#they're out east like IE

[knxfesck]

In true southern california fashion I've gotten 3 "wildfire near you" alerts in the 2 days I've been here

[medicinemane]

Hey listen, this is something important to me so I'm just gonna ask you to consider doing this

I just spent however long writing something custom (which I'll put after a read more) cause I actually had things I want to say, but you don't need to do that, they've got a preset message you can use if you want

I've been following this invasion since day 1, and I've been actually asking for exactly this for a while now... just with no one to say it to

If you've got questions about what this is even about, ask me

If you've got concerns, tell em to me, I got answers

I'm not asking you to just blindly do this (though I won't tell you no if you want to), this is important to me, I know a fair bit about the subject, I am more than happy to talk to you about it

You want the summary of things though, it's that russian planes bomb Ukrainian civilians (like just today there was a story about a literal playground being bombed, along with the usual apartments) and our current policies won't allow them to use US missiles to strike russian airfields (and NATO allies won't either because we basically get to make this call)

People are dying, changing this policy will help with that, that's why I'm asking you to ask the White House to change this

Anyway, what I wrote below the break

I am grateful for the supplemental aid package President Biden provided Ukraine in April, but restrictions on US weapons use against valid military targets in Russia is hampering Ukraine's ability to defend both it's military and civilians (and let's be blunt, NATO allies like the UK or Germany are not going to authorize their long range munitions to be used unless the US does, we clearly set the rules here)

I've been following this invasion since day 1, every day I check what's been happening in Ukraine. I've followed through the Kharkiv offensive, followed as NATO crossed "red line" after "red line" (Stingers were a red line, then tanks were a red line, and of course F-16s were a major red line… yet Russia never acted once we sent them), followed as Speaker Johnson delayed military aid for months with partisan politics, up to today where I continue to follow Ukraine (for instance just today a 14 year old girl was killed by Russian bombs, fired from planes that took off from airfields we refuse to let Ukraine fire upon)

I understand escalation management, I'm not oblivious to why this administration has taken a cautious course, but between permitting Ukraine to fire US short range munitions shortly after Russia's attempts to move towards Kharkiv (a good choice which blunted that offensive and, again, resulted in no reprisals aside from more attacks on Ukrainian civilians… which happen no matter what); as well as Ukraine's counter offensive into the Kursk region of Russia (which invasion of Russian territory is one of the places Russian doctrine explicitly allows the use of nuclear weapons… and yet… again, nothing), there's been a strong demonstration that the White House's hesitancy to permit the use of long range weapons only serves to get Ukrainian civilians killed

This isn't just my opinion as an American citizen either, the retired Gen. Ben Hodges has repeatedly called for this. Every time I listen to him speak these days without fail he says not to "shoot the arrows, but to shoot the archer", which he explicitly states that he means that striking Russian airbases deep in Russian territory with long range missiles like ATACMS is preferable by far to forcing Ukraine to attempt to intercept incoming drones, missiles, and guided bombs

Ukraine has show itself to be a clever and steadfast ally. They have done so much not only to defend themselves, but to also achieve a major win for US and NATO security, the weakening of Putin's Russia

Thanks to Ukraine, Russia's ability to wage war on NATO neighbors has been decimated, and Russia's geopolitical influence around the world has been severely decreased, and thanks to US and EU cooperation the EU's dependence on Russian gas has dropped to almost nothing. Yet nothing is set in stone, we aren't over the finish line and Ukraine still needs our support, and currently the single best piece of support we can offer is a simple policy change, to let Ukraine strike valid military targets in Russia

This war goes beyond securing Europe against the single greatest threat to them, Russia; our actions here will also strongly impact China and Taiwan in the coming years. There's no way that this administration isn't just as aware as I am (or likely more so) that China is paying very close attention to how we treat our allies… do we support them or leave them to invaders for fear of escalation?

We as NATO truthfully have done a middling job, oscillating between staunch support and then starving Ukraine of the resources and policies they need to win (often because of partisan politics in the US and EU from politicians who seem a little too friendly towards Putin, and far too disdainful for Ukraine)

It's time to finish strong. The past is past, we can't change it, but we get to choose who we are now. I want to be part of an America who stands up for freedom, who supports our allies, and who refuses to let Russia continue their attacks on civilians

Let Ukraine use our weapons on all military targets in Russia! The only range restriction I want in place is the range of the system in question. Let our ally use our military aid to decimate Russian airbases and Russian aircraft, which are the single greatest threat to Ukrainian civilians!

Do the right thing, do what military men like retired Gen. Ben Hodges keep asking this administration to. Every red line has been crossed, both by NATO and Ukraine and we've seen that Russia's most powerful weapon is their saber rattling

Had I known where to write, I would have written much sooner, but now that I know I'm tempted to write every week till this changes (though don't delay like that, every day puts more Ukrainian lives at our feet, our fault that these civilians were killed due to our failure to give the permission so desperately needed to destroy the aircraft killing them). This is a deeply important issue to me, and based off this administration's actions up till now I know that everyone must understand it's importance even beyond Ukraine (Iranian drones, North Korean artillery… this isn't happening in isolation)

I understand this policy comes from a place of good intentions, to keep the world from facing nuclear annihilation. This is the first war of it's kind with a nuclear power fighting it, I understand the caution… but regions of Kursk are controlled by Ukraine and Putin barely acknowledges it, or weapons were used to strike military targets in Belgorod in order to protect Kharkiv and they were only met with more empty bluster

Give Ukraine permission to strike military targets in Russia with our weapons

Razom For Ukraine has made a website to help people in the US contact their government to let them know that Ukraine should be able to strike back.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I don’t know if you’ve already covered this, but I had a question to ask about the VDC in Book 5. To clarify, I understand that RSA needed to win for thematic and character arc purposes, and that in-lore it was an audience vote not a professional one. The story beats line up. But the choice of cutesy and childlike RSA performance over the more refined and professional NRC performance still doesn’t quite click with me. Is there some kind of cultural difference that didn’t translate to explain why one performance was supposed to be understood as preferred over the other? Even if it was an audience vote, the standards should be higher just by virtue of this being a big name competition for teenagers held at a prestigious school.

Very quickly, I want to add a couple other points that help to explain why RSA won over NRC! Book 6 opens early on with Vil noting that NRC was not able to perform as well as they wanted to since they had just come out of a difficult battle against his OB form. (Because of this, he accepts responsibility for their loss.) Thus, the NRC performance may not have actually been as "refined", "professional", or as polished as we imagine it to be.

Additionally, it’s stated in book 5 that RSA’s song choice had universal appeal whereas NRC’s did not. We see this effect on the production crew when Neige and the Seven Dwarves do their practice run; their performance has a refreshing and soothing effect on what appears to be an older audience (as it plays to their nostalgia); we must consider this when evaluating RSA and NRC. For example, I know that I really disliked NRC's performance (sue me/j) because it sounded very oppressive and therefore unrelatable to me. The lyrics are literally about how NRC will dominate their opponents and win 😭 Sure, the music and lyrics for Neige's song aren't complex, but they're at the very least accessible and easy to follow along with. (That's not to say that I prefer RSA's performance though; I'm just explaining why someone might not find NRC's performance appealing.)

