#what an interesting subversion kind of way

[anthurak]

So latest in the long line of ways that Jaune represents a massive, brutal and scathing subversion of so many typical shounen/fantasy-hero protagonist tropes that a sizable chunk of the fandom seems to have ENTIRELY missed the memo on, let’s talk about his time at Beacon.

Specifically, how we see Jaune struggle so much in classes and seemingly has to put in much more work and training than his peers.

Now this is a pretty standard ‘main character’ trope in so many fantasy adventure school stories. The idea that the hero works so much harder than all of his peers because they’re all elitists who were ‘handed’ everything while our plucky underdog hero has to get by on gumption and good work ethic (and also plot armor, higher-power favoritism and narrative cheat codes but they don’t like it when you say that out loud). And on the surface, like so many other things in RWBY, it might seem at first like Jaune’s story is playing that trope straight.

But of course if we actually THINK about Jaune’s situation for a second, it becomes clear that the context of his situation actually represents a pretty scathing takedown of this trope.

The reason why Jaune seemingly has to work so much harder than all his peers in the present is because all those peers ALREADY DID all that hard work and training before they even came to Beacon. The same hard work and training that Jaune DIDN’T do because he thought he could proverbially ‘skip the line’ and CHEAT his way into Beacon.

Ruby, Yang, Blake, even resident rich-kid Weiss, they ALL put in YEARS of work and training to become huntresses. EVERYONE at Beacon did.

Everyone except Jaune.

He seems to have never even so much as attended a combat school, and NOTHING we’ve seen or heard indicates that he otherwise wanted to and was prevented by his family or some other factor. Instead, he clearly seems to have thought that he could just skip all of that and just cheat his way into Beacon.

Really, the fact that Jaune got as far as he did thanks just as much if not more so to having friends who would help and cover for him, as well as him lucking out and having a particularly naturally large aura reserves, rather than any kind of hard work he put in. And with ALL of that, he’s still only has basic ability as a fighter and is FAR more effective at simply supporting his friends and allies.

If anything, it does in fact show that Jaune had some pretty impressive potential.

Potential that he completely SQUANDERED.

Imagine if Jaune HAD actually attended a combat school. Actually put in all the same years of work, training and effort that all his peers did. Learned how to be a fighter, trained his aura and unlocked his semblance. Think about where he would have been at the start of the series when arriving at Beacon.

Jaune would almost certainly be on the same level as Ruby, Weiss and the rest. Hell, he might even have been on a similar level to Pyrrha, albeit most likely with very different strengths. Given his semblance, Jaune was always going to be a support-focused fighter. Still, he would still have been one of THE most capable support huntsmen of his year.

But Jaune DIDN’T do any of that. Instead he was forced to effectively burn through all of his potential just playing catchup to all his peers. Having to cram years’ worth of training into a scant few months. Which in turn has left his abilities invariably stunted and lagging behind everyone else.

All of this through no one’s fault but his own.

Unlike what I imagine is literally EVERY OTHER ‘underdog’ at a fantasy adventure school, Jaune being this ‘underdog’ who has to play catchup to all his peers is one hundred percent HIS OWN DAMN FAULT.

Which of course all makes Jaune a FAR more complex and interesting character than 99.999% of the typical fantasy-protag characters who play this trope ‘straight’.

[daylighteclipsed]

@advocaado I’m trying to avoid whacking the proverbial hornet’s nest, but I agree. The fact that Cloud and Tifa’s hangout is locked behind Cloud and Aerith’s date tells me the creators want us to compare the two. And it’s really obvious Cloud’s vibing more with Tifa. Aerith’s looking for an energy Cloud can’t match. It feels like she’s looking for Zack — that fun, forward, flirty vibe that he brings. And her attempts to draw that out of Cloud have the opposite effect. It seems especially obvious at the end when it’s time to head back and Aerith says, “This is the part where you’re supposed to blurt out, ‘I don’t want to go back! I want to stay here with you!’ This date’s DOA, otherwise.” And Cloud tells her, “Okay, now you’re just being mean.” And she replies, “I’m not trying to be mean, I… Sorry.” Aerith absolutely deserves someone who is gonna give her that bold, romantic energy. But Cloud is not that guy lmao and he shouldn’t be expected to be either. He’s not Zack.

[j-esbian]

i lost the post but i saw someone talking about how some of y’all act like being weird is a choice and like. YEAHHHHHHH.

that’s fine, it might be for you. but i just live like this and don’t know any other way. like yeah i’ve worked customer service, i can do innocuous small talk, but anything beyond that, i don’t understand what i’m missing. and it’s frustrating to see the tonal disconnect especially from people who are like “uwu embrace weirdness!!” where they’re like. dressing quirky and talking about bugs and listening to obscure music and eschewing small talk to ask Deep Questions on the first date and unlearning their tendency to not infodump. and generally have an idea of what Weirdness is supposed to look like. idk man some of us wake up and get out of bed and can’t figure out why the rest of their coworkers chitchat with each other but when they join the conversation it dies.

weirdness is value neutral. let’s stop trying to turn it into a badge because quite frankly, it’s not a choice for everyone. it’s fucking exhausting to never be on the same wavelength as other people and they’re going to react the way they do and label you the way they will without any conscious actions on your end. it’s difficult to talk about this without feeling like you’ll be dismissed as immature, a teenager whining “no one understands me” but the thing is. sometimes you don’t grow out of feeling alone and different, and there’s no good way to talk about it without feeling like people will think you’re just fishing for pity.

[defensivelee]

TODAY'S ACHIEVEMENT: ALIEN ALIEN! MARLY COMPARED TO PRINCESS LEIA FROM STAR WARS(???)

