#there is so much going on with her and the way the narrative treats her

[descendant-of-truth]

Interesting addendum to this that I wasn't expecting: in the English version of Days, whenever Roxas talks about Sora, he's always clearly framed as a person. "Who is Sora," "I don't even know a Sora," etc.

In Japanese, he initially asks about who Sora is, but then switches to asking what Sora is. And it seems to happen not too long after Xemnas describes Sora as "the connection" between him and Xion.

He proceeds to wonder to himself what Sora is, and who exactly that makes him, before going to ask Axel about it. And during that conversation with Axel, he doesn't say "I don't even know a Sora," he instead just repeats the question of "but what even is Sora?"

Which I think adds an extra nuance to the narrative that gets lost in the official translation. Roxas instinctively thinks of Sora as a person, because why wouldn't he, but none of the answers he gets about him frames him as such. So, perhaps subconsciously, he starts seeing Sora less as a person and more of a mystery, this obstacle to his and Xion's lives that he can't seem to get answers about.

And normally, you'd think Roxas wouldn't fall into this trap, right? He's always been the most adamant about defending Xion's personhood, shouting at people when she's referred to as a puppet or an "it." His whole storyline is about asserting himself in the face of nearly everyone he knows dehumanizing him and trying to take away his autonomy.

Plus, he has Sora's memories! If he remembers things that Sora's done, and things that Sora's felt, how could he not see him as a person?

But I think that's a testament to how insidious the Organization's manipulation is. Roxas and his best friend are discriminated against, they're "othered" in a way that's unfair and it makes him justifiably ticked off. But that's the thing: he knows Xion, he cares about her, and of course he knows himself. He remembers things about Sora, but he doesn't really understand him - we never see him processing the memories he has very well.

So it becomes very easy for Sora to be presented as the "other." He doesn't stand up for Sora's personhood because he hasn't seen it, and frankly, he has bigger things in his home life to care about than whether some random guy he knows random things about is being treated well. Sora, reportedly, is half the reason he has so many problems anyway, and at this point in his life he just wants someone to blame.

It doesn't matter that Sora wasn't personally responsible for anything that happened to Roxas. He doesn't know what Sora did or didn't do when it comes to him and Xion, but everyone's telling him he's responsible, he's the connection, he's the reason everything is happening to him. And so, Roxas's anger is directed at an innocent person, someone who's really not much more privileged than he is, instead of solely at his oppressors.

Honestly, the way Roxas views Sora over time deserves a post all on its own, because it's not even necessarily as straightforward as "and then he saw Sora exactly for who he is once they joined together for a while and he got over his resentment." It's more like, his resentment turned into genuine respect, and then into this weird, resigned hero-worship for a bit, before they seemed to get on equal terms towards the end of KH3.

But my point is, Roxas plays a very interesting role in this pattern of Sora being dehumanized, because he ends up contributing to it for completely different reasons than everyone else, and it's not even on purpose. DiZ and the Organization see Sora as a tool, Namine and especially Riku care more about waking him up than how he'd feel about their methods.

To Roxas, Sora is the reason he lost everything. Sora is "what it was all for," which starts as something he hates, and becomes something that gives him a certain degree of comfort.

Because Sora will be the one to figure it all out, right? He can depend on Sora, just like everybody else, because that's what Sora's here for. He's a good guy, he'll find a way to make things right again.

He ends up being correct, but man. At what cost

Anyone else find it fascinating that whenever we're shown Roxas's feelings through Sora, it's just kind of melancholic and wistful, but the reverse scenario always feels like you just walked into a psychological horror?

Seriously, the way it's presented, it's like we're meant to see Roxas as an old friend that we miss talking to, but Sora - our original "old friend" that we would have reasons to miss - is hardly even shown as a person. The contents of his memories feel less important than the effect they're having on Roxas, which is usually Extreme Distress and/or physical pain.

And it's insane to me because KH1 was so whimsical! The memories that Roxas and Xion are experiencing are literal Disney magic! But the way they're shown, with the fuzzy filters and the glitch effects, sort of removes the emotions you associate with them and makes them come across as eerie and unsettling.

Not to mention, Sora's memories rarely prompt any feelings of happiness, the way Roxas's might make Sora extra fond of the Twilight Town crew... which might say more about how KH1 affected Sora's mental health than anything.

(I personally stand by the idea that the story revisits it so much as an analogy for how repeating events in your head over and over can alter your perception of them)

But like. how wild is it that this series found a way to take its cheerful protagonist, and without changing anything about him, turned him into this constant, unnerving presence that haunts the lives of two other characters?

And I think another reason Roxas doesn't feel like he haunts Sora in the same way is because no one really... treats Sora like a person while he's asleep. He's either a tool or an object of affection, and regardless of which you pick, his feelings are seen as secondary to the goal of waking him up. As a result, the narrative focuses entirely on Roxas and Xion's personhood, and unlike Sora, they never stop being treated like people once they're made inaccessible due to the plot.

It's probably a bit late in the story to bring it up by now, but I still wonder if we'll ever see Sora be upset with Riku for sacrificing people in his name. Sure, it worked out in the end, and I'm not sure if Sora's even aware of what happened (how likely is it that he's properly sifted through all of Roxas's memories at this point?) but there's a list of things he could still conceivably be mad at Riku about that he hasn't processed, and I want this to be one of them

[lostyesterday]

A frustrating thing about Voyager that many people have discussed before is the way in which B’Elanna is seen by the characters and the narrative itself as inherently or naturally angry and aggressive regardless of her actual actions in relation to the actions of those around her. It would be one thing if the narrative itself questioned this assumption of the characters (including B’Elanna herself), but in fact the narrative generally supports this idea.

Obviously this whole concept falls very much into racist tropes in relation to Klingons in general, and for B’Elanna specifically, into racist stereotypes about Latina women. But even going purely based on her onscreen portrayal, I think it is genuinely an inaccurate reading of B’Elanna’s character to call her more angry or aggressive than the other characters around her, despite this clearly being the intention in a lot of episodes. If you actually pay attention to the behavior of other characters interacting with B’Elanna in situations where she is “angry”, it is often clear that treating her emotional and verbal reactions as indicators of some sort of inherently aggressive temperament makes no sense at all.

