#transportation passes
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Text
It’s a fucking awful sunrise the next morning.
They couldn’t check the weather, Michelle had paid off Issac and Izzy to steal it from them the second they walked into the house, so they half heartedly argued for a bit what was considered sunrise time—5:45 am apparently—and that was that. The alarm clock woke them up, and left the house bundled in warm clothes for an uncharacteristically cold spring morning.
Grace had offered Matilda Bay as their spot. A stretch of grass that sits opposite the Perth skyline, the river in between. There are tall gumtrees littered along the shoreline, and Max steers them to one furthest away from the public eye.
It’s just them here. Bark, digging into the skin of his back. The damp dirt, where he sits. Daniel, the heavy, solid, unmoving weight in his hand.
“This is a really shit sunrise,” Daniel mumbles into his shoulder. He’s curled away, in between Max’s legs where they make a V-shape. Daniel’s knees dig into his right thigh, and has tucked his head into the crook between Max’s neck and shoulder.
He’s not even sure he could call it a sunrise. It’s overcast, the grey clouds are spread out as far as the eye can see. There is sun, but it shines from behind the clouds. The light from it slowly rises with time, but it’s barely noticeable.
Max hums quietly in response, tracing stars above his hip. “I think there’s going to be a couple of bad sunrises,” he says softly. “But there will be good ones again. Maybe not right now, or next week. But there will be good ones again.”
“We should come back here.” Daniel pushes himself up and shuffles until all Max is seeing is Daniel.
It’s always been Daniel, Daniel, Daniel.
“We should come back here,” he repeats, snaking his hand up to the base of Max’s neck, threading Max’s hair through his fingering ers. “When the sunrises are good again.”
Max leans forward and kisses his curls. Kisses his forehead. Kisses the corner of his eyes. Kisses the hook of his nose. Kisses his lips. Kisses everywhere he can, hopes that each one will resemble any semblance of peace Daniel so desperately deserves.
“It’ll be good,” Max whispers in between their lips as they pull back slowly. “It’ll be good again.”
#this fic brought to you by the fact i woke up to an awful sunrise#and then i googled sunrise spots in perth and matilda bay came up which is… man invisible string and all that#this fic also brought to you by call your mom by noah kahan#maxiel#five writes#there will be good sunrises again 🤞#it was this or a bodyswap fic where this daniel gets transported into glitter on the floor and finds out everything he’s ever wanted#that daniel gets to have. but he doesn’t. i assume glitter on the floor daniel wakes up and probably passes out from shock to find out#things really turned to shit here
170 notes
·
View notes
Text
Finished System Collapse the other day & Murderbot has never been more relatable
First image based on this post by @murderbot-moodboard
#murderbot#the murderbot diaries#system collapse#perihelion#asshole research transport#ratthi#ayda mensah#amena#googling to make sure I'm spelling amena right. bcos I misspelled Ratthis name in a previous post and haven't recovered from the shame#Sadly names pass thru my brain like sand thru time or whatever so. vibes only. i remember the sound not the letters. nightmare#Anyway murderbot mental health moment: the book was alot of fun#i need to do a reread now knowing what REDACTED meant the whole time#cause the wife and I were in torture thru the whole book like what the FUCK did murderbot DO#we were CONVINCED it had stood in the middle of ARTs lounge & loudly announced suicidal intent or something#or like yelled at everyone for risking their lives to come back and retrieve equipment <= it means itself#the combo misery and also sort of relief finding out it was literally just that murderbot has Been Through It#& is Suffering the Consequences#was kind of immense#anyway murderbot who is a crazy little asshole. its so me#Shadow the Hedgehog Gijinka looking motherfucker. I gotta pin down my design for it better#hope the memory visions r comprehensible but tbh whatever if theyre not#squiddlyart
138 notes
·
View notes
Note
Normally, Desmond is sent back in time to mess with things.
But what if it wasn't him?
Like, maybe Desmond couldn't go back in time himself but he could, in the split second he touched the apple, send someone else.
What if one of his ancestors went back in time? (Upon their deaths or something.)
I imagine a young Altair (who might be using a fake name) running around Italy with a tired Ezio following like a worried mother hen. (No, Claudia, he is not hovering he is just concerned) He ends up taking Altair under his wing (No, Claudia, it is not adoption.)
Or maybe Altair ends up in Bayek's time, Oh! Or Connor in Ezio's time. (Edward and Ezio would either get along badly or be too powerful if they were together in the same time period.)
These boys ruin the timeline and somehow save the world/future by simply stumbling through everything with no clue what's going on. and of course the power of friendship and really sharp blades.
