#that also literally translates to 'big brother' in english

[icarusflewsworld]

Rhysand & Cassian & Azriel X OC

Hello, here is the chapter 2 of a fanfiction on the world of Acotar where our three favorite Batboys are the mates of a single woman.

I hope you like it! Don't hesitate to let me know if you prefer the OC to become y/n and/or gender neutral.

Also, I apologize for any mistakes you might find, I'm just a French girl doing her best with Google Translate and her average score of 5 in English classe.

! Don't forget to read the previous chapters ! : Here

Happy reading!

Number of words : 2 079

Chapter 2 :

“It's our mate!” screamed Cassian. “Our mate.” 

He pointed vigorously back and forth with his finger his brothers in front of him. The traces of his footprints were so numerous that they had completely melted the thick layer of frosted snow that covered the ground of the remote spot where they had escaped from Tamlin before collapsing.

“Our soulmate,” he repeated, as he had been doing for the twenty minutes they'd been there. 

Cassian ran his hands through his hair, loosening a little bit more the bun that held half of it together. He was shaking and could barely breathe. He never panicked, never, but now he was panic-stricken. His body was literally vibrating with excitement, joy, anxiety, apprehension and fear. He had no idea how to react. His mate was there, just a few inches away. He never thought he would meet her. The rarity of this event was so high, yet he was certain: she was his soul mate. She was his and his brothers' mate. He didn't even know if it was possible, but he felt it. She belonged to them too. He had so many questions in his head that they drove him crazy, but in a way… it didn't matter, because he just met his mate. And she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. And he wasn't saying that because she was his mate, no, she was just divinely gorgeous. 

Rhysand was kneeling in the snow. Two small spots where the earth could be seen had formed under his lowered face, where the ice had melted from the warm, salty water dripping from his eyes. The big tears that spilled down his cheeks didn't even have time to freeze in the icy winter cold of the forest, as they were quickly replaced by others. He sobbed loudly, unable to stop. She was his soul mate. He'd waited so long for her. For so long he'd even come to believe he'd never meet her. But here she was. She was beautiful. Her voice. Her laugh. The moment he laid eyes on her, he knew he was ready to do anything for her. Anything. He will watch Velaris burn for her if that's what she wanted. He couldn't even begin to realize, to assimilate. After all he'd been through under the mountain, he finally seemed to breathe. He met his mate. 

Azriel was frozen. It wasn't the negative temperature of the cold wind around him that was causing his stupor, but the raging chaos exploding in his body. His heart was beating painfully, so hard it felt as if it could dig a hole through his chest. Every of his muscles was on fire, his eyes burned, his head ached and his breath caught in his throat. His eyes were still wide, but he couldn't even see the forest he'd landed in, his mind still focused on the face of this girl. His mate. His mind turned a hundred miles an hour. She was human. She was also the mate of his two brothers. It couldn't be. They had to be careful. It wasn't possible for this human to have three soul mates, and it certainly wasn't possible for anyone to have more than one mate. It wasn't possible that he would agree to share his soul mate. It wasn't possible that he deserved to meet his soul mate. Not after all the terrible things he'd done. Yet when he'd laid his eyes on her, his shadows hid behind his back, and his mind had lit up, impacted by her light. His world had turned colorful. The gray walls had turned white. The gilding on the banister was vivid and the pink of her cheeks was flamboyant. No spell could fool what he felt. 

“Maybe it's a trick,” Azriel finally said. 

Rhysand looked up tearfully at his spy master. 

“What?” asked Cassian, stopping in front of him.

“Think about it, Hybern controls the cauldron, so he may have created a fake link between her and us,” explained Azriel.

“A fake link?” repeated Rhysand in a weak voice. “Does that sound fake to you?” 

Azriel had to take a step back with a grimace. No, it didn't look fake to him. It seemed so obvious that he was almost ashamed to say it. 

“Why would he do that anyway?” shouted Cassian.   

“I don't know, maybe because she's human and fragile or to cause conflict between us or distract us from our goal? I don't know.”

Rhysand jumped to his feet, swearing as he angrily rubbed away his tears. It was a possibility, and if it was a ruse of that damned king, he would slowly rip his skin off. If what he felt for this woman wasn't true, he will never get over it. 

“But why her?” asked Cassian.

“I don't know,” Azriel repeated, as lost as his two brothers. “It sounds so insane. How can a human have three soul mates as powerful as us? It just doesn't make sense.”

Cassian's blood ran cold. He had to clench his fists to keep from jumping at his brother and making him take back what he just said. It bothered him more than anything that he was already denigrating a bond as strong as the one he felt so strongly in his gut uniting him to this woman. If he didn't want that bond, all he had to do was leave it to his two brothers and not ruin their moment. 

“Exactly!” shouted Cassian. “It makes so little sense that it can't be a trap.”

“And so what?” said Azriel in a false calm voice. “Assuming it's true, we're supposed to let her choose one of us? What about the other two?” 

Rhysand couldn't imagine either of his brothers being hurt, but he simply couldn't give up on his soul mate, whom he hadn't even seen for a minute. He was already ready to do anything for her, so he didn't care if he shared her with his brothers if, in the end, he was entitled to her too.

“If she really is the mate of the three of us, she won't be able to choose between us,” Rhysand assured with an empty glance. 

Azriel felt as if he were imploding. Even his breathing was shaking, so confused and angry was he. There was no way a man other than him was going to lay his hands on his mate, and that's why it was impossible for this woman to be the mate of the three of them. If that was the case, then this was the Cauldron's most cruel way of punishing him.

“So we're supposed to share the woman we love for the rest of our lives?” spat Azriel, breathing rapidly.

Cassian froze. He never considered such a possibility. They'd shared women in bed with his brothers in the past, but never only one, and it had nothing to do with emotional sharing, especially not one as strong as the one that united soul mates. It wasn't just about body sharing, it was about sharing the love of his life with his brothers. That said, he wanted her. Cassian wanted her no matter what it means to get her, including letting her love her brothers too.

“Yes,” he nodded.

“Yes,” followed Rhysand.

“In any fucking way!” shouted Azriel, burning with jealousy.

He was boiling with rage, all his muscles tensed and his eyebrows so furrowed they were giving him a headache. He wanted to pounce on the other two and rip their hands off. It was simply impossible for him that another man touch or love his mate. 

“Look at you,” Cassian said, “you’re already dying of jealousy. It’s impossible to trap you that much and to form such a strong fake bond. Even Hybern with the cauldron on his side doesn’t have that power.”

“Anyway, if it’s real,” Rhysand said, “it’ll hurt her, if she doesn’t have all three of us.”

Azriel stepped back again so as not to hurt his brothers. He ran his hands through his hair, but quickly let them fall back so as not to pull his dark locks out. He knew Rhysand was right, but he simply couldn’t resign himself to it. He knew he should accept it for her sake, but it seemed so crazy. Illyrians were possessive and jealous, if there was one species that didn’t share their women it was them. It was in their genes, and here they were, having the same mate. It was crazy. 

But, deep down he knew that it wasn't wrong, that this bond was sincere, because the more he imagined his brothers and him happy alongside their mate, the less it bothered him. Yet, he just wanted her for himself.

A silence took place the time that everyone came to their senses to study the situation more calmly. But, the more time passed, the more it was the face of their soul mate that lingered in their heads. The more time passed, the more it seemed real. The more time passed, the more they wanted her.

“What if she really is our soul mate, Rhys?” Cassian said in a sad voice. “She’s human. She’s weak. Humans can die from a simple scratch or even if they catch a cold. We have targets on our backs all the time, especially you. You are the high lord of the night court, your mate will be hunted and in danger all the time. Our mate will be in danger all the time”.

Rhysand ran his hands over his face as he crouched down, no longer able to stand under the weight of his fear. Azriel groaned at the anguish that gripped his stomach. Cassian convulsed a shiver of panic. They hadn't even spoken to this woman yet, but they were already dying of fear that something would happen to her.

"We'll see, let's let things be, the priority right now is the book," Rhysand said.

He was Cassian and Azriel's lord, he had to keep his calm, he had to keep a cool head and clear ideas. They had to be able to count on Rhysand to calm them down and help them, he had to be impartial, but the only thing he could think about was that today, he just met the woman of his life. That today he finally reached the light.

Cassian nodded, not believing a word of it. The second he had laid eyes on his soulmate, he knew that she would now be the priority of his life. It didn't matter anymore, what happened to him or to the people around him, what mattered was that she was happy. The whole world could burn if that was what she wanted, he would be the one to set it on fire. He was ready to do anything for her. He would protect her, provide for all her needs, and make her happy. "Luxiana" was the only word that Azriel's shadows had been whispering since he had met her and he knew well that he could be fooled but not them. They were unattainable by any spell or curse. He knew well that this mating bond was true, yet he was so jealous that he wanted to consider that it wasn't. Not for him. No. This woman was his. He was sure of it. She was his. She was his mate, but part of him just hoped she wasn't his brothers'. She was already his, and the thought of another man touching his woman made him so angry that he could destroy everything for miles around if he didn't control himself.

"What if she has a boyfriend?" Cassian asked suddenly, his eyes widening, jealousy squeezing his chest.

Azriel let out a guttural growl so loud it made birds fly away from the trees around them.

"I'll tear his muscles out one by one before crushing his bones and feeding them to him, then cutting him into small pieces while avoiding the vital points so that he stays alive throughout the process," he said in a sinister voice, the shadows around him quivering with joy at the images that were emerging in his mind.

Rhysand laughed.

“I’m glad to see that I won’t have to worry about another man approaching our mate.”

A heavy silence fell. They met their soulmate.

