#which is independent of “shipping” FOR ME. but for anyone else though you can make anything out of it.
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friendships as marital ties (and other notes on relational ties) in mlc
this is sort of a third installment in the series of meta on 'mlc as an exemplar of constructing queer narratives out of chinese ideological frameworks' (1. jianghu as queer space and 2. how it manifests in li xiangyi) - focusing on the nature of relationships in it. (which I've briefly mentioned in the first one and finally actually getting to it!!)
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I would like to first call attention to chinese ideological frameworks as a premise of queer reading in mlc. the goal of chinese philosophy is to explore the becoming of human, taking two broad paths of the (mainstream) secular vs. escaping the secular. (these two paths are not a strict dichotomy, and rather, are ever in flux and in conversation with each other.) as said by @markiafc too, chineseness is so much about the rigidity of structures, and in equal part, a desire to break out of them. thus, chinese ideological frameworks can very much offer a rich reading of queerness - that mlc, a story very deliberately structured based on chinese ideologies (more accurately, with good reasons for me to believe that it is as such), has managed to materialise.
if the conceptualisation of queerness is premised on a defiance against mainstream norms, then a reliable way to read queerness in chinese ideological frameworks can be to deconstruct it by the mainstream confucian frameworks.
in mlc, this is implicitly set up with its stage of wulin/martial jianghu. then it is further broken down by asking, hey wulin jianghu is still closely related to the hegemonic values and the mainstream structure of authority (historically, 侠 xia being politically involved says a lot about this), so what is the true meaning of jianghu? what does it then really take for jianghu to be a queer space offering comfort and freedom to those who have escaped to it - to be the space that allow the transcendence of rigid roles and labels? mlc took a step further to resist the proxy to mainstream values that wulin jianghu has become.
this is why there can be a very strong buddhism reading of mlc (suggested here, expounded in the A+++ meta by @markiafc here and here, and also what I've seen discussed by cnet as well), given that buddhism is one of the 'extra-secular' ideologies, alongside (philosophical) taoism. I've also touched on a taoist angle in this meta. both schools are articulated in different sets of languages, but ultimately convey a same ideal of what it means to be human and how to live well - that is, to resist the roles and labels defined by the norms.
so, back to confucian frameworks.
a lot can be discussed about mlc with it. but in the context of this meta about relationships in mlc, it's specifically drawing on how confucianism conceptualises social relationships with familial ties as a cornerstone, and how these relational ties are inextricable from the conceptualisation of the 'self'.
as such, one of the things about mlc that has fascinated me is how deliberately it seems to ignore and reject the conventional familial ties (the kind by blood and marital ties). I've joked about how it is a miracle for me to love mlc as much as I do, as a prime dysfunctional family story enjoyer, despite none of its main characters struggling with any complicated feelings about their (biological) parents. but on closer examination, mlc is also making a comment on the model of familial-based relationships that dominates mainstream society - but through the absence of it.
with this, I want to talk about 1) how mlc rejects the conventional ties; and then 2) how it repurposes these ties in its own ways.
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the five relational ties in confucianism:
father and son 父子有亲 - (natural) affection between father and son
ruler and subject 君臣有义 - righteous relationship between ruler and subject
older and younger brothers 兄弟 (长幼有序) - this is actually about seniority within the family; the order between older vs younger family members
husband and wife 夫妇有别 - differentiation between husband and wife (demarcated by the 内外 spectrum of gendered inner-external spheres)
friends 朋友有信 - trust between friends
logically inferred, all these ties are hierarchical and familial-based except for the last one: friends. ruler-subject is sort of an extension of the natural familial ties, while friendship is the inverse space of 1-4 (ie. you fall back on 5 to define a social relationship outside of the familial sphere that cannot be qualified as 1-4). while all are premised on mutuality, it is only no. 5 that is defined by a sense of choice and equality.
on the surface, 1-4 don't quite exist in mlc in particularly meaningful ways to the narrative or are even outright overlooked, and friendship is the relational tie most valued by mlc. we can tell it's true just by looking at the most meaningful relationships in mlc of difanghua. but at the same time, it is more nuanced. we can take a closer look at how the story plays around with most of the ties as part of a broader queer narrative.
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1) how mlc rejects the conventional ties
mlc's rejection of mainstream relational ties can be best seen in fdb escaping from marriage. and it was not just any engagement with anybody but an engagement with the imperial family. he struggles with the prospect of being married to princess zhaoling, but generally, it's about the idea of complying to mainstream conventions and expectations that includes compulsory heterosexuality. all these point not only to a defiance against amatonormativity - the resistance of the traditional husband-wife tie, but also an irreverence for the ties of ruler-subject (the engagement being an imperial decree) and father-son (matters of marriage being sole decisions made by parents).
of course this is on top of how fdb's own biological father is a p-o-s, and the narrative gives fdb minimal struggles in this aspect, allowing him to sever this tie without looking back (I love it, yeap). along the same line is how lxy is an orphan, who came to gain important relationships that are built on natural compassion among people rather than innate, blood-based ties - even as llh. the sense of defiance from the narrative is especially stark to me considering that he could have a completely different familial-based life - as a son, brother, and ruler, if his biological family was still around. the narrative also deliberately treats his biological brother as a phantom, replaced with an older brother who he was bonded with neither by blood nor marital ties. on dfs's front, absolutely nothing is to be known about his biological family. his childhood history with the toxic patriarch of his life - who is not even his biological father - was afforded a clean break and closure.
we can keep going on, but that's pretty much the point.
ritualisation is one of the most important things of the confucianism school, especially to the honoring of these social relationships (and the officiating of social roles). the one ceremony/ritual we saw in mlc involving the main characters - or more accurately speaking, came closest to seeing - was the imminent wedding ceremony of dfs and jlq. even in that case, it was premised on non-mutuality with dfs being the unwilling, passive party. (fem-coded dfs? 25 marks.)
and that brings us to the next part.
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2) how mlc repurposes these ties
that particular wedding ceremony gets hijacked by dfs and lxy/llh, and gets turned into an important milestone in their relationship. they consummate - what is on text - their friendship after a long time being more enemies and rivals than friends. it is a clear establishment of the trust they have for each other. and here it is where I circle back to the subject of this post: friendships as marital ties.
in this article, as a part of a feminist, egalitarian reframing of confucianism, there is a proposal for spousal relationships to be reframed as a friendship tie. (this aligns with the interrelatedness of the five ties eg. the ruler-subject mirrors father-son dynamic, with the confucian belief that rulers have an obligation to their subjects alike parents to their own children.) by doing so, it removes the functional, gendered differentiation assigned to marital ties, and shifts it to something equal, and independent of gender. you exalt the value of trust between spouses, instead of basing marital relationships on gendered roles. as such, spouses become more like friends, and conversely, friends can also become more like spouses. (romance not a prerequisite. it has never been about romance anyway.)
given that mlc has repeatedly applied marital motifs to llh and dfs's characters in their joint narratives, this opens up a reading friendships as a marital tie. seeing marriage as a bridge for strangers to become family, marriage in mlc becomes a metaphor for the chosen commitment and mutual trust put in by strangers/friends (non-familial ties) into the becoming of family. the blurring of lines between marital ties and friendship encourages a genuine space of queer experience that goes beyond any pressure for strict labels - of sexuality, and relationships as romantic, sexual, etc etc.
(note: despite the borrowing of a feminist concept, I strongly hesitate to call mlc a feminist story. it's a whole discussion - or debate - on its own. nevertheless, it is definitely a gender-conscious story that lays foundation for a strong queer and egalitarian reading.)
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it is to be noted that it is intended - and also beneficial to take the confucian framework of relational ties beyond face value. the framework offers what it believed to be the most fundamental social relationship dynamics, and sees room for extension and matching to other kinds of relationships (all if not, most). a relationship such as teacher-student, which is outside of the five ties stated, can also mirror the affection of father-son ties, albeit not in a literal and identical way.
speaking of which. fdb and lxy/llh.
indeed they're known by others to be good friends. fdb thinks they're good friends too - insists on it, and puts his best efforts in keeping it that way. but does it really go both ways? if it does not, then can it really still be friendship? my humble take is that, ultimately - weighing in with llh's perspective - this is a relationship that is not so much based on trust, and rather, based on an innate affection that is only unique to family. (in this case, not blood/marital-based but one that was chosen and built aka lxy's relationship with sgd.) in other words, less of a friendship, more of a familial one.
it is a lot clearer considering their relationship from llh's point of view: some brat you never wanted in your life came barging in, and whether he was going to bring any positive effect to your life was secondary to the tranquility - which you have carved for yourself in the past decade - that is so integral to your personhood. no way. but the moment you hear that he's family? well, that changes the game completely. even before learning about fdb being sgd's son (then beginning to take initiative in showing greater acceptance), it is apparent in llh that there was an instinctive resonance with fdb as his shixiong's nephew. (eg. he remarked to his shifu's grave about how alike fdb is to himself.) this is unlike with dfs whom he had taken a much longer time to build trust with. you do not apply trust - aka the quality of friendships - to family. family is something deeper, more instinctive than that. if fdb was never family, I find it hard to imagine given llh's personality, that he would have let some brazen, bratty stranger intrude for that long. (boy invited himself to llh's home, sat himself down eating the owner's dinner and nosing in his cooking abilities!!! ily bb but that was uncalled for 😭)
of course there are many more layers in their relationship. there is a substantial degree of their history as (unwitting) teacher-disciple: fdb is still healthy and alive all thanks to the existence of lxy as a spiritual teacher role model in his life, regardless it being one-sided or not. there is also indeed some part of friendship in it, especially from fdb's point of view. he sees llh as a kindred spirit who he could enjoy a life of freedom with for life. but llh never reciprocates. he knew this was short-lived. and so ultimately, the hierarchical layer of their relationship overpowers the equal one, where llh's treatment of fdb as a nephew/小辈 younger family member and a disciple is the one that sealed the fate of their relationship.
