#the characters are angry the audience likes fanservice

[izzys-bluebell-woods]

I feel like people have been quick to dismiss Mimzy's importance in Ep. 5

I've been seeing a lot of Mimzy hate, mainly on Reddit, where people are genuinely REALLY hating on Mimzy because she was annoying, interrupted Hell's Greatest Dad, and served no purpose in the episode.

Whilst the previous two points are down to personal taste, I feel like considering Mimzy's role in this episode nonexistent, or that she just exists for fanservice here, is greatly overlooking what this episode is about. There are two focuses to the episode, one of course being Lucifer and his relationship with Charlie, but it's also the deepest look into Alastor's actual character that we've gotten so far, I'd say significantly more than the finale. We see two sides to Alastor that both Mimzy and Luficier bring out, and I wanted to kind of highlight my thoughts and what the episode was trying to show us about Alastor that we wouldn't have gotten if Mimzy wasn't there.

Alastor's instant hostility towards Lucifer makes it incredibly clear that Alastor can't keep his cool all the time - his two biggest flaws is that he is power-hungry and incredibly petty. From what we know - and what is likely to be true considering Lucifer is shown to have no idea who he is - Alastor has never met Lucifer before this. If the theories that he belongs to Eve/Lilith in some way are true, there is reasonable ground to say that this immediate hatred towards him could be justified, maybe it was in some way Lucifer's fault that he's caught in this deal and this is his way of taking it out on him or trying to uphold his end of that deal.

But look how much his mask slips, look how annoyed and angry he is. If this was a font that he was doing to somehow make Lucifer intentionally mad at him for some sort of personal gain, he wouldn't have looked so murderous. Him just leaning down and hissing 'fuck you' right in his face was so shocking for the audience purely because no one has done that to him before, no one has pushed him so much.

This indicates that Alastor isn't just playing some sort of game, Lucifer genuinely got under his skin, because he is so obviously more powerful than Alastor and he HATES that. He hates being reminded that he's not the biggest meanest in Hell - this was explored more in his showdown in Adam, but at the time of this episode's release, this is the most flawed and 'human' Alastor has ever felt. He's dropped from this force of mysterious evil, to randomly picking a fight with the Devil himself because he was so catty about being shown up.

As further reinforced with him snapping at Husk when he also reminded him he wasn't as all-powerful as he sees himself to be, Alastor will lash out at those who make him feel like he isn't the one in control and pulling the strings of everything - we finally see a hint of motivation for him sticking around at the hotel at all.

But then there's Mimzy.

We immediately go from seeing Alastor at his worst, at his most aggravated and petty, to seeing him literally melt into a hug. The demon who, according to Viv herself, hates physical contact so much that he would distort and melt himself to get away from it. We so quickly go from being shocked that Alastor is behaving so spitefully to now having to take in Alastor being ecstatic to see someone who he considers to be a friend.

Having this be so directly after his massive tiff with Lucifer is so important. If this wasn't included in this episode, our only insight into the person Alastor actually is would be that he's an asshole. Picking fights with people just because he wants to stay on top, that its the thing he cares about the most. But Mimzy does come along, and we see that it isn't true at all - and its confusing, and that is so perfect.

You think you're getting somewhere with the person Alastor is, but you see that, hold on, there is actually a semblance of heart in there, here he is actually caring about someone. But what is so important about this being a relationship he shares with Mimzy, and something that couldn't at all be explored with, say, Rosie, is the kind of person Mimzy is.

Mimzy double crossed Alastor. And, according to Husk, this is a somewhat regular occurace. We can see that Alastor is annoyed at her, and I think most of us were prepared for him to do something to her like he was doing to those loan sharks a few seconds before this confrontation.

But...he doesn't. Not at all, he doesn't even snap at her. Perhaps scold her a bit, but other than that, he is so nice to her and just politely tells her to leave and that is that. He does more shit to Lucifer, who literally hasn't done nothing but exist in his presence, than someone who just trampled all over his ego by using him, both as a shield and, well, somewhat emotionally.

In this episode, Alastor is shown to lash out. Easily. All you have to do is be more powerful than Alastor, and he won't like you - that's the impression you'd get from his scenes with Lucifer alone. But we have his scenes with Mimzy as well, and you're being told, hold on, no, that isn't quite correct, because he's not acting the same here. What has Alastor got to gain from letting Mimzy get off of this with no repercussions? Mimzy, someone who has probably sold her soul to someone else and has absolutely no power at all.

Nothing. He does it because Alastor cares about her.

I don't think I would have considered his friendship with Rosie to be genuine at all if it wasn't for his friendship with Mimzy. Rosie is so powerful, and Alastor has so much to gain from being in close cahoots with her, but it's so clear that he doesn't care about that, but he sees her as an equal. If all we saw from Alastor in that episode was him lusting for power, it would render the way we see all his relationships with people to be of some gain to him somehow. ESPECIALLY Rosie and other Overlords like Zestial.

This makes Alastor and Mimzy's relationship arguably one of the most interesting in the show. Someone who is so powerful and unpredictable, who hardly cares for anyone other than himself, caring about this absolute gremlin of a woman. He likes Mimzy purely because she's fun to be around, a sentiment you might expect from Alastor, with his stated reasoning for joining the hotel being to laugh at people, but he's in no way laughing at Mimzy. You can tell that he doesn't intimidate her at all, because she has the absolute balls to pull off the loan shark thing with him.

Mimzy and Lucifer's interactions with Alastor has made him to be one, if not THE most interesting character in the show. Because you're exploring two contradictory sides of the same coin at once. One where he gets so worked up and angry over not having the power he sees himself as having, and one where he's visibly hurt that his long time friend used him. In one instance you have him pulling out all the stops to be as hostile as he could be to Lucifer without actually hurting him (even though he clearly wants to), and another where he has full range to hurt Mimzy as much as he wants to, but he doesn't.

Alastor cares about people. But also disregards people like playing cards. He is such a mixed bag, so far from being one note, and you wouldn't have gotten that insight without Mimzy.

[moltensmusings]

So I forgot to make another rambling post, we continued our Fairy Tail rewatch. We're part way through grand magic games and the fury I feel at how it was written knows no bounds. Time for a bulleted post.

Warning, I'm going to be angry and really tear into the arc:

The hatred the citizens have for fairy tail is so stupidly convoluted and done just to make the audience root for fairy tail. You're telling me the entire populace hates a guild for just kind of sucking in games and not being that great? When we had the arena hating Rebecca in one piece, it made sense because to the general public, she was from the family that slaughtered citizens and brought terror to the land. In fairy tail it was done to make us care.

Raventail had literally no reason to be competing, and everything surrounding them is contradictory and infuriating. First, it doesn't make sense for them to join a big spectacle of their goal was to get information from guild members. Why wouldn't they just kidnap laxus or one of the other characters to force them into revealing things? Also, them being a dark guild, which we are told aren't sanctioned guilds, and yet Jellal not being allowed to go after them "because of interguild conflict." No, mashima just wanted them to be there. It makes no logical sense for Jellal to be held back on the principle of not stirring guild conflict when Raventail isn't recognized as a guild. Ivan having a much more down low confrontation with Laxus and Makarov would've been so much better than us getting some dumb plotline about how "laxus beats them all because they're just weak" like we get in every single arc. They only exist to give fairy tail a rival to fight and the "cruel guild who doesn't care about it's members and only wants power" is already filled by Sabertooth. What purpose did they serve?

