#yeah you can interpret characters and media however you want but some interpretations are wrong I'm sorry to say

[acebender]

saw Caitvi art that depicted Vi wearing a dress and I cringed as if I had sucked a lemon

[jazeswhbhaven]

An Unslighty Guy | React | SPOILERS

WELCOME BACK TO GEHENNA LOVELIES. Let's jump right in by me saying that I love the fact that Paimon is a social media content creator. It makes complete sense for him to be. This also reminds me that it's canon that Orias is also a content creator trying out facial products/makeup etc. I wonder if he links up with Paimon and Eligos at all.

Anywayssss he's filming for the meeting that happens every 5 years, and everyone is like yeah it's noisy around this time because of Sitri and Amy....lmao

and pointing out that Eligos follows Paimon's channel is very cute. However from Mammon's event it's possible that Eligos is older than Paimon (so he'd be the senior to Paimon's junior)

so ya'll remember when Ppyong was annoyed as fuck during Chapter 6 with all of those girls at the cafe wanting a picture with him and wanting autographs, etc. It seems the same thing carries over to Hell and he can't stand popularity but he's popular anyway. He's even rude to the fans and they don't even care they just eat it up and say they'll drink toilet water for him at this rate. I'm just like HELLO? lmao

Leraye is concerned, but Paimon teases him by telling him "when you're older you'll understand why they like him so much" and that confirms Leraye is possibly the youngest out of the Gehenna nobles. I really do wish they'd come out with an age chart or something to make this shit eaiser I STG.

Then here comes these two cuties, and Astaroth tries his hand an interpreting what Zagan is saying, but he got it wrong like completely wrong lmao

It's cute because he even gets bummed about it and has to pet Apophis for comfort and I'm just like AWH HE WANTS TO TRANSLATE FOR THE BAB.

I wonder if it's just something he wants to be able to do just because or if he truly wants to help Zagan and they are close like how Paimon and Leraye are usually hanging out together all the time.

But the meeting is about to begin and Ppyong asks if Amy is showing up and well....

Sitri is great at fucking acting because the way I thought he was being foreal for a second like how everyone thought Belial was dead at the beginning of Chapter 1 lmao

Amy came in like "the fuck I am, what's good?"

I feel like personally Amy would use any and every insult known to man to throw at Sitri because he just has that much of disdain toward him and I really am itching to know why that is. I swear it's probably over something super fucking petty or small.

So we're all like omfg Sitri just sat up here and wished death on this man. Yes. Yes he did.

But they give us some insight on Amy's importance to Gehenna's army. He handles a lot of the localized battles to make sure that there's no help needed from the capital. I'm not very familiar with battle jargon so as I see simply...he's the guy that handles the little stuff so the larger scale battles can be focused on more by the other nobles and their subordinates. This sounds way more organized and detailed than our little battles don't it? Since we only have like six characters to work with lmao

But he wears Satan's jumpsuit design and so do the others in his company, so everyone knows him that way. And it turns out he's quite well liked. Sitri too.

Is it just me or is Amy taller than Sitri? I need age and height charts n a o.

But as per usual the wording always throws me off, because "hot rough older brother" should only be used if it's the friend that's calling your brother that or something because if his peers see him as a brother but also hot??? idk whatever I'm thinking too deeply.

Point being. they both hot. they both do the thing.

So Sitri is quite pissed and pretty much ignores Amy's presence and asks Astaroth why it didn't work cursing Amy to die and it's explained that you have to say it more than once for the curse to work. (cool that Astaroth knows stuff like this). So Amy starts his little mantra of wanting the poor guy dead

Since I know what he sounds like, it's funny to try to read this in his voice in my head.

Sitri ain't never missed with his clapback. I swear he was just born with the ability to roast anyone at any given moment.

(it's funny because when my cat was in heat before I got her fixed she was LOUD asf like that shit would keep me up at night)

And even more so Amy tries to tell him he was gonna sit down anyway without taking orders from him and Sitri clocked him again by saying that those who cum early talk too much and those who don't talk very seldom. Out here calling him a one pump chump.

now how do you know which one he is Sitri hm???? care to share with the class??

Anyways, Satan shows up and sees the table all fucked up and he's just happy.

He really said he here for the chaos.

He is definitely here to start some shit and it makes me laugh because that's his entire focus. He doesn't even hide that he's trying to do it. He even told Amy to break the chair from stomping around and Sitri took it as Satan getting onto him. What's funny to me is that I think Satan literally just wanted him to break furniture so Sitri has something to say about it. I'm crying.

Amy was ready to go ya'll he told Sitri to meet him outside, square up, grab his guns, saddle up, the whole nine yards. Sitri is just like well no the meeting comes first and Satan and was like "ugh fine" and decided to pay attention to important stuff lol.

Amy apparently lost this round to Sitri because Satan forgot all about the fight and focused on the meeting instead.

Also from that screencap above I'm definitely not trippin' Amy is taller than Sitri and Satan like WHAT is his height hello?

SO it's five years later and the meeting happens again, and Amy kept that energy because once Sitri came through that door?

it was on sight. lmaoooooo

Also wtf Amy why is your bosoms so big and taking up the screen. Maybe that's why you're mad because Sitri's got the badonk booty and you don't because it's all in your chesssttt.

anyways

There's more banter between these two and the other nobles are just standing by watching as per usual until Ppyong genuinely wants to know why they hate each other so much if they were in the same class when enlisted.

It also sounds like Sitri knew Satan before that and decided to become his right hand devil at the same time. Hm.

So in other words "if they keep at each others throats like that they actually like each other they just don't know how to show it"

Satan even does the "hehe now kisssssss" move

Now this little CG is adorable. Astaroth pulled out his 3D glasses, Paimon has his camera ready...I love them so much this is hilarious.

Awh grumpy Paimon is grumpy. He wanted the picture because it was gonna get a million views lmao

And Leraye is right on the money, because how did Amy and Sitri know to turn their heads at that exact moment?

clocked 'em

Satan is thirsty now because he's blissfully unware that he almost made them kiss. Sitri wants to brew tea, but Amy is like "nah we ain't got time for that I'll go on a drink run <3"

Then...

they literally became my favorite gif

So while they have their stare down, Leraye saves the day by saying it's too hot to have Sitri slave over a hot stove making tea so having Amy go on a drink run is much faster.

So he orders iced tea (iirc), Paimon wants orange juice, Astaroth???

sir wth does this even mean? like? 😭😭

Anyways while Sitri was kinda ticked off that Amy went to go fetch the drinks instead of him, he didn't really fight it that it would be faster. Amy also appreciated that everyone had his back on this decision.

Which btw he got those drinks quick asf, like where did he even find all of this?

purified water from the golden river of tartaros??? Where do they sell that? cold ade sounds like gatorade/kool-aid or something and juice yeah you can get that anywhere and cold coffee for belial and Astaroth

oh no what about my bby Zagan :(((( no drink for him?

but he even got Sitri a drink....except...

He done got this man a bottle of fucking sesame oil dressing...two fucking liters of it.

"Don't be frugal" he says.

What kinda petty ass childish shit LMAO I'd literally pour it on his head for bringing that to me. Satan laughed though so I guess that's his kind of humor, and everyone else tried to not laugh either. Sitri ofc was not amused lol but I guess Amy won this round.

So it sounds like tomorrow we will FINALLY know why they hold these meetings and why it's spread out by five years each time.