Lastly! We as players are looking at the two song + dance numbers from an omniscient perspective. We need to consider our own biases when judging, and accept that it may differ from the characters in-universe view things. Maybe you prefer NRC’s performance. That’s fair! But how much of that is informed by your personal music preferences? And how much of that comes from your attachment to the NRC characters, since you’ve followed their stories up until this point? As Rook points out in book 5, he’s aware of how hard NRC has worked to get here… but he’s also aware of Neige’s hardships too (er, in terms of his lifestyle; ie living with the dwarves and doing chores, etc.). Consider then, would you honestly not have a bias for RSA had Twisted Wonderland’s story centered on them instead of NRC?

It’s also worth noting that how things are seen in Twisted Wonderland may reflect its own unique culture rather than how we in the real world may perceive it. Maybe the people of Twisted Wonderland just prefer a cute, nostalgic performance. This may not necessarily correlate with west or east at all and that has always been a possibility! (While TWST does take inspirations from the real world, it’s not a 1:1 with the real world.)

dkhlbaiyfadvfoad Okay, NOW onto the actual question being pitched!

When you look at media from different countries, there are some stark differences in how the same information is presented. One example is like... any Gordon Ramsay show yes, I am using him as an example. Compare the American cut and the British cuts; there are much more loud sound effects, dramatic music, yelling, and cussing in the American cuts. The British cuts, by comparison, are notably quieter and contemplative, with hardly any cursing. Another example! Looking at variety shows from the east vs the west, they're quite different as well. Eastern variety shows tend to be "cute", usually using various cute sound effects or edits which make the guests appear more bashful (like drawing blush over their cheeks or something). We don't see this in western TV shows, which are louder and more boisterous. I've noticed a similar trend in the music industries of the east vs the west as well, where eastern stars tend to emphasize their youthfulness and playfulness and western stars try to be more "mature" and grown-up. These are just my personal observations and may not reflect reality, especially seeing as I am not involved in music-oriented spaces.

I asked friends and personal contacts in both eastern and western pop music fandom spaces for their own insights (which is also in no way representative of both fandoms, but at least this gives us other perspectives for consideration). To summarize, most of them replied that they did not think cultural differences account for this situation, since equating a preference for a "cute" aesthetic is not the same as RSA performing what is basically a nursery rhyme. There's no real-world equivalent for that (at least none that they can think of), and I agree with all of this. There’s really no point in trying to compare the two.

I remember lots of Japanese fans being upset at NRC’s loss too (when book 5’s ending was first put out), so the impression I got was they didn’t prefer the performance of RSA over NRC either. It was not just the international fandom that was disappointed. I don’t believe TWST ever intentionally set out to present “Everyone Yahoo!” as the “superior” song and dance number, or as the performance we’re supposed to like more than the other. It was very much framed as something pathetic and unlikely to win in most of the eyes of the NRC characters. They make fun of RSA’s clumsiness and claim it’ll be easy to win over them. The player most likely is supposed to think this way too—until Vil, the one with an eye for showbiz, realizes his loss. Why? Because it doesn’t matter what we think. What matters is how this clumsy performance will resonate with the common person.

What I think it ultimately comes down to is emotional appeal to the audience, which is more of a personal/individual level thing than a cultural thing. The competition is decided by audience vote. The average person honestly does not care about quality or standards. No one is giving them rules to evaluate by, no one is going to tell them off for not having strict standards. They will pick based on what they like best or whatever makes them feel good. And what will make anyone feel food, regardless of age, sex, race, education, socioeconomic status, etc.? Something cozy and familiar, thoughts of simpler times… Nostalgia.

Something else to think about is what a powerful motivator emotions can be. There are irl idol competition shows that are high stakes and decided by audience vote just like VDC/SDC… and people will still vote for their favorites even if they gave a technically bad performance. This is because fans are so emotionally invested in and attached to the performer. It doesn’t matter how “bad” they are, the performer/performance makes the audience member feel impassioned, and they will then act according to those intense feelings. Think about what you’re like when you’re in a terrible mood vs a good one. You act completely differently, right?

I hope that perspective helps! 🙏 I tried to be as thorough as I could be in this response, but please let me know if I misspoke or maybe missed a point.

P.S. I happen to be responding to this ask after TWST showed us the NRC Tribe’s dance performance in a MMD video. I wonder if this only made the “NRC should have own” crowd double down on that opinion since now we’re seeing just what their performance looks like 🤔 (though we don’t have a complete MMD video of Neige’s group to directly compare, just this which shows part of the dance and not in the same clumsy way that Neige and co. perform it).

[alphacentaurinebula]

Fanfic recs - AU edition!

In honour of You're the Bad Guys (E), my Cold War spies AU where Crowley is KGB and Aziraphale is MI6 and they're stationed in 1980s Berlin, I thought I would recommend a few of my favourite AUs.

Half Agony, Half Hope(E) by @gorgeousundertow - a regency romance AU with lots of the real life political unrest, class and privilege all providing a great replacement for the Heaven/Hell Celestial System. The regency period is often portrayed just balls and poshos in empire waistlines, but actually it was a hugely tumultuous period. The disenfranchised classes were demanding better pay, better conditions and the vote, whilst those in power feared any concession would reduce their own power and privilege. The result was some horrific state violence, and some of the most oppressive laws in British history (though there's a lot of competition there...!). It's always nice to see a historical AU that engages with the period so well, and uses it to make Crowley and Aziraphale's romance all the sweeter. One of the only fics I've ever read as a WIP (yes, I still want you to read my WIP, I am a complete hypocrite).

A Love Story with Detective Interruptions (T) by @fremulon - a 1930s AU series (2 works), where Aziraphale is an amateur sleuth in the vein of Miss Marple, exonerating the wrongfully accused (ie, Crowley), and solving house party murders willy nilly. The plots are based on Golden Age of Detective Fiction books (Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Chistie, specifically) and are delightful. The romance is definitely slow burn, but absolutely lovely.

South Downs (E) by @summerofspock - Crowley and Aziraphale star in a historical Bridgerton-esque miniseries, except it's gay. (I would watch the fuck out of that, just saying). Sometimes art mirrors life - sometimes life mirrors art! I love this one and I would legitimately like to watch the TV show they're supposed to be in.

Sit Tight, Take Hold (E) by @nieded - OK this one is not even remotely historical and, like, I hate cars and formula one holds zero interest to me...and yet I INHALED this formula one AU with Crowley and Aziraphale as drivers on opposing teams. Like...I really cared who won...a car race???? Features Gabriel and Sandalphone being true twats, which I must admit I enjoy.

Slow Show (E) by @mia-ugly - And finally, of course, Slow Show. Sure this one is not exactly an undiscovered gem but I still love it and if, in some wild, unreasonable twist of fate you haven't read it, you definitely should!

...plus one last rec - The Leap, by - @friendofcarlottathis is a Destiel fic, not Good Omens. But it is a historical romance AU about Cold War Berlin (in the 1960s, rather than 1980s, and there are no spies, but it is SO excellent for historical detail, especially life in East Germany). And in my opinion you only need to watch a few Castiel and Dean clips on youtube and you're ready to read Destiel AUs. I have only watched a season or so of Supernatural myself 🤷‍♀️

What do you think, have you read any of these? Any favourites? If anyone has other AU's to recommend, especially historical ones, please do!

