Every day I see more and more pop myth takes that make me want to pull my eyelashes out. No, Ares was not a protector of women. No, Aphrodite was not a war goddess (and you know what, being the goddess of sex and lust and beaut is okay!). No, Hera is not an irredeemable villain. No, Zeus is not evil incarnate. No Achilles isn’t without fault or some ‘gay softboi’ icon (he’s literally presented in the Iliad as someone who is proud to a fault. You’re supposed to recognize that he’s selfish and arrogant). No, Demeter was not an overbearing mother nor was Hades some sort of misunderstood, brooding knight in shining armour. Medea is allowed to commit heinous crimes and still be a sympathetic character. Jason… deserves all the hate he gets, respectfully.
Off the top of my head, I think Helen is one of the few people who gets complex, interesting characterization in modern retellings and discourse, ironically enough. She’s allowed to be vain and aware of her own beauty while also often having a great deal of agency. At the same time, she is frequently depicted as both victim and as offender. She’s allowed to want to be in Troy, but also to miss her husband and daughter.
Some days I feel like I could write essays about pop mythology and the way people reduce mythological figures to one dimensional caricatures. And how these retellings are never as progressive as people think, fixing some issues but exacerbating others. I do think retellings end up being an excellent resource for identifying what social issues bother us and how we would like to address them.
For example, we see a lot of feminist retellings that want to show women as capable of the same things as men, and in so doing they reject or deride their own femininity. But a retelling that is ultimately saying that masculinity is more interesting or valuable than femininity isn’t a truly feminist retelling, but it does show us that our society struggles to find femininity compatible with strength or courage.
61 notes
·
View notes
When the World Comes Crashing Down…
This is my first Itafushi post, and non-insert post. I really thought this would turn out longer than it did but I got too emotional tbh. Which was disappointing bc it felt like I was writing for ages. I also chose a different aesthetic for my dividers, my usual cutesy ones don’t really fit here lmao✌️🤠 Manga spoilers past chapter 212
Notes: Itafushi, hurt, so much angst, self loathing, major character death(s), end comfort but everything is not okay™️, discussions about not wanting to live, low self worth and trauma/culling games aftermath.
Megumi Fushiguro no longer wants to live.
Megumi Fushiguro, who let his guard down at the worst moment. All in the name of stupid emotions he didn’t deserve to have.
Megumi Fushiguro, the only person capable of destroying everything precious to him so quickly.
Megumi Fushiguro let himself be taken over, he let himself become a puppet to a monster- the same monster that killed his sister. The same monster that killed Gojo, his father figure. The same monster that ripped out his love’s heart right in front of him those months ago.
Megumi Fushiguro, the boy everyone left behind. His mother died, who cares about his father that left on his own, the sorry excuse of a parent his stepmother was- at least she gave him Tsumiki. Yet, he failed her… Tsumiki died in the world she had no business being part of. The world he joined so he could protect her. He failed.
Megumi Fushiguro, whose thoughts were interrupted by the presence of another- which shouldn’t be possible while he was in this state of limbo he prayed would end every day.
Megumi Fushiguro recognized the energy in front of him, how could he not? His love, Yuuji Itadori, was his only remaining tether to the earth. And he had hurt Yuuji too. Not only did he eat his finger, he’s seen how roughly Sukuna has treated him during this battle.
“Fushiguro! Get up, it’s time to fight back and end this!”
Megumi Fushiguro was unable to do anything besides stay crumpled on the ground, begging for everything to end. “I can’t, I’ve had enough…” He couldn’t even look his love in the eye. He didn’t deserve to, he didn’t deserve the love Yuuji gave, the love they had yet to put a label on and now never would.
“Get up! Get up so you can live! You’re our only chance, look at me Fushiguro. My time is almost up here, we need you!” And Yuuji did sound desperate, but if he met his eyes he might fall to his will.
Megumi Fushiguro felt a hand on his cheek, forcing him to open his eyes and let out a sob at the sight. Yuuji was bleeding, but he really was right there in front of him…
“We need you. I need you ‘gumi, please? You’re strong enough for it. I know you are.” He felt a kiss on his forehead before the presence vanished.
Megumi Fushiguro, who wanted to die when Yuuji left him, once again, alone in limbo. He wanted to die but he didn’t want to be alone. And if he died, would he be alone forever? Would his suffering ever end or would the crushing pain continue? What happened to Jujutsu sorcerers in the afterlife?
Megumi Fushiguro, then made the decision to go where he wouldn’t be alone. He would go where he could have companionship, comfort, even if not everyone would be there to greet him. Even if his world had crashed and burned.
Megumi Fushiguro got to his feet, though it took several tries, and made his way to a door he didn’t know was there all along; that he would have seen had his fog lifted sooner.
And everything was brighter than the sun, unbearable and beyond painful, until there was nothing. Absolute nothingness as he fell unconscious- oh…
Megumi Fushiguro, who woke up in a familiar room. The too well-lit clinic of Shoko Ieiri, with his own heart beat loud, coming from a monitor to his left.