Desmond and Clay are laughing their asses off in the afterlife as their ancestors destroy centuries worth of carefully calculated plans. (They might also manipulate things a little to help.)
And the time traveling ancestors for the most part, are doing the best they can in their current situation.
They are freaking the fuck out the whole time but are excellent at hiding it.
Poor Ezio.
(No, Altair, you can't kill that person because that have information we need, yes, I'm sure, Claudia don't encourage him.)
Well… How about we add some… ‘order’ to the chaos?
Desmond only had a fraction of a second to send his ancestor back in time.
And he hesitated.
He didn’t know which one to send.
Should it be Altaïr? Altaïr always felt like he would find out what to do even if he was given only minimal clues.
But Ezio was his prophet, the one he had been with the longest…
Ratonhnhaké:ton though… he deserves answers. He deserves the truth.
And when he woke up…
In that endless sea of gray…
The first word he heard were…
“’Morning. Which fucked up timeline do you want to hear first?”
Desmond sat and blinked as Clay stood before him, arms crossed with a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes.
“Uuuhh…”
“Do you want to hear about how Edward Kenway managed to save his grandson and his grandson’s mother from the fires that should have killed her?” Clay asked before adding, “Oh… and he’s learned that his son’s a Templar by the way. At least, one of his old friends believe he’s actually Edward Kenway. If you think the Kenway Family Drama is bad when you were reliving Connor’s memories, then you gotta see the top tier drama that’s happening with Edward and Haytham right now.”
“Or maybe you want to hear about how Connor got kicked into Ezio’s time? He has no idea what’s happening but he got appointed as Federico’s combat instructor. He knows jackshit, by the way, about the tragedy that’s about to happen but, hey, at least Giovanni believes he’s an Assassin from another country or something. Oh.” Clay rubbed his chin as he added, “Connor doesn’t like how close Giovanni is with the Medici by the way. Lorenzo reminds him a bit of Washington or maybe he’s projecting, who knows?”
“Maybe you’ll like to know how your dear prophet is doing? Well, he’s doing badly in preserving the damn timeline that’s for sure. Let’s see… he got in touch with Alamut and managed to bluff his way into making them believe he’s the mentor of a destroyed Assassin branch from the crusader lands, he got the mentor’s permission to make his own branch in Levant, made a deal with said mentor to become a thorn in Al Mualim’s side and find out what he’s hiding, adopted Altaïr and even went as far as adopt Abbas because he believed he could ‘change’ things.” Clay was quiet for a moment before he added, “Oh and his branch is in the underground temple in Jerusalem so he has the Apple with him already.”
“Then there’s Altaïr.” Clay said with such… annoyance Desmond was actually afraid of what Altaïr had done. Clay rubbed the side of his forehead as he started, “See, they can only be transported into what counts as their past so we can’t have something like Altaïr being pushed into his future in Ezio’s time or something. And, since your only instruction to the Moraes was to ‘change the past’, they had to improvise with Altaïr considering he’s more or less the starting point. They had to pick another one of your ancestors who was important to your past and this world’s future so…”
“Altaïr’s been sent to the time of the Isu-Human war and his knowledge of the POEs and getting unconstrained access to the POEs at their full power… well… let’s just say…” Clay’s tone was drier than the desert as he said, “The Isus didn’t know what hit them.”
Desmond could only stare at Clay as he said.
“Soooo… which one do you want to contact first as their ‘patron’?”
#look I know I could have pushed altaïr to aquilus’ timeline who is a confirmed desmond ancestor#or to esio’s timeline who while not confirmed could be ezio’s ancestor#but the idea of altaïr#just fucking the isus over#by becoming the shadow king#behind eve and adam’s revolt#was too funny to pass over#and yes#that patron bit is meant to be a reference to dnd warlocks XD#they all got transported#after their death#with a body at the peak of their 'prime'#ask and answer#assassin's creed#desmond miles#altaïr ibn la'ahad#ezio auditore#ratonhnhaké:ton#connor kenway#edward kenway#clay kaczmarek#teecup writes/has a plot#fic idea: assassin's creed
377 notes
·
View notes
Text
You ever randomly get sad by realizing that the people on No Man’s Land are probably missing a lot of the human experience and how most of it is connected to earth?
They’re never going to know what rainstorms are like, or the smell that lingers in the grass after it’s over.
They’ll never know what it’s like to hear cicadas or frogs croaking near a lake at night.
Earth has so many colors, so many animals, and so much flora. Even though they have the geodomes, they’re merely a fraction of what the planet had to offer.
But they’ll never know.