[eri-pl]

Lack of redemption arcs in the Legendarium

Surprisingly, I can't find many, if any at all.

I mean real redemption arcs ie character is evil / has done done serious evil at the start and they put actual work and things happen and at the end they're less evil and do less evil (or none at all).

(And ideally, they don't die at the completion of the arc but separately later or not at all.)

I don't mean things like "did evil things out of trauma it ignorance" (therapy or education is a different thing from redemption. All are great, but different people need different of those.) or "did one very minor thing and is sorry" (it's not an arc, it's something smaller). I mean the real deal.

There are implied redemption arcs (elves in Mandos in general), something that feels like a referenced arc but never described (Osse), a heavy edited story that at one point kind of feels like a redemption arc (Galadriel), failed attempts (all the baddies especially Smeagol and Mairon)...

I don't remember book Boromir well, maybe he... But he's not evil, just a little weak. He does very little wrong. He's more serious than makes bad choices.

Elu Thingol sort of has an arc on "don't be racist against humans" but then dies partially at being racist against dwarves so I'm not sure that counts either.

Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, whose greatest crime is being a mean relative. I guess this counts?

Even in Numenor, nobody gets it.

I know it's a modern trend to give everyone redemption arcs, but I would expect, with all the talk about mercy and pity, to see some actual results, more results than "yay, we got the evil defeated because we were good to the bad guy". With all due respect. That's a big result too. But anyway.

I suppose Tolkien just didn't vibe with bad people. He survived the war and I guess it needed more... How to call it? More thinking on terms of "if you cross this line, you're lost". I know theoretically he didn't see it like this. But in practice, you may only go so far (and it's not far) until you're beyond repair.

I don't like it. It's not how the world works. I went further.

Also, another thing that irks me tremendously, but it's an observable rule in all Legendarium:

When your aesthetic is dark or wrong, you are beyond salvation.

You like industry? Bye. You don't like light? Bye! You look ugly (not plain, just ugly)? There might be a few exceptions of Elves who went through Angband, but generally: bye. You don't laugh and feel uneasy in company? Out to the void with you, go join Morgoth. You are depressed and not in a nice (Frodo) way, but in a cold way that makes you feel cynical? Bye. You live at the East and like sun more than noon? You're probably evil too.

I may be oversimplifying a bit, but not by much. It is a thing.

That's not how things work!!!

Seriously. I was there. I was all those things. I am dinner if then still and don't consider it a problem.

I hate this in the books. I love Tolkien's work and what he tried to do, but I feel like I'm some places he failed at it dramatically and the general feel it's not faithful to his intentions.

I hope this rambling is understandable enough, I'm bad at English, especially when ranting.

Luckily, there are fanfics

[beanghostprincess]

Don't mind me just casually dropping a thought nugget-

Anyway Ussop and Buggy both with MEGA imposter syndrome energy, somehow the cross guild and strawhats cross paths and declare a truce ((maybe it's a simple island, maybe Buggy's just "feeling nice" and so doesn't instigate, who tf knows-))

Anyway, Ussop and Buggy having a brief moment of a heart to heart, maybe Ussop overhears a Cross Guild "argument" ((ie: Croc threatening Buggy)), and he's actually... concerned? About this guy?? I mean yeah Buggy has done some bad shit and all but he helped Luffy with the whole Impel Down Thing. Luffy is a good judge of character, and if it wasn't On Sight this meet up, then obviously Buggy is a halfway decent dude.

So it becomes Pinocchio Jesus trying to subtly give therapy to a feral cat clown man on the outskirts of a party.

And when Buggy inevitably drops a "it's just the way it is, kid, they're stronger than me, I can offer nothing", Ussop has a moment of oh. You're like me, aren't you, Buggy?

((Bonus points, Luffy alternating between inhaling food, playing around and being absolutely GLUED to someone (Zoro, Buggy or Crocodile, in that order of frequency).

Eventually Lu decides to give a Grand Retelling Of Events, and he calls Buggy "one of the harder people I fought" without hesitation bc, to Luffy, he WAS. Buggy was the one who hurt his hat, who gave him a challenge STILL IN THE EAST, and who was tenacious and smart in ways he didn't GET. mihawk and Crocodile both are Doubting until Luffy gets into the Impel Down events and they... are beginning to Wonder. Buggy was underestimated when arrested, on a higher level, but even those levels have good security. And Buggy was out and mid escape when Luffy found him.

How did THAT happen?

And actually... he was starting and running a business in two years - one they integrated into with... very little push back or struggle. Mihawk may not be as business oriented, but both can tell that the math isn't... mathing precisely as expected.

Luffy, so infectious with energy, in that hat, in that shade of red - well. Buggy's been lonely for so long, and he's tired. What's the harm in dropping a few of his many, many guards?

Luffy is over the moon bc as far as he's concerned, the moment Buggy helped him, they became Friends, and when he learned he's an ally or smth of Shanks'? That's it, Buggy, you're being assimilated into the found family. Good luck, pal.

Croc and Hawk meanwhile are the Pikachu meme inside, trying to find the EQUATION to account for?? All??? This????

The rest of the strawhats are either cackling, watching on in amusement or cheering on as Buggy does some simply little card tricks or juggles smth or other. He passed Captain's Vibe Check, Nami's only slightly petty about the money.))

Just. Ussop (and thus Sanji) looking at this exhausted clown man and saying "we're adopting you. Yes, you're older than us. No we don't care. Sign here plz"

Luffy going "we're friends, no need to fight!! ... unless you wanna 👀👀"

Meanwhioe Mihawk and Zoro are making Prolonged Eye Contact ominously between sips of their alcohol of choice.

Just. Buggy being strong armed into Friendship and The Inescapable Ordeal Of Being Loved while his business partners are left to Wonder and Think and be subjected to the biggest, most aggressive sideye either have ever experienced by this gaggle of pirate gremlins who have for some reason decided Buggy is the Coolest and Best Ever, Actually.

This is amazing. I've always said Luffy and Buggy would end up getting along at some point if Luffy knew how much Buggy has gone through, tbh. And Usopp would feel so much pity for him, honestly. They're on the same boat here (shitty self-esteem and imposter syndrome boat). This is great bc I can imagine Crocodile and Mihawk's faces and it's,,, So funny,,

[imustbenuts]

im free from yakuza kiwami 2. fuck the writing in this one. this was a complete mess of pulling from the most popular generic east asian drama tropes at the time of 2006 and having it be handled by a super inexperienced writer at the helm.

i went from having no expectations, got somewhat surprised, only to end up downing alcohol and laughing hysterically before the credits rolled. so that should set the mood for how i feel about this one. thought vomit under the cut, a lot of info dump about culture incoming

yakuza kiwami 2 is pure heterosexual east asian romance bullshit.

im gonna just. describe as best as i can what i know and remember from the general media coming out from the 90s to the 2010s in around this part of the world before i just start explaining why i think this story is a mess.

so. 2 parts i swear is responsible for this rubbish.