So far I'm really liking the banter between the two. It's really something. it also makes me want to really write them together b a d l y. Like there's so many things I could give the reason for why they hate each other so much.

But that's day one and two ya'll. Thankfully nothing has me off track so I can follow each day at a time ^^

See ya'll at the next react lovelies <3

[justanotherfanartist]

taps mic. ahem.

help a student write a dumb rvb research paper? pretty please?? for funsies???

This is exactly what it sounds like.

My current final of the year for my language composition class is a massive synthesis + argumentative research paper on any topic of our choosing, and Roosterteeth + RVB has too much messy junk going on that I’m knee-deep invested in mentally at this point to pass up the opportunity to write about it.

And yknow, I see a ton of media analysis posts coming out of the fandom all the time and I’ve always loved seeing it and reading into it and sharing ideas and whatnot and this feels like my way of doing that too.

Essentially what I’m reaching out for is for you guys to help me crowdsource resources and share your ideas with me to include in my term paper*.

things that would be wizard cool of you to send me are:

any interviews or behind the scenes with the cast and creators you happen to know of

your own analysis or hot takes of the characters or the show as a whole

what the show has meant to you

any clips of old Roosterteeth expos

for the older fans, a rough idea of what the release timeline looked like for the episodes and what the buildup and fan reaction was for each one

any commentary or hot takes on how the fandom has changed since you joined/that you know of

what Roosterteeth did wrong (writing wise and irl)

what Roosterteeth did right (writing wise and irl)

tropes within the show you noticed whether originated by the show or not

tropes within the fandom, things like similar portrayals or bad/good takes on characters or face canons that span artists

literally anything you can give me, media, commentary, or opinion wise

(not to say I can’t find things on my own, I already have, but this is also about varying opinions and the general outlook of the fandom as a whole and measuring the broader impact of a show like RvB and it would be incredibly cool of you to help me out even with just crumbs of character opinions)

The idea is to get evidence together from clips, personal anecdotes, and opinions so I can present an accurate read on the fandom, especially when it comes to fan interpretation of RVB vs Roosterteeth’s intentions for the show (and behavior as a company) and explore what the show was supposed to be, what it literally is, how people see it, what its impact has been, and a general overview of the it’s legacy and lifespan, that sort of thing.

My thesis is most likely going to end up something in the ballpark of “How Roosterteeth exemplifies the Franchisation of Indie Media” or “Why RvB is one of the most complicated/misunderstood/divisive shows in modern media” or “How Fandoms interpret and recontextualize media”

I’m going to guess that I likely won’t be able to post the finished paper up online without a solid buffer window to avoid the two mortifying scenarios that are (a) being accused of creative plagiarism and (b) having to tell my instructor that the tumblr account with a 100% match to my course final is, in fact, my tumblr account, are two things I desperately want to avoid.

However if I can, simply for the sake of contributing to the fandom and creating something for us to all contribute to and discuss and crediting various peoples’ help and input would be ideal and, if at all possible, that would be the end goal.

so yeah. if you’re up for it I’d love for you to dm me your thoughts or (more conveniently for the both of us) fill out this Google form down here!

*im not gonna, like, repost your detailed character analysis as my own or something. I’m just trying to find some good quotes, general opinions, and ideas from the fandom so that I can accurately represent them and do our little corner of the internet Justice. And also because the audience of a work is a massive factor in media analysis lmfao. and also to create a community sourced Fun Thing™️ we can all look at and bite the corners off of instead of watching Roosterteeth crash and burn in the backgroun

[alpacahat67]

A Very Detailed Analysis Explaining Why Asrian is Mid

Yes, I've made a shitpost summing up my thoughts on the topic before. However, I regularly get into bi-weekly complaint sessions about this terrible, horrible ship.

I am willing to be burnt at the stake if it means I will be a martyr against Dorian... (I'm joking. This is Tumblr. It's not that serious.)

Under the cut is a lot of words! Be prepared

By the way all of this is Dorian's fault GIVE ME MODERN ARCANA I WILL REWRITE IT

I want to preface this by saying my opinions on the ship come off as very mixed? At least in my head. My problem is obviously more with the fandom than how it's portrayed in the actual game, as you will see. Unfortunately, it's just what happens in fandom. Asra x Julian fits the perfect mold for a potentially popular ship. Two masc-presenting people with a tragic story, yeah cool.

I don't care about people making art or writing about them. I actually think Asra and Julian have an interesting dynamic and I enjoy a lot of their in-game interactions. Here's the thing, and my thesis statement for this post, most of the fanworks surrounding these two that I see in the wild are using the dynamic for the wrong reasons! Furthermore, for Asrian to work out and genuinely last a while, you have to mischaracterize one or both of the characters.

I think that this stems from a misunderstanding of the characters and the circumstances under which their situationship (they didn't have a relationship, I'll get into that soon) sparked. Dorian's pushing of content including the two in a romantic or suggestive context does not help matters.

I think a good example of this was under the original shitpost I made about the topic. I won't put this user on blast because I don't recall their URL, and if you find it do not be mean to them. I had called Asrian one-sided. I do sort of agree now, Asra x Julian is not one-sided. However, one party sure as hell does not reciprocate the feelings as much as the other party does! Here's the thing, Asra and Julian's relationship was born from grief for the death of the apprentice on both sides. However you want to interpret Julian's relationship with the apprentice, it's clear that he had some interest in Asra following their death. But we can see very, very clearly in literally every scene involving Asra speaking to or about Julian, Asra didn't feel the same. Asra loved the apprentice through and through. Asra gave the apprentice half his heart for fuck's sake!

I don't want to say Asra was using Julian, or vice versa. But the other was a distraction from everything going on in their lives, from the apprentice's death to the plague. Hence, situationship. Although I do think there was romantic intention on Julian's end, chances are it fizzled out during the three-year interlude.

It's a very tragic dynamic and I do enjoy it! They drive me INSANE! It's just... a lot of people willfully ignore that. A lot of people ignore that they both have problems they haven't addressed that more than just some kisses will solve, both internally and with one another. And when you ignore that...

...You mischaracterize them. Haha, like my segue? Unfortunately, the best ending for those two is in Muriel's route. Which, as far as we know, the two didn't... ever seriously sit down and have a talk. Which is what they need to do. In order for those two to work out, they need to have a serious, long talk about where they went wrong in the past and what they can do to do better.

Do you wanna know something about those two characters? NEITHER OF THEM WOULD BE WILLING TO HAVE THAT DISCUSSION! Furthermore, their personalities in a lot of media I see (cough cough mostly from Dorian) are completely wrong! I love a morally gray character very much, people tend to erase that from Asra and only make him mischievous if not straight-up an asshole, or very cute and loving, as if the point of morally grey isn't a very confusing middle. I mostly see Julian being characterized as pathetic. Yes, he is my pathetic little wet cat sometimes, but he is smart. He's a doctor. Not only that, he was a battlefield medic at what we can only assume is a pretty young age. Julian has issues but he can handle himself.

I have a lot more I can say on the topic. In short, a doomed relationship where they just have to come to terms with the fact that it wasn't the right time or the right person is much more interesting to read than a perfect one where you get your happy ending. I understand the appeal, but if you want to write them being cute and happy together, I implore you to just... make an au. That is not fixing itself. They both need to be medicated.

