vaxxman

[vaxxman]

What are the linguistics behind old man yaoi? The people must know

Disclaimer: Observations are my own, this isn't an academic answer.

So I'm sure everyone who uses this term knows that "yaoi" is a loanword from Japanese. Potentially, they also know that the word is out of fashion and not actually used by people anymore. This isn't uncommon, some loanwords survive in the languages they are loaned into, but fall out of use in the language they came from.

Yaoi is such a case. Interestingly, since the term was borrowed at a time when Japanese gay erotica just surfaced on Western platforms, it was the only term people had available to refer to the entire genre (like even now you will see people being pedantic about its necessary that "yaoi" is manga style drawings). There's actually many other different portmanteaus or coded words in Japanese that are used euphemistically to refer to different genres of gay erotica (like tropes on AO3) but very few of them really made it big into English like the term "yaoi" did ( people are aware of "yuri" and maybe "bara", but words describing eg. the lovers' (power-)dynamics, age gaps, and personality tropes are pretty unknown in English).

Anyways, to return to Old Man Yaoi. Its a fun case because this word is very much a creation of the English speaking community, using a loanword. In my previous post I called it a sort of pseudo-loanword, directly opposite to Japanese 和製英語 "loanwords" that take an English form but don't actually exist in English. The funny part to me is that you can very much say "old man yaoi" in Japanese, you can refer to it as 中年BL or simply mention that its BL but with elderly people. However "old man yaoi" is a phrase that is 2 parts English 1 part Japanese acronym, ie. instead of just loaning another Japanese word, English speakers just used an existing acronym and treat it like a properly English word.

There are no such things as "perfect" synonyms, meaning the decision to use one word over another implies that the meanings are ever so slightly different from another. And that's what I find interesting here: What makes the term "yaoi" more appealing to use in this newly coined phrase over other English equivalents, when the target group that is using this phrase is English speaking already? (This is the research question)

It's such an unexpected example of how loanwords enrich a language because they cover certain niches of expression that one's own language doesn't have the words for.

[vaxxman]

official elon musk hate post reblog to hate like to hate reply to hate

[vaxxman]

things are really busy for me right now, I started drawing this but I'm out of energy to finish this so you can have it before I stash it away for 500 years

[vaxxman]

whats your opinion on old man yaoi?

Personally, I call it oyaji BL

[vaxxman]

I won't be online when the new year rolls, over so happy new year in advance! I hope all of your wishes for next year come true.

- Vaxxman

[vaxxman]

I don't think we are tapping into Medic calling men on the other team "Fräuleins" enough. I want him to ask for everyone's attention with "Meine Damen?", and going between fighting team mates with "Mädels😤", and when anyone asks him to correct it, he goes ahhh oopsie and lies about gendered nouns in German.

[vaxxman]

em

[vaxxman]

SCOUTS MA HIGH REZ PORTRAIT YIPPEE

[vaxxman]

You'll be at peace.

Archimedes is watching these two pop off and clean the capture point.

And here is the second panel without text.

The text is based on a Moravian (geographically that's in the Czech Republic now) Christmas song that was adapted into German in 1973. It has a very lovely tune.

The translation is based on the German lyrics because they are more vague than the original Moravian lyrics and therefore more fit as narration text. I made them singable in English, you are welcome.

Happy holidays.

[vaxxman]

You'll be at peace.

Archimedes is watching these two pop off and clean the capture point.

And here is the second panel without text.

The text is based on a Moravian (geographically that's in the Czech Republic now) Christmas song that was adapted into German in 1973. It has a very lovely tune.

The translation is based on the German lyrics because they are more vague than the original Moravian lyrics and therefore more fit as narration text. I made them singable in English, you are welcome.

Happy holidays.

[vaxxman]

not even close to christmas yet but i want to post this all the same

[vaxxman]

Just here to say your comics are fun to read! I really enjoyed one where they went shopping :]

Augh, thanks a lot!! It was also very fun for me to draw, I sat around giggling white drawing Soldier.

[vaxxman]

Oh I'm sad to see people didn't like comic 7, I thought it was very well done.

This isn't an invitation to an argument, I just want to say my opinion because I'm seeing a lot of people criticising the last chapter.

We got a lot of answers and everything that seemed conveniently placed for plot was completely in the scope of how the previous stories have worked before. I thought it was funny that soldier lived in a cave of Australium. It's just as convenient as Medic having a deal with the devil and the mercs being unable to die. Or Grey Mann having a daughter who no one wants to punch in a fist fight. Or Sniper's parents coincidentally being involved with the sinking of New Zealand.

I think it was a very good choice to not let the mercs do anything plot driving in this chapter, because this conflict was never a conflict that could have been ended by the mercs. They wouldn't even have cared, heh. We've known that everything was carefully orchestrated by the Admin, so it could only have been resolved by those who are part of the bigger conflict. Hence Miss Pauling, the Admin and Saxton do most of the plot. Everyone else already had a lot of screen time in the previous chapters, but none of their stories were truly contributing to the actual conflict at hand, so the story can't come to an end until we actually see the person who's been pulling the threads actually come to terms with what she was doing. I'm very happy that her ultimate plan turned out to just be a pointless act of revenge, since we've all known from the start that the gravel wars are pointless. This is just one more dimension deeper into how pointless it is.