#trigun#trigun stampede#trigun maximum#trigun meta#I wasn’t sure if the trimax tag would be necessary but fuck it#I’m putting the rest of my thoughts in the tags bc they would ruin the emotional impact I’m trying to put out lmao#oddly enough this came from thinking about how I would write an isekai scenario where the reader gets transported to trigun by whatever#because you’re surrounded by sand and nothing else you come to realize you miss a lot of the little things from home like rain; grass#even the noises like crickets and frogs and the occasional car passing by on the road#and if you try to talk about it with the characters they won’t understand what you’re talking about because they never experienced it#vash might be able to understand some of the stuff related to flora but not much else#anyway i’m rambling
31 notes
·
View notes
Text
With how often his portals screwed up in the beginning, there’s absolutely no way Leo didn’t end up in multiple scenarios where he was trapped in random places chasing after his odachi as it gets separated from him, causing him to have to chase after it as it somehow evades his grasp in increasingly comedic yet unlucky ways.
#rottmnt#rottmnt leo#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles#rottmnt headcanons#like even more than canon shows#imagine seeing Leo chase after his sword as it gets transported via the back of an ice cream truck#and right before he reaches it#it falls off into a passing train#and then he gets THAT#holds it above his head#and it gets snagged by like#a yokai goose or something#props if this all happened because Leo once again just wanted rest and the universe said nah lmao#when Leo comes back to the lair Mikey turns toward him and asks ‘hey Leo how was your trip-‘#leo (covered in bruises and looking like a hot mess): *grins tightly* IT WAS GREAT.#for some reason he’s drenched in honey and covered with feathers and paint#Mikey chooses not to ask (for now)
243 notes
·
View notes
Note
What would happen if you were stuck in an elevator with Yakumo?
First of all, i would have taken the stairs, so this wouldn't happen ever. Can you prove that i've been inside an elevator, or that i will at some point enter one? No. So . None of this .
Humouring your delusion h,owever, I'd probably just freeze and hope he doesn't see me. What's the F sequence here? Flight>freeze>fight.
I can't flee because stuck in a box. So, freeze. He can do the smart thing here and ignore me, because being stuck in an elevator could mean stuck for 2 minutes. We can wait this out.
If yakumo perceives me, then freeze fails. And he has done the stupid thing, because it leads to the final option: fight.
Maybe hollow him out and use him as a protective covering against the elements [dry and dusty stale elevator air]. Maybe eat his arm in hangry confusion. Maybe GET eaten in hangry confusion. Maybe disintegrate piece by piece out of existence.
Maybe lie extremely flat on the floor and take a nap. Don't need to deal with this if I'm unconscious!!!!
#feesh answer#maybe grill my OWN arm with a portable bbq and we both pass out from the fumes#there's plenty to do in an elevator I'm sure#maybe after enough time i'll low squat on the floor. smoking my candy pipe (so tbh it's just sucking. i'm not smoking a damn thing)#in my gravelly voice i'll mutter 'you got someone waitin for ya on the outside?'#and that will inevitably trigger yakumo's Talk about Eiden instinct#which will keep him occupied and rambling for several hours if i play my attentive nodding correctly#actually. that's a smart move. he can't turn the elevator into a panic box if he's too busy complimenting eiden#it's like 'transport yourself to your happy place' but it's just yakumo talking about how cute and lovable eiden is#yeah. yeah this will work nicely
20 notes
·
View notes
Note
public transport
#tumblr polls#polls#random poll#random polls#my polls#poll#smash or pass#incognito polls#yay or nay?#public transportation#public transit#public transport system
22 notes
·
View notes
Text
2021
Me: I work in a different city almost everyday this month. Can I take the train? It'll save ya gas and money and time
Parents: No
2022
Me: I work in a different city almost everyday this month. To save gas and money, can I take the train?
Parents: No
2023
Me: I work in a different city almost everyday this month. Can I take the train to save gas and money?
Parents: No
2024
Me: I work in a different city almost everyday this month. Can I take the train to save gas and money?