[patcaps]

you can read my other thoughts on the finale here so i’m not gonna just say all the same things again but

the ending was always gonna be divisive with people loving it or hating it, liking it but wishing some things were a bit different. it’s the ending of a beloved show and nobody is ever gonna agree on what the right ending would be. it sucks to have folks outright rejecting it but it also sucks to see people like “you are wrong for having any criticisms whatsoever” like, i’m all for being able to discuss aspects of media and what we liked and didn’t like. it’s not always a bad faith interpretation, or cynicism, or being poor at understanding the writing and intention. and i love meta and analysis that doesn’t completely pick apart something and refuse it any grace or leniency. i think sometimes we’re way too hard on stuff that is ultimately heartfelt and from a place of love and joy, and unraveling them dampens the magic.

anyway. that aside. i love this show so much. there are things i’d have done differently, pacing choices that made it fall flat in places, but it’s not my show and these guys know their characters and love them as much as we do. and the ghosts and mike and alison never stopped being family - which is, ultimately, the biggest thing that matters. not the house, not where they are, but how they’ve helped each other for the better. alison and mike spent their entire lives making sure the ghosts were never forgotten, always went back to catch up. they got to enjoy all the fun and love of visiting family without the stress of living under each other’s feet 24/7 - and relationships with family often improve tenfold with that breathing space.

the show ended where it started with the plans to turn it into a hotel, but this time instead of the ghosts panicking and being like “drive her out, kill her” they loved alison enough to take all of that change on, safe in the knowledge that alison would never ever just abandon them. that’s such a neat way of showing how they’ve all helped each other. like, robin’s seen that house and the houses and land before it change so much but he felt so good about this change, literally said he felt christmassy finally, because they could do this. for her. for their friend, their family member, their alison.

they existed before alison and they’ll exist after her, but in the meantime they get to enjoy being her family and also know they’ve given them a more stable, secure, less stressful living arrangement that works for them all. they aren’t fully dependent on alison anymore and alison was no longer fearful of leaving and losing them because she knew they’d still be her family no matter what. i’ve seen some people interpret this as “they’re saying having a baby meant her found family weren’t important anymore, they have to go be a traditional family alone” and that was my kneejerk response too, but then i sat with it. and actually, alison goes from being a (presumed) orphan with no family besides mike and his side, to having all of that plus the ghosts, people who love her and always welcome her back to visit whenever she wants. how lovely for her to have her very own family she can go and see, who did such a kind thing for her, however bittersweet a decision it was initially.

and yeah, it’s true that the ghosts have less of alison there to take care of things like personalised entertainment, but that’s the whole point of them leaving - alison wasn’t in a position where she could worry about entertaining them all the time whilst also being with her husband and raising a newborn. it wasn’t fair to keep asking her to run around after a houseful of ghosts when looking after yourself and a small child is hard enough. she could have stayed and ended up resenting them, getting frustrated and angry the way they did with mike’s mum, potentially souring that relationship with the ghosts. instead she moved out and gets to go back and see them and love and enjoy them fully without that responsibility 24/7. i’m sure she took them new things, gifts, let them watch tv and read books, i bet they had requests for whenever she visited which she was more than happy to supply. and i bet they always had new anecdotes and things to catch her up on.

the more time i have, the more i warm to it all. it’s easy to say “they should have stayed together at the house” but this show is about being human, about life and death, how existence is both cruel and kind and beautiful and unexpected and it changes you and you change it. they did stay together, just not under the same roof. home is more than just button house, more than just a dream because dreams change as we go, and belonging is about more than just a destination. alison found home and belonging in the ghosts, and they found it in her too. the rest is just bricks and mortar.

[project-sekai-facts]

Asking this because I genuinely need an explanation, not as a counterargument.

I'm 100% aware of the queer erasure going on in JP → EN translations. The shameless hiding of LGBTQ+ subtext is ridiculous. However, some examples have been bothering me lately ("bothering" as in, I've been thinking about them a lot), these examples being the lack of usage of the word "love", especially in one of Minori's.

In one of Minori's dialogues, she states that she loves Haruka (originally using "daisuki", if I recall correctly). The expression "love" in this case gets translated to "have feelings for", which is considered to be erasure. That's what bugs me: why would it be queer erasure?

In my first language, Spanish, we have the expression "te quiero" (literally "I want you", though it has no possessive connotations and it's a more toned version of loving), and the stronger "te amo" ("I love you"). The latter is generally used romantically, though it can be used in other contexts (I tell my deepest and closest friends both "te quiero" and "te amo", for example). From my understanding, English doesn't have an equivalent to "te quiero", so "I love you" can apply in any context.

However, and again, to my understanding, "having feelings for someone" is only ever used romantically. Maybe it's weaker than loving someone in a sense, but still, you wouldn't say you have feelings for someone who you wish to have/maintain a platonic relationship with (correct me if I'm wrong).

So, to my understanding:

"daisuki" → [strong] loving someone, with vague connotations (generally interpreted as romantic)

"I love you" → [strong] certainly used romantically, yet it can be platonic or familial too

"I have feelings for you" → [weaker] used romantically.

Does that make sense or am I being ignorant?

Ah sorry if I confused you with that example from the MMJ main story. I don't think it's erasure because the EN translation keeps the pretty much the same meaning, I pointed it out because of EN's refusal to translate the words suki/daisuki as love in certain instances.

EN seems to be willing to translate suki/daisuki directly when it's being used to talk about things or aspects of a person, like in these instances:

However, when it's used directly about a person, the translators always find some way around it, like in these instances:

(An/Kohane are an exception and iirc siblings are too?)

(Also in the Asahi example he uses a conjugated form of horeru but it means pretty much the same thing)

Whilst most of these convey the original meaning to some degree and don't really count for erasure, it's still odd that EN will not let the characters say they love each other. It's not even like it has to be interpreted romantically. Like it's firmly established that Leo/need are childhood best friends from the start, I don't think a lot of readers are going to jump straight to romance if the girls said they love each other. It's like they're removing it as a "just in case" so that no one can view it as romantic at all.

Yeah, you're right that "having feelings for someone" is by far more commonly used in a romantic sense. Whilst some people irl probably use it platonically (most likely aspec ppl), in media you're really only going to hear it used romanitcally. It's not weaker than "I love you" imo, but it depends on who you ask because to other people it might be weaker/stronger.

[alpaca-clouds]

About Redemption stories - and Enver Gortash

I decided to be a bit self-indulgent today and write about this a bit more.

As some people might know: I am currently kinda hyperfocusing on writing a redemption story for our dear wanna-be tyrant from Baldur's Gate 3.

This originally started out mainly as me being kinda pissed about the fact that a) the game does not really have a happy end for Karlach, and b) that you could not convince Gortash to give up even though from his perspective it should be the logical thing to do, given that he should realize at the point that he has no chance winning that fight. And also: I played a fucking bard with +18 on persuasion at that point, and I got kinda annoyed with the game for not allowing me to persuade Gortash after destroying the guard. Especially given how ridiculously easy his bossfight is.

So, originally all of that happened completely out of those reasons - I wrote an alternate ending in which he lived but was put under house arrest, because duh. And originally I kinda left it at that, because... yeah. Let's face it. There are villains in stories, that kinda ask to be redeemed. My other big fandom is Castlevania - mainly the Netflix series - and pretty much all the villains there are cut out for redemption, and many of them do actually have some redemption in the show happen.

And I mainly write for some of those. Mainly Hector, Isaac, Striga and Morana, all of whom are at least partly antagonists in the show.