[chamerionwrites]

Honestly this gets at my chiefest complaint/frustration/discomfort with fandom as a whole. Which is: in their rush to defend the artistic merit of fanworks I think a ton of people have really valorized transformation and remixing and reinterpretation in and of themselves, when imo those are all quite neutral actions. When done well, they can expand and build upon and subvert meaning in really powerful and thought-provoking (and fun!) ways. When done poorly, they are just as likely to flatten and oversimplify and decontextualize and completely erase meaning. The simple act of changing something does not imbue the choice to do so with creative validity. It is entirely possible for a cover song to be bad (or just boring!). To exactly the same degree that it is possible to transform a pretty shallow and straightforward work into something deeper and more nuanced and subversive, is possible to transform a work into a vastly shallower and less interesting shadow of itself. As with nearly everything in art, it's all about the execution!

But the second you voice this position (which should honestly be a pretty uncontroversial one imo), you get people shrieking at you about being gatekeep-y and pretentious and betraying the sacred fandom etiquette of Don't-Like-Don't-Read.

And like...listen. I was not raised in a barn. I am 150% capable of quietly back-buttoning out of a fanfic I think is bad or boring - which is exactly what I do when I encounter them - and I am obviously not advocating for stupid ships wars or any kind of harassment or leaving hatemail in people's AO3 inboxes. (Which some people will also accuse you of the second you say anything less than lavishly positive about fandom, in true piss-on-the-poor fashion.) Literally all I am saying is that you can't have your cake and eat it too - that if fandom and fanworks (in the broadest sense) have artistic merit then fandom and fanworks (in the broadest sense) are fair game for artistic critique. Which means, in practice, that I can go on my own blog and make a post exactly like this one - critiquing broad trends, or stating that some interpretations are bad actually, or pointing out that subverting or talking back to or reading against the grain of canon is very different from simply ignoring it, or saying "fandom's culture of collage/remix/fuck-canon-I-do-what-I-want can lend itself to to really creative and interesting art but also to a lot of really bland homogenized cut-n-paste art, not to mention some pretty troubling decontextualization." And that if you feel this rains on your personal parade, you are then free to DLDR by back-buttoning out of my blog and/or blocking me so you never have to see my hot takes again, rather than clamoring in my notes about how I should let people enjoy things.

[squapejuice]

"Hyur are so boring, why would you play a human in a fantasy game?"

Fine. Whatever. You find the idea of playing a human boring. But I'm kind of getting sick of people saying this to me, a hyur enjoyer, sometimes even directly under my own screenshots of my OCs.

Hyur in FFXIV are a *wildly* fascinating take on the "humans in a fantasy setting" that we often see in video games. They're an almost complete subversion of "humans are the dominant culture that everyone assimilates into and also they did a colonialism at some point, which is why their language is The Common One".

Meanwhile, hyur in ffxiv? They're MIGRANTS.

They're NOT the dominant culture. Are they the most numerous population in a lot of places? Sure. Because they have kids out the wazoo, but I digress. Hyur in ffxiv are defined by their adaptability and willingness to assimilate. They're *so* defined by adaptability that there are at least three major historical events throughout the astral and umbral eras called "The Great Hyur Migration". Hyur only arrived in Ishgard after the dragonsong war had started and you'd be hard pressed to find any modern Hyur born and raised in Ishgard who would define themself as anything *other* than Ishgardian. Their names may be slightly different than Ishgardian elezen, but I would theorize that might just come down to class dynamics as while hyuran noble houses exist, they're not common. However in Hingashi they've completely assimilated into eastern Raen culture, as an example. I actually hesitate to find any place we know ingame to be completely dominated by hyur, because in Gridania despite the elementals picking hyur to be padjal the culture seems to be most influenced by wildwood elezen, and in ala mhigo while hyur are the most populous of demographics, the entire culture seems to be a marriage of hellsguard and miqo'te. Ul'dah is clearly highly influenced by lalafell above all, and limsa lominsa is heavily developed by the sea wolf roegadyn. Hyur just kind of fit themselves in and adapt to what everyone around them is doing.

So why is the language spoken by all the peoples in Eorzea the same? Isn't that the hyuran language? Nope! It's pretty explicitly said that the common language is a pidgin tongue that was deliberately developed by merchants and was adopted widespread out of convenience. They even say that Tural took inspiration from this in developing their own (and it's only coincidentally similar enough that your party can understand it with minimal language barrier, funnily enough. That's a hilarious way to handwave 'eh, game mechanics' tbh).

Anyway hyurs are really cool and I really want to see more people appreciating them for the interesting lore they do have and also exploring this concept more. Like making their hyurs naturally predisposed to learning multiple languages for example.

[tobiasdrake]

Which DBZ antagonist do you like the most?

Boring opinion, I know, but I gotta give it up for the Obvious Choice.

And I'm not just saying that because I haven't had a chance to talk about him yet.

Frieza runs a real estate empire that carries out genocidal acts of gentrification, purging tracts of land of their native inhabitants so he can sell their land for profit. Commenting on this choice for his ultimate villain, Akira Toriyama stated that he made this decision because real estate speculators are the worst people there are.

Fucking based.

From the moment we meet Frieza, he is a monster. Toriyama likes this Big Guy Little Guy dynamic where the Little Guy is the one you really need to watch out for. Frieza is the Littlest Guy ever.

He's so tiny. And yet you know exactly who the most dangerous person in this group is. Zero question.

By the end of this altercation, Frieza reveals one of his signature attacks, giving us our first glimpse of the kind of person and the kind of fighter he is. This is such an important moment for his character and I'm kinda mad that the anime had Dodoria do it instead.

Muri destroys the Scouters and blinds Frieza. I've talked before at length about the devastating impact that this move and the Namekian warriors' attack has on Frieza's campaign.

But once it's done, he has to face the music. He's not getting out of this alive.