Parents: No
Parents, a week later: Buy a train pass because gas is expensive
Me: Okay, but I don't get paid until Tuesday
Parents, that Tuesday: Don't get a pass; we'll take you to work
Me: Alright, then I'm going to spend this $85 on food and gas
Parents, yesterday: You're taking the train to work tomorrow because gas is expensive
Me, to myself: If you'd actually teach me to drive, we wouldn't be having this problem
#summer is busy season#augest is when most of our shows come in#i take the theatre in our dtate capitol#I don't have a drivers license because no one that can legally take me driving will take me for more than maybe 8 hours every other month#i'm not salty about this#why do teain passes even exist? it's bullshit#(I think it's Sweden) Sweden has the right idea about public transport#i think#i juat know that the system here is expensive as shit#why can't they make up their damn minds about this?#also#$85 is for a single month pass#i only need it for two weeks#to be fair to my parents#i was 17 when i first asked#honestly#I don't think my anxiety could handle being on the train anymore#it's only gotten worse as i've gotten older#besides i don't do well in crowded places#especially if they're small like a train#we'll see how we feel tomorrow#also also#I won't say anything about the drivers license because they both find ways to lightly guilt trip me into not bringing it up for a month#that's my rant done#i gotta go sleep
17 notes
·
View notes
Text
whatever these two have is deeply funny to me is all
#still thinking about the fact both of them had the cup transported by helicopter for their cup day#and both of them also wearing their own jerseys on their cup day#and also-#sorry im back to being 😵💫😵💫 over them yeah#funny duo to ME#funny duo who are also kissing TO MEEE#i love how terribly petty lundy gets with forsy#“did he say i have a bad beard? then i choose him”#i think a lot about how miffed forsy gets when they rag on his beard#(chases him down because he think he messed with him)#forsy is a mild mannered gentleman but also have you considered how much forsy does love ribbing the finns#mr carebear i cant choose call out anybody no;;; (releases he can tease a finn) okay SO-#lundy and luosty are too good targets to pass up apparently#mr weirdo puts raw onions in his pasta and mr. bad beard#yeah he has to tease them he has to overcome his nice man programming for them
9 notes
·
View notes
Text
i like to think that after simon armitage’s article came out the whole band started calling alex “big brown horse eyes” as a nickname
#‘oi horse eyes! pass us a drink’#‘where’s old horse eyes?’#‘stop staring at miles with those big brown horse eyes of yours’#i mean really#what friends wouldn’t IMMEDIATELY pounce on that entire article as teasing fodder#like the stuff about his handshake??#the ‘human slinky’ comment???#‘a creature of beauty’????#christ#simon armitage had it bad#(and honestly who can blame him)#anyway#just thoughts that occur to me on public transport#alex turner#arctic monkeys#lulu posts
40 notes
·
View notes
Text
Being brought up on a farm and only ever going back indoors to head right back out again for my whole life, the decreasing amount of insects has been extremely noticeable and it's been going on for years. Of course it's been worrying with the climate catastrophe, and once I became a beekeeper and learned more about my village's local flora it became even more glaring.
So imagine my surprise this year when there are more insects than I can count. Sitting on my porch (practically my room during summers) I'm noticing species I haven't seen since I was at least a young teenager, and there are more butterflies of different varieties than I even remember from my childhood!
There are so many bees flying around too, probably from the hives down by the old homestead buildings by the church and school, owned by the woman I know from the local beekeeper's association.
What's more is that this year there has been no drought OR flooding, so there are a lot more flowers blooming for longer, and everyone in my village as well as the surrounding villages are reporting a burst of activity in their hives... as well as higher activity from the wild bees and pollinators. For the first time in years it's starting to resemble the way it was when I was younger.
All that is to say, the climate catastrophe is real, and in my area it's causing a lot more violent thunderstorms... but oh my god all this reminds me why I persist despite the despair that tries to dig its claws in.
I may not be able to do major change on a global scale, but you can bet me and everyone here will at least try and support this little place. We can keep going in the fight against the municipality that wants to urbanize at the cost of our precious biodiversity, and we can continue to fight to keep out the cities that tries to enroach on us and get closer.
It is rare for villages in Götaland to remain this free from urbanization despite being nestled right in the middle of multiple major cities, and there's no excuse to destroy what little there is left of it down here in the south.
#whats more is that its getting easier and easier to buy local produce and meat and materials#the very thing both my parents and many others had to give up on when industrialization hit the final nail in the coffin#the thing that killed my farfar who inherited the old farm that stood no chance against industrialization#theres so much left to be done of course#for one it will be hard to reintroduce the flora thats vanished over the years#as a result of climate change and utterly botched use of the land and fields#not to mention the forest industry placing forest keepers in a position where they have to sell lumber in order to keep going#but god fucking damnit im not going to lose hope#i refuse to pass on without having at least tried to keep this place safe#the municipality can talk all they want about making it so more people can live here#out of all the locales within its borders we have several major towns one airport and access to two major cities#and YET we also have this one place of relatively untouched countryside with farmland and high biodiversity#without being rural thanks to the railroad and public transport#why shouldnt we preserve that! when the surrounding municipalities are constantly becoming hard to live in without cars!#theyll have to pry it from my cold dead fingers#silvi talks#im sorry i have a Lot of feelings about this
15 notes
·
View notes
Text
Can you believe Heartstopper season 3 came out today and instead of being in my bed, with my warm blanket and my hot tea watching it, I’m in the rain, in the cold, waiting for my bus to go to uni?!
