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#media with characters speaking their languages and not magically knowing English for no reason are superior to me as an European
dreamerthetimelady · 1 year
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I love all the trailers and the new footage and I’m beyond excited to finally see the sequel, but it does actually bother me a bit that we've seen so many scenes with Na'vi interacting with each other and speaking in English rather than in their own language.
I really hope there’s either a good explanation or they use more Na’vi language in the movie.
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I find it so interesting that with in the twist universe, the boys write things out in English and not Japanese. For instance, the Valentines Day cards having been written in English as well as the contract in the Octavinelle commercial. It feels very deliberate. As if to indicate that they are foreign and don't necessarily speak the same language, but the writers also want us to still understand what's being written so they write it in English. Idk I just think it's a neat way of depicting this without having to go full Tolkien.
Mmm, that's definitely an interesting topic 🤔 Most fantasy media doesn't go out of its way to invent entirely new languages for its use (I only know of Devil is a Part Timer! doing it). It's actually difficult to come up with an entirely new language; you don't just come up with substitutions for words, but also new meaningful symbols, pronunciations, grammar and syntax which governs how the and sounds, words can be arranged, and social rules for the language's use. It's just easier to use a preexisting language and then to come up with some excuse for why we can understand them (typically because of magic doing the translating for us, or plain old suspension of disbelief). In the case of TWST, I think there's a number of reasons why they decided to utilize English for its writing system:
Firstly! The main setting for the game, Night Raven College, is modelled after a British boarding school and England's education system in general. With such English roots, it only "makes sense" for the characters to also write in English. If we consider that Yana herself is involved with TWST, "English" is also an aesthetic that is very suited to her skillset, especially considering her other very popular work, Black Butler. (She really was a perfect pick for the job, huh?) Secondly! If TWST's intention always was to go international someday (which it has), English is a safe bet to go since it's considered a "global" or "universal" language. Not everyone knows it of course, but it's the closest thing we have to a "common" tongue, as the most people in the world speak it! Thirdly (and this is the big one)! In Japan, TWST's country of origin, English is seen as (for lack of a better term) "aesthetic" and even as a status symbol. One 2020 poll found that less than 30% of the Japanese population speak English at any level, and 2-8% speak English fluently. In other words, most Japanese people would not understand the level of English being used in TWST, from Azul's contracts to the wording on the Great Seven statues and more. (You can sort of get a grasp for how few Japanese people are fluent in English from the Valentine's Day Gifts, which are all written in English; it's the one time of year when Japanese fans behave like EN fans and ask around for translations of the cards rather than the other way around for generalized TWST content.) Now, continuing off the point I made about English being seen as a status symbol... It's typically the highly educated and/or the privileged of Japan that learn English to a fluent degree. Considering that NRC is seen as an elite institution, the fact that its students can fully articulate (ie use full sentences in complex ways) in English only adds to that feeling of "being elite" (at least for the Japanese audience). English also has the effect of making the world of TWST come across as more "foreign" and helps to simulate the "other-worldliness" of the TWST characters in general (again, because of how rare fluent English is in Japan). The effect is somewhat lost in TWST EN, as most things are in English and the material is presented to predominantly English-speaking audiences in the USA and Canada, although I guess you could make the argument that the spoken dialogue staying in Japanese makes up for that lost feeling of the writing seeming foreign.
So!! There's actually many different reasons (or perhaps a combination of all of these, or unintended side-effects of one of them) as to why the general writing system in TWST is English rather than Japanese.
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paradoxcase · 5 months
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Chapter 50 of Harrow the Ninth
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Well, I mean, maybe. If you get resurrected, like I said in the last writeup, that does probably clear space for a new character to appear
So, Wake possessed Cytherea's body, probably starting from when Harrow stabbed the body with the sword a second time, I would guess. This doesn't make sense to me for a couple of reasons, though: 1) How could Wake be simultaneously piloting around Cytherea's body while also fighting Nonius in the River bubble? It seems like her soul would have to be in two different places simutaneously for that to happen, and 2) If Wake already has Cytherea's body, why does she need to kill Harrow and possess her body as well? It's not like she's having trouble using Cytherea to cause chaos. I guess you could maybe argue that the whole Nonius fight just took place while Cytherea was tied up, but I think Wake has been trying to possess Harrow from the beginning of the River bubble stuff
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So this point of contention is not about environmental destruction of the Earth, or anything like that, then?
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So, apparently the first part is from Henry V, the second part is from the Maori version of the New Zealand national anthem, and the last part is an Eminem lyric. Does BOE use a naming scheme that's like the Puritans who named themselves after entire bible verses, except that instead of using the bible, they use the entire corpus of pre-Resurrection media?
Also, I've been told by people that they are somehow speaking modern English even 10,000 years into the future, does that also go for BOE? Clearly Wake is able to communicate with the other characters without issues. But if this is really just supposed to be the case because John is some kind of micromanager who somehow manages to magically stop language change in the Nine Houses, why would BOE be affected by that? They aren't even in the Nine Houses, and I doubt very much that John cares whether or not they can communicate with him. Anyway, the reason I mention this is that if BOE no longer spoke a language in which these phrases mean anything, they would actually probably work much better as names. The first two seem fine as they are, actually, but I think the Eminem lyric becomes substantially less silly-looking if you don't know what it means. And Wake says "they're dead words", but if she is speaking modern English to John, they aren't really dead words, are they?
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This makes zero sense. She's been walking around the Mithraeum with a gun, she's been perfectly capable of killing herself whenever she wanted to do that. Also, does John see himself as a cop?
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Was the prison on the Ninth actually intended to be a dummy target for BOE? I don't know how much sense that makes, since like John says, there's nothing on the Ninth except the Tomb, and until the conclusion of this chapter I think he's very sure that no one can use the Tomb against him. So why put a decoy there?
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I'm guessing this is a reference to whatever catastrophe happened just before the Resurrection and not, say, the bombs that BOE sent against John's ships?
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Would being named after an Evanescence lyric really be any sillier than being named after an Eminem lyric? Honestly, it's probably an improvement in this particular case
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So that's an interesting thing, actually - Wake's skeleton was almost certainly converted into a construct for snow leek farming/etc. on the Ninth, so it would have been perfectly human-shaped and mobile, it's not like her bones got buried in the ground or something. Earlier Harrow said that revenants want to inhabit something that's mobile - like a skeleton - or they get bored and leave. So why did she leave her perfectly mobile skeleton to go possess Gideon's sword? Did she only possess the sword when she found out it might leave the planet? What is the thanergy link between Wake's skeleton and the sword in the first place? Or was she just able to possess the sword because it belonged to Gideon?
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After reading the entire chapter I'm still not sure what she knows now that she didn't know then. That the Tomb was opened 8 years ago and nothing much happened? I'm guessing she was in on this because she thought opening the Tomb would end the Nine Houses
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So Mercy was somehow able to make sperm survive for 12 weeks, but couldn't make the ova last that long? I know thanergy is bad for reproduction, but this is kind of like how Hal 9000 doesn't have all the abilities of modern computers but can somehow beat every human at chess. Or who knows, maybe John's sperm is just special like that
There's something about this story, where Gideon was literally conceived and born just to die, not even properly named, her whole purpose was just to die so that someone else could achieve some end, and then that didn't happen and she was saved from that fate by Commander Wake's death, and then she grew up and independently decided that her whole purpose in life was to die for someone else anyway
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Why does he do this? I theorized before that Pyrrha is stil around and he's kind of both of them, so do his eyes betray when he is Gideon versus Pyrrha too and he wants to hide that?
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I'm absolutely dying to know exactly what kind of relationship these two(/three?) had/have. They had an affair and they do seem to like each other, but he killed her literally twice now and she very much tried to kill him with the whole incinerator thing. Actually, I mean, speaking of the incinerator incident, when he talked to Harrow after that, did he really think Wake was possessing Harrow? Did he not realize she was actually possessing Cytherea? I think he must have realized she was possessing Cytherea, because of his visits to her before that, but then after the incinerator thing he was talking to Harrow like she was Wake. But I guess Wake was then also in the River bubble doing the two-places at once thing
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What Pyrrha died for? I mean, aside from the fact that I think Pyrrha might still be around, actually, wouldn't the official story be that Pyrrha died 10,000 years ago and not 19 years ago?
I love all of Gideon Nav's descriptions of Gideon the First: Gideon Classic, Gideon Senior, Gideon Prime, Gideon, original flavor
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Is this the real reason why John seals himself up when they fight the resurrection beasts, so he doesn't bleed blood that could be used to open the Tomb?
So, the original plan was the Gideon's death would, by itself, undo the blood ward and then presumably Mercy or Augustine could come by later to undo all of the other wards? And what actually happened was that there was a thanergy bloom because of the deaths of the 200 children and then Gideon like, I don't know, scraped her knee outside the Tomb once and that undid the blood ward? And Harrow thought she must have figured it out herself somehow?
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This is simultaneously so funny and also kind of gross. But the original Deus Apate, like I mean the original Greek one, was really just about distracting God and not about secretly harvesting his sperm to create a baby to bring about the apocalypse, no one needed to specifically seduce Zeus to get him to create babies with absolutely everyone. I thought it was an appropriate reference when it appeared earlier in the story because that was about distracting John, but it feels significantly less apropos here
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Did Tamsyn Muir sit down and go, you know what would have been really cool? You know what would have been really great? It would have been just awesome if Darth Vader had cracked a dad joke at the end of Return of the Jedi, I'm so mad he didn't do that
Things that are still not resolved as of this chapter:
What does Gideon's eye color mean?
Why were Mercy and Augustine trying to open the Tomb?
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silentwalrus1 · 2 years
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Hi, can I ask you a writing question? One of my works has a place in it that i want to worldbuild and make feel authentic, or at least like i know what i'm talking about, and the fact that youve apparently never actually finished brotherhood and yet have fleshed out Amestris and it's relations down to insane minutiae honestly stuns me. So i want to ask how you're able to do that, how do you know where to look for the information you need? is hammering all that out just a continual process of interrogating yourself on 'okay, then what?' I'd be greatly obliged if you could share some wisdom. (also caveat emptor rules and i will be devouring non's fics later)
Worldbuilding! Arguably my favorite thing to do in stories!
Let’s take a look at this from the top down. 
Step one: notice stuff. 
I write what I like to read, and often what’s most interesting to me is the physical worlds built in fiction, as well as the cultures and behaviors etc that arise from them and how they differ from what we have in reality; that means I’m often paying the most attention to what other authors do when it comes to building out other realities, on everything from physical laws of the universe to linguistic drift. The details I particularly like or that stick out to me as the most convincing or interesting is what I tend to incorporate.