“She’s human,” Rhys added. “She won’t feel the same way. We have to make her fall in love with us.”

[alien-ally]

i dont watch a lot of shows, but its been a while since i saw such an emotionally charged confrontation in a bl show. i believe great acting can elevate any confrontation scene (even if the conflict was contrived) but uh here, we knew this all along. we knew the pain was coming, i did, it was delicious, and braced for impact but i still am in shambles. wei lili packing random packets of food from the house for yuan, unable to focus on eating when yuan sits with that face, getting him to pass stuff just to talk to him. a resounding 'tell me, what's wrong?'. never have siblings been so real lol. also, i deeply appreciate the character of Sanpang, cause i think he's supposed to be the reflection of society, but in a far more gentler, loving way for he actually does care for both of them. lol he himself doesn't know 'what's wrong' exactly, just that something should be cause yk it's Wei Qian. also, he's far more nicer than in the novel i've heard. and not homophobic at the very least.

[dellinah]

I know I literally made this but it’s still the fault of everyone else in this thread not mine

(mostly @wolfman-al​ whose fanart reminded me of this meme)

anyway we were robbed etc etc

I saw some really cute fanart of Maid Marian as a lioness and I just had to do this edit. (◕ ω ◕)

[haru-dipthong]

Ep 8 of my Utena fansub is out!

生意気でブサイクで男女の天上をめっためたに打倒して

“I’ll rip apart that annoying ugly dyke

男女 is a hard word to translate. It’s basically a slur - the word is made up of the kanji for “man” and then the kanji for “woman” (so, “manwoman”). I’ve seen “shemale” used as a translation but the transness of that word is a bit strong. I’ve also seen “tomboy” but that’s not a slur, it’s barely even an insult (and it’s not trans-y enough). Anya suggested to use “dyke” if I was comfortable with it, and I am. I think it’s perfect honestly.

-----

私のお兄様があんた達にちょっかいを出すはずないでしょ？

My big brother would never be so interested in you.

ちょっかいを出す has two meanings according to the Japanese dictionary weblio.jp. 1. to interfere with in a negative way by doing something that really shouldn’t be done. 2. to hit on a woman.

Obviously both meanings are important here. Nanami is obsessed with being the only girl her brother thinks about, and Touga is sexually interested in Utena and politically interested in marrying Anthy. I see this line as intentionally ambiguous, maybe even a bit of a freudian slip. I think I captured that ambiguity with “interested in you” - it could mean sexually/romantically interested, or it could mean interested in the sense of just like, living in someone’s head rent free like Anthy and Utena do in Nanami’s head.

-----

辛さ爆発木っ端みじん、幻のゾウが「パオーン」、超辛九千億倍カレー

“Spice So Extreme You’ll be Blown to Smithereens and Hallucinate a Horde of Trumpeting Elephants: 900 Billion x Curry.”

I HAVE A FEW THINGS TO SAY about this extremely stupid joke line.

Thing number 1: the way she says 「幻のゾウがパオーン」 in such a sad, sad voice made me cackle the first time I heard it. I’m not funny enough to translate the joke properly but suffice it to say, she’s essentially saying “ghost cows go moo” (but for elephants) in the saddest most apologetic tone possible and it kills me. In English elephants don’t really have a childish onomatopoeic noise word like “moo” so I had to settle for “trumpeting”.

I think the 幻のゾウがパオーン line is a really interesting example of coherent Japanese grammar. Like, if we translate the whole line literally, look at how weird it sounds:

Explode into smithereens, illusory elephants go “paōōōn” level spice: Extreme spice 900 Billion x Curry.

Like, the elephant part is literally just describing what noise an “illusory elephant” makes. Under English language rules, this is a non-sequitur, but in Japanese it makes sense and fits into the sentence because the implication that the spice makes the “illusory elephants” appear is enough. You don’t need to say the spice makes it appear!

Thing number 2: This is the only time in the episode we hear the full name of the 900 Billion x curry, and it’s important as a translator that I lay the groundwork for the interpretation that the elephants the girls encounter for the rest of the episode are hallucinations. I actually find it really weird that no other translation calls the elephants “hallucinations” or the spice “hallucinogenic”, because that’s the translation that makes the most sense for 幻 within this context IMO. 幻 can be translated as “illusion”, “phantom”, “vision”, and it essentially means “something you’re seeing that isn’t actually there”. Let’s look at some other translations:

So hot it will blast you to smithereens and make phantom elephants trumpet loudly (from ohtori.nu)

So spicy it’ll blow you to smithereens! Secret Pa-Ohn ultra spicy nine billion-fold curry. ←????????!!! (from internet archive video encoded subs)

and then a later line where they’re talking about the spice itself:

By the way, have you heard of the Phantom 900 Billion X spice? (from ohtori.nu)

By the way, do you know about the nine billion-fold secret spice? (from internet archive video encoded subs)

Like… what? The spice is clearly meant to be hallucinogenic. And don’t get me started on the internet archive video subs! Just totally opting out of translating it completely and going with “secret”! So boring and such a cop out. My only guess as to why these have been done like this is an attempt at censorship? Cause hallucinations = drugs? Well, I’m not pulling punches on my translation! I’m writing them the way I interpret the Japanese - if that includes swearing, sexual references, or drugs, so be it. The goal is to make the most authentic translation, not one that will actually be marketable to TV or streaming networks.

Speaking of…

This is the most egregious translation from the ohtori.nu scripts yet. They translated 色ボケ (a person, often an immature man/boy, obsessed with sex; vulgar, insult) as, get this, "Casanova".

Does this look like a man who has just been called "casanova" by his crush?

"Fuckboy" was my first pick but I would also have accepted "wanker", "jerkoff", "sleezebag", "douchebag", "fuckwit", "coomer" or simply "cunt".

-----

Thanks again to @dontbe-lasanya for your fantastic editing as always, but especially for helping with "dyke" this episode!

Be sure to follow for updates! For all episodes released so far, go here:

[ineffable-opinions]

"Top", "Bottom" Discussion in Unknown ep. 12

The Office Gossip Scene

[Edited on 10th May; changes under clarification headings]

Now that the Unknown has resurrected the conversation about gong shou, let’s talk about it. The what and the why, so to say. Thank you @1serotonindeficientgirl (whose post inspired mine).

I welcome critiques and corrections. So, please feel free to do so.

Scenes and subtitles

The discussion in the episode starts with Wei Qian’s staff gossiping about his relationship with Wei ZhiYuan. One of the staff members comments that Wei Qian is like a little lamb (小绵羊) when it comes to his little brother:

只要遇到他弟弟 就像小绵羊

Someone replies with the following idiom:

羊入虎���

(Literally: “a sheep enters a tiger's mouth”)

It means to enter a dangerous situation where one will certainly suffer [Source: Wiktionary].

The female employee (who witnessed their kiss) asks San Pang:

三胖哥谁是羊谁是虎啊 - Who is the lamb (羊; sheep) and who is the tiger (虎)?

This has some employees confused and they ask for an explanation. They receive the following reply:

就是攻跟受的差别啊 – [it means] between them, who is gong and who is shou?

One of the staff members repeats the unfamiliar terms:

攻受 – gong shou

and the fu-nu (腐女; fujoshi) offers an explanation:

好啦姊姊教你们 – let this elder sis explain

老虎看到羊会 – the tiger upon seeing the lamb…

Before she can complete her explanation, Wei Qian moves into the scene accompanied by the growl of a big cat. The gossipers disband.

In the end our fu-nu expresses their support for Wei Qian’s relationship with Wei ZhiYuan. Before she runs off, she throws him the question:

你们谁是攻谁是受啦 – between the two of you, who is gong and who is shou?

In the next shot Wei Qian is alone. He flexes his muscles and comments:

很明显吧 - It's obvious, isn't it?

[END OF SCENE]

Everyone at that office seems pretty close. The staff calls Wei “Qian ge” 谦哥 (first name + brother) and not as “Mr. Wei” (as the English subtitles suggests). Looks like Lao Xiong (emphasis on Lao = old) is the only one who clearly disapproves of such gossipmongering.

Notice how the terms gong and shou were translated directly into top and bottom in English subtitles. While that’s technically correct, there’s some nuance missing.

While there are tongzhi (同志;queer) people who use the terms gong and shou, these are not the most popular terms for top and bottom in the tongzhi community. This series specifically uses the terms gong (攻) and shou (受). Why? We’ll get to that in a minute.

In a BL, being shou means that character is the bottom in that particular ship. That character could be top, bottom, versatile or neither in another ship. A character is a bottom (as we use the term in English) only when that character is an absolute shou (sou uke in Japanese). An absolute shou is invariably shou. No matter which ship he becomes part of and no matter who he is paired with, he will be the shou. Similar difference exists between the terms “top” and “gong”.

English subtitles use ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ from the get-go. There is no need to explain what those terms mean. But that’s not the case with gong shou – only 腐 (fu) people (BL fans) really knows what those terms really mean and thus warrants explanation.   

Clarification

[Edited. Thank you @abstractelysium and @wen-kexing-apologist for contributing to the conversation.]

As noted in the convo, Wei Qian is pretty ferocious in the office and is only gentle when it comes to Wei ZhiYuan. So, it is normal that gossiping irrespective of topic would end as soon as he arrives. Also, I think Wei Qian didn’t get what gong shou means other than allusion to tiger and lamb. The original language dialogues don’t make it clear that gong and shou means top and bottom (in a ship). [The English subs gives off that impression since gong and shou were simply translated.] Moreover, those terms are danmei literacies that has entered dictionaries but not necessarily public knowledge.

