lost in Fairy World

the kids get lost and fairies have to find them before Jorgen finds out? is it now illegal to bring your godkids to Fairy World?? i mean, tat should've been a rule from the start, but why now?

heehee family brunch of candy. and Dev's first Fairy World exposure, nice. but you know what, this is actually really cute and clever setup giving Peri to Dev. Dev's an only child with an absent father (and no mother in sight), so he gets a single godparent. BUT he also happens to also get 2 grand-godparents and a godsister/aunt in the form of Hazel. Dev gets the big loving family he wants so badly. meanwhile, Hazel started this by loosing her brother's friendship when he moved away, and feeling distant from her parents; well she got herself 2 more godparents for the attention, and now has a godbrother and godnefew/goduncle and godcousin/brother (i know technically it works one way but the dynamics of the personal interactions feel the other so just role with it). she's gotten back her family she thought she lost. this was really good story telling here.

anywhos, Fairy World!! oooo map...with several locations....ooooooooooooo

Cosmo and Wanda being over bearing parents to Peri is great. and Peri saying Dev's his first godkid...eh...i guess he's technically right since we only saw him assigned to Dolores in Fairly Old Parent before...

ok we're going on a world tour! first stop: Star Dome. it's...a wand garden? i feel like we established wand production in the past but i can't recall when... second stop: Rainbow Highway. not much to it third stop: Dollfins. it's...dolphins, but dolls...wut? this seems silly fourth stop: Wings n' Thangs. it's a factory...mk...well since Norm did have wings stapled onto his back i guess wing manufacturing is a thing

Jorgen seems stupider than he used to be...i blame the sweater vest

the kids unwished themselves? wait what?? THAT'S the Hocus Poconos?? Wish storage...Unwish Island...the glitter void where the puppet went...is that this place??? I...hu...and there is an Un-wish dragon. i...hm...

pfft ok i'll give the dragon the meta joke, that was funny

and i guess this new system does make sense, seeing as Timmy got Un-Wish Island because his Wish Storage was over willed, so dumping the unwishes in a designated area with something to destroy them does make sense. now i'm hoping there's a rebel Gary here and we go Mad Max with a smattering of other unwishes lol

pffft Fredanator head, nice. i guess it's cameo time....holy crap that was a skeletal snake!Vicky in a milkshake glass O.o show!! i love you

wait ate a godkid again?? O.o!!!!

lol Dev learning no lessons. he's trying guys, he's learning...slowly lol

ok not a bad episode. very much a cameo game. still loving this show, looking forward to next week's crop.

#kp talks fop #kp watches tv #review #spoilers #fairly oddparents

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canmom · 5 months ago

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l'aventure de canmom à annecy - épisode DEUX - mercredi

Wednesday! I've posted a little about it already but here's a slightly more detailed account while I wait for a morning crêpe in front of the giant lake. (La France, c'est bon ici.)

So the morning began with the anime film Totto-chan: The Little Girl in the Window by Shin-Ei! This is a lavish adaptation of the autobiographical novel about the childhood of actress and TV personality Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, published in the mid 80s. In her childhood, she was loud, inquisitive, and considered a problem by her teachers. The film depicts her childhood after she is taken to an alternative school called Tomoe Academy, run by the radically permissive, neurodivergence/disability accepting policies of its headmaster Sosaku Kobayashi.

But of course this is the 1940s; behind the idyllic escapades of Totto-chan is the looming fascism and war. Totto-chan's family become suspect for their western fashions. Moreover, Totto-chan's best friend, Yasuaki, is disabled by polio and, ultimately, doesn't have that long to live.

I think it would be easy to apply cynical readings to Totto-chan. You could say surely Kobayashi couldn't be as saintly as depicted, or observe that Totto-chan and her family are definitely quite well off and this is surely a private school. The Heidi-like style of the impossibly cute Totto-chan and friends could be overbearing, or you could call the depiction of Yasuaki sentimental.

But, I actually don't feel like making any of those moves. What this film makes me think of is how my mum used to work as a teacher before I was born, staying up late at night to write personalised curriculums for the kids, letting them talk, and generally going well out of her way to reject the strictures of the school system. And - to hear my mum tell it anyway - the kids loved her for it. She tells a story about how when the head teacher came to inspect, she asked them all to be quiet just this once - and he was amazed because they wouldn't be that quiet for anyone. And also how they tried to give her stolen tvs when she left the school to give birth to me lmao. The point is that it actually is possible to do a lot better than the overstretched, disciplinarian status quo of those times. and while i don't know how modern schools operate, back in the 80s, that was essential to say.

While most of the film focuses on Totto-chan and her relationship with Yasuaki, we do get many glimpses of Kobayashi's principles. At many points, Totto-chan does things that would get her scolded at another place, like dredging the cesspool for a lost wallet - but ever mild Kobayashi just tells her to put it back when she's done and helps her get clean after. At another point, he scolds the other teacher at the school for making a joke that came across as being at the expense of the other kids. It is a - perhaps idealised - depiction of how a school should work.

Of course there's a war on. The outside world becomes more hostile, and this is a place it really benefits from being a film, because it can show us the things that Totto-chan doesn't understand - the changing clothes and expressions of the adults, the increased militaristic imagery. In one deeply impactful sequence, Totto-chan runs from Yasuaki's funeral through a military parade and passes children playing at war with rifles. At the end of the film, the school is destroyed by firebombs - the deployment of the bomb portrayed in a lavishly detailed sequence. The real Kuroyanagi (Totto-chan) narrates how Kobayashi simply asked what kind of school they would build next - but there is an undercurrent of pain that this thing could be so fleeting.

One thing anime really excels at, I think, is making a small gesture become something freighted with a lot of emotional significance. In this film, this is the scene where Totto-chan helps Yasuaki climb a tree - trying different ladders, and eventually just physically pulling him up. (Totto-chan is the strongest kid in the school; another scene shows a rare moment of anger from Yasuaki when she lets him win an arm wrestling contest after beating the other kids; he is so desperate to participate). He in turn is an avid reader, and lends her a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin and dies before she can return it. Each of them is going a great effort to invite the other into their world. I don't know how much Yasuaki is based on a real person, but there is something striking to me in going to such effort to commemorate the brief life of a boy with polio, in defiance of the sentiment that a disabled person's life is less valuable.

Of course, you could say such a message is undermined a little by how elaborately, constructedly cute it makes all the children. These are more like dolls than real people. But that's anime I guess! There's something funny about this idealised little girl now being an actual real living person who narrates the beginning and end of the film.

The character animation in this film is excellent. It isn't flashy most of the time, but simply very naturalistic and characterful. The designs, which use soft reds around the lips, take a little getting used to but they work. And while I haven't read the original book, this arrangement of the story is compelling. I def cried a little, this film got me harder than I expected. Very worth a watch - when it hits the torrents I'll def Animation Night it!

#l'aventure de canmom à annecy #annecy 2024

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farlynthordens · 1 year ago

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SKB Short Story 4 - O’Mikura-sama

summary of a short story published in Dengeki Bunko, Jan 2019. Takes place between volumes 2 and 3. Contains minimal story spoilers.

Hiroshima prefecture: neighbor of Shimane where Izumo and the Six Towers are. just due to nature of proximity, Hiroshima also has a fairly religion-oriented society but not as much as Shimane. It’s also considered to have some of the best public safety in Japan, but the places that people can live safely are highly limited due to it being such a hotbed for monsters of all kinds.

In the vicinity of Mikuradake mountain is a giant flying leech that is referred to as O’Mikura-sama. We’ll get back to that later. ...

Bisco and Milo pass through Hiroshima on their way down to Shikoku, purposefully avoiding dangerous areas like Mikuradake. they arrive at a town called Bakehara and look down on the bustling market streets full of delicious food.

Bisco eyes everything with caution, but his stomach gives him away. M: “You don’t need to just stand and look - we have money, you know. Let’s go eat!” B: “I’m practically a walkin’ check for 3 million sols. And I’m not dressin’ up as a girl again. We’re leaving.” M: “You’ll be fine, just take this!”

Milo pulls out prayer bead necklaces and puts one on Bisco then himself. They’re a deep red color and each decorated with the emblems of various gods. He explains that amli gave them to him, and they represent the pardoning of a crime. as long as they appear to be from Shimane, the Hiroshima officials can’t touch them.

They end up at a shop stuffing their faces with all-you-can-eat oysters until the owner begs them to leave from how much money he’s lost. Out of pity, milo pays him extra but it’s not enough to really help. bisco says he’s still hungry and asks to go somewhere else.

Out on the street, they notice a crowd forming around something. they climb into a tall tree to get a better look, and see none other than tirol starting a bidding war for a statue that she lifted from the gold tower in izumo.

The mayor, a very high class female priestess, arrives and places a ridiculously high bid on the statue. it seems like she’s going to win it, until milo shows up and calls out double her bid. tirol is surprised to see him, but smiles as she catches on to what he’s doing.

The mayor says he’s too young and poor-looking to have that much money. milo pretends to be a priest to explain away his appearance. when the mayor demands he prove that he has money, he reaches into his clothes and secretly uses a mantra to create fake emeralds.

Sometime later: bisco, milo and tirol and hanging out at a bar to celebrate tirol’s earnings. she is pretty drunk. T: “Yahaha! I didn’t think I’d get 6 mil outta that! I think that’s a new personal best!” M: “That’s 2 Biscos worth.” B: “Don’t use my bounty as a measurement system.” ... T: “We ran into each other at a reeeaaal good time. Say, Milo, yer good at that stuff. Yer cut out to be a merchant - yer strong, and yer cute. C’mon, don’t you think it’s time we paired up?” M: “Bisco, your partner is being stolen away.” B: “Why don’t you go with her.” M: “Did you know this pressure point can really hurt?” B: Owwww!! Stop... stop...!! Wait, what’s with that dead look? Are you fuckin’ drunk too?!”

Tirol offers them 1 mil in exchange for taking her along to bisco’s village so she can continue her selling there. milo says he only helped out because he heard of how the mayor steals the town’s money, and that tirol should give at least part of her earnings back to the people.

Sensing danger, bisco kicks their table up and drags all 3 of them behind it like a shield. machine gun bullets destroy the building and people run and hide.

They realize it’s the mayor sending out a hit for tirol. they escape by busting a hole in a wall, but the mayor’s assassins quickly follow.

Bisco and milo cover tirol, but can’t attack the assassins. the town is very tight and has a lot of people in close quarters, so firing mushroom arrows would cause casualties no matter what they do.

The town’s speakers blare with the mayor’s voice. she claims the statue tirol sold her was fake, and demands her 6 million back plus a 2 million sol fine.

Tirol points out the mayor’s gigantic mansion on top of a hill that overlooks the town. Bisco aims his bow at it but milo stops him from firing. M: “You weren’t thinking of blowing the whole place up, were you?!” B: “It’d be easy, wouldn’t it?” T: “Yeah! Do it!” M: “No! What about all her employees?! Don’t just jump to mass destruction!” B: “...Hey, Milo... what is that...?”

A massive shadowy creature descends from between the clouds and into the mountain range where the mansion is. bisco uses his goggles to inspect it, exclaiming that he’s never seen a flying leech of that size. milo is also frozen in shock at how terrifying it is.

The leech uses the undulations of its huge body to create wind, generating a powerful tornado that lifts the mansion into the sky and into the hole in its stomach. The townspeople scream, saying that o’mikura-sama has come to devour them.

Bisco and milo call for actagawa and the trio gets on him to chase after o’mikura-sama. tirol says they should be running away from it, but the boys explain that they can’t let it destroy the town or continue further out to somewhere like bisco’s village.

They cover actagawa in glowshrooms to catch the leech’s attention. milo fires at its tail which seems to be its weak point, but o’mikura-sama is too big to take down in just one hit like that.

The leech chases them, closing the distance. they direct actagawa to the top of a hill and have him spin around so they’re facing o’mikura-sama head-on. bisco and milo fire their arrows, but not at the leech’s body - at the mountain below it.

The mountain explodes into a forest of glowing rust eaters. o’mikura-sama pauses its pursuit and sucks in the rust eaters until it begins glowing as well. T: “Oh, I get it! You’re gonna fill it full of rust eaters and bring it down with a bang!” B: “We’re not tryin’ to bring it down with a bang. ... If it’s hungry, then we’ll just feed it til it’s full is all. Don’t really wanna use my bow on a divine beast, anyway.”

O’mikura-sama becomes round from how full it is. it shines brightly in the sky, looking truly like a divine being. it then disappears into the clouds.

T: “That was an unexpectedly peaceful resolution...” B: “Well, duh! If we took it down, we’d get crushed by its huge ass body fallin’ on top of us!” T: “Yeah, but...! I’ve changed my mind about you, Akaboshi. You’re not as dumb as I thought.”

The townspeople realize that o’mikura-sama only ate the mayor. they begin praising the leech as a savior of the town and break out into celebration.

B: “I’m hungry from all that hard work. Let’s get back to eating. ... Also, you caused all of this and we saved you, so you’re gonna pay for our damn food.” M: “Bisco, that’s rude. You should say ‘we would like if you treated us to dinner.’“ B: “ Same shit! She is gonna pay for us!” ...

As milo made her promise, tirol returned some of the mayor’s money back to the townspeople and they set out for shikoku. bisco still didn’t really want to being her along, but decided to keep his mouth shut and let it happen.

Milo says he’s happy tirol is there, because he was feeling nervous about taking the mushroom keeper test. bisco says it’s nothing to worry about.

B: “We’re gonna cross a couple abandoned bridges to get across these islands. They’re pretty dangerous, so you gotta wrap your face up with this.” T: “With that nasty rag?! No way, it’ll rub off my makeup.” B: “Suit yourself ... But you’re gonna get bit by the flying fish. They’ll probably tear your ears and nose clean off.” Tirol decides to cover her face after all. ...

They managed to cross the seas with their lives and not much else. The trio finds a place to rest on land while actagawa plays in the water and hunts for food.

An arrow flies at bisco from out of nowhere and he blocks it, causing it to fly off and explode into mushroom growth a distance away. A female mushroom keeper with tanned skin appears, being followed by a number of others. She wears a lot of extravagant jewelry and carries a ruby-colored bow, and is full of smiles.

?? : “Where’s Jabi? I heard you saved him, but did just up and die anyway?” B: “He is alive. He’s in Imihama ‘cause he didn’t wanna come back here.” ?? : “Aww, what’s up with that? Well then who’s that panda next to you?” M: “I’m Milo, Bisco’s partner. I’m at least halfway decent at using mushroom keeper techniques.” ??: “Oh, his partner! You can use a bow with a figure like that?” Milo looks at the mushroom growth from the arrow Bisco knocked away. “Well, I can do something on that sort of level.” ?? : “Wooow!”

The woman, named Usha, is a shamaness. she guides the trio to her group’s camp. tirol immediately jumps into trying to sell them things, but bisco stops her because he knows mushroom keepers are too gullible.

Usha comes up to milo and inspects him closely, saying she’s jealous of his nice skin. U: “What on earth had to happen for a guy like Bisco to get a prettyboy partner like you? Tell me, how did you two meet?” M: “...So, he broke into my clinic and took me hostage. He said he’d kill me if I made a sound, and he was honestly really scary...” U: “Sounds like just straight up robbed you!” M: “Right?! And then to escape the people following us, he...!” U: “He blew the place up?” M: “Yes!!!”

Milo then storms over to bisco, seeming angry. M: “Pay me back for my clinic!!” B: “What’s with you?! That happened forever ago” M: “Now that I’ve thought about it, you never made good for that. Partners are supposed to always be equal [even] aren’t we? Now sit down while I do the math on this.”

Bisco gets dragged away as usha laughs her ass off at him, but she feels like she can see how they work well together.

Other notes

Mikuradake is a real mountain

Bakehara does not exist irl. its name literally means “monster’s belly”

Bisco thinks of their friendship with tirol as 腐れ縁 which means an undesirable yet inseparable relationship

Tirol isn’t good at swimming

#sabikui bisco #rust eater bisco #sbkb summary series #akaboshi bisco #nekoyanagi milo #ochagama tirol

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winifredrad · 2 months ago

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Name: Winifred Radcliffe, born Francisca Cruz Occupation: Author Age: 223 Sexuality: Lesbian Species: Vampire Clan/Pack/Coven?: Lomidze Hometown: Monterrey, Mexico Relationship Status: Single Personality Traits: Witty/ Creative / Resilient Sour / Reclusive / Pessimist

Biography

As a child, Francisca was fragile and sickly, having survived a series of medical conditions by the time she turned 10. She was also deeply loved and protected by her parents, both highly educated and wealthy enough to supporther daughter's every medical need.

In fact, one could argue they protected her more than they should, an unhealthy amount. The first couple of scares resulted in Francisca being locked inside their home indefinitely 'for her own safety'. It worked, her health stabilized while her mother made use of the family's vast library to educate her. Of course, that meant she grew up without any friend to speak of, but she lived.

Francisca's parents couldn't keep her safe frm everything, however; they lived in a tumultous time when her people fought for independence and bullets marked their walls on an almost nightly basis.

The solution was to embark on a journey that would take them as far away from the violence as they could — they landed in England, and made their way North across the country.

The setting was new, as was the names she and her family took on, but Francisca's (now Winifred's) life was still the same: locked in her room, watching the world pass her by outside of her window.