This is especially evident in many of her interactions with Tom. Here is one example from the episode “Night”:

In this scene, Tom describes B’Elanna as being angry “twenty-four hours a day” while B’Elanna says that everything is a joke to Tom. This is a common way for Voyager to represent the issues in B’Elanna and Tom’s relationship. The problems are supposedly caused by B’Elanna being angry all the time and Tom never taking things seriously. Tom, of course, is never irrationally angry and that could never contribute to their arguments. But if you actually pay attention to this interaction, it’s clear that Tom is at least as angry and aggressive here as B’Elanna is, if not more so. His “jokes” are intended as verbal attacks. To see this scene as indicative of B’Elanna’s inherently aggressive nature but not Tom’s is extremely questionable.

In isolation, this scene doesn’t indicate much, but when B’Elanna’s actions are continuously interpreted as indicative of some kind of innate aggression regardless of the context or how they relate to those around her, the bias becomes clear.

[wisteria-lodge]

About the gender in hp thing: I know JKR wrote the books wanting the patriarchy to have minimal impact on the world but even through a couple of the metas you wrote you can see that that’s not the case. In your character crying post there’s a clear implication that showing that kind of emotion is a weakness but also that it is not masculine. Equating strength with masculinity is foundational for cultures with strong patriarchies, and this idea infests every other aspect of their lives. Idk because of that and many other reasons I have a very hard time of writing the wizarding world as anything other than a patriarchy

This is a watsonian analysis vs doylist analysis issue.

I 100% do think that JKR went out of her way to really, really downplay the importance of gender in her worldbuilding - and this contributes a lot to the specific feel of the world. You could genderflip, idk. Neville. Snape. Draco. Hermione. McGonagall. and almost no plot elements or character dynamics would change. (Maybe James would bully Severus slightly differently? Idk. He honestly might not.)

Compare HP to something like His Dark Materials, another British fantasy series released at the same time, marketed to the same demographic... in which gender politics are REALLY important. Lyra conforming or not conforming to specific gender norms hugely impacts the way a lot of other characters treat her. So much of Mrs. Coulter's character has to do with how she's navigated the back ways and side avenues into power, because the patriarchy that runs *that* world is extremely explicit and plot relevant, and there's a lot she just can't do.

Now is JKR *good* at writing a gender-blind world? Not really no. So she's stripped out the importance of gender in a fairly surface way, while leaving evidence of the foundations intact. Everyone's a het couple, women take the husband's last name, Molly and Petunia are at home while their husbands work and there's no inverse of that situation, Fleur's father walks her down the aisle at her wedding, it's important that Hermione be able to tame her hair when she wants to, but for Harry it doesn't matter...

There is ALSO the narrative voice poking through and putting its own spin on everything. This is where we start getting judgment (for example) directed both at girls who are too feminine, and at girls who aren't feminine enough. Or sexual assault not really "sticking" if it's directed at boys. We don't have a character talking, in-universe, about how it's wrong for a woman not to want children. We just have a book where the only women who don't have kids (or take care of kids) are villains. Same thing with masculinity = strength = no crying. That's something the narrative framing / bias of the author brings to the table, but it's kept out of the mechanics of the magical world. I guess you could say Harry and Draco equate crying/fainting with weakness (but not explicitly anti-masculinity)... but then Lupin goes out of his way to separate 'fainting' from 'weakness' anyway.

Interestingly, gender is much more baked into the muggle worldbuilding. (Part of why I think leaving that aspect out of the wizarding world was a deliberate choice.) Smeltings is an all-boys school, so is St Brutus.' Dudley teases Harry about his "boyfriend" Cedric, Vernon sizes up Arthur and Mad-Eye by how masculine they are. At the beginning of Book 4, Dudley's diet is this very gendered conflict between Vernon and Petunia, where Vernon doesn't want a "little nancy boy for a son" - and that is one of the only truly gendered insults in the whole series. "Crybaby" almost counts... but the Slytherins tease Hermione for crying too, so idk. They tend to go for pretty gender-neutral insults, like "poor" "unimportant parents" "looks like a chipmunk" ... etc.

Like... I'm trying to imagine a scene were Lucius lays into Draco for not being masculine enough, and I can't. I think that in a canon-compliant fic, a scene like that would feel odd. The conflict would need to be framed more like a "you disgrace the name of Malfoy with your weakness" or "never tell anyone outside the family what you're thinking" or "your believe yourself to be more intelligent than you truly are." Not "you need to man up."

[nerdishpursuits]

What really amuses me (or annoys, depending) is that we always manage to look for more than meets the eye, assuming the show has more depth to it, when in truth it’s lacking in so many ways.

We seem to forget what we’re dealing with here. And what that is? Is a novela, pure and simple. A Spanish one, true. But a novela just the same. And while in the beginning, for the most part, quality prevailed? It’s more and more obvious the show is becoming plagued by the inconsistencies of its genre.

We’ll never have a sensitive topic such as SA treated with the care and empathy it deserves (if anything, it encourages the message that victims are better off if they keep silent; the SA itself and the inherent misogyny? they were just background noise for the now 20+ episodes narrative of a woman suffering the consequences of looking for justice that was legally denied)

We’ll never see Fina’s recovery as it should have been treated.

We’ll never see Marta’s own trauma addressed.

I severely doubt we’ll see them healing together in a way that feels rewarding, empathetic and well thought out. We’ll get hints that they spent the night together, that they talked about their feelings and addressed the problems they’re facing. Hints and more hints. Surface level depictions that don’t really bother going beneath the surface. One of those high-speed trains that seldom stop at any station for more than a few minutes, the scenery a blur at the edge of one’s vision. Expecting more? Well, it might be asking for too much. We either enjoy what we can and as much as we can, or we desist. Plain and simple.