It is like an insider joke for fu-people made possible by Wei Qian’s ignorance. That wouldn’t have worked on Wei ZhiYuan who read danmei while growing up. That wouldn’t have worked if the fu nu (fujoshi) stuck around to explain what that means.

Usually in such conversations in BL, fu-people are shown to be mistaken: they either mess up the ship/dynamic (Love By Chance 1) or the character(s) in the ship deliberately trick them (Counter Attack). It is almost always played out with seme/gong’s approval in BL - not sure if that dynamic between fu-people & seme aka gong character ever appeared in any live-action dynamic. The trigger of this scene is Wei ZhiYuan’s deliberate choice of actions: PDA, kiss in the office right in front of a staff member.

BL literacies

BL is a media genre in itself with different sub-genres, genre conventions and classic works. It sure has a lot of overlap with other genres:

Romance as well as GL – they coevolved. They share mothers and other ancestors.

Queer – Is it really a genre? Even if one were to ignore queer as method in academia, it is still so complex.

Let me quote Taiwanese tongzhi author Chiang-Sheng Kuo:

… what exactly is queer literature? Is it queer literature if queer people like to read it, or is it only queer literature if there are queer characters in the books? Or is it an appendage of the queer movement? If a queer author writes a book without queer characters, does that represent a certain aspect of queer culture?

(You can find the whole interview here.)

Just as danmei (耽美; Chinese BL) has its roots in Japanese BL, so is gong (攻) and shou (受) from seme (攻め) uke (受け).

gong shou aka seme uke dynamics

Mother of BL, Mori Mari, didn’t come up with it, nor did her father Mori Ogai. Both she and her father, among the other dozen tanbi (耽美; same writing as danmei but different readings cause different languages, and different meanings cause different cultures) authors inherited it from authors before them who wrote on contemporaneous and historic Japanese male androphilia.

Spring Pastimes. Miyagawa Isshō, c. 1750 | seme uke dynamics in nanshoku pre-dates BL by hundreds of years.

While there is no dearth of riba (versatile) characters in BL, seme uke dynamics is:

a genre specialty. There are similar words in use in GL as well.

an enduring connection to the past of where BL was born.

remnants of a particular model of queerness; an alternative to LGBTQIA+ form of queerness.

What’s there in the scene

There is something hidden in the euphemistic explanation. On the face of it tiger devouring a lamb would be allusion to tiger gong devouring (topping) lamb shou.

But then tiger is a big cat and lamb is a herbivore. Neko (ネコ), the Japanese queer term for “bottom” means cat (etymology is obscure with this one). The term herbivore (草食) when used to describe a man means that man is masculine in a non-hegemonic way. In the series, Wei Qian embodies the hegemonic masculinity while Wei ZhiYuan is a quintessential grass-eater.

So, the description of lamb being devoured by a tiger would not be associated as simply as with the terms gong and shou especially when it comes from Taiwan which has been historically more connected to Japanese BL than any other BL producers (Sinophone or otherwise). This connection was highlighted during 魏之远 Wei ZhiYuan's naming scene where Le Ge used the borrowed Japanese possessive particle (の; no).

の = 之 (zhī)

The big cat sound effect for Wei Qian in particular adds to this. Wei Qian’s character is best described as a queen shou.

女王受 Queen shou: A shou who is as proud as a queen, and would devour gong. (source)

Wei Qian and Wei ZhiYuan’s ship is best described by Priest (the author of Da Ge, source novel of Unknown):

经典款毒舌女王和屁颠屁颠的忠犬组合 – paring of a classic, sharp-tongued queen and a tail-wagging loyal dog.

BL literacies & Affective learning

BL kind of has its own language (with words like gong shou), which fans use to share ideas and feelings. This secret language is what academics call ‘literacies.’ BL fans are all in on this and have their own ‘ways of behaving, interacting, valuing, thinking, believing, speaking, and often reading and writing’. Through ‘various visual, conceptual and textual literacies’, BL fans weave ‘an intertextual database of narrative and visual tropes which readers draw upon to interpret BL’. BL literacies is learnt through ‘affective hermeneutics – a set way of gaining knowledge through feelings.’ Audience learn BL literacies from BL works ‘which eventually leads to their active engagement’ with other BL fans. (source; Kristine Michelle L. Santos explains it in the context of Japanese BL but it applies to all BL media irrespective of where it is from.)

That scene in Unknown was set up to familiarize audience with BL literacies – not only those specific words but also the larger practice of imagining character pairing and indulging in that imagination. This is evident from the overall jubilant tone of the scene and the camera work. It is a celebration of moe. That is why we have a character who is not only a fu-nu but also willing to be openly fu-nu in that setting, sharing BL literacies and her colleagues interested to learn. 

For other examples, check out Thomas Baudinette’s book Boys Love Media in Thailand: Celebrity, Fans, and Transnational Asian Queer Popular Culture. He has a chapter dedicated to explaining how genre conventions were taught to the early audience of Thai BL through similar scenes.

Why must they do this? Why break the fourth wall like this? To get more people interested in the intricacies of BL and to get them to participate in the culture. BL is created by fu-people and BL literacies are their tools and source of joy. BL must draw in more people to keep BL culture going. Commercialized BL we have today is the result of an affective culture formed over the years. It is built on years of labor of authors and their audience. I mean, look at the Unknown. This BL employs the well-developed Loyal Dog gong x Queen shou dynamics. Apart from that which the series took from the novel, it also drew upon other common BL beats to tease the relationship between Dr. Lin and his senior.  

Teaching BL literacies is political. When Mainland Chinese government gets dangai productions to change names and relationships of characters (among other things), it is to prevent live-action audience from discovering BL as a genre with it disruptive potential. It is not only character's names and relationships that are changed. There are entire sub-genres of danmei (such as 高干) that got wiped out by censorship.

When a Taiwanese BL not only retains the character names & relationships and shows relatively explicit intimate scenes but also actively promotes BL literacies, it is an act of resistance. Discussion of gong shou, being genre specialty, manages to do so. Interestingly, they are doing it in an adaptation of a novel by Priest who has a particular reputation with self-censorship. That scene is not part of the source novel.

Heterosexual & gong shou

Association of bottom with the feminine (female or otherwise) has its roots in medicalization (and pathologization) of homosexuality in the west (such as through theories by scientists and doctors like Richard von Krafft-Ebing). This “knowledge” subsequently spread across the globe and was adopted to varying degrees and forms.

Moreover, the terms gong and shou applies to heterosexual pairing too.

BG (boy girl) ships have male gong and female shou

GB (girl boy) ships have female gong and male shou. [If this is interesting unfamiliar territory, check out the series Dong Lan Xue (2023).]

Moreover, if one is willing to look beyond LGBTQIA+ form of queerness (which is born and brought up in America), one can see other queer possibilities. For example, Kothi-Panthi queerness in South Asia which is characterized by explicit presentation of top bottom dynamics. There are very many similar forms of queerness in other parts of Global South.

In many cultures, sexuality doesn’t inform identity but sexual preference does. That’s why is you are to ask a kothi-panthi couple which one of you is the bottom, the kothi would tell you without hesitation: “I am.” Might even asked you in turn, “Couldn’t you tell?” For them, sexual preference (being kothi) rather than sexual orientation takes center stage. This is the inverse of how LGBTQIA+ form of queerness looks at it. While LGBTQIA+ model of queerness focuses on sexual orientation (being pan, ace, gay, etc.) as something that can be freely discussed but sexual preference (top, bottom, versatile, side, etc.) is considered private.

*Just to be clear, “kothi” is a term of self-identification. It means that the person is a bottom. Panthi is not self-identification. That’s how kothi address the men who top them. 

While thanks to westernization LGBTQIA+ form of queerness enjoys more visibility, I think it is better to consider it as one type of queerness rather than the only model of queerness. Gong shou dynamics doesn’t fit into LGBTQIA+ form of queerness because it comes from another, much-older nanshoku model of queerness that made its way into Japan from China, hundreds of years ago. Friction between different models of queerness is common where ever they interact. In 1970s, Japan was witness to public debates between a younger, westernized Japanese queer activist Itō Satoru and other Japanese queer activists such as Fushimi Noriaki and Tōgō Ken who were rooted in indigenous tradition of male-male sexuality.

[Itō Satoru’s] insistence on the necessity of adopting western models of gay identity and coming out have brought him into conflict with other activists such as Fushimi Noriaki and veteran campaigner Tōgō Ken.

Interpretation and Orientalism: Outing Japan's Sexual Minorities to the English-Speaking World by Mark McLelland

Clarification

[Edited. Thank you @wen-kexing-apologist for contributing to the conversation.]

Under the LGBTQ+ model of queerness, it maybe considered inappropriate to have conversation about “top” “bottom”, especially in the office, going as far as to ask that to Qian ge. From that perspective, the BL audience (especially those who are unfamiliar with the terms gong and shou) are fair in their assessment of that scene being out of place or outright offensive.

I think things might have been a bit different if the subtitles retained the terms gong shou instead of “top” “bottom” since they aren’t exactly the same thing. That would have had the desired effect (of introducing BL literacies - gong shou in the context of 强强 (strong gong x strong shou) pairing) without unintended consequence.

What is considered rude under the LGBTQ+ framework is an essential part of fu culture. It is like addressing Wei Qian as just Qian – that could be considered rude in the original language but pretty normal in English. Different cultures, different norms, so to speak. It is only polite to be mindful of the cultural differences and avoid discussing about sexual preference where it is considered inappropriate.

As for the normalization of fu culture (especially discussions of gong shou), in my opinion the didactic scope of Unknown is undermined by the very fact that it is primarily a gǔkē danmei (via adoption (收养)) with tongyangxi vibes (highlighted multiple times by San Pang in the novel) associated with Wei ZhiYuan.