This is also true of real life - i love cities and gardens and food, so the things i notice about cities and gardens and food are what I write about: details that add texture and individuality to where I am, what I’m doing and how. What country am I in? How is it different from my own? Do I have to wear special clothing? How are the maps different? The street paving? Are people rude here? What is rude here? What the hell is that thing being fried on a stick and what does it taste like? 
 Making these details feel realistic in fiction, however, often involves building logic chains more than just copying things from real life or native creativity. which brings us to: 
Step Two: scream WHY? 
WHY are things the way they are? Why is the teapot full of so much goddamn limescale in Paris? Why are portrayals of ghosts illegal in Chinese fiction & media? Why does Russian food suck so so bad? All of these questions have answers. (Built on limestone. Implication of afterlife undermines state doctrine. Not a lot of fresh produce grows locally and what does tends to be tubers.) So building out these If X - Then Y chains give you depth and context to the world, and in fiction make it feel realistic. 
For example: Why do most countries in the world teach children English? Because an English speaking empire conquered a lot of them, leading it to become a lingua franca and the de facto language of higher education and commerce now. So if you want to have Fictional Country X, Y and Z all share a language - what’s the reason? Shared national origin, split apart later along ethnic lines? Shared colonial history? Shared trading ties so longstanding that a basic business esperanto developed? 
Step Three: integrate it... NATURALLY. Act NATURAL
To people living within a world, their everyday reality is not going to be news to them. They are also very likely going to have Opinions about how the world is set up around them. Having Character A monologue about How The World Works for twenty pages at Born Yesterday Character B is... look, that shit’s not even that fun even when it IS justified in-universe, like for example this being Harry Potter’s first day at magic school learning about magic world for the first time ever, from people whose job it is to literally give lectures on the stuff. 
So you want to get this stuff in there more organically. One of the best ways to integrate believable worldbuilding is to have your characters complain. Everybody gets around on flying dragons? Twenty minute rant on how the giant dragon manure cleanup crews are NEVER on top of it, and god fucking help you if you jaywalk under a major flight path and an incontinent Bluescale happens to trundle past. What’s pissing your character off at their job? What made them mad in the news this morning? What are they craving that’s out of season or too expensive or doesn’t come in the color they want? 
All of these things make your characters feel like more complete people, because in real life we’ve all got big, overarching goals (become a doctor, start a family, restore our bodies from a cruel and arbitrary god) but we also have medium goals (get that promotion at work, buy a house, stop the apocalypse) and of course small goals (change your bedsheets, buy that snack you’re craving, get your busted automail fixed & not die in the process). 
All of these goals arise from our surroundings and the world we live in, and are often quite interconnected (I need to go pick up my prescription -> the country in which my drugs are manufactured is currently at war with my country and under shipping embargo from three others -> i become a supervillain). If Amestris’ capital city is designed to be a circle, for example, then maybe kindergartners in Central learn basic neighborhood geography with maps that look like pies, and this makes people jokingly refer to various districts as Strawberry Rhubarb or whatever. 
So yes, a lot of it is just asking yourself “okay, what then” and extrapolating logically: you introduce X phenomenon, what effect will that have on everything else? If your story is on an island, you’re likely to have a lot of fishing industry, cuisine, culture. If your story is in a space station, people are going to move in ways that account for zero G. If your story is in a dictatorship, people are going to be less trusting, less socially mobile, less informed. (This is actually one of my main cinamasins ding sounds for FMA - where is the culture of repression and cultural control and fear endemic to authoritarian regimes!!!) 
So overall, my advice here boils down to get outside, read a lot (fiction and nonfiction) and just notice stuff, including all the ways how you receive new information - gossip? Memes? Church? News headline? History textbook? Racist joke? - which then gives you a big grab-bag of things to pull on and put together. Have fun! 
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oldofmd12verse · 1 year
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OFMD Decembverse 2022 Information
Hello everyone, and welcome to OFMD Decembverse! It’s time to try our hand at some poetry. Please read the entire thread before participating! Our hashtag: #ofmd12verse (alternate: #ofmddecembverse).
First, link to the ao3 collection for this event: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/ofmd12verse22/profile
Official Twitter for this event:
Information:
OFMD Decembverse is a month-long prompt-based challenge to write some poetry for your fandom. Poetry is seen as something intimidating and “not for people like us” to most people, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Poetry is for everyone.
Each day of December will have two prompts associated with it: A type of poetry (with instructions provided for how to write it) and a lesser-known quote from the show Our Flag Means Death that you can use as inspiration.
You do not have to follow either prompt if you do not want to. You can choose to focus only on the poetry type or the quote, or say screw it and write the poetry you want, how you want. If it’s a poem related to OFMD (or that uses these prompts), it qualifies for this challenge.
This challenge is taking place on Ao3, Twitter, and Tumblr.
Note: Some of these poetry styles (such as Shi) were developed to only work well in certain languages. I will be posting ways to adapt these to English for those who are interested. I don’t think poetry should have to be Euro-centric just because this is a predominantly English-speaking fandom.
Prompt List:
Day 1: Slam: “Wait until you hear about my life as an accountant.” Day 2: Ballad: “I loves me a thief.” Day 3: Sonnet (Iambic Pentameter): “The love of a pet makes a man weak.” Day 4: Pastoral: “We’re gonna have fun today, and that’s an order.” Day 5: Terza Rima: “If I can help this crew grow as people, then I’ve succeeded in being a pirate captain.” Day 6: Ottava Rima: “You should have stayed still, that’s kinda on you.” Day 7: Enclosed rhyme: “The rest was just gravity.” Day 8: Soliloquy: “So this whole time you were a woman?” Day 9: Blank Verse: “I’ve got more riches than you can shake a fucking stick at!” Day 10: Free Verse: “I never said that they floated.” Day 11: Ode: “You all look the same, you know.” Day 12: Lyric: “Is this all there is?” Day 13: Ballade (not the same as Ballad): “A widow’s life isn’t nearly as bad as it’s made out to be.” Day 14: Villanelle: “Mutiny is a-brewin’.” Day 15: Narrative Poetry: “I can’t believe you made me do this.” Day 16: Dissonance: “Since we’re on the subject of bad vibes…” Day 17: Assonance: “We love an audience.” Day 18: Satirical: “I’m a dirty, filthy murderer!” Day 19: Haiku (or Tanka): “And you cried all the time, and liked to pick flowers.” Day 20: Elegy: “Murder is a natural cause.” Day 21: Imagery: “We could’ve made magic.” Day 22: Alliteration: “Knives are knives, meat’s meat.” Day 23: Free Verse: “I heard the most insane rumor.” Day 24: Couplet: “You don’t get food if you’ve been invaded.” Day 25: Shi Poetry (see guide for English interpretation of rules): “I’m the Black Cat of Death.” Day 26: Fable: “Read it and weep, my friend! Adventure awaits!” Day 27: Ghazal: “God’s not a fan.” Day 28: Limerick: “The vengeancer and the vengeancee.” Day 29: Tercet: “You’ll sign a confession to that extent, hmm?” Day 30: Monorhyme: “Avast ye!” Day 31: Epic: “My Wondrous Journey: A Life at Sea.”
Rules: 1. Please tag properly and liberally for common/reasonable triggers. Mark explicit verse as explicit for those of us who browse social media at work.
2. No racism/homophobia/transphobia that isn’t both tagged AND used in the storytelling process (such as to express discomfort with these concepts or to show characters being victims of these concepts).
3. If your poetry is explicit, tag that shit please!
4. Don’t worry about getting it perfectly right, poetry is about expressing yourself and feeling free as fuck while doing it.
Frequently Asked Questions:
What if I've never written poetry before/am not very good? Poetry is one of the oldest art forms in the world. People used poetry to pass down wisdom, stories, and share their culture before they could write. It is truly for everyone, including you. It has a stereotype for being gatekept and that only certain people can appreciate it, but I promise that that is a lie. If you can type words, you can do this.
Do I have to participate in every day/prompt? No, and it's likely that it will be really difficult to keep up with them all. Do what speaks to you and makes you happy.
What if I don't want to make the kind of poetry in that day's prompt? Then screw it, pick another kind that speaks to you. This challenge is supposed to help you learn to express yourself in different ways, but if you can't express yourself properly through a haiku or a sonnet, do something else that speaks to you. All poetry is good poetry.
Do I have to follow the quote prompt for each day? No. Some people don't know where to begin, so I've provided quotes from the show that generally aren't used/referenced much in fandom. But if you have a better idea you are obligated to use that one instead, because again, expressing yourself through verse is the most important part.
Do my poems have to rhyme? No, not all poetry rhymes, and some kinds explicitly don't.
Can my poetry be explicit/sexy? Hell yeah. Just tag that shit, please.
Can I participate by writing for other fandoms? Yes! While this challenge was created with OFMD in mind, all fandoms could use a nice injection of verse in them. All I ask is that you use at least one of the prompts for that day (be it the poetry type or quote) so it relates to this challenge in some way. I know that many people also write for WWDITS and those fandoms are more than welcome here. I purposely chose quotes that aren't a direct reference to characters in the show so that you could branch out.
Do I have to write a poem about the exact context of the quote? No, absolutely not. It can be about anything. The quote is just there to get your juices flowing.
Where can I post my work? Ao3: This collection is the place to post it. Twitter: Use the tag #ofmd12verse OR #ofmdDecembverse (the first one is neater in my opinion). The main account will retweet works under those tags. Tumblr: Use the tag #ofmd12verse OR #ofmdDecembverse (the first one is neater in my opinion). The main account will reblog works under those tags.
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ofmddecembverse · 1 year
Text
OFMD Decembverse 2022 Challenge
Hello everyone, and welcome to OFMD Decembverse! It’s time to try our hand at some poetry. Please read the entire thread before participating! Our hashtag: #ofmd12verse (alternate: #ofmddecembverse).
First, link to the ao3 collection for this event: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/ofmd12verse22/profile
Official Twitter for this event:
OFMD Decembverse (@ofmd12verse) / TwitterOFMD Poetry Prompt Challenge for December 2022.TWITTER
Information:
OFMD Decembverse is a month-long prompt-based challenge to write some poetry for your fandom. Poetry is seen as something intimidating and “not for people like us” to most people, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Poetry is for everyone.
Each day of December will have two prompts associated with it: A type of poetry (with instructions provided for how to write it) and a lesser-known quote from the show Our Flag Means Death that you can use as inspiration.
You do not have to follow either prompt if you do not want to. You can choose to focus only on the poetry type or the quote, or say screw it and write the poetry you want, how you want. If it’s a poem related to OFMD (or that uses these prompts), it qualifies for this challenge.
This challenge is taking place on Ao3, Twitter, and Tumblr.