if (blood-based) familial ties are irrelevant in jianghu, then the closest proxy to a father-son relationship in the martial world would be a teacher-disciple relationship. lxy and his shifu are a clear, indisputable example. for fdb and llh, their teacher-disciple tie is murkier and not consistently applied. they were also never ritualised as teacher-disciple, and thus are not teacher-disciple in any official capacity as far as confucian ideas are concerned. yet in crucial moments, it is invoked by llh as a card of authority over fdb to get out of sticky situations with fdb. and there was their final scene together: in a moment of sincerity, llh gives the approval to fdb as his disciple - then entrusting fdb with the secret manual of his techniques, up until his final letter in which fdb was recommended to dfs as a successor to his martial abilities.
in an imperial setting, this would have been the relationship of an emperor and his crown prince that straddles both ruler-subject and father-son ties aka a tag-team of disaster. the teacher has an obligation to nurture his disciple as a successor to himself, and love him like a son too. on the flipside, he holds the final power in their relationship - withholding knowledge and feelings from the younger one. they are only equals in a way a parent-child can be. they are only equals as much as the parent allows. and this is how fdb got left behind in the dust of llh's departure. he was the child treating his parent like a friend, supporting him emotionally and begging to be loved back the same way he loves his parent - but the parent had a lifetime way ahead of him and stayed out of his reach, physically and emotionally.
llh and fdb operate with the trapping of a friendship but have always been family in the core. llh had known that way before fdb did, just like everything else he had known and put out of fdb's reach. because. fdb did not have to know. fdb is different and will forge his own path. and that's a kind of love llh has for him that nobody understands (in fact not even fdb himself) - one that is on a different plane from friendships.
by repurposing the framework of relational ties, mlc showed that the essence of familial relationships aka its intimacy and closeness can be independent from biology and formalised rituals. and it is important to myself for stories to say that people can build close ties and deeply meaningful relationships even without being born or ritualised into any.
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then back to how these relational ties are inextricable from the conceptualisation of the 'self' in confucian worldview: the roles you play in these relationships are intended to define you. there is no 'self' independent from it. while the concept of a social, relational self is fully rooted in reality, being locked into social roles can be a painful way to live - a way that llh has experienced as lxy the sigu sect leader. so, in order for lxy/llh to realise a sense of self that exists outside the norms, it inevitably points to another way that requires a cut from these relationships. that is then the buddhist (or taoist) answer of looking past attachments to the world such as the confucian idea of relationships defining your being. only with a dissolution of a sense of 'self', can there be true liberation.
#莲花楼#mysterious lotus casebook#lhlmeta#lhl#my posts#dihua#can't believe this is how i choose to spend an inordinate amt of my free time 😐😐 being a broken recorder of brainrot 😐#anw the handful of fanghua moments that have moved me are the ones that are about the unbridgeable gap between them as 长辈小辈 as 徒弟师父#(me realising lxy telling fdb 这个徒弟我没有白收 actually drives me nuts)#me: a brainrot-level dihua shipper first and foremost. also me: dedicating more of this meta to fanghua than dihua#about how fanghua's relationship is its own unique kind in the story. equally deep as dihua. just in a wholly different way.#dihua are friends and married and familial. but fanghua is family through and through#-> tl;dr of this meta actually#i just have extremely strong feelings about fanghua as a complicated little family unit.#which is independent of “shipping” FOR ME. but for anyone else though you can make anything out of it.#(gotta admit i'm a bit antsy about posting this and is uncertain how it's gonna be read. bc my reading of fanghua is so specific...well)#anyways. obsessed with dihua appropriating the heteronormative rituals <3#edit: I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT TO TALK ABOUT DIFANG aaaAAAGHHHHHHHHHH#but. it's true they're very purely friendship-based i think
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I know you said no bait asks, and I promise this isn't, I'm genuinely curious to hear an opinion from a Zutara shipper who seems pretty rational. (I am not a kataang fan either by the way so I'm not trying to argue that or anything.). Do you believe that Zutara is a feminist relationship in comparison to Kataang? And what are your reasons for being so strongly invested in Zutara?
Hi, thanks for the ask. I’ll do my best to explain my feelings on this, but to summarize, I think there are two questions here that aren’t inherently related: a) is Zutara feminist and b) why do I like it so much. I know this might surprise you, but even though Zutara is my OTP, I don’t consider it inherently feminist. Let me explain though because that doesn’t mean it’s a bad ship at all.
Obviously, I really like the characters together. However, I won’t go ahead and say it’s the “feminist” choice over kataang, because personally I think that discussing whether a female character has a feminist narrative should not center around which man she ends up with. The primary focus should be on her narrative independently. And if she doesn’t have an independent narrative, well…that’s not feminist at all.
But I’ll answer in more detail below because I think this is an interesting distinction.
a) Is Zutara feminist over Kataang?
Like I said above…no, not inherently. I think what this question is getting at is which relationship gives Katara as a character a feminist narrative, which is a tricky question. Only one of these ships is canon, so we only know how one relationship would have played out in the eyes of the creators. Everything else is up to the interpretation of fans.
First things first, I absolutely do not think kataang, as portrayed in canon, adds to Katara’s independent narrative as a character, and certainly doesn’t contribute to any potential feminist narrative of her character. There are many instances of Katara being damseled and/or generally reduced in complexity whenever she’s placed in a “romantic” situation involving Aang. Despite Katara also being a main character, the “crush” is portrayed entirely through Aang’s POV. And post canon, Katara ends up being relegated to the role of a healer who stays home at the South Pole (this is why I could never get invested in LoK). Which, if you paid attention to her character at all, was something she explicitly stated she didn’t want to be and fought to escape. Ending her story that way reversed any “feminist” narrative set up in ATLA. So no, this is not a narrative that centers Katara and her ambitions at all.
Now onto fanon content.
The beauty of fanon is that it’s completely up to interpretation. Fans can give the characters whichever narratives they want. This goes for both Zutara and kataang. Just because your ship is canon doesn’t mean you have to adhere to canon; many canon shippers write “fix it” type content or otherwise make changes to the canon relationship to make it more appealing to them. I’m sure there are kataang shippers who rewrite their canon relationship to give Katara a feminist narrative, but to be honest the ship just doesn’t appeal to me at all so I haven’t seen those, but I’m not saying they don’t exist.
Now, Zutara. Even though there are definitely some hints in the series, there was nothing explicitly romantic between these characters in canon. So, fans are free to interpret how a relationship between Zuko and Katara would play out, and therefore Katara’s narrative within that relationship. Some people do make a strong effort to give Katara a feminist story, and in my experience, this is often a direct response to canon. But on the other side of the coin, some people absolutely…do not. It’s a big ship with lots of content. Some of it gives Katara’s character a feminist narrative, some of it…does the exact opposite of that. I think anyone familiar with the ship is probably well aware of some of the unsavory tropes associated with it so I won’t get into that.
But anyways, for any ship, there is a variety of content featuring Katara. Sometimes she’s a great warrior, sometimes she plays an important political role, and sometimes she’s just treated like a slave. Sometimes she has her own wants and ambitions and sometimes her story revolves entirely around whichever male character the author is thirsty for. Sometimes she’s treated as a complex human being and sometimes she just exists to be a fetish. Which again, goes for literally any ship and character you can think of.
So when asking yourself if Katara is given a feminist narrative, asking which man she’s paired with is asking the wrong question. Instead the focus should be on Katara herself and what the message of the story says about her.
b) Why do you like Zutara?
Although you can probably tell from the above, I do consider myself a feminist and enjoy analyzing media from that perspective. But honestly, that has little to do with why I like this relationship so much.
Sorry if this answer is boring, but I just…like them. Everyone has different tastes. For me, I was immediately drawn to them watching the show as a kid, because I’m a sucker for that sort of hurt/comfort dynamic they had going on in books 2-3. Growing up and taking a closer look, I also found that I see Zuko and Katara as having a lot of similar values and personality traits that I feel would make them compatible in a relationship. Also, there’s the fact that I just really like Katara and Zuko as individual characters so I like the fact that Zutara allows me to explore both characters by themselves, as well as how they interact together.
But if I’m being real, the final Agni Kai scene is what sold me. The emotional intensity of that scene just had me hooked for life. It’s really not much deeper than that, but yes, I’m extremely obsessed and emotionally invested in this ship.
And yes, I do write a lot of Zutara fic and do my best to give Katara independent goals and ambitions and agency as a character. I do my best to write her in a way that portrays a feminist narrative because I personally find that important. But that’s something I could apply to any ship. I don’t think it’s inherently feminist to ship Zutara, because like I said earlier, it completely depends on the individual fans and how they interpret it. I like interpreting it in a way that gives Katara individual power and goals, but that’s just me. Not everyone writes Zutara the same way.