As for more of today’s events?

1. Just like Marta is a grown up, capable of making her own decisions? So is Tasio. For Carmen to lay all the blame at Marta’s feet is ridiculous. As is the show persisting in comparing her to Jesús, who is a de facto muderer and whose violent actions don’t have repercussions + let’s add Don Pedro to the list, whose revenge ended with the murder of the one responsible for his son’s death - I doubt there’ll be consequences as, after all, he’s a man and allowed to get away with it. For Marta though? Pandora’s box and all its blessings. May I just say succumbing to rage and helplessness one time, does not a violent person make, nor does it undo the moral tapestry of Marta’s character (for all the show loves to punish her for it).

But I’m digressing. Tasio is not a saint and to pretend otherwise is laughable (Carmen herself suspected he orchestrated the entire thing to curry favour with his father? I mean. Her trust in him is somewhere below sea level, no need to pretend otherwise. More so, she seems to forget it was Damián who paid for Tasio’s out-of-jail-card: claiming Marta’s family wouldn’t help him is borderline absurd). Marta didn’t force him to do anything, he chose to help her of his own free will. And at the end of the day? Marta never shies away from doing the hard thing: taking accountability. And she does it every single damn time, no matter how hard it is. (let’s see if Tasio ever gets there, fully). And I now find myself needing a scene where Fina defends Marta with Carmen.

2. They found the most contrived way of using Marta’s journal against her - if it is her journal, that is; for all we know it’s Marta’s calculus notebook (Santiago invading their safe space and just so happening to find it laying there? It’s not only supremely absurd but a sacrilege as well, yet another violation of their intimacy). Rather funnily, this show might be trying to preach violence is not the answer yet here we are, ascending to the next level altogether (I personally don’t see any other way to be rid of Santiago - his demise needs to be imminent and it needs to happen). Not to mention how outlandish it is that a nobody is able to get into Fina’s cell, waltz into Marta’s office or walk onto their property like so? This level of absurd is top-tier for sure.

3. The one consistent thing? Marta’s love for Fina and Fina’s love for Marta. That hasn’t changed and it won’t (it’s very much obvious Marta is nothing but irritated with Pelayo and for good reason: that man is like fungus, chemical treatment needed)

Oh well. Since the inane seems to be the way? Let’s join the circus: Santiago is moved to tears upon reading Marta’s journal and gives them his blessing, for Pelayo and Santiago it’s love at first ‘stache and they buy the property next to Marta’s so they can be felices los quatro, Jesús launches a business promoting hair-growth (dar en el calvo) and Eladio writes a book in prison (from SIcario to NOcario).

On the bright side? Flirty and Horny Fina is back tomorrow? Or so it would seem. She’s been dearly missed 😌 Furthermore? For everything that’s not being said, shown or addressed? It’s still a feat Mafin remains the healthiest relationship on the show. No doubt about it!!!

[kathleenkatmary]

I will say it over and over again until I have no voice to say it with... FRAMING. MATTERS.

EDIT: Okay, I'm going to expand on this because I remembered that there have been multiple times when I've said this that someone truly did not know what I'm talking about.

Framing matters. The way a narrative frames a character and their actions matters. In so many different ways. It matters to the message the writers are trying to send. It matter to the message that is actually sent. It matter to what the character and their actions end up meaning or representing with in the narrative. And it matters to how the audience perceives and feels about the character.

Obviously, that last bit is what matters here. The way a character and their actions are framed within the narrative can be consistent with the things they do and say, or it can be inconsistent with the things they do and say. And Spike and Xander actually serve as a really good demonstration of this. As has already been pointed out, when Spike does something bad and toxic and fucked up, more often than not it's framed as such. Yes, from pretty early on he was written to be far more complex than just the unambiguous bad guy, and from season 4 on in particular he's given an arc that gives him more and more chances to do good things and to do the right thing, and for increasingly less selfish reasons. But the narrative never treats those things as some sort of get out of jail free card that frames everything he does as good and not selfish. His toxic bullshit is still framed as toxic bullshit. Are there a few moments here and there where things he does aren't appropriately framed? Sure, probably. But you're going to find that in a pretty much any show, because no show is perfect.

Xander, on the other hand, is pretty regularly (as the poster above says, at least 50% of the time) framed in a way that is not consistent with the way he behaves. Not only is he framed as the loveable loser harmless best friend, he's also more than once framed in ways that treat him doing the literal bare minimum of not being a horrible person as though he's some kind of ultimate good guy hero (him not taking advantage of Buffy when she was under the love spell and the way he's treated for that is a great example) or that treat his really gross and toxic ideas and attitudes as being completely correct (the bullshit he spouted when Riley gave Buffy the ultimatum). Even when his attitudes or behavior is framed appropriately, it's usually stuff that's brushed off pretty easily, even when it has dire consequences (like him not telling Buffy that Willow was going to do the spell to give Angel his soul back).

Now, of course, framing isn't the only thing that determines how an audience will react to characters. For one thing, there are plenty of instances of fans just going crazy over characters who are framed as being heroes or desirable romantic leads even though that framing is inconsistent with how they actually behave and the things they actually do. And there are plenty of other things that go into how an audience reacts to a character. There are certain character traits, from aspects of their personality to just bits of their design, that will make a character more appealing. Especially when it comes to online audiences.

So yeah, Spike as a character hitting a lot of those "fandom favorite" boxes almost certainly contributes to people favoring him to at least some extent. But I think the framing really is the big thing here that makes people so much more likely to favor Spike, and so much more likely to call out Xander. The narrative is pretty regularly calling out Spike. His behavior is weird and creepy and the narrative points that out regularly. So it's not really something the fandom needs to do. Going online and being like "so, Spike kidnapping Buffy, tying her up, and telling her he's going to kill his ex girlfriend in front of her to prove his love is so creepy and toxic, right?" isn't really necessary because... yeah. The narrative knows it, and therefor so does the vast majority of the audience. But with Xander that is not something the narrative usually does. When he, for example, condescendingly corrects Anya, the narrative doesn't treat that critically, it treats it as a funny thing that Xander is probably right to do. When he agrees with everything Riley said when he gave Buffy that ultimatum and treats Buffy like she's the problem in that relationship, it doesn't frame him as wrong, or as projecting so many of his own issues with women and with Buffy in particular onto the situation. He's framed as the man talking sense into Buffy. So it does fall on the audience to call it out, and to call the show out for not doing it.