Note: Some of these poetry styles (such as Shi) were developed to only work well in certain languages. I will be posting ways to adapt these to English for those who are interested. I don’t think poetry should have to be Euro-centric just because this is a predominantly English-speaking fandom.
Prompt List:
Day 1: Slam: “Wait until you hear about my life as an accountant.” Day 2: Ballad: “I loves me a thief.” Day 3: Sonnet (Iambic Pentameter): “The love of a pet makes a man weak.” Day 4: Pastoral: “We’re gonna have fun today, and that’s an order.” Day 5: Terza Rima: “If I can help this crew grow as people, then I’ve succeeded in being a pirate captain.” Day 6: Ottava Rima: “You should have stayed still, that’s kinda on you.” Day 7: Enclosed rhyme: “The rest was just gravity.” Day 8: Soliloquy: “So this whole time you were a woman?” Day 9: Blank Verse: “I’ve got more riches than you can shake a fucking stick at!” Day 10: Free Verse: “I never said that they floated.” Day 11: Ode: “You all look the same, you know.” Day 12: Lyric: “Is this all there is?” Day 13: Ballade (not the same as Ballad): “A widow’s life isn’t nearly as bad as it’s made out to be.” Day 14: Villanelle: “Mutiny is a-brewin’.” Day 15: Narrative Poetry: “I can’t believe you made me do this.” Day 16: Dissonance: “Since we’re on the subject of bad vibes…” Day 17: Assonance: “We love an audience.” Day 18: Satirical: “I’m a dirty, filthy murderer!” Day 19: Haiku (or Tanka): “And you cried all the time, and liked to pick flowers.” Day 20: Elegy: “Murder is a natural cause.” Day 21: Imagery: “We could’ve made magic.” Day 22: Alliteration: “Knives are knives, meat’s meat.” Day 23: Free Verse: “I heard the most insane rumor.” Day 24: Couplet: “You don’t get food if you’ve been invaded.” Day 25: Shi Poetry (see guide for English interpretation of rules): “I’m the Black Cat of Death.” Day 26: Fable: “Read it and weep, my friend! Adventure awaits!” Day 27: Ghazal: “God’s not a fan.” Day 28: Limerick: “The vengeancer and the vengeancee.” Day 29: Tercet: “You’ll sign a confession to that extent, hmm?” Day 30: Monorhyme: “Avast ye!” Day 31: Epic: “My Wondrous Journey: A Life at Sea.”
Rules: 1. Please tag properly and liberally for common/reasonable triggers. Mark explicit verse as explicit for those of us who browse social media at work.
2. No racism/homophobia/transphobia that isn’t both tagged AND used in the storytelling process (such as to express discomfort with these concepts or to show characters being victims of these concepts).
3. If your poetry is explicit, tag that shit please!
4. Don’t worry about getting it perfectly right, poetry is about expressing yourself and feeling free as fuck while doing it.
Frequently Asked Questions:
What if I've never written poetry before/am not very good? Poetry is one of the oldest art forms in the world. People used poetry to pass down wisdom, stories, and share their culture before they could write. It is truly for everyone, including you. It has a stereotype for being gatekept and that only certain people can appreciate it, but I promise that that is a lie. If you can type words, you can do this.
Do I have to participate in every day/prompt? No, and it's likely that it will be really difficult to keep up with them all. Do what speaks to you and makes you happy.
What if I don't want to make the kind of poetry in that day's prompt? Then screw it, pick another kind that speaks to you. This challenge is supposed to help you learn to express yourself in different ways, but if you can't express yourself properly through a haiku or a sonnet, do something else that speaks to you. All poetry is good poetry.
Do I have to follow the quote prompt for each day? No. Some people don't know where to begin, so I've provided quotes from the show that generally aren't used/referenced much in fandom. But if you have a better idea you are obligated to use that one instead, because again, expressing yourself through verse is the most important part.
Do my poems have to rhyme? No, not all poetry rhymes, and some kinds explicitly don't.
Can my poetry be explicit/sexy? Hell yeah. Just tag that shit, please.
Can I participate by writing for other fandoms? Yes! While this challenge was created with OFMD in mind, all fandoms could use a nice injection of verse in them. All I ask is that you use at least one of the prompts for that day (be it the poetry type or quote) so it relates to this challenge in some way. I know that many people also write for WWDITS and those fandoms are more than welcome here. I purposely chose quotes that aren't a direct reference to characters in the show so that you could branch out.
Do I have to write a poem about the exact context of the quote? No, absolutely not. It can be about anything. The quote is just there to get your juices flowing.
Where can I post my work? Ao3: This collection is the place to post it. Twitter: Use the tag #ofmd12verse OR #ofmdDecembverse (the first one is neater in my opinion). The main account will retweet works under those tags. Tumblr: Use the tag #ofmd12verse OR #ofmdDecembverse (the first one is neater in my opinion). The main account will reblog works under those tags.
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aio-rya · 2 years
Note
can you (or followers) pls explain some of the small elements the EN version censored? i only recently started playing and i'm very curious.
Of course Anon! I've been playing the game for almost two years now, the anniversary is in March for Japanese game by the way. I'll try to give you a clear answer, however I must mention that, as far as I've read, there are not many censored elements —they've changed the language and the slangs instead. I'm going to point the main differences we've seen until now.
[This post will be under constant edition. I'll add things as I notice]
First of all, I want to clear that there is no lgbt stuff censored in TWST. That is something many people have been spreading through the Internet but they are mistaken, most of their affirmations are based upon Headcanons or Fan-canons. Even though there are hints to playful suggesting commentaries (Cater is the most popular among the topic, actually), there is nothing explicit and not a single of those facts is actually canon.
Kalim and Jamil's Personal Story (aka Vignette). Their true relationship is the one similar to Master and Slave, since Jamil was raised as his attendant since his family has served Asim's family for generations, and despite Kalim considering him a dear friend and almost a brother (which is actually said in stories yet to come to EN version as well as Episode/Book 4), Jamil thinks of him as a burden more than a friend, he likes him only a bit though.
Sam's tattoos were removed due to cultural context, which is non-existent in the original game and treated as another design since it is a reference to Dr. Facillier and voodoo practice. In the EN version, they took that representation out of the game so people who actually practice voodoo won't find it offensive, since it is not the purpose of this game.
They changed "Madols" to "Thaumarks". The name of "Madol" could be defined as a short word composed by "Magic" (魔法 Mahō) and "Dollars", Ma/dol. If we're following the same logic, Thaumarks could be defined the same, "Thaumaturgy" is a word used to define the ability to perform magic or miracles (an equivalent to "Mahō"), "Marks" used to be a unit of account over England's area and a coin in Germany before being replaced whit Euros; Thau/marks.
Trey's Unique Magic was another noticeable change many fans didn't like. It's a small thing though, but it was kind of weir to change the name to "Paint the Roses" from "Doodle Suit". I don't know why, though, but translators/Disney may have their reasons for it.
Cater Diamond and Idia Shroud language. Cater is a person fixed with social media, he's always carrying his phone talking about the latest trends, using slangs and terms you'd usually write while chatting with someone or in gaming; while Idia talks literally like an "average" hardcore otaku will talk, he talks with acronyms and some "cringy" words or sentences —now, this is not censorship, is a literal translation of how an english-speaker will use this terms in their own language, their japanese lines are basically the same in these language. They only tried to put there some terms like the "like-suscribe" thing.
Some characters are way too 'kind' compared with their version in the game. TWST is based upon Villains, alas we're not expecting them to be kind and sweet from the beginning —this was one of the first fixes they made on the emergency maintenance during the second day of the game.
This is not censorship itself, but they made somewhat softer the way Riddle's mother treated him —they made it seem harsher in the original version. But the story is basically the same.
Chen'ya didn't suffer any change at all but the name, which is written this way by those who fan-translated the game; now, the name in Japanese is "Alchemi Alchemivich Pinka" because that's how it was written in katakana, so I am going to clear this point as a person who speaks and understand how japanese works: katakana is used for outside words BUT WE USE IT TO WRITE PRONUNCIATION, which means if we read the word as "Waver" it is written as "Weiba", why? Because the pronunciation in english is actually "weɪvɚ". So it makes sense he's named "Artemiy Artemiyevich Pinker" AND it makes sense you're confused if you come from JP ver. since R could be interpreted as L because we don't have an L in japanese. If you change R for L in the fan translations it says "Archemi Archemivich Pinker", as for the "Pinker" instead of "Pinka" is because you actually don't pronounce "-er" as dry as it goes.
A noticeable change is the interaction between Sebek and Malleus. Sebek respects Malleus to the point he even owns a painting of him in his room, he always refers to him as "The Young Master", "My Young Lord" or "Lord Malleus". At the English version, he refers to Malleus just as Malleus, only certain chapters of the MS or PS's of another characters he refers to him as "Master". This is a huge failure for translators since it looks like there were different teams in charge of it, and they actually never came in contact with each other, there why we have so many fluctuations.
Floyd Leech's nickname for MC/Yuu. In the original version, he calls us "Koebi-chan" which can be translated as "Little shrimp" ("Shrimpy" for his pals haha). While at EN version they actually avoided the nickname, at least I've seen so in the few chapters of him I've read both MS and PS. They've respected some of his nick's like the one he has for Riddle
This is all I've got for now, but I will add more if I find them. Hope this works for you, Anon. If you're curious about the difference between translations, I highly recommend Ryota's translations for main story, they do an amazing work; as for personal stories or events, there are many options in YouTube for you to take a look.
Bonne chance!
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buffintruder · 3 years
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thanks for tagging me @arofili for this writer ask meme!
how many works do you have on AO3?
73 (wtf when did that happen)
what’s your total AO3 word count?
531,796
how many fandoms have you written for and what are they?
ao3 lists 50, but some of these overlap, like me tagging something both “les mis all media types” and “les mis victor hugo”. so probably around 36?
The top fandoms are Les Mis, Fullmetal Alchemist, Bartimaeus, and The Adventure Zone
what are your top 5 fics by kudos?
Reunion --the Untamed from Lan Sizhui’s pov
Angus McDonald and the Case of the Soul Stealer --taz fic sort of modern with magic au (also my first long fic and probably the fic with the most plot, i am very proud of it)
Wanting to Be Wanted -- fma fic, 5 times Greed didn’t realize he cared about people and 1 time he did
what if the real steel samurai fandom was the friends we made along the way -- ace attorney characters in the steel samurai fandom from an outside pov (i only started posting this a bit over 2 months ago, so i’m kind of impressed)
Better Than Nothing -- Magnus Chase, Alex Fierro has gender feelings and receives a gift (this fic is really the one where i have zero idea why it is as popular as it is)
do you respond to comments, why or why not?
yeah! I like it when authors respond to my comments, so I try to at least say “thanks!” If someone leaves a more detailed comment, it’s fun being able to respond to the things they say and talk about any sort of ‘behind the scenes’ writing things
what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?