Another thing that didn't change was her fragility. A few short years after arriving in England, Winifred fell ill again, only this time there was nothing her parents and their wealth could do to help. She was dying, fast. All the sacrifices she had been put through would have been for naught.

Winifred should have learned not to subestimate her parents' drive.

She was nearly unconcious, drawing her last few breaths when she noticed the female figure in the corner of her eye. What followed was a sharp iron taste in her mouth, and then blackness.

Winifred had lived — technically — but now she was lonelier than ever. She went on to learn from her sire that her parents had traded their lives (and several years of serfdom) to save hers. It was their final sacrifice for her sake.

Winifred's life as a vampire wasn't much more daring than as a human; she was just as disconnected to the outside world as before, and every journey to the city in search of food or companionship was a reminder of that. Humans had been a mystery in life, and were much more so in death.

She remained a recluse, isolated in her manor in the edge of Leeds — it didn't take long for it to be called haunted. Winifred filled her nights with literature, reading and writing about the human experience, which was so foreign to her. Once or twice she even wrote about vampires, though she made sure to skip on a few important details and exaggerate on others.

It wasn't particularly difficult to get her work published with a bit of compulsion, and it did feel good to see her writing be so well received, even if under a series of pseudonyms. It was her way to connect to the outside.

Still, it was lacking. She could share her point of view to others, but she hardly ever heard anyone else's. She read, yes, but didn't converse, look somebody in the eye, touch their skin. At least not for longer than it took for her to feed.

Winifred tried, several times, to go out, dare to see the world, but her parents' sacrifice weighted heavily on her mind — what would have been the point of what they did if she was caught and killed? She'd heard more than a few tales of hunters, or vampires much more experienced than her get a little too confident.

She was scared.

It wasn't until very recently that Winifred made the decision to leave her home for good. An invitation from her sire to join her in Port Leary was what she needed to build the courage toat least walk out the door.

It was a city of the supernatural, after all, where she would be far from the strangest creature around. Maybe she would finally feel comfortable enough to live.

Wanted

SIRE — Even centuries after her transition, Winifred remains devoted to her sire and trusts her completely. It was because of her sire's invitation that Fred moved to Port Leiry, and she'll do whatever it takes to earn her approval.

PREY — A human (?) girl that Winifred laid eyes on shortly after arriving in Port Leiry. They never talked, Fred only stalks follows her from afar, fascinated by her, ever dreaming of finally approaching. For a bite. Obviously.

FRIEND — The first friend Winifred made since arriving in Port Leiry. First friend she's made in decades, really. She knows she'll eventually have to stop following them around like a lost puppy, but for now she's happy for the company.

#about.

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foxys-fantasy-tales · 2 years ago

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Writeblr Re-Introduction

I never did this quite right the first time. Get ready, cause this may be a long one. May be oversharing, but hey no character limit and I feel like being super in depth in my soon to be pinned post is on brand. -Ahem-

Hello! You can call me Denise. I use she/her pronouns and I am 32 years old (ancient for Tumblr, I know) with a love for writing fantasy and romance with a lot of dark elements and intrigue. My characters can be messy and sweet and that makes them good to me. I have a lot of bad things happen to my characters, but I like a triumphant tale in the end where at least most people are happy or things turn out alright. I really have fallen for each and every one of my characters and feel the world in general needs some hope in conflict. I am bisexual/biromantic, demisexual/demiromantic, and polyamorous, so a lot of my characters are queer in some fashion. I love writing demi characters and polyam relationships the most so far, though it's taking a bit of build-up to get my first series to that point. My partner (married) is non-binary and I have trans and token cis-het friends and more, so I feel I have a good group helping and reading my books so that my characters come off the page as they should, even if I'm writing a label not my own. I'm also disabled, and in two of my three current projects there is a disabled character present. I only found this out a few years ago, slightly before the pandemic (wooo) and I still have no idea what's causing most of my issues even though doctors have proven something is wrong. I may have an undiagnosable condition with no name yet, so please be patient if I'm not quick to respond or post a lot. I have chronic pain, fatigue, GI issues, and migraines. Going to rattle off some ending facts about myself here. I love playing DnD and have an over two year campaign ongoing right now where I play a sorcerer. I adore cosplaying when I can afford it. I'm addicted to Final Fantasy 14. I still play Pokemon. I have been watching anime since I was about eight years old, which was at the same time I began writing my own stories, so I've been in this for a while now. I hope to always keep improving. I have a BA in English with emphasis in Creative Writing, and though it hasn't served in finding me gainful employment, I hope it helps me in entertaining with my words, which is what I always longed for anyway. All of my works have dark themes, and if you buy my books there will always be a specific trigger warning section in the front so you can make an informed decision. So with that out there, let's talk about my works!

Published Works

Arigale: Spite in the Spirit (Aug. 2021)

Status: Complete and Published

Genres: Epic fantasy, Romance, Action and Adventure Audience: Adult, maybe YA Length: Around 170k words

(gray morality, friends to lovers, exploring a new world, critique on religious extremes, multiple ships to sail, magic galore and a practical armory, apparently a hot villain, LGBTQIA+ Rep (still building on in book two), found family, humor and at times dark humor, Multiple POV ensemble cast)

Judith and Chit are called to the lonely tower outside their city with little explanation. The one who summoned them is an old, elven wizard named Maleth, who will send them on a quest to lower their floating city of Arigale to where it once resided. Maleth is intrigued by Judith’s strange form of necromantic magic, yet he is also certain of the anxious young man in training to be a spearman and scholar.

Judith, a bubbly yet mysterious young woman, is eager to accept. Chit remains withdrawn and cautious, a remnant of being raised by the Order that presides over their land. Soon, both discover their meeting with the wizard carried dire consequences. Can they accomplish what has been asked of them and save Arigale by exploring the land below, no matter the lengths they must go to?

Available at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Indiebound, and Kobo.

First five chapters are available here on Tumblr for preview! Chapter One - Bonds Chapter Two - Blood Chapter Three - Beseeched Chapter Four - Brazen Chapter Five - Betwixt

I also have a book trailer for this one on Youtube and Tiktok.

Works In Progress

Arigale: Bond in the Blood (WIP)

Aesthetic placeholder for now. The cover is in progress!

(Many of the same tropes as listed above, but more darkness and trauma themes than book one had. Another added romance that is friends to lovers to enemies to ??? You'll have to read to find out!)

Status: Drafting (60%)

Genres: Epic fantasy, Romance, Action and Adventure Audience: Adult, maybe YA Length: Not yet complete - Coming 2023

Judith and Chit's journey across the seas to Galavarn was not as smooth as they had hoped for. The standard of living here is much different than what they encountered on the mainland, and the newfound bond between them will be tested. Enigmas run rampant here, along with a woman from Maleth’s past who claims to hold the key to defeating them for good. Unfortunately, this woman has an unruly and strangely apathetic nature to her, along with a profound hatred toward their distant companion on Arigale.

Meanwhile, back on the mainland, those left behind must bear their own struggles as a stranger appears and insists on taking one of their number with him. This man with red, sunken eyes bears a sharp grudge against Stemoss and worse obligations to a certain deity.

Secrets of the past will come to light on this desolate isle, and the friends left behind will struggle to not become a cog in a plan devised long before they were even born.

Made to Taste (WIP)

Made this placeholder cover in Canva, may or may not be final

(critique of racial relations and capitalism, LGBTQIA+ Rep, monsters and mayhem, dark boy and maybe not sunshine but optimistic girl, meet cute, Terrible CEO villains, small business owning woman protag, magical races in modern day, first kiss, ferris wheels, cute confessions and fluffy moments mixed with helping one another during awful ordeals, they were roommates)

Status: Possible series in the works. Book one draft is complete and editing begins soon. Book two draft in progress as well.

Genres: Urban fantasy, Romance, Paranormal Audience: Adult, maybe YA Length: Not yet complete - Book One possible in 2023

When Lyra Morley accepted a rough and tumble new hire from her bar, she didn't think he would end up her new roommate in a week. Noel Akatash brings his own debts, and the people holding the accounts aren't to be trifled with. Magical home invasions aside, Lyra is more worried about her business serving the city nightlife any food she can handle all made to order.

Cooking with a halfbreed's sense of smell comes with its perks, and one of them is that she can hide her skills in the kitchen so no one is any wiser about her true nature. The night-only diner called Made to Taste is meant to be a haven for those the city would rather keep buried. Lyra, the pacifist and abstinent dhampir, would fight to keep it safe. Good thing Noel knows a thing or two about being scrappy.

Dream Escape (WIP)

Another aesthetic placeholder for now, but I have a cover in mind

(dreams vs reality, learning to cope, TW: suicidal themes are major part of this book, disenchantment, finding your purpose, joy in the little things is better than no joy at all, painting and artistry used to convey these themes, portal/dreamscape fantasy, Alice in Wonderland vibes, enemies to friends to lovers) Status: Plotting stage

Genres: Urban fantasy, Romance, Drama Audience: Adult, maybe YA Length: Not yet complete - No determined release YET - Standalone novel around 80k words

Emma Reed, 26, has a Master of the Arts and no place to put it but in her desk drawer. Once proud of her accomplishment, the lights quickly dimmed when she ended up living back in her old childhood bedroom at her parents place and flat broke. Helping Adrien with graphics for their streaming or Sarah with banners for her pet business is all well and good, but it's not at all how she imagined scrapping by. When her newest piece is rejected from the gallery she had finally convinced to give her a chance, Emma hits a downward spiral.

When she awakens, she finds herself in a strange new world with a strange man hovering around her. He calls himself Jasper, a dream painter, and quickly proves his prowess at sculpting others' dreams. Emma was in his care, but though he's petitioned her to wake up, she can't. Neither knows how she ended up in this place, but surrounded by the dreams of others quite literally brought to life around her, Emma makes the decision to stay.

Jasper won't let her. For one, if she stays there is no telling how badly that could go for her, or for his hopes of a promotion. Emma goes along with his plan to cart her across this new place, more as a sightseeing tour than the arduous task he finds it to be. Along the way, a bit of the light comes back into her eyes, and he can't help but remember how bright they both used to shine. Dulled and muddied palettes that they both became, can they start over?

Links & Socials

Find out all the info you need for Arigale, with pages for my other works upcoming when they are closer to release dates at my website.

You can support me with my illness and with saving for promotion, editing, and artwork for my writing over on Ko-Fi.

You can also find me being a struggling writer, but also a huge geek who loves DnD, anime, cosplay, RPGs, Otome, and more here on Tumblr and over on my other socials at Twitter, Tiktok, and sporadically on Instagram.

My Tags

I haven't been great at using these, but I'm going to try and be better.

#Arigale - for anything related to my Arigale series

#Made to Taste - for anything related to Made to Taste series

#Dream Escape - for anything related to my standalone titled such

#Writer Woes - for rants or jokes about how hard this can be

#Writer Advice - to take with a grain of salt please

#Mental Mess - when I have a bad mental health day

#Physical Mess - when I have a bad physical health day

#Free Commentary - When I reblog with additions in tags

And I'll of course be using #Writeblr #Booklr and other necessary tags as well when called for.

#writeblr introduction #writeblr #writers of tumblr #pls boost #would love to make more connections here

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analogplaysgamessometimes · 3 months ago

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Yume Nikki (2004)

Publisher: Kikiyama (pre-2018), PLAYISM (post-2018)

Developer: Kikiyama

Genres: Exploration, adventure

Platform: PC (Steam)

Medium: Digital

4 Hours 54 Minutes

7.8/10

Yume Nikki is a game that until recently I assumed required no further introduction. However, after talking to some folks in my personal life, I've learned that this is apparently not the case. In the years since my youth it would appear that Yume Nikki and its legacy have faded into obscurity. I by no means think I have a platform sufficient for hoisting it back into the lime light. I do, however, have this little pen light here and I'm gonna let it shine and do my small part in telling people about this unique and important title.

If you were a terminally online weirdo who hung out in gaming circles back in the 2010s (like me), you may remember that there was something of an RPG Maker game renaissance. Titles like Mad Father, Ao Oni, To The Moon, The Witch's House, Ib, Corpse Party, and OFF were everywhere. Among them, standing towards the top of the pile, was Yume Nikki. Considered to be one of the first of, if not the inspiration for, this wave of indie games, Yume Nikki saw an initial release in 2004 and a final, finished release in 2011. It rapidly gained a cult classic status, it's surreal imagery and off putting, twisting settings set it apart as something special and drew players in. In Yume Nikki, you play as a young girl, Madotsuki, and explore through her surreal and often unnerving dreamscapes.

There is little point to the game beyond exploring. While there is an end goal, a way to "beat" the game, the point is the journey.

Honestly? What a journey it is. I will Firstly admit that I don't always love games this open. I don't want my hand being held but at least being pointed in the right direction is helpful sometimes. Yume Nikki was one such game where perhaps a little direction would have been nice, but I recognize that it fundamentally goes against everything the game is built on. The praise I have to give is the same praise people have been giving this game since 2004: the visuals are striking, unnerving, and make for a game world unlike any other I've seen. The way the game builds on and uses dream logic to set its rules, boundaries, and layouts makes it feel like there's always something more to find and like you never fully have a grasp on the situation. This lends itself to the atmosphere strongly, creating a well curated air of disorientation. The music is beautiful, haunting and serves as amazing backing for the visuals as well as wonderful homage to the games that inspired Kikiyama.

I would additionally like to add that the ending, while not the point of the game, may very well be my favorite part of it. It suddenly takes the strange, surreal, and occasionally light hearted things you've been seeing throughout your playthrough and juxtaposes them against grim, harsh reality. Everything the game had showed me up until that point became so much more meaningful when painted in such a serious light. I was forced to confront that none of it was actually real, and the things that maybe did represent reality were bleak and scary. It was a somber, bitter, and brutal ending but it truly made the game for me.

With that being said, Yume Nikki falls a tad short in terms of the modern games market. While it's a classic, the origin of a whole boom of indie games, and an important cultural touch stone in the history of modern games, I'm unsure how well it holds up. I think if you should want games where the ending isn't the point, where exploring and doing things in the world are the primary focus, there are now more options for that than ever across a myriad genres. While it's true there's only one Yume Nikki, and I will maintain it is unique, I simply don't believe there is enough readily accessible content to keep the attention of a modern player for very long. While there is a vast and expansive dreamscape to explore, after a while it can begin to feel samey. I felt like I'd seen all some worlds really had to offer after only a few minutes and was ready to just move on to the next thing. While I concede that perhaps this says more about me than it does the game, I feel it is still valid criticism.

Yume Nikki deserves its spot in the gaming pantheon as a cornerstone of independent game development and a truly unique piece of art. It masterfully creates and maintains its atmosphere while providing genuinely unique visuals and a beautiful, albeit short, soundtrack. However, it can't coast off these and these alone. It may be best to leave Yume Nikke in the past, a historical art piece to be visited by those like myself with a reverence for said history, lending instead our collective attention to the games it pathed the way for.

#i spek #my reviews #yume nikki #kikiyama #playism #pc #pc games #steam #rpg maker #adventure game #surrealist #exploration games #long post

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spicylief · 6 months ago

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Headcanons and Reworking...

... Aphros... ...Sort of? Quite a bit? I don't know. I still really want to play around with and within it, but among other IRL stuff getting in the way, I am unhappy about how I handled the story so far and some elements of the world/plot as I have it already published online (on AO3 and here), and I cannot be bothered to go back rework chapters. For example...

Instead of Maera, one and/or both of my old lady OCs - Laches and Aisa - own one and/or both the Market and Noble Quarter houses in Ark, among other locations, using a magical basement that connects them all (like that one mod on Nexus). They just let Maera live in/use them at some point because they never really did themselves (plus potential foreseeing her need when she begins her life in Enderal).

Stuff like that. I also have additional headcanons that I just have stewing in my brain and not sure where to share it. I guess I can still post them here arbitrarily because where else? For example:

The Veiled Woman's phase with Kadath is like a child playing around with their first experience world building

FF14/Etheirys' aetheric magic system is present in Vyn alongside the established reality-bending/dimensionalist magic system, but cannot be utilized by most arcanists. Fleshless and emissaries, however, can due to the density of their aether/life energy or "nature of their aura". Also, aethertye teleportation is a thing, but like the magic system, only usable via a very tiny amount of aetheric practitioners, like Laches and Aisa.

Because Maera began ghosting the Order shortly after her trial, she obviously could not access any of their resources or books to help her learn about magic. To help her, Jespar used his Sublime status to access Arcane tomes from the Ark Library, withdrawing the books for Maera to study.

Over time after becoming a werewolf, Tharaêl can sense the mood of others based on scent and how they shift, particularly those he's usually around like Maera and Jespar. Post-Qyra when Maera regains the ability to bear children, he is able to notice changes in her monthly cycle, and gets...affected by them himself. Also in general (shortly after becoming permanently afflicted by lycanthropy), he has wolfish canines in his teeth even when he's not transformed.

Ya know, brain wyrms like that. Should I just do this? Just share my dumb headcanons? I already did that during my BG3 phase with my Tav/Durge!Kamari so...