Disgusting.
#heartstopper#heartstopper tv#happy#heartstopper season 3#to those who celebrate#also#3 out of service buses passed right in front of me#and the other dude waiting#why Italian public transportation?!#why??#im just ranting sorry if it has nothing to do with heartstopper
10 notes
·
View notes
Text
Marc fell right in front of my stand at turn 3 in q2. There’s a superstition among some of the emts about that but I’m not gonna say it 😌 👍
#im trying to keep calm yall#well not exactly in front but it’s damn close and he (and his bike) were transported pass through my stand#k in buriram#marc marquez#motogp#buriram 2024
10 notes
·
View notes
Text
District Transport
10 notes
·
View notes
Text
I watched all eight episodes of season 1 of Blue Eye Samurai over the weekend. I then went browsing because I wanted to read some online reviews of the show to see what people were thinking of it and also because I wanted to interact with gifs and art, as the series is visually stunning.
Yet, in my search for opinions on the show, I came across several points I'd like to address in my own words:
Mizu’s history and identity are revealed piece-by-piece and the “peaches” scene with Mizu and Ringo at the lake is intended to be a major character reveal. I think it’s weird that some viewers got angry over other viewers intentionally not gendering Mizu until that reveal, rather than immediately jumping to gender the character as the other characters in the show do. The creators intentionally left Mizu’s gender and sexuality ambiguous (and quite literally wrote in lines to lead audiences to question both) to challenge the viewer’s gut assumption that this lone wolf samurai is a man. That intentional ambiguity will lead to wide and ambiguous interpretations of where Mizu fits in, if Mizu fits in at all. But don't just take my word for this:
Re: above. I also think it’s weird that some viewers got upset over other viewers continuing to acknowledge that Mizu has a very complicated relationship with her gender, even after that reveal. Canonically, she has a very complicated relationship with her identity. The character is intended to represent liminality in identity, where she’s often between identities in a world of forced binaries that aren’t (widely) socially recognized as binaries. But, again, don’t just take my word for this:
Mizu is both white and Japanese, but she is also not white and not Japanese simultaneously (too white to be Japanese and too Japanese to be white). She’s a woman and a man. She’s a man who’s a woman. She’s also a woman who’s not a woman (yet also not quite a man). But she’s also a woman; the creators said so. Mizu was raised as a boy and grew into a man, yet she was born a girl, and boyhood was imposed upon her. She’s a woman when she’s a man, a man when she’s a man, and a woman when she’s a woman.
Additionally, Mizu straddles the line between human and demon. She’s a human in the sense she’s mortal but a demon in the sense she’s not. She's human yet otherworldly. She's fallible yet greatness. She's both the ronin and the bride, the samurai and the onryō. In short, it’s complicated, and that’s the point. Ignoring that ignores a large part of her internal character struggle and development.
Mizu is intended to represent an “other,” someone who stands outside her society in every way and goes to lengths to hide this “otherness” to get by. Gender is a mask; a tool. She either hides behind a wide-brimmed hat, glasses, and laconic anger, or she hides behind makeup, her dress, and a frown. She fits in nowhere, no matter the identity she assumes. Mizu lives in a very different time period within a very different sociocultural & political system where the concept of gender and the language surrounding it is unlike what we are familiar with in our every-day lives. But, again, don’t just take my word for this:
It’s also weird that some viewers have gotten upset over the fact women and queer people (and especially queer women) see themselves in Mizu. Given her complicated relationship with identity under the patriarchy and colonial violence, I think Mizu is a great character for cis-het women and queer folks alike to relate to. Her character is also great for how she breaks the mold on the role of a biracial character in narratives about identity (she’s not some great bridge who will unite everyone). It does not hurt anyone that gender-fluid and nonbinary people see themselves in Mizu's identity and struggle with identity. It does not hurt anyone that lesbians see themselves in the way Mizu expresses her gender. It does not hurt anyone that trans men see themselves in Mizu's relationship with manhood or that trans women can see themselves in Mizu when Mama forces her to be a boy. It's also really cool that cis-het women see themselves in Mizu's struggles to find herself. Those upset over these things are missing critical aspects of Mizu's character and are no different from the other characters in the story. The only time Mizu is herself is when she’s just Mizu (“…her gender was Mizu”), and many of the other characters are unwilling to accept "just Mizu." Accepting her means accepting the complicatedness of her gender.