Like I said, inconsistent framing isn't something that an audience always notices, but with a show like Buffy, where a lot of - really, I would even say most of - the characters are usually appropriately framed, and where you do have an instance of a guy's creepy, toxic behavior appropriately framed, I think that makes it easier for viewers to clock it when there's a character that isn't being appropriately framed. Even if viewers doing consciously realize it's why they're reacting negatively to a character. Personally, I think that's also at least part of the reason a lot of people don't react well to Riley. It's not because he's 'boring' or because they ship Buffy with someone else and he 'gets in the way', or whatever. At least, not completely. I really think the way his character was framed, especially in season 5, was often not really in line with what was actually happening with the character, and people could feel that.

Are there Spike fans who just completely ignore it all, ignore the framing and all the shitty, creepy, toxic shit Spike has done so that they can feel like they're allowed to like him 'guilt free', or so they can engage with the character completely uncritically? Sure. Of course. Any character with any amount of fanbase is going to have people who do that. It's just a part of fandom. And I'm not going to act like Spike doesn't check a lot of boxes of typical "fandom favorite" types, and that is going to make people more likely to be drawn to him as a character. But there's a lot of critical analysis of Buffy that happens, even just in online fandom spaces, analysis that goes far deeper than just that kind of more surface level fandom engagement. And even then, so much of what you see is incredibly critical of Xander and the way he's written while being much more favorable to Spike and the way he's written. That's not just fangirls ignoring the bad stuff their fav does while dogpiling on another character. That's people recognizing the problems with Xander's writing and the very stark difference in the framing between Xander and Spike.

At the end of the day, fictional characters are not real people. The way they're written and how audiences react to them is about a lot more than just the way a character behaves and the things they say and do. There's a lot more that goes into it, and framing is a big part of it.

ok I’m only on season 5 but can someone explain to me how Xander is the universally hated one for, from what I can tell, some bad choices and worse jokes, while Spike, the fandom’s babygirl and beloved heartthrob, literally stalks Buffy, holds her captive, and then commissions a robot version of her when it’s made clear he’ll never have her. like someone please explain it because the math is not mathing.

[ladyloveandjustice]

Fall 2024 Anime Overview: Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc.

Premise: Monsters called Kai are threatening ordinary people, and only magical girls can stop them. However, being a magical girl is no longer the domain of teenagers, and has evolved into an actual career dominated by adult women. Companies employ magical girls and send them out to exterminate Kai. Kana is having a hard time getting her first job. But when she ends up helping out a magical girl, she’s invited to become one for a small, scrappy company. There’s a lot for Kana to learn…

This was my favorite magical girl show of the Fall 2024 season- and how amazing is it we had three new ones for once! There's a lot to love about Magilumiere! For one thing, it gave me something I always crave: Adult magical girls (or magical women, though they’re called magical girls in this show). Much like how classic mahou shoujo often explores the struggles adolescence and growing up, this show uses mahou shoujo as a way to explore what it’s like to be a young woman entering the working world. Kana struggles to grow her confidence and adjust to her new job, but with the encouragement of her boss and co-workers, she discovers her own talents.

All of the magical ladies are pretty fun, with my favorite being Hitomi Koshigaya, Kana’s senpai in the work place. She’s a brash and raucous woman who loves kicking ass with shit-eating grin, she only ever wears tracksuits when she’s not on the job, she talks like a delinquent, bursts with confidence, and she’s very protective and sweet towards Kana. Basically, she’s goals, everything I love about soft hearted delinquent girls only she’s actually a grown woman this time! Wow!

But we also get introductions to plenty of other cool magical ladies, all who approach their jobs in a different way where they can learn from each other.And the women are always treated respectfully, visually and by the narrative. No jarring objectification or anything like that.

The show has a bit more of a focus on men than you’d expect, since while the magical girls fight on the front lines, Magilumiere’s engineer/tech support team are men, and the boss and his mysterious backstory is a big part of the show. However, they’re all good characters! And the show does still put a big focus on women, exploring their relationships, their development, and all the cool magical girl fights they can get into. It is so nice to see some hype magical lady fights, and rather than the unfortunate animation poor Acro Trip got, this show does pretty well with its visuals and fight scenes. The story especially lot of fun with the transformation sequences, and I love to see it.

The show also has a lot to say about corporate world, and it feels like it’s only getting started on that. From the beginning, it makes sure to contrast the way Magilumiere operates from the more cutthroat business of larger companies. The company’s boss, Kouji Shigemoto, was previously a partner in a much larger business, but seems to have left because how they were doing things didn’t jive with his ideals, and now he’s in charge of start-up where he's very focused on the best possible experience for both his employees and customers. He’s contrasted to his previous partner, who’s gone on to grow a big company that only cares about efficiency and the bottom line. His old friend doesn’t care about property damage or the feelings of the people who need help, just getting it done quickly and going on to the next job. He fires his employees casually, and doesn’t seem to care about them.

Meanwhile, Shigemoto is a very encouraging presence in his company, who checks in with his employees, talks to them, supports  them, and really respects their input. Magilumiere makes a point of avoiding property damage and finding ways to help the customer, even if it’s a lot more trouble. He describes himself as wanting to “protect” peaceful moments where they can just hang out and have fun. It may come off as being a little too worshipful of start ups, but I don’t think it’s trying to say all startups are like this. Shigemoto started his with the specific goal of being kinder to his employees and being true to his ideals, and that’s not a thing that applies to all startups. 