#enderal #enderal forgotten stories #fanfiction #headcanon #aphros #vynblr #maera #oc #prophetess #jespar #jespar dal'varek #tharael #tharael narys #tharaêl #tharaêl narys #kamari #oc lore

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reverienne · 1 year ago

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self-rec tag game

I saw it making rounds on my dash and you know what? I'm doing it and I'm strongly encouraging @aylaaescar, @bluekaddis / @rainhowls-arts (yes, it's my wink wink nudge nudge for you to fill it twice), @czandziowata, @etoilebinaire, @lavampira - and anyone else who wants to - to also give it a try! 💕

Rules: Share five of your own fanworks (fic, art, etc.). Then, tag five more people to share the things they’ve made.

(Mind that my ao3 fics are currently only available to the logged in users. Sorry for the inconvenience!)

1. something you absolutely adore:

Sierra's ShoH MC, Odelinka! And my ShoH MC, Bogusia!

They were made as a matching set and turned into custom acrylic keychains. Their coming into existence was a turning point in my life and I'm not exaggerating when I'm saying that they made my life so much better. Here's to more chibi keychains in the future! <3

But! I've spent way too much time refreshing the page and marvelling at my coding for Achievement Unlocked not to also count it here. It's a 70-words-long coda for Episode II of Wayfarer and my second attempt at coding. A long break made my return to CSS more challenging than I'd like it to be, but I'm very pleased with the end result and I keep shoving this little fic into the faces of all people who are up to date with the public build of Wayfarer. I think that it's just neat.

2. something that was challenging to create:

Worst Romance Ever was both my first fic for Dragon Age, first fic published on ao3, first fic shared publically in a veeeery long time and, most importantly, my first venture into CSS coding. It's an account of a dudebro gamer criticising Emerald Aeducan's romance route in the fictional remake of Dragon Age: Origins. (Don't get discouraged by its unfinished status - it's technically finished, I'm just going back and forth on whether I should upload a little extra.) There was so much I had to learn for this project! Frankly, nothing I've made ever since matched it in terms of intensity. The layout is not perfect and I'd like to rework it sometime in the future, but it's a testament of my persistence and I'm proud of it anyway! Also, that's how I discovered that I actually like CSS coding and want to dabble in more ao3 skins in the future! So, small steps. :)

3. something that makes you laugh (or smile, if that fits more comfortably):

Zarya of disapproval! Her judgemental face never fails to crack me up. (Gosh, I really need to draw some more for Mysticons...)

4. something that surprised you (in how it turned out, how much other people liked it, etc.):

spotkania o 8. rano na Zoomie, my ~200-words-long modern AU ficlet for Wayfarer! I wrote it on a whim, published it right after, in a bout of unhinged self-confidence wrote about it on Wayfarer's Discord server... but nothing could prepare me for the warm welcome this ficlet received! It was written entirely in Polish, it was as niche as it could get, and yet! One person actually confessed to reading it with the help of Google Translate. I'm still overjoyed just thinking about it.

I ended up translating it into English the very next day, another record for me, though 8 a.m. Zoom meetings most likely got lost in the notifs and didn't match the Polish version's popularity. Still, I love both! And if you played Episode I of Wayfarer and have a minute to spare, I recommend giving it a chance!

5. something you want other people to see:

I dare to say that my art of my blorbo, Serena Amell, is quite underrated. C'mon, with some tweaks suggested to me by my best friend, I really managed to make her look very cute!

#Reverienne is talking #Reverienne does a meme #shepherds of haven #Wayfarer #Mysticons #Dragon Age #I wasn't entirely convinced back when I started doing this but now?#self-promos are amazing #I should do them more often!

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westfall-castle · 2 years ago

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hey! Aelin stan here, I just wanted to say that i've seen your anti Aelin posts and you make really good points! You're completely correct in pointing out that Aelin should in no way have all the "life experience" SJM throws at her or be able to play the queen card all the time. In my opinion, the root issue is bad writing and SJM's apparent inability to write MCs who aren't some glorified, deified "perfect" being who checks all the boxes ever imagined.

I honestly wish that we saw more of Aelin making her mistakes and having to deal with the consequences. Like yeah, we sort of do, but not in any real way, and I think that's one of the things we as readers in general but also as Aelin stans tend to gloss over. She was rash and impetuous and never seemed to suffer the consequences, and everyone around her backed her up even when they "were mad that she didn't tell anyone her plans." Again, i think a decent part of this is bad writing and a too-heavy relance on the fantasy as opposed to making characters believable, but Aelin was the main main character, she deserved more than being exalted to god status.

thank you for being a voice of critique :) feel free to respond however you think this giant rambling braindump deserves :)

Hi Aelin Stan! I hope you’re doing awesome.

First of all I’m so sorry for taking centuries in replying to this 😭 Thank you very much for taking the time to drop by and leave your question.

Thank you so much for reading my posts! I wouldn’t consider myself fully anti-Aelin, but I include the tag so people can navigate through the content easier and well, because that post, as you remember, wasn’t precisely hyping her up hahah 😅. I do, however, see she has lots of positive traits to her and actually like her, she has a special place in my reader heart.

I agree with you completely! It was most likely because lots of things were going on throughout the series. First, it heavily relied on fantasy, as you say (which is not bad and it’s part of why I loved it) but soon SJM was tasked with

-Generating lore for this fantasy world

-Explain fantastic elements as more characters were added (For example: Introduce Manon= Explain the whole dynamics about witches. Introduce Rowan= Explain the whole dynamics about fae and demi-fae)

- Weaving the characters and making them interact so we had a story

-Developing each character’s arc

- Bringing the story forward making it make sense

-Write romance for all these characters ending with more than 6 pairings

SO IT WAS A LOT GOING ON! And I do admire as a reader the amount of work this represented and how she brought it forward. in the end, the series counts with 8 books and it still left us wanting for more!

At the same time, maybe this was the reason there wasn’t enough space for development, introspection, accountability for Aelin. There simply was no space for this to happen! If Aelin suffered the consequences, as you very smartly mention, it would have required to edit the text and narrow certain elements to have space, or add 2 more books to the series and make it 10 (which I’m personally not opposed to hahah, but we know how editorial publications work and it’s already hard as it is to publish 8 books in a row!)

Perhaps the work got so big no amount of words did it justice. Maybe we wouldn’t have gotten Elide or Aedion. Who knows how it would’ve gone.

Many readers mention in their critiques of TOG the space management (aka: reading and editing to cut out irrelevant parts and make reading more efficient and straightforward) What I can say about it is: I agree, however, SJM is the writer. We must respect as readers that maybe these parts in her mind were specifically relevant to her and helped her build this big fantasy world in her head. Many parts could be left out to make it “neater” but it’s easy to critique when you’re not the one who’s writing.

Throughout the 8 books, I felt SJM’s necessity to transmit. She wanted to take us into the narrative, clarify all of the reader’s questions and she did a commendable job in doing so. However, she did drown in words in some parts. Sometimes you were reading and the narrator was talking and talking and you couldn’t help but think: ???? Why is this relevant? Hahaha

Maybe these parts could be used for the character development we were seeking at the expense of cutting out certain details from the books.

Well, you have no idea how much I love engaging in these types of conversation so I really have to thank you 🥹❤️ I send you a hug wherever you are and you’re not rambling! It makes so much sense! I can see you’re an avid reader 💕

Lots of love and if you ever want to discuss books again I’m here! Promise to take much less in replying.

#throne of glass #tog #aelin galathynius ashryver #crown of midnight #heir of fire #queen of shadows #empire of storms #tower of dawn #kingdom of ash #rowan whitethorn #dorian havilliard #sjm books #sjm #celaena sardothien #aelin ashryver #aelin of the wildfire #anti aelin #pro aelin #just Aelin talk in general hehe

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andrewmoocow · 1 year ago

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Steven Universe Snake Eyes chapter 6: Folie a Deux (originally published on October 2, 2023)

AN: And now, the moment you've all been waiting for. We've been building up to this for two years now, but at long last, Steven and Black Rutile finally go head-to-head once again. And this time, there will be nothing holding them back in their fight to the death, except for their own inner demons. Steven refuses to fight and kill for entertainment but deep down, he's resisting the urge to go all out. Meanwhile, Black Rutile is incredibly eager to kill Steven once and for all, but that doesn't stop her from having her own second thoughts about everything. This, I believe, makes their dynamic so well-written, though I might be bragging here since I was the one who created it. But enough stroking my ego, we're officially at the halfway point of Snake Eyes now, so let's begin!

Synopsis: Steven and Black Rutile have their long-awaited rematch. Meanwhile, Nosiop begins his plot for universal conquest.

Cast:

Zach Callison as Steven

Noël Wells as Black Rutile

Estelle as Garnet

Michaela Dietz as Amethyst

Deedee Magno-Hall as Pearl

Tom Scharpling as Greg

Grace Rolek as Connie

Jennifer Paz as Lapis

Shelby Rabara as Peridot

Uzo Aduba as Bismuth

Kimberly Brooks as Jasper

Lauren Ash as White Topaz

Della Saba as Aquamarine

Charlyne Yi as Eyeball

Christine Pedi as Holly Blue

Casey Lee Williams as Cat's Eye

Aurelio Voltaire as King Cobralan Jormagundr

Jason Marsden as Prince Nosiop Jormagundr

Keith David as Pyth

Shirley Millner as Queen Constricta Jormagundr

Henry Rollins as Captain Boa

Neil Flynn as Aescul

Patti LuPone as Yellow Diamond

Lisa Hannigan as Blue Diamond

Christine Ebersole as White Diamond

Ron Perlman as Inner Steven

Christopher Lloyd as Batsputin Vosania

Anna Akana as Dionna of the Sands

Peter Stormare as Reximillian

"Okay ladies, everyone into your cells!" one of the Bismuth guards at Revanche 666 yelled as the Rutile Rebels were ordered to their assigned prison cells in the aftermath of their attempted takeover of Little Homeworld. "This will be your home for as long as it takes for you to change your ways and finally accept that you lost."

"So that's how it is, huh?" Black Rutile muttered as she glumly sat down in her cell and gazed at her feet. Everything she had worked so hard from the moment Steven came out as the so-called son of Pink Diamond was all made entirely pointless once again. And even worse, it wasn't even Steven who ruined her plans this time, but instead his disgusting human friends. That was one of many things she hated about Steven. Despite how toxic he was towards others, Steven always knew how to gather allies, whether they were former enemies he convinced would agree with him or simple-minded creatures he could mold into his slaves.

Of course, Black Rutile wasn't any better, but at least she knew how evil she was and loved it. But now, her love of manipulating others to her whims had been used against her thanks to some choice words by the Crystal Gems to turn her allies' collective backs on her. And now, as she heard her subordinates converse among themselves, Black Rutile had one question to ask herself.

"Is this still worth it?"

"Status update on the Diamonds?" a Slytherophidian scientist said to his lab assistant as the pair watched over three massive gems in an equally large containment field meant to house the ginormous Diamonds they would soon reform into.

"Their vitals are normal, Dr. Heller." The female Slytherophidian said, gazing down at a tablet documenting the Diamonds' statistics. "They should return to their normal forms within a few minutes."

"Excellent work, Dr. Mercer." Dr. Heller said before the two scientists turned to find Aescul walking into the laboratory. "Oh, hello Aescul. Need anything?"

"Yes, I'm gonna need you two to leave for a bit so I can have a little privacy with our giant guests here." Aescul stated. "They're gonna need some catching up to do."

"Understood, sir." Dr. Heller said as he and his assistant left Aescul alone in the lab, just as the Diamonds regenerated their forms and found themselves in the containment unit.

"Oh, what happened?" Yellow groaned as she slowly regained consciousness from her fight with the Metals. "Where are those Metals?"

"Where are we? Some kind of laboratory?" Blue asked while looking around and tapping on the glass.

"You are exactly right, my Diamond-y friend," Aescul stated. "Hi, my name's Aescul. I'm a Slytherophidian spy who participated in the surveillance of your people and brought your little friend Steven to your planet. Nice to meet you guys."

"Hello there, Mr. Aescul." White Diamond politely greeted the spy in a somewhat awkward fashion. "Would you mind telling us where we are and why we're here?"

"Oh yeah, that." Aescul nodded. "You took quite a beating against the Metals, and I just wanted to see if you'll be alright in time for Steven's big fight with Black Rutile."

"Whose big fight with what?!" Yellow yelled in shock.

"Oh no, Steven!" Blue added, just as horrified at the decision, while Aescul remained stoic.

"Please, you must tell your masters to change this decision at once!" White begged Aescul on her knees like her life depended on it. "You have no idea how much Black Rutile hates our dear Steven!"

"Sorry, everybody, but rules are rules," Aescul said as he turned to leave. "You know, I can let you go so you're free to watch, ladies. You just need to keep your mouths shut since everybody hates you so much. Remember that cover-up?"

"Yes, we convinced the universe at large that all the planets we conquered were uninhabited to hide the fact that we committed genocide, we know," Yellow stated dryly as the Diamonds were released from their confinement. "I don't think I want to know how Steven would react to such news."

"Probably not well at all." White nodded fearfully while Aescul led them out of the lab. Little did they know was that Steven was having his own issues at the moment.

Meanwhile, Steven anxiously paced back and forth in the Crystal Gems' quarters at the Ouraborium as he contemplated what he had heard earlier. Queen Constricta had just announced that Steven and Black Rutile were due to fight soon in the arena, their first one-on-one battle since Black Rutile invaded the beach house while the Gems were in Los Diego. A lot has changed since the two last fought, but one thing that remained a constant was that Black Rutile utterly hated him and wanted every opportunity she got to knock him down a peg.

"Well, well, well, look who's all ready for his big day." Black Rutile declared sarcastically as she entered the room to speak with Steven one last time. "Don't get cold feet, old friend. The Slytherophidians wouldn't like that. Then again, they already hate you as is."

"So, what brings you here?" Steven said tepidly. "Want to gloat some more before we fight?"

"Quit reading my mind!" Black Rutile laughed before offering her archenemy a high-five. "Give me five!" Steven didn't answer, causing Black Rutile to high-five herself instead. "But in addition, I come here to inform you of a new plan I've come up with in cooperation with a new acquaintance I've made here with similar designs for the universe as I."

"Who are you talking about?" Steven asked quietly.

"I am, of course, talking about Prince Nosiop Jormagundr." Black Rutile stated. "You'll get to meet him soon, of course, but for now, to give you an idea of what we have planned." She played a holographic image of a tall, humanoid figure looming over the Crystal Gems and zapping them into poofing before the Gems reformed, looking like they had just emerged from a Kindergarten. "Nosiop and the rest of the royal family have connections with a being known as the Lapidarist that can revert all Gemkind into their base programming." She explained. "Meaning that we won't just force the Crystal Gems into being returned to what they were originally created to do, but the Diamonds and all of your little friends too! And maybe as a bonus, you might fall victim to the Lapidarist's powers too, thanks to you possessing good ol' Pink Diamond's gem."

"I knew you would do something like this to get your way!" Steven screamed angrily. "You're a monster!"

"Oh, I'm a monster. I haven't heard that one before." Black Rutile replied with a cross of her arms and a roll of her eyes. "What are you going to do about it? Shatter me? Oh wait, you can't because you're a pacifist! No, pacifist might be too kind for you. You can't shatter me because you're a coward."

"I am not!" Steven yelled back, only for Black Rutile to shut him up with a finger to his lips.

"Oh sure, try and deny it all you want, but let me make one thing clear." Black Rutile stated. "All of this was your fault. All of your friends were abducted by these snake people all because they've been watching you for months on end, and now they're all going to die because you don't want to fight!"

"But that's the idea." Steven tried to explain himself. "I told the king that I refuse to kill people for the entertainment of others, something I'm sure you would love to do."

"Oh sure, even the king is patting you on the back for your cowardice." Black Rutile sneered as she prepared to leave. "But remember that next we meet, you and the other Crystal Gems will finally learn your place under my heel."

"I'll see you in the ring." Steven said as Black Rutile left the room. Once again, she was plotting her revenge, but this time, her plan would involve transforming all Gems into her slaves, the Crystal Gems included. Steven couldn't stand for this. As much as he wanted to stay true to his guns, Black Rutile needed to be stopped once and for all, no matter what it would take.

"I said I've had enough of your bullying, Black Rutile," Steven yelled as soon as he heard another pair of footsteps approach him. "I'll see you in the ring!"

"I'm not Black Rutile, but I still think we need to talk about her," Greg replied in a firm yet gentle and fatherly tone while sitting beside his son.

"Please don't tell me she convinced you I'm a monster." Steven prayed that his beloved father wouldn't betray him.

"What, no?! I would never think such horrible things about my son!" Greg exclaimed. "Black Rutile's a monster, and your kindness aside, anyone else would've wanted to put her down for good with no remorse."

"Then I don't understand why you're talking to me when you barely know her," Steven responded.

"It would be the logical move, the safest move, the sensible move," Greg added.

"But?" Steven asked.

"It's not the Steven move. You trust people. You give them second chances, and they live up to your expectations the best they can." Greg explained. "I mean, Lapis, Peridot, Jasper, Bismuth, Spinel, the Diamonds, White Topaz, they all wanted you dead or out of the way, yet you believed they deserved a chance anyways."

"And here comes Black Rutile to refuse a second chance and live up to how evil she can be." Steven muttered disdainfully.

"No one can deny all the horrible things she did." Greg agreed with his half-human son. "I mean, she formed an entire terrorist organization to get revenge on you AND tried to destroy or conquer Earth multiple times!"

"But now she and Nosiop are plotting to reset the entire Gem race and use them to conquer the universe!" Steven exclaimed.