Being a woman under the patriarchy is complicated and gives women a complicated relationship with their gender and identity. It is dangerous to be a woman. Women face violence for being women. Being someone who challenges sex-prescribed norms and roles under patriarchy also gives someone a complicated relationship with their identity. It is dangerous to usurp gender norms and roles (then combine that with being a woman...). People who challenge the strict boxes they're assigned face violence for existing, too. Being a racial or ethnic minority in a racially homogeneous political system additionally gives someone a complicated relationship with their identity. It is dangerous to be an ethnic minority when the political system is reproduced on your exclusion and otherness. They, too, face violence for the circumstances of their birth. All of these things are true. None of them take away from the other.
Mizu is young-- in her early 20s-- and she has been hurt in deeply affecting ways. She's angry because she's been hurt in so many different ways. She's been hurt by gender violence, like "mama's" misogyny and the situation of her birth (her mother's rape and her near murder as a child), not to mention the violent and dehumanizing treatment of the women around her. She's been hurt by racial violence, like the way she has been tormented and abused since childhood for the way she looks (with people twice trying to kill her for this before adulthood). She's been hurt by state-sanctioned violence as she faces off against the opium, flesh, and black market traders working with white men in contravention of the Shogun's very policies, yet with sanction from the Shogun. She's been hurt by colonial violence, like the circumstances of her birth and the flood of human trafficking and weapons and drug trafficking in her country. She's had men break her bones and knock her down before, but only Fowler sexually differentiated her based on bone density and fracture.
Mizu also straddles the line between victim and murderer.
It seems like Mizu finding her 'feminine' and coming to terms with her 'female side' may be a part of her future character development. Women who feel caged by modern patriarchal systems and alienated from their bodies due to the patriarchy will see themselves in Mizu. They understand a desire for freedom that the narrow archetypes of the patriarchy do not afford them as women, and they see their anger and their desire for freedom in Mizu. This, especially considering that Mizu's development was driven by one of the creators' own experiences with womanhood:
No, Mizu does not pass as a man because she "hates women" or because she hates herself as a woman or being a woman. There are actual on-screen depictions of Mizu's misogyny, like her interactions with Akemi, and dressing like a man is not an instance of this. Mizu shows no discomfort with being a woman or being seen as a woman, especially when she intends to pass herself as and present as a woman. Mizu also shows the women in the series more grace and consideration than any man in the show, in whatever capacity available to her socially and politically, without revealing herself; many of the women have remarked that she is quite unlike other men, and she's okay with that, too.
When she lives on the farm with Mama and Mikio, Mizu shows no discomfort once she acclimates to the new life. But people take this as conclusive evidence of the "only time" she was happy. She was not. This life was also a dance, a performance. The story of her being both the ronin and the onryō revealed to the audience that this lifestyle also requires her to wear a mask and dance, just as the bride does. This mask is makeup, a wedding dress, and submission, and this performance is her gender as a wife. She still understands that she cannot fully be herself and only begins to express happiness and shed her reservation when she believes she is finally safe to be herself. Only to be betrayed. Being a man is her safety, and it is familiar. Being a boy protected her from the white men as a child, and it might protect her heart now.
Mizu shows no discomfort with being known as a woman, except when it potentially threatens her goals (see Ringo and the "peaches" scene). She also shows no discomfort with being known as, seen as, or referred to as a man. As an adult, she seems okay- even familiar- with people assuming she's a man and placing her into the role of a man. Yet, being born a girl who has boyhood violently imposed upon her (she did not choose what mama did to her) is also an incredibly important part of her lived experience. Being forced into boyhood, but growing into a man anyway became part of who she is. But, being a man isn’t just a part of who she became; it’s also expedient for her goals because men and women are ontologically different in her world and the system she lives under.
She's both because she's neither, because- ontologically- she fits nowhere. When other characters point out how "unlike" a man she is, she just shrugs it off, but not in a "well, yeah, because I'm NOT a man" sort of way, but in an "I'm unlike anyone, period," sort of way. She also does not seem offended by Madam Kaji saying that Mizu’s more man than any who have walked through her door.
(Mizu doesn’t even see herself as human, let alone a woman, as so defined by her society. And knowing that creators have stated her future arc is about coming into her “feminine era” or energy, I am actually scared that this show might fall into the trope of “domesticating”/“taming” the independent woman, complete with an allegory that her anger and lack of human-ness [in Mizu’s mind] is a result of a woman having too much “masculine energy” or being masculine in contravention of womanness.)