In one last desperation play, Muri tells Cargo and Dende to run while blocking them with his body. And that's when it happens.

This is Frieza.

Specifically, this is Frieza's Death Beam. It's never actually given a name, but is generally referred to as Death Beam. We've seen a move like this only once before.

The Dodonpa, signature technique of Tsuru-senryu, first introduced by the assassin Taopaipai, was built for extreme lethality. This is not a technique for fighting; It's a technique for killing.

What makes Frieza's Death Beam stand out from the Dodonpa, however, is its accuracy and its speed. He threads the needle around Muri to hit Cargo before anyone even has a chance to react.

We see its accuracy and speed again six days later, when it finally catches up to the other child fleeing from him here.

The panelwork here calling attention to everyone's reactions as Frieza's ki bullet shoots past them, as his shot threads the needle between all obstacles in his path to strike his target far behind them. Dende is dead before anyone can even process that Frieza fired.

This is the difference between the two techniques. The Dodonpa is a gun. The Death Beam is a sniper rifle. Faced with the physical hurdle of bodies impeding his path, Frieza point-clicked Cargo and Dende to death.

He later executes Vegeta this same way.

Done with you.

All of this context for Frieza's sniping shot serves to set up the stunning subversion when Goku arrives to fight.

Frieza's never seen this before. Goku shouldn't even be able to see the shots coming until they've perforated his lungs. That's how Death Beam works. It's this moment that lays it out: Frieza's about to be tested like he's never been tested before.

Speaking of cool techniques, I've always been partial to this move from his Third Form.

The anime gives Frieza little ki bullets coming out of his fingers but I want to note that we never see a physical projectile when he's doing this. Frieza jams his fingers back and forth in the air while something pulverizes Piccolo.

I've always imagined he's poking the air so fast that it's hitting Piccolo with pressurized air currents. Similar to Goku's Mazoku air current punch from the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai.

But that's just me.

In any case, Frieza's got some fun moves. He's something of a hobbyist martial artist. Which is to say, Frieza has an interest in martial arts. In addition to his Death Beam, Frieza's concocted a litany of other interesting techniques.

He even invented the Kienzan, independently of Krillin.

Though he can remote operate his Kienzan so it's strictly better than Krillin's. Frieza, in his spare time, has come up with a bunch of cool moves. Too bad he has no idea how to use them.

Frieza's greatest weakness is his inexperience. He practices martial arts the way a business CEO who bought a log splitter so he can cut some wood and feel woodsy practices agriculture. Frieza has never had a proper chance to truly experience martial arts, because he was born too powerful.

The only partner who's ever even dirtied his skin was his dad.

And even that isn't much. Frieza's too strong. He wants to pursue martial arts. He wants to hone his technique. But when you win every fight by blinking too hard in the opponent's direction, what even is there to practice?

Frieza created a transformation to seal away his immeasurable ki because he was born with so much ki flowing from him that he can't even contain it. At his peak, Frieza's ki bleeds out of him. He simply can't contain it.

Goku wonders aloud why Frieza took so long, even after the fight turned against him, to go to 100%. Frieza's been all "Oh I'm only using 10% power this is my 50% you made me go to 75%" and Goku's like, "Okay. My dude. What's this about, for real?

This, incidentally, is not a great translation. What Goku's saying here is supposed to be basically, "Perhaps when you use your full power, your body can't handle it."

He is correct.

Frieza's Full Power has a lot in common with Super Saiyan 3. His theoretical maximum ability is wildly different from the reality of what he's capable of, because he bleeds ki like it's going out of style.

So, while other characters wound up earning transformations that make them more powerful, Frieza created a transformation to seal away some of his incomprehensible ki.

Then he created a couple more because even though he could now control his strength and even manipulate the amount of ki he's releasing at a time, he was still too powerful for anyone to ever compete with and needed even more ki sealed away.

Again, not a fantastic translation from the people who brought us "bottom-tier boy", as Frieza's statement here could be interpreted as saying that he gets taken by a berserker rage or something.

What he's saying is more like, "My power is so great that I can't properly contain it."

Point is, Frieza transformed to lock down his ki and seal parts of it away, so he could control the rest better. Then he kept going, locking away more and more and more of his ki. And even at his most nerfed, he's still five times more powerful than the Second Strongest Guy in the Universe.

Frieza has never in his life had the opportunity to be pushed. That's what makes Goku so enthralling to him.

Frieza plays with Goku because he's genuinely having the time of his life. This guy can fight him in his Final Form. Nobody can fight him in his Final Form. He's so happy, he straight-up forgets that he's trying to complete a genocide against Goku's entire race.

He said that five minutes ago. Gohan's hidden power freaked Frieza the fuck out. Saiyans are too strong now. They've gotten too strong. Frieza cannot permit them to keep existing because they're getting strong. Every last Saiyan, every last one, must die. Every single one. Scorched earth, no survivors.

But then he meets a Saiyan martial artist who's a technical master and pushes him more than he ever thought possible and suddenly:

He goes from "Saiyans are TOO STRONG and they all must die because they might threaten me" to "OH MY GOD I'M HAVING SO MUCH FUN CAN I KEEP YOU!?"

It's this desire for a true rival, this opportunity to satisfy his amateur's curiosity about martial arts, that ultimately unravels him. Frieza has one ruthless and pragmatic option for ending this fight once it starts to be too much for him. He can technically stop the fight any time he wants.

But he can't bring himself to do it. He wants to fight. He wants to compete. Frieza's been on the outside looking in at martial arts for his entire life and even when his greatest fears are fulfilled and the Super Saiyan is in front of him, he wants to try.

So when he does attempt to pull his Lethal Ragequit, he pulls back at the last second. He can't bring himself to do it. Goku initially assesses that Frieza held back out of fear of hurting himself.