Why would mashima have Flare be sadistic and gleeful if she was only doing what she did to try and save herself? It makes literally no sense for her to act the way she did. It would be one thing if we got any indication in her scenes that her personality was an act put on for Ivan, but we see her laughing and jeering with her guild even when she's not the main focus so why would she be excited if she didn't actually want to do it?

I really hate how no other guild is allowed to be in anyway as strong as fairy tail once our main characters are introduced. It makes fights so insanely boring. We never get actually shown instances of characters getting stronger, the show tells us they did and we have to believe it.

Heaven forbid a woman be allowed to actually win in this show unless she's Erza Scarlet. No girl is allowed to just be a strong fighter in their own right. Lucy gets humiliated and abused constantly during the GMG for no reason other than making the audience hate enemies. Wendy isn't allowed to go into the Cheria fight and properly win or lose (don't even get me started on the forced in red herring of Cheria being evil). Cana can't have her own strength or abilities despite testing to be an S-Class wizard. Apparently none of the mermaid heel women are allowed to actually be strong wizards outside of Kagura because heaven forbid we get actually challenging match ups.

How is it that we supposedly have Lacrima watching the game and judges/guards keeping an eye on things and yet apparently no one notices Raventail cheating? And when someone does notice them he just ignores it? What is even the point of any set up and world building if we throw it out the window just to make conflict work in your story. Mashima forcibly sets up a "Fairy tail vs the world" concept for GMG and it's so stupid and badly done that I don't even get mad at the other characters. I get mad at Mashima.

I'm chosing to ignore the random fanservice fight because it was pointless and so many characters were weirdly written just to put them in skimpy outfits. If I have to think about Asuka being thrown in during the swimsuit one I think I'll go insane. Also just made me disgusted at all the grown men leering at girls they watched grow up. Such as Makarov who consistently calls guild members his children.

Bacchus deciding he wants to force Lisanna and Mirajane to sleep with him if he wins because heaven forbid we get an antagonistic dude who is written as hatable without making him a creep. Heaven forbid women have agency.

Why was Lucy the one to go back in time when we have Levy narrating? I thought Celesital Wizards couldn't go through the gates they make, or at the very least that time gates took so much energy they killed the ones that use them. Even if it wasn't levy I would've preferred a different character coming back through time to warn everyone.

Mashima flopping between Natsu not caring about naked lucy/people to Natsu suddenly wanting to see her naked within the same arc, baffles me.

The way Mashima writes Mavis makes me so uncomfortable. Another grown women with a petite body he infantalizes. This woman was in her 20s when she died and he treats her like a child.

Erza vs 100 monsters is the one good scene in this arc.

TL;DR- I actually thought I'd enjoy this arc because I loved it as a teenager. But I'm so unbelievably angry at everything happening that I actually am having a horrible time.

[spacerockfloater]

House of the Dragon, Season 2, Episode 1: Discussion

Overall, I did not like the episode at all.

First of all, am I crazy or was the whole scene at Winterfell and the Wall purely fanservice so that HOTD can gain the sympathy of old fans? I mean, it lasted like, 2 minutes, and added nothing to the plot. Cregan’s speech was amusing though.

Daemon didn’t let a single moment go to waste before he started acting like a king. Typical and at least consistent with his character.

Sigh. Preparing myself for the backlash I’m going to receive for this. I did not like the way Rhaenyra’s and Jace’s emotions were portrayed. Where was the shock? The agony? The horror? The pain? Too much silent grief for someone who just found out that their son/ brother was murdered. Hell, Rhaena showed more emotion than both of them combined and we saw her face for merely a second.

Good for my girl Alicent for finally getting some I guess, but the Alicole sex scenes were weak as fuck. No passion, no chemistry. It was robotic as shit. All that subtle tension between them during the first season led to nothing. Rushed as fuck and not at all what they made us think it would be. Provided absolutely zero context. Boring as hell, too. Thank fuck that it was leaked because it would have been a jumpscare. Nothing could have prepared me for it, it came out of nowhere.

Alicent standing her ground against Otto was surprisingly very good. I loved seeing her take the lead. And it was touching to see her light a candle for Luc, too.

Aegon II was very entraining. Refreshing to see him try to be a good king, actually care for his subjects and love his son. Distracts you from the fact that he’s still a stupid unseasoned teenager. Looking forward to some more character development on his part.

Now, what the actual fuck could Aemond ever possibly have to be angry about? Didn’t he just have his revenge? Who is he so pissed at?

Daemon and his murder cloak are the strongest ship in HOTD, which they should rename to “House of Misunderstandings” at this point.

I nearly pissed myself when Cheese’s super secret hidden path through the castle, that only he as a specialist knows, was crossing the fucking throne room on their tippy toes. Did they sneak back outside to meet Daemon the same way while leaving a bloody trail behind them? Are the writers actually insane? Who gave that shit the green light? Why does the door to Aemond’s room open by a lever? Is he Batman? Where the actual fuck was literally everyone? The guards? The servants? The ladies of honour? How was the fucking queen all alone?

And lastly, speaking of the queen… Oh my God. This was the most anticlimactic scene in the whole episode. I nearly fell asleep. I don’t know what’s Helaena’s deal, like is she neurodivergent? Is she just not fazed by anything because she has already seen everything play out in her head before it actually happens? It’s never explained and it makes it so infuriating that she looks just… concerned. Not traumatized or shocked, just perplexed and worried, lol. She pointed to her son faster than lightning. Did she just want all of it end as fast as possible? No idea. All the tragedy of the situation was removed. Luc’s death was much more impactful and shook the audience. This seemed so underwhelming and stale. And then Helaena quietly goes to her mother’s room, walks past her riding Criston like this happens to her every Tuesday, sits down, refers to her own son as “the boy”, and looks slightly distraught. Dian Doesn’t even shed a single tear. Nothing like the mourning woman gone mad by grief we saw in the trailer, though maybe we just have to wait I suppose. Like, lol okay. This was not giving like y’all promised it would. The only grotesque thing about it was listening to them sawing Jaehaerys’ head off.

The episode felt rushed as fuck and has severely reduced my interest in hating or loving any of the characters. There’d better be some top notch acting next Sunday or I’m dropping the show.

All opinions are welcome, just please be civil to one another!

[sgdlr-asdfghjkl]

Link Click Musical content 105

(a little bit of everything from recent performances and whatnot)

⬆Guo Hongxu got handed a camera by an audience member, 3 pics are from his POV.

king of poker face, it's so cute when he does smile eventually :>

on the other hand, Du Guangyi looking more sleepy than usual~

he said:😌

oh yeah (I start sentences like that a lot srry ><) did you watch the LC vlogs? You may be missing stuff like the scene above. It must be the earthquake arc argument, CXS, you're supposed to be angry here, man...

^this screenshot was doing rounds on twt

I feel like I should add this, in relation to the two most fanservice-y screenshots: let's be normal about this okay? I adore seeing actors having fun and being nice to each other, bc it's just a heartwarming human thing. I personally ship only the shiguang characters they play, not the actors.

And I know you are all cool about it too 👌 Don't worry, I haven't seen anyone going delulu in the international circle. But since I credit the pictures with their real names I feel like I need to make it extra clear: treat it as fiction/acting, in the end of the day ✨

mkay byyyye

[penultimate-step]

In Defense of Ruby Hoshino

Or: Yes, the Aqua/Ruby interactions from the last couple dozen chapters ARE necessary for characterization and thematic reasons, why do you ask?