Because I freaking love good redemption stories. And also one of my hobbies is to rant about the redemption stories we get in media, mainly because a lot of it puts more focus on character making those big gestures (like almost or completely sacrificing themselves and such) rather than going more into how the character realizes the evil they had done and such.

So, at some point I looked at Gortash, this pathetic asshole of a man, and I thought to myself: "Huh, what would it take for this asshole to admit he had been in the wrong?" Because from all I had written at that point (which was Hurt begets Hurt and Cheesy Noodles) he very much was of the opinion that sure, maybe things he had done had not been nice - but they had been his right, because people were shitty to him, so why should he not be shitty to other people. Again, his giving up was mainly just him not wanting to die and realizing that in the situation he had no chance to get out of that situation alive. (And also Tav promising him, that he could just get away - which mind you, Tav actually meant, but Tav had kinda forgotten at the moment, that Ravengard was hanging out at the camp, and Ravengard would be obviously like: "How about no?" And in fact putting Gortash under house arrest, rather than having him executed was a compromise that was won only after Wyll unhappily sided with Tav.)

And so... the "depressed Gortash" storyline - as some people have called it - was born. Basically going into two core ideas:

Gortash was only a Chosen because of the second sundering, and while Bane was kinda fine with it as long as Gorts was winning, he instantly pulled his support for Gorts, once the guy lost. (We know in the game when Gorts dies, Bane punishes him for losing, too.)

Without a purpose or anything, Gortash's mental health takes a big ass nosedive afterwards and he is bloody miserable.

Throw into this mixture my Tav, who himself is a survivor of a ton of abuse, who has the core believe that outside of devils and some gods, there is no true evil in this world. This man will stop people from killing monsters, because the monster could theoretically be just nice, but misunderstood. xD So, Tav feels a lot of pity for Gortash and the abuse the man has suffered, and he is of the firm opinion that Gortash's soul can be saved. And he tries to convince Gortash to try and be a nice person for once.

Now, my Tav is - just like my interpretation of Gortash - on the autistic spectrum. However, kinda on opposite ends of it. My Tav is autistic, yes, but the very social kind of autistic person. (Or to put it differently: He is a total and absolute people pleaser, who has core values he will always prioritize, but also fears that people could not like him.) While Gortash very much is not. And Gortash, who is bad at reading other people, and also in his life has basically never had any relationship that was not somehow dominated by fear of being abused/backstabbed, looks at the guy and goes: "Okay, either this dude is shitting me, or he is the biggest gods darn idiot who ever existed, and the only reason he is here is to make me aware of the fact that I was defeated by the biggest idiot that ever existed!" Which to me as a writer is hilarious - but in a very whumpy way xD

The aspect, that I decided to go with in the end is, that while Gortash is really bad at relating and empathizing to people, he somewhat kinda does know that he did the exact thing to Karlach, that his parents did to him. And despite him struggling to admit it, he actually at some point liked Karlach. So, yes, if he is fully honest with himself, he can understand that this specific thing he did was a bad thing, actually.

And everything else has to come from there. Partly also from the very logical analysis of: he is aware of how fictional stories go. And he has enough awareness to understand, that someone who does the stuff he does, usually gets to be the antagonist in those stories - and hence would be seen as evil. So the rational thing is to assume that yes, indeed, he did bad.

But yeah. It is so interesting to me to write this and explore the redemption of a villain, who does not instantly see that yeah, they might have done wrong. And he needs a long while to see it.

(Also: yes, this is also absolutely me being a prison abolitionist who does not think that a system of law that punishes does any good for anyone. Because yeah, guess what: Nobody who was killed is alive, just because the bad guy is inprisoned or executed.)

[4allthebears]

you’re a very talented artist and i don’t have any ill will towards you. but some things need to be cleared up here. the problem is and has never been making kyle a trans man. there is nothing inherently wrong with that headcanon. the problem is when you overtly feminize the only jewish character to the point of charicature when he has not ever shown any of those traits in canon. that is indeed unintentional antisemitism because it perpetuates many pervasive negative stereotypes about jewish men being effeminate, weak, and not “real men”, that we often see in media. there is a very long history of this that dates back centuries and i implore you to do some research on it if you think this is not a real issue. it is not okay no matter if your kyle is cis or trans.

this is not to say that giving/playing up characters feminine traits is an inherently bad thing either. the problem arises when you completely strip the character of all other traits to the point where they are unrecognizable for the purpose of fitting them in a box. the kyle we are given in canon is dynamic and complex, and he is actually great representation for jewish boys. it is antisemitic to remove all of his masculine qualities in order reduce him down to a vapid little twink stereotype for big manly macho bear stan. honestly, those feel like completely different and more shallow characters than the ones we were given. what about all of kyle’s masculine traits and all of stan’s feminine ones? nope, kyle is the only one that usually receives the feminization treatment. very suspicious.

we all just need to think critically about the biases we may be unknowingly playing into. it would be disturbing if someone portayed tolkien as a “thug” despite being the opposite of that in canon, and it is just as disturbing to see kyle uwu twinkified for the exact same reasons.

finally, i don’t appreciate non jews in your comments deciding what is and what is not antisemitism. goyim do not get to decide that. if you’re jewish and you disagree, that’s fine and i’m open to counterpoints. non jew fujoshis that just don’t want their kink criticized, sit this one out.

I understand your point about your situation and what shocks you, however I never did that with any intention?

While Kyle's religion is something important in his character, it doesn't make it his whole being and the fact that I make him "a twink" or whatever (I literally just give him eyelashes or a short jacket by an accident) has nothing to do with it either, doing it because he's Jewish is pretty much the thing I really don't think about when I draw or explain my Kyle

My kyle, yeah, because that is very important, my kyle with my headcanons, not the canonical kyle and you will never see me say that my interpretation of Kyle has to be the real one next to the canon or is superior

Just as I interpret Kyle one way, there are other people who do it with other characters why attack only mine and applaud the others if we are talking about beating the stereotype? I am very sorry but as long as I am aware and calm that what I do is not something for fetishistic purposes or offensive, I will not change my headcanons. If you want to see a more canon Kyle, more "macho" or whatever you can easily look for more artists! I'm sorry I'm not one of them.

I'm very sorry that my interpretation of Kyle made you uncomfortable but I'm just a trans masc person trying to be okay with me and reflecting that there's nothing wrong with having certain feminine traits and that I don't owe masculinity or femininity to anyone through a character I really like. But I promise I’m not doing this with antisemitism purposes.

[velvetvexations]

That sounds a lot like my interpretation of Boys Will Be Bugs~!

I bent over backwards and crafted an elaborate theory as to why Eminem's Abracadabra isn't too terribly transphobic, I can't judge anyone for making excuses for the media that's important to them.