1) East Asian Beauty Standard

the general consensus for a beautiful feminine woman AT THE TIME in this sphere is the following

be willowy thin (fat = lazy and ugly)

have black hair that ISNT short (dyed = too much individuality, too much WESTERN INDIVIDUALISM, gasp how dare!)

fair skinned (bc dark = she works in the fields and is from a lower class)

young. if you heard of the term "Christmas Cake" in japan context, yeah. (ie women over age of 25 are undesirable)

be educated and refined, bc that indicates class and femininity (failing this means shes vulgar and gasp like a barbarian)

be submissive to her male peers in the sense that her authority cannot override his at least in public (for the sake of his face)

dresses feminine and not like a man (trousers and jeans are man-ish. traditional clothing, skirts and dresses are preferred. the further back the stronger this sentiment is.)

incidentally, theres a lot of classism tied to this EABS due to sinocentric culture influences. it has to do with the chinese court system and how korea and japan copied it and a lot of the culture wholesale but. anyway. thats like over 1000 years of history in there thats not really worth detouring to rn.

and also, the worth of a man is sometimes (not always) upheld by how classy and feminine this wife of his is. as of 2024 though, this line of thought is still around in the more conservative pockets. also, the education might not matter as much these days as how deep her and her parents' pockets and wealth are.

moving on.

2) media tropes

so. off the top of my head.

if you wanted a popular romance drama in this time period, the popular offerings no matter where you looked tended to offer the same flavors of tropes.

the woman always has dark hair, is fair skinned, thin and younger than her male love interest. ive never seen this broken or subverted in my time absorbing via osmosis the dramas playing on local tv growing up in the early 2000s.

everything else about her can be subverted though. sometimes she can wear fancy pants or have short hair to indicate her strong individualism. BUT, her personality no matter how strong it begins, no matter how her intro begins will 99% of the time encounter an effect where catching feelings turns her into a meek loyal woman to her love interest.

bc she cant override his authority in this culture context.

at worst, she becomes highly irrational and even hysterical in the dramas when bad things happen. this includes things like love triangle, or a fallout of family business, drama, plot or whatever. she would cry and sometimes even die.

see: sawamura yumi. sayama kaoru.

meanwhile, the male love interest can be anything. ive seen middle aged guys to young good looking upcoming actors playing the lead, with looks varying from haggardly okay to young and handsome. it. really depends on the genre.

depending on what specific country it came from, the drama would have the male either grow, become manlier (by learning honor ig), become stupid in the name of love, but he rarely if ever actually dies. the woman effectively becomes yoshi for mario to lauch off on when they're crossing a chasm

the romance is forced. a lot of the BIG LOVE SPARK ie kissing happens in tense moments bc it builds drama, but in reality comes too fucking close to sexual assault (some of the old jackie chan movies does this iirc for slapstick even)

see: sayama getting kissed right after handling her biological father's ashes less than 24 hours ago and admitting to kiryu that shes scared. this scene right fucking here.

bc in general, the scriptwriters for popular dramas tended to be guys themselves and tended to write more human dudes. and the women in the stories are reflective of the ideal societal expectation at the time: being a Refined Housewife.

so her character development is often headed in the direction of marriage and being a stay at home mom.

if it sounds a little like tradwife bullshit, it is.

Refined Housewife

(i have massive negative thoughts about this which i KNOW for a fact is a thing bc a lot of these societal culture femininity was impressed on me as a kid in a world where it was already getting increasingly impossible to have 1 spouse be a SAHP. and also i hated the whole thing about giving face to the patriarch of the house when i personally saw so much ego dick measuring from my uncles. anyway understand that this is both a bias an a lived experience, so proceed with that in mind)

there is a problem with the Refined Housewife expectation: education.

in general, education has been a good metric to judge how classy or smart one is in asia's largely on-the-surface meritocracy based culture. people will look at each other's school first and then judge them from there, and pretty hard too.

so everyone regardless of gender will be expected to study super hard. and bc having good test scores and going to good schools looks good for the family's face, parents will often pile on tuition to the child to get them a leg up in life.

bc also no good degree from good school means no future.

but then... the woman is expected to be a housewife. 🙃 meaning... the education, her accomplishments, are kinda... tossed away in this context. put a pin in this.

it wont matter how much she studied or accomplished, bc the expectation is that the woman would marry and obey her husband, and give him face/honor that way. the kids will come eventually bc having kids = being filial to ones parents in this context.

also uh. no, having adopted kids is not thought of as being filial. continuing the bloodline is.

and if you've been paying attention, then yes, ive been skirting around the backbone of sayama kaoru's writing foundations this entire time.

Her story has been butchered so clumsily i cant even...

lets just. ugh.

she fits the EABS standard, her tropes are trying to subvert the expectations of a womanly woman in this context, she has IMPRESSIVE education and career achievements. she works in a male dominated field, and is keenly aware of sexism. she is strong, stronger than her male peers, at least we are told.

by 2006s standards, its still considered a fresh take with those alone in japan. sexism there is its own flavor of crap. (if you noticed ive not spoken about LGBTQ+ stuff at all, its bc how ridiculously BINARY the expectation is at that point in time. it still is today but less so)

however, the writing has this sense of trying to copy the popular tropes at the time while not fully understanding and dissecting them, and ends up butchering sayama's character before the romance even properly began.

i mean, for fucks sake even, sayama and kiryu has a whopping 14 year age gap. when im told these are supposed to be believable people living in japan, this is too big for me to just go 'oh ok!'. and remember the Christmas Cake thing? shes 25. (FUCKING--!!!! !!)

the problem here that i see is the writer trying to apply all of those while trying to play the tropes straight. trying to imitate. trying to make a statement but then finding out theres nothing within yourself to stand by what you want to say and backtracking.

we are told:

sayama is strong yet she goes down with 1 slap by random thugs and needing kiryu to come in and body them. because romance ig.

we are told shes a yakuza hunter but she doesnt scare a single one beyond her introductory scene.

she goes from defiant and bossing kiryu around to getting her actions overridden by kiryu and ryuji, both men, towards the end

her subtext is that shes not feminine and therefore conventionally undesirable, but then kiryu tells her shes actually feminine and therefore desired, as if its all that matters.

she becomes so stricken by grief and freaked out that she runs off solo to deal with ryuji in the most out of left pocket planning ive ever fucking seen.

and then yells as she takes out her police baton to take down the big yakuza dude, drawing attention and turning herself into a hostage.

i know the writing will fumble but i didnt expect it to fumble this bad.

for all the good the surface chemistry kiryu and sayama has, its being undermined by a fundamental failure to understand tropes and then using said tropes as a crutch so much that everything here has become a bloody mess.

this failure of over-relying on tropes without understanding them extends to yumi too. sawamura yumi was young and beautiful, and became the Refined Housewife to the Not-Male-MC and ends up regretting it, and gets killed for it.

her defining trait is that she is beautiful in subtext. thats. thats what the tattoo is. in a world where the tattoo makeths the person, thats what she is and all that she is.

dear lord.

ive read up a bit more on sayama and you know what. good that she chooses her career over kiryu. the romance would have caused both of their characters to explode with the trajectory this was heading in. ffs sayama could have had her own game. she has so MUCH potential.

and also GOOD that the writer is forced to think of kiryu in the position of the Stay At Home Parent for haruka and the orphanage down the line!!! subverting the fucking traditional BS expectation! yes!!!!!

all i got was sayama and kiryu making out before the bomb went off in front of my alcohol and salad while they're like 'eh, haruka will forgive us for dying :')'

and i ran out of alcohol.

sexism? maybe. incompetence? definitely.

hhgrhgrhrghrghrgrhgr wow this got long. ugh. guhhhhhh.