The Oshi no Ko fandom has kind of frustrated me over the last few months. It feels like every chapter that comes out and any discussion of it now has people making over the top angry exclamations talking about how much they hate incest, calling it "bait" and irrelevant to the story. Now, while of course anybody is free to have their own preferences and things that bother them, I do think some of this is taken out of proportion, and perhaps blinding them to the actual narrative importance of Ruby's supposed feelings for Aqua. Which, I do think this is a critical, load bearing part of Ruby's character arc, and corresponding the themes of the story as a whole, so it bothers me when I see so many people dismissing it as "brocon fanservice" or shipping nonsense.

I think perhaps out of an instinctive disgust reaction, people have trouble engaging with it. The way people act seems to be that either this is a serious romance plot, and the series will end with them dating, or that it is merely for sexual titillation and shock value on the part of the author, with no greater meaning, but it's pretty clear that it is neither of those things - Aqua/Ruby is not a romance, they will not date, they do not have romantic feelings for each other. However, that doesn't mean that what's going on between them is pointless.

The issues that Ruby has, both in their relationship and just in general, hinge pretty explicitly on Ruby's assumptions about her own feelings in her past life. she cannot develop past those without first confronting them.

And this is not a new thing. The groundwork for how Ruby has been acting in the movie arc was laid down long before, and needs necessary followup. To simply not have her talk about potential feelings for Aqua, as some fans wish, would have meant leaving many threads hanging, and made for a worse story. Almost everything about how they've interacted was something that could have been predicted from chapter 77. In it, Ruby makes it clear that she believes her feelings for Gorou are romantic, and that she intends to try to initiate something in her new life. However, at the same time, the fact that it was never going to happen is also, I feel, fairly clear.

In the past, in the flashback scene, Sarina claimed she was in love with Gorou. He told her he would reciprocate when she turned 16. In my opinion, I do not think either of the feelings the characters expressed in this scene were meant to be believed by the audience at all. Sarina is 12 here, she might have a puppy crush on the doctor but I think true romantic interest was probably beyond her. Meanwhile, Gorou isn't actually a pedophile? His statement was made with both parties knowing that she would die long before then, a way to make his rejection hurt her less, and as a desperate attempt to motivate her to keep living as long as she could. Though it is clear that both are the most important people to one another, and that this is an expression of their real care, I very, very, much doubt there was any actual romance in this scene.

Does this not seem very relevant for a series with the theme of people not understanding love? Back then, Gorou was Sarina's one true bond. Her parents had abandoned her and she had no friends to visit her. This was the one example of real mutual care she had, of course she would call it "love." (I mean, I'd also call it love, but not a romantic love. Familial, if anything, but friends works too - the actual name on it is unclear, what matters is that they cared for each other, but not like that.) Now, in her new life as Ruby, she has many more people who love her and who she loves in return, but having died both painfully young before, she hasn't had the opportunity to really grapple with all the old feelings about the doctor. It's pretty obvious to me whenever we see Ruby thinking of Aqua now. Just look at this page from 126:

In Ruby's own mind, he's drawn in a completely different style, like a manga romance hero. Her feelings about Aqua are fantasies, dreams, and projections, not substantial or tied to reality.

Much has been made of how Aqua, despite being Ai's son, still puts her on the pedestal of an idol, and can not see her flaws and interiority, even as he tries to avenge her death. Part of this movie arc is having characters like Ruby, Kana, and Akane start to see Ai from new angles, and relate to the human part of her. But for Aqua and Ruby to truly develop past their issues, this isn't the only pedestal they need to tackle. Ruby's regard for the doctor is a direct mirror to Aqua's feelings towards Ai. Even with the object of her affections right in front of her, she can't she past her own assumptions.

And of course, while Ruby is slowly coming to understand Ai and still failing to understand Aqua, there's one more person in the room who Ruby needs to come to an understanding about: herself, both as Sarina and now. Her refusal to see Aqua's flaws is tied up in her own feelings about the past - to acknowledge him as imperfect would mean understanding that part of the reason Sarina loved Gorou was tied up in her own desperation to love and be loved. Furthermore, while she has many more ties in her life as Ruby, I don't think its a stretch to say part of her is still stuck in that past state, holding people at arm's length.

While she has friends now, the bonds she thinks of as strongest are the ones from back then - her idolization of Ai, her love for Gorou. When Aqua reveal's Ai's secrets, in 106, Ruby says that despite being siblings, raised together for 17 years now, she didn't think of Aqua as family on his own terms - she felt a bond solely because they were linked through Ai, and does not hesitate to cut him off. She doubles down on this in 122, calling them "strangers who happened to be born in the same place." Similarly, while Ruby has been shown to be friendly with coworkers like Kana and Mem, as well as classmates like Frill, on some level she is keeping them at a distance. Beyond the simple fact that she can't talk to them about her previous life, she's been keeping plenty of emotions held in for a long time - pretty much every Ruby appearance from the Miyazaki Return arc to today has shown her not wanting to acknowledge her own struggles. Her pain from her life as Sarina is easy to keep buried. When nobody else knows Sarina exists, all she has to do is not think about it, not talk about it, not say anything, and it's almost like it never happened. Not til her breakdowns in chapters like 115 and 121 does she speak it aloud, but always either with plausible deniability or when she thinks she's alone.

I don't think her bonds as Ruby are fake - part of what she says to aqua, I think, is a defensive cope - but much like how she says she is in love with Gorou now, that is what Ruby believes. To her, all the friendships and bonds she's made in her new life are transient and fleeting things. She can never feel secure that they are based in real feelings, that they won't simply drop her when she becomes inconvenient, as everyone in her past life did. This perception contributes to her own willingness to reject others. Putting her friends at a distance during her revenge arc, cutting ties with Aqua over the Ai reveal, these are all things she does because she has no faith in the foundations of these bonds, and without understanding them she is willing to throw them away for Sarina's old memories - for the sake of the one person she believes will never let her down.

The only way Ruby is going to solve the story of Oshi no Ko is through coming to an understanding. Of Ai, of Aqua, and of Sarina. Ai didn't understand love until the day she died, and both of her children have in some ways followed in her footsteps, but Ruby has the chance to be the one to break this, to understand what was holding her back before and fully embrace loving her family and friends.(platonically. geez.) Reckoning with her feelings for Gorou (and by extension, Aqua,) was always going to be a key step forward for her. These dominoes have been laid down for 60-70 chapters now, at least, and I am excited to see where it goes.

[gacha-incels]

Any thoughts on Wuthering Waves?

People constantly glaze it and claim it's better than Genshin but recently it's gone into harem stuff.