"True. And if I had your powers, I'd use them to take her down if I had no other option." Greg shook his head in agreement. "But I never thought I'd live to see you consider doing the same. You always find a way."

"Not this time." Steven declared as he got off the couch. "I've had to do a lot of growing up ever since I discovered my powers."

"And you did pretty great despite all you endured." Greg smiled pridefully, remembering all the ups and downs he and his son went through together as Steven grew up.

"For a while. But then I kept letting her get in my head and making me live up to her expectations. It's because of her that I had to leave everyone behind!" Steven exclaimed angrily, only for Greg to not answer him. "Aren't you going to argue with me?"

"Not when you're right, Schtu-ball," Greg replied somberly, knowing what Steven would do next.

"I've had fun, but I knew that when the situation gets serious, so would I!" Steven added.

"I'm not gonna argue with you, Steven," Greg said, not wanting to get into a fight with Steven. "I just wanted to make sure you really thought about this."

"I have, Dad. I'm sorry about what I'm going to do to Black Rutile; I really am." Steven replied firmly as he turned around and prepared to leave for the arena, his eyes briefly glowing a faint pink. "But I'm not a bright-eyed little kid singing songs about ice cream anymore. Playtime's over."

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, you've been waiting for this fight for ages now, but at long last, the moment has arrived!" King Cobralan announced to his cheering audience. "In this corner, you know him; you absolutely hate him, Steven Universe!"

As Steven marched out into the arena, he was met with booing and insults from the Slytherophidians, who were eager to see him killed in action. At the same time, the Crystal Gems could only watch helplessly as their human son was forced to fight against his will.

"Please do your best, Steven." Pearl silently prayed for Steven's survival.

"What are the odds of him making out of this alive, Garnet?" Amethyst asked the fusion.

"I'm calculating a 32.33% chance of Steven making this out with perfect mental health," Garnet replied, lowering her shades. "Repeating, of course."

"Well, that's better than he usually does," Jasper added.

"And in this corner, the Striking Shadow of the Rebellion, the leader of the Rutile Rebels, the little Rutile that could, the most wanted criminal known to Gemkind, BLAAAAACK RUTIIIILE!" The Slytherophidians celebrated Black Rutile's introduction, a stark contrast to how Steven was received, as Black Rutile strutted into the arena with her sword over her shoulder.

"You know what shall happen once I win this, right?" Black Rutile snidely asked Steven as she drew her sword. "You shall die, and there will be much rejoicing." To emphasize her point, Aquamarine and Eyeball gave a dry "Yay." from afar.

"I know, but I'm willing to try." Steven said as he nervously summoned his shield to defend himself as Black Rutile furiously charged at her archenemy and tried to stab him with her sword. Throughout the first part of the fight, Steven mainly defended himself with the shield from Black Rutile's attacks, all while she vented her frustrations and insecurities on him.

"Haha, you're just blocking!" Black Rutile laughed. "Typical Steven, never once raising a fist even if his life depended on it! You're just like your mother, just as weak and pathetic a brat as she was!"

"Seriously, pressing the mother button again?!" Steven yelled before he finally decided to throw a punch, but Black Rutile effortlessly caught it and threw him to the ground.

"Oh, what's the matter, little boy?" Black Rutile taunted. "Going to cry? Maybe soil yourself in front of hundreds?"

"So this is going to be our battle?" Steven muttered frustratedly. "Just you making speech after speech in between insulting me? Trust me, if I wanted to hear someone talk about themselves all day, I'd spend time with Peridot or Jasper."

"You know I can hear you, Steven!" Peridot yelled in offense before Jasper pushed her away.

"Come on, Steven, destroy her!" Jasper ordered Steven.

"No, this isn't just a battle. It's a message." Black Rutile replied while holding back tears of rage and sorrow. "A message about how you ruined countless lives with your worthless pacifism, but none more than mine. Before I met you, I was the ideal servant! Proud, ruthless, ruling by intelligence and charisma alone! Under my gentle guidance, entire armies of Gems made civilizations tremble before the Diamonds' might! But then you came along, a mere human boy from a pathetic little ball of dirt thought long abandoned by the Diamonds, a boy who stripped me of my honor and pride that I built my entire identity upon. It was at your hands that I suffered my greatest defeats and was forced to live life as a commoner after giving up everything I had worked for. You could not begin to imagine the disgrace I felt when I was exposed as a mere victim of White Diamond's sense of humor in front of everyone on your world!"

"But you still don't understand!" Steven exclaimed as he got back up and smacked Black Rutile in the face with his shield, making her tears fly free as she parried another attack and pressed her sword against the shield. "You were this way because the Diamonds gave you everything you could've ever wanted, and you still selfishly wanted more! Has it ever occurred to you that you're more like Pink Diamond than you think?!"

Angered by this accusation, Black Rutile slashed at Steven's shield as she began crying in earnest, something that Steven had never seen her do before, if she could even express such sadness at all. "Don't you dare compare me to that overgrown brat! I had suffered for centuries because of her, and now it's because of you that I lost everything!" she screamed tearfully. "I admired the Diamonds so much, but it's all their fault I'm reduced to a shell of my former self! Why do I have to keep chasing after a damned half-human rat who always knew what to do to ruin my life?! Why do you keep getting so strong and winning at everything, and even be acknowledged by the Diamonds as one of them, but why was I the one always getting pushed aside?! Why can't you just accept me for who I am?!"

Steven couldn't believe what he was seeing. Black Rutile, who had prided herself as a cunning, devious, opportunistic, sociopathic monster, was showing real sadness for the first time ever since they first met each other on that faithful day when she and White Topaz interviewed him for their fake news show. Everyone has seen Black Rutile laugh, but now Steven isn't sure if anyone has ever seen her cry.

However, Black Rutile quickly brushed her tears away and replaced her crestfallen frown with a psychotic grin. "But now, with Nosiop and the Lapidarist by my side, I can start anew with a new army, a new Homeworld to rule, and an entire universe at my fingertips to enslave! That's why I needed to come with you, to seize the opportunity like I always do! The Lapidarist shall free us of these petty attachments we have forged with each other, and I have to say, revenge feels pretty good."

"Not yet." Steven firmly stated as he stood his ground and awaited another attack from his nemesis.

"Too little, too late. Story of our lives, Steven Universe." Black Rutile smirked as her sadness turned into insane laughter as she lunged at Steven, ready to kill him once and for all.

"So, is this what Black Rutile is truly like?" Dionna of the Sands asked as she and the other Universal Lords watched the fight between the half-human son of Pink Diamond and the rebellious Rutile below their theater box. "I have only heard stories about her atrocities before now."

"Nay, as someone whose life was threatened by her before, this is utterly new to me." Batsputin added with a curious shake of his head. "Never before have I seen someone pour their heart out this much. Metaphorically, of course."

"It is extraordinary to see a Gem act this way." Reximillian agreed with Batsputin. "Is it normal for one of their race to be this emotional?"

"I'm not too sure." King Cobralan answered fearfully. "I'm afraid that should Steven Universe survive this, there should come a time for him to learn the truth."

"The truth about what, my love?" Queen Constricta asked.

"The truth about the origins of Gems and how they connect to us," Cobralan told his wife, making Constricta realize what her husband was talking about. "Captain Boa, inform our special friend at once."

"It shall be done, sire." Captain Boa said as he slithered away. "And I'll make sure to look for Princess Naja and Pyth as well. No one has seen them lately."

"Don't bother, Captain." Nosiop told Boa as he took a break from silently cheering for Black Rutile to face his uncle. "Naja is just in her room, nothing too serious. As for Pyth, wouldn't you like to know?"

While the Contest of Champions was going on, Pyth had retreated into his favorite hidden chambers within the royal family's castle with a torch in hand to search for something he hadn't checked up on in decades. Raising his torch to the wall, the Jormagundrs' royal vizier examined a series of stone wall carvings depicting what could come in the future.

They displayed images depicting what appeared to be figures resembling Steven and Black Rutile fighting each other in the arena, then shaking hands, followed by the two of them facing a large humanoid figure with hair resembling White Diamond's, and then them preparing to fight an even bigger snake creature.

"It is just as the prophecy foretold." Pyth stated ominously. "The sword and the shield shall soon reach an understanding after the shield learns of the sword's true inner self, just in time for Ragnarok."

"Dang, Black Rutile is really going all out." Greg muttered in surprise at Black Rutile's emotional outburst. "Never expected her to be that broken."

"She's lying, I just know it!" Connie yelled as she struggled to rush out into the arena and back up Steven against Black Rutile. "Black Rutile would never say something like that; she has to be faking it!"

"Connie, please calm down!" Pearl said while holding Connie back from recklessly charging into battle. "I know you love Steven, but I think he can handle himself here."

"Still, I've never seen Black Rutile like this before." White Topaz added. "I've been working with her for ages, and even I don't think she would get this emotional."

"Maybe it's because of how Steven ruined her life." Aquamarine said as she fluttered into view, with Eyeball, Holly Blue, and Cat's Eye beside her. "Think of it: she is only now venting all of her frustrations because, in this world, violence is both the only question and the answer."

"And the answer is yes!" Eyeball added cheerfully.

"Ugh, these guys." Lapis groaned in disgust. "What'll it take for you just to give up already?"

"In all seriousness, even we're questioning our loyalty to Black Rutile right now." Holly Blue declared. "We're so sick of her complaining about her losing; we almost selected a superior leader to replace her!"

"But unfortunately, Black Rutile and his new friend had to come in and ruin our fun!" Cat's Eye declared dramatically and swooned into Holly Blue's arms. "Now we are well and truly lost!"

"I'll believe it when I see it, drama queen." Jasper scoffed in disbelief as everyone turned back to watch the fight with bated breath. The battle between Steven and Black Rutile had just gotten more intense than ever, escalating from a duel between rivals to a clash of warriors. But who would make it out of this fight alive was left to the viewers.

"What's wrong, boyo? Too scared to keep fighting?!" Black Rutile snarled viciously as she threw her bowie knife at Steven's eye, only for him to block it with his shield and accidentally injure a Slytherophidian in the audience. "Oh, I get it; you want to go easy on me because you think I'm just so scared and misunderstood!"

"I know what you're going through, Black Rutile. There was a time when I felt scared and alone, too!" Steven exclaimed as he continued fighting back. "Of course, that was half because you made me feel like everything I did was for nothing!"

"Everything you did was for nothing, you pink brat!" Black Rutile responded as she jumped into the air and tried attacking Steven from behind. However, something began to change within Steven in the seconds before she would land the finishing blow.

"You're really just going to stand there and let her kill you?" a familiar voice in Steven's head asked. "Do you give up? Will you abandon their hope? Can you not feel their desperation?" Steven's eyes lit up in shock as the world around him froze, the only ones moving being himself and a being who looked just like him, only more muscular with pink skin and his hair in a pompadour. "Will evil forever rule the universe? HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN?!"

"You again!" Steven yelled at Inner Steven, facing him. "What do you want with me now? What have I forgotten?"

"I'm asking if you've forgotten what it means to stand up for yourself." Inner Steven said, turning Steven around to face Black Rutile, ready to stab him in the back. "Tell me, my friend, are you ready to surrender and let a monster like her claim the victory she craved for so long?"

"But what if she isn't a monster?" Steven asked his darker half. "Fighting her has given me a whole new perspective on Black Rutile as a person. She feels so lost and alone, and it's all my fault. Maybe if she stopped trying to kill me for a minute, maybe we can finally talk things out!"

"Oh please, she's probably lying as always to play with your sympathy." Inner Steven shook his head in disgust before he got an idea. "As a matter of fact, why don't I take the wheel for a bit? I've been wanting some action for a long time now."

"Well, if that's what you want, then by all means," Steven sighed in resignation before stepping away to let Inner Steven take hold. "go get her, tiger."

"You're too kind, my little friend." Inner Steven grinned happily as time resumed to normal, and Black Rutile was about to stab Steven in the back. However, she was quickly met with Steven grabbing her sword by the blade, not caring about the injuries to his hand it would cause, before saying one word in a very deep voice. "FALL!"

Steven's increased volume sent Black Rutile flying back into the arena walls, creating a significant dent in the wall as the Slytherophidians gawked at Steven's sudden change. Not even the two hecklers had any wisecracks to make because of how shocking this was.

"W-what is this?" Black Rutile stuttered in shock at this new development. "Who are you?! Where is Steven?!"

"He's gone." Steven, now under the control of Inner Steven, declared as his body became a pink silhouette with glowing white eyes and a pair of shields in his hands.

"What did you just say?!" Black Rutile shouted. "Answer me!"

"He's GOOOOOOOOOOOOONE!" Steven boomed loud enough to create a shockwave that rocked the Ouraborium and the entire surrounding city, causing everybody inside to fall over from the sudden yell.

"Wait, this is just like when I removed his gem!" White exclaimed hopefully while the other Diamonds trembled in fear. "If this is anything like that time, then Black Rutile is toast!"

"Steven, you can't do that!" Black Rutile yelled angrily. "This victory is mine!" With an angry battle cry, the Rutile charged at Steven with her sword, ready to kill, only to be grabbed by the face and slammed into the ground. "What happened to you, Steven?! Why are you like this? Answer me, blast you!"

"This is what happens when I cut loose and show you how powerful I really am." Steven announced before picking Black Rutile up and throwing her to the sky before zipping towards the airborne Gem with superhuman speed and striking her with everything he's got. "ATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA-OWATTA!"

"Make it stop, make it stop!" Black Rutile screeched as she felt every last bit of hatred Steven had for her with every attack. But no matter how much she wanted to, she could never poof from the amount of damage she was taking, almost as if Steven wanted her to suffer all the pain she wrought upon others.

As Black Rutile landed on the ground in a cloud of dust while Steven descended from the air, the only thing she could do now was plead for mercy. "No more, Steven Universe! Grant me mercy, I beg of you!"

"You, who are without mercy, now plead for it?" Steven scoffed in disgust at Black Rutile's attempted surrender. "I thought you were made of sterner stuff."

"That's what you think!" Black Rutile briefly regained her bravado and drew her sword, but Steven deflected the attack with his twin shields before grabbing the blade and twisting it into a corkscrew shape.

"No need to wonder where your god is, Black Rutile, for he is right here." Steven declared menacingly, his threat sending shivers down the audience's spines. "And he is fresh out of mercy."

"Oh, how cute, he thinks he's a-." Black Rutile chuckled before she realized what Steven was about to do. "OH SHIT!" With another punch to the face, Black Rutile skidded to the ground so hard she was almost buried within Serpentes's surface. As she burst one hand out of the arena's floor to pick herself back up, Steven stepped on her face, and Black Rutile was forced back into the hole.

"This is where you belong, Black Rutile. Under. My. Heel." Steven coldly declared as Black Rutile continued trying to escape. "Had enough yet?"

"You know what? I give up." Black Rutile said, causing Steven to stop stomping on her as she exited the hole and onto her knees. "Go ahead, kill me. Kill me now." Steven was silent, as if he was hesitating to put her down. "DO IT!"

"FINISH HER! FINISH HER! FINISH HER! FINISH HER!" the Slytherophidians chanted as they beckoned the empowered Steven to shatter Black Rutile just as Steven returned to his senses and realized what he had just done.

"No!" Steven boldly declared upon regaining his humanity. "I refuse to kill someone who's already dead inside as is!" The Slytherophidians gasped in shock at Steven's announcement, but unlike the last time something like this happened, where they made him the scourge of Serpentes, they were willing to hear him out this time. "Just look at Black Rutile here. She's lost everything. Her power, her status, even her dignity. Everything she's been through has reduced my opponent into a pathetic shell of her former self, and I do not think shattering her would grant her any kind of sweet release she would be looking for. Why kill her when she's already killed herself?"

"So that's it? You're sparing me?" Black Rutile muttered in disbelief before she immediately grabbed onto his pant leg like an upset child. "Why?! Why can't you shatter me already?! I've ruined your life, turned you against your friends, and turned the whole universe against you! Why can't you just hate me like I do?!"

"Because after hearing you vent your anger," Steven coldly responded. "nobody hates you more than yourself." On that last word, Steven left the humiliated Black Rutile to be gawked at by the shocked snake people like she was some kind of endangered species. Perhaps Steven was right. No one did hate Black Rutile more than herself. And this made her very worried.

"Uh, this was certainly an unexpected end to such an intense fight." King Cobralan announced as he tried to ease the tension thick enough to be cut with the sharpest swords in the universe. "How about we go to halftime then?!" The Slytherophidians all cheered at the suggestion while their fearless leader wiped the sweat off his brow. "Oh geez, I do not want to know how the Lapidarist will hear about this!"

"Hmph, pathetic." Nosiop scoffed in dismay at Black Rutile's meltdown as a pair of Slytherophidian guards took her away. Regardless of her performance, she was still needed for his plan to succeed, but Nosiop knew she would need to be taken off the board soon.

Minutes later, Black Rutile was left to wallow in shame in her personal quarters at the Ouraborium, utterly humiliated by her defeat and how Steven refused to kill her no matter how much she begged him to end her suffering. But no matter what she did, Steven refused to cave into the pressure of others and stuck true to his ideals. "I thought this time, just this once, I thought I was gonna get what I was fighting for."

"Hey, Black Rutile, remember me?" White Topaz said as she entered Black Rutile's quarters to comfort her old master despite how much she was abused in the past. "I just thought I'd stop by and see how you were doing. Man, Steven absolutely destroyed you back there, huh?"