But later, as Frieza begins unlocking the final chains on his ki, Goku changes his assessment. Noting that if Frieza really held back simply out of a mistake, he could have shot the planet again at any point to finish the job. He's been letting this play out because he can't bring himself to end the greatest fight of his life that way.

This fight is still happening because Frieza wants to compete. I mean, he wants to win, of course, but he wants to win as a martial artist. He's never truly gotten to be a martial artist before.

He is not the guy winning the gold medal at the Tenkaichi Budokai. He has never been that guy. He's the guy who buys up the land the Tenkaichi Budokai is held on and then bulldozes all the people off of it. But in his heart of hearts, he wants to be that guy. That guy is so cool. Frieza wants to play too.

In a sense, by hosting the Cell Games, Cell got to live Frieza's greatest fantasy.

This is who Frieza is. He's the cruel and wicked heir to Genocide Realtors Inc., who is in love with the idea of being Tenshinhan - A desire that exists at odds with - and undermines - his pragmatic business sense, so to speak.

He is the most vile character in the history of Dragon Ball. The worst kind of person. He is also an overeager child whose wealth and privilege prevents him from ever truly enjoying his hobbies, to an extent that he'd be almost pitiable but for all the genocides.

And he is Dragon Ball's greatest villain.

[deerspherestudios]

AAAA I’m always too shy to come off anon, but because I don’t have to for the moment, I just wanted to say that I love Mushroom Oasis so much!!!! Mycheal is just such a well fleshed out character - he isn’t the embodiment of a trope or presented as solely good or evil, but is both consistent and contradictory in a way that feels (ironically) very human. He is shown to act in accordance with a deeper set of core values rather than just the surface level opinions or feelings which might present themselves more obviously. He also has multiple of these core values that inform his decisions, which is shown very well in how he fights with himself and comes to conclusions in order to remedy those internal (and external) conflicts. He lies, he’s aware and unaware of certain aspects of himself, and he responds differently based on his current state but is always loyal to his underlying motivations and character traits. He’s good at certain things and bad at others, even within the same field, but has core strengths that inform these proficiencies. It’s hard to describe in words what all I’m referring to, but if I had to summarize it: Mycheal has a set of core, largely static values and capabilities shaped by his experiences that inform all of his decisions and behaviors. He also has temporary states of being, informed by his interpretations of past experiences and core values. You are able to keep these core values stable (while changing them, which is even harder to accomplish convincingly) as he responds differently to different situations, which is something I don’t think I see often in most characters. Mycheal is just so layered and his complexity is written beautifully!

Hopefully at least some of that made sense akdjdjs - ultimately, I just wanted to share the sentiment that your writing is phenomenal and that I explode every time I think of your mushroom man! He is beautiful both as a specimen for character study and as an individual to simp for, so thank you for sharing him with the world!

A shorter, but no less earnest, comment on Astronought: I ADORE how subversive it is! I never thought I’d see a VN where the love interest turned out to be multiple entities. Well. Kind of?They’re a Hivemind, so they’re only multiple entities in a sense. Gah, Atom is so cool! I can’t wait to hear more about them, even if only in asks every once in a while.

Genuinely, thank you so much for sharing your games with the community - I think I speak for all of us when I say that I really, really enjoy them. Have a wonderful rest of your day :)

Anon where are yuo anon come off anon so i can hold ur hand and thank you peersonally anon

Also, as I double check the queue I just realized today (22nd Feb) is the 2nd year anniversary for Mushroom Oasis!! So it's only fitting that it's my turn to thank the community alongside this person, for being here as I continue working on this project!

You're all wonderful people and I can't express enough how much the support means to me! ❤️🍄🎉

[kerorokai]

it's really interesting to see how people perceive kabru cause there seems to be a bit of a disparity between how he really acts and how he's portrayed in fanart and fan memes and such

with the way people talk about him you'd think he's this huge flirt or actively trying to use his good looks or whatever to get a leg up but he really.... doesn't? at least i can't think of a significant time where he does. is it cause he teases rinsha? or kisses her as a fish? i think those are dubious examples, but also even if you do read them as genuine flirting theyre pretty small and not repeated with any other character.

it reads more like he's just genuinely charming and good with people. he never tries to make a pass with anyone, people just like him cause he's.... likeable. and in universe characters do act aware of how charming he is (see: mickbell, holm, daya), but they never seem to insinuate that he's actually a tease or that he like, gets around. i guess there's a mention of "rumours" here? have most people seen this? is this what they based it off of?

it's also worth noting that in the same comic those exact rumours (whatever they may exactly be) are proven to be unfounded, kabru is just the type of guy people feel like they can open up to. they don't even talk about him like he's doing it on purpose!

if it's cause he MIGHT be half incubus, my friend brings up a good point: it feels like an intentional subversion to not have him be a sexual "siren" in that way. ryoko kui is very intentional with her world and characters, and to have kabru's succubus/incubus-identity up for debate while also having him be not particularly flirtatious seems like the type of irony she would write on purpose.

to me, really, it seems very indicative of how fandom at large views brown men. kabru's in an interesting position cause he seems to get most angles of this type of flanderization. he's seen as both overly sinister and drama-seeking while also being extremely flirtatious and a whore when.... he's kind of neither of those things?

he's not evil or particularly more violent than anyone else, he's just really utilitarian and has this false impression at first where you think he's gonna be some sort of secondary antagonist but he's way too smart for that. he doesn't manipulate people any more than any other character. and he's not really a whore at all he just.... likes reading people? and knowing people? and people like him? idk man.

it's part of this larger issue where brown men in fiction are both demonized and sexualized at the same time. i don't even think it's on purpose, i just think that most people don't even realize this is something they need to unlearn. it's not even cause i don't like shipping kabru! i do! i just don't agree with flanderizing him to do it.

i think kabru is much more than the first impressions of him you might have, or even the first impressions of him the characters in universe may have. and while i don't think someone posting ooc fanart of kabru is directly racist, i think a lot of it upholds the racism people are already accustomed to. it makes me a little sad!