It's not saying anything groundbreaking so far, like it’s definitely not deeply questioning the hellscape of capitalism right now, but the message is nice, and I’m interested in seeing where it goes. The fact magical girls are privatized despite providing a life saving service is interesting, and I wonder if the show’s going to touch on this too, since it’s been implied there’s a grim origin involved. And then there's lots of a little jokes about tech companies too. The fact the magical women suck monsters up into flash drives after defeating them is honestly so funny.

The story also gives some brief shout outs to struggles real women face in the workplace—it’s mentioned there’s people on not-Twitter who mock magical girls for being “old” and just seem to want to harass and criticize them. But this hadn't really been explored in depth so far, which I’d like to see from the show. It would also be nice to see exploration of gender on the tech side of things--- like in the real world, it’s really notably male dominated. We’ve gotten some focus on one woman CEO and one girl engineer, but the gender imbalance is very much there. 

 The show disappointed very slightly by briefly throwing out that men’s magic is “too aggressive” (whatever that means?) and that’s why it’s all magical girls, which is a too-common gender essentialist explanation for women dominating a fantasy action story (see: Claymore) that has weird implications. Why can’t a lot of girls just be really good at magic? Why can’t it just happen to be a female dominated career but there are some magical boys? (And the fact the the explanation has to be like, guys are just TOO strong, TOO cool, TOO manly is like. lmao okay.) But it is a throwaway line that doesn’t ever come up again (and it does at least frame it as a ‘mystery’ they might figure out someday).

That brings me to an issue that may be uncomfortable for some viewers- Shigemoto wears a magical girl outfit while he’s working, and when he’s introduced the angle and vibe is intimidating and Kana reacts in shock and possibly fear, possibly playing into transphobic stereotypes. The next episode, however, makes it clear she’s specifically be shocked that it’s a middle aged man wearing “cosplay” at work rather than ever saying it’s the dress, the other employees are chill about it, Kana gets used to it, and the narrative moves on pretty quickly.

However it comes up in a minor way a couple more times, with Kana saying she's surprised Koshigaya worked there after seeing the boss dressed like that (Koshigaya’s response being ‘hey you decided to too! People in this company are interesting, aren’t they?’). Another magical girl doesn’t seem put off by it at all, but immediately assumes it’s business related. It is implied there’s some sort of work related origin for his cosplay and it's possibly tragic, but he does definitely enjoys the clothing (and has a nice skincare routine) and the male characters are always 100% supportive, with one of them particular often discussing fashion with him, if there should be more ribbons etc.

So yeah, YMMV over whether it crosses over into transphobia (or edges into it) but I’ve definitely seen way worse. I feel the series is mostly supportive even if it’s like “hahaha it’s a little weird right!” it’s not outright mean to him about it (imo).

The pacing may be a little slow sometimes, really wanting to cover every moment of the manga, but it’s always a good time, and there’s plenty of hype moments. The concept is so interesting and has so much potential, and I feel like the show is running with it.

The show has been unfortunately been confined to Amazon Prime, where a lot of people probably missed it, but it seems to be doing well in Japan and a second seasons already been announced, to my delight!

Over all, if you’re a magical girl fan or are just interested in a good show that explores magi-tech, working adult issues, and has some cool ladies fighting and bonding, I really recommend this one.

[the-crooked-library]

You are so right with your takes about Nosferatu that someone who looks soft and speak nicely is, in fact, capable of causing pain regardless. Add Von Franz to it. On the surface he’s silly funny grandpa who talks to Ellen nicely and is attentive to her and understands her. And in what it culminates? In that he’d gladly use her as a sacrifice to solve their vampire problem! He has no problems to use her in such a way, he has no problem with sacrificing another human being, he’s not even particularly heartbroken when she dies -he just arranges the flowers on bed ritualisticly and takes her cat being very happy and proud with himself ! He also has that maniacal episode when he laughs like a lunatic in the manor and burns everything down, laughing while he knows Ellen is feeding herself to vampire. Because he actually failed her too, because he didn’t even try to find or use other methods to kill Orlok like staking him or dragging his body during daytime to daylight and just burn it. All his nice eccentric talk and his interest in her occult powers, all it was just a fancy to him for research purposes, and ultimately just so he could use her as a tool against vampire. So we have Sievers who ties her up and drugs her against her will, Harding who supports that and hates her and Von Franz who talks soft on the surface and under surface is quick and ready to essentially kill her if this killing would help against vampire. Plus Thomas who doesn’t fully understand her, is afraid of her powers and would try to have sex with her because of his fragile masculinity despite Ellen being in not right state mind at that time. It seems Ellen indeed had no chances in the land of living with such normal people around her.

exactly - and Von Franz especially is an interesting character in that sense, since (as you said) he does present himself as a largely benign, eccentric, funny old man. The way he treats Ellen is not perceived as an outright attack, as it is with Harding or Sievers - or a betrayal, which is the connotation of Anna's snapping at her, or Thomas' horror at her psychic fit. Ellen is, by and large, complacent with the way he speaks of her and to her; and that is because he represents the Moral aspect of society, of which she believes herself to be in violation.

Von Franz is seemingly kind, he prioritizes always the "greater good," he pities Ellen's lot in life - and he is curious, delving into the occult with all the excitement of a tourist; and while he is blundering and (unlike Stoker's Van Helsing) severely lacking information on vampires specifically, that is still the closest thing to acceptance that Ellen's ever received from a human. As such, she does not actively resent him as much as the others; but their relationship is still characterized by a distinct sense of obligation. Even if he is hesitant to broach the topic, she offers herself as a sacrifice; and that is, in a structural sense, a direct narrative follow-up to his professed worldview.