"Don't remind me." Black Rutile sulked angrily as she turned away. "The nerve of that boy, thinking I was more like Pink Diamond than I realized, and how nobody hated me more than me. Can you believe him?! Always projecting his own issues onto others!"

"But it's true, you are like Pink Diamond!" White Topaz agreed with Steven's accusations. "You got everything you could ever want, yet you still think that isn't enough, so you decided to become an evil megalomaniac bent on conquering the universe because you think you'd be a much better leader than any of the Diamonds combined."

"Because that's what I built my identity on! Or at least I thought I did." Black Rutile stated. "Until I learned that everything I worked for was because White Diamond found my dreams of greatness funny. I swear on my gem, once I learn more about the Lapidarist, I will restore everything to its proper order, except that only I shall be made leader of all Gemkind!"

"Then you truly are lost." White Topaz declared sadly, having now lost all hope in helping Black Rutile make a change. "Goodbye, my Rutile."

As White Topaz turned away and left Black Rutile behind, her former superior could only cry out for her ex-bodyguard to come back. "Topaz, get back here at once! Topaz!" The doors shut behind White Topaz, leaving Black Rutile alone in her room. "TOPAZ!" She fruitlessly pounded on the door with tears in her eyes, desperately trying to get White Topaz's attention, but to no avail.

What once was a proud, arrogant conqueror with delusions of grandeur was now a broken, lonely shell of her former self. Thus continues the tragic tale of the life of Black Rutile.

"What was all that for?!" Steven yelled at Inner Steven in the meantime. "You could've gotten Black Rutile seriously hurt or worse!"

"It's the least she deserves after all she's done to you." Inner Steven firmly retorted while folding his metaphorical arms. "Let's see, lying to you and all your friends, attempting to kill you, gaslighting you into betraying your friends, attempting to destroy the Earth multiple times, shall I go on? Going easy on her just wouldn't be enough if you ask me. Consider yourself lucky you made it out with your mental health intact."

Just then, there was a knock at Steven's door. "We'll settle this later, Inner Me. I think someone wants to see me." Steven said to the personification of his darker impulses as he opened the door to find Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl beside King Cobralan. "Oh hey, guys. Sorry, I got you all worried back there."

"Nah, we're not talking about how you utterly creamed Black Rutile in your fight." Amethyst shook her head morosely.

"We're here because King Cobralan wants to speak with you about something." Garnet added before nodding to Pearl.

"So, Your Majesty, what did you want to say to him?" Pearl asked the Slytherophidian king.

"I wanted to tell Steven that it's time he learns the truth." King Cobralan said forebodingly.

In Loving Memory of David McCallum

September 19, 1933 – September 25, 2023

"So many different ways to tell a story, but that's what makes them so interesting. You can never predict how they're going to turn out."

-Professor Paradox, Ben 10 Omniverse: "And Then There Were Ben"

So ends quite possibly the longest chapter of Snake Eyes yet, and how fitting that it's the chapter marking the halfway point. From here on out, Black Rutile has turned into full tragic villain, we get more hints on her big scheme with Nosiop and Pyth, and next time, Steven learns the origins of the Gems we've all been waiting for. And I can assure you, it'll be one of the biggest bomb drops I've written not just for Alternate Future, but for any of my stories in general. See you then.

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youtwitinmyface · 2 years ago

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CHAPEL #7

Written by Jim Valentino and Robert Loren Fleming Drawn by Richard Horie Published by Image Comics

Released in April 1996, two months after the release of the previous issue, this issue is actually part two of a five-part crossover called SHADOWHUNT that ran through five of the Extreme Studios comic book series'.

This storyline focused on Jim Valentino’s character Shadowhawk, one of the original Image heroes. Shadowhawk was Paul Johnstone, a Black man who was a district attorney in NY, who was injected with HIV+ blood by some mobsters. This was back when that was basically a death sentence. Johnstone decided to use his remaining time as a vigilante, building some crude armor to fight crime as Shadowhawk. Except instead of just beating up criminals like Batman, or outright killing them like The Punisher, his signature movie is that he would break their backs.

Shadowhawk and Chapel crossed paths before, in Shadowhawk #12 as they both were checking out a secret U.S. government facility where they suspected there was a cure for AIDS (Chapel had also been injected with HIV by his previous boss Jason Wynn). Later Johnstone sought out the WILDC.A.T.S. for help, and they instructed a cybernetic body that they could transfer his brain into so he could live, but for some reason the project didn’t work, and Johnstone eventually succumbed to AIDS and died. Chapel eventually killed himself to become a demon and then was resurrected and, apparently, his HIV was erased, as it hasn’t been mentioned in this series. So this storyline, which began in Shadowhunt Special #1, had that android body Johnstone couldn’t use gain sentience and decide to resume Johnstone’s crimefighting work, except it has zero human compassion. So the robot is brutally murdering every criminal it comes across, even someone simply jaywalking. It’s also killing law enforcement officers who gets in its way, and occasionally the victims of the criminal (in this issue we see it slit the throat of a woman who was screaming because that was “disturbing the peace”). In this issue, we see that the FBI has hired Chapel to take down the robot.

Chapel, armed with guns, swords and a bazooka, tracks the robot in NY and basically we get a long brutal fight. There’s also an unnamed female FBI agent who is accompanying Chapel even though he doesn’t around and keeps trying to get rid of her. She does end up saving him at one point, however, it’s not enough. In the end, Chapel is defeated, and the Shadowhawk robot emerges victorious, with the FBI realizing it’s time to call in Youngblood, so this storyline is set to continue in the next issue of that title.

As a Chapel story this is actually pretty good. This is the kind of status quo that would work for a Chapel ongoing series, he’s retired from Youngblood and traditional superhero adventures now and is working as a mercenary for the U.S. Government, tracking various superhuman threats that the public superheroes can’t handle. This should have been the premise from the beginning. The problem is that as the final issue of this series it’s unfulfilling, ending with the lead character defeated. But it is what it is.

Chapel (08/1995 2nd Series)

#chapel #chapel ongoing series #black superheroes #shadowhawk #image comics #extreme studios #jim valentino #rob liefeld #richard horie #robert loren fleming #comic books #comic book reviews #J.R. LeMar reviews comic books #shadowhunt #wildc.a.t.s

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nobully · 2 years ago

Note

and thennnn perhaps this one ✔️!

RELATIONSHIP BUILDING

Send ✔️ for a daydream my muse has had about/involving yours.

Ding~!

The pomodoro timer goes off and the two friends reading books look up at the same time, eyes meeting across the library table.

"Well," the one in round glasses begins, "that was the fourth time, so we take a 30-minute break now, right?"

His pink-haired companion, also wearing spectacles, nods with a grin. 'Right. What do you think of this method so far?'

'Some guy came up with it using his tomato-shaped kitchen timer.'

Zhilan shut his book with a soft puff of breath, eyebrows scrunched in a thoughtful look. "It really does help with concentration! Actually, I'm more impressed that people are crafting new ways to study even after all this time. Though it does remind me of an old Liyuen technique I read about in the—"

'Zhilan, we're on break,' Wang Yi reminds him before pushing a packet of snacks he'd gotten from the vending machine last time. 'Eat your cookies.'

"Oh, right!" The scholar flushed before accepting them, hands moving over the unfamiliar plastic wrapper. "Not here though, right? Since the library doesn't allow food in carpeted areas..."

'Right, so let's go for a walk.' Wang Yi carefully marks his page with a bookmark before rising to his feet. He's fine with leaving most of their stuff on the table—people are pretty good with leaving things untouched here—but does take care to tuck his "manuscript" notebook under his arm. Across from him, Zhilan is doing the same with his research notes, putting them neatly in a filing folder before setting that in his bag.

As the two of them start walking away, Zhilan pipes up, "I'm always impressed that you only need a notebook for all your notes, Wang Yi. It must be really convenient to have everything in one place!"

'Well, I mean...' Wang Yi tucks his notebook tighter before giving a short laugh. He couldn't exactly say he has nothing more to research and no actual book to write. 'It's getting to the point where I'm wrapping things up, so I don't need to add a lot of info. Most times I'm just confirming what I already know.'

"Oh! Does that mean you're almost done your novel?" Zhilan wonders out loud. "Should I be congratulating you soon?"

'Hahaha, I mean, there's always more books to write, right?' Wang Yi deflects quickly. The day they published his (actual) second-rate fanfiction story would be the moment Nicolette grabbed him by the collar and dumped him in the ocean where she'd picked him up. 'Look, there's the lounge area up ahead. We can snack there.'

Instead of sitting, the pair of them opt to stand by the windows next to a statue of Spirale University's mascot Scuba Steve as they stare out at the ocean lying beyond. Wang Yi hears Zhilan making little satisfied noises as he discovers the magic of junk food while he munches on his own Ore*s. It's so normal he can almost imagine this is just another semester at college after he's made a new friend.

He wouldn't have met Zhilan under normal circumstances: he was majoring in Chemistry and playing basketball in his spare time, while the scholar was a shoo-in for a humanities major who'd love spending days browsing bookshelves. Maybe they would've bumped into each other at the library though, same as Spirale, if he had to look up books for an essay or something. Then Xiao Lu might've found them both and dragged him off, but not before Wang Yi exchanged contacts with Zhilan first.

Instead of pretending to be a novelist, he'd just be himself. Would Zhilan need help with chemistry stuff? He was pretty good at that, but the scholar seemed smart at anything. Maybe he'd be hauling him off to the basketball courts just to get more exercise, or off to the firing range with Xiao Mo and Xiao Lu so they weren't the only one watching her shoot targets. After that, they'd all have hotpot, and exchange stories, and just hang out...

"—ng Yi? Wang Yi, the 30 minutes are almost up."

A hand is waving in front of his face. Wang Yi blinks and wakes from his daydream sheepishly to see Zhilan looking at him with expectant eyes. His robes are are intricate as always, placing him firmly in the realm of fantasy while standing before him.

'Sorry, I spaced off,' Wang Yi blinks quickly.

"That's okay! Are you ready to head back now?" Zhilan asks with a smile.

'Yeah.' He nods and starts leading the way. 'Feeling refreshed, huh?'

"To tell you the truth, I didn't spend the entire break resting..." Zhilan looks a touch guilty as he walks beside him. "Because midway through I thought of another hypothesis I've yet to test for my research topic! So I'm looking forward to whether my theory holds water after I confirm a few facts."

'Sounds like it could be a breakthrough, congrats.'

"Thank you...did you get ideas for your next book too? You looked deep in thought."

'Oh, hah...no, I was just daydreaming,' Wang Yi keeps his tone casual. 'About the most boring stuff ever, actually—going back to school and doing homework, of all things.'

Zhilan looks sympathetic. "Coming from the Akademiya myself, I can relate."

'Right? But here we are, burying our heads in books again.'

He gets a bright laugh in return. "I think there's more motivation when we don't have to deal with grades and deadlines! And well," Zhilan's eyes soften slightly. "Daydreaming about your experiences must be nostalgic."

'Yeah.' Wang Yi agrees, but pauses as his gaze drift towards Zhilan again. Smiling, breathing, laughing. Even if they never met in his world, they were close enough in this one.

'I think I still prefer the real thing,' he mutters inaudibly.

"Hm?" Zhilan doesn't hear and shoots him a puzzled look.

'Nothing,' Wang Yi pats his shoulder and points ahead. 'I see a few guys eyeing our table. We better claim it back.'

"Ah, our books!" Zhilan's head whips back before he starts running. "Wang Yi, I'll go ahead first to stop them!"

'Yeah, you better.'

While Zhilan catches up to the strangers and politely redirects them to another spot, Wang Yi takes his time walking back, eyes taking in every moment. He wonders if the scholar realizes how he pushes up his glasses when trying to make a point...it's a cute little quirk.

By the time he's finally there, the other group is gone and Zhilan's laid out all his papers on the table again with a relieved sigh.

"It would've been troublesome if they cleared off all the books and we had to find them off the return carts," Zhilan remarks while poring over his notes. "Maybe we should break closer to the table next time."

'Good idea,' Wang Yi nods. 'Or I'll scribble a "Do Not Move" sign and leave it here, that seems to work too,'

"Right, not a bad thought!" Zhilan replies instantly, but his eyes don't stop skimming; it's obvious he's eager to dive back into research.

Seeing this, Wang Yi just smiles and swallows back the words in his throat.

Thank you.

For saving their seats. For being his friend.

For living.

#archaictold #drabbles;#i've never written so much slice-of-life but *gestures at zhilan* him #my font of inspiration apparently lolol #long post

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farlynthordens · 1 year ago

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SKB Short Story 3 - Chisel of the Mind’s Eye

summary of a short story published in Dengeki Bunko, vol 63. takes place between volumes 1 and 2. Contains minimal main story spoilers.

there is an intro page with the same art from v2′s cover, but there’s a fun little diagram about the 6 towers that we haven’t seen before. it lists each tower’s leader and what they consider virtuous.

Fire: possessing beauty and strength Earth: possessing knowledge Gold/metal: possessing money Water: possessing artistic talent/skill Wood: being calm/unshakable (translated by eight for the fan server)

Bisco and Milo have made it to Shimane, traveling a deserted mountain path toward Izumo. Noticing rain clouds forming, milo asks if they should take shelter in case of acid rain, but bisco doesn’t respond.

He’s crying and sniffling while reading a picture book of Bunbuku Chagama. Milo pokes fun at him a little and asks if a guy with a bounty on his head is the type to cry at a folktale, to which bisco asks if milo has no heart (because the ending of the story is very sad)

It starts to rain while they’re bantering, and milo hurries actagawa along to find shelter. They come across a giant temple buried deep among the trees and tall grass, seeming abandoned. But despite being dark and empty, it’s surprisingly pleasant.

B: “Let’s start a fire and eat.” M: “I wonder though... is there really no one here?” B: “Heh heh... maybe there IS someone, like a pink-haired jellyfish with a worm in her stomach...”

A flame then sparks and bisco draws his bow as he jumps in surprise. Standing before them holding a lantern is a young girl who has her eyes closed.

The girl seems to believe at first that they are god(s) and apologizes for not being done with her carving of them yet. Milo hastily tries to apologize for intruding, and explains that they aren’t bad people and were just looking for a place to get out of the rain. The girl is quick to accept them as visitors, and brings them some worn-out cloth to put on the cold floor for sleeping. She then disappears into the inner sanctuary.

They hear a strange noise coming from the direction she went in and Bisco uses his goggles’ night vision to have a look. He spots something interesting and gives the goggles to milo so he can see.

What they see is a gigantic carving of a god. It appears to be a god of war, having a highly toned physique, 6 arms, drawing a large bow and firing 3 arrows at an upward angle toward the ceiling. They realize the noise they heard was the girl chiseling at it.

Bisco takes his goggles back and runs off to ask the girl about the statue. He climbs its giant form and meets the girl where she sits on its one arm. Girl: “Sir, it’s dangerous to be up so high. If you needed me, you could simply ask and...” B: “Nah, I was just thinkin’ you’re pretty talented. You make this by yourself?” Girl: “Yes. I began when I was 8, and have been working on it for about 6 years now.” B: “It looks cool, but I’ve never seen this god before. Where’s he from, and what’s he a god of?” Girl: “Well... I do not know. I do not even know his name, but he appeared in my dream like a divine revelation and gave me the desire to create a statue in his image. And so I have been working on it every day since, but...”

She points up at the god’s uncarved face. Despite the rest of the statue being so detailed, she hasn’t been able to carve a face for it yet because she can’t remember what it looked like.

Suddenly, a loud rumbling noise echoes through the temple and rattles the building. The girl slips but bisco catches her, then climbs onto the statue’s shoulder. Milo joins them.

A group riding giant spider-like mechs burst in. A thin man emerges from one of the mechs, asking where “Master Saresea” is, as he the high priest of the water sect, hylmaleo, has arrived.

The little girl shouts at them, saying she will not give them the statue and that there are probably plenty of other skilled sculptors who they could go after. H: “There IS no one else. That’s why we came all the way to this backwater temple for you. ... I'm an artist, I can understand a work’s beauty or flaws. I’ve seen many idol statues, but yours is on another level of skill, Sarasea. Carve my face into it, and give it to me as a Hylmaelo idol... I’ll give you money, men, whatever you want in exchange. You can even be one of my women if you want... I’d be interested to try fucking a blind girl.” He and all of his followers laugh and jeer.

Sarasea throws her chisel at the priests and it strikes hylamelo in the shoulder. S: “How dare you say such foul things in a god’s sacred domain! Leave this place at once!” H: “You bitch...! This is no god’s domain anymore. I don’t care, just burn this building and that little brat to ash!”

The followers start fires, but bisco shoots a number of arrows and the mushroom growth’s spores extinguish the flames. hylamelo and co. seemed to have not realized bisco and milo were there and are scared by the sudden rain of arrows that seemed to come from nowhere. noticing this, milo whispers an idea into bisco’s ear.

From their hiding spot on top of the statue, bisco begins to speak in a low and booming voice as if pretending to be the god himself speaking. he and milo fire shimeji arrows at the followers’ feet, and they freak out again. “My god, it’s the voice of Enbi! We’ve incurred Enbi’s wrath!!” / “Everyone, run! If you die by his arrows, your soul will never be able to escape from hell!”

Hylmaleo tries to stop the others from fleeing, but then runs away in fear as well after seeing his spider mech ruined by a giant, red oyster mushroom.