[greisekinderschar]

regarding book!dandelion’s much discussed misogyny one thing i find insanely amusing is how the gamer bro fanbase perceives it.

because to me, it’s like, supposed to be one of his weaknesses. it’s one of the ways in which he is unhinged that continuously gets him in trouble. yeah, there’s a joke here and there. but like. dudu thinks he can get away in dandelion’s form? nah man, the angry woman with the frying pan knocks you out, worst decision you made that day. he’s afraid he’ll get murdered if they go to toussaint. he survives the quest to end up on a scaffold because he couldn’t stop fucking around.

yet, when you see the dude bro “book stans’” reaction to the queer netflix reveal there are very personal grievances when they say “you made the womanizer gay!!!”. we know he’s not gay. he’s bi. he fucks more than twice the amount. but the fact that “the womanizer” would as much as look at a man somehow hurts these people in their masculinity, which reveals they think this part of him to be the cool, masculine part.

and it’s really funny to me, because i have this idea of sapkowski using bard characters (he does it in the hussite trilogy as well) to have some, dare i say it, subversive masculinities. because dandelion is very un-masculine in the context of the story. not only does he challenge the temerian knights and others by directly insulting their idea of masculinity and often ridicules the hierarchic structures he himself benefits from despite having fled the connected responsibilities. he’s not a fighter, he’s a poet, he’s not ‘hot’, he is pretty. he’s a coward, he is vain, he is bitchy, he is emotionally intelligent. he laments the gruesomeness of war that is nothing like the heroic masculine stories told about it. he is kind of the mum of the hansa. in short, he is very ‘feminine’, except for his womanizing and his misogynist moments (and the drinking). the parts of him that are, as i said, the most pathetic of his character. and yet, readers who are caught up in the structures of hegemonic masculinities perceive it as a way to consolidate his place in the hierarchy. in a way, his assholery is his redeeming quality in the masculine order. or at least that is what i believe, because why else would they have such an extreme reaction. if dandelion loses his one hegemonic masculine trait of putting himself above women by also sleeping with men, then he is not a man.

[i am aware the concept of masculinities has fluctuated massively in history, which is the point of hegemonic masculinities, and that medieval courtly masculinities had their own ‘feminized’ moments, with monks complaining about the knightly fashion making them look like vain women, but this is a fantasy saga that the reader perceives from contemporary standards, and the masculinities presented are very warrior-centered]

plus, i imagine it complicates his friendship with geralt. because they are bro bros, going to the BROthel together, sharing beds, kissing each other on the cheek for goodbye. if one of these bros is interested in dick, it makes emotional intimacy among men ~weird~. it makes the dude bros go “a bro cant have anything”. but bro, bro, you could have everything. you could even have a bite of dandelion.

[doodler16]

Someone made a post saying they wish Lucifer was more villainous and fans insulted them and said that if he was a villain it would be generic and boring.

This is just a personal pet peeve of mine but I kind of despise how fans think “subversive” equals good. Beelzebub being an overly designed wolfbee is apparently good design because it “subverts expectation” but what exactly does her design add to her character? She’s just a Loona recolor with excessive detail.

In Lucifer’s case, him being a “good” person isn’t interesting because hes basically without any noteworthy flaw. Apparently he’s a bad father but is always trying to be active in charlie’s life. He literally and knowingly doomed humanity but the show sympathizes with HIM and not the sinners he irreversibly changed forever. The fact that the show stole the concept from paradise lost and changed it from teaching them Sin to teaching them Free Will feels incredibly lazy and unimpressive.

Also for as “subversive” as this show is, it also really loves to overly rely on queer and non-white stereotypes.

I too wish Lucifer was villainous or at least morally gray because with the information we currently know about Lucifer you can do a lot with that. Either way, we have to wait and see what Vivziepop will do with him in season 2 but I wouldn’t be surprised if he turned into a Stolas 2.0. As like you said Anon, the show sympathizes with him any chance they get (episode 1 and 5).

Yeah, Vivziepop has a repeated pattern in Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss trying to be subversive in her writing and animation. There is nothing wrong with being subversive as it can leave the fans not expecting that but it doesn’t always equal good like you mentioned. These subversive moments can led to very questionable moments/situations such as Bee’s design and nice personality. Or with Ozzie expressing that lust shouldn’t be forced upon but earned.

[zvezdacito]

Diasomnia sexuality (and some gender) headcanons I just wanted to yap about for no reason:

Malleus: Demiromantic Bisexual

-> There's that joke that he doesn't gaf about gender as long as it's Yuu, but (for the demiromantic part) I also like the idea that he's ride-or-die, sentimental and clingy for anyone he gets close to. So generally the only difference for how he cares about people is the type of attraction + specific boundaries (can be slightly possessive in a different way for a romantic interest? Idk)

-> Also not really sexuality but I see his gender as that "I'm probably nonbinary but I have a job so idrc about that rn" tweet but for being the next king In general I think being acespec & nonbinary would be extra perplexing for bro since he never stopped to think about personal identity stuff like that for too long (too duty-pilled🥀)

-> Being dense about regular emotional experiences + actual difference in the norms of attraction and gender add to the gap of understanding between him and others

Lilia: Bisexual (not really a sexuality but he's also polyamorous)