Some also seem to forget that once Mama and Mikio are dead, no one knows who she is or where she came from. They do not have her background, and they do not know about the bounty on her (who levied the bounty and why has not yet been explained). After their deaths, she could have gone free and started anew somehow. But in that moment, she chose to go back to life as a man and chose to pursue revenge for the circumstances of her birth. Going forward, this identity is no longer imposed upon her by Mama, or a result of erroneous conclusions from local kids and Master Eiji; it was because she wanted people to see her as a man and she was familiar with navigating her world, and thus her future, as a man. And it was because she was angry, too, and only men can act on their anger.
I do think it important to note that Mizu really began to allow herself to be vulnerable and open as a woman, until she was betrayed. The question I've been rattling around is: is this because she began to feel safe for the first time in her life, or is this part of how she sees women ontologically? Because she immediately returns to being a man and emotionally hard following her betrayal. But, she does seem willing to confide in Master Eiji, seek his advice, and convey her anxieties to him.
Being a man also confines Mizu to strict social boxes, and passing herself as a man is also dangerous.
Mizu doesn't suddenly get to do everything and anything she wants because she passes as a man. She has to consider her safety and the danger of her sex being "found out." She must also consider what will draw unnecessary attention to her and distract her from her goals. Many viewers, for example, were indignant that she did not offer to chaperone the mother and daughter and, instead, left them to the cold, only to drop some money at their feet later. The indignity fails consider that while she could bribe herself inside while passing as a man, she could not bribe in two strangers. Mizu is a strange man to that woman and does not necessarily have the social position to advocate for the mother and daughter. She also must consider that causing small social stirs would distract from her goals and draw certain attention to her. Mizu is also on a dangerous and violent quest.
Edo Japan was governed by strict class, age, and gender rules. Those rules applied to men as well as women. Mizu is still expected to act within these strict rules when she's a man. Being a man might allow her to pursue revenge, but she's still expected to put herself forward as a man, and that means following all the specific rules that apply to her class as a samurai, an artisan (or artist), and a man. That wide-brimmed hat, those orange-tinted glasses, and her laconic tendencies are also part of a performance. Being a boy is the first mask she wore and dance she performed, and she was originally (and tragically) forced into it.
Challenging the normative identities of her society does not guarantee her safety. She has limitations because of her "otherness," and the transgression of sex-prescribed roles has often landed people in hot water as opposed to saving them from boiling. Mizu is passing herself off as a man every day of her life at great risk to her. If her sex is "found out" on a larger scale, society won’t resort to or just start treating her as a woman. There are far worse fates than being perceived as a woman, and hers would not simply be a tsk-tsk, slap on the wrist; now you have to wear makeup. Let's not treat being a woman-- even with all the pressures, standards, fears, and risks that come with existing as a woman-- as the worst consequence for being ‘found out’ for transgressing normative identity.
The violence Mizu would face upon being "found out" won’t only be a consequence of being a "girl." Consider not just the fact she is female and “cross-dressing” (outside of theater), but also that she is a racial minority.
I also feel like many cis-het people either ignore or just cannot see the queerness in challenging gender roles (and thus also in stories that revolve around a subversion of sex-prescribed gender). They may not know how queerness-- or "otherness"-- leads to challenging strict social stratifications and binaries nor how challenging them is seen by the larger society as queer ("strange," "suspicious," "unconventional," even "dishonorable," and "fraudulent"), even when "queerness" (as in LGBTQ+) was not yet a concept as we understand it today.
Gender and sexuality- and the language we use to communicate who we are- varies greatly across time and culture. Edo Japan was governed by strict rules on what hairstyles, clothes, and weapons could be worn by which gender, age, and social group, and this was often enshrined in law. There were specific rules about who could have sex with whom and how. These values and rules were distinctly Japanese and would not incorporate Western influences until the late 1800s. Class was one of the most consequential features to define a person's fate in feudal Japan, and gender was quite stratified. This does not mean it's inappropriate for genderqueer people to see themselves in Mizu, nor does this mean that gender-variant identities didn’t exist in Edo Japan.
People in the past did not use the same language we do today to refer to themselves. Example: Alexander The Great did not call himself a "bisexual." We all understand this. However, there is a very weird trend of people using these differences in language and cultures across time to deny aspects of a historical person's life that societies today consider taboo, whether these aspects were considered taboo during that historical time period or not. Same example: people on Twitter complaining that Netflix "made" Alexander The Great "gay," and after people push back and point out that the man did, in fact, love and fuck men, hitting back with "homosexuality wasn't even a word back then" or "modern identity didn't exist back then." Sure, that word did not exist in 300s BCE Macedonia, but that doesn't mean the man didn't love men, nor does that mean that we can't recognize that he'd be considered "queer" by today's standards and language.