Megumi Fushiguro, who then groaned and properly opened his eyes to the world.
Megumi Fushiguro, who heard the grating noise of Satoru Gojo’s chatter- and the sight of him sitting up in bed. Of course he had the audacity of eating pudding and making a no doubt annoying comment that he couldn’t quite comprehend all the words off. But he’d let Gojo be annoying, because it meant Gojo was alive. Alive and not cut in half by his own hand.
“Damnnnn I thought you’d take longer to wake up, now I owe your boyfriend money. Quick, go back to sleep before he notices and we’ll pretend this never happened.”
Megumi Fushiguro caught a few words, Boyfriend?
Megumi Fushiguro, whose hand was weighed down by one of his pink haired love’s own.
Megumi Fushiguro managed, against his will, to blush. Yuuji was knocked out at his bedside, slumped over the edge of the bed and lightly snoring. Good. God knows how long he’s been awake…
Megumi Fushiguro lost many people, good people that didn’t deserve to die. People that shouldn’t have died so young.
“Alright alright, you’re obviously not going back to sleep I guess. YUUUUUUUUJI YOUR LOVER’S AWAKE!” And Yuuji jerked awake with a snort and looked around, as if he was trying to discern where the fire was- then smiled at him so big…
Megumi Fushiguro let a few tears drop (also against his will) because maybe he lost many, but he did still have people to care about him. He really did.
Megumi Fushiguro wasn’t alone.
Megumi Fushiguro was gonna be okay. Definitely not now, but eventually…
Megumi Fushiguro decided he would live.
Thinking about making a request? Check my bio to see if they’re open!
30 notes
·
View notes
im really sorry if this question ends up being repetitive: but, if not for bruce’s over reliance on dick to regulate his thoughts and emotions, why would dick grow up into feeling like he needs to repress his emotions so much and his eagerness to act as people’s support? i know youve spoken about wolfman and his altering of their relationship but if ntt is generally an accurate portrayal of an adult dick, to me this nevertheless sounds like the consequences a parent-child relationship where the responsibilities are titled too much towards the child
i suppose this could also segue into asking for recs that would help me better understand your interpretation of their relationship 👀
not repetitive at all! to me the irony of wolfman's depiction of dick lies in that it is simultaneously something you can logically ascertain from prior canon but not for the reasons actually presented by wolfman. if that makes sense. he does extra work that isn't actually necessary to help explain why dick would act the way that he does because there's plenty of reasons for it without rewriting his history with bruce to have always been suppressed and edgy and dark. to me it makes far more sense to capitalize on the inevitable disconnect between bruce and dick as an adult and a child. batman: full circle is a good example of that dichotomy (and although it was published in the early 90s it built on mike w. barr's prior understanding of the relationship between dick and bruce that he wrote into the early 80s). bruce's primary concern for the people he works with is never standards or finesse but safety. he worries constantly about others coming to harm under his watch and with a child in particular those worries were exacerbated. he ran a tight ship not because he believed dick had anything to prove but because the only way dick could keep being robin was if he went about it safely. that was obv easy for an adult to understand. but not so much for a child
to bruce these worries were practical and par for the course (as well as an expression of his love and protectiveness) but for dick their consequences formed the crux of his entire world. as a child he idolized everything about bruce. his heroism. his work ethic. his skill. his resolve. his preparedness. if dick couldn't live up to the standard he set for himself in idolizing bruce then what could he ever hope to amount to? that was the thought constantly going through his head. and it's why the bulk of his childhood and primary tenure as bruce's partner was so precariously protected by the fact that nothing bad ever really happened during it (and admittedly this framing is convenient because even chronologically speaking nothing very significant happened in their history with each other until dick left for university in 1969) (i know dixon opted to write that whole shtick with dent in his version of events but personally i never found it necessary to do so). there is enough there in the idea of dick working hard for the course of a decade to embody who he believed bruce to be that lends itself to it eventually being difficult for him to healthily express himself once the rift between them actually began to emerge
because what about bruce was there to actually see that was broken and dark before dick became an adult? i know a lot of dick fans hate batman #408 because they don't like that it enforced "retirement" upon dick (which i personally believe is a conclusion they come to because of the way batman #416 re-framed the same scene) but to me that's an inaccurate reading of the text. batman #408 was about bruce (admittedly far too belatedly) recognizing that he could not in good conscience continue to ask dick to go out and be a vigilante on what he considered to be his own "orders". he viewed dick's close call with death at the hands of the joker as something directly of his own making. although their tenure with each other had been wonderful if dick wanted to continue to be a vigilante it had to be on his own terms and of his own volition. obv that was logical to bruce and it was something dick managed to accept in the moment. but it's still hard to go from always having a purpose alongside someone you idolized to finally being entrusted entirely to forge your own
in general i like the idea of dick the adult becoming privy to all of the personal problems and conflicts that come with being a vigilante. he was conveniently shielded from a lot of those problems as a child because all he had to do was be bruce's partner and hope to live up to the title. bruce had no reason to trauma dump on him or talk about his worries and concerns at length with him because it was never supposed to be dick's job to field those worries and concerns in the first place. he was a child. the only thing bruce wanted to do was to help channel his emotions through an outlet and provide him with a home to grow up in. but when you become an adult often that dynamic shifts. you're still not responsible for fielding those worries and concerns but you can perhaps be trusted with them. that's why i like the framing in batman #408 of dick now being a man. it's a subtle way to frame the double-edged sword of adulthood. the world is in your hands now but so will be the horrors that come with it. coming to terms with the real world that bruce lives in should be hard for dick. coming to terms with who bruce is when he's not perfect should be hard. coming to terms with how quietly bruce kept his grief because he did not see fit to overwhelm a child with it should be hard. that dichotomy of dick both wanting to be bruce's brother and his son should form the crux of their conflict with each other because you can't hope to be someone's equal and someone's protected at the same time in that kind of relationship. for dick to transition into the position of equal he has to expose himself to the fact that bruce is not in fact an idol but someone irrevocably human. and that should interfere significantly with his head and his own standards for himself
16 notes
·
View notes
There's something beautiful, there.