I’m honestly not sure? I think even my angstiest fics have at least somewhat hopeful endings. There’s probably 5 or so I could choose from, but most of them were written a long time ago, I’m going to say Sing Tomorrow’s Song because even though the ending isn’t too angsty compared to the rest of the fic, it is about Grantaire being seduced by the personification of Death as a semi-metaphor for him dealing with depression, so it’s not exactly cheery
do you write crossovers? if so what is the craziest one you’ve written?
Yes! I love crossovers, though I don’t write them as much as I read them. Probably the weirdest two fandoms to crossover was Les Mis and the Beka Cooper series because me and my cowriter just sort of stuck France in the middle of the Tortall universe and didn’t question it
have you ever received hate on a fic?
A couple times, but the only one I remember was when someone didn’t like me writing Enjolras as a trans man
do you write smut? if so what kind?
Hah nope I’ll read it but as of right now I’m aroace enough that I’m barely comfortable with writing kissing
have you ever had a fic stolen?
I don’t believe so
have you ever had a fic translated?
One of my first fics was translated into Russian on ffn, Tricksters Running. (It’s sort of a weird character study on the Doctor from Doctor Who and Gabriel from Supernatural, and despite me writing it at the age of 14 it’s not terrible? younger me was better at poetic writing than current me)
have you ever co-written a fic before?
yeah, with @arofili !
what’s your all time favorite ship?
Uhhh this is hard. The ship that took up my brain for the longest time is Enjolras/Grantaire, and currently my favorite ship is Phoenix Wright/Edgeworth
what’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?
Well there’s a Lucifer au of fma that i wrote like 70k words of and hyped up to all my friends but never started posting and honestly at this point I don’t think I ever will.
For things that I started posting, A Home Beyond the What Ifs about Eponine/Cosette in Japan. I do like it, and I have a couple scenes of the next chapter written out, but I also have no motivation to actually work on it
what are your writing strengths?
Honestly? No clue, but not plot. Dialogue maybe?
what are your writing weaknesses?
Probably plot. I can sometimes come up with one, but most of my fics are just a series of loosely interconnected interactions it feels like
what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?
Generally I don’t with a few exceptions.
If the pov character doesn’t understand what is being said, I’ll sometimes write that bit of dialogue out in whatever other language it is in to sort of add to the experience (since I assume most readers would not be able to understand it either, and those who do will be delighted)
If the language is Japanese and characters mostly speak English, I also have the dialogue be in Japanese sometimes since that is the language I actually know well enough to be reasonably confident in writing it. I would not write a full conversation in Japanese or anything, but if they’re switching between two languages then I’ll write it out in the languages it’s supposed to be in (for other languages I would usually just say “xxx” they said in y language, or italicize it if they switch between two languages enough).
Lastly, if the fic is about language then I might also do that because that’s sort of the whole point of the fic (which mostly overlaps with at least one of the above, but I have a fic in my drafts where 2 sentences don’t fit the above exceptions, so i figured i’d include this)
what was the first fandom you wrote for?
Technically it was a Les Mis/Beka Cooper crossover. The first fic I posted that I wrote all by myself was a Supernatural/Doctor Who crossover. Which honestly sums up my interests as a 13-14yo pretty well I feel
what’s your favorite fic you’ve written?
...this is so hard
I’m going to say Truth, In the Eye of the Beholder (40k study on sharing a body from the pov of Ling Yao) because I genuinely had so much fun working on it, and I’m extremely proud of how it turned out. Definitely one if the fics I put more effort into than normal, and wrangling character arcs into place was hard, but I think it was worth the effort
I tag @micamicster @shadowy-dumbo-octopus @aromantic-enjolras @queerfandommiscellany, if you want to!
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500 Followers: Meet The Writer
Hello there! Look at us reaching 500 followers just in time for CFWC One Year celebration! We’re grateful to all of you who continue to share your work with us and support the fanfic authors of the fandom.Anyway, let’s get to the good stuff!
For some reason that only the forces of the random picker website we use can explain (lol), the tenth fanfic author interviewed is extra special to us. It’s our pleasure to introduce you to our dearest @mod-queen​’s fanfic blog:
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Blog: @thequeenofpixels
Name (or petname): Tamires, but you can call me Tammy
Birthday: March 12
Nationality: Brazilian
Current residency: Brazil (somebody save me)
Languages you speak: Portuguese, English (or at least I try 😂)
Masterlist/AO3: Tammy’s fanfiction masterlist / thequeenstories
 1. Is there a meaning behind your url name?
Well, not much of a meaning, but more of a part of a user I already use for all my social media (thequeen) and the 'ofpixels' part is just because this blog is now for all games I play, and all of them are made of pixels... so.... yeah, not much creative but that's it.
2. When did you start playing Choices? What's the first book you played? 
Back in 2017, The Freshman (When we had the option to choose between Romance and Adventure at the beginning.)
3. When did you decide to join Choices fandom? 
Dec. 2017. At first I created a sideblog in another tumblr of mine, but it really annoyed me how we can’t follow/comment/send asks from the sideblog, so I decided to create a new one exclusively for choices and here we are.
4. Go back to your archive and tell us what your first post on your Choices blog was about.
It was a screenshot from HSS. Oh man, this made me miss the good old days, the magic...
5. How long have you been writing fanfiction?
Since 2015.
6. Share the first fanfic you wrote with us. Do you still like it or would you change anything about it?
The tour after the tour. Yeah I still like it. I wrote after getting really frustrated with TRR, I had to write how I wanted the scene to go  since book 2. Maybe now I’d change a few words here and there, but not what happened in it.
7. What are your favorite Choices books to write about?
Perfect Match and The Royal Romance, but I think it’s more about a few characters than the whole book.
8. What is your specialty as a fanfic writer?
I don’t think I have one…? But I enjoy writing smut and I’m enjoying writing fluff lately.
9. If you could write only angst, fluff or smut for the rest of your writing life, which would it be and why?
OMG this is one is difficult, and even though I'm getting in the fluff scene I'd choose smut 🤭🤭
10. Do you ever recognise yourself in what you write?
Always. I always put something of mine in my main characters, be it the way they act, speak, the way they feel or express their feelings... Or the way I can’t extend a plot, I tend to solve everything as fast as I can or I lose patience  🤭
11. Are there any writers (published authors and/or fanfic writers) who influenced your writing?
Of course! I couldn’t not mention my dear friend Maria ( @marijo37​ ), who’s the one who gave me the biggest push to start writing. She always inspired me with her writing. And later on J. R. Ward with the Black Dagger Brotherhood helped me discover my liking for the erotica genre and inspired me starting writing it and a few years later Sparrow Beckett did the same with BDSM for me.
12. What element of writing do you struggle with most?
Definitely describing places, I don’t know why but for me is really difficult (and boring) to do it, I mention which place the scene is happening and that’s enough for me, but I know it is not enough for some people, so I’ve tried to do it twice, but it didn’t work really well…
13. Is there any neglected work yours you wished you would finish?
A Drake x MC unfinished story that is resting in my archive… I never finished it because the thing I mentioned before: it was being too much prolonged, I lost my patience because it had a plot it couldn’t be solved as fast as I wanted, and so I gave up a while ago… But I never forget about it, if I can change something in it and finish I’ll post, I promise.
14. Which one of your stories would you most like to see as a movie/series?
Oh man, definitely The truth in the burn. All the drama of Eros using humans instead of robots in their mind experiments… (Ngl I did imagine a follow up for this one, but I didn’t want to go on there after all, because of all the possibilities it can lead so I’d rather let to the reader imagination.)
15. Do you write original stories?
Yes! I have one already finished (https://www.wattpad.com/story/44646174-rebeca but it’s in Portuguese) and I’m writing a new one that I haven’t post anywhere yet, I didn’t even gave it a title yet to be honest 
  Thanks for reading! Reblog to share your appreciation for @thequeenofpixels​ ❤️
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usergreenpixel · 3 years
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JACOBIN FICTION CONVENTION MEETING 1: La Seine no Hoshi (1975)
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1. Introduction
Well, dear reader, here it is. My first ever official review. And, as promised, this is one of the pieces of Frev media that you have likely never heard of before.
So, without further ado, sit down, relax, grab drinks and snacks and allow me to tell you about an anime called “La Seine no Hoshi” (The Star of the Seine).
“La Seine no Hoshi” is a children’s anime series made by Studio Sunrise. It consists of 39 episodes and was originally broadcast in Japan from April 4th to December 26th of 1975.
Unlike its more famous contemporary, a manga called “Rose of Versailles” that had begun being released in 1972 and is considered a classic to this day, “La Seine no Hoshi” has stayed relatively obscure both in the world of anime and among other Frev pop culture.
Personally, the only reason why I found out about its existence was the fact that I actively seek out everything Frev-related and I just happened to stumble upon the title on an anime forum several years ago.
So far, the anime has been dubbed into Italian, French, German and Korean but there is no English or even Spanish dub so, unfortunately, people who do not speak fluent Japanese or any other aforementioned language are out of luck ( if anyone decides to make a fandub of the series, call me). That being said, the series is readily available in dubs and the original version on YouTube, which is where I ended up watching it. The French dub calls the anime “La Tulipe Noire” (The Black Tulip), which could be an homage to the movie with the same name that takes place in the same time period.
Unfortunately, while I do speak Japanese well enough to maintain a basic conversation and interact with people in casual daily situations, I’m far from fluent in the language so the version I watched was the French dub, seeing as I am majoring in French.
So, with all of this info in mind, let’s find out what the story is about and proceed to the actual review.
2. The Summary
(Note: Names of the characters in the French dub and the original version differ so I will use names from the former since that’s what I watched)
The story of “La Seine no Hoshi” revolves around a 15-year old girl called Mathilde Pasquier - a daughter of two Parisian florists who helps her parents run their flower shop and has a generally happy life.
But things begin to change when Comte de Vaudreuil, an elderly Parisian noble to whom Mathilde delivers flowers in the second episode, takes her under his wing and starts teaching her fencing for an unknown reason and generally seems to know more about her than he lets on.
Little does Mathilde know, those fencing lessons will end up coming in handy sooner than she expected. When her parents are killed by corrupt nobles, the girl teams up with Comte de Vaudreuil’s son, François, to fight against corruption as heroes of the people, all while the revolution keeps drawing near day by day and tensions in the city are at an all time high.
This is the gist of the story, dear readers, so with that out of the way, here’s the actual review:
3. The Story
Honestly, I kind of like the plot. It has a certain charm to it, like an old swashbuckling novel, of which I’ve read a lot as a kid.