people hype that game up as better than Genshin because the skimpy dressed female characters tits bounce when they breathe lol. I’m just exaggerating but whenever I see someone saying this it’s the same person saying the fanservice in Genshin is “dead” and they’re all “wearing burqas” which is insane, not to mention offensive of course, that game isn’t like FGO or Snowbreak tier but they have ugly skimpy gacha girl outfits. like come on. but I’ve seen this sentiment down to the exact language used by different people in a lot of places, gachagaming, wuwa & other popular gacha subreddits, instagram comments, YouTube comments, twitter. Enough & with enough frequency to make me consider that as a factor. personally I find the art direction bland and when I tried playing it I wished the fighting didn’t feel so floaty, but they obviously have extremely talented animators working on it, so I can see if you liked that type of combat it would be fun to play and a spectacle to watch. but I think the combat itself is more comparable to HI3 than Genshin. Anyway for real there’s QoL factors and aspects of it being a newly created game that will be better than Genshin, the models & NPCs having more detail, playstyle, the more realistic looking world etc, that people will also like a lot more. i think since the rumored (or confirmed now?) rewrite it was always going to lean hard on the “harem stuff.” they seem to pivot hard and change things majorly based on their main audience (Chinese male) reaction. this isn’t unusual for gacha of course but the extent that they change their own story and content kind of gave me pause when I read about it. like they released a male character on launch but literally cut his banner short for the sexy female character. if you watch the original CBT those girls the MC first meets are extremely wary of him, even pulling a gun on him. It wasn’t anything great but it created some interesting tension for the start of the game. the CN reaction was so extremely negative to this that it was completely changed to all the girls being polite and impressed with your skills. Now every female character is completely obsessed with the MC to an extreme degree, everything in their life actually happened because pre-amnesia MC was a super powerful leader, 10 close ups of the girl’s v-tuber face, 20 of her tits, etc, that’s usually how the character quests go. I saw CN fans have been extremely angry and complaining that Genshin’s MC is just a “camera” watching the story unfold before them, I guess this is WuWa’s answer to that lol. If you want to experience this watch someone play through that character Shorekeeper’s story. imo you could tell the direction this game would go just based on how they designed the female MC compared to the male MC. if this is the audience they want to keep and retain, we’ll see what happens in the coming years 🤔 I didn’t play PGR that much or follow their news so I’m not as familiar with what Kuro’s marketing and publishing style is

[phantomrose96]

is csm good?

yeah

I read it about a year ago, and pretty quickly, so I've forgotten a lot of the specific details. I also wouldn't put it in my list of all-time faves. But it does something very different and refreshing for a shounen series which really sticks with me.

Let's see if I can figure out how to phrase this - but it allows itself to be a tragedy in a way most typical shounen don't. Having characters with tragic backstories is a common staple in shounen. Having bad things happen is common. But most of these series have a veneer wrapped around it--someone's tragic backstory is just the motivating fodder so they can go out and kick ass and save the world (and maybe get the girl.) Things like Naruto, BNHA, Demon Slayer, HxH have that vibe for me. It's not bad. But it's expected.

CSM does something different, especially with the handling of sexuality. From the first episode it kinda looks like CSM is planning to follow the typical path--main character Denji is an orphan with a tragic backstory, fights devils to survive, gets chainsaw powers so now he can epically kill devils and--what's this--there's a girl he's interested in! Maybe he'll get Makima in the end!

Then the rest of part 1 (I haven't read part 2 yet so I can't comment on it) plays out as a tragedy for Denji. He's the victim of systems manipulating him--as a street rat who's never really been socialized, and just wants food, shelter, love, (and yeah, sexual attention)--and he doesn't have the autonomy or maturity or awareness to stop it.

There's so much less "now that the backstory is out of the way, let's kick ass and have fun" and way more "oh, the tragedy matters. the powerlessness matters. the human fallibility matters." It's not a mega-dark torture-fest but it's grounded, in the way I like.

I've stayed out of The Discourse:tm: because everything is better that way, but I at least know there's some gripes from people angry that "The main character's motivation is he wants to touch boobs? Gag. Creepy anime shit." without paying close enough attention to realize the execution is wildly different from most anime fanservice.

And I'm saying this as someone who hates anime fanservice. I just kinda hold my nose whenever anime has *wink wink, nudge nudge, isn't this saucy and exciting, audience? ;)* kind of fanservice. I'm a long-time Hater of Mineta, and everything that goes with it.

But CSM's portrayal is... not fanservice. If you look up clips from the show, the female characters' designs are all extremely grounded. Denji's sexual motivation is for Denji. It's clear that this is a shallow and immature pursuit, and it's fascinating to watch how Denji's expectations don't meet reality. How he ends up feeling lost and confused when his pursuits turn hollow or hurt him, and then he gets strung along by manipulative institutions promising there's something better at the end of this all, if he just does these things for them. He's a victim of grooming, and that feels so rare for the shounen genre where the main character is almost always celebrated for achieving any kind of sexual goal.

[infrared135-36]

Of course there are a lot of loud, angry fans of anime-styled entertainment that start seeing red as soon as a character doesn’t look “perfect”. I can’t imagine being so tedious. I do think a lot of it is not even enjoying the work as art but rather the power it instills in them (lbr it’s men) to see women drawn for their consumption first before anything else. It’s why they can consume so much visual junkmail in the shape of AI anime titty art. this is also why you see them get so fucking heated about gacha game designs specifically as well, the character-for-audience-consumption is the closest and most extreme in those situations. When they see, for instance, a hypersexualized child girl in a microbikini called “the whore of babylon” or a genderbent paperwhite Indian goddess wearing only fire on her tits and pussy in a popular gacha like FGO, they see a cultural juggernaut appealing to their view of women which pleases them. But when an extremely popular gacha like Genshin Impact releases a male character in short shorts, stockings and a garterbelt - sexualized in the same way that the women are sexualized - many male fans (specifically Korean) shit their pants and lost their minds in anger. this isn’t to say any of these games are doing something revolutionary in character design nor is it grounds for some new litmus test where a gacha is measured as good or bad depending on how much it pisses off incel gamers. that is missing the point. the male character can appeal to women but he always must first affirm his strength and masculinity to the male fans. This is why you see many male gacha fans saying they don’t mind more “bros” being added to the game and thinking male characters showing muscle and having their shirts off is fanservice. Look at the difference in female swimsuit characters in FGO versus the male swimsuit “costumes”. This both flatters their sense of masculine power and rigidly upholds a stark gender divide. by creating a male character that is sexualized in the same way female characters are, both of these aspects which men see as patriarchal standards are flipped on their heads. They have such an extreme reaction because they don’t want to lose patriarchal power on any front. You can see this in many aspects of life, regarding entertainment after gacha games it’s usually video games as a whole and movies that men will have shit fits about; they think a female character who looks normal has been made ugly on purpose to spite them specifically (see the “Stellar Blade screenshot vs the Spider-Man game screenshot” being passed around). They lost their damn minds about the fucking Barbie movie. That type of thing.

[olderthannetfic]

Every time someone brings up about "age of consent" when it's about anime teens being sexy, it kinda makes me wonder if is it wrong for teen oriented shows that has teenage audience to have fanservice for teens? I mean, okay, in a concept, adult drawing fanservice for teens is weird and I also dislike content creators who sexualize themselves in their video (streamer and youtuber) while having mostly teenage audience, but it's kinda weird that teens who are mature enough to have sex with other teens can't have "sexy" content catered for them. Like, yeah, the big tits sixteen years old fanservice is weird for adult audience, but the audience targets are teen, even if they slap "for mature audience". Like, it's just weird that the only "healthy options" for teens to explore their sexuality are either reading actual serious sex ed books, having sex with other teens, or secretly accessing smut while pretending you are 18, but not liking drawings made by some 30 years old.

Also, I'm not saying stuff like explicit smut for teens, more of "ecchi" things that only a glimpse of fanservice. Stuff like swimsuit episode or awkward accident. Nor I'm saying there aren't adult oriented shows with underage character either. But, I just find it weird when a teen manga has "sexy" teen as fanservice, adults audience get angry about it and act like teens doesn't find other teens sexy, but at the same time, they can acknowledge that irl teens have sex with each other or secretly consume porn.

--

[supersoftly]

As a female One Piece fan, how do you feel about how increasingly sexualized the female characters have become? The biggest example is probably Nami, who started out with a tomboyish design and fairly practical outfits but is now a scantily-clad fanservice character with massive breasts.