Somehow fu-culture gets judged by those who consume products of that culture. Everyone is happy with fu-cultural products as long as fu-people don't discuss who is gong and who is shou.

Why are fu-culture and BL always judged based on a culturally alien lgbtq+ form of queerness? Why must BL be arm-twisted to fit into norms of lgbtq+ form of queerness just because that is the most mainstream form of queerness?

-

That’s not much a conclusion but this is already so long. I really hope it gives you something to think about.

If you are interested, here's more.

[kyuushi]

I present (🎁) the character relationship chart from the first official fanbook! Big thanks to Pancake from the Kyuushi Discord server for the scans 🫶

The translation, cleaning, and typesetting were all done by me so please forgive any messiness & mistakes. But I'm always very open to feedback so feel free to reach out, especially if you notice tl issues!

Please don't repost the image around. You can just share the link to this post! (If I end up needing to make corrections, I will cry if an old incorrect version is floating around somewhere!!)

↓Some extra notes below the cut↓

****

I originally wanted to post this along with a more accessible version (aka text version) but unfortunately that would be a ton of extra work and I have other projects I'd like to spend my time on instead. I'm also not really knowledgeable about that stuff to begin with so I'm not sure what kind of format would be best for screen readers or other accessibility aids. If anyone else would like to take up the mantle and create a text version, please message me!

****

Translation Notes:

Mippiki: Written "３人と１匹" but read as "みっぴき," this word is very important to the Kyuushi fandom! It describes the main characters living in the office- Rona, Draluc, Hinaichi, and John. "Mi" comes from 3 and "ippiki" is how you would count 1 small animal, an armadillo in this case.

Sagyou's "hah? to respect ratio": The "hah?" here is like an exasperated sound he's making. In Japanese it was one of these babies: ぁ゙. So his frustration to respect ratio is 9 to 1.

Calling someone a typhoon/hurricane: I think this is probably self explanatory but since I don't think this is a common expression in English, I'll explain a bit. Basically it's likening someone to the chaos and power of a storm.

Shot's "filthy cool": In Japanese this is "ヨゴレかっこいい." I can't find instances of this phrase being used outside of Kyuushi so this seems to be a Bonnoki original? I've seen others tl this some different ways but I tried to make it sound kinda cool in English, though it also kinda makes no sense lol, sorry.

Tabiko being in the "vampires" section: Just in case anyone is confused, Tabiko is definitely a human. I think there just wasn't space to stick her anywhere else.

Manner calling Satetsu "big bro": "兄イ" in Japanese. I think most people recognize words like "onii-san" and "aniki" at this point but I'm not sure about just "anii" (also big brother) so I decided to tl it here. As you may have guessed, this is not him literally trying to adopt Satetsu as his brother, but rather a term of respect (albeit a teasing one). Satetsu is uncomfortable being called this, mostly because it reminds him of his embarrassing delinquent past.

Nagiri's nickname for John: I chose to keep this as "Maru" ("丸," literally "circle") just because I think it sounds like a cute nickname lol.

Fiasco calling Manner "spoiled rich boy": Originally "ボンボン" in Japanese. You might have heard a character called "bon" or even this kinda insulting version, "bonbon," before. It describes a young man from a rich family. I added "spoiled" because I thought it sounded too much like a complement just to call him "genius rich boy," even with "damn" in front 😂

Nuyan: John's "nu" combined with a dog's "wan" (bark). Remember that time Yomo hypnotized John into acting like a dog? That John never fully recovered from? Yeah.

****

As I said please do let me know if you spot any mistakes or have any questions or comments. You can even ask if you're just confused about who certain characters are or what the relationship arrow is indicating! Kyuushi has a ton of characters and they can be difficult to keep track of, especially for the English fandom which doesn't have access to all the materials.

Thanks if you actually read all of these walls of text 🫡

[legokingfisher]

Here to collect Riyu headcanons and maybe baby hippo videos

Hello hiii Riyu hcs be upon ye

He’s overly conscious of his surroundings (since he’s pretty big) to the point it affects his relationships with people. If that makes any goddamn sense. Like. He knows his size and strength have the potential to be physically dangerous on complete accident, so the fact he’s thinking about that 24/7 permeates deep into his brain and he ends up wondering if he’s being annoying or rude or attention-hogging during social interactions too. 90% of the time, he’s not— he’s an absolute sweetheart and is considerate as hell. But it causes him to put the wants and needs of others above himself all the time, unfortunately. It also makes him pretty hesitant to ask for help. (“Am I bothering them? Is this a bad time? Shouldn’t I already know this?”) So instead his main coping mechanism is escapism <- just like me for real

He’s been trying to learn to speak Common (…english??) physically/out loud, bc speaking it telepathically is Really Hard and bc he spends so much time amongst Common-speakers who don’t know Dragon (these people being… pretty much anyone outside the monastery) and would like to go out and about without having to always bring someone to translate or having to like… play fuckin charades just to order takeout or w/e.

Out of the other dragons at the monastery, he is most close with Heatwave since they happen to spend so much time together (Heatwave is usually around Wyldfyre, and Riyu/Wyldfyre hangout a lot; Heatwave also basks on the roof, which is something Riyu enjoys too). He sees Heatwave as a sort of older brother or uncle yk?

Aside from Lloyd’s ninja training, Riyu also gets combat training from Zanth, since in some ways it’s easier to learn that from someone who is Also huge and quadrupedal. Plus, Zanth is a pretty seasoned fighter (she traveled/adventured for a long ass time in my mind) so there’s not always overlap between what Zanth and Lloyd can teach him

He loves physical affection!!! He loves it when the others lean on him, sleep near/with him, hug him, etc. Feels nice plus it reassures him that he’s not some Big And Scary Thing to non-dragons. He certainly doesn’t mind when the others ride on his back— they’re pretty light to him.

Once he gets the hang of spinjitsu, his tornado is a bright blue with streaks of dark blue as well as gold

Once he gets the hang of Rising Dragon, it makes his eyes and wings glow the same colors as his spinjitsu, as opposed to him having some larger spectral dragon behind him like the other ninja do when they use Rising Dragon

He is definitely not a picky eater and doesn’t have any sensitivities/texture/smell issues either— bro was literally eating garbage in Cinder’s debut episode in s2p1 he literally doesn’t care

His favorite color is dark green bc it’s the color of his matriarch’s scales :)) he’s also pretty fond of orange, pink, and red bc of Arin, Sora, and Wyldfyre

He has a one-of-a-kind pair of headphones that work with his crazy ass head shape that Sora custom-built for him, and he loves just flying around the mountains near the monastery whilst listening to music

Yes this means he has a tablet to play said music off of. Yes Sora has also made alterations to it so it’s easier for him to use it (i would say phone but it would be way too small for him to comfortably use)

And baby hippo video for u as requested i fucking love that thing:

[wavy-arms]

"You shouldn't ship them! They see each other as siblings!!"

I've seen people say this about Rengoku and Mitsuri again and again, very often as a way to shut down others who are having fun with the Renmitsu ship. Not only is it annoying to constantly run into this from people who don't really know what they're talking about, but it's also inaccurate and way oversimplifies their cute dynamic! Let's dig deeper.

For a moment, let's also just forget about the above panel where she is very obviously all 🥰 at him and, instead, let's go straight to the source: what the Pillars all think about each other in the official guidebook. Better yet, let's look at it in the original Japanese!

Now, I am still a student of Japanese. I am by no means fluent, so if I make any mistakes, please feel free to let me know! I'm always looking to learn something new.

First, from Rengoku:

才能が凄い！技の独創性も凄い！可愛い後輩！

Sainō ga sugoi! Waza no dokusō-sei mo sugoi! Kawaii kōhai!

In the first two sentences, he's praising her big time! "Her talent is amazing! The creativity/ingenuity of her technique is also amazing!" In the last sentence, he calls her a cute kōhai. If you're familiar with the term senpai, then kōhai is the alternative. It's just a term to refer to a junior coworker or classmate. Mitsuri joins the Demon Slayer Corps. after him, and he was her mentor before he became the Flame Hashira. (However, in the Rengoku gaiden, he tells her that they are no longer master & student, but instead equal peers. Overall, he clearly thinks she's very skilled and also cute.

Next, from Mitsuri:

かっこいいお兄様！一緒に修行して楽しかった。可愛がってもらった！

Kakkoii onii-sama! Issho ni shugyō shite tanoshikatta. Kawaigatte moratta!

The first sentence, translated literally, just says "Cool big brother!" Now, one thing that makes Japanese both fun and difficult is that speakers often rely on context and omit entire parts of the sentence that an English speaker would normally use. In this case, in English, you wouldn't just say "Cool big brother!" You might say something like "He's like a cool big brother to me" or "I view him as a cool big brother figure." In this case, we don't have that. What we do have, however, is cultural context! In Japanese culture, familial terms are often used as terms of endearment or respect with people close to the speaker or even politely with strangers. So it would be normal to call an older male "big brother" even if they weren't actually your brother. (Kind of similarly, if you're at all familiar with Korean culture, girls often call their own boyfriends 오빠 (obba), which means — you guessed it — "older brother.") Here, Mitsuri refers to Rengoku as onii-sama, and that last part is important! The -sama suffix is super polite and formal, and long story short, you wouldn't normally refer to someone in your own in-group (family, circle of friends, etc.) with such a formal, respectful title. It is, however, a term you might use to refer to someone else's brother. So there's a very good chance that she's not saying "he's my cool older brother" but instead "he's a cool older brother!" And he is! He's an amazing older brother to Senjurō, and Mitsuri knows this. [UPDATE: I've spoken with a couple people who know way more about the Japanese language than me and, apparently, in this context onii-sama literally just means "guy." 🤣 She's literally just saying "He's a cool guy!"]