-> This isn't sexuality again but I also think transfeminine Lilia is cool, I genuinely believed that Lilia was just a woman with a really deep voice the first time I saw him (I was watching him vs Leona in Book 2 out of context). There's no way to easily explain this in English but by this the specific identity i see him as is basically 'bakla' in the Philippines. It is really its own gender identity in our culture and isn't a "direct equivalent" of any one anglophone label, but for the sake of non-filipinos i guess you can just understand this to mean i see Lilia as "nonbinary transfem in the Filipino way"👍

-> I think it would align with his story in a good way with how she's maligned by the senate and such, how even as a soldier Lilia was coloring her hair for style. It's also like that thing where a guy who was already considered obviously effeminate and "one of the girls" atp (I see Meleanor as kids playing with Lilia in typically "girly" ways and encouraging his cuteness/hair styling) comes out later on as actually a girl/fem nonbinary

-> General Lilia is this is that type of situation where a transfem person can't really go all out with their expression because current life-threatening circumstances require "masculinity" or their focus to be exclusively on external matters (in this case its Lilia being a lowly bat soldier in an active war. Similar to Malleus, an idea of patriotic obligation stops him from really questioning or exploring since the country needs "strength" and "unity" in these times, there was also just really little time to wonder when you're fighting for your life everyday). But after retiring Lilia is able to realize she likes being perceived as cute and begins going all out in her appearance👍

Lilia edit with the article this headcanon reminds me of:

Silver: Aroace

-> Thought it would be a kind of cool subversion of the usual fairytale prince archetype Silver is made to emulate, where romance is the greatest and purest love and marriage is THE happy end. I think it aligns with Silver wanting to spend his life "repaying" the kindness of Malleus and Lilia; if they asked him to think about gertting a family of his own in the future, I think he'd just say the true love he's found in life is already them. A knight who dedicates his lifetime devotion to familial love instead

Sebek: Gaylm

-> One of bro's most notable character gags is glazing another man at every opportunity so yeah /j. Also fsr I just can't see him as a man romantically with a woman no matter what lol

(THIS ISN'T OBJECTIVE THOUGH this is just how I personally sense his vibes. Go crazy fellow fem yumes and OC artists. You are the pillars of this earth)

⚠️ My only disclaimer is that I am cisgender so the gender headcanons are only me relating the characters to scholarly articles on transfem experiences/from personal accounts of transfem and nonbinary people online and irl.

Another reminder that these are all headcanons made by viewing canon in a specific way, not me saying they're definitively any of these identities. You can still have cis or male malleus and lilia if you prefer that😭

That is all. Thank you for reading👊🔥

[garden-of-rambles]

I feel like I could go on for a while about the way some of the wider fandom chooses to characterize Odysseus in relation to Penelope (and how that extends to the way other m/f ships also get treated in a similar manner in other fandoms) but I don't want to start a fight.

Like, the whole 'malewife' idea is funny for a bit, and I get what people mean when they say it, but its usage and application to characters *always* ends up somehow looping around to weird gender reinforcing stuff that it's supposed to be subverting. Like, the male character *has* to be more submissive sexually (no variety in sex life allowed!), he is the one who gets pregnant, he is an uwu soft boy, etc. Frankly, a lot of the time it ends up coming off as though the fandom is just pushing more typically feminized traits on a male character, to the point where it feels like they do actually think of him as the 'woman' in the relationship, again, weirdly reinforcing those specific kinds of roles.

And, to be clear, I'm not talking about works that actually explore these concepts of gender (or sexuality) with the characters. Its totally fine to write about these characters being trans or a different sexuality than they are in canon - there's nothing wrong with that at all. And I'm not gonna begrudge anyone exploring these things for themselves through fanworks.

At the same time, I do think there's something really weird -- and not as subversive or progressive as a lot seem to think -- about the way that loud sections of fans treat m/f ships in this way. I feel especially strongly about it with a ship like Odysseus and Penelope, which already has a lot of really interesting stuff going for it in terms of gender dynamics for the time period its set in. Like, them treating and viewing each other the way they do is what makes their relationship so interesting and unique, precisely because they represent these images of being king/queen and husband/wife. Penelope's reliance on traditionally feminine things -- such as weaving -- are *part* of what helps her survive, and what makes her a strong and smart character. Giving her a spear or more 'masculine' coded traits doesn't make her more interesting or badass: it ignores the things that already make her that way.

Same with Odysseus: he doesn't have to be just soft or strong, the dominant one or not: he can be both representative of very masculine traits AND still be soft and emotional. But instead certain sections of the fanbase just say he's a babygirl and that Penelope is always domming him, and like...it just flattens both of their characters in the process, and feels as if it just weirdly reinforces the very same gender roles they're trying to subvert.

(whoops, went on for a while anyway)

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Six of Crows' Chapter One Breaks All The Rules (and it should)

Tags - @thestarscanalwayslookatus @ladyartichokie @torrell-reads @glassesgirlies

Before I begin I want to preface this with a reminder that there are no actual rules that a writer or author is required to follow in the construction of an opening chapter, and what I refer to as ‘rules’ in the title and in this essay is more so just the most typical broad strokes that a) writers are expected to cover in their opening chapter and b) readers have down to naturally expect in the opening chapters.

Anyway with that out of the way let’s chat, because the subversion of expectations in six of crows chapter 1 is done fantastically and I want to talk about it.

One of the classic things I’ve heard about advice for writing your opening chapter in my own writing journey has been that the first 5 characters introduced in your story should all be very important to the plot, and this is mostly about not overloading the reader with a bunch of names that they don’t actually need to remember or care about and starting with an enticing pace to the story. If we disregard the offhand mentions of Joost’s unnamed mother, his friend Peter, and his unnamed siblings, the first 5 characters we are introduced to in Six of Crows are as follows:

Joost Van Poel, Anya, Councilman Hoede, Henk, and Rutger.