The narrative of a “hero of the common folk” has been a staple in literature for centuries so some might consider the premise to be unoriginal, but I personally like this narrative more than “champion of the rich” (Looking at you, Scarlet Pimpernel) because, historically, it really was a difficult time for commoners and when times are hard people tend to need such heroes the most.
People need hope, so it’s no surprise that Mathilde and François (who already moonlights as a folk hero, The Black Tulip) become living legends thanks to their escapades.
Interestingly enough, the series also subverts a common trope of a hero seeking revenge for the death of his family. Mathilde is deeply affected by the death of her parents but she doesn’t actively seek revenge. Instead, this tragedy makes the fight and the upcoming revolution a personal matter to her and motivates her to fight corruption because she is not the only person who ended up on its receiving end.
The pacing is generally pretty good but I do wish there were less filler episodes and more of the overarching story that’s dedicated to the secret that Comte de Vaudreuil and Mathilde’s parents seem to be hiding from her and maybe it would be better if the secret in question was revealed to the audience a bit later than episode 7 or so.
However, revealing the twist early on is still an interesting narrative choice because then the main question is not what the secret itself is but rather when and how Mathilde will find out and how she will react, not to mention how it will affect the story.
That being said, even the filler episodes do drive home the point that a hero like Mathilde is needed, that nobles are generally corrupt and that something needs to change. Plus, those episodes were still enjoyable and entertaining enough for me to keep watching, which is good because usually I don’t like filler episodes much and it’s pretty easy to make them too boring.
Unfortunately, the show is affected by the common trope of the characters not growing up but I don’t usually mind that much. It also has the cliché of heroes being unrecognizable in costumes and masks, but that’s a bit of a staple in the superhero stories even today so it’s not that bothersome.
4. The Characters
It was admittedly pretty rare for a children’s show to have characters who were fleshed out enough to seem realistic and flawed, but I think this series gives its characters more development than most shows for kids did at the time.
I especially like Mathilde as a character. Sure, at first glance she seems like a typical Nice Pretty Ordinary Girl ™️ but that was a part of the appeal for me.
I am a strong believer in that a character does not need to be a blank slate or a troubled jerk to be interesting and Mathilde is neither of the above. She is essentially an ordinary girl with her own life, family, friends, personality and dreams and, unfortunately, all of that is taken away from her when her parents are killed.
Her initial reluctance to participate in the revolution is also pretty realistic as she is still trying to live her own life in peace and she made a promise to her parents to stay safe so there’s that too.
I really like the fact that the show did not give her magic powers and that she was not immediately good at fencing. François does remark that her fencing is not bad for a beginner but in those same episodes she is clearly shown making mistakes and it takes her time to upgrade from essentially François’s assistant in the heroic shenanigans to a teammate he can rely on and sees as an equal. Heck, later there’s a moment when Mathilde saves François, which is a nice tidbit of her development.
Mathilde also doesn’t have any romantic subplots, which is really rare for a female lead.
She has a childhood friend, Florent, but the two are not close romantically and they even begin to drift apart somewhat once Florent becomes invested in the revolution. François de Vaudreuil does not qualify for a love interest either - his father does take Mathilde in and adopts her after her parents are killed so François is more of an older brother than anything else.
Now, I’m not saying that romance is necessarily a bad thing but I do think that not having them is refreshing than shoehorning a romance into a story that’s not even about it. Plus most kids don’t care that much for romance to begin with so I’d say that the show only benefits from the creative decision of not setting Mathilde up with anyone.
Another interesting narrative choice I’d like to point out is the nearly complete absence of historical characters, like the revolutionaries. They do not make an appearance at all, save for Saint-Just’s cameo in one of the last episodes and, fortunately, he doesn’t get demonized. Instead, the revolutionary ideas are represented by Florent, who even joins the Jacobin Club during the story and is the one who tries to get Mathilde to become a revolutionary. Other real people, like young Napoleon and Mozart, do appear but they are also cameo characters, which does not count.
Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI are exceptions to the rule.
(Spoiler alert!)
Marie-Antoinette is portrayed as kind of spoiled and out of touch. Her spending habits get touched on too but she is not a malicious person at heart. She is simply flawed. She becomes especially important to the story later on when Mathilde finds out the secret that has been hidden from her for her entire life.
As it turns out, Marie- Antoinette, the same queen Mathilde hated so much, is the girl’s older half-sister and Mathilde is an illegitimate daughter of the Austrian king and an opera singer, given to a childless couple of florists to be raised in secret so that her identity can be protected.
The way Marie-Antoinette and Mathilde are related and their further interactions end up providing an interesting inner conflict for Mathilde as now she needs to reconcile this relationship with her sister and her hatred for the corruption filling Versailles.
The characters are not actively glorified or demonized for the most part and each side has a fair share of sympathetic characters but the anime doesn’t shy away from showing the dark sides of the revolution either, unlike some other shows that tackle history (*cough* Liberty’s Kids comes to mind *cough*).
All in all, pretty interesting characters and the way they develop is quite realistic too, even if they could’ve been more fleshed out in my opinion.
5. The Voice Acting
Pretty solid. No real complaints here. I’d say that the dub actors did a good job.
6. The Setting
I really like the pastel and simple color scheme of Paris and its contrast with the brighter palette of Versailles. It really drives home the contrast between these two worlds.
The character designs are pretty realistic, simple and pleasant to watch. No eyesores like neon colors and overly cutesy anime girls with giant tiddies here and that’s a big plus in my book.
7. The Conclusion
Like I said, the show is not available in English and those who are able to watch it might find it a bit cliché but, while it’s definitely not perfect. I actually quite like it for its interesting concept, fairly realistic characters and a complex view of the French Revolution. I can definitely recommend this show, if only to see what it’s all about.
Some people might find this show too childish and idealistic, but I’m not one of them.
I’m almost 21 but I still enjoy cartoons and I’m fairly idealistic because cynicism and nihilism do not equal maturity and, if not for the “silly” idealism, Frev itself wouldn’t happen so I think shows like that are necessary too, even if it’s just for escapism.
If you’re interested and want to check it out, more power to you.
Anyway, thank you for attending the first ever official meeting of the Jacobin Fiction Convention. Second meeting is coming soon so stay tuned for updates.
Have a good day, Citizens! I love you!
- Citizen Green Pixel
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alatismeni-theitsa · 2 years
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I don't like when people (namely other US Americans often) make fun of US Americans because of their accent or their different ways when they visit other counties. I'm not talking about respect or knowing some words and customs, I'm talking them being expected to also have a good accent in the a language removed from theirs (English in that case) or automatically blend in on how they behave. I am not even American and I will defend them because these things are not switches to turn on and off. I
part 2: I don't expect a Chinese speaker new to the language to say my words perfectly, so why do some make fun of English speakers who at least try?
__________________ end of ask ___________________
It's true that many people when it comes to English speakers don't believe they actually try.
My guess is that this happens because, in our media, which is US American many times, we see the English-speaking characters trying to speak other languages and their "failures" in accent are easier to recall in our memory. Then we think "lol another English speaker who doesn't succeed in speaking a foreign word!"
And we've all met a bunch of US Americans who believe that all countries outside of theirs are a carbon copy of the US, they are an easy target for our humor when they realize they can't get away with not trying to give a proper accent.
But the people you refer to in your ask certainly try, and English speakers are not another species who can magically conjure accents whenever they are asked to. There is no reason to automatically assume that an English speaker doesn't do their best when they have difficulty with pronunciation. So we must not judge people, including English speakers, when they try, and if they ask for help, assist them!
Same goes for ways of behavior and cultural perception. While it is true that when you visit or move to another country you must learn the local ways and how to best be respectful to people who live there, individuality shouldn't be lost and a lifetime of another cultural upbringing cannot be erased (and it shouldn't be). Now I am talking about the US Americans who don't think the whole world is like America and try their best to find a fine balance between how they were raised and their new environment.
Living in a tourist country I see many foreigners being respectful and cautious not to cross any lines while enjoying themselves and letting their own ways shine and I appreciate it!
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garcavisconde · 3 years
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[ID: a blue background resembling Window’s infamous blue screen of death, with text in white that reads “greetings! You seem lost so I’ll make a 40 minute powerpoint presentation infodumping everything you need to know, a writeblr intro”. END ID]
I’m doing this for the underwing challenge!
HI THIS IS AN INTRO
Hello! I’m Garça, a local urban legend from Brazil. I use she/her pronouns, and, as you might have just noticed, english is not my native language! It’s actually brazilian portuguese, or pt-br. I started writing terrible fanfiction when I was 11, and started writing originals around that age too. As for now, I’m 18 and just finishing my first WIP in what has been years of struggling to finish writing anything!
I’m a fan of the horror aesthetics, and honestly just aesthetics in general. Also a sucker for some lighthearted and hopepunk-y content! I don’t normally write thinking about a specific genre, but one can say I have a heavy focus on fantasy/sci-fi with a mix of magical realism and horror + ethereal aesthetics. Honestly I have no idea how to describe anything I write in a cohesive way because I just? Do things? But monsters and magic are a big part of the things I like.
Thematically speaking, I’m the writer who will take away your heart, smash it, and then fix it right back because I’m too powerful to write sad and grimdark things where everyone dies the world is shitty humanity is shitty and all that terrible ugly stuff. Which means, yeah, hopepunk... With a mix of diverse characters and a slapstick-y sense of humour, LOADS of drama, mental health talk, found family supporting each other, and overthrowing evil systems/governments/institutions! Also really REALLY scary dudes who are actually pretty chill.
People who follow me might be doing it because of my humans are space orcs content! I write some scenarios for that, sometimes. Really depends on my mood, thought! Which means I take weeks to write things for that but I like to do it.