[UPDATE #2: I've also recently learned that kakkoii doesn't really mean "cool," but is instead a compliment specifically to men that means something more like, "good-looking, handsome, or cool in a manly way." INTERESTING. 👀]

In the next sentence, she says, "It was fun training together!" Pretty straightforward. The last sentence is very, very interesting, because at a cursory translation, Google would tell you that it just straight-up means, "I was loved!" Sounds intense, but that's not really accurate. Let's break it down. Kawaigatte moratta! Kawaigatte, if I'm not mistaken, is an inflection of the transitive verb kawaigaru, which Jisho translates as "to be affectionate to; to treat tenderly; to dote on; to show one's love (for); to cherish." Other translations usually say something like, "He really doted on me." But essentially she’s saying, "He treated me with tenderness/affection" or, "He made me feel loved/cherished." 💖

So there you go! Not that a fan ship like Renmitsu even needs this kind of validation anyway, but it might be nice to have something you can keep in your back pocket for the next time someone is being annoying about it. There's enough here to show that they really have a lot of affection for each other. They're so adorable~!

(Side note: there are other examples of Mitsuri's attraction to him in the gaiden [pictured above] and in at least one of the light novels. I might write about that, too.)

[total-drama-brainrot]

Deep diving into Alejandro's ethnicity and family because the show is vague with how both are portrayed, and I'm pedantic:

Off the bat, we know that he was born in 🇪🇸 Spain. Or at least, that's what his wiki page says, so I'm sure it's mentioned in some kind of canon content (the show, the character interviews, the creators' stating it, ect). He often times speaks en español, either by replacing words and phrases in otherwise English sentences or cussing out his team in an entirely spanish confession. His name is also rooted in Spanish origin; 'Alejandro' is the Spanish equivalent of Alexander, and his surname 'Burromuerto' literally translates to "Dead Donkey", likely a combination of the idioms "beating a dead horse" and "no ver tres en un burro", translation: can't see three on a donkey; akin to 'blind as a bat'.

I could go on about the symbolism of his name(s) and how it relates to his performance on Total Drama, but that's not essential to the topic at hand so I'll go over it later.*

With this in mind, the show really wants us to believe that he's Spanish, or at the very least Hispanic.

In Chinese Fake-Out, we learn that he won a gold medal at the South American Skate Olympics, so he presumably lived somewhere in South America in his childhood. On the wiki, it claims that he moved to Latin America soon after he was born. His comment in the same episode about eating barbequed guinea pigs where he grew up had a lot of people deducing that he lived in 🇵🇪 Peru since guinea pig is famously a delicacy there. The question begs, why would Alejandro and the rest of the Burromuertos move to Peru from Spain?

We know that Alejandro's father is a diplomat, so uprooting the family to a new country could be related to his work, but I doubt a diplomat would settle down and start a family just to go through the hassle of moving them halfway across the world to a random country, regardless of his salary.

What other reason would anyone have for dragging their brood across the sea? To see their extended family.

Family is a big character motivation for Alejandro: he has a lot of pride in being a Burromuerto and often times complains about disappointing his family or being susceptible to José's teasing when his plans don't work out. Pride is a staple of the Burromuertos; they even have a family code they abide by. That kind of mindset is usually generational, implying that his parents place the same emphasis on the presentation and opinions of their family.

The most glaring example of this mindset is the hate fuelled rivalry between Alejandro and José, which was sparked by their desperate need to be the "better son". The main goal of the Burromuerto brothers is familial recognition. Understandable, when your parents are too successful to raise you themselves, any kid would be desperate for their attention. Since their competition was allowed to escalate to the point of mutual loathing, their parents probably encouraged their behaviour; when you value familial reputation over everything of course you want your children to continuously prove themselves. (Poor Al is just full of complex familial trauma, from his parents' neglect to his brothers' bullying to the incredible pressure he's put under to succeed. No wonder he's like that.)

After seeing how the brothers are willing to go to extremes for the sake of family, it's reasonable that parents sharing that mindset would move across an ocean just to see their relatives (and likely compete with them, after all even a younger Alejandro was showing up everyone in South America's skateboarding scene).

Suggesting that either one or both of his parents, or grandparents, are Latin American. For simplicities sake, we'll say that Alejandro's dad is Spanish (as he carries the surname), and his mother is Peruvian (since Peru is the assumed country they moved to).

That means that the brothers qualify as both Hispanic and Latino. Alejandro's latin blood really is canon, and the stereotypical 'Latin Lover' archetype he fills (alongside the "Archvillain" he's titled as) is all the more accurate. He's evidently very proud of both heritages.

To clarify, the Burromuertos moved to Peru when Alejandro was young to be with his Mother's side of the family.

If we want to really wade into the theoretical waters, I'd like to suggest that Alejandro's father left Spain because he disgraced himself/his family in some way, and that's why he's so insistent on his sons restoring the family pride and prestige.

So, I've established Alejandro's ethnicity and touched on the bare-bones basics of his home life. But what about his other brother, or his uncle? You know, the characters that were mentioned once and never expanded upon. Don't worry, I've got notes on them too.

Carlos: The eldest child and a professional soccer player. Alejandro doesn't mention anything about a rivalry with Carlos. Instead, he suggests the two share a healthier bond as Carlos taught him soccer skills. 'Carlos' the name is a Spanish variant of Charles, meaning "free man". Fitting, since it's widely assumed that Carlos escaped from the Burromuerto home's harmful environment at his first opportunity and 'freed himself' from their high expectations/standards, hence why he doesn't engage in the family-typical hypercompetitive bullying. A somewhat common fandom troupe I've seen is Carlos being disowned by the Burromuertos, and post-World Tour/All-Stars Alejandro reconnecting with him after he too is disowned.

Uncle Julio: The hypnotist. All we really know about Julio is his name and occupation, but it's enough to pin him down as Alejandro's maternal uncle. Alejandro states that he learned hypnosis from Julio in The EX-Files; as he grew up in Peru, the only family he reasonably could have interacted with outside of the nuclear unit would be his mother's relatives. His comment "manipulation runs in the family" is never ascribed to the Burromuertos by name, which adds to the implication that Julio isn't his father's brother, as any skill as useful as hypnosis would definitely be branded under his surname otherwise. Additionally, 'Julio' as a name is derivative of the Latin Julius or Julianus (meaning "Devoted to Jove/Jupiter", the Roman incarnation of Zeus, though I can't find any meaning in this applicable to his character), and not a strictly Spanish name like those of Alejandro and his brothers. Instead, it's common in most Hispanic and Latin American countries.

José: The middle child and Alejandro's source of his lingering childhood trauma, if the aversion to the nickname "Al" is anything to go by, I've already written about their relationship. The name 'José' is a Spanish variant of Joseph, which means "to add/give" in it's simplest interpretation. He sure does give Alejandro a tonne of issues, so I suppose it tracks.

*And finally, analysing the symbolism of Alejandro's name.

Alejandro, derived from Alexander, meaning "warrior" and "man's defender". Though in Al's case, it's likely a reference to Alexander the Great as opposed to the name's literal meaning/origins- Alejandro conquered the competition like Alexander conquered his empire.

Burromuerto's double idioms combine "beating a dead horse donkey" with "blind as a bat", likely as a convoluted way to say he's blinding the dead donkey; in this case, the beaten dead horse donkey is the OG cast of Total Drama who have already been milked for two seasons of content and have little left to offer (therefore, the third season is the beating of the dead horse, as its' an attempt to force content out of a resource with nothing left to give. that's why they added two more competitors, if that makes any sense? I'm not sure if I'm explaining this well enough,) and Alejandro is deceiving or 'blinding' them through his manipulations.

Obviously, this is all speculation written by someone with too much free time and no expertise. All of my knowledge/facts come from google searches and connecting dots that likely have no real links to each other. I'm not an authority on any subject. Keep that in mind, please.

Feel free to add your own opinions/thoughts! Or correct things that are be wrong!

[goldtracing]

APH Russia – Headcanons I

I would like to point out that I originally wrote this before 24.02.2022 and didn’t publish this until now due to current event. Now I have decided just to go ahead these are low-budget anime characters that I’m talking about and f anybody who links this to ongoing geopolitical events

Is surprisingly proficient in German and French. Both were court languages of his at the one or the other point in history, his German also being spread amongst the wider populace and influencing Russian. Speaks both languages with a bit of an accent, yet if he puts enough effort in it, his accent can be nearly untraceable.

As for other languages – he is also fluent in Tatar and Mongolian, although in the later he is far better with speaking and listening than writing. This is also the case with all the other languages spoken in his territory. This is due to his past under the khans. As for English and Chinese – with both he tends to be on the very formal side, with his speech precise and usually devoid of slang and abbreviations. It is because he learned much of those two languages from literature or also scientific reports.

When it comes to Russian he can be very eloquent, having a preference for puns and other plays of words. Can and will criticise others for their grammar, although if he is public and in a formal setting, he would be more tactful and quiet about remarking it.

Has a penchant for literature and opera and plays. Visits the theatre regularly and knows all the ballets by heart. Personally keeps a small notebook where he critiques and rates books and performances. Sometimes he sends them in to a newspaper or an online site.

Writes poety in his free time and sends some of them to his sisters or humans that are close to him at the time. Can also recite all of Pushkin’s poems in his sleep.

Aside from that, he has a love for fairy tales. Not the sanitised, censored versions that Disney and the Grimm brother’s have made so popular, rather the cautionary tales as they were actually intended, The brutal versions where people suffer and suffer and suffer.