All of these characters will be reported dead or close to it before the end of chapter three: Anya’s body is found washed up in the harbour, Hoede has been removed to the country with his family in the state of permanent waiting that will lead him to death, Henk and Rutger are either in the boathouse dying or have already died and been removed, and Joost dies in the boathouse in chapter 3. This subversion of expectations sets up for the tone of the rest of the duology incredibly well, because this is an ongoing theme throughout with hints that look like foreshadowing being subverted for something else that was hidden deeper in the foreshadowing being the real plot (I wrote one of my first long analysis posts on this, it’s called She’s Treating Us Like Marks: Leigh Bardugo’s Use of Red Herrings in Six of Crows and I think it’s linked in my intro post but if it isn’t then I can tag anyone who’s interested). The impact this has on the reader to subvert their expectations is particularly interesting, because as we read this chapter with no knowledge of what’s to come we immediately start to form opinions and biases about the characters that we subconsciously assume are going to impact our enjoyment of them and their story - I’ve seen a lot of people online making jokes about how ready they were to ship Joost and Anya, only to have them taken away from them so quickly. This also opens up some really interesting thoughts about Joost and Anya that I’ll get to in a minute, but this is exactly what that chapter is trying to do - and we know that because, despite how little we know about them, these are well-written characters. If chapter one had been condensed into a short prologue that featured an officer watching a Grisha being forced to take parem and immediately taking some kind of possession over the minds of the people in the room and all of them presumably dying then, yes, it would be intriguing. But we as the reader wouldn’t have felt nearly the kind of loss, nor been intrigued by the wrong-footedness of the experience, in that the way we are, because ultimately what’s so ingeniously brilliant about this chapter is that Bardugo makes us care. I can’t know the word count, but on the audiobook chapter one is 26 minutes long. In 26 minutes, Bardugo introduces us to brand new characters, fleshes them out, gives them drives, goals, personalities, layers and dimensions, and then kills them. And you care.

You care because you know that Joost is new to the stadwatch and desperate to prove himself but isn’t enjoying his job as much as he thought he would, because you know that he used to be picked on by his brothers and now he’s being picked on by Henk and Rutger in a similar way, because you know that he feels diminished by even his own mother, because you know that he’s got a growing crush on Anya and is young and idealistic, already imagining marriage with a girl he hadn’t yet asked on a date or ever made laugh, because you know that his friend is named Peter and they talk about crushes together, because you know that he doesn’t come from the upper class of this society you’re just being introduced to for the first time but that he hopes to win the favour of its higher-ups to further himself in life, you know that his love language is gift giving and he constantly spends the little money he earns on presents for Anya, you know that his drive is justice but that he fails to see the flaws in the system because it isn’t one that’s hurt him and you therefore begin to understand the flaws of his character and see how his relationship with Anya, who has been hurt by the system, could stand to help him learn and grow. You care because he feels real. In a single chapter, we learn more about Joost than we even realise until we actually think about it for long enough.

And you can apply all these same thoughts to Anya, a character who’s POV were never given and whose appearance in the book is briefer:

Anya was a naive, younger girl tricked by the system into selling herself into slavery without knowing what she was doing, a woman who had been forced by circumstance to remove herself from her past and yet also a whimsical, happy person whose favourite gift from Joost was a cheap tourist map of Kerch where there were monsters drawn in the water and the winds were “depicted as fat-cheeked men”, she smiles easily but laughs rarely, she has been hurt by Hoede, she has a strong sense of justice, protecting people who cannot protect themselves is of high importance to her (see the kitchen boy whose thumb is ordered to be cut off by Hoede) but being a Healer instead of a Heartrender made it hard for her to stand up to anyone until she had parem.

And although you could do it in less detail, we arguably know a lot about Hoede and a little about Henk and Rutger too. If you look at it just in this condensed scale, as a group of characters to get to know just about as well as you can do so organically within the timeframe and then have them snatched away from, chapter one is a warning: I made you care and then took them away, you know I won’t hesitate to do that again. And we care way more about the crows, so that makes our fear of losing them the way we lost the early characters way higher and adds, even if its subconscious, to the tension carried throughout the high stakes of the duology.

The other important character we meet in chapter one is Emil Retvenko, whose name is not mentioned after his meeting with Joost until the opening chapter of Crooked Kingdom. Joost’s conversation with Retvenko is a massive part of how we get to see his flaws; despite having openly stated that many Grisha unknowingly sold themselves into slavery at the end of the Ravkan civil war and that there are rumours Retvenko fought for the losing side of the Civil War, Joost is judgemental of him and tells him that the price of the broken window will be added to his indenture.

I could talk a lot more about Retvenko but then we’d be venturing into Crooked Kingdom chapter one territory more than Six of Crows so instead I’m gonna turn back to Joost and the other key moment that we get to see his character flaws on display and that is when he’s watching Anya being forced to take parem and the guard being ordered by Hoede to cut the boy’s thumb off. I’m just gonna transcribe the moment from my audiobook for you here:

I should stop this, Joost thought, I should find a way to protect her - both of them. But what then? He was a nobody. New to the stadwatch, new to this house. Besides, he discovered in a burst of shame, I want to keep my job.

This tells us not only so much about Joost, but so much about the world he lives in - and I’m going to use this to segue into my next point: the opening chapter of six of crows also subverts our expectations in how it deals with the setting.

Another key aspect of the opening chapter is introducing readers to the world, whether it’s a second world fantasy or contemporary fiction we have to undertake where the book takes place and why that’s important. Whilst it’s true that many stories can be told anywhere, and we see it in folk and fairy tales that have many renditions throughout different cultures, there are always key differences influenced by the setting that they take place in. Our main settings in Six of Crows are the Barrel and the Ice Court, with our “home” setting being the Barrel as where our characters live and where they aim to return to after the journey’s end in a typical story structure (home, call to action, hero’s journey, climax, aftermath, return home and deal with what’s changed).