I! HAVE! SOME! DIFFICULTIES!!! INTERACTING! WITH! PEOPLE!!! But I really want to make some friends and mutuals and I would love to read things with wholesome endings, but also I’m a SUCKER for some cool monsters. So if your WIP has some cool non-human characters or just has a wholesome/good ending, send it to me!!! I want to support you!!! I might not have the energy to read it but look at that thing you wrote!!!! It be shiny!!!! Shiny because you put effort into it!!!!! please just let me support you please i’M BEGGING YOU-
HERE ARE MY WIPs
the tale of the evil sorcerer (o conto do feiticeiro maligno)
It’s for free on Wattpad, however it is all in pt-br and I am NOT going to translate that anytime soon. In a fairytale-like world, Meia-Noite, the most feared sorcerer of all, acidentally kidnaps the Sunflower Kingdom’s princess and falls in love with the knight that came to rescue her! Poor Meia-Noite, unfortunately, is SUPER scared of interacting with other people, and that is kinda the reason why everyone thinks he’s evil... Now princess Valentyna must help him out and learn some magic in the process, while Edgar, the knight, is slowly starting to question the things he was taught to believe in.
themes: found family, self-love, the hardships of acknowlegding one’s own trauma, mental health, supporting your friends even thought you don’t know how to help them, sticking together, communication, overthrowing prejudice, being gay and doing crimes that aren’t actually crimes, colonialism, opression, imperialism.
your home doesn’t exist anymore (sua casa não existe mais)
One day, in a house in the middle of a deep, deep, forest, a girl woke up. She doesn’t remember anything about herself or her past, except for her own name: Azul. As the days pass, she becomes familiar with the strange house and the rules. One: She has access to any piece of media she wants, including the internet and the television, but she cannot communicate with the outside world. Two: Food is always on the fridge, water is always there, electricity will never go away. And three: She is not alone.
themes: trauma, growing up without having any identity, love, being scared of what you cannot understand, feeling like everyone always know what to do but you are just a lost ugly hot mess of a person, feeling empty, not knowing who you are anymore, finding hope
two monsters in love (dois monstros apaixonados)
Isofi is a parasite made of colorful strings, who is used to staying in people’s phones and travelling around. Unfortunately for him, one day he is caught and locked up at Claustro, a cruel and secret prison made for monsters. Tenós, by other side, is a 3 meter-tall aggressive and angry demon, who was locked up at Claustro 30 years ago. The unlikely duo must join forces if they want to escape the humans, but they have no idea that they might find love in very, very strange places. Yeah, it’s a monster romcom.
themes: keeping up hope, helping each other out, the struggles of discovering you actually have some pretty deep trauma, romance, hope, loneliness, being a monster in a world of humans, culture, anger, and, of course, found family and a good ol’ i-HATE-you-but-i-need-to-work-with-you to respectful acquaintances to friends to lovers.
as sempre ternas
Future children’s book about a team of 7 young magical girls. In this world, monsters started attacking humans five years ago, and nothing humanity has ever created can stop them! That’s it, until, one day, Ana Luíza discovers she is the key to the Coração Divino, a powerful source of magical the monsters want to themselves! Now her best friend and five other girls decide to join forces, and become powerful magical warriors!
themes: identity, love, friendship, hope, feminism, brazilian culture, finding happiness in the darkest of places, mental health, despair, colonialism, imperialism, white supremacy, capitalism, overthrowing evil governments, dealing with everyday life struggles, prejudice, religion, respecting the other, and, of course, KICKING SOME ASS WITH GLITTER AND HEARTS AND EVERYTHING GIRLY.
anima is a cosmic anomaly (anima é uma anomalia cósmica)
Oh this will be... Hard to talk about, but here we go. Anima is a part-bird-part-fish-part-human 13 year-old kid who was found outside of Aprestos, a super-secret organization who specializes in taking care of the supernatural world in an overall very wholesome way! No one knows what species Anima actually is, but everyone knows there’s a LOT of monsters who are super scared of her for literally no reason at all. But this young, chaotic child must deal with her biggest challenge yet: Going to a normal human school in order to understand what is “normal” for the rest of the world.
It will be a children’s book series, too! Aprestos, the thing I always talk about, is from this project, but I might use it for loads of other things, too!
themes: there’s way too much stuff i want to talk about but the core of this project is found family, brazilian culture, growing up, supernatural stuff, being chaotic, taking care of each other, healing, and, of course, mental health.
TAG LIST WOULD BE HERE IF I HAD SOMEONE TO TAG BUT I DON’T INTERACT ON ANY SOCIAL MEDIA SO THERE’S NO ONE TO TAG BUT I HOPE THIS MIGHT CHANGE SOON??? WHO KNOWS
~
Anyways, I sure hope this gets some traction??? I really want to interact with more writeblrs!!! Now go and drink some water, this post is pretty long already! <3
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queermediastudies · 3 years
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“A Queer Who Cares” : The Intersection of Class and Queerness in Tokyo Godfathers
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Tokyo Godfathers is a Japanese animated film, made in 2003, that follows the adventures of three homeless friends on Christmas Eve in Tokyo, Japan. Throughout the movie, we follow Hana, a transwoman and former drag queen, Gin, a middle-aged man with a gambling addiction, and Miyuki, a teenage runaway, as they find a baby in a trash can and spend Christmas Day trying to reunite the child with her mother. A comedic adventure quickly ensues, as the chaotic but loving trio, do their best to take care of their new baby, solve the mystery of her appearance, and all the while combat the dangers and prejudices that come with being homeless. Though predominantly a comedy, the film also strays away from its humorous tone and delves deep into the characters’ complex backstories, emotionally exploring the myriad of reasons why Hana, Gin, and Miyuki are homeless and why getting the baby back to her mother is so important for each of them. Directed by the famous Satoshi Kon and loosely based on the 1913 novel “The Three Godfathers”, the film explores themes of parenthood, found families, classism, transphobia, and addiction, and illuminates the complex ways in which these forces interact and impact daily life. In essence, Tokyo Godfathers effectively explores themes of transphobia and the intersection of classism and queerness, and though not entirely unproblematic, is unique and powerful in its complex characterization of both Hana as a character and the oppressions she faces as a transwoman who is homeless. 
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(Hana speaking about her desire to be loved)
Before beginning, it is important to note that the following analysis is of the 2020 English dubbed re-release of Tokyo Godfathers by GKIDS. As of now, there are many fan-subbed versions of the film circulating on the internet that misgender Hana in their subtitles. The GKIDS re-release does not so I will not be addressing that form of transphobia in my analysis. Similarly, in the original Japanese version, Hana is voiced by a man, and the fluctuations of her voice, from high and feminine when she is happy, to low and masculine when she wants to be intimidating, is present and follows a very transphobic trope in comedy. In the GKIDS dubbed version, Hana is voiced by Shakina Nayfack, a transwoman, actress, and activist, and these vocal fluctuations are not present so, once again, I will not be addressing that form of transphobia, as it was not present in the updated version that I watched.
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How Shakina Nayfack used her voice to reclaim trans representation in animation
(A short article on Shakina Nayfack, the English voice actress for Hana in the 2020 GKIDS re-release)
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Though Tokyo Godfathers does not have the popularity or mainstream attention to be considered a breakout text, it’s humanizing and complex characterization of Hana breaks traditional transphobic tropes, particularly in comedy, that lends itself to “creat[ing] small cracks in the glass ceiling of cultural consciousness and makes room for future breaks” (Cavalcante, 2017, p. 4). Hana is the main protagonist of the film. She is both the center of comedic relief, the leader of her found family and the driver of the plot as a whole. It is through her desire to fulfill her dream of becoming a mother, and her desperate need to understand why parents abandon their children (as her parents did to her), that motivates her, and in turn, her friends, to find the child’s parents themselves, instead of going to the police. It is in this complexity that Hana, “breaks historical representation paradigms” of both trans characters and queer characters as a whole (Cavalcante, 2017, p. 2). In her desperate search to love and be loved, Hana is immediately humanized, her identity centered in love and family, and not in her gender or sexuality, as so many queer characters are. In addition, she is not portrayed as “sexless” as is the norm for queer characters, wherein they can exist in media as long as their love stories and intimate desires do not. Though very subtle, Hana is the only character in the movie that has a love interest, Gin, and she had a boyfriend, who died, but is still a key part of her characterization. Though these love stories are not centered in the film, they are the only ones in the movie, and this exclusive existence, unique to Hana, illustrates their importance to both the themes of the movie and Hana’s character.   
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(Miyuki asks Hana about her feelings for Gin)
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(A photo of Hana and her ex-boyfriend Ken at the club she once worked at)
That is not to say that the queer representation in this film is by any means perfect. As mentioned, the movie is a comedy and thus falls into the historical “preponderance of these representations occurring in the comedy”, especially given that  Hana is the comedic center (Dow, 2001, p.130). Even more so, there are instances in which Hana’s trans identity is stereotyped and used as the joke itself. In one scene, she flirts with a cab driver knowing that he is uncomfortable by the fact that she is a trans woman, and his transphobia is framed as comedic. She also has a very flamboyant personality, with sharp emotional highs, and equally dramatic lows, that once again plays into stereotypical representations of transwomen as over-the-top and overly dramatized to the point of ridiculousness. In line with this, her previous line of work was as a drag queen, and though scenes of her in the drag community are dominated by a sense of love and community, it still plays into already established tropes of transwoman living as a performance. In these ways, her representation at times leans towards the role of the “clown...putting on a show for The Other” where it is “never quite clear whether we are laughing with or at this figure” (Hall,1995, p. 22).  However, as mentioned above, Hana’s complex and nuanced backstory, combined with her frequent acts of heroism and her leadership role, make it so she is deeply humanized. Though her dramatic personality falls into these stereotypical tropes at times, it does not detract from her character arc of motherhood and finding love, a nuance that is missing from many stories of trans women in media.  
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(As pictured, Hana’s emotions are very dramatized and quickly jump from very high to very low)
This nuance is heightened through the intersection of classism and queerness, which is an equally prevalent theme throughout the film. In particular, class struggles are illustrated through medical care. At one point, Hana falls ill, and Gin is forced to give away his life savings in order to pay for her treatment. It is also here where Hana’s gender identity is questioned, as the hospital houses her in the men’s ward, and she explains that she “is not pleased with this”. This particular intersection of class and queerness within a medical setting is impactful given the long and “oppressive role of medicine in trans people’s lives” (Keegan, 2016, p. 607) and the strong tendency of media to tell trans folks stories, about both life and transition, in a way that is medicalized. For Hana, the discrimination she experiences at the hospital, and her inability to pay for her treatment, illustrate the violence of intersecting oppressions of queerness and homelessness in medical systems, while also straying away from the problematic representation of trans folks that are centered around a rhetoric of medicalization. More visually, the family is also a key illustrative example of how class and queerness are explored. The trio is constantly visually contrasted with traditional Japanese families in a variety of settings. This harkens back to ideas of “alternative forms” of families that queer folks create and this difference is visually exasperated by the trio’s homelessness, making them stand out in whatever space they are in (Keegan, 2016, p. 607).
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(An angel asks Gin if he would rather have her magic or an ambulance. He chooses the ambulance.)
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(Hana in the hospital. The subtitle reads “This ward, it’s the men’s isn't it?”)
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(One of many scenes where the trio is set up in  familial positions)
As a queer, white woman living in the United States my subject positionality had a great effect on how I consumed the movie. Most notably, I was born and raised in Western society, and given that this film is Japanese and made for Japanese audiences, there is a variety of cultural norms and perceptions that I did not pick up on because of my lack of familiarity with them. In the same vein, I watched this movie translated into English and, as with every translated work, there are words and subtle, yet important, nuances in the language that were very likely lost to me as a viewer. My identity as a queer woman made it so that I was drawn to Hana as a character and was very moved by her deep desire to be a mother. The movie is steeped in images of Hana and her friends encompassing the idea of a non-traditional family, and since I would love a family of my own one day and I expect that to look different than the dominant nuclear family norm, I really focused my experience on the variety of nontraditional families that this movie shows, all of them as loving as the next.