Vax'ildan thinks, until he cannot.
There's a peace in that finality: knowing he has said was he ought to, to those that he ought to. There's no peace in the chasm he has ripped out of them--he knows. But he also knows that it is guaranteed to heal with time.
His farewell was not sudden, it was not jarring; it was slow, and he knows it will hurt them more than the numbness of a quick death.
He knows, though, that despite the blood and sweat and tears they will spend to stitch the chasm back together, it will heal with time.
The thing with time, however, is that it is infinite. The Queen had told him.
Do not trust in the complexities of mortal durations. Her voice echoes in the nothingness. Time is, was, and will be. Mortals need control over such things. You, are no longer mortal.
Vax'ildan tries, in vain, to count. To wait. Will I see them again? He wonders, as he shepherds another, and another, and another, until he loses track of time. Do not trust in the complexities of mortal durations. They need control over what they cannot.
So he stops counting the seconds. The souls. The sunsets. He visits, sometimes. Briefly, or for forever, he does not know. Watches the sunrise and doesn't realize how much of time has passed.
Still, his own chasm is open. He has yet to sit down and tend to it; he has more important matters to deal with. Vax'ildan deals with the matters, with the souls and the lost, until he has no more matters to deal with.
He knows not when it happens, but how. He feels when the tether is broken, when the Queen finds another foolish one.
Not foolish, the Queen tells him, Mortal. They need control over what they cannot.
Yet you give it to them.
That I do.
I was not foolish, Vax'ildan thinks. I was mortal.
He watches his sister through the blur of the afterlife. Watches them. Sees them. Time begins to tick in its infinite void.
Would you do it again? The Queen asks, as he disrobes of the vestige. It changes its form to something he does not know, and that seems final.
Vax'ildan hesitates, remembers. Yes.
Go. They wait for you.
7 notes
·
View notes
for the writer's asks: 2, 3, 10, 19 <3
[ask game]
2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project
Well, I'm currently in the process of writing some Bob/Sax, and I'm actually really looking forward to some horny Sax description xD Other than that I'm really excited to write the Whumptober Day 18 fill (I'm doing them pretty strictly in order), because I have a *very* interesting idea for "Revenge / Unreliable Narrator / Loss of Identity" :)
3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)
Hm, had to think about this for a while, because, uh. I usually just write directly what I want to write and then care about set-up and context later - if at all. But there certainly are a lot of bits and pieces rotting deep in documents that haven't been touched in years, and some of those scenes I would love to share, but it doesn't make sense to do it, because they would need a lot of build-up to hit emotionally the way they're supposed to.
10. How would you describe your writing process?
A very decent mix of order and chaos? I do try to sit down to write/edit every day, I can usually produce like at least 200 words a day, I'm extremely disciplined when it comes to prompt challenges (ie - keeping the word count I#ve set myself, filling all days even if inspiration is sparse, goign in order if I told myself that'd be what I'd do, etc). But I'm also drowing in WIPs, most of which will probably never be finished, my ADHD is the one deciding what I'll work on and most documents are a mess of unconnected scenes that I inevitably struggle to stitch together in the last steps.
19. Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing? (favourite verb, something you describe ‘too often’, trope you can’t get enough of?)
"gelinde gesagt" & "unwillkürlich"... 🙈 Also I love describing people (esp hot older men), even though I'm not convinced I'm particularly good at it, and there is probably too much "character looking at something/someone" happening - the person holding our Creative Writing class even remarked on that after reading a text of just five pages 🙈 And my ao3 is overflowing with fic tagged "Dom/sub undertones" (or varietes of that tag) and/or "Age Difference". And I'm not going to be ashamed of that either 🤷♂️😄
3 notes
·
View notes