[kick-a-long]

Re: stars of David and kabbalah/Jewish mysticism/torah usage in east Asian media: Genshin has a bunch of it too, down to the structure of their world (it's literally called "Teyvat"). If you're familiar with it then you'll notice the further you get into the lore, world building and certain imagery (the latest blatant one being the "seal of chymical marriage").

To be honest, they get inspiration from a plethora of myths and belief systems around the world (I think they're actually one of the few games that heavily referenced Zoroastrianism for their world building) but honestly I can't tell if it's in a "respectful" way or not.

What's funny though is that some idiots in the fandom accused the devs of being Zionists because of the description on this weapon: https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Beacon_of_the_Reed_Sea

for me? part of the fun of asian media, or foreign media in general, is that they don't have the same perspective or story telling conventions I'm used to. so if part of my intrest stems from the fact that I don't know them i think it's important to offer them similar grace (that they don't know me) in return. one of my favorite things in asian media is when a random one dimensional blond westerner shows up and looks like an enthusiastic, alien doof. that's good fun.

Asia actually has a really weird history with judaism. they killed a bunch of jews along with lots of abrahamic religious folk during various periods, but were mostly tolerant of jews as we don't convert or prosthelytize. in the current culture tho lots of asian cultures have a model minority/ low key a belief that jews do control the world but they are super into it/ fetishization of jewish culture. it comes from a place of not knowing western culture too well. i think it's fair to forgive them that if you would hope they forgive westeners who think they understand a culture, they didn't grow up in, but celebrate it. we've all seen how asian media treats angels and crosses, and we all have seen how western media fumbles asian culture. if that's fine and fun, I think it's all fine. there's a whole gag manga about Buddha and jesus as broke roommates in tokyo. that's fun.

I think that everything should be on the table for fantasy worlds, as long as it isn't hateful, implying something about a cultrue, or unfairly critical of stuff the author doesn't understand and has not done the leg work to understand. that's not misinfo, that's just remixing. anyone who thinks comics or video games or media generally is going to give you a complete, nuanced view of a religion or culture with no further research like... idk what to do with that. that person is fighting a tide of idiocy that they will either grow out of or be an idiot forever.

also... how can a character even be a zionist in a world without jews or israel, btw? zionism only requires 1. jews and 2. israel? that's some petty culture war bullshit nonsense. not fun. not playful. would not invite to my party.

i'm always a fan of appreciation and i rarely call appropriation unless it's done with a type of authority or it becomes the only way anyone can access info about a culture ie you cite misinfo as "this is X culture" or you don't cite the culture you are pulling from.

i don't think that exempts asian media from analysis or critique, but i air on the side of ignorance rather than hate or theft.

[imminent-danger-came]

tbh you are so real for talking about the misogyny targeted to mei & other women in the lmk fandom. in general its like people only value mei as: a: the wingman to some basic mlm ship or b: macaque 2.0. its honestly crazy how so many male side characters overshadow her in the fanbase despite not even having a FRACTION of her screen time. idk chat i feel like the reason people dont care about mei but care about some random male side/background character is less because they're inherently more likeable but because some of you view women as inherently less likable. and everyone is always like "mei is so girlboss pussy cunt slay shes the only reason theyre still alive because she keeps them safe from their silly boy shennanigans shes their ultimate wingman shes so badass shes their lesbian best friend i totally paid attention to her when i watched this show LOL" and even ignoring the obvious misogyny here (ie. how people reduce her to being the male characters babysitter) its like... okay... i know mei is cool & badass already... could you name literally ANY other character trait she has. like people just value her as being "the braincell" who can get red son and mk together or something stupid and its like are we having fun still is this still fun. literally every day i go into the mei tag its like "look at mei shes red sons wifey and shes vaguely in the background of this drawing of red son and mk staring into each others eyes #trafficlighttrio am i right oh look shes macaques niece now this post is about ao lie why is it in the mei tag"

and thats literally JUST talking about mei and it doesnt even begin to cover the other female characters. chang'e constantly gets reduced to being red sons aunt/mom/big sister despite them like. not having any actual interactions in the show. lady bone demon constantly gets overshadowed by her minion who has like 2 seconds of screen time, or she gets made into a cartoonishly abusive madwoman who people call lady bitch demon. just in general people act like shes a horrible person for like. being a villain. liks yeah the trying to destroy everything was bad but also she was an antagonist and thats what antagonists do LOL. spider queen gets completely ignored. princess iron fan gets made into a cartoonishly abusive mother so that way red son can have a poor angsty backstory and some male character (usually nezha, macaque, swk) can take care of him.

(also theres just a great deal of ethnocentrism in the lmk fanbase? like im white so take what İ say here with a grain of salt but so many people will misconstrue aspects of chinese culture for their own personal hcs. people will say male characters are transfem or nonbinary while completely ignoring the time period/culture their from where thats the norm. like yippee youve implied that an east asian man is feminine/emasculine because he has long hair. how do you not see the negative connotations with this. people also turn pif (& lbd to an extent) into a dragon lady which obviously has negative racial connotations lol.)

anyway this is where my unhinged rambling ends have a good day have a good night İ had more to say here but İ reached the text limit. İ dont see a lot of people talk about the misogyny thats prevalent in the lmk fanbase so İm glad youre pointing it out lol.

Yeah, I totally hear you. The lmk fandom has plenty of issues with misogyny and, like you said, ethnocentrism. It's definitely something worth having a discussion about, along with these issues in fandom as a whole.

[inkwardspots]

a VERY adapted hades/persephone spy x family au:

the shopkeeper is hades, and yor his most talented collecter. the dead lover her, you see - she's so very kind when she takes their souls, and always makes sure that they're well-accustomed too (doesn't mean she won't get stabby-stabby when she needs to, tho)

loid is a mix of Persephone and demeter, the god of the harvest and half-lies. he is popular among the immortals and mortals, and he often wanders around the mortal world for centuries at a time, disguising himself from beggar to king. mortal who treat him well are rewarded handsomely by him. in fact, he was the first to retrieve anya from the mortal world when word of her birth made its way to olympus. she had been destoned for death, but under his thumb, he brough life back to her. now she glows, like the emergence of spring in a barren land.

the goddess sylvia is the fiercest hunter and takes the role of artemis, goddess of the hunt. after all, who would suspect the honourable warrior to be the goddess of deception as well?

his adopted daughter, the young orphan demigoddess anya, was handed the mantel goddess of spring after the unfortunate demise of her immortal biological mother and her mortal father, punished by zeus for their affair. her doggy companion, the oracle bond, has never left her side after the goddess sylvia charged the young goddess with his care after finding him abandoned for torture and mortal war plots.