Else has written multiple essays and the human condition, often taking characters for classics to elaborate on his points. These are texts that near nobody has seen. Ivan has split them up and hidden them on his various properties.  

Has taken formal dance lessons in ballet and the classics. Loves to dance at balls and is surprisingly elegant while doing so for somebody his size. However, he really shies away from dancing tango, salsa and other dances where both partners get really close and even handsy with each other. If at all, he would have to be really close to his dance partner to even contemplate to doing the Latin American dances.

Other than that, he is also good when it comes to folk dances and possess enough stamina to dance dances such as the Barynya for hours. Has the appropriate leg muscles and flexibility.

Surprisingly, (or not) his dancing skills translate into his fighting style. Can go on for hours without taking any enhancements or sleeping, all while remaining smooth and precise in his movements, like they been choreographed and practised time and time again. He can make difficult movement seem easy.

For centuries he favoured combat with a sword. One of his favourite ones was a curved sabre – a kilij – that he stole as a war trophy from Turkey when the latter was the Ottoman empire. Later, he evolved to be a crack shot with the pistole – he got caught up in a lot of duels when they came into fashion. During the WWII, he was part of a tank crew. Due to the tight space of the T-34, he often suffered sore joints and cramps in his muscles. Also developed an especially thick skull during this time, both literally and metaphorically.

Ivan has participated in the making of multiple movies as an advisor. He makes sure that historical films are historically accurate. Seeing that Russia is big on war movies, Ivan has a lot to do.

Additionally, he is quite a patron for the arts. He has multiple oil paintings in his old mansion. Personally, he paints either an impressionist art style or in the vividly coloured art styles that are native to Russia, such as Gzhel, Khokhloma and Zhostovo.

Adding on to that – there is nothing in his homes that is really plain. He has a sense for the aesthetically pleasing and even opulence. The woodwork is carved and whittled, the ceramic adorn with paintings and the metal work ornate. His living surroundings might have been a bit plainer during Soviet times, however I think he would have pulled a few strings that would have allowed him to keep his old possessions.

[thyandrawrites]

idk if you can answer this but do you know if the bllk characters are as crazy and rude with their dialogue in the original japanese manga too like with the fan translation? sorry for any english mistake. hope you have a good week :)

your english is fine, don't worry!

good question, by the way. Thank you for sending it my way because it gave me the opportunity to skim a few chapters in japanese, and I got a good chuckle from some of the things I found.

So. About the reply. Are they still crazy? yes. What about rude then? this one is more fun to answer. As a general rule of thumb, japanese dialogue often has a lot less curse-words and random insults thrown around, just because japanese as a language relies on other things to be rude. Mainly, socially inadequate registers, directness, and lack of honorifics. For the most part this holds true for blue lock as well. Some of the times you see the character cussing out, in japanese there are no swear words, but just more direct or otherwise less polite lines. See: in the last chapter, Karasu's "dumdums" isn't there in japanese. I know. I'm heartbroken about that too.

BUT. I guess blue lock breaks from the norm even in this respect. A lot of its most... colorful language, even in translation, is true to the original lines, actually. Lemme just bring up three of my favourite examples.

yep. he says all that. he literally calls him "mountain of vomit and shit big brother" saljkfjankfsja Rin, you sure have a way with words. A true poet of our time.

Then there's Yukki.

Oh, Yukki.

In japanese this line is "お前カイザーと同類のマウント糞野郎だわ" (omae kaizaa to dourui no maunto kusoyarou da wa) which cracks me up because he's almost echoing Rin above. What's phrased as "self-serving shithead" here, if translated literally, is even more colorful in japanese. Kusoyarou means piece of shit, while maunto is "mountain" (the same word that got translated as "pile" in Rin's line). So Yukki is more or less not just calling Isagi a piece of shit, but a whole mountain of shit. Talk about extra. "Shithead" is a good workaround to make the line more natural in english but I feel like it isn't quite as funny as the original, lmao

And then, of course. Isagi's response.

snalfkna I kid you not this is an almost word by word translation of what he's saying. The only thing that isn't there in japanese is the "narcissist" part (he just says "fucker" but the rest is there. Yep. Even that.

So yes, the boys are still rude assholes in the original japanese manga as well, haha

With one caveat: from what I've seen, the official translation is much more accurate to the og phrasing than any of the fan scanlations. The former tends to maintain as much of the nuance as possible, while fan scans sometimes miss some details. The latter also tend to add more swears or downright mistranslate bits at times

[porcupine-girl]

Did you enjoy Yibo's NYE performances?

Sure, we were all psyched for him to perform Observer, but did you like the surprise duet he did earlier in the show?

If so, I am here to tell you about the guy he was singing with - because Yibo loves him, and so should you!

That! Is Da Zhangwei!

He wrote that song! He was one of Yibo's cohosts on Tiantian Xiang Shang (also known by the terrible translation Day Day Up), and you know Yibo's TTXS cohosts were his family. His big brothers. It's how he got his reputation as a ge collector.

This is DZW's other NYE performance, which is a bit more representative of his usual aesthetic:

If you like either of those songs/performances, read on to learn more about why you should definitely be paying attention to this guy.

(Sorry most of these videos don't have English subs. But most are music so at least you can find the lyrics online.)

First off, DZW didn't just write this song and then perform it with Yibo (and give Han-ge a shoutout afterward). He then posted this video, basically shouting "I wrote this song because I miss my TTXS bros!" (The lyric being repeated here is "I will miss you")

I mean, I don't know for a fact that he wrote it about them. But I do know that he literally DID write a song about Yibo once. This is a thing he has done before. It's called Cool Guy:

But the fact that he and Yibo are on each other's lists of favorite people is only the beginning, and definitely not why I became obsessed with him.

Da Zhangwei fun facts:

You'll find him on English-language sites like Spotify and iTunes under his English stage name, Wowkie Da. People also often refer to him as DLS or Da-Laoshi, showing how respected he is in the music industry.

He started a band (花兒樂隊, The Flowers), wrote all the music for said band, and had his first hit, 静止 (Static), in 1999 - when he was 16 years old. Like all his music, it's catchy as fuck. (To go back to Yibo for just a second, I'm guessing they bonded over having to deal with fame from a really young age.)

(Yes, the guy sticking his tongue out at the camera up there is 40 years old.)

Da Zhangwei is actually a stage name, too. His real name is Zhang Wei (so you'll occasionally find him as Wowkie Zhang), but that's such a common name that when he started his career he started going by "Big Zhangwei" - which is hilarious given that he was a scrawny teenager.

He continued to write pretty much all the band's music for the next decade. (Here's a whole concert from probably 2007ish). Then when they broke up in 2009 he started his solo career, also writing all his own music.

静止 was an angsty teenage anthem, but since then his aesthetic, both songwriting-wise and visually, has tended toward upbeat and cute.

I think it's safe to say he's leaned into this even more since going solo. Some of his recent hits: 撒花/Scatter Flowers, 一个Nice, 满怀可爱所向披靡 / Full of Cuteness and Invincible, and 万物盛开法则 / Law of All Things Blooming, from above.

However, don't be fooled! This just means that when he writes something sad, it's absolutely heartbreaking. Examples include 永远唱不完的歌/The Song That Doesn't End (above) and 我的深情就是个笑话/My Affection Is Just A Joke.

In addition to hosting TTXS, he has become a staple on all sorts of variety shows, both for music and comedy.

I found him via Season 3 of Our Song, where some of his accomplishments included creating a mashup of 12 different songs, from traditional Chinese folk music and opera to his own 撒花, and turning "your team will do 3 songs" into an entire 3-act musical (link is to the whole episode, since the 3 songs are alternating with the other team, but the other team is AMAZING with people you should get to know too). ETA I forgot about this compilation I did of clips from some of his Our Song performances!

He got to meet the Rolling Stones earlier this year! There's a translator but he's so excited he keeps breaking in while she's trying to ask his questions. His English is really good (if heavily accented), and he has a tendency to throw it in completely unnecessarily to both his performances and random conversation.

He's been on this show for a few seasons called Who's the Murderer? - basically, the same cast plays out a different murder mystery improv each episode. I haven't watched it yet but I've been meaning to - the latest season is on YT with English subs.

His birthday is the day after mine.

Want to see more? His tag is not very busy, but I try to reblog most things to @da-zhangwei. Feel free to contact me by any standard Tumblr method if you want more links!

Tagging people who said they'd be open to getting pulled into my Cpop fandoms, even though I don't have the edited Our Song episodes yet (consider this a preview): @json-derulo @poetry-protest-pornography @emmajanereading @percy-persephone @nuttysaladtree @thelima-aka-chickwriter @writergamermom @oneringtorulethem @trickybonmot @lovebird17 @erza155hasleftthebuilding

[jestiamy]

LMK mandarin dub (and how characters address eachother) ; an old and. mostly unfinished project I was working on a bit ago. only got mk & mei, alongside past swk & macaque

mk (qi xiaotian) calls mei (long xiaojiao) her full name, and she does the same inversely. I did not find any notable exceptions, but to be honest I did not look very hard. if anyone is interested in seeing how they call eachother in specific episodes or whatever ; send me an ask and I'm open to looking. but I don't feel like combing every single episode to try and find them aimlessly.

my full notes on past macaque (liu'er mihou) and monkey king (sun wukong) via the flashbacks in the season four special. notably, I've yet to go through the flashback in season four episode two yet. I can only talk about part one of the special.

peach tree segment :

- Sun Wukong greats Liu'er Mihou (swk and lmh will be used as shortenings henceforth.) with his full name. followed quickly by Xiongdi/兄弟. literally composed of the characters for Elder Brother and Younger Brother - used as 'bro,' sort of. it's a way men call close friends/comrades. notably doesn't denote that one or the other is older or younger.*

* age and respect is like. a really big deal in chinese culture. really really big. I'm assuming everyone in the brotherhood refers to eachother as XiongDi to denote that they see themselves as on equal standing. though don't quote me (I'm not an expert; I did most of this post in. january. and stuff like this can get confusing when it comes to immortals)

- lmh greets swk as 'Hou Wang Bixia'/猴王陛下 - [pronoun] majesty, the monkey king. the pronoun in question is between his majesty, your majesty, my majesty. pretty sure this is translated as 'my king' in the english dub, so I'm leaning towards my majesty. the way swk reacts ('come on, don't be like that! eat some fruit, enjoy the sunshine!') as well as how he delivers it can make it very safe to assume this is not a sincere term of address on lmh's half.

mountain segment :

-lmh greets swk as xiongdi. when swk replies, swk calls lmh his full name.