Hope that answers your question ❄️
#katara#zutara#fandom salt#ish#pro zutara#kataang critical#well more like canon critical#ask#anon#analysis#atla#feminism
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(same anon who asked for sinu analysis) well first off let me ask your thoughts on YeonhuixSinu
Despite my undying love for this man- I'll admit they're cute n all BUT I always felt it was undeveloped.
I don't know if it's just me but when Jason (I think) said he'd snitch about him being with neko to her I was confused back when he was still under the influence of those pills at workers. Like, Did I miss something? Did I forget something from the gaps between the arcs? Idk. But even if she was shown to be worried over Sinu, it didn't seem romantic at all especially that all the big deal girls cared too. PTJ also made it seem like an already established relationship and I'm still questioning when?? She seemed to know him well and all but no hinting of any romantic attraction was there, just your average big deal romanticism and admiration lol.
I understand that PTJ has to leave some details away for the sake of the pacing but I think he could've at least thrown some hints here and there.
ok yeah. so this won't be a super long post because i am tired but good lord i am very... lukewarm about sinu and yeonhui. im with you on the "who?" when yeonhui was mentioned again in 2a. now im glad that sinu is with someone he's happy with but man... sinu and yeonhui is just such a mid ship compared to literally anyone else he could've been shipped with. let me explain.
yeonhui's lack of presence in the story. now this is probably the main reason i find this ship so lackluster. how am i supposed to root for a ship when the female love interest is literally like npc #125? while she did have more presence than the other girls on the street, this isn't really a high bar considering ptj's track record writing female characters.
and this isn't to say she was boring or had a bland personality either (even though she KINDA did...). she was strong and independent, stood up to samuel when he tried to extort them for money (iirc), bore the burden of sinu's sacrifice and stayed strong for big deal, and was there to comfort jake when he learned of the news. she could've been a REALLY interesting character because she was so strong and also stuck to her ideals in the same way sinu did, so they could've been such a power couple, had yeonhui been developed more.
it would've been nice to see yeonhui and sinu strategize about how to protect big deal together, or see more of yeonhui bandaging and caring for sinu after he gets hurt, or seeing sinu bring yeonhui gifts and money... or anything, really. the two have barely have any substantial interactions over the entire arc besides the last part where sinu's about to sacrifice himself, so much so that it makes me wonder... who is this yeonhui person? why are they important again.
chemistry. this mainly comes up to personal preference but yeonhui and sinu feel more like an older sister-younger brother dynamic to me. yeonhui took sinu in as a child, fed, clothed, and cared for him, and then continues to take care of him as an adult, which comes off as big sis behavior. again, some people may like this dynamic romantically, but i personally find it super platonic and sibling-leaning.
other sinu ships. idk. just find it a LITTLE heteronormative that any man and woman who share a little bit of screentime together are instantly a couple while sinu and jake can be out here pulling "you are my everything" and "i came back to big deal for you and you alone, jake" moments, and they'll still be just "good bros". again, kind of up to personal preference, but if you compare yeonhui x sinu to jake x sinu or even samuel x sinu, there's a clear lack of interactions and chemistry for yeonhui x sinu
so yeah. thats kinda it. this ended up being way longer than i expected so im not gonna write a conclusion paragraph but those are my thoughts around yeonhui and sinu together romantically.
#lookism#lookism manhwa#lookism webtoon#jake kim#samuel seo#sinu han#yeonhui#kim gimyung#kim gimyeong#han shinwoo#seo seongeun#big deal#lookism rant#myuiis bullshit
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Found this on Pinterest and it's not meant to be taken too seriously, but yeah, I get where this comes from. Usually you see Zoro being pictured as either a sex machine or as aromantic/ace, and literally never anything in between, and I personally believe that either of these takes is true. It's a manga of the shonen genre and follows the respective, genre-based rules. My interpretation of the character is that he undoubtedly puts his goal(s) on top of everything else. Luffy gets to become the pirate king. Zoro himself is going to be the world's strongest swordsman. Period. BUT. These ambitions go hand in hand with a sacrifice, at least to Zoro. This is going to be a long read and I have to digress a bit so please be patient lol.
Zoro has lost the person most important to him and there was nothing he could do to prevent it. He couldn't protect Kuina. Now, we don't know his own knowledge of his parents, but I always assumed that his desire to become stronger and stronger is a direct result of the loss of his parents, something he witnessed, but couldn't do anything about it either. So he chose to follow his father's footsteps and became a swordsman, trained in Koushiro's dojo, driven by anxiety. He made friends with Kuina who died too. And then he swore to himself that never again he would anyone ever become close to him. He traveled alone and at first and kept his distance to Luffy, Nami and the others.
But there's no way to fight human nature. Slowly, he allowed himself and them to get closer and he found it comfortable to be around them, but accepting that they're his friends also multiplies his anxiety and ultimate weakness: losing someone again. He not only wants to become stronger to be the WGS, he also thinks it's the only way to protect his loved ones. When he struggles with an opponent, he can be seen training even harder afterwards. He takes the night's watch. He guards the ship. He only sleeps when someone else is awake. He tells the others to escape when it's dangerous. He tries to take incoming damage alone. He refuses that anyone sacrifices themselves and knocks them out should they try (Sanji @ Thriller Bark). He keeps things a secret. He holds back emotions to remain collected and supportive. The further along they travel, the more of his humanity he has to lose in order to keep them all safe.
Back to the original intention of this post. Zoro has kind of a soft spot for women who need help with something. They just trigger his protective instinct. But he also tries to keep away from any woman because they'd weaken him. And he can't afford to be weak. A woman by his side would mean he'd have to look after her, provide for her, protect her, make sure she's alright, take better care of himself in order to be there for her, all things he simply can't afford and which distract him from his goal (he would think that way, being a bit traditional). Maybe he doesn't trust himself to remain as determined as he was once he's in a relationship. Maybe he's afraid that his partner would try to talk him out of his goal and stand in his way. Which leads me to think how a woman has to be in order to be a good match for him?
We've covered that a woman often triggers his protective sense, I'm not sure though if that is what he finds an important trait. I like to imagine that a woman he'd be interested in has to be similar to himself - independent, strong, able to defend herself, not afraid to put him in his place, self-confident and courageous and most importantly be supportive and understand how he rolls. He wouldn't have to worry about her as much then (he'd still be worried though of course lol). So yeah, ZoTash all the way!
However, even if they'd fall in love during the series, he'd not give in to his feelings before he would have reached his goals, due to the above mentioned reasons. He'd ask her to wait or he wouldn't open up to her until he's the WGS, and then reunite with her and be like "Hey sorry you had to wait" and you know how loyal he is, he'd stay with her until the end of his days. And I think that's another reason why he's not dating a woman - he wants to make sure that she's THE ONE. He's not interested in an affair or something not serious. He's there for the long run. He doesn't give away his heart so easy. He could even play hard to get, to check if his love interest really means it. He wants to protect himself from heartbreak and loss, afraid to experience it ever again.
He wouldn't be a perfect lover, but try hard to be the best version of himself.
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As a distrustful ocxcanon consumer, in any fandom, if a character has a canon relationship or is very related to character X, I try to stay away from making Selfship with them.
Even though I see that Levi doesn't have a love interest in canon, so I do Selfship with him and consume content about them, including your articles, some shipper say that even though Levi ships are not canon, there is actually a subtext in their relationship, and they claim that Isayama doesn't show it openly because he is afraid of the fans. Or they say that even if that ship is not canon, Levi cares about character X more than anyone else, and that he would have so much compassionate feelings for him that he would drive humanity to hell.
Even though I thought they were just exaggerating and I ignored them, this last statement impresses me because in canon, Levi's actions and the fact that half of the character arc is about character X, and also the side materials, Va's, Isayama interviews, whenever Levi is mentioned, I feel like half of it is always about X, and I feel like they're always trying to insert X somehow. Yes, Levi doesn't have a canon romantic relationship, but I have a hard time imagining him as an independent, equal man based on these things, and I have a hard time building scenarios about him. Sorry for writing so much nonsense. One thing I want to say is that I envy your guys for not worrying about it and having fun with your own content. I wish I could be like your guys and not worry about it so much and have my own fun.
Anon your feelings are valid and I completely understand that it can get frustrating. It bothered me when I first got into the fandom and I don't shy away from that fact. 🤷🏼♀️
However, Isayama has never been the one to shy away from making his actual couples canon, never. 'Subtext' being something shippers use doesn't surprise me at all, since most of the times it's nothing. Using subtext for a ship is dumb, I said this before, If we go by subtext, hell even Eren and Levi can be read to have something romantic in that sense which,of course, they don't haha.
As for the interviews, Isayama's editor himself told the fans not to take interviews as strictly canon and any actual interview I have heard from Isayama, he never talked about Levi with anybody in a romantic way. As for the side materials, there's again, nothing romantic about it. Hell, there are side materials for every single Levi "ship", shippers often just choose and pick what they want from these materials, anon. And Va's interviews are interesting because Levi's VA apparently stated at one point that he thinks Erwin and Levi aren't even friends, just comrades. Most interviews on here are badly translated or shippers just pick and choose what they want to hear and twist words.