damian is the second son of the king of olympus, the recluse donovan desmond (ie. zeus). his brother, demetrius, the god of bloodlust (ares), does most of the leading. he is firm but kind despite his title and with the help of his mother the lady melinda, goddess of the hearth, they lead olympus.

damian himself is god of reason, war and wisdom (athena) - ironically, it is something he sorely lacks. he is in charge of the civil runnings of olympus and smoothing out arguments between the gods and goddesses of his home. it is his duty, but sometimes, he wishes for something...more.

becky, the goddess of love and lust (aphrodite), is the greatest beauty of olympus. many try and court her favour, but none have succeeded thus far. her best friend is the spring goddess anya, and who's father she may have had a little crush on when younger...

bill is the god of war, leading charges in the mortal world. he hold great love for the goddess aphrodite, who does spurn his advances...

the gods emile and ewen, great friends of the prince damian, hold joint responsibility over the stars and the wind. ewen is more enamoured with the stars, and often escapes to the mortal world to discuss the matters of the cosmos with those like-minded while emile drifts on the wind, travelling from west to east looking for culinary talent. sometimes, the weakest stew can taste most scrumptious when taken from those that give it willingly, only kindness in their hearts.

and thats it for now.

[ackergarden]

The Ostanian Mafia: Gretcher Crime Family (and a little bit of the Garden!)

a list of ongoing headcanons which are purely mine for the underworld. don’t take this to heart, it’s all for fun!

contains spoilers for the cruise arc chapters 43-57. read at your own risk if you're only watching the anime.

more beneath the cut 

we don't know much about the gretcher crime family and the underworld in canon as they're only mentioned at the moment, so here's a set of headcanons i have for them~

the gretcher family are the boss of the bosses. i could take some references that there's a slight chance they're based off a powerful mafia family in real life.

there's a sort of hierarchy in the underworld, with shopkeeper mentioning how they’ve “managed ostania’s underworld in an honorable fashion.” it definitely means they have a very big influence with their connections.

there could also be other crime families as well that we don't know of. i believe it doesn't take only the gretchers to help run the underground government of the underworld.

to add onto that last point, to help run a government or to lead, you gotta at least have some knowledge on it (and know a few dirty tricks up their sleeves).

now, onto the gretchers and the garden…

the gretcher crime family are well-respected with having to head the underworld honorably for decades, but what makes of it for the two leaders of their respective organizations?

shopkeeper and gram gretcher.

although it’s mentioned that garden takes orders from the shadow government, it definitely wouldn’t be surprising if garden have members deep into the government - especially inside the current administration right now - that do not want conflict.

ie: we have matthew as the director of policy at city hall. who knows, we could meet another garden member (that’s not shopkeeper) in the future who could possibly be in a higher position?

in berlint and ostania's upper society, status, connections, and power were extremely important. the same could definitely be applied for the underworld. there must be some politicians out there in the country's society (maybe in the liberal administration) that is helping back the east's underground criminals.

(making sure they don't get caught, making sure whatever they do isn't going to track their identities, etc. etc.)

in chapter 43 when shopkeeper mentioned that "she'll go on the cruise as a normal passenger to evade detection of the coast guard," we still need to remember that olka gretcher (if she ever returns) is still the daughter of one of the powerful (late) mafia bosses.

olka and her son is boss gretcher's last living legacy.

if she changes her mind in the future, olka could still come back (like the same power-up when yor continued to fight back in chapter 55) to regain her position (with the help of shopkeeper and the garden) as the sole heir to her father's organization, especially with gram.

back to evading detection of the coast guard, there's a chance that the state police had marked olka and gram down after news spread out that their entire family had been killed. most of her family were (active) gangsters, and they definitely had a history of criminal activity in their records.

to the state, olka being born into the family was more than enough for her to be deemed as suspicious when a time like this came.

that's definitely something ostania (more specifically, the state police) is watching out for. ostania cared about reputation despite everyone's hands being soiled, and they definitely do not want for international and domestic newspapers to say how ostania's underworld is also making a name for themselves too. that could possibly ruin their feigned perfect image for the country.

that's probably why leonardo hapoon needed her and baby gram to be killed. because so long as a gretcher heir exists, leonardo's position as usurper is threatened in the underworld. the gretchers most definitely had a lot of supporters for them to reign the underworld for generations as shopkeeper aforementioned.

we know frankie also mentions in chapter 60 how "in the underworld, trust is all that matters." it seems that boss gretcher had done something favorable in the past for the shopkeeper in order to gain his trust. that's why shopkeeper tasked yor to protect olka aboard the lorelei as a favor in return for the late boss.

even after the passing of gram, shopkeeper still made that favor to protect the boss's only living kid (and only grandkid, maybe), living true to his words.

i definitely think shopkeeper is more than just a leader of this underground organization, though. it’s pretty obvious that he has connections, and he must be someone that’s exclusively high-status for garden to be considered an urban legend.

hopefully we get something between garden and the underworld in the future arc. that would be an interesting route to be explored if endō chooses to go down that path.

[arkipelagic]

https://www.tumblr.com/arkipelagic/751684903699103744/a-lot-of-those-who-insist-that-filipinos-are

i've always wondered why, when some ppl find out similarities bw ph and pacific islanders or latinos etc, do they come to the conclusion that "filipinos aren't actually asians" as opposed to "these ethnic/racial terms don't mean mutual exclusivity in language/culture" or "race is not really determined biologically/by ancestry." sometimes it feels like they just don't like being called asian.

thanks for all the resources u share btw, they're rlly helpful

i’ve been a part of filipino circles both online and in person where i found many of these people, usually filipino diaspora in north america, reject being asian. because they are filipinos raised in the united states and canada, i suspect their dislike for the category asian stems from a sense of alienation from other asians in their proximity.

in north america, asian typically means east asian. filipinos are one of the most visible diaspora in north america yet are usually the only maritime southeast asians around. they compare themselves to other asians, ie people with heritage from the sinosphere and indianized mainland southeast asian cultures, and do not find similarities between themselves and the rest. that makes them think, well obviously i can’t be asian then! or: well obviously i’m not just asian!

in my own family, at least those who were born and raised in the united states, they are the latter. especially with filipino settlers in hawaii who mimic pacific islander motifs as substitute for so called “filipino tribal tattoos.” if you go through facebook and instagram for these tribal tattoo businesses, you’ll see what i mean.

in comparison with filipinos in singapore or australia/new zealand, i hardly see diaspora claim they are pacific islanders. that is because they are either so exposed to the many ways asian cultures can look like (ex: singapore is populated by malays, chinese, and indians) that they do not develop identity crises over what a real asian is, or they are too close to real pacific islanders like cook islanders, māoris and samoans to even think of passing themselves off as one of them.

[dasboligrafo]

7 Takes on The Double Life of Veronique

You know the thing where you like the same thing as a terrible person?

I guess even Lear-esque cringey edgelords like great movies and Keith McNally is not wrong about Sexy Beast and definitely definitely not wrong about the Double Life of Veronique, a movie I've now seen 3x, 2 of which ended in helpless tears (the only way I know if something is art).

This movie was a selection by McNally at a Roxy Cinema mini-festival in October 2023. As I told the crew who I invited (tricked?) to see the movie: now it's your turn to think about it for 15 years!