M: “Hehe... that went surprisingly well. It’s kind of funny seeing a group of bad guys who are also incredibly devout.” S: “Did you chase off the water sect group? ... Perhaps you two really are messengers of the gods, otherwise--” B: “Like hell we are. This was just a convenient way to pay you back for lettin’ us stay the night. We’re just regular mushroom keepers. No relation to that god of yours.”

The next morning, Bisco and Milo are getting ready to leave. M: “I’m sure your statue will turn out great. We’ll definitely come back to see it when it’s done!” B: “If you keep waitin’, you’ll probably see that divine revelation or whatever again. But don’t forget his face this time. And ask for his name, too.”

Sarasea grabs bisco’s face and puts her hands all over it. bisco is so shocked that he doesn’t move for a minute, before suddenly jumping away from her hold. B: “Wh... the hell do you think you’re doin’?!” S: “May I... ask for your names?” B: “Our names?!” M: “That guy is Akaboshi Bisco ... And I’m his partner, Nekoyanagi Milo. Thank you, Sarasea. We’ll see each other again, if fate allows it.”

Milo pulls a still frozen in shock bisco onto actagawa’s back and they ride off. B: “...The hell was that? She just messed up my face... Did I do somethin’ to make her mad?” M: “She just wanted to remember the shape of it.” B: “Huh? Why?” Milo laughs and decides to not say anything more.

They come to the end of the mountain path shortly after, and Izumo begins to come into view.

Back at Sarasea’s temple, which is now quiet once again, she talks to herself as she resumes working. S: “Had that really been just a dream? He was so warm, like the sun...” She climbs up to the statue’s face and continues to chisel away.

#sabikui bisco #rust eater bisco #sbkb summary series

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whatisonthemoon · 2 years ago

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On Helen Kim (2016)

Helen Kim as New Woman and Collaborator: A Comprehensive Assessment of Korean Collaboration under Japanese Colonial Rule by AhRan Ellie Bae

Introduction In June 2013, the National Institute of Korean History insisted on removing a picture of Helen Kim’s statue from history textbooks.1 After the 708 pro-Japanese list was published in 2003, students requested that the actual statue at Ewha Womans University be removed from the campus.2 The students argued that it was shameful to have a statue of a traitor in-side the campus. The issue of collaboration has been more widely researched and studied in Europe, especially regarding collaboration between occupied countries and Nazi rule during World War II. Novel attempts have been made to examine the issue of collaboration beyond nationalist historiography. For instance, in The Trial of Pierre Laval: Defining Treason, Collaboration and Patriotism in World War II France, J. Kenneth Brody considers Laval’s reasons behind his willingness to collaborate with Nazi rule. Nonetheless, according to Patrick Marsh, in the book titled Collaboration in France: Politics and Culture during the Nazi Occupation, “Despite an ever increasing amount of literature on the history of the Second World War in general and of Nazi rule in occupied Europe in particular, there is still no real agreement on the exact meaning of the term ‛collaboration.’”3 In the case of Asia, the issue of collaboration is ensnared with strong nationalistic sentiments, which makes it all the more complicated to pose difficult questions that would inevitably be criticized as being anti-nationalistic. In the case of Korea, several scholars have suggested colonial modernity as an approach to overcome the binary narrative of nationalist history.4 Nonetheless, the issue of collaboration is often inseparable from moral judgments, which proclaim these individuals to be guilty of treason even though they are no longer able to speak for or defend themselves. For instance, Pak Chihyang, in her comprehensive analysis of Yun Ch’iho’s diaries, argues that “his involvement in encouraging men to enlist into Japan’s imperial army went beyond betraying his own people—it should be treated as a crime against humanity.”5

Although there is still much debate about what collaboration is and how it should be defined, several definitions of collaboration could be useful in understanding Korean collaboration with the Japanese colonial government. Timothy Brook follows Henrik Dethlefsen in defining collaboration as “the continuing exercise of power under the pressure produced by the presence of an occupying power.”6 While this definition is useful, Brook points out that it is limited in that this definition is used to describe Denmark’s unique history, in which Denmark was allowed to keep and maintain its government under the Nazi occupation. In the case of Korea, Yumi Moon’s definition of collaboration as “political engagements of local actors to support a given colonial rule and to justify its sustenance in their society” is more applicable in that it reflects Korea’s subordinate position as a colonial subject. In this paper, this particular definition will be used to discuss various issues of collaboration.