The Barrel is mentioned once in this chapter, when Joost says that he imagined being in the stadwatch would mean chasing down criminals in the Barrel rather than wandering around a rich merchant’s house grounds, but what we are actually initially introduced to is one of the mansions from the Geldin District. Joost is most likely middle class, based on context clues, and we learn about the upper class section of Ketterdam through the eyes of a boy who wishes to be part of it (he likes to look through the windows and pretend that it’s his house, but actually he’s only even been inside a couple of times). We learn about the classism of this society very quickly by seeing it from the inside out, and then being thrown directly into the parley and the very different world of our main characters in Inej’s POV in chapter 2. This is really cleverly done, because despite the sudden changes between both setting and cast of characters, we go into the parley with an absolute wealth of information about Ketterdam that we wouldn’t have otherwise possessed.

I’m gonna stop here bc I’m tired and it’s getting late but I would like to talk about the worldbuilding another time, it’s just that if I get into that here and now then I want to get into it within specific different contexts because I read shadow and bone after I read six of crows and although I loved the way the worldbuilding was set up in Soc there’s an interesting discussion to be had there because I’ve heard others say that they didn’t feel they would have understood the worldbuilding without the prior knowledge from s&b and I just think that if I start talking about that now that I’ll never stop so that can be for another time if anyone would like to read it.

Thanks so much for reading these ramblings, I hope they were interesting!! <3

[hanaybuns]

karamatsu is officially... k-k-k-k-kind?!

guys i still think its pretty significant that karamatsu is now officially described as "kind" in his character description.

like, it's been this kind of odd point of contention whether karamatsu is actually considered "kind" in canon. especially since the director said in 2016 that he's kind because he likes the idea of himself being kind, rather than actually being a kind hearted person.

i feel like this characterization is interesting because 1) it was written almost a decade ago so there have likely been many many changes since then and 2) you almost can't really prove this wrong one way or another? like lets say it's true and every time he has been kind, its because he likes the idea of being a kind guy, well that would kind of dampen his stronger character moments, like when he punched osomatsu or confessed to losing the letter in the movie.

but you also have evidence to support it, seeing as there'll be some moments where he looks like he's going to do the right thing, but ends up not doing it because it's not convenient for him. so i do think even now it kind of rings true, but i can't bring myself to fully believe that that's his motive every time he does something kind.

that being said, the head writer has gone on record calling him "kind" and "a good guy" a couple times in interviews and talks (according to jp twitter lol, but please please please take with a grain of salt), so I think there might be a slight difference in the way they interpret his character. but now that the director is gone and the head writer is still there, its interesting that we finally get the k word in his character description.

now, google translate is crappy and subject to mistakes, but i think that the "doesn't listen to what others say" part might be alluding to the idea of him being kind for himself rather than for others. i mean, we have entire skits revolving around the fact that he won't listen to what other people say in favor of doing his own thing

but i still think it's crazy that we actually got the word kind in his description. this is up there with jyushimatsu's description saying that he can be calm at times

like these are character traits that are objectively true, of course jyushi can be calm at times and kara is kinder compared to his brothers. but these were more so characteristics that shined through during moments within the show, not canonized descriptions.

jyushi is defined by his high energy, so the occasional calmness is a subversion of expectations. when you add it into his character description, the calm moments that he has will no longer subvert expectations, but instead reinforce the information we've been given about the character. it lends to the depth of his character and makes him feel more well rounded rather than a gag character that can sometimes be serious.

similarly, karamatsu being a narcissist is his main thing. so those moments of kindness that he had felt like a nice little flourish that made him more likable. now, those moments of kindness are a solidified part of his character, so we expect kindness from him rather than being pleasantly surprised when we get it.

i mean, just look at karamatsu's character description from the takoyaki party movie

"Second son of the Matsuno family. NEET, virgin. A rare narcissist. He doesn't listen to others. "Hmph, I love you."(ai shiteru ze)"

like do you see what i mean now? the older descriptions are more barebones and gag-oriented. they're describing what you need to know to get the punchline. these new character descriptions give you a better look at the whole picture.

anyways, this does make me very excited to watch the new season and see where they take these characters. also, everyone had very interesting thoughts about the new season in my last post, and i really enjoyed reading them!

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

I think I've pinpointed what my main problem with how widespread and pervasive and accepted at face value the whole "Aylin broke her oath" nonsense is (beyond the itchy nerd rage annoyance of No But That's Factually Incorrect About My Fave), why it grates on me so damn much: I hate that people apparently cannot conceive of a storyline for a paladin/knight-type character other than a fall from grace.

As if there is no interesting struggle to any kind of genuine goodness or nobility or honour or virtue other than a loss of it, be it sudden or gradual; just piling on a whole lot of cynicism and a need for everyone to be dragged down and through the same dirt and endlessly punished and never, ever, ever emerging changed and challenged but victorious, but instead being tarnished and diminished and having something fundamental taken away from them. Coupled with this whole miasma around it of how even daring to strive or try for something else, to be better, to hold yourself to principles and standards is futile, and a bit of a nasty hint of how even if you've succeeded in some way, it will be taken from you, or it will be soured for you and ruined. The cause you believed in and dedicated your life to was not actually worth it or worthy, the person you believed in and were loyal to and respected betrays you or uses you or lets you down, and never actually cared about you in the first place, as if the story cannot be allowed to go any other way. Or, also, often the implication that this is all somehow good and liberating? These aren't interesting shades of gray or clever subversions. This is disillusionment and misery and bleak shit - but anything else is a childish fairy tale and boring, apparently. Am I making sense?