Managing to resolve the story and making sure all characters receive a happy end the way they did was more than I had hoped for comic 7. But just to summarise how I think everyone received their peace of mind across all comics:

1. Sniper: Finds out he's adopted -> figures out his step parents were his true family after all

2. Spy: Really wants to tell Scout that he's his dad -> actually manages to say the words, even if he wasn't honest with his appearance

3. Soldier: Delusional hater of commies -> marries a Russian woman and stops claiming racist things, because Zhanna as a person was more important to him than whatever he believed about Russian people. Still weird, not with less delusion but genuinely a sweet father and husband. Exaggerated and maximally silly way of how to actually change people's racist opinions in real life.

4. Scout: Upset that he can't get laid and thinks he has to be More Man -> glows up by becoming a dad who steps up and is less preoccupied with getting the girl of his dreams. His kids are what matters to him now and he becomes like his mom

5. Heavy: Worried about his family in Siberia -> his sisters show him they don't need him to protect them all the time and everyone moves to America so he can be with them. His sisters get to live freely.

6. Engineer: Is involved with the conflict since his grandpa, and is contractually unable to stop it -> tells Miss Pauling to sink all Australium in a trench so this never happens again

7. Saxton Hale: Wants to go back to the time when he was still actively doing things, gets his company stolen -> gets his company back but realises it doesn't make him happy. Leaves his company and joins Maggie again because fighting alongside her was what he's always wanted since we got glimpses of his past

8. Miss Pauling: Thinks the Administrator has a great plan that desperately needs her -> learns the plan was nothing at all and decides on the spot to end it by not giving Admin any more Australium because she realises she has been feeding into the conflict

Medic, Demoman, and Pyro never had a personal conflict to resolve. Medic had his moments to shine by sabotaging TFC and being in hell then coming back. Demoman had his arc with his liver leaving him and defeating the robots due to the alcohol in his blood. Medic scooped out parts of his brain to keep him unquestioning about his eye. Pyro is just a very simple character, and I say that with no judgement at all. Pyro is happy with arson, but also with a Dalmatian as their pet.

Everyone is still friends with each other and have their own little families. They come together to celebrate Smissmass at Scout's place. I think Saxton's last line "or do you want to live forever" was so well placed, being a nod to the meme from Expiration Date, as well as pointing out that, obviously, things have to come to an end we should embrace that ending when we see it's time.

And as always. If anyone doesn't like that any of these things, we are still free to make our own stories and reinterpret characters.

[vaxxman]

always thinking about how talented and skilled you are especially when I see your paintings. Wowee they are amazing

Ugly sobbing.

I think my paintings are the least cool things I can produce, because I'm really bad with colours and I've been wanting to try out acrylic paint irl to get better.

Thank you for your trust in me, nonetheless.

[vaxxman]

Hallo Herr Doktor.

Was your halloween nice? I see you made great use of the resurrected boop feature.

I just wanted to tell you that I always get a great hit of dopamine when this blog updates, to the point where I type "tum" into my searchbar and it shows me tumblr.com/vaxxman in the autocomplete.

I hope your job isn't too taxing on you and doesn't hinder you from drawing insane elderly men as much as you want to.

Greetings.

Ashamedly answering this ask 2 months after I got it, yes my halloween was very fun, I got asked to remove my mask at the library once because people were too unsettled by it-

What an honour to be the top auto fill result in your browser, I really mean it 😭 Thank you for enjoying my drawings so much.

Heh I have been. Really busy, but luckily I have very caring friends who have their snipers equipped with sleeping darts installed around every corner and they all force me to take regular breaks that I still get to draw here and there!

There's a short comic queued for Christmas.

[vaxxman]

Yo! I started to follow you not long time ago, and tbh I am mad at myself that I didn't earlier. Your comics are really fun and exciting to read! I love how you plan "frames" and how characters interact with each other!

As someone who loves comics I am really happy to follow you and see your work! 💙

Oh but I'm so glad you are here now! You weren't missing out while you weren't following me, I barely post or reblog anything 😶‍🌫️

I'm so glad that people enjoy the panel composition, it's truly the thing I spend most time on (after researching historical facts, or drawing backgrounds and props, or-). Happy to know the hallucinations I have in my head make interesting character interactions, too. Thank you so much for following me, I hope the content stays fun to you!

[vaxxman]

hello Vaxxman!!! I haven’t lurked on your blog for ages and so I get to slurp up everything you’ve posted in the last few months

I hope you are doing well!!!!

I always get happy when I see your art on my dash :)

Grisping you with enthusiasm!

Thank you for always coming around and looking at my comics and drawings, I honestly didn't think people would come back to look at things I've drawn months ago.

Thank you for all of the nice things you are writing, I'm also always happy to see your name on my activity feed, like yaaay gravitytrips saw my comic [|87!!!