I'll assume that when you say "X" you're talking about Erwin and I can't deny that Erwin was a very important person to Levi and his death was one of the main plots of the story, however, this isn't by any means because Levi was in love with Erwin or had some sort of secret romantic relationship going on with him or because Erwin was Levi's "most important" person. Levi saw Erwin as a guiding light for his strength, he believed that Erwin can show him how to help people, save humanity. They both had so much respect for each other. He was his friend and comrade, that's a strong relationship but not at all a romantic one. Levi's character arc was never about Erwin, if you think that way, maybe you should pay more attention to the canon manga and the anime instead of listening to what people on the internet say anon, Levi is his own character, it was never about Erwin only.
Levi is his own character, he cares about all of his friends and comrades equally. So anon, you should have fun, let yourself enjoy Levi's character because he doesn't have a love interest because the simple truth is, if Isayama wanted Levi to have something romantic with Erwin, Hange, Petra, whoever. He would've done that but he didn't because again, Levi doesn't have a lover and doesn't need one.
#levi#levi ackerman#aot levi#attack on titan#captain levi#levi attack on titan#Erwin Smith#anonymous asks
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"El never had romantic feelings for Mike"ers 🤝 "Mike had romantic feelings for El"ers
Y'all think y'all are arm wrestling bt it's actually called a handshake in most parts of the world.
Both come from some weird desire for romantic miIeven to have meant nothing/something for both.
Cuz everything has to be just right and fair and neatly tied in a bow. God forbid the gay boy have struggles with his sexuality or the straight girl get her heart broken in the process. Evil evil things. To have your feelings unrequited. Unless it's Will. Cuz he's single and has to stay single and pure and loyal and what not, and it's only temporary. Soon in a few years after the time skip at the end of the series he'll be rewarded for being reduced to a pathetic little sap with no social life beyond Jonathan, Mike and the horrors of having spidey sense for 2 seasons.
And yeah there will be cirque du soleil levels of acrobatics being performed to show why this story and narrative makes sense. And I'm not opposed to it for being that but just that on show that prides itself for show don't tell it neither shows nor tells and then there's outside the show telling by cast cuz inside the show showing was less subtle and more in the realm of not there at all.
MiIeven is NOT a "plot device" for Byler any more than Mike being revealed gay is a plot device for independent El. They're both self contained arcs for the respective characters. MiIeven thoroughly exploited the BSY dynamic with how their interactions were framed and played and okayed and filmed. It's incredibly condescending to fault the GA for buying into the self insert fantasy of nerdy boy gets supergirl when the show didn't shy away from profiting off of it. Regardless of Mike's impending sexuality. Especially because of the super ambiguity of Mike's sexuality it cannot be classified as anything but trope exploitation. Subversion where? Leaving some visuals here.
El initiating the kiss in S1E6
And I'd love it if anyone explains them to me that's not the tired af "El's idea of romantic love comes from her watching soap operas" cuz she was shown watching it once. She was stuck in a cabin with a TV so she watched TV most of the time and daytime is soaps. You know what she (also) watched regularly? Westerns. Miami Vice.
Also El did make the first move in s1e7 to kiss Mike. Before Mike ever kissed her in s1e8. And before the soap operas n all other things. Point being. The BSY has always been BSYing.
Poor babies being forced by Lucas, Nancy and daytime TV into making out and enjoying it. Tsk tsk. (S3E1)
A forced to be flustered and blushing El after talking to her boyfriend.
Time to make out some more. It hits different at 4:20. - Mike & El probably. Dunno it's on mute.
Naive but powerful fawn rebelling against father for nerdy boyfriend. Ya. White American thing cuz Mike would be pissing his pants if he were anywhere else or maybe anyone else. (Can you imagine Lumax this way?)
For God's sake your platonic soulmate and so called lesbian awakening's brother is dying there.
Don't even understand the point of this shot. Since Mike never looked Billy's way. Or comforted Max. A glance at El that, idk what it meant, no mike crow expressions to guide me.
Scenes from a Marriage (1973) dir. Ingmar Bergman
Scenes from a Marriage (2021) dir. Hagai Levi
There's an intentional way in which the MiIeven scenes (not just the kisses 🤮) are filmed in a more "adult" way as opposed to the "cute teenaged romance" way that some people purport it is in contrast to Lumax and Duzie. (I guess they didn't go through puberty.🤷♀️) Heck even Jancy, Stancy never looked this weird even though sex was shown/ implied. (Because they were played by actors born in the 20th century and even then they weren't 13 🤷♀️.)
MiIeven is not a plot device for Byler. It is fan service. The adults shipping them and comparing them to various other adult couples isn't outta nowhere. Please compute. Which is why it was stretched for 4 seasons.
As of NOW Mike's sexuality is still plausible deniability and the breakup too is neither here nor there. It's NOT straightbaiting. Lmao. Not at all. It's fan service. Leaving the OBVIOUS BSY aside, the point neither party were forced into anything nor were they doing it to keep appearances cuz canonically NOBODY cared. Not Dustin, not Lucas, definitely not Will and I'm sure neither did Max.
El was a willing participant and initiator and Mike was also not opposed to it until puberty monster/feelings caught up with him. El has shown her attraction to guys and it is okay. There's no need to take that away from her cuz that is also an experience of girlhood. She barely has any experiences anyway. Let her have that.
It's the same for Mike. He's not some evil monster for being gay. Not anymore than Joyce was for being with Bob out of convenience and the fact that she liked him n didn't hate him. Mike does love El and cares about her deeply as all of S4 shows.
So to sum it up. Yes I smooshed 2 posts cuz I couldn't be arsed talking about these 2 AGAIN. But Mike and El were independent agents when they decided to embark on their disastrous romantic journey and Born Sexy Yesterday is REAL.
P.S. If you find this shit cute and y'all roll your eyes over byler kissing n what not (even in fics goddamnit). Hit your head against a spiked wall till you can't no more. Piss and love. 💙💛
P.P.S. Mike's the clingy one. NOT Will.
#i need an award for taking these screenshots#i avoided the kisses cuz 🤮 but they only add to the evidence#byler#stranger things#anti mileven#i guess#wewe's opinionions#any mistakes are all yours#i ain't reading that shit again
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you and hans are the cutest fr. can you tell us a little about your self insert?
THANK YOU 🥺🥺🥺💖 i appreciate that so much!!!
my s/i has had to grow into herself, so to speak, over the years, kind of like my ship in general. hans wasn't always my number one guy -- it took years for us to get to this point, even though, deep down, i always had a feeling that he would be special to me. so my s/i has had a lot of changes.
back when i first started liking him (a while ago now), i didn't make s/is. i just put myself into the universe and followed my f/o around like a lost kitten 😭 it wasn't until i began to realize just how much i liked him that i began to seriously develop my s/i (and this was around the time i began to write real plots and stories for my ships and s/is, only shortly before i had this blog).
like most people, i take a ton of inspiration from my real life experiences to create my s/is. given that this is the s/i i think about the most because i think about hans & i together so much, i'd say she's the most like me. and like most people, i don't know how to exactly describe myself.
the sense of helplessness and restraint that i've felt through a lot of my life heavily influenced my s/i. it's one of the reasons i relate to hans (and anna & elsa) so much (of course, i didn't really get this insight until i read "a frozen heart" last march, which completely changed my perspective on him and on us as a unit... as in, it only made me go "we're really in it now" 😭 which i didn't think was POSSIBLE).
she has all reason to assume the worst in people and in her prospects, but there's a small light that never dims, even if she can't bring herself to show it to others. she experiences great conflict about this, because she doesn't feel like it helps, she doesn't know where to put this light, and she doesn't know if she's capable of holding it anymore. everyone else sees her as the outcast, the anomaly. too smart for her own good. she's never wanted the things everyone else did. over time, she feels as if she wants to embrace that (kind of like hans, though he's much worse off in many ways).
she's fiercely independent and thoroughly observant, and that doesn't bode well for the situation she finds herself in with hans (with the arranged marriage and all, and given his family and my family's reputations, we would be indebted to and controlled by them... pretty much forever).
she finds herself feeling lonely pretty often, given that she can't seem to relate to anyone around her, which has been my experience throughout my life. and anyone she knows will say "i don't know about kitty, she's so quiet and kind of weird," and will assume just... completely unfounded things. i guess they're right. she spends a lot of her time writing, like i do. alone. but hans was always that one exception. meeting as kids, they became best friends so quickly
she's tired of pretending (just like i was)... which culminates into how she reacts to hans' treasonous actions in arendelle. she's always hoped that they would find a way to be together on their own terms -- that string of hope that strangled her all these years -- and now that he has, now that she has the chance to be with her best friend forever, she's going to take it. she tried to stay strong in her solitude (both incidental and enforced at times), but she's grown vengeful, too. no one has ever tended to her the way she needed, the way she begged for... so nothing else matters. she just wants that one thing: unconditional, mutual, understanding, liberating love
she gives me an outlet for all these things, to explore how, when pushed too far as i often have been in my life, i want to lash out too... but i never do. and with this s/i, i get to, along with the guy who i love that gives me that catharsis just through watching him and reading about him. my s/i is the embodiment of "free my man he did all of it but i don't care" and "he did nothing wrong 😇"
there is so much more i could say, evidence of other things about my s/i interwoven into my posts and fics, but i will leave it here for now!
