#we can meta and we can HC and we can analyse. But it's SUBTEXT | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

crystallinestars · 6 months ago

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Hello again!

I do remember talking about shipping as activism a while back, though it's important to keep in mind I'm not from the USA, nor from any English speaking country, I just spend an egregious amount of time in English speaking communities haha

But yeah, I've noticed this trend where some subsections of the fandom will get super attached to their HCs / interpretations and actively preach about it like it's their god-given duty to make sure as many unfortunate souls become the next victims of their "rightful" wrath, basically becoming the blorbo police in a way. I do feel like this could be called activism: there's a lot of focus on identity and a thirst for representation in media so they latch onto the closest thing available (fandom) and engage in discourse. Maybe because many people feel powerless to make any meaningful change 'IRL'?

I was thinking about that (again) the other day and I found a few reasons why this 'activism' always bewilders me, especially with games like HSR or Genshin

1) I feel like there's a CRUCIAL difference to make between "this game / character or whatever is a source of comfort for me as a person with x identity" and "this game is actively and obviously trying to give us representation and you're a fool and probably a x-phobe not to see it". Call this "semantics" all you want, Words mean Things (wowzers), and it's just basic courtesy to communicate intent clearly, instead of always parroting the same 3 tiktok one-liners to sound witty. There's also a difference between headcanons, interpretation, subtext, etc.

2) We've already talked about this but for the love of god can we please please please stop arbitrarily categorizing behaviours, clothes, ways of speaking and so on as "OBVIOUSLY ROMANTIC IN NATURE" or whatever? I'm begging on my hands and knees, this is a very slippery slope. I understand making silly little jokes but past a certain point it's unclear whether or not people are serious about this.

3) This one is a bit different and not exactly limited to this subject but recently I've found myself getting slightly irritated whenever there are analyses / metas without sources, especially when said analyses aim at proving a point using specfic information. Blame it on the uni student in me who's had to write way too many stupid essays, but whenever I see claims like "x flower or whatever symbolises x thing in x culture, therefore it's proof that x thing in x media is x", even if the analysis is interesting, I always want to ask the person where they found that information, so I could educate myself on the subject. Maybe I'm a bit too pessimistic on this but part of me always feels like the person deliberately cherry-picked what suited their interpetation, especially if they later say things like "look it up yourself". Idk,I'd just like to see if these analyses are the product of a genuine research or if they just heard someone on Twitter say it and ran with it.

4) Tbh I find that the way Hoyoverse goes about things is not that different from the way kpop singers are told to act to appeal to the audience. I 100% agree with you when you say that "attractiveness" is one of the most important factors as to why some characters are ppopular. And since I get the same vibes between Hoyoverse and kpop, I'd say that latching onto something like that for representation is kinda setting yourself up for failure down the line. Like, I'm sorry but if tiny crumbs mostly born in the fandom are enough to quench your thirst for representation, then the bar is truly in hell

And Aventurine. Oh Aventurine. I hope I won't sound too angry when I say this but looord was the fandom annoying these past few updates. This is linked to point 2) but I HATED every second of it whenever I saw people say things like "omg Aventurine acted sleazy / told a man his marble bust is handsome, it's obviously proof he's gay and the biggest whore in all of HSR because no straight man would say that!!!!" 😐 I don't even care if people want to HCs him as gay (by all means, do whatever you'd like) but allow to present an alternative: you know what kind of man would speak like that? Someone who's overacting the harmful stereotypes associated with his tribe as a defense mechanism of sorts against the whole world. Kind of like "you want me to be the crafty, smooth-talking and capricious Avgin? That's what I'll show you". Idk, I feel like THAT'S a much more sensible reasoning than the hormones driven screeches aforementioned.

Like seriously, is it y'all's first time reading a story like that?? Some people took one look at the character with a suspicious tattoo on his neck that SUSPICIOUSLY looks like the word "slave" and decided he was the fuckboy trope. Then 2.1 came and they had the gall to be surprised pikachu face when it was revealed that "yeah this is really a slave brand and Aventurine is Not Doing Well Mentally" (I saw posts where people said they were surprised this character wasn't as smooth and flirty and whatever as they had thought, like do you want me to applaud you for thinking with your brain for the first time in months or what??)

Anyway, I apologize for the sudden anger, I needed to get this off my chest.

Regarding translation issues, I do know a few things about translation as a whole but this ask is already getting long so maybe I'll talk about this another time 😅

In the meantime, I'm happy to see you and all the others catching a win with the lack of Kaveh in the banner! I do hope it'll continue in the same direction in the future

Also, I've talked a lot on here so maybe I should choose an emoji to sign my asks? If it's not taken could I use this one 🪻?

Hello 🪻 anon! Long time no see ☺️

Wow, you're not from an English-speaking country? With how eloquent your English is and how knowledgeable you are about Western fandom issues, you had fooled me haha.