I love the moment after the movie when people are asking helplessly -- but what does the movie mean?!? And I really, really love the moment when people get angry at the end of the movie. These are real emotions! What's the last time a movie made you think anything other than "god, that was 45 minutes too long?" (The Double Life of Veronique is under 100 minutes! yessss)

[I didn't hear it cause I was, like, weeping, but my friend said at the end a guy behind us was angrily griping that the movie was too slow? Huh? Stuff is literally happening every moment of the movie? There is not a single wasted scene, line or frame? What even are these senses whose proofs we can so liberally ignore?]

Since it might be another 15 years until I see it again and I don't have the benefit of just having written a college thesis that was mostly about Lacan via Zizek, I thought I would type out a few thought exercises/interpretative frameworks that I think apply to this movie:

The contingent nature of the universe/the senselessness of existense -- probably the easiest to justify, especially in the context of Kieslowski's complete ouevre, in consideration of his personal history, based on the interviews he's given, etc...

What to do about emotional apocrypha — what do you do with and about feelings that seem to come from nowhere? Feelings are "real" and we know now (i.e. the science is now there to tell us, eg Lisa Feldman Barrets's fascinating work) they're not in any way subservient in value or usefulness to "reason"; like if anything the opposite, emotions are the "why" and reason is the very patched together and incomplete "how" behind what we are and what we do. Worth thinking about why it is Kieslowski's most compelling films have female protagonists given the historical association to the binary genders for emotion vs reason.

The duality and dichotomy of post-war East/West Europe -- I think this one is sorta obvious but not less resonant? There's a good article out there about how the film predicted a lot of the consequences of the EU. Elsewhere I've read that Polish critics pilloried Kieslowski for a traitor to his kind over this theme, which reminded me of the story about how Bach's works were sometimes not well received by the church patrons who got to hear a lot of it first because they thought it was too dour -- imagine you have the greatest musician who will ever live as your church musician and your biggest peeve is his music isn't fun enough for Sunday. In any event this is a major theme in Three Colors, and I'm sure there's no accident that this movie and the Trilogy are connected by the same fake composer (key work = "Song for the Unification of Europe"...)

Return to theory in film (Zizek) -- he wrote a whole book about it. I'm not sure I agree Kieslowski's films make the case for the return to Theory (ie I think you can interpret his movies without it.) But the fact that you can so unbelievably seamlessly integrate his films to a Lacanian framework gives me that feeling of the inevitability of Lacan.

Art Cinema's enduring interest in interrogating the limits of its medium -- which of course is also present in art literature for its own medium, and frequently not only present but foregrounded in theatre. The Puppetmaster is a clear analogue to the filmmaker (and of God, lmao...they can't help themselves), but also all the unbelievably uncomfortable sex scenes in this movie are a masterclass on the male gaze and how you constitute and undermine it...etc.

Space-time Travel (Zizek) -- right away, I'm going to say I don't think this one is all that interesting, but it's what Criterion chose to accompany the 15th year re-release of the movie. So...ok 🤷🏽‍♀️ I'd say that listening to physics podcasts has convinced me of the value of a literary education (those hermeneutical skills come in so handy), so I see the relevance of thinking of these two together, but I also feel like the fake math is the part of Lacan I always found a little too silly to stand.

The agony of art as vocation -- I'm sorta lazily splitting this out from #5 just because when I originally wrote this post I had 7 points and now I can only remember 6 of them, and I like the resonance of 7....There's a Badiou-esque invocation of the four types of truth procedures at work in this movie that could easily fill the pages of another unread senior thesis: science -- the zizek time travel thing, the way the movie is, actually, concerned with the explanation of what is happening and why, rather than just accepting as a premise that there can be doubles in the world; politics -- the scene where Weronika meets Veronique is at a political rally, the east/west thing mentioned above, etc; art and love, obviously.... But the key to the "plot" of Veronique's life is "Does she keep singing, even if it kills her?"

Random closing thoughts:

I'm still thinking about and cannot resolve the mystery of the subplot about Veronique testifying in her friend's divorce(?) trial. What does it mean?

One thing that always bothered me about Kieslowski is a feeling i have that his movies are slightly (high key???) exploitative of his actresses, which seems like shabby repayment for their taking considerable artistic risks. Maybe I'm just getting this feeling from applying Lacan and Zizek to his movies though (that's two dudes who definitely don't understand about women...). I'd like to think I'm wrong about this, his masterworks are all with women and "about" women. I don't think he doesn't get this, though, see again the Puppetmaster (surely one of the creepiest dudes to ever grace an art film and that's saying a lot).

[battybiologist]

There's something I like to call "the Neutral Paladin defense" where an author will be presented with a question regarding one of their artistic choices made for sincere Doylist reasons, but rather than stating those reasons, they will instead try to justify it with a Watsonian explanation that's insincere, poorly thought-out, and thus bad.

Named after the episode of D&D Court where a GM always gave silly steeds to their no-nonsense neutral paladin player, and when the player asked why they couldn't have a more serious steed that actually fits their character, they shirked the real explanation (ie. it's funny) and instead gave a poor excuse that was essentially "you're neutral, so you're cosmically aligned with the Feywild, and they're silly, sooo". Barring that many non-fey deities are neutral, the Feywild isn't cartoon nonsense all the time, and in fact, the fey steeds are actually pretty cool and majestic in the book. Meanwhile, a funny bit is something that's very justifiable if you're playing a game for fun.

The best example to me of this defense being just a shot in your own foot is Hades' director justifying why the Greek gods are all different ethnicities. The real reason is "we wanted our game to be diverse for our modern, diverse audience". It's an excellent and completely self-sufficient one in my humble yet correct opinion, and yet, that's not what he went with.

Instead, he went with "well, the Greeks would have considered their gods universal, so we wanted to represent that by including ethnicities from all around the world", which deeply sucks, because no matter which way you slice it, the Greek gods are culturally Greek. Doesn't matter if you make Hermes East Asian in appearance, it's still Hermes, so he'll only be East Asian in appearance. A bunch of different people of various cultural backgrounds homogenized under an European culture, wonder where I heard that before.

[limetameta]

Played the Last of Us when I was a kid and now I watched the show for the first time and I gotta tell you what this has spawned is a TLOU au in Fmab where Riza and Edward are Joel and Ellie. Al is dead. Blood seal broke trying to save Ed from the infected swarming them. Ed is immune because he did human transmutation. Actually in this au it isnt a fungal evolution type infection per se as much as its a bioalchemy experiment on fungi gone severely wrong so the only people immune are those who did human transmutation because it's fun, chimeras can get infected but it doesn't really spread like it does with humans so they have a longer time before they turn or maybe they need to get bit multiple times to turn. Homunculi ofc are immune because of the ph stone. Want to say that they use a gotcha system where if they get bit one of the souls in the ph stone croaks and not them. Absolutely same deal with Mr I swallow ph stones like a whore Kimblee who doesnt broadcast he has a ph stone so ppl think he's legit immune and they're hunting this mf down for a vaccine.

The author that brought you gnarly scenes such as anything in Black Honour also brings you a scene where Maes has to shoot baby Elicia because she got infected and went wild trying to kill Ed :D

Berthold Hawkeyes house is the best place to be. That man made a bunker decades before anyone thought smth like this might ever happen.