-when lmh rants at swk for his inability to consider others, he calls him Sun Dasheng/孫大聖 - great sage sun. intended to highlight his arrogance within context. also, with consideration, I personally believe to put an emotional distance. (pretty sure he says 'great sage wukong' sarcastically within the dub, or something of the ilk, which is rather close to it's like. tonal goal. though it is missing the fact lmh calls swk by his last name, a rare occurance in mandarin. from observation I think it's usually only to show. really high respect? don't quote me though.) it's a variant shortening of his full title, Qitian Dasheng (great sage equal to heaven.)

* notably, lmh does not call swk a demon/variant of demon at any point, which is contrary to the english dub. shortly before calling swk sun dasheng, he says exactly - "你已经着了魔" ; which can be translated as 'you are possessed,' but I'd say it's closer to other translations like you're obsessed/you're obsessive.

I'm, ironically, struggling to find the mandarin dub of season four (I remember having literally the exact opposite problem around this time last year but you know. life goes that way sometimes.) when I do find it, though, I'll be quick to note it down ; though I don't think they directly address eachother in that. so.

mostly this was a pet project for. me. I realized it was actually really hard to find people who noted this stuff down and I was like. hey you know what. why not. though due to extenuating circumstances I ended up too busy to finish it ; I still thought what I already had was pretty interesting. though I don't really go into as much detail as I could have, as I was assuming I'd be noting a lot more character dynamics in this post than I did

[rjthirsty]

Rhodolite, Monogamy, & Polyamory

If you've played Ikemen Prince, you're aware that there are 8 half-brothers under one former king, all born within a 12-ish year timespan. That's a lot of women to be boinking and impregnating. And while it's totally feasible (cue the guy that had 36 kids from multiple women within 20 years or some wild shit), it brought into question what Rhodolite's marriage and relationship status quo was.

The former king only had one queen, Chevalier's mother. But judging from the estimated ages of all the guys, she was still alive when Leon was born, and his mother was also a noble woman. And considering the time that Leon's mother was still around when Yves was born, that would leave two sets of two noble women both married to the king, with children, at the same time period. Leon states in his route that the king had "other wives and other children" which meant that while not formally accepted or ascended to the throne, they were still his "wife" and not mistress. Meaning we can conclude that the king had multiple marriages whether for political reasons or personal, not all the mothers were mistresses. This really only applies to the mothers that were noble in some way, because Clavis' and Luke's mothers were not involved with the king except for conception, and we know Jin's mother was married to the king. Licht and Nokto's mother is a little bit of a mystery, and while I have guesses, I'm not going to make a call on that at the moment.

Now, this could be summed up as a translation issue since English and Japanese have different ideas for words that mean similar things. Maybe the women were "lovers" or concubines of some sort; the king would have a harem of women to produce sons, and all would be elevated to the royal court in some fashion, but only one was crowned queen. This is entirely possible. The problem is that in English when we try to label what sort of position this is, it comes with many negative connotations such as "mistresses" being secret lovers with no status, or concubines being considered sex and pleasure objects with no regard to the person, just the symbol. So we don't have an easy, equal alternative to label a woman that sits in a position of authority but is not a "wife". This is honestly a failing on English more than anything, imo. The way women were considered property for so long is seen in the terms we have for them.

But enough with all that depressing talk, let's get on to the REALLY interesting thing. Monogamy NOT being the norm.

It is never explicitly stated that monogamy is expected or even normal in Rhodolite. I admit, when I was reading the story for the first time, and even nearly two years into the game, I had been coming at it with the perspective that monogamy was normal and expected, because just like heteronormativity, monogamy is considered the "normal" thing and thus never questioned. But this is literally never brought up in the game.

I thought the game was just very sex positive in the way everyone's sleeping with everyone else. I thought they were depicting nobility as having sex parties because that's just what they did. (I don't know, I hated history and don't look into it. Tell me that drunken orgies were the norm and I'd say okay!) The way that Belle and one of the dudes would end up in sexy times sometimes outside of an actual relationship was refreshing and while it still came with the "I can only fuck people I love" from Belle's perspective, I thought it was still nice for it to not be a wait until marriage or forever after.

But what if it wasn't sex positivity? What if it's just not a big fucking deal to sleep with people because monogamy isn't the status quo? The only time monogamy comes up is treated more like exclusivity. It's hot because it's possessive-lite, but it isn't "we're a couple, you can't sleep with others", it's "I'm the only one that gets to see this" which means that it isn't a rule so much as a desire and possessiveness that needs to be stated. And that's kinda cool, when you think about it. In the way it is being presented, there doesn't seem to be a negative relationship with sex outside of a committed relationship. I'm all for that.

Monogamy is cool for those it works for. But open relationships, poly relationships, and anything else out there is also cool for those it works for. And it's just nice to see that being (silently) established as normal without having to make reasons or excuses for it. Even combing through all the event stories I can recall, I don't think there's one time that someone said, "I'm married, so I'm not interested in sex." And while that is easy to overlook because monogamy is expected in our (US) society, the absence of it is something to note, and could lead to monogamy not being expected.

In conclusion, I've decided that all relationships are valid in Rhodolite, and while other countries might not have the same freedom, I'm going to put it into my fanfics and headcanon for my country of many princes.

[star-lovex]

Love at first sight [Lo'ak]

Work translated into English with help

Spanish version uploaded

Lo'ak x reader (Na'vi) Warnings: Because it is translated there are several expressions or words that are not understood but if you have any questions do not hesitate to let me know. apart from this nothing Fictional content for the fun and enjoyment of readers! Rights to the creator of the movie 'Avatar' and its characters Use of name created by me to not use y/n or ___ Name: Lua

                                                   ------💧------

When the Sullys landed on the island in front of its inhabitants, they were welcomed by the chiefs along with contemptuous, curious looks, among many more particularly negative emotions.

Jake explaining the situation they were in and that they were only seeking shelter, it was difficult to talk due to the situation, but they came to an agreement.

Neytiri, Jake's partner and mother of those children who tried to follow their father's orders, without giving a bad impression and treating each one with respect.

The village chief decided to give them refuge in his bed and ordered all his brothers and sisters to treat them as one of their own, determined that they would teach the Sullys how they lived and what they had to achieve in order to survive on the islands.

Tsireya majestically came out of the water, drawing the attention of the Sullys, some more than others, such as the older brothers who stared at her due to her sudden appearance and surprised by the different abilities that these na'vi had.

The girl gave them a smile to turn around and search the crowd for her friend, she looks at her brother giving him a look that he could quickly interpret, his only response was a quick look at the sea, making her understand everything.

Our protagonist was a lover of the ocean, she could spend hours and hours by the sea among all the creatures and biomes, thanks to that she began to create her own work in the village, she dedicated herself to research, representing everything in drawings that were not so clean but that were could understand, making mental maps with which it would help in various situations.

But not everything is so perfect, her friends hardly saw her outside the ocean and they cared greatly for her, even though the waters were beautiful places, they didn't take away the danger in them.

The daughter of the chiefs was one of those friends, thanks to Eywa, before she began to walk to the water in search of her friend, she saw her on top of one of the rocks, but she noticed that she was not the only one who had found her, the Sullys were looking at her because of her interaction and practice with her friend from the sea.

He made trick attempts with his Ilu, having fun demonstrating it with his big smile and sometimes laughing that escaped him.

- Oh, I see that they already found Lua, she is one of our best apprentices, she can help with her knowledge about the culture and places of our village- Tonowari spoke, the Olo'eyktan looking with a certain pride that only those who paid attention noticed

Lo'ak was hypnotized so to speak, that girl had somehow been able to get his attention in seconds apart from looking at her for a while he also noticed her beauty and splendor that made him quickly embarrassed for which he looked away in an attempt to stop those stupid thoughts and try to hide that that sight did not change anything in him.

’I think now I have more interest in this place’’

                                                  ------💨------

After that overwhelming situation, they began to get to know what their new home would be, one of the most important was to learn to move correctly through the sea because if they could not achieve this they would be in great trouble since they are literally on a reef that is surrounded constantly water.

Quickly Tsireya, who was the one who was most interested in their learning, noticed too many errors in their technique, but the one that had to be dealt with the most was the way they breathed.

She instructed all the brothers to breathe correctly, but some had a harder time than others, during one of those classes she decided to invite someone who she was sure could help them.

When the Sullys arrived they were surprised to see that girl who was with their Ilu that day

- Oh, you're the girl who was with the Ilu! - Said little Tuk with emotion in her eyes

-Guys, this is Lua and I thought it would be fun and help you in your lessons- Tsireya introduced

-A pleasure, my name is Neteyam, he is my brother Lo'ak and they are kiri together with Tuk, my sisters- The eldest of the brothers was encouraged to say

-A pleasure, I will try to help you get to know our village-

After the presentation, the breathing lesson began, the girls from the Metkayina clan demonstrated the technique and then saw how the Sullys tried to use it.