A lot of the sexuality gatekeeping and preaching about x character being ___ sexuality or ___ -coded is a form of activism, for sure. As I said before, Americans in particular have a tendency to drag politics into every aspect of their lives, even foreign entertainment.

It's hard to say why some people act like morality police when someone disagrees with their headcanons or interpretations. Perhaps it's as you say--they feel powerless to make a change in the real world. A part of me also thinks they're virtue signaling; meaning, they show support for various causes for the sake of looking like a good person in front of others.

Regarding your frustration with the lack of a reliable source in analysis posts, I would say you're right to be wary of how factual the posts actually are. People generally make such posts to give their headcanons more weight. Basically, trying to prove their headcanons are right/correct. Cherry-picking is to be expected of such posts. I'm sure there are some well-researched, factual posts presenting a good analysis, but I find that those are mainly present in lore discussions. Maybe I'm being too negative, but I honestly don't expect anything good from fandom anymore. I am too jaded.

Your 4th point though lmao. The bar truly is in hell 😂 I get that there isn't a lot of representation in media, much less good rep, but Mihoyo's games aren't it, man... there are better sources of rep that this.

THE AVENTURINE BIT! I feel you on that so much!!!! LORD.

Mischaracterization in the name of shipping is a staple of fandom culture at this point. Your analysis of Aventurine's behaviors is spot on, but people like to view character actions and words through shipping lenses to try and find any crumb to support their headcanons. It's more fun to paint everything a character does as further support for their ship/headcanon than it is to appreciate who the character actually is.

The way Aventurine (And Childe. They massacred my boy) was quickly reduced to a flirty fuckboy hurts me to this day. After 2.0 story quest, people quickly came to the conclusion he was some perverted playboy, and proceeded to treat him the way they usually treat characters under the fuckboy trope: depict him in abusive situations. I saw so much fanart of Aventurine being collared and leashed, of being beaten black and blue, yet look like he's enjoying it. He was treated like a masochistic punching bag. While I love me some art of characters being roughed up, it really didn't suit Aventurine. Especially not after we just learned he was a slave, his race was murdered, and the Avgin people are discriminated against based on harmful stereotypes. But people seemed to have missed that?

The surprise pikachu moment they had when 2.1 dropped had me sitting there like:

Really? It was hinted at back in 2.0 that his backstory was rough, so it was no surprise he carries a lot of trauma and isn't as confident and cocky as he makes himself out to be. However, it seems like people really didn't pick up on that, or didn't understand the gravity behind it all. It felt like they and I read entirely different stories.

Idk, it's probably moments like these why Genshin has Paimon 😐

The small Kaveh win we had was worthy of celebration, but Mihoyo will never let their favorite shippers starve. They're already over-analyzing the camera panning between Haitham and Kaveh in Cyno's quest, as well as Sethos's voiceline about them. They do not rest.

Apologies for going off on a tangent again. I'm so happy there's someone else who picked up on Aventurine's trauma since the very start of the story 😭 It really felt like I was the only one. Ever since meeting him, there was something about him that made me want to hug and comfort him, but seeing all the abusive art just felt bad. It's much better now, thankfully.

Anyways, thanks for stopping by! It's always fun to read your messages since you have a lot of great insights. Hope you have a great day/evening whever you are, 🪻 Anon!

#Lunaria answers

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variousqueerthings · 3 years ago

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Daniel LaRusso: A Queer Feminine Fairytale Analysis Part Three of Three

(another massive, massive thank you to @mimsyaf )

part 1

part 2

8. Queerness and femininity and masculinity and the colour red and *record breaks*

If we spin the record aaalll the way back to this paragraph: “…looking at what it is girls and women in fairytales have/don’t have, what they want, and how they’re going to get it. It’s about power (lack of), sexuality (repressed, then liberated), and men.” Reading Daniel as a repressed, bisexual boy in a society that doesn’t accept his desires it’s interesting looking at how he moves through the world of the Miyagi-verse, at how threatened other men are by him, at how obsessed they are with him.

He’s out in the symbolic woods and these large boys and men see him and decide for whatever plot reasons to come for him. And they are large and violent and attractive and apart from Johnny again, they don’t have the nebulous excuse of fighting over a girl and even that excuse dies by around the midpoint when Johnny kisses Ali just to get a rise out of Daniel. He’s not trying to “win her back,” he’s not even really looking at her. He’s just trying to get a reaction. They don’t have any of the fighters in Rocky’s excuse either of Daniel being a macho opponent.

You can read whatever subtext into TKK1 and TKK2 (which becomes especially tempting once CK confirmed that the guys he fought at seventeen have been thinking about him ever since – for thirty-five years), but TKK3 is where it’s really At in terms of obsession and lust and forbidden desires.

Silver is presented as both a handsome prince who saves Daniel and mentors him (where Miyagi is undoubtedly cast in a fatherhood role) and later on becomes twisted into a dark secret that Daniel has to keep, while he turns that thing that Daniel loves (karate, it’s… it’s karate… it’s also men, but it’s definitely karate, because karate makes him feel… things...) into an abusive, violent version of itself.