Due to the recent accusations regarding ch’in’ilp’a (collaborator), the evaluations of Helen Kim’s works has become sharply divided between those who hail her as a pioneer of furthering women’s education in Chosŏn and those who vehemently criticize her for her alleged ch’in’ilp’a actions. Those who praise her argue that she was forced to collaborate with the Japanese; to protect Ewha, she had no other choice. Often, these arguments focus on Helen Kim’s many achievements such as her efforts to eradicate illiteracy to initiate rural enlightenment campaigns, and to build a “Korean” Ewha are just a few that are mentioned.7 However, these arguments are often based on her personal accounts written decades after the Japanese rule, which requires us to be cautious about their authenticity.8 Many criticize her for betraying her people or the Korean race (minjok) while using the excuse of furthering women’s rights. She is accused of succumbing to Japan’s demands, giving pro-Japanese speeches in villages, and encouraging women to volunteer as sex slaves for soldiers.9 These two clearly binary arguments are based on the sole assumption that what was right for the people equated fighting and even risking one’s safety for Chosŏn’s independence. This causes one to judge Helen Kim and many other prominent historical figures based on nationalistic moral standards, retrospectively. Recently there have been more attempts to understand Helen Kim out-side of the pro-Japanese versus traitor framework. For example, in “Kim Hwalran’s (Helen Kim) Public Track and Her Pro-Japanese Collaboration During Colonial Korea under Imperial Japanese Reign,” Ye Jisook portrays Helen Kim as an indigenous intellectual who tried to elevate women and the overall status of Koreans by becoming part of Japan’s growing empire.10 Also, Kim Jihwa similarly asserts in her dissertation that Helen Kim did not suddenly betray Korea and became pro-Japanese; rather, she had to constantly maneuver between collaboration and negotiation with the Japanese as she devised ways to provide education for Korean women in a rapidly changing society.11 These research studies have provided new approaches to the existing paradigm regarding the issue of collaboration. Nonetheless, since these studies are largely limited to a few individuals and their writings, they fall short of providing a more comprehensive analysis of the issue of collaboration in the colonial context. Specifically, these studies reinforce nationalist historiography’s tendency to minimize the importance of gender and how gender shaped one’s experience in the colonial era. It assumes that loyalty to the minjok should have been absolute, and ultimately, no other priorities could have been more important. This way of thinking hinders us from truly understanding the complex nature of women’s identity in the colonial era—specifically, how Korean women were uniquely situated as not only the “lesser” gender but also the colonial subject to be ruled. Korean women of the colonial era had to simultaneously deal with patriarchal oppression and imperialist exploitation.12 In this paper, I would like to focus on the following question: Should a divided loyalty and resultant collaboration automatically be treated as treason against the Korean people? As Brook states in his book, Collaboration: Japanese Agents and Local Elites in Wartime China, “Collaboration happened when individuals in real places were forced to deal with each other.”13 Helen Kim, as an educator and as a new woman, was also “forced to” deal with others and makes decisions without the hindsight of knowing where Korea would end up in decades to come. Accusations According to the Pro-Japanese Biographical Dictionary (Ch’in’il Inmyŏng Sajŏn) published on November 8, 2009 by Minjongmunjeyŏn’guso (The Center for Historical Truth and Justice), first and fore-most, Kim is accused of beautifying Japan’s “war of aggression” and promoting kouminkaseisaku (Japanization). She is criticized for giving “praise” for Japan’s war of aggression and urging people to participate in the war.14 Secondly, she is accused of using women’s rights movement to rationalize women and families’ involvement in the war. Also, She is accused of prioritizing women’s rights over the Korean minjok and thus, she committed treason against Korea.15 The nationalist historiography leaves no room for us to consider what could have motivated Helen Kim to collaborate with the Japanese. It completely ignores the complex nature of collaboration and women’s identity during the colonial era. Often, more than anyone would like to admit, resistance and collaboration could not be easily distinguished from each other. Another minor accusation is that she was willing to collaborate with the Japanese in order to maintain Ewha.16 The imperial government began to have a tighter grip on the schools as the war progressed on and as part of the kouminkaseisaku, shrine visits became mandatory for schools. However, some schools such as Sungshil Secondary School refused to participate in these visits (as a Christian missionary school it believed shrine visits went against its beliefs), and as a consequence, the school was forced to close. Ewha was one of many, which agreed to participate in these shrine visits in order to keep the school open. According to these accusations, there is no doubt that she collaborated with the Japanese. However, the focus of this paper is not about proving or disproving her involvement with the Japanese. Rather the purpose of this paper is to problematize the fixed notions we associate with the issue of collaboration by examining possible accountabilities for Helen Kim’s collaborative actions. Her Identity as a New Woman and Her Calling as an Educator Raised by a devout Christian mother, Helen Kim had a rare opportunity to receive an education, even though education was considered to be “useless” for girls in Chosŏn. She received most of her education through Ewha. Ewha, established in 1886 by Mary F. Scranton who was a Methodist Church missionary, was the first educational institutions for women established in Chosŏn in 1886. After graduating from Ewha, she was able to earn a master’s degree in philosophy at Boston University. Also, she was the first Korean woman to receive a doctorate, from Columbia University in 1931. She possessed many unique qualities associated with “the new woman”—highly educated, economically independent—and was a pioneer of women’s rights movement in Korea. However, because of her strong Christian background, she was different from other mainstream female intellectuals, who were often accused of having a promiscuous lifestyle.17 She was rarely mentioned in scandals and rumors that pestered other female intellectuals, such as Pak Intŏk. She was an avid educator who believed that many of Chosŏn’s ills could be solved through long-term education programs and practical means to improve daily practices. For example, in her doctoral dissertation titled, “Rural Education for the Regeneration of Korea,” she suggests that cultural centers should be established in the villages to “keep up the growth of the villagers.”18 She goes on to also suggest that a training center should be established so that men and women would have the opportunity to prepare themselves for various vocations. Accountabilities First and foremost, it is crucial for us to free ourselves of the notion that doing what was patriotic for the minjok equaled fighting for Chosŏn’s independence. There is a possibility that people did not expect Chosŏn to become an independent nation in the near future, especially after the March 1st Movement’s failure to produce the desired outcome in 1919. Many so-called nationalists were forced to seek other possibilities as the movement disintegrated under pressure and harassment from the colonial government and growing dissonance amongst groups within the movement. Although Helen Kim is heavily criticized for her activities in the late 1930s and early 1940s, her earlier writings also do not indicate her desire to promote Chosŏn’s independence. For Helen Kim, her emphasis constantly remained on women— from relentlessly pursuing education for women to giving practical advice on how to manage household chores. Although many researchers and scholars have argued that 1937 was the year that Helen Kim committed pyŏnjŏl, or betrayed Korea, in reality, many agendas that Helen Kim advocated in her writings in the 1930s and 40s can be traced back to her earlier writings. The idea that she betrayed the people to promote women’s rights overlooks how Chosŏn was a male-oriented society deeply rooted in Confucianism. Helen Kim and many other women intellectuals of this era were not fighting against the minjok; rather, they were tirelessly challenging the chauvinistic, male-centered Chosŏn society to give recognition to women as more than mere property that men could own. In an article titled “Rebuilding Korea & the Role of Women,” she argues that “when one sex’s responsibility and the importance of it is undermined, the whole machine becomes paralyzed.”19 She believed that Korea’s cultural development depended on the woman’s role in the family realm and that it was women’s responsibility to build an enthusiastic and culturally developed family.20 Therefore, the main concern was not about prioritizing women’s rights over Korean people; it was more about prioritizing the most marginalized and discriminated group of Koreans— women. Women’s Rights versus Staying Loyal to the Minjok On a determined quest to conquer the entire Asian continent, Japan did not remain satisfied after it forcefully established the puppet state of Manchukuo in Manchuria in 1931. Japan’s unquenchable thirst for a greater empire led to total war between Japan and China in 1937. With the war against China at a stalemate, accompanied by Japan’s ballooning ambition to ��free” Asian colonies under European nations, its resources rapidly depleted. Consequently, it needed to mobilize all possible labor forces, including its colonial subjects. Japan was desperate enough to hand a gun to its colonial subjects to fight the war for Japan, and to do so, it had to devise ways to persuade Koreans into believing that what they were fighting for was worth dying for. The colonial government’s policy on women experienced a transformation during this period. Korean women had strong emotional ties with their sons (which is not surprising since having a son determined a woman’s status and value in society), making it difficult for Japan to recruit soldiers to fight in the war. Many newspaper articles from this period mentioned worried mothers asking whether their sons would come home alive. Some mothers even wondered about the veracity of a myth, which said that if one thousand people were to sew one of their son’s clothes, he would be protected from bullets.21 To persuade these distraught mothers, as well as able-bodied young women, Japan had to offer an ideology that transcended traditional values and beliefs that Chosŏn put upon women. These women had to be persuaded to sacrifice what established their identity and legitimacy in the family—their sons. Along with a plethora of slogans, propaganda tactics, and policy changes, Japan accelerated the naisen ittai (Japan and Korea as One Body) process—with the sole purpose of creating submissive imperial subjects out of Koreans. The process of nationalizing the role of women accelerated in Chosŏn, as Japan’s desire for more imperial loyal subjects increased with the ever-expanding war. Women, now imperial subjects, had the duty of biologically giving birth to more imperial subjects and educating and grooming these subjects to serve the nation in the future. Women’s private sphere, even their wombs, had a higher, more honorable purpose to bear fruit for naisen ittai.22 Therefore, raising imperial subjects well and transforming them into dedicated workers for the nation became the proud duty of mothers.23 Simultaneously, Japan cunningly politicized love, duty, and the family relations of women for the nation.24 This was accomplished by giving meaning and value to what women already did within the house-hold. The domestic realm itself became a battleground where women could participate as citizens of the growing empire. Making sure that they did not waste any resources and that they took care of their family’s needs were no longer trivial matters—they directly contributed to the empire’s survival. Women’s identity no longer remained within the boundary of family as a mother, a wife, a sister, and a daughter; women had a vital mission to support the “holy war.” Scholars and many others who have accused Helen Kim of betraying the people, have argued that she “suddenly turned coat” in 1937, and her activities became treacherously “pro-Japanese.” The word used to describe Helen Kim’s actions after 1937, pyŏnjŏl, has the nuance of a complete change; one day, she was a patriotic social activist fighting for women’s rights, and the next day, she became a woman who sold her soul to pursue selfish goals. Although her activities did quietly alter after 1937, at the same time, much of what she did and said was a continuation from her earlier days as a female educator and activist. Therefore, we must ask whether many of the so-called ch’in’il activities and statements were truly new and out of Helen Kim’s character. For instance, was the process of nationalizing women’s identity within the domestic realm nonexistent before 1937? Was Helen Kim merely accepting, in a passive way, the colonial government’s effort to mobilize women for the war? The idea that the woman’s role in the domestic realm is directly linked to participation in the society is evident in many of Helen Kim’s so-called pro-Japanese articles in the late 1930s and 1940s as well as in her earlier writings in the 1920s. Helen Kim and many other female leaders passionately asserted that women can play an important role for the nation. Although women were physically bound to the traditional boundary of the home, their identity transcended this through the nationalization process toward women’s identity. Home no longer was a private sphere—it be-came a public sphere where even women’s mundane chores became meaningful. In 1931, Helen Kim wrote an article titled, “Rebuilding Korea & the Role of Women.” In the article, she passionately argues that it is the women’s duty to develop a “dynamic and cultural family” for Korea: Secondly, most of Korea’s cultural development and continuation depends on the hands of the women. In order for Korea to greatly develop, despite the discrepancies we see, the families of Korea need to function as free entities. . . . They need to not only continue to develop the old, but also continue with conversation, family management, and educate the young adults.25 She avidly wrote that women mattered to Korea’s future development. For her, family was the smallest unit of a nation and keeping these entities healthy and dynamic was the utmost important factor for its further development. And in her perspective, family matters were no longer private matters, but public matters. In another article in which she discusses the issue of work and women, she asserts that the family is part of the society and taking care of the domestic realm equates to working in the society.26 She rebukes the so-called new women for having an attitude represented by the following statement: “Since we are stuck at home we might as well raise the kids and take care of the house!” She implores women to realize that “working” does not necessarily mean that all women have to get a job outside of their home; their primary responsibility and “work” is to develop and maintain the “home.” In fact, she argues that chores should actually be considered as work with tangible value.27 Therefore, it should not come as a surprise when Helen Kim declares that the economy of the kitchen is equal to the economy of the nation.28 Helen Kim declares that the “Women of the East” had their own “Eastern way” of taking care of the household. Phrases such as these reflect Helen Kim’s utilization of the Japanese war propaganda, which included slogans, such as “Asia for Asiatics,” to promote, shape, and form women’s identity in Chosŏn. Many arguments Helen Kim uses in the so-called ch’in’il articles existed before 1937. This continuation reveals how naisen ittai was a two-way process, where the colonized also defined and shaped how it would un-ravel itself to its colonial subjects. Conceivably, the problem is not what she discussed— the problem is the purpose of what she discussed. The critics indicted her for “betraying” the Korean people. This betrayal is based on the assumption that she collaborated with “the enemy.” In the nationalist narrative, the occupying power, Japan, is pegged as the ultimate enemy or the villain to Koreans; therefore, collaboration becomes the ultimate “crime” against Koreans. This one-dimensional depiction of the occupying power, Japan, as the omnipotent enemy that all Koreans fought against, oversimplifies the complex relationship between Japan and Chosŏn. In particular, Korean women were doubly bound by the patriarchal system of Chosŏn as well as Japan’s imperialism. In other words, as much as Korean women were exposed to Japan’s oppression, they were exposed to the oppression of Korean men. Therefore, to understand the complex nature of one’s identity as the inferior gender and as the colonized subject, it is vital for us to explore how Korean women viewed and interacted with men in the colonial context. Women versus Men First of all, Helen Kim never argued for Korea’s immediate independence in any of her articles or statements before 1937. Her doctoral dissertation was solely focused on the topic of rural development within the limits of colonial authority. Even though she mentioned in her biography that she always longed for Chosŏn’s independence,29 unlike others who opted to go underground or be exiled to other countries to lobby for Korea’s independence, she did not choose to do so, and her work reflects this decision. She remained in Chosŏn to work for women whom she had the most compassion for. Her affection toward Korea’s nationhood was less palpable. The national narrative of Korean history depicts Japan to be the only oppressor, aggressor, and usurper of Koreans. However, it should be noted that many resources related to women indicate something else. The traditional, male-dominated Chosŏn society continued to force women to be subjugated to the structural and systemic violence of the Chosŏn Dynasty well into the 1900s. Japan’s colonization of Korea did not change the status quo for women either. They were still considered the “lesser” gender, valued as property or tools to expand Japan’s empire. As a result, Korean women had to struggle against not only Korean men but also Japanese men as well. The way new women began to view “old women” or the “old society” indicates the birth of the women’s rights movement in Korea. The advancement of modernization nurtured the first generation of Korean women who received modern education, and many of them began to become vocal about what they believed was debilitating Korean women—the patriarchal values of the Chosŏn Dynasty. The language, which de-scribed the position of women in the gender relationship, consisted of words such as slavery; women were born into the family as a slave, and they continued living as a slave obligated to perform traditional duties.30 Women were often described as victims of the society, bound by centuries-old traditions and values. What once was considered to be the norm began to be questioned and scrutinized. For instance, arranged marriage came to represent women’s lack of freedom and choice. Many articles in Shinyŏsŏng (New Women)31 consisted of girls who complained that they had nowhere else to go after finishing their education. They complained to the editor that the only expectations parents imposed on them were to marry and marry well. A girl from the countryside lamented how even if she went back home she would have nothing to do but be forced into a marriage arranged by her family.32 The world outside of the school boundary was plagued by a centuries-old social system, and unfortunately, modern education could not ensure a different future for many of these women. In this context, it is not surprising that many girls were lulled or manipulated into forced prostitution by an illusion of “career” opportunities offered by brokers. What is interesting is that prominent magazines, such as Shinyŏsŏng, openly talked about women who became entangled in prostitution. Stories of women from poor families sold into slavery or prostitution were not uncommon in Chosŏn. Often when we deal with the issue of comfort women and comfort stations, we readily target the Japanese military only. Although Japan was heavily involved in the systematic recruitment and management of comfort women, we must also make sure that we do not turn a blind eye toward the fact that abuse of women was nothing new in Chosŏn. What is especially overlooked and must not be ignored is the fact that Korean men were also often involved and sometimes were the initiators of violence committed against Korean women. According to Sarah Soh, Koreans were involved as mediators and pimps to recruit Korean women into comfort stations.33 Similar to numerous women’s rights movements around the world, the few educated women of Chosŏn began to voice strong opinions about the existing violence against women in Chosŏn. They cried out that women were treated as men’s slaves; Korean women were forced to endure unspeakable amounts of abuse inflicted upon them by men.34 Because of these abuses, women “experienced many more obstacles” than men.35 Female novelists revealed the brutality of abuse through novels, which depicted women who were manipulated, exploited, and often violated psychologically and physically. In these novels, women seem to have almost close to no contact with Japanese men or women, while many Korean male characters molest, rape, and abuse Korean women for their own pleasure. For example, one of the most common cases mentioned throughout literature, magazines, and newspapers is a factory manager’s rampant assaults against female workers. Many factory managers took advantage of their position and molested women of various age groups. Often, managers (both Japanese and Korean) enticed and raped young girls, resulting in unwanted miscarriages, abortions, and stillbirths.36 Even at home, abuse against women was common and allowed; the abuse could range from cheating to sexual harassments and, at its worst, repeated rape. In the story Inganmunje (A Human Problem), the main character Sunbi is raped by her own stepfather. However, because she is too ashamed of what happened, she decides to leave home and go to work in a factory without confiding in anyone.37 This story illuminates the fact that even though women were victims, society forced them to take the responsibility for the consequences brought on by the abuser. Most women did not have the luxury of a choice regarding their future, except for the few who were successful (who are criticized as pro-Japanese). Furthermore, the general acceptance of abuse against women was certainly not unique to Chosŏn. As early as 1886, the Women’s Reform Society of Japan spoke out against the concubine system and prostitution, which were believed to be part of a bigger problem of sexual abuse against Japanese women in and out of the domestic sphere.38 Chosŏn society’s structural violence against women and its continuation during the colonial period were horrendous. As Soh pointed out, we cannot just point the blame at Japan for taking advantage of Korean women; Koreans also need to take responsibility for the perpetuation of a rigid patriarchal system that confined and debased women, denying women the right to choose how they wanted to live. The “biggest perpetrators here are the patriarchal societies of Japan and Korea.”39 In the nationalist context, women are again confined to a specific role that is accepted and promoted by men. A fitting illustration of this would be the ideology of “Good Wife, Wise Mother,” which developed in Japan and was later implemented in Chosŏn. For Japan, the meaning was given to women as mothers and wives who were in charge of the smallest unit of the national polity.40 The glorification of motherhood further developed as Japan avidly pushed forward its agenda to expand its empire. In other words, because of Japan’s pursuit of imperialism, the ideal of motherhood had to also expand to encompass the agenda of not only producing and raising the “sons of Japan” but also “asserting colonial hierarchy, and managing colonized subjects through assimilation.”41 This imperial motherhood is also reflected in the way Japanese women were expected to act toward colonial subjects. Since the colonial subject was thought to be underdeveloped (infant-like), slow, and in need of help to become a proper citizen of Imperial Japan, Japanese women were expected to take them under their motherly wings as well. The short-story “Manchu Girl” by Koizumi Kikue illustrates a case of “the deployment of imperialist motherhood in the colonial context.”42 The story is about a young Chinese girl named Guiyu who was first hired as a servant for a Japanese couple. The Japanese woman, Koizumi, tries her hardest to embrace Guiyu and teach her the ways of the Japanese, from mastering the language to wearing kimonos. She represented the idealistic role of Japanese women in the colonial context—a parent figure to the colonial subject who surely needed “guidance” from Japan. Kimberly T. Kono noted that Koizumi’s status within the empire was dependent on how well she performed her role as an “imperialist mother.” That is, her recognition as a national subject is contingent upon her successful performance of the officially sanctioned role of motherhood. Her status as a subject of Japan is not preexisting or inherent, but rather is produced through her interactions with Guiyu. Koizumi realized her own identity as a Japanese Citizen-subject by means of the very process of educating this girl.43 As one can see, the so-called “Good Wife, Wise Mother” was used to maneuver Japanese women to embrace motherhood and be responsible for taking care of imperial subjects, including colonial subjects. The nationalized motherhood was the only legitimate role women could engage in. Similarly, the colonial government’s intention was to utilize “Good Wife, Wise Mother” as a qualification to become an imperial woman.44 Chosŏn women were to embrace their role as the mother of Chosŏn by biologically reproducing sons and gladly sacrificing their sons for the empire. Korean women were in a more challenging position in that they were oppressed not only by the colonial power but also by Korean patriarchal values. In addition, male nationalists who advocated education for women in the early 1900s began to shift their view on women’s rights by the 1920s; they believed that the new woman’s audacious challenge of patriarchy and sexuality could create a debacle for Korean tradition and unity.45 This is noteworthy since Korean men as colonial subjects did not have the right to vote, let alone Korean women. Korean women were still highly uneducated, restricted by their lower status in Korean society, and doubly bound not only by patriarchy but also by the colonial power. Therefore, more than their Japanese counterparts, these women had to learn to tread carefully between the colonial government’s demands and their hope to educate Korean women and improve their social condition in an environment where even fellow Koreans were unwilling to express their support. However, once we closely examine the various articles written by female educators from 1937 to 1945, we can observe that some women’s views on “Good Wife, Wise Mother” were slightly different from their inland Japanese or Korean male intellectuals’ intentions. In Chosŏn, many women put more emphasis on urging women to be part of the holy war than on motherhood. These educators asserted that women were able to contribute and participate in the war effort as much as men. For example, Helen Kim would often compare women’s roles to that of men’s: “Although the pupils of Ewha should also take the glorious road towards the camp gate like (our) peninsula pupils will, the only reason why we cannot do so is because we are women.”46 Notice that women were “not allowed” to participate. In other words, she argued that women should not remain as mere spectators but as equally active participants of war, like men. She expresses this similar sentiment in another article published in 1939. She said, “I find it unfortunate that men are able to do many activities while women’s activities are delayed.”47 In this particular article, she goes on to criticize men and their lack of interest in women’s issues. She believed that men and women should work toward naisen ittai together.48 To new women like Helen Kim, naisen ittai policy became an opportunity to argue that women were qualified to provide service for the nation and that “men and women could collaborate, trust, and understand each other to solve problems.”49 As the war expanded, it became increasingly arduous for feminists to push for women’s rights agendas. Japan was becoming more and more militaristic, and like everything else, it demanded absolute loyalty from women toward Japan’s imperialist ambitions. Many Japanese feminists had to either completely surrender to Japan’s wishes or devise a way to promote women’s rights within the volatile social circumstances they were placed in. Some feminists decided to withdraw from the women’s rights movement altogether. Also, the Japanese government did not hesitate to censor socialist women through arrests and imprisonment, which made it more and more difficult for women’s rights activists to freely express themselves. Although organizations such as Women’s Suffrage League (WSL) continued the suffrage movement, with increasing surveillance and the imminent threat of an expanding war, they began to regard women’s suffrage as “unattainable in an ever more serious national emergency.”50 Instead, WSL strategically focused on community-based activism. However, suffragists had to comprise their position at times and co-operate and collaborate with other organizations that were under the government’s control.51 For Korean women, the act of supporting the war indeed reflected these women responding positively to Japan’s strategy to utilize the female population to continue the notorious war; however, these new women also attempted to navigate this opportunity to elevate the woman’s role in Chosŏn society; naisen ittai and “Good Wife, Wise Mother” were not limited to enforcing women’s biological duty to beget and raise imperial subjects. Many women, especially women educators, utilized these ideologies to challenge status of women in Chosŏn society. In addition to her lifelong calling to advocate women’s rights, Helen Kim also had another lifelong passion that she was committed to, which complicated the issue of the nature of her collaboration—Ewha. Helen Kim’s Legacy, Ewha Except for her stay in America to further her studies, Helen Kim’s childhood and her adulthood were spent entirely in Ewha. An American Methodist Missionary, Mary F. Scranton, established Ewha in 1886 with only a single student. After liberation, it became the first women’s university in Korea, and it is still known as one of the most prestigious women’s universities in Korea, showcasing prominent female scholars in various fields every year. Although Helen Kim could not afford an education, she was able to remain in school by receiving a full scholarship. As an adult, she worked as a teacher at Ewha for decades. She envisioned Ewha as fostering and equipping women to assume roles beyond another mouth to feed or another way to have economic gain since selling women into slavery and prostitution was a common practice in Chosŏn, especially in the countryside where families often struggled to make ends meet. In her biography, she argues that she was forced to collaborate with the Japanese to protect Ewha from Japan. The reliability of her words is questionable, since there are no accounts to confirm the forced nature of collaboration. In addition, this biography was initially published in 1965, seventeen years after liberation, which causes us to wonder whether she used this book to excuse herself from all the ch’in’il accusations she received after the war. Although we can never be certain whether she was coerced into collaboration (if she was and to what extent), this biography provides a glimpse into the difficulties Ewha faced during the 1940s. Ewha was the first women’s education institution built in Chosŏn, where girls were allowed to receive an education beyond their means. Helen Kim, as an alumnus and as a teacher and later as the first Korean female principle of Ewha, was intimately involved in Ewha’s growth during the colonial era. In her biography, she briefly mentions the reason she was never involved in Korean independence movements. She describes how many distinguished members of various independence movements asked her to join their cause, which seems probable since Helen Kim was one of the few women who was qualified enough to study abroad during the time when the United States served as a hub for Korean nationalists. Although these members persisted, she apparently declined the offer. In her biography, she says: I believe what I have to do is different. I believe what you are doing is great and it has worth but everyone has a different role to play. I want to go back to Chosŏn. I want to work in Chosŏn. I believe what I can do is help people escape ignorance and teach them what I have learned.”52 The long-term financial support from foreign missionaries came to a halt due to the exacerbated relationship between Japan and the United States as the war continued to intensify after 1937. By 1942, all the missionaries were forced to return home. Although teachers and students began to abandon the schools out of fear or hesitation, Helen Kim did not consider closing the school an option. She states in her biography that, “even if she was the only to be left in school, she was willing to protect Ewha.”53 By April of 1944, the colonial government had taken control of Yeon Hee Professional School, (Yonsei) which is next to Ewha. However, Ewha remained under the management of Helen Kim. Helen Kim is often criticized for collaborating with the Japanese rather than closing the school. According to the nationalists’ understanding of the colonial era, she should have closed the school to rebel against the colonial government’s growing pervasiveness. Once again, this accusation is simply based on the assumption that what constitutes a patriotic act equals being part of the Korean independence movement and waging guerilla wars against Japan. However, it precariously simplifies the relation between women’s identity and minchokchuŭi (ethnic nationalism). Most women were born into poverty, abuse, and discrimination. Even as a so-called elite woman, Helen Kim was often jeered by fellow male intellectuals, who believed that women should not have equal footing as men in all parts of society. Under this double bondage of patriarchy and imperialism, Helen Kim, a new woman of the colonial era, valued furthering education for women over being actively involved in the resistance movement. Many of the pioneers in Korea’s modern education have been criticized as being pro-Japanese (thus a traitor). In fact, there was hardly anyone with status, influence, and responsibility who decided to not “betray” Chosŏn. Many principals of schools (especially in higher education) collaborated with the Japanese to some degree. The overwhelming presence of ch’in’il’pa in the education scene makes one wonder if it was even possible to resist collaborating with the Japanese at all. War Propaganda and Involvement in Inscription The more controversial allegation involves Helen Kim’s involvement in encouraging men and women to participate in Japan’s war efforts. Initially, the colonial government hesitated at the idea of enlisting Korean men in the Japanese army. They were suspicious of Koreans’ loyalty toward the army. However, with a growing demand for more soldiers, Japan did not have an alternative solution. In an effort to increase the number of enlisted soldiers, the Government General of Korea devised strategies to not only enforce enlistment but to also use propaganda to motivate the colonial subjects to participate in war efforts in every possible way. However, the general resentment against her collaboration is most likely based upon a misunderstanding of the word chŏngshindae (women’s volunteer corps). It is very interesting that when you translate the world chŏngshindae into English in a Korean dictionary, the word comfort women is used.54 However, when you translate the Japanese word joshiteishintai into English, it is translated as “women’s volunteer corps” or “groups of young female workers organized on Japanese territory during WWII.”55 Many scholars have cautioned that the term chongshindae should not be used interchangeably with the term wianbu. This indicates that Koreans generally perceive comfort women to be identical to chongshindae even though the term chongshindae (which is a direct translation of the Japanese term teishintai) encompasses many different activities in the war efforts of imperial Japan. Sarah Soh addresses this discrepancy in her work The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan.56 Most comfort women were recruited through a middleman, who often deceived women by offering a job and a place to stay. Chŏngshindae, however, were part of Japan’s official effort to recruit female laborers to support the ongoing war. The purpose of recruiting chŏngshindae was entirely different from that of the comfort women. Chongshindae were recruited through official announcements, unlike the women who had to “comfort” the soldiers; many of these women were often alone and were tricked or bribed into forced prostitution.57 However, the term chongshindae has been used interchangeably with the term wianbu in South Korea’s nationalist historiography, which has resulted in a perversion and oversimplification of a variety of female wartime activities. This gives us the impression that most Korean women were officially recruited and forced into sexual slavery as comfort women. This gross oversimplification hinders us from understanding the lives of Chosŏn women and their interactions with society during this time, silencing the complexity of the identities that women had to embrace. When we separate chongshindae from wianbu, we are finally able to consider the issue of collaboration. Many women’s rights activists and educators indeed encouraged women to participate in war efforts in various ways, from being frugal with household items to willingly sending off their sons to the battlefield. First of all, there is a need to further research whether these propaganda activities instigated Koreans to participate in the war. Secondly, considering (as addressed before) that Japan was the official authority in Korean society and considering that overseas independence movements had failed continuously, what other viable options did Koreans have? Could Japan winning the war and Koreans stepping up to be the “leader” of Asia seem more plausible than fighting for independence? If so, could we give a verdict of treason? What makes this issue more challenging is that, by only naming few collaborators, the nationalist historiography has ostracized the issue of collaboration into a unique phenomenon. For example, we are quick to condemn these women for collaborating with the Japanese to pursue women’s rights, whilst over-looking many Koreans, male Koreans, such as the myŏngjang (head of the township), who visited and persuaded poor families to send their daughters to work in Japan (one wonders whether many people actually knew the fate waiting for these women). In many cases, “Koreans actually out-numbered civilian Japanese among those seeking profit by human trafficking, forcing prostitution and sexual slavery upon young female compatriots.”58 From 1937 to 1945, people in Chosŏn were confronted with conflicts they did not volunteer for. For the elites, many were burdened with different opinions of what would be best for Chosŏn. For some, this involved collaborating with the Japanese in various degrees. This does not negate the fact that Japan’s colonial subjects, including Koreans and many others conquered throughout the war, had to experience the brutality and the barbarity of the war. Many women in these territories were forced or manipulated into becoming comfort women for Japanese soldiers. Many families in the colonies witnessed their sons being torn away from them, forced to risk their lives to serve Japan’s frantic attempt to continue the war. Many were coerced into forced labor in foreign lands, and many never had the opportunity to return home. As the war raged on, life in Chosŏn, and the entire Japanese empire, became harsher and harsher. The nationalist historiography gives us no room to wonder about the difficulties for an individual trying to navigate and survive in this sort of volatile society. However, considering the small number of people who were actually involved in resistance activities, we have to assume that the general population was destined to struggle in the gray areas, where what they were fighting against and for often became murky and obscured. Helen Kim’s multiple-layered identities as a new woman, educator, and a collaborator help us see how the issue of collaboration can be dauntingly complex. Looking into Helen Kim’s life helps observers see that her life was not dictated by a simple equation of betraying her people to advance women’s rights. As a colonial subject, who was labeled as being of an inferior gender, Helen Kim and many other women were doubly bounded by imperialism and the patriarchal traditions of Chosŏn society. Nationalist historiography has a tendency to overlook this aspect, and by doing so, it (subconsciously) conspires with imperialism to exclude or oppress women. Not only that, it partakes in concealing the systematic abuse against women.59 Ultimately, Helen Kim chose education as a tool to battle oppressive traditions and customs of patriarchy, where both Japanese men and Korean men were co-oppressors. When we retrospectively impose the idea that loyalty to one’s ethnic group should be prioritized above all else, we are no longer capable of seeing the complex nature of collaboration, especially in the colonial context. For her and many others, collaboration with the Japanese remained in the gray areas, where the line between collaboration and resistance became blurred, and her loyalties and priorities shifted with time. Certainly, we have witnessed the limitations of nationalist historiography to explore the issue of collaboration. Furthermore, we perhaps need to also take into consideration the development of Chosŏn under Japanese rule to fully understand why many Koreans chose to collaborate with the so-called enemy over the thirty-five year period. International Journal of Korean History: https://ijkh.khistory.org/journal/view.php?number=475