The girls on their side could deal with the technique little by little, neteyam had the odd complication, but he was able to achieve something unlike Lo'ak who had a hard time keeping up

Lua, in an attempt to help him, explained to him that he had to do the best possible so that he understood and could adapt to her, in the middle of the explanation the girl explained that she had to calm her heartbeat to be able to breathe more. , while in turn placing one hand on his chest and the other closer to his abdomen, trying to help but unknowingly did the opposite, no matter how hard he tried to calm his heart rate, Lo'ak could not do it no matter how hard he tried. Try, seeing the girl who caught his eye in just a minute and feeling her hands on his body was too much of a shock for him, a small and almost invisible blush began to appear on the cheeks and ears of the younger Sully.

Everyone, just by looking at them, understood the situation, but all Lua saw was that she couldn't instruct her student correctly and that bothered her in a certain way.

                                                  ------💨------

With the passage of days and lessons, they began to adapt to the reef and in turn managed to deepen or start friendships with its inhabitants.

Most of the family was happy with their current situation except for one.

Lo'ak, he was frustrated and closed in his mind since arrival, his parents as well as his brothers noticed that and some worried except Kiri and Tuk.

Kiri just watching his brother fully understood what was happening to him and Tuk witnessing an interaction quickly predicted something.

His brother began to feel attracted to that girl, but he had never felt anything like this, so he did not understand what he was feeling.

Neteyam noticed the behavior in him, and to help decided to talk to him and let him vent.

- What's up Lo'ak? You've been strange since we arrived, our parents are beginning to worry, I understand that it's hard to be nice to Ao'nung and his stupid friends, but—The older man began trying to understand, but being interrupted

-It's not that- the younger answered, looking at his brother with a frown

- So what is it? - I ask

"It's nothing important" he answered running his eyes.

-Tell me-

-No-

-Let's go tell me-

-Not-

-Come on just tell me and you- He interrupted him

-Well, I don't understand what's happening with me!- He shouted already tired of his brother's insistence

"I don't understand..." he said confused.

-Since I saw her, I'm strangely distracted and I don't know how but since I saw her for only a second she caught my attention and that's impossible.- He expressed despair, rarely did Lo'ak focus so deeply on something other than fighting or doing problems, he had never been interested in a girl

-Who are you talking about- Did Lua call your attention?- The second Neteyam connecting threads was able to predict the situation and finally understand his brother

-. . .-

-Wait wait, do you like Lua?- I ask with a mischievous and mocking smile at the same time

-NOT! I say yes! DIG- I don't know!- Shout shocked, I never considered that possibility for which I had never wondered that

-Let's see, tell me how you feel or what is happening to you that you don't understand- He tried to investigate his brother to see if his intention was correct

-Um... when I saw her, what she was doing caught my attention, how she was trying various tricks with her Ilu that I had never seen, then the smile and laughter that she brought out of that simple situation, her hair next to her skin different from ours just like that her eyes later during her lesson I felt nervous, anxious or something like that when I saw her so close and the contact of her hands is strange because Mama did that and I haven't felt anything like it since then- Reasoned Lo'ak trying to vent his little knowledge

-Like! Look when you feel attraction, it's normal not to be able to stop seeing her and appreciate small acts that you wouldn't pay attention to in someone else but from what you say, not only does she attract you, you literally like her- Her brother explained, he didn't have too many similar situations either, but just the same that his mother was a curious person, so he tried to find out about the subject

"Do I like her?" He asked himself in search of an answer.

-Only your Lo'ak knows that, I think you should get to know her more and investigate your feelings to be sure- Neteyam said before patting him on the back and leaving the place

"I'll do this, I have to get rid of the doubt" He said determined, just looking at the full moon, unconsciously promising the start of something

                                                  ------💭------

Author's note: Hello! his is my first work translated into English, I will make more avatar content and maybe some of my favorite characters, I will be open to requests or ideas but know that I just started on Tumblr but I want to collaborate within the Avatar fandom. I saw the 2nd movie and I fell in love again with all the characters but I had to do one of Lo'ak with the theme of love at first sight, I will do more with other themes and maybe a second part of this one I accept constructive criticism and corrections (obviously with respect in between) because I really seek to improve and I would love to know your opinion

[linkspooky]

Jujutsu Kaisen, Chapter 204 Thoughts. 

I thought I was not going to have much to say about this week’s chapter, because it is mainly fighting, however, I read a tweet about opening words that got cut out of the English Translation of the chapter. 

“A life they never asked for, but more brothers than they could hope for. 

 A special warmth that is a pillar for his heart there….! Choso and his brothers stand firmly together as one!” 

Which just perfectly summarizes how Choso embodies all of the positives of a sibling relationship. Let’s talk about what Jujutsu Kaisen has to say about siblings underneath the cut. 

1. Big Brother. 

What is unique about Choso is that his entire character revolves around  the role the eldest born / first son / big brother is supposed to play to their family. Which is ironic, because Choso’s family is his mad scientist father, all of the failed creations he got bored of and abandoned, and also the mother who was abused to make him and all of his siblings. 

“A life they never asked for...” is putting it mildly, the life Choso was born into through no choice of his own, is unrelentingly, despair inducing-ly bleak. 

The death painting brother’s response in general to this hopeless situation they were born into, and have relatively no control over is to completely rely on each other. They have no relatoinship to their mother or father, they have only had each other for hundreds of years. 

Which is where much like Choso’s own hybrid nature, they like many cursed spirits  the death paitning brothers horrifying abominations, and yet they regard each other the same way a normal human family would. To the point where Choso’s motivations are incredibly understandable to us the reader because his entire motivation is to try to act as this ideal older brother figure, which could resemble a sibling relationships many humans have or possibly wish for. The way Choso loves his siblings, despite their horrifying origin, is the same way an older brother is expected toc are for his younger brothers, if a bit idealized. 

Choso and his brothers are quite literally aborted fetuses at various stage of fetal developments. They were people never meant to be born into this world. They are not equipped to survive. They were abominations sealed away by Jujutsu Academy, and then two thirds of them were killed by Jujutsu Sorcerers soon after they were born. Nobara and Yuji also kill them without hestiation because they are cursed spirits despite the obvious signs of intelligence they showed, whereas they might have hesitated if they were human curse users. 

Choso’s love for his siblings represents both Choso trying to make the best of the situation he was born into, and an active choice on his part to love his brothers. As stated in the panel above, Choso and his brothers could so easily hate the world for what it did to them, and yet that’s not their objective, they don’t want revenge, purely what they want is to survive. They were never meant to be born, yet they are trying to live in the world, and live for each other. 

Choso, Eso, Kechizu live for the sake of each other, that’s the way they cope and try to make the best of the situation they were born into. However, loving is also an active choice on Choso’s part. There are other siblings born into similiar situations, unhealthy family households who are faced with similiar choices as Choso.

Naoya who has no relationships to his siblings, and at large no relationship to his family treats people as nothing more than dispoable actions, relationships as transactions where he gets something out of them. 

There is another you could draw a comparison between Choso in the Zenin household. Maki and Mai parallel Choso’s relatoinship to his borthers in the fact that twins are considered “cursed” because of the omens associated with them. Maki is also born in a way that makes her an outcast to her clan, having a restriction that makes her unable to see cursed techniques in exhcange for increased strength. Choso and his brothers are the shame of the Kamo family, Maki and Mai are considered shameful by their father Ogi and he blames them as the reason he wasn’t made clan head. Kenjaku similiarly, abandoned the Death Painting Bros because he didn’t consider them interesting 

The way Choso acts as a ig brother, and the way Mai acts as a big sister are markedly different however. Mai and Maki are continually in conflict with one another. While Choso and his brothers do everything together, Mai and Maki are seperate. 

Maki’s intentions may have been to reform the Zenin for Mai’s sake, but she didn’t make that clear to Mai. Mai beleives Maki left her behind, and maybe, Maki did prioritze being strong and defeating the Zenin over her relaitonship with her sister. Maki a staunch individualist would have hated herself if she stayed in that household with Mai forever. 

Maki and Mai are born connected, the same way CHoso and his brothers are all connected to one another, but while their sibling relaitonship is a blessing, something they use to make their situation better Mai internalizes the idea that she is a burden to Maki/. THat she is the reason Maki cannot get stronger. That their connection is holding Maki back. To the point where Mai choosing to die is the thing that finally makes Maki stronger. Maki gets stronger, but only as an indivdual, with her sister permanently lost. 

Maki is stronger now, but she is stronger alone. This is in comparison to Choso who is labeled weak and uninteresting this chapter by his own father. Choso who even considers himself a failure. 

However, Choso always chose his relationship with his brothers over his individual strength. He chose, even to accept and forgive Yuji after learning they were brothers. He is able to find love in his life because he made that choice to love his brothers. Even though two of Choso’s brothers die similiary to Maki and Mai, his situation as a whole is far less tragic. 

And I say it’s a choice because during the same arc where YUji and Co fought the death paintings, there was a clear foiling between Megumi’s relationship with his adoptive sister, and the chosen relationship of the Death Painting brothers. 

Just like how I choose who to help, you choose who to protect me. Megumi and Choso are foils in regars to the fact that they were abndoned by their actual blood fathers, and despite having no family Megumi similiar to Choso chooses to prioritize his adoptive sister who he has no blood relationship’s well being over everything else. 

In all of these cases a good relationship with their sibling isn’t something that happens on his own, it’s a choice made by the characters to try to be good to their siblings.