Depends. If you're talking about the anime, they deliberately take creative freedoms to accentuate fanservice, and sure, it's a little annoying for them to be changing the blocking of the source just to put Robin's boobs up front, but in terms of manga, it's kinda almost always been like that? You can go back as far as the East Blue arcs and characters like Vivi, post-devil fruit Alvida and Nojiko already wearing what could be considered suggestive clothing and/or rocking the One Piece female standard body type. Jump into the Arabasta arc and you've got Miss Doublefinger basically in fetish gear. I think Oda has always made a conscious decision that despite having sexy characters as a constant in his story, he rarely draws or depicts them as sexualized, but even then it's almost always accompanied by a visual gag or bit. The only scenes I can recall on hand that explicitly had more (arguably darker) sexual tones was when Absalom spied on Nami in the shower, and him grabbing and licking Robin, but like all despicable One Piece characters similar to that of Spandam, they usually get a ridiculous level of comeuppance (in this case, being murdered by the Blackbeard Pirates).

Now I've had this discussion about Nami specifically before and I haven't changed my position even after all these years. As an audience, we're introduced to Nami as Arlong's crew Nami; an underling forced to work under the very despot who killed her adopted mother at the threat of murdering everyone and everything she's ever loved and cared about. That's the Nami we know right up until her facade breaks down and genuinely asks for Luffy to help her. That Nami, despite greed being an intrinsic part of her character, almost never acts selfishly or in her own interests beyond stealing money to buy her village back for all of her childhood into her developing years as a woman. None of that time is spent thinking about herself, she's fueled by vengeance and fear, there's no time allowed to be thinking about trivial girly things that most 10-17 year olds should be allowed to think about. So when Nami is finally freed, she stops hiding herself, she finally indulges in herself and becomes her final form, this beautiful, smart, greedy girlboss that can canonically harm Luffy if she's angry enough because it's funny! Everyone agrees Nami is beautiful in-world, but out of necessity as a cat-burglar, she dressed for her occupation. Freed of that obligation, every colour page and title cover, openings in the anime and even in the movies, Nami's downtime is depicted as having a good time with her crew; shopping clothing and accessories with Robin, putting her hair up in different fun hairstyles, wearing clothes that makes her happy because she's confident and unafraid anymore. To me, that's what Nami always was, despite how one might judge how she dresses or how she looks now.

I will agree though I do miss her original asymmetrical pixiebob, and I also wish Oda had went with her original design with the cyborg arm :p

[sirdurbe]

something, something... studio gallop's decision to create a female character for their show aimed at tween and teen boys who exists in large part for the purpose of titillation, who is explicitly portrayed as the same age as the intended middle-grade audience -- whose young age is more likely than not part of her desirability -- is NOT on the same level as artists or writers in fandom lewding the same character. that includes "creepy dudebro" fetish art, too. because at the end of the day, even all those pictures of kotori's toes are intended for adults.

kotori's sexualization in canon is unsettling because, on top of the blatant misogyny of the "sexy lamp" trope, the source material is intended for a younger audience. it's lolibait in a show made for kids. and this is coming from someone who really likes kotori btw, because trying to resist or deny that part of her existence is not actually a feminist statement, it's the opposite. despite occasionally being given really cool things to do, the main reasons she's here is to be yuuma's hetero love interest and to be fanservice. i don't say that to insult her, i say that because i'm angry for her.

at the same time, acting like you're so much holier than anyone who does make sexual or explicit content of kotori or other characters like her is incredibly obnoxious, and comparing artists or writers who are creating and tagging their adult material as for adults to the showrunners putting multiple almost-panty-shots of their 13-year-old character in their show aimed at actual 13-year-olds is profoundly ignorant.

i'm at work so maybe this isn't super eloquent but 🤷‍♂️

[lemonmoxy]

Ok. So no. This is not what filler is and filler has a reputation for being bad... because it IS almost always bad. I think this is a case of people hearing a term and then using it to derogatorily refer to something else they don’t like and then others see that and don’t know the original meaning of the word and so the word looses all meaning. So it goes- normally I’d let that go but this said ANIME filler so it is incorrectly invoking the orginial word. And this cannot stand!

Ok so, back in the day. When manga would get adapted into anime, the manga wasn’t always finished. So the anime would catch up with the manga and have no new material to adapt. Now the anime was faced with three choices. One, make up shit and diverge completely. This tends to make manga fans lose their fucking minds and rightly so because whatever they make up is, usually shit. Two, go on hiatus until the manga is ahead enough to start up again. This is an unpopular choice because the fear is people will forget about you unless your audience is dedicated. The third choice, and where we get the word filler is, is to stall. Keep making content that doesn’t matter and never will be referred to or mentioned again because it CAN’T. Any characters introduced, even if they stick around, can’t do anything important. Any plot points can’t develop. Any lore will never be majorly relevant again. Often the characters act out of character because they are being written by different people. That’s what filler is, and is why people hate it. Because it is usually a waste of time that fucks up the pacing.

It has nothing to do with slow, slice of life character building arcs. Which still do exist in manga and anime. The beach episode is still ubiquitous - which is not for character building but for fanservice usually. Which is why it has a semibad rap.

People started using the word filler to refer to anything that didn’t directly and obviously move the plot forward and since people aren’t great at identifying that, means anything that bored them or they just didn’t like and didn’t obviously accomplish anything. Setting up character dynamics and seeing the characters happy to give us of sense of what they’re fighting for can be important in a story. And blah blah blah.

Anyone whose angry at stories not being allowed to breathe, you’re valid and I’m not talking bad about you. I’m talking about the specific misuse of the word filler which has bothered me since it was used to complain about avatar episodes way back when. THATS NOT WHAT THE WORD MEANS.

And like lack of filler did not lead to people not understand characters because in filler everyone is sort of acting out of character anyway, like they’re written by someone else, which is how even non-manga fans can spot filler. That’s just... not true fam.

Its all “i love putting guys in situations” until were on a filler episode. Where are the REAL putting guys in situations lovers.

[measuringbliss]

Looks and Confrontations ~ A Mediocre Pacific Rim Meta

For once, I talk about Mako and Raleigh for a bit! Don't worry, Newt's never too far though...

To me, one memorable scene of Pacific Rim is when Mako sees Raleigh undressing and can't take his eyes off him for a few seconds. Their eyes cross, then Mako, ashamed, quickly closes the door to her room... but she still peeps at him, as he sighs and closes the door to his own room.

Now, you probably see this as an inversion of the male gaze, and rightly so. It would have been easy, mindless to include a scene where Mako instead is the one being peeped at by Raleigh. However, not only is Mako observing Raleigh, but Raleigh confronts her. It's wordless, but he looks at her, and they both acknowledge that in this moment, she dominates him (she's looking at him and she's also fully clothed, while Raleigh is bare-chested, thus, vulnerable). She sees his scars, and of course the lighting admirably accentuates his features.

By confronting Mako, Raleigh also confronts the viewer. He claims his right to privacy. But here's the thing: he's a character. And to Mako, someone she has to study. In both cases, he's objectified. And Mako and us both want to see more of Raleigh, metaphorically just as concretely speaking.

The Jaegers, meanwhile, rehumanize the characters. They need to put on a suit (diminishes the objectification) and are necessary for the Jaegers to function; their humanity is their strength. This is just a brief aside.

Looks also matter to Newt. He's putting on a front, deliberately for Raleigh (and the viewer), to gauge him (and us, similarly to Ralegh himself in the scene mentioned above). His chill, carefree attitude is a front in PR1, more subtly so than in PRU. His outfit is voluntarily casualized, with his rolled up sleeves--it's about performance. He wants to see how Raleigh reacts to his Kaiju tattoos; he complies to the imagined regulations with a somewhat professional-looking outfit, but he clearly expresses his distate for rules by making this outfit *his*. Once again: rolled up sleeves (casual), tattoos (unprofessional, especially of the thing you're trying to eradicate), postures and phrasing (and glasses, they often signify a character has something to hide).