I don't think characters just being heroic and sympathetic necessarily covers getting something like this badly wrong, but a lot of other Velveteers also chimed in, including this anon:

(Just realized this is pretty silly, feel free to ignore me/not answer this, I just saw One Piece mentioned and the hyperfixation jumped out.) But just to go to bat for One Piece a smidge as someone who is trans and read all of it, while yeah Okama(Queen Ivan) leaned very transmisognistc(which was made worse in the anime for some reason??) the intention for him, his subjects, and the other gender fluid character, Bon Clay, was meant to be good. It fell HELLA short, but there was an attempt at least. However!! I did want to add, the comic has been going on for a long time, and by one of the more recent arcs with two new, very clearly openly trans characters, things are MUCH better! The transfem one, Kiku, says outright when asked that she's a woman at heart which is accepted by everyone, and her story was really sweet and made me tear up(her anger is never treated as predatory or masculine, she's allowed to just be a woman who is also a samurai), and the other transmasc one, Yamato, is referred to as a boy by everyone despite him not changing his presentation at all, which is pretty rad imo given how hostile people can be to transmasc people with breasts, and both characters are allowed to bathe in the baths that match their genders at the end of the arc. They were still a little messy in the "yeah this wasn't written by a trans person" way, and certain misogynistic/transphobic parts of of the fandom on reddit get a little weird about Yamato, but I didn't see anything glaringly wrong with the way either of them was written like with Okama or Bon Clay. The vibe I got from the comic was that early on Oda meant well and included some characters who were intended to be positive rep but were messy and fell very short, but as time passed he figured it out and the more recent ones are genuinely phenomenal rep. Ofc that doesn't mean you need to read/watch OP(especially since again the transmisogny is worse in the anime?? still don't understand what happened there but Oda had no control over it) like god I would never tell anyone to do that lol, but I did want to just chime in and offer a perspective from someone who read it and felt like the more recent rep was really good and worth mentioning. Oda has his issues for sure, and has a lot to make up for, but based on what I've read he IS making up for it.

And, honestly, that makes me really happy! Oda always seemed like a cool guy and it's great to know he is in fact a real cool guy. According to @changelingfangs in the replies, he's friends with people in the subculture he based a lot of those characters on.

They're now just openly accusing me of not being a trans woman because trans women don't identify as AMAB and I'm apparently hostile to every trans woman that talks about transmisogyny.

...no?

It's a good theory and I think that plays a part in it for sure, but I think mostly it's just thinking it's the worse thing because it's their group's oppression. It again kinna goes back to that Lennon/Ono song with the n-word in the title, that's just how radical feminism works, trans/misogyny is the only thing that really matters.

Still, interesting thread to have spotted here and I think it's in that soup somewhere.

imagine thinking using a meme format is asserting a cultural claim to it

like seriously, has any Black person ever said that there was something wrong with "deracializing" either or even both characters in the Dis _ Look So Mad meme by substituting them with white characters?

[neurosiscocktail]

Finale Spoilers ahead-

Processing a lot of emotions about the season finale, and I unfortunately just didn’t like a lot of aspects about it. A lot of which is about Izzy’s death, but some of it is about Ed and Stede, and some of it is about the lack of resolution.

Izzy’s death really felt like the “we ‘redeemed’ the antagonist and now we don’t know what to do with his character so we give him a gut wrenching death” troupe. That may not have been the intent, because the writers of this show are great, and because they’re great I really expected someone to say “hey does this feel like we’re writing a troupe that hasn’t been meaningful since 1980” and no one did.

I really don’t feel like Izzy’s death was necessary or even necessarily meaningful. That being said, I’m not really that upset that he died beyond he was my favorite character and that is a bummer and a half. It has more to do with the situation-

1) why do muppet rules apply to everyone but Izzy? Like, yeah the “he’s the only real human in a show full of muppets” joke is funny, but Ed got bludgeoned with a cannonball and he is completely fine. Several members of the crew have survived and recovered from cartoonish injuries, but a gunshot wound takes out Izzy?

2) There was plenty of time in that scene for Izzy to get out of the way. Or take out the prince with him. I don’t really like the take that he didn’t because he was resigned or wanted to die. I feel like it takes away from the episodes we just had of him finding his place in the crew. Maybe that’s what the writers were going for, but it doesn’t sit right with me.

3) his death speech didn’t add much for me. There’s a saying that funerals are for the living, not the dead and in media I think death speeches often reflect that. They’re not usually about the person dying, but instead it’s about giving something to the protagonist. I don’t really think it did that. It felt like Izzy continued to take accountability for both his and Ed’s actions, which doesn’t actually help Ed grow from what happened. The speech pulled at my heart strings and I think I’m a lot of ways that had more to do with Con and Taika being phenomenal actors than it did with the writing itself.

4) his death speech kind of was rendered meaningless and doesn’t really add anything to the story. He uses his dying words to tell Ed that he can move on because he has a new family that loves him and then Ed and Stede stay on shore totally alone, so either Ed didn’t hear him, or what he said doesn’t have any relevance to protagonist decision and again, not my favorite writing choice.

5) Some people have brought up a very good point that if you stick with a popular interpretation of season 1, that Izzy was a representation of Ed’s old life and that the first season was about Ed needing to choose between the relative safety of Izzy- brutal, emotionally devastating Blackbeard or the unknown that is Stede- the chance for love, trying something new, etc, then it makes sense that Izzy had to die for that to happen. For Ed to really move on. However, and don’t get me wrong, I love my toxic codependent pirates, burying Izzy on land and then living on that land doesn’t really feel like letting go to me. It feels like an extension of their codependency

6) budget cuts meant less episodes. Which is a bummer and not the writers fault. However, it kind of felt like instead of cutting things they wanted to include, they tried to speed run a 10 episode season into 8 and the pacing felt very off.

7) I am including what I personally disliked here. Everything above was sort of issues I had with narration and writing, and this point is just kind of complaining about stuff I personally don’t like in writing. I am so tired of watching shows where they kill off queer characters who have a difficult time with self acceptance and opening themself up to love. I see it so often and find it exhausting. The death was painful and on purpose to be painful. His arc didn’t have to end with him dying. No one else’s , except arguably Buttons, did. And that doesn’t mean he NEEDED to live either, but it felt less like “this is what is best for Izzy’s arc” and more like “this will hurt the audience immensely and we want the finale to pack a big emotional punch” and to me that’s just… not a good enough reason. I know a lot of people don’t feel that way, and arguably the point of writing is to make your audience feel something, but it felt like it was there specifically to garner an emotional response, rather than any real necessity to the story. And I think I feel more strongly about it because again, whether intentional or not, I hate the killing your redeemed antagonists troupe. I guess they did succeed in making me feel something, so if the writers view that as the point of writing, they did what they meant to do and that’s a well written ending. To me, while Izzy’s death didn’t make a bad story out of his arc, I would argue it prevented it from being a great one and that’s kind of a bummer. I also think I unintentionally set the bar higher for the OFMD writers because they have shown better, and that may not be fair.

All that being said, I overall really enjoyed this season, and will watch season 3 if they get a third season. My opinions might change on my third, fourth, or fifth watch when I’m not feeling a lot of emotions about it. I think everyone should be kind to each other, the writers, and the actors in the show. I think sometimes we forget that when something like a season finale is polarizing.

[cosmicjoke]

I don’t like any of the “bad characters” in AOT. However, people can completely understand the themes of a story. As well as have “reading comprehension” which you love to say people lack while also simultaneously enjoying watching a morally bad character. That’s the beauty of fiction. I think yeah, maybe some people take it too far, but I think the whole point of stories like AOT is to show multiple sides and give you multiple points of view on humanity and how everyone thinks they are correct in their views/ideologies. Villians are often the most popular characters is fiction and there’s many reasons for that and people shouldn’t be judge for wanting to enjoy that in a fictional space. It doesn’t mean they carry those same ideologies in real life.

I definitely understand you getting angry because of the idiots in your ask box sending dumb messages but there’s a lot of people that follow you and sometimes you make comments grouping all people together just because they differ from opinion on you/ like certain characters/ view things a certain way (when you say things like “anyone who thinks this”)and that kind of sucks.