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I really enjoy Roy and Jamie's new dynamic too, but honestly, I've always seen them having more of a father/son relationship. I'm not sure I read it as romantic.
i mean you are super entitled to your own opinion babe that is the beauty of media you are allowed to interpret it any way you want (most of the time) but also. if i may.
i think comparing their dynamic to one of a father and son's does them a great disservice. and i mean this from a pure development standpoint -- whether or not you ship them romantically, i think we can all agree that their relationship is one of the best-developed and most endearing in the entire show, and there's a reason why:
they're equals now.
they started off as rivals -- jamie clearly irritated that his childhood idol didn't immediately adore him the way he thought he should (and the way he so desperately desires to be adored, but that's an entirely different post for another day) and roy very clearly seeing qualities in jamie he'd long-since lost or felt he didn't deserve. the whole thing's been dissected to death, so i won't go into it again, but they very much started their relationship on uneven ground. whichever way you want to see it — roy having the upper hand or jamie — they were never truly equals in each other's eyes, a fact further exacerbated by their sharing a love interest that made at least one of them feel like she was "dating up" and "maturing."
which is another point that's so interesting about the roy/keeley relationship — and please bear with me while i go on a bit of a sidebar here, i promise it'll circle back to roy and jamie -- i love them as much as the next person, but the way the show has hit us over the head repeatedly throughout season two that though they love and care about each other deeply, they might not be what the other needs. keeley's only just starting to enjoy her independence, has only just come into her own, and has always appreciated (if not intensely needed) her space — meanwhile, roy desperately needs someone who will stay by his side because he's had the opposite problem throughout his life; he's been too independent, and by losing the person he arguably loved the most at a very young age while he was at an incredible physical distance from him, has learned to show his love through physical closeness.
so the show goes on to spend season two making us fall in love with them as a couple, but also subtly showing the cracks in their foundation — love can exist between two people in its purest form, but that doesn't guarantee lifelong compatibility. so in a way, the show tricked us into believing that keeley dating roy was a sign of her maturing and/or coming into her own, but really, it was very much just another stepping stone towards that.
which brings us back to roy and jamie — though their dynamic was beginning to improve while roy was still dating keeley, the underlying tension between them was still ever-present; and probably would be, so long as one of them was dating keeley, tbh. with keeley out of the picture, they found themselves on equal footing that they'd never found themselves on before — jamie acknowledging that maybe roy was never a "step up" for keeley the way he'd been led to believe, and roy realizing that the presence of love is not enough to sustain a relationship, and that he's no better than anyone else when it comes to these issues.
the idea that from here a father and son dynamic has been somehow established is so bizarre to me, because suddenly, we are seeing them not only acknowledge each other's feelings, but acknowledge them out loud — roy sympathizing (in his own way) with jamie's insecurities when zava came into the picture, and jamie sharing a part of himself and his childhood when roy offered one of his own — they're sharing parts of themselves you would share with a close friend, one you trust to understand you and support you in a way a friend would, and it's been like this from both sides, not just the one; very unlike a father and son dynamic, and again, with neither of them having the upper hand over the other anymore.
like i said, this is less about whether or not you ship them romantically. this is just purely text — they have found a close friend in one another. that's a much more endearing dynamic to me than father and son; because they both so clearly have never had such a close friend before. especially not one they're so compatible with — which is another idea the show takes care to show us:
jamie, who's always been desperate for love and attention and who is canonically unable to feel smothered by anyone — literally, roy took him away from a night out with his teammates and he smiled throughout the entire night, had not a single complaint about it — and roy, who shows his love the only way he knows how to, and needs to be able to show this love without worrying he's making anyone feel the way he made keeley feel (interestingly — smothered!).
their relationship and their dynamic is so special to me because they're developed from this idea that one of them was superior to the other, to suddenly they're both just two men who've had to deal with a lot of sadness and trauma throughout their life, and they've found someone they're comfortable sharing that with and expressing those feelings with. even roy's acknowledgment of him being a giant dick and baby and taking his anger out on jamie last episode (which jamie understood and tried to distract him from whatever he was clearly dealing with) is just another example of them being equals. being friends. being close, in a way one would be to a person who understands you the most.
idk. those are my two cents (plus a whole dollar lol). i hope this kind of cleared up why i, personally, have never seen them as father and son, and why i don't think the show does, either.
#answered#anonymous#ted lasso spoilers#long post tw#sorry y'all i really had a lot to say aPPARENTLY
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ironically i don’t actually like miranda ships that have her with anyone who’s too passive or eager to please. that just feels like a recipe for disaster for me, because even though miranda very sincerely tries very hard to make people happy and to accommodate for them, she’s also... well, miranda. she has her own very specific ideas on what is wrong and what should be done to help, and anyone who will lay down and let miranda do whatever she wants without ever raising a fuss or calling her out will quickly discover how miranda can and will trample over boundaries that she wasnt told about.
its kind of weird to talk about i suppose, because its not a dynamic that comes up in ships all that often, but in experience from my own relationships, sometimes you need someone who won’t take your shit! sometimes you need someone who’s a little combative! and i don’t necessarily mean arguments or fights in the traditional sense either, but rather a kind of boldness and a lack of fear that comes with someone who isnt afraid of you or the possibility of having a fight.
and likewise there’s another extreme to this, where someone is too upfront and aggressive about confronting miranda about her issues, because she’s just... she’s in the kind of situation associated with a very particular headspace and a way of looking at the world, and all of which involve her being told that there are people who will disagree upon these things with her, and that she should immediately shut their arguments down and refuse to budge and dig her claws in deeper and deeper. trying to push someone who’s in that kind of high control group situation too hard often only ends up forcing them deeper in, confirming how hostile and terrifying the outside world is and that it can’t be trusted, that only the high control group can be trusted.
so there has to be a middle ground between total passivity and outright rejection, and it’s the very specific space of being challenged in a way that feels safe and even secure. someone who will not walk all over you, but will not let you walk all over them either, who will question things that should be questioned but will not shove an answer in.
it’s why i don’t really like shipping miranda with any of the PCs — their primary, defining character trait is a willingness to do whatever and say whatever it is to get the object of their affections, and while i certainly imagine miranda loves to have people fight over her and her affections, i can’t see it working out long term in the slightest. there are two people in every relationship, after all, and thus both of them have to be considered as their own independent entities with their own emotional and mental worlds and needs. all too often in ships people will either treat the PCs as non-entities or miranda as a non-entity, and it just doesn’t work out for me, imo. if i wanted to just focus on one or the other, i would just focus on one or the other
all of this being why miravi actually works so much better for me, although certainly there are other ships that reach the same end. aaravi’s definitely the kind of person to immediately show how displeased she is whenever something happens that she doesn’t want or when someone is trying to make her do something that she doesn’t want to do, and these dual traits of being combative and very vocal about it immediately mean that miranda can’t say that she wasn’t aware or that she missed some cue.
likewise, aaravi makes her wants and needs very quickly known and won’t let someone else force her away from them, so there is an alternative path that becomes very clear, and forces miranda into a point of negotiation to figure out something that can work between the both of them. meanwhile, aaravi, in being more standoffish, has the greater attitude of other people can do whatever so long as it doesn’t get in her way, which helps prevent the issue i was talking about in forcibly taking miranda’s hand and leading her to something, and how this often has the opposite of the intended effect. aaravi, in being a bit more of a token “lone wolf” type who wants to demonstrate how much she doesn’t need other people (even despite evidence to the contrary), actually helps miranda in trusting her further and seeing her as an equal since aaravi is neither trying to gain her approval and love, thus treating her as a superior, nor trying to push her around to make the “correct” decisions and be the “correct” type of person, thus treating her as an inferior.
she’s just... aaravi, and will quarrel and push back if miranda tries to overstep, but won’t expect anything from her in turn. even if this is ultimately because of some pessimistic view on aaravi’s side and an assumption that the world is solely out to get her, it does work out in miranda’s case, sort of leading me back to my whole point of mutually compatible damage. it’s easier for each of them to intuit what the other needs and what is too far after these initial boundaries have been set, because they have an easier time seeing where the other is coming from after they actually start talking. in a weird way, they’re both already familiar and aware of the tropes that the other is playing off of, as aaravi in playing a token video game protagonist role, is already aware of the trope of the princess with the evil family, and miranda in playing a fairytale princess role, is already familiar with the knight or hero who was pushed into this role and uncertain of their own humanity or goodness. its an extra little layer of understanding where each one is coming from, without necessarily needing to elevate or suppress the other’s position.
TL;DR: i don’t like a lot of miranda ships because elevating her and treating her as a superior is just as dehumanizing as debasing and treating her as an inferior, and the best miranda ships, in my mind, strike a balance between the two characters where they treat each other as equals
#all the care guide says is 'biomass'#Monster Prom#Miranda Vanderbilt#just. rotating miranda around and around and around in my mind#tbf i dont care for a lot of the PC ships in general because its like. they have no personality to me#and also constant pursuit of someone else doesnt make it very compelling if that someone else returns their feelings or no#though i know fandom does this in general way too much#focusing on one partner or the other. or solely focusing on optics and how it looks.#god knows if i see another fanchild which is just treated as a fusion of the parents i will lose my mind
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I have sort of a policy not to publish too much fandom wank but I got an anon I want to address; I hope you know who you are! I just wanna say a couple things about it.