Their dynamic rests on Ellen's diagnosis. Von Franz believes her to be cursed - which is not only incorrect, but also the sort of statement that, contextually, bears a significant moral and religious weight. While the social influence and popularity of Christianity has in some ways diminished over the last two centuries, it is still so ingrained within the cultural setting of Nosferatu that it practically goes unsaid. However, what I think is important here is that, in various Christian-influenced folkloric traditions, a curse is often something that must be earned; while some curses happen as a result of sheer bad luck, others are just as often presented as manifestations of God's wrath at oneself or at one's ancestors - who, through some grievous sins, have doomed their entire bloodline to its effects (if you go looking for contemporary fiction featuring the subject, may I recommend Gogol's Terrible Revenge (1831)?.. His context is Slavic and Eastern-European, not German, but it's still a fascinating read). The point being, since she was 1) born with her powers 2) summoned Orlok herself 3) broke their vows by marrying Thomas, therefore being the reason he came to Wisborg, Ellen believes that she is uniquely at fault for her own - and everyone else's - suffering.

With that, sacrificing herself appears to be the next logical step; after all, she is already doomed. To her, it is atonement; it is an excuse to indulge a side of herself she has repressed all her life, guilt-free, for one last night; but you are correct in saying that Von Franz sees her primarily as a tool. Ellen's value, to him, is mutable - defined by circumstances (priestess or sacrifice), rather than inherent; and his easy willingness to sacrifice her, despite his tendency to ignore her complexity in favour of bland, palatable, angelic innocence, speaks volumes. Whether she is perceived with sympathy or vitriol, Ellen is still dehumanized. It may be seen as an allegory for the madonna/whore complex, disability porn/demonization, respectability politics perfect minority shit; I mean, take your pick. There's layers. The point is, within the eyes of society, she is expendable - no matter how you spin it.

That said, Von Franz is himself a heavily symbolic character. As the physical representation of Ellen's understanding of socially acceptable Morality, it is only expected that he would sacrifice her, and she is not only unsurprised by that outcome, but also justifies it - she believes that she deserves to die. His manic glee at the destruction of Herr Knock, who may or may not have been in the process of turning, is also something she (and thus the viewer) would expect; after all, the European understanding of morality in the 1830s (and in our modern day, let's be honest) was heavily Christian - and when Good triumphs over Evil, what else would it look like?.. How does a wrathful, vengeful God manifest?.. Would He laugh as He did the smiting?.. In either case, He does not offer much in terms of comfort to the sinners, and Ellen obviously believes herself to be one. She is struggling with overwhelming guilt, turning to one character after another for anything she could interpret as forgiveness; but Von Franz cannot reassure her that Evil does not come from within (the Father does not grant her absolution). Even as she reaches out to the most caring, sympathetic members of her surrounding society, she discovers that they cannot provide her the relief she desperately wants. As you say, she has no place with them. She does not belong with them or with God. She is not meant for humanity.

Rejected by the Light, Ellen is left facing a reverent, hungry Darkness that wants her more than anything in the world; and, curiously enough, Von Franz fulfills his Fatherly aspect in this regard, as well. Specifically, he plays the role of her father at a wedding.

He gives her away.

[obsidianpen]

NG Hypothesis: I am strongly suspicious that Bellatrix is going to end up serving Harry, in some shape or form.

The justification behind this is fairly thin and circumstantial, as with all good conspiracy theories, but fundamentally hinges on the fact that 1) Bellatrix is Hermione's narrative parallel in NG, and 2) Voldemort has recently forced her to vow to treat Harry with respect and deference. In combination, I feel like the two are leading up to a shift in Bellatrix's existing relationship with Harry.

Bellatrix and Hermione being narrative parallels is easy enough to justify -- thanks to Harry's aura-sight, we can already confirm that the two witches share literally identical auras, something that no other pair of characters thus far share (not even the Weasley twins). They both serve as the right hands and functional generals to our main protagonists, are both highly respected women in male-dominated wartime spaces, and both are flawlessly loyal in defending their respective protagonist while still being willing to openly disagree about things they consider to be wrong decisions (Bellatrix's frequent and open critiques of Snape's loyalty are a good example of this). While in the original books Bellatrix's narrative foil is clearly intended to be Ginny, it is useful to understand that in reference to No Glory that role has been very clearly supplanted by Hermione (as the original romantic pairings of Harry/Ginny and Voldemort/Bellatrix do not apply, weakening the foil of Ginny to Bellatrix overall).

Voldemort's marking and then subsequent promotion of Hermione to his personal assistant is a continuation of one of the core themes of No Glory: "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer." Voldemort clearly respects Hermione in ways that he certainly doesn't respect most others and treats her like a legitimate threat to his rule if left unsupervised (which, frankly, is valid). He holds an outsized quantity of animosity towards her, as shown by how badly he wanted her executed before Harry was able to bargain for the lives of her and Ron, but the secret of Harry's horcrux status has paradoxically promoted her to an almost confidant-tier by being one of only two people who know that Harry is Voldemort's last Horcrux and don't want him dead because of it (that club consisting exclusively of Hermione and Voldemort -- Harry, by contrast, is absolutely willing to commit suicide if it means taking Voldemort down with him).

This is a state-level secret, i.e. something that could absolutely topple the government if it even became widely speculated, let alone confirmed. The day that the Wizarding World learns that Harry is the last tether to life for the much-loathed domestic terrorist and now dictator Voldemort is probably one of the last days that Harry (and by consequence, Voldemort) have to live. No matter how much they hate each other, that secret is so powerful that Voldemort and Hermione become bound together by default simply because of their shared desire to not see the truth get out; it becomes a fundamental part of how Voldemort can trust having her in his service at all.

There is only one other secret that Voldemort is similarly desperate to supress, even if it might not lead to his explicit demise in exactly the same way: the secret of Ruination, and his rape (and near-murder) of Harry on the Malfoy Manor grounds during Ron and Hermione's wedding.

This is critical, specifically because his reign is extremely unstable currently, and also because Harry is an extremely beloved, teenage, public figure. In a country where Voldemort is desperate to keep up the charade of his own sanity (something which tends to wax and wane fairly regularly), there is no version of this that comes out even remotely well for him. The man who spends hours in the Wizengamot lecturing about the importance of improved rule of law cannot simultaneously be admitted to raping defenseless teenagers whenever he feels like it, much less teenagers that he himself had described as "merely [...] a victim" not even a month before. It destroys faith in both rule of law and Voldemort's stability, i.e. his ability to at least be a consistent leader even if he'll never be a moral one. Instability, by contrast, frequently discourages businesses, drives population exoduses, and generates political unrest, literally none of which Voldemort can afford right now. It wouldn't be as immediate a death as the reveal of the horcrux information, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't have the power to be deadly all the same.