And then in PRU, it's not just about analyzing and provoking a reaction: it becomes downright about dissimulation. Hiding his true self. Going corporate means getting a nice suit, but it's a shade of red, provoking, passionate, dangerous, peculiar. He wears an Elvis ring because, he said it himself before, he's a rock star. And the shades are important. In PR1, we see him with one eye red and one eye normal (whatever color that is, I'm bad with eye colors) in a moment of weakness, after being traumatized physically and mentally by drifting with a Kaiju brain. PR1!Newt performs, but also gets bared by external circumstances (the Drift, the rain that tidies his hair, the ugly sides of his personality that show themselves during the Hong Kong battle...); in PRU, who sees Newt bared?

The audience. The audience with hindsight, specifically. Oh, Hermann also sees him, but that's after "Newt" acknowledges something is absolutely wrong with himself. But the audience sees and can rewatch every precious moment where Newt shows weakness. Meanwhile, Hermann completely misses or dismisses them, just as everyone else in the movie, until it's too late.

Also obviously Newt always wears layers and layers, that's standard costuming right there (with the dragon on his back only appearing when he goes full aggro, symbolizing his Kaiju allegeance).

Oh, and look!

Newt and a Kaiju looking at each other. Poetry! How could anyone say this movie is bad? /s

I guess you could write an entire book about looks in PR; the way the both movies look (PR1: hyper-saturated, widescreen, picture always clear; PRU: desaturated aside from electronic screens, cinematographic, characters are constantly against the light), the way characters dress (PR1!Newt's performance VS Stacker's strictly professional, official attire; Amara and Jake's streetwise outfits; Tendo's quirky sophistication VS Hermann's boring, unimaginative looks), I just found that those two scenes came to my mind and wanted to write a bit about them, about how they're interesting on a narrative level (adding personality to Mako; mirroring PR1!Newt's "I wanna see a real live Kaiju" to the Mega Kaiju telling Newt he should stay in his lane, which is funny because as it is, both Kaijus and PRU!Newt are just servants of the Precursors, they're on the same level, their level of theoretical damage and their discretion being the two main differences between them) and also on a meta level (upsetting the assumed male gaze; asking the shippers yearning for more Newt content if it was really worth it--which, yes, obviously, thank God this movie exists, how else would I procrastinate).

I guess technically I could also have talked about the Alice scene. Newt *is* gazing at her, while she's presumably naked and powerless. But also, uh, she's a Kaiju brain, so, you know.

this is me kissing y'all good night

[knowingypodcast]

The Making of Pan

One of the most fascinating arcs the show War of Y explores is the character, Pan. His cold, 2-faced demeanor got people frustrated, angry, and conflicted about whether he was meant to be viewed as a victim or just a whiny self-obsessed character. This episode continues to explore that. 

From the relationships with Nott, his manager/second ‘mother’ Koon, and his peers. Pan has always seemed above others like he was only there for himself. We find out that it’s because he has massive trust issues, heavy walls up, and he has not let anyone in, not even Nott who he has been in a situationship for 3 years.  Everyone seems used or manipulated by him, yet episode 4 reveals it’s not like that. 

Keeping up Appearances

From episode 1, Pan has always been shown to have his own surface appearances,  as he smiles at his fans, seeks their validation, and acts docile and meek for everyone he wants to gain something from. He was seen as cunning, conniving, and manipulative. He knew how to get what he wanted. But this episode reveals that the cute mask was also his entrapment. Pan lashed out so many times trying to escape it, trying to let himself be free, but he was always advised that being him wouldn’t be enough. As he said, in this industry, he had to be seen above others, it was the only way to be taken seriously. Nott had it all; the looks, the charisma, the energy. Pan was the opposite well in his head he’s always been, insecure that one day people would desert him because he wasn’t adorable enough, cute enough, or precious enough. 

Reasons,  Pan had to stay in his mask

His fans were known as mothers, they saw him as childlike and innocent, Koon forced him to keep up with that role despite his want to break out

The directors and producers wanted him naive, docile, and innocent, also a cute manner, Koon forced him to stay in that pure role, and left him as a sheep to be devoured by the wolves. This formed a complex in him (along with his past traumas) of hating people’s touch and feeling dirtied by the people who exploited him

His ship with Nott was meant to be innocent, once he showed a true part of himself not willing to allow Nott’s advances in episode 2, his fans turned on him wanting him to stay cute and romantic in his mask as Nott acts as the passionate partner, or judged him and Nott for being in their mask and being fake and using BL as a stepping stone

We watch the reasons pile up as we see Pan lose control more and more and then watch as he spirals until episode 4 where it’s revealed in his head it was always never an option to show who he was. As the flashbacks consume him in the car as he suffocates himself in monoxide, we the audience realize that this is true, every time he showed his real self he was punished for it. From fainting in NC scenes because he’s overworked and uncomfortable (causing him to lose his place in the director’s eyes), to being hated for not wanting fanservice, to being viewed as shallow and fake as he tried to gain the director’s favor, to then being rejected just for being himself and not his skills. Pan never had a chance to just be himself and feel allowed to profit from that.

Egoistic or Protective? 

Pan comes off as egoistic, always thinking the world will be better because of him. Some have mentioned traits of narcissism but as we continue to reveal, we pull back the covers and realize it’s due to perfectionism and a desperate need to be worthy to others birthed from his background. Pan has been forced to be protective of himself, his identity, his skin/body, and his dreams,  his position. 

His family neglect him and let him fall through in the homophobic environment he was raised in. They were ashamed of his acting choice and continued to use that against him, his mum although she cares,  continued to let him stay with Koon because of the choice he had made. He was always fighting for their love, to be seen as worthy, needed, and precious for who he really was, a queer dreamer who just wanted to make them happy. But he was shunned. This becomes his massive goal, the reason he holds onto his necklace each time he’s in a space of hurt and fear, and the reason he got up the next day after crying to try and regain his position in Mafia baby. 

His industry makes him replaceable. The old vs new generation isn’t easy, and with this industry, you can’t look weak, as Pan says he had to seem above others, he had to make them feel frightened of him, he had to distance himself from them to be taken seriously and not used. He was insecure about his place (one because he already knew that his dislike of NC was a disadvantage, his queer identity was also another reason he wouldn’t be taken as seriously, his fear of being touched and others). He was a great actor but that wasn’t enough, everyone wanted to use him, exploit his talent, body, and even heart to be there, he didn’t want that to happen and that was a fear for him. 

His peers were competitive, fake, and waiting for his downfall. Yes BewGus may be nice and real but they were his competition, he knew what happened to the ones who were replaced, he was afraid of that, he knew Pharaoh was out for his place so he always demeaned him to keep him in check, he knew the makeup artists, people who worked with him and cared for him didn’t care for him, so he never tried to let them in either. He shut off everyone even Nott because of that fear of being replaced and hurt or stabbed in the back. 