TWO THINGS CAN BOTH BE TRUE AT ONCE:
It is responsible to curate your social media experience, and you should block/mute blogs who make you uncomfortable for your own safety. If anyone wants to block me because they don’t like stuff that I write or ship or post about, please feel free! I don’t care, I’m trying to have a fun time and I want everyone else to have a fun time, and your fun time might mean staying away from me. I respect that 100%! I am an adult, I know that not everyone is going to like me. It is okay!!!!
Fandom antis are notoriously conservatives & radfems/TERFs who are not creative and have nothing to contribute to their fandoms aside from negativity and their own attention seeking. It’s one thing to spread information about a genuinely dangerous person who causes actual harm to real people, and another thing to posture & grandstand about your superior morals while you try to condemn people for thought crimes.
To answer your question: [TLDR] Antis are a cult.
I wrote a post about this last summer too, about the general vibe on Tumblr and how the echochamber of sensitive conservatives and teens trapped unknowingly in the TERF pipeline has contributed really negatively to the fandom experience here, especially after Tumblr banned adult content and effectively drove adults away. (Not to mention heavily queer & sex-positive adults, and sex workers, and NSFW artists, etc). I think some people who stayed saw it as sort of a win for their holy war and it unfortunately made them even more obnoxious. And like if Tumblr wants to be that space for fandom conservatives & respectability politics, cool! Have fun. It’s just also unfortunate that the corporatization of the internet is pushing transgressive independent content to weirder and weirder corners and destroying our communities over and over. Fingers crossed we find a better home soon.
I’ve seen the thing you mentioned and I’m not bothered by it. I think it’s worth questioning the sincerity of these people’s beliefs when you find them in the wild, though, like for example if someone posts that I’m a dangerous creep, I wonder if that person has a history of targeted & vicious harassment and borderline stalking to try to find receipts of my being a dangerous creep. At some point, I gotta ask: Which one of us is actually the fuckign creep here lmfao
I would also ask how often the fandom police claim to be paragons of empathy and morality whilst simultaneously dogpiling people they don’t like and weaponizing ableism and queerphobia to do it. It might be worth it to ask how often one’s mask slips and how quickly they devolve into making serious real life accusations against people for something as ridiculous as a difference of opinion about a TV show. I’d ask if the most vitriolic, nasty, self-superior antagonists in a fandom realize that their AO3 bookmarks & Twitter likes are public and we know that they like noncon as much as everyone else.
Everyone is welcome to block & mute as needed and everyone SHOULD. It is YOUR responsibility to take care of yourself online, this is extremely basic internet safety and entry level maturity. If an artist or a writer makes something that you don’t like, you can block them. No need to create a campaign against them, especially when it’s founded on absolute horseshit LMAO. It costs nothing to stay in your lane and behave like a fucking human.
But yeah I’ve been in and out of this fandom like FOR MY WHOLE LIFE HAHA and I’ve never seen it as bad as it is now. And that’s such a bummer. I’ve never had to block people in this fandom until very recently and it was all cases of dogpiling & using ableism to pick on people. It’s really nasty and I think it’s just a really unfortunate perfect storm of Tumblr’s downfall and the absolute trashfire that this TV show was LMAO. But we predicted this years ago, when the show was first announced, that Tumblr & Gen Z wouldn’t be able to cope with the dark topics and would try to create a crusade about who’s consuming the content in the most God Honoring way. The show asks a lot of difficult questions (the way the books do!) and I think it’s incompatible with black & white Tumblr Thinking. It makes people uncomfortable and they tend to lash out at others instead of getting their own houses in order.
Having said that, I keep my follow list pretty small and I have the conservatives muted. I have a perfectly pleasant quiet time and I encourage people to do the same. Curate your dash!
My role in this fandom has ALWAYS been as a porn writer. It’s what I showed up here doing. And like, if someone really wants to believe that I’m a predator for writing stories about a 500 year old who does not exist and cannot be victimized, idk man. That’s certainly a position to take and they’re welcome to it. I’m not interested in arguing about it. It’s just, yknow. Accusing random strangers online of serious real world crime because they don’t like your TV show, or enjoy a gross book, or wrote porn that you don't like, is such unhinged cult victim behavior I just cannot take it seriously.
So idk, it’s fine if they block me or anyone else. I prefer that. I'll block them first if they seem like fascist conservative bullies. You probably don’t want to hang out with people who think that way, anyway. Find your people ! Find rational adults! Find generous creatives! These clowns are definitely NOT that.
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hehe Yuya for the character ask game :)
also maybe Yuzu or Ruri if you want!
Warning: Long Post, may contain spoilers.
First things first: My friend, I'm really sorry for how late this answer is. School just came back and wrecked my schedule with a sledgehammer, so it's kinda hard to sit down and properly talk about characters these days. Unfortunately, that means I'm not sure if I can do Yuzu, but Ruri has been done in answer to another ask that you'll find by clicking the "character breakdown tag".
With that being said... let's talk about the disaster tomato child!
1) What I think of this character:
It's kinda hard to be coherent about this, but I'll try to put it simply: Yuuya is my blorbiest blorbo ever, among all faves I have, across all fandoms I'm in. He's a pure beam of sunshine, a soft blanket of comfort, a cute ball of enthusiasm and flair that is never boring to watch, and a joy to see and hear on screen at all times. Also relatable on a spiritual, personal level. Also perfect headcanon material. Also adorable design and an actually cool aesthetic with the S2 riding suit. Also might have been my first fiction crush, but I never really stopped to verify that when I was like, twelve.
2) My romantic ships for them:
Yuzu! I'm a classic vanilla when it comes to romantic ships, and they have undeniable chemistry even if you ignore the "childhood besties" cliché. They're just so adorable together, and I'm glad the writers managed to make their main ship actually convincing, because the track record is all around terrible (aside from Faithshipping, that is).
3) Platonic OTP:
Oh come on, this is Yuuya we're talking about. Half of his canon platonic ships can and do count as OTP for me, and that extends to other potential friendships. All of that includes, but is not limited to: Yuugo, Yuuto, Yuuri, Serena, Sawatari, Sora, Shun, Jack- hell, he would've been good friends with even Zarc if given the chance. I'm not even going into crossovers with other series (though I would like to give a shoutout to Juudai, because he and Yuuya just have. so many things to bond over. It's a little uncanny in retrospect, but it won't stop me from seeing them as the bestiest of besties among the protagonists).
4) Unpopular Opinion Corner:
It's not as controversial around here as it is on other spheres of social media, but despite my misgivings about the way the Smile philosophy was used in the Xyz arc and the early half of Fusion, I actually like Yuuya's character arc more than most.
This kid had locked himself behind a smile and a chuckle for three whole years, following his father's footsteps all the way along, without any sense of signature or independence to call his own. Even after acquiring Pendulum and becoming the pioneer of a new form of entertainment, Yuuya still struggles to balance his father's ideals and his own original flair, but it doesn't stop him from trying to reach for that which lies beyond the Pendulum (pun wholly intended :D), and eventually, through many trials and tribulations, he makes it. He makes it when he realizes that Pendulum and its evolution is his specialty, that it's fine -good, even- to share it with everyone else, that it's still unique to him in that he's the reason it exists at all, that it's the brand of his style and his Entertainment Dueling, and that he can use it to spread and share joy his own way. Because sometimes a smile is not enough to fix one's life, but it's a start that opens the path for you to go forward and find what you seek.
This is why the Friendship Cup finalé was the peak of Yuuya's development, and why most of S3 feels like such a drop in said development, when it simply focuses on other aspects of his outlook that he needed to address (like the tendency to trust and forgive anyone, even in the middle of a warzone). Sure, it does relegate Yuuya's sense of identity to smile propaganda for the stretch of an arc and a half, and sure, that was rather painful to watch, but it doesn't negate the improvement that already happened; just goes back on it on a few occasions, as is the natural human response of returning to comfort in the face of great adversity. And to be fair to the back half of the season, well, one can't exactly keep their cool with YuGiOh's closest equivalent to the devil telling them to commit atrocities... in an environment that very much deserves all atrocities coming its way.
5) Something I wish would happen to them:
SOMEONE TAKE THIS BOY TO THERAPY, HOLY SHIT. The writers really said "let's see how many ways there are to fuck with our protagonist" and just- threw their all at Yuuya, no holds barred. He needs a bonus episode(s) where he gets to catch a break for once in frankly too long, maybe sort out these old and new issues he needs to tackle, possibly go out with Yuzu and Sora to get icecream and just do mundane kid things... you know, just give the guy a moment to breathe, unwind, and prepare for what's next. He deserves it. Really. I would like to personally give him a break.
*snatches Yuuya to gently pat his head and hand him a strawberry candy*
Dear Lord, I really do love my tomato boi.