Again, nobody should be sending you hate…or arguing about Levi’s popularity those people are sad and in the wrong. And I have zero problems with you being annoyed/angry or what have you…But the way you respond is out there for everyone to see and can sometimes be taken to heart by people who really do like you and your analysis. Just food for thought.

Floch's still a POS, so, whatever.

The person asked my opinion on people who "simp" for Floch and hold him up as some sort of hero, and I gave it. If you don't like it, you're free to unfollow me. I never said anything about people who enjoy Floch's character for what he thematically represents within the story (something for which I just made a post which you didn't bother mentioning, so I assume you didn't read). Floch is of course a complex and integral character to the plot and overarching themes of AoT and there's nothing wrong with admiring his character for that complexity. My point is, he's not a hero, and anyone who thinks he is have completely missed the entire point of AoT, the role of his character within the story, and the story's themes and messages. Therefore, if you think Floch is a hero, if that's your genuine and unironic interpretation of his character, then it rightly calls into question your intelligence and media literacy and also makes me question your morality as a person (not you specifically, the people who praise him as some sort of martyr). I'm sick of the argument that people continually trot out that what you like in fiction doesn't reflect what you believe or condone in real life. Art is a reflection of and representation of reality, through human expression. If you continually go around arguing for exactly the opposite message that a work of art is attempting to convey, and in this case, arguing that Fascism and nationalism and genocide are a justifiable or understandable reaction to anything, then you've completely missed the entire point and are now twisting AoT's themes to push a hateful and, frankly, dangerous political agenda which can, despite what you claim, have very real world consequences. Art can be and IS highly influential, and it wouldn't be the first time in history that bad actors with nefarious goals have twisted a work of art to suit their agenda. In the case of AoT, it's people like that, who hold Floch up as a hero, who have also helped defame Isayama as a person and added fuel to the fire of people bad-mouthing a real life human being and spreading false rumors about his political views and what he was trying to convey with his art, causing very real-life harm to his being and also impacting other people's ability to enjoy the story as a whole.

AoT frames Floch as a bad guy for a reason. Yes, the story is meant to show us multiple views and promote understanding of how certain conclusions and reactions are arrived at when certain conditions are met. You're not telling me anything I don't already understand. That doesn't mean the story intends for the reader to sympathize with or come away from seeing the paths certain characters take with the idea of mimicking them or cheering them on. Characters like Floch and Eren and Zeke and many others are meant to act as a warning against straying down a similar path. When you see people completely miss or ignore that warning and instead run around saying how Floch or Eren or Zeke were "justified" in their actions, or claiming that they were somehow correct in their world view and ideological beliefs, then those people are, in my not at all humble opinion, asking to be raked over the coals.

Also, for real, how many times are you people going to accuse me of the same shit? You always complain that I don't like anyone who "disagrees" with me, and "attack them unfairly" while conveniently ignoring all the many, MANY times I've disagreed with various and numerous people on here over various and numerous topics, and have always kept it cordial and polite. I only get angry at people when they say intentionally inflammatory shit to me, obviously trying to bait me into a fight, or make accusations against me, either directly or implied, kind of like you're doing. It seems to me it's you people that send me this same, whiny complaint time and time again that have just decided you have a particular axe to grind with me because you don't like that I can sometimes be forceful with my opinions and it makes you feel threatened, for some bizarre reason. That's just the way I speak, and again, if you don't like it, and if it really upsets you that much, then unfollow me, because I'm not going to censor myself or soften my language just because it might rub some people the wrong way or hurt your feelings.

I think you people really need to learn to grow a tougher skin and understand that not everyone in the world is going to speak or express themselves in a manner you find palatable, and the world isn't going to conform itself to what you need it to be to feel comfortable.

[ohgoditssnek]

It's this time of the month when snek complains about bungo stray dogs.

However, this time it is not entirely about bsd and more about general portrail of Lovecraft inspired characters in media. But since im too busy working on my diploma to write an actual paper about this topic, i will default to just being disappointed in bsd writing. And bsd Lovecraft is a good example.

So, anyways. Lovecraft is boring af as a character. I assume there is a piece of media that managed to make him fun that i missed, but bsd Lovecraft is nothing. So most of the others. And the reason is that they aren't based on the writer himself, but rather on one of his works. His nothing but a shallow Call of Cthulhu reference. Silly eldritch tentacle monster. In bsd his just a prop, standing there, being...tired. Yeah, yeah, Cthulhu sleeping in the depths of the ocean. I get it.

I assume Lovecraft as a person isn't very exciting. But the idea of making him into tentacle critter is even less exciting. That's the first thing that comes to mind and it's boring and unimaginative. That sort of interpretation just tells me that you don't know anything about the author really. It's the same thing as basing Lewis Carroll character ENTIRELY on Alice in wonderland.

If you want to make Lovecraft character based on his work at least choose less obvious one. Call of Cthulhu isn't even good. Lovecraft has much more interesting compelling works than this one. I know. I read all of them. I had a hypefixation moment, that's why I care about Lovecraft do much. I know too much information about him.

And H. P. Lovecraft is an IDIOT. He's STUPID. He's such a prick not like other girls hikka that it's hilarious. This man roleplayed with his panpals, he was talking about food SO MUCH in his letters, he kinned every 18-19 century poet and writer, he was an Edgar Allan Poe fangirl. Lovecraft was such a mess, I'd like to talk to him really. He wouldn't like me probably, because I'm not American and not even western European. And we both have such horrible social anxiety, we'd just sit in awkward silence and then I'd infodump about bees and dsmp lore and break him like a victorian child, unless he'd actually find concept of Minecraft roleplay interesting... BUT ANYWAYS BACK TO THE TOPIC.

Bsd Lovecraft is nothing but a plot device. He's there to be big scary monster for soukoku to fight. Nothing wrong with big scary monster to fight it's just. He has no personality, there's nothing exciting about him, no interesting thoughts or interpretations. Just an eldritch monster.

But you can make him so much more than that. He could be so out of touch with reality because his only source of information about society were old literature book, just like real life Lovecraft grew up petty much in isolation with a company of century old stories. Make him complain about humans, make him obsessed fashion, because he wants to look like a real gentlemen, but then he misses the point entirely. Just like real Lovecraft did. You can make his reason for helping Fitzgerald not some shady contract, but his own will to do something for a noble cause. There's so much more that you can do with him, instead of making him into apathetic wall with do a scary button.

But why bother writing all that for a background character who's only on screen for half an hour?

Why bother including him at all? I'm sure there's a way to do a soukoku moment without him in the narrative. Bsd has do many characters it won't make a difference if you remove someone of them. What's the point of forcing in a character if you not interested in making them fun or exploring them.

It's the whole premise of bungo stray dogs, isn't it? You come to see cool autor interpretation. Bsd is borne out of love for literature and writers, but then some of the characters get so much less attention and care then others. And it's not even that hard to write a good character when you have a real person as a reference. How'd come so many bsd characters are nothing but blank pages and troupes? If not for literature, half of the people won't be interested in the story.

Bsd is very strange media to consume. You have to wach anime, read manga, read novells to understand the characters and setting, and then you have to read autors' works and biographies to understand the meta (and because people will bully you on the internet if you don't). But then. Then you look at it as a whole and. It feels like a fever dream. It rushes to tell you all the cool stuff, but then it's either not enough stuff or too much stuff and you have to go do homework to understand what that was about. It almost can't pick want it wants to be.

Bsd is just one big fanfiction that just wants to play with all those cool characters and doesn't want to do boring storytelling stuff.