Returning to the subject of Bellatrix, then, it is useful to remember that only three people currently have first-hand knowledge of what happened that night: Voldemort, Harry, and Bellatrix, who modified Ginny's memory. (Luna, naturally, knows everything due to Harry's confession to her, but did not experience it first-hand). If this pattern of secret-keeping feels familiar, it should: it's an exact parallel of the dynamic currently keeping Harry's status as a horcrux a secret. Going a level deeper, we may also recall what Voldemort said when he confirmed that Hermione knew about Harry's horcrux:

"She has known for some time, truthfully, though she did not accept it as a reality until very recently." - Voldemort to Harry, ch. 30: Violent Violet

It is never addressed what, if anything, Bellatrix believes the necessity of her altering Ginny Weasley's memory to be about. It would not be unreasonable for a suspicious Bellatrix (especially in the wake of her newest vows) to comb over her memories of prior orders Voldemort had given her regarding Harry and begin to put the pieces together. Much like Hermione, she is written as a very intelligent (if considerably less sane) woman. Once she begins asking more questions, it would not at all be shocking for her to end up in a similar position to the one Hermione did: knowing that something you consider to be horrible is true, but refusing to accept it as reality.

There are a number of different ways such a revelation could go, but the final piece of evidence supporting her eventually serving Harry comes from her most recent vows to him: that she will treat him henceforth with "respect and deference." This is, from a story perspective, basically the closest that Harry could ever get to putting his own version of a Dark Mark on someone. Powerful, binding magics driving someone to (at least nominal) servitude, with no way of removing or undoing them for the rest of the recipient's natural life. Much like Hermione, she may hate her new "master", but the eventual revelation of Ruination will likely drive them closer together just by being people who share the same damning secret.

Similarly to Voldemort's original outsized hatred (and murderous intent) for Hermione, I expect Harry's hatred of Bellatrix to also eventually cool one he stops allocating much of the rage that he truly feels towards Voldemort onto her. It's unlikely that she'd ever actively prefer him to Voldemort, but she may get upgraded from "an enemy Harry would murder in broad daylight with his bare hands" to "an enemy Harry can afford to keep close." When exactly such a shift would occur is obviously still unclear, but it's evident that deference and secret-sharing make for a promising start.

I so almost didn’t post this but it’s just too nicely written and thought out. Fucking detectives man

[isfjmel-phleg]

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts!

The musical accompaniment is lovely--a glimpse into what Josiah is planning to hear in performance.

Elystan's difficulty with German comes from his genuinely struggling to master it, but also from a personal grudge against it, since it's not only something his mother is inflicting on him when he could have had his beloved Latin and Greek instead but also the language of his current nemesis and anything pertaining to Josiah is going to be distasteful to him. As you point out, they're not speaking each other's language even though they have a common tongue in English.

Liennese attitudes toward Noriber have influenced other nations, especially since there's a lot of censorship of anything related to Noriberrian patriotism. So all that the rest of the world is hearing is the Liennese propaganda.

Elystan is cognitively aware that Josiah's mother is dead but completely obvious to the fact that he and Josiah are struggling with the same problem: not being allowed to grieve the death of a beloved parent. I'm not sure how he would react if he did know. (And Josiah of course knows about Talfrin, but it's not crossing his mind either that Elystan could be grieving a convicted traitor. A lot of this is the boys' inability to see past their own noses and their assumptions about each other as incapable of anything humanizing.)

...I didn't get the significance of the empty chair in the King's box until you pointed it out, and I'm the one who wrote the line. You're right; Elystan's subconsciously saying something about his deceased father, and it's interesting that he would unintentionally conflate him and Josiah. Completely different people, but both of them Elystan's most vocal critics.

I've thought about writing another Christmas Chapter from Bethira's POV, beginning when the boys arrive at Rhosemore and addressing, among other things, her relationship with Elystan and the start of the surprising bond between her and Josiah. She is absolutely having a hard time in her relationship with Elystan, especially because a lot of the way that Elystan treats her echoes how Talfrin treated her.

Even Elystan isn't quite cruel enough to taunt Josiah with the fact that his mother is dead, but yes, that pause hurt almost as much as if he had.

Schoolboy culture, at least as depicted in what I've read, was so weird about family. They're treated with distance, as if home life happens on another planet in another lifetime, or completely ignored, unless you have a brother at the same school, which is a nuisance. The terminology is distanced--"people" and "pater" and "mater." And that's what's going on here too, but the narrative is intended to be critical of it. This encouraged distance toward family isn't doing these boys any good, and it bleeds over into how they relate to each other. Elystan is in an almost older-brotherly position to Hollock, but school convention prevents them from exhibiting the warmth they're actually feeling when Hollock gives Elystan the gift, which deprives them both of a level of connection that would do them good.

To be fair, Josiah is about twice Elystan's size and Elystan probably couldn't have knocked him over even if he hadn't spent most of the year wasting away in bed, but still--although Elystan is physically doing better than when we saw him in "A Visit from the Murderess," he nonetheless has to be constantly conscious of his physical limitations in a way that most of his schoolmates do not. (If, say, Tamett had had a similar desire to shove Josiah, his main concern would be the consequences of the action, rather than whether he was physically capable of it.)

I love these boys a lot too. Thank you for understanding them so well! It is absolutely delightful.

A Christmas Chapter: Elystan’s POV

Last year I wrote two versions of this story, from Tamett’s and Josiah’s POVs. I had intended to leave it there, but a friend wanted Elystan’s POV, so after a long struggle of trying to find a story I’d never really planned between the lines of the existing pieces, here is the third and final version.