#whew#that got really long#...at this point i should probably accept that i cant talk about yuuya without making it an essay of a thousand words#but really#what is this blog for if not for me to write essays of a thousand words on stuff i like?#anyways tysm for the ask tiredgremlintime#youre a real one!!#(also can i call you gremlin? idk if you actually go by nicknames ^^;)#yugioh#yugioh arc v#yuya sakaki#sakaki yuya#asks#character breakdown
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I keep thinking about the great TVD discussions you've been having this week and have to tell you that you're doing a public service! Holidays are a tough time for a lot of us, and you're allowing us to focus on fun stuff like TVD ship/character analysis rather than the grim aspects of real life. I was thinking about why I too prefer Cordelia to Caroline by a smidge, and it's weird because I LOVE Caroline and can definitely relate more to the "insecure neurotic" type (as she accurately describes herself) than Cordy. But like you I love Charisma and how she makes Cordelia lovable and sometimes even vulnerable underneath the snippy mean girl exterior. And there's also the fact that Cordy is such an independent thinker, truly her own person. Like, yes, she enjoys being popular and at times wants to be 'famous', but her choices even back in high school and certainly afterwards reflect that she very much has her own mind and will blaze her own trail rather than ever pandering to others or giving a damn what others think. She opts to date Xander despite the fact that it will destroy her high school friendships and overall status, she constantly foregoes even trying to lead a glamorous LA lifestyle in favor of risking her own safety to help innocents in dingy areas of the city, she'll always make the choice to do something with purpose that helps people over just frivolous fun. Not saying that some of this doesn't apply to Caroline too, but Cordelia's excessive confidence - while not something I relate to, lol - also results in her being more brave, assertive and independent minded than almost any character ever, and I just admire that about her so much.
Oh, I wasn't expecting that! I know the holidays can suck, but I wasn't expecting for my replies to help anyone. That's so sweet :) I'm happy to help! My holidays suck too, but right now I'm not truly on a break.
I've never thought of Cordelia that way, as a trailblazer. I guess that since all the characters put their lives on the line to fight monsters, she just doesn't stand out to me. I don't see her as being braver or more independent-minded than the other Buffyverse characters. Maybe Xander and Willow were used to being unpopular, but they sacrificed a lot of normal experiences too, and Cordelia was too poor to have a glamorous lifestyle in LA. She's definitely brave, but she showed in season 1 that she cared about appearances too. Although she changed, she just became like everyone else who sacrificed their future to a good cause. It might seem like a bigger deal with Cordelia because everyone else came from "nothing" (Wes, Fred, Xander), but, in the end, Cordelia had nothing too - unlike Gunn, who sacrificed his friendships to join A.I, and Lorne, who left behind an actually semi-glamorous lifestyle.
But it's true that Cordelia's confidence results in her fighting for herself and putting her foot down many times, which is a good thing. I think Caroline was confident and had to make sacrifices in her life as well, though maybe not as many as Cordelia. That was sort of the difference between AtS and TVD though - the Angel gang sought out danger while, in TVD, danger found them.
I don't know, I have a weird relationship with Cordelia! Overall, I like Caroline better. My love/hate relationship with her is mostly love except in season 4 and in some scenes with Stefan. I love Cordelia more though because of CC and because I love Angel the most.
Thanks for the ask and for your kind words! You're making my days better too :) Tumblr is honestly the only place where I feel valued and like my opinion means anything. Apart from my mom, real life makes me feel inadequate and dumb (she does too sometimes), but here I feel smart and like I fit in, so thanks <3
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The heteronormativity is bad but it’s not even just that. I think the bigger problem in the Byler vs Melvin ship war is that since mlm fandoms have a reputation of being misogynistic and hating the female character for “getting in the way” everyone automatically assumes that Bylers fall under that category too (I’ve had sapphic friends who don’t watch the show tell me that they hate Byler because they think that the fans hate women even though most of us are queer women ourselves) and so we have to be extra nice and accommodating and apologize every time anyone even mildly criticizes El on here otherwise we’re labeled misogynistic (and even ableist even though El has no canonical disabilities). Which I think is so dumb because El is a flawed character and that’s a big part of what makes her interesting. Discussing her mistakes doesn’t mean that we hate her, in fact I would go as far as to say that people who recognize her flaws and love her for them care about El more than fake-woke Twitter feminists who try to strip her of all her less than perfect qualities. And don’t even get me started on how acceptable homophobia is in the Melvin fandom. The way that they shit on Will all the time and want to erase him and have him die in the name of “supporting women” is disgusting and idk why Bylers try so hard to cater to these people and just get along. There is no need and there shouldn’t be any desire to get along with homophobes. It’s okay to just hate things and it’s not morally wrong to dislike Melvin and want to stay far away from it.
Mmmm. Well first off I appreciate your honesty and want to (sorry for phrasing it the therapist way lmao) hold space for your irritation with how ignorant people can be in fandom spaces, because it is very real—and especially given the complicated history mlm ships carry in fandom historically, I can see how byler being pigeonholed into the same "you just want to get rid of the girl for your mlm ship" space is frustrating as hell, especially now that it's officially semi-canon.
Also, to your point about El: I agree that there are far too many people who behave as though acknowledging that characters (especially female ones) can be multi-faceted + make mistakes / be imperfect is somehow tantamount to a misogyny, even though good characters (male or female) must have internal challenges and conflicts so they aren’t one-note in the narrative. Too many people act as though their personal resonance or projection onto a character should define everyone else’s understanding and analysis of that character, and that’s something that happens a lot with El, especially in the case of the space she occupies in relationship to Byler.
Personally, I've avoided most of that discourse by not engaging with Byler "versus" Mlvn conversations for the most part, but that I still notice and react to myself when it comes into my space—particularly the "you're misogynistic or ableist" conversation, considering almost all of that is rooted in headcanons and projections, and not El's (or Mike's...or Will's) canonical characterization. You’re completely right to want to stay far away from that kind of discourse/energy—staying away from how I’ve kept myself sane and enjoying st in spite of how chronically online some of the fandom's takes can be.
I don't think there is any solution to it (people are like that in every fandom space, and I don't think they're gonna stop being willfully ignorant or heteronomative now), but...it helps that I know most of the argument surrounding "byler is trying to get rid of El" is based on either not knowing the show, unchecked emotion, or poor media comprehension, because media literate analysis makes it clear that all three characters involved are deeply complex, growing individuals whose stories all have their own purpose—El's is just moving independent, while Mike & Will's are moving toward each other.
People who don't understand or can't see that—or who want to start arguments over byler based on nothing but their understanding of other mlm ships, or their need to posture solely for the sake of being "right" on the internet—are, quite frankly, not people I'm trying to converse with if I can help it. I don't need to be an advocate for byler badly enough to put up with any of that lmao.
Thanks for the ask!
#I'm really sorry that people are saying shit like that to you tho anon!#its wild to me that people have decided byler is just 'another one of those irritating mlm ships' without even seeing the show???#people are wild lmao#asks
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my final three hopes thoughts
AG >>>>>> SB >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> GW
anyway
The Good
AG is basically just dimilix fanfic. like we are either psychics or INTSYS/KT owes us royalties.
The character work in AG was phenomenal. They way they adjusted the characters for their situation but still made them feel like who they are? Fucking ace. SB went a little differently, where certain characters feel much different but I can forgive it because the eagle kiddos were always weird for characterization due to the route split. Which version of these characters you consider canon is up to you.
Whoever wrote the Duscur and Sreng paralogues… I love you. The Duscur paralogue is just so so so emotionally moving and really lets Dedue grieve as he usually isn't allowed and gave Ingrid a lot of closure she desperately needed. Meanwhile Felix gets to just really show what kind of person he is and drive home that what he needs is the present aka Dimitri to feel satisfied (instead of clinging to the past). Sreng was wonderful for the lore, political situation, and all that character work, especially between Sylvain and Matthias.
Monica is the character I didn't know I wanted. I love her…. I've already added background Monigard to two dmlx fics. She's just the perfect amount of unhinged. <3
Playable Rodrigue is one of the best parts of this game. THANK YOU!!!! It also means his optional death is the most impactful of the game, aided by it being centered around dimilix and not Shez.
Voiced Shez is an improvement, as is voiced Byleth. I also appreciate that Shez isn't anyone important and is a student instead of a teacher. Also thank you for only making some characters make romantic overtures toward Shez instead of almost all of them.
There are a lot of excellent paralogues in the game and most of them had a lot of thought put into their setup (which characters were chosen, the premise, the writing, etc).
Making my blorbos uber powerful is a lot of fun 💙Also Felix is such a fun unit (I loved the sword units the most tbf).
Supports are generally amazing. A lot of improvements to some original chains or new versions that add something to the relationship. All new chains altogether that fleshed out relationships we were denied before. Also a lot of ships I hate had reduced supports or had them removed altogether :) No one won as hard as me in the shipping department tbh. 🫡
A great OST again even if nothing hit quite as hard as some of the original final boss themes.
I actually love the setup of the story even if I take issue with individual routes or moments. But it was nice getting out of the academy setting and exploring Fódlan instead.
Did I mention Dimitri and Felix? His Majesty and Duke Fraldarius? They are perfect and I love them.
The Bad
No fucking snow maps in Faerghus.
Edelgard's reunification scheme is 10x worse here than Three Houses because Rhea is willing to ally with her against TWSITD. As usual, Edelgard is stuck in her assumptions on what she thinks is true and refuses have an open dialogue with the Church and Dimitri, choosing violence because she believes she knows what's best for everyone. I've accepted this about her but it's still a hard pill to swallow that dangled her talking to Rhea and Dimitri above our heads and then took it away.