And idk.

Slay?

What was i talking about by the way? Ah yes, Lovecraft. Please stop making him into Cthulhu. That's boring.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk, i will now proceed to write logistic strategy for a small game development studio in Poland.

[lady-fey]

When Adapting, Ignore What the Character Does, Focus on Who They Are, Find Their Core

Adaptation is a fine art and one that's heavily practiced on this site through fanfiction, fan comics, and fan analysis. While it's always fine to be extremely "literal" in your interpretations of a property, if your goal is to be true to who a character is instead of how they're portrayed, then I strongly encourage you to take a step back and look at the character as a whole. What role do they fill? How are their actions treated by other characters? What genre is this piece media?

All of these things can tell you who a character is supposed to be (and what draws fans to them) even though the media might not portray them perfectly.

For an example of this, let's go extreme and look at Phineas and Ferb, a show that is so over the top and charming that I don't think that there's any controversy surrounding the characters like you might find in more serious, realistic shows that arguably have the exact same "issues".

Let's say that, for some reason, you want to take Phineas and Ferb and adapt it into something super realistic. Maybe a live action show?

There's two ways to do that.

The first way is to take exactly what the text shows, two neglected children whose parents are so inattentive that the kids are able to risk their lives on a near daily basis while their older sister begs the parents to wake up and see what's going on.

Way two is to acknowledge that this is a silly kids show that uses over the top humor to encourage imagination, which means that characters are exaggerated and what you see should not be taken literally. To make an adaptation that will be both more realistic AND true to the show, you'll have to find the characters' cores and restructure the story around those.

I'm not gonna go character by character for this, but let's do Phineas and Ferb's mom Linda as a real quick example to show you how this works.

As I said before, on the surface, Linda is neglectful. She remains oblivious to the downright dangerous stunts her kids pull off on the daily. However, her neglect is needed for the show to work, so we have to ignore it and look at how she's portrayed when she's allowed to interact with her kids AND how her kids are portrayed as thinking of her.

When you look at these elements, it's very clear that she loves her kids and that they have a positive relationship with her. Meaning that, to stay true to her, a more serious adaptation would figure out how to make the boys activates something that a normal parent could ignore so that Linda isn't seen as in the wrong. Maybe feats of imagination instead of real, death-defying rollercoasters?

Like I said, this is an over-the-top example for a show that I don't think anyone would want to see as more serious, but the principle holds true for any piece of media that you want to play with. Characters are just that, characters. Their actions are controlled by writers and production teams who don't always get things right. Plus genre can warp stuff even further. We've all seen a non-funny joke before and, sometimes, a questionable act by a character is nothing more than that: a bad joke. I can personally think of several examples of characters who I've seen people get mad at while I sit there thinking "yeah, that was not a good thing to have them do, but you do realize that was very clearly done for laughs, right? If you made this a serious show, that either wouldn't happen or it would be extremely toned down."

While there's nothing wrong with expressing your frustration through salt and discussions of the literal text, when you're upset, I strongly encourage you to step back and look for the core. To find the person that the character is supposed to be and let them shine. It's my go-to move when I write fanfiction because I only write fanfiction for pieces of media that have potential in my eyes. Media that I want to enjoy. If there's nothing enjoyable about the media? Then I just move on.

[8cfc00]

Bit of a weird ask maybe, but I do get the feeling of feeling like you like something the "wrong" way, like realising that a character you like, is widely disliked, or that the way you interpreted stuff is completely the opposite to the way that a majority of people interpreted it if that makes sense? It can make me feel like I've just smacked into a brick wall some of the time, and the more I like the media, the worse it feels. I don't really have much else to say, just that you're not the only person who feels like that sometimes and my only advice is that everyone's gonna see things differently and you can like things however you want (which is easier said than done, I know)

yeah i get that,,, nice to see im not the only person who feels a little weird about some things some times. and yeah totally everyone can see shit a little differently ... ( it is 2 am i don't exactly have coherent thoughts anymore oug)

[blue-eye-samurai]

Listen, I don’t condone people being hateful and/or blatantly rude towards anyone for simply having headcanons about fictional characters that they like. That’s definitely not okay and I would never do that. However, your personal interpretation of Mizu being nonbinary is just that — a headcanon. If you think otherwise, then … yes, you are wrong.

Mizu IS canonically a cisgender woman of color. That is literally the whole narrative of her story and it’s genuinely exhausting how so many of you continue to argue otherwise. The creators of Blue Eye Samurai refer to Mizu with she/her pronouns. Amber Noizumi (the show’s #1 writer) is a biracial cisgender woman of color who shaped much of Mizu’s story around her own lived experiences. The character is also heavily inspired by Amber’s daughter, who is also biracial … so why are you still so convinced that this show is not actually about a woman?

Why are you so sure that Mizu doesn’t privately feel and identify as a woman even though she’s not traditionally feminine? Like seriously, I don’t understand why so many of you are so comfortable with discounting Mizu’s perspective as a woman. Are you truly under the impression that cisgender women (especially cisgender women of color) can’t have complex feelings about their gender identity? If that is the case, I assure you that we most definitely do. Cisgender women are not one dimensional, we are complex human beings … just like everyone else.

Also, a lot of you fail to realize how problematic and highly inappropriate it is to view a story about non white people from a modern western lense, especially when that story takes place in a very different place and time period. Yes, all kinds of various queer people have always existed in every place and time period, but that’s not the point of this show. It’s a well known historical fact that cisgender women have often had to “pass” as men in order to protect themselves and to archive their goals. Mizu presents as a man because she has to, not because she wants to.

Again, Mizu is a biracial person living in the 1600s Edo era of Japan, who’s womanhood was stripped away from her since infancy without her consent and she has been forced to hide her true gender identity out of survival. I can understand why a lot of queer people (trans, nonbinary, intersex, etc…) will be able to resonate with that lived experience, but y’all should still be able to resonate with a story without making everything about yourselves.

You don’t want to touch Blue Eye Samurai anymore simply because lots of people online aren’t accepting your personal interpretations as facts? Okay. That’s perfectly fine. Nobody is forcing you to watch. At the end of the day, this show isn’t about you and it was not created for you. It’s about women of color (including cishet ones) and it was created by women of color too, so they are naturally going to be the main audience here.

And as someone who is a biracial (Asian/White) and multicultural cisgender woman myself (who is also not traditionally feminine either but still identifies as a woman), I’m still amazed by how this show made me feel so seen and heard for the first time in my life. I’m so used to feeling invisible in the media that I consume that it actually took me by surprise to see so much of my own feelings and lived experiences in Mizu’s story.

So yeah, I definitely understand what it’s like to be marginalized in more than one way and I’ve always been able to resonate with characters that have different lived experiences from me, but that’s exactly why I don’t understand how some of y’all (mainly white queers) can’t seem to do the same thing here as well. Why does Mizu HAVE to be canonically queer in order for y’all to still be able to resonate with her narrative? Why do so many of you feel this entitled to a story that is not even about you and wasn’t created for you in the first place?

I understand trans mascs and nonbinary people crave good representation, but so do cisgender women of color. Our stories and experiences matter too and we don’t stop being “women” just because we don’t fit into society’s ideal standards of beauty and femininity. Blue Eye Samurai is canonically about women of color and that certainly includes Mizu. Anyone who insists otherwise is simply projecting whatever they want to see in a story because they can’t relate to it otherwise.