He used Nott as a boat to get ahead, he was already insecure about being put as Nott’s partner as he admits in this episode, so instead of just dwelling on that, he used it, he used the passionate relationship to become a better method actor, refused to let Nott close to him in any authentic way, and kept reminding himself of him as a threat, he used Nott as a Boat, as he wanted to use the BL popularity to get into network television and be taken seriously as an actor, so he kept reminding Nott he didn’t want to be a shipped pairing. He did all of this and tried so hard to put space and Nott let him. The truth is Pan was just as scared of being abandoned and left (because again being himself wasn’t seen as worthy) and so he pushed back and tried to be in control. In the end, he hurt Nott, but by the end feels like he was right to have left him all along 

The Boat vs The infinite ship

Nott and Pan have always had this fascinating devastating thing about their romance. For both of them, the fear of being used/taken advantage of vs the real love they feel for each other has always been their arcs for both growth and regression. Nott feared Pan was using and taking advantage of him and when Pan lashes out and calls him a boat he breaks, it was true then, he was just a toy to Pan, it was never real.

For Nott, he’s been able to control everything in his life, everything else was easier for him, his looks got him to sleep with whoever he wanted, his acting career and others, and it was easier for him to achieve the goals he wanted, unlike Pan who had to sell so many parts of himself and identity to get there. Nott sees things as going with the flow apart from Pan, Pan is who he loves, and he is willing to be used by him. However, it gets to him and hurts him each time Pan’s defenses attack him, Pan’s cold, distanced, and manipulative mask pains him and so, he doesn’t see Pan breaking more than he is and is trying so hard to keep control. Pan on the other hand is different, he’s afraid Nott sees him as an infinite ship; a prison he doesn’t want to enter, he wants to be taken seriously for his acting, to prove everyone wrong who doubted he could do it, to prove himself that he’s worthy and precious of love for his identity. 

However, Nott’s dreams of them being together forever a shipped couple entraps that, so he lets him know it’s impossible. This is not his goal, his goal has always been to be taken seriously and not just as a shipped pairing, but it hurts Nott who feels used, and it fills him with insecurities about why Nott wants him. He tells himself lies. He believes them, Nott uses their shipping pictures, fanservice, and pairing as a way to advance himself this is why when he’s later feeling abandoned by Nott (with TTTV) he shuts down and erupts his walls back up, and lashes out at him. But as much as it’s true he did use him, he did hurt him, he did take advantage, he also loved Nott, he just was afraid, and this is proof he was right to be. In the end, the two love each other, and find solace in each other but are left with scars of what the other one does to them. 

Nott is punished even more because he sleeps with Pharaoh, a trigger for Pan, his enemy seeking his downfall, his replacement, he did that for a bit with no meaning to it, because Nott doesn’t take anything seriously apart from Pan and he is punished for that naivety and ignorance. In the end, Pan is hurt and sent to regression, and Nott is left behind by the one person he believes frees and sees him. 

Pan’s mothers (Nature vs Nurture)

Mother is an important theme for Pan because he seeks maternal care, warmth, nurture, and love. There are three mothers surrounding his life, each he gives a part of himself to and each destroys him in a way internally. Each he makes a mask to survive. 

There’s his real mum who he loves and wants validation from, who he wants to be proud of him, and who he wants to make happy. He wears a mask of egoism, and confidence that he will be fine, he becomes a perfectionist with goals and plans to prove everyone wrong and show her he can survive and make it as himself. But as he goes to eliminate himself in this episode, the truth is harsh and suffocates him, he worked hard and sacrificed so much of himself to get to her and in the end, he couldn’t. He was abandoned and left alone only to return if he could be of worth and importance. He clings to her necklace as a sign of comfort, but it chokes him instead, pulling him further and further into this desperate need for validation and love. 

 His Fans

 You have his fans, their fandom name; his ‘mums’, they want to coddle and give him love. In order to do so, he must appear happy, cute, and innocent. And so he tries to do so, despite his hatred of losing control (from his traumas), and his hate of being touched, he tries to keep up the appearances, to please them with Nott, to be docile and effective.

However, if he steps out of line like in episode 2, they either leave him or blame him for his frigidness, look of discomfort, and inability to smile and seem happy with what they want. His fans are his refuge but they also push him deeper into a web of fear that being himself is not enough. His need for their validation and comments almost drives him crazy, he works nonstop even in moments when he can’t, to please and get their love because it makes him less insecure, they’re the proof that he’s loved, wanted and precious, they tell him that and he wants that, but it keeps him in the trap, suffocating until he can’t take it anymore.

This isn’t just his fan's fault, they may be fickle but they are loyal to him as well, but their mothering pushes Pan into a different state for them, he wants to gain their love and affection by sacrificing his authenticity, by making sure who they see is what they want but it’s killing him inside. When he snaps, they see it and start to desert him. It’s painful. 

Koon is the most painful, been by his side for 5 years, she has exploited and used his body to gain ahead. Although she cared for him and tried to reduce his discomfort (due to her guilt of what she was making him into) she’s the biggest mother figure Pan has lost himself for. Not only has she taken advantage of him with false pretenses of his body, mind, and insecurities, but she’s also worked him hard with no rest, she acts like a nurturing mother, meek and submissive but behind closed doors she’s fickle, always looking for something new to gain ahead.

Pan is an object for her gain, and she reveled in that, she used him to prove a point to Bew’s manager who poached Bew away from her that she was right and more powerful, she used him to get her other clients ahead, she used him to get her name ahead. She pushed him tirelessly, forced him to stay in a mask that was suffocating him, and let him lash out at her because of it, she knows how he feels about being controlled but deliberately leaves him with his traumas every time she wants something, and she doesn’t try to protect or even stand up for him. In a flash, she moves on with Pharoah, forms a plan and uses him, and then abandons Pan once more. The truth in episode 4 is revealed, she barricaded and fed Pan with information making him feel he needed to hide who he was, so he could be favored.

For 5 years she did this, and we see the results in episode 1, Pan lashes out and tries to regain the power taken from him all those years and so what we know of him is a shell, someone filled with pain, trauma, and scars, continuously stabbed at and slowly unraveling. Koon was the most dangerous form of a mother to him, he sought her protection and guidance and let himself be an object for her, and she used and tossed him away in the mess and chaos she caused. It’s heartbreaking. 

War of Y explores many themes, but the making of Pan, his character, his masks, his negatives, and his positives slowly get unveiled and we learn about why he turned into the way he was. Made from the cracks of neglection, abandonment, exploitation, assault, and objectification, Pan has just been trying to make it to his goals, to be taken seriously, to be wanted, to be loved authentically, but also to use his identity and get his dreams to come to fruition, to prove to everyone that he could do it, and yet, in the end, his biggest fear swallows him whole, he was always alone, from the start, it was all futile. But Nott becomes an interesting person, he is the one who loves Pan masks and no masks, he is the one who seeks Pan’s validation and love, he is the one who listens and cares for Pan, and he’s the one who would sacrifice it all to make sure Pan knows that. Pan is not alone, he was made to always feel scared of letting people in, but in the end, room 701 was always a real place of care, nurture, and love he seeks. Now we hope he can return back to there.

[onstoryladders]

the "requited byler would come out of nowhere!" argument makes me so angry because the only reason people think that is that byler is a queer ship, and god forbid a character turns out to be queer without having shoved their queerness in the audience's face first. if will was a girl no one would have any doubts about which couple makes the most sense (since m!leven is not written well if it's meant to be endgame), but since he's a boy and mike has never explicitly stated that he likes boys then "it's fanservice"

and then of course it would seem "out of nowhere" to them, they're the same people who still thought will was straight after his not-so-veiled confession in the van scene ffs like do they realize they're the last people on earth who should give their opinion on this

[masterhandss]

Forbidden fruit ask time: Keith x Katarina. I know people in western fandom are understandably wary of this ship, but apparently it's one of the favourites for the Japanese audience and based on what I heard it actually has some decent foundation in novels (not as much as GeoKata, but still). Since you read novels and are #1 hamefura blog on Tumblr and know so much I wanted to ask you to tell us how KeiKata is doing in novels if it's okay owo??

owo!! lmao, I don't know about being the "#1 hamefura blog on tumblr" (I-I... I thought I was an art blog... :')) I mean I just like to ramble about hamefura lmao but I'm always happy to answer questions!