Zahras is badly written independent of route, just like Gronder Field. The desire to make the lords interact even when it’s nonsensical just needs to stop. It sucked every time.
IT’S SO EXPENSIVE TO UPGRADE STUFF (like weapons). LIKE REALLY EXPENSIVE.
Every route had issues, especially toward the end but the worst for me was GW. There was a lot of bad character shit, not just for Claude, though he was the plot instigator of everyone else being out for blood.
Almyra is a joke now I guess. Actually, it flip flops being a joke and completely awful. It’s true they were never great in FE3H but Cyril existed as a contrast. Him not being playable sucked. 🙁
Scarlet Blaze’s convient ending…….. Edelgard’s main enemies just kill each other……….. it just felt like “Why were we even there?” We accomplished nothing.
How dare I not be able to making Dimitri and Felix marry :( WHERE IS THE DIMILIX WEDDING DLC!
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my thoughts on NHIE season 3
big ol' spoiler alert
devi!! i absolutely loved her character this season. she's constantly hated on for being problematic, so it was so cool to watch her grow this season. i hated how i could never like her because of her problems, and watching her change is so therapeutic. she's definitely a fave now.
aneesa and fabiola... i kind of hated how they treated that relationship. like it totally came out of nowhere and i was SO ready for it, and then there was this huge buildup to them dating and then... nothing? they broke up?
it felt like a big slap in the face for the queer viewers. devi and eleanor's heterosexual relationships were deeper and more explored while all of fab's were just like "oh! here! we made a lesbian a main character! we're such allies!"
i just feel really upset about that because they had so much potential. they couldn't have spent some more time delving into the awkwardness in aneesa and fab's relationship and how they move past it together? it's like they were each others' rebounds (which it was clearly stated in the show that they weren't)
but! addison is super hot and the way they casually slid in that they use they/them pronouns was cool. i hope addison and fab get more screentime in s3.
also i didn't like eve but i hate how they just... had the breakup offscreen? like cmon devi's breakups are so much more explored so why can't we have the same for fab?
anyways. BENVIIIIIIIIII
the boink card. im so
ben has ALWAYS been the one for devi, i hope she sees that next season. he always loved her, he never thought she was "too much" like des and paxton. benvi 4 lyfe idc IDC
also. des? he's literally desi paxton. honestly i don't ship them, but it was good while it lasted! they balance each other out, but... i was always on ben's team so i can't say i'm upset they broke up.
ALSO RHYAH??? that lying skank. "she's got problems" sorry, devi's not healing fast enough from her OWN FATHER'S DEATH??
nalini. she ate this season up. im glad she found a friend in rhyah and it was nice while it lasted, but rhyah can suck a fat one.
paxton. i was never team paxton and always kind of despised him (no hate to daxton shippers ofc) so i'm honestly glad they broke up.
she wasn't ready for him, and he wasn't what she needed.
you know who WAS what she needed though?
BEN.
also i didn't really realize i'd be rooting for trent and eleanor, but...
idk something about their relationship kind of throws me off. it's like trent can't be mature about her. like he avoids the problems in their relationship by turning on the charm, which he KNOWS she loves.
something about it just kind of rubs me the wrong way... but they're still kind of cute.
aneesa deserved better.
that's it.
also, back to devi.
i loved her character so much this season but... her reason for not going to shrubland was kind of flimsy (at least to me). the whole "i want to spend more time with you" thing would've worked out with her mom if they had spent the season setting up a conflict between devi and nalini but... they didn't? it was just all past season drama which is still important but to me it just didn't make sense. idk if anyone else thinks that.
KAMALA AND MANISH??? like cmon hottest and most overlooked couple. though it was kind of a jumpscare when manish shaved his iconic scrub for the first time.
kamala ate this season. she's an independent woman who can make her own decisions about her love life! good for her!
wish she had more screen time though
THE TIME SKIP IN THE BEGINNING. cmon netflix don't be pussies, give us more episodes!!
literally the time skip was so stupid. we skipped over devi's entire healing process and it was lazy writing so we wouldn't have to see how she coped with getting dumped by paxton.
also they spent so much time last season setting up daxton and then literally got rid of it in .000394238 seconds??
like what...
i know the reason they broke up was valid but honestly? we could've skipped over the entire des thing and just had a long season of paxton and devi's relationship problems.
it just seems like such a waste to have all the setup and barely any payoff.
makes me kind of think it was just fanservice to please the daxton shippers (again no hate)
i think that's it - may make a second post if anything else comes to mind
overall i give the season a 7/10. there were a lot of plotholes and lazy writing and queer erasure that need to be addressed and fixed next season. but we got to see the character we all despised grow and actually make good decisions for once. we got to see all the characters learn about themselves and grow and honestly, that was a very beautiful thing to see.
#nhie#nhie s3#nhie s4#nhie netflix#devi vishwakumar#ben gross#nhie spoilers#nalini vishwakumar#benvi#daxton#desvi#never have i ever season 3#never have i ever#maitreyi ramakrishnan#nhie season 3#team ben#paxton hall yoshida#nirdesh#nhieedit
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How about Aki for the ask game?
Hi, @insomniac-jay. Thanks for asking! :)
How I feel about this character: I tried to give as much of a luekwarm response as I can, but I think I might have failed and this got way too long to be considered "lukewarm."
So, I like Azkia, but outside of the anime, she doesn't really interest me much. I think trauma makes the character, but I'm not into it very much when it's what all defines the character, which tends to be something a lot of people like to do. Which is fine, but persoanlly, it's why I don't read/look into a lot of Akiza stuff. A lot of time, I think people like the idea of her more than anything, and I don't blame them—big tiddied goth girl is banger. It's just that it doesn't hold me for long; I'm not the kind who latches onto a characters because they're "girl." (The only two genders that matter to me is "dumb" and "ass," and if they're both, my gods. xD) I'm just unimpressed if anything, lmao.
Idk, Akiza can be really fun, but she is kinda forced to carry so much baggage in every iteration. Like she's always going to play the sad, isolated child that lashes out and is called as a monster, only seen for what she is when this one person comes along, and that's just the story of her life. It feels very . . . limiting imo. Can't she be okay sometimes? And like when she's made to be independent and strong, what does that really add? She is strong, but like, so is everyone else who tries. That being said, it's not like being weak is a bad thing; it's the exeuction that matters.
How I feel about Akiza is kinda my fault too, though. I don't know really know what to do with her in my writing, so I don't really write her often. I don't relate to her at all, and nor do I go gaga over her character design, so there's not much I can do with her that doesn't come off as disingenuous.
As a fan of shōnen, I say it's a lot to expect shōnen to care about writing good female characters, and that can be said about early YGO, a shōnen meant to advertise a card game to little kids, namely boys. The genre itself still needs work, but for anyone wanting good female characters in YGO who also duel, try the newer series, SEVENS and GO RUSH. They're much shorter than the previous YGO series, but they do so good in both having and writing female characters who aren't limited by the tropes they're written into. (Everyone is sleeping on Princess G.)
All the people I ship romantically with this character: No one really. I think she should have her own thing.
My non-romantic OTP for this character: Crow. Sherry. When you duel together, you get tight together.
My unpopular opinion about this character: I like that Akiza wants to become a doctor. It's unexpected, but she's finally doing her own thing. One thing I noticed in the anime is that Akiza's life is practically surrounded by Team 5D's, even when she goes back to school. She isn't shown to have her own friends? Which is whack because she's cute and smart and cool? Also, she's rich. Like, come on, someone's got to talk to her in class, even if it's just friendly conversation.
So, her choosing to become a doctor and not a duelist is kinda refreshing. People go, "Oh, a girl and a duelist? She's got to be a female duelist," but like, guys, women in YGO are the only ones who's got the interesting career choices from dancer (Tea) to Secretary General of Egypt (Isis) to reporter (Carly, Kari) to idol (Princess G); now they get a doctor in their line-up. Nice. But it's not like she can't be both though. OwO Why not both? Maybe she goes back into competitive Turbo dueling after med school. That's pretty realistic.
Also, I'm not mad that she "loses" her psychic powers. It made her different, but it didn't make her happy as far as I can see. It simultaenously isolated her (from peers and family) and put her on a pedastal in the worst way (Arcadia). Like she used her psychic powers more often than not to push people away because she was afraid of rejection; from what it seems, she only really knows how to use it to do so. So in my head, she unconciously supresses/lessens her use of her powers once she starts opening up again because she has people to truly rely on.
It goes in the line that just because you have it, it doesn't meant you have to use, like drawing and writing and any other hobby or talent.
One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon: I would loved to see Akiza be a regular teenage girl. I want her to have friends and they can go to the mall or the library or loiter at the park, whatever. Just anything that shows that she is also enjoying life like everyone else. Why did they give her her own friends? QWQ Even the twins got their own set of friends, like what?
Send me an ask! 👀 I've watched all the series.
#yugioh#ygo#yugioh 5ds#flame muses#flame replies#akiza izinski#aki izayoi#send me a character and ill break them down too! :D#i havent gotten jack yet [eyes emoji]#the topic of akiza gets too much of a reaction from me lmao#uh dont read if you only want good things about akiza#SHIT I POSTED IT TOO EARLY#oh well consider this a late night shit post
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