On tiktok, I made a comment implying that Mizu might be nonbinary or maybe have a rather complex personal relationship with gender, and someone literally reacted with a callout video. Like I got dozens of hate comments just for suggesting that Mizu might not identify as a cis woman.

What sucks is that I don't really even want to touch Blue Eye Samurai with a 10 foot pole anymore. I feel dumb and like my interpretation is wrong, but at the same time, I don't really understand how it's wrong. Mizu having a complicated relationship with gender and experiencing the full breadth of violence and pain in a world against women aren't mutually exclusive. Mizu having to be a man to seek revenge and having gender related childhood trauma doesn't mean they have to be a woman. At least not to me.

[darkcircles4lyfe]

Why Tiger is kind of a big deal, actually

Folks, I have a headache. I just spent the better part of my day doing research, and having even less fun than I expected while doing it. However, coming out the other end of it, I can say this: Tiger, in terms of representation of trans male characters in manga and anime, is practically an anomaly. And we should all be more aware of the weight that carries, not just because it shows how little representation we have, but also because maybe this says something about Horikoshi. Before I get into that, though, some backstory. 

Originally, I wanted to do this as quantitatively as possible, show you how much representation there is, where and when and who it comes from, regardless of how subjectively good or bad it is. Basically all I wanted to say was, “look, there isn't much.” But even I didn’t realize just how bad and messy things were going to turn out to be. I’m not going to show you my spreadsheet because it’s a fucking dumpster fire. For starters, there are a lot more instances of trans female characters, some that could be described as non-binary, genderfluid, or otherwise ambiguous, and very few trans male characters. I ended up with a list of about 20 alleged trans male characters, spanning roughly 40 years of Japanese media. (Not exhaustive, especially because not everything is available in English) Of those, some turned out to be inexplicit/vague/unclear, some were tragic, some were demeaning, some were very minor characters, and some belonged to creators and/or stories with exceptionally problematic aspects. Again I’m not gonna show you my spreadsheet because it got messy and subjective and honestly I was so frustrated I kinda lost my patience. In the end, only one survived as a manga I will definitely be seeking out for substantial, gratifying, therapeutic representation of someone like me. That one manga is Boys Run the Riot, by the way. I wish I could say more about it here, but I haven’t read it yet! Anyway, a few more did survived this filtering process excluding the fact that they’re minor characters, and Tiger was one of them. I want to reiterate how utterly abysmally tiny this pool of characters is. But I swear I still want to have some fun with this post, so let’s talk about Tiger, aka Chatora Yawara.

And what’s more fun than calling out our good buddy Mr. CC on his translating bullshit! Yeah! This all started when I was looking back at ch 72 and I realized something didn’t make sense:

Like, what does this even mean? “Genre?” “Wrong??” I can’t even understand what this statement is referring to exactly, just that it sounds bad. Seems very much like something got lost in translation. I unfortunately can’t really do the work myself, especially without access to the original Japanese, but sometimes I like to try to triangulate with multiple translations put together. Btw though, if you have access to the Japanese versions and can/want to translate, please do reach out to me to either confirm or deny all this. For now, here is a side by side comparison of officials (blue) vs. available fanscans (yellow) for Tiger’s introduction:

It’s subtle, but the officials get things a little more muddled. The most glaring difference is that CC has Aizawa refer to the whole hero team as “these ladies,” which sounds very bad! Idk if the original Japanese has any gendered language to justify translating it to “ladies,” but I’m guessing probably not. My interpretation of what went wrong here is that CC thought Horikoshi wanted to make Tiger being trans part of the joke, playing it for shock value, when really what was meant by “wrong gender” was more like “the only Pussycat who isn’t a woman,” and not “wrong” as in “mutilated woman who thinks she’s a man” (yes, transphobes call us that). After all, how would Deku be able to tell Tiger is trans and be shocked about it anyway? The other comments make a lot more sense with the added translator note in the fanscan as well, letting us know that the whole bit is a reference to Billy Blanks. Hence the “wrong genre.” Basically, all put together, the scene is actually just a joke about Tiger being a hard-ass buff dude instead of a cute, fun little kitty. So yeah, this is all fine. Cannot stress enough how refreshing that is after the research hell I went through today. 

Now let me get into what takes Tiger from okay to great in terms of representation. I want to underline the seemingly tiny detail that he is 31 years old and has been a part of his team for 12 years, so since they were 19. That likely means they were all friends in high school and had already been planning to work together for years. Perhaps their friendship even dates back before Tiger came out and started transitioning. I mean, imagine young Yawara happily befriending a group of girls (same bro, same) but being uneasy about the fact that the hero agency Ryuko is dreaming of starting is going to have them all themed as catgirls. Like, if he comes out, will he ruin that dream? But no, he cares enough about them and they care enough about him that it makes no difference whatsoever, and he even has fun going along with the theme too. Seriously, the fact that he has a gender-nonconforming style of hero costume is some next level shit. 

The other thing that makes him great is he’s just, there. Doing his thing. No one questions him, acts like he’s a fraud, scandalizes or misgenders him. His being trans at all is only mentioned in a quick note next to his sketch page, which is fine by me tbh. Better that than some dramatic reveal. He also doesn’t have any stereotypical traits. I mean, I guess some trans men being gym rats is kind of a stereotype, but not a bad one? It’s more of an actual thing that we can joke about. A negative portrayal I would expect might emphasize a trans man’s “womanly” body, for example, simultaneously fetishizing and mocking it. If anything the fact that Tiger’s body is very masculine suggests he was designed by someone who knows how medical transition works, and the fact that he happily participates in gender-nonconformity suggests he was designed by someone who understands the complexity and diversity of gender presentation. He’s just ya know, casually and quietly one of the most genuine representations of a trans man in manga ever.

Horikoshi does seem to have a way of making even the most minor characters feel real and complex. But with this there’s more to it than that. Trans men fly under the radar constantly. People don’t know shit about us. They forget we even exist. No cishet man who decides on a whim to make up a random trans male character magically gets it right. So lemme just point at Tiger with every ounce of emphasis I can possibly cram into my finger, and look you in the eye with the war-hardened stare of someone who has seen just about goddamn everything: This. Is. Significant. In a world where trans men get next to zero representation, let alone decent representation, this isn’t just good, it’s suspiciously good. Like Horikoshi Knows Things type of good. I hate to go here, but I don’t know how else to articulate this... like, in my spreadsheet elimination, the only examples that fared as well or better than Tiger were written by actual queer people and/or come from stories with more major queer characters. At the very least this means that for a cishet man, Horikoshi is way more knowledgable of lqbtq+ issues than average, and at most…well, you know what I’m getting at. I will also go ahead and say that a character like Tiger could very well be a sign of Horikoshi testing the waters for other more central queer characters in the future, getting a read on his audience, editors, publisher, etc. and how they react to it.

Regardless, I’m writing this post not to speculate, but because I want y’all to be armed with the confidence to say Horikoshi is on your side, and not the side of the ignorant dudes who think bnha is their personal plaything. I’m tired of those people pissing all over this manga like it’s their turf. You know, the kind of people who tell you bnha is a shounen, which means it’s “for boys,” straight, cisgender boys, and you don’t belong here so you should shut up or go read something else. Please take this post as a reminder that you’re not delusional, you do belong here, and you're in good hands with Horikoshi, whether you’re queer yourself or just enjoy a good queer ship/headcanon. 

Anyway have a nice rest of your Pride Month everybody <3

^also enjoy this little exchange with class A, it’s very cute