Genderqueer, as a word and as the concept is understood today, did not exist in feudal Japan, but the people did and feudal Japan had its own terms and concepts that referred to gender variance. But while the show takes place in Edo Japan, it is a modern adult animation series made by a French studio and two Americans (nationality). Mizu is additionally a fictional character, not a historical figure. She was not created in a vacuum. She was created in the 21st century and co-written by a man who got his start writing for Sex in the City and hails from a country that is in the midst of a giant moral panic about genderqueer/gender-variant people and gender non-conforming people.
This series was created by two Americans (nationality) for an American company. In some parts of that country, there are laws on the book strictly defining the bounds of men and women and dictating what clothes men and women could be prosecuted for wearing. Changes in language and identity over time mean that we can recognize that if Mizu lived in modern Texas, the law would consider her a drag performer, and modern political movements in the show creators' home country would include her under the queer umbrella.
So, yeah, there will also be genderqueer people who see themselves in Mizu, and there will be genderqueer fans who are firm about Mizu being queer to them and in their “headcanons.” The scene setting being Edo Japan, does not negate the modern ideas that influence the show. "Nonbinary didn't exist in Edo Japan" completely ignores that this show was created to explore the liminality of modern racial, gender, class, and normative identities. One of the creators was literally inspired by her own relationship with her biracial identity.
Ultimately, the fact Mizu, at this point in her journey, chooses to present and pass as a man and the fact her presented gender affects relationship dynamics with other characters (see: Taigen) gives this story a queer undertone. And this may have been largely unintentional: "She’s a girl, and he’s a guy, so, of course, they get together," < ignoring how said guy thinks she’s a guy and that she intentionally passes herself as a guy. Audiences ARE going to interpret this as queer because WE don’t live in Edo-era Japan. And I feel like people forget that Mizu can be a woman and the story can still have queer undertones to it at the same time.
#Blue Eye Samurai#‘If I was transported back in time… I’d try to pass myself off as a man for greater freedom.’#^^^ does not consider the intersection of historically queer existence across time with other identities (& the limitations those include)#nor does it consider the danger of such an action#I get it. some come to this conclusion simply because they know how dangerous it is to be a woman throughout history.#but rebuking the normative identities of that time period also puts you at great risk of violence#challenging norms and rules and social & political hierarchies does not make you safer#and it has always been those who exist in the margins of society who have challenged sociocultural systems#it has always been those at greatest risk and who've faced great violence already. like Mizu#Anyway... Mizu is just Mizu#she is gender queer (or gender-variant)#because her relationship with her gender is queer. because she is gender-variant#‘queer’ as a social/political class did not exist. but people WE understand as queer existed in different historical eras#and under different cultural systems#she’s a woman because queer did not exist & ‘woman’ was the sex caste she was born into#she’s also a woman because she conceptualizes herself as so#she is a woman AND she is gender-variant#she quite literally challenges normative identity and is a clear example of what sex non-conforming means#Before the actual. historic Tokugawa shogunate banned women from theater#there were women in the theater who cross-dressed for the theater and played male roles#so I’m also really tired of seeing takes along the lines of: ‘Edo Japan was backwards so cross dressers did’t exist then!’#like. please. be more transparent won’t you?
21 notes
·
View notes
Text
I'm being so serious rn if I ever talk about doing another fringe festival run in the next like 3 years at least send me to fucking therapy. It is a cry for help. This is bad for me.
#im over halfway at least. but fucking christ.#ive barely seen anyone i care about for weeks. im hardly sleeping. im in knee braces and im still in pain.#13 hours a day of people yelling at me. the busiest ive ever seen public transport. eating the most random sporadic shit.#no hobbies. very few friends or family. crying twice a day. i still havent been paid. binding!! binding 7am til midnight!!!! daily!!!!!#my whole body hurts im physically mentally emotionally exhausted im desperately lonely im not doing the things that make me feel fulfilled#when my loved ones are free im either working or passed out in pain and exhaustion#the boss is enabling all sorts of bullshit yet again#im not able to be a person anyone i care about deserves to know#and that makes me not want to know me either#that is at least when i have enough fractions of a spoon left to feel anything at all except upset or numb#i NEED this all to be over#my next free day is my sisters 21st birthday next month my fucking baby sister is turning 21 and i dont know what to get her#i dont have a brain im not being!! a person worth knowing!!!!#my gran fucking fell the other day she's hurt ive not visited her in ages bc of work and finance i want to see my wee gran i want#to buy her ice cream and tell her i love her#i had to clean up an old guy who smashed his face on the pavement today and im just putting That trauma off til at least mid September#my BEST FRIEND gets MARRIED next week#and i can barely think about it because im on empty#im on below empty#they deserve so much better from me#im out. im not doing this again. not like this.
17 notes
·
View notes