A wolf in sheep’s clothing.

But he’s also offering him something liberating. Whatever is going on in that nightclub scene is about something other than breaking Daniel down. Even the bloodied knuckles aren’t just about revenge. It’s about giving him something that he isn’t, in the end, willing to receive, at least not from Silver. In that roundabout, strange way of these feminine fairytales, it’s exploring hidden desires through the metaphor of karate.

Daniel wears red because it’s his colour. In the movies he wears red a lot. Often in scenes with violence in them (the beach/the hilltop in TKK1 and the date/the destruction of the dojo/the final fight in TKK2), but he also has a variety of shirts (and in TKK3 pants) that pop up all the way through the narrative. He wears a red jacket when he accepts Terry’s training, when he punches a guy in the face, and when he tries to get out of the training again (as badly as that goes).

Did anyone consciously think about red’s link to desire, obsession, and violence when they made these? Eh. But is it there symbolically? When he meets Johnny, when he fights Chozen, when he’s in emotionally fraught situations with Terry? Hell yeah.

Probably the most lust-and-violence infused red is that aforementioned punching-board-until-knuckles-bleed bit – not that I thought Terry was going to pull him in for a kiss, because I knew, logically, of course he wouldn’t right? There’s no way… is there? Or later on when Daniel punches that guy and ends up with blood all over his shirt and Terry once more grasps him, euphorically. Blood is violence. Blood is also desire. Red is Daniel’s colour, even though he doesn’t acknowledge it come Cobra Kai. (Maybe he just needs someone else - cough Johnny Lawrence cough - to inspire it in him again).

Daniel LaRusso’s narrative is exploring that most feminine of fairytale tropes: To want and be wanted by monsters and having to hide those desires.

“Maybe this time that strange churning in my stomach that feels like a mix of anticipation and fear will turn out good for me.” - Daniel’s mind.

At the end of the story, Daniel saves himself, with all of the strange mixed narratives around it, and the acknowledgement that the end of The Karate Kid Part Three isn’t satisfying and its aftermath will likely be delved into in the next season of Cobra Kai.

Nevertheless, he saves himself. Not from Silver or Kreese or Barnes, and not entirely, but he makes a decision not to give in to fear (and he continues to try and live by that decision, making it over and over again for the next thirty-five years, even when the return of Cobra Kai makes that difficult for him).

He doesn’t do it by being the strongest in the land or even through a lucky shot (although that too). He does it by refusing to be like the male antagonists that surround him, by telling them they have no power over him. The narrative isn’t just his getting lost in the forest and all the monsters he finds there, it’s about how he redefines power for himself within that forest.

He’s a man who isn’t violent, whose victories include helping out a girl whose ex-boyfriend just broke her radio, successfully doing the moves to a cultural dance he’s trying to learn, sitting with his father figure while he cries over the death of his own father, telling a girl that she’s just made her first friend, and breathing a sigh of relief that a tree that got broken has healed.

Daniel LaRusso is a good boy is the point!

Karate is a metaphor. It can turn into many things: A series of lessons learned about how to be his own man and take care of his own house, a respect for the history of the father teaching him and sharing his home and story with him, fear, desire, masculinity (and the different forms that can take).

When a tall, handsome stranger offers to teach him karate in the dark, without Daniel’s caretaker knowing how to help him, and twists that karate into something that hurts him - when he reclaims that, over and over, that means something too.

This man is fine and definitely isn’t carrying the weight of buried karate-based queer trauma - could a traumatised man do this? *stares blankly at a former tormentor as blood runs down his forehead*

9. In Conclusion Daniel Has Kissed Dudes… Symbolically… But We Can HC Literally:

So there’s Daniel and his coded feminine fairytale narrative. It’s all a series of fun coincidences.

1. Ralph Macchio is just Like That

2. Red. All the red.

3. large portion of his storyline is about lack of power. Yes, he regains that power by the end of the first and second movie through A Fight, but generally he is framed as powerless opposite these almost monstrously physically powerful boys/men. And in the third one it’s barely even about physical prowess (he’d still lose a real fight against Barnes or Silver) and more about regaining lost autonomy off the back of a manipulative, abusive relationship with an older guy.

4. The third movie in particular is narratively a mess, but if reimagined as a fairytale makes a lot of sense (because it’s secretly all about how karate is bisexuality and Daniel gets manipulated through that desire to be better at karate).

5. Queerness and femininity and themes about hidden desires that can only be approached sideways through couching those desires in symbolism: Handshake meme.

6. The fact that the more I think about it, the more feral I am for a Labyrinth AU.

7. To sum up over 5000 words of text: The inherent homoeroticism of wanting to be slammed against a locker by a bully, but extended over three movies and ever-more inventive ways of hurting pretty-boy-Daniel-LaRusso.

Johnny’s not going to be happy when he realises Daniel’s got other ex-rivals buried in his closet...

10. Some Other Stuff Aka The Laziest Referencing I’ll Ever Do