Notes * A condensed version of this article was presented at the Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference in Chicago, IL on March 27, 2015.

1 Jihoon Kim, “Kyogwasŏ ‘ch’in’il’ kimhwallan tongsang sajini idae p’yŏmha?,” Han’gyŏrye, June 1, 2013, http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/society/schooling/590024.html.

2 This list was formulated by Minjokchŏnggirŭl seunŭn Kukhoeŭiwŏnmoim, established by several members from the National Assembly.

3 Gerhard Hirschfeld and Patrick Marsh, eds., Collaboration in France: Politics and Culture during the Nazi Occupation, 1940–1944 (Oxford: Berg, 1989), 3.

4 Michael Robinson, Cultural Nationalism in Colonial Korea (Seattle, WA: Univ. of Washington Press, 2014), 48–77, describes intellectuals who experienced colonial modernity head on as cultural nationalists. These intellectuals believed that enlightenment and personal development had to precede political independence. Also see, Gi-Wook Shin and Michael Robinson, eds., Colonial Modernity in Korea (Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 1999) for further discussion on colonial modernity in the Korean context.

5 Jihang Park (Chihyang Pak), Yunch’ihoŭi Hyŏmnyŏgilgi: ŏnŭ Ch’in’il Chisiginŭi Tokpaek (Yun Ch’iho’s Collaboration Diaries) (Seoul: Esoope, 2008), 212.

6 Timothy Brook, Collaboration: Japanese Agents and Local Elites in Wartime China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005), 2.

7 Sung-Eun Kim, “Ilchesigi Kimhwallanŭi Yŏgwŏnŭisikkwa Yŏsŏnggyoyungnon,” (Helen Kim’s Thought of Women’s Right and Korean Women’s Education) Yŏksa wa Gyŏnggye (History and the Boundaries) 79 (2011): 184.

8 Jisook Ye, “Ilcheha Kimhwallanŭi Hwaltonggwa Taeil Hyŏmnŏk,”(Kim Hwal Ran’s Public Track and Her Pro-Japanese Collaboration during Colonial Korea under Imperial Japanese Reign) Han’guksaron 51 (2005): 398.

9 Yoko Okuyama, “Helen Kim’s Life and Thought under the Japanese Colonialism 1918–1945” (MA diss., Yonsei University, 1989), 45–46.

10 Jisook Ye, “Kim Hwal Ran’s Public Track,” 398.

11 Jihwa Kim, “Kimhwallan’gwa pagindŏkŭl chŭngsimŭro pon Ilche sidae Kidokkyo yŏsŏng Chisiginŭi ‘Ch’in’ilchŏk’ maengnak yŏn’gu” (A Study on the Context of ‘Pro-Japanese’ activities by Christian Intellectual Women under the Japanese Colonial Rule Focused on Helen Kim & Induk Pahk) (PhD diss., Ewha Womans University, 2005), 115.

12 For further discussions on this concept of this “double bind” Korean women experienced, see Pyeongjeon Lee, “Shinnyŏsŏngŭi shingmin ch’ehŏmgwa chajŏnjŏk sosŏl yŏn’gu,”(A Study on Modern Women’s Colonial Experience and Autobiographical Novel’s) Han’gugŏmunhakyŏn’gu (The Research on Korean Language and Literature) 43 (2004): 225–252. See also Insook Kwon, “The New Women’s Movement’ in 1920s Korea: Rethinking the Relationship between Imperialism and Women,” Gender & History 10–3 (November 1998): 381–405.

13 Brook, Collaboration: Japanese Agents, 26.

14 Kyŏngro Yun et al., Ch’in’il inmyŏng sachŏn (Pro-Japanese Biographical Dictionary) (Seoul: Minjok munje yŏn’guso, 2009), 709–714.

15 Yun et al., Ch’in’il inmyŏng sachŏn, 709–714.

16 Yun et al., Ch’in’il inmyŏng sachŏn, 709–714.

17 Christianity played an important role, in that many women were able to gain access to education through schools established by missionaries. It is well known that conflicts intensified between Korean intellectuals and missionaries over time. Thus, even though missionaries were considered pioneers of women’s education in Korea, at the same time, they were seen as imposing Western values on Koreans. For further discussion on Christianity and its influence on Christian female intellectuals, see Jihwa Kim, “Kimhwallan’gwa pagindŏkŭl chŭngsimŭro pon Ilche sidae Kidokkyo yŏsŏng Chisiginŭi ‘Ch’in’ilchŏk’ maengnak yŏn’gu,” 26–69.

18 Helen Kim, “Rural Education for the Regeneration of Korea,” in Uwŏlmunjip, ed. Kim Okkil et al. (Seoul: Ewha Womans University Press, 1979), 132.

19 Helen Kim, “Rebuilding Korea and the Role of Women,” The Korea Mission Field, March, 1931, 87–88.

20 Kim, “Rebuilding Korea and the Role of Women,” 87–88.

21 Jisook Ye, “Kim Hwal Ran’s Public Track,” 446.

22 Kurashige Shuuzou, “Chiwŏnbyŏng moja e parhanŭn sŏ: kukkayunghŭngŭi mot’aenŭn puinŭi hime chae,” Samch’ŏlli 23 (1940): 26.

23 Oono Teruko, “Chiwŏnbyŏng moja e parhanŭn sŏ: pandobuine kungminŭn kamsa,” Samch’ŏlli 23 (1940): 30.

24 Sheila Miyoshi Jager, “Woman and the Promise of Modernity: Signs of Love for the Nation in Korea,” New Literary History 29–1 (Winter 1998): 121–34.

25 Helen Kim, “Rebuilding Korea and the Role of Women,” The Korea Mission Field, March, 1931, 87–88.

26 Helen Kim “Chigŏpchŏnsŏn’gwa chosŏnnyŏsŏng,” Shindonga, September, 1932.

27 Kim “Chigŏpchŏnsŏn’gwa chosŏnnyŏsŏng.”

28 Helen Kim, “Puŏk’kyŏngjega kukkagyŏngje,” Maeilshinbo, July 6, 1938.

29 Helen Kim, Kŭ pitsogŭi ch’agŭn saengmyŏng (Seoul: Ewha Womans University Press, 1999), 163.

30 Many articles from the popular magazine Shinyŏsŏng (新女性) mention how women are merely treated like slaves within the domestic realm.

31 Shinyŏsŏng was the first women’s magazine published in Chosŏn by Kaebyŏksa. It discussed a wide range of topics that concerned women, including education, housework, child-reading, dating, marriage, and marital problems.

32 S. WH, “Sijimman karanŭn pumo,” Shinyŏsŏng 1 (1923): 131.

33 Chunghee Sarah Soh, The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2008), 138.

34 SJ, “Puinuntongŭi choryu,” Shinyŏsŏng 2 (1923): 433.

35 Yŏn’gusaeng, “Puinŭi chijŏk nŭngnyŏk,” Shinyŏsŏng 2 (1923): 533.

36 Theodore Jun Yoo, The Politics of Gender in Colonial Korea: Education, Labor, and Health, 1910–1945 (Berkeley: University of California, 2008), 136.

37 Gyŏngae Kang, In’ganmunje (Seoul: Dream Sodam, 2001). This story was originally published in the newspaper Tongailbo from September 1934 to December 1934.

38 Sharon L. Sievers, Flowers in Salt: The Beginnings of Feminist Consciousness in Modern Japan (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1983), 93.

39 Chizuko Ueno, Nationalism and Gender, trans. Beverley Yamamoto (Melbourne: Trans Pacific, 2004), 128.

40 Chin Chŏngwŏn, Higashiasia no ryousaikenboron: tsukurareta dentou (Tokyo: Keisoshobo, 2006), 32.

41 David C. Earhart, Certain Victory: Images of World War II in the Japanese Media (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2008), 226–227.

42 Michele Mason and Helen J. S. Lee, Reading Colonial Japan: Text, Context, and Critique (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2012), 227.

43 Mason and Lee, Reading Colonial Japan, 234.

44 Kazue Inoue, Shokuminchi chosŏn no shinjosei (Tokyo: Akashishoten, 2013), 37.

45 Kwon, “‛The New Women’s Movement’,” 381.

46 Helen Kim, “Chingbyŏngjewa pandoyŏsŏngŭi kago,” Shinshidae, December, 1942.

47 Helen Kim, “Puindŭlkkiriŭi aejŏnggwa ihae,” Tongyangjigwang, June 2, 1939, 221.

48 Kim, “Puindŭlkkiriŭi aejŏnggwa ihae.”

49 Ko Myŏngcha, “Atarashii fujin no michi,” Tongyangjigwang June 2, 1939, 223.

50 Taeko Shibahara, Japanese Women and the Transnational Feminist Movement before World War II (Tokyo: Temple University Press, 2014), 110.

51 Shibahara, Japanese Women, 110.

52 Helen Kim, Kŭ pitsogŭi ch’agŭn saengmyŏng (Seoul: Ewha Womans University Press, 1999), 108.

53 Kim, Kŭ pitsogŭi ch’agŭn saengmyŏng, 108.

54 “Naver English Dictionary,” accessed December 24, 2015, http://endic.naver.com/search.nhn?sLn=kr&isOnlyViewEE=N&query=정신대.

55 “Weblio English-Japanese Dictionary,” accessed December 24, 2015, http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%E5%A5%B3%E5%AD%90%E6%8C%BA%E8%BA%AB%E9%9A%8.

56 Chunghee Sarah Soh, The Comfort Women, 57.

57 Yuha Park, Chegugŭi Wianbu (Comport Women of the Empire) (Seoul: Ppuriwa Ip’ari, 2015), 47.

58 Chunghee Sarah Soh, The Comfort Women, 140.

59 Hyŏkpŏm Kwŏn, Minjokchuŭi nŭn choeag in’ga (Nationalism is a Crime?) (Seoul: Arop’a, 2014), 150.

Go to : Goto References 1. Brody, J Kenneth. The Trial of Pierre Laval: Defining Treason, Collaboration and Patriotism in World War II France New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2010.

2. Brook, Timothy. Collaboration: Japanese Agents and Local Elites in Wartime China Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005.

3. Chin, Chŏngwŏn. Higashiasia no ryousaikenboron: tsukurareta dentou Tokyo: Keisoshobo, 2006.

4. Earhart, David C. Certain Victory: Images of World War II in the Japanese Media New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2008.

5. Hirschfeld, Gerhard and Marsh Patrick. Collaboration in France: Politics and Culture during the Nazi Occupation, 1940–1944 Oxford: Berg, 1989.

6. Inoue, Kazue. Shokuminchi chosŏn no shinjosei Tokyo: Akashishoten, 2013.

7. Jager, Sheila Miyoshi. "Woman and the Promise of Modernity: Signs of Love for the Nation in Korea New Literary History 29(1):Winter;1998). crossref 8. Kim, Jihwa. Kimhwallan’gwa pagindŏkŭl chŭngsimŭro pon Ilche sidae Kidokkyo yŏsŏng Chisiginŭi ‘Ch’in’ilchŏk’ maengnak yŏn’gu. A Study on the Context of ‘Pro-Japanese’ activities by Christian Intellectual Women under the Japanese Colonial Rule Focused on Helen Kim & Induk PahkPhD diss Ewha Womans University, 2005.

9. Kim, Sung-Eun. "Ilchesigi Kimhwallanŭi Yŏgwŏnŭisikkwa Yŏsŏnggyoyungnon (Helen Kim’s Thought of Women’s Right and Korean Women’s Education)." Yŏksa wa Gyŏnggye History and the Boundaries79 2011).

10. Kwŏn, Hyŏkpŏm. Minjokchuŭi nŭn choeag in’ga (Nationalism is a Crime?). Seoul: Arop’a, 2014.

11. Kwon, Insook. "‘The New Women’s Movement’ in 1920s Korea: Rethinking the Relationship between Imperialism and Women Gender & History 10(3):(November 1998). crossref 12. Lee, Pyeongjeon. "Shinnyŏsŏngŭi shingmin ch’ehŏmgwa chajŏnjŏk sosŏl yŏn’gu (A Study on Modern Women’s Colonial Experience and Autobiographical Novel’s)." Han’gugŏmunhakyŏn’gu The Research on Korean Language and Literature43 2004).

13. Mason, Michele and Lee Helen JS. Reading Colonial Japan: Text, Context, and Critique Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 2012.

14. Okuyama, Yoko. Helen Kim’s Life and Thought under the Japanese Colonialism 1918–1945. MA diss Yonsei University, 1989.

15. Park, Jihang. Yunch’ihoŭi Hyŏmnyŏgilgi: ŏnŭ Ch’in’il Chisiginŭi Tokpaek (Yun Ch’iho’s Collaboration Diaries). Seoul: Esoope, 2008.

16. Park, Yuha. Chegugŭi Wianbu (Comport Women of the Empire). Seoul: Ppuriwa Ip’ari, 2015.

17. Robinson, Michael. Cultural Nationalism in Colonial Korea Seattle: Univ of Washington Press, 2014.

18. ShinGi-Wook. RobinsonMichael. , eds. Colonial Modernity in Korea Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 1999.

19. Sievers, Sharon L. Flowers in Salt: The Beginnings of Feminist Consciousness in Modern Japan Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1983.

20. Shibahara, Taeko. Japanese Women and the Transnational Feminist Movement before World War II Tokyo: Temple University Press, 2014.

21. Soh, Chunghee Sarah. The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan Chicago: University of Chicago, 2008.

22. Ueno, Chizuko. Nationalism and Gender Yamamoto Beverley . Melbourne: Trans Pacific, 2004.

23. Ye, Jisook. "Ilcheha Kimhwallanŭi Hwaltonggwa Taeil Hyŏmnŏk (Kim Hwal Ran’s Public Track and Her Pro-Japanese Collaboration during Colonial Korea under Imperial Japanese Reign)." Han’guksaron 51 2005).

24. Yoo, Theodore Jun. The Politics of Gender in Colonial Korea: Education, Labor, and Health, 1910–1945 Berkeley: University of California, 2008.

25. Yun, Kyŏngro and et al. Ch’in’il inmyŏng sachŏn (Pro-Japanese Biographical Dictionary). Seoul: Minjok munje yŏn’guso, 2009.

#korean history #japanese history #japan #korea #republic of korea #helen kim #south korea #imperialism #japanese imperialism #colonialism #japanese collaborator #history #counterinsurgency #anti-communism

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