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(Hana and her drag mother reuniting)
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(Hana and her family)
As a whole, Tokyo Godfathers, though not without its faults, is a refreshing take on the traditional feel-good Christmas movie trope, delving into class and queerness, and using the two to explore what it really means to be a family that is loving and kind. Spoiler alert, that family looks a little something like one ex-drag queen, one man with a gambling addiction, a teenage runaway who loves cats, and their baby they found in a dumpster.  
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Sources
Dow, Bonnie (2001). “Ellen, Television, and the Politics of Gay and Lesbian Visibility.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 18(2), 123-140. 
Cavalcante, Andre (2017). “Breaking into Transgender Life: Transgender Audiences’ Experiences With ‘First of Its Kind’ Visibility in Popular Media.” Communication, Culture & Critique, 1-18. 
Keegan, Cáel (2016). “Tongues without Bodies: The Wachowskis’ Sense8.” Transgender Studies Quarterly 3(3–4), 605-610. 
Hall, Stuart (1995). “The Whites of their Eyes: Racist Ideologies and the Media,” in Gender, Race, and Class in Media 3rd ed., pp. 18-22. 
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crimeboyultimate · 3 years
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If any of yall remember The Haunted/The Haunting (minecraft herobrine rp series) I’d like to bring to your consideration:
c!Ranboo and c!Drake are related.
So this might just be me combining hyperfixations and it’s definitely not canon or ever going to be but I love The Haunted so I’m going to ramble anyways.
1: They’re both half Enderman
Kind of an odd point to start on considering hybrids/nonhumans are pretty common within the DSMP, but it’s been established that Ranboo is the only enderman hybrid on the server, and Drake has a similar situation within The Haunted. Of course, Drake is part enderman because he was originally human but his soul latched onto the body of an enderman and used it as a host body, transforming it in the process, but we have no evidence that this couldn’t be passed on genetically. To add to this, we have clear evidence that other races of nonhumans exist within The Haunting’s universe due to the existence of an elf character.
2: Both have amnesia/memory loss
Memory problems aren’t always genetic, but they definitely can be. Of course, both could have memory loss due to trauma, or in Drake’s case because of Herobrine, but it is a noteable similarity. Also, because of this we know very little about Ranboo’s past or backstory.
3: Both have “magic” abilities
The Dream SMP has very few characters with genuine magical abilities. Dream XD is canonically a god due to creative mode, and Drista does whatever she wants, but other than that there’s very few characters with magic (unless we’re counting Jack Manifold crawling out of hell because he’s just too pissed to remain dead but he’s an outlier and should not be counted).
One character that’s shown to have genuine magic abilities, or at least magic to this server, is Ranboo. He’s been shown to be able to pick up spawners, an action that is unique to him within the server, which is described as a “main character” moment by several other characters he interacts with, implying that this is seen as magic or at least highly unusual. He’s also been shown to be able to look at enderman without them attacking him, as well as being able to talk to them.
Magic is also somewhat rare within the world of The Haunted. When Drake is in our modern time, which is heavily implied to be the past within the timeline, there’s no mention of magic whatsoever. When he and the others travel through time to what appears to be the past (later implied to be the far-off future), magic is displayed as being rare and powerful, but it definitely exists and becomes a major plot point within the series as time goes on. Drake in particular has the ability to teleport, another trait associated with endermen. Spawners were never used within The Haunted, so it’s entirely possible that Drake could have been able to pick up a spawner if he had been exposed to one.
4: Parallels between Ranboo’s enderwalk and Drake’s (partial) possession by Herobrine
Ranboo’s enderwalk state is shown to be a completely separate entity from him normally. He speaks rarely, picks up and places blocks similarly to endermen, and is much more impressionable by Dream. As well as this, normal Ranboo often has hallucinations of antagonistic figures in his life. Drake’s possession is uncannily similar, or at least implied to be. Armin, who carries the majority of Herobrine throughout The Haunted, is an entirely separate person from Herobrine Armin. In his nonlucid state he is quite similar to enderwalk Ranboo. He doesn’t speak, and acts on the base instinct and influence of Herobrine, much like Ranboo acts on his enderman instincts and Dream’s influence. Drake, though never shown in a state where Herobrine is controlling his body, also has hallucinations/visions, similar to Ranboo.
5: Complete lack of coherent timeline in The Haunted
Any longtime fans of The Haunted know that the timeline is quite messed up and incoherent at times, probably because the series was made over the course of several years and the ideas that the creators had for it changed over this long period of time. However, I’m ignoring any reasonable explanations because I want to, because I’m completely separating author from fiction, and because it’s one of my favorite parts of the entire series.
The DreamSMP also has an incoherent timeline, partly because of real to minecraft time conversions, and partly because of Karl’s lore streams. Because of this, I’m saying whatever I want and you can’t stop me.
The Haunted begins in what is assumed to be our modern time, due to similarities in technology, language, and culture. However, the characters are transported to a setting that is seemingly in the past, though later heavily implied (and possibly confirmed?) to be in the far future. This proves that time travel is completely possible within the world of The Haunted. Due to Karl, time travel is also confirmed to be possible within the DSMP. Therefore, it’s entirely possible that Drake and Ranboo could be related, if not from their usual times then from timeline shenanigans.
6: Post-apocalyptic settings
The Haunted, due to the past (our present) being shown as being in ruins, can easily be called post-apocalyptic, especially when one considers the archaeologic discoveries of depictions of a figure heavily implied(pretty much confirmed) to be Herobrine destroying “modern” civilization, which were found within an underground labyrinth in the second to last season (not counting the reboot, stop fixing the timeline >:(). The DreamSMP could also be seen as post-apocalyptic, due to references to modern society within a world that has clearly not developed past our world’s early 20th century/late 19th century. Also, Mizu is clearly post-something, with the DSMP’s destruction and a decay of the world’s history.
7: Ranbob and Grayson’s unnamed dead kids exist
Grayson was confirmed to have been married and had children in the 5 years that Drake and Grayson were canonically apart within The Haunting, and Drake never was shown to not have kids, so even if it’s unlikely due to his avoidance of any cities or large gatherings of people it’s not impossible. Also, he could have had children before he was teleported away from his original spot on the timeline, though this is unlikely.
As well as this, Ranbob exists. Ranboo definitely had kids, so technically if Ranboo isn’t Drake’s decendant it could definitely be the other way around.
8: Death of the author
Ranboo if you are reading this I want you to know that unless you explicitly state within the DSMP that your character isn’t related to Drake then there’s literally nothing that can definitively prove otherwise. As an author, once you put out your media you are dead to it and cannot further influence it. Also, I really doubt that the dudes behind The Haunting would see this or care so it’s really up to Ranboo in this situation.
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Hope yall enjoyed, especially since I wrote this instead of finishing my English homework. Please agree/reblog? Please?
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ellaofoakhill · 3 years
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My Thoughts on Boxes
Something has kinda been bugging me the last little while, that I like to think a lot of people can relate to. We live in a society that, generally speaking, likes putting things into boxes; we like analyzing and sorting and organizing. And there’s nothing really wrong with that in and of itself--frankly, I could stand to do a lot more of it in the more practical aspects of my life--but such a system only really works with things that easily fit into discreet categories, and the things that aren’t or can’t be easily sorted are either forced into a box where they don’t fit, or left adrift without any real place to be.
In particular, I’m talking about fiction. You have numerous genres that multiply by the day, and the age categories that stories within those genres are deemed suitable for. And don’t get me wrong, there are lots of practical reasons for those categories; they make advertising and the organization of bookstores and libraries dramatically easier, and for most stories, this system works great, with each finding the audience most likely to derive benefit from reading it.
But--again, solely my opinion here--this may have produced stories that are a lot flatter than stories written in previous eras (which had their own problems, I will NOT get into that today). By flat, I don’t mean boring, or a failure of the story. I mean that the story feels like it was changed to fit into the category it most closely matched. In the most egregious examples, I feel like things were either added to a story that did nothing for it besides make it fit its box better, or taken out that were either integral to the story or added a depth and breadth to it that improved the work overall, even if that made it harder to sort.
This makes me think of the Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch quote, “Murder your darlings”, but completely opposite to what he was getting at. The general interpretation is “Even if you like a given piece of writing/painting/sculpture/etc., if it does more bad than good for your work, you need to remove it for the sake of the art.” What I feel is happening is “You need to change your story so it fits the target demographic, no matter what it looks like at the end.” The former serves the story and its spirit; the latter sacrifices the story for... I don’t know, ease of advertising, perhaps? Certainly financial gain is involved there.
So my first argument against this jaded, greedy way of thinking runs thus. Look at the stories that are now considered classics of Western literature: look at Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice; look at White Fang and Call of the Wild; look at Dracula and Frankenstein; look at The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia (no, I couldn’t resist throwing in two classic fantasy titles, and no, I won’t apologize for it). If you haven’t read these stories, you probably should. Yes, they have problems that mark them as products of their time, but every last one of them has one thing in common: none of them were written with a box in mind. We’ve thought of lotr as a fantasy staple for so long that we’ve forgotten that, prior to its popularity, fantasy as a genre wasn’t really a thing. There were fairy-tales, yes, and stories with fantastical elements, but a genre of story with precise conventions? Not really.
Let’s zoom in on Tolkien’s work, for a moment. Look at his world and its origins, and it draws heavy inspiration from Old English and Scandinavian myths and legends. Look at his characters, in particular his four hobbits, and he drew from his love of the English countryside, his respect for the common working man (Sam, the gardener, literally carries Frodo, the wellbred young gentleman, on his shoulders in the final leg of their gruelling journey to the Cracks of Doom), and his horrific experiences in the First World War. Hilariously enough, a big part of the reason he wrote the stories was as a self-justification for his indulgence in and lifelong love affair with language invention (look at the huge appendices at the back of The Return of the King and tell me I’m lying!). Read his work and any and all interviews with him, and a “genre box” seems clearly to have never crossed his mind.
Putting aside the genre box for a moment, let’s talk age categories. The Hobbit was a story he invented for his children, and it does show. Look at the Lord of the Rings, and it is clearly at a higher level of reading comprehension, and written for a more mature audience; there’s less silliness, though he keeps the wonder at this wild, magical world. But where to put it? The hobbits run a spectrum from basically teenagers (Pippin) to almost middle age (Frodo is in his fifties when he embarks on his journey to Rivendell), yet they’re clearly his protagonists, though we also see some narration revolving around Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, all of whom are adults, though the latter two are somewhat younger for their respective races, whereas Aragorn is in his eighties (this being offset somewhat by the fact that he lives to over two hundred, but I digress...). We’re told today (falsely; VERY falsely) that the main character(s) should match the age of their target audience. Where does lotr fit, then, in terms of age category?