Yeah... Keith x Katarina is a hard subject to talk about considering how violent reactions can be depending on who you're talking to. I remember when Season 1 was airing, people really doesn't like Keith as a romantic option for Katarina due to them being siblings, and I'm honestly waiting for those people to react to the S2 OP and S2 in general. I've talked to a few people who don't like KeiKata at all, and they have the absolute right to dislike any ship that they want, but it did make me sad to know how much Keith is hated by the EN Fandom considering how loved he is in the JP Fandom. He's pretty much the most favorite male character and the second most shipped with Katarina.

-> hamefura x(s2) & ln spoilers ahead <-

A lot of people's issues with Keith stems from the fact that he and Katarina are step-sibling and that it's really weird for Keith to be romantically interested in Katarina (a person who sees him as a little brother completely). People are accusing him of taking advantage of Katarina's trust in him to keep her to himself and that pursuing her romantically would destroy the familial bond that they've had for years. The thing is that Keith treasures Katarina as a person, not as a sibling. Yes, Keith sees her as family, but he also sees her as more than family. To him, being able to be together with Katarina doesn't mean that he'll have to love her differently, but that he will be able to love her even more deeply and honestly. You can even headcanon that the reason Keith calls Katarina "big sister" is because he's asked to do so, and because it's a symbol of his acceptance into the family, but maybe not necessarily how he sees her.

Some of the material that will be covered in Season 2 is about Keith, so I don't know how much I want to talk about that since most fans will be able to see it themselves. Keith has it the hardest because his position makes it so that he's the least likely to get his feelings across to Katarina due to their relationship. In one of the upcoming arcs in the anime, Keith will be able to break Katarina's baka shield in the same way Geordo does: by using actions instead of words, and by just literally finding the courage to take the risk and tell her.

That's where one of the interesting things about hamefura comes into play: one of the reasons why people dislike KeiKata so much is that they feel like the reveal of Keith's feelings would awaken disgust and betrayal in Katarina. Few fanfics of hamefura portray it that way, that Katarina would be weirded out by his feelings and reject them immediately. Maybe it's because Katarina is aware of Keith as not only a sibling, but also as a romance-able character in an otome game (also because of the nature of this series lmao), that in canon, she doesn't take his confession negatively and is flushed/embarrassed by it just like Geordo's confession. I know the "weirded out" reaction is the most realistic, but maybe Katarina also understands that their relationship doesn't have a clear label. They care for each other very much and whether that bond is romantic, familial or friendship isn't something they bothered to really name, maybe? Lmao I don't know, that last bit is just speculation on my part, I can't exactly get into Katarina's head and pinpoint what she thought of Keith's confession.

If I'm being honest, she forgets about Keith's confession more often than she does Geordo, mostly because nothing really changed after he made his feelings clear. I wouldn't say that she dismissed it, it's just that she's forgetting it because in her perspective being loved as a woman and as family by Keith both means that he'll take care of her and shower her with attention (aka no difference).

When I think about how "KeiKata is doing in the novels", for some reason the first thing that comes to my mind is the line "how they treated Geordo in the anime, from a JP perspective". I know that sounds confusing, but what I mean is that a lot of Arc 2 - FL2 scenes with KeiKata is kinda fanservice (aka the thing they tried to do for Geordo in the anime which worked for JP fans but made him hated by the EN fans) (not me trying to insert Geordo in a post about Keith hehe :V). Excluding all the Keith scenes that are coming in Season 2 of the anime and the current arc of the manga, the story really likes to test Keith's self-control when it comes to seeing Katarina as a woman.

Keith's scenes with Katarina aren't necessarily "hot and spicy" by any means, but people nowadays tend to be quite bothered and annoyed at typical japanese romance tropes being played out in modern anime series (such as bed-pining, surprised kisses and kabedons). I mean yeah I'd be bothered too if someone pulled those moves on me in real life, but for the japanese audience this is what their fanservice is like so that's the kind of stuff we'll see in hamefura. Just like Geordo, Keith is given a few scenes where he's put in a romantic spot with Katarina after he confessed, but it always just ends with him backing out and hoping that it at least could remind Katarina of how he sees her (like bed-pinning in LN6 & affectionate touches from Katarina in LN8). A lot of hate towards Keith stems from these scenes because people sees this as a disrespect towards Katarina and the familial relationship they have. These scenes helps reinforce how Keith sees Katarina as a woman and not as a sister, but depending on who you're siding with, you're either gonna be disgusted at Keith or extremely pissed off at Katarina's lack of propriety & density.

Like, people are getting angry at Keith for being a teenage boy who is being bothered by affectionate touches from the girl he likes who is also always approaching him with only a nightgown? I mean blame the author or Keith all you want but at least put some responsibility on Katarina as well :V People are really saying "well, he shouldn't be bot and bothered by it in the first place, they are siblings! that's disgusting!" well again, Keith sees her as a woman and Katarina needs to be aware that she shouldn't be so touchy with the opposite sex regardless if it's family. Keith kinda blames Katarina for the way he feels given how she acts around him despite being unaware of his feelings, which is also the cause of some hatred towards Keith.

People are saying that Keith is dumping *all* the responsibility onto Katarina because she acts in such an affectionate way towards him, but in reality Keith feels really bad & also hates himself for being so attracted to her when she doesn't even know about his feelings. He puts a lot of blame onto himself and thinks he's just as bad as Geordo sometimes (not saying Geordo is bad, more like Keith's "idea of Geordo" being bad lmao). Keith always walks on eggshells around Katarina because he doesn't want to disrespect how he feels about her and how she feels about him. It's just sad to see people hate him for the few moments where his self-control breaks so that he can act on his honest emotion, and accuse him of abusing Katarina's trust :((

Just like Geordo, Keith has made it clear how he feels and strongly desires to pursue her romantically, but his problem of being the step-sibling is still there. I haven't gotten my own copy of JP Volume 10 yet, I feel like I just wanna wait for the EN version instead of using GT, but multiple spoilers have noted that while Keith hasn't made progress in getting approval of his feelings from Katarina's side, he's at least able to get an approval from his family. Well, by that I mean Keith has already confessed his romantic feelings about Katarina to their father Luigi, and he replied by saying that he approves of whoever Katarina chooses for herself. Keith realizes that all he needs to do is get Katarina to return his feelings. When he does, his family wont hate him, but instead he'll be able to love them and be loved in the same, yet different way.

TLDR; a lot has happened to Keith throughout the light novels. He's progressing slowly and steadily just like Geordo, and is leagues ahead compared to the other characters. He has confessed his feelings and got reassurance of his relationship with his parents. Keith and Katarina's relationship itself hasn't really changed though, but it's nice to know that Keith is at least laying the foundations for his hypothetical future with her. Katarina doesn't really think about Keith enough to be able to tell how she feels about his confession or if her opinion on him has changed at all though, so take that as either an L or a W for Keith.

Thank you for the ask! I'm sorry if this isn't as elaborate as you wanted, anon. I like Keith and Katarina but I guess it's because they aren't my bias that I don't pay too much attention to the tiny details of how Keith is written in the books qwq