Riza and Ed run into many different folks on their way to figure out what the fuck is happening (this is like set in the 1st month since shit hit the fan so double the chaos - think trains getting derailed because of people going crazy and trying to eat each other - absolute pandemonoum purge type shenanigans where everything is new and the government is losing its grasp on the people)

Riza and Ed are trying to find Roy Mustang whom they only heard is somewhere up north east. Maybe in Central City (it hit it here first and hardest - overrun with infected)

They sent most of the State Alchemist to try and take care of this. But some like General Grand and Colonel Mustang got orders to take care of the infected and make sure it didnt spread - ie theyre the bombs in this au eyy it wasnt enough to do this shit in Ishval guess you need to do it again but in towns with ppl u genuinely know :D !! Horrific shit. Reason why Riza isnt with Mustang and doesnt know where he is.

Radios are down and they need to reastablish some towers that were knocked down.

(Fort Briggs for example in this au would be 0 infected because they kill the infected imediatelly sucks to be u but they are preserving their numbers and they too are in a giant bunker of sorts)

The homunculi are very pissed off about this because you cant use the infected as a soul for their big transmutation circle so Father has put them on Top priority to get to the bottom of this because they are running out of TIME.

Just for shits and giggles. And this rly is the cursed timeline: instead of splicing his daughter with her dog for his recertification exam, Shou Tucker tried doing a lil bit of a bioalchemy experiment with fungi :) because he's such a fun guy eyyy

Riza and Ed are in CC and Riza gets stabbed so this is now Ed's solo arc trying to find medicine for her and anyone to help. He takes her to Christmas dive bar to recuperate. Not a soul to be found there. Everyone is fleeing Amestris. Folks in Resembool are going to Ishval because they know nobody is there in the ruins. Ed doesnt know if Pinako and Winry are even alive but he hopes they are. Someone has to be in this mess.

Ed doesnt rly want to use his alchemy because the more he does the easier it is for these infected to find him. And while he is immune he doesnt fancy losing more limbs to these bastards.

Riza looked super unwell. Ed doesnt know if hed be able to navigate any of this by himself. He doesnt know if anyone he knows is still alive. She is his lifeline at the moment and this means he has to save her. Especially if Mustang is still alive. They gotta meet him and they gotta succeed.

Ed knows the hospital is too far away. But theres got to be a pharmacy nearby or smth he can raid. He has to.

But all of them have already been raided. And the infected are growing in numbers. Yet Ed refuses to go back. He can't let Riza down. He can't let someone else he loves die protecting him.

Through a series of dastardly events, Edward winds up finding a shackled man trying to break free from some infected chimeras. The man is screaming for help and crying and really being pathetic. Ed is the people's alchemist so he will help you pathetic crying man! Winds up saving him. Winds up getting mugged because the seemingly infeccted chimeras and the man are in on a con together to survive.

Edward fights them. Gets overpowered due to numbers. "MOTHERFUCKERS!!!"

"Children these days are so rude :/ "

Anyway after some more back and forth Ed learns this guy is some big shot alchemist from Ishval and asks him if he knows Riza Hawkeye. He needs medicine for her.

The chimeras are all like sorry kid we dont have any medicine.

Kimblee, with a ph stone in him: I could heal her with some alchemy. Our party would benefit from a sniper.

So Riza gets saved via ph stone. Wakes up and sees Kimblee. Imediatelly takes a gun and tries to shoot him.

Especially when she sees his bite marks!! Motherfucker STEP AWAY. Hes like I got these weeks ago!! Liar! No, really! I'm immune! And I'm the Fuhrer President himself *cocks gun*

Fun times lay ahead on their search for Roy Mustang.

[theogonies]

hiiii umm someone has probably already pointed this out but. uraume is almost definitely a gojo? and very possibly the progenitor of the entire gojo clan. putting the detailed analysis under the cut because this is a long ass post and very slightly spoiler-y for anime onlys

not a very convincing point on its own, but worth pointing out the obvious visual similarities between them. there are lots of other characters with light hair OR eyes but i can't think of any with both. also they're the only ones with pure white hair, even inumaki's is more of an ashy blond color.

but! into the more substantial stuff

according to the official fanbook, uraume and sukuna met 1,000 years ago, around the end of the heian period. in real world history, this was a relatively peaceful time during which japan began developing its own literary/political/intellectual cultures, thus becoming less reliant on china. in jjk, it's referred to as the golden age of sorcerers.

the relevant bit here being that the threat posed by sukuna was enough to draw the world of sorcerers together and push them to their limits.

here's where it gets interesting:

this common ancestor, sugawara no-michizane, was a real historical figure, a poet and politician who earned the support of the current emperor of japan, emperor uda, after lending the emperor his support in a political conflict with another noble family, the fujiwaras.

i mention them by name because in the culling games arc, uro calls yuta a fujiwara, not a sugawara--here's some interesting analysis for the curious. the relevant bit here is that while we don't know of any fujiwaras in the contemporary period, apart from maybe yuta, they were at some point an influential family of sorcerers in the jjk-verse. put a pin in that.

sugawara fell from favor after uda abdicated. eventually the fujiwara clan accused him of supporting the wrong candidate as successor to the emperor's throne, and he and his entire family were banished. sugawara died in exile.

a series of natural disasters led to the belief that sugawara's spirit was attempting to avenge its wrongful death. this is probably why maki refers to sugawara as "one of the three greatest japanese vengeful spirits." the real sugawara is now recognized as a benign deity in the shinto religion but it appears that this conversion never happened in jjk's alternate history, or that it isn't something the sorcerers recognize as fact.

sugawara was very fond of plum trees, and just before his exile, wrote a poem as farewell to his favorite, in his garden in kyoto:

When the east wind blows, flourish in full bloom, you plum blossoms! Even though you lose your master don't be oblivious to spring.

in addition, the sugawara clan's crest is the backside of a plum blossom.

in japanese, ura means behind, or back/other side. ume is plum.

there's a good breakdown of the name here which suggests that ura may symbolize a reversal of the values represented by plums in japanese culture (nobility, loyalty) or a betrayal of the sugawaras--possibly referring to uraume's choice to take sukuna's side.

another possibility that i'd like to raise is that uraume is either sugawara no-michizane himself, or a descendant of him. in this case the backside of the plum could represent exile--ie, sugawara's beloved plum tree seen from "behind," as he left his home. interesting in this case that uraume has a pinkish, almost plum colored patch on the back of their head. again--a beloved family symbol as something that is behind them.

their family's betrayal by the fujiwaras could have been the motive for their loyalty to sukuna, and perhaps a hatred of sorcerers' society in general (an interesting parallel to gojo satoru, no?)

thus: rejecting sugawara (a recognized sorcerer name) in favor of uraume (both a way of honoring their own family--the plum--and rejecting the culture it belonged to--the reversal). the "betrayal of nobility" interpretation of their name takes on a double meaning if this is the case.

anyway this may all be a bit of a stretch but i do think it would mesh really well with the themes gege sensei's established re: traditionalism, bloodlines, etc. really curious to see what they do with uraume and sukuna going forward.