The answer you’re looking for is: not really very well anywhere; at least, not according to modern convention. As for my personal experience, I could and did read both The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion at age thirteen. I consider myself a fairly intelligent young man, but I was varying degrees of lost when I read those. When I re-read them as an adult I was fine, but that isn’t to imply that teens shouldn’t be reading lotr, far from it. There’s nothing in them content-wise one wouldn’t reasonably expect a teenager to handle, and there’s a lot of good, powerful story and commentary in there that’s relevant to this day.
My point is, the age category doesn’t really matter. If I may shamelessly plug my own work for a moment, when I was first writing tftem, and even as I’m editing and publishing it now, I wondered and still wonder about this age category business. There is nothing in these stories I’d consider inappropriate for kids, and anyone above the age of about 8, with perhaps a slight stretch to their vocabulary, could comfortably read every story beginning to end. Further complicating matters, my beta readers ranged from 8 to almost 80, and most of the spectrum in between. They all liked it; whether they liked it for the same reasons is moot.
Which leads me into my second argument against boxing and categorizing stories. The boxes aren’t very reliable. If I may change media for a moment, cultural convention says, as an adult, there is only a narrow sleazy strip of cartoon entertainment I should be watching and enjoying. That tiny slice of the cartoon pie is the only slice I avoid like the plague. Yes, there are stories that don’t appeal to me because they’re too simplistic, or are problematic in ways that I find repellent, or just aren’t executed very well, but aside from things aimed at toddlers and the aforementioned “adult” cartoons, any cartoon is fair game. Give me an interesting concept, or a fascinating character, or hell just give me a good laugh or line of dialogue or beautiful fight scene, and I’ll give it a try.
My point is (yes I had one, and no, believe it or not I didn’t forget it), don’t write or draw or create with a box in mind. You will murder the spirit of your darlings. The box does not exist to define what you, the writer, are allowed to do, or what you should do. At best, the box exists in hindsight, once the work is done, to tell your prospective audience whether your story was written for them. And even then, lots of fantastic stories don’t sit well in boxes. Some of them actively rip the boxes to pieces. Lotr is a story that transcends boxes, and as a result has many layers and rabbit-holes and nuances that you can pick up when you’re ready to appreciate them, however old you are. In many ways, it’s ageless.
I didn’t write tftem to emulate Tolkien, nor even as an homage to him, or C.S. Lewis, or anyone else. But I did want to write a similarly ageless story, a story that could be read and appreciated a hundred years from now, by an audience of eight-year-olds or octogenarians. Why did we ever start moving away from stories like this? They were the foundation of stories for as long as stories have existed on Earth. People are still reading and marvelling at The Epic of Bloody Gilgamesh!
Tl;dr: don’t try to force your stories into boxes; they suffocate. Write what you enjoy writing; chances are it’ll live longer.
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fytheuntamed · 4 years
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Do you have any thoughts on why the novel might be so popular among lgbt people despite (sometimes quite obviously) being written by a straight women for straight women. I think this is quite evident in for example the sex scenes
Why do I think the novel is so popular amongst LGBTQ+ people despite being written by a straight woman for straight women? Simple! It’s a good story and the characters are complex and intriguing. No piece of media is ever perfect, so it simply comes down to whether an individual feels the positive aspects of the media outweigh the negative aspects of the media. Are there problematic aspects within the novel? Of course! But that doesn’t mean the novel as a whole should be disregarded. You can consume media while still being critical of it, just like you can like a character while acknowledging that they’re not a good person. LGBTQ+ people, like everyone else, value a good story and interesting characters, so even if there are aspects of the story that we dislike, we may still stick around if we think it’s worth it! Also, I think there’s a shortage of stories like “Mo Dao Zu Shi” where you have LGBTQ+ characters whose sexuality isn’t the focus of the story. Yes, Wangxian are soulmates and very much in love, but that isn’t the whole point. You have a delightful bundle of politics, magic, familial ties, concepts of right and wrong, mystery, etc etc that also features a beautiful love story between two men. I guess my point is, LGBTQ+ people are flawed just like everyone else and sometimes we consume content even if we don’t agree with every part of it.
I’ve avoided getting involved in any discourse surrounding the various versions of MDZS because I wanted to keep this blog drama free, however I would like to take this chance to offer my own thoughts on the “problematic” aspects of the novel. Before I get into it, I just want to make three things clear: 1) I’m white, 2) I’m not mlm, I’m a lesbian, and 3) I’ve only read the second half of the novel and honestly I can’t remember too much of the specifics. The relevance of my opinion on the matter, therefore, is limited and my words should be read with this fact in mind. I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts and feelings on this matter, so do feel free to either leave a comment or reblog and add your two-cents. All I ask is that we keep it respectful so this can continue to be an enjoyable space for all fans.
I’ve been going through the untamed’s tumblr tag daily since the start of this blog in August 2019, so I’ve seen the whole spectrum of opinions on this matter. Some people feel very strongly that some of the ways in which MXTX writes particular aspects of the novel are “problematic,” some people are indifferent, and others feel that criticism of MXTX’s writing comes from a lack of knowledge of Chinese culture (particularly LGBTQ+ Chinese culture). (I remember seeing a post touching upon this last matter, but I didn’t save it, so unfortunately I can’t link it.)
I think the two most common criticisms of the novel that I have come across pertain to matters of consent and the imposing of heteronormative concepts onto Wangxian. Again, I want to stress that I haven’t read the novel in its entirety and my memory of it is foggy. Talking about consent first, some felt the scene in the novel where LWJ kisses an unexpecting blindfolded WWX was a big no no, while others thought it was a very sweet, romantic scene. (To give context for those who have only seen the drama, this scene would have been placed in episode 25 had they included it). For this matter, I’m of the belief that consent is a must. Regardless of whether WWX enjoyed the kiss, the fact stands that no one is entitled to another’s body, and this is why consent is, in my eyes, non-negotiable. For those who have no problem with this scene, I do think it is worth considering how you would feel about this scene had it involved, say, Jin Zixuan kissing a blindfolded Jiang Yanli. If that had been the case, I do think the majority of readers would have found the scene in poor taste (I could be wrong, though!). I will say that the trope of the forceful kiss is extremely common and can be found in every genre; it’s definitely not restricted to LGBTQ+ couples. For the aforementioned reason, I don’t like the forceful kiss scenario irregardless of the genders of the people involved. I do think writing such scenes for LGBTQ+ couples in particular can perpetuate harmful stereotypes, particularly that LGBTQ+ people have no respect for personal boundaries and can’t control their physical desires. I think the situation is doubly bad if the person who is being kissed is “not yet gay,” because again, it perpetuates the idea of the big bad gay person and the innocent “straight” person who is at the whims of said big bad gay.
Moving on to WWX and LWJ’s sex life, I have seen multiple people in the tag mentioning WWX having a “rape kink” and their discomfort with this fact. Logically, I understand that we are all allowed, as human beings with different tastes and preferences, to enjoy the things that bring us pleasure (excluding certain obvious things). That being said, I do not personally enjoy rape fantasies in my media and try to stay far away from it. As I mentioned, we are all welcome to our own tastes and preferences, but I do think it is important that we realize that we are all also the product of our environments. Things, including kinks, do not exist in vacuums, and therefore they must arise as a result of some mixture of external and internal forces. Does MXTX giving WWX a rape kink automatically make her demon spawn? Not really. Does MXTX giving WWX a rape kink add anything to his character or the story? Also not really. All this being said, I do think LGBTQ+ media is oversaturated with consent issues and I’d personally like to see this come to an end, because once again, it perpetuates harmful stereotypes that do have a real impact on LGBTQ+ individuals.
As for the imposing of heteronormative concepts onto Wangxian, I think the biggest complaint I’ve seen is about WWX being referred to as the “mom” or the “wife” within the Wangxian couple. I would like to state here that this may be a situation in which cultural differences come into play. Additionally, because the novel is not originally written in English, it may be a case of telephone in which the true meaning becomes distorted as it is translated from one language to another and then to another and so on and so forth. Therefore, I am going to proceed with my thoughts on the matter in a more generalized way. For me, this is a big pet peeve of mine, to the point where I will not reblog content that refers to any of the male characters as “mom” or “wife.” My reasoning is simple: WWX is a man, so he would be someone’s “dad” or “husband,” not their “mom” or “wife.” I know from first-hand experience that non-LGBTQ+ people will often try to place a gay couple within a heterosexual context to make it easier for them to process how two women or two men could be together. I understand the reasoning behind this way of thinking, but that does not mean this way of thinking should be encouraged. It’s bad enough that non-LGBTQ+ couples are ensnared in an endless maze of gendered ways of being and thinking - let’s not force that on LGBTQ+ couples as well. My other issue is that the words “mom” and “wife” not only have gendered connotations, but they have implicit sexual connotations as well. In this context, “mom” and “wife” are just another way of saying “bottom.” Just think about it; nobody’s out there calling LWJ “mom” or “wife.” The whole idea of “top” and “bottom” in gay media is so……..it’s almost like an obsession? And for those of you who may be thinking it’s not that deep and has no bearing on real life….I really wish that were true. Go look at the comments section of any gay couple’s youtube video and you will invariably find someone asking who is the top and who is the bottom. That’s invasive as fuck, y’all, and you don’t see that shit on straight couple’s videos (again, because the assumption is that women are always in the submissive, therefore there’s no need to ask because it’s assumed the answer will always be that the woman “bottoms” and the man “tops”). All this being said, I can only speak about this matter from my viewpoint as a lesbian. If one day I were to get married, I wouldn’t want people referring to my wife as my “husband,” because the whole point is that we’re both the wife! I know there isn’t one rule/mindset that applies to all gay people, so I would love to hear others’ feelings on this matter.
Finally, I would also like to briefly touch upon Mo Xuanyu, who we don’t really get to see in the drama. I don’t know whether LWJ or WWX ever explicitly state their sexualities or which gender(s) they’re attracted to, but I’m pretty sure Mo Xuanyu is explicitly stated to be strictly into men (please correct me if I’m wrong!). I do wonder what MXTX’s intentions were (if there were any) when she decided to make Mo Xuanyu gay, because what I’ve grasped of his characterization is that he is written similarly to other gay male characters that give the impression they were created by checking off a list of every popular stereotype about gay men. I guess I’m just curious, as someone who knows very little about Mo Xuanyu, how others felt about his character in terms of complexity and stereotypes.
If you took the time to read all this, thank you! Let me know your thoughts~
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