This one runs very long, nearly 17000 words. It’s not perfect, probably has wording issues right and left, and it feels a bit more like a series of random events than a cohesive whole, but I’m sick of fussing with it for now, and you’re very welcome to tell me (politely) what could be improved.

In case you’re unfamiliar with these characters, Elystan is the thirteen-year-old son of a disgraced former king of Corege (one of several nations in this  Edwardianesque world). After circumstances that have resulted in his having a massive grudge against his mother and his half-brother Delclis (the current King), he has been sent to Hollingham, an elite boarding school, where he rooms with Josiah, Crown Prince of Lienne, and has befriended Josiah’s paid companion Tamett. They’re about to reach the end of their first term, and Elystan is faced with the daunting prospect of having to spend the Christmas holidays with his dearly beloathed family.

Keep reading

[transmasc-rose]

I wrote 2000 words about Amy Pond again instead of sleeping which is probably a sign that 1. I should be asleep So Badly and 2. I really need to just write that Amy Pond essay I have been meaning to do since s5.

[ef-1]

If I think about the double standard and the disparity with which the media handled Daniel in comparison to everyone else I may lose my mind.

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

The Sword of Kaigen

standalone fantasy set in a rural mountain village at the edge of an empire that still holds traditional values, with families of powerful water/ice magic warriors

follows a powerful young heir who begins to question his beliefs about the empire when a new boy comes to his village from the city

and his mother, a housewife who has tried to forget her youth as a warrior and vigilante in the city since she moved back home to a loveless marriage

when there’s a violent attack on their village that they’re unprepared for, everything changes, and she has to embrace her old skills to protect her family and people

[lostandbackagain]

.

[mekatrio]

oh maya fey...

[valeriehalla]

I am so utterly fascinated by “Saki”, the 18-year-running mahjong manga in which you, the reader, become gradually, frog-boilingly aware (over the course of nearly two decades’ worth of mahjong tournaments) that none of these girls are wearing underwear and most of their boobs are slowly expanding.

I need you to understand that I have, like, an anthropological level fascination with this comic. From the perspective of someone who is also a comic artist and writer, two things delight me about it:

the fact that I understand completely how an artist gets from “the fans can have a little hint of skirted asscheek” to “the pussy is completely out on center page” over the course of 18 years; and

the way in which the pussy being out is treated by the characters and diegesis as being utterly unremarkable.

Okay. Point 1. The frog-boiling.

Let me put this in perspective for you. There was already a meme about how the characters in “Saki” don’t wear underwear when I was in middle school. I am thirty now. Okay? And it’s still going.

In the time since, this has stopped being a joke. It is now indisputable canon. This is not because anyone outright says it at any point. It’s because the underwear ran out of places to hide. I’m obsessed with this thought: somewhere in the over 20 volumes of “Saki”, there is a panel in which underwear was objectively deconfirmed. And it would be so hard to figure out where that panel actually is. Maybe the artist didn’t even realize it when she drew it! The frog? Boiling!!

And of course there is also the breast expansion. I don’t know how to put a spin on this. They are just expanding. Like, this happens a lot with artists: you define a character as being, in your mind, “the one with the big boobs”, and over the years you emphasize that trait further and further so that the signal doesn’t get lost in the noise. It’s just that normally—in like a wildly popular manga series about mahjong published by literally Square Enix, for example—normally there would be a point at which the boobs stopped getting bigger. Like, an editor would step in or something. Or you would get to the point where you cannot draw the character in the same panel as her mahjong tiles without her breasts spilling over the tiles, and you’d go, “Well, this is now untenable.”

That did not happen. There is no ceiling. The frog is soup.

Point 2. The complete and utter mundanity of all of this.

It’s like this, okay: there’s no shortage of trashy ecchi manga out there. There’s a million other comics doing wildly bawdier things with wildly more improbable bishoujos.

The vibe with “Saki” is different.

It’s hard to explain this, but it feels like the world of the comic is fundamentally uninterested in the fanservice happening on the page. I cannot describe it as “leering”, because I cannot conceive of a person in the story from whose point of view one would leer. I think the artist is probably into it—I can’t imagine anyone is making her do this—but “Saki” the comic has no opinion on the matter.

There are essentially no male characters in “Saki”. Like, there was one guy? Kind of? At the very beginning? But he is gone now. They put him back in the toybox. He does not exist. It appears to be some level of canonical that in the world of “Saki”, almost all humans are women. Those women are sometimes romantically into each other. According to comments the artist has made on Twitter (which I cannot source), they have lesbian baby technology, so it’s no problem. It’s so much not a problem that the story is about mahjong, instead of any of that.

So, like, the fiction here appears to be this: this is the, like, meta-narrative of the fanservice of “Saki”, right: it’s just normal that they don’t wear underwear and their boobs are arbitrarily big. It’s been normal. It was normal before the story of the manga began. It’s just how things are. Nobody bats an eye about it, and if they do, it’s in sort of a lesbian kind of way so like what’s the problem, we love lesbians here. This is literally normal for girls.

The fanservice simply diffuses into this all-encompassing aura of disembodied, ambient sluttiness. The framing of the panels demands you acknowledge it, and the story demands you already be over it, because it’s mahjong time now, and we’re playing mahjong.

Do you get??? why I’m so fascinated??? Are you not a little enraptured???

Anyway, I have no idea how to end this weird post. I guess the conclusion is that women stay winning????

[shidoukanae]

Chapter 75 and 76 have been so funny for male lead characters suddenly spouting red flag lines.

Paris's is expected because the narrative has always been honest about how he's got a screw loose but seeing the 2nd lead syndrome guy pining hopelessly after Lyla seemingly imply he was trying to make her unhappy with his presence is ???? huh????

like im aware my very loose translations are probably scuffed as fuck and there's room for further interpretation but man is this manga a ride lmao. It never feels like a chapter is wasted and that there's always something more to be learned about this world, its story, and its characters. And it means every chapter is never a letdown because there's always SOMETHING